What does “taxation without representation” mean?
Taxation and Representation by Thomas R. Eddlem As the crates of British tea splashed into the salt water on that cold Boston night, the band of patriots dressed as Indians could he heard shouting, “No taxation without representation!” and “Taxation without representation is tyranny!” Led by John Hancock, the early Americans at the Boston Tea Party set in motion the process that culminated a year and a half later when the 13 original colonies declared their independence from England. When the Founding Fathers fashioned our Declaration of Independence, chief among their complaints was the fact that the King was taxing them “without our consent.” That Declaration asserted an English tradition dating back to the Magna Carta whereby governments derive “their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.” Later, when the 13 states convened to draw up the Articles of Confederation, the Founders included provisions in that document (and later in the U.S. Constitution) which tied taxation with
