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On December 16th 2006 Americans will mark the 233rd
anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, carried out by a group of around 50 colonists who were determined that the British Crown
not establish the principle that they could exact taxes when the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament.
The group, known then as the Red Men or The Sons of Liberty, had been founded on August 14, 1765 under what was thereafter
known as the Tree of Liberty in Boston.
After the successful conclusion of the Revolution and when the members of the group variously known as the
Red Men and the Sons of Liberty, were assured that the new government seemed to be stable, they met, reconstituting themselves
as The Improved Order of Redmen. In the early years of the 20th Century the group, still alive and vigorous, also
began an order for women called the Order of Pocahontas. Both groups have kept the founding traditions alive for two centuries
of American change and new programs are now being planned to increase understanding of American history and provide programs
for the total health and well being of all Americans.
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Article on the Boston Tea Party for publication.
Celebrate an American Anniversary: December 16, 1773 The Boston Tea Party
by
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, Media Coordinator, The Visalia Council
of Pocahontas
On August 14, 1765
a small group of colonists came together to form a secret society in furtherance of independence. They first met in Boston under a tree located at the corner of Essex and Orange Streets
near Hanover Square. They had gathered to protest
the Stamp Act. When they left they had founded a secret society that would promote independence for the colonies, a front
line for action. Effigies of two tax collectors had been hanged from what was ever after known as the Tree of Liberty.
The Sons of Liberty came into existence because awareness was growing that action would soon be necessary. As
the 233rd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party approaches all Americans should take a moment to thank those stalwart men who
agreed on the need to preserve the autonomy of the colonies and took action. Today we have lost sight of the specific events
that motivated the dumping of artificially cheap tea into Boston
Harbor. But the reasons went to the insistence of the colonists that
they were free, a truth we should never forget.
The colonists in New England had served in the French and Indian Was fought
out far to the west of them but since they were not allowed representation in the British Parliament they rejected the idea
that they were obliged to pay for that war.
In the wake of the French and Indian Wars the British Crown demanded payment for the expenditure of monies that
war had cost the Crown, this despite the fact that the war was the continuation of a territorial conflict between the British
Crown, France, and Spain.
For Britain, the spoils of war was Canada,
ceded to them by France. The colonists
saw no reason that they should pay for the adventuring taking place far to the west of their own hard won colonies. But Britain had decided that the independence of those
colonies, now developing and profitable, needed to be brought under firm control and used the War, which ended with the Treaty
of Paris, February 10, 1763, as their excuse.
The Crown was well aware that the colonists were used to governing themselves; after all, that is why the Puritans
had gone there in the first place. But by imposing a tax the Crown hoped to both raise money and at the same time assert the
right to impose whatever policies the Crown wished later.
Imposition of the Stamp Act and the Townsend Acts in 1765 and 1767 were, therefore, a strategy
aimed at both augmenting income to the Crown and establishing grounds for further control. This was clear to the colonists.
Tensions rose, erupting in the Boston Massacre in 1770.
Many Americans could see where the actions of Parliament were taking them and began to prepare for war in their
towns. The Committees of Correspondence started meeting to read and discuss the causes in detail. The population as a whole
was alive to the issues and well informed.
The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1775, the culmination of that campaign by Parliament to coax colonists
into establishing the right to tax. The previous Stamp and Townsend Acts has been rescinded, leaving only that small tax on
tea. The Crown put the first part of the agenda, raising money, on the back burner to establish the principle that they could
impose control without representation. The colonial leadership in Boston
was determined that their plan be thwarted. American freedom was not to be purchased for the cost of cheap tea.
Three East India Company ships entered Boston
Harbor. They were confronted with the sight of a crowd of 7,000 colonists,
talking and shouting. That morning a group had met at the Old
South Church and voted to demand
the ships leave the harbor without paying the required duty. A delegation was sent to the Customs House to demand the ships
lift anchor and leave the harbor. The Collector of Customs demanded payment; the ships would not leave otherwise.
A cry went up from the milling throng when this news was relayed to them. The response came just a few hours
later from the Sons of Liberty.
“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.”
In 1834 the above report by George Hewes would be published. Hewes, then a very old man and one of the few surviving
participants, reported that the group had marched in costume down the nearby hill where they had gathered, two by two dressed
in Indian garb. They divided into three groups and made sure that the tea was no longer an issue; rowboats of men later made
sure it was unusable. This resulted the next spring in the closing of Boston
Harbor by order of Parliament.
The Sons of Liberty had adopted the forms and terms of the Iroquois tribe for their own secret rituals. When
the Revolution began they extinguished their camp fire and picked up arms to fight in that war. Uncertain whether or not the
new government would be stable they remained a secret society, ready to take action as necessary, until after the War of 1812.
In 1813, at historic Fort Mifflin
near Philadelphia, various groups that were descended from
the original Sons of Liberty had come together to form the Society of Red Men. In 1847 they would again meet at Baltimore, Maryland and found the national organization called the Grand
Council of the United States, the Improved
Order of Redmen. The Red Men is one of only three organizations ever chartered by Congress. That bill was passed by the 58th
Congress 2D Session. March 15, 1904.
Over the Nineteenth Century their form had changed but they continued to impact the course of American life.
