No More Learning

Post, Sept. 10.
8 For this meeting and the troubles during the poll, vide two letters
in Bos. Eve. Post, July 16, 1770; "A Citizen" in N. Y. Gas. & Merc. ,
July 23; accounts in N. Y. Col. Docs. , vol. viii, pp. 218-220.
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? 226 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of each party, were therefore appointed to canvass each ward,
presenting to the citizens, without comment, this propo-
sition: as the people of Boston and Philadelphia are in
favor of maintaining their agreements unchanged, is it your
judgment " that we should also abide by our present Non-
Importation Agreement; or to import every Thing except
the Articles which are, or may hereafter be, subject to
Duty? "
At noon the same day, the radicals, led bv Isaac Sears
and Alexander Mc. Dnug-aH. met at the Citv Hall, declared
unanimously against SU limpoj^ion^and agreed to use all
lawful means to oppose it. [ Jn the evening a mob collected,
parading the streets with a flag inscribed with the legend,
"Liberty and no Importation but in Union with the other
Colonies," hissing and hooting at the doors of those who
favored importation. A crowd of the opposition gathered,
and under the leadership of Elias Desbrosses, magistrate
of the city and already slated for the next presidency of the
Chamber of Commerce, they came in collision with the riot-
ers in Wall Street, where stiff blows were exchanged with
cane and club and the non-importers finally dispersed.
Bv Monday evening, July Q- the canvass_was^comnleted;
an^ fV. * ^nrp rf^^d in a victory for thp rr1p1vhanrs- A
protest signed by many inhabitants later declared that " only
794 Persons in this populous City, including all Ranks and
both Sexes," signed for importation, notwithstanding " the
Co-operation of Interest, Necessity and Influence. " J It
was further claimed that the great number of those entitled
to vote had abstained because they considered the proceeding
irregular. 2 Nevertheless, the merchants accepted the poll as
1N. Y. Journ. , July 26, Aug. 2, 1770.
*Ibid. , July 12, 1770. Another method employed to discredit the
poll is illustrated by the recantation of Charles Prosser for signing
in favor of importation when "too much in Liquor to be trusted with
the common Rights of Mankind. " Conn. Cour. , Aug. 20.
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? NON-IMPORT A TION
227
conclusive; and within two days a vessel departed for Eng-
land with orders for a general importation of goods, except
tea or anv other riujied arrives. 1
The late Committee of Merchants of New York made all
haste to inform their brethren in Philadelphia and Boston
of the new developments. When a copy of the letter
reached Princeton, James Madison and his fellow-students,
garbed in black gowns, solemnly witnessed the burning of
the letter by a hangman, while the college bell tolled funereal
peals. * This was an augury of the reception that the letter
was to receive elsewhere. At Philadelphia, a great meeting
of the inhabitants of the city and county adopted numerous
resolutions, condemning the action of New York as " a sor-
did and wanton Defection from the common Cause" and
declaring a boycott against that city except for five neces-
sary articles. 8 At Boston, a meeting of the trade at Fan-
euil Hall voted unanimously that the New York letter, "in
just indignation, abhorrence and detestation, be forthwith
torn into pieces and thrown to the winds as unworthy of
the least notice;" which was accordingly done. 4 The New
York Committee received a scathing letter from the mer-
chants of Albany, remarking on their " unaccountable Dup-
licity" and quoting cruelly from their recent letter of cen-
sure on Albany for wavering in their non-importation. 5
1 N. Y. Journ. , July 12, 1770; N. Y. Col. Docs. , vol. viii, pp. 220-221.
On Nov. 26, Isaac Low advertised that, although he had lately been
"distinguished as Chairman of a certain Committee," he had freshly
imported goods in stock. N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Nov. 26.
*AT. Y. Journ. , July 19, 1770; Madison, Writings (Hunt), vol. i,
pp. 6-7.
1 Meeting of July 14; Pa. Chron. , July 16, 1770; also Pa. Gas. , July
19. The excepted articles were: alkaline salt, skins, furs, flax and hemp.
4 Meeting of July 24; Bos. Eve. Post, July 30, 1770; also N. Y. Journ. ,
Aug. 2, 9. A New York sloop with a cargo of pork was turned away
from Marblehead by the Committee of Merchants there. Essex Gas. ,
Aug. 14.
