ADDRESS

OF

HON. CHARLES DEVENS.

ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN OF THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION:

WE meet to-day (as of the 17th of June) in commemoration of the one hundred and thirteenth Anniversary of the great historic event which it is our object to commemorate. It is the sixty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Society formed when many of the actors in the great drama of the day were yet living, and its first President, Governor John Brooks, had as Major Brooks borne a gallant part in the conflict. So far as its purpose was only material, in looking to the purchase from private hands of the most important portion of the field, and its dedication by a simple yet durable and majestic memorial in honor of the vast step then made in the progress of liberty, its work has been largely, yet not completely, done. We hope and I trust that hope will be encouraged by the Reports to which we are to listen that we shall soon be able to proceed in the erection of the Granite Lodge, in which may be preserved the interesting relics of the Battle now in our possession and those which we may reasonably expect will be confided when we have a suitable place for their deposit. The immediate purpose of our meeting is for business only to elect the officers of the corporation, to welcome as members such gentlemen as may desire to unite with us in furthering the objects of our Society, to hear the Reports of our committees and Treasurer, and to give such direction as shall be found advisable for the care and protection of the property which we hold in solemn trust for our countrymen.

It was contemplated, by a resolution passed early in the history of the Society, that there should annually be delivered before it, or under its direction, an oration, which should

give to the day a formal observance. This design has never accurately been carried out. Our celebrations of a public character have taken place at irregular and perhaps too rare intervals. Yet, when I remember that our last public occasion was the inauguration of the statue of Prescott by the matchless voice and eloquence of Winthrop,-long may it be ere that voice is silent!-who in the same year, respectively at your invitation as your then President, and that of the Congress of the United States, commemorated Bunker Hill and Yorktown, the opening and closing conflicts of the Revolution, when I recall the imperishable orations of Webster and Everett, which in language worthy of the masters of English literature have struck the deepest chords of patriotism in every American heart, it cannot be said that the design of our Association has failed in this regard, except in detail only. Meanwhile, on this Anniversary day and on every day, alike in sunshine and storm, telling to the lightest and most careless who may see it from afar or rest at its foot, stands always the colossal shaft with its sweet and solemn story of the brave who died there, and of the cause for which they died, and its warning to each succeeding generation to be worthy of their great forefathers.

The reason why the 17th of June has not become a general national holiday is readily seen in the fact of its position in the cycle of the year, so near to the 4th of July. Yet although a year was to pass before the Declaration of Independence proclaimed this to be a free and independent nation, the 17th of June, 1775, settled forever that these New England Colonies were to be such or that they were to be utterly crushed and subdued. Their status as provinces of the British Empire they neither could nor would ever undertake again to renew. Even if the declaration was not yet made, it was the definite step which marked not the beginning of a rebellion, but of a revolution. From that day, whatever other Colonies might do or fail to do, the path of New England was straight forward, and for her the hour for conciliation had passed. The great significance of the Battle was hardly comprehended by those who had fought in it, while