h port on the way. This
duty was now taken off, so that the price of the tea for America might
be lowered. The company's tea thus became so cheap that the American
merchant could buy a pound of it and pay the threepence duty beside for
less than it cost him to smuggle a pound of tea from Holland. It was
supposed that the Americans would of course buy the tea which they could
get most cheaply, and would thus be beguiled into submission to that
principle of taxation which they had hitherto resisted. Ships laden with
tea were accordingly sent in the autumn of 1773 to Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and Charleston; and consignees were appointed to receive
the tea in each of these towns.

Under the guise of a commercial operation, this was purely a political
trick. It was an insulting challenge to the American people, and merited
the reception which they gave it. They would have shown themselves
unworthy of their rich political heritage had they given it any other.
In New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston mass-meetings of the people
voted that the consignees should be ordered to resign their offices, and
they did so. At Philadelphia the tea-ship was met and sent back to
England before it had come within the jurisdiction of the custom-house.
At Charleston the tea was landed, and as there was no one to receive it
or pay the duty, it was thrown into a damp cellar and left there to
spoil.

[Sidenote: How the challenge was received; the "Boston Tea Party,"
Dec. 16, 1773.]

In Boston things took a different turn. The stubborn courage of Governor
Hutchinson prevented the consignees, two of whom were his own sons, from
resigning; the ships arrived and were anchored under guard of a
committee of citizens; if they were not unloaded within twenty days, the
custom-house officers were empowered by law to seize them and unload
them by force; and having once come within the jurisdiction of the
custom-house, they could not go out to sea without a clearance from the
collector or a pass from the governor. The situation was a difficult
one, but it was most nobly met by the men of Massachusetts. The
excitement was intense, but the proceedings were characterized from
first to last by perfect quiet and decorum. In an earnest and solemn,
almost prayerful spirit, the advice of all the towns in the commonwealth
was sought, and the response was unanimous that the tea must on no
account whatever be landed. Similar expressions of opinion ca