From that moment, as
Governor
Tryon informed Dart-
mouth, all hope of a temperate opposition was gone.
mouth, all hope of a temperate opposition was gone.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
net/2027/mdp.
39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
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? 288 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Custom-House. " l The waiting assemblage learned the
news with greatest exasperation. There were angry
speeches in the flickering candle-light. Then Sam Adams
arose to his feet and pronounced clearly the talismanic
words: "This meeting can do nothing more to save the
country. " There was an answering war-whoop out of
doors; and a disciplined mob, disguised as Mohawk In-
dians, hastened to the wharf, and with great expedition
dumped into the harbor not only the tea on board the Dart-
mouth but also that on board the other two ships. No
other property was injured; no person was harmed; no tea
was allowed to be carried away; and a great crowd on the
shore looked quietly on.
The mob that worked silently and systematically that
night was evidently no ordinary one. Exhaustive research
many years later brought forth a list of participants; but.
as very few of the men ever cared to avow their connection
with the lawless undertaking, the identity of the persons
will never definitely be known. 2 However, it is evident that
1 " His granting a pass to a vessel which had not been cleared at the
custom-house, would have been a direct violation of his oath, by mak-
ing himself an accessary in the breach of those laws which he had
sworn to observe. " Hutchinson, op. cit. , vol. iii, pp. 436-437. This is
the best defense of Hutchinson's action. Vide also Hutchinson, Diary
and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, vol. i, pp. 103-104; Maw. Arch. ,
vol. xxvii, p. 611. Nevertheless, in the preliminary weeks Hutchinson
had every opportunity, through his personal relations with the tea
consignees, to prevent the situation from reaching such an acute
stage. Had the public mind been less inflamed, the merchants as a
class would never have lent their support to the act of destruction. In
view of the dire consequences, which Hutchinson might very well have
foreseen, it would appear that he should have stretched his discretion-
ary powers to the point of permitting Rotch to depart without clear-
ance. In this connection it is worth noting that Lord Mahon in his
History of England (Boston, 1853-1854), vol. vi, p. 2, thought that
Hutchinson was "perhaps unwise" in refusing the permit.
1 Vide Drake, Tea Leaves. Cf. Pierce, E. L. , "Recollections as a
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 2
the better class of citizens toiM fjjfjr h
ters, masons, farmers, blacksmith^ qnd harpers- T^kp names
of fifteen merchants, pf the more radical stamp, including
William Molineux and Henry Bass, have been included in
the list; and it is known that Lendall Pitts, brother to John
Pitts, the selectman, had charge of one portion of the mob.
John Hancock was probably speaking the truth when he
disclaimed all knowledge of any detail of the tea destruc-
tion. 1 But it is clear that many merchants, who went into
the movement against the East India Company with the in-
tention of resorting only to peaceful opposition, were swept
by the surge of popular feeling into measures of which
their best judgment disapproved. 2 Two days after the tea
affair, Governor Hutchinson described in some amazement
the apparent callousness of the public toward the destruc-
tion of ? 15,000 of property belonging to the English com-
pany. The Stamp Act riots had excited horror and pity,
he declared, because the great loss fell upon two or three
individuals; but now no pity was expressed for " so great
Source of History," 2 M. H. S. Procs. , vol. x, pp. 473-480. Drake's list
includes 11 1 names. Contemporary accounts fixed the number of par-
ticipants variously from 50 to 200. Hutchinson said: "So many of the
actors and abettors were universally known, that a proclamation, with
a reward for discovery, would have been ridiculed. " Mass. Bay, vol.
iii, p. 439. Edes, at whose house the "Indians" rested in waiting, was,
according to his son, the only person who had a complete list of par-
ticipants; and after his death the list was taken, it would appear, by
the merchant, Benjamin Austin, as a paper whose contents he wished
not to be publicly known. Thereafter it disappeared. 1 M. H. S. Procs. ,
vol. xii, pp. 174-176.
1 Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 178. Loyalist contemporaries
claimed insistently that he was one of the mob.
1 Hutchinson wrote shortly after the tea destruction: "All this time
nobody suspected they would suffer the tea to be destroyed, there being
so many men of property active at their meetings, as Hancock, Phillips,
Rowe, Dennie, and others, besides the selectmen and the town clerk
who was clerk of all the meetings. " / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. xiii, p. 170.
