Balancing the Scale of Rationality: The Public Memory of the Boston Tea Party and the Transformation of Dissent

Abstract

This study examines the public memory of the Boston Tea Party as it has been appropriated for political purposes throughout history. First, I examine the Boston Tea Party to show that the rhetoric surrounding this protest created a tradition of American dissent in which dissenters created a balance between the rational and the irrational. Next, I analyze how woman suffragists participated in the centennial celebration of the Boston Tea Party in 1873 by planning protests that evoked the message of the Boston Tea Party. I illustrate that the rhetoric relevant to these events carried on the tradition of dissent established one hundred years earlier as these women balanced assertions of irrationality with rational argument. Finally, I analyze the Modern Tea Party Movement and conclude that their movement has been overwhelmed by irrationality. Thus, they have transfigured the tradition of Tea Party dissent in America.