An Oration Commemorating the Boston Massacre

Dr Joseph Warren, March 5th, 1772

Engraved, Printed and Sold by Paul Revere

[Part of: “Let Those Flatter Who Fear”: American Independence in Verse.]

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People of Boston, and America:
That fatal fifth of March, now two years past,
Will never be forgotten—when our streets
Were stained with blood, and when the very air
Wept with the dying groans of slaughtered men.
Remember, always, how this came to be.
A standing army was established here
In time of peace, to enforce upon our shores
Obedience to Acts which any honest man
Would deem unjust. Soldiers ever are 
The ready engines of oppression and
Of tyranny; this was the crowns’ avowed
Design. Their unprovoked attack upon
Our slumbering innocents has gone unpunished—
But we who crossed a boisterous ocean to