4
Governor Bull wrote on December 6, 1769, to the home
government that "the people persevere under much in-
convenience to trade in the strict observance of the associa-
tion;" on March 6 following, that the royal officials who
1 5.
Governor Bull wrote on December 6, 1769, to the home
government that "the people persevere under much in-
convenience to trade in the strict observance of the associa-
tion;" on March 6 following, that the royal officials who
1 5.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
.
in trumping
up old Orders to colour a premeditated Design to subvert
the Association. " Therefore, the committee resolved that
merchandise debarred by the association should not be
landed, and that, as the allowable articles were packed in
with them, no goods at all should be landed. The im-
porters made several pointed protests, emphasizing that they
had not violated the letter of the association and that many
practical difficulties lay in the way of returning the goods.
Nevertheless, they were forced to yield; and the Good
Intent with all goods on board sailed for London on Tues-
day, February 27. The principle upon which the committee
acted was that, if the present cargo were admitted, " every
Merchant in London, trading to this Province, might send
in any quantities of Goods he pleased, under Orders that he
must in Course of Business have refused to comply with. "
Although Baltimore and Annapolis were the chief trading
1 The committee's own expression.
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? 202 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
centres, committees of inspection were established through-
out the province; and a number of instances of enforcement
were noted in the newspapers. 1
The efforts to execute the non-importation association at
Charleston. South Carolina, developed a situation which
"Contained some unusual features. Sam Adams has been
said to have had his counterpart in Chris Gadsden of South
Carolina. Likewise, it may be said that the course of Wil-
liam Henry Drayton at this period reflected the stormy
career of John Mein. Dravton was a young man scarce
twenty-seven, a gentleman of independent wealth. Fear-
less, hotblooded, and of brilliant parts, he was by nature a
conservative. His later conversion to the radical cause has
been attributed to personal ambition, but can be more rightly
ascribed to his intense Americanism and to a change of
British policy in 1774 that outraged his sense of justice
as deeply as the situation he faced in 1769. Drayton was
the foremost adversary cf non-importation in South Caro-
lina; and unlike John Mein, his tendency was to place his
opposition on legal and constitutional grounds, although he
indulged in furious abuse upon occasion. Whether he
knew of Mein or not is uncertain; but Mein knew of him
and copied some of his most effective strictures into the
columns of the Boston Chronicle.
Drayton opened the attack in an article in the $a1dh
Carolina (fazetff. August 3, 1769, under the signature
"Free-man. " Centering his attention on the clause of the
association which proscribed all persons who failed to at-
tach their signatures within one month, he likened it to " the
Popish method of gaining converts to their religion by fire
and faggot. To stigmatize a man . . . with the infamous
1 Particularly in the counties of Prince George, St. Mary's, Talbot
and Charles. Md. Gos. , Apr. 12, May 24, July 12, 1770; Pa. Gas. , Nov.
30, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 203
name of an enemy to his country can be legally done by no
authority but by that of the voice of the Legislature. " Of
Gadsden he declared, in a transparent allusion, "this man
who sets up for a patriot and pretends to be a friend to
Liberty, scruples not, like Cromwell, who was the patriot
of his day, to break through and overthrow her fundamental
laws, while he declared he would support and defend them
all, and to endeavour to enslave his fellow-subjects, while
he avowed that he only contended for the preservation of
their liberties. " Doubtful as to whether this patriot were
"a traitor or madman," he proposed that, to avoid any ill
consequences of his disorder, " he may be lodged in a certain
brick building, behind a certain white house near the old
barracks, and there maintained, at least during the ensuing
change and full of the moon, at the public expence. "
The next issue of the Gazette brought an answer from
"C. G. ", full of abuse and personalities; and he was an-
swered in kind by " Freeman " the following week. On the
afternoon of September 1, 1769, a general meeting of the
inhabitants of Charleston was held under Liberty Tree to
take counsel over the persistence of a few people in refusing
to sign the agreement. It was voted that the delinquents
should be given until September 7 to redeem themselves. 1
When that day arrived, handbills were distributed over the
city containing the names of all non-subscribers. It ap-
peared that, exclusive of crown officials, only thirty-one per-
sons had withheld their signatures. 8 Among the names pub-
lished were those of William Henry Drayton, William
Wragg and John Gordon. All three men hastened to issue
protests,* but the burden of the controversy clearly rested
1 5. C. Gaz. , Sept. 7, 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Oct. 30.
