F 74 .L67 L55 ^ Copy 1 r 1913 PROCEEDINGS ^ ADDRESSES Commemorative of the TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF LEXINGTON ^1"^^ I9I3 PROCEEDINGS ^ ADDRESSES Commemorative of the TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF LEXINGTON Published by Vote of The Town June 25, 1914 GENERAL COMMITTEE Alonzo E. Locke, Chairman Edwin A. Bayley Edward P. Bliss Frank C. Childs George H. Childs Harry F. Fay George D. Harrington J. Chester Hutchinson Dr. John H. Kane Charles G. Kauffmann Edward W. Herbert G. Locke James P. Munroe Timothy H. O'Connor Frank D. Peirce Alfred Pierce Dr. Fred S. Piper Elwyn G. Preston Frank H. Reed Lester E. Smith Edwin C. Stevens Taylor SUB-COMMITTEES OF ANNIVERSARY Historical Exercises Dr. Fred S. Piper, Chairman Rev. A. B. Crichton Harry F. Fay Dr. John H. Kane Rev. Samuel Knowles Rev. George E. Martin Rev. Michael J. Owens Rev. H. L. Pickett Elwyn G. Preston Rev. John M. Wilson Early Morning Exercises Herbert G. Locke, Chairman Francis Burke George D. Harrington Clayton G. Locke Edward Maguire Frank H. Reed Edward W. Taylor Edwin B. Worthen Parade Edwin C. Stevens, Chairman Lucius A. Austin George E. Briggs Charles J. Dailey Arthur F. Hutchinson Clarence E. Johnson Charles G. Kauffmann Herbert G. Locke Howard S. O. Nichols Alfred Pierce Christopher S. Ryan Robert L. Ryder George F. Smith Lester E. Smith Lewis C. Sturtevant George S. Teague Printing and Invitations Alonzo E.. Locke, Chairman Edwin A. Bayley George H. Childs Elwyn G. Preston Jay O. Richards Banquet James F. Russell, Chairman George H. Childs J. Chester Hutchinson Entertainment Visiting Militia George F. Reed, Chairman Alfred Pierce Music Edward W. Taylor, Chairman Clarence E. Briggs Charles H. Bugbee Herbert G. Locke Edward P. Merriam Henry T. Prario Arthur F. Tucker Illumination Frank D. Peirce J. Willard Hayden, Jr. Charles H. Miles Albert B. Tenney William S. Scamman Decorating George H. Childs, Chairman William H. Burke Henry R. Comley William Hunt Fred G. Jones Eugene G. Kraetzer Edward H. Mara Timothy H. O'Connor Clifford W. Pierce William L. Smith Alfred E. Robinson George W. Spaulding Fred J. Spencer William A. Staples James J. Walsh Athletic Sports William E. Mulliken, Chairman Fred C. Ball Albert L Carson Phillip Clark Frank P. Cutter John G. Fitzgerald J. Chester Hutchinson Rev. Samuel Knowles Clayton G. Locke Edward H. Mara Robert Merriam David F. Murphy Henry T. Prario Richard G. Preston Rev. Henry J. Ryan Richard Sherburne Fred J. Spencer John J. Ventura FOREWORD Lexington was incorporated on the twentieth of March, 17 12, Old Style (31st March 171 3 New Style), previous to which date it had been, from its first settle- ment, a part of Cambridge. The better to enjoy the anniversary exercises out of doors when the landscape and the weather are most beautiful in our town, the celebration was assigned to June instead of the actual date of incorporation. The weather during the three days, June eighth, ninth and tenth, was all that could be desired and the highways, byways and private grounds presented a most attractive appearance. Public and private buildings, particularly along the main avenues of travel, were attractively and lavishly decorated with colored buntings, flags and emblems. The illumination of the Common by colored electric lights and the effect of these lights upon the foliage and the Minute-Man gave to this sanctified spot the appearance of a beautiful fairy-land by night. Two thou- sand colored incandescent lamps bordered the Green, formed festoons upon the flag staff and illuminated the spire of the First Parish Church. The word "Wel- come," made of incandescent lights in large letters approximately two feet in height, was suspended over Massachusetts Avenue at the junction of Woburn Street, the same again at Parker Street and at the junction of Waltham and Middle Streets. The illumination was admired and enjoyed by the residents of Lexington generally and by thousands of the most [ 3 ] orderly people from beyond our borders until all avail- able space about the Common and adjacent streets was crowded to the limit by automobiles and teams. Quite a part of this beautiful display was due to the extraordinary resources of the committee in charge. One of the most unique and ideal features of the entire celebration and ever-to-be-remembered by all who heard and witnessed it was the early morning singing on Tuesday by a double male quartette and, more particularly, the singing by the school children on the Common. The principal spectacular event was the military parade and dress parade on Tuesday, reviewed by the Governor and distinguished guests. Three hundred and thirty-eight men in Colonial uniforms, represent- ing nine different organizations of New England, participated. It was appropriate to the town's honor- able history and very graciously did these men per- form their parts, the Lexington Minute-Men acting as hosts. Much praise is due the Lexington Minute- Men and their officers for this successful feature of the celebration. The literary exercises in the town hall on Sunday afternoon were dignified, timely and highly creditable, and are preserved herewith in print for our welfare and the interest of future generations. The pastors of all the churches in town were re- quested to have commemorative services in their re- spective churches on Sunday morning, June the eighth, and from this beginning to the close of the celebra- tion on Tuesday night, June the tenth, the many and varied features were appropriate, enjoyable and eminently satisfactory. F. S. P. [ 4 ] ORDER OF EXERCISES Sunday, June 8th, 4 p. m., Historical Exer- cises in the Town Hall 1. Singing by lOO children of Lexington Public Schools. 2. Introductory Address — Mr. Alonzo E. Locke, President of the Lexington Historical Society. 3. Historical Address — Mr. James Phinney Mun- ROE. 4. Singing by School Children. 5. Oration — Reverend Edward Cummings. 6. Singing by School Children. 7. Poem — Mr. Percy MacKaye. 8. Singing — ** America" by audience. The singing by the school children will be under the direction of Miss Mary E. Berry, Supervisor of Music. Monday, June 9th — Old Home Day 6 A. M. Salute from Granny Hill. Ringing of Bells. This salute will be signal for starting the Town Crier — Mr. Herbert G. Locke, accompanied by young ladies in Colonial costumes, over Paul Re- vere route, who will announce program of celebra- tion. [ 5 ] 9 A. M. On Parker Street Athletic Field and contin- uing throughout the morning and afternoon, Ath- letic Contests and Sports, with Base Ball game in the afternoon. EVENTS. One mile run, Half mile run, 440 yards run, 220 yards run, 100 yard dash, 40 yard dash. Shot put, Pole vault. Running broad jump. Running high jump, Relay Race. (4 contestants each team.) Divided into senior, intermediate and junior classes. Medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Entries closed May 31st. Miscellaneous sports open to all. Entries received June 9th. 8 P. M. Band Concert on Common by Waltham Watch Company Band. Tuesday, June 10th — Governor's Day 6 A. M. Salute from Granny Hill. Ringing of Bells. This salute will be signal for starting Town Crier, accompanied by Double Male Quartette, over Paul Revere route. Quartette will sing at or near Mass. Avenue and Pleasant Street; Village Hall; Munroe Tavern; High School; Town Hall; Han- cock School; Mass. Avenue and Parker Street; Mass. Avenue opposite Mr. A. J. Moody's; Han- cock-Clarke House. 