Benjamin Franklin [175
A. 1 mean its inexpediency on several accounts;
the poverty and inability of those who were to pay
the tax, the general discontent it has occasioned, and
the impracticability of enforcing it.
Q. If the act should be repealed, and the legislature
 should show its resentment to the opposers of the
Stamp Act, would the colonies acquiesce in the authority
 of the legislature? What is your opinion
they would do?
A. 1 don’t doubt at all that if the legislature repeal
 the Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesce in the
authority.
(Q. But if the legislature should think fit to ascertain
 its rights to lay taxes, by any act laying a small
tax, contrary to their opinion, would they submit to
pay the tax?
A. The proceedings of the people in America have
been considered too much together. The proceedings
 of the assemblies have been very different from
those of the mobs, and should be distinguished as
having no connection with each other. The assemblies
 have only peaceably resolved what they take to
be their rights; they have taken no measures for opposition
 by force, they have not built a fort, raised
a man, or provided a grain of ammunition, in order
to such opposition. The ringleaders of riots, they
think ought to be punished; they would punish them
themselves, if they could. Every sober, sensible man,
would wish to see rioters punished, as, otherwise,
peaceable people have no security of person or estate;
but as to an internal tax, how small soever, laid by
the legislature here on the people there, while they

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