19 - Life and Times of Joseph Warren by Richard Frothingham, Jr.

Delve into the life of Joseph Warren, an influential figure in the early stages of the American Revolution. His understanding and advocacy for civil freedom made him a beloved leader in Boston and eventually propelled him to the forefront of public affairs in Massachusetts. Warrens ten-year commitment to the cause of liberty made him a notable figure in New Englands history. His life was marked by action, his words were as powerful as deeds. He tirelessly fought against the encroachments of unjust power, championing the principles of liberty through his writings, private club discussions, and leadership in public meetings. Join us as we explore the dignity and glory of Warrens life - a man whose legacy continues to inspire. - Summary by Richard Frothingham

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter thirteen of Life and Times of Joseph warm by
Richard Frothingham. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Warren in the Committees, the Struggle in Europe, the Position
of Massachusetts, Franklin in the Ministry Military Preparations, the Second
Provincial Congress, the Committee of Safety, Public Opinion, Warren's second

(00:26):
Oration seventeen seventy five January to March. I am convinced
that our existence as a free people absolutely depends on
acting with spirit and vigor. The ministry are even yet
doubtful whether we are in earnest when we declare our
intention to preserve our liberty. These words were written by Warren,

(00:49):
and he was interpreting them by efficient action. The journals
of the Committee of Public Safety show clearly enough the
nature of some of his service. One of the January
votes will that doctor Warren be desired to wait on
Colonel Robinson in relation to securing certain brass cannon and
seven inch mortars, and they ordered supplies of arms and

(01:10):
ammunition to be deposited at Conquered and Worcester. The inspection
committee on which Warren was placed by the town grew
directly out of the action of the Continental Congress. It
is stated in the Boston Journals of the fifth of
January that all the Southern provinces have heartily adopted the
resolutions of the late respectable Continental Congress, and are taking

(01:33):
proper steps to carry them into fall execution. And a
few days later, January ninth, it is reported that the
assemblies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland had met
and taken steps to carry the whole of these measures
into execution. It is added in the other colonies, where
the assemblies have not yet met, they are all with

(01:55):
vigor and unanimity, exerting themselves in the same important and
glorious cause, so that it is thought there never was
framed a set of human laws that were more strictly
and religiously observed than these will be. When petitioners of
Marshville applied to General Gage for leave to hold a
meeting according to the Act of Parliament, Samuel Adams wrote

(02:17):
in a letter, they will be dealt with according to
the law of the Continental Congress, the laws of which
are more observed throughout this continent than any man's laws. Whatever.
It was one of the duties of the inspection committees
and the Committee's of correspondence to see that the non
importation agreement was strictly observed, and the newspapers contained many

(02:38):
advertisements of cargoes of vessels to be sold by auction
under the direction of these committees, and agreeably to the
American Congress Association. In some instances, freight and vessels that
had violated this agreement was thrown overboard, which was the
case with an invoice of salt, coal and tiles that
arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, the committee being present. The

(03:03):
progress of events in America, made known through the press,
was attracting more and more the attention of the political world.
The British minister at the Court of Vienna, Sir John
Murray Keith, wrote, there is not a man of sense
in Europe who does not think that the question now
in agitation between Great Britain and her colonies is one
of the most important, as well as most singular, that

(03:26):
has been canvassed for many centuries. The Americans, who had
to meet this question uttered the same sentiment in private letters,
in official papers, and through the press. Well might a
looker on far away from the din of the struggle
pronounce the question most singular for the authoritative voices of
the two American centers of action, the Continental Congress and

(03:49):
the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, were not only disclaiming a
desire of independence, but were professing affectionate fealty to the King.
The men whose spok for Massachusetts were solemnly pronouncing the
controversy to be a calamity, and were ordering that prayers
should be offered to Almighty God, that his blessing might

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rest upon all the British Empire, upon George the Third,
their rightful King, and upon all the Royal family, that
they might all be great and lasting blessings to the world.
It ought ever to be borne in mind that from
the beginning of the controversy the people of Massachusetts made
no demands on the sovereignty for an extension of popular power.

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The following, candid, temperate, and just summary of their past
action and position was printed in the Philadelphia Journal of
the first of January seventeen seventy five. The people of
Massachusetts have hitherto acted purely on the defensive. They have
only opposed those new regulations which were instantly to have
been executed, and would have annihilated all our rights. For

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this absolutely necessary and manly step, they have received the
approbation of the con Congress, one of the most respectable
assemblies in the world. They aim at no independency nor
anything new, but barely the preservation of their old rights.
Since the passage of the Act authorizing the East India
Company to export tea to America, the issue had been

(05:17):
on the original question of taxation. But the Ministry, alarmed
at the union of the colonies, declared now to Franklin,
through friendly agents, that they would concede the point of taxation,
would repeal the Tea Act in the Boston Port Act,
but that the two acts relating to Massachusetts, the Regulating
Act and the Act concerning the Administration of Justice, must

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remain as permanent amendments to the local constitution, and as
a standing example of the power of Parliament. When the
momentous issue was narrowed down to the preservation of old
customs and rights, the reply of the Great American was
prompt and decided, and spoke the united voice of the
party who constituted the majority of a countrymen. While Parliament

(06:02):
claims the right of altering American constitutions at pleasure. There
can be no agreement, for we are rendered unsafe in
every privilege. Subsequently, Franklin sent, through Lord how to Lord
North the following as his last words, the Massachusetts must
suffer all the hazards and mischiefs of war, rather than

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admit the alteration of their charter and laws by Parliament.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. The journals
reported from time to time the concentration of military and
naval force at Boston, and said that when the whole

