When Government has
gotten so big, that they cannot hear the people, it is time for change.
The Tea Party Movement, 2010
The TEA Party Movement (TEA is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already) is an ongoing, nationwide mainstream movement of grassroots protesters, encompassing millions of individuals and thousands of self-organizing groups, all united in accomplishing a single goal: returning fiscal responsibility and limited government to the United States through the exercise of political activism. The main focus of the TEA Party Movement is a rebuke of outrageous mandates, overspending and a radical agenda by an out of touch federal government. The existence of the Tea Party movement is Main Street America's indictment against the ruling class.
The birth of the Tea Party Movement is generally traced to February 2009; however, while Rick Santelli's famous impassioned speech on CNBC was the spark that ignited Tea Party gatherings across the nation and gave it its name, the movement's genesis was in progress long before that fateful day. The movement was in gestation for years, in the hearts and minds of a multitude of American citizens concerned about the path down which progressive policies have been taking the United States of America. All of the rallies are in protest of the generational theft of public tax monies, the tremendous extensions of United States Federal debt and authority, the apparent restructuring of the Federal government with the intent to contravene the system of checks and balances for which the Constitution provides, and the attempt, which some movement leaders say has been in progress for several decades, to sacrifice liberty for permanent dependency.
The Tea Party Movement held its first scheduled nationwide protest on April 15, 2009, a day that became known as the Tax Day Tea Party. In the spirit of the Founding Fathers Boston Tea Party, the rallies have used themes from the American Revolution and also adopted the "American Tea Party Anthem," a song first performed during a March 21, 2009 Orlando, Florida Tea Party that drew over 4,000 people. Dick Armey of FreedomWorks is one of Washington's principal supporters of the Tea Party movement. Glenn Beck, Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and many others have encouraged and participated in aspects of the movement.
The Boston Tea Party, 1773
Victory in the French and Indian War was costly
for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III and his
government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their
war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the
colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown
was distracted by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of
actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston
Massacre (1770) agitated the colonists, straining relations with the mother
country. But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists
to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.
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The
colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming they
had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no
representation. In response, Parliament retracted the taxes with the exception
of a duty on tea - a demonstration of Parliament's ability and right to tax the
colonies. In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the
struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America.
Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for
the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than
ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea
they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was a staple of
colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than
deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.
The
colonists were not fooled by Parliament's ploy. When the East India Company
sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed
to land. In Charleston the tea-laden ships were permitted to dock but their
cargo was consigned to a warehouse where it remained for three years until it
was sold by patriots in order to help finance the revolution.
In
Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis
came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals
milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old
South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the
harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this
message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor.
The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of
the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl
erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about
200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war
chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three
ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.
Most
colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and
vehement. In March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which among
other measures closed the Port of Boston. The fuse that led directly to the
explosion of American independence was lit.
Take your tea and shove it.
George Hewes was a member of the band of "Indians"
that boarded the tea ships that evening. His recollection of the event was
published some years later. We join his story as the group makes its way to the
tea-laden ships:
"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.
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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 by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.
...The
next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that
very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water;
and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of
small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those
parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars
and paddles so thoroughly drenched it as to render its entire destruction
inevitable."
References:
Hawkes, James A, Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party, with a Memoir of
George R. T. Hewes, (1834) reprinted in Commager, Henry Steele, Morris Richard
B., The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six vol I (1958); Labaree, Benjamin Woods, The
Boston Tea Party (1964).