“The admiralty,” said Hancock,[21] “To swell the navy’s pelf, Have pass’d a law that it empowers[19] To seek in every ship of ours A bounty for itself. “Would we dispute the seizure, Our loss can be discuss’d And righted but in England’s courts,[20] And by a judge whom it supports;— And that, they say, is just. “No fleet of mine[21] shall carry A stamp, though all I lose. I choose, ere it, to save my soul!” The whole land heard, and soon the whole Had sworn no stamps to use. New York had lived by commerce. Her merchants vow’d, they all,[22] Ere stamps they bought, would sail no boats, And sell no goods, and pass no notes— They would not live in thrall. Said Isaac Sears:[23] “No wonder These human lords combine The masses’ rivalling wealth to steal! Let them be stript, my lord may feel His decency divine. “For years, to gild the peerage Have England’s ports been made[24] The marts by law for all we bought.— Alas! in what that we have wrought Have they not check’d our trade? “The nobles, while their winnings Like nuggets clog the sieve That ours drop through, would not eschew Their royal rule: ‘To others do What makes them humbly live.’ “And shall we not live humbly Who but our pride restrain? And buy at home more homely goods?”— “Buy homespun!”[25] rang from bay to woods. Then rang the looms[25] amain. But keen and crafty tories, They prowl’d around at night, And plotted long, and bought and sold, And hoax’d and coax’d the young and old Their homespun league to slight.[26] “We must not wait till England Shall send the stamps,” wrote Edes.[27] “Once let our tories own a few, They soon were sown the whole land through To grow like seeds of weeds.” The Boston Stamp-man’s image Men burn’d before his face. Their roars, like thunder, threaten’d storm; And torches flash’d; the air was warm; The man resign’d his place. “Resign!” erelong the echo Had roll’d to every town.[28] None dared resist the people’s plea, And none dared hold a stamp, or be The stamp-man of the crown. “Our governors,” growl’d the tories, “Will sell the stamps to us.” The governors vow’d this course to take;[29] But we, we vow’d, our lives the stake, They should not thwart us thus. The night before the Stamp-Act Should rule the colony, We slept not much; we melted lead; We whetted steel; we plann’d ahead, We “Sons of Liberty.”[30] Then, when the morn was breaking,[31] On every hill and plain, In all the towns, we toll’d the bells,[31] That all began with doleful knells, As though for Freedom slain.