committee was accordingly appointed to
consider how the House might come into honorable possession of the
originals; from which committee Mr. Hawley soon reported that Samuel
Adams had informed them that the gentleman from whom he had received
the letters now consented to their being copied, seeing that they had
already been copied, and printed, seeing that they were already widely
circulated; whereupon the House, considering itself in honorable
possession, ordered the letters all published.

Nevertheless it was thought expedient, before issuing the letters, to
print and circulate such a series of "Resolves" as might prepare the
public mind for what was to come later. This was accordingly done. The
"Resolves," bearing date of June 16, 1773, indicated clearly and at
length the precise significance of the letters; declared it to be the
humble opinion of the House that it was not to the interest of the Crown
to continue in high places persons "who are known to have, with great
industry, though secretly, endeavored to undermine, alter, and overthrow
the Constitution of the province"; and concluded by praying "that
his Majesty would be pleased to remove... forever from the government
thereof" the Honorable Andrew Oliver and his Excellency Thomas
Hutchinson.

His Majesty did not remove Mr. Hutchinson; but the Governor's
usefulness, from every point of view, was at an end. When the notorious
letters were finally printed, it appeared that there were seventeen in
all, of which six were written by Mr. Hutchinson in the years 1768 and
1769. These latter documents did not in fact add anything to the world's
stock of knowledge; but they had been so heralded, ushered in with so
much portentous explication that they scarcely needed to be read to be
understood. "Had they been Chevy Chase," the Governor said, the people
would have believed them "full of evil and treason." It was indeed the
perfect fruit of Samuel Adams's labors that the significance of Mr.
Hutchinson's letters had in some manner become independent of their
contents. So awake were the people to the danger of being deceived, that
whatever the Governor now said or ever had written was taken to be but
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Meanwhile, the attention of all patriots was diverted from the letters
to a far more serious matter; and when, on December 16, 1773, a cargo
of the East India Company's tea, consigned among others to Thoma