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 GENERAL WARREN, 
 
 IN RELATION TO THE 
 
 FIFTH OF MARCH MASSACRE, 
 
 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 
 
 BY A LADY OF BOSTON, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 JAMES LORING, 132 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1835. 
 

 Eatered accordiug to the act of Congress, in the year 1835, 
 
 BY JAMES LORING, 
 la the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massacliusetts. 
 
 <? /T 
 
 ?/v^^- 
 
STORIES 
 
 GENERAL WARREN. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author of the following little sketch 
 has often heard the question asked, " What 
 did Gen. Warren do to deserve all that has 
 been said about him ?" " Did he do any- 
 thing more than fight bravely, and get killed 
 on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill ?" 
 To answer these questions, and to show, that 
 although it was much for him to sacrifice his 
 life for his country, yet that was not all he 
 did ; that he had toiled nobly for many years 
 in her cause, before a drop of blood had been 
 shed to accomplish her freedom, has been the 
 principal object in writing it. 
 
 For some of the facts, she is indebted to 
 those who have before written on the sub- 
 ject ; but many of them have never before 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 been published ; nor does she think any but 
 the closing one of his death is very generally 
 known. 
 
 Another object has been, to place the lead- 
 ing causes of the Revolution in so strong and 
 clear a light, and in such simple language, 
 that every child may comprehend them as 
 soon as he can read. 
 
 It has also been her design so to delineate 
 the leading traits of Gen. Warren's character, 
 as to show that his patriotism w^as not a sud- 
 den start of enthusiasm, but had long been a 
 guiding principle of action. 
 
 If the writer has succeeded in deepening in 
 any young mind, the impression of the debt 
 of gratitude we ow^e the authors of our free 
 institutions, or if the following pages should 
 lead any one to think and read more on the 
 subject, she will feel amply rewarded for all 
 the trouble bestowed on them. 
 
STORIES 
 
 GENERAL WARREN 
 
 As Mary Montague and her mother were 
 one morning sitting at work, by a cheerful 
 fire, William, a boy about nine years old, ran 
 in exclaiming, Oh dear mother ! I'm so tired 
 I don't know what to do. 
 
 Mrs. Montague. Why, my son, what has 
 tired you so much ? 
 
 William. I have been playing hoop more 
 than an hour, and my hands ache so I can 
 play no longer. 
 
 Mrs. M. Then you had batter come and 
 sit down with Mary and me and rest yourself. 
 1 
 
10 STORIES OF 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I will, if you can 
 lend me some pretty book, or tell me a story ; 
 there is no school to-day, you know. 
 
 Mrs. M. I have no book which you have 
 not read, nor can I put aside my work to 
 amuse you, but I can tell you a story and 
 work too. 
 
 William. So do, mamma, I shall like that 
 best. 
 
 Mary. And I too, dear mother. 
 Mrs. M. What shall I tell you about ? 
 Shall I tell you a true story, or do you wish 
 me to make up one ? 
 
 William. I should rather hear a true one, 
 if you please, about some great man. Some 
 American, for I had rather hear about one of 
 my own countrymen, than about a foreigner, 
 as I think you call those who live in other 
 countries, do you not ? 
 Mrs. M. Yes, my dear. 
 William. You know I have had books 
 about a great many of our celebrated men, 
 such as Gen. Washington, Gen. Lafayette, and 
 Franklin. Now I want you to tell me what 
 you can of Gen. Warren. Was he not a great 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 11 
 
 and good man ? I should think he must have 
 been, for I have heard people speak of him 
 very often, when talking of the revolution ; I 
 know, too, that great monument on Bunker 
 Hill is partly for him, but I do not know what 
 he did to deserve so much praise. 
 
 Mrs. M. I believe, my dear, there has 
 never been any httle books written about him, 
 but he was both a great and a good man, 
 though he did not live long enough to do so 
 much for his country as those other generals 
 of whom you have read. If you wish, I will 
 tell you all I can of him. 
 
 William. Oh, so do ! I want to hear it 
 very much. 
 
 Mary. So do I. 
 
 Mrs. M. You spoke just now, William, 
 of Lafayette as though you thought him an 
 American. Do you not know he w^as a 
 Frenchman ? 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I know that very 
 well, but he did so much for us I can hardly 
 help thinking he belonged to us. 
 
 Mrs. M. I do not much wonder at that, 
 for he could not have done more, nor even so 
 
12 STORIES OF 
 
 much, if he had indeed been an American. 
 Come, now for General Warren. Shall 1 be- 
 gin at the time when he was a child like you, 
 or at that in which he became a general ? 
 
 William and Mary, both together. Oh 
 pray begin when he was a child like us. 
 
 Mrs. M. I cannot tell you a great deal 
 about him at that time. I only know that he 
 was born in Roxbury, in the year 1741. Rox- 
 bury is a small town a few miles from Boston. 
 I have no doubt you often ride by the old 
 house in which Joseph (for that was the name 
 of the general) and his three brothers were 
 born. It has now almost fallen to pieces, but 
 it was once a beautiful place, and had a great 
 many fine fruit trees round it. The father of 
 Joseph was quite a rich farmer ; he raised the 
 best fruit of any one near Boston. Do you 
 remember seeing last winter an apple with a 
 fine blush on one side, called the Warren rus- 
 seting ? 
 
 William. Yes, mother, I think I do. 
 
 Mrs. M. Joseph's father was the first 
 person who cultivated this apple, and it re- 
 ceived its name from him : but alas ! it cost 
 him and his family very dear. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 13 
 
 William. How, mamma ? 
 
 Mrs. M. I will tell you. One day, in 
 the fall of the year, when almost all the ap- 
 ples were gathered, Mr. Warren, the father of 
 Joseph, while walking round his orchard to 
 see if every thing in it was in good order, as 
 he was looking over the trees he perceived 
 one apple on the top of his favorite tree, the 
 Warren russeting ; it looked so beautiful, with 
 the sun gilding its rosy side, that he deter- 
 mined to get it. He Vv^as a very active man ; 
 so up he climbed until his hand was on the 
 apple, when, just as he had pulled it off, the 
 branch on which he w^as standing, gave way, 
 he fell to the ground and was instantly killed ! 
 
 William. Oh dear, how long did he lay 
 there, mamma ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Not long ; some of his work- 
 men, who were near, heard the noise of the 
 fall, and directly went to see what it was. 
 
 His youngest son, whose name was John, 
 was then only four years old : dinner was 
 ready at home, and the mother of little John 
 told him to run into the orchard, and see why 
 his father did not come in to dinner : away he 
 1^ 
 
14 STORIES OF 
 
 went, and, as he was looking eagerly to see if 
 his father was coming, he saw two men carry- 
 ing something between them : he ran up to 
 them to see what it was, and, only think of it 1 
 it was the body of that dear father whose 
 affectionate embrace he was expecting every 
 moment to meet 1 Those eyes, which had so 
 often beamed on him with love, were closed 
 in death, and the arms, so often held out to 
 embrace him, hung motionless at his side 1 
 
 Mary. Oh, how I pity the poor boy, he 
 must have felt dreadfully ! 
 
 Mrs. M. Dreadfully indeed ! When he 
 grew up to be a man I often heard him say, that, 
 young as he then was, the feelings of that mo- 
 ment could never be effaced from his mind. 
 
 William. I should think he never could 
 have forgotten it. 
 
 Mrs. M. I have now told you about the 
 father of Joseph ; shall I tell you any thing 
 about his mother, or go on about him ? 
 
 William. If you please, I should like to 
 hear about his mother. I always feel more 
 interested in any one, when I am acquainted 
 with his father and mother. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 15 
 
 Mary. And I too love dearly to hear about 
 them, especially 1 want to know all I can of 
 the mother of any one I hear of, or read 
 about. 
 
 Mrs. M. I will tell you all I can of her. 
 Like Washington, Joseph was blessed with a 
 most excellent mother ; she, too, was like the 
 mother of Washington, left a widow when 
 even the oldest of her sons most required a 
 parent's care. Her husband, you recollect, 
 was killed when the youngest boy was only 
 four years old. The eldest was about twelve 
 years older. The task of a parent, though a 
 delightful, is a very arduous one, and when 
 that of both parents must be discharged by 
 one, it is much more so. It often happens 
 that a mother is left with a family of young 
 children, and is obliged to bring them up with- 
 out the controlling power of a father's care ; it 
 is therefore the duty of every female so to 
 educate her own mind, and that of her daugh- 
 ters, as to enable her, if she should be placed 
 in this responsible situation, to be able to guide 
 aright the minds of those under her care. In- 
 deed, a mother should always possess a culti- 
 
16 STORIES OF 
 
 vated mind, and a firm principle of action, to 
 render her capable of doing such a duty faith- 
 fully. The bent which she gives to the dawn- 
 ing character is seldom effaced through the 
 whole existence of an immortal being. I hope, 
 therefore, my children, more especially you, 
 my daughter, will constantly remember, that 
 unless you attend most carefully to the forma- 
 tion of your own hearts and minds, you will 
 never be competent to form those of others, 
 and that you are in some measure responsible 
 for the good or evil of the characters it may 
 be your lot to form. I trust, too, you will feel 
 that much of the good you may yourselves 
 possess is owing to your parents, who have, as 
 far as they could, guarded you from evil, and 
 led you in the right path, and to whom, there- 
 fore, you owe obedience and gratitude, and an 
 earnest endeavor to show, by your conduct, 
 that their labor has not been in vain. Most 
 faithfully did the mother of Joseph discharge 
 the double duty which had now devolved on 
 her. Her four boys, under her watchful eye, 
 grew up to be good, wise, and, most of them, 
 celebrated men, and richly repaid all her care 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 17 
 
 of them. But not only as a mother was she 
 estimated, for she practised the virtue of be- 
 nevolence, in the fullest sense of the word. 
 To her neighbors she was kind and hospitable ; 
 to the poor her house was always open. In- 
 deed, it might with truth be said of her, in the 
 words of that beautiful poet, Goldsmith, whose 
 works I trust you will soon learn to read and 
 admire : 
 
 " Her house was known to all the vagrant train, 
 She chid their wanderings, but reliev'd their pain. 
 The long remeinber'd beggar was lier guest, 
 And o(t the traveller at her board found rest. 
 Gentle their merits or their faults to scan, 
 Her pity gave e'er charity began." 
 
 In her old age, when her own children had 
 left her fire-side to take their part in the active 
 scenes of life, it was one of her dearest plea- 
 sures to gather a group of their children, and 
 the children of others around her. She did 
 all in her power to promote their enjoyment, 
 and her benevolent smile was always ready to 
 enliven and encouras^e them. On Thankso^iv- 
 ing day she depended on having all her chil- 
 dren and grand-children with her; and until 
 she was eighty years of age, she herself made 
 
18 STORIES OF 
 
 the pies with which her table was loaded ! 
 Not satisfied with feasting them to their hearts' 
 content, while they were with her, she always 
 had some nice great pies for them to take 
 home with them. 
 
 Mary. What a fine old lady she must have 
 been ! How I should have admired to have 
 gone to see her! 
 
 Mrs. M. She was indeed a most excel- 
 lent woman. As far as one imperfect being 
 can judge of another, she appeared to deserve 
 to be classed among those whom Christ, in his 
 sermon on the Mount, pronounced blessed. 
 She was often called to mourn, and she was 
 comforted by his word ; she was " meek" and 
 " humble," for, much as she did for others, 
 she thought she did nothing worthy to be 
 mentioned. Truly did she appear to hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness. That she was 
 " merciful," I have already told you. She was 
 " pure in heart," as an infant. As a " peace- 
 maker," she was more especially known. If 
 there was any dispute among her friends, rela- 
 tions, neighbors, or acquaintances, to her they 
 carried their troubles and their complaints. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 19 
 
 Even their evil feelings towards others were 
 not concealed from her. She soctlied their 
 troubles, pacified their complaints, and their 
 evil feelings and jealousies she changed into 
 kindness and good will. If she was reviled 
 she reviled not again, and though her good 
 w^as often evil spoken of, it did not make her 
 weary in well doing. Those who knew her, 
 trust she is now reaping the reward promised 
 to those that " faint not," and are not weary 
 in w^ell doing. 
 
 Mary. I think she must now be happy, 
 dear mother, or no one can expect to be. 
 
 Mrs. M. We have every reason to be- 
 lieve that she is, my dear girl. 
 
 Now let us go back to Joseph. He was 
 her eldest son. He was educated at the pub- 
 lic school in Roxbury. Like Washington, he 
 displayed in childhood the qualities which af- 
 terwards rendered him so celebrated as a man. 
 He was manly, generous, fearless and inde- 
 pendent. If one boy oppressed another, he 
 would always take the part of the weakest, 
 and generally succeeded in making the little 
 tyrant ashamed of himself. 
 
20 STORIES OF 
 
 William. Did not all the boys like him, 
 mamma ? I am sure I should have liked him. 
 
 Mrs. M. Yes, my dear, all the good boys 
 liked him, and, what was still better, the mas- 
 ters all liked him. You may be pretty sure 
 that a boy or girl either is deserving of love, 
 if their instructers are attached to them. His 
 mind was so well regulated, that, although he 
 would not submit to tyranny, he was respect- 
 ful and obedient to those who had a right to 
 govern him. And this was his rule of con- 
 duct through his after life. At the age of 
 fourteen, Joseph entered college. Here the 
 same good feelings which had marked his 
 character at school, continued to govern him. 
 His manners were gentle, and he had the re- 
 putation of possessing fine talents, great perse- 
 verance, and an entire fearlessness of danger, 
 when accomplishing that which he thought to 
 be right. 
 
