rchants, it did not end there.
The great body of the people, from principles of the purest patriotism,
were brought over to second their wishes. They considered the whole
scheme as calculated to seduce them into an acquiescence with the views
of Parliament for raising an American revenue. Much pains were taken to
enlighten the colonists on this subject, and to convince them of the
eminent hazard to which their liberties were exposed.

"The provincial patriots insisted largely on the persevering
determination of the parent state to establish her claim of taxation by
compelling the sale of tea in the colonies against the solemn
resolutions and declared sense of the inhabitants, and that at a time
when the commercial intercourse of the two countries was renewed, and
their ancient harmony fast returning. The proposed vendors of the tea
were represented as revenue officers, employed in the collection of an
unconstitutional tax imposed by Great Britain. The colonists contended
that, as the duty and the price of the commodity were inseparably
blended, if the tea were sold every purchaser would pay a tax imposed by
the British Parliament as part of the purchase money."[317]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 316: Colonial History, Vol. I. Chap. iii., pp. 364, 365.

Several American historians have sought to represent the soldiers as the
first aggressors and offenders in this affair. The verdict of the jury
refutes such representations. The accuracy of Dr. Ramsay's statements
given above cannot be fairly questioned; he was a member of South
Carolina Legislature, an officer in the revolutionary army during the
whole war, and a personal friend of Washington. Mr. Hildreth says: "A
weekly paper, the 'Journal of the Times,' was filled with all sorts of
stories, some true, but the greater part false or exaggerated, _on
purpose to keep up prejudice against the soldiers. A mob of men and
boys_, encouraged by the sympathy of the inhabitants, _made a constant
practice to insult and provoke them_. The result to be expected soon
followed. After numerous fights with straggling soldiers, a serious
collision at length took place: a picket guard of eight men, _provoked
beyond endurance by words and blows_, fired into a crowd, killed three
persons and dangerously wounded five others." "The story of the 'Boston
massacre,' for so it was called, exaggerated into a ferocious and
unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers on a defenceless people, produced
every