The Old State House

This is Boston's oldest public building.  Dating back to 1713 it was built as the seat of the British colonial government. 

This is where it all began!  This is where the British Royal Governor and the Massachusetts colony's Assembly debated the infamous Writs of Assistance (1761) and Stamp Acts (1765). 
 
Today, we would know the Writs of Assistance as general search warrants.  Back then, though, there was no due process and the British could search anywhere for anything at any time with no cause.  We might have been colonists, but we were still British citizens, and as such, due the same legal protections as if we were in England.  Those rights were guaranteed in English common law. Ol' James Otis, employed by the British Governor as Advocate-General, quit his job as prosecutor  and volunteered to defend the colonists against this action.  Before the Superior Court of the colony of Massachusetts, James Otis spoke for FIVE HOURS in defense of these English subjects:

I take this opportunity to declare that whether under a fee or not (for in such a cause as this I despise a fee) I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other as this Writ of Assistance is.

The ultimate response to this abuse was the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution for the United States.  (SEE!  There WAS a reason for all of the things our Founding Fathers did!)

As for the Stamp Act, it was SOP (standard operating procedure), in order to generate revenue, for the British to require a government stamp on everything from legal papers to a deck of cards .  They needed to raise taxes to pay for the recent French and Indian War (across the "pond" it was known as the Seven Years' War) fought by the British on behalf of their colonists against the French and Indians.  Today, we would know it as a sales tax.  Fair enough.  But, British Parliament passed said Stamp Act without giving colonial representatives an opportunity to debate the issues in Parliament.  Hence the outcry still heard today of "taxation without representation."

It must have seemed an enormous victory to the Americans/no-longer-colonists when the Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians from the east balcony of this Old State House on July 18, 1776.  What a day that must have been.  Fifteen years of fussin' and fightin' and it was all wrapped up in our Declaration and Constitution.  All of the wrongs forced onto a people - and those two documents protected Americans from ever having to suffer the oppression again.  Well, until recently when Obama forced the Obamacare Act down the throats of all Americans - forcing us to buy - at exorbitant rates - healthcare we don't want or need...  Obviously, we don't have the guts our forefathers did.  We've just opened our pocketbooks and poured out the money.  Fools.