The New York Herald Newspaper, April 19, 1875, Page 19

aru a Oe ~—= RBLIGION AND. VALOR ee Brilliant Address at Christ Chureh, Boston, by George B, Loring, The Days of Religious Zeal and Manly Courage. TRUTH Pulpit © Heroes---Chauncey, — Cooper, Eliot and Lathrop. REV. DR. CUDWORTH’S ADDRESS. Home Memories for the Grand Army of the Republic. GEORGE B. LORING'S ORATION. Bosron, April 18, 1875. The following is the oration of Hon, George B. Loring at Christ church to day: Fetiow Criizens:—{t seems to have fallen to my lot, on this centennial year of the earliest steps of the great American Revolution, to dis- | cuss those significant and heroic events which attended the opening of the conflict, and which first gave evidence of the defiant spirit of free- | dom which characterized the fathers of the Republic. Itis but a tew weeks since [was called on to present the picture of revolutionary Salem, and to pay atribute to her magnimity aud her honor, when her “one bundred and twenty-tive patfiots declared in written address that they had common cause with the oppressed town of Buston, and would in no way take ad- vantage of the prohibition of her trade;” and to summen the attention of a grateful people to the brave stand taken by Pickering and his men atthe Nortn Bndge, at an hour when British power was yet considered supreme and Ameri- can valor was yet untried. And in this service Ido indeed rejoice. It was the dewuing hour of a great hereic chapter in history, which is marked by the most brillant and fascinating streaks of ght, aud which charms the observer with the freshness and vigor of uprising day. The heroes who set the first watch-fires are the heroes whom we love. We indeed admire the majestic march of great armies and are im- pressed with the thunders of the captains and the shouting; but now our very hearts move within us as we contemplate the midnight march of the little band, which, unaided by civil power, withoutan inspiring past or a supporting present, or even an open- ing futute, sallies forth, strong im itself alone, to strike the first blow and to set the first inspiring example. It is so great and noble to Jead the way that we worship him who does it. He who starts fortn in a holy cause without fear of consequences or hope of reward is crowned ‘at once as the hero or is cherished as the martyr. And the simple valor of the opening conflict as far outsnines the imposing tumult of great bat- tlea and the glittering pugeantry of victory as the glory of the morning rises superior to the blaze of noonday or the mild light of the setting sun, We do indeed rejoice over the dav at York- town, but we linger around Pickering at North Bridge, snd Parker at Lexington, and Davis at Concord, and Prescott at Bunker Hill, and we liston and listen and listen to the words of Quincy and Otis and Adams, and wander along the dark passages of the town with Dorr and Re- vere, and climb the mysterious stairways with the sexton to hang out the signal lantern trom the North church steeple, and muse with ever w delight upon the thoughts and emotions lich inspired the heroic actors in th tas- cinating sceres. AND SO IT COMES TO PASS that the event which we have met to commem- orate is full of charm and meaning, and arrests our atteution with a furce which cannot be re- sisted. The part performed by the community which a hundred years ago occupied the spot where we have now assembled has a deep and protound interest, equalled only by the deeds which rendered Marathon and Thermopyle, and Ghent, and Burges, and Plymouth, the immortal bamnes for heroism and self-sacritice. The feeble fay shed from this church spire on the night of April 14, 1775, shone not simply to warn the mes- songers of their duty toward the slumbering Mriots along the road to Lexington and Von- cord, but it streamed across the land as a signal from revolutionary Boston toa people determined bo be free. Aleady was the town fixed as the North Star of freedom in the firmament of the heavens. Not populous, she was already great and powerful. Her churches and her schoolhouses were even then her pride. Her people bad for generations manifested a lofty tone of character, and had been guided by that Integrity and honesty which has always marked ber career. Her prosperity was universal. Her popular leaders were men of great power. Ot with his flaming tongue; Samuel Adam with his deep and untiring courage and sagacity; John Adams, with bis impetuous | Impulse; Hancock, with his dignity and deti- ance; Jogeph Warren, with bis fresh and vigor- Ous enthusiasm and bis manly determination; | Josiah Quincy, Jr., the silver-tongued orator of freedom, and Paul Revere, “the great leader of Mechanics” and the vigilant and sleepless de- feuder of popular right. Her divines, Chauncy tnd Cooper and Fliot and Lathrop, thundered from their pulpits in the cause of freedom, so that the enemy said of them:—‘Some of the Ministers are continually in their sermons stir- ving up the people to resistance, an instance of Which lately happened in this neighborhood, Where the minister, to get his hearers to sign tome inflammatory papers, advanced that the ®gning of them was a material circumstance to their salvation, on which they flew to the pon @. 