USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 5
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Vengeance was denounced by the more violent supporters of the government in England against " the insolent town of Boston," but the firmness of the attitude which had been taken by it in opposition to the new revenue exactions produced its legitimate effect, and that without long delay. The House of Commons had passed a series of resolves in which the proceedings of the people in town meeting were declared "illegal and unconstitutional, and calculated to excite seditions and insurrections." Among those who had opposed these resolves was Thomas Pownall, an enlightened and liberal man, whose experience during three or four years as governor of Massachusetts should have given his opinions more weight with his fellow members than they seem to have had. Mr. Pownall warned Parliament in advance against the course which it had persisted in taking, and he now (April, 1:69) moved for the repeal of Mr. Townshend's act, and spoke at length in support of his motion; but the session was too far advanced for its consideration. A few weeks later the Earl of Hillsborough, as head of the Colonial Department, which had succeeded to the functions re- lating to the colonies of the " Lords of Trade," sent a circular to the governors announcing "the intention of his Majesty's ministers to propose in the next session of Parliament taking off the duties upon glass, paper, and colors, on consideration of such duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of commerce, and assuring them that at no time had they [the government] entertained any design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes on America for the pur- pose of raising a revenue." This letter, however, was not satisfactory to the merchants of Boston, who argued, and reasonably, that if the taxes on glass and paper were "contrary to the true principles of com- merce," the tax on tea must be equally so. They declared it as their opinion that the proposed repeal was only a pretence, and that the duty on tea was to be retained to save the "right " of taxation ; and they renewed the mutual obligation, previously made, to import no more goods from England, a few specified articles only excepted, unless the revenue laws should be fully repealed. The inhabitants of the town were invited to an agreement to purchase nothing from those who might violate the terms of this engagement. A son of the late governor, Sir Francis Bernard, and two sons of the acting governor, Thomas Hutchinson, were among the merchants who refused to concur in these measures.
What is known in our local history as the " Boston Massacre " took place on the 5th of March, 1:10. On the same day a petition from
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" the merchants and traders of London trading to North America " was presented in the House of Commons setting forth "the alarming state of suspense " into which commerce had fallen, and that this in- terruption of trade, as the petitioners apprehended, was " principally owing to certain duties imposed on tea, paper, glass, and painter's colors imported into the colonies." " For the recovery of so important a branch of commerce," they prayed for such relief as to the House might seem meet. Lord North, who had just become prime minister, called for the reading of the act petitioned against, and then, after observing that it had been "the occasion of most dangerous, violent and illegal combinations in America," he admitted that it had been absurd to lay a tax upon many of the articles mentioned, and that " for commercial reasons " it was necessary to repeal the duties upon them. He had favored, he said, the circular which gave promise to the colonies of a repeal of part of the act, and this he had done'" as a persuasive to bring them back to their duty, by a measure which would not at the same time relax the reins of government over thein; and he could have wished to have repealed the whole if it could have been done without giving up such absolute right." But, as the colonies " totally denied the power of Great Britain to tax them, it became more abso- lutely necessary to compel the observance of the laws, to vindicate the rights of Parliament." He therefore moved "that leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal so much of the said act as lays duties upon glass, red lead, white lead, painter's colors, paper, pasteboards, mill boards, and scale boards, of the produce or manufacture of Great Britain, imported into any of his Majesty's colonies in America." When the measure was before the House of Commons. ex-Governor Pownall moved an amendment proposing "a total repeal in every part " of Mr. Townshend's act; and this he did, not as " an American measure," but rather in consideration of the exigencies of British com- merce. He insisted that the Americans had been arrogantly and wantonly oppressed, and that it was only justice to them to withdraw impositions which they " suffered and endured with a determined and alarming silence." It was not to be expected that the amendment would prevail, but it received one hundred and forty-two votes. Re- peal was carried except in reference to one article. " The question of present ation for the British Parliament was now in point of fact narrowed down to the question of the constitutionality of the duty on tea; but the principle of a right to tax the colonies was affirmed by the
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most emphatic and solemn legislation. " For this fatal insistence to tax the colonies, as all historians are now agreed, the king, who was in point of fact sole minister during these eventful years, was personally responsible. "Dull and petty as his temper was," says Green, " he was clear as to his purpose, and obstinate in the pursuit of it." " The shame of the darkest hour in English history lies wholly at his door."