7 A. M. Children of Public Schools will meet on Battle Green and join with Quartette in singing patriotic songs. 10.30 A. M. Military Parade. Edwin C. Stevens, Chief Marshal f 6 1 Aids: Capt. C. A. Ranlett, Chief of Staff Capt. Julian I. Chamberlain John H. Willard Howard S. O. Nichols Herbert W. Reed James F. McCarthy Robert L. Ryder William A. Muller Edward L. Child Horatio A. Phinney Charles C. Doe Starting from East Lexington Railroad Station, will proceed over Massachusetts Avenue to Hastings Park. Governor Eugene N. Foss and Staff, Lieut.-Gov. David I. Walsh and invited guests, escorted by Lexington Minute-Men, with Waltham Watch Company Band. Second Company Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven, Conn., with Band. Worcester Continentals of Worcester, Mass., with Drum Corps. Varnum Continentals of East Greenwich, R. L, with Drum Corps. Detail from Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, Amoskeag Veterans, Manchester, N. H., British Military and Naval Veterans' Association, National Lancers, Boston Fusilier Veterans. Lexington School Color Guard, Lexington Drum Corps. George G. Meade Post 119, G. A. R. Col. John W. Hudson Camp 105, Sons of Veterans. Lexington Fire Department with Apparatus. 11.30 A.M. Review of Parade by Governor and Invited Guests from stand in front of Old Monu- ment on Battle Green. I P. M. Public Reception to Governor and other guests, in Cary Hall. [ 7 ] I.30 P. M. Banquet in Town Hall. Edwin A. Bayley, Esq., will preside. Addresses by Lieutenant-Governor David I. Walsh, Honorable Edward G. Frothingham, of the Governor's Council, Congressman Frederick S. Deitrick, Honorable Samuel J. Elder, Senator Charles F. McCarthy, Mayor J. Edward Barry, of Cambridge, Reverend Charles Francis Carter, Professor David Saville Muzzey, Reverend Charles J. Staples and Dr. Edward W. Emerson. Gallery open to the public. 1.30 P. M. Banquet to participating military organ- izations in a tent on Hancock School Lawn, Cap- tain George F. Reed, Adjutant of the Lexington Minute-Men, presiding. (Three hundred thirty- eight men in Colonial uniforms were present.) 4 P. M. Dress Parade on Battle Green of Companies in Colonial Uniforms. Address on Battle Green by Lieut.-Gov. David L Walsh. 8 P. M. Band Concert on Common by Waltham Watch Company Band. Address of James P. Munroe at the Celebra- tion of the 200th Anniversary of the Incorporation of Lexington, June 8, 1913 Historians, now careful dissectors of the body poli- tic, were once mere brilliant painters of its outward show. Historical writers of the last century dealt only with wars and kings, with triumphs and catastrophes, heedless of the great body of the people through whom civilization really grows. Such a king reigned and died, such wars he waged, such alliances he made, — that was the substance of a chronicle as brilliant as it was superficial. Births of everyday reformers, deaths of commonplace martyrs, wars of classes and of trade, holy alliances of virtue and suffering, devil's alliances of greed and hatred, — these, the real events of his- tory, had no place in this gazette of royalty. The progress of nations was, for those old-time chroniclers, a kind of lordly game in which none but the honor cards had value. That this surface-life of the court and battle-field was founded upon a steadily advanc- ing under-life of the people, that these kingly hap- penings were but the effects of profounder social and industrial causes, are facts of quite recent recognition. It is true that in its nearly three hundred years of history, what is now the United States of America has had two great wars, — • wars that in their results were among the most momentous in all history; but those conflicts were merely the outcropping, so to speak, of vaster and deeper forces, to which war was but in- [ 9 ] cidental. For the significant history of America has been one not of kings, but of families; not of courts, but of communities; not of bloody conquests of ene- mies, but of a splendid mastery of nature and of self. It was mainly for the sake of their wives and chil- dren that the Pilgrims adventured to the inhospi- table shores of Massachusetts; it was the desire to establish a community life ordered as they believed it should be that brought the Puritans to Salem and to Boston; it was not single rovers, it was settlers with their families who pushed their brave way to Ohio, to the Mississippi, and across prairie and mountain to the far North- West. Social stability, industry, faith, love of freedom, — these were the corner-stones of every lasting struc- ture which our forefathers upreared. The greedy Spaniard, murderously seeking treasure, the thrifty Frenchman, exploiting the fur-trade, the roystering Gentlemen Adventurers, imagining the sand-heaps of Virginia to be fields of gold, either had no families or had cut themselves adrift to court fortune in the unknown West. But on the "Mayflower," household goods and the distaff filled the spaces which, in the ships of earlier voyagers, had been given to weapons and munitions of war. The Plymouth Company came for peace, for quietude, for escape from a tyrannical government. With them their womenkind were first, for upon their wives and daughters the weight of per- secution fell most heavily. And most of those who followed the Pilgrims, whether to New England, to Virginia, or to New Amsterdam, had in view that per- manent settlement which means the bringing up of a family and the establishing of a stable, sober and industrious community. These conditions of true colonization were especially conspicuous, however, in Massachusetts Bay, the settlers wherein, mindful of the supreme importance of right training in youth, f lo 1 opened a Latin School five years after they landed, founded Harvard College only three years later, and enacted a general school-law (the first in the world) in 1647. Of that preeminently staid and enlightened com- munity of which Harvard College was the early-es-- tablished centre, Lexington was, so to speak, the third child, the earlier offspring, set apart from the original Cambridge of 1644, having been Billerica far to the north, and Newton to the west and south. With the exception of that one "Glorious morning," when seventy plain farmers stood and died like heroes, the outward history of Lexington has been quiet, un- eventful, even humdrum. To attempt to make of it a dramatic narrative would be absurd. To cite it, how- ever, as a superlative example of forces which made America great in the past and which should make her greater in the future, is perhaps worth while. Six generations have passed since March 31, 1713 (N.S.), when the "Inhabitants or farmers dwelling on a certain Tract of Out Lands within the Township of Cambridge in the County of Middlesex liuing remote from the Body of the Town towards Concord. . . . being now increased . . . obtained Consent of the Town & made Application ... to be made a Separate & distinct Town, upon such Terms as they & the Town of Cambridge have agreed upon"; and since the General Court of Massachusetts "ORDERED that the aforesaid Tract of Land known by the Name of