Revolutionary writings and politics
Warren formed a strong circle of friends with whom she regularly corresponded, including Abigail Adams, John Adams, Martha Washington, and Hannah Winthrop, wife of John Winthrop. In a letter to Catharine Macaulay, Warren wrote: "America stands armed with resolution and virtue; but she still recoils at the idea of drawing the sword against the nation from whom she derived her origin. Yet Britain, like an unnatural parent, is ready to plunge her dagger into the bosom of her affectionate offspring."
Warren became a correspondent and advisor to many political leaders, including Washington, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and especially John Adams, who became her literary mentor in the years leading to the Revolution. In a letter to James Warren, Adams writes, "Tell your wife that God Almighty has entrusted her with the Powers for the good of the World, which, in the cause of his Providence, he bestows on few of the human race. That instead of being a fault to use them, it would be criminal to neglect them."
Warren had already become acquainted with John Adam's cousin, Samuel, as he was a frequent visitor Adams himself had suggested the basic content of the poem, while his request that Warren write was probably due to Warren's close friendship with his wife, Abigail. Unsure of how her writing would be received, Warren consulted with her friend Abigail Adams about John Adams' opinion of her work. John Adams was pleased with the anonymous poem and published it on the front page of the Boston Gazette. It was also Adams who had urged her to write a history of the Revolution even while the war was still being fought. For this work, she was able to use her memory of the Revolution, but she solicited copies of congressional debates, letters, and other information from the active participants in the revolution, many of whom she knew personally.
Before and during the Revolution, the Warren home served as a gathering place for patriot debates and meetings, allowing Mercy Warren to meet patriot leaders and their wives. Her husband, James, was also on the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence and among other official positions served as the paymaster of the Continental Army in 1776, a time when Mercy Warren would travel between home and the army to serve as her husband's secretary. Her elite and privileged status amid such a dramatically evolving political situation allowed her as a woman entry into the inner circles of revolutionary activity and debate. Not only did she come to know as individuals many of the most important political figures of her times, but she also formed strong opinions about many of them and some like Adams became influential in her literary life. Among those she met was George Washington, whom she described from their first meeting as "one of the most amiable and accomplished gentlemen, both in person, mind, and manners...." Years later, in 1790, she would ask Washington to approve her History, which he did. Another friend, Jefferson helped her get subscriptions for this work. Unfortunately, this same creation also contributed to the bitterness that rose between Warren and John Adams. After the Revolution, Mercy sided with Jeffersonian Republicanism. She openly expressed her opinion in the harshest of terms in her historical account of Adams, ending one of the most productive friendships of the revolutionary period. As with John Adams, John Hancock, who had once wavered about the question of independence from Britain, also fell out of favor with the Warrens.
Warren wrote several plays, including the satiric The Adulateur (1772). Directed against Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts, The Adulateur foretold the War of Revolution. It was published as a part of a longer play by an unknown author without Warren's consent in 1773. One of the main characters in Warren's part of the play is "Rapatio", who represented Hutchinson. Because Warren was a Whig and Hutchinson was a Tory, Warren disagreed with Hutchinson's views. Therefore, Rapatio is the antagonist in The Adulateur. The protagonist is "Brutus", whom Warren created to represent her brother, James Otis. In the play, the characters who are Whigs are brave, independent people, while the characters who are Tories are selfish and rude. The play includes a happy ending for the Whigs. After the play was published, Hutchinson become known as Rapatio to citizens of Massachusetts who identified with the Whigs. Because her first play was so successful and she thoroughly enjoyed writing about politics, Warren did not stop there.
In 1773, Warren wrote The Defeat, also featuring a character based on Hutchinson. Hutchinson had no idea of the accuracy of her plot nor completely comprehended the impact she made on his political fate. Warren's assistance in the movement to remove Governor Hutchinson from his position through The Defeat was one of her greatest accomplishments, and she allowed the piece a rare happy ending. Warren began to doubt as she wrote the third installment in her trilogy, feeling the power of her satire compromised her divine purpose to be a "member of the gentler sex," but she found encouragement from Abigail Adams, who told her, "God Almighty has entrusted [you] with Powers for the good of the World". With this affirmation, Warren then provided her sharpest political commentary yet: in 1775 Warren published The Group, a satire conjecturing what would happen if the British king abrogated the Massachusetts charter of rights. The anonymously published The Blockheads (1776) and The Motley Assembly (1779) are also attributed to her. In 1788, she published Observations on the New Constitution, whose ratification she opposed as an Anti-Federalist.
Warren was one of the most convincing Patriots in the Revolution and her works inspired others to become Patriots. Her work earned the congratulations of numerous prominent men of the age, including George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who remarked, "In the career of dramatic composition at least, female genius in the United States has outstripped the male".
