G&'Lt o'*t> f^ ^^y LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. PROCEEDINGS Centennial Celebration Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1875. LEXINGTON : PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN. BOSTON: LOCKWOOD, BROOKS, & CO. 1875- 5 NOTE. As we see a general disposition to make our numerous centennials con tribute to the peace and harmony of the country, it is a matter of satisfac tion to US, that we were permitted to take the lead in this good work; and we rejoice that the voice from Lexington Common in 1875, like that which was heralded from the same spot in 177S, has done something to excite a genuine patriotic feeling in all parts of the land. The foreign letters pubUshed in this volume refer to the honorable position which our country has won among the nations, during the first century of its existence. The response of Mr. Gladstone shows a rare knowledge of the principles underlying our political system, and, by its mingled wisdom and kindness, has helped to strengthen the bonds of good-will that already unite us so closely with the people of Great Britain. We have inserted several speeches which were prepared for the occasion, and which, but for the chilliness of the weather and the delays incident to so large a gathering, would have been delivered at the tables. We have also given an account of the Sunday services ; believing that the solemn sanctions of religion are highly important to enforce the duties of the citizen, and that patriotism is only one form of Christianity. As our village clergyman, in the dark days of the Revolution, gave a moral and religious tone to the movement of the patriots, it was felt that we were following a good precedent in reminding the people of the close connection between love to God and love to our country. The Historical Appendix is designed to give the general progress of the town, since the publication of the History of Lexington in 1868, and to fur nish an epoch from which to estimate her future growth. A few wood-cuts will be found at the close of the volume. Charles Hudson, Edward G. Porter. Committee of Publication, Lexington, 1S75. CONTENTS. I. ORATION 9-30 II. MORNING EXERCISES IN THE PAVILION . . . 31-44 III. AFTERNOON EXERCISES IN THE DINNER TENT . . 47-108 IV. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY . . . . 109-134 V. SERVICES ON SUNDAY THE EIGHTEENTH . . . 135-144 VL SERMON . 145-159 VIL HISTORICAL APPENDIX, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS . . 161-182 ORATION By THE Hon. Richard Henry Dana, Jun. How mysterious is that touch of Fate which gives immortality to a spot of earth, — to a name ! The vital spark falls upon it, and it flashes into immortal life. There were countless passes through the Locrian Mountains whose names have perished. The lot fell upon one of them ; and the name of Ther mopylae is as fresh after two thousand years as at the glory's height of Greece, aud, the world over is, and ever will be, among all races and in all tongues, a watchword for heroic self-devotion, an electric shock to create a soul of patriot valor under the ribs of Death. There were thick studded villages over the plains of Belgium unknown to fame, and none less known than Waterloo, whose name on the morning of the I Sth June, 1815, had not been heard beyond the sound of its village chimes. By the setting sun of that day, it was to stand forever an appeal of pride and glory to one great race, while the mere utterance of its syllables stirs to the very depths the resentment and chagrin of another, so that its place in human speech is a standing menace to the peace of Europe. There were many hamlets of New England through which British troops passed and repassed in 1775', — hamlets whose people were no less patriotic and devoted than your own ; but the lot of glory fell to Lexington. A few minutes of the dawn of a spring morning, and your name was sealed with the blood of martyrs ; it was to be cherished forever in the affectionate mem ories of the people of a, continent, to be borne on banners above the smoke of battle, inscribed upon the war-ships of a great nation, and proudly carried lO LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. into every sea, to be adopted in grateful remembrance by a score of towns in all parts of this empire ; a name which will ever cry,— " Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son. Though baffled oft is ever won." But Thermopyte and Waterloo, like many other names, owed their immor tality to strangers. The three hundred Spartans marched many weary leagues from the centre of Laconia to defend, against the myriads of Asiatic invaders, those defiles for which the natives had no thought of contending. It was the accident that the two vast war-clouds, charged full with Gallic -and British thunders, broke just there, which gave Waterloo what its own nation could never have given it. It was foreign flint and foreign steel that struck out for it the vital spark. How little have the people of Gettysburg to do with the consecration of its soil ! It is the felicity of Lexington that she was consecrated to the world's use by the blood of her own sons. The men vtrho fell on this green, under the shadow of the village church, wiUing martyrs, were men born and reared here, taught at the village school and from the viUage pulpit, freeholders of your own lands, voters in your own town-meetings, organized into the militia of your little community. When they stood in line, when they refused to surrender their arms, when they fell beneath the British volley, it was in sight of mothers, wives, and daughters, and — that cabalistic word to all vil lagers of New England — of neighbors. It was no chance conflict of foreign or allied armies. It was no work of even friendly and neighboring hands. Sixty or seventy freeholders and voters of Lexington, in their primitive capacity, organized, after the manner of their fathers, into military array, by authority of the town and province, bearing arms by a right they deemed their inalienable birthright, they stood there in obedience to the voice of the people of the town and province, their hearts, consciences, and understandings fully satisfied and fully instructed, determined not to begin war Jn a state of legal peace, but resolved, if war must come, if in the providence of God it was to MR. D.4NA'S ORATION. II begin there, to meet it in their own persons, and, if it was so written, to be the first to shed their blood in the common cause. It is one of the proofs of the infinite superiority of spirit over matter, that this immortality of a name is not the accidental dropping of a material force. It is the conscience, the will of man, that clothes with endless life the spot of earth, and forms its syllables into immortal speech. That spot is consecrate to fame or infamy on which the human spirit has done some great act for good or evil. And, of all the good deeds that men may do for their race, there is none that speaks to the heart like voluntary sacrifice. It is not the blood of warriors, but the blood of martyrs, that is the seed of the Church. It is written in the very constitution of human nature, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of the bonds and penalties which the pride or the lusts of men have laid upon even the most innocent. It is not so much the field of ever so just a battle, as it is the block, the scaffold, the burning fagots, the cross, of voluntary, intelligent sacrifice, which speak most effectively to the heart. Of all the voices that call to men, none so stirs the soul as the voice of the blood of martyrs calling from the ground. And, of all martyrs, so it is, that, whether always justly or not, it is the first martyrs who are longest known and most widely honored. In the first centuries of the new Faith, there were countless heroes, saints, martyrs, and confessors ; and armies fought in just and necessary self-defence. But the world turns to one name, the first consecrated and longest remembered ; for he was the first martyr. He was a young man of whom we know nothing but that he was one of seven ordained to the lowest order of the ministry in the church at Jerusalem. The chance came to him first ; and, like all such chances, it gave only an opportunity. A word of retraction, a hesitation to testify at the instant, and his name would have died with his natural death. With a brave and willing heart he met the issue ; and for eighteen hundred years the until then unknown name of Stephen has been honored by the dedication of thousands of churches and chapels over Christendom to his memory ; a day in the Church's calendar is set apart for the study of the lesson of his death ; and at this moment his name is borne as a baptismal designation by no small percentage ofthe human race 12 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Now, fellow-citizens, let us never forget that the men of Lexington, on that morning, were martyrs, — intentionally and intelligently martyrs. Let us con sider this aspect of martyrdom a little more closely. That was a strange sight upon which the morning of the 19th April broke. Some sixty men of your militia company, minute-men, stood in line, under their officers, on the open village green, equipped, and with their loaded muskets in their hands. A force of British regulars which was twelve times, and was reported to be twenty times, their number, was to pass by. It was a time of legal peace throughout the land. The regulars and the militia were citizens of one empire, and subjects of a common sovereign. Our militia had fought side by side with British regulars against French regulars on many a field, joined in the same cry of battle at Quebec, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Louisburg, and in the West Indies. They had fallen side by side in battle, lain side by side on the beds of hospitals in the malarious Sugar Islands, and been buried in common graves on the frontiers and in the torrid zones. Men of Lexington had so served and fought and died, in no small numbers. The same hand that bore your standard that morning on the village green had borne it through the smoke and din of the assault at Louisburg ; and the same drums that rolled the call at break of that day had beaten their notes of assurance to the British regulars, and of defiance to the French, in more than one encounter. The regu lars were not enemies yet. They were not unwelcome as transient visitors, and most welcome in a common cause. There stands yet, in Westminster Abbey, the monument this province erected to Lord Howe, who fell at Ticonderoga. Were these sixty men there by accident .' Were they surprised there by a visit from the regulars 1 On the contrary, they assembled because the regulars were coming. They dispersed when the alarm was thought false, and came together again as soon as it was known -that the troops were close at hand. Were they there to obstruct or resist the march of the British .' They threw up no breastworks, however simple. They were not posted behind stone walls or houses, or in the thick woods that flanked the highway. They stood alone, in line, on the open common, a force twelve times their number marching upon them. They were ordered to surrender their arms and disperse^by an MR. DANA'S ORATION. 1 3 officer who was entitled to disarm and disperse them, under the new order of things, if they were an armed band unknown to the law. The regulars came out in part to do that very thing, if they met any such organization in arms. Our men refused to surrender their arms, and refused to disperse. Must they not have expected the result } The volley came, and one-quarter of that little band fell killed or wounded. They fell where they stood, their arms in their hands. They were powerless to resist, but they would not obey. They fell willing victims, martyrs by intention and in act. But what did it mean 1 Was it an act of foolhardiness .' Was it a wilful defying and exasperating of the soldiers acting under royal orders .'' Was their death something they proudly and vainly brought upon themselves .'' Pardon me, my friends. Par don me, American, Massachusetts, Lexington men and women, that I put these questions as to men whom a whole people have honored for a full cen tury, for whom monuments stand, and to whose memory, this day, the thoughts of millions are given in all lands and on all seas. We ought not to be surprised if their act should seem to have been what I suggest, to many moderate and fair-minded persons who do not know well the history of those days and the spirit of our people. I would give a few moments now, not to show to you, for you all know it too well, but to place on record for all who may ever need the lesson, the proofs that this act of our ancestors, in some lights so inexplicable, was a wise, well-considered deed of self-sacrifice ; a sad but necessary part of a plan of action which the best understandings and bravest hearts of this province and of the other provinces had devised and recommended, and which, under the blessing of God, was acted out to its letter on this field, in a way that could not have been bettered, which struck right home, touched the deepest chords, gave the surest con secration to the inevitable war, and has made this day, this spot, and their memory, blessed forever. It is a mistake common among European writers, which in time may affect new generations here, to suppose that the people of Massachusetts in 1775 were striking out for new liberties and privileges to which they thought them selves entitled ; that they bravely rose together, and broke the bonds of 14 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. oppression, and set themselves free. Not at all ! Nothing of the kind ! Noth ing can be more unlike than the American struggle of 1775, and the social and political revolutions attempted on the continent of Europe for liberties the revolutionists do not recognize when they see them, and cannot keep when they have got them. We broke no bonds. We were never bound. We were free born. A homogeneous community, English, with trifling exceptions, taking possession of a new land, the people of Massachusetts had been left for five generations, by what Burke called " the wise neglect " of Great Britain, to self-government and home rule. We had grown up in home rule, not only as against Great Britain, but as among ourselves. We called upon Great Britain for no counsel or pecuniary aids, for no assistance in our government, and for no soldiers to garrison our towns or frontier forts. We had never had on our soil an hereditary title or hereditary institutions. We had never had the relation of baron and vassal, landlord and tenant, and no trace or shadow of feudalism lay upon the land. Our small properties were equally distributed ; and no law or custom tended to build up families or privileges or great accu mulated wealth, but all usages and laws worked directly the other way. We were not theorizers or experimentalists on speculative notions in civil affairs. We did the work in hand in the way we found most convenient at the time, always keeping in view, what all assented to, the substantial political equality of men. We grew up a territorial democracy of ministers, lawyers, doctors, mer chants, yeomen, traders, mechanics, and seamen, all or nearly all being small proprietors of land. We were educated to the responsibilities, duties, and bur dens of self-government, and knew that there was no liberty without burdens and sacrifices. The people of the towns exercised many sovereign powers, by the acquiescence of the people of the province, because it was convenient, and found to be safe. No scientific line of division was drawn ; but a line was practically settled, as the natural result of conflicting or co-operating necessi ties, reasons, principles, and conveniences. The people, in their town-meet ings, provided for public worship, built the churches, called and paid the clergymen, and so exercised ecclesiastical powers. They built the school- houses, appointed and paid the teachers, determined what should be taught, MR. DANA'S ORATION. 1 5 and so exercised educational functions. They organized the town militia, appointed its officers, built the stockade fort, laid out the training-field, pro vided arms and equipments, and so exercised the military functions of govern ment. The towns ordered the local police, drew the jurors for the courts, and so took their part in judicial affairs. They sent representatives to the General Court of the Province, and so took part in the highest legislative functions. They assessed at their discretion, and collected taxes for all these purposes, and so exercised sovereign powers over property. But chiefly these town- meetings were parliaments for the free discussion of all questions touching the interests of the people, and organs of popular communication with the legislature and executive. The records of these town-meetings are the wonder and admiration of students of political philosophy everywhere. They were a new thing in the world's history. It has been said that, if every other record should perish, the true character and full history of the civil struggle from 1760 to 1775 could be written from the records of the town-meetings, includ ing the resolutions adopted, and the instructions sent to their representatives in the General Court. In the provincial government, too, we were free. We chose representatives by towns, and the representatives elected the council ; and the two formed the legislature which made all our laws. The judges were appointed and paid by ourselves. We ordered our own militia system, established and regulated our judicature ; and persons charged with crimes were tried within the prov ince, by juries drawn by lot in the towns. We laid and collected our own taxes, and no tax had ever been imposed upon us by imperial power. We held allegiance to the crown, and were parts of the British empire ; but we were a self-governing, home-ruling people, loyal, content, well-educated, and industrious, giving no cause of just complaint to the people of England. In short, we had been for five generations the freest, most self-governing people the world had ever known. In an evil hour, the pride, jealousy, and greed of the mother country, and quite as much of its trading, manufacturing, and middle classes, as of its nobles and gentry, set its eye upon the Colonies for imperial' taxation. We 1 6 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. denied the right. Burke would not argue the abstract question of right, which, he said, could only be safely discussed in the schools, but stood on the practical position, that parliament had never taxed the Colonies, that it was a novelty originating in a mere theory of parliamentary omnipotence, was felt by the Colonists to be unjust and oppressive, and might be dangerous; and would not pay for itself; and those, he said, were reasons enough for statesmen. The Stamp Act was passed, resisted peacefully but pertinaciously, and repealed. The parliament returned to the charge ; and the Tea Tax was passed, resisted by solemn leagues and covenants not to import or use, to which nearly all the people became parties. Lexington resolved, in words which few but a New England townsman can fully appreciate, " If any head of a family in this town, or any person, shall from this time forward, and until the duty be taken off, purchase any tea, or sell and consume any tea in their family, such person shall be looked upon as an enemy to this town and to his country, and shall, by this town, be treated with neglect and contempt." No anathema, no bull of excommunication, no interdict, could carry such terror to the inhabit ant of a New England town as these plain words. (Peaceful resistance all this — save in the case of two cargoes at Boston, to which water, cold and salt, was prematurely and unscientifically applied.) The Boston Port Bill was cruel in itself, highly tyrannical, and a mean appeal to the jealousy of other towns and provinces, in which it failed, to their infinite credit, and only exasperated to the last point of endurance the sensibilities of a brave and generous people. The Restraining Acts restricted our commerce, and sought to banish us from the fisheries. But bad as were these well-known measures, and dangerous to peace and liberty, it was not they that aimed the fatal blow at our accustomed rights and liberties, — the blow that must be fatal either to our system of self-government and home rule, or to parliamentary and kingly omnipotence — and placed the two systems face to face in irreconcilable conflict. The acts of 1774, generically known as the Regulation Acts, were radical and revolutionary. They went to the foundations of our public system, and sought to reconstruct it from the ba.se on a theory of kingly and parliamentary omnipotence. MR. DANA'S ORATION. 1 7 Let me recall to your attention what these acts were ; for although the Stamp Act, the Tea Tax, and Boston Port Bill, and the Restraining Acts, and the Military Act had alarmed and exasperated the people, this monument on this field commemorates resistance to the Reconstruction Acts of 1774. The councillors had been chosen by the people, through their representa tives. By the new law they were to be appointed by the king, and to hold at his pleasure. The superior judges were to hold at the will of the king, and to be dependent upon his will for the amount and payment of their salaries ; and the inferior judges to be removable by the royal governor at his discretion, he himself holding at the king's will. The sheriffs were to be appointed by the royal governor, and to hold at his will. The juries had been selected by the inhabitants of the towns : they were now to be selected by the new sheriffs, mere creatures of the royal governor. Offenders against the peace, and against the lives and persons of our people, had been tried here by our courts and juries ; and in the memorable case of the Soldiers' Trial for the firing in King's Street in March, 1770, we had proved ourselves capable of doing justice to our oppressors. By the new act, persons charged with capital crimes, and royal officers, civil or military, charged with offences in the execution of the royal laws or warrants, could be transferred for trial to England, or to some other of the Colonies. But the deepest-reaching provision of the acts was that aimed at the town-meetings. They were no longer to be parliaments of free men to discuss matters of public interest, to instruct their representatives, and look to the redress of grievances. They were prohibited, except the two annual meetings of March and May, and were then only to elect officers ; and no other meetings could be held unless by the written permission of the royal governor ; and no matters could be considered unless specially sanctioned in the permission. Am I not right in saying that these acts sought a radical revolution, a fAdamental reconstruction of our ancient political system .-" They sought to change self-government into government by the king, and for home rule to substitute absolute rule at Westminster and St. James's Palace. They gave the royal governor and his council here powers which the king and his council 1 8 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. could not exercise in Great Britain, — powers from which the British nobles and commons had fought out their exemption, and to which they would never submit. The British Annual Register, the best authority of that day on political history, says, that, by this series of acts agamst the Colonists, "their ancient constitutions were destroyed," and they were " deprived of the rights they had ever been taught to revere and hold sacred.'' Nor were these acts mere declarations. They were to be enforced, and at once, and absolutely. The Military Acts provided for quartering the troops upon the towns. In February, 177S, a resolution of parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion, and pledged the lives and property of Englishmen to its suppression. This resolution was little short of a declaration of war. The instructions of Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of state for the Colonies, to Gen. Gage, the royal governor, ran thus : " The sovereignty of the king over the Colonies requires a full and absolute submission." Gage writes to Lord Dartmouth, " The time for conciliation, moderation, and reasoning is over. . . . The forces must take the field ; " " Civil government is near its end." He advised that the king send twenty thousand men to Massachusetts, and with these he would undertake to enforce the new system, disarm the Colonists, and arrest the chief traitors, and send them to London for trial. A force of five thousand regulars was gathered at Boston, and more were coming, under distinguished leaders. The Common was occupied, the Neck fortified, and Boston was under martial law. Gen. Gage was authorized to order the troops to fire upon the people. The people by peaceful means and moral coercion, not without intimidation, but without bloodshed, prevented the new system of legislature, jurors, judges, and executive officers, going into efifect ; and Gen. Gage attempted to seat the judges and the new officers by the troops. The people refused to serve on the juries, and few*- even of the royalists, dared to accept the offices of judge, councillor, or sheriff. The people continued to hold their town-meetings, and organized county-meetings and a Provincial Con gress, and Gage resolved to disperse them by the bayonets of the regulars. Troops were sent to Salem to disperse a meeting, but they arrived too late. His proclamation forbade the people attending unauthorized meetings, diso- MR. DANA'S ORATION. 1 9 bedience " to be answered at their utmost peril." By another proclamation, he had ordered the arrest and securing for trial of all who might sign or publish, or invite others to sign, the covenant of non-importation ; and the troops were to do it. He was ordered, from home, to take possession of every fort, to seize all military stores, arrest and imprison all thought to have com mitted treason, to repress the rebellion by force, and, generally, to substitute more coercive measures " without waiting for the aid of the civil magistrates." In short, Massachusetts was placed under martial law, to be enforced by the king's troops ; and all for the purpose of changing radically, by imperial power, the fundamental institutions of the people, in which they had grown up, which they had wisely, safely, and justly administered, and on which their liberties depended. We were not the revolutionists. The king and parliament were the revo lutionists. They were the radical innovators. We were the conservators of existing institutions. They were seeking to overthrow, and reconstruct on a theory of parliamentary omnipotence. We stood upon the defence of what we had founded and built up under their acquiescence, and without which we could not be the free and self-governing people we had always been. We broke no chain. We prepared to strike down any hand that might attempt to lay one upon us. There was not one institution, law, or custom, political or social, from the mountain-tops to the sea-shore, that we cared to change. We were then content to go on as parts of the British empire, holding that slack and easy allegiance we had always held, on the old terms of self-government and home rule. It was not until more than a year after Lexington and Bunker Hill, that, finding the two things hopelessly inconsistent, we declared our dynastic independence, and in that sense and for that purpose only, became revolutionists. Against these subversive revolutionary measures, the Colonists prepared to resist by force, for to that they knew it must come. Meetings, caucuses, and congresses of towns, counties, of the province, and of all the provinces, became the order of the day. They were all illegal under the new system, and we held them at our peril. The Provincial Congress collected military stores, 20 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. called on the towns to organize the town companies, and began to organize " the Army of Massachusetts." The old militia, recognized by the royal gov ernor, had disappeared, and the people's militia was fast forming, still inchoate ; but it was illegal under the new system, and we joined it at our peril. Gage determined to disarm and disperse the new militia, to destroy the military stores, and, in short, as Lord Dartmouth suggested, to effect by the troops " a general disarming of the Colonists." These declarations began to be put into execution. The troops marched out into the country, to show themselves to the people. A force of eleven hundred visited Jamaica Plain. A body of one hundred was permanently quartered at Marshfield, in the Old Colony. The troops seized our powder at Charlestown, and two field-pieces at Cam bridge. A few weeks before the 19th of April, a large force was sent to Salem to destroy the military stores collected there ; the militia gathered, the people thronged the way, obstructions were interposed,"and the force withdrew with out bloodshed. The troops cut off supplies intended for us, and we cut off supplies intended for them. Still, so far, there had been no conflict. No irretrievable act had been done. Tudor says, in his Life of Otis, that not withstanding the political excitement which continued for ten years with hardly an interruption ; notwithstanding the hot zeal of the Sons of Liberty, the bitter opposition of as zealous loyalists, the presence of the military, cases of individual collision with the soldiers, and the seizure of stores, — still, "throughout this whole period of ferment, not a single human life was taken by the inhabitants, either by assassination, popular tumult, or public execu tion." The convention of Middlesex resolved as follows : " If in support of our rights we are called to encounter even death, we are yet undaunted, sensible that he can never die too soon who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country." Lexington wrote to Boston, " We trust in God, that, should 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 cause." Quincy wrote from England, " Our countrymen must seal the cause in their blood." MR. DANA'S ORATION. 21 The whole atmosphere was charged with war. We drew it in at every breath. There was a stillness of deadly preparation, and a patient awaiting of the falling of the bolt. When the news of the seizure of the stores at Charles town spread, with a report that there had been firing and loss of lives, twenty thousand men were on their march towards Boston, from all parts of New England, thinking that war had begun. They returned to their homes, when the report was contradicted by authority. The Provincial Congress ordered the citizens to pay their taxes to Mr. Gardner, the agent of the people, and not to the royal collector ; and Lexington directed her collectors to obey this order, and the town would secure them harmless. It appointed a day of Fast ing, Humiliation, and Prayer, a measure of deep significance in those days. The issue was made up. But it was solemnly resolved that we must not pre cipitate the war, — we must not strike the first blow. We were to endure' threats, insults, and demonstrations of violence ; but the British troops must fire the first shot. This was not a formal thing with our ancestors. They were close reasoners, could walk straight on a line of duty, and had almost a superstitious respect for the law. They felt the importance of satisfying the friends of our cause in England, and in the other Colonies, some of which were still uncertain, and it was feared that the people of Massachusetts would outrun their sympathy and support. Accordingly, the Continental Congress recommended the people of this Colony to avoid a collision with the king's troops, and in all cases to act only on the defensive. This advice was repeated by the Provincial Congress, echoed by the town-meetings, enforced from the pulpits and the press, and we were committed to it before the world. Men of this day are sometimes amused to see, that, immediately after the battle of Lexington, the Colonists took to collecting affidavits to show that the British fired first. But they were better judges than we can now be of what was important at that time. When the British troops marched out this morning, it was not merely to destroy the military stores collected at Concord, but to disarm and disperse any military organizations not recognized by the new laws, and to arrest and commit to prison the leading patriots. If they had come across a town-meet- 2 2 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. ing or a congress, held without authority of the royal governor's warrant, they would have entered, and dispersed the meeting by the bayonet ; and who will doubt, that, like the Roman senators in their curule chairs and stately robes, our ancestors, in their homespun clothes, and on the plain wooden benches of their office, senators of the town and county, would have yielded up their lives where they sat, rather than acknowledge the tyrannical command 1 It mattered little, and no one could predict at all, whether the first blow would fall on the town-meeting, the congress in its session, or the militia company on the training-field. The troops were to destroy our military stores. If we could collect men enough to defend them, we would form round them, and stand our ground ; and, if the troops retired, well : if not, they must fire the first shot. The troops were to disarm and disperse the new militia. If a company was out in martial array for the purpose of defence, they must stand their ground, and retain their arms. If the regulars withdrew, well : if not, the militia must await the first volley. Now, what was all this but a call for martyrdom .' The first that fell must fall as martyrs. The battle would begin with the shot which took their lives. No call could be made demanding more fortitude, more nerve, than this. Many a man can rush into battle, maddened by the scene, who would find it hard to stand in his line, inactive, to await the volley, if it must come. But our people were thoroughly instructed in their cause. They had studied it, discusse'd it in the public meeting and through the press, carried it to the Throne of Grace, and tried jt by every test they knew. They had made up their minds to the issue, and were prepared to accept its results. When the news came, at night, that the regulars were out, and marching that way, the widow awaked her only son, the young bride summoned her husband, the motherless child her father. " The regulars are out, and something must be done ! " Yes, something must be done. That something was to stand on the defensive, and meet death if it came, and then meet war with war. The militia came together on this green in full ranks, with drums beating and colors flying. They acted under the eye and counsel of Adams and Hancock, and of their own wise, venerated, patriotic pastor. The men separated on the doubt as to MR. DANA'S- ORATION. 23 the truth of the report, with orders to rally at the drum-beat and the alarm- guns. The first messengers sent down the road had been captured ; and the great force was moving steadily on. One scout, more fortunate, escaped, and spread the alarm that the regulars were close at hand. On the beat of drum, some sixty came together on the green. Affecting and heroic as is the nar rative, its details are too well knowr^for me to delay upon them. They were ordered to load, and stand in line. Strictly in accordance with the command of the congress, Capt. Parker ordered them not to fire unless fired upon, and not to disperse but by his command. This, of course, meant war, if the king's troops initiated it. Ours was the people's militia, organized by that body politic into which the people had thrown themselves, and bearing arms in the common defence against the king's troops, by what they deemed their inalien able right, the surrender of which was the surrender of their liberty. The Provincial Congress had not yet established a general system suited to extended military operations. The organization had not got much beyond the town companies of minute-men and the alarm-lists. No one could know, on this sudden call and close-impending crisis, exactly what was best to be done. Each band must act for itself But had we begun the attack, however suc cessfully, we should have broken every promise, disappointed every wish, counteracted every plan, shocked the public sense, alienated the doubtful ; and the cause would have been thrown back, if not defeated. Whatever might have been wisest, if there were time for deliberation, and heads authorized to plan the work for the whole day, one thing these few men felt was bravest, most becoming the Massachusetts freeman, and most in accordance with the policy of the people ; and that was, to stand their ground, with loaded arms in their hands, as a lawful militia, on their lawful training-field, prepared for what ever might befall them ; ready, if need be, as Lexington had promised Boston, "to sacrifice life itself in the common cause;" feeling, in the words of the Middlesex Resolves, that "he can never die too soon who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country." Here let me call your attention aside for one moment. The people of Massachusetts have received no little commendation, in some quarters, from 24 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. the notion that they were simple, peaceful yeomen and mechanics, unused to war and its works, facing for the first time regular troops of a warlike nation. That praise is not our due, to the extent supposed. True, they had not seen war on their own soil since the last Indian fights, and the younger of the minute-men had not served in actual war at all. But, from the foundation of the Colony to the last European peace, the Colonists had had constant experience in savage and civilized warfare. The Puritans had no scruples about the use of arms. Their pastors sometimes went with them to the field ; and the militia, when in array, had their place in the public worship. During the great French war, every fifth man of Massachusetts had been in the service ; and a larger proportion of our able-bodied men had been mustered into service during the seven years of that war, than Napoleon had led into the field from the French people at the height of his power ; in fact, the people of Massachusetts had been, up to that time, one of the most martial people on earth. The his torian Minot tells us, that, in 1757, one-third of the effective men of this Colony were in the field, in some form or other. In the expedition to the West Indies in 1740, Massachusetts sent five hundred men, of whom only fifty returned alive ; and, of that force sent out, at least six were men of Lex ington. Of the four thousand and seventy men at Louisburg, Massachusetts sent three thousand two hundred and fifty. The military records of your town are mostly lost ; but Lexington proves in the service, between 1748 and 1762, a yearly average of from twenty to twenty-five men. Men of Lexington were with the Massachusetts troops under Wolfe and Howe, Abercrombie and Amherst, at Quebec, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point. Massachusetts, in 177s, was full of men who had been under fire, who had held respectable commands in the field, and had learned something of strategy and of military engineering. The training-field was as sacred to liberty as the meeting-house ; and the old musket hung in the chimney corner as the old family Bible lay upon the table. When the events of that day assumed their serious aspect, the British sought to prove that this little band fired first. Not only is this improbable. nay, a'B^urd in itself, and contradicted by all our testimony ; but no British MR. DANA'S ORATION. 25 officer speaks of more than what he heard and believed at the time. As they neared Lexington, the report came to them, that some five hundred men were under arms ; and I am not disinclined to reconcile their testimony with the facts, by the consideration that they heard the roll of our drums, and perhaps saw the flash or heard the report of our signal-guns, intended to call our men together, and thought them a defiancfe ; and perhaps officers in the centre or rear might have thought them hostile shots. But the front knew they had not been fired upon, and saw the short, thin line of sixty men with arms at rest. Pitcairn, when he rode up to them, and ordered them to surrender their arms and disperse, knew they had not fired. He was not the man to talk after hostile shots. Pitcairn has had the fate which befalls many men who carry out orders that afterwards prove fatally ill-judged. When he ordered our men to surrender their arms and disperse, he was executing the orders of his com mander-in-chief and of his king. If Britain was in the right, Pitcairn was in the right. Twice they were ordered to surrender their arms and disperse ; and twice they refused to obey, and stood their ground. Then came the fatal fire; and why not.? Gen. Gage had been authorized to use the troops for this very purpose. He was authorized to fire upon the people, if necessary to enforce the new laws, without waiting for the civil magistrate. He had resolved to do so. Had that volley subdued the resistance of Massachusetts, Pitcairn would have been the hero of the drama. Was he to leave a military array behind him, and not attempt to disarm and disband them .' If they refused, was he to give it up .'' I have never thought it just or generous to throw upon the brave, rough soldier, who fell while mounting the breastworks at Bunker Hill, the fault which lay on the king, the parliament, the ministry, and the commander-in-chief The truth is, the issue, was inevitable. The first force of that kind which the king's troops found in martial array, was to be disarmed and disbanded ; and, if they refused to obey, they were to be fired upon. Both sides knew this, and were prepared for it. It is inconsistent in us, and an unworthy view of this crisis, to treat it as a wanton and ruthless slaughter of unoffending citizens by an armed force. It takes from the event its dignity and historic significance. It was no such accidental and personal 26 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. matter. It was an affair of state. It was the inevitable collision between organized forces representing two antagonistic systems, each 3. de facto hody politic, claiming authority and demanding obedience, on the same spot at the same time. If our cause was wrong, and resistance to the new laws unjustifi able, our popular militia was an unlawful band, and ought to surrender its arms and disperse. If our cause was right, Capt. Parker's company was a lawful array, and their loaded guns were lawfully in their hands ; they had a right to stand in their line, on their training-field, before their homes, and beside their church, ready to shed their blood in the cause, a'nd to fire when fired upon. They were determined neither to attack, nor to fly ; neither to surrender their arms, nor to fire first ; but to fire when fired upon ; all in strict obedience to the line of duty enjoined on them by the Continental Congress, by the votes of the towns, and the counsels of their leaders. The issue was made up just then and just there. If you mean to subjugate and disarm this people, you may begin here and now. Of this issue, in the language of the common law, they put themselves upon the country. The British did the like. The trial of that issue, in the presence of the world, began with the first volley on Lexing ton Green, and lasted six years. The battle of the 19th April began on this spot, and ended at Charlestown Neck. The war of the Revolution began at Lexington, and ended at Yorktown. Have I not demonstrated what I undertook to show .' — that not we, but the British king and parliament, were the revolutionists, the innovators, the radical subverters of institutions ; that we were the conservators of time-honored, dearly-loved institutions of self-government and home rule ; and that, on that morning, on this spot, your townsmen were intentionally, intelligently, the first martyrs, yet martyrs in war; and that on this field war began. When ever the king's troops, to enforce the new system, met the people's troops, organized and armed to resist its enforcement, and fired upon them, each in martial array, the war began. The commencement of a war is unilateral. One party can initiate it. It requires no formal announcements or ceremonies. Here both parties stood ready for war. Our soldiers loaded their guns, by military command, to fire if fired upon ; and the war began with the volley MR. DANA'S ORATION. 27 and the falling of the dead and wounded. It may not be of much account in any political or strategic sense, but it is a satisfaction to our pride in our ancestors, to know, that rashly it may be, uselessly perhaps, but bravely beyond doubt, the moment the British fire authorized us to use the guns we had loaded for the purpose, and met the condition in Capt. Parker's order, " unless fired upon," the fire was returned by men still standing in their line, in their martial array ; and that the line was not abandoned until they were ordered to disperse by their captain, who saw that the regulars were hastening up, on both flanks, to surround and capture them ; and that, when the survivors withdrew, they took their arms with them. It is not of much account, that a regular of the Tenth Regiment, and another, were wounded, and that the horse of the commander was grazed by two balls ; but it is a sat isfaction to know, that here in Lexington was not only the first hostile volley fired by British troops at provincial troops, but the first shots fired back by our troops at theirs. You recall with pride too, that, no sooner had the regu lars resumed their march, than your minute-men rallied, took six prisoners who had straggled from the line ; joined in the pursuit of the British from the Lin coln and Concord line to Charlestown Neck ; and that in that pursuit three more men of Lexington laid down their lives, of whom one had been wounded on the green in the morning. You read with ever renewed satisfaction, that on the rolls of that day Lexington stands first : ten of her townsmen killed, — seven in the morning on the green, and three in the afternoon in the pursuit, — and first in the list of wounded, nine; nineteen in all, from your small population, who suffered death or wounds in the common cause. The pecu niary loss of Lexington that day in houses and other property destroyed, nearly two thousand pounds sterling, bore a large proportion to the whole pro perty of the town. Well did she redeem her modest promise to Boston , " We trust in God. . . ., we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates, and every thing dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause." Well did she prove her faith that " he can never die too soon who lays down his life in sup^ port of the laws and liberties of his country." Vain was the British cheer,: and their volley of triumph fired into the air ! It was the soldier's farewell shot, over the buried monarchy of England ! 2 8 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The news of Lexington spread with a rapidity almost preternatural. At noon that day, a courier rode into Worcester, his jaded horse falling exhausted at the meeting-house steps, and proclaimed the tragedy at Lexington ; and the minute-men, after prayer from their pastor, set out on their march for Cam bridge. Lincoln, Concord, and Acton heard the news at once, an hour or more before the regulars reached the centre of Concord ; and when, some four hours later, Major Buttrick, and Capt. Isaac Davis and. his men of Acton, led the column of attack upon the British outpost at the bridge over Concord River, they marched under a new order of things. The spell had been broken. War was begun. There were no questions left then but of strategy, courage, and prudence. I will not lead you through the familiar details of the rest of that day, — the singular insensibility of the British commander to the perils gathering about him, lingering two hours in Concord after the affair at the North Bridge, think ing, because the main body was not molested, and the daring aff'air at the bridge was not followed up, nothing more would be done ; the miUtia pouring in from all sides, showing themselves on the hills, and along the by-roads ; the British fire and our reply near the Lincoln line ; the intermittent attack and defence of the next two hours ; the hurried march, turning almost into flight, along the highways ; the salvation of the party by the arrival of Lord Percy ; the violences and outrages by the humiliated, distracted, desperate soldiery ; the flank attacks of the militia as they came in from more distant towns ; and, at last, the bare escape of the survivors of the expedition, as they crossed the Neck at Charlestown, at sunset, and came under the protection of the fire of their batteries and ships of war. Great, indeed, was the change between day break and sunset of that day. At daybreak, there was a state of legal peace. At sunset, the siege of Boston had begun. No British soldier set foot beyond the two peninsulas after that night. Patriotic citizens from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were on their march by noon of the 20th. One force from New Hampshire marched fifty-five miles in twenty hours, and mustered on Cambridge Common at sunrise of the 21st. Putnam rode one hun dred miles in eighteen hours, and reached Cambridge early on the 21st. Green MR. DANA'S ORATION. 