the Northern Precinct in Cambridge be henceforth made a separate & distinct Town by the Name of LEXINGTON ... & that the Inhabitants of the said Town of Lexington be entitled to Have, Use, Exercise & Enjoy all such Immunities Powers & Privi- leges as other Towns of this Province have & do by Law Use Exercise and Enjoy." In each of these six generations the world has made [ II ] always longer strides towards that perfect civilization to which mankind aspires. Therefore the two cen- turies of Lexington's corporate life have been the most fruitful in all human history. Since genuine democracy did not begin until 1688, practically the whole development of mankind out of feudalism is measured by the comparatively short space since Lexington was born. In the first of those six generations was established the newspaper, perhaps the most far-reaching of the forces of enlightenment; in the second the people of America issued successful from the first great con- flict between privilege and justice; in the third, the face of Europe and the whole current of her affairs were changed by the French Revolution and Napoleon's astonishing career; the fourth generation witnessed first the Reform Bill and then the epoch-making up- heavals of 1848; in the fifth the people of the United States were forever welded by a civil conflict there- tofore unheard of in its magnitude; while in the sixth there has been such industrial and social transforma- tion as has filled the world of 191 3 with problems un- known and inconceivable in 1881. In these six wonderful periods of democratic ad- vance, this Town played a conspicuous part only in the second, but what she did in that second genera- tion not only profoundly affected the four generations succeeding, but will influence world history to the very end of time. In the every-day life of Lexington, more- over, have been conspicuously exhibited those deter- mining forces which created New England, the Mid- dle West, and the great North- West, — the forces of family integrity, community responsibility, and sober striving towards ever higher standards and ideals. In 1713, when the Order of the General Court was passed, there were within the territory of Lexington less than five hundred persons. Partly because the Town [ 12 ] had been settled by the overflowing of surrounding communities, partly because the area now centering in the Common had been held for many years in the so-called Pelham grant, a larger proportion of those inhabitants lived on the outskirts than in the neigh- borhood of the single meeting-house. Therefore, dur- ing more than a half-century after its first settlement, the people of Cambridge Farms were compelled to travel from five to ten miles to the meeting-house at Cambridge, and for fully another fifty years after Cambridge had permitted the erection of a meeting- house at the Farms, most of the worshipers were still obliged to journey from one to three miles every Sabbath to attend the services. Yet, because of the strict Puritanism of the day, which frowned upon or actually punished absence from the Sunday meeting, the townspeople, — thus forced to spend at least one day in seven in each other's company — had developed a solidarity and community feeling otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to bring about. For, however scattered the population, everything in those Puritan days must focus in the village meet- ing-house. Attendance upon Divine service was made urgent both by public opinion and by fear of fu- ture punishment. Moreover, the town-meetings — ■ held, down to 1846, within the sacred building — gave almost as much time to such parish questions as the choice of a minister, his compensation, and his ortho- doxy, as to the secular problems of roads and school- houses. Within the meeting-house every child whose parents hoped for its salvation must be baptized, every older citizen who cared for public opinion must have a regular sitting, every sinner might at any mo- ment be summoned for public confession and judg- ment. While many could not, and many did not, become legal members of the church body, only those admitted to church fellowship enjoyed full measure of [ 13 ] community rights; and ambition for social standing could get its accepted seal only from the church or- ganization, which, by its seating in the meeting-house, fixed for five- or ten-year periods the exact degree of dignity of every family. Furthermore, many personal disputes in the com- munity were settled by the minister, under whose charge also, direct or indirect, was the schooling of the children, and in whose study those who sought a higher education prepared, as a rule, for Harvard or Yale College. Those institutions themselves existed at that time almost solely for the training of the ministry; and in many other ways there was continually em- phasized to all the people of a New England commun- ity the supremacy not only in spiritual, but also in temporal matters, of the Puritan Church. That church, however, was not autocratic; it was Congregational, ruled in temporal affairs by the par- ish (and every early New England town was also a parish or several parishes), and in spiritual matters by those admitted to church fellowship. Each New England town was, therefore, a religious democracy, which, inspired by Biblical example, put conspicuous emphasis upon family life, parental control and com- munity responsibility. Every influence in a Massa- chusetts town during the eighteenth, and far into the nineteenth, century tended to magnify the responsi- bility of the male head of a family to rear his children in godliness and industry, to bring them early into communion with the orthodox faith, and to inspire them with a feeling of personal obligation towards the place in which they lived. Second only to the meeting-house as an educator in family and community responsibility, was the town-meeting, which, because it dealt with church affairs, and in most instances was held in the meeting- house, partook not a little of the sacredness of the [ 14 ] actual Sabbath service. The New England town- meeting was, and is, the most democratic parliament in the world. The moderator has, within certain rigid limits, autocratic powers; but so long as those bounds are not crossed, the humblest voter is equal, in free- dom of debate and liberty of challenge, as well as in the actual count of votes, to the richest or most highly- educated. As soon as a youth is twenty-one he may begin to practise every right, responsibility and duty of citizenship; and long before that day, the average village-bred boy is getting an admirable education in social responsibility by listening to the often tedious, often irrelevant, but always thoroughly democratic, town-meeting debates. The very legislative Order which created Lexing- ton commanded the constable to call a town-meeting; and within six days the ''Inhabitants duly qualified for Votes" had not only elected numerous town offi- cers, but their selectmen had agreed that they would "build a Pound, . . . erect a Payer of Stocks, and Pro- vide the Town with Waights and measurs." Two weeks later, the citizens, duly assembled, granted "416 Pounds mony to the Comitte for Building of the meeting-house." That second meeting-house (the first having been built in 