Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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“Honolulu’s Tropical Jewel”

This CW Dickey-designed structure was once referred to as “Honolulu’s Tropical Jewel.” (TheatresOfHawaii)

No one man has a more central place in Hawaiʻi’s architectural history than Charles William Dickey (1871-1942.) Born of a kamaʻāina family (his maternal grandfather was missionary Rev. William P Alexander,) he grew up on Maui, graduated from MIT in 1895 and practiced architecture in Honolulu from 1895 to 1904 and from 1920 until his death twenty-two years later.  (Neil)

“Previous Waikīkī buildings had divided into two types: the palatial – such as the Moana Hotel and the Castle residence – and the small and informal – such as the beach house of Kamehameha V. … Dickey’s 1936 design for the Waikīkī Theater is an extreme contrast.”

“His problem was to design a 1930s movie palace which would be appropriate to Hawaiʻi. He used the expected art deco with such flair and taste that the theater compares favorably with any of the type … He then made the theater appropriate.”  (Charlot)

Its initial design was based on a building at Chicago’s moderne 1933 and 1934 ‘A Century of Progress International Exposition,’ but in harmony with its island location.

The final tropical moderne design featured a large garden courtyard between the street and auditorium entrance, with lush plants surrounding a large fountain.

Inside, past fresco murals on the walls and ceiling, the atmospheric auditorium was flanked by lush artificial plants with the proscenium in the form of a rainbow, and tall artificial coconut palms on each side.  (TheatresOfHawaii)

No expense was spared in its construction and furnishings.  This was intended to be owner’s (Consolidated Amusement) deluxe flagship theater.

The 1,353-seat Waikīkī Theater opened with great fanfare on August 20, 1936.  “This first-class theatre survived as a single-screen house its entire life.”  (TheatresOfHawaii)   Dickey created an environment as charming and artificial as the image on the screen.  (Charlot)

In 1939, the Waikīkī Theatre was equipped with a Robert Morton theatre organ, which had originally been installed (with a twin console) in the Hawaiʻi Theatre in 1929.  (Peterson)

“No theater in the world has a more picturesque setting than Waikīkī.  Situated on the beach at Waikīkī, it stands on the site where once Hawaiʻi’s royalty played.  The playhouse now becomes a glorious new addition to the beach made famous in song and story.  It is the new center of activity of that district which long been the mecca of travelers from the world over.”  (Honolulu Advertiser; Alder)

“The auditorium is a revelation in theatrical architecture. Spacious, cool, it is acoustically correct in every detail. Perfect hearing and vision are available from every seat of the huge auditorium.”

“One of the most unique ideas in theatre ‘atmosphere’ has been incorporated in the decorations. The ceiling, done in soft blue, becomes a replica of the heavens through special lighting effects.”

“Stars twinkle, soft, fleecy clouds float about, the planets send off their soft light. The Waikīkī theatre is one of the few in the world in which this unusual lighting feature has been installed.”

“Through this lighting the great rainbow that spans the proscenium becomes a soft, misty, fairy arch rivaling in loveliness the great rainbows that arch Hawaiʻi’s skies.”  (Honolulu Advertiser, August 20, 1936; Del Valle)

“Inside the theater, it felt as if you were in a tropical paradise. A full-colored rainbow arched over the curtains that hid the screen. Along the side walls, there were palm trees that reached from floor to ceiling and lush jungle plants, which appeared absolutely real to my child’s eyes.”

“Then, a distinguished gentleman named Ed Sawtelle would appear and sit down at a large organ console, located just below and in front of the stage, and begin a concert that filled the hall with rolling music that vibrated off the walls.”

“About that time, with the house lights dimmed, someone would flip a switch and magical images of moving clouds would be projected onto the arched, midnight-blue ceiling, completing the illusion of having landed in the middle of a tropical jungle on a remote Pacific island.”

“Finally, the curtains would part and the show would start with a short cartoon and the Fox Movietone News. The ‘news’ events shown were about four weeks old by the time they got to Hawaiʻi, but that’s how we would find out what was happening in the world in those pre-television days.”  (Richard Kelley)

After successfully celebrating its first 30+years, and as the multiplex made movie-going more competitive, in 1969 the Waikīkī Theater name was relegated to Waikīkī #3 (following the construction of the Waikīkī #1 & #2 nearby.)

