16 December, 1773

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In September 2009, I proudly dumped my own tea into Boston Harbor as part of my trip to that historic wharf. A few weeks later, the Tea Party Movement would, unbeknownst to me at that time, convene with a series of protests. None of them threw tea into any harbor, and most of them share very little patronage with the event from which they took their name.

From www.u-s-history.com

In 1770, American protests led to Parliament's repeal of the Townshend duties — except for the duty on tea retained by the British as a matter of principle. The colonists demonstrated their displeasure with the remaining tax by drinking smuggled tea. The effectiveness of American resistance was shown in the precipitous decline in tea sales in the colonies — a drop of 70 percent over three years.

Boston Tea Party

In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, which gave the English East India Company a chance to avert bankruptcy by granting a monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies. The new regulations allowed the company to sell tea to the colonists at a low price, lower than the price of smuggled tea, even including the required duty. The British reasoned that the Americans would willingly pay the tax if they were able to pay a low price for the tea.

On November 28 the Dartmouth arrived in Boston harbor with a cargo of Darjeeling tea. Samuel Adams and other radicals were determined that the cargo would not be landed in the city. His mobs roamed the streets in the evenings, threatening violence if challenged by the authorities. Governor Thomas Hutchinson was equally belligerent and vowed not to capitulate in the face of public opposition as had happened in other colonies.

Two other ships, the Beaver and the Eleanor, arrived with more consignments from the East India Company. Hutchinson remained firm and stated that the cargoes would be brought ashore and taxed in compliance with the law.

The Tea Act required that the requisite tax be collected within 20 days of a ship’s arrival, making December 16 the deadline. Sam Adams kept public fervor high by holding public meetings in the Old South Meeting House; crowds as large as 5,000 clogged the surrounding streets.

At one of these gatherings, a resolution was adopted that asked the consignees to return the tea. Those tea agents, some of them relatives of the governor, refused to do so. On December 16, the owner of the Dartmouth agreed to sail his ship back to England. This opportunity to ease tensions was abruptly ended, however, when British officials denied permission for the ship to clear the port and began preparations to seize the vessel for nonpayment of the tax.

That evening the ship owner reported his inability to depart from Boston to the throng at Old South. With that news Adams gave a signal to the group and loud Indian war whoops broke out. A group of some 50 men, unconvincingly disguised as Mohawk Indians, moved the short distance to Griffin’s Wharf where the three ships were moored.

The vessels were boarded, the cargo carefully taken from the holds and placed on the decks. There, 342 chests were split open and thrown into the harbor. A cheering crowd on the dock shouted its approval for the brewing of this “saltwater tea.”

The “Tea Party” was quickly restaged in other port cities in America and tended to polarize the sides in the widening dispute. Patriots and Loyalists became more ardent about their views.

Parliament and King chafed at the destruction of private property and the deliberate flouting of royal authority. They would soon turn to sterner actions.

the British thought that the colonists would pay the tax if they could get the tea more cheaply with tax than through the black market. They were wrong.

What was the Boston Tea Party really about? The colonists didn't stop drinking tea. They changed the source from which they bought it, which is a very American thing to do. As a matter of fact the Boston Tea Party wasn't about tea. It was about liberty. Nothing the Congress has forced upon us since 2006 is about what it says on its face. It is all about liberty and how fast the Democrat driven government can strip us thereof. Under the leadership of Pelosi and Reid, they are intent on doing as much damage as possible before they are replaced. This is another example of the totalitarianism in which they believe.

Elitists in both parties, but primarily among the Liberals, conspire together to strip us of our liberty and protect each other as they act as the tyrants they are, but they are acting without the consent of the governed, without respect for the law, and without regard for the ramifications on generations as yet unborn. They are at least, if not more, as much enemies of freedom as King George III and the ilk that defended the Townsend, Intolerable, and Stamp Acts of his time, among other usurpations.

How can they write a 2000 page law in a week? This has been on tap for a long time. The efforts are aimed at the individual. Like I have been saying for about a year or so, you will always have too much money and too much freedom according to Liberals until you have none at all of either.

Fortunately, I am pleased to report that after I left work yesterday Reid pulled the omnibus pork bill from the agenda. Watch today for him to get up and bellyache about how evil the Republicans are. He will 'clothe himself with odd old ends stol'n forth from holy writ and seem a saint when most [he] play[s] the devil" (Richard III). He does not care one whit what you think or want. That's why Reid needs to go.

A better Christmas present could not be requested by the American people.