1692) stood, as did its successor (erected in 1794 and burned in 1846) on the easterly end of the Common. The Common itself had been purchased only two years before the Town's incorporation from "Nibour" Muzzy; so that almost contemporaneously with the erection of Lexington were established the forum for inciting and the theatre for enacting the first battle of the Revolutionary War. In June of the year following incorporation, the Selectmen "agred that John Muzzy should have thare aprobation to Kep a publique House of Entertaine- ment: and his father did Ingage before the selectmen [ 15 ] to a Comadate his son John with stabble roome haye and Pastuering: so fare as he stood In nead: for the Suport of Strangers." Eleven years earlier, John Muzzy 's father, Benja- min, had established the first tavern in Cambridge Farms, on the edge of what he later sold for a Com- mon and close to the meeting-house. If that old Muz- zy, or Buckman, Tavern, which the citizens have so generously and wisely acquired, could speak, what a story it could tell: of the strangers coming from New Hampshire and . Vermont for entertainment — as it was called — on their last night before reaching Bos- ton; of the detailed town gossip exchanged there over flip and cider betwixt Sabbath services ; of the sermons carried across in drowsy summer days from the open windows of the meeting-house, sermons that, as Colo- nial affairs became more critical, grew more and more to resemble the calls to battle of the old Hebrew prophets; of the long debates in town-meeting over the schools, the roads, the acts of the Great and Gen- eral Court and the unwarranted usurpations of his Majesty's government; and, finally, of that cool night in April when the alarm of Revere having called the Minute-Men together at two in the morning, the "greater part of them" being dismissed temporarily, "went to Buckman's Tavern," and then, at half- past four, precipitately rushed out again to fall in line, — seventy farmers opposing eight hundred British troops. The old house itself actually took part in the affray, for from its back door, and again from its front door, at least one man aimed at the British, and drew upon the building a return fire, the marks of whiph remain to-day. The courageous decision not only to face an over- whelming foe, but also to take the imminent risk of being hanged, was no sudden impulse on the part of those plain citizens of Lexington. They were not hot- f i6 1 headed youth, bred to idleness and eager for a quarrel; they were not mercenaries with whom fighting is a trade; they were not swashbucklers glad to seize any excuse for rioting and bloodshed. They were sober and thinking citizens, for the most part heads of families. Their wives and children were within sound of their muskets; their homes, their lands, their church, — all that they held dear — were witnesses to their boldness in defying the power of Great Britain, a power that could, if the issue of the conflict went against them, wipe out their township, beggar their families and gibbet them as rebels to their King. It is true that most of them were accustomed to the bearing of arms. Those were still pioneer days when the use of the musket was a necessary part of educa- tion; and many of the Minute-Men had been honor- able actors in the long war against the French and Indians. But they were not soldiers in the usual mean- ing; they were citizen-defenders, driven to the des- perate stand they took by a long series of tyrannies, the continuance of which, they foresaw, would be worse than even forfeiture and hanging. Every man of them realized what he was doing ; knew why he did it; and stood ready to accept the consequences. This fact, and also the fact that, in the proportion of those killed and wounded to the total force engaged, this was one of the bloodiest of battles, make the fight on Lexington Green a great event in human history. So far as concerns Massachusetts as a whole, the resistance at Lexington may be said to date from 1646, when the Colony made its first formal protest against the pretensions of the English Parliament; but so far as concerns Lexington itself, the Battle may be declared to have begun with the ordination, in 1698, of the Reverend John Hancock, grandfather of him whose bold signature stands first upon the Declar- ation. The Reverend John Hancock ministered to [ 17 ] the people of Lexington for fifty-five years, a real shepherd to his sheep, one who made them feel in the highest degree their responsibilities to their families and to the community in which they lived. Dying in 1752, "Bishop" Hancock, as he was sometimes called, was succeeded by his grandson-in-law, the Reverend Jonas Clarke, an unfailing fount of inspiration to those who defended human rights at Lexington. From his or- dination in 1755, Parson Clarke, both in the pulpit and on the floor of the town-meeting, kept before his people the supreme sacredness of liberty, the right of resistance to oppression, and the solemn duty of transmitting to posterity the privileges of freemen that the fathers won. The instructions given to the successive represen- tatives to the General Court, and to other assemblages, by Lexington town-meetings, beginning as early as 1765, and extending practically through the Revolu- tionary War, were all written by Jonas Clarke, and are models of trenchant English and of cogent reason- ing. In remonstrating against the Stamp Act, Par- son Clarke said, through the medium of the town- meeting: — ■ "... when we Consider the invaluable Rights and Liberties we now possess, the Firmness and Reso- lution of our Fathers, for the Support and Preservation of them for us, and how Much we owe to our Selves and to Posterity, we Cannot but look upon it as an unpardonable Neglect, any longer to delay expressing how deeply we are Concerned at Some Measures adopted by the late Ministry." (and) . . . "We earn- estly recommend to You (our representatives) the most calm, decent and dispassionate Measures, for an open. Explicit and resolute assertion and vindi- cation of our Charter Rights and Liberties; and that the Same be so entered upon Record, that the World may see, and future Generations Know, that the [ 18 1 present both knew and valued the Rights they en- joyed, and did not tamely resign them for Chains and Slavery." Subsequent instructions, remonstrances and re- solves all breathe the same spirit of lofty patriotism; and in due time it was resolved, unanimously, **That if any Head of a Family in this Town, or any Person shall from this time forward; and untill the Duty be taken off; purchase any Tea, or Use, or consume any Tea in their Famelies, such person shall be looked upon as an Enemy to this Town, and to this Country, and shall by this Town be treated with Neglect and Contempt." The work of Parson Clarke was not limited, how- ever, to these occasional documents. Almost every Sunday, in the ten years preceding the opening of the Revolution, he is said to have urged from the pulpit, in such indirect manner as was consistent with due reverence, the fundamental truths for which he be- lieved the New England Church, as well as the New England Town-Meeting, should unalterably stand. Consequently, the very walls of the meeting-house became saturated with the spirit of resistance to