[¦*WT"^ *

II II I ' I it 1 'I I

X«!-|

if-i-'t,^

iM

Mi

i.fi'.

'?:«,

s?;

bf^?<l4

«»:¦ t:

:a^

'¥^L]E«¥]MII¥EI^SlIir¥''

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE
PERKINS FUND
190i>~

John Sullivan.

Sullivan Monument.

3
DEDICATION

SULLIVAN MONUMENT

DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE

THURSDAY, SEPTEIMBER 27, 1894=

Published by Authority of the State

CONCORD
EDWARD N. PEARSON, PUBLIC PRINTER
I 896

PRINTED BY
REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION
CONCORD, N. H.

CONTENTS.

Introduction :
Ezra S. Stearns, a. m. ,5
Addresses :
Rev. Charles S. Murkland, ph. d. ¦ 10
LuciEN Thompson, Esq. 12
Governor John B. Smith 15
POEM: Mr. Henry O'Meara . . 18
Oration :
Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, d. d. . ... 20
Masonic Ceremonies . . 62
Addresses :
Amos Hadley, ph. d. . ' 70
Senator William E. Chandler . 76
Ex-Senator Henry W. Blair . 79
Hon. Henry M. Baker . 84
Ex-Gov. Frederick Smyth . 87
Hon. John C. Linehan 89
Patrick H. Sullivan, Esq. . . 96
Col. Daniel Hall . 103

JOHN SULLIVAN.

Like a monument reared upon a sure foundation,
the American Republic rests securely upon the
works and creation of the brilliant soldiers and
sagacious statesmen ofthe Revolution. The story
of their lives is eternal. Literature, poesy, and
sculpture, expressing the deeper feelings of the
people, are forever engaged in earnest rivalry in
inscribing the living sentiment of succeeding
generations. The founders of the state of New Hampshire
were conspicuous men of eventful times. Sullivan
and Langdon, Weare and Bartlett, Thornton and
"Whipple, Cilley and Stark, Dearborn and Scam-
mell, Thompson and Folsom, James Reed and
George Reid, Livermore and Peabody, Hale and
Bellows, the Gilmans, the Wentworths, and the
Hobarts, were men of resources, and bold and
sagacious leaders in the field and in the halls of
legislation. All were men of unsullied character
and of unusual ability. Of these worthies, each
was a patriot, and all surrendered their energies and
their fortunes to the cause of their country.
Among them, disciplined by like experience and
animated by a common impulse, many similitudes
of mind and habit of thought are easily discernible.

b DEDICATION OP THE
Among them all, the strong contrasting qualities
were those of Weare and Sullivan. It would be
difficult in any age to find two men in the same
walks of life of greater dissimilitude. The life-
work of Weare was a human temple, reared by
industry and cemented by the superior qualities of
his judgment and discretion. Sullivan, bounding
from the joys of youth into the wisdom and sober
ness of manhood, was swift in thought and bold in
execution. Weare was prudent. He acted at all
times and under all circumstances with rare intelli
gence, because he clearly discerned and correctly
read the state of the public mind. Sullivan was
impetuous. He gilded the realities of the present
with the golden hopes and promises of the future.
Weare was understood and appreciated, because he
walked among and labored with the people, invit
ing them into the inner temple of his thought, and
instructing them from the ripeness of his experience
and the fulness of his wisdom. Sullivan, always in
advance of public sentiment, was fond of moving,
even if he failed to convince the people, and, while
the cautious were grieving over a disturbance, Sul
livan was rejoicing in war. Weare was a states
man of tact and ability. Sullivan was a born leader
of men. Weare conducted, but Sullivan created,
revolution, and each was equally illustrious in his
peculiar sphere.
To Sullivan, more than to any other of the great
and illustrious men of his time, is ascribed the attri
bute of genius. He found delight in boldly doing
for to-morrow the work Weare wisely was complet-

SULLIVAJsr MONUMENT. 7
ing for to-day. Sullivan preeminently was a man
for revolutionary times. He was not a slave to
ancient forms and customs. Ruthlessly trampling
upon the traditions of his time, he boldly assaulted
the conservative barriers that confined the people
of New Hampshire within the pale of accustomed
usage. He early declared for a free government
for a free people. In the march of events, when
the people reached his early standpoint, the consti
tution of 1776 was drafted on the line of his sug
gestions, which for a time had remained unheeded.
It is a century since the life of Sullivan was
ended, and the qualities of his character and the
magnitude of his work were submitted to the gen
erous estimate of his fellow-men. His fame with
the lapse of time suffers no impairment. A brilliant
and an accomplished civilian, a distinguished lawyer,
a matchless orator, a brave and an able general, a
senator, a magistrate, and a governor, he bore his
accumulating honors with modesty, and served the
state which he loved with the restless power of a
vigorous and versatile mind. The study of his life
is instructive. Through the vista, obscured by a
century, we read the story of his time in the light
of the undimmed lustre of his achievements.

Many years ago, in a small cemetery not far from
the common of Durham, was erected a plain, unos
tentatious headstone. It bears a name, and the date
of birth and of death. The limit of the life of him
who sleeps in this secluded yard was fifty-five years.

DEDICATION OF THB

The name of Major-General John Sullivan is rudely
carved upon the face of this simple tablet ; it is
more boldly engraven in the memorials of his time
and the enduring annals of the state.
The suggestion that the good works of John
Sullivan demanded a more conspicuous monument
was so freely admitted, that the proposition failed to
elicit the intelligence of debate or the accelerated
force that springs from opposition. A sentiment
that was universal first found definite expression in
the halls of legislation. The act of 1893 made pro
vision for a suitable monument, and referred its
execution to the governor and council. Immedi
ately the affirmative action of the legislature was
supplemented by an efficient cooperation on the
part of the citizens of Durham. A town commit
tee, consisting of Jeremiah Langley, James W.
Burnham, and Lucien Thompson, had frequent
conference with Governor John B. Smith and the
council, and all the formulated plans were promptly
executed. The location of the monument was a happy sug
gestion of the committee of Durham, which was
promptly approved by the governor and council.
The surroundings were graded and the lot pre
pared by the town. The site is historic. Here stood
the first and the second meeting-houses of Durham.
Here ascended the prayer and the praise of five
generations. And now, dedicated to the memory of
Sullivan, the offering of the present is hallowed by
the incense of the worship of the fathers.
The first meeting-house of Durham was erected

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 9
about 1715. A new edifice succeeded on the same
site in 1792, which remained until 1848, when the
third meeting-house was located upon the north
side of the river. The site of the first and second
meeting-houses became a part of the common and
fallow ground, until its fallen dignity was revived in
the location of the Sullivan monument. The pas
tors of the church in Durham in the eighteenth
century were Reverends Hugh Adams, I^icholas
Gilman, John Adams, and Curtis Coe.
The monument was modelled from designs sub
mitted by the New England Granite Works, to
which was awarded the contract for its construc
tion. It is of Concord granite, of fair proportions
as represented in the engraving, and its height is
thirteen and one half feet. It is inscribed as
follows : In Memory op
JOHN SULLIVAN
BoKN February 17, 1740
Died January 23, 1795
Erected by the state of New Hampshire
upon the site of the Meeting House
under which was stored the gunpowder
taken from Fort William and Mary.
The memorial was dedicated with appropriate
exercises Thursday, September 27, 1894. The
guests of the occasion, alighting from the early
trains, found free carriages and a cordial welcome
from the people of Durham.

10 DEDICATION OP THE
A mammoth tent with a spacious platform and a
convenient arrangement of seats was erected upon
the common, which afforded ample accommodation
for the assembled audience. At the noon hour a
generous collation was provided under the general
direction of the members of Scammell grange, Pa
trons of Husbandry, and throughout the day the
efficient town committee, ably assisted by the peo
ple of Durham, surrounded their numerous guests
with unfailing courtesy and attention.
At the invitation of Governor Smith, Rev.
George E. Hall, D.D. , of Dover, officiated as chap
lain, and Rev. Charles S. Murkland, Ph. D., presi
dent of the New Hampshire College of Agricul
ture, presided on the occasion. Mr. Murkland ably
conducted the exercises, introducing the several
speakers with crisp, impromptu speeches, which,
if transcribed, would have added interest and sub
stance to the narrative of the proceedings.
PKESIBENT MUKKLAIOi'S ADDEESS.
There is a certain solemnity in the purpose for
which we are assembled. For that is a solemn mo
ment when we are face to face with the earnest
ness, the sacrifice, the devotion and the power of a
heroic soul; when we contemplate an individual,
by virtue of these qualities, dignifying his sur
roundings and making succeeding generations his
debtor. This may never become a large commu
nity, but it will always be exalted by its associa
tion with John Sullivan, lawyer, soldier, statesman,
and judge. The plain, granite shaft, inadequate

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 11
as it may appear, will yet serve, when we shall
have been forgotten, to recall the like of one who
served his country so bravely and so well that he
made slander dumb, and malice impotent. The
treasure-house of the state is the record of her
sons ; in their exaltation she is glorified. And in
those records, no name stands out in clearer relief
than that which is inserted upon this monument.
Of the variety and extent of his services, of the
noble qualities which he displayed, of the trials he
endured, we may partly learn from a significant
deed, or a characteristic letter, or some expression
of his fellows. But as the large personality is
always the exponent of that which is in its own
time at once effect and cause of its surroundings,
the man himself must be found in the vast con
trasts of that sublime moment of American his
tory. There were small factors facing large
issues; a little army defending an eternal prin
ciple; a hungry, ragged soldiery laying the foun
dations for such national prosperity; a few eminent
men determining destiny for untold millions. A
true exponent of such times was he whose monu
ment we dedicate to-day. And we cannot forget
or ignore the memorials, more fitting than this,
more lasting than the sculptured stone, by which,
under the divine law of consequences, the lives of
the great and true are held in loving remembrance.
This nation, in all its greatness ; every increment
to its power; every principle for which it stands;
opportunity in which it may advance the cause of
humanity; — these are monuments to him and to

12 DEDICATION OP THE
those who, with him, lived and labored. And this
granite is more than a block from the quarry, by
so much as it suggests of the things visible and
things invisible in which the memory of John
Sullivan is perpetuated. Men die; responsibilities
are constant. The inheritance is ours for a little
while, and will then be our children's. This occa
sion, bringing high honor to this community by the
presence of so many distinguished guests, and
reflecting such credit upon the state and upon its
executive, will have served its purpose if it recall
us for the time to the contemplation of the nobler
national spirit, and prepare us for our part in the
divine succession of human privilege.
At the conclusion of his address, the president
introduced Lucien Thompson, representing the
citizens of Durham.
SPEECH OE LUCIE]Sr THOMPSOST, ESQ.
Me. Peesident: — A joint resolution in relation
to the erection of a monument in honor of John
Sullivan was introduced in the state legislature of
1893 by Representative Peter Laughlin of Dover,
was passed and approved by the governor, March
31, 1893.
JOINT RESOLUTION in relation to the erection of a monu
ment in honor of John Sullivan,
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in Geu
eral Court convened :
That a sum, not exceeding one thousand dollars, be and
is hereby appropriated for procuring aud erecting in the town
of Durham a suitable granite monument at the grave of John

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 13
Sullivan, patriot, soldier, lawyer, and statesman, provided said
town prepare and furnish grounds and foundation upon which
to erect such monument. And the further sum of two hundred
dollars is hereby appropriated for suitable ceremonies, when
completed and accepted.
That the governor and council are authorized to procure such
a monument as they may think a credit to the state, and direct
the construction and erection ; and the governor is hereby
authorized to draw his warrant for the sum raised out of any
money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Approved, March 31, 1893.
The resolution being dependent upon the action
of the town of Durham, a special meeting of its
citizens was called in June, 1893.
Jeremiah Langley, James W- Burnham, and
Lucien Thompson were appointed a committee to
secure a suitable spot for the location of the monu
ment, and prepare the ground and foundation upon
which to erect it.
The town committee, after careful consideration,
unanimously decided upon the old meeting-house
site, an ancient landmark, full of historical interest
to all citizens of our old Granite State, and one that
should thus be forever commemorated to future
generations as the site of the meeting-house and
the spot where the gunpowder was stored after it
was taken from Fort William and Mary, under the
gallant leadership of Major Sullivan. It is near the
homestead he loved and guarded so well, and over
looks the village and river.
The selection of this site was approved by the
committee of the council and by the citizens of
Durham, and an accurate survey was made by

14 DEDICATION OP THE
Prof. Charles H. Pettee, estimates made of the
work required, and probable cost of the same.
At the annual town meeting, March 13, 1894, it
was voted to set apart the land owned by the town
and known as the town landing and old meeting
house site, lying on the southerly side ofthe highway
leading fi:-om Durham Falls to Newmarket, as the
location for a monument to be erected by the state
of New Hampshire in memory of General John
Sullivan. It was also voted to raise and appropriate a sum
not exceeding five hundred dollars for laying the
foundation, grading the lot, and other necessary
purposes. The selectmen of Durham were authorized to
pay over to the committee from time to time such
sums as might be needed for the same.
The foundation was laid and the grading done
by Messrs. Daniel and Charles P. Chesley to the
satisfaction of the town committee.
The committee of the council, Hon. F. N. Par
sons of Franklin and Hon. E. O. Blunt of Nashua,
contracted for the monmnent and its erection with
the New England Granite Works of Concord, and
the terms of the contract being promptly copiplied
with, a monument of New Hampshire granite was
soon placed in position, bearing a simple inscrip
tion, but meaning much to every citizen of New
Hampshire. A visitor in Rome once asked, "Where
is Cato's monument?" Cato replied, ''I would
rather people would ask where is Cato's monument
than who is this Cato whose monument is here? "

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 15
The career of John Sullivan as a civil and mili
tary leader during our struggle for independence
should ever be familiar to all citizens of our old
state. In behalf of the citizens of Durham, I deliver to
your Excellency this foundation and its surround
ings, remembering that the spot itself is associated
with a characteristic act in the life of John Sullivan
and with one of the first aggressive movements for
American independence.
Hon. Frank N. Parsons of Franklin, represent
ing the council, was the next speaker. His speech
was one of the most enjoyable features of the occa
sion, but, unfortunately for the readers of this
memorial, his words were not reduced to writing.
The state was represented by His Excellency
John B. Smith, who spoke as follows :
speech oe goveenoe smith.
Me. Peesident, Fellow-Citizens : We meet
to-day upon an important errand — to dedicate a
monument to an illustrious soldier and patriot of
the Revolution. The world has always honored
distinguished service. In all ages men have been
found rising above their fellows, and making them
selves famous by the force of genius and the favor
of opportunity. Every land has had its heroes.
Some of these have sacrificed themselves for the
public good, and some, alas! have sacrificed the
public good on the altar of their own selfish ambi
tion. It is said that the poet is born and not made.

