Note 332 — Chapter XVIII
Reading edition
Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iv., p. 379.
"The inhabitants of Boston, distinguished for politeness and hospitality no less than for industry and opulence, were sentenced, on the short notice of twenty days, to a deprivation of the means of subsistence. The rents of landholders ceased, or were greatly diminished. The immense property in stores and wharves was rendered in a great measure useless. Labourers and artificers, and many others employed in the numerous occupations created by an extensive trade, shared the general calamity. Those of the people who depended on a regular income, and those who earned their subsistence by daily labour, were equally deprived of the means of support. Animated, however, by the spirit of freedom, they endured their privations with inflexible fortitude. Their sufferings were soon mitigated by the sympathy and relieved by the charity of the other colonists. Contributions were everywhere raised for their relief. Corporate bodies, town meetings, and provincial conventions sent them letters and addresses applauding their conduct and exhorting them to perseverance. The inhabitants of Marblehead (which was to be the seaport instead of Boston) generously offered the Boston merchants the use of their harbour, wharves, warehouses, and their personal attendance, on the lading or unlading of their goods, free of all expense. The inhabitants of Salem (the newly appointed capital) concluded an address to Governor Gage in a manner that reflected great honour on their virtue and patriotism. 'By shutting up the port of Boston,' they said, 'some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and to our benefit; but nature, in the formation of our harbour, forbids our becoming rivals in commerce with that convenient mart; and were it otherwise, we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we indulge one thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes on the ruins of our suffering neighbours.'" (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., pp. 187, 188.)