She Wrote the Revolution with Faith and a Pen

She never held office, never commanded an army, and for most of her life couldn't even put her name on her own writing. But Mercy Otis Warren showed up anyway with her pen, her wit, her faith, and her home. This week Sher introduces one of America's most overlooked founding mothers, and Cydni learns that her pen name was not nearly as creative. As we continue preparing for the July 5th fast, this episode is a reminder that you don't have to be famous to matter. You just have to be faithful with what God gave you and brave enough to use it. This week's episode is "She Wrote the Revolution with Faith and a Pen" and we are so glad you are here!

This Week's Challenge
Find a woman in your family's history or community who shaped everything but never got the credit, and share her story with us.

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Episode 169 - Mercy Otis Warren

Cydni: [00:00:00] Today's episode is brought to you by the new LDS garments. Because you have the right to bear arms and shoulders. 

Sher: Oh, gosh. 

Cydni: Do you get it? 'Cause it's like- 

Sher: Like, just stop.

Cydni: But it goes with our episode. And it's summer, and it's so nice to wear those sleeveless shirts. Scandalous. 

 Welcome to the Cydni and Sher Podcast. We could put our shoulders to the wheel better now 

Sher: Oh, my gosh. 

Cydni: Before we get started, because we are talking about the woman who wrote the Revolution, I must say, could we just talk about the woman who taught fifth Sunday in our ward? That was you, Sher. 

Sher: Oh, brother. 

Cydni: You taught- a beautiful lesson. 

Sher: I just think I blabbed really fast 'cause I didn't have a lot of time. That's really what happened. 

Cydni: It- I wish they gave you more time. 

Sher: It was like a word vomit. That was more what it was. 

Cydni: No, it was inspiring. I realized between your lesson on Sunday and listening to last week's podcast episode, I thought, "You know what? This woman [00:01:00] loves American history." And you love freedom, and you really show that. 

Sher: Thank you, 'cause I really do love American history because you can just see God's hand throughout all of it, but it's not just American history. It's all of history. It's just that I happen to teach American history, so that's where I see it the most. 

Cydni: Fair. Well, you did a great job, and I was so glad my young men were there to listen to episode- My word- ... at church. 

Sher: My word vomit. 

Cydni: It was not a word vomit. It was beautiful. You, definitely showed your passion and enthusiasm and your knowledge it was fantastic.

So, you are the woman who wrote the fifth Sunday lesson for 15 minutes, 'cause you only had 15 minutes. Yeah. It- But you took, like, 25, 27 minutes, actually. I had a clock going. 

Sher: I went way over. Mm-hmm. So again, I didn't write the fifth Sunday. I word vomited the fifth Sunday.

Cydni: I mean- Let's 

Sher: get it right, 

Cydni: Cydni. Okay, okay, okay. It didn't feel that way to me is all I'm trying to say. And I would've let you know.. 

Sher: You would not. 

Cydni: I would have- You would not ... got [00:02:00] up and left, and I would have thrown- the hymn book on the ground. 

Sher: No, Ben would've. You wouldn't have. 

Cydni: Ben is guilty of leaving. He's a man who lets you know how he feels. But Ben was the one who volunteered you for that lesson, and that is a compliment. 

Sher: A little stinker. I'm gonna get even with him. Some way, somehow, I'm gonna get even.

Cydni: You're never gonna get even. 

Sher: I'm gonna get even. 

Cydni: I don't know if you know that Ginger the way I know that Ginger. So we will continue with the history as we are doing our summer series to help inspire and prepare our hearts and our minds for the 250 year celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and we are going to do that with a fast on July 5th, the day after the barbecue, And we have been asked by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to prepare for this fast, and also in our preparation to serve, and I love that part so much. 

Sher: And we're gonna prepare today by learning about, as you said, the woman who wrote the [00:03:00] revolution, Mercy Otis Warren.

She is one of our founding mothers, and so I'm really excited to, talk about her today. I'm really embarrassed to say that I didn't know a lot about her until we started preparing for this episode, and I feel really bad, because there's a lot of really cool things I should've been teaching my students and I did not.

Cydni: That's the beautiful thing about learning line upon line, because I have never heard of her until she was on the 

Sher: I just had her on a list of people my students could do a report about. That was it. 

Cydni: Well, she is overlooked.

