No More Learning

5, 1770.
4 About thirty articles were permitted to be imported, most of which
were useful for local manufacturing. This list was further extended
at a general meeting of September 13. Conn. Cour. , Sept. 17, 1770.
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? 152
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the purpose of promoting and extending the arts, agricul-
ture, manufactures, trade and commerce of this colony;"
and a committee was appointed to float the enterprise by
means of popular subscriptions. 1 Another committee was
instructed to seek preferential treatment from the legis-
lature for the exportation of Connecticut flour in Con-
necticut vessels, for local ships in the fisheries, and for the
establishment of a glass factory. The convention further
resolved that, in view of the extreme scarcity of cash, they
would urge the legislature at its May session "to make
notes of hand negotiable with us, under proper regula-
tions, as they are in Great Britain, and in some of our
sister colonies. " 2
At first thought, it may seem strange that the merchants
of Rhode Island were not abreast of Boston and New York
in opposition to the trade restrictions of Parliament. With
the course of these greater towns their true interest un-
doubtedly lay; but the temptation in hard times {o turn the
self-denial of their neitrhhnrs to thpir mv>>]
Moreover, they had so long
1 This society was duly organized; and, at its first meeting, on May
22, 1770, it offered premiums for domestic wheat, wool, textiles, stock-
ings and nails. New-London Gas. , June 15, 1770. But the breakdown
of the non-importation movement later in the year prevented this soci-
ety from accomplishing its purpose.
1Conn, Journ. , Jan. 19, 1770; Conn. Cour. , Feb. 26.
1 Thus, newspapers in New York and Boston alluded to recent "large
Importations of British Goods into 'Rhode Island with Intent to take
an Advantage of the Sister Colonies. " N. Y. Journ. , June 29, Nov. 30,
1769; Mass. Gas. , July 10. Vide also R. I. Commerce, vol. i, p. 246.
In August, 1769, two British manufacturers, who had been expelled
from Charleston, S. C. , and later from New London, Conn. , for trying
to sell imported British wares, journeyed on to Newport and quickly
disposed of their goods there. Bos. Chron. , Aug. 28, 1769; N. Y. Gas.
6- Post-Boy. Aug. 28. In December, a trader in "a Country Town
Southward of Boston" complained that the trade of the western part
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
153
accustomed themselves to defiances of the trade regulations
of Parliament that it violated no moral scruple to ignore
the extra-legal ordinances of nearby provinces. The mer-
chants of Newport, the leading town, were the chief of-
fenders. As one observer put it, the merchants there " have
been pretty unanimous in disputing fees with their Col-
lector &c. " but have failed to adopt non-importation meas-
ures. "They have been busy in killing flies while they
should have been destroying wolves and tygers! " *
After some preliminary agitation on the part of the local
merchants, a town meeting at Providence on October 24,
1769 resolved not to import or purchase any of the com-
modities listed in the old town agreement of December 2,
1767. ' This, it should however be noted, was an ex-
tremely liberal form of non-importation regulation in com-
parison with the agreements in the other commercial prov-
inces. As the snow Tristram was soon expected from
London with goods forbidden by the agreement, the various
importers, some of whom had been unmoved before, arose
in the meeting and agreed to store the goods with a com-
mittee of the town. Later, precaution was taken to prevent
inhabitants from buying goods, which local merchants were
forbidden to sell, from strolling vendors, all purchasers
being warned that their names would be publicly advertised. 5
of Massachusetts was being absorbed by Rhode Island merchants, be-
cause prices at Newport were twenty per cent cheaper than at Boston.
Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Dec. 21, 1769. "A Bostonian" charged in
the Boston Chronicle, Feb. 5, 1770, that Providence had developed a
considerable trade with western Massachusetts. In like vein, the
Chronicle, Dec. I1, 1769, reported that twenty chests of tea had been
brought overland from Rhode Island within the fortnight.
1 N. Y. Journ. , Nov. 9, 1769.
? Mass. Gas. & Post-Boy, Oct. 16, 1769; Bos. Gas. , Oct. 30; Mass.
Gas. & News-Letter, Nov. 2, Dec. 14. Vide supra, p. 111.
'Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Nov. 17, 1769.
