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The Great Republic by the Master Historians
The Tea Tax and the Boston Port Bill
by Bancroft, Hubert H.
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[The state of irritation into which America had been thrown by the injudicious
measures of the British Parliament was not allayed by its subsequent action.
Before proceeding with the record of these events, reference may be made to an
outbreak which at this time occurred in North Carolina, not directly due to
English action, yet arising from the corruption and inefficiency of
functionaries of the British government. Abuses in the collection of exorbitant
fees by public officers, and in permitting the sheriffs and tax-collectors to
delay the payment of public moneys, produced an association of the poorer
colonists, who claimed that they were being overtaxed for the support of
dishonest officers, and who assumed the title of Regulators. Other events added
to their discontent, and they broke out into wild outrages, assembling in 1771
to the number of two thousand, and declaring their purpose to abolish courts of
justice, exterminate lawyers and public officers, and overturn the provincial
government in favor of some mad scheme of democracy devised by their foolish or
knavish leaders. The respectable part of the community rose in opposition to
these insurgents, and in a battle at Almansee, on May 16, the Regulators were
routed, three hundred of them being left dead on the field. Others were
condemned and executed for high treason, and peace was restored to the province.
Events more directly connected with the struggle between the colonies and Great
Britain rapidly succeeded in the other provinces, a statement of the more
important of which we select from Grahame's "Colonial History of the United
States."]
An act of violence committed by the colonists of Rhode Island, though less
memorable in respect of its intrinsic importance than the insurrection of the
Regulators in North Carolina, excited more general attention from its
significance as an indication of the height to which the general current of
American sentiment was rising. The commander of the Gaspee, an armed British
schooner stationed at Providence, had exerted much activity in supporting the
trade laws and punishing the increasing contraband traffic of the Americans, and
had provoked additional resentment by firing at the Providence packets in order
to compel them to salute his flag by lowering theirs as they passed his vessel,
and by chasing them even into the docks in case of refusal. The master of a
packet conveying passengers to Providence (June 9, 1772), which was fired at and
chased by the Gaspee for neglecting to pay the requisite tribute of respect,
took advantage of the state of the tide (it being almost high water) to stand in
so closely to the shore that the Gaspee in the pursuit might be exposed to run
aground. The artifice succeeded; the Gaspee presently stuck fast, and the packet
proceeded in triumph to Providence, where a strong sensation was excited by the
tidings of the occurrence, and a project was hastily formed to improve the blow
and destroy the obnoxious vessel. Brown, an eminent merchant, and Whipple, a
ship-master, took the lead in this bold adventure, and easily collected a
sufficient band of armed and resolute men, with whom they embarked in whale-
boats to attack the British ship of war. At two o'clock the next morning they
boarded the Gaspee so suddenly and in such numbers that her crew were instantly
overpowered, without hurt to any one except her commanding officer, who was
wounded. The captors, having despatched a part of their number to convey him,
together with his private effects and his crew, ashore, set fire to the Gaspee
and destroyed her, with all her stores The issue of this daring act of war
against the naval force of the king was as remarkable as the enterprise itself.
[A large reward was offered for information, and commissioners appointed to try
the offenders.] But no trial took place. Nobody came forward to claim the
proffered reward;. . and in the commencement of the following year the
commissioners reported to the British ministry their inability, notwithstanding
the most diligent inquisition, to procure evidence or information against a
single individual.
[In Massachusetts a violent enmity had arisen between Hutchinson, the governor,
and the majority of the Assembly, which produced several controversies. Among
the most notable of these was the effort of the Assembly to abolish the slave-
trade. In 1712 the importation of slaves into Massachusetts had been forbidden,
but her merchants were not restrained from conveying slaves to other provinces.
No fewer than four bills prohibiting traffic in negroes were, during the
administrations of Governors Bernard and Hutchinson, passed by the Assembly, but
they were all negatived by the governors.]
