Forgotten Foundation of the Revolution: Letters from a Farmer
John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania rank among the most important essays espousing the cause of liberty during the American Revolution. Yet, today – few people have read or even heard of them. Written in response to the Townshend Acts,...
Before Boston: The Tea Revolt That Began in Philadelphia
The Boston Tea Party is arguably the best-known event leading up to the war for independence, but a number of leading Revolutionaries, including Benjamin Rush and John Adams, held that it actually started in Philadelphia. Resolutions adopted during a Philadelphia town...
Blueprint: Rhetoric and Resistance Against the Townshend Acts
“The right of the people, to resist an unconstitutional law, is absolute and unqualified, from the moment the law is enacted.” Lysander Spooner penned this line in 1850, but he was tapping into a fundamental principle that evolved during the Revolution –...