Such
men were, for the time being at least, moderates, being will-
ing, though for partisan reasons, to indulge in extra-legal
activities.
men were, for the time being at least, moderates, being will-
ing, though for partisan reasons, to indulge in extra-legal
activities.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
The whole episode passed off without dis-
turbance, an incipient attempt being quelled by the towns-
men themselves. 1
The people at Newport, R. I. , were even more belated in
adopting resolutions, although urged to do so by a letter
from the Boston Committee of Correspondence. Finally,
on Saturday, January 1, 1774, a notice was mysteriously
posted at the Brick Market, signed by "Legion," and
threatening that the town officials would surely be opposed
in any office in town or colony to which they might aspire,
unless a town meeting were called to adopt resolutions like
Boston and the other towns. The notice had its effect: a
town meeting was held on the following Tuesday, and at
an adjournment on January 12 the town adopted the Phila-
delphia resolutions verbatim and appointed a committee of
correspondence. 2 This prompted the smaller towns to pass
1 N. H. Gas. , July 1, 8, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 512-513.
? Mow. Gos. & Post-Boy, Jan. 17, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24.
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? 304 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
similar resolutions and became a signal for the establish-
ment of the committee of correspondence system through-
out Rhode Island. 1 Onlv one New England province re-
mained silent; and no amount of urging from Boston was
sufficient to arouse the people of Connecticut to a sense of
danger. 2
(2j[t New York we have seen that news of the Boston
vandalism had, for the moment, turned the tide in favor of
the radicals, and that at Philadelphia resolutions of ap-
proval had been impulsively adopted contrary to the judg-
ment of the " substantial thinking part. '^J Nevertheless, the
sober judgment of both towns and of the remaining prov-
inces was against the action of the Bostonians. Several
meetings of the people of Charleston, S. C. , prompted by
the radicals in January and March, 1774, proved futile in
their outcome. 8 The ebbing of the radical movement seemed
apparent on . almost pvfry hand.
1 By the end of March, Providence, Bristol, Richmond, New Shore-
ham, Cumberland and Barrington had acted. R. I. Col. Recs. , voL vii,
pp. 272-280, 283. The town of Scituate chose a committee in Sep-
tember.
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 717-718.
*S. C. Gas. , Jan. 24, Mch. 7, 21, 28, 1774; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i,
p. IOO. At the Charleston meeting of Mch. 16, a standing committee
of forty-five was appointed with power to act as executive body and to
call the inhabitants together upon occasion.
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? CHAPTER VIII
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE COMMERCIAL PROVINCES (MARCH-AUGUST,
1774)
THE ena^tmn? * "f tht "^r^1'yp af. tg fay Parliament called
forth_ the union of interests and action in America, which
the opposition to fhp FJS^ TnHia Company in the leading
sey! 2rts h. 5^-? iu! ? i,t? ~? xpke? The chief of these laws were
intended to deal with the lawless conditions which had
arisen in the province of Massachusetts Bay out of the tea
commotions. The first of the series, the Boston Port Act.
received the royal assent on the last day of March, 1774. *
This act provided for the closing 9f the harbor of Boston
to commerce from and after June 1 and the transfer of the
custom house to Marblehead and the capital to Salem. The
port of Boston was to be re-opened when the East India
Company and the customs officers and others had been re-
imbursed for the losses sustained by them during the riots,
and when the king in privy council was satisfied that trade
might be safely carried on there and the customs duly col-
lected.
After an interval of two months, two other acts were
passed which provided for thorough-going alterations^ . of
the constitution of the j^pyince. * The governor's council,
which, being elective by the Assembly, had hitherto ob-
1 14 George III, c. 19. For the parliamentary debates on this and the
following acts, vide Parliamentary History, vol. xvii, pp. 1159-1325.
* 14 George III, c. 45, c. 39-
305
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? 306 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1703. 1776
structed all efforts to suppress rioting, was now made ap-
pointive by the king, as in all other royal provinces. A
direct blow was aimed at the system of committees of cor-
respondence by the provision placing town meetings under
the immediate control of the governor from and after
August 1, and permitting only the annual meeting for the
election of officers to be held without his express authoriza-
tion. The way was prepared for a rigorous execution of
the customs laws by providing that a person might be tried
in another province or in Great Britain, who was charged
with a capital crime committed " either in the execution of
his duty as a magistrate, for the suppression of riots or in
the support of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty
as an officer of revenue," or as acting in a subordinate
capacity in either case. The three acts passed with great
majorities. 1 A motion to rescind the tea duty called forth
a remarkable speech in favor of repeal by Edmund Burke;
but the motion was lost by a large vote.
