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

Sir:

It is impossible for us to comply with the request of the Town, signified to us this day by the committee, as we know not what terms the tea, if any part of it should be sent to our care, will come out on, and what obligations, either of a moral or pecuniary nature, we may be under, to fulfil the trust that may be devolved on us. When we are acquainted with these circumstances, we shall be better qualified to give a definitive answer to the request of the Town. We are, sir,

Your most h'ble serv^ts,

Richard Clarke & Son,
Benjamin Faneuil, for self & Joshua Winslow, Esq^r.

Hon'ble John Hancock, Esq^r.,
Moderator of a Town Meeting, assembled at Faneuil Hall."

This letter was read, and unanimously voted to be not satisfactory to the Town, and then the meeting adjourned 'till the next day, at eleven o'clock, to receive the report of the committee appointed to wait on the Hutchinsons.

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The Town met by adjournment, on Saturday, (the meeting still continuing very full,) and the committee reported, that they had seen Mr. Thomas Hutchinson only, (his brother being neither at Milton or Boston,) and that the Town might expect an answer from him immediately.

The following letter was soon after sent in to the Moderator, signed Thomas Hutchinson, which was read, and unanimously voted to be an unsatisfactory answer, viz.:

"Sir: