Boston Massacre: Have We Remembered, or Surrendered?
“Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang” Commemorating the anniversary of the Boston Massacre – March 5, 1770 – John Hancock was issuing a challenge to all of us. And he was far from alone. For 13 years, from 1771 to 1783, the Sons and Daughters of...
Arbitrary Power: The Definition of Tyranny
“The curse and scandal of human nature.” That’s how James Otis, Jr. described arbitrary power. It wasn’t just a sign of tyranny, or a step toward it. It was the very definition of tyranny. It is power without right. And that principle pervades the Declaration of...
Tax Resistance and the Birth of the American Revolution
On April 18, 1689, eighty-six years and a day before the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord, the people of Boston and surrounding towns rose up and overthrew the royal governor in a rebellion against taxation and arbitrary power. It was no mere...