The Virginia Gazette

NEW YORK, December 20.

Thursday the following Advertisement was handed about the City:

"The Members of the Association of the Sons of Liberty are requested to meet at the City Hall, at one o'Clock to-morrow (being Friday) on Business of the utmost Importance, and every other Friend to the Liberties and Trade of America is hereby most cordially invited to meet at the same Time and Place.

The Committee of the Association."

In Pursuance of this Advertisement, although the Weather was bad, at one o'Clock a very numerous and respectable Number of the Citizens met at the City Hall, when Mr. John Lamb, a Member of the Association, addressed the Meeting, and informed them that he was desired, by a Number of his Fellow Citizens, to communicate to them that there were several Letters received from the Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston, and a Letter from Philadelphia, relative to the Importation of the East India Company's Tea, which it was desired might be communicated. The Letters were accordingly read; and a Committee of fifteen Gentlemen was chosen to answer those Letters, and to correspond with our Sister Colonies on the Subject of the dutied Tea. The Association of the Sons of Liberty was then read, and is as follows:

The Association of the Sons of Liberty of New York.

IT is essential to the Freedom and Security of a free People that no Taxes be imposed upon them but by their own Consent, or their Representatives; for "what Property have they in that which another may, by Right, take when he pleases to himself?" The former is the undoubted Birthright of Englishmen, to secure which they expended Millions, and sacrificed the Lives of Thousands; and yet, to the Astonishment of all the World, and the Grief of America, the Commons of Great Britain, after the Repeal of the memorable and detestable Stamp Act, re-assumed the Power of imposing Taxes on the American Colonies, and insisting on it as a necessary Badge of parliamentary Supremacy, passed a Bill in the 7th Year of his present Majesty's Reign, imposing Duties on all Glass, Painters Colours, Paper, and Teas, that should, after the 20th of November 1767, be "imported from Great Britain into any Colony or Plantation in America." This Bill, after the Concurrence of the Lords, obtained the Royal Assent; and thus they, who from Time immemorial have exercised the Right of giving to or withholding from the Crown their Aids and Subsidies, according to their own free Will and Pleasure, signified by their Representatives in Parliament, do by the Act in Question deny us, their Brethren in America, the Enjoyment of the same Right. As this Denial, and the Execution of that Act, involves our Slavery, and would sap the Foundation of our Freedom, whereby we should become Slaves to our Brethren and Fellow Subjects (born to no greater Stock of Freedom than the Americans) the Merchants and Inhabitants of this City, in Conjunction with the Merchants and Inhabitants of the ancient American Colonies, entered into an Agreement to decline a Part of their Commerce with Great Britain until the above mentioned Act should be totally repealed. This Agreement operated so powerfully to the Disadvantage of the Manufacturers of England that many of them were unemployed. To appease their Clamours, and to provide the Subsistence for them which the Non-Importation had deprived them of, the Parliament, in 1770, repealed so much of the Revenue Act as imposed a Duty on Glass, Painters Colours, and Paper, and left the Duty on Tea as a Test of the parliamentary Right to tax us. The Merchants of the Cities of New York and Philadelphia having strictly adhered to the Agreement, so far as it related to the Importation of Articles subject to an American Duty, have convinced the Ministry that some other Measure must be adopted to execute parliamentary Supremacy over this Country, and to remove the Distresses brought on the East India Company by the ill Policy of that Act. Accordingly, to increase the Temptation to the Shippers of Tea from England, an Act of Parliament passed the last Session which gives the whole Duty on Tea that the Company were subject to pay upon the Importation of it into England to the Purchasers and Exporters; and when the Company have ten Million Pounds of Tea in their Warehouses, exclusive of the Quantity they may want to ship, they are allowed to export Tea, discharged from the Payment of that Duty with which they were before chargeable. In Hopes
of Aid in the Execution of this Project, by the Influence of the Owners of the American Ships, Application was made by the Company to the Captains of those Ships to take the Tea on Freight, but they virtuously rejected it. Still determined on the Scheme, they have chartered Ships to bring over the Tea to this Country, which may be hourly expected, to make an important Trial of our Virtue. If they succeed in the Sale of that Tea, we shall have no Property that we can call our own, and then we may bid adieu to American Liberty. Therefore, to prevent a Calamity which of all others is the most to be dreaded, Slavery, and its terrible Concomitants, we the Subscribers, being influenced from a Regard to Liberty, and disposed to use all lawful Endeavours in our Power to defeat the pernicious Project, and to transmit to our Posterity those Blessings of Freedom which our Ancestors have handed down to us, and to contribute to the Support of the common Liberties of America, which are in Danger of being subverted, do, for those important Purposes, agree to associate together, under the Name and Style of the Sons of Liberty of New York, and engage our Honour, to and with each other, faithfully to observe and perform the following Resolutions:

