George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition.

‘ [229] Fleets, troops, and every implement of war

Chap. XXI.} 1775. Feb

are sent into the province, to wrest from you that freedom which it is your duty, even at the risk of your lives, to hand inviolate to posterity. Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which Heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.’

These rustic statesmen, in their sincere simplicity, were the true representatives of the inhabitants of Massachusetts. They came together tremulous with emotion, yet resolved from duty never to yield. They were frugal even to parsimony, making the most sparing appropriations ever thought of by a nation preparing for war; yet they held their property and their blood of less account than liberty. They were startled at the lightest rustling of impending danger, but they were no more moved from their deep seated purpose than the granite rock which seems to quiver with the flickering shadow of the overhanging cloud, as the wind drives it by. ‘Life and liberty shall go together,’ was their language. ‘Our existence as a free people absolutely depends on our acting with spirit and vigor,’ said Joseph Warren; and he wished England to know that the Americans had courage enough to fight for their freedom. ‘The people,’ said Samuel Adams, ‘will defend their liberties with dignity. One regular attempt to subdue this or any other colony, whatever may be the first issue of the attempt, will open a quarrel which will never be closed, till what some of them affect to apprehend, and we truly deprecate, shall take effect.’

The second provincial congress before its adjournment appointed a committee to prepare in the recess