16 DEDICATION OP THB
Heroes are both born and made. Genius and great
ness need opportunity. John Hampden might have
remained the simple " Tillage Hampden," and Oli
ver Cromwell a quiet country gentleman, but for
the imposition of the illegal ship money tax, and
the duplicity and weakness of a bad king, who
sought to trample upon the ancient constitution of
his country and the rights of the people, in an age
when those rights were beginning to be better
understood, and when " resistance to tyrants " was
coming to be recognized as " obedience to God."
The great crises that come in the life of nations and
peoples are opportunities, and men of genius and
great qualities seize and use them, sometimes for
their own advancement, sometimes for mankind.
Such a crisis in the life of our people, and in the
world's life, even, was the American Revolution ;
and no event of history (excepting the late unholy
Rebellion) has been so fruitful of heroes as this.
And it is our proud boast that the colony of New
Hampshire furnished its full share of these heroes.
We are proud of Stark and Poor and Cilley, of
Langdon and Thornton and Bartlett, and a goodly
host of others. But it is no invidious distinction to
say that of all the New Hampshire men of the
Revolutionary period, Sullivan was not only peer, —
he was preeminently chief. He was soldier, states
man, lawyer, and governor, all in one, and great
in each and all. But it is not my purpose to enter
upon any extended eulogy. This is the province of
others, and is committed to able and worthy hands.
The world's appreciation of its heroes finds expres-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 17
sion in monuments of enduring materials, which
may be a sign, an inspiration and education to com
ing generations. We this day dedicate such a
monument to John Sullivan. Although he well
deserves it, yet in a sense, a large sense, he does
not need it. His fame is already secure ; his life is
a part of the country's history. We who build it,
need it. We need it as our expression of gratitude
to him, and as a sign of our own loyalty to the
great principles and cause to which he devoted his
lifelong service — a life short in years, but long,
measured by results.
" That life is long which answers life's great end."
This monmnent is erected by the state. It is
made of our own New Hampshire granite. The
town of Durham has generously furnished and pre
pared the grounds. It is appropriately erected
upon a spot associated with a deed of daring and
bravery of which this bright young Irish lawyer
was the chief actor. The affair at Fort William
and Mary was one of the initial steps of the war,
and on this ground the results of that enterprise,
the captured munitions, were stored for a time.
This monument is well fashioned, chaste in design,
and appropriately inscribed, and reflects credit
upon the committees having it in charge. It will
ever suggest love of country, love of liberty, cour
age, and sacrifice. And now, by virtue of my office
(an office I am all the more proud to hold because
John Sullivan filled and honored it) , I accept these
grounds from the town of Durham, and this monu-

18 DEDICATION OP THE
ment from the committee, in behalf of the state. It
will endure, we may confidently hope, so long as
time shall last. It will need no special protection:
no vandal hand will ever deface it. The love and
veneration of all mankind for its great subject will
be its best guardian.
The poem of the occasion was read by Henry
O'Meara of the Boston Journal.
MAETIAL AND CIVIC CEOWNED.
What full-wrought hero vivid yet appears,
Far-visioned through our Nation's vital years.
Whose hand upholds the weapon freemen draw —
His head the wreath of order wrapped in law !
Eelit in Eevolution's primal scene
On the Fort long grasped in name of King and Queen.
"Yield in the people's name !" his swift demand,
As daring impulse of a dauntless band.
These moonlit waves reflect a marveled sight.
While first he moves to breast the Briton's might —
Their powder lodges 'neath the pulpit sill.
Destined to preach our text at Bunker Hill.
From Boston's Heights to icy Delaware
With Washington he stands to do and dare —
From Hudson to St. Lawrence his campaigns;
No toil or terror's realm his zeal restrains.
And now the savage hordes his deeds demand.
Needful, though cruel calls, his arms command —
"Avenge fair Wyoming ! " each white man cried —
Her echo wails o'er Susquehanna's side !
Swiftly his warlike genius stirred we see
In beauteous Valley of the Genesee ;
His bayonets fringe dark forests with their glow,
His cannon cast their blight on all below ;
In woods primeval held by warbling bird
His chant of march and battling cheer is beard.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 19
Ah ! sad the need, but gladdening still the end
Where powers of progress ranked in right contend :
He falls upon that foe with havoc's ire
Whose track yet reeks with treachery, blood, and fire ;
He fights from barbarous hands these fields to wrest
That form the Empire State's rich boundaries west.
Marvel we not that from these scenes of awe
He turns to greet his earlier love, the Law,
That from our Nation's chief in later day
He holds the ermine of judicial sway.
But spirit militant can not abate,
He tears from Anarchy his fostering State ;
"Briton and Indian long I dared," he cries,
"Your threats to me as Governor I despise."
He lives to steer, outsailing civil storm,
The Constitution he full served to form.
'Tis fit that here where filial days were passed.
When young ambition, hope's career, was cast.
Where scenes inspiring filled his patriot eyes.
This carved memorial of his fame should rise —
Here on the spot where captured stores were hid
That spoke the desperate stroke of arms he did —
The ammunition prized that flashed the word
When earliest flaming of a Nation stirred.
Tried in the crucible of war and woe.
He braved a sovereign's force and savage foe ;
When gold and deeds were for his land assayed
Fortune and fortitude on her he laid.
And though Detraction, seeking dross, assailed.
The metal of his Merit's wealth prevailed —
Aspersion's mist may shroud the mountain base —
But loftier still he shines with lifted face.
Above the symboled life raised here shall stand
His statue reared in records of the land.
In powers clear-wrought for struggling people's cause
That strove alike for liberties and laws.

20 DEDICATION OP THE
Soldier and jurist, with two missions twined,
Whose claims the martial and the civic bind —
In whom the blood of nations dual blend —
You rose in peace or peril to defend.
Fitly equipped for errand of your pride
An infant Commonwealth to guard and guide!
Your deeds for all the land that holds your fame
Shall link you now to loved New Hampshire's name.
While throbs high manhood round her glistening hills —
While patriot gleam, or pristine glory thrills.
In a felicitous speech, the president introduced
Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D., who had been invited
to deliver the principal address of the occasion.
ADDEESS OP EEV. DE. QTIESTT.
In the month of June, 1777, Peter Livius, a roy
alist refugee, then chief justice of Quebec, but who
had been chief justice of the province of New
Hampshire under the king, wrote thus to John
Sullivan : —
" You were the first man in active rebellion, and
drew with you the province you live in. You will
be one of the first sacrifices to the resentment and
justice of government. Your family will be ruined,
and you must die with ignominy."
To the man thus truthfully designated as the man
who, in all the American provinces, was the first to
take up arms against the king, New Hampshire
now erects this monument of native granite. It is
fitting that the state should thus commemorate the
service of men who, in times of great crises, and
especially in the crises of national life, distinguished
themselves by sagacious foresight and heroic deeds.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 21
It is well that there should be monuments which
shall inspire young men with love of country and the
spirit of self-sacrifice. It is particularly fortunate
that the construction of this monument should not
have been delayed beyond the first year in which
the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
should have been established in this place. With
the erection of noble buildings for the living
instructors, the state erects a silent instructor of
patriotism for its young men and women. Nor is
it to be forgotten that the munificent gift to this
college, for which the testator had carefully invested
his accumulated wealth, was made by a grandson of
a distinguished civilian who, residing here, made his
counsel and his work influential in the independ
ence of this state. In the selection of Lucien
Thompson, a great-grandson of Ebenezer Thomp
son, to represent the town on this occasion, the
people of Durham observed the proprieties of the
occasion. Ebenezer Thompson and John Sullivan
were colleague deputies from Durham in the first
revolutionary provincial assembly of New Hamp
shire. The former was soon made secretary of the
province in place of the royalist official removed
from his office, and he held that position from
1775 to the year 1786, was one of the council
for five years, from 1776 to 1781, and was one of
the Committee of Safety appointed by the province,
to which were given almost despotic powers during
the war ; was twice appointed a delegate to Con
gress, but was compelled to decline on account of
his health; was a member of the Constitutional
3

22 DEDICATION OP THE
Convention of 1791-2; and he held the office of
judge for fifteen years.
The erection of this monument was too long
delayed. It will be a hundred years next January,
since the bold and gallant soldier, the wise and far-
sighted statesman, was buried on yonder height,
where the trees overshadow his grave. New
Hampshire has lost its first opportunity. Fifteen
years ago, the people of New York dwelling in the
great valleys where the Iroquois had lived, and
from which they had desolated with tomahawk and
fire the frontier settlements, held four celebrations,
at four different places, in commemoration of the
work done by Major-General John Sullivan and his
gallant forces, just one hundred years before. One
of these four celebrations was at Geneseo, and
one at Aurora. At a third place, Waterloo, was
erected a small monument bearing the name of Sul
livan. The fourth and principal celebration was on
the battle ground of Newtown. Here the day was
honored by the presence of the governor of New
York, the governor of Pennsylvania, and the gov
ernor of New Hampshire, each with liis military
staff. Gen. William T. Sherman was there with
his appropriate staff. " I come here," he said, " as a
representative of the Army of the United States,"
— of which he was then, under the President, the
head. It was estimated, as is given in the beautiful
volume wherein the State of New York gathered
all the proceedings and all available ancient reports
and diaries, and in which it placed opposite the title-
page an engraving of John Sullivan, that fifty thou-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 23
sand people were present on the occasion. The
inscription upon the fine monument then dedicated,
standing on Sullivan Hill, designates the service of
Major-General John Sullivan, and with that men
tions the names of his four brigadiers, araong which
is the name of Enoch Poor, of New Hampshire,
who there gallantly led the three New Hampshire
regiments of the Continental line, commanded by
their noble colonels, in the decisive act of the bat
tle. New Hampshire furnished, in the Revolution, a
wonderful line of colonels, both in its regular regi
ments and in those specially raised for particular
service. What state gave to its entire quota such
names as Stark, Reed, and Poor, at the very begin
ning of the war? Of their successors, find Scam
mell, who went from John Sullivan's law office a
hundreds rods from this spot, to become adjutant-
general of the entire army of the Revolution;
Henry Dearborn, who became a major-general and
secretary of war; the gallant Joseph Cilley, George
Reid, Nathan Hale, Timothy Bedel; such and
others were on the list of New Hampshire colonels.
Nor should Winborne Adams be forgotten, who
went from yonder dwelling-house, and fell at
Bemis Height while commanding the Second New
Hampshire. Nor can the names of patriots like
Weare, Langdon, Bartlett, Whipple, Folsom,
Wentworth of Somersworth, Thornton, Wingate,
Gilman, Belknap, and Livermore, be left to silence.
Honors to all the brave leaders, many of whom I
cannot now name, will come in due time. That we

24 DEDICATION OP THE
honor one to-day is no disparagement to the mem
ory of others.
But, for this particular occasion, we can only ask
the question, " What were the public services of
John Sullivan, which entitle him to this recogni
tion?" To this question scarcely an outline can be
given in reply. But such an outline at least is ap
propriate, as the times of the Revolution grow dim
in the past. So far as his services are concerned,
this monument has the eloquence of silence. It
gives no items of public service. It indulges in no
eulogistic epithets. This is right. It simply says,
"John Sullivan, born Feb. 17, 1740; died Jan. 23,
1795." It is enough.
He was a son of New Hampshire. The ency
clopedias even now almost universally record him
as a native of Berwick in Maine. It is a mistake.
In my boyhood, Michael Reade, an aged citizen of
Dover, whose clear mind was filled with traditions
which he gave to me, insisted that John Sullivan
was born in Somersworth, part of old Dover, in a
winter when the father had brought his family
across the river during a term of service as
teacher. I found this tradition verified by a state
ment in the New Hampshire Gazette, of March 10,
1787. In the political campaign, a handbill had
objected to Sullivan's election to the presidency of
the state on the two grounds that he Avas a soldier
and born outside of New Hampshire. To the
latter objection the reply was made, " Surely this
collector of public intelligence has not consulted
all the people in this state, or he would have found

SULLIVAJSr MONUMENT. 25
out that President Sullivan was born in Somers
worth, in the county of Strafford." New Hamp
shire should keep the enrolment of its own son.
The son of a poor teacher^ exiled from his
native land, but who, educated upon the Continent,
was familiar with five languages; son also of a
mother who when asked why she came to this
country replied, " I came here to raise up govern
ors " ; and two of her sons and one great-grandson
became governors of states^ trained by this father,
especially in classic literature ; dependent upon his
own efforts ; reading law in an almost menial posi
tion in the family of the eminent lawyer, Samuel
Livermore, of Portsmouth; marrying at the age of
twenty; settling as a lawyer in this place, and Dec.
19, 1764, purchasing from the heirs of Dr. Samuel
Adams yonder premises which Parson Hugh
Adams, father of Samuel, had purchased of Jo
seph Burnham, Aug. 7, 1717, — where Sullivan
made his home during his whole life ; brilliant, ver
satile, energetic, eloquent, he speedily achieved suc
cess at the bar as an advocate, and by his active
enterprise in establishing mills, fast accumulated
property. But the oppressive measures of the
British ministry found in him a bold opponent. I
cannot but think that much of his dislike of British
administration was born with him. He was the
iMay 20, 1723, Master "Sullefund" was chosen one of the two
teachers of the town of Dover, at £30 salary per year.
2 John Sullivan was governor of New Hampshire; James Sullivan
was governor of Massachusetts; and Samuel Wells, born in Durham,
was governor of Maine. The brilliant lawyer, John S. Wells, a native
of Durham and brother of Samuel, was attorney-general, and a mem
ber of the United States Senate.

