"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 .
wrote the comptroller of the customs; "the gentlemen that
came on the wharf behaved with their usual complaisance
and good nature to me .
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
"
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. There is a strange
Spirit of Licentiousness gone forth into the World, which
shelters itself under the venerable and endearing Name of
LIBERTY, buti is as different from it as Folly is from Wisdom. 1
Furthermore, what right did the Bostonians have to pose
as the jealous guardians of the principle of local taxation, it
was asked in many parts of British America, when Boston-
ians had been the most notorious importers of dutied teas
during the last two or three years? Even Dr. Franklin.
who from his official position at London represented all
America more nearly than any other one man, called the
tea destruction "an Act of violent Injustice on nnr part. "
He wrote at length to the Massachusetts Committee of Cor-
respondence:
truly concern'd as I believe all considerate Men are with
you, that there should seem to any a Necessity for carrying
Matters to such Extremity, as, in a Dispute about Publick
1 Words of an Englishman writing to an American friend; Mass.
Gas. & Newz-Letter, Nov. 17, 1774-
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? 3oo
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Rights, to destroy private Property. . . . I cannot but wish
& hope that before any compulsive Measures are thought of
here, our General Court will have shewn a Disposition to re-
pair the Damage and make Compensation to the Company . J
As has been suggested, Sam Adams's committee system
taught the inhabitants of Massachusetts and the nearby
provinces to react differently, although even here the mari-
time town of Bristol, R. I. , saw fit to qualify its resolutions
against the East India Company by declaring:
Some may apprehend there is danger from another quarter,
generally unforeseen and unsuspected; that anarchy and con-
fusion, which may prevail, will as naturally establish tyranny
and arbitrary power, as one extreme leads to another; many
on the side of liberty, when they see it degenerating into an-
archy, fearing their persons are not safe, nor their property-
secure, will be likely to verge to the other extreme. . . . 2
From the moment of the sinking of the tea at Boston,
public sentiment in Massachusetts entirely escaped any
bounds that the mercantile element could have set for it. It
has been shown how, in the earlier months, the popular de-
mands, originally directed against the dutied shipments of
the British trading monopoly alone, were extended to in-
clude consignments to private merchants as well. Imme-
diately after the tea destruction, the radicals proceeded to
take the logical next step---the boycott of all {eas. whetfief
dutied (y smngg-fod. This may have been done to propitiate
the dealers in legal teas; but it also had the effect of pre-
venting the selling of customed teas to unsuspecting persons
who believed they were buying the contraband article. 8
1 Letter of Feb. 2, 1774; Writings (Smyth), vol. vi, pp. 178-180. Vide
also ibid. , p. 223.
1 R. I. Col. Recs. , vol. vii, pp. 274-275.
1 " Concordia" and "Deborah Doubtful" in Mass. Spy, Jan. 13, 27,
1774-
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
Many believed this step to be " chimerical;" ' certainly the
smugglers were robbed of their pecuniary interest in the
struggle, but they were too deeply involved to withdraw
their support now. Within a week after the tea destruc-
tion, the tea dealers of Boston agreed to suspend the sales
of all teas, dutied or otherwise, after January 20, 1774.
When that day arrived, two barrels of Bohea still unsold
were publicly burned in front of the custom house. 2
The nearby town of Charlestown co-operated with the
Boston measures; and the Boston plan was also adopted by
Worcester, Acton, Lunenburgh, and perhaps by other towns. 2
Most Massachusetts towns, however, were content to de-
cree merely the abstention from dutied teas. Up until the
first of April, 1774, forty towns had passed resolutions;*
most of them affixed a boycott as the sanction of the re-
solves; and several towns appointed belated committees of
correspondence. The height of radical fervor was reached
in a resolution of the town of Windham, which declared:
"That neither the Parliament of Britain nor the Parlia-
ment of France nor any other Parliament but that which
sits supreme in our Province has a Right to lay any Taxes
? Mass. Spy, Jan. 13, 20, 1774.
1 Seventy-nine dealers agreed to the resolutions; nine would oppose
dutied tea only; and four refused even a qualified assent. Mass. Spy,
Dec. 30, 1773, Jan. 20, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24, Feb. 7, 1774-
? Mass. Spy, Dec. 30, 1773, Jan. 6, Feb. 10, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. ,
vol. viii, pp. 644-649, 681-683.
? Abington, Bedford, Berwick, Beverly, Bolton, Boxford, Braintree,
Cape Elisabeth, Colerain, Concord, Dedham, Dorchester, Eastham, Fal-
mouth, Framingham, Gorham, Grafton, Harvard, Hull, Ipswich, Lin-
coln, Medfield, Medway, Newton, Newbury, Pembrooke, Salem, Sand-
wich, Scarborough, Shirley, Shrewsbury, Sudbury, Topsfield, Town-
shend, Truro, Watertown, WellHeet, Wells, Westford, Windham. For
these resolutions, vide the current newspapers and Bos. Com. Cor.
