The Boston Tea Party was a direct action protest by colonists in Boston, against the British Government (King George & Parliment). On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and has often been referenced in other political protests.

  

The Boston Tea Party, as well as other Tea Parties, were the culmination of a resistance movement throughout Colonies against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their constitutional right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Protestors had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented.
                  

The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading to the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774
with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India
Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with
with further protests, but most importantly, by convening the First Continental Congress.  The 1st Continental Congress petitioned the British Parliment to repeal the Coercive Acts and coordinated the colonial resistance. The crisis continued to escalate, leading to the "shot heard around the world" on April 19th, 1775.  There was no turning back with the ensuing Battles of Lexington & Concord; thus began the Revolutionary War, or the American War for Independence. 
      

2009 
TAX DAY TEA PARTY
The Tea Party Rallies, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor
for CNBC, began to rant, which exposed the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration
and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.

During Rick’s Rant (see Links below), Santelli spontainiously called for a “Chicago Tea Party” at which 
advocates of the free-market system--capitalists--could join in a protest against out of control
 government spending.  
Just a few days later, grassroots activists and average Jane & Joe "Plummer"  Americans began organizing what would soon become the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party effort.  On February 27th, an estimated 30,000 Americans took to the street in 40+ cities accross the country in the first nationwide
“Tea Party” protest.
   

Organizers of the February 27th events pledged to carry on with an even bigger and better protest to follow the first. With April 15th being “Tax Day”, it was decided to schedule the second round of Tea Party Rallies to coincide with the federal & state tax deadline.  And, with that, the “Tax Day Tea Party”, the second round of the Nationwide Tea Party protests, exploded onto the pages of the history of the United States. 
As the Tea Party Movement spoke to the "audacity of arrogance" of State and Federal Legislators, the Tea Party Movemnt galvanized millions of patriots, all of whom see the dire straits that the country is presently in.  
  
On April 15, 2009, over 2000 cities across the nation were the sites of Tax Day Tea Parties.  
Almost 3 million people poured into the streets in cities, towns and villages to express in a unified clarion voice directed at their legislatures from Washington DC, to their local town halls.  These Tea Party Patriots emphatically expressed their disatisfaction with the unabated growth of government, the increase of crushing taxes, and the smug, disrespectful and dismissive attitudes of their elected officials. 


The 3rd round of Tea Party Rallies took place on July 4th, Independence Day.  Again, millions of patriots took to the streets to put legislators on notice, that the government will not steal the sovereignty from "WE The People."  Not only was a strong message sent to Montpelier & Washington DC, to reduce taxes, cut the size of government, and let the free market be free of government interference,  but we joyously celebrated the virtues of our fantastic country that serves as a beacon to those around the world who are freedom loving people.  We also acknowledged the fact that we did not appreciate the fact that some of our elected officials feel the need to appologize for our country, and they were not speaking for us. 

As Congress and the White House Administration pursue their agenda at an unprecedented pace, attempting to force  Government run Health Care and the spurious HR 2454 (American Clean Energy & Strategy/Cap & Trade) upon country, the Tea Party Patriot Movement is calling to action, the "Sleeping Giant" as a  response to this threat to our Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. 
This silent majority of patriotic Americans, will be silent no more, and will not rest untill the sovereignty of "WE The People," is safe from the cold deathly reach of despotism.  As the Son's of Liberty rose to the occasion in 1773, a new wave of volunteers, the New Son's & Daughters of Liberty are stepping into the revered shoes of those patriots past , who by their sacrifice, helped to birth this "Great Experiment," the United States of America. 
Just as those heroes of the American Revolution fended off the oppressions of a tyranical king, the next generation of patriot is stepping up to fight a new and very dangerous brand of despotism.  Make no mistake, the aims of which, are to diminish our hallowed Unalienable Rights, as stated in the 
Declaration of Independence:


"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of
nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world.......with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor"  
"