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of the army should arrive, it would consist of about
sixty four hundred men. On the eighteenth of January, General
Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth, the eyes of all are
turned upon Great Britain, and it is the opinion of
most people that if they respect sable force is seen
in the field, the most obnoxious of the leaders seized,

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and a pardon proclaimed for all others, Government will come
off victorious and with less opposition than was expected. A
few months ago. A letter was now on the way
from Lord Dartmouth to the General containing directions as the
first central step to be taken towards re establishing government
to arrest and imprison the principal actors and the bettors

(07:26):
in the Provincial Congress. On the twenty first of January,
a gentleman in Boston, in writing to his friend in London,
said that the Continental Congress had drawn a line by
the banks of the ocean, had claimed their own exclusive
jurisdiction in all interior concerns and in all cases of taxation,
had left to Great Britain the exclusive sovereignty of the

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ocean and over their trade, and had placed both upon
constitutional principles. And that it was vain, it was delirium.
It was frenzy to think of dragoon three millions of
English people out of their liberties. He added, there is
a spirit prevailing here such as I never saw before.
I remember the conquest of Louisbourg in seventeen forty five.

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I remember the spirit here when the Duke d'Anville squadron
was upon this coast, when forty thousand men marched down
to Boston and were mustered and numbered upon the common
complete in arms from this province only in three weeks.
But I remember nothing like what I have seen these
six months past. Neither the King his ministers, nor the

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Tory majority in Parliament could be convinced by the blaze
of genius and the burst of thought of Camden, Chatham
and Burke, that there was anything more serious than the
acts of a rude rabble, without plan, without concert, and
without conduct. The First Lord of the Admiralty declared the
Americans were neither disciplined nor capable of discipline. The task

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of rechi training the rash among the patriots was becoming
harder every day. The leaders on both sides now expected
the commencement of war. In the judgment of Lord Dartmouth,
if the arrest of the members of the Provincial Congress
should occasion hostilities, it were better that the conflict should
begin on such grounds than in a riper state of

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the rebellion. Samuel Adams, on the twenty ninth of January wrote,
we appear to be in a state of hostility, the
General with regiments with a very few adherents on one side,
and all the rest of the inhabitants of the province,
backed by all the colonies on the other. They the
people are resolved not to be the aggressors in an

(09:42):
open quarrel with the troops, but animated with an unquenchable
love of liberty, they will support their righteous claim to
it to the utmost extremity. On the first of February,
the Second Provincial Congress assembled at Cambridge, of which Warren
was a member and a prominent actor. It was composed
largely of the members of the preceding Congress. Warren's name

(10:05):
appears in connection with most of the proceedings. On the
ninth the Congress reappointed a Committee of Safety in a
resolve which reads that the Honorable John Hancock Esquire, Doctor
Joseph Warren, Doctor Benjamin Church Junior, Mister Richard Devins, Captain
Benjamin White, Colonel Joseph Palmer, Mister Abraham Watson, Colonel Azor Orne,

(10:29):
Mister John Pigeon, Colonel William Heath, and mister Jabez Fisher
b And hereby are appointed a Committee of Safety to
continue until the farther order of this or some other
Congress or House of Representatives of this Province. It was
made their duty to observe the movements of all who
should attempt to carry into execution the Regulating Act or

(10:52):
the Act relating to the administration of Justice, and five
of them, one to be an inhabitant of Boston were authorized,
in case they should judge such an attempt was to
be made to alarm muster and cause to be assembled
with the utmost expedition, so much of the militia of
the province, as they should judge to be necessary to

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oppose such attempts. Another resolve authorized Honorable Jedediah Prebble Esquire,
Honorable Artemis Ward Esquire, Colonel Seth Palmeroy, Colonel John Thomas,
and Colonel William Heath to be general officers, who, as such,
for the purpose of resisting all attempts to execute the

(11:33):
two acts, should command the said militia, so long as
it should be retained by the Committee of Safety, and
no longer one of the Committee of Supplies. Mister Hall
had declined, and Eldridge Jerry was chosen in his place. Warren,
on the day these resolves were passed, was in Boston.
On the next day, while a committee of the Congress

(11:55):
were observing the motion of the troops said to be
on their way to Cambridge, Warren sent the following letter
to Samuel Adams, in which he evinced the spirit which
impelled him to share with his countrymen the fortune of
the Day of Bunker Hill. Joseph Warren to Samuel Adams, Boston,
February tenth, seventeen seventy five. Dear Sir, we were this

(12:20):
morning alarmed with a report that a party of soldiers
was sent to Cambridge with design to disperse the Congress.
Many year believed it was in consequence of what was
yesterday published by their order. I confess I paid so
much regard to it as to be sorry I was
not with my friends, and although my affairs would not
allow of it, I went down to the ferry in

(12:42):
a chase with Doctor Church, both determined to share with
our brethren in any dangers that they might be engaged in.
But we there heard that the party had quietly passed
the bridge on their way to Roxbury, up on which
we returned home. I have spent an hour this morning
with Deacon Phillips, and I am convinced that our existence

(13:03):
as a free people absolutely depends in acting with spirit
and vigor. The ministry are even yet doubtful whether we
are in earnest when we declare our resolution to preserve
our liberty, and the common people there are made to
believe we are a nation of noisy cowards. The Ministry
are supported in their plan of enslaving us by assurances

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that we have not courage enough to fight for our freedom.
Even they who wish us well dare not openly declare
for us, lest we should meanly desert ourselves and leave
them alone to contend with administration, who they know will
be politically speaking, omnipotent if America should submit to them.
Deacon Phillips, Doctor Church, and myself are all fully of

