the Universe, directed by unerring wisdom, and limited by the eternal laws of justice! To see perfection in Government, consisting in the happiness of every member that composes it! To enjoy the most perfect freedom, and yet to choose nothing but such things as are agreeable to the will of the Supreme Being. These, blessed shade, now constitute a part of thy enjoyments! Oh couldst thou tell us what other pleasures now occupy thy capacious mind! Dost thou still direct, by an invisible influence, the counsels of thy native Colony? Dost thou still inspire whole battalions of thy countrymen with courage, and lead them on to danger and glory? These we know would be a happiness suited to the benevolence and activity of thy spirit, and we hope not an inferiour part of the happiness of Heaven. But it is not for mortals to pry too minutely into the secrets of the invisible world.

What a noble spectacle is the body of a hero, who has offered up his life as a ransom for his Country! Come hither, ye vindictive ministers, and behold the first fruits of your bloody edicts. What atonement can you make to his children for the loss of such a father, to the King for the loss of such a subject, and to your Country for the loss of such a member of society? You may now recall your military executioners. Here you may satiate your thirst for arbitrary power. You have slain its most implacable enemy.

Come hither ye mercenary wretches who are hired to commit murder upon your fellow-subjects, and behold the victim of your cruelty. You have no tears to shed over a brother whom you have butchered, for you have given up your title to humanity. You have ceased to be men, and we have nothing to expect from you but the vices of slaves. We only beseech you not to insult the body of our departed hero. Spare the anguish of an aged mother, whose affection extends to the corpse of her beloved son. You have nothing now to fear from his eloquence or his arms. Sheath your swords. You have performed an exploit which has filled up the measure of your infamy; and while the name of liberty is dear to Americans, the name of Warren will fire our hearts, and nerve our arms against the execrable mischiefs of Standing Armies.

Come hither ye American Senators, who are met to consult for the safety and liberty of the United Colonies. Here contemplate a spectacle that shall—but I forget the dignity of my auditors; let the wounds of the breathless hero before your eyes address you. Methinks I hear him call upon you with an energy that should be irresistible, never to listen to terms of accommodation with Great Britain that shall deprive you of a single privilege of Englishmen. Oh, interrupt not (methinks I bear him say) my present felicity with the least apprehension that I have sold my life for a country of slaves. I will listen with rapture to your wise deliberations, but I will haunt the midnight hours of that traitor who sues for peace or liberty with a bayonet at his breast, or who suspends for a moment the execution of vengeance upon the enemies of our Country.

Come hither ye military champions for American liberty and glory, come and behold a spectacle that shall rouse in your bosoms new principles of courage and ambition. Mark the widening lustre of that path of glory which he trod. But remember his ghost walks unrevenged among us. Ten thousand Ministerial Troops cannot atone for his death. Let not the remembrance of your former connection with them enervate your arms, nor silence the clamours of justice in your breasts. The enemies of liberty are no longer the brethren of freemen. Whet your swords once more, and let them never be returned to their scabbards till the monster tyranny is expelled from the British Empire, or till its bounds are prescribed, and America remains the land of perfect freedom and happiness.

Come hither, in the last place, ye American fathers and mothers, and behold the sad earnests of arbitrary power! Behold your friend, your fellow-citizen, one of the guardians of your liberty, the pride of your Country, the pillar of your hopes; behold this illustrious hero covered with blood and wounds! But pause not too long in bedewing his body with your tears. Fly to your houses, and tell your children the particulars of the melancholy sight. Chill their young blood with histories of the cruelty of tyrants, and make their hair to stand on end with descriptions of the horrours of slavery! Equip them immediately for the field. Shew them the ancient charter of their privileges. Point to the roofs under which they drew their first breath, and shew them the cradles in which they were rocked. Call upon Heaven to prosper their arms, and charge them with your last adieu to conquer, or, like Warren, to die in the arms of liberty and glory.

O, posterity, posterity, you will often look back to this memorable era. You will transfer the epithets of rebels and traitors from the loyal people of America to their just originals. You will unfold every part of that system of despotism which has been contrived for the British Empire. You will show pious Kings misled by arbitrary Ministers, and pious Ministers misled by arbitrary Kings. You will show that even the monarchs of Britain have shed tears in prevailing upon their subjects to accept of their hateful commissions, and at the same time have exulted in the society of a few parricides at the prospect of seeing a Continent deluged with the blood of freemen. O save human nature from the worst of infamy, by turning your eyes to the American Colonies. Here let your historians and orators kindle with Roman or ancient British eloquence. Prize the liberty we have transmitted to you. It cost us much treasure and blood. It cost us, (oh, how high the price,) it cost us a Warren’s life!

RHODE-ISLAND ASSEMBLY.

At the General Assembly of the Governour and Company of the English Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations, in New-England, in America, begun and holden at Providence, within and for the said Colony, on the first Wednesday in May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and fifteenth of the reign of His Most Sacred Majesty George the Third, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, and so forth:

Present: The Honourable Darius Sessions, Esq., Deputy-Governour; John Collins, Esq.; David Harris, Esq.; John Sayles, Jun., Esq.; Thomas Wickes, Esq.; Jonathan Randall, Esq.; William Richmond, Esq.; Assistants. The Secretary.

Deputies from the several Towns.

NEWPORT.—Mr. John Wanton (son of Gideon.)

PROVIDENCE.—Stephen Hopkins, Esq., Mr. John Jenckes, Mr. John Smith, Colonel John Mathewson.

PORTSMOUTH.—Metcalf Bowler, Esq., Jonathan Freeborn, Esq., Mr. Job Durfee.

WARWICK.—Mr. Jacob Greene, Mr. Thomas Holden, Mr. John Low.

WESTERLY.—Joshua Babcock, Esq.

NEW-SHOREHAM.—(None.)

NORTH-KINGSTOWN.—John Northup, Esquire, Sylvester Gardner, Esq.

SOUTH-KINGSTOWN.—John Potter, Esquire, Mr. Carder Hazard.

EAST-GREENWICH.—Mr. Job Gardner, Mr. Allen Johnson.

JAMESTOWN.—(None.)

SMITHFIELD.—Daniel Mowry, Jun., Esq., Stephen Whipple, Esq.

SCITUATE.—Ezekiel Cornell, Esq., Mr. Rufus Hopkins.

GLOUCESTER.—Silas Williams, Esq., Mr. Daniel Owen.

CHARLESTOWN.—Joseph Hoxsie, Esq., Mr. Samuel Kinyon,

WEST-GREENWICH.—William Nichols, Esquire, Thomas Gorton, Esq.

COVENTRY.—John Rice, Esq., Mr. Nathaniel Greene, Jun.

EXETER.—George Pierce, Esq., Jeffrey Wilcox, Esq.

MIDDLETOWN.—(None.)

BRISTOL.—Major-General Simeon Potter, William Bradford, Esq.

TIVERTON.—Captain John Cooke.

LITTLE-COMPTON.—Captain Thomas Brownell, William Richmond, Esq.

WARREN.—Mr. Cromwel Child.

CUMBERLAND.—John Dexter, Esq., Jeremiah Whipple, Esq.

RICHMOND.—George Webb, Esq., Mr. Richard Bailey, Jr.