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Tuesday, June 11, 2024 4:03:09 PM

Live Free or Die!

For Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren, this was no mere slogan - it was a way of life and a call to action.

Despite the fact that Dr. Joseph Warren is of the greatest American war heroes in history, he’s mostly ignored today - especially his political views.

Those who know him are generally only aware of his final stand at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, but he was very heavily involved in almost every major act of resistance by the sons of liberty in Boston for at least a decade: from the Stamp Act to the Massacre to the Tea Party, and more.

His fiery writings focused on natural rights, individual liberty, opposition to standing armies, and most importantly, resistance to usurpations of power - rather than standing by and hoping that the government is going to stop doing what it shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.

Today, in honor of Dr. Joseph Warren’s birthday - June 11, 1741 - we highlight some of his greatest hits.

When news of the Stamp Act hit the colonies in 1765, Warren started publishing some essays in the Boston Gazette which vehemently opposed them as unconstitutional. He highlighted 3 major concerns that we would do well to focus on in regards to federal power today:

Politicians lie and rip you off.

Money raised for your safety will be used “to enrich a set of corrupt individuals at our Expense.”

Precedent - when you let them get away with one step - there’s always more.

“You may next expect a Tax on your Lands; and after that one Burthen on the back of another, till you are reduced to a State of the most abject Poverty."

Backbone and resistance.

“Stand up in defence of your invaluable Rights and Privileges, and with a manly Fortitude shield them from Danger.”

Additionally, Warren took the position that opposition to unconstitutional acts justified unlimited vehemence.

“When I perceive the impending Evil, and so many Men of Knowledge and sound judgment entertain the same Apprehension, I cannot hold my peace. In such a case no vehemence is excessive, no Zeal too ardent.”

His vehement opposition to the Stamp Act led him to a close and long friendship with other Revolutionary leaders, such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

After the passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767, Warren penned a series of articles in the Boston Gazette under the pseudonym “A True Patriot.” His fiery words packed multiple punches. He implied that the Royal Governor Francis Bernard was a Devil - unfit for office, and he implied a rejection of the monarchy and even the “Divine Right of Kings.”

Outraged, Bernard pushed for a libel lawsuit against the paper for merely publishing Warren’s essay, but that was eventually denied by the House of Representatives.

In response, an undeterred and unrepentant Warren published again - this time highlighting local support for the freedom of the press:

“With Pleasure I hear the general Voice of this People in favor of freedom; and it gives me solid satisfaction to find all orders of unplaced independent men, firmly determined, as far as in them lies, to support their own Rights, and the Liberty of the Press.”

Dr. Warren performed the autopsy on the young boy, Christopher Seider, in Feb 1770, confirming that his death was the first in the American Revolution, an event that led to the Boston Massacre just days later.

He was on the committee that reported on the killing, and was later given the nod to be the featured speaker at two annual “Massacre Day” events - in 1772 and 1775.

In his first, he urged the people to never forget the bloodshed of Mar. 5, 1770. But he also focused on a natural rights foundation, and warned future generations of the great danger of standing armies, “the ready engines of tyranny and oppression” - which they experienced first hand in just two years prior.

After passage of the Coercive Acts in 1774, what we often call the “Intolerable Acts” today, Warren again took the lead, continuing to recognize that “Liberty or Death” was the only LONG-TERM path forward. Writing to Samuel Adams:

“Vigilance, activity, and patience are necessary at this time: but the mistress we court is LIBERTY; and it is better to die than not to obtain her.”

Soon after, he drafted and helped pass the Suffolk Resolves of 1774 - which called for a boycott of British imports and goods, non-compliance to the Coercive Acts, disobedience to courts, tax resistance and more. The underlying principle behind his views might sound familiar to those who follow the 10th Amendment and nullification movement today:

“No obedience is due from this province to either or any part of the acts above-mentioned, but that they be rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration to enslave America.”

Paul Revere was quickly dispatched to take the Suffolk Resolves to Philadelphia. There, the Continental Congress unanimously endorsed them. In the coming days, Congress passed the “Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress,” which not only listed a number of British acts seen as unconstitutional, but followed Warren’s lead by noting “To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit.”

They added to that the first of the “Founding Four,” the Continental Association, which was - as Warren’s Suffolk Resolves called for - a non-importation, non-consumption, non-exportation agreement for the Colonies.

In 1775, Warren’s 2nd Massacre Day Oration was one for the ages.

This time, the occupying army was present. Thousands of people packed the location inside and out. There were plenty of redcoats and as many as 300 British officers present. The regulars were obviously going to resent an oration whose purpose was, in the words of Samuel Adams, “to commemorate a massacre perpetuated by soldiers and to show the danger of standing armies.”

One in the front row even supposedly held up bullets as a warning - in essence, step too far and you’re next. But Warren had courage that is rarely matched, and very visibly and publicly brushed it off. He basically told the people - don’t be intimidated.

As a free people, Warren told them to “Act worthy of yourselves.” He urged the people to stand firm for liberty in the face of the mighty British Empire, “until tyranny is trodden under foot.”

Like his previous speech, his 1775 Oration put a heavy emphasis on individual liberty - and property rights:

“THAT personal freedom is the natural right of every man; and that property or an exclusive right to dispose of what he has honestly acquired by his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom, are truths which common sense has placed be|yond the reach of contradiction.”

And, as Samuel Adams predicted, Warren again warned against the danger of standing armies:

“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 subject.”

team@tenthamendmentcenter.com