ORATION. 9 sex that now the hour had come to strike for freedom. It was a happy omen, — true token that, whenever the liberties of America are in danger, the warning light shall still shine from the church. Thank God, that in oq.r day the light is not dimmed ; that in the hands of our watchmen the trumpet sends forth no uncertain sound. And now, as the martyrs of Lexington fall on the village green, in the gray light of morning as Harrington falls, and rises, and seeks to meet his wife, who is hastening to embrace him, and sinks again and dies, before she can fold him in her arms, — tell me, shall we unite in the lamentations of those whose dearest friends had been slain in sight of their homes, or shall we join in the well-known exclamation of Samuel Adams, himself a fugitive, when he heard the fatal volley, and cried out in words so often quoted, “ Oh, what a glorious morning is this !” — glorious, because he knew that what was sowed in tears should be reaped in triumph; glorious, because history had taught him that God’s appointed method for the remission of national sins and for the regeneration of national life has always been by “ the shedding of blood.” Next, we stand by the North Bridge at Concord and listen to “the shot heard round the world!” Among the little band of patriots, let us fix our eyes on one. The words are few which tell us what we 2
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