Editing Declaratory Act (section)

==Background==
Representatives from a number of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] assembled as the [[Stamp Act Congress]] in response to the [[Stamp Act 1765]], to call into question the right of a distant power to tax them without proper representation. The British Parliament was then faced with colonies who refused to comply with their Act. This, combined with protests that had occurred in the colonies and, more importantly, protests which had arisen in Great Britain from manufacturers who were suffering from the colonies' non-importation agreement,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-prel.htm |title=American Revolution: Prelude to Revolution  |publisher=The History Place}}</ref> all led to the repeal of the Stamp Act. 

Normally the economic activity in the colonies would not have caused such an outcry, but the British economy was still experiencing a post-war depression from the [[Seven Years' War]]. Another reason for repeal of the Stamp Act was the replacement of [[George Grenville]], the Prime Minister who had enacted the Stamp Acts, by [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham]]. Rockingham was more favourable towards the colonies and furthermore he was antagonistic towards policies that Grenville had enacted. Rockingham invited [[Benjamin Franklin]] to speak to Parliament about colonial policy and he portrayed the colonists as in opposition to internal taxes (which were derived from internal colonial transactions) such as the Stamp Act called for, but not external taxes (which were duties laid on imported commodities).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hal-pc.org/~bra/ets25.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311071425/http://users.hal-pc.org/~bra/ets25.html |archive-date=March 11, 2009 |title=Benjamin Franklin's Examination Before the House of Commons, 1766 |work= Americana: Brief Inspirational Stories from American History}}</ref> Parliament then agreed to repeal the Stamp Act on the condition that the Declaratory Act was passed. On March 18, 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and passed the Declaratory Act.