1 S'. C. Gas. , Sept . 14 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Oct. 30.
* Gordon announced that he had signed the early merchants' agree-
ment; but that in the profusion of agreements, attempted and signed,
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? 204 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
with the energetic and caustic pen of Drayton. Drayton
dwelt long and emphatically on the charge that the com-
mittee--" that Harlequin Medley Committee "--had vio-
lated the first principle of liberty while pretending to strive
for it. He denounced "the laying illegal Restraints upon
the free Wills of free Men, who have an undoubted Right
to think and act for themselves;" and he declared: "The
profanum vtdgus is a species of mankind which I respect as
I ought,--it is hwmani generis. --But I see no reason why I
should allow my opinion to be controlled by theirs. " *
Gadsden replied in an article bristling with insinuation
and disparagement. He maintained that the proceedings of
the association did not violate a single law of the land; and,
turning Drayton's own phrase, he held that freemen had a
right to associate to deal with whom they pleased. 2 The
mechanic members of the General Committee, aroused by
Drayton's supercilious allusions, expressed their gratifica-
tion in print that he had "been pleased to allow us a place
amongst human beings," and added reprovingly: "Every
man is not so lucky as to have a fortune ready provided to
his hand, either by his own or his wife's parents. " *
"Freeman" returned to the controversy in two more
articles, addressing himself largely to the task of refuting
Gadsden's assertion that the association did not violate the
law. He showed, to his own satisfaction, that the associa-
he would not be "bandyed from resolutions to resolutions" and,
moreover, he would not adopt a measure of which he disapproved.
S. C. Gas. , Sept. 14, 1769. Wragg wrote that he had not signed, be-
cause he did not believe in subscribing to an' agreement to starve him-
self; and he argued that the agreement would not accomplish the
end desired. Ibid. , Sept. 21.
1 Ibid. , Sept . a1, 1769; also Bos. Chrott. , Oct. 30.
? 5. C. Gas. , Sept. 28, 1769.
1 Ibid. , Oct. 5, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 205
tion bore the legal character of a " confederacy" in that it
was a voluntary combination by bonds or promises to do
damage to innocent third parties, and that therefore the as-
sociators were punishable by law. 1 Gadsden now advanced
to a truly revolutionary position. Passing over the charges
of the illegal character of the association, and citing the his-
tory of England as his best justification, he affirmed that,
whenever the people's rights were invaded in an outrageous
fashion by a corrupt Parliament or an abandoned ministry,
mankind exerted "those latent, though inherent rights of
SOCIETY, which no climate, no time, no constitution, no
contract, can ever destroy or diminish;" that under such
circumstances petty men who cavilled at measures were
properly disregarded. 2
Drayton was precluded from seeking redress for his
injuries in a court of law, as a majority of the common
pleas judges were signers of the association and as the jury
would probably consist entirely of signers, also. On De-
cember 5, 1769, he therefore had recourse to the legislature;
but his petition was rejected by the lower house without a
reading. The petition was afterwards published;s it con-
tained a powerful summary of the arguments he had used
in the Gasette as well as eloquent evidence of the efficacy of
the boycott measures. He freely admitted that "his com-
modities which heretofore were of ready sale now remain
upon his hands," and that possible purchasers, as soon as
they learned of his ownership of the commodities, "im-
1 Ibid. , Oct. 12, 26, 1769. William Wragg, maintaining the same
point, argued that it did not follow that a number of persons as-
sociating together had a right to do what one man might do, and he
said that Parliament had acted on this doctrine in punishing tailors
for combinations to increase wages. Ibid. , Nov. 16.
1 "A Member of the General Committee," ibid. , Oct. 18, 1769.
1 Ibid. , Dec. 14, 1769; also Bos. Chron. , Jan. 11, 1770.
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? 206 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
mediately declined any further treaty for the purchase of
them, because of the Resolutions. " Realizing that he was
a beaten man, he sailed for England on January 3, 1770, in
a ship that, appropriately enough, carried goods outlawed
by the association. 1
A vigorous execution of the association at Charleston
was insured by the fact that two-thirds of the General Com-
mittee consisted of planters and mechanics, only one-third
being merchants and factors. So successful was the en-
forcement that a recountal of even the striking instances
would be tedious and purposeless. 8 The General Com-
mittee met regularly every Tuesday; subordinate to them
was a vigilant committee of inspection, which saw to the
storing of goods or their reshipment, as the importer pre-
ferred. 8 Almost every issue of the South Carolina Gasette
contained statements of the arrival of vessels and of the
transactions of the committee thereon. In only one in-
stance was the good faith of the committee impugned. Ann
and Benjamin Mathews having been publicly proscribed for
selling goods stored by them, Mrs. Mathews retorted, in a
printed article, that the goods had been ordered prior to the
association, that her son had given the promise to store
while she was lying very ill, and that stern necessity had
compelled her to open the goods. She charged that in-
dividual members of the committee, whom she named, had
been permitted to receive articles ordered before the associa-
tion had been adopted, and that in one or two instances their
articles had arrived after hers. The only difference between
her offense and that of Mr. Rutledge, who had recently
1S. C. Gas. , Jan. 4, 1770.
1 An interesting account may be found in McCrady, S. C. under
Royal Govt. , pp. 664-676.
