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Photo provided by Jim HoldingA monument erected to Dr. Joseph Warren at his grave site, the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Mass.

One thing that newspapers in years gone by would at times do is publish speeches in their entirety.

In a modern context, that results in some pretty boring column inches. But in 1910, there werent really any other avenues to hear what was said unless you were there without reading it in print.

Charles Warren Stone was the keynote speaker. He had served as lieutenant governor and Congressman but by 1910 was in his late 60s and retired, living in Warren.

The Warren Evening Mirror published the text of his address on July 6, 1910, two days after it was delivered.

Today the Tidioute Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will unveil in the Borough of Warren a statue of Major General Joseph Warren, after whom the town and county were named, Stone began. This is intended not only to perpetuate the memory and virtues of the first prominent martyr in the great struggle which gave this government existence, but as a permanent memorial to the soldiers buried in Warren County who took part in that great conflict.

In addition to the statue of Warren, there is a plaque on the side that identifies all of the Revolutionary veterans buried in Warren County.

The statue was brought to reality by the Tidioute Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The ladies, Stone said, to whose patriotism, energy and enterprise this community is indebted for the beautiful monument by them erected, have deemed it appropriate to this occasion to recall to your attention to salient points in the career and the prominent features in the character of the man whose statue is to be unveiled and to rehearse again the lesson of that noble life and tragic death, and have assigned to me that duty.

Conscious of my inability under any circumstances, and especially in the short time allowed me for preparation, to do justice to this subject and this occasion, I have however accepted this assignment that I may manifest as best I may my admiration for the character of the man we this day especially honor my life for the town which I have spent all the years of my mature life, and my appreciation of the patriotic, public service rendered to this town and county by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Stone then went into a general biography of Warrens life, starting with his birth in 1741.

General Warrens immediate ancestry were distinctively of the common people. His father was a farmer, his grandfather a carpenter and his great-grandfather a mariner, he said. They were, however, men of intelligence, uprightness, high character and exemplary and useful citizens. His mother was a woman of exceptional force of character.

Warren went to Harvard at the age of 14 and was recognized as a young man of rectitude of purpose and conduct; of exemplary habits, of manly bearing, of personal courage and of generous independent disposition.

It is recorded of him that he was especially attentive to the poor, a stranger to avarice and indifferent and neglectful as to compensation for his services. Thoroughly versed in the learning of his profession, graceful and attractive in figure and beaming of elegant address and thorough culture, open, genial, cordial in manner, he had all the qualities which would have ensured him unrivaled success and eminence in his profession.

Stone devoted significant time to Warrens pre-Revolutionary agitation efforts.

While attending faithfully on the sick by day, Warren studied with assiduity the principles of government by night, and specially the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, he said, calling the response to taxed tea the first step toward united action essential to success. It roused the people from their sluggishness.

He said it is uncertain whether Warren was part of the Boston Tea Party. It was charged by the Tories but never either proved or denied. As an eminent historian has said: It is praise enough to say of Warren that he is seen constantly by the side of Samuel Adams through the whole of these interesting occurrences.'

He discussed the Suffolk Resolves and his Boston Massacre orations and then his role in dispatching Revere in advance of Lexington & Concord.

His character and conduct and presence greatly animated and encouraged his countrymen. His heroic soul elicited a kindred. His lofty spirit gave them confidence, Stone said.

He then told the story of Warrens death at Bunker Hill.

My friends, I have thus hurriedly, lest I trespass too much on your patience and inadequately I know referred to some of the more important events of Warrens life. If judging from these, I were to say he was one of the purest and greatest men America has produced, ranking well toward the head of her grand galaxy of patriots, possibly you might think I overestimated his merits, Stone said, quoting then several other historians and witnesses who spoke positively of Warren.

Fellow citizens of Warren Borough and County: You may well be proud of the name which has come to you by adoption, Stone said. It is an honorable name, none more so in the annals of American history and on it is no stain nor cloud. It is typical of courage, of candor, of self-respecting independence, of patriotism, of purity. It should inspire to high thinking and right living. It should bring to our minds the cost, and hence the value of the liberty we enjoy. Warrens life and death should be an inspiration to fidelity to the principles he championed, and of patriotic devotion to that government he gave his life to found.

He used Warren as a justification for the need to protect liberty and he said that can only be done with an intelligent, pure, independent, self-owning, uncorrupted electorate.

But, my Fellow Citizens, he continued, I must not, I will not digress but I would this people, if no other, they who collectively bear Warrens honored name and are thus linked to his memory and fame and who in years to come will be confronted by his almost speaking image in their midst, I would have this people true to the high ideals his character represents, true to the rules of conduct his example prescribes. Writing to General Gage, the royal governor, the day after the Battle of Lexington, he said: I have ever scorned disguise. I think I have done my duty.

What better epitaph to be placed on his monument! No pretense in life, no hypocrisy, no disguise, but an open, straightforward devotion to duty, and a martyrs crown at the end, Stone said, proud indeed should this people be to bear in their town and county the name of such a man.

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Stone's speech at the dedication of Warren statue in 1910 - timesobserver.com