USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Walks & talks about historic Boston > Part 13
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Early on the morning of the 17th, there was a long win- row of the tea extending from the wharves down to the castle. With a British squadron less than a quarter of a mile away, it seems strange that the party was not inter- rupted. Very serious trouble was doubtless expected. It may be that the authorities, the owners of the vessels, and the consignees were glad to be extricated in this way from a serious dilemma. A fourth tea ship was wrecked on Cape Cod. A few chests of tea saved from the wreck were stored at the Castle, by order of Governor Hutchinson. Paul Revere carried the account of this destruction of the tea to New York and Philadelphia and the Bostonians were highly extolled.
John Scollay, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Boston, wrote: "We do console ourselves that we have acted constitutionally." "The most magnificent movement
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of all," wrote John Adams in his diary. There is a dignity. a majesty, a solemnity of this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire. The destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring. so firm, so intrepid and inflexible that it must have important consequences, and so lasting that I cannot but consider it an epoch in history. The question is whether the destruction of the tea was necessary? I apprehend that it was absolutely and indispensably so. To let it be landed would be giving up the principle of taxation by Parliamentary authority against which the continent has struggled for ten years."
The historian Ramsay says: "If the American position was right in relation to taxation, the destruction of the tea was warranted by the great law of self-preservation. For it was not possible for them by any other means within the compass of probability to discharge the duty they owed to their country."
"It became." said Robert C. Winthrop. "a simple question which should go under-British tea or American liberty? That volunteer band of liberty boys performed their work better than they knew, averting contingencies which must have caused immediate bloodshed, and accomplishing results of the greatest importance to the American cause." When the news reached England there was astonishment and indig- nation. In the heated debates in Parliament one member said : "The town of Boston ought to be knocked about their heads and destroyed." Edmund Burke made one of the greatest efforts of his life for the repeal of the tea tax.
Colonel Barre told the House of Commons that if they would keep their hands out of the pockets of the Ameri- cans they would be obedient subjects. Johnston who had been Governor of Florida, predicted that the exporting of tea by the East India Company was absurd and would end in loss, and that if the proposed Boston Port Bill was passed, the result would be a general confederacy to resist the power of Britain and end in general revolt."
THE DAGGETT HOUSE.
This house stood on the corner of Tremont and Hollis Streets. On the 17th of March. 1901, "The Boston Tea Party Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion" placed a bronze tablet on the building on the corner
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of Tremont and Hollis Streets, bearing the following in- scription, viz :
On this spot stood the house in which Nathaniel, David, Thomas and Josiah Bradley, with James Fulton, assisted by Sarah Bradley Fulton, dis- guised themselves as Mohawk Indians, and took part in throwing the tea into Boston Harbor, December 16, 1773.
Hurrah for Griffins Wharf- The Mohawks are coming.
The members of the Boston Tea Party were no ordinary men. The profound secrecy in which they held their names, and the total abstinence from plunder, show clearly the character of the men. We have already seen that John Hancock and Paul Revere were among the number. Two other great leaders of the people, William Molineux and Dr. Young, were also members of that band. Many of them were mechanics and apprentices, but they were me- chanics of the Stamp of Howard, Wheeler, Crane and Peck, who could restrain in due subordination the more fiery and dangerous element, always present in popular demonstra- tions.
There were professional men like Dr. Story, and mer- chants, such as Proctor, Melville, Palmer, May, Pitts and Davis: men of high character and standing so that all classes were fairly represented. They were largely men of family and position in Boston. Two lists of the members of that party have been given to the world. The first was published in 1835 by an aged Bostonian who was well in- formed on the subject. The second list is derived princi- pally from family traditions. We find the average age of 66 members to be 27 years, and 32 of the 36 are known to have served in the Revolutonary Army.
Did space permit, a little sketch of many of the members of the party would be interesting reading. There was John Crane, Colonel of the Massachusetts Regiment of Artillery in the Continental Army, a most able officer. Seth Inger- soll Brown of Cambridge, who afterwards fought at Bunker Hill and who never forgot the cry that went up from his comrades in that fight of "No ammunition-no ammuni- tion." He was a tavern keeper after the war and was land- lord of a Tavern in Wings' Lane, Elm Street. He was
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a good singer, one of his favorite songs was regarding the Battle of Bunker Hill.