The British government, meanwhile, having rashly determined to enforce the Tea-
duty Act, of which the most considerable effect hitherto was a vast importation
of smuggled tea into America by the French, the Dutch, the Danes, and the
Swedes, attempted to compass by policy what constraint and authority had proved
insufficient to accomplish. The measures of the Americans had already occasioned
such diminution of exports from Britain that the warehouses of the English East
India Company contained above seventeen millions of pounds of tea, for which it
was difficult to procure a market. The unwillingness of the Company to lose
their commercial profits, and of the ministry to forego the expected revenue
from the sale of tea in America, induced a compromise for their mutual
advantage. A high duty was imposed hitherto on the exportation of tea from
England; but the East India Company were now authorized by act of Parliament to
export their tea free of duty to all places whatever (may, 1773). By this
contrivance it was expected that tea, though loaded with an exceptionable tax on
its importation into America, would yet readily obtain purchasers among the
Americans; as the vendors, relieved of the British export duty, could afford to
sell it to them even cheaper than before it was made a source of American
revenue.
The crisis now drew near when the Americans were to decide whether they would
submit to be taxed by the British Parliament, or practically support their own
principles and brave the most perilous consequences of their inflexibility. One
common sentiment was awakened throughout the whole continent by the tidings of
the ministerial device, which was universally reprobated as an attempt, at once
injurious and insulting, to bribe the Americans to surrender their rights and
bend their own necks to the yoke of arbitrary power. A violent ferment arose;
the corresponding committees and political clubs exerted their utmost activity
to rouse and unite the people; and it was generally declared that, as every
citizen owed to his country the duty at least of refraining from being accessory
to her subjugation, every man who countenanced the present measure of the
British government should be deemed an enemy of America. .
The East India Company, confident of finding a market for their tea, reduced as
it was now in price, freighted several ships to America with this commodity, and
appointed consignees to receive and dispose of it. Some cargoes were sent to New
York, some to Philadelphia, some to Charleston, the metropolis of South
Carolina, and some to Boston. The inhabitants of New York and Philadelphia
prevailed with the consignees to disclaim their functions, and forced the ships
to return with their cargoes to London. The inhabitants of Charleston unladed
the tea, and deposited it in public cellars, where it was locked up from use and
finally perished. At Boston, the consignees, who were the near kinsmen of
Governor Hutchinson, at first refused to renounce their appointments (November
5); and the vessels containing the tea lay for some time in the harbor, watched
by a strong guard of the citizens, who, from a numerous town meeting, despatched
peremptory commands to the ship-masters not to land their obnoxious cargoes. .
[The consignees] proposed then to the people that the tea should be landed, and
preserved in some public store or magazine; but this compromise was indignantly
rejected. At length the popular rage broke through every restraint of order and
decency. From the symptoms of its dangerous fervor the consignees fled in dismay
to the Castle; while an assemblage of men, dressed and painted like Mohawk
Indians, boarded the vessels and threw the tea into the ocean (December 16).
It was remarked with some surprise that during the whole of this transaction the
civil and military force of government, including the garrison of Castle William
and several ships of war in the harbor, remained completely inactive. The
governor, indeed, issued a proclamation forbidding the people to assemble in
factious meetings. But the council, when their protection was implored by the
consignees, refused to interfere at all in the matter; and though, after the
outrage was committed, they condemned its perpetration and invoked legal
vengeance upon all who had been engaged in it, the futility of this
demonstration was obvious to every eye. To procure legal proof that would
implicate even a single individual was notoriously impossible.
[Another source of popular irritation was the proceeding of the ministry against
Franklin. He had obtained and made public some letters of Hutchinson and others,
misrepresenting the occurrences in America and pressing the ministry to support
their schemes by military power. The Massachusetts Assembly now petitioned the
king to remove these obnoxious persons from office. This was refused, and severe
measures were taken against Franklin.]