4 an oagern that sufficiently testified their belief in their pastor.” Of her mechanics Brothingham eloquently says:—“The Boston mechanics, se a general thing, were the early aud steady supporters of the patriot cause, No temptation could allure them, no threats could tertify them, no tory argument could reach them. In vain did the loyalists endeavor to temper with them, ‘They certainly oarry all be+ fore thom,’ a letter says, A THE TROOPS THICKENED IN BOSTON you hving in town and some from the country, without much thought, accepted the chances to work on bartacks for their accommodation. It Mad not, however, last long. ‘This morning,’ AND FREEDOM. | Newell writes, September 26, 174, ‘all the earpen- | ters of ihe town and conntry that were employed in building barracks for the s ry left off work ut the buracks.’ Pritish go'd could not buy Boston labor. ‘New Eu 1 holda out wonderfully,’ a letter in September says, ‘not- anding hundreds are alre rained and thousands half starved.’ ! were astonished «at Loyalists from abroad H such obstinacy. Gage was | disappointed and perplexed by the refusal. It | was one of the disappointments that met him at every turn. ‘I was prewuture,’ he writes Lord Dartmouth, October 3, 1774, ‘in telling Your | Lordship that the Boston artificers would work | | for us. This refusal has thrown us into difficul- ties.’ He sent to New York for workmen. The Boston mechanics, through their committee, senta letter, expressing their confidence ‘that | the tradesmen of New York would treat the ap- | pheation as it deserved.’ The Governor was at | length successful in getting mechanics trom New York and other places to work for him, The patriotic mechanics of Boston were doomed to a | long season of trial and suffering.” ‘The officials | of che town were as onergetic as the people. | Clubs abounded throughout the place. Caucuses | were in frequent session, and were at- | tended by ail the powerful and leading j men of the tume. ‘We were so curetul,” | Paul Revere writes, “that our meetings | should be kept secret, that every time we met every person swore upon the Bible that he would | not discover any of our transactions but to | Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Drs. Warren, Church and one or two more.” The Boston | press expressed ip every variety of way the pop- | ular seutiment which was tuus cultivated by | pulpit aud rostrum and cherished i the cla aud caucus. ‘ihe town was tor years the theatre ! of intense popular jsecling and untiring popular | action. Singied out as a special object of royal wrath, its busineys was withdrawn, its port | closed, its numerous shipyards were silent, its people were rapidly reduced to poverty and want. And yet while bowed down with all this suilering and sorrow, her people kept watch on | the dangers which surrounded the country and | forgot not the exposure of those who were re- | moved trom the immediate scene of the conilict. | Dhe spire of Christ Church, where we are now assembied, tamed forth iu the begiuming, und the worshippers of Christ Church, inspired with | w spirit of patriotism as time wenton, erected | Within these walls tne tirst monument dedicated country from the oppressor, and whose wisdom | guided her in her intancy. t WHILE CONTEMPLATING WITH ADMIRATION hundred years ago, we should not forget the circumstances by which the people of that day |, were surrounded. Then not a treeman’s foot pressed the soll on which we now tread. ‘hey Were subjects of tue crown, who wrested from a tyrant's grasp those weapons which were to be used for a tyrant’s purpose, And not by acci- dent, not by impulse, but taught and impelled by the events of years, did our citizens of that oa oppose by force every attempt at violent subjugation. From the eariest settlement of the country there was a spontaneous growth of representative governments. ‘Ihe colunial legis- lutures sprang into existence without concert of action ou the part of the colonies, without special grant, but as it were from a popular instin which lay at the foundation of tha\ constitu- tional freedom which our fathers sought on this Continent. “A House of Burgesses broke out in Virginia ix 1620,” says Hutchinson; and “al- | thougu there vas no color-tor it in the charter ot Massachuseits, a House of Deputies appeared suddenly im 16J4.” All utcempts to check this failed. ‘Lord Say tempted | the principal men of Massachusetts tu make themselves and their heirs novles and absolute governors of a new colony, but under this plan | they could find no people to tollow them.” Lhe colonists were uot to be led away trom that principle of government, which was tue great | prize in the new world, and tor the possession of which they braved the dangers of the sea, and welcomed the gioom and horrors of & savage ; to him whose faith and courage delivered his , this proud and revolutionary spirit of Boston a ; NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, APRIL )9, 1875, nam was a member, opened a cirrespondence | wy ft Ib ¢ with Be they sa fieaver aleep and he towns fish 1.08 con Throughout all New Engl cattle, sheep, oi!, 1 he hook and line could furnish—and Sometimes gitts of money, ‘ne Freneh imbabitants of Quebee, joming with those of Enyliah origin, shipped 1,040 bushels of wheat. Delaware was so much im earnest