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$Pretitle{11}
$Title{Our Country:  Volume 3
Chapter LX}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{lexington
british
upon
troops
first
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hancock
spirit
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$Volume{Vol. 3}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Book:        Our Country:  Volume 3
Author:      Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume:      Vol. 3
Date:        1905

Chapter LX

     The King and His Ministers the Real Revolutionists - The Spirit of
Independence - Its Development in America - Franklin's Fable of the Eagle and
the Cat - The Americans not Revolutionists - Treatment of Battles - England
and Her Colonies, in 1775 - The Children of Boston - The Appointed Successor
of Gage - His Generals - Franklin's Views of the Situation - Gage and the
People - Hancock and Adams - Military Expedition to Concord - Skirmish at
Lexington.

     IN the early part of 1775, the British government had proclaimed
Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion, and provided means for
suppressing that rebellion by force of arms.  The fulmination of wrathful
threats against that province was intended for the ears of her sister
colonies, as well as for her own.  They had interests in common.  They were
making resistance to oppression in common and they were resolved to stand
united for the common defence.  To call Massachusetts a rebel," was to call
all the other colonies rebels."  So they all felt.  Joseph Hawley had said in
Massachusetts, when viewing the impending crisis: We must fight Patrick Henry,
in Virginia, had answered "Amen!" with vehemence; and these words from the
head and heart of resistance to oppression, were echoed back from all the
provinces in the early part of 1775.  For ten years the people of those
provinces had pleaded, remonstrated, and worked in vain endeavors to obtain
justice for themselves and their posterity.  They had asserted the inalienable
rights of every free-born Englishman, and had been haughtily spurned as
slaves.  They had bravely, meekly, patiently and persistently opposed the
revolution which the king and Parliament seemed determined to effect (and did
effect) by overturning the colonial charters and denying to British subjects
in America the freedom and privileges of British subjects in England.  At
length the united colonies came to the solemn conclusion - " We must fight,"
and prepared for the dire necessity.  The war for independence that ensued was
not a war of revolution on the part of the Americans.  It was a war by the
Americans against the arch-revolutionist King George and his ministers - a war
by the Americans for the defence of their liberties and free institutions
which the government of Great Britain sought to destroy.

     Let us look a little behind the stirring events of the spring of 1775.
You who have followed the narrative given in preceding pages in this work,
cannot fail to have discovered the existence of a controlling spirit of
independence - a spirit yearning for free thought and action - a spirit of
resistance to unlawful restraint, everywhere manifested by the early settlers
and colonists - emigrants from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; from
France, Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden.  The sentiment uttered by Patrick
Henry in old St. John's Church in Richmond in 1775 - "Give me liberty or give
me death!  had been the sponsor of that faith and courage which impelled men
and women to leave home and kindred, brave the storms of the Atlantic and the
perils of the wilderness, and seek abiding places in the forests of America.
That spirit was not born in these forests, as some suppose.  It was older than
the gnarled oak and lofty pines - as old as civilization - aye, as old as the
race - a child of remote ages.  It had been seen emerging from the mists of
prehistoric times.  It walked arm-in-arm with young Christianity when it went
forth from the gates of Jerusalem to conquer the earth with its sublime
ethics, for the Founder had said: "The Truth shall make you free." It asserted
its power at Runnymede; and it spoke out boldly in the theological and
ecclesiastical reformation of the sixteenth century.  It found a rare
coadjutor in the new-born printing-press; and from the advent of that mighty
teacher, it was rapidly diffused.  It was the prevailing spirit of the
century, when the greater portion of the English colonies in America were
planted - a century most remarkable for its energy and development.

