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

‘ [438] the name of a Hillsborough;’ how ready

Chap. XLVIII.} 1772. Nov.

they were to ‘unite for the recovery of their violated rights;’ and like Roxbury¹ and Plymouth,² they appointed their Committee.³ Warren of Plymouth exerted himself diligently, but despondingly. ‘The towns,’ said he, ‘are dead; and cannot be raised without a miracle.’⁴ ‘I am very sorry to find in you the least approach towards despair,’ answered Adams. ‘Nil desperandum is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire we will rekindle it.’ The patriot's noble confidence was justified.⁵ In Plymouth itself, ‘there were ninety to one to fight Great Britain.’⁶

The people of Cambridge, in a full meeting, were

Dec.

‘much concerned to maintain and secure their own invaluable rights which were not the gift of Kings, but purchased with the precious blood and treasure of their ancestors;’ and they ‘discovered a glorious spirit like men determined to be free.’ Roxbury, which had moved with deliberation, found ‘the rights of the colonists fully supported and warranted by the laws of God and Nature, the New Testament and the Charter of the Province.’ ‘Our pious Forefathers,’ said they, ‘died with the pleasing hope, that we their children should live free; let none, as they will answer it another day, disturb the ashes of those heroes by selling their birthright.’