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? 290
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
a body as the East India Company; it is said to be a loss
which will never be felt. " *
At Philadelphia, the eventful day arrived some days later
than at Boston. In the weeks following the public resolu-
tions of October 16 there had, seemed for a time serious
danger that the workingrnpfl of Philadelphia would Sep-
arate thetncglwc frnm faf. ftppo^tirm tn, th>> Fagt JnrHa
because of the unreasonablv high prices which
demandfT frr *u" gtnnt;c1~< *"" Early
in December, however, a committee of investigation was
appointed by the inhabitants; and, after some difficulty,
they succeeded in forcing the price of tea down to a level
of six shillings a pound. 2 This allayed the mutterings. On
Saturday evening, December 25, it was learned that the
tea ship, commanded by Captain Ayres, had arrived at
Chester; and armed by this forewarning, the vessel was
stopped the next day at Gloucester Point, about four miles
from the city. 8 Captain Ayres, being brought ashore, was
made acquainted with the feeling of the townsmen; and he
promised that he would go to sea when the people had so
expressed themselves in public meeting. Upon Monday,
eight thousand people of all ranks assembled in the Square,
and in spirited resolutions directed Captain Ayres not to
enter the vessel at the custom house but to depart imme-
diately for England. So it came about that, within six days
after the tea ship entered the Capes, she was on her way
out again with her cargo undisturbed. By preventing entry
1 Mass. Arch. , voL xxvii, p. 594. A fourth tea-ship, not yet arrived,
was cast ashore on the back of Cape Cod by a storm about this time.
Ibid. , p. 587.
? Fa. Gas. , Dec. 8, 1773; also Pa. Chron. , Dec 13.
* The principal documents relative to the tea episode in Philadelphia
may be found in Pa. Mag. , vol. xv, pp. 385-30^.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
291
at the custom house, the Philadelphians succeeded in avoid-
ing the difficulties which the Bostonians had faced, although
thereby Thomas Wharton found himself deprived tempo-
rarily of the use of a fine chariot which was consigned to
him, and other rrifrrhpnrg had tn ^o without their winter
The public meeting, after voting instructions for Ayres's
guidance, resolved their hearty approval of the destruction
of the tea at Boston. The passage of this resolve awoke
the only discord at the meeting, for the committee, which
had prepared the other resolutions in advance, had rejected
this one by a vote of ten to two. The tenor of the resolu-
tion was contrary to the sentiments of "the substantial
thinking part," and had been carried in open meeting only
through the eloquence of the two advocates and the un-
thinking enthusiasm of the crowd. *
At Ne^y York, as elsewhere, the merchants were active
in stirring up opposition to the East India Company's ship-
ments; but the development of events revealed, more
clearly than elsewhere, th<>
merchants and rafjjrak as to the proper mode of procedure. *
Preparations for the arrival began on November 10, when
a printed notice, signed by " Legion," directed the pilots to
refuse to guide the tea ship into the harbor. As the vessel
was expected sometime in December, a committee of citi-
zens exerted pressure upon the consignees to resign their
1 Pa. Mag. , vol. xiv, pp. 78-79.
1 Wharton to Walpole; Wharton, Letter-Book (Hist. Soc. of Pa. ), pp.
33-34-
* The best accounts of these events are: the narrative by "Brutus"
in N. Y. Gasetteer, May 12, 1774, reprinted in 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp.
251-258 n. ; and the modern treatment of Becker, N. Y. Parties, 1760-
1776, pp. IO2-H1. Vide also the New York newspapers during this
period.
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? 292
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
commissions; and this they cheerfully did on December 1,
although meantime an open threat of violence had been
made against them in a broadside issued by the "Mo-
hawks. " It was clearly necessary to reach an agreement as
to the nature of the opposition which should be directed
against the expected tea ship; and for this purpose a docu-
ment, entitled the "Association of the Sons of Liberty,"
was prepared as a common platform for all classes. This
paper denounced all persons who should aid in the intro-
duction of dutied teas as enemies to their country and de-
clared a boycott against them. As an onlooker of the
event put it, this document embodied " the strongest terms
of opposition, without actual violence . . . , leaving [by
implication] the use of force . . . to be resolved in some
future time in case any emergency might thereafter render
the measure necessary. " l The association was general
enough in its terms to be signed by a great number of in-
habitants, including "most of the principal lawyers, mer-
chants, landholders, masters of ships, and mechanics. "
The radicals were content with the association as a be-
ginning; and one of the ultra-radicals, Alexander McDou-
gall, assured Sam Adams in a letter of December 13 that:
"The worst that can or will happen here is the landing of
the Tea and storing it in the Fort. " 2 The boldness of the
people grew with the news of the early transactions at Bos-
ton; and in order to capitalize the excitement, the Sons of
Liberty and "every other Friend to the Liberties and
Trade of America" were summoned to a mass meeting on
December 16. Two thousand were present notwithstand-
ing the inclement weather, and they readily agreed to the
suggestion of the radical, John Lamb, that a committee of
1" Brutus," loc. eit.
1 Hos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. vi, pp. 472-473.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
293
correspondence be appointed to communicate with the other
provinces. The assemblage formally ratified the associa-
tion; and when the mayor appeared with a proposition from
the governor that the tea upon its arrival should be stored
in the Fort and not be removed except at noonday, the offer
was greeted with a thrice-repeated negative and indications
of intense indignation. The radicals had advanced beyond
the stage of halfway measures.
Thisjneeting alarmed the more conservative merchants,
Who saw plainly tha{ affairs wprp drifting in the directTon
of niftk rr>"1T7? Four days later, a few persons, among
whom Isaac Low and Jacob Walton were most active, cir-
culated a paper, the avowed purpose of which was to pledge
the signer<<t not jo rpsnrt to inrre. in opposing the introduc-
tion of the tea. The project made some headway, but was
abandoned on the next day because of the excitement
aroused by the receipt of news of the Boston Tea Party.
