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A Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War
A Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War Author:James Thacher Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: power is suspended over us, threatening implacable vengeance. Among the odious acts of the British Parliament, they passed one which imposed a duty on the art... more »icle of tea, and several cargoes of this commodity were shipped to America to obtain the duty and a market. On the arrival of the tea ships at Boston, great indignation was excited among the people ; town meetings were called to devise some legal measures to prohibit the landing of the odious article. It was universally understood that if the tea was once landed, and stored, it would by some means come to a market, and the duty to the government would be secured. In order to defeat this object, after all legal measures had failed, a number of persons in disguise entered the ships at the wharves, broke open 342 chests of tea, and discharged their contents into the water at the dock. This was on the 16th December, 1773. When intelligence of this summary proceeding reached England, it was condemned by the government as enormously criminal. They menaced our Province with the most exemplary vengeance, and Parliament soon passed the Boston Vindictive Port Bill as a part of their coercive system, so that merely the name of tea is now associated with ministerial grievances, and tea drinking is almost tantamount to an open avowal of toryism. Those who are anxious to avoid the epithet of enemies to their country, strictly pro hibit the use of tea in their families, and the most squeamish ladies are compelled to have recourse to substitutes, or secretly steal indulgence in their favorite East India beverage. March.—-For the purpose of enforcing submission to the cruel mandates of the royal government, a reinforcement of the British army has arrived at Boston ; and General Gage is appointed Governor and Commander in Chief. An armed...« less