The receipt of the news of the Boston Port Act put a
new face on public affairs in America. It changed com-
pletely the nature of the contest with Parliament which had
been going on intermittently since 1764. It created the
basis for a realignment of forces and strength, the impor-
tance of which was to be a fundamental factor in the later
development of events. Hitherto the struggle with Parlia-
ment had twn if| large part, inspired and guided by_ tht
demand of the mercantile r1a. ';s for trade reforms. Each
new act of Parliament had accentuated or ameliorated busi-
ness distress in the colonies; and in proportion to the reme-
dial character of the legislation, the barometer of American
discontent had risen or fallen. To carry on their propa-
1 In June, the Quebec Act and the Quartering Act were added to the
trilogy of measures already enacted. These acts merely added fuel to
the blaze that had already started in the colonies.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 307
ganda successfully, the merchants had found it necessary to
form alliances with their natural enemies in society--with
the intelligent, hopeful radicals who dreamed of a semi-
independent American nation or something better, and with
the innumerable and nameless individuals whose brains
were in their biceps, men who were useful as long as they
could be held in leash. The passage of the Boston Port Act
and the other laws brought things to an issue between these
two elements, already grown suspicious of each other. The
question in controversy between Parliament and the colo-
nies was changed in an instant from a difference over
trade reforms to a political dispute, pure and simple, over
the right of Parliament to punish and prevent mob violence
through blockading Boston and expurgating the Massachu-
setts constitution. 1
1 Gouverneur Morris flippantly described the development of events
in New York in these terms: "It is needless to premise, that the lower
orders of mankind are more easily led by specious appearances than
those of a more exalted station. . . . The troubles in America, during
Grenville's administration, put our gentry upon this finesse. They
stimulated some daring coxcombs to rouse the mob into an attack upon
the bounds of order and decency. These fellows became the Jack
Cades of the day, the leaders in all the riots, the belwethers of the
flock. The reason of the manoeuvre in those who wished to keep fair
with the Government, and at the same time to receive the incense of
popular applause, you will readily perceive. On the whole, the shep-
herds were not much to blame in a politic point of view. The bel-
wethers jingled merrily, and roared out liberty, and property, and re-
ligion, and a multitude of cant terms, which every one thought he un-
derstood, and was egregiously mistaken. For you must know the shep-
herds kept the dictionary of the day; and, like the mysteries of the
ancient mythology, it was not for profane eyes or ears. This answered
many purposes; the simple flock put themselves entirely under the
protection of these most excellent shepherds. By and bye behold a great
metamorphosis, without the help of Ovid or his divinities but entirely
effectuated by two modern Genii, the god of Ambition and the god-
dess of Faction. The first of these prompted the shepherds to shear
some of their flock, and then, in conjunction with the other, converted
the belwethers into shepherds. That we have been in hot water with.
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? 308 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
In this new aspect of the controversy the merchants
found themselves instinctively siding with the home gov-
ernment. No commercial principle was at stake in the co-
ercive acts; and the Boston violence was a manifestation of
mob rule which every self-respecting merchant abhorred
from his very soul. Nor could he see any commercial ad-
vantage which might accrue from pursuing the will-o'-the-
wisp ideas of the radicals. The uncertain prospect which
the radical jlans h,eld forth was not comparable with the
tangible benefits which came f rornjB&mbershipjnjthe British
emp1re under py^t1"fffnnd't"iTS even absolute freedom of
trade meant little in view of the restrictive trade systems
of the leading nations of the world, the comparative ease
with which the most objectionable parliamentary regulations
continued to be evaded, and the insecure, if not dangerous,
character of any independent government which the rad-
icals might establish. When all was said and done, the mer-
chants knew that their welfare depended upon their con-
nection with Great Britain--upon the protection afforded
by the British navy, upon the acquisition of new markets by
the British Parliament since every body knows. Consequently these
new shepherds had their hands full of employment. The old ones kept
themselves least in sight, and a want of confidence in each other was
not the least evil which followed. The port of Boston has been shut
up. These sheep, simple as they are, cannot be gulled as heretofore.
In short, there is no ruling them; and now, to change the metaphor,
the heads of the mobility grow dangerous to the gentry, and how to
keep them down is the question. " Letter to Penn, May 20, 1774;
Sparks, J. , Life of Gouverneur Morris (Boston, 1832), vol. i, pp. 23-26;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 342-343. Vide also an unsigned letter in
ibid. , 302 n. , and Governor Martin's letter in N. C. Col. Recs. , vol. ix,
pp. 1083-1087. In the case of Massachusetts, vide the statement of "A
Converted Whig" who, although a member of the Boston Committee
of Correspondence, began to desert the radical cause after the Boston
Tea Party. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, pp. 103-106. For a similar view in
the case of Pennsylvania, vide Charles Thomson's letter to Drayton,
Stille, Life of Dickinson, p. 345.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
309
British arms, upon legislation which fostered their shipping,
subsidized certain industries and protected the merchants
from foreign competition in British markets. 1 Many de-
tails of this legislation had proved defective, but Parliament
had shown a disposition to correct the worst features; and
this disposition would, in all probability, continue, since
British capital invested in American trade had a powerful
representation in Parliament.