     The immigrants hither came chiefly from among the middle-classes of
society in Europe, who, with strong bones and tough muscles, brought to this
virgin land an indomitable love for personal freedom.  They brought the spirit
of independence with them.  They cherished it as a priceless jewel.  From the
beginning, they yearned for independent local legislation and that aspiration
deepened, and widened, and grew more sturdy as time passed on, until, at about
the middle of the last century, as we have seen, the colonists, many in
numbers and firm in faith, defied the government of England.  It was high time
for them to do so; for that government, wielded by an unwise and headstrong
king with corrupt and obsequious advisers, meditated bold revolutionary
schemes by which the ancient constitutions of the colonies were to be
destroyed, and the people deprived of rights which they had ever held most
sacred.  We have seen how the attempt at subversion was made openly, and in
secret, and with what patient dignity the oppressed colonists pleaded for
redress and justice in loyal words.  We have seen how they were spurned - spit
upon, as it were, by the haughty king and his ministers, until Dr. Franklin,
their chief representative in England, losing all hope, folded his papers,
sailed away from that country and came home to help his countrymen in the
impending struggle with the brute force of Great Britain.  Not long before
Franklin's departure, he gave to the world that remarkable fable of the eagle
and the cat, which, in the light of subsequent events, seemed prophetic.  He
was at Lord Spencer's one evening, with a number of English noblemen, when the
conversation turned upon the subject of fables.  Some one of the company
observed that he thought the subject was exhausted he did not believe that any
beast, bird, or fish could be worked into a new fable with any success. The
whole company appeared to agree with the gentleman excepting Franklin, who was
silent.  The company insisted upon his expressing his opinion.  I believe, my
lords," said the sage, in substance, that the subject is inexhaustible, and
that many new and instructive fables might be made out of such materials."  He
was asked if he would think of one at present.  If your lordship," he said,
turning to Earl Spencer, "will provide me with a pen, ink, and paper, I
believe I can furnish your lordship with one in a few minutes."  The paper was
brought, and Franklin wrote as follows:

     "Once upon a time, an eagle soaring around a farmer's barn and espying a
hare, darted down upon him like a sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and
remounted with him in the air.  He soon found that he had a creature of more
courage and strength than a hare, for which, notwithstanding the keenness of
his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat.  The snarling and scrambling of the prey
was very inconvenient, and, what was worse, she had disengaged herself from
his talons, grasped his body with her fore limbs, so as to stop his breath,
and seized fast hold of his throat with her teeth.  Pray, said the eagle, let
go your hold and I will release you.' 'Very fine,' said the cat, I have no
fancy to fall from this height, and be crushed to death.  You have taken me
up, and you shall stoop and let me down.' The eagle thought it necessary to
stoop accordingly."

     John Adams, who received the story from Franklin's lips, wrote: "The
moral was so applicable to England and America [England the Eagle, and America
the Cat] that the fable was allowed to be original, and was highly applauded."

     The colonists now said: "We must fight."  They repeated it from Maine to
Georgia.  They buckled on their armor and stood on the defensive determined
not to give the first blow.  We shall now see how their oppressors became the
aggressors, and spilled the first blood that flowed in the war of that
momentous revolution which King George the Third began.  That revolution, as
we have observed, was not the work of the people here.  They did not seek to
overturn anything; they sought only to preserve the precious things that
existed.  They had never known hereditary titles, nor prerogatives, nor any of
the forms of feudalism, in America, other than as temporary exotics.  They had
grown to greatness in plain, unostentatious ways, chiefly as tillers of the
soil and moving on a social plane of almost absolute equality.  They had all
been born free.  They were not called upon to fight for freedom, for they
already possessed it they were compelled to fight for its maintenance.
Therefore, the American people in 1775 were not revolutionists.  They, only,
were revolutionists, who, by arbitrary methods, attempted to deprive the
Americans of their rights.  This aspect of the case I wish to impress upon the
minds of my countrymen.  I shall not dwell long upon the sanguinary features
of that war.  An eminent author, in a deprecatory spirit, wrote:  "The Muse of
History has been so much in love with Mars, that she has seldom conversed with
Minerva."  Acting upon that hint, I shall, in telling the story of that war,
touch as lightly upon the terrible details of battles as faithfulness to the
task before me will allow.  With that governing thought, I have traced the
course of the colonies through the several phases of their growth from feeble,
scattered settlements to powerful commonwealths, endued with a pervading love
of freedom, and possessing large liberties.  I have endeavored to unfold the
causes which gradually made them gravitate toward a common centre of
nationality, in the form of a colonial Union.  We will now consider their
tremendous struggle during seven years for the maintenance of their liberties,
and the establishment of a new and independent nation on the earth.