From that moment, as Governor Tryon informed Dart-
mouth, all hope of a temperate opposition was gone. 1 The
consignees felt no uncertainty as to the peril, and on De-
cember 27 wrote to Captain Lockyer, of the tea-ship, a
letter to be delivered upon his arrival at Sandy Hook,
notifying him of their resignation and advising him to re-
turn to sea " for the safety of your cargo, your vessel, and
your person . . . " * But the master of the tea ship had
already heard echoes of the clamor at Boston and elsewhere
in far-off Antigua, whither adverse winds had driven him
while making for New York. * When he arrived at Sandy
1 " The landing, storing and safe keeping of the Tea when stored
could be accomplished, but only under the protection of the Point of
the Bayonet and Muzle of the Cannon . . . ," wrote Tryon. N. Y. Col^
Docs. , vol. viii, pp. 407-408.
? Drake, op. cit. , p. 358.
1 Mass. Spy, Apr. 7, 1774.
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? 294
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Hook on Monday, April 18, 1774, he pursued a most cir-
cumspect course, refusing to betake himself personally to
the city without permission of the committee of correspond-
ence, and promising not to make entry at the custom house
and to continue speedily on his way.
Capain Lockyer saved the property of the East India
Company by his caution; for the populace were alert and
ready for violent measures. This was shown by an inci-
dent which occurred before Lockyer returned to sea. On
Friday of this week Captain Chambers arrived in the Lon-
don with a personal consignment of eighteen chests of tea,
whose presence on board he attempted in vain to conceal.
The facts were laid before a meeting of citizens and the
"Mohawks" were prepared for action at a concerted
signal, when some impatient souls thronged on board the
vessel, stove in the chests, and cast the tea into the waters. 1
The New Yorkers had now surpassed the Bostonians in
their radicalism, for the latter had exhausted all other ex-
pedients before employing force. The New Yorkers acted
in resentment of the glaring duplicity of Captain Chambers,
who only six months before had received the gratitude
of a New York meeting for having been one of the first
captains to refuse a tea consignment of the East India
Company.
The course of opposition in the commercial centers of the
North thus took the form of an uncompromising refusal to
permit the tea to be landed. In every instance, the move-
ment was crowned with success, because it was engineered
by an alliance of radicals and the generality of thejjjer-
1jumts. The fourth port to which the tea was consigned
1"Several persons of reputation were placed below to keep tally and
about the companion to prevent ill-disposed persons from going below
the deck. " "Brutus," loc. cit.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 295
presented a fjjfnatmn in whirh such a union of forces was
difficult to accomplish: and therefore the resistance to the
East India Company yielded results only partially sur-
cessful.
"When news of the new commercial advantages granted
to the East India Company reached Charleston, the news-
papers hardly did more than to reprint some of the more
trenchant pieces from the northern newspapers. The
Charlestonians in general experienced considerable difficulty
in discovering why they should be alarmed at receiving
dutied tea directly from the East India Company when they
had complaisantly accepted it from merchants who had
themselves bought it of the company. It was some of the
pla"*flrc who began to propagate the doctrine
of an active resistance to the East India Company and in-
vented the pleasant fiction that the private orders of cus-
tomed tea had been imported in the belief that the duty
would soon be repealed by Parliament. 1 The merchants
were loath to take any part in the movement, many of them
being factors and thus bearing a relationship to their Eng-
lish firms not unlike that of the tea consignees to the East
India Company. Furthermore, a non-importation of dutied
teas would inure to the benefit of a very small smuggling
class, and the merchants bad r? "Mis'""1 f^ pTM**"- +Vjr w/'1-
fare to that of a legitimate trading company. The mer-
chants also had large quantities of dutied teas in their stores
and, in any event, desired to dispose of this stock before
opposing the East India Company. The problem of the
radicals was to secure the backing of the mercantile ele-
ment, and to accomplish this end by making as few conces-
sions as possible.
On Thursday morning, December 2, the tea ship London
1 " Junius Brutus" in S. C. Gas. , Nov. 29, 1773.
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? 2g6 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
came to anchor before the town, containing the consign-
ment of the East India Company as well as several tea con-
signments to private merchants. At once handbills were
distributed about the streets inviting all inhabitants and
particularly the landholders to assemble at the Exchange
the next day. 1 The people responded in such numbers as to
cause the main beams of the structure to give way. In the
heated debates, it was urged that the East India Company
had the same right to import dutied teas as the private mer-
chants had been enjoying; but the greater number held
otherwise. They prevailed upon the tea consignees to re-
sign their commissions, and framed an agreement, pledging
the merchants who should sign it to a non-importation of
dutied teas. Captain Curling, of the tea ship, being present,
^'3*1 rgtr'1ptn'H *" r>>tnrn tn RtiplIflH w1'th thp tpa; but n? _
action was foken with reference to the private tea orders
on board, which were publicly landed by their owners.