Renovations in the late-60s, and remodeling a decade or so later kept the theater on life support.   An expanded concession area replaced most of the forecourt, the interior decoration was removed and the auditorium draped.

“Imagine how much half an acre on Kalākaua Avenue is worth. By then, Consolidated was paying half a million dollars per year in property taxes – you have to sell a lot of popcorn to cover that.” (Lowell Angell, Theatre Historical Society of America; Hana Hou)

Waikīkī Theater (Waikīkī #3) remained a single screen theatre until it closed in late-November 2002; Waikīkī #1 & #2 closed at the same time.  They demolished all three in 2005 (the demolition started about 9-years ago, today.)

“Over the years, the movie business has changed dramatically. …  Multiplex theaters offer a variety of features almost any time of the day or night. Cartoons are now feature films. The news of the day is seen on one’s TV, laptop or cell phone.”

“The gracious theater usherettes have long since retired and have not been replaced. The guy at the door who takes your ticket is often dressed in a baggy T-shirt and jeans and barely looks up as he says, ’Your film will be shown in theater seven, second on the right.’”  (Richard Kelley)

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California Girl, Wenona

General William Tecumseh Sherman called it “wonderfully realistic and historically reminiscent.” Mark Twain termed it genuine “down to its smallest details.” Even General George Armstrong Custer’s widow endorsed its depiction of her husband’s “Last Stand.” (PBS)

William Frederick Cody (born February 26, 1846, Scott county, Iowa, US, died January 10, 1917, Denver, Colorado) was an American buffalo hunter, US Army scout, Pony Express rider, Indian fighter, actor, and promoter. (Britannica)

In 1883 Cody (aka Buffalo Bill), with the help of producer and partner Nate Salsbury, started producing a theatrical spectacle that became known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World, evolved into an international institution and made him one of the world’s first global celebrities.

For many years Cody performed during the winter and continued scouting for the army in the summer or escorting hunting parties to the West. In the process, the line began to blur even further between the scout William F Cody and the legend and entertainer Buffalo Bill. (Britannica)

The show was a spectacular outdoor entertainment with a cast of hundreds, featuring fancy-shooting, hard-riding cowboys and yelling Indians, along with re-creations of a buffalo hunt, the capture of the Deadwood (South Dakota) stagecoach, and a Pony Express ride. It also had lots of wild animals in the show, including buffalo, elk, deer, bear, and moose.  (LOC)

The show played at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and was staged throughout Europe. In 1893 three million people attended the show during its tenure on the Midway adjacent to the official grounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. By the end of the 19th century, Buffalo Bill was one of the most-recognized persons in the world.

It was wildly popular and one of the most famous acts in his show included a performer known as Annie Oakley. Billed as “Miss Annie Oakley, the Peerless Lady Wing-Shot,” she was one of the show’s star attractions for 16 years, except for a brief period in 1887, when she was with the rival Pawnee Bill’s Frontier Exhibition.

Her real name was Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses, but she was known as “Little Sure Shot” because she had such great aim. At 30 paces Annie Oakley could fire a gun and hit the edge of a playing card or the end of a cigarette held in the lips of her husband, Frank Butler.

Lesser known, was Lillian Frances Smith, the daughter of a white Quaker couple from New England.  The so-called “California Girl” was a darling of Buffalo Bill’s 1886-1887 Wild West Show.

One was at a loss, exclaimed one observer of the show in New York, whether “Miss Lillian Smith, Miss Annie Oakley, Johnnie Butler, the ‘Kid’ [cowboy Jim Willoughby], or Buffalo Bill himself” deserved the highest praise for marksmanship.

As soon as Smith joined the show in April of 1886, Oakley shaved 12 years off her own birth date, insecure about the talented young teen stealing the spotlight. And Smith did not waste any time getting on Oakley’s nerves, bragging that the latter was “done for,” once the public had seen “her own self shoot.” (Smithsonian)

Annie Oakley had made her name besting male sharpshooters, and Smith represented her first female rival. The two women were experts in different weapons – Oakley favored the shotgun, while Smith preferred the rifle.