26 DEDICATION OP THE
descendant of a line which had for many genera
tions been despoiled of their possessions, outraged
in their consciences as to the worship of God, sub
ject to the bloody and murderous assaults of the
English government. He was of the O'Sullivans
of the southwestern part of Ireland, near Bantry
Bay, to whom the name of England was justly a
synonym for merciless tyranny and bloody despot
ism. He could trace his ancestry to holders of
castles leveled by the English invader, and to
worshipers whose natural rights have been denied.
His grandfather, Major Philip O'SuUivan, had been
a soldier in the defense of Limerick, the last place
in Ireland to submit to William III, and on its fall
had chosen liberty in exile in France where he died,
rather than submit to forswear himself at home.
His father, Owen, taken by that father as a babe to
France, had, when attaining manhood, gone back
to Ireland, but speedily found that the oppression
of the English government would give him no
peace except at the cost of slavery. I am sure that
John Sullivan, son of Irish exiles, had hereditary
insight into what British tyranny might, if unre
sisted, exact from Americans. Nor was there any
doubt of his sympathies prior to the outbreak of
war. "Your approbation of my conduct while at
the bar," he wrote to the Committee of Safety of
Hillsborough County, Aug. 10, 1775, " acting in
defense of an injured people against the arbitrary
tools of government gives me the highest satisfac
tion." This monument declares that the powder seized

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 27
from Fort William and Mary, December 14, 1774,
was stored in the cellar of the meeting-house which
once stood upon this spot. That powder was brought
here by John Sullivan, and, under his lead, Alex
ander Scammell, Eleazer Bennett, John Demerritt,
Ebenezer Thompson, and their associates, whom he
summoned for the purpose. Whoever may have
been present on the two days of that seizure, it
was to this event that Livius referred when he
wrote to Sullivan, " You were the first man in
active rebellion." " Major John Sullivan and Capt.
John Langdon," wrote Belknap, " distinguished
themselves as leaders in this affair." Adams, in
his "Annals of Portsmouth," who could consult
contemporaries of the event, said it occurred " under
the direction of Major John Sullivan and Capt.
John Langdon." These men had received their
commissions two years before, in the Second New
Hampshire militia, where Sullivan had earlier been
a captain. " When I returned from Congress, in 1774,"
wrote Sullivan, some years later, " and saw the
order of the British King and Council, prohibiting
military stores being sent to this country, I took
the alarm, clearly perceived the designs of the
British ministry, and wrote several pieces upon
, the necessity of securing military stores ; which
pieces were published in several papers." Sullivan,
bold and intrepid, then an active member of the
Continental Congress, and well known throughout
the province by his leadership at the bar, had great
influence. The seizure of the munitions at the fort,

28 DEDICATION OP THE
though sudden at last, was doubtless not without
previous thought. The result of this act was mo
mentous. It was the first act of armed rebellion.
It preceded Concord and Lexington by four months
of time. The captors of the fort entered it against
the fire of field-pieces and muskets, openly and in
broad daylight. They pulled down the royal flag,
the first time in American history. They gave
three cheers in honor of their success. They car
ried off a hundred barrels of powder, some light
guns, and small arms, which, under the care of
Sullivan, were taken up the river now flowing in
your sight, but then covered with thick winter ice
through which a pathway had to be cut. " Men on
guard at Durham," wrote Belknap, December 21,
in his diary not printed.
This audacity had its effect in England. It was
the reply to the King's proclamation. It so irri
tated that monarch that thoughts of conciliation
were at once ended. In this province, the gov
ernor issued threatening proclamations. He dis
missed the offending major and captain from their
posts in the militia. In answer to this edict, all
persons in Durham holding civil or military sta
tions under the governor assembled at yonder
tavern, moved across this little green, and here
publicly burned their commissions and insignia
of office. Sullivan, in the public prints, boldly
defended the seizure. Here he also raised a com
pany of eighty-three men, which he, being an
ardent lover of military exercises, proceeded to
drill for the coming conflict. The powder stored

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 29
upon this spot, and that in the safe custody of
Capt. John Demerritt at his home in Madbury, was
taken by that person in his ox cart to Cambridge,
as directed by Sullivan, where it arrived just in
season to be dealt out to the troops at Bunker Hill.
But Sullivan had already entered the national
life. On the twenty-first day of July, 1774, the
convention of New Hampshire deputies, which was
a voluntary body direct from the people, in which
he represented the town of Durham, appointed him
and Colonel Nathaniel Folsom delegates to the
Continental Congress which was to meet at Phila
delphia; and he was re-appointed January 25,
1775. He was thus the first person ever chosen to
represent New Hampshire in Congress. Of the
signs of his activity and usefulness in this station,
I will present but two instances. In the first Con
gress, he was placed immediately upon two impor
tant committees. The most important was that
upon the grievances of the people, of which he was
chairman. " The committee of violations of rights,"
says John Adams in his diary, " reported a set of
articles which were drawn by Mr. John Sullivan of
New Hampshire, and these two declarations, the
one of rights and the other of violations, which
are printed in the journals of Congress for 1774,
were two years afterwards recapitulated in the
Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July,
1776." New Hampshire has perhaps not remem
bered that the bold hand and the legal training of
John Sullivan are in the immortal Declaration of
Independence.

30 DEDICATION OP THE
The other important position which he took was
in favor of the establishment of state governments,
in 1775. John Adams recites his own opinion as
expressed to Congress : —
" That this could be done only by conventions of
representatives chosen by the people in the several
colonies in the most exact proportions. That it
was my opinion that Congress ought now to recom
mend to the people of every colony to call such
conventions immediately, and set up governments
of their own, under their own authority; for the
people were the source of all authority and original
of all power. These were new, strange, and terri
ble doctrines to the greatest part of the members,
but not a very small number heard them with
apparent pleasure, and none more than Mr. John
Rutledge of South Carolina and Mr. John Sullivan
of New Hampshire."
Again he writes : —
" Mr. Sullivan was fully agreed with me in the
necessity of instituting governments, and he sec
onded me very handsomely in supporting the argu
ment in Congress. . . . Not long after this,
Mr. John Rutledge returned to South Carolina,
and Mr. Sullivan went with General Washington
to Cambridge, so that I lost two of my able co
adjutors. But we soon found the benefit of theu*
cooperation at a distance.
" On Wednesday, October 18, the delegates from
New Hampshire laid before the Congress a part of
the instructions delivered to them by their colony.
. . . This instruction might have been obtained

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 31
by Mr. Langdon or Mr. Whipple, but I always
supposed it was General Sullivan who suggested
the measure, because he- left Congress with a
stronger impression upon his mind of the impor
tance of it than I ever observed in either of the
others." A state government was not long after estab
lished; it became a fact in January, 1776, and
although General Sullivan was then in the field,
his advice was sought in the formation of the Con
stitution, and his influence felt. New Hampshire
thus again took the lead. It was the first of the
provinces to establish a state government. In our
time it looks as if this must have been an easy
task. But the patriot founders encountered great
obstacles. The sentiment was not all one way.
When, in January, 1775, a son was born to Gov.
John Wentworth, the grandmother of the child
wrote to a friend, " Had a young prince been born,
there could not have been more rejoicing. The
ships fired their guns. All the gentlemen of the
town and from the king's ships came the next day
to pay their compliments. The ladies followed."
The rejoicings continued for a week. Such was
still the feeling of certain classes in Portsmouth
toward the representative of royalty. Even in
January, 1776, when the convention of deputies
was in session at Exeter and considering the pro
priety of establishing a legislature, a legal meeting
of the freeholders of Portsmouth, including more
than two hundred persons, unanimously remon
strated against such hasty and untimely action as

32 DEDICATION OP THE
practically meaning independence. A writer in the
same month in the Portsmouth Gazette, says of
" independency " : " It is a monster of so horrid
mien as to be hated, needs but to be seen."
But Sullivan felt no hesitation. While he was
in the trenches around Boston, he wrote to John
Adams, Dec. 21, 1775, urging a declaration of inde
pendence. His language is impassioned : " Let me
ask if we have anything to hope from the mercy of
His Majesty or his Ministers. Have we any encour
agement from the people of Great Britain? Could
they exert themselves more if we had shaken off
the yoke and declared ourselves independent?
Why, then, in God's name, is it not done? Whence
arises this spirit of moderation, — this want of deci
sion? Do the members of your respectable body
think that the enemy will throw their shot and
shells with more force than at present? Do they
think the fate of Charlestown or Falmouth might
have been worse, or the King's Proclamation more
severe, if we had openly declared war? Could they
have treated our prisoners worse if we were in open
and avowed rebellion, than they do now? "
John Sullivan's service in the field began with
his appointment as Brigadier-General, June 22,
1775. He left Congress immediately and reported
to Washington, at Cambridge. From that date, he
devoted himself to his country in war with a brav
ery sometimes almost reckless, with a faithfulness
unchallenged, and with military qualities recognized
by Washington as being of a high order.
It must be remembered that the battles of the

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 33
Revolution were, in most instances, temporary
defeats. Our forces were often merely raw levies,
owing to the folly of Congress, and its ignorance of
the art of war. We were, in many cases, outnum
bered and outnumbered by soldiers thoroughly
disciplined and well supplied with munitions of war.
Against all these Washington had to contend. It
was his patience, his sagacity, his love of country,
which succeeded. In the few victories achieved, we
generally had the advantage of numbers. After
Stark, with his independent New Hampshire com
mand, had crushed the British detachment at Ben
nington, an ordinary second lieutenant — such were
the superior numbers and position — could not have
failed to capture Burgoyne. Yorktown was a vic
tory because our army had become disciplined, and
the French forces cooperated with Washington's
strategy. The British nation became weary of a
costly war, and conceded our independence.
This occasion scarcely allows more than a cata
logue of services rendered and campaigns endured.
He was stationed at Winter Hill on the left of
the American line of investment, in the siege of
Boston. He superintended works of fortification.
He was twice sent to the Pascataqua, to provide
for fortifying and defending its harbors. There
he built defensive works, and there he left Col.
Joshua Wingate, of Stratham, in charge, with
troops which New Hampshire furnished. When,
late in 1775, the Connecticut troops refused to
remain longer, and ruin seemed imminent, it was
imperative that Washington should have five thou-

34 DEDICATION OP THE
sand recruits, and that commander appealed to
Sullivan to procure two thousand men from New
Hampshire. Sullivan came home and with the
noble cooperation of the patriots in authority, in ten
days secured the whole number and marched them
to Massachusetts. In a single week, Capt. John
Waldron, of Dover, who had come back with Sulli
van for the purpose, enlisted six hundred men and
became their colonel.
When the enemy had been driven from Boston,
March 17, 1776, General Sullivan, with Washing
ton's approval, was assigned to our army in Canada.
When he reached it, it was in a pitiable condition.
The brave Montgomery had been killed in the
useless attack upon Quebec. Major-Gen. John
Thomas had been placed in command by Congress.
He had felt it necessary to give up hope of success
with his then force. General Thomas, after with
drawing from the advanced positions, soon died, and
shortly after. General Sullivan arrived with some
additional troops, and at once necessarily took
command. At first, he was somewhat sanguine.
He reinforced St. Clair, who was near Three Rivers,
where he had been ordered by Sullivan's temporary
predecessor, but the movement was useless. Bur
goyne was arriving with reinforcements. Carleton
had an effective force of ten thousand men admira
bly disciplined and well supplied with munitions of
war, while Sullivan had but seven thousand, half of
whom were prostrated by disease. " The Ameri
cans," says Bancroft, " were in imminent danger of
being cut off and utterly destroyed." From this