On the following day [after the rejection of the petition] Franklin was
dismissed by the British government from the office of postmaster-general of
America. These proceedings, and especially the elaborate malignity of insult
heaped [during the discussion] upon a man whom they so highly admired and
respected, sank deeply into the minds of the Americans. Another act of British
power, that was directed with the most childish absurdity against the scientific
repute of Franklin, awakened the liveliest derision and disdain in America. For
the king, shortly after, transported by the blindest abhorrence of the American
philosopher, for whom he had once professed esteem, actually caused the
electrical conductors invented by Franklin to be removed from the palace of
Buckingham House and replaced by instruments of far less skilful construction
and efficient capacity.
[Hutchinson was soon after recalled to England, ostensibly to inform the
ministers regarding the state of the colonies.]
Along with Tryon, who was afterwards recalled from New York, and Carleton, the
governor of Canada, he was desired by the cabinet to declare his opinion whether
the Americans, in the last extremity, would venture to resist the arms of
Britain. Hutchinson confidently predicted that they would either not fight at
all, or at most offer no further opposition than what a few troops could easily
quell. Carleton protested that America might certainly be conquered, but that a
considerable army would be necessary for this purpose, and that, for himself, he
would not venture to march against New York or Boston with a smaller force than
ten thousand men. Tryon declared that Britain would require large armies and
long efforts to bring America to her feet; that her power was equal to anything,
but that all her power must be exerted in order to put the monster in chains.
The representations of Hutchinson were the most congenial to the sentiments and
the temper of the British government; and, unfortunately for England, they were
corroborated by the kindred folly and ignorance of many British statesmen and
officers. "The Americans are a degenerate race of Europeans; they have nothing
of the soldier in them," was the customary language of men who were destined by
their own defeats to illustrate the valor which they depreciated, and who
learned too late to consider the Americans as a regenerated race of Europeans,
in whom the energy of freemen more than supplied the mechanical expertness of
severely-disciplined slaves. General Clarke. . declared in a company of learned
men at London, and in the hearing of Dr. Franklin, that with a thousand British
grenadiers he would undertake to march from one end of America to another. .
Another general officer asserted in the House of Commons that "The Yankees (a
foolish nickname which now began to be applied to the Americans) never felt
bold."
The speeches of other military officers in Parliament, and of the prime
minister, Lord North, conveyed ideas equally calculated to delude their
countrymen and to inflame by contumely all the rage and courage which injustice
and injury had already kindled in the Americans. "Believe me, my lords," said
the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, in the House of Peers, "the
first sound of a cannon will send the Americans a-running as fast as their feet
can carry them." Unfortunately for his country, he was believed.
[During the period here indicated the population of America was rapidly
increasing. We have few statistics, but these are very suggestive. Seventeen
thousand three hundred and fifty emigrants reached America from the north of
Ireland alone in 1771 and 1772. In the first fortnight of August, 1773, three
thousand five hundred emigrants from Ireland landed at Philadelphia. Many others
came from Scotland, Holland, Germany, and elsewhere. The country was fast
filling up with people who had been oppressed at home and who were in the proper
temper to strike for liberty abroad.
With the infatuation which had all along marked the acts of Parliament and the
ministry, new measures of coercion were now adopted, calculated to increase the
irritation of the colonists. Exasperated by the opposition to the sale of tea in
America, and in particular by its destruction at Boston, the ministry determined
on more stringent measures, and selected this town as the culprit to be
disciplined. A bill was hastily passed, suspending the trade and closing the
harbor of Boston. It was followed by another bill destroying the representative
government of Massachusetts, by declaring that the provincial council should be
appointed by the crown, that the royal governor should appoint and remove all
important executive officers, and that no town meeting should be held without
written permission from the governor.
Other stringent measures were passed, despite the warning protest of an old
member of the House of Commons: "If there ever was a nation running headlong to
its ruin, it is this." The tidings of the passage of these bills produced
universal indignation in America. Philadelphia made a liberal contribution in
aid of the poorer inhabitants of Boston who might be injured by the operation of
the Port Bill. In Virginia a day of fasting and prayer was ordered, and
Jefferson published an indignant protest. Strong feeling was exhibited in all
the other provinces.]
