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Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
"" Hancock him-
self took no notice of Mein's attack until a letter from the
New York Committee of Merchants made allusion to it;
and in a signed statement he announced: "This is ONCE
FOR ALL to certify to whom it may concern, That I
have not in one single Instance, directly or indirectly,
deviated from said Agreement; and I now publickly defy
all Mankind to prove the CONTRARY. " 3 The truth
seems to be that the worst irregularity of which he was
guilty was an occasional carelessness on the part of his
ship-masters in receiving prohibited goods as freight;
and this did not become an offense under the Boston
1 For this dispute, vide Bos. CAron. , Aug. 21, 28, Sept. 4, 18, Oct.
9; and Bos. News-Letter, Aug. 31, 1769.
1"Civis" in the N. ff. Gas. , July 6, 13, 1770, expressed surprise
that " Mr. Hancock would suffer a consignment of 35 chests of tea to
a gentleman in this town, to come in a vessel of his from London . . . "
1 Under date of January 4. A'. Y. Journ. Jan. 18, 1770-
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? NON-IMPORTATION 1gp
agreement until July 26, 1769. 1 The discrepancy be-
tween the description in the manifest and the actual con-
tents of Hancock's bales was, in all probability, due to
clerical carelessness or possibly to the notorious practice
of merchants to doctor their freight lists in order to
evade export duties in England.
In the Chronicle of October 19, Mein announced that,
if the '"well disposed' Committee" did not discontinue
"their abusive hints and publications either here or at
New York, the Public shall be entertained with Anec-
dotes of the lives and practices of many of these Worthies
as individuals; for all due pains shall be taken to unkennel
them; and already . . . a great store of materials has
been collected. " This promised expose, however, never
progressed further than a preliminary description, a week
later, of "The Characters of some who are thought to
be 'W. D. '," wherein much was said of "Deacon Clod-
pate, alias Tribulation Turnery, Esq. ," "William the
Knave,"' and other personages scarcely recognizable by
readers of the twentieth century. A few weeks later,
Mein collected the various controversial articles and
published them in a pamphlet of one hundred and thirty
'Hancock's vessel, Boston Packet, arrived on August 10 with 54
chests of tea in her cargo. Hancock wrote on Sept. 6, 1769 to his
London representatives, Haley & Hopkins: "The merchants of this
town having come into a new agreement not to suffer any freight to be
taken on board their vessels, I beg you would note the same, & prevent
any of it, except Coals, Hemp, Duck & Grindstones being put on board
any of my vessels. You will please to inform my ship masters that
they may conform themselves accordingly. " Brown, John Hancovk
His Book, p. 166.
'Probably John Barrett and William Palfrey. Barrett had imported
woolcards but had been credited on the manifest with " turnery. " This
labored performance gave " great offense" to the non-importing party,
according to Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 259.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
pages, under the title, Slate of the Importations from
Great Britain into Boston, from Jan. 1769 to Aug. 17,
1769. 1 Editions were gotten out the following year
which tabulated the later importations. These pam-
phlets were widely read in the other commercial prov-
inces and were frequently dispersed by employees of the
Customs Board. 2
The merits of the dispute between Mein and the mer-
chants may now be sufficiently clear. The strength of
Mein's position lay in being a literalist in his interpreta-
tion of the agreement; in failing to differentiate between
permissible and prohibited importations; and in testing
the efficacy of the agreement by examining the importa-
tions of non-signers as well as signers, of outsiders as
well as Bostonians, of non-merchants as well as mer-
chants. The success of the non-importation regulation,
on the other hand, lay in the sagacious exercise of a rule
of reason by the Committee of Merchants with regard
to the interpretation of the agreement, meantime placing
stress upon the performance of signers, and bringing all
possible pressure to bear upon recalcitrant merchants.
This was the course of action that was adroitly carried
out by the merchants.
