The people in spite of royal mandates continued to hold their own town-meetings, organized county meetings, and made a provincial congress. The convention at Middlesex “Resolved, if in support of our rights we are called to encounter death we are yet undaunted, sensible that he can never die too soon who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country.” Lexington wrote to Boston, “We trust in God that should the state of affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause.” Nobly did the men of Lexington fulfil that pledge. Shall we in our day forget what these men did and dared? Are we so saturated with the spirit of commercialism, are we so wedded to the worship of the golden calf, that justice and humanity have no place in our modern code? Let us remember we shall be tried at the bar of history as have been other nations; as our opportunities have been greater, so are our responsibilities. We cannot escape our liabilities; it is for us to so act in the present that this experiment of a free government, founded upon manhood suffrage, shall not fail. LETTERS AND PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS. Letters of regret at inability to be present were received from ex-Gov. John Lee Carroll of Maryland, president of the Sons of the Revolution; Governor Roosevelt of New York, President Eliot of Harvard, President Hadley of Yale, Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, Senators Hale and Frye of Maine, Senator Mason of Illinois, David Starr Jordon, president of Leland Stanford University; E. Benjamin Andrews, superintendent of public schools, Chicago; Congressman Sulzer of New York, Rector Conaty of the Catholic University, President Harper of the University of Chicago, Rev. James H. O’Donnell, Watertown, Conn.; Hon. Thomas J. Lynch, Augusta, Me.; Hon. James S. Coleman, New York city; Col. John P. Donahoe, Wilmington, Del.; Mayor Driscoll of New Haven, Conn.; Col. James Quinlan, New York city; John J. Davis, Greenville, Pa.; James Connolly, Coronado, Cal.; Col. James Moran, Providence, R. I., and from several others. Ex-Gov. Carroll of Maryland wrote: “If we contrast the pitiful resources of those early days with the present happiness, wealth and prosperity of our united country, we can realize the courage of those daring men who openly proclaimed that our only purpose was to obtain our freedom ‘peaceably if we could, forcibly if we must.’” E. Benj. Andrews of Chicago declared: “I assure you that nothing but my distance from you prevents my attendance. I should be pleased to attend, not only to hear the distinguished gentlemen who will be present, but also to testify anew the reverence which all true patriots must feel for the brave men who immortalized themselves by standing for liberty on Lexington green, 125 years ago.”