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

‘ [70] and secure for trial, all persons who might pub-

Chap. V.} 1774. June.

lish, or sign, or invite others to sign the covenant.’

No act could have been more futile or more unwise. The malignity of the imputation of treason was heightened by the pretended rule of law that the persons so accused might be dragged for trial to England. For any purpose of making arrests the proclamation was useless; but as the exponent of the temper of an administration which chose the gallows to avenge the simple agreement not to buy English goods, it was read throughout the continent with uncontrollable indignation. In Boston the report prevailed that as soon as more soldiers should be landed, six or seven of the leading patriots would be seized; and it was in truth the project of Gage to fasten charges of rebellion on individuals as a pretext for sending them to jail. On Friday, the first of July,

July.

Admiral Graves arrived in the ‘Preston,’ of sixty guns; on Saturday the train of artillery was encamped on the common by the side of two regiments that were there before. On Monday these were reenforced by the fifth and thirty-eighth. Arrests, it was confidently reported, were now to be made. In this moment of greatest danger, the Boston committee of correspondence, Samuel Adams, the two Greenleafs, Molyneux, Warren and others being present, considered the rumor that some of them were to be taken up, and voted unanimously ‘that they would attend their business as usual, unless prevented by brutal force.’

‘The attempt to intimidate,’ said the patriots, ‘is lost labor.’ The spirit of defiance gave an impulse to the covenant. At Plymouth the subscribers