No More Learning

THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
learn when either the town of Boston in its corporate
capacity or the General Court applied to him. 1
Fortunately for the merchants, an opportunity came to
them to retrace the step they had taken in proposing a joint
agreement of non-intercourse to the other merchants of the
commercial provinces. In the early days of June, word
arrived that the merchants in the leading ports outside of
Massachusetts were not willipg- tr> jnjn in this measure. *
The members of the trading body at Boston considered
themselves absolved from their conditional pact, and^efused
absolutely to accept the repeated suggestions of Sam Adams
and the radicals to go ahead independently in the matteQ
The Reverend Charles Chauncy, of Boston, voiced radical
opinion, when he wrote on May 30, 1774, with reference to
the merchants:
so many of them are so mercenary as to find within themselves
a readiness to become slaves themselves, as well as to be
accessory to the slavery of others, if they imagine they may by
this means serve their own private separate interest. Our de-
pendence, under God, is upon the landed interest, upon our free-
holders and yeomonry. By not buying of the merchants what
they may as well do without, they may keep in their own
pockets two or three millions sterling a year, which would
otherwise be exported to Great-Brittain. I have reasons to
think the effect of this barbarous Port-act will be [such] an
agreement . . . *
Such indeed was lie strategy of which the radicals now
availed themselves. [Convinced that the merchants could
1 Letter to Philadelphia friend; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 380. The mer-
chant, George Erving, for instance, was willing to subscribe ? 2000
sterling toward a reimbursement fund for the East India Company.
/ M. H. S. Procs. , vol. viii, p. 329.
*"Y. Z. " in Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, June 27, 1774; "Candidas"
(Sam Adams) in Bos. Gae. , June 27, and Mass. Spy, July 7.
? 2 M. H. S. Procs. , vol. xvii. , pp. 266-268.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
319
not be relied upon to adopt the policy of non-intercourse,
they decided to appeal to the people directly over their
headsj On June 5, 1774, the Rosfon Coyg^/ff of Cor-
reftpondenc^ adopted a form of agreement for country
circulation and adoption, which, in the fulness of their
political sagacity, they named the "Solemn League jmd
Covenant. " 1 It was hoped, no doubt, that the country
people would be inspired by recollections of the doughty
pact which their Cromwellian progenitors had made against
King Charles more than a century before. The object of the
agreement was not the reform of commercial legislation but
the repeal of punitive laws "tending to the entire subver-
sion of our natural and charter rights. " For this purpose,
the subscribers, who might be of either sex, covenanted
with each other " in the presence of God, solemnly and in
good faith" to suspend all commercial intercourse with
Great Britain thenceforth, and neither to purchase nor use
any British imports whatsoever after October I. All per-
sons who refused to sign this or a similar covenant were to
be boycotted forever, and their names made public to the
world.
In fathering the Covenant, the Boston Committee of
Correspondence acted secretly, without authorization of
the town, and without intending to circulate the Covenant
among the people of Boston. In truth,\it was the purpose
of the committee to have the Covenant appear to be the
spontaneous action of the non-mercantile populationjpf the
1 On June 2 a sub-committee, consisting of Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr.
Benjamin Church and Mr. Greenleaf, had been instructed "to draw up
a Solemn League and Covenant. " Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. ix, pp.
763-764. According to Sam Adams, the committee bestowed "care,
pains, repeated and continued consideration upon a subject confessedly
the most difficult that ever came before them. " "Candidus" in Mass.
Spy, July 7, 1774. For text of the Covenant, vide Mass. Gaz. & Post-
Boy, June 27; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 397-398.
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? j20 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
province. Thus the radical organ, the Boston Gasette, de-
clared on June 13:
1 We learn from divers Parts of the Country that the People in
I general, having become quite impatient by not hearing a Non-
Importation Agreement has yet been come into by the Mer-
'chants, are now taking the good Work into their own Hands,
? and have and are solemnly engaging not to purchase any Goods
l imported from Great-Britain, or to trade with those who do
, import or purchase such Goods. . . .
