The Foregoing Return of the Comitte was Presended[-ted] Read Sundry times and Voted Approved. The Report of the Selectmen upon Several Votes of the Town at their Meeting the 10th of March 1728: were Read & Considred Vizt The Selectmen haue Viewed the Marsh at the Bottom of the Comon, and not finding any Material use that can be made of it at the present, and Considering the Present Circomstances of the Town Are of Opinion it is best to ly in the Condition it now is. Read and the Report Accepted— . As to the Proposals About Bennet Street - It is thought Convenient to be Paved if the Town thinke it Convenient to Raise Money for the Doing it at this Meeting. Read, and Refer'd for further Consideration to the Next March Meeting . . . As to the Repair of the Wharf at the North Battery — It is thought Convenient - That m' Sam" Clark be Ordered to Clear the Wharf And that the Town let it to Some Person that may Offer to Repair it And keep it in Repair for A term of years as the Selectmen Shall think Advisable Read and Voted to be left with the Selectmen Voted That a Survey'd Plan be taken by Some Skillfull Surveyor or Survey[o]rs of the Lands of this Town belonging to the Town. In Order for the Same to be putt upon the Towns Records, to Prevent Incroachments on the Towns Int[e]rest. The Selectmen to take Care that this work be effected Voted That the Sum of Three Hundred Pounds be Raised on the Inhabitants and Estates within this Town for Defraying the Towns Charge and more Espetialy Paving Boston Record Commissioners, Report, 1729-1742 (Boston, 1885), 6-9 passim. CHAPTER IX-THE REVOLUTION 53. The Boston Tea-Party (1773) FINI By DEACON (about a Boston merchant, whose diary comprises memoranda covering the years 1732 1793. His especially notes are valuable, since many portant INE moderat Weather continued, till this morning 1709-1795), [Dec. 19, 1773] som snow & cold & raw with frost. Note. The body of the people of Boston and numbers from the neighbouring Towns have lately mett at the Old South Meeting house (Faneuil Hall, not being so large as to contain the people) Supos'd to be from 5 to 6,000, and having Several meetings, conserning a Large quantity of Tea shipt'd from London by the East India Company Subject to a Duty payable in America. This meeting was adjourned to the P. m. and after finding all methods failed, with those men to whom the Tea was consigned, to send it back from whence it came, dissolved their meeting. But Behold what followed. A number of Resolute men in less than 3, some say 2 hours time, Em[p]tied Every Chest of Tea, on Board the 3 Ships Commanded by Captains Hall, Bruce & Coffin, into the Sea, amounting to 342 Chests without the least damage to the Ships, or other property. This Tea was worth 'tis said at least 25,000. £ sterling, as a great deal of it was green Tea. It was all distroyed, with as little noise as perhaps anything of the like nature was ever don in the Evening and all over & quiet by 8 O'Clock of the imevents of the period were nessed or participated in by the either wit deacon or his son. For Tudor, see Contemporaries, II, No. 151. For the Boston Tea Party, see Contemporaries, II, ch. xxiv. - For causes of the Revolution, see Am. Hist. William Tudor, editor, Deacon Tudor's Diary (Boston, 1896), Studies, No. 44-45. 4; Contem poraries, II, Part VI. The "Tea-Party" took place December 16; the real issue was whether a tax should be collected by English authority in America. (1722-1794), president of Princeton College, member of the Continental Congress, of the Board of War, and signer of the Declaration ate patriotic arguments.For causes of the Revo lution, see Contemporaries, II, Part VI. By the Boston Port Bill of 1774. 54. ... "Conduct of the British Ministry" Εν (1775) VERY one knows that when the claims of the British Parliament were openly made, and violently enforced, the most precise and determined resolutions were entered into, and published by every colony, every county, and almost every township or smaller district, that they would not submit to them. This was clearly expressed in the greatest part of them, and ought to be understood as the implied sense of them all, not only that they would not soon or easily, but that they would never on any event, submit to them. For my own part, I confess, I would never have signed these resolves at first, nor taken up arms in consequence of them afterwards, if I had not been fully convinced, as I am still, that acquiescence in this usurped power, would be followed by the total and absolute ruin of the colonies. They would have been no better than tributary states to a kingdom at a great distance from them. They would have been therefore, as has been the case with all states in a similar situation from the beginning of the world, the servants of servants from generation to generation. For this reason I declare