 It is so good of you to visit Mrs. Warren. Would you care for a dish of coffee or tea? Of course, it is liberty tea. It doesn't have quite the same punch as a dish of behia or hissang. Oh Mrs. Adams, what is your recipe? I use raspberry leaves, mint and rose hips. Oh well, I often add a little bit of a chamomile and bergamot. Mr. Adams has suggested that we embrace coffee in place of tea but it is not so agreeable as that embattled Chinese herb. I am trying to learn to tolerate coffee. Speaking of Mr. Adams, his cousin Samuel Adams may be joining us this afternoon. How scintillating Abigail. Sam Adams and I go way back and his work with my brother James Otis has led to so much deserved recourse by our countrymen. And countrywomen? Yes, and countrywomen against the unfairer actions of the Crown. Parliament and of course Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Did I hear someone say Parliament and Hutchinson in the same sentence to the most disagreeable words to come from such a brilliant mind as yours, Mercy Otis Warren? Oh Samuel, how good it is if you to visit us today. John is away at court though. Well defending Mr. Hancock for allegedly smuggling again now. Although not officially a son of liberty, your husband has become quite popular with our cadre. His recent reply to Hutchinson on behalf of the House of Representatives was most succinct. It is difficult if possible to draw a line of distinction between the universal authority of Parliament over the colonies and no authority at all. If there is no such line the consequence is either that the colonies are vassals of the Parliament or that they are totally independent as it cannot be supposed to have been the intentions of the parties in the compact that we should be reduced to a state of vassalage. The conclusion is that it was their sense that we are thus independent. By my cousin John Adams, brilliant. Well Hutchinson did most publicly state that is it impossible that there be two independent legislatures in one state. So Mr. Adams was most obliging in agreeing with our esteemed governor. But independence, you both make my husband sound so treasonous. Do we? When John accepted that position in the Massachusetts legislature he did inform me that it would likely see to his ruin, to my ruin and to the ruin of our children. He was telling me this that we may prepare ourselves for our fate. We shall all be ruined if the arbitrary actions are allowed to proceed unchecked. Letters between Governor Hutchinson and his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver were clearly urging the government in England to an abridgement of the English liberties in the American colonies by stripping self-government from the hands of the populace. By degrees, of course. So he meant to slowly reduce us to the dependent state of medieval serfs. Yes, the letters somehow found their way into the hands of our American agent in London, Benjamin Franklin. Why would Hutchinson send such a thing to Franklin? Well, he didn't. He sent them to someone else. But it being American correspondence, the letters ended up with Franklin by a happy accident. Happy for Franklin? He finally has something interesting to publish. Not so happy for Hutchinson and Oliver, though. Well, it also served to push John Hancock closer to our cause. Even after being accused of smuggling more than once, he was not committed to the sons of liberty and the cause of a more independent American trade. Well, he has so much to lose. As one of our country's most prolific merchants, he depends upon Parliament's trade laws. I am certain he was incensed, though, to hear Hutchinson trying to dismantle the English liberties of Hancock and Cumberland. All persons born in the British American colonies are by laws of God and by the common law of England, exclusive of all charters from the Crown, well-entitled and by the acts of British Parliament, are declared to be entitled to all the natural, essential, inherent and inseparable rights, liberties and privileges of subjects born in Great Britain or within the realm. Ah, yes, for so long our cause has been that of preserving our rights as English free men, the rights of life, liberty and property. It took some inherently delivered letters to Mr. Hancock to see for himself that our government was actually contriving to reduce American circumstances. To have been a fly on the wall when Mr. Hancock read the Hutchinson Oliver letters. How did that happen anyway? That brother and brother-in-law should be appointed governor and lieutenant governor? Well, nepotism is more than a tradition in the English court. It is a way of life. Just look at the royal succession, which may lead in the closing of an eye to give us an imbecile for a king. Well, it is the same nepotism that made Hutchinson's two sons, a son-in-law and that son-in-law's brother, the tea agents of New England. I give you Hutchinson, Hutchinson, Clark and Clark, the New England's own Tory tea agents for the British East India Company. Ah, the tea, that baneful weed. Yes, baneful indeed. Prime Minister North and Parliament repealed all of the towns and duties, that of the tea. I am proud to say, though, that patriotic zeal among Americans made non-importation a recurring battle cry. Well, of course. No respectable patriotic American housewife who cares for the future of her children will have the stuff on her table. Unless, of course, it has been honestly smuggled or no duties