Paraded through the streets of Newport, Charleston, Boston, and elsewhere, tortured effigies convince terrified stamp masters to resign their commissions. Meanwhile, however, the stamps are arriving at colonial ports. With no one to receive them, what is to be done with them? It is a question that occupies everyone, no matter his or her station in life or political point of view. The situation is especially tense in New York, where General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, is headquartered. The Governor's Council has withdrawn to the shelter of Fort George, and the stamps have also been deposited there for safekeeping. Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden and regimental officer Major Thomas James have been particularly uncompromising on the matter of the stamps, and Archibald Kennedy, captain of the HMS Coventry patrolling New York Harbor, stands ready, they assume, to do his part. New Yorkers, however, have learned the art of persuasion from their "cousins" to the north. Moreover, their merchants and shopkeepers are conspiring to stymie trade with the motherland.

To examine all four pages of this newspaper, please see the online display of The Boston Post-Boy & Advertiser, 18 November 1765.