“Tea Party” protests have sprung up in multiple cities across the country since Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the economic stimulus bill into law as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
As much as I rejoice in the sight of legions of fed-up Americans taking to the streets to protest the central government’s colossal waste of the first fruits of their labors, it is important that people understand that the original Boston Tea Party was neither spontaneous nor a mere lark.
The Boston Tea Party was a planned act of insurrection and both the participants and cheering bystanders knew the consequences would be fateful. At The New Phampleteer, “Clarendon” goes into wonderfully interesting detail to explain the back story of the real tea party.
Did you know, for example, that the pre-arranged signal for the boarding of the three tea ships in Boston harbor was Samuel Adams announcing at a protest meeting in Fanueil Hall that “this meeting can do no more to save the country,” and that planning for the event had been going on for weeks prior to that gathering?
And did you know that the price of tea would actually decrease under the parliamentary act that sparked the Boston Tea Party? Clarendon notes the significance of this key fact that is likely little known to American students today:
“At the same time, Parliament imposed a new tax on tea, but one that would be paid in London as a surcharge. The Americans would actually see lower prices on tea, but the tea they purchased would already come pre-taxed. Historian Benson Bobrick says it ‘remains a noble feature of the whole confrontation that immediate economic interest did not determine [the colonists’] response.’
“And Americans didn’t take the bribe of lower tea in exchange for accepting a revenue tax. In Philadelphia, ships bearing tea couldn’t find anyone willing to lead the ships into harbor. In Charleston, South Carolina, the tea was off-loaded, but was stored in moldy warehouses where the product quickly rotted and became useless. In New York City, storms prevented the tea-laden ships from docking.”
Would that such integrity and consistency of principle were routinely displayed by those in Congress who today claim to be friends of liberty.