I
i A few days later, the committee felt no qualms in declaring
'unequivocally in their correspondence: "this Effectual Plan
1 has been origanated and been thus far carried thro' by the
two venerable orders of men stiled Mechanicks & husband-
'men, the strength of every community. " *
The merchants importing goods from England were,
almost without exception, totally opposed to the Covenant
when they learned of its circulation in the country towns. 2
A formal protest, signed by many merchants, declared that
the Covenant was " a base, wicked and illegal measure, cal-
culated to distress and ruin many merchants, shopkeepers
and others in this metropolis, and affect the whole commer-
cial interest of this Province. " * The argument was taken
1 Letter to N. Y. Committee, June 18, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol.
jc, pp. 819-820. Vide also Mass. Spy, June 30, 1774; "Candidus" in
Hid. . July 7, and in Bos. Gas. , June 27. When concealment of the
truth was no longer possible, the committee simply claimed that the
plan had been "intimated to them by their brethren in the country. "
Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. x, pp. 822-824.
1Adams, S. , Writings (Cushing), vol. iii, p. 145; letters of John An-
drews in / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. viii, pp. 329-332; "An Old Man" in
Mass. Spy, July 21, 1774.
1 They declared that the staple articles of trade would cease, such as
oil, pot and pearlash, flax seed, naval stores and lumber, and that ship-
building would be seriously affected. Mass. Gos. & Post-Boy, July 4,
1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 490-491.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
32I
up by many newspaper writers in the mercantile interest,
who declaimed against the harebrained scheme and under-
handed methods of the committee of correspondence. 1 The
very legality of the existence of the committee of corres-
pondence was questioned in view of the fact that it had
been appointed in November, 1772, to perform a particular
task and its tenure could not continue longer than the end
of that year at the furthest. 2
In anticipation of the gathering storm, the radicals has-
tened to call a town meeting on June 1 7, which jurnished
sanction which its existence had lacked. The committee
were thanked for the faithful discharge of their trust and
desired to continue their vigilance and activity. 8 Though
taken by surprise, the merchants and, cnnservatiyes deter-
mined fo hringr flhOUll thp HigrV1prgp r>f the rnmmirtqe nt
correspondence. After a number of secret conferences,
tHey decided that the^fioct should he marifc at a town meet-
ing on Monday,. Tune 27. 4 Great numbers of both parties
1 The whale fishery and the cod fishery, which employed so many,
would be ruined, declared some, and without these profits merchants
would be unable to pay debts owing to entirely blameless persons in
England. Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, June 23, July 4, 1774. How could
two-thirds of the traders in the seaports, live? queried "Zach Free-
man. " Ibid. , July 18. "Y. Z. " spoke tearfully of his "sweet little
prattling Innocents" who were now being threatened with "all the
Horrors of Poverty, Beggary and Misery. " Ibid. , June 27. Others
pointed out that the boycott feature made the Covenant " as tyrannical as
the Spanish inquisition. " Ibid. , July 4, 18.
1 Vide particularly the protest signed by John Andrews, Thomas
Amory, John Amory, Caleb Blanchard, Samuel Eliot and four others.
Ibid. , July 4, 1774.
1 Ibid. , June ao, 1774; also Bos. Town Recs. (/770-J777), pp. 176-1 77-
4 The official account of this meeting is in ibid. , pp. 177-178; also
Mass. Spy, June 30, 1774. For other contemporary accounts, vide
"Candidus" in Mass. Spy, July 7; Gage's account, 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i,
pp. SI4-SIS; letter of William Barrell, M. H. S. Mss. , 41 F 66; anony-
mous account in Mass. Spy, June 30.
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? 322
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
attended, and Sam Adams was chosen moderator. A mo-
tion was passed for the reading of all letters sent by the
committee of correspondence since the receipt of the Boston
Port Act; and when this performance promised to be too
lengthy, another motion was carried for confining the read-
ing to the Covenant and letters particularly called for. This
done, Mr. [Harrison?