*S. C. Co*. , Nov. 14, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 207
imported two horses in consequence of an old order, was,
she averred, that he was a man who would not be trifled
with, while she was a poor widow living within two doors
of a leading man of the committee and thus in a position to
take a little cash from some of his customers. By way of
vindication, the committee was able to show that the im-
portations of the Mathews' had been purchased after copies
of the South Carolina Association had arrived in England,
a fact not obtaining in the other cases. A few months later,
the son appeared before the committee, acknowledged guilt
and heartfelt contrition, and promised to deliver all goods,
remaining unsold, into charge of the committee. 1
The provision for the immediate reshipment of slaves was
rigidly enforced. For instance, Captain Evans arrived on
May 2, 1770, from Africa with three hundred and forty-
five negroes; and after attending a public meeting held to
consider his case, he filled his casks and set sail with his
cargo for the more hospitable shores of Georgia. 2 It was
estimated by friends of non-importation that Great Britain
had lost not less than ? 300,000 sterling, at a moderate com-
putation, through the South Carolina regulations against
slave importation. 8 Some little difficulty was experienced
in preventing violations of the association at Georgetown
and Beaufort; but this was obviated when jommittees of
inspection were appointed there early in February, 1770.
4
Governor Bull wrote on December 6, 1769, to the home
government that "the people persevere under much in-
convenience to trade in the strict observance of the associa-
tion;" on March 6 following, that the royal officials who
1 5. C. & Am. Gen. Gas. , June 15, 1770; S. C. Gas. , May 31, June 28,
Oct. 4.
1 Ibid. , May 17, 1770.
"Ibid. , May 24, 1770.
4 Ibid. , Feb. 1, 1770.
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? 208 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
had declined the association " daily experience great losses
thereby, as Subscribers are forbidden to purchase Rice,
Indigo &c from non Subscribers;" and again on October
20, that the subscribers to the non-importation were " tak-
ing large strides to enforce the rigid observing of their
Resolutions" through "the vigilance and industry of the
leaders, whose impetuosity of behaviour and reproachful
language deter the moderate, the timid and the dependent. " *
Trade statistics substantiate this view of the situation:
English imports into the Carolinas dropped from ? 306,600
in 1769 to ? 146,273 in 1770. 2
Facts throwing light on the observance of non-importa-
tion in North Carolina are meager; but it would appear that
the_pjrovince-wide association, inaugurated by the assembly
in November, 1769, was generally ignored by the_mer-
chants. On June 2, 1770, a general meeting was called at
Wilm1ngton by the " Sons of Liberty" and was attended
by "many of the principal inhabitants of six large and
populous counties," mostly planters. The meeting agreed
to boycott and publish all who imported or purchased goods
contrary to the agreement. A letter, issued later by the
General Committee of the Sons of Liberty upon the Cape
Fear, expressed the hope that the merchants' " own interest
will convince them of the necessity of importing such
articles, and such only, as the planters will purchase. " Com-
mittees of inspection were established in the six counties,
and those for the towns of Wilmington and Brunswick
were instructed to use particular vigilance. 8 Thereafter,
the conditions of enforcement improved. The Cape Fear
Mercury of July n, 1770, presented some instances of the
1 Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss. "), vol. ii, pp. 202, 206, 217.
1 Macpherson, Annals of Com. , vol. iii, pp. 494-495, 508.
tCape Fear Merc. , July 11, 1770; Connor, Harnett, pp. 55-56.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 2Og
activity of the Wilmington Committee of Inspection, al-
though it admitted that some merchants were "daily pur-
chasing wines and many other articles" prohibited by the
agreement, a course of conduct which would surely lead to
the publication of their names. At the town of Newbern
no formal steps were taken to adopt an agreement; but it
was claimed in September, 1 770, that "the whole town
cannot now furnish a single pound of Bohea Tea," and that
"all the merchants here cannot produce for sale a single
yard of osnabrigs, negro cloth, coarse linens or scarcely
any European goods at all. " 1
In Georgia, {he non-importatiofl
been so reluctantly adopted, was speedily disregarded. 2
Attempts were made to introduce slaves overland into South
Carolina; but this clandestine trade was closely watched. *
On June 27, 1770, a general meeting of Charleston inhabi-
tants voted solemnly, without a dissenting voice, that
Georgia ought "to be amputated from the rest of their
brethren, as a rotten part that might spread a dangerous
infection," and
severed, pftfir frr""*1""! r1? ygVi> The desertion of Georgia
had no important results, since Georgia had no trading re-
lations of importance.
At first thought it may provoke surprise that thf TMnvf-
ment fQLJLJLeneral relaxation. jaf _ pQn_-jmpgrtatioQ_ should
he prgmnted by the merchants of two of the chief commercial
provinces. The merchants of the northern provinces were
certain to receive important material benefits from a repeal
1 S. C. Gas. & Coun. Journ. , Oct . 2, 1770.
'Brit. Papers (" Sparks Mss. "), vol. ii, p. 286.
? S. C. Gas. , May 17. 1770.
4 Ibid. , June 28, Aug. 23, 1770.
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? 2. IQ THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of the various trade and revenue statutes; and it was this
purpose that had caused them to undertake the great non-
importation union of the provinces at the outset. But as
the months passed, they began to discover that the character
of their utilitarian revolt was changing under their eyes;
that self-styled "Sons of Liberty" conceived of them as
bearing the standard in a great struggle for constitutional
rights; and they were chagrined to realize that they had, in
some instances, given grounds for such an interpretation.
