A Ruler Independent of the People is a Monster in Government

Author: Mucius Scaevola, a pseudonym Date: November 14, 1771 “If it be true, that the exceptionable clause in the late proclamation, was not proposed by Mr. Hutchinson, but by one of the council; yet there it stands, and is nevertheless exceptionable, and must reflect dishonor somewhere, even though it were inadvertently inserted. It is not […]

Read the full article →

Dutiful and Loyal Notwithstanding Any Representations to the Contrary

Read the full article →

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston

James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, and Samuel Pemberton, in committee Date: March 23, 1770 “It may be a proper introduction to this narrative, briefly to represent the state of things for some time previous to the said Massacre; and this seems necessary in order to the forming a just idea of the causes of it. At […]

Read the full article →

30 Pounds and Pottery for a Slave

Date: June 28, 1770 “I the Subscriber having this day purchas’d a Negro Boy of Joshua Green have made the followg: conditions with him viz. That I will add Ten Pounds Lawfull Money to be paid in Potter’s Ware manufactur’d in this Town in three years to the Thirty pounds first agreed for if in […]

Read the full article →

A Proficient in True Puritanic Whine

Date: March 15, 1775 Author: Dr. Thomas Bolton An Oration delivered March Fifteenth, 1775. At The Request of a Number of the Inhabitants of The Town of Boston             Ye Friends to justice, equity, and truth,             Ye Foes to falsehood, treason, and rebellion,             – – – – – – – With patience hear […]

Read the full article →

1772 Boston Massacre Oration – Full Text

Dr. Joseph Warren (1741-1775)

Date: March 5, 1772   quis talia fando/Myrmidonum, Dolopumve, aut duri miles Ulyssei, /Temperet a lacrymis. (Vergil, Aeneid Bk. II, 6-8)   When we turn over the historic page, and trace the rise and fall of states and empires, the mighty revolutions which have so often varied the face of the world strike our minds […]

Read the full article →

Injuriously Aspersed and Grossly Misrepresented

Date: October 23, 1769 Authors: Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, et al “To Dennys DeBerdt, Boston, October 23, 1769. Sir: In pursuance of the directions of the Town of Boston we have the honor to transmit you a Pamphlet containing some observations upon divers letters and memorials wrote by Governor Bernard and others wherein […]

Read the full article →

Committee on Visitation of the Schools

Date: May 8, 1769 Pursuant to a Note of the Town of Boston at their Annual Meetings the 4[th] of May last desiring the Selectmen to visit the several publick Schools in the Town and to invite such Gentlemen to accompany them therein as they should think proper & to Report thereon— We the Subscribers […]

Read the full article →

Promissory Note to John Adams

Date: November 29, 1768 Boston For Value received I promise to pay to John Adams Esq on Order forty two Pounds lawful Money in Three Months from the Date hereof. Joseph Warren Source: The Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Microform Reel 344 Commentary: For better documented historical figures, a piece of ephemera like this […]

Read the full article →

Misattribution to Joseph Warren concerning A True Patriot

Author: T.N. Monument-Maker (pseudonym, possibly Thomas Newell) Date: March 27, 1769 “I am informed of what passed with the Grand Jury last Week, relative to a Paper signed A True Patriot, published in the Supplement to your Gazette of February 29, 1768. – I imagined nothing more would have been said upon a Subject which […]

Read the full article →