"We marched down to Charlestown ferry And there we had a battle: The shot it flew, like pepper and salt, And made the old town rattle."
The Bradlees, David, Thomas and Nathan, lived on the southerly corner of Hollis and Tremont Streets. Their sister, Mrs. Fulton, helped to disguise them, and followed them to the wharf. They were in the fight at Bunker Hill. Samuel Fenno, a South End boy, patriotic and courageous, who made a vow never to drink tea, which he kept to the day of his death. Samuel Gove, his father, was a Tory, who sailed away with the British, March 17, 1776. Samuel was one of the youngest members of that party, being but 15 years of age. He was one of the Boston school boys who, at noonday and under the eyes of the British guard, car- ried off and secreted the cannon from the gun house on the corner of Tremont and West Streets. Thomas Mackin, a native of Staffordshire, England. He was wounded at Bunker Hill while serving as Lieutenant of Artillery. He was a fine engineer and assisted in laying out the works of the American Army at Yorktown.
Major Thomas Melville was a member of the "Long Room Club." He was at Bunker Hill and was selected by Gen. Warren as one of his aids. He had command of a battery at Nantasket at the time the British evacuated Boston, and discharged the first gun at the hostile ships as they were sailing away. After the war he was Naval Officer of the Port of Boston. William Molineux was a distinguished and patriotic merchant of Boston, and like Revere and Johonnot, he was of Huguenot descent. He died in 1774 and it was a great loss to the patriot cause. Jonathan Parker was a Roxbury farmer and a high Son of Liberty. He brought safely through the British lines the two cannon taken by Samuel Gove and his companions. Parker brought a load of hay to town and took home a load of manure, which he piled on top of the guns in the bottom of the wagon. Lendall Pitts .- He commanded the division that boarded the brig Beaver. The Pitts mansion, where the old patriots loved to gather, stood on the site of the
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Howard Atheneum. Pitts Street perpetuates the name of this noted family. Four members of this family are prom- inently associated with the Boston Tea Party. It was Captain Pitts who had the colloquy with the British ad- miral as his division was returning from their service. No one of their descendants bearing the name is surviving in Boston. Capt. Henry Prentiss was born in Medfield and was the son of Rev. Joshua Prentiss who, for forty-five years, was pastor of the Holliston Church. Capt. Prentiss served in the Revolutionary Army at Cambridge, Long Island, and at Trenton. He and his brother, Appleton, were the first to introduce into New England the art of printing calico. He lived in a stone house at the head of Hanover Street. Colonel Edward Proctor was a prominent citizen and military officer of Boston. He commanded the guard on the "Dartmouth" on the night of November 29, 1773. He was an importer of West India goods at the sign of the "Schooner" on Fish Street at. the North End. He served in the Revolutionary War and was a member of the Committee of Correspondence and Safety. Colonel Henry Purkett was 18 years of age at the time of his service in the Boston Tea Party. Enlisting as a soldier in the Revo- lutionary Army, he served the full term, was at Trenton and Brandywine and was a Sergeant in Count Pulaskkis Cavalry. After the war he conducted a very successful business as a cooper on South Street, joining a company of cavalry after the war he went through all the grades to Colonel. A member of St. Andrews Royal Arch Chapter, this encomium was passed upon him at his death by his brother Masons: "Uprightness and exactness were promi- nent traits of his character, and universal love and charity for all mankind were sincerely exhibited in all his social intercourse. He had troops of friends, but it is not known that he ever had an enemy.'
