The towns
italicized
included the
boycott.
boycott.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
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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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 303
of June, 1774, that the flame, whereof Wentworth had
spoken, showed how defective were its incendiary proper-
ties. On the twenty-fifth, a vessel arrived at Portsmouth
with a consignment of twenty-seven chests of dutied tea for
a private merchant. The tea was landed; the town meeting
which assembled to consider the situation was temperate
beyond the hope of the governor. A committee, composed
chiefly of "discreet men who . . . detested every idea of
violating property," was appointed to treat with the con-
signee, while the town meeting chose "a guard of free-
holders to protect and defend the Custom House and the
tea from any attempt or interruption. " The merchant
readily accepted the committee's offer to export the tea to
any market he chose at the town's expense; and thereupon
the duty was openly paid and the tea publicly carted back
to the vessel. The whole episode passed off without dis-
turbance, an incipient attempt being quelled by the towns-
men themselves. 1
The people at Newport, R. I. , were even more belated in
adopting resolutions, although urged to do so by a letter
from the Boston Committee of Correspondence. Finally,
on Saturday, January 1, 1774, a notice was mysteriously
posted at the Brick Market, signed by "Legion," and
threatening that the town officials would surely be opposed
in any office in town or colony to which they might aspire,
unless a town meeting were called to adopt resolutions like
Boston and the other towns. The notice had its effect: a
town meeting was held on the following Tuesday, and at
an adjournment on January 12 the town adopted the Phila-
delphia resolutions verbatim and appointed a committee of
correspondence. 2 This prompted the smaller towns to pass
1 N. H. Gas. , July 1, 8, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 512-513.
? Mow. Gos. & Post-Boy, Jan. 17, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24.
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? 304 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
similar resolutions and became a signal for the establish-
ment of the committee of correspondence system through-
out Rhode Island. 1 Onlv one New England province re-
mained silent; and no amount of urging from Boston was
sufficient to arouse the people of Connecticut to a sense of
danger. 2
(2j[t New York we have seen that news of the Boston
vandalism had, for the moment, turned the tide in favor of
the radicals, and that at Philadelphia resolutions of ap-
proval had been impulsively adopted contrary to the judg-
ment of the " substantial thinking part. '^J Nevertheless, the
sober judgment of both towns and of the remaining prov-
inces was against the action of the Bostonians. Several
meetings of the people of Charleston, S. C. , prompted by
the radicals in January and March, 1774, proved futile in
their outcome. 8 The ebbing of the radical movement seemed
apparent on . almost pvfry hand.
1 By the end of March, Providence, Bristol, Richmond, New Shore-
ham, Cumberland and Barrington had acted. R. I. Col. Recs. , voL vii,
pp. 272-280, 283. The town of Scituate chose a committee in Sep-
tember.
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 717-718.
*S. C. Gas. , Jan. 24, Mch. 7, 21, 28, 1774; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i,
p. IOO. At the Charleston meeting of Mch. 16, a standing committee
of forty-five was appointed with power to act as executive body and to
call the inhabitants together upon occasion.
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? CHAPTER VIII
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE COMMERCIAL PROVINCES (MARCH-AUGUST,
1774)
THE ena^tmn? * "f tht "^r^1'yp af. tg fay Parliament called
forth_ the union of interests and action in America, which
the opposition to fhp FJS^ TnHia Company in the leading
sey! 2rts h. 5^-? iu! ? i,t? ~? xpke? The chief of these laws were
intended to deal with the lawless conditions which had
arisen in the province of Massachusetts Bay out of the tea
commotions. The first of the series, the Boston Port Act.
received the royal assent on the last day of March, 1774. *
This act provided for the closing 9f the harbor of Boston
to commerce from and after June 1 and the transfer of the
custom house to Marblehead and the capital to Salem. The
port of Boston was to be re-opened when the East India
Company and the customs officers and others had been re-
imbursed for the losses sustained by them during the riots,
and when the king in privy council was satisfied that trade
might be safely carried on there and the customs duly col-
lected.
After an interval of two months, two other acts were
passed which provided for thorough-going alterations^ . of
the constitution of the j^pyince. * The governor's council,
which, being elective by the Assembly, had hitherto ob-
1 14 George III, c. 19. For the parliamentary debates on this and the
following acts, vide Parliamentary History, vol. xvii, pp. 1159-1325.
* 14 George III, c. 45, c. 39-
305
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? 306 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1703. 1776
structed all efforts to suppress rioting, was now made ap-
pointive by the king, as in all other royal provinces. A
direct blow was aimed at the system of committees of cor-
respondence by the provision placing town meetings under
the immediate control of the governor from and after
August 1, and permitting only the annual meeting for the
election of officers to be held without his express authoriza-
tion. The way was prepared for a rigorous execution of
the customs laws by providing that a person might be tried
in another province or in Great Britain, who was charged
with a capital crime committed " either in the execution of
his duty as a magistrate, for the suppression of riots or in
the support of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty
as an officer of revenue," or as acting in a subordinate
capacity in either case. The three acts passed with great
majorities. 1 A motion to rescind the tea duty called forth
a remarkable speech in favor of repeal by Edmund Burke;
but the motion was lost by a large vote.
The receipt of the news of the Boston Port Act put a
new face on public affairs in America. It changed com-
pletely the nature of the contest with Parliament which had
been going on intermittently since 1764.
