I
observed this Memorial Day by rereading Daniel Webster’s Bunker Hill Oration.
In 1775 trying to prevent the British from fortifying the hills around Boston
we fought for control and lost, retreating when the gunpowder gave out. (Woe is
the nation without an industrial base.)
Causalities were high, especially for the British. (Those good old boys
knew how to shoot.) This taught us that a citizen army, a militia, could take
on the trained troops of a foreign empire.
(Is it a coincidence, or historic irony, that this past week the Oath
Keepers just stared down the BLM in Josephine County, Oregon over a man’s gold
mining rights?)
In
1825, the year before both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, a monument was dedicated
on Bunker Hill. The first generation of free Americans paid homage to those who
made it possible and celebrated with those Revolutionary War veterans in
attendance. What follows are selections from what Daniel Webster said that day:
“This uncounted multitude before me and
around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited… a day on which all
subsequent history would have poured its light… a point of attraction to the
eyes of successive generations… to foster a constant regard for the principles
of the Revolution… God has granted you this sight of your country’s
happiness… he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and
in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name
of liberty, to thank you!.. Wheresoever among men a heart shall be found
that beats to … patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim
kindred with thy spirit… May the Father of all mercies smile upon your
declining years and bless, them!.. look
abroad upon the whole earth, and see what … you have contributed to give to
your country, and what a praise you have added to freedom…we are assembled to
commemorate the establishment of great public principles of liberty Heaven saw fit to ordain that the
electric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the New World
to the Old…
…It is owing, perhaps, to this truth,
that the interesting struggle of the Greeks has been suffered to go on so long…
to wrest that country from its present masters… the barbarian Turk… let us indulge an honest exultation in
the conviction of the benefit which the example of our country has produced… on
human freedom and human happiness. Let us endeavor to comprehend in all its
magnitude, and to feel in all its importance, the part assigned to us in the
great drama of human affairs… that
with wisdom and knowledge men may govern themselves… The principle of free
government adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its
mountains.
The great trust now descends to new hands… Let our object be… by the blessing of God, may that
country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and
terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon which the world may gaze
with admiration for ever!”
It’s noteworthy that in 1825 we
Americans desired aiding the Christian Greeks against their oppressor, the
Muslim Ottoman Turks. In the name of full disclosure, my parents took me to
the Bunker Hill Monument as a child, and my mother recited parts of Daniel
Webster’s oration from memory. She later gave me her copy. As an adult, I once
donned a Daniel Webster costume and delivered part of this oration. But soon it
sadly seems that my generation and I could become a pre-Common Core anachronism.
Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett
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