Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1843-07-06

pduiotlSm. f0G come mere, some oil
you. to be embraced by an aged rcyolu
tlonary father, toreceive another, perhaps
, the last, blessing given in love and feal
by an aged mother, who has survived to
reJ0ce IN your prosperity and happiness
1t these familiar and tender associations
of early life have brought you hither with
peculiar alacr:ty, and give to us from
yoa, and you from us greeting Of ex-
tfaordinary cor6la!ty, there is yet not
wanting free and cordial greeting for
any aud every true American, from
whatever part of the great republic, who
treads with US this sacred field, aud re-
spires with US this atmosphere, redolcnt
with the ever fragrant recollections CT
1775.
Among the seventeen millions Of hap
Ply people who compose our American
Community, there is not one who has not
an interest in that structure-not one
who has not deep and abiding interest
in the events which it is designed to
commemorate. It's respectability-i may
say its sublimity, depends entirely on
its nationality. 1t is all American. Its
sentiment is comprehensive enough to
embrace the whole American family,
from East to West. 1t stands, and may
it ever stand, an emblem of our Union!
and woe he:ide the man who views it
with sentiments less than wholly Ameri-
can. Woe betide him who stands here
with local jealousy and local luminosity
burning in his bosom-( Three cheers.)
All our happiness and all our glory de-
pend on Union. That monument itself,
in its sentiment and character wholly A
mercan, stands on Union. do not
know that 1t would keep its firm posi-
! ton if these States should be rent asun-
der-that if faction and violence should
ever hereafter break the bonds which
now unite US, the heaving earth would
refuse to bear its weight aud the fair
structure totter to its fall. IF dismem-
berment should come to be the affection
of this land. cannot say that this col
umn would mingle its fragments with
those OF broken constitution. But in
the happening Of such an event, who
would dare to lock up to it? Who be-
meath such load of modification and
shame could approach to behold it,
Who is there that would not expect his
I eyeballs to be scared by the intensity of
its silent reproacaes? (Cheers.) For
my part, if to witness such misfortune
should be destined for me, should wish
to lcok upon it no more; | should wish to
avert my eyes from it forever.
Il is not as mere military encounter
of hostile armies that the battle of Bun
ker Hill POUNDS its principal claim to
commemoration and lmportance-yet as
mere battle, the circumstances attend
! ing it were Of very extraordinary char
acter and entitle it to peculiar distihc-
lion. 1t was fought upon this eminence,
in the immediate neighborhood Of yonder
city, in the presence Of more spectators
/ than there were combatants. Men, wo-
men and children filled the towers of
the churches, crowded the roofs Of the
private dwellings, and were spread a.
round upon these emlnences, looking
with the deepest anxiety for the result
! of contest, of the Importance of whose
consequences they felt the deepest con-
victlon.
On the 10th ofJune these fields were
covered with the rich verdure of the
promised harvest. In Boston sounded
the awful note of preparation. The
main body Of the American army was at
Cambridge, its right wing at Dorchester
and its left at Chelsea. On the morn
ing of the l7tk the aspect Of every thing
was changed. On yonder height had
arisen in the night reaoubt construct
ed by few hardy men, under the Ill
rection CT Prescott. At dawn it was per-
ceived by the enemy and cannonaded by
the ships aud floating batteries in the
harbor, and from the land on the other
side of Charles River. | suppose it
would be difficult in military point of
view to ascrbe any just motive to that
conflict. 1t was not important to the
provincial army to hem in the British by
drawing their lines little nearer. And
On the other hand, il the British in Bos-
ton had had no other object than to dis.
lodge the proyinclals, the means of effect
ing it would have been entirely in their
| hands.
/ They commanded the waters on every
side the Mystic and Charles rivers were
under their exclusive control, as was al
so the isthmus where they approach each
other ON the North. They could easily
have cut of the communication Of Pres
colt and his men with the main army.
and have reduced them to famine in
eight and forty hours. But that was not
the day for such calculations, on either
side. The truth is that both parties were
ready and anxious TO try the strength OF
their arms. The British officers. lndig-
lnant at the insult offered by the rebels
/ to the pride of their army, by the .erec-
ton of a redoubt in their very teeth, de-
4 termined, without calculating the cost,
or deiying the cost; to destroy it at once