JOSEPH WARREN, M.D.

DOCTOR JOSEPH WARREN was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the eleventh day of June, 1741. His family, for as many generations as any thing is known respecting it, had been settled at or in the vicinity of his birthplace. His father was a respectable farmer, who had held several municipal offices in the town where he resided, and was esteemed a man of "good understanding, industrious, upright, honest, and faithful,-a serious, exemplary Christian, and a useful member of society." Joseph, after finishing the usual preparatory studies at the grammar-school of his native town, entered Harvard College in 1755, where he sustained the character of a youth of fine understanding, independent deportment, and generous principles. The particular incidents relating to this period of his life are lost to history, but one anecdote, illustrating the fearlessness and energy of his character, being left. Several students of Warren's class shut themselves in a room to arrange some college affairs, in a way which they knew was contrary to his wishes, and barred the door so effectually that he could not without great violence force it; but he did not give over the attempt to gain admission, for, perceiving that the window of the room in which they were assembled was open, and near a spout which extended from the roof of the building to the ground, he went to the top of the house, slid down to the eaves, seized the spout, and when he had descended as far as the window, threw himself into the chamber among them. At that instant the spout, which was decayed and weak, gave way and fell to the ground. He looked at it without emotion, said that it had served his purpose, and began to take his part in the college business. After graduating, in 1759, Warren commenced the study of medicine under the guidance of Dr. James Lloyd, a distinguished practitioner in Boston, and soon after entered into practice. In 1764, when the small-pox visited Boston, he was very successful in his treatment of that disease, which at that time was considered the most terrible scourge of the human race. This success won him many friends, the good will of whom he never lost, and his practice soon became extensive. The same year he married a daughter of Dr. Richard Hooton.

At the commencement of the disturbances in the colonies, consequent upon the passage of the Stamp Act, Dr. Warren entered the arena of politics, where he remained, enlightening the people with his pen, and with his oratorical reasoning directing public sentiment. Among the numerous expressions of his opinions at this period is the following, taken from a private letter addressed to a clerical friend in England. "Never has there been a time, since the first settlement of America, in which the people had so much reason to be alarmed, as the present. The whole continent is inflamed to the highest degree. I believe this country may be esteemed as truly loyal in their principles as any in the universe; but the strange project of levying a stamp duty, and of depriving the people of the privileges of trials by juries, has roused their jealousy and resentment. They can conceive of no liberty where they have lost the power of taxing themselves, and where all controversies between the Crown and the people are to be determined by the opinion of one dependant; and they think that slavery is not only the greatest misfortune, but that it is also the greatest crime (if there is a possibility of escaping it). You are sensible that the inhabitants of this country have ever been zealous lovers of their civil and

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religious liberties. For the enjoyment of these they have fought battles, left a pleasant and populous country, and exposed themselves to all the dangers and hardships in this new world; and their laudable attachment to freedom, has hitherto been transmitted to posterity. Freedom and equality is the state of nature; but slavery is the most unnatural and violent state that can be conceived of, and its approach must be gradual and imperceptible. In many old countries, where in a long course of years some particular families have been able to acquire a very large share of property, from which must arise a kind of aristocracy,—that is, the power and authority of some persons or families is exercised in proportion to the decrease of the independence and property of the people in general;—had America been prepared in this manner for the Stamp Act, it might perhaps have met with a more favorable reception; but it is absurd to attempt to impose so cruel a yoke on a people who are so near to a state of original equality, and who look upon their liberties not merely as arbitrary grants, but as their unalienable, eternal rights, purchased by the blood and treasure of their ancestors,-which liberties, though granted and received as acts of favor, could not, without manifest injustice, have been refused, and cannot now, or at any time hereafter, be revoked."* Dr. Warren contributed several spirited articles to the Boston Gazette, under the signature of A True Patriot. In his letter to Governor Bernard, published in that journal, in February, 1768, he displays his characteristic decision and energy. After expressing his knowledge of the governor's enmity to the province, and the calumniation heaped upon its inhabitants by that official, he concludes: "But I refrain, lest a full representation of the hardships suffered by this too long insulted people should lead them to an unwarrantable revenge. We never can treat good and patriotic rulers with too great reverence. But it is certain that men totally abandoned to wickedness can never merit our regard, be their stations ever so high.

'If such men are by God appointed,

The devil may be the Lord's anointed.'"

This article so excited the governor that he despatched a message to the House, and another to the Council, calling their attention to it. The Council pronounced it a scandaicus libel; but the House was of opinion that as no particular individual, public or private, was named, it could not affect the majesty of the king, or the true interests of the colony. It was also laid before the Grand Jury; but that body made no presentment. Thus it remained; its author receiving no other rebuke than the opinions of the "royal followers," who called it "a most abusive piece against the governor." Undaunted by the decision of the Council and the friends of the governor, Dr. Warren continued his publications, maintaining the rights of the people. "Every society of men," said he, "have a clear right to refute any unjust aspersions upon their characters, especially when they feel the evil effects of such aspersions; and, though they may not pursue the slanderer from motives of revenge, yet are obliged to detect him, that so he may be prevented from injuring them again. This province has been most barbarously traduced, and now groans under the weight of those misfortunes which have been thereby brought upon it. We have detected some of the authors: we will zealously endeavor to deprive them of the power of injuring us hereafter. We will strip the serpents of their stings, and consign to disgrace all those guileful betrayers of their country. There is but one way for men to avoid being set up as objects of general hate, which is not to deserve it."