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 35
position, with the enemy only two hours distant,
Sullivan extricated his little army with admirable
skill. Not a sick man was left behind, nor a spade
lost from his equipment. When, on the 12th of
July, 1776, he relinquished the command, his field
officers presented to him an address, which men
tioned with gratitude his unwearied labor, his tender
care of the sick, and their esteem for the skill
which he had exhibited. " It is to you," they said,
"we owe our safety." They speak of him as the
one who, "upon the late trying occasion, has com
forted, supported, and protected the shattered
remains of a debilitated army." Among those who
signed this address were John Stark, Enoch Poor,
James Reed, Anthony Wayne, and Arthur St.
Clair. The opinion of Washington as to Sullivan's
qualifications was asked by Congress in view of
contemplated promotions. Washington replied,
June 17, 1776, in the most frank manner. He said,
from his own knowledge, that Sullivan was "active,
spirited, and zealously attached to the cause."
" That he does not want abilities, many members of
Congress can testify"; that he has a "little tincture
of vanity"; that he had limited experience like all
of "us," but that justice required him to acknowl
edge Sullivan's "genius." Seventeen days after
his return from Canada, July 29, 1776, he was
promoted to be Major-General, and joined Wash
ington in New York.
He was assigned to duty on Long Island, not
far from New York, under General Green, and

36 DEDICATION OP THE
assisted in the erection of defenses. General Green
being taken sick. General Putnam was assigned to
command, with Sullivan and Lord Stirling as subor
dinates. The battle, which took place Aug. 27,
could have had but one result. A line of defense
extending six miles, against an enemy numbering
at least four to one, whose generals were Howe,
Cornwallis, and Clinton, could not be maintained
by General Putnam. Sullivan's bravery was con
spicuous, but both he and Lord Stirling were taken
prisoners. Exchanged soon after, Sullivan was assigned to
the force under the command of Charles Lee.
When that erratic officer, who had been steadily
disobeying the orders of Washington to join him,
was taken prisoner through his own folly, Sullivan
immediately took command, and instantly proceeded
to join the Commander-in-Chief. His arrival ena
bled Washington to make that brilliant movement
upon Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776, which so revived the
hopes of the discouraged patriots.
The Delaware was crossed, and a rapid march of
nine or ten miles followed, making fifteen in all.
Sullivan was in command of the right wing, and
Greene, with Washington present, in command of
the left. The march was in a storm of snow and
sleet. Sullivan sent word to Washington that the
ammunition was thoroughly wet, and asked liis
intentions. " Use the bayonet," was the reply.
This precisely suited the ardent nature of Sullivan.
He dashed into Trenton, with John Stark in
advance, overpowering all opposition and disposing

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 37
his troops in such a manner as to prevent any
escape on the right. Greene's cooperation took
care of the left, and the Hessians were captured.
Eight days after this brilliant success, while
Washington was on a projected march to Bruns
wick, occurred the affair at Princeton, in which
Sullivan drove two British regiments, one of which
had taken refuge in the college. "While the 17th
[British] was engaging those troops [a large force
of Southern militia] ," wrote Sullivan to Meshech
Weare, Feb. 13, 1777, "six hundred Yankees had
the town to take against the 40th and 55th regi
ments, which they did without loss, owing to the
manner of attack. Nearly two hundred of the
enemy were taken in the pursuit."
Sullivan was stationed for a while at Princeton.
In June, 1777, he divined the purpose of Howe,
who was at Brunswick, to get between Washington
and himself and capture his force. Howe was
already on the march when Sullivan defeated that
purpose by rapidly moving across the Delaware.
After months of strategic movements, or of
patient waiting, by Washington, Sullivan was at
Hanover, checking as far as possible the petty
annoyances of the enemy. In August, he deter
mined upon an expedition to Staten Island, twenty
miles distant, occupied to some extent by British
troops and Tories, from which frequent forays had
been made. Crossing in the night of the twenty-
first, the descent, which was at first successful, did
not prove effective. He took some prisoners, but
he lost more. In answer to complaints made by

38 DEDICATION OP THE
personal adversaries, he demanded and eventually
secured a Court of Inquiry. The court, consisting
of Lord Stirling, Generals MacDougall and Knox,
Colonel Spencer, and Colonel Clark, unanimously
reported, Oct. 12, " That the expedition against the
enemy on Staten Island was eligible, and promised
great advantage to the cause of America; that it
was well concerted and the orders for the execution
proper; and would have succeeded, with reputation
to the general and his troops, had it not in some
measure been rendered abortive by accidents which
were out of the power of the general to foresee or
prevent." And that "General Sullivan's conduct
in planning and executing the expedition was such
that, in the opinion of this court, he deserves the
approbation of the country and not its censure."
Congress thereupon resolved that the result, so
honorable to General Sullivan, was highly pleasing
to themselves, and that the opinion of the court
should be published in justification of that officer.
At the Brandywine, September 11, Sullivan,
commanding the right wing, was not able to
oppose successfully the British advance. Wash
ington, with far interior forces, was endeavoring to
defeat, or at least delay, the British movement
upon Philadelphia. Sullivan was ordered to
occupy certain eligible ground, taking command
of three divisions. Intelligence first received of
the enemy's movements, and upon which Wash
ington acted, was contradicted by later reports,
brought in by reliable officers. The original re
port as to the place of crossing by the British was

SULLIVAN MONUJIBNT. 39
in accordance with the opinion which Sullivan had
given to Washington as to the movement which
the enemy ought to make. But, as was his duty,
he immediately communicated the second report to
Washington, who was within twenty minutes' ride,
and asked instructions. Washington ordered a
temporary suspension. He subsequently declared
that Sullivan would have failed in his duty if he
had acted otherwise. The original information,
however, was again confirmed and Sullivan made
the new front required. His position was isolated
and without supports. It was the common story of
American forces, many of them raw troops, out
numbered three to one by the disciplined forces of
Britain led by such generals as Cornwallis and
Howe. Some parts of the American line gave
way, but as quickly did Sullivan, if failing to rally
them, place himself in other divisions. More than
once were the British driven back from the well-
chosen position. Sullivan's activity and skill were
everywhere visible. " His uniform bravery, cool
ness, and intrepidity," wrote one of Lord Stirling's
staff, " both in the heat of battle, rallying and form
ing the troops when broke from their ranks, ap
peared to me to be truly consistent with, or rather
exceeded, any idea I had ever of the greatest sol
dier." For an hour and a half his troops held the
high ground, and at sunset, some hours later,
although retreating, they were still holding the
enemy, until relieved by Washington. The British
lost nearly six hundred men.
Upon the representations of a congressman inimi-

40 DEDICATION OP THE
cal to General Sullivan, who had ridden out
toward the battle, congress in a moment of anger,
and without the slightest examination, ordered Sul
livan's suspension from command. To this vote
Washington returned a curt, sharp remonstrance.
He knew that Sullivan had not failed in his duty.
Congress, upon a statement of facts, rescinded its
order, with but two dissenting votes. It is worthy
of note that the congressman who thus maligned a
brave soldier was subsequently, while governor of
a Southern state, taken prisoner by the British;
being allowed certain liberties on parole, he broke
that parole, and that the people of his state, at the
next election, on that account defeated him.
The battle at Germantown occurred October 4,
1777. General Sullivan here led two divisions,
and succeeded in the attack committed to him,
driving the enemy from their positions. The fail
ure of divisions upon his left, however, made it
eventually necessary for the commander-in-chief
to order a retreat. It is sufficient to notice that in
his report to congress Washington says, " In jus
tice to General Sullivan and the whole right wing
of the army, whose conduct I had an opportunity
of observing, as they acted immediately under my
eye, I have the pleasure to inform you that both
officers and men behaved with a degree of gallan
try that did them the highest honor."
General Sullivan passed the winter in the suffer
ings of Yalley Forge, but on the 17th of April,
1778, he was assigned to command of the opera
tions in Rhode Island, most of which was then held

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 41
by the British, who occupied a strongly fortified
position at Newport. It was expected, in time,
that with the cooperation of the French fleet under
d'Bstaing, who could also furnish a land force of
four thousand men, Newport could be reduced.
General Sullivan's headquarters were at first at
Providence. In the course of the season, addi
tional troops were sent to him, militia called in,
and special enlistments made, in which New Hamp
shire did its part. This gave him a force often
thousand men, in two divisions respectively under
Greene and Lafayette.
" Nothing can give me more pleasure," wrote
Lafayette in advance, " than to go under your
orders; and it is with the greatest happiness that
I see my wishes on that point entirely satisfied. I
both love and esteem you; therefore the moment
we shall fight together will be extremely pleasant
and agreeable to me."
The French fleet came, but departed; it came
back, but it sailed away. A strong English fleet
came to Newport, and the two fleets looked at each
other but did not fight.
The disappointment to the Americans was in
tense. Sullivan moved alone to within two miles
of Newport, but its strong works plainly defied cap
ture. He fell back to Butt's Hill and made suffi
cient entrenchments. The enemy followed, and
attacked Sullivan on the 29th of August. The
action was declared by Lafayette to be one of the
most hotly contested during the war. The Ameri
cans numbered but five thousand, of whom only fif-

42 DEDICATION OP THE
teen hundred had ever been under fire.^ The num
ber of the forces was about equal. British vessels
fired upon Sullivan's lines, to cover an intended
flank movement, but were driven off by the sharp
fire of Sullivan's guns, which took j)osition for the
purpose. The British tried to turn the flanks of
the Americans, but in vain. They made repeated
charges, always to be driven back. Sullivan's
watchful eye was upon every part ofthe contest,
and he moved battalions where their support was
needed. In addition to early cannonading, the bat
tle lasted seven hours. The British then gave up
the contest. History says that they lost one thou
sand men in that engagement. It was a brilliant
success for the American arms.
With the advice of his officers Sullivan fell back,
and without disturbance, to the northern end of the
island, and eventually crossed over to the main
land. His forces were diminishing by the depar
ture of the militia. His evacuation was in perfect
order. He left nothing of his equipment behind,
nor any sick or wounded. Criticism has failed to
find any reasonable cause of complaint against Sul
livan's military operations here; it has found noth
ing except his rather impulsive expressions of dis
gust at the failure of the French admiral. But he
was of Irish blood.
Samuel Adams wrote of this campaign as folloAvs :
"General Sullivan behaved as usual Avitli bravery
. . . This unforeseen and unavoidable accident
II am happy to be the grandson of one who served under Sullivan
in this campaign.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 43
left him too much inferior to the British squadron
to run the risk with any degree of prudence. Our
cause is not dishonored, though we did not succeed
to our wishes."
On the 17th of September it was resolved by
congress, " that the retreat made by Major-General
Sullivan, with the troops under his command, from
Rhode Island, was prudent, timely, and well con
ducted, and that congress highly approves the
same," and " that the thanks of congress be given
to Major-General Sullivan, and to the officers and
troops under his command, for their fortitude and
bravery displayed in the action of August 29, in
which they repulsed the British forces and main
tained the field." The thanks of the legislature of
New Hampshire were also presented to him, and
President Weare, in communicating the vote, wrote,
" It is with particular pleasure, sir, that I enclose
to you a copy of the vote of the General Court of
this, your native state, by which you will see the
sense the people here have of your merit and good
conduct in that important command." The gen
eral assembly of Rhode Island also subsequently
gave its thanks in warm and glowing language.
General Sullivan remained in command at Rhode
Island until the following spring. Then came his
assignment to the work of chastising the Indians in
the Susquehanna Yalley, and of dealing a blow at
their power which would guard the frontier settle
ments from such atrocities as had befallen Wyo
ming in the preceding year. British soldiers,
Tories, and Indians were in combination. The

44 DEDICATION OP THE
British government was employing the savages in
this infamous warfare. Congress directed Wash
ington to provide for the work of chastisement.
The orders were severe : the country was to be laid
waste. General Sullivnn was given four brigades,
with artillery and riflemen. After much trouble in
obtaining from the Congressional Board of Sup
plies suitable rations, he marched into the heart
of the Indian country. In General Poor's New
Hampshire brigade were the First, Second, and
Third regiments, commanded respectively by
Colonel Joseph Cilley, Lieutenant-Colonel George
Reid, and Lieutenant- Colonel Henry Dearborn.
The march was skilfully managed. General N. P.
Banks once said to me, regarding a disastrous
expedition, " I did not suppose that I had to tell
an educated general that he ought to throw out
flankers." General Sullivan understood his work.
On the 29th of August, 1773, his scouts reported
the existence of a somewhat disguised defensive
work. He waited no longer than to ascertain its
exact character, for the moment keeping the enemy
busy by skirmishers' fire. Defenses had been con
structed on elevated ground in the gap, the right
protected by a river, the left by a mountain, with a
deep brook in front of the work.
The force of Indians, Tories, and British soldiers
within, under command ofthe Indian, Joseph Brant,
and the infamous Colonel John Butler, has been
estimated at from twelve to fifteen hundred. They
comprised the available force of the five nations
who had resolved here to make their stand. Sulli-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 45
van decided promptly upon his plan of action. He
placed his artillery along the centre, well supported
by infantry, but the guns were to hold their fire
till the proper signal. The New Hampshire bri
gade, supported by Clinton's, was to take the hill
upon the enemy's left, and turn their flank. The
plan was carried out. The New Hampshire bri
gade had to pass through a morass, and then fight
its way up the hill, which was strongly held by the
Indians, who availed themselves of every tree.
The riflemen on the flank fired, but Poor's brigade
used Sullivan's favorite weapon — the bayonet. The
enemy attempted to turn the right of the attacking
column, but was promptly met. The hill was car
ried, and the combined fire of artillery and mus
ketry in front and flank broke the enemy. How
great was their loss was never known, beside the
few dead, which they left upon the field. Their
wounded, at least, had been taken away, but the
bloody evidences of serious loss were visible. Pur
suit was made for several miles. One of our own
severely wounded was Major Benjamin Titcomb, of
Dover. Sullivan carried out his orders throughout that
country. Not a fruit-tree or a cornstalk was left
standing. Immense quantities of supplies were de
stroyed. Not a roof-tree was left, from the Gene
see valley to the Susquehanna. Some writers have
condemned this severity ; but they forget the mur
ders of Wyoming. " Washington gave General
Sullivan orders," said General W. T. Sherman, " to
come here and punish the Six Nations for their