On the day when the operation of the Boston Port Bill was appointed to commence
(June 1, 1774) all the commercial business of the capital of Massachusetts was
concluded at noon, and the harbor of this flourishing town was closed, till the
gathering storm of the Revolution was to reopen it. At Williamsburg, in
Virginia, the day was devoutly consecrated to the religious exercises
recommended by the Assembly. At Philadelphia it was solemnized by a great
majority of the population with every testimonial of public grief; all the
inhabitants, except the Quakers, shut up their houses; and after divine service
a deep and ominous stillness reigned in the city. In other parts of America it
was also observed as a day of mourning; and the sentiments thus widely awakened
were kept alive and exasperated by the distress to which the inhabitants of
Boston were reduced by the continued operation of the Port Bill, and by the
fortitude with which they endured it. The rents of the landholders in and around
Boston now ceased or were greatly diminished; all the wealth vested in
warehouses and wharves was rendered unproductive; from the merchants was wrested
the commerce they had reared, and the means alike of providing for their
families and paying their debts; the artificers employed in the numerous crafts
nourished by an extensive commerce shared the general hardship; and a great
majority of that class of the community who earned daily bread by their daily
labor were deprived of the means of support. But, animated still by that
enduring and dauntless spirit of freedom which had been the parent principle of
the New England communities, the inhabitants of Boston sustained the presence of
this calamity with inflexible fortitude. Their virtue was cheered by the
sympathy, and their sufferings were mitigated by the generosity, of the sister
colonies. In all the American States contributions were made for their relief.
Corporate bodies, town meetings, and provincial conventions, from all quarters,
transmitted to them letters and addresses, applauding their conduct, and
exhorting them to perseverance.
[The royal garrison of Boston was now augumented, and its fortifications
strengthened and increased, thus adding to the irritation of the people. At the
suggestion of the Massachusetts Assembly, a Congress of the provinces was
called. This Congress, embracing members from all the colonies except Georgia,
met at Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. Of the debates of this body, which
continued in session eight weeks, no authentic report exists, but it published a
Declaration of the Rights of America, with many other acts in which a determined
spirit of resistance to tyranny was indicated. Before dissolving, it was decreed
to meet again on May 10, 1775, if no redress of American grievances was granted.
A cargo of tea about this time entered the harbor of Annapolis, Maryland, but
the ship-master became so alarmed by the popular excitement that he asked the
advice of an able lawyer, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, as to what he should
do. Carroll advised him to burn the vessel and cargo. This advice was taken.
"The sails were set, the colors displayed, and the vessel burned amidst the
acclamations of the multitude."
In Massachusetts, General Gage had called a meeting of the Assembly. But,
alarmed by the temper of the people, he issued a proclamation suspending its
meeting. In defiance of his power the Assembly met, elected John Hancock its
president, and proceeded to the bold and extreme measure of calling out the
militia for the defence of the province. A portion of them were to be ready to
meet at a minute's warning, and generals were appointed to command these minute-
men, and the militia at large.]
And now all America was aroused by expectation of awful conflict and mighty
change. New England, upon which the first violence of the storm seemed likely to
descend, was agitated by rumors and alarms, of which the import and the
influence strikingly portrayed the sentiments and temper of the people. Reports
that Gage had commanded his troops to attack the Massachusetts militia, or to
fire upon the town of Boston, were swallowed the avidity of rage and hatred, and
instantly covered the highways with thousands of armed men, mustering in hot
haste, and eager to rush forward to death or revenge. Everything betokened the
explosion of a tempest; and some partial gusts announced its near approach, and
proved the harbingers of its fury. In the close of the year there reached
America a proclamation issued by the king, prohibiting the exportation of
military stores from Great Britain. The inhabitants of Rhode Island no sooner
received intelligence of this mandate than they removed from the public battery
about forty pieces of cannon; and the Assembly of the province gave orders for
procuring arms and martial stores, and for the immediate equipment of a martial
force. In New Hampshire, a band of four hundred men, suddenly assembling in
arms, and conducted by John Sullivan, an eminent lawyer and a man of great
ambition and intrepidity, gained possession by surprise of the castle of
Portsmouth, and confined the royal garrison till the powder-magazine was
ransacked and its contents carried away.
