John Dos Passos Quotes
The warden strapped these men into the electric chair / the executioner threw the switch / and set them free into the wind / they are free of the dreams now / free of the greasy prison denim / their voices blow back in a thousand lingoes singing one song / to burst the eardrums of Massachusetts.
John Dos Passos, 1896-1970, Writer, “They Are Dead Now”, Poem published in New Masses, October 1927
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 1643 the Massachusetts Bay Colony wanted to dominate the region. Miantonomi, the Narragansett Indian Chief had a large well organized tribe who while friendly with the English were very independent. The Mohegan Indians, close allies of the colonists captured Miantonomi and turned him over to the Colony. Governor Winthrop’s actions have always been a disgrace to the justice of the Colony. Winthrop then turned him over to his traditional enemy, Chief Uncas, of the Mohawk to remove him from the boundaries of the Puritan Colony and then tomahawk Miantonomi to death. Winthrop actually sent several Puritan Englishmen to “see the execution for our more full satisfaction.” Among Miantonomi’s “evil” deeds was the fact that he gave Roger Williams, a religious and political dissenter from Winthrop’s Colony and religious “heretic”, a large tract of land (Providence) for his colony.
“Patriot” meant someone who was a supporter of anti-monarchy dissidents and rebels. It was more than a good citizen. The prisoners were incarcerated because they had been accused of supporting the monarchy early in or after the French Revolution.
It is unfortunately too common that people have been convicted and jailed because of misconduct of the police or prosecutors. Most criminal justice agencies in recent years have examined their methods and procedures and reforms are in progress. But there is still a human problem. For an example see Quote
John Brown, in a futile effort to start a slave insurrection, raided the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. His raid failed and he was captured and hanged. However, he became a martyr to the abolitionist movement, and his death is still sung of gloriously to this day. See {584889} and {604003}.
This quotation is often incorrectly ascribed to Joseph Stalin whose approach to dissidents comported with Monteverde.
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. trilogy.
