[Pamphlets. American history]

8
for ages, as they have stood, we would not have our
monument to stand like the obelisks and pyramids, a
silent mystery to the successive generations that gaze
upon them, ignorant in what age of forgotten antiquity,
by whose command, or for what purpose they were
erected. We wish that, from time to time, there should
go forth a faithful record of the glorious event, and of
the all-important principles to which the monument is
consecrated; that the traditions of this great act in the
revolutionary drama should be kept in fresh remembrance; and while the majestic shaft itself, from the
clouds to which it towers, shall address its solemn eloquence to the eye, that the pen and voice, to the end of
time, should interpret its illustrious significance to the
understanding and the heart.
But when I consider, fellow-citizens, that but seven
years have elapsed since you were addressed on the summit of Bunker Hill, on occasion of the completion of
the monument, by the great master of American eloquence, and that many present must freshly recollect
that matchless strain to which they listened, from the
same lips, on this day twenty-five years ago, I feel how
"hopeless is the task I have undertaken. What can I
attempt to say to you, on this great theme, which was
not said on those occasions, in a manner which leaves:nothing to be amended and nothing to be added? Even
if I should confine myself to a simple narrative of the,events of the day, they have been so frequently rehearsed by writers and speakers of great ability, that I
should deem it vain to seek for additional facts, or to