While Mein was the one unrelenting opponent of non-
importation, it should not be thought that he was with-
out earnest support. Opponents of non-importation
began, after a time, to perceive the apparent contradic-
tion between the methods of the merchants and their
shibboleths. Shall we "still pretend to talk of LIBERTY,
PROPERTY and RIGHTS without a blush? " demanded
"Martyr. " "Have we not . . . established courts of
inquisition in the colonies unparalleled in any age or na-
1 Boston Chron. , Nov. 20, 1769. 'Pa. Journ. , June 28, 1770.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
171
tion? where . . . was there ever an instance of men, free
men, being summoned by illegal and mock authority to
answer for actions as offences, which are warranted by
the laws of the land, the law of nations and the law of
God ? --' for he that will not provide for his family is worse
than an infidel'. " 1 Theophilus Lillie, one of the pro-
scribed merchants, declared: "I had rather be a slave
under one master, for if I know who he is, I may per-
haps be able to please him, than a slave to an hundred
or more who I don't know where to find nor what they
will expect from me. "" Another merchant, Colburn
Barrell, placed his failure to re-ship certain goods, as he
had agreed, partly on the ground that "it was an un-
lawful agreement made with what I must call an unlaw-
ful assembly; such an agreement as both the laws of my
Maker and my Country forbid me to stand to. "8 He
maintained, further, that the laboringmen in town and
country could better afford to pay the Townshend duties
the remainder of their lives than to pay the prices ex-
acted by the merchants that winter for the necessary
articles of baize and other woolens. 4 Another newspaper
writer argued pleasantly that he thought all marrying
should discontinue until the revenue acts should be re-
pealed. "Those who marry," he observed, "may possi-
bly have children; and if we have one spark of genuine
Liberty animating our breasts, can we bear the thought
of transmitting the most abject slavery to another gen-
eration? Besides, the Ministry at home, when they see
lBos. Chron. , Jan. 15, 1770. Vide also "A Bostonian" in ibid. ,
Feb. 5.
*Mass. Gas. , Jan. 11, 1770; also Bos. Chron. , Jan. 15.
1Mass. Gaz. & News-Letter, Nov. 17, 1769.
s. Chron. , Dec. 11, 1769.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
our fixed determination to depopulate the country, will
be more shockingly mortified than . . . by any of our
resolutions to impoverish by Non-Importation. " In
short, he confided that his plan was to have all the
women stored and a committee appointed for keeping the
keys, of which he himself should be chairman. "If any
man should refuse to deliver up his wife or daughter
upon such an interesting occasion, he must be deemed
AN ENEMY To H1s COUNTRY. "'
Thomas Hutchinson got close to the root of the situ-
ation in frequent letters to the home government. He
denounced " the confederacy of the merchants " as unlaw-
ful, and showed that statutes of Parliament would al-
ways be nullified in America " if combinations to prevent
the operation of them and to sacrifice all who conform
to them are tolerated, or if towns are allowed to meet
and vote that measures for defeating such acts are legal. "
With the utmost persistence, he urged an act of Parlia-
ment for punishing all persons concerned in such con-
federacies. "
Meantime, in face of Mein's virulent efforts, more and
more pressure was brought to bear upon the little band of
obdurate importers. 8 On October 4, 1769, the town meet-
ing, ruled by the non-importers, voted its indignation that
1 Boston Chton. , Jan. 18, 1770.
1 Letters quoted by Hosmer, Hutchinson, pp. 166-168, 437-438 ; Wells,
Samuel Adams, vol. i, pp. 281, 301.
