Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-04-28


We are fortunate that we behold this day
The heavens bend benignly over, the earth
blossoms with renewed life, and our hearts
beat joyfully together with one emotion Of
dlial gratitude and patriotic exultation.
Citizens Of great, free, and prosperous
country, we come hither to honor the men,
our fathers, who on this spot and upon this
day, n hundred years ago, struck the first
blow in the contest which made that coun-
try independent. Here beneath the hills
they trod, by the peaceful river on whose
shores they dwelt, amidst the fields that they
sowed and reaped, proudly recalling their
virtue and their valor, we come TO tell their
story, to try ourselves by their lofty stand
ard TO know II we are their worthy children
and standing reverently where they stood
and fought aud died, to swear before God
and each other, in the words Of him upon
whom in our day the spirit of the revolution
AIRY fathers visibly descended, that govern
ment of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
This ancient town, with its neighbors who
share its glory, has never failed fifty to com
memorate this great day Of its history. Fifty
years ago, while some soldiers Of the Concord
fight were yet living twenty-five years ago,
while still few venerable survivors fingered
with prayer and eloquence and song you
renewed the pious vow. But the last living
link with the revolution has long been
broken. Great events and mightier strug-
gle have absorbed our own generation. Yet
we who stand here today have sympathy
with the men at the old North Bridge which
those who preceded US here at earlier cele-
brations could not know. With them war
was a name and tradition. So swift and
vast had been the change aud the develop
ment of the country that the revolutionary
clash OF arms was already vague and unreal,
and Concord and Lexington seemed to them
almost as remote an historic as Arbela and
Sempach When they assembled to celebrate
this day they saw little group of tottering
forms, eyes from which the light was fading,
arms nerveless and withered, thin, white
hairs that huttered in the wind-they saw a
few venerable relics of vanished age, whose
pride was that oeiore hFing memory they
hah been m'nu'e-iheh OF American ihuepeh'
dehce' But with US now changed war Is
no longer tradition half romantic and OBJ
seure' IL mas ra'aseu row many OF our
homes II mas "ruily no" many OIL .iie he''ttS
before me- North anu South we Kho" 'he
pahg' our common npef,y Is consecr''eu
oy common sorio"' we uo no' co"''
around us lew ieepie veterans oi 'ne con
test Dut we are giF' WIN elouu oi WIZ
nesses' we are surrounded everywhere p'
muit'ludes III 'he 'isor oi 'hei' lil'ne-oe
hoid them mere to-lay shariug III these l'ou'
and peaceful rit's' the hohofed cltl@ehs' legls
lators' magistrates yes the ciiei niasis
trate oil the repnoiic-"hose glory II Is una
they were mhutemen oil American iipe'''
and union' lhese men oil to-day lnterpre
to us with resistless eloqnenee the men ah'
the hmes we commemorate Now II heVe
before, we understand the revolution NOV
we know the secret OF those Old hearts an'
homes we can measure the saerlhce, IN
courage the DEVOTION ior we nave seen then
all "reen mis- OF concord oroad heiuS
MlddleseN' That heard the voice oil hahcocl
and oil Adams you heard also the eau o
Lincoln and OF Andrew, and your Ladd am
Whitney, your Prescott and RIPLEY and Me
win, have revealed to us more truly the Davl
and the Buttrlck, the Hosmer ana the farke
OF hundred years ago
At the end OF century we can see tn
work of this day as our fathers could moi
we can see that then the final movement ID
gan of process long and unconsciously pr
pairing, which was to intrust Liberty to ne
, forms and institutions that seemed full
happy promise for mankind, And now Il
nearly century, what was called the expe
iment of representative republic OF IN