the use of hard money (or specie) versus the use of paper money, and Ward sided with the former group. His chief rival was Stephen Hopkins of Providence who sided with the paper money view. So bitter was the animosity between these two men that Hopkins commenced an action for slander against Ward. The case was moved to Massachusetts for a fair trial, and the judgment went against Hopkins by default in 1759. For ten years, the two men went back and forth as governor of the colony, each at the head of a powerful party. Josias Lyndon was elected as a compromise candidate in 1768, and the constant butting heads stopped. Hopkins won the election as governor in 1758 and beat Ward again in the following three elections. In 1761, the Assembly named Ward to the office of chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, but he only served in this capacity for a year, finally being elected governor in 1762. During this first year in office, the plan was discussed of founding a college in the Rhode Island colony, and it received Ward's hearty support. He took an active part in the establishment of "Rhode island College," later Brown University. When the school was incorporated in 1765, he was one of the trustees and one of its most generous supporters. Stamp Act In 1763 Hopkins once again beat out Ward in the election for governor, serving for the next two years. However, in 1765 Ward for the second time won the contest between the two men. During this term one of the most contentious issues of the age arose, uniting the divided elements into a common cause. Two months before Ward's election the Stamp Act was passed by both houses of the Parliament of Great Britain. This act was a scheme for taxing the colonies, directing that all commercial and legal documents, to be valid in a court of law, must be written on stamped paper sold at fixed prices by governmental officers, and also directing that a duty be applied to newspapers. Parliament, assuming the right to tax the colonies, put additional duties on sugar, coffee and other articles. The government also required that lumber and iron from the colonies only be exported to England. The news of the act infuriated the colonists. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts invited all the colonies to a congress of delegates