"I shall endeavor to communicate a more full state of the sentiments of my fellow citizens than I could in my last letter. I could then only conjecture what might be the result of their judgments respecting the Hon'ble the Directors of the East I. Comy sending their teas to this Continent. A communication of sentiments, taking place between the New Yorkers & the Philadelphians, soon produced a number of pieces in the public prints and otherwise, most absolutely asserting the rights of the Americans, and denying the power of Parliament respecting the internal taxation of the Colonies, which led into many comparisons, endeavoring to shew that the agency of the tea was equally odious & dangerous as the execution of the Stamp Act would have been. I may say with great truth, that I do not believe one man in a hundred was to be met with who approved of the sending the tea, while the duty was to be paid here. Yet a great number of people acknowledged the right of the East India Directors to export their teas to America, and declared that nothing less than a confirmed belief that the admitting this mode of taxation would render the assemblies of the people mere cyphers, could have induced them to proceed in the manner they have done; for when it was mentioned to them that by refusing to admit the tea to be landed, they did as much deprive the India Company of the natural rights of English merchants, as the subjecting us to the payment of duty possibly could affect us, they replyed that the Act of Parliament hindered the tea from being landed until the duty was first paid or secured, and consequently as the Directors knew this, and the opposition heretofore given by the Americans, they must take what followed.
"You will perceive by the resolution formed and entered into on the 18th, into what a situation the agents were driven, there being no possibility of persuading the people to wait till we knew the real state of facts. The meeting at the State House consisted, (it is said) of 6 or 700, and be assured, they were as respectable a body of inhabitants as has been together on any occasion; many of the first rank. The whole of their proceedings were conducted with the greatest decency and firmness, and without one dissenting voice. After the resolution had passed, they appointed a Comtee of 12 persons, who, on the 18th inst., about 12 o'clock, called on James and Drinker, and then came down to my house, where they conducted themselves with great decency, read the resolution, and informed me they were appointed by their fellow citizens to demand of Thos. & Isaac Wharton, whether we would execute the trust if the duty was to be paid here? We told them it involved us in a difficulty which we could not solve, because we had not received the least intimation from the Directors, and therefore it was impossible to know the exact state the tea was to be shipped in, but that we would, on being acquainted with the situation under which it came, openly communicate the same, and that we would do nothing to injure the property of the India Comy or enslave America. This answer they received with great satisfaction, and in the evening they reported to a unanimous body of citizens the answers they had received, who gave Thos. and Isaac Wharton very evident marks of their approbation for the candid answer they gave.
"Should the tea be sent subject to the payment of the duty, I am satisfied it will not be suffered to be landed, and that it must return to London, (unless the India Directors have in such case directed the captain where to proceed with it,) which intimation may be in time to secure the property by insurance should they incline."
Copies of the above advices were, by order of the Comtee of Warehouses, sent to Lord Dartmouth in the manner directed by their minute of the ——
BOSTON.
LETTER FROM Mr. JONATHAN CLARKE TO EDWARD WHELER, Esqr.
Boston, New England, 17th Novr., 1773.
Sir:
After a long detention in the English channel, and a pretty long passage, I arrived here this morning from England, and there being a vessel to sail for London within a few hours, gives me an opportunity of writing you a few lines on the subject of the consignment of tea, made to our house by the Hon'ble East India Company, in which I had your friendly assistance, and of which I shall always retain a grateful sense.