On this day 250 years ago in Orange County, Virginia, James Madison wrote to his friend William Bradford about the prospects for petitions for religious toleration that Baptists and Presbyterians were planning to submit to the coming session of the Virginia Assembly:

I can not help being very doubtful of their succeeding in the Attempt. . . . The Sentiments of our people of Fortune & fashion on this subject are vastly different from what you have been used to. That liberal catholic and equitable way of thinking as to the rights of Conscience, which is one of the Characteristics of a free people and so strongly marks the People of your province is but little known among the Zealous adherents to our Hierarchy. . . .

You are happy in dwelling in a Land where those inestimable privileges are fully enjoyed and public has long felt the good effects of their religious as well as Civil Liberty. . . . Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize 

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%221%20April%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=3&sr=

On this day 250 years ago in London King George III signed the Boston Port Act closing the Port of Boston to essentially all trade effective June 1, 1774. The closure of the Port would be enforced by the Royal Navy.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/boston-port-act-facts/

The Boston Port Act when soon coupled with the other “Intolerable Acts” clearly led to the Revolutionary War. Blockades are generally considered to be an act of war under International Law. So I would argue that Great Britain essentially declared War on the City of Boston starting June 1, 1774. The Revolution was already underway in the hearts and minds of the American colonists priot to that date as this blog is trying to show, but starting June 1, 1774 I believe that the City of Boston was justified in armed resistance to British misrule, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was justified in defending its capital, and the other colonies were justified in joining Massachusetts in resistance. From that date forward the colonies were at war with Britain and violent acts against the British were, in my view, legitimate acts of war. The Patriots would, for the most part, continue to use peaceful means to attempt to change British policy, and significant bloodshed did not occur until Lexington, one year after the colonies would learn of the Boston Port Act. But starting June 1, this blog will chronicle acts of war in the Revolution.

On this day 250 years ago in London the Public Advertiser published a report on the passage of the Boston Port Act in the House of Lords. Although the bill was adopted with an overwhelming vote, the Dukes of Richmond and Manchester and Lords Camden, Rockingham, Shelburne, Stair, and Temple opposed the bill.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%222%20April%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=6&sr=

On this day 250 years ago the Boston Committee of Correspondence wrote to the Committee of Newport, Rhode Island about the British Postal Service. The letter stated that the existing postal system was “unconstitutional, and a usurpation of the British Parliament no longer to be borne. . . . and dangerous to the liberties of America, as the officers have it in their power to intercept our communications, to extort what they please, and employ them to divide us and then to enslave us.”

Source: Samuel Arnold Greene, History of the State of Rhode Island (1859) at p. 331 (found at https://www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/4/sequence/552)

On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal published a Resolution of the Town of Plymouth adopted on March 24 that declared anyone offering tea for sale “an enemy to America” as well as a Resolution of the Town of Braintree adopted at a meeting of the Town on March 11 “that all Laws be by the Consent of the People, either Personally or by their Representatives”.

Source: https://www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/4/sequence/552

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, Governor Patrick Tonyn of East Florida wrote Lord Dartmouth to report on his meeting with Creek Indians in St. Augustine earlier in March.

Source: Cashin, Edward J., William Bartram and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier at 83-84, 273 n. 34.

[Note to readers — It seems March 27, 1774 was a pretty slow day in the Revolution. I searched many different sources and this was the best I could do. I had previously reported on Tonyn’s meeting with the Creeks on March 13. But things are about to heat up!]

On this day 250 years ago in London Arthur Lee drafted this petition to the House of Lords:

The petitioners, being Americans, are deeply concerned with any proceeding of the House that touches life, liberty, or property in America. They and their countrymen have law as their inalienable birthright, and it requires that no man shall be judged and condemned without having been permitted to defend himself against the charges. The bill before the House penalizes Boston for a trespass committed against the East India Company by persons unknown; the town has not been told the charges, or allowed to hear the evidence and make its defense. The inhabitants will be deprived of property in quays, wharves, etc., worth several hundred thousand pounds, and many of them will be deprived of their regular employment; the innocent will be punished with the guilty. Even if the reparation required in the bill is made, restoration of property will depend solely on the will of the crown.

Such proceedings are repugnant to every principle of law and justice, and threaten every man’s security. To condemn unheard is to remove all defense against false accusation, all protection of the innocent.

The petition was signed by Arthur Lee and 28 other Americans then in London. The list of signers included several Patriots who would go on to serve America with distinction as diplomats, soldiers, statesmen and a weapons manufacturer during the Revolution including Arthur’s brother William Lee, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, Thomas Pinckney, William H. Gibbes, Stephen Sayre, Hugh Williamson, Isaac Motte, John Peronnaut, Philip Neyle and John Ballendine plus Edward Bancroft who history would prove to be a traitor who acted as a double agent for the British.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%22March%2026%2C%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=1&sr=

On this day 250 years ago in London Parliament passed the Boston Port Act. This bill closing the Port of Boston to commerce was the first of the Intolerable Acts. These bills were intended to coerce the American colonies into submitting to rule from London but had the opposite of effect of uniting all thirteen colonies in opposition to British rule and eventually led to Independence.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/boston-port-act-facts/

On this day 250 years ago the Rhode Island legislature passed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves. This law was the first step in the abolition of slavery in the United States although there were many examples in which Rhode Island subsequently failed to enforce the law.

Source: https://www.tfdsupplies.com/blogs/today-in-history/5-fun-facts-about-march-24-in-rhode-island-history-1

On this day 250 years ago, Thomas Chittenden, Ira Allen, Ethan Allen, Remember Baker and the other proprietors of the town of Burlington, Vermont held their first meeting in Salisbury, Connecticut. These men would go on to become the famed Green Mountain Boys whose heroic deeds include the capture of Fort Ticonderoga at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Source: https://coolidgefoundation.org/resources/the-green-mountains/