The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-20
.HOAR TALKS AGAIN
addresses Society Of
Sons OF the Rev.
olution.
MEXICAN IDEAL.
Laurels Gained in Vulgar
Conquest for Empire
Not Lasting.


Revolution observed Patriots day to-
day by the unwilling of tablet placed
upon the tomb in Kings chapel bury
ing grounds which marks the resting
place of William Dawes, whose daring
midnight ride of April 1878, 1775, was
Of The same character and accomplished
the same purpose as the ride Of Paul
Revere.
The ceremony was followed by a ban
quet at the Hotel Vendome, at which
Senator Hoar, former United States
Minister to Spain Hannis Taylor and
Collector George H. Lyman were the
Z principal speakers. Maj. Frank H.
Briggs presided at the banquet and in
troduced Senator Hoar, who spoke in
part as follows:
I deem it high honor to be the guest
of the Sons of the Revolution on this
our great Massachusetts anniversary.
In the beginning when your society
was first established 1 shared a little
the doubt whether it were wise to ere
ate an order or brotherhood, even for
this patriotic purpose, in which all
american citizens could not share. But
y
one of the great races that are blended
in our national life has it's own glorious
traditions which 1t delights to cherish.
The Englishnan and the Irishman and
the Scotchman and the Frenchman and
the German and the Scandinavian each
has something to tell of what his
Fathers did for humanity and freedom
in the days that are past.
He is no worse but all the better
american, as he feels that in making
up their account of debt and credit
with the republic, he and his race have
had much to give as well as much TO
receive. So the sons OF New England,
the sons of Massachusetts, the sons of
Middlesex, the sons of Lexington ana
concord have an honest right to gather
on the 18th of April, as the years go
round, to revive the tender memories
OF what their fathers suffered, and the
glorious memories Of what their IA
theirs achieved.
1t is an important purpose of your
society, as 1 understand it, to gather
and preserve the history of the 1evo-
lutionary time, especially the local ira
dition and material which otherwise
would be in great danger of being lost.
But, more important than this, you
mean to keep alive the spirit OF the
Evolutionary time, which 1 am some
times tempted to think,-although l do
not in the least yield to that tempta-
tion,-is in still greater danger OF be-
ing lost. The greatest of all conserva-
tive forces in a republic is great MS
tory. The war of the revolution was no
vulgar contest for empire or for glory
1t was not even contest for liberty
alone. Our fathers fought for two
things: To secure the blessings OF lib
erty for themselves and for their chill
dren, and that they might found on
earth government on righteousness
and on the law of God.
Captain Charles Miles, one of the
Concord captains, told Doctor Ripley
afterward that he went to the bridge
on the morning of the 18th of April,
1875, with the same sense of RESPONSE
bility to God with which he went to
church. That has ever been the spirit
of the American soldier, from Concord
to Santiago. 1t is for this and not for
glory or for empire that the New Eng
land soldier has been ready to conse-
crate his life.
81 heard the voice of the Lord saying,
Whom shall I send? Then 1 said:
Here am 1. Send me. B"
1t is this which has given to our
fathers of the revolution their peculiar
glory, and which has given to the re-
public they founded its power, its SUI
preme and unequaled power among the
nations of the world. 1t is this which
separates them from the cheap, vulgar,
mankind. You would think from some
recent utterances that some people
were of the opinion that if the Amer
lean soldier is to be respected in the
world hereafter he must be half saw
age and half a beast, hghtlng 10 I'M
pose his dominion upon unwilling peo-
pies and subject races and that in that
z way only the sons of the Pilgrims and
the men of the revolution are to be
come a world power. Why, my friends,
there have been empires enough ana
wars enough and conquests enough and
heroes enough. Some of them are lett,
and some of them are, thank God, dead
as julius Caesar. The unerrlng Juus-
ment of history, the unerring instinct
of mankind gives them their true place
Sooner or later. The men or the ma
tions who fight for freedom and JUS
tice, who fight for the great doctrines
of the opening sentences of our dec
laration of independence are the men
and the nations that live in the CRATE
full memory of mankind, and not the
men or the nations who fight for do
minion or empire. The garlands with
which Leonidas and his three hundred
dressed their brows are as unfaded ana
as fragrant today as on the morning OF
Thermopylae. But who cares today Tor
Alexander the Great, or who knows 20
day the names of his generalsE
The last time 1 had the pleasure OF
meeting Mr.. Taylor was IN 1880 at lle
great banquet given to Mr.. Collinsi by
our consl1ls abroad. 1t was an occasion
not likely to be forgotten by anybody
who had a part in it. Every man who
was present was proud to be a repre-
sentative of the great republic. He felt
that he had over him a flag hOn6red
everywhere, by land and by sea, rep
resenting everywhere not only the
power and the glory of seventy-fve
millions of Americans, but representing
also the hope of humanity the world
over. Nobody thought then Of doupting
that we were a. world power. or Thought
of his country as isolated and he9nmed
in and hamDered in her confidential
home. The whole tone and thought OF
that meeting, without a disst nting
voice, without a break in its hartnony,
was that the mission of the 4 nited
states was. moral and not a miss on of
force; that our country stood smong
the nations Of the world as thf great