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Like so much tinder awaiting a spark, the output of Boston’s newspapers had set the scene for a donnybrook. On the eve of the Stamp Act passed by Parliament and signed by George III in March 1765, Boston was no longer one community. The region’s principal seaport was socially fragmented, unsure of itself, and suffering prolonged economic malaise. The prerogative party, led by the governor and Chief Justice Hutchinson, tried to convince a broad electorate that the very men who had accumulated fortunes in an era when most had fared badly were alone qualified to govern in the interest of the whole community. Middle- and lower-class Bostonians had heard these ideas for half a century, but they understood that aristocratic politicians who claimed to work for the commonwealth could not be trusted. Such men employed the catchwords of the traditional system of politics—“public good,” “community,” “harmony,” and “public virtue”—to cloak their own ambitions. The popular party leaders also employed these terms, but accepted a participatory form of politics, which they thought was the only form of government that would guarantee economic justice and keep Boston faithful to its traditions.
Gary Nash: The Unknown American Rvolution, page 48
Why am I bringing this here? We have been here before... But we need to organize and make more noise than just posting on an online board. Have you called the WH? Your congress critters? Are you really ready to do far more? We need a MOVEMENT...it is that clear.
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