No More Learning

The Chronicle of January 22, 1770,
published an itemized list of the dutied goods imported into
the port of Boston during the year 1769, with the names
of the persons who had paid the duties. Tea, paper, green
glass and painters' colors were the most frequent entries;
and, although most of the goods had gone to notorious im-
porters, the names of some of the " Well Disposed" were
on the list also, especially for consignments of glass.
These charges were answered by signed statements of the
various merchants accused. 1 The glass was, in some in-
stances, alleged to be bottles containing drugs, etc. ; in others,
consignments for persons in Rhode Island and New Hamp-
shire addressed in care of local merchants. Mein replied
in the Chronicle of February 1, analyzing these explanations,
accepting some as satisfactory and rejecting others. The
career of the Chronicle was fast drawing to a close. Its
subscription list was depleted; its advertising columns were
neglected by the non-importers; Mein himself was being
prosecuted for debt by John Hancock in behalf of London
creditors; 2 and his physical whereabouts were unknown.
On June 25, the Chronicle closed its meteoric career with
the commonplace statement to subscribers that "the
Chronicle, in the present state of affairs, cannot be carried
on, either for their entertainment or the emolument of the
Printers . . . "8
Public opinion was thereafter entirely molded by the
Committee of Merchants. Through a strange transposition
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 29, 1770; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 29.
1 Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 94; Murray, J. , Letters (N. M.
Tiffany, ed. ), pp. 169-171, 173-174-
1 In May, 1772, Mein petitioned Parliament for compensation for his
losses while "endeavoring to support Administration at the time of
the late American Revenue Acts. " Bos. Eve. Post, Aug. 10, 1772.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
179
of terms, people had come to speak of merchandise, legally
imported but brought in contrary to the agreement, as
"contraband. " "Tea from Holland may lawfully be sold,"
wrote Hutchinson. "Its a high crime to sell any from
England. " 1 The Customs Board were now without an
organ in Boston. However, on August 27, they succeeded
in inserting in the New York Gasette and Weekly Mercury
a statement of British importations to Boston from Janu-
ary 1 to June 19, 1770, filling five columns of that journal.
The high tension which public affairs had reached ripened
the public mind for violence. Already in 1768, popular
demonstrations in behalf of the smugglers had "caused the
stationing ot troops 1n Boston, in September. 1769, had
occurred tne anray between james Otis and one of the
customs commissioners at the British Coffee House--an
affair which the radicals spoke of as "the intended as-
sassination of Mr. Otis. "* Sometime later, John Mein
and his partner had been assaulted while walking along
King Street; and before the mob would desist, the two
regiments had to be ordered to their arms. 8 Thereafter,
the customs officials and army officers occupied the bar-
room of the coffee house to the exclusion of the citizens of
Boston, until the fact was noted, when a group of the
radicals made it their business to frequent the place in
order to assert their equal rights. 4
The zeal of some school children over non-importation
brought on the first death of a townsman. 8 On Thursday
1 Letter to Hillsborough, Apr. 27, 1770; Mass. Arch. , vol. xxv, p. 391.
1 Palfrey to John Wilkes; M. H. S. Procs. , vol. 47, p. 211.
1 Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, pp. 259-261.
4 Letter of Thomas Young, Col. Soc. Mass. Pubs. , vol. xi, p. 7.
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Feb. 26, Mch. 5, 1770; Hutchinson, op. cit. , vol . iiiK
pp. 269-270.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
morning, February 22, 1770, some boys placed a crude
figure representing four importers, in front of Theophilus
Lillie's door. Richardson, an "infamous Informer," re-
monstrated with the youths, and finally endeavored to de-
stroy the effigy. Failing in this, he retreated to his house
nearby to the shrill jeers of "Informer! Informer! " Here
he was joined by his wife and a man; and the two sides
pelted each other with rubbish until the better marksman-
ship of the children was clearly established. Then from
inside the house, Richardson fired several times into the
crowd, killing Christopher Snider, an eleven-year-old boy,
and wounding the little son of Captain John Gore. Snider's
funeral was made the occasion for a great demonstration;
and the lad became the " little hero and first martyr to the
noble cause. "
Less than two weeks later occurred the unfortunate street-
affray, which was glorified by the radicals as the " Boston
Massacre. " It was the inevitable result of the festering
ill-feeling, which had been caused by the altercations over
"smuggling and non-importation and by the unaccustomed
presence of troops in the midst of a civil population. The
familiar story of the night of March the fifth need not be
recounted here. Like earlier clashes, the trouble was begun
by irresponsible youths on the street; but it closed with
the fatal shooting of five men and the wounding of several
others by the soldiers. It is possible that some of the shots
into the crowd were fired from the windows of the custom
house nearby. 1 While the bloodshed was wholly accidental,
the radicals immediately made it a pretext for procuring
the removal of the soldiers to Castle William in the harbor,
1 On this point, vide Channing, History of United States, vol. iii, pp.
119-120 n. For a different view, vide Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii,
pp. 279-280. Vide also Murray, Letters, p. 165.
