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

[110] would become ‘usurpers of power’ and enemies to

Chap. IX.} 1774. Aug.

the province, even though they bore the commission of the king. The Boston port-act they found to be a wicked violation of the rights to life, liberty, and the means of sustenance, which all men hold by the grace of Heaven, irrespectively of the king's leave. The act of parliament removing from American courts the trials of officers who should take the lives of Americans, they described as the extreme measure in the system of despotism.

For remedies, the convention proposed a provincial congress with large executive powers. In the mean time the unconstitutional courts were to be forbidden to proceed, and their officers to be detested as ‘traitors cloaked with a pretext of law.’ It was known that Gage had orders to make arrests; each individual patriot was therefore placed under the protection of his county and of the province. The practice of the military art was declared to be the duty of the people.

Gage began to show alarm. He looked about him for more troops; he recommended the repair of Crown Point; and a strong garrison at Ticonderoga; a well-guarded line of communication between New York and Canada. He himself came from Salem to support the chief justice in opening the court at Boston.

On the same day began the term of the inferior court at Springfield. But early in the morning, fifteen hundred or two thousand men, with drums and trumpets, marched into that town, set up a black flag at the court-house, and threatened death to any one who should enter. After some treaty, the judges