6AT. Y. Journ. , Aug. 23, 1770. A town meeting at Huntington in
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? 228 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
New Jersey was aflame with indignation. "Shall we be
humbug'd out of our Liberty and enslaved only by a Sett
of Traders? " wrote the committee of Somerset County. 1
Formal resolutions of censure and boycott were adopted by
mass meetings in Woodbridge and New Brunswick and in
the counties of Essex, Sussex and Burlington. 2 A New
Yorker, daring to hawk fruit at Woodbridge, was "gen-
teelly ducked to cool his courage. " 8 The inhabitants of
Sussex County, in the extreme northwestern corner of the
province, resolved that, although they had hitherto patron-
ized New York markets "by a long and tedious land-
carriage," they would now turn their trade of wheat and
iron "by the more natural and easy water-carriage down
the River Delaware" to Trenton and Philadelphia. 4
The people of Connecticut were equally incensed. The
New Haven merchants and other inhabitants resolved to buy
no British imports from New York and, when a general
importation occurred, to exert their influence either to di-
vert the trade of Connecticut to Boston or Philadelphia or
to give preference to local merchants. 8 Before very many
towns had followed this example, a public meeting at Hart-
ford started a movement for a general meeting of "the
mercantile and landed interest of the several towns" at
the eastern part of Long Island denounced the "mercenary and per-
f1dious Conduct" of New York and resolved to maintain the non-
importation inviolate. Ibid. , Aug. 30.
1 N. V. Gas. & Post-Boy, Sept. 24, 1770; also / N. J. Arch. , vol.
xxvii, pp. 253-254.
* N. Y. Journ. , July 26, Aug. 9, Sept. 27, Oct. 11,, 1770; also I N. J.
Arch. , vol. xxvii, pp. 206-207, 215-217, 218-219, 252-253, 260-262.
1 N, Y. Journ. , Aug. 9, 1770; also / N. J. Arch. , vol. xxvii, p. 220.
4 AT. Y. Gas. & Post-Boy, Sept . 24, 1770; also 1 AT. /. Arch. , vol.
xxvii, pp. 252-253.
6 Meeting of July 26; Conn. Journ. , Aug. 3, 1770.
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? NON-IMPORTA TION
229
New Haven on September 13 to adopt uniform measures
in dealing with New York. 1 At this meetiny. attended by
deleeates from a frreAt majority of the towns, resolutions
were passed to sever all intercourse with New York so far
as the purchase of Britishlmports was concerned. 2 From
the plantation provinces, also, came expressions of in-
dignation. 8
The patriotic indignation of the other provinces at the
defection of New York was splendid to behold. But the
merchants throughout the continent realized in their hearts
that the prostration of the stalwart pillar of New York
would cause the whole great edifice to topple. The dry-
goods importers at Philadelphia were stirred to re-open the
agitation there. Some frankly placed their demand for
alteration on the ground that a non-importation of tea would
accomplish every desirable object, and that the defection of
New York precluded any possibility of distressing British
merchants at the same time that it made Pennsylvania
traders a prey to the merchants of that city. 4 Others re-
1 New London Gas. , Aug. 17, 1770; also Mass. Spy, Aug'. 21.
1 Conn. Cour. , Sept . 17, 1770; also AT. Y. Journ. , Sept. 20.
'Considerably less notice was attracted in the plantation provinces
than in the commercial provinces.
The inhabitants of Talbot County
in Maryland resolved to cut off all trade relations with the province
of New York. Pa. Gas. , Aug. 23, 1770. A general meeting of mer-
chants and inhabitants of Wilmington and Brunswick in North Caro-
lina took occasion to renew their agreement "with great spirit and
unanimity. " Mass. Spy, Sept. [Dec. ] 3, 1770. At Charleston, South
Carolina the keenest interest was displayed. A general meeting of
August 22 unanimously voted that the "scandalous Revolt from the
common Cause of Freedom" should be punished by an absolute boy-
cott; and in the subsequent months, New York skippers were actually
forbidden trading rights in the port. S. C. Gas. , Aug. 20, 23, Sept. 6,
27, Nov. 22, 1770.
4" Philo-Veritas" in Pa. Gas. , Aug. 2, 1770; "Philadelphian" in,
ibid. , Aug. 16; Collins, Letter-Book 1761-1773, Nov. 24.
