26, 1768, painted a doleful picture of the
trade situation of Rhode Island.
trade situation of Rhode Island.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
?
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM IOI
ently assaulted and then tarred and feathered, in 1769. A
reward of fifty pounds sterling for the perpetrators of this
act was vainly offered by the Customs Board. 1 In July
of the same year, a mob at Newport dismantled and burnt
the revenue sloop Liberty, which had just brought into the
harbor two vessels suspected of smuggling. 2 "Both vessels
that were seized have since proceeded on their respective
voyages," noted the Newport Mercury laconically on July
22. At Philadelphia, the revenue officials attempted in
April, 1769, to get possession of about fifty pipes of Ma-
deira wine that had been imported without payment of
duties. Their efforts stirred up a mob which stole away the
booty from under their very noses and maltreated some
of the officers. Later, the merchants offered to restore
the wine; and, after some delay, they returned "not near
the Quantity that was taken" and, instead of Madeira,
"no better than mean Fyall [Fayal]. " A revenue em-
ployee who had been active in this affair went to Boston
to recuperate from his injuries, because, as he earnestly
avowed, "I could not think of tarrying among a sett of
People under my present circumstances whose greatest
pleasure would be to have an oppofrtunity] of burying
me. "8
Even from the plantation provinces came echoes of in-
dignation against the officiousness of customs officers and
the new powers of the vice-admiralty courts. Infringe-
ments of the acts of trade were comparatively rare in that
portion of British America; and it was the boast of the
1 Arnold, Rhode Island, vol. ii, p. 294.
* R. I. Col. Recs. , vol. vi, pp. 593-596; Gammel, W. , Samuel Ward (?
Libr. Am. Biog. , vol. ix), pp. 288-290. For instances of forcible im-
portation in Massachusetts and 'Rhode Island, vide Weeden, Ec. and
Soc. Hist, of New Engl. , vol. ii, p. 762.
1 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, pp. 611-617.
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? 102 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
wealthy Charleston merchant and factor, Henry Laurens.
that he had never intentionally violated them. Yet, in spite
of the efforts of the Customs Board to secure higher admin-
istrative efficiency, the customs officers at Charleston were
unprincipled and corrupt; and the merchants of that port
were subjected to petty tyrannies, from which the local
vice-admiralty court afforded no relief. Laurens himself
was put to great expense through the seizure on technical
charges in 1767 and 1768, of three of his vessels, two of
which were eventually released. A conservative from
temperamental as well as business reasons, his emotions
were, for the first time, deeply stirred to the defense of
so-called American liberties, and in 1769 he produced an
able controversial pamphlet setting forth his new views
under the title, Sow,? General Ofir"""ltintp nn American
custom house officers and Courts of Vice-Admiralty.
Thoroughly academic and unemotional as he hacT been in
his objections to the Stamp Act, he could write in 1769 to
a London friend tharX^ihe enormous created powers vested
in an American Court of Vice-Admiralty threatens future
generations in America with a curse tenfold worse than
the Stamp Act. 'JJ
The most important work performed by the Customs
Board was the breaking of the power of the smugglers at
Boston. This was accomplished only through a resort to
extreme measures. In the years immediately following
1766, there were a number of cases at Boston of forcible
landing of contraband goods, of rescue of lawful seizures,
and of mobbing of revenue officers. 2 John Robinson, one
of the Customs Board, in his testimony before the Privy
1 For this incident, vide Wallace, Henry Laurens, pp. 137-149. Vide
also Prov. Gas. , Oct. 3, 1767, July 23, 1768.
1 Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, vol. v, no. 155. Vide also
Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 188.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM IC>3
Council in 1770, stated that he hesitated to say that "the
Disturbances may be properly called Riots, as the Rioters
appear to be under Discipline. "
Feeling unable to cope with the situation, the Customs
Board, in February, 1768, asked Commodore Hood at
Halifax for a public vessel to protect them in the discharge
of their functions. "We have every reason," they said,
"to expect that we shall find it impracticable to enforce
the execution of the revenue laws, until the hand of gov-
ernment is properly strengthened. At present, there is not
a ship-of-war in the province, nor a company of soldiers
nearer than New York. " 1 In answer to repeated requests,
the man-of-war Romney was stationed at Boston a few
months later. The board now pressed for additional ships
and for the presence of troops, but their requests failed of
effect.