     In February, 1775, Great Britain, as we have seen, had virtually declared
war against the colonies.  The time for reconciliation, moderation, and
reasoning is over," General Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth.  Even the boys of
Boston asserted their rights in the presence of the military governor.  They
had built some snow-hills on the Common, down which they slid on to a pond.
The soldiers, to annoy them, frequently demolished these hills.  They
complained to the captain, but could not obtain redress.  At length a large
deputation of older boys called upon General Gage.  He received them
courteously, and said: "Why have so many children waited upon me?" "We have
come, sir," said the tallest boy, to demand satisfaction.""What!  said the
general with surprise, "have your fathers been teaching you rebellion, and
sent you here to exhibit it?  Nobody sent us here, sir," replied the boy,
while his eyes flashed, and his cheeks reddened with indignation at the
imputation of being a rebel.  "We have never injured nor insulted your
troops," he continued, "but they have trodden down our snow-hills, and have
broken the ice on our skating-ground.  We complained, and they called us young
rebels, and told us to help ourselves if we could.  We told the captain of
this, and he laughed at us.  Yesterday our works were destroyed for the third
time, and we will bear it no longer."  The good-natured general felt touched
with admiration for the spirit of these boys, and turning to an officer near
him, he said: "The very children here draw in a love of liberty with the air
they breathe."  To the boys he said:  Be assured that if my troops trouble you
again, they shall be punished."

     In reply to a letter from Dartmouth, ordering him to assert, by force,
the absolute authority of the king, Gage wrote that civil government was
nearly at an end in Massachusetts.  He advised the sending of twenty thousand
troops, with whom he would undertake to enforce the new form of government, to
disarm the colonists, and to arrest and send to England for trial the chief
traitors in Massachusetts.  Meanwhile the British government were preparing to
reinforce the troops in Boston.  It was determined to make the number there
ten thousand.  They also resolved to send another general to take the place of
Gage, whom ministers considered too inefficient for the exigency.  General
William Howe was chosen to succeed him.  His major-generals were Sir Henry
Clinton and John Burgoyne.  The former was a son of a provincial governor of
New York the latter was ambitious to win renown that he might wipe out the
stain of his ignoble birth.  He boastfully said: I am confident there is not
an officer or soldier in the king's service who does not think the
Parliamentary right of Great Britain a cause to fight for to bleed and die
for." There were many and noble soldiers who did not agree with him.  For that
reason Amherst declined the chief command which was offered to him, and partly
for the same reason General Howe took the appointment with reluctance.  Is it
a proposition or an order from the king?  Howe asked.  It is an order." Then
it is my duty to obey," he said with real reluctance, for he remembered with
gratitude the vote of Massachusetts to erect a monument in memory of his
brother, Lord Howe, who was killed near Ticonderoga.  His reluctance was
somewhat diminished when he was told that he and his brother Richard, Earl
Howe (who had been appointed naval commander in America), would go as peace
commissioners also, bearing the sword in one hand and the olive-branch in the
other.

     Franklin, not long before his departure from England, had written to
friends in Massachusetts, saying, in substance, Do not begin war without the
advice of the Continental Congress, unless on a sudden emergency."  He said:
"New England alone can hold out for ages against this country, and, if they
are firm and united, in seven years will win the day."  The prophecy was
fulfilled in time and facts.  The eyes of all Christendom," he wrote, are now
upon us, and our honor as a people is become a matter of the utmost
consequence.  If we tamely give up our rights in this contest, a century to
come will not restore us, in the opinion of the world we shall be stamped with
the character of dastards, poltroons, and fools; and be despised and trampled
upon, not by this haughty, insolent nation only, but by all mankind.  Present
inconveniences are, therefore, to be borne with fortitude, and better times
expected."  The French minister in London wrote to his government: "Every
negotiation which shall proceed from the present administration will be
without success in the colonies.  Will the king of England lose America rather
than change his ministry?  Time must solve the problem if I am well informed,
the submission of the Americans is not to be expected."  The conduct of the
Americans gratified the wishes of Franklin and the hopes of the French
ambassador.

