Our Revolution was thus a war calmly entered upon to maintain immemorial rights and ancient institutions, whose preservation meant liberty not alone for America, but for England as well. Today we can clearly see what was at stake at Ticonderoga, at Bunker Hill, and upon the long chain of Revolutionary battlefields, stretching from the lakes to the faraway swamps of Georgia. Representative government hung in the balance, and whenever we hear of a nation’s rising against despotism and demanding that the people shall rule, we should add one more blossom to the garland which we are weaving for the graves of the men who gave Liberty to enlighten the world. Tennyson, with the soul of a true poet, though writing for Englishmen, has expressed the thought for all men:
“Oh! Thou who sendest out the man,
To rule by land and sea,
Strong mother of a Lion-line,
Be proud of those strong sons of thine,
Who wrench’d their rights from Thee!”
LIBERTY BELL
In Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
Years passed by. The ideas which had triumphed in the Revolution grew ever stronger in the nation that war had created. By slow degrees men came to understand more fully what it meant for the people to rule.