Part 25

P. 111, l. 17. 1. Cf. Beginnings of New England, p. 110, "Founding of Harvard College." Lowell's "Harvard Anniversary."

In 1647 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay passed the law requiring every town of one hundred families to set up a grammar school which should prepare youth for the university.

If Mr. Webster by his handling of the Dartmouth College Case founded a new school of constitutional law, by the Plymouth Oration he founded a new school of oratory. This field of occasional oratory was a new and peculiar one for him. He had never before spoken upon a great historical subject demanding not only wealth of imagination, but the peculiar quality of mind and heart which unites dignity and depth of thought with ease and grace of manner. But he was equal to the task. The simplicity and beauty of the thought, the grand and inspiring manner of presentation, gave evidence of commanding genius, and gave Mr. Webster a place in the front rank of orators and stylists.

"I never saw him," says Mr. Ticknor, "when he seemed to me to be more conscious of his own powers, or to have a more true and natural enjoyment from their possession."

John Adams, who had heard Pitt and Fox, Burke and Sheridan, says: "It is the effort of a great mind, richly stored with every species of information. If there be an American who can read it without tears, I am not that American. Mr. Burke is no longer entitled to the praise--the most consummate orator of modern times. What can I say of what regards myself? To my humble name 'Exegisti monumentum ære perennius.' The oration ought to be read at the end of every century."

"It is doubtful," says Edward Everett, "whether any extra-professional literary effort by a public man has attained equal celebrity."

Cf. Curtis's Life of Webster, Ch. IX.; Lodge's Webster, Ch. IV.; De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Vol. I.; Whipple's American Literature, "Webster as a Master of English Style"; Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. I., Chs. XII., XIII., XIV.; Burke's Orations on the American War, edited by A. J. George; Fiske's Beginnings of New England.

* * * * *

THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.

June, 1825.

As early as 1776, the Massachusetts Lodge of Masons, over which General Warren had presided, asked the Government of Massachusetts for permission to take up his remains, which were buried on the hill the day after the battle, and bury them with the usual solemnities. The request was granted on condition that the government of the colony should be permitted to erect a monument to his memory.

The ceremonies of burial were performed, but no steps were taken to build the monument. General Warren was, at the time of his death, Grand Master of the Masonic Lodges of America, and as nothing had been done toward erecting a memorial, King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown voted to erect a monument. The land was purchased, and a monument dedicated by the Lodge Dec. 2, 1794. It was a wooden pillar of Tuscan order, eighteen feet high, raised on a pedestal ten feet in height. The pillar was surmounted by a gilt urn. An appropriate inscription was placed on the south side of the pedestal.

The half-century from the date of the battle was at hand, and, despite a resolution of Congress and the efforts of a committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts, no suitable monument had been erected by the people. It was then that, at the suggestion of William Tudor, the matter was taken up in earnest and an association was formed known as the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Ground was broken for the monument June 7, 1825. On the morning of the 17th of June, 1825, the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the monument took place. It was a typical June day, and thousands flocked to see the pageant and to hear the greatest orator in the land.

The procession started from the State House at ten o'clock. The military led the van. About two hundred veterans of the Revolution rode in carriages, and among them were forty survivors of the battle. Some wore their old uniform, others various decorations of their service, and some bore the scars of honorable wounds. Following the patriots came the Monument Association, and then the Masonic fraternity to the number of thousands. Then came the noble Frenchman, Lafayette, the admiration of all eyes. Following him were numerous societies with banners and music. The head of the procession touched Charlestown Bridge before the rear had left the State House, and the march was a continual ovation. Arriving at Breed's Hill, the Grand Master of the Masons, Lafayette, and the President of the Monument Association laid the corner-stone, and then moved to the spacious amphitheatre on the northern side of the hill, where the address was delivered by Mr. Webster.

P. 122, l. 7. 1. An account of the voyage of the emigrants to the Maryland Colony is given by the report of Father White, written soon after the landing at St. Mary's. The original in Latin is still preserved by the Jesuits at Rome.

The Ark and the Dove occupy the same place of interest in the memory of the descendants of the colony as does the Mayflower with us.

L. 18. 2. Mr. Webster was at this time President of the Monument Association.

P. 125, l. 13. 1. Even the poetical nature of Webster would not have been equal to the conception, that within the century the number would reach sixty million.

L. 16. 2. "The first railroad on the continent was constructed for the purpose of accelerating the erection of this monument."--EVERETT.

P. 127, l. 15. 1. The allusion is, of course, to the ships about the Charlestown Navy Yard, which is located at the base of Breed's Hill. L. 21. 2. This magnificent address to the "Venerable Men" was composed while Mr. Webster was fishing in Marshpee brook.

P. 128, l. 4. 1. Milton's Paradise Lost, V.

L. 17. 2. Cf. Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. IV., p. 133. A prelude to Warren's patriotism at Bunker Hill is well illustrated in his oration at the old South Meeting House, commemorating the Boston Massacre; in the presence of British soldiers he said: "Our streets are again filled with armed men, our harbour is crowded with ships of war; but these cannot intimidate us; my fellow-citizens, you will maintain your rights or perish in the generous struggle."

P. 130, l. 9. 1. Cf. Burke's Orations on the American War, edited by A. J. George.

P. 131, l. 32. 1. Virgil's Aeneid, VI. 726. Compare Burke's use of this same quotation in his speech on American Taxation, page 13, line 13. Edited by A. J. George.

P. 133, l. 9. 1. Cf. Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. IV., Ch. XIV.

L. 22. 2. General Lafayette had arranged his progress through the other States so that he might be present on the 17th.

P. 140, l. 22. 1. Homer's Iliad, Book XVII.

P. 141, l. 13. 1. Cf. account of Webster's speech on the Revolution in Greece, made on the 19th of January, 1824, in Everett's Memoir, Vol. I. of Webster's Works.