d them off. Justice
Nathaniel Hatch, who, in the king's name, now commanded the peace, was
hooted at and struck, when the people were persuaded to desist. The
committee returned to Liberty Tree, where they reported to the meeting,
which quietly dispersed. Of those composing this gathering, the
consignees wrote to the East India Company, as follows: "They consisted
chiefly of people of the lowest rank; very few respectable tradesmen, as
we are informed, appeared amongst them. The selectmen say they were
present to prevent disorder." There can be little doubt that the
political assemblies of that day, as do those at the present time,
fairly represented the body of the people. The mechanics of Boston,
whatever their rank in the social scale, were the active patriots of the
revolutionary period.

The Sons of Liberty having failed, and the Tories asserting that the
meeting at Liberty Tree was irregular, petitioners for a town meeting
declared that the people were alarmed at a report that the tea had been
shipped to America, and feared that the tribute would be exacted, and
that the liberties, for which they had so long contended, would be lost
to them and their posterity. A meeting was therefore called by the
selectmen for the next day, at ten o'clock in the forenoon.

That night a threatening letter was placed under the door of Mr.
Faneuil, one of the consignees, warning them that a much longer delay in
complying, would not fail to bring upon them "the just reward of their
avarice and insolence."

The town meeting, held on the 5th of November, was fully attended, and
was presided over by John Hancock. After due consideration, it adopted
the resolves of the Philadelphians of October 18, declaring that freemen
have an inherent right to dispose of their property; that the tea tax
was a mode of levying contributions on them without their consent; that
its purpose tended to render assemblies useless, and to introduce
arbitrary government; that a steady opposition to this ministerial plan
was a duty which every freeman owed to his country, to himself, and to
his posterity; that the East India Company's importation was an open
attempt to enforce this plan; and that whoever countenanced the
unloading, vending or receiving the tea, was an enemy to his country. A
committee, consisting of the moderator, Henderson Inches, Benjamin
Austin, and the selectmen of the town, were chosen to wait on the
consignees and request them, from a r