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 Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/orationdelivered01rant 
 
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 APKIL 19, 1775, 
 
 ORATION 
 
 BY 
 
 EGBERT RANTOUL, JR 
 
 AND 
 
 Irtfltrnt nf tljf Uniira Cfbtotk, 
 
 AT CONCORD, 
 
 NINETEENTH APRIL, 1850. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BUTTON AND WENTWOETH, PRINTERS, 
 
 No. 37, Congress Street, 
 
 1850. 
 
 J 
 
.WML ISj ll?fi. 
 
 ORATION 
 
 ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE UNION CELEBRATION, 
 
 AT CONCORD, 
 
 NINETEENTH APRIL, 1850. 
 
AN 
 
 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED AT CONCORD, 
 
 Cdekatinti of tjit Ittieiitii-jFiftli Ititthraartj 
 
 EVENTS OF APRIL 19, 17 7 6, 
 
 ROBERT RANTOUL, Je. 
 
 A 
 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE, AND PUBLISHED 
 BY THEIR ORDER. 
 
 BOSTON: ^ 
 
 BUTTON & WENT WORTH, STATE PRINTERS. 
 
 1850. 
 
 V^y. Vu- ^^'A/ » 
 
"^^'A^' 
 
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 IN SENATE, April 22, 1850. 
 
 Ordered, That Messrs. Dawes and Thompson, with such as the House may 
 jom, be a Committee to request of the Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr., a copy of the 
 Historiccil Address, delivered by him at Concord, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of 
 the first battle of the American Revolution, that the same may be printed by the 
 Legislature, with a brief account of the other exercises upon that occasion. 
 
 Sent down for concurrence. CHAS. CALHOUN, Clerk. 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, April 22, 1830. 
 Concurred : aiid Messrs. Hoar, of Concord, Leeds, of Boston, Boutwell, 
 of Groton, Smith, of Enfield, and Stone, of Charlestown, are joined. 
 
 C. W. STOREY, Clerk. 
 
 To the Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr. 
 
 Sir, — The subscribers, the Joint Committee of the Legislature, having enjoyed 
 the high pleasure of listening to the Address delivered by you, before the members 
 of the several branches of the Government, at Concord, on the 19th of April, instant, 
 gladly obey the above order in presenting to you their request. 
 
 We trust, sir, that, by a compliance with the wishes of the Legislature, you will 
 afford to those, who had not the privilege of hearing the Address, an opportunity of 
 
 learning its historical and literary value. 
 
 HENRY L. DAWES, 
 CHARLES THOMPSON, 
 SAMUEL HOAR, 
 SAMUEL LEEDS, 
 ALVIN SMITH, 
 GEO. S. BOUTWELL, 
 JA3IES M. STONE. 
 
 Gentlemen, — 
 
 I am honored by your comramiication, this day received, and would readily for- 
 ward a copy of the Oration, delivered by me at Concord, in compliance with the vote 
 of the Legislature of the Commonwealtli, were it not that I have already furnished 
 the manuscript to the Committee of Associated Towns, who, I doubt not, v\'ill acqui- 
 esce in the arrangement contemplated by the order of the Hon. Senate and House. 
 
 Accept my thanks for the very obliging terms in which you have been pleased to 
 express the views of the Legislature. I am, most respectfully, 
 
 Your obt. servt., 
 Hon. Henry L. Dawes, Charles Thomp- R. RANTOUL, Jr. 
 
 son, Samuel Hoar, Samuel Leeds, 
 Alvin Smith, Geo. S. Boutwell, James 
 M. Stone, Committee of the Legisla- 
 ture of Massachusetts. 
 
CONCORD, April 22,. 1850. 
 Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Pursuant to the unanimous vote of the Committee of Arrangements 
 for the Union Celebration of the events of the 19th of April, 1775, we tender to yoH 
 the thanks of the towns engaged in the celebration, for the able and interesting Ad- 
 dress, delivered by you in this place, on the 19th instant, in commemoration of that 
 glorious birth-day of American Liberty, and request, in their behalf, a copy for pub- 
 lication. 
 
 Trusting that you will gratify the earnest desire felt for a perusal of sentiments so 
 worthy and appropriate to the occasion on which they were uttered. 
 We are, with the highest regard, 
 
 Your obliged friends and fellow-citizens, 
 
 JOHN S. KEYES, Chairman. 
 W. W. WHEILDON, Secretary. 
 
 BOSTON, April 23, 1850. 
 Gentlemen, — 
 
 I place at your disposal, the manuscript of my Address on the 19th instant, agree- 
 ably to the request of the Committee of the Associated Towns, before whose 
 inhabitants it was delivered, with my thanks for the kindness expressed in your 
 communication. And have the honor to be. 
 
 Most respectfully, 
 
 Your obt. serv't, 
 
 R. RANTOUL, Jr. 
 Messrs. John S. Keves, Chairman, 
 
 W, W. Wheildon, Secretary, 
 
 of Committee of Arrangement!*. 
 
RATI 
 
 The law by which God governs the universe is a 
 law of progress. The undeveloped capacities of the 
 human intellect, the aspirations of the soul after a 
 higher and better moral state of being, even in the 
 present life, the feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest, 
 sad, but not without hope, which ever urges on the 
 wise and good, after an infinite succession of de- 
 feats, to new efforts to remove out of our path the 
 chief evils that continually beset us, all indicate 
 that, in its pilgrimage through weary ages of vicis- 
 situdes, the human family has, as yet, no abiding 
 place ; that its course is, and must be, onward to- 
 wards the true destiny in which its faculties are 
 fitted to expand themselves, in their free action, and 
 full enjoyment. The infancy of our race was pass- 
 ed in struggling to escape from physical suffering, 
 while groping in ignorance, groaning under oppres- 
 sion, and shuddering at superstitious terrors. But 
 the stern teachings of this long adversity hardened 
 and confirmed the vigor which they did not crush, 
 so that courage and strength gradually grew out of 
 2 
 
10 
 
 the contest, if it did not result in complete victory. 
 We are now in the period of immature youth, and 
 the wisdom above which guides us, and which has 
 led us through many grievous trials, from evil still 
 educing good, has doubtless further, and perhaps 
 greater trials in store for us. As the Apostle Paul 
 declared the heavier yoke of the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion to be designed for the office of a schoolmaster, 
 to bring its pupils worthily, in the fulness of time, 
 into the light and liberty of the gospel ; so the toils, 
 and hardships, and reverses of many thousand years, 
 are educating mankind for a nobler exercise of God 
 given powers, and the more perfect fruition of the 
 purposes of a nature, created but a little lower than 
 the angels. 
 
 There is nothing in the universe that is not sub- 
 ject to change. The stars in their courses have no 
 appointed goal, where they may pause, but in secu- 
 lar, and as yet unmeasured revolutions, steadily 
 wheel, obedient to the original law of their nature. 
 Great moral changes are like the motions of these 
 enormous masses of matter, slow, and guided by 
 unalterable laws : but not like them steady and 
 uniform in their phenomena. Moral advancement 
 proceeds by impulse following impulse, like the 
 several waves of a swelling tide. Between the 
 waves, wide spaces intervene, but no impulse is lost 
 in the sum of contributions to the general flood. 
 
11 
 
 To know what point we have reached, to know 
 whither we are tending, are the two great problems 
 of absorbing interest. To understand and solve 
 them, we investigate the past. No eye can pierce 
 the darkness of the future, except by the aid of 
 those rays which the lamp of experience casts for- 
 ward to reveal its mysteries. 
 
 So inexhaustible is the abundance of the lessons 
 which history affords to the observer, that we are 
 not so much embarrassed to find subjects which 
 deserve and reward careful examination and pro- 
 tracted meditation, as to choose among those which 
 obviously present themselves. The most interesting 
 and instructive epochs of history are those when 
 controlling influences, which have governed, or 
 seemed likely to govern, for a considerable period, 
 the affairs of millions, suddenly terminate, and a 
 new order of things begins. Whether it be the 
 catastrophe of some ancient dynasty, as the Persian 
 before Alexander, or the Bourbon before awakened 
 France ; or the downfall of some extensive empire, 
 as of Assyria, or of Rome ; or the death agony of 
 national independence, rushing to ruin in a single 
 day of blood, as at Babylon, or Carthage, or Con- 
 stantinople, or Warsaw; or the struggle of con- 
 flicting parties, or systems, decided in the shock of 
 some great battle, and determining for awhile the 
 political aspect of the world, as at Pharsalia, or 
 
12 
 
 Actium, or Marengo, or Waterloo ; or if it be the 
 introduction of some agent, working effects unper- 
 ceived at first, but afterwards apparent in their 
 magnitude, as gunpowder, the press, the compass, 
 the cotton gin, the use of coal for fuel, or of steam 
 for motive power ; we are irresistibly impelled to 
 inquire into all the circumstances of the change, its 
 causes, how it might have been hastened or post- 
 poned, its consequences, how far it was unforeseen 
 and inevitable, or long expected, and the result of 
 genius and energy on the one hand, or folly and 
 imbecility on the other. But when the fortunes of 
 civilization or of liberty hang doubtful in the bal- 
 ance, how inconceivably grand is such an issue. 
 How immeasurably does it transcend all ordinary 
 debate, whether of the academy, the forum, or the 
 battle field. How does such a spectacle rivet the 
 attention of contemporaries; and excite the curiosi- 
 ty, and command the admiration, of posterity. The 
 poet and the philosopher, the patriot and the phi- 
 lanthropist, the warrior and the statesman, all turn 
 with common enthusiasm towards the spot and the 
 hour, on which the peril passed away, and the sal- 
 vation of all that is dearest to humanity was secured. 
 When we hang delighted over the pictured pages 
 of the father of story, and drink in the charm of 
 that old Ionic melody which will never cease to fas- 
 cinate ingenuous youth, what is the scene at which 
 
13 
 
 we pause and linger with the intensest sympathy, 
 feeling that the Greek cause is indeed our cause 1 
 It is when we see that the soldiers of the city states 
 are our champions ; that in their discomfiture our 
 liberty, and all true life, must have been struck 
 down forever ; and that the achievement of the all- 
 daring few who stood at Marathon, not only brought, 
 for them, glory out of danger, but wrought out also 
 our deliverance. 
 
 The great king, iOarius, the compeller, as his 
 name in his own language signified, had mustered 
 his myrmidons like a locust cloud: the Ionian colo- 
 nies were overrun : Delos, the abode of the prophet 
 Deity, shook with an ominous trembling. An em- 
 pire, that, from the rising to the setting sun, over- 
 shadowed with its greatness all the nations of the 
 earth, launched its whole power upon the little dis- 
 united democracies of the Greek peninsula. In 
 vengeance for the flames of Sardis, shrines were pil- 
 laged and temples burned ; havoc swept the land, 
 and the fettered captives were consigned to Persian 
 slavery, far from the native soil they loved so well. 
 Eretria had fallen; Marathon was not far from 
 Eretria, on the invader's way to Athens. Then was 
 manifested the amazing transformation which self- 
 government works when once gained ; for while the 
 Greeks were subject to tyrants, they excelled not 
 their neighbors in renown, but when they were 
 
u 
 
 delivered from oppression, they surpassed them all.* 
 Then first the Greeks beheld, without dismay, the 
 dress and armor of the Medes ; for before that time, 
 in Greece, the very name of a Mede was a terror, f 
 But now, Datis, with the hordes of Parthia, Baby- 
 lon, and Egypt, swelling his array, is checked in his 
 career of desolation, by a few Athenians, without 
 archers or cavalry. Freedom had made them heroes. 
 They ran to the charge against the barbarians, and 
 victory flew with them. The astonished satrap 
 thought them mad ; but the Athenian and Plateau 
 wings closed on his host, and drove them with 
 slaughter to the sea. The city of Minerva, exult- 
 ing in tumultuous triumph, received her returning 
 Miltiades, radiant with glory, like a god. Not to 
 her alone had he given freedom, and strength, and 
 prosperity, and dominion ; he had vindicated for 
 countless coming ages the possibility of a higher 
 and purer civilization. Where would have been 
 architecture and sculpture, the miracles of genius of 
 the age of Pericles and Phidias, and all that their 
 divine simplicity has since inspired of the true and 
 the beautiful, if Asia on that day had prevailed over 
 Europe] Where oratory, and the drama'? Where 
 history, and philosophy, and the spirit of freedom 
 that pervaded Greek letters, and from them informed 
 the whole body of Roman literature, and again at 
 
 * Herodotus. Terpsichore, 78. t Herodotus. Erato, 112. 
 
15 
 
 tlie revival of learning kindled in the heart of the 
 modern world the long-forgotten love of liberty 1 
 This is but an imperfect inventory of the richest 
 bequest ever left by any people to the race ; yet 
 this, the heavy levelling wheel of Oriental despot- 
 ism, if it had once passed over it, would have crushed 
 and buried in oblivion. 
 
 Twelve hundred years rolled away after that 
 golden day at Marathon, and again Asia pours 
 into Europe another and fiercer barbaric invasion. 
 Again she threatens to extinguish the flickering 
 torch of science, which, choked by the deadly ex- 
 halations of that more than Egyptian midnight that 
 had settled on the world, threw but a gloomy and 
 uncertain gleam over the ruins, broken and scatter- 
 ed by the destroyers who had swarmed from the 
 northern hive. The disciples of the Arabian proph- 
 et had propagated his religion, and extended the 
 Moslem empire farther in the first century after his 
 decease, than the Roman vultures had flown in the 
 space of eight hundred years. The Koran, the 
 tribute, or the sword, was the alternative which 
 they offered to the vanquished, after their uncount- 
 ed victories. From Damascus, the centre of their 
 power, the Crescent shed disastrous twilight over 
 the nations, for two thousand miles, to Benares and 
 the Ganges, in the east ; as far as across the breadth 
 of Africa, to the pillars of Hercules and the waves of 
 
16 
 
 the Atlantic in the west On the 30th of April, 711, 
 Tariff Ben Zeyad crossed from Ceuta to the coast 
 of Spain, and fortified the rock ever since called, 
 from his name, Gibraltar. So strange was the cos- 
 tume and the bearing of his Mauritanian followers, 
 that they seemed like beings dropped from another 
 world. Tariff burned his ships, and with his scimi- 
 tar opened his way towards Toledo, through a three 
 days sanguinary battle, at Xeres, in which Roderic 
 his royal antagonist was slain ; the degenerate de- 
 scendants of the warriors of the great Euric were 
 routed, and the Gothic monarchy fell, as indeed it 
 deserved to fall. The fanaticism which made the 
 Saracens invincible, had not yet spent its force. 
 Mohammed had promised to the faithful the king- 
 doms of the earth for a possession, and they delay- 
 ed not to enter upon their inheritance. In about 
 twenty years they had subdued all Spain, and half 
 of Gaul, advancing from the rock of Gibraltar, one 
 thousand miles, to the Loire, up the valley of the 
 Rhone and Saone as far as Besan^on, dilapidating 
 churches and monasteries, whose ruins still bear 
 witness to their progress, putting to the sword all 
 who could bear arms, but sparing non-combatants, 
 except the "sworn children of the Devil," as they 
 called the monks, on whom they wreaked the fren- 
 zied hatred of their new born faith. If the Franks 
 should succumb, neither the Lombards, nor the 
 
17 
 
 Greeks, nor any Teutonic or Sclavonic people could 
 hope to present a more effectual resistance. It 
 would then be easy in comparison with what had 
 already been accomplished, to conquer Germany, 
 Italy, and the Greek empire, and return by way of 
 Constantinople to the Euphrates, thus uniting Eu- 
 rope with Asia and Africa under a sceptre mightier 
 than that of Sesostris, or Alexander, or Trajan, or 
 in after times, Napoleon. 
 
 This stupendous enterprise Abdalrahman, Emir 
 of Cordova, had conceived. He gathered the tribes 
 of Yemen and Damascus, Moors, Berbers from be- 
 yond Mount Atlas, on their coursers fleet as the 
 wind, and all the Moslem force of Spain. Un- 
 quenchable was the zeal raging in the breasts of 
 these miscreants, to wash out their sins in the blood 
 of the Christians, and to Avin a seat among the 
 Houries, by chrystal fountains, in the gardens of 
 everlasting bliss. The sword is the key of heaven 
 and hell, said the prophet ; battle is the gate of par- 
 adise. The feet that are covered with dust in the 
 holy war shall never burn in the eternal fire. Say 
 not they die who fall in the holy war : Allah re- 
 ceives them to himself Their wounds shall bloom 
 resplendent as vermillion, redolent with the fra- 
 grance of musk in the day of judgment. These 
 were the promises that lifted their souls above dan- 
 ger, pain, and death ; while the dogmas of a religion 
 3 
 
18 
 
 breathing fire and carnage, urged them on perpet- 
 ually to more distant conquests. They who fall in 
 the holy war at home, says one of their sublime 
 doctors, feel no keener pang in death than the sting 
 of a common ant ; but to them who fall in the holy 
 war over the sea, death has a sensation like cold 
 water mingled with fresh honey, to a traveller per- 
 ishing with thirst, in the middle of a burning desert. 
 
 Abdalrahman led the soldiers of the crescent 
 across the Pyrenees, took and pillaged Bordeaux, 
 and on the banks of the Dordogne encountered 
 Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, whom he overthrew with 
 a loss so terrible, that in the language of the chron- 
 icler, God alone could reckon the number of the 
 slain. Aquitaine and Burgundy were ravaged with- 
 out resistance, and the devastating torrent reached 
 the environs of Tours. The genius and the battle- 
 axe of one man, Karl, Duke of Austrasia, rescued 
 Christendom in this her hour of extreme peril. 
 With his Franks and Gallo-Romans, Karl met the 
 enemies of the cross between Tours and Poictiers, 
 and there decided the eventful controversy between 
 the religion of the Koran and the faith taught in 
 the gospels. 
 
 It was in the month of October, in the year 732, 
 a century complete after the death of Mohammed. 
 The two armies skirmished and manoeuvred seven 
 days, before the signal for the deadly strife was 
 
19 
 
 given ; for each knew the strength of his adversary, 
 and felt that no ordinary interests were staked upon 
 the issue. The Austrasian warriors were drawn up 
 in compact ranks ; their formidable stature, covered 
 with breastplates, and bucklers glittering in the sun, 
 presented as it were a wall of steel, impenetrable to 
 the charge. They awaited with admiration the on- 
 set of that brilliant oriental cavalry ; wild Berbers, 
 shaggy nomades of the desert, and turbanned Arabs, 
 whose polished cuirasses and bright scimitars 
 flashed fire as they pranced over the field. They 
 joined battle early on the morning of Saturday. 
 The column who formed that day the last bulwark 
 of Christendom, stood like a rock of adamant against 
 which the troops of Moslem horse, like successive 
 billows, dashed themselves and were hurled back in 
 confusion. The long and serried pikes resisted ev- 
 ery attack, and the ponderous battle axe of the Ger- 
 mans, the Francisque, shivered the Moorish cui- 
 rasses, and hewed-down squadrons. The earth 
 trembled as, with impetuous valor, the Moorish 
 horse thundered on the Christian phalanx, and were 
 as often repulsed. So all day the doubtful war 
 ebbed and flowed till the shades of night suspended 
 the contest; but not till Abdalrahman and his 
 bravest comrades had fallen beneath the death deal- 
 ing battle-axe. At daylight, on Sunday, the Franks 
 formed, and cautiously approached the Moslem 
 
20 
 
 tents, to complete the ruin of their enemies ; but 
 they found the camp deserted. The survivors of 
 that hard-fought field had fled during the night. 
 Shouts of joy welcomed the discovery. The robbers 
 left behind them the spoils of the cities of the South, 
 and of half the monasteries of France, and the plain 
 so strewed with the dead, that Arab writers call it 
 the pavement of the martyrs. They abandoned 
 Aquitaine forever. Karl and his successors drove 
 them beyond the Pyrenees ; and this was the last 
 attempt to make the Mediterranean a lake for the 
 internal intercourse of the all absorbing Saracen 
 Caliphate. Karl was called Martel, or the hammer, 
 after the victory, because he smote the unbelievers, 
 as Thor the God of his heathen ancestors, smites the 
 rebellious deities with that hammer which is the 
 symbol of the Scandinavian Jove. 
 
 What would have been the fate of France, of Eu- 
 rope, of Christendom, had the keen scimitar of 
 Abdalrahman cloven the head of Karl Martel in 
 the battle of Tours I We may judge, perhaps, by 
 measuring the degradation and the slavery of Egypt, 
 Persia, Syria, and Turkey. Without a special and 
 miraculous interposition, Christianity would have 
 given place to Mohammedanism. No Italian repub- 
 lics would have sprung into life beneath the iron 
 yoke of Caliphs and Emirs. The genius of Italian 
 literature was cradled on the stormy sea of liberty. 
 
21 
 
 The fine arts, througli the whole period of their 
 perfection, were the exponents of Christianity. 
 Where are the Dante, the Ariosto, or the Milton of 
 the Moslem faith 1 Where is the Michael Angelo, 
 or the Raphael, of Bagdad, or of Teheran ■? Where 
 the Handel of Cairo, or Aleppo 1 Poetry is dumb, 
 and music soulless, and painting hath no charm 
 under the brutalizing superstition, into which the 
 doctrine of the Koran, after its first outburst of 
 frantic ferocity, has finally subsided. Strike with 
 such a paralysis the mind of Europe, and the starry 
 Galileo would have lived to other woes than those 
 of too much science. No Vasco would have ex- 
 plored the adventurous passage to the realms of fab- 
 ulous wealth in India or Cathay. No Columbus 
 would have given a new world to Castile and Leon, 
 a refuge for the oppressed, room for disenthralled 
 man to grow to the full stature of intellectual and 
 moral greatness. No Guttemberg would have given 
 to truth the thunder tones with which she shakes 
 the world. The genius of mechanical invention 
 would not have fettered the most potent of the de- 
 mons, steam, chaining him to the wheel, to toil at 
 the task work of many millions, under the super- 
 vision of a few trusty sentinels. Commerce would 
 not have spread her white wings, like an angel of 
 peace, over every ocean ; enriching, enlightening, 
 blessing, wherever she smiles, and brightening daily 
 
every link in the golden chain of universal brother- 
 hood. Abdalrahman had planted himself like a 
 hungry lion in the path of human progress. Karl 
 Martel lifted his stalwart arm, and smote the grim 
 Paynim with his heavy Francisque. The way is 
 open : humanity passes on. 
 
 I have described a crisis, imminent, passing away, 
 and again recurring, in which the mother country 
 of certain new systems of thought waged an exter- 
 minating war against the ideas that were her own 
 offspring. The South Western peninsula of Asia, 
 enclosed by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the 
 Euxine, and the Caspian, with a slight auxiliary in- 
 fluence from Egypt, is the source whence flowed 
 into Europe all the notions, social, political, relig- 
 ious, which she has received from abroad for more 
 than three thousand years. The seeds of Greek 
 science were confessed by the Greeks to have been 
 imported, but they germinated rapidly and flourished 
 more luxuriantly than in their native soil. When 
 the Great King ordered his satraps to root out the 
 plant, all the nations of the mother country of 
 science followed in their train to enforce the sen- 
 tence. God be thanked that sooner or later comes 
 a day of emancipation from mother countries. The 
 mind of Greece was free, and had been from her in- 
 fancy. A few reluctant states yielded the tribute 
 demanded ; but the little republics scattered along 
 
23 
 
 the coast, who, " with sunny scorn," flung defiance 
 at the feet of the monarch, were strong enough to 
 withstand and ultimately to shatter the great em- 
 pire of the age. 
 
 Greek freedom thus secured, Greek civilization 
 soon culminated. It did a great work ; but, in its 
 best estate, it was far from sufficing for the wants of 
 man. There was needed a system less selfish, more 
 spiritual ; rules and principles of action for a loftier 
 standard of human duty than even the sublimest 
 morality of the Greek philosophers ; afi"ections more 
 comprehensive than the narrow patriotism of a 
 Greek city. 
 
 The same Asiatic peninsula supplied these wants. 
 It sent forth into a world benighted in idolatry, the 
 sacred volume of Hebrew literature, impressed on 
 every page, blazing in characters of living light, 
 with the great central truth of all later faiths and 
 revelations, the Unity of the Divine Being. 
 This idea informed thinking minds, and penetrated 
 the frame work of society, to a much greater depth 
 than is commonly supposed, before the Christian 
 era. But it is not to be found in Europe until it 
 has circulated for some centuries in Asia. The 
 laws and records of Moses, himself of an Asiatic 
 race, educated in Egypt, were reduced to writing 
 in the Arabian desert, and promulgated among the 
 inhabitants of a corner of Syria, ages before the light 
 
24 
 
 of this truth shone on Europe ; and though the 
 Jewish local and ritual laws made but few converts 
 beyond their own tribes, yet the transforming fact, 
 that there is one Creator, Preserver and Judge, must 
 have disseminated itself among candid inquirers 
 wherever the genius of emigration impelled that 
 restless people. Then issued from Palestine that 
 mission of mercy which taught men that they were 
 children of one father, and heirs of one destiny. 
 Through the broad Roman empire it vindicated its 
 triumphant progress, consoling the slaves of the 
 Neros and Caracallas, breathing life into the bosom 
 of despair, cheering with immortal hope the habita- 
 tions of the dark places of the earth, which were 
 full of cruelty. 
 
 After six hundred years the mother country of 
 the Jewish and Christian religions had apostatized 
 from the worship of the Prmce of Peace, and obeyed 
 the apostles of that prophet who was called the Son 
 of the Sword. Then rushed the frenzied fanatics of 
 Arabia, Persia, Syria, what is now Turkey, and 
 Egypt, across Christian Africa, blotting out from 
 her history thenceforth the faith, and the very name 
 of Christ, and with the same fell purpose upon Eu- 
 rope, hurried on that terrible irruption which pen- 
 etrated a thousand miles, to be wrecked upon the 
 heavy shields and firm set pikes of the Pranks be- 
 fore Tours. 
 
25 
 
 Another thousand years rolled on, and again 
 transplanted principles have taken deepi root, and 
 blossomed luxuriantly, and again the arm that 
 planted is stretched forth to eradicate them. Of 
 these, one is democratic freedom; which, nourished 
 in a propitious soil, had shot up vigorously. Its 
 boughs spread wide, and made a goodly shadow ; 
 its leaves were for the healing of the nations. The 
 inhabitants of the land rejoiced in its shelter and 
 fruit. The inhabitants of other lands hailed its 
 glorious promise, and longed for that blessed shelter 
 to reach their borders. Britain, fair mother of a 
 hundred states, — -Jilia pulchrior, — is the mother of 
 one far excelling her own matronly beauty ; and the 
 anticipated rivalry of the daughter, with all the light 
 and life of youth to witch a wondering world, could 
 not fail to arouse the jealousy of a parent unwilling 
 to fancy that she must ever cease to reign supreme 
 in the admiration of all beholders. 
 