 One day some of his classmates had deter- 
 mined to do something of which they knew 
 he would not approve. They met together 
 to arrange their plans for its execution. They 
 did not wish Warren to be with them, for they 
 
GENERAL WARREN. ai 
 
 knew his powers of persuasion were so great 
 that he w^ould, if present, prevail on the great- 
 est part of them not to enter into these plans. 
 They therefore fastened the door of the 
 room, in which they were, so that he could 
 not get it open. But he did not give up the 
 matter so easily. They were assembled in 
 an upper room ; and finding he could not 
 get in at the door, Warren went down into 
 the college yard. As he looked up he saw 
 their window was open. Now how do you 
 think he managed ? 
 
 William. I am sure I cannot tell, mam- 
 ma. Did he climb up to it? 
 
 Mrs. M. No, he eould not do that, it was 
 very high, and there was not any thing to 
 climb upon. He could see nothing near the 
 window but an old spout, which went from 
 the ground to the eaves, or top, of the house ; 
 this spout was so rotten it would hardly bear 
 a touch, much less the whole weight of any 
 one. 
 
 Mary. He could not get in on that then. 
 Do make haste, dear mother, and tell us if he 
 did get in, and how he contrived to. 
 2 
 
22 STORIES OF 
 
 Mrs. M. I will, my child, as soon as I can. 
 He again went up stairs to the scuttle door, 
 which was on the top of the house ; out of 
 this he got, slid down the slanting roof to the 
 edge of the house, just where the old spout 
 came up to it ; he then seized hold of this 
 spout, swung himself upon it, and slid down 
 as far as the window of the room, where his 
 classmates were, then in he sprang among 
 them, to their great surprise, as you may well 
 suppose. The instant he let go the decayed 
 thing on which he had descended, it broke to 
 pieces and fell to the ground. His compan- 
 ions heard the crash, rushed to the window, 
 and while they were uttering exclamations of 
 astonishment at the risk he had run, and con- 
 gratulating him on his narrow escape, he very 
 coolly replied, "it has stayed up just long 
 enough to serve my purpose," he then directly 
 entered upon the business which had brought 
 them together. 
 
 William. What a brave fellow he was. 
 How glad I am it did not break while he was 
 on it ! 
 
 Mary. I hardly breathed for fear it would. 
 
GENERAT. WARREN. 23 
 
 I hope be succeeded In preventing those young 
 men from doing what they had intended. 
 
 Miis. M. 1 hope so too, and I think it 
 probable he did. After such a proof of his 
 determination and perseverance, they must 
 have felt it was useless to oppose him. 
 
 A gentleman who saw him at the moment 
 he was coming from the top of the house, on 
 the spout, related the fact, in the college yard, 
 fifty years afterwards, pointing, at the same 
 time, to the very spot on which he saw him. 
 It had made so deep an impression on him, 
 that, even at that distance of time, he could 
 not speak of it without emotion. 
 
 William. Oh how 1 wish I could see the 
 place. Do you think, mamma, any body 
 could show it to me now ? 
 
 Mrs. M. I do not know, my dear, if any 
 one is now living who knows exactly the place. 
 I mean to inquire when I have an opportu- 
 nity, for I should like to see it myself. 
 
 Mary. So do mamma. 
 
 Mrs. M. At the end of his collesiate ed- 
 ucation, Joseph quitted college with the es- 
 teem and love of all who had known him there. 
 
24 STORIES OF 
 
 He then determined to study medicine. I 
 suppose you know he was a physician before 
 he became a generaL 
 
 William. No, indeed, I did not : if I have 
 heard it, I did not think enough about it to 
 remember it. Was he the celebrated Dr. 
 Warren of whom 1 have so often heard ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Do you mean the Dr. Warren 
 now hving ? 
 
 William. Oh no, mamma, I know it was 
 not him, though I have heard a great deal 
 about him too ; the one I mean died a great 
 while before I was born. 
 
 Mrs. M. The one you are thinking of was 
 the youngest brother of the general, — his name 
 was John, — he whom I told you was the first 
 one of the family who saw his father when he 
 was killed by the fall from the tree. Do you 
 not remember it ? 
 
 WiLliam. Yes, dear mother, I am sure I 
 shall not forget him. 
 
 Mrs. M. Joseph was an eminent physi- 
 cian as well as his brother. He began to 
 practice in Boston. Soon after he commenced 
 business the small pox spread all over the city, 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 25 
 
 or town ; for it was not then a city. We 
 hardly know any thing of this dreadful disease 
 now-a-days ; inocidation has made it a very 
 different one from what it then was. At that 
 time people had not much faith in this mode 
 of lessening its violence, and when it once en- 
 tered a place, a great many people generally 
 had it and died with it. This was the case at 
 the period of which I speak. Dr. Joseph 
 Warren was then only twenty-three years old, 
 but he managed the disease with so much 
 judgment and skill that he restored more peo- 
 ple, who were attacked with it, than any other 
 physician in Boston. 
 
 William. How did the other doctors like 
 that, dear mother ? 
 
 Mrs. ]\J. They w^ere all very glad he was 
 so successful ; and liked him the better for it. 
 His manners were so gentle and courteous, they 
 could not feel jealous of him. He always 
 looked so pleasant, and was so benevolent, 
 that every body loved him. The hearts he 
 w^on at this time always remained warmly at- 
 tached to him. His great talents, and the 
 superiority of his information secured the re- 
 2* 
 
26 STORIES OF 
 
 spect as well as love of those who knew him. 
 This was the reason he had so much influence 
 over others. His talents alone would not have 
 given it to him ; but when to respect was add- 
 ed admiration and love, it gave him power to 
 guide his countrymen almost as he pleased. 
 
 When the King of England yielded to the 
 counsels of those who told him that, as we 
 were his subjects, he had a right to make us 
 pay him vv^iatever money he chose to demand, 
 whether we chose to pay it or not, General, 
 then Dr. Warren, was one of the first to tell 
 the people that the king had no right to make 
 us pay one single copper without our consent ; 
 that he had not a right even to say what we 
 ought to pay, but ought to allow us to choose 
 our own rulers, and let them decide what our 
 taxes should be. 
 
 Mary. What are taxes, dear mother? 
 
 Mrs. M. Taxes are monies paid for the 
 support of those who govern us. You know 
 that every city and town makes choice of men 
 whom they can trust, to meet together to say 
 what and how much these taxes shall be. 
 Now it was not possible that we should send 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 27 
 
 men every year to England, to meet with the 
 rulers there, to agree on what we ought to 
 pay, and, unless we did, we should be taxed 
 unjustly. Therefore the only way to be taxed 
 fairly, was to choose people ourselves to tax 
 us. The king would neither let us say what 
 we ought to pay, nor would he let us say w^ho 
 should govern us. He insisted on our suffer- 
 ing men whom he sent over, to govern us ; 
 and he obliged us to pay them, even though 
 they opressed us. 
 
 William. What a shame ! I do not won- 
 der our people determined not to submit to it. 
 
 Mrs. M. The people were so much at- 
 tached to the king and their mother country, 
 as England was always called, that they would 
 not have resisted this ; at least not so early 
 after their settlement in this country, had the 
 king stopped here. But he chose, notwith- 
 standing all our remonstrances and petitions, to 
 continue to impose taxes without our consent. 
 We could hardly buy an article which came 
 from England, that we did not have to pay for 
 it more than its worth, so that the king might 
 have part of the money. As almost every 
 
28 STORIES OF 
 
 ithlng we consumed was brought from England, 
 this tax of course bore very heavy on a young 
 country. But still this was not the reason it 
 was resisted ; it was because it was unjust to 
 impose any taxes on a free people, without 
 their consent. Gen. Warren endeavored, with 
 all the powers of his vigorous mind, to make 
 the people understand their rights. His argu- 
 ments, and those of others who thought like 
 him, had so far convinced them of the ne- 
 cessity of resisting these taxes, that, when a 
 cargo of tea arrived at the port of Boston, 
 on every pound of which there was a heavy 
 duty, a number of people, disguised in Indian 
 dresses., entered the vessel in the night which 
 contained it, broke open the chests of tea, and 
 threw all that was in them, into the water. 
 They thus showed that they preferred to have 
 their families go without an article which was 
 much valued by them, rather than to pay for 
 it by yielding, in the slightest -degree, to an 
 act that would endanger their liberties. Their 
 wives, so far from repining at this deprivation, 
 determined, from that moment, not to touch a 
 drop of their favorite beverage until they could 
 )iave it free from taxes. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 29 
 
 Mary. That was right. I am glad they did 
 what they could to support those brave men. 
 
 Mrs. M. After this daring act, the king 
 determined to make us submit hy force. He 
 therefore sent over more soldiers to control us ; 
 he had always kept some here ; and he sent 
 Gen. Gage to command them, and to be our 
 Governor. He also sent ships filled with 
 armed men, to occupy our harbour, and to 
 prevent any other vessels from coming to our 
 assistance. Should you not think that the 
 Boston people would now be tempted to give 
 up the point ? 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I should ; for I 
 do not see how they could see any prospect 
 of gaining it \vith their town and their harbour 
 filled with British soldiers. 
 
 Mrs. M. So far from giving it up, they 
 only determined more strenuously to endeavor 
 to gain it. They would not suffer any of the 
 British rulers or judges to meet. They closed 
 all the court houses where these men wanted 
 to meet, and decided all their disputes and 
 difficulties themselves : indeed, they were so 
 determined not to need these courts, that the 
 
30 STORIES OF 
 
 utmost order and regularity reigned among 
 them. Sometimes, indeed, the British officers 
 or the soldiers which thronged the streets would 
 exasperate the people so much, that they col- 
 lected in mobs, determined to avenge them- 
 selves on them. At such times Gen. Warren 
 repeatedly exposed his life in the midst of 
 these mobs, to soothe them and restrain them 
 from acts of violence. His persuasive elo- 
 quence seldom failed to bring them to their 
 duty, and to make them ashamed of what they 
 were about to do. He would tell them that it 
 was a very bad way to show they could govern 
 themselves, by committing acts which would 
 let every one see they had neither justice nor 
 humanity; that w^hile so many good men were 
 doing all in their power to free them from 
 the oppression of others, it was a great in- 
 jury to the cause of freedom for them to 
 oppress in their turn ; and thus to take upon 
 themselves to both judge and punish others 
 without giving those whom they disliked an 
 opportunity to defend themselves. At first, 
 the men who composed these mobs would try 
 to drive him aw^ay, and make a noise to pre- 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 31 
 
 vent his being heard. While they did this, he 
 would stand calmly and look at them. His in- 
 trepidity, his commanding and animated coun- 
 tenance, and, above all, their knowledge that 
 he was in reality on their side, as far as it was 
 right to be, would soon make them as eager 
 to hear as he was to speak, and, finally, they 
 would disperse to their houses, with the most 
 perfect confidence that they could not do bet- 
 ter than to leave their cause in such hands. 
 
 Although Gen. Warren thus restrained the 
 people from revenging the insults of the Brit- 
 ish, lie did not escape them hirjself. They 
 took every opportunity of calling him a rebel, 
 and telling him, as they did all those who 
 were on his side, that he would meet the fate 
 of a rebel, that of being hung. Yon know there 
 is a piece of land which connects Boston to 
 Roxbury, called the neck, do you not? 
 
 Mary. Yes, mamma, we often ride over 
 it when we go to R — , do we not ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Yes, my dear. Formerly people 
 were hung oftener and much more publicly 
 than at present. There was, therefore, a gal- 
 lows erected on the neck, on which to hang 
 
32 STORIES OF 
 
 criminals, where every body could see them. 
 One day, Dr. Joseph Warren was going over 
 to Roxbury, to visit his mother, whom he loved 
 very much ; wdien he had gone over a little 
 w-ay on the neck he came to a spot where three 
 or four British officers were standing together, 
 talking, as he passed them, one of them called 
 out " Go on, Warren, you will soon come to 
 the gallows." They meant he would soon 
 come to the gallows on the neck, but it was 
 very evident they also meant to insult him, as 
 they burst into a loud laugh so soon as it was 
 said. Warren was not a man to submit to an 
 insult from any one, least of all from them. 
 He immediately turned back, walked up to 
 them, and calmly requested to know^ which of 
 them had thus addressed him. Not one of 
 them had the courage to avow his insolence. 
 Finding he could obtain no answer, he at last 
 left them, ashamed of themselves and of each 
 other, but glad to have got off so easily. 
 
 William. What a set of cowards ! I wish 
 Gen. Warren could have given them a good 
 flogging. 
 
 Mrs. M. It w^ould have been but what 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 33 
 
 they deserved, to be sure. It usually happens 
 that those who are most ready to insult, where 
 they think no defence can be made, are the 
 greatest cowards when called upon to avow or 
 defend what they have done. 
 
 Gen. Warren had so much power over the 
 feelings of tliose whom he addressed, that is, 
 he was so eloquent, that he was several times 
 chosen, by those who v/ere in favor of the 
 cause of liberty, to address the people from 
 the pulpit, that a great many at a time might 
 hear him. 
 
 Do you know any thing about the 5th of 
 March massacre, in which the first American 
 blood was shed by the British ? 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, we both know 
 about it. We have read it in Parley's First 
 Book of History. 
 
