20    NEW-HAMPSHIRE    GAZETTEER.

CHAPTER II.

Brief history of the War of the Revolution, Federal Constitution, and of the
Great Rebellion, Regiments, Officers, etc.

The war of the Revolution originated through the persistent
determination of the mother country to tax the colonies, without
their consent. The colonies maintained that taxation and repre-
sentation were inseparable; and that, as they had no voice in the
English Parliament, it had no honorable right to tax them. The
first tax imposed, was in 1765, and called the “Stamp Act,” which
ordained that, upon all business documents and newspapers, stamps
should be fixed, which the colonies were obliged to purchase of
the government. This Stamp Act met with such opposition that
it was repealed in 1766, but Parliament at the same time asserted
the right to bind the colonies in all cases whatever. The next
year they imposed a tax on tea, and several other imports. Like
the Stamp Act, it was met with powerful opposition. This tyran-
nical course of England the colonies refused to assent to; and
when two or three cargoes of tea arrived in Boston the people were
determined that it should not be landed, and, on the night of De-
cember 16, 1773, a party, disguised as Indians, hoarded the vessels
and threw three hundred and sixty-two chests of tea into the harbor.
The English government were indignant, and were determined
that the colonies should yield to their requests, and the colonies
were quite as determined not to submit to any laws they had no
part in making. At length, the troubles between the mother
country and her colonies culminated in bloodshed, on the nine-
teenth day of April, 1775, at Lexington, Massachusetts, and ter-
minated by the colonies becoming a free and independent nation.

The people of New-Hampshire had always been loyal to the
mother country, but, when their liberties were at stake, they were
quite as zealous to defend their rights as those of their sister states