g the threatened hardship, called for help from
the rest of the country. The response was prompt. "A special chronicle,"
says Bancroft, "could hardly enumerate all the generous deeds." While
Lord North, fresh from an interview with Hutchinson, cheered the king
with the belief that the province would soon submit, South Carolina was
sending a cargo of provisions in a vessel offered for the purpose by the
owner, and sailed without wages by the captain and her crew. Sheep were
driven into Boston from all New England; provisions of every kind were
brought in; wheat was sent by the French in Quebec; money was subscribed
and sent from the more distant points. All supplies thus received were
put in the hands of a donation committee, who distributed the gifts to
the needy.

Yet in spite of such relief as this, and though for a short time
employment was given to workmen by permitting them to finish, launch,
rig, and send away the ships then on the stocks, the situation was hard
at best. It was felt not only by the lower classes, but by the
merchants, whose profits ceased, and by all who depended for their
income on the current trade and activity of the town. Gossipy John
Andrews gives us the situation as it affected him. "If you'll believe me
(though I have got near two thousand sterling out in debts and about as
much more in stock), I have not received above eighty or ninety pounds
Lawful money from both resources for above two months past; though
previous to the port's being shut, I thought it an ordinary day's work
if I did not carry home from twenty to forty dollars every evening." So
little ready money circulated in the town "that really, Bill, I think
myself well off to satisfy the necessary demands of my family, and you
may as well ask a man for the teeth out of his head as to request the
payment of money that he owes you (either in town or country, for we
are alike affected), for you'll be as likely to get the one as the
other."[37]

Now was, indeed, the time to discover the weak points in the cause and
organization of the Americans. Even strong Whigs were at times
discontented, and chiefly among the middle class, without whom the
leaders could have no strong support. Much of the distress of the
shopkeepers and merchants came from the "Solemn League and Covenant"
which, proposed on the first news of the Port Bill, was now in actual
operation. Andrews's case must have been typical of many. He had
countermanded all goods