Tea Leaves / Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to / the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year / 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, / notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

by Francis S. Drake

William Cooper, Town Clerk.

Boston, Nov^r 4^th, 1773.

On Friday last there was a very full meeting of the freeholders, and other inhabitants of this town, in Faneuil Hall, agreeable to a notification issued by the Select men, when the Hon'ble John Hancock, Esq^r., was chosen moderator, and the Town, after due deliberation, came into the following resolutions, viz.:

Whereas, it appears by an Act of the British Parliament, passed in the last session, that the East India Company, in London, are by the said Act allowed to export their teas into America in such quantities as the Lords of the Treasury shall think proper. And some persons, with an evil intent to amuse the people, and others thro' inattention to the true design of the Act have so construed the same as that the tribute of three pence on every pound of tea is to be exacted by the detestable task masters here. Upon the due consideration thereof,—

Resolved, That the sense of this Town cannot be better expressed than in the words of certain judicious resolves, lately entered into by our worthy brethren of Philadelphia. Wherefore,

Resolved, That the disposal of their own property is the inherent right of freemen; that there can be no property in that which another can, of right, take from us without our consent; that the claim of Parliament to tax America is, in other words, to claim a right to levy contributions on us at pleasure.

2^d. That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in America, is a tax upon the Americans, or levying contributions on them without their consent.

3^d. That the express purpose for which the tax is levied on the Americans, namely, for the support of government, administration of justice, and the defence of His Majesty's dominions in America, has a direct tendency to render assemblies useless, and to introduce arbitrary government and slavery.

4^th. That a virtuous and steady opposition to this ministerial plan of governing America is absolutely necessary to preserve even the shadow of liberty, and it is a duty which every free man in America owes to his country, to himself and to his posterity.

5^th. That the resolution lately agreed to by the East India Company, to send out their tea to America, subjected to payment of duties on its being landed here, is an open attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack upon the liberties of America.