By Nancy Spannaus
June 15, 2025—On June 12, my husband and I traveled to Front Royal, Virginia to participate in a commemoration of the life and contributions of Massachusetts patriot Dr. Joseph Warren (1741-1775) to the American Revolution. The event was sponsored by the Colonel James Wood II Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Front Royal is the County Seat of Warren County, one of 14 counties around the country bearing that name. Most of them are assumed to have been named after Dr. Warren, whom SAR State President Mike Weyler dubbed a “foundation stone” for the Revolution.
The centerpiece of the ceremony was the ribbon-cutting on an SAR bench (shown here). Next to it on the left is a plaque describing the contributions of Dr. Warren. The SAR is collaborating with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Children of the American Revolution in projects to place such commemorative benches in every state, in addition to planting 250 “Liberty Trees,” all by July 2026. The SAR’s Historian General Jeff Thomas reported that so far, 19 benches and 139 liberty trees have been sited across the country.
But who, you may ask, was Joseph Warren, and why was he important?
A Rising Star
Having graduated from Harvard at a very young age and gone on to train as a physician, Warren first came to prominence in 1764, when he risked his life to stay in Boston to treat and vaccinate people against a smallpox epidemic. He went on to become a member of the Sons of Liberty (formed during the Stamp Act revolt in 1765) and then one of the doctors treating victims of the Boston Massacre of 1770.
In both 1772 and 1775, Warren delivered impassioned, graphic speeches on the Boston Massacre, which helped shape public opinion on that event, and rally fellow citizens to prepare for war, should Great Britain continue its policies of taxation without representation and despotism.* They were republished broadly throughout the colonies.
Gradually, Warren abandoned his medical practice and became fully involved in the patriots’ cause. In the fall of 1774, right before the convening of the First Continental Congress, Warren composed one of the most significant documents leading to United States independence, the Suffolk Resolves. These resolves, which I will describe in more detail below, were approved wholesale by the Congress. (He also composed “The Song on Liberty,” as an encouragement to the Americans, recalling how Britain had been defeated before, and America never had.)
The final chapter in Warren’s contribution occurred during the spring of 1775, when he was responsible for sending Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams about the British plans to raid the military stores at Concord. Two months later, he fought as a Major General at Bunker Hill, where he was killed with a shot through the head at the age of 34 on June 17 — 250 years ago this week.
The Suffolk Resolves
Counties all over the 13 colonies had written their own resolves in advance of the upcoming Continental Congress, which was scheduled to begin in September 1774. They varied widely in how far the colonies should go toward independence, which was still a terrifying thought to many. Among the most bold were those of Virginia and Massachusetts, and in particular, Suffolk County, whose County Seat was Boston. Resolves from Massachusetts, the center of the British crackdown on colonial freedoms, were bound to carry significant weight.
Following their publication in the Massachusetts-Gazette on Sept. 15, 1774, the Suffolk Resolves were rushed by Paul Revere to Philadelphia, where the Congress was convening. Upon their reading, they were immediately endorsed as the first official act of the Congress.
The following list summarizes the major elements of the Suffolk Resolves, whose author is reported to have been Joseph Warren:
- While we acknowledge George III as our sovereign, the Intolerable Acts violate the Law of Nature, British Constitution, and our Charter, and must be rejected. Taxes should be withheld from the sham government these acts have set up,[1] and the citizens who accepted positions in these governments and don’t resign, should be considered enemies.
- New militia leaders should be elected, and the militias should begin to “acquaint themselves with the art of war,” including by engaging with arms once a week.
- The citizens should stay on the defensive as long as possible.
- We should boycott all commerce and consumption with Great Britain and the West Indies, especially goods from the East India Company (after accepting exceptions proposed by the Congress)
- We should encourage expansion of arts and manufactures.
- We should establish a provincial Congress.
- Citizens should avoid rioting and attacks on property
An Educated Citizenry?
The June 12 event in Front Royal is just one of many hundreds which will be occurring over the next year, and hopefully longer, in remembrance and celebration of the American Revolution. They will be sponsored by legacy organizations like the SAR and DAR, special commissions set up to commemorate the 250th (July 4, 2026), schools, and others. Hopefully, they will draw increasing numbers of citizens into a process of not only honoring our Founding Fathers, but educating themselves on the deeper purposes of our Revolution.
That education, if successful, will lead to an understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship, just as it did for the American colonists of the 18th century. The British-Americans at that time began to transform themselves from subjects of a king, to citizens of a republic. As the chaos of our current political environment, among other shortcomings in achieving the goals of our Constitution’s Preamble, shows, that process is still not complete.
I hope you will want to embark on this process. A good place to begin would be with a speech by Shawn McGhee on the First Continental Congress, which can be found here on this blog. The best follow-up would be my recent book, From Subject to Citizen : What Americans Need to Know about Their Revolution.
Posterity will thank you if you do.
- Warren’s flair for the dramatic was on display at the 1775 speech, where he had to climb in a window to get into the packed Old South Church. To connect his cause to republicans of old, he wore a Roman toga to deliver his speech.
[1] The Massachusetts Government Act of 1774, one of the Intolerable Acts passed by punish Boston for the Tea Party, had banned town meetings, and consolidated many powers of appointment from being elective, to being appointed by the Governor.
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Tags: 250th anniversary, Front Royal Virginia, Joseph Warren, Nancy Spannaus, Sons of the American Revolution, Suffolk Resolves