it to have been my meaning, and I know it was the meaning of thousands more, that though we earnestly wished for reconciliation with safety to our liberties, yet we did deliberately prefer, not only the horrors of a civil war, not only the danger of anarchy, and the uncertainty of a new settlement, but even extermination itself to slavery, rivetted on us and our posterity. The most peaceable means were first used; but no relaxation could be obtained: one arbitrary and oppressive act followed after another; they destroyed the property of a whole capital subverted to its very foundation, the constitution and government of a whole colony, and granted the to: common but most unfair criticism of ferring trials an act trans of certain cases to Eng soldiers a liberty of murdering in all the colonies. I express This was a it thus, because they were not to be called to account for it where it was committed, which every body must allow was a temporary, and undoubtedly in ninety-nine cases of an hundred must have issued in a total impunity. There is one circumstance however in my opinion, much more curious land. than all the rest. The reader will say, What can this be? It is the following, which I beg may be particularly attended While all this was a doing, the King in his speeches, the Parliament in their acts, and the people of Great Britain in their addresses, never failed te [to] extol their own lenity. I do not infer from this, that the King, Parliament and people of Great Britain are all barbarians and savagesthe inference is unnecessary and unjust: But I infer the misery of the people of America, if they must submit in all cases whatsoever, to the decisions of a body of the sons of Adam, so distant from them, and who have an interest in oppressing them. It has been my opinion from the beginning, that we did not carry our reasoning fully home, when we complained of an arbitrary prince, or of the insolence, cruelty and obstinacy of Lord North, Lord Bute, or Lord Mansfield. What we have to fear, and what we have now to grapple with, is the ignorance, prejudice, partiality and injustice of human nature. Neither king nor ministry, could have done, nor durst have attempted what we have seen, if they had not had the nation on their side. The friends of America in England are few in number, and contemptible in influence; nor must I omit, that even of these few, not one, till very lately, ever reasoned the American cause upon its proper principles, or viewed it in its proper light. Petitions on petitions have been presented to king and Parliament, and an address sent to the people of Great Britain, which have been not merely fruitless, but treated with the highest degree of disdain. The conduct of the British ministry during the whole of this contest, as has been Parliament North became prime ministers; minister. By the First Continental Congress, 1774, and the Second Con tinental Con gress, 1775. This policy was recom mended by Governor Tryon, October 27, 1775. often observed, has been such, as to irritate the whole people of this continent to the highest degree, and unite them together by the firm bond of necessity and common interest. In this respect they have served us in the most essential manner. I am firmly persuaded, that had the wisest heads in America met together to contrive what measures the ministry should follow to strengthen the American opposition and defeat their own designs, they could not have fallen upon a plan so effectual, as that which has been steadily pursued. One instance I cannot help mentioning, because it was both of more importance, and less to be expected than any other. When a majority of the New-York Assembly, to their eternal infamy, attempted to break the union of the colonies, by refusing to approve the proceedings of the Congress, and applying to Parliament by separate petition - because they presumed to make mention of the principal grievance of taxation, it was treated with ineffable contempt. I desire it may be observed, that all those who are called the friends of America in Parliament, pleaded strongly for receiving the New-York petition; which plainly shewed, that neither the one nor the other understood the state of affairs in America. Had the ministry been prudent, or the opposition successful, we had been ruined; but with what transport did every friend to American liberty hear, that these traitors to the common cause, had met with the reception which they deserved. Nothing is more manifest, than that the people of GreatBritain, and even the king and ministry, have been hitherto exceedingly ignorant of the state of things in America. For this reason, their measures have been ridiculous in the highest degree, and the issue disgraceful. . . . ... John Witherspoon, On the Controversy about Independence, in his Miscellaneous Works (Philadelphia, 1803), 205–208. |