Military History. 273 



At three o'clock in the afternoon of December 16, 1773, 

 young Josiah Quincy finished his great speech to the people in 

 the Old South Meeting-house, and the people reaffirmed the vote 

 of November 29, that the tea in the ships in Boston harbor 

 should not be landed. Towards twilight, Mr. Roch, the owner of 

 one of the vessels, returned from an interview with the Governor, 

 who was at Milton, with a refusal to permit the ship to leave the 

 harbor. A warwhoop rang from the gallery of the Old South ; 

 it was taken up from the outside. The meeting adjourned in 

 great confusion and the populace flocked toward Griffin's wharf, 

 near the present Liverpool wharf. Here were moored the " Dart- 

 mouth," Captain Hall ; the " Eleanor," Captain Bruce ; and the 

 " Beaver," Captain Coffin. Led by some twenty persons dis- 

 guised as Mohawk Indians, a party numbering some hundred and 

 forty boarded the vessels, and in two hours three hundred and forty- 

 two chests of tea were emptied into the harbor. Among the bold 

 actors of that night were xVmos Lincoln, then twenty years of age, 

 afterwards a captain in the Revolutionary Army, and a brother 

 of Lieut.-Gov. Levi Lincoln ; Jared Joy, twenty-four years old, 

 also a Revolutionary soldier later ; Abraham Tower, just twenty, 

 subsequently a soldier in Capt. Job dishing' s company ; and 

 Samuel Sprague of the same age, afterwards the father of Charles 

 Spraguc the poet. 



These young men all belonged in Hingham, and their partici- 

 pation was quite likely the result of an agreement among them 

 to be in Boston until the question of the landing of the tea should 

 be settled. It is significant that at least three of them should 

 have become soldiers in the war for independence which so soon 

 followed. 



The action of this lGth of December was followed by more 

 papers and letters from the Boston Committee of Correspond- 

 ence. To these the town responded at the annual meeting by 

 resolutions declaring, — 



' ; First, That the disposal of their property is the inherent right of 

 freemen, that there is no property in that which another can of right take 

 from us without our consent ; that the claim of Parliament to tax America 

 is, in other words, a claim of right to lay contributions on us at pleasure. 



" Secondly, That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in 

 America is a tax on the Americans or levying contributions on them 

 without their consent. 



" Thirdly, That the express purpose for which the tax is levied on the 

 Americans, namely, for the support of government and administration of 

 justice, and the defence of his Majesty's dominions in America, has a 

 direct tendency to render assemblies useless, and to introduce arbitrary 

 government and slavery. 



" Fourthly, That a virtuous and steady opposition to the ministerial 

 plan of governing America is necessary, to preserve even a shadow of 

 liberty ; and it is a duty which every freeman in America owes to his 

 country, to himself, and to his posterity. 



VOL. I. — 18 



