The Boston Tea Party

Approximately three months ago on April 15, 2009, many communities across America staged their own tea parties in protest to the taxation and other policies of the Barack Obama administration. On Saturday, July 4, 2009 there will be communities staging another tea party. The Republicans of Crossville, Tennessee will be having its own tea party at 5:00 p.m. We definitely need tea parties to send a message to our government that what they're doing is un-American. There was another period in time when a tea party took place. It took place on December 16, 1773 when a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by dumping it into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a precursor to the American Revolution in 1775.

The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues which confronted the British empire in 1773. One was the financial problems of the British East India Company. The other had to do with the extent of Parliament's authority. Parliament gave the East India Tea Company in 1698 a monopoly on the importation of tea. Parliament tried to eliminate competition by passing an act in 1721 that required the colonists to only import their tea from Great Britain. The East India Company had paid an ad valorem tax of 25% on tea that it had imported into Great Britain. Great Britain levied a tax on tea but the Dutch government in Holland didn't tax the tea so the British and American colonists could smuggle the tea at much cheaper prices. Therefore the East India Tea Company lost revenue so the British Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, which levied new taxes, which included tea. Instead of dealing with the smuggling problem, Parliament's answer was to levy a tea tax on the American colonists. The colonists weren't happy about that and they protested with boycotts. Parliament finally repealed the taxes on everything except tea. The colonists still had to pay the tea tax.

Another issue with the colonists was the issue of Parliament directly taxing the American colonists. The colonists believed since they didn't elect members to Parliament, they shouldn't be directly taxed by Parliament. They questioned the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies. According to the Whigs, the colonists could only be taxed by their own colonial assemblies.

The standoff came when Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting to be held at Faneuil Hall on Novembe 29. Thousands of people arrived, so the the meeting was moved to the larger Old South Meeting House. The meeting passed a resolution and with the urging of Adams, urged the captain of the Dartmouth to send the ship back without paying the import duty. There were three ships in Boston Harbor that day. They were the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver which all arrived in Boston Harbor that day. That evening, there was a group of 30 to 130 men, some thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the three vessels over the course of three hours. They dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. It amounted to 90,000 pounds of tea. They were serious in their protest against the acts of Parliament. Samuel Adams defended the Boston Tea Party and said it was a principled protest and it was the only recourse the colonists took to defend their constitutional rights.

The Boston Tea Party did make waves through the colonies. As a result, the king order Boston Harbor closed and the colonists in Massachusetts punished as a result. However, the tea party as well as a series of other events eventually led to the war for American Independence from Great Britain. We need a SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION against those ruling our government today who seek to pose a Communist dictatorship.