29 from Rhode Island was at Cambridge, and Stark and his force from New Hampshire at Chelsea, on the 22d. As the news spread to the middle and southern Colonies, they accepted it as war, and mustered in arms. But these subsequent e,vents are to have their appropriate celebrations. We will not anticipate them. We are here to-day to commemorate first what was done at Lexington, and the heroic conduct of her sons. This is due to her and to them. But we are here, also, to remember the dead of that day, from other towns, who laid down their lives in the common cause ; the seven killed of Danvers, the six of Cambridge, the five of Needham, the four of Lynn, the three of Acton, the two each of Sudbury, Woburn, Medford, and Charlestown, and the one each of Bedford, Watertown, Dedham, Brookline, Salem, and Beverly ; and the wounded of all those towns, and of Concord, Framingham, Stowe, Billerica, Newton, and Chelmsford. We are here to join heartily in sympathy with those thousands who, at this hour, are commemorating at Concord the momentous work done within her limits, the second scene in the drama of this day so heroically enacted at the North Bridge. This is the dawn of seven years of centennial commemorations all over the soil of the old thirteen States, to be joined in by the people of this vast empire, of all kindreds and races and tongues, from Canada to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, — a sight the like of which the world has never seen ; and scarce a tongue in any part of the civilized world utters a doubt of the justice of our cause. Men, women, children of Lexington, here opened that great drama which was not to close till the last scene was witnessed at Yorktown. It began with the first fire of British troops in martial array on American troops in martial array, and did not end until the last British soldier left the soil of the new Republic, and our independence was recognized. At the close of the last cen tury, you erected your first monument on this spot. Lafayette, who saw the surrender at Yorktown, came, in September, 1824, to see the spot where began the contest in which he took so noble and disinterested a part, and clasped hands with fourteen of the surviving heroes of the day. In 1835 you re-interred your heroic dead under your simple monument, consecrated by the eloquence of Everett. .In 1852 Louis Kossuth, an exile from the banks of the Danube, 30 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. after the disastrous war for the independence of Hungary, made a pilgrimage to this place, to pay his devotions " to the birthplace of American liberty," and said of your patriot dead, in words you must never let die, as true as they are eloquent : " It is their sacrificed blood in which is written the preface of your nation's history. Their death was and ever will be the first bloody reve lation of America's destiny, and Lexington the opening scene of a revolution that is destined to change the character of human governments, and the con dition of the human race." God grant, that, if a day of peril shall come, the people of this Republic, so favored, so numerous, so prosperous, so rich, so educated, so triumphant, may meet it — and we can ask no more — with as much of intelligence, self- control, self-devotion, and fortitude as did the men of this place, in their fewness, simplicity, and poverty, one hundred years. ago! Morning Exercises in the Pavilion. OPENING ADDRESS By Thomas Meriam Stetson, Esq., President of the Day. Fellow- Citizens, — It is a high privilege for those of us who derive descent from the minute-men of April 19, 1775, and from kinship as well as American citizenship revere their memories, to see the grand respect paid to these men and their acts by this mighty concourse to-day. Farm and factory, forum and mart, have sent the lovers of their country, the lovers of the only firm, concrete, constitutional liberty in the world, to this little country town to-day, to contemplate the magnificent devotion of your ancestors to freedom. It is wise to devote these cyclic, centennial days to our whole country ; that the sounds of labor be stilled ; that capitol and court close ; and with pealing music, waving flags, and ringing bells, with anthem and with eulogy, to gather at the historic places of America, and study the portraits hung forever in the galleries of national glory. And whether the real Declara tion of Independence was written out in those stately words of the nation's self-granted charter, or was proclaimed by actions that speak louder yet, — by the shouts of rallying patriots, and the rattle of their muskets upon this battle-ground, — no better use can be made of the day than to review its circumstances, recall its voices, and rekindle the flame of patriotism in our hearts. Memorial objects surround us. On the very spot where you sit the roll of John Parker's company was called ; there Jonas Harrington met his death ; but in no passive mood did that warlike soul depart. There fell John Brown, battling by the wounded slave Prince Esterbrook. These houses around us have their story. From that one the minute-men fired upon the royal troops, and it still holds the bullets returned. In its chamber a British grenadier died that day. The ancient monument is by our side with its solemn Scripture that one of the high priests of the Revolution wrote upon it : " Sacred to Liberty and the rights of Mankind, the Freedom and Independence of America, Sealed and Defended by the Blood of her 34 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Sons." Here, here, is the place to recall the virtue and glory of your heroic ancestors. At simul heroiim laudes, et facta parentis Jam legerej et quce sit poteris cognoscere virtus. Citizens of Lexington, — You have made it my grateful duty to extend your welcome to the guests who to-day pay the tribute of their presence at the old battle-ground. No splendor of display, no glitter or tinsel of wealth and power, has brought them from the bounds of the wide Union ; but they come with the deep and proud respect which all America pays to the spot where her liberty was born. On this field all local jealousies and differ ences cease. The blood here shed was for our whole country. New England then stood forth for all ; and if, in the broad land over which waves the national flag, there are those who misunderstand and mislike her, all antipathies are hushed and stilled at Bunker Hill, at Concord, and at Lex ington. To our guests from near and far, from the sister Colonies of the old thirteen, and from imperial States undreamed of among the possibilities of the then future, we tender a cordial and respectful welcome. We welcome the Ancient Military Corporation of the Massachusetts, to whose venerable antiquity Lexington yields precedence in time : the numerous representatives here to-day from the army and navy ; from the Grand Army of the Republic ; and with loving and tender and filial veneration we greet the silver-haired veterans of 1812, whose few remaining forms yet linger to grace our services, and hallow the great days of the Republic still. We welcome the Judiciary, whose dignified position is so enhanced and relieved when a people is ready to fight and die for the form and substance of Law. And, now that arms have given place to the robes of peace, we welcome the delegations from the societies and the universities. And we heartily welcome our guests from the neighboring towns, whose fraternal rally saved the 19th of April, and changed its morning of gloom and horror into jubilant victory. Never will Lexington forget the timely aid, when the great Woburn company, under Col. Baldwin, joined Capt. Parker's men in the afternoon, and vengeance was taken for the slaughter of the morning. Never will Lexington forget the devotion of Danvers, the town where Israel Putnam was born, whose citizens, with the "Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon " Foster, with their deacon at their head, and their minister for his lieutenant, marched sixteen miles in four hours to their slaughter-pen at the foot of the rocks. And must we now and henceforth omit to greet the men of '75 .> The funeral drums have long since heralded to the grave the last survivor of those venerable forms who so long attended our celebrations ; but, if it is true that PR A YER. 35 the dead ever revisit the scenes of their earthly grandeur, what invisible auditors throng around us to-day! Adams and Hancock, whose veiled presences stand upon this platform, are with us. They are all with us. For, of the rewards which Heaven gives to those who strive and die for their country, we can conceive none more magnificent than the gratitude of a Nation saved to Liberty. Their heaven to-day will be here. The dead heroes are with us in our triumphal pageant. We reverently welcome their companionship to-day. PRAYER By the Rev. Henry Westcott. Infinite and all holy God! We, Thy children, ever mindful of Thy good ness, and realizing that our lives are filled with tokens of Thy love for which we should ever be thankful, meet here to-day to give Thee our thanks for the blessings which Thou hast poured out upon this nation during the past one hundred years. Standing upon ground which is hallowed on account of the blood here first shed in defence of those liberties which our forefathers believed came from Thee, our hearts prompt us to give Thee our sincere and earnest thanks for the virtues of those men who shed their blood here on that morning, and also for the virtues of those who, in this colony and in all the colonies, were prepared to follow them in their great sacrifice. We thank Thee, O heavenly Father, for their patience and long-suffering under oppression ; that they were slow to take up arms to secure their liberties until every other possible measure had been tried ; and we also thank Thee for their firmness and courage by which they were enabled, when they were spurned from an earthly throne, to take their lives in their hands, and appeal to Him who is King both of earth and of heaven. We to-day, O Father in heaven, especially remember those who poured out their blood here on that eventful morning. We thank Thee for their courage, and also their faith in Thee, which enabled them to pass through those scenes of trial and distress which preceded that day, and which, when the day came, found them faithful at their posts of duty. May their memory, O God, ever be a blessing, not only to this town and this colony, but to all this nation, inspiring the hearts of the people with such a love of country and such a love of Thee, that we all may be ready to make whatever sacrifices Thou mayest call for, in order that we may support the liberties which they obtained, and honor and serve Thee, their God and our God. We would remember also those who came to their assistance on that eventful day, and all who on that day rose up, an united band, and drove 36 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. those who were worse than invaders from the soil of this town ; and we thank Thee, O heavenly Father, for that spirit of resistance, and love of country and love of Thee, which enabled so many of their fellow-citizens at that time to heed the call which their blood made from this soil, and to take up arms, and march on to the defence of their country. Our heavenly Father, we would thank Thee for the many blessings which Thou hast poured out on our land since that day. We know that Thou dost not change; that, although this century which has passed seems to us a long time, it is only as yesterday to Thee, with whom a hundred years are as a day. We, O God, would thank Thee for the long list of blessings and the goodness which Thou hast bestowed upon this nation. We thank Thee, O our heavenly Father, for its material prosperity, for all that tends to build up its material greatness and power. We thank Thee, O God, for the insti tutions of learning which are spread over this land. We thank Thee for our government, — a government by the people and for the people, — and we thank Thee for that gospel which was the faith of our forefathers, and which is still the faith of their sons; and may it be the faith of our children's children until time shall end ! We thank Thee, O God, that that faith of our forefathers is preserved to us, and that we still have that which they treasured so highly, even above political liberty, — the liberty wherewith Christ made them, and has made us all free. Our heavenly Father, our hearts prompt us at this hour to ask Thee to be the protector and sustainer of our country; but we would rather ask Thee to keep our nation in the path of righteousness, by which alone is a nation exalted, and to keep it from the paths of sin, by which any nation, however strong and powerful it may seem, becomes a reproach upon the earth. We pray, O God, that we may have that trust in Thee which our forefathers had ; that we may have that reliance upon Thee which they had ; and thus we shall be assured that our nation will be preserved among the nations of the earth, and will receive Thy choicest blessings. O God, we realize that the blessings which Thou didst grant unto our forefathers, and which Thou hast poured out upon us, — liberty, both political and religious, — are not blessings that we are to use in a selfish manner; that they are not given to us for ourselves alone, but for all the nations of the earth ; and may we realize the worth of these blessings, and what devolves upon us, so that we may feel that it is our _ mission to be the guide of all other nations ; that they, too, may follow in our footsteps, and gain that freedom which our fathers gained, and have' handed down to us. We pray, O heavenly Father, that Thy Spirit may rest upon us here. We feel that we are on holy ground. We feel that Thy Spirit is here, as well MR. WHITTIER'S POEM. 37 as the spirits of those above who have been faithful, in their time, to the principles of religious and civil liberty. We feel that we are overshadowed by their presence ; and, in such a great company of witnesses, O God, may we have no thought unworthy of Thy presence, or unworthy of this sacred and holy time ! Father, we commend our nation unto Thee. We pray that the services of this day may lead us not to feel that our town is exalted, but that all the nation is exalted. We pray that the services of this day, held here and in the neighboring town, and wherever fellow-citizens may meet together to speak of the things of which this day reminds us, may be blessed unto this people by awakening in their hearts a deeper feeling of patriotism, a holier love of Thee, and a sublime sense of Thy leadership in our government. O God, we pray that the blessings of the gospel of Christ may rest upon this people ; and as Thy children, and disciples of our Lord and Saviour, we offer Thee our prayer. Amen. The Boylston Club then sang Eichberg's national hymn, " To thee, O coimtry, great and free ; " After which Scripture selections were read by the Rev. John Wesley Church ill, from an old copy of the Bible presented to the Lexington Church by Gov. Hancock. POEM By John G. Whittier. LEXINGTON — 1775. No maddening thirst for blood had they. No battle-joy was theirs who set Against the alien bayonet Their homespun breasts in that old day. Their feet had trodden peaceful ways, They loved not strife, they dreaded pain ; They saw not, what to us is plain, That God would make man's wrath his praise. 38 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. No seers were they, but simple men : Its vast results the future hid ; The meaning of the work they did Was strange and dark and doubtful then. Swift as the summons came they left The plough, mid-furrow, standing stiL ; The half-ground corn-grist in the mill The spade in earth, the axe in cleft. They went where duty seemed to call ; They scarcely asked the reason why : They only knew they could but die. And death was not the worst of all. Of man for man the sacrifice. Unstained by blood save theirs, they gave : The flowers that blossomed from their grave Have sown themselves beneath all skies. Their death-shot shook the feudal tower, And shattered slavery's chain as well : On the sky's dome, as on a bell, Its echo struck the world's great hour. That faithful echo is not dumb : The nations, listening to its sound, Wait, from a century's vantage-ground, The holier triumphs yet to come, — The bridal time of Law and Love, The gladness of the world's release, When, war-sick, at the feet of Peace, The hawk shall nestle with the dove, — The golden age of brotherhood. Unknown to other rivalries Than of the mild humanities, And gracious interchange of good. MR. HUDSON'S ADDRESS. 39 When closer strand shall lean to strand. Till meet, beneath saluting flags, The eagle of our mountain crags. The lion of our Motherland. The President. — The next act of our ceremonial devolves upon one who has done so much for Lexington, — her venerable historian, Charles Hudson. ADDRESS By the Hon. Charles Hudson. [With the unveiling of the statues o£ Hancock and Adams.] Every nation owes its birth and its preservation to the gallantry of its sol diers and the wisdom of its statesmen. Impressed with this truth and the obligation it imposes, the people of Lexington have placed in their Memorial Hall the statues of two soldiers, — one a minute-man of the Revolution, the other a Union soldier of the late war. In this way we have testified our just appreciation of the military and the value of their services. But we feel that our duty is but half done. We have two vacant niches in our hall, which we purpose to fill with the statues of two illustrious states men, in grateful acknowledgment of their worth. We desire that the gallantry of the soldier and the wisdom of the statesman should shed their combined lustre in our consecrated hall, and so teach the rising generation that the civil and the military power are both essential to the preservation of the Republic. Nor have we hesitated in the selection of our subjects. Two names came to us unsought. We could not overlook the men whose ardent devotion to human rights had excited the wrath of the king, the ministry, and the royal governor. These proscribed patriots, known and honored throughout the country, were particularly identified with Lexington, and were here on the famous 19th of April. Returning from the Provincial Congress, over whose deliberations one had presided and whose counsels the other had con trolled, they had taken up their abode with their friend and compeer Rev. Jonas Clark, whose heart beat in unison with theirs, and whose wisdom and patriotism made his house a favorite place of resort to the leading patriots of the day. Here these distinguished statesmen were sojourning to avoid the threatened seizure and transportation recommended by General Gage. Nor was this prompted by mere selfishness. They were moved by prudence 40 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. rather than by fear, and sought their country's freedom in their own personal safety. The elder of the two, in the midst of comparative poverty which he might have bartered for boundless wealth, cheerfully devoted the best years of his life to the cause of libej;-ty, and did more to baffle the designs of the ministry and prepare the colonies for self-government than any other man. He was, in fact, the organizer of the American Revolution. Far-seeing and sagacious, he early perceived the result of the controversy, and kept the great end of colonial independence constantly in view. But, while he labored to inculcate the principles of liberty and equal rights with all the steadfastness of a sturdy old Puritan, he had the wisdom to avoid those impracticable extremes into which many ardent men are apt to fall. He knew that the colonies must act in unison ; that Massachusetts, though goaded .on nearly to desperation, must bear and forbear till the other colonies were prepared to meet the crisis. He knew that it would be madness for a single colony to raise the standard of revolt, and attempt alone to withstand the giant power of Great Britain ; and so he devoted his best energies to unite the colonies, and thus make common cause in resisting oppression. Though his feelings were ardent, they were restrained by his sound judgment ;¦ and his firm religious principles forever bound, him to the interest of his country. While he was urging more moderation, and actually holding the people in one section back from overt acts, he used his best efforts in other places to implant the seeds of liberty, and prepare the people for the impending struggle. Meeting his opponents at every point, he showed them that we stood upon the broad basis of the English Constitution, and that they were the rebels and the violators of the law. When taxation was the theme of controversy, they were told that taxation without representation was repugnant to the funda mental principles of Magna Charta. When troops were sent here to enforce their arbitrary decrees and awe the people into submission, they were told that, by the fundamental law of the realm, the military must be subordinate to the civil power ; and that standing armies in times of peace could not be lawfully quartered among us without the consent of our legislature. In this way he defeated the designs of the ministry, and laid a firm foundation for colonial independence. Nor was this influence confined to his own town or colony. In every change of affairs, in every new scheme of oppression, he was the first to give the alarm, and state the true ground of opposition ; and, taking the cue from.him, in a short time his profound axioms became house hold words in every part of the colonies. He allowed nothing to divert him from his purpose. Neither elated by suc cess, nor depressed by temporary defeats, he moved steadily onward, and gen erally turned adversity to his own account. When others hesitated, he was ready for action. Where others faltered, he stood firm, and never appeared MR. HUDSON'S ADDRESS. 41 more collected or more truly great than when the storm was gathering, and threatening to burst upon his devoted head. He met every crisis with dig nity, and rose superior to the occasion. Trusting in the justice of his cause, and leaning upon a righteous Providence, when he had taken his position he stood collected and firm, immovable as Mount Atlas, — " Though storms and tempests thundered on its brow. And oceans broke in billows at its feet." No wonder that such a man, with his prophetic ken, should, on hearing the assailing musketry from this common on the day we commemorate, exclaim, " What a glorious morning for America is this !" [At this point the veil was removed.] Samuel Adams I The patriot and the sage ! There he stands in his marble firmness and his marble purity. And who so fit to be associated with him as his proscribed companion, the generous young merchant of Boston, who laid his princely fortune upon the altar of his country, and was ready to light the offering when the public good should require it ! He was an ardent patriot, and unfaltering in his devotion to the cause of his country. With a fortune and a position in society which would have secured to him any place he could reasonably desire, he put his fortune and his all in jeopardy by adhering to the cause of the people. Hav ing enlisted under the banner of freedom, no man was more bold or perse vering in his efforts. He presided fearlessly over the Provincial Congress whose meetings the royal governor had forbidden. He was chairman of the Committee of Safety, appointed by that Congress, and clothed with large executive powers, and was, in fact, the chief magistrate of the colony, and, as such, the commander-in-chief of the military, and had power to call them into the field in any emergency. Among other important positions which he occupied, he was called to preside over the Continental Congress, — a body of men so renowned for prudence, sagacity, and wise statesmanship, as to draw from Lord Chatham the highest eulogium on the floor of Parliament. But there is one event in his life more interesting in itself, and more illus trative of his character, perhaps, than any other. I allude to the fact that he took his pen, and wrote, in a bold — I had almost said a defiant — hand, his name upon a document which, at the time, in the estimation of thousands, was as likely to prove his death--warrant as his passport to fame. [At this point the veil was removed.] There is the figure of foJui Hancock, holding in his hand that immortal scroll which proclaimed us an independent nation, bearing his name, and his 6 42 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. alone, — the affixing of the other names being an afterthought, induced, in some degree at least, by the prompt example of their president. Here, fellow-citizens, you have a view of the two distinguished patriots we dehght to honor, — patriots who embody the zeal, the firmness, the self-sacri ficing spirit, of the Revolution. If they could speak, they would kindle in our breasts an ardent love of liberty, which would induce us to follow their example, and pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, to sustain the institutions they labored to establish. But, thank Heaven, they have spoken, and their words have come down to us, teeming with patriotic self-devotion. Adams, in the fulness of his heart, in 1774, uses this expressive language: "I would advise perseverance in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one in a thousand survive and retain his liberty. One such person must have more virtue and enjoy more hap piness than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he had nobly preserved." With equal ardor and self-devotion Hancock declared himself willing, nay, desirous, that Boston, where his large property was situated, should be at tacked, and his property destroyed to promote the welfare of his country. In an official letter to Washington, in December, 1775, informing him that Con gress had given him authority to attack the British in Boston, if he should deem it expedient, Hancock says emphatically, " I heartily desire it, though, personally, I may be the greatest sufferer' Such was the spirit of our favorite statesmen, and such the spirit we would infuse into our children. Upon such principles was our freedom founded, and upon such alone can it be perpetuated. Hancock and Adams ! Names to be held in everlasting remembrance ! We bow with reverence in your imaged presence, and seem to receive patri otic and devout instruction from your marble lips ! The President. — I have the honor of now presenting, as the orator of the day, one who upon Revolutionary themes, to a Lexington audience, has the birthright to speak without personal introduction. (Applause.) [Mr. Dana's oration is given at the beginning of this volume.] MRS. HOWE'S POEM. 43 POEM By Julia Ward Howe. APRIL 19, 1875. One hundred years the world hath seen. Since, bristling on these meadows green. The British foemen mocked our sires, New armed beside their household fires. The troops were hastening from the town To hold the country for the crown ; But through the land the ready thrill Of patriot hearts ran swifter still. Our fathers met at break of dawn: From many a peaceful haunt they come ; From homely task and rustic care, Marshalled by faith, upheld by prayer. The winter's wheat was in the ground, Waiting the April zephyr's sound ; But other growth these fields should bear When war's wild summons rent the air. Here flowed the sacrificial blood, Hence sprang the bond of brotherhood ; Here rose, resolved for good or ill, The nation's majesty of will. O Thou who victor dost remain. Above the slayer and the slain, Not ill we deem that in thy might* That day our fathers held their right. They knew not that their ransomed land To free the vassalled earth should stand ; That thou, through all their toil and pain, A home of nations didst ordain. 44 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Upon this field of Lexington We hail the mighty conquest won, Invoking here thy mightier name To keep our heritage from shame. May peaceful generations turn To where these ancient glories burn ; And not a lesson of that time Fade from men's thoughts through wrong and crime. Beside the hearth let freemen still Keep their integrity of will, And meet the treason of the hour With mind resolved, and steadfast power. But not in arms be our defence : Give us the strength of innocence, The will to work, the heart to dare, For truth's great battle, everywhere. So may ancestral conquests live In what we have and what we give, And the great boohs we hold from thee Turn to enrich humanity I The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. RoUin H. Neale, D.D. Immediately after these exercises, the invited guests were escorted to the carriages in waiting, and assigned their place in the procession, which marched over the designated route, and was reviewed by the President of the United States. Afternoon Exercises in the Dinner Tent EXERCISES IN THE DINNER TENT At about half-past three, the review of the procession by President Grant and his party having been completed, the festival in the dinner-tent formally commenced. The chair was taken by Mr. Stetson, the President of the Day ; and on his right were seated the President of the United States ; Gen. William W. Belknap, Secretary of War ; Hon. George M. Robeson, Secretary of the Navy ; Chief -Justice Gray; the orator of the day; Gen. O. E. Babcock; Hon. Charles Hudson ; Hon. Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior ; and other gentlemen. On the left, at the same table, sat Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State ; Rev. Edward G. Porter ; Gov. Chamberlain of South Carolina ; Postmaster- General Jewell ; Senator Wadleigh of New Hampshire ; Vice-President Wil son ; Col. Joseph A. Harwood, Chairman of the Legislative Committee on the Centennial ; Commodore Nichols ; Gen. Benham ; and other distin guished guests of the town. His Excellency Gov. Gaston soon after arrived, and took a seat at the same table. Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington officiated as Chaplain of the Festival. When the dessert appeared upon the tables, the President requested the attention of the vast audience, and said, — Ladies and Gentlemen, — The lapse of a century of national life, during which the pageant and insignia of royalty have been unknown to Americans, has brought us together at the spot where American liberty first spoke out . its purpose and determination. The nation bends with reverence before the plain gravestone, with its inscription that reads like one of the tablets of eternity, of the first Martyrs of the Revolution. Their battle, with its calm courage, its personal heroism, its strange, bold, unexpected stand of sixty 48 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. against eight hundred, was the flower and consummation of principles that were long ripening in the clear-sighted, liberty-loving, Anglo-Saxon mind. The founders of the English Commonwealth ; the men who advocated Hberty more ardently than the slow evolution of English methods would permit ; the men who brought Charles to the block ; the iron-sides of Naseby and Worces ter ; the Miltons, Hampdens, and Pyms, — spoke and worked through their American representatives better and more wisely than at home. Slow, sure, consistent, the Americans proceeded at every step. They recognized com pletely the supremacy of law, whether to crush king or protect people. No accidental impulse moved their leaders. Their policy slowly ripened through years of observation. Samuel Adams watched month after month for the maturity of ministerial error as calmly as John Parker stood at his company's head, and told them to receive the British fire first. They knew that the ripeness of events was needed, that the frenzy of the ministry was the states manship of fate. The sympathies of Rockingham, Burke, Camden, and others were too precious to be imperilled by rashness, or alienated by mis takes. That adoration of the equal administration of justice, which made John Adams and the younger Quincy volunteer to defend Capt. Preston and his soldiers after the Boston Massacre, was no mere Quixotism. That equal justice was the. object and purpose of America then, and their clear vision was undimmed by passion. They did not believe the law to be the mere will of people or of prince, but a rule of loftier and diviner origin. The Bay Colony was from the beginning a school of jurisprudence, where Selden or Grotius might have learned. Nowhere in the world's history is taught the science of liberty regulated by law, as in the early story of Massa chusetts. What great subjects they talked over in town meetings then I Right here in Lexington the Rev. Jonas Clark, unsurpassed as a writer of state papers, taught the solidest views of law ; and this township instructed its representative as to his course concerning the obnoxious acts of parlia ment, "so to vote, that, whether successful or not, succeeding generations may know that we understood our rights and liberties, and were neither ashamed nor afraid to assert and maintain them." These were the men who answered the drum-beat in the early gray of the morning a hundred years ago to-day. Not many of them were young men. They were sober, considerate heads of families. The glory of Samuel Adams was in Faneuil Hall, but his refuge was in Lexington ; and who could teach republicanism so well as he .' Their old minister had a grandson whose name stands first and largest on the Declaration of Independence ; and he too was a fugitive from power at Lexington. Here he often visited his cousin, Mr. Clark. At that house we can imagine were discussed the highest themes of government and state. With such guidance, the men of Lexington knew their duty. In earnestness and sobriety they did it. No excitement of mar- MR. STETSON'S ADDRESS. 49 tial pomp allured these quiet farmers. No ladies' favors, no military exuber ance, were calling the gilded youth and curled darlings of a nation to a tour nament or a Balaklava. There were no princes to act, no kingdom for a stage. There was no hope of success against the overpowering numbers of the trained soldiers that were advancing up the road ; and, if military skill alone had been consulted, Capt. Parker would have withdrawn his men. But the sixty Lexington statesmen loaded with ball, and stood stiU to receive the fire and bide the shock of eight hundred soldiers. What words of grave encouragement and cheer rang along their ranks ! They knew that, before the fire of the regulars, perhaps half their number would go down. Assist ance was not to be expected ; but they stood there for their country and the law. From the pines of Meriam's Hill, John Hancock and Samuel Adams were looking down upon them. They could not falter nor succeed, but they could die. What were Fontenoy's fantastic and theatrical courtesies to this 1 These men knew the tremendous responsibility of the hour, and waited for the enemy to fire first, with the immovable steadfastness of the Rock of Lib erty. Nor were they inexperienced. Men of this company had fought the long wars with the Indians, had fought the French at Carillon and Crown Point. Capt. Parker had climbed with Gen. Wolfe to the citadel of Quebec. Robert Munroe, with the standard of England in his grasp, had forced his way over the ramparts of Louisburg ; and all the other fourteen Munroes in the company were the same stanch, obstinate Scotch warriors that he was. Joseph Simonds bore the old flag of Massachusetts Bay as proudly against his king as it had been borne to the wintry coasts of Cape Breton. There were no stars and stripes then ; but these men were building better than they knew. They were loyal to their king, but more loyal to justice and the law ; and from the first shot fired by the grenadiers, to the time when Maximilian fell beneath Mexican bullets, it has been clear that the soil of North America is no place for kings. Fellow-Citizens, — Since the close of the service at the pavilion, our crowded ranks have been largely recruited by other visitors. We are now honored with the presence of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, whom I have the privilege to present to you. [Here President Grant rose, and was received by the immense throng with tremendous cheers]. And we cordially welcome you, Mr. President, to your place in the day's observance. Beneath your feet is a battle-field smaller and less awful than your field of Vicksburg or Petersburg ; less, infinitely less, in number of combatants, and in continuance of strife, than those tremendous battle- plains of the Wilderness : but still one of the crises of history was trans acted here. On this consecrated ground we recall with swelHng hearts what you too have done for our country. And with the associations of the place 50 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. and hour we welcome you, not only as the civil head of a united nation, but as the mihtary chief whose strong arm, matchless skill, firmness that moved on to its purpose with the passionless force of a glacier, finished the work that the farmers of Middlesex began ; and, after ninety years of growth, consolidated and completed a republic fit for the proud and fervid worship of the free. With the concurrence of you all, I will now propose the fiirst regular toast of the dinner, to which music will give the response, — CCfje Pr«0itimt of tfje mniteti States. It immediately appeared that each person present desired to answer this toast, and three hearty cheers made response. The President, — As the Governor of Massachusetts has not yet arrived, I propose as the second toast, — W^z State of SoutSf Carolina, Massachusetts will never forget the prompt response of South Carolina, the very night she heard the war-note from Lexington. Gov. Chamberlain may veto any thing he wishes except our earnest request for a voice from the Palmetto to the Pine. ADDRESS OF GOV. DANIEL H. CHAMBERLAIN. Fellow-Citizens, — To stand upon the spot where our fathers gave the last test of their devotion to civil freedom, is a high and sacred privilege. If our hearts respond to the highest influences which human example and endeavor can afford ; if personal gratitude for blessings secured ; if honor for self-forgetting, single-eyed fidelity to duty ; if a sense of the far-reaching, limitless consequences which are sometimes wrapped up in the actions of a few men ; if any or all of these considerations have power to affect us, — this place and this day must call up the tenderest and proudest emotions. Such emotions are too strong and deep to be expressed in words. The full inspiration of this occasion must be felt in the heart. The lips cannot utter it. I confess, therefore, that I am loath to attempt to add to the .tribute of words which this occasion has already called forth. The outward scenes which were presented here a hundred years ago ; the sequence of causes and events which led up to that supreme hour which witnessed the opening in blood of this great chapter of American history ; something, too, of the physical and moral lineaments of the actors in those scenes ; the vast results already attained, and the boundless future still waiting, — these have been presented before us whh all the power which eloquence and poetry can lend. What remains except that we should fill our hearts with the lessons and senti ments and principles which this day has taught us, and again take our places in the ADDRESS OF GOV. CHAMBERLAIN. 5 1 ranks of that great army which on all days and on all fields must still carry forward the unending warfare of freedom against oppression, of justice against wrong, of human progress against all efforts to circumscribe the thoughts or fetter the actions of men except by the eternal laws of truth itself? The men whose memory we seek to honor to-day were great because they shrank from no dangers or sacrifices which were demanded of them, in order to vindicate and defend the rights which they claimed by virtue of their simple manhood. That grand and imperishable- declaration of the rights which man may claim as. the inalienable endowment of his Creator, which was made one year later, was but the echo of the guns which disturbed the morning air of Lexington one hundred years ago. The grandeur of that hour was its absolute and unhesitating response to the call of duty. Here stood our sires ; and here they fell. They could do no otherwise. They were British subjects. No independence had yet been proclaimed. No war had yet been declared ; and yet they resisted. The thought of founding a new nation did not fire their hearts ; and yet they dared to lift their hands against the power of their lawful sovereign. They counted no cost. They knew not that they were striking a chord which would vibrate through the land, and summon, every colony to their side. They stood alone, alone with duty, face to face with an imperious necessity which their manhood laid upon them. Ah, fellow-citizens, is not this their highest title to immortality? — not that they opened the vast drama of events which followed, not that they were founders of a new nation, not that the American Republic had its birth in that hour ; but rather that in sublime fidelity to duty, alone, unsupported, cheered by no voice save the still voice of duty speaking within their hearts, they dared to be true to their convictions, and to strike a blow, however feeble, however hopeless, for their rights as men. If they had doubted, they must have despaired. If they had shrunk from the perils and opportunities of that one hour, who does not see that the decisive moment would have been lost ? To-day, seen in the ordinary historical perspective, the scenes which we are now recalling are covered with a halo which half conceals the heroism then witnessed If we can for a moment dispel this false halo, we shall see, more clearly than we are wont to see, how simple, austere, and devoted was the sense of duty which animated the men who first resisted arbitrary power on this spot. It is easy to imagine a great and proud nation pouring forth its wealth and strength to maintain its national supremacy. It is easy to imagine a people stung to des perate resistance by the merciless cruelties of the oppressor. No such scene was presented here on the 19th of April, 1775. No military pageant passing before their eyes aroused in the breast of those men the feeling of martial enthusiasm. Dramatic splendors, outward incitements, dreams of Conquest — all were absent; and in their stead nothing presented itself but this simple, stern issue : Shall we, Englishmen, descendants of those who have gradually built up the great monuments and barriers of English liberty till that liberty has become the birthright of all Englishmen, — shall we, a few weak, unprepared, unorganized colonists, assert in our own persons that great doctrine which lies at the foundation of English liberty, — " Taxation without representation is tyranny " ? The very simplicity of the issue discloses the grandeur of the event. These men were brave enough and true enough to accept the call of 52 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. present duty, and to welcome whatever might befall in an efifort to preserve their freedom. They had courage, and they had what, as Carlyle has said, is sdll better than courage, " no particular consciousness of courage, but a readiness in all sim plicity to do and dare whatsoever is commanded by the inward voice of native manhood." I come, therefore, first of all, as a devout pilgrim to this shrine of freedom. I come to refresh myself for coming duties by calling up in vivid recollection the images of that night of .alarm, that morning of blood, the undaunted courage, the pure sim plicity, the high and resolute daring, which will forever embalm the name of Lexing ton among the most priceless memories and inspirations of human history. But I come also In another character and for another purpose. I come to bring to this feast of patriotism the greetings of the descendants of a colony which, from the hour when Samuel Adams, speaking in the name ofthe town of Boston to its representa tives, bade them, " Use your endeavors that the weight of the other North American colonies may be added to that of this province, that by united application all may happily obtain redress," till the long struggle was crowned with final success, never faltered in her devotion to the cause on whose first battle-field we now stand. On the 30th of May, 1764, Virginia, under the impulse of Patrick Henry's elo quence, declared that " the people of Virginia are not bound to yield obedience to any laws designed to impose taxation upon them other than the laws of their own general assembly." On the 6th of June, 1764, the legislature of Massachusetts, on the advice of James Ods, suggested the calling of an American Congress, to be com posed of delegates from each of the thirteen colonies. On the 25th of June, 1764, the suggestion of Massachusetts was debated in the assembly of South Carolina by the then youthful and eloquent John Rutledge, and adopted under the leadership of the intrepid and sagacious Christopher Gadsden. Thus Virginia sounded thu alarm ; Massachusetts proposed the union ; South Carolina responded with the pledge other utmost support. " Be it remembered," says Mr. Brncroft, " that the blessing of union is due to the warm-heartedness of South Carolina. She was alive, and felt at every pore. And when we count up those who, above others, contributed to the great result, we are to name the inspired ' madman' James Otis, and the magnanimous, unwavering lover of his country, Christopher Gadsden." As South Carolina was the first to respond to the call of Massachusetts for a con gress, so her delegates, Gadsden, Rutledge, and Lynch, were the first to arrive in New York, in October, 1764, to attend the congress. The first question to be deter mined by that congress was, upon what grounds the colonists should rest their resist ance to the impending usurpations of parliament. Shall they stand on the royal grants, or on grounds of original, unwritten, imperscriptible right ? Shall they plead their parchment charters, or their birthright as men and Englishmen ? Shall they claim under the grant of the king, or under the grant of God ? Who does not perceive that this was a vital question, on whose decision the dis tinctive character of American freedom and American self-government was to depend? If, at this moment of the first formulation of the claims of the colonists, they had pleaded the royal grants as the source and ground of their rights, whence could Jef- ADDRESS OF GOV. CHAMBERLAIN. 53 ferson have drawn his immortal declaration of the inalienable rights of man ? That discussion in that first congress was the harbinger not only of American independence, but of what, as I think, was more significant still to mankind, the declaration of Ameri can independence. Here again South Carolina spoke through Christopher Gadsden. "We must stand," said he, " upon the broad, common ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men, and as descendants of Englishmen. I wish the charters may not insnare us at last by drawing different colonies to act differently in this great cause. Whenever that is the case, all will be over with the whole. There ought to be no New-England man, no New-Yorker, known on the continent ; but all of us Ameri cans.'' These sentiments, so truthful, so generous, so comprehensive, were adopted by the congress ; and from them has sprung, it is not too much to say, the greatness of the American Republic, — the greatness of the principles on which it rests, and the greatness of its success as a practical example of government of the people, by the people, znAfor the people. In all the deliberations of that first congress, in framing the first formal declaration of the rights of the colonists, no influences were, perhaps, more powerful than the voices of South Carolina's delegates, Gadsden, Rutledge, and Lynch. It was due to the determined opposition of Rutledge that the right of parliament to regulate the trade of the colonies was denied. It was Gadsden and Lynch who denied the pro priety of even approaching parliament by petition. The former declared with impas sioned earnestness, " We neither hold our rights from the House of Commons nor from the Lords." Animated by such sentiments, inspired by such leaders, Massachusetts and South Carolina, with the other colonies, on the 25th of October, 1764, bound them selves to the first formal and united proclamation of the rights which they claimed, of the grievances of which they complained, and of the relief which they demanded. These, fellow-citizens, were the hours in which American freedom took its form. These were the prophetic voices announcing the future which we now see. Listen to them. Samuel Adams : " There are certain original, inherent rights belonging to the people, which parliament itself cannot deprive them of." John Adams : "You have rights antecedent to all earthly government, — - rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws, rights derived from the great Legislator of the universe." James Ods : " Freedom and equality ! Death, with all its tortures, is preferable to slavery." Alexander Hamilton : " The sacred rights of mankind are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." Christopher Gadsden: "We neither hold our rights from the House of Commons nor from the Lords." From 1764 to 1774, throughout the whole of the first epoch of the American Revo lution, while events were hastening forward toward the final struggle of arms. South Carolina responded with earnest and unhesitating fidelity to the call of Massachusetts. The aggressions of Great Britain were hardly felt by her. Her commercial relations were almost wholly with England, but her proud and unconquerable spirit drew her to the side of her sister colonies. " Don't pay for an ounce of the damned tea," was the message of Christopher Gadsden to the people of Boston on the 14th of June, 1774- 54 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. When the Port Act fell with all its rigor on Boston, South Carolina was the first to testify her sympathy by a substantial contribution of rice for the support of the poor of that town. And when the call arose for another congress, the planters of South Carolina again responded with Gadsden, Lynch, John Rudedge, Edward Rutledge, and Middleton as her representadves. When, in October of the same year, congress resolved', that, if the grievances of the colonists were not redressed before the Sep tember following, no merchandise should be exported to Great Britain, Christopher Gadsden, against the protest of his colleagues, declared himself ready to adopt this measure, though it brought ruin on his State. On the nth of January, 1775, South Carolina again resolved to stand firmly by the demands ofthe colonies, and, "if blood be spilt in Massachusetts, the sons of South Carolina will rise in arms." Three months later the blood of Massachusetts was spilt on this spot. How truly, to the end, the sons of South Carolina kept that resolve, history has recorded on her imperishable pages. It is a record which the sons of Massachusetts and South Carolina, which every true American, will recall with patriotic pride. Time forbids me to dwell on its incidents. It was a spirit which rose high above all personal or local interests and feelings, a spirit which bound together the men of Boston and the men of Charleston, Massachusetts and South Carolina, by the great bond of a common determination to maintain the free dom which they had inherited, and which belonged to them as men. I come, fellow-citizens, to remind you, on this great day, of this early, unbroken friendship between Massachusetts and South Carolina throughout the whole Revolu tionary period. Differing however widely in lineage, in habits, in institutions, they were still bound together by a common love for civil freedom. Together they watched the beginnings of tyranny, together they plaimed resistance, together they declared their independence from Great Britain, together, with their lives and for tunes, they maintained that declaration through the long war, together they devised the fabric of government under which the Republic has gro'wn to its present propor tions, together they long labored to build up the strength, the prosperity, and the glory of America. Those precious memories of the past are secure. To-day, at least, we may recall them At Lexington surely South Carolina may still claim a place to do honor to the common cause of American liberty and independence. I know that I am commissioned here to-day to say for South Carolina, that she joins with equal gratitude and reverence with all her sisters of the early days in hon oring the 19th of April, 1775 ; that she claims her share In the glory of the struggle begun at Lexington ; that, as of old she bade Massachusetts cheer in the struggle, so now she unites with her in these patriotic services. It is not for me, it is not for any one, on this occasion, to speak of later events in which these two ancient allies stood face to face as enemies. Who that has an American heart does not rejoice, that, back of all the recent bitter struggle, there lies the gracious heritage of those common labors and dangers and sacrifices in founding this common government ? Who that looks with a just eye even on the recent strug gle does not now see, on either side, the same high elements of character, the courage, the devotion to duty, the moral lineaments, of the Adamses and Hancocks, the Gads- duns and Rutledges, of a hundred years ago ? Who that has faith in the destinies of RESPONSE OF GOV. GASTON. 