For the moment there was a seeming promise of less turbulent times in Massachusetts, and of returning commercial prosperity. The debt incurred by the province during the seven years of war, 1455 to 1262, had been paid off, and no local taxation was necessary. The British troops, which were the occasion if not the cause of the massacre under the shadow of the town-house on King street, had been withdrawn at the demand of the citizens through their spokesman, Samuel Adams; and the revenue exacted by the mother country was now limited to a single article of merchandise.
A few extracts from the advertising columns of a newspaper in the spring of 1761 will give us a glimpse at the movement of trade and commerce at that time. The Marquis of Rockingham, Lydia, Boscarven, and other regular traders, had just arrived from London, the Aurora, from Liverpool, and the Jenny, from Glasgow. Jonathan and John Amory, King street, advertised Irish linens, " bought with the cash in Ireland;" Samuel Eliot, near the head of Dock Square, Irish linens and baizes, raven's duck and Russia duck, Testaments and snuff ; Samuel Alleyne Otis, 1 Butler's Row, Russia goods, powder and shot, flour, sugars, bar iron, anchors, brimstone, and hollow ware; Nathaniel Wheatley, King street, Russia duck, Florence oil, tin plates, whale lines, and London porter; James Perkins, King street, spices, flint- glass ware, Narragansett cheese, New England starch, stone jugs, a few barrels of snake root, wines, West India rum, and Cheshire cheese ; Andrew Brimmer, who had just succeeded his mother, Susan- nah Brimmer, "at the shop she lately improved at the South End," English goods, pepper, spices, soap and sugar, wholesale and retail; Bethiah Oliver, opposite the Old South meeting-house, garden seeds; Ziphion Thayer, at the Golden Lion, Cornhill, a large assortment of paper-hangings; Samuel Minot, near the draw-bridge, and Daniel Parker, Union street, watches, jewelry and silverware; John Gore, Queen street, paints, oils and varnishes; Frederick William Geyer, Union street, English goods, nails, pepper by the bag, American pipes by the box, and " the best of Lynn made shoes by the quantity." One
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of the advertisements refers to the recent importations as having arrived after a long suspension of business owing to a strict adherence to the non-importation act.
Below the surface, however, there was, on both sides of the ocean, a settled distrust, which manifested itself from time to time as occasion offered. In the summer of 1420 an order in council prepared the way for the establishment of martial law in Massachusetts, and for the clos- ing of the port of Boston. Boston harbor was made the rendezvous of all the ships of war on the North American station, and the port was to be garrisoned by regular troops and put into a state of defence. On the other hand, the law which imposed a tax on tea was present in the minds of the people, and of their representatives, as a perpetual griev- ance. The latter resolved that, as the duty levied by Act of Parliament on foreign tea imported into the province was laid for the express purpose of raising revenue here, without the consent of those who were to pay it, they would use their utmost endeavors to prevent the use and consumption of the article in the several towns to which they belonged. This was in the spring of 1:20. Three years later, in replying to an address from Hutchinson, who had been commissioned as governor of the province, they thus protested: "With all the deference due to Parliament, we are humbly of opinion, that, as all human authority is, and ought to be, limited, it cannot constitutionally extend its power to the levying of taxes, in any form, on the people of this province." With these sentiments the people were in the fullest accord, and they abstained so generally from the use of the beverage, which had been such a favorite among them previously, that the merchants, for the most part, forbore to pass through the custom-house the con- signments of tea which came to their care, and piled them up in the warehouses. This, of course, reacted unfavorably upon the market in London, and it added to the embarrassment of the East India Company, which, as is apt to be the case with monopolies, had been carelessly managed, and its affairs had been brought into confusion. The com- pany held seven million pounds of tea, and the non-importation agree- ments in America, though but partially carried into effect, shut off all prospect of relief from that quarter. It not only could not declare dividends; it was unable to meet its vast obligations in Asia and Europe, and, also, to pay an annual subsidy for which it was under engagement to the government. It therefore came to the government for assist- ance, and asked for a loan. Lord North thought he saw a way to help
