ribe and a tax--even a three-penny one--they were opposed in principle to paying. To make matters worse, he consigned the East India Company tea exclusively to colonial merchants who favored British policies and obeyed the trade laws.
             A wiser statesman would have seen the consequences of the Tea Act. But North, though witty and energetic, was a hardliner on America who had supported the Stamp Act and opposed its repeal, and had endorsed the Townshend Duties. Such a man could not have anticipated what would now take place.
             News of the new British affront enraged the radicals. In New York City,most of the merchants resolved that the tea would not be sold. The patriot citizens of Philadelphia met and adopted resolutions declaring that since "the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in America is a tax on the Americans, or levying contributions on them without their consent,
             ...