55 America does not see in this early friendship — ay, and even in this later conflict — the potency and promise of that coming Union under whose protection liberty shall forever walk hand in hand with justice ; wherein the North and South, re-united in spirit and aims, shall again respond to every call of patriotic duty in the old tones of Samuel Adams and Christopher Gadsden, of James Otis and John Rutledge ? That spirit still lives, fellow-citizens, in South Carolina. If in later days she has erred, forgive her, for even then she dared and suffered with a courage and patience not unworthy in its strength of the days when Gadsden and Rutledge illustrated her civic wisdom, and Sumter and Marion her martial prowess. " Magnanimity," says Mr. Burke, " is not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a great ^empire and little minds go ill together." Fellow-citizens, I offer you to-day the fraternal, patriotic greetings of South Caro lina, — of all her people. She marches again to-day to the music of that Union which a hundred years ago her wisdom helped to devise and her blood to cement. There, in that hallowed Union, endeared and sanctified by so many blessed memories, and radiant with so many proud hopes and promises, there, there she " must live, or bear no life." Oh, welcome her anew to-day to the old fellowship ! The monuments of marble and brass which we build to-day to the memory of the fathers will crumble and corrode ; but there is one monument which we may erect in the hearts of all the American people, «r^/>^/'tf«;w«j', — the monument of a re-unitad country, a free and just government, " an indestructible Union of indestructible States." The President, — Such a voice from South Carolina suggests the next toast, 2E{)E CommonfaealtJ) of JHaasacfjugetta. And we have now the pleasure of expecting a reply from his Excellency Gov. Gaston. The governor at once responded : — SPEECH OF GOVERNOR GASTON. Mr. President, — I regret that I was not here to respond to this toast when it was first called. I did my best to get here, and have been working three hours before I could succeed. You call upon me, Mr. President, to speak for Massachusetts. On this nineteenth day of April, Massachusetts does not need defence, eulogy, or speech. Her history for more than two centuries is sufficient speech for her to-day. May 1 not, sir, still, in the words of her greatest statesman, say of her, " There she is : behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history : the whole world knows it by heart. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain forever"? It has been my privilege, gentlemen, as your representative, to welcome to Massachusetts soil that eminent soldier, now the chief magistrate of forty millions of people. It has been my privilege also, as your representative, to welcome the distinguished members of the Cabinet who for a brief period have left the cares of state, and the duties of their high office, to visit the scene of the early con flicts of the Revolution. And I welcome in your name the governors of other States, 56 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. the men of New Hampshire, of Connecticut, of Vermont ; and I welcome in your name the gallant and eloquent governor of South Carolina, and I give back the sentiment of patriotism which he, in behalf of South Carolina, expressed here to-day. Massa chusetts and South Carolina, a hundred years ago, had hearts which beat in unison ; and we are sure that South Carolina and Massachusetts to-day have a common heart in this great patriotic purpose. Gentlemen, I will not at this late hour detain you by any lengthy speech j but let me say, as we are stepping upon the borders of the second century of our existence as a free, independent, and yet united country, let us declare that we will preserve and maintain that Republic whose strong foundations were laid one hundred years ago. The President. — You know, fellow-citizens, that to-day we celebrate along the whole line. I have just received from our brethren at Concord, by the hands of the President of the United States, this sentiment : — Concord sends greeting to Lexington on this hundredth anniversary of the glorious morning, by the hand of the President of the United States. The Great Republic, whose thirty-seven States span a continent from ocean to ocean, is the harvest of which the seed was sown on the 19th of April, 1775. E. Rockwood Hoar. This communication was received with deafening applause and cheers. The President. — I offer the next regular toast : — lEitglanti anil America, " Now true and loyal friends ; the two great Anglo-Saxon nations settle their differences with justice, and without the sword." We had associated with this sentiment the name of one whose felicity it has been to contribute so much to this fortunate result, the eminent Secre- retary of State ; but Mr. Fish has been compelled to leave our table a few minutes since, and so we will listen to a communication just received from England. At the time of the Revolution, the noblest Englishmen, Chatham, Burke, Camden, and others, spoke for us ; and I will now request the Rev. Mr. Porter to read the words of wisdom and cheer that come to us from Mr. Gladstone. The name of Mr. Gladstone was received with great enthusiasm, and Mr. Porter read his letter. LETTER FROM THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE. London, March 5, 1S75. Gentlemen, — I have had the honor to receive the letter * in which you convey to me a very warm and courteous invitation to attend the banquet which it is proposed to * See p. 92. MR. GLADSTONE'S LETTER. 57 hold at Lexington in commemorarion of the attainment of independence by the United States of America. The circumstances of the war which yielded that result, the principles It illustrates, and the remarkable powers and characters of the principal men who took part, whether as soldiers or civilians, in the struggle, have always invested it with a peculiar interest in my eyes, quite independently of the intimate concern of this country in the events themselves. On account of these features, that war and its accompaniments seem to me to constitute one of the most instructive chapters of modern history, and I have repeat edly recommended them to younger men as subjects of especial study. With these views, I need not say how far lam from regarding the approaching celebration with indifference. It is entirely beyond my power to cross the sea, even with the present admirable communications, for the purpose of attendance. The present time happens to be for me, even independently of my attendance in Parlia ment, one of many urgent occupations which I am not at liberty to put aside. But I earnestly hope, and I cannot doubt, that the celebration will be worthy of the occasion. In a retrospective view of the eventful period, my countrymen can now contemplate its incidents with impartiality. I do not think they should severely blame their ancestors, whose struggles to maintain the unity of the British empire is one that must, I think, after the late great war of the North and South, be viewed in America with some sympathy and indulgence. We can hardly be expected to rate very highly the motives of those European* powers who threw their weight into the other scale, and who so sensibly contributed towards accelerating, if not, indeed, towards deter mining, the issue of the war ; yet, for one, I can most truly say that, whatever the motives and however painful the process, they, while seeking to do an injury, conferred upon us a great benefit, by releasing us from efforts the continuation of which would have been an unmixed evil. As regards the fathers of the American Constitution themselves, I believe we can and do now contemplate their great qualities and achievements with an admiration as pure as that of American citizens themselves ; and can rejoice no less heartily, that, in the counsels of Providence, they were made the instruments of a purpose most beneficent to the world. The circumstances under which the United States began their national existence, and their unexampled rapidity of advance in wealth, population, enterprise, and power, have imposed on their people an enormous responsibility. They will be tried, as we shall, at the bar of history ; but on a greater scale. They will be com. pared with the men not only of other countries, but of other times. They cannot escape from the liabilities and burdens which their greatness imposes. No one desires more fervently than I do, that they may be enabled to realize the highest hopes and anticipations that belong to their great position in the family of man. I have the honor to be, gentlemen. Your obliged and faithful servant, W. E. Gladstone. G. Hudson, M. H. Merriam, W. M. Mi;nroe, Esquires. 58 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The Boylston Club then sang the following song, written by Dr. Henry G. Clark, a grandson of the Rev. Jonas Clark of Lexington : — THE SIGNAL GUN. 'Tis not yet dawn. All nature sleeps ; Freshly o'er soft and dewy green, The breath of apple-blossoms sweeps ; And silent stars brood o'er the scene. A SIGNAL GUN ! Ye minute-men, Stand to your arms I Resounding drums. Re-beat your long, long roll again I The Briton's scarlet squadron comes I While in hot haste they gathered then. The red-coats marched with steady pace ; But with stout hearts these patriot men Waited to meet them, face to face. Lay down your arms I and now disperse I Swinging his sabre round his head, — Disperse, you rebels / all disperse I For this it was the major said. Sadly, but with unconquered will. They yielded then that unfought field ; Nor knew that they were victors still. Or saw the triumph fate revealed : But happy they, who, on that morn. Fell by that murderous volley hurled ; Baptizing with their blood, new-drawn, " The shot that echoed round the world I " The President. — There are some ancestries of which Americans may well be proud. The descendants of the Pilgrims of " The Mayflower," of the men of Saratoga and Yorktown, of those who dared the sentence of the scaffold of high treason, and signed the Declaration of Independence, have a pedigree never to be forgotten. They have a right to recount the early glories of the Republic. But our Orator of the Day represents, as their lineal descendant, William Ellery and Francis Dana, two of the signers of the first compact of American Union. Do you not think Mr. Dana owes us two speeches to-day ? [Shouts of Yes, yes ! ] No wonder that he knows so well the story that can never grow old. I am about to propose a toast to entice him from his ease and comfort MR. DANA'S SPEECH. 59 at this table ; and, if he will speak to us again, we will hold that he has earned the right to silence till — our next Centennial. ©ur ©rator of t|e Hag. " The Jurist, Constitutional and International ; who has sought not the rills, but the fountains, of Liberty and Law, and brought us their purest flow." Mr. Dana arose and said, — SPEECH OF THE HON. RICHARD H. DANA, Jun. Mr. President, — I understood you to say, sir, that you meant to entice me from my ease and comfort. Now, I should like to know what description of ease and comfort will describe the situation we have been in the last half-hour. An official, duly decked out with a ribbon, passed this way, and told us, " The speeches are to be omitted ; and wisely," he added, looking hard at some of us. So we felt safe ; when I saw all eyes turned on me, and caught a few of your last words. I understood you to say that I owed one more speech to the people on this occasion. Well, sir, I admit the debt, but I intend to go into bankruptcy. I think, sir, I have had quite my share of the opportunities of the day ; you have given me a full hour this morning, and I feel so impressed with a sense of the work which was cast upon me, and of the great imperfectness with which I was able to meet it then, that I am not willing to take the risk again. In that oration, sir, — I can say it safely because very few here, perhaps, heard it, — in that oration I said all that I knew; I have nothing left, and I hoped to be permitted to occupy the position of an auditor. Now, you are all so comfortably situated, you all have had so much to eat and so much to drink, and you have all found it so easy to get here, and you will all find it so easy to get back again, that I am very sure you are in the best possible spirits, and that all you wish is for the speaking to go on, and to hear as many speakers as you possibly can. I understand that the judges of the supreme court, who have been travelling all day, have got somewhere at last ; they have arrived at this place dinnerless, and without any written opinion in their pockets ; but the Chief Justice will be called upon to pronounce his opinion of all that has occurred to him and the rest of us to-day. I supposed that I had done and had said all that I had thought of saying, and was about to sit down ; but allow me to say one thing more that is personal. I didn't hear what the president of the day said about me. I was engaged in agreeable conversation with two gentlemen near me, and with a number of gentlemen outside the tent, who were making themselves heard above the voice of the president, and trying to get in ; and just at the last moment I heard something said about certain rights and privileges of mine, running back several generations, by reason of ancestors who signed the Declaradon- of Independence, and committed acts of high treason as magistrates, of which we are now quite proud; but I don't know what it was. I ask his pardon ; I wish I had heard it. It will all be in print, however. I don't mean to intimate that it isn't in print now. You are 60 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. all so good-natured I shall not be able to stop ; I must break off. I wish to say that my excuse for being here to-day, and I suppose the reason why the people of Lexing ton made the mistake of asking me to be their orator, is, that Lexington people have a way of doing what there is to be done by themselves. They did that a hundred years ago ; they have been doing it ever since ; and they came to me, and asked me to come here and be their orator. I said, " Why, I am not a Lexington man born." They said, " Yes, you are." — " Well," I said, " I never heard that before." — " Yes : you were born in Cambridge, were you not?" — "Yes, I was born in Cambridge." — " Well, Lexington was a part of Cambridge. Lexington was set off from Cambridge just in time to fight the battle for herself; " and the^y recognized me as a son of Lex ington, because Lexington is a daughter of Cambridge. I don't know as that is correct genealogy, but that is the way the committee represented it to me. It is enough to say that I always felt proud of being born in Cambridge. I believe it is the next best thing to being born in Boston, which, they say, is the immortality itself. Well, as I could not be born in Boston, — it was thought that I might be hurt, that it would not be for my spiritual good to be born in Boston, — so I was born as near Boston as I was permitted to be ; and I feel very proud of it : hereafter the great pride of my life will be, that I am also a native of Lexington. I meant to say one word more. Lexington used to give very warm receptions to her enemies. They did a hundred years ago. I suppose you thought you ought not to treat your friends in the same way. We will never complain of it, on that score. Mr. President, I will not take the time that I know so many gentlemen about me are desirous to occupy, anxious to be unexpectedly called upon ; and so I will return to you my thanks, and take my seat. The President. — We are all aware that the American Constitution was written and constructed by the American Bar ; and it is in their conservation of its forms and organic methods, that one of the truest conservatisms of our progressive country consists. When the Bench and Bar are toasted, they are never without advocates. I see them now in all directions, straining like greyhounds in the slip. So we have no need to solicit a response to the next toast, but we recognize the right of the distinguished Chief Justice of Massa chusetts to respond, — CljE JSencl) ant Bar. And I have the pleasure of presenting the Hon. Horace Gray. RESPONSE OF CHIEF-JUSTICE GRAY. I suppose, Mr. President, that we all to-day strive to associate ourselves, as far as we can, with the 19th of April, 1775. Although the court which I have the honor to represent does not go back quite to that day, it does very nearly ; for it was organ ized by the Revolutionary Government of Massachusetts upon substantially its pres ent basis in that same year 1775, and is therefore, I believe, the oldest court in the RESPONSE OF CHIEF-JUSTICE GRAY. 6 1 United States. I do not propose to weary you with reminiscences of the court ; but it may be fit to allude to what some of its members have done towards maintaining a National Union. The first chief justice was John Adams. It was while he held the commission of chief justice of Massachusetts, that he played so great a part in the Continental Congress in framing and carrying the Declaration of Independence of the United States ; and he was prevented only by his paramount duty to the nation, and his employments in her immediate service, from returning to take his seat upon the bench. ¦ 1 thought and I said, Mr. President, when first invited to speak for the court on this occasion, that my junior associate might more appropriately respond in its behalf; being a descendant of that Richard Devens who, as a member and in behalf of the Committee of Safety, on the i8th of April, 1775, signed the call for the re-assembling of the Provincial Congress ; and having himself, fifteen years ago on this anniversary, left his practice at the bar to act in a military capacity in the defence of the Con stitution and Union of the country. But when I thought of exerting the authority? which the chief justice is accustomed to exercise, of designating the judge who should speak for the court, he told me that he expected to be heard from at Bunker Hill on the 17th of June next; and I was obliged to consider that a sufficient excuse. I can hardly hope, having just arrived at this late hour, to give you any thing of interest concerning the 19th of April, that you have not heard already. At the risk of repetition, I venture to quote a judicial opinion upon the state of affairs on the morning of the battie of Lexington. It has always, as you know, been much dis cussed by the historians and orators, whether the Americans or the British fired first, and how much actual resistance was offered to the first attack of the British troops. At a meeting of the Constitutional Society in London on the 7th of June, 1775, it was proposed " that a subscription should be immediately entered into by such of the members present who might approve the purpose, for raising the sum of one hundred pounds, to be applied to the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellow-subjects, who, faithful to the character of Englishmen, pre ferring death to slavery, were for that reason only inhumanly murdered by the king's troops at or near Lexington and Concord in the Province of Massachusetts on the 19th of last April ;" and, the sum being immediately collected, it was thereupon re solved that Mr. John Home do pay it to-morrow into the hands of certain bankers on account of Dr. Franklin, and that Dr. Franklin be requested to apply it to the above- mentioned purpose. The proposal and resolution having been published in the news papers by Mr. Home (better known afterwards as Horne Tooke) he was indicted for a seditious libel, and brought to trial before Lord Mansfield on the 4th of July, 1777. One of the principal witnesses at the trial was a British officer, who had been wounded and taken prisoner by the Americans, and whose affidavit with others had been taken and forwarded to England, by order of the Provincial Congress, immediately after the battle. Lord Mansfield, in his charge to the jury, observed that upon the evidence it was left in doubt which party fired first, but treated that as of no great importance, and said, " This was not a stated time of peace, when the king's troops, under the authority of the governor, go from one part to another ; to have bodies of men, in 62 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. military array, armed, and signals fired ! but this they found. . . . They had erected in effect their standards ; each had their troops in battle array ; they were ready to fight." I think that is an exact judicial definition of the state of things here on the morn ing of the 19th of April a hundred years ago, which I could not add to or improve. The President. — Our dinner is graced by the presence of the Legislature of the Commonwealth. It has just arrived from Concord after a railroad march not half so rapid and scarcely more comfortable than the return march from Concord of Col. Smith's grenadiers. We have to-day the unwonted experience of meeting the Great and General Court where it can neither con trol nor investigate us. It is not the first time that the conscript fathers have been in this vicinity. Besides Hancock and Adams, we had on the eve of April 19, 1775, at the Menotomy Tavern a few miles down the road, three leaders of the Congress of the Province, — Elbridge Gerry, Col. Orne, and Henry Lee. There they were, sleeping the sleep of the just and of the re bellious, when the column of that terrible old horse-marine Major Pitcairn appeared on the East Cambridge .road. They then remembered that they had engagements in a certain field, went there with all convenient speed, and with such elaborate costume as legislators wear about two o'clock in the morning. We trust the honorable Senate and House of Representatives have had a quieter, pleasanter, and less dangerous season in their experiences to-day. We know they would never run from an enemy, dodge a difficulty, or evade a bore. We think no one can better speak for the Government of Massachusetts than the President of her Senate, the Hon. George B. Loring, for we have heard him in Lexington before ; and I invite his response to the next regular toast, — W^z General Cotirt of ilHassaci^xtsetts. Dr. Loring had consented to respond to this sentiment ; but, being obliged to leave at an early hour, he kindly furnished the committee with the fol lowing : — ADDRESS BY THE HON. GEORGE B. LORING. Mr. President and Fellow- Citizens, — The toast which has just been announced, and to which I am called on to respond, is one which on a day like this is entitled to care ful popular attention, and to the serious consideration of every student of American history. Not that the legislature of this Commonwealth, where representative bodies found their eai ly theatre of action, possesses any thing more than a local interest ; but that its organization and existence stand for a great principle of government, a principle without which the characteristics of the American civil structure, for which the fathers fought, would be unknown. The growth of representative government in DR. TORINO'S ADDRESS. 63 this country was almost spontaneous, and was one of the earliest acts of the colonists. The colonial legislatures sprang into existence without concert of action on the part of the colonies, and without special grant, but, as it were, from a popular instinct that lay at the foundation of that constitutional freedom for which the country was settled, and the war was carried on. " A house of burgesses broke out in Virginia in r62o," says Hutchinson ; and, " although there was no color for it in the charter of Massa chusetts, a house of representatives appeared suddenly in 1634." The colonists had been taught to have unbounded faith in popular government ; and they had moreover learned that all great fundamental acts of such government had always been inaugu rated by the popular branch. The history of all legislative bodies teaches this to us as it taught it to them. Freedom has always found its protection in that branch of the government which springs directly from the people, — in the legislative branch, — whatever may have been the executive, whether king, emperor, or president. So Lord Kenyon in 1779, when Benjamin Flowers was committed by the house of lords on the Bishop of Llandaff, said, " These insinuations are thrown out against the encroachment by the House of Lords on the liberties of the subject ; but the good subjects of this country feel themselves protected in their liberties by both houses of Parliament." So the fearless Pym, in the great commotions of 1640, said, "The great privileges belonging to this high court of Parliament are not airy and matters of pomp, but have in them reality and efficacy : whereby this great council of the kingdom is enabled to perform all those noble functions which belong to them in respect to the legislative power and the conciliary power." And Magna Charta, the Englishman's Declaration of Independence, declares that " The pretended power of suspending laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal ;" and also that "The freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament." The Constitution of the United States confers all its great powers on Congress : viz., " To lay and collect taxes, pay the debts, and provide for the common defence ; to borrow money ; to regulate commerce ; to establish a uniform rule of naturalization ; to coin money ; to establish post offices and post roads ; to constitute tribunals infe rior to the supreme court ; to declare war ; to raise and support armies ; to provide and maintain a navy; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union ; to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States or any department or office thereof." The great principles of government, brought by our fathers from England, and applied here to the business of self-government, taught them that the legislative branch is the great creative power and the great popular defender. In framing our Federal Constitution they bore it in mind. Even in conferring the veto power upon the executive, they provided that two-thirds of each branch of Congress should suffice to overcome the veto. And they guarded with special care that branch of government with which the people were in most immediate contact, and which was most frequently sub jected to the popular vote. It is not too much to say, therefore, the government which they founded was purely representative in all its most prominent characteristics. 64 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. From that day to this, the American people have always had faith in legislative bodies. As I have said, in the early colonial days they cherished their popular assemblies. They were proud of the mother country, and boasted of their loyalty; but dearer than all ancestry or allegiance was their right of representation, and they insisted on the exercise of this right until they established it by the sword of revolu tion. In all the great trying periods of our history, the power of the legislature has been manifested for guiding and sustaining the people. It was in the Continental Con gress that the great civil names of our early Republic won their renown, — the Jeffer- sons and Henrys and Lees and Adamses of that day. And on that great arena where popular rights were discussed, and a rising nation was moulded into form, the high debate of the hour brought forth those grand principles of government upon which our Republic now rests. It was Congress in the war. Congress during the confeder ation. Congress at the adoption of the Constitution, which was clothed with thelargest power. Said Samuel Adams, " The first fundamental positive law of all common wealths or states is the establishing of the legislative power." And when this great man of the people was reminded by John Adams, that " the nobles have been the essen tial parties in the preservation of liberty," that there is a " natural and actual aris tocracy among mankind ; " that they had seen " four noble families rise up in Boston, the Craftses, Gores, Daweses, and Austins," and that " we must not depend alone upon the love of liberty in the soul for its preservation," — he simply replied, " Is not the whole sovereignty, my friend, essentially in the people ? The American legisla tures are merely balances. The cottager may beget a wise son ; the noble, a fool." And we may congratulate ourselves that the faith of Samuel Adams has thus far been the American doctrine, and that in peace and in war, through all political trials and revolutions, the popular power, the legislative function, has been preserved in all its purity, — " a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." It is the legislature, then, which is the corner-stone of our civil structure. The dream of the earliest advocates of civil freedom in the Old World, the great object of every popular protest, the special prerogative claimed by our ancestors both at home and in exile, — the right of the people to make their own laws through their own im mediate representatives, — has become the object most dear to every freeman ; and so dear to all nations struggling to be free, that its semblance has become necessary for the existence and safety of even despotism itself. Whenever it shall be demonstrated that popular legislation is a failure, the hopes of popular government must be abandoned. But is it a failure ? Let the history of our own State and country answer. The record of the United States, from its earliest provincial and colonial days down to this very hour, is but a record of popular legislation. And what a record it is I Always jealous for the rights of the people, the legislative assemblies of this country have preserved and passed down from age to age those great principles upon which our independence was established and our Constitution erected. It is the colonial legislature, the Continental Congress, the popular assemblies of embryo States, the Congress of cur Union, which in peace and war haye given our political history its true greatness. It is in these bodies that American statesmanship has won most of its renown, and has accomplished its highest purpose. So long as the American people shall cherish the memory of Patrick Henry and his burning eloquence for DR. LORING 'S ADDRESS. 65 freedom ; so long as the history of that old Congress where Adams and Jefferson and Franklin and Lee and Randolph and Gerry sat, and guided a struggling people, and where the Declaration of Independence was conceived and proclaimed ; so long as that assembly shall endure, where Pinckney and Mason and Wirt and Webster and Clay engaged in their masterly forensic eloquence, where " the Old Man Eloquent " carried his profound learning, his fearless spirit, and the unconquerable sentiment of a freedom-loving constituency, where in later days an honorable body of senators and representatives from our own State have for years pursued their high- toned course, " unawed by influence, and unbribed by gain," — so long will the Ameri can legislature command the admiration of the civilized world, and vindicate itself against all charges of intellectual weakness and moral degradation. Does any man doubt still the power and dignity and importance of our popular branch of govern ment ? Let him turn to the fearless and patriotic and comprehensive career of Con gress during our civil war, faithful always to the army, to the rising issues, and to the financial necessities of the times. Let him contemplate the resolute determination of our State legislatures during all that period. Let him review that long and desperate struggle between Congress and the executive, in which the fate of constitutional free dom trembled in the balance, and nothing but thj devotion of tha popular branch secured to an emancipated people all the rights of citizenship. The magnitude and importance of the questions which continually arise in the legislative assemblies of a free people — questions affecting their moral and intellect ual progress, as well as that material prosperity in which every citizen must share — must of necessity have an enl.irging and elevating influence upon the mind of every legislator. His obligations to an enlightened constituency, any one of whom m.iy one day wisely and discreetly fill the place occupied by himself, are constantly before him ; and the relations which exist between himself as an American legislator, and them as an American constituency, are such as exist in no other community on earth. That relations like these must exert a good influence upon the mind and heart of him who holds them, I cannot for a moment doubi. American legislation is an educator for good, and not for evil. Its influence is so seldom demoralizing, that the instances of ruin by public life of this description are almost unknow.i. The associatio.is that are established within those legislative halls which are so numerous in our land are remembered by most men in after life with that pleasure and pride which no dis honest intercourse could secure. To this service low and mean qualities may be brought, it is true, as to every other service in life. But corruption seldom prevails ; the criminals known as such are seldom in a majority. When Sir Robert Walpole made that statement, too thoughtlessly accepted by us, that " every man has his price," he was living in an age of intrigues between rivals, who knew no accounta bility except to each other, and no statecraft except the struggles of factions for power. With us, however, it is not the price of a man, but of a constituency ; and few are they, who, even when unmindful of all their moral obligations, are bold enough to defy a community of equals, to whom they are to render, an account of their steward ship. The history of legislation, then, in this State and country, is not the history of corruption. And, when we examine our statute-books, we may there find abundant evidence of the wisdom and discretion of those who enact our laws. There may be 9 66 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. unwise statutes ; there may be indiscreet attempts at legislation ; there may be acts based upon conflicting views of the wants and necessities of society. But over all we shall generally find a keen sense of national honor, a just understanding of local rights and interests, a wise and discriminating view of what is required by our material wants, and everywhere a quick recognition of what is necessary for the allevi ation of suffering, for the reformation of the criminal, and for that moral and religious and intellectual culture which lies at the foundation of republican institutions. I am sure that the student of the political history of our day, as he contemplates the work of humanity and reform, the management of state affairs in war and peace, which our legislators have accomplished, will read with astonishment that they who left this public record for their country obtained their position by a system of bargain and corruption revolting to every honorable mind, and were guided in their public con duct by dishonest and disreputable motives. My friends, it is not so. The American people are not blind to true merit. Successful intrigue is the exception, not the rule. The reputation of our public men, large and small, who are gone, and their condition when they retired from public life, are such as to relieve them from the imputation. And with those who remain, and are now in active service, their elevation has been mainly the result of hard and honest and faithful performance of duty, which has impressed itself upon the minds ofthe community where they are best known. The, virtues and qualities which succeed in all other occupations — judgment, prudence, courage, foresight, sagacity, honesty, industry, and that capacity which is vouchsafed to comprehensive minds — succeed also in public life. Believing, then, that Massa chusetts will in time to come, as she has done in time past, win an honorable reputa tion in her legislative halls, I submit to the opening century her law-making record, with confidence that its close will find it still wiser and stronger with the experience brought by the revolving years. The following song by the Rev. William C. Gannett was next sung by the club. "LET IT BEGIN HERE." [Capt. Parker's words on Lexington Green : " Don't fire unless you are fired on ; but, if they ¦want a war, let it begin here."] " AULD LANG SVNE." The April thrills along the hills ; The violets wake below. But never to the thrill they knew A hundred years ago. That day the calls from pasture-walls In echoing signals ran. As swift replied the country-side To what they here began. " Let it begin ! " a voice within The waiting farmers spake, — GEN. BARTLETT' S SPEECH. 67 Thy voice in whom the Aprils bloom. In whom the nations wake ! Old lands had yearned, old dreamers burned. That radiant day to win ; And still it fled, until they said, " Now let it here begin ! " Then at the word the sleeper stirred : Without or king or caste. Serene and strong to right its wrong, The People rose at last. Each quick to feel the common weal. The many, yet the one, — And heart pledged heart no more to part : Behold what here begun 1 The President. — I propose the eighth toast, with which associates itself the name of our friend Gen. Francis Bartlett, now of Richmond, Va., — W^z WottI) ant( tljc Soutf). I see Gen. Bartlett at the next table, and have the honor of presenting him •to you. ADDRESS OF GEN. WILLIAM FRANCIS BARTLETT. Mr. President, — When I opened the letter from your committee asking me to come from five hundred miles away, and say a few words here to-day, it seemed impossible. But as I read further your desire that I should speak on the " relations of the North to the South," and your assertion, that, as an unprejudiced observer, what I might say would help to restore fraternal relations between the two great sections of our country, although knowing how greatly you overrated the value of any poor words of mine, I felt, that, if they could lend the least aid to the result you described, incli nation and the cares of business must yield to the voice of duty ; and I came. But, sir, I am not an "unprejudiced observer." On the contrary, I have a prejudice, which is shared by all soldiers, in favor of peace. And I think I may safely say, that, between the soldiers of the two great sections of our country, fraternal relations were established long ago. I have also a strong prejudice against any man or men who would divide or destroy or retard the prosperity and progress of the nation whose corner-stone was laid in the blood of our fathers one hundred years ago to-day. Moved by this preju dice, fourteen years ago, I opposed the men who preferred disunion to death. True to this prejudice, I to-day despise the men who Would, for the sake of self or party, stand in the way of reconciliation and a united country. The distinguished soldier who is your chief guest to-day never came nearer to the hearts of the people than when he said, " Let us have peace.'' And, sir, the only really belligerent people in the country to-day. North and South, are those, who, while the war lasted, followed 68 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. carefully the paths of peace. Do not believe that the light and dirty froth which is blown northward, and. scattered over the land (oftentimes for malicious purposes), rep resents, the true current of public opinion at the South. Look to their heroes, their leaders, — their Gordons, their Lees, their Johnsons, Lamar, Ransom, and Ripley; and tell me if you find in their utterances any thing but renewed loyalty and devotion to a re-united country. These are the men, as our great and good Gov. Andrew told you at the close of the war, — these are the men by whom and through whom you must restore the South, instead of the meaner men for whom power is only a synonyme for plunder. As I begged you last summer, I entreat you again : do not repel the return ing love of these men by suspicion or indifference. If you cannot in forgiveness " kill the fatted calf," do not with coldness kill " the prodigal." When the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment made its gallant attack on Fort Wagner in July, 1863, it lost, with hundreds of its brave men, its heroic leader and its colors. A few weeks ago, that flag was gracefully returned to the governor of Massachusetts by the officer who took it in action, with these noble words : — Under the existing state of things, I deem it decorous, if not a positive duty, to promote the oblivion of animosities which led to, and were engendered by, the war. I prefer to look upon such trophies as mementoes of the gallant conduct of men who, like Shaw, Putnam, and other sons of Massachusetts, sealed with their lives their devotion to the cause which they adopted, rather than as evidences of prowess on the one side or the other. The custodians of such a memento should be the authorities of the State served by these gallant men ; and I therefore transmit the flag to your Excellency for such disposition as the authorities of Massachusetts shall determine. Respectfully, your obedient servant, R. S. Ripley. No one but a soldier can know how he would cling to a trophy that he had taken in honorable battle. No one but a soldier knows what it would cost to give it up, unless compelled by the loftier motives of chivalrous patriotism. And, when Gen. Ripley Wrote that letter, he thought not of self, not of South Carolina, nor of Massa chusetts, but of a restored and a united country ; and his heart embraced a continent. There are tattered flags in that sacred hall in yonder Capitol, around which in the shock of battle I have seen dear friends and brave men fall like autumn leaves. There are flags' there that I cannot look upon without tears of pride and sorrow. But there is no flag there which has to-day for us a deeper significance, or that bears within its folds a brighter omen of "Peace on earth, good will to men," than that battle- stained emblem so tenderly restored by a son of South Carolina, whom here, in the name of the soldiers of Massachusetts, I thank and greet as a brother. And I am proud that he was an American soldier. As an x'^merican, I am as proud of the men who charged so bravely with Pickett's division on our lines at Gettysburg, as I am of the men who so bravely met and repulsed them there. Men cannot always choose the right cause ; but when, having chosen that which conscience dictates, they are ready to die for it, if they justify not their cause, they at least ennoble themselves. And the men who for conscience' sake fought against their government at Gettysburg, ADDRESS OF GEN. CHAMBERLAIN. 69 ought easily to be forgiven by the sons of men who for conscience' sake fought against their government at Lexington and Bunker Hill. Oh, sir, as Massachusetts was first in war, so let her be first in peace, and she shall forever be first in the hearts of her countrymen. And let us here resolve, that, true to her ancient motto, while in war " Ense petit placidam," in peace she demands, not only for herself, but for every inch of this great country, '^ sub libertate quietem." The President. — In the early days of the Colony of the Bay, a number of gentlemen — Stephen Winthrop, Peter Oliver, John Foster, Saltonstall, Sedg wick, Spencer, and others — petitioned for a charter of military incorporation. The cautious governor, John Winthrop, hesitated ; lest, as he said, like praeto rian bands or Templars, they might endanger the civic authority. Two hun dred and forty-eight years have passed since then ; and, so far from thwarting the civil power, this association has been the source and origin of many and many a troop of those soldiers who are of the people, and for the people, and who fight that the government of the people may not perish. I propose, — W^t ?^ealti[j anti prosperitn of tlje Ancient anti J^onoralile Srtillcrg ffiompang. The toast was followed by music from the band. The President. — There formerly prevailed an idea that cultivated scholars were ill adapted to the hard blows of life or to a nation's defence. How nobly that illusion has been recently dispelled, you all know, when the colleges and universities sent forth their expectancy and rose to the battle-fields. The fair mother of learning and science wishes it also remembered, that, in the ancient days ofthe Revolution, John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, John Hancock, James Otis, Josiah Quincy, were all her foster-children too. I give you, — WciZ eCoIlegeg anb ^Entiiersittes of America. And trust that Ex Gov. Chamberlain of Maine can get sufficiently near us to respond. The crowded ranks of the audience immediately made way for Gen. Cham berlain, who approached the elevated table, and said, — SPEECH OF GEN. J. L. CHAMBERLAIN OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE. Mr. President, — The men who made this ground immortal were not only martyrs of a noble cause : they were masters also. Tradition, education, thought, discussion. 