Joseph Warren was able to take on risks no other Patriot leader could due to his prominent Masonic position of Most Worshipful Grand Master of North America. His name and position were known throughout the colonies. This position offered him respect and protection from fellow colonists and British officers alike.
As mentioned in my previous post, when Boston Patriot leaders feared taking on a necessary secret mission to England, only Josiah Quincy Jr. and Joseph Warren volunteered. Quincy’s protection from arrest would be his defense of the King’s troops in the Boston Massacre Trials and his brother’s Royal appointment in Boston. What was Warren’s protection? He had none other than his conspicuous Masonic position. In the end Quincy took on the mission. Warren remained in Boston aware that the military governor General Thomas Gage declared that those involved in the Solemn League and Covenant (of which Warren was co-author) and the leaders of the Destruction of the Tea (of which Warren was an active participate) were to be identified and arrested.
When the First Continental Congress assembled, Warren authored a document known as the Suffolk Resolves (considered one of the founding documents of the United States of America). Warren’s Resolves, which were ultimately approved by all counties in Massachusetts, laid out a plan of resistance to the Intolerable Acts and boldly called for preparation for conflict.
Word from the Massachusetts delegates in Philadelphia was that the First Continental Congress was at a stalemate. Nothing was being accomplished and it seemed that nothing would be. Massachusetts was a powder keg and desperately needed the support of the sister colonies. Warren sent his close friend and Masonic lieutenant Paul Revere on what was probably Revere’s most important ride. Revere took the Suffolk Resolves to Philadelphia. where it was unanimously approved by Congress. Though Joseph Warren remained in Boston — 270 miles from Philadelphia — he is the one that united the First Continental Congress. Their decision was to prepare their own colonies for conflict and that they would come to the aid of Massachusetts ONLY IF the British drew first blood.
Though there was a spy among the inner circle of Boston’s Patriot leaders (Dr. Benjemin Church) and General Gage was no doubt aware of Warren’s authorship of the Suffolk Resolves and the impact it had on the First Continental Congress, Warren remained in Boston, meeting frequently with Gage to discuss ways to keep peace between the British troops and townspeople.
Though Warren was keenly aware that British soldiers were molesting and raping the girls and women of the town – though he knew boys and men were being beaten – he had to bring calm to the rage of husbands and fathers. The colonists could not be the aggressors, or Massachusetts would be forced to face the might of the British Army alone.
(In early April 1775, Dr. Warren placed an unwed pregnant patient named Sally Edwards, most likely the victim of rape by a British soldier, into the care of a colleague Dr. Nathaniel Ames who lived twenty miles from Boston and specialized in obstetrics. Ames and his wife seemingly provided a safe and private haven for unwed mothers, as his medical ledger indicates that other physicians sent such patients to him as well.)
Next Warren’s Massacre Oration and his response when news arrives and more troops and generals are enroute to Boston.
Pictures: General Thomas Gage; Joseph Warren; Paul Revere: Benjamin Church