Sher: Correct. So let's start with her background a little bit. So Mercy was born in 1728 in Massachusetts, and her family, They wanted to leave Britain and they wanted to be independent early on. They were all in on it. Her brother, James Otis Jr., was a lawyer, and he gets credit for the phrase, "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

Cydni: And we love that quote in our house. We have it on several throw pillows. I've hand-stitched it myself, also on [00:04:00] an apron that I wear. 

Sher: I'm sure. 

Cydni: We just love James Otis Jr.- ... and that quote. 

Sher: You've heard no taxation without representation. It's the same kinda vibe. He just added the tyranny part. 

Cydni: That's my favorite part. 

Sher: So just a sidebar, something about James Otis that I learned is in 1769, James Otis went into, a British bar that was in Massachusetts, and he demanded that the British officials that were just in there drinking apologize to him for speaking falsely about him, and they didn't apologize to him, Cydni.

Instead, They stabbed him with a sword, and then hit him in the head so hard that it fractured his skull, and it exposed his brain. he was never the same after that, and he suffered severe brain damage. But John Adams said about him that Otis was a flame of fire. American independence was then and there born. So he had this huge influence all up until the year 1769, and then we don't really hear, from him [00:05:00] after that because of the brain damage he had. But there's more, Cydni. Otis had often said to his sister, Mercy, that he didn't wanna linger in old age, and he hoped he would get struck by lightning instead. And on May 23rd 1783, that's what happened. 

Cydni: He- Oh, my gosh ... 

Sher: he got struck by lightning and done. God 

Cydni: is good. So there 

Sher: you go. Yeah. Yes, He is. 

Cydni: I also don't wanna linger in old age. I want to be so rich and tall and fabulous and rich. I'm waiting. Just watching to see what happens. Right now. Right now. How do you put in your wish? 

Sher: I don't know, but I think you're just gonna get struck by lightning for different reasons. 

Cydni: Oh, well, what the heck? 

Sher: All right, well, back to Mercy. So again, James Otis was a lawyer, and Mercy educated herself alongside her brother, and this was definitely not common for women during the time.

Mercy was also deeply religious. She was intelligent and believed truth-telling was a moral [00:06:00] obligation. She wrote anonymously, but she eventually started using her own name.

Cydni: I just looked up her pen name, and it was A Colombian Patriot. What would be your pen name? The Shaquille O'Neal. No, that's taken. He's a big man. I don't know if you've ever seen him. 

Sher: I would, like, hit his kneecap. Why would you choose that? 

Cydni: We saw him in person, and his hand was the size of my body. '

Sher: What would your pen name be? It would have to be something snarky. 

Cydni: I have never put any thought into a pen name, 'cause I'd prefer everyone to know it's me. 

Sher: That's true. 

Cydni: Yeah. 

Sher: That I believe. I would, definitely go with something where I would not get any attention, 'cause I hate attention because we're opposites.

Cydni: Yours would be, like, Don't Read. 

Sher: Yeah. Please don't look at me. All right. So, I don't know why she chose , A Colombian Patriot, except I do have a few clues, writers and poets during that time period, instead of calling America America, they would call it Columbia.

It was kind of like a pet name, like saying sweetheart, and They [00:07:00] wanted it to sound and refer to it with a special name, and not use the name that the British had given us. So that's why they said Columbia. So it was a more endearing term that they would use.

Cydni: Oh, that's a lot more feminine than I have been viewing this. I'm gonna text Ben right now, and I'm gonna say, "I love you, my Columbia." We're bringing that back. 

Sher: I'm sure he's gonna love it, especially since you said it was more feminine. Ben's gonna love that you just said that. That's great. 

Cydni: wait.

Sher: So Mercy was also friends with John and Abigail Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry 

Cydni: Which is why it's said you become like the people you surround yourself with 

Sher: And she surrounded herself with some good ones, I'll tell you that right there. That's a powerhouse. Uh, these People often met in her Plymouth home, and it was used as a gathering place many American patriots to talk and discuss the issues of the day, and to talk about freedom and virtue. 

Cydni: I did read that she hosted saloons, is what [00:08:00] they called it, and I was wondering, do you think that was the first version of Secret Lives of Constitutional Wives? Then I thought, "Don't say that. That's disrespectful to Mercy." but I, I can't help myself. You c- 

Sher: you had to. Well, maybe it was, but it would've been a lot more G-rated, I think. 

Cydni: Yeah. Maybe. 

Sher: Especially since this woman was very God-fearing, faithful, and all about virtue. 

Cydni: As opposed- You know? To other options. 

Sher: Correct. 