William Russell, on returning to his home on Temple street after the tea party, took off his shoes and carefully dusted them over the fire, in order that no tea should re- main, and saw every particle consumed. He served as Sergeant-Major and Adjutant in Craft's Artillery Regiment in the Rhode Island campaign. Afterwards he joined a privateer, was captured, and kept in Mills Prison, Ply- mouth, England, for nearly three years. He served later in another privateer, was again taken prisoner and confined
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in that horrible prison ship the "Jersey," at New York. His privations and sufferings caused his early death. Joseph Shed was a carpenter by trade and worked upon Faneuil Hall during its rebuilding and enlargement. He was intimately associated with Samuel Adams and other leading patriots, before and during the Revolutionary War. His residence was on Milk Street, where the Equitable Life Insurance Company's Building now stands. In his house a number of persons belonging to the Tea Party arraved themselves, December 16, 1773. Samuel Adams was a fre- quent visitor at his house and Shed's grandson has the china punch bowl out of which the old patriot drank when Independence was declared. Samuel Sprague, the father of the banker poet, Charles Sprague, was born in Hingham and was 20 years of age when he assisted in throwing the tea overboard. To disguise himself he climbed the roof of a low building, which had a stove pipe for a chimney, where he obtained a lot of soot and blacked his face. He lived in a two-story wooden house, No. 38 Orange (now Washington) Street, directly opposite Pine Street. Gen- eral Ebenezer Stevens was a distinguished artillery officer in the Continental Army. When the Boston Port Bill went into operation he removed to Providence and he and John Crane were partners in the business of carpentering. He was made First Lieutenant of Crane's Artillery Train and served through the Siege of Boston, was made Captain in Knox's Artillery Regiment and took part in the Expedition to Canada. On the surrender of Burgoyne he was ap- pointed Lieutenant-Colonel, and was assigned to Colonel Lamb's Regiment, taking part in Lafayette's operations in Virginia, and at Yorktown he commanded the artillery, alternating with Lamb and Carrington. After the war he became one of the leading merchants of New York. Dr. Elisha Story during the Revolutionary, War, was Surgeon in Colonel Little's Essex Regiment. He fought as a Vol- unteer at Lexington and also at Bunker Hill until obliged to remove a wounded friend to Winter Hill, where he spent the night caring for the wounded. He was with Washington at Long Island, White Plains and Trenton. His oldest son, Joseph, became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States." Dr. Story was a "skillful physician and a man of great benevolence of heart." Captain Josiah Wheeler lived in half a double house No
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38 Orange Street, by the side of Samuel Sprague. He commanded a company of "Minute Men" at the opening of the Revolution, most of whom were skilled carpenters and joiners, and by Washington's order, he superintended the erection of the forts on Dorchester Heights. He was employed in building the present State House on Beacon Hill. Dr. Thomas Young was a most conspicuous figure in the early Revolutionary moveemnts in Boston. "He was the first President of the North End Caucus." March 5, 1771, he delivered the first oration commemorative of the Boston Massacre, at the Manufacturing House in Ham- ilton Place. He was an army surgeon in 1776, and was after- wards a resident of Philadelphia. Of the Tea Party, about 25 were Free Masons, and a large number were members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.
TEA PARTY TABLET BOSTON, M
HERE: FORMERLY STODO
CRIFFINS WHARE,
AL WHICH LAY MOORED ON DEC .. 6.1775.THREE BRITISH SHIPS WITH CARGOES OF TEA TO DEFEAT KING GEORGE'S TRIVIAL BUT TYRANNICAL TAX OF THREE PENCE A POUND ABOUT BINETY CITIZENS OF BOSTON. PARTLY DISGUISED AS INDIANS BOARDED THE SHIPS THRE # THE CARGOES THREE HUNDRED AND FORLY THO CRESTS IN ALL, INTO THE SEA AND MADE THE WORLD RING WITH THE PATRIOTIC EXPLOIT OF THE
BOSTON TEA PARTY
"NOI NE ER WAS MINGLED SUCH A DRAUGHT IN PALACE HALL OR ARBOR. AS FACEMEN BREWED AND TYRANTS QUALFED THAT NIGHT IN 'JUSTON HARBOR.
Tea Party Tablet.
