Part 16 (1/2)

Garlands of grace and elegance were destined to crohich had its co power of the sex addressed itself to the public, and all that was needed to carry the ive to it its finish, was prohters of the land contributed thus, most successfully, to whatever there is of beauty in the monuratification there is in its coinated of erecting on this spot a monument worthy of the event to be commemorated, many are now present; but others, alas! have themselves become subjects of monumental inscription Williauished writer, a most amiable man, allied both by birth and sentiment to the patriots of the Revolution, died while on public service abroad, and now lies buried in a foreign land[62] Williarant of Revolutionary merit, and of public service and public virtue, who hiree of the respect and confidence of the community, and yet was always athered to his fathers[63] And last, George Blake, a lawyer of learning and eloquence, a reeable and fascinating, and of gifts which enabled hie sway over public assemblies, has closed his human career[63] I know that in the crowds before me there are those from whose eyes tears will flow at the eneral character, their public and private virtues, and especially, on this occasion, to the spirit and zeal hich they entered into the undertaking which is now coer nu towards its close, always distinguished by acts of public spirit, hu a character which has already becoard and the affection of friends,the proper immunity of the dead, and be the fit subject of honorable mention and warn of this monument, one of the most prominent, the most zealous, and the most efficient, is Thomas H Perkins It was beneath his ever-hospitable roof that those who and now present, having asse amay he remain, with unimpaired faculties, in the wide field of his usefulness! His charities have distilled, like the dews of heaven; he has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked; he has given sight to the blind; and for such virtues there is a reward on high, of which all hue of brass and stone, are but humble types and attempted imitations

Ti the number of those e met here on the 17th of June, 1825 Most of the Revolutionary characters then present have since deceased; and Lafayette sleeps in his native land Yet the name and blood of Warren are with us; the kindred of Putnam are also here; and near me, universally beloved for his character and his virtues, and now venerable for his years, sits the son of the noble-hearted and daring Prescott[64] Gideon Foster of Danvers, Enos Reynolds of Boxford, Phineas Johnson, Robert Andrews, Elijah Dresser, Josiah Cleaveland, Jesse Ser Plaisted, Joseph Stephens, Nehemiah Porter, and James Harvey, who bore arton, on the 19th of April, or on Bunker Hill, all now far advanced in age, have come here to-day, to look once more on the field where their valor was proved, and to receive a hearty outpouring of our respect

They have long outlived the troubles and dangers of the Revolution; they have outlived the evils arising frooverners to the public liberty; they have outlived nearly all their contemporaries; but they have not outlived, they cannot outlive, the affectionate gratitude of their country Heaven has not allotted to this generation an opportunity of rendering high services, andpersonal devotion, such as they rendered and manifested, and in such a cause as that which roused the patriotic fires of their youthful breasts, and nerved the strength of their arms But we may praise e cannot equal, and celebrate actions which ere not born to perform _Pulchrum est benefacere reipublicae, etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est_

The Bunker Hill Monuh natural eher in its objects and purpose, it rises over the land and over the sea; and, visible, at their homes, to three hundred thousand of the people of Massachusetts, it stands a memorial of the last, and a enerations I have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose If it had been without any other design than the creation of a work of art, the granite of which it is composed would have slept in its native bed It has a purpose, and that purpose gives it its character That purpose enrobes it with dignity and randeur That well-known purpose it is which causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe It is itself the orator of this occasion It is not from my lips, it could not be from any human lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow most competent to move and excite the vast multitudes around me The powerful speaker stands motionless before us It is a plain shaft It bears no inscriptions, fronting to the rising sun, from which the future antiquary shall wipe the dust Nor does the rising sun cause tones ofof the sun, and at the setting of the sun; in the blaze of noonday, and beneath the ht; it looks, it speaks, it acts, to the full colowing enthusiasm in every American heart Its silent, but awful utterance; its deep pathos, as it brings to our contemplation the 17th of June, 1775, and the consequences which have resulted to us, to our country, and to the world, from the events of that day, and which we know must continue to rain influence on the destinies of mankind to the end of tih above the ordinary feelings of life, surpass all that the study of the closet, or even the inspiration of genius, can produce To-day it speaks to us Its future auditories will be the successive generations of ather around it Its speech will be of patriotisovernment; of the moral improvement and elevation of mankind; and of the immortal memory of those ith heroic devotion, have sacrificed their lives for their country[65]

In the older world, numerous fabrics still exist, reared by human hands, but whose object has been lost in the darkness of ages They are nowbut the labor and skill which constructed thehty pyra to bring down and report to us, but the power of kings and the servitude of the people If it had any purpose beyond that of a mausoleum, such purpose has perished from history and from tradition If asked for its moral object, its admonition, its sentih end in its erection, it is silent; silent as the millions which lie in the dust at its base, and in the catacombs which surround it Without a just ainst the skies, it excites only conviction of power, e wonder But if the civilization of the present race of e of nature, and vast discoveries in art, and which is elevated and purified by moral sentiment and by the truths of Christianity, be not destined to destruction before the final termination of human existence on earth, the object and purpose of this edifice will be known till that hour shall come And even if civilization should be subverted, and the truths of the Christian religion obscured by a new deluge of barbarism, the memory of Bunker Hill and the American Revolution will still be elee which shall be possessed by the last ht of civilization and Christianity shall be extended