Cydni: I bet they're like , "We want freedom," and they're like, "Ooh, scandalous." "One day the LDS community could show their shoulders."

Sher: You're just gonna keep going back to that today, aren't you? 

Cydni: I'm just so happy to be able to

Sher: The irony is, your sleeves are longer than I've ever seen. They're like down to your elbows. 

Cydni: That's 'cause it was chilly. It's just knowing I can. 

Sher: Well, going back to her friends in famous places, John Adams regarded her as one of the most important voices of the American Revolution I also wanna point out that her husband, James Warren, encouraged her to keep writing and [00:09:00] welcoming all these patriots into their home.

He was all in, and he was extremely supportive of her. They were married for over 50 years and had five sons. 

Cydni: And speaking of sweetheart notes, can I tell you Something he said, to praise her that is just so romantic. He praised her for her mind possessed of masculine genius. And I think that's so lovely. The full sentence was, "Her mind possessed of masculine genius while stocked with learning."

Sher: That's why all these people could come into their home, is because she had a masculine male brain. 

Cydni: Yeah, they were like, "We could listen to you because you come across like a man." "And because of that we'll listen to what you have to say, Mercy, because you're masculine, . a masculine genius." And I was like, you know what we need to do? We need to appreciate the masculine geniuses in our life more. So today, get out there, text a masculine [00:10:00] genius and tell them- that you see them that they are masculine geniuses. 

Sher: This is why I think that both of us love her so much, is she used satire as her weapon against the British.

Cydni: But wait, let's clarify because we have learned where we see satire as, like, sarcastic and hilarious and humor, that was not her style. Because I looked up what were her funniest, most sarcastic quotes, and they're not. which is fine 'cause she is a masculine genius, and so we accept that she wasn't hilarious.

So satire for her was, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize people. So we really like that she was very criticizing. That was like our favorite thing. 

Sher: I also read , a little bit of her plays, and honestly, I didn't get the humor. I didn't get the satire even. I didn't really understand it, but I think it's because, the culture's changed a lot, and I don't know the people involved in it as well, and clearly public education didn't [00:11:00] help either one of us in that aspect.

Cydni: That's exactly where my mind went with this, is I said to myself, "This isn't that funny." And the Holy Spirit of God said, "It's because you're not intelligent enough to understand why this is funny." 

Sher: That's exactly what I received also. So as we mentioned before, she published a lot of her work anonymously, her plays where she mocked the British of- officials were all done anonymously, and this was done really out of necessity because the British would have arrested her.

If she would've been caught, she would've been arrested for seditious libel, I just looked up a few things that could have happened to her if she would've been caught. She could have been arrested and imprisoned. She could have been publicly whipped.

Sometimes they even cut off your ears or used like a leather tool, like a hole punch, that went right through your tongue, ' cause, you were talking seditiously. 

Cydni: Oh my gosh. 

Sher: she could have been confined in the stocks, received a heavy fine. She could have had her writings seized and destroyed. Her husband James could have been arrested, fined, or imprisoned along with [00:12:00] her. Her home could have been raided and seized. She could have had complete social ruin and public shaming, which during that time, a woman of her standing would have just been devastating for her and her family.

In extreme cases, charges could have escalated to treason, which carried the death penalty. So the British, of course, because they're gentlemanly-like, they didn't want to hang or draw and quarter a woman, so instead they would burn women at the stake, and also, if she would've been found guilty of treason, all of her property would have been taken and from her husband and all of her sons.

So they really wanted to make a point, like, "Don't talk crap about us." So this woman, despite all these risks, continued writing, and that's why she is so amazing and so incredibly courageous and brave, she knew the consequences, and so did her husband, and he encouraged her to continue to do this, and she just kept on writing her plays were read in [00:13:00] homes and in taverns, and she used her humor and wit to make tyranny look absolutely ridiculous.

She would even sometimes use the British officials' names or a name that sounded very similar, so everyone knew who she was making fun of and mocking. She was also very famous for her letter writing. She had a correspondence with almost every major founder. She had incredible letters back and forth between her and her good friend, Abigail Adams.

They discussed liberty and virtue, they discussed the American Revolution, and the building of a nation. In their letters, they would vent to each other, tell each other what they loved, what was great, what was bad, what was happening. One line that was from Mercy to Abigail Adams, Mercy wrote, "It is and ever has been my poor opinion that justice and liberty will finally gain a complete victory over tyranny." She had such faith that if we just stuck to it, that justice and liberty would finally win [00:14:00] out. 