* Thus, the Seniors at Harvard College resolved never again to deal
with John Mein. Bos. Gas. , Sept . 4, 1769. The Committee of Mer-
chants published the name of a storekeeper who, under false repre-
sentations, had disposed of two chests of tea which had come from
the store of T. and E. Hutchinson. Ibid. , Sept. 11. The merchants
called before them three dealers who had imported tabooed goods and
induced them to re-ship the goods. Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Oct. 5-
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? NON-IMPORTATION
any citizens should persist in importation, and gave an
appearance of legality to the merchants' boycott of August
11 by declaring that the seven men then proscribed (not
counting the repentant Clarke & Son) should be entered
by name on the town records "that posterity may know
who those persons were that preferred their little private
advantages to the common interest of all the colonies . . . " *
Armed with this resolution, the merchants, who met the
same day, sought again to convince the importers of the
error of their ways. A committee of the merchants con-
ferred with T. and E. Hutchinson, at their own request,
and these gentlemen felt impelled to accede to every article
of the agreement, and they agreed to surrender eighteen
chests of tea, recently imported, as well as any goods which
might arrive later. A letter of the lieutenant governor,
written on the next day to an English friend, explained the
action of his sons: "My sons tell me they have sold their
T to advantage . . . tho' with the utmost difficulty; but
the spirit rose too high to be opposed any longer, and be-
sides the danger to their persons they had good reason to
fear there was a design to destroy the T;" and he con-
cluded by observing that: "It was one of the sellers of
Dutch T who made the greatest clamour; and had they im-
ported any other goods than T, they would not have sub-
mitted. " 2 Theophilus Lillie entered into similar engage-
ments with the merchants. McMasters, Rogers and Ber-
nard returned answers "highly insolent;" and Mein, for
obvious reasons, was not approached. The merchants
1 Mass. Gaz. 6- News-Letter, Oct. 5, 1769; also Bos. Town Recs.
(1758-1769), PP- 297-298.
2 Mass. Arch. , vol. xxvi, p. 386. Lillie was likewise intimidated by
popular clamor, according to his statement in the Mass. Gas. , Jan. I1,
1770.
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? 174
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
voted unanimously that these four men "were unworthy
of the future countenance and favour of the public in any
respect," and appointed a committee to publish the names
of all persons who should thereafter deal with them. 1
Several days later, Nathaniel Rogers gave up his op-
position to the agreement; and the number of firms adver-
tised as " those who AUDACIOUSLY continue to counter-
act the UNITED SENTIMENTS of the Body of Mer-
chants thro'out North-America" was reduced to three. 2
The Committee of Merchants continued its work of super-
vising the enforcement of non-importation with great assi-
duity; and its transactions were made public from time to
time. About the middle of December, the names of A. and
E. Cummings, of Boston, and Henry Barnes, a Marlboro
trader, were added to the list of those "audaciously" of-
fending. 8
Those importers, who had become eleventh-hour con-
verts to non-importation, had yielded chiefly on the sup-
^QgU1'rvn that the apriwtnfn<. wrn1lfJ pYpitv on fannary I,
1770. Imagine, then, their consternat1on wfltill, Ull October
1 TTthe merchant? ma(^e *he operation of the agreement con-
tingent upon the repeal of the Townsheflfl dunes i *~ Still
other 1mporters began to regard pledges that had been wrung
from them through intimidation as having no binding force. 5
This was a situation pregnant with trouble. Late in
December, the merchants' committee of inspection made an
1 Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Oct. 9, 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Mere. ,
Oct. 16.
1 Bos. Gas. , Oct. 9, 1769; Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Oct. 19.
1 Bos. Ga*. , Dec. 11, 1769; also Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec. 14.
4 Ibid. , Nov. 9, 17, 1769; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 266.
1 E. g. , iride statements of John Taylor and Theophilus Lillie, Bos.
Eve. Post, Jan. 15, 1770, and Mass. Gas. , Jan. 11.
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? NON-IMPORTA TION
175
examination of the goods which had been stored by the
various merchants in their own shops in rooms for which
the committee held keys. They found a considerable quan-
tity wanting in the instance of John Taylor and Theophilus
Lillie, and they heard several other merchants declare their
intention to sell their stored goods after January 1, 1770.
A meeting of the Boston merchants on December 28 voted
a boycott against Taylor and Lillie and all those who should
trade with them. The committee of inspection were di-
rected to examine all stored goods at least once a week;
and their diligence brought immediate result in placing
Benjamin Greene & Company under the ban on the follow-
ing day. 1 But, in spite of these measures, other merchants,
the Hutchinsons among them, were not deterred from re-
newing the sale of their merchandise after January 1.
The merchant body was evidently facing another crisis.