 Great Britain had elaborated, through wars of 
 barons against the crown, and matured and per- 
 fected, through the reciprocating motion of rebellion 
 on one side, and the headsman's axe on the other, a 
 superior form of aristocratic liberty. When she 
 had done this, she had accomplished her mission. 
 The incubus of Conservatism palsied her endeavors 
 after anything better. A regenerating revolution 
 convulsed one whole generation of the people of 
 4 
 
26 
 
 that island. It tantalized them with rainbow prom- 
 ises ; yielded nothing but the bitterness of hope de- 
 ferred, and at last turned and went backward : thick 
 brooding darkness settled on the prospects of pop- 
 ular freedom. The fellow-patriots of Hampden, 
 and the fellow-soldiers of Cromwell, who gave to 
 England all the liberty she yet enjoys, beyond mere 
 feudal privileges, disappointed in the reformation of 
 church and state for which they had risked their 
 lives, left behind them, not their mother country 
 only, but abuses too inveterate to be redressed ; her 
 institutions incurably vicious, which sacrificed the 
 general welfare to the interest or caprice of the few. 
 They followed into this new world wilderness the 
 pilgrim pioneers, never doubting that they should 
 realize here the beatific vision which still reigned 
 in their hearts, though it had mocked so often their 
 fond, impatient expectations, the Christian Com- 
 monwealth, — " the holy city coming down from God 
 out of heaven, beautiful as a bride adorned for her 
 husband."^ They brought with them the doctrines 
 that the people are the source of power, and cannot 
 be taxed without their own consent, and that the 
 private Christian is amenable only to his own con- 
 science, and his Maker, for his worship and his 
 faith. They brought with them equality, self-re- 
 spect, self-control, fraternity ; and that which guar- 
 
 1 Dr. Cooper's sermon on the commencement of the Constitution, Oct. 25th, 1780. 
 
anteed all these, courage hardened in. adversity, 
 and the Puritan spirit of resistance against every 
 encroachment on their rights. 
 
 For more than a century and a half after the ar- 
 rival of the Mayflower, the little democratic com- 
 munities, the towns of New England, had been 
 schools of mutual instruction in individual freedom 
 and local independence. Long and desperate strug- 
 gles with the savages and the French had made the 
 colonists self-reliant. The management of their 
 common colonial afi'airs, and the discussions in their 
 representative assemblies, had given them adminis- 
 trative experience, and developed the instinct of or- 
 ganization, and legislative capacity. Upon the dis- 
 solution of the political bands which united them 
 to Great Britain, they could trust confidently not to 
 fall into anarchy, but to enter upon a new career of 
 regulated liberty as free and independent states. 
 To this however they did not aspire, until the usur- 
 pation, by the mother country, of their acknowledged 
 rights as Englishmen, forced upon them the alterna- 
 tive of political slavery, or national independence. 
 
 France had been driven from the North American 
 continent, and the Indians on this side of the Al- 
 leghanies had ceased to be formidable, before Great 
 Britain began to regard the colonies as a magnifi- 
 cent field whence to reap a future harvest of re- 
 venue. The opportunity was too tempting, the an- 
 
28 
 
 ticipated plunder too vast for ministerial virtue, 
 when Boston could truly boast that its own trade 
 had done much to raise the British empire to its ex- 
 isting height of opulence and splendor/ and when 
 Burke could demonstrate to the commons of the 
 realm, that the colonies furnished already a full 
 moiety of the wealth which commerce poured into the 
 coffers of the haughty mistress of the seas.^ It is 
 no wonder then that the British government, feeling 
 power and forgetting right, would not relinquish 
 without a struggle her attempt to impose the bur- 
 den of unconstitutional taxation upon the Colonies. 
 Nor is it extraordinary, when we consider the ma- 
 terial out of which the rising states were built up, 
 that the attempt should have met every where re- 
 newed and obstinate resistance, and should have ul- 
 timately miscarried. The rash financial empiricism 
 of Lord North and his besotted master, the arbitrary 
 coercive acts of parliament, and the bayonets of 
 Gage had encountered the indomitable steadfastness 
 of the Puritan stock, too stubborn to bend under 
 the heaviest pressure of tyranny. 
 
 The lofty and vehement eloquence of James Otis, 
 vivid as that electric fire which summoned his 
 troubled soul to its final peace, had kindled in every 
 breast the genial flame of liberty. The Junius Bru- 
 
 » Vote of Boston, May 18, 1774. 
 
 * Speech on Conciliation, March 22, 1775. 
 
29 
 
 tus of our history, that sturdy and incorruptible 
 Puritan, Samuel Adams, not over well supplied with 
 funds, but richer than king George and all his min- 
 ions, — ^for there was not gold enough in the British 
 empire to buy him, — ^had awakened the great heart 
 of the democracy of this continent, and made it 
 throb responsive to his own. For his transparent 
 integrity and self-denying virtue, for his sound 
 judgment and manly energy, they loved and trusted, 
 respected and followed him. The merchant prince, 
 Johti Hancock, rallied the classes, whose pursuits 
 depended on commerce, fiercely indignant at the 
 shackles which the genius of monopoly, stretching 
 her leaden sceptre three thousand miles across the 
 ocean, had imposed upon their industry. The ma- 
 jestic dignity and lion port with which John Adams 
 confronted power, wielding in his country's cause 
 the weapons of an oratory like that, which 
 
 " Shook the arsenal and fulmined over Greece, 
 To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne," 
 
 riving, with the thunderbolts of his genius, the mis- 
 erable sophistries of the apologists of tyranny, in- 
 spired with his own confidence, and firm resolve, his 
 admiring countrymen. The chivalrous Warren, the 
 most illustrious of the proto-martyrs, whose souls 
 cried from beneath the altar, how long! until 
 America had declared, and consummated, and se- 
 
.^0 
 
 cured her Independence ; he who watered with his 
 blood the monumental heights where yonder shaft 
 bears eternal witness to the high tragedy enacted at 
 its base, was instant in season and out of season, to 
 rouse, inform, combine, confirm the patriots on 
 whom devolved the giant work of revolution. His 
 fervid ardor awoke dormant enthusiasm, and breathed 
 new life into flagging zeal exhausted by efforts be- 
 yond its nature to sustain, — " the fiery virtue roused, 
 from under ashes, into sudden flame," — and fanned 
 the rising conflagration, none more indefatigably, 
 none more successfully. 
 
 The determined posture which, under the gui- 
 dance of these worthies, the country had assumed, 
 was not without well wishers on the other side of 
 the Atlantic. The oppressed of other lands watched 
 for the halting of the tyrant ; for they knew that 
 conquest over us would rivet their chains; while 
 our successful repulse of the impending invasion, 
 and vindication of our birthright from aggression, 
 would light up for them, as it were, a pillar of fire 
 by night, to lead them through darkness out of 
 bondage. Far-seeing men, themselves placed by 
 the accidents of rank or fortune above subjection 
 to the immediate and personal evils of misgovern^ 
 ment, no less looked anxiously for the triumph of 
 principles fraught with the redemption of humanity 
 from the accumulated wrongs and miseries of ages. 
 
31 
 
 The pliilosopliic monarch of Prussia, the great 
 Frederic, left behind him the record of his approba- 
 tion of the first movement towards the extermina- 
 tion of kingcraft ; a movement, all the ultimate 
 consequences of which, he probably had not esti- 
 mated. Holland and France sympathized deeply 
 with us, as the event afterwards proved. Ireland, 
 from her rack of never-ending torture, sent up to 
 heaven in our behalf her heartfelt intercessions. 
 Even in England, philosophy and liberality, and 
 whatever elements of freedom the British constitu- 
 tion contained, were all enlisted in the cause of the 
 colonies. In the Commons house of Parliament, 
 Burke, and Barre, and Fox, the wisdom, and wit, 
 and genius of that awful assemblage, waged inces- 
 sant war, for us, against the creatures of executive 
 misrule ; and night after night, advanced, like a 
 forlorn hope, to storm the impregnable ministerial 
 benches. Even among the Lords, talent was on 
 our side. Chatham was not the only peer who re- 
 joiced that America had resisted: ^ and the duke of 
 Grafton, abandoning the administration, wrote to 
 Lord North, that, " the inclinations of the majority 
 of persons of respectability and property in England, 
 differed in little else than words, from the declara- 
 tions of the Congress." After the sword was drawn, 
 and the contest waxed hot, the choicest spirits of 
 
 1 January 14th, 1766. Pitt in the House of Commons. 
 
32 
 
 Europe rushed to engage in it. The soil which 
 they fought to emancipate, covers the bones of Pu- 
 laski and De Kalb. Kosciusko served here his ap- 
 prenticeship to freedom ; in whose name he defied 
 death when slaughter revelled over the ruins of 
 Warsaw. The early friend of Washington, the 
 adopted child of America, the apostle of universal 
 liberty, the lamented of both worlds, the great and 
 good Lafayette, breaking from the lap of prosperity, 
 and deserting the home of domestic felicity, spurn- 
 ing all obstacles, and breasting every danger, in 
 the bloom of youth devoted himself like Hannibal, 
 and swore upon the altar of human rights eternal 
 hatred to every form of tyranny. 
 
 With such leaders at home, and such friends 
 abroad, the disparity was still fearful between the 
 parties ranged in arms. Massachusetts, before the 
 colossal proportions of the parent state, showed like 
 the youthful champion of Israel arrayed against the 
 Philistine of Gath ; yet the stripling defied the 
 giant. It is the first colUsion between the hostile 
 powers, absolutism on the one side, liberty on the 
 other, the spirit of the past and the spirit of the 
 future, that we have this day met to commemo- 
 rate, — a custom honored in the observance and de- 
 serving to be perpetuated. 
 
 If those who live under governments in which 
 the subjects have no share, can feel a patriotic in- 
 
33 
 
 terest in the commemoration of the victories that 
 have illumined their annals, much more may we, a 
 self-governing, sovereign people, exult in our joint 
 inheritance of joy and pride. If the battles, in 
 which the selfish ambition of rivals for power has 
 deluged every corner of the earth in fraternal blood, 
 are held in everlasting remembrance by the pos- 
 terity of the victors, to keep alive the national spirit 
 and to nourish that enthusiasm, which, blind and 
 preposterous as it may sometimes be, is yet the 
 strongest safeguard of a nation's honor, union, and 
 independence, how much rather should we embalm 
 in our hearts an act of self-sacrificing devotion, un- 
 sullied with any mixture of sordid interest, — an act 
 which stands, and must forever stand, alone, in its 
 original, unapproachable sublimity ! The blasts 
 which have rung loudest and most frequent from 
 the trumpet of fame, have ever pealed in honor of 
 mere vulgar slaughters, — an unavailing and a lavish 
 waste of life, over which pure philanthropy could 
 only weep. How delightful is the contrast of our 
 American jubilees, when our grateful anthems as- 
 cend in devout thanksgivings to Him who inspired 
 the founders of American independence to erect for 
 themselves that ever-during monument, — a work 
 which, as it had no model, though it may be often 
 imitated, will have no equal, forever peerless in its 
 solitary grandeur. 
 5 
 
34 
 
 If there be any event in the history of the world, 
 that any nation is called upon to celebrate, the birth 
 day of a free and mighty empire presents the strong- 
 est claim to this distinction. " Oh, what a glorious 
 morning is this !" was the memorable exclamation 
 of Samuel Adams, while, as himself, and his brother 
 in proscription as well as in patriotism, John Han- 
 cock, in their concealment anxiously awaited the 
 event of the well known enterprise of British con- 
 fidence, volley after volley of distant musketry 
 broke upon the ear, and told but too plainly that 
 the vengeance of the mightiest empire in the world 
 was let loose upon her feeble colony of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay. It was the exclamation of more 
 than Roman patriotism ; it expressed the stern joy 
 springing from a higher feeling, — an unshaken trust 
 in that overruling Justice to which Pagan Home 
 could only look up with dim and doubtful hope. 
 
 Was the dawn of the 19th of April, 1775, a glo- 
 rious morning'? He, whose heart pronounced it 
 glorious, knew that it was the moment of a great 
 crime. British subjects were murdered by British 
 arms. Even while he spoke, the story was all too 
 audible, that the brother was imbruing his hands 
 in the blood of the brother. The first martyrs in a 
 holy cause, choice spirits of the youthful yeomanry 
 of Middlesex and Essex, on that day rendered in 
 
85 
 
 their testimony. The deeds of that day gave earn- 
 est, which the issue did not falsify, that 
 
 " British fury, rankling for revenge, 
 With Ate at her side, come hot from hell, 
 Should, in our confines, with a monarch's voice, 
 Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war." 
 
 Not war only, oh my friends, with whose fell 
 visage they had grown familiar from their child- 
 hood, threatened our fathers ; not French or Indian 
 hostilities, for which they could with composure 
 make ready preparation; but war in a new and 
 more fearful character, civil war, the direst scourge 
 that ever tormented long-suffering humanity. Yes, 
 in the first shot fired at Lexington they recognized 
 the promise, how truly fulfilled, that British wrath, 
 in desolation, blood, and fire, should sweep the vast 
 continent from Maine to Georgia. 
 
 "Why then was the morning of the first banquet 
 of civil slaughter a glorious morning ? What were 
 the omens that could brighten this gloomy future 1 
 What rapturous vision of reward tempted them to 
 wade cheerfully through that sea of blood into 
 which they that day stepped exulting 1 AVere they 
 courting fame, or power, or wealth, or popularity, 
 for themselves, and willing to pave the way to their 
 purpose with the myriads of heads that must be 
 laid in the dusf? Were they conjuring up the 
 spirit of a terrible revolution, that they might ride 
 
36 
 
 in the whirlwind and direct the storm it would 
 create 1 Nothing of all this found any place among 
 their motives. They did not belong to that class 
 of men concerning whom it is necessary to inquire 
 what profit recommends their acts of virtue. 
 
 They were never trained to pace in trammels, nor 
 tempted by the sweets of preferment to sacrifice 
 freedom to the servile restraints of ambition, and, 
 from this circumstance, could feel a comfort which 
 no external honors could bestow. Hancock and 
 Adams belonged to the class of Plutarch's men,— 
 the higher order of politicians described by Lord 
 Bacon ; their minds " endued with a true sense of 
 the frailty of their persons, the casualty of their for- 
 tunes, and the dignity of their soul and vocation ; 
 so that it is impossible for them to esteem that any 
 greatness of their own fortune can be a true or 
 worthy end of their being and ordainment, and 
 therefore are desirous to give their account to God, 
 and so likewise to their masters under God, the 
 states that they serve, not as unprofitable servants; 
 whereas, the corrupter sort of mere politicians, that 
 have not their thoughts established in the love and 
 apprehension of duty, nor ever look abroad into 
 universality, do refer all things to themselves, and 
 thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as 
 if all lines should meet in them and their fortunes, 
 never caring, in all tempests, what becomes of the 
 
37 
 
 ship of state, so they may save themselves in the 
 cockboat of their own fortunes ; whereas, men that 
 feel the weight of duty, and know the limits of 
 self-love, use to make good their places and duties 
 though with peril." 
 
 The zeal of these two pioneers of the revolution 
 was disinterested, for the rebellion put all to hazard 
 that they had or might expect. A lucrative com- 
 merce annihilated, the sources of Hancock's income 
 were largely cut off; in the defeat of the colonists, 
 the confiscation of his estates must have followed ; 
 and even to their success, his destruction seemed at 
 one time to be necessary. When it was contem- 
 plated to bombard Boston during the seige, he 
 cheered on the attempt, though it would reduce his 
 property to ashes. Neutrality in the contest that 
 was coming on would have replenished the coffers 
 of Samuel Adams; but he was as inaccessible to 
 seduction as Phocion or Aristides, and lived and 
 died in honorable duty. 
 
 If popularity, fame, or influence, had charms for 
 these daring rebels, a safe and easy path was open 
 before them. The lavish munificence of Hancock's 
 private life, his hospitality, free as the air and lib- 
 eral as the sun, his affability in social intercourse 
 and the urbanity of his carriage, fitted him to be 
 a universal favorite ; and, with his facility in busi- 
 ness and knowledge of character, if joined to the 
 
38 
 
 favor of the government, must have formed a most 
 powerful combination. The unostentatious habits, 
 unbending austerity, and indefatigable activity of 
 Samuel Adams, could not fail to command respect 
 and influence, upon different but no less certain 
 principles. Office was within his reach, if he had 
 deigned to accept it; but Gov. Hutchinson, in a 
 letter, has told us why he was not silenced by 
 it : — " Such is the obstinacy and inflexible disposi- 
 tion of the man," said his excellency, " that he 
 never can be conciliated by any office or gift what- 
 ever," — a tribute characteristic of him who had 
 maintained, on receiving his second degree at Har- 
 vard, in 1743, that it was " lawful to resist the 
 supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot 
 be otherwise preserved," with the same sincere zeal 
 with which he practiced the thesis. When Gen. 
 Gage, after the battle, offered a pardon to all the 
 other rebels, they had the honor to be the two sole 
 exceptions, their offences being " of too flagitious a 
 nature to admit of any other consideration than 
 that of condign punishment." 
 
 The prospect before Hancock and Adams, on the 
 ever-glorious nineteenth of April, was, to be soon 
 proclaimed traitors ; and if the giant despotism 
 they had provoked crushed the incipient rebellion, 
 as the world looking on expected, that then their 
 ghastly heads would frown from Temple bar, and 
 
39 
 
 their blasted names be bequeathed to eternal in- 
 famy, both in the old world and the new, — trium- 
 phant tyranny having silenced the voice of truth, 
 justice, and patriotism. The " condign punishment" 
 denounced against these champions of the constitu- 
 tional rights of Englishmen involved atrocities too 
 horrible to be alluded to here -^ it was an exhibi- 
 tion from which a heathen spectator might natu- 
 rally infer, that, not the dove, but the vulture, was 
 the emblem of Christianity. It had been first in- 
 flicted on an unfortunate patriot guilty of the pre- 
 cise crime of Hancock and Adams, David, Prince 
 of Wales, who, in the eleventh year of Edward I, 
 expiated, by a cruel death, his fidelity to the cause 
 of his country's independence. At a grand consul- 
 tation of peers of the realm it was agreed that 
 London should be graced with his head, while York 
 and Winchester disputed for the honor of his right 
 shoulder. In a few years, other Welsh chiefs suf- 
 fered the fate of their prince. This unseemly pre- 
 cedent, adopted in the flush and insolence of vic- 
 tory, then assumed the venerable form of law, and 
 fell next upon the undaunted William Wallace, 
 who nobly died in defence of the liberties and inde- 
 pendence of his country, exhibiting to the delighted 
 city of London a terrible example of Edward's ven- 
 
 1 " Accursed be the faggots that blaze at his feet, 
 
 Where his heart shall be thrown, e'er it ceases to beat, 
 With the smoke of its ashes to poison the gale." 
 
40 
 
 geance. Such was the beginning of that law of 
 treason, which, originating in the year 1283, con- 
 tinned in force for more than five centuries, as if to 
 warn mankind how easily the most execrable exam- 
 ple may be introduced, and with what difficulty a 
 country is purified from its debasing influence. 
 Why should I single out illustrious victims of these 
 rites of Moloch/? The ever-hallowed names in 
 the perennial pages of British glory, you may read 
 them in the attainted catalogue of arrant traitors. 
 Long after the ashes of Welch independence were 
 quenched in the blood of a native prince, ages after 
 the spirit of Scottish liberty was roused, not crushed, 
 by the ignominious butchery of Wallace ; More 
 and Fisher, learning and piety, Russell and Sidney, 
 integrity and honor, were sacrificed upon the scaf- 
 fold of treason, beneath the axe of arbitrary power. 
 These lessons of history might have taught our 
 Hancock and Adams, that the holy cause to which 
 they were devoted, purity of motive, and a charac- 
 ter untouched by any shaft of calumny, were not 
 pleas in bar to a British indictment for treason. 
 
 Why, then, we may well ask again, was the pros- 
 pect of coming perils glorious to the eye of far- 
 seeing patriotism ? For the high prize that could 
 be won by none but souls tempered to pass through 
 the intervening agony ; who, for the joy that was 
 set before them, could endure the cross and despise 
 
41 
 
 the shame, — Liberty, the life of life, that gladdens 
 the barren hill-tops of Scotland and Switzerland, 
 and loved New England ; that makes the sun shine 
 brightly in our cold northern sky ; that makes the 
 valleys verdant in blithesome spring, and sober au- 
 tumn laugh in her golden exuberance ; that nerves 
 the arm of labor, and blesses the couch of repose ; 
 that clothes with strength our sons, and our daugh- 
 ters with beauty, — Liberty, in whose devotion they 
 were nursed ; which their fathers had bequeathed 
 to them, a legacy to be handed down unimpaired, 
 through ourselves, to their and our latest posterity ; 
 to which they clung through life, and which in- 
 spired the patriotism that could freely testify, to die. 
 for one's country is a joy and a glory. ^ 
 
 Young freedom had ever been consecrated by the 
 baptism of blood. Sparta and Athens, Holland 
 and the mountain-girt Swiss, proud Albion and re- 
 generated France, bought at a cheap purchase, with 
 the lavish expense of their best lives, the rights 
 which they enjoyed. Adams and his compatriots, 
 on the day we have met to celebrate, knew that 
 liberty must be, as it ever had been, a life-bought 
 boon ; that only by a mortal struggle could it be 
 wrested from the grasp of power ; and that nothing 
 but perpetual vigilance, resolved to do, and dare, 
 and suffer all things, rather than surrender it, could 
 
 1 " Dulce et decorum est pro palria mori." — Warren in answer to Gerry. 
 
43 
 
 guarantee the long possession of the blessing after- 
 wards. They had counted the cost, and chose the 
 purchase. 
 
 Glorious, thrice glorious was the morning, then, 
 when the first shot fired at Lexington gave the 
 signal of separation, of a free and independent em- 
 pire, from its parent state. The nineteenth of April, 
 and the seventeenth of June, both on the classic 
 ground of the world's freedom, this County of Mid- 
 dlesex, cut out the work for the fourth of July, — 
 world-emancipating work, — which the achievements 
 of the heroes of the uprising of America, and the 
 Titanic labors of the transatlantic sons of revolution, 
 yet agitate and roll on towards its grand comple- 
 tion. Middlesex possesses this imperishable glory, 
 before which the lustre of the brightest victories, 
 won in battles between contending tyrants, turns 
 pale. Her children claim a common property in 
 the trophies of these two memorable days ; they 
 walk together in the light of these two glowing 
 beacon-fires, kindled on that stormy coast where 
 liberty has taken up her eternal abode, to illumi- 
 nate, with the cheering radiance of hope, her be- 
 nighted pilgrims, who can look nowhere else for 
 hope but to this western world. 
 
 In her affluence of glory, Middlesex can afford to 
 be generous. She would not monopolize with local 
 jealousy the fame of the great deeds that astonished 
 
and startled the repose of the age of Hancock and 
 Adams, and ushered in the stupendous changes of 
 the era of Mirabeau and Napoleon. In that inheri- 
 tance of glorious recollections, garnered up by our 
 revolutionary fathers, of which Massachusetts en- 
 joys the undisputed possession, the three Northeast- 
 ern Counties claim each a peculiar share. 
 
 It was Boston that thwarted the scheme of colo- 
 nial taxation, under the guise of commercial regula- 
 tions, when she hurled into the sea the intended 
 instrument of her slavery. It was Boston, whose 
 streets were stained with massacre, making every 
 ear that heard it, tingle, but never shaking her un- 
 conquerable constancy. It was Boston that espe- 
 cially provoked ministerial anger, and was early 
 marked out for signal retribution. It was the bugle- 
 blast of Boston patriotism that awoke the sympa- 
 thies of the distant colonies, and was answered by 
 the thunders of British vengeance. While smart- 
 ing under the blow aimed at her prosperity, not for 
 a moment did she cease to animate her friends and 
 her neighbors to resistance. 
 
 After the collision, which extinguished the last 
 lingering hope of a reconciliation, the County of 
 Essex, essentially maritime in her habits, launched 
 her thunderbolts over the deep, and trailed the flag, 
 that for a thousand years had braved the battle 
 and the breeze, ignominiously on many a conquered 
 
44 
 
 deck, whence went up the pine-tree flag of the 
 rebels m token of victory. 
 
 The first flag, under the continental authority, 
 that ever floated at an American mast-head, in defi- 
 ance of British supremacy, was hoisted on board 
 the Hannah, from Beverly. The first commander 
 who, under Washington's commission, threw down 
 the gauntlet of maritime warfare, was Capt. Manly, 
 of Marblehead. The first of our naval heroes, who, 
 with the words, " don't give up the ship !" upon his 
 dying lips, fell, not m defeat, but in the arms of 
 victory, was Capt. Mugford, of Marblehead.^ The 
 first highly valuable prize, of all the vast prey 
 snatched from the enemy by our cruisers, was the 
 ordnance Brig Nancy, carried into Gloucester, and 
 containing a most seasonable supply of arms and 
 ammunition. From this small beginning grew up 
 that formidable naval strength which wrestled with 
 the power hitherto deemed invincible on the ocean, 
 and came out of that desperate struggle not without 
 laurels. The harbors of Salem, Marblehead, and 
 Beverly, swarmed with private-armed vessels, and 
 were crowded with prizes. The same hardy fisher- 
 men of the seaports of Essex, driven from the theatre 
 of their adventurous industry by the breaking out 
 of hostilities, trod the decks of these little wanderers 
 of the sea, who afterwards manned the Constitu- 
 
 1 May 19th, 1775. 
 
45 
 
 tioii in the second war of independence, when St. 
 George's cross went down before the stars and 
 stripes. 
 
 But it is to the County of Middlesex that the 
 tribes of our American Israel come up to keep holy 
 time. The Mecca and Medina of the advent of 
 freedom are within her borders. Lexington, whose 
 echoes answered to the signal gun that broke the 
 centennial slumbers of the Genius of revolution, to 
 sleep no more till he has trampled on the fetters 
 of the last slave, and wrapped in consuming flames 
 the last throne; to overturn, and overturn, and 
 overturn, until he shall make an end ; — Concord, 
 that saw the insulting foe driven back in dire con- 
 fusion before the children of liberty, as the cloud 
 squadrons of some threatening thunder storm melt 
 and disperse when the full-orbed sun bursts through 
 and overpowers them ; — Acton, whose Spartan band 
 of minute-men withstood the onset, and returned 
 the fire of the minions of the tyrant ; whose gallant 
 Davis poured out his soul freely in his country's 
 cause, at the moment when the tide of foreign 
 aggression ebbed, at the moment when the begin- 
 ning of the onward movement of his country's lib- 
 erty, independence, greatness, and glory, by his 
 judgment, promptness, and valor, was secured; — ■ 
 Charlestown, the smoke of whose sacrifice mingled 
 with the roar of the murderous artillery, while a 
 
46 
 
 holocaust of victims and the apotheosis of Warren 
 consecrated her mount as the thrice holy spot of all 
 New England's hallowed soil; — Cambridge, the head 
 quarters of the hero, after whom the age of transi- 
 tion from monarchies to republics will be called the 
 age of Washington ; — in these, your towns, are the 
 several peculiar shrines of the worship of constitu- 
 tional liberty that have made the American conti- 
 nent not barren of historical monumental scenes. 
 Where else, in the circuit of the revolving globe, 
 does the sun look on such a clustered group of 
 glories "? 
 