op- pression ; and the humble farmer folk who listened Sun- day after Sunday to their parson's preaching must have come to regard it as beyond question that they should go to any lengths necessary to preserve for their children the heritage of freedom which they and their ancestors had, by their labor and self-sacrifice, so hardly won. Indeed, as early as December, 1773, in their remonstrance against the taxation of tea, the inhabitants of Lexington declared: "We are ready and resolved to concur with" . . . ("our brethren in Boston, and other Towns") "in every rational Meas- ure, that may be Necessary for the Preservation or Recovery of our Rights and Liberties- as Englishmen and Christians; and we trust in GOD That should [ 19 ] the State of Our Affairs require it, We shall be ready to Sacrifice our Estates, and every thing dear in Life, Yea and Life itself, in support of the common Caused' Thus was plainly foreshadowed the beginning of re- volt, the only question being that of time and place. Consequently, when it was ordained that the time for armed resistance should be in the spring of 1775, and that the place should be along the march of the Brit- ish troops from Boston to destroy the military stores at Concord, the little band of Lexington Minute-Men took it as a matter of course that they should inter- pose their seventy bodies across the pathway of eight hundred troops. They could have had no thought or hope of stopping that expedition ; they had no fanatic dream of martyrdom ; — they simply were carrying out at the foreordained moment the instructions which they had received, Sunday after Sunday, and in town- meeting after town-meeting, from the voice and pen of their great spiritual leader. Not even the soul of Jonas Clarke could lead, how- ever, unless there were other great souls ready to be led. The Minute-Men of Lexington were not of so- called noble or even gentle blood, the rules of chivalry were unknown to them, they were unread in the tales of heroes, whether classic or mediaeval. But they and their forebears for nearly two centuries had loved freedom in the abstract, and had known it in the con- crete. They had ruled themselves in church and in town-meeting; and they knew that the acts of Eng- land, unless resisted, must put an end to that self- government. To stop the British troops was impos- sible ; but to show to the British government that they, the fathers of the hamlet of Lexington, were indeed "ready," as they had many months before declared, "to Sacrifice, Yea, Life itself in support of the com- mon Cause," was possible. Two volleys were enough to disperse them; but in thus nonchalantly ending [ 20 1 seven lives, Smith and Pitcairn signed the death- warrant of the British army in America, severed from England a territory of enormous area and incalcu- lable value, broke forever the power of the English throne, and, indirectly, sowed the dragon's teeth from which were to spring the devastating legions of Napo- leon. • Well may we of Lexington, of Massachusetts, and of all America, preserve this acre of greensward, bought from "Nibour" Muzzy for £l6, but made priceless by the blood of those seven Minute-Men. Jonas Parker, father of ten children, the youngest still in her teens, vowed he would never run, and fell on the spot where he first stood, bayoneted in the very act of reloading. Robert Munroe, a standard bearer at Louisburg, a man advanced in years, died as Ensign, holding again, at least metaphorically, the flag at Lexington. Samuel Hadley, with three small children at home; and John Brown, a youth of twenty-four, were slain after they had obeyed Pit- cairn's order and had left the field. John Muzzy, in the prime of life, "was found dead," as John Munroe testified, "near the place where our line was formed"; Caleb Harrington, another youth of twenty-four, was shot while leaving the meeting-house where, before the fight, he and others had gone to remove, if possible, a quantity of powder; and Jonathan Harrington, fighting literally before his own fireside, his wife and child watching him from the window, crawled, mor- tally bleeding, to his doorstep and died at his wife's feet. These men, — some veterans, some scarcely more than lads, some with the responsibilities of households, others with the burdens and rewards of life still ahead of them — fought and died^ not for money or glory or the love of battle. They fought in defence of the Town-Meeting, that instrument which, in the hands [ 21 ] of freemen, is the basis of all efficient government; they fought in defence of the family, that indispen- sable foundation of real civilization; they fought in defence of the Church, which, whether Catholic or Protestant, whether Episcopal or Congregational, whether your faith or my faith or the faith of those who worship in divers and, to us, strange ways, is the eternal flame that gives to government, to family, and to civilization itself, their essential and enduring worth. LEXINGTON Stanzas by Percy MacKaye {Read by Rev. John M. Wilson) "Where is the little town of Lexington? Oh, I have lost my way!" — But all the brawling people hurried on : Why should they stay To watch a tattered boy, with wistful face. Dazed by the roaring strangeness of the place? — In wondering scorn Turning, he tapped the powder from his powder-horn. "Where is my blood-bright hearth of Lexington?" — Strangely the kindling cry Startled the crowded street; yet every one Still scrambled by Into the shops and markets; till at last Went by a pensive scholar. As he passed. Sudden, to whet Of steel, he heard a flint-lock flash : their faces met. "What like, then, is your little Lexington?" "Oh, sir, it is my home. Which I have lost." — The scholar's sharp eyes shone. "Come with me! Come, And I will show you, old and hallowed, all Its maps and marks and shafts memorial." — Out of the roar They went, into green silence where old elm trees soar. [ 23 ] "Here is your little town of Lexington: Let fall your eyes And read the old inscription on this stone: * Beneath this lies The first who fell in our dear country's fight For revolution and the freeman's right.' " The boy's eyes fell, But shining swiftly rose: "Yes, I remember well! "Yet there lies not my lost home Lexington: For none who fall At Lexington is buried under stone ; And eyes of all Who fight at Lexington look up at God Not down upon His servants under sod Whose souls are sped; They lie who say in Lexington free men are dead." "My son, I said not so of Lexington. 