The Lebanon Boys in Boston1
The Tea-Party, December 16, 1773.
“New trouble brews in Boston,”
Was told us half the year;
Yet every week the postman came
With something new to fear.
“Our freedom,” so they wrote soon,
“Such progress here begets
That England seeks to check it2
With swords and bayonets.
“Their foreign ‘Board of Customs,’3
Past our laws’ reach, they say,
Here pluck from us their living,
As vultures from their prey.
Ah! would we keep our freedom,
We must not basely yield,
But claim our rights,4 as when of old
The Stamp Act was repeal’d.”
We read, and thought together
That something must be done;
And we were those to do it,
We boys of Lebanon.
The words of Samuel Adams4
We heard a neighbor quote:
“They silence our Assembly;5
A sword is at its throat;
Our charter is their target,
Our judgment-seat their fort,6
Our men they rob for rations,
Our boys they shoot for sport;
Our faith that their horizon burst
And zenith held not down,
Their Toleration Law7 would force
To cringe beneath the crown.
I care not what to others
A loyal feeling brings;
To me it still will loyal be
To serve the King of kings.”8
We heard, and swore together
That work must be begun;
And we were those to do it,
We boys of Lebanon.
We signed a pledge of “Union.”
To all the land we wrote.
We went to meet the postman.
We read the Boston note:
“In Union only is there strength;
And strength is all our stay.
Alas that some divide us!
Alas that some give way!
Once none would touch a thing they tax;
To-day the weak agree,
And say: ‘Enough if none will taste,
If none will trade in tea.’9
The lords have found our weakness out;
And now are talking thus:
That India’s losing traders
May bring tea free to us.10
Ay, ay, as if these would not heap
Her lap with tribute gold,
‘Let them,’ says England, ‘take the tax;
Let them the duties hold.’
“Already bound for Boston,
May tea be on the waves,
A bait flung out to tempt us
To touch, and then be slaves.
And if our strong men falter,
Nor thrust this bait away,
How can the weak be kept from all
That makes us England’s prey?
“And yet, if we in Boston
To thwart the throne conspire,
Our town may prove an altar,
Our fortunes melt in fire.
The sacrifice is ready;
Yet first we wait reply,11
To know we own a country
To save, before we die.”12
We met, and swore together,
If fighting must be done,
In Boston we would do it,
We boys of Lebanon.
We started out at midnight,
And took the Indian suits,
Our fathers’ trophies from the wars
Where all had been recruits.
We pack’d them up in knapsacks,
And then with each a gun
And tomahawk away we walk’d
In pairs or one by one.
By day we kept the forests;
But when the sun was down,
We hurried on to Boston,
And scatter’d through the town.
We hunted out our cousins.
We told them why we came.
“Aha,” said they, “we plot the same.
We join you in the game.”
They show’d us then, at morning,
The “Tree of Liberty,”
Where those who plann’d the Stamp Act13
Had hung in effigy.
A pole was now beside it;
A flag it bore flew high;14
The church bells all were ringing;
A crowd had gather’d nigh.
“To see this tree, the agent
Of stamps,” we heard, “resign’d.
Here too East India’s agent
Should learn the people’s mind:
The tea sent here to tax us
Untouch’d away shall go;
Or all will brand its consignee,
Our own, our country’s foe.”15
The people cheer’d the purpose;
From lip to lip it pass’d;
The crowd about went homeward;
The sky was overcast.
Each agent heard the message;
No promise would he sign.16
Again the town demanded one;
Again did each decline.17
Then Boston’s grand “Committee18
Of Correspondence,” wrote
To ask the farmers, “Would they stand
By what the town would vote?”
From every hill and valley
Came back, as though one word,
What Samuel Adams read with pride
Where all the people heard:
“Without a voice dissenting,
We swear by you to stand.
Our wealth or life preventing,
The tea shall never land.”18
Then dawn’d the stirring Sunday19
When swift the news was pass’d,
That one tea-ship they waited for,
Was in the port at last.