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? NON-IMPORTATION iS1
where the Customs Board found it prudent to join them
for a time. 1
Resorts to mob violence now became more frequent.
When Hutchinson sought to get a wealthy importer to pro-
mote an association in opposition to non-importation, he
was told that such a project would only serve to expose the
signers to "popular rage. " 2 Nathaniel Rogers, the un-
redeemed, was forced to flee the Boston mob only to find
conditions equally bad in New York, his place of refuge:
and he returned to Boston to sue humbly but fruitlessly for
a restoration to public favor at the hands of the Committee
of Merchants. * One of the proscribed McMasters was
carted about Boston by a mob on June 19 and saved from
a " suit of the modern mode" only by his promise that he
would at once depart the town. 4 "Boston people are run
mad," wrote Hutchinson on August 26. "The frenzy was
not higher when they banished my pious great-grandmother,
when they hanged the Quakers, when they afterwards
hanged the poor innocent witches . . . " 8
irnlisefl hY foe Massarre^nndouht-
^
new life into the non-importation cause in New
England at a tim,f whpn sentiment in jts favnr wat waning
thrpughoutj% rrmtinpn1i On March 13, the town of
Boston appointed a committee to circulate an agreement
among the shopkeepers against the sale of any more tea
until the duties should be removed; and more than two hun-
dred and twelve dealers responded. On the nineteenth, the
town, by unanimous vote, entered in the town records the
1 Letters of S. Cooper, Am. Hist. Rev. , vol. viii, pp. 317, 319.
1 Mass. Arch. , vol . xxv, pp. 393-394-
'Ibid. , vol. xxvi, pp. 488, 491; Bos. Eve. Post, May 21, June 11, 1770.
4 Ibid. , June 25, 1770.
4 Mass. Arch. , vol. xxvi, p. 540.
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? 1g2 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
names of all those proscribed by the merchants on January
23. A week later it was decided by the town that three
ships should be constructed in order to give employment to
the poor. 1 In the following two months, the merchants
rejected several offers of importers and Scotch merchants
to construct ships because of the invariable condition that
the latter should have the privilege of a free sale of goods. 2
What degree of success did the non-importers attain in
enforcing the agreement at Boston? As already stated,
trade statistics are not satisfactory on this point, as no dis-
tinction was made between allowed and prohibited articles,
or between importation into Massachusetts and into New
England in general. And it should be recalled that two
provinces of New England were admittedly dilatory or
derelict in their professions of non-importation. Neverthe-
less, even such figures show a decrease of British imports
in_the follow1ng ve^r. ' It is certain that Lieutenant (jov-
ernor Hutchinson believed that the non-importation agree-
ment was well enforced, and that in contrast to the forces
supporting it the powers of the government were insignifi-
cant. 4 The retired Governor Bernard informed a commit-
tee of the Privy Council in June, 1770, that "a sort of
State Inquisition " had been erected in Boston and that the
agreements "were intirely done by force and to this Hour
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1770-1777), pp. 12-13, 16-17, >>'
* Bos. Gaz. , Apr. 9, May 7, 17/0.
1 Macpherson, Annals of Com. , vol. iii, p. 486, 494-495. The figures
for the year 1770 are even less informing, as trade was re-opened in
October of that year. Nevertheless, only ? 394451 was imported as
compared with ? 1,420,119 in 1771. Ibid. , pp. 508, 518-519.
4 Hosmer, Hutchinson, pp. 166-168, 437-438.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
intirely effected by having a trained Mob. " * It would
seem that two friendly eye-witnesses of these events were
singularly restrained in their judgments on the execution
of the non-importation regulation.