 Mrs. M. I am glad of it ; that is a most 
 excellent little history, and contains a great 
 deal you ought to remember. You know, then, 
 that for some years after that massacre, on 
 every 5th of March there was an oration de- 
 livered in the Old South meeting-house, to tell 
 every body that one injury after another had 
 3 
 
34 STORIES OF 
 
 been inflicted on us by the British, until the 
 common people had become so angry that 
 whenever they saw a British soldier they 
 wanted to insult him. By the way, I will 
 stop here a moment, to tell you of something 
 which was done by one of the British officers, 
 which wilJ show you that the people of Bos- 
 ton had some reason to dislike them. The 
 British were very much afraid that guns 
 should be procured by the Americans from 
 their soldiers, and whenever they knew that 
 any American had bought a musket from one 
 of their men, they punished him severely. 
 Some of the officers, however, were so eager 
 to have an excuse for punishing our men, that 
 they would tempt them to buy guns, on pur- 
 pose to make a difficulty. One in particular, 
 a Col. Nesbit, ordered one of his men to offer 
 an American, who had come in from the coun- 
 try, an old musket, very cheap. The poor 
 man, little suspecting any trick, eagerly bought 
 it. Col. Nesbit immediately took him up and 
 confined him all night in the guard house. 
 The next morning he stripped him entirely 
 naked, covered him over with warm tar. then 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 35 
 
 he put feathers over that and placed him on a 
 cart and conducted him through Boston streets^ 
 quite up to the south end. He was guarded 
 by thirty grenadiers, with fixed bayonets ; 
 twenty drums and fifes accompanied them,, 
 playing the '' Rogues March," and the des- 
 picable Nesbit headed the procession with his 
 sword drawn. 
 
 William. I think it was a '' rogues march'' 
 indeed, dear mother, don't you ? But what 
 became of the poor man, did not our people 
 rescue him, and do something to that wicked 
 Colonel ? 
 
 Mrs. M. When they reached that part of 
 Washington street where the liberty tree then 
 w^as, the people had become so excited, that 
 the cowardly Nesbit w^as glad to let his sol- 
 diers disperse, and he and they skulked to their 
 barracks as quick as they could. The unfor- 
 tunate object of their cruelty was of course- 
 liberated and taken care of. 
 
 William. Oh how I wish they had caught 
 Col. Nesbit, and tarred and feathered him as 
 he had the man ! 
 
 Mks. M. It was much better to let him 
 
36 STORIES OF 
 
 go. This conduct of his served our cause 
 better than any thing he could have done ; and 
 it would have been a pity for us to have fol- 
 lowed his example, and thus have lessened 
 the odium attached to him. 
 
 William. I do not at all wonder, if such 
 was the conduct of the British, that our men 
 felt angry whenever they met any of them. 
 
 Mrs. M. Nor I. But to return to the 
 5th of March Orations. The great subject of 
 them was, the oppression of the British, and 
 the quarrels which were constantly taking 
 place between their soldiers and ours, and 
 which it was impossible to avoid, while these 
 oppressions w^ere permitted. The orators did 
 not then urge the people to throw off the gov- 
 ernment of Great Britain, they only explained 
 their rights, and called upon them not to give 
 them up, but one and all to petition the king 
 to take away his soldiers and his governors 
 from our country, and permit us to choose ru- 
 lers from among ourselves, and to form our own 
 soldiers. These petitions were accordingly 
 repeatedly sent to the king, but the more we 
 petitioned the more soldiers he sent. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 37 
 
 Gen. Warren delivered two of these ora- 
 tions. The first had so great an effect on the 
 people, that they determined to resort to arms 
 if their petitions were unsuccessful. Indeed, 
 all these orations had such a powerful influ- 
 ence on the hearers, that the British officers 
 determined there should be no more such. 
 They declared it should be as much as a per- 
 son's life was worth to attempt again to deliver 
 one. Many men who would otherwise have 
 been desirous to speak on the anniversary of 
 the massacre, now thought it most prudent to 
 keep quiet. Though they would have been 
 quite willing to fight in defence of their coun- 
 try's liberties, yet they thought that to get up 
 and speak, surrounded with soldiers and their 
 bayonets, who w'ere under the command of 
 those who had uttered such threats, would be 
 much worse than to face their enemies with 
 arms in their hands. 
 
 William. I should think so too. I am 
 sure, if I saw men standing before me ready 
 to shoot me, or stick their bayonets into me, 
 if I said any thing they did not like, I should 
 at least have forgotten all I had to say. 
 3^ 
 
38 STORIES OF 
 
 Mrs. M. Gen. Warren did not think so. 
 As the next 5th of March approached, after 
 these threats had been made, he did not wait to 
 be invited to speak on the occasion, but himself 
 sohcited permission to address the people. 
 
 All his noble feelings were roused at the 
 idea that men from another country should 
 presume to say what Americans should speak, 
 and wiiat they should not ; and he determined 
 that his voice should be once more heard, even 
 should it then be silenced forever. 
 
 The sun shone on the 6th of March, 1775,* 
 with unusual splendour. Warren saw it rise, 
 and as he gazed upon its brilliant rays, he 
 thought that perhaps ere those rays were again 
 withdrawn from the earth, he might be a 
 breathless corpse, never more to behold them, 
 but no regret at the duty he had undertaken 
 for a moment darkened his mind ; he hailed its 
 cheering beams as a proof that Heaven itself 
 smiled on his exertions for his country's welfare. 
 
 At an early hour the Old South meeting- 
 house w^as crowded even to its porch. Many 
 
 * This Oration was delivered on tlie 6th of March, and not on 
 the 5th, being 103 days before his death on BuiiJter Hill. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 39 
 
 of the friends of the much loved speaker were 
 there, determined, if lie was attacked, he should 
 not be without his defenders. 
 
 The aisles of the meeting-house, the steps 
 to the pulpit, even the pulpit itself, were oc- 
 cupied by the British. Warren was not to be 
 frightened from his purpose by all this. He 
 thought that if he attempted to go in at the 
 door and up the pulpit stairs, the British offi- 
 cers might endeavor to stop him, and that, 
 even if they did not succeed, the attempt would 
 cause so much confusion that no one would 
 be calm enough to listen to him afterwards. 
 So how do you suppose he contrived to reach 
 the pulpit ? 
 
 Mary. I should think he would not have 
 attempted it, but would have put off speaking, 
 at least, until the pulpit was clear. 
 
 William. I dare say he managed in some 
 such way as he did when his classmates un- 
 dertook to keep him out of their room. 
 
 Mrs. M. It was not very unlike It. He 
 requested some of his friends to assist him, 
 and they procured a ladder, put it up outside 
 the pulpit window, and while all within were 
 
40 STORIES OF 
 
 anxiously watching for him at the door, and 
 his friends were trembling for fear he would 
 not be able to make his way through the crowd, 
 they raised their eyes, and, to the astonish- 
 ment of them all, beheld him in the pulpit 1 
 The British officers were so surprised at his 
 coolness and intrepidity, that they involunta- 
 rily fell back at his approach. He advanced 
 to address the assembled multitude, not know- 
 ing but that, at the first word he spoke, a 
 bayonet would be thrust into his defenceless 
 side. 
 
 Every eye was fixed upon him in almost 
 breathless emotion. So awful and perfect 
 was the silence that each one could hear the 
 palpitations of his own heart. Every face was 
 pale but his own. His animated and expres- 
 sive countenance was lighted up, and glowing 
 w^ith all the enthusiasm that the most ardent 
 love for the rights of his country could inspire. 
 The officers who stood near to him, so far 
 from making his noble spirit tremble or hesi- 
 tate, only inspired him with greater animation 
 to tell over the wrongs which they had done 
 |Lis, and the still greater wrongs they were 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 41 
 
 about to do. He called upon the soldiers not 
 to assist their masters in tills ; not to aid a 
 parent to oppress his children and wrest from 
 them their hard earned rights. He told them 
 that our fathers had come to this country to 
 avoid the very tyranny that was now bearing 
 so heavily on their children. That they came 
 here to worship God in the way they thought 
 most acceptable to Him. That they had 
 given up their homes, their friends, and all 
 the comforts of civilized life, for freedom. 
 That they had suffered the greatest hardships 
 from savages, from cold, poverty, and the 
 want of every thing worth having, except lib- 
 erty. He told them that through all the cares 
 and all the sufferings of our pilgrim fathers, 
 they still looked back on the country from 
 which they came with the affection of chil- 
 dren. They had obeyed its laws, had sent it 
 money, and had done aU tliat was in their power 
 to do, to prove that they were deeply inter- 
 ested in its welfare. But that now that we, 
 the descendants of those who had undergone 
 so much, were beginning to enjoy what they 
 had purchased so dearly, these Britains were 
 
42 STORIES OF 
 
 determined to oppress us. That their king, 
 who ought to take a pleasure in our prosperity, 
 judged us without hearing us, gave us rulers 
 who took no interest in our prosperity, and 
 insisted that we should pay money for the 
 privilege of buying what it was for his interest 
 to sell us. It is long since J read this elo- 
 quent address, and I cannot give you any cor- 
 rect idea of it ; you must read it yourself to 
 form one.* 
 
 The scene, while Warren was speaking, 
 was sublime and interesting beyond any thing 
 of the kind that had ever before been wit- 
 nessed in this country, or, perhaps in any 
 other. When the orators of ancient times 
 were urging their countrymen not to submit 
 to tyrants, those tyrants werq, far away — but 
 while Warren was making this appeal to his 
 countrymen, it was in the presence of the 
 very oppressors themselves, who were gazing 
 on him with arms in their hands, arms ready 
 to be used the moment their passions were 
 roused ! That their passions were roused, I 
 think there can be little doubt ; but there was 
 
 * This Oration is placed at the end of this vvoxk. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 43 
 
 so much determination in the looks of those 
 around, that I suppose they were not willing 
 to run the risk of attacking a man thus guard- 
 ed by the love, almost the adoration of those 
 whom he addressed. Besides this, there 
 were many among the British who were so 
 much affected by Warren's address, as to be 
 unwilling to use any violence against the 
 speaker. 
 
 If such was its effect on his enemies, what 
 must it have been on his friends? It was so 
 powerful that, at that moment they might have 
 been led on to an entire renunciation of the 
 government of Great Britain. The time, how- 
 ever, had not yet quite arrived for so bold an 
 act ; the country was young and without re- 
 sources, or any prospect of aid from other 
 countries. Still, from this time, many who 
 had not before expressed an opinion, now 
 openly declared that we ought to be indepen- 
 dent. 
 
 Things had been gradually operating to 
 produce an almost universal belief that there 
 was little to be expected from the king of En- 
 gland. Josiah Quincy, the father of him who 
 
44 STORIES OF 
 
 is now president of Cambridge College, was a 
 warm friend of Gen. Warren's, and had aided 
 in all his efforts to repel the encroachments of 
 the king. About six months before this ora- 
 tion was delivered, he had embarked privately 
 for England. From his letters it was evident 
 that, although many influential men there were 
 in our favor, yet those by whom the king was 
 governed were against us, so that there was 
 little prospect that any change for the better 
 should take place. The general tenor of his 
 letters to his countrymen, while he himself 
 was in England, was, what he says, he had 
 long before told them, that " they must seal 
 their cause with their blood, that in the sight 
 of God and all just men, that cause is a good 
 one," and if Americans do not act up to their 
 professions " they would be trodden into the 
 vilest vassalage, the scorn, contempt, the spurn 
 of their enemies, a bye-word of infamy among 
 men." That Americans would " be true to 
 themselves," and were ready, when called on, 
 *' to seal their cause with their blood," his 
 friend Warren was among the most earnest to 
 convince him. Ho writes to him, " It is the 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 45 
 
 united voice of America, to preserve their 
 freedom, or lose their hves in its defence." 
 " I am convinced," he says, " that the true 
 spirit of liberty was never so universally diffu- 
 sed through all orders and ranks of people, in 
 any country on the face of the globe, as it 
 now is through all North America." He says 
 of the provincial Congress, of which he had 
 been elected president : " Congress met at 
 Concord at the time appointed. About two 
 hundred and sixty members were present." 
 "You would have thought yourself in an as- 
 sembly of Spartans, or ancient Romans, had 
 you been a witness to the ardour which in- 
 spired those who spoke on the important busi- 
 ness they were transacting." The Congress 
 of which he here speaks was composed of men 
 chosen by the people, to provide for the safety 
 of their fellow citizens, and to order all that 
 was necessary to be done to enable them to 
 resist the tyrannical laws of the king of Eng- 
 land. The terms in which Gen. Warren speaks 
 of this congress, were no doubt very cheering 
 to Mr. Quincy, who must himself have ar- 
 dently desired to have been present among 
 4 
 
46 ^ STORIES OF 
 
 them. He remained only six months in Eng- 
 land, and died on his passage home, just as 
 the vessel which he was on board entered the 
 harbour of Cape Ann, on the 26th of April, 
 1775. 
 
 William. Oh how sorry 1 am ! He must 
 have wished very much to have seen his 
 countrymen once more. 
 
 Mrs. M. He did indeed. He repeatedly 
 said to the seamen, who were attending on 
 him, that he had but one desire and one 
 prayer, which was, that he might live long 
 enough to have one interview with his friend 
 Joseph Warren, or with Samuel Adams. His 
 prayer was not granted, for wise purposes no 
 doubt. Nor did he know that his predictions 
 that blood would be shed before liberty could 
 be attained, were accomplished, and that his 
 countrymen had already, in the battle of Lex- 
 ington, sealed their constancy in the cause of 
 liberty " with their blood." 
 
 But I must go back a litde to tell you what 
 led to that battle. The British had been for 
 some time aware that the Americans w^ere de- 
 termined to repel their aggressions by arms, 
 
GE ERAL WARREN. 47 
 
 -^since all other means had failed. They there- 
 fore detennmed -to take from us the means of 
 defence. They thought if they could get pos- 
 session of our powder and balls, we of course 
 could not fire our guns or cannon. They re- 
 solved to attempt first to gain those which 
 were at Concord, a small town about 18 miles 
 from Boston. 
 
