A Sermon given in Lexington on April 19th, 1776

[CaptainRebop]

I was recently reading through American Insurgents, American Patriots, a fantastic history of the preamble to the Revolutionary War by T.H. Breen.  The author referenced a sermon given in Lexington exactly one year after April 19, 1775 and I had to go track it down.  Miracle of miracles, the sermon is freely available (in its original printing!) from the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/fateofbloodthirs00clar/mode/1up.

I can't help but imagine the Patriots who faced the Regulars on Lexington green in 1775 hearing this one year later, reliving the day their own king's army fired on their family, friends, and neighbors.  The fury and resolve of a whole nation can be heard in this passage in particular:

[...] under cover of the darkness, a brigade of these instruments of violence and tyranny, make their approach, and with a quick and silent march, on the morning of the nineteenth, they enter this town.  And this is the place where the fatal scene begins!

They approach with the morning's light; and more like murderers and cutthroats that the troops of a christian king, without provocation, without warning, when no war was proclaimed, they draw the sword of violence, upon the inhabitants of this town, and with a cruelty and a barbarity, which would have made the most hardened savage blush, they shed INNOCENT BLOOD!

But, O my GOD! How shall I speak! Or how describe the distress, the horror of that awful morn, that gloomy day! Yonder field can witness the innocent blood of our brethren slain! And from thence does their blood cry unto God for vengeance from the ground!

There the tender father bled, and there the beloved son!  There the hoary head, and there the blooming youth!  And there the man in his full strength, with the man of years!  They bleed - they die, not by the sword of an open enemy (with whom war is proclaimed) in the field of battle, but by the hand of those that delight in spoil, and lurk privily that they may shed innocent blood.

But they bleed, they die, not in their own cause only; but in the cause of this whole people - and in the cause of God, their country and posterity.

Powerful stuff.  And perfect for a Father's Day weekend history block.

If you haven't read American Insurgents, American Patriots, I highly recommend it (especially as an audiobook).  It's a very well-sourced history that draws from the journals, ledgers, and other writings of the "average" American colonist in the Revolutionary era.  It's full of tons of references to sources we don't normally see when talking about the Revolution.

[Roswell]

Thanks! I always do a block on 1776 on Sunday mornings and this will definitely be incorporated. Great find!

[300berg]

Wow.  There is powerful stuff in there!

"From this remarkable day will an important era begin for both America and Britain.  And from the nineteenth of April, 1775, we may venture to predict will be dated, in future history, THE LIBERTY or SLAVERY of the AMERICAN WORLD..."

[Dagny]

Fantastic find!  Thank you.

I could not find a way to print from that archive but did find another site that I was able to print as a pdf.  I find it much easier to read when I can enlarge the text. 

It appears to be a copy from the same book.  I've not compared them to ensure it is a true duplicate so please let me know if you find major discrepancies. 

If you prefer the link, the pdf was found at this site: https://wallbuilders.com/sermon-battle-of-lexington-1776/

[300berg]

Text, capitalization, and italicized text match what I read.  Thanks so much for this find!

Where did you source this goodie?

[Dagny]

Simple search brought up several pages about the article.  The one I posted was from here:
https://wallbuilders.com/sermon-battle-of-lexington-1776/

[AF5US]

Thank you CaptainRebop for finding this and sharing, and thank you Dagny for linking a .pdf version.  It's much appreciated.