DESTRUCTION OF THE TEA. 69 



collector. " Then/' said they to him, " protest immediately against the Custom House, 

 and apply to the governor for his pass, so that your vessel may this very day proceed 

 on her voyage to London." 



The governor had stolen away to his country house at Milton. Bidding Potch make 

 all haste, the meeting adjourned to three in the afternoon. At that hour Potch had not 

 returned. It was incidentally voted, as other towns had already done, to abstain totally 

 from the use of tea. Then, since the governor might refuse his pass, the momentous 

 question recurred, " Whether it be the sense and determination of this body to abide by 

 their former resolutions, with respect to the not suffering the tea to be landed ?" 

 After hearing addresses from Adams, Young, the younger Quincy, and others, the 

 whole assembly of seven thousand voted unanimously, that the tea should not be 

 landed. 



It had been dark for more than an hour. The church in which they met was 

 dimly lighted; when, at a quarter before six, Potch appeared, and satisfied the people by 

 relating that the governor had refused him a pass, because his ship was not properly 

 cleared. As soon as he had finished his report, Samuel Adams rose and gave the word : 

 "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!" On the instant a shout 

 was heard at the porch ; the war-whoop resounded ; a body of men, forty or fifty in 

 number, disguised as Indians, passed by the door, and, encouraged by Samuel Adams, 

 Hancock, and others, repaired to Griffin's Wharf, posted guards to prevent the intrusion 

 of spies, took possession of the three tea-ships, and in about three hours three hundred 

 and forty chests of tea, being the whole quantity that had been imported, were emptied 

 into the bay, without the least injury to other property. All things were conducted 

 with great order, decency, and perfect submission to Government. The people around, 

 as they looked on, were so still that the noise of breaking open the tea-chests was 

 plainly heard. 



In Philadelphia, when a tea-ship arrived, the captain fearing the loss of his cargo, 

 agreed to sail back again the following day. 



During the whole period of her controversy with Great Britain, America was deriving 

 a constant increase of strength, not merely from domestic growth, but by the immense 

 volume of emigration from Europe. No complete record remains of its amount, but sufficient 

 facts are known to show how vast it had become. " Within the first fortnight of August, 

 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 3,500 emigrants from Ireland; and from the same 

 document which has recorded this circumstance, it appears that vessels were arriving 

 every month freighted with emigrants from Holland, Germany, and especially from Ireland 

 and the Highlands of Scotland. About 700 Irish settlers repaired to the Carolinas in the 

 autumn of 1773; and in the course of the same season no fewer than ten vessels sailed 

 from Britain with Scottish Highlanders emigrating to the American States." Connecticut 

 in ten years gained 50,000 in population, and when the final rupture occurred with the 

 mother country, the United States had already reached the important number of about 

 three and a quarter millions, or say a good million over the united populations of the 

 Australasian colonies of to-day, including New Zealand. And it must never be forgotten 

 that of the new-comers a large proportion were flying from grievances at home to which 



