Tampa Chapter

Sons of the American Revolution

February 2013

 

Contents

          Meeting announcement

          Revolution History note

          Program Schedule

          Miscellaneous reminders and information

 

The February meeting of the Tampa Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, will held on Saturday, February 16th   at the Piccadilly Cafeteria, located at 11810 Dale Mabry Highway North, Tampa, Florida (813-963-1660).  The program for February will be a guest speaker who served with General George Washington during the Revolution. He will share his memories of His Excellency and dispel some of the myths about him that have persisted over the years since the war.

 

 

An agenda for the meeting will be provided and the membership will be given updates from officers and the various committees.

 

 

American Revolution Notes:

 

Very little happened in the month of February during the Revolution.  In February 1778 France signed its alliance with the young United States, but otherwise very little campaigning and not much of note.  So, for this month I thought we’d revisit an interesting event, usually little noticed, from the background to the Revolution period. 

 

Although colonists protested the 1765 passage of the Stamp Act vehemently and even violently, the barely noticed Declaratory Act of 1766 had a much more profound effect on American-British relations in the long run. When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 after protests in the colonies, it quietly passed the Declaratory Act, which reaffirmed Britain’s right to pass legislation regarding the American colonies anytime it chose. This legislative move by the Englsih government was in response to the colonial assertion that there could be no taxation without representation and that the English Parliament had no power to legislate for the colonies. England responded with the idea of virtual representation where by Parliament represented the entire empire and could therefore legislate for the entire empire.

 

In 1767, Parliament used the Declaratory Act to justify the Townshend Acts, which levied taxes on tea and other items.  Parliament also cited the Declaratory Act in 1774 to justify the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which shut down Boston Harbor and required Bostonians to pay damages for the tea they had destroyed. Both the Townshend Acts and the Intolerable Acts—backed by the Declaratory Act—brought Americans closer to outright rebellion than the Stamp Act ever had.

 

 

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PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Below is the tentative program schedule for the 2013 calendar year.  As always send along any suggestions for speakers.

 

March          tentative—genealogy speaker

April            ROTC luncheon

May             Speaker from Veterans Memorial Park and Museum

Sept.           TBA

Oct.             Law Enforcement, EMT, and/or Fire Fighter Medals

Nov.             Joint meeting with CAR
Dec.             Installation of Officers

 

 

Miscellaneous notes and reminders:

 

Chapter Website— remember you can always find information about the chapter and programs on the chapter website.  http://www.patriot-web.com/

 

One of the duties of the Chapter Chaplain is to send cards to our members that are sick. If you know of anyone that I need to send a card to, please mention it at our next meeting. Another duty is to send a sympathy card to the family of a member who has passed away.

Jack C. Bolen           

Chaplain

 

Chapter officers and committee chairman are encouraged to send any pertinent information they wish included in the newsletter to the editor, Bob Yarnell, at rsyarn@aol.com.