None of these to-be patriots were convinced that King George III, who had full control of all the colonies at the time, did not have impure intentions about their freedom; about their liberty; and about the massive bounty that their industrious natures could continually create in America. King George wanted as much of the collective hide of the colonists as he could possibly extract. Such is the nature of monarchies and dictatorships.
In History class, when we were in the third grade, we Americans learned about the Boston Tea Party and its implications for the founding of our nation. We learned that right from the start; Americans were not ready to settle for taxation without representation. Many conservatives now ask: how is it then that in 2013, some 240 years after the big party, we the descendents of the boatloads of patriots who made America—America, find our elected leaders failing to accomplish their sworn duties to represent the people (US)?
It should not compute but the left controls popular thought in America, and their goal is to aggregate their new found control of Americans through the corrupt media. It is not their goal to tell the people the truth. Something that falls against their left field message as a politically incorrect thought is not something they will permit to be heard by the people. Looking for the truth? Don't try to find it by patronizing the corrupt "mainstream" media.
Why? Our free press has died, and worse than that, most Americans no longer pay attention to their government in action. Consequently, few good people really know what is happening in our beloved country. That thought is not lost on our continually vigilant, corrupt politicians. It empowers them to take more from the people since the people are asleep.
Just a week or so ago, Chris Skates, writing for Patriot Update, showed us clearly that taxation without representation is back on the table in Washington. This time, the Congress, our elected representatives, have chosen again not to represent the people. This is just like when King George's governors chose not to represent US in the late 1700's. Here is the essence of Skates' statement:
"Taxation without representation certainly is tyranny, yet precisely this is introduced by democrats who give power to the unpropertied classes: men of property, the rampart of a state, are abandoned to be plundered at the discretion of the ochlocracy (mob).
"...Even from our current crop of politicians I expected more leadership than this! Can we actually even be talking about increasing spending in any area with our current deficits? Unfortunately, yes we have just had such a ridiculous discussion and the answer according to Congress is a resounding...YES! Yes to more spending and more taxes! The fiscal cliff was a manufactured crisis in order for BOTH parties to exert more power over American citizens and to get their greedy grubby hands on more of our income."
Can you imagine how the colonists felt when they came to the land of the free and found that King George of England was still in charge? Without the American Revolution, one of the King's successors would today be called the Archduke of the Americas. The only good news on that possibility is that his name would not be Obama.
There would be no United States of America. However, the United States of Mexico would proudly own and inhabit our western shore. The thought of that should appeal to few Americans, but may very well be a hopeful notion to many non-citizens. These are the folks, which the "moderate' Republicans are now targeting with their love.
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by residents and those nearby Boston, Massachusetts against the British Government. Today I am afraid that Massachusetts is so liberal that they would pay any tax to have their tea and they would not endorse a motion that a modern TEA Party help the US return to stale notions (according to progressive liberals), such as patriotism.
The 1765 Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and the Boston Massacre incensed passions regarding British decisions affecting the colonists a lot more than my light bashing of today's Bostonians. But, if our own government imposed regulations and taxation at the same level as King George today, the cream of the crop in Boston, the elite if you will, would acquiesce quickly, and they would give up as much liberty as necessary to keep their status as card carrying liberal progressives. Concurrently they would be wrangling to get the working class to pay for their largesse.
No matter the cost, from my observations of today's elite Bostonians, they would not protest any tax on tea. I do not find today's liberal progressives in Boston and most others in Massachusetts worthy to travel the same sidewalks as their patriotic ancestry.
In the 1760's, tension between the colonists and Great Britain was building. John Hancock, one of the wealthiest colonists, provided major financial support for the colonial cause. Today Hancock would be demonized because of his wealth. In 1768, John Hancock's ship Liberty was seized by English customs officials. Hancock was charged with smuggling wine. Over time, Hancock's ships had smuggled glass, lead, paper, French molasses, tea, and other popular items. Hancock was guilty by most accounts.
John Hancock, though wealthy, was very popular with the people and he was also very successful at avoiding British customs fees and taxes. In the Liberty case, he was defended by John Adams, and the charges were eventually dropped. As a well known wealthy smuggler, Hancock often faced such charges, and because he supported the colonists' notions of independence, the people loved him – even though he was wealthy. If Hancock were a poor person, he could never have helped America achieve its independence.