that she de- vised plans of sending relict to Boston annually. All Maryland and ali Virginia were contributing liberally and cheerfully, being xsesolved that the nien of Boston who were deprived of their daly whateve ud or labor should not lose ther daily bread, nor be | compelled to change their residence for want. In Fairtax county Washington presided at a spirited meeting, and heeded a subserip. tion paper with his own gift of 450. A special chronicle could hardly enumerate all the generous deeds. Beyond the Blue Ridge the hardy emigrants on the banks of the Shenandoak, many of them Gerwans, met at Woodstock, and, with Muhlen- berg, then « clergyman, soon to be a military chief, devoted themselves to the cause of lib- | erty and sympathized with the sons of Boston, Higher up the vailey of Virginiu, where the plough already vied with the rile, and the hardy hunters not always ranging the hilis, with their dogs for game, had also began to till the sou, the summer of that year mpoued the wheat fields of the pioneers, not tor themeeives aloue, When the sheaves had béen harvested and thi corn threshed and ground, ina country as poorly provided with barns and mills, the bac woodsmen of Augusta county, without any through the mountains that could be called a road, noiselessly and modcstiy delivered at Frederick 137 barrels of flour as their remittance to the poor of Boston, Cheeved by (he unive sal sympathy, the inhabitants of this town “we determined to hold out and appeal to the jr tice of the colonies and of the worla ;’ trusting in God that “these tuinzs should be overruled for the establishment ot libert VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS IN AMER While this spirit of gencrous charity, whieh can never be forgotten, was displayed North and South toward the principal object ot the wrath of Great Britain, political movements were also going on in the colonies, whose im- portance was not fully appreciated in that day, and cannot be overestimated in ours. ‘Lhe sym- puthy which for a time found expression in acts of kindness soon created a desire for a more practical and substantial Union; and the call | Was universal tor a general Congress. The Sons | of Liberty in New York, although at length over- whelmed by the moderate men of that city, pro- posed as their last uct the assembling of a Con- } v 288 PLRS TT BLOOD AT DE aING TON. chusetts, bad resolved, “that the sovereign who torte mY at the north end of Boston; the ( ef t as suid, at the th arch of Eng- come to it, the no mm thes ansinit the rejected as uuco ot Parliament and all on Garden Court street, t vernor ninted under its author ty Attmbuting Huatebivson, and to whose house | amin Prank. to the British Co r-in-Chief hostile inten- lin came as a newsboy, wrote in 17 Christ y ow of taxes to pa er Lo money te surer whom he recognized. They advised the towns to erect for themselves oiticers of the militia trom such as Were intlexible friends of the rights ot the people. Cor purvoses of provimcial government they advised a Provincia! Congress, while they promised respect and obedience to the Conti- nentai Congress. ‘‘They determined to act on church has alarge tower, a fine ring of eunt bells, a beautiful steeple, and baving an elevated situation it may be accounted a noble structuie for this part of the worid.” [n the communion plate of this church may be found two tlegons, a urge chalice, a patten, and a plate called a re ceiver,” aud used to receive the alme and other devotions of tue pecple, on which are inscribed these words: “The gift of His Majesty King the defensi,e toward Great Britain long as | George II, to Caumst Chureh, at Boston, New such conduct might be vindicated by England, at the request of His Excellency Gov. reoson and the principles of self-pres- Helcher, 1738.” To tue church the king also crvation, but no _ lopger.” Congrers, | gave, with the affection of a lather, a foo Bible too, bad met, and Patrick Henry, and and two toho Prayer Books, And when the Rey. Samue! Adams, and John Adams, and George Washington, and John Kutiedye, and Ricbard Henry Lee, and Noger Sherman, had declared that au entire new yovernment must be found- ed: and that on cestors found bere no gov- ernment; and a nsequence had a mght to make their own.” In support of this the elo- qnence ot Patrick H Durst like a torrent from bis native hills, By his side stood the 1n- trepid and accomplished !Lee. The tight arm of Wasommgton was nerved at once for the great service which soon @evolved upon hm, John Adums, acute, impassioned, learned from the Lest New England schools, bore the cause on and rehgious loyalty when the grea a of through all opposition. While Samuel Adams, ti evolution tirstopened. It was not a mere “aithougy by n0 means remarkabie for brilliant | political question which entered bere—but a Timothy Cutler, the first rector of this church, a manof protound learn ‘a noble orator, and aman of great dignity a commanding pre- sence,” renounced Coagregationalism, passed throuh ail the flery tial to whic every convert is subjected, and went to London to take orders, be was received with especial kindness by the Dean of Canterbury, whom he found in the very act of reading bie declaration to the members of the Cathedral body, who also received