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the company out of its difficulties, and at the same time to settle the disputed question of taxation with the colonies. Tea brought into England was subject to a duty of a shilling a pound; the duty, unpro- ductive hitherto, upon that imported into the colonies was threepence. What the minister proposed and carried was as follows: First, to remit to the company the duty of a shilling a pound on such portion of its teas as it should export "to any of the British plantations in America." Second, to "empower the Commissioners of the Treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company to export teas to the British plantations in America, or to foreign parts," on their own account. The effect of the first measure would be, as was expected, that while the American consignees, and through them the consumers, would pay the duty of threepence a pound, their tea would be cheapened to them on the whole at the rate of a shilling a pound, the amount of the draw- back allowed to the company on its exportation of the article from England. Under the second provision, the tea would be brought into the colonies, not as an importation by American merchants, but under consignment to agents of the company here, who would be able to clear it at the custom-house without exposing themselves to the odium which would have attached, under the circumstances, to im- porters paying duties upon their own property.
The historic company which had governed an empire, which had made and unmade princes, which had its own armies and fleets, was to be- come a vender of teas. As the Boston merchant and patriot, William Phillips, well said: "Nothing can more evidently prove the ill con- duct or mismanagement of the affairs of the East India company than their becoming exporters of tea to America-a paltry transaction, 1111- worthy of one of the greatest associated bodies in Europe." It should be added here, that when the British government undertook to relieve the company from its difficulties, it adopted radical measures for reform in the administration of its affairs and in the government of India. By the Act of Regulation of 1:13 the office of governor-general was estab- lished, and Warren Hastings received the appointment.
The company made arrangements to ship cargoes of its tea to four American ports, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. In all these towns the aim of the patriotic citizens was to prevent payment of duty at the custom-house and the introduction of the article into the consumption of the country, and for this purpose to secure its return to England without breaking bulk. At Charleston the consignees were
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persuaded to resign their trust, and the tea sent to their care was brought on shore under guard, and stored in quasi bonded cellars, where in the end it was ruined by damp. The consignees in Philadelphia and New York, convinced that it would be imprudent, if not useless, to contend with the spirit which was abroad, sent back the tea-ships which had arrived at those ports. When notice had been received in Boston of the intended shipment thither, a town meeting was held at which the agreement not to purchase or use tea was revived, and the determina- tion was taken that it should not be landed. The consignees were re- quested not to receive it, or to allow it to be taken out of the vessels, but they declined to give any assurances of compliance. A second meeting was convened, and it was voted that the proposed shipment of tea to the province was " a direct attack upon the liberties of the peo- ple, and that whoever should receive or vend the tea would prove him- self an enemy to the country." The consignees were again requested, by a committee, to have nothing to do with the cargoes when they arrived, but they gave evasive and unsatisfactory answers, and the ex- citement throughout the province became intense. Not even the stamp act had created more indignation and alarm.
