The Eve of the Revolution; A Chronicle of the Breach with EnglandBecker, Carl L. (Carl Lotus)
History
The Eve of the Revolution; A Chronicle of the Breach with England
Becker, Carl L. (Carl Lotus)
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783
has given ample proof how little they regard the laws of nations,
the rights, liberties, or lives of men. They have levied war, excited
rebellions, dethroned princes, and sacrificed millions for the sake of
gain. The revenues of mighty kingdoms have centered in their coffers.
And these not being sufficient to glut their avarice, they have, by the
most unparalleled barbarities, extortions, and monopolies, stripped the
miserable inhabitants of their property and reduced whole provinces to
indigence and ruin ... Thus having drained the sources of that immense
wealth ... they now, it seems, cast their eyes on America, a new
theater, whereon to exercise their talents of rapine, oppression, and
cruelty. The monopoly of tea, is, I dare say, but a small part of the
plan they have formed to strip us of our property. But thank God we
are not Sea Poys, nor Marattas, but British subjects, who are born to
liberty, who know its worth, and who prize it high.
For all of these reasons, therefore--because they were in principle
opposed to taxation without consent, and by interest opposed to an
English company monopolizing the tea trade, and perhaps because they
desired to give a signal demonstration of the fact that they were
neither Sea Poys nor Marattas--Americans were willing to resort to the
use of force in order to maintain their own rights by depriving the East
India Company of its privileges.
When Capt. Curling's ship arrived in Charleston, the people in that
town, assembled to deal with the grave crisis, were somewhat uncertain
what to do with the Company's tea. On the very ship which brought the
Company's tea, there were some chests consigned to private merchants;
and certain enthusiastic patriots attending the meeting of citizens
affirmed that the importation of dutied tea by private merchants
contrary to the non-importation agreement was no less destructive to
liberty than the importation of tea by the East India Company. "All
this," it was said, "evinced a desire of not entering hastily into
measures." In the end, the Company's tea was seized by the Collector and
stored in the vaults under the Exchange. At New York and Philadelphia,
the Company's tea ships were required to return to England without
landing; and it was only at Boston, where Governor Hutchinson, whose
sons had been appointed by the Company as its consignees, refused return
clearance papers, that the tea, some £14,000 worth of it, was thrown
into the harbor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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