TEA LEAVES: - Yesterday Image

Governor Hutchinson[2] asserts that "when the intelligence first came to Boston it caused
no alarm. The threepenny duty had been paid the last two years without any stir, and
some of the great friends to liberty had been importers of tea. The body of the people
were pleased with the prospect of drinking tea at less expense than ever. The only
apparent discontent was among the importers of tea, as well those who had been legal
importers from England, as others who had illegally imported from Holland, and the
complaint was against the East India Company for monopolizing a branch of commerce
which had been beneficial to a great number of merchants."
The circular-letter of the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence of October 21,
1773,—by which time the public sentiment against the new regulation had been
thoroughly aroused,—said of it: "It is easy to see how aptly this scheme will serve both to
destroy the trade of the colonies and increase the revenue. How necessary then it is that
each colony should take effectual methods to prevent this measure from having its
designed effects."
One of the Boston consignees writing to London, says, under date of 18th October: "But
what difficulties may arise from the disaffection of the merchants and importers of tea to
this measure of the East India Company, I am not yet able to say. It seems at present to be
a matter of much speculation, and if one is to credit the prints, no small opposition will be
made thereto.... My friends seem to think it will[xvi] subside; others are of a contrary
opinion." Another, under date of October 30th, gives it as his opinion that the uneasiness
is fomented, if not originated, by persons concerned in the Holland trade, a trade which,
he is informed, is much more practiced in the Southern governments than here.
In a letter dated New York, November 5th, Abraham Lott, one of the New York
consignees, says, that if the tea arrives subject to duty, "there will be no such thing as
selling it, as the people would rather buy so much poison, as they say it is calculated to
enslave them and their posterity, and are therefore determined not to take what they call
the nauseous draught." The tenor of these letters and of the American newspapers, must
have given the British public an inkling of what was to come.
It was thought by all the colonies that this was the precise point of time when it was
absolutely necessary to make a stand, and that all opposition to parliamentary taxation
must be for ever given up, if this critical moment was neglected. The only practical way
open to defeat the measure seemed to be through popular demonstrations.
The press now became more active than ever in its political discussions. As to the mode
of payment of the tea duty, it said: "We know that on a certificate of its being landed
here, the tribute is, by agreement, to be paid in London. The landing, therefore, is the
point in view, and every nerve will be strained to obtain it." It was asked in New York,
"are the Americans such blockheads as to care whether it be a hot red poker, or a red hot
poker which they are to swallow, provided Lord North forces them to swallow one of the
two"