 Lexington, Concord, Acton, Charlestown, Cam- 
 bridge, each has its blazoned page in the records 
 of fame ; but, gentlemen, we have gathered from 
 our several homes at the pomt which marks the 
 crisis in the immortal epos. It was here that re- 
 publican energy said to foreign usurpation, thus 
 far shalt thou go, but no further, and here shall 
 thy proud waves be stayed. The site of the old 
 North Bridge at Concord, is the pivot on which the 
 history of the world turns. The volley fired for 
 freedom there, reverberated through a series of 
 revolutions. The rout which then begun, was but 
 the beginning of the disasters and retreats of des- 
 potism not yet ended. Before the first shot had 
 been fired that morning to repulse the regulars, 
 self-government was a dream ; since that moment it 
 
47 
 
 has grown to be a fact fixed as the everlastmg hills. 
 The transactions of that day of destiny, three-quar- 
 ters of a century ago, are too familiar to you all to 
 be rehearsed again on this occasion. You will par- 
 don me, if I rather, after succinctly stating the 
 event, return to those general considerations which 
 seem to be appropriate to the place and day. 
 
 The Boston Port Bill took effect June 1st, 17T4. 
 It prostrated the flourishing commerce of that town 
 and occasioned great distress. It was intended to 
 punish the destruction of the tea, and other mani- 
 festations of the rebellious temper of the New Eng- 
 land metropolis, and was followed by the landing 
 of several additional regiments to enforce the sub- 
 mission of the colonies to the obnoxious acts of 
 parliament. Government hardly anticipated any 
 serious opposition after this demonstration. They 
 sadly underrated the persevering courage of our 
 countrymen. An officer wrote home from Boston, 
 in November, 1774, "Whenever it comes to blows, 
 he that can run the fastest will think himself best 
 off ; any two regiments here ought to be decimated, 
 if they did not beat, in the field, the whole force of 
 the Massachusetts province." As late as the six- 
 teenth of March, 1775, Earl Sandwich told an 
 apochryphal story, in the house of lords, of the 
 cowardice of the Americans at Louisburg, and ad- 
 ded, " They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men. 
 
48 
 
 I wish, instead of forty or fifty thousand of these 
 brave fellows, they would produce in the field at 
 least two hundred thousand ; the more the better, 
 the easier would be the conquest ; if they did not 
 run away, they would starve themselves into com- 
 pliance with our measures." ^ When the test came, 
 the feats of running were upon the other side ; and 
 the nearest approach to starvation was experienced 
 within the lines of beleaguered Boston rather than 
 without. 
 
 Notwithstanding this overweening confidence of 
 the ministry, Gage, who had fought by the side of 
 provincial troops in Braddock's expedition, could 
 not disguise from himself that a " bloody crisis" was 
 at hand, and wrote home to his employers, that " a 
 very respectable force should take the field." The 
 possession of arms and ammunition was, of course, 
 essential to the plans of the colonists, and to de- 
 prive them of the material of war was equally an 
 object of the first importance with Gen. Gage. On 
 the first of September, he caused to be carried ofi^, 
 from the magazine at Quarry Hill, in Charlestown, 
 two hundred and fifty half barrels of powder, be- 
 longing to the provincials, and two field-pieces from 
 Cambridge. This proceeding excited great indigna- 
 tion. The patriots conveyed, secretly and by night, 
 
 1 Debate on the bill for restraining' the trade and commerce of the New England 
 colonies. 
 
49 
 
 muskets and cannon out of Boston, and from an 
 old battery at Chaiiestown, and made every effort 
 to secure their stores. Sunday, February twenty- 
 sixth, Col. Leslie was sent to Salem to seize some 
 brass cannon, but was thwarted by the hoisting of 
 the North Bridge, and the sudden assembling of 
 the people. On the eighteenth of March, the Bos- 
 ton Neck Guard seized 13,425 cartridges, and a 
 quantity of ball, which the patriots were transport- 
 ing into the country. 
 
 At Concord, where the provincial congress sat, 
 from the twenty-second of March to the fifteenth 
 of April, a large quantity of military stores had 
 been collected, which Gen. Gage, in pursuance of 
 his settled policy, determined to destroy. He sent 
 out officers to reconnoitre the roads, and endeavored 
 to intercept all information of his designs on its 
 way into the country; and, on the night of the 
 eighteenth of April, at half-past ten, despatched 
 eight hundred men, by way of Lechmere's Point, 
 through West Cambridge and Lexington, to Con- 
 cord. A lanthorn in the North Church steeple 
 alarmed the country, and, by midnight. Col. Paul 
 Revere had carried the news to Hancock and Ad- 
 ams at the Eev. Jonas Clark's house in Lexington. 
 The commanding officer learned, by the sound of 
 guns and bells, that his silent march had been be- 
 trayed, and that the country was rising round him. 
 7 
 
50 
 
 He sent back to Boston for a reinforcement, and 
 at the same time pushed forward six companies of 
 light infantry, under Major Pitcairn, to seize the 
 Concord Bridges. This detachment found at Lex- 
 ington, a little before five in the morning, Capt. 
 Parker's company of militia, just to the north of 
 the meeting-house, numbering sixty or seventy. 
 Pitcairn ordered them to throw down their arms 
 and disperse ; but the order was not instantly 
 obeyed, and the king's troops rushed on them? 
 shouting and firmg. Eight patriots were killed and 
 ten wounded. Jonas Parker, and some others, re- 
 turned the fire; the militia retreated in disorder. 
 The British gave " three huzzas by way of triumph, 
 and as expressive of the joy of victory and the 
 glory of conquest," ^ and after about twenty min- 
 utes' halt, during which the light infantry came up, 
 the whole force moved on to Concord, and reached 
 it at about seven o'clock. The militia collected 
 there, retired before their superior numbers ; the 
 grenadiers and part of the light infantry remained 
 in the centre of the town; a party secured the 
 South Bridge, and Capt. Laurie, with about a hun- 
 dred light infantry, guarded the North Bridge, while 
 Capt. Parsons, with about the same number, passed 
 about two miles beyond it, to destroy the stores at 
 Col. Barrett's. A portion of these had been removed 
 
 • Clark's Account, April 19th, 1776. 
 
51 
 
 and were saved. In the mean time, tlie tocsin 
 sounded far and wide, and the minnte-men hurried 
 from all the towns around to the help of their 
 brethren in peril. By Col. Barrett's direction, they 
 were formed on the high grounds about a mile from 
 the North Bridge, by Adjutant Hosmer, to the 
 number of about four hundred and fifty. Concord, 
 Lincoln, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Bedford, Westford, 
 and Littleton, were numerously represented there, 
 and the Acton company marched up together. 
 Smoke began to rise from the centre of the town, 
 and the Americans must see their dwellings burned, 
 or occupy the bridge and pass over it to the rescue. 
 A short consultation was held among the officers. 
 Capt. William Smith, of Lincoln, volunteered to 
 dislodge the enemy from the bridge. Capt. Isaac 
 Davis, of Acton, with a knowledge of his company 
 which the event justified, remarked, " I haven't a 
 man in my company that is afraid to go." Col. 
 Barrett " ordered them to march to the North 
 Bridge and pass the same, but not to fire on the 
 king's troops unless they were fired upon." ^ They 
 advanced in double file, the Acton company under 
 Capt. Davis in front ; Captains Brown, Miles, Bar- 
 rett, Smith, and some others, with their companies, 
 fell into the line; Major Buttrick, of Concord, had 
 the command, and Col. Bobinson, of Westford, 
 
 1 Col. Barrett's Deposition, April 23d, 1775. 
 
52 
 
 marched beside him as a volunteer. The British, 
 when they saw them approach, began to take up 
 the planks of the bridge. Major Buttrick remon- 
 strated, and hastened his march. When they were 
 within ten or fifteen rods, Laurie's party fired upon 
 them, first a few shots and then a volley, killing 
 Capt. Davis and Abner Hosmer, of the same com- 
 pany, and wounding several others. The provin- 
 cials returned the fire, killed one, and wounded 
 several; and the regulars immediately retreated, 
 " with great precipitation," ^ towards the main body. 
 This happened between nine and ten o'clock. The 
 party under Capt. Parsons soon after passed the 
 bridge unmolested, and joined the main body. The 
 troops remained in Concord till noon. 
 
 But now the country was indeed awake. The 
 cry of innocent blood sped over the hills, and kin- 
 dled the brave New England hearts in every hamlet. 
 The spark struck out in that morning's collision 
 was fated to light up the flame of a general war, 
 and to burst into a second conflagration, the Euro- 
 pean revolution, which the blood of three millions 
 of victims has not yet sufficed to quench. Already 
 it ran rapidly over this land like an autumn fire in 
 the prairies. The farmer, from the plough left 
 standing in the furrow, the smith, casting down his 
 hammer, up every valley, and along every pathway, 
 
 1 Dr. Langdon's Sermon before Congress, May 31 st, 1775. 
 
53 
 
 the fLrm-nerved sons of toil, seizing the weapons 
 choked with the rust of a long peace, rushed to 
 arrest the progress of the destroyer, and to vindi- 
 cate their outraged countrymen. The foe that, 
 " like evening wolves, greedy of prey, . . . crept out 
 of Boston, through a by-way, in the dark and silent 
 night, that, unseen and unawares, they might lay 
 waste and destroy," ^ saw their hidden counsels dis- 
 covered, and their boasted victory turned to shame- 
 ful flight. The accumulated wrongs of many years 
 crowded this hour of vengeance, and the wrath 
 nursed in colonial vassalage, finding sudden vent, 
 was poured without stint on the astonished heads 
 of invaders who had visited their quiet homes with 
 fire, havoc, and massacre. The guilt of the first 
 blood weighed heavily on the disheartened fugitives 
 as they entered on their rout of terror, and trans- 
 formed the king's troops, in the view of the exas- 
 perated patriots, into felons doomed and deserving 
 to be hunted down like wolves. Their hatred of 
 oppression merged in abhorrence of the unnatural 
 crime of murder, which elevated the thirst of ven- 
 geance to a high and holy duty, " to execute the 
 divine law in cutting off" men of blood." ^ This 
 conviction of a divine warrant, a positive command 
 to cut off their enemies from the earth, took deep 
 root in the Puritan heart that day, and was assidu- 
 
 1 Mr. Cooke's Sermon at Lexing-ton, April 19th, 1777. 
 
 2 Cooke's Sermon, April 19th, 1777. 
 
64 
 
 ously cultivated by the clergy of New England 
 througli the war, making it inveterate because it 
 was a war of conscience. " Choose out men ; go 
 fight with Amalek," thundered from the pulpits ; 
 " a curse is denounced against the man that with- 
 holdeth his hand from shedding blood, and even on 
 him that doeth this work of the Lord negligently." ^ 
 Truly these were genuine descendants of those iron 
 Roundheads, who made inquisition for blood, who 
 went up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, 
 and smote them, hip and thigh ; who read the one 
 hundred and forty-ninth psalm before their battles, 
 and cursed Meroz bitterly; who trusted in God 
 and kept their powder dry, and shared with Oliver 
 his crowning mercies. On that black and ever 
 memorable day, April nineteenth, a bloody line was 
 drawn across the scroll of history. British soldiers 
 were no longer fellow-subjects of their anointed 
 king, but bloody and deceitful men, whom God ab- 
 horred and would repay ; sons of Amalek, who laid 
 wait for Israel in the way when he came up from 
 Egypt, and smote him when he was faint and 
 weary; against whom God was their succor and 
 defence, breaking the bows of the mighty, that they 
 who are girded with strength stumble and fall. 
 Hocfonte derivata clades, here first were " garments 
 rolled in blood, which, from this source, has awfully 
 
 > Cooke's Sermon; April 19th, 1777. 
 
55 
 
 streamed through, the land." ^ " The crimson fount 
 was opened ; God only knew when it would close." ^ 
 
 About noon, Col. Smith and the regulars took up 
 their march for Boston. The outposts on their left, 
 on the high ground, had been disquieted with the 
 prospect of the husbandmen hastening along every 
 road that winds round the hills, bringing with them 
 the firelocks proved in the French war. Scant time 
 had they to divide the half-cooked contents of the 
 camp-kettles, and make what was to many their last 
 hurried meal. A strong flank guard kept the ridge 
 that runs by the road, and covered their left. Near 
 Merriam's corner, the Reading minute-men under 
 Major Brooks, and the militia from Billerica and 
 some from other towns came up, and made a stand. 
 The British called in their flanking party, faced 
 about, and fired a volley, which injured no one. 
 The fire was immediately returned, and two British 
 soldiers fell dead in the road near the brook. 
 
 After this, no vantage ground was unimproved. 
 From behind trees, rocks, fences, and buildings, the 
 quick, sharp report of the musket was heard, with 
 deadly aim. The flanking parties sufi'ered terribly, 
 and whenever the nature of the ground brought 
 them in, the shot fell frequent in the ranks of the 
 main body. Near Hardy's Hill, the Sudbury com- 
 pany poured in their fire. The woods of Lincoln 
 
 1 Cooke's Sermon, April 19th, 1777. 
 
 2 Letter to New York, quoted in Life of HamiltoDj Vol. I. 
 
56 
 
 swarmed with minute-men, posted in the Indian 
 style behind large trees. The stone walls were lined 
 with sharp shooters, and the quick repeated flashes 
 betrayed their numbers. Woburn had " turned out 
 extraordinary," one hundred and eighty strong, who 
 scattered behind walls and trees. The road is hilly 
 and crooked, with forests and thickets near. In 
 passing through these woody defiles, for three miles 
 or more, the British loss was heavy. They sus- 
 tained a constant, galling, well-directed fire, and 
 could not return it with effect. Capt. Parker with 
 the Lexington company, smarting under the out- 
 rage of the morning, met them, and turning aside 
 into the field, delivered a most deadly fire as they 
 passed. A bright sun had been shining all day, 
 and for so rapid and long-continued a movement, 
 the weather was oppressively warm. The pursuers 
 mustered in constantly increasing numbers. Am- 
 munition began to fail the regulars. Worn out 
 with fatigue, and tortured with thirst, the restraints 
 of discipline could be endured no longer. They 
 came down the hills on the run, and scarcely by 
 threats of instant death could the officers retain 
 them in their decimated ranks. 
 
 Hasty, hasty rout is there ; 
 Fear to stop, and shame to fly, 
 There confusion, terror's chUd, 
 Conflict fierce, and ruin wUd, 
 Agony that pants for breath. 
 
51 
 
 Their situation was desperate, and the detach- 
 ment must soon have surrendered, if they had not 
 been reinforced. 
 
 In pursuance of Col. Smith's request in the morn- 
 ing, General Gage had ordered up eleven hundred 
 men to relieve him. They consisted of three regi- 
 ments of infantry, and two divisions of marines, 
 with two field-pieces, and marched under Lord 
 Percy, through Roxbury and Cambridge, to the tune 
 of Yankee Doodle. They met the fugitives, about 
 two o'clock, within half a mile of Lexington meet- 
 ing-house, " so much exhausted with fatigue," says 
 Stedman, " that they were obliged to lie down for 
 rest on the ground, their tongues hanging out of 
 their mouths, like those of dogs after a chase." 
 The field-pieces played from the high grounds be- 
 low Munroe's tavern, and kept the Provincials at 
 bay. Awhile the battle paused; but devastation 
 filled the interval. Buildings were set on fire, and 
 others on the route plundered, and property wan- 
 tonly destroyed. The British dressed their wounded; 
 the retreating party took some refreshment, and the 
 whole body rested about half an hour, a mile below 
 the meeting-house. 
 
 Lord Percy was a nobleman of talent, valor, and 
 skill; proud of the Northumberland honors. He 
 had with him eighteen hundred veterans schooled 
 in victory in the old world, finely ofiicered, fur- 
 
58 
 
 nished with well-served artillery, and goaded to re- 
 venge by the spectacle of their discomfited and 
 bleeding comrades, driven like sheep before the rus- 
 tic, undisciplined, and rudely-organized champions 
 of freedom. Yet he did not turn upon his assail- 
 ants, and evidently considered that he was accom- 
 plishing a most arduous achievement, and earning 
 for himself no mean military reputation, if he could 
 rescue his command, environed with peril, and con- 
 duct it without serious loss to Boston. No sooner 
 were his troops in motion, than the minute-men and 
 militia, rallied from a still wider circle than before, 
 renewed the attack with unabated ardor. Wherever 
 the windings of the road enabled the pursuers to 
 bring the column in their line of fire, the dead and 
 wounded dropped from the ranks. Lord Percy 
 quickened his march. At West Cambridge, Hutch- 
 inson's company, consisting of twenty-four minute- 
 men from Danvers, and Lieut. Ebenezer Francis, 
 and the same number of men from Beverly, with 
 Foster's minute-men, principally from Danvers, but 
 partly from Beverly, followed by Eppe's, Page's, and 
 Flint's companies of militia, mostly from Danvers, 
 and Capt. Caleb Dodge's company from Beverly, 
 reached the scene of action. They planted them- 
 selves in the route of the retreat, and prepared to 
 receive the enemy, by throwing together a breast- 
 work of bundles of shingles against the walls of an 
 
59 
 
 enclosure, a little west of the meeting-house. They 
 probably had not heard of the reinforcement under 
 Lord Percy, and expected to encounter, and intended 
 to intercept, the jaded and harassed survivors of the 
 Concord fight. They v^ere soon undeceived, for the 
 British, in solid column, descended the hill on their 
 right, while a large flanking party advanced at the 
 same moment on their left.^ Surprised, outnum- 
 bered, and surrounded, they made a gallant resist- 
 ance ; some fell fighting and sold their lives dearly ;^ 
 others surrendered and were basely butchered ; so 
 says the local tradition of their town. Captain Fos- 
 ter and a part of his men, who had not entered the 
 enclosure, but had posted themselves behind trees 
 on the hillside, passed along the margin of the pond, 
 and crossed the road directly in front of the British 
 column, and fired from behind a ditch wall, as long 
 as their shot would tell.^ It is a fact, which cer- 
 tainly should never be forgotten in the commemora- 
 tion of the acts of daring patriotism of the citizens 
 of about thirty towns who took part in the pursuit 
 that afternoon, that Danvers, distant sixteen miles 
 
 1 Hanson's History of Danvers. 
 
 2 " The greatest slaughter of the British took place, it is said, while they were on 
 the retrograde, sweating with toil and blood, for three or four miles through the woody 
 defiles in Lincoln, and in the upper part of Lexington, and again when their flanking 
 parties were intercepted in Cambridge, by one or two companies from Danvers." 
 Lexington and the 19th of April, 1775, republished in the Boston News Letter. 
 
 3 For this, and some other incidents given above, I am indebted to the interesting 
 address, delivered by Hon. D. P. King, on laying the corner stone of the Danvers 
 monument. 
 
60 
 
 from the spot ^¥llere her children fell, lost a greater 
 number of killed than any other town after the re- 
 treat from Concord Bridge, until the British entered 
 Boston; greater than any other town during the 
 day, with the single exception of Lexington. And 
 though a son of that ancient and sober town which 
 has waited patiently seventy-five years, for her due 
 meed of honor in the events of this great day, I 
 shall venture to remark, that though farther distant 
 from the line of the retreat, by several miles, than 
 any other town that sent a musket into service that 
 day, her ready zeal and self-sacrificing devotion are 
 evidenced by the four names that represent the town 
 of Beverly, on the list of killed and wounded. 
 
 The British had many struck at West Cambridge, 
 and the fire grew perhaps hotter, at the base of 
 Prospect Hill. The fiight quickened to very near a 
 run down the old Cambridge road to Charlestown 
 neck, to gain a shelter under the guns of the ships 
 of war. At the close of the day, they ascended 
 Bunker's Hill. There was no time to be lost on the 
 road, for while the main body of the Provincials 
 hung closely on their rear, a strong force was ad- 
 vancing upon them from Poxbury, Dorchester, and 
 Milton, and Col. Pickering, with seven hundred Es- 
 sex militia, threatened to cut off their retreat from 
 Charlestown.-^ Pickering's regiment reached Winter 
 
 ' Washington writes, May 31, 1775 : " If the retreat had not been as precipitate as 
 it was, — and God knows it could not well have been more so, — the ministerial troops 
 
61 
 
 Hill, as the British passed down the Charlestowii 
 road. General Heath, soon after, ordered the pur- 
 suit to be stopped.^ The next day's sun shone on 
 the siege of Boston. The wolf was hounded to his 
 den, and never since that day has he troubled the 
 homes of the Massachusetts yeomanry. Bunker 
 Hill, that gave them the first rest, after thirty-six 
 miles' march of disaster and disgrace, was the only 
 spot of Massachusetts soil, outside the Boston lines, 
 recovered by the enemy after his retreat, and this at 
 the cost of more than a thousand killed and 
 wounded, and a victory more fatal than many de- 
 feats. As the news of this day's slaughter, and its 
 great revenge, spread through Massachusetts, every 
 town sent up its contingent to the "American 
 Grand Army," extemporized upon this sudden call. 
 Putnam, to this day the hero of the popular heart, 
 from Connecticut ; Stark, insensible to fear as the 
 granite mountains, from New Hampshire ; Greene, 
 who enjoyed and deserved the confidence of Wash- 
 ington, from E,hode Island, with the generous vol- 
 unteers of those colonies, joined the Bay State reg- 
 
 must have surrendered, or been totallj' cut off. For they had not arrived in Charles- 
 town, (under cover of their ships,) half an hour, before a powerful body of men from 
 Marblehead and Salem was at their heels, and must, if they had happened to be up 
 one hour sooner, inevitably have intercepted their retreat to Charlestown." Sparks' 
 Washington, Vol. II, p. 407. 
 
 1 1 have made free use of Mr. Frothingham's well-digested account of the battle, 
 in his history of the siege of Boston, with the materials in his notes } Shattuck's 
 History of Concord; Messrs. Ripley, Phinney, and Adams' pamphlets on the local 
 questions ; and Mr. Everett's magnificent oration in 1825. 
 
62 
 
 iments under General Ward, and a force of sixteen 
 thousand men hemmed the veterans of Minden, suf- 
 ficiently experienced on Middlesex battle grounds, 
 within a narrow circuit, until, on the 17th of March, 
 1776, Washington, from the heights of Dorchester, 
 beheld the embarkation and final flight of one of 
 Britain's haughtiest and best-appointed armies, 
 humbled and dismayed,^ and the consecrated bounds 
 of Massachusetts freed forever from the detested 
 presence of a foe. 
 
 From Concord Bridge, my friends, the rout be- 
 gan. Bunker Hill, and Boston roads, Declaration 
 Hall at Philadelphia, Saratoga and Yorktown, and 
 the treaty bearing Franklin's signature, mark suc- 
 cessive stages in the onward progress of America, 
 and the continual retrograde of her enemy. Upon 
 another element, where Britain reigned unrivalled 
 and secure, what Manly, Mugford, and Jones be- 
 gun, was carried on by Perry, and McDonnough, 
 and Chauncey, Lawrence, Bainbridge, and Hull. 
 The account, which was opened here, was closed by 
 Jackson, at New Orleans. The account of blood 
 was closed, I say, and all arrears were fully paid. 
 There remains between the Great Empire of the 
 past, and the Greater Empire of the future, a friendly 
 
 1 " We have one consolation left. Neither Hell, Hull, nor Halifax, can afford 
 worse shelter than Boston," Letter of a British officer, from Nantasket Roads, 
 March 26th, 1776. 
 
63 
 
 rivalship of beneficent influences, which we may con- 
 template with unalloyed pleasure, and which is not 
 the less the legitimate product of the first revolu- 
 tionary movement here commenced. 
 
 Time would fail me to enumerate even the names 
 of those who acted well their parts, that day. The 
 host, that started at their country's summons that 
 morning, has passed away from among us. The 
 places that knew them, and honored them, know 
 them no more. They have left the scene of their 
 toils and perils, and gone to that home "where 
 there are no wars nor fatiguing marches, no roar- 
 ing cannon, .... but an eternity to spend in perfect 
 harmony, and undisturbed peace." ^ Where all 
 acted from a common impulse of duty, distinctions 
 may seem invidious ; but it is pardonable to recall, 
 especially, the memory of those who were spared for 
 other service to their country, in her councils, or in 
 arms. Eustis, and Brooks, and Pickering, and 
 Gerry, distinguished through long lives of useful- 
 ness by the confidence of their fellow-citizens, dis- 
 charged the duties of important stations both in the 
 State and in the nation, and aflection and gratitude, 
 with reverend sorrow, paid their funeral obsequies, — 
 a fate how unlike that of the beginners of all other 
 revolutions ! The master spirit of the Common- 
 
 ' Seth Pomeroy's letter to his wife, from the siege of Louisbourg, May Sth, 1745. 
 
64 
 
 Yfealth of England, holding with a steady hand the 
 helm of state, until death unloosed his grasp, was 
 scarcely laid in his grave, before the sanctity of his 
 tomb was violated, his ashes given to the winds, and 
 his bones gibbeted with infamy. France saw the 
 heads that inspired the councils of her liberty shorn 
 away, one after the other, by the remorseless guil- 
 lotine. America appreciates and trusts her patriot 
 leaders, — ^her Adamses, her Franklin, Jefferson, and 
 Washington, — and guards their dust among her 
 choicest treasures. Thus she repudiates and falsi- 
 fies that ancient maxim of patrician insolence, that 
 republics are ungrateful. 
 