Wrote William Palfrey:
"the agreement has been as generally and strictly adhered
to as was possible from the nature of so extensive an under-
taking, notwithstanding all the opposition it has met with
from a few individuals. " 2 And said Dr. Andrew Eliot
in a private letter: "That there hath been deceit among
some individuals cannot be doubted. But the Town in gen-
eral has been honest, and has suffered incredibly; more, I
am persuaded, than any Town on the continent. " * Even
that exacting radical, Sam Adams, wrote to a congenial
spirit: " Thro the Influence of the Comers & Tories, Boston
has been made to appear in an odious Light. The Mer-
chants in general[have punctually abode by their Agreement,
to their very great private loss. "jj In view of all the evi-
dence, these seem conclusions which the student of history
may fairly accept.
Outside of the environs of Boston, the problem of secur-
ing enforcement of the non-importation in other ports and
towns of Massachusetts also presented some difficulties.
It proved difficult to scrutinize the conduct of Falmouth
on remote Casco Bay; and this port probably provided en-
trance for some debarred goods into the province. The
traders and inhabitants there did not formally adopt an
agreement until June 26, 1770. ? Salem and Marblehead,
1 Acts of Privy Council, Colonial, vol. v, no. 155.
* Bos. News-Letter, Aug. 31, 1769.
1 Letter of Jan. 26, 1771; 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, p. 457.
'Letter of Nov. 21, 1770 to Peter Timothy; Adams, Writings (Cash-
ing) , vol. ii, p. 65.
? Bos. Gas. , Oct. 30, 1769, July 9, 1770.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the chief trading towns next to Boston, proved more faith-
ful. The merchants of Salem adopted an agreement in Sep-
tember, 1768, similar to that of Boston of the preceding
month. 1 On May 1, 1/69, the Essex Gasette published an
itemized account of the spring importations, and concluded:
"There has not been any Goods imported here or expected
that has been wrote for since the Agreement," save, of
course, certain permitted articles. During the following
year, public notices from time to time showed that the
Salem Committee of Inspection was alert in detecting for-
bidden importations and in procuring the storing of goods. 2
In September, 1770, four dealers whose importations had
been placed in store obtained possession of them through
the assistance of a " process of law " and a doughty under-
sheriff. These persons were proscribed, as were also the
inhabitants who dealt at their stores. The town meeting
solemnly resolved that an account of the dealers' defiant
conduct should be publicly read at every annual meeting for
the next seven years. 8
The Marblehead merchants exhibited the first symptoms
of joining with Boston and Salem on October 19, 1769,
when a chest of tea, purchased of a Boston importer, was
carted ceremoniously about the streets and then returned
to its starting-point in Boston. 4 A week later the mer-
chants of Marblehead signed an agreement to dispense with
1 Essex Gas. , Sept. 6, 1768; also Bos. Gas. , Sept. 12.
1Bos. Post-Boy, July 4, 1769; Essex Gas. , Aug. 15, 1769; Bos. Gas. ,
Aug. 27, 1770. Upon news of the partial repeal of the Townshend
duties, the town meeting on May 1, 1770 voted an agreement against
the drinking of tea; and within a week three hundred sixty persons,
almost all heads of families, attached their signatures. Essex Gas. ,
May 8, 1770.
1 Ibid. , Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23. 1770.
4 Bos. Ga;. , Oct. 23, 1769.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
British importations, save certain articles, until the repeal
of the Townshend duties. 1 Under this agreement, im-
portations were duly stored with the committee by all the
merchants, except four whose names were published. 2 A
signed statement of the committee of inspection, in the
Essex Gazette, May 22, 1770, affirmed that a strict scrutiny
of all importations since the adoption of the agreement had
revealed only a few forbidden articles and these had been
sent to Boston for re-shipment to London. As was to be
expected, whispers began to reach Boston that Salem,
Marblehead, Newbury and Haverhill had deviated from non-
importation; and finally, on July 31, 1770, the merchants
and inhabitants of Boston appointed a committee to visit
the towns and make report of their observations. A week
later the committee was able to report that the towns in
question had honorably carried out their agreements and
the assembled body passed resolutions congratulating them
on their steadfastness. *
In addition to the places already mentioned, a host of
inland towns joined, in 1770, in resolutions to boycott the
Boston importers and to consume no more tea. Although
Charlestown took tms step 1n . February, the vast majority
adopted their measures coincident with the Boston Massacre
1 Mass. Gas. & News Letter, Nov. 2, 1769.
1 The proscribed merchants entered a vigorous defense and promised
future adherence to the agreement; but they won no lenience. Essex
Gas. , Dec. 19, 26, 1769; Jan. 16, 1770; MOM. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec.