Smith spoke coarsely and wore flashy clothing, both qualities anathema to the more conservative Oakley. In addition to these other shortcomings in Oakley’s eyes, Smith was apparently a shameless flirt. Smith was also younger, and that may have threatened Oakley. (PBS)

In 1897, Smith met Charles “Frank” Hafley, sheriff of Tulare County, at a gallery in Visalia the following year. He was an extraordinary sharpshooter in his own right, and a very competent equestrian.

The two may not have ever legally married; they traveled to the East Coast to perform at the 1901 World’s Fair, and to the Jamestown Exhibition in Virginia in 1904. The pair even created their own program called “California Frank’s Wild West,” and started an Indian curio business on the side (Smith created her own brand of tomahawks).

In 1899, Frank and Lillian came to Hawaii as a sharpshooting act (Frank adopted her surname). “The first appearance of the new arrivals was awaited with much interest, and they proved to be all that had been claimed for them. Frank C and Lillian F Smith did marvelous work in scientific shooting with rifle and pistol.” (Hawaiian Star, Dec 8, 1899)

In addition to public performances, descendants also say Lillian and Frank were hired by Lili‘uokalani to teach marines how to fire Smith & Wesson firearms (possibly one reason why Frank adopted Lillian’s surname).  (Bricklin)

The two female shooting stars did meet once more, both competing in the 1902 Grand American Handicap. Oakley out shot Smith that day, and then they went their separate directions, Oakley upward and onward into general acclaim, and Smith down into obscurity. (PBS)

Lillian later adopted a ‘faux’ Sioux persona as Wenona.  “Her “Indianness” helped differentiate her among other Wild West stars, but her costuming was also practical.”

“Wenona’s costume often included a fully fringed, suede tunic with intricate beadwork and a fantastic feathered headdress, which she wore even while shooting moving objects while astride a galloping horse. … Wenona retired from show business in 1925 or thereabouts.” (Smithsonian)

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Morgan’s Corner

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true.

As with all folklore and mythology, the designation suggests nothing about the story’s genuineness, but merely that it is in circulation, exhibits variation over time and carries some significance that motivates the community in preserving and propagating it.

For one, the scenarios are the same:
  •  A couple parks on a dark, isolated road (or a Lover’s Lane)
  •  The car won’t start
  •  The girlfriend gets spooked
  •  The boyfriend says he’ll go get help
  •  He tells her not to go out, no matter what
  •  He doesn’t return
  •  There’s a strange scratching or tapping sound on the car roof
  •  Finally, the Police help her out, but tells her not to look back
  •  The boy is hanging from the tree

Sound familiar?

It’s the basis for the “Morgan’s Corner” spooky story at the Pali.  It’s also the foundation for similar stories across the country.  It may have some basis of fact some place, but no records indicate this ever happening here in Hawaiʻi.

Having said that, reportedly, some UH folks went to the reputed Morgan’s Corner on the Windward side of Old Pali Road and “took photographs looking up into the tree, and when the film was developed, the seventh frame contained a large white object.”

“The photographer, 10 witnesses and the chemical laboratory that analyzed the image for processing errors vouched for the image’s authenticity. … it appeared to be a body hanging from the tree, photographed from below.”  (Burlingame)

Hmmm.

Wait … there really is a ‘Morgan’s Corner’ (well, sort of.)  And, a murder did happen there; and, it’s on the Old Pali Road (on the town side of the Pali.)

This story ended with a change in a significant law in the Islands.

It happened at the “S” turn on Nuʻuanu Pali Drive.  Dr Morgan lived on the mauka side of the road – but the story is not about him.

Across the street, at 3939 Pali Road (now known as Nuʻuanu Pali Drive – where a condo project now sits, just above the small waterfall) lived Mrs Therese Adele Wilder (widow of William Chauncey “Chan” Wilder.)  That’s where this story took place.

On March 11, 1948, inmates James Majors (21) and John Palakiko (19) escaped from a prison work crew.  They made their way to Nuʻuanu and, looking for food, they came across – and into – Wilder’s home.

Wilder, in her late-60s, was attacked – she died.