The Boston tea-ships were the Dartmouth, Captain Hall, the Elcanor, Captain Bruce, and the Beaver, Captain Coffin, and they brought about three hundred and fifty chests. The consignees were Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson (sons of the governor), Richard Clarke & Sons, Benjamin Faneuil, jr., and Joshua Winslow. They petitioned the governor and Council to take measures for the protection of the property, which, they said, should be landed and stored but not exposed for sale, until they could receive further instructions from England. The Council hesitated to interfere in the business; and, at length, when one of the vessels, the Dartmouth, was announced as having arrived in the lower harbor, it advised the governor against doing or permitting what had been pro- posed. The Dartmouth came into port on Sunday, and early the next morning the people crowded in such numbers to Faneuil Hall that an adjournment to the Old South meeting-house was necessary. Here a resolution presented by Samuel Adams was unanimously adopted, that " the tea should be sent back to the place from whence it came, at all events, and that no duty should be paid on it." The consignees asked for time for consultation, and, "out of great tenderness," this was granted. To prevent surprise, however, a guard of twenty-five citizens was appointed to watch the ship, which was moored at Griffin's, after-
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ward Liverpool, wharf. The Eleanor and Beaver arrived a few days later, and were placed under the same watch and charge. The 16th of December was the latest day, under the customs regulations, for the entry of the first cargo, and, in the mean time, negotiations had been in progress between the officers and owners of the ships and the consignees of the tea on the one hand, and the various authorities and the citizens' committees, on the other; but no satisfactory arrangement could be reached. Another mass meeting crowded the old meeting-house, in the pulpit of which patriotic orators had spoken and devout clergymen had preached and prayed, and whose walls, not many months later, were to be subjected to sacrilegious punishment for the uses to which they had been put in the interest of the popular liberties. The session lasted from ten o'clock in the morning until darkness had fallen upon the town ; the last attempts had been made with the customs authorities and with the governor, to supply the vessels with passes for the return voyage, and had failed, and, finally, Samuel Adams closed the pro- ceedings with the pregnant words, "We can do no more to save the country." A momentary silence followed ; and then a shout was heard like a war-whoop, and forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, hurried down Milk street to the wharf at which the three vessels lay. The holds were opened, the tea chests were brought up to the decks and split open with hatchets, and in three hours' time all their contents were emptied into the water. No other property was injured, and the deed having been done, every man went to his own house, and the town was as quiet as if nothing had occurred. Few of the inhabitants knew beforehand that the Gordian knot was thus to be cut.
Parliament was in session when the news of the destruction of the tea reached England, and the anger and indignation of the court party knew no bounds. All other legislation was laid aside, Boston became the principal object of attention, and steps were at once taken for the prompt punishment of the recalcitrant town. Lord North brought in a bill, now known as the Boston Port Bill, which provided for the with- drawal of the customs officers, and forbade the landing and discharg- ing, the lading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the town or within the harbor. It was to be unlawful to load or unload any vessel with merchandise in quantity or any of any sort, except mil- itary and other stores for his Majesty's service, and except also, "any fuel or victual brought coastways from any part of the continent of America for the necessary use and sustenance of the inhabitants of
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the said town." This summary measure passed the House of Com- mons without a division, and the House of Lords without a dissenting vote.
A few days later, to " prove that conciliation, not revenge, was pre- dominant in Britain," an immediate repeal of the tax on tea was pro- posed, but only forty-nine members of the House of Commons voted in favor of the proposal, while nearly four times that number voted against it. Edmund Burke was one of the minority, and in the course of a masterly speech, in which he reviewed the doings of the ministry dur- ing the previous ten years, he said: "Let us act like men ; let us act like statesmen. Let us hold some sort of consistent conduct. Leave the Americans as they anciently stood. Do not burden them by taxes. When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If our sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery."
The port bill was published in the colonies with a black border around it, as though it related to a funeral. It was to be enforced relentlessly, and a military governor for Massachusetts, General Gage, was sent over as the successor of Mr. Hutchinson. On the day of the departure of the latter from his native town, never to return, the punitive law went into effect. This was the first of June, 1124. At noon the custom house was closed, and the sessions of the courts were suspended. The people made no opposition, but the church bells were tolled, emblems of mourning were displayed, and the day was observed not only in Mas- sachusetts, but in Virginia and other colonies, as one of fasting and prayer. To the devoted town the blow was overwhelming. In one way or another almost all its inhabitants lived by ocean commerce. Palfrey had the impression, but he did not make the statement with ab- solute certainty, that in 1772, when its shipping interests were already much crippled, five hundred and eighty-seven vessels were entered at its custom-house, and four hundred and eleven were cleared; that meant one thousand arrivals and departures from and to foreign ports. To close the harbor to navigation was'to strike at everybody, "from those in easy circumstances, to those who depended for their day's liv- ing on their day's work. Business of all kinds came to a stand-still. Men of property received no rents. Mechanics had no employment. Laboring men could earn no wages."
