TEA LEAVES: - Yesterday Image

Hutchinson advised the consignees to order the vessels, when they arrived, to anchor
below the castle, that if it should appear unsafe to land the tea, they might go to sea again,
and when the first ship arrived she anchored there accordingly, but when the master came
up to town, Mr. Adams and others, a committee of the town, ordered him at his peril to
bring the ship up to land the other goods, but to suffer no tea to be taken out.
The committee of correspondence, who also held a session that day, seeing that time was
precious, and that the tea once entered it would be out of the power of the consignees to
send it back, obtained the promise of the owner not to enter his ship till Tuesday, and
authorized Samuel Adams to summon the committees and townspeople of the vicinity to
a mass meeting, in Boston, on the next morning. The invitation read as follows:
"A part of the tea shipped by the East India Company is now arrived in this harbor, and
we look upon ourselves bound to give you the earliest intimation of it, and we desire that
you favor us with your company at Faneuil Hall, at nine o'clock to-morrow forenoon,
there to give us your advice what steps are to be immediately taken, in order effectually
to prevent the impending evil, and we request you to urge your friends in the town, to
which you belong, to be in readiness to exert themselves in the most resolute manner, to
assist this town in its efforts for saving this oppressed country."
The journals of Monday announced that the "Dartmouth" had anchored off Long Wharf,
and that other ships with the poisonous herb might soon be here. They also
contained[xliii] a call for a public meeting, as announced in the following handbill,
already printed and distributed throughout the town:
"Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of plagues, the detested tea, shipped for this
port by the East India Company, is now arrived in this harbor; the hour of destruction or
manly opposition to the machinations of tyranny stares you in the face; every friend to his
country, to himself, and posterity, is now called upon to meet at Faneuil Hall, at nine
o'clock this day, (at which time the bells will ring,) to make a united and successful
resistance to this last, worst and most destructive measure of administration.
Boston, November 29, 1773."
At nine o'clock the bells were rung, and the people, to the number of at least five
thousand, thronged in and around Faneuil Hall. This edifice, then about half as large as
now, was entirely inadequate to hold the concourse that had gathered there. Jonathan
Williams,[11] a citizen of character and wealth, was chosen moderator. The selectmen
were John Scollay, John Hancock, Timothy Newell, Thomas Newhall, Samuel Austin,
Oliver Wendell,[12] and John Pitts. The patriotic and efficient town clerk, William
Cooper,[13] was also present. Samuel Adams, Dr. Warren,[xliv] Hancock, Dr. Young