From the time of the passage of the coercive acts by
Parliament, thus, there became evident a strong drift on the
part of the colonial mercantile class to the British view-
point of the questions at issue. Many merchants at once
took their stand with the forces of government and law and
order; these men may properly be classed as conserva-
tives, or loyalists, in the same sense that the royal official
class were. Others believed that all was not yet lost and
that, by remaining in the movement, they could restrain its
excesses and give it a distinctly conservative cast.
Such
men were, for the time being at least, moderates, being will-
ing, though for partisan reasons, to indulge in extra-legal
activities.
But the coercive acts were equally important in making
converts to the radical position. Whereas the mob destruc-
tion of the tea had antagonized many people, the enactment
of the severe punitive acts served, in the judgment of many
of them, to place the greater guilt on the other side. A sig-
nificant instance was the case of Dr. Franklin, who in Feb-
ruary, 1774, had denounced the Boston Tea Party as an un-
justifiable act of violence. Writing after the passage of the
acts, he declared to his loyalist son:
1 For contemporary expositions of this view, vide The Interest of the
Merchants and Manufacturers of Great Britain in the Present Contest
with the Colonies Stated and Considered (London, 1774); broadside,
"To the Inhabitants of New-York," 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 886-888;
"Mercurius" in Ga. Gas. , Sept. 28, 1774.
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? 31o
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
do not so much as you do wonder that the Massachusetts
[Assembly] have not offered Payment for the Tea . . .
[Parliament and the ministry] have extorted many Thousand
Pounds from America unconstitutionally, under Colour of
Acts of Parliament, and with an armed Force. Of this Money
they ought to make Restitution. They might first _have taken
out Payment for the Tea, &c. and returned the:
Another conspicuous and important instance of conver-
sion was that of William Henry Drayton, the wealthy
young South Carolinian who, with fiery zeal, had excoriated
Chris Gadsden and the non-importers in 1769. A nephew
of Governor Bull and favored by appointment to various
offices in the gift of the king, he now turned definitely to
the side of the popular party. To use his own words:
The same spirit of indignation which animated me to condemn
popular measures in the year 1769, because although avowedly
in defence of liberty, they absolutely violated the freedom of
society, by demanding men, under pain of being stigmatized,
and of sustaining detriment in property, to accede to resolu-
tions, which, however well meant, could not . . . but be . . .
very grating to a freeman, so, the same spirit of indignation
. . . actuates me in like manner, now to assert my freedom
against the malignant nature of the late five Acts of Parliament.
His course was consistent, he asserted: "I opposed suc-
ceeding violations of my rights, then, by a temporary democ-
racy, now, by an established monarchy. " 2
Governor Penn described the transformation of opinion
at Philadelphia. "They look upon the chastisement of
1 Letter of Sept. 7, 1774; Writings (Smyth), vol. vi, p. 241.
'"Letter from Freeman," Aug. 10, 1774; Gibbes, Documentary His-
tory, vol. ii, pp. 12-13. Drayton felt it necessary to deny the aspersion
of his enemies that his change of faith was occasioned by disap-
pointment at failing to receive a permanent appointment as assistanz
judge. Indeed, this charge will not bear serious analysis.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 31 I
Boston to be purposely rigorous, and held up by way of
intimidation to all America . . . ," he wrote. "Their
delinquency in destroying the East India Company's tea is
lost in the attention given to what is here called the too
severe punishment of shutting up the port, altering the Con-
stitution, and making an Act, as they term it, screening the
officers and soldiers shedding American blood. " * In Vir-
ginia a similar change of opinion was revealed in the reso-
lutions adopted by county meetings. Patrick Henry's own
county of Hanover acknowledged in its resolutions:
(Whether the people there [at Boston] were warranted by
justice when they destroyed the tea, we know not; but this we
know, that the Parliament by their proceedings have made us
and all North America parties in the present dispute . . .
insomuch that, if our sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay is
enslaved, we cannot long remain free. 2J
The counties of Middlesex and Dinwiddie condemned with-
out qualification the Boston Tea Party as an "outrage,"
and added their determined protest and opposition to the
force acts of Parliament. 8
The . Boston Port Act reached Boston on May 10, 1774.
The people realized at once that the prosperity of the great
port hung in the balance, and tjYft frrTM1pg W>>ro. qqi^klv
1 Letter to Dartmouth, July 5, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 514.
1 Ibid. , vol. i, p. 616. Vide the similar resolutions of a mass meeting
of Granville County, N. C. N. C. Col. Recs. , vol. ix, pp. 1034-1036.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. SSl-553. Equally significant is the fact that
the passage of the coercive acts served as a signal for the people of
the tobacco provinces to manifest their first opposition to private ship-
ments of dutied tea. Vide the affair of the Mary and Jane in Mary-
land and Virginia; Md. Gas. , Aug. 11, 18, 1774, and Rind's Va. Gas. ,
Aug. 25; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 703-705, 727-728.
