if so, may we not " rely
on your suspending Trade with Great Britain at least .
on your suspending Trade with Great Britain at least .
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
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. , the towns of Gloucester, Lunenburgh, Salisbury and Glassen-
burg and the merchants of Newburyport acted before the end of June.
Ibid. , May 19, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, pp. 155, 233; Bos.
Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. viii, p. 713; vol. x, p. 802.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 315
\
providing labor and sustenance for the hundreds of work-
ingmen thrown out of employment by the closing of the
port. The task of feeding the poor was somewhat simpli-
fied by the generous donations nf f<<wl *nA mnnry whir>l
poured in from neighboring towns and from provinces as
far away ft? 5-iouth Carolina. 1 But this outside aid entailed
a responsibility for administering the donations equitably;
and the inevitable, though ill-founded, charges of corrup-
tion appeared. 2 The committee appointed to deal with the
unemployment question resorted to all sorts of expedients
(such as, for instance, the building of a wharf with capital
furnished by the wealthier citizens); but the best results
were gotten from the pmplryiny of men to repair pave-
ments, clean public docks, dig public wells, etc. , from the
establishment of a brickyard on town land, and the subsi-
dizing of cotton and flax spinning. *
While the first anger aroused by the receipt of the Boston
Port Act was still high,[the merchants of the town were
prevailed upon by the committee of correspondence to sign
an agreement for severing all trade relations with Great
Britain upon condition that their brethren in the othe? com-
mercial provinces should embrace the same measure^ But
of what they did in haste they soon repented at leisure.
a town meeting on May 30, the merchants and trades-
1 For the correspondence of the Boston committee with the contrib-
utors of the donations, vide 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 1-278.
"'A Friend to Boston" in N. Y. Journ. , Sept. 15, 1774; refutation
of the committee, 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 277-278.
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1770-1777), pp. 174-175, 181, 185-189; 4 M, H. S.
Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 275-277.
? May 21, 1774. Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. iii, p. 187. This action
was pressed through in face of the zealous opposition of merchants
whom the committee of correspondence characterized as "the tools of
Hutchinson and of the Commissioners. " Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. x,
pp. 808-810.
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? 316 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
men attended two or three hundred strong, most of them
determined to use their endeavors to secure payment for
the tea3
But [if a contemporary may be believed] so artful and in-
dustrious were the principal heads of the opposition to gov-
ernment, that they placed themselves at the doors of the hall
and told the tradesmen as they entered that now was the time
to save our country. That if they gave their voice in favor
of paying for the tea, we should be undone, and the chains of
slavery rivitted upon us! which so terrified many honest well
meaning persons, that they thought it prudent not to act at all
in the affair . . . l
The meeting succeeded in adopting a mild non-consumption
agreement, the signers whereof agreed not to purchase any
British manufactures that could be obtained in the province
and to boycott those who conspired against the measures
of the town. 2
The impending departure of Governor Hutchinson for
England and the arrival of the new governor, Thomas
Gage, gave the merchants and conservatives an opportunity
to make a quasi-official statement of their principles in public
form. An address from [|. the Merchants and Traders of
the town of Boston and others" was presented to Hutch-
inson on May 30. This document, shrewdly enough, con-
tained a well-reasoned criticism of the Boston Port Act at
the same time that it pledged the signers in opposition to
the plans of the radicalsj It praised the "wise, zealous,
and faithful Administration" of Hutchinson, expressed a
belief that the Boston Port Act would have been more just
1 Gray, H. , A Few Remarks upon Some of the Votes and Resolutions
of the Continental Congress . . . (Boston, 1775), pp. 6-7. Reprinted
in Mag. N. Engl. Hist. , vol. ii, pp. 42-58.
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1770-1777), pp. 175-176.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 317
if Boston had been given the alternative of conforming to
its conditions within a specified period or of suffering the
harsh consequences, bore solemn testimony against popular
tumults, and asked Hutchinson to inform the king that the
signers of the address would gladly pay their share of the
damages suffered by the East India Company(R) The paper
was signed by one hundred and twenty-four men, of whom
sixty-three were merchants and shopkeepers by admission
of the radicals themselves and four others were employees
of merchants. 2 According to the lawyer, Daniel Leonard,
the signers consisted (^principally of men of property,
large family connections, and several were independant in
their circumstances and lived wholly upon the income of
their estates. . . . A very considerable proportion were
persons that had of choice kept themselves from the polit-
ical vortex . . '. while the community remained safe" but
now rallied to the cause of law and order. j When five
gentlemen went to Governor Gage and inquired what the
value of the tea destroyed was, he intimated that they would
1 Mass. Spy, June 2, 1774; also / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. xii, pp. 43-44.
The address of welcome of the merchants, traders and others to the
new governor expressed substantially the same sentiments, condemning
"lawless violences" and promising support in reimbursing the East
India Company. Bos. Eve. Post, June 13, 1774. One hundred and
twenty-seven signatures were attached. Loyal addresses, purporting to
come from the merchants, traders and other inhabitants of Marblehead
and of Salem, were likewise sent to the two gentlemen. Curwen,
Journal, pp. 426-427, 431-432.
1 A complete tabulation shows 37 merchants and factors, 4 employees,
26 shopkeepers, 7 distillers, 12 royal officials, 6 retired or professional
men, 20 artisans or mechanics, 5 farmers, 7 uncertain. / M. H. S.
Procs. , vol. xi, pp. 392-394. A number of the merchants had made
themselves unpopular in the earlier non-importation movement, such as
William Jackson, Benjamin Greene & Son, Colburn Barrell, Theophilus
Lillie, James Selkrig, and J. & P. McMasters.
