The year 1760, which so honorably closed the war, was also, marked by the death of Lieutenant Governor Delancey, who was succeeded by Cadwallader D. Colden, a zealous royalist, who continued in power five years. It was during this term that the noted Stamp Act was passed, which rendered his administration a very stormy and unpleasant one. The news of the passage of this Act was followed in New York by the issue of a new paper called the "Constitutional Courant," which first appeared in September, 1765, by the placarding of the streets with "The Folly of England, and the Ruin of America;" by the organization of the "Sons of Liberty," and the appointment of a "Committee of Correspondence, " to secure unanimity of action among all the merchants of the country in resisting the aggressions of England.

While there existed in the nature of the case many reasons why these colonies should eventually rise to independency, it is also certain that proper treatment on the part of the mother country would have long delayed such an event. The colonists had no desire to sever their connection with the home government; indeed, they long clung to its usages and authority. In the bloody campaigns against the French they had sacrificed the lives of thirty thousand of their sons, and burdened themselves with a debt of thirteen million pounds, sterling. An honorable acknowledgment of their undoubted interests and rights would have permanently cemented them to the English crown: but these were persistently denied. The colonists were regarded as greatly inferior to the people of England.