To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Gilpin, 19 July 1770: extract
From Thomas Gilpin9
Extract: reprinted from “Memoir of Thomas Gilpin,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XLIX (1925), 313.
July 19th [1770]
Since my last New York has relaxed from the non-importation agreement but this and the other provinces stand fixed1 although we have an account here from a vessel spoken in going to Boston that the Tea duty has been taken off.2
9. But perhaps not to BF; see the headnote to Gilpin’s letter above, June 1.
1. On July 10 the New York merchants decided to renew the importation of everything except articles that were “subject to Duty for the Purpose of raising a Revenue in America.” On the 14th a meeting of Philadelphia merchants condemned this action and resolved, until it was rescinded, to import nothing from New York except in a few enumerated categories. Pa. Chron., July 9–16, 1770.
2. A ship arriving at Salem in mid-July reported speaking a packet bound for New York, and getting the news that the Townshend Acts had been totally repealed. Pa. Gaz., July 26, 1770. The news was of course false.