46 DEDICATION OP THE
cruel massacre in the valley of the Wyoming, and
to make it so severe that it would not occur again.
And he did so. General Sullivan obeyed his orders
like a man and like a soldier, and the result was,
from that time forward, your people settled up
these beautiful valleys."
Upon receiving the report of the expedition.
General Washington wrote to Congress, " I con
gratulate Congress on his (General Sullivan's)
having completed so effectually the destruction of
the whole of the towns and settlements of the hos
tile Indians in so short a time and with so incon
siderable a loss of men." He wrote to Lafayette,
rejoicing that the tribes had had " proofs that Great
Britain cannot protect them, and it is in our power
to chastise them." Washington also officially " con
gratulated the army on the complete and full suc
cess of Major-General Sullivan and the troops
under his command, against the Senecas and other
tribes of the Six Nations, as a just and necessary
punishment for their wanton depredations, their
unparalleled and innumerable cruelties, and their
deafness to all entreaties." Congress, October 14,
1779, adopted strong resolutions of thanks to Gen
eral Washington for ordering, and to General Sul
livan and his brave officers and soldiers for effectu
ally executing, the expedition.
This was General Sullivan's last military service.
On the 9th of November, 1779, he tendered his
resignation to Congress. He gave as the reason,
the impairment of his health and the advice of his
physicians. It is not unlikely, however, that ill treat-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 47
ment which he had received from Congress and its
boards may have made his position far from agree
able. Perhaps, also, the most absolute destitution
of his family affected him. He had told his agent
early in the war not to demand moneys due him
which were out upon interest, because it might
work hardship. With small pay, and that in a
depreciated currency, he had used up his earlier
accumulations in the support of his family and him
self. " I have not clothes sufficient for another
campaign," he wrote nearly two years before, " nor
will my pay enable me to purchase." His resigna
tion was accepted a month after it was given,
although a large minority desired to substitute
leave of absence, which was prevented by the votes
of Pennsylvania and Yirginia. A vote was passed,
presenting him the thanks of Congress for his
services. General Sullivan had violent enemies in Congress.
It was, perhaps, partly due to his impulsive free
dom of speech, which was natural in view of his
own temperament and of the frequent inefficiency
of that body. Soldiers do not often like civilian
management of military affairs, and especially of
campaigns. It was nothing to his discredit that
some of these men disliked him. Many of them
had tried to drive from the army General Greene,
than whom no one made a more brilliant
record. A large number were inimical to Wash
ington hiraself, whose military ability John Adams
sharply disparaged. I am not sure but that sec
tional differences affected Sullivan's position.

48 DEDICATION OP THE
There were at that period boasts which have been
farailiar with this generation. Sullivan was not
the man to endure imputations upon New England
courage. " I have been much pleased to see a day
approaching," he wrote to Meshech Weare, Febru
ary 13, 1777, " to try the difference between Yankee
cowardice and Southern valor. The day, or rather
the days, have arrived." He insisted that the
Northern troops were the strength of the army.
"All the general officers allow thera to be the best
of troops. The Southern officers and soldiers allow
it in time of danger, but not at all other times."
The same spirit was not absent from Congress.
Perhaps some members of Congress had not for
gotten that Generals Sullivan, Greene, and Knox
had once sent a memorial to Congress regarding
the expected placing over them of a Frenchman,
who was not considered competent; and that the
demand of Congress that Washington should re
quire an apology for its insulted dignity had been
silently ignored.
But Washington, to whom Sullivan had always
been an attached and faithful friend, expressed his
feelings and opinions in a letter to Sullivan, when
he was about to leave' the service:
" I flatter rayself it is unnecessary for rae to
repeat to you how high a place you hold in ray
esteem. The confidence you have experienced,
and the manner in which you have been eraployed
on several important occasions, testify the value I
set upon your military qualifications and the regret
I must feel that circumstances have deprived the

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 49
army of your services. The pleasure I shall always
take in an interchange of good offices in whatever
station you may hereafter be placed will be the best
confirmation of the personal regard with which I
have been and am, very sincerely and truly, dear
sir," etc.
With the record of John Sullivan's services
before us, it seems strange that any historian
should deny his military capacity. One writer has,
however, done so. An examination of his work
shows that his bitter prejudices are not confined to
Sullivan alone. Reasonless partisanship is the
habit of his mind. So far as Sullivan is concerned,
it would be easy to show that the writer in ques
tion omits to give hira credit for railltary service
when it seeras to have required an effort to avoid
it; that when two interpretations are possible, he
invariably chooses the unfavorable one; and that
he makes statements as to military action which
can be prevented from being stigmatized as un
truths only by attributing thera to an obvious inca
pacity to understand military principles. The work
of that writer exhibits equal power in gorgeous
rhetoric and unbounded vituperation.
A careful observer of Sullivan's military career
will find that he was a proficient student in military
science and in the history of war; that he was pas
sionately fond of military exercise, in the simple
parts of which he was well versed in his youth;
that he came to exhibit a thorough knowledge of
what was required, not only in marches and in for
tifications, but also in the selection of positions for

50 DEDICATION OP THE
battle and in the disposition of troops to meet the
demand ofthe hour; that he was fearless of danger
and inspired enthusiasra araong his men; that upon
the field he never lost presence of mind or readiness
of command, or promptness in movements to meet
instant emergencies ; and that he was entrusted by
Washington with independent operations of a high
order. In fact, I believe we find but one instance
of any battle in which Washington was personally
with Sullivan's division. When a real history of
the War of the Revolution shall be written, Sulli
van's position as a soldier will not depend upon
high-sounding phrases of partisan and inflated pre
judice. It will justify the opinion of George Wash
ington. The state had need of him. In the spring of
1780, the President ofthe Council and the Speaker
of the House were appointed to wait upon him and
give the congratulations ofthe General Court at his
safe return and recovery of health; and also "give
him the thanks for his good services." It followed
this expression by appointing him, June 21, a dele
gate to Congress, to which he was reappointed Janu
ary 19, 1781. When he thus entered Congress with
the warm friendship of Washington, it might have
been a moment of exultation. But he was too
magnanimous and patriotic to cherish grudges.
Experienced, able, and active, he was remarkably
useful. In November, 1780, he was on a commit
tee to di^aft an urgent appeal to the several states
for renewed help to the cause. In consultation
with Washington he succeeded in carrying through

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 51
a reorganization of the army departments, the sys
tem of promotions, and the establishment of honor
able positions for veteran officers, being chairraan of
the coraraittee to consult with Washington upon
this iraportant subject. He procured the rescind
ing of all rules which allowed others than the com
mander-in-chief or heads of departments to grant
furloughs. He was on the committee to discuss the
question of clothing for the soldiers. He was
chairman ofthe committee which, in 1781, having
full power in connection with Washington, re
moved the difficulties with the Pennsylvania line,
which threatened the destruction of the army. He
favored giving greatly increased powers to the
commander-in-chief, as a military necessity. He
favored a well-disciplined army, on long terras of
enlistment. He aided in having his old comrade.
General Greene, sent to command in the South.
He supported the great change by which single
secretaries or ministers were substituted for clumsy
Congressional boards, in the case of foreign rela
tions, finance, and war; and against the strenuous
opposition of Saraual Adams, a member of one of
the boards. When the rainister of finance was to
be chosen, he proposed to Washington the narae of
Alexander Hamilton for his opinion. Washington
replied, speaking in high terms of Mr. Hamilton in
general, but saying that he had not conversed with
that gentleman on questions of finance.
When the election took place. General Sullivan
wrote to Washington, "After I wrote I found the
eyes of Congress turned upon Robert Morris as

52 DEDICATION OP THE
financier. I did not, therefore, nominate Colonel
Hamilton, as I foresaw it would be a vain atterapt."
But when Washington becarae president, he at
once verified Sullivan's instinct by placing Harail-
ton at the head of the treasury. General Sullivan
was chairraan of the Finance Coraraittee, and he
sustained Morris in the creation of a national bank,
of which gold and silver should be the basis. He
helped frame also an act for the redemption of the
depreciated currency at a fixed ratio. This com
raittee had to consider the whole condition of the
finances, and recommend a reorganization of the
system. Its reports were generally accepted. He
was on the committee which considered the whole
question of the Western lands, the cession of which
began while he was in Congress. Early in 1781
he was upon a committee " to devise ways and
means to carry on the present campaign.'' He
favored trusting the eminent commissioners who
were appointed to negotiate a peace, without strict
instructions. Such were some of the services ren
dered during his continuance in Congress, from
which he retired by his own act.
Returning, frora necessity, to professional life,
General Sullivan was still called to office. He was
appointed attorney-general June 24, 1782, and
held the office until he declined a reelection in
February, 1786, being in that year a candidate for
another office to which he was elected. It is
reraarkable that his distinguished son, George
Sullivan, who also was sent to Congress, held the
sarae office for twenty-one years, and that John

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 53
Sullivan, son of George, an equally brilliant orator,
was also attorney-general for thirteen years, dying
in office.^ In 1782 he was delegate from Durham
to the Constitutional Convention, which was in
existence from 1781 to 1783, and whose third
attempt to make a constitution satisfactory to the
people was successful.
In 1781 to 1782 there were raany signs of trouble
in the towns bordering on, or near to, the Connecti
cut river. New Harapshire had exercised jurisdic
tion over those towns, and the Legislature voted to
raise one thousand men for the purpose of enforcing
its claims; and January 11, 1782, it appointed Gen
eral Sullivan to command this force. It does not
appear that anything raore becarae needed than the
authority of the courts, wliich was finally estab
lished. The crisis, perhaps, came at Keene in
October of that year, when the firmness of the
court and the marked power of Sullivan (then
holding the office of attorney-general) over men
were completely successful. Doubtless his influ
ence over many of his old companions in arms had
much to do with the result when he assumed the
old sword, which he was now entitled again to
wear, by virtue of the vote of the General Court —
as recorded by Plumer.
In 1783 General Sullivan was made the first
president of the New Hampshire branch of the
Cincinnati, of which Washington was president-
general. He was the first Grand Master of the
^ Two sons of the last named reside in Boston: John, who served as
surgeon in the late War of the Eebellion, and Edward, a lawyer.
5

54 DEDICATION OP THE
New Hampshire Grand Lodge of Free Masons,
chosen July 8, 1789, having been received in St.
John's Lodge, Portsmouth, N. H., March 19, 1767,
and raade a Master Mason December 28, 1768.
In 1784 he was appointed major-general ofthe
railitia, and served until he became president. He
entered into the duties of this office with great
energy, issued an address to the people, in behalf
of an active interest in developing the system, and
published a volume of regulations for the forces
of the state; and he took frequent occasions to
review the different corps.
In 1785 he was a member of the Assembly, from
Durham. He was speaker of the House in that
year, and also a member of the Council, which
offices were then not incompatible. His participa
tion in legislation is found in almost every measure
of importance.^ Impost duties, post roads, taxes,
military organization, the relation of the state to
the general government, the revision of laws, are
some ofthe subjects in which he helped to shape
legislation. In 1786 he was again chosen speaker, but served
only two days, as he was chosen president of the
state, as the governor was then designated; and thus
became "captain-general, comraander-in-chief, and
admiral" ofthe array and navy of New Hampshire,
titles which, I believe, His Excellency still bears.
II must express my great indebtedness, and the indebtedness of the
people of this state, to Hon. A. S. Batchellor, for his skill in compiling
and editing the State Records, whose publication he superintends.
The volumes, as prepared by him are indispensable to a student of
New Hampshire history.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 55
It was during this first year of his administration
that an insurrectionary spirit showed itself in New
Hampshire, coincident with what was called Shays's
Rebellion in Massachusetts. There were, undoubt
edly, distressed conditions among the people. The
exhaustion caused by the War ofthe Revolution had
not ceased. The consequences of the terribly depre
ciated continental currency necessarily affected the
public welfare for many years. President Sullivan
had, as chairman of the Finance Comraittee in Con
gress, regarded gold and silver as the necessary basis
of all currency. But whether so or not, it was his duty
to preserve public order. Classes of people bit
terly complained. " The public securities," they
said, " were engrossed by rich speculators, and the
poor were distressed for the means of paying their
taxes and their private debts. The cry for paper
money was incessant." Such was the record of
Jeremy Belknap. " They raised a cry for paper
money, an equal distribution of property, and a
release frora debt."
When the legislature was in session at Exeter,
Septeraber 20, 1785, a tolerably well organized
corapany of several hundred arraed men surrounded
the building where the legislature was in session,
to coerce that body into compliance with their
demands. As many as pleased entered the house,
and demanded action according to their request.
The president, who in those days presided over the
Council, which was practically the Senate, explained
the situation in a calra and dignified speech, and
informed the mob that no action whatever would