Furthermore, the chief burden of the non-importation
had fallen upon the commercial provinces, imports from
England decreasing two-thirds in the year 1769 whereas
they actually increased somewhat in the plantation provinces.
Jn the early months the- r^j^jn^ nf **" "*--'-- ? *
manufactures had increase^ ftr
had long fluttered t^jr -*--1"~ ? ~i(\ fhr rnerrhantfi _r1i<s-
posed of much old stock to advantage. 1 Debts, long out-
standing from their customers, were called in; and remit-
tances were made to England at fifteen to twenty per cent
advantage on the ? 100 sterling. 2 But when, after a time,
thrir
1 The merchants obliged us at this time "to take old moth-eaten
cloths that had lain rotting in the shops for years and to pay a mon-
strous price for them;" this was the statement made later by a bitter
opponent of the non-importation movement of 1774. Seabury, S. ,
Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress. . . .
By a Farmer (New York, 1774), p. 12.
* Conn. Cour. , July 30, 1770; Pa. Gas. , May 31; Mass. Gas. & Post
Boy, Sept. 24- Governor Pownall declared in Parliament in March,
1770, that a monthly record of the rate of exchange for the last eight
years at the three leading ports of America showed an average rate
of 16754 for the *1oo sterling at Philadelphia, 171^ at New York,
and I33H at Boston; while the current rate at the same ports was
145, 162 and 125-123. The rise and fall of exchange, he asserted,
was the barometer of trade, a falling exchange signifying a doubly
great loss of trade. Parliamentary History, vol. xvi, p. 860.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 2 1 1
_x>f bearing the brunt of a strugle? from_nzhich
f rnp
When they advanced their prices, they were accused by
the populace of being "monopolists" and "extortioners:"
and no countenance was given to their plea that high profits
were necessary in order to offset the general falling-off of
business. The storm centre of controversy was the price
of Bohea tea. At Philadelphia a memorial was pre-
sented to the Committee of Merchants, in January,
1770, which complained that the price of Bohea had
reached 5s. a pound and upward in face of an agree-
ment of dealers to maintain it at 3s. 9d. ; and "A. B. ",
writing in the Chronicle, declared he would post a
list of all offenders in his shop and distribute it among his
neighbors. 1 At New York, the Committee of Merchants
advertised in the New York Journal, September 28, 1769,
that a careful investigation had failed to disclose any en-
hancement of prices; but on February 24, 1770, they found
it necessary to call the tea dealers before them and extract
a promise to keep the retail price of Bohea down to 5s. 6d.
and the wholesale price at 4s. 6d. a A few weeks later, the
inhabitants of the city assembled, and called some of the
delinquents before them. * Nevertheless, the price of tea
continued its ascent. Bohea reached IDS. a pound at
Annapolis by the middle of the year; and when Williams
& Company, the worst offenders, refused to conform to the
1 Pa. Chron. , Jan. 29, 1770. It was announced in the same issue
that thereafter the size of the Chronicle would be smaller, because of
the rise in the price of paper. In the issue of July 23, a writer
claimed that tea had reached the "unconscionable sum of 1os. ," a
paper of pins had advanced from lod. to as. od. , and other articles
were equally high in proportion.
1 N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Feb. 26, 1770.
* Ibid. , Mch. 12, 1770; N. Y. Journ. , July 12.
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? 212 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
demand of the committee of inspection, the firm was pro-
scribed in the newspapers. 1 A few complaints were also
heard at Boston against high prices, although apparently no
attempts were made to regulate prices there. 2
While tt1P importing mpt-chanf? were suffering a decline
in trade and the radical class in the populati'tn was hp{rinnin<r
to domjnflfp tr1p oitnotirwn ajfc1rtVifE flffiirHon ramp in r|iP
form of a decrease in the eypnrt trarlp to F. rjgrlanH An
excessive exportation of American products to England in
1768 produced a slump in the export market in the year
1769, and there was only a slow recovery in the next few
years. This condition bore proportionately more severely
upon Mew yp/r*k and fcnnsvlYSH,ift thflfl 11pon fr^ew Knpr-
|fnd. 8 L" Interest, all powerful Interest, will bear down
Patriotism," predicted a Quaker merchant on December 9,
1769. ". . . Romans we are not as they were formerly,
when they despised Riches and Grandeur, abode in extreme
poverty and sacrificed every pleasant enjoyment for the
love and service of their Country. " * f
Thus, the seeds of discontent were pretty generously sown
among the merchants when njjws^ re^yhpd America that
Parliament hadt on April 12. 1770, repealed the most im-
porfrmt portions of the law aga1nst wh1ch thf"'- "fr"""^"*"
wejp ^1"Ttiffl5 This news did not come as a surprise, as
the governors had been notified by a letter of May 13, 1769
that such a measure was under contemplation and that the
taxes on glass, paper and colors had been laid "Contrary
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 2, 1770.
