1 ! LESSONS IN SPEAKING. ORATION, delivered at BoSTON, March 5, 1772, by Dr. JOSEPH WARREN; in commemoration of the evening of the fifth of March, 1770; when a number of citizens were killed by a party of British troops, quartered among them, in time of peace. 1. 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 with solemn surprise, and we are naturally led to search for the cause of such astonishing changes. 2. That man is formed for social life, is an observation, which upon our first enquiry, presents itself to our view. Government has its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end, the strength and security of all; and so long as the means of effecting this important end, are thoroughly known, and religiously attended to, goverament is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest ven eration. 3. In young and new formed communities, the grand design of this institution, is most generally understood, and most strictly regarded; the motives which urged to the social compact, cannot be at once forgotten, and that equality which is remembered to have subsisted so lately among them, prevents those who are clothed with authority from atten:pting to invade the freedom of their brethren; or, if such an attempt is made, it prevents the community from suffering the offender to go unpunished. 4. Every member feels it to be his interest, and knows it to be his duty, to preserve inviolate the constitution on which the public safety depends, and is equally ready to assist the magistrate in the execution of the laws, and the subject in the defence of his right. So long as the noble attachment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exists in full vigor, in any state, that state must be flourishing and happy. 5. It was this noble attachment to a free constitution which raised ancient Rome from the smallest beginnings, to that bright summit of happiness and glory to which she arrived; and it was the loss of this which plunged her from that summit, into the black gulph of infamy and slavery. 6. It was this attachment which inspired her senators with wisdom; it was this which glowed in the breast of her heroes; it was this which guarded her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home, and commanded respect abroad; and when this decayed, her magistrates lost their reverence for justice and laws, and degenerated into tyrants and oppressorsher senators, forgetful of their dignity, and seduced by base corruption, betrayed their country-her soldiers, regardless of their relation to the community, and urged only by the hopes of plunder and rapine, unfeelingly committed the mest flagrant cnormities; and, hired to the trade of death, with relentless fury they perpetrated the most cruel murders; by which the streets of imperial Rome were drenched with her noblest blood, 7. Thus this empress of the world lost her dominions abroad; and her inhabitants, dissolute in their manners, at length became contented slaves; and she stands to this day, the scorn and derision of nations, and a monument of this eternal truth, that public-happiness depends on a virtuous and unshaken attachment to a free constitution. 8. It was this attachment to a constitution founded on free and benevolent principles, which inspired the first settlers of this country: they saw with grief the daring outrages committed on the free constitution of their native land-they knew that nothing but a civil war could at that time restore its pristine purity. 9. So hard was it to resolve to embrue their hands in the blood of their brethren, that they chose rather to quit their fair possessions, and seek another habitation in a distant clime. When they came to this new world, which they fairly purchased of the Indian natives, the only rightful proprietors, they cultivated the then barren soil, by their incessant labor, and defended their dear bought possessions with the fortitude of the christian, and the bravery of the hero. 10. After various struggles, which, during the tyrannic reigns of the house of STUART, were constantly maintained between right and wrong, between liberty and slavery, the connection between Great-Britain and this colony, was settled in the reign of King William and Queen Mary, by a compact, the conditions of which were expressed in a charter; by which all the liberties and immunities of British subjects were secur ed to this province, as fully and as absolutely as they possibly could be by any human instrument which can be devised.. 11. It is undeniably true, that the greatest and most imrtant right of a British subject is, that he shall be governed by no laws, but those to which he, either in person or by his refprcseneative, hath given his consent; and this I will venture to assert, is the grand basis of British freedom; it is interwoven with the constitution; and whenever this is lost, the constitution must be destroyed. 12. Let us now allow ourselves a few moments to examine the late acts of the British parliament for taxing America. Let us with candor judge whether they are constitutionally binding upon us; if they are, in the name of justice, let us submit to them without one murmuring word. 13. First, I would ask, whether the members of the British house of commons, are the democracy of this province ? If they are, they are either the people of this province, or are elected by the people of this province, to represent them, and have therefore a constitutional right to originate a bill for taxng them; it is most certain they are neither; and therefore nothing done by them can be raid to be done by the democratic branch of our constitution. 14. I would next ask, whether the lords, who compose the aristocratic branch of the legislature, are peers of America? I never heard it was (even in these extraordinary times) so much. is pretended; and if they are not, certainly no act of theirs can De said to be the act of the aristocratic branch of our constiution. 