TEA LEAVES: - Yesterday Image

would be well for all the towns to appoint committees of inspection "to prevent this
accursed tea" from coming among them. "Shall we abide by our former resolution with
respect to the not suffering the tea to be landed" was now the question. Samuel Adams,
Dr. Thomas Young and Josiah Quincy, Jr.,[17] an ardent young patriot devotedly
attached to the liberties of his country, were the principal speakers. Only a fragment of
the speech of Quincy remains. Counselling moderation, and in a spirit of prophecy, he
said:
"It is not, Mr. Moderator, the spirit that vapors within these walls that must stand us in
stead. The exertions of this day will call forth the events which will make a very different
spirit necessary for our salvation. Whoever supposes that shouts and hosannas will
terminate the trials of the day, entertains a childish fancy. We must be grossly ignorant of
the importance and value of the prize for which we contend; we must be equally ignorant
of the power of those who have combined against us; we must be blind to that malice,
inveteracy and insatiable revenge which actuates our enemies, public and private, abroad
and in our bosom, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest, the
sharpest conflicts; to flatter ourselves that popular resolves, popular harangues, popular
acclamations, and popular vapor will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue.[lx] Let
us look to the end. Let us weigh and consider before we advance to those measures which
must bring on the most trying and terrific struggle this country ever saw."
But the time for weighing and considering the business in hand had passed. Time pressed
and decisive action alone remained. "Now that the hand is at the plough," it was said,
"there must be no looking back."
At half-past four it was unanimously voted that the tea should not be landed. An effort
was now made to dissolve the meeting, but it was continued at the request of some of
those present from the country, who wished to hear the result of Rotch's application to the
governor.
It was an unusual time of the year to be at a country seat, but Governor Hutchinson was
found at his Milton residence by Rotch, who renewed his request for a pass. Questioned
by the governor as to the intentions of the people, Rotch replied that they only intended to
force the tea back to England, but that there might be some who desired that the vessel
might go down the harbor and be brought to by a shot from the castle, that it might be
said that the people had done everything in their power to send the tea back. "Catching at
this straw, with the instinct of a drowning man," Hutchinson offered Rotch a letter to
Admiral Montagu, commending ship and goods to his protection, if Rotch would agree to
have his ship haul out into the stream, but he replied that none were willing to assist him
in doing this, and that the attempt would subject him to the ill will of the people.
Hutchinson then sternly repeated his refusal of a pass,[18] as it would have been "a direct
countenancing and encouraging the violation of the acts of trade." Thus closed the last
opportunity for concession.[lxi]