The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-27

cluster of towns where, within narrow space,
tho first effectual flames Of revolution burst
foIth, las had no cause to complain, and weare
confieat does not, Of any want Of sympathy
in her recent COMMUNICATIVE rite. Rarely,
II ever, in the history of our country never
indeed since the visit OF Lafayette, just bait o
century ago, has there been SO pure and gen.
erous an outpouring Of popular sentiment.
But, now that it is well over, we may, without
fear Of disturbing harmony, ask the question
what, in those critical times, had been done and
was doing elsewhere when those Lexington
gunshots fired the train of revolution? This
is question which familiar history enables us
easily to answer, as it is right 1t should be
answered, truthfully, lest any section of the
narrow strip which was the area of the Old
Thirteen should be deluded into claiming
monopoly of fame or undue priority of action.
Aside from the action of the Continental
Congress, which was more the agency Of So
cial than of political union, it is marvellous
to see how compact that social union and
sympathy had become before shot was fred
in anger. 1t is worth while to note in detail
some of these movements, and in doing SO let
us, on the threshold, repair an injustice which
history, and especially Massachusetts, his
tory, has done. Because Captain Whipple
captured a revenue schooner in 1772 it GER
tainly is no reason to dispute the precedence
of Lexington as the first Revolutionary fight.
But in one respect "little Rhody'' has not had
fair play, for it is O fact not familiar to the
cursory reader of our story, that she fl rst, on
the 18th of May, 1774, suggested General
Congress, and that she also, as
State, declared herself independent two
months before the 4th of July, 1776.
But much farther than Rhode Island did
this practical sympathy extend 1t was the
Boston Port bill that made the Revolution,
and the mingled sentiment it aroused
throughout the colonies was generous pity
for the immediate victims of oppression and
of selfish apprehension that the fate of Boston
might soon be theirs. New York and Penn
sylvania acted in quick succession, each en-
barrassed by the 'loyaP' sentiment in their
midst AS the initiate battles were won by a
rural opulation-literally the yeomanry of
the country--so was it that, had resistance and
revolution in the Middle States depended on
the cities, they never would have been con-
summated. Especially was this the case with
Pennsylvania, and it is curious to note that
while Philadelphia in the outset, perplexed
by intestine broils and overshadowed by
proprietary influence, with large population
opposed on principle to war, longest hesitated,
not only did her central situation and the
presence of Congress make her the objective
point of every hostile enterprise, but when
the die was cast no community showed
greater spirit contributed larger contingent
of able and heroic men or endured sharper
trials.
Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia all
moved into line at once. Let us see what
Virginia did. 1t is an old story, but it is
worth telling again. When the news of the
Port bill reached Virginia the House of Bur-
gesses was in session. A resolution was In
troduced and adopted fixing the 1st day of
June as q day of fasting, humiliation and
prayer The book of precedents to which
the Virginia s'faithful subjects had recourse
was one of evil omen. to royal authority
s'No example of such solemnity," says Mr..
jefferson, ''had existed since the days of our
distresses in the war of SO, since which a
new generation had grown up. With the help
of Rushworth, which we rummaged over for
the revolutionary precedents and forms of the
Puritans Of those days, we cooked up a reso-
luton, somewhat undermining the phrases for
appointing the 1st of June, on which the Port
bill was to commence, for day of fasting
humiliation and prayer, to implore Heaven to
avert from us the evils of civil war, and to
dispose us with frmness in support of our
rights, and to turn the heart of the King and
Parliament to moderation and justice" The
Governor dissolved tho Burgesses, and the
members, acting as private citizens, with full
confidence that they had q true constituency,
meeting ct the Apollo Hall, carried out their
measures of cooperation. In the year
which then ensued, from May, 1774, to
April, 1775 more practical measures Of con-
cert were adopted and matured, especially
in the organization and equipment of local
militia. There happened, too, at the moment
very convenient Indian hostilities, and the two
great colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia
had good excuse for keeping, for those times,
large bodies of troops under arms. This, in a
measure, accounts for the promptitude with
which whole nation sprang to arms without
n national or continental soldier or a flag
under which to rally them. Washington was
made commander-in-chief on the day after
Bunker Hill was fought, and, of course, be-
fore the news had reached Philadelphia, and
in less than a fortnight thirty thousand men
held the British in hopeless siege in Boston.
These were the echoes which Concord and
Lexington awoke, and what would they have
been without the echoes? When it is asked,
then, what was doing elsewhere, here in this
familiar thrice-told tale We have the answer.
The commemoration at Lexington over, with