The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1875-05-05
The Lexington Centennial.
TIE GREAT SPEECH OF GOV. CHAM
BERLAIN.

TIE GREAT SPEECH OF GOV. CHAM.
BERLAIN.
Mr.. Thomas Merriam Stetson presid-
cd, and after an Introductory speech an.
nounced the first toast: The State OF
South Carolina. Never will Massachu-
setts forget the prompt response of South
Carolina the very night she heard the
war note from Lexington. (Applause..
And Governor Chamberlain may vote
anything he wants to except our earnest
request for response from the palmetto
to the pine. (Applause.)
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR DANIEL II. CHAM
BERLAIN.
To stand upon the spot where our fa-
thers gave the last test of their devotion
to civil freedom is o high and sacred
privilege. If your hearts respond to the
! highest influences which human exam.
pic and endeavor can afford if personal
gratitude for blessings secured if honor
for self-forgetting, single-eyed fidelity 10
duty; if sense Of the far-rcaching, linn
itless consequences which are some
times wrapped up in the actions of
few men; if any or all considerations
have power to effect us, this place and
!
proudest emotions. Such emotions are
too strong and deep to be expressed in
words. The full inspiration of the occa-
sion must be felt in the heart. The lips
connot utter it.
confess, therefore, that l am 10th to
attempt to add to the tribute Of words
which this occasion has already called
fourth. The outward scenes which were
presented here hundred years ago the
sequence of causes and events which led
up to the supreme hour which witnessed
the opening in blood of this great chap
ter Of American history; something
too, of the physical and moral Inca
mcnts of the actors in those scenes; the
vast results already attained and the
boundlcss future still waiting; these
have been presented before us with all
the power which eloquencc and poetry
can lend. What remains except that
we should Fl our hearts with the lessons
and sentiments and principles which
this day has taught US, and again take
our places in the ranks Of that great
army which OH all days and on all fields
must still carry forward the unending
warfare of freedom against oppression,
OF Justice against wrong, of human pro-
prcss against all efforts to circumscribc
the thoughts or fetter thu actions Of men
except by the eternal laws of truth
itself!
The men whose memory we seek to
honor to-day were great because they
shrank from no danger or sacrifices
which were demanded of them in order
to vindcate and defend the rights
which they claimed by virtue of their
simple manhood. That grand and i'm
perishable declaration of the rights
which man may claim as the inalicn.
able endowment of his Creator, which
was made one year later, was but the
echo of the guns which disturbed the
morning air of Lexington one hundred
years ago. The grandeur of that hour
was its absolute and unhesitating re.
sponse to the call of duty. Here stood
our sires; and here they fell. They
could do not otherwise. They were
British subjects. No independence had
vet been proclaimed. No war had yet
been declared, And yet they resisted
The thought of founding new nation
did not fire their hearts. And yet they
dared to lift their hands against the
power of their lawful sovereign. They
counted no cost. They knew not that
they were striking chord which would
vibrate through the land and summon
every colony to their side. They stood
alone, alone with duty, face to face will
an imperious necessity which thei
manhood laid upon them. :.
All, fellow-citizens, is not this thel
highest title to immortality? Not tina
they opened the vast drama OF events
t which followed, not that they wer'
, founders of new nation, not that th'
American republic had its birth in tha
hour, but rather that in sublime fldellt,
to duty, alone, unsupported, cheered b.
no voice save the still voice OF dut,
speaking within their hearts, they dare'
to be true to their convictions and L
strike q blow, however feeble, howeVe
hopeless for their rights as men.
If they had doubted, they must haV'
despaired. If they had shrunk iron
the pcrils and opportunities OF that on
) hour, who does not see that the decisi'
. momcn: would have been lost? 10
dav, seen in the ordinary historical per
| spcctiye, the scenes which we are nov
recalling are covered with halo whicl
y half conceals the heroism then witness
X ed. If we can for moment dispel thi
false halo, we shall see more clcarl
4 than we are wont to see how simple
" austere and devoted was the sense G
duty which animated the men VIII
first resisted arbitrary power on thei
'e spot. $780,,
1t is easy to imagine great and prou
nation pouring forth its wealth an
= strength to maintain its national ST.
premacy. 1t is easy to imagine pee
pie stung to desperate resistance py III III
merciless cruelties of the oppressor. n
such scene was presented here on tn
10Th of April, l775. No military pa
geant passing before their eyes arouse
'e in the breast of those men the feelln
of martial enthusiasm. Dramatic splel
doris, outward indictments, dreams
conquest, all were absent, and in thel
, stead nothing presented itself but th
II simple, stern issue: Shall we, Englisl
men, descendants Of those who hav
gradually built up the great monument
and barriers of English liberty till thu
liberty has become the birthright of a
Englishmen-shall we, few weak, VI
- prepared, unorganiZed colonists, asse
in our own persons that great doctril
which lies at the foundation of Englis
"a DISQUALIFICATION without represent
80 ton is tyranny?" The very simpl'ci
of the issue discloses the grandeur
the event. These men were bra'
enoupb and true enough TO accept Il