15. The power of the monarchic branch we with pleasurecknowledge, resides in the king, who may act either in person; rby his representative; and I freely confess that I can see no. eason why a PROCLAMATION for raising money in America, is uedby the king's sole authority, would not be equally consistent, with our constitution, and therefore equally binding upon us rith the late acts of Parliament for taxing us. For it is plain, hat if there is any validity in those acts, it must arise altogether rom the monarchical branch of the legislature. And I furber think, that it would be at least as equitable; for I do not onceive it to be of the least importance to us by whom our roperty is taken away, so long as it is taken away without ur consent. 16. I am very much at a loss to know by what figure of hetoric, the inhabitants of this province can be called free bjects, when they are obliged to obey implicitiy, such laws are made for them by men three thousand miles off, whom ey know not, and whom they never have empowered to act them; or how they can be said to have property, when a body of men, over whom they have not the least control, and who are not in any way accountable to them, shall oblige them to deliver up any part, or the whole of their substance, with out even asking their consent. 17. And yet, whoever pretends that the late acts of the Brit ish parliament for taxing America, ought to be deemed bind ing upon us, must admit at once that we are absolute slave and have no property of our own; or else that we may be fit men, and at the same time under the necessity of obeying the arbitrary commands of these over whom we have no control of influence; and that we may have property of our own, which 1 is entirely at the disposal of another. 1 18. Such gross absurdities, I believe, will not be relished in f this enlightened age; and it can be no great matter of wonder, that the people quickly perceived, and seriously complained of the inroads which these acts must unavoidably make upon their liberty, and of the hazard to which their whole property is by them exposed; for if they may be taxed without their con sent, even in the smallest trifle, they may also, without their con sent, be deprived of every thing they possess, although ever so valuable, ever so dear. 19. Certainly it never entered the hearts of our ancestors, that after so many dangers in this then desolate wilderness, their hard earned property should be at the disposal of the British parliament. And as it was soon found that this taxation could not be supported by reason and argument, it seemed necessary that one act of oppression should be enforced by another; and there. fore, contrary to our just rights, as possessing, or at least having a just title to possess, all the liberties and immunities of British subjects, a standing army was established among us in time of peace, and evidently for the purpose of affecting that which it was one principal design of the founders of the constitution to prevent (when they declared a standing army, in time of peace to be against law) nantely; for the enforcement of obedience to acts, which upon fair examination, appeared to be unjust and unconstitutional. 20. The ruinous consequences of standing armies to fret communities, may be seen in the histories of Syracuse, Romul and many other once flourishing states; some of which have now searce a name! Their basteful influence is most suddenl 14, when they are placed in populous cities; for by a corrup n of morals, the public happiness is immediately affected. 1. That this is one of the effects of quartering troops in populous city, is a truth, to which many a mourning parent, nany a lost despairing child in this metropolis, must bear a very melancholy testimony. Soldiers are also taught to consider arms as the only arbiters by which every dispute is to be lecided between contending states; they are instructed imhlicitly to obey their commanders, without enquiring into the ustice of the cause they are engaged to support. Hence it s that they are ever to be dreaded as the ready engines of yranny and oppression. 22. And it is too observable that they are prone to introduce he same mode of decision in the disputes of individuals, and vom thence bave arisen great animosities between them and he inhabitants, who, whilst in a naked, defenceless state, are requently insulted and abused by an armed soldiery. And his will be more especially the case, when the troops are nformed that the intention of their being stationed in any city s to overawe the inhabitants. 23. That this was the avowed design of stationing an armed orce in this town, is sufficiently known; and we, my fellewcitizens, have seen, we have felt the tragical effects! The FATAL FIFTH OF MARCH, 1770, can never be forgotten! The horrors of that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts. Language is too feeble to paint the emotions of our souls, when our streets were stained with the blood of our Brethren when our ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead. 24. When_our alarmed imagination presented to our view our houses wrapt in flames-our children subjected to the barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery-our beauteous virgins exposed to all the insolence of unbridled passion-our virtuous vives, endeared to us by every tender tie, falling a sacrifice to vorse than brutal violence, and perhaps like the famed Lucreia, distracted with anguish and despair, ending their wretched ives by their own fair hands. 25. When we behold the authors of our distress parading in ur streets, or drawn up in regular battalia, as though ima hostile city, our hearts beat to arms; we snatched our weapons, Imost resolved, by one decisive stroke, to avenge the death of ur slaughtered brethren, and to secure from future danger all hat we held most dear; bút propitious Heaven forbade the loody carnage, and saved the threatened victims of our too een resentment; not by their discipline, not by their regular : |