him with open arms. This chureb, born as a javorite child of the ecelvs abhshment ot Knglund, was the home of a bi y abulitics.” carried the great proposition home to conscientious recognition of the obligations the people, and with a skull which no faction created between the power which bestows eccle- could resis d gave to the opening revolution — siastical orders, and those which reecive them. {the tone and manlir jve of his own un Bot letit mot be supposed, my frionda, from 1ntrecord of patriotism and devotionwon »ston even at the y dawn of the revolu- that it was secured without an intense of do- econthet, The path traversed by the Sons ty was by no means easy. The division of sentiment Lere was’ sharp and violent, The peace of families was invaded, brovher being almost ready to oetray the brother unto death, and tather the son, There was a yreat popular sen- timent for the cause of freedom, it is true, and | whenever the inspired orators of that day pro- nounced ther solemn protests and laid down their sublime principles ‘*the common people heard them giadly.” But we should not torget that the struggle which at this distant day ap- pem's so spot ess and sincere was attended by all the bitterness and warmth and misunderstand- ing and injustice and suspicion that belong to all al ss and uncompromising It was this sentiment which gave to the de- unted spirit. i clining cays of the Rev. Mather 4); , Jr, the last rector of this church under the King, suche a touching record. HUNDRED YEARS AGO THIS NIGHT, nesday, April 18, 1775, his rectorship sed. He left on account of bis loyalty. Hle had promised to contorm to the English Liturgy; he realized keenly that he was a minis ter under the jarisdiction of the Bishop of Lon- don, and he and pre- scription tor that form of faith which he hed sworn to defend. -1t was this teature ot the early revolution in oston which we contumplate with peculiar reverence, and around wuicn Sather the gentlest aud noblest sentiments of the human eart. Free from the violent rancor of mere political difference, it claims from even those * who can neither understand nor approve, that tender and reverent charity which a truly Chmistian beart alv fear, toward didering |; forms of Christian faich. It was this sentiment of religious loyaity, existing ‘a chis church, which gave a peculiar interest to the event we have met to commemorate, For it was agaist | au antagonism which I have thus described and surrounded by the ditliculties which attended it, that Paul Revere, filled with patriotic daring, | roposed to nse a church just abandoned by a joyal rector, as a beacon light for the patriots just about to strike theyr first blow for treedom. ow sudden and complete the change! As the representative of roval power in Church and Stute steps down in obedience to the dictates ot his conscience, the representative of a strug- gling people takes his place, and at once, as by & decree of Providence, the destiny of this church is changed and its history 1s immortal. For more than balf a century it had stood, the emblem of a great religious faith; in an instant | it rose toa still Lizher duty and became the signal of an heroic effort to preserve a free con- sctence to the believers, and free citizenship me all its opportunities to the masses of man- | ind. j It was a great spirit which led to this event. Paul Revere, at whose command the eudden transformation of this church took place, and whose will Robert Newman was but too proud to obey, was one of the noblest representatives of ® watchtul, pers and determined Fad aa whose name has passed into history. He has | leit behind him no great declarauons; but he | has lettan example of untiring vigilance and | thorough comprebension of an emergency which will never be forgotten. Paul Revere an: | wilderness, For nothing came trom Europe but | | a tree people—a people determimed to leave be- | | hind them all those social and political dis- | | tinctions which ages uad fixed there, and to bring with them a new charter of freedom, a new goxpel for the healing of the nations, Under the benignant tniuences of tree govern- ment thus founued, without ostentation and dis- play, an intelngent, frugal and industrious peo- ple rose to a state of yeneral prosperity and elevation unknown before. For nearly one hun- dred and fifty yeqrs the work went on, silently and imperceptibly, util there appeared be- fore the staiesthen of the oid world a vig- orous, defiant, untumeable young nation, whose political phiiosophy was expounded by Jeffers son and franwiin, wh Olators and warriors were Warren and Hancock and Washington, and Patrick Henry, and Putnam and Greene, and the two Adams¢s, before whore tluming words the orators of sngland grew dumb, and before wuose flaming swords the warrio:s of England jaid down their arms. | ghe attempt of Great Britain to deprive the culonies of that representative system of which 1 have spoken bastened off the evolution, The passage of the Stamp Act and the Port Bull fell upon tue minds of a spirited and jealous peop.e hike a decree of bondage. ibe presence of bodies of armed ien, imstead of producmg that intimidation which Was expected, served ouly to cement the colonies in a common bond tor muttal support and protection. Uistory presents