The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-06-27

from the Richmond (Virginia) Examiner. Whatever
difference Of opinion there may be among our read
ers in regard to the structures of our respected Rich
mond contemporary, all must agree relative to their
fairness and candor, and the ability with which they
are presented.
CELEBRATION OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL AT BOSTON,
We have read with great satisfaction the accounts
of this celebration Of the anniversary of event that
viii be forgotten in the history of country
independently of the inspiring example il exhibited,
that body Of citizens animated by the spirit of lib
erty capable of defending it against the assaults
of disciplined soldiers, it brings back to the period
when the North and the South stood shoulder to
shoulder in the defence of rights common to them
both and the great war-cry, from one extremity of
the confederation to the other, :" United we
standardized we fall
While celebrating one of the great events of this
era with such enthusiasm the actors in the scene
could scarcely fail of recalling mind that the de-
fence of their resides and their affairs nrusted
to man born and brought up in the veryregion they
striving to ostracise from that communion of
interests and brotherhood which they then la
boring to establish the basis of common rights and
common liberty. Assuredly they must have remem-
bered that though the event they were celebrating
laid the cornerstone Of that great edfce OF freedom
which the world is contemplating with mix
ture of hope and dismay, yet, but for the patriotic
ardor with which these ropudiated fellow-cizens of
the South focked to sustain their Efforts that edifce
how hae tad IVhatayar NAV
he their claims agency in is construction they
should recolleot that it was not erected by them
alone, but that the hands and hearts of the whole
people of the United States the grand basis of
the Temple of Freedom. Without this combination
the Battle of Bunker Hill would never have been
COMMUNICATED by a free, sovereign, and independ-
cnt people.
We cannot therefore but hope that the celebration
of this event recalled to the minds of the people of
Massachusetts, that era Of good feeling. that enlarged
spirit of patriotism, that community of interests,
that seven years of arduoas struggle in which all
the people North and South, united together for
common object and one common destiny. We should
think that on such an OCCASION unless the spirit of
their forefathers dead within them they could
not have failed in contrasting their present position
standing they do in direct antagonism to that sys
tenn of union which the blood shed on Bunker Hill
cemented-with that they occupy, in direct an
tagonsm to every principle on which that Union is
based. F..t ..G.. s,...'. .ea.w asss
Had Massachusetts and the sister States Of New
England stood where they stand-in direct and
bitter hostility to onehalf the States of the confed
eration-that revolution which established our indie
pendencc and laid the foundations for world of
freedom, would, if ever commenced have ended in
rivetng the chains of themselves and their posterty
for ages to come. Massachusetts, and Boston most
especially. boasts, with some reason OF being the
cradle of Liberty. Let her beware she does not be-
come its grave. Let her beware that, instead of be-
ing quoted as one of the al the cradle of Lib
erty she is not handed down to posterity as an
unnatural mother who, in fit of irritable natuation
sranged the infant prodigy almost at the moment of
its birth From standing among the first on the list
Of the champions of liberty in The past she may loom
in the future side by side with thc aspiring youth
who fred the Ephesian dome, only that he might ac
quire immortality of nfamy.
We hope such reflections as these occurred at
least TO some of the old remnants of the revolution
eAstl WHeH Ut
and that when they went home they warned their
sons and grandsons against those dangerous princ-
pies that are fast undermining the edifce cement
ed by the blood of their fathers that they dwelt
on the labors and sacrifices they had encountered,
the blood they had shed at Bunker Hill; on their
privatons and suerings during seyen-years strug-
gle for independence and union, and hesought them
not to lay their sacrilegions hands the temple
their fathers had erected. Even the ferocity of ia
nntcism, we think, would yield to such appeal.
We could not, however, refrain from smile lit was
rather sarcastic one) at seeing the Of certain
distinguished, or rather notorious persons among
those who oficiated at this anniversary We should
like to know their object in thus making themselves
conspicuous in concentrating event that laid the
foundation Of that very fabric they now laborng
to pull down. Did they think they could blind the
people to their warfare against the constitution and
the Union by display Of patriotic enthusiasm in be-
half of the past in order that their present and fu-
ture objects might thus escape detection Did they
believe that by becoming actors in the same scene
with the Everetts, and Choates, and Others who on
any other occasion would have disdained the asso-
citation, they might elevate themselves to their
standard Did they not blush, when, joining in a
patriotic celebration and shouting in concert with
the crowd whose enthusiasm was doubtless sim