On Wednesday, January 17, 1770, a large number of the
merchants gathered at Faneuil Hall to consider more drastic
measures than hitherto had been employed, and they ad-
journed from day to day, increasing their numbers with each
adjournment. 2 It was claimed by the Chronicle that pains
had been taken to^nduce many workingmen to swell the
attendance--men^" who find it their interest to proscribe
foreign commerce because they can better dispose of the
articles they make at any extravagant price. " 2J William
Phillips acted as moderator. At the first day's session,
the recreant merchants were summoned to appear before the
meeting. When they refused, committees were sent to wait
on them separately, but with no result save a verbal promise
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 1, 1770; also N. Y. Journ. , Jan. 18.
1 For these proceedings, vide letter of S. Cooper, Am. Hist. Rev. , vol.
viii, pp. 314-316; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 22, 29, 1770; N. Y. Journ. , Feb.
1, 8, 15, Mch. 1; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, pp. 266-267.
'Bos. Chron. , Feb. 5, 1770. Article by " A Bostonian. "
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? 176 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
from the Hutchinsons to turn over their teas to the com-
mittee of inspection. Even this slight advantage was lost
when the Hutchinsons refused, on the next day, to perform
their promise. The meeting now voted unanimously that
the offending merchants, eight in number,1 had forfeited all
favor and confidence of their fellow-citizens. The whole
body of more than a thousand persons then proceeded, in
impressive and orderly array, to the houses or stores of
each of these men; and, through William Molineux as
spokesman, demanded that the goods, which had once been
placed in store, should be immediately deposited with the
committee of inspection. Only Cary made the concession
demanded. At the Hutchinson home, no one was permitted
to enter, but His Honor the Lieutenant Governor threw up
the window and chose to regard the crowd as making a
tumultuous and threatening application to him in his official
capacity. Molineux insisted that they had come in peace-
able fashion to confer with his sons about " their dishonour-
able Violation of their own contract;" whereupon Hutchin-
son replied angrily that "a contract without a consider-
ation was not valid in law. " But under the influence of
cooler thought, he sent for the moderator early next morn-
ing and effected arrangements for his sons, by which the
teas that remained unsold were delivered to the committee
and the equivalent in money paid over for the balance. The
body of merchants met later in the day and adjourned until
the Tuesday following, in order to give the other delinquents
further time to make their peace. In the interim, the
Greenes repented of their ways; but Taylor, Lillie, Rogers
and Jackson continued obdurate.
On Tuesday, January 23, the merchants voted to with-
1 John Taylor, Theophilus Lillie, Greene & Son, T. and E. Hutchinson,
Nathaniel Rogers, William Jackson and Nathaniel Cary.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
hold from these four men " not only all commercial dealings
but every Act and Office of common Civility. " Then turn-
ing their attention to John Mein and the merchants who had
been placed on the proscribed list prior to the recent un-
pleasantness, they voted that "they deserve to be driven
to that Obscurity from which they originated and to the Hole
of the Pit from whence they were digged. " The proceed-
ings of that day were spread upon handbills, distributed
through the nearby provinces and pasted up over the
chimney-pieces of the better known public houses.
The lieutenant governor took occasion, on this day, to
make a trial of strength between the merchants and the
government. For some months, he had been trying to con-
vince his council that "the Confederacy of the Merchants
and the proceedings of the town of Boston" were "un-
warrantable," but he could not persuade a majority to his
view. 1 He now decided to act without the consent of his
council; and, while the merchants were in the midst of their
discussions at Faneuil Hall, he sent the sheriff with a mes-
sage denouncing their present meeting as unjustifiable " by
any authority or colour of law," and their house-to-house
marchings en masse as conducive to terror and dangerous
in tendency. As representative of the crown, he required
them to disperse and "to forbear all such unlawful as-
semblies for the future . . . " 2 Later, by dint of impor-
tunity, the lieutenant governor succeeded in getting the
council to approve his action by a bare majority. As for
the merchants, they merely paused long enough to vote their
unanimous opinion that their meeting was lawful, and re-
sumed their transactions.
1 Letters of Hutchinson in Brit. Papers (" Sparks Mss. "), voL i, p.
114, and N. Engl. Chron. , June 22, 1775.
"Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 29, 1770; M. H. S. Ms. , 61J, 11o; Hutchinson,
Mass. Bay, vol. iii, pp. 267-268.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The renewed activity of the merchants drew another
volley from Mein. 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.
self took no notice of Mein's attack until a letter from the
New York Committee of Merchants made allusion to it;
and in a signed statement he announced: "This is ONCE
FOR ALL to certify to whom it may concern, That I
have not in one single Instance, directly or indirectly,
deviated from said Agreement; and I now publickly defy
all Mankind to prove the CONTRARY. " 3 The truth
seems to be that the worst irregularity of which he was
guilty was an occasional carelessness on the part of his
ship-masters in receiving prohibited goods as freight;
and this did not become an offense under the Boston
1 For this dispute, vide Bos. CAron. , Aug. 21, 28, Sept. 4, 18, Oct.
9; and Bos. News-Letter, Aug. 31, 1769.
1"Civis" in the N. ff. Gas. , July 6, 13, 1770, expressed surprise
that " Mr. Hancock would suffer a consignment of 35 chests of tea to
a gentleman in this town, to come in a vessel of his from London . . . "
1 Under date of January 4. A'. Y. Journ. Jan. 18, 1770-
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? NON-IMPORTATION 1gp
agreement until July 26, 1769. 1 The discrepancy be-
tween the description in the manifest and the actual con-
tents of Hancock's bales was, in all probability, due to
clerical carelessness or possibly to the notorious practice
of merchants to doctor their freight lists in order to
evade export duties in England.
In the Chronicle of October 19, Mein announced that,
if the '"well disposed' Committee" did not discontinue
"their abusive hints and publications either here or at
New York, the Public shall be entertained with Anec-
dotes of the lives and practices of many of these Worthies
as individuals; for all due pains shall be taken to unkennel
them; and already . . . a great store of materials has
been collected. " This promised expose, however, never
progressed further than a preliminary description, a week
later, of "The Characters of some who are thought to
be 'W. D. '," wherein much was said of "Deacon Clod-
pate, alias Tribulation Turnery, Esq. ," "William the
Knave,"' and other personages scarcely recognizable by
readers of the twentieth century. A few weeks later,
Mein collected the various controversial articles and
published them in a pamphlet of one hundred and thirty
'Hancock's vessel, Boston Packet, arrived on August 10 with 54
chests of tea in her cargo. Hancock wrote on Sept. 6, 1769 to his
London representatives, Haley & Hopkins: "The merchants of this
town having come into a new agreement not to suffer any freight to be
taken on board their vessels, I beg you would note the same, & prevent
any of it, except Coals, Hemp, Duck & Grindstones being put on board
any of my vessels. You will please to inform my ship masters that
they may conform themselves accordingly. " Brown, John Hancovk
His Book, p. 166.
'Probably John Barrett and William Palfrey. Barrett had imported
woolcards but had been credited on the manifest with " turnery. " This
labored performance gave " great offense" to the non-importing party,
according to Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 259.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:35 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
pages, under the title, Slate of the Importations from
Great Britain into Boston, from Jan. 1769 to Aug. 17,
1769. 1 Editions were gotten out the following year
which tabulated the later importations. These pam-
phlets were widely read in the other commercial prov-
inces and were frequently dispersed by employees of the
Customs Board. 2
The merits of the dispute between Mein and the mer-
chants may now be sufficiently clear. The strength of
Mein's position lay in being a literalist in his interpreta-
tion of the agreement; in failing to differentiate between
permissible and prohibited importations; and in testing
the efficacy of the agreement by examining the importa-
tions of non-signers as well as signers, of outsiders as
well as Bostonians, of non-merchants as well as mer-
chants. The success of the non-importation regulation,
on the other hand, lay in the sagacious exercise of a rule
of reason by the Committee of Merchants with regard
to the interpretation of the agreement, meantime placing
stress upon the performance of signers, and bringing all
possible pressure to bear upon recalcitrant merchants.
This was the course of action that was adroitly carried
out by the merchants.
