Evening star., 1925-07-05

ing at that time mostly of New Eng
landers, whom he found holding
strong force of regular British troops
inside Boston. He had been unani-
mously elected commanderin-chief of
the American Army by the Cont
mental Congress at Philadelphia on
June Is, 1775, having been nominated
for that important post by Thomas
Johnson of Frederick. Md, whom he
later made a member of the first
Board of Commissioners of the city
of Washington.
Thomas Johnson was 43 years old
when he nominated Gen. Washington,
and he was in his SiXtieth year when
he became a commissioner of Wash
ington City. He already had been
highly honored by the colony and the
new State of Maryland and by Presi-
dent Washington. and he was prob
ably the most distinguished Mary
lander OF the time.
President Washington. on January
"a. 1871, directed him and the two
other city commissiOners-Da Car
roll of Maryland and DIR. David Stu
art of Virginia-to survey the new
Federal District, to accept or buy land
on the eastern side of the Potomac
River, and to provide suitable build
tngS to accommodate Congress, the
President and the executive depart
ments of the new Government. But
that Is another story.
Just one year and a day after Wash
ington drew his sword under a great
elm tree at Cambridge and placed
himself at the head of the Continental
Army the same authority which had
adopted those ragged militiamen and
raw volunteers and made them an
army adopted a Declaration of Inde-
pendence. The war, which had begun
as struggle to maintain the rights
of the colonists as Englishmen, be
came a war to uphold the inalienable
rights of man and to establish a new
nation on the earth.
This is the one hundred and fiftieth
year since the outbreak of the Ameri-
can War of independence, although
the trouble with the British govern
ment had been brewing for 10 years
prior to 1875. Notable anniversaries
are occurring this year-anniversaries
of events on this continent which
were so important that they have
fixed themselves forever in the mem
ory of Americans and stamped them
selves indelibly on the pages Of world
history.
After Gen Washington left Phila-
delphia, on June 81. 1875. en- route
to his post of duty in New England,
messenger brought him the news
Of the battle of Bunker Hill. which
had been fought on June II. He
knew that ii was not yet much Of an
army that he had been appointed to
command, but when he was informed
of the gallant conduct of the Ameri-
cans in that unequal and desperate
engagement he was immeasurably en-
couraged
THE liberties Of the country are
safei" he exclaimed.
x
THESE events, and the memorable
shrmishes at Lexington and
Concord, which preceded them, were
but the prelude to the great drama of
the American Revolution. That drama
reached it's climax in the Declaration
Of Independence on July i, 1879. the
150th anniversary of which will be
fittingly celebrated by a great interna-
tional SeSquicentennial exposition at
Philadelphia next Summer 1t ended
only after many bitter years of strug-
gle-years in which there We're many
discouraging defeats and only occa-
sional victories to keep the heart in
Washington army.
Between the opening skirmishes in
Massachusetts in the Spring of 1775
and the surrender of the British Army
under CORVALLIS to the allied Ameri-
Can-French Army under Washington
at faraway Yorktown, in Virginia, on
October 10. 1881, was a long series of
events whose memory is affording all
the people of the United States, and
especially those of the States on the
Atlantic seaboard, opportunities to re-
new their pledges Of patriotism.
From Maine to Georgia the people
of the thirteen original States are not
forgetting. All other patriotic Ameri-
cans are joining with them in body or
in spirit as they celebrate these ami
yersaries this year. or prepare to cele-
brate them during the next few years.
These memorial celebrations are not
only stirring the blood of Americans,
but they are bringing back to the
recollection of the world the most IA
nous instance in history when colo
NAL dependencies defeated their par
ent state. They are recalling again
the creation of q Nation which-only
a century and a half later-wields
the greatest influence in the formula
ton of world opinion. and which is
potentially. if not actually. the most
powerful Nation in existence.
BY a similar coincidence, July 4,
1926, will be both the 150th anniver-
sary of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and the Tooth anniversary of the
deaths of two former Presidents Of the
United States. who were outstanding
figures in the revolutionary period
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia and John
Adams Of Massachusetts.
Jefferson wrote the Declaration, and
Adams was a member Of that commit
tee Of unusual men who strengthened
several parts of it and reported it
unanimously to the Continental Con-
gress for adoption.
They died on the same day-the
Fourth of July, 1S26-on the fiftieth
anniversary Of the adoption OF the i'm
mortal document they helped to frame,
Jefferson at the age of 83 and Adams
lacking only four months Of being 81
years old.
While next year will be the great
wear for the celebration of the 150th
anniverSar ries of critical events of the
revolutionary period, the anniversaries
occurring this year are not being over
looked. Already have been celebrated
in Massachusetts the anniversaries of
Paul Reveres ride to warn the Ameri-
cans of the approach of the British,
and of the battles of Lexington, Con-
cord and Bunker Hill.
DERHAPS the most significant event
Il whose one hundred and fiftieth
anniversary takes place this Summer
was that at Cambridge, Mass, on
July 3, 1875. 1t spelled disaster for
the British governments efforts to put
down the revolt. 1t was concrete evil
dence to the excited colonists, to the
wrong headed British government, to
the worried people of Great Britain
and to the interested observers in