Against the resistance which it aroused both in America and in Great Britain, the Stamp Act had stood but a year. Mr. Townshend, who revived the policy, was dead. Lord North had materially abated the rigor of Mr. Townshend's Act; and for what (in contradiction, as he had avowed, to his personal wishes) he insisted on retaining, he had scarcely pleaded more than a vague point of honor. The circumstances of the recent defeat of Governor Pownall's attempt to obtain complete relief had not been such as absolutely to forbid the hope that on a repetition it would be successful. The effect upon English trade, and through it upon English legislation, of the agreements in America against the importation of merchandise, had as yet been only partially tried. It was possible that the recent discovery, through the publication of the letters of Hutchinson and others, of the malign influences under which the Ministry had been acting, might dispose the Ministry to a better temper in future. Such hopes were not utterly dispelled, however visibly the danger grew, as long as the measure remained unexecuted which was contemplated by Lord North's insidious legislation respecting the East India Company. But when vessels of that Company were known to be at sea, bringing cargoes which were to settle the question of the submission of the colonists, the long-cherished hope of a peaceable adjustment, whatever might happen to revive it hereafter, for the present had to be abandoned.

The Company had made arrangements to send its tea to four American ports, -Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. In all of them alike the aim of the patriots was to prevent its paying a duty at the customhouses, and for that purpose to cause it, if possible, to be sent back to England without being landed. At Charleston the consignees were induced to resign their trust, and the tea sent to them was brought on shore under

1773.

a guard, and stored in cellars, where at length it was ruined by damp. From Philadelphia and New York the consignees, satisfied that it would be imprudent to cortend with the spirit which was abroad, sent back to England the tea-ships which arrived at those ports. The same method of proceeding was attempted in Boston, but not with the same success. A summons was sent Nov. to the consignees to come to the "Liberty Tree on a certain day, and resign their trust in the presence of the people there assembled. They paid no regard to the notice, nor to a message which was sent to them by a Committee. Two days after, a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, which sent a regular Committee of the town with the same request. The consignees replied that they were not prepared to consider it, as they had not received instructions from their principals. The meeting adjourned, after voting that the answer was a daring affront. Of the three Boston houses to which the tea was consigned, one consisted of two sons of the Governor.

The consignees sent a petition to the Governor and his Council, praying them to take measures for protecting the property, which they were willing to have landed and stored, without being exposed to sale, till they could receive further instructions from England. The Council, consulted by the Governor, hesitated as to taking any action on the subject, till, after three adjournments, the arrival in the lower harbor of one of the expected ships, named the Dartmouth, brought their deliberations to a close, and they unanimously advised the Governor against taking any measures of the kind applied for. At an immense meeting held the same forenoon at the Old South Church, it was unanimously resolved that no duty should be paid upon the tea, and that it should be sent back to the place whence it came. The consignees made to the standing Committee of the town the same proposal as had been rejected by the Governor's Council;

to town.

but they met with no better success in this quarter. The master of the vessel, making his appearance on shore, was required by the town's Committee to bring her up He did so; and the consignees, judging themselves to be in danger, withdrew to the Castle. Two other tea-ships which arrived later than the Dartmouth, lay by her side at a wharf on the eastern side of the town. (now Russia Wharf). English men-of-war lay anchored in the harbor.

At the end of twenty days after its arrival, merchandise which had not paid the legal duties was liable to be seized. In making the seizure, the King's ships, if necessary, might be called upon for aid. If the tea brought by the ships now in Boston harbor were seized, it would be sold at auction, going thence into the channels of commerce, and the duty to which it was liable would be paid out of the proceeds. The time was close at hand when all this would be done. How to prevent it? In two days more the British officers in Boston must not be able to find tea there on which to levy.

1773.

