It is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you; … You will not now expect the elegance, the learning, the fire, the enrapturing strains of eloquence which charmed you when a Lovell, a Church, or a Hancock spake; but you will permit me to say, with a sincerity equal to theirs, that I weep over my bleeding country….

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, as frequent disputes must necessarily arise between the citizen and the soldier, even if no previous animosities subsist. And it is further certain from a consideration of the nature of mankind, as well as from constant experience, that standing armies always endanger the liberty of the subjects. But when the people on the one part, considered 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 too well grounded.

The many injuries offered to the town I pass over in silence. I cannot now mark out the path which led to that unequaled scene of horror, the sad remembrance of which, takes’ the full possession of my soul. The sanguinary theatre again opens itself to view. The baleful images of terror crowd around me — and discontented ghosts with hollow groans appear 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 tender 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 dreaming eyes are fixed upon the ghastly corpse, your feet slide on the stones bespattered with your father’s brains. Enough! This tragedy need not be heightened by an infant weltering in the blood of him that gave it birth. Nature reluctant blinks 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 ruined again from the far distant wilderness? 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 astonishing! It is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound. The arms of George our rightful King have been employed to shed that blood which freely would have flown at his command when justice or the honour 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 indignation flames from each eye — Revenge gnashes her 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 Britons. 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. Revenge is far beneath the noble mind. Many perhaps, compelled to rank among the vile assassins, do from their inmost fouls, detest the barbarous action. The winged death, shot from your arms, may chance to pierce some breast that bleeds already for your injured country….

And could it have been conceived that we, again should have seen a British army in our land, sent to inforce obedience to acts of parliament 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 country, have prevail’d upon a gracious prince to cloath his countenance with wrath, and to erect, the hostile banner against a people ever affectionate and loyal to him and his illustrious predecessors of the house of Hanover. Our streets are again filled with armed men, our harbor crowded with ships of war; but these cannot intimidate us; our liberty must be preserved; 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 enemies; we cannot suffer even Britons to ravish it from us….

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 enquiry into the 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 adamantine wall, secure us against the Future approaches of despotism.

The malice of the Boston Port-Bill has been defeated in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our brethren in this and our sister-colonies an opportunity 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 sympathetic 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….

But, pardon me, my fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An 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, require that the wise measures recommended by the honourable, the continental Congress, be steadily pursued; whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honoured, and a child beloved, 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, thro’ 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.

Source: Joseph Warren, An Oration Delivered March 6, 1775, at the Request of Some Citizens of the Town of Boston (Boston: Edes and Gill, 1775), 5, 14–17, 19–22.