ORATIONS DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON TO COMMEMORATE THE EVENING OF THE FIFTH OF MARCH 1770; WHEN A NUMBER OF CITIZENS WERE KILLED BY A PARTY OF BRITISH TROOPS, QUARTERED AMONG THEM, IN A TIME OF PEACE

Boston, Mass: Peter Edes in State Street, 1785. First Edition. Leather-bound. Fair Only. INCOMPLETE COPY (Missing Half-Title, Title, and Endpapers). Worn contemporary leather, evidencing no past repair. 1-inch chip to top of spine, and 1/8" to bottom. Scibbling scratched into front board. MISSING title and half-title leaves, front and final free endpapers (final blank) 1-inch by 1/4" open tear to dedication page ("To The Inhabitants of the Town of Boston"). Pen trials to front pastedown, and throughout (Frederick Paull). Evans 18997; Preface by Edes present, with a small piece missing from the top. State 2, which includes Warren's re-interment (separate title page) and Allen's poem. 6-1/2 in. 200pp.

Orations by James Lovell; Dr. Joseph Warren (March 5, 1772); Dr. Benjamin Church; John Hancock; Dr. Joseph Warren (March 6, 1775); Peter Thacher; Benjamin Hichborn; Jonathan W. Austin; William Tudor; Jonathan Mason; Thoams Dawes, Jr.; George Richards Minot; Dr. Thomas Welsh; (Funeral) Oration for Joseph Warren and Perez Martin. Concluding with a poem, a "masterly piece of original composition from the pen of James Allen* of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, Esq., and was written when his feelings, like those of every other free-born American, were all alive at the inhuman murders of our countrymen, in the streets of that town, on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770..." *James Allen wrote this poem to accompany Joseph Warren's oration delivered at Boston on the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre, 5 March 1772. The poem was suppressed due to doubts about Allen's patriotism and later was republished by Allen's friends, with extracts from another of his poems, as "The Retrospect." (The Boston Massacre Project). A complilation of all the Boston Massacre Orations which were used to whip the citizenry into a frenzy against the British.

Peter Edes (1756-1840) was apprenticed to his father Benjamin Edes, a printer, who, with John Gill, printed the radical newspaper Boston Gazette and Country Journal. Growing up in Boston, Edes had been exposed from a young age to the American patriotic cause. John Hancock, John Adams and Joseph Warren were not infrequent visitors to his father's print shop.

On April 19, 1775, 19-year old Peter watched the British retreat from Concord and Lexington, and failed to hide his joy. That annoyed the British. Neither did they appreciate the youth's attitude, who watched the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17th of that same year with ‘anxious and tearful' eyes for the patriots. British authorities arrested him two days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, having watched his reaction to the battle from Copps' Hill. They imprisoned him for keeping a weapon. By the time he was released, 107 days later, only 11 of the 29 prisoners taken at the Battle of Bunker Hill were still alive. The American prisoners were confined in close, stifling quarters, beaten, insulted and starved. For his first 37 days he was only allowed bread and water. The wounded weren't given medical care. Edes kept a diary in which he recorded the prisoners' sufferings, which is available in a modern-day printing. (Paraphrased from New England Historical Society). When he was 29 years of age, Edes thought it important to gather together some of the Orations given by various statesmen and others, commemorating the tragic murder of ten American citizens by British soldiers on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts. A number of these orations had been published in his father Benjamin Edes's shop, along with Benjamin's partner John Gill. Peter Edes (1756-1840) was apprenticed to his father Benjamin Edes, a printer, who, with John Gill, printed the radical newspaper Boston Gazette and Country Journal. Growing up in Boston, Edes had been exposed from a young age to the American patriotic cause. John Hancock, John Adams and Joseph Warren were not infrequent visitors to his father's print shop On April 19, 1775, 19-year old Peter watched the British retreat from Concord and Lexington, and failed to hide his joy. That annoyed the British. Neither did they appreciate how the youth watched the Battle of Bunker Hill on on June 17th of that same year with ‘anxious and tearful' eyes for the patriots. British authorities arrested him two days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, having watched his reaction to the battle from Copps' Hill. They  imprisoned him for keeping a weapon. By the time he was released, 107 days later, only 11 of the 29 prisoners taken at the Battle of Bunker Hill were still alive. . The American prisoners were confined in close, stifling quarters, beaten, insulted and starved. For his first 37 days he was only allowed bread and water. The wounded weren't given medical care. Edes kept a diary in which he recorded the prisoners' sufferings, which is available in a modern-day printing. (Paraphrased from New England Historical Society). When he was 29 years of age, Edes thought it important to gather together some of the Orations given by various statesmen and others, commemorating the tragic murder of ten American citizens by British soldiers on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts. A number of these orations had originally been published in his father Benjamin Edes's shop, along with Benjamin's partner John Gill. Edes eventually moved his entire printing operation to Bangor Maine, and at the time of his death at age 83, was then the oldest living printer.