Affairs came to a crisis a few months later, when John
Hancock's sloop Liberty arrived in port from Madeira with
a quantity of wine. A tidesman went on board and ob-
jected to the landing of any wine until entry was made at
the custom house; whereupon the fellow was heaved into
the cabin and kept there while the cargo was expeditiously
removed. On June 10, about a month later, the vessel was
seized by order of the Customs Board. A crowd assembled
and, in great uneasiness, watched the removal of the vessel
to within gun-range of the Romney. Soon they lost their
restraint; and, in the rioting that ensued, the custom-house
officers were assaulted and the houses of several of them
pelted, and other damage done. 2
1 Bancroft, G. , History of United States (Boston, 1876), vol. iv, p. 75.
1 The Liberty was condemned by the vice-adfniralty court. Bos.
Chron. , June 13, 1768; . Sears, L. , John Hancock (Boston, 1912), pp. 11o-
114; Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 156; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay,
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? I04 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Alleging helplessness, the Customs Board retired to Castle
William and again renewed their demand for troops. This
time they had made good their case; two regiments arrived
on the scene about four months after the riot, and the
customs commissioners resumed their headquarters at
Boston. From this time forward Boston lost its importance
as a smuggling port; and the great centers of contraband
trade became New York and Philadelphia, with Newport
as a center of minor importance. 1
However jusrfiable the action may have appeared from
an administrative point of view, the British government
made a bad tactical error in sending soldiers to Boston.
The statesmanlike policy of maintaining a standing army
to protect the empire from foreign enemies had degenerated
into an employment of the troops as a military police to
enforce hated laws on the people themselves. The worst
fears of the radicals were vindicated. Their efforts and
those of the merchants were used for the next two years
to procure the removal of the troops. Sporadic outbreaks
of resistance to customs officials continued to occur. 2
Of greater interest and significance in the controversy
vol. iii, pp. 189-194. For Hancock's letters ordering the wine, vide
Brown, op. cit. , pp. 149-150.
After referring to the Liberty affair, John Adams writes in his
diary: "Mr. Hancock was prosecuted upon a great number of libels,
for penalties upon acts of Parliament, amounting to ninety or an hun-
dred thousand pounds sterling. He thought fit to engage me as his
counsel and advocate, and a painful drudgery I had of his cause. There
were few days through the whole winter, when I was not summoned
to attend the Court of Admiralty. . . . this odious cause was sus-
pended at last only by the battle of Lexington, which put an end, for-
ever, to all such prosecutions. " Works, vol. ii, pp. 215-216.
1 Letters of Thomas Hutchinson; Hosmer, Hutchinson, p. 432; Mass.
Arch. , vol. xxvii, p. 317. Vide also infra, chap. vi.
1 E. g. , vide 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 26.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
with Parliament was the endeavor of the merchants to con-
trol the economic life of their communities and by use of
the boycott to starve Great Britain into a surrender of her
trade restrictions. This movement of a class-conscious
group within the leading provinces constituted the one tre-
mendous fact of the revolutionary movement prior to the
assembling of the First Continental Congress. Striving for
reform, not rebellion, the merchants, nevertheless, through
the effect of their agitation and organized activity upon
the non-mercantile population, found themselves, when
they wished to terminate their propaganda, confronted
with forces too powerful for them to control.
The efforts at combination from 1767 to 1770 suffered
from all the disadvantages which inhered in an attempt to
bind together thirteen disparate communities. The story
of these endeavors is a long and devious one, bringing to
light many instances of discord and harmony, of good
faith and broken pledges, which should go far toward
revealing the secret springs of human action.
The tracing- Communities of New England and New
York took the lead in the movement^ Philadelphia hanging
back at first; and it was not until 1769 that the co-operation
of the plantation provinces was secured. In the trading
centers of the commercial provinces several stages were
clearly apparent in the development of organized efforts
for boycott against Great Britain: the initial movement
promoted by town meetings in New England for the pur-
pose of effecting a non-consumption of certain imports
from Britain; second, the efforts, futile in their outcome,
for a non-importation league of the merchants of the great
northern seaports; third, the period in which the merchants
of the great towns entered into non-importation agree-
ments independently of each other; fourth, the renewal,
but without success, of efforts for a non-importation league
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? I06 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of merchants along more comprehensive lines; fifth, the
accession of the minor northern provinces to non-importa-
tion.
The first phase of the movement originated in the fall
of 1767 in New England where evidences of hard times
had at once become apparent, anH f1aH for it. ^ primarv ob-
ject a rA^11<-Hflp n( tVl" rr><;T "f ^Y1'"^. 1 The efforts took
agreements not to purchase a stated list of
imported wares, and to lend all encouragement to domestic
manufactures. In contrast to Stamp Act times, these
agrgemenjsjvere not in first instance drawn up by import-
ing merchants, but w. ? ^_3? Jfip<'. "^ ^*y lQWn tT">>>tillE3_3. r"^
circulated among the peqplp foj general signing. It is
clear that the framers of the agreements were not greatly
concerned with the abstract question of the parliamentary
right of taxation, since no town meeting placed more than
one or two dutied articles on the blacklist. Indeed, the
great merchant, John Hancock, ordered a consignment of
dutied glass for his personal use as late as December 17,
1767, apparently without compunction. 2
The movement received its first impulse from the action
1 References to hard times were plentiful in New England after
the passage of the Townshend Acts. The Newport merchant, George
Rome, wrote to England in December, 1767, that creditors at home
would lose ? 50,000 in Rhode Island, owing to "deluges of bankrupt-
cies. " Bos. Eve. Post, June 28, 1773. "A Friend to the Colony," writ-
ing in the Prov. Gas. , Mch.
