*The Lincoln Historical Society* *“Did You Know … ?” That in December 1773, Lincoln’s reaction to the Dumping of the Tea into Boston harbor was rather tepid?*
The town of Lincoln had no voice in the dumping of the tea into Boston harbor on December 16, 1773, and there is no record that anyone from Lincoln boarded the ships, broke open the tea chests, and scattered the contents to the tides. In today’s terms, the forty-two tons of tea were worth almost $2 million. Boston’s Committee of Correspondence sought solidarity from other towns, for approval of what had been done and pledges not to purchase or consume any British tea until the tax was repealed. Lincoln took up the matter at a town meeting on December 27, 1773. Eleazer Brooks, a member of the town’s Committee of Correspondence, had drafted a statement, for the town’s approval, to be sent to Boston. The rhetoric of Brooks’ draft was fiery enough in some passages: “We trust we have courage and resolution sufficient to encounter all the horrors of war in the defense of those rights and privileges, civil and religious, which we esteem more valuable than our lives, and we do hereby assure not only the town of Boston but the world that whenever we shall have a clear call from heaven, we are ready to join with our brethren to face the sword, the bayonet, or the mouth of a cannon rather than to be the slave dupes & fools of any of our own species not distinguished from ourselves except in a disposition to enslave us.” Town meeting judged that Brooks’ vivid prose about swords, bayonets, cannon, slaves, dupes, and fools was a bit over the top. That was changed to “we are ready to join with our brethren to face the most formidable forces rather than tamely surrender up our rights and privileges …” In other notable ways, the version adopted by town meeting was more restrained than Brooks’ draft. There was, for instance, the matter of the destroyed tea. Did Lincoln’s town meeting approve such destruction of private property? Apparently not, for it deleted specific mention of the dumping of the tea from Brooks’ draft and left in place this statement: “… we cannot therefore but commend the spirited behavior of the town of Boston in endeavoring to prevent the sale of the East India Company’s teas by endeavoring to persuade the consigners to resign their office or any other lawful means.” “Or any other lawful means.” The destruction of the tea was, of course, anything but “lawful means.” And then there was the matter of the pledge not to buy or consume British tea. At the town meeting, a document was laid upon a table for signatures by those pledging their support publicly. Fifty-one men in town signed the pledge (and one woman—a story for another time). An impressive number, but far short of the eighty-seven men who met the property qualification to vote in town meeting. So were the others opposed to the pledge? Or reluctant to have their signatures on a public document? Or did they simply not bother to attend the town meeting, despite notice that a vote would be taken on the matter? Whatever the reason, Lincoln’s tempest over tea seemed rather tepid. Donald L. Hafner The Lincoln Historical Society December 2024
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