EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM GOV. BULL,[56]
Dated Charles Town, 24 Decr., 1773, to the Earl of Dartmouth.
On the 2d inst., Capt. Curling arrived here with 257 chests of tea, sent by the East India Company, with the same instructions to agents appointed here as at Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The spirit which had been raised in those towns with great threats of violence to hinder the landing and disposing of the tea there, was communicated to this Province by letters, gazettes, and merchants. Several meetings of the inhabitants of Charles Town were held, to consider of measures to effect the like prohibitions here, but tho' the warmth of some were great, many were cool, and some differed in the reasonableness and utility thereof. The gentlemen who were appointed agents for the East India Comy were prevailed upon by threats and flattery to decline the trust, and in imitation of the northern towns, declarations were made that it should not be landed.
The tea was all this time kept on board the ship, the captain being apprehensive of some violence on his attempting to land it, and there being no persons empowered to take charge of it. When the period of 20 days after his arrival approached, at which time the collector of his Majesty's customs, by his instructions, is required to seize goods liable to pay duty, to secure the payment thereof, tho' the merchants of the town had generally disagreed to this measure of prohibiting the landing the tea, yet some warm, bold spirit, took the dangerous measure of sending anonymous letters to Capt. Curling and some of his friends, and the gentleman who owned the wharf where the ship lay, requiring Curling to carry his ship from the wharf to the middle of the river, threatening great damages on failure.
These letters being communicated to me, I summoned his Majesty's council, that I might do everything in my power to prevent any such dangerous attempts to disturb the public peace, and interrupt the seizure and landing and storing by the collector. I accordingly, by their advice, gave orders to the sheriff to be ready at the call of the collector, (but not to move without,) with all his officers, to support the collector, in landing it, and to seize and to bring to justice any persons who should dare to interrupt him in the execution of his duty. It being known that some measures were taken, tho' the extent thereof was carefully concealed, the collector, on the 22d, seized, landed, and stored the teas in stores under the Exchange, without one person's appearing to oppose him. The tea is to remain in store 'till the collector shall receive further orders relative thereto.
Various were the opinions of men on the subject; some were for drinking no tea that paid duty, and were confident of a supply of such; others were for putting every dutied article on the same footing, as wine, &c.; but others considered wine as a necessary of life. It is my opinion that if the merchants who viewed this measure of importing tea in a commercial rather than in a political light, had shewn their disapprobation of the intended opposition to land it, by action rather than by a refusal to subscribe to a proposed association, and a contempt of the public meetings on this occasion, and the agents of the East India Company had not been so hasty in their declining to accept their trusts, all might have gone on well, according to the plan of the East India Company, and to our benefit in purchasing that article, now become one of the necessaries of life, at a much cheaper rate than at present.
COPY OF A LETTER FROM Mr. JOHN MORRIS,
At Charles Town, South Carolina, to his Brother, at London.
Charles Town, 22d Decr., 1773.