Yet Salem was precisely the
place where this miserable proffer was spurned, in a tone of the most
lofty self-respect and the most indignant patriotism. "We are deeply
affected," said its inhabitants, "with the sense of our public
calamities; but the miseries that are now rapidly hastening on our
brethren in the capital of the Province greatly excite our
commiseration. By shutting up the port of Boston, some imagine that the
course of trade might be turned hither and to our benefit; but we must
be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity,
could we indulge a thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes on
the ruin of our suffering neighbors." These noble sentiments were not
confined to our immediate vicinity. In that day of general affection and
brotherhood, the blow given to Boston smote on every patriotic heart
from one end of the country to the other. Virginia and the Carolinas, as
well as Connecticut and New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the cause to
be their own. The Continental Congress, then holding its first session
in Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for the suffering inhabitants of
Boston, and addresses were received from all quarters, assuring them
that the cause was a common one, and should be met by common efforts and
common sacrifices. The Congress of Massachusetts responded to these
assurances; and in an address to the Congress at Philadelphia, bearing
the official signature, perhaps among the last, of the immortal Warren,
notwithstanding the severity of its suffering and the magnitude of the
dangers which threatened it, it was declared, that this Colony "is
ready, at all times, to spend and to be spent in the cause of America.
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