68 THE 



notify the British Government. The wrath of the meeting was kindling, when the 

 Sheriff of Suffolk entered with a proclamation from the governor, warning the assembly 

 to disperse. The notice was received with hisses, derision, and a unanimous vote not 

 to disperse. In the afternoon Potch, the owner, and Hall, the master, of the Dartmouth, 

 yielding to an irresistible impulse, engaged that the tea should return as it came, without 

 touching land or paying duty. A similar promise was exacted of the owners of the 

 other tea-ships, whose arrival was daily expected. In this way "it was thought the matter 

 would have ended. " Every shipowner was forbidden, on pain of being deemed an enemy 

 to the country, to import or bring as freight any tea from Great Britain, till the 

 unrighteous Act taxing it should be repealed ; and this vote was printed and sent to 

 every seaport in the Province, and to England. Six persons were chosen as foot-riders, 

 to give due notice to the country towns of any attempt to land the tea by force ; and 

 the Committee of Correspondence, as the executive organ of the meeting, took care 

 that a military watch was regularly kept up by volunteers armed with muskets and 

 bayonets, who at every half -hour in the night regularly passed the word "All is 

 well \" like sentinels in a garrison. Had they been molested in the night, the 

 tolling of the bells would have been the signal for a general uprising. 



The ships, after landing the rest of their cargo, could neither be cleared in Boston 

 with the tea on board, nor be entered in England, and on the twentieth day from their 

 arrival would be liable to seizure. 



The spirit of the people rose with the emergency. Two more tea-ships which 

 arrived were directed to anchor by the side of the Dartmouth, at Griffin's Wharf, 

 that one guard might serve for all. In the meantime the consignees conspired with 

 the Revenue officers to throw on the owner and master of the Dartmouth the whole 

 burden of landing the tea, and would neither agree to receive it, nor give up their bill of 

 lading, nor pay the freight. Every movement was duly reported, and the town became 

 as furious as in the time of the Stamp Act. On the 9th there was a vast gathering at 

 Newburyport, of the inhabitants of that and the neighbouring towns, and they unanimously 

 agreed to assist Boston, even at the hazard of their lives. " This is not a piece of 

 parade," they say, " but if an occasion shall offer, a goodly number from among us will 

 hasten to join you." 



In this state of things it was easily seen by the people of Boston that, the ships 

 lying so near, the teas would be landed by degrees, notwithstanding any guard they 

 could keep or measures taken to prevent it; and it was as well known that if they were 

 landed nothing could prevent their being sold, and thereby the purpose of establishing 

 the monopoly and raising a revenue fulfilled. 



The morning of Thursday, the 16th of December, 1773, dawned upon Boston, a day 

 by far the most momentous in its annals. The town of Portsmouth held its meeting 

 on that morning, and, with six only protesting, its people adopted the principles of 

 Philadelphia, appointed their Committee of Correspondence, and resolved to make common 

 cause v/ith the Colonies. At ten o'clock the people of Boston, with at least two 

 thousand men from the country, assembled in the Old South. A report was made 

 that Potch (the owner of the Dartmouth] had been refused a clearance from the 