26, 1768, painted a doleful picture of the
trade situation of Rhode Island. The Mass. Post-Boy of Oct. 26, 1767
spoke of "the present alarming Scarcity of Money and consequent
Stagnation of Trade" and "the almost universally increasing Com-
plaints of Debt & Poverty. " It later adopted the popular slogan,
"Save your Money and Save your Country. " The AT. H. Gas. , in its
issue of Nov. 13, 1767, referred to "this time of great distress and
grievous complaining among tradesmen about the dullness of trade
and uncommon scarcity of money. "
* Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 151.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
107
of a Boston town meeting on October 28, 1767. A form
of subscription was adopted, which attributed the prevail-
ing commercial depression to the high war taxes, the loss
of trade in late years and the many burdensome trade re-
strictions, the money stringency and the unfavorable
balance of trade with England. The agreement pledged
all who should sign it to the patronage of colonial manu-
factures, especially those of Massachusetts, and to the ob-
servance of frugal regulations about mourning; further,
it bound all subscribers not to purchase, after December
31, 1767, a long list of imported articles. 1 In view of the
Townshend duties, it was agreed that the colonial manu-
facture of glass and paper should receive particular en-
couragement. Considerable enthusiasm was aroused when
townsmen present exhibited samples of starch, glue and
hair powder, and of snuff equal to Kippen's best, all of
which had been made in Boston. A committee was ap-
pointed to consider the feasibility of reviving the manu-
facture of linen in order to employ the poor of the town.
Copies of the Boston agreement were ordered to be sent to
every town in the province and to the chief towns of the
other provinces. At Boston, the subscription rolls filled
rapidly.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Oct . 26, Nov. 2, 23, 1767; also Boston Town Records,
1758-1769, pp. 220-225. This list was typical of a great many others,
and was as follows: "Loaf Sugar, Cordage, Anchors, Coaches, Chaises
and Carriages of all Sorts, Horse Furniture, Men and Womens Hatts,
Mens and Womens Apparel ready made, Household Furniture, Gloves,
Mens and Womens Shoes, Sole Leather, Sheathing and Deck Nails,
Gold and Silver and Thread Lace of all Sorts, Gold and Silver But-
tons, Wrought Plate of all Sorts, Diamond, Stone and Paste Ware,
Snuff, Mustard, Clocks and Watches, Silversmiths and Jewellers Ware,
Broad Cloaths that cost above los. per Yard, Muffs Furrs and Tippets,
and all Sorts of Millenary Ware, Starch, Womens and Childrens Stays,
Fire Engines, China Ware, Silk and Cotton Velvets, Gauze, Pewterers
"hollow Ware Linseed Oyl, Glue, Lawns, Cambricks, Silks of all Kinds
for Garments, Malt Liquors & Cheese. "
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? I0g THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The Boston agreement faithfully reflected the general
opinion of the community in favor of a retrenchment of
expenses. Nevertheless, it did not escape without criticism.
There were those who objected to the boycott of only cer-
tain enumerated articles and declared that all British im-
ports should be included; furthermore, they urged that all
persons who failed to sign the agreement should be boy-
cotted. Others felt that at least all the dutied articles
should have been placed on the blacklist. 1 The chief ob-
jection was the failure of the agreement to provide against
the drinking of tea, one of the dutied articles.
Efforts were at once made to remedy this oversight.
The newspapers teemed with articles urging the ladies,
in spite of the silence of the agreement, to abandon the use
of "the most luxurious and enervating article of Bohea
Tea, in which so large a sum is spent annually by the
American colonists. " 2 A clever bit of verse, which went
the rounds of the press of the commercial provinces, con-
cluded with this appeal to the ladies:
Throw aside your Bohea and your Green Hyson Tea,
And all things with a new fashion duty;
Procure a good store of the choice Labradore,
For there'll soon be enough here to suit ye;
These do without fear, and to all you'll appear
Fair, charming, true, lovely and clever;
Though the times remain darkish, young men may be sparkish,
And love you much stronger than ever. 8
"A Countryman" wrote piteously that in recent years he
had found the expenses of living higher than ever before;
1" Pelopidas" and "A Friend to Britain and her Colonies," quoted
by AT. Y. Journ. , Nov. 19, Dec. 3, 1767.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767. Vide quotations from the Boston
press in the -V. Y. Journ. , Nov. 12, 26, Dec. 10.
* Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767; N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Nov. 26;
Pa. Journ. , Dec. 3.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
for " there is my daughters Jemima and Keziah, two hearty
trollups as any in town, forenoon and afternoon eat almost
a peck of toast and butter with their Tea; and they have
learned me and their mother to join them. " On the auth-
ority of his doctor he held tea responsible for many modern
complaints; " for you never used to hear so much of such
strange disorders as people have now a days, tremblings,
appoplexies, consumptions and I don't know what all. " 1
Early in December, 1767, a large number of the ladies
agreed that they would use no foreign teas for a year
beginning on the tenth of that month. 2 One tart dissent
was entered to these proceedings. The fair writer expati-
ated on the depravity resulting from " hard drinking," and
then asked " where the Reformation ought to begin, whether
among the Gentlemen at Taverns & Coffee Houses where
they drink scarcely any Thing but Wine and Punch; or
among the Ladies at those useful Boards of Trade called
Tea Tables, where it don't cost half so much to entertain
half a dozen Ladies a whole Afternoon, as it does to entertain
one Gentlemen only one Evening at a Tavern. " *
The committee appointed by the town to propose meas-
ures for employing the poor reported in due time in favor
of the establishment of the manufacture of duck (or sail)
cloth, hitherto imported from Russia. This material could
be made from either flax or hemp and thus held an advan-
tage over linen. The committee proposed that the project
be financed by public subscription; and they were author-
ized by the town to go ahead. Four months later, they had
succeeded in collecting less than one-half of the amount
1 Bos. Gas. , Aug. 29, 1768. "Trahlur" in Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 30,
1767, held the same view of modern ailments.
1 AT. Y. Journ. , Dec. 14, 1767.
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 28, 1767; also Newport Merc. , Dec. 14.
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? I10 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
that was necessary for making a beginning. Further efforts
were unproductive; and the project was given up. 1
Reports filled the newspapers with reference to the in-
crease and perfection of local manufactures. From grind-
stones and precious stones to shoes and shalloons, the gamut
of praise was run. The man who made the paper which the
Boston Gazette was printed on stated that the people of the
province were so intent on saving rags for his mills that he
now received more tons than he formerly did hundreds. 2
The theses of the graduates at Harvard were printed "on
fine white Demy Paper manufactured at Milton" and the
men received their degrees garbed in homespun. * By 17/0
a leading newspaper of the town, declared that: "The ex-
traordinary and very impoverishing custom of wearing
deep Mourning at Funerals is now almost entirely laid
aside in the Province. " *
The Boston plan spread rapidly to other towns of the
province. By the middle of January, 1768. the names of
twenty-four towns had been published, which had voted to
conform to the Boston agreement. 8 Salem alone was re-
corded as having refused to co-operate. " At a town meet-
ing on December 22, 1767, Boston had unanimously voted
instructions to her representatives in the General Court,
recommending bounties for the establishment of domestic
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1758-1769), pp. 226-227, 230-232, 239-240, 240-250.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Jan. 18, 1768; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 25.
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 4, 1768.
4 Bos. Gas. , May 7, 1770.
* Abington, Ashburnham, Bolton, Braintree, Brookfield, Charlestown,
Dartmouth, Dedham, Eastham, Grafton, Harwich, Holleston, Kingston,
Leicester, Lexington, Middleborough, Milton, Mendon, Newton, Ply-
mouth, Roxbury, Sandwich, Spencer, Truro. Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 23,
Dec. 14, 1767; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 11, Mch. 28, 1768; N. Y. Journ. , Dec, 3,
24, 1767, Jan. 28, 1768; Prov. Gas. , Dec. 26, 1767.
? Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 21, 1767.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM m
manufactures, and suggesting a petition to Parliament for
the repeal of the recent duties. 1 On February n, 1768, the
Hm1s^ of Renre. sentatives adopted the famous circular letter
to the other assemblies on the continent, suggest1ng concerted
opposition in the way of constitutional discussions and peti-
tions. In the latter days of the month, other resolutions
were passed, reciting the decay of trade and pledging the
support of all the members against the use of foreign super-
fluities and in favor of Massachusetts manufactures. 2 The
House also sent resolutions of protest against the Town-
shend Acts to the king.
Two other New England provinces followed in the wake
of Boston. The letter of the Boston selectmen, announcing
the non-consumption agreement and suggesting like meas-
ures, convinced towns outside of Massachusetts of The wis-
dom of pursuing a similar course. JThe people of Rhode
Island were in particularly hard straits, due to the dimin-
ished j>ronts ot rum product1on and the tallmg-ott ol the
carrying" trade. 1 rrovidence, the second port of Rhode
Island, was the first town to act . At a town meeting on
December 2, 1767, largely attended by merchants and per-
sons of wealth, a more stringent agreement was adopted
than that of Boston. In place of a resolution of mere non-
consumption, it was agreed not to import, after January I,
1768, a list of articles which exceeded the Boston list by
twelve items. The agreement contained a pledge against
the use of any teas, chinaware or spices, a resolution against
expensive mourning, and one favorable to wool and flax
production. The compact was to be enforced by a dis-
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Dec. 28, 1767; also Bos. Town Reel. (1758-1769"), pp.
227-230.
* These resolutions passed by a vote of eighty-one to one. Bos. Gas. ,
Feb. 20, 1768; also N. Y. Journ.