This celebration is honored by the presence of the chief executive istrate of the Union An occasion so national in its object and character, and so overn at the head of which he is placed, may well receive from him this mark of attention and respect Well acquainted with Yorktown, the scene of the last great le of the Revolution, his eye now surveys the field of Bunker Hill, the theatre of the first of those important conflicts He sees where Warren fell, where Putnaht He beholds the spot where a thousand trained soldiers of England were smitten to the earth, in the first effort of revolutionary war, by the ar for liberty and their country And while all asseood wishes and the high respect due to his elevated office and station, it is not to be doubted that he enters, with true A, into the patriotic enthusiasm kindled by the occasion which animates the multitudes that surround him

His Excellency, the Governor of the Comuished public uests to-day, will cordially unite in a celebration connected with the great event of the Revolutionary war

No nauished than that borne by an ex-president of the United States, e expected to see here, but whose ill health prevents his attendance Whenever popular rights were to be asserted, an Adams was present; and when the time came for the formal Declaration of Independence, it was the voice of an Adaress We e could have welcomed to us this day the inheritor of Revolutionary blood, and the just and worthy representative of high Revolutionary naes, processions and flags, announce to us, that a are thousands of natives of New England now residents in other States Welcome, ye kindred names, with kindred blood! Froions of the West, froin who cultivate the rich valley of the Genesee or live along the chain of the Lakes, froed cities of the coast, welcoers, here you are all at home You assemble at this shrine of liberty, near the family altars at which your earliest devotions were paid to Heaven; near to the temples of worshi+p first entered by you, and near to the schools and colleges in which your education was received

You co naton, Concord, and Bunker Hill You coed Revolutionary father, or to receive another, perhaps a last, blessing, bestowed in love and tears, by ato witness and to enjoy your prosperity and happiness

But if fa you hither with greater alacrity, andalso be given, free and hearty greeting, to every American citizen who treads this sacred soil with patriotic feeling, and respires with pleasure in an atmosphere perfumed with the recollections of 1775! This occasion is respectable, nay, it is grand, it is subli the seventeen millions of happy people who form the American community, there is not one who has not an interest in thisinterest in that which it cos to this day's worshi+p feeling less than wholly American! Woe betide the man who can stand here with the fires of local resent local jealousies and the strifes of local interests festering and rankling in his heart

Union, established in justice, in patriotism, and the most plain and obvious common interest,--union, founded on the same love of liberty, cemented by blood shed in the salory and greatness thus far, and is the ground of all our highest hopes This coluht not keep its position, if the American Union, in the mad conflict of human passions, and in the strife of parties and factions, should be broken up and destroyed I know not that it would totter and fall to the earth, and ments of Liberty and the Constitution, when State should be separated from State, and faction and dismemberment obliterate for ever all the hopes of the founders of our republic, and the great inheritance of their children It ht of mortification and shame that would oppress him, could look up to behold it? Whose eyeballs would not be seared by such a spectacle? For my part, should I live to such a time, I shall avert my eyes from it for ever

It is not as a mere military encounter of hostile armies, that the battle of Bunker Hill presents its principal claim to attention Yet, even as ait extraordinary in character, and entitling it to peculiar distinction It was fought on this ehborhood of yonder city; in the presence of many more spectators than there were combatants in the conflict Men, wo at the battle, and looking for its results with all the eagerness natural to those who knew that the issue was fraught with the deepest consequences to themselves, personally, as well as to their country

Yet, on the 16th of June, 1775, there was nothing around this hill but verdure and culture There was, indeed, the note of awful preparation in Boston There was the Provincial ar on Dorchester, and its left on Chelsea But here all was peace

Tranquillity reigned around On the 17th every thing was changed On this eht, a redoubt, built by Prescott, and in which he held command Perceived by the ene batteries in the river, and from the opposite shore And then ensued the hurried movement in Boston, and soon the troops of Britain ee the Colonists In an hour every thing indicated an immediate and bloody conflict Love of liberty on one side, proud defiance of rebellion on the other; hopes and fears, and courage and daring, on both sides, anie of battle

I suppose it would be difficult, in a military point of view, to ascribe to the leaders on either side any just ement which followed On the one hand, it could not have been very important to the Americans to attele post a quarter of a mile; while, on the other hand, if the British found it essential to dislodge the American troops, they had it in their power at no expense of life Byup their shi+ps and batteries, they could have completely cut off all communication with the mainland over the Neck, and the forces in the redoubt would have been reduced to a state of faht hours

But that was not the day for any such consideration on either side! Both parties were anxious to try the strength of their arland would not permit the rebels, as she termed them, to defy her to the teeth; and, without for a eneral determined to destroy the fort iallant followers longed and thirsted for a decisive trial of strength and of courage They wished a battle, and wished it at once And this is the true secret of the movements on this hill