     When news of the contemptuous reception of the petition of Congress to
the king, and copies of the Address of Parliament to his majesty, reached the
Americans, there was an outburst of patriotism from the hearts of all the
colonies.  The spirit of the times gave fire to the tongue of Joseph Warren,
when, on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, he thrilled the fouls of a
vast concourse of citizens in the Old South Meeting-house, and drew from some
of the forty British officers who were present, insulting hisses.  His words
went deep into the hearts of the people, and Gage well knew their
significance.

     Before this the air was full of rebellious utterances now it seemed as if
the lightning of the popular wrath was about to kindle a mighty conflagration.
On both sides watchful eyes never slept, and watchful ears were always open.
All through March and far into April, Boston was like a seething cauldron of
intense feeling.  Gage was irresolute and timid.  He had about four thousand
well-drilled soldiers, eager to fall upon the rebels, yet he hesitated. At
length he resolved to nip rebellion in the bud.  He prepared to seize John
Hancock and Samuel Adams as arch-traitors, and send them to England for trial
on a charge of treason.  He also determined to send out troops to seize all
the munitions of war which he knew the people had gathered at Concord and
other places; and he fixed upon the night of the 18th of April as the time for
the execution of his scheme.  The plan was to be kept a profound secret until
the latest moment.

     In the meantime Hancock and Adams, who were in attendance at the
Provincial Congress held at Concord, had received warning of their personal
danger, for an intercepted letter from London had revealed it and when that
Congress adjourned on the 15th of April, they tarried at Lexington, where they
lodged at the house of Rev. Jonas Clarke, yet standing.  At the same time the
Minute-men were on the alert everywhere, and the fifteen thousand troops which
the Provincial Congress had called for were in readiness to confront the
oppressors of the people.  Couriers were ready to ride over the country, and
arouse the inhabitants, if the British should march that way; and wagons were
prepared to remove the hidden stores to places of greater safety.

     The capital part of the scheme was to arrest Hancock and Adams at
Lexington, ten miles from Boston.  For this purpose, the soldiers who were to
do the work, were to leave Boston secretly in the evening, at an hour that
would enable them to reach Lexington at past midnight, when the doomed
patriots would be sleeping soundly.  Their arrest accomplished, the troops
were to move rapidly forward to Concord, six miles further, and seize or
destroy the cannon and military stores which the patriots had gathered.
Preparations for the expedition were made as early as the fifteenth.  On that
day about eight hundred grenadiers and infantry were detached from the main
body and marched to a different part of the town, under the pretense of
teaching them some new military movements.  At night, boats from the
transports which had been hauled up for repairs, were launched and moored
under the sterns of the men-of-war.  Dr. Warren, one of the most watchful of
the patriots, sent notice to Hancock of these suspicious movements, and
enabled the Committee of Safety, of which the latter was chairman, to cause
some of the stores at Concord to be removed to places of safety, in time to
save them from the invaders.  To prevent a knowledge of his expedition
spreading into the country, Gage sent out a number of his officers to post
themselves on the several roads leading from Boston and to prevent suspicions,
they went out of the city at different times.  But they were discovered, and
the design suspected, by a Son of Liberty of Lexington, who informed Colonel
Monroe, then sergeant of a militia company.  That officer, suspecting a design
to capture Hancock and Adams, collected a guard of eight well-armed men, who
watched Mr. Clarke's house that night.

     In the afternoon of the 18th (April, 1775), Gage's secret leaked out, and
the patriots in Boston watched every movement of the troops with keen vision.
Dr. Warren, Paul Revere and others made arrangements for a sudden emergency,
to warn Hancock and Adams of danger, and to arouse the country. Their
precautions were timely, for at ten o'clock that evening, eight hundred
British troops marched silently to the foot of the Common, where they embarked
in boats and passed over to Cambridge.  They were commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, assisted by Major Pitcairn.  Gage supposed his
secret was inviolate, but was soon undeceived.  Lord Percy, who was one of his
confidants, when crossing the Common, heard one of a group of citizens say,
The British will miss their mark.  "What mark?"  inquired Percy.  "The cannon
at Concord," was the reply.  Percy hastened to inform Gage, who immediately
issued orders to his guards not to allow any person to leave the city that
night.  It was too late.  William Dawes had gone over the Neck to Roxbury on
horseback, with a message from Warren to Hancock and Adams, and Warren and
Revere were at Charlestown awaiting the development of events.  Revere had
engaged his friend Newman, sexton of the North Church, to give him a timely
signal.