For both business reasons and for being a true American patriot, John Hancock took on a major role in the fight for freedom against England and its corporations. Hancock's actions fit well with the popular themes: "No Taxation without Representation; and of course, "Taxation with no representation is tyranny."
Leading up to the big December Tea party, in May 1773, the British passed the Tea Act, giving the East India Company a monopoly on importing tea to America. John Hancock led a protest and he smuggled tea into Boston on his ships. The protest for all colonists included a boycott, though the term "boycott" was not in the language until the late 1880's.
The great tea from China, loved so much by the British colonists, packaged and sold by the British East India Company became the major product upon which huge taxes were exacted by Britain. This incensed the patriots of the eighteenth century. Their "boycott" was extremely successful while Hancock and others provided tea through their smuggling operations. The British East India Company suffered a 60% sales decline and by 1773, the company had huge debts and its prospects of ever selling tea in America did not look too good.
To save the corporation, Mother England changed the laws so that there were smaller taxes and customs fees for their favored corporation. The British East India Company's monopoly could then sell tea for less than American companies. This incensed the colonists who felt it was more an affront to their freedom than a good deal on Chinese tea. The British used these revenues to pay for their military on American soil. The most forceful action by colonists in America took place in Boston on December 16, 1773.
To avoid paying the tax, Americans, led by Sam Adams initially tried legal means to prevent the three ships carrying the tea from landing in Boston Harbor. They requested the ships go back to England without being unloaded, and thus with no tax due. Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson would not relent. He insisted on unloading the ships and receiving the duty.
And, so, the East India Company, a despicable British corporation from way back, was able to forcibly enter the harbor under the protection of English armed vessels. British Admiral John Montagu brought a full squadron of warships to prevent the colonists from forcing the ships back out to sea before they were unloaded. Americans were determined to challenge this provocation and were agitated with this violation of a supposed representative government. The seeds of a major revolution were planted.
Dressed as Mohawks, the colonists, many members of the Sons of Liberty group from Boston, with such stalwarts as Sam Adams on their side, boarded the British sponsored taxation / tea ships and quickly began destroying the cargo. They seized 342 casks of tea in this midnight raid on the three tea ships. They opened the casks and threw the tea into the harbor. Tea washed up on the shores around Boston for weeks afterwards.
The English Government was outraged as they were still in control of America. They closed the port of Boston as punishment to the brave colonists. The History of America is filled with heroism and the men who fought the battles and worked for independence all have patriotic names. We revere them and we should!
Of course the Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a forerunner of the American Revolutionary War. The colonists were upset with their mother countries. They did not like being ripped off. They had come to America to avoid such actions in their home countries, and soon found their old governments from afar intruding yet again.
The type of behavior exhibited by the British East India Company was a major reason why the founders took pains to prohibit corporations to ever be formed in America. Yet, politicians will be politicians. From the time most of the founders had passed on and their kin did not light up the sky with patriotism as the founders once had, and the replacement players were not available, the patriot's influence over American affairs diminished from the mid 1800s to today.
The new self serving politicians caved to the will of powerful elitists with lots of money, who eventually permitted corporations back into America. Elite and powerful persons prospered big time from the return of corporations to the United States.
Freedom and liberty were always important to American colonists but today, too many Americans think freedom is a right, not a major concession earned by plenty of patriot bloodshed. Judging from today's progressives from Boston, we'd still be paying homage to England and her corporations if it were up to them.
The Boston Patriots no longer exist in more ways than one; yet they seem to revel in their early history, and the Boston tourism industry makes a lot of dollars from it. But few Bostonians today have an ounce of that early patriotism. Oh, they still like their tea and they like their beer. They simply no longer care so much about the rest of America. No wonder Mitt Romney had such a problem with them when he was their governor.
Ironically, without ships in the harbors and tea as cargo, another TEA Party has begun to brew in America. Today's progressive Bostonians do not like these new freedom lovers. Instead, they choose to buy into the corrupt press's characterization of them as not being mainstream.
Your grateful author of this piece is a TEA Party believer. I am very pleased that the new TEA Party is not mainstream. I would be embarrassed if the TEA party roots had anything to do with the weak hearts in Boston Massachusetts. Of course mainstream anything today is anathema to the will of the patriots and it has taken on a simple meaning—being a suck-up to the corrupt and anti-American Democratic Party. Let's get that definition straight.
If the good people of Boston have something to say about my opinion of their milquetoast demeanor, let them all feel free to speak up while the first amendment is still operative. Write your comments below. This, as I have delivered it, is the bad taste you have given me from your dedication to liberal progressive freedom-stealing notions.