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. , the towns of Gloucester, Lunenburgh, Salisbury and Glassen-
burg and the merchants of Newburyport acted before the end of June.
Ibid. , May 19, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, pp. 155, 233; Bos.
Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. viii, p. 713; vol. x, p. 802.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 315
\
providing labor and sustenance for the hundreds of work-
ingmen thrown out of employment by the closing of the
port. The task of feeding the poor was somewhat simpli-
fied by the generous donations nf f<<wl *nA mnnry whir>l
poured in from neighboring towns and from provinces as
far away ft? 5-iouth Carolina. 1 But this outside aid entailed
a responsibility for administering the donations equitably;
and the inevitable, though ill-founded, charges of corrup-
tion appeared. 2 The committee appointed to deal with the
unemployment question resorted to all sorts of expedients
(such as, for instance, the building of a wharf with capital
furnished by the wealthier citizens); but the best results
were gotten from the pmplryiny of men to repair pave-
ments, clean public docks, dig public wells, etc. , from the
establishment of a brickyard on town land, and the subsi-
dizing of cotton and flax spinning. *
While the first anger aroused by the receipt of the Boston
Port Act was still high,[the merchants of the town were
prevailed upon by the committee of correspondence to sign
an agreement for severing all trade relations with Great
Britain upon condition that their brethren in the othe? com-
mercial provinces should embrace the same measure^ But
of what they did in haste they soon repented at leisure.
a town meeting on May 30, the merchants and trades-
1 For the correspondence of the Boston committee with the contrib-
utors of the donations, vide 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 1-278.
"'A Friend to Boston" in N. Y. Journ. , Sept. 15, 1774; refutation
of the committee, 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 277-278.
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1770-1777), pp. 174-175, 181, 185-189; 4 M, H. S.
Colls. , vol. iv, pp. 275-277.
? May 21, 1774. Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. iii, p. 187. This action
was pressed through in face of the zealous opposition of merchants
whom the committee of correspondence characterized as "the tools of
Hutchinson and of the Commissioners. " Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. x,
pp. 808-810.
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? 316 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
men attended two or three hundred strong, most of them
determined to use their endeavors to secure payment for
the tea3
But [if a contemporary may be believed] so artful and in-
dustrious were the principal heads of the opposition to gov-
ernment, that they placed themselves at the doors of the hall
and told the tradesmen as they entered that now was the time
to save our country. That if they gave their voice in favor
of paying for the tea, we should be undone, and the chains of
slavery rivitted upon us! which so terrified many honest well
meaning persons, that they thought it prudent not to act at all
in the affair . . . l
The meeting succeeded in adopting a mild non-consumption
agreement, the signers whereof agreed not to purchase any
British manufactures that could be obtained in the province
and to boycott those who conspired against the measures
of the town. 2
The impending departure of Governor Hutchinson for
England and the arrival of the new governor, Thomas
Gage, gave the merchants and conservatives an opportunity
to make a quasi-official statement of their principles in public
form. An address from [|. the Merchants and Traders of
the town of Boston and others" was presented to Hutch-
inson on May 30. This document, shrewdly enough, con-
tained a well-reasoned criticism of the Boston Port Act at
the same time that it pledged the signers in opposition to
the plans of the radicalsj It praised the "wise, zealous,
and faithful Administration" of Hutchinson, expressed a
belief that the Boston Port Act would have been more just
1 Gray, H. , A Few Remarks upon Some of the Votes and Resolutions
of the Continental Congress . . . (Boston, 1775), pp. 6-7. Reprinted
in Mag. N. Engl. Hist. , vol. ii, pp. 42-58.
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1770-1777), pp. 175-176.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 317
if Boston had been given the alternative of conforming to
its conditions within a specified period or of suffering the
harsh consequences, bore solemn testimony against popular
tumults, and asked Hutchinson to inform the king that the
signers of the address would gladly pay their share of the
damages suffered by the East India Company(R) The paper
was signed by one hundred and twenty-four men, of whom
sixty-three were merchants and shopkeepers by admission
of the radicals themselves and four others were employees
of merchants. 2 According to the lawyer, Daniel Leonard,
the signers consisted (^principally of men of property,
large family connections, and several were independant in
their circumstances and lived wholly upon the income of
their estates. . . . A very considerable proportion were
persons that had of choice kept themselves from the polit-
ical vortex . . '. while the community remained safe" but
now rallied to the cause of law and order. j When five
gentlemen went to Governor Gage and inquired what the
value of the tea destroyed was, he intimated that they would
1 Mass. Spy, June 2, 1774; also / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. xii, pp. 43-44.
The address of welcome of the merchants, traders and others to the
new governor expressed substantially the same sentiments, condemning
"lawless violences" and promising support in reimbursing the East
India Company. Bos. Eve. Post, June 13, 1774. One hundred and
twenty-seven signatures were attached. Loyal addresses, purporting to
come from the merchants, traders and other inhabitants of Marblehead
and of Salem, were likewise sent to the two gentlemen. Curwen,
Journal, pp. 426-427, 431-432.
1 A complete tabulation shows 37 merchants and factors, 4 employees,
26 shopkeepers, 7 distillers, 12 royal officials, 6 retired or professional
men, 20 artisans or mechanics, 5 farmers, 7 uncertain. / M. H. S.
Procs. , vol. xi, pp. 392-394. A number of the merchants had made
themselves unpopular in the earlier non-importation movement, such as
William Jackson, Benjamin Greene & Son, Colburn Barrell, Theophilus
Lillie, James Selkrig, and J. & P. McMasters.
