Letter from the Earl of Shelburne to the Governor

Date: November 24, 1766 Author: [Anonymous] “To the Publishers of the Boston Evening-Post. The Letter from the Right Hon. the Earl of Shelburne to the Governor of this province is of public and important concern, and therefore very necessary to be known to the people in general.  It was with this view no doubt that […]

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Dear Paskalos

Date: June 9, 1766 Author: Beelzebub, a pseudonym “Messi[]rs. Printers, As I was walking the Streets, last Tuesday, I accidentally found the following Letter; and that being the Day on which it was dated, I conclude it never reach’d Paskalos, whoever he is, but was drop’d by the Carrier in his hurry – – – […]

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Prospectus for the Formation of a Medical Society

Date: 1765 Author: Cotton Tufts “Gentlemen: You have enclos’d the substance of a paper that was not long since circulated amongst a number of physicians — In compliance with which there has been a meeting of a number of physicians who have confer’d upon the subject & have adjourned their meeting to ye first Wednesday […]

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Time of Permission of Inoculation

Date: April 19, 1764 Author: William Cooper “The following Advertisement was sent the several Printers, for a place in their Papers — viz’. The Time for the permission of Inoculation in this Town by a Vote of the Inhabitants at a General Town Meeting being limitted to the 20′. of April ends to Morrow, therefore […]

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Juvenile Poem

Date: circa 1750 – 1755 “Wine will make us Red as Roses & our sorrows Quite forgett come let us Fudell all our Noses and Drink our Selves Til out of Debt” Source: Flyleaf inscription and signature in Massachusetts Historical Society’s copy of: Bailey, N[athan]. English and Latine Exercises for School-Boys, Fifth edition, Boston: T. […]

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A Medical Society for Massachusetts

Author: Graph Iatroos, a pseudonym Date: February 1765 “Sir There has been [for] some time on foot a proposal [for] forming medical Societies or Associations of Doctors analogous to those of the Clergy for the more speedy Improvement of our young Physicians; as by communicating to each other any Discoveries in any of the Branches […]

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May Our Land be a Land of Liberty: 1772 Oration Highlights

Dr. Joseph Warren delivered the 1772 Boston Massacre Oration

Date: March 5, 1772 “May we ever be a people favoured of GOD. May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise in the whole earth.” “In young and new formed communities…the motives which urged to the social compact, cannot be at […]

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If her Merchants Offer to Sell us, her Mechanics Will Forbid the Auction

Date:  June 15, 1774 “If the timidity of some and the treachery of others in this town do not ruin us, I think we shall be saved. I fear New York will not assist us with a very good grace; but she may perhaps be ashamed to desert us: at least, if her MERCHANTS offer […]

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Our Country is in Danger, but Not to be Despaired of: 1775 Oration Highlights

Date: March 6, 1775 ”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 […]

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American Representation is a Shadow, Not a Substance

Date: August 15, 1774 “[T]he present American representation is a shadow, and not a substance; and I am certain, that, unless it is put upon a better footing, the people themselves will, in a few years, readily consent to throw off the useless burthen.” Source: Letter to Samuel Adams

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