The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up-hill, to twist a rope of sand. It makes no difference whether the actors be many or one, a tyrant or a mob. The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of flame; every prison, a more illustrious abode; every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. Hours of sanity and consideration are always arriving to communities as to individuals, when the truth is seen, and the martyrs are justified.
The Concord Fight.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled.
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe has long in silence slept:
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And time the ruined bridge has swept