first rank. Their proceedings were conducted
with the greatest decency and firmness, and without one dissentient
voice."

A few days after the action of Philadelphia, a meeting was held at the
city hall, New York, (October 26,) when the tea consignees were
denounced, and the attempted monopoly of trade was stigmatized as a
"public robbery." The press was active, and handbills were circulated
freely among the people. A series of these called the "Alarm," has been
already mentioned. "If you touch one grain of the accursed tea you are
undone," was the sentiment it conveyed. "America is threatened with
worse than Egyptian slavery.... The language of the revenue act is, that
you have no property you can call your own, that you are the vassals,
the live stock, of Great Britain." Such were the bold utterances of the
New Yorkers. Within three weeks the New York agents withdrew from the
field. It was thereupon announced that government would take charge of
the tea upon its arrival.

The New York Sons of Liberty at once reorganized; owners and occupants
of stores were warned against harboring the tea, and all who bought,
sold or handled it, were threatened as enemies to the country. Handbills
were issued, notifying the "Mohawks" to hold themselves in readiness for
active work. At the very moment when the tea was being destroyed in
Boston, handbills were circulating in New York calling a meeting of "all
friends to the liberties and trade of America," for one o'clock the next
day, at the city hall, "on business of the utmost importance."

John Lamb, one of the most active of the Sons of Liberty of New York,
afterwards a colonel of artillery in the Revolutionary army, was the
speaker at the meeting, and the large assembly unanimously voted that
the tea should not be landed. The governor sent a message to the people
by the mayor, engaging upon his honor that the tea should not be sold,
but should remain in the barracks until the council advised to the
delivery of it, or orders were received from England how to dispose of
it, and that it should be delivered in an open manner at noon-day. The
mayor having asked if the proposals were satisfactory, there was a
general cry of "no! no!" The people were at length quieted with the
assurance that the ship should be sent back.

It was at Boston, the ringleader in rebellion, that the issue was to be
tried. It was then the most flourishing commercial town on the
continent, and contained a p