Being in New York, on my way home from Washington to our beloved
Massachusetts, and learning that you also were here on your way to
duty, I have called, that I might have the privilege of looking upon
your faces. [_Cheers._] Your commanding officer, whom I have known
long in other walks of life, does me the honor of inviting me to say
a few words. If I have yielded, it is because he is irresistible,
for I feel in my soul that action, and not speech, is needed now.
[_Cheers._] Elsewhere it has been my part to speak. It is your part now
to act. [_Applause._] Nor do I doubt that you will act as becomes the
Commonwealth that has committed to you her name. [_Cheers._]
I cannot see before me so large a number of the sons of Massachusetts,
already moving to the scene of trial, without feeling anew the loss
we have just encountered: I allude to the death, at Baltimore, of
devoted fellow-citizens, who had sprung forward so promptly at the
call of country. As I heard that they had fallen, my soul was touched.
And yet, when I thought of the cause for which they met death, I said
to myself, that, for the sake of Massachusetts, ay, and for their own
sake, I would not have it otherwise. [_Enthusiastic applause._] They
have died well, for they died at the post of duty, and so dying have
become an example and a name in history, while Massachusetts, that sent
them forth, adds new memories to a day already famous in her calendar,
and links the present with the past. It was on the 19th of April that
they died, and their blood was the first offering of patriotism in the
great cause which snatched them from the avocations of peace. Thus
have they passed at once into companionship with those forefathers who
on the 19th of April, 1775, made also the offering of their blood.
[_Loud cheers._] Lexington is not alone. As on that historic field,
Massachusetts blood is again the first to be spilled, and in a conflict
which is but a continuation of the other; and these dying volunteers
have placed Massachusetts once more foremost, as on that morning which
heralded Independence. [_Cheers._] Therefore I would not have it
otherwise. [_Cheers._] Nor do I doubt that the day we now deplore will
be followed, as was that earlier day, by certain triumph. [_Cheers._]
Those other times, when our forefathers struggled for Independence
against the British power, were often said “to try men’s souls”; and
these words are yet repeated to depict those trials. But, witnessing
the willingness and alacrity with which patriot citizens now offer
themselves for country, and to die, if need be, I look in vain for
signs that souls are tried. [_Cheers._] And yet I cannot disguise
from you, soldiers, that there are hardships and perils in your path.
But what is victory, unless through hardship and peril? [_Cheers._]
Be brave, then, and do the duty to which you are called; and if you
need any watchword, let it be, _Massachusetts_, THE CONSTITUTION, and
FREEDOM! [_Loud applause from the soldiers._]
On the same evening, the Battalion embarked on board the
transport “Ariel” for Annapolis, where it arrived on the
morning of April 24th, and on the 2d of May was transferred to
Fort McHenry, in the harbor of Baltimore. There it remained to
the end of its term of service.