By Donald Hafner
Or so it seemed. Right after patriots in Boston dumped 46 tons of tea into Boston Harbor, Boston’s Committee of Correspondence asked all surrounding towns to join in opposition to the tax on tea that had been imposed by the British parliament.
Lincoln held a town meeting to discuss a fiery reply composed in the main by Eleazer Brooks, one of Lincoln’s own Committee of Correspondence members, but it was a bit too fiery at that point for Lincoln’s tastes. Town Meeting toned down the language, and most pointedly, asserted its support only for “lawful means” of opposition to the tea tax. The dumping of the tea was anything but “lawful.” Even so, when it came time for the members of Town Meeting to put their signatures on a pledge not to purchase or consume tea, only 51 residents signed the pledge (there were 120 adult men in town).
1774 satirical cartoon of “Bostonians Paying the Excise Man.” It shows John Malcolm, British customs agent in Massachusetts, tarred, feathered, and forced to drink tea on January 24, 1774.
But in June of 1774, Parliament retaliated for the dumping of the tea by imposing the Massachusetts Government Act, which essentially allowed only one town meeting each year, to elect town officers and set the town taxes. No other meetings and no other topics allowed, unless approved by the Royal Governor. Now this roused Lincoln’s revolutionary fervor. Town Meeting voted to punish Britain by pledging not to purchase any British goods. This time the pledge was signed by 87 of the town’s men.
On Sunday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. in Bemis Hall, come hear Professor of History Robert J. Allison explain why and how the American Revolution began well before April 19, 1775 – even in politically cautious Lincoln — in “When Enough Is Enough: How Resistance Turned to Revolution in 1775.”
“Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column by members of the Lincoln Historical Society.
Did you know that in 1774, town government roused more revolutionary fervor in Lincoln than the tea tax?
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