Download History of the Great Tree In 1765 the British government imposed a

History of the Great Tree
In 1765 the British government imposed a Stamp Act on the American colonies. It required all
legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in
the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. Because the Act applied to papers, newspapers,
advertisements, and other publications and legal documents, it was viewed by the colonists as a
means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write and read freely.
On 14 August 1765, a crowd gathered in Boston under a large elm tree at the corner of Essex
Street and Washington Street, originally called Orange Street, to protest the hated Stamp Act.
Patriots who later called themselves the Sons of Liberty had hung in effigy Andrew Oliver, the
colonist chosen by King George III to impose the Stamp Act, in the branches of the tree. Up in
the tree with the effigy hung a British cavalry jackboot. Grinning from inside the boot was a
devil-like doll holding a scroll marked “Stamp Act.” It was the first public show of defiance
against the Crown and spawned the resistance that led to the American Revolutionary War 10
years later. On 10 Sept., a sign saying "Tree of Liberty" was nailed to the trunk of the tree.
In the years leading up to the war, the British made the Liberty Tree an object of ridicule. British
soldiers tarred and feathered a man named Thomas Ditson, and forced him to march in front of
the tree. During the siege of Boston, a party of Loyalists led by Job Williams defiantly cut the
tree down in an act of spite, knowing what it represented to the colonists, and used the tree for
firewood. This act only further enraged the colonists. As resistance to the British grew, flags
bearing a representation of the Liberty Tree were flown to symbolize the
unwavering spirit of liberty. These flags were later a common sight
during the battles of the American Revolution.
The Arbres de la liberté ("Liberty Trees"), inspired by the American
example, were a symbol of the French Revolution, the first being planted
in 1790 by a pastor of a Vienne village, inspired by the 1765 Liberty Tree
of Boston. The last surviving liberty elm in France from c.1790 still
stands in the parish of La Madeleine at Faycelles, in the Département de
Lot.[2]A Liberty Tree was also planted in front of the City Hall of Amsterdam on 4 March 1795, in
celebration of the alliance between the French Republic and the Batavian Republic.
A liberty pole is a tall wooden pole, often used as a type of flagstaff, planted in the ground,
surmounted by a Phrygian cap - a cap historically worn by Ancient
Rome's freed slaves. The symbol originated in the immediate aftermath
of the assassination of Roman dictator Julius Caesar by a group of
Rome's Senators in 44 BC.[1] Immediately after Caesar was killed, the
leaders of the assassination plot, went to meet a crowd of Romans at
the Roman Forum; a Phrygian cap from a freed slave was placed atop a
pole to show the Romans, that symbolized that the Roman people had
been freed from the rule of Caesar, that the assassins claimed had
become a tyranny because it overstepped the authority of the Senate and thus betrayed the
Republic.[2] Since then, the symbol has been used by movements in support of republicanism.
Jean-Sylvain Bailly (15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a
French astronomer, mathematician, freemason[1][2] > and political leader of the early part of the French
Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of Paris from 1789 to 1791 and
was ultimately guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
Jean Joseph Mounier (12 November 1758 – 28 January 1806) was a French politician and judge.
He was born at Grenoble (Isère). He studied law, and in 1783 obtained a judgeship at Grenoble. He took
part in the struggle between the parlements and the court in 1788, and promoted the meeting of the
estates of Dauphiné at Vizille (20 July 1788), on the eve of the French Revolution. He was secretary of
the assembly, and drafted the cahiers ("notebooks") of grievances and remonstrances presented by it to
King Louis XVI. Thus brought into prominence, Mounier was unanimously elected deputy of the third
estate to the states general of 1789; Mounier also founded the Monarchiens party in August 1789.
BAILLY: I do not need to tell you in what a grievous situation the Assembly finds itself; I propose that we
deliberate on what action to take under such tumultuous circumstances.
M. Mounier offers an opinion, seconded by Messieurs Target, Chapelier, and Barnave; he points out how strange it
is that the hall of the Estates General should be occupied by armed men; that no other locale has been offered to the
National Assembly; that its president was not forewarned by other means than letters from the Marquis de Brezé,
and the national representatives by public posters alone; that, finally, they were obliged to meet in the Tennis Court
of Old Versailles street, so as not to interrupt their work; that wounded in their rights and heir dignity, warned of the
intensity of intrigue and determination with which the king is pushed to disastrous measures, the representatives of
the nation bind themselves to the public good and the interests of the fatherland with a solemn oath.
This proposal is approved by unanimous applause.
The Assembly quickly decrees the following:
The National Assembly, considering that it has been called to establish the constitution of the realm, to bring about
the regeneration of public order, and to maintain the true principles of monarchy; nothing may prevent it from
continuing its deliberations in any place it is forced to establish itself; and, finally, the National Assembly exists
wherever its members are gathered.
Decrees that all members of this assembly immediately take a solemn oath never to separate, and to reassemble
wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the realm is established and fixed upon solid foundations;
and that said oath having been sworn, all members and each one individually confirm this unwavering resolution
with his signature.
Bailly: I demand that the secretaries and I swear the oath first; which they do immediately according to the
following formula:
We swear never to separate ourselves from the National Assembly, and to reassemble wherever circumstances
require, until the constitution of the realm is drawn up and fixed upon solid foundations.
All the members swear the same oath between the hands of the president.
[Source: Gazette Nationale, ou Le Monituer universel, trans. Laura Mason in Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo,
eds., The French Revolution: A Document Collection (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), pp. 60-61.]