70 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. experience, had made them well acquainted with those principles of freedom which formed the basis of their constitution and their religion. They are worthy to be our teachers in constitutional law and civil rights. I know not where or when in the world's history there has been a more able exposition, or a more thorough popular understanding, of the great equation of liberty and law, than among the men who a hundred years ago, on these fields, enshrined the undying story in the emblazonry of their blood. Well might the British ministry complain that the people of New England " med dled too much with politics," — an early fault of theirs, and not yet very near a cure, I believe. Well might the royal governor. Gen. Gage, excuse his inability by report ing that all the people in his government were lawyers, or smatterers in law, and able to repel or evade the measures of the ministry. Doubtiess there was reason for this, when from every pulpit and press 'and platform and bar and town-meeting floor were proclaimed the sacred guaranties of the consti tution, and the inalienable rights of man. I speak of the pulpit, for that was a power in those days which we scarcely appreciate. I hope some one here will respond for the pulpit of the Revolution. Read these sermons and speeches and articles and letters. See with what insight and comprehension, what force of logic, what amplitude of illus tration, what height of motive, what burning concentration of eloquence, they enforced the mighty argument. And where were the fountains that supplied these perpetual streams? Where but in the schools and colleges, where learning was dedicated to Christ and the Church, where the law was taught as based on the liberty that makes truly free ? This testimony is borne by Burke in his speech on the Conciliation of the Colonies : "Another circumstance which contributes toward the growth and effect of this intract able spirit — I mean their education. In no country in the world is the law so general a study. All who read — and most do read — obtain some smattering in that science. This study makes men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources. In other countries the people, more simple, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance : here they judge of the pres sure of the grievance by the badness of the principle." Says President Stiles of Yale, that noble patriot, " The colleges have been of sin gular advantage in the present day. When Britain withdrew all her wisdom from America, this Revolution found above two thousand in New England only, who had been educated in the colonies, intermixed with the people, and communicating knowl edge among them." Observe the gifts and words of Thomas Hollis, one of the early benefactors of Harvard: "More books," he writes Dr. Mayhew, "especially on government, are going for New England. Should these go safe, no principal books on Ih^it first subject will be wanting in Harvard College from the days of Moses to these times. Men of New England, use them for yourselves and for others, and God bless you ! " " Doubtless," says Dr. Jenks In his eulogy on Bowdoin, " doubtiess at the favored seminary her sons drank deeply of the writings of Milton, Harrington, Sydney, Lud low, Marvell, and Locke. These were their political text-books, and the eminent men of that time were ADDRESS OF GEN. CHAMBERLAIN 71 " By ancient learning to the enlightened love Of ancient freedom warmed." Think what representatives the colleges had all over the land, — Jefferson and Ran dolph for William and Mary, Madison for Princeton, Jay and Hamilton for Columbia, the Livingstons and all the bright array of Yale. And how can I recount the names that make up Harvard's starry roll ? Cesserunt stelligeri, indeed ! This power was recognized by the oppressors. Significant was the design for the business of the day we commemorate, that the royal troops, when they had destroyed the mihtary stores at Concord, should thence return to Cambridge, and blot out also the college, — that school of sedition. Thanks to the manhood of your fathers, the soldiers were glad to reach Charlestown in no mood to destroy. But — strange exchange 1 — it was under the walls of Harvard that Washington took command of the army ; and in the crisis of affairs the college was removed to this very Concord, where we may well believe it was no less potent an armory than the magazines there destroyed. One other point I will briefly put. This liberty taught in the colleges was not license nor wild speculation. It was defined, embodied, inherited, inborn. Think not the men whose memories make these roads and fields breathe living history to day were reckless enthusiasts, — plotters of new things. They struggled for rights not to be bestowed by King and Parliament, but given by God, and native to the soul, — rights long held dear, once crushed by feudalism, restored at Runnymede, instilled into the mind and character by generations of teaching and example, made sacred by the blood of noble fathers and the lips of noble mothers ; recognized, renewed, con firmed in every colonial charter upon the faith of which this country had been settled ; a fundamental article in the creed of church, and so of state, the soul and spirit of the teaching which earnest benefactors had determined should characterize these col leges : it was to these that they pledged anew their lives and fortunes and sacred honor. /wr England, and not against her, — had she but eyes to see it, — was this fight fought. Our fathers took up arms to defend the rights of Englishmen against the feu dalizing tyranny of England's king. The best minds so saw it. Mr. Pitt declared that the American controversy was a great common cause, and that America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the state, and the constitution would fall with her. Said Lord Camden, " The rights of man and the laws of nature are with that people." So even Burgoyne after his surrender declared in Parliament that " the principle of the American war was wrong : it was levelled against the constitution and general rights of mankind." True was the prophecy of Ezra Stiles : "If this oppression pro ceeds, there will be a Runnymede in America." To the colleges still is this great trust committed, to keep ever fresh these histories and doctrines. These anniversaries are well ; these monuments are well. They speak of gratitude and appreciation, and they help to educate the people. But the perpetual light, the calm, corrected force, must be found in the institutions of learn- 72 " LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. ing. Fashions change and pass ; crises come and go ; empires rise and fall ; histpry moves by revolutions : but the law written on the heart, the cravings implanted in the soul, the ideals that make life noble and nations glorious, — these are the same to-day as yesterday, and shall be forever. In the truest sense the colleges should be conservative. Like constitutions, they should defend ancient rights against momentary majorities. They should speak to the hasty and heedless the sober second thought, which is the old thought. We need this service to-day, lest we lose the prestige which was the boast of our fathers and the bond of their union, — the knowledge of political rights and duties. Well will it be if such anniversaries as this impel us to renew these studies, to perpet uate the old English reverence for law, to know and feel the due subordination of the military to the civil, the proper place of armies in time of peace, the rights of personal liberty, trial by jury, and the writ of habeas corpus, — the once dear, because dear bought, " liberties of Englishmen." Be it still, then, the office of the colleges in these rushing and reckless times to bring to bear the tests of wisdom and experience ; to try the spirits whether they are of God ; to train the young that they may be able to scrutinize with intelligence the acts of legislators and governors ; to endear to the hearts of the people, and infuse into the life of to-day, those noble doctrines which some would fain forget as the Old Testament of a superseded dispensation, but which still abide, — the eternal law, which all true gospel comes not to destroy, but to fulfil. The President. — I have the pleasure of presenting to you Ex-Gov. Banks, who will respond to the next toast, — STfje JBeatJ of iLeiington. " The die was cast. The blood of these martyrs was the cement of the union of these States ; and the peace, liberty, and independence of the United States of America was their glorious reward." General Banks immediately rose in response. SPEECH OF THE HON. N. P. BANKS. Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens, — Nothing could be further from my wish than to attempt to respond to a sentiment of such a character as that which has been read. My only excuse is the order of the president, who acts for the committee of an angements ; and I always endeavor to do any duty which may be required. I shall, however, take the liberty of speaking as a minute-man : I mean a minute- man as the British understood that phrase before they were exactly instructed what its meaning was. They thought they were men that would stand only for a minute ; but they found it represented men who would stand for a century, and for more, men without ambition, without greed, but who did all for their country. What a spectacle SPEECH OF GEN. BANKS. 73 they .present before the world 1 how much they have done to change and improve the condition of all nations ! We cannot honor too highly the character of the sacred dead that have gone before us. The president tells me that beneath his feet is the spot where Harrington received his death-wound. It is not ours to grieve : it is ours to glory in their achievements. Such men never die. The block may soak their gore ; their limbs may be strung on castle gates and city walls : but still their spirits walk abroad. The men who died at Lexington deserve well of our country in two respects : in the first, as men who understood their rights and the rights of their fellow-citizens. It was singular with them. In every other part of Massachu setts, and, indeed, in every one of the thirteen colonies, there were many men (indeed, there were few exceptions to the rule) that understood perfectly well their rights as subjects of Great Britain, and also their rights as men. And, while they are entitled to our respect and to all the honor that we can pay them, they are entitled to our veneration and our worship in another regard, — that they fought the great battie for American liberty. Other men might have done it as well elsewhere, and at another time ; but it is their honor, and it is our good fortune, that they did it here and then. More than this, sir. They have taught the world the great lesson which should never be forgotten. They showed the world what had never been asserted or expected be fore, — that the people had the right to defend their liberties themselves, in their own way, and in such a manner and at such time as they might choose ; that the organ izations of the people, and the military power of the state, were for the people them selves. From time immemorial it had been held that a man, born upon the soil of a country, remained the subject of that country to his death; and that there was no power on the earth, except the release of his sovereign, that could separate him from his allegiance to that country. The American doctrine was different. They thought that a man was master, not only of himself, but that he had the right to separate himself from any government with which he might have been connected. Within the last six or eight years it has been acknowledged so universally that it is the law of the world. There is another principle which sprang from the blood shed upon this battle-field, — that the government is for the people alone, nobody else. [In this connection the speaker referred to the. action of the Queen of England in refusing to recognize the Government of Spain till she was assured that it was to be a government for the people.] There is another great change that has come over the ideas of the world. The first act of the American people was to separate the Church and State. England has accepted the American doctrine in that regard, as applied to the Church in Ireland ; and I have heard it from magnates high in the Church that they mean to extend it to the Church of England as well. But there is still another greater work to be proclaimed. It is, that the world recognizes now that the military power of the nation shall be deposited in its people. I want to say one word more. I want to echo the words which were spoken by General Bartlett. What we desire is peace. W9.r destroys liberty. We may be obliged to fight once in a while, but we fight for the purpose of securing peace. If the Republic of the United States remains at enmity with itself, its races, its sections, or its people, there is no hope for liberty, either here or elsewhere. I am, then, for peace. I will not qualify it by calling it honorable peace, because there can be no peace that is not honorable. 74 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The club then sang the following song written for the day by the Rev. jW. R. Huntington, D. D. — LEXINGTON. i77S— 1875- music by C. p. MORRISON. A QUEEN and crowned, who was a peasant girl, — " This greatness wearies me," she sighs : " I will forget a little while my state. And, hiding from the eyes That watch the throne, will creep To where, in trellised sleep. The darling cottage of my childhood lies. " I thirst to taste the water of the brook. To track once more the wild-wood ways ; My ear is hungry for the note of birds That sang in those old days ; And I would breathe anew The wholesome airs that blew Across the yellow tassels of the maize." O queenly land ! O mother of our love I Look back to-day beyond the years, Look back to that sweet April of thy youth Changeful with hopes and fears ; A village maid once more, Ihy song of gladness pour. And lift those clear blue eyes undimmed by tears. Then, turning from this home where thou wast born. Light-hearted take again the weight Of gems and thorns a century has made Thy costly crown of state : Benignant, gentle, strong, Rule o'er us late and long. Thou lowly one to whom God said, " Be great." The President. — I notice that the New York Chamber of Commerce is represented here, among other gentlemen, by the late President of the New England Society. MR. COW DIN'S ADDRESS. 75 Mr. Cowdin has so often and so well spoken of New England at the din ners of that society, — nodes, caenceque deorum, — that he cannot hope to escape imperative draft duty when he comes within the jurisdiction of a Lex ington President. I propose Cfje ilHetcj^ants of t^e Iteijolution. To which we desire a response from the Hon. Elliot C. Cowdin of New York. SPEECH OF THE HON. ELLIOT C. COWDIN. Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens, — I beg you to accept my thanks for the invita tion extended to me to be present to-day ; and I only wish that the duty of acknowl edging the tribute you have just paid to the Chamber of Commerce of the State of Nnu York had devolved upon an abler representative. Delegated by that body to bear to you its congratulations on this occasion, my colleagues and myself are proud to take part in the commemoration of this memorable anniversary. The battle of Lexington infused into the life of this people the first sentiment of American nationality. It was the inauguration of a civil war between portions of the foremost commercial nation of the times. From such a conflict, trade shrinks with instinctive dread. Yet from the outset of the Revolutionary struggle, so unequal on the side of the colonies, the patriot cause was sustained by that class which had the most to lose in the event of failure. " War," as Milton says, " moves by two main nerves, iron and gold." The mer chants of the heroic period we are contemplating generously placed their money and credit at the disposal of the feeble government. In a word, the history of the mer chants of the thirteen colonies is the financial history ofthe war for independence. What would have become of the suffering soldiers of Washington, Greene, Gates, Lee, and their compatriots, in some of the darkest periods of the contest, except for the marvellous energy and skill of that eminent merchant of Philadelphia, Robert Morris, in furnishing money to carry on the struggle, and largely, too, by means of his own credit ? But for him, the army would have been disbanded. His services as a financier were as essential to the successful termination of the war as were those of Washington in the field. Shall I remind you that both ofthe illustrious men whose sculptured features have this day been unveiled before us were engaged in mercantile pursuits ? It is a famil iar fact that John Hancock, among hundreds of other wealthy merchants that could be mentioned, staked every thing on the popular cause. I speak of him as a mer chant ; and, if any one desires to know the kind of merchandise he dealt in, by refer ring to "The Boston Evening Post" of Dec. 25, 1764, he will find the following advertisement: — "To be sold by John Hancock, at his store. No. 4, at the east end of Faneuil Hall Market, a general assortment of English and India goods, also Newcastle coals and Irish butter, cheap for cash." 76 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Although the bulk of his property was in a number of wooden houses in Boston, yet when, as President of Congress, he transmitted to Washington the resolution relating to an attack on Boston, then held by the British troops, he said, " May God crown your attempt with success ! I most heartily wish it, though individually I may be the greatest sufferer." The bombardment, which was happily averted, would have been the financial ruin of John Hancock. Littie known, perhaps, as a merchant, and far less fortunate than Hancock in worldly affairs, Samuel Adams was equally patriotic and incorruptible. " I am not worth buying," said he, when approached by an emissary of the British ministry, who attempted to bribe him to betray his country, — " I am not worth buying ; but, such as I am, all the treasury of England could not pay for me." Well might Thomas Jeffer son pronounce him " a truly great man, wise in counsel, fertile In resources, immov able in purpose." But, Mr. President, I am forgetting that you summoned me to speak for the ^e.^})- YoxV Chamber of Commerce. That association was instituted in the year 1768 by a voluntary agreement of the leading merchants of the city. It was a period of pro found excitement. The traders of what was then the colony of New York had suf fered under heavy burdens. The Navigation Acts of the British Parliament tended to destroy the commerce of the colonies. They were not allowed to trade with any foreign country, nor export to England their own merchandise except in British vessels. Iron abounded in the colonies, but not an article could be manufactured by the people : all must be im ported. Wool was abundant ; but no cloth could be manufactured except for private use, and not a pound of the raw material could be sold from town to town : but all must be sent to England, to be ultimately returned as manufactured cloths, burdened with heavy duties. Beaver was then plenty all along the streams ; but no hatter was permitted to have more than two apprentices, and not a hat could be sold from one colony to another. These are but specimens of that vast network of restrictions upon trade and commerce in which Great Britain encircled the thirteen colonies, — examples selected at random to illustrate that policy which regarded the colonists as barbarians rolling in wealth, the chief end of whose existence was to be heavily taxed for the benefit of the aristocracy at home. ' The Parliament added humiliation to extortion. Naval officers, acting under the law, were insolent toward colonial vessels. They compelled them to lower their flags in token of homage, fired on them at the slightest provocation, and impressed their seamen whenever they chose. The Mutiny Act, as it was called, required the inhabitants of the colonies to furnish quarters, and, to some extent, supplies, for all the soldiers that might be sent over from England to oppress thern. The passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, though less infamous than much previous legislation, aroused such indignation in all the principal American colonies as clearly showed that England must either change her policy, or prepare to enforce it at the point of the bayonet. The protracted and violent struggle over this act, involving the principle of taxation without representation, was the prologue to that mighty drama whose opening scene was the battle of Lexington, and whose closing act was the evacuation of New York by the rear-guard of the British army. MR. COW DIN'S ADDRESS. 77 Nowhere were found more strenuous opponents of the oppressive legislation to which I have referred than in the ranks of the merchants of New York. Among the most prominent in their opposition were those very same merchants who after-ward became foremost in the foundation and organization of the Chamber of Commerce. Four out of the five New York delegates to the first Congress of the American colonies — namely, John Cruger, Philip Livingston, William Bayard, and Leonard Lispenard — were members of the Chamber. As early as October, 1764, these same gentlemen, with Robert R. Livingston at their head, constituted the corresponding committee of the New York assembly that urged upon the other provincial legislatures the necessity of holding a general Con gress of the American colonies. That Congress, presided over by Timothy Ruggles of Massachusetts, was actually assembled at New York on the 7th of October, 1765, upon the urgent recommendation of the Massachusetts Legislature ; but the original movement which led to it must be credited to New York. One of the first measures of this Congress was the publication of a " Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonists in America," an address admirable in tone, matter, and manner, like all the state papers of the Revolutionary era, asserting the rights of all British colonists, and particularly insisting on their exclusive power of self-taxation, and their claim to a trial by jury. This powerful paper was from the pen of John Cruger, a merchant of New York, and the first president of the Chamber of Commerce In those heroic days, there was but one step from theory to action. On the 31st of October, 1765, the merchants of New York held a meeting, and resolved, — I. To import no goods from England until the Stamp Act be repealed. 2. To immediately countermand all orders sent for spring goods. 3. To sell no goods from Great Britain on commission. These resolutions were s'gned by more than two hundred of the principal mer chants of New York. This determined movement was immediately followed by a popular demonstration. On the very next evening, the citizens gathered in what is now the City Hall Park, and hung in effigy Lieut.-Gov. Colden, the representative of King George HI., who was intrusted with the duty of enforcing the Stamp Act. Another party broke open the doors of his carriage-house, and, drawing out the car riage, placed his effigy inside of it, wheeled it to the B)wling Green, built a bonfire there, and burned to ashes the equipage and effigy. These demonstrations having convinced Colden of the impossibility of enforcing the obnoxious act, the stamps he received from England he surrendered to the repre sentatives of the Common Council, John Cruger being then mayor. This episode, a bloodless popular victory, and one of the most significant signs of the times, deserves to be placed on record side by side with the immortal Tea-Party of Boston. The repeal of the Stamp Act early in the following year caused universal joy ; and the popular feeling found expression in the erection, by the act of the Legislature, of a leaden equestrian statue of George III. on the Bowling Green. A few years afterward, this statue was turned to a purpose the founders had not dreamed of. In the revulsion of feeling which followed the imposition of a duty on tea, upon the reception in New York of the Declaration of Independence, the 78 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. horse and rider were dragged from the pedestal, broken in pieces, and sent to Litch field, the residence of Oliver Wolcott, the patriot governor of Connecticut, by whose wife and daughters they were run into thousands of bullets, which were distributed among the patriots of the surrounding country. With these bullets, hundreds of British soldiers were shot during the subsequent invasion of Connecticut. Boston has been justiy held in honor for more than a century for throwing certain tea into the harbor. It is not so well known that New York had her Tea-Party also. On the very day of the more famous transaction in Boston, the Sons of Liberty held a meeting in New York, and resolved that henceforth no tea should be landed in the city under any pretext. Several vessels with tea on board were subsequentiy stopped off Sandy Hook, and compelled to return to England. A vessel called " The London " arrived in April, 1774- The master of the ship assured the Vigilance Committee that he had no tea in the cargo : nevertheless, they went on board, and demanded that all tea should be de livered to them. The captain repeated his previous denial, but was told in reply that they knew there was tea on board. At length, he admitted he had a little, but as serted that it was simply a private venture of his own. Taking the master and the owner with them, the committee withdrew, and held a consultation ; the crowd of people meanwhile anxiously waiting for the result. It was soon learned that they had declared the tea forfeited ; and then the throng rushed on board the vessel, broke open the hatches, hoisted eighteen chests of tea to the deck, knocked in the lids, and emptied the contents into the harbor amid the shouts of the multitude. New York and Massachusetts were fast friends during the contest for indepen dence. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached New York, the people forthwith responded to Massachusetts by the patriotic resolve " to stand or fall by the liberties of the continent." Speaking for the merchants of New York, I might further remind you that it was a New York merchant, Alexander McDougall, who, abandoning his counting-house, took command of a regiment, and, in the disastrous battle of Long Island, distin guished himself by his valor in the field, and masterly retreat across the East River, in the face of a victorious enemy'of overwhelming numbers. After having risen to the rank of major-general, and served throughout the war, winning universal confi dence and respect, he returned to his commercial pursuits, became a leading member ofthe Chamber of Commerce, and the first president ofthe Bank of New York. Sharing with him in patriotic duty and devotion were such merchants as Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts ; William Whipple of New Hampshire ; George Clymer of Pennsylvania ; Joseph Hews of North Carolina ; Burton Guinnett of Georgia ; Philip Livingston and F"rancis Lewis of New York ; and a host of others all over the land. It is pleasant to remember that the heart of the English people was with us ; and it was natural that the assertion by the colonists of the home-born rights of every Englishman should find sympathy in the mother country ; and so it was that the ut terances of Hancock, Adams, and Otis were eloquently echoed by such statesmen as Chatham, Burke, and Barrd. Chatham " rejoiced that America had resisted ; " Burke saw the glory of England in the establishment of the British colonies " on principles of liberty ; " and Barrd MR. HALE'S LETTER. 79 went to a daring length in the declaration of his sympathies with the founders of this Republic. Pardon me, Mr. President, for detaining this distinguished audience so long. With such a record before me, bearing directly on the early commerce and general business of the country, — a subject which, in advance, your committee kindly assigned me to speak upon to-day, — how could I say less? I would not overestimate the services of the merchants ; but posterity will never forget their zeal and fidelity, their deeds and trials in the perilous struggle for per sonal liberty and national independence. A century has passed since that chill April day when these plains were stained with the first blood of a conflict which ultimately gave us the Declaration of Indepen dence and the Constitution of the United States. What a memorable epoch in the world's history have been these one hundred years ! How grand, beneficent, and cheering the progress of aff lirs in our own country ! I shall not open this most in structive volume in the annals of mankind. Let us indulge the fervent hope, that, when our children's children shall assemble to celebrate the second centennial of the aispicious event which has drawn us hither, they will fiml this Republic occupying a foremost position among the nations of the earth, and containing within its borders myriads of people, united, prosperous, virtu ous, and free. Then indeed shall the patriotic blood which flowed at Lexington and Concord not have been shed in vain. The Delegation from the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York to the Centen nial Celebration at Lexington consisted of the foUowing gentlemen ; namely, Elliot C. Cowdin, A. A. Low, S. B. Cliitteaden, F. A. Conkling, and Josiah M. Fiske. The next regular toast was, — (Klje TOomen of tlje isteliolutton. And, as the Rev. Edward Everett Hale appeared in the audience at that time, he was called upon by the President. Mr. Hale responded in his most genial and effective manner. Being obliged, however, to abbreviate his speech at the dinner, he has favored the committee with the following letter as a substitute : — Roxbury, May 3, 1875. My DEAR Mr. Porter, —If I had not thought we had all heard speeches enough when the President asked me, so kindly, to say something about the Women of the Revolution, I should have said that I was very much indebted to one of them. My grandmother's grandfather had freighted, with his goods and family, one of that fleet of vessels which were to accompany Gen. Howe to Halifax when he evacuated Boston. A storm arose while the fleet was yet in Boston Harbor; and, to my great satisfac tion to-day, his wife was so seasick that the skipper with whom they had embarked 8o LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. ran for Newburyport, at her earnest entreaty ; and there he and she, and such house- > hold goods as could be disembarked in an hour's time, were landed. To this great fortune, — shall I call it ? or was it the sturdy resolution of a patriot woman not to leave the home of her fathers ? — I owed the pleasure of being your guest on Mon day, and indeed owe it to-day that I am not in Nova Scotia ministering to our friends the "Blue Noses " there, in the fashion of such gospel as I might there have been trained in. On mentioning this anecdote to the President of the University on the Centennial Day, I learned, that to a similar determination on the part of a gallant woman, an ancestor of his own, who from the same fleet of flying vessels was landed under the same circumstances at Marblehead, — we owe his services to the common wealth of letters, and his presence at the celebration at Concord. F'or the unwill ingness of the mothers to leave their country, I am sure that the sons should be always grateful. It was a Marblehead girl, she that was afterwards Sukey Carroll, if I have her name rightly, who was looking out of a window in North Street, Salem, when Lesley led his detachment on the first "excursion" of the spring of 1775. A red-coat pointed his musket at the girl to receive from her a genuine Marblehead reply, " Do you think I was born in the woods to be scared by you, you lobster-back ? " I fancy that that speech of a Marblehead girl shows the spirit of the women of the Revolution, though in gentler society it spoke perhaps in more courtly terms. When the flank companies of the Essex regiment were mustering, in the square at Danvers, on the morning of the 19th of April, preparing for that rapid rush across Essex County, which brought them to Menotomy in time to yield up the largest sacrifice next to Lexington which any town offered up that day, a Quaker lady, the wife of Friend Southwick, appeared in her peaceful garb among the minute-men. " I do not believe in fighting," said she, " and I know nothing of war ; but, if thee knows any one who is hungry, there are twelve loaves of bread in my kitchen, which I have just taken from the oven, and I should not miss them if I never saw them again." I fancy that that story shows a good deal ofthe spirit of those even who were most pacific. I have heard it said that after one of the minute-men had been shot, and was carried back, dead, to his home, his wife, in the agony and horror of the day, gave birth to the infant who never saw a father's smile ; and when, in turn, Smith's flying column drove every Lexington woman from her home, she and her baby had to take the shelter of the woods till the murderers of her husband had gone by. I am afraid that that story tells the sufferings of the 'women of the Revolution. In truth, I suppose that those seven years made no exception to the eternal current of women's life. I sup pose they felt as much as men, resolved as highly as men, and that they suffered more. They had their triumphs too. On that great day of the 17th of June, which we are next to celebrate, there was a pause in the English movement, — a pause which lasted more than two hours, which our fathers did not understand. After Howe had landed for the attack at Moulton's Point in Charlestown, he remained two hours and a half before moving on Prescott's works, — precious time which our fathers occupied well. We know now, what they did not know, — that Gen. Howe MR. HALE'S LETTER. 8 1 waited because his six-pound field-pieces were provided with twelve-pound balls ; and he was obliged to send back to Boston for better-fitting ammunition. The message was answered by a fresh supply of balls too large. And, even at that fatal moment, a second message was sent back to Boston for six-pound balls. A third time balls were sent too large for the guns ; and Howe was obliged to advance with out the use of his field-pieces. You know how fatal was that advance to a thousand brave men. It is matter of history, that, when Howe asked where the ordnance officer was who should have answered his requisitions, the answer given him was, " He is making love to the schoolmaster's daughter." " Oh, too convincing, dangerously dear ! " We can guess what she was, because we have seen the schoolmaster's descendants in this generation : I am not sure but they danced at your ball on Monday, or feasted at your dinner. And what a memory for a patriot womai to take with her through an honored life to her grave: that with the beauty of another Judith — with her wit, and without her cruelty — -she silenced, on that fatal day, the fire of King George's artillery I The truth is, that the history of New England from the beginning is a history written in between the lines which tell of the trials of women, and of their fortitude. If you will think of it, every English effort to colonize America was a failure in the seventeenth century till you come to Plymouth. The trading-post at Jamestown did not deserve the name of a colony more than that at Manhattan. It was only when Brewster and Carver and Bradford and the rest of the Pilgrims invented what I will call the New England system of colonization, which is now the American system of colonization, that any colony succeeded. And that system is this : that the women go with their husbands, and share with them every hardship and all the toil. So was it that there were homes at Plymouth even before there were graves there. So was it, that, when this other crisis came, Abigail Adams led the little John Quincy Adams by the hand to the hill in Braintree, whence he could see the smoke and hear the thunder from the other hill across the bay. And on that day that child drank in the hatred of tyrants which rang out in the philippics of the " Old Man Eloquent " as you and I have heard him in these later days. It was that spirit which sent Dorothy Quincy into the woods on the 19th of April, with her be trothed, glad indeed, they say, to make a cold collation of salt pork before the day was over, in place of the sumptuous dinner from which the red-coats drove them away. It is enough, I believe, to say ofthe New England women of the Revolution, that they shared to the last drop in their husbands' trials and martyrdoms. And cer tainly it would be impossible to say more. [For want of time the following addresses were necessarily omitted at the dinner. As, however, they form a part of the productions ofthe day, they are properiy entitled to a place in this volume.] 11 82 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The President. — A prosperous agriculture is essential to the highest wel fare of a vigorous, wealthy, and independent people. We offer, therefore, — SClje ^gticultural Entetestg of Wein lEnglanD. Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Paierna rura bobus exercet suis. And I will call upon President Clark of the Massachusetts Agricultural College to respond. ADDRESS OF COL. W. S. CLARK. Mr. President, — I thank you for the honor you show to the cause of scientific, progressive agriculture, in calling upon one whose principal qualification for speaking at this time is found in the accident of his official position. It is a remarkable coin cidence, that this centennial celebration of the beginning of the war for American independence occurs on the centennial anniversary of the birth of an idea, which, after many years of neglect and struggle, has won for itself recognition and substantial honor among all enlightened nations. In 1775, we are told, a proposition was made to the French Government for the estabhshment of a national school of agriculture. In the very dawn of the present system of chemistry, it was foreseen that science could render efficient aid to the great producing industry of the world ; and in our day it has come to pass that the Congress of the United States has endowed an agri cultural college in every State of the Union. As, in 177s, the farmers of Lexington were the first to rally under arms for resist ance to British tyranny, so, in later times, they were the pioneers in the war against ignorance in agriculture. When the offer was made by the State Legislature to all the towns of the Commonwealth, that such as would give seventy-five thousand dollars to the Massachusetts Agricultural College might compete for its location within their limits, it should always be remembered, to the honor of Lexington, that her citizens ¦were foremost in the effort to secure the institution. But why, sir, do intelligent statesmen so generally favor the establishment and maintenance of departments and boards of agriculture, and agricultural schools and societies? Because, in the language of Gen. Washington, "Agriculture is the most useful, the most honorable, and the noblest occupation of man." But it were super fluous to speak of the benefits of agriculture. Who does not know that its general failure would not only bring upon us famine, with all its attendant horrors, but actually stop the business of the world? What would be the value of our railroads and ships, of our factories and warehouses, without the staple products of the soil, — without the beef and the pork, the wheat, the corn, and the cotton, which we have in such ¦abundance ? But some one, doubtless, already has it in his heart to say, "These are not raised in New England : they come from the boundless plains beyond the Mississippi, from the fertile prairies of the West, and the sunny fields of the South-land." True, sir; COL. CLARK'S SPEECH. 83 and yet we should not despise New England farming; but we may boldly claim that there is no section of our broad country, or of any other, which offers greater induce ments to a skilful, economical, and industrious farmer, than do many portions of these comparatively old and agriculturally exhausted States. Will a wise man exchange the diversified and beautiful scenery of New England, with its healthful and invigorating climate, for the monotonous and malarious regions where crops are said to grow almost without cultivation ? Will he forsake the schools and churches, and the social privileges of wealthy and prosperous communities, for the semi-barbarous condition of newly and sparsely settied districts? Will he leave the best markets and facilities for transportation and traffi; which the world affords, for localities where cattle are worth but two dollars a head, and corn but ten cents per bushel? We think not, sir. ' Again: some croaker says, "Farming does not pay.'' But there are many com petent witnesses to testify that, considering the amount of cash capital, of intelligent skill, of business capacity, and of vital energy employed in it, agriculture gives a larger return than almost any other business in New England. Did time allow, it would be interesting to consider the character of this industry a century ago, when nearly all the people in this vicinity were farmers, and when yarn was spun, and cloth was woven, and shoes were made by hand, in every house ; when agricultural implements were few and rude, and when cultivated vegetables, fruits, and flowers were almost unknown. How strangely different is the condition of affairs to-day ! Within a radius of fifty miles there are more persons engaged in making and selling boots and shoes than are employed in the cultivation of the soil. There are more operatives at work in the m.rnufacture of cloth than individuals laboring as farmers or gardeners. There are prob.ibly ten times as many men occupied in other mechanic arts, in mercantile business, in land and water transportation, and in the learned professions, as in agriculture. Taking a survey of the entire State of Massa chusetts, we find only one-twentieth of the population devoted to rural pursuits ; and of these a large proportion are of a different nationality from the yeomanry who struck the first blow for American liberty. It is often said, Mr. President, that the Yankee race is passing away, and that, in our contempt for the slow but sure gains of agriculture, in our eagerness for wealth, our fondness for display, and our love of excitement, we are rapidly deteriorating both in number and vigor. It is certainly to be lamented, that, as a people, we care so little for permanent homes, for the possession and improvement of the soil, and for the quiet but varied and happy life of the farm. Let us hope, sir, that in the years to come the agricultural interests of New England may prosper raore and more ; that by the discovery of new principles in the science, and by the use of new methods and means in the art of agriculture, the profits, the pleasures, and the popularity of this most indispensable occupation may be largely increased ; and that the farmers, as a class, may never be less patriotic than on that "glorious morning " when, — " Their flags to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood. And fired the shot heard round the world. " 84 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. T he. President.— l.e.xmgtoxi is proud to share the honors ofthe 19th of April with the goodly array of towns that came so generously to her assistance in the hour of danger. We take pleasure, therefore, in calling upon our neighbor Mr. Gooch, to speak for SCfje Participating STobing. SPEECH OF THE HON. D. W. GOOCH. Mr. President, — In describing the state of feeling in the colonies in the early part of 1775, one of our historians has well said, "The insulting and, warlike tenor of the news from England only made the patriots firmer. They presented, at this period of intense anxiety, a nobler spectacle. It was the awful pause between the resolution and the act. They had determined to resist, and yet had not been obliged to strike." This pause was broken at Lexington and Concord on the morning of the 19th of April, one hundred years ago. The volleys fired by the British regulars into the patriot troops, assembled at these places to resist armed aggression on their rights, made the obligation to strike imperative ; and the blows given were returned. As the news of these events spread through the surrounding towns, the people felt that the die had been cast, that war had been made upon them by the British forces ; and the militia and minute-men rushed to the attack of the enemy, relieved of all ap prehension lest they might by over-hasty action precipitate hostilities. ^Var existed, and they were ready to participate in it. The great significance ofthe acts ofthe patriots at Lexington and Concord is, that, while they struck the first blows for liberty, they so conducted themselves as to place the whole responsibility for hostilities on the British. This was the judgment of their countrymen and the world then, and time has approved the verdict. It seems to me that no American who carefully considers the matter would wish any important event of that day at Lexington or Concord changed. Col. Smith littie realized, during the two hours he was resting his troops at Con cord, the effect which the events of the morning were producing in the surrounding towns and through the colony, or the perils and disasters he was to encounter on his retreat. He had marched out through a people who were resolved, that, if hostilities were commenced, he should initiate them. In his retreat he soon found that all had changed, that the patriots as soon as the news had reached them had accepted tiae events of the morning at Lexington and Concord as the beginning of a war in which they were ready to participate. The men from the surrounding towns, as they poured in to unite in the attack upon the retreating enemy, had no doubtful questions of diplomacy to settle, but only the stern duty of patriot soldiers to perform. It is not possible to name all the towns that participated in the attacks upon the British in their retreat from Concord to Charlestown, or state the number of men furnished by them, or award to any one of them the exact share of the honors to which it is entitled. MR. CONANT'S SPEECH. 85 We know that men from twenty-one towns besides Lexington and Concord suffered from the casualties of the day ; that other towns were represented by their militia and minute-men, who rendered highly meritorious service ; and that the military forces of more distant towns, as soon as the news of the events of the morning had reached them, started for the scene of action. The same spirit animated the hearts of all patriotic Americans at this time ; all were ready to strike for liberty and the defence of their rights whenever and ^ soon as the occasion and the opportunity offered. The march of the British to Lexington, — suspected by some to be for the purpose of seizing Adams and Hancock, then the guests of one of its citizens, and regarded as under its protection, but really for the seizure and destruction of the arms and mili tary stores collected at Concord — and their attack upon the militia at these two places, furnished the occasion and the opportunity. How well they were improved by Lexington, Concord, and the participating towns, the defeat of the British in their retreat from Concord and their flight through Lexing ton till they found shelter in the hollow square of their re-enforcements, and the retreat of their united force from Lexington, finally ending in their flight across Charlestown Neck to the protection of the guns of their ships in Boston Harbor ; and the aston ishment of the people and the incredulity of the ministry when the news of the events of that day reached England, — then bore testimony, and the thousands of our countrymen now assembled here and at Concord in honor of what was done on that day still attest. The President. — The citizens of Concord, like those of Lexington, are kept at home to-day to assist in entertaining the countless throng of people that have been pouring into both towns since an early hour this morning from all parts of the land. We have a Toast ready for Wo,z SCoton of Concotti; but in the absence of her delegates we will proceed to the next town, remem bering the conspicuous and honorable part which Cfje JHcn of ^cton took in the memorable engagement of a hundred years ago. I will request Mr. Luther Conant to speak for the town of Acton. SPEECH OF LUTHER CONANT, Esq. Mr. Chairman, — The sentiment just read could with propriety be responded to by any one of the score of towns whose men took part in the memorable events of the day which we have met to commemorate. A common danger had so strongly welded together the colonists, that a blow struck at one town was felt and resisted by all ; and there can be no shadow of doubt, that. 86 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. had the invaders taken another route, Lexington men would have gone out to meet them as promptly and undauntedly as they defended their own soil and firesides. And, as one of the sons of Acton gave up his life in your town under circumstances of peculiar interest, it may seem proper to narrate, as briefly as possible, the part taken by the men of Acton, and thus show that the high encomium you have passed upon that town is not wholly unmerited. One hundred years ago this morning, a horseman, whose name will never be known, rode up to the house of Capt. Joseph Robbins, located in the easterly part of Acton, and without dismounting gave several sharp blows on the corner of the house, at the same time shouting, " Capt. Robbins, Capt. Robbins ! up, up ! the regulars are com ing to Concord. Rendezvous at the old North Bridge as quick as possible Alarm Acton ! " — after which he rapidly drove off, it is presumed to notify the more interior towns. The summons was not wholly unexpected ; as the fact was well known that a large quantity of valuable military stores had been accumulated at Concord, under the authority of the Provincial Congress, and from warnings received from the Com mittee of Safety, of Boston, that Gov. Gage intended a movement that might be made in that direction. Nor was the town found unprepared ; for, with a population of only five hundred inhabitants, there were three military companies, — first, Capt. Isaac Davis's company of minute-men, which had met twice a week to drill and practise, since the preceding November, for which service the town paid them eight pence for each half-day: the others were known as militia, and were under the com mand of Capt. Joseph Robbins, and Lieut. Simon Hunt. Capt. Robbins's only son, a boy of ten years, was instantly put upon the back of the old mare, and, with the injunction not to let the grass grow under her feet, was started to notify Capt. Davis and Lieut. Hunt to call out their men. The minute- men were ready first, and started first. They were a select company, mostly young men ; and they soon assembled at Capt. Davis's house to the number of about forty. Some of them made a few cartridges, and others adjusted new flints to the locks of their guns. James Hayward (killed that day in Lexington) went to the grindstone, and sharp ened his bayonet, saying, " I hope to have a push at them before night, and want my bayonet sharp." Some were laughing and joking at the prospect of having a shot at the regulars; but Capt. Davis reproved them, saying, that in his opinion it was a most eventful day, that blood would flow, and no one knew who would be the first to fall. He had great hopes that the country would be free, though he might not live to see it. It is probable that Capt. Davis did not expect to return alive ; and after marching his company, some twenty in number, out through his lane to the highway, he halted them, and went back to the house. His heart must have been tried, for he had a youthful wife, and four sick children. He was barely able to control himself sufficiently to say, " Hannah, take good care of the children," the feelings of the hus band and father almost overcoming the soldier. But he took his favorite gun, a beautiful piece of workmanship made by his own hands (he being by occupation a gun smith), and without delay started his men for the North Bridge at about seven o'clock, the distance being about seven miles by the then existing roads. When he arrived with his command, a number of companies were on the ground ; and he placed his men MR. CONANT'S SPEECH. 