56 DEDICATION OP THE
be taken under such an attempt to coerce. Toward
night the legislature requested President Sullivan
to provide for its defense and liberty. Samuel
Adams, son of Col. Winborne Adaras, who had
been a lieutenant under General Sullivan in his
Iroquois carapaign, was now one of his military
staff. When morning dawned it found several
companies of militia infantry, a squadron of cavalry
and some light artillery drawn up in proper order
for action. The insurgents, at first threatening to
resist, were dispersed by a section of the light
horsemen. Some ofthe leaders were arrested and
bound over to appear in court. The policy of the
president, however, having maintained the laws,
secured lenity, and all the misguided men were
eventually discharged. " Our General Sullivan,"
wrote Belknap, in one of his letters, " behaved with
great prudence, firmness, and despatch, and suc
cess crowned his exertions."
General Sullivan was again chosen president in
1787. It was during this year of administration
that he wrote to Belknap as follows :
" The credit of the state, which has been sunk to
the lowest mark, has now arisen to a height almost
beyond conception. Our deranged finances are
restored to order; and orders upon our treasury
now pass equal with silver and gold. This, sir,
was owing to sorae acts which I procured to be
passed, but not without great opposition, the good
effects of which are now sensibly felt, and begin to
be universally acknowledged."
At the election in 1788, there was no choice of

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 57
president by the people, and John Langdon, who
had previously been a candidate, was chosen by the
Senate. General Sullivan, however, represented
Durham in the Assembly, and was unanimously
chosen speaker. The loss of the higher office had
also been far more than made up by his choice to
still another; and perhaps the fact of the second
influenced the people to divide their honors.
On the 13th of February, 1788, a convention of
deputies met at Exeter to consider whether New
Hampshire would ratify the proposed constitution
of the United States. It was a meeting of vast
importance. The hopes and fears as to the adop
tion of that constitution had been alternating in
many states. In that convention, John Sullivan
represented the town of Durham, and he was
chosen its president.
" The convention, when assembled to the araount
of one hundred," wrote Sullivan in a private letter ,i
" stood thus : Seventy against, and thirty for, the
new constitution. However, the good cause gained
ground, and when we adjourned, I think that
a majority was in favor; but as about thirty
who were bound by instruction to vote against the
plan, had, through the preaching of Doctor Lang
don and others, become real converts, it was
thought best to have an adjournment that they
might go home and obtain liberty to act their own
judgment, and I doubt not but it will then be
received by a large majority."
'Belknap papers, Mass. Hist. Society's Proceedings. Sixth series,
Vol. IV.

58 DEDICATION OP THE
Mr. Joseph B. Walker, in his history of the
North Church, in Concord, where it held its second
session, well says that the "Federal trio," John
Sullivan, John Langdon, and Samuel Livermore,
could not be equaled by any other three merabers
of the convention. He gives to Mr. Livermore,
then chief justice, the credit, and doubtless cor
rectly, of being the most powerful man in argu
ment upon the floor. The personal character and
sound judgment of Mr. Langdon (who was soon
to be sent to the United States Senate, and become
the first presiding officer of that body) raust have
given him a strong influence. To General Sulli
van's enthusiastic intensity of purpose, was doubt
less added his skill in public address, and his
reraarkable ability in political administration.
When, after reassembling, the vote was car
ried, June 21, 1788, fifty-seven in favor to forty-
seven against, it was seen that each of these men
had been indispensable. But General Knox, then
Secretary of War, wrote to Sullivan frora New
York: "Your friends attribute much ofthe suc
cess in your state to your unremitted exertions,
and hope that your country will eminently reward
your patriotism."
To sit in that chair and declare that vote, car
ried so largely by his own personal influence,
raight alraost be regarded as the crowning privi
lege of the life of John Sullivan. To make the
new constitution operative, required the assent of
nine states. There were division and doubt in
many parts of the land. If the proposal should

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 59
fail, the country would be thrown back into the
helplessness of the old confederation. But New
Hampshire, in which had been the first armed
resistance to the king of Great Britain, and which
had been the first of the provinces to establish a
state government, now raade the ninth state. By
that act, the constitution was made operative, and
the United States carae into being. No raind could
then have prophesied the future growth, prosperity,
and glory of the great Republic. But it was a
sublime moraent when that vote was declared.
John Sullivan raay have been pardoned if the
words of Livius, in 1777, had corae back to his
raind: "You were the first man in active rebellion,
and drew with you the province you live in. You
will be one of the first sacrifices to the resentment
and justice of government." And now he was privi
leged to declare, as the chosen leader of New Hamp
shire, the one specific vote which created a nation.
At the first election for president of the United
States, General Sullivan was chosen one of the
electors for the state of New Hampshire. He had
thus the privilege of casting his vote for his old
commander in the field, whom he had always loved,
and who had always trusted him.
At the next election, that of 1789, he was again
chosen president of the state. He served during
his year, and at its close the legislature appointed
a committee " to return the thanks of the General
Court to his Excellency President Sullivan for his
services while president of this state." i
1 Harvard College conferred upon him the degree of master of arts
in 1780, and Dartmouth that of doctor of laws in 1789.

60 DEDICATION OP THE
But before the expiration of the year. President
Washington had appointed hira the first judge of
the United States District Court of New Hamp
shire. The personal letter of Washington, dated
Septeraber 30, 1789, enclosing the commission, says,
" In my nomination of persons to fill office in the
judicial department, I have been guided by the
importance of the object, considering it of the first
magnitude and the pillar upon which our political
fabric must rest. I have endeavored to bring into
the high offices of its administration such charac
ters as will give stability and dignity to our national
government." Such was Washington's estimate of John Sul
livan. He died in this his last public office, but he had
not long been upon the bench when his health
began to fail. The old hardships had left their
impress. Not only did his physical strength decay,
but his mental powers also failed. The president,
however, would not have him removed from office,
although for two or three years he was unable to
attend to his duties.
I would gladly recall traditions which have
floated down through the century, of John Sulli
van's dashing boldness and alraost personal reck
lessness in the field, which won the admiration of
his soldiers, such as have come to us from our
ancestors who served in the army of the Revolu
tion, — as did four of mine; of the brilliancy in
speech which perhaps came with his Irish blood;
of his generous and perhaps lavish kindness to

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 61
those who were in need; of his fidelity to his
friends; of the personal magnetism which swayed
men, and especially the common people. But these
things do not come into the purpose for which I
gratefully acknowledge the honor given to rae by
the Governor and Council of our state.
On the 23d of January, 1795, he died in his home
on yonder terraced slope which reaches down to
the river, where he loved to see the ebb and flow
of the tides, which went and came at the will of the
ocean. It was a hundred years ago, but where we stand
has a double history. Two hundred years ago, in
a warm morning of July 18, 1694, the musket and
the tomahawk of the savage did its deadly work
around these falls and up and down the sides of
this now tranquil river. Sorrow and anguish were
in almost every home, for on that terrible day
nearly one hundred persons had been killed within
the sound of a musket shot from where we stand,
or led into hopeless captivity in Canada. Such was
the discipline which prepared the generations here
for the stern war of the Revolution.
On yonder beautiful height, within the stone wall
and its iron gate, in the family burying-ground
which lies in the rich mowing land, are various
graves. Inscriptions raark the resting-place of the
emigrant, who lived to the age of one hundred and
four, and of his wife Margery. But there are also
found the siraple stones which stand at the graves
of John Sullivan, and Lydia, his wife. These
stones are amply sufficient for their purpose. But

62 DEDICATION OF THE
our state needed to erect its own raeraorial to the
patriot, soldier, and statesraan. It has wisely
placed that raeraorial where youth shall see it, and
upon the spot connected by its history with the
opening of the war of the Revolution. The state
has delayed for nearly one hundred years, but if, as
tradition says, the burial in that winter day was so
quiet and siraple that people wondered, the gover
nor, who is in the line which follows, now comes in
the name of the state and by its order, to express
the love and honor in which New Hampshire has
always held the raemory of John Sullivan.
The exercises of the morning in the tent were
iraraedlately followed by the soleran and impressive
ceremony of dedication by the Masonic brotherhood.
The Grand Lodge of New Hampshire was ably
represented by M. W- Grand Master Charles Car
roll Hayes of Manchester; R. W. Deputy Grand
Master Henry Augustus Marsh of Nashua; R. W.
Senior Grand Warden John McLane of Milford;
R. W. Junior Grand Warden George Isaac McAl
lister of Manchester; R. W. Grand Treasurer Jo
seph Kidder of Manchester; R. W. Grand Secretary
George Perley Cleaves of Concord; R. W. Grand
Chaplain Rev. Daniel C. Roberts, D. D., of Con
cord; W. Senior Grand Deacon Bradford S. King
man of Newmarket; W- Junior Grand Deacon
Henry B. Quinby of Laconia; W. Grand Marshal
Charles C. Danforth of Concord; W- Grand Pur
suivants Joseph E. Knight of Exeter, and Chan
ning Folsora of Dover.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 63

THE CEEEMONTT.

Grand Master. — From time imraemorial it has
been the custora of the Masonic fraternity, when
requested so to do, to lay the corner-stone of pub
lic edifices, especially those designed for the wor
ship of God, and to consecrate with appropriate
ceremonies such structures as are of general public
interest to the communities where the same are
located. We have therefore accepted the invitation
to dedicate this monument, and, in assuming the
duty imposed upon us, we may show our respect to
the state, and our appreciation of the obligations
we are under to the man whose memory we have
assembled to honor. Among the first lessons taught
by our ritual are dependence of the creature upon
the Creator, and the duty of imploring His assist
ance in all our undertakings. In obedience to
those instructions, let us join with our Grand Chap
lain in invoking the blessing of God upon the exer
cises in which we are about to engage.
Prayer by the Grand Chaplain, Rev. Daniel C.
Roberts, D. D.:
" Supreme Architect of the Universe, thou dost
build into the walls of the holy temple, wherein thy
presence dwells, the lives of thy servants whom
thou hast endowed with light and leading.
Squared by the square of virtue, polished by the
grand disciplines of arduous life, upright in the
nobility of a righteous manhood, and tried by the
plumb-line of rectitude and truth, they stand, stal-

64 DEDICATION OP THE
wart and true, on the level of the great brotherhood
of the servants of God.
We praise thy holy narae with thankful hearts,
because thou hast wrought, by the hands of thy
servant whom we commemorate to-day, and his
comrades, wise and brave, to create and establish a
nation consecrated to liberty, justice, and equal
rights. Give us grace and light to follow in their
footsteps, to take up, in our day and generation,
the burden and the duty bequeathed to us by our
fathers, along with the blessing of freedom. May
no injustice or unrighteousness tarnish the splen
dor of the name of our country, or the farae of our
heroic sires. May this massive witness of our
devotion to the cause of freedom, justice, and truth,
which we dedicate in thy name and presence, to
the glory of God, and the sacred meraory of our
illustrious brother, stand, a monument and testi
mony to the fidelity of one man to the loftiest
principles of political and military virtue, and to
the consecration of each oncoming generation to
the glory of thy name, the honor of our country,
and the brotherhood of raan.
May the society of Free Masons, which crowns
this work to-day, reraain steadfast and true, dedi
cated to righteousness, justice, freedora, and love,
and consecrated as thy holy temple on the heights
of Zion was consecrated, by the presence of Him
whose narae is life, whose ineffable glory dwelt in
glorious light between the cherubira.
We ask these blessings in the narae of David's
Son and David's Lord. Araen."

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 65
Grand Master. — Brother Deputy Grand Master,
What is the proper jewel of your office?
Deputy Grand Master. — The square.
Grand Master. — What does it teach?
Deputy Grand Master. — To square our actions by
the square of virtue, and by it we prove our work.
Grand Master. — Apply your jewel to this monu
ment, and make report.
Deputy Grand Master. — The work is square.
The craftsmen have done their duty.
Grand Master. — Brother Senior Grand Warden,
what is the jewel of your office?
Senior Grand Warden. — The level.
Grand Master. — What does it teach?
Senior Grand Warden. — The equality of all
men, and by it we prove our work.
Grand Master. — Apply your jewel to this monu
ment, and make report.
Senior Grand Warden. — The work is level.
The craftsmen have done their duty.
Grand Master. — Brother Junior Grand Warden,
what is the jewel of your office?
Junior Grand Warden. — The plumb.
Grand Master. — What does it teach?
Junior Grand Warden. — To walk uprightly be
fore God and raan, and by it we prove our work.
Grand Master. — Apply your jewel to this raonu
ment, and make report.
Junior Grand Warden. — The work is plumb.
The craftsraen have done their duty.
The Grand Master, striking the monuraent three
times with the gavel, said:

66 DEDICATION OF THE
" Well made, well proved, true and trusty. This
undertaking has been conducted and completed by
the craftsmen according to the grand plan, in
peace, harmony, and brotherly love."
The Deputy Grand Master received from the
Grand Marshal the vessel of com, and, pouring the
com. said:
" May the health of the community which has
executed this undertaking be preserved, and may
the Supreme Grand Architect bless and prosper its
labors." The Grand Marshal presented the cup of wine to
the Senior Grand Warden, who poured the wine,
saying: "May plenty be vouchsafed to the people of this
state, and may the blessing of the Bounteous Giver
of all things attend all its philanthropic and patri
otic undertakings."
The Grand Marshal presented the cup of oil to
the Junior Grand Warden, who poured the oil, say
ing: '' May the Supreme Ruler of the world preserve
this people in peace, and grant to them the enjoy
ment of every blessing."
The Grand Chaplain pronounced the following
invocation: '•May com, wine, and oil, and all the necessaries
of life abound among men throughout the world;
and may this structure long remain in the beauty
and strength of the brotherly love for the departed,
to whose meraory it has now been consecrated."
Gi'and Master. — Brother Grand Marshal, you