? COMMERCIAL REFORM IOI
ently assaulted and then tarred and feathered, in 1769. A
reward of fifty pounds sterling for the perpetrators of this
act was vainly offered by the Customs Board. 1 In July
of the same year, a mob at Newport dismantled and burnt
the revenue sloop Liberty, which had just brought into the
harbor two vessels suspected of smuggling. 2 "Both vessels
that were seized have since proceeded on their respective
voyages," noted the Newport Mercury laconically on July
22. At Philadelphia, the revenue officials attempted in
April, 1769, to get possession of about fifty pipes of Ma-
deira wine that had been imported without payment of
duties. Their efforts stirred up a mob which stole away the
booty from under their very noses and maltreated some
of the officers. Later, the merchants offered to restore
the wine; and, after some delay, they returned "not near
the Quantity that was taken" and, instead of Madeira,
"no better than mean Fyall [Fayal]. " A revenue em-
ployee who had been active in this affair went to Boston
to recuperate from his injuries, because, as he earnestly
avowed, "I could not think of tarrying among a sett of
People under my present circumstances whose greatest
pleasure would be to have an oppofrtunity] of burying
me. "8
Even from the plantation provinces came echoes of in-
dignation against the officiousness of customs officers and
the new powers of the vice-admiralty courts. Infringe-
ments of the acts of trade were comparatively rare in that
portion of British America; and it was the boast of the
1 Arnold, Rhode Island, vol. ii, p. 294.
* R. I. Col. Recs. , vol. vi, pp. 593-596; Gammel, W. , Samuel Ward (?
Libr. Am. Biog. , vol. ix), pp. 288-290. For instances of forcible im-
portation in Massachusetts and 'Rhode Island, vide Weeden, Ec. and
Soc. Hist, of New Engl. , vol. ii, p. 762.
1 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. x, pp. 611-617.
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? 102 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
wealthy Charleston merchant and factor, Henry Laurens.
that he had never intentionally violated them. Yet, in spite
of the efforts of the Customs Board to secure higher admin-
istrative efficiency, the customs officers at Charleston were
unprincipled and corrupt; and the merchants of that port
were subjected to petty tyrannies, from which the local
vice-admiralty court afforded no relief. Laurens himself
was put to great expense through the seizure on technical
charges in 1767 and 1768, of three of his vessels, two of
which were eventually released. A conservative from
temperamental as well as business reasons, his emotions
were, for the first time, deeply stirred to the defense of
so-called American liberties, and in 1769 he produced an
able controversial pamphlet setting forth his new views
under the title, Sow,? General Ofir"""ltintp nn American
custom house officers and Courts of Vice-Admiralty.
Thoroughly academic and unemotional as he hacT been in
his objections to the Stamp Act, he could write in 1769 to
a London friend tharX^ihe enormous created powers vested
in an American Court of Vice-Admiralty threatens future
generations in America with a curse tenfold worse than
the Stamp Act. 'JJ
The most important work performed by the Customs
Board was the breaking of the power of the smugglers at
Boston. This was accomplished only through a resort to
extreme measures. In the years immediately following
1766, there were a number of cases at Boston of forcible
landing of contraband goods, of rescue of lawful seizures,
and of mobbing of revenue officers. 2 John Robinson, one
of the Customs Board, in his testimony before the Privy
1 For this incident, vide Wallace, Henry Laurens, pp. 137-149. Vide
also Prov. Gas. , Oct. 3, 1767, July 23, 1768.
1 Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, vol. v, no. 155. Vide also
Hutchinson, Mass. Bay, vol. iii, p. 188.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM IC>3
Council in 1770, stated that he hesitated to say that "the
Disturbances may be properly called Riots, as the Rioters
appear to be under Discipline. "
Feeling unable to cope with the situation, the Customs
Board, in February, 1768, asked Commodore Hood at
Halifax for a public vessel to protect them in the discharge
of their functions. "We have every reason," they said,
"to expect that we shall find it impracticable to enforce
the execution of the revenue laws, until the hand of gov-
ernment is properly strengthened. At present, there is not
a ship-of-war in the province, nor a company of soldiers
nearer than New York. " 1 In answer to repeated requests,
the man-of-war Romney was stationed at Boston a few
months later. The board now pressed for additional ships
and for the presence of troops, but their requests failed of
effect.
Affairs came to a crisis a few months later, when John
Hancock's sloop Liberty arrived in port from Madeira with
a quantity of wine. A tidesman went on board and ob-
jected to the landing of any wine until entry was made at
the custom house; whereupon the fellow was heaved into
the cabin and kept there while the cargo was expeditiously
removed. On June 10, about a month later, the vessel was
seized by order of the Customs Board. A crowd assembled
and, in great uneasiness, watched the removal of the vessel
to within gun-range of the Romney. Soon they lost their
restraint; and, in the rioting that ensued, the custom-house
officers were assaulted and the houses of several of them
pelted, and other damage done. 2
1 Bancroft, G. , History of United States (Boston, 1876), vol. iv, p. 75.
1 The Liberty was condemned by the vice-adfniralty court. Bos.
Chron. , June 13, 1768; . Sears, L. , John Hancock (Boston, 1912), pp. 11o-
114; Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 156; Hutchinson, Mass. Bay,
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? I04 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Alleging helplessness, the Customs Board retired to Castle
William and again renewed their demand for troops. This
time they had made good their case; two regiments arrived
on the scene about four months after the riot, and the
customs commissioners resumed their headquarters at
Boston. From this time forward Boston lost its importance
as a smuggling port; and the great centers of contraband
trade became New York and Philadelphia, with Newport
as a center of minor importance. 1
However jusrfiable the action may have appeared from
an administrative point of view, the British government
made a bad tactical error in sending soldiers to Boston.