The committee entrusted with the circulation of the
agreement, headed by Chris Gadsden and composed mostly
of planters, met with little success. Even the appearance
of a new agreement, signed by the " principal planters and
landholders" and threatening boycott against dealers in
dutied teas, had no visible effect on the merchants. Their
objection was that the proposed agreement was aimed
against dutied teas only and would directly enrich and en-
large the smuggling class. 2 The cause of the merchants
was suffering from lack of organization; and in order to
secure a greater solidarity, they established, on December 9,
the "Charles-Town Chamber of Commerce. " which there-
after devoted itself to promoting mercant1le interests, polit-
1 For the events of Dec. 2 and 3, vide S. C. Gas. , Dec. 6, 1773; N. Y.
Gasetteer, Dec. 23; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i, pp. 97-98.
1Two letters of the Charleston consignees; Pub. Rec. Off. , C. O. 5,
no. 133 (L. C. Transcripts), i. 4od.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
297
ical as well as economic. 1 The planters met at Mrs. Swal-
low's tavern on Wednesday, the fifteenth, in preparation
for a general meeting which had been called for Friday;
and it was probably more than a coincidence that their nat-
ural allies, the mechanics, held a meeting there at the same
time. The merchants took occasion to hold a secret meet-
ing of preparation on the following day. Under these cir-
cumstances, the crowd assembled at the Exchange on Fri-
day, December 17. The chairman, George Gabriel Powell,
opened the meeting by strongly recommending moderation.
Both radicals and merchants were represented by able
speakers; the former appeared at first to have jfte upper
hand^ and a vote was paswj for <<? *"" r^-j|pportaHon of
dutied teas. The moderates now rallied their forces, and
succeeded injtrnrrMryr the- nn^jpn to include all teas " from
any Place whatsnfyqr. " By this amendment, legitimate
traders and smugglers were placed n]\"
The merchants gained a further point in that six months
were allovyf $ for the ronsntppHpn of the teas on hand. The
radicals made a final attempt to commit the meet1ng to the
fundamental principle of " no taxation without representa-
tion;" a motion was made to prohibit from the province
wine, molasses and everything else subject to a revenue
duty imposed by Parliament. On the plea that the hour
was late, the meeting adjourned with a resolution to take up
the matter for consideration at a meeting early in Jan-
uary. 2 This, as the sequel showed, proved to be a final
disposition of the matter. 8
Meantime the period for the payment of the tea duty
expired on Tuesday night, December 21. As in the case of
1 S. C. Gas. , Dec. 13, 1773; S. C. Gas. & Coun. J own. , Dec. 28.
1Drayton, op. cit. , vol. i, pp. 97-98; 5. C. Gas. , Dec. 20, 1773; Pub.
Rec. Off. , C. O. 5, no. 133 (L. C. Transcripts), f. 4od.
? Drayton, op. cit. , vol. i, p. 100.
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? 298 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the Boston tea ship, Captain Curling had entered at the cus-
tom house and landed a part of his cargo. The resolutions
of the two public meetings foreboded a spirited resistance
to the seizure of the tea by the customs officials, but the
lukewarm support given by the merchants was a cold douche
to the hopes of the radicals. 1 The customs officers began
to land the tea about seven o'clock Wednesday morning,
and by noon all of it was placed on shore and about half of
it in the warehouse. "There was not the least disturbance,"
wrote the comptroller of the customs; "the gentlemen that
came on the wharf behaved with their usual complaisance
and good nature to me . . . " 2 The tea remained undis-
turbed in the government warehouse for three years, when
it was auctioned off for the benefit of the new revolutionary
government.
It is apparent from this recital of events that the British
government and its reluctant ally, the East India Company,
had been foiled in their attempt to effect the sale of dutied
tea, owned by the company, in the colonies. The results
of this politico-business venture were to be far reaching.
Meantime the radicals and merchants of America, having
beheld the fruits of their coalition, found time to reflect on
the situation in which they found themselves. Of the four
instances of opposition to the East India Company, the
Boston Tea Party was best calculated to enkindle the public
mind; but, to the surprise of the radicals, there was no burst-
ing forth of the flame that had swept over the country at
the time of the Stamp Act and again during the Townshend
1 Governor Bull believed that, if the merchants had been a little more
aggressive in showing disapprobation of the public meetings and the
consignees had shown a little more backbone, the plan of the East
India Company would have been put peaceably into operation. Drake,
op. cit. , pp. 339-341.
1 Ibid. , p. 342.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
299
Acts, save in Massachusetts where the fuse had been care-
fully laid by the committees of correspondence.
Chant ass generallv wag
fry th<<^anarrhy that haH 1fljfj profane hands upon property
belonging to a private trading company; and many other
people, more liberally inclined, were of their cast of mind.
As a conservative Boston journal quoted with approval:
Whenever a factious set of People rise to such a Pitch of
Insolence, as to prevent the Execution of the Laws, or destroy
the Property of Individuals, just as their Caprice or Humour
leads them; there is an end of all Order and Government,
Riot and Confusion must be the natural Consequence of such
Measures. It is impossible for Trade to flourish where Prop-
erty is insecure: Whether this has not been the Case at Boston
for some time past, you are the best Judge.