Not many went to church then;
But all began to pray,
With eyes to duty open wide—
The Puritanic way.
In haste we met together,
Our work must be begun;
We plann’d, then, how to do it,
We boys of Lebanon.
With Proctor20 for our captain,
We vow’d on hand to be,
And cling like air and water there
About the ship with tea.
The Town-Select-Men waited on
The vessel’s consignees;
But these were waiting on the fort,21
Well lock’d with English keys.
True courtiers, they would tender
The governor there their tea.
The governor tried his council;
The council22 said: “Not we;
Our homes are with the people;
And we are not the ones
To hold the cup of serfdom
To them, ourselves, or sons.”
The consignees were waiting
Until, in forms of law,
Their tea was enter’d at the port,
When none could it withdraw.23
So quick the Town-Committee
Had made and seal’d a writ,
And pledg’d the vessel’s owner’s word
Not yet to enter it.24
At Faneuil Hall,25 next morning,
While all the bells were rung,
Men swarm’d, like bees, to buzz before,
Prepar’d to die, they stung.
The sheriff26 came and cried aloud:
“You meet unlawfully!”
His cry but made them busier buzz,
With Saxon loyalty.
The consignees were summon’d;
“The tea,” they wrote, “we stack.”27
“The tea shall sail for England,”
The people answer’d back.
And then to ports in England,
And those at home they wrote:
“Tea-taxers here, or traders,
Our country’s foes we vote.28
Think not our men will waver,
Our wives their vows abate;
The herbs they steep for tea will keep
Less bitter than their hate.”
Two tea-ships more were sighted.29
Our guards, like nerves, were strung30
From bay to every belfry’s bell,
The slightest move had rung.
Then spoke the vessels’ owners:
“Our tea is legal prey
For fort and fleet, if enter’d not
Before the twentieth31 day.”
“Then send it off to sea again,”
The Town-Committee said.
“Too much you ask,” was answer’d,
“For then would blood be shed.
The port’s collector warns us
We must not clear the port.
Without his ‘Writ of Clearance,’
We dare not brook the fort.”
They pointed down the harbor:
There lay the fleet,32 alas,
Like prongs along the channel,
To rake whate’er should pass.
They pointed toward the castle,
And all the guns within
Bespoke how they would treat a prey
That sought the sea to win.
At this our Town-Committee
The port’s collector sought;33
The governor,33 too, exulting34
To think his trap had caught.
“You mark the fleet and castle;
Should trouble brew,” said he;
“Your Hancocks, Rowes, and Phillips34
Might risk as much as we.”
But Molineux35 said only:
“They more would risk if slaves;
For all they then could wish, would be
Enough to give them graves.”
“‘If slaves’!” the governor answer’d,
And rail’d against their cause;
“Aha!—you talk of ‘slaves,’ forsooth,
Because your land has laws!
And you would dare to break them?—
And reason, what of it?—
I trust in human nature,
When reason should submit.”
“We trust in human nature,”
Said Young,36 who near him stood;
“And peace that brooks oppression,
It does not deem a good.
We trust in human nature;
The conscience, ruling there,
May guard the right, full well as kings
With crowns their dearest care.
Love rules in human nature,
For, all of history through,
The slaves have been the many,
The tyrants been the few.”
The governor turn’d in anger:
“Well, well, we then shall see.
Your hint of flint can wring no ‘Writ
Of Clearance’ here from me.”
Then met the town together,
Their final vote to take.
Not one, of seven thousand38 there,
Desired the peace to break.
Said Quincy:37 “Crowds and shoutings
Can never end our strife.
But sadder scenes and sounds await
Our loss of wealth and life.
The structures fair of freedom
Men rear beneath the sky,
Press down on deep foundations,
Where thousands buried lie.
Our course we well may ponder:
Hope’s rainbow in the cloud
May lure a march beneath its arch
To flash and bolt and shroud.”
The people paused and ponder’d;
But not a single hand,38
When call’d to vote, but voted,
“The tea shall never land.”
