Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-05-25
Tho Heroes of '7e.

TO heroes OF TO-
We are fortunate that we behold this
day. The heavens bend benignly over
US; h earth blossoms with renewed
life: and our hearts beat joyfully to-
gether with one emotion of fiIial graft
tude n patriotic exultation. Citizens
OF a great, free and prosperous coun-
try, we come hither to honor the men,
u fathers, who, upon this spot and
upon this day, a hundred years ago.,
struck the first blow in the contest
which made that country Independent.
Here. beneath the hills they trod, by
the peaceful river on whose shores they
dwelt, amidst the fields thai they sowed
and reaped, proudly recalling their
virtue and their valor, we come to tell
their story, to try ourselves by their
lofty to know if we are their
worthy children; and, standing rever-
emily where they stood II fought and
died, to swear before God and Zach
other, in the words of him upon whom
In u day the spirit of the revolution
airy fathers visibly descended, that
government Of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
h ancient town, with its neigh
bors who share it's glory, has never
failed to fifty commemorate this great
day of its history. Fifty years ago,
Whlle some soldiers of the Concord
hight We're yet living; 25 years ago,
Whlle still a few venerable survivors
llngered-Wlth prayer and eloquence
and song, you renewed the pious VOW.
But the last living link with the revo-
luton has long been broken. Great
events and a mightier struggle have
absorbed our own generation. Yet, we
who stand here today have a sympathy
with the men at the old North Bridge,
which fhnCn "I~ ~roo1l1l 800. L-.z
carrier celebrations could not know.
With them war was a name and a ira
dltion. So swift and vast had been
the change, and the development Of
the country, that the revolutionary
clash OF arms was already vague ard
unreal, and Concord Lexington
seemed to them almost as remote and
historic as Arbela and Sempach. When
they assembled to celebrate this day,
they saw a little group Of lettering
forms, eyes, from which the light was
fading, arms nerveless and withered.
thin white hairs that futtered in the
wind; they saw a few venerable relics
OF a vanished age, whose pride was
that, before living memory, they had
been minute men of American indie
p~endence. But with US how changed.
war is no longer a tradition, half ro-
mantle and obscure 1t has ravaged
how many of u homes! 1t has wrung
how many of the hearts before me!
North n south, we know the pang.
Our common liberty is consecrated by
a common sorrow. We do not count
around us a few feeble veterans of the
contest; but we are girt with a cloud
o. witnesses. We are surrounded every
where by multitudes in the vigor of
their prime. Behold them here today,
sharing in these pious and peaceful
rites, the honored citizens, legislators.
me- SlStT1foS-Vn tho chjof ,,,,,..-.
OF the republic-whose glory it is that
they We're minute men of American
liberty and union. These men of to-
day interpret to us with resistless elo-
quence the men and the times we COM
memofate. Now, if never before, we
understand the revolution. Now we
know the secret of those old hearts and
homes.
NO royal governor, indeed, sits i IN
yon stately capital; no hostile feet for
many a year has veXed the waters of
cur coasts; nor is any army but our
w ever likely to tread our soil. Not
such are u enemies today. They do
not come proudly stepping to the drum
beat, with ~bayonets flashing in the
morning SUM-. But wherever party
spirit shall strain the ancient guaran-
Sees of freedom: or bigotry and isnor-
ance shall lay their fatal hands upon
education, or the of caste
shall strike at equal rights, or corrup-
tlon shall poison the very springs of
national life, there, minute men of
liberty, are your Lexington Green and
Concord Bridge; and as you love your
COUNTRY and your kind, and would have
your children rise up and call YOU
blessed, spare not the enemyl Over
the hills, out of the earth, down from
the clouds, pour in resistless might.
ERE from every rock and tree, from
door and window, from hearthstone
and chamber; hang upon his flank and
rear from morn to sunset, and so,
through a land blazing with holy in
dignation, hurl the hordes of ienor-
ance and corruption and injustice back
back, in utter defeat and ruin.
George William Curtis,