Henry's contention in essence was that the people of the colonies had a right to govern themselves. And in this he was but finding legal arguments for the existing state of affairs. The Assembly, after a century and a half of battling with Kings and Governors, had made itself to all intents and purposes supreme. In annulling the Two-penny Act the King crossed lances with the representatives of the people and had come off second best. The jury, sitting in the little country courthouse, under the urging of an obscure lawyer, had defied him. Thus, two years before the Stamp Act, Virginia inaugurated the policy of resistance. Most of Henry's arguments were borrowed from the Carter and Bland pamphlets, but whereas they pleaded, he secured positive action. In so far as the Two-penny Act was concerned, the King's veto power was annulled.
Bland summed up the constitutional argument behind this action in a pamphlet written at the time of the trial but published only eight months later. "Under an English government all men are born free, are only subject to laws made by their own consent.... If then the people of this colony are free born, and have a right to the liberties and privileges of English subjects, they must necessarily have a legal constitution, that is a legislature, composed in part of the representatives of the people, who may enact laws for the INTERNAL government of the colony, ... and without such a representative I am bold to say no law can be made."[17]
But the stubborn Mr. Camm was determined not to give up. In April, 1764, his cause came up in the General Court after a delay of five years. The case against him was argued by Robert Carter Nicholas, who claimed that when the Governor had approved a law it was legal, even though in so doing he broke his instructions. A majority of the court[18] were convinced and voted that the Two-penny Act of 1758 was valid despite the King's veto.[19] Camm appealed the case to the Privy Council. It came up in 1767, and was thrown out on a technicality. In this way they avoided giving further offense to the colony without admitting the validity of their claims.
The controversy over the Two-penny Act came at a time when the Board of Trade was at odds with the Virginia Assembly over the repeated issues of paper money. Had Dinwiddie and Fauquier not assured them that without these issues there would have been no funds with which to carry on the war, they would certainly have put a stop to them. As it was, all they could do was to urge that steps be taken to prevent the paper from declining in value and to protect the interests of the British merchants.