Mss. , vols. vi, vii and viii, passim. The towns italicized included the
boycott.
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? 302
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
on us for the purpose of Raising a Revenue. " Only a few-
towns took unfavorable action, Marshfield hoping to see the
perpetrators of the Boston violence brought to justice, and
Littleton discharging its committee of correspondence. 1 At
Sandwich the radicals defeated unfriendly action by re-
fusing to hold a meeting; and at Eastham they succeeded
in rescinding the condemnatory resolves of an earlier meet-
ing. 8
The excitement over the tea was utilized by the Boston
radicals, though with only partial success, in an attempt to
stir up the nearby provinces to protest and action. Accord-
ing to Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, "the un-
wearied applications from Boston communicated the flame
here. " * A town meeting met at Portsmouth on December
16, 1773, and passed strong resolutions against the impor-
tation of dutied teas similar to the Philadelphia resolutions
of October 16. 4 Shortly after, several other towns fol-
lowed the example of the capital. 5 It was not until the end
1 In both cases the radicals signed their names to published protests.
Mass. Spy, Feb. 10, 24, 1774.
1Mass. Spy, Apr. 7, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. iii, pp. 307-310.
The sincerity of the widespread resolutions was quickly evidenced by
a number of instances of enforcement. E. g. , vide Mass. Spy, Jan. 13,
Feb. 17, Mch. 17, 31, Apr. 7, July 21, 1774. The country peddler proved
to be the most persistent offender. At Boston the determination to
prevent the shipment of customed teas to private merchants led to a
second Tea Party on March 8, 1774, when 28% chests of tea on board
the brig Fortune were cast into the harbor by the omnipresent "In-
dians. " The Boston Committee declared in a letter that "this event
must convince the Merchants in England that the extorted duty on
that Article is as disagreeable to the good People of this Province as
the intended monopoly of the East India Company. " Bos. Com. Cor.
Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 726-729; Mass. Spy, Mch. 10, 17, 1774.
1 Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss. "), vol. i, p. 21.
4 N. H. Gas. , Dec. 24, 1773.
? Barrington, Exeter, Hampton, Haverhill, Newcastle. Mass. Spy,
Jan. 13, 1774; Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Jan. 10; N. H. Gas. , Feb. 25,
Mch. 4.
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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. There is a strange
Spirit of Licentiousness gone forth into the World, which
shelters itself under the venerable and endearing Name of
LIBERTY, buti is as different from it as Folly is from Wisdom. 1
Furthermore, what right did the Bostonians have to pose
as the jealous guardians of the principle of local taxation, it
was asked in many parts of British America, when Boston-
ians had been the most notorious importers of dutied teas
during the last two or three years? Even Dr. Franklin.
who from his official position at London represented all
America more nearly than any other one man, called the
tea destruction "an Act of violent Injustice on nnr part. "
He wrote at length to the Massachusetts Committee of Cor-
respondence:
truly concern'd as I believe all considerate Men are with
you, that there should seem to any a Necessity for carrying
Matters to such Extremity, as, in a Dispute about Publick
1 Words of an Englishman writing to an American friend; Mass.
Gas. & Newz-Letter, Nov. 17, 1774-
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? 3oo
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Rights, to destroy private Property. . . . I cannot but wish
& hope that before any compulsive Measures are thought of
here, our General Court will have shewn a Disposition to re-
pair the Damage and make Compensation to the Company . J
As has been suggested, Sam Adams's committee system
taught the inhabitants of Massachusetts and the nearby
provinces to react differently, although even here the mari-
time town of Bristol, R. I. , saw fit to qualify its resolutions
against the East India Company by declaring:
Some may apprehend there is danger from another quarter,
generally unforeseen and unsuspected; that anarchy and con-
fusion, which may prevail, will as naturally establish tyranny
and arbitrary power, as one extreme leads to another; many
on the side of liberty, when they see it degenerating into an-
archy, fearing their persons are not safe, nor their property-
secure, will be likely to verge to the other extreme. . . . 2
From the moment of the sinking of the tea at Boston,
public sentiment in Massachusetts entirely escaped any
bounds that the mercantile element could have set for it. It
has been shown how, in the earlier months, the popular de-
mands, originally directed against the dutied shipments of
the British trading monopoly alone, were extended to in-
clude consignments to private merchants as well. Imme-
diately after the tea destruction, the radicals proceeded to
take the logical next step---the boycott of all {eas. whetfief
dutied (y smngg-fod. This may have been done to propitiate
the dealers in legal teas; but it also had the effect of pre-
venting the selling of customed teas to unsuspecting persons
who believed they were buying the contraband article. 8
1 Letter of Feb. 2, 1774; Writings (Smyth), vol. vi, pp. 178-180. Vide
also ibid. , p. 223.
