TEA LEAVES: - Yesterday Image

The impolitic reservation of the duty on tea produced an association not to drink it, and
caused all the merchants, except a few in Boston, to refuse its importation.
Three hundred women of Boston, heads of families, among them many of the highest
standing, had, as early as February, 1770, signed an agreement not to drink any tea until
the impost clause of the revenue acts was repealed. The daughters of liberty, both north
and south, did the same. The young women of Boston followed the example of their
mothers, and subscribed to the following pledge:
"We, the daughters of those patriots who have, and do now appear for the public interest,
and in that principally regard their posterity, as such do with pleasure engage with them
in denying ourselves the drinking of foreign tea, in hopes to frustrate a plan that tends to
deprive a whole community of all that is valuable in life."
From this time forth tea was a proscribed beverage throughout the colonies. "Balsamic
hyperion," made from the dried leaves of the raspberry plant; thyme, extensively used by
the women of Connecticut; and various other substitutes came into general use. The
newspapers of the day abound with details of social gatherings, in which foreign tea was
totally discarded.[x] They also voiced the public abhorrence for it, or what it represented,
by applying to it all the objurgatory and abusive epithets they could muster—and their
vocabulary was by no means limited—such as "detestable," "cruel," "villainous,"
"pernicious," "fatal," "devilish," "fiendish," etc.
Of course there were those who would not deny themselves the use of tea,—drinking it
clandestinely in garrets, or preparing it in coffee-pots to deceive the eye, resorting to any
subterfuge in order to indulge in the use of their favorite beverage. These people, when
found out, did not fail to receive the condemnation of the patriotic men and women, who,
from principle, abstained. There was still a considerable consumption of tea in America,
as the article could be obtained more cheaply from Holland than from the English East
India Company, and on arrival here could easily be smuggled ashore. It was supposed
that of the three millions of inhabitants of the colonies, one-third drank tea twice a day,
Bohea being the kind preferred; and it was estimated that the annual consumption, in
Massachusetts alone, was two thousand four hundred chests, some eight hundred
thousand pounds.
Tea continued to arrive in Boston, but as no one would risk its sale, it was stored. The
"Boston Gazette," in April, 1770, said: "There is not above one seller of tea in town who
has not signed an agreement not to dispose of any tea until the late revenue acts are
repealed."
John Hancock offered one of his vessels, free of charge, to re-ship the tea then stored in
Boston. His offer was accepted, and a cargo despatched to London. So strict was the
watch kept upon the traders, that many of those suspected of illicit dealings in tea, among
whom was Hancock himself, found[xi] it convenient to publish cards declaring their
innocence. Governor Hutchinson wrote at this time (April, 1770,) to Lord Hillsborough,
the English secretary, "That the importers pleaded that they should be utterly ruined by