This contest was over the western limit of the province, where many settlers, west of the Allegheny Mountains, believed they were the subjects of the government of Virginia. Even George Croghan maintained that the limits of Pennsylvania ended at the Laurel Hill Range. He understood that a degree of longitude meant forty-eight miles only.
But other and darker clouds were appearing above the horizon than those of boundary strips.
The importation of tea had been forbidden by the determined colonists, and but a small quantity had been brought into the country.
Large accumulations had to be disposed of and the owners were determined to unload it on the American market.
On the approach of tea ships pilots refused to conduct them into the harbor. A large cargo landed in Charleston, S. C., was stored in damp cellars, and rotted.
Ships designed for Boston entered that port, but before the tea could be landed, a number of colonists boarded the vessels and emptied the cargo into the sea.
The King and Parliament closed the port of Boston, and the colonists believed that their civil rights were destroyed.
The terms “Whigs” and “Tories” were introduced at this time—the former to describe those in sympathy with the cause of Boston, and arrayed on the side of the colonies against Parliament; the latter to designate those whose sympathies were with Great Britain against the colonies.
Throughout the Province of Pennsylvania the warmest interest and most cordial sympathy were manifested for the people of Boston.
Governor Penn declined to convene the Assembly. The Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia sought the sentiments of the inhabitants, and in a meeting held in the State House, resolutions were adopted which resulted in the great meeting of Provincial deputies in Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, which called upon the colonies to organize a Continental Congress.