The Townshend Acts, threatened the traditions already established by colonial self-government, especially the part where taxation was spoken through representative provincial assemblies, led by the British. The physical resistance and acts of protest spread throughout the 13 Colonies, and it was sought to evade the Townshend Acts by all possible ways, making secret agreements among the merchants, not paying the established fees, and of course attacking the authority that sought to enforce that Act, especially in the city of Boston. All such protests led to the mandatory repeal of the Act, on March 5, 1770, not coincidentally the same day that the Boston Massacre took place.