No blanket hatred of taxes in colonial Boston

Masthead for Boston Gazette.

While much is made about colonial opposition to taxes in the years preceding the American Revolutionary War, it should be noted that some voices in Boston's patriot movement were wholeheartedly in favor of some taxes - just not the ones they were protesting!

There is much made of "direct" versus "indirect" taxation in 1764-1765, but The Boston Gazette, published by known Patriot leaders Benjamin Edes and John Gill, argued that the origin of the tax was what was important. In the July 8, 1765 issue, next to a story enthusiastically announcing that Stamp Act opponent James Otis would be sent to the intercolonial congress that would eventually produce petitions against parliamentary taxes, was an article explaining a local land tax passed by the body governing the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, the paper opined about the position of central Massachusetts towns that were unable to send representative to the Massachusetts General Court. Without representatives, the Gazette argued, the towns' recognition of and compliance to taxes passed by the General Court were optional.

On July 22 through September 2, 1765, the paper continued its clarifications on acceptable versus unacceptable taxes through its "Letter to a Noble Lord" editorials, likely written by James Otis. In these columns, Otis avoided discussions about direct versus indirect taxation, opting instead to focus on direct versus virtual representation. In no uncertain terms, the writer said that direct representation was the only representation of interest to him, and that only through the votes of the people whom taxes were to be laid upon were taxes just. He went on to ridicule British Prime Minister Genville's insistence that revenue needed to be raised in order to protect the colonies. "When did the colonies solicit protection," he asked, implying that like taxes, military protections should only be ordered when agreed upon by those who were being protected.

By paring their opposition of the Stamp Act with acceptance and explanation of other, locally created taxes, the Boston Gazette created a reasonable position for which they and their allies could act less civilly to protect. They also delivered the clearest, most radical treaties on acceptable taxation that the Americas had yet seen.

Destruction of the Liberty Tree

Engraving of a British official being tarred
and feathered at Boston's Liberty Tree

Boston's Liberty Tree - an elm tree that once stood roughly where the Chinatown T Stop is today - has long been recognized as a major symbol in the American Revolutionary. A rallying point for the South End Gang for the Pope's Day "festivities," which often led to violence against their North End counterparts and always with the destruction of anti-Catholic effigies, during the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765 it became a potent symbol of the nascent Patriot movement, as well documented by historian Alfred Young.

It is thus no surprise that the Liberty Tree became a target of destruction during the British occupation of Boston in 1775. According to a report in the Connecticut Courant on September 4, 1775, a group of soldiers led by a Job Williams, with the blessing of General Thomas Gage, "made a furious Attack upon" the famous elm. "After a long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing and foaming, with Malice diabolical, they cut down a Tree, because it bore the Name of Liberty."

While the destruction of the Liberty Tree could be construed as a significant symbolic blow to Boston's Patriot cause, the Courant dismissed the tree's demise as a setback, so long as "the GRAND AMERICAN TREE OF LIBERTY, planted in the center of the United Colonies of North-America, now flourishes with unrivalled, increasing beauty." The Liberty Tree had transcended its physical form, instead becoming an American revolutionary ideal.

This sentiment of the Liberty Tree as an undying symbol of the Patriot cause was echoed in the September 6 issue of Isaiah Thomas' Massachusetts Spy, in which the following poem appeared:

In a chariot of light from the regions of day,
the goddess of liberty came;
Ten thousand celestials directed the way,
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand, as a pledge of her love,
And the plant she named Liberty Tree.
The celestial exotic stuck deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourish'd and bore,
The fame of its fruit drew the rations around,
To seek out this peaceable shore.
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came,
For freemen like brothers agree,
With one spirit endu'd, they one friendship pursu'd,
And their temple was Liberty Tree.
Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old;
Their [illegible] in contentment they eat,
Unvex'd with the troubles of silver and gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.
With timber and tar they Old England supply'd,
And supported her pow'r on the sea;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
For the honour of Liberty Tree.
But hear, O ye swains, ('tis a tale most profane)
How all they tyrannical powers,
King, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain,
to cut down this guardian of ours;
From the east to the west, blow the trumpet to arms,
Thro' the land let the sound of it flee,
Let the far and the near - all unite with a cheer,
In defence of our Liberty Tree. 

While the physical Liberty Tree had already been destroyed, the symbol became one in which the Patriots rallied around. While Gage's men were able to remove the tree itself, they very likely increased the tree's potency and the Boston Patriots' resolve to oppose the crown.

Colonial history comes to life this January at Modern Theatre

There are few better examples of Boston's struggles with religious freedom than that of Anne Hutchinson. A early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Hutchinson challenged religious authority in the community, holding services advocating her own unique brand of Puritanism in her own home until her exile from Boston in 1638.

This early American drama story is being brought to the stage by Intermezzo Opera, which is presenting performances of "Anne Hutchinson" on January 25 and 26 at the Modern Theatre, 525 Washington Street, Boston. Tickets start at $20.

The opera focuses on Hutchinson's trial and subsequent exile and excommunication. From the opera's synopsis, it seems an excellent opportunity to see a live theater performance that will also educate audiences about the nuances of American Puritanism - particularly the strands of intolerance in colonial America and the subtle differences and broad ideological repercussions of believing in a "covenant of grace" versus a "covenant of works." 

Music by Dan Shore: libretto by William Fregosi and Fritz Bell.