no paraliel to the devotion | exhivited by the various colonies then compos- ing our country, scattered as they were over a large extent of territory, and bound together, not by common inierest, but by a common an all-pervading sentiment of treedom, in Boston the opposition to the oppressive acts of the mother country bad been most vigorous; to Boston the torture which should produce sub- mission was applied; and around Boston the cities wnd towns and cvlontes clustered with hearts fall of sympathy and hands full of aid. On the 10th of May, 1/74, “ the act closing the port of Loston, transferring the Board of Ca toms to Marolehead, and the seat ot government to Salem, reached the devoted town.” From that how the work began. The counsel and 1 unding towns were asked by the poor were provided for in view of the coming trial; and the inhabitants, by toe hand of Samuel Adams, made their touching appeal ‘to ali sister colonies, promis- ing to suiier tur America with a becoming torti- tude, confessing that singly they might find their trial too severe, and entreating not to be | left to struggle alove, woen tne very being of every colony, considered as @ free people, de- pended on the event.” Tho cause of Boston became common cause for the other important towns ol the colony, The merchants of Newburyport were the first who agreed to suspend all commerce with Britain | and Ireland. Salem, also, the piace marked out as the new seat of government, in o ‘y tull town meeting, and after some impassioned dee bates, decided almost unanimously to stop trade not with Britaim onmiy, but even with the West Indies and the colonies of Great Britain, A hundred and twenty-five of the merchants ot Boston, and give: esa for the volonies. Their appeal to New ingland and to the Southern colonies was heard and answered—Philadelphia and New | York, which had then unfortunately, for a time, passed out of the hands of the Sons of Liberty, alone giving # cool and feeble response. Baltimore at once and earnestly advocated on of trade with Gi Britain, anda , Saying to the triends in Boston, “The Supreme Disposer of all events will terminate this severe trial of your patience in a happy confirmation ot American freedom.” New Hompshire and New Jersey joined heart- ily in the movement, South Carolina, although rressed with no grieval d dependent chiefly tor her trade on British tactors, declared that “the whole Con- tivent must be animated with one great soul, and all Americans must resolve to stand by one another even unto death.” F ‘ima, loyal still, and entertaining no thonght of revolution, guided by the eloquence of Patrick Henry, the wisdom of Lee and ington, and the sagacity and learning of Jefter- son and George Mason, adopted in its House of Burgesses a resolution, which “was in tiself a solemn invocation of God, as toe witness of their deliberate purpose, to reseue their liberties, ‘agh- | even at the risk of being compelled to defend | them with arms.” They selected the day on which the Boston Port act was to take effect as a day of tasting and prayer. And when, for this Salem protested against turning the trade of Boston into their own harbor, saying, “We must | be lost to all teelings of humanity could we in- | dulge one thought to seize on wealth and rai our fortunes on THE RUINS OF OUR SUFFERING NEIouNORS.” ‘Tue historian of the United States teils w 48 soon as the true character of act closing ¢ port of Koston became known in Aweriva, every colony, every city, every village, and, aw it were, the inmates of every tarm house, felt it as a | wound of their affections. ‘Lhe towns of Massa- | | ebusetts abounded in Kind offices, The colonies vied with kept in Boston shows that the patriotic aud gen- erous people of South Carolina were the first to minister to the sufferers, sending eariy in June two hundred barrels of » and promising eight hundred more. At Wilmington, N. U., the sum of two thousand pounds currency was raised in | | @ few days; the women of the place gave lib- erally; Parier Quince offered his vessel to carry @ load of provisions freight tree, and master and mariners volunteered to navigate her without | wages. Lord North had called.the American Union a rope of sand, “It is # rope of sand that will hang him,” said the people of Wilmington, ther hearts warmed toward their suffering thren in Boston. Hartford was the first ioe in Connecticut to piedge its assistanov; ut the earliest donation received was ot two hundred and {itty sheep from Windham, “The | taking away of civil liberty will involve the ruin | Of religious liberty also,” wrote the ministers of | Connecticut to the ministers of Boston, c! ing them to bear their heavy load “with Chri | tian fortitude and resolution.” “While we com- | | plain to heaven and earth of the cruel oppression we are under, we ascribe righteousness to God,” | was the answer. ho surprising uhion of the colonies attords encouragement, It is an inex. | | hwustibie source of comfort that the Lord God Omuipotent reigueth,” said the pious and faith- ful souls throughout the land who, stirred by the | faith and heroivm and self-sacritice of Boston, advpted her great cuuso as their own, ‘The small parish of Brooklyn, in Oonnectiont, through their committeo, of whion Israel Put- eh other in