The statesmanlike policy of maintaining a standing army
to protect the empire from foreign enemies had degenerated
into an employment of the troops as a military police to
enforce hated laws on the people themselves. The worst
fears of the radicals were vindicated. Their efforts and
those of the merchants were used for the next two years
to procure the removal of the troops. Sporadic outbreaks
of resistance to customs officials continued to occur. 2
Of greater interest and significance in the controversy
vol. iii, pp. 189-194. For Hancock's letters ordering the wine, vide
Brown, op. cit. , pp. 149-150.
After referring to the Liberty affair, John Adams writes in his
diary: "Mr. Hancock was prosecuted upon a great number of libels,
for penalties upon acts of Parliament, amounting to ninety or an hun-
dred thousand pounds sterling. He thought fit to engage me as his
counsel and advocate, and a painful drudgery I had of his cause. There
were few days through the whole winter, when I was not summoned
to attend the Court of Admiralty. . . . this odious cause was sus-
pended at last only by the battle of Lexington, which put an end, for-
ever, to all such prosecutions. " Works, vol. ii, pp. 215-216.
1 Letters of Thomas Hutchinson; Hosmer, Hutchinson, p. 432; Mass.
Arch. , vol. xxvii, p. 317. Vide also infra, chap. vi.
1 E. g. , vide 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 26.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
with Parliament was the endeavor of the merchants to con-
trol the economic life of their communities and by use of
the boycott to starve Great Britain into a surrender of her
trade restrictions. This movement of a class-conscious
group within the leading provinces constituted the one tre-
mendous fact of the revolutionary movement prior to the
assembling of the First Continental Congress. Striving for
reform, not rebellion, the merchants, nevertheless, through
the effect of their agitation and organized activity upon
the non-mercantile population, found themselves, when
they wished to terminate their propaganda, confronted
with forces too powerful for them to control.
The efforts at combination from 1767 to 1770 suffered
from all the disadvantages which inhered in an attempt to
bind together thirteen disparate communities. The story
of these endeavors is a long and devious one, bringing to
light many instances of discord and harmony, of good
faith and broken pledges, which should go far toward
revealing the secret springs of human action.
The tracing- Communities of New England and New
York took the lead in the movement^ Philadelphia hanging
back at first; and it was not until 1769 that the co-operation
of the plantation provinces was secured. In the trading
centers of the commercial provinces several stages were
clearly apparent in the development of organized efforts
for boycott against Great Britain: the initial movement
promoted by town meetings in New England for the pur-
pose of effecting a non-consumption of certain imports
from Britain; second, the efforts, futile in their outcome,
for a non-importation league of the merchants of the great
northern seaports; third, the period in which the merchants
of the great towns entered into non-importation agree-
ments independently of each other; fourth, the renewal,
but without success, of efforts for a non-importation league
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? I06 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of merchants along more comprehensive lines; fifth, the
accession of the minor northern provinces to non-importa-
tion.
The first phase of the movement originated in the fall
of 1767 in New England where evidences of hard times
had at once become apparent, anH f1aH for it. ^ primarv ob-
ject a rA^11<-Hflp n( tVl" rr><;T "f ^Y1'"^. 1 The efforts took
agreements not to purchase a stated list of
imported wares, and to lend all encouragement to domestic
manufactures. In contrast to Stamp Act times, these
agrgemenjsjvere not in first instance drawn up by import-
ing merchants, but w. ? ^_3? Jfip<'. "^ ^*y lQWn tT">>>tillE3_3. r"^
circulated among the peqplp foj general signing. It is
clear that the framers of the agreements were not greatly
concerned with the abstract question of the parliamentary
right of taxation, since no town meeting placed more than
one or two dutied articles on the blacklist. Indeed, the
great merchant, John Hancock, ordered a consignment of
dutied glass for his personal use as late as December 17,
1767, apparently without compunction. 2
The movement received its first impulse from the action
1 References to hard times were plentiful in New England after
the passage of the Townshend Acts. The Newport merchant, George
Rome, wrote to England in December, 1767, that creditors at home
would lose ? 50,000 in Rhode Island, owing to "deluges of bankrupt-
cies. " Bos. Eve. Post, June 28, 1773. "A Friend to the Colony," writ-
ing in the Prov. Gas. , Mch.