87 on the left of the Concord Minute-men, a position they had occupied at a regimental muster some days before. A council of war was called ; and after a brief consultation Capt. Davis returned to his company, changed their position to the right of the line, and, at his favorite tune of "The White Cockade,'' headed the column of attack toward the bridge. By his side marched Major Butterick of Concord, and Col. Robinson of Westford. It was when changing the position of his company that he uttered the words, " I'm not afraid to go, and I haven't a man that is," — words which, being spoken at that time and under those circumstances, had a deep significance. The exchange of shots, the volley, the death of Capt. Davis and Private Abner Hos- mer, are familiar to you all. Whoever was ranking officer or nominally in command, the leading spirit of the Americans was evidently Capt. Isaac Davis; and, with the return of the volley that sped that soul on its way, the fight at the Old North Bridge was over. There is but one explanation that excuses the minute-men for not intercepting the retreat of Capt. Parsons's detachment of regulars, and for not following the British to the village ; and that explanation is, the provincials had lost their leader. At Fiske's Hill in Lexing ton, a sharp encounter took place. James Hayward of Acton had been among the foremost all the way ; and, in passing to the well in the rear of the house near the foot of the hill, he saw a British soldier plundering, who espied him at the same moment, and ran to the door to escape. Raising his gun to his shoulders, he exclaimed, " You are a dead man." — " So are you," said Hayward. They both fired : the regular fell dead, and young Hayward received a mortal wound. He lived eight hours, long enough for his father to arrive, and to comfort him with conversation, prayer, and read ing ofthe Scriptures. "James," said the venerable man, " you have but a few hours to live. Are you sorry you turned out ? " — ¦ " Father, hand me my powder-horn and bullet-pouch. I started with a pound of powder and forty balls : there are but three or four left. Father, I never did such a da}'s work before. I am not sorry. I die will ingly for my country, for I believe now that with God's help she will be free. Tell my mother, whom 1 love dearly, not to mourn too much for me ; and tell another, whom I love as much as I do my mother, — you know whom I mean, — that I am not sorry. I shall never see her again : may we meet in heaven ! " The town of Acton has ever held in grateful remembrance the character and ser vices of these three men. They were buried from the house of Capt. Davis, the day after the fight, the whole town being present at the funeral ceremony; and soon after suitable tablets were erected over their graves. The leader's epitaph reads, " In memory of Capt Isaac Davis, who was slain at Concord, April 19, 1775, in the defence of the just rights and liberties of his country, civil and rehgious. He was a loving husband, a tender father, a kind neighbor, an ingenious craftsman, and serviceable to man kind." Did I say an epitaph? an epic, rather; for this gallant captain, this true hus band and father, this skilful mechanic, this go )d citizen, this Christian patriot, found his home at the early age of thirty years. Hosmer was twenty-two, and Hayward twenty-five years old. Another illustration that the glory and chivalry of every age are exemplified by its young men. In 1805 the company known as the Davis Blues was organized, and in the ¦war of 1812 was stationed to guard the forts at South Boston. In 1835 the town celebrated 88 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. the centennial of its organization ; publishing an address in which the part taken by the men of Acton in the events of April 19, 1775, was plainly set forth, with map of roads and buildings at the time of the fight, and also depositions of the survivors. On the 19th of April, 1840, the citizens met together, and planted a large number of shade-trees on both sides of the main street through the village, which are now, with the growth of thirty-five years, the pride of our common. In 185 1, by request of the town, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts co-operated with the town in erecting a suitable monument of native granite over the bones of the patriot martyrs. In the same year the Davis Guards were organized, and num bered Company E of the Sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, — an organiza tion, which, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, became the historic regiment of Massachusetts, giving the 19th of April a new baptism of blood in the streets of Bal timore, and being the first to arrive at the National Capitol. Macaulay in one of his glowing periods says, that it is impossible not to respect the sentiment that manifests itself in these tokens ; for it is a sentiment that springs from the higher and purer part of human nature, and one that adds not a little to the strength of states. A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve any thing ¦worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. As there is no dispute that the minute-men of Lexington, commanded by Capt. John Parker, were the first prorincial military organization that confronted and resisted the passage of the British troops, may not the town of Acton justly claim that Capt. Isaac Davis at the head of his company, later in the day, and on another field, led the first organized attack on the same body ? — an attack that before nightfall resulted in the total rout and defeat of the invaders ; a defeat not notable by the number of men engaged, but memorable in that it opened a long train of great events which culminated in the organization of a free government, and the birth of a mighty nation. The President. — We inaugurate to-day a series of centennial celebrations which, it is expected, will culminate with the National Exhibition at Philadel phia next year. Our festivities are honored by the presence of a large and distinguished delegation from the city which gave to the Republic the immortal Declaration of Independence. No one is better able to speak for 9E1)E SSnttet States Centennial Ctommisaion ant its Mork than Mr. Goshorn, its Director General. RESPONSE BY THE HON. ALFRED T. GOSHORN. Mr. President, — We are in the twilight of the hundredth year of the national existence. The love of country, the richness of the heritage, the thrift and intelli- MR. GOSHORN'S SPEECH. 89 gence of the people, have sustained the institutions of the fathers, and made the Republic equal to the greatest governments of the world. The occasion we celebrate is not one of sentiment only; but it is an epoch in the history of the country, that marks the material and political prosperity of a favored people. This vast demonstra tion, while it commemorates deeds of strife and heroism, is also an offering of peace and good-will. It is fitting, therefore, at the close ofthe first century of the national life, that there should be a representation, under the auspices of the government, of the causes, the elements and resources, that have supported our institutions, and pro moted the happiness and prosperity of the people. A patriotic sentiment suggested, as a most appropriate feature of the Centennial Celebration the coming year, an exhibition of the productive and industrial interests of this and all the countries of the world. In obedience to this sentiment, and moved by the fitness of the proposition, the Congress of the United States has directed that there shall be held in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1876, in commemoration of American independence, an international exhibition of products, manufactures, and arts. The preparations for this great enterprise have been intrusted to the Centen nial Commission representing the States and Territories of the Union. Every civilized government of the earth has been invited, by the President to par ticipate in this exhibition. The cordial acceptance of the invitation, and the provis ion already made by foreign governments to be present, indicates their friendly sympathy, and insures a large and most interesting representation of the industries of almost every nation of the world. Whatever may have been the relations of this people to other governments, the differences, if the thought of any still unhappily exists, will be forgotten in the sincere co-operation that will be extended to render this exhibition worthy of the prestige of America. The Centennial Commission, profoundly sensible of the magnitude and comprehen sive character ofthe national enterprise, has projected plans and measures on a scale commensurate with the dignity of the government, and of the importance of the event. In the autumn of this year there will stand on the banks of the Schuylkill a series of grand buildings that will reflect honor on the country, — monuments of peace and good-will toward all men. In this worthy enterprise, instituted and directed by the government, is involved the good name of the nation. The "grand old Commonwealth of Massachusetts" was first and foremost in the acts and scenes that led to the establishment of the Republic; she will be first and foremost in her co-operation and representation at the exhibition which will celebrate the triumphs of peace and industry as the results of the declaration that was proclaimed by the deeds of Lexington and Concord. The President. — I propose as the next Toast, — American f^tstorg. The events we this day celebrate will forever constitute one of the most luminous chapters in the annals of human progress. History shall perpetuate the record ; and a grateful posterity will ever turn to it with admiration and pride. 12 90 - LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. We should be glad to hear from Col. Wilder, the venerable President of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. SPEECH OF THE HON. MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER. Mr. President, — ! thank you for the privilege of being present and participating in the ceremonies of this most interesting occasion. As the toast expresses it, we meet to celebrate one of the most sublime events in the annals of history ; for, sir, as the first gun on Sumter sealed the fate of slavery in the United States, so the first shot at Lexington sealed the doom of British empire in America, and forever settled the destiny of freedom for this western world. The 19th of April, 1775 ! What a glorious day, — the baptismal day of a nation in the blood of her sons, on the altar of freedom ! And, sir, as the first light of morning streaming over the mountain tops and spreading into universal day, so the fires of patriotism, kindled on these plains a hundred years ago, will continue to elec trify and illume the world with the results of American independence and American civilization, — " While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls a wave." The results of the battles of Lexington and Concord were of far greater conse quence ultimately, in their influence on the welfare of mankind, than those of Ther- mopylffi, Marathon, Cannse, Ausierlitz. Waterloo, or Sedan ; leading as they did to the American Revolution, and giving to the world the only free and independent nation which has existed for a hundred years, — a nation exalted in privilege, prog ress, and prosperity above any other on earth ; a nation whose example will^ultimately, we believe, revolutionize ths world, and secure the rich inheritance of liberty and equality for all mankind. Some sections of our favored land may possess more luxu riant soils and milder skies ; but I believe, sir, there is no spot on earth so green in the hearts of freemen, so sacred in the heart of memory, as that watered by the blood of those who fell in defence of their homes and human rights on the 19th of April, 1775. The events of that day were the heralds of that freedom which we now enjoy ; and from that moment when the first martyr fell on the plains of Lexington the cause of liberty and human right has been " marching on." And what adds to the interest of this occasion is the fact that the events we cele brate took place on Massachusetts soil. Massachusetts has been a great leader in the cause of American liberty and American civilization. She was first to receive upon her soil the exiles for religious freedom, first in the martyrdom of her sons at Lexington and Concord, first in the signature of her sons to the Declaration of Ameri- ican Independence, first in the field for the suppression of the American Rebellion, first for the abrogation of human bondage on this continent. But, Mr. President, the thought that most engrosses my mind to-day is the wonder ful progress, prosperity, and influence of this nation. Never before in the annals of history has there been such an illustration of the enterprise, capacity, and independ ence of a people ; never before such an illustration of the divine favor, if we except COL. WILDER'S SPEECH. 9 1 God's chosen people, the Jews, as has been manifested to this nation in raising it up to be an example of those great principles of civil and religious freedom which con stitute the foundation of human happiness. But what shall we say of the great future of this Republic ? When we reflect on the amazing progress and vast resources of our nation ; when we compare the condition of our few feeble colonies as they existed one hundred years ago, with the thirty-seven indepsndent states of our Republic ; when we contrast the limited population scattered along the borders of our eastern slope with the forty-five millions now spread over the continent from ocean to ocean, and destined ere the lapse of another century to reach two hundred miUions of freemen, — its immense territory embracing almost all the climes and products of the world, spread out by the hand of God as an asylum for the oppressed of mankind, — I am overwhelmed with the thought of its rising greatness, and the mission it has to perform. And whose heart does not throb with joy at the recollection of the events ¦we this day celebrate? Whose eyes have not been suffused with tears of gratitude by the scenes of this day, the peals of merry bells, the salvos of booming cannon, the presence of congregated thousands, and the song of praise and thanksgiving rising like incense from the altars of freemen, to the God of battles who hath delivered us from oppression and made us " free indeed " ? Standing then, as we do to-day, about to enter on the second century of our national existence, let us remember the way in which the Lord h ith led us. How grand the story of our Republic! How momentous its influence on ths welfare of mankind ! How bright the future with anticipations of freedom for the world I Let us also remember the sacrifices made to secure the priceless blessings we enjoy ; and let us resolve, " live or die," that we will stand by the Constitution and Union of these ^tates, — a Union cemented by the blood of our fathers, brethren, and sons; a Union that none can sever ; a Union sovereign, supreme, eternal ! The President. — The hours of this day have now so nearly passed, that it is time for us to part. I will read but one of the remaining Toasts, to which music will be the only response ; and we will separate with a sentiment befitting a day of commemoration of the devotion of our forefathers to Virtue and to Liberty ; and this will serve as a benediction, iffie lEtefaerent (Ilergg. They have ever taught Americans that in public and private virtue alone is freedom. " Love Virtue : she alone is free ; She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime ; Or, if Virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her," The Committee had in readiness othsr sentiments intimately connected with this occasion ; and they regretted, that, owing to the length of the exer- 92 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. cises, opportunity could not be given to many other distinguished guests of the town from various parts of the country to respond to such toasts as, "The Army," " The Navy," " The Sons of Connecticut," " The Great West," " The Congress of 1774," "The Pulpit of the Revolution," "Lexington and Yorktown," "The Militia," " The Currency," "The Town of Danvers," "The Town of Lexington, Ky.," " The Freedmen," &c. The following is the letter of invitation sent by the Committee to Mr. Gladstone : — Lexington, Mass., U.S., Feb. 16, 1875. To THE Right Hon. William E. Gladstone. Sir, — The town of Lexington, Massachusetts, where the opening scene of the Revolution was laid, purposes to celebrate, on the 19th of April next, the American centennial anniversary of the first collision between the provincials and the soldiers of the king. The contest of that period was a conflict of principles, rather than of arms ; each party professing to stand on the broad basis of the English Constitution. It was a question of the construction of Magna Charta and of those fundamental principles of human rights in which Englishmen have always gloried, and which the two nations now hold in common. We propose to make our celebration liberal, attractive, and national. We expect an oration from the Hon. Richard H. Dana, jun., a ripe jurist and a sound states man. We shall also unveil the statues of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, patriots and statesmen known to fame ; and the exercises of the day will close with a public dinner, at which we hope to hear from our distinguished guests. We have extended our invitations throughout the country, and trust we shall be honored by the presence of the high dignitaries of the nation, the entire government of Massachusetts, and the governors of the several States of the Union. We have also invited the most distinguished statesmen, judges, lawyers, orators, poets, and divines in the different sections of the country; so that we anticipate a rich intellectual treat, and a celebration worthy of the occasion We propose to commemorate no military triumph, but the assertion of the right of self-government and the great principles avowed in the Enghsh revolution. We trust that the social intercourse and the commercial relations between your country and our own, the identity of language and the similarity of laws, so far make us one people, that we can rejoice together in the extension of enlightened sentiments and free institutions. Your well-known reputation for liberal views, and your sincere devotion to what ever tends to elevate and improve the condition of society, are so fully appreciated in America, that nothing would add more to the interest of our celebration than your presence. LETTERS. 93 We therefore most cordially and respectfully invite you to be present as our guest on that day, and by your voice to show our people that broad views and rational principles of liberty are not confined to the Western Continent, but are cherished by enlightened minds in all parts of the world! If it is too much to expect you to cross the ocean at our request, may we not hope to hear from you by epistle, so that we may realize that our hearts beat in unison on that historic day ? Most respectfully, your obedient servants, Charles Hudson, \ Committee M. H. Merriam, \ on William H. Munroe, ) Invitations. A similar letter of invitation to John Bright drew from that eminent states man the following reply : — Rochdale, April 2, 1875. Dear Sirs, — I have to thank you for the kind invitation you have forwarded to me to join in the ceremonies and rejoicings in which you expect to be engaged on the 19th of this month. I cannot cross the ocean to join your great company; and I know not how to write you a letter fitting the occasion. I would rather not think of an occasion when Englishmen shed blood, and English blood, on your continent ; and I would prefer to celebrate the freedom and grandeur of your country on some other day. But I can rejoice with you in that freedom and grandeur, and wish, with you, that they may be perpetual. With many thanks for your kind remembrance of me, I am sincerely yours, John Bright. Our minister to France, though absent from the country, still retains the true American spirit. Legation des Etats-Unis, Paris, Feb. 18, 1875. Gentlemen, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th ultimo, advising me of the proposed celebration of the one hundredth anniver sary of the battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April next, and inviting me to parti cipate therein. Nothing could possibly afford me more gratification than to be able to celebrate with you that memorable event ; but, as I do not propose to visit the United States the current year, it will be impossible for me to be present. I am interested in your celebration by a double title. I have not only the interest which belongs to every American who loves his country, and is proud of its institu tions and its glory, but a further one of a personal character which comes very near to me. Among the improvised soldiers who were engaged in that heroic combat was my maternal grandfather Samuel Benjamin. Living in the neighboring town of 94 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Waltham, at the breaking-out of the troubles with the mother country in the spring of 1775, he joined the company of Capt. Daniel Whiting, of which he was made the first sergeant. His story of the incidents of the 19th of April is among my eadiest recol lections ; and the impressions made upon me are still vividly imprinted on my memory. To me no prouder souvenir can be cherished than that which your celebration evokes ; for on that bright, clear, crisp morning, Sergeant Benjamin's company, hurry ing to Lexington, was in the thickest of the fight. It was then and there that the crack of those rustic muskets awakened echoes that have reverberated throughout the world, leading to results' and consequences which have challenged the profoundest attention of mankind for the century gone by, and which are without parallel in historic annals. Participating in the first encounter of that stupendous struggle which was to follow, Mr. Benjamin fought under the ensign of the Revolution for more than seven long years, and in all the States from Massachusetts to Virginia. Never out of the service for a single day, he was retired as a lieutenant in Capt Silas Pierce's company, Col. Michael Jackson's regiment in the Massachusetts line, on the sixth day of August, 1782. He was at the battle of Bunker Hill, and at Ticonderoga under Gen. Nathan St. Clair. He shared the horrors of Valley Forge with Washing ton, and fought under his banner at Monmouth. He was at the siege of Yorktown, and saw Cornwallis lay down his arms. At this time he was adjutant to the brave and accomplished Col. Alexander Scammel ; and the orderly-book kept by him at the time, as well as his diary, remain in possession of his family ; by whom they are guarded with a pious care. In the latter is found the following entry made on the ever-memorable 19th of Octobsr, 1781 : "The American and French army is paraded to receive the British army as prisoners. Our army was drawn up in line of battle, fronting each other, and the British march though thi.-m with three thousand troops." I hope, gentlemen, that you will pardon me for the personal character of this reply to your invitation ; but I could in no other way so well give you the reason for the deep interest 1 feel in your celebration, and show to you the sincerity of my regret in not being able to join you on an occasion which can but awaken the most sacred and glorious msmories ever cherished by any people. I have the hjnor to be very respectfully. Your obedient servant, E. B. Washburne. Our minister at the court of Berlin fully appreciates the valor and patriotic devotion of the sons of Lexington, and gives the following graphic descrip tion of the influence of their deeds upon the condition of Europe. American Legation, Beklin, March 15, 1875. Gentlemen, — I have received your kind invitation to attend the hundredth anniver sary of the battle of Lexington, and, thanking you for remembering me so far from home, am very sorry to have to decline it. One is reminded by daily events in Europe, of what took place iu old Middlesex a LETTERS. 95 hundred years ago. Picture to yourselves the Europe of that day, — England with Lord North, a rotten borough parliament, and a weekly execution before the Old Bailey ; France an absolute monarchy, with Louis XV. just in the grave ; Italy divided and dismembered ; Spain a despotism, but the mistress of two-thirds of the American Continent ; the Holy Roman Empire in Germany ; Frederick the Great nursing the resources of Prussia ; Holland and Venice moribund republics ; Belgium a part of the domains of Austria ; Poland still on the map of Europe ; Russia not yet recognized as one of the great political powers whose signatures were necessary to treaties arranging for the balance of power. Concentration of political power in the hands of princes and favorites had accustomed the people of Europe to take little part in political affairs, and had begotten that system of politics of the cabinet for the benefit of dynasties which had, through the centuries, caused a succession of destructive wars. The struggle which began on Lexington Common was the dawn of a new era. Its success changed the face of Europe and the character of its politics. Representa tives of national interests now act in conferences where favorites of monarchs for merly played their selfish games. The system of dynastic interests has disappeared, at least for a time, in France ; it is a vanishing shadow in Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Belgium and Holland ; and it exhibits only traditions of its former power in Germany and Austria. The idea of national unity in foreign relations, which brought Washington from Virginia to Cambridge after the events of Lexington and Concord, has welded together in succession the separate elements of national life, first in Italy, and next in Germany. The idea of freedom and personal liberty has penetrated the barriers of Russia, and set free millions of serfs. France is a republic, resting on universal suffrage. The parliament of England is now chosen by a wide-spread suffrage. Germany and Switzerland each has, at once, a federative government, and a government of States, each constitutional in form and representa tive in character. Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Belgium, and the smaller European powers, are enjoying constitutional institutions, which were unknown before the success of the American revolution paved the way for the written Constitution of the American Republic ; and the municipal laws of all these countries have all been modified and humanized in the interest of mankind. The men of Massachusetts fell that day, but their ideas survived them. It was said of the ashes of Wyckliffe, in the familiar lines, — "The Avon to the Severn runs, The Severn to the sea ; And Wyckliffe's dust shall spread abroad V\fide as the waters be." One may say the same of the blood of the Massachusetts martyrs which ran that day with the quiet rivers of Middlesex. Again thanking you for your courtesy, I am, gentlemen. Your obedient servant, J. C. Bancroft Davis. 96 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The absence of Mr. Winthrop was an occasion of general regret. He writes as follows : — Rome, 17th March, 1875. Gentlemen, — I dare not longer delay an acknowledgment of your most obliging communication. It reached me when I was just quitting the quiet retreat on the shores of the Mediterranean to which I had resorted, during the early winter, for the health of one of my family. It renewed, I need hardly say,, the deep regrets which I had already expressed to my valued and venerable friend, your chairman, that unavoidable absence from home and country would deprive me of the privilege of taking part in your great centennial celebration of the 19th of April. I thank you sincerely, gentlemen, for counting me worthy to be remembered again, at so great a distance, in a foreign land, among those whom you would be pleased to welcome to your festive board. The occasion is one full of interest and attraction for every American heart ; and your programme gives promise of a celebration from which no one would willingly be absent. Most gladly would I have paid my humble tribute to the memory of the men who perilled their lives, and poured out the first blood, in the cause of American liberty. Even here, where I am surrounded with the monuments of so many grand and heroic acts, and where so large a part of the history of the Old World is written on the magnificent ruins which confront me on every side, I turn to Lexington and Concord for examples of deliberate valor in a just cause, which are not surpassed by any thing of Greek or Roman fame. Here, too, where so many of the earlier local glories are merely legendary, and where, through the relentless investigations of modern archaeologists and antiquaries, so many of the most cherished and charming legends are fast fading into fables, I cannot but appreciate, more highly than ever before, the value of our own authentic records, and rejoice, with a new fervor, that there is nothing of uncertain tradition or doubtful testimony about the glory of your village heroes. It seems' but yesterday, but you will know how much less than half a century ago it was, that, after following their hallowed remains from the humble graves in which they had originally reposed, to the vault beneath the monument where they now rest, I was listening to their story with all its thrilling incidents, as it fell from the lips of one who told it as no other man could tell it. And, if any detail of the day and its events were omitted by Edward Everett, it has been more than supplied in the admirable town history of your chairman, to whose fidelity and ability I was so long a witness, both in the Legislature of Massachusetts and in the Congress of the United States. The annals of Lexington, and of the men who have made its name famous forever, are indeed safe ; and the lapse of ages can only increase the veneration in which the memories of those men are held by the lovers of liberty throughout the world. For ourselves, who have inherited the freedom which was purchased for us at so great a price, we can never be too grateful either to the men who planted our colonies, or to those who achieved their independence. Other and later struggles and LETTERS. 97 triumphs, however important, must never be suffered to blind us to the magnitude of those which crowd the early pages of our colonial and national history. Writing at this moment from an apartment which overhangs the site of the old gardens of Sallust, the words which that great historian puts into the mouth of Caesar, and which were familiar to me as a school-boy, come back with renewed vividness, and find fresh illustration and force in events at home which have recently filled so many hearts with apprehension : — " Profecih virtus atque sapientia major in illis fuit, qui ex parvis opibus tantum imperium fecere, quam in nobis, qui ea bene parta vix retinemus." Let me not seem, however, to imply a doubt, even under the cover of a dead language, that we shall still hold fast and forever to the union and liberty which were won for us by the wisdom and valor of our fathers. This very centennial period comes round most opportunely for recalling the whole people of the country from divisions, contentions, and estrangements which have too long poisoned our peace, and for fixing their minds and hearts once more on the common glories which belong to them as a nation, and on the great first principles which were contended for so nobly on every battle-field of the Revolution. Let us, then, pay to the heroes of those battle-fields the full honor which belongs to them, beginning at Lexington and Concord, and ending only with Cowpens, and Eutaw Springs, and Yorktown. The memory and example of our fathers may thus do almost as much in these latter days in helping us to uphold and maintain our free institutions, as their wisdom and valor did, a hundred years ago, in founding and establishing them. Once more thanking you for your most friendly and flattering invitation, and with sincere wishes for the success of your celebration, I am, gentlemen, your obliged fellow-citizen, Robert C. Winthrop. Gen. Howard, commanding the Department of the Columbia, writes from Portland, Or., as follows : — Probably I cannot be present on account of official duty, and distance. The very fact of distance is suggestive of the changes that have taken place since the igth of -April, 1775. Here on the Western coast is a country with cities and villages, institutions and customs, so assimilated to those of New England, that it is difficult to realize that more than three thousand miles intervene between you and me. The primary struggle beginning at Lexington, which was destined to secure true liberty to the masses of men, as Mr. Lincoln said, "A government of the people, by the people, and for the people," was in itself only a typical precursor of the last great struggle for genuine political freedom. This grand result, thanks to a brave people instinctively true to the teachings of their fathers, under the guidance of an ever- 98 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. present God, has finally extended to all the different colors and descriptions of men that make up our diversified national family. Believing this, our fathers' work epitomized at Lexington., recalled by this occasion, will be a source of inspiration to our young men to have good courage, stand for the right against all opposition, knowing that, in the future as in the past, at the last the right is sure to prevail. Very truly yours, O. O. Howard, Brig.-General U.S.A. The Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D., writes from San Francisco, Feb. 17 : — How I wish I could be there on the grand occasion, and share the hospitality of the generous friends whose names you mention, and all the inspirations of the hour and the scene ! . But I am bound hand and foot with duties and cares which I cannot delegate ; and I can only look on and listen from a distance, and catch some faint echo of cannon throb and of eloquent speech. The heavens shine propitiously on the storied memorial day ! Col. John L. Chandler, a native of Lexington, sends from Dallas, Tex., the following sentiment : — The acorn planted on this spot on the 19th of April, 1775, has become the gigantic oak of 1875, whose wide-spreading branches cover the whole continent from the St. John to the Rio Grande, from the surges of the Atlantic to the Golden Gate of the Pacific. May it ever shelter a brave and free people, worthy of their noble heritage, and not forgetful of those who sowed in toil and pain for the harvest which in joy we reap ! The following telegram speaks for itself : — Castor, Wyoming, April 19, 1875. President Centennial Celebration Headquarters, — Flood-bound on the Rocky Moun tains, natives of Lexington send their greetings. Gov. Carpenter of Iowa writes : — In closing, let me hope, that as the sentinel in the patriot army during the Revolu tion often repeated the familiar challenge, "Halt! who goes there?" and being answered, " A friend," replied, " Advance, friend, and give the countersign," and, the word " Lexington " being whispered in his ear, would say, " The countersign is LETTERS. 99 right: pass on," — so may the nation today take up the old countersign ; and whilst the Genius of Liberty, at this close of the century, challenges a halt, and demands, " Who goes there ? " may it be in every American heart to answer, " A friend ! " And as the challenge comes back, " Advance, friend, and give the countersign," may the nation with one voice answer, " Lexington I " and hear again the reply, " The countersign is right : pass on 1 " Pass on to mightier achievements and a grander destiny than Samuel Adams or John Hancock ever dreamed of in their philosophy. Frankfort, Ky., Feb. i8, 1875. Gentlemen, — I should be glad to be with you, and participate in the proposed cen tennial celebration of the battle of Lexington. The hearts of all true Americans are ever stirred within them at the mention of the gallant resistance to oppression made by the little band of patriots in that conflict. We cannot forget that there was sounded the tocsin of a war which gave liberty and independence to a continent, and whose triumph inaugurated a new era of political freedom, and new ideas of human rights, which the world will never let die. My engagements are such, however, that it is very doubtful whether I shall be able to be present. Very respectfully yours, P. H. Leslie, Governor of Kentucky. HOW LEXINGTON, KY., GOT HER NAME. From G. W. Ranck, Esq., author of the history of Lexington, Ky. : — In the year 1775, 3- party of hunters were sent out from the fort at Harrodsburg, and took possession of the north side of the Kentucky River. Clothed in their quaint pioneer style of buckskin pantaloons, deerskin leggins, linsey hunting-shirt, and peltry cap, and armed each with a trusty flint lock rifle, a hatchet, and a scalping-knife, they toiled through the trackless woods and almost impenetrable cane-brakes, in the direction of the future Lexington.' On or about the 5th of June, the approach of night ended one of their solitary and dangerous marches ; and, glad to rest, the tired hunters camped on a spot afterwards known successively as McConnell's Station, Royal's Spring, and the Headley Distillery Property. It is only a few steps from the present " Old Frankfort Road," and is nearly opposite the beautiful Lexington Cemetery. The spring from which the pio neers drank and watered their horses still exists, with a stream as cool, clear, and grateful as then. After posting one of their number on the " lookout " for the "red-skin varmints," who were ever on the alert to slay the pale-face, the rest seated themselves around a blazing brush-heap, on logs and buffalo-hides, and, with hunger for sauce, sapped with gusto upon the then inevitable "jerk " and parched corn. While eating their simple meal, they talked with enthusiasm of the beautiful coun try they had just travelled over, and, surprised and delighted with the prospect about lOO LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. them, they determined that their place of settlement should be around the very spot where they were then encamped. The hunters assisted William McConnell to build a rude little cabin on their camp ing-ground, as the foundation for a title ; for Virginia, as eariy as the year 1774, had offered four hundred acres of land to each person who cleared a piece of land, built a cabin, and raised a crop of Indian corn. The name of the settlement that was to be was djscussed with animation. One suggested " York," another " Lancaster ; "but both were dropped with a shout for " Lexington," as the conversation turned to the strange news that had slowly crept through the wilderness, and which, after it had been weeks on the way, they had just heard of ; how " King George's troops on the 19th of April, had called Americans ' rebels,' and shot them down like dogs at Lexing ton in Massachusetts Colony." The story of Lexington's christening — the historic fact of how she got her name — is as romantic as the legend of the beautiful Princess Pocahontas, and is an incident far more interesting, because more true, than the fabu lous one told of the founding of ancient Rome. So the hunters called the new settiement Lexington, in memory of that bloody field hundreds of miles away ; and some of them soon after joined the Continental army, and fought long and bravely lo avenge the minute-men who fell that day. How strange the story of that pioneer camp I Here, almost a hundred years ago, when Kentucky was a wilderness territory of the royal province of Virginia, — here, far away from civilized life, in the heart of an unbroken forest, at the dead of night, a little band of adventurers erected the first monument ever raised on this continent in honor of the first dead of the Revolution. It is true the ceremonies of its dedica tion were not attended with glittenng pomp or show ; for the officials were only clad in buckskin and honest homespun, and the music of their choir was naught but the scream of the panther, or the far-off yell of the savage. But it was consecrated by the strictest virtue and truest patriotism, and Nature smiled benignantly upon it from an Eden of luxuriant beauty. Gen. Julius White of Chicago, after accepting the invitation of the Com mittee, adds, — And, for one, I -feel very grateful to the people of Lexington for the proposed observance of the day. While the " Declaration of Independence " was the formal announcement of the fact, it has always seemed to me that the 19th of April, 1775, was the real birthday of the nation, and Lexington the place hallowed by the event. Prof. Edward S. Joynes writes from Washington-Lee College : — Lexington, Va., March, 1875. Gentlemen, — I regret that I am compelled to decline the invitation of the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, to attend its approaching centennial celebration on the 19th of April. This celebration commemorates one of the great events of our history, the inaugu ration of an epoch. Writing from the namesake town of Lexington, in Virginia, let LETTERS. lOI me hope .that the principles then and there asserted maybe found sufficient for all time, to establish and maintain a just and equal government over a free and happy people, over all this wide land ; and that the recollections suggested by this celebra tion may help to unite the whole nation in a renewed and common patriotism, as the events themselves, in 1775, helped to unite the people of all the colonies in a common cause for liberty. Among other communications from Virginia, is the following from General Smith, President ofthe Military Institute at Lexington. Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Va., March 9, 1875. Gentlemen, — Your very courteous communication ofthe 1 6th ultimo, inviting me to participate in the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1875, as the guest of the town, has been duly received. It would afford me great pleasure to unite with you in this celebration of the great national event thus proposed to be commemorated ; but my public duties here con strain me respectfully to decline the invitation. I am a resident in the town of Lexington, Va. Lexington was first organized as a county town, by Act of the General Assembly of Virgini.i, in October, 1777, being the second year of the Commonwealth. By the same act, the name of the county of Dunmore ^a.s changed to Shenandoah ; leaving clearly the conclusion, that the patriotic spirit which animated the first legislature was to honor the event which on the 19th of April, 1775, opened the American Revolution. Besides, Lexington became the county town of the new county of Rockbridge, formed out of the large district of West Augusta; and West Augusta embraced those ranges of mountain fastnesses, well known to the Father of his Country, and which he had, with the eye of the sol dier, designated as the last retreat of his patriot army,. should he be driven by weight of numbers from the seaboard, and where he could make a sure defence against the enemies of his country. These historic incidents make it eminently proper that Lexington, Va., and West Augusta, should be represented in the centennial celebration of the battle of Lexing ton in Massachusetts ; and nothing but over-ruling circumstances deprives me of the pleasure of being with you on the occasion. The Constitution of Virginia, unanimously adopted June 29, 1776, under which Constitution the above-recited acts were passed by the legislature of Virginia, in its preamble recites the various acts of misrule and oppression which led the good peo ple of the Commonwealth of Virginia to declare that " the government of this country, as formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is totally dissolved.'' Among these acts of misrule are the following* : — " By dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasion of the rights of the people. " By keeping among us, in time of peace, standing armies and ships of war. * Herring's Statutes at Large, vol. ix., pp. 112, 113. I02 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. " By affecting to render the mihtary independent of, and superior to, the civil power. " For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury. " For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. " By prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, — those very negroes whom, by an inhuman'use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law." When it is remembered that these acts of misrule were recited in almost the same terms, in the Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 1776, you may well understand why it is that Virginians would gladly unite in a celebration commemora tive of principles so dear to our forefathers, and which now, as then, constitute the true basis of civil liberty. In the hope that your commemoration may tend to revive and perpetuate these sacred principles, and with my respectful acknowledgments for the courtesy extended to me, I have the honor to be your obedient servant, Francis H. Smith. From the governor of Michigan : — State of Michigan, Executive Department, Lansing, March 4, 1875. Gentlemen, — . . . The active life that so completely engrosses the time and thought of every American has almost obliterated the memory of the past, and caused us to forget that we have a history. I am glad that the centennial anniver sary of the nation's birth is so near, that it may renew and strengthen the love of country, and rekindle the fire of patriotism, that has so long smouldered amid the ashes of money-gathering. It is well for the country that we are to be carried back to the " old times " of the fathers. . . . Thanking you for your remembrance, I am very truly yours, John D. Bagley. The following telegram arrived in the evening : — Pottsville, Penn., April 19, 1875. Mayor of Lexington, Mass., — First defenders 1861 send greetings and congratula tions to descendants of first defenders 1775. Jas. Wren, President. The Mayor of New Lexington, O., writes : — . . . Rest assured that the fire of patriotism still burns in the hearts of the people of New Lexington, and that the memory of Lexington (after which New Lexington got its name), where the first hallowed blood was shed, and where the first martyrs LETTERS. 103 fell in their resistance to the tyrannical demands and aggressions of the British, which culminated in the seven-years' war of the Revolution, and which gained for us the glorious independence of the American nation, will long be remembered in their hearts, as something too sacred to be lightly set aside. In common with all good people, we feel that we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave men who laid the foundation of American independence by offering their bodies a sacrifice on the nation's altar at the battie of Lexington. . . . Thanking you for your kind invitation, permit me to hope that the future history of " Old Lexington " may be even more glorious than its past, and that the peace, happi ness, and prosperity of her children may continue to the end. Very respectfully, George A. Granger, Mayor. Commandant's Office, United States Navy Yard, Philadelphia, March 13, 1875. Gentlemen, — I regret exceedingly that official duties will prevent my uniting with you in the interesting celebration to which you invite me. I shall participate with you in spirit ; and would, if it were allowable, honor the occasion, as it should be remembered all over the country, with a national salute from the guns of this Navy Yard. . . . As a contribution to the history of the event, I send you the following extract from the diary of my grandfather Brig.-Gen. Jedidiah Preble, written in Boston, under date of Wednesday, Aug. 9, 1775. "Overcast. This morning met with a man that deserted from the regulars this day fortnight (July 27), as sensible and intelligent a fellow as ever I met with. " He was at Lexington fight. He says he came out with Lord Percy, and that he asked a young fellow of his acquaintance who fired first. "The soldiers, when they cams where the provincials ware, one of them flasht his piece, on which a regular officer fired, and swung his gun over his head ; and then there was a general fire. They had 75 killed, 23-3 wounded. He was also at Bunker Hill, where there was killed and died of their wounds 700, and 357 wounded that recov ered. He took the account from Gen. Robinson." I have the honor to be Very respectfully your obedient servant, George Henry Preble, Commodore U.S.N. Senator Bayard of Delaware writes, — Wilmington, Del., April 12, 1875. ... If it were in my power, I should have had great pleasure in assisting in the commemoration of the brave deeds of the hardy patriots of 1775. . . . Prolonged ofiicial duties in the Senate have been followed by an accumulation of my private obligations here which will compel my absence from the interesting celebration ; which In every sense, and for every reason dear to American hearts, I hope may be thoroughly successful. I04 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The righteousness of resistance to unlawful authority is a lesson that cannot be too constantly instilled into the hearts and minds of our people, or too frequently held up for their admiration and respect. . . . I am very respectfully your fellow-citizen, T. F. Bayard. The following from Mr. Lossing, the well-known writer of American His tory, shows the difficulty which our guests experienced from the unprece dented crowd that blocked all our thoroughfares throughout the day and evening : — The Ridge, Dover Plains, N.Y., April 25, 1875. My Dear Sir, — ... I hope you will not think me churlish in hesitating to put my original sketch of Jonathan Harrington in the relic-room of the town-hall among the precious things which you had collected there. The Secretary of War had expressed a desire to see it, and have it copied in life size, in oil, for the War Depart ment ; and I did not know just when I should have an opportunity to see him. ... I viewed your collection of relics with great interest. My old friend Dr. Prime had the Pitcairn pistols to show at the dinner-table after the arrival of the president. ... I never saw so orderly a great crowd. I think the committee have reason to be proud not only for the perfection of the preparations, but also for the performances. I feel grateful for the kind hospitality extended to me. My retreat from Lexington was almost as tedious as that of the British a hundred years ago. I started before five o'clock, but did not get into Boston until about eleven, p.m. . . . Most truly your friend and fellow-citizen, Benson J. Lossinq. The Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., of New York, made every exertion to be present ; but, like thousands of others, he could not get any nearer than Bos ton. In his letter of April 26, he says, — ... I regret my loss of the fine occasion, but not at all my escape from a speech. ... I was so guileless as not to have anticipated the least difficulty in getting from Boston to Lexington. Otherwise I should have been on the ground the day before, my interest was so genuine. I staid at home to preach on Lexington and Concord, in my own pulpit, April 18. I think those of us who were baffled in getting to Lexington and Concord have a great consolation in remembering, that it was the unexpected zeal of the people to show their honor of the place and the day, that crowded us out I had my pay in the sight of the eager crowds about 'the depots at Boston. They satisfied me that the old spiiit had not perished under the weight of a hundred years; and that was enough to reward me for a long journey back and forth. LETTERS. 