The Portland daily press., 1875-04-19
The Concord Fight.

| The Concord Fight.
| One hundred years ago to-day the first gun
OF the Revolution was fired at Lexington. A
few hours later British soldiers and Yankee
| yeomen met in conflict for the first time. The
story is familiar to every school boy. We all
know OF the long train of grievances and mis-
understandings which led up to the Lexing-
ton massacre and the Concord fight; how the
naughty islanders and the no less naughty
| colonists grew to hate each other; how the
Americans, alarmed at the constant encroach-
ments upon their liberties, began to form
military depots and store-houses; how the
careless English gave out that they should
destroy the stores and hang the leading rebels !;
how Paul Revere and Eben Dorr spread, on
their midnight ride, the news Of the expedi-
tion; how the country burst into flame !;
how the minute men gathered on the COM
marched down; how the conflict came about
there and at Concord; and how the British,
beaten and frightened, shot at from behind
every stone wall and stump, broke into fight
which ended only under the shelter of the
friendly guns in Boston harbor.
One hardly cares to go into discussion
the claims of the rival towns. The skirmish
has passed into common speech as "The Con-
cord Fight,' into history as one of the most
pregnant conflicts in all time. "The first shot
that is fired in America separates the two
countries" said the elder Pitt. That is the
significance of the running fight to Boston.
The skirmish was the prelude to the Revolu-
tion, to the achievement of independence, to
the establishment of the great western repub-
lie, and indirectly to the mighty European
convulsion fourteen years late-. 1t is only in
the light of historical perspective that the
event stands out in its due Proportions. 1t
may well be doubted if all Europe watched
the conflict between the mother country and
the revolted colonies with that intense eager
ness which Mr.. Bancroft, with pardonable
were glad to see the curtailment of her great
domain and growing power. Beyond that
they cared little for the issue, nor feared nor
hoped for the mighty results which followed.
Little they thought of ''the spread of the Re-
publican idea' or looked for the growth of a
great commonwealth beyond the seas. The
shot fired by the embattled farmers DGs
heard round the world, but it took years
for the echo to reach the European shore. 1t
was heard at last, as the crumbling
walls of the Bastile and the overthrow of the
French monarchy testified. But in its day
the revolt was of interest only as it affected
the colonial power of England and her conse-
quent position among European states.
The issue of the revolt happily is not now
a matter of regret to either party to the con-
fct; and though the war was waged with all
that hate which is engendered by family
quarrel the animosities growing out of it have
long since died away. For years, it is true,
it was a matter of pride with many Ameri-
cans to eherish hostility to the "Britisher''
and all his works, but it was faint anu sIau-
owy enmty at its worst and never failed to
vanish entirely at the very first grasp of an
Englishman's hand. 1t should be so; for to
England we owe what freedom we possess. |
1t is we'll to bear in mind that there were
freemen before the old Philadelphia bell |
changed forth the announcement of the birth |
of new nation, and that the liberal laws of |
to-day are but notifications and enlarge
ments of statutes won and framed by the |
strength and wisdom of our English ancestors.
The children of the Anglo-Saxon, we succeed /
to his heritage and freedom. The men who |
won our independence we're the sons of |
the stern Puritans Who established the Com |
of England or descendants of the |
fierce barons who wrested the great charter |
from John. Had there been no magma |
charta there would have been no constitu-
ton. Had there been no Long Parliament |
there would have been no American Con- |
gress. The children of other races, it is true, |
fought on revolutionary battle-felds. The |
of the Huguenot,, strong in the
rigid Calvinism of their French ancestors, |
the sons of the Holanders who broke down
the dykes and turned the sea against the |
Spaniard, the heirs of the Swedes who Law
ished blood upon German plains in defense
of the Protestant faith, were represented in
The Colonial army. But the bulk of the
army and the bulk of the people were Brit
ish.- This it was which made the republic
possible, for we succeeded to the traditions
and usages of nation of freemen. The |
British constitution, albeit unwritten, was
the basis of our own, and our larger freedom J
is but due to the less restricted conditions,
physical and political, under which we live.
While then rejoicing over the slaughter OF
red.coats at Concord let us not forget our
great debt to the Mother: Country whence
those red coats came.