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 67
will make proclamation that this monument has
been duly consecrated in accordance with ancient
form and usage.
Grand Marshal. — In the name of the Most
Worshipful Grand Lodge of the State of New
Hampshire, I now proclaim that the monuraent
here erected by the state has this day been found
square, level, and plurab, true and trusty, and con
secrated according to the ancient forms of Masons.
This proclamation is made from the East, the
West, the South, — once, twice, thrice. All inter
ested will take due notice thereof.
ADDEESS OF CHAELES C. HATES, THE M. W. GEAIO)
MASTEE.
Having accepted the joint invitation from the
Governor and Council and the town of Durham,
we have assembled to-day, on this memorable occa
sion, as officers of the Most Worshipful Grand
Lodge, representing the Ancient and Honorable
Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in New
Hampshire, to dedicate, according to ancient form
and custom, this monument erected by the state
and town to perpetuate the memory of one of the
great heroes in the early history of our state and
country. Fully appreciating the great honor which
was conferred by this invitation, I desire, in behalf
of the officers of the Grand Lodge and the entire
Masonic fraternity of New Hampshire, to express
our pleasure and our sincere thanks for the privi
lege of being present at this time, and for the
opportunity of performing the solemn and impres-

68 DEDICATION OP THE
sive ceremony of our order. It is not only proper,
but eminently fitting that Masons should perform
this duty, and I feel that there will be no infringe
ment of the rules of propriety when I say that no
other order could or should have been invited to
perforra this work, for the reason that the raan in
whose honor this granite shaft has been erected
was a prominent and distinguished Mason. His
love for the order, and his recognized abilities
caused the brethren to confer upon him the high
est honor in their power, by choosing him as the
first Grand Master of Masons in New Harapshire.
He was active and earnest in the cause of Masonry
because he thoroughly and conscientiously believed
in its principles and was always ready to do his
part in binding together, with the golden chain of
brotherly love and affection, the God-fearing and
liberty-loving raen of his time and generation.
Like George Washington and nearly all of the
patriots and great leaders of the Revolutionary
period, he was a Mason because love of country
and the principles of Freemasonry are inseparable.
When we read the history of his life, and find that
he possessed all the attributes of a just and up
right man, one who was true to himself and true
to his country, working always for that which was
best, it would have been strange indeed had he
not sought a Masonic lodge, knocked at the door,
passed within the portals, and in due time been
able to claim the proud title of Master Mason. He
was not only distinguished as a Mason, but as a
soldier, jurist, and statesman, whose life and deeds

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 69
forra a bright page in the history of our beloved
state and country, and we are proud to claim him
as a New Hampshire man. He honored the state
and the state honored hira. He honored Masonry
and was honored by Masonry.
As we behold this raonuraent, cut from the gran
ite quarries of our own state, plain, yet solid and
substantial, typical of the life and character of the
man in whose honor it has been erected, we are
reminded of the deeds of valor and heroism per
formed by John Sullivan and his loyal associates,
thereby making it possible for us to enjoy the
blessings of a free and independent people. His
life, his character, and his fame should be an inspi
ration to the youth of the present day, and should
teach them to love their country, to maintain and
support its free institutions, and to defend its flag
against the assault of any and all enemies. "The
lapse of time, the ruthless hand of ignorance, or the
devastations of war " may lay waste and destroy
this monument around which we are now gathered,
but so long as governraents shall stand and history
shall be read, so long will the name inscribed on
its face be cherished in the hearts of patriotic peo
ple the world over. All honor to the meraory of
General and Brother John Sullivan.
THE AFTEENOOK.
The exercises were continued in the afternoon
without apparent loss of interest. It was a Sulli
van day. From morning until evening the suc
cessive eulogies were spoken with the force of
6

70 DEDICATION OP THE
conviction, and were received with the enthusiasm
of warra approval. In complimentary terms the
president of the day introduced Amos Hadley,
Ph. D., of Concord, president of the New Hamp
shire Historical Society; Hon. William E. Chandler
of Concord, United States senator; Hon. Henry
W- Blair of Manchester, ex-senator and representa
tive in congress ; ex-Governor Frederick Smyth of
Manchester; ex-Governor Benjamin F. Prescott of
Epping; Hon. John C. Linehan of Concord, insur
ance commissioner; Patrick H. Sullivan, Esq., of
Manchester; and Col. Daniel Hall of Dover. The
remarks of Governor Prescott and Governor Smyth
were extemporaneous, and only a portion of Gov
ernor Smyth's address has been preserved.
ME. HADLET'S ADDEESS.
The New Hampshire Historical Society, which I
have the honor of representing on this occasion,
has alway smanifested a duly sensitive interest in
conserving the fair fame of John Sullivan. Its
remonstrances against historical injustice to his
memory have not been ineffectual in rectifying
errors, which, it may be hoped, will not be per
petuated by future historians.
The life of this son of an Irish schoolmaster was
not a long one, running, as it did, only to midway
in the fifties. The years of his active career were
only thirty ; but abundant was their harvest of
achievement. At the age of twenty, with silver or gold none,
but with talents ample and versatile ; with a gen-

SULLLVAJ^ MONUMENT. 71
eral education, — well-nigh liberal, — conducted by
a learned father, and a professional one directed by
a Livermore, John Sullivan entered upon the prac
tice of the law, here in storied Durham, and within
thirteen years, by his ability and eloquence, won
proud eminence at the bar, with a consequent gen
erous competence of estate.
His keen sagacity, his independent spirit, his
strong and resolute manliness, impelled hira, from
the first, to resist, by word and deed, the growing
tyranny of Britain, and raade hira foreraost in the
counsels ofthe patriots. At thirty-three, he sits in
the first Continental Congress ; returning thence,
ready, on the eventful 13th of December, 1774, to
lead in America's first overt act of organized armed
resistance to England, to secure for Liberty's use
the arms and ammunition of a royal fort defiantly
disraantled. Again, one day in May, 1775, his
coramanding form is seen erect among his col
leagues of the Congress, his brilliant black eye
flashing brighter in the excitement of debate, his
deep, sweet, flexible voice impressively intoned, as
he opposes a truckling motion for a second address
to a scornful king, " in a strain of wit, fluency, and
eloquence, unusual even for him, filling with dis
may those who favored reconciliation." So says
John Adams, who heard him. Oh, for a Congres
sional Record with that speech, — all aglow with
" liberty or death," — in it ! But alas ! that publi
cation is of modern date, and we must flounder,
instead, through the interminable quagmires of
tariff reform debate.

72 DEDICATION OP THE
Resistance, resistance even to war, as the inev
itable solution of the questions at issue, had long
been his thought. And that thought tallied with
a natural military taste, which led the active and
robust young man to acquaint himself with the
theory and practice of the military art. He saw
security for the people's rights in military training,
and he practised it with his neighbors. In fine, his
example, in all things, was an inspiration to the
maintenance of American liberty, at all hazards ;
and no other man did so much to brace up New
Hampshire to the war point as did John Sullivan.
And the war has corae. The sarae Congress,
that with divine foresight has made Washington
commander-in-chief, has discerned in the bold,
sagacious, and eloquent member from New Hamp
shire, the stuff of which great generals are raade.
Sullivan will honor his high commission; will fully
vindicate the trust reposed in his ability, and glori
ously fight out his five years of severe, unremitting
duty in arras. He will be found in the Siege of
Boston, alert and active, on the Araerican left, and
nearest the eneray; moreover, he shall, within ten
days, to the joyful relief of Washington, fill with
2,000 freshly enlisted men of New Hampshire, the
dangerous gap in the investing line, left by Con
necticut troops, whose " time is out." Next year,
he shall save, by consummate generalship, the
demoralized, pestilence-stricken army of Canada,
in face of an exultantly pursuing foe ; and, later,
he shall, by timely moveraents and effective feats,
help Washington retrieve the disastrous year by

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 73
the Christmas victories of Trenton and Princeton.
Again, at Brandywine and Gerraantown, he shall
have occasion, — and will gallantly improve it, — to
manifest his characteristic valor, irapetuous but
stubborn, and ready to breast the mightiest swell
of fortune's adverse tide. Next, the Rhode Island
expedition, with its Battle of Butt's Hill, — pro
nounced by Lafayette, " the best fought action of
the war," — and with its masterly retreat, shall test,
as by refining fire, the pure gold of military capa
city. Finally, it seeming good to Congress and the
commander-in-chief to enforce in the valleys of the
Chemung and Genesee, condign reprisal upon the
mischievous Six Nations, and their worse allies,
the Tories, for Wyoming's dire massacre, and like
red-handed deeds of savage war, the execution of
this purpose shall be committed to our well-tried
New Hampshire general. Though the under
taking be tedious and difficult, he will conduct it
to complete success, in an arduous campaign, to be
his last, and which the Erapire State shall, a cen
tury later, gratefully coraraeraorate by a sightly
monument, reared upon the battle-ground of New
town, and bearing the honored name of Sullivan.
Now, in a touching letter to Washington, he is
compelled to say: "I ara under the painful neces
sity of leaving a service to which I ara by princi
ple and interest attached. My health is too rauch
impaired to be recovered, but by a total release
from business." So he resigns his comraission, and
returns to his Durhara horae, and to his family,
which has always had its share of his affectionate

74 DEDICATION OP THE
solicitude. He brings with hira into retirement
the affectionate regrets of the comraander-in-chief,
who has transraltted hira these siraple, but price
less words of coraraendation : " I flatter myself it
is unnecessary for me to repeat to you how high a
place you hold in my esteem. The confidence you
have experienced, and the manner in which
you have been employed on several important
occasions, testify the value I set upon your military
qualifications, and the regret I must feel that
circumstances have deprived the array of your
services." Before such witness, how are aspersion
and detraction shamed! Washington's never-fail
ing trust and ever affectionate respect are, of them
selves, sufficient to prove their possessor's title
clear to proud historic praise; and Sullivan's name
does belong, of right, to that choice list of eminent
comraanders which bears such other names as
Greene and Knox, Steuben and Stark.
With health somewhat repaired, this man of
versatile capacity might not be spared from public
service. In Congress he must now serve, not as
six years before he had done, a cluster of detached
and dependent colonies, but a confederation of
independent states — even a young nation, helping
by wise legislation, war and financial, to lift it from
weakness into strength. There was need of clear
sighted, far-sighted, and steady-handed statesman
ship. This statesraanship Sullivan had, as he then
evinced, as well as later, when thrice called to the
executive chair of New Hampshire; and, later
still, when he lent his strong influence to his state's

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 75
adoption of the constitution of the United States —
the adoption which gave to that great instruraent
of Union, force and effect as the organic law of
the land.
The tirae allotted this effort does not allow that
specific and rainute characterization which, in
general, is a raost desirable feature of biographic
estiraates. A century, lacking but a few weeks, has elapsed,
since all that was mortal of our hero was laid away
in yon modest burial-ground upon the hill close by
the house in which he dwelt. His life and charac
ter have been scanned, scrutinized, and criticised,
but only, in result, to brighten his fame; for it is a
fame born of genuine merit, — a very diamond, in
whose facets friction but kindles the lustrous
sparkle of precious fire. And now, at last, yon
monuraent has risen to attest the perpetuity of that
fame. Such structures do honor to the living as well
as to the dead; declaring in raute eloquence, as they
do, that the virtues of the dead thus reraerabered
are still the cherished possession of the living.
Of such raeraorials, New Harapshire has none too
many. Perhaps another like this, and standing
near, raay sorae tirae rise upon Durham's historic
soil. For, in view of the devoted friendship, the
identical patriotism, the kindred service, and the
kindred fame of the heroic law student and his
heroic tutor, it would seem, indeed, that with
beautiful fitness, twin monuments might stand in
brotherly proximity, forever sacred to the memory
of Alexajstdee Scammell and John" Sullivan.