And then we met together;
If fighting must be done,
We knew we now should do it,
We boys of Lebanon.
In one day more—one only—39
The fleet and fort would hold
The tea that none could longer keep
From being bought and sold.
Close by we sought our quarters;
And from our knapsacks quick
We took our Indian guises;
And stain’d our cheeks with brick.
Anon, we half were ready,
With tomahawks in hand40;
And half, with muskets only,40
And heard our last command.
A moment then we waited;
We knew the danger there;
We looked above for courage;
We bent below in prayer.
We swore by God in heaven,
To keep our names from all;
We swore to stand together,
Till all in death should fall;
We swore, by truth and honor,
Should half essay to flee,
To cast that half the harbor in
To perish with the tea.40
The twilight long had tarried;
The darkness deeper grew;
In old South Church, the people
Still ponder’d what to do.
The dimness veil’d our coming.
We listen’d near the door,
Till Samuel Adams rose and said,41
“We here can do no more.”
And then we pass’d the word on:
“To Griffin’s wharf now!—run!”
For we knew where to do the rest,
We boys of Lebanon.
Then off flew some as pickets
To stand and sound alarms,
Should coming spies or soldiers
Compel resort to arms.
The twilight long had tarried;
The darkness deeper grew;
“Full time,” said we, “to take our tea!”
The people thought so too.
To Griffin’s wharf we led them;
We row’d, and reach’d the ships;
No captain there, nor sailor,
Dared open once his lips.
We crowded every gangway;
We brought out every chest;
We smash’d and dash’d it overboard.
The bay did all the rest.
No time was there for shouting,
No wish was there for strife;
Three hours we wrought in silence,
And thank’d the Lord for life.
Anon, the work was ended;
Anon, we back could row;
The heaven was black above us;
The harbor black below.
None thought on shore to cheer us,42
Though all had waited there;
Their silence match’d the silence,
Where souls have flown to prayer.
Their silence match’d the silence
Of war’s reserves, whose breath
Is hush’d to hear the order,
That orders all to death.
Their silence match’d the silence
Of heavens, close and warm,
Ere, like a shell incasing hell,
They burst and free a storm.
As hush’d as on a Sabbath,42
The people homeward went;
Their eyes alone transparent,
To show their souls’ content.
But we, we met together,
When all our work was done,
To toast the dawn of freedom,
We boys of Lebanon.
Then, early stirr’d at morning,
We left with Paul Revere,43
Who through the south went riding off
To bear, from Boston, cheer.
We spread through all the country;
We told, how all was done;
Till all the shoremen stored away
A tomahawk and gun.
Throughout the land, no Tory
Would brave their sworn attack;
East India found no agent;
The tea that came went back.
But, better far for freedom,44
There ran from mouth to mouth,
From soul to soul, a tide to roll,
And flow from north to south.
Beyond the power of local pride
Or envy to withstand,
It burst each colony’s borders
To form one common land.44
Before men talk’d of Union;
But now was Union won,
When everywhere each village square
Held boys of Lebanon.
Footnotes
1 In order to indicate the relations existing, at the time of the “Tea-Party,” between Boston and the surrounding towns, as well as to give unity of form to this ballad, the story has been told as given, some years ago, by David Kinnison, one of the survivors of the party, who boarded the tea-ships. He stated that certain young men of Lebanon, Me., united in a secret society—one of many existing at that time—and formed alliances with clubs in Boston and in other places. These young men determined to destroy the tea, and went to Boston for that purpose. Having resolved to stand by each other, to throw overboard those who faltered, and not to reveal each other’s names, twenty-four went on board as Indians, half armed with muskets and bayonets, half with tomahawks and clubs, and all expecting a fight.—See Lossing’s Pict. Field Bk. of the Rev., vol. i, p. 499.