“Her hands were bound, she was gagged, and there were traces of what appeared to be dried blood about her nose and mouth. There was evidence of a blow on the head, but (her physician) said that she might have died from suffocation brought about by the gag which the intruders forced into her mouth.”  (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 16, 1948)

Majors and Palakiko were charged.  There was public hysteria, irate community leaders, newspaper calls for “swift justice” and, later, confessions from the two.

Both men were convicted and sentenced to hang.

So, what about the significant law change?

Between August 18, 1897 and September 16, 1943, 47 people were executed at Oʻahu Prison under Hawai‘i’s capital punishment law.  All were male.

They ranged in age from 19 to 61. One was Caucasian, 3 were Hawaiian, 24 were Filipino, 10 were Japanese, 6 were Korean and 3 were Puerto Rican.  (hawaii-edu)

The last recorded execution in Hawai‘i had occurred on January 7, 1944.

With respect to the Majors-Palakiko case, while Honolulu attorney Harriet Bouslog had not represented the men at trial she had followed it closely.

On the eve of the scheduled execution, she swiftly took up the death-row appeals after being challenged by a friend at a dinner party: “I’ll bet you can’t do anything about it.”

She convinced Territorial Governor, Oren E Long, to grant a brief stay of execution. Even after “the lengthiest hearing in the history” of the Territorial Supreme Court, Bouslog failed to obtain relief.

She immediately filed an appeal and requested a stay of execution. … It was 4 am. The prisoners were being given last rites.

Appeals to the federal Court of Appeals and to the United States Supreme Court followed without success.  (hawaii-edu)

However, the lengthy legal process enabled a groundswell of public support for the two to develop, especially when folks learned of claims of police brutality and forced confessions.

In 1954, new governor, Samuel W King, granted a commutation of both sentences to life in prison.

Following this, the legislature passed House Bill 706 on June 4, 1957.  It called for revising the law relating to capital punishment by providing “a sentence of imprisonment at hard labor for life not subject to parole.”

Governor King signed it the following day, thus abolishing the death penalty in Hawaiʻi.

Then, in 1962, Governor John Burns pardoned the men (after their executions had been stayed five times.)

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Forest Birds

“When the birds disappear, so do their Hawaiian names. This means that as bird sounds are silenced, the chants that transmitted their names and associated stories also disappear.”  (Sault)

Around six million years ago, a small ancient species of finch found its way to the most remote archipelago in the world. Over 2,000 miles from the nearest major land source, and uninhabited by humans or any other mammals, the small islands of Hawaii were a blank canvas just waiting to be filled with a brand new family of birds – the Hawaiian Honeycreepers. (FWS)

For millions of years, the birds thrived on the tiny islands in the Pacific. There were no mammals, no humans, few other species to compete with, and a great diversity of habitats. The first Honeycreepers arrived on ancient islands that have since eroded away.

As each new island in the chain rose from the sea and cooled the tiny birds colonized it, splitting off into dozens of new subspecies along the way. Each split in the family tree yielded more complexity and novel ways to find food, attract a mate, and fill an ecological niche. (FWS)

Unfortunately, all of this diversity can also be a limitation if the habitat or the environment changes.  “A lot of the very specialized birds that had the most unique characteristics were the first to go extinct once the habitat started changing,” said Steve Kendall, Wildlife Biologist for Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. (FWS)

In the early 1800s naturalists describe flocks of ‘i‘iwi flying up and down the mountain slopes of the Hawaiian Islands foraging on nectar and insects. Their long curved bill matches the size and shape of the flowers of the lobeliad family.

Lobeliads were once found all over the islands, but like so many of Hawaii’s native species, those plants have become scarce. To survive, the ‘i’iwi has had to turn to another iconic Hawaiian species for their survival – the ʻōhiʻa lehua. (FWS)

But habitat change was not their only threat.

“The beautiful red birds, iiwi and akakani (apapani), and the birds of glorious yellow feathers, the oo and the mamo, were a joy to both eye and ear and found high places in Hawaiian legend and story, and all gave their most beautiful feathers for the cloaks and helmets of the chiefs.” (Westerfelt)

When Cook anchored off Waimea, Kauai, in 1778, he and his officers at once noticed the feather robes and helmets.  The account is as follows:

“Amongst the articles which they brought to barter this day (January 21, 1778) we could not help taking notice of a particular sort of cloak and cap, which, even in countries where dress is more particularly attended to, might be reckoned elegant.”