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opinion that it would be a very proper step should
the Congress order a schooner to be sent home with
an accurate state of facts, as it is certain that
letters to and from our friends in England are intercepted,
and every method taken to prevent the people of Great
Britain from gaining a knowledge of the true state of
this country. I intended to have consulted you, had I

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been at Cambridge today, on the propriety of emotion, for
that purpose, but must defer it until tomorrow. One thing, however,
I have upon my mind, which I think ought to
be immediately attended to the resolution of the Congress published yesterday,
greatly affects one Weston, who has hitherto been thought firm

(14:32):
in our cause, but is now making carriages for the army.
He assisted in getting the four field pieces to Colonel
Robinson's at Dorchester, where they are now. He says the
discovery of this will make him, and he threatens to
make the discovery. Perhaps resentment and the hope of gain
may together prevail with him to act the traitor. Doctor

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Church and I are clear that it ought not to
be one minute in his power to point out the
Jedi roll the place in which they are kept, but
that they ought to be removed without delay. Pray do
not omit to obtain proper orders concerning them. I am sir,
in great haste, your very humble servant, Joseph Warren, please

(15:15):
to present my affectionate regards to Colonel Hancock and otherworthy friends.
Warren sat in Congress on the next day, for he
is named, with Hally Hancock and others on a committee
to report a resolve expressing the determination of this people
coolly and resolutely to support their rights at all hazards.

(15:36):
At the next meeting, he was placed on a committee
of three to consider what it was expedient to do
for the encouragement of the manufacture of Saltpeter, and on
the last day of the session was on a committee
to report a resolve to create a committee to correspond
with the neighboring governments, and then with Hancock, Cushing, Jerry, Samuel,

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Adams and Heath, he was elected by battle on this committee,
to whom were added by hand vote, Devons, Palmer, and
gil A conference was held through a committee with a
delegation present from Connecticut. Having appointed the sixteenth of March
as a day of fasting and prayer, the Congress adjourned

(16:18):
until the twenty third of March. The letter of Warren
shows how deeply he was interested in the proceedings of
this body, and the committees on which he was placed
indicate the large confidence which the members felt in him.
This Congress issued an address to the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay.
On this being reported, It was read and considered in paragraphs,

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and then ordered to be re committed for amendments. When
doctor Church and doctor Warren were added to the committee,
the report made by the committee was accepted. It was
printed in a pamphlet containing an abstract of the proceedings
of the former provincial Congress. Its tone is unusually solemn,
it renewed the recommendation to carry into execution the plan

(17:04):
projected by the wisdom of the whole continent as collected
in the General Congress. It deprecated a rupture with the
mother State. Yet it urged every preparation for necessary defense.
It recommended the people to have proper magazines, duly prepared,
and strictly to adhere to the resolutions of the several Congresses,

(17:24):
on the principle that subjects generally pay obedience to the
laws of the land. Urging this weighty consideration, we can
conceive of no greater punishment for the breach of human
laws than the misery that must inevitably follow your Disregarding
the plans that have, by your authority with that of
the whole continent been projected. The closing words are your

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conduct hitherto under the severest trials has been worthy of you,
as men and Christians. The whole continent of America has
this day caused to rejoice in your firmness. We trust
you will still you will continue steadfast, and having regard
to the dignity of your characters as freemen, and those
generous sentiments resulting from your natural and political connections you

(18:11):
will never submit your next to the galling yoke of
despotism prepared for you, but with a proper sense of
your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which Heaven
gave and no man ought to take from us. It
will be observed that the inhabitants of Massachusetts are appealed
to as though they were in natural and political connections

(18:31):
with a common country, and not as though they were
or aspired to be a separate, independent, and sovereign nation.
On the day after the adjournment of the Provincial Congress,
Governor Gage informed Lord Dartmouth of its proceedings, remarking, if
this Provincial Congress is not to be deemed a rebellious meeting,
surely some of their resolves are rebellious, though they affect

(18:54):
not to order, but only to recommend measures to the people.
Three days later he again wrote Lord Dartmouth of this body,
and evinced considerable anxiety in relation to an assumption of
government and the Connecticut delegation. I have tried to get
intelligence if they had presumed to usurp the government entirely
and choose a governor, and am informed that the measure

(19:17):
was talked of, but could not be carried. Some people
from Connecticut termed a committee, and amongst them the governor's
son came to the Congress, which caused much speculation and
of course many reports. Some say their business was to
offer an aid of men. I can only yet discover
that it was a visit of curiosity, not unlikely. The

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information relative to an assumption of government was communicated by Church,
for it was now said that there was a traitor
in the Congress. Four days after Warren had acted so
conspicuous a part in the provincial Congress, he addressed the
following calm and important letter to Arthur Lee, Boston, February twentieth,

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seventeen seventy five. Dear Sir, my friend mister Adams favored
me with the sight of your last letter. I am
sincerely glad of your return to England, as I think
your assistance was never more wanted there than at present.
It is truly astonishing that administration should have a doubt
of the resolution of the Americans to make the last appeal,

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rather than submit to where the yoke prepared for their next.
We have waited with a degree of patience which is
seldom to be met with. But I will venture to
assert that there has not been any great alloy of cowardice.
Though both friends and enemies seem to suspect us of
want of courage. I trust the event which I confess

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I think is near at hand, will confound our enemies
and rejoice those who wish well to us. It is
time for Britain to take some serious steps towards a
reconciliation with their colonies. The people here are weary of
watching the measures of those who are in endeavoring to
enslave them. They say they have been spending their time
for ten years in counteracting the plans of their adversaries. They,

