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ADDRESS

OLD CONCORD MEETING HOUSE

APRIL 19, 1894

BY
E. R. HOAR

BEACON PRESS:
THOMAS TODD, PRINTER, 7-A BEACON STREET, BOSTON
1804

Mr. President, Your Excellency, Your Honor,
Fellow Citizens :
It has been my privilege, through a long
life now nearing its close, to participate in all
the public celebrations of this historic day by
the people of Concord ; and its memories are
very dear to my heart.
The first was in 1825, almost seventy years
ago, when as a schoolboy, upon this spot, I lis
tened to the first great historical oration, and
perhaps the best, — pronounced by that master
of history and oratory, Edward Everett.
The second, at which I had the honor to
preside, was the seventy-fifth anniversary in 1850,
when Lexington, Acton, and other towns whose
citizens had a special interest in the day, united
with Concord to celebrate it. The Governor
and Council and the General Court, with the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company as
escort, testified by their presence the significance
of the occasion.
At the centennial in 1875, we na(l as guests
the President of the United States and his Cab
inet, the Governors of all the New England

States, each escorted by his chosen military com
pany, and many of the most distinguished men
in civil and military life of the whole country.
We had 60,000 people in attendance in Con
cord, all we could attend to ; and Lexington had
another magnificent celebration, perhaps with
even a more numerous crowd.
I mention these occasions, to which perhaps
should be added a mention of the Lexington
celebration of 1835, and one or two in Acton
worthy of the day, at which I have been pres
ent, in order to ask your attention to the steadi
ness with which interest in the 19th of April,
local, state, and national, has grown and in
creased, as we consider its far-reaching relations
and consequences.
And yet another thought connected with its
observance presents itself, as we meet today to
commemorate the 19th of April, by the act of
the General Court of which your Excellency's
proclamation has given notice, which makes the
day a Massachusetts holiday. It is indeed, and
should be forever, the Massachusetts holiday.
Your Excellency has fitly called it " Patriots'
Day," and so it is ; but it has no exclusive title
to that appellation. The 17th of June is a Pa
triots' Day, and the Connecticut General Put
nam commanded in part; it was a Patriots' Day
that saw Washington take command of the

American Army at Cambridge ; Bennington and
Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown, each furnished
a day for patriotic memory and patriotic thanks
giving. But in each Massachusetts participated
with others in the triumph and the glory. The
4th of July is eminently "Patriots' Day" for all
American citizens. But this day, the 19th of
April, 1775, has a relation to Massachusetts more
intimate and sacred than any other day can
have ; a day on whose anniversary it has been
well to provide by law that her children should
keep holiday ; our mother's birthday ; for on this
day, 119 years ago, the Commonwealth of Massa
chusetts was born !
Think of it ! Plymouth and the Massachu
setts were English Colonies. The province of
Massachusetts Bay was a British province. In
the French and Indian Wars our fathers, sub
jects of the English King, served under officers
commissioned by the Royal Governor. All writs
ran in the King's name. On the house where
the Assembly of the province met, the Royal
Arms were emblazoned (they are there to this
day, like cannon captured in battle, telling their
story of our victory!) and the Royal flag waved
over it. The first and second Congresses, who
were gathered here to devise measures for the
defense of liberty in Massachusetts, when this
roof-tree echoed the voices of Warren and Han-

cock and Samuel Adams, were Provincial Con
gresses. It was on such a community that the sun
rose on the 19th of April, 1775. With it rose
the Provincials, and the records of that day's
deeds tell of the doings of the Provincials and
the Regulars. That sun at its setting saw the
British Army driven as a foreign enemy in dis
astrous rout to take shelter under the guns of
its men of war in besieged Boston ; and from
that beleaguered camp and the help those guns
afforded it never departed till Washington drove
fleet and army away together in the following
March. (Bunker Hill was but a resistance to
an American advance which would have made
Boston untenable.)
From that day to this no foreign power has
ever held other possession in Massachusetts, nor
has any control been exercised within her bor
ders except that of her own people, original or
delegated. Capt. Isaac Davis had said on leav
ing his home in Acton in the morning,. " I have
a right to go to Concord on the King's high
way ; and I will go to Concord ; " but it was no
longer a King's highway over which his body
was carried home in the afternoon. The Royal
Governor was wiped out; and martial law, which
had practically prevailed, was formally declared
within the British lines ; and no civil authority

but that conferred by the citizens of Massachu
setts has ever since been exercised within her
limits. A few years ago a bright young townsman
of mine, of Irish descent, was an applicant for
an appointment under the Government of the
United States, and reported for examination be
fore the Civil Service Commission. Among the
questions asked him was this : " In what year
did the United States become independent?" and
he answered, "In 1775." The chairman of the
examining board, whose fine culture was not de
void of humor, made merely this kindly com
ment : " Well, as you are from Concord, perhaps
you have a right to think so."
The independence of Massachusetts was
practically achieved on the 19th of April, 1775,
though it waited to be declared, with that of her
sister States, on the 4th of July, 1776.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was
born that day — the Commonwealth of our affec
tion and our pride, ever increasing as the years
of her illustrious history roll on. Long had
been the preparation for her coming, and pain
ful were the throes of the mighty delivery. She
came to us, in maturity of strength and beauty,
like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, and also
like that fabled goddess, she came with the clash
of arms. Her hand, ever hostile to tyranny, then

