CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 29 



In the year 1776 our forefathers resolved that they would not any 

 longer live under the British government and God assisted them to 

 gain their liberties, and, if the people of the United States would 

 remember that it was God alone who enabled them to resist the 

 British who were much more powerful than the Americans and sent 

 very large armies and a great many ships against them, they would 

 be very thankful to God for His kindness. They would do right to 

 celebrate the day of their independence but they ought not to get 

 drunk upon it and behave as if they cared nothing about God and 

 did not believe that He would be angry with them for their wickedness 

 and ingratitude. 



Two or three days ago I went over to the place where the first 

 great battle was fought between the Americans and the British. 

 There had been it is true some fighting before at Lexington a short 

 distance from Boston but the battle of Bunker's Hill was the first 

 great battle. I daresay you have read all about it. I stood upon the 

 top of Breed's Hill for it was not on Bunker's Hill, which is a quarter 

 of a mile distant that the battle took place, but on Breed's Hill. 

 It is a small hill and if you were to see it you would wonder that 

 the American soldiers would ever have thought of making a stand 

 there, but God put it into their hearts to fight and they stood their 

 ground very bravely and killed and wounded nearly one thousand 

 of the British and the news spread over the whole of the United 

 States that only a small number of the Americans, with old shabby 

 guns had shot (and killed) a great many British and that gave courage 

 to Americans in other parts of the United States. War is a bad 

 thing but if one nation attempts to make slaves of another nation 

 it is lawful to take up arms and drive them away. 



I will now tell you what I saw and heard yesterday. In the 

 morning about daybreak the people of Boston fired off a great many 

 cannon and rang the church bells for about half an hour. About 

 nine o'clock the Sunday Schools were assembled together in great 

 number in one of the largest churches in Boston and had their cele- 

 bration. At eleven o'clock the volunteer companies and young men 

 formed a procession, that is walked in a long row down to one of 

 the churches and there heard an oration delivered. Then at twelve 

 o'clock the officers of the city and more elderly gentlemen met at the 

 State House and walked in a procession down to the Old South Church, 