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many of them, begin to think that the difference between
them will never be amicably settled, but that they shall
always be subject to new affronts from the caprice of
every British minister. They even sometimes speak of an open
rupture with Great Britain as a state preferable to the
present uncertain condition of affairs. And although it is true

(21:30):
that the people have yet a very warm affection for
the British nation, yet it's sensibly decays. They are loyal
subjects to the king. But they conceive that they do
not swerve from their allegiance. By opposing any measures taken
by any man or set of men to deprive them
of their liberties, they conceive that they are the King's
enemies who would destroy the Constitution. For the King is

(21:53):
annihilated when the Constitution is destroyed. It is not yet
too late to accommodate the dispute. But I am of
the opinion that if once General Gage should lead his
troops into the country with design to enforce the late
acts of Parliament, Great in Britain may take her leave
at least of the New England colonies. And if I

(22:14):
mistake not of all America. If there is any wisdom
in the nation, God grant it may be speedily called forth.
Every day, every hour widens the breach. A Richmond, a Chatham,
a Shelburn, a Camden, with their noble associates, may yet
repair it. And it is a work which none but

(22:35):
the greatest of men can conduct. May you be successful
and happy in your labors for the public safety. I am, sir,
with great respect, your very humble servant, Doctor Lee Joseph Warrene.
This valuable letter contains an offhand analyzation of the aspect
of a great movement During the next four days, the

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Committee of Safety held meetings in Charlestown, and Warren was present.
The business transacted was important. The unusual record is made
in the Journal of the Proceedings on the twenty first,
that the votes were passed unanimously. Thus voted unanimously by
the Committee of Safety that the Committee of Supplies purchase

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all kinds of warlike stores sufficient for an army of
fifteen thousand men. On the next day, the business consisted
of the details of preparation, one of them being a
provision for the reassembling of Congress on the arrival of
the reinforcements coming to General Gage. On the twenty third,
the Committee met at forty five minutes after seven in

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the morning, and besides other matters, it was agreed that
a letter should be prepared and be ready for transmission
to the commanding officers of the militia and minutemen, directing them,
on receipt of it, to assemble one fourth part of
the militia, and that this should be printed, and that
certain couriers should deliver the letters. The Committee of Supplies

(24:02):
were ordered to buy twenty hogsheads of rum and send
them to conquered on the twenty fourth, provision was made
for the road each courier should take when he carried
the letters to the militia to take the field. The
committee now adjourned to meet on the seventh of March
at the house of Captain Steadman of Cambridge Warren. During

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the proceedings of these four days was placed on several
special committees. One vote desired him to apply to the
company in Boston formerly under Major Paddock, to learn how
many of them might be depended on officers and men
to form an artillery company when the Constitutional Army of
the Province should take the field. The Provincial Congress had

(24:44):
provided for certain rules and regulations for the officers and
men of the Constitutional Army which might be raised in
the province. February tenth, the Committee of Safety had fixed
this army at fifteen thousand men, but they were to
be only conditionally summoned into the field. Among the manuscripts
of this committee is a remarkable letter addressed on the

(25:06):
twenty second of February by that admirable patriot Joseph Hawley
to Thomas Cushing, enjoining upon him Cushing, as he loved
his country, to use his utmost influence with the Committee
of Safety, that the militia be not mustard, and that
hostilities be not commenced until Massachusetts had the express categorical

(25:27):
decision of the continent that the time has absolutely come
that hostilities ought to begin, and that they would support
us in continuing them. All the assurance or security of
such effectual and continued aid as would be absolutely necessary,
Holly said, was contained in a resolution of about six lines,

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and they consisting of terms and expressions not the most
definite or of certain or precise meaning. The words used
in the resolution to state the case wherein hostilities are
to be commenced, my opinion, by far too loose, to
wit when the acts shall be attempted to be carried
into execution by force, as well as the words made

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use of to secure the aid of the colonies, to wit,
all America ought to support them in such opposition, not
that they will actually support them, but a mere declaration
that it would be reasonable and just that such support
should be afforded. Is this a treaty offensive and defense
an of sufficient precision to make us secure of the

(26:31):
effectual aid of the other colonies in a war with
Great Britain? There was no bolder spirit or more sterling
character than Joseph Hawley, but he shrunk from the step
of war without an assurance of the full sanction of
the American Union. At this time, Hoseiah Quincy Junior was
about embarking at London for home, and he was commissioned

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by the friends of the cause abroad to enjoin on
the people of Massachusetts. By no means to take any
steps so off of great consequence, unless on a sudden
emergency without the advice of the Continental Congress. Military events
of an irritating nature rendered the preservation of the peace difficult,
and the occurrence of a sudden emergency imminent. Such were

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the dismissal of Hancock from the command of the cadets,
the seizure of arms and ammunition, and the employment of
the military to sustain civil action. To counteract the American Association,
which have been adopted by the Continental Congress, the Tory
Party inaugurated a Loyal Association, designers of which pledged themselves

(27:38):
to oppose the proceedings of committees and Congresses as the
acts of unconstitutional assemblies. On the application of a portion
of the people of Marshfield who had signed this Tory pledge.
General Gage stationed a small force in this town, which,
being under good discipline, did not disturb the inhabitants, were

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noted and remained until the nineteenth of April. This forbearance
was ascribed by the Tories to the cowardice of the minutemen.
In continuance of the policy of disarming the patriots, Colonel Leslie,
on Sunday, the twenty sixth of February, was sent from
Boston with a body of troops to seize certain military

