JOSEPH WARREN.

chased lands in Boston, in 1659. His son, Joseph, settled at Roxbury, where he was succeeded by a son of the same name, eminent as an agriculturist, who was the father of Dr. Warren, of the Revolution. This son, Joseph, the third of the name, the subject of this sketch, was born at Roxbury, June 11, 1741. He was fourteen years of age at the time of his father's death, and as he graduated at Harvard, in 1759, he must then, if he entered the lowest class, have just commenced his studies at that institution. He had been previously instructed in the excellent public school at Roxbury; for the fathers of New England provided well, not only for honored Harvard, but for elementary education through the country.

NATIONS, like families, have their sor- | martyr of the Revolution is traced to rows and regrets at the tomb. Their Peter Warren, a mariner, who pursons, too, fall in youth, in the first blush of promise, in the early noble efforts of performance. As the sun is rising, and men watch its glowing dawn, anticipating the glory of its mid-day career, and the warm effulgence of its parting honors-it is suddenly stricken from the heavens. Such youthful heroes there have been, "the rose and expectancy of the fair state," cut off in their prime, to be wept by poets and mourned by patriots, from the young Marcellus to the gentle Sir Philip Sidney. The family records of history tell of their honor, their courage, their martyr spirit; how their benevolence went hand in hand with valor; how fondly the old looked upon them, how dear they were to their equals. Their story is indeed short; but men read in it all they have On leaving college, with the reputa lost in the possibilities of life had the tion of a youth of spirit and adventure, tale been longer. We study men's Warren engaged at once in the study lives backward, to discover the germs of medicine, and on the completion of of excellence in their youth; may we his course, began the practice of his not also prophesy of what would profession in Boston. His skill is have been had opportunity been given? spoken of, in the treatment of the smallΝο augury of excellence could well be pox, and it is certain that he soon obbased on a surer foundation than the tained a considerable professional repu hope which was dashed to the ground tation. He married, in 1764, Miss with the fall of Warren. Elizabeth Hooton, daughter of a phy The immediate family of this proto- sician of Boston, who bore him several

children, and died before him at the ren's participation in the famous North age of twenty-six, in 1773.

Professional life, commonly a sedative for all active interference with the affairs of the world beyond its own sphere, does not appear to have been at all in the way of Warren's independence of character. When a British ministry resolved to interfere with the administration of the colonies, by imposing new and unheard-of taxes on the community, no one sooner took up the note of warning, or became more resolute in opposition.

A letter written by him, in 1766, to his friend, Mr. Edmund Dana, a graduate of his year in college, who was now in England, expresses, in calm, measured terms, the sentiments of intelligent, educated Americans of that period. He writes of the excitement which has extended through the whole continent, and of the danger of oppressing a people with whom "freedom and equality is the state of nature.". He has, evidently, looked clearly into the principles of the controversy. He sees around him a nation which has fairly, in the exile of its fathers, and the hardships of the sons, purchased its birthright of liberty, civil and religious liberties which it is not at all disposed to relinquish, for it knows well the cost at which they were purchased.

Warren stood alongside of Samuel Adams and the most ardent of the patriots. His newspaper attack upon Governor Bernard in 1768, in the communications signed "A True Patriot," in the "Boston Gazette," is proof alike of his wit and the temper of the times. We also hear about this time of War

End Club, or Caucus, as it got to be called, which exercised so powerful an influence in the revolutionary movements in Boston. Eliot tells us that he drew up the regulations on the readjustment and enlargement of the Club in 1772, and that nothing of any im portance was ever carried on without consulting him. He was in fact, by his sagacity and circumspection in business of this confidential nature, one of "the secret springs that moved the great wheels" of the inconsiderate, noisy politicians without who hardly felt the guidance.

It was in this year that Warren was called on to deliver the second anniversary discourse commemorative of the fall of the citizens by the fire of the foreign troops, known as the Boston Massacre. This was an undertaking, in presence of the Colonial Court and Council, and the very soldiery who were the subjects of comment, which well might be considered the very forlorn hope of political oratory. The duty was twice performed by Warrenin 1772, and again shortly before his fall in 1775. His discourse on the first occasion was argumentative, firm and patriotic. Its composition is certainly highly creditable to his taste and judg ment. The second, also delivered at the Old South Church, was in the midst of a scene which would make a most effective subject for a painter. The very pulpit stairs and pulpit were occupied by soldiers of the garrison. It was doubtful whether he would be permitted to proceed. While he was speaking, a Captain of the Royal

Welch Fusileers, seated on the stairs, His services in this capacity were most held up to the orator's view several active and efficient. It was by his bullets in the palm of his hand, and vigilance that the country was warned, attempted to banish the audience by on the eve of the Battle of Lexington, the cry of fire. Warren gracefully ex- of the advance of the British troops. tinguished the menace, by dropping his He was in Boston at the moment, handkerchief over the minatory hand.1 was advised of the movement, disA ludicrous account of the day, in the patched William Dawes and Paul usual travesty of the Royalist news- Revere to sound the alarm and paper pieces of intelligence, appeared acquaint Samuel Adams and Hancock, in "Rivington's Gazette," in New York, who were at Lexington, of their danger, in which the handkerchief flourishes. and arranged the signal-light on the steeple of the North Church. When he left Boston that night, he said to a person of whom he was taking leave, "Keep up a brave heart. They have begun it-that either party could do; and we'll end it-that only one can do." On the return of the British troops, in their disastrous flight, Warren was at Cambridge with the Committee of Safety. Leaving this body with General Heath, he advanced to take part in the running fight, when a curl on the side of his head was carried off by a bullet.