1Bos. Chron. , Dec. 11, 1769; Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec. 21.
* There was some decrease in the export trade of the plantation
provinces, also; but the merchants there did not dominate the non-
importation movement.
up old Orders to colour a premeditated Design to subvert
the Association. " Therefore, the committee resolved that
merchandise debarred by the association should not be
landed, and that, as the allowable articles were packed in
with them, no goods at all should be landed. The im-
porters made several pointed protests, emphasizing that they
had not violated the letter of the association and that many
practical difficulties lay in the way of returning the goods.
Nevertheless, they were forced to yield; and the Good
Intent with all goods on board sailed for London on Tues-
day, February 27. The principle upon which the committee
acted was that, if the present cargo were admitted, " every
Merchant in London, trading to this Province, might send
in any quantities of Goods he pleased, under Orders that he
must in Course of Business have refused to comply with. "
Although Baltimore and Annapolis were the chief trading
1 The committee's own expression.
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? 202 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
centres, committees of inspection were established through-
out the province; and a number of instances of enforcement
were noted in the newspapers. 1
The efforts to execute the non-importation association at
Charleston. South Carolina, developed a situation which
"Contained some unusual features. Sam Adams has been
said to have had his counterpart in Chris Gadsden of South
Carolina. Likewise, it may be said that the course of Wil-
liam Henry Drayton at this period reflected the stormy
career of John Mein. Dravton was a young man scarce
twenty-seven, a gentleman of independent wealth. Fear-
less, hotblooded, and of brilliant parts, he was by nature a
conservative. His later conversion to the radical cause has
been attributed to personal ambition, but can be more rightly
ascribed to his intense Americanism and to a change of
British policy in 1774 that outraged his sense of justice
as deeply as the situation he faced in 1769. Drayton was
the foremost adversary cf non-importation in South Caro-
lina; and unlike John Mein, his tendency was to place his
opposition on legal and constitutional grounds, although he
indulged in furious abuse upon occasion. Whether he
knew of Mein or not is uncertain; but Mein knew of him
and copied some of his most effective strictures into the
columns of the Boston Chronicle.
Drayton opened the attack in an article in the $a1dh
Carolina (fazetff. August 3, 1769, under the signature
"Free-man. " Centering his attention on the clause of the
association which proscribed all persons who failed to at-
tach their signatures within one month, he likened it to " the
Popish method of gaining converts to their religion by fire
and faggot. To stigmatize a man . . . with the infamous
1 Particularly in the counties of Prince George, St. Mary's, Talbot
and Charles. Md. Gos. , Apr. 12, May 24, July 12, 1770; Pa. Gas. , Nov.
30, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 203
name of an enemy to his country can be legally done by no
authority but by that of the voice of the Legislature. " Of
Gadsden he declared, in a transparent allusion, "this man
who sets up for a patriot and pretends to be a friend to
Liberty, scruples not, like Cromwell, who was the patriot
of his day, to break through and overthrow her fundamental
laws, while he declared he would support and defend them
all, and to endeavour to enslave his fellow-subjects, while
he avowed that he only contended for the preservation of
their liberties. " Doubtful as to whether this patriot were
"a traitor or madman," he proposed that, to avoid any ill
consequences of his disorder, " he may be lodged in a certain
brick building, behind a certain white house near the old
barracks, and there maintained, at least during the ensuing
change and full of the moon, at the public expence. "
The next issue of the Gazette brought an answer from
"C. G. ", full of abuse and personalities; and he was an-
swered in kind by " Freeman " the following week. On the
afternoon of September 1, 1769, a general meeting of the
inhabitants of Charleston was held under Liberty Tree to
take counsel over the persistence of a few people in refusing
to sign the agreement. It was voted that the delinquents
should be given until September 7 to redeem themselves. 1
When that day arrived, handbills were distributed over the
city containing the names of all non-subscribers. It ap-
peared that, exclusive of crown officials, only thirty-one per-
sons had withheld their signatures. 8 Among the names pub-
lished were those of William Henry Drayton, William
Wragg and John Gordon. All three men hastened to issue
protests,* but the burden of the controversy clearly rested
1 5. C. Gaz. , Sept. 7, 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Oct. 30.
1 S'. C. Gas. , Sept . 14 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Oct. 30.
* Gordon announced that he had signed the early merchants' agree-
ment; but that in the profusion of agreements, attempted and signed,
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? 204 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
with the energetic and caustic pen of Drayton. Drayton
dwelt long and emphatically on the charge that the com-
mittee--" that Harlequin Medley Committee "--had vio-
lated the first principle of liberty while pretending to strive
for it. He denounced "the laying illegal Restraints upon
the free Wills of free Men, who have an undoubted Right
to think and act for themselves;" and he declared: "The
profanum vtdgus is a species of mankind which I respect as
I ought,--it is hwmani generis. --But I see no reason why I
should allow my opinion to be controlled by theirs. " *
Gadsden replied in an article bristling with insinuation
and disparagement. He maintained that the proceedings of
the association did not violate a single law of the land; and,
turning Drayton's own phrase, he held that freemen had a
right to associate to deal with whom they pleased. 2 The
mechanic members of the General Committee, aroused by
Drayton's supercilious allusions, expressed their gratifica-
tion in print that he had "been pleased to allow us a place
amongst human beings," and added reprovingly: "Every
man is not so lucky as to have a fortune ready provided to
his hand, either by his own or his wife's parents. " *
"Freeman" returned to the controversy in two more
articles, addressing himself largely to the task of refuting
Gadsden's assertion that the association did not violate the
law. He showed, to his own satisfaction, that the associa-
he would not be "bandyed from resolutions to resolutions" and,
moreover, he would not adopt a measure of which he disapproved.
