The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1909-10-13
JUDGE WRITTEN,
MAYOR OF POINT PLEASANT, MAKES
AN ABLE AND PATRIOTIC ADDRESS
OF WELCOME
AT THE BEGINNING OF HOME COMING
EXERCISES.
NY Fellow Citizens:
We meet today on this

VIC IuGSI IOudy Ou InIS
historic battle ground, not as enc
mics, but as friends, and it becomes
my pleasant duty as mayor of our
town to say that Point Pleasant
throws wide open her gates, the
hinges of which are made smooth
with the oil of welcome.
This Home Coming, which has
been inaugurated by our patriotic
citizens, serves a two-fold purpose ;
it not only affords US an opportunity
to meet and greet each other, and
pass few days of social enjoyment,
but it permits our visiting friends to
view battlefield, upon which, as we
contend, was she'd the first blood for
our independence. 1t was on the
10th day of October, l774, upon
this very plot of ground upon which
our town stands today was fought
one of the fercest and most stub
bornly contested battles that has
ever been recorded in the pages of
history.
And the more we study the history
of that battle the more thoroughly
we will be convinced that it was, in
deed, the First Battle of the Ameri-
can Revolution, and that the Con-
gress of the United States made no
mistake in recognizing it as such.
Many good reasons may be ad-
vanced to support this view, but do
not propose to go into an argument
to prove that this battle was in fact
the first battle of the Revolution,
that has been done by those who
have made history life study. But
we who read facts as recorded in his
tory, ARE permitted to form an opinion
from them. 1t cannot be disputed
that the oppressive measures which
caused the Revolutionary War were
already attempted to be enforced by
the mother country. We know that
Lord Dunmore, who was then Gov
ernor of Virginia, knew, of the pass
age of the Boston Port Bill. He
knew that the House of Burgesses OF
Virginia and the colony of which he
was then Governor. had passed a
resolution that the first day of June,
l77t, the day the bill should go into
effect, be observed as day of hu-
initiation and prayer to avert the
calamity which threatened destruc-
ton to their civil rights and the evils
of n Civil War. He knew that the
agents of the mother country were
among the Indians to incite them to
activity against our border settle
ments. In fact, the tempest which
was to break at Lexington and Con-
cord the following April, was already
blowing strong gale at the Battle
of Point Pleasant. With this state
of feeling in the colonies, Lord Duns-
more undertook to make war upon
the sayageS to the West of the Ohio
River. Is it surprising that under
these conditions that he failed to
meet General Lewis at Point Pleasant
as he had agreed to do at Williams
burg before starting on the cam
paign2 His conduct in ordering the
Southern wing of the army to turn
back after the two armies had met
near Chillicothe, o., was condemned
by the soldiers of both armies. They
knew that the only way to rid the
country of savage barbarities was to
drive them so far into the great west
that they would not dare to return.
The clandestine treaty of peace made
by Lord Dunmore, while kept for a
time, was only made to give the
British the opportunity to organize
the Indians against the whites. The
British agents were soon abroad ii
the Indian country promising a re.
turn of their hunting grounds to Sc.
cure their aid against the colonies,
and we find that during the entire