2 In 1770, “September, Hutchinson received the order... which marks the beginning of a system of... prevention of American independence.... Boston was made the rendezvous of all ships... and the fortress... garrisoned by regular troops.... But the charter of Massachusetts purposely and emphatically reserved to its governor the command of the militia of the colony, and of its forts; the castle had been built and repaired and garrisoned by the colony itself at its own expense; to... bestow it on the commander-in-chief was a plain violation of the charter, as well as of immemorial usage.”—Bancroft’s Hist. U. S., vol. vi., ch. 45, pp. 368, 369.
3 “Never was a community more distressed or divided by fear and hope than... Boston. There the... Board of the Commissioners of the Customs was to be established... as the lawyers of England... decided,” in 1767, “that American taxation by Parliament was legal and constitutional, the press of Boston sought support in something more firm than human opinion.... ‘The law of nation,’ said they, ‘is the law of God.’”—Idem, ch. 30, pp. 101, 102.
4 “‘Hancock and most of the party,’ said the governor, ‘are quiet, and all of them, except Adams, abate their virulence.’”—Idem, ch. 47, p. 407.
5 “Bernard... dissolved the Assembly. Massachusetts was left without a legislature.”—Idem, ch. 34, pp. 165. See also “Our First Break with the British,” note 9.
6 “The officers screened their men from legal punishment, and sometimes even rescued them from the constables.”—Idem, ch. 43, p. 334. See also the whole account, in this chapter, of the Boston massacre.
7 “For New York, the Lords of Trade... refused to Presbyterians any immunities but such as might be derived from the British Law of Toleration.”—Idem, vol. vi., ch. 7, p. 84. See also “Our First Break with the British,” note 12.
8 “‘It was not reverence for kings,’ he (Adams) would say, ‘that brought the ancestors of New England to America. They fled from kings and bishops, and looked up to the King of kings. We are free, therefore,’ he concluded, ‘and want no kings.’”—Idem, ch. 36, pp. 194.
9 “New York alone had been perfectly true to its engagements... impatient of a system of voluntary renunciation... so unequally kept.... Merchants of New York... consulted those of Philadelphia on agreeing to a general importation of all articles except of tea... and now trade between America and England was open in every thing but tea.”—Idem, ch. 44, pp. 365, 366. “The students at Princeton burnt the New York merchants’ letter.... Boston tore it into pieces” at a full meeting of the trade.—Idem.
10 “The continued refusal... to receive tea... had brought distress upon the East India Company.... Praying... to export teas, free of all duties, to America... Lord North proposed to give to the company itself the right of exporting its teas... the ministry would not listen to the thought of relieving America from taxation.”—Idem, ch. 49, pp. 457, 458.
11 “Massachusetts... elected its Committee of Correspondence, fifteen in number. New Hampshire and Connecticut did the same, so that all New England and Virginia... on the first emergency,... could convene a congress.”—Idem, p. 460.
12 “‘Brethren,’ they wrote, ‘we are reduced to this dilemma—either to sit down quiet... or to rise up and resist... we earnestly request your advice.’”—Idem, p. 476.
13 See “Our First Break with the British,” note 27. Also Idem, vol. v., ch. 16, p. 310.
14 “A large flag was hung out on the pole at Liberty Tree; the bells in the meeting-houses were rung from eleven till noon.”—Idem, vol. vi., ch. 50, p. 473
15 “Molineux read a paper requiring the consignee to promise not to sell the teas, but to return them.... Then read... a Resolve passed at Liberty Tree that the consignees who should refuse... were enemies to their country.”—Idem, pp. 473, 474.
16 “Each and all answered: ‘I cannot comply.’”—Idem.
17 “There was once more a legal Town Meeting to entreat the consignees to resign. Upon their repeated refusal, the town passed no vote... but... broke up.”—Idem, p. 475.
18 “The Committee of Correspondence... authorized Samuel Adams to invite... Dorchester, Rozbury, etc.,... to hold a mass meeting... the assembly resolved unanimously that ‘the tea should be sent back... at all events.’”—Idem, pp. 477, 478. See also the reply of the towns, p. 483.
19 “Sunday, the 28th of November,” 1773.—Idem, p. 477.
