Tea Leaves. Francis S. Drake

and Molineux took the lead in the debate. The resolution offered by Adams, "that the tea should not be landed; that it should be sent back in the same bottom to the place whence it came, at all events, and that no duty should be paid on it," was unanimously adopted. On hearing of this vote the consignees withdrew to Castle William. For the better accommodation of the people, the meeting then adjourned to the Old South Meeting House.

      The speeches made at the Old South have not been preserved. Some were violent, others were calm, advising the people by all means to abstain from violence, but the men in whom they placed confidence were unanimous upon the question of sending back the tea. Dr. Young held that the only way to get rid of it was to throw it overboard. Here we find the first suggestion of its ultimate fate. Both Whigs and Tories united in the action of the meeting. To give the consignees time to make the expected proposals, the meeting adjourned till three o'clock.

      Of this assembly Hutchinson says: "Although it consisted principally of the lower ranks of the people, and even journeymen tradesmen were brought to increase the number, and the rabble were not excluded, yet there were divers gentlemen of good fortune among them." With regard to the speeches he observes: "Nothing can be more inflammatory than those made on this occasion; Adams was never in greater glory." And of the consignees he says: "They apprehended they should be seized, and may be, tarred and feathered and carted—an American torture—in order to compel them to a compliance. The friends of old Mr. Clarke, whose constitution being hurt by the repeated attacks made upon him, retired into the country, pressed his sons and the other consignees to a full compliance."

      A visitor from Rhode Island who attended the meeting, speaking of its regular and sensible conduct, said he should have thought himself rather in the British senate than in the promiscuous assembly of the people of a remote colony.

      At the afternoon meeting in the Old South, it was resolved, upon the motion of Samuel Adams, "that the tea in Captain Hall's ship must go back in the same bottom." The owner and the captain were informed that the entry of the tea, or the landing of it, would be at their peril. The ship was ordered to be moored at Griffins' wharf, and a watch of twenty-five men was appointed for the security of vessel and cargo, with Captain Edward Proctor as captain that night. It was also voted that the governor's call on the justices to meet that afternoon, to suppress attempted riots, was a reflection on the people.

      Upon Hancock's representation that the consignees desired further time to meet and consult, the meeting consented, "out of great tenderness to them," and adjourned until next day. This meeting also voted that six persons "who are used to horses be in readiness to give an alarm in the country towns, when necessary." They were William Rogers, Jeremiah Belknap, Stephen Hall, Nathaniel Cobbett, and Thomas Gooding, and Benjamin Wood, of Charlestown.

      The guard for the tea ships, which consisted of from twenty-four to thirty-four men, was kept up until December 16. It was armed with muskets and bayonets, and proceeded with military regularity—indeed it was composed in part of the military of the town—and every half hour during the night regularly passed the word "all's well," like sentinels in a garrison. It was on duty nineteen days and twenty-three hours. If molested by day the bells of the town were to be rung, if at night they were to be tolled. We have the names of those comprising the watch on November 29 and 30. They are:

For November 29. Captain, Edward Proctor.
Henry Bass.	Paul Revere.
Foster Condy.	Moses Grant.
John Lovell.	Joseph Lovering.
John Winthrop.	Dr. Elisha Story.
John Greenleaf.	Thomas Chase.
Benjamin Alley.	Benjamin Edes.
Joshua Pico.	Joseph Pierce, Jr.
James Henderson.	Captain Riordan.
Josiah Wheeler.	John Crane.
Joseph Edwards.	John McFadden.
Jonathan Stodder.	Thomas Knox, Jr.
Stephen Bruce.	Robert Hitchborn.
November 30. Captain, Ezekiel Cheever.[14]
Thomas Urann.	Joseph Eayres.
William Dickman.	William Sutton.
Samuel Peck.	Ebenezer Ayres.
Thomas Bolley.	William Elberson.
John Rice.	Benjamin Stevens.
Joseph Froude.	James Brewer.
Obadiah Curtis.	Rufus Bant.
George Ray.	William Clap.
Benjamin Ingerson.	Nicholas Pierce.
Adam Collson.	Thomas Tileston.
Daniel Hewes.	Richard Hunnewell.

      

      

Major Genl. Joseph Warren

      Slain at the Battle of Bunker Hill June 17 1775

      (Copied from the Boston print of 1782, it being from the London print previous to this date.)

      "May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name, a praise in the whole earth."—Joseph Warren.

      March 5, 1772.

      Hancock and Henry Knox were members of this volunteer guard. Volunteers were, after the first night, requested to leave their names at the printing-office of Edes and Gill; the duty of providing it having devolved upon the committee of correspondence.

      Obadiah Curtis, born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1724; died in Newton, Mass., November 11, 1811. He was a wheelwright by trade, and his wife, Martha, kept an English goods store, at the corner of Rawson's Lane, (now Bromfield Street,) and Newbury (now Washington) Street, and accumulated a handsome estate. Becoming obnoxious to the British authorities, Mr. Curtis removed with his family to Providence, remaining there until after the evacuation of Boston. A person who saw him at this time thus describes his appearance: "He was habited according to the fashion of gentlemen of those days—in a three-cornered hat, a club wig, a long coat of ample dimensions, that appeared to have been made with reference to future growth, breeches with large buckles, and shoes fastened in the same manner."

      James Henderson was a painter,