June 11 marks an important date in America’s Revolutionary history for two reasons. Today is the day in 1776 that the Continental Congress appointed five men to draft a Declaration of Independence. The first four were Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and John Adams. It was Adams who recommended the fifth member– Thomas Jefferson. And, of course, it was Jefferson who got the job of producing the rough draft. But it it also the birth date of one of my favorite “Forgotten Founders”– those people of the Revolutionary era who have been overlooked by the history books. On June 11, 1741, Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, outside Boston. A successful physician and progressive thinker, Joseph Warren became an outspoken advocate of inoculations to battle the smallpox plague sweeping colonial America and vaccinated his most famous patient, John Adams. But medicine was not his only passion. As the colonies clashed with Mother England, Warren was drawn to the red-hot center of patriot firebrands. He became a propagandist, spymaster and orator who modeled himself on Cicero, occasionally donning a toga to deliver incendiary speeches. It was Warren who led the men to the “party” where they tossed a shipload of British tea into Boston Harbor. And he was the crucial link between Boston’s upper crust patriots –who got most of the glory– and the workingmen and artisans who did most of the dirty work. But Warren was left out of our poems. And our schoolbooks. And that’s too bad. It was Warren who issued Revere’s “riding orders” on that night in 1775, setting the stage for the fateful April 19th morning at Lexington and Concord. A few weeks later, Warren took to the front lines at “Bunker Hill.” An enemy ball caught him in the head and he fell. For the British, Warren’s death was a coup. They tossed the rebel doctor’s body into a mass grave with other fallen Americans. But for the patriot cause, Warren’s loss cut deep. Paul Revere later returned to the battleground to locate the rebel leader’s body. He identified his compatriot’s remains because Revere had fitted the false teeth that Warren wore. Yet, Joseph Warren remained buried, overshadowed by the more illustrious Founders with better biographers –and admiring poets. He is the most important Founding Father most of us never heard of. When Warren died, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, Not all the havoc and devastation they [the British] 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. When he fell, liberty wept.”
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:06:46 +0000
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