Definition
British officials used virtual representation in 1765 to defend the Stamp Act against colonial protests. Thomas Whately, a Treasury secretary under George Grenville, argued in a 1765 pamphlet that each member of Parliament represented the whole empire, not only the district that elected him. By that logic, colonists were represented just as the residents of large towns such as Manchester, which sent no members to the House of Commons, were represented. Colonial writers such as Daniel Dulany of Maryland rejected the idea, and colonists insisted that only assemblies they elected could tax them.
Why it matters on the AP exam
Virtual representation shows how differently the two sides understood representation. In Britain most men could not vote, so British leaders saw a member of Parliament as a voice for the whole nation, while colonists, used to electing assemblies from their own towns and counties, believed in actual representation, in which a member spoke for the people who chose him. The same belief that Parliament spoke for every subject lay behind the Declaratory Act of 1766, which claimed Parliament's power to bind the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." Questions ask students to identify the British argument in a source, to contrast it with the colonial position, and to explain why the Stamp Act Congress rejected it.
Connections
- No taxation without representation: the colonial slogan that rejected this argument
- Stamp Act: the law British officials defended with the argument
- George Grenville: his Treasury secretary, Thomas Whately, made the argument in 1765