paid. So, the British East India Company's stock and trade plunged. And Lord North's answer? Give the British East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade in America. Well, how well that worked out. Well, at three pence per pound, the stuff is cheap enough. But it's the principle of the thing, and cheap is an operative word. They truly send us here in the colonies their most inferior stuff. The crown relies on the British East India Company to bolster their military presence in Asia. That is insult to injury. The unwanted and unwarranted tea tax in America is used to pay for another unwanted and unwarranted invading army standing in India. This cannot but have an unhappy ending in America and India. I, dear for my sons, they're all of military age. I hoped that some ameliorating measures would be forthcoming by our governments, for great would be the devastation if the kindled flames were not quenched by some timely measures. Well, the sons of Liberty and our committees of correspondents tried in vain for weeks before the Dartmouth ever arrived in Massachusetts Bay. Even the son of the shipmasters wanted to return their hated cargo to England, lest they should lose more than tea. But Hutchinson forbade them to leave the harbor. So instead they remained in the bay for the required twenty days before there should be a forced landing of the cargo. Well, in early November we put nice notes all over town, inviting folks to hear that Hutchinson's and the Clark's renounced their positions as tea agents and reconsider their actions. Gentlemen, you are desired to meet at the Liberty Tree to this day, twelve o'clock at noon, then and there to hear persons to whom the tea is shipped by the East India Company is consigned and make a public resignation of their office as consignees upon oath. And also to swear that they will reship any teas that may be consigned to them by said company by the first vessel sailing from London. You and the Sons of Liberty did show such great mercy to our tea agents by placing them between a rock and a hard place. And surprisingly neither the Hutchinson's nor the Clark's showed up to make such a resignation? No, instead they sent their own nice note to all waiting by the tree, some five hundred a number, that they refused to bend to the will of a self-appointed group with no authority. If I recall, John Hancock, James Warren and your most esteemed self were all members of that self-appointed group lacking in authority and that you also all happen to be members of the town council appointed by the fair votes of our local citizenry. I don't personally know anyone who voted in the Hutchinson's or the Clark's and I know just about everybody in the Massachusetts Bay. No small wonder that a mob of five hundred went to Hutchinson building, broke down the doors and destroyed the first floor while the proprietors cowled above in a barricaded staircase. Then Governor Hutchinson had the audacity to demand that Hancock, as colonel of the governor's company of cadets, should lead those troops to defend against such uprisings. Small wonder that Hancock declined to summon those forces. Well, it all didn't stop the tea from sailing in though. If I recall, the Dartmouth arrived first in late November. Yes, I contrived to have the Sons of Liberty prevent the ship from docking and having the ability to offload cargo. Friends, brethren, countrymen, that worst plagues the detestable tea shift for this port by the East India Company is now arrived in this harbor. I think detestable is a rather harsh word. I do hate the politics of it, but I rather like the tea. You called it baneful. Oh, yes, in such that it could do harm by the landing of it, but detestable implies dislikeable. I still rather crave tea. Ladies, the hour of destruction or, madly, opposition to the machinations of tyranny stares you in the face. Every friend to this country, to himself in posterity, is now called to meet at Fanuel Hall at nine o'clock this day, at which time the bells will begin to ring, to make a united and successful resistance, this last worst and most destructive measure of administration. I heard there was a call to dump the Dartmouth's load of tea then and there. Hutchinson was so fearful. He again ordered Hancock to call out the cadets to disperse the crowd. And, not surprisingly, Hancock again refused. Yes, but water was restored and we voted to ship the stuff back to England. We figured under one interpretation of the Tea Act, if the stuff never actually made landfall, we would not be required to pay for it. And this time Hancock did call upon his cadets to guard the wharf and prevent the Dartmouth from landing the tea. Well, I guess he finally took a side. But Hutchinson continued to expect indeed demand that the cargo be offloaded. Who did Hutchinson think was going to carry out the forced landing? Hancock's core of cadets? The very same force that was keeping the stuff literally at bay? As the days and the stalemate wore on, and Hutchinson continued to refuse to let the Dartmouth leave the harbour and return to England to more tea-bearing ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver were also eventually tied up at Griffiths Wharf. All in all, those three ships carried 342 crates of tea. All just sitting at Griffiths Wharf, waiting to offload. There would have been even more. Another ship, the William, ran aground off the coast of Cape Cod. The folks in Provincetown did manage