“maintain and defend the Constitution” – Massachusetts State Quarter Coin

Today, the Massachusetts State Quarter Coin remembers the battle fought 241 years ago and its Centennial celebration 141 years ago.

The Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, published in 1875, outlined the events and speeches of the day, June 17, 1875.

The following speech by General Sherman was just one of many:

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REMARKS OF GENERAL SHERMAN.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Before responding to your call, let me take issue with your honored President in calling on me as the National Representative.

You can see for yourselves on this platform the Vice-President of the United States, several Judges of the Supreme Court, and about a dozen Governors of States, all of whom take precedence of me, and all of whom are accustomed to speak and are expecting to address you.

Still it is true that I have come about fifteen hundred miles to share in this grand Centennial, and I am glad that I have come.

If I do nothing else, I can be the first to respond to General Devens’ call, to come on this platform and renew the pledge to maintain and defend the Constitution of our country, to fight again, if need be, for the old flag and those sacred principles of right that were announced ninety-nine years ago by your Hancock and the Adamses.

I know that there are many soldiers in this vast audience, and, were I to call on them to come forward and share in this pledge, I am sure they would promptly respond with an amen.

Indeed do we stand on sacred soil at the foot of old Bunker Hill Monument.

I almost feel pained to hear it called Breed’s Hill.

It was Bunker Hill when I was a boy, and to me it is Bunker Hill still.

I find it recorded in bold letters on that granite shaft, and I insist that it is Bunker Hill.

If Mr. Breed is here, I advise him to convey to Bunker, and be content with the other and larger hill close by.

I assure you that I have listened with the most intense interest to the graphic description by your orator, General Devens, of that battle, fought on this ground one hundred years ago, and confess to a soldier’s admiration of that small band, under Colonel Prescott, that was “told off” in the camp at Cambridge, to go, they knew not exactly where, to fight the veteran British host beleaguered in Boston.

They marched off silently by night to do, as soldiers should, their duty; and it was providential that they were conducted to this very spot, instead of the one further back, designated in their orders.

I have no doubt that General Devens has truthfully given the narration, with a fair distribution of the honors.

Warren, though the senior present, did not assume, as he might have done, the supreme command, but fought as a volunteer, and died upon the field a martyr and a hero, venerated everywhere.

Prescott was the actual commander on this spot.

He conducted his brigade, prepared with their entrenching tools, and with their weapons to fight.

Silently and with skill they constructed by night the redoubt and flank defenses, and the daylight found them ready for the issue.

How they fought you have already heard, and, as the actual commander on Bunker Hill, Prescott is entitled to all honor and glory.

General Putnam, too, contributed large assistance; but he has ample honor without claiming this.

I like to think of him in that story of a man riding down the fabulous stairs pictured in our story-books, at some place, I confess I now forget where.

He was a glorious old soldier, and his services and examples are worth a dozen monuments like this on Bunker Hill, even if made of pure gold.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have responded to your call, not with any purpose to edify you, but because you seem to desire it; and, though a stranger to most of you, I believe you desire to simply look upon and hear from one of those who have flitted across the horizon and attracted some notice; but I also thank you for your cordial reception, and for giving me the opportunity to witness one of the most gorgeous pageants that has ever occurred on this continent.

Seated by thousands beneath this vast canopy, you doubtless esteem yourselves a vast and well-ordered crowd; but you are as nothing compared with the hosts which to-day lined the streets of Boston.

You hardly equal the group which occupied each block of the hundreds along which we have passed today; and as the newspapers of the morning will describe to them, and to all the world, what occurs here, I will no longer occupy your time, but give place to the many orators that will be proud to address such an audience. I again thank you for your kind and cordial reception, and apologize for detaining you so long.

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The Massachusetts State Quarter Coin shows with an artist’s image of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Massachusetts State Quarter Coin