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CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCEOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYWhen customs officials sought tocollect duties, they were set upon bythe populace and roughly handled.For this infraction, two British regimentswere dispatched to protect thecustoms commissioners.The presence of British troops inBoston was a standing invitation todisorder. On March 5, 1770, antagonismbetween citizens and Britishsoldiers again flared into violence.What began as a harmless snowballingof British soldiers degeneratedinto a mob attack. Someone gave theorder to fire. When the smoke hadcleared, three Bostonians lay dead inthe snow. Dubbed the “Boston Massacre,”the incident was dramaticallypictured as proof of British heartlessnessand tyranny.Faced with such opposition, Parliamentin 1770 opted for a strategicretreat and repealed all the Townshendduties except that on tea, whichwas a luxury item in the colonies,imbibed only by a very small minority.To most, the action of Parliamentsignified that the colonists had wona major concession, and the campaignagainst England was largelydropped. A colonial embargo on“English tea” continued but was nottoo scrupulously observed. Prosperitywas increasing and most colonialleaders were willing to let the futuretake care of itself.SAMUEL ADAMSDuring a three-year interval ofcalm, a relatively small number ofradicals strove energetically to keepthe controversy alive. They contendedthat payment of the tax constitutedan acceptance of the principlethat Parliament had the right to ruleover the colonies. They feared that atany time in the future, the principleof parliamentary rule might be appliedwith devastating effect on allcolonial liberties.The radicals’ most effectiveleader was Samuel Adams of Massachusetts,who toiled tirelessly fora single end: independence. Fromthe time he graduated from HarvardCollege in 1743, Adams was a publicservant in some capacity — inspectorof chimneys, tax-collector, andmoderator of town meetings. Aconsistent failure in business, he wasshrewd and able in politics, with theNew England town meeting his theaterof action.Adams wanted to free peoplefrom their awe of social and politicalsuperiors, make them aware oftheir own power and importance,and thus arouse them to action. Towardthese objectives, he publishedarticles in newspapers and madespeeches in town meetings, instigatingresolutions that appealed to thecolonists’ democratic impulses.In 1772 he induced the Bostontown meeting to select a “Committeeof Correspondence” to statethe rights and grievances of thecolonists. The committee opposeda British decision to pay the salariesof judges from customs revenues; itfeared that the judges would no longerbe dependent on the legislaturefor their incomes and thus no longeraccountable to it, thereby leading tothe emergence of “a despotic formof government.” The committeecommunicated with other towns onthis matter and requested them todraft replies. Committees were setup in virtually all the colonies, andout of them grew a base of effectiverevolutionary organizations. Still,Adams did not have enough fuel toset a fire.THE BOSTON “TEA PARTY”In 1773, however, Britain furnishedAdams and his allies with an incendiaryissue. The powerful East IndiaCompany, finding itself in critical financialstraits, appealed to the Britishgovernment, which granted it amonopoly on all tea exported to thecolonies. The government also permittedthe East India Company tosupply retailers directly, bypassingcolonial wholesalers. By then, mostof the tea consumed in America wasimported illegally, duty-free. By sellingits tea through its own agents ata price well under the customaryone, the East India Company madesmuggling unprofitable and threatenedto eliminate the independentcolonial merchants. Aroused notonly by the loss of the tea trade butalso by the monopolistic practiceinvolved, colonial traders joined theradicals agitating for independence.In ports up and down the Atlanticcoast, agents of the East IndiaCompany were forced to resign.New shipments of tea were eitherreturned to England or warehoused.In Boston, however, the agents defiedthe colonists; with the supportof the royal governor, they madepreparations to land incoming cargoesregardless of opposition. Onthe night of December 16, 1773, aband of men disguised as MohawkIndians and led by Samuel Adamsboarded three British ships lying atanchor and dumped their tea cargointo Boston harbor. Doubting theircountrymen’s commitment to principle,they feared that if the tea werelanded, colonists would actuallypurchase the tea and pay the tax.A crisis now confronted Britain.The East India Company had carriedout a parliamentary statute. Ifthe destruction of the tea went unpunished,Parliament would admitto the world that it had no controlover the colonies. Official opinionin Britain almost unanimously condemnedthe Boston Tea Party as anact of vandalism and advocated legalmeasures to bring the insurgentcolonists into line.THE COERCIVE ACTSParliament responded with newlaws that the colonists called the“Coercive” or “Intolerable Acts.” Thefirst, the Boston Port Bill, closedthe port of Boston until the tea waspaid for. The action threatened thevery life of the city, for to preventBoston from having access to thesea meant economic disaster. Otherenactments restricted local authorityand banned most town meetingsheld without the governor’s consent.5657