I am just a simple person living in PA, who cares more about America than any city's income from Faneuil Hall or other faux patriotic notions. Hey Boston, you too must pay attention to those who wish to destroy America. Are you ready for battle again or do you 21st century progressives plan to hide this time?
The kettles of TEA got very hot about 2010. Conservative Americans found that government, instead of the people had assumed control of America. The corrupt national media did their best to mislabel this new TEA Party as bogus, but then again, lies are lies.
Yet, the TEA Party, when invigorated by the lies of the Obama Administration and the Congress, and the press, in the fall 2010, was able to initially change the complexion of the government. The Republican establishment has since attempted to snuff out the glow of the TEA party candle by choosing to not fight the demonizing Democrats.
Perhaps that is why Republicans are being slapped around so easily as we enter 2013. Republicans are doing their best to become Democrats, while conservatives are looking for principled leadership. Even the Democrats want nothing to do with the RINOS, and they mock them openly.
It was not until the Democrats figured out a better way to lie, and to discredit TEA Party Patriots, that powerful RINO leaders began to feel threatened and in the last year or so have been looking for a thousand ways to surrender to Democrats. On January 1, 2013, with the Republican surrender on the cliff etched forever on the record, conservatives such as I began to think that perhaps the slimy Democrats are actually more honest than "moderate" Republicans. At least they do what they say they will do.
Ironically, the biased British press in colonial days would have offered a similar lack of sympathy for the American Revolution as the American press does today for the TEA Party. The King George folks are back again but now they call themselves liberal progressive Democrats. I am a Democrat but I am sickened by their deceitful philosophy of government.
Today's British press is much more honest about America than the American press. Hoping that one day there will be a real leader again in the US, they offer this simple opinion of our president: "...the only thing President Obama seems decisive about is his indecision." In other words, the British press thinks the President deserves a zero grade in the leadership column. Yet, he is very proud to be the big boss of the US government and its people. And he is the gold standard for those who want to know how to have an expensive vacation.
I am nauseated also that "moderate" Republicans, rather than behaving as patriots are using modern day Boston as a guide for how to fight this evil. Consequently, there is no fight to be seen in Republicans. My advice to all gentlemen in the House, who think there is no hope: "Give up your posts—resign from the Congress, please!"
Many patriots will gladly pick up the torch, and use any weapons available to fight for America and Americans. RINOS are not needed to help the Democrats get stronger. The people can simply elect Democrats without the help of Republican turncoats, a.k.a. RINOS, a.k.a., moderate Democrats.
The purpose of this new TEA Party is to make sure that we get our government back on track. Which citizens among us would not prefer that our elected representatives choose to represent US rather than their sinful ideology? Unfortunately, today's progressive Democratic Party, especially the parts in bastions such as Boston, and other progressive towns across the country, have forgotten the struggles early Americans endured to create this great country. Patriotism and Boston, I regret to say—are no longer synonymous. The whole idea left town along with Charlie on the M.T.A. No return seems possible, even with a lot of sandwiches through the open window.
As a Democrat, I know the Republicans are not always best in thinking, and they more often than not have no clue about how to negotiate over a peanut, let alone for the good of the whole country. Conservatives surely can no longer depend on Republicans for anything. They have been proven worthless in the "fiscal cliff battle," and they are going through the history books as I write to find plausible excuses that will be necessary when they fail again in the debt limit battle. Democrats have already booked their victory halls.
Republicans even before the first days of Obama's second term, January 2013, have become Democrat wannabees. Yet, the Dems will never let these "leaders" fully under their tents. Conservatives like you and I must kick them all out of our thinking patterns before they cause us more damage in 2015. Don't get sucked into the notion of appeasement that Neville Chamberlain—whoops –Neville Boehner brought forth as the new banner of the Republican Party.
Today, there is a big problem finding any honesty at all in government. The big rub for me is that our elected leaders, obligated under all US laws to represent the people, have chosen to represent themselves and their owners instead.
Many "esteemed," politicians have moved into gated communities to become more separate from their constituencies. In our republic, which is also a representative constitutional democracy, it has never been OK for the representatives to ignore the represented. Yet, they do. And, in many cases, using political largesse from the treasury, they buy the allegiance of the electorate. That is the greatest sin in a democracy, and it will bring US down more "sooner" than "later."