On the evening of December 16, the inhabitants of Boston were assembled in town-meeting at the Old South Church. The master of the teaship which had arrived first, had gone to the Governor's country-house at Milton to apply for a pass to prevent his being stopped at the Castle when he should put to sea to take his freight back to England. When the answer was brought back, which was that the Governor said that no pass could be legally given till a clearance had been obtained at the custom-house, it was after dark. Then a shout was heard without; and a body of some fifty men, roughly dressed as Indians, passed down Milk Street to the wharf where the tea-ships lay. The meeting at the church was immediately dissolved, and a portion of the assembly, following, stood by as a guard against interruption, while the disguised party did their work.

They passed up from the holds of the vessels some three hundred and fifty chests of tea, broke them open with hatchets, and poured their contents into the dock. The next morning all was quiet. The doers of the bold act remained unknown.

But

The Governor was made painfully conscious of his helplessness. For two successive days he summoned meetings of the Council, but no quorum met. Three days after, he got them together at Cambridge, coming thither from the Castle, whither he had thought it prudent to go for security. But they gave him no satisfaction. One member said that opposition to the people would only stimulate them to further acts of violence; and another, that they had but taken the appropriate way to protect themselves against intolerable usurpation. It was only six weeks after this incident that the General Court of the Province came together. the Governor, willing, as he says, "to avoid an undesirable answer,' " made no allusion to it in his opening speech. The Court, on its part, does not appear to have been deterred from its recent habit of self-assertion through any apprehension of consequences. In a single period the Governor informed the Court that he was "required to signify his Majesty's disapprobation of the appointment of Committees of Correspondence," - - a proceeding which the House vindicated to him on the ground that," while the common rights of the American subjects continued to be attacked in various instances, and at times when the several Assemblies were not sit

1774. Jan.

ting, it was highly necessary that they should correspond with each other, in order to unite in the most effectual means for the obtaining a redress of their grievances.” The Speaker laid before the House letters received during the recent recess from the Speakers of the Houses of Representatives of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware,

1 Hutch., Hist., III. 441.

and Maryland. Letters had also come from the agents in England (Dr. Franklin for the House,1 and Mr. Bollan for the Council), with whom, as well as with the other Provincial Assemblies, the Committee was charged to correspond, and a provision for whose payment continued to be urged by the two branches of the Court, and continued to be urged in vain by reason of the opposition of the GovHe held that the only agent to be paid for services in England must be one representing the whole Province, whose appointment required the assent of the Governor as one department of the Legislature. The Houses maintained that they had a right to agents who should appear for them when they had complaints against the Governor, or wishes opposed to his.

ernor.

1773.

Feb.

A Committee "to consider the state of the Province," appointed in the first week, gave special attention to the new position of the Judges, which turned out to be the chief subject of attention during the session.2 On the day after the appointment of this Committee, of which the Speaker, Mr. Hawley, and Mr. Samuel Adams were members, the Speaker read to the House a letter from Edmund Trowbridge, one of the five Justices. of the Superior Court, in reply to that Resolve of the Representatives in the last session, which called on them.

1 I have the original of Franklin's letter of Jan. 5, 1774, printed by Mr. Sparks on pp. 100, 101, of Vol. VIII. of his Works of Benjamin Franklin." I observe some deviations from the original in Mr. Sparks's copy. An omission, not without interest, is that of the following periods at the close of the letter: "We sincerely desire a good Agreement, and a Restoration of the ancient Harmony. Here nothing seems to be desired but our Submission. - Added to the other Advantages we have to expect from au Accommodation, there is this, that by keeping the Empire together, we are not only safer at present against

foreign Force, but we secure the Reversion of the whole to ourselves; for in all human Probability the Seat of Government will in an Age or two be remov'd to our side the Water."

2 At different times during the session (January 23, February 1, 5, March 8, 9), the House brought to the Governor's attention the insufficiency of the supply of powder. On the last day but one, they directed the Commissary-General “with all convenient speed to purchase at the expense of this Province five hundred barrels of gunpowder. for his Majesty's service, in the safety of the Province."