liberauty, The record | = cee a act of disobedience, Lord Dunmore dissolved the | their country, were taunted with assembling on The above cuts, portraying the scen Mr. Frederic Hudson's interesting artici Just now, EIRST BLOOD AT CONCORD. opening of the Revolutionary War, Harper's Magazmme. The scene at Lexington is that at the Moment the British regulars fired upon the dispersing militia under Parker; the scene at the Concord sridge is at the instant the militia, ander Colonel Barrett, returned the fire of the British. Whether Parker's men did or did not return the fire is the question between Concord and Lexington his band of Boston mechanics are as much a | tof the Revolutionary history ef our country as Faneuil Halland the Old South church. ‘Yo Samuel Adams he furnished the voting power | of the club and the polis; to John Adams he sup- plied the body guard tor the great and stormy | Conventions and assemblies at Faneuii Hall; to James Otis be gave a popular response to his | grand appeals for freedom; to John Hancock he | manifested that sturdy and commanding judg- ment of the masses of mankind which won him over to the cause of freedom, and led him ayay from tha temptations of luxury and wealth) to the toil and tral which gave him his impjpr- talty; to the endangered people he gavefthe signal, and then became the warning messenger, who, through the watches of the night, sounde the alarm, and prepared them for THE IMMORTAL MORNING WHICH DAWNED FoR OUR COUNTRY on the blood-stained fields of Lexington and | Concord, Filled with the spirit of his Hugue- not ancestry, be entered with an untiring zeal into the pubhe service of bis country im early | life and was among the foremost to aid in estab- | lishing the power of the Anglo-Saxon on this | continent in the old French and Indian war. He was a skilful mechanic, but he was never sat- istied until he had turned his skill into the pa- triotic cause of his times. He must have had | unusual fidelity and a wit which never forsook | heated politicat conte: Many a cultivated and | honest and conscientious gentleman of that day | charged our white-robed saints with the basest | motives ot venality and ambition. Many a hero at whose shrine we now worship, was in that day denounced as a monster of malice and revenge. | The sbarpest weapons to whick our patriot | fathers} in this town bared their bosoms were pot the swords of an ovpressing army. ‘he | Keeneg insults which thoy were compelled to bear #42 ‘not those which fell from the lips of olticial insolence. The hardest blows intlicted upon them were those which they recsived from the hands of their life-long associates, their | neighbors and friends, from whom a hada right to expect a judgment tempered with mercy, and @ recognition of their obedienee to their own conscientious sense of duty, They were derided as the “Boston saints,” into whom | “the demons of folly, falsehood, madness and | revellion seem to have entered, along with their | chief, the Angel of Darkne: ‘They were de- nounced as men ‘whose bition wantonly | opened the sources of civil discord.” They were told, with righteous indignation, that “the annals of the world have not yet been de- formed-with a single instance of so unnatural so causeless, so wanton, so wicked a@ rebeilion. The young patriots of Boston were declared to be bred up hypocrites im religion and pettifog- him; tor on all important crises he it was who | gers inlaw. And the selt-sacriticing merchants | carried the tidings aud appealed tor sympathy of the town, who had risked all they had for | andaid. He was swift and impetuous enough for Warren and acious enough for Samuel ; Adams. He was a genuine representative of revolutionary Boston and his deeds will always remain as @ part of the annals of his native town, upon which the historian will love to dwell and from which the poet will draw inspir- ation for his highest tribute to what 1s heroic and devoted in his fellow man. As an example of eternal Mig nce he has no superior in our revolutionary history. I have devoted myself this evening, my fellow- | citizens, to the deeds performed by Boston at | this a stage of the Kevolutionary war, whose centennial eee would boo pe gto dl celebrate. I have told you how well she bore ber tria!s then, and with what warm and genui sympathy she was regarded by every American community during all her toil and pri- vation. She filled the most radiant pages of her country’s history with great names and great deeds. And as each succeeding event comes on, during that period in which it fell to her lot to perform the most conspicuous part in the great couthet for independence, she may well devote herself to the pious and grateful duty which commences here, conscious that in no hour of | trial has she been found wanting. For her, in the early days, Otis and Quincy and Adams spoke, Revere watched, Warren died, hg fo fought. And when in later time the trial re- turned upon her and her country, she may re- member with pride that for ber voicds of Everett and Sumner and Andrew were lifted up, while pearly thirty thousand of her young men rallied in defence of the republic. And now hav- ing done her duty in the conflicts of the past, may the century which is opening upon her be a century of fs.) filled wi