E. Benj. Andrews.
Chicago, April 13, 1899.
From the town clerk and selectmen of Lexington:
Lexington, Mass., April 11, 1899.
Thomas Hamilton Murray, Esq., Secretary-General American-Irish Historical Society:
Dear Sir:—The selectmen of the town of Lexington desire to express their sincere thanks for the courtesy of an invitation to the banquet to be held at Providence, April 19, next, but regret that our official duties preclude our acceptance, as the day is always a busy one for the official heads of the town.
We take this opportunity of returning the compliment, and trust that on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, which occurs next year, your Society will be represented. We express the hope that your banquet will be an enjoyable one, and that the day and the occasion to be celebrated will furnish the impulse to make the exercises interesting, instructive and profitable.
Your Society name is typical of history on the one hand; exemplification on the other. The history of that day and the events which followed it represent a struggle with the same country which it has been our privilege to subdue, to our immortal honor and the glory of the world, and it is the same country that again is attempting the perversion of liberty and justice; and a parallel is furnished by the identical principles which animate Ireland to-day, which animated the men of Lexington, Bunker Hill and Saratoga a century ago; and it has been well said, that, while Ireland has not yet gained the jewel of liberty for herself, yet her sons have given freely of their bone, their sinew and blood to set that jewel in many a shining crown of freedom in other lands than their own.
Ireland has had her Lexington, and the “winter of discontent” in her Valley Forge is slowly melting and warming into the eternal summer. May her Yorktown be not long delayed!
{Town } Edwin S. Spaulding,