Not the glitter of arms nor the dread of a fray Could make us submit to their chains for a day; Withheld by affection, on _Britons_ we call, Prevent the fierce conflict which threatens your fall. _In Freedom we're born, etc._
All ages should speak with amaze and applause Of the prudence we show in support of our cause: Assured of our safety, a BRUNSWICK still reigns, Whose free loyal subjects are strangers to chains. _In Freedom we're born, etc._
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all, To be free is to live, to be slaves is to fall; Has the land such a dastard as scorns not a LORD, Who dreads not a fetter much more than a sword? _In Freedom we're born, etc._
Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts, in anger, Spills the tea on John Bull. John falls on to bang her. Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid And give Master John a severe bastinade. Now, good men of the law, who is at fault, The one who begins or resists the assault?
Anderson's _Constitutional Gazette_, 1775.
O Boston wives and maids, draw near and see Our delicate Souchong and Hyson tea, Buy it, my charming girls, fair, black, or brown, If not, we'll cut your throats, and burn your town.
It was evident that, in the excited state of the country, a single incident might turn the balance between peace and war and produce a general explosion. That incident was not long in coming.
Hail, happy Britain, Freedom's blest retreat, Great is thy power, thy wealth, thy glory great, But wealth and power have no immortal day, For all things ripen only to decay. And when that time arrives, the lot of all, When Britain's glory, power and wealth shall fall; Then shall thy sons by Fate's unchanged decree In other worlds another Britain see, And what thou art, America shall be.
All through the winter of 1774-75, the people of Massachusetts had offered a passive but effective resistance to General Gage. Not a councillor, judge, sheriff, or juryman could be found to serve under the royal commission; and for nine months the ordinary functions of government were suspended. At eventide, on every village-green, a company of yeomen drilled, and a supply of powder and ball was gradually collected at Concord; but every man in the province was given to understand that England must fire the first shot. At the beginning of spring, Gage received peremptory orders to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and send them to England to be tried for treason. He learned that they would be at a friend's house at Lexington, during the middle of April, and on the night of April 18 dispatched a force of eight hundred men to seize them, and then to proceed to Concord and destroy the military stores collected there. Although the movement was conducted with the greatest secrecy, Joseph Warren divined its purpose, and sent out Paul Revere by way of Charlestown to give the alarm.