] Gray offered the momentous motion
that the committee of correspondence be censured and dis-
missed from further service. Adams now voluntarily
vacated the chair until the subject of the committee, whereof
he was chairman, should be disposed of; and a moderate
radical, Thomas Cushing, was chosen in his stead. The
debates which ensued lasted far into dusk; and the meeting
was adjourned to the following morning to continue the
discussion. The speakers on the mercantile side marshaled
forth all the arguments which had been ventilated in the
newspapers; and pvfn somy; pf fh<> mpre radical merchants
comglained_against the sfrurtr0"0 ~f t:TMt a"^ii">f1 f~- re-
^JYinc gr'H'r frnm ^rghnd btfprft thr finyenant wemlinto
effect. Ardent enthusiasm and a well-knitted organization
now served well the purposes of the radicals; the motion
for censure was lost bv q IftTfiP TM^JTM-trYI not more than
fifty or sixty hands being in favor. The town then voted
their approval of "the upright Intentions and . . . honest
Zeal of the Committee of Correspondence . . . " To Gov-
ernpj Gage the whole affair appeared to be clearly a case
oft. the better sort of people" being " out voted by a great
majority of the lower class. " J
Defeated in their main purpose, the merchants now used
such means as were yet at hand to discredit the Covenant.
One hundred and twenty-nine inhabitants of the town signed
a protest against the doings of the town meeting, and a
second protest, differing but slightly, appeared with eight
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
323
signatures. 1 Governor Gage also issued a proclamation
which denounced "certain persons calling themselves a
Committee of Correspondence for the town of Boston,"
for attempting to excite the people of the province "to
enter into an unwarrantable, hostile and traitorous com-
bination," and which comm^nde^ ^11 mapgfrfl|^ f"
all
disapproval of the Boston merchants and of the
government served only to increase the popularity of the
Covenant in the rural districts,J At Hardwicke, a magis-
trate, brave old Brigadier Ruggles, announced that he would
conform to Gage's proclamation and jail any man who
signed the paper; whereupon almost one hundred men
signed and left him powerless. * Worcester adopted a modi-
fied form of the Covenant, inserting the date August I in
place of October 1 as the time after which all British im-
ports should be boycotted. 4 The Worcester alteration soon
superseded the Boston plan in popular favor. Exclusive of
the places already named, the Covenant in one form or
other was adopted by at least thirteen towns, before the
meeting of the Continental Congress in September, 1774. '
Many other towns sympathized with the intent of the Cove-
nant but postponed action because of the certainty that an
1 Mass. Gaz. & Post-Boy, July 4, 1774; also / M. H. S. Procs. , vol. >>,
PP. 394-395.
'Mass. Spy, June 30, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 491-492. The
justices of the County of Plymouth also adopted an address, in which
they promised to maintain order and justice in face of all illegal com-
binations. Mass. Gas. <&' Post-Boy, July 18, 1774; also Am. Arch. , vol.
i, PP. 515-5I6.
1 Bos. Gas. , July 4, 1774.
4 Pickering Papers, vol. xxxix, p. 54.
* Athol, Bernardston, Billerica, Braintree, Brimfield, Cape Elizabeth,
Charlton, Colerain, Gloucester, Gorham, Hopkinton, Lincoln, Shrews-
bury. Vide correspondence of Bos. Com. Cor. and current newspapers.
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? 324 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
interprovjnt'al TM"grp<^ would assemble to deal with the
whole question. 1 Of serious opposition, there was little or
none. 8
The covenant movement gained further impetus by reason
of the fact that various county conventions took an in-
terest in the matter; and when the provincial convention of
Massachusetts met in October, that body resolved, on the
twenty-eighth of the month, that whereas no explicit direc-
tions had yet arrived from the Continental Congress (which
had adjourned but two days before), and as the great
majority of the people of the province had entered into
agreements of non-importation and non-consumption, they
earnestly recommended to all the inhabitants of Massachu-
setts to conform to these regulations until the Continental
Congress or the provincial convention should direct other-
wise. The convention recommended that all recalcitrant
importers be boycotted, and declared the non-consumption
of " all kinds of East India teas," urging the local commit-
tees to post the names of violators. 8 The action of the pro-
1 The committees of the maritime towns of Marblehead and Salem
named this as the cause of their inactivity, and entered the further
objection that Boston herself had not adopted the Covenant. Bos. Com.