 On the 18th of March, 1775, Gen. Gage 
 despatched, as secretly as possible, eight or 
 nine hundred soldiers, under the command of 
 a Col. Smith, to destroy all the stores in that 
 place, thinking this a safer plan than to try to 
 keep them. This they hoped to effect before 
 our people had time to make any resistance. 
 But the Americans were not so easily taken 
 by surprise. Gen. Warren had directed a 
 number of men to keep watch on the motions 
 of the British, and to let him know when there 
 w^as any appearance of an attack upon us. 
 These men discovered this plan of theirs, and 
 immediately gave Warren information of it. 
 He would not do any thing hastily, so he 
 went himself to watch them. One evening 
 he observed there was an unusual stir in the 
 
48 STORIES OF 
 
 English camp. Unperceived by them he saw 
 Col. Smith and his men embark on board 
 some of their vessels, and he had no doubt 
 they were going to Charlestown, and from 
 thence to Concord. He, the same night, des- 
 patched messengers through the neighboring 
 country, to give notice of the designed attack. 
 He rode himself all night, and passed so near 
 the enemy as to be several times in danger of 
 becoming their prisoner, but escaped by his 
 undaunted courage and self-possession. Col. 
 Revere was one of his messengers ; I think 
 he was sent to Lexington. He had of course 
 to pass through Charlestown. As he was 
 turning a corner of one of the streets, he dis- 
 covered a party of soldiers approaching, he 
 knew them to belong to the enemy ; for a mo- 
 ment he hesitated whether to turn back or 
 proceed ; but it was only for a moment ; he 
 recollected that probably the safety of hun- 
 dreds depended on his executing the commis- 
 sion entrusted to him, he put his horse into a 
 gallop, and, before the astonished men had 
 time to ascertain If he was friend or foe, he 
 had dashed through them and was nearly 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 49 
 
 out of sight ! In vain with their halloos and 
 their whizzing balls they attempted to stop 
 him ; of the halloos he was regardless, and 
 from their balls he was preserved by that Be- 
 ing who seemed in a most especial manner to 
 smile upon our cause. 
 
 William. I am glad they could not stop 
 him. I think he was a brave man, do not 
 you mamma ? I fear I should have turned 
 back when I saw the soldiers coming. 
 
 Mrs. M. He certainly was a very brave 
 man, and we had a great many such during 
 the Revolution. I trust you would have been 
 brave too, had you lived in such times, and 
 would not have turned back from the perform- 
 ance of a duty, because it w^as dangerous to 
 execute it. Revere executed his so faithfully, 
 that when the British arrived at Lexington, 
 which is six miles this side of Concord, they 
 were met by a body of our militia, who en- 
 deavored to keep them from advancing. It 
 was now about sunrise. Warren, although he 
 had had no rest that night, hastened to the field 
 of action, determined to be ready to aid and 
 4^ 
 
50 STORIES OF 
 
 animate his countrymen, and to share e very- 
 danger to which they were exposed. 
 
 The small number of men which had time 
 to assemble were not, however, able to make 
 much opposition to the veteran soldiers of 
 Great Britain. When the officers of these 
 men cried out, " Disperse, you rebels, dis- 
 perse, throw down your arms and disperse," 
 many left the field. As they were doing so, 
 some of the enemy fired on them ; this brought 
 on an engagement, in which eight of our men 
 were killed and seven wounded. The British 
 pursued their march to Concord, and de- 
 stroyed sixty barrels of flour, and other stores 
 deposited there. Our men had now collected 
 in greater numbers, and opposed them so re- 
 solutely as to drive them back to Lexington in 
 quick march, and they continued to annoy them 
 through the whole of their retreat to Charles- 
 town : so that, before they arrived there, 
 they had lost many men. Some were wound- 
 ed, some taken prisoners, and otliers slain. 
 Gen. Warren, from his ardor in pressing on 
 ihem was near be'n.,^ killed. A musket-ball 
 came so close to him as to take off a lock of 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 51 
 
 his hair which curled close to his head, as was 
 the fashion of the time. You may see how 
 his hair was dressed if you look at his picture 
 in Faneuil Hall. 
 
 Maky. How could it help wounding him, 
 dear mother, when it came so near ? 
 
 Mrs. M. It seems wonderful that it should 
 not have wounded him ; but he was spared a 
 little longer by that Being, who alone can 
 judge what is the proper time in which a val- 
 uable life should be taken. 
 
 When his mother first saw him after this 
 escape, she entreated him, with tears in her 
 eyes, not again to risk a life so dear to her, 
 and so necessary to his country. " Wherever 
 danger is, dear mother," was his reply, " there 
 must your son be, now is no time for one of 
 America's children to shrink from the most 
 hazardous duty. I will either see my country 
 free, or shed my last drop of blood to make 
 her so." He was not permitted to see this ; 
 but he did indeed shed his life's blood, that 
 others might be free. That blood was not 
 shed in vain. It is probable that his death 
 did nearly as much to animate his country- 
 
52 STORIES OF 
 
 men in the cause of liberty, as he himself could 
 have done had he lived. 
 
 After the battle of Lexington, there was an 
 exchange of prisoners made. The British 
 agreed to release those they had taken, in ex- 
 change for those taken by the Americans. 
 The place appointed for this exchange to be 
 made was Charlestown, the town so soon after 
 destroyed by some of the very men now met 
 for purposes of kindness and good will. Gen. 
 Warren, as President of Congress, and the 
 brave Gen. Putnam, (under whom Warren 
 had previously served as a volunteer in a 
 skirmish on one of the islands, in which 
 the English had been defeated, and one 
 of their vessels burnt,) were escorted by 
 two of the finest companies of the Massachu- 
 setts soldiers, to the place of meeting. The 
 scene was interesting a,nd impressive. Al- 
 thoudi there had been difficulties among the 
 English soldiers and our people, and with 
 some of the officers also, yet most of the offi- 
 cers, on both sides, had been cordial to each 
 other ; some had been intimate friends. They 
 had, previous to the difficulties between the 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 53 
 
 two countries, served under the same com- 
 manders, fought the same battles, glowed with 
 united hopes of victory, or felt disheartened 
 together when they failed in their undertak- 
 ings. These feelings could not be altogether 
 repressed, and when they now first met, after 
 having been arrayed against each other, — met 
 too, to exchange offices of kindness and hospi- 
 tality, w^ith the sacred flag of truce waving 
 over their heads, every sentiment but that of 
 friendship w^as forgotten, and they rushed into 
 each others' arms, overcome with feelings too 
 powerful for expression. These feelings quick- 
 ly spread around, and each hardy soldier was 
 ready to extend the hand of amity to the 
 other. 
 
 After the business on which they met w^as 
 over, Putnam and Warren entertained the Brit- 
 ish as their guests, with all the hospitality the 
 times w^ould permit. 
 
 A few days after this meeting, Warren was 
 appointed Major-General of the American for- 
 ces in Massachusetts. The people had for 
 some time looked up to him as their leader ; 
 and he had made constant exertions to main- 
 
54 STORIES OF 
 
 tain order and enforce discipline among the 
 troop?. He united so much coolness with so 
 much true courage,, and so much gentleness 
 with so much decision, as to give him immense 
 influence over them. He mingled in the 
 ranks, talked with each soldier as if he was a 
 brother, and thus succeeded most astonishingly 
 in imparting to them his own ardour in the 
 cause, and his confidence In its success. Be- 
 fore he was chosen as their General, he was 
 requested to act as Surgeon-General to the 
 army, but this post did not suit his heroic 
 character. His wish was to lead on the sol- 
 diers to battle, rather than to take care of those 
 w^ho were unable to go, or of those who re- 
 ceived w^ounds while there. 
 
 The charge he had now received of the 
 army, he would not suffer in any degree to 
 interfere with that he before sustained as Pres- 
 ident of Congress. He had from the first 
 discovered as much talent in directing the 
 counsels of the nation, as he had energy in 
 animating the soldiers. Part of each day he 
 w^ould pass in Congress, which was now as- 
 sembled at Watertown, deliberately weighing 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 55 
 
 each subject that was discussed. He gave no 
 opinion until fully conv^inced what was best to 
 be done. When his opinion was formed, he 
 bent every power of his mind and body, to 
 have that which was resolved upon put into 
 execution. When he had accomplished all 
 he could in the Congress, he v/ould jump on 
 his horse, ride as quickly as possible to the 
 camp at Cambridge, and enter with equal 
 ardor into every thing to be done there. 
 
 It was on the 14th of June, that Joseph 
 Warren was elected Major-General of the 
 Massachusetts forces. 
 
 The British had four thousand v.ell disci- 
 plined soldiers in Boston at this time, under 
 the command of Gen. Gage. Now I dare 
 say you know that four thousand men used to 
 fighting, and commanded by a general whom 
 they know they must obey, are more power- 
 ful than double that number who are not used 
 to w^arfare, and who are not obliged to fight 
 unless they choose. 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I should think 
 they must be : but were not our men at all 
 
56 STORIES OF 
 
 used to fighting ? and were they not willing to 
 fight ? 
 
 Mrs. M. They had never been engaged 
 in a regular battle, and, although most of them 
 were very willing to fight, yet they were much 
 more easily intimidated than regular soldiers. 
 This gave the British a great advantage over 
 them ; besides this, many of our people did 
 not like to be thought rebels, which the Brit- 
 ish took every opportunity to convince them 
 they were. They did not feel quite sure that 
 they did right to fight against their king, as 
 they had always considered the king of Eng- 
 land to be, and they knew, too, that if we 
 were unsuccessful, they should be hung as 
 rebels. 
 
 But for all this there were a great many 
 willing to risk every thing In the cause of 
 liberty ; and so eager were these for an en- 
 gagement, that it was extremely difficult to 
 restrain them until they had acquired a httle 
 more military knowledge. 
 
 The British were also anxious to do some- 
 thing. They had, to be sure, the command of 
 Boston, but all the hills around were guarded 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 57 
 
 by us, and they felt rather foolish in suffering 
 themselves to be cooped up there, and not 
 have the power to leave it, without risking a 
 battle. They finally determined to make a 
 bold push, and obtain possession of the highest 
 parts of Charlestown and Dorchester, and thus 
 give themselves a little more liberty to go in 
 and out of the town. 
 
 The ISth of June, 1775, was the day on 
 which they had determined to make this at- 
 tempt. 
 
 The Americans, however, gave them some- 
 thing to do a little sooner than this. They 
 had contemplated making some attack on the 
 British, or at least to endeavor to destroy their 
 shipping. Gen. Warren, ardent and enter- 
 prising as he was, was not in favor of this 
 plan. He thought it would be hazarding too 
 much to begin warfare again in our situation ; 
 that if it was once begun, it would lead to a 
 general engagement, in which our untrained 
 men would not be able to maintain their 
 ground ; and he thought if beaten now they 
 might be entirely discouraged. Gen. Putnam, 
 who at that time commanded the troops in 
 5 
 
58 STORIES OF 
 
 Cambridge, was of a different opinion. He 
 said they need only take two thousand men, 
 nor would he risk any more. Gen. Warren 
 walked back and forth the room in which they 
 were debating several tiaies, he then leaned 
 on a chair, and, after a few moments silence, 
 exclaimed, " almost thou persuadest me. Gen. 
 Putnam, still I must think the project rash, 
 but if you execute it, you will not be surprised 
 to find me at your side." " 1 hope you will 
 not be there," said Putnam, " you are young, 
 and your country has much to hope from you, 
 both in their councils and in the field of battle ; 
 let us, who are old and can be better spared 
 begin the affray, there will be time enough for 
 you hereafter ; it will not soon be over." 
 
 The more this step was deliberated upon, 
 the more difficulties seemed to arise, and Gen. 
 Warren felt it his duty again to oppose it be- 
 fore the committee of safety, of which he was 
 chairman, and before the council of war, assem- 
 bled on purpose to decide upon it. When, after 
 much discussion, both these ^bodies resolved 
 on its execution, he gave up his own opinion 
 and joined with his whole heart to promote 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 59 
 
 its success. It was finally voted by the com- 
 mittee, on tlie 1 5th of June, that Dorchester 
 heights and Bunker hill should be occupied 
 and fortified by our troops. The intelligence 
 now received, that the British were themselves 
 preparing to leave their entrenchments to take 
 possession of these heights, no doubt decided 
 this measure. The soldiers, you recollect, 
 were encamped in Cambridge. They were 
 quartered, or stationed, in the colleges and in 
 all the houses for a mile or two about ; wher- 
 ever they could find shelter, there they were 
 placed. 
 
 On the 16th of June, Col. Prescott w^as 
 ordered to take a part of the men, stationed 
 in Cambridge, about one thousand, march 
 with them to Charlestown, and fortify Bunker 
 Hill. Accordingly, in the evening they be- 
 gan their march as secretly as possible. It 
 was very important they should get there 
 without the knowledge of the British, for they 
 had to go so near their lines, that it would 
 have been perfectly in their power to prevent 
 tlie success of their undertaking, had they 
 known it. They took scarcely any refresh- 
 
60 STORIES OF 
 
 ments, nothing which was not absolutely ne- 
 cessary. Their first object was to take pos- 
 session of Bunker Hill, their own comforts 
 were but a secondary consideration ; when 
 they had succeeded in that, then would be 
 time enough, they thought, to think of them- 
 selves and to have provisions and other neces- 
 saries sent them. To insure secrecy, the 
 soldiers were not informed of the object of 
 their march, until they had crossed Charles- 
 town neck. The plan was so well arranged 
 and so well executed, that the British had not 
 the slightest suspicion of it, until the rising 
 sun, as it dispelled the mists of the morning, 
 shone on their fortifications and revealed to 
 the astonished gaze of the bewildered British, 
 their daring enemy immediately above them, 
 overlooking their camp, and entrenched in 
 strong forts which seemed as if created by 
 enchantment ; so quietly and so suddenly had 
 they been erected ! Those who first beheld 
 the alarming spectacle rubbed their eyes, 
 thinking themselves in a dream, but, soon 
 finding it was reality, they awoke their coun- 
 trymen and immediately began firing on our 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 61 
 
 men, almost expecting, even then, to find the 
 fortifications vanish fi'om before them. They 
 killed one of our noble fellows, and these men 
 who had done and dared so bravely the night 
 preceding, were so appalled at the unusual 
 sight of death, in so sudden a manner, that 
 some of them quitted the works on which they 
 had labored so hard, and returned no more to 
 defend them. 
 
