Patrick Henry: Violent Extremist? Just as today, Americans
enjoyed more freedom and less taxes than any nation in Europe.
Yet they opposed a tax on tea (today’s equivalent of taxing
coke) with violent vigor. Laws like the Stamp Act, which are
reasonable by today’s standards, caused violent opposition that
bordered on treason. Where the colonists crazy? After the
British repealed many of these duties, the Sons of Liberty
hurled entire chests of perfectly fresh, well priced tea, into
Boston Harbor with significant public support. Were the
colonists just trying to provoke the wrath of the British? When
that wrath did come, politicians like Patrick Henry shouted
phrases like “Liberty or Death!” when in the direct warpath of
the most powerful military in the world. The founders did these
things because they believed in the principle of individual
rights. Individual rights is the idea that the government’s sole
job is the protection of the life liberty and property of
individuals, and the belief that any compromise