The following was dispersed in Hand Bills among
the worthy Citizens of Philadelphia, who, we
are assured will not suffer the East India Compa-
ny's Tea to be landed there. -- It was also Pub-
lished in the Philadelphia and New-York Papers.

BY UNITING WE STAND -- BY DIVIDING WE FALL

To the Commissioners
Appointed by the EAST INDIA COMPANY,
for the SALE of TEA in AMERICA,

Gentlemen,

YOUR appointment, which is noto-
riously designed to enforce the act
of the 7th G. III. for raising a revenue
in America, justly claims the atten-
tion of every man, who wishes well
to this country : And you need to be surprised
to find the eyes of ALL now fixed on you ; as on
men, who have it in their power, to ward off the
most dangerous stroke, that has been ever medi-
tated against the liberties of America.

You have before you the examples of many of
your unhappy countrymen ; I mean some of the
STAMP MASTERS ; examples, which, if pro-
perly attended to, may convince you, how foolish,
how dangerous it is, to undertake to force the
loathsome pills of slavery, and oppression, down
the throats of a free, independent, and determined
people. Your appointment is exactly similar to
that of our late STAMP MASTERS : They
were commissioned to enforce one revenue act ;
you, to execute another. The Stamp and Tea
Laws were both designed to raise a revenue, and
to establish parliamentary despotism, in America.

There cannot therefore be any difference in
your appointments, except in this ; that their of-
fice as Stamp Men, favoured strongly of the na-
ture of excise officers ; whilst you in the execution
of your duty, may retain some faint resemblance
of the decent characters of Factors. But let not
names deceive you : Your characters, as Stamp
Masters, and Tea Commissioners, have a strong
and near affinity. They, and you could boast
that you were our brethren ; they, and you owe
at least SUPPORT, if not LIFE to America ;
and what characterizes the two employments in the
strongest manner, they and you were marked out
by the conspirators against our rights, to give the
last, the finishing stroke to freedom in this coun-
try. -- Strange indeed ! that Americans should be
pitched on to violate the privileges of Americans !

You cannot believe that the Tea Act, with res-
pect to its design and tendency, differs in one
single point from the Stamp Act. If there be any
difference, the Tea Act is the more dangerous.
The Stamp Act was sensibly felt by all ranks of
people ; and was therefore opposed by all ; but
the Tea Act, more insiduous in its operation, re-
quired some pains to discover its malignity. -- Un-
der the First, no man could transfer his property;
he could not even read a news paper, without
seeing and feeling the detestable imposition ; it
was therefore, too glaring to pass unnoticed and
unopposed. -- But, under the Tea Law, the duty
being paid on importation, is afterwards laid on
the article, and becomes so blended with the price
of it, that, although every man who puchases
tea imported from Britain, must of course pay the
duty ; yet, every man does not know it, and may,
therefore, not object to it. It is in vain then to
seek for any distinction between the two employ-
ments. To Americans, it must be a matter of
indifference, by what stile or title you may think
proper to demean yourselves ; whether STAMP
MASTERS, or TEA COMMISIONERS. If
you are appointed to enforce the revenue act in
America, any titles you may assume to yourselves,
in the execution of your office, will prove DE-
TESTABLE and INFAMOUS.

If parliament can of right tax us 10l. for any
purpose ; they may of right tax us 10,000,
and so on, without end. And if we allow them a
fair opportunity of pleading precedent by a success-
ful execution of the tea act, under your auspices,
we may bid adieu to all that is dear and valuable
amongst men. Ireland has long groaned under
the weight of parliamentary restrictions and im-
positions. She was once a rich and flourishing
Isle ; but being charged beyond her abilities, with
the payment of excessive sums, to worn out pan-
ders & whores, she is now sinking beneath the infa-
mous load; and must, ere long, die a martyr to the
absolute controul of the parliament of Great-Britain.

To this miserable situation America will in time
be reduced, if you are determined and allowed to
execute the scandalous office to which you are ap-
pointed. You are marked out as political Bom-
bardiers to demolish the fair structure of Ameri-
can liberty : and much, very much depends on
your conduct at this time. For be assured, reso-
lute and successful as you may prove in the exe-
cution of your office, AMERICANS will not part
with the PALLADIUM OF AMERICA without

a hard Struggle ; a struggle which it is your
duty, and the duty of every man, who wishes the
prosperity of Great-Britain & America to prevent.

The perquisites of your office cannot prove such
fascinating objects, as to tempt you to fly in the
face of your Country. -- What appointments at
home or abroad can ever make up to you, the
loss of your brethrens affections ? What appoint-
ments can atone to your children, for the cruel,
most horrid predicament to which you may subject
them ? You have given them a Birth Right in
America, which you found a land of liberty & so-
cial enjoyment ; let them therefore peaceably and
happily inherit it. DARE NOT to act so con-
rary [contrary] to the sentiments of your watchful coun-
trymen, as to be induced by the paltry bribe
of a petty commission, to rivet the shackles of
slavery on your American Brethren.

If the East India company can establish ware-
houses in America for the sale of TEA, on which
a duty is imposed for the purpose of raising a reve-
nue in America, they may vend, in like manner,
any other articles of their trade. On such other
articles, parliament may impose a duty to be paid
in America ; and the company's commissioners
will no doubt take special care to pay such duty ;
and reimburse their constituents, by fleecing it from
the people. Thus the imposition may be increased
at pleasure ; and America be subjugated without
the possibility of redemption.

It has been a ledged by some, that your friends
in England, to whose special grace and favour
you are entitled for the important commission,
have given security, in very high sums for the faith-
ful execution of the trust reposed in you ; and that,
therefore, you cannot, in honour or good consci-
ence, leave your friends in the lurch ; by neg-
lecting or refusing to comply literally with the
tenor of your commission. So much, gentlemen,
has been advanced in favour of your employment ;
let us now examine the force of it.

It cannot be meant that your friends in Eng-
land have engaged that you shall execute the TEA
ACT in America : this would be a rash engage-
ment indeed : For it was well know in London
what confusion your appointment would occasion
in America : And no man would be so foolish as
to set you up for Quixotes ; and give security
for your positive execution of any whimsical
schemes the Ministry or the East India Company
might chalk out for you : All the security given
amounts to no more that this, that if you should
undertake and be permitted to enforce the REVE-
NUE ACT in America, you would discharge
faithfully all duties appertaining to your commis-
sion : the principal of which was, the regualr ac-
counting for, and payment of such money as
might arise from the sale of the dutied article.

It is then evident that you cannot injure your
friends in England, by rejecting the hazardous
employment to which you are nominated ; but
on the contrary, by so doing, you will testify your
regard for the rights and priveleges of your Ame-
rican brethren ; and prove to the world that you
are not such men as your friends in England pre-
sumed you were ; men who, for the sake of a
paltry emolument, would impiously sheath the
dagger of oppression in the bowels of your country.

The claim of Parliament to tax America, has
been too well examined, for you to doubt, at this
time, to which side right and justice have given
the palm. -- Do not, therefore, hesitate at the
course you ought to pursue. -- If you deliberate,
you are lost, -- lost to virtue, lost to your country.
It is in vain to expect that AMERICANS can
give a sanction to your office. -- FREEMEN, --
AMERICAN FREEMEN can never approve it.
You are abundantly capable to judge for your-
selves : And I sincerely wish that your conduct,
on the present alarming occasion, may be such as
will promote your future peace and welfare.
It is in your power and you are now warn'd of it,
to save YOURSELVES much Trouble, and secure
your native Country from the deadly Stroke now
aimed in your persons against her.

    SCÆVOLA