Dr. Warren was now fairly enlisted in the public Revolutionary service. In 1772 he was one of the original members of the Committee of Correspondence formed at Boston, stimulating the zeal and keeping up prompt communication among the towns of Massachusetts. When a convention was held at Suffolk, to check, if possible, the threatened military occupation of Boston Neck, he prepared the address to Governor Gage on the subject. On the dissolution of the General Court by the latter in September, 1774, that body-the popular legislative assembly of Massachusetts—resolved itself into a Provincial Congress, and speedily or ganized the military service of the State. Militia men were enrolled, and an Executive Committee of the Congress, of thirteen of its members, constituted the Committee of Public Safety. Warren was elected a delegate from Boston to the Congress; was chosen its President in the absence of Hancock, at Philadelphia, and put at the head of the Committee of Safety.

A. H. Everett's Life of Warren. Sparks' American Biography, 1st Series, X. p. 112.

1

The fatal day of Bunker's Hill was now rapidly approaching. On the twenty-seventh of May, Warren served as a volunteer under Putnam in the skirmishing affair of driving off the cattle from Noddle's Island, in Boston harbor, a small matter in the history of a great campaign, but of some value, for its proof of the bravery of the native troops at the time. On the sixth of June, Warren had the satisfaction of superintending an exchange of prisoners, a scene of joy and congratu lation which restored a number of suf

fering captives to their homes. On the of Safety resolved to establish a posi

fourteenth of June, he was appointed by the Provincial Congress a MajorGeneral.

tion on Bunker Hill. William Prescott, the grandfather of the historian, was placed in command of a thousand men, and the next night, that of the sixteenth, marched, as he conceived his instructions, to Breed's Hill. A redoubt was marked out, and an intrenchment raised by the extraordinary energy of the band, between midnight and dawn, when the work was first

matter of history. As the news spread of the actual engagement, as the fires of Copp's Hill and the vessels of war in the harbor sped against the devoted work, as the smoke of burning Charlestown darkened the bright day, one and another came to the aid of the gallant Prescott, who awaited the attack in his redoubt. Stark brought his levies to the defence of the hill;

It had now become evident that the British officers meditated some aggressive movements upon the country outside of Boston, and the Committee of Safety and Council of War were in consultation to defeat their projects. It was thought advisable to occupy Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights discovered by the British. How well on opposite eminences over against the that earthwork and its adjoining town, for the purpose of annoyance fence, matted with hay, were defended and defence, but, by the counsel of through the sultry noon by the body Warren, who showed great prudence of unrefreshed, night-worn farmers, in the matter, the movement was with what death to the invaders, is delayed till the army should be better provided. Its arms and ammunition were ludicrously weak to contend with the thoroughly armed government force of picked regulars. The spirit of the American farmers was indeed high to encounter such odds. In the loose state of the service, and the uncertain command of the approaching engage ment, each man seems a volunteer on a forlorn hope. Necessity, indeed, Pomeroy and Warren came alone. needed no law; but these patriots made no pause to question the necessity. The British must be kept, if possible, in Boston. That was all they knew of the matter. It was understood that on the eighteenth of the month, Gage would take possession of Charlestown, the peninsula to the north of Boston, on which stood Bunker's and Breed's Hill. The latter, nearest to the town, was the scene of the great conflict, though its more inland neigh bor has carried off the honor of the On the fifteenth, the Committee

name.

The last arrived in the afternoon, shortly before the first assault of Howe and his forces. He had been with the Provincial Congress, of which he was president, the day before, had passed the night in Watertown, and reached Cambridge indisposed in the morning. The news of the British attack shook off his headache; he consulted with the Committee of Safety, and hurried to that "gory bed" of bonor, the redoubt on Breed's Hill. He was met by Putnam on the field, who requested his orders. He had

I

have bled with them and for them. Not all the havoc and devastation they have made, has wounded me like the death of Warren. We want him in the Senate; we want him in his profession; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior."1

none to give, only to ask, "Where ous scenes, of which she was almost an he could be most useful." Putnam eye-witness. "I would not have you pointed to the redoubt, with an inti- be distressed about me," she says, mation that he would be covered. tenderly. "Danger, they say, makes "I come not," was his reply, "for a people valiant. Hitherto I have been place of safety, but where the onset distressed, but not dismayed. I have will be most furious." Putnam still felt for my country and her sons. pointed to the redoubt, as the main point of attack. Here Prescott tendered him the command: his answer again was in the same spirit. "I came as a volunteer, to learn from a soldier of experience." He encountered the full perils of that gallant defence, marked by its fearful anxiety in the failure of the scanty ammunition. He was the last, we are told, in the trenches, and at the very outset of the retreat fell, mortally struck by a ball in the forehead. So ended this gallant life, on the height at Breed's Hill, on that memorable June 17, 1775.

"Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori,"

the line of that noble ode of Horace, urging the youth of Rome to the fierce Parthian war-it was bravely pronounced by Warren the night before The nation had many sighs for War- the battle to a friend who represented ren. The men of his time bore witness to him the dangers of the coming to his worth and valor in the manliest, encounter-let it be a motto for his sincerest language. By the side of tomb, and live with his memory to the public Eulogies, we are most inspire all true-hearted Americans, touched with the few full, truthful when the country shall again need words of Abigail Adams, writing to such offerings. her husband, at the Congress at Philadelphia, from the midst of these peril

'Letters of Mrs. Adams, I. 49. Braintree, July 5, 1775.