In March of 1772, Doctor Joseph Warren, a Revolutionary hero who fought at Lexington and Concord and would later die on Bunker Hill, delivered an oration at Boston’s Old South Meeting House commemorating the second anniversary of what came to be known as the Boston Massacre, where five colonists were killed and six wounded. Crispus Attucks, a whaler, sailor, and dockworker was the first to die. He was also the first person of African and Native American descent killed in the fight for American freedom. He would not be the last.
When Joseph Warren delivered his oration, he was serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress and was highly respected in the colonies.
Like most upper-class, educated colonists (Harvard, 1759), he looked to ancient Rome’s Republic for guidance in attaining freedom. By some accounts, he delivered his oration that day in a flowing white Roman toga that would have made Cicero proud.
It was an attachment to freedom, he said,
which raised ancient Rome from the smallest beginnings, to that bright summit of happiness and glory to which she arrived; and it was the loss of this which plunged her from that summit, into the black gulf of infamy and slavery. It was this attachment which inspired her senators with wisdom;…it was this which guarded her liberties, and extended her dominions, gave peace at home, and commanded respect abroad…
Warren warned that Rome lost her Republic over time as her leaders “forgot their dignity and virtue” and “committed the most flagrant enormities,…whereby the streets of imperial Rome were drenched with her noblest blood.”
Seeing into the future, Warren knew that one day America would be free of British rule, so he urged his listeners to study what happened in Rome. If they did, and learned the lesson, he predicted America would be “a land of liberty” and “the seat of virtue.”
And that is precisely what happened following the successful American revolution. When asked by Elizabeth Powel, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Benjamin Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
It’s been a struggle ever since.
We were all reminded of this on Saturday when the Secret Service foiled another assassination attempt on the life of Donald Trump that unfolded as he was playing golf at a country club of his in Florida.
The suspect had an AK-47-style rifle with a scope attached. Authorities also found a GoPro digital camera at the place in the bushes where he’d been hiding for 12 hours, which suggests he appears to have been planning to broadcast his attempt to kill Trump. If it weren’t for an eagle-eyed Secret Service agent, who noticed the rifle barrel sticking out slightly from the bushes, the attempt may have succeeded.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, has a long criminal record and has been active on social media. He once wrote a self-published book in which he urged Iran to assassinate Trump.
Routh had backed candidate Trump in the 2016 election, but grew disillusioned with him during his first term. In June of 2020, Routh wrote on social media, “While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving … I will be glad when you gone.”
Court documents released yesterday detail Routh’s past run-ins with the law, including felony convictions in North Carolina. He was convicted in 2002 for “possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction” and in 2010 for “multiple counts of possession of stolen goods.”
Federal law prohibits individuals convicted of a felony from possessing firearms, let alone assault rifles like the AK-47. That didn’t seem to stop Mr. Routh.
This sordid event is another spoke in the wheel of approaching political anarchy. Think what would have happened throughout the nation if Routh had succeeded. Although officials pointed out he never had “line of sight” on Trump, that was only because Trump hadn’t yet reached the golf hole where Routh had set up his ambush. But the target was on its way.
There are now 48 days until the election. I’m less worried about those 48 days than I am about the 48 that follow — the ones between the election and the inauguration.
Regardless of whether you vote for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris on 5 November, it’s likely those 48 days will be fraught with tension. If a peaceful transfer of power occurs, the nation will have shown its best side to the world. But if not, we will be dragged “into the black gulf of infamy” Joseph Warren warned us of and toward which the fringe elements of society seem intent on pulling us.
If that happens, we will be looking back on January 6th, 2021, as nothing more than a warm-up, opening act.
That is a distinct possibility, which is a terribly scary thought.
