The Townshend acts
Benjamin Franklin argued against Parliament's right to tax the Colonists to an official of Great Britain named Charles Townshend in 1767.(www.digitalhistory.uh.edu) The British Chancellor of the Exchequer's solution was to have the colonists pay for imported goods such as glass, paint, lead, tea, and paper which he argued would be more acceptable than the Stamp Act, a more direct tax.(www.digitalhistory.uh.edu). As a result, in 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts.(www.digitalhistory.uh.edu)
John Hancock's Role
John Hancock was so outraged to learn that Great Britain had created another way to tax the things that the colonies needed that he and four of his colleagues decided to write letters to the Great Britain demanding that the taxes be stopped (www.digitalhistory.uh.edu). In this letter, John Hancock and four other Boston Selectmen protest the Townshend Acts and the arrival of British troops (www.digitalhistory.uh.edu).
"Taxes equally detrimental to the commercial interests of the Parent country and the colonies are imposed upon the People, without their consent; Taxes designed for the Support of the Civil Government in the Colonies, in a Manner clearly unconstitutional, and contrary to that, in which 'till of late, Government has been supported, by the free Gift of the People in the American Assemblies or Parliaments; as also for the Maintenance of a large Standing Army; not for the Defence of the newly acquired Territories, but for the old Colonies, and in a Time of Peace."
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
---John Hancock and four other Boston Selectmen to the Selectmen of Medway, Massachusetts
"Taxes equally detrimental to the commercial interests of the Parent country and the colonies are imposed upon the People, without their consent; Taxes designed for the Support of the Civil Government in the Colonies, in a Manner clearly unconstitutional, and contrary to that, in which 'till of late, Government has been supported, by the free Gift of the People in the American Assemblies or Parliaments; as also for the Maintenance of a large Standing Army; not for the Defence of the newly acquired Territories, but for the old Colonies, and in a Time of Peace."
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
---John Hancock and four other Boston Selectmen to the Selectmen of Medway, Massachusetts
Conclusion
In the end John Hancock and his colleagues were able to convince Parliament to repeal all of the Townshend acts except the tax on tea, leading to a temporary truce between the Colonists and Great Britain lasting until the American Revolution(www.digitalhistory.uh.edu).