(28:19):
stores deposited at Salem. But the spirited conduct of the
inhabitants defeated the object of this expedition, and the detachment
thought itself fortunate in view of the minutemen, who spontaneously
gathered in getting safely back to Boston. Even this show
of hostility did not provoke the Committee of Safety to
give the order for a general muster of the troops

(28:41):
into the field. The militia and minutemen continued to meet
for drill in the towns all over the province, and
in many cases the expenses were met by appropriations from
the town treasury. This was the state of things when
the King, not harboring a thought of concession left the
choice of war or peace to depend on the submission

(29:02):
of Massachusetts to the Regulating Act. As the sword was
hanging by a thread, the words sent to its patriots,
along with the donations, which had now continued in an
uninterrupted flow for nine months, grew more and more tender.
The Committee of Falmouth now Portland, which like Charlestown, was

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soon to become a holocaust for American liberty, said of
its contribution, it is for suffering brethren who are standing
in the gap between us and slavery. We are but
few in number and of small ability, And as we
earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, shall
ever hold an utter detestation both men and measures that

(29:42):
would rob us of the fruits of our toil. And
are ready, with our labor, with our lives, and with
our estates, to stand or fall in the common cause
of liberty. And if we fall, we shall die like
men and like Christians, and enjoy the glorious privileges of
the sons of God. The reply of the Committee on
donations was scarcely less touching. Your letter, though short, is

(30:06):
very refreshing, Though the lines are few, the batter is
very comprehensive. What could you have said more? The Committee
are greatly obliged and have not a little strengthened. You
will please accept their sincere thanks for that cordial affection
expressed in your letter and manifested in a way the
most convincing. May the Lord bless you and reward you

(30:29):
one thousand fold. This interchange of sentiment shows the silken
cords that were intertwining communities into the sacred relations of country.
By cementing a union not defined on parchment, but fragrant
with the blossoming of fraternal sympathy, the press mirrored each
fresh detail in the march of events towards American nationality.

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It now contained installments of foreign intelligence showing England's fierce temper,
reports of the regiments sent to Boston, the parades of
alarm lists through the colony, the choice of military officers
in every county of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The resolves
of Fairfax County adopted at a meeting when Colonel George

(31:13):
Washington was in the chair, taxing every titheable person for
the purchase of arms, the expedition of Leslie at Salem,
the alarm that flew like lightning, the last number of
nov angelas proving the destruction of the tea just proper
and right, avowing that committees of correspondents were intended by

(31:33):
Providence for great events, and declaring that Britain could restore
harmony by desisting from taxing the colonies and interfering with
their internal concerns. These details indicate the sentiment, which suggested
by the common sense and heart, passed from mouth to
mouth in the home, in the street, in the club,
in the caucus, in the public meeting, formed public opinion,

(31:57):
and was a type of political momentum of modern times.
The American mind at this time interpreted rightly the importance
of the movement. Two utterances showing this are recorded side
by side in the Journals, the memorable charge of Judge
William Henry Drayton, enjoining a maintenance of the laws and
the rights of the Constitution at the hazard of life

(32:19):
and fortune, and the nov angelus of John Adams, claiming
for the basis of the patriots the principles that all
men were by nature equal, that kings are but the
ministers of the people holding delegated power, and that the people,
whenever power was used to oppress them, had a right
to resume it and place it in other hands, rising

(32:42):
above the provincial and the theological, the narrow and the transient.
The Patriot urged that these were the principles of Aristotle
and Plato, of Livy and Cicero, of Sydney, Harrington and Locke,
the principles of nature and eternal reason. As the actors
in these scenes mused on the development of these principles,

(33:05):
they reproduced as applicable and old prophecy of the future
glory of America. But if I fail not in my augury,
and who can better judge events than I, long ruling
years shall late bring on the times when, with your
gold debauched and ripened crimes Europe, the world's most noble

(33:27):
part shall fall upon her banished God's and virtue call
in vain, while foreign and domestic war at once shall
her distracted bosom tear forlorn and to be pitied even
by you. Meanwhile, your rising glory you shall view, wit, learning, virtue,

(33:48):
discipline of war, shall for protection to your world, repair
and fix a long illustrious empire there your native gold.
I would not have it so, but fear the event
in time it will follow too late. Destiny shall high
exalt your reign, whose pomp, no crowds of slaves, a

(34:09):
needless train, nor gold the rabble's idol shall support like
Montezoom's or Guanapache's court. But such true grandeur as old
Rome maintained, where fortune was a slave and virtue reigned.
The patriots now designed to commemorate the Boston Massacre. This

(34:31):
was usually done in the town meeting, but it was
one of the objects of the Regulating Act to suppress
meetings for such a purpose. The main theme of the
discourse on the occasion was the danger to a free
people of standing armies in time of peace, but this
theme would have to be treated in the presence of
the British army. Then. The Tory party of the town

(34:53):
was numerous and exultant. We have Samuel Adams wrote on
the fourth almost all the tour of note in the province.
In this town to which they have fled for the
General's protection, they affect the style of rab shaikh, But
the language of the people is in the name of
the Lord. We will tread down our enemies. It was

(35:15):
given out that it would be at the price of
the life to any man to speak of the massacre,
and that the military were determined that reflection on the
king or the royal family should not be allowed to
pass with impunity, the duty which, when parties were irritated
and exasperated to the verge of civil war, most men
would not at least seek. It was characteristic of Warren's