The, the, the things they said back and forth to each other, and the way they wrote it, was so impressive. They were so intelligent. And the thing that I thought of is that these were serious times, and they stepped up to the challenge.

They were educated enough that they understood exactly what was going on, and they were religious enough and faithful enough to understand that the hand of God was in it, and was if they chose to turn to Him for His help and guidance. Which is what they did. They're incredible examples. These men and women are incredible examples of what people are capable of doing when they put their trust in God. 

Cydni: So inspiring. And then to help each other to be better, too. 

Sher: Yeah, absolutely. Mercy would also debate John Adams through letters, which was not an easy task. He was known for being a fiery debater, and she was up to the challenge.

she also wrote a three-volume history of the American Revolution. I had no idea about that, Cydni. I feel foolish that I did not know this. She didn't just [00:15:00] record the events of what happened, she interpreted them through a moral and spiritual lens, and asking what kind of people a republic required to survive.

So she understood that in order to be free, to have a republic, to have our agency, that we needed to show that we were responsible enough to have it. She said, "Nothing seemed wanting to the United States, but a continuance of their union and virtue." So she understood that what we need to do in order to stay free is to stay united and good.

I really want to read her books, but I'm a little worried I won't be able to understand any of it because she definitely is writing above my IQ level. 

Cydni: I did listen to a man who had stumbled across all three books, and it was just a divine experience for him. He's a book collector, and he was just enthusiastic and passionate about being someone who has all three of the volumes, and I loved what he said about her writing, that during this day, it was not common to write the [00:16:00] way she did, that a lot of people wrote with information, and she wrote with emotion and passion because of her masculine genius, obviously.

Sher: Obviously. 

Cydni: Though that sounds a little more feminine, but- 

Sher: I would agree ... in her last she wrote, "They," referring to Americans, "they have too far lost that general sense of moral obligation formerly felt by all classes in America."

So she could see that Americans were already starting to forget about being good and about where we came from and about whose we are, she could already see it, and she was trying to warn all of us that we needed get our crap together and turn back to God.

Cydni: If she could only see us now.

Sher: I know, my gosh. 

Cydni: She was like, "You know, I think I was onto something there, guys." 

Sher: I think that if she could see us now, I don't think she could take it. I think she would just drop over dead, 

Cydni: actually. I know, with just the shoulder showing itself- Probably ... let alone other stuff that's out there.

Sher: Absolutely. 

Cydni: Snapchat, tickety-tok. 

Sher: Tickety-tok. 

Cydni: Getting wild. [00:17:00] 

Sher: All right. Let me tell you why she's not famous, though, okay? The reason is because she opposed the Constitution. She wrote a pamphlet in 1788 opposing it and explaining why.

She said the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government, and it didn't protect individual rights enough. She insisted that a bill of rights be signed and ratified before the Constitution, and this is what led to her falling out with John Adams, which actually I don't think is that unusual.

I feel like everybody had a falling out at some point with John Adams. But he, he was so upset at her, he wrote this to her about her Revolution book: " Your 31st chapter, madam, is like mustard after dinner." He's basically telling this, at the time, 77-year-old woman that her book stunk, and she wrote back and called his criticisms illiberal, which, during that time, was like saying, "How dare you, you closed-minded fool."

And then she basically told him that she was not gonna [00:18:00] change one line of her book, not one word, not any of it, so she stood up to him. But I will say this, she definitely wasn't wrong about the Bill of Rights. That was definitely something that was necessary and needed 

Cydni: what I love about this is how they're both intelligent, they both have the same core ideas overall, but they disagree, and still they do make amends by the end. I read. Is that true? 

Sher: you know what? I don't even know. I 

Cydni: didn't- I heard that. It was like they were friends, and then, they had a big falling out, and then they do make amends at the end.

Sher: I feel like that's John Adams' whole entire life. 

Cydni: He- Offending everyone and then trying to make up for it before he's a goner? 

Sher: Yeah. I think that pretty much sums up his entire lifespan. 

Cydni: Makes sense. 

Sher: I loved learning more about her, Cydni. I, again, am so embarrassed that I didn't know more and that I didn't what I know now, to my students.

One of the things, though, I absolutely love about her is her faith, and she understood that virtue is America's [00:19:00] foundation, and that is what is necessary in order to be free. She believed that a republic could only survive if its citizens were moral, educated, and God-fearing.