? 288 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Custom-House. " l The waiting assemblage learned the
news with greatest exasperation. There were angry
speeches in the flickering candle-light. Then Sam Adams
arose to his feet and pronounced clearly the talismanic
words: "This meeting can do nothing more to save the
country. " There was an answering war-whoop out of
doors; and a disciplined mob, disguised as Mohawk In-
dians, hastened to the wharf, and with great expedition
dumped into the harbor not only the tea on board the Dart-
mouth but also that on board the other two ships. No
other property was injured; no person was harmed; no tea
was allowed to be carried away; and a great crowd on the
shore looked quietly on.
The mob that worked silently and systematically that
night was evidently no ordinary one. Exhaustive research
many years later brought forth a list of participants; but.
as very few of the men ever cared to avow their connection
with the lawless undertaking, the identity of the persons
will never definitely be known. 2 However, it is evident that
1 " His granting a pass to a vessel which had not been cleared at the
custom-house, would have been a direct violation of his oath, by mak-
ing himself an accessary in the breach of those laws which he had
sworn to observe. " Hutchinson, op. cit. , vol. iii, pp. 436-437. This is
the best defense of Hutchinson's action. Vide also Hutchinson, Diary
and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, vol. i, pp. 103-104; Maw. Arch. ,
vol. xxvii, p. 611. Nevertheless, in the preliminary weeks Hutchinson
had every opportunity, through his personal relations with the tea
consignees, to prevent the situation from reaching such an acute
stage. Had the public mind been less inflamed, the merchants as a
class would never have lent their support to the act of destruction. In
view of the dire consequences, which Hutchinson might very well have
foreseen, it would appear that he should have stretched his discretion-
ary powers to the point of permitting Rotch to depart without clear-
ance. In this connection it is worth noting that Lord Mahon in his
History of England (Boston, 1853-1854), vol. vi, p. 2, thought that
Hutchinson was "perhaps unwise" in refusing the permit.
1 Vide Drake, Tea Leaves. Cf. Pierce, E. L. , "Recollections as a
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 2
the better class of citizens toiM fjjfjr h
ters, masons, farmers, blacksmith^ qnd harpers- T^kp names
of fifteen merchants, pf the more radical stamp, including
William Molineux and Henry Bass, have been included in
the list; and it is known that Lendall Pitts, brother to John
Pitts, the selectman, had charge of one portion of the mob.
John Hancock was probably speaking the truth when he
disclaimed all knowledge of any detail of the tea destruc-
tion. 1 But it is clear that many merchants, who went into
the movement against the East India Company with the in-
tention of resorting only to peaceful opposition, were swept
by the surge of popular feeling into measures of which
their best judgment disapproved. 2 Two days after the tea
affair, Governor Hutchinson described in some amazement
the apparent callousness of the public toward the destruc-
tion of ? 15,000 of property belonging to the English com-
pany. The Stamp Act riots had excited horror and pity,
he declared, because the great loss fell upon two or three
individuals; but now no pity was expressed for " so great
Source of History," 2 M. H. S. Procs. , vol. x, pp. 473-480. Drake's list
includes 11 1 names. Contemporary accounts fixed the number of par-
ticipants variously from 50 to 200. Hutchinson said: "So many of the
actors and abettors were universally known, that a proclamation, with
a reward for discovery, would have been ridiculed. " Mass. Bay, vol.
iii, p. 439. Edes, at whose house the "Indians" rested in waiting, was,
according to his son, the only person who had a complete list of par-
ticipants; and after his death the list was taken, it would appear, by
the merchant, Benjamin Austin, as a paper whose contents he wished
not to be publicly known. Thereafter it disappeared. 1 M. H. S. Procs. ,
vol. xii, pp. 174-176.
1 Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 178. Loyalist contemporaries
claimed insistently that he was one of the mob.
1 Hutchinson wrote shortly after the tea destruction: "All this time
nobody suspected they would suffer the tea to be destroyed, there being
so many men of property active at their meetings, as Hancock, Phillips,
Rowe, Dennie, and others, besides the selectmen and the town clerk
who was clerk of all the meetings. " / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. xiii, p. 170.
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? 290
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
a body as the East India Company; it is said to be a loss
which will never be felt. " *
At Philadelphia, the eventful day arrived some days later
than at Boston. In the weeks following the public resolu-
tions of October 16 there had, seemed for a time serious
danger that the workingrnpfl of Philadelphia would Sep-
arate thetncglwc frnm faf. ftppo^tirm tn, th>> Fagt JnrHa
because of the unreasonablv high prices which
demandfT frr *u" gtnnt;c1~< *"" Early
in December, however, a committee of investigation was
appointed by the inhabitants; and, after some difficulty,
they succeeded in forcing the price of tea down to a level
of six shillings a pound. 2 This allayed the mutterings. On
Saturday evening, December 25, it was learned that the
tea ship, commanded by Captain Ayres, had arrived at
Chester; and armed by this forewarning, the vessel was
stopped the next day at Gloucester Point, about four miles
from the city. 8 Captain Ayres, being brought ashore, was
made acquainted with the feeling of the townsmen; and he
promised that he would go to sea when the people had so
expressed themselves in public meeting. Upon Monday,
eight thousand people of all ranks assembled in the Square,
and in spirited resolutions directed Captain Ayres not to
enter the vessel at the custom house but to depart imme-
diately for England. So it came about that, within six days
after the tea ship entered the Capes, she was on her way
out again with her cargo undisturbed. By preventing entry
1 Mass. Arch. , voL xxvii, p. 594. A fourth tea-ship, not yet arrived,
was cast ashore on the back of Cape Cod by a storm about this time.