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? 312 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
formed as to the course which should be pursued. 1 The
extremists, including the more radical merchants, opposed
any restitution to the East India Company and insisted on
an immediate commercial opposition, which should go to
lengths hitherto unattempted, including not only non-impor-
tation but also non-exportation, and affecting not only Great
Britain but also every part of the West Indies, British and
foreign. 2 This party believed that the salvation of Boston
and the province depended upon swift and effective coer-
cion of Great Britain, and they were entirely willing to
sacrifice temporary businessj>enefits_for what theyesteemed
a larger politicalJgxxTTfo other; party, composed of mer-
chants ana ot conservatives generally, held that the Tea
Party had been an unjustifiable act of mob violence, and
that the best good of port and province would be served by
paying for the tea and conforming to the conditions im-
posed by the act. A member of this group analyzed the
division in public affairs in this manner ^' the merchants
who either will not or cannot make remittances, the smug-
glers, the mechanicks, and those who are facinated with the
extravagant notion of independency, all join to counteract
the majority of the merchants, and the lovers of peace and
good order. " *j
1" The present dispute," wrote one of the radicals, "seems confined
to these two sentiments: either to pay, or not to pay for the tea. "
Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 487-489.
1 They wished to include the British West Indies in the boycott be-
cause an important group in Parliament owned sugar plantations
there; and they demanded that the foreign islands should likewise be
placed beyond the pale in order to make the boycott easier to admin-
ister and also to cause the French, Danish and Dutch governments to
protest to Great Britain. Thomas Young to John Lamb, May 13, 1774;
Leake, I. Q. , Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb
(Albany, 1850), p. 85.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. . -06-508.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 313
On Friday. May M. I7^f the town meeting of Boston
adopted, _a_resolution, which__was_designed to arouse "the
united opposition of the continent to the act threatening-
Boston. The resolution was worded to attract the support
of moderate folk throughout the commercial provinces, but
in general, though not absolutely, it advocated the meas-
ures desired by the Boston radicals. It was resolved that
"if the other colonies come into a joint resolution to stop
all importations from Great Britain, and exportations to
Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the
Act for blocking up this harbour be repealed, the same will
prove the salvation of North America and her Liberties;"
otherwise " there is high reason to fear that fraud, power
and the most odious oppression will rise triumphant over
right, justice, social happiness and freedom. " * A commit-
tee was appointed to carry the resolutions in person to
Salem and Marblehead, both towns being beneficiaries of
the odious law; and the committee of correspondence was
ordered to dispatch messengers with the vote to the other
towns of Massachusetts and to the other provinces.
The resolution of May 13, soon to become famous
throughout British America, was seconded by a circular
letter sent forth the same day by the Boston Committee of
Correspondence with the concurrence of the committees of
eight adjoining towns. 2 The single question, according to
this letter, was: do you consider Boston as now suffering
in the common cause of America? if so, may we not " rely
on your suspending Trade with Great Britain at least . . . "
A few days later the town meeting resolved:
1 Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, May 16, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (1770-
1777), pp. I72-I74-
1 Charlestown, Cambridge, Brookline, Dorchester, Lexington, Lynn,
Newton and Roxbury. Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. x, pp. 810-811.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
That the trade of the town of Boston has been one essential
link in that vast chain of commerce, which, in the course of a
few ages, has raised New England to be what it is, the
Southern provinces to be what they are, the West Indies to
their wealth, and, in one word, the British Empire to that
heighth of oppulence, power, pride and splendor, at which it
now stands. 1
The radicals waited to hear the response to the Boston ap-
peal before pushing for more extreme measures.
Town meetings at Salem and Marblehead rose splendidly
to the occasion in spite of their privileged position under the
act, and endorsed the Boston resolutions. 2 Their benefits
from the act were indeed more imaginary than actual,
"Boston being the grand engine that gives motion to all the
wheels of commerce" in the province and supplying in par-
ticular an entrepot for the West Indian imports of those
ports. 8 Twenty-eight merchants of Marblehead invited the
merchants of Boston to use their storerooms and wharves
free of charge. 4 Without at present considering the atti-
tude of the seaports in other provinces, other towns in
The town of Boston faced a difficult problem, that of
1May 18. Mass. Spy, May 19, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (1770-
1777), pp. 174-175-
1 Essex Gas. , May 24, 1774; Bos. Gas. , May 30. The Marblehead
resolutions omitted mention of non-intercourse but expressed willing-
ness to enter any "rational" agreement that might be generally
adopted.