It was supposed in England that the commerce of the colonies would be carried on at rival ports, whose merchants would be quick to profit
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by the calamity which had befallen the chief town. So far from this, the people at these rival ports were seeking to lighten the sufferings which Boston had incurred for their sake and for the sake of the whole country. Salem and Marblehead, the next most important places on the Massachusetts coast, offered to the Boston merchants the gratuitous use of their wharves and warehouses, and the services of their men in discharging and loading their vessels. Salem, in particular, sent a memorial to General Gage, breathing the noblest spirit, and declaring that its citizens would be dead to every idea of justice, and lost to all feelings of humanity, if they could for a moment think of raising their fortunes on the ruins of their suffering neighbors. A com- mittee at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, wrote: "We sincerely wish you resolution and prosperity in the common cause, and shall ever view your interest as our own." Two cargoes of tea arrived at Portsmouth during the summer, but the popular feeling was so strong, they were speedily ordered to Halifax. In the mean time con- tributions for the relief of those who were destitute in Boston came in from the country towns of Massachusetts, from other parts of New Eng- land, from the colonies further south, and even from Canada. Outside Massachusetts, the largest contribution came from South Carolina, which gave about three thousand pounds. But while money, food and fuel were coming in for the use of the townspeople, the farmers refused to sell supplies for the troops quartered in Boston. "The straw pur- chased for their service was daily burned, vessels with brick intended for the army were sunk, and carts laden with wood overturned." Lord North had said that Boston alone was to blame for having set an ex- ample of resistance and defiance, and, therefore, that Boston ought to be the principal object of attention for punishment. It was soon made apparent that Boston had not hitherto acted, and was not now suffering, for itself alone.
On the 17th of June, 1774, just twelve months before the battle of Bunker Hill, it was voted at a great meeting in Faneuil Hall, to write to the other colonies that "we are not idle; that we are deliberating upon the steps to be taken in the present exigencies of our public af- fairs ; that our brethren, the landed interest of this province, with an unexampled spirit and unanimity are entering into a non-consumption agreement ; and that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting we impatiently desire, in whose firmness and wisdom we confide, and in whose determination
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we shall cheerfully acquiesce." When the Congress met in Philadelphia in September, the delegates resolved unanimously that after the first day of the following December there should be no importation, pur- chase, or use of commodities from Great Britain or Ireland, and that after a year, "unless the grievances of America are redressed before that time, exportations to those countries from the colonies should cease." To carry out these views, a * non-importation, non-consump- tion, and non-exportation agreement or association was entered into,' to which each member subscribed his name "in token of binding his constituents as well as himself."
"Every eye," says Barry, "was now fixed upon Boston, once the seat of commerce and plenty, and inhabited by an enterprising and hospitable people. The cause in which it suffered was regarded as the common cause of the country. A hostile fleet lay in its harbor ; hostile troops paraded its streets. The tents of an army dotted its Common ; cannon were planted in commanding positions. Its port was closed ; its wharves were deserted ; its commerce was paralyzed : its shops were shut; and many were reduced from affluence to poverty. Yet a reso- lute spirit inspired them still." We quote from a Boston letter, dated January 21, 1:45: "The town of Boston is a spectacle worthy of the attention of a Deity, suffering amazing distress, yet determined to endure as much as human nature can, rather than betray America and posterity." Nor was this spirit confined to any one class. The mechanics, who had done so much to advance the prosperity of the town, and who now acted as patrols, warmly supported the patriot cause. In vain did the loyalists tempt them to compliance with the wishes of the authorities; and when their services were required at the barracks, "all the carpenters of the town and country" left off work, and gold was powerless to change their purpose, though "hundreds were ruined and thousands were half starved." General Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth: "1 was premature in telling your lordship that the Boston artificers would work for us. This refusal has thrown us into difficulties." He had to send to New York for workmen, and did not obtain them easily there.
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