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Voices of
Liberty |
"Liberty cannot be
preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who
have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge,
as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given
them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this,
they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable,
indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied
kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of
their rulers."
-- John Adams
"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of
our love, unless they first become the objects of our
knowledge."
-- James Wilson
"No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information
among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in
its effect towards supporting free and good government."
-- Thomas Jefferson |
The Liberty Tree
The Liberty Tree was a tree that stood in the Boston
Commons in the days that saw Massachusetts as a colony, the days before
the American Revolution. The tree was a gathering point for those who
championed the growing resistance to British rule over the American
colonies. In the years that followed, Liberty Trees sprang up in almost
every American town, a living symbol of a new nation's dedication to
individual liberty and resistance to tyranny.
 On
August 14, 1765, a group of American patriots, the Sons of Liberty,
gathered in Boston under this towering tree, located at the corner of
Essex Street and Orange Street near Hanover Square, to protest the Stamp
Act. Before the meeting was through the Sons of Liberty had hanged two
tax collectors in effigy from the tree. From that day forward, the tree
was known as the "Liberty Tree."
In keeping with the spirit of preserving our American
Heritage, the New Sons of Liberty Society, a grassroots community
created to advance research brought forth by BasicsProject.org, has adopted "The Liberty Tree,"
as our symbol, an enduring reminder of those who gave all to provide our
freedom and the dedication needed to preserve freedom and liberty for
our nation.
Click here to see an image of a
document -- courtesy of the
Massachusetts Historical Society --
listing the original of the Sons of Liberty who "din'd at Liberty Tree"
in Dorchester, 14 August 1769. |
