With the repeal of the all but one of the Townshend duties and the new government of Lord North eager to avoid more trouble with the colonies, colonial moderates and royal officials hope to discredit the radical opposition.
By the end of 1773 there had been a peaceful interlude of about three years. But in December of that year the so-called Boston Tea Party and London’s reaction in the early months of 1774 shattered the quiet.
In the spring and summer of 1774, news had reached Boston that Britain’s Parliament had enacted a number of measures in retaliation for the Tea Party of late 1773. Known in the colonies as the “Intolerable Acts”, these most notably closed the port of Boston, revoked the colony’s charter, and outlawed town meetings.
Outraged, Samuel Adams and his colleagues in the Boston committee of correspondence considered a non-importation pledge known as the “Solemn League and Covenant”. (The name of the document mimicked that of the 1644 pledge between England’s Parliament and Scotland, pledging religious reform in return for support against Charles I during the English Civil Wars.)
The Covenant called for its signers to halt the purchase of British goods after August 31 and, further, to stop dealing with those who did not sign.
The document was fiercely resisted by area merchants. In addition, there was growing sentiment amongst Bostonians toward waiting for a more comprehensive, inter-colony non-importation agreement.
During the summer of 1774, colonists debated the merits of the ‘Solemn League and Covenant,’ a proposal offered by the Boston Committee of Correspondence to cease all trade with the mother country. While not necessarily opposed to the idea of a boycott, leaders in other colonies (and other Massachusetts towns) hesitate to follow Boston’s lead.
The precise terms of resistance, they argue, should be formulated among, agreed to and followed by all.
Although Adams ultimately managed to find support at the Boston town meeting in late June, it did not come easily. In an effort to swing around the Boston opposition, Adams and the committee of correspondence sent the document into the surrounding countryside via the network formed by each town’s committee of correspondence.
Apparently, many towns found it difficult to support the action, and those who did usually made modifications to the language on the printed form they received from Boston. In the end, the effort was eclipsed in the fall of 1774 by similar actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Congress first visits the issues of nonimportation, nonexportation and nonconsumption in late September. The discussion centers on logistics and on the particular interests of individual provinces. (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Those who signed the non-importation pledge promised to stop purchasing British goods, but also to cease business dealings with those who continued. This agreement eventually spread beyond Boston to surrounding communities such as Concord. (Concord Museum)
The Solemn League and Covenant was the first concerted response to the Boston Port Act. Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren are believed to be the architects and authors of this document, issued by the Boston Committee of Correspondence, and distributed to towns throughout Massachusetts. It is a more forceful non-consumption and non-importation agreement than any preceding it.
Joseph Warren stumbled politically in the initial implementation of the Covenant when Samuel Adams was away from Boston at a meeting of the House of Representatives in Salem. Despite bluster in the Boston Gazette of countrymen allegedly clamoring in droves to sign the document, acceptance was in fact spotty.
The growing likelihood over the summer of 1774 that a Continental Congress would become a reality, combined to render moot the Solemn League and Covenant.
Click the following link to a general summary about the Solemn League and Covenant:
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