 But there are other names to be remembered in 
 the list of those who drove the Percy in such hot 
 haste to shelter, and those who hastened to sur- 
 round the foiled lion, and prevent a second egress : 
 among them are those that have resounded through 
 the world, and whose echoes will not yet be lost in 
 distant ages. General Heath, early in active ser- 
 vice, took the command above West Cambridge, 
 and endeavored to rally and form the minute-men, 
 dispersed by Percy's artillery. Prescott, of Pep- 
 perell, took part in the council of war held before 
 Boston, the next day, and to him was intrusted the 
 most arduous and momentous duty ; deliberately to 
 invite and defy to battle the whole British force in 
 America, for the first time in the war — a duty how 
 
65 
 
 nobly performed! Never did scarred and laurelled 
 conqueror, from his triumphal car, look forward to 
 so bright an immortality, as he who marshalled the 
 elect of freedom, on the sod which Warren mois- 
 tened with his blood. Warren himself, as ever 
 careless of his life, was in the field, and active there.^ 
 At Lexington he encouraged the militia to disregard 
 the fire of the field-pieces: at West Cambridge, he 
 was in the hottest of the fight, and a musket ball 
 passed through his earlock. The name of the Pres- 
 ident of the Provincial Congress belongs then, legit- 
 imately, to the recollections to be passed in review 
 this day. The name of Warren, falling in his prime, 
 in a sad and sanguinary defeat; sad, yet more glo- 
 rious than any victory the muse of history had ever 
 yet recorded, is and ever must be, embalmed in the 
 hearts of the whole people of the Republic. He 
 left a fame that is the nation's common property ; 
 priceless, for gold could not buy it ; secure, for no 
 reverse of arms can tear it from us. So long as 
 language shall be faithful to its trust; so long as 
 tradition shall preserve the outline, after history has 
 forgotten the detail ; so long as one generous emo- 
 tion shall warm the human heart; after the monu- 
 ment shall have crumbled, but while Bunker Hill 
 
 J \^^'"' '""'^'^' "^ ^'- W-^e.,-" At the battle of Lexington he was, per- 
 haps, he most act,ve man in the field. His soul beat to arms, as soon as he learned 
 the mtention of the British troops." 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 shall stand, Warren shall be the watchword in the 
 armies of liberty. 
 
 But the generation of that heroic age, their work 
 done, all done, well done, have passed from the land 
 which they redeemed, and are gone. All gonel 
 Oh no ! It has pleased the Almighty Father of 
 mercies, in his sovereign Providence, to continue to 
 us two time-honored worthies of the veteran band, 
 beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, sole lingerers 
 on the verge of life, to witness the seventy-fifth year 
 of freedom by God's blessing, and their good right 
 arms, secured. Living mementos of the glorious 
 past I Long may your valued presence remind us 
 of our duty to the future, by showing what the past 
 has done for us, by carrying back our thoughts to 
 the times that tried men's souls. These are of the 
 number that took their lives in their hand, and 
 walked fearless among the death-shafts ; counting 
 all things earthly but as dross, that surviving they 
 might point out to us, or dying might bequeath to 
 us, a more excellent way, a career of pure unshackled 
 liberty. Alas ! they are but two, out of so many 
 thousands ; sentries, waiting to be called in, of the 
 rear guard of the grand army which has gone before 
 them. Like the precious spices of the East, the 
 rarer they grow, the more highly do we value them. 
 Like the mystic books of the Sybil, these that re- 
 main represent to us the worth of those that are 
 lost. 
 
67 
 
 Favorites of Time, who has dealt so gently with 
 you, what a contrast do your eyes behold when you 
 compare the mighty empire which you helped to 
 found with the feeble colony that gave you birth. 
 The period of your life has been contemporaneous 
 with the work of many ages : never before have a 
 thousand years done for any nation under heaven 
 what the last three fourths of a century have done 
 for us. A thousand years constructed and confirmed 
 the majestic fabric of the Roman empire ; sages and 
 warriors, through a thousand years of fixed pur- 
 pose, iron resolution and all-enduring fortitude, es- 
 tablished the dominion of the eternal city, unshaken 
 by the burthen of the world, and not to be destroyed, 
 save in the wreck of the old heathen world passing 
 away forever. But you, wonderful men, preceded 
 by many years this empire ; in the purple ripeness 
 of maturely-developed youth, you stood by the cra- 
 dle of this empire, when the young Alcides strangled 
 the monsters sent by his step-mother; when our 
 home was a strip of land between the ocean and the 
 AUeghanies, which scattered settlers, with no wealth 
 but the labor of their hands, disputed with the sav- 
 ages. You have lived to be citizens of an empire 
 broader than Eome, mightier than Rome, wealthier 
 than Rome, wiser than Rome, holier than Rome. 
 Machinery, the creation of the free mind, does more 
 for us, ten-fold more, than all the arms of her many 
 
68 
 
 million subjects did for her. Look around you ; all 
 that you see, and all that your and our posterity 
 shall see, is the fruit of liberty ; and of that liberty, 
 it is for you to say truly, we and our comrades, on 
 the nineteenth day of April, planted the fructifying 
 seed. 
 
 Look around you and survey your work. It is 
 not enough that we proclaim, that a small one has 
 become a great people ; that day by day new nations 
 rise up to call you blessed ; that even now, states, 
 infant in years, but giants in vigor and proportions, 
 press at your portals, asking admission as coordmate 
 sovereignties, " demanding life, impatient for the 
 skies." Look around you ; measure the improve- 
 ment of the condition of the individual denizens 
 of all our towns and villages, and see if it tend 
 not onward and upward in an accelerated ratio, 
 equal, at least, to that of our political greatness. 
 The hardy colonist extracted from the soil with infi- 
 nite labor a frugal subsistence, uncertain how long 
 he should hold even his earnings, for the mother 
 country claimed the right to bind the colonies in all 
 cases whatsoever, collecting few comforts, desiring 
 no luxuries, without machinery, without capital, al- 
 most without intercourse, scarcely recovered from 
 the exhaustion of ruinous French and Indian wars. 
 The fair enchantress Liberty has waved her potent 
 wand ; prosperity and happmess crown all the hills, 
 
69 
 
 and cover the plains ; on every waterfall, a city rises 
 like an exhalation ; the iron horse, the missionary 
 which science despatches to lead the van of advanc- 
 ing refinement, snorts over the prairies scarcely 
 abandoned by the disappearing buffalo ; the electric 
 nerve throbs with the impulse of intelligence from 
 Halifax to New Orleans ; internal commerce dips 
 her silver oar in every lake ; the birchen canoe of 
 the native hunter is transformed to a waterborne 
 palace, gorgeous with the adornments of high art, 
 and steadying her upright keel against the wind, 
 with the miraculous energy of imprisoned fire. Of 
 the rich exuberance of our plenty we may impart 
 with a world-wide charity; and ocean smiles to 
 transport upon her bosom the messengers freighted 
 with salvation to the famine-stricken millions of sla- 
 very-blasted Ireland. 
 
 I have inquired what consequences would have 
 followed, if the Mede had trodden out Hellenic lib- 
 erty, and an Achoemenian despot reckoned Greece 
 among his provinces ; what would have been the 
 effect of a Saracenic conquest of Europe ? I might 
 go on to imagine our own situation, if Great Britain 
 had reduced her colonies to abject submission. Re- 
 verse the result at Marathon ; should we have been 
 here ? Would the old world have known the exis- 
 tence of the continent of which Plato dreamed ] 
 Reverse the result at Tours, and where would have 
 
70 
 
 been the faith and hopes of Christendom 1 Reverse 
 what was done at Concord Bridge, and all that has 
 followed out of what was there done, and I need 
 not ask, should we have been free 1 How much of 
 the freedom, well-being and progress of Europe 
 would the world yet wait for 1 Where would have 
 been the miracles of the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, and the loftier anticipations of the portion 
 yet to come of that century ? 
 
 I might answer, mind moves the world, informs 
 and agitates the mass, and fashions the future, be- 
 fore the wheels of time deliver it into being. All 
 the elements of progress exist in thought, before 
 they are moulded in reality. The provincial mind 
 is blasted with barrenness. The degree of freedom 
 which our fathers enjoyed, at the time of the Con- 
 cord fight, had become a paradoxical impracticabil- 
 ity : it must either complete itself, or disappear. It 
 was necessary that we should throw oiF the yoke of 
 colonial vassalage, or sink to the level and wear 
 the livery of that vassalage. It was the electricity 
 developed in our revolutionary atmosphere that 
 burst, in thunder, on slumbering France. Awak- 
 ing France awoke the world. 
 
 Starting from these principles, I might work out 
 the problem propounded ; but it will be equally in- 
 structive, and far more satisfactory, to examine what 
 has been, rather than to ask what might have been ; 
 
71 
 
 to measure the strides of living liberty, rather than 
 calculate the tracks of some fossil megatherium of 
 extinct tyranny. Over what distance has the good 
 Goddess led us, since the young days of these our 
 venerable friends ; and how does our progress com- 
 pare Avith that of other nations, and of other times ? 
 Upon the threshold of this ample theme, I pause ; 
 for the hours rush swiftly by, and to do justness to 
 its vastness, would delay you too long. There is no 
 time to-day to survey the field. I will barely indi- 
 cate a few of the land-marks. 
 
 Our present population is nine times that of the 
 day of Concord fight, and a continuance of the same 
 ratio for the same period, to the year nineteen hun- 
 dred and twenty-five, will extend the blessings of 
 this Union over more than two hundred millions of 
 souls. Then the orator who shall stand upon this 
 spot, will show that all these are not crowded, but 
 that there is room for more. There is no probabil- 
 ity that this aggregate will be less than double the 
 whole population of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, together with the French Re- 
 public. 
 
 Our present wealth is more than forty times that 
 of the colonies seventy-five years ago. The annual 
 income of the nation is at least twenty-five times as 
 great as it was then. Our annual income was then 
 about one-tenth part that of France; now, it is 
 
72 
 
 nearly equal to that of France, and is gaining very 
 rapidly upon that of the British Empire. Of the 
 great element of power over physical nature, coal, 
 our production is now greater than that of the world 
 seventy-five years ago. Of iron, the chief instru- 
 ment with which man subdues nature to his pur- 
 poses, our product is greater than that of all the 
 world seventy-five years ago. Of gold, the other 
 main sinew of war, and the negotiator of the ex- 
 changes of peace, we produce more than the rest 
 of the world now does. Our cotton manufactures 
 exceed those of the whole world seventy-five years 
 ago. Our tonnage exceeds that of the world seventy- 
 five years since. It will soon surpass that of the 
 British empire, and in a few years, much short of 
 three quarters of a century, it will far surpass that 
 of the rest of the world. "We have more printing 
 presses in operation, and more printed volumes in 
 the hands of our people, than the whole world had 
 on the day of the Concord fight. More newspapers 
 are printed in the city of Boston every day than the 
 whole world then produced. Since that day, Amer- 
 ica has produced the steamboat and adopted the loco- 
 motive, and there are more steam engines employed 
 in Massachusetts than were then used in the world. 
 It would be gratifying to know how far these 
 means of physical comfort, ease, and improvement, 
 have been employed, it is our imperative duty to in- 
 
73 
 
 quire how far they may be and ought to be em- 
 ployed, for the moral and intellectual advancement 
 of a people so highly favored of heaven. The proper 
 limits of this occasion forbid me to enter upon a 
 new investigation ; I can only express the hope that 
 we should have no reason to blush at the results, if 
 we had time to pursue it. 
 
 Over how broad a portion of the world have we 
 extended the advantages we ourselves enjoy ! Our 
 domain unites the noblest valley on the surface of 
 the globe, competent to grow food for human beings 
 many more than now dwell on the face of the 
 earth, with an eastern wing, fitted for the site of the 
 principal manufacturing and commercial power of 
 existing Christendom, and a western flank well sit- 
 uated to hold the same position on the Pacific, when 
 Asia shall renew her youth, and Australia shall 
 have risen to the level of Europe. Bewildering al- 
 most is the suddenness of our expansion to fill these 
 limits, and astounding are the phenomena that ac- 
 company this development. This day there stands 
 before the councils of the nation, deputed to par- 
 ticipate in their deliberations, a young man born 
 within sight of old Concord Bridge, and educated 
 under the institutions which Concord fight secured, 
 who, when he revisits the old homestead, claims to 
 represent a territory larger than France and the 
 United British kingdom ; capable of containing, if 
 settled to the present density of Great Britain, more 
 10 
 
74 
 
 than a hundred millions of souls ; a territory lately 
 the joint inheritance of the Indian and the grisly 
 bear, now outstripping, in its instant greatness, all 
 recorded colonies ; the Ophir of our age, richer than 
 Solomon's ; richer than the wildest vision that ever 
 dazzled Arabian fancy. 
 
 Occupying such a continent, receiving it conse- 
 crated by the toils, and sufferings, and outpouring 
 of ancestral blood, which, on the day we now com- 
 memorate, began, how delightful is the duty w^hich 
 devolves on us to guard the beacon-fire of liberty 
 whose flames our fathers kindled. Suffer it not, my 
 friends ! suffer it not, posterity that shall come af- 
 ter us ! to be clouded by domestic dissension, or ob- 
 scured by the dank, mephitic vapors of faction. 
 Until now, its pure irradiance dispels doubt and 
 fear, and revivifies the fainting hopes of downcast 
 patriotism. Forever may it shine brightly as now, 
 for as yet its pristine lustre fades not, but still flashes 
 out the ancient, clear, and steady illumination, joy- 
 giving as the blaze that, leaping from promontorj" 
 to promontory, told the triumph of Agamemnon 
 over fated Troy. It towers and glows, refulgent 
 and beautiful, far seen by the tempest-tost on the 
 sea of revolution; darting, into the dungeons of 
 gaunt despair, beams whose benignant glory no 
 lapse of time shall dim ; the wanderers in the chill 
 darkness of slavery, it guides, and cheers, and warms; 
 it fills the universe with its splendor. 
 
BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 CELEBRATION^ OF THE NINETEENTH OE APRIL, 
 
 AT CONCORD, 
 
 1850. 
 
PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 November, 12, 1849. 
 " The inhabitants of Concord, in town meeting assembled, voted, 
 that the next anniversaiy of Concord Fight be celebrated by the 
 town, and that the following persons constitute a Committee of 
 Arrangements, and that they have authority, according to their 
 judgment, to expend for this purpose any moneys in the treasury 
 not otherwise appropriated, viz. : 
 
 Francis R. Gourgas, 
 Sherman Barrett, 
 Richard Barrett, 
 E. RocKwooD Hoar, 
 Nehemiah Ball, 
 Charles W. Goodnow, 
 Nathan Barrett, 
 John Brown, Jr. 
 Calvin C. Damon, 
 George M. Barrett, 
 MicAjAH Rice, 
 William Melvin, 
 Elijah Wood, 
 Thomas D. Wesson, 
 Asa Brooks, 
 
 John S. Keyes, 
 Benjamin E. Sawyer, 
 Anthony Wright, 
 Daniel Shattuck, 
 Daniel Clark, 
 Simon Brown, 
 Cyrus Wheeler, 
 James Wood, 
 Joseph Miles, 
 Samuel Hoar, 
 Joseph Holbrook, 
 William W. Wheildon, 
 Stedman Buttrick, 
 Francis Jarvis, 
 Charles A. Hubbard." 
 
 November 24, 1849. 
 
 The Committee met and organized by the choice of John S. 
 Keyes, Chairman, Wm. W. Wheildon, Secretary, and John M. 
 Cheney, (chosen in the place of Daniel Shattuck, who declined 
 serving on the Committee,) Treasurer. 
 
 The Committee then voted to invite the towns of Lexington, 
 Acton, Lincoln, Sudbury, Carlisle, and Bedford, to unite with 
 Concord, in celebrating, in that town, the events of the 19th of 
 
78 
 
 April, 1775, on the next anniversary of that day, and send 
 Committees to aid in making the necessary arrangements. 
 
 This invitation having been communicated to these towns was 
 responded to by them all, and the following persons were chosen 
 to constitute the Committee from the several towns named : 
 
 Lexington. 
 
 Philip Russell, 
 Charles Hudson, 
 Galen Allen, 
 Samuel Chandler, 
 
 Acton. 
 rufus holden, 
 James T. Woodbury, 
 Francis Tuttle, 
 Jonathan B. Davis, 
 Bradley Stone, 
 Silas Hosmer, 
 WiNTHROP E. Faulkner, 
 Abraham Conant, 
 Joseph W. Tuttle, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 James Jones, Jr. 
 James L. Chapin, 
 Daniel Weston, 
 William Colbourn, 
 John W. Farrar, 
 
 Jonathan S. Parker, 
 Albert W. Bryant, 
 Bowen Harrington, 
 Isaac H. Wright. 
 
 Reuben Barker, 
 Charles Robbins, 
 Samuel T. Adams, 
 Aaron Chaffin, 
 Nathan Brooks, 
 Daniel Wetherbee, 
 John White, 
 Ebenezer Hayward, 
 David M. Handley. 
 
 Leonard Hoar, 
 Charles L. Tarbell, 
 Abel Wheeler, 
 Samuel H. Pierce, 
 George M. Baker. 
 
 Drury Fairbanks, 
 Abel Jones, 
 
 Sudbury. 
 
 Ephraim Moore, 
 Charles Gerry, 
 
 Jonathan R. Vose. 
 
 Carlisle. 
 
 Jonas Parker, 
 Seth W. Bannister, 
 Benjamin Barrett, 
 William Green, 2d, 
 
 Cyrus Heald, 
 Benjamin F. Heald, 
 Thomas Green, 
 Levi S. Hutchinson, 
 
 Epheaim Robbins. 
 
79 
 
 Bedford. 
 Phineas W. Chamberlain. Reuben Bacon, 
 Thomas Stiles, Eliab B. Lane, 
 
 John W. Simonds, Timothy Page, 
 
 Amos B. Cutler, Nathaniel C. Cutler, 
 
 Sylvanus Lawrence, Samuel Wyman. 
 
 The Committee having, at numerous meetings, decided on the 
 arrangements for the celebration, and having raised, by voluntary 
 subscription in Concord, sufficient funds for the general expenses ; 
 voted to invite, besides other distinguished gentlemen, the Gov- 
 ernor, Lieutenant Governor and Council, and both branches of 
 the Legislature of the Commonv^ealth, to attend the celebration. 
 
 The following correspondence was had in pursuance of that vote: 
 
 Lexington, April 12, 1850. 
 
 Sir, — The citizens of Concord and the neighboring towns, 
 having made arrangements for celebrating at Concord, on the 
 19th of April, inst., the Seventy-Fifth anniversary of that mem- 
 orable day, respectfully invite you, and the honorable body over 
 which you preside, to be present as guests, and participate with 
 them in the exercises and festivities of the occasion. 
 
 No day in the annals of our country's independence stands 
 more prominent than the one on which the first blood of the 
 Revolution was shed, and the first resistance offered to Brit- 
 ish arms. The history of our beloved Commonwealth is so 
 intimately connected with the events of that day, that it seems 
 peculiarly appropriate that the whole State should, by its chosen 
 delegates, participate in the celebration. We therefore fondly 
 trust that you will honor us by your presence, and thereby 
 show to the whole country that the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts cherishes a grateful remembrance of those who perilled all 
 in Freedom's sacred cause, and that she will be ready at all times 
 to sustain, at any hazard, those free institutions, which were pur^ 
 chased by the toil and blood of our fathers. 
 I am, very respectfully. 
 
 Your obt. servant, 
 
 CHARLES HUDSON, 
 In behalf of the Committee of Invitation, 
 Hon. Ensign H. Kellogg, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. 
 
80 
 
 House of Representatives, 
 
 April 16, 1850. 
 Hon. Charles Hudson, Chairman, &c. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I am directed, by the House of Representatives of 
 Massachusetts, to inform the inhabitants of Concord and the ad- 
 joining towns, that the House has this day cordially accepted the 
 invitation so politely communicated through you to attend the 
 celebration at Concord, on the 19th instant. 
 
 The H^ouse also desires to express its grateful sense of the 
 kindness and civility extended to them by their fellow-citizens of 
 Concord and vicinity, in inviting them to participate in this very 
 interesting celebration. 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 E. H. KELLOGG, Speaker. 
 
 A similar invitation was also communicated to the Honorable 
 Senate, and by them accepted. 
 
 The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company were invited 
 to perform escort duty on the occasion, and accepted the invita- 
 tion. Invitations were also extended to the towns of Danvers, 
 West Cambridge, Pepperell, Reading, Woburn, &c., citizens of 
 which took part in the events of the 19th of April, 1775, to send 
 delegations to the celebration. 
 
 The following officers of the day were appointed by the Com- 
 mittee : 
 
 Hon. E. RocKWOOD Hoar, of Concord, President of the Bay. 
 
 Rev. James T. Woodbury, of Acton, Chaplain. 
 
 Col. Isaac H. Wright, of Lexington, Chief Marshal. 
 
 And 
 George M. Barrett, Esq., Leonard Hoar, Esq., 
 Stedman Buttrick, Esq., Abel Wheeler, Esq., 
 
 Cyrus Stow, Esq., Maj. Daniel Weston, 
 
 of Concord ; of Lincoln ; 
 
 Wbi. Chandler, Esq., Col. Drury Fairbanks, 
 
 Maj. Benj. Wellington, Christopher G. Cutler, Esq., 
 
 Col. Philip Russell, Ephraim Stone, Esq., 
 
 of Lexington ; of Sudbury ; 
 
81 
 
 Hon. Stevens Hayward, Maj. Jonas Parker, 
 
 Simon Tuttle, Esq., Cyrus Heald, Esq., 
 
 Alden Fuller, Esq., Capt. Thomas Heald, 
 
 of Acton ; of Carlisle ; 
 
 Capt. Timothy Page, John D. Billings, Esq., 
 Jonathan Bacon, Esq., of Bedford, 
 
 Vice Presidents. 
 
 The following notice of arrangements and order of procession 
 were published by the Committee : 
 
 UNION CELEBRATION AT CONCORD. 
 
 I9th of April, 1850. 
 
 The General Committee of Arrangements, of the towns of 
 Concord, Lexington, Acton, Lincoln, Sudbury, Bedford and Car- 
 lisle, give notice that there will be a Union Celebration of the 
 eve7its of the 19th of April, 1775, on the approaching anniver- 
 sary, at Concord, to which the citizens of all the towns, locally 
 or otherwise interested in the events of that day, and the public 
 generally, are invited. 
 
 A procession will be formed, at 10 o'clock, A. M., escorted 
 by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, under the di- 
 rection of Col. Isaac H. Wright, of Lexington, Chief Marshal. 
 The procession, after visiting the monument at the "North 
 Bridge," will march to the pavilion, where an Oration will be 
 delivered by Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr. 
 
 Addresses will be made by Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Rufus 
 Choate, His Excellency Gov. Briggs, Hon. John G. Palfrey, and 
 other distinguished speakers. Hon. E. R. Hoar will preside at 
 the table. 
 
 The arrangements are designed to accommodate ladies as 
 well as gentlemen at the table. 
 
 The dinner will be provided by Mr. John Wright, of Boston, 
 under a new and spacious pavilion. Tickets 75 cents, to be had 
 of the committees of the respective towns. 
 
 All civil and military societies, associations or bodies, who are 
 disposed to do so, are invited to attend, and places will be as- 
 11 
 
82 
 
 signed for them in the procession, on giving notice beforehand 
 to the Secretary of the Committee. 
 
 Special trains will be provided on the Fitchburg Railroad 
 to accommodate those who design to unite in the celebration. 
 
 By order of the Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 JOHN S. KEYES, Chairman. 
 W. W. WHEILDON, Secretary. 
 Concord, April 6, 1850. 
 
 ORDER OF PROCESSION. 
 
 Military Escort by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery. 
 
 Aid. Chief Marshal. Aid. 
 
 President of the Day. 
 
 Orator and Chaplain. 
 
 Vice Presidents. 
 
 Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth and Suite. 
 
 His Honor the Lieutenant Governor and the Council. 
 
 The Secretary and Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Soldiers of the 19th of April, 1775. 
 
 Revolutionary Soldiers. 
 
 Invited Guests. 
 
 President of the Senate and Speaker of the House. 
 
 The Senate. 
 
 The House of Representatives. 
 
 Editors of Newspapers. 
 
 Masonic Societies, Odd Fellows Lodges and other Associations. 
 
 Town Officers and Delegation — Lexington, Concord, Acton, 
 
 Lincoln, Sudbury, Carlisle, Bedford. 
 
 Delegations from W. Cambridge, Danvers, Woburn, Pepperell, 
 
 Roxbury, and other towns, which took part in the events 
 
 of the day. 
 
 Citizens generally. 
 
 Companies of Continentallers. 
 
 The procession will be formed on the common at 10 o'clock 
 precisely. The Governor and suite, and the Legislatui'e and in- 
 
83 
 
 vited guests, will assemble at the Middlesex hotel. Societies 
 and associations will form in front of the First church, the right 
 facing the hotel. Delegations from the several towns will form 
 on the streets leading to their towns, the right resting on the 
 square. The Concord delegation will form on the street leading 
 by the Universalist church. 
 
 N. B. Ladies will meet at the Unitarian church, and either 
 join in the procession or proceed to the pavilion, under the di- 
 rection of the marshals for that purpose, as they may prefer. 
 
 ISAAC H. WRIGHT, Chief Mar slid. 
 
 CoNcoKD, April V^tJi. 
 
 THE CELEBRATION 
 
 Commenced by a national salute at sunrise, fired by the Concord 
 artillery, from their guns, which bear the following inscription : 
 
 " The Legislature of Massachusetts consecrate the names of 
 Maj. John Buttrick and Capt. Isaac Davis, whose valor and ex- 
 ample incited their fellow-citizens to a successful resistance of a 
 superior number of British troops at Concord Bridge, the 19th of 
 April, 1775, which was the beginning of a contest in arms that 
 ended in American Independence." 
 
 From that hour till nearly noon the people of the neighboring 
 towns continued to pour in by carriages, on horseback, and on 
 foot, till the streets and public squares were filled with a dense 
 crowd of every age and class. 
 
 The whole town wore its holiday aspect. The principal 
 streets and many of the private dwellings were tastefully deco- 
 rated with flags and streamers ; tablets, with inscriptions commem- 
 orative of the events of the day, were displayed in their appro- 
 priate localities, and the scene presented an air of joy and ani- 
 mation which even the cloudy sky did not disturb or darken. 
 
 The Governor and suite, the Council, the Senate, and House 
 of Representatives, escorted by the Ancient and Honorable Artil- 
 lery Company, Col. Andrews, commander, and the Boston Brass 
 Band, arrived about ten o'clock, in a special train, generously 
 provided for them by the Fitchburg Railroad Company. This 
 
84 
 
 was soon after followed by two other trains, bringing large num- 
 bers from the city and lower part of the county, and swelling the 
 multitude to at least five thousand persons. 
 
