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By the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ended the war with the French and the Indians, England gained possession of Canada and all the territory east of the Mississippi River. French influence on this continent thus came to an end; England now controlled most of North America. But the war had been long and expensive. England had many debts. GeorgeⅢ, king of England, after consulting with his advisers, decided that the American colonists () should help pay some of the expenses of this war. A standing English army of 10,000 men had been left in the colonies (殖民地) for protection against the Indians. The English government also felt that the colonists should share in the expenses of maintaining this army. The result was a series of measures, the Grenville Program, passed by Parliament and designed to raise money in the colonies. Some of these measures were accepted by the colonists, but one in particular, the Stamp Act, was met with great protest. The Stamp Act required that stamps, ranging in price from a few cents to almost a dollar, be placed on all newspapers, advertisements, bills of sale, wills, legal papers, etc. The Stamp A ct was one of the causes of the American Revolution. It affected everyone, rich and poor alike. Some businessmen felt that the act would surely ruin their businesses. Of all the voices raised in protest to the Stamp Act, none had greater effect than that of a young lawyer from Virginia—Patrick Henry. Henry had only recently been elected to the Virginia Assembly. Yet when the Stamp Act came up for discussion, he opposed it almost single-handedly. He also expressed, for the first time, certain ideas that were held by many Americans of the time but that never before had been stated so openly. "Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be bought at the price of chains and slavery Forbid it, Almighty (万能的) God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

The Stamp Act______.