Americans have been fussing about taxation without representation since the tea tariff of 1774, actually, a bit earlier, when the Towns-hend Acts placed import duties on items that colonists had to import from England.
The Boston Tea Party of late 1773 and subsequent closure of Boston Harbor echoed up and down the east coast of the English colonies. On July 14, 1774, at “a general and full Meeting of the Inhabitants of the County of Gloucester, at the Court House of the said County,” a number of resolves resulted. In them we see the common cause of the colonies and hints of the revolution to come, and of foundational principles laid with establishment of the United States Constitution.
These resolves make sense even after 251 years. We quote from them below:
“Resolved, That, we will ever maintain and defend his Majesty’ s right and title to the Crown of Great Britain, and his Dominions in America, to whose royal person we profess the firmest attachment.
“Resolved, That, it is the opini...