1 Letter of John Scollay, 4 Am. Areh. , vol. i, pp. 369-370; address of
Salem merchants, Mass. Spy, June 23, 1774.
4/Wrf.
* E. g.
turbance, an incipient attempt being quelled by the towns-
men themselves. 1
The people at Newport, R. I. , were even more belated in
adopting resolutions, although urged to do so by a letter
from the Boston Committee of Correspondence. Finally,
on Saturday, January 1, 1774, a notice was mysteriously
posted at the Brick Market, signed by "Legion," and
threatening that the town officials would surely be opposed
in any office in town or colony to which they might aspire,
unless a town meeting were called to adopt resolutions like
Boston and the other towns. The notice had its effect: a
town meeting was held on the following Tuesday, and at
an adjournment on January 12 the town adopted the Phila-
delphia resolutions verbatim and appointed a committee of
correspondence. 2 This prompted the smaller towns to pass
1 N. H. Gas. , July 1, 8, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 512-513.
? Mow. Gos. & Post-Boy, Jan. 17, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24.
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? 304 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
similar resolutions and became a signal for the establish-
ment of the committee of correspondence system through-
out Rhode Island. 1 Onlv one New England province re-
mained silent; and no amount of urging from Boston was
sufficient to arouse the people of Connecticut to a sense of
danger. 2
(2j[t New York we have seen that news of the Boston
vandalism had, for the moment, turned the tide in favor of
the radicals, and that at Philadelphia resolutions of ap-
proval had been impulsively adopted contrary to the judg-
ment of the " substantial thinking part. '^J Nevertheless, the
sober judgment of both towns and of the remaining prov-
inces was against the action of the Bostonians. Several
meetings of the people of Charleston, S. C. , prompted by
the radicals in January and March, 1774, proved futile in
their outcome. 8 The ebbing of the radical movement seemed
apparent on . almost pvfry hand.
1 By the end of March, Providence, Bristol, Richmond, New Shore-
ham, Cumberland and Barrington had acted. R. I. Col. Recs. , voL vii,
pp. 272-280, 283. The town of Scituate chose a committee in Sep-
tember.
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 717-718.
*S. C. Gas. , Jan. 24, Mch. 7, 21, 28, 1774; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i,
p. IOO. At the Charleston meeting of Mch. 16, a standing committee
of forty-five was appointed with power to act as executive body and to
call the inhabitants together upon occasion.
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? CHAPTER VIII
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE COMMERCIAL PROVINCES (MARCH-AUGUST,
1774)
THE ena^tmn? * "f tht "^r^1'yp af. tg fay Parliament called
forth_ the union of interests and action in America, which
the opposition to fhp FJS^ TnHia Company in the leading
sey! 2rts h. 5^-? iu! ? i,t? ~? xpke? The chief of these laws were
intended to deal with the lawless conditions which had
arisen in the province of Massachusetts Bay out of the tea
commotions. The first of the series, the Boston Port Act.
received the royal assent on the last day of March, 1774. *
This act provided for the closing 9f the harbor of Boston
to commerce from and after June 1 and the transfer of the
custom house to Marblehead and the capital to Salem. The
port of Boston was to be re-opened when the East India
Company and the customs officers and others had been re-
imbursed for the losses sustained by them during the riots,
and when the king in privy council was satisfied that trade
might be safely carried on there and the customs duly col-
lected.
After an interval of two months, two other acts were
passed which provided for thorough-going alterations^ . of
the constitution of the j^pyince. * The governor's council,
which, being elective by the Assembly, had hitherto ob-
1 14 George III, c. 19. For the parliamentary debates on this and the
following acts, vide Parliamentary History, vol. xvii, pp. 1159-1325.
* 14 George III, c. 45, c. 39-
305
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? 306 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1703. 1776
structed all efforts to suppress rioting, was now made ap-
pointive by the king, as in all other royal provinces. A
direct blow was aimed at the system of committees of cor-
respondence by the provision placing town meetings under
the immediate control of the governor from and after
August 1, and permitting only the annual meeting for the
election of officers to be held without his express authoriza-
tion. The way was prepared for a rigorous execution of
the customs laws by providing that a person might be tried
in another province or in Great Britain, who was charged
with a capital crime committed " either in the execution of
his duty as a magistrate, for the suppression of riots or in
the support of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty
as an officer of revenue," or as acting in a subordinate
capacity in either case. The three acts passed with great
majorities. 1 A motion to rescind the tea duty called forth
a remarkable speech in favor of repeal by Edmund Burke;
but the motion was lost by a large vote.
