Putnam patriot., 1918-07-05

armed foreign force has ever until the present hour landed on English soil since the Rebellion of 1746 Napol- | con never accomplished that feat, and the utmost in that direction that the 1 Germans in this war have been able to do has been to fly over 1t at an al 1 titude of several thousand feet. Not single German in hostile array has as vet succeeded in planting his feet upon the shore of Old England We may also with delight recall the fact that when Jones was asked why he did not burn that town, he answered Il had strict orders not to burn any houses or towns" which orders he obeyed to the letter. conduct in marked and honorable contrast with that of the Germans in these days.
 Our patriot forefathers of the Rev olution were also first in the works of peace. Within four years after the end of the war the representatives of the people of the several states met in convention and framed conStitu- tion as a scheme of federal govern ment, under which, without material change. the nation has proceeded unto this day, making the marvellous pro gress outlined in my opening That schame was unique. providing, as 1t did, for federal and state govern merts. each supreme within its own ordered sphere and with the federal divided into three distinct depart ments-executive, legislative and ju- dicial. each independent of the others, save that the judicial was necessarily endowed with the power to keep not only itself but each of the other two departments within the bounds of the constitution.
 For these great achievements in war and peace alike those patriot fc,efathers are and evermore shall be first in the hearts of their country men.
 Having thus paid our due to the generality, we may properly turn bact to our own men, whose names are inscribed upon this memorial. We nay we'll first recall their general character They were, almost with out exception, independent farmers, each owning a small farm titled by his own hands and by those of his chil- dren. They owed allegiance to no man and feared naught save Deity, ' GgtCfl IdflllN WAS q Stii SuSItAiiiillS Qiiil producing substantially all that it consumed, both food and clothing. It's members, or at least it's head, pos sessed all the independence of the self made Said the elder Bennett of his great rival one morning on the ed itorial page of the Herald Horace Greeley is a self made man and wor- ships his creator For grievances intolerable our men here recognized no remedy save rebellion against re sponsible authority. In that they diff fered greatly from the people then living in southern Westchester Coun- ty, New York, where my manhood life has been spent. These people were largely tenant farmers holding then lands by leasehold interest from the lord of the manor. Quite general ly they followed the leadership of i their landlords and believed in reform within the limits of the British Con ] stitution. but not in rebellion. There i fore many of them remained Loyal ists to the end while among the peo- pie hereabouts scarcely Tory, as all such were here termed, was to be ] found. Moreover the people here were largely descendants of the first settlers of Boston and surrounding towns and resented the acts of the British Parliament against Boston and Massachusetts, very much as loyal sens may resent blow upon a moth CTS breast.
 In preparing for this address the task of ascertaining the individual military services of these men, al though from the scantiness of the rec ords exceedingly difficult, has been to me of surpassing interest. This has been due, doubtless, to my deep con ccrn in Thompson, my native town and the home of four generations of my ancestors, and to my pride in her worthy history. The fact that my pa ternal great grandsire was one of those men has made the work, for me, a labor of filial affection, although his such service was of the least of those so rendered-nothing more than the general one performed by the local militia regiment, which consisted mainly of participation in the New York campaign in the fall of 1776, and in few expeditions to New Lon don and Rhode Island upon emergent calls of Governor Trumbull. Al though his services were no greater, yet I take great pride in seeing his nanc. Nathaniel Mills" upon this memorial. I venture, moreover, to say word in excuse of the fact that his services were no greater. When, in the early winter of 1776 and 1777, he returned with his comrades from the New York campaign, he found his