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? 230 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
vived the old complaint that the persons most violent in
favor of the existing agreement were in general "Men
little or not at all interested in the [drygoods] Trade" but
who were cheerfully paying duties on molasses, sugar and
wine in the course of their trade with the West Indies and
the Wine Islands. 1
To these arguments came the answer of " Juris Prudens"
in exalted strain--that if the wine and molasses merchants
were little affected, the glory of the drygoods merchants was
all the greater; and he recalled that "the Weight of the
Stamp Act fell upon the Lawyers, they generously bore it
and desired not Partners in Distress. "2 Rather more
pointed was the reminder given by "Amor Patriae" that
the merchants had deliberately chosen to make the Towns-
hend duties the sole object of repeal, even to the point of
rejecting a proposition from Boston for including the wine
and molasses duties as objects; that therefore reflections
upon these latter merchants had no bearing upon the matter
under discussion. 8 Other writers emphasized that the tea
act was, in principle, just as much a violation of American
rights as the duties that had been repealed, and that the
material condition of the poor in Pennsylvania was better
than it had been in years. 4
Matters came to a head when the seven ex-members of
the Committee of Merchants joined with seven other mer-
cantile firms, on September 12, 1770, to request the com-
mittee to canvass the sentiments of the subscribers of the
agreement in a house-to-house poll. The committee, headed
1 " Philo-Veritas" in Pa. Gas. , July 19, 1770; "Talionis" in Pa.
Chron. , Aug. 8.
1Pa. Gas. , Aug. 2, 1770.
1 Ibid. , July 26, 1770.
4 " True Philadelphian" and " Pennsylvanian" in ibid. , Aug. 23, 1770.
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? NON-IMPORTATION 231
by Charles Thomson and William Fisher, replied that the
agreement itself provided the only method of its amend-
ment,--through a general meeting of subscribers after three
days' notice. 1 Without consulting the committee further,
the fourteen sent notices around to the subscribers to meet
at Davenport's Tavern on Thursday, September 20. * Only
one hundred and thirty-five persons attended, and the im-
porters had, through assiduous effort, succeeded in collect-
ing a majority favorable to their design. The committee
appeared, made a fervent appeal to the meeting to be loyal
to the liberties of America, and presented a list of three
carefully worded questions to be voted on, with the purpose
of preventing any alteration except in concert with the other
provinces and of patterning the alteration, should any be
made, on the Maryland or Virginia association. The im-
porters submitted a counter-list of questions, which put
squarely before the gathering the expediency of restricting
non-importation to tea and other dutied articles, as the New
Yorkers had done. The meeting voted to consider the last
list of questions first and passed them in the affirmative.
A trial vote on one of the committee's questions showed
an adverse vote of 89 to 45. The committee then contended
that the inhabitants in general should have a vote in the
matter and that, in any case, the subscribers not present
should be consulted. But they could make no headway
against the majority; and Charles Thomson, speaking for
the eleven members of the committee, declared that they
deemed that the agreement had been broken and announced
their resignation.
The people of Philadelphia did not accept the decision
1 Pa. Gas. , Sept. ao, 1770.
'For accounts of this meeting, vide ibid. , Sept. 27, Oct. 11, 1770; and
especially the circular letter of the "late Committee" in Pa. Chron. ,
Oct. 1.
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? 232 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
without loud protest. A grand jury, of which John Gibson,
one of the resigned committeemen, was foreman, declared
that they would unite with their fellow-citizens to discoun-
tenance the use of British goods until the parliamentary
claim to colonial taxation was relinquished, the tea duty
repealed, the jurisdiction and power of the vice-admiralty
courts restricted, the Customs Board dissolved, and the
standing army removed or placed under direction of the
civil authority. 1 A mass meeting of inhabitants voted, with
only one dissenting voice, to adopt the resolutions which
the committee had submitted in vain to the merchants' meet-
ing; and a formal request was made that the merchants
should re-consider their action. 2 Meantime, the merchants
had chosen a new committee to supervise enforcement of
the altered agreement; and on Saturday, the twenty-ninth,
the London Packet sailed with the orders of the merchants
for British merchandise. 8
It was scarcely to be expected that the merchants at Bos-
ton should continue their non-importation when all about
them yielded to the stern call of necessity. "Some who
have been leaders would have been glad to hold out longer,"
wrote Dr. Andrew Eliot, " but persons in trade were weary,
and, as interest is generally their god, began to be furious. " *
After all, their purpose of bringing pressure to bear upon
British merchants and manufacturers was already defeated
by the defection of New York and Philadelphia. The first
indication of weakening came when the merchants, not-
withstanding their intense indignation, failed to pass reso-
lutions of boycott when New York departed the agreement. 5
1September 24; Pa. Gas. , Sept. 27, 1770.