'There lie the bones,' I said, 'of great men, and their souls are gone.' God sends but once His lightning-flash to strike the sacred spot. Our great sires are departed." — "They are not! I am alive. / fought at Lexington ; you see, I still survive ! "And still I live to fight at Lexington. I am come far From Russian steppes and Balkan valleys, wan With ghostly war. Where still the holy watchword in the fight Was Revolution and the freeman' s right! — Now I am come Back with that battle-cry to help my own dear home. [ 24 ] "Here, here it lies — my lost home Lexington! Not there in dust, But here in the great highway of the sun, Where still the lust Of arrogant power flaunts its regiments, And lurking hosts of tyranny pitch their tents. And still the yoke Of heavy-laden labor weighs on simple folk. "Our country cries for living Lexington! From mine and slum And hearths where man's rebellion still burns on. Rolls the deep drum : Ah, not to elegize but emulate Is homage worthy of the heroic great. Whose memoried spot Serves but to quicken fire from ashes long forgot. "Here, then, O little town of Lexington, Burning anew Our muskets for the battle long begun For freedom ! — You, O you, my comrades, called from all world-clans, Here, by the deeds of dear Americans That cannot die. Let Lexington be still our revolution-cry!" Oration delivered at the Two Hundredth Anniversary Exercises of Lexington, Sunday June 8, 1913, by Rev. Edward Cummings of Cambridge Lexington is two hundred years young, just passing her second century milestone. As you have already been told, these exercises this afternoon are only the prelude to the real birthday festivities which are in store for you. I suppose they are called exercises, be- cause they give you a chance to exercise your patience. They are particularly appropriate because they teach people, young and old, the kind of prolonged Sunday discipline that your ancestors used frequently to in- flict upon themselves. It is your privilege, therefore, on this occasion, to have the ample birthday cake brought in by Mr. Locke, bright with its two hundred candles, — one for each of the shining years that have so swiftly passed away, and one more candle for Lexington to "grow upon." For fortunately, or unfortunately, Lexington has not got her growth. How we wish sometimes that we could keep her just as she is! Just as the world has known her and loved her so long; with something of the quaint and quiet beauty of a rural priestess tending the fires of patriotism on the altar of the sylvan temple that marks the spot where the spirit of liberty sprang fully armed from the blood of the martyr heroes. But since Lexington must grow, God grant she may not grow too fast for her own good. God grant [ 26 1 she may never outgrow the sacred memories and hal- lowed traditions of the past. God grant that she may always keep the fires burning brightly on the altar of liberty, that she may remain forever the mecca of the patriot pilgrim, the inspirer of the lovers of liberty all round the world. First of all, then, after thanking you for the distin- guished honor you have conferred upon me, it is my proud and happy privilege as a citizen of Cambridge to bring you the greetings of your nearest kin. For Cambridge likes to remind the world that the maiden name of Lexington was Cambridge Farms, and that she took her first degree in independence as a pre- cinct in the family circle of her Cambridge alma mater. History records, as your historian has just observed, the reluctance with which the young mother granted the full degree of independence which the eager daugh- ter sought in order that she might erect a family altar of her own. But who can blame the youthful mother for hesitating to let such a daughter go? How could any but a prophet know that when she took the name of "Lexington" she was wedding with eternal fame and destined to make that name the synonym for courage and patriotism? But now her alma mater hails Lexington with joy and pride as one of her oldest living graduates, as the most distinguished of all the sons and daughters whose glory has added lustre to the alma mater's name. But Cambridge does not speak for herself alone. Every sister township in the family circle of this ancient commonwealth is present here in spirit, wish- ing you many happy returns of the day ! If your eyes are open you can see the gratitude and love that shines from their faces. If your ears are unstopped you can hear the chorus of gratitude and praise and thanks- giving for the past, and good wishes and blessings for the future. Yes, if your eyes are opened you can see [ 27 ] beyond that circle of the family commonwealth the larger circle of the national family of these United and Re-united States, a glorious sisterhood, standing side by side, with outstretched hands full of birthday garlands, while the Nation, "beautiful our country," wreathes from the choicest blossoms of half a hun- dred grateful States a chaplet which she lays upon the brows of Lexington to-day with prayers of thanksgiv- ing for the past and of blessing for the future. Yes, if your eyes are opened you can see, beyond the mighty circle of the national family, that still greater half-formed circle of the Family of Nations. You can see the great cloud of witnesses, lovers of liberty and of freedom out of every nation and kin- dred and tongue, who to-day rise up to call you blessed, and join with us in wishing you Godspeed. But we must not deceive ourselves by thinking that these exercises, or even the civic and military parades and other functions which are to follow, are the real celebration of this two-hundredth anniver- sary. The real celebration has already taken place. Devoted sons and daughters of Lexington have al- ready made this anniversary memorable by generous gifts, by loving service, by many substantial tokens of affection and loyalty, which will make their beloved town happier, better, and more beautiful to the end of time. If you seek these monuments, go out and look around you. Thanks to good fortune, thanks to the foresight and efficiency of your remarkable Histori- cal Society, thanks to public and private generosity, and to all combined, you have succeeded in preserv- ing historic buildings which are a priceless legacy to the future, as they have been a priceless heritage to you from the past. This acquisition of land and build- ings is a monument which will do more than anything else could do to preserve the atmosphere of this his- f 28 1 toric town and make it forever the mecca of those devotees who come from distant states and foreign lands to pay their vows at this shrine, and drink the healing waters that shall ever flow from this foun- tain of liberty. Again, the revision of Hudson's famous History of Lexington is a great literary monument, which will mark this second milestone far more prominently than any monument of stone or bronze could do. In some respects the second volume of that remarkable history, which contains your town genealogy, is the most characteristic and the most prophetic part of this great literary monument; characteristic, because the splendid democracy of that genealogical record, which includes every person well identified with Lex- ington, by birth or residence or relationship, shows that the democratic spirit of the fathers of 171 3 still survives to bind the children together in one family after the lapse of two hundred years; prophetic, be- cause it is a witness to the reality and vigor of that family spirit upon which the future of your town de- pends, — upon which the future of all democracy depends! For the family spirit is the very life of de- mocracy. This monumental genealogy of Lexington, there- fore, reminds all whose name is written in it that they not only have a past to be proud of, but a future to work for; that they are not only sons and daughters and joint heirs of a glorious heritage, but that they are co-partners in a great cooperative family enter- prise ; that they all belong to the great business house of the "Sons and Daughters of Lexington, Unlimited," whose inspiring work it