While Mein was the one unrelenting opponent of non-
importation, it should not be thought that he was with-
out earnest support. Opponents of non-importation
began, after a time, to perceive the apparent contradic-
tion between the methods of the merchants and their
shibboleths. Shall we "still pretend to talk of LIBERTY,
PROPERTY and RIGHTS without a blush? " demanded
"Martyr. " "Have we not . . . established courts of
inquisition in the colonies unparalleled in any age or na-
1 Boston Chron. , Nov. 20, 1769. 'Pa. Journ. , June 28, 1770.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
171
tion? where . . . was there ever an instance of men, free
men, being summoned by illegal and mock authority to
answer for actions as offences, which are warranted by
the laws of the land, the law of nations and the law of
God ? --' for he that will not provide for his family is worse
than an infidel'. " 1 Theophilus Lillie, one of the pro-
scribed merchants, declared: "I had rather be a slave
under one master, for if I know who he is, I may per-
haps be able to please him, than a slave to an hundred
or more who I don't know where to find nor what they
will expect from me. "" Another merchant, Colburn
Barrell, placed his failure to re-ship certain goods, as he
had agreed, partly on the ground that "it was an un-
lawful agreement made with what I must call an unlaw-
ful assembly; such an agreement as both the laws of my
Maker and my Country forbid me to stand to. "8 He
maintained, further, that the laboringmen in town and
country could better afford to pay the Townshend duties
the remainder of their lives than to pay the prices ex-
acted by the merchants that winter for the necessary
articles of baize and other woolens. 4 Another newspaper
writer argued pleasantly that he thought all marrying
should discontinue until the revenue acts should be re-
pealed. "Those who marry," he observed, "may possi-
bly have children; and if we have one spark of genuine
Liberty animating our breasts, can we bear the thought
of transmitting the most abject slavery to another gen-
eration? Besides, the Ministry at home, when they see
lBos. Chron. , Jan. 15, 1770. Vide also "A Bostonian" in ibid. ,
Feb. 5.
*Mass. Gas. , Jan. 11, 1770; also Bos. Chron. , Jan. 15.
1Mass. Gaz. & News-Letter, Nov. 17, 1769.
s. Chron. , Dec. 11, 1769.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
our fixed determination to depopulate the country, will
be more shockingly mortified than . . . by any of our
resolutions to impoverish by Non-Importation. " In
short, he confided that his plan was to have all the
women stored and a committee appointed for keeping the
keys, of which he himself should be chairman. "If any
man should refuse to deliver up his wife or daughter
upon such an interesting occasion, he must be deemed
AN ENEMY To H1s COUNTRY. "'
Thomas Hutchinson got close to the root of the situ-
ation in frequent letters to the home government. He
denounced " the confederacy of the merchants " as unlaw-
ful, and showed that statutes of Parliament would al-
ways be nullified in America " if combinations to prevent
the operation of them and to sacrifice all who conform
to them are tolerated, or if towns are allowed to meet
and vote that measures for defeating such acts are legal. "
With the utmost persistence, he urged an act of Parlia-
ment for punishing all persons concerned in such con-
federacies. "
Meantime, in face of Mein's virulent efforts, more and
more pressure was brought to bear upon the little band of
obdurate importers. 8 On October 4, 1769, the town meet-
ing, ruled by the non-importers, voted its indignation that
1 Boston Chton. , Jan. 18, 1770.
1 Letters quoted by Hosmer, Hutchinson, pp. 166-168, 437-438 ; Wells,
Samuel Adams, vol. i, pp. 281, 301.
