BRISTOL — In a temper-filled tempest, the Bristol Fourth of July Committee has barred the Rhode Island Tea Party from taking part in the annual Independence Day parade next year — or any other year.

Marina Peterson, treasurer of the organization — it opposes government spending and new taxes — said she was told “not to waste the stamp to send in an application” to appear again in the Bristol parade, which the town says dates to 1785 as the oldest continuously observed Fourth of July celebration in the nation.

In the latest march, on Saturday, Tea Party sympathizers handed out copies of the U.S. Constitution as they ran alongside the organization’s first-ever float, a replica of the Beaver, the British ship ransacked by Colonists during the Boston Tea Party, in 1773.

Handouts are prohibited during the parade because of the danger posed if spectators — especially children — run up to get them, according to the parade chairman, Judith Squires.

On Wednesday, Jim Tavares, chairman of the parade’s float committee, called Peterson, a fellow Bristolian, to tell her the group could not come back.

“I told her they broke the rules and regulations,” which were spelled out in writing, said Tavares.

“They endangered public safety,” he said. Tavares said he personally confiscated some of the handouts.

Peterson said the rules prohibit solicitation and the U.S. Constitution is not a solicitation. Tavares said Peterson was playing with words.

Peterson suggested the real issue is the enthusiastic reception spectators gave the Tea Party float — much more enthusiastic, she said, than those afforded other contingents.

The fliers were distributed by Tea Party sympathizers from Westerly who were not part of the float contingent. But they wore the same yellow T-shirts with the “Don’t Tread on Me” message that were worn by the float participants, Peterson said.

Then they were indistinguishable from the marchers with the Tea Party float, Tavares said, and no one pointed out the difference.

Peterson said she was “reduced to tears” by Tavares on the phone.

And she promptly e-mailed her account of the confrontation — along with Tavares’ cell phone number — to all 800 people on the Tea Party mailing list.

Tavares began getting phone calls of complaint by late Wednesday afternoon.

The dispute is not the Tea Party’s first run-in with a parade organization this year.

A month ago the Gaspee Days Committee told the Tea Party it couldn’t use the “Gaspee Days” name in a rally it held at the State House on June 10. The rallying taxpayers dropped the word “Days” from its event.

gmacris@projo.com