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| The Boston Tea Party, 1846 Nathan Currier depiction |
They were patriots who loved their country but were wearied by a government whose distant wars and foreign intrigues placed a crushing and ever-growing tax burden on our people. They were frustrated by a government that denied them access to vast American territories and the God-given resources they contain and that are needed for the well-being of our people. They saw a government creating a “multitude of new offices to harass” and regulate the people and their businesses. They grew hostile to a government of powerful special interests that promulgated treaties and trade practices for the benefit of a few, and mostly foreign interests, while denying hardworking and resourceful American workmen and women, farmers and manufacturers, the opportunity to compete on a fair and level playing field in world commerce. They saw a government headed by a young and inexperienced leader surrounded by dishonest and self-serving deputies, whose arrogance and indifference to the plight of ordinary people drove loyal, patriotic Americans to a symbolic act of defiance.
