Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-06-18
Early American ..alilitarism. y


Yesterday was the anniversary of
the battle of Bunker Hill. and as such
was given its usual celebration in the
neighborhood of the monument on
which Charlestown in particular and
the whole country in general are very
proud. The anniversary of that
famous and fateful fight suggests the
observation that not even of the veldt
and kopjes of South Africa have the
British met a bloodier repulse than
was theirs on that June morning. l26
years ago. tOf the 5000 relocated
soldiers who advanced up the hill
slope in those three desperate and
heroic attacks, fully 1000 We're killed or
wounded, a proportion seldom equalled
in battle. And the men who inflicted
this terrible loss were not merely a
mob OF American farmers, as We are
sometimes to think Of them. They
had no gaudy uniforms and were not
great on marching with precision, but
they were trained riflemen and many
ct them had seen service in British
ranks in the old French war. All the
great leaders of that day, Prescott.
Stark and Putnam, We're thorough
going soldiers who had seen hard and
bloody service. At Crown Point.
Ticonderoga, Quebec and Louisburg
had been trained in war the unerring
marksmen who from the redoubt and
theSfan fence faced with such GOODNESS
the charges of the solid British ranks.
The nucleus of the American force
which made the hill impregnable
while the powder lasted was made up
CT veterans, not raw rustics. And
they were the kind of soldiers who do
not know when they are licked.
In commenting upon the events OF
that June day the Boston Journal, al
ways aggressive and sensible In its
Americanism, reads a striking lesson
to the little 'antis" who quake in ter
ror at the bugaboO of ''militarism.
The Journal says: In those stirring
old days it is not too much to say that
every New Englander of military age
was a soldier. Militia service was
compulsory. Every householder ana
every one of his able bodied sons had
to have his firelock and know how to
companies and counties into regi-
ments. The world has never seen
more thorough and sensible military
system or a finer instance of an en-
bcttled people than was presented
by loyal and warlike New England
at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war. This great truth of history IS
worth recalling now that the cry IS
being raised against "militarlsm,
by a few blind or ill-informed per-
sons who shrilly invoke the example
of the fathers of the republic
These persons do not know the ex-
ample of the fathers. They COM
plain that the military spirit is
strong in Massachusetts. OF course
it is strong in Massachusetts. 1t al
ways has been; it could not be other
wise. 1t is an invincible hereditary
impulse which made Massachusetts OF
1861 and of 1898 the best prepared and
most warlike of American states, as IT
was in 1875 the best prepared and
most warlike of American colonies.
The advocates of quick surrender
and peace-at-any-price who would
dismantle our armories, disband our
regiments and deny all knowledge
OF the soldiers profession to Massa-
chusetts youth, must first turn their
backs on Bunker Hill and it's les
sons. and root out of Massachusetts
character an instinct which is as
old and strong as the Commonwealth