The receipt of the news of the Boston Port Act put a
new face on public affairs in America. It changed com-
pletely the nature of the contest with Parliament which had
been going on intermittently since 1764. It created the
basis for a realignment of forces and strength, the impor-
tance of which was to be a fundamental factor in the later
development of events. Hitherto the struggle with Parlia-
ment had twn if| large part, inspired and guided by_ tht
demand of the mercantile r1a. ';s for trade reforms. Each
new act of Parliament had accentuated or ameliorated busi-
ness distress in the colonies; and in proportion to the reme-
dial character of the legislation, the barometer of American
discontent had risen or fallen. To carry on their propa-
1 In June, the Quebec Act and the Quartering Act were added to the
trilogy of measures already enacted. These acts merely added fuel to
the blaze that had already started in the colonies.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 307
ganda successfully, the merchants had found it necessary to
form alliances with their natural enemies in society--with
the intelligent, hopeful radicals who dreamed of a semi-
independent American nation or something better, and with
the innumerable and nameless individuals whose brains
were in their biceps, men who were useful as long as they
could be held in leash. The passage of the Boston Port Act
and the other laws brought things to an issue between these
two elements, already grown suspicious of each other. The
question in controversy between Parliament and the colo-
nies was changed in an instant from a difference over
trade reforms to a political dispute, pure and simple, over
the right of Parliament to punish and prevent mob violence
through blockading Boston and expurgating the Massachu-
setts constitution. 1
1 Gouverneur Morris flippantly described the development of events
in New York in these terms: "It is needless to premise, that the lower
orders of mankind are more easily led by specious appearances than
those of a more exalted station. . . . The troubles in America, during
Grenville's administration, put our gentry upon this finesse. They
stimulated some daring coxcombs to rouse the mob into an attack upon
the bounds of order and decency. These fellows became the Jack
Cades of the day, the leaders in all the riots, the belwethers of the
flock. The reason of the manoeuvre in those who wished to keep fair
with the Government, and at the same time to receive the incense of
popular applause, you will readily perceive. On the whole, the shep-
herds were not much to blame in a politic point of view. The bel-
wethers jingled merrily, and roared out liberty, and property, and re-
ligion, and a multitude of cant terms, which every one thought he un-
derstood, and was egregiously mistaken. For you must know the shep-
herds kept the dictionary of the day; and, like the mysteries of the
ancient mythology, it was not for profane eyes or ears. This answered
many purposes; the simple flock put themselves entirely under the
protection of these most excellent shepherds. By and bye behold a great
metamorphosis, without the help of Ovid or his divinities but entirely
effectuated by two modern Genii, the god of Ambition and the god-
dess of Faction. The first of these prompted the shepherds to shear
some of their flock, and then, in conjunction with the other, converted
the belwethers into shepherds. That we have been in hot water with.
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? 308 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
In this new aspect of the controversy the merchants
found themselves instinctively siding with the home gov-
ernment. No commercial principle was at stake in the co-
ercive acts; and the Boston violence was a manifestation of
mob rule which every self-respecting merchant abhorred
from his very soul. Nor could he see any commercial ad-
vantage which might accrue from pursuing the will-o'-the-
wisp ideas of the radicals. The uncertain prospect which
the radical jlans h,eld forth was not comparable with the
tangible benefits which came f rornjB&mbershipjnjthe British
emp1re under py^t1"fffnnd't"iTS even absolute freedom of
trade meant little in view of the restrictive trade systems
of the leading nations of the world, the comparative ease
with which the most objectionable parliamentary regulations
continued to be evaded, and the insecure, if not dangerous,
character of any independent government which the rad-
icals might establish. When all was said and done, the mer-
chants knew that their welfare depended upon their con-
nection with Great Britain--upon the protection afforded
by the British navy, upon the acquisition of new markets by
the British Parliament since every body knows. Consequently these
new shepherds had their hands full of employment. The old ones kept
themselves least in sight, and a want of confidence in each other was
not the least evil which followed. The port of Boston has been shut
up. These sheep, simple as they are, cannot be gulled as heretofore.
In short, there is no ruling them; and now, to change the metaphor,
the heads of the mobility grow dangerous to the gentry, and how to
keep them down is the question. " Letter to Penn, May 20, 1774;
Sparks, J. , Life of Gouverneur Morris (Boston, 1832), vol. i, pp. 23-26;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 342-343. Vide also an unsigned letter in
ibid. , 302 n. , and Governor Martin's letter in N. C. Col. Recs. , vol. ix,
pp. 1083-1087. In the case of Massachusetts, vide the statement of "A
Converted Whig" who, although a member of the Boston Committee
of Correspondence, began to desert the radical cause after the Boston
Tea Party. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, pp. 103-106. For a similar view in
the case of Pennsylvania, vide Charles Thomson's letter to Drayton,
Stille, Life of Dickinson, p. 345.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
309
British arms, upon legislation which fostered their shipping,
subsidized certain industries and protected the merchants
from foreign competition in British markets. 1 Many de-
tails of this legislation had proved defective, but Parliament
had shown a disposition to correct the worst features; and
this disposition would, in all probability, continue, since
British capital invested in American trade had a powerful
representation in Parliament.
