The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1843-07-07

We learn from an esteemed contemporary, the New
York AuIora--lor we did not ourselves see it--hat
most offensive article appeared IN the eoiuuins OF
the New York PIebeian Of Saturday, 10 relation 10
The Rattle of Bunker Ill., and the celebration OF the
I7th The Aurora handled the Infamous article WIN
meroiless but Just severity and advocates the cause
of the heroes of the Revolution and The fathers OF
New England with zeal Tor which II VIII receive
the thanks not only Of every New Englander but OF
every lrue-fearted American. when we perused 'he
extract from this brutal essay we came 10 the con-
cuson that il must have crept into The columns oil
the Pebean by extraordinary oversight put on
consulting the Plebeian OF Monday, we ind not
word of retraction explanation ltglories, mere
fore, In its shame Listen, New Englanders, to the
language in which the Plebean speaks of the deeds
of your ancestry and the honors paid them BY their
descendants.
"The Bunker Hill monument, with the bursting
gas with which the late celebration was inflated Is
the latest humbug of Yankee land They have
plastered il all with much patriotic quackery
and nonsense, that the stomach OF our proyerbiai
good nature aud creduty utterly refuses TO take he
whole OF il IN at dose. IL is too much for the So
briefly of our counter ance. Let US look into the
thing little.
"A glorious battle was fought near or upon this
celebrated spot early in the Revolution, and the re-
bels our gallant countrymen, behaved like men,
as they were bound 10 do They fought brayely
That all right. But had they done less than
they did, they and their deeds would not have been
worth remembering. We agree with Montesqueu,
that T" the aucients magnited by distance !" and
also we believe with Mr.. James Grow, that +" there
good fish in the ever was caught out oil
tn But upon the laures Of this early skrmlsh,
which ended in retreat Massachusetts and her ora
tor willing to repose apparently forever, re-
yamping II, and rehashing IT, and serving II up in
small homeopathic doses for the benefit of the gene
rations they go by, until, il would seem, they have
come TO the settled conclusions and the unshakeable
belief that all other battles, either in ancient
dern mas, but fea-biies TO the fight on Bunker
Hln
Is this The language Of an American newspaper 7
Is this The comment made by an American upon one
OF the most glorious events that ever glowed in the
historical records of any country The Flebeian, il
appears, nothing in the Battle Of Bunker Hill but
a well contested skirmish ending in retreat. He
does not understand the immensely of the stake for
which the patriots Of Bunker Hill hazarded their
lives. lie does not perceive the difference between
men fighting for principles for posterity-and hire
lngs whose trade is war; and who stand up 10 be
shot at for sixpence day He judges a contest not
by the principles at stake, bat the number of men en-
gagged According to his views the gallantry of Le-
onidas and his three hundred at the pass OF Thermo
pyle was nothing but the ordinary steadiness Of
we-drilled military detachment holding their ground
against considerable odds. Leonidas was, Of course,
" inagnitied by distance
The Plebelan evidently stands in peculiar and
untenabie position. All it can say will never affect
the fame of Warren or Prescott or Putnam, or of
a single private who fred his last charge Of powder
aid ball over the breastworks of Bunker Hill Was
Bunker Hill nothing but g skirmish 7" Merely in
military point of view the holding out of a hasty
redoubt by handful of undiscplned and MI armed
troops against the flower of the British army was an
action worthy of imperishable honor. But when we
look at the importance of the results-the impetus
TINS battle gave 10 the spirit Of resistance to oppres
son--the influence still exists of which the end is not
yeti we feel that no honors are too great to be paid
TO the actors IN that struggIeno language too euo-
CYSTIC IN which to speak Of their great deeds But the
editor Of the Plebeian cannot perceive the greatness
of the actors the cvent-he sees in the Battle of
Bunker Hill only clever skirmish, and in the Pill
grim fathers of New England only "handful Of
land spectators, who left Il cir country for their
country's good.' OF these men, who sought in the
untred wilderness
Freedom TO worship God"
the Plebeian speaks in terms of scurrilty and insult
beneath notice. We leave it SOLITARY and alone"
in the glory il has Won