Tea Time!
"December 16th was the 235th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
In 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, giving English Merchants preferential treatment in selling in the Colonies. However, preferential or not, there was still a tax on tea that the colonists argued was unconstitutional under the British Constitution because the colonists were not represented in Parliament (thus the slogan "no taxation without representation" was not merely a desired political position, but an expression of a Constitutional point).
In the face of growing protests led by Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty, owners of tea-bearing ships in and enroute to Boston Harbor agreed to return to England without unloading their tea (the point of unloading is where tax calculations were made); however, Governor Hutchison refused to let them leave the harbor without unloading their tea. Thus, a confrontation of some kind was coming.
December 17, 1773 was the appointed day that the tea was to be unloaded from the ships. On December 16th, the captain of one of the ships went and asked Gov. Hutchison to let him leave the harbor for England without unloading his tea. Again the Governor refused, and the ship's captain so reported back to an enormous meeting of the Sons of Liberty (approximately 8,000).
At that point, Sam Adams noted that "this meeting can do nothing more to save the country," and immediately members of the Sons of Liberty headed to Griffin's wharf in Boston Harbor - dressed as Indians of course - and methodically dumped about 45 tons of tea into the harbor that night, thereby insuring that no taxes would be paid on that tea!
The rest is history...
It's always worth remembering good examples of fighting back against the establishment (and taxes)... so I didn't want to get too far behind the calendar without remembering these old patriots."
Senator Ken Cuccinelli
Virginia 37th District
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