From the time of the passage of the coercive acts by
Parliament, thus, there became evident a strong drift on the
part of the colonial mercantile class to the British view-
point of the questions at issue. Many merchants at once
took their stand with the forces of government and law and
order; these men may properly be classed as conserva-
tives, or loyalists, in the same sense that the royal official
class were. Others believed that all was not yet lost and
that, by remaining in the movement, they could restrain its
excesses and give it a distinctly conservative cast.
Such
men were, for the time being at least, moderates, being will-
ing, though for partisan reasons, to indulge in extra-legal
activities.
But the coercive acts were equally important in making
converts to the radical position. Whereas the mob destruc-
tion of the tea had antagonized many people, the enactment
of the severe punitive acts served, in the judgment of many
of them, to place the greater guilt on the other side. A sig-
nificant instance was the case of Dr. Franklin, who in Feb-
ruary, 1774, had denounced the Boston Tea Party as an un-
justifiable act of violence. Writing after the passage of the
acts, he declared to his loyalist son:
1 For contemporary expositions of this view, vide The Interest of the
Merchants and Manufacturers of Great Britain in the Present Contest
with the Colonies Stated and Considered (London, 1774); broadside,
"To the Inhabitants of New-York," 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 886-888;
"Mercurius" in Ga. Gas. , Sept. 28, 1774.
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? 31o
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
do not so much as you do wonder that the Massachusetts
[Assembly] have not offered Payment for the Tea . . .
[Parliament and the ministry] have extorted many Thousand
Pounds from America unconstitutionally, under Colour of
Acts of Parliament, and with an armed Force. Of this Money
they ought to make Restitution. They might first _have taken
out Payment for the Tea, &c. and returned the:
Another conspicuous and important instance of conver-
sion was that of William Henry Drayton, the wealthy
young South Carolinian who, with fiery zeal, had excoriated
Chris Gadsden and the non-importers in 1769. A nephew
of Governor Bull and favored by appointment to various
offices in the gift of the king, he now turned definitely to
the side of the popular party. To use his own words:
The same spirit of indignation which animated me to condemn
popular measures in the year 1769, because although avowedly
in defence of liberty, they absolutely violated the freedom of
society, by demanding men, under pain of being stigmatized,
and of sustaining detriment in property, to accede to resolu-
tions, which, however well meant, could not . . . but be . . .
very grating to a freeman, so, the same spirit of indignation
. . . actuates me in like manner, now to assert my freedom
against the malignant nature of the late five Acts of Parliament.
His course was consistent, he asserted: "I opposed suc-
ceeding violations of my rights, then, by a temporary democ-
racy, now, by an established monarchy. " 2
Governor Penn described the transformation of opinion
at Philadelphia. "They look upon the chastisement of
1 Letter of Sept. 7, 1774; Writings (Smyth), vol. vi, p. 241.
'"Letter from Freeman," Aug. 10, 1774; Gibbes, Documentary His-
tory, vol. ii, pp. 12-13. Drayton felt it necessary to deny the aspersion
of his enemies that his change of faith was occasioned by disap-
pointment at failing to receive a permanent appointment as assistanz
judge. Indeed, this charge will not bear serious analysis.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 31 I
Boston to be purposely rigorous, and held up by way of
intimidation to all America . . . ," he wrote. "Their
delinquency in destroying the East India Company's tea is
lost in the attention given to what is here called the too
severe punishment of shutting up the port, altering the Con-
stitution, and making an Act, as they term it, screening the
officers and soldiers shedding American blood. " * In Vir-
ginia a similar change of opinion was revealed in the reso-
lutions adopted by county meetings. Patrick Henry's own
county of Hanover acknowledged in its resolutions:
(Whether the people there [at Boston] were warranted by
justice when they destroyed the tea, we know not; but this we
know, that the Parliament by their proceedings have made us
and all North America parties in the present dispute . . .
insomuch that, if our sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay is
enslaved, we cannot long remain free. 2J
The counties of Middlesex and Dinwiddie condemned with-
out qualification the Boston Tea Party as an "outrage,"
and added their determined protest and opposition to the
force acts of Parliament. 8
The . Boston Port Act reached Boston on May 10, 1774.
The people realized at once that the prosperity of the great
port hung in the balance, and tjYft frrTM1pg W>>ro. qqi^klv
1 Letter to Dartmouth, July 5, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 514.
1 Ibid. , vol. i, p. 616. Vide the similar resolutions of a mass meeting
of Granville County, N. C. N. C. Col. Recs. , vol. ix, pp. 1034-1036.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. SSl-553. Equally significant is the fact that
the passage of the coercive acts served as a signal for the people of
the tobacco provinces to manifest their first opposition to private ship-
ments of dutied tea. Vide the affair of the Mary and Jane in Mary-
land and Virginia; Md. Gas. , Aug. 11, 18, 1774, and Rind's Va. Gas. ,
Aug. 25; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 703-705, 727-728.
