On this day 250 years ago at Old South Meeting House in Boston, John Hancock delivered the annual oration on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre before a “vast Croud” according to eyewitness John Adams. Hancock’s stirring rhetoric was published and distributed throughout Massachusetts and the other Colonies and did much to galvanize Patriotic resistance to British rule:
“Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publickly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present system which the British administration have adopted for the govern|ment of the colonies, a righteous government? Or is it tyranny? . . . What regard, respect or consideration has Great-Britain shewn in their late transactions for the security of the persons or properties of the inhabitants of the colonies? . . . They have declared that they have, ever had, and of right ought ever to have, full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind the colonies in all cases whatever: They have exercised this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us without our consent; and lest we should shew some reluctance at parting with our property, her fleets and armies are sent to inforce their mad pretensions. The town of Boston, ever faithful to the British Crown, has been invested by a British fleet: The troops of George the Third have cross’d the wide atlantick, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of TRAITORS in trampling on the rights and liberties of his most loyal subjects in America . . .
Will not a well disciplin’d militia afford you ample security against foreign foes? We want not courage; it is discipline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that ever trod the earth. . . . A well disciplin’d militia is a safe, an honourable guard to a community like this, whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that freedom in which they were born. From a well regulated militia we have nothing to fear; their interest is the same with that of the state. When a country is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in it’s defence; they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousness of the justice of their cause inspires; they do not jeopard their lives for a master who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and whom they regard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of bread and water. No, they fight for their houses, their lands, for their wives, their children, for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held dearest in their hearts, they fight . . . for their liberty, and for themselves, and for their God. . . . We have all one common cause; let it therefore be our only contest, who shall most contribute to the security of the liberties of America. . . .
[T]he artful scheme of allowing the East India company to export Tea to America upon their own account . . . certainly, had it succeeded, would have effected the purpose of the contrivers, and gratified the most sanguine wishes of our adversaries. . . . But their plot was soon discovered. . .. and perhaps this may issue in the total disuse of TEA in this country. . . . Yet while we rejoice that the adversary has not hitherto prevailed against us . . . Restless malice, and disappointed ambition will still suggest new measures to our inveterate enemies.—Therefore let Us also be ready to take the field whenever danger calls, let us be united and strengthen the hands of each other, by promoting a general union among us. . . . Much has been done by the Committees of Correspondence for the Houses of Assembly in this and our Sister Colonies, for uniting the Inhabitants of the whole Continent for the security of their common interest. . . . But permit me here to suggest a general Congress of Deputies from the several Houses of Assembly on the Continent, as the most effectual method of establishing such a Union as the present posture of our affairs requires. At such a Congress, a firm foundation may be laid for the security of our Rights and Liberties; a system may be formed for our common safety, by a strict adherence to which we shall be able to frustrate any attempts to overthrow our constitution; restore peace and harmony to America, and secure honor and wealth to Great-Britain, even against the inclinations of her ministers”
Hancock’s Oration was both a call to arms and the first public call for a Continental Congress to protect American liberties.
On This Day In The Revolution 
2 responses to “On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — March 5, 1774”
My heart is full from reading this, full of respect for our country’s founders yet also full of trepidation. I fear that those who rebelled on January 6, 2021 would read this and agree not fully understanding its intent. Those who maintained our government on that day may read this not fully understanding the reasons why others rebelled on that day.
Wording was laid in Hancock’s speech for our 2nd Amendment rights, however, the power behind what he said came from these words, “… a general Congress of Deputies from the several Houses of Assembly on the Continent, as the most effectual method of establishing such a Union as the present posture of our affairs requires.”
Our strength comes from the system of government our founders established. Force can be used to either defend and preserve or to destroy. Let us pray we never use it in haste.
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Thanks for your apt comments Ron. I agree with you. I think of our modern politics and am shocked and saddened by those who express willingness to destroy the democratic form of government that our Founding Fathers and mothers fought and sacrificed to create, in order to achieve their political goals. I post these with the hope that others will take lessons from them to preserve our Democracy.
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