Part 28 (2/2)
BOSTON, NOV. 3, 1773.
_Show us the man that dare take this down!!!!!_
Early in the morning the town crier was jingling his bell and calling upon the people to be at the Liberty Tree at the appointed hour.
Samuel Adams, John Hanc.o.c.k, Doctor Warren, and William Molineux were there, and a great crowd. The consignees were a.s.sembled in Richard Clark's store. The people voted to choose a committee to inform them that, if they did not resign or pledge themselves not to land the tea, they would be regarded as the enemies of their country. William Molineux, Doctor Warren, and six others were chosen.
A great crowd accompanied the committee. Governor Hutchinson, looking out upon them from the window of the council chamber, saw that they were the foremost men of Boston. The consignees were in Richard Clark's store, and the door was locked.
”From whom are you a committee,” asked Clark, opening a window.
”From the whole people.”
”I shall have nothing to do with you.”
”Then you will be regarded as an enemy of your country,” replied Molineux.
”Out with them!” cried somebody.
”Hold on. Don't let us make fools of ourselves,” said Tom Brandon.
There was a murmuring in the crowd.
”In the king's name, I command you to disperse,” said the sheriff, stepping forward.
It was not he, however, but Doctor Warren, who, by a wave of his hand, stilled the people, and persuaded them to depart.
On Sunday morning, November 29, Tom Brandon, looking with the telescope, saw a s.h.i.+p at Nantasket, and knew by the signals that it was the Dartmouth, Captain Hall. When meeting was over at noon, he called upon Doctor Warren and found him writing a circular to be sent to the surrounding towns, asking the people to a.s.semble on Monday morning in Faneuil Hall. Tom took the writing to the printing office of Edes & Gill in Queen Street, and a printer quickly put it in type.
On Monday morning the people of Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, and all surrounding towns were reading it.
FRIENDS! COUNTRYMEN! BROTHERS!
The worst of plagues, the detested tea, s.h.i.+pped for this port by the East India Company, has arrived. The hour of destruction or manly opposition to the machinations of tyranny stares you in the face. Every friend to his country, to himself, and posterity is now called upon to meet at Faneuil Hall at nine o'clock this day, at which time the bells will ring, to make a united resistance to this last, worst, and most destructive measure of administration!
BOSTON, NOV. 30, 1773.
The bells rang. The people surged into Faneuil Hall. There was a crowd in the square around the building,--so many people that they adjourned to the Old South Meetinghouse, where they voted that the tea must go back to England, and that twenty-five men should keep watch day and night, to prevent its being landed. The meeting adjourned till Tuesday morning to hear what the consignees would do.
Through the night Abraham Duncan and the other watchmen patrolled the wharves. The Dartmouth had sailed up the harbor and was riding at anchor.
A great crowd filled the meetinghouse at nine o'clock Tuesday. The moderator read a letter from Richard Clark and the other consignees, who said they could not send the tea back, but would put it in their stores till they could hear from the East India Company.
”No! no! no!” shouted the people, who were more than ever determined that it should not be landed.
Tom saw the sheriff, with his sword by his side, as the emblem of authority, enter the meetinghouse, with a paper in his hand.
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