(35:38):
heroic nature to covet at his own suggestion. He was
appointed the order. He sought the duty in no selfish spirit,
but to enable him, as the organ of the community,
to bear open testimony that the Americans would make the
last appeal rather than submit to the yoke that was
prepared for their necks, that their one exampled patients had

(36:01):
no alloy of cowardice. The popular leaders, in so critical
a conjecture, were naturally desirous to be sure of their man. Tomorrow,
Samuel Adams wrote, and oration is to be delivered by
doctor Warren. It was thought best to have an experienced
officer in the political field on this occasion, as we

(36:21):
may possibly be attacked in our trenches. The patriots looked
forward to the day with deep interest, and not without apprehension.
The anniversary coming on Sunday, the commemoration took place on Monday.
It is said that many people came into the town
from the country to take part in it, and there

(36:42):
was a prodigious concourse. This indicates that the streets were
thronged as they are on a modern Fourth of July.
In the morning, the citizens, legally warned by an adjournment
of the port Bill meeting, assembled in Faniel Hall with
Samuel Adams for the moderator, and transacted the year usual
business relative to the selection of the orator. It was

(37:04):
reported that the committee of the Old South Meetinghouse were
willing it should be used on the occasion, and the
town adjourned to meet at half past eleven o'clock in
the church, the Old South was crowded. In the pulpit,
which was draped in black, were the popular leaders, who
from year to year had been selected by the people

(37:24):
to be the exponents of their cause. Those named as
being present, besides Samuel Adams and William Cooper, the town Clerk,
were Church Hancock and the selectmen. The moderator, observing several
British officers standing in the aisles, requested the occupants of
the front pews to vacate them. And courteously invited the

(37:45):
strangers to occupy these seats. When about forty officers dressed
in their uniforms filled these pews or sat upon the
pulpit stairs, the audience consisted mainly of the actors. In
the public meetings of preceding years, the men who had
opposed the Revenue Acts, had protested against military rule, had
summoned the Convention of seventeen sixty eight, had demanded the

(38:08):
removal of troops, had organized committees of correspondence, had destroyed
the Tea, and had resisted the Regulating Act. They now
felt that they were parts of an organization known as
the Grand American Union. As yet, this party did not
desire independence, but one of their number, probably Warren, said

(38:29):
on this morning in the press, that if the Ministry
would not hearken to the wise and just proposals of
the Continental Congress, it could be demonstrated by a million
of reasons that the people must look forward to the
last grand step for defense, that the Americans would be
compelled by the great law of nature to strike a

(38:50):
decisive blow, and, following the example of the once oppressed
United Provinces, publish a manifesto to the world, showing the
necessity of dissolving their connection with a nation whose ministers
were aiming at their ruin. Warren's personal friends were determined
to protect him from insult. The audience manifested some impatience

(39:12):
at a little delay in the appearance of the orator.
He was prepared to meet violence, and rode in a
chase to the building opposite the Old South. There, put
on a robe, and to avoid pressing through the crowd,
went to the rear of the building, and by a
ladder entered it through the window back of the pulpit.
Classic and loving pens have drawn the traits of this

(39:34):
type of American manhood. Amiable, accomplished, prudent, energetic, eloquent, brave.
He united the graces of a manly beauty to a
lion's heart, a sound mind, a safe judgment, and a
firmness of purpose which nothing could shake. He possessed a
clear understanding, a strong mind, a disposition humane and generous,

(39:56):
with manners easy, affable and engaging, but zealous, active and
sanguine in the cause of his oppressed country. He was
a powerful orator because he was a true man and
struggled for man's highest rights. A patriot in whom the
flush of youth and the grace and dignity of manhood
were combined, stood armed in the sanctuary of God, to

(40:19):
animate and encourage the sons of liberty and to hurl
defiance at their oppressors. The tender words of eulogy, uttered
on the next commemoration of this day, after his spirit
had passed from earth, and as his loved idea and
numberless virtues were recalled, indicate the sympathy that existed between

(40:39):
the speaker and the audience. We mourn thine exit, illustrious shade,
with undissembled grief. We venerate thine exalted character. We will
erect a monument to thy memory in each of our
grateful hearts, and to the latest ages, will teach our
tender infants to lisp the name of Warren with wild

(41:00):
veneration and applause. The silence was oppressive as the orator
advanced to the pulpit and began in a firm tone
of voice, My ever honored fellow citizens, It is not
without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability
that I now appear before you, But the sense I
have of the obligation I am under to obey the

(41:21):
calls of my country at all times. Together with an
animated recollection of your indulgence exhibited upon so many occasions,
has induced me once more undeserving as I am, to
throw myself upon that candor which looks with kindness on
the feeblest efforts of an honest mind. After an exordium
imbued with the sterling virtue of sincerity, the order proceeded

(41:46):
to the conclusion with great energy and pathos, receiving the
warm applause of friends and occasional tokens of dissent from
portions of his audience. The orator at the beginning stated
the following proposition that personal freedom is the natural right
of every man, and that property, or an exclusive right

(42:06):
to dispose of what he has honestly acquired by his
own labor, necessarily arises therefrom are truths which common sense
has placed beyond the reach of contradiction, and no man
or body of men, can, without being guilty of flagrant injustice,
claim a right to dispose of the persons or acquisitions

(42:26):
of any other man or a body of men, unless
it can be proved that such a right had arisen
from some compact between the parties in which it has
been explicitly and freely granted. The orator, in a retrospective
survey of the settlement of the country by the illustrious emigrants,
delineated their labors and perils in these western regions, in

(42:49):
rescuing them from their rudest state and defending them from
the savage, Regarding man in this state, and even anarchy itself,
as infinitely less dangerous than our ratary power, then this
widely extended continent was let alone and grew. Britain, saw
her commerce extend and her wealth increase. The colonists found

