The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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hear about it for some time. After some heated debate, the House of Burgesses
passed the Virginia Resolves:
Resolved therefore, That the General Assembly of this Colony,
with the Consent of his Majesty, or his Substitute, HAVE the
Sole Right and Authority to lay Taxes and Impositions upon It’s
Inhabitants : And, That every Attempt to vest such Authority in
any other Person or Persons whatsoever, has a Manifest Tendency
to Destroy AMERICAN FREEDOM. 21
These challenging words were never printed in the local newspaper. According to
the Morgans: “… the resolves were too much for Joseph Royle, the conservative
editor of the Virginia Gazette. He failed to print them, and consequently other
colonies got news of Virginia's action from the more ardent supporters of the
resolutions, instead of obtaining a relatively reliable text from a publication in the
colony itself.” 22 The resolves were published in Maryland and in other newspapers
throughout the colonies. Several letters appeared in the Maryland newspaper,
complaining about them not being printed in Virginia. The demand for civic
discourse, including controversial criticism of the British government, was creating
tension between the public and the colony’s sole mass-media gatekeeper. For his
part, Williamsburg printer Royle complained about the accuracy of the Virginia
Resolves as printed elsewhere: “It is with no small Degree of Suprize that we have of
late observed several Northern Newspapers stuffed with Paragraphs of Intelligence,
21 Maryland Gazette (July 4, 1765), 3. Another version of Henry’s Resolves was printed first
in the Newport Mercury by Samuel Hall on June 24, 1765, according to Francis Walett, “The
Impact of the Stamp Act on The Colonial Press,” in Bond, Newsletters to Newspapers, 263-269,
also in Schlesinger, Prelude, 71. There are several conflicting versions of these resolutions passed
by the burgesses on May 31. See Edmund Morgan, Prologue to Revolution: Sources and Documents
on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-1766 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 44-
50, for the disagreement over what the precise resolves were. According to Governor Fauquier,
Henry wrote seven specific resolves, but only five were debated and passed, and one was later
rescinded. Henry left us a copy of five resolves, the Maryland newspaper printed seven, and the
Rhode Island newspaper printed six. This R.I. version got the greatest colonial circulation and
inspired most other colonies to approve similar resolves against the Stamp Act.
22 Morgan, Stamp Act Crisis, 102.