George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[309] agreement. At a great and public Meeting of Mer-

Chap XLII.} 1769. Aug.

chants¹ in Faneuil Hall, Hancock proposed to send for Hutchinson's two sons, hinting what was true, that the Lieutenant Governor was himself a partner² with them in their late extraordinary importations of tea. As the best means of coercion, it was voted not to purchase any thing of the recusants; subscription papers to that effect were carried round from house to house, and every body complied.³

The Anniversary of the Fourteenth of August was commemorated with unusual solemnity. Three or four hundred dined together in the open field at Dorchester; and since the Ministry had threatened the leading patriots with death for treason, the last of their Forty-Five Toasts was: ‘Strong halters, firm blocks, and sharp axes, to such as deserve them.’⁴ The famous Liberty Song was sung, and all the company with one heart joined in the chorus. At five in the afternoon, they returned in a procession a mile and a half long, entered the town before dark, marched round the State-House, and quietly retired each to his own home.⁵

Massachusetts was sustained by South Carolina, whose Assembly, imperfectly imitated by New Jersey,⁶ refused compliance with the Billeting Act,⁷ and