 This can hardly be wondered at. They 
 had been up all night, had had no refresh- 
 ment, from sleep or food, not even a drop of 
 water to wet their parched lips. It is, there- 
 fore, more surprising that any of them should 
 be able to make a stand against the expe- 
 rienced soldiers of Great Britain, than that 
 some should fall back. 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I think it was 
 more surprising. I should have thought they 
 w^ould have had no strength or resolution to 
 do any thing. Why did they not have some 
 men from Cambridge to aid them ? some who 
 had not worked so hard would surely have 
 been better able to fight. 
 
 Mrs. iVJ. Perhaps they would ; but those 
 5* 
 
62 STORIES OF 
 
 who had gained the post of danger with so 
 much toil and through so much peril, were 
 determined to maintain it as long as they were 
 able to stand by it: besides there had yet been 
 no time for reinforcements to arrive. 
 
 William. Was Gen. Warren with them 
 when they first went to Bunker Hill ? 
 
 Mrs. M. No, my dear, Congress met at 
 Watertown the day preceding that eventful 
 night. Gen. Warren was, you know, presi- 
 dent of it ; he was therefore obliged to be 
 present when it met. He had been all day 
 engaged with its members, discussing the most 
 important business, and even the night was far 
 spent before they had finished the necessary 
 arrangements for the momentous crisis which 
 had now arrived. The moment he could 
 leave his friends there, he prepared to go im- 
 mediately to the field of battle. These friends 
 endeavored, with all the arguments they could 
 use, to dissuade him from going. They told 
 him that it was impossible for the troops there 
 to maintain their ground ; that they neither 
 had a sufficient supply of powder and balls, 
 nor of arms, and the probability was that all 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 63 
 
 who persisted in fighting would be either killed 
 or taken prisoners. One of them, in parti- 
 cular, entreated him, most earnestly, not to 
 expose his invaluable life where his death 
 was almost certain, for that thus he would 
 injure rather than serve his country's cause. 
 " I cannot help it," he replied, " I must share 
 the fate of my countrymen." "To hear the 
 sound of the cannon and remain inactive, is 
 what I cannot do." '^ 1 should die to be at 
 home, while my fellow citizens are shedding 
 their blood for me." " As sure as you go, you 
 will be slain," rephed his friend. "It is sweet, 
 it is honourable, to die for our country," was 
 the last reply of the patriotic hero. By day- 
 lidit of the next morninsr he was in Cam- 
 bridge. The British had not made their 
 appearance, and, sick with a nervous head- 
 ache from his excessive exertions of mind and 
 body, Warren threw himself on a bed, hoping 
 for a few moments' repose. He was soon 
 informed that the enemy were in motion. 
 Their destination was at first uncertain. Many 
 thought they intended to seize the scanty stock 
 of ammunition and other stores, deposited 
 
64 STORIES OF 
 
 at Watertown and Cambridge. It was all this 
 part of the country contained ; all on which 
 the army here depended, to enable them to 
 make any resistance against the well-furnished 
 troops of Great Britain. If these were taken 
 or destroyed, the struggle for liberty would, 
 for a time, perhaps /orei;e?', be at an end. 
 
 On the other hand, the troops at Bunker 
 Hill were very much exposed, and required 
 immediate reinforcements. These considera- 
 tions prevented the committee of safety from 
 acting with so much decision, as they would 
 otherwise have done. This committee w^as 
 now sitting in the same house in which Gen. 
 Warren had been seeking a little repose. The 
 moment he received information that the Brit- 
 ish were on the move, he started from his bed, 
 exclaiming, " my headache is gone." He 
 then met with the committee, of which he was 
 chairman. With his usual quickness of per- 
 ception he saw that Bunker Hill was the spot 
 destined to be attacked, and so soon as it was 
 resolved to send reinforcements there, he 
 mounted his horse, and, with his fusil and 
 sword hastened to the post of danger. When 
 he had arrived at Bunker, or Breed's Hill (for 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 65 
 
 they bad not yet been able to fortify Bunker 
 Hill,) the enemy iiad landed at Charlestown, 
 and thus made it clear that their intentions 
 were to attack our forts.* Five thousand ex- 
 perienced British troops were already landed 
 and prepared, under the command of Gen. 
 Howe, to encounter our men. They had 
 been through no fatigue, had plenty of arms, 
 ammunition, and every thing necessary to ren- 
 der success almost certain. The Americans, 
 on the contrary, were much exhausted, their 
 arms were poor, their ammunition scanty, and 
 no reinforcements of any importance had ar- 
 rived. But, as I before mentioned, our men 
 did not wish for aid, they wanted themselves 
 to defend the forts they had themselves so ably 
 constructed, and they were about to fight for 
 their liberties, their homes, and every thing 
 most dear to them. They were determined, 
 too, to show the hired troops of Great Britain 
 of what men were capable who had deter- 
 mined to die free, rather than to live under 
 the tyranny of a foreign power. With such 
 feelings, tliey did not hesitate a moment to 
 
 * At the brittle of Lexington, the British had Imt 4000 men in 
 Boston. Before the battle of Bunker Hill, they had been rein- 
 forced. 
 
66 STORIES OF 
 
 face the enemy, and it was necessary to re- 
 press their ardor, so eager were they to begin. 
 
 William. But, mamma, was it not on 
 Bunker Hill the battle was fought ? for you 
 said just now it was Breed's Hill, and that 
 they had not been able to fortify Bunker Hill. 
 I thought they fortified that at first. 
 
 Mrs. M. No, my dear, they did not. 
 They were directed to do it, but they found 
 it would not answer so well, as it was too far 
 from the enemy for them to reach her fleet 
 and shipping from it with their balls. They 
 therefore fortified Breed's Hill in preference. 
 
 Mary. Why then, mamma, was the bat- 
 tle called the battle of Bunker Hill ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Because Bunker Hill was the 
 only one which was distinguished by a name 
 at that time ; it was the one, too, which they 
 had intended to occupy, and the battle was 
 fought so near it that it was then designated 
 by that name, which it has ever since retained, 
 and it would be hardly worth while to alter 
 it now. 
 
 William. No, mamma, I sh.ould think 
 not. I should not like to have the name 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 67 
 
 changed, for ever since I can remember, I 
 have heard about the battle of Bunker Hill, 
 and the death of Gen. Warren on it, and I 
 should not know what it meant if 1 now heard 
 of the battle of Breed's Hill, and I do not 
 think I should think at all of him when it was 
 thus spoken of. But I have interrupted you 
 at the most interesting part. Gen. Warren, I 
 think you said, had joined the Americans just 
 as the battle was beginning. 
 
 j\Irs. J\l. Yes, he had ; the firing had al- 
 ready commenced. Among our commanders 
 the only contention was, who should be fore- 
 most at the post of danger. Each was desir- 
 ous himself to be placed where there was the 
 greatest risk, and, therefore, the greatest honor. 
 So soon as Gen. Warren reached the field of 
 battle, he sought out Gen. Putnam, to request 
 him to point out to him where he should find 
 the most arduous service. As Putnam saw 
 him approach, he exclaimed, " Gen. Warren, 
 I am sorry to see you here : I wish you had 
 left the day to us, as I advised you. From 
 appearances we shall have a sharp time of it, 
 but since you are here, I will receive your 
 
68 STORIES OF 
 
 commands with pleasure." Warren replied, 
 " I come as a volunteer, I know nothing of 
 your arrangements, and will not interfere with 
 them ; only tell me where I can be most 
 useful, and there I will go." Putnam, still 
 earnest, if possible, to preserve him from dan- 
 ger, directed him to a particular spot, observing 
 at the same time, '' there you will be cover- 
 ed." But this was not what Warren wanted. 
 " Do not think," he earnestly exclaimed, "I 
 come here to seek a place of safety, tell me 
 where the onset will be most furious, it is 
 there I wish to be." Putnam then told him 
 that the post he had pointed out was a most 
 important one. That it was the first wish of 
 the enemy to drive our soldiers from it ; that 
 Col. Prescott was there, determined to defend 
 it as long as possible, for upon retaining it de- 
 pended the fate of the battle. He added, 
 that the probability was, the British would at 
 last gain possession of it, but when it could be 
 defended no longer, it would require great 
 coolness and skill to bring off as many of our 
 soldiers as possible, and retreat with order 
 and regularity. Warren assented to the truth 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 69 
 
 of this, said he would be governed by his 
 opinions, and instantly went to the redoubt or 
 post that was to be defended. 
 
 So soon as the soldiers saw hinri, they wel- 
 comed him with loud huzzas. Col. Prescott, 
 as Putnam had before, asked him to take the 
 command ; he again refused it, and offered 
 his services as a volunteer, saying, "I am 
 happy to learn service from a soldier of expe- 
 rience." 
 
 The battle now commenced most seriously. 
 Our soldiers had, as yet, no time to fortify 
 Bunker Hill, though, if they were beat back 
 from their fort, it was of the utmost impor- 
 tance this should be done ; nor had they been 
 able to complete their other works as they 
 wished. It was too late now, for the enemy 
 were already firing on them, unfinished as they 
 were. All that could be accomplished, before 
 the firing began, was for part of the soldiers to 
 take post behind a rail fence, about two hun- 
 dred and fifty yards in length, w^hich they 
 slightly fortified by placing another fence at a 
 little distance from the first, and filling the 
 space between the two with new mown hay. 
 6 
 
70 STORIES OP 
 
 So soon as the tremendous discharge of can- 
 non from the British began, her troops ad- 
 vanced to attack those stationed at the redoubt 
 and at this fence. Our men were eager in- 
 stantly to return the fire, but were not per- 
 mitted to, until the enemy were within eight 
 rods of them. Powder, Putman told them, 
 must not be wasted. " Do not fire until com- 
 manded. You must not fire until you see 
 the whites of the eyes of your enemy, then 
 fire low, take aim at their waistbands. You 
 are all marksmen, and can kill a squirrel at 
 the distance of a hundred yards ; reserve your 
 fire and the enemy are all destroyed. Aim 
 at the handsome coats ; pick off the command- 
 ers." Such were the orders of many of the 
 American officers besides Putnam, as they 
 rode through the lines of the different divisions 
 which were stationed at the fence, and at the 
 redoubt. The redoubt was 150 yards in front 
 of the rail fence. As you may suppose, these 
 instructions came home to the men, and en- 
 couraged and animated them, and gave them 
 more confidence in themselves than any thing 
 else that could have been said. Some few, 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 71 
 
 in their eagerness to fire, did not wait the 
 word of command, Putnam drew his sword 
 and declared he would himself cut down the 
 first who should disobey. Gen. Warren was 
 among the most active, cheering the men by 
 his words and actions ; he mingled in their 
 ranks, shared all their dangers, and with his 
 musket stood ready to aid them in firing, the 
 moment the enemy were near enough to ren- 
 der it prudent to fire. That moment had 
 come. The British had approached within 
 eight rods of the redoubt. The command was 
 given, they fired, and nearly the whole front 
 rank of the advancing army was destroyed. 
 Another line, and still another, presented itself, 
 and each was in turn levelled with tlie ground. 
 For a short time there was a pause. The 
 British were retreating. Putnam seized the 
 moment to bring up some reinforcements from 
 Bunker Hill. Howe, the British commander, 
 meanwhile brought his troops once more into 
 order, and was joined by some others from 
 Boston, under the command of Major Small. 
 Again the firing commenced. Our men were 
 obliged to wait until the British were still 
 
72 STORIES OF 
 
 nearer than the first. Not until they were 
 within six rods were they now allowed to dis- 
 charge their muskets. When they did, it was 
 with still more deadly effect than before. The 
 flames of Charlestown, to which the British 
 had set fire, urged them on, and rank after 
 rank of officers and men fell before them. 
 The enemy could no longer stand their ground ; 
 they retreated once more, and left the field to 
 our brave men. At this moment. Gen. Put- 
 nam saw one British officer standing alone, all 
 around him had fallen. Many muskets were 
 levelled at him ; in a moment he would have 
 shared the fate of his companions. At this 
 eventful moment, Putnam perceived that it was 
 an old friend and fellow soldier who was about 
 to be destroyed : he rushed to the spot, knocked 
 away the deadly weapons with his sword, and 
 entreated the men to spare one whom he loved 
 like a brother. They could not resist the 
 appeal ; the noble and daring generosity of 
 the General excited their admiration and sym- 
 pathy. His friend was permitted to retire 
 unhurt. 
 
 Every thing now seemed to promise sue- 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 73 
 
 cess to the cause of liberty. The field was 
 our own. More than a thousand of the ene- 
 my had fallen, and a great number of then- 
 best officers were slain by our marksmen. But 
 alas ! at the very moment in which every thing 
 seemed to smile upon our noble defenders, 
 these defenders found the greatest reason to 
 despair. So soon as they had leisure to look 
 around them, they discovered that their am- 
 munition was expended, their arms almost 
 useless, and scarcely any thing to defend them- 
 selves from a renewed attack of the enemy, 
 but the stones which partly formed their fort. 
 Their only hope was, that as the loss of the 
 British had been so great, they would not 
 again make the hazardous attempt to drive 
 them from their entrenchments. In this, their 
 last hope, they were fatally disappointed. 
 Some of the British officers were unwilling to 
 lead their men again to an attack, where cer- 
 tain death seemed to await them, but the 
 greater part of them were determined not to 
 yield the victory to rebels, as they still called 
 us. They collected all their strength, and 
 once more advanced to the charge, resolved 
 6* 
 
74 STORIES OF 
 
 to take the redoubt which Gen. Putnam had 
 pointed out to Gen. Warren as our most 
 important point of defence, or perish in the 
 attempt. 
 
