_Liberty_, sailed into the harbor with a cargo of Madeira wine.
As Hancock had no idea of paying the duty, the customs officers seized
the sloop and towed her under the guns of a warship which was in the
harbor. Crowds of people now collected. They could not recapture the
_Liberty_. They seized one of the war-ship's boats, carried it to the
Common, and had a famous bonfire. All this confusion frightened the
chief customs officers. They fled to the castle in the harbor and wrote
to the government for soldiers to protect them.

[Illustration: ONE OF JOHN HANCOCK'S BILL-HEADS.]

[Sidenote: Virginia Resolves, 1769.]

117. The Virginia Resolves of 1769.--Parliament now asked the king
to have colonists, accused of certain crimes, brought to England for
trial. This aroused the Virginians. They passed a set of resolutions,
known as the Virginia Resolves of 1769. These resolves asserted: (1)
that the colonists only had the right to tax the colonists; (2) that the
colonists had the right to petition either by themselves or with the
people of other colonies; and (3) that no colonist ought to be sent to
England for trial.

[Sidenote: Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.]

[Sidenote: Partial repeal of the Townshend Acts, 1770.]

118. Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.--When he learned what was
going on, the governor of Virginia dissolved the assembly. But the
members met in the Raleigh tavern near by. There George Washington laid
before them a written agreement to use no British goods upon which
duties had been paid. They all signed this agreement. Soon the other
colonies joined Virginia in the Non-Importation Agreement. English
merchants found their trade growing smaller and smaller. They could not
even collect their debts, for the colonial merchants said that trade in
the colonies was so upset by the Townshend Acts that they could not sell
their goods, or collect the money owing to them. The British merchants
petitioned Parliament to repeal the duties, and Parliament answered them
by repealing all the duties except the tax on tea.

[Illustration: THE "RALEIGH TAVERN"]

CHAPTER 13

REVOLUTION IMPENDING

[Sidenote: The British soldiers at New York.]

[Sidenote: Soldiers sent to Boston, 1768.]

119. The Soldiers at New York and Boston.--Soldiers had been
stationed at New York ever since the end of the French war because that
was the most central point on the coast. The New Yorkers did not like to
have the soldiers t