* Thus, the Seniors at Harvard College resolved never again to deal
with John Mein. Bos. Gas. , Sept . 4, 1769. The Committee of Mer-
chants published the name of a storekeeper who, under false repre-
sentations, had disposed of two chests of tea which had come from
the store of T. and E. Hutchinson. Ibid. , Sept. 11. The merchants
called before them three dealers who had imported tabooed goods and
induced them to re-ship the goods. Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Oct. 5-
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? NON-IMPORTATION
any citizens should persist in importation, and gave an
appearance of legality to the merchants' boycott of August
11 by declaring that the seven men then proscribed (not
counting the repentant Clarke & Son) should be entered
by name on the town records "that posterity may know
who those persons were that preferred their little private
advantages to the common interest of all the colonies . . . " *
Armed with this resolution, the merchants, who met the
same day, sought again to convince the importers of the
error of their ways. A committee of the merchants con-
ferred with T. and E. Hutchinson, at their own request,
and these gentlemen felt impelled to accede to every article
of the agreement, and they agreed to surrender eighteen
chests of tea, recently imported, as well as any goods which
might arrive later. A letter of the lieutenant governor,
written on the next day to an English friend, explained the
action of his sons: "My sons tell me they have sold their
T to advantage . . . tho' with the utmost difficulty; but
the spirit rose too high to be opposed any longer, and be-
sides the danger to their persons they had good reason to
fear there was a design to destroy the T;" and he con-
cluded by observing that: "It was one of the sellers of
Dutch T who made the greatest clamour; and had they im-
ported any other goods than T, they would not have sub-
mitted. " 2 Theophilus Lillie entered into similar engage-
ments with the merchants. McMasters, Rogers and Ber-
nard returned answers "highly insolent;" and Mein, for
obvious reasons, was not approached. The merchants
1 Mass. Gaz. 6- News-Letter, Oct. 5, 1769; also Bos. Town Recs.
(1758-1769), PP- 297-298.
2 Mass. Arch. , vol. xxvi, p. 386. Lillie was likewise intimidated by
popular clamor, according to his statement in the Mass. Gas. , Jan. I1,
1770.
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? 174
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
voted unanimously that these four men "were unworthy
of the future countenance and favour of the public in any
respect," and appointed a committee to publish the names
of all persons who should thereafter deal with them. 1
Several days later, Nathaniel Rogers gave up his op-
position to the agreement; and the number of firms adver-
tised as " those who AUDACIOUSLY continue to counter-
act the UNITED SENTIMENTS of the Body of Mer-
chants thro'out North-America" was reduced to three. 2
The Committee of Merchants continued its work of super-
vising the enforcement of non-importation with great assi-
duity; and its transactions were made public from time to
time. About the middle of December, the names of A. and
E. Cummings, of Boston, and Henry Barnes, a Marlboro
trader, were added to the list of those "audaciously" of-
fending. 8
Those importers, who had become eleventh-hour con-
verts to non-importation, had yielded chiefly on the sup-
^QgU1'rvn that the apriwtnfn<. wrn1lfJ pYpitv on fannary I,
1770. Imagine, then, their consternat1on wfltill, Ull October
1 TTthe merchant? ma(^e *he operation of the agreement con-
tingent upon the repeal of the Townsheflfl dunes i *~ Still
other 1mporters began to regard pledges that had been wrung
from them through intimidation as having no binding force. 5
This was a situation pregnant with trouble. Late in
December, the merchants' committee of inspection made an
1 Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Oct. 9, 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Mere. ,
Oct. 16.
1 Bos. Gas. , Oct. 9, 1769; Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Oct. 19.
1 Bos. Ga*. , Dec. 11, 1769; also Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec. 14.
4 Ibid. , Nov. 9, 17, 1769; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 266.
1 E. g. , iride statements of John Taylor and Theophilus Lillie, Bos.
Eve. Post, Jan. 15, 1770, and Mass. Gas. , Jan. 11.
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? NON-IMPORTA TION
175
examination of the goods which had been stored by the
various merchants in their own shops in rooms for which
the committee held keys. They found a considerable quan-
tity wanting in the instance of John Taylor and Theophilus
Lillie, and they heard several other merchants declare their
intention to sell their stored goods after January 1, 1770.
A meeting of the Boston merchants on December 28 voted
a boycott against Taylor and Lillie and all those who should
trade with them. The committee of inspection were di-
rected to examine all stored goods at least once a week;
and their diligence brought immediate result in placing
Benjamin Greene & Company under the ban on the follow-
ing day. 1 But, in spite of these measures, other merchants,
the Hutchinsons among them, were not deterred from re-
newing the sale of their merchandise after January 1.
The merchant body was evidently facing another crisis.
