(STAMP ACT). BENJAMIN WILSON. "THE REPEAL, OR THE FUNERAL PROCESSION OF MISS AMERIC-STAMP". LONDON: 1766

Engraving (16 x 11 3/4 in.;448 x 350 mm). Hinged and matted, untrimmed; marginal tears and repair, two discolorations, one abraded, on left hand side of print 

Franklin, Benjamin. Letter to Deborah Franklin, April 6, 1766 Halsey, R.T. Haines. “Impolitical Prints,” Bulletin of the New York Public Library 43, no.11 (Nov. 1939)

This political cartoon was published on the day Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act but also passed the Declaratory Act that again raised tensions with the colonies. Recently appointed Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, commissioned Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788) to create political cartoons in favor of repeal. This cartoon, “The Repeal", is filled with visual allusions to the Stamp Act crisis. The sad scene among the supporters of the Stamp Act, only four months old and represented by a child’s coffin, stands in contrast to the prosperous wharves and warehouses in the background and ships being loaded with goods from key manufacturing centers, bound for the colonies.

“The Repeal” quickly became “the most popular satirical print ever issued” (Halsey).  Within three days, the publisher issued an advertisement requesting patience, as he could not keep up with the demand. Benjamin Franklin commented on it in a letter to his wife, “I think it wrong to put in Lord Bute, who had nothing to do with the Stamp Act. But it is the Fashion here to abuse that Nobleman as the Author of all Mischief.”

Despite its popularity at the time, it is now quite scarce.