How are we doing with those three things right now? Moral, educated, God-fearing. She wrote that when virtue disappeared from a people, tyranny would always fill the void, which is terrifying, actually.

Mercy believed that in order to prevent tyranny, that every person had a moral obligation to use their gifts for good. She believed that words and truth and courage were as powerful as any army. So this made me wonder, what has given me and you and all of us?

What gifts has He given us? How are we using our voice, our pen, our talents, our platform, our influence? How are we using it for good? To continue to build on our foundation of virtue, and to teach [00:20:00] about how important it is that we turn to God in order to remain free.

Cydni: Your takeaway with what inspired you with her is the same as mine- is that she felt that moral obligation to act. I see a woman who was born into privilege, because she was. She was able to gain education where a lot of women were not, and she had the support of men, which a lot of women did not. And she took that privilege and she made something with it, and I find that to be very inspiring.

She also was a bit self-conscious of her work, which she doesn't come across that way, but they found in a letter written to Hannah Winthrop, she wrote... "i am sensible the world is already full of elegant productions that entertain the imagination and refine the taste. I would not willingly make an addition in the last useless class, and despairing of eminence in the first, I rather choose my manuscript should be in the [00:21:00] cabinets of my friends to be pursued when nothing more instructive or entertaining may be offered." That's to say, "I don't know if I really want anyone reading my stuff. It's not that good." 

Sher: Just stick it in your and look at it if you have nothing better to do.

Cydni: Exactly. So I love that she is born into privilege, she has self-doubts, but she understands that she has a moral obligation, and she takes that incredibly seriously. This reminds me of something I've heard and learned from Lawrence E. Corbridge. He talks about this moment in his life where he experienced a terrible dream-like vision, he had severe back pain, and he was trying to get through it, and he had this vision come to him where he was put in what felt like hell, and he was surrounded by this terrible feeling that he called the depths of despair.

He said this was not mere [00:22:00] despondency. It was a million times more than the blues. This was profound, irreparable, paralyzing, debilitating, unrelenting sorrow. It was hell. Not hell of the wicked, rather hell of regret.

This was the desolation of waste. Wasted talents, wasted time, wasted opportunities that had come and gone, never again to return. It was the clear realization of what could have been but will never be, because the time to act had passed forevermore. Jacob wrote,

"woe unto him that has the law given, yea, has all the commandments of God like unto us, and transgresseth them and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state." As we have studied these people, and we are going to talk about more of these m- men and women from history, I see this over and over, that [00:23:00] they were more concerned with fulfilling their obligations to their fellow men than the consequences that could come from their fellow men. And as I've studied more, I see that we also all have a we all have a call to use our gifts, to use our talents, even if we're terrified, which we usually are. One thing that's giving both Sher and I courage is learning the history of people who have acted in courage before us. So our challenge is for you to find a woman in your family's history or in your community who shaped everything but never got the credit, and we would love to hear your story.

Send it to us in email, text us, let us know. Or send it to us on Instagram because I'm being courageous and I'm actually posting. I promise, Sher. I promise this time. 

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts. Mercy Otis Warren never commanded an army, never held an office, and for most of her life couldn't even put her name on her own writing.

But she showed up anyway with her [00:24:00] pen, her wit, her faith, and her home. She believed that freedom wasn't just won on a battlefield. It was built in the hearts of people who chose virtue over comfort. She saw America starting to drift from that even in her own lifetime, and she said so loudly even when it cost her her friendships.

You don't have to be famous to matter. You just have to be faithful with what God gave you and brave enough to use it, just like Mercy Otis Warren. And 250 years later, it's our turn to show up in the same way. This is our prayer. 

Cydni: From Cydni and Sher. Put your sleeveless shoulders to the wheel. 

Sher: Okay, heck [00:25:00] yeah heck it to the yeah. 

Cydni: Heck yeah. "Are you having a good day?" "Heck yeah. Heck yeah, we are." Do other people say heck the way we say heck? 

Sher: I don't think so

Cydni: Well, that says a lot about us, right? 

Sher: Well, heck." 

Cydni: Well, heck. We're gonna burn in heck. 

Sher: I don't know where I was. 

Cydni: That's the story of- I know ... your life. How do I get back on track? So, da, ba, be, dee, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okay. New York unique. 

Sher: I think it's unique New York. 

Cydni: That was to illustrate how off I am. 

Sher: I love, we love, everyone loves? 

Cydni: This is... Yeah. I liked that. 

Sher: Thanks for joining us. 

Cydni: We're so glad you're here.