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? 154
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
The Newport merchants were more refractory. A letter
of October 21, 1769 from the Philadelphia Merchants' Com-
mittee notified them that a plan was under way to sever
commercial relations with them unless they united in the
measures- of the other provinces. 1 A Boston newspaper
announced that " all intercourse with Rhode Island is nearly
shut up, as if the plague were there;"2 and the South
Carolina Gasette of November 14 asserted that similar meas-
ures were about to be adopted at Charleston. Under this
outside pressure, the body of Newport merchants met on
October 30, and agreed to import no British manufactures or
East India goods after January 1, 1770. 8 Their design
was quickly detected. The Philadelphia Merchants' Com-
mittee informed them that the agreement was unsatisfactory
in two respects: by confining themselves to British and East
India goods, they still were at liberty to import from Great
Britain German, Russian and other European commodities;
and, by postponing the operation of the agreement until
the first of January, they might import vast quantities of
goods, ordered especially for the interval. Unless these
matters were rectified and a "determinate answer" given
by December 10, they were told that Philadelphia would
boycott them. 4 At New York, the merchants instituted an
immediate boycott, subject to removal when the Newport
merchants conformed to conditions somewhat similar to
those imposed by Philadelphia. 5 The Newport merchants
now adopted a new agreement, which was acceptable in
every respect, save that the imports lately arrived were not
1 Papers of Phila. Merchants, pp. 31-34.
1 Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Oct. 5, 1769.
1 N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Nov. 13, 1769.
4 Papers of Phila. Merchants, pp. 43-45.
6 Mass. Gas. & News-Letter, Nov. 23, 1769.
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? COMMERCIAL REFORM
155
to be stored. 1 Although not entirely satisfied, the Phila-
delphia merchants, upon strong assurance of strict observ-
ance in the future, determined to continue trade relations;
and, some weeks later, the New Yorkers re-opened trade
with Newport. 2 Nevertheless, the equivocal course of the
Newport merchants did not promise well for the future
conscientious performance of pledges reluctantly given.
The inaction of New Hampshire was due, for the most
part, to causes of a different character. The province was
in the midst of a period of unusual prosperity, and taxes
were lower than they had been for years. * The predomin-
ant interests of the province were agricultural; and, lacking
a first-rate trading-town, there was no aggressive mer-
cantile class to disturb the general complacency. Moreover,
most of the seats of power in the province were occupied
by relatives of Governor Wentworth, the royal appointee. 4
Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Governor
Wentworth was able to write to the home government as
late as February 18, 1770: " There are not any non-impor-
tation committees or associations formed in this province,
tho' daily solicited. " He added that some Scotch merchants
had now sent their European importations there and were
carrying on their business " without the least molestation. " ?
No steps were taken in New Hampshire to join the union
ot the other provinces until the alarming news arrived of
the Boston Massacre. "
1 Bos. Gaz. , Jan. 29, 1770; also Pa. Journ. , Feb. 15.
1N. Y. Journ. , Jan. 25, 1770; N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , Jan. 29.
2 Fry, W. H. , New Hampshire as a Royal Province (Col. U. Studies,
vol. xxix, no. 2), p. 420.
* It would appear that, of the nine members of the council, eight were
connected with the governor by blood or marriage ties; Judge Atkin-
son of the Superior Court was the governor's uncle; and the clerk of
the Superior Court was the judge's nephew. Bos. Eve. Post, June 25,
1770.
* Brit. Papers ("Sparks Mss"), vol. iii, p. 205.
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?
CHAPTER IV
ENFORCEMENT AND BREAKDOWN OF NON-
IMPORTATION (1768-1770)
J3v the autumn of 1760 non-importation agreements
had been adopted in every province save NewHampshire.
But if these paper manifestoes were to accomplish their
purpose of coercing the mother country, they must be
accompanied by a firm enforcement. It is appropriate,
therefore, to inquire to what extent the boycott against
Great Britain was actually executed. Certain difficul-
ties, inherent in the inquiry, will render dogmatic con-
clusions impossible. Thus, the agreements of the sev-
eral provinces went into operation at different times,
some being separated by long intervals of time. Their
provisions varied widely in their comprehensiveness.
Furthermore, the evidence, upon which conclusions
must be based, is voluminous in the case" of some pro-
vinces, and very scanty for others. Custom house
figures are of doubtful assistance in gauging the earn-
estness of the non-importers, since they do not indicate
whether the goods imported were allowed or proscribed
by the agreements, and they do not at all take into ac-
count the peculiar obstacles with which the non-impor-
ters may have had to contend in any particular locality.
