26 TEA AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



" all men are born free and equal" and that " taxation 

 wit/wnt representation is tyranny" and for the establish- 

 ment of which principles a war was fought, that when 

 judged by the law of results, proves to have been the 

 most important and fruitful recorded on history's pages. 

 Who, in looking back over the long range of events 

 conserving to create our now great country, can fail to 

 have his attention attracted to what has been termed, 

 with a characteristic touch of American humor, "The 

 Boston Tea Party of 1773"? Who could have then 

 predicted the marvelous change that a single century 

 of free government would have wrought ? Who could 

 have dreamed that Tea would have proved such an im- 

 portant factor in such a grand result ? What a lesson to 

 despotic governments ! A dreary November evening ; a 

 pier crowded with excited citizens ; a few ships in the 

 harbor bearing a hated cargo hated not of itself, but for 

 the principles involved ; on the decks a mere handful of 

 young men a few leaders in Israel urged on by the 

 fiery prescience of genius, constituting themselves an ad- 

 vance guard to lead the people from out the labyrinth of 

 Remonstrance into the wilderness of Revolution. 



It is true that previously other questions had been fac- 

 tors in the dispute, but a cursory glance at the history of 

 the time will show that heated debates had been followed 

 by periods of rest, and acts of violence by renewed loy- 

 alty. The " Navigation laws " had caused much indigna- 

 tion and many protests, but no violence to mention. As 

 early as 1768 the famous "Stamp Act" was passed and 

 repealed. The period intervening between its passage 

 and repeal gave opportunity for public opinion to crys- 

 tallize and shape itself. It sifted out of the people a mod- 

 ern Demosthenes, gifted with the divine power of draping 

 the graceful garment of language round the firm body of 