 The procession was formed about eleven o'clock, in the order 
 before given, under the direction of Col. Isaac H. Weight, Chief 
 Marshal, and his aids, Capt. J. S. Parkek. of Lexington, and 
 Joseph B. Keyes of Concord, and the following assistant Mar- 
 shals : 
 
 Col. James Jones, Jr. of Lincoln, J. Q. A. Chandler, of Lexington, 
 Dr. H. A. Barrett, of Concord, James Jones, of Weston, 
 RuFus HoLDEN, of Acton, D. K. Hatch, of Concord, 
 
 James M. Billings, of Concord, N. H. Warren, " 
 E. C. Wetherbee, " Benj. Poland, W. Cambridge. 
 
 The military escort, with full ranks, in their new uniform, the 
 Legislature and other invited guests in large numbers, and one 
 of the survivors of the battle, with three other revolutionary pa- 
 triots in a carriage, drawn by four black horses, were the prom- 
 inent features of the procession, which was very large and im- 
 posing. A delegation from the order of United Americans, with 
 a cavalcade from West Cambridge, and full delegations from all 
 the towns which took part in the celebration, bearing appropriate 
 banners, swelled its length, and the rear was brought up by a 
 company of Continentallers, from Sudbury, under the command 
 of Col. Ephraim Moore. 
 
 The procession marched to the Monument, at the old North 
 Bridge, where, over the grave of the British soldiers buried there, 
 the English ensign floated at half mast, while the American flag 
 waved from the top of the shaft. On the opposite bank of the 
 river, a company of minute-men, from Acton, numbering 120 
 guns, under the command of Col. W. E. Faulkner, saluted the 
 procession with volley upon volley, fired over the spot where 
 Davis fell. The old pine-tree flag floated over them, and it re- 
 quired but little eflbrt of imagination to see in them their fathers, 
 who, seventy-five years ago, on that very spot, " fired the shot 
 heard round the world." The procession wheeled round the 
 monument and marched back through the town, under a salute 
 
85 
 
 of artillery of thirty guns, and one more for California, and about 
 one o'clock reached the pavilion, near the Railroad station, 
 where the ladies, to the number of five hundred, w^ere already 
 assembled. 
 
 The pavilion, made of canvass, drawn over a substantial frame 
 work, erected for the first time, on this occasion, by Mr. John 
 Wright, of Boston, was 250 feet long by 150 feet wide, and 33 
 feet high. It was divided across the centre by a raised platform, 
 for the officers of the day and invited guests, — the section to- 
 wards the entrance filled with seats for the accommodation of 
 the audience, and the part in the rear of the platform occupied 
 by the dinner tables. So spacious were its accommodations, that 
 it furnished room for probably five thousand persons to hear the 
 exercises, and also seats at the tables for about three thousand. 
 
 A magnificent Gobelin tapestry, representing, in vivid colors, 
 " Fame blowing her trumpet," the property of W. W. Wheildon, 
 Esq., was suspended over the centre of the platform, (enwreathed 
 with the folds of the American ensign, conspicuous on which was 
 the star of California,) so as to form a brilliant back ground to 
 the rostrum. 
 
 EXERCISES AT THE PAVILION. 
 
 When the procession had passed in, the band played Wash- 
 ington's March. 
 
 The President of the day then called the assembly to order, 
 and said : 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Citizens : — In accordance with the 
 custom of our honored fathers in their day of peril and of trial, 
 and in accordance with the reverent dictate of our own hearts, 
 the services of the occasion will commence by invoking the 
 blessing of heaven. 
 
 Rev. James T. Woodbury, of Acton, then made an impres- 
 sive and appropriate prayer. 
 
 The following hymn was then sung to the tune of Old Hun- 
 dred by the whole assembly: 
 
86 
 
 Hymn. By Eev. James Flint, D. D., of Salem. 
 
 O God, supreme o'er earth and skies, 
 To Thee our fathers' suppliant eyes 
 Were rais'd for help, when loud the alarm 
 Of battle call'd the brave to arm. 
 
 Here, on this consecrated ground, 
 Where sleeps their martyr'd dust around. 
 Their sons exulting raise to Thee 
 Their grateful hymn of Jubilee. 
 
 The blood that dyed that day the field, 
 A nation's independence seal'd ; 
 That blood sent up its cry to Thee, 
 A nation's pledge of Victory. 
 
 Our fathers' deeds, in deathless song. 
 Time in his course shall bear along ; 
 Their sons, still happ}', brave, and free, 
 Shall owe their boundless debt to Thee. 
 
 The President then introduced the Orator of the Day, Hon. 
 Robert Rantoul, Jr. of Beverly, who delivered the Oration. 
 
 At the close of the Oration, the band played a march, and the 
 audience were conducted by the marshals, through passages in 
 the raised platform, to the other division of the pavilion, where 
 tables wei-e spread for over 3,000 persons. 
 
 A blessing was asked by the Chaplain, and, after three quar- 
 ters of an hour spent in discussing the good cheer which was 
 abundantly supplied, the Chief Marshal called to order, and 
 the President addressed the company as follows : — 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — We are assembled this 
 day to celebrate, by an act of solemn commemoration, the glo- 
 rious deeds of our gallant fathers. The day when, seventy-five 
 years ago, the power of England was first confi'onted in the 
 field, — the day which the wisest of English statesmen considered 
 decisive of the controversy, — the day which " made conciliation 
 impossible, and independence certain," — the day, to which 
 Bunker Hill and the Fourth of July were but the natural and 
 necessary consequences, — the proudest day — so it seems to me, 
 is it not so .? — the proudest day in American annals. The power 
 of England, associated in the minds of the Colonists with every 
 thing that was invincible and triumphant, was here first to be 
 
87 
 
 encountered; and it was met with the stern determination of 
 men who knew that they were doing battle for the right. 
 
 There was a bloodier conflict on Bunker Hill ; the " croioning 
 mercies'''' of Saratoga and Yorktown appeared doubtless to give 
 a nearer and surer promise of independence and safety ; to the 
 military enthusiast, the " glories " of foreign battle fields may 
 have seemed " unsurpassed ; " but American Liberty will still 
 turn with the tenderest interest to stand by the grave of her first- 
 born ; the patriot will bend with more reverent sorrow where 
 Freedom's first martyrs moistened with their blood the green of 
 Lexington; — and the heart of the soldier kindle with loftier 
 emotion, where, — the men of Acton in the front, — the tide of in- 
 vasion first rolled back from the old North Bridge of Concord ! 
 
 We have in Middlesex the spots which this day has made il- 
 lustrious ; but it was a Massachusetts day ; and it was a day that 
 showed the spirit of Massachusetts, wherever the news spread, 
 from one end of the State to the other. From Beverly to Ded- 
 ham, from Charlestown to Chelmsford, there was not a man who 
 was not ready to maintain with his musket, what the towns had 
 resolved, and the Congress voted. 
 
 The County in which Hancock and Adams had chosen their 
 place of refuge, where the stores for the Provincial army Avere 
 deposited, where the Provincial Congress had but just adjourned, 
 was perhaps the most dangerous road that the British troops 
 could have taken with a hostile purpose ; — but there was not a 
 safe road led out of Boston that morning, nor one that the Reg- 
 ulars would not have found " down hill all the way back ! " 
 
 It is not in a mere military spirit that we hallow the deeds of 
 that day. There is a feeling, it must be acknowledged, in the 
 breast of every man that admires heroic valor and self-sacrifice, 
 wherever and in whatever cause displayed : how much more 
 when on the side of liberty, and country, and home, and consti- 
 tutional rights, — of all for which Buttrick, and Robinson, and 
 Hosmer fought, and for which Jonas Parker and Isaac Davis 
 fell ! Our hearts respond to the stirring language of the ballad : 
 
 High praise from all whose gift is song, 
 
 To him in slaughter tried, 
 Whose pulses beat in battle strong, 
 
 As if to meet his bride 5 
 
88 
 
 High praise from every moulh of man, 
 
 To all who boldly strive, 
 Who fall where first the fight began, 
 
 And ne'er go back alive. 
 
 But chief his fame be quick as fire, 
 
 Be wide as is the sea, 
 Who dares in blood and pangs expire, 
 
 To keep his country free ; 
 To such, while homage nations bring, 
 
 Shall praise in Heaven belong; 
 The starry harps his praise shall ring, 
 
 And chime to mortal song. 
 
 It was the cause, it was the CAUSE, which made their 
 deeds sacred, and has made their names immortal ! 
 
 In the spirit of the occasion, therefore, of manly pride, of 
 union, of fervent patriotism, I propose the first regular toast : 
 
 1. The 19th of April, 1775 — Lexington Common and Concord North Bridge — 
 Their fame belongs to all who manfully stood up that day, in their country's cause — 
 too sacred to be the theme of local jealousy, their glory is our common inheritance. 
 
 Hon. RuFus Choate responded to this sentiment. He said 
 he should experience great pleasure in attempting to respond to 
 sentiments so beautiful and so just, if he did not feel a difficulty 
 in attempting to do so, which he dared say he shared with those 
 around him, and that is this, — that under the influence of what 
 he had this day seen and heard, his heart was so crowded full 
 with emotions, his memory was so overburdened by details, his 
 reason so impressed by the moral grandeur of the place and 
 hour, that he was at once unable to say all that he could desire 
 to say, and was equally unable to select upon any rational choice, 
 what he would speak and what he would leave unsaid. It seemed 
 to him a moment, not so much for words as thought ; not so 
 much a moment for speech, even of such eloquence as they had 
 hung delighted upon to-day, as for meditation — as for thanksgiv- 
 ing to Almighty God — as for solitary tears — as a moment for 
 emotions deeper than tears, personal, solitary and incommunica- 
 ble. For one, at least, he felt that all he would desire to say or 
 do would be only the honor to unite with the thousands present 
 beneath that flag which floated over them, among all those old 
 glorious symbols, upon that turf so recently wet with so much 
 precious blood — unite with them in relieving their oppressed 
 
89 
 
 hearts, by uniting in ejaculating that sentence, so simple and yet 
 so replete with noble thought, which Samuel Adams uttered-^ 
 " What a glorious morning is this ! " 
 
 Mr. Choate then proceeded, with magic eloquence and power, 
 to portray the stirring events immediately preceding and atten- 
 dant upon the memorable events of April 19, 1775. No sketch 
 could do him justice. Towards the close of his remarks he 
 spoke mainly as follows : 
 
 That was a glorious morning, the 19th of April, 1775; and 
 wherein, he would ask, consisted the specific, transcendent glo- 
 ries of that day .? Wherein lies that strange charm that belongs 
 to every thing connected with this place, its incidents and details ? 
 Why is it that our hearts grow liquid, and that we can pour them 
 out as water, when we listen again to that old story, older than 
 the words of our mothers' love, needing none of that brilliant 
 genius which had that day touched their ears, to invest them with 
 power which should never die ? 
 
 Why was it so pleasant to come up here from the miserable 
 strifes and bickerings of every-day life, to dwell and worship for 
 a short space of time in such charmed presence as this ? What 
 is it that makes the specific, transcendent gloiy of the day ? It 
 was because it v/as an event so rare, so strange, so ominous of 
 good or evil to future generations of man. It was from these 
 instruments, and from these flags, borne by these trembling 
 hands ; it was that essence, so subtile, so rare, so extensive, so 
 mysterious — that free, and that stirring spirit, the sentiment of 
 American nationality, which was first breathed into the life of 
 this people, and made to pour itself through and about the body 
 of the people, and which should last until the heavens be no 
 more. 
 
 Let then, he added, the events of which we are reminded by 
 these scenes, and these men, mark the strong birthlove of the 
 American people. On that day, within the space of twelve 
 hours, the old colonial party passed away, like a scroll. The 
 veil of the first temple was that day rent from top to bottom. 
 That day, American Liberty was then and there born. Sir, our 
 aged and revered friends of Concord, and Lexington, and Acton, 
 of Carlisle, Sudbury and the surrounding towns, went into that 
 battle British colonists ; the baptism of fire was laid upon their 
 13 
 
90 
 
 charmed brows, and they rose from their knees American citi- 
 zens. The flag of Massachusetts, the pine-tree flag, that old 
 flag, was carried into battle in the morning, and if the survivor 
 who rolled it up that night had noticed it, he would have seen, 
 gleaming through a blaze of light on one side, the pine-tree ban- 
 ner, and, on the other, the glorious stars and stripes. 
 
 Mr, Choate concluded his eloquent and fervid address, by of- 
 fering as a sentiment : 
 
 The Sentiment of American Nationality — It woke to life on the 19th 
 of April, 1775, on the banks of the Concord, and on the green of Lexington. It has 
 grown with the growth and strengthened with the strength of America, until it holds 
 together a brotherhood of twenty millions, and blends, as kindred drops, two oceans 
 into one. Wrought into the intimate nature, composing a part of every drop of blood 
 of every heart, the collisions of local interest and local feeling can no more displace 
 it, than a thunder-gust, or a snow-storm in April, can dissolve the golden bands of 
 gravitation that hold the worlds together. Let that sentiment of American Nation- 
 ality be the first lesson taught to the infant in the cradle, and the last legacy of the 
 old man departing. 
 
 The President then announced the second regular toast ; ob- 
 serving that, first of the particular memories of this occasion, 
 should ever be the names of the men, who first met the enemy 
 in arms ; who sealed with their blood their devotion to their 
 country's cause at Lexington ; the first martyrs of liberty : 
 
 2. Lexington and its first Martyrs — Parker, Munroe, Hadley, the Harringtons, 
 Muzzy, Brown, — they were faithful unto death ! they have received the crown of 
 Jife, 
 
 Col. Philip Russell, of Lexington, replied on behalf of the 
 Lexington delegation, as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, — I rise in behalf of the Committee of the town of 
 Lexington, to respond to the sentiment just announced, so com- 
 plimentary to the town and to the memory of those patriotic citi- 
 zens who fell on the 19th of April, 1775. 
 
 They were, in the language of your sentiment, " faithful unto 
 death." But in offering themselves on freedom's first altar, 
 they acted up to the spirit of that self-sacrificing age. 
 
 We look back with veneration upon that generation, and es- 
 pecially upon that patriotic band which appeared in the field in 
 defence of their country's rights. . We remember with gratitude 
 those who perished and those who survived. 
 
 One of that noble band has been spared to us, and is present 
 
91 
 
 with us on this occasion, to receive the homage due to that gen- 
 eration. The citizens of Lexington have always felt a degree of 
 pride in being associated with Concord in the events of the 19th 
 of April, 1775. With us, our motto has been, " Lexington and 
 Concord, Concord and Lexington." Nor would we forget our 
 brethren of other towns, who, animated by the same spirit, came 
 to our relief in the day of our peril as cheerfully as our friends 
 meet us here on the day of our rejoicing. 
 
 We remember with emotion the sympathy extended and the 
 aid rendered to us and to the cause of freedom by the patriots 
 from Acton, Cambridge, Danvers, and other towns in the vicin- 
 ity, who mingled their blood with ours on that occasion. To 
 them, as well as to us, belongs the glory of that eventful day, 
 
 Mr. President, I will give as a sentiment : 
 
 The County of Middlesex. — The birth-place of American Freedom. 
 
 In introducing the third regular toast, the President alluded to 
 the words of Capt. Isaac Davis, on the morning of the 19th of 
 April, 1775 ; — " that he had a right to go to Concord on the 
 King's highway, and that he looidd go to Concord, if he had to 
 meet all the British troops in Boston." That dauntless heart 
 was laid cold in death at the moment of victory. 
 
 He then gave : 
 
 3, Davis and Hosmer — 
 
 " In pride, in all the pride of woe, 
 We tell of them, the brave laid low, 
 
 Who for their birth-place bled ! 
 In pride, the pride of triumph then. 
 We tell of them, the matchless men 
 From whom the invaders fled ! " 
 
 To this toast, Hon. Stevens Hayward briefly responded on 
 behalf of the town of Acton. 
 
 The band played the air of " TheWhite Cockade,'''' which tradi- 
 tion has named as the tune to which Capt. Davis's company 
 marched down to the bridge in 1775. 
 
 Hon. John G. Palfkey was then introduced, and spoke sub- 
 stantially as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, — I thank you for detailing me to serve to-day 
 as the lieutenant of my friend from Acton, though belonging to 
 
92 
 
 one of the towns which came later into the field, on the day 
 which we commemorate. 
 
 Sir, I like the poetry to which you have called upon us to 
 speak. It is worthy of the occasion, worthy of the subject, 
 worthy of Chakles Sprague, its author. But, perhaps from old 
 professional habits and associations, I like the prose text which 
 you repeated just now, still better. " Faithful unto death." 
 It is as applicable to the martyrs of Acton as to those of Lex- 
 ington, to whom you applied it. And as the representative of 
 Lexington has had the first use of it, I dare say he will be willing 
 that I should have the second, as Acton took up the British sol- 
 diers seventy-five years ago, when Lexington had done with 
 them. 
 
 I suppose, Mr. President, that the sacred text which you re- 
 peated, well describes the courage called into action on that 
 great historical day. " Faithful unto death." Faithful. In 
 these latter days, we have made a cautious estimate of the 
 quality called military courage, and we do not allow the same 
 credit as was allowed in other times to every thing that goes by 
 the name. Dr. Channing, as I remember, in an analysis which 
 he makes of it according to its diflferent sources, specifies 
 courage from mental weakness, courage from ignorance, courage 
 from a rigid fibre ; — he speaks of soldiers, brave from want of 
 reflection, brave from sympathy, brave from the thirst of plun- 
 der, and " especially brave, because the sword of martial law is 
 hanging over their heads." Not such was the courage of the 
 patriot soldiers to whose blessed memoiy you consecrate this oc- 
 ca-sion. No two things could be more different than the courage 
 of Davis and Hosmer and their brave associates, and the courage 
 of the mercenaries whom they put to disgraceful rout. No con- 
 dition could be more unlike than that of the independent Mid- 
 dlesex farmers, who, on the 19th of April, '75, took up arms for 
 their Massachusetts rights, for their old English liberties, and 
 that of the hireling, who, for his " sixpence a day," is equally 
 ready to shoot down whomsoever his captain bids, in the West 
 Indies or in Ireland, in France or Hindostan. These yeoman war- 
 riors fought not for pay, nor for fighting's sake. They fought, 
 to be " faithful" to a great and holy cause. In the high places 
 of the field they were " faithful unto death," because a thorough 
 faithfulness conducted to that extremity. 
 
93 
 
 They went to the battle from Christian homes. Davis and 
 Hosmer, the minister of Acton has just told me, were both sons 
 of deacons of the church, and he further informs me that, at that 
 time, there was only a single house in the town, in which family 
 worehip was not maintained. Davis himself, in the expressive 
 language of the same authority, was " a man of prayer," The 
 little which tradition has preserved of his proceedings on that 
 morning, is not without its interest. Having issued orders for 
 his company of minute-men to parade, after information of the 
 approach of the British had reached Concord, he went home for 
 his arms. Snatching a hasty repast, and taking down his accou- 
 trements from his kitchen wall where they hung, he parted from 
 his wife on the door-step, and turning back to say, "take care 
 of the children," went his way. Take care of the children. 
 I do not know whether it was some presentiment of what was 
 coming, that dictated the words. But he was to take care of 
 them no more. And if, as he spoke, a tear gathered in his 
 manly eye, I am sure every parent here will be ready to forgive 
 the weakness. It was the last moisture that ever filled the lids 
 of Isaac Davis. 
 
 We next hear of him on the rising ground on the Acton side 
 beyond the North Bridge, where his company, and three or four 
 others from the neighboring towns, had collected by nine o'clock. 
 The bridge was held by Captain Laurie's three companies of 
 infantry, while Captain Parsons, with three more, had gone two 
 miles further to Colonel Barrett's, on the Acton side, to destroy the 
 stores. The American officers, Davis and the rest, held a brief 
 council, the result of which was that they had a right to go 
 down to Concord village, drums and muskets and all, and go 
 they would, for the bridge was the king's and the county's high- 
 way, and nobody had a right to bar their passage. " I have not 
 a man that's afraid to go," said Davis, as he turned away from 
 the council to take his place at the right of his Acton comrades. 
 Just now his lip had quivered, and his eye had filled, as he had 
 left his door-stone. But that was the last weakness. He had 
 left his children with their mother and with God, — the God of 
 the widow, the Father of the fatherless. There was no dimness 
 in the eye that glanced along the line of his faithful townsmen, 
 and down to the shining platoons at the bridge. There was no 
 
94 
 
 tremor on the lip, — it was fii'mly set, — that said, " I have n't a 
 man that's afraid to go." No ! There was not an Acton man 
 that had any such fear. With the story from Lexington just 
 tingling in their ears, there was not an Acton woman that morn- 
 ing, — had that been their business, — there was not an Acton boy 
 that would have been afraid to go, if, instead of Captain Laurie's 
 three companies, every regiment in King George's blood-colored 
 livery had beset the path. 
 
 The order was given to advance, and the column moved rap- 
 idly down the hill, to the tune of " The White Cockade," which 
 we have just now heard from the band. In its front was the 
 Acton company, a post which Captain Davis is said to have so- 
 licited, because no company on the ground but his had bayonets, 
 to match those of the enemy. Two or three guns, fired by the 
 British into the water, as a warning, being disregarded, an effec- 
 tive volley followed, which brought him to the ground. He 
 never breathed again. Here are the shoe-buckles which he wore 
 on that day. They have just been handed to me by the Rev. 
 Mr. Woodbury, to whom they were presented a few years ago 
 by his aged widow. 
 
 By the side of Captain Davis, and at the same moment, fell 
 Abner Hosmer, a private in his company. Their bodies, with 
 that of their neighbor, James Hayward, killed, (I believe) at 
 West Cambridge, in the afternoon, were taken that night to 
 Captain Davis's house, whence they were all three buried to- 
 gether, two or three days after. Hosmer was a young man, — I 
 believe, a mere lad. But he was hardly missed the less for that, 
 in the home where his infancy had been tended, and his youth 
 had opened with fair promise. Still he died where and when he 
 should, for he was "faithful unto death," and there was conso- 
 lation in that. So thought the " faithful " matrons of that time. 
 No doubt, when the soldier's last departing foot-fall had been 
 heard, and the arms that had just clasped him were raised to 
 Heaven in prayer by the forsaken hearth, there was breathed a 
 supplication that the God of battles would hold over him the 
 shield of His protection. But more earnest than even that, was 
 the entreaty that he might be approved in the sight of God, 
 and known of men, as faithful to his duty, — " faithful," if need 
 should be, " unto death." 
 
95 
 
 And, Mr. President, unless I greatly err, this conscientious, 
 this religious element, has been the leading characteristic of the 
 military courage of New England, through all its history. It 
 has not been recklessness. It has not been thirst of blood. 
 It has not been lust of rapine. It has not been even ambition 
 of martial glory. It has been simply " faithfulness ;" faith- 
 fulness to the end, — whether to victory or to death. I said, it 
 had not been ambition of martial glory. And I think that in the 
 apparent total absence of this feature from the history of our 
 wars there is something well deserving of notice. There is a 
 set of phrases common elsewhere in military despatches, as well 
 as in military memoirs, popular harangues, funeral tributes, and 
 so on. They are such phrases as " martial renown," " a sol- 
 dier's fame," " glory won in arms," and the like. I think our 
 New England documents would be searched for them absolutely 
 in vain. We of Massachusetts have done a good deal of fighting 
 in our day ; I wish that, especially with the poor Indians, we had 
 done much less. We had stirring times with the native tribes, 
 and in the dreadful French wars ; we were busy at Louisburg, at 
 Havana, at Martinique ; at Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Yorktown, we 
 had work in hand that tried men's mettle. Can any one show 
 me that any sentiment of mere military ambition ever prompted 
 the New England men who acted in those scenes ? He who has 
 found a trace of that comparatively vulgar sentiment, is deeper 
 read in our annals than I am, which, to be sure, may not be say- 
 ing much. He who will show it, will give me a new lesson in 
 New England history. No ! Faithfulness, " faithfulness unto 
 death," and not the mere craving of any honor to be gained by 
 slaughter, has been in all times the animating impulse of New 
 England valor. Even old Ethan Allen, of Vermont, was no ex- 
 ception. He was no Christian, — the more is the pity. But he 
 took up arms, not for glory, but for right. And he was a man 
 of sense, and he understood the temper of his men, at any rate, 
 if he did not for the time enter into it, and sympathize with it. 
 When he woke the slumbering garrison of Ticonderoga, one fine 
 May morning, with a summons to surrender, and was asked in 
 whose name he made the demand, he said it was in the name of 
 " the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." From old 
 habit and use, if for nothing else, the name of " the great Je- 
 
96 
 
 hovah," or some reference to it, could hardly be spared from so 
 much as the countersign of a New England regiment. 
 
 Apparent through the whole of our history, never did this 
 grave, reflecting, law-loving. God-fearing character of New 
 England courage appear more conspicuously, than in the course 
 of those events which we to-day commemorate. It is known to 
 you, Mr. President, that when, in the summer of 1774, the two 
 Acts of Parliament arrived, which amounted to a virtual abroga- 
 tion of the Massachusetts charter, and when a convention of four 
 counties at Boston advised the assembling of a Provincial Con- 
 gress, and other decisive measures, the County of Middlesex was 
 the first which responded to the call. In three days after it was 
 issued, — so rapid was the movement, — a hundred and fifty del- 
 egates, from the Middlesex towns, assembled here at Concord, 
 and adopted the boldest measures in furtherance of the object. 
 No one town was unrepresented, and the delegates were chosen 
 at legal town meetings, so that an article for the elections must 
 have been in the warrant, and the remarkable fact is disclosed 
 that the friends of freedom were in a majority in every town. 
 The report and resolves adopted on that occasion, breathed, in 
 eloquent terms, precisely that spirit of Christian courage, of 
 " faithfulness unto death," to which I have referred. I am 
 tempted to quote from them, but I will not venture on it, as, in 
 repeating from memory, I might make some change in the lan- 
 guage, where any change would be a blemish. 
 
 What followed the battle is curiously illustrative of the same 
 matter. The 19th day of April was given to fighting ; on the 
 22d they proceeded to take depositions. The men who, on the 
 19th, had " lined with a continuous fire " the British race-course 
 of twenty miles from Concord to Charlestown, after cooling their 
 blood with a few nights' rest, came into court, in their Sunday 
 suits, as quiet as lambs and as sober as judges, to make affidavit 
 in perpetuam rei memoridm., that there might be a permanent 
 record of how things had gone. I recollect the irrepressible 
 amusement which, some years ago, I afforded to a Southwestern 
 statesman, of great national celebrity, by telling him of this fact. 
 He made me tell it over again,: — it was so inexpressibly droll to 
 him to think of people, hardly cool from the sublime rage of 
 " the battle of the minute-m.en," telling their story under cross 
 
97 
 
 examination on the witnesses' stand. It did not meet his Ken- 
 tucky notions of the proper and natural sequence of things, that 
 such a fight as that should be ended in a Justices' Court. But I 
 ventured to hint to him, that it was just this love of law, this rev- 
 erence for right, this perfect loyalty to justice and principle, 
 which made our people able to fight that battle. They had been 
 able to defend the right so valiantly, because they had kept 
 themselves sure of having the right on their side ; and that they 
 had kept the right on their side, they wanted to show to the 
 world and to posterity. It concerned their sense of character 
 to prove that they were not the assailants, that they did not give 
 the first fire. If, when given, they returned it, if they I'eturned 
 it with interest, if they returned it with compound interest, if 
 they returned it in a way that the assailants had not bargained 
 for, they were not responsible for . that. The responsibleness 
 was on those minions of arbitrary power, whether in high or low 
 degree, who had forgotten that the rights of Massachusetts free- 
 men were written in their charter, and the blood of Massachu- 
 setts Puritans was coursing in their veins. 
 
