There were many causes which acted to
make the colonies dissatisfied with England, and to bring
them closer together. We have already mentioned the
Navigation Act,* and in Maryland another of these causes
was the poll tax that everyone, regardless of creed, had
to pay for the support of the Church of England. Still
another — in the other colonies as well as in Maryland —
,^ „ , was the Stamp Act. This was an Act passed

Tbe Stamp Act.
by the British Parliament in 1765, requiring
that stamped paper be used for certain specified purposes.
For example, the tax on a license to sell wine was twenty
shillings; the tax on a deed was one shilling six pence;
that on a newspaper one penny. These taxes were of the
same kind as those laid by our own government in 1898
requiring a two-cent stamp on every bank cheque, a one-
cent stamp on every telegram, and so on. But with this
difference: we recognize the present stamp taxes to be
laid on us by our own representatives for the expenses
of our own government; while the colonists in 1765 looked
upon their stamp taxes as laid by others than themselves

*See ante, p. 28.
