Article April 27, 1899 Issue

The Hon. Geo. F. Hoar

Stands by the Principles for which Our Fathers Battled.

The Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution celebrated, as is its custom, the anniversary of the birth of freedom in America. On this occasion Senator Hoar delivered the following address:—

I deem it a high honor to be the guest of the Sons of the Revolution on this our great Massachusetts anniversary. In the beginning, when your society was first established, I shared a little the doubt whether it were wise to create an order or brotherhood, even for this patriotic purpose, in which all American citizens could not have a part. But I am satisfied that it is all right. Every one of the great races that are blended in our national life has its own glorious traditions which it delights to cherish. The Englishman and the Irishman and the Scotchman and the Frenchman and the German and the Scandinavian each has something to tell of what his fathers did for humanity and freedom in the days that are past. He is no worse but all the better American, as he feels that in making up their account of debt and credit with the republic he and his race have had much to give as well as much to receive. So the sons of New England, the sons of Massachusetts, the sons of Middlesex, the sons of Lexington and Concord have an honest right to gather on the 19th of April, as the years go round, to revive the tender memories of what their fathers suffered, and the glorious memories of what their fathers achieved.

It is an important purpose of your society, as I understand it, to gather and preserve the history of the revolutionary time, especially the local tradition and material which otherwise would be in great danger of being lost. But, more important than this, you mean to keep alive the spirit of the revolutionary time, which I am sometimes tempted to think—although I do not in the least yield to that temptation—is in still greater danger of being lost. The greatest of all conservative forces in a republic is a great history. The War of the Revolution was no vulgar contest for empire or for glory. It was not even a contest for liberty alone. Our fathers fought for two things:

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