Resolved, that whoever shall aid or abet, or in any Manner assist, in the Introduction of Tea from any Place whatsoever into this Colony, while it is subjected by a British Act of Parliament to the Payment of a Duty, for the Purpose of raising a Revenue in America, shall be deemed an Enemy to the Liberties of America.

Resolved, that whoever shall be aiding or assisting in the landing or carting of such Tea from any Ship or Vessel, or shall hire any House, Storehouse, or Cellar, or any Place whatsoever, to deposit the Tea subject to a Duty as aforesaid, shall be deemed an Enemy to the Liberties of America.

Resolved, that whoever shall sell or buy, or in any Manner contribute to the Sale or Purchase of Tea subject to a Duty as aforesaid, or shall aid or abet in transporting such Tea, by Land or Water, from this City, until the 7th of George III. Chapter 46th (commonly called the Revenue Act) shall be totally and clearly repealed, shall be deemed an Enemy to the Liberties of America.

Resolved, that whether the Duties on Tea, imposed by this Act, be paid in Great Britain or in America, our Liberties are equally affected.

Resolved, that whoever shall transgress any of these Resolutions, we will not deal with, employ, or have any Connexion with him.

Mr. Lamb then put the Question, whether they agreed to these Resolutions, and it passed in the affirmative, nem. con.

The Mayor and Recorder came into the Meeting and informed them that they had a Message from Government to deliver to the People, and to take their Sense upon it; whereupon it was agreed that the Mayor should deliver the Message, which he accordingly did in the Words following: "Gentlemen, I have a Message from Government to deliver to you. The Governour declares that the Tea will be put into the Fort at Noon Day, and engages his Honour that it shall continue there till the Council shall advise it to be delivered out, or till the King's Order or the Proprietor's Order is known; and then the Tea will be delivered out at Noon Day. Gentlemen, is this satisfactory to you?" This was answered with a general No! No! No!

Mr. Lamb then read to the People the Act of Parliament, that imposes the Duty on Tea imported into America; and after making some pertinent Remarks on the Commons of Great Britain giving and granting the Property of the Americans, and that the Duty was due on the landing of the Tea, put the following Question: "Is it then your Opinion, Gentlemen, that the Tea should be landed under this Circumstance?" This was carried so generally in the negative that there was no Call for a Division.

Whereas this Body is informed, from unquestionable Authority, and the Letters that have now been read, that the patriotick Inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, and the Town of Boston, have determined that no Tea subject to a Duty by a British Act of Parliament, for the Purpose of raising a Revenue in America, should be landed in either of those Places, resolved, nem. con. that this Body highly approve of that spirited and patriotick Conduct of our Brethren, of the City of Philadelphia and the Town of Boston, in Support of the common Liberties of America.

The Question was then put whether this Meeting should be adjourned till the Arrival of the Tea Ship, or be dissolved; and it was carried that the Meeting should be adjourned, till the Arrival of the Tea Ship.

Voted, that these Proceedings should be published, and transmitted by the Committee to the other Colonies.