On Wednesday, January 17, 1770, a large number of the
merchants gathered at Faneuil Hall to consider more drastic
measures than hitherto had been employed, and they ad-
journed from day to day, increasing their numbers with each
adjournment. 2 It was claimed by the Chronicle that pains
had been taken to^nduce many workingmen to swell the
attendance--men^" who find it their interest to proscribe
foreign commerce because they can better dispose of the
articles they make at any extravagant price. " 2J William
Phillips acted as moderator. At the first day's session,
the recreant merchants were summoned to appear before the
meeting. When they refused, committees were sent to wait
on them separately, but with no result save a verbal promise
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 1, 1770; also N. Y. Journ. , Jan. 18.
1 For these proceedings, vide letter of S. Cooper, Am. Hist. Rev. , vol.
viii, pp. 314-316; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 22, 29, 1770; N. Y. Journ. , Feb.
1, 8, 15, Mch. 1; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, pp. 266-267.
'Bos. Chron. , Feb. 5, 1770. Article by " A Bostonian. "
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? 176 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
from the Hutchinsons to turn over their teas to the com-
mittee of inspection. Even this slight advantage was lost
when the Hutchinsons refused, on the next day, to perform
their promise. The meeting now voted unanimously that
the offending merchants, eight in number,1 had forfeited all
favor and confidence of their fellow-citizens. The whole
body of more than a thousand persons then proceeded, in
impressive and orderly array, to the houses or stores of
each of these men; and, through William Molineux as
spokesman, demanded that the goods, which had once been
placed in store, should be immediately deposited with the
committee of inspection. Only Cary made the concession
demanded. At the Hutchinson home, no one was permitted
to enter, but His Honor the Lieutenant Governor threw up
the window and chose to regard the crowd as making a
tumultuous and threatening application to him in his official
capacity. Molineux insisted that they had come in peace-
able fashion to confer with his sons about " their dishonour-
able Violation of their own contract;" whereupon Hutchin-
son replied angrily that "a contract without a consider-
ation was not valid in law. " But under the influence of
cooler thought, he sent for the moderator early next morn-
ing and effected arrangements for his sons, by which the
teas that remained unsold were delivered to the committee
and the equivalent in money paid over for the balance. The
body of merchants met later in the day and adjourned until
the Tuesday following, in order to give the other delinquents
further time to make their peace. In the interim, the
Greenes repented of their ways; but Taylor, Lillie, Rogers
and Jackson continued obdurate.
On Tuesday, January 23, the merchants voted to with-
1 John Taylor, Theophilus Lillie, Greene & Son, T. and E. Hutchinson,
Nathaniel Rogers, William Jackson and Nathaniel Cary.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
hold from these four men " not only all commercial dealings
but every Act and Office of common Civility. " Then turn-
ing their attention to John Mein and the merchants who had
been placed on the proscribed list prior to the recent un-
pleasantness, they voted that "they deserve to be driven
to that Obscurity from which they originated and to the Hole
of the Pit from whence they were digged. " The proceed-
ings of that day were spread upon handbills, distributed
through the nearby provinces and pasted up over the
chimney-pieces of the better known public houses.
The lieutenant governor took occasion, on this day, to
make a trial of strength between the merchants and the
government. For some months, he had been trying to con-
vince his council that "the Confederacy of the Merchants
and the proceedings of the town of Boston" were "un-
warrantable," but he could not persuade a majority to his
view. 1 He now decided to act without the consent of his
council; and, while the merchants were in the midst of their
discussions at Faneuil Hall, he sent the sheriff with a mes-
sage denouncing their present meeting as unjustifiable " by
any authority or colour of law," and their house-to-house
marchings en masse as conducive to terror and dangerous
in tendency. As representative of the crown, he required
them to disperse and "to forbear all such unlawful as-
semblies for the future . . . " 2 Later, by dint of impor-
tunity, the lieutenant governor succeeded in getting the
council to approve his action by a bare majority. As for
the merchants, they merely paused long enough to vote their
unanimous opinion that their meeting was lawful, and re-
sumed their transactions.
1 Letters of Hutchinson in Brit. Papers (" Sparks Mss. "), voL i, p.
114, and N. Engl. Chron. , June 22, 1775.
"Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 29, 1770; M. H. S. Ms. , 61J, 11o; Hutchinson,
Mass. Bay, vol. iii, pp. 267-268.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The renewed activity of the merchants drew another
volley from Mein. 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.
