ous to regain the American trade and offered to pay
an export duty more than equivalent to the import duty imposed in
America, if the government would permit tea to be delivered at colonial
ports free of duty. To this the British government would not consent, on
the ground that it would be a surrender of the principle which the import
duty represented. The government permitted the East India Company,
however, to export tea to America free from export duty, thus allowing
the Americans to buy tea as cheaply as if no import duty had been levied.
The British authorities assumed that Americans would be satisfied to sell
the principle for which they were contending for threepence on a pound of
tea. They learned the American character better when two ships laden with
tea arrived in Boston. The citizens gathered in the old South
Meeting-house, and in the evening about sixty men, disguised as Indians,
boarded the ships and cast the tea into the harbor. Upon news of this
event reaching England, King George and his ministers decided to make an
example of Boston. A bill was introduced by Lord North and passed almost
unanimously closing the port of Boston and making Salem the seat of
government. Another act annulled the charter of Massachusetts, and a
military governor, General Thomas Gage, was appointed, with absolute
authority over the province.

* * *

With the enactment of the Boston Port Bill, King George and his
Parliament crossed the Rubicon. America was aflame. The other colonies
joined in expressing their sympathy with Massachusetts, and their resolve
to stand by her people and share their fate. A Continental Congress
convened in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the fourth of September,
1774. The most eminent men in the colonies were now brought together for
the first time to decide upon action which would affect the liberties of
three millions of people. Patrick Henry was the first to speak, and he
delivered an address worthy of his fame and worthy of the occasion.
Colonel, afterward General Washington, then made the impression which
earned for him the command of the American armies. The Congress drew up a
Declaration of Rights, and sent it to the king. The people of
Massachusetts formed a Provincial Congress with John Hancock for
President, and began organizing provincial troops, and collecting
military stores. Virginia continued to keep pace with Massachusetts. At a
convention