imes more
effectively than any purely historic volume. The same may be said of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," as illustrating the state of affairs in our own
country preceding the War of the Rebellion. It may be questioned
whether any work of fiction in the world's history has been so
far-reaching in its influence as that portrayal of the institution of
slavery by Mrs. Stowe. Believing that the spirit of the times can be
best pictured by the employment of romance, I have adopted that form
of narrative.

The story opens in the fall of 1769. The Stamp Act had been repealed,
and the irritation produced by that act had been allayed. It was a
period of quiet and rest. The colonists still regarded themselves as
Englishmen and loyal to the crown. Information came that His Majesty
George III. was determined to maintain his right to tax the Colonies
by imposing an export duty on tea, to be paid by the exporter, who, in
turn, would charge it to the consumer. The first resistance to that
claim was the agreement of all but six of the merchants of Boston not
to import tea from England, and the agreement of their wives and
daughters not to drink tea so imported. It was a resistance which had
its outcome in the destruction of three cargoes of tea by the historic
"Tea-Party,"--a resistance which became equally effective in the other
Colonies, if less dramatic than in Boston. The determination of the
mothers and daughters to abstain from its use brought about a change
in social life, and was influential in awakening a public sentiment
which had its legitimate outcome in the events at Lexington, Concord,
and Bunker Hill.

There were causes other than the Stamp Act, Writs of Assistance, and
the Tax on Tea, which brought about the Revolution.

"Whoever would comprehend the causes which led to the struggle of the
Colonies for independence," says John Adams, "must study the Acts of
the Board of Trade."

In this volume I have endeavored to briefly present some of those
acts, in the conversation of Sam Adams with Robert Walden, that the
school children of the country may have a comprehension of the
underlying causes which brought about resistance to the tyranny of the
mother country. The injustice of the laws had its legitimate result in
a disregard of moral obligations, so that smuggling was regarded as a
virtuous act.

In no history have I been able to find an account of the tragic death
and dramatic burial of the schoolboy Christopher Snider,