e flintlock gun at Lexington was not the
first, nor yet the last, to fire a "shot heard round the world." It was
not the distance it travelled, but the message it carried which has
marked it out above all other human events. It was the character of
that message which, claimed the attention of him we this day honor, in
the far-off fortress of the now famous Metz; it was because it roused in
the listener a sympathetic response that it was destined to link forever
the events of Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill and Dorchester
Heights, in our Commonwealth, with the name of Lafayette.

For there was a new tone in those Massachusetts guns. It was not the old
lust of conquest, not the sullen roar of hatred and revenge, but a
higher, clearer note of a people asserting their inalienable
sovereignty. It is a happy circumstance that one of our native-born,
Benjamin Franklin, was instrumental in bringing Lafayette to America;
but beyond that it is fitting at this time to give a thought to our
Commonwealth because his ideals, his character, his life, were all in
sympathy with that great Revolution which was begun within her borders
and carried to a successful conclusion by the sacrifice of her treasure
and her blood. It was not the able legal argument of James Otis against
the British Writs of Assistance, nor the petitions and remonstrances of
the Colonists to the British throne, admirable though they were, that
aroused the approbation and brought his support to our cause. It was not
alone that he agreed with the convictions of the Continental Congress.
He saw in the example of Massachusetts a people who would shrink from no
sacrifice to defend rights which were beyond price. It was not the
Tories, fleeing to Canada, that attracted him. It was the patriots,
bearing arms, and he brought them not a pen but a sword.

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to law," and "obedience to law is
liberty." Those are the foundations of the Commonwealth. It was these
principles in action which appealed to that young captain of dragoons
and brought the sword and resources of the aristocrat to battle for
democracy. I love to think of his connection with our history. I love
to think of him at the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument receiving
the approbation of the Nation from the lips of Daniel Webster. I love to
think of the long line of American citizens of French blood in our
Commonwealth to-day, ready to defend the principles he fought for,