28, 1769. On learning of the partial repeal of the Townshend duties,
the town meeting voted on May 10, 1770 a continuation of the agree-
ment and ordered that, whereas 719 heads of families had signed an
agreement to use no tea, the ten delinquents should be stigmatized in
the newspapers. It was also voted' that the town should pay the freight
in sending back such goods as had arrived in consequence of the
partial repeal. Essex Gas. , May 15, 1770.
* Mass. Spy, Aug. 14, 17/0; also N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 23.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
and the ensuing period of excitement. On the very day of
that affair, nine towns entered such resolutions. 1 Before
the first of April, seventeen more towns followed their ex-
ample:2 and in May, at least four other towns joined in the
resolutions. 8
The enforcement of non-importation at New York did
not present any very unusual features. The agreement
went into operation after November 1, 1768; and in the
following March, before the spring shipments began to
arrive, a committee of inspection was appointed by the
merchants who were subscribers to the agreement, with
Isaac Low at its head. 4 Low represented the best type of
merchant-reformer, and was long to head merchants' com-
mittees in their efforts to obtain trade concessions from
Parliament. He possessed wide commercial connections
and was financially interested in a slitting mill. 5 The doc-
trinaire phrase of "no taxation without representation"
meant to him merely a cover for carrying on business with
a modicum of parliamentary restraint. In the stormy days
of 1774-1775, he retained the confidence of both radicals
and conservatives, but his own influence was thrown against
the dismemberment of the empire; when war came, his
choice lay with the home country.
1 Acton, Dedham, Holliston, 'Littleton, Malden, Medway, Waltham,
Watcrtown, Westford. Most of the resolutions of this period may be
found in the Bos. Eve. Post, Mch. 19 to July 9, 1770.
1 Abington, Attleborough, Billerica, Brookfield, Cambridge, Gloucester,
Groton, Hingham, Lancaster, Medford, Milton, Pembroke, Plymouth,
Roxbury, Salisbury, Sandwich, Sudbury.
1 Andover, Boxford, Danvers, Taunton.
4 N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Mch. 20, 1769. For names of the committeemen,
vide Becker, N. Y. Parties, 1760-1776, p. 75, n. 106.
* P. Curtenius to Boston Committee of Correspondence, Aug. 26, 1774.
Bos. Com. Cor. Papers (N. Y. Pub. Libr. ), vol. ii, pp. 381-385.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
The operations of the committee of inspection differed
from those of its counterpart in Boston chiefly in requir-
ing merchandise, imported contrary to the agreement, to
be kept in a public store under the lock and key of the com-
mittee. This arrangement placed a stopper on a possible
leakage of stored goods, and created public confidence in the
good faith of the non-importing merchants. In the New
York Journal, May 11, 1769, the committee stated officially
that the several vessels which had lately arrived had brought
some packages upon consignment, which were under ban of
the agreement and which had been placed in the public
store, in all but one or two instances. 1 The New York
Gazette and Weekly Mercury of May 8 averred that the
dutied goods imported in the preceding fall amounted to
some hundreds of pounds sterling but that the amount did
"not exceed 40s. this Spring. " Later in the year, ship
masters whose cargoes contained prohibited articles found
it necessary to publish sworn statements, explaining and ex-
cusing their inadvertence. 2
The most difficult problem that the committee of in-
spection dealt with was to prevent clandestine importations
from neighboring provinces, Pennsylvania in particular.
Since the Philadelphia agreement went into effect four
months after New York, there was a constant temptation
to introduce into New York goods that had been imported
at Philadelphia later than was permitted by the local agree-
ment. Such an instance caused "uneasiness" among the
inhabitants in April, 1769, and the offending merchant
1 The public were asked to boycott these delinquents and all those
who traded with them. For the enforcement of the agreement upon
the arrival of the Britannia from London, April 29, 1769 (probably
the first case of enforcing non-importation), vide N. Y. Gas. & Merc. ,
May 1. 1769; Bos. Chron. , May 15.
'Vide two instances in AT. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Nov. 20, 1769.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
"voluntarily" returned the goods to Philadelphia. 1 Two
months later, the committee commended to the public the
action of Peter Clopper, for returning to Philadelphia, of
his own accord, some fineries which he had purchased there
for his family.