Whilst your argument is a bit tendentious, one must grant that 'tis true, the Green Dragon Tavern, which touts itself as the first pub in America, as well as the site at which the Boston Tea Party was plotted, was established in 1654.

I suppose Mr. Galt meant the 18th century. There was little appetite for revolution prior to the taxes promulgated by Parliament in the wake of the French and Indian War.