For Grenville, the first issue is the…
1765 CE
Soon after his announcement of the possibility of a tax, he had told American agents that he was not opposed to the Americans suggesting an alternative way of raising the money themselves.
However, the only other alternative would be to requisition each colony and allow them to determine how to raise their share.
This had never worked before, even during the French and Indian War, and there is no political mechanism in place that will ensure the success of such cooperation.
On February 2, 1765, Grenville meets to discuss the tax with Benjamin Franklin, Jared Ingersoll from New Haven, Richard Jackson, agent for Connecticut, and Charles Garth, the agent for South Carolina (Jackson and Garth are also members of Parliament).
These colonial representatives have no specific alternative to present; they simply suggest that the determination be left to the colonies.
Grenville replies that he wants to raise the money "by means the most easy and least objectionable to the Colonies".
Thomas Whately had drafted the Stamp Act, and he said that the delay in implementation had been "out of Tenderness to the colonies", and that the tax was judged as "the easiest, the most equal and the most certain."
The debate in Parliament begins soon after this meeting.
Petitions submitted by the colonies are officially ignored by Parliament.
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