No More Learning

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Act for blocking up this harbour be repealed, the same will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.
1 " Massachusettensis " in Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Jan. 2, 1775.
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? 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.