When it comes to the United States Constitution – you know, that little old document that tells you what’s against the law and what’s not – chances are you’re most familiar with the first two amendments. The Third Amendment, though, prohibits quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent during peacetime. On this day in Boston history, if you were to tell that to one of the innumerable British soldiers occupying Boston, they’d probably laugh a jolly laugh right in your not-so jolly face.

The newly anointed federal government passed the Third Amendment because with the 1774 Quartering Act directly in mind. The measure, enacted by the British in response to the Boston Tea Party, was so wildly unpopular that the framers of The Constitution refused to ever let such occurrences take place anywhere within American borders upon ratification by each state.

The Boston Tea Party incited so much rage across the pond that King George III and Parliament thought it best to keep Bostonians under constant surveillance by the troops abroad. After all, the 342 chests of tea are estimated by Boston’s Old South Meeting House to have weighed some 46 tons, brew more than 18.5 million cups of tea and be worth as much as $2 million in today’s currency.

The Quartering Act was the last law passed as part of the Coercive Acts, known to us as the Intolerable Acts, which were a series of harsh reprimands made in response by the British. In essence the legislations crippled the port of Boston, closing it down until they were repaid in full for their tea leaves while simultaneously infringing on colonial Americans’ individual liberties.

According to HISTORY, the Quartering Act was actually an extension of a prior and similar measure that, while still considered unfavorable by American colonists, were surprisingly less demanding. The original stipulated that colonists only provide barracks for British soldiers but come 1774, that had been revised to include “the housing of soldiers in public houses (hotels) and empty buildings.”

So irritated were the Founding Fathers that when writing the Declaration of Independence, they included the line “[King George III] has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us …”

So there you have it, folks. Because of the brave defiance for British rule by our Boston ancestors, you’ll never have to say yes when a Redcoat comes knocking on your door for a warm blanket and a soft pillow.

You’re welcome.

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