FIGHTING the TAX on TEA
A bit of rising ground, not a great way from the Common, was called
Golden Hill. Here there was an inn. To this day the elevation of ground
can be seen (where John Street crosses William), and the inn still
stands. While the thought of the wrecked liberty pole was still fresh
in mind, some of the Sons of Liberty came suddenly upon a number of
soldiers close by this inn. There was a running fight, the soldiers
using their guns and cutlasses and the others beating them back with
staves and sticks. More soldiers came and the fight grew in fury.
Already one man had received his death-blow and a dozen had been
injured, when several officers came galloping up the road and the
soldiers were ordered back to their barracks. This was the battle of
Golden Hill.
Very often after this the soldiers and the citizens clashed and
sometimes came to blows, and progress was at a standstill because of the
turbulence of the times. Public improvements were neglected and very
little business was carried on.
In the third year after the battle of Golden Hill, the British
Government decided to make the colonists buy tea whether they wanted to
or not. So the price was put down until tea could be bought in New York
cheaper than it could be bought in England. This did no good, for though
the tea was cheap the tax was on it and it was the tax and not the price
of which the people complained. The Sons of Liberty, when they heard
that ships loaded with cheap tea were on the way from England, said they
would not even permit it to be landed. The first ship in port was under
the command of a captain named Lockyer, who, when he learned of the
strong efforts made to prevent the landing of the tea, determined to
return to England with his cargo. He anchored his ship in the bay and
came in a small boat to the city. The people, joyful over his decision,
decided to give him a public leave-taking.
Within a few days another ship sailed into the bay, commanded by Captain
Chambers, who insisted that he had no tea on board. When told that his
vessel would be searched, he admitted that he had a few chests. That
same night the citizens who had all day thronged the wharf, suddenly
swarmed aboard the vessel. The hatches were ripped up, and the eighteen
chests of tea hauled on deck. There they were torn into pieces and the
contents scattered into the river. Having done this the crowds dispersed
and all was quiet again.
Next day came the public leave-taking of Captain Lockyer. He had spent
the night at the coffee-house in Wall Street, and here, early in the
morning, there was a great assembly. The bells of the city chimed
merrily; flags floated from the houses, and the ships in the bay were
decorated with gay colors.
From the balcony of the coffee-house the Captain bowed while the crowds
cheered him. Finally a committee escorted him to the foot of Wall
Street, where he embarked in a pilot-boat which took him to his ship.
Another committee, with far less ceremony, escorted Captain Chambers to
the same boat, and the two captains sailed away.
[Illustration: Ferry-House on East River, 1746, from an Old Print.]
Even before this had happened in New York, the citizens of Boston had
dumped a cargo of tea into their harbor, and the British Parliament had
closed the port of Boston; which meant that no ships were permitted to
sail in or out of it. By this it was hoped to stop all business in
Boston, and really it did put an end to a great part of it. And General
Thomas Gage, who now had charge of the British troops in America,
undertook to see that the orders of the King were properly enforced.
This closing of the port of Boston aroused the thirteen British colonies
in America. After a great deal of letter-writing it was decided to have
men from each of these colonies meet and talk matters over. In September
of this year (1774) they met in Philadelphia. At this meeting, which was
called the First Continental Congress, it was decided that laws were
made in England that were unjust to America, that the colonists objected
to taxes that were fixed by Parliament and would buy no more goods from
England while a tax was upon them; and that they objected to the support
of a large British army in the colonies.
And this First Continental Congress sent a petition to King George III.,
saying that the unjust laws should be done away with.
How the King received this petition is soon told.