At Boston, before the vessels arrived with it, a town meeting was called to devise measures to prevent the landing and sale within the province.The agreement not to use tea while a duty was imposed was now solemnly renewed; and a committee was chosen to request the consignees of the East India company neither to sell nor unlade the tea which should be brought into the harbor. They communicated the wishes of the town to the merchants, who were to have the custody and sale of the tea; but they declined making any such promise, as they had received no orders or directions on the subject. On the arrival of the vessels with the tea in the harbor of Boston, another meeting of the citizens was immediately called. ‘The hour of destruction,’ it was said, ‘or of manly opposition, had now come;’ and all who were friends to the country were invited to attend, ‘to make an united and successful resistance to this last and worst measure of the administration.’ A great number of the people assembled from the adjoining towns, as well as from the capital, in the celebrated Faneuil hall, the usual place of meeting on such occasions, but the meeting was soon adjourned to one of the largest churches in the town. Here it was voted, as it had been at a meeting before the tea arrived, that they would use all lawful means to prevent its being landed, and to have it returned immediately to England.
After several days spent in negotiations, the consignees still refused to return the tea, and, fearing the vengeance of an injured people, they retired to the castle. The owner of the ship which brought the tea was unable to obtain a pass for her sailing, as the officer was in the interest of the British ministers. Application was then made to the governor, to order that a pass be given for the vessel; but he declined interfering in the affair. When it was found no satisfactory arrangement could be effected, the meeting broke up; but, late in the evening, a number of men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, proceeded to the vessels, then lying at the wharf, which had the tea on board, and in a short time every chest was taken out, and the contents thrown into the sea; but no injury was done to any other part of their cargoes. The inhabitants of the town, generally, had no knowledge of the event until the next day. It is supposed, the number of those concerned in the affair was about fifty; but who they were has been only a matter of conjecture to the present day.
PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION.
The British ministry appear to have been highly gratified that the town of Boston, which they ever regarded as the focus of sedition in America, had rendered itself, by the violent destruction of the property of the East India company, obnoxious to their severest vengeance. On the 7th of March lord North presented a message from his majesty to both houses of parliament, commenting on the outrageous proceedings at the town and port of Boston. In a few days a bill was introduced ‘for the immediate removal of the officers concerned in the collection of customs from Boston, and to discontinue the landing and discharging, lading and shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at Boston, or within the harbor thereof.’ The bill also levied a fine upon the town, as a compensation to the East India company for the destruction of their teas, and was to continue in force during the pleasure of the king. The opposition to this measure was very slight, and it was finally carried in both houses without a division.
This, however, was only a part of lord North’s scheme of coercion. He proposed two other bills, which were intended to strike terror into the province of Massachusetts, and to deter the other colonies from following her example. By one of these, the constitution and charter of the province were completely subverted, all power taken out of the hands of the people, and placed in those of the servants of the crown. The third scheme of lord North was the introduction of ‘a bill for the impartial administration of justice in Massachusetts.’ By this act, persons informed against or indicted for any act done for the support of the laws of the revenue, or for the suppression of riots in Massachusetts, might by the governor, with the advice of the council, be sent for trial to any other colony, or to Great Britain; an enactment which, in effect, conferred impunity on the officers of the crown, however odious might be their violations of the law.
These plans of the administration were opposed by Burke, lord Chatham, Barré, and others, in language of the highest indignation. They originated in mistaken views of the opinion and temper of the people. The government, too, maintained that any measures were justifiable for supporting the authority of the king and parliament, and calculated on bringing the refractory and disaffected to submission by severity and force.
As a measure indicative of a determination to conduct the proceedings against the refractory colonists with the utmost vigor, general Gage was appointed, with powers of the most unlimited extent, to supersede governor Hutchinson. The offices of governor of the province of Massachusetts and commander of his majesty’s forces in America were united in his person. The intelligence of the passing of the Boston port bill had preceded general Gage a few days. On the day after his arrival, the general court having been dissolved by the late governor, a town meeting was convened and very numerously attended. They declared and resolved, ‘that the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the act, exceed all their powers of expression; and therefore,’ they say, ‘we leave it to the censure of others, and appeal to God and the world.’ They also declared it as their opinion, that, ‘if the other colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all importation from, and exportation to, Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the act be repealed, the same would prove the salvation of North America and her liberties.’
The idea was probably entertained by the British ministry, that the other colonies would be inclined rather to avail themselves of the commercial advantages which the closing of one of the chief sea-ports would open to them, than to make common cause with Boston, at the hazard of incurring a similar penalty. In this instance, as in most others, the government made a great miscalculation of American character. The several colonies lost no time in expressing the deepest sympathy for the sufferings of the inhabitants of Boston, and in contributing to their pecuniary necessities, as well as in affording them moral countenance. In this patriotic course Virginia took the lead.
The convention of Virginia recommended to the committee of correspondence, that they should communicate with their several corresponding committees, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the several colonies of British America, to meet in general congress at such place annually as might be deemed most convenient; there to deliberate onthose general measures which the united interests of America might from time to time require.
Similar expressions of determined opposition to the port bill, and assurances of support to the disfranchised citizens of Boston, were made wherever the act became known. In some places it was printed upon mourning paper, and hawked about the streets; in others it was publicly burned, with every demonstration of abhorrence. At New York there was a considerable struggle between the friends of administration and the friends of liberty, but the latter at length prevailed, by the influence and management of two individuals, who had on several occasions manifested great activity and zeal in their opposition to the obnoxious measures of the ministry. Addresses were also sent from Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and some other provinces, to the committee of Boston, assuring them of support, and declaring that they considered the cause of Boston as the common cause of the country.