Yeah… you know all that mocking because Palin said Revere warned the British that they wouldn’t get our guns? Apparently it actually happened. Boston Herald:
Palin insisted yesterday on Fox News Sunday she was right: “Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms.”
In fact, Revere’s own account of the ride in a 1798 letter seems to back up Palin’s claim. Revere describes how after his capture by British officers, he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.”
Boston University history professor Brendan McConville said, “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right about that — and warning shots being fired. That’s accurate.”
I would also add the obvious point: Palin’s remarks were not a misspeak when she said Revere warned the British. Many are asking, “Why don’t you just admit that you misspoke? Why don’t you just say that you meant he warned the colonists?” If that’s what she had meant she could say that. But that’s not what she meant. Let’s take a look at what she actually said:
“He warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms…”
Replace “British” with “colonists,” the supposed correction that Palin critics say she should make:
“He warned the colonists that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms….”
Then it really makes no sense. The colonists were trying to take away our arms? That really would be botched history.
“At last the [British] officers began to feel the full import of what Paul Revere had been telling them. His words of warning took on stronger meaning when punctuated by gunfire. The sound of a single shot had suggested to them that surprise was lost. The crash of a volley appeared evidence that the country was rising against them. As they came closer to the Common they began to hear Lexington’s town bell clanging rapidly. the captive Loring, picking up Revere’s spirit, turned to the officers and said, ‘The bell’s a’ringing! The town’s alarmed, and you’re all dead men!’”
- Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer, pp. 135-6
“And you’re all dead men!” Love it.
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