is to make the future worthy of the past, to see to it that their descendants have as much reason to be thankful to their forefathers as you have for being thankful to yours. It is my simple and congenial task to turn the tele- [ 29 ] scope of history around, and looking through it to read the future by the light of the past, and tell you the nature of this work you have to do. In some re- spects the unexplored future is a much safer place for an imaginative person, like an orator or a poet, than the past. For when Paul Revere gallops gal- lantly into Concord on Longfellow's Pegasus, I ob- serve that your historian is highly scandalized, and calls attention to the fact that the real horseman was arrested and detained by the King's officers several miles before he reached the town. But in describing the future there are no inconvenient historical socie- ties to correct your statements, point out errors, show that dates are wrong, or insist that Pegasus shall travel the bridle path of ordinary horseflesh. Moreover, there is another reason for dealing with the future, and that is you are in greater need of in- formation about it. You already know about the past. They have been telling you about your past for generations. I dare say your Historical Society could fill a whole library with orations, disquisitions and dissertations on your past. And it would n't be much of a circulating library either. Now in these later years the Commonwealth itself officially opens the retrospective oratory. Your history the world knows by heart. The names of your heroes are household words. The school children of fifty sovereign states are familiar with the story of your town and the pic- tures of your famous houses. The piety, the patriot- ism, the courage of your ancestors, are proverbial. The virtues of your citizens are known to all. "Old New England at her best," is the universal verdict passed on Lexington. What could be better than old New England at her best? But the only justification for such a great, heroic past is a worthy future. There is no use having "Min- ute Men" for ancestors if you are going to have [ 30 ] minute men for descendants. The only worthy de- scendants of "Minute Men" are men of the hour! You have no right to dwell on the historic past unless at the sarrie time you live in the present for the future. History studying which does not lead to history mak- ing is a vice. The kind of history study that is content with looking back is an opiate, a drug, which pro- duces in its victims a morbid complacency and con- tent, which gradually develop into sleeping sickness, from which the patient seldom, if ever, can be waked. If, now, we turn our historical telescope toward the future, what do we foresee? Sad to relate, we see that history is about to repeat itself. Another battle of Lexington is impending; another, larger and more formidable army is marching on your town. Already this new enemy has swarmed out of Boston and over the neighboring towns. Slowly but surely it is ad- vancing along the highways and spreading over the fields in your direction. It is not a red-coat army of regulars marching on foot. The new enemy comes by railroads and street cars, subways and elevated, autos and flying machines. You can see the dust and smoke of the advancing host. You can hear the blare of their whistles and their horns by day and see the glare of their headlights in the night. Already you can hear the rumble of their artillery, the booming — not of cannon, but of real estate. The advance guard of prosperity is upon you. The rising tide of population threatens to engulf you, — a living human tide that brings with it the dread Armada of three-deckers. You must fight against these Goths and Vandals and Philistines of the great army of commercial prosperity as your fathers fought against the invaders in revolutionary days. They spare nothing. Their block houses will convert your fields and orchards into teeming barracks. Their skyscrapers will convert your quiet homes into [ 31 ] cliff dwellings, and your village streets into roaring canons. Your enemies are some of them of your own house. There will arise among you local Augustuses who will want to boast that they found Lexington of wood and left it of brick and mortar and concrete. Advance agents of posterity will run up their flags with the seductive motto, "A larger, lustier and livelier Lex- ington." You must summon the men of the hour if you would save your town. Fortunately, history is repeating itself in more ways than one. Just as the invaders of revolutionary times found the Minute-Men prepared and armed, so these new invaders find the men of the hour not unprepared and not unarmed. Wise, farseeing, patriotic citizens have been preparing for this conflict, — fortifying your town against the advancing hosts, acquiring historic buildings, and occupying strategic places be- fore the invading army could acquire them and put up in place of your historic tavern a "Battle Green Plaza." These wise and patriotic citizens have been arousing the spirit of civic devotion, of reverence for the past, of service for the present; the spirit of local patriotism and national patriotism as well. Fortunately Lexington has never lacked a Munroe and a "Munroe Doctrine" of her own; and evidently your Piper has not piped in vain in his effort to arouse the citizens to meet this emergency and save the town for themselves and for their children; for the State, for the nation, for humanity. If it were not for these wise preparations your case would be well-nigh hope- less. As it is, however, you have a chance to win if you are willing to fight; if you are willing to follow your leaders as the fathers of old followed theirs. You, remember, are the forefathers and the foremothers of the coming generation. If you follow your leaders as your ancestors followed theirs, then this twentieth [ 32 ] century battle of Lexington will be a glorious vic- tory. That is the next great battle of Lexington, — the fight for physical self-preservation; a long, patient, patriotic struggle against great odds. For the days of terrible prosperity are the days that try the souls of towns as well as individuals and nations and civil- izations. To win this great victory is the first work of that great business house of "The Sons and Daugh- ters of Lexington, Unlimited" of which I spoke. If they win that victory, then they can feel that they have met their obligation to the past and fulfilled their duty to the present and the future. But my prophetic telescope reveals another and a more congenial task to which the "Sons and Daugh- ters of Lexington" must dedicate themselves with the unreserved enthusiasm of pious fervor and patri- otic zeal. Lexington is proud to call herself the birth- place of Liberty, because from the blood of martyr heroes shed on yonder green, arose the invincible spirit of liberty which spread over land and sea until it had given birth to a mighty nation and changed the course of human history. And since those days the Goddess of Liberty has been the tutelary genius of the lovers of freedom every- where in the world. But strange to say, they have worshiped blindly thus far, seeing the face of liberty through a glass darkly and not face to face. Great crimes have been committed in her name