Here the leading general _authorities_ are the histories of Bancroft, Hildreth, and Bryant; but to these we now add David Ramsay’s _History of the American Revolution_; the fourth volume of James Grahame’s excellent _History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America from their Colonization till the Declaration of Independence_; Thomas Hutchinson’s _History of Massachusetts_, one of the most valuable of the contemporary authorities; John S. Barry’s _History of Massachusetts_; John Fiske’s _American Revolution_; Mellen Chamberlain’s _The Revolution Impending_, in the sixth volume of Winsor’s _Narrative and Critical History of America_; the twelfth chapter of W. E. H. Lecky’s _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_; Sir J. R. Seeley’s _Expansion of England_; Richard Frothingham’s _Rise of the Republic of the United States_; Mr. Edward Channing’s _United States of America, 1765-1865_; Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge’s _Short History of the English Colonies in America_; Mr. Horace E. Scudder’s _Men and Manners in America One Hundred Years Ago_; Moses Coit Tyler’s _Life of Patrick Henry_; Mr. Horace Gray’s important discussion of Otis’s speech against the writs of assistance, in the _Appendix_ to Quincy’s _Reports of Massachusetts Bay, 1761-1772_; Moses Coit Tyler’s _Literary History of the American Revolution_; F. B. Dexter’s _Estimates of Population_, in the _Proceedings_ of the American Antiquarian Society; and the _Lives_ of the leading American and English statesmen of the time, notably the invaluable series of brief biographies known as _The American Statesmen Series_. Abundant _contemporary material_ may be found in the published letters, papers, and speeches of American and English public men of the time, especially in the pamphlets of such men as James Otis, Richard Bland, Stephen Hopkins, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, and their _confrères_; in Franklin’s _Autobiography_; Andrew Burnaby’s _Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America, in the Years 1759 and 1760_; Ann Maury’s _Memoirs of a Huguenot Family_; and Hezekiah Niles’s _Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America_. _Lists of the authorities_ on the several colonies during these years may be found in Edward Channing and Albert Bushnell Hart’s very convenient and careful little _Guide to American History_. CHAPTER III THE APPROACH OF REVOLUTION