(43:10):
himself free, and thought himself secure, both countries flourishing, happy
and united in affection, thought not of distinct or separate interests.
The colonists gloried in the British fame. He dwelt under
his own vine and under his own fig tree, and
had none to make him afraid. He knew, indeed, that

(43:31):
by purchasing the manufactures of Great Britain, he contributed to
its greatness. He knew that all the wealth that his
labor produced centered in Great Britain, But that, far from
exciting his envy, filled him with the highest pleasure. That
thought supported him in all his toils. When the business
of the day was passed, he solaced himself with the contemplation,

(43:53):
or perhaps entertained his listening family with the recital of
some great, some glorious train transaction which shines conspicuous in
the history of Britain. Or perhaps his elevated fancy led
him to foretell with a kind of enthusiastic confidence, the glory, power,
and duration of an empire which should extend from one

(44:14):
end of the earth to the other. He saw, or
thought he saw the British nation risen to a pitch
of grandeur, which cast avail over the Roman glory, and
ravished with the preview, boasted a race of British kings
whose name should echo through those realms where Cyrus, Alexander
and the Caesars were unknown, Princes for whom millions of

(44:36):
grateful subjects redeemed from slavery and pagan ignorance, should with
thankful tongues, offer up their prayers and praises to that
transcendently great and beneficent being by whom king's reign and
prince's decree justice. The order then traced the rise in
progress of the aggressions on the natural right of the

(44:58):
colonists to enjoy personal, freeom and representative government. Until this
wicked policy had shaken the Empire to its center, yet
it was still persisted in regardless of the voice of reason,
deaf to the prayers and supplications, and unaffected by the
flowing tears of suffering millions. And as a consequence, the

(45:19):
hearts of Britain's and Americans, which had lately felt the
generous glow of mutual confidence and love, now burned with
jealousy and rage. The Briton looked on the American with
an envious eye, and the American beheld to Britain as
the ruffian, ready first to take his property and next
what is dearer to every virtuous man, the liberty of

(45:41):
his country. The order then passed to the scenes, arising
out of the resolution of the British administration to sustain
this aggressive policy by force which reason scorned to countenance
and placement were unable to execute. He dwelt on the
features of that night of una horror, when the troops

(46:01):
fired on the people, the sad remembrance of which took
full possession of his soul. One of the victims was
so mangled by the bayonet that his brains fell upon
the pavement. And to this the order referred when he said, come,
widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief. Behold thy murdered husband
gasping on the ground, And to contemplate the pompous show

(46:24):
of wretchedness, bring in each hand thy infant children to
bewail their father's fate. Take heed, ye orphan babes, Lest,
while your streaming eyes are fixed upon the ghastly corpse,
your feet slide on the stones, be spattered with your
father's brains. Enough, this tragedy need not be heightened by

(46:45):
an infant weltering in the blood of him that gave
it birth. Nature reluctant shrinks away already from the view,
and the chilled blood rolls slowly backward to his fountain.
We wildly stare about, and one of the amazement asked,
who spread this ruin round us? What wretch has dared
to face the image of his God? Has haughty France

(47:08):
or cruel Spain sent forth her merrimidans, Has the grim
savage rushed again from the far distant wilderness, or to
some fiend fierce from the depth of hell, with all
the rancorous malice which the apostate damned can feel, twang
her destructive bow and hurl her deadly arrows at our breast. No,

(47:29):
none of these, But how astonishing it is the hand
of Britain that inflicts the wound. The arms of George,
our rightful King, have been employed to shed that blood
which freely would have flown at his command when justice
or the honor of his crown had called his subjects
to the field. The cry that arose for revenge was
referred to, and the departure of the troops as the

(47:51):
close of this drama. The orator then spoke of the
existing exigency, when a gracious prince had been persuaded to
erect the hostile banner against a people ever affectionate and
loyal to him and his illustrious predecessors of the House
of Hanover, and to enforce obedience to acts of Parliament

(48:12):
destructive to liberty. Though armed men again filled the streets,
the people were not intimidated, but resolved that liberty must
be preserved. It was a Roman maxim never to despair
of the commonwealth. It may prove salutary now short sighted mortals,
see not the numerous links of small and great events

(48:33):
which form the chain on which the fate of kings
and nations is suspended. Ease has often made a people effeminate.
Hardship and danger have called forth virtues that commanded the
applause of an admiring world. Our country loudly calls you
to be circumspect, vigilant, active and brave. Perhaps all gracious

(48:56):
heaven averted, Perhaps the power of Britain, a nat great
in war, by some malignant influence, may be employed to
enslave you. But let not even this discourage you. Her arms,
tis true, have filled the world with terror, Her troops
have reaped the laurels of the field. Her fleets have
rode triumphant on the sea. And when or where did you,

(49:19):
my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight, You
too can show the trophies of your forefather's victories, and
your own can name the fortresses and battles you have won,
and many of you count the honorable scars of wounds
received whilst fighting for your king and country. Where justice
is the standard, heaven is the warrior's shield, But conscious

(49:42):
guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocent.
The orator, in conclusion said that the attempt of Parliament
to raise a revenue from America, and the denial of
the right to do it, had excited an almost universal
inquiry into the rights of mankind in general, and created
such a liberality of sentiment and jealousy of power as

(50:04):
would better than an Admontine wall secure the people against
the approach of despotism. The Boston Port Act had created
those sympathetic ties that must forever endear the people to
each other, and form those indissoluble bonds of friendship and
affection on which the preservation of our rights so evidently depend.