26, 1768, painted a doleful picture of the
trade situation of Rhode Island. The Mass. Post-Boy of Oct. 26, 1767
spoke of "the present alarming Scarcity of Money and consequent
Stagnation of Trade" and "the almost universally increasing Com-
plaints of Debt & Poverty. " It later adopted the popular slogan,
"Save your Money and Save your Country. " The AT. H. Gas. , in its
issue of Nov. 13, 1767, referred to "this time of great distress and
grievous complaining among tradesmen about the dullness of trade
and uncommon scarcity of money. "
* Brown, John Hancock His Book, p. 151.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
107
of a Boston town meeting on October 28, 1767. A form
of subscription was adopted, which attributed the prevail-
ing commercial depression to the high war taxes, the loss
of trade in late years and the many burdensome trade re-
strictions, the money stringency and the unfavorable
balance of trade with England. The agreement pledged
all who should sign it to the patronage of colonial manu-
factures, especially those of Massachusetts, and to the ob-
servance of frugal regulations about mourning; further,
it bound all subscribers not to purchase, after December
31, 1767, a long list of imported articles. 1 In view of the
Townshend duties, it was agreed that the colonial manu-
facture of glass and paper should receive particular en-
couragement. Considerable enthusiasm was aroused when
townsmen present exhibited samples of starch, glue and
hair powder, and of snuff equal to Kippen's best, all of
which had been made in Boston. A committee was ap-
pointed to consider the feasibility of reviving the manu-
facture of linen in order to employ the poor of the town.
Copies of the Boston agreement were ordered to be sent to
every town in the province and to the chief towns of the
other provinces. At Boston, the subscription rolls filled
rapidly.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Oct . 26, Nov. 2, 23, 1767; also Boston Town Records,
1758-1769, pp. 220-225. This list was typical of a great many others,
and was as follows: "Loaf Sugar, Cordage, Anchors, Coaches, Chaises
and Carriages of all Sorts, Horse Furniture, Men and Womens Hatts,
Mens and Womens Apparel ready made, Household Furniture, Gloves,
Mens and Womens Shoes, Sole Leather, Sheathing and Deck Nails,
Gold and Silver and Thread Lace of all Sorts, Gold and Silver But-
tons, Wrought Plate of all Sorts, Diamond, Stone and Paste Ware,
Snuff, Mustard, Clocks and Watches, Silversmiths and Jewellers Ware,
Broad Cloaths that cost above los. per Yard, Muffs Furrs and Tippets,
and all Sorts of Millenary Ware, Starch, Womens and Childrens Stays,
Fire Engines, China Ware, Silk and Cotton Velvets, Gauze, Pewterers
"hollow Ware Linseed Oyl, Glue, Lawns, Cambricks, Silks of all Kinds
for Garments, Malt Liquors & Cheese. "
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? I0g THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The Boston agreement faithfully reflected the general
opinion of the community in favor of a retrenchment of
expenses. Nevertheless, it did not escape without criticism.
There were those who objected to the boycott of only cer-
tain enumerated articles and declared that all British im-
ports should be included; furthermore, they urged that all
persons who failed to sign the agreement should be boy-
cotted. Others felt that at least all the dutied articles
should have been placed on the blacklist. 1 The chief ob-
jection was the failure of the agreement to provide against
the drinking of tea, one of the dutied articles.
Efforts were at once made to remedy this oversight.
The newspapers teemed with articles urging the ladies,
in spite of the silence of the agreement, to abandon the use
of "the most luxurious and enervating article of Bohea
Tea, in which so large a sum is spent annually by the
American colonists. " 2 A clever bit of verse, which went
the rounds of the press of the commercial provinces, con-
cluded with this appeal to the ladies:
Throw aside your Bohea and your Green Hyson Tea,
And all things with a new fashion duty;
Procure a good store of the choice Labradore,
For there'll soon be enough here to suit ye;
These do without fear, and to all you'll appear
Fair, charming, true, lovely and clever;
Though the times remain darkish, young men may be sparkish,
And love you much stronger than ever. 8
"A Countryman" wrote piteously that in recent years he
had found the expenses of living higher than ever before;
1" Pelopidas" and "A Friend to Britain and her Colonies," quoted
by AT. Y. Journ. , Nov. 19, Dec. 3, 1767.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767. Vide quotations from the Boston
press in the -V. Y. Journ. , Nov. 12, 26, Dec. 10.
* Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 16, 1767; N. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Nov. 26;
Pa. Journ. , Dec. 3.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
for " there is my daughters Jemima and Keziah, two hearty
trollups as any in town, forenoon and afternoon eat almost
a peck of toast and butter with their Tea; and they have
learned me and their mother to join them. " On the auth-
ority of his doctor he held tea responsible for many modern
complaints; " for you never used to hear so much of such
strange disorders as people have now a days, tremblings,
appoplexies, consumptions and I don't know what all. " 1
Early in December, 1767, a large number of the ladies
agreed that they would use no foreign teas for a year
beginning on the tenth of that month. 2 One tart dissent
was entered to these proceedings. The fair writer expati-
ated on the depravity resulting from " hard drinking," and
then asked " where the Reformation ought to begin, whether
among the Gentlemen at Taverns & Coffee Houses where
they drink scarcely any Thing but Wine and Punch; or
among the Ladies at those useful Boards of Trade called
Tea Tables, where it don't cost half so much to entertain
half a dozen Ladies a whole Afternoon, as it does to entertain
one Gentlemen only one Evening at a Tavern. " *
The committee appointed by the town to propose meas-
ures for employing the poor reported in due time in favor
of the establishment of the manufacture of duck (or sail)
cloth, hitherto imported from Russia. This material could
be made from either flax or hemp and thus held an advan-
tage over linen. The committee proposed that the project
be financed by public subscription; and they were author-
ized by the town to go ahead. Four months later, they had
succeeded in collecting less than one-half of the amount
1 Bos. Gas. , Aug. 29, 1768. "Trahlur" in Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 30,
1767, held the same view of modern ailments.
1 AT. Y. Journ. , Dec. 14, 1767.
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 28, 1767; also Newport Merc. , Dec. 14.
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? I10 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
that was necessary for making a beginning. Further efforts
were unproductive; and the project was given up. 1
Reports filled the newspapers with reference to the in-
crease and perfection of local manufactures. From grind-
stones and precious stones to shoes and shalloons, the gamut
of praise was run. The man who made the paper which the
Boston Gazette was printed on stated that the people of the
province were so intent on saving rags for his mills that he
now received more tons than he formerly did hundreds. 2
The theses of the graduates at Harvard were printed "on
fine white Demy Paper manufactured at Milton" and the
men received their degrees garbed in homespun. * By 17/0
a leading newspaper of the town, declared that: "The ex-
traordinary and very impoverishing custom of wearing
deep Mourning at Funerals is now almost entirely laid
aside in the Province. " *
The Boston plan spread rapidly to other towns of the
province. By the middle of January, 1768. the names of
twenty-four towns had been published, which had voted to
conform to the Boston agreement. 8 Salem alone was re-
corded as having refused to co-operate. " At a town meet-
ing on December 22, 1767, Boston had unanimously voted
instructions to her representatives in the General Court,
recommending bounties for the establishment of domestic
1 Bos. Town Recs. (1758-1769), pp. 226-227, 230-232, 239-240, 240-250.
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Jan. 18, 1768; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 25.
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 4, 1768.
4 Bos. Gas. , May 7, 1770.
* Abington, Ashburnham, Bolton, Braintree, Brookfield, Charlestown,
Dartmouth, Dedham, Eastham, Grafton, Harwich, Holleston, Kingston,
Leicester, Lexington, Middleborough, Milton, Mendon, Newton, Ply-
mouth, Roxbury, Sandwich, Spencer, Truro. Bos. Post-Boy, Nov. 23,
Dec. 14, 1767; Bos. Gas. , Jan. 11, Mch. 28, 1768; N. Y. Journ. , Dec, 3,
24, 1767, Jan. 28, 1768; Prov. Gas. , Dec. 26, 1767.
? Bos. Eve. Post, Dec. 21, 1767.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM m
manufactures, and suggesting a petition to Parliament for
the repeal of the recent duties. 1 On February n, 1768, the
Hm1s^ of Renre. sentatives adopted the famous circular letter
to the other assemblies on the continent, suggest1ng concerted
opposition in the way of constitutional discussions and peti-
tions. In the latter days of the month, other resolutions
were passed, reciting the decay of trade and pledging the
support of all the members against the use of foreign super-
fluities and in favor of Massachusetts manufactures. 2 The
House also sent resolutions of protest against the Town-
shend Acts to the king.
Two other New England provinces followed in the wake
of Boston. The letter of the Boston selectmen, announcing
the non-consumption agreement and suggesting like meas-
ures, convinced towns outside of Massachusetts of The wis-
dom of pursuing a similar course. JThe people of Rhode
Island were in particularly hard straits, due to the dimin-
ished j>ronts ot rum product1on and the tallmg-ott ol the
carrying" trade. 1 rrovidence, the second port of Rhode
Island, was the first town to act . At a town meeting on
December 2, 1767, largely attended by merchants and per-
sons of wealth, a more stringent agreement was adopted
than that of Boston. In place of a resolution of mere non-
consumption, it was agreed not to import, after January I,
1768, a list of articles which exceeded the Boston list by
twelve items. The agreement contained a pledge against
the use of any teas, chinaware or spices, a resolution against
expensive mourning, and one favorable to wool and flax
production. The compact was to be enforced by a dis-
1 Bos. Post-Boy, Dec. 28, 1767; also Bos. Town Reel. (1758-1769"), pp.
227-230.
* These resolutions passed by a vote of eighty-one to one. Bos. Gas. ,
Feb. 20, 1768; also N. Y. Journ.
