At one o'clock in the morning of the 2d of November, 1773, the
consignees were aroused from their slumbers by a violent knocking at
their doors, and a summons was left for them to appear at Liberty Tree
on the following Wednesday, to resign their commissions; and not to fail
at their peril. A handbill was, at the same time, posted about the town,
notifying the people of Boston and the vicinity to be present at the
same time and place, to witness their resignation.

[Illustration: Signature, Benjamin Church]

On the appointed day, a large flag was hung out at Liberty Tree. The
public crier announced the meeting, at the top of his voice, and the
church bells, were rung for an hour. At noon, five hundred persons
assembled. Samuel Adams, John Hancock and William Phillips,
representatives of Boston, were present, with William Cooper,--the
patriotic town clerk,--and the board of selectmen. The consignees
failing to appear, a committee, consisting of William Molineux, William
Dennie, Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church,[6] Henderson Inches,
Edward Proctor, Nathaniel Barber, Gabriel Johonnot,[7] and Ezekiel
Cheever, waited on them at Clarke's warehouse, at the foot of King (now
State) Street, where they, together with a number of their friends, had
assembled. As they passed the town house, still standing at the head of
this street, Hutchinson, who saw the procession, says that "the
committee were attended by a large body of the people, many of them not
of the lowest rank."

[Illustration: Signature, Henderson Inches]

Molineux was the spokesman. "From whom are you a committee?" asked
Clarke. "From the whole people," was the reply. "Who are the committee?"
"I am one," said Molineux, and he named the rest. "What is your
request?" "That you give us your word to sell none of the teas in your
charge, but return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were
shipped. Will you comply?" "I shall have nothing to do with you," was
the rough and peremptory reply, in which the other consignees, who were
present, concurred. Molineux then read the resolve, passed at Liberty
Tree, declaring that those who should refuse to comply with the request
of the people, were "enemies to their country," and should be dealt with
accordingly.

When the committee reported the result to the crowd outside, the cry was
raised, "Out with them! out with them!" Those within attempted to close
the doors; but the people unhinged them, and carrie