(50:26):
The mutilation of the Charter has made every other colony
jealous for its own, for this, if once submitted to
by us, would set afloat the property and government of
every British settlement on the continent. The following are the
closing paragraphs. Our country is in danger, but not to
be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful, but

(50:49):
we have many friends determined to be free, and Heaven
and Earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the
fortunes of America. You are to decide the import wortant
question on which rests the happiness and liberty of millions,
Yet unborn act worthy of yourselves. The faltering tongue of
hoary age calls on you to support your country. The

(51:12):
lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, imploring defense against the
monster slavery. Your father's look from the celestial seats with
smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in
the cause of virtue, but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscrant, who,
to secure the loaves and fishes to himself, would breede

(51:35):
a serpent to destroy his children. But pardon me, my
fellow citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude.
You will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle,
however difficult to combat. You will never decline it. When
freedom is the prize and independence on Great Britain is

(51:56):
not our aim, No, our wish is that Britain the
colonies may, like the Oak and Ivy, grow and increase
in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making
one part of the Empire slaves to the other is persisted.
In the interest and safety of Britain as well as
the colonies require that the wise measures recommended by the

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Honorable the Continental Congress be steadily pursued, whereby the unnatural
contests between a parent honored and a child beloved may
probably be brought to such an issue as that the
peace and happiness of both may be established upon a
lasting basis. But if these specific measures are ineffectual, and

(52:42):
it appears that the only way to safety is through
the fields of blood, I know you will not turn
your faces from our foes, but will undauntedly press forward
until tyranny is trodden underfoot, and you have fixed your
adored goddess Liberty fast by a Brunswick side on the
American throat. You, then, who nobly have espoused your country's cause,

(53:05):
who generously have sacrificed wealth and ease, who have despised
the pomp and show of tinsel greatness, refused the summons
to the festive board, and deaf to the alluring calls
of luxury and mirth, who have forsaken the downy pillow,
to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp for the
salvation of your invaded country, that you may break the

(53:28):
fowler's snare and disappoint the vulture of his prey. You
then will reach this harvest of renown, which you so
justly have deserved. Your country shall pay her grateful tribute
of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies,
ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they in

(53:48):
secret curse their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general
voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which
their fathers forged. Having redeemed your country and secured the
blessing to future generations who fired by your example, shall
emulate your virtues and learn from you the heavenly art

(54:09):
of making millions happy with heartfelt joy, with transports all
your own. You cry, the glorious work is done. Then
drop the mantle to some young Alicia, and take your
seats with the kindred spirits in your native skies. The
speeches in which prominent actors in Grecian and Roman story
developed their policy or promote their objects, not words actually spoken,

(54:34):
but what the relater thought we're fitting to have been spoken,
are regarded as valuable delineations of the temper of those times.
But here are the words of an earnest and representative
man uttered on the eve of a great war, and
in the presence of the military power whom he was
soon to meet in the field, for the sake of
the cause, he dared to speak what some scarce dared

(54:56):
to think. His speech, imbued with the spirit of high
chivalry and faith, resounds with the clash of arms. Though
it is said that some of the officers groaned as
the enthusiastic audience applauded, yet they were generally quiet to
the close of the oration. One of them, seated on
the pulpit stairs, in the course of the delivery, held

(55:18):
up one of his hands with several pistol bullets on
the open palm, when the orator, observing the action, gracefully
dropped a white handkerchief on them. After the delivery, when
it was moved that the thanks of the town be
presented to the orator for the oration. On the commemoration
of the horrid masker, some of the officers struck their

(55:38):
canes on the floor, Others hissed, others exclaimed oh Phi Phi,
which was understood as a cry of fire, and there
was a scene of panic. The patriots were prepared for
any exigency. The north enders who idolized Warren did not
mean to be trifled with. The assembly, Samuel Adams says,

(55:59):
was irred to the greatest degree, and confusion ensued. They
the officers, however, did not gain their end, which was
apparently to break up the meeting. For order was soon restored,
and we proceeded regularly and finished the business. I am
persuaded that were it not for the danger of precipitating
a crisis, not a man of them would have been spared.

(56:21):
It was provoking enough to the whole corps that while
there were so many troops stationed here with the design
of suppressing town meetings, that there should yet be one
for the purpose of delivering an oration to commemorate a
massacre perpetrated by soldiers, and to show the danger of
standing armies. The scene was sublime. Samuel L. Knapp says,

(56:42):
there was in this appeal to Britain, in this description
of suffering, dying, and horror, a calm and high sold
defiance which must have chilled the blood of every sensible foe.
Such another hour has seldom happened in the history of man,
and is not so passed in the records of nations.
The thunders of Demosthenes rolled at a distance from Philip

(57:06):
and his host, and totally poured the fiercest torrent of invective,
when Cataline was at a distance and his dagger no
longer to be feared. But Warren's speech was made to
proud oppressors resting on their arms, whose errand it was
to overawe, and whose business it was to fight. If
the deed of Brutus deserved to be commemorated by history, poetry, painting,

(57:29):
and sculpture, should not this instance of patriotism and bravery
be held in lasting remembrance. If he that struck the
foremost man of all this world was hailed as the
first of freemen, what honors are not due to him
who undismayed bearded the British lion to show the world

(57:49):
what his country dared to do in the cause of liberty.
If the statue of Brutus was placed among those of
the gods who were the preservers of Roman freedom, want
that of war and fill a lofty niche in the
temple reared to perpetuate the remembrance of our birth as
a nation. End of Chapter thirteen,