S. C. Gas. , Sept. 14, 1769. Wragg wrote that he had not signed, be-
cause he did not believe in subscribing to an' agreement to starve him-
self; and he argued that the agreement would not accomplish the
end desired. Ibid. , Sept. 21.
1 Ibid. , Sept . a1, 1769; also Bos. Chrott. , Oct. 30.
? 5. C. Gas. , Sept. 28, 1769.
1 Ibid. , Oct. 5, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 205
tion bore the legal character of a " confederacy" in that it
was a voluntary combination by bonds or promises to do
damage to innocent third parties, and that therefore the as-
sociators were punishable by law. 1 Gadsden now advanced
to a truly revolutionary position. Passing over the charges
of the illegal character of the association, and citing the his-
tory of England as his best justification, he affirmed that,
whenever the people's rights were invaded in an outrageous
fashion by a corrupt Parliament or an abandoned ministry,
mankind exerted "those latent, though inherent rights of
SOCIETY, which no climate, no time, no constitution, no
contract, can ever destroy or diminish;" that under such
circumstances petty men who cavilled at measures were
properly disregarded. 2
Drayton was precluded from seeking redress for his
injuries in a court of law, as a majority of the common
pleas judges were signers of the association and as the jury
would probably consist entirely of signers, also. On De-
cember 5, 1769, he therefore had recourse to the legislature;
but his petition was rejected by the lower house without a
reading. The petition was afterwards published;s it con-
tained a powerful summary of the arguments he had used
in the Gasette as well as eloquent evidence of the efficacy of
the boycott measures. He freely admitted that "his com-
modities which heretofore were of ready sale now remain
upon his hands," and that possible purchasers, as soon as
they learned of his ownership of the commodities, "im-
1 Ibid. , Oct. 12, 26, 1769. William Wragg, maintaining the same
point, argued that it did not follow that a number of persons as-
sociating together had a right to do what one man might do, and he
said that Parliament had acted on this doctrine in punishing tailors
for combinations to increase wages. Ibid. , Nov. 16.
1 "A Member of the General Committee," ibid. , Oct. 18, 1769.
1 Ibid. , Dec. 14, 1769; also Bos. Chron. , Jan. 11, 1770.
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? 206 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
mediately declined any further treaty for the purchase of
them, because of the Resolutions. " Realizing that he was
a beaten man, he sailed for England on January 3, 1770, in
a ship that, appropriately enough, carried goods outlawed
by the association. 1
A vigorous execution of the association at Charleston
was insured by the fact that two-thirds of the General Com-
mittee consisted of planters and mechanics, only one-third
being merchants and factors. So successful was the en-
forcement that a recountal of even the striking instances
would be tedious and purposeless. 8 The General Com-
mittee met regularly every Tuesday; subordinate to them
was a vigilant committee of inspection, which saw to the
storing of goods or their reshipment, as the importer pre-
ferred. 8 Almost every issue of the South Carolina Gasette
contained statements of the arrival of vessels and of the
transactions of the committee thereon. In only one in-
stance was the good faith of the committee impugned. Ann
and Benjamin Mathews having been publicly proscribed for
selling goods stored by them, Mrs. Mathews retorted, in a
printed article, that the goods had been ordered prior to the
association, that her son had given the promise to store
while she was lying very ill, and that stern necessity had
compelled her to open the goods. She charged that in-
dividual members of the committee, whom she named, had
been permitted to receive articles ordered before the associa-
tion had been adopted, and that in one or two instances their
articles had arrived after hers. The only difference between
her offense and that of Mr. Rutledge, who had recently
1S. C. Gas. , Jan. 4, 1770.
1 An interesting account may be found in McCrady, S. C. under
Royal Govt. , pp. 664-676.