1 September 27; ibid. , Oct. 4, 1770.
? Pa. Chron. , Sept. 24, 1770; N. Y. Journ. , Oct. 11.
4 4 M. H. S. Colls. , vol. iv,' p. 458.
* Vide sarcastic comment in Newport Merc. , Aug. 6, 1770; also
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? NON-IMPORTA TION
233
On September u, a few days before the final steps to dis-
solve the Philadelphia agreement had been taken, a great
meeting of the Boston trade was held, at which it was esti-
mated that not less than one thousand were present, includ-
ing " a very great Number of the principal and most wealthy
Merchants, as well as the most respectable Tradesmen of
the Town. " The assemblage voted to propose to Phila-
delphia an interprovincial congress of merchants to plan
ways and means of strengthening the union of the prov-
inces. 1 The letter reached Philadelphia after the committee
of that city had become non-existent. The news of the
desertion of Philadelphia brought the Boston merchants to
ajiecision after a fpw wepks "f irresolution: on October 12.
thjy mtt nt tV British ^oflfce House and unanimously voted
to open the importation of all British goods, except tea and
Such Other f ff>^g as WPI-P rtr might hp s11hjprt tr> rpvpnne
duties. 2 A week later, the goods which had been placed in
store were delivered up to their owners. 8
The downfall of non-importation in the commercial prov-
iflc. e. s mjggntjjiai the associations to the southward must soon
crumble also. The merchants of Baltimore lost little time
in sending forth a call for a meeting of the General Com-
mittee of Maryland at Annapolis when they learned that the
Philadelphia merchants had forsaken their agreement.
They resolved, furthermore, that if the provincial meeting
Mass. Spy, Aug. 14. The Mass. Spy on November 5 quoted from a
London paper that "at a late Meeting of the American Merchants,
it was agreed to give unlimited Credit to such of the Colonies as
should follow the Example of New York, by a general Importation. "
Such rumors, whether true or not, served no doubt to increase the
sentiment for renewing importation.
1 Bos. Gas. , Sept. 17, 1770; Pa. Chron. , Oct. 1.
*Mass. Spy, Oct. 13, 1770; also Mass Gas. & Post-Boy, Oct. 15.
s Mass. Spy, Oct. 20, 1770.
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? 234
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
should not be held, they would consider the association dis-
solved and open the importation of all goods save tea and
other dutied articles. 1 A provincial meeting was duly held
on October 25, but it proved a rather heterogeneous gather-
ing, consisting of a majority of the Assembly, several
Annapolis merchants, some members of the Council, a num-
ber of planters, and of properly chosen deputations from
only three counties. Jonathan Hudson, representing the
Baltimore merchants, defiantly informed the meeting that his
constituents were determined to depart the association not-
withstanding any resolutions they might adopt, and that he
had been instructed to agree to no terms short of a dis-
solution of the association. The meeting answered by
voting that the association should be strictly adhered to and
that all trade should be stopped with the Baltimore mer-
chants or any other violators. 2 The Annapolis incident
proved to be only a piece of theatricalism so far as the mer-
chants of the province were concerned. "A Merchant of
Maryland" ridiculed the gathering as "a fortuitous Col-
lection, not of Merchants, but of Counsellors, Representa-
tives, Lawyers, and others, who had been convened at
Annapolis on other public Business;" and he remarked
"how absurd, not to say indecent, it is for Men whose Occu-
pations and Employments lie altogether in a different Walk,
to attempt giving Law to the mercantile Part of the Com-
munity. " * The subsequent months showed that he spoke
with entire truthfulness when he said that the merchants did
not intend to pay "the least Regard to those flaming and
ridiculous Resolutions which were lately flashed off," but
that they would confine their non-importation only to tea
and other dutied articles.
1 October 5, Md. Gas. , Oct. 11, 1770; also Pa. Gas. , Oct . 18.
1Mrf. Gas. , Nov. 1, 1770; also Pa. Gas. , Nov. 8.
* Ibid. , Dec. 13. 1770.
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