because they saw her not as she really was. Great wrongs are daily being committed in her name in our social, political and industrial organizations because we do not see her as she really is. But you, on this historic spot, have looked upon the very [^f ace of freedom. Your fathers looked on that divine, maternal face, and were ready to die for the love they bore her. You have received as a natural [ 33 ] heritage that knowledge of what liberty really is, for lack of which the rest of the world is sinning, strug- gling, fighting and literally dying. You know, as your fathers taught, that the only true liberty is family liberty; the liberty of sons and daughters united by bonds of mutual devotion and cooperation: above all, by the devotion of the strong to the weak, which makes the weak strong and the strong stronger, and the whole world better and bet- ter. The true motto which you have learned is not the old revolutionary motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," but the new evolutionary motto. The Liberty and Equality of Fraternity; fraternal liberty and equality; the liberty and equality of sons and daughters of one family. You have received that great revelation, — that knowledge which is literally more precious than rubies and more to be desired than gold, and much fine gold, because upon it rests the salvation of individuals and nations and civilizations as well as towns. It is your supreme duty and great privilege to translate that precious knowledge into live institutions. It is for you to make Lexington, not simply the fabled birthplace of liberty, but the home of liberty, her dwelling place, where she can be seen in the work, in the life, in the institutions of the people. You must embody this great family ideal, this family spirit in all your institutions. You must make your schools worthy of the home of liberty, — so that they shall offer to every boy and girl in this great social family fraternal liberty and equality; not the dead level of equal attainment or equality of possession, but equal opportunity to make the most of God — or Nature- given inequalities. You must heed the word which Plato gave the world so long ago, and see to it that the gold child, the silver child and the iron child all have opportunity to make the most of themselves, — [ 34 ] no matter whether the child is born in a family of gold or one of iron. Your teachers must realize the great, fundamental, democratic truth, that nature is no respecter of persons; and that in the humblest schoolroom and the poorest pupil, she may be minis- tering to a patriot, a hero, a savior of mankind. You must make every schoolhouse and every teacher good enough for that heroic child, good enough for your child, good enough for the best of all the children of Lexington. You must also embody that great family principle in your business. Your "business houses," your firms, your shops, your factories, must be literally business houses; not workhouses simply, but industrial fami- lies. They, too, are a part of the great democracy. You must change the spelling of your manufactories, so it shall read, not manufactories, but waw-factories. You must see to it that those at the head of these industrial households are imbued with the true family spirit of the devotion of the strong to the weak. You must realize that the most important capital with which you do your daily business is not the seen and visible capital, but the invisible, spiritual capital. You must realize that the Master was right when he told the world to seek first this invisible, spiritual wealth of the family Kingdom of God and his right- eousness, and the ''things'' we so long for would be added unto them as the by-product of righteousness. You must also have homes for your people to live in. They must not be simply houses; they must be homes. The housing proposition is a fundamental one in any community. A house which has not in it the possi- bilities of home is a pesthouse, and must not be toler- ated in this new Lexington of yours. You must show the world that Lexington has seen the rising Star of Bethlehem, the star of our new Christian civiliza- tion; and that you, too, have learned the great lesson [ 35 ] which the wise men taught, and are bringing your gifts of wisdom and of wealth to the humblest family and the humblest child. That is your great work. It is not an easy task and it is only a part of the great task which your fore- fathers undertook, and to which they dedicated themselves, their town, and their children. They were willing to sacrifice and to die for these ideals of religious and civil liberty, — of family liberty. You, too, must be ready to make sacrifices and to work and to live for these ideals. If you can do these two things — and filial piety, patriotism and self-interest are bidding you do these things — you will accomplish your great work. If you can work out your physical salvation and your industrial salvation, and in addition to that work out your spiritual salvation, you will prove yourselves worthy descendants of the Minute-Men, — men of the hour and of the ages to come. In no other way can you hope to pay your debt to the past or discharge your obligation to the future. If you can succeed in doing this, then you, too, in your turn, will have added another chapter to our sacred American history. Your fathers were Old Tes- tament men. They did not make the unhappy dis- tinction between sacred and profane, between reli- gious and secular, which we have learned to make. They came hither to establish in this wilderness God's commonwealth. The only law which they recognized as supreme was God's law. The only law they thought worth embodying in legislation was divine law. They meant to make this God's country. Your history is a part of the sacred history of America; it is written in our Books of Exodus, and Deuteronomy, and Levi- ticus, and Judges; it is written in the books of our major and minor prophets, who ministered at these altars here in the wilderness and proclaimed the mes- [ 36 ] sages of their Jehovah in no uncertain voice, and dared oppose the sovereign will of the King of Kings to the will of any earthly potentate. These patriarchs made possible our sacred Ameri- can history. Many a stirring scene in that history was written here. Some of it was written with their heart's blood. And they were right when they thought that the only supreme law was the law of the All-Father of the great human family. They were right when they thought that the only nation worth establishing was a great religious State, — not a state church, but a great church State of the family Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. And if this birthday festival means what it ought to mean to you, it is a solemn dedication of yourselves, your children, your town, to the perpetuation of these great ideals. Be true to those ideals, true to the fathers, true to yourselves, and Lexington shall forever be the home, as well as the birthplace of liberty; and here, at the inextinguishable flame of this altar, shall future ages kindle the torch of courage, devotion, patriotism and piety. Do this, and Lexington, even though it must become a city, shall become a city set upon a hill of fame which can never be hid. PRINTED AT QTije Sliberei&e ^xesi Cambridge