*S. C. Co*. , Nov. 14, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 207
imported two horses in consequence of an old order, was,
she averred, that he was a man who would not be trifled
with, while she was a poor widow living within two doors
of a leading man of the committee and thus in a position to
take a little cash from some of his customers. By way of
vindication, the committee was able to show that the im-
portations of the Mathews' had been purchased after copies
of the South Carolina Association had arrived in England,
a fact not obtaining in the other cases. A few months later,
the son appeared before the committee, acknowledged guilt
and heartfelt contrition, and promised to deliver all goods,
remaining unsold, into charge of the committee. 1
The provision for the immediate reshipment of slaves was
rigidly enforced. For instance, Captain Evans arrived on
May 2, 1770, from Africa with three hundred and forty-
five negroes; and after attending a public meeting held to
consider his case, he filled his casks and set sail with his
cargo for the more hospitable shores of Georgia. 2 It was
estimated by friends of non-importation that Great Britain
had lost not less than ? 300,000 sterling, at a moderate com-
putation, through the South Carolina regulations against
slave importation. 8 Some little difficulty was experienced
in preventing violations of the association at Georgetown
and Beaufort; but this was obviated when jommittees of
inspection were appointed there early in February, 1770.
4
Governor Bull wrote on December 6, 1769, to the home
government that "the people persevere under much in-
convenience to trade in the strict observance of the associa-
tion;" on March 6 following, that the royal officials who
1 5. C. & Am. Gen. Gas. , June 15, 1770; S. C. Gas. , May 31, June 28,
Oct. 4.
1 Ibid. , May 17, 1770.
"Ibid. , May 24, 1770.
4 Ibid. , Feb. 1, 1770.
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? 208 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
had declined the association " daily experience great losses
thereby, as Subscribers are forbidden to purchase Rice,
Indigo &c from non Subscribers;" and again on October
20, that the subscribers to the non-importation were " tak-
ing large strides to enforce the rigid observing of their
Resolutions" through "the vigilance and industry of the
leaders, whose impetuosity of behaviour and reproachful
language deter the moderate, the timid and the dependent. " *
Trade statistics substantiate this view of the situation:
English imports into the Carolinas dropped from ? 306,600
in 1769 to ? 146,273 in 1770. 2
Facts throwing light on the observance of non-importa-
tion in North Carolina are meager; but it would appear that
the_pjrovince-wide association, inaugurated by the assembly
in November, 1769, was generally ignored by the_mer-
chants. On June 2, 1770, a general meeting was called at
Wilm1ngton by the " Sons of Liberty" and was attended
by "many of the principal inhabitants of six large and
populous counties," mostly planters. The meeting agreed
to boycott and publish all who imported or purchased goods
contrary to the agreement. A letter, issued later by the
General Committee of the Sons of Liberty upon the Cape
Fear, expressed the hope that the merchants' " own interest
will convince them of the necessity of importing such
articles, and such only, as the planters will purchase. " Com-
mittees of inspection were established in the six counties,
and those for the towns of Wilmington and Brunswick
were instructed to use particular vigilance. 8 Thereafter,
the conditions of enforcement improved. The Cape Fear
Mercury of July n, 1770, presented some instances of the
1 Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss. "), vol. ii, pp. 202, 206, 217.
1 Macpherson, Annals of Com. , vol. iii, pp. 494-495, 508.
tCape Fear Merc. , July 11, 1770; Connor, Harnett, pp. 55-56.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 2Og
activity of the Wilmington Committee of Inspection, al-
though it admitted that some merchants were "daily pur-
chasing wines and many other articles" prohibited by the
agreement, a course of conduct which would surely lead to
the publication of their names. At the town of Newbern
no formal steps were taken to adopt an agreement; but it
was claimed in September, 1 770, that "the whole town
cannot now furnish a single pound of Bohea Tea," and that
"all the merchants here cannot produce for sale a single
yard of osnabrigs, negro cloth, coarse linens or scarcely
any European goods at all. " 1
In Georgia, {he non-importatiofl
been so reluctantly adopted, was speedily disregarded. 2
Attempts were made to introduce slaves overland into South
Carolina; but this clandestine trade was closely watched. *
On June 27, 1770, a general meeting of Charleston inhabi-
tants voted solemnly, without a dissenting voice, that
Georgia ought "to be amputated from the rest of their
brethren, as a rotten part that might spread a dangerous
infection," and
severed, pftfir frr""*1""! r1? ygVi> The desertion of Georgia
had no important results, since Georgia had no trading re-
lations of importance.
At first thought it may provoke surprise that thf TMnvf-
ment fQLJLJLeneral relaxation. jaf _ pQn_-jmpgrtatioQ_ should
he prgmnted by the merchants of two of the chief commercial
provinces. The merchants of the northern provinces were
certain to receive important material benefits from a repeal
1 S. C. Gas. & Coun. Journ. , Oct . 2, 1770.
'Brit. Papers (" Sparks Mss. "), vol. ii, p. 286.
? S. C. Gas. , May 17. 1770.
4 Ibid. , June 28, Aug. 23, 1770.
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? 2. IQ THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of the various trade and revenue statutes; and it was this
purpose that had caused them to undertake the great non-
importation union of the provinces at the outset. But as
the months passed, they began to discover that the character
of their utilitarian revolt was changing under their eyes;
that self-styled "Sons of Liberty" conceived of them as
bearing the standard in a great struggle for constitutional
rights; and they were chagrined to realize that they had, in
some instances, given grounds for such an interpretation.