In no province were the difficulties of enforcement
greater than in Massachusetts. The actual good faith
of the merchant body of Boston was impugned by many
156
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? NON-IMPORTATION
people at the time; and the writers of history have found
it easy to follow this example since. 1 But the story of the
enforcement at Boston will show that the merchants were
laboring earnestly, and with a large measure of effec-
tiveness, to establish the non-importation against un-
usually heavy odds. "I wonder for my part," wrote a
Boston merchant in 1770 to a New York friend, "how
we have been able to continue and so strictly to adhere to
the agreement as we have done. " Besides the usual
obstacles, "we have had a governor, together with a
board of commissioners, with their train of officers and
dependants who have exerted every nerve to render
abortive the non-importation agreement," and they have
had support from the military power. "We have had a
government on each side of us who have imported as
usual without the least restraint;" and "we have six or
seven ports within our government to attend to besides
our own. " * The writer might have added that the Bos-
ton merchants were the first on the continent to adopt
a non-importation agreement and had anticipated the
action of most of the provinces by many months. Finally
and not least, he should have noted that the opponents
of non-importation had a giant of strength on their side
in the person of the shrewdest and most pertinacious
controversialist in British America, John Mein of the
Boston Chronicle.
The merchants' agreement went into effect on January
I, 1769. On April 21, a meeting of the merchants ap-
pointed a committee to inspect the manifests, or official
cargo lists, of vessels which were then arriving from
lE. g. , editorial note in Dickinson, Writings (Ford), vol. i, p. 436;
Becker, N. Y. Parties, 1760-1776, p. 85.
* N. Y. Journ. , July 5, 1770.
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? 158
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Great Britain with spring shipments and to report back
to the body the names of merchants who had imported
in defiance of the agreement. 1 On the twenty-seventh,
the merchants heard the report: six subscribers of the
agreement had received a few articles, the residue of
former orders, and six or seven, who were not signers,
had imported small quantities of prohibited articles.
The former had readily agreed to store their importa-
tions with the committee, while the committee was in-
structed to confer further with the latter. 2 An inspired
statement a few days later informed the public that the
merchants' agreement had been "strictly adhered to"
by its signers, and that there had not been imported "in
all the ships from England more Goods than would fill
a Long-Boat. "3
A campaign that was destined to continue through
many months was begun to discredit utterly those who
violated the merchants' agreement. On May 8, the
Boston town meeting expressed its high satisfaction over
the scrupulous conduct of the merchants and recom-
mended to the inhabitants to withdraw their patronage
from "those few persons" who had imported goods
contrary to the agreement. 4 Within the next two weeks,
some thousands of handbills were dispersed through
Massachusetts and the neighboring provinces, advising
1 Bos. Gaz. , Apr. 24, 1769; also N. Y. Journ. , May 4.
*Hos. Gas. , May 1, 1769. This account contained no names. The
complete report of the committee, with the names of the importers,
etc. , maybe found in M. H. S. Ms. , 91 L. , p. 42. There were actually
twenty-eight importers who were non-signers, but the contents of their
orders were not known in most instances.
*J5os. Gas. , May I, 1769; also N. Y. Gas. & Merc. , May 8.
*Bos. News-Letter, May 11, 1769; also Bos. Town Recs. (,1758-1769),
p. 289.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
159
all people to shun the shops of the following firms as
men who preferred private advantage to public welfare:
William Jackson, Jonathan Simpson, J. and R. Selkrig,1
John Taylor, Samuel Fletcher, Theophilus Lillie, James
McMasters & Co. , Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, and
Nathaniel Rogers. 2 Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, it
should be noted, were sons of the lieutenant governor
and carried on a business of tea importation in which
the elder Thomas himself was interested. 8 Nathaniel
Rogers, another of the proscribed men, was a nephew of
the lieutenant governor. All these men were respected
merchants of the city; and so far as any records would
indicate, none of them were interested in illicit traffic or
even in the West Indian trade. No doubt most of them,
like the Hutchinsons, were conducting lawful businesses
which throve best under the regulations of Parliament;
and a number of them had friends and relatives among
the official class. They were not Tories in any political
sense, and neither then nor afterwards did they hold
posts under the government. They were men who, how-
ever, objected as fiercely to a direction of their affairs by
the populace as the smugglers of 1761 did to an inter-
ference with their business by a governmental writ of
assistance.
The effort to inaugurate a boycott against these men
brought to their defense the doughty champion, to whom
reference has already been made. John Mein. a co-pub-
1 Also spelled Selkridge and Selking.
1A''. Y. Journ. , June 29, 1769.
1 Vide infra, p. 282. I have found no evidence to support William Pal-
frey's allegation, made in a private letter to John Wilkes, October 30,
1770, that the elder Hutchinson, after graduation at Harvard, "was for
many years in the Holland trade, where he constantly practised all the
various methods of smuggling. " Palfrey, J. G. , William Palfrey (2
Libr. Am. ffiog. , Sparks, ed. , vol. vii), pp. 368-369.
