Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-05-06
BOYcOtters Of ZIG and ,S6.

The boycott has attracted much attention in
this country of late by reason OF its frequent use
in labor disputes. case in point is that OF Mrs
Gray, baker in New York. She employed six
men who did not belong to the union and who
being satisfied with their hours and their wages,
refused to join. A committee from the organiza-
ton thereupon notified her that she must dis
miss her employees or prepare for boycott. She
courteously refused to do as requested and the
members OF the union warned all wOrkingmen
not to patronize her. For time her business
suffered CO: siderably, but at length many peopIe
more particularly those having wealth and no
sympathy with labor movements came to her as
slstancc, and she is now said to be doing better
than ever before.
In commenting on this affair many newspapers
have assumed that the boycott is a foreign insti-
tion and that its use America is most intoler-
able innovation While the name by which il il
now known is ofIrish origin the practice itself
is one having the sanction OF the founders Of this
republic Instead Of being essentially forcion
in its origin, il is older than American freedom
The boycott was used to combat the stamp tax
to resist every form Of taxation without repres-
entatlon, To annoy and cripple England before
and during the second war, and to discourage
slavery; and what is our protective tariff but a
great international boycott?
When George III's stamp distributors in the
colonies undertook to perform their duties they
were compelled, on pain of becoming vertable
pariahs, to renonnce their appointments, and
when the stamp paper arrived not bale was
permitted to land, but, after being kept for some
time on shipboard, the vessel which brought il
took it back to England. Before Lord North in
troduced his bill repeating the tax on tea the
mistresses of three hundred families in Boston
met and agreed not to drink any tea until the
tax should be repealed. A Boston merchant
TheOphilns Lille, Tory-eontinued to sell tea
openly. and mob gathered and placed an efigy
in front of his store, besides warning people not
to buy OF him. One of Lilies friends who
doubtless regarded the boycott a most odIous
practice, tried to remove the effigy, and was
peted with stones. Thereupon he seized a gun
and fired into the crowd, killing little boy who
was buried two days later as hero, and on
whose coffin was inscribed the words: limo
cepce itself is not safe" In Norwalk, Conn in
l776, woman christened her son Thomas
Gage" after the British General, and one hum
bred and seventy women gave her a coat OF tar
and feathers. Jacob Nredenburg, in the same
year. received the formal thanks OF the Sons of
Liberty in New Y ork ''for his firm, spirited and
patriotic conduct in refusing to complete an
operation vulgarly called shaving which he
had begun on the face Of Captain John Grocer
commander of the ship Express of Russia, one
Of his Majesty's transports now lying in the
river, but most fortunately and proyidentialy
wasinformed OF the identity of the gentleman's
person when he had half-fnished the iob :
What were all these but boycotts and inst sueb
boycetts as we familiar with today
Writing home to his wife after the repeal of
the stamp act Benjamin Franklin, referring to
the expedients resorted to by the colonsts for
the purpose of boycotting British goods said:
Had the trade between the two countries en-
tirely ceased il would have been comfort TO me
to recollect that had once been clothed from
head to foot in wooden and linen of my wife's
manufacture, and that she and her daughter
might 90 IL again III necessary. III was IN BOe-
ton, under tina old Liberty Tree
Where now on heated pavements worn
The feet of millions stride,
that the people assembled and decided on boy
cotting British tea by throwing overheard every
cargo that came to the harbor, and Bowling
Green. in New York. was the scene OF many
sueh assembages- In the. British Parliament
such acts were stigmatized as rebellion and
more than ancient worthy recommended
grape and canister, as plenty of people now do
Yet what are we to expects European wise
kox-a fh.aE r.s 49,,
could come to a nation begun. as ours was in
'lawlessnessn and rebellion that the senti-
ments OF the immortal Declaration of Independ-
ence were sure to lead to turmoil and insurrec.
ton, disrespect for authority and mob violence,
and that government which rested so lightly on
the shoulders Of the people could not stand We
have enthroned the boycottefs OF century ago
as heroes and patriots. What wonder is il that
they find imitators today Chicago Herald