By the autumn of 1770, serious cracks were appearing in the American colonies’ united front against unpopular British policies. More than six months after Parliament repealed the Townshend Duties (except for the tax on tea), the colonial nonimportation association created in 1769 to put economic pressure on the Mother Country was still largely in effect, but many Americans were ready to claim a partial victory, throw off the tightest trade restrictions, and get back to business. On September 20, a group of Philadelphia merchants voted to loosen the terms of their boycott agreement.
Reactions came swiftly. The October 11, 1770 Maryland Gazette included two accounts of how some other Philadelphians responded to the merchants’ provocative move.
After laying out their grievances against taxation without representation and other British injustices, the men of “the Grand Jury for the City and County of Philadelphia, think it our Duty to declare, that we consider ourselves as Freemen, and entitled to all the Rights and Privileges of free-born British subjects.” Therefore, “lest the Alteration, which a Majority of the Importers of British Merchandise in this City … have made in the Non-importation Agreement, may be construed into an Acquiescence of the People in the Parliament’s Claim of Right to tax the Colonies,” they wished to publish their own resolutions. First, they would “promote a Union with the other Colonies” in pursuit of “”a full Redress of our Grievances, and a full Enjoyment of English constitutional Liberty.” Second, they would discourage the use and consumption of British products until Parliament mended its ways. Third, they would “abstain from the Use of all such Articles of Luxury, imported from Great-Britain, as shall hereafter be agreed to by our Fellow-Subjects in this Province.”
Alarmed by the action taken “by a Number of the Dry Goods Importers” on September 20, many “respectable Freeholders and Inhabitants” of Philadelphia published a newspaper advertisement and distributed “Hand-Bills round the City and Suburbs” calling for a meeting on the 27th in the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall). Among the nine resolutions passed then and there by a nearly unanimous vote were statements against Parliament’s taxation of America and for a “Union of the Colonies” to “preserve their common Rights and Liberties.” The group regretted that the Philadelphia merchants had acted unilaterally and urged them to adopt Maryland’s stricter nonimportation agreement. As a financial incentive, they would “discountenance and discourage the Importation of Goods from any other Colony, until the Spring Vessels arrive with such Goods as shall be ordered by our Merchants, that they may reap the Advantage of the virtuous Self-denial they have hitherto exercised, for preserving the Liberties of America.”
The Maryland Gazette also reported important developments closer to home. On October 5th, Baltimore merchants gathered to discuss how they should respond to their Philadelphia counterparts. If the Philadelphians were breaking their association, why should the Baltimoreans continue theirs? They called for “a Meeting of a General Committee at Annapolis” on the 25th and appointed a delegation to represent their interests. If such a meeting couldn’t be arranged, the Baltimore merchants would consider “the Association dissolved, and go into a general Importation, excepting Tea and other dutiable Goods.” It was time for Marylanders to weigh the political and economic pros and cons of continuing the boycott and make a decision about how to move forward.
Faced with this looming deadline, the local “Committee of Inspection for South-River, Severn, and this City” planned to meet at Cornelius and Mary Howard’s Coffee-House on October 17 “for the Dispatch of some Business which will be laid before them.” The most important business would be making sure they were all on the same page about how to respond to these recent developments in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Could Marylanders help maintain a unified American front, or was it already too late to shore up a crumbling wall?
Read the October 11, 1770 issue of the Maryland Gazette starting here: https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc4800/sc4872/001281/html/m1281-1135.html
Glenn E. Campbell
HA Senior Historian
