The only thing hotter than the temperature is the passion for freedom and liberty that is burning in the hearts of the Patriots. Men gather together to pledge their life and their treasure to the cause of independence knowing full well that if they fail, they will probably lose one or the other, or both.......
Thomas Paine, whose American Crisis papers helped keep up the morale of the Patriots during the Revolution, had this to say just a few months later in December, but no doubt these sentiments were on the minds of the Americans that summer:
"Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever" and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then there is not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God."
Let's pretend that you are an observer at a town hall meeting in Boston, 1776. A speaker rises and laments against the taxes that have been levied against the colonies. He makes an impassioned plea for the audience to take up the revolutionary cause.
You look around and on one side of the room, you see Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker. On the other side of the room, you see Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Barack Obama.
Who would have risen up and stood with the speaker? Who would have seconded the speaker's cries for liberty? Would it be the ones who fight for limited government or the ones who support Obamacare, the largest tax increase in American history?
Would it be the ones who fight for fiscal restraint or the ones who support the largest tax increase in American history? Would it be the ones who fight for individual liberty or the ones who support the largest tax increase in American history? Would it be the ones who fight for private property rights or the ones who support the largest tax increase in American history?
Who would have stood with the colonists who took up arms largely as a result of taxation? The ones who fight to keep taxes low and government small or the ones who support the largest tax increase in American history?
Who indeed.