ddress and a
prayer, at the end of which the troops responded, "Amen." Then there
was unfurled a scarlet standard, which it is said John Hancock had
just presented to General Putnam and his men in recognition of their
bravery at Bunker Hill. Tradition says this standard bore on one side
the motto of Connecticut, "Qui transtulit sustinet," and on the other
a pine tree and the motto of Massachusetts, "An Appeal to Heaven."

It is a little strange that the Massachusetts colonists did not put
the likeness of an elm on any of their banners, for so much of their
history was associated with the "Liberty Elm." A few flags on both
land and sea were inscribed "Liberty Tree," but no exercise of the
imagination can make the pictured tree look in the least like an elm.
Under the Liberty Elm of Boston the meetings of the Sons of Liberty
were held, as has been said, and here it was that the resolutions were
adopted which resulted in dropping three hundred and forty chests of
tea into Boston Harbor. The Liberty Tree of Charleston, South
Carolina, was a beautiful live-oak. It is said that under this tree
Christopher Gadsden, even before the Stamp Act, ventured to speak of
the possible independence of the colonies. Here, as in Boston, the
patriots came together to discuss the way to liberty, and with hand
clasped in hand solemnly promised that when the hour for resistence
should come, they would not be found unready. There is something
refreshing in the thought of all the free, open-air discussion that
went on under the Liberty Trees. There was no stifling of thought in
closed rooms with bolted doors. Every new idea, daring as it might be,
was blown upon by the free winds of heaven. Naturally, the British
commanders hated these trees and thoroughly enjoyed destroying them
whenever they had opportunity. The Boston tree was cut down even
before the battle of Lexington. In 1780 Sir Henry Clinton cut down the
live-oak in Charleston, piled its severed branches over the stump, and
set fire to them. Even the iron-girt Liberty Pole of New York was cut
down by the red coats in 1776. It is little wonder that Thomas Paine's
poem on the "Liberty Tree" was so roundly applauded. This closes:--

"But hear, O ye swains,--'tis a tale most profane,
How all the tyrannical powers,
Kings, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain,
To cut down this guardian of ours.
From the East to the West, blow the trumpet to arms,
Through the