     He said to his friend: If the British march By land or sea from the town
to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch Of the North Church tower as
a signal light One, if by land, and two, if by sea: And I on the opposite
shore will be Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex
village and farm, For the country folk to be up and arm.

     The moon was just rising when the British troops landed on the Cambridge
side of the water.  Newman had hung out two lanterns, and the watching Revere,
springing into a saddle on the back of a fleet horse owned by Deacon Larkin,
hurried across Charlestown Neck.  At the end of the isthmus he was confronted
by two British soldiers, who attempted to arrest him. Turning back toward
Charlestown, he soon reached the Medford road, and escaped; and at a little
past midnight he rode up to Clarke's house in Lexington, which was well
guarded by Sergeant Monroe and his men.  He asked, in hurried words, for Mr.
Hancock.  "The family have just retired," said the sergeant, "and I am
directed not to allow them to be disturbed by any" Noise exclaimed Revere
"you'll have noise enough before long; the Regulars are coming out!  He was
then allowed to knock at the door, when Mr. Clarke opened a window, and
inquired - "Who is there?"  Revere answered hurriedly, I want to see Mr.
Hancock."  I do not like to admit strangers into my house so late at night,"
Clarke replied.  Hancock, abed but not asleep, recognizing the voice of the
messenger called out: Come in, Revere we are not afraid of you."  The story of
impending peril was soon told, and the whole household were astir.  Dawes, who
went by Roxbury, soon afterward arrived.  After refreshing themselves, he and
Revere rode swiftly toward Concord, arousing the inhabitants by the way, as
the latter had done between Medford and Lexington.  They were overtaken by Dr.
Samuel Prescott, who had been wooing a young woman in Lexington, and he joined
them in their patriotic errand, when Revere, who was riding ahead, was
suddenly surrounded by some British officers, and with Dawes was made a
prisoner.  Prescott dashed over a stone-wall with his active horse, and
escaped.  He rode over to Concord, and at about two o'clock in the morning of
the 19th gave the alarm.  Revere and his fellow prisoner were closely
questioned concerning Hancock and Adams, but gave evasive answers.  They were
threatened with pistol-balls, when Revere told his captors that men were out
arousing the country in all directions.  Just then a church-bell was heard
then another, when one of the Lexington prisoners said: The bells are ringing
- the town is alarmed - you are dead men."  The frightened officers left their
prisoners, and fled toward Boston.

          The alarm rapidly spread, and the Minute-men seized their arms.  At
two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker called the roll of his company
on Lexington Green in front of the meeting-house, and ordered them to charge
their guns with powder and ball.  The air was chilly, and, as the invaders did
not seem to be near, the men were directed to take shelter in the houses.
Meanwhile the British troops were making their way in the soft light of a
waning moon.  Colonel Smith was convinced that their secret was known and
there was a general uprising of the people, for church-bells were heard in
various directions.  He sent back to Boston for reinforcements, and ordered
Major Pitcairn to push rapidly on through Lexington and seize the bridges at
Concord.  As the latter advanced, he secured every man seen on the way.  One
of these escaped, and mounting a fleet-footed horse, hurried to Lexington and
gave the alarm, but not until the invaders were within less than two miles of
the village green.  The bells rang out an alarm.  The Minute-men came and just
at the earliest dawn of day Captain Parker found himself at the head of almost
seventy men.  After much persuasion, and the cogent argument that their lives
were of the greatest importance to the colony at that time, Hancock and Adams
left Mr. Clarke's house and went, finally, to a more secure retreat.  Dorothy
Quincy, to whom Hancock was affianced (and whom he married in September
following), was visiting the family of Mr. Clarke, and she accompanied her
lover and his friend in their slow flight from immediate danger.