Ibid. , p. 587.
? Fa. Gas. , Dec. 8, 1773; also Pa. Chron. , Dec 13.
* The principal documents relative to the tea episode in Philadelphia
may be found in Pa. Mag. , vol. xv, pp. 385-30^.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
291
at the custom house, the Philadelphians succeeded in avoid-
ing the difficulties which the Bostonians had faced, although
thereby Thomas Wharton found himself deprived tempo-
rarily of the use of a fine chariot which was consigned to
him, and other rrifrrhpnrg had tn ^o without their winter
The public meeting, after voting instructions for Ayres's
guidance, resolved their hearty approval of the destruction
of the tea at Boston. The passage of this resolve awoke
the only discord at the meeting, for the committee, which
had prepared the other resolutions in advance, had rejected
this one by a vote of ten to two. The tenor of the resolu-
tion was contrary to the sentiments of "the substantial
thinking part," and had been carried in open meeting only
through the eloquence of the two advocates and the un-
thinking enthusiasm of the crowd. *
At Ne^y York, as elsewhere, the merchants were active
in stirring up opposition to the East India Company's ship-
ments; but the development of events revealed, more
clearly than elsewhere, th<>
merchants and rafjjrak as to the proper mode of procedure. *
Preparations for the arrival began on November 10, when
a printed notice, signed by " Legion," directed the pilots to
refuse to guide the tea ship into the harbor. As the vessel
was expected sometime in December, a committee of citi-
zens exerted pressure upon the consignees to resign their
1 Pa. Mag. , vol. xiv, pp. 78-79.
1 Wharton to Walpole; Wharton, Letter-Book (Hist. Soc. of Pa. ), pp.
33-34-
* The best accounts of these events are: the narrative by "Brutus"
in N. Y. Gasetteer, May 12, 1774, reprinted in 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp.
251-258 n. ; and the modern treatment of Becker, N. Y. Parties, 1760-
1776, pp. IO2-H1. Vide also the New York newspapers during this
period.
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? 292
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
commissions; and this they cheerfully did on December 1,
although meantime an open threat of violence had been
made against them in a broadside issued by the "Mo-
hawks. " It was clearly necessary to reach an agreement as
to the nature of the opposition which should be directed
against the expected tea ship; and for this purpose a docu-
ment, entitled the "Association of the Sons of Liberty,"
was prepared as a common platform for all classes. This
paper denounced all persons who should aid in the intro-
duction of dutied teas as enemies to their country and de-
clared a boycott against them. As an onlooker of the
event put it, this document embodied " the strongest terms
of opposition, without actual violence . . . , leaving [by
implication] the use of force . . . to be resolved in some
future time in case any emergency might thereafter render
the measure necessary. " l The association was general
enough in its terms to be signed by a great number of in-
habitants, including "most of the principal lawyers, mer-
chants, landholders, masters of ships, and mechanics. "
The radicals were content with the association as a be-
ginning; and one of the ultra-radicals, Alexander McDou-
gall, assured Sam Adams in a letter of December 13 that:
"The worst that can or will happen here is the landing of
the Tea and storing it in the Fort. " 2 The boldness of the
people grew with the news of the early transactions at Bos-
ton; and in order to capitalize the excitement, the Sons of
Liberty and "every other Friend to the Liberties and
Trade of America" were summoned to a mass meeting on
December 16. Two thousand were present notwithstand-
ing the inclement weather, and they readily agreed to the
suggestion of the radical, John Lamb, that a committee of
1" Brutus," loc. eit.
1 Hos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. vi, pp. 472-473.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
293
correspondence be appointed to communicate with the other
provinces. The assemblage formally ratified the associa-
tion; and when the mayor appeared with a proposition from
the governor that the tea upon its arrival should be stored
in the Fort and not be removed except at noonday, the offer
was greeted with a thrice-repeated negative and indications
of intense indignation. The radicals had advanced beyond
the stage of halfway measures.
Thisjneeting alarmed the more conservative merchants,
Who saw plainly tha{ affairs wprp drifting in the directTon
of niftk rr>"1T7? Four days later, a few persons, among
whom Isaac Low and Jacob Walton were most active, cir-
culated a paper, the avowed purpose of which was to pledge
the signer<<t not jo rpsnrt to inrre. in opposing the introduc-
tion of the tea. The project made some headway, but was
abandoned on the next day because of the excitement
aroused by the receipt of news of the Boston Tea Party.