those achieve- ments in thought, morals and religion, which are the true glory of « people whose God is the OHURCH OF OUR FATHER—EAST BOS. TON, MASS. Boston, April 18, 1875. A special service, commemorative of the pat- Motic devotion exhibited by our Revolutionary ancestors at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1176, was held in the Unitarian church of East Boston, ander the pastoral charge of Rev. W. a. Oudworth, chaplain of the Massachusetts Depurt- illustrations of House, a committee met at once, summoned a convention of delegates, and inaugurated a revo- luton. The influence of Virginia controlled North Carolina, The colonies were now fully aroused, and so was Great Britain, ‘Thurlow aud Wedderburne gave their opinions that the Provincial Congress Of Massachusetts was a treugonable body; and | and ee ee man in revolutionary Boston after long negotiations among the Ministers, and various propositions, to all which the King fear, it was resolved in December, interdict all commerce with Ameri- to protect the loyal, and to declare all others traitors and rebels, THE WINTER OF 1774-5 CAME ON. ‘The gulf between the colonies and the mother oountry grew deeper and broader continually, Gage had grown weary of endeavoriug to con- trol the Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts, and had proceeded to fortify Boston, Twenty thousand volunteers from the inland counties had marched toward B seizure of powder und field pie rowfully dispersed because t told that the hour had not yet come, *" the King’s rule was at an eud.” Ail attempts of the crown judges to hold courts in the province failed. Oliver, the impeached Chief Justice, iad declared it impossibie to exercise his office, as none would ac jurors. ‘The Suffolle, Conven- tion had met, and under the lead of Worren, to whom Samuei Adains, who was now in Con; 8, had intrustod the guidacce ut afairs ia Massa. y we “Outside of Boston | ment, G, A. B,, and formerly chaplain of the First Massachusetts Volunteer iniantry during the War ofthe Rebellion. The church was appropriately corated with flags, bunting and other commemo- ive material, crowded with an audience pro- foundly stirred by the services, among which were the Independent Boston Fusiieers, the Jo- seph Hooker Post, G. A. R,, the Fourth battalion, Company D, and the East Boston cadets and the East Boston Cornet Band, and the whole occa- sion Was well calculated to prepare listeners for | ‘he imposing pageant to come of in Lexiugton and Conoord on the succeeding day, THB SERVICES. The services were opened by the band, who Played Keller's American hymn, aiter which the ence onited in singing ‘America. Prayet and Soripture succeeded, foilowed by the ail important occasions in Faneuil Hall, in the House of Representatives or in the Council Chamber, to listen wise and learned har- angues, and to pi treasonable votes and resolves, while “humbly eching the Al- mighty to stand forth the champion of rebellion.” YEAR APTER YEAR THE STORM RAGED ; | had never known the delights of social tran- uility and contidence, or the joys of civil repose, Not, however, as a violent political contest, alone, not w.rin State and society, not as u divie- jou woatters of the law, does the stormy con. | flict of the te * the colonis | Was An occlesiastionl bond, in which were in-_ volved the strongest faith, the gentlest piety | the most ardent Christian devotion. While our fathers demauded freedom to worship God ac- gs ry cording to the dictates of their own consciences, and relused to be dictated to in matters of re+ aymo— ligion, and set aside the Book of Common are those great and good Prayer, and forbade the observance of Cbrist- we a ey ae Td mas.thvy set forth styling themselves ‘‘obildren of the Uiarch of Mngland,” and as children they bore their mother always in affectionate regard. It should not be forgotten that while Puritan Boston was especially beloved by ail the non- conformists, there was from the beginmng an element in the prot town for which the eace to the reverend dead | PHO Unt that oo their bead iho passing years Soa never grow dim. A discourse, founded upon G ter and portion of the 18th verse followe text being “Called unto Liberty.” The preacher Malntained—First, thas our revolutionary sites Warmest interest and the tenderest love, Aud 4 called into being; that Divine Providence lalé upou them the solemo and unavoidable responss of cleaving the way for @ {ee judependynt governmsut among the te ionerchies, the age-worn and tottering olisius of the world; that the most advanced 1 eo sive monds in Europe, England and America, ioresaw this years before the wat broke out, aud made predictions accordingly, and t.e wrveoressible and unavoidavie conflict whol followed was only the natural fruit of generattun® una centuries of previous preparation, to which God in bis wisdom had brought the settlers io America aud thelr descendants, as soon aa time had made itripe. The spirit of liberty was em unseen influence filling the hearts, absorbing the minds and inspiring tne souls of the fathers, be cause they had not attained untoit, It was likee mine of inexuaustible treasures all unworked, OF @ Vast region of boundless resources, all Bnsur veyed, and the eagerness with whica they pressed torwarc