20 “A party... under... Edward Proctor as its captain, was appointed to guard the tea-ship.”—Idem, p. 478.
21 “The select men... sought in vain for the consignees, who had taken sanctuary in the castle.”—Idem, 477.
22 “On the same day, the council, who had been solicited by the Governor and the consignees to assume the guardianship of the tea, coupled their refusal with a reference... that the tax upon it... was unconstitutional.”—Idem, p. 478.
23 “Let the tea be entered, and it would be beyond the power of the consignees to send it back.”—Idem, p. 477.
24 “The Committee of Correspondence... obtained from the Quaker Rotch, who owned the Dartmouth, a promise not to enter the ship.”—Idem, p. 477.
25 “Faneuil Hall could not contain the people... on Monday.”—Idem, 478.
26 “The Sheriff... entered with a Proclamation from the Governor, warning, exhorting, and requiring... each... unlawfully assembled forthwith to disperse.... The words were received with hisses,... and a unanimous vote not to disperse.”—Idem, p. 479.
27 “We now declare to you our readiness to store them.”—Idem.
28 “Every ship owner was forbidden, on pain of being deemed an enemy to his country, to import or bring as freight any tea from Great Britain till the unrighteous act taxing it should be repealed, and this vote was printed and sent to every seaport in the province, and to England.”—Idem, p. 480.
29 “Two more tea ships... arrived.”—Idem.
30 “A military watch was regularly kept up... by night. The tolling of the bells would have been the signal for a general uprising.”—Idem.
31 “The ships,... on the twentieth day from their arrival, would be liable to seizure.”—Idem.
32 “The Active and the Kingfisher... were sent to guard the passages out of the harbor.... Orders were given... to load guns at the castle so that no vessel... might go to sea without a permit.”—Idem, p. 482.
33 “A meeting of the people... directed... the owner of the Dartmouth to apply for a clearance. He did so... accompanied by... eight others as witnesses.... The collector and comptroller unequivocally and finally refused.... Then said they (i.e., the people)... protest immediately against the custom-house, and apply to the Governor for his pass.”—Idem, pp. 483-5.
34 “‘They find themselves,’... said Hutchinson, ’involved in invincible difficulties.... The wealth of Hancock, Phillips, Rowe, Dennie, and so many other men of property, seemed to him a security against violence.”—Idem, pp. 480-2. “Hutchinson began to clutch at victory.”—Idem, p. 484.
35 See note 15 under this Ballad.
36 “‘The only way to get rid of it,’ said Young (speaking of the tea in one of the Boston public meetings), ‘is to throw it overboard.’”—Idem, p. 478.
37 “‘Shouts and hozannas will not terminate the trials of this day... insatiable revenge which actuates our enemies... must bring on the most... terrible struggle this country ever saw.’ Thus spoke the younger Quincy.”—Idem, p. 486.
38 “The whole assembly of seven thousand voted unanimously that the tea should not be landed.”—Idem.
39 “A few hours would have placed the tea under the protection of the admiral at the castle.”—Idem, 487.
40 See note 1 under this Ballad.
41 “A quarter before six Rotch appeared... relating that the governor had refused him a pass.... Samuel Adams rose and gave the word: ‘This meeting can do nothing more to save the country.’ On the instant, a shout was heard at the porch.... A body of men... disguised as Indians,... encouraged by... others, repaired to Griffin’s wharf, posted guards to prevent the intrusion of spies,... and in about three hours, three hundred and forty chests of tea, being the whole quantity... were emptied into the bay without... injury to other property.”—Idem, pp. 486, 487.
42 “The people around... were... still.... After the work was done, the town became as still and calm as if it had been holy time.”—Idem.
43 “The next morning the Committee of Correspondence... sent Paul Revere, as express with the information to New York and Philadelphia.”—Idem.
44 “The ministry had chosen the most effectual measures to unite the colonies.... Old jealousies were removed, and perfect harmony subsisted between all.”—Idem, p. 488.