 But, Mr. President, I am abusing the patience with which I 
 have been honored. Let me only add a word to say, that above 
 all other kinds of courage whatever, for any use whatever, give 
 me the good old-fashioned religious courage, the " faithfulness 
 unto death," of Puritan Massachusetts. In preference to any 
 other kind of courage, give me this, not only for superior purity 
 and rectitude, but for energy, for efficiency, for constancy, for 
 hottom, for work. For any use whatever, — to smooth the pil- 
 low, and hold the cooling draught to the lips, of contagious 
 sickness, or to battle with the midnight conflagration, — in the 
 storm of angry debate, in the hour of critical counsel for a na- 
 tion's welfare, or " on the perilous edge of battle when it rages," 
 give me, above all other kinds of courage, that of the man who 
 fears God so much that it is impossible for him to fear any thing 
 else, — the faith-inspired courage that nerved those " faithful " 
 men, who, for the right and their country, took their lives in their 
 hand on the ever memorable day we celebrate. 
 
 The President said, — 
 
 I have now to announce a toast to which you will all do honor. 
 13 
 
98 
 
 It refers to men, whose infirmities will not permit them, though 
 present with us to-day, to speak for themselves. There are but 
 two survivors of the day we are met to celebrate, still among 
 the living : — 
 
 JONATHAN HARRINGTON, of Lexington, of the age of 
 92, and 
 
 AMOS BAKER, of Lincoln, of the age of 94 ; and they are 
 both upon the platform. The palsy of age is this day upon 
 them, on whose youthful vigor, 75 years ago, the destinies of 
 America depended. 
 
 Jonathan Harrington was on the green at Lexington in the 
 morning, a member of Captain Parker's company. He was a 
 Jifer, — and I wish that about these times we could have a little 
 more of the same music ! 
 
 Amos Baker was at Concord North Bridge, in the forenoon, 
 and is the only man living who bore arms on that day. He saw 
 the Regulars come to the Bridge, and he saio them leave it ! 
 
 Mr. Harrington will give you a sentiment ; and as Mr. Baker 
 cannot make himself heard, I will say for him what he said to 
 me yesterday : 
 
 " When we had returned the fire of the British at the Bridge, 
 Noah Parkhurst, of Lincoln, who was my right hand man, said 
 to me, ' Now the war has begun, and no one knows when it will 
 end.' " 
 
 Mr. Baker made another statement, in the correctness of 
 which you would probably all agree with him. He said, " I 
 verily believe I felt better that day, take it all the day through, 
 than I should if I had stayed at home ; " and this seems to be his 
 deliberate opinion, after having had seventy-five years to think 
 of it ! 
 
 The two veterans then stood up, and were received with a 
 succession of cheers upon cheers, which lasted for some minutes, 
 when the fourth regular toast was read : 
 
 4. The surviving Soldiers of llie 19th of April, 1773 — Jonathan Harrington and 
 Amos Baker. Thank God, that in the glory and beauty of our harvest, there are 
 still left to us some of those who sowed the seed. 
 
 The Chief Marshal, Col. I. H. Weight, then read the follow- 
 ing toast, given by Jonathan Harrington, and written by his own 
 hand : 
 
99 
 
 " The 19th of April, 1775. All who remember that day will stand by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States." 
 
 The fifth regular toast was then announced : 
 
 5. Our Ancient Commonwealth — a child born of good parents, but left early with 
 the Massachusetts Indians ; and though forced to feed her children from a clam 
 bake in the sand ; to raise Indian corn and pumpkins ; to fish all about the bay be- 
 tween the North and South Poles ; to spin a little cotton at Lowell and Lawrence ; 
 and to truck a little in Yankee notions all along from Cape Cod to Canton — she has 
 raised a large family, and laid up something against a rainy day. 
 
 His Excellency Governor Briggs, addressed the company in 
 response to this toast, substantially as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, — The sentiment in honor of our ancient Coiti- 
 monwealth, which you have just announced, speaks for itself. 
 It requires no response from me. As children, we all love and 
 honor her, and I trust it will not be deemed improper on this oc- 
 casion for me to say that her character and history, from the 
 time of her provincial dependence to the present time, and her 
 standing among her sister states, entitles her to the love and rev- 
 erence of her children. But, sir, if, upon the great theme which 
 this day fills all our hearts, I had any thing to say when I came 
 here, let me tell you, the all-grasping reapers who have pre- 
 ceded me, have taken it all away. 
 
 Far back in distant ages, when a Moabitish stranger went into 
 the field of one of the notables of the land of Canaan " to glean 
 and gather after the reapers among the sheaves," the lord of the 
 harvest commanded his reapers to let the damsel " glean even 
 among the sheaves, and reproach her not." I wish these gentle- 
 men had shown a little of the humanity and kindness of that 
 oriental landholder. Why, sir, in my solicitude I have been 
 searching the field, and can find scarcely a head of wheat left. 
 There is, however, one thing which they have not said, in con- 
 nection with the 19th of April, 1775. They did not state 
 the historic fact, that the incursion of the British army on that 
 day was the first and last time, since Massachusetts has had a 
 political existence, that a foreign enemy had penetrated so far 
 into her territory. This is a truth which her people may regard 
 with pride and gratitude. Few states, nearly two hundred and 
 fifty years old, can say as much. I trust the result of that ex- 
 periment will admonish her enemies, if enemies she shall ever 
 
100 
 
 have, that the experiment had bettei* not be repeated. That 
 proud legion of loyalists expected, as they advanced, to see the 
 pale and trembling rebels shrink and flee before them. Great 
 was their disappointment. Sir, what a day was that for Massa- 
 chusetts ! Well did Samuel Adams exclaim, when he heard the 
 volley at Lexington, " Oh, what a glorious morning is this ! " — 
 words of prophecy and patriotism. They will be repeated with 
 enthusiastic awe, and inspire the lovers of freedom to the latest 
 generations. Mr. President, I wish that venerable old man, who 
 this moment stood before these assembled thousands, could re- 
 hearse in our hearing the thrilling incidents of that auspicious 
 morning. When on a visit to Lexington last winter, one who 
 participated in those incidents told me, that, on the bright moon- 
 light evening which preceded the 19th of April, while returning 
 to his father's house, for he had been out fifing for a company of 
 boys, he met several British officers on horseback, who preceded 
 the army which came before the rising sun. After reaching 
 home and retiring to bed, about one o'clock, his mother, calling 
 to him from the chamber door, said, " Jonathan, you must get up; 
 the Regulars are coming ; something must he done ! " The hoary 
 headed patriarch who has just retired from your sight, was the 
 boy who, by his more than Spartan mother, seventy-five years 
 ago, was summoned to get up in the dead of night, to " do 
 something, for the Regulars were coming !" Jonathan got up ; 
 what do you think he did } What could a boy sixteen years old 
 do in such an emergency .'' I'll tell you what he did. He went 
 out and blew that shrill little fife, to alarm the neighbors, rally 
 the minute-men, and call the patriots together. Mothers of Mas- 
 sachusetts, do you hear that ! Young men of Massachusetts, do 
 you hear that ! " The Regulars are coming ! " And who are 
 the Regulars } They are the embodied power of the British 
 Kingdom, the armed representatives of the British King, disci- 
 plined, brave and obedient soldiers, commanded by gallant and 
 heroic officers, advancing, in the stillness of the night, to drive 
 back the rebels and seize upon their military stores in a neigh- 
 boring town. At the approach of such an army, at that awful 
 hour, we hear the voice of an American mother, calling her boy 
 to leave his bed, " to get up and do something." Before he saw 
 the sun on that bright and ominous morning, he stood by the side 
 
101 
 
 of the stout-hearted Parker, at the head of his company on Lex- 
 ington green, and roused the martial blood of his countrymen 
 by the piercing notes of his spirit-stirring fife. There he stood 
 with the little band of armed freemen, hastily called together, in 
 the very presence of British legions. He saw the dauntless Pit- 
 cairn at their head. He heard the order given to load with pow- 
 der and balls, and saw it executed. He saw them march up 
 with an imperious and threatening air. He heard the words, 
 " Rebels, disperse ! Rebels, lay down your arms ! " He saw 
 the flash, the smoke, and heard the sharp report of the guns 
 which broke the stillness of that first morning of the American 
 revolution. Yes, sir, he was in the midst of that great scene. 
 Those eyes, now dimmed with the vision of an hundred years, 
 saw it ; those ears, dulled by the din of a centuiy, heard it ; that 
 heart, now feebly beating in his aged bosom, felt it. 
 
 The first martyrs in the great cause of their country, fell at 
 Lexington, and the fratricidal host marched on to Concord. 
 
 Faithful couriers and deep-toned bells aroused the patriots of 
 Concord and the adjoining towns, who had heard of the massacre 
 of their neighbors, and were prepared to meet the approaching 
 foe. At the old North Bridge, that foe again fired upon the 
 peaceful yeomanry of Massachusetts, while firmly standing in 
 defence of their rights. The blood of other victims gushed out 
 and flowed upon the soil ; the fire was returned, and two British 
 soldiers fell. The enemy hastily retreated. Here sits Amos 
 Baker, the sole survivor of that memorable fight. That arm, 
 now enfeebled by age, then youthful and strong, helped to drive 
 back the enemies of his country. Thank heaven, that these two 
 only remaining actors in the scenes of that day, the one at Lex- 
 ington and the other at Concord, are here to heighten the interest 
 of this seventy-fifth anniversary. They are here for the last time, 
 and the youth who now look upon them, will, in their old age, re- 
 late with patriotic emotion, to the children of a generation not 
 yet born, the wonderful fact, that they saw in 1850, two soldiers 
 who fought at Lexington and Concord. When, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Lexington, Samuel Adams heard the guns, he exclaimed, 
 " Oh, what a glorious morning is this ! " Early in the same 
 morning, as General Warren landed at Charlestown from the 
 ferry boat, which had brought him over from Boston, on being 
 
asked what he thought of the political prospect of the times, re- 
 plied, " Keep up a brave heart ; they have begun it — that either 
 party could do ; wje'ZZ end it — that only one can do." A soldier 
 at Concord said, " The war is now begun, — the Lord only knows 
 when it will end." 
 
 This remarkable sentiment, uttered by noble patriots on the 
 same day, in different places, shows how the spirit of freedom 
 pervaded the hearts of the people of Massachusetts. It was a 
 glorious day for Lexington, and Concord, and Middlesex, for 
 Massachusetts and the thirteen British colonies. It was a glorious 
 day for liberty, for patriotism, for humanity. Every blow struck 
 for liberty amongst men, since the 19th of April, 1775, has but 
 echoed the guns of that eventful morning. 
 
 Mr. President, I give you as a sentiment : 
 
 Tlie Nineteenth of April, 1775, with the prophetic and patriotic exclamation of 
 Samuel Adams, when he heard the guns at Lexing-ton, " Oh, what a glorious morning 
 is this ! " 
 
 A volunteer sentiment was handed to the chair, and announced 
 as coming from the reporter of the " Boston Post," but has 
 since been ascertained to have been the production of C. W. 
 Storey, Esq., Clerk of the House of Representatives. It was 
 received with great applause : 
 
 " When Jonathan Harrington got up that morning, at the call of his mother, a dis- 
 tinguished relative of his got up at the same time. Brother Jonathan — but /iw 
 mother did not call him ! " 
 
 The sixth regular toast followed : 
 
 6. The President of the United States and our National Union. 
 
 In introducing the seventh regular toast, the President of the 
 day said : 
 
 It is the commandment of God, " Thou shalt honor thy fa- 
 ther and thy mother." 
 
 No Englishman is an invited guest, nor would it be consistent 
 with the proprieties of the occasion that any should be present at 
 our festival ; but we have not met here to-day with feelings of 
 bitterness. We come to indulge in no vulgar animosity, — to re- 
 vive no ancient feud. We would remember in kindness, with 
 honor, with filial pride, our mother country. Stern and rugged 
 
103 
 
 as we found her at times, we drew from her breast the health of 
 our infancy, and the vigor of our youth. The men of the Revo- 
 lution declared to the world that they were contending for the 
 liberties of Englishmen. 
 
 In the south aisle of Westminster Abbey, — under those majestic 
 arches where England for ages 
 
 " Has garnered up her great," 
 
 where repose her princes and her nobles, her warriors and her 
 statesmen, surrounded by the memorials which national pride 
 and national gratitude have raised to the saints and martyrs, the 
 orators and poets, the patriots and heroes of a thousand years, — 
 there stands a marble monument. It was erected to the memory 
 of Lord Howe, general of the British forces in North America, 
 who died on the march to Ticonderoga in 1758 ; and was placed 
 there, — as the inscription tells us, — " by royal permission, by 
 his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England." 
 Among the figures which it bears is an allegorical personage, 
 whose embodied presence I do not remember to have met with 
 elsewhere : 
 
 The Genius of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ! 
 
 It moves the imagination, to contemplate the Genius of our 
 State thus assuming a place in that treasure-house of England's 
 renown. But may it not be fearlessly claimed, and worthily 
 held ? Might she not look round upon those who sleep beneath, 
 with a kindred spirit, conscious that she had never done discredit 
 to the English name ? Has not the Genius of Massachusetts an 
 honest right, does she not find a fitting place, in Westminster 
 Abbey, as among the heroic spirits which the English race has 
 nurtured } 
 
 I confess it seems to me, that if the stern and lofty virtues of 
 the Pilgrims, if Louisburg and Quebec were not enough, the 
 memories of Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, might 
 suffice forever to vindicate the claim — • 
 
 " Her father's blood before her father's face, 
 Boiled up, and proved her truly of his race ! " 
 
 May we not here at least assert that we have not dishonored 
 our lineage .? 
 
104 
 
 I give you as a toast : 
 
 7. England — Our Mother Country. We have cause to speak well of our stock. 
 The reason why the Essex and Middlesex farmers could front the power of England 
 was, that they had good West of England blood in their veins. We had half of 
 England to sympathize with us through the war ; and our fathers could afford to 
 part with Old England, for they had established a New England in the West. 
 
 The band played " God save the Queen," and the President 
 said : 
 
 I have the pleasure and the honor to introduce to you a gen- 
 tleman, who, next to the men whose deeds in arms we commem- 
 orate, has done the most to give celebrity to the 19th of April, 
 the Honorable Edward Everett. 
 
 Mr. Everett rose amidst prolonged cheers, and replied to the 
 seventh regular toast as follows : 
 
 When I rose this morning, Mr. Chairman, the state of my 
 health and ■ of the weather was such, that I feared it would not 
 be in my power to avail myself of your kind invitation. But 
 since iny arrival here I have so much enjoyed the patriotic ex- 
 citement of the day and the place ; it has gratified me so much 
 to visit again these hallowed scenes ; I have listened with so 
 much pleasure to the eloquent discourse of the oi'ator of the day, 
 and to the interesting and impassioned addresses which have 
 been made at the table, that I am quite ready, with our venerable 
 friend near me (Mr. Amos Baker,) to say that, " ail things con- 
 sidered, I feel much better here than if I had staid at home." 
 
 It is truly gratifying to one, sir, who has taken the interest that 
 I have in former celebrations of this anniversary, an interest to 
 which you have had the goodness to allude in such kind terms, 
 to come back and revive the recollections of earlier days. The 
 familiar but freshly told tale of the 19th of April, 1775, as nar- 
 rated by the orator, falls like music on my ear. I gaze with re- 
 spectful admiration on these venerable men, the survivors, the 
 few and sole survivors, of the eventful day, in which they bore 
 so honorable a part. One of them, (Mr. Jonathan Harrington) 
 who has this moment been assisted from the platform, " filled 
 the fife " on that morning of peril and glory at Lexington. The 
 Governor has just narrated to you the incident, whose heroic 
 simplicity is unsurpassed in the annals of liberty. While I was 
 helping that infirm old man a few minutes since to draw on his 
 
105 
 
 outer garment, as I saw him trembling with years, the arm which 
 held the fife on the 19th of April, 1775, now so feeble and 
 nerveless, I was ready to exclaim, since we have been alluding 
 to him by the Christian name, " I am distressed for thee, my 
 brother Jonathan ; very pleasant hast thou been unto me." 
 
 I suppose, Mr. Chairman, that I am indebted for the honor of 
 being called upon to respond to the last toast, to the circumstance 
 that a few years ago I was the minister of the United States in 
 England. My residence there gave me full opportunity of be- 
 coming acquainted with the feelings existing in that country to- 
 wards the United States. I have much pleasure in saying that 
 they are in harmony with those expressed in the toast toward 
 England. The events of this day have there passed into the 
 calm region of history. From the highest personages in the 
 kingdom and the government, through all the circles of society 
 in which I had the means of observation, I witnessed nothing 
 but indications of good will toward the people of this country. 
 I therefore rejoice, sir, that you have guarded against any inter- 
 pretation of the proceedings of this day, inconsistent with a sim- 
 ilar feeling on our part toward the parent country. I was pleased 
 to see the English flag at half mast over the spot where the two 
 British soldiers fell at the North Bridge on the 19th April. I 
 was gratified to hear the liberal sentiment of the orator, that the 
 account of hostilities was long since closed, and that between 
 the two kindred countries the future struggle should be for pre- 
 eminence in the arts of peace. I hold indeed, sir, that duty to 
 those, who met the perils of the 19th April, 1775, and put all to 
 risk for the liberties of themselves and their children, requires 
 that the great events of that day should be kept in fresh remem- 
 brance. I feel it to be impossible, that we who inhabit these 
 classical fields of our country's freedom, who have seen and 
 known some of the leading actors of the great drama, should 
 ever be insensible to its interest. But I am sure that you, sir, 
 and this intelligent company, agree with me in thinking, that we 
 shall greatly mistake the proper object of these commemorations, 
 if we made them the occasion of cherishing any unkind or bitter 
 feeling toward the country between which and ourselves there 
 are bonds of kindness and grounds of friendship such as never 
 existed between any two other nations. 
 14 
 
106 
 
 Why, sir, even at that moment of extreme exasperation, which 
 preceded the breaking out of the war, there were men in Eng- 
 land, and those of the highest note for talent, station, and char- 
 acter, who entertained the most friendly feelings toward the col- 
 onies and their cause. The most eloquent voices in parliament 
 were heard on our side. When the stamp act, in 1765, was re- 
 ceived with a burst of opposition from one end of this continent 
 to the other, Lord Chatham declared that he rejoiced that Amer- 
 ica had resisted. It was less than, a month before the com- 
 mencement of hostilities, that Burke pronounced that truly divine 
 oration on " Conciliation with America," which, in my poor judg- 
 ment, excels every thing, in the form of eloquence, that has 
 come down to us from Greece or Rome. Less than a month it 
 was, before the 19th of April, 1775, that he said, " My hold of the 
 colonies is in the close affection which grows from common 
 names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and from 
 equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are 
 strong as links of iron." These kindly words and more like 
 them were uttered on the 22d of March. On the 19th of April 
 the curtain rose On that mighty drama in the world's history, of 
 which the quiet villages of Lexington and Concord were the ap- 
 pointed theatre. When that day's tidings reached England 
 they went to many a generous heart. I often heard in that 
 country a gentleman of great literary eminence, (I wish it were 
 proper to repeat his name,) say, that when the news of the 19th 
 April arrived in England, his father, with a sorrowful counte- 
 nance, announced it to the family assembled at prayers. He 
 then ordered a suit of full mourning. Some one asked him if he 
 had lost a friend, — a relative. " Yes," was the answer, " many 
 friends, many brethren, at one blow, in Lexington and Concord, 
 in America." 
 
 I do not of course mean, sir, that liberal men in England, in 
 1775, were in favor of the independence of America. This was 
 a result (I hardly need say) to which but a few of the more ar- 
 dent even of our patriots had arrived. But as soon as the ne- 
 cessity of this consummation was apparent, it was embraced on 
 the other side of the water quite as readily as could have been 
 expected. Even the prime minister, Lord North, whom we have 
 been accustomed to regard, on this side of the Atlantic, as the 
 
107 
 
 great promoter and the inflexible prosecutor of the war, was de- 
 sirous, two or three years before that event took place, to retire 
 from the ministry, that he might be succeeded by those who 
 could consistently make peace with the United States. This 
 fact was brought to light a few years since, by the extracts from 
 the notes of George III. to Lord North, published in the appendix 
 to the sixth volume of President Sparks's edition of the writings 
 of Washington. I had the opportunity, while in England, of 
 seeing all of that correspondence, which has been preserved in 
 Lord North's family, and the fact alluded to is beyond question. 
 It was the personal and urgent appeals of the king to Lord North 
 which alone induced the latter to remain in office. It must be 
 admitted that these facts place in no very favorable light the in- 
 flexibility of the king and the compliance of the minister. But 
 we all remember that when President Adams, senior, was pre- 
 sented to George III. as the first minister of the United States to 
 England, the king magnanimously said, " I was the last man, 
 Mr. Adams, to wish the independence of your country ; but I 
 will be the first to respect it." 
 
 I have alluded to the stamp act, with Avhich, in many points of 
 view, the American Revolution begins. You recollect, I dare 
 say, sir, in that admirable speech of Burke, to which I have re- 
 ferred, that he vindicates the colonies from the reproach of 
 having turned the great issues of civil liberty into a money ques- 
 tion. He reminds the House of Commons that " the great con- 
 tests of freedom in England were from the earliest times chiefly 
 upon the question of taxing," and it was, as I have said, from 
 the ill-starred project of Mr. George Grenville, to raise a revenue 
 from America, (not, however, I believe, original with him,) that 
 the first movements of the American Revolution sprung. We 
 have been gratified this morning with a sight of several relics of 
 those days, of various kinds and great interest; and I have 
 thought, sir, you might be pleased with the inspection of one 
 which will at least have the interest of novelty : I mean a speci- 
 men of that ever memorable stamped paper which, considering 
 its great influence in bringing on the American Revolution, has 
 played as important a part in human affairs as any paper that 
 was ever made. We may almost call it, as Pliny the elder does 
 the paper made of the Egyptian papyrus, res qua constat immor- 
 talitas Jwminum. I hold a half crown stamp in my hands. How 
 
108 
 
 I got it, sir, I believe I shall not tell you. It is sufficient to say 
 that I came by it honestly and without infringing any man's 
 rights, which is saying a good deal considering what it is. 
 
 Yes, sir, that bit of dingy blue paper, stamped with the two 
 and sixpence sterling, created the United States of America, and 
 cost Great Britain the brightest jewel in her crown ; an event 
 however which, in all things except the precious blood that was 
 shed in the contest and the sufferings of a seven years' war, was 
 the greatest blessing, in reference both to political and material 
 interests, which could have fallen to the lot of either country. 
 The continued subjection of America to the restrictions of the 
 colonial system, (even if our fathers had carried the points im- 
 mediately at issue,) would have produced a prolonged state of 
 feverish agitation and ever reviving controversy utterly inconsis- 
 tent with any wholesome social progress. On the other hand, 
 the policy pursued by England, if crowned with temporary suc- 
 cess, would have been attended or followed by the prosti'ation of 
 the barriers of liberty in that country. The prophecy of Lord 
 Chatham would unquestionably have been fulfilled : " If America 
 falls, she will fall like the strong man, embracing the pillars of 
 state, and drag down the constitution along with her." As to 
 the material interests promoted by the separation, while the pro- 
 gress of America, since the adoption of the constitution, exceeds 
 in rapidity any thing recorded in history, that of England, (not- 
 withstanding the tremendous shock of the wars of the French 
 revolution and the load of debt entailed by those wars upon her,) 
 has been scarcely less astonishing than our own. I suppose 
 there is no period of English history, in which she has grown so 
 much in numbers, wealth, and extent of dominion, as that which 
 has elapsed since the recognition of our independence. All that 
 could have been wrung from us by the blue paper is but an 
 insignificant trifle compared with the rich harvest of our mutu- 
 ally beneficial commerce. 
 
 It cannot of course be necessary in this place, before this au- 
 dience, especially after what we have heard from the orator of 
 the day, to defend the principles of the American Revolution, 
 first sealed with blood as they were on the 19th of April, 1775. 
 The American state papers of that day have become the Pan- 
 dects of civil liberty throughout the world. To wars of ag- 
 
109 
 
 gression I am vehemently opposed. They are remnants of sav- 
 age barbarism, and disgrace our Christian civilization. But when 
 a war of self-defence, a war for those rights which make it life 
 to live, is forced upon a people, it must be manfully met. That 
 our revolutionary contest was such a war is now admitted by 
 the consent of mankind. That the demands of our fathers were 
 reasonable is shown by the fact, that concessions, far beyond 
 those demands, have been made by Great Britain to all her col- 
 onies deemed capable of free institutions. Our neighbors in 
 Canada are in the full enjoyment of a responsible government. 
 The royal governor is instructed to select his ministers, not from 
 the party favorable to the crown, but from the party which pos- 
 sesses the majority in the provincial parliament. The crown, in 
 a recent and most remarkable case, has refused to interpose its 
 veto on a measure carried by the popular party in that parlia- 
 ment; and what may be regarded as throwing down the last 
 buttress of the colonial system, the great Navigation Act, (the 
 real if not the avowed cause of the American Revolution,) has 
 within a twelvemonth been repealed. The colonies are now 
 permitted to trade with foreign countries as freely as with Eng- 
 land. In a speech of great ability in the British House of Com- 
 mons, at the present session of parliament, the prime minister 
 (Lord John Russell) is reported to have said : " On looking back 
 to the origin of that unhappy contest, (the American Revolution) 
 I cannot but think it was not a single error, or a single blunder 
 which got us into that contest, but a series of repeated errors 
 and repeated blunders ; of a policy asserted and then retreated 
 from, — again asserted and then concessions made when they 
 were too late, and of obstinacy when it was unseasonable. I be- 
 lieve it was by such a course we entered into that unhappy con- 
 test, with what were, at the beginning of it, loyal provinces of 
 England."* 
 
 It is twenty-five years, sir, to-day, since I first had the honor 
 of addressing my fellow-citizens at this place and exerting my- 
 self, to the best of my ability, to freshen the recollections of the 
 momentous day. Twenty-five years are a great space in the 
 life of an individual ; but we are accustomed to regard it as a 
 
 * Lord John Russell's Speech on the Colonial Question, on the 8lh of February, 
 1850. 
 
no 
 
 brief period in the life of a state. But even in the life of the 
 country, if length of time is measured by the magnitude of the 
 events crowded into it, one might say that America had lived an 
 age in this quarter of a century. In 1825 we had but twenty- 
 four States. We have now thirty, and the thirty-first, our latest 
 born sister California,— with her golden locks, — is advancing 
 across the continent with youthful but vigorous step. Presenting 
 herself at the door of the Union with her self-imposed, rather let 
 me say self-conferred, restriction, — a richer treasure than all 
 her mines, — she is knocking for admission with a claim not long 
 to be resisted. When I addressed you in 1825, the population 
 of the United States amounted to about 11,000,000. It is be- 
 lieved that the enumeration of the present year will carry it to 
 24,000,000. Yes, sir, within this period of twenty-five years, 
 since some of us now present (alas, sir, that I must say some 
 only,) were assembled to lay the corner-stone of yonder monu- 
 ment, a new nation of 13,000,000, not then in being, has grown 
 up within our borders, to whom, as well as to ourselves, a pre- 
 cious heritage of political liberty was bequeathed by the men of 
 1775. The few of us who shall assemble here in 1875, (they 
 will be very few indeed, sir, of those who have reached my age,) 
 at the close of the full century, will be citizens of a kindred na- 
 tion of fifty millions. 
 
