William. Oh how I wish they had caught Col. Nesbit, and tarred and feathered him as he had the man!
Mrs. M. It was much better to let him go. This conduct of his served our cause better than any thing he could have done; and it would have been a pity for us to have followed his example, and thus have lessened the odium attached to him.
William. I do not at all wonder, if such was the conduct of the British, that our men felt angry whenever they met any of them.
Mrs. M. Nor I. But to return to the 5th of March Orations. The great subject of them was, the oppression of the British, and the quarrels which were constantly taking place between their soldiers and ours, and which it was impossible to avoid, while these oppressions were permitted. The orators did not then urge the people to throw off the government of Great Britain, they only explained their rights, and called upon them not to give them up, but one and all to petition the king to take away his soldiers and his governors from our country, and permit us to choose rulers from among ourselves, and to form our own soldiers. These petitions were accordingly repeatedly sent to the king, but the more we petitioned the more soldiers he sent.
Gen. Warren delivered two of these orations. The first had so great an effect on the people, that they determined to resort to arms if their petitions were unsuccessful. Indeed, all these orations had such a powerful influence on the hearers, that the British officers determined there should be no more such. They declared it should be as much as a person's life was worth to attempt again to deliver one. Many men who would otherwise have been desirous to speak on the anniversary of the massacre, now thought it most prudent to keep quiet. Though they would have been quite willing to fight in defence of their country's liberties, yet they thought that to get up and speak, surrounded with soldiers and their bayonets, who were under the command of those who had uttered such threats, would be much worse than to face their enemies with arms in their hands.
William. I should think so too. I am sure, if I saw men standing before me ready to shoot me, or stick their bayonets into me, if I said any thing they did not like, I should at least have forgotten all I had to say.
Mrs. M. Gen. Warren did not think so. As the next 5th of March approached, after these threats had been made, he did not wait to be invited to speak on the occasion, but himself solicited permission to address the people.
All his noble feelings were roused at the idea that men from another country should presume to say what Americans should speak, and what they should not; and he determined that his voice should be once more heard, even should it then be silenced forever.