“The first are nearly of the size and shape of the short cloaks worn by the women in England, and by the men of Spain, reaching to the middle of the back and tied loosely before.”

“The ground of them is a net-work, upon which the most beautiful red and yellow feathers are so closely fixed, that the surface might be compared to the thickest and richest velvet, which they resemble, both as to feel and glossy appearance.”

“The manner of varying the mixture is very different, some having triangular spaces of red and yellow alternately; others a kind of crescent, and some that were entirely red, had a yellow border which made them appear, at some distance, exactly like a scarlet cloak edged with gold lace.”

“The brilliant colours of the feathers, in those that happened to be new, added not a little to their fine appearance, and we found that they were in high estimation with their owners, for they would not, at first part with one of them for anything we offered, asking no less a price than a musket.”

“However some were afterward purchased for very large nails. Some of them as were of the best sort, were scarce, and it would seem that they are only used on the occasion of some particular ceremony or diversion, for the people who had them always made some gesticulations which we had seen used before by those who sung.”

“We were at a loss to guess from whence they could get such a quantity of these beautiful feathers; but were soon informed as to one sort for they afterward brought great numbers of skins of small red birds (i‘iwi) for sale, which were often tied up in bunches of twenty or more, or had a small wooden skewer run through their nostrils.”  (Cook, 1778; Brigham)

“‘Kamehameha I is said to have reproved his bird-catchers for taking the life of the birds. “The feathers belong to me, but the birds themselves belong to my heirs,” said the considerate monarch.’” (Emerson, Perez)  However, “[i]t is believed that most birds were killed after being plucked”. (Perez)

“[I]t is believed that native Hawaiian avifauna was affected by several interdependent factors … the extensively documented bird overkill by humans must have played a crucial role in their decline. … Numerous historical sources leave little doubt about the fate of most birds, regardless of the original reason for hunting them.” (Perez)

“Overhunting did not help many other bird species, which ended up adorning the garments of the Hawaiian nobility, or filling the bellies of the common people. Most birds victimized by Hawaiians are now either extinct or endangered; many are simply unknown to us, and their names have faded from Hawaiian memory.” (Perez)

In the modern age, ‘scientific collectors’ further decimated the Hawaiian forest birds.  “The tragedy for many Hawaiian birds was that they were not only distinctive, desirable and rare – a dangerous combination in the best of circumstances – but also often heartbreakingly easy to take.”  (Brown)

“The greater koa finch, an innocuous member of the honeycreeper family, lurked shyly in the canopies of koa trees, but if someone imitated its song it would abandon its cover at once and fly down in a show of welcome.”

“The last of the species vanished in 1896, killed by Rothschild’s ace collector Harry Palmer, five years after the disappearance of its cousin the lesser koa finch, a bird so sublimely rare that only one has ever been seen: the one shot for [Baron Lionel Walter] Rothschild’s collection.” (Brown)

Since 1800, five bird species have become extinct in North America; two additional species are presumed extinct and two sub-species have disappeared. Overall, bird extinctions in North America are a rare event.

In contrast, in Hawaii, a minimum of 31 bird species have become extinct since 1800 including 10 in the last 50 years. Further, 14 of 24 endemic forest birds are endangered. (NFWF)

“Rothschild was by no means alone in his zeal to capture birds at more or less any cost. Others in fact were more ruthless. In 1907, when a well-known collector named Alanson Bryan realized that he had shot the last three specimens of black mamos, a species of forest bird that had only been discovered the previous decade, he noted that the news filled him with ‘joy.’” (Brown)

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Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Examination’

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the North American phase of a worldwide conflict between Britain, the French and Native Americans.

While the British won the war, the French and Indian War had been enormously expensive and left Great Britain with a heavy debt.  And, the expense of protecting the English possessions in America seemed likely to increase rather than diminish.

The war and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in increasing colonial resentment of British attempts to expand imperial authority in the colonies.

One of the early taxes to be imposed was the Stamp Act. 

On February 13, 1766, Benjamin Franklin appeared before the British Parliament’s House of Commons to advocate for a repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765.  (Archives)  Franklin provided evidence in the form of answers to 174 questions. The session, according to the Proceedings of Parliament, lasted for four hours.