105 The following is taken from the letter of Gen. Dix, dated New York, March 29, 1875 : — ... I know of no occasion more deserving to be honored and commemorated than the conflict at Lexington, the first step in that long and sanguinary contest which led to consequences so momentous to the destinies of this continent, and which may prove equally so to the interests of the popular masses in other quarters of the globe. If we are true to the principles of those who on youK memorable field struck the first blow for the maintenance of political right and in vindication of the cause of self-government, I see no reason why, at the end of another period of a hundred years, your descendants may not celebrate as gratefully the event which has given your town an undying name, and thank God that the civil institutions formed by their forefathers have survived all dangers from within and without, and stand unshaken on the ancient foundations. That Providence may so guide and protect us as to insure this grand result, is the fervent prayer of Your friend and fellow-citizen, John A. Dix. The following letter is from th,e venerable founder of the Cooper Institute and other noble charities in the city of New York : — No. 9, Lexington Avenue, New York, April 8, 1875. Gentlemen, — ... I find that, in my desire to take part in this commemoration, I have allowed the proper day for reply to pass by ; but, as I find it impossible to attend, I trust that this seeming breach of courtesy will be overlooked. Be so good as to accept my sincere thanks for remembering me among the number of those whose memory goes back to the early days of the Republic, when the trials and achievements of our Revolutionary fathers were fresh in the hearts of the people. You do well to revive these memories by the proposed commemoration ; and it will be well for the country if, with this celebration, you can revive the patriotism which animated the heroes who fought and bled and died at Concord and Lexington. We need the old Revolutionary spirit to purify our politics and the administration of public affairs ; and I rejoice exceedingly that now, in my eighty-fifth year, I see unmistakable indications of a general preference for principle to policy, and public virtue to personal interests. That our beloved country may prosper and progress in all that is noble, so as to be worthy of the men who secured its independence, is the fervent wish of Your obedient servant, Peter Cooper. Commodore Fairfax, Commandant at the New London Navy Yard, had accepted the invitation of the committee ; but as the day approached he found his attendance would be impossible, and wrote as follows, under date of April 16,1875: — I06 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. I regret that I am unable to be present on the occasion. My early training at " Uncle Charley Green's " on Jamaica Plain, together with my professional education, has divested my mind of any sectional prejudices ; and I can with sincerity say that I love the " Old Bay State " as much as I love my own native South ; and on this mem orable occasion, will be with you in spirit, praying that each and every centennial celebration may tend to cement the bonds of union stronger and stronger, as each year rohs round, and all sectional feeling forever be lost sight of in the prosperity and growth of the whole country. Very respectfully, &c., D. McN. Fairfax, U.S.N. Boston, Feb. 24, 1875. Gentlemen, — ... My ancestor Nathaniel Lawrence was a resident of Lexington ; and my grandfather was one of the Groton company, which pursued the enemy towards Cambridge; while my grandmother (Susanna Parker) was living on the main road, over the Concord line, and saw the advancing column from the hill behind her father's house. From her we have heard the account of the steady ad^-ance, the gleaming of the muskets, the clear voices of the British officers, and of their retreat some hours later with the minute-men in pursuit, the finding of a dead " regular " near their front gate, &c. May we never forget the day, nor the virtues of those who made it celebrated ! Very truly yours, Amos A. Lawrence. Col. T. W. Higginson writes from Newport, April 24, 1875, — " You were far too busy on the 19th to miss anybody ; but let me say, to set myself right, that I spent almost the whole day in getting out and back, and could not even report at the tent." The committee had requested Col. Higginson to respond to a toast upon the History of our Country for Young Readers. Wilham Lloyd Garrison, after regretting his inability to be present, writes : — A large inheritance was won for us who are now living to enjoy it, by those who a century ago, counted not their lives dear unto them in resisting the tyranny of the mother country, and leading the way to American independence. Grateful for all that has been gained, and giving full credit to whom it is due, let us endeavor to make our country more true to the cause of freedom and equal rights than it has hitherto been, that all nations may be powerfully influenced by its example. LETTERS. 107 The following is from a direct descendant of one of the Lexington minute- men: — Boston, Feb. 27, 1875. Gentlemen, — ... I can never visit the spot without stopping before that modest column which marks the distinguished ground where the first blood was spilled to secure American rights and American freedom ; to read and ponder the comprehen sive, terse, and purely patriotic sentencas its tablet contains, prepared by one whose very soul seemed, as he wrote, to have been full of righteous indignation for the wrongs the hand of tyranny was inflicting. Has enough been said and done in honor of " Parson Clark," whose words an spirit are seen, unmistakably, pervading all the early efforts and movements of the Revolutionary struggle ? He deservedly stood beside men of world-wide renown ; but they came to him, and both felt and enjoyed his influence. He was a power they found true, strong, and sympathetic, — a fountain from which they could and did draw, as the stern demands of trial pressed upon their noble spirits. Such men as he was gave tone and nerve to all around them, in that eventful period, in the securing of the blessings of liberty for all the ages and countries of the worid Let the recollection of such never grow dim. Wishing you desired success, I remain Yours truly, Francis Brown. While this volume was in press, the following letter was received from his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, a descendant of Lord Percy, who com manded the British re-enforcements in Lexington. The distinguished writer expresses, doubtless, the natural feeling of intelli gent Englishmen, with regard to the events of the 19th of April. Albury Park, Guildford, 9th July, 1875. Sir, — \ have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th May, and of the interesting documents accompanying it. I regret that I have been unable to find such a likeness as you seek of the relative for whose memory you express a respect which deserves my best thanks ; no portrait existing of him of the date of his service in America. That none of his descendants may ever be called on to display the qualities which distinguished him in such a field as that of Lexington, the fratricidal memories of which I cannot but think it unwise to perpetuate, is the very sincere desire and hope of. Sir, Your very obedient servant, Northumberland. Io8 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The limited space of this volume forbids the publication of other cordial and interesting letters from well-known gentlemen, among whom we may name. Gen. Armstrong of Hampton, Va., the Hon. James G. Blaine, the Rev. Phillips Brooks, Henry Armitt Brown, Esq., of Philadelphia, Ex-Gov. Bullock, William Cullen Bryant, Commodore Bryson, Judge Clifford of the Supreme Court, the Hon. John H. Clifford of New Bedford, Capt. William A. Courte- nay of Charleston, S.C, Prof. Scheie De Vere of the University of Virginia, Pres. Eliot of Cambridge, Judge Force of Cincinnati, Gen. Garfield of Ohio, Gov. Garland of Arkansas, Gov. Grover of Oregon, Judge Hoar of Concord, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. Holland of New York, Henry W. Longfellow, the Hon. Horace Maynard of Tennessee, Pres. McCosh of Princeton, the Rev. Dr. Palmer of New Orleans, Admiral Porter, Gov. Porter of Tennessee, Pres. Porter of Yale College, the Hon. Josiah Quincy, Samuel B. Ruggles, Esq., of New York, the Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., of Brooklyn, the Hon. C. C. Washburn of Wisconsin, the Hon. John W. Wallace, President of the Penn sylvania Historical Society, and Ex-Pres. Woolsey of Yale College. General Description of the Day. general description of the day. The people of Lexington, anticipating the general interest that would be felt in the centennial celebration of the opening scene of the American Revo lution, took official measures at an early day, to prepare for the great occasion. In November, 1873, a committee, instructed by the town, addressed a note to the selectmen of Concord, inviting that town to unite with Lexington in the proposed celebration, as Lexington had united with Concord in 1850, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the battle. A similar invita tion was extended to several other neighboring towns. The authorities of Concord replied, that, as it was proposed to erect a statue of a minute-man near the site of the Old North Bridge, the ceremonies attending the dedication would prevent their joining in the celebration at Lexington. Subsequently a joint committee was appointed by both towns to consider the expediency of so dividing the exercises of the day, that those in one town should not conflict with those in the other. The committee considered the plan of giving the morning exclusively to Lexington, and the afternoon to Concord. This plan was fully discussed, and not abandoned until it became apparent to many that a joint celebration was impracticable. The result has shown the wisdom of the decision. Neither town alone could have entertained the vast numbers that poured into Middlesex County that day ; nor would it have been possible to convey a tenth part of the people from one town to the other, during the brief interval at noon. Consequently each town proceeded to arrange a separate programme. At a town-meeting, held July 11, 1874, the following gentlemen were ap pointed as the Lexington Executive Committee, with full power to make all the arrangements for the celebration : — LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE. Charies Hudson, M. H. Merriam, W. H. Munroe, W. A. Tower, G. E. Mtiz- zey, B. C. Whitcher, L. S. Peirce, G. O. Smith, Webster Smith, E. G. Porter, 112 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. E. S. Elder, Alonzo Goddard, C. C. Goodwin, Benjamin Hadley, G. D. Har rington, H. Holmes, T. G. Hovey, Patrick Mitchell, C. M. Parker, N. W. Peirce, Levi Prosser, John Pryor, Hammon Reed, R. W. Reed, A. B. Smith, C. A. Wellington, Walter Wellington, Henry Westcott, F. E. Wetherell. Chairman, Charles Hudson. Secretary, F. E. Wetherell. A few names were afterwards added ; and the principal sub-committees were constituted as follows : — SUB-COMMITTEES. Invitation. — Charles Hudson, M. H. Merriam, W. H. Munroe. Orator and Addresses. — W. A. Tower, Hammon Reed, E. G. Porter, R. W. Reed, Charles Hudson. Finance. — Hammon Reed, R. W. Reed, F. F. Raymond, Levi Prosser, W. Wellington, G. W. Robinson, H. B. Brigham. Transportation. — M. H. Merriam, Alonzo Goddard, L. S. Peirce, Webster Smith, Asa Cottrell, Jeremiah Prescott. Order of Exercises. — E. G. Porter, John Pryor, E. S. Elder, A. E. Scott, Warren Duren. Salute. — C. M. Parker, N. W. Peirce, A. B. Smith, L. G Babcock, G. H. Cutter. Music. — C. C. Goodwin, Benjamin Hadley, Henry Westcott, L. J. Wing, E. P. Rich. Tent and Decorations. — G. E. Muzzey, C. A. Wellington, G O. Smith, F. E. Wetherell, J. L. Norris. Dinner. — B. C. Whitcher, G. E. Muzzey, B. T. Batcheller, P. Mitchell, C. M. Parker, G. H. Cutter. Procession. — T. G. Hovey, A. B. Smith, G. D. Harrington, J. J. Raynor, L. E. Crone. Printing. — H. Holmes, G. O. Smith, F. E. Wetherell. Evening Entertainment. — C. C. Goodwin, G. O. Davis, G. O. Smith, F. V. Butters, A. E. Scott, L. W. Muzzey. Statues. — C. Hudson, E. G. Porter, H. Reed. Press. — F. E. Wetherell, H. Reed, G. E. Muzzey. Reception. — A. Cottrell, E. S. Elder, C. C. Goodwin, C. Hudson, M. H. Merriam, W. H. Munroe, E. G. Porter, J. J. Raynor. Also John Cummings of Woburn, S. B. Rindge of Cambridge, D. N. Skill- ings of Winchester, J. N. Buffum of Lynn, E. W. Kingsley of Boston, W. E. Parmenter of Arlington, S. O. Upham of Waltham, Charles Robinson, jun., of Newton, and Charles Fairchild of Boston. The meetings of the committee were held regularly at the town-hall throughout the winter. All questions relating to the observance of the day GENERAL DESCRIPTION. II3 were fully and freely discussed. The interest increased as the time ap proached, many of the members willingly sacrificing their private business to insure the success of the celebration. The following appointments were made for the public exercises of the day : — Thomas Meriam Stetson, Esq., of New Bedford, President of the Day. Hon. Richard H. Dana, jun., of Cambridge, Orator. Hon. Charles Hudson of Lexington, to deliver the address on the unveil ing of the statues of Hancock and Adams. Rev. Henry Westcott of Lexington, Chaplain for the Morning Exercises. Rev. Edward G. Porter of Lexington, Chaplain for the Dinner. William A. Tower, Esq., of Lexington, Chief Marshal. The day was ushered in by a salute of a hundred guns, fired at sunrise from Prosser's Hill, near Waltham Street, by the right platoon of Battery C, Lieut. Boyd. All night the roads leading into Lexington had resounded with the rattle of vehicles of every description, empty carriages for the guests, trains of artillery, express-wagons, and carts loaded with provisions and camp equipage. The sun rose in a clear sky, and the air was sharp and bracing. The frost had left the ground, and the roads were well settled, and in fine condition for travel. At an early hour crowds of people began to pour in from the neighboring towns in barges, furniture-wagons, omnibuses, and coaches, eager to be on the ground in season to witness the grand display which every one felt the day was sure to bring. Business was very generally suspended in Boston and throughout this sec tion of the State, so that every possible conveyance, public and private, was in demand. So dense was the crowd in Lexington, that our streets were soon blocked in every direction, so that carriages could not pass ; and many who started to visit both Lexington and Concord found it impossible to proceed, and, after approaching within a mile or two of our common, gave up the attempt, and turned back. Others abandoned their carriages to their drivers, and forced their way through on foot. Some gentlemen, and even ladies, walked the distance of six or eight miles from the neighboring towns to wit ness the grand pageant. It is estimated by those best qualified to judge, that there were in Lexington during the day at least one hundred thousand peo ple. This opinion is fortified by the fact, that the authorities of several ofthe towns state the probable number that they sent ; by which it would appear that one-half of their entire population was in Lexington that day. Woburn reports four thousand ; Waltham, three thousand ; and towns of ten or twelve 1-5 114 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. hundred inhabitants, situated twelve or fifteen miles distant, estimate their numbers at from three to five hundred. The city of Boston and its environs turned out an immense number, while many distant places were largely repre sented. The railroad was perfectly overwhelmed. Thousands were pressing at the station in Boston during the day, who not only failed to obtain a pas sage, but were unable to reach even the ticket-ofifice ; and the trains which were sent out, loaded to their utmost capacity outside and in, made no appre ciable diminution in the crowd at the starion. Many persons, and among them invited guests, came as far as Boston, and, finding it impossible to get to Lexington, returned to their homes, or remained in the city. Nor could they find relief to any extent by private conveyance ; for hacks, omnibuses, and conveyances of almost every description, were put in requisition at an early hour. Many left Boston by the horse-cars (which conveyed them about half of the distance), and walked the rest of the way, or became discouraged, and turned back. It was also an observable fact, that those who were left at the station in Boston were, to a great extent, the intelligent and substantial part of the community. The young and ardent would naturally be the most likely to force their way through the crowd, leaving the older and more sedate behind. Though the day was unusually cold for the season, the thermometer ranging from twenty-two to twenty-six degrees above zero, the number who visited Lexington would have been very largely increased, if transportation could have been procured. It is due to our own committee, as well as the railroad officials, to say that the deviations from our published schedule were owing to the unprecedented and wholly unexpected throng of people, which completely blocked the rail road and all the highways leading to Lexington. The general programme, the order of the procession, and the arrangements for the exercises, were as complete as possible; and the procession, though somewhat delayed by the late arrival of certain organizations and many prominent guests, moved in good order over the designated route, and pre sented a magnificent appearance. The truth is, the celebration proved more attractive than the most sanguine had anticipated. The call to observe the first centennial of the nation'5 battles had aroused the public heart, and pro duced such a liberal gathering of the' people from near and from far, such a ground- swell of patriotism, as had never been seen in any village in America before. And when it is considered that a small suburban town of twenty-five hun dred inhabitants is suddenly flooded with a hundred thousand visitors, — forty times the population of the place, — any delay or temporary inconvenience is what might naturally be expected. Indeed, it has been a matter of very gen eral congratulation, even among those who were themselves put to the greatest THE DECORA TIONS. I I 5 inconvenience, that so much of genuine and varied interest was actually accomplished under such overwhelming difficulties. The very multitude which occasioned some annoyance and regret at the time, we now, from a broad survey, contemplate with satisfaction and even with pride ; for we can not but regard this immense gathering as a patriotic rising of the people in attestation of the old Anglo-American doctrine of human rights. Our fathers, a century ago, rallied in defence of their country ; but it was feared that a long period of peace and prosperity had so far obhterated that devotion, that the people viewed with comparative indifference the deeds of our fathers, and lightly esteemed the inheritance which had come down to us. But this awak ening of the people of all ages and callings, this promiscuous gathering to commemorate the noble deeds of the men of the Revolution, shows that the spirit of our ancestors is stUl alive in their descendants, and, when a crisis requires it, they will be found worthy of their sires. There was nothing but the historic interest in Lexington to bring such a crowd together, — no business interest, no public institutions, no remarkable scenery. On the contrary, the season of the year and the exceptionably cold temperature that day seemed forbidding enough. Yet still they came. It was because Americans wished to tread the soil baptized with the first blood of the Revolution, and do homage at the grave of the gallant men, who, against great odds, stood firm and undaunted on this village green. The present generation has thus borne high testimony to the worth of the noble patriots who died that their country might be free. Such true courage, such ardent devotion to principle, such steadfast adher ence to the right, will always attract attention, and in the end gain the admira tion of the world. And it matters little, whether the heroes be few or many, whether they fall singly or by thousands : if there be genuine self-sacrifice for the good of others, there will in the end be an offering of gratitude paid at the consecrated shrine of martyrs. THE DECORATIONS. The route taken by the British on their ill-omened march to Lexington was, on this occasion, marked by various decorations all the way from East Cam bridge. All the public buildings, and many private residences, displayed flags, streamers, and mottoes in great abundance. We can only allude to those that are invested with special historic interest. An arch was erected between the two venerable elms at Alewife Brook, marking the boundary between Cambridge and Arlington, with suitable in- Il6 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. scriptions. Near the centre of the village, on the left of the road, was a sign marked, " Here, one hundred years ago, stood the Black Horse Tavern, — headquarters of the Committee of Safety." The old toll-house announced that Jason Russell and others fell there ; and in the front yard of the same house was posted, " Here the minute-men from Danvers formed a Hne behind a breastwork of shingles ; and several of them were killed." In front of the Arlington House was inscribed, " Site of the Cooper Tavern, in which Jabez Wyman and Jason Winship (non-combatants) were killed by the British." On a broad arch, spanning the avenue near the Town Hall, was inscribed the fact, that on that spot Lord Percy's supplies were captured, and several of the convoy killed or taken prisoners. The old Cutter House bore the sign, " This house was entered, plundered, and set on fire by the British." Towards the western end of the town was the inscription, " Site of Dea. Joseph Adams's house, from which the British took the communion service, which was afterwards recovered by purchase, and is now used by the Unitarian Society." In East Lexington, the schoolhouse and several private houses were appro priately decorated with patriotic mottoes and colors. Several interesting Revolutionary relics were seen mingled with the festoons and banners, which now marked the road almost without interruption. Near Walter Welling ton's, an elm-tree bore a label, "This tree was set here, in 1835, by Jonathan Hirrington, the last survivor of the battle of Lexington." All the historic houses in town were marked by an ample display of flags and appropriate tablets, furnished by the town committee. One of the most interesting buildings on the route is the old Munroe Tavern, which, by its position and gala dress, attracted much attention. On an arch in front was inscribed, " Lord Percy's headquarters and hospital ; pillaged by the regulars on their return." It was here that John Raymond was killed by the British, on the afternoon of the 19th. On one of the ancient elms, whose branches nearly cover the house, was hung the original tavern sign, — a large plain board, in the centre of which the outhne of a punch-bowl could be plainly traced. Above was the word "Entertainment ;" and below, "By William Munroe, 1775." This quaint relic was closely inspected by curious crowds through the day. On the hill near by, Lord Percy planted one of his cannon, the other being stationed on the knoll where the High Schoolhouse now stands. These guns threw shot into the village, but did little damage. One ball entered the meet ing-house, and passed out through the pulpit window, and lodged in" the north erly part of the common. Several six-pounders have since been ploughed up in different places in or near the village. The High Schoolhouse was finely ornamented, — tri-colors running from THE DECORA TIONS. I I 7 ¦the pillars to the trees, and rich festoons hanging in front. The inscription told the name of the school, and the story of the cannon, adding, " 177S, British cannon: 1875, the school-book." A little below, on the other side of the street, is the William Viles house, with a large American flag, a shield, and other insignia, embellishing the front. The inscription was, " The house of Benjamin Merriam, 1775 : hospital for the regulars." The private residences in the village were gayly decked with banners, por traits, streamers, effigies, and mottoes. The town hall was especially conspicu ous. Flags and bunting were stretched from the fa9ade across the street in several directions. Near the top of the building, a large eagle held the national colors in his beak and talons. The dwelling on the right, near the common, known as the old Buckman Tavern, which still holds two bullets in its clapboards, was worthily adorned with streamers and lestoons, and marked, " Wounded by the British." The churches were appropriately draped with flags, shields, crosses, and mottoes ; and remained open to the public through the day and evening, fur nishing a welcome retreat to many from the cold air and the surging crowds without. The press headquarters were in the old pitched-roof house, on the south side of the common, bearing the inscription, " A witness of the battle." The house on the corner of Elm and Bedford Streets, now occupied by James Gould, was distinguished by a glory of flags, surrounding the following notice : " The home of Jonathan Harrington, jun., who was shot on the battle-field, and died on his own threshold." The next house on Elm Street, facing the common, has been occupied by successive generations of the Har rington family. The decorations consisted of an illuminated shield over the door, and signal flags extending from the corners of the house to the noble elms in front. We regret to add that this venerable house, which has so long been a promi nent landmark in Lexington, has since been taken down, and will never be seen again. Hancock Street was richly decorated throughout; and many of the devices attracted special attention. The old parsonage is a building, which, in historic interest, can hardly be equalled in New England. Built in the year 1698, it. was for fifty-four years the home of the Rev. John Hancock, grandfather of Gov. Hancock, and one of the most influential clergymen of his time. It was afterwards occupied for fifty-one years, by his distinguished successor the Rev. Jonas Clark, well known, throughout the Revolution, as a leading preacher and patriot. Here Hancock and Adams frequently met to confer upon the affairs of the colony ; and the room which they occupied remains precisely as it was. This house was decorated by the town, and visited by thousands of people. Il8 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. THE SCENE ON THE COMMON. The chief centre of attracrion was naturally the old battle-ground in the heart of the village. Here, on a gentle eminence near the roadside, stands the simple granite monument erected by the Commonwealth of Massachu setts at the close of the last century. The quaint inscription, written by Lexington's great war minister, records the names of the heroic dead whose mortal remains rest in the sacred soil beneath. The old parish meeting-house, which stood at the Boston end of the com mon, near the spot now occupied by the hay-scales, has long since disappeared. The ancient belfry, which stood by itself on the green, and did such good service in calling out the militia on the morning of the 19th, has also, unfor tunately, been removed. In other respects the general features of the place have been remarkably well preserved. The principal decoration at the entrance of the common was a large trium phal arch, bearing the conspicuous words, " Welcome to the birthplace of American liberty." Over this waved from a lofty flagstaff a brilliant American flag thirty feet in length, and from each side of the staff a line of smaller flags extending across the two streets. Some of these flags bore appropriate inscriptions. The following were especially prominent : " Don't fire unless fired upon ; but, if they mean to have war, let it begin here. — Capt. Parker." " Too few to resist, too brave to fly." Near the flag-staff, on the left, a small kiosk was erected for the distribution of programmes, medals, and souvenirs. Passing under the arch, and along a short walk embowered in evergreens, the public were admitted to the pavilion tent, in which the exercises of the morning were held. The interior presented a spectacle of grandeur and beauty rarely witnessed. Flags of all nations waved in harmonious colors from the centre poles and gas-pipes, while bunting and streamers were Carried in graceful lines to the corners and sides of the mammoth canvas. Beneath this canopy a smooth floor was laid, two hundred feet by eighty, affording accommodation for seven thousand people. A large platform, adorned with flowers and exotic plants, was arranged on the western side for the speakers and distinguished guests, the front being covered with green cloth fringed with gold. In the centre, over the speaker's desk, were suspended several interesting trophies, including guns, swords, pistols, stirrups, a Continental hat, and other articles, mostly from the battle of Lexington. Floating above them was an THE SCENE ON THE COMMON. XI9 old flag showing red and white stripes with twelve blue stars, and the inscrip tion, " Flag of ' The Bon Homme Richard.' " * Near the end of the platform, on the right, stood the veiled statue of Samuel Adams ; and, half way between that and the centre, the palmetto-tree from South Carolina, with its fourteen graceful branches. On the left, at corre sponding distances, stood the statue of John Hancock, also veiled, and the pine-tree ; these two trees being emblematic of the union between Massachu setts and South Carolina. On the opposite side of the tent, facing the orator, were banners containing the names of the patriots killed in the battle, and also the following : " Seven men of Lexington were killed, nine wounded, — a quarter part of all who stood in arms on our green ; " " Their names are held in grateful remembrance ; " " They gave their lives in testimony to the rights of mankind." At nine o'clock the public were admitted ; and it was not long before all the available space was disposed of. The first to take the platform was the New England Veteran Association of officers and soldiers of the war of 1812, marshalled by Col. Henry Little. Then followed the invited guests and delegations from various societies, towns, and cities throughout the United States. At half-past ten the chief iriarshal and staff arrived, escorting the president of the day, the orator, and other speakers. An overture from the Germania Band opened the exercises ; a full account of which has already been given at the beginning of this volume. The dining-tent extended the whole length of the common, parallel with Elm Street, and was carried even across Bedford Street. It was floored over, and stood nearly at right angles to the pavilion, with which it was connected by a short covered passage-way. The dimensions were four hundred and ten feet by fifty, with a wing of a hundred feet by fifty, accommodating thirty- seven hundred persons seated at the tables. The appearance of this vast tent, with its far-reaching vista of streamers, flags, flowers, and dishes, excited the admiration of every beholder. The experienced caterer, J. B. Smith, made * It is claimed that this flag, known as that of Paul Jones, was the first flag bearing the stars and stripes ever raised over an American vessel of war, and the first one ever saluted by a foreign foe. It was borne by " The Bon Homme Richard " in the famous combat with " The Serapis," Sept. 23, 1779. During the fight the flag was shot away, and Lieut. James Bayard Stafford^ then serving on board " The Richard," jumped into the sea, and recovered it ; in doing which he 'received a sabre-wound, from the effect of which he never fully recovered. He served through the Revolution ; and, at its close, the Marine Committee presented the flag to Lieut. Stafford, in grateful recognition of his services in recovering it after it had been shot away. It is now in the possession of his daughter, Sarah Smith Stafford, of Trenton, N.J., who brought it to Lexington for exhibition, with various other relics. I20 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. his arrangements on the largest possible scale. The tables were served by an army of waiters, re-enforced by a corps of young ladies from some of the neighboring towns, who kindly tendered their services, and who were assigned to the tables of the Presidential party and other distinguished guests. THE PROCESSION. Notwithstanding the delays occasioned by the obstruction of the roads, the procession was to the public generally the most attractive feature of the day. It extended over a mile and a half in length, and presented a grand and im posing appearance. Some of the organizations arrived too late to take the place assigned them in the line. This was true of the Independent Boston Fusileers, the Lynn Light Infantry, Post 139 G.A.R., the Knights of Pythias of Somerville, and possibly some other delegations. The column was formed on Main Street, near. Bryant's Corner, in the east ern part of the town. At about one o'clock the final signal was given, and the procession moved in the following order : — Brown's Brigade Band. Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company as escort, with the following roster: — Captain, Major Dexter H. FoUett. First Lieutenant, Lieut. Horatio N. Crane. Second Lieutenant, Sergt. Asa Carton. Adjutant, Capt. Samuel Hichborn. First Sergeant of Infantry, Gen. Natt Head. Second Sergeant of Infantry, Capt. William B. Sears. Third Sergeant of Infantry, Gen. Samuel H. Leonard. Fourth Sergeant of Infantry, Gen. George B. Drake. Fifth Sergeant of Infantry, Major Charles B. Whittemore. First Sergeant of Artillery, John J. Mann. Second Sergeant of Artillery, Albert T. Whiting. Third Sergeant of Artillery, Capt. Charles Jarvis. Fourth Sergeant of Artillery, RosweU D. Tucker. Fifth Sergeant of Artillery, Capt. Thomas W. Cazmay. Treasurer and Paymaster, Capt. John G. Roberts. Clerk and Assistant Paymaster, Lieut. George H. Allen. Quartermaster, Capt. Charles S. Lambert. Armorer, Capt. Richard M. Barker. . The Ancients had three hundred and fifty men in line ; and among the honorary staff were Gen. Banks, Col. John C. Park, Gen. Ebenezer W. Stone, and Major George O. Carpenter. THE PROCESSION. 121 Chief Marshal, William A. Tower. Chief of Staff, Gen. Wilmon W. Blackmar. Adjutant-General, Capt. Samuel E. Chandler. Aids. — Q.o\. D. P. Muzzey, Col. J. N. Lombard, Capt. Hugh Cochrane, Capt. George R. Kelso, Col. Edward W. Kinsley, Cornelius Wellington, F. O. Robinson, Lieut.-Col. William Ingalls, Capt. William Roberts, Capt. T. D. Whitney, Capt. E. L. Giddings, Capt. Jonas F. Capelle, A. E. Scott, Benjamin Poland. RIGHT DIVISION. Chief. — Gen. William Cogswell. Aids. — Ce^. F. S. Nickerson, Major W. S. Greenough, Col. J. W. Gilray, Dr. George S. Osborne, Capt. H. W. Putnam, F. V. Butters. Brockton Band. Lexington Minute-Men, Major Loring W. Muzzey commanding, as esCort, 97 men. Staff: Adjutant, A. D. Cutler; Surgeon, William J. Currier, M.D. ; Quartermaster, Frank P. Hovey; Commissary, John M. Morse; Paymaster, George O. Davis. Non-commissioned Staff: Sergeant Major, Henry M. Reed ; Quartermaster Sergeant, W. Power Wilson. First Company : Captain, George H. Cutter ; First Lieutenant, Charles A. Fowle ; Second Lieutenant, Everett S. Locke. Second Company : Captain, G. Kauff- mann ; First Lieutenant, John F. Maynard ; Second Liptenant, James A. Mitchell. This impromptu company, dressed in the Continental uniform, made an imposing appear ance, and attracted great attention. Carriage containing George Goodwin, Bennie Muzzey, and Freddie Emery, Lexington boys, uniformed as minute-men. Military Order of the Loyal Legion, United States, Col. William V. Hutchings, command ing, 100 men. Salem Band. Salem Cadets, Major A. P. Browne commanding, 109 men. Major, Samuel Dalton; Ad jutant, J. F. Dalton; Surgeon, E. O. Fowler; Paymaster, T. H. Johnson; Quartermaster, E. A. Simonds. First Company, Capt. Hobbs; Second Company, Capt. Masury; Third Company, Capt. Hart; Fourth Company, Capt. Newhall. Mayor Williams and the City Government of Salem. Dedham Brass Band. Charles W. Carroll Post No. 144, G. A. R., Edward Sherwin commanding, 40 men; act ing as escort to a delegation of 150 citizens of Dedham, Gen. Thomas Sherwin, Marshal. Massachusetts Veteran Association of Survivors'of the War of 1812, in carriages, with their marshal, Henry Little, aged 86 years. Dartmoor prisoners in carriages. Society of the Cincinnati. President of the Day. Orator and Chaplains. Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. Board of Government of the Massachusetts Charitable Association. Twenty members of the Joseph Warren Monument Association of Roxbury. Needham Band. Mounted delegation of thirty from Needham, Joseph E. Fiske, Marshal. Highlandville Cornet Band. Delegation of citizens from Needham, 100 men. \b 122 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Post 21, G. A. R., Needham, 30 men. Delegation from Quincy, consisting of Hon. Charles Marsh, Chairman ; John O. Holden, Wilham B. Wooster, and C. C. Johnson. Magoon Battery of Medford, two guns, an escort for S. C. Lawrence Post dd, G. A. R. Captain of Battery, Charles Russell ; First Lieutenant, Edwin Burbank ; Second Lieutenant, William Vining. S. C. Lawrence Encampment, Post 66, G. A. R., Capt. J. F. R. Hosea; 50 men. Saunders' Cornet Band of Peabody. Peabody Veterans' and Soldiers' and Sailors' Association, 45 men, W. M. Ward com manding. Old Danvers Light Infantry, 60 men. Major D. J. Preston commahding, accompanied by the Union Fife and Drum Corps of Peabody. Delegation of loi minute-men from Billerica, C. H. Hill, Marshal, with banner, •" 1775- 1875, i°i minute-men.'' A company of 70, with Band and Drum Corps, from Newton. Nashua Cornet Band, 21 men. Mechanic Phalanx of Lowell, 45 men. Captain, C. H. Brown; Lieutenants, George A. Merrill and A. A. Hanscomb. Lowell City Government. Collector of the Port of Boston. Postmaster of the City of Boston. Naval Officer and Surveyor of the Port of Boston. Ofiicers of the United States Army and Navy. Philadelphia Centennial Commission. The City Council of Philadelphia. New York Chamber of Commerce. Bunker Hill Monument Association. Boston Board of Trade. National Lancers, Capt. C. C. Emery as escort. The President of the United States. Members of the Cabinet. Vice-President of the United States. United States Senators from Massachusetts. United States Senators. United States Representatives to Congress. Band.Independent Corps of Cadets, as escort. Governor of Massachusetts, and Staff. Ex-Governors of Massachusetts. Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and Council, Sheriff of Middlesex. Members of the General Court of Massachusetts. Colleges and Universities. The Reverend Clergy. The Judiciary of Massachusetts. United States Marshal and Deputies. Judges of United States Courts. Governors of other States. Invited Guests. THE PROCESSION. 123 Delegadons from Acton, Bedford, Billerica, Beverly, Brookline, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Concord, Danvers, Dedham, Framingham, Littleton, Lowell, Lincoln, Medford, Melrose, North Reading, Needham, Newton, Peabody, Saugus, Stow, Sudbury, Salem, Topsfield, Westford, Wayland, Weston, and other towns. centre DIVISION. Chief — Col. William T. Grammer. Aids. — Col Carroll D. Wright, Col. Lyman Dike, Dr. C. T. Lang, Charles O. Billings, Alva S. Wood, N. H. Merriam. North Woburn Brass Band, 25 pieces, C. L. Stetson, Leader. Woburn Mechanic Phalanx, 63 men, Capt. A. L. Richardson. Burbank Post No 33, of Woburn, 77 men, John L. Parker, Commander. A. D. Weld Post No. 148, of Winchester, 30 men, C. H. Moseley, Commander. Winchester Young Men's Association, 32 men, N. F. Marble, Marshal. Delegation of citizens of the town of Woburn, in five carriages. A. E. Thompson, Chairman of Committee. Carriage driven by Wm. B. Ham of Woburn, West Village, containing relics of the bat tle of Lexington. Citizens of Winchester in carriages, S. S. Holton, Chairman. Cavalcade of Woburn citizens, loi men. Major E. F. Wyer, Marshal. Cavalcade of Burlington citizens, 50 men, F. E. Ham, Marshal. Selectmen and citizens of the town of Burlington in two carriages, F. E. Marshall, Chairman. Stoneham Delegation, W. B. Stevens, Marshal ; Aids, B. A. Fowler and E. B. Fairchilds. Stoneham Brass Band, 20 pieces, E. Gilbert, Leader. J. P. Gould Post 7^, G. A. R., of Stoneham, 86 men, John Best, Commander. Carriage containing George W. Dike, Edward Bucknam, and B. F. Richardson, descend ants of Stoneham minute-men of 1775, with banner. Selectmen and Town Clerk of Stoneham in carriages. Citizens of Stoneham, 125 men. Reading Veteran Association, 30 men, W. W. Davis, Commander. Delegations of the citizens of Reading, 60 men, Charles H. Lang, Marshal. Maiden Cornet Band, 20 pieces, A. M. Moore, Leader. Delegation of citizens of Maiden, 25 men, A. L. Barrett, Marshal. Major-Gen. Hiram G. Berry Post No. 40, G. A. R., of Maiden, 70 men, M. B. Lakeman, Commander. Selectmen and Town Officers of Maiden in four carriages. Ripley's Wakefield Band, 25 pieces, W. S. Ripley, Leader. Richardson Light Guard of Wakefield, 70 men, Capt. J. M. Cate. Warren Post No. 12, G. A. R., of Wakefield, 60 men, J. W. Harnden, Commander. Revere Brass Band, 18 pieces, S. B. Janvrin, Leader. Selectmen of Revere in two carriages, and eight barges containing 200 citizens, with a brass band, and a banner containing a portrait of Paul Revere, borne by John McClure, aged 75 years. Col. T. W. Porter, Marshal. Cavalcade of Waltham citizens, 65 men, Capt. Wm. Gibbs, Marshal, escorting Gen. N. P. Banks and the Veterans of the war of 1812 of this town, viz., Samuel Barry and Isaac Farewell. Watertown Brass Band, 25 pieces, Willard Sheldon, Leader. Isaac B. Patten Post 81, G. A. R., of Watertown, 52 men, Albert B. Hardwell, Commander, 124 ' LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Watertown Minute-Men, 54 men, Charles Potter, Commander. Watertown School Guard, 40 men, Capt. John Stevens. Watertown citizens and descendants of Minute-Men who fought at Lexington, in 2 car riages. First Regiment Band, 30 pieces. Drum Corps, 10 pieces. Claflin Guards of N ewton, 50 men, Capt. A. W. Walworth. Mayor Hyde, Board of Aldermen, and Common Council of Newton, in 6 carriages. LEFT DIVISION. Chief. — Col. B. F. Peach. Aids. — Maj. Jos. A. Ingalls, Maj. A. Hun Berry, Capt. Henry C. Cutter, Lieut. Aug. Brown, Lieut. C. C. Frye, A. C. Tower. Gen. Walcott, Commander of the Cambridge Delegation. Aids. — Capts. John Read and G. H. Prior. Bond's Band of Boston (mounted), 1 1 pieces, Alonzo Bond, Leader. Boston Light Dragoons, 100 men, Capt. David Scott. Edmands's Band of Boston (in new uniform), 25 pieces. Fourth Battalion M. V. M. Drum Corps, 16 drums, James Clark, Drum Master. Fourth Battalion M. V. M., 4 companies. Major A. C. Wellington. Staff. — Adjutant George H. Thom; Surgeon J. A. Hildreth; Quartermaster D. A. Brown; Paymaster L. B. Hiscock; Lieut. T. D. Whitney. Non-commissioned Staff. — Sergt.-Major Lethbridge, Quartermaster-Sergt. Wing, and Hospital-Steward Webber. Co. A. — Capt. N. N. Noyes ; Lieuts. George O. Noyes and E. G. Stevens. Co. B. — Capt. Levi Hawkes ; Lieuts. Dolan and Torrey. Co. C. — Capt. T. L. Harlow ; Lieuts. Pray and Fallon. Co. D. — Capt. H. A. Parkinson; Lieuts. Harrington and Fitzmeyer. Germania Band of Cambridge, 21 pieces, C. C. Heichman, Leader. Capt. Joseph W. Smith, Battahon Commander of the Cambridge G. A. R. Posts. Aid. — Adjt. James Munroe. Encampment W. H. Smart Post 30, G. A. R., 100 men, William P. Livesey, Commander. Encampment Chas. Beck Post 56, G. A. R., 50 men, W. W. Webb, Commander. Encampment P. Stearns Davis Post 57, G. A. R., 60 men, A. M. Lunt, Commander. Barouches containing Aldermen J. C. Wellington and Wm. L. Whitney, and Councilmen Kelley, Stone, Nichols, and Swan, all of the Cambridge City Council ; Mayor Bradford of Cambridge, and ex-Mayors Green, Houghton, and Sargent, members of the Cambridge City Council, and a delegation of citizens. Lynn Brass Band, 20 pieces, J. C. Norton, Leader. Lynn Light Infantry, 57 men, Capt. J. G. Warner ; Lieuts. C. M. Sprague and G, A. Ful ler, jun. Newton City Brass Band, 25 pieces, C. P. Eaton, Leader. Drum Corps, 10 drums. Boston Independent Fusileers, 75 men, Capt. H. A. Snow. Staff. — Capts. McDonald, Aldrich, Sargent, and Warner. American Band of Cambridge (mounted), 23 pieces, Daniel Bissell, Leader. Cavalcade of Arlington citizens, 200 men, James Durgan, Marshal. The Arlington dele gation, and some others, furnished their own spacious tent and commissariat. Three barouches containing prominent citizens of Arlington. THE PROCESSION. I 25 Delegation of four members of Hiram Lodge, F. A. M., of Arlington, in barouche. Delegation of four members of Metonomy Royal Arch Chapter of Masons of Arlington, in barouche. Delegation of six members of Bethel Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Arlington, in barouche. Delegation of six members of the Arlington Temperance Society in barouche. Delegation of four members of Metonomy Council, Sovereigns of Industry, of Arlington, in barouche. Lexington Brass Band, 25 pieces, McDonald, Leader. Franklin Lodge No. 41, K. of P., of Somerville, 90 men, Wm. Spring, Commander. Encampment W. C. Kingsley No. 139, G. A. R., of Somerville, 130 men, George W. Bur roughs, Commander. Eleven barouches containing Mayor Furber of Somerville, members of the City Council, and a delegation of citizens. St. Bridget Total Abstinence Society of Lexington, 35 men, P. Kelley, Marshal. The Independent Corps of Cadets, with Gov. Gaston, Vice-President Wil son, and "a portion of the Legislature, did not arrive from Concord in season to take the position assigned them in the line. The route of march was through Main to Hancock Street, through Hancock to Revere Street, through Revere to Bedford Street, and thence to the com mon. So dense was the crowd of people at several points, that it was with difficulty that the column could move. The men in the line were very enthu siastic, and cheered the decorated residences along the route ; and the surging crowd of spectators gave a warm reception to the various organizations as they appeared, one after another, in their brilliant uniforms, with banners and music. The President intended to leave Concord for Lexington at one o'clock, by train on the Boston and Lowell Railroad ; but, upon his arrival at the station in Concord, the trains were found to be so irregular, that immediate trans portation could not be obtained. Accordingly, the President and Cabinet, with Gov. Chamberlain of South Carolina, and a few other invited guests, pro ceeded in carriages over the county road to Lexington, a distance of seven miles. The President arrived a little in advance of his suite, and was received by the National Lancers, and escorted along the entire length of the line. As the President passed by, he was cheered by the procession and the pop ulace. On the return down Bedford Street, he took his position with his escort in the right division, and remained with the column until it was dismissed. On leaving the procession. President Grant, and Secretaries Fish, Robeson, and Delano, were taken by the President of the Day to the house of Mrs. Julia M. Stetson, opposite the common. Here they were joined by Gen. Belknap, Secretary of War, Postmaster-Gen. Jewell, Chief-Marshal Tower, Hon. Richard H. Dana, Hon. Charles Hudson, Rev. E. G. Porter, Gens. Burnside and Ben- ham, Commodore Nichols, Ex-Gov. Stearns, Senator Wadleigh, Collector Sim- 126 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. mons. Col. Fish, and others ; and, after a brief rest, the party were escorted to the dinner. The common and the adjacent streets were so densely crowded, that it was almost impossible to get through. The Ancients and the Lancers, however, gracefully took position in lines, through which the distinguished guests, led by the chief marshal and his chief-of-staff, passed into the pavilion ; and, after a few moments spent in viewing the statues, went on into the dinner tent. THE STATUES OF HANCOCK AND ADAMS. As these statues were objects of special attention, and as the unveiling of them constituted one of the most interesting ceremonies of the day, we can hardly do justice to the occasion without noticing them somewhat in detail. The statues are life size, both cut from Carrara marble, and each marked by excellencies of its own ; the common merit being the fidelity to nature shown in the attitude and expression of each. They are the work of the well-known sculptors, Thomas R. Gould and Martin Milmore; each select ing his subject, and forming his idea of the character of his man; and we can justly say that each has succeeded remarkably well in impressing upon the marble the true and distinctive features of the original. Mr. Milmore has presented us, in his statue of Samuel Adams, a bold, manly figure, with a broad, intellectual forehead, a composed but determined counte nance, compressed lips, and every feature indicating decision of character, foresight, honesty of purpose, enduring fortitude, and a will which no ordinary obstacle could bend. These qualities are not presented in a harsh or repul sive manner, but with much native simplicity and ease. The firm attitude, the plain dress, the earnest gesture, the resolute face, all belong to the man who, more than any other, may be said to have organized the American Revolution. In John Hancock, Mr. Gould found a different subject. He has given us a more precise and elegant man, more courtly in his dress and bearing, more self-conscious, and possibly more flexible in his character. These traits may need more of the delicate touches of the chisel than would be required in giving the sterner qualities of Adams, but not more discernment or expres sion Even by the enforced comparison, Hancock shows no want of decision^ Standing as he does with the great charter of our rights in his hand, he shows no disposition to falter, but, with a little self-complacency perhaps, mani fests a determinarion to stand firm to the end, regardless of consequences. Both works are greatly admired by all who have seen them ; and the opinion has been very generally expressed, that they reflect high honor upon the artists from whose studios they come. THE STATUES OF HANCOCK AND ADAMS. I 27 These statues already have a history worthy of mention. When they were first modelled, the committee had special reference to this celebration ; and, to insure their completion in season, the contracts stipulated that they were to be delivered in Lexington by the ist of January, 1875. Three long months passed after that date, but no statues had arrived. We became anxious, but could learn nothing except that they were en route. Weeks of anxiety passed on, but they brought no statues. One steamer from Liverpool, which was expected to bring the Adams, arrived at Boston ; but no statue was found on her manifest. There was only one more chance before the 19th; and that consisted mainly in the speed of " The Parthia," the next steamer. At this juncture, it was reported that the sailing-vessel with the statue of Hancock on board, from Leghorn early in January, had just reached our coast, and was weather-bound in Vineyard Haven. This was the state of things at early dawn, on Saturday the 17th. Neither statue had arrived in port. That evening in the light of the full moon, between the hours of eleven and twelve, when hope was giving place to despair, the statue of Adams arrived in our village. We deemed it no desecration of the sabbath to place it in position on that day. We had scarcely adjusted the statue of Adams, when that of Hancock arrived ; and, before the setting of that sabbath sun, both of these statues were in position in the village where, one hundred years before, Adams and Hancock were enjoying the hospitality of the distinguished clergyman from whose dwelling they were driven before the rising of the next morning's sun. It is certainly very remarkable, that these statues should leave the same Italian port a month apart, bound to the same place, — one going direct by sailing-vessel, and the other by steamer vid England, — and, after months of delay, should arrive at their port of destination within a few hours of each other ; and that, too, on the very last day when they could have arrived in season for the celebration. It seems as if there was some charm binding even the statues of these patriots together. After Adams and Hancock had passed through so many trying and changing scenes together, — being born in the same neighborhood, settled in the same town, and devoted to the common interest of their coun try ; being alike threatened by the ministry, and proscribed by Gage ; wit nessing the opening scene of the Revolution at Lexington ; elected to seats in the provincial and continental Congresses ; having the honor of signing the Declaration of Independence ; and being made in turn each the governor of his native State, — it seems fitting that their statues should emerge from the deep, and arrive on the same day at .Lexington, where they are destined to stand side by side in order that their united example may ever impress upon the people the importance of the perpetual union of these States. 