To bring them succor, Marblehead
Joyous her deep-sea fishing sought.
Her trees, with ringing stroke and tread,
Old many-rivered Newbury sped,
And Groton in her granaries wrought,
And generous flocks old Windham brought.
Rice from the Carolinas came,
Iron from Pennsylvania's forge,
And, with a spirit all aflame,
Tobacco-leaf and corn and game
The Midlands sent; and in his gorge
The Colonies defied King George!
And Hartford hung, in black array,
Her town-house, and at half-mast there
The flags flowed, and the bells all day
Tolled heavily; and far away
In great Virginia's solemn air
The House of Burgesses held prayer.
Down long glades of the forest floor
The same thrill ran through every vein,
And down the long Atlantic's shore;
Its heat the tyrant's fetters tore
And welded them through stress and strain
Of long years to a mightier chain.
That mighty chain with links of steel
Bound all the Old Thirteen at last,
Through one electric pulse to feel
The common woe, the common weal.
And that great day the Port Bill passed
Made us a nation hard and fast.
Harriet Prescott Spofford.
Gage arrived at Boston in May, 1774, and at once issued a proclamation calling upon the inhabitants to be loyal, and warning them of his intention to maintain the authority of the King at any cost.
A PROCLAMATION
[May, 1774]
America! thou fractious nation,
Attend thy master's proclamation!
[Tremble! for know, I, Thomas Gage],
Determin'd come the war to wage.