I will not atte of the British; their advance; the coolness hich the charge was met; the repulse; the second attack; the second repulse; the burning of Charlestown; and, finally, the closing assault, and the slow retreat of the Americans,--the history of all these is familiar

But the consequences of the battle of Bunker Hill were greater than those of any ordinary conflict, although between ar with e on the one side or the other It was the first great battle of the Revolution; and not only the first blow, but the blohich determined the contest It did not, indeed, put an end to the war, but in the then existing hostile state of feeling, the difficulties could only be referred to the arbitration of the sword And one thing is certain; that after the New England troops had shown theulars, it was decided that peace never could be established, but upon the basis of the independence of the Colonies When the sun of that day went down, the event of Independence was no longer doubtful In a few days Washi+ngton heard of the battle, and he inquired if the ulars When told that they had not only stood that fire, but reserved their own till the eneht rods, and then poured it in with tremendous effect, ”Then,” exclaimed he, ”the liberties of the country are safe!”

The consequences of this battle were just of the same i of value in the principles of the A valuable in the battle of Bunker Hill and its consequences But if the Revolution was an era in the history of man favorable to huress of man all over the world from despotism to liberty, then this monument is not raised without cause Then the battle of Bunker Hill is not an event undeserving celebrations, co times

What, then, is the true and peculiar principle of the Aovernment which it has confirmed and established? The truth is, that the American Revolution was not caused by the instantaneous discovery of principles of government before unheard of, or the practical adoption of political ideas such as had never before entered into the minds of overnin of all which lay back two centuries in English and American history

The discovery of America, its colonization by the nations of Europe, the history and progress of the colonies, from their establishment to the tiiance to the respective states by which they had been planted, and founded govern portions of the annals ofwhich period civilization and knowledge ress in the Old World; so that Europe, at the coed froan the colonization of America at the close of the fifteenth, or the commencement of the sixteenth And what is ress of the first of these centuries, that is to say, froinia and Massachusetts, political and religious events took place, which most materially affected the state of society and the sentiland and in parts of Continental Europe After a few feeble and unsuccessful efforts by England, under Henry the Seventh, to plant colonies in A period, either by the English govern into the causes of this delay, its consequences are sufficiently clear and striking England, in this lapse of a century, unknown to herself, but under the providence of God and the influence of events, was fitting herself for the work of colonizing North America, on such principles and by such lish blood, in tireat portion of the Western hereatly fostered by several laws passed in the reign of Henry the Seventh; and in the saiven to arts and manufactures in the eastern counties, and some not unimportantthe breaking of entails These and otherway for a new class of society to ee; a reat landholders and the retainers of the crown, on the one side, and the tenants of the crown and barons, and agricultural and other laborers, on the other side With the rise and growth of this new class of society, not only did coreater degree of knowledge, juster notions of the true ends of governan to spread abroad, and beco frolish society had indeed begun to undergo a change; but changes of national character are ordinarily the work of time Operative causes were, however, evidently in existence, and sure to produce, ultimately, their proper effect Fro out of the civil wars, England enjoyed n and do the controversy between the houses of York and Lancaster These years of peace were favorable to coeneral and individual knowledge; and knowledge is the only fountain, both of the love and the principles of human liberty

Other powerful causes soon came into active play The Refor up the ht, and awakening in individuals energies before unknown even to theed society, as well as religion; indeed, it would be easy to prove, if this occasion were proper for it, that they changed society to a considerable extent, where they did not change the religion of the state They changed ht, his consciousness of his oers, and his desire of intellectual attainn adventure, therefore, on the one hand, which had gained so th and influence since the time of the discovery of America, and, on the other, the assertion andtheir source indeed in the Reforthened by the subsequent divisions of senti the Refor after it or bringing along with it, as it always does, an ardent devotion to the principle of civil liberty also, were the powerful influences under which character was forlish civilization, English law, and what is lo-Saxon blood, into the wilderness of North Ah and his companions may be considered as the creatures, principally, of the first of these causes High-spirited, full of the love of personal adventure, excited, too, in soree, by the hopes of sudden riches from the discovery ofto diversify the labors of settling a colony with occasional cruising against the Spaniards in the West Indian seas, they crossed and recrossed the ocean, with a frequency which surprises us, e consider the state of navigation, and which evinces a land The Mayflower sought our shores under no high-wrought spirit of coold, noLike the dove from the ark, she had put forth only to find rest Solemn supplications on the shore of the sea, in Holland, had invoked for her, at her departure, the blessings of Providence The stars which guided her were the unobscured constellations of civil and religious liberty

Her deck was the altar of the living God Fervent prayers on bended knees, , with the voices of ocean, and the sighing of the wind in her shrouds Every prosperous breeze, which, gently swelling her sails, helped the Pilgrims onward in their course, awoke new antheht into fury, neither the teile bark like a feather, nor the darkness and howling of the ht storm, ever disturbed, in man or woo all, and to do all, that the hest trust in God could enable hus to suffer or to perform

Some differences may, doubtless, be traced at this day between the descendants of the early colonists of Virginia and those of New England, owing to the different influences and different circumstances under which the respective settle variety in the eneral family resemblance