(Tea Act)

"To Americans it must be a Matter of Indifference, by what Stile or Title you may think proper to demean yourselves; whether Stamp Masters or Tea Commissioners.—If you are appointed to enforce the Revenue Act in America, any Titles you may assume to yourselves, in the Execution of your Office, will prove detestable and infamous." A blistering attack on the Tea Act by the pseudonymous Scaevola, warning the American merchants appointed as agents for the sale of tea to resign their commissions. "Your Appointment, which is notoriously designed to enforce the Act of the 7th G. III for raising a Revenue in America, justly claims the Attention of every Man, who wishes well to this Country; And you need not be surprized to find the Eyes of All now fixed on you; as on Men who have it in their Power to ward off the most dangerous Stroke, that has ever been meditated against the Liberties of America.

"You have before you the Examples of many of your unhappy Countrymen, I mean some of the Stamp Masters; Examples, which if properly attended to, may convince you, how foolish, how dangerous it is, to undertake to force the loathsome Pills of Slavery and Oppression down the Throats of a free, independent and determined people. ... The Stamp and Tea Laws were both designed to raise a Revenue, and to establish Parliamentary Despotism in America. ... The Claim of Parliament to Tax America has been too well examined, for you to doubt, at this Time, to which Side Right and Justice have given the Palm.—Do not, therefore, hesitate at the Course you ought to pursue.—If you deliberate, you are lost,—lost to Virtue, lost to your Country. It is in Vain to expect that Americans can give a Sanction to your Office.—Freemen,—American Freeman can never Approve it. ... I sincerely wish ... that your Conduct may be such as will secure your Native Country from the deadly Stroke now aimed in your Persons against her.—If you refuse, no one else will dare to execute the diabolical Commission."

Most American Tea Commissioners did resign their posts, and in ports from Charleston to New York, East-India tea was left on the docks to rot or simply not unloaded. Scaevola's open letter was reprinted in newspapers throughout the colonies, including The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal for 25 October 1773, where it might have played a role in fomenting the Boston Tea Party of 16 December. Rare.