[STAMP ACT]. -- [SONS OF LIBERTY]. Manuscript document. N.p., n.d. [1765-66]. 1 page, folio (337 x 210 mm), light toning and edge-wear, starting to split at horizontal fold. THE SONS OF LIBERTY EXECRATE THE STAMP ACT OF 1765. Wildly unpopular in the colonies, the Stamp Act, which imposed a direct tax on many forms of printed material, was soon repealed in 1766. In the ensuing years leading up to the American Revolution, it would be pointed to as one of the major injustices that caused the colonies’ break from Great Britain. This document is a fine example of the divide in popular attitudes in the American colonies toward King George III and the British Parliament. Whereas George is lauded as “the best of kings, whose sacred person, Crown & Dignity we are ready & willing at the expense of our Lives & Fortunes to defend,” the Parliament’s actions are viewed in a decidedly less favorable light. Calling it “Most Unreasonable, most Unconstitutional, most horrid & Detestable” on the part of Parliament, the writers of this document fervently pledge to oppose the Stamp Act. This document was published in Hugh Gaine’s The New York Mercury, 12 May 1766, and reads in part: “We the Subscribers who deem ourselves Sons of Liberty of George the Third, true and lawful King of Great Britain…we are ready and willing, at the Expense of our Lives and Fortunes, to defend - Being fully convinced of the Oppressive and Arbitrary Tendency of a late Act of Parliament, imposing Stamp-Duties on this and the neighbouring Province, fundamentally subversive of the Liberties and Charters of North-America; truly sensible of the inestimable Blessings of a free Constitution, gloriously handed down to us by our brave Fore-Fathers, detesting Rebellion, yet preferring Death to Slavery, well knowing that one Day, nay, one Hour, of virtuous sacred Liberty, is worth Ten Thousand Years of abject Slavery and painful Bondage, do, with all Loyalty to our most gracious Sovereign, with all Deference to the just Laws of our Country…”