     In the gray of the early morning, Major Pitcairn and his scarlet-clad
soldiers appeared, and halting not far from the line of Minute-men on
Lexington Common, loaded their muskets.  The patriots stood firm.  They had
been ordered not to fire a shot until they were assailed by the invaders.  A
pause ensued, when Pitcairn and other officers galloped forward, waving their
swords over their heads, and followed by the shouting troops in double-quick
time.  Disperse, you villains!  Lay down your arms!  Why don't you disperse,
you rebels Disperse!  cried the major.  In rushing forward the troops had
become confused.  As the Minutemen did not immediately obey the command to lay
down their arms, Pitcairn wheeled his horse, and waving his sword, shouted:
Press forward, men!  surround the rascals!  At the same moment some random
shots were fired over the heads of the Americans by the British soldiers, but
without effect.  The Minute-men had scruples about firing, until their own
blood had been spilled.  Pitcairn was irritated by their obstinacy, and
drawing his pistol, discharged it, at the same moment shouting fire.  A volley
from the front rank followed the order, with fatal effect. Some Americans fell
dead or mortally wounded, and others were badly hurt. There was no longer
hesitation on the part of the Minutemen.  The conditions of their restraint
were fulfilled.  The blood of their comrades had been shed and as the shrill
fife of young Jonathan Harrington set the drum a-beating, the patriots
returned the fire with spirit, but not with fatal effect.  The blood of
American citizens stained the green grass on Lexington Common, but no British
soldier lost his life in that memorable conflict.  Captain Parker, perceiving
his little band in danger of being surrounded by overwhelming numbers and
massacred, ordered his men to disperse.  They did so; but as the British
continued to fire, the Americans returned the shots with spirit, and then
sought safety behind stone-walls and buildings.  Four of the Minute-men were
slain by the first fire, and four afterwards, and ten were wounded. Only three
of the British were wounded, with Pitcairn's horse.

     So ended the opening act in the great drama of the Old War for
Independence.  The bells that were rung on that warm April morning - the
mercury marking 85 degrees in the shade at noon - tolled the knell of British
domination in the old thirteen colonies.  When the firing began, Samuel Adams
was lingering in his tardy flight on a wooded hill near Clarke's house, and
when the air was rent by the first volley on Lexington Common, he uttered
these remarkable words: What a glorious morning for America is this!  With the
vision of an inspired seer at that moment, the sturdy patriot perceived in the
future the realization of his cherished dreams of independence for his beloved
country.  Those words are inscribed on the Lexington Centennial Medal.

     When the Minute-men at Lexington were dispersed at sunrise, the British
drew up in line on the Common, fired a feu de joie, gave three cheers in token
of the victory, and in high spirits marched rapidly toward Concord.  They had
just been joined by Colonel Smith and his party, and felt sure of the success
of the expedition.  But the sunset told a sad tale for the invaders.

     Meanwhile the news of the skirmish was spreading with great rapidity over
the province.  Before noon that day, the tidings reached Worcester, thirty
miles from Lexington.  "An express came to the town," says Lincoln, the local
historian, shouting as he passed through the streets at full speed, 'To arms!
to arms! the war has begun!'  His white horse, bloody with spurring, and
dripping with sweat, fell, exhausted, by the church.  Another was instantly
produced, and the tidings went on.  The bell rang out the alarm the cannon
were fired, and messengers were sent to every part of the town to collect the
soldiery.  As the news spread, the implements of husbandry were thrown by in
the fields, and the citizens left their homes with no longer delay than to
seize their arms.  In a short time the Minutemen were paraded on the Green,
under Captain Timothy Bigelow; after fervent prayer by Rev. Mr. McCarty, they
took up their line of march.  They were soon followed by as many of the train-
bands as could be gathered under Captain Benjamin Flagg.

     The scene at Worcester on that occasion, was a type of a hundred others
enacted within twenty-four hours after the skirmish at Lexington.  It affords
a vivid picture of the spirit of the people.

