December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party

December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party

Today, December 16th, is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a response to a series of tyrannical actions taken by the distant King George III.  Although often downplayed as a fevered response to a single piece of legislation, the Tea Act, the Boston Tea Party represented an act of defiance against a long list of “repeated injuries and usurpations.”  Each of which were enumerated three years later in the Declaration of Independence.

Following is a brief history of the Boston Tea Party:

The Tea Act, designed to protect another British colony’s business interest at the expense of the new American colony, directly influenced the ideals of our future constitutional republic—rejection of distant, central control of the economy and of taxation without representation among them.

The very things the Obama administration threatened and that fueled Rick Santelli‘s epic rant promising a “Chicago Tea Party.”

It’s interesting to note that today’s “resistance” is motivated not by large, fundamental principles of freedom,  individual responsibility, and the consent of the governed.  Instead, many responding to Boston’s annual call for tea to be sent in and then dumped in Boston Harbor are motivated by Trump Derangement Syndrome:  “I participate in this act of protest to register my resistance to the anti-immigrant, anti-environment and anti-health care policies of Donald J. Trump.”  Scratch that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness stuff; they stand for open borders, eco-fascism, and socialized medicine.

George Hewes’ 1834 eyewitness account is riveting.

It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin’s wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew.

We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging.

We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded bv British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

We then quietly retired to our several places of residence, without having any conversation with each other, or taking any measures to discover who were our associates; nor do I recollect of our having had the knowledge of the name of a single individual concerned in that affair, except that of Leonard Pitt, the commander of my division, whom I have mentioned. There appeared to be an understanding that each individual should volunteer his services, keep his own secret, and risk the consequence for himself. No disorder took place during that transaction, and it was observed at that time that the stillest night ensued that Boston had enjoyed for many months.

One thing that stands out to me is the structure of the resistance.  There was a very loose organizational structure and even the participants were often unknown to one another, or wished to project this impression due to the inevitable retribution from King George.

Centuries later, the Tea Party movement would mirror this lack of centralization of power and organization.  Who can forget the “I am the Tea Party leader” videos and blog posts that surfaced in response to a report from Breitbart that the Clintons were planning to take down the Tea Party by targeting Tea Party leaders?

The Business Insider reported at the time:

Bill Clinton and James Carville are heading an effort to attack the Tea Party movement and discredit it in any way possible, according to Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com.

“Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a ‘push/pull’ strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?)

“Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort,” according to the Capital Confidential feature on Breitbart’s site.

No surprise there, really, as the Clintonistas have a long history of going after political opponents in such fashion. But this operation is going to be especially difficult because of the Spartacus Factor, identified by the Tea Party Patriots. Don’t know what the Spartacus Factor is?

Each year the Boston Tea Party Museum sponsors a reenactment of the original Boston Tea Party, and it’s quite an event.

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