~ 375th Anniversary of the Incorporation Town of Malden ~

“Silver Voice” of the American Revolution – the author of the first Declaration of Independence

By Inna Babitskaya

Rev. Peter Thacher (1752–1802), a Congregational minister from Malden, Massachusetts, was not only the “shepherd of souls,” but also, like his father, Oxenbridge Thacher, Jr. (1720–1765), an ardent patriot of America. While Rev. Thacher was called the “silver voice of the American Revolution,” Oxenbridge Thacher, Jr., a “poet, a very eminent lawyer, and a coadjutor of the early patriots of the Revolution,” was called the man who awakened the American Revolution. Oxenbridge Thacher’s brilliant political pamphlet “The Sentiments of a British American” was considered a prerevolutionary philosophical tractate.

According to John Adams, he did quite a lot for “an awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings,” giving “…the first impulse to the Ball of Independence … His patriotism was as ardent as his progenitors had been ancient and illustrious in this country.”

According to Malden historian Deloraine Corey, Peter Thacher “By both pen and speech… gave utterance to words by which the patriotic passions of the population were wrought up to white heat. Some of those words…, seem still hot with the old fire that burned in them when they came fresh from his pen and lips.”

The Hon. Harrison Gray Otis (1765–1848), a Senator and U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, wrote about Peter Thacher’s role in the Revolution: “During the Revolutionary struggle, he was found earnest and resolute in the cause of his country. Many of his discourses from the pulpit breathed a spirit of glowing patriotism, and were admirably adapted to stimulate his hearers to peril everything, —if need be, to sacrifice everything, for their country’s liberty. In private, he also evinced much of the same spirit, and sometimes addressed considerable assemblages of his fellow citizens, with great eloquence and effect, upon the state of the times.”

Corey underlined that “It was not alone as a pastor and preacher that he stood pre-eminent in the exercise of his abilities. With his quickness of mind and natural impetuosity, which he tempered and restrained, he threw himself with effect into the consideration of those great questions which took precedence, even over religion, in the minds of men, and placed himself at once in the front rank of those who in the pulpit and by the pen gave direction and strength to public opinion. His mind and energy gave form to the feelings of his townsmen in several papers, which have distinction for their deep and earnest patriotism and their fearlessness of utterance.”

Thacher’s main weapons were his orator’s skills, his sermons and his revolutionary ardor (or fever) that inspired the colonists to fight for their freedom. Thus, on March 5, 1776, Bostonians asked him “to pronounce the oration against standing armies, which had been annually delivered in Old South Church, in commemoration of the Boston Massacre that took place on that day in 1770.” The British Governor did not allow him to organize this service in Boston, so “Mr. Thacher performed it with great applause at Watertown.” His emotionally powerful “Boston Massacre Oration” with its final phrase “O God, let America be free!” inspired not only the revolutionary soldiers but also the authors of the Declaration of Independence.

On May 10, 1776, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, it was “resolved… that the inhabitants of each town in this colony ought… to advise the person or persons who shall be chosen to represent them in the next General court, whether if the honorable Congress would, for the safety of the said colonies, declare them independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the said inhabitants will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support the Congress in the measure.”

The Malden Instructions were among the earliest issued by the Massachusetts towns (on May 27, 1776). They were published in the “Gazette” just six weeks before the Declaration of Independence and contained close thoughts and passages. According to Corey, Peter Thacher, who was the chairman of the town’s instructions committee in September 1774, wrote the instructions that Malden representative Ezra Sargeant introduced to the General Court in 1776 – the first American request for independence from the British Crown.

As was stated in the “Bi-Centennial Book of Malden” (1849), during the Revolution, Maldonians repeatedly gave ‘instructions’ written by Peter Thacher to the town representative in the General Court. One of those instructions ended with these words: “The people in the province are free and brave people; and we are determined, in the strength of our God, that we will, in spite of open force and private treachery, live and die as becomes the descendants of such ancestors as ours, who sacrificed their all that they and their posterity might be free.”

Maldonians not only called for revolution, but also shared their vision of an American future: “…we are confirmed in the opinion that the present age would be deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they do not establish an American republic. This is the only form of government which we wish to see established… We have freely spoken our sentiments upon this important subject, but we mean not to dictate; we have unbounded confidence in the wisdom and uprightness of the continental congress: with pleasure we recollect that this affair is under their direction; and we now instruct you, sir, to give them the strongest assurance, that if they should declare America to be a free and independent republic, your constituents will support and defend the measure, to the last drop of their blood, and the last farthing of their treasure.”

Rev. Thacher’s sermons of that period convinced the revolutionary soldiers that they should “consider themselves as fighting under God’s banner and as champions of his cause” and that it would “forcibly… operate upon a pious mind, with what ardor would it inspire his breast and urge him to deeds of heroic valor! When men feel themselves [influenced] by motives of religion as well as natural obligation, they must be in a sense invincible.”

Thacher insisted that “we are fighting… for our religion… which the word of God hath instituted and appointed” and inspired American soldiers to “fight to the last drop of your blood…”

At the age of 24, this young man was braver and wiser than some of the older politicians of that epoch. He emphasized the ideals, goals and hopes of the people very clearly and passionately. He sincerely believed in democracy and what it could mean for his native country.

(Inna Babitskaya is a Malden Historian, a Member of Malden Historical Commission and Author of historical books “From Maldon to Malden”, “Time of Converse” & “Fellsmere Park – Emerald of Malden”)