to save some of the tea as well as some of the street lamps, I believe, bound for Boston. And one of the Clark brothers travelled there to recover it and landed it at Castle William. Well, that was the only tea to make landfall that month. And even some of that was later found and, for good measure, dumped into Boston harbour. By December 16th, the ships had to be offloaded or face government seizure. Yet I still wonder, who did Hutchinson think would eventually carry out the landing? Well, I'm not certain that Hutchinson was thinking all around the issue. When he heard the Sons of Liberty meeting at Old South Church that day, he ordered us to disperse. Was he going to ask Hancock for the cadets again? Maybe through John, Mrs. John. Well, by then Hancock was simply urging every man to do what was right in his own eyes. I eventually adjourned the assembly by saying, this meeting can do no more to save the country. And a war went up the entire crowd. The assembly now suddenly looking more like Mohawk Indians. It was reported before the stroke of seven, these 50 painted Mohawks are forward without noise to Griffith's Wharf. They have put sentries around them and in great silence of the neighborhood are busy in three gangs upon the dormant tea ships, opening their chests and punctually shaking them out into the sea. Listening from a distance, you could hear distinctly the ripping open of the chests and no other sounds. By 10 p.m., the Mohawks were gone and Boston slept silently. 50 Mohawks, hundreds of spectators and barely a sound. So where were Hancock's cadets? Well, they were the aforementioned sentries guarding the action. Well, order must be kept. Lest Parliament be given provable cause to think us all rabble. Oh, I think the tearing apart Hutchinson's stores was proof of the American civility in the matter. And no one ever called another by their name. Do I know? It was the Mohawks. Abigail, your husband did say that though these were no ordinary Mohawks. Oh, yes. Though he was not there, John still felt thralled by the party spirit. You cannot imagine the height of joy that sparkles in the eyes and unmated countenance as well as the hearts of all we meet on this occasion excepting the disconcerted Hutchinson and his tools. As you prophesied in a letter to me, Mrs. Adams, a flame was kindled and like lightning it did catch from soul to soul. A flaming torch she took in either hand and as fell discord reigned throughout the land was well apprised the centaurs would conspire resolved to set the northern world on fire by scattering the weeds of Indian shores or else to lodge them in Pygmalion stores. But if artifice should not succeed then in revenge attempts some bolder deed for while old oceans mighty billows roar or foaming surges lash the distant shore shall goddesses regale like woodland dames first let Chineseian herbage feed the flames. In Philadelphia I recall they turned away the cargo. Well in New York, like Boston, they docked the tea. Oh, in New Jersey they burned the tea. Annapolis, Chester Town. Edenton. Edenton? North Carolina. Well I guess. We ladies are apprised of some news that the seemingly omniscient Sam Adams isn't. Penelope Barker and fifty ladies from Edenton, North Carolina and it surrounds all signed an agreement not to buy or use English tea. Here it is in the London Advisor. January 16th, 1775. As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears to affect the peace and happiness of our country and as it has been thought necessary for the public good to enter into several particular resolves by a meeting of members deputed from the whole province it is a duty which we owe not only to our near and dear connections who have concurred in them but to ourselves who are essentially interested in their welfare to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify our sincere adherence and we do therefore accordingly subscribe this paper as a witness to our fixed intention and solid determination to do so. But that gives no mention of tea. I believe that was in the preamble. A cover letter if you will. A correspondent sent me this enclosure. Supposedly it was with the petition as sent to friends of our cause in London the provincial deputies of North Carolina having resolved not to drink any more tea nor wear any more British cloth. Many ladies of this province have determined to give memorable proof of their patriotism and have accordingly entered into the following and spirited association. I send it to you to show your fair countrymen how zealously and faithfully American ladies followed the laudable example of husbands and what opposition your matchless ministers may expect to receive from a people thus firmly united against them. Why didn't the Edenton ladies put that in the body of their petition? Well, whoa, the East India Company, T-mergence in Edenton, North Carolina. Look how the papers in London have shamed our American sisters. Just look at these drawings. Humiliating, but it will not dampen our forces. I continue to write to Catherine Macaulay, the brilliant historian, fellow authoris and friend of the occurrences here in America that she may eventually publish in her historical account the truth for the world to read for themselves. Well, I suppose no good deed goes unpunished. Speaking of punishment, Samuel, how are the American responses to the Boston Port Act going? Oh, that is another long story. That's best told over a nice cup of tea. Coffee.