Note 300 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol I., Chapter iii., pp. 352, 353.
"Towards the last of October, the inhabitants of Boston, 'ever sensitive to the sound of liberty,' assembled in a town meeting, and voted to dispense with a large number of articles of British manufacture, which, were particularly specified; to adhere to former agreements respecting funerals; and to purchase no new clothing for mourning. Committees were appointed to obtain subscribers to this agreement, and the resolves were sent in to all the towns of the province and abroad to other colonies. The 20th of the ensuing month (20th of November, the time when the Acts went into operation) passed without tumult. Placards were exhibited and effigies were set up, but the people in general were quiet. Otis (the most popular man in Boston), at a town meeting held to discountenance riot, delivered a speech in which he recommended caution, and advised that no opposition should be made to the new duties. 'The King has a right,' said he, 'to appoint officers of the Customs in what manner he pleases and by what denominations; and to resist his authority will but provoke his displeasure.' Such counsel was displeasing to the zealous, but it was followed." (Barry's History of Massachusetts, Vol. II., Chapter xi., pp. 340, 341.)