 Ev^ery effort was made by our brave officers 
 and soldiers to preserve this much contested 
 spot ; but the httle ammunition they had been 
 able to collect was soon exhausted. Even 
 this little had not the effect their former dis- 
 charges had. The British had learnt wisdom 
 from experience, they approached with more 
 caution, and kept their forces much closer 
 together than before. When no more ammu- 
 nition could be procured by our officers, stones 
 were resorted to, as the last means of defence. 
 This rather encouraged than repelled the 
 enemy, as it showed they had nothing else to 
 use. At last, in spite of every exertion it 
 was in the power of men to make, who felt 
 they were fighting for their country and their 
 homes, the British gained possession of the 
 redoubt. They were opposed at every step 
 of their advance ; the butt ends of the guns 
 which the Americans could no longer fire, 
 were made use of to keep them back ; nothing 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 75 
 
 was left undone. But it was all In vain. As 
 fast as one party was beaten off, another would 
 approach. All that our officers had now to do, 
 was to endeavor to retreat with the men who 
 yet remained, with as little loss as possible. 
 This was done with the same bravery and skill 
 they had displayed through the whole bat- 
 tle. Gen. Warren was the last to quit his 
 post. He animated the men to the most des- 
 perate actions. With his own sword he cut 
 down all who were around him. Every inch 
 of ground which they relinquished, he consid- 
 ered as an indelible disgrace. To give up all 
 they had toiled so hard to gain, to see the 
 oppressors of his country in possession of a 
 spot strewed with the bodies, and wet with 
 the blood of those who had fought so nobly in 
 her defence, was more than Warren could 
 support. He felt that the liberties of that 
 country had received their death blow, and 
 life was now of no value to him. He slowly 
 followed his countrymen, when he found they 
 must yield, and disdained to quicken his steps, 
 although the balls of the enemy were whizzing 
 around him. There were some among his 
 
76 STORIES OF 
 
 gallant opponents who would gladly have pre- 
 served his life, had it been in their power ; 
 among these was Major Small, the same offi- 
 cer who had been rescued by Putnam from a 
 similar fate. He perceived Gen. Warren thus 
 moving slowly on, regardless of, or rather 
 seeming to court death. He called upon him 
 for God's sake to stop, and take refuge with 
 him from certain destruction. Warren turned 
 and looked at him, but, too sick at heart to 
 answer him, still kept on his perilous way, in 
 full sight of his enemies. Small then ordered 
 his men not to fire on him, but it was too late, 
 they had seen him, and, before the command 
 was heard, had fired. He was only about 
 eighty rods from the redoubt he had defended 
 so nobly, when the fatal ball reached him, 
 passed through his head, and killed him in- 
 stantly. 
 
 William. Oh how sorry I am ! Why 
 could not Major Small have spoken a little 
 quicker, and kept his men from firing, as Put- 
 nam did when our men were about to fire on 
 him ? 
 
 JVIrs. M. He no doubt did all he could to 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 77 
 
 preserve him, but a higher power than his 
 directed the ball which thus deprived our 
 country of one of her most enthusiastic defen- 
 ders, and in one of her darkest moments. He 
 was taken, too, before his eyes were allowed 
 a glimpse of that brilliant light of liberty which 
 afterwards shone so brightly upon his country, 
 and for whose first rays he had so anxiously 
 watched. He fell in the prime of life, a glo- 
 rious sacrifice for his beloved country. 
 
 Mary. How old was he, dear mother ? 
 
 Mrs. M. He was only thirty-four years 
 of age. 
 
 William. What became of his body, 
 mamma ? I hope the British did not have it. 
 
 Mrs. M. His body lay, with a great many 
 others, all night on the field of battle. In the 
 morning a young man, by the name of Win- 
 slow, saw it, and, disfigured as it was, knew 
 it ; he went immediately and told Gen. Howe 
 that Gen. Warren was among the slain on 
 Bunker Hill. Howe would not at first be- 
 lieve it. He said it was impossible that the 
 President of Congress should have been suf- 
 fered to expose himself in such a perilous 
 
78^ STORIES OF 
 
 encounter. Dr. Jeffries, who was afterwards 
 for many years a physician in Boston, and 
 whose son now practises here, was then a 
 surgeon in the British service. He was at 
 this time on the field, dressing the wounded 
 among the Enghsh, and those among the 
 American prisoners. Howe inquired if he 
 knew Warren ; he said he did, and, so soon 
 as he saw the body, declared it to be his. 
 He told Gen. Howe that Gen. Warren had, 
 only five days previous, with his accustomed 
 fearlessness of danger, ventured in a small 
 canoe to Boston, that he might himself gather 
 information of the designs of the enemy ; and 
 that he had at the same time urged him (Dr. 
 Jeffries) to return with him, and act as sur- 
 geon to the Americans. Howe no longer 
 doubted that his formidable adversary was 
 extended powerless at his feet. Though too 
 noble himself not to lament the early fate of 
 such a mind, yet he declared that this one vic- 
 tim was worth five hundred of their own men, 
 in which he was joined by all who heard him. 
 In the pocket of Gen. Warren was found a 
 prayer book with his name in it, which would 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 79 
 
 from the first have decided, beyond doubt, 
 that it was indeed Gen. Warren who lay there 
 among friends and foes ; but it was not seen 
 at that time. The probability is, that it was 
 plundered from his pocket by some of those 
 WTetches who generally remain on the field 
 where a battle has been fought, in order to 
 get what they can from the dying and the 
 dead. 
 
 Mary. How was it known that it had 
 been taken from him-, dear mother? 
 
 Mrs. M. Some time after, when the war 
 was over, and the British officers and soldiers 
 had gone back to England, one of these sol- 
 diers showed this book to an English minister, 
 w^hose name was Samuel Wilton. This gen- 
 tleman knew that a book of this kind, found 
 on the body of so eminent a man as Warren, 
 would be highly valued by every American, 
 and that it would be more especially gratifying 
 to his immediate relatives to have such a relic 
 of him ; one which showed that when he went 
 forth to fight for his country, his trust was not 
 in his own arm alone, but that he looked up 
 to a higher power for support. Mr. Wilton, 
 
80 STORIES OF 
 
 therefore, oiFered the man a great price for it, 
 who very gladly sold it to him. He then 
 sent it to America, and had it put into the 
 hands of a minister of Roxbury, the Rev. 
 Dr. Gordon — with a request that it might be 
 given to his nearest relative. It was accord- 
 ingly given to his youngest brother. Dr. John 
 Warren, March 15th, 1778. This was about 
 three years after Gen. Warren's death. 
 
 Mary. I think it was very kind in that 
 English minister to take so much trouble. 
 Was not the book almost worn out by the 
 man who had it all that time ? 
 
 Mrs. M. No, it was in very good pres- 
 ervation. I suppose the man took good care 
 of it, thinking he might sometime get a great 
 price for it. It is even now a handsome book, 
 the binding is as nice as ever. The type is 
 so clear, that is, it was so well printed, that 
 it can be read with great ease, although 
 printed so long ago as the year 1559 ; which 
 was but a little more than an hundred years 
 after the art of printing was discovered : so 
 that it is valuable for its antiquity, as well as 
 from having belonged to a departed hero. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 81 
 
 William. Where is it now, mamma ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Gen. Warren's nephew, the 
 present Dr. John C. Warren, has it. He 
 also has the oration which Gen. Warren de- 
 hvered on the 5th of March, in the orator's 
 own hand-writing. 
 
 William. You have not yet told us, 
 mamma, what became of the body of the 
 general ? 
 
 Mrs. M. It was buried near where he 
 fell, with many other bodies, both English 
 and American. Some time after, his friends 
 took it up and placed it in a tomb in the 
 Tremont burying-ground, and finally the bones 
 were removed to the family tomb under St. 
 Paul's church. 
 
 William. Would not the British let his 
 friends have it to bury at first, dear mother ? 
 
 Mrs. M. I presume they would, had any 
 of them demanded it in time : but these 
 friends could not ascertain where he was, nor 
 did they know for a certainty of his death^ 
 until after he was buried. The youngest 
 brother, of whom I have spoken so often. Dr. 
 John Warren, was at the time of the battle, 
 7 
 
82 STORIES OF 
 
 in full practice, as a physician, in Salem. So 
 soon as he heard there was likely to be an en- 
 gagement in Charlestown, he armed himself, 
 and set out on foot for that place. He went 
 on as rapidly as he could, he saw the town 
 of Charlestown in flames, and was lighted on 
 his way by its burning glare, but could not 
 ascertain, for some time, if there had yet been 
 any fighting. At last he was informed that 
 there had been a severe engagement. His 
 impatience to be on the spot, and his anxiety to 
 know where his brother Joseph was, became 
 now almost insupportable. He had studied 
 his profession with that brother, and knew his 
 ardent character so well, that he felt confident 
 he would be among the combatants ; he felt, 
 too, that no danger, no thought for himself, 
 would keep him back from the hottest of the 
 fray ; he was eager to be with him, to share 
 his danger if he could not guard him from it. 
 Notwithstanding his impatience, he could learn 
 nothing certain about him ; he determined to 
 penetrate to the field of battle at all risks. 
 As he attempted to pass a sentinel, on his 
 way, he was repulsed by him with the point 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 83 
 
 of a bayonet, which gave him so deep a 
 wound, that he carried the scar from it as 
 long as he lived. Still he pushed on, and at 
 last ascertained that his brother was in the en- 
 gagement, and that he was either killed or 
 taken prisoner. His character was quite as 
 enthusiastic as that of his brother, and he now 
 earnestly entreated to be allowed to join the 
 army as a volunteer ; to avenge his brother's 
 death, or, if he was not killed, to effect his re- 
 lease, w^as now his most fervent wish. This 
 request was refused. His services were need- 
 ed elsewhere. The poor fellows who had 
 been wounded in the battle were even now 
 suffering from the want of surgical assistance. 
 Dr. John Warren, although then only twenty- 
 four years of age, had already acted as sur- 
 geon at the battle of Lexington. His skill, 
 therefore, as a surgeon, was too well known 
 to allow Congress to accept his services in 
 any other way. With a heart aching at the 
 uncertainty attending a beloved brother's fate, 
 he had to fulfil the duties of the office as- 
 signed him. This post, of hospital surgeon, 
 he retained during the rest of the war. 
 
84 STORIES OF 
 
 His mother was almost distracted with the 
 suspense in which she was kept respecting her 
 first-born son. Although from the first she had 
 said she was sure he would fall a sacrifice to 
 the cause he had espoused so warmly, yet 
 now she could not believe that such had been 
 his fate. It was three days after the battle, 
 before certain intelligence w^as obtained of his 
 death. When his mother first realized that 
 she should see him no more, she was entirely 
 overwhelmed with her affliction. He was 
 her eldest son ; after the death of her hus- 
 band, she had looked to him as her principal 
 solace and support. He was all her fondest 
 hopes could wish. Honor, respect and love, 
 had attended him in every step of his career ; 
 and now, just as he had attained to all the 
 honors his country could bestow, he was taken 
 away, and she had not even the melancholy 
 satisfaction of embalming his body with her 
 tears. For a time she refused to be com- 
 forted ; but ere long, that religion which had 
 comforted her in all her former afflictions, ex- 
 erted its healing power over her wounded 
 spirit, and though she still sorrowed, it was 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 85 
 
 not without hope. The memory of this much 
 loved son was fondly cherished by her to the 
 end of her hfe. Every anniversary of his 
 death was kept by her as a day of fasting and 
 prayer, and her hospitable house was closed 
 to all but the poor. 
 
 His eldest and youngest brothers were pres- 
 ent when his body was disinterred. So soon 
 as the youngest brother, Dr. John Warren, 
 saw that it was indeed the body of his re- 
 spected preceptor and much loved friend and 
 brother, that was thus taken from the recesses 
 of the grave to receive the last tribute of affec- 
 tion, his emotion was so great as to entirely 
 overpower him, he dropped motionless by the 
 side of him he so deeply mourned, and it was 
 some time before consciousness was restored 
 again. 
 
 William. How did his brothers know it 
 was his body, mamma ? I should think, if it 
 had been buried some time, it would not have 
 been possible for them to have been sure it 
 was his. 
 
 Mrs. M. They knew his clothes, for he 
 ■was buried just as he fell ; besides this, he Jiad 
 7^ 
 
86 STORIES OF 
 
 lost a finger nail and wore an artificial tooth, 
 so that he was identified beyond doubt. 
 
 His country also deeply mourned his un- 
 timely loss. In the official account of the 
 battle, drawn up by the Massachusetts Con- 
 gress, it is stated ; " Among the dead was Maj. 
 Gen. Joseph Warren, a man whose memory 
 will be endeared to his countrymen, and to 
 the worthy in every part and age of the 
 world, as long as valor shall be esteemed 
 among mankind." 
 
 Within a year after his death, it was re- 
 solved by Congress that there should be a 
 monument erected to his memory, " as an 
 acknowledgment of his virtues and distin- 
 guished services." Congress also resolved, 
 that from that time his eldest son should be 
 educated at the expense of the United States. 
 Two or three years after, it was determined 
 that the three younger children should like- 
 wise be supported and educated at the public 
 expense, until the youngest child should be 
 of age. 
 
 Maey. Indeed, mamma, did Gen. War- 
 ren have four children ? I did not know he 
 •was married- 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 87 
 
 Mrs. M. Yes, my dear, he left four or- 
 phans. His wife, who was a very excellent, 
 amiable woman, died three years before his 
 death, so that when he was killed, the poor 
 children were left without father or mother. 
 
 William. Who took care of them, dear 
 mother ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Dr. John Warren took them 
 home soon after he himself was married, and 
 they lived with him many years. 
 