[These violent demonstrations provoked new measures of oppression in Parliament.
Lord Chatham, indeed, after seeking the counsel of Benjamin Franklin, introduced
a bill calculated to remove the causes of disaffection in America. But this bill
was rejected, and one introduced by Lord North was passed, which virtually
extended the measures of the Boston Port Bill to all New England. As it soon
appeared that the other provinces supported New England, the provisions of the
bill to restrain commerce were extended to them all, with the exception of New
York, Delaware, and North Carolina. But this exemption failed to produce its
designed effect, since the exempted colonies at once declared their intention to
accept the restraints imposed on their neighbors.]
The example of Massachusetts in preparing for defence was followed by the other
provinces; and warlike counsels were boldly broached in the provincial
Assemblies and Congresses. When some members of the Virginia Assembly urged the
postponement of those preparations, reminding their colleagues of the power of
Britain and the comparative weakness of America, and insisting that it would be
time enough to fly to arms when every well-founded hope of peace had entirely
vanished, Patrick Henry, with vehement and victorious eloquence, contended that
that time had already come. "It is natural," said he, "to man to indulge in the
illusions of hope. We are prone to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and
listen to the song of that enchantress till she transforms us into beasts. There
is no longer any room for hope. We must fight. I repeat it, sir, we must fight.
An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us. They tell us
that we are weak, and unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when
shall we be stronger? Will it be when our supineness shall have enabled our
enemies to bind us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make use of those
means which the God of nature has placed in our power. Three millions of people
armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as ours, are
invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Nor shall we fight
our battles alone. That God who presides over the destinies of nations will
raise up friends to aid us. The battle is not to the strong alone, but to the
vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, we have no longer a choice. If we were
base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There
is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged; their
clanking may be heard upon the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable, -- and
let it come ! Gentlemen may cry, `Peace! Peace!'-- but there is no peace. The
war is actually begun. The next gale which sweeps from the north will bring to
our ears the clash of resounding arms."
[These words proved prophetic. Arms and provisions were being diligently
collected in Massachusetts, in preparation for an expected conflict. General
Gage was not unaware of nor indifferent to these proceedings.]
Having learned that some military stores belonging to the colonists were
deposited in Salem, he despatched Colonel Leslie from Castle William, on the
26th of February, with one hundred and forty soldiers, in a transport, to seize
them. The troops, landing at Marblehead, proceeded to Salem; but, not finding
there the object of their expedition, they advanced along the road leading to
Danvers, whither the stores had been removed, and reached the drawbridge laid
across the river. Here a number of the country-people were assembled, and on the
opposite side the American colonel Pickering had mustered thirty or forty armed
men, and, having drawn up the bridge, stood prepared to dispute the passage of
the river. Leslie commanded them to lower the bridge; but, as they peremptorily
refused, he was preparing to cross the river in some boats that were moored to
the shore, when the people, who had gathered round him, perceiving his
intention, sprang into the boats and scuttled them with axes.
[As the stores were now removed, and the purpose of the British negatived, it
was decided that Leslie might cross the river and march thirty paces beyond it,
as a point of honor, and then return without attempting further progress.]
At length the bridge was lowered; and Pickering with his men, still facing the
British troops, retired to the line they had measured and marked. Leslie and his
soldiers, after advancing to the stipulated point, returned and embarked for
Boston. Thus ended the first military enterprise of the Revolutionary War,--
without effect and without bloodshed.
[Its main effect was to add to the bitterness and to redouble the vigilance of
the Americans in guarding their stores. The second enterprise of this kind was
not destined to end so harmlessly.]
James Grahame
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