From that moment, as Governor Tryon informed Dart-
mouth, all hope of a temperate opposition was gone. 1 The
consignees felt no uncertainty as to the peril, and on De-
cember 27 wrote to Captain Lockyer, of the tea-ship, a
letter to be delivered upon his arrival at Sandy Hook,
notifying him of their resignation and advising him to re-
turn to sea " for the safety of your cargo, your vessel, and
your person . . . " * But the master of the tea ship had
already heard echoes of the clamor at Boston and elsewhere
in far-off Antigua, whither adverse winds had driven him
while making for New York. * When he arrived at Sandy
1 " The landing, storing and safe keeping of the Tea when stored
could be accomplished, but only under the protection of the Point of
the Bayonet and Muzle of the Cannon . . . ," wrote Tryon. N. Y. Col^
Docs. , vol. viii, pp. 407-408.
? Drake, op. cit. , p. 358.
1 Mass. Spy, Apr. 7, 1774.
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? 294
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Hook on Monday, April 18, 1774, he pursued a most cir-
cumspect course, refusing to betake himself personally to
the city without permission of the committee of correspond-
ence, and promising not to make entry at the custom house
and to continue speedily on his way.
Capain Lockyer saved the property of the East India
Company by his caution; for the populace were alert and
ready for violent measures. This was shown by an inci-
dent which occurred before Lockyer returned to sea. On
Friday of this week Captain Chambers arrived in the Lon-
don with a personal consignment of eighteen chests of tea,
whose presence on board he attempted in vain to conceal.
The facts were laid before a meeting of citizens and the
"Mohawks" were prepared for action at a concerted
signal, when some impatient souls thronged on board the
vessel, stove in the chests, and cast the tea into the waters. 1
The New Yorkers had now surpassed the Bostonians in
their radicalism, for the latter had exhausted all other ex-
pedients before employing force. The New Yorkers acted
in resentment of the glaring duplicity of Captain Chambers,
who only six months before had received the gratitude
of a New York meeting for having been one of the first
captains to refuse a tea consignment of the East India
Company.
The course of opposition in the commercial centers of the
North thus took the form of an uncompromising refusal to
permit the tea to be landed. In every instance, the move-
ment was crowned with success, because it was engineered
by an alliance of radicals and the generality of thejjjer-
1jumts. The fourth port to which the tea was consigned
1"Several persons of reputation were placed below to keep tally and
about the companion to prevent ill-disposed persons from going below
the deck. " "Brutus," loc. cit.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 295
presented a fjjfnatmn in whirh such a union of forces was
difficult to accomplish: and therefore the resistance to the
East India Company yielded results only partially sur-
cessful.
"When news of the new commercial advantages granted
to the East India Company reached Charleston, the news-
papers hardly did more than to reprint some of the more
trenchant pieces from the northern newspapers. The
Charlestonians in general experienced considerable difficulty
in discovering why they should be alarmed at receiving
dutied tea directly from the East India Company when they
had complaisantly accepted it from merchants who had
themselves bought it of the company. It was some of the
pla"*flrc who began to propagate the doctrine
of an active resistance to the East India Company and in-
vented the pleasant fiction that the private orders of cus-
tomed tea had been imported in the belief that the duty
would soon be repealed by Parliament. 1 The merchants
were loath to take any part in the movement, many of them
being factors and thus bearing a relationship to their Eng-
lish firms not unlike that of the tea consignees to the East
India Company. Furthermore, a non-importation of dutied
teas would inure to the benefit of a very small smuggling
class, and the merchants bad r? "Mis'""1 f^ pTM**"- +Vjr w/'1-
fare to that of a legitimate trading company. The mer-
chants also had large quantities of dutied teas in their stores
and, in any event, desired to dispose of this stock before
opposing the East India Company. The problem of the
radicals was to secure the backing of the mercantile ele-
ment, and to accomplish this end by making as few conces-
sions as possible.
On Thursday morning, December 2, the tea ship London
1 " Junius Brutus" in S. C. Gas. , Nov. 29, 1773.
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? 2g6 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
came to anchor before the town, containing the consign-
ment of the East India Company as well as several tea con-
signments to private merchants. At once handbills were
distributed about the streets inviting all inhabitants and
particularly the landholders to assemble at the Exchange
the next day. 1 The people responded in such numbers as to
cause the main beams of the structure to give way. In the
heated debates, it was urged that the East India Company
had the same right to import dutied teas as the private mer-
chants had been enjoying; but the greater number held
otherwise. They prevailed upon the tea consignees to re-
sign their commissions, and framed an agreement, pledging
the merchants who should sign it to a non-importation of
dutied teas. Captain Curling, of the tea ship, being present,
^'3*1 rgtr'1ptn'H *" r>>tnrn tn RtiplIflH w1'th thp tpa; but n? _
action was foken with reference to the private tea orders
on board, which were publicly landed by their owners.