 On one condition, however, to which I cannot but allude. 
 There is no law of our nature which makes such a national growth, 
 or any growth, a matter of absolute necessity under all circum- 
 stances. I received by the last steamer, a pamphlet written by a 
 member of the French chamber of deputies, on " the Decline of 
 France."* He states that the population of France, when she 
 went into her revolution in 1789, was thirty millions ; when she 
 came out of it in 1816 it was but thirty millions. In twenty-seven 
 years, in which the United States more than doubled their popula- 
 tion, France had not added a unit to her numbers, and yet, with 
 the exception of the first six or seven years, it was what is called 
 a prosperous period ; at any rate, a period of victory and glory. 
 What was the cause of this stationary condition of a country, 
 
 *De la Decadence de la France, par M. Raudot, (De I'Yonne) membre de 
 I'assemblee legislative, Paris, 1850. 
 
Ill 
 
 seated like France in the centre of Europe, and possessing all 
 the material elements of prosperity, in a greater degree, than 
 almost any other country in that quarter of the globe ? The se- 
 cret is soon told. The flower of her population was annually 
 decimated. The ripened grain does not more regularly fall in 
 its season beneath the reaper's sickle, than the flower of her 
 young men was annually mowed down by the ruthless scythe of 
 the conscription. The car of Napoleon rolled indeed in triumph 
 over conquered Europe : 
 
 " O'er shields and helms, and helmed heads he rode 
 Of thrones and mighty dynasties prostrate," 
 
 but the bleaching bones of his subjects strewed the pathway from 
 the frozen clods of the North to the burning sands of Syria. 
 
 We are safe from foreign invasion. What the most powerful 
 state in Europe could not do in 1775, when our numbers fell 
 short of three millions, is not likely to be attempted again, now 
 that they have reached eight times that number, and are increas- 
 ing with a rapidity which it makes the head giddy to calculate. 
 No, sir, the wars which we have to dread, the wars, if any such 
 to chastise our sins, are lying in wait for Us in the store-house of 
 Providence, (a catastrophe which heaven avert) will be wars of 
 aggression, or wars in which our foes will be those of our own 
 political household. A higher than human wisdom has taught 
 us, that every kingdom divided against itself is brought to deso- 
 lation ; and if ever this more than kingdom of ours, — this imperial 
 family of States, spread out between the two great oceans of the 
 globe, — 
 
 " Bridging the way, Europe with Asia joined," 
 
 to gather as it were into her bosom the riches of both hemis- 
 pheres and either sea ; I say, sir, if this mighty family of States, 
 in the Providence of God and by the madness of men, shall ever 
 be divided against itself, it will be brought to desolation. Along 
 this curiously-indented frontier of neighboring States, fitted, 
 dove-tailed into each other like the fingers of hands approaching 
 in friendship, the line of demarcation will soon be run with blood 
 and fire. Our mighty rivers, that bear the world's commerce 
 east and west from the Atlantic coast to the interior, or which 
 
112 
 
 sparkling down the continent from North to South, — as if the 
 great circles of the globe were chased in living silver along its 
 surface, — these stupendous rivers which spring from arctic snows 
 and pour into the sea beneath the tropics, will become like the 
 rivers of the old world, the Rhine and the Danube, the Euphrates 
 and the Indus, the boundaries of alien and hostile races, whose 
 eternal border wars have fixed upon their necks the eternal yoke 
 of military despotism. This it was which, in the morning of the 
 world, brought the beaming forehead of Asia, queen of nations, 
 cradle of mankind, to the dust. This it was that struck down the 
 shortlived civilization of Greece and Rome, and overwhelmed it 
 with a millenium not of grace but of barbarism. And if I read 
 aright the signs of the times, it is this which is even now shaking 
 the social system of continental Europe to its foundation. Is it 
 not plain as day, that if Germany on the one hand and Italy on 
 the other had been united in well compacted constitutional con- 
 federations, resting on an historical basis, — cemented by a com- 
 mon national feeling, — and possessing tribunals for the amicable 
 adjustment of public controversies, instead of referring them to 
 the bloody and abominable umpirage of war, that Hungary and 
 Lombardy, and Rome, and Sicily, instead of being trampled un- 
 der the iron hoof of foreign and despotic power, might at this 
 moment have been enjoying all the blessings of freedom and 
 peace ? And if we, blessed by the wisdom of our forefathers 
 with such a safeguard against anarchy and war, should rashly 
 cast it away, Avhat words of condemnation will adequately describe 
 our folly ? ■ 
 
 The laws of human nature, like those of the physical universe, 
 are the same in both hemispheres. Like causes will produce 
 like effects. Our fathers, in the days that tried men's souls, 
 grasped at a union of the colonies as the ark of their safety. 
 They formed a union in the act of declaring their independence. 
 They formed a union before they attempted a constitution. This 
 was 
 
 " The hoop of gold to bind their brothers in, 
 That the united vessel of their blood, 
 Mingled with venom of suggestion, 
 As force per force the age will pour it in, 
 Should never leak though it do work as strong 
 As aconitum." 
 
113 
 
 But I forbear, sir, to enlarge upon this all-important theme, 
 and I offer you as a toast, in taking my seat : 
 
 The 19th of April, 1775, and the principles of constitutional freedom which our fa- 
 thers sealed with their blood ; may they be peacefully diffused throug-hout the world, 
 till every human being shall partake the blessing. 
 
 The President of the day then said : 
 
 Before announcing the next toast, there is much which it 
 would be proper to say, much which it is not pleasant to me to 
 leave unsaid, but for which the time will not suffice. There are 
 many towns who deserve an honorable mention on this occasion, 
 to whose citizens belongs no inconsiderable share of the glory 
 which has been attached to the names of Lexington and Concord. 
 
 The hardest fighting of the day was in Lincoln and West 
 Cambridge. Danvers, although nearly the farthest from the 
 line of march, lost more men than any other town but Lexington. 
 
 There is an anecdote of the Roxbury company, which I had 
 from the learned and venerable Chief Justice of the Common- 
 wealth, (who I am sorry to say is not here to add dignity and 
 interest to our festival) and which was told him by the late Mr. 
 John Parker, a member of the company. When the alarm was 
 given in the morning, and the company mustered, the first thing 
 they did was to march two miles in the opposite direction., to 
 the house of the Rev. Dr. Gordon, to attend prayers ! But they 
 reached the scene of action in time to vindicate their charac- 
 ter for patriotism as well as piety., by losing a man in the af- 
 ternoon. 
 
 The first trophy of the Revolution was taken by a citizen of 
 Lincoln. Col. Ahijah Fierce was the colonel of the regiment 
 of minute-men. He had been but recently chosen to that office, 
 had not provided himself with equipments, and came up to Con- 
 cord in the morning, armed with nothing but a stout cane. He 
 went with the Vmcoln company to the North Bridge, and when 
 the Regulars were repulsed, armed himself with the gun of one 
 of the British soldiers who v/as killed by the first fire, and used 
 it during the day in the pursuit to Lexington and West Cam- 
 bridge. It was preserved for nearly fifty years in his family 
 and by his descendants. 
 
 You may see on the table before me, the powder-horn of 
 15 
 
114 
 
 Isaac Parker^ of Chelmsford, who wore it at the North Bridge ; 
 and a fragment of the shirt in which Reuben Kenniston, of 
 Beverly, was killed, which was preserved with pious care by his 
 wife. The holes through it have decayed from the blood-stains, 
 which were left uneffaced. 
 
 There is a story to be told of the men of Woburn, of Reading, 
 of Needham, of Sudbury, of Westford ; — but, to include all, I 
 can but offer as the eighth regular toast : 
 
 8. The Towns whose citizens took part in the deeds of the 19th of April, 1775. 
 There was " a diversity of gifts, but the same spirit." 
 
 A toast was received in reply from James Russell, Esq., of 
 West Cambridge : 
 
 " The memory of Jason Russell, Jason Winship, and Jabez Wyman, citizens of 
 West Cambridge, with nine other American citizens, whose names and places of 
 residence are unknown, who fell martyrs to liberty at West Cambridge, on the day 
 ■we are now assembled to commemorate." 
 
 The ninth regular toast was then given : 
 
 9. " The Legislature of Massachusetts — Incorruptible in its numbers, popular in its 
 origin and its sympathies, conservative by its intelligence ; — its members do well to 
 refresh their .patriotism by a draught from the fountain head." 
 
 Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, President of the Senate, re- 
 sponded briefly to this sentiment, in behalf of that branch. He 
 said that after the eloquent address and the soul-stirring speeches 
 to which we had listened, and at this late hour when he expected 
 every moment the bell of the cars would summon him to return 
 to the city, and when he was anxious that the Speaker also should 
 have an opportunity to be heard in behalf of the House, he did 
 not believe any thing which he could offer would add either to 
 the enjoyment or interest of the occasion. After a few appro- 
 priate remarks, he concluded with the following sentiment : 
 
 Lexington and Concord — Twin Sisters. On the 19th of Aprrt, 1775, they sprinkled 
 the altar of Freedom with the blood of their sons. May their memories be embalmed 
 in the hearts of their grateful countrymen, and may their praise be sung by the myr- 
 iads of happy freemen who shall yet join in the psean of universal liberty. 
 
 The Hon. E. H. Kellogg, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, followed with some remarks, and a toast. 
 Mr. Kellogg said : 
 
115 
 
 Mr. President, — If the rail-car bells do not ring too quick, I 
 shall be most happy to avail myself, for a moment, of the official 
 privilege that happens to attach to me, to thank the citizens of 
 Concord and neighboring towns, in behalf of Massachusetts, 
 for allowing her, in her most popular representative capacity, 
 to partake in the patriotic joys of this occasion. We rejoice, 
 sir, that we are allowed on this sacred day to tread with you 
 these sacred grounds. We love to breathe the airs that pre- 
 vail over them. We gaze intently on yonder eminence, where 
 towered the liberty-pole seventy-five years ago this morning. 
 We rejoice to look up and down this old road from Concord 
 to Lexington, along the lines of which, on that great day, there 
 magically appeared to the Regulars as many foemen as ever 
 sprung into view at the sound of the whistle of Rhoderic Dhu. 
 We thank you for leading us to the locality of the old North 
 Bridge, where the first men fell. We thank you for enabling 
 us to see so vividly the situation of your fathers on that morning. 
 The roll of the drum, the rattle of musketry in the hands of 
 your citizen-soldiery, on the very spot where Buttrick led his 
 men to the first attack, almost produced the day we commemo- 
 rate. Seventy-five years of history faded away. I stood in the 
 light of the old 19th of April, with the proud invaders before me. 
 Pardon me, sir, but my blood leaped in my veins, under the mo- 
 mentary illusion of being one to open our Revolution. 
 
 We are here, sir, from all parts of the State, — most of us for 
 the first time, — visiting this, one of our earliest revolutionary bat- 
 tle-grounds. With what pride, with what unspeakable satisfac- 
 tion, Massachusetts cherishes its name, the world well knows, 
 and we desire to testify here to-day. What son of hers here does 
 not feel the power of the occasion .? Borne away by emotions 
 not to be repressed, we can scarcely do more than felicitate you, 
 our fellow-countrymen, on your good fortune. Happy men ! 
 You have in your veins the blood, and in your keeping the 
 graves, of the first martyrs to the great cause. Their glorious 
 slumbers bless this quiet vale. But that cause poured its tide of 
 blessings over a wider field than Concord, — on other heads than 
 those of their children. In the full and abounding fruition of 
 those blessings, we appear here, to-day, to join you in paying 
 homage to the spot and the memory of those whose deaths hal- 
 
116 
 
 low it. The same filial piety that leads you to observe the day, 
 brings us here to join you. Indeed, sir, you can hardly appro- 
 priate the glorious lineage exclusively to yourselves. Opportu- 
 nity did not serve our ancestors all alike. But your fathers did 
 not raise the battle-shout on that morning in firmer or fiercer 
 tones, than it was echoed back from the hearts of our fathers, 
 resident in other and more distant parts of the State. All hearts 
 leaped alike to the field, though all hands did not close with the 
 foe in the fight. Sir, these fields of Concord and Lexington ex- 
 pand, as I am contemplating them, to the full dimensions of Mas- 
 sachusetts. The hearts of all her sons, seventy-five years ago, 
 beat responsive to those in Concord. And so, I must be allowed 
 to believe, does the chord that you strike here to-day, vibrate 
 throughout the same wide limits. Whether we live on that Cape 
 that stretches her mighty arm so far into the sea, or within the 
 charmed circle of Faneuil Hall's influence, or whether we live 
 in the great Central County, or in the velvet vale of the Queen 
 of New England Waters, or breathe the air of my own dear 
 mountain land: however distant our abodes, we would this day 
 bow with you around this early altar of our country's freedom, 
 with equal gratitude to those who consecrated it, and to God, 
 who so abundantly blessed their cause. 
 
 Sir, we broke from pressing official duties to come here on 
 no idle errand. We shall read but poorly, however, the lesson 
 that Massachusetts teaches on an occasion like this, if we go 
 away without an enlivened sense of our duties to our common 
 country and to humanity. The great volume of history, sir, 
 does not present an instance of more noble services in behalf of 
 other states, than that of Massachusetts affords. The fight we 
 celebrate was not begun for Concord, but the countiy. It was 
 but a few short months after the event, before the last foot of the 
 invaders left our State forever. But did Massachusetts halt on 
 her borders, when she found her own soil free ? No, sir. For 
 seven long years, wherever the front of battle lowered darkest, 
 there was she found in numbers and in spirit in the foremost 
 ranks of the revolutionary army. Around the Green Mountain 
 Lakes, on the banks of the Hudson, the Delaware, or the Sus- 
 quehanna, — on the plains of Virginia, or the savannas of the 
 South, — on whatever part of our country the power of England 
 
117 
 
 descended, there she bared her breast to the shock. When the 
 country found itself incapable of exertion, almost incapable of 
 defence, under the old confederation of independent states, she 
 waived her state pride, and contributed the wisdom of her Kings, 
 her Gerrys, her Gorhams, and Strongs, to the establishment of 
 the present political fabric — the wonder of the world. Under 
 that Union she has exhibited the same patriotism with which 
 she led the states through the weary way of the Revolution. 
 
 When the General Government felt it to be its duty to drive 
 her myriad of sails from the ocean, to turn her Avharves into 
 green mounds, and her ports into stagnant pools, she com- 
 plained, to be sure, but she did not traitorously rebel. She turned 
 her cunning hand to the Mechanic Arts. Her heart soon re- 
 vived. Her countenance was again radiant with the smile of 
 prosperity. And when dissatisfaction, jealousy and distrust un- 
 happily seized upon a portion of the country — when one of the 
 sister states that had shared with us in the transcendent glories 
 of revolutionary sacrifice and service, — that had actually rivalled 
 us in patriotic care and solicitude for the Union in its tender 
 years, — when this state made her wild attack on our venerated 
 Constitution, she found Massachusetts in front of its citadel. 
 With her heart throbbing again with the old revolutionaiy pul- 
 sations, and with a tongue, entirely worthy of her, and of which 
 she was entirely worthy, endowed though it was with immortal, 
 immortal, speech, she called upon her old revolutionary asso- 
 ciates, and their younger sisters, and led them on to repel the 
 attack. The cohorts of disunion fled the field in dismay. What 
 though some undutiful son of her own, — what though the sons of 
 younger states, that have been cradled and reared beneath the 
 protection her blood and treasure did so much to establish, — may 
 accuse her of a local, a selfish and provincial patriotism ! This, 
 and other, her revolutionary fields shall bear eternal record 
 against the lying accusation. Under a Union that she passion- 
 ately loves, under a Constitution that she absolutely venerates, 
 she will cherish the spirit in which that Union was founded, and 
 discharge promptly all the duties exacted by the compromises 
 that gave birth to the Constitution. In the dispensations of an 
 all-wise Providence, it was impossible to establish that Union, 
 without her holding a certain constitutional relation to an institu- 
 tion against which her moral nature rebels. Whatever duties 
 
118 
 
 spring from that relation she will discharge. If any man shall 
 ask — if any man shall tempt her to do more — if, under alarm 
 created by sectional or party devices, she be tempted the breadth 
 of a hair beyond the line of her constitutional duty, she will, in 
 her moments of reflection, feel degraded by an insult, and her 
 spirit will recover its level, whatsoever sacrifice it may cost her. 
 May God bring us out of this perilous hour, with our garments 
 clean, with a sense of duty done, and with our confidence in one 
 another restored to its wonted firmness ! The Massachusetts les- 
 son for the hour is, that we should make all honorable sacrifices 
 for the good of the country and the Union, and that, under that 
 Union, we should perform all our duties with the spirit of free- 
 men. If this lesson reach our hearts, we ^hall not have come 
 here in vain. 
 
 Mr. Kellogg closed his speech by proposing as a toast : 
 
 " Massachusetts and the Country — Massachusetts performed her duty in the Rev- 
 olution, and in the establishment of our National Government 5 she has hitherto per- 
 formed her duty under the Union, and God and her patriotism will enable her here- 
 after to perform her whole duty to, and under, that Union." 
 
 The next regular toast was read by Hon. John S. Keyes, 
 Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements : 
 
 10. The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company — From the earliest period 
 of our history as a Commonwealth, they have fostered the true military spirit which 
 blazed forth on the 19th of April, 1775, and still burns brightly in their hearts. 
 
 To this, Col. Andrevi^s, the commander of the company, made 
 the following reply : 
 
 Mr. President, — I am aware, by the rules of courtesy, a re- 
 ply to the sentiment just uttered is expected from some one, — 
 and I was not without hopes that my gallant friend, in virtue of 
 his position as Chairman of the Military Committee of the House 
 of Representatives, and first Lieutenant of the Ancients, would 
 have felt it incumbent upon him to have responded. Consulting 
 my own individual wishes, I certainly should remain silent in 
 presence of so many distinguished speakers, but the position 
 which I hold, as commander of the corps alluded to, seems to 
 enforce upon me the duty of acknowledging the compliment 
 expressed in the sentiment, and also to acknowledge, through 
 you, the honor your Committee of Arrangements have conferred 
 upon the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, in selecting 
 
119 
 
 them for the performance of the duty assigned them this day. 
 In their behalf you will allow me to say, that the honor is highly 
 appreciated, and the courtesies extended to them upon this occa- 
 sion cannot but be remembered with gratitude. Nor, Mr. Pres- 
 ident, can any one who reflects upon and is conversant with the 
 history of this company deem the selection an inappropriate one, 
 for, to this ancient corps, and the military spirit fostered by it 
 throughout the days of the colony, may undoubtedly be traced 
 much of the martial spirit of Massachusetts in its earlier history, 
 through the Indian and French wars, and down to the events of 
 the Revolution. It is a significant fact, going to show the mate- 
 rials composing the company, that during the whole of our rev- 
 olutionary war the company ceased to have their regular parades, 
 in consequence of so many of their members being engaged in 
 more active duties for the defence of their country ; and their 
 records say, " that they had the honor of leading in the military 
 duties of the day — the insurrection under Shays." I am glad 
 that the military have been recognized, and their patriotic ser- 
 vices been acknowledged, upon this occasion. It is indeed refresh- 
 ing in these days to have them honorably noticed, for it has been 
 too much the custom of late, to cover the citizen-soldier with de- 
 traction and abuse, to hold him up to ridicule, .and to assail the 
 militia system as the embodiment of all that is evil. May we not 
 hope that a better day is coming, a day when justice will be 
 done to that necessary part of a republican system ? Sir, I do 
 not intend to speak of the system, or undertake a defence of 
 those who deem it their duty to unite to give efficiency to it, but 
 will merely remark, that, for one, in the present state of society 
 and the world, I believe in the necessity of an armed force, of a 
 power behind the law to enforce the law. We arm for peace 
 loithin our borders as well as to repel aggressions from without, 
 and our whole history as a nation has shown that the volunteer 
 force has proved a safe reliance. There is, I know, sir, a 
 strong peace feeling in the land, and I for one say, God speed the 
 " good time coming ;" but the good time has not yet come, and 
 the only practical question for the present age is, what shall 
 be done in the interim ? 
 
 Mr. President, I am glad to see so many of the honorable 
 members of the Legislature here this day. I trust they, in com- 
 
120 
 
 irnon with us all, will be reminded of the services of the citizen- 
 soldier in the days that are past^ for the past is at least secure. 
 Let them and others do justice to the militia, sustain it liberally, 
 if they think it worth sustaining at all, treat its members with 
 respect, and, my word for it, they will find them able and ready 
 to do their whole duty should any emergency arise. 
 
 Sir, — the day we have assembled to commemorate is one of 
 the immortal days of our country, destined to live in remem- 
 brance, whilst an American heart throbs in an American bosom. 
 Let it never be forgotten, that the blow here struck for Liberty 
 was given by citizen-soldiers, — ^by the lion-hearted yeomanry of 
 the country in defence of their rights. It is a glorious, sublime 
 thought that its echoes are not yet stilled, but are even now 
 coming back to us from the shores of the Pacific ; and the names 
 of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, are still fresh in the 
 remembrance of our wliole country, on the lips of twenty millions 
 of freemen. 
 
 As a native of old Essex, I must confess to a feeling of exul- 
 tation and patriotic pride, that among the host of freemen who 
 rallied at the call of their country seventy-five years ago this day, 
 so many of her sons were participators in its glory. As I looked 
 upon yonder monument and thought of the scenes and events of 
 that day, I could not help saying with the poet : 
 
 " Oh glorious day ! that saw the array 
 Of Freemen in their might, 
 When here they stood, unused to blood,. 
 Yet dared th' unequal fight ;" 
 
 and to rejoice with him 
 
 " That the sons have met to own the debt 
 Due to their father's fame." 
 
 But, Mr. President, the lateness of the hour admonishes me 
 to bring these desultory remarks to a close, and I will only de- 
 tain you to offer the following sentiment : 
 
 The 19th of April, 1775— It taught the world the might and power of the Citizcr,- 
 Soldier, when armed in defence of the rights of his country. 
 
 The President then said : 
 
 The next toast is one to which no particular person will 
 reply, but I know what a reception it will meet from this assembly. 
 
121 
 
 In the salutes fired to-day, there were thirty-otie guns ; on the 
 flag which waves over your heads, there are thirty-one stars ; 
 and I call upon you all to unite in doing honor to the toast, 
 which I give you from my whole heart : 
 
 11. California — The youngest sister of our family of States ; — the Queen of the 
 Pacific, with jewels of Gold upon her robe and the jewel of Freedom on her brow, — 
 the voice of Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill, unheard in the national councils, 
 here gives her a joyful welcome. 
 
 A shout arose from the whole audience, expressive of their 
 heartfelt sympathy and concurrence. 
 
 After the cheers had subsided, — 
 
 Hon. J. S, Keyes read the following letter, received an hour 
 before by telegraph, from the Hon. George W. Wright, the 
 first Representative elect from California to Congress, and who 
 was born in sight of the Old North Bridge : 
 
 [By Telegraph.] 
 
 Washington, April 19, 9.25 A. M. 
 Hon. John S. Keyes, Concord, Mass. : 
 
 My Dear Sir : — I have this moment received your favor, in 
 which I am honored with an invitation to be present at the 
 Grand Union Celebration of the events of April 19, 1775. 
 There are fifty reasons why I cannot be with you : the first 
 that no human power can dart me along in season for the occa- 
 sion. The other forty-nine I will not enumerate. Could I reach 
 you by the same agency which is to carry this reply, I would 
 forthwith mount some trusty thunderbolt and lay m}' course for the 
 sacred battle-field of human liberty : for nothing on earth could 
 give me greater pleasure, than to join the citizens of my native 
 town and country in a celebration designed to commemorate 
 the glorious old Nineteeth, which you have been pleased to de- 
 signate as the birth-day of American Liberty ; and why may we 
 not claim it the birth-day of universal liberty } The first ap- 
 peal ever made to the American people in favor of indepen- 
 dence, was published at Philadelphia, some six months subse- 
 quent to the events of the 19th. That appeal would never 
 have been countenanced and sustained, but for thrilling and soul- 
 stirring allusions, made to the bloody conflict of the 19th. It 
 was the watchword of a seven years' war. Our republican 
 16 
 
122 
 
 government has ever since been the watchword, the beacon- 
 light, which has guided the patriots of every nation, and led 
 them on to victory. 
 
 Thanking you most sincerely for the very kind manner in 
 which you have alluded to the fact of my having been born 
 within sight of the old battle-field ; presenting my profoundest 
 respects to the old patriots who have been spared to you ; with 
 my kindest regards to each and all your guests, I will conclude 
 with an humble but heartfelt offering : 
 
 The Descendants of the Immortal Patriots of the 19th — May they mingle their 
 blood with the sacred dust of Davis and Hosmer, sooner than be found in the ranks 
 of the enemy of human liberty. 
 
 GEORGE W. WRIGHT. 
 
 The twelfth regular toast was then announced : 
 
 12. The Orator of the Day — He has followed the example of his townsmen of 
 Beverly, in 1773, by doing his full part toward making the 19th of April famous. 
 
