Two hundred and fifty years ago, we weren’t a nation yet. It was that seminal year of 1774. Let’s hop in the TARDIS and take a look.


The previous December, in 1773, there was a little shindig at Griffin’s Wharf right here in Boston. You might be aware of the Beaver, Eleanor, and Dartmouth. Or perhaps the St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons, including Patriots like Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren.

In any case, after the tea wound up in the harbor, the crisis in Boston deepened.

On January 27, An angry crowd in Boston, Massachusetts seizes, tars, and feathers British customs collector and Loyalist John Malcolm, for striking a boy and a shoemaker, George Hewes, with his cane.

On February 24, The Province of Massachusetts Bay House of Representatives votes, 92 to 8, to impeach Superior Court Chief Justice Peter Oliver, but Provincial Governor Thomas Hutchinson refuses to allow the trial to proceed.

On March 10, The Boston Journal makes the first reference to the "Stars and Stripes" flag to symbolize the American colonies, reporting that "The American ensign now sparkles a door which shall shortly flame from the skies."

And on March 31, Parliament actually fired the first shot with the Intolerable Acts: The British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston, Massachusetts, as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.

Things came to a head on September 1, with the oft-overlooked “Powder Alarm” in Somerville, MA. This exposed a number of shortcomings in the local alert system, and ended up sparking some changes. In essence, it was a dress rehearsal for the far-better known events that took place in April of 1775.

More things happened in the final quarter of that seminal year.

October 14 – The Continental Congress in America adopts the Declaration of Rights and Resolves, with 10 principles.

October 20 – The First Continental Congress passes the Continental Association, a colony-wide boycotting of British goods. Theater performances in the American colonies are also halted, on the Congress's recommendation that the member colonies "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments."

October 21 – The word Liberty is first displayed on a flag raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts, in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

October 25 – The Edenton Tea Party takes place in North Carolina, marking the first major gathering of women in support of the American cause.

October 26 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

As the situation worsened, the people of Boston increasingly took the lead in resisting the oppressive policies of the Crown. As we started gathering arms and supplies for an armed resistance, the local Governor became increasingly concerned.

In April of 1775, he decided to take action by sending 800 regular army troops outside the city to capture an alleged resistance arsenal at Barrett’s Farm in Lexington.

You know the rest.

But why is this still relevant a quarter-century later? Because of November 5.

We aren’t in open revolution yet, but this is a possibility that we must consider. The Declaration of Independence enumerated all our grievances against parliament and the King. There is already a growing laundry list of similar abuses and usurpations associated with the incoming despot.

It will be up to us who still believe in American Democracy to uphold those ideals, 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.

I did not give my consent to be governed this way. 74,946,837 Americans did not consent to tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson cautions us that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of 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.

A quarter-millennium is a very long time. But this is not a light or transient cause. The entire history of the United States, and the continued future and success of her citizens is under a direct threat.

Much has been made recently about the average age of Empires. 250 years seems to be one of those marks. We stand on the edge of a precipice. Unfortunately, the majority of the voting public doesn’t recognize the threat.

Neither did those citizens of Germany that enabled the rise of fascism in 1933. Germany suffered under the iron fist of Hitler for twelve agonizing years, and precipitated the greatest military conflict in human history. Going by that timeline – what will the United States look like in 2036?