Cor. Papers, vol. iii, pp. 475-477, 491-492; Pickering Papers, vol. xxxiii,
p. 96. At least six other towns announced themselves in favor of the
principles of the Covenant, but declared they would await the outcome
of the Continental Congress: Acton, Charlemont, Charlestown, Fal-
rrouth, f a1mer, Springfield. Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. iii, passim;
Pickering Papers, vol. xxxiii, passim.
* Forty-six traders and freeholders of Easton announced to Governor
Gage, under their signatures, that they were opposed to the Covenant
and to riots and routs. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 613-614; also Mass.
Gas. & Post-Boy, July 25, 1774. At Worcester, the conservatives made
an abortive attempt to unseat the local committee of correspondence.
Ibid. , July 4. Vide also Mass. Spy, Dec. 8.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 840, 848; also Mass. Spy, Oct. 27, Nov. 3,
1774. County conventions in Berkshire, Suffolk, Plymouth and Bristol
had gone furthest in their resolutions of non-importation and non-
consumption. Ibid. , July 28, Sept. 15, Oct. 6, 13.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
325
vincial convention capped the movement that had begun in
a small way through locally adapted covenants. Because
of the lateness of the occurrence, however, the event had
no practical importance.
Outside of Massachusetts^ the SqlernjL League, and. Cove-
nant failed to make hgadwjiy, although the Boston Com-
mittee urged it on all the New England provinces. The
Portsmouth, N. H. , Committee sent out a covenant for
adoption closely modeled on the Worcester plan, but it was
apparently adopted nowhere. 1 The towns of Rhode Island
and Connecticut objected to the measure as inexpedient.
As Silas Deane wrote to the Boston Committee in behalf of
the Connecticut General Assembly, it was the general opin-
ion that:
A congress is absolutely necessary previous to almost every
other measure . . . The resolves of merchants of any indi-
vidual town or province, however generously designed, must
be partial when considered in respect to the whole Colonies
in one general view; while, on the other hand, every measure
recommended, every resolve come into by the whole united,
colonies must carry weight and influence with it on the mind
of the people and tend effectually to silence those base insinu-
ations . . . of interested motives, sinister views, unfair prac-
tices and the like, for the vile purposes of sowing seeds of
jealousy between the Colonies . . . *
In Rhode Island the towns of Providence, Newport and
Westerly expressed their willingness to enter into a plan of
1 2 M. H. S. Procs. , vol. ii, pp. 481-486. Vide also 4 Am. Arch. > vol. i,
PP. 745-746.
'Letter of June 3, 1774; N. Y. Journ. , Mch. 9, 1775; also 4 Ant.
Arch. , vol. i, pp. 303-304. Vide also Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, pp.
111-112, 251-253; Conn. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. ii, pp. 120-130; Adams, S,
Writings (d1shing), vol. iii, pp. 114-116, 125-126.
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? 326 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
joint non-intercourse, as proposed in the Boston circular
letter of May 13; and Providence instructed her deputies
in the General Assembly to propose a continental congress
as the best means of devising an effective plan. 1 In Con-
necticut New Haven responded favorably to the Boston
circular letter on May 23; and in June, town meetings in
at least fourteen towns pledged their support to any reason-
able plan of non-intercourse drawn up by a general con-
gress. * In almost every case committees of correspond-
ence were appointed; and thus this occasion marks the ex-
tension to Connecticut of the plan of municipal committees
for radical propaganda.
The truth was that the Covenant was a device that was
particularly well adapted to the purposes of the radicals of
Massachusetts, where there had been imminent danger that
the conservative merchants would stem the tide of opposi-
tion. But there was no very good reason why other New
England provinces should join in the measure; the Boston
1 These instructions, adopted May 17, were the first instance of agi-
tation for a continental congress by a public body. R. I. Col. Recs. , vol.
vii, pp. 280-281, 289-290; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 343-344.