toward its poseem Slon and the devermination they evinced Ww secure and retutn it. we can only understand when We recall the aiaerity wiih whicn they re *ponded to the vall of duty and pledged to its die charge their lives, thelr fortunes and their sucred honor, When the alarm bells rang oat irom the churen steeples of Middlesex county their pene trating protests agains! British outrage in the arrest oO: uncifending citizens, and the destruction Ol property not their own, and British erime in the Wanton assa: sativum of UscoLdemnea sub,ects Lexington common and Concord delds, not an ear but tiugled with indignation at their toues, Bot @ soul bat Miled with patriotic iervor in response, and as minuie men hurried on tout and rode os horseback trom wm., the #hope, the Domes and stopping places of nearly forty diferent towns to Ond our what thie meant, aad to report 1p preparation for y emer: gency that might aise, tuere was sométhing Im the enshusiustic outburst of popular teehng Waleb betokened 4a event of more Wan ordinary Importance, Tae pevpic were called unto liberty! Liberty, In the third piace, meant to our ancestort the right to think, to act, to legisiate, to judge and decide jor themselves. For that reasun the Puritans left tue mother country in 1620, braved the winter storms of the Atlantic In @ vessel small and tral, endured a succession of hardsbipa 0) the most trying cescription, hungered, shivered, sickened, died; braved lamine, pestilence and soe revenge of hostile Indians, and finally enjoyed what had cost so much and was worth so mucn, RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND CIVIL LIBERTY. it Was a boon tvo precious to be sold for any price, and when it was assuiled and jeopardised by the various acts 0} Brittsn aggression occurring previ.us to 1776 the time had almost come tor ite armed defence. That time was precipitated; and the crisis brougbt about at Lexing ton and Concord, in the fourth place, by (the neediess siaugnter of Americins op the 19th of April, 1775, Who bad assembied simply to assert their riguts, protect thelr property and save their Iriends from unjust arrest; the hoy headed impetuosity of a British uMcer, somewhat under the influence of liquor, doubtless, backed by the conviction of his men that the pro vincials did not wish to fight and would not dare to fight even for their rights, led to the opening fire, ana with the frac musket flash the war flames’ were kindled. Tne real character of the Brivien government was then unveiled. It became clearly apparent that the colonists were to ve com quered or killed, The issue was joined, the di¢ cas!, the war must goon. All the events of Apri) 19, the insolent and murderous assauit at Lexing- ton, the battle at Concord Bridge, the retreat te Boston, with the irregular and deadly fre irom woods, tences, bill tops and hollows upon tae panting regulars made more emphatic and a® cided this conviction, that the war had com, menced! It must be fought out to the bitter end, Lexington ana Concord, therefore, vegan whet Bunker Hill, Monmouth, Princeton, Brandywine, Eutaw, Saratoga and Bennington continued, and Yorktown ended, To Massachusetti a the towns of Middlesex county belongs the honor of g hearty respouse to Liberty's Orst call; to the teen original States, with their scattered and various populations, the credit of bringing to @ | triumphant conclusion the struggle which that call precipitated, Let us not /orget to accord honor where honor is due, and forever maintais ‘What we have so freely received. The discourse was followed by the hymn com mencing :— Who, . Walked before us, ‘3 guide ? appearing, Snowed His banner Tar and wide. “Paul Revere’s Ride,” by Hénry W. Longfellow, was theu read, in an excellent manner, by Mr, Hosea H. Linco:n, master of the Lyman Grammar School. Another patriotic piece was performed by tm band, and after the entire congregation had Joined in singing the “Old Hundred,” From ali that dweli below tne skies, accompanied by the band and full orgam with thrilling effect, a benediction closed the serviess LEXINGTON—1775. BY JOHN J. WHITTIER. No maddening thirst fof blood had they, No battle joy was theirs who set Against the alien bayonet Their homespun breasts in that old day. 1 ‘Their feet had trodden peaceful ways; They loved not strife, they dreaded pains ‘They saw not, what to us is plain, ‘That God would make man’s wrath his pragee mm. No seers were they, but simple men; Its vast results the future hid; ‘The meaning of the work they did Was strange ang dark and doubtful thea. . Iv. Swift as the sammons came they left ‘The plough, mid-farrow, standing stills The half-ground corn grist 1 the milly ‘The spade in earth, the axe in cleft. ve They went where duty seemed to call; They scarcely asked the reason why They only knew they could but ale, And death was not the worst of all, vi. Of man for man the sacrifice, Unatained by blood, iy hat bi Me ‘Phat fatero! bo is not dumb; nations, listening to its sou Bs Kor Tae ‘The bridal time of Lawand i jadnese ry the world's re) A Gt the feet of ail Destie With the doves ‘Til meet, ben The eagie of o | ny | tablished chrch and the crown always felt the | ‘ when in 1/22 it was determined to build a chureh | Were called uato liberty, aa much ae they Were