     The serious question arose, Who fired first at Lexington, the British or
the Provincials?  Upon the true solution of that question depended, in a
degree, the justification or condemnation of the belligerent parties, for the
Americans had resolved not to be the aggressors.  So late as May the next
year, a London journal said It is whispered that the ministry are endeavoring
to fix a certainty which party fired first at Lexington, before hostilities
commenced, as the Congress declare, if it can be proved that American blood
was first shed, it will go a great way toward effecting a reconciliation on
the most honorable terms."  The testimony of contemporaries seems to prove,
beyond a doubt, that the British fired first.  Stiles, in his MS. Diary, cited
by Mr. Frothingham in his History of the Siege of Boston, under date of August
19, 1775, wrote:

     "Major Pitcairn, who was a good man in a bad cause, insisted upon it to
the day of his death, that the colonists fired first and that he commanded not
to fire, and endeavored to stop the firing after it began but then he told
this with such circumstances as convince me that he was deceived, though on
the spot.  He does not say that he saw the colonists fire first.  Had he said
it, I would have believed him, being a man of integrity and honor.  He
expressly says he did not see who fired first; and yet he believed the
peasants began.  His account is this: That riding up to them, he ordered them
to disperse, which they not doing instantly, he turned about to order his
troops to draw out so as to surround and disarm them.  As he turned, he saw a
gun in a peasant hand, from behind a wall, flash in the pan, without going
off; and instantly, or very soon, two or three guns went off by which he found
his horse wounded, and also a man near him wounded.-These guns he did not see;
but believing they could not come from his own people, doubted not, and so
asserted, that they came from our people, and that thus they began the attack.
The impetuosity of the king's troops was such that a promiscuous, uncommanded
but general fire took place, which Pitcairn could not prevent; though he
struck his staff or sword downward with all earnestness, as a signal to
forbear or cease firing."

     In a counter manifesto to a proclamation of General Gage, prepared a few
weeks after the event, it is asserted that the British, "in a most barbarous
and infamous manner, fired upon a small number of the inhabitants, and cruelly
murdered eight men.  The fire was returned by some of the survivors, but their
number was too inconsiderable to annoy the regular troops, who proceeded on
their errand to Concord.  One of the many depositions taken at the time, to
settle the question, Who fired first?  is the following: "About five o'clock
in the morning we attended the beat of our drum, and were formed on the
parade. We were faced toward the regulars, then marching up to us, and some of
our company were coming to the parade with their backs toward the troops and
others on the parade began to disperse, when the regulars fired on the company
before a gun was fired by any of our company on them." Clarke says, So far
from firing first upon the king's troops, upon the most careful inquiry it
appears that but very few of our people fired at all, and even they did not
fire until, after being fired upon by the troops, they were wounded
themselves."

     On the Green, at Lexington, stands a monument, which was erected to the
memory of the patriots who fell on or near that spot, which bears the
following inscription:


"Sacred to the Liberty and the Rights of Mankind!!!  The Freedom and
Independence of America - sealed and defended with the blood of her sons -
This Monument is erected by the inhabitants of Lexington, under the patronage
and at the expense of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the memory of
their Fellow-citizens, Ensign Robert Monroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker, Samuel
Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John
Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn, who fell on this Field, the
first victims of the Sword of British Tyranny and Oppression, on the morning
of the ever-memorable Nineteenth of April, An. Domini 1775.  The Die was
cast!!!  The blood of these martyrs in the Cause of God and their Country was
the cement of the Union of these States, then colonies, and gave the Spring to
the Spirit, Firmness, and Resolution of their Fellow-citizens.  They rose as
one man to revenge their Brethren's blood, and at the point of the sword to
assert and defend their native Rights.  They nobly dared to be Free!!!  The
contest was long, bloody, and affecting.  Righteous Heaven approved the Solemn
Appeal Victory crowned their Arms, and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of
the United States of America was their glorious reward. Built in the year
1799."


     The precedence as to the time and place where blood was first shed in the
Revolution is claimed for Westminster, Vermont, where, more than a month
before the affair at Lexington, officers of the crown in endeavoring to subdue
a mob, caused the death of one of the rioters.  The event is recorded in an
epitaph inscribed upon a slab of slate in the old burial-ground at
Westminster, in the following words:


In Memory of WILLIAM FRENCH, son to Mr. Nathaniel French, who was Shot at
Westminister, March ye 13th, 1775, by the hands of Cruel Ministerial tools of
George ye 3rd, in the Court-house at 11 o'clock at Night, in the 22nd year of
his Age.

     Here William French his Body lies, For Murder his blood for Vengeance
Cries. King George the third his Tory crew that with a brawl his head Shot
threw. For Liberty and his Country's Good he Lost his Life, his Dearest Blood.