Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-05-12

The MARTYRS of Lexington, and Why They
Made Themselves Martyrs Eloquent
Opening of the Grafton of Richard III.
Dana, Jr.. at Lexington. April 18th.
How mysterious is that touch of Fate
which gives Immortality to a spot of
earth,-to a name! The vital spark
falls upon it, and it flashes into i'm
mortal life. There were countless pass
es through the Locrian Mountains whose
names have persisted. The lot fell
upon one of them; and the name of
Thermopyla is as fresh after two thou
sand years as In the glory's prime of
Greece, and the word ever is, and ever
will be, among all races and in all
chimes, watchword for heroic self de-
votion, an electric shock to create soul
of patriot valor under the ribs of
Death.
There are thick studded villages over
the plains Of Belgium unknown tofame,
and none less known than Waterloo,
whose name on the morning Of the 18th
June, 1916, had not been heard beyond
the sound OF its village chimes. By
the setting sun of that day it was to
stand forever ans appeal of pride and
glory to one great race, while the mere
utterance of its sylIables stirs to the
very depths the resentment and chagrin
of another, SO that its place in human
speech is standing menace to the
peace of Europe.
There were many hamlets of New
England through which British troops
passed and repassed in 1775-hamlets
whose people were no less patriotic and
devoted than your own but the lot of
glory fell to Lexington. A few min
utes Of the dawn of spring morning,
and your name was sealed with the
blood of martyrs; it was to be cherish
ed forever in the affectionate memories
Of the people of a continent, to be
borne on banners above the smoke of
battle, inscribed upon the war-ships Of
a great nation, and proudly carried into
every sea, to be adopted in grateful re-
membrance by hundreds of towns in all
parts of this empire; name which will
ever cry
freedoms battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,
Though bafled oft is ever won."
But Thermopyl@ and Waterloo, like
many other names, owed their immor-
tality to strangers. The three hundred
Spartans marched many weary leagues
from the centre of Laconia to defend,
against the myriads of Asiatic invaders,
those defles for which the natives had
no thought of contending. 1t was the
accident that the two vast war clouds,
charged full with Gallo and British
thunders, broke just there, which gave
Waterloo what its own nation could
never have given it. It was foreign
flint and foreign steel that struck for 1t
the vital spark. How little have the
people OF Gettysburg to do with the
conservation of It's soil
1t is the felicity of Lexington that
she was consecrated to the worlds use
by the blood of her own sons. The men
who fell on this green, under the shad-
ow OF the village church, willing mar
tyrs, were men born and reared there,
taught at the village school and from
the village pulpit, freeholders of your
own lands, voters IN your own town
meetings, organized into the militia of
your little community. When they
stood in line, when they refused to sur
render their arms, when they fell be-
meath the British volley, it was in sight
of mothers, wives and daughters, and
that cabalistic word to all villagers of
New England-of neis hbors. 1t was no
chance conflict of foreign or allied
armies. 1t was no work of even friend
~ and neighboring hands. Sixty or
seventy freeholders and voters of Lex
ngton, in their primative capacity, or
gained, after the manner of their faith
ers, into military array, by authority of
the town and province, bearing arms by
right they deemed their inalterable
birthright, they stood there in obedi-
ence to the voice of the people of the
town and province, their hearts. con
sciences and understandings fully salts
fed and fully instructed, determined not
to begin war in a state of legal peace,
but resolved, if war must come, if in
the providence of God it was to begin