 Mary. Did the United States support 
 them, as was resolved ? 
 
 Mrs. M. Yes. Their uncle. Dr. War- 
 ren, was just getting into business in Boston, 
 for he left Salem soon after the war com- 
 menced ; he was at that time not able to do 
 more than support his own family, and unless 
 the board of his brother's children had been 
 paid, he could not have kept them. The 
 eldest son was fitted for, and carried through 
 college, but he died a few years after he came 
 out. The second son, too, died soon after he 
 became of age. The other two children were 
 daughters. The eldest married Gen. Arnold 
 Welles, of whom you have often heard me 
 
88 STORIES OF 
 
 speak ; he was a man beloved and respected 
 by all who knew him. This eldest daughter 
 of Gen. Warren's, was a very beautiful wo- 
 man, but she has been dead many years. 
 The second daughter, who was also a very 
 handsome woman, was twice married. Her 
 last husband was Judge Newcombe, of Green- 
 field. She has been dead some years, and has 
 left one son, Warren Newcombe, who is prac- 
 tising law in this State. He is the only im- 
 mediate descendant of Gen. Warren. I be- 
 lieve, my children, I have now told you all I 
 can about our friend Joseph Warren. Are you 
 not tired of hearing about him ? 
 
 Mary. Oh, no, dear mother, I am not, I 
 wish you could tell us a great deal more. 
 
 William. So do I, mamma. We are 
 much obliged to you for telling us so much. 
 How long did the war last after Gen. Warren 
 was killed ? 
 
 Mrs. M. It lasted about six years, but 
 peace was not finally concluded until the year 
 1783 ; that was eight years after his death. 
 Parley's Geography tells you the time when 
 the fighting ceased, and when a treaty of 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 89 
 
 peace was signed between Great Britain and 
 our country. Do you not recollect it. 
 
 William. Yes, mamma, I do now, but I 
 cannot remember dates very well. 
 
 Mrs. M. You must scon read larger 
 books about the Revolution, and then you 
 will remember better. There are a great 
 many anecdotes of things which took place 
 during the war, which are quite as interesting 
 as any books of tales you can find. In the 
 Appendix to Dr. Thacher's Journal of the 
 Revolution, there are some very interesting 
 facts related ; but you ought to read the 
 whole book so soon as you are old enough to 
 take an interest in it. There are, too, a 
 great many other books you ought to read, 
 to make you acquainted with the many great 
 and good men, w^ho fought and bled in their 
 country's cause. It is not possible to know 
 how much w^e owe them, and especially how 
 much we owe to Gen. Washington, unless we 
 read books which enter into all the particulars 
 of what w^as done and suffered by them, and 
 by him through the whole of the war. 
 
ORATION, 
 
 BELIVERED IJST BOSTOJY, MARCH 6, 1775, 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. JOSEPH WARREN, 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF THE EVENING OF THE 
 
 FIFTH OF BIARCH, 1770; WHEN A NUMBER 
 
 OF CITIZENS WERE KILLED BY A PARTY 
 
 OF BRITISH TROOPS, QUARTERED 
 
 AMONG THEM IN A TIME 
 
 OF PEACE. 
 
 MY EVER HONORED FELLOW CITIZENS, 
 
 It is not without the most, humiliating con- 
 viction of my want of ability that I now appear 
 before you ; but the sense I have of the obliga- 
 tion I am under to obey the calls of my coun- 
 try at all times, together with an animating 
 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 fee- 
 blest efforts of an honest mind. 
 
WARREN'S ORATION. 1^1 
 
 You will not now expect the elegance, the 
 learning, the fire, the enrapturing strains of elo- 
 quence which charmed you when a Lovell, a 
 Church, or a Hancock spake ; but you will 
 permit me to say, that with a sincerity, equal to 
 theirs, I mourn over my bleeding country : with 
 them I weep at her distress, and with them 
 deeply resent the many injuries she has received 
 from the hands of cruel and unreasonable men. 
 
 That personal freedom is the natural right of 
 every man ; and that property, or an exclusive 
 right to dispose of what he has honestly ac- 
 quired 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 dis- 
 pose of the persons or acquisitions of any other 
 man, or body of men, unless it can be proved 
 that such a right has arisen from some compact 
 between the parties in which it has been ex- 
 plicitly and freely granted. 
 
 If I may be indulged in taking a retrospec- 
 tive view of the first settlement of our country, 
 it will be easy to determine with what degree of 
 justice the late Parliament of Great Britain have 
 assumed the power of giving away that prop- 
 
92 ORATION BY 
 
 erty which the Americans have earned by their 
 labor. 
 
 Our fathers having nobly resolved never to 
 wear the yoke of despotism, and seeing the 
 European world, at that time, through indo- 
 lence and cowardice, falling a prey to tyranny, 
 bravely threw themselves upon the bosom of 
 the ocean, determined to find a place in which 
 they might enjoy their freedom, or perish in the 
 glorious attempt. Approving Heaven beheld 
 the favorite ark dancing upon the waves, and 
 graciously preserved it until the chosen families 
 were brought in safety to these western regions. 
 They found the land swarming with savages, 
 who threatened death with every kind of tor- 
 ture. But savages, and death with torture, 
 were far less terrible than slavery : nothing 
 was so much the object of their abhorrence as 
 a tyrant's power : they knew that it was more 
 safe to dwell with man in his most unpolished 
 state, than in a country where arbitrary power 
 prevails. Even anarchy itself, that bugbear 
 held up by the tools of power, (though truly to 
 be deprecated) is infinitely less dangerous to 
 mankind than arbitrary government. Anarchy 
 can be but of short duration ; for when men 
 are at liberty to pursue that course which is 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 93 
 
 most conducive to their own happiness, they 
 will soon come into it, and from the rudest 
 state of nature, order and good government 
 must soon arise. But tyranny, when once es- 
 tablished, entails its curses on a nation to the 
 latest period of time ; unless some daring 
 genius, inspired by Heaven, shall, unappalled 
 by danger, bravely form and execute the ardu- 
 ous design of restoring liberty and life to his 
 enslaved, murdered country. 
 
 The tools of power, in every age, have racked 
 their inventions to justify the few in sporting 
 with the happiness of the many; and, having 
 found their sophistry too weak to hold mankind 
 in bondage, have impiously dared to force re- 
 ligion, the daughter of the king of heaven, to 
 become a prostitute in the service of hell. 
 They taught that princes, honored with the 
 name of Christian, might bid defiance to the 
 founder of their faith, might pillage Pagan 
 countries and deluge them with blood, only be- 
 cause they boasted themselves to be the disci- 
 ples of that teacher who strictly charged his 
 followers to do to others as they would that 
 others should do unto them. 
 
 This country, having been discovered by an 
 English subject, in the year 1620, was (accord- 
 8 
 
94 ORATION BY 
 
 ing to the system which the blind superstition 
 of those times supported) deemed the property 
 of the crown of England. Our ancestors, when 
 they resolved to quit their native soil, obtained 
 from king James, a grant of certain lands in 
 North America. This they probably did to si- 
 lence the cavils of their enemies, for it cannot 
 be doubted, but they despised the pretended 
 right which he claimed thereto. Certain it is, 
 that he might, with equal propriety and justice, 
 have made them a grant of ihe planet Jupiter. 
 And their subsequent conduct plainly shows 
 that they were too well acquainted with hu- 
 manity, and the principles of natural equity, to 
 suppose that the grant gave them any right to 
 take possession ; they, therefore, entered into a 
 treaty with the natives, and bought from them 
 the lands : nor have I ever yet obtained any 
 information that our ancestors ever pleaded, or 
 that the natives ever regarded the grant from 
 the English crown : the business was trans- 
 acted by the parties in the same independent 
 manner that it would have been, had neither of 
 them ever known or heard of the island of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Having become the honest proprietors of the 
 soil, they immediately applied themselves to the 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 95 
 
 cultivation of it; and they soon beheld the vir- 
 gin earth teeming with richest fruits, a ;^rateful 
 recompense for their unwearied toil. The 
 fields began to wave with ripening harvests, 
 and the late barren wilderness was seen to 
 blossom like the rose. The savage natives saw 
 with wonder the delightful change, and quickly 
 formed a scheme to obtain that by fraud or 
 force, which nature meant as the reward of in- 
 dustry alone. But the illustrious emigrants 
 soon convinced the rude invaders, that they 
 were not less ready to take the field for battle 
 than for labor ; and the insidious foe was driven 
 from their borders as often as he ventured to 
 disturb them. The crown of England looked 
 with indifference on the contest ; our ancestors 
 were left alone to combat with the natives. 
 Nor is there any reason to believe, that it ever 
 was intended by the one party, or expected by 
 the other, that the grantor should defend and 
 maintain the grantees in the peaceable posses- 
 sion of the lands named in the patents. And 
 it appears plainly, from the history of those 
 times, that neither the prince, nor the people 
 of Enjrland, thouorht themselves much inter- 
 ested in the matter. They had not then any 
 idea of a thousandth part of those advantages 
 
96 ORATION BY 
 
 which they since have, and we are most heart- 
 ily willing they should continue to reap from us. 
 But when, at an infinite expense of toil and 
 blood, this widely extended continent had been 
 cultivated and defended : when the hardy ad- 
 venturers justly expected that they and their 
 descendants should peaceably have enjoyed the 
 harvest of those fields which they had sown, 
 and the fruit of those vineyards which they had 
 planted ; this country was then thought worthy 
 the attention of the British ministry ; and the 
 only justifiable and only successful means of 
 rendering the Colonies serviceable to Britain 
 were adopted. By an intercourse of friendly 
 offices, the two countries became so united in 
 affection, that they thought not of any distinct 
 or separate interests, they found both countries 
 flourishing and happy. Britain saw her com- 
 merce extended, and her wealth increased ; 
 her lands raised to an immense value ; her 
 fleets riding triumphant on the ocean ; the ter- 
 ror of her arms spreading to every quarter of 
 the globe. The Colonist found himself free, 
 and thought himself secure ; he dwelt under 
 his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, and 
 had none to make him afraid : he knew, in- 
 deed, that by purchasing the manufactures of 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 97 
 
 Great Britain, he contributed to its greatness : 
 he knew that all the wealth that his labor pro- 
 duced 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 past, he solaced himself with the contem- 
 plation, or perhaps entertained his listening 
 family with the recital of some great, some glo- 
 rious transaction which shines conspicuous in 
 the history of Britain : or, perhaps, his elevated 
 fancy led him to foretell, with a kind of enthu- 
 siastic confidence, the glory, power, and dura- 
 tion of an empire which should extend from 
 one end of the earth to the other : he saw, or 
 thought he saw, the British nation risen to a 
 pitch of grandeur which cast a veil over the 
 Roman glory, and, ravished with the praeview, 
 boasted a race of British kings, whose names 
 should echo through those realms where Cy- 
 rus, Alexander, and the Caesars were unknown ; 
 princes for wh*om millions of grateful subjects 
 redeemed from slavery and Pagan ignorance, 
 should, with thankful tongues, offer ug their 
 prayers and praises to that transcendently great 
 and beneficent Being, by whom kings reign, 
 and princes decree justice. 
 
98 ORATION BY 
 
 These pleasing connexions might have con- 
 tinued ; these delightsome prospects might have 
 been every day extended ; and even the reve- 
 ries of the most warm imagination might have 
 been realized ; but unhappily for us, unhappily 
 for Britain, the madness of an avaricious minis- 
 ter of state, has drawn a sable curtain over the 
 charming scene, and in its stead, has brought 
 upon the stage, discord, envy, hatred, and re- 
 venge, with civil war close in their rear. 
 
 Some demon, in an evil hour, suggested to a 
 short-sighted financier, the hateful project of 
 transferring the whole property of the king's 
 subjects in America, to his subjects in Britain. 
 The claim of the British Parliament to tax the 
 Colonies, can never be supported by such a 
 TRANSFER ; for the right of the House of Com- 
 mons of Great Britain, to originate any tax, or 
 grant money, is altogether derived from their 
 being elected by the people of Great Britain to 
 act for them ; and the people of Great Britain 
 cannot confer on their represeiftatives a right 
 to give or grant any thing which they them- 
 selves Jiave not a right to give or grant person- 
 ally. Therefore, it follows, that if the mem- 
 bers chosen by the people of Great Britain, to 
 represent them in Parliament, have, by virtue 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 99 
 
 of their being so chosen, any right to give or 
 grant American property, or to lay any tax 
 upon the lands or persons of the Colonists, it is 
 because the lands and people in the Colonies 
 are bona fide, owned by, and justly belonging 
 to the people of Great Britain. But, (as has 
 been before observed,) every man has a right 
 to personal freedom, consequently, a right to 
 enjoy what is acquired by his own labor. And 
 as it is evident that the property in this country 
 has been acquired by our own labor, it is the 
 duty of the people of Great Britain, to produce 
 some compact in which we have explicitly given 
 up to them a right to dispose of our persons 
 or property. Until this is done, every attempt 
 of theirs, or of those whom they have deputed 
 to act for them, to give or grant any part of our 
 property, is directly repugnant to every princi- 
 ple of reason and natural justice. But 1 may 
 boldly say, that such a compact never existed, 
 no, not even in imagination. Nevertheless, 
 the representatives of a nation, long famed for 
 justice and the exercise of every noble virtue, 
 have been prevailed on to adopt the fatal 
 scheme : and although the dreadful consequen- 
 ces of this wicked policy have already shaken 
 the empire to its centre ; yet still it is persisted 
 
100 ORATION BY 
 
 in. Regardless of the voice of reason, deaf to 
 the prayers and supplications, and unaffected 
 with the flowing tears of suffering millions, the 
 British ministry still hug the darling idol ; and 
 every rolling year affords fresh instances of the 
 absurd devotion with which they worship it. 
 Alas ! how has the folly, the distraction of the 
 British councils, blasted our swelling hopes, 
 and spread a gloom over this western hemis- 
 phere. 
 
