Boston Massacre Oration

Note: Yes, there will be a Springtime snow in Boston. Event just rescheduled to March 28, 2018 at 6 PM. See Old South Meetinghouse’s website for the latest information. Each year from 1772 to 1775, massive gatherings of men, women and children were held at Old South Meeting House to commemorate the anniversary of the […]

An ORATION; delivered March 5th, 1773, at the Request of the INHABITANTS of the TOWN of BOSTON; to Commemorate the bloody TRAGEDY of the FIFTH of March, 1770. By Dr. BENJAMIN CHURCH. Impius haec culta novalia miles habebit? Barbarus has segetes? En quo Discordia cives Perduxit miseros? En queis consevimus agros?    Virgil.  Ecl. I. O […]

by James Lovell Omnes homines natura Libertati student, et CONDITIONEM Servitutis oderunt. Caes. —: Nunc ea petit, quae dare aullo modo possumus, nisi priùus volumus nos bello victos confiteri. Cic. At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in Town Meeting assembled, by Adjournment, on Tuesday the 2d Day […]

1 It is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you. But The sense I have of the obligation I am under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an animating recollection of your indulgence exhibited upon so many occasions, has […]

1 It is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you. But The sense I have of the obligation I am under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an animating recollection of your indulgence exhibited upon so many occasions, has […]

ORATION Delivered at Boston, 6 March 1775 “MY EVER HONOURED FELLOW CITIZENS, It is not without the most humiliating conviction of my want of ability that I now appear before you: but the sense I have of the obligation I am under to obey the calls of my country at all times, together with an […]

by James Lovell Omnes homines natura Libertati student, et CONDITIONEM Servitutis oderunt. Caes. —: Nunc ea petit, quae dare aullo modo possumus, nisi priùus volumus nos bello victos confiteri. Cic. At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in Town Meeting assembled, by Adjournment, on Tuesday the 2d Day […]

Date: March 18, 1775 “…A certain Reverend Doctor of the Establish’d Church in this town lately said that he would rather wade up to his knees in blood, than that the Ministry should give way. An officer, with men from the 4th Regiment in Barracks at West Boston, erected a couple of tents just at […]

“Boston, April 3, 1775. Sir, – Altho’ I have not the pleasure either of a personal or epistolary acquaintance with you, I have taken the liberty of sending you by Mr. Dana a pamphlet which I wish was more deserving of your notice. The ability and firmness with which you have defended the Rights of […]

Date: Concerning Boston Massacre Oration of March 6, 1775 [A British officer] “ostentatiously playing with a couple of musket balls, which he occasionally threw up and caught in his hand…the speaker seemed absorbed in his subject and indifferent to everything except his theme…” Source: Austin, James T. The Life of Elbridge Gerry with Contemporary Letters. […]