grasped the sword by which, as is seen in her
crest and motto, she ever seeks peace under
liberty : ,
Haec Manus, inimica tyrannis,
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.
It was the vision of the soon-coming Common
wealth that fired the prophetic "soul of Adams
in his immortal utterance, " O, what an ever
glorious morning is this ! " ; and I cannot but
think that some glimpse of that beautiful and ma
jestic presence must have illumined and cheered
the dying eyes of the martyrs of Lexington, and
of those who fell in the long and bloody conflict
which began at Concord Bridge and ended at
Charlestown Neck.
They saw her, plumed and mailed,
With sweet, stern face unveiled,
And all repaying eyes, look proud on them in death.
It is our Mother's birthday, and we desire
to thank your Excellency, the honored and wor
thy Representative of the Commonwealth, for your
presence with us today.
And is not this occasion, when for the first
time we meet to celebrate the 19th of April with
a full public recognition of its relation to the
Commonwealth, the time to end forever all local
bickerings and petty jealousies about the share
that one or another town or village or hamlet

had in the events which have given the day its
imperishable glory ?
Whatever was done Massachusetts did it.
No citizen of another province or colony took
any part, though General Putnam reached Con
cord from his Connecticut home seventy miles
off on the following day. But throughout Mas
sachusetts the decisive day was known to be at
hand, and the people were ready for it, with high
resolve and stern determination. Western Mas
sachusetts, not long before, on a false alarm
had sent her militia and minutemen as far as
Worcester on the road to Boston, when they
learned that their movement was premature, and
turned back. It was General Gage who deter
mined at what time and place the collision
should occur. The Provincial Congress had its
deposit of military stores at Worcester as well
as Concord; and if Gage had chosen to strike
his blow in that direction, Watertown or Fram-
ingham might have been the Lexington, and
Worcester the Concord, of the Revolution. The
clouds of war were rolling up all round the
horizon, and it was where hostile British bay
onets and musket barrels should present them
selves that decided where the thunderbolt should
strike. Lexington has the undying glory that it
was her sons who were privileged to be the first

IO
to give their lives for their country on the day
we commemorate. Concord remembers with satisfaction that it
was at her old North Bridge, and by one of her
sons, that the first order by an officer in com
mand to the soldiers of the people to fire upon
the troops of the king was given and obeyed.
Acton has its precious memory of its heroic
Captain Davis who fell in front, and had not a
man who was afraid to go.
Cambridge, and Arlington, and Danvers, and
Woburn, and Lincoln, and Bedford, and Water-
town, and Roxbury, and Groton, and Westford,
and other towns, have graves and traditions
which they keep with tender reverence.
But the transcendent fact remains. It was
Massachusetts up in arms that day. No officer
of hers "had a man that was afraid to go." No
military organization, which had notice, failed to
rush to the scene of action as speedily as time
and distance would permit; and every man did
what he could. Boston was in the iron grasp
of General Gage's army; but Boston, which had
furnished so much of the wise counsel and res
olute will which sustained the defense of liberty,
lighted the lanterns in the North Church stee
ple, and Joseph Warren sent Revere and Dorr
to alarm the country. The soldiers from the
towns who did not get notice in season, and

II

could not join in the pursuit of the British
troops from Concord, were found on the next
days a part of the besieging army that kept them
where they had been driven. It was not for
themselves, or for their towns only, but for Mas
sachusetts and liberty that the men of 1775
risked life and so much that makes life dear.
The memory of each is a precious possession
to us all. Let us, when sounding their praise,
join in harmonious voices.
And now I cannot forbear to ask our es
teemed and patriotic friends, the Sons of the
American Revolution, whose presence with us
today we value so highly, to consider, at least by
way of modest suggestion, whether the restriction
of their membership to the lineal bodily descend
ants of participants in the Revolutionary struggle
is, on the whole, wise or desirable, or had better
be changed. The title to public consideration or
leadership in public affairs by reason of descent
is not an American idea. Every citizen of the
Commonwealth, of whatever parentage, and wher
ever born, should feel her inspiration, and be a
guardian of her fame. The Scripture tells us
that none are Abraham's seed but those who do
the works of Abraham. Mr. Emerson told Kos
suth, when he came to Concord, that the dust of
our heroes beneath the sod recognized his as a
footstep kindred to their own.

12

The shot fired at the North Bridge was
heard round the world.
Your Excellency's predecessor in 1850 said
as truly as finely : " Not a blow struck for liberty
among men since the 19th of April, 1775, but
has echoed the guns of that eventful morning."
The great apostle has left us his testimony:
" For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God."
Washington left no posterity, but every true
American calls him father.
And so I would urge that on this memo
rable day, concerned with memories and events
which should be dear to us all, every citizen of
the Commonwealth who prefers honor and pub
lic service to selfishness and ease, who loves lib
erty, and will resist tyranny without counting the
personal cost, wherever he was born and of what
ever lineage after the flesh, that every true son
of Massachusetts should have a right to call
himself, and is,
A Son of the American Revolution.

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