128 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. COLLECTION OF RELICS EXHIBITED IN THE CARY LIBRARY, LEXINGTON, ON THE 19TH OF APRIL, 1875. Capt. Parker's musket. British musket. The first fire-arm captured in the Revolutionary war. Cannon-ball (six-pounder) fired from one of Lord Percy's field-pieces ; ploughed up a few years since, on the premises of Francis B. Hayes. Cartridge-box worn at the battie of Lexington by Francis Brown, sergeant, afterwards cap tain, of the minute-men. Sword of Edmund Munroe, one of the Lexington minute-men; killed at Monmouth, 1778. Grape-shot ploughed up in Lexington, near Waltham Street, fifty years ago. Old framed picture of battie of Lexington ; found in the Clark House. Cartridge-box taken from a wounded British soldier at Lexington, by Lieut. Samuel Richard son of Newton. Silver cream-pitcher made by Paul Revere. Small colored print of Lexington Common in 1775. Copperplate coat-of-arms belonging to Rev. Jonas Clark, Lexington, 1775. New-England Chronicle; or, "The Essex Gazette." Printed in Stoughton HaU, Harvard College, May 25, 1775. Portraits of King George III. and Queen Charlotte; in water colors. ^' Ad vivum delinea- vit." London, 1762. Household articles formerly used in Buckman Tavern. Writing-desk of the Rev. Jonas Clark. Foot-stove of the last century. Lottery ticket (five dollars) for rebuilding Faneuil Hall, 1765, signed by John Hancock. Small-pox certificate signed by John ScoUay and Nathaniel Appleton, selectmen of Boston, August ye 13, 1776. Health directions for the army of the United States, 1778. Powder-horn of Nathaniel Nason, 1776; used at Ticonderoga. Earthen jug dug up on the Lexington Farms. Business card of Paul Revere. Pewter plate from which Washington ate on his visit to the Munroe Tavern in 1789. Portrait of Lord Percy; engraved in London, 1777. The battle of Lexington; engraved by E. Tisdale. New York, 1798. Portrait with head-dress, en silhouette, of a woman of the Revolution. Seven prints of the battle of Lexington. Two prints of the retreat of the British from Concord. Print of Gen. Putnam receiving the news of the battle of Lexington. Autograph of Jona. Harrington, the last survivor of the Lexington minute-men, written in 1847, six years before his death. Also chair used by the same. Pocket-book and Continental currency. Engraved certificate of the Lexington Monument Association. Powder-horn and Musket used at the battle of Lexington by Nathan Dudley. Volume of Anniversary Sermons preached at Lexington on each 19th of April during the Revolutionary war. Three small full-length portraits, en silhouette, of young women of the Revolution. Sword of Capt. Joshua Abbott of Concord, N.H., used in 1775. Copper coins, temp, the four Georges. REL/CS. 129 American copper coins, te?np. 1787. Continental currency, temp. 1778; fifty-dollar piece. Watch taken from the body of a British ofiicer. Buttons worn by an American officer in the war. Sword, sash, pistols, and epavilets, worn by Major-Gen. Ichabod Goodwin of South Berwick, Me., when in command of Massachusetts militia. Order-book of the guard in charge of Burgoyne's prisoners at Winter Hill, Cambridge. Musket, cartridge-box, and sword, used April 19, 1775. Ink-bottle, pocket-books, almanacs, shoe-buckle, overshoe, books, spur, knee-buckles, cheese-stamp, and spectacles belonging to Capt. Nathan Alden. Born 1727; died 1801, Randolph. Pieces of best dress, wedding-dress, pincushion, and needle-book belonging to Mrs. Nathan Alden. Born 1733, Randolph. Cocked hat, stock, and buckle, and knee-buckles belonging to Col. Jona. Bass. Died 1790, Randolph. Velvet waistcoat belonging to Ebenezer Alden. Born 1755- Ancient powder-horn : " Unite or die." Musket and powder-horn carried on Lexiiigton Common by Hammond Reed, a member of Capt. Parker's company. Canteen belonging to Hammond Reed. Sword worn by William Reed, Esq., a representative of the town of Lexington in the Gen eral Court in 1757, and captain in the French and Indian war, 1755. Letter from William Shirley, Esq., Governor of Massachusetts Bay, to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, with a journal of the siege of Louisburg. London and Boston, 1746. Pocket-book of Joshua Bentley, the ferryman who carried Paul Revere across to Charles town on the night of April 18, I77S- "Joshua Bentley — his book — 1757." Sword-of Robert Newman, who gave the signal from Christ Church. Chair, china cup, and silver spoon used by Washington at the Munroe Tavern in 1 789. Spectacles of Col. William Munroe. Also silver spoon, " Wm. -\- Anna." Wedding-ring of Mrs. William Munroe, 1767. " Hearts united — live contented." Piece of clothing and brass button from the grave of Jason Russell, who fell April 19. Gentleman's Magazine for 1775. Shoe and stocking worn at baptism by the infant of Mrs. Mary Rogers, afterwards second wife of Col. Wilham Munroe. Spurs taken from the heel of a British ofiicer at the battle of Monmouth. Light stand and hatchel (flax-comb). Gun of John Munroe, used in battle of Lexington. Arm-chair, two ordinary chairs, child's chair, and cradle, used by four generations of the Jonas Clark family. Silver pepper-box, china, glassware, and coin-scales, of Rev. Jonas Clark. Portrait of Peter, oldest son of Rev. Jonas Clark, supposed to be by Stuart. Portrait of Henry, youngest son of Rev. Jonas Clark, by Ames. Front-door panel of Capt. William Adams's house, Arlington, pierced by a British bullet. Snow-shoes in possession of the Tidd family more than a hundred years. Cannon-ball and grape-shot fired by Percy's battery, dug up on premises of William Plumer. Iron ball found at Bunker Hill. Tobacco-tongs and knee-buckles. Tortoise-shell snuff-box, inlaid with silver, once owned by Sir William Pepperell. Silver porringer and small silver snuff-box used by Sir William Pepperell. 130 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Print of Boston Massacre. " Engraved, printed, and sold by Paul Revere, Boston." Also " The town of Boston in New England, and Brittish ships-of-war landing their troops, 1768." Revolutionary candlesticks. Warrant issued by Harrison Gray, Esq., to Nathan Reed, 1776. Gallon bottle (G. R.), and pewter plate. Wig in box of bark. Head-dress and iron bodkin. Powder-horn of Reuben Locke. Poetry written by a Dartmoor prisoner. Woodcut for printing calicoes during the war. Volume of sermons. Autograph documents illustrating the events of 1775. Cane used by Caleb Harrington, who was shot while leaving the meeting-house on the morn ing of the 19th. Portmanteau, pistol-barrel, and holster, carried by Surgeon Fiske of Lexington, through the whole Revolutionary war. Snow-shoes worn by Surgeon Fiske. Surgeon Fiske's certificate of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati. Facsimile of autographs of all the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Old framed pictures of the battles of Lexington and Concord, by Doolittle, 1775. Shovel taken from the old Lexington meeting-house. Cane brought from England about 1640. Also child's shoes of ancient date. Lexington deeds executed in 1675, and will made in 1701. Piece of linen made in the family of Lieut. Samuel Dakin of Lincoln, during the war. Saddle-bags, andirons, and skimmer, formerly used in Bedford. Two silver dollars (179S and 1798), a part of the pension-money paid to Benjamin S. Board- man, a soldier in the battle of Lexington. Gun taken from British soldier by the same. Gun and canteen used in the battle of Lexingtoii. Cartouche-box taken from a dead British soldier on the evening of April 19; stains of blood still visible on the belt. Sword used by John Paul Jones, of " The Bon Homme Richard." Oil-painting of the Lexington Parsonage, built 1698. Cannon-ball (twelve-pounder) ploughed up at Bunker Hill. Embroidered blanket in which Samuel Adams received infant baptism, September, 1722. " Descended in the line of the Marys." Portrait of Paul Revere, by Stuart. Old parish record-book, bound in vellum, containing names of the Lexington men who fell, '_' Killed by the King's troops," in the handwriting of Rev. Jonas Clark. Framed copy of despatches sent by courier to Philadelphia, announcing the outbreak of hos tilities at Lexington. Original in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Original tongue of the parish bell that gave the alarm on the morning of the 19th. Brace of pistols, silver mounted and elaborately chased, used by Major Pitcairn on Lexing ton Common. These famous pistols were brought to Lexington on the day of the cele- brarion by, the Rev. S. I. Prime, D.D., of New York, They were examined^ with the greatest interest by the president and cabinet, and a large number invited guests. Their history is uncommonly full and authentic. After LEXINGTON MEDAL. 131 having been fired by Pitcairn on Lexington Common, before any other fire-arm was used, they accompanied their owner to Concord. On the return of the British through Lexington, early in the afternoon, a severe skirmish took place about a mile and a quarter west of the village, at Fiske's Hill, where Major Pitcairn was conspicuously engaged in directing the movements of the troops. A party of minute-men fired at him from behind a pile of rails. The major fell wounded ; and his horse, having lost its rider, ran over the fields, and was captured by one of the Provincials, and taken to Concord. Subsequently the horse and the accoutrements were sold at auction. Capt. Nathan Barrett purchased the holsters and pistols, marked with Pitcairn's name, and offered them to Gen. Washington, who declined them. They were afterwards presented to Gen. Putnam, who valued them very highly, and carried them through the remainder of his active service in the war. They descended in the family, and became the property of the general's grandson, the late John P. Putnam of Cambridge, N.Y., whose widow placed them in the custody of her friend Dr. Prime for exhibition at Lexington. The secretary of war is making an effort to obtain them for the museum of the War Department. A small pen-and-ink sketch of these pistols appears among the illustrations of Lexington at the end of this volume FAC-SIMILE OF THE LEXINGTON MEDAL. The obverse of this medal shows the design of the town seal. On the shield stands a minute-man, with musket and powder-horn, watching for the approach of the enemy. His coat is thrown over his arm ; his house is seen in the distance ; his plough and oxen are standing in the furrow. On the left, in exergue, is the date of the first settlement of the town, at that time a precinct of Cambridge. On the right is the date of the incorporation of Lexington as a separate town. Above the shield, radiant, is the date that brought fame to Lexington, and liberty to America. 132 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. The device in the circle is the patriotic exclamation of Samuel Adams, uttered on the morning of the 19th, when he had gone with Hancock,' and one or two other friends, to the wooded eminence overlooking the village green where the British bayonets were gleaming. On the reverse, the medal bears the inscription of the event in honor of which it was struck. By vote of the Centennial committee, each of the prominent guests who assisted in the exercises of the day was presented with one of these medals in silver or bronze. THE EVENING. After the exercises at ' the dinner, the president and other guests were entertained by different citizens of Lexington at their houses. Toward the close of the afternoon, the stream of people began to turn towards Boston. Every train went loaded to its utmost capacity, even the tops of the cars being crowded. By the departure of carriages and pedes trians, the streets gradually became more passable, and the day closed without a single accident to mar its pleasure. Very little rowdyism or drunkenness was seen. Indeed, the orderly conduct of the masses of the people, gathered here that day, speaks volumes for the ample good nature and personal self- respect of an American crowd. The inhabitants of Lexington, almost without exception, opened their houses freely to the public ; and, in many instances, hundreds of strangers were entertained and fed gratuitously by a single family. The public festivities were concluded by a grand levee and ball in the even ing. The large pavilion, with its graceful canopy of flags and streamers, was bril liantly lighted with gas, and adorned with the choicest flowers and plants. Excellent music was furnished by Brown's Brigade Band and the Germania orchestra.. The president, accompanied by the gentlemen of his cabinet, held a formal reception under the palmetto,* near one of the statues, giving all * This tree attracted more attention probably than any other decoration in the tent. Throughout the day and evening it was inspected with eager interest by thousands. An other palmetto, much taller, stood outside, near the triumphal arch. Both of these graceful trees were sent to Lexington through the kindness of Capt. William A. Courtenay, late commander of the Washington Light Infantry of Charlestown, S.C. They were forwarded gratuitously by steamer to New York, and thence by the Metropolitan line to Boston. One of them will be preserved as a relic in the Town Hall. Another present from the same source was a large package of palmetto leaves. These were spht up, and worn in button-holes and rifles, by the members of the Ancient and THE EVENING. 133 who desired an opportunity of being presented. The pavilion was comforta bly filled with ladies and gentlemen, promenading in evening dress, most of whom, through the courtesy of the marshal, had the pleasure of shaking hands with the chief-magistrate of the nation. The minute-men attracted much attention by their soldierly bearing, as well as by the elegance and quaintness of their uniform. Distinguished officials and guests from various parts of the country were attended by gentlemen of the committee and others, and introduced to the ladies, whose presence in such large numbers added an indispensable charm to the pleasure and brilliancy of the occasion. About ten o'clock, the president and suite quietly left the pavilion, and, by request of our citizens, proceeded to plant a young elm on the common, near the main entrance. The streets were now deserted, the full moon was shin ing brightly upon the scene, and the air was perfectly still. The only wit nesses of this interesting ceremony, besides the presidential party, were the governor of South Carolina, the chief- marshal, the president of the day, and one or two of the Lexington committee acting as escort. The president remarked that no feature in the exercises of the day had given him more pleasure than that. May this little tree, planted on this memorable occasion, strike deep its roots, and throw out its branches under the fostering care of the people of Lexington ; so that when the next centennial shall bring other multitudes to the old shrine of liberty, they may pause under its shade, and rejoice with patriotic pride, that, during the growth of this memorial tree, the country has made equal progress in all the elements that constitute a nation's great ness I After rendering this last official service, the president and party repaired to a neighboring house to enjoy the luxury of a good fire for a few minutes; and then, about half-past ten o'clock, they took carriages for Boston. The ball continued to a late hour ; and trains and carriages were leaving with guests through a greater part of the night. Honorable Artillery Company. We are happy to add that these significant tokens of good will from our friends in the South have touched the hearts of the people, and produced a feeling of fraternal regard between the different sections of the country which we sincerely hope may be perpetual. Services on Sunday, the Eighteenth. SUNDAY services. On the day preceding an event of such magnitude as we have described in the foregoing pages, there must of necessity be an unusual amount of excitement and bustle. It was the endeavor of the committee, however, to have all the contract work done by Saturday night, if possible, in order that the quiet of the Sab bath need not be unnecessarily disturbed. And it is gratifying to be able to record that their wishes in this respect were faithfully carried out ; so that, when the sun arose on the morning of the i8th, the tents and decorations were completed, the dinner-tables were laid, and the common with its white wavy folds of canvas, surmounted by a profusion of flags, mottoes, and streamers, floating in the air, presented a gala scene such as had never before been witnessed in this ancient town. During the forenoon, great numbers of strangers were seen in the streets ; and the churches were largely attended, it being understood that the services would have special reference to the great occasion. We take pleasure in giving abstracts of some of the sermons : — m ttse mnitarian CiiurcSf, Rev. Henry Westcott, the pastor, preached from the text, " Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Ps. xxxiii. 12). After reviewing some facts in the early history of our country, Mr. Westcott said, " It was the purpose of the Pilgrim Fathers to found on these shores a Christian nation. Their children, and their children's children, were imbued with the same religious spirit. Not only did the nation have its root in religion ; but every branch which pushed out into the wilderness, bore on it the bud which was to unfold into a church. Thus it was in the settlement of Lexington, then called Cambridge Farms. The inhabitants at first went down to the settlement at Old Cambridge to worship ; but, as soon as the number of families was large enough to make a church of themselves, there was a petition to be considered 18 137 138 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. as a distinct parish. It was the church idea, the need of worship, which first suggested the thought of separation from the parent town. " Subsequently, when the controversy arose with Great Britain, the people of the colony felt that their cause was one in which the Supreme Ruler had an interest. The questions at issue were freely discussed in the pulpit. The fire of patriotism, which burned so brightly in the hearts of the people, was kindled by a coal from the altar of God. There is no name connected with Lex ington that better deserves honorable mention at this centennial anniversary than that of the Rev. Jonas Clark, who was pastor of this ancient parish from the day of his ordination, Nov. 5, 1755, to that of his death, Nov. 15, 1805, a period of over fifty years. " Probably no one understood the questions at issue between the colonies and the mother country better than he. And his people received the benefit of his statesmanship, both in the pulpit and in the town meetings, long before the actual outbreak of hostilities ; so that they were ready for the struggle when it came, and thoroughly acquainted with the reasons on which the duty of resistance was founded. There can be no doubt that the men who assembled on Lexington Green, on the eventful morning of the 19th of April, were there to make a practical application of the doctrine which they had heard enforced in the church. They went into the war confident that their cause was just, and that the God of their fathers would not forsake them. "On several important occasions, sermons have been preached in this town from the text, ' Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' And now," said Mr. Westcott, " have we any of that old faith of our forefathers left } Have we any faith that God cares for this nation .? The chosen nation is the nation which keeps the divine laws ; and God blesses nations for obedience. National strength is the result of obedience, and national weakness is the result of disobedience. If we ask ourselves what will be the future of our country, let us remember that we are not a chosen nation now, merely because we had the Pilgrims for our fathers. We can see how their virtues made them strong ; and, unless we have similar virtues, we cannot rely upon our ancestors for national strength to-day. "If there is any thing at which thoughtful men may feel alarmed to-day, it is the neglect of those stern virtues of our fathers which many now affect to despise. Our continued prosperity depends now, as ever, on placing men in office who possess the principles which Christianity inculcates. "This celebration will be unworthy of this people, unless it inspires us with more of that spirit of dependence upon God which our fathers had, and with- ¦ out which we cannot expect to be the nation whose God is the Lord." * * This discourse has since, been published in pamphlet form, with two others upon the same gen eral subject. SUNDAY SERVICES. 1 39 %X tfje C^burct of tliE IBteteemer, Rev. E. S. Elder preached upon the progress of civilization as affected by certain events. " The history of mankind can be traced, from the earliest times to our own day, as one progressive movement. " Beginning with the old Asiatic civilization, and passing down through the Greek, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon periods, we find that each nation has con tributed something to the life of to-day. " With the decline of the Roman empire, a new civilization began, crude and barbarous at first, but endowed with the potency of something better than had gone before. The feudal system gave the strong power over the weak. But the invention of gunpowder changed the relation, so that brute force was no longer sovereign. Intelligence gained the mastery. The bulwark of English liberty has for centuries been the great charter which the barons wrested from King John. At that time all rights, titles, and privileges were derived from the one man, the pope, the emperor, or the king. The people were the servants of the ruler. The many were governed by the few, both in Church and State. " With the invention of printing, a new impulse was given to civilization. The people became more intelligent, and naturally more independeht. The Saxon and the Anglo-Saxon races would no longer submit to the excessive claims of the Church of Rome. Hence, with the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, a new era began. The Protestants of Europe insisted that the Bible, as interpreted by themselves, should constitute their only rule of faith and practice. " The Church of England, supported by its alliance with the civil power, required conformity to certain usages, under penalty of imprisonment or death. Consequently, for the Puritanical minority that clung firmly to their convic tions, there remained but one hope. Perhaps in the forests of America they would be allowed to follow the dictates of their own consciences. Inspired by an earnest purpose, ignorant of the dangers and hardships to which they would be exposed, and never dreaming of the results that would flow from their endeavors, our fathers left the Old World for the New, not as conquerors or lords, but as men. They brought with them the principles of self-govern ment, and liberty of thought. " The settlement of New England by such men constitutes one of the Jand- marks in the progressive movement of humanity from barbarism toward civilization. " During all our colonial history, the people of New England claimed to be loyal subjects of the crown; and it was not until their rights had been invaded by oppressive taxation without representation, that they determined upon resistance. I40 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. " The citizens of Lexington shared the opinions then becoming prevalent throughout the colony, as is seen by their patriotic response to the Appeal of Boston in 1773. " On the 19th of April, 1775, they made their promise good. The men who stood on Lexington Common, in the early dawn that day, were the represen tatives of an idea, the establishment of which in the laws of the land would usher in the dawn of a new era in human history. When we consider the motives by which the colonists were actuated, and the ideas for which they took up arms, and when we look back over these one hundred years of pop ular government, is it too much to claim that the event we are now cele brating marks an epoch in the progress of mankind .' "And the principles which have been so clearly demonstrated here will be an incentive to other nations in their endeavor to secure that freedom which has been granted to us. " All events, persons, movements, revolutions, are to be measured not by numbers or any external accident, but by the soul-power of which they are the expression. To die in a noble cause is to endear that cause to human hearts, and thus prepare the way for its success. The red-letter days in human history are those in which some one man, or a few men, in self-forgetting devo tion to a principle, have suffered, have been defeated, that the truth might conquer, and that humanity might be blessed. This is the power of God saving the world. "The/aj^ is secure : what oi the future ? It is not enough that we admire the virtues that made the experiment of our fathers a success. " The prosperity of our government will continue only so long as the virtues by which its foundations were laid shall exist among the people. Our coun try's welfare still demands of all the people the same intelligence, the same moral purpose, the same unfaltering devotion to principle, that made the American patriots the benefactors of humanity." at tijc Baptist Cj^urclj, Rev. John Pryor, D.D., made appropriate reference in his sermon to the event which so largely engrossed the public mind, and which must always find expression in Lexington pulpits when the day of its memorial returns. at tI)E J^ancock Clburclj, The pastor was assisted in the morning by the Rev. William A. Stearns, D.D., President of Amherst College, a native of the adjoining town of Bed ford. Dr. Stearns preached from the text, "Honor all men" (i Pet. ii. 17). " This precept is at the foundation of all civil and religious liberty. It is the underlying principle of our own independence and free institutions. Imply- SUNDAY SERVICES. 14I ing that man, as man, is worthy of honor, it serves to justify that armed resistance to political oppression which commenged on this spot one hundred years ago, and which you will commemorate to-morrow. " The reason why all men should be honored is found in their true greatness and worth. " We see man's greatness in his nature, in his capacities and achievements, in his moral character, and in the mystery of his being. " Therefore should we not respect ourselves } Should not our character and our conduct be worthy of us > The children of a king should be kmgly. Capabilities of elevation imply corresponding capabilities of degradation. " Man's nature, man's destiny, man as man, demands respect. He may be low in the scale, but he is man. Take the weakest : he is one of the brother hood. Take the vilest : he is God's offspring, and, as such, capable of redemp tion. There are inferior grades all around us : they may become our superiors within a single century. The subject has also a political application. Gov ernment is divinely intended not only for rulers and superior classes, but for the good of all. We should respect men, whoever they may be, respect their manhood, even when broken down by sin ; respect their feelings, their reputa tion, their social and political rights, and, above all, their immortal well-being. Let us throw the strong arms of our faith around this great, suffering world, and lift it, so far as we can, to a higher and more Christian civilization, and to the spiritual grandeur and greatness that belongs to it." In the afternoon, the Rev. Alexander McKenzie of Cambridge preached at the same church from Isa. i. 26: "And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning : afterward thou shalt be called. The city of righteousness, the faithful city." " One hundred years ago to-day," said Mr. McKenzie, " there was an un wonted excitement in this neighborhood. Men were waiting and watching ; others were moving hurriedly to and fro. Boston was held by British troops, and in the harbor were fourteen vessels, of war. That same year President Langdon of Harvard College preached before the Colonial Cofigress, from the words which I have chosen for our text to-day. " We look back after a century, and praise the judges of that day, and pray for more like them. They were unlike in many things ; yet one voice praises them. " I. They were well born. Not of royal blood, yet their ancestry was noble. English integrity, love of liberty, firmness of principle, readiness to dare, to suffer, to die in a just cause, — all this had made the name of Puritan illus trious. " II. They were well educated. Their fathers had founded Harvard College, where Adams and Hancock and Warren were trained for their work. They 142 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. knew English history, and were familiar with the names of Hampden and Eliot, and Pym and Sydney, and Hooper and Winthrop. "III. They possessed personal traits which fitted them for their work. They were good men and prudent. They knew their duties and rights, and they respected themselves. They were enthusiastic, self-forgetful, brave. "IV. They were loyal men. They honored the king; and even after the 19th of April they cherished the hope of an amicable settlement with the mother-country. They did not at first fight for independence, but only for freedom. Washington, Warren, Langdon, all hoped that England and Amer ica might grow together like the oak and the ivy. But, strong as was their fealty to the English king, their love of liberty was stronger. Gradually but surely, as their eyes were opened to the real necessities of their condition, they threw off the shackles, and became independent. " V. To crown all the rest, they were religious men. It is easy to frame the creed to which they gave their assent. They believed in God and the Bible, in prayer, in their own responsibility, in virtue and religion. The Bible had been the constitution of their fathers, and they had ever regarded it as the lamp of life. " The violation of the Lord's Day by the British soldiers was the cause of formal complaint to their commanders. They hallowed all their meetings in Fanueil Hall and in the Old South by prayer." The sermon closed with an extended sketch of Samuel Adams, who nobly represented the character and patriotism of the men of 1775. CENTENNIAL SERVICES IN THE EVENING. The Executive Committee had made extensive preparations for a grand memorial service to be held in the pavilion on Sunday evening, as an appro priate introduction to the celebration of the 19th. They had invited a dis tinguished preacher from New York, a native of this vicinity, and had notified the public through the press. Long before sunset the streets were full of people coming from all the neighboring towns, by train or carriage, to attend this service. At a late hour in the afternoon it became necessary to change the place of meeting, on account of the chilly state of the atmosphere; and the town hall was opened, instead of the pavilion. In a short time the people congregated in such numbers as to fill the hall long before the hour appointed. Thousands were refused admission. To accommodate this surplus gathering, it was an nounced that the pavilion would be opened and lighted through the evening. SUNDAY SERVICES. 1 43 and that the Brockton Band would play a choice selection of pieces appropri ate to the occasion. This arrangement was gratifying to a large number of people, who gladly availed themselves of the opportunity both of inspecting the beautiful decora tions of the tent, and of hearing the music, which was highly creditable to the well-known band that generously volunteered its services. At the hall all the seats and passage-ways on the floor and in the gallery were completely filled. The spacious platform was occupied by the officiating clergymen, and the Lexington chorus of fifty voices. Rev. E. G. Porter presided, and introduced the various parts of the service as follows : — 3Ce ©Eutn EautamuB. EnJjocatton. ®l0ria. Ivtaliing of tlje Scriptureg. written for the occasion, by S. F. Smith, D.D. Tune, — Savaniiak. Thou, God of nations, wast, in battle's hour. Our Shield, our Strength, our Helper, and our Tower; O'er all our paths thy sheltering wings were spread ; Our feet, through all the years, thy wisdom led. Joy from each grief, and strength from trials grew ; God wrought our blessings from the woes we knew ; Taught us, by him preserved, in him to stand, And made us walk in freedom's promised land. So round the oak the tempests drive and beat, — r Winter's stem blasts and summer's fervid heat ; Time's mighty clock counts off its hundred years, — Its verdant beauty still the monarch wears. As on the ages roll in solemn sweep. With pillared cloud and fire our pathways keep ; O'er all the. land we love, in glory shine : Thine is the work, the praise be ever thine ! 144 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. Prager. ©reat anU iHarbElloug. Sermon. I^gmn. written for the occasion, by I. N. Tarbox, D.D. Tune, — Coronation. The place we tread is holy ground. Since that far April morn. When, out of storm and battle sound, A mighty hope was born. We wander o'er these ancient ways. And trace the bloody track : Once more the old heroic days In happy thoughts come back. And unto God we lift our song. Who made our fathers bold. Bore up their hearts with courage strong. Through those dark days of old. And by his work, in them inwrought. He gave fair freedom sway, Till a great people now is brought To keep its festal day. Benetifction. SERMON. 145 SERMON, BY THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D. " Remember the days o£ old, consider the years of many generations ; ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee." — Deut. xxxii. 7. Never were words more appropriate than are these to ourselves in the cir cumstances in which we are now assembled. We have met together for the express purpose of recalling the faith and valor of our fathers. We are filled with awe when reminded that we stand over the very sod which drank the first blood in the great struggle which made these United States of America an independent nation. The actors in that memorable scene have long since passed from the world ; but, being dead, they still speak. The names of the men who fell on Lexington Common were carved in granite by order of the grateful Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the last year of the last century. The granite monument may crumble to dust ; but the posthumous influence of our martyred ancestors will be felt throughout the world till the heavens be no more. Some of us have seen the venerable forms of men who took part in our Revolutionary War, and have heard them recite the details of those event ful days. Though we cannot any more listen to the tale as it fell from their lips, we can rehearse their deeds, and consider those magnificent results which have proceeded from their heroism. So with filial reverence and with grati tude to Almighty God are we gathered about the very head-spring of a stream which already has run so far, and is destined to swell into so vast a flood. It was on the evening of the i8th of April, 1775, just one century from this hour, that a detachment of British troops set forth from Boston on their march to this town, causing as by a spark that explosion of smothered indignation which sent its reverberations over the whole continent. The centennial anni versary of that event occurring upon the Christian sabbath, it has seemed good to the committee in charge of these services that the celebration should begin with such religious lessons as might be expected from a Christian min ister. This would not seem impertinent to any who recall the direct influence of the ministry in the scenes and events which we now commemorate. It was at the house of Rev. Jonas Clark, the pastor of this town, that Samuel Adams and John Hancock met on that eventful night, seeking of religion her '9 146 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. counsel and her blessing. The day following, when the citizens of Concord rushed to arms, their minister. Rev. William Emerson, showed himself among them, gun in hand, to cheer and help. When, a few weeks later, our country men were about to march from Cambridge Common to intrench themselves on Bunker Hill, prayer was offered by President Langdon, beneath the stars of that summer night, for the favor of Heaven upon the solemn procedure. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence stands the name of a clergyman, John Witherspoon, the representative of a large profession, and a patriot true and brave as any whose hand became familiar with the sword. Incidents without number might be cited, illustrating the influence of the ministers of religion by prayer and preaching and personal presence in the council-chamber and on the field of battle, giving the sanction of Heaven to the cause of patriotism, and inspiring their countrymen with more than native courage. But there is no need of recalling the services of that profession which it is my highest honor to represent on this occasion. Unlike the clergy in many countries, who have been looked upon with suspicion and distrust because of their relations to systems of despotism, ecclesiastical and civil, the clergy of this country, as an order, possessed all the confidence and respect they could wish ; because throughout the Revolution, and the adoption of the national Constitution, they were universally regarded as among the foremost friends of true liberty. This fact by itself proves that there were religious elements in our Revolution which distinguished it from most political move ments, and which invite us now to a devout religious mention. Without anticipating any of those historic lessons to which we shall listen on the morrow, when civic processions and military pageants and political officials will grace the celebration of our American Revolution in its secular aspects, I trust I shall not disoblige you if, in keeping with all the associations of holy time, I venture upon ground less frequently trodden, and undertake to present some of the ri?/2>/£7^/j- phases of that great event. In the very act of making this announcement, I detect myself in the use of the terms "secular" and " religious " in the way of a distinction which carries a most mischievous fallacy. This distinction may be for our own convenience, just as we divide the one great ocean encompassing the globe into seas and bays. Let us not be deceived by diagrams used only to facilitate our own conceptions. In the last induction, all things are religious ; by which I mean that all the events of time and history, under the presidency of one Mind, borrow their importance SERMON. 147 from that ultimate object which religion contemplates. That connection may be more or less direct, obvious, and intentional. Some events, like the Prot estant Reformation, the Commonwealth of England, the Covenants of Scot land, and the Exodus of our Pilgrim Fathers, spring out of a simple religious motive. Others, having no religious intention, are overruled of God for a religious end. It is the arcanum of Providence to make sin the instrument of its own defeat, causing the wrath of man to praise him. The French Revo lution, that caldron of frenzied passions we should say, had as little of religion in it as any event that could be named ; but, reviewed from this distance of time, who can doubt that the remarkable man then thrown to the surface was, in the hand of God, like a rod of iron, dashing in pieces those old despotisms which had so long smothered the life and hindered the progress of the world .'' Short-sighted as we are, we cannot interpret at the time the import and bear ing of particular events — so many of which appear to be adverse — on the general result. It is with us as when we look upon a machine of intricate construction, the wheels of which fly in opposite directions, but whose com pound motions contribute to one fabric : many events appear to us disastrous and incomprehensible ; but the assurance given us by religion is, that, under the control of Him with whom a thousand years are but as one day, all things work together for the furtherance of that object which gives to time all its importance, and to the life of our race all its significance. Can we define what this object is ? If we cannot, we grope in the dark. If we cannot, all the movements of the world are as incoherent as the leaves which the Sibyl scattered to the wind. Lucretius, the Roman knight, confessed his ignorance of all final causes and intentions. But we do not stand on the same ground with the Pagan Epicurean. Ey a positive revelation, we are informed for what this world was made, and to what all its events are tending. The teaching of revealed religion on this point is the end of all philosophy, and the highest of all sciences. We have in our times the scientific history of creation. When science has analyzed the air, the liglit, the earth, and the sea, ah the com ponent parts of this material cosmos, shall she stop abruptly at any link in the chain, and fail to press the inquiry. What is the ultimate purpose of crea tion itself.'' Is physical science to displace moral science, — the scaffold ing to be magnified above the building ? Congresses convene, issue decla rations, frame constitutions, organize governments, and legislate for revenues and commerce and manufactures and agriculture; but are these ends, or 148 I LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. means ? Is constitutional government an ultimate fact, or is it merely instrumental to a higher good .'' The youngest of my auditors would answer that no government is an end to itself, but every government was designed for the welfare of its citizens. A simple answer, we should say ; but very few comprehend half the deep thought which the words imply. That answer, if carried into execution, would revolutionize in an instant half the governments of the world. But we have not yet reached the last induction. Wherein does man's highest welfare consist .'' Think not that this question belongs exclusively to a church catechism or a theological thesis. It is one of pure science, and is inseparable from every system of true political econ omy. Unaided and alone we might not be able to form a satisfactory answer to this ultimate question. But we are not left to grapple with the problem alone. It has been solved to the comprehension of a child by the Author of our being. That object which our Lord counselled from the Judsean mount, that all men should make their first and foremost pursuit ; that very object which He has formulated in the first petition which our infant lips were taught to articulate, " Thy kingdom come ; " that kingdom which is defined in Holy Writ as righteousness, and love, and joy, and peace ; that de scribes, we are told, the purpose for which this world was created, and to which all the revolutions of time and history are to contribute and converge. We are always prone to crowd religion into an obscure domain, to confine it to sabbath days and clergymen and sad necessities ; when, in fact, it is the very life of our race, the inspiration of all good and great deeds, the impulse to progress, the avowed end and object of this world's creation. There is such a thing as the philosophy of history. If history is ever to be to us any thing more than a congeries of detached and fragmentary events, then must we fix upon some heliocentric point from which to view " the great eternal scheme Involving all." The cosmic conception which Christianity has given us is God in history, and the moral perfection and blessedness of man its end. This conviction has been formulated by scientific historiographers, — the best and bravest men of our species. When the National Assembly of France in 1789 issued its declaration of rights, unhappily the autocracy of man was made its central idea, and God SERMON. 149 was exiled from his own creation. How the supremacy of God and the true autonomy of man are combined in blessed harmony, through the agency of revealed religion, will appear ere I close ; but our whole American fabric rests on the fundamental principle, God the centre and the pivot, and man person ally related to him in true loyalty. This is a truth not to be whispered with bated breath in the way of an apology. We stand on ground where it should be uttered with a firm and full voice as the key-note of our history. The very air seems to be filled with the spirits of our fathers, smiling upon us as we make the announcement that the Christian religion is the very life of our American nationality. The kingdom of God among men, as that expression is employed by inspiration, is no vague and indefinite object, the synonyme of mysticism, a spiritual aurora. It is that object for which history has shifted all its scenes and personages. It is that imperial dominion in which equity and charity and blessedness at length shall have unquestioned and universal supremacy. Inspired Prophecy beheld it through the gloom of many ages ; and as she sang, with minstrelsy that has charmed the world, of the time which was sure to come, when the Prince of Peace should reign from the rising to the setting sun, so stirring were the notes, that the harps of heathen bards responded in unconscious vibration. The "Pollio" of Virgil is but the faintest and feeblest echo of the sublime predictions of the Messiah, by the H6brew seer. That kingdom of the Redeemer, which advancing ages have been steadily unfolding, which has the sure word of God as the pledge and promise of its ultimate extension, and which is destined to confer the highest happi ness on man, — that is the object which gives unity to human history ; which, notwithstanding all delays and reactions, measures the importance of all events ; and which, ere time shall end, will wake those songs of earth and heaven which will be as the sound of many waters. We have now reached a point where it is pertinent to set forth the ethical and Christian principles which were at work in our Revolution, and which justify that whole procedure from the beginning to the end. The word "rev olution " has divers associations in many minds. With some it is only an object of terror and crime. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been prolific in revolutions, some of which were like tornadoes, whose path is traced by devastation and ruin. I have no wish, at this glad and grateful hour, when the pine and the palmetto are brought together to beautify our sanctuary, to introduce one word which might tend to disturb that healing 152 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. conflicts which began in our ancestral land, in the days of King John, in which with varied fortunes successive monarchs, with judges to pronounce their will, and armies to enforce it, had so long held the advantage, at length in the great revolution of 1688 culminated in the assertion of the true prin ciple which gave to that event all its splendor, — even this, that the one object and end of civil government is the good of the people. What have we here but the resurrection, after ages of gloom, "depression, and suffering, of that simple theory of government given in the inspired Scrip tures, — government made for man, and not man for government.' Thus have we reached with clearest certainty the ethical Christian principle which alone justifies the revolution of any government. When government is so far perverted from that use and purpose which divine benevolence pro poses, as to be an agent of wrong, of hinderance, and oppression, then religion not only permits, but enjoins, if government cannot be reformed and reclaimed to its blessed intent, that it should be changed, and another which is better substituted in its place. How wide the distinction between a revolution in spired by such a purpose, and all those uprisings and overturnings which have been instigated by the lust of power, by rival factions, by partisan ambition, by private resentments, and by that frightful communism which would con sume all governments in fire and blood ! Am I expected to define that line of demarcation on which religion bases the right and duty of revolution .? In the nature of the case,.it cannot always be drawn with mathematical precision. It is a decision which is to be reached by the highest exercise of reason, ^by the soundest judgment, and by the loftiest religious wisdom. It should be free from all vulgar passions, from private animosities, and from political ambitions. It should be justified by the best of reasons, by the most urgent necessities. There should be, in forming a judgment in premises so grave, the most dispassionate inquiry after tendencies and consequences, a counting the cost, a calm and rational weighing ofthe good to be gained and the price at which it is to be bought. In many cases it is better to " bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." Our fathers were not rash and infuriated revolutionists. They brought themselves under the name and stigma, for a time, of insurrection. But they had no affinity with lawless insubordination. They were deliberate, self-controlled, and loyal to good gov ernment. The "spirit of seventy-six," as goes the familiar expression, was no demoniacal frenzy, no sudden ebullition of passion. It was eulogized by SERMON. 