An online Google book about Revere lacks the pages of the actual warning, but other pages hint at the fear and uncertaintly that Revere instilled. And my old paper Concise Dictionary of American History states, regarding Revere's capture by the British:
Assuring his captors that the country was roused against them, he so alarmed them that they set him free.
So the British were alarmed by what Revere told them. It is reasonable to assume that a man out there that night to oppose the British continued to do so even when captured. The British could hear the bells and shots across the countryside indicating that their mission to destroy American ammunition and arms had lost the element of surprise, and so the warning would not seem mere boasting.
I'm not a particular Palin fan. She's not at the top of my list for president. Two and a half years after the 2008 campaign, she seems no more ready for the office than she was then. But I could say the same for President Obama, too. And I'm not sure who between the two is more ready for the responsibilities even now.
But I do like Palin if for no other reason than so many left wingers hate her with a passion that is hard to fathom. You'd think that a woman who made it in the male-dominated political world without inheriting her money or position from a husband or father would be a role model for little girls everywhere.
But no, a Clinton or a Pelosi who followed on the coattails of a successful man are revered by feminists. Feminism is now about liberalism, and Palin is a reminder that feminism is no longer about promoting the role of women in male-dominated areas.
That scares the left wingers more than anything else. The women are coming! The women are coming!
UPDATE: Palin defends her statements. However, while the Colonists were worried about the British taking military stores collected at Concord and so set up the warning system Revere was part of, Revere's purpose can't be said to have been to warn the British of the futility of trying to seize the arms and ammunition. At best, I think it can be said that once captured, Revere decided to "warn" the British of the "large force" arrayed to meet them, when the opposition was not so formidable. Certainly, the mission was triggered by the desire to warn Patriot leaders of plans to arrest them, but as the British did toss what military stores they could find into a pond, it is clear that arms were a factor in the whole episode.
UPDATE: Experts seem to back my interpretation about the "warning" issue.