The committee entrusted with the circulation of the
agreement, headed by Chris Gadsden and composed mostly
of planters, met with little success. Even the appearance
of a new agreement, signed by the " principal planters and
landholders" and threatening boycott against dealers in
dutied teas, had no visible effect on the merchants. Their
objection was that the proposed agreement was aimed
against dutied teas only and would directly enrich and en-
large the smuggling class. 2 The cause of the merchants
was suffering from lack of organization; and in order to
secure a greater solidarity, they established, on December 9,
the "Charles-Town Chamber of Commerce. " which there-
after devoted itself to promoting mercant1le interests, polit-
1 For the events of Dec. 2 and 3, vide S. C. Gas. , Dec. 6, 1773; N. Y.
Gasetteer, Dec. 23; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i, pp. 97-98.
1Two letters of the Charleston consignees; Pub. Rec. Off. , C. O. 5,
no. 133 (L. C. Transcripts), i. 4od.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
297
ical as well as economic. 1 The planters met at Mrs. Swal-
low's tavern on Wednesday, the fifteenth, in preparation
for a general meeting which had been called for Friday;
and it was probably more than a coincidence that their nat-
ural allies, the mechanics, held a meeting there at the same
time. The merchants took occasion to hold a secret meet-
ing of preparation on the following day. Under these cir-
cumstances, the crowd assembled at the Exchange on Fri-
day, December 17. The chairman, George Gabriel Powell,
opened the meeting by strongly recommending moderation.
Both radicals and merchants were represented by able
speakers; the former appeared at first to have jfte upper
hand^ and a vote was paswj for <<? *"" r^-j|pportaHon of
dutied teas. The moderates now rallied their forces, and
succeeded injtrnrrMryr the- nn^jpn to include all teas " from
any Place whatsnfyqr. " By this amendment, legitimate
traders and smugglers were placed n]\"
The merchants gained a further point in that six months
were allovyf $ for the ronsntppHpn of the teas on hand. The
radicals made a final attempt to commit the meet1ng to the
fundamental principle of " no taxation without representa-
tion;" a motion was made to prohibit from the province
wine, molasses and everything else subject to a revenue
duty imposed by Parliament. On the plea that the hour
was late, the meeting adjourned with a resolution to take up
the matter for consideration at a meeting early in Jan-
uary. 2 This, as the sequel showed, proved to be a final
disposition of the matter. 8
Meantime the period for the payment of the tea duty
expired on Tuesday night, December 21. As in the case of
1 S. C. Gas. , Dec. 13, 1773; S. C. Gas. & Coun. J own. , Dec. 28.
1Drayton, op. cit. , vol. i, pp. 97-98; 5. C. Gas. , Dec. 20, 1773; Pub.
Rec. Off. , C. O. 5, no. 133 (L. C. Transcripts), f. 4od.
? Drayton, op. cit. , vol. i, p. 100.
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? 298 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the Boston tea ship, Captain Curling had entered at the cus-
tom house and landed a part of his cargo. The resolutions
of the two public meetings foreboded a spirited resistance
to the seizure of the tea by the customs officials, but the
lukewarm support given by the merchants was a cold douche
to the hopes of the radicals. 1 The customs officers began
to land the tea about seven o'clock Wednesday morning,
and by noon all of it was placed on shore and about half of
it in the warehouse. "There was not the least disturbance,"
wrote the comptroller of the customs; "the gentlemen that
came on the wharf behaved with their usual complaisance
and good nature to me . . . " 2 The tea remained undis-
turbed in the government warehouse for three years, when
it was auctioned off for the benefit of the new revolutionary
government.
It is apparent from this recital of events that the British
government and its reluctant ally, the East India Company,
had been foiled in their attempt to effect the sale of dutied
tea, owned by the company, in the colonies. The results
of this politico-business venture were to be far reaching.
Meantime the radicals and merchants of America, having
beheld the fruits of their coalition, found time to reflect on
the situation in which they found themselves. Of the four
instances of opposition to the East India Company, the
Boston Tea Party was best calculated to enkindle the public
mind; but, to the surprise of the radicals, there was no burst-
ing forth of the flame that had swept over the country at
the time of the Stamp Act and again during the Townshend
1 Governor Bull believed that, if the merchants had been a little more
aggressive in showing disapprobation of the public meetings and the
consignees had shown a little more backbone, the plan of the East
India Company would have been put peaceably into operation. Drake,
op. cit. , pp. 339-341.
1 Ibid. , p. 342.
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
299
Acts, save in Massachusetts where the fuse had been care-
fully laid by the committees of correspondence.
Chant ass generallv wag
fry th<<^anarrhy that haH 1fljfj profane hands upon property
belonging to a private trading company; and many other
people, more liberally inclined, were of their cast of mind.
As a conservative Boston journal quoted with approval:
Whenever a factious set of People rise to such a Pitch of
Insolence, as to prevent the Execution of the Laws, or destroy
the Property of Individuals, just as their Caprice or Humour
leads them; there is an end of all Order and Government,
Riot and Confusion must be the natural Consequence of such
Measures. It is impossible for Trade to flourish where Prop-
erty is insecure: Whether this has not been the Case at Boston
for some time past, you are the best Judge.
