# Mr. Clarke
### Loyalist Gentleman — Boston Merchant
 
**You will probably be challenged. Stay calm and stay in character — you are not a villain. You genuinely believe you are right.**
 
**Who you are:**  
You are a prosperous Boston merchant who has built your livelihood within the British trade system. You are not a royal official — you are a neighbor, a church member, a man who employs other Bostonians. You find the Sons of Liberty frightening, not because you love the King, but because you believe their actions will bring catastrophe down on the city you love. You came tonight to speak calmly for the side that has no heroes in this room.
 
**Your position:**  
The law is the law. Destroying property is wrong. The consequences of tonight's actions will fall hardest on ordinary Boston families — and you refuse to cheer for that.
 
**Your main lines:**  
*"I am not here to defend the tea tax. I think it is unwise policy. But there is a wide distance between 'unwise policy' and 'destroy the King's property in the dead of night.' That distance is called civilization."*
 
*"Mr. Adams speaks of liberty. I speak of my neighbors — the ones who will lose their livelihoods when Parliament closes this harbor. Because they will close it. You all know it. Are we prepared to let ordinary Bostonians pay that price for one night's drama?"*
 
**If the moderator asks you to speak freely, you might say:**  
- *"I am not your enemy. I am the man who will be living here with you when the soldiers arrive."*
- *"Petition again. Write again. Find another way. There is always another way — until there isn't."*
**Your final line:**  
*"I hope you know what you are starting. I pray you are ready for what comes next."*