 And the thirteenth and last : 
 
 13. "The Women of the Revolution." 
 
 Several volunteer toasts were then given, among them one by 
 Hon. Leonard M. Parker, of Shirley, one by Dr. Amariah Pres- 
 ton, a revolutionary soldier, in his 93d year ; — and the following, 
 by Captain Josiah Sturgis, of the Revenue Service, to whom 
 the committee were indebted for the " Pine Tree Flags," used 
 on the occasion : 
 
 " The Union Celebration of this da}' — It is to commemorate the first event which 
 led to the union of the Colonies. May it be hailed from Maine to California, as a 
 return to the glorious principles which will ever bind together the Union of all the 
 States." 
 
 The following were the replies received from gentlemen who 
 had been invited to attend the " Union Celebration," and who 
 were unable to be present : 
 
 Washington, April 15th, 1850, 
 Hon. John S. Keyes, Chairman, &c. &c. : 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I deeply regret that my public engagements 
 will not allow me to be present at the celebration of the 19th inst. 
 
 It would afford me the highest gratification to unite with the 
 citizens of the towns which took part in the events of the 19th 
 
123 
 
 of April, 1775, in doing honor to an occasion so truly memora- 
 ble in American history. 
 
 I hail the omen which presents itself to me in the terms of 
 your invitation. It is to be " a Union celebration in Concord." 
 Permit me to place at your disposal a sentiment for the occa- 
 sion, suggested by this language ; — and believe me, my dear sir, 
 with best respects to all to whom I am indebted for so kind an 
 attention, 
 
 Very faithfully. 
 
 Your obliged friend and servant, 
 
 ROBT. C. WINTHROP. 
 
 The Blood of the 19ih of April, \115—TheJirst blood of the American Revolution- 
 May it prove to be, also, the last blood which shall ever have been shed in any revo- 
 lutionary struggle, upon the same soil; and may Union and Concord be the per- 
 petual watchwords of Middlesex, of Massachusetts, and of our whole country. 
 
 Washington, April 15th, 1850. 
 
 Dbae Sir, — I much regret that my engagements in this city 
 will deprive me of the pleasure of attending the very interesting 
 celebration of the events of the 19th of April, the marked day in 
 the calendar of freedom. Within the limits of the town of Con- 
 cord was affixed to the deed of separation from the British 
 empire, the seal of blood, without which no charter of na- 
 tional liberty has been considered of full force and ratified 
 solemnity. 
 
 As long as granite monuments shall endure, so long shall 
 the noble daring and heroic sacrifices of the martyrs of Con- 
 cord, Lexington and Danvers, and the neighbor towns, be held 
 in precious remembrance; as long as liberty and patriotism 
 shall have an abiding place in the minds of men, so long 
 shall the valor and devotion of the noble actors in the great 
 drama of the American Revolution be honored and cherished. 
 
 By the venerable m.en who have survived the "Concord 
 Fight," and the sword of the general destroyer, you have been 
 led to the very spot of the martyrdom of their compatriots. 
 It is natural and proper that, on this sacred altar, rites of com- 
 memoration should be performed and grateful incense be offered. 
 
124 
 
 May the happiest results follow every attempt to honor and to 
 imitate the wisdom and the valor of the fathers of the republic ; 
 may the sons, in all coming generations, prove themselves 
 worthy of so noble an ancestry. 
 
 With many thanks to the Committee, for their kind invita- 
 tion, I am, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your o'bt servant, 
 
 DANIEL P. KING. 
 To the Hon. John S. Keyes, 
 
 Chairman Committee of Arrangements, &c. 
 
 The people of Concord and the other towns of Massachusetts, made near of kin 
 by blood mingled on many battle-fields of the Revolution, while gratefully counting 
 the sacrifice and the cost, they will never sordidly calculate the value of Liberty and 
 the Union, but will soberly enjoy, manfully maintain, and faithfully transmit their 
 fflorious heritajre. 
 
 Northampton, April 15, 1850. 
 Hon. John S. Keyes : 
 
 Dear Sir, — Allow me, through you, to tender my thanks to 
 the Committee of Arrangements, for an invitation to attend the 
 proposed celebration at Concord, on the 19th inst. Nothing 
 but the urgency of official engagements would induce me to 
 decline the pleasure of uniting with you on this interesting oc- 
 casion. 
 
 I rejoice at the patriotic interest manifested by the Sons of 
 Concord and Lexington, in thus cherishing the memory of the 
 glorious deeds achieved by their fathers, in this, the first of 
 the series of those conflicts that led to the establishment of 
 our National Independence. No better assurance can be given 
 to their country, that should a resort to arms ever again be- 
 come necessary, these sons would be the first to emulate their 
 fathers, in all that is noble, generous and brave. 
 
 With much respect. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 CHARLES A. DEWEY. 
 
125 
 
 John S. Keyes, Esq. 
 
 Sir, — I am highly honored by the invitation of the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements to attend the celebration of the next 
 anniversary of the I9th of April, 1775, but circumstances con- 
 nected with my period of life, state of health, and locality of 
 residence, compel me to decline the proffered honor. 
 
 Be assured, sir, that I rejoice in the spirit and feeling, and 
 that it is with great reluctance that I am precluded from par- 
 ticipating in the pleasure of that celebration. 
 With great respect, 
 
 I am your and their obliged servant, 
 
 JOSIAH QUINCY. 
 
 Boston, 15th April, 1850. 
 
 You will have toasts enough on the occasion, and I hope 
 it will not be regarded as " sending coals to Newcastle," if I 
 offer a sentiment, which may be used or withheld at the dis- 
 cretion of the Committee : 
 
 The Blood shed on the fields of Concord and Lexington, on the 19lh of ApriJ, 
 1115— May it forever constitute a cement of indissoluble peace and amity among 
 the people, states and territories of our glorious Union. 
 
 Washington, April 15, 1850. 
 
 My Deak Sir, — I had hoped to have returned home in sea- 
 son to have been present at the interesting celebration of the 
 anniversary of the 19th of April, '75, your invitation to which 
 reached me before I left. But I find my absence is likely to 
 be protracted to a period which must compel me to forego the 
 great pleasure I had promised myself on that occasion. 
 
 If it had been my good foilune to be present with you, I 
 should have been tempted to offer the following sentiment:— 
 
 The County of Middlesex— It is her high distinction, that, within her limits, she 
 includes at once tkose Monuments which are the proudest memorials of the Past, 
 and those Halls of Learning which furnish the best pledges for the Future. 
 
 I am, dear sir, 
 
 Truly and respectfully yours, 
 
 JOHN H. CLIFFORD, 
 Hon. John S. Keyes, Chairman, &c. &c, &c. 
 
126 
 
 The town of Danvers sent a committee of thirteen to attend 
 the celebration, with the following missive : 
 
 To the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration at Con- 
 cord, in commemoration of the 19th of April, 1775 : 
 Gentlemen, — Your kind invitation to the citizens of Danvers 
 to be present on this occasion has awakened in their breasts a 
 recollection of the spirit that animated their fathers on the morn- 
 ing of that day, when, at the first signal of alarm, more than one 
 hundred started to the rescue. The story of their adventure is 
 too well known to be repeated. No one now remains to confirm 
 it. Only a few months since, at the good old age of ninety- 
 three, the last of their number was called away. Could those 
 brave Captains, Hutchinson, Page, Flint, Eppes, and Foster, who 
 were then on hand in the front ranks of their compatriots, have 
 been permitted to behold the scenes of the present moment, a 
 glow of purest patriotism would have enlivened their counte- 
 nances. Instead of the fathers, come the sons, thirteen of whom 
 have been delegated by the town to mingle their sympathies 
 with yours, in the recollections of the occasion. Fellow-citizens 
 of Concord, we congratulate you on your efforts to keep alive 
 that spark of liberty, ^rsi kindled on your own altars, and crim- 
 soned by the Hood of your own sires. At a time when the des- 
 pots of Europe are straining the cords of bondage to the ex- 
 treme, and the lamentations of the down-trodden and oppressed 
 are wafted across the ocean in every breeze, it is refreshing to 
 hear the notes of freedom from scenes of Revolutionary memory. 
 Let the sound be echoed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, — from 
 the poles to the equator, — until not a rood of land shall remain 
 on this western hemisphere, where servitude or tyranny can find 
 a resting place. The sons of Massachusetts " scor7i to be slaves.'''' 
 The admonitions of Warren pervade their inmost souls. Free- 
 dom is the universal birthright of man, — whoso thinketh otherwise 
 is unworthy of its inheritance. How changed the scene since 
 the ardent sons of Danvers stationed themselves hy the road side 
 in Cambridge, the more effectually to salute the enemy on their 
 return ! The orders of their commander were, " take good aim ; " 
 and if tradition is to be credited, here it was, that blood flowed 
 most freely, on that eventful day. Time will not admit of allu- 
 
127 
 
 sion to the many incidents that crowd upon the memory. May 
 the zeal for liberty then manifested be held in perpetual remem- 
 brance. 
 
 With the highest respect, we have the honor to be, 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 JOHN W. PROCTOR, 
 
 MOSES BLACK, 
 
 RICHARD OSBORN, 
 
 R. S. DANIELS, 
 
 HENRY COOK, 
 
 FITCH POOLE, 
 
 GEORGE OSBORNE, 
 
 EBEN SUTTON, 
 
 LEWIS ALLEN. 
 Danvers, April 16, 1850. 
 
 New York, Jan. 21, 1850. 
 My dear Mr. Hoar, — 
 
 I greatly applaud the purpose of Concord to celebrate the 
 deeds of a day which made conciliation impossible and indepen- 
 dence certain. But I have purposely declined making addresses 
 m public, because I wish, by the exclusive devotion of my time, 
 as soon as possible to complete, as far as I can, a little memorial 
 of the events which made the day world-renowned. For this rea- 
 son I shall not be able to join in your celebration ; but you have 
 my whole heart ; and cannot do more honor to the occasion than it 
 deserves ; nor can you exaggerate its importance. The British 
 minister of that day held the day decisive ; and the late Arch- 
 bishop of York told me, many from that hour predicted the suc- 
 cess of the American arms in the struggle for self-existence. 
 I am, dear sir, 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 GEORGE BANCROFT. 
 
 Washington, April 2, 1850. 
 Jno. S. Keyes, Esq., Chairman Committee of Arrangements ; 
 
 Sir,— I have duly received your letter of March 28, inviting 
 me, in behalf of the citizens of Concord and Lexington, to attend 
 
128 
 
 a celebration of the battle, which has rendered those places so 
 memorable. 
 
 It would afford me great satisfaction to mingle with the peo- 
 ple whom you represent, on the interesting occasion of celebrat- 
 ing the anniversary of the conflicts which opened the Revolution- 
 ary war, but public duties, rendering my presence indispensable 
 at the seat of Government, will deprive me of that pleasure. 
 
 Please convey to the citizens of Cksncord and Lexington my 
 unfeigned thanks for the honor of their invitation, 
 I am sir, with high respect. 
 
 Your most obt. servant, 
 
 Z. TAYLOR. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 21st, 1850. 
 C. W. GooDNOw, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received your favor of the 19th inst., 
 inviting me to meet your citizens on the Seventy-Fifth anniver- 
 sary of the 19th of April, '75. I thank you for the honor of be- 
 ing remembered in connection with such an occasion. No theme 
 would warm my blood, or quicken it, more readily than that of 
 the "Battle of Concord," and the events that grew from it. 
 But, my dear sir, I am at another " Battle of Concord," stand- 
 ing here in the ranks, prepared for my duty, and meaning to re- 
 main at my post, until danger disappears. One of the old militia 
 who stood at the head of your bridge, might as well have prom- 
 ised beforehand, that he would leave his ranks, at some given 
 hour on that day, as I promise to leave mine. I hope, sometime 
 in the spring, that matters may wear such an aspect here, that I 
 may be able to obtain a furlough of a few days, to visit my fam- 
 ily. Should I be able to do so at the time you mention, I shall 
 be most happy to be a spectator of your services. But the cause 
 of Freedom outweighs family and home; and I shall never 
 knowingly put that in peril. 
 
 Be pleased to accept, in behalf of yourself and your committee, 
 the assurances of my regard. 
 
 HORACE MANN. 
 
129 
 
 Washington, April 15, 1850. 
 To the Hon. J. S. Keyes, Concord. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have your circular of the 28th ult. and should 
 be gratified to unite in commemorating an event which gives to 
 those brave men who dared to strike for liberty, come what 
 might, an imperishable fame. Few in numbers, and unprepared 
 as they were to meet a veteran army, yet their hearts were filled 
 with courage to resist aggression, and to become, if need be, mar- 
 tyrs in the great cause of political freedom. It is a duty which 
 we owe to these patriots to commemorate their bravery and 
 their virtues ; but my engagements will not permit me to leave 
 
 here. 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 I am, dear sir, your and the Committee's obt. svt. 
 
 J. DAVIS. 
 
 Worcester, April 17, 1850. 
 Hon. J. S. Keyes, Esq., Chairman, &c. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I regret that engagements in the S. J. Court, now 
 in session here, will render it impossible for me to accept the in- 
 vitation kindly tendered to me by the Committee to be present 
 on the 19th instant at Concord. 
 
 It would have given me great pleasure to visit a spot so inter- 
 esting as that consecrated by the scenes of the 19th April, 1775, 
 under the circumstances which well distinguish the return of that 
 anniversary the present year. 
 
 Almost every nation has its shrines to which the Pilgrim loves 
 to resort to register new vows or renew resolutions already 
 formed there. It was not merely to worship, that the Hebrew 
 went up to the Holy City to celebrate the great feasts of his na- 
 tion, but to cherish, through the common sympathy of the assem- 
 bled thousands on those occasions, his love of country and a 
 generous national pride. 
 
 We have no saintly shrines nor gorgeous national temples to 
 draw men together, nor do we need them so long as Concord 
 and Lexington remain, and the sons of the men who fought there 
 17 
 
130 
 
 may come up thither as they have now done, to revive the pa- 
 triotic associations which these spots can never fail to awaken. 
 
 I am, sir, with great respect. 
 Your obt. servant, 
 
 EMORY WASHBURN. 
 
 Worcester, April 16, 1850. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I had the honor to receive, a few days since, 
 your note, in behalf of a Committee, inviting me to attend " the 
 Union Celebration of the anniversary of the events of the 19th 
 April, 1775," — and until to-day, I have anticipated, with the 
 truest gratification, the opportunity of participating, with my re- 
 spected fellow-citizens, in this most interesting commemoration. 
 A severe and oppressive cold, with some consequent irritation of 
 the lungs, now admonish me of the imprudence of exposure to 
 the sudden changes of weather, in this remarkable season, and 
 the fatigue incident to attendance upon a public festival ; and I 
 fear, there remains to me but the satisfaction of expressing my 
 grateful acknowledgments for the kind remembrance of the 
 Committee, in the invitation by which I am so greatly honored, — 
 with the assurance, that, if not personally present, my best sen- 
 timents, and my warmest sympathies, will mingle with all the 
 patriotic observances and enjoyments of the occasion. 
 
 With the highest and truest consideration for the Committee, 
 and for yourself, personally, I have the honor to be, their and 
 your faithfully obedient and obliged servant, 
 
 LEVI LINCOLN. 
 John S. Keyes, Esq., Chairman of Com., &c. 
 
 Danvers, May 1, 1850. 
 
 Dear Sir, — From the best information at command, I estimate 
 the whole number of men who left Danvers, for the scene of 
 action on the 19th of April, 1775, to have been one hundred and 
 fifty. About half of these were the minute-men, under the com- 
 mand of Hutchinson and Foster. The remainder belonged to 
 the three companies of militia, commanded by Eppes, Page and 
 
131 
 
 Flint. The entire rolls of these companies will be found in 
 Hanson's History of Danvers, pages 108-9. Of those killed, 
 four belonged to Foster's command — being one-eighth part of 
 the whole number — two to Page's company, and one to Eppes' 
 company. Foster, with those under his command, took his posi- 
 tion by the road-side, in a barnyard at West Cambridge. Here 
 they met the enemy in close combat. After that, I have been 
 informed by Foster himself, that he discharged his musket eleven 
 times at the enemy, loaded with two balls at each time, with well 
 directed aim. Nathaniel Cleaves, of Beverly, while standing 
 and loading by his side, had his finger cut off and ram-rod shot 
 away. This shows that the men from Danvers were not partic- 
 ular to keep at a prudent distance from the enemy. 
 
 At their request, permission had been granted by Col. Picker- 
 ing, in the morning, to proceed in advance of the regiment.- 
 They marched sixteen miles in four hours. This was a rapidity 
 of movement rarely equalled. Inexperienced as they were, it i& 
 not surprising that they found themselves in a hazardous position. 
 But it is surprising, when we reflect that they encountered one 
 thousand disciplined troops, that so many of them should have 
 returned. I remember to have heard from Col. Pickering him- 
 self, a minute statement of the entire movements of the Salem 
 regiment on that day. Captain Eppes and Foster had permission' 
 to go in advance of the regiment ; this accounts for the position 
 they occupied. Col. P. told me the regulars were passing over 
 Winter Hill, when he came in sight of them. He had not one 
 fourth as many troops as they had, and therefore he did not ap- 
 proach them. If the Danvers troops had had his good judgment, 
 they probably would not have fallen into the snare they did. 
 Much reproach fell upon him at the time, for not going ahead. 
 His memory should be vindicated from all such reproach. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. W. PROCTOR. 
 Hon. E. R. Hoar. 
 
132 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 House of Representatives, 
 
 April 20, 1850. 
 
 Ordered, that the thanks of the General Court be tendered to 
 the inhabitants of Concord and the adjoining towns, for the cour- 
 teous and cordial hospitality with which they were received and 
 entertained on the occasion of their visit to Concord on the 19th 
 instant. 
 
 Sent up for concurrence. 
 
 CHAS. W. STOREY, Clerk. 
 
 Concurred. 
 
 In Senate, April 22d, 1850. 
 CHAS. CALHOUN, Clerk. 
 
 A true copy — Attest, 
 
 Chas. Calhottn, 
 
 Clerk of the Senate. 
 
13S 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The Concord Fight. — Affidavit of the Last Survivor. 
 
 The affidavit of Amos Baker, of Lincoln, given April 22d, 
 1850 ; he being the sole survivor of the men who were present 
 at the North Bridge, at Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, and 
 the only man living who bore arms that day. 
 
 He was present at the celebration at Concord, April 19th, 
 1850, aged 94 years and 11 days : — 
 
 I, Amos Baker, of Lincoln, in the county of Middlesex, and 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath depose and say : 
 
 That I was ninety-four years old on the 8th day of April, 1850. 
 I was at Concord Fight, on the 19th day of April, 1775, and 
 was then nineteen years and eleven days old. My brother Na- 
 thaniel, who was then paying his addresses to the girl whom he 
 afterwards married, was at the house where she was staying near 
 the line between Lexington and Lincoln, and received the alarm 
 there, from Dr. Samuel Prescott, and came over and gave it to 
 me. My father and my four brothers, Jacob, Nathaniel, James 
 and Samuel, and my brother-in-law, Daniel Hosmer, were in 
 arms at the North Bridge. After the fight at the bridge, I saw 
 nothing more of them, and did not know whether they were alive 
 or dead, until I found two of my brothers engaged in the pursuit 
 near Lexington meeting-house. Nathaniel followed the enemy 
 to Charlestown. 
 
 When I went to Concord in the morning, I joined the Lincoln 
 
 company at the brook, by Flint's pond, near the house then of 
 
 Zachary Smith, and now of Jonas Smith. I loaded my gun 
 
 there with two balls, ounce balls, and powder accordingly. 
 
 I saw the British troops coming up the road that leads on to 
 
the common at Concord ; the sun shone veiy bright on their 
 bayonets and guns. 
 
 Abijah Pierce, of Lincoln, the colonel of the minute-men, 
 went up, armed with nothing but a cane. 
 
 When we were going to march down to the Bridge, it was men- 
 tioned between Major Buttrick and Captain Isaac Davis, that the 
 minute-men had better be put in front, because they were the 
 only men that had bayonets, and it was not certain whether the 
 British would fire, or whether they would charge bayonets with- 
 out firing. I do not remember which of them said it, but both 
 agreed to it ; and Captain Davis's company of minute-men was 
 then brought up on the right. Then they saw the smoke of the 
 town-house, and I think Major Buttrick said, " Will you stand 
 here and see them burn the town down ? " And the order was 
 given to march, and we all marched down without any further 
 order or arrangement. 
 
 The British had got up two of the planks to the bridge. It is 
 a mercy that they fired on us at the bridge, for we were going to 
 march into the town, and the British could load and fire three 
 times to our once, because we had only powder-horns, and no 
 cartridge-boxes, and it would have been presumptuous. I under- 
 stood that Colonel Abijah Pierce got the gun of one of the British 
 soldiers who was killed at the bridge, and armed himself with it. 
 There were two British soldiers killed at the bridge. I saw them 
 when I went over the bridge, lying close together, side by side, 
 dead. 
 
 Joshua Brooks, of Lincoln, was at the bridge, and was struck 
 with a ball that cut through his hat, and drew blood on his fore- 
 head, and it looked as if it was cut with a knife — and we con- 
 cluded they were firing jacknives. 
 
 When we had fired at the bridge, and killed the British, Noah 
 Parkhurst, of Lincoln, who was my right-hand man, said — 
 " Now the war has begun, and no one knows when it will end." 
 Before the fighting begun, when we were on the hill, James 
 Nichols, of Lincoln, who was an Englishman, and a droll fellow, 
 und a fine singer, said, " If any of you will hold my gun, I will 
 go down and talk to them." Some of them held his gun, and 
 he went down alone to the British soldiers at the bridge and 
 talked to them sometime. Then he came back and took his gun 
 
135 
 
 and said he was going home, and went off before the fighting. 
 Afterwards he enlisted to go to Dorchester and there deserted to 
 the British, and I never heard of him again. I believe I was the 
 only man from Lincoln that had a bayonet. My father got it in 
 the time of the French war. I went into the house where Davis 
 and Hosmer were carried after they fell, and saw their bodies. 
 I supposed the house to be Major Buttrick's. When we marched 
 down to the bridge. Major Buttrick marched first, and Captain 
 Davis next to him. I did not see Colonel Robinson to know him. 
 I verily believe that I felt better that day, take it all the day 
 through, than if I had staid at home. 
 
 AMOS BAKER. (Seal) 
 
 We saw Amos Baker sign the above, after it was read to him. 
 E. R. Hoar, 
 
 JOSIAH BaRTLETT, 
 
 Jas. Baker. 
 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 Middlesex, ss. Lincoln, April 22d, 1850. 
 Personally appeared Amos Baker, the within-named deponent, 
 known to me to be a man of good character and in the full pos- 
 session of his mind and memory, and made the foregoing state- 
 ment, which was reduced to writing by me in his presence, and 
 it was afterwards carefully read to him, and he then subscribed it 
 and made oath that the same is true. 
 Before me, 
 
 E. R. HOAR, 
 Justice of the Peace and Justice of the C. C. P. 
 
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 'inoere, '"'^ Occasion, we conv f. , . "^'^J. a-nd the ^..,. . gf^eatest now h»f 
 
 'f s been ^ .ranh.v . ^"'°^>'' ^he chap. Mr. Dou.h? h ^""^ ''^'y inteie°7 wZ '1 "* ^^ 
 
 '^ '^mm . s'^'^Paic account of rho k . , ^ tion ,,^^'^^ here went ir,f„ f "«™ands it 
 ^,.,.i,fin, „„_._ "' °r ^he battffi „„,j "0".. showing the nmh 1, ^° *^ 'engthenpti ,); • 
 
 "hole commerc/ J°"'?'''''«' t^ej Sirf" ^°°°"°* »' 
 
 c'ous time to '."f-'^^'^^^rdej the presenV! ^^^ "'^n- 
 M'''-o"gh the fin?"'''*'^^ 'Ji« work T!^' ^" «««Pi- 
 hP«nsaf- -orlwr''-^' ^''^■^'«- '-^nd politic ?""^^^ « 
 
 through T)? M°PP°""n'fy to uni ! '^^ stagnation 
 
 Jhe roaj i'ou d "^Se''^'^' ^ " -" t' it".' '^« 
 '■ff'eJio^;n.o J'^°'' ^^P-^nse wou i n r^" °° '''« 
 
 Moreover ^th?'' -^ ^^"'^ «'^ve7tstt^. ''"' '^"^ ^^ 
 *'°°al, a^'d ^^', P'-'^ciple involved s °*^ "'"'^s. 
 
 contract R„*'^'^'^«'« as is wL"^""" '^°°«t''tu- 
 
 -«•' n^easTre :;Vr'^'^«'--tion :;":,-;;. ^Ji«e °^e. 
 
 e re, "^ "'^^asion, we conv fn 
 
 .letethe'^me of Bancroft', ft- . '^°'" '^ 
 
 as been „ n.^., . . ' ® History, the ch<,n 
 
 • Oomm ^ ^^^'P^'o account of thp h ..! ^' 
 the Medinth some remini^ ^"'''' ^od 
 
 theoomi ^.,, """'Q'scences of th^ ^ 
 that stai' "''H prove iutere<,h-n '^*-^' 
 
 The f. caung. 
 
 fn^^^.ti^e Senate, on Saturd. ,. 
 No.?)iil was discussed a, ^^ ^'- 
 
 8,Edwa ^"" '^'^Port Of the de- 
 
 S. Norte 
 
 » sectional fep,i_ ^'^^"r of the 
 
 In th„ 
 
 wire. o» sectional feeling a," r°'°^'''^' 
 Spence?e u^ j "^ »« ^0 the route to 
 
 -Uroc "'4>ea, iiovvever, tha^ fi 
 
 In twun, ia the r.n 'h^ road 
 
 S&. '^P^'^^'^-f^austed state 
 
 ^^ii-'mois. with others n.i 
 
 ®^°fio" of the rn . '''^^°°*ted the 
 I'le road. Th« „ i . 
 
 stea to it, and hf. «, admiDis- 
 
 Starof "'^J'^^as opposed to anv 
 
 Amen ""J 
 
 Afdca'-^-^^^rain of Louisiana fho u 
 Arag3 until Jjeceo^ber ."""' *^^ sub- 
 Saxon'^ voted yes, and'AJs^' °^^' 
 Eclinb •"^'^- feufflner was 
 
 J tricf... 
 
 Arag^"i Was assigned Far- „ • , 
 
 Cana. * '*^'* for Consideration 
 
 Kang 
 
 City ^ '''ISh no'ton V:n 
 
 Bdinbt the ho„..o ; , ^'■■'^<'' on 
 
 Vande^ ^ ' ^°"^« of Mr. Frederick 
 
 ^,J^y poured plunder to the 
 
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