Furthermore, the chief burden of the non-importation
had fallen upon the commercial provinces, imports from
England decreasing two-thirds in the year 1769 whereas
they actually increased somewhat in the plantation provinces.
Jn the early months the- r^j^jn^ nf **" "*--'-- ? *
manufactures had increase^ ftr
had long fluttered t^jr -*--1"~ ? ~i(\ fhr rnerrhantfi _r1i<s-
posed of much old stock to advantage. 1 Debts, long out-
standing from their customers, were called in; and remit-
tances were made to England at fifteen to twenty per cent
advantage on the ? 100 sterling. 2 But when, after a time,
thrir
1 The merchants obliged us at this time "to take old moth-eaten
cloths that had lain rotting in the shops for years and to pay a mon-
strous price for them;" this was the statement made later by a bitter
opponent of the non-importation movement of 1774. Seabury, S. ,
Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress. . . .
By a Farmer (New York, 1774), p. 12.
* Conn. Cour. , July 30, 1770; Pa. Gas. , May 31; Mass. Gas. & Post
Boy, Sept. 24- Governor Pownall declared in Parliament in March,
1770, that a monthly record of the rate of exchange for the last eight
years at the three leading ports of America showed an average rate
of 16754 for the *1oo sterling at Philadelphia, 171^ at New York,
and I33H at Boston; while the current rate at the same ports was
145, 162 and 125-123. The rise and fall of exchange, he asserted,
was the barometer of trade, a falling exchange signifying a doubly
great loss of trade. Parliamentary History, vol. xvi, p. 860.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 2 1 1
_x>f bearing the brunt of a strugle? from_nzhich
f rnp
When they advanced their prices, they were accused by
the populace of being "monopolists" and "extortioners:"
and no countenance was given to their plea that high profits
were necessary in order to offset the general falling-off of
business. The storm centre of controversy was the price
of Bohea tea. At Philadelphia a memorial was pre-
sented to the Committee of Merchants, in January,
1770, which complained that the price of Bohea had
reached 5s. a pound and upward in face of an agree-
ment of dealers to maintain it at 3s. 9d. ; and "A. B. ",
writing in the Chronicle, declared he would post a
list of all offenders in his shop and distribute it among his
neighbors. 1 At New York, the Committee of Merchants
advertised in the New York Journal, September 28, 1769,
that a careful investigation had failed to disclose any en-
hancement of prices; but on February 24, 1770, they found
it necessary to call the tea dealers before them and extract
a promise to keep the retail price of Bohea down to 5s. 6d.
and the wholesale price at 4s. 6d. a A few weeks later, the
inhabitants of the city assembled, and called some of the
delinquents before them. * Nevertheless, the price of tea
continued its ascent. Bohea reached IDS. a pound at
Annapolis by the middle of the year; and when Williams
& Company, the worst offenders, refused to conform to the
1 Pa. Chron. , Jan. 29, 1770. It was announced in the same issue
that thereafter the size of the Chronicle would be smaller, because of
the rise in the price of paper. In the issue of July 23, a writer
claimed that tea had reached the "unconscionable sum of 1os. ," a
paper of pins had advanced from lod. to as. od. , and other articles
were equally high in proportion.
1 N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Feb. 26, 1770.
* Ibid. , Mch. 12, 1770; N. Y. Journ. , July 12.
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? 212 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
demand of the committee of inspection, the firm was pro-
scribed in the newspapers. 1 A few complaints were also
heard at Boston against high prices, although apparently no
attempts were made to regulate prices there. 2
While tt1P importing mpt-chanf? were suffering a decline
in trade and the radical class in the populati'tn was hp{rinnin<r
to domjnflfp tr1p oitnotirwn ajfc1rtVifE flffiirHon ramp in r|iP
form of a decrease in the eypnrt trarlp to F. rjgrlanH An
excessive exportation of American products to England in
1768 produced a slump in the export market in the year
1769, and there was only a slow recovery in the next few
years. This condition bore proportionately more severely
upon Mew yp/r*k and fcnnsvlYSH,ift thflfl 11pon fr^ew Knpr-
|fnd. 8 L" Interest, all powerful Interest, will bear down
Patriotism," predicted a Quaker merchant on December 9,
1769. ". . . Romans we are not as they were formerly,
when they despised Riches and Grandeur, abode in extreme
poverty and sacrificed every pleasant enjoyment for the
love and service of their Country. " * f
Thus, the seeds of discontent were pretty generously sown
among the merchants when njjws^ re^yhpd America that
Parliament hadt on April 12. 1770, repealed the most im-
porfrmt portions of the law aga1nst wh1ch thf"'- "fr"""^"*"
wejp ^1"Ttiffl5 This news did not come as a surprise, as
the governors had been notified by a letter of May 13, 1769
that such a measure was under contemplation and that the
taxes on glass, paper and colors had been laid "Contrary
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 2, 1770.
1Bos. Chron. , Dec. 11, 1769; Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec. 21.
* There was some decrease in the export trade of the plantation
provinces, also; but the merchants there did not dominate the non-
importation movement.
