The Traditional Narrative of the Gaspee Affair Patriot fervor seemed to have cooled in the months and years following the Boston Massacre in 1770. All of the taxes of the 1760s had been repealed, save on tea, and the famous Boston Tea Party was still more than one year off. The Admiralty had purchased several […]
Do you think there was a greater strategy behind most of the pre-war violence, or was it primarily raw emotion and vengeance? There was a greater strategy but, unfortunately, that strategy routinely used raw emotion and vengeance against its opponents. As early as the Stamp Act Crisis, the Sons of Liberty learned to target […]
Edward Snowden and the NSA documents. Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. Daniel Elsberg and the Pentagon papers. Benjamin Franklin and the Hutchinson letters? Snowden, Assange, and Elsberg all considered themselves to be self-appointed whistleblowers. Individuals who wanted to open governments by disclosing sensitive government documents. Without a doubt, all three started huge controversies […]
Who can call to mind the Pine Tree Riot? Until recently, this act of defiance to accepting British authority was one with which I was unfamiliar. In 1722, the New Hampshire General Court passed a law making it illegal to cut down any white pine trees larger than 12 inches in diameter. These trees were […]
