After the Intolerable Acts:

"There is a persuasion here that America will see, without interposition, the ruin of Boston. It is of the last importance to the general cause, that your conduct should prove this opinion erroneous. If once it is perceived that you may be attacked and destroyed by piecemeal, actum est, every part will in its turn feel the vengeance which it would not unite to repel, and a general slavery or ruin must ensue. "