Dr. Warren pronounced two orations in commemoration of the massacre perpetrated in King street, Boston, on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770. The first was delivered at the Old South Church, in 1772. For this effort he gained little applause, yet the fervor he displayed exerted powerful effect upon the minds of the people.t On the occasion of the second oration, in 1775, Warren displayed a loftier spirit and a greater energy. It had been openly avowed by some of the British soldiery then in Boston, that whoever should attempt an oration upon that occasion should answer for it with his life. Undaunted at this threat, and wishing for the

* A copy of this letter, which is curiously illustrative of the state of public feeling in New England upon the subject of the Stamp Act, is published in Loring's "Boston Orators," with an account of its origin, recovery, &c.

+ Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. Third, page 348.

honor of braving it, Warren solicited the appointment of orator. On the day appointed for the performance, the Old South Church was filled to excess. The pulpit and the avenues leading to it, were crowded with the officers and soldiers of the royal service. To prevent confusion, Warren entered from the rear of the church through the pulpit window, and, unaffected by the hostile array before him and around him, he delivered the oration, with a firm and determined purpose. "The scene was sublime," says an eloquent modern writer. "A patriot, in whom the flush of youth and the grace and dignity of manhood were combined, stood armed in the sanctuary of God, to animate and encourage the sons of liberty, and to hurl defiance at their oppressors. The orator commenced with the early history of the country, described the tenure by which we held our liberties and property, the affection we had constantly shown the parent country, boldly told them how, and by whom these blessings of life had been violated. There was in this appeal to Britain-in this description of suffering, agony, and horror, a calm and high-souled defiance, which must have chilled the blood of every sensible foe. Such another hour has seldom happened in the history of man, and it is not surpassed in the records of nations."

A few weeks after the delivery of this splendid production, Warren entered the field for the maintenance of the principles he had avowed. On the return of the British troops from Concord and Lexington, in April, 1775, he was in attendance upon the Committee of Safety at West Cambridge, and when they approached, he went out in company with General Heath to repel them. A sharp engagement ensued, during which a musket ball passed so near the temple of Warren as to cut off one of the "long, close, horizontal curls" which, according to the fashion of the times, he wore above his ears. The people were animated with his cool and determined bravery, and their confidence in his gallantry and talents was unbounded. At this time Warren was the President of the Provincial Congress, in which position he discovered extraordinary powers of mind, and great fitness for the emergencies of the times. On the fourteenth of June he was chosen a major-general of the Massachusetts forces. Two days afterwards, in a conversation with Elbridge Gerry, respecting the determination of Congress to take possession of Bunker's Hill, he said, that for himself he was opposed to the measure, but as the majority had decided upon it, he would hazard his life to carry it into effect. Mr. Gerry remonstrated with him, and concluded by saying, "As surely as you go there you will be slain." Warren replied with enthusiasm, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."—It is pleasant and honorable to die for one's country. These principles were sealed with his blood. On the morning preceding the battle he was at Cambridge, and hearing of the preparations going on at Charlestown, he mounted a horse and rode to the place. He did not arrive at the battle-ground until the enemy had commenced their movements for the attack. As soon as he made his appearance on the field, the veteran commander of the day, Col. Prescott, proffered him the command, but he declined taking any other part than that of a volunteer, and added that he came to learn the art of war from an experienced soldier, whose orders he should be happy to obey. Borrowing a musket from a soldier who was retiring, he mingled in the thickest of the fight, where his example encouraged the troops to deeds of honor and bravery. When the battle was decided in favor of the British, and the retreat of the Americans commenced, a ball struck Warren on the head, and he died in the trenches.* His death caused the deepest sorrow in the community, and the sacrifice of so noble a victim produced a stronger determination on the part of the colonists to preserve their rights and liberties.

* Allen's Biographical Dictionary

THE BOSTON MASSACRE.

This oration was delivered at Boston, Massa- | which looks with kindness on the feeblest efchusetts, on the sixth day of March, 1775, in forts of an honest mind. commemoration of the "Bloody Massacre" committed in King street, Boston, on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770: *

ment must soon arise. But tyranny, when once | established, 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 arduous designs 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 religion, 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 pa- | gan countries and deluge them with blood, only because they boasted themselves to be the disciples 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 (according 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 silence 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 the planet Jupiter. And their subsequent conduct plainly shows, that they were too well acquainted with humanity, 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 transacted 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.

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 possession 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 England, thought themselves much interested in the matter. They had not then any idea of a thousandth part of those advantages, which they since have, and we are most heartily willing they should still 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 adventurers 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 commerce extended, and her wealth increased; her lands raised to an immense value; her fleets riding triumphant on the ocean; the terror 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, indeed, that by purchasing the manufactures of Great Britain, he contributed to its greatness: he knew that all the wealth that his labor produced, centred 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 contemplation, or perhaps entertained his listening family with the recital of some great, some glorious transaction, which shines conspicuous in Having become the honest proprietors of the the history of Britain; or, perhaps, his elevated soil, they immediately applied themselves to fancy led him to foretell, with a kind of enthuthe cultivation of it; and they soon beheld the siastic confidence, the glory, power and duravirgin earth teeming with richest fruits, a grate-tion of an empire which should extend from ful 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 industry 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

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 preview, boasted a race of British kings, whose names should echo through those realms where Cyrus, Alexander, and the Cæsars were unknown; princes, for whom millions of grateful subjects redeemed from slavery and pagan ignorance, should, with thankful tongues, offer up their prayers and praises to that transcendently great and beneficent being, "by whom kings reign and princes decree justice."