The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-12-11

civic qualities. or their lighting capacity,
What could have happened. asks Senator
Lodge in the one hundred and twenty-five
years which had elapsed since the time OF
Cromwell TO make their descendants In the
New World degenerate9 For four genera
lions the people OF New England had been max
ing q hard fight to establish homes In the will
derness and TO gather subsistence from an un-
grateful soil and the stormy seas OF the North
Atlantic. They had been engaged in almost
constant warfare with the Indians and French.
and had formed a large part OF the armies with
which Pitt had wrested Canada from France.
There was nothing. obviously. in all this to
weaken their fibre or to destroy their martial
qualities. Frontiersmen and pioneers. whose
arms were the axe and the rife, sturdy farm
ers and hardy fishermen, all of nearly pure
English blood with q small infusion Of Hugue-
nots and a slight mingling, chiefly In New
Hampshire, OF Scotch Irish from Londonderry.
were not. on the face OF things. likely to show
themselves timid or weak. These were the
men, nevertheless. whom Lord Sandwich and
the Ministry md EnGllshmen in general set
down as towards. who would run like sheep
before the British soldiers.
So long as the resistance to the English policy
OF interference had been confined to the arena
Of debate and of Parliamentary opposition. the
rulers of England had found the representa-
tives OF the American people to be good law
yers and keen politicians. nay. statesmen able
to frame State papers OF the highest merit.
Untaught. however. by the outcome Of the
controversy OF words. those rulers resorted
to brute force and. when the British
Generals. on the morning OF June IL.
1875. beheld the rude earthworks on
Breeds Hill (which, Of course. was the real
scene OF the engagement their only feeling
was one 81 scorn for the men who had raised
them and Of irritation at the audacity which
had prompted the act. With such beliefs they
undertook to march up to the redoubt as they
would have paraded to check the advance of
city mob. When they came within range they
were met by a fire which. In accuracy and in
,rapidity. surpassed anything they had ever
encountered. As they fell back. broken.
from the slopes Of the hill. their
one feeling was that OF surprise. Yet all which
had happened was the most natural thing in
the world. To men who had fought in the
French and Indian wars. who had been bred on
the farm and fishing smack. who were accus-
toned to arms from their youth. who. with q
single bullet. could pick OF o squirrel from the
top OF the highest tree, 1t was an easy matter.
even though they were undisciplined. to face
the British soldiers and cut them down with a
fire so accurate that even the stubborn British
courage could not Withstand IL. Contempt for all
persons not living in England and profound ig-
noranco OF all people but their own were the
reasons for the merciless slaughter which
came upon the British soldiers at the battle OF
Bunker Hill. II the lesson of that day was
temporarily wasted upon England. 1t was be-
cause insular contempt for every other people
upon earth. even II they be kith and kin. is hard
to overcome.