American Minute for June 11th:
He sent Paul Revere on his midnight ride to warn Lexington the British were coming. A Harvard graduate, he was a successful doctor in Boston, but left his career when the British passed the hated Stamp Act. With Samuel Adams, he organized the Provincial Congress to protest. His name was Dr. Joseph Warren, born JUNE 11, 1741. Following the Boston Tea Party, King George III enacted the Intolerable Acts of 1774: blocking Boston harbor until citizens reimbursed the East India Tea Company; quartering British soldiers in private homes; allowing British officials to be unaccountable for their crimes; and replacing Massachusetts' elected officials with royal appointees. In response, Dr. Joseph Warren wrote the Suffolk Resolves, urging Massachusetts to establish a free state, boycott British goods, form militias and no longer be loyal to a king who violates their rights. Fighting in the Battle of Bunker Hill, a monument marks where Warren died. Three years earlier Dr. Joseph Warren stated on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre: "If you perform your part, you must have the strongest confidence that the same Almighty Being who protected your pious and venerable forefathers...will still be mindful of you."
Endnotes
Warren, Joseph. March 5, 1772, Principles & Acts of the Revolution in America. Oration Delivered at Boston, on the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 2, p. 216. Hezekiah Niles, ed., Principles & Acts of the Revolution in America (Baltimore: William Ogden Niles, 1822; reprinted, NY: S.A. Barnes & Co., Centennial Edition, 1876).
(Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com)
