The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (50 page)

The answer has much to do with how the colonists understood the Tea Act. They believed that the Act left them no choice; it forced the issue; it expressed still another claim by Parliament of the right to tax them. This claim meant, as far as they were concerned, that the English plot to enslave them had been revived. If they went on paying the duty now that the government's intentions were laid bare, they would be cooperating with the enslavers.

Arriving at this understanding consumed the summer following passage of the Act. Exactly what Parliament had done, let alone intended, was not known fully in America until September when a copy of the statute was printed in the newspapers. Even then confusion abounded because interpretations of the Act published in the newspapers implied and some-

times stated that the East India Company's tea would be imported duty free. The supporters of the Tea Act, most notably the company's consignees, understandably felt no urgency in explaining its terms, and as late as November several in New York insisted that the company's tea would not have to pay the old Townshend duty.
¹

As before, the Sons of Liberty resorted to the newspapers to expose the ministry's purposes. But this time the Sons in Philadelphia and New York -- not in Boston -- assumed leadership. The Philadelphians set the tone of the opposition and gave it direction in ways made familiar in the crises over the Stamp Act and Townshend acts. There were differences, however, in 1773: the artisans made themselves known rather earlier than before and threats of violence were issued almost at once. To be sure the constitutional argument was made in conventional terms -Parliament had no right to tax the colonists because the colonists were not represented in it -- but no one suggested that the colonies should delay other action until Parliament reconsidered its position. Rather a mass meeting held in Philadelphia on October 16 pronounced anyone importing tea sent out by the East India Company "an enemy to his country" and appointed a committee to call upon the consignees to obtain their resignations. With John Dickinson lending his opposition. to the East India Company, most of the consignees -- wealthy Quaker merchants -- agreed in November to give up their commissions. One firm, James and Drinker, attempted to avoid resigning outright, but by December it too had given in.
²

No doubt these merchants were affected by the threats of rough treatment made against anyone who imported tea. The committees of the people, chosen in mass meetings or self-appointed in several cases, included one styling itself "The Committee for Tarring and Feathering" which promised to practice its art on any Delaware River pilot who brought tea ships up the river to the city. When it learned the name of the captain of the
Polly,
which carried company tea, it informed him that his "diabolical service" would bring him into "hot water." As if this were not enough, the captain, one Ayres, was asked how he would like a halter around his neck and "ten gallons of liquid tar decanted on your pate -- with the feathers of a dozen wild geese laid over that to enliven your appearance?" The committee's advice to Captain Ayres was "to fly to the place whence you came -- fly without hesitation --

____________________

without the formality of a protest -- and above all, Captain Ayres, let us advise you to fly without the wild geese feathers." The committee tendered this advice in a broadside before Ayres reached the North American coast. When he finally reached the Delaware River in late December, the Boston Tea Party had been given, the governor, John Penn, and the Customs officials were cowed, and the consignees converted to patriotism. Ayres did the only thing left to him -- hauled anchor and set sail for England, his cargo of tea undisturbed.
³

A similar set of events was enacted in New York: the Sons of Liberty revived and mass meetings were held in the autumn under their tutelage as Isaac Sears, Alexander McDougall, and John Lamb once more assumed leadership. Although consignees followed the example of those in Philadelpbia and resigned their commissions, the governor, William Tryon, insisted in December that when the tea arrived it should be unloaded and stored at the Battery. Tryon had good cards in his hand: a stouthearted Council and, better yet, a man-of-war standing off. Sandy Hook awaiting the tea. Even so, he lost, for the
Nancy,
the ship carrying the tea, was blown off course by a severe storm and put into port badly damaged in Antigua in February. By the time she was repaired and made her way to New York, the game was up. After taking on fresh provisions, the
Nancy,
cargo intact, sailed for home.
⁴

The only port where tea was landed was Charleston, South Carolina. There, disagreements among artisans, merchants, and planters produced indecision which Governor William Bull took advantage of. Many Charleston merchants had been importing English tea and paying the duty; others had been smuggling Dutch tea. The legal importers insisted on a ban against the importation of all tea, whatever its origin, pointing out that only the smugglers would profit from barring the product of the East India Company. The consignees proved quite willing to give up their commissions, but no agreement was reached about what to do with the company's tea that arrived on December 2, 1773. The governor solved the problem twenty days later by seizing the tea for nonpayment of duty. The tea was stored and never sold.
⁵