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? 312 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
formed as to the course which should be pursued. 1 The
extremists, including the more radical merchants, opposed
any restitution to the East India Company and insisted on
an immediate commercial opposition, which should go to
lengths hitherto unattempted, including not only non-impor-
tation but also non-exportation, and affecting not only Great
Britain but also every part of the West Indies, British and
foreign. 2 This party believed that the salvation of Boston
and the province depended upon swift and effective coer-
cion of Great Britain, and they were entirely willing to
sacrifice temporary businessj>enefits_for what theyesteemed
a larger politicalJgxxTTfo other; party, composed of mer-
chants ana ot conservatives generally, held that the Tea
Party had been an unjustifiable act of mob violence, and
that the best good of port and province would be served by
paying for the tea and conforming to the conditions im-
posed by the act. A member of this group analyzed the
division in public affairs in this manner ^' the merchants
who either will not or cannot make remittances, the smug-
glers, the mechanicks, and those who are facinated with the
extravagant notion of independency, all join to counteract
the majority of the merchants, and the lovers of peace and
good order. " *j
1" The present dispute," wrote one of the radicals, "seems confined
to these two sentiments: either to pay, or not to pay for the tea. "
Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 487-489.
1 They wished to include the British West Indies in the boycott be-
cause an important group in Parliament owned sugar plantations
there; and they demanded that the foreign islands should likewise be
placed beyond the pale in order to make the boycott easier to admin-
ister and also to cause the French, Danish and Dutch governments to
protest to Great Britain. Thomas Young to John Lamb, May 13, 1774;
Leake, I. Q. , Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb
(Albany, 1850), p. 85.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. . -06-508.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 313
On Friday. May M. I7^f the town meeting of Boston
adopted, _a_resolution, which__was_designed to arouse "the
united opposition of the continent to the act threatening-
Boston. The resolution was worded to attract the support
of moderate folk throughout the commercial provinces, but
in general, though not absolutely, it advocated the meas-
ures desired by the Boston radicals. It was resolved that
"if the other colonies come into a joint resolution to stop
all importations from Great Britain, and exportations to
Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the
Act for blocking up this harbour be repealed, the same will
prove the salvation of North America and her Liberties;"
otherwise " there is high reason to fear that fraud, power
and the most odious oppression will rise triumphant over
right, justice, social happiness and freedom. " * A commit-
tee was appointed to carry the resolutions in person to
Salem and Marblehead, both towns being beneficiaries of
the odious law; and the committee of correspondence was
ordered to dispatch messengers with the vote to the other
towns of Massachusetts and to the other provinces.
The resolution of May 13, soon to become famous
throughout British America, was seconded by a circular
letter sent forth the same day by the Boston Committee of
Correspondence with the concurrence of the committees of
eight adjoining towns. 2 The single question, according to
this letter, was: do you consider Boston as now suffering
in the common cause of America? if so, may we not " rely
on your suspending Trade with Great Britain at least . . . "
A few days later the town meeting resolved:
1 Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, May 16, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (1770-
1777), pp. I72-I74-
1 Charlestown, Cambridge, Brookline, Dorchester, Lexington, Lynn,
Newton and Roxbury. Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. x, pp. 810-811.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
That the trade of the town of Boston has been one essential
link in that vast chain of commerce, which, in the course of a
few ages, has raised New England to be what it is, the
Southern provinces to be what they are, the West Indies to
their wealth, and, in one word, the British Empire to that
heighth of oppulence, power, pride and splendor, at which it
now stands. 1
The radicals waited to hear the response to the Boston ap-
peal before pushing for more extreme measures.
Town meetings at Salem and Marblehead rose splendidly
to the occasion in spite of their privileged position under the
act, and endorsed the Boston resolutions. 2 Their benefits
from the act were indeed more imaginary than actual,
"Boston being the grand engine that gives motion to all the
wheels of commerce" in the province and supplying in par-
ticular an entrepot for the West Indian imports of those
ports. 8 Twenty-eight merchants of Marblehead invited the
merchants of Boston to use their storerooms and wharves
free of charge. 4 Without at present considering the atti-
tude of the seaports in other provinces, other towns in
The town of Boston faced a difficult problem, that of
1May 18. Mass. Spy, May 19, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (1770-
1777), pp. 174-175-
1 Essex Gas. , May 24, 1774; Bos. Gas. , May 30. The Marblehead
resolutions omitted mention of non-intercourse but expressed willing-
ness to enter any "rational" agreement that might be generally
adopted.
1 Letter of John Scollay, 4 Am. Areh. , vol. i, pp. 369-370; address of
Salem merchants, Mass. Spy, June 23, 1774.
4/Wrf.
* E. g.
