XVI. 1774. Company, finding their stock of tea to accumu- BOOK late in their warehouses in consequence of the loss of the American market, were very urgent with the minister to repeal the American import duty of threepence per pound, offering in lieu of it to pay double the sum on exportation. A fairer opportunity could not occur to terminate the dispute. As the duty would not have been taken off at the instance of the Americans, either in the dread of their resentment, or in the prospect of their advantage, it might have been hoped that the most strenuous stickler for "the dignity of the crown" and "the honor of parliament," whose sleeping and waking dreams had centred solely in these beloved and darling objects, might at length have banished his perturbations, and pressed his pillow in peace. This concession, however, the minister was not inclined, or, which is far more probable, was not PERMITTED to make; and things remained on this footing, till in the session of 1773 the act passed for allowing the exportation of TEAS duty-free; and the Company, eager to make a grand effort to relieve themselves from their difficulties, were buoyed up with the flattering expectation, by becoming their own factors, of regaining possession of the American market; for, when the teas were actually transported across the Atlantic and lodged in warehouses, the mere circum XVI. BOOK stance of their having previously paid the import duty would not, it was imagined, impede the Company's sales. In this idea, however, they were most egregiously and fatally mistaken. The Americans considered this new attempt in no other light than as an insidious artifice and collusion, calculated and designed to inveigle them into the payment of this tax, in order to ESTABLISH THE PRECEDENT; and they were firmly and unanimously determined that no such project should take effect. Six hundred chests were by the Company, in pursuance of the late act, consigned to their agent at Boston, the like quantity to New York and Philadelphia, and in proportion to the other principal ports of the continent. Pennsylvania on this occasion distinguished herself by setting the first example of opposition. A general meeting was convened at Philadelphia, in which a series of vigorous resolutions were passed, "declaring this new ministerial plan of importation to be a violent attack upon the liberties of America, and pronouncing it to be the duty of every American to oppose this attempt; and whoever should directly or indirectly countenance it was an enemy to his country." A committee was then appointed to wait upon the consignees of the Company, and to request their resignation; which was immediately complied with. At New York, on the 1 XVI. consequent in the colo arrival of the tea-ships in December, they were BOOK with difficulty permitted to approach the wharf; and, as at Philadelphia, the consignees were 1774. compelled to relinquish their appointments, and Tumults the ships returned back to England without thereupon breaking bulk. At Charlestown, after much nies. opposition and tumult, the tea was permitted to be unloaded, but was immediately lodged in damp unventilated cellars, where it long remained, and finally perished. In no place was the delivery of it to the consignees suffered; and in most the captains of the India ships, on being apprised of the temper and disposition of the people, without any attempt to land, wisely set their sails for England. At Boston the spirit of resistance rose to a height which made the excesses committed elsewhere appear trivial. At a general meeting of the inhabitants, the resolves of the city of Philadelphia were unanimously adopted, and a committee appointed to wait upon the consignees, to know whether they would resign their appointments; which they declared not to be in their power. At a succeeding meet-* ing at Faneuil Hall, it was voted with loud acclamations, "that the tea shall not be landed, that no duty shall be paid, and that it shall be sent back in the same bottoms."-"We must not," said a leading member of the assembly, "flatter ourselves, that popular resolves, popular shouts XVI. 1774. BOOK or harangues, will vanquish our foes or terminate our trials. We must be ignorant of the power of those who have combined against us; we must be blind to that malice, inveteracy, and revenge, which have uniformly actuated their conduct, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, sharpest conflict. Let us weigh and consider, before we determine upon those measures which must bring on the most terrible struggle which this country ever experienced." The question was again put, and passed without a negative. On an application from the captain of the Dartmouth East-Indiaman to the governor for a clearance, he replied, "I cannot give you a pass consistent with the laws and my duty to the king, unless the vessel is properly qualified from the custom-house." Upon this answer being reported to the assembly, the meeting was declared to be dissolved. An immense crowd repaired in haste to the quay, and a number of the most resolute, in the disguise of Mohawk Indians, boarded the vessels, and in about two hours broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and discharged their contents into the sea. Such was the consequence of the obstinacy of the governor, who might have recollected that his predecessor sir Francis Bernard, in a like exigency, granted permits to many ships not qualified for want of stamps, and that XVI. 1774 the prudence and propriety of his conduct had BOOK never been called in question. But the present governor had long been the urgent advocate for measures of coercion on the part of Great Britain, and was probably not displeased to see matters tending to a crisis; and, in a subsequent declaration, he assigned, somewhat unwarily, as one of the reasons for this refusal, "that by a compliance with the demand of the people he should have rendered himself OBNOXIOUS to his SOVEREIGN." This undoubtedly is the MASTERKEY which unfolds all the apparent absurdities and extravagancies of his conduct. The temper of the British court was so well understood in America, that no one presumed to hope they would be induced, by this determined and inflexible spirit of opposition in the colonies, to desist from their ruinous projects. On the contrary, measures of vengeance were confidently expected; and even persons of acknowledged moderation, on perceiving the ideas which they had long cherished of reconciliation to be hopeless, declared their resolution, in case matters were carried to extremity in Great Britain, to join the standard of their countrymen. A major of provincials, who had been foreman of the jury on the trial of captain Preston, and to whom, in reward of his meritorious conduct, the governor had given this commission, said to him |