<P> For if our Trade may be taxed why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & every thing we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves--It strikes our British Privileges, which as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our Fellow Subjects who are Natives of Britain: If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves . </P> <P> Massachusetts appointed a five - member Committee of Correspondence in June 1764 to coordinate action and exchange information regarding the Sugar Act, and Rhode Island formed a similar committee in October 1764 . This attempt at unified action represented a significant step forward in colonial unity and cooperation . The Virginia House of Burgesses sent a protest of the taxes to London in December 1764, arguing that they did not have the specie required to pay the tax . Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut also sent protest to England in 1764 . The content of the messages varied, but they all emphasized that taxation of the colonies without colonial assent was a violation of their rights . By the end of 1765, all of the Thirteen Colonies except Georgia and North Carolina had sent some sort of protest passed by colonial legislative assemblies . </P> <P> The Virginia House of Burgesses reconvened in early May 1765 after news was received of the passage of the Act . By the end of May, it appeared that they would not consider the tax, and many legislators went home, including George Washington . Only 30 out of 116 Burgesses remained, but one of those remaining was Patrick Henry who was attending his first session . Henry led the opposition to the Stamp Act; he proposed his resolutions on May 30, 1765, and they were passed in the form of the Virginia Resolves . The Resolves stated: </P> <P> Resolved, That the first Adventurers and Settlers of this his majesty's colony and Dominion of Virginia brought with them, and transmitted to their Posterity, and all other his Majesty's subjects since inhabiting in this his Majesty's said Colony, all the Liberties, privileges, Franchises, and Immunities that have at any Time been held, enjoyed, and possessed, by the People of Great Britain . </P>

Most vocal colonist against the stamp act of 1765