 The hearts of Britons and Americans, which 
 lately felt the generous glow of mutual confi- 
 dence and love, now burn with jealousy and 
 rage. Though, but of yesterday, I recollect 
 (deeply affected at the ill boding change) the 
 happy hours that past whilst Britain and Amer- 
 ica rejoiced in the prosperity and greatness of 
 each other, (Heaven grant those halcyon days 
 may soon return.) But now the Briton too 
 often looks on the American with an envious 
 eye, taught to consider his just plea for the en- 
 joyment of his earnings, as the effect of pride 
 and stubborn opposition to the parent country, 
 "Whilst the American beholds the Briton as the 
 ruffian, ready first to take away his properly, 
 and next, what is still dearer to every virtuous 
 man, the liberty of his country. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 101 
 
 When the measures of administration had 
 disgusted the Colonies to the highest degree, 
 and the people of Great Britain had, by artifice 
 and falsehood, been irritated against America, 
 an army was sent over to enforce submission to 
 certain acts of the British Parliament, which 
 reason scorned to countenance, and which 
 placemen and pensioners were found unable to 
 support. 
 
 Martial law and the government of a well 
 regulated city, are so entirely different, that it 
 has always been considered as improper to 
 quarter troops in populous cities : frequent dis- 
 putes must necessarily arise between the citizen 
 and the soldier, even if no previous animosities 
 subsist. And it is further certain, from a con- 
 sideration of the nature of mankind, as well as 
 from constant experience, that standing armies 
 always endanger the liberty of the subject. 
 But when the people, on the one part, consid- 
 ered the army as sent to enslave them, and the 
 army, on the other, were taught to look on the 
 people as in a state of rebellion, it was but just 
 to fear the most disagreeable consequences. 
 Our fears, we have seen, were but too well 
 grounded. 
 
 The many injuries offered to the town, I 
 
102 ORATION BY 
 
 pass over in silence. I cannot now mark out 
 the path which led to that unequalled scene of 
 horror, the sad remembrance of which, takes 
 the full possession of my soul. The sanguin- 
 ary theatre again opens itself to view. The 
 baleful images of terror crowd around me, and 
 discontented ghosts, with hollow groans, ap- 
 pear to solemnize the anniversary of the fifth 
 
 OF MARCH. 
 
 Approach we then the melancholy walk of 
 death. Hither let me call the gay companion ; 
 here let him drop a farewell tear upon that 
 body which so late he saw vigorous and warm 
 with social mirth ; hither let me lead the ten- 
 der mother to weep over her beloved son : 
 come, widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief; 
 behold thy murdered husband gasping on the 
 ground, and to complete the pompous show of 
 wretchedness, bring in each hand thy infant 
 children to bewail their father's fate : take 
 heed, ye orphan babes, lest, whilst your stream- 
 ing eyes are fixed upon the ghastly corpse, 
 your feet slide on the stones bespattered with 
 your father's brains.* Enough ! this tragedy 
 
 * After Mr. Gray had been shot through the body, and had 
 fallen dead on the ground, a bayonet was pushed through his 
 Rkull ; a part of the bone being broken, his brains fell out upoQ 
 the pavement. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 103 
 
 need not be heightened by an infant weltering 
 in the blood of him that gave it birth. Nature, 
 reluctant, shrinks already from the view, and 
 the chilled blood rolls slowly backward to its 
 fountain. We wildly stare about, and with 
 amazement, ask, who spread this ruin round 
 us ? What wretch has dared deface the image 
 of his God ? Has haughty France, or cruel 
 Spain, sent forth her myrmidons? Has the 
 grim savage rushed again from the far distant 
 wilderness 1 Or does 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, none of these ; but, how as- 
 tonishing ! It is the hand of Britain that in- 
 flicts the wound. The arms* of George, our 
 rightful king, have been employed to shed that 
 blood, when justice, or the honor of his crown, 
 had called his subjects to the field. 
 
 But pity, grief, astonishment, with all the 
 softer movements of the soul, must now give 
 way to stronger passions. Say, fellow citizens, 
 what dreadful thought now swells your heaving 
 bosoms ; you fly to arms, sharp indig^nation 
 flashes from each eye, revenge gnashes her 
 
104 ORATION BY 
 
 iron teeth, death grins an hideous smile, secure 
 to drench his greedy jaws in human gore, whilst 
 hovering furies darken all the air. 
 
 But stop, my bold adventurous countrymen, 
 stain not your weapons with the blood of Brit- 
 ons. Attend to reason's voice, humanity puts 
 in her claim, and sues to be again admitted to 
 her wonted seat, the bosom of the brave. Re- 
 venge is far beneath the noble mind. Many, 
 perhaps, compelled to rank among the vile as- 
 sassins, do, from their inmost souls, detest the 
 barbarous action. The winged death, shot 
 from your arms, may chance to pierce some 
 breast that bleeds already for your injured 
 country. 
 
 The storm subsides ; a solemn pause ensues ; 
 you spare, upon condition they depart. They 
 go ; they quit your city ; they no more shall 
 give offence. Thus closes the important drama. 
 
 And could it have been conceived that we 
 again should have seen a British army in our 
 land, sent to enforce obedience to acts of Par- 
 liament destructive of our liberty. But the 
 royal ear, far distant from this western world, 
 has been assaulted by the tongue of slander ; 
 and villains, traitorous alike to king and coun- 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 105 
 
 try, have prevailed upon a gracious prince to 
 clothe his countenance with wrath, and to erect 
 the hostile banner against a people ever affec- 
 tionate and loyal to him and his illustrious 
 predecessors of the house of Hanover. Our 
 streets are again filled with armed men ; our 
 harbor is crowded with ships of war ; but these 
 cannot intimidate us ; our liberty must be pre- 
 served ; it is far dearer than life, we hold it 
 even dear as our allegiance ; we must defend 
 it against the attacks of friends as well as ene- 
 mies ; we cannot suffer even Britons to ravish 
 it from us. 
 
 No longer could we reflect, with generous 
 pride, on the heroic actions of our American 
 forefathers, no longer boast our origin from that 
 far famed island, whose warlike sons have so 
 often drawn their well tried swords to save her 
 from the ravages of tyranny ; could we, but for 
 a moment, entertain the thought of giving up 
 our liberty. The man who meanly will submit 
 to wear a shackle, contemns the noblest gift of 
 Heaven, and impiously affronts the God that 
 made him free. 
 
 It was a maxim of the Roman people, which 
 eminently conduced to the greatness of that 
 9 
 
106 ORATION BY 
 
 state, never to despair of the commonwealth. 
 The maxim may prove as salutary to us now, 
 as it did to them. Short-sighted mortals see 
 not the numerous links of small and great 
 events, which form the chain on which the fate 
 of kings and nations is suspended. Ease and 
 prosperity (though pleasing for a day) have 
 often sunk a people into effeminacy and sloth. 
 Hardships and dangers (though we forever 
 strive to shun them) have frequently called forth 
 such virtues, as have commanded the applause 
 and reverence of an admiring world. Our 
 country loudly calls you to be circumspect, 
 vigilant, active, and brave. Perhaps, (all gra- 
 cious Heaven avert it) perhaps the power of 
 Britain, a nation great in war, by some malig- 
 nant influence, may be employed to enslave 
 you : but let not even this discourage you. 
 Her arms, it is 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, my 
 countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of 
 fight?* You, too, can show the trophies of 
 
 * The patience with which this people have borne the repeated 
 injuries which have been heaped upon them, and their unwil- 
 lingness to take any sanguinary measiireg, has, very injudiciously. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 107 
 
 your forefather's victories and your own ; can 
 name the fortresses and battles you have won ; 
 and many of you count the honorable scars or 
 wounds received, whilst fighting for your king 
 and country. 
 
 Where justice is the standard, Heaven is the 
 warrior's shield : but conscious guilt unnerves* 
 the arm that lifts the sword against the inno- 
 cent. Britain, united with these Colonies by 
 commerce and affection, by interest and blood, 
 may mock the threats of France and Spain ; 
 may be the seat of universal empire. But 
 should America, either by force, or those more 
 
 been ascribed to cowardice, by persons both here and in Great 
 Britain. I most heartily wish, that an opinion, so erroneous in 
 itself, and so fatal in its consequences, might be utterly removed 
 before it be too late; and I tiiink, nothing further necessary to 
 convince every intelligent man, that the conduct of this people is 
 owing to the tender regard which they have for their fellow men, 
 and an utter abhorrence to the shedding of human blood, than a 
 little attention to their general temper and disposition, discovered 
 when they cannot be supposed to be under any apprehension of 
 danger to themselves. I will only mention the universal detes- 
 tation wfiich they shew to every act of cruelty, by whom and 
 upon whomsoever committed •, the mild spirit of their laws; the 
 very few crimes to which capital penalties were annexed ; and 
 the very great backwardness which both courts and juries dis- 
 cover, in condemning persons charged with capital crimes. But 
 if any should think this observation not to the purpose, I readily 
 appeal to those gentlemen of the army who have been in the 
 camp, or in the field, with the Americans. 
 
108 ORATION BY 
 
 dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever 
 be brought into a state of vassalage, Britain 
 must lose her freedom also. No longer shall 
 she sit the empress of the sea : her ships no 
 more shall waft her thunders over the wide 
 ocean : the wreath shall wither on her temples : 
 her weakened arm shall be unable to defend 
 her coasts : and she, at last, must bow her 
 venerable head to some proud foreigner's des- 
 potic rule. 
 
 But if, from past events, we may venture to 
 form a judgment of the future, we justly may 
 expect that the devices of our enemies will but 
 increase the triumphs of our country. I must 
 indulge a hope that Britain's liberty, as well as 
 ours, will eventually be preserved by the virtue 
 of America. 
 
 The attempt of the British Parliament to 
 raise a revenue from America, and our denial 
 of their right to do it, have excited an almost 
 universal inquiry " he rights of mankind in 
 general, and of British subjects in particular; 
 the necessary result of which must be such a 
 liberality of sentiment, and such a jealousy of 
 those in power, as will, better than an adaman- 
 tine wall, secure us against the future ap- 
 proaches of despotism. 
 
GENERAL WARREN. 109 
 
 The malice of the Boston port bill has been 
 defeated in a very coTisiderable degree, by giv- 
 ing you an opportunity of deserving, and our 
 brethren in tliis and our sister Colonies an op- 
 portunity of bestowing, those benefactions which 
 have delighted your friends and astonished your 
 enemies, not only in America, but in Europe 
 also. And what is more valuable still, the 
 sympatlietic feelings for a brother in distress, 
 and the grateful emotions excited in the breast 
 of him who finds relief, must forever endear 
 each to the other, and form those indissoluble 
 bonds of friendship and affection, on which the 
 preservation of our rights so evidently depend. 
 
 The mutilation of our charier, has made 
 every other Colony jealous for its own ; for 
 this, if once submitted to us, would set on float 
 the property and government of every British 
 settlement upon the continent. If charters are 
 not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious 
 is every thing founded upv.. .-bm. 
 
 Even the sending troops to put these acts in 
 execution, is not without advantage to us. The 
 exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire 
 our youth with ardor in the pursuit of military 
 knowledge. Charles the Invincible, taught 
 
110 ORATION BY 
 
 Peter the Great, the art of war. The battle of 
 Pultovva convinced Charles of the proficiency 
 Peter had made. 
 
 Our country is in danger, but not to be des- 
 paired of Our enemies are numerous and 
 powerful ; but we have many friends, deter- 
 mining to be free, and heaven and earth will 
 aid the resolution. On you depend the for- 
 tunes of America. You are to decide the im- 
 portant question, on which rest 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 
 lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, implor- 
 ing defence against the monster, slavery. Your 
 fathers look from their celestial seats with smil- 
 ing approbation on their sons, who boldly stand 
 forth in the cause of virtue ; but sternly frown 
 upon the inhuman miscreant, who, to secure 
 the loaves and fishes to himself, would breed a 
 serpent to destroy his children. 
 
 But, pardon me, my fellow citizens, I know 
 you want not zeal or fortitude. You will main- 
 tain your riglits or perish in the generous strug- 
 gle. However difficult the combat, you never 
 will decline it when freedom is the prize. An 
 
GENERAL WARREN. Ill 
 
 independence on Great Britain is not our aim. 
 No, our wish is, that Britain and 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, re- 
 quire that the wise measures, recommended by 
 the honorable the Continental Congress, be 
 steadily pursued ; wliereby the unnatural con- 
 test between a parent honored, and a child be- 
 loved, 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 pacific measures are ineffectual, and it 
 appears that the only way to safety, is through 
 fields of blood, I know you will not turn your 
 faces from your foes, but will, undauntedly, 
 press forward, until tyranny is trodden under 
 foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess 
 Liberty, fast by a Brunswick's side, on the 
 American throne. 
 
 You, then, who nobly have espoused your 
 country's cause, who generously have sacrificed 
 wealth and ease ; who have despised the pomp 
 and show of tinseled greatness ; refused the 
 
112 WARREN'S ORATION. 
 
 summons to the festive board ; been 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 might break the fowl- 
 er's snare, and disappoint the vulture of his 
 prey ; you then will reap that harvest of re- 
 nown which you so justly have deserved. Your 
 country shall pay her grateful tribute of ap- 
 plause. Even the children of your most invet- 
 erate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they 
 sprang, while they in 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 of making 
 millions happy ; with heart-felt joy, with trans- 
 ports all your own, you cry, the glorious work 
 is done. Then drop the mantle to some young 
 Elisha, and take your seats with kindred spirits 
 in your native skies. 
 
 H 55- 78 
 
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