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-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 01:36 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015011480665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 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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? STRUGGLE WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 303
of June, 1774, that the flame, whereof Wentworth had
spoken, showed how defective were its incendiary proper-
ties. On the twenty-fifth, a vessel arrived at Portsmouth
with a consignment of twenty-seven chests of dutied tea for
a private merchant. The tea was landed; the town meeting
which assembled to consider the situation was temperate
beyond the hope of the governor. A committee, composed
chiefly of "discreet men who . . . detested every idea of
violating property," was appointed to treat with the con-
signee, while the town meeting chose "a guard of free-
holders to protect and defend the Custom House and the
tea from any attempt or interruption. " The merchant
readily accepted the committee's offer to export the tea to
any market he chose at the town's expense; and thereupon
the duty was openly paid and the tea publicly carted back
to the vessel. The whole episode passed off without dis-
turbance, an incipient attempt being quelled by the towns-
men themselves. 1
The people at Newport, R. I. , were even more belated in
adopting resolutions, although urged to do so by a letter
from the Boston Committee of Correspondence. Finally,
on Saturday, January 1, 1774, a notice was mysteriously
posted at the Brick Market, signed by "Legion," and
threatening that the town officials would surely be opposed
in any office in town or colony to which they might aspire,
unless a town meeting were called to adopt resolutions like
Boston and the other towns. The notice had its effect: a
town meeting was held on the following Tuesday, and at
an adjournment on January 12 the town adopted the Phila-
delphia resolutions verbatim and appointed a committee of
correspondence. 2 This prompted the smaller towns to pass
1 N. H. Gas. , July 1, 8, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 512-513.
? Mow. Gos. & Post-Boy, Jan. 17, 1774; Bos. Eve. Post, Jan. 24.
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? 304 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
similar resolutions and became a signal for the establish-
ment of the committee of correspondence system through-
out Rhode Island. 1 Onlv one New England province re-
mained silent; and no amount of urging from Boston was
sufficient to arouse the people of Connecticut to a sense of
danger. 2
(2j[t New York we have seen that news of the Boston
vandalism had, for the moment, turned the tide in favor of
the radicals, and that at Philadelphia resolutions of ap-
proval had been impulsively adopted contrary to the judg-
ment of the " substantial thinking part. '^J Nevertheless, the
sober judgment of both towns and of the remaining prov-
inces was against the action of the Bostonians. Several
meetings of the people of Charleston, S. C. , prompted by
the radicals in January and March, 1774, proved futile in
their outcome. 8 The ebbing of the radical movement seemed
apparent on . almost pvfry hand.
1 By the end of March, Providence, Bristol, Richmond, New Shore-
ham, Cumberland and Barrington had acted. R. I. Col. Recs. , voL vii,
pp. 272-280, 283. The town of Scituate chose a committee in Sep-
tember.
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. ix, pp. 717-718.
*S. C. Gas. , Jan. 24, Mch. 7, 21, 28, 1774; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i,
p. IOO. At the Charleston meeting of Mch. 16, a standing committee
of forty-five was appointed with power to act as executive body and to
call the inhabitants together upon occasion.
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? CHAPTER VIII
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE COMMERCIAL PROVINCES (MARCH-AUGUST,
1774)
THE ena^tmn? * "f tht "^r^1'yp af. tg fay Parliament called
forth_ the union of interests and action in America, which
the opposition to fhp FJS^ TnHia Company in the leading
sey! 2rts h. 5^-? iu! ? i,t? ~? xpke? The chief of these laws were
intended to deal with the lawless conditions which had
arisen in the province of Massachusetts Bay out of the tea
commotions. The first of the series, the Boston Port Act.
received the royal assent on the last day of March, 1774. *
This act provided for the closing 9f the harbor of Boston
to commerce from and after June 1 and the transfer of the
custom house to Marblehead and the capital to Salem. The
port of Boston was to be re-opened when the East India
Company and the customs officers and others had been re-
imbursed for the losses sustained by them during the riots,
and when the king in privy council was satisfied that trade
might be safely carried on there and the customs duly col-
lected.
After an interval of two months, two other acts were
passed which provided for thorough-going alterations^ . of
the constitution of the j^pyince. * The governor's council,
which, being elective by the Assembly, had hitherto ob-
1 14 George III, c. 19. For the parliamentary debates on this and the
following acts, vide Parliamentary History, vol. xvii, pp. 1159-1325.
* 14 George III, c. 45, c. 39-
305
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? 306 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1703. 1776
structed all efforts to suppress rioting, was now made ap-
pointive by the king, as in all other royal provinces. A
direct blow was aimed at the system of committees of cor-
respondence by the provision placing town meetings under
the immediate control of the governor from and after
August 1, and permitting only the annual meeting for the
election of officers to be held without his express authoriza-
tion. The way was prepared for a rigorous execution of
the customs laws by providing that a person might be tried
in another province or in Great Britain, who was charged
with a capital crime committed " either in the execution of
his duty as a magistrate, for the suppression of riots or in
the support of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty
as an officer of revenue," or as acting in a subordinate
capacity in either case. The three acts passed with great
majorities. 1 A motion to rescind the tea duty called forth
a remarkable speech in favor of repeal by Edmund Burke;
but the motion was lost by a large vote.
The receipt of the news of the Boston Port Act put a
new face on public affairs in America. It changed com-
pletely the nature of the contest with Parliament which had
been going on intermittently since 1764.
