She was a member of the famous
committee of correspondence, and was constantly consulted by Adams,
Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Washington and all the foremost men of
that day. Through her lips was first whispered the word, separation. No
less active were the women of New England, and in 1770, five years
before the breaking out of the revolutionary war, the women of Boston
held a public meeting, and formed themselves into a league to resist
taxation. As tea was the article upon which Great Britain was then
making her stand, in order to sustain the _principle_ of taxation, these
women declared they would use no more tea until the tax upon it was
repealed. This league was first formed by the married women, but the
next day the young women met "in innumerable numbers," and took similar
action. They expressly stated, they did not do this so much for
themselves, as for the benefit of their posterity. In the country, the
women of that hour went abroad over the fields and sowed their tea, as
men sow wheat. This action of the women of the revolution was taken
three years before the famous Tea Party of Boston harbor, and was the
real origin of that "Tea Party." The women of the present day, the
"posterity" of these women of the revolution, are now following the
example then set, and are protesting against taxation without
representation.
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