The San Francisco call., 1899-06-18
PROTEST OF BUNKER HILL.

THE battle of Bunker Hill not fought on the
emnence Of that name which rises hun
dred and ten feet above the sea level, but
lower spot known as Breeds Hill, in the immediate
vicinity There Colonel Prescott, with fifteen hun
dred patriots, confronted the British troops and with
stood the British bombardment and, although tech
nca victory with the enemy, they retired IN per
feet order, after having baptized continent by the
rites OF constitutional liberty and sounded blast for
humanity that has since reverberated throughout the
world The Mystic River, flowing into Boston har-
Dor and blending with the surging Atlantic, was an
apt sime OF the stream OF popular sovereignty that
since June H. I7z5 has poured from Bunker Hill into
the arid deserts Of monarchy and imperialism. The
commemorative obesk 22I feet in height, over
which from base to summit the magnificent eloquence
OF Daniel Webster spread its cOnsecraed patriotism,
is the perpetual sentinel OF Continental Republic,
with its banner OF liberty, the broad expanse
between two mighty oceans waving in solar glory or
resting under the still majesty OF the night.
1t is hard to comprehend how imperialst, an
Asiatc annexationist convert to Roman British
colonization or an American specuator or plutocrat,
drenched with mercenary turgidity think OF Bun
ker Hill without a blush, or, its recurring ami
ycrsary successfully resist its regeneratng and trans
figuring Influence On that day the rising flood
ed the cradle OF American freedom and with its
piring rays it seemed that this hemisphere des-
potism had sunk into eternal darkness Through
humble coonists, the ragged Continentals, manhood
lad burst the cerements OF the ages and stood upon
its feet in all the spendOr of resurrection. A spon-
taneOus impulse, perhaps more accurately provlden-
tal suggestion, precipitated a revolution that never
rcceded until our Constitutional Republic firmly
established The blow struck for liberty was followed
by the Declaration OF Independence, by the bloody
struggle with King George, by the Articles of Con
federation by the Federal Constitution, by the alb
sorption OF the Northwestern Territory by natural
and legitimate extension from the Gull OF Mexico
and the Colorado the Arctic, by the supreme test
of the Civil War by development in population,
i'll wealth, in power and in influence, that almost
satiated the optmists OF the globe
1t is this history that the reactionists. the revolu
tonists the gold worshpers would obliterate or
verse In the titanic contest of 1880 when the Ex-
FOUNDER OF the Constitution. surrounded by states
men and patriots. was facing sectonalism and slowly
drawing California into the Union, he said: I'VE
have great, popular constitutional Government,
guarded by law and judicature, and defended by the
affections OF the whole people. No monarchical
throne presses these States together, no iron chain
OF military power encirCles them. They live and
stand under Government popular in its form, rep
resentave in its character, founded upon principles
of equality, and so constructed, we hope, to last
forever. In all its history it has been bene-
ficent: it has trodden down no mans liberty, it
has crushed no State This was the same noble
American who, twenty years earlier with his heart
turned toward Bunker Hill and the beginning OF
American history. had stood for Liberty and
Mon" and had proclaimed that where the Amer
can republic was born the might OF patriotism
would be exerted save it. and that it would fall
last. ii fa it amidst the profoundest monu-
ments OF its own glory and on the very spot OF its
origin
And when first martyred President assumed
his official station and naugurated his own immor-
tality he proudly asked: is true then that any
right plainly written in the constitution. has been
denied2 x Think. if you can, of single
instance in which plainly written provision OF the
has ever been denied.
Bunker Hill has been appropriately celebrated in
1899 We hope its meaning and its protest may be
accepted and enforced at home. if for the moment
discarded in Cuba and the Philippines