I rejoice that America resisted

What happened

Parliament opened on 14 January 1766 with the Grenville wing demanding that the Stamp Act be enforced, with troops if need be. The Rockingham ministry had nothing like a majority and wanted repeal. Then William Pitt, who had not been seen in the House for two years and whom Rothbard calls felled by illness and insanity, hauled himself to his feet. He told the House that every capital measure of the late ministry had been wrong and that the colonists had "all the natural rights of mankind and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen." After Grenville answered, Pitt said that he rejoiced that America had resisted: three million people so dead to liberty as to submit would have been fit to make slaves of the rest. Rothbard adds that it was partly a play to win back the merchants from the Whigs who were doing the real work, and that three weeks before, Pitt had been ready to impose British authority on the colonists. The Rockingham ministry had to do the slow work in the dark: on 17 January the merchants' petitions began to pour in. Grenville's motion to enforce the Act lost 274 to 134. Repeal passed the Commons 275 to 167 on 21 February and was signed on 18 March 1766.