153 Edmund Burke as the legitimate descendant of British law. It was impreg nated with the imperial wisdom of Milton and Selden, of Hale and Mansfield, and the martyr heroism of Argyll and Russell. As the genealogy of man runneth back to the Throne (" who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God"), so the national act we celebrate, instead of being an extemporized expedient, traces its pedigree far back to the martyrs and patriots of all ages, and to historic changes in the Old World, each and all accumulating force in endless succession, and transmitting the necessity of still further improvement from generation to generation. Subject as they were to grievous wrongs, our patriot fathers sought redress by all lawful methods. They petitioned, they expostulated, they entreated the British Government to do them justice. For a long time they cherished the hope that their rights would be secured, and all difficulties between the two countries would be adjusted. When the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West Church of Boston, from the text, " Our soul is escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowler : the snare is broken, and we are escaped," ; — a sermon dedicated to Mr. Pitt, and full of thanksgiving for the supposed redress of our wrongs. Dr. Duch6, who opened the Congress of 1 774 with prayer, afterward addressed a letter to Washington, endeavoring to dissuade him from all attempts at independence, as unneces sary. Loyalty and hope were cherished to the last. But events hastened to a catastrophe. Lord Chatham had died at his post in the British Senate, in the very act of pleading for the rights and liberties of America. All hope that the British ministry would yield to reason, and extend a mild and peace able and righteous government to the colonies, at length was extinguished ; and revolution was inevitable. Our stern-souled fathers met the exigency soberly, calmly, religiously. Their aim was not to shatter all government, but to substitute in place of one form of government another which would better subserve the good end of all government. Religiaus wisdom prompted their action ; Christian benevolence, looking at vast results, smiled on their heroic purpose ; the preparation of centuries was behind them ; the finger of Provi dence pointed to the Red Sea ; and forthwith, as the highest token of divine favor, there appeared the form of Washington, the Moses of our exodus, that calm, wise, good- man, " whom Providence appointed to be childless, that a nation might always call him father." Have results justified the action we celebrate, and vindicated its wisdom } 150 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. process — that knitting together of broken tissues — in which all parts of our country ought now to be engaged. But I see not how it is possible for me to avoid all allusions to that recent attempt to revolutionize our own govern ment, from the terrible effects of which we are just now recovering ; inasmuch as the claim was made at home and abroad, that the principles at work in this late Rebellion were identical with those which prompted the American Revo- lurion. Was the failure of the one, and the success of the other, a mere acci dent } Or did one succeed because it was in accordance with, and the other fail because it was in opposition to, divine laws .? I have undertaken nothing less than to expound those laws of Christian ethics which justify the act of our fathers in overturning the government under which they were born, and which at the same time frown upon and censure all rebellions and revolutions which are gratuitous and unnecessary. Some have expressed surprise that the Bible contains so little of specific instruction concerning civil government, who afterward, upon a more copious induction of facts,, have felt a grateful surprise that it contains so much. First of all, revelation asserts that government is a divine ordinance. " The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God." Here is a doctrine set forth by Christ and his apostles, which disposes of all those theories broached by visionary men like Rousseau, representing civil government to be a mere "social compact," the creation of individual wills. It is not of man's choice that he is born a subject of government, any more than that he is born a member of the family. The family is'not more a divine organization than is the state. Civil government — ¦ I speak not yet of its form — is an absolute necessity in some form, and so is to be pronounced a divine ordinance. With out it, civilized society is an impossibility. Anarchy, the absence of all gov ernment, every man doing what is right in his own eyes, could it be realized, would be the most frightful condition that the imagination could conceive. Government is a most beneficent institution for human protection and welfare. The best definition ofthe true design of civil government is contained in that inspired precept which directs us to pray for all that are in authority, " that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty." Verily, there is more truth concerning the domain and prerogatives of human gov ernment packed into that one portable verse than in many volumes, in many languages, on the same subject. It is condensed into such a brief space, like SERMON. I 5 3 Edmund Burke as the legitimate descendant of British law. It was impreg nated with the imperial wisdom of Milton and Selden, of Hale and Mansfield, and the martyr heroism of Argyll and Russell. As the genealogy of man runneth back to the Throne (" who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God"), so the national act we celebrate, instead of being an extemporized expedient, traces its pedigree far back to the martyrs and patriots of all ages, and to historic changes in the Old World, each and all accumulating force in endless succession, and transmitting the necessity of still further improvement from generation to generation. Subject as they were to grievous wrongs, our patriot fathers sought redress by all lawful methods. They petitioned, they expostulated, they entreated the British Government to do them justice. For a long time they cherished the hope that their rights would be secured, and all difficulties between the two countries would be adjusted. When the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, Dr. Mayhew preached a sermon in the West Church of Boston, from the text, " Our soul is escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken, and we are escaped," ; — a sermon dedicated to Mr. Pitt, and full of thanksgiving for the supposed redress of our wrongs. Dr. Duch6, who opened the Congress of 1774 with prayer, afterward addressed a letter to Washington, endeavoring to dissuade him from all attempts at independence, as unneces sary. Loyalty and hope were cherished to the last. But events hastened to a catastrophe. Lord Chatham had died at his post in the British Senate, in the very act of pleading for the rights and liberties of America. All hope that the British ministry would yield to reason, and extend a mild and peace able and righteous government to the colonies, at length was extinguished ; and revolution was inevitable. Our stern-souled fathers met the exigency soberly, calmly, religiously. Their aim was not to shatter all government, but to substitute in place of one form of government another which would better subserve the good end of all government. Religidus wisdom prompted their action ; Christian benevolence, looking at vast results, smiled on their heroic purpose ; the preparation of centuries was behind them ; the finger of Provi dence pointed to the Red Sea ; and forthwith, as the highest token of divine favor, there appeared the form of Washington, the Moses of our exodus, that calm, wise, good, man, " whom Providence appointed to be childless, that a nation might always call him father." Have results justified the action we celebrate, and vindicated its wisdom 1 152 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. conflicts which began in our ancestral land, in the days of King John, in which with varied fortunes successive monarchs, with judges to pronounce their will, and armies to enforce it, had so long held the advantage, at length in the great revolution of 1688 culminated in the assertion of the true prin ciple which gave to that event all its splendor, — even this, that the one object and end of civil government is the good of the people. What have we here but the resurrection, after ages of gloom, "depression, and suffering, of that simple theory of government given in the inspired Scrip tures, — government made for man, and not man for government.' Thus have we reached with clearest certainty the ethical Christian principle which alone justifies the revolution of any government. When government is so far perverted from that use and purpose which divine benevolence pro poses, as to be an agent of wrong, of hinderance, and oppression, then religion not only permits, but enjoins, if government cannot be reformed and reclaimed to its blessed intent, that it should be changed, and another which is better substituted in its place. How wide the distinction between a revolution in spired by such a purpose, and all those uprisings and overturnings which have been instigated by the lust of power, by rival factions, by partisan ambition, by private resentments, and by that frightful communism which would con sume all governments in fire and blood ! Am I expected to define that line of demarcation on which religion bases the right and duty of revolution t In the nature of the case,.it cannot always be drawn with mathematical precision. It is a decision which is to be reached by the highest exercise of reason, Jiy the soundest judgment, and by the loftiest religious wisdom. It should be free from all vulgar passions, from private animosities, and from political ambitions. It should be justified by the best of reasons, by the most urgent necessities. There should be, in forming a judgment in premises so grave, the most dispassionate inquiry after tendencies and consequences, a counting the cost, a calm and rational weighing of the good to be gained and the price at which it is to be bought. In many cases it is better to " bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." Our fathers were not rash and infuriated revolutionists. They brought themselves under the name and stigma, for a time, of insurrection. But they had no affinity with lawless insubordination. They were dehberate, self-controlled, and loyal to good gov ernment. The " spirit of seventy-six," as goes the familiar expression, was no demoniacal frenzy, no sudden ebullition of passion. It was eulogized by SERMON. 155 the turning over of fabled Enceladus beneath the mountains ; a constitution embodying the expressed preference of the people, with not a place in it or under it for arbitrary power to hurt a hair of the head of an honest citizen, living under the blessed combination of liberty and law. Who will question the effects of our example of prosperous self-government on the world at large.? More constitutions insuring the rights of man have been secured in different nations since the framing of our own than existed before in all the annals of time. That invisible force, called inquiry, like vital air, has pene trated all recesses, questioned all pretensions, investigated all claims ; and the most arbitrary kings, no longer able to hide themselves behind a veil of mystery, have been compelled to meet the familiar gaze of their own subjects, and plead at the bar of public opinion and the general will. As a conse quence of this, wrongs have been redressed, abuses reformed, governments ameliorated, and more of equity, freedom, harmony, and hopefulness have inspired and impregnated the whole of human society. Whatever may be our judgment as to particular events, whatever the aspect of our own times, the conviction is growing wider and stronger, realizing more and more the event which it leads us to anticipate, that slavery, bigotry, and corruption are gradually giving way to truth, liberty, and virtue ; and that, in the moral world as well as in the material, the farther our observations extend, the more we perceive of order and benevolent design. Surely, then, God has furnished the proof to the eye of the world, that our fathers judged wisely and acted righteously, in view of the general good. Surely we must say national self- government is not a failure. Premature shouts were heard from across the sea, during our recent internal war, that this new form of government had failed signally and disastrously. So far from this, it has drawn lustre from reproach, and strength from trial. More has been done by this sharp blast of adversity to confirm faith in our institutions than could have followed the warm sunshine of protracted prosperity. By that very parenthesis in our history, the difference has been made palpable to the world between revo lutions which are gratuitous, prompted by what is local and sectional, and especially by a purpose to extend an acknowledged evil and not to remove it, — when not one act of the general government called for resistance or complaint, — and such a revolution as we this day celebrate, crowned with cen tennial honors, because it aimed only at the redress of wrongs and the en largement of human happiness. So the storm has passed, the fearful stain on 154 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. In pronouncing our verdict, we look at no temporary success. In the midst ofthe coldest winters we have occasional days of summer waimth, and, in the spring and summer, days of frost and storm ; but these do not hinder the pro cession of the seasons. Great rivers have their eddies and back-water, but the mighty current rolls on to the sea. Revolutions instigated by ambition, and impelled by evil passions, have had a short-lived success. The imperial ism of Napoleon Bonaparte, as a military achievement, was brilliant, but of short duration. Other revolutions, or attempts at revolution, inspired by the highest and holiest motives, encountered depression and temporary defeat. Providence does not adjust accounts with men at the close of each day, or month, or year. Time is an essential item in that great drama which occu pies so many acts and scenes. Events most mysterious and painful at the time of their occurrence are explained by later disclosures of Providence. The justice of God in its application to individuals is to be vindicated in another life. Nations have their retribution here in time, where alone nations have their existence. Puritanism, judged of in that brief parenthesis of time when it was harried, and persecuted, and exiled by blind and bigoted powers in the home of its birth, might be pronounced as abhorred of God ; but cen turies elapse, and the drama unfolds wondrous compensations and rewards, compelling a more righteous verdict. An entire century has now passed since the American Revolution began. It had its days of darkness, of suffer ing, and reverses. The gloom of depression and fear, which settled hke a cloud on many hearts and homes, made it seem at times that God was against us. But time revolves ; returning Justice lifts aloft her scales : and now, after a hundred years have gone, is there a man living of sufficient information and intelligence to give weight to his thought, who would not say that the pros pects of the world were brighter, the condition of the human race more happy, since the American Revolution, and because of it, than ever before ? As the issue of it, we have a government regulated by a written constitution, a con stitution which guarantees protection to every man, woman, and child, irre spective of origin, of religion, of race; a constitution which provides for its own amendment by legal process, and which adjusts itself readily to the exigences of a heterogeneous population spreading over an immense conti nent; a constitution which disposes summarily and forever of that problem — the relation of Church and State — underlying all the politics of Europe, and which cannot be touched without agitations and convulsions reminding us of SERMON. X57 man, at the same time that it moderates and restrains him by divine laws. That is the best form of human government which is founded and adminis tered by self-governed men. The copy of the Bible, out of which the lesson has been read this evening, was presented to the first church of Lexington by John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. The coincidence is not fortuitous. The tap-root of our national history is in that old English Bible. What are constitutions and declarations but so much paper, in the absence of that combination of forces, stimulus and re straint, liberty and law, which makes self-controlled and religious men .' Legislated equality, universal suffrage, and compulsory education are but the index hands on the face of the dial ; what are they but mechanical and artificial movements, if there be no autonomy in living citizens, inspired by the justice and charity of true religion 1 All that is done to augment national wealth, in the absence of this same divine force, tends only to luxury and extravagance, enervation of manners, and impatience of control, thus supply ing fuel to the flames which will devour us. What is the right and act of suffrage but the expression of a free man's will .' — the vital question still re maining, what that will may be, and by what force, good and safe, it shall itself be regulated. Should any be disposed to resolve such words into mere professional cant, listen to the counsel ofthe Farewell Address of Washington to his country, — that Deuteronomy of our American history, coming to us with wisdom and authority little short of inspiration ; a document which ought to be taught to every child in the Republic as the basis of national education: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and moral ity are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere pohtician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." Fellow-citizens, never let us forget, amid the proud and grateful memories of our origin and our young life, with what a mission we are charged, what transcendent good is within our reach ; what possibilities to be realized or lost. 158 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. and what immeasurable interests for millions yet unborn, are involved in our experiment of self-government. Though it has stood well the test of a whole century, in calm and in storm, it is, as time advances and population increases, and complicated questions are evolved, an experiment still. The theory, the fair ideal, of our American Government is the very minimum of restraint on the individual will of the citizen, that is consistent with the general welfare. If, in changing the form of government, responsibility is shifted from the one or few to the many, let us keep the eye fixed with concentrated gaze on the one critical point of our salvation, — the intelligence and the religious virtue of all the people. With no cause for shame, with every reason for congratula tion and song and happy memorial in the past, the great drama of history is not yet complete ; and we are enacting now for our children, as our fathers did for us, one of many scenes which hasten or retard the great consummation. Thanks be to God for all that is past and secure already ; for deliverances wrought in the sea and the wilderness, and for the largeness and wealth and opportunity of our national heritage. Blessed be his name for a hundred years of new things in a new nation, for our flag, our union, our nationality ; for the magnificent ideas of liberty and equality, of human right and progress, which have been evolved into form and action and fruit in this period of our existence. Blessed be God that the visions and yearnings of godly patriotism at the beginning have not been disappointed, but have been fully realized' in the happiness, security, and honor of this our dear native land, sought by, and open to, the oppressed and weary of all lands. Blessed be God for religious liberty, — liberty of conscience, hberty of thought, and, beyond and above golden mines and laughing harvests, for all the churches, the schools, and institutions of learning and art and philanthropy, which have sprung up over all the land, out of the free will of an intelligent people, like flowers in the path of the sun. Blessed be God for all the good and heroic men who, from the beginning of our history till now, in times of calm and in times of war, in all questions of right and sentiment and conscience and duty, have been raised up to be guides and leaders, teaching the people what should be done, and how to do it, — the great men of our one united country, our common pride and boast, never disappointing the trust which was as freely given as it was truly deserved, — patriots unselfish, tried, and immaculate. Most of all do we thank God for the great multitudes of the people, the men and the women emulous of no notoriety, God-fearing, hard-working, taught SERMON. 159 in schools and churches and happy homes how to lead quiet and peaceable lives in all honesty and godliness, who have so far formed the character, the strength, the reputation, and glory of the Republic. With such an immortal record graven deep on the pillar reared as our cen tennial memorial ; the hopes, the prayers, the cravings of our ancestry brought out to life in the events which they saw only by faith, — we turn to the future invigorated and inspired by the radiant prospects of the hundred years to come. If God had not purposed greater things for our children, would he have done such great things for oirr fathers .' Men may leave their work un finished ; but the ways of God tend always to perfection. The world is not stationary ; neither does it go backward. What delays, what reverses and trials, may be before us, we cannot predict ; but our hearts and our faces are bright with the promise of the latter day. Generations come and go, individ uals will die ; the mighty man, the counsellor, the ancient and the honorable, will pass from the sight of men : but the country will live, and the kingdom of God on the earth will grow and abide forever. All hail, greetings, and con gratulations to all those who, born beneath these skies, shall see, in the ages to coqje, more and more of the unfolding of God's good plan in the brighten ing and ascending revolutions of his providence ! The Lord liveth, and blessed be our Rock I Blessed be the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things ; and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory ! Amen, and Amen ! Historical Appendix. historical appendix. As the 19th of April is rendered famous by the opening scene of the American Revolution which occurred in our village, and also by the vast gathering of the people to comnnemorate the one hundredth anniversary of that important event, it will be, more especially in the future, regarded as an epoch in our history. When the civil or religious condition of the town is under discussion, or its population, wealth, or future prospects are to be investigated, reference will be had to the 19th of April, 1875. And especially when the next centennial celebration approaches, people will instinct ively inquire what was the condidon of the town in all these respects a century before. This being the case, it becomes important that we present a brief summary of the present status of the town. The History of Lexington, published in 1868, contains a pretty full exhibit of its condition up to that date ; but the changes which have since occurred show the importance of recording our annals fully and frequently, that we may know the changes through which we are constantly passing. Within the last seven years, events of no small importance have occurred in our town. Dating from the close of our published volume, we must all be sensible that there has been a marked improvement in our condition. At that time our railroad terminated in Lexington, giving us steam communication with Boston alone : now our railroad is extended to Concord, thereby giving us free connection with the towns above us. Not only the extension of our road, but the frequency of the trains, is regarded as an advantage ; and the character and ability of the corporation furnish a guaranty that these trains will be continued, and that such improvements will be made in future as the interest of the road, and the prosperity of the place, may require. The effect of this is already seen in the increase of dwellings ; not only in number, but in architectural taste and modern conveniences. There has been a decided improvement in our public buildings within the last six years. At the close of our History, a regret was expressed that our town hall was too small ; that it was ill con structed, and not at all adapted to the wants of the people ; that it was also occupied by the high school ; and that the desks had to be removed frequently to accommodate the town and school respectively, proving an inconvenience and detriment to both. Now we have a town edifice both convenient and ornamental ; presenting four fagades to the eye, of two stories in height, surmounted by a double Louvre roof, within which is a third story. In outline of ground-plan the building is a parallelogram, or rectangle, 163 164 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. of ninety-five feet in length by fifty-eight feet in width ; built of brick, with freestone tnmmings. The first story is entered under a portico located in the centre of the principal fagade. The entrance communicates with a staircase-hall of twenty and one- half feet in width by twenty-four feet in depth ; the hall contains the principal stair cases in two flights, each six feet in width, reaching to the second or hall story of the building. Flanking the staircase hall, on each side, are apartments for the selectmen, town-clerk, post-office, and other business purposes. The staircase-hall communicates immediately with the Memorial Hall, which is situated on the same floor, in a central part of the building, and consists of an octagon about nineteen feet in diameter, with four wings, or corridors, radiating from it at right an^jles with each other. Two of these corridors, eight feet wide and nineteen feet long, extend to the walls of the building, where they receive the light of two large windows ; the remaining two con nect, the one with the staircase hall, as above mentioned, with a width of eleven feet by fourteen, and the other by the same width about eight feet in length, with the Library Hall. The octagon is separated from the corridors only by an arch of about ten feet span, and about twelve feet above the floor. On the arch in front, as you approach from the staircase hall, is this inscription : — LEXINGTON COSSE0RATE3 THiS HALL AND ITS EMBLEMS TO THE MEMORY OF THE FOUNDERS AND THE SUSTAINEHS OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. The angles between these corridor recesses are cut off, so as to present faces of about six feet, which are finished in niches, in which are four life-size marble statues, resting upon marble pedestals. The statue on the left from the entrance is "The Minute-Man of '75," the work of Conrad, under the direction of J. G. Patterson of Hartford, Conn. The minute- man is starting, of his own accord, to confront the invaders of our rights, breathing the life and spirit of the times. This statue has met the warm approb.ition of all who have seen it. In the corridor recess to the left, is a tablet of Italian marble, framed in beautiful red-veined Lisbon marble, on which is the following inscription : — "THE PLEDGE AND ITS REDEMPTION." RESPONSE OF LEXINGTON TO THE APPEAL OF BOSTON, DEC. 18, 1773. "We tru.st in God, that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates, and eveky thing dear in life, yea, and life itbelf, in support of the common cause." NAMES OF THE CITIZENS OF LEXINGTON WHO FELL IN FREEDOVI'S CAUSE, APRIL 19, 1775. Ensign Robert Munroe. Jonas Parker. Samuel Hadley. John Brown. Caleb Harrington. Jonathan Harrington, jun. Jedediah Munroe. John Raymond. Isaac Muzzey. i Nathaniel Wyman. They pourhd out their generous blood like water, before they knew whether it would fertilize the land of freedom or of bondage." — Webster, HISTORICAL APPENDIX. 165 On the right, and directly opposite, stands the statue of " The Union Soldier " of the war of the Rebellion. He is a soldier at rest, not starting, like the Minute-Man, on his own impulse; but standing firm and composed, waiting for orders which he is ready to obey. This is also from the studio of Mr. Batterson. A second tablet of like character is placed in the corridor recess near, with the inscription, — "THE SONS DEFENDED WHAT THE FATHERS WON," followed by the names of twenty soldiers of Lexington who lost their lives in the late war. , NAMES OF THE RESIDENTS OF LEXINGTON AND OTHERS SERVING OM HER QUOTA, WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES TO THEIR COUNTRY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. Frederick D Fi.ske. Charles H. Fiske. Benjamin F. Thorn. WiLLi.\M De Coty. John Manley. Charles H. Puffer. Charles E. Harrington. Capt. Charles R. Johnson. Charles Cutler. Edward E. Hatch. John O'Neil. Joseph Simonds. Charles Flagg. Warren Kinnaston. John F. Byron. Dennis McMahon. Thomas H. Earle. Timothy Leary- William Grover. Charles O Muzzey. The two remaining niches are filled with the statues of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, the former by Thomas R. Gould, and the latter by Martin Milmore, both Boston artists resident in Italy. Hancock stands opposite the Minute-Man, and Adams opposite the Union soldier. They are both admired as works of art, both in the conception of the character, and in the execution of the work ; and the one last examined is generally pronounced the best. Passing from the rotunda, the remainder of the length and width of this story of the building forms the apartment occupied as a library, fifty-five feet by forty-four, and is finished with all the conveniences for that purpose. The Library was established in 1868, and contains about five thousand volumes, and is constantly increasing. It has a permanent fund of six thousand one hundred dollars, and an annual income of about seven hundred dollars. The Library is free to all the inhabitants of the town, and to sojourners, under proper regulations. It is well patronized, and is regarded with in creasing interest. The hall contains also a collection of Revolutionary and other relics, besides a few portraits and engravings illustrating the history of the town, and is also designed for a collection of natural curiosities. The two rear corners ofthe Library Hall are occupied, one as the librarian's room, eight feet by sixteen feet, and the other as a staircase and entry, forming a private entrance to the library and the hall abo''e. The second story is mainly devoted to the purposes of an audience hall, the floor area of which is fifty-six feet by seventy feet, with a clear height of twenty-four feet. A stage recess of thirty-one feet by nine feet, is flanked by two anterooms, respect ively fourteen feet by twelve and a half feet. The hall will seat? about seven hundred persons, is lighted with gas, and its walls and ceiling are tinted in party-colors. There are two other anterooms in the front corners of the hall, each seventeen feet by six teen feet, connecting immediately with the hall by sliding doors, which, when opened, make the whole virtually one apartment. 1 66 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. A mezzanine, or intermediate story, in front and rear of the hall, contains a gal lery and two proscenium boxes. There are ladies' and gentlemen's dressing-rooms over the two front anterooms. The whole interior of the building is finished in hard wood. A portion of the third story is occupied as a Masonic Hall, which is handsomely fitted up ; and the remainder has been finished as a dining hall. Though the erecdon of this building, to which Mrs. Maria Cary liberally contrib uted, created some feeling in the town at the time of its erection, that feeling of opposition has in a great measure passed away. All have seen the benefits resulting from a suitable place for public meetings, lectures, concerts, and the like ; and the town has shown a very liberal spirit towards that section which felt itself aggrieved, by providing it with another hall for like purposes. The building formeriy used by the Roman Catholic Church has been purchased and fitted up for the safe-keeping of the engine, and especially for the accommodation of the people in that part of the town. The moral influence of this policy is believed lo be good, as it tends to allay local feeling, and at the same time to improve the condition of society by the social intercourse it produces. Facilities for lectures, concerts, and social gatherings, can not fail to promote harmony, and so increase the well-being of society. The old town hall has been refitted, and devoted to the high school. We have, within the last five years, made several advances toward city life and improvements. We have established a savings bank, which has been well sustained, and is prospering. We have also adopted a system of street-lamps, and have formed a gas company, by which the central portion of the town is supplied with the best of light. While the population of Lexington has remained nearly stationary for some years, there has been a steady growth in her wealth. The statistics do not show this fact to its full extent. The personal property becomes more and more invested in government securities, and so does not appear in town or State valuations ; and the money depos ited in savings institutions does not appear in the valuation list. But in 1867 the valuation of Lexington was $1,770,468, while in 1875 it was $2,997,071. The town has also kept up with the times in its public improvements, such as schools and high ways. Lexington appropriated, in 1867, $17,660, for general town purposes, and in 1875, $40 055 for the same general objects ; a gain which marks the rate of advance ment. There has been, during the same period, a considerable change in our ecclesiastical affairs. Our published History left the Roman Catholics in possession of a church in the East Village. Within three years, they have sold that church to the town for a public hall and engine-house, and have bought the residence of the late Joseph Davis, in the Centre Village, which they have fitted up as a temporary place of worship. They are now building a new church, one hundred feet by sixty feet, which, we pre sume, will be an ornament to the place. It was stated in our History, that the Congregationalists had no organized society in Lexington, but that the churches of that faith in the neighboring towns had assisted in purchasing the Academy building, on the corner of Hancock and Bedford Streets, and had fitted it up as a church. The whole interior and exterior of the building have been materially changed, so that it is a neat and convenient place of worship. HISTORICAL APPENDIX. 1 67 centrally located. The congregation now numbers some eighty families. Sunday services are held regularly in the morning and afternoon. The pastor, Rev. E. G. Porter, was ordained Oct. i, 1868. The church bears the name of the Rev. John Hancock, the distinguished clergyman of Lexington, whose ministry extended from 1698 to 1752. THE STATUES, AND THE MEMORIAL HALL. As the statues of Hancock and Adams formed the basis of a prominent ceremony in our late celebration, and are desdned to stand in our Memorial Hall, monuments of art and emblems of patriotism, and, with the statues ofthe soldiers of two wars, are to beautify and adorn that part of our public edifice consecrated to the memory of heroes and statesmen, it seemed to us important that something should be known of the origin ofthe memorial statues, and the means by which the idea of procuring them has been developed. To a certain extent, the statues and tablets which the hall con tains are the offspring of the Lexington Monument Association. The impression becoming prevalent, that the monument on the common did not comport with modern taste, some of our prominent citizens conceived the idea of superseding it by one raore in accordance with the spirit of the "age. In 1850 they obtained an act of incorporadon, and organized a company, making the venerable Jonathan Harrington, the last survivor of the battle of Lexington, their president. Their object seems to have been simply to rear a more fashionable monument in honor of the citizens of Lexington who fell on the 19th of April, 1775. Nothing, however, was done, more than to keep up the organization, till 1858, when broader and more liberal views pre vailed. It was then perceived, that, though the existing monument was somewhat antiquated in its appearance, it bore the impress and breathed the spirit of the Revolution, and was a fit memorial of the sturdy patriots to whose memory it was erected ; and it was resolved to give the proposed enterprise a national character, and erect a monument commemorative of the opening scene of the Revolutionary drama. To carry forward this idea, Charles Hudson, who had taken an active part in giving a national character to the enterprise, was intrusted with the development of the idea. Encouraged by the countenance of some of our prominent citizens, among whom were Gen. Samuel Chandler, Major Benjamin Reed, Col. Philip Russell, Jonas Munroe, John Hastings, Bowen Harrington, William Stevens, and others, he undertook the work ; and soon found that the name of Lexington, and the character of the deeds performed upon her common, were quite as fully appreciated beyond the limits of the State as within its borders. He found no difficulty in organizing a corporation, con sisting of a president and an acting board of directors in Massachusetts, with one vice- president from each of the New England States, and one from every other section of the country ; each accepting the position with readiness, and generally with expres sions of approval of the design, and a patriotic admiration of the deeds of our fathers, and the worth of their sacrifices. H. T. Duncan, Esq., of Lexington, Ky., says, " I do not feel at liberty to withhold 1 68 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. assent from your honorable picrpose." Hon. Thomas Corwin of Ohio speaks of the scenes which occurred in Lexington, as "glorious triumphs, and the heroic fires of the Revolurion." Commodore Stockton of New Jersey gratefully accepted the honor of being one of our number. Hon. H. B. Anthony of Rhode Island is pleased " to co-operate in this patriotic undertaking." Rev. John Wheeler of Vermont deems it a "praiseworthy object to commemorate the opening scene of the Revolution." Pres. Fillmore, in his retirement, consented, contrary to his rule, to take part with us. Hon. Ichabod Goodwin of New Hampshire declares "that the descendants of the patriots, the leaders in the Revolutionary struggle, should commemorate, by every suitable means, the heroic deeds of their fathers." Gov. Hammond of South Carolina uses this approving language : " I esteem it a very high compliment to be selected as one of your vice-presidents, and shall be very happy to do something to promote the success of your patriotic design." Hon. Stephen A. Douglas says, " I cordially approve of the movement inaugurated by the people of Lexington and vicinity, to erect a monument commemorative of the opening scene of the Revolution. It is, as you well remark, a national work; and I doubt not the whole people ofthe United States will, if properiy appealed to, prompdy contribute to so noble an object as that of building a monument to the first martyrs of the independence and freedom we enjoy." Hon. Edward Bates of Missouri speaks thus cordially: "I accept the position of vice-president with hearty thanks and honest pride. When the descendants of those who laid the corner-stone of our temple of liberty, and did the first overt act towards the establishment of our national existence, are about to do honor to the patriotism and courage of their fathers, and to commemorate an event so glorious in our history, I could hardly hope to be associated in official honors with the eminent men you mention." Hon. William C. Rives of Virginia pronounces the enterprise " a noble design of erecting, in )'our ever-glorious town of Lexington, a monument to commemorate the first blood of American patriots shed in the cause of liberty. Nothing can be more fitting than to perpetLiate, in the enduring form you propose, the gallantry and self- devotion of those sons of Massachusetts who were the first martyrs of American liberty. To make their deeds of heroism, as you propose, a common fund of glory, in which the other States are invited to an equal participadon, is a generous and manly thought, which could have its origin only in a truly national spirit." And the sturdy old hero Gen. Scott pronounces our enterprise a most patriotic and glorious undertaking, and thankfully lends his name to the cause. We make these extracts to show that the fame of Lexington had extended through the country, and the noble deeds of her sons had so impressed the public mind as to awaken the feeling of patriotism in every part of the land. The sentiments thus expressed by people at a distance are well calculated to show us the position Lexing ton occupies in our country's history, prompting us thereby to deeds of patriotism. With such flattering encouragement from abroad, and a good degree of support within our own State and neighborhood, we were able to organize a corporadon extending through the country, embracing some of our most distinguished men, irrespective of party. Hon. Edward Everett accepted the office of president ; Hon. HISTORICAL APPENDIX. 1 69 R. C. Winthrop, and Gen. Banks, the office of vice-president ; while Hon. Richard Frothingham, Hon. E. R. Hoar, Hon. George Lunt, and other influential individuals, were enrolled on our list of directors. I should do injustice to an active and able advocate of this enterprise, did I not mention Charles O. Whitmore, Esq., of Boston, who at that time had a summer residence in Lexington. He engaged earnestly and efficiently in the cause, and served for years as treasurer of the company. Being thus organized, our honored president published an address to the people of the United States, setting forth the object of the enterprise, and stating further, that " the people of Lexington have procured the design of a monument by Mr. Hammatt Billings, a distinguished native artist, which, with great success, embodies the spirit of the day which it is intended to commemorate ; not doing homage to any one individual, — for no individual is entitted to the honors of that day, — but symbolizing the entire class of men who were the actors in that great scene. It is the figure of a minute-man, who leaving his accustomed labor, and seizing his musket, his ball-pouch, and his powder-horn, has hastened to confront the disciplined battalions of arbitrary power. Such were the men of the 19th of April, 1775 ; such the men who fell that day on Lexington Green, and in whose honor the statue will stand as an abiding memorial of their sacrifice, and a monument to their heroism. It is to be of bronze, and of colossal size, erected upon a lofty pedestal of granite, handsomely wrought, with niches for the insertion of appropriate rilievos emblem'atic of the events of the day; the whole to be of a magnitude, and in a style of execution, worthy of the great event, creditable to American art, and in harmony with the national feeling." Such was the character of the work we designed. Mr. Hudson as chairman of the directors, and by their order, issued a circular to the militia of the United States, calling their attention to our enterprise, and to the significant fact that we proposed to depart from the common usage on such occasions, and do honor, not to one man who happened to be in command, but to the common soldiers, on whom the labor falls, and to whom the honor of victory generally belongs. A certificate of member ship, of artistic taste, combining a representation of the monument and of the battle scene, was engraved ; and the necessary measures were adopted to obtain the means to carry forward the work. After expending a considerable sum in these preliminary measures, the flattering prospects of the Association were dispelled by the breaking out ofthe Rebellion. All efforts were suspended during the war; and on the return of peace almost every city and town had its attention called to some local monu ment or memorial in honor of its own fallen patriots. Prices had also increased to such extent, that we despaired of raising funds sufficient for the enterprise. When the effort was made in 1858 and 1859, to give the enterprise a national char acter, William H. Cary, Esq., of Brooklyn, N.Y., one of the vice-presidents of the association, and a native of Massachusetts, manifested a lively interest in the under taking ; and having a summer residence in Lexington, the birthplace of his wife, intimated to some of the officers of the Association, that he would render some pecuniary assistance towards the completion of the object. But, dying suddenly soon after, he made no provision in behalf of the proposed monument. However, his widow and his heirs, knowing his intention, with due respect to his memory, and a generous sympathy for the object in view, came forward unsolicited, and offered the Associa- 170 LEXINGTON CENTENNIAL. tion four thousand dollars in aid of the enterprise, three thousand for land as a site, and one thousand in money when the work should be commenced. But the war, as we have seen, paralyzed the efforts of the Association ; and peace found them unable to prosecute their design with any prospect of success. In this state of things, Mrs. Cary, ever interested in the prosperity and honor of the place of her nativity, proposed, in behalf of herself and friends, that if the Association would relinquish their claim upon the land, and permit it to be sold, the avails of the sales should be passed over to the Association, and that she would make up the sum to four thousand dollars ; the said Association to hold it in trust till the town should erect a suitable memorial hall, when the sum thus given should be expended in tablets, or other suitable emblems, in honor of the heroes of the Revolution and of the late war. The Associarion executed a release of the land ; and the money stipulated has been promptly paid over, and expended agreeably to the wish of the donors. The original design, that of a minute-man, has been adhered to ; and the combination of the heroes of the two wars does equal honor to the memory of those who won our independence, and those who sustained the Union of the States. Thus has the town been mainly indebted, for the means of fitting up the Memorial Hall, to Mrs. Cary and her friends, with the cheerful co-operation and aid of the Lexington Monument Association, through whose efforts means have since been fur nished to procure the statues of John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Thus the niches in our consecrated hall have all been filled ; and the soldier and the statesman now stand there face to face, approving of each other's work, and rejoicing in the institutions whose foundations they laid, and whose superstructure they have reared and sustained. When we say that the Executive Committee of the Lexington Monument Associa tion have urged forward the design of filling the niches, we do not mean that they have done it unaided. We are happy to say that they have been generously supported by our citizens and others. Especially are we indebted to Mrs. Maria Cary, — whose bounty has flowed almost in an uninterrupted stream, — to Mrs. Maria M. Hastings, to Messrs. Isaac H. and George S. Cary, to Mrs. Samuel B. Rindge of Cambridge, to Mrs. Ebenezer Sutton of Peabody, to Hon. Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, and to Nathan Blanchard, Esq., of Burlington. Our own citizens, under the lead of the George G. Meade Post, gave a generous support ; the United States made a liberal donation of condemned ordnance ; and the town of Lexington has readily supplied whatever has been found wanting, from time to time, to meet the demand. Thus has the perseverance of a few, with the countenance of the many, given us a Memorial Hall, reflecting alike the honor of the heroes of the town, and the statesmen of the country, — a hall on which we and our children may look with a noble pride. When a town of the size of Lexington, with only twenty-five hundred Inhabitants, provides for her own soldiers, and for two of our country's statesmen, we think she cannot be accused of being indifferent to the cause of freedom, or ungrateful to the worthies who have given us this rich inheritance. Illustrations. BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. A Clarke House. B Buckman Tavern. C Munroe's Tavern. DEF Parker's Company. Jonathan Harrington's Daniel Harrington's. Nathan Munroe's. G Blacksmith's Shop. -H Emerson's House. 1 J L Loring's House. Loring's Barn. Meeting House. Percy's Field Pieces. e>] J oO:^ ^