1 R. I. Col. Recs. , vol. vii, pp. 274-275.
1 " Concordia" and "Deborah Doubtful" in Mass. Spy, Jan. 13, 27,
1774-
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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
Many believed this step to be " chimerical;" ' certainly the
smugglers were robbed of their pecuniary interest in the
struggle, but they were too deeply involved to withdraw
their support now. Within a week after the tea destruc-
tion, the tea dealers of Boston agreed to suspend the sales
of all teas, dutied or otherwise, after January 20, 1774.
When that day arrived, two barrels of Bohea still unsold
were publicly burned in front of the custom house. 2
The nearby town of Charlestown co-operated with the
Boston measures; and the Boston plan was also adopted by
Worcester, Acton, Lunenburgh, and perhaps by other towns. 2
Most Massachusetts towns, however, were content to de-
cree merely the abstention from dutied teas. Up until the
first of April, 1774, forty towns had passed resolutions;*
most of them affixed a boycott as the sanction of the re-
solves; and several towns appointed belated committees of
correspondence. The height of radical fervor was reached
in a resolution of the town of Windham, which declared:
"That neither the Parliament of Britain nor the Parlia-
ment of France nor any other Parliament but that which
sits supreme in our Province has a Right to lay any Taxes
? Mass. Spy, Jan. 13, 20, 1774.
1 Seventy-nine dealers agreed to the resolutions; nine would oppose
dutied tea only; and four refused even a qualified assent. Mass. Spy,
Dec. 30, 1773, Jan. 20, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24, Feb. 7, 1774-
? Mass. Spy, Dec. 30, 1773, Jan. 6, Feb. 10, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. ,
vol. viii, pp. 644-649, 681-683.
? Abington, Bedford, Berwick, Beverly, Bolton, Boxford, Braintree,
Cape Elisabeth, Colerain, Concord, Dedham, Dorchester, Eastham, Fal-
mouth, Framingham, Gorham, Grafton, Harvard, Hull, Ipswich, Lin-
coln, Medfield, Medway, Newton, Newbury, Pembrooke, Salem, Sand-
wich, Scarborough, Shirley, Shrewsbury, Sudbury, Topsfield, Town-
shend, Truro, Watertown, WellHeet, Wells, Westford, Windham. For
these resolutions, vide the current newspapers and Bos. Com. Cor.
Mss. , vols. vi, vii and viii, passim. The towns italicized included the
boycott.
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? 302
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
on us for the purpose of Raising a Revenue. " Only a few-
towns took unfavorable action, Marshfield hoping to see the
perpetrators of the Boston violence brought to justice, and
Littleton discharging its committee of correspondence. 1 At
Sandwich the radicals defeated unfriendly action by re-
fusing to hold a meeting; and at Eastham they succeeded
in rescinding the condemnatory resolves of an earlier meet-
ing. 8
The excitement over the tea was utilized by the Boston
radicals, though with only partial success, in an attempt to
stir up the nearby provinces to protest and action. Accord-
ing to Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, "the un-
wearied applications from Boston communicated the flame
here. " * A town meeting met at Portsmouth on December
16, 1773, and passed strong resolutions against the impor-
tation of dutied teas similar to the Philadelphia resolutions
of October 16. 4 Shortly after, several other towns fol-
lowed the example of the capital. 5 It was not until the end
1 In both cases the radicals signed their names to published protests.
Mass. Spy, Feb. 10, 24, 1774.
1Mass. Spy, Apr. 7, 1774; Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. iii, pp. 307-310.
The sincerity of the widespread resolutions was quickly evidenced by
a number of instances of enforcement. E. g. , vide Mass. Spy, Jan. 13,
Feb. 17, Mch. 17, 31, Apr. 7, July 21, 1774. The country peddler proved
to be the most persistent offender. At Boston the determination to
prevent the shipment of customed teas to private merchants led to a
second Tea Party on March 8, 1774, when 28% chests of tea on board
the brig Fortune were cast into the harbor by the omnipresent "In-
dians. " The Boston Committee declared in a letter that "this event
must convince the Merchants in England that the extorted duty on
that Article is as disagreeable to the good People of this Province as
the intended monopoly of the East India Company. " Bos. Com. Cor.
Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 726-729; Mass. Spy, Mch. 10, 17, 1774.
1 Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss. "), vol. i, p. 21.
4 N. H. Gas. , Dec. 24, 1773.
? Barrington, Exeter, Hampton, Haverhill, Newcastle. Mass. Spy,
Jan. 13, 1774; Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Jan. 10; N. H. Gas. , Feb. 25,
Mch. 4.
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