The opposition in Charleston acted largely in ignorance of events in Philadelphia and New York. Boston was located closer to these two cities and initially took its cue from them.
But even with the example

____________________

of Philadelphia before it, Boston was slow to move against tea. The reason is clear -- obsessive feuding through most of 1773 with Governor Thomas Hutchinson over his letters to England. Adams and his followers also bore down hard on royal payment of salaries to superior court judges. The Tea Act did not escape all local notice, for the
Boston Evening Post
summarized it in late August. Still, well into October, Adams singlemindedly pursued Thomas Hutchinson in the newspapers, as though anything that happened within Boston must be more important than anything that took place outside it. Adams was out of touch and so was the committee of correspondence, which in late September cited the denial of the East India Company's "sacred charter rights" as the most recent example of Parliamentary tyranny.
⁶

Three weeks later Edes and Gill awakened to what was troubling New Yorkers and Philadelphians and began filling the columns of the Gazette with attacks on the Tea Act and the local consignees. Those worthies -- Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, sons of the governor, Richard Clarke, Edward Winslow, and Benjamin Faneuil -- did not suffer in silence but hit back through the
Boston Evening Post
. Richard Clarke writing as "Z" in late October pointed at the inconsistency in protesting the tax on tea after paying it for two years and while still paying duties on sugar, molasses, and wine "from which more than three-fourths of the American revenue has and always will arise."
⁷

Unsuccessful in cowing the consignees through the press, Adams resolved to do it through the crowd. On November 2 handbills were posted announcing a meeting at noon the next day at Liberty Tree, where the consignees were to appear and deliver their resignations. Convening this meeting was the North End Caucus, Sons of Liberty in another guise, a group which also took a prominent part in the Boston committee of correspondence. The consignees were not members and did not attend the meeting at Liberty Tree. The caucus thereupon decided to visit the consignees and led by William Molineux and accompanied by a mob found them at Clarke's warehouse, where a small-scale riot, damaging to the building but not to its occupants, ensued.
⁸

Thereafter Adams and company stepped up the pressure, first through the town meeting which on November 5 adopted the resolutions passed in Philadelphia in October and called for the consignees to give up

____________________

their commissions. The committee of correspondence took care of unofficial action -- an attack ten days later on Clarke's house, for example -but neither body could extract resignations from the consignees. By late November both sides were frozen into their positions: the consignees holding their commissions and awaiting tea and instructions from the East India Company; Adams, the Boston committee, and those of nearby towns determined that the tea should not be unloaded.
⁹

The arrival on November 28 of the
Dartmouth,
the first of the ships carrying tea, opened the last stage of the crisis. After entering at the customshouse the ship had twenty days to pay the duties on its cargo; should it not pay it was liable to seizure, which meant that its cargo would be seized and stored. Francis Rotch, a young merchant who owned the
Dartmouth,
wanted her unloaded. There was other cargo besides the tea aboard and, after having it unloaded and ridding his ship of the tea, Rotch had a cargo of whale oil to put aboard. The consignees wanted to land the tea, store it, and await the instructions of the East India Company. Should the tea be returned to England, they must stand the loss, for the law provided that no tea could be re-imported into the country. Governor Thomas Hutchinson also wanted the tea put ashore -- if for no other reason than to frustrate his old enemies. Whatever happened, the law must be observed, which meant that since the ship had entered at Customs the duties must be paid. For the time being, all he or anyone else could do was to wait for the twenty days to expire, on December 16.
¹⁰

Adams and the local committees did not wait idly. A large mass meeting was held at the Old South on November 29 and again the next day. Neither meeting was a legal town meeting; each numbered 5000 people and included many from the surrounding countryside. These gatherings put the radicals' case simply -- the tea must be sent back to England. Resolutions incorporating this demand were sent to the consignees, who in the way of other "enemies of the people" had fled to Castle William in the harbor. Their spines stiffened by the governor, the consignees refused, though they knew they had no chance of unloading their tea, for Adams and friends had forced the
Dartmouth
to tie up at Griffin's Wharf and had put a guard aboard.

Temporarily thwarted, the Boston committee of correspondence appealed to New England for support, and echoes of local resolutions began coming in.
The committee then met with committees from nearby

____________________