The Boston Port Bill, 1774
The general opposition of the Colonies to the principle of "taxation without representation" had proved of great annoy- ance to the British Government. The tax on tea and the arbi- trary measures to enforce it had brought matters to a crisis in America. One sentiment and one determination pervaded the Colonies. Taxation was to receive its decisive blow. "Whoever submitted to it was an enemy to his country." We have already noted the bold action of the patriots in the Bos- ton Tea Party. It was done so orderly and so systematically that His Majesty's ministers and the British Parliament saw that it was not the rash and intemperate proceeding of a mob, but the resolute. well considered act of sober reflecting citi- zens, for those engaged in the work dispersed quietly to theit homes without tumult. When the news of the Boston Tea Party reached England, early in 1774. King George sent a message to Parliament asking that body to devise means for the immediate suppression of tumultuous proceedings in the Colonies. The House of Commons replied that he should be sustained in efforts to maintain order in America. Angry debates followed. Burke says: "That the House of Commons became as hot as Faneuil Hall or the Old South Meeting House." The Ministerial Party said : "There is open rebellion in America and it must be punished." The opposition replied : "Repeal your unjust laws and deal righteously with the Americans and there will be peace and loyalty there." But the House adopted the Resolutions pledging its support to the King and his ministers by an overwhelming vote. With such an endorsement both the King and his subservient tool, Lord North, determined to severely punish Boston, and the Boston Port Bill was submitted and passed. It provided for the re- moval of the Custom House, Courts of Justice and Govern- ment officers of all kinds from Boston to Salem: all lading and unlading of goods, wares and merchandise were to cease in the town and harbor of Boston, on and after the 4th of June. It also provided that when the rebellious town should fully and humbly submit to royal authority the King should
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have the power to open the port and restore the Government business. "North justified the measure by asserting that Bos- ton was the ringleader in every riot and always set the ex- ample which others followed." "He believed severe punish- ment would strike terror throughout the Colonies and so bring the Americans in subjection to the Crown." Another member of the House said: "Bostonians ought to have their town knocked about their ears and they ought to be de- stroyed." Burke boldly told them: "The bill is unjust since it bears upon the city of Boston, while it is notorious that all America is in flames. You are contending for a matter which the Bostonians will not give up quietly." But all the persua- sions and warnings fell on deaf and prejudiced ears for the Boston Port Bill became a law. The King signed it on the 31st of March 1774. One historian says: "It was the fatal knife of vivisection that severed the American people from their unnatural mother. The wound was made non-healable from the searing given it by the unrighteous acts which fol- lowed." The success attending his efforts in Parliament with the Boston Port Bill, emboldened Lord North to introduce other oppressive measures and soon followed a bill for better regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay, which, in all its provisions was an attempt to subvert the Charter of Massachusetts, and a declaration of war upon the rights of the people of the province. This bill also passed both Houses of Parliament. Full of arrogance and hatred, he gave a third turn to his engine of oppression, and this was a bill providing for a trial in England of all persons charged in the Colonies with murders committed in support of government. It was intended as a guaranty of comparative safety to those who might shoot or bayonet "rebels" in the name of the King; Colonel Barre denounced it "as the most extraordinary reso- lution ever heard in the Parliament of England. It offers new encouragement to military insolence already so insup- portable. Americans are deprived of a right which belongs to every human creature, that of demanding justice before a tribunal of impartial judges." King George knew that such arbitrary measures would have to be enforced by the mili- tary arm, so a fourth bill was passed providing for the quartering of troops in America. The Boston Port Bill reached Boston early in May 1774. Just a few days pre- vious, Governor Hutchinson was superseded by General Gage, as Governor of Massachusetts. The Sons of Liberty
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in New York sent their sympathy to Boston and entreated her patriots to stand firm in their support of these opposi- tion measures. All the Colonies saw, in the Boston Port Bill, the dangers foreshadowed to their liberties. New York suggested a General Congress of the Colonies, and it was approved by all. So originated the famous First Con- tinental Congress, which convened in 1774. General Gage on his arrival in Boston, was most courteously received by the citizens of Boston, and a militia company, commanded by John Hancock escorted him to the State House. Gen- eral Gage thought that reconciliation was near at hand, and the people were ready to submit. But his hopes must have been dispelled the next morning when he learned that dur- ing the night an effigy of Hutchinson had been hung in front of Hancock's house. The next day after the arrival of the Act, a town meeting of the citizens was called for a conference of citizens and of the Committees of nine towns on "the critical state of public affairs," and Samuel Adams presided at the meeting. The cause of Boston became the cause of all the colonies. From the forum and the pulpit and in the columns of the newspapers, the Port Bill was denounced. At meridian on June 14. 1774, the port was closed. The church bells in Philadelphia and elsewhere were muffled and tolled a funeral knell. "The law was rig- idly enforced. Not a vessel of any kind was allowed to be used in the harbor. Not a pound of hay, not a sheep or a calf could be brought in from the islands; not a stick of timber or package of merchandise could be taken by water from wharf to wharf. Not a parcel of goods could be fer- ried across the Charles. Business of all kinds was immedi- ately and completely paralyzed. A cordon of war vessels enclosed the town and the arrival of several regiments made Boston an immense garrison." The British ministry authorized Gage to order his soldiers to shoot down citizens who should not be docile, and all officers and soldiers guilty of homicide in America were to be taken to England for trial as by the law to which we have already referred. General Gage had orders to arrest when he should deem prudent to do so, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Dr. Joseph Warren and send them to England to be tried for treason. Adams knew this and with the halter about his neck he said of his beloved and stricken Boston: "She suffers with dignity. and rather than submit to the humiliating terms of an edict.
