Declaratory Act In 1766 In Houston
Description
Form popularity
FAQ
On March 18, 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and passed the Declaratory Act.
A declaratory judgment is a binding judgment from a court defining the legal relationship between parties and their rights in a matter before the court. When there is uncertainty as to the legal obligations or rights between two parties, a declaratory judgment offers an immediate means to resolve this uncertainty.
The Declaratory Act made clear that it had "full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." In addition, the act stated that "all resolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings" ...
An act for the better securing the dependency of his majesty's dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain. This act was passed to assert the authority of the British government to tax its subjects in North America after it repealed the much-hated Stamp Act.
Declaratory Act. The repeal of the Stamp Act did not mean that Great Britain was surrendering any control over its colonies. The Declaratory Act, passed by Parliament on the same day the Stamp Act was repealed, stated that Parliament could make laws binding the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever."
The colonists ignored the Declaratory Act for the same reasons they ignored the Stamp Act, which the Declaratory Act helped repeal. They claimed their colonial assemblies were the only government bodies with the right to impose taxation and make laws.
In the colonies, leaders had been glad when the Stamp Act was repealed, but the Declaratory Act was a new threat to their independence. It was 1766, and to most colonists, the ability of England to tax the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament was seen as disgraceful.
On the night of August 26, a mob of artisans, laborers, and sailors dismantled the home of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, plundering valuables while shouting “Liberty and property!” to protest the Stamp Act and taxation without consent.
The opinionated writers of colonial newspapers expressed their fear that the powers Parliament assumed in the Declaratory Act were detrimental to the ancient Constitution. One of the strongest fears about the Act was that it declared Parliament supreme, while the realm of its supremacy had no foreseeable end.
