generations of men have trodden these fields and aided in the great
work of perfecting and preserving American institutions. With what
confidence, fellow citizens, did your ancestors look to independence
and the establishment of the form of government under which we have
lived and prospered as a people? Beyond this form neither the patriot
nor statesman can look with hope.

Who will propose to the now united American people either a return to
the almost forgotten confederacy of 1778, or the establishment of
several governments? Nobody,--nobody. When we contrast our
institutions with those of any other country, how ought we to thank God
for the measure of personal happiness and political security we have
enjoyed.

Not that our institutions are perfect,--nor that there is nothing which
the philanthropist may deplore or the statesman condemn. All the
anticipations of our ancestors have not been realized. The past is
not all perfect; the future will not always cheer us with sunshine and
smiles; but he is a misanthrope who allows his opinions to be
controlled by the exceptions to the general current of our national
career.

Our years of independence have been years of almost uninterrupted
prosperity, but they have borne to the grave those who took part in
the later as well as earlier contests of the Revolution. Of Lexington
and Concord, one only remains; and from all the battlefields of the
war this occasion has brought together but two.

But, fellow citizens, the few survivors are not only venerable, they
are sacred men. They are the last of a noble generation. They
periled their lives in behalf of liberty, when

"'Twas treason to love her and death to defend."

Fortunate all are you whose eyes rest to-day on these few surviving
soldiers of the Revolution. Fortunate are the youth and children
who on this occasion and in this presence can pledge themselves to
the cause of constitutional liberty. Of these men the next generation
shall know only from history. Fortune then that your lives began
before theirs ended.

The patriot should do homage to these men, the statesman may sit at
their feet and learn lessons of fidelity to principle, and citizens
all may see how noble ends the life begun in the performance of duty.

To-day the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the town of Acton dedicate
this monument to the memory of the early martyrs of the Revolution, and
consecrate it to the principles of liberty