[Illustration: THE ETHAN ALLEN HOUSE
_An inn at Dorset, Vermont, where the Revolutionary hero used to stop._]
[Illustration: TABLET AT TICONDEROGA
_On this rock are the names of Ticonderoga’s heroes, Champlain,
Montcalm, Lord Howe, Amherst and Burgoyne._]
To tax a man without his consent has always been, since Magna Charta
was written, contrary to the liberties of native-born Englishmen. It
was therefore contrary also to the liberties of native-born Americans,
and as such it was resisted by our ancestors of the revolutionary
epoch, as it had been resisted by our ancestors of the colonial era.
When, on May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, sword in hand,
called upon the king’s ancient fortress of Ticonderoga to surrender,
giving as their authority “the great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress,” they were but putting into striking phrase the political
doctrines of Calvinism and seeking to enforce the royal promise
that Americans of whatever colony were entitled to “all Liberties,
Franchises, and Immunities … as if they had been abiding and born,
within this, our Realm of England.” And when the great political
figures of the Revolution--Adams, Witherspoon, Franklin, Jefferson, and
the rest--assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and signed the
Declaration of Independence, while the Liberty Bell pealed forth the
notes of freedom, they were but repeating the declaration of the first
American charter.
[Illustration: ETHAN ALLEN MONUMENT
_Erected at Manchester, Vt., to the daring frontiersman who captured
Fort Ticonderoga from the British._]
Our Revolution was thus a war calmly entered upon to maintain
immemorial rights and ancient institutions, whose preservation meant
liberty not alone for America, but for England as well. Today we can
clearly see what was at stake at Ticonderoga, at Bunker Hill, and upon
the long chain of Revolutionary battlefields, stretching from the lakes
to the faraway swamps of Georgia. Representative government hung in the
balance, and whenever we hear of a nation’s rising against despotism
and demanding that the people shall rule, we should add one more
blossom to the garland which we are weaving for the graves of the men
who gave Liberty to enlighten the world. Tennyson, with the soul of a
true poet, though writing for Englishmen, has expressed the thought for
all men:
“Oh! Thou who sendest out the man,
To rule by land and sea,
Strong mother of a Lion-line,
Be proud of those strong sons of thine,
Who wrench’d their rights from Thee!”
[Illustration: LIBERTY BELL
_In Independence Hall, Philadelphia._]
Years passed by. The ideas which had triumphed in the Revolution grew
ever stronger in the nation that war had created. By slow degrees men
came to understand more fully what it meant for the people to rule.
[Illustration: ROOM IN INDEPENDENCE HALL
_The room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted July
4, 1776. Much of the original furniture is preserved here, and the
portraits of those who signed the Declaration hang about the walls._]
The colonies grew to populous cities, and the far off plains of Texas
became the field for pioneer activity: Austin, Houston, and a host of
others, with their love of “God’s out of doors,” left settled parts of
America and sought homes upon the spreading prairies of that distant
province of Mexico. With these men ideals of American freedom had
become instinctive, and from the very first a trial of strength was
inevitable between them and Santa Anna, the despotic ruler of Mexico.