The Declaration: "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world"

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, Inland Empire Law Weekly is examining each of the 27 reasons for independence as explained in the Declaration of Independence. Grievance no. 16: "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world" On March 31, 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party of Dec. 16, 1773, the English government shut down the port of Boston with the Boston Port Act. No goods, wares or merchandise could be put in ships, and no goods, wares or merchandise could be taken off of ships. Any one who tried to do so would forfeit that property to the government. Of course, there was an exception to the government's ships. The port could reopen after the town would repay for the tea thrown into Boston Harbor. That's 342 chests, and the equivalent of $3 million in today's money, according to Britannica. The colonies responded with a general boycott of trades from British merchants. The boycott was established Oct. 20, 1774, under the Articles of Association adopted by the First Continental Congress. These Articles were considered by Abraham Lincoln to be the real start of our country. "In legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was "to form a more perfect Union,' Lincoln said in his first Inaugural Address. The British government repealed the Boston Port Act when it passed the Restraining Acts, which took place on Jan. 1, 1776. That wasn't to ease up on the colonists. The Restraining Acts completely banned colonial trade with other countries, and allowed the British government to seize American ships. (Trade with Great Britain, Ireland and the British West Indies was allowed, but the boycott was still in effect.) As a result, "the prohibitions and restraints imposed by the said acts will be rendered unnecessary."