Do some of the people really understand the meaning of patriotism? Many seem to imagine it means blind obedience to any administration which may be insidiously laboring to destroy our institutions. But I have an abiding faith in the people of this country when they fully appreciate a threatened danger. I believe with Burke “that the people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” Are some of us laboring under the delusion that we are called upon to govern the world, that we are to set forth with a few small Bibles and a large supply of arms to force what we call our civilization on an unwilling people in another hemisphere, while thoughtful men are staggered at the problems of government confronting us on the North American continent? Shall we not profit by the lessons of history and recall what this day means? It was the beginning of a movement against an empire which aspired to govern the world. Yet those men on Lexington common initiated a revolution which wrested from the diadem of Great Britain the fairest jewel in her crown. May we not indulge to-day somewhat in retrospection and examine the causes which led to our revolt? The British parliament had passed the stamp act, the tea tax and the Boston port bill, yet those did not cause war; the real cause of the battle of Lexington was the reconstruction act of 1774. Prior to this act the councilors had been chosen by the people through their representatives. By the new law the king was to appoint them, to hold office during his pleasure. The superior judges were to hold at the will of the king and to be dependent on his will for the amount and payment of their salaries; the inferior judges were to be removable by the royal governor at his discretion, he himself holding at the king’s will. The deepest reaching provision of the acts was aimed at the town-meetings. They were prohibited, except the annual meeting to elect officers, but no other meetings could be held without the written permission of the royal governor. These acts of parliament sought to change self-government into government by the king, and to substitute for home rule, absolute rule at Westminster and St. James’s palace. Then came the military act, and in February, 1775, parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion. The instructions of Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of state for the colonies, to General Gage, the royal governor, ran like this: “Sovereignty of the king over the colonies requires a full and absolute submission.” What a striking similarity that has to some recent dispatches we have heard since we acquired distant possessions. General Gage’s call for 20,000 men, the assembling of 5,000 troops at Boston, and the authority given to General Gage to fire on the people, made war inevitable. We see again how history repeats itself.