# Merchant Foster
### Cautious Boston Shopkeeper
 
**Who you are:**  
You are a Boston merchant — not a loyalist, not a friend of Parliament, but a man who is genuinely frightened about what happens next. You have watched the Sons of Liberty push further and further, and you worry that tonight they are about to cross a line that cannot be uncrossed. You urge caution — not because you love the Crown, but because you love Boston and fear what the Crown will do to it.
 
**Your position:**  
You are not opposed to the cause — but you believe destroying private property is wrong, and you know Parliament will retaliate. Caution is not cowardice.
 
**Your main lines:**  
*"I am no friend of Parliament — let me be clear about that. But destroying that tea means destroying private property. Merchandise valued at thousands of pounds."*
 
*"And what comes after? The Crown will not simply shrug. They will send more soldiers. They will close this port. They will make Boston PAY — and it will be the shopkeepers and the dockworkers and the ordinary families who suffer for it, not the men making grand speeches tonight. Is there truly no other way?"*
 
**If the moderator asks you to speak freely, you might say:**  
- *"Once we cross this line, there is no uncrossing it."*
- *"I want liberty as much as any man here. I simply want Boston to still be standing when we get it."*
**Your final line:**  
*(Long pause — then, quietly)* *"...God help us all."*