REMARKS OK GOV. EVERETT. 29 



the prosperity and honor of nations, in peace and war. From 

 the early contests with the Indians and French ; from the 

 time when the " Flower of Essex" fell at " Bloody Brook," 

 down to the close of the revolution, the fathers and fore- 

 fathers of those I have the honor to address, contributed a 

 full share of the counsel and treasure, the valor and blood 

 by which the cause of the country was directed, sustained, 

 and carried through triumphant. Need I go beyond the 

 limits of the town of Danvers ? Is it not enough to recall 

 the time, not beyond the memory I am sure of some whom 

 I see before me, when a regiment of royal troops was here 

 encamped, a sort of praetorian band to guard the residence of 

 the royal Governor ? Need I do more than remind you of 

 the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, when your sires, at 

 the sound of the bell of yonder church, hastened together, a 

 portion of them under the command of your venerable fel- 

 low citizen near me,* and rushed, rather than marched, to 

 the field of danger, — sixteen miles in four hours, — flying 

 into the jaws of death as rapidly as fear commonly lends men 

 wings to fly from it; and contributing, — this single town, — 

 this one little town, — oh, prodigality of noble blood ! — one 

 sixth of the entire loss of that eventful day. Need I, my friends, 

 for the most touching recollections, go beyond the walls of yonder 

 ancient church, consecrated, as it was, by the strange spectacle, 

 (at the memory of which your tears were called forth afresh, on 

 last year's return of the great anniversary,) — the sight of four 

 of your brave sons wrapped in their bloody shrouds, the honora- 

 ble wounds which they had received in their country's cause 

 still freshly flowing ? Could I before this audience, on such a 

 iheme, be wholly mute, would not the gray hairs of the veteran 

 leader of that heroic band, who is now before me,f rebuke my 

 silence, and put a tongue in every eciio of this building, which 

 would cry out and shame me ! 



Yes, fellow citizens, if any thing could make yoin- native land, 

 your homes, your firesides, more dear to you, it must be iheso 



* General Gideon Foster. f Gcu. Fobicr. 



