" The merchants,
inspired then by liberty, resolved to import no more goods from England
until the repeal of the Act. The orators also spoke. James Otis with
fiery tongue appealed to Magna Charta.
* * * * *
Sir, regarding the Stamp Act candidly and cautiously, free from
animosities of the time, it is impossible not to see that, though
gravely unconstitutional, it was at most an infringement of civil
liberty only, not of personal liberty. There was an unjust tax of a few
pence, with the chance of amercement by a single judge without a jury;
but by no provision of this act was the personal liberty of any man
assailed. No freeman could be seized under it as a slave. Such an act,
though justly obnoxious to every lover of constitutional Liberty, cannot
be viewed with the feelings of repugnance enkindled by a statute which
assails the personal liberty of every man, and under which any freeman
may be seized as a slave. Sir, in placing the Stamp Act by the side of
the Slave Act, I do injustice to that emanation of British tyranny.
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