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Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party) — John Shaqi

History

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Name: Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)
Author: Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)

All who desire the Portraits and Illustrations separate from this
volume, to be used in works on American history, can obtain them from
the Publisher.

In conclusion, we thank our friends who have kindly assisted us, and if
we have not given all credit by name, the neglect has been
unintentional.

                                         A.O. CRANE,

                                                2169 WASHINGTON ST.,

                                                          BOSTON, MASS.




INTRODUCTION.


Among the causes which led to the American Revolution, the one most
prominent in the popular judgment is the "tax on tea," imposed by Great
Britain on her American colonies. The destruction, in Boston harbor, in
December, 1773, of the cargoes of tea sent to that port by the East
India Company, was undoubtedly the proximate cause of that memorable
event, and in view of this fact, the occurrence,--"by far the most
momentous in the annals of the town," says the historian
Bancroft,--merits a more thorough and particular consideration than it
has yet received.

The silence necessarily preserved by the actors in this daring exploit,
respecting their connection with it, has rendered this part of the task
one of no little difficulty. Their secret was remarkably well kept; and
but for the family traditions which survive, we should know very little
of the men who composed the famous Boston tea party.

Nevertheless, the attempt to gather up the scattered fragments of
personal reminiscence and biography, in order to give a little more
completeness to this interesting chapter of our revolutionary history,
is here made. The fortunate recovery, by the publisher of this volume,
of the letters of the American consignees to the East India Company,
and other papers shedding light upon the transaction, affords material
aid in the accomplishment of our purpose.

       *       *       *       *       *

When King Charles II. had finished that first cup of tea ever brewed in
England,--the gift of the newly-created East India Company,--no sibyl
was at hand to peer into the monarch's cup and foretell from its dregs,
the dire disaster to his realm, hidden among those insignificant
particles. Could a vision of those battered tea chests, floating in
Boston harbor, with _tu doces_, in the legible handwriting of history,
inscribed upon them, have been disclosed to him, even that careless,
pleasure-loving prince would have been sobered by the lesson. It was
left for his successor, George III., who failed to read the handwriting
on the wall,--visible to all but the willfully blind,--to realize its
meaning in the dismemberment of an empire.

       *       *       *       *       *

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

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