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
lisher of the Boston Chronicle. Mein was a native of
Scotland and had been a book dealer in Boston since his
arrival in October, 1764. He had received a good
education, he possessed a faculty for effective literary ex-
pression and made himself a useful citizen generally. He
had established a circulating library; and in December,
1767, he founded, with John Fleeming, the Boston Chron-
icle, which quickly showed itself to be the most enter-
prising sheet on the continent in content as well as
typographical appearance. After a time, he converted it
from a weekly to a semi-weekly, without any addition in
price, and it thus became the only journal in New Eng-
land published with such frequency. Mein had hitherto
avoided any part in the turmoil of the times and, with
the other editors, he had published the entire series of
the Farmer's Letters. In arousing the ire of John Mein,
the merchants of Boston had stirred up a veritable hor-
net's nest. '
1 For the facts of Mein's life, vide Thomas, I. . History of Printing
in America (Albany, 1874), vol. i, pp. 151-154, vol. ii, pp. 50-61; Ayer,
M. F. , and Mathews, A. , Check-List of Boston Newspapers 1704-1780
(Col. Sac. Mass. Pubs. , vol. ix), pp. 480-481. Thomas inclines to the
contemporary opinion that Mein was in the pay of the government at
this period. Hutchinson's correspondence in the Mass. Archives fails
to give any hint of such a connection. Mein himself denied again and
again that he was acting in behalf of "a Party," and he maintained
that he was "unbiassed by fear or affection, prejudice or party. " It is
evident, of course, that he held the confidence of the Customs Board
and had access to the information contained in their books. There are
some reasons for thinking that Mein left America in November, 1769,
and never returned. The present account has assumed, for good
reasons, that he was not away from Boston for any perceptible length
of time. E. g. , vide Hutchinson,^/aw. Bay, vol. iii, p. 260. After all,
the chief consideration is that the articles in the Chronicle, of which he
was universally reputed to be the author, continued to appear without
interruption until the Chronicle ceased publication. Professor Andrews
has recently brought to light some new facts concerning Mein's exper-
iences in Boston in " The Boston Merchants and the Non-Importation
Movement," Col. Soc. Mass. Pubs. , vol. xix, pp. 227-230.
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? NON-IMPORTATION
Mein's first blast came in an unsigned article in the
Chronicle of June 1, 1769. Declaring that the handbills,
recently circulated, gave the impression that the firms
named were the only importers of British goods in the
city, the article asserted that it was only just to make
known the truth. An exact account showed that twenty-
one vessels had arrived from Great Britain at Boston
from January 1, the date on which the agreement became
operative, to June 1, 1769; and that one hundred and
ninety different persons, many of them signers of the
agreement, had imported 162 trunks, 270 bales, 182 cases,
233 boxes, 1116 casks, 139 chests, 72 hampers, and other
quantities, all carefully detailed.
The attack elicited a quick response. A writer, evi-
dently speaking for the Committee of Merchants, replied
in the Boston Gaaette of June 12. In the number of
importers, he declared that Mein included almost one
hundred belonging to other ports, also clergymen,
masters of vessels and private persons who had imported
only a single article for family use. He called attention
to the fact that Mein had stated the quantity of goods
without differentiating between those permitted and
those debarred by the agreement and without noting the
number of packages imported for army and navy use.
Mein, he averred, included four vessels which, but for
storms and other delays, would have reached Boston be-
fore the agreement went into effect, and three vessels
from Scotland, belonging to strangers who had come
over to build ships. These being omitted from the list,
it was evident that the merchandise imported by the
people of Boston in violation of the agreement was "tri-
fling and of little Value. " So far as signers were con-
cerned, the report of the merchants' committee of
inspection was cited to prove that they had imported,
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
contrary to the agreement, only 14 cases, 27 chests,
mostly of oil, 36 casks of beer, linseed oil and cheese,
50 hampers, chiefly of empty bottles, and 15 bundles;
all of which had been immediately placed under direction
of the committee. Not a single article of woolens nor
any kind of piece-goods had been imported by the signers.
The author of the earlier article was called upon to pub-
lish the names of the importers and to point out any
signers who had failed to submit their goods to the
committee of inspection.
Mein closed the discussion, for the time, simply by
announcing in his issue of the nineteenth that a list of
importers and manifests, from which his facts had been
drawn, was now lodged at the Chronicle office, and could
there be consulted by the candid and impartial public.