Province of Massachusetts Bay, June 3d., 1773.
Sir:
The very judicious and important Resolves entered into by the House of Burgesses of his Majesty's most ancient Colony of Virginia on the 12th March last, together with your obliging Letter inclosing the same, have been laid before the house of Representatives of this Province.
The Wisdom of the Measures proposed in those Resolves, and the great and good Effects that may reasonably be expected to flow from them, not only to the Colonies but the Parent State, were so obvious, that the House immediately adopted them; and appointed a Committee to keep up and maintain a free Communication with Virginia and the Rest of the Sister Colonies.
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124. Tea Riots
From a Philadelphia Handbill to the Delaware Pilots, September, 1773, given in Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, I, 286.
... We need not point out to you the steps you ought to take if the tea-ship falls in your way. You cannot be at a loss how to prevent, or if that cannot be done, how to give the merchants of the city timely notice of her arrival. But this you may depend upon, that whatever pilot brings her into the river, such pilot will be marked for his treason. ... Like Cain, he will be hung out as a spectacle to the nations, and be forever recorded as the damned traitorous pilot who brought up the tea-ship....
(Signed) The Committee for Tarring and Feathering.