Defending the Boston Tea Party

Historians don’t know if Samuel Adams aided in planning the Boston Tea Party, but is known that he vehemently advocated for the Boston Tea Party after it happened. He publicized and defended the Tea Party, arguing that it was not the actions of lawless mobs, but rather a protest and last resort for colonists to preserve their constitutional rights. He wasn’t referring to a specific constitution, but the idea that all governments have a constitution and England’s constitution stipulated, in essence, that levying taxes without representation was illegal. In example, he offered the Bill of Rights of 1698, which established that longterm taxes couldn’t be passed unless Parliament had representatives from the place it was ruling over and the place they wanted to levy taxes.