Sam Forman's Blog, page 15
May 6, 2014
Conducted in Safety and Returned to Boston Unmolested
“Cambridge April 21, 1775. May it please your Excellency, A number of Officers and Soldiers under your command were wounded on Wednesday last: they now lie in Cambridge and one or two adjacent Towns. They have had proper assistance from Surgeons, and are treated in every aspect with much humanity; but as they are desirous [...]
April 29, 2014
Joseph Warren to Connecticut – Help!
“Cambridge, April 22, 1775. May it please your honor, – On Wednesday the 19th instant, early in the morning, a brigade of General Gage’s army marched into the country to Lexington, about twelve miles from Boston, where they met with a small party of minute men exercising, who had no intention of injuring the [...]
April 22, 2014
Barbarous Murders Committed on Our Innocent Brethren
Date: [April 20, 1775] Joseph Warren to Towns Gentlemen, -The barbarous murders committed on our innocent brethren, on Wednesday the 19th instant, have made it absolutely, necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our wives and our children from the butchering hands of an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met [...]
April 15, 2014
America Must and Will be Free
“To Arthur LEE, Esq., London. Boston, April 3, 1775. Dear Sir, Your favor of the 21st of December came opportunely to hand, as it enabled me to give the Provincial Congress, now sitting at Concord, a just view of the measures pursued by the tools of the Administration, and effectually to guard them against that [...]
April 10, 2014
I Have Many Things which I Wish to Say to Your Excellency
[to His Excellency General Gage] “Cambridge, April 20, 1775. Sir, – The unhappy situation into which this colony is thrown gives the greatest uneasiness to every man who regards the welfare of the empire, or feels for the distresses of his fellow-men: but even now much may be done to alleviate those misfortunes which cannot [...]
April 1, 2014
A Grateful Sense for Your Exertions in the Cause of Freedom
“Boston, April 3, 1775. Sir, – Altho’ I have not the pleasure either of a personal or epistolary acquaintance with you, I have taken the liberty of sending you by Mr. Dana a pamphlet which I wish was more deserving of your notice. The ability and firmness with which you have defended the Rights of [...]
March 25, 2014
Inhabitants of Montreal Have Done Worthily
Date: March 15, 1775. “Messrs. James Price and Alexander Hay, at Montreal. Gentlemen, -So handsome a donation as £100. 4s., accompanied by such an animating letter from our brethren at Montreal, cannot fall to excite the warmest gratitude in the breast of every one who wishes prosperity and freedom to his country. The committee to [...]
March 11, 2014
Your Deadly British Balls Don’t Intimidate Me
Date: Concerning Boston Massacre Oration of March 6, 1775 [A British officer] “ostentatiously playing with a couple of musket balls, which he occasionally threw up and caught in his hand…the speaker seemed absorbed in his subject and indifferent to everything except his theme…” Source: Austin, James T. The Life of Elbridge Gerry with Contemporary Letters. [...]
March 4, 2014
A Physically Disabled Daughter of Liberty?
[To Mrs. Dix of Worcester, Massachusetts] Boston December 10th [1776] Tell your good Mama Ive seen the people about the cake pans but as she did not tell me how many she wanted I did not chuse to take them till I hear from her – they have about a dozen and half – she [...]
February 25, 2014
1772 Boston Massacre Oration – Full Text
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 and with [...]