Franklin shared his observations on the attitude of the colonists towards the British Empire before and after the imposition of the Stamp Act, and comments on issues of taxation, representation and the ability of the colonies to become economically independent from the mother country.   Here are some of Franklin’s responses:

 At the time, In North America there were about 300,000 white men from sixteen to sixty years of age.  The population increase of “the inhabitants of all the provinces together, taken at a medium, double[d] in about 25 years.”

“But their demand for British manufactures increased much faster, as the consumption is not merely in proportion to their numbers, but grows with the growing abilities of the same numbers to pay for them.”

Colonists’ Attitude to Britain

The “temper of America towards Great Britain before the year of 1763” was “The best in the world, they have submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to acts of parliament.”

“They had not only a respect, but an affection, for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce.”

“They consider themselves as a part of the British empire, & as having one common interest with it; they may be looked on here as foreigners, by they do not consider themselves as such.”

And, in 1763, “it is greatly lessened” which was due to “a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves; and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive & hear their humble petitions.

Their temper in 1766? … “O, very much altered.”

Parliament

Before 1763, there was no “objection to the right of [Parliament] laying duties to regulate commerce; but a right to lay internal taxes was never supposed to be in parliament, as we are not represented there.”

“But the payment of duties laid by act of parliament, as regulations of commerce was never disputed.”

Previously, “there was never an occasion to make any such act, till now that [Britain has] attempted to tax us; that has occasioned resolutions of assembly, declaring the distinction, in which I think every assembly on the continent, and every member in every assembly, have been unanimous.”

Taxes Versus Duties

The difference between external taxes and internal taxes “is very great.”

“An external tax is a duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost, and other charges on the commodity, and when it is offered to sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it.”

“But an internal tax is forced from the people without their consent, if not laid by their own representatives.”

Colonists Were Willing to Pay Their Fair Share

“The Colonies raised, paid and clothed, near 25,000 men during the last war, a number equal to those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion; they went deeply in debt in doing this, and all their taxes and estates are mortgages, for many years to come, for discharging that debt. Government here was at that time sensible of this. The Colonies were recommended to parliament.”

“Every year the King sent down to the house a written message to this purpose. That his Majesty, being highly sensible of the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects in North-America had exerted themselves, in defence of his Majesty’s just rights and possession, recommended it to the house to take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation.”

“You will find those messages on your own journals every year of the war to the very last, and you did accordingly give 200,000 Pounds annually to the Crown, to be distributed in such compensation to the Colonies.”

“This is the strongest of all proofs that the Colonies, far from being unwilling to bear a share of the burthen, did exceed their proportion, for if they had done less, or had only equaled their proportion, there would have been no room or reason for compensation.”

“Indeed the sums reimbursed them, were by no means adequate to the expence they incured beyond their proportion; but they never murmured at that; they esteemed their Sovereign’s approbation of their zeal and fidelity, the approbation of this house, far beyond any other kind of compensation”.

“[T]herefore, there was no occasion for this act, to force money from a willing people, they had not refused giving money for the purposes of the act: no requisition had been made; they were always willing and ready to do what could reasonably be expected from them, and in this light they wish to be considered.”

If Great-Britain should be engaged in a war in Europe, I think North-America would contribute to the support of it, “as far as their circumstances would permit.”  The Colonists “consider themselves as a part of the whole.”

“Though the parliament may judge of the occasion, the people, will think it can never exercise such a right, till representatives from the Colonies are admitted into parliament, & that whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be ordered.”

“They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.”

The pride of the Americans used to be “To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of G. Britain.”

What is now their pride? “To wear their old cloaths over again, till they can make new ones.” (Benjamin Franklin) (Information here is from Massachusetts Historical Society)

Repeal of Stamp Act

Delegates from the colonies convened in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress, where they drew up formal petitions to the British Parliament and to King George III to repeal the act. It was the first unified colonial response to British policy and it provided the British a taste of what would come soon thereafter.

Realizing that it actually cost more to enforce the Stamp Act in the protesting colonies than it did to abolish it, the British government repealed the tax in 1766. 

Click the following link to a general summary about Ben Franklin’s ‘Examination’:

Click to access Benjamin-Franklins-Examination.pdf

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