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barbarous beyond precedent under the most absolute monarchy she will put the malice of tyranny to the severest test. An empire is rising in America and Britain by her multiplied oppressions, is achieving that independency which she dreads. We have a post to maintain to desert which would entail upon us the curses of posterity." The utter prostration of business in Boston produced widespread suffering and it af- fected all classes, but they had faith that deliverance would come and they endured the severe chastisement with equa- nimity. "The wharves of Boston were deserted, her ware- houses closed and grass was growing in her streets. Her once wealthy citizens were reduced to poverty, and there was no employment for the poor, but the spirit of her people was undaunted. They were cool, shrewd and sensible, equal to the emergency, and in the game of diplomacy were more than a match for General Gage, the British Commander. They kept the town meetings alive indefinitely, meeting in Faneuil Hall, and from thence adjourning to the Old South Meeting House. There were soldiers at every turn, and cannon so placed as to menace their lives and property. No rash or foolish acts marred the dignity of their fortitude." Food was sent from the outside to the suffering poor.
The generous citizens of the South sent them rice, with words of cheer and encouragement. The Northern Col- onies sent them grain and sheep and beeves and money. Even the City of London, in its corporate capacity, sent them three-quarters of a million of dollars for the relief of the poor of Boston. The people of Marblehead and Salem offered the free use of their wharves and stores to the mer- chants of Boston, for they scorned to profit by the misfor- tunes of their neighbors. General Gage, although backed by British bayonets, did not dare to make use of them ex- cept in an extremity. The flaming proclamations which he issued from time to time excited the ridicule of the patriots. He was more puzzled by the forbearance of the people than by their defiance. The air was full of the spirit of insurrection, yet no one committed overt acts of treason. There were handbills and newspapers of an inflamamtory na- ture, but all within the confines of the law. Several times he was on the point of arresting Hancock and Adams, but such an act might have cost him his life. Late in the sum- mer he erected fortifications across Roxbury Neck. This
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aroused the indignation of the people, who foresaw their ab- solute enslavement. "The Boston carpenters, although suf- fering from enforced idleness would not work on these forti- fications at any price. He heard that there was gun-powder at Charlestown and Cambridge, belonging to the province and sent out troops to seize it, and the indignation of the people rose to fever heat."
A few days later a rumor went through the Province that war had begun in Boston, and that the King's troops were murdering the citizens. In thirty-six hours the whole country of two hundred miles had the news, and the Minute Men seized their arms and started for Boston. If General Gage had been a wise man, he would have paused, and heeded such an object lesson. But he broke up the eight military companies in the town, composed of patriots, and dismissed John Hancock from the command of the Inde- pendent Corps .of Cadets. That body, indignant at the treatment of their beloved Commander, sent a committee to General Gage at Salem, surrendered the flag which he had presented to the Corps, and notified him that they had disbanded themselves. Gage, who was never diplomatic or conciliatory when facing the irritated citizens, com- pletely lost his temper and berated the committee soundly.
On the 6th of October the Continental Congress passed the following resolution :-
"Resolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the Execution of the late Acts of Parliament, and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force in such case, all America ought to support them in their opposi- tion."
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