The Revolution had been capitalized by the blood, sweat, and tears of ordinary Americans, asserting their right to determine
their individual and community direction and culture against the greatest super power in the world as it was then. The America that was coming into existence would confront a series
of crises that carried forward the same theme with different players. Will the people govern themselves or will they be subject
to the control of others?
At the same time ordinary Americans were confronting the fact that a newly mobile society had needs for social
insurance to spread the risk of events in the lives of individuals. In 1867 the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks came
into existence to ensure that its members and their families would be cared for in the event of the death of the head of the
household. The need for security of this kind resulted in an explosion in fraternal orders and programs aimed at ensuring
that disaster would not destroy families. The Masons, the Foresters, the Moose, the Eagles, Woodmen of the World, and the
reconstituted order that sprang from the Sons of Liberty
saw the need and began providing social insurance programs for their members. From those programs Teddy and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt modeled the plans for such programs as Social Security, transferring these to government to be funded through taxation
instead of through membership fees.
The variety in fraternal orders had allowed Americans to choose one that suited their needs providing for their
own security while extending the benefits of their efforts into their communities. The take over by government began the slow
but steady process that converted control by the people to control of the people.
The purpose of the fraternal orders was to see that Americans had in their own hands control of their security
and well being. In the hands of the fraternal orders the costs of maintaining these programs remained low; retired businessmen
administered them as volunteers. Since this was money they had raised themselves they counted every penny. With Government
in charge costs and administration grew astronomically from then until today. Only when the people are in charge are the rights
of individuals protected.
On December 16th America
will celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. It is an occasion that has been overlooked and neglected
for far too long. The date marks the occasion when a small group of people thought through the issues and took action that
kept control local, changing the future of the world.
This December 16th many of us will gather to read the account of Hewes, toast the Sons of Liberty
in whatever beverage most pleases us, and hold a moment of silence for those who took the actions that lead to Lexington,
Concord and finally to the Declaration of Independence, establishing for the first time in human history the principles that
each of us possesses our rights directly from God and through no king or government.
By steps we became free; by the same small steps
we could return to serfdom; that was the possibility that kept the Sons of Liberty active long past the ratification of the
Constitution. The events that set our original course speak a truth we need today to turn America back towards the foundation of God-given rights that changed the course
of history. The cost of liberty will ever be eternal vigilance and the willingness to take action.
The Visalia Council of the Order of Pocahontas, Pohaute Mitallija No. 246, will
celebrate the anniversary of the Tea Party with a very special event and invites the community to join them for this event.
Contact Council Media Coordinator, Melinda Pillsbury-Foster for information. 559-542-2874
END
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Article by George Hewes that could be read at any council’s/tribe’s observance of the Boston
Tea Party
The tea destroyed was contained in three
ships, lying near each other at what was called at that time Griffin's wharf, and were surrounded by armed ships of war, the
commanders of which had publicly declared that if the rebels, as they were pleased to style the Bostonians, should not withdraw
their opposition to the landing of the tea before a certain day, the 17th day of December, 1773, they should on that day force
it on shore, under the cover of their cannon's mouth.
On the day preceding the seventeenth,
there was a meeting of the citizens of the county of Suffolk,
convened at one of the churches in Boston, for the purpose
of consulting on what measures might be considered expedient to prevent the landing of the tea, or secure the people from
the collection of the duty. At that meeting a committee was appointed to wait on Governor Hutchinson, and request him to inform
them whether he would take any measures to satisfy the people on the object of the meeting.
To the first application of this committee,
the Governor told them he would give them a definite answer by five o'clock in the afternoon. At the hour appointed, the committee
again repaired to the Governor's house, and on inquiry found he had gone to his country seat at Milton, a distance of about six miles. When the committee returned and informed the meeting
of the absence of the Governor, there was a confused murmur among the members, and the meeting was immediately dissolved,
many of them crying out, "Let every man do his duty, and be true to his country"; and there was a general huzza for Griffin's
wharf.
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.
During the time we were throwing the
tea overboard, there were several attempts made by some of the citizens of Boston
and its vicinity to carry off small quantities of it for their family use. To effect that object, they would watch their opportunity
to snatch up a handful from the deck, where it became plentifully scattered, and put it into their pockets.
One Captain O'Connor, whom I well knew,
came on board for that purpose, and when he supposed he was not noticed, filled his pockets, and also the lining of his coat.
But I had detected him and gave information to the captain of what he was doing. We were ordered to take him into custody,
and just as he was stepping from the vessel, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and in attempting to pull him back, I
tore it off; but, springing forward, by a rapid effort he made his escape. He had, however, to run a gauntlet through the
crowd upon the wharf nine each one, as he passed, giving him a kick or a stroke.
Another attempt was made to save a little
tea from the ruins of the cargo by a tall, aged man who wore a large cocked hat and white wig, which was fashionable at that
time. He had sleightly slipped a little into his pocket, but being detected, they seized him and, taking his hat and wig from
his head, threw them, together with the tea, of which they had emptied his pockets, into the water. In consideration of his
advanced age, he was permitted to escape, with now and then a slight kick.
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.
Let us have
a moment of silence for those brave Red Men who, confronted by necessity, risked their lives and liberty to speak a resounding
NO to tyranny. May America ever
remember their courage and example.
(silence)
May each of us find
the same inner certainty when and where ever the need may again arise. God Bless our continuing journey towards freedom.
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