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

[481] of Roxbury on the third of December, voted that

Chap. L.} 1773. Dec.

they were bound by duty to themselves and posterity to join with Boston and other sister towns, to preserve inviolate the liberties handed down by their ancestors. The next day the men of Charlestown, as if foreseeing that their town was destined to be a holocaust, declared themselves ready to risk their lives and fortunes. On Sunday, the fifth, the Committee of Correspondence wrote to Portsmouth in New Hampshire, to Providence, Bristol, and Newport in Rhode Island, for advice and co-operation. On the sixth, they entreat New-York, through MacDougall and Sears, Philadelphia, through Mifflin and Clymer, to insure success by ‘a harmony of sentiment and concurrence in action.’¹ As for Boston itself, the twenty days are fast running out; the consignees conspire with the Revenue officers to throw on the owner and master of the Dartmouth the whole burden of landing the tea, and will neither agree to receive it, nor give up their bill of lading, nor pay the freight.² Every movement was duly reported,³ and ‘the town became as furious as in the time of the Stamp Act.’⁴

On the ninth, there was a vast gathering at Newburyport, of the inhabitants of that and the neighboring towns, and none dissenting, they agreed to assist Boston, even at the hazard of their lives. ‘This is not a piece of parade;’ they say, ‘but if an occasion should offer, a goodly number from among us will hasten to join you.’⁵