ton, New York,
Philadelphia and Charleston, S.C., the principal American ports. As soon
as this became known, applications were made to the directors by a
number of merchants in the colonial trade, soliciting a share of what
promised to be a very profitable business. The establishment of a branch
East India house, in a central part of America, whence the tea could be
distributed to other points, was suggested. The plan finally adopted was
to bestow the agency on merchants, in good repute, in the colonies, who
were friendly to the administration, and who could give satisfactory
security, or obtain the guaranty of London houses.

The company and its agents viewed this matter solely in a commercial
light. No one supposed that the Americans would oppose the measure on
the ground of abstract principle. The only doubt was as to whether the
company could, merely with the threepenny duty, compete successfully
with the smugglers, who brought tea from Holland. It was hoped they
might, and that the difference would not compensate for the risk in
smuggling. But the Americans at once saw through the scheme, and that
its success would be fatal to their liberties.

The new tea act, by again raising the question of general taxation,
diverted attention from local issues, and concentrated it upon one which
had been already fully discussed, and on which the popular verdict had
been definitely made up. Right and justice were clearly on their side.
It was not that they were poor and unable to pay, but because they would
not submit to wrong. The amount of the tax was paltry, and had never
been in question. Their case was not--as in most revolutions--that of a
people who rose against real and palpable oppression. It was an abstract
principle alone for which they contended. They were prosperous and
happy. It was upon a community, at the very height of its prosperity,
that this insidious scheme suddenly fell, and it immediately aroused a
more general opposition than had been created by the stamp act. "The
measure," says the judicious English historian, Massey, "was beneficial
to the colonies; but when was a people engaged in a generous struggle
for freedom, deviated by an insidious attempt to practice on their
selfish interests?"

"The ministry believe," wrote Franklin, "that threepence on a pound of
tea, of which one does not perhaps drink ten pounds a year, is
sufficient to overcome all the patriotism of an American." The measure
gave univ