Revolution and Progress on Lexington Green – Richard Samuelson

Revolution and Progress on Lexington Green – Richard Samuelson

Richard Ryerson’s essay on the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord ends extremely provocatively. Ryerson quotes “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “published,” he notes, “on the eve of the Civil War,” commenting on the poem’s “lesson, always timely in any free republic, has never been more urgently needed than in 2025.” But what was this lesson? Given when he published, and the actual events of Lexington an…

250 years ago we fought the British over a 2% tax - today Massachusetts residents pay a 31% tax

This past weekend marked 250 years since the start of the American Revolution with the battle at Lexington and Concord. Americans fought for independence against the British for a lot of reasons, but one was "high taxes," or about 2% total. Bostonians threw tea into the ocean, and Americans risked t