LIBERTY TREE

[[Image:ltree.png|left|thumb|300px|S.A.R. members Larry Hoelscher, Dennis Geesaman, Ken Smith, Matt Schalm, and Randy Lyon planted the first Liberty Tree for Iowa. LIBERTY TREE. The celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution sparked a renewed interest in the famous Liberty Tree of Boston. State societies of the Sons of the American Revolution were asked to identify a tree or plant a tree in memory of the original. In October, 2024 the Dubuque members of the S.A.R. bought and planted the first Liberty Tree in the state of Iowa on grounds in LINWOOD CEMETERY. A burr oak, the tree is also the state tree of Iowa.

The original Liberty Tree was a large elm tree located near the Boston Common at the modern day intersection of Washington Street and Essex Street. It was planted in 1646 and was nearly 120 years old by the time of the American Revolution. The area under its branches became a popular meeting place of Boston citizens in the 1760s. The Sons of Liberty, a secret society of men who advocated for the rights of colonists, would meet at the tree and stage protests to British taxation and rule.

In 1765, large protests were made at the tree to argue against the Stamp Act. The first of these protests had the effigy of a stamp collector, Andrew Oliver, hanging from the tree. A boot was painted green with the depiction of a devil holding a paper reading

                    What greater joy did ever New England see 
                    than a stampman hanging on a tree!

A crowd of protestors took the effigy of Oliver to his house where they proceeded to behead and burn the likeness before assaulting his home. Oliver resigned as the stamp collector in response.

The next year the Stamp Act was repealed. Citizens of Boston gathered at the Liberty Tree, lanterns were hung in the branches, and the Sons of Liberty fastened a copper sign to the tree that read:

                    This tree was planted in the year 1646, and pruned 
                    by order of the Sons of Liberty, Feb. 14th, 1766.  

A "liberty pole" and a flag were also raised at the tree.

The Liberty Tree continued to be a place for protests and public displays throughout the 1760s and 1770s. In 1770, the funeral for the Boston Massacre victims traveled pass the tree. Bostonians held demonstrations, tarring and featherings of Royal officials, and displays of mock executions were held under the tree. One Loyalist protested that the tree

                    was consecrated for an idol for the mob to worship; 
                    it was properly the tree ordeal, where those, whom 
                    the rioters pitched upon as state delinquents, were 
                    carried to for trial, or brought to as the test of 
                    political orthodoxy.

Other towns and cities across colonial America began designating liberty trees for places of protest to British taxation.

In 1775, during the Siege of Boston, Boston Loyalists and British soldiers cut the stately elm tree down and burned it. After Patriots regained control of Boston in 1776, a liberty pole was erected over the stump of the Liberty Tree. While the Liberty Tree no longer existed, it continued to be a potent symbol in America. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson famously said in an allegory to the Liberty Tree that

                    the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to 
                    time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

In 1825, during his triumphant tour of America, the Marquis de Lafayette proclaimed to the citizens of Boston that

                    the world should never forget the spot where once 
                    stood Liberty Tree, so famous in your annals. 

Today the site where the tree once stood has a small plaza with a plaque saying: “Sons of Liberty, 1766; Independence of their Country, 1776.”

The history of the Liberty Tree continues to be an important part of understanding the early colonial protests and how many of those protests and tactics drew a fine line between justified calls for liberty and violent mob rule.