76 DEDICATION OP THE
SENATOE CHANDLEE's ADDEESS.
Me. Chaieman", Ladies, and Gentlemen:
When this assembly adjourned this forenoon I
thought the exercises might well close. After the
preliminary proceedings we had the address of His
Excellency Governor Smith — a perfect literary and
oratorical jewel; the charming and appropriate
poem of Mr. O'Meara; the felicitous oration of the
orator of the day. Rev. Dr. Quint, one of the most
distinguished scholars, historians, and divines of
whom the country can boast; and last, the impres
sive Masonic ceremonies. But now I do not regret
that the ceremonies are being continued. I have
already been delighted with the admirable sketch
and characterization of the subject of the day's
exercises by the eloquent Mr. Amos Hadley, repre
senting the New Hampshire Historical Society; a
gentleman whom I remember so well as my beloved
tutor in early days, who so retains his youthful
vigor that you will wonder whether I went to
school to him or he went to school to rae; and so
we proceed further with the commemorative dis
courses. A nation is unfortunate whose beginning is desti
tute of heroism. Fortunate is a nation whose
foundations were laid by exciting deeds of patriot
ism performed by heroic men. This was the
genesis of our nation, and the exploits of the
Revolution, and the careers of the men of the
Revolution, give a rare glory to the beginning of
our wonderful republic.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 77
John Sullivan was one of the finest characters
of the Revolution. His life and services have been
fittingly described to-day. It is well to compare
him, without disparagement of either, with his
great associate, John Stark. Stark was a great
fighter, and the battles which gave him farae were
critical contests: Bunker Hill, the start of the
Revolution; Trenton, Washington's winter battle,
that revived dying hopes and saved the collapse of
the Revolution; Bennington, which resulted in the
capture of Burgoyne and the French alliance.
Stark must be justly considered as perhaps the
greatest fighter, next to Arnold and Wayne, of the
War of Independence.
But Sullivan was a great general; not so fortu
nate in the results of all his feats of arms, but his
military services^ — at Fort William and Mary, at the
siege of Boston, in the Northern array on the Cana
dian border, on Long Island, where he was cap
tured, at the capture of the Hessians at Trenton,
at Princeton, in the Staten Island raid, on the
Brandywine and at Germantown, in Rhode Island,
at the Battle of Butt's Hill, which Lafayette said
was the best fought battle of the Revolution, and
in the Iroquois Indian expedition, — give him endur
ing military fame, resting upon foundations quite as
substantial as those of the gallant Stark
Besides, he was great in other spheres of duty
and action ; as a lawyer, a legislator, a statesman,
a governor, and a judge, he was far above medioc
rity ; and entitled, as a man of many abilities of
differing character, to rank among the very great-

78 DEDICATION OP THE
est men of the Revolutionary period. New Hamp
shire has waited too long before erecting this raonu
ment, and granting to Sullivan the commemoration
which this day's exercises will aptly furnish.
It was my good fortune, while a boy studying
law with Colonel John H. George, to know John
Sullivan, the grandson of the general, and the son of
George Sullivan. The grandfather was attorney-
general of New Hampshire from 1782 to 1786 ; the
father, for about a year, in 1805, and again from
1815 to 1835 ; and the grandson, from 1848 to
1863 — the office being forty years in the hands of
these three lawyers. The last Attorney- General
John Sullivan was a strong, earnest man, and an
able lawyer. He prepared his cases with care and
industry, and argued them with intense zeal and
earnestness. He impressed me as a vigorous, pow
erful man intellectually, and, judging him by my
later observation of 'other distinguished men, I
realize that he was one of the great men of his gen
eration, although, like Ira Perley and many other
great lawyers, never venturing in his career out
side his chosen profession of the law. While he
was a strong man, terribly in earnest, yet his Irish
blood made him good-natured and witty, and I
formed for him a warm attachment. One of his
sons, Edward, I have seen here present to-day,
and the other. Dr. John Sullivan, resides in Bos
ton. Whenever these sons come to Durham or to
New Hampshire, they should be greeted with oj)en
arms and cordial words of welcome.
Truly the lives of these three great men — John

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 79
Sullivan, George Sullivan, and John Sullivan — are
all happily commeraorated by the eloquent oration
and the fervid poera of to-day's exercises, and by
the raonument which the state has erected in honor
of their united services and careers, for with the
lawyer and soldier, statesman and patriot, whose
name alone is inscribed thereon, are also embalmed
the achievements of the son and grandson. Their
characters raay well be conteraplated and studied
by rising generations in our state for all tirae,
as furnishing the highest incentives to industry,
integrity, high achieveraent, and unbounded patri
otism. The lustre in our annals of the gift to our
early glories bestowed by Ireland in sending to us
the family of Sullivan, will never be obliterated or
forgotten. ADDEESS OF SENATOE BLAIE.
Me. Peesident : Nothing like justice can be
done in ten minutes to a career so ample and illus
trious as that of General Sullivan.
There is no sphere of public life in which he was
not eminent nor of private life in which he was not
influential and beloved.
He lived but fifty-four years, yet so early did the
extraordinary forces within him ripen into harmo
nious and efficient activity that the full weight of
professional and domestic responsibilities was upon
hira even before he had attained the age of legal
majority, so that, notwithstanding his early death,
he accomplished the work of a much longer life than
is usually allotted to raan, and by his great services

80 DEDICATION OP THE
to his faraily, his state, and his country, he fully
proved that, regardless of mere duration, " that life
is long which answers life's great end."
When we consider the times in which he lived
and the opportunities which he possessed to pre
pare for the struggles and the triumphs before him,
we are the more struck with that which he accom
plished and confirmed in the impression that what
we call education or training in the schools is of
secondary importance.
There is nothing creative in the schools. They
make the most of that which nature gives, but true
genius and great abilities will force their way
through and over all obstacles and surmount im
possibilities where mere training and instruction
fall down helpless and despairing.
Born in the year 1740, an active lawyer and a
married man in 1760, he was the leading patriot
who, with congenial spirits and worthy comrades,
in the year 1774 seized Fort William and Mary, —
perhaps the initial act of the Revolutionary War —
captured its cannon and ammunition, and thereby
made it possible to fight the Battle of Bunker
Hill. Already, by his knowledge of history, of the laws,
and of the principles of liberty, and by his sweet yet
vehement and irresistible eloquence as a speaker,
and by his felicity and power as a writer, and
by his active and practical identification with the
enlistment and discipline of^ the military forces of
the state, with careful study of the principles and
history of the art of war, he was known through-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 81
out all the colonies as one of the raost reliable and
important, and, if I may so speak, many-sided and
all-round patriots among those wonderful men who
were rapidly making ready for the great events
just before them.
Whatever was necessary to be done to overthrow
tyranny and to upbuild liberty, John Sullivan knew
how to do, and he went ahead and did it. He was
truly one of the raost accoraplished raen of his
tirae. Throughout the whole of the greatest seven
years of human history, either in camp, on field,
or in senate, he was continually eraployed in the
highest service of his country.
The whole list of Revolutionary worthies does
not furnish one name which, on the whole, shines
more resplendently in all the great departments of
public service than that of John Sullivan. If there
be such a name, declare it !
Assailed in his military capacity because envy
could not brook his superiority, yet, after all, the
sharpest and most malevolent criticisra has but
shown that at the siege of Boston, on Long Island,
in Canada, at Trenton and Princeton, at Brandy
wine and Gerraantown, in Rhode Island, and among
the savages of our then northwestern frontier, he
was always the equal of any man in the same situa
tion ; and the two greatest of our Revolutionary
comraanders — Washington and Greene — were his
stanchest friends and strongest defenders.
Wherever and whenever he failed, Washington
and Greene and any other man would have failed

82 DEDICATION OP THE
and did fail, simply because the force of numbers
and insurmountable obstacles rendered success im
possible ; while his gallantry and generalship under
difficulties made every defeat more honorable than
victory. In the Continental Congress he was chairman of
the Committee upon the War, and was a leading
member of many others. Hardly a raan in the
whole body was more universally useful and influ
ential in the service of his country.
Retiring at length to private life with health and
fortune almost wholly lost in his unsparing devo
tion to the pubhc welfare, he was not permitted to
renew his strength or to seek the restoration of his
fortunes in the walks of private life which he had
always found lined with success, and profit, and
happiness ; but his state selected him for the almost
forced acceptance of her varied and highest service,
while his last days were fitly spent in the discharge
of judicial duty in the administration of the great
principles of the law, which had first stirred the
powers of his remarkable mind, and aroused that
ambition for excellence which gave to his state and
country one of their greatest orators, statesmen,
and generals.
History has not done justice to John Sullivan.
New Hampshire has been too negligent of his
fame. She has always been more concerned to
make history than to write it. Scores of names
which deserve immortality have been completely
lost or linger only as a vanishing echo on her hills.
She has the materials for historic romance formed

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 83
upon the unvarnished truth of two hundred and
fifty years of hardship, heroism, daring, endurance,
and gallantry, unsurpassed, save only in years, by
those which gild the stories of Scotland and
Switzerland, or even the mythological splendors of
Greece and Rome.
But we have wasted our treasures because they
were so comraon that we did not realize their value,
while other states have exploited theirs and raore
wisely have preserved them for the emulation and
honors of posterity.
This monument to John Sullivan is a tardy, and,
although a beautiful, yet an inadequate tribute to
his life and character.
There is no place raore appropriate than the
grave where his ashes repose among the remains
of those whom he loved and amid the everlasting
outlines of nature with which he was familiar to
coraraeraorate his fame, but it would well comport
with the duty of the state and of the nation, to
both of whora he gave the best services of one of
their greatest sons, if at their capitals, with no
longer delay, they should erect suitable monuments
to his memory, to which posterity might turn from
every part of the whole state and of the whole
nation to imbibe the highest lessons of patriotism
from one who ever taught them by his own high
example, and learn to speak with honor and rever
ence the illustrious name of General John Sulli
van.

84 DEDICATION OP THE
ADDEESS OF HON. HENET M. BAKEE.
Me. Peesident : It has been said that the mem
ory of a well-spent life is iraraortal. I should pre
fer to say that the infiuence of such a life never
dies. Measured by either statement, an infinitude
of earthly remembrance and gratitude remains for
General Sullivan.
Descended from the best of heroic Irish stock,
he inherited patriotism, valor, and a love of learn
ing. His father, a teacher by profession, gave him
a fair education, instilled into his young mind good
moral principles, and encouraged his natural love
of liberty and justice.
Upon leaving home he was fortunate in becom
ing a member of the family of Mr. Livermore, of
Portsmouth, with whom he studied law. His early
professional career was marked by an industry and
brilliancy which assured his later triumphs at the
bar and the dignity and learning with which he
honored the bench.
The blood of his ancestor, Dermod, chief of
Beare and Bantry, incited him to military service.
As early as 1772 he was major of a New Hamp
shire regiment. In 1774 a member of the Provin
cial Assembly, and later in that year and in 1775
a delegate to the Continental Congress. Return
ing frora his first session with the belief that a re
sort to arras against the oppression of England was
inevitable, he organized and led the little party
which captured the powder and arras in Fort
William and Mary, part of which was used at Bun-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 85
ker Hill. Had all of that ammunition been avail
able, our troops would have won a glorious victory
upon that imraortal field. In 1775, he was elected
a brigadier-general by Congress, and at once left
the halls of consultation and legislation for the
sterner duties of active railltary life. The next
year he was proraoted to major-general, and three
years later retired from the army, having tendered
his resignation in consequence of failing health and
some congressional criticisms of his military career,
resulting principally from his criticism of Congress
in official reports and otherwise.
The orator of this occasion has nobly spoken of
General Sullivan's services during the Revolution
ary War, and I will not trespass upon your patience
even for a brief review of his most distinguished
martial achievements. That he was by nature a
military leader is unquestionably true. That he
won no great victories was an incident ofthe times;
but in the fight at Trenton, and in the campaigns
in Rhode Island, and in chief comraand against the
Six Nations, he showed marked military genius and
strategic ability.
That General Sullivan was no more severe toward
the Indians than the occasion and circumstances
demanded, is undoubtedly true, as Washington had
instructed him to devastate their settlements and
capture those of every age and sex.
An historian of the expedition against the Six
Nations has said, — " The boldness of its conception
was only equaled by the bravery and determina
tion with which its hardship and danger were met
7

86 DEDICATION OF THE
and its objects accoraplished. . . . The daring
and intrepid raarch has been not inaptly corapared
to the famous expedition of Cortez to the ancient
halls of the Montezuraas, or that later brilliant
achievement, Sherman's march to the sea. . . .
The battle of Newtown raay justly be considered
one of the most important engagements of the Rev
olutionary War, and as worthy of coraraemoration
as Bunker Hill or Monmouth, Brandywine or
Piinceton." The historian may be a little enthusi
astic; but that General Sullivan accomplished with
great success and slight loss a difficult military task,
no one will deny. Did his fame as a leader rest
upon this campaign alone, were his other services
unrecorded, it would be secure wherever the science
of war is known and courage and intrepidity hon
ored. When he laid aside his sword, a grateful people,
remembering his civic ability, continued him in the
service of the state. They returned him to Con
gress, made him attorney-general, president, as
our governors were then designated, speaker of the
House of Representatives, and president of the con
vention which ratified the Federal Constitution,
then a presidential elector, enabling him to vote
for his old commander and personal friend. Gen
eral Washington. He was again elected president
of New Hampshire, and the same year was ap
pointed by Washington district judge for our state,
an office which he worthily filled until his death.
Seldom is it the good fortune of any one to serve
his country in such diverse, yet responsible posi-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 87
tions as General Sullivan held and honored. Still
more rare to discharge every duty with so great
energy and ability.
That he was generous is attested by the fact that
he spent a considerable private fortune in defense
of his country ; that he had great and varied abili
ties is shown by his private and public career; that
he was an honest public servant and faithful in the
details of life is proved by the esteem in which he
was held by his fellow-men.
To say he was mortal is to admit that he had
faults. To point to his life is to show how few they
were and how well he bore himself in prosperity
and adversity, his evident good will and honest
purpose appealing to our hearts for the approval
which he earned.
The state of New Hampshire does well to com
memorate the brilliant services of her loyal son, who
in war and peace added lustre to her name.
EEMAEKS BT GOVEENOE SMTTH.
Me. Peesident : New Hampshire honors her
self in honoring John Sullivan. In erecting this
monument the state does more than simply recog
nize the virtues of this patriot, this loyal citizen,
this large-hearted man, this heroic soldier. For it
holds before men the fact that though years raay
pass without adequate acknowledgment of public
services and private virtue, still sooner or later the
honor that is due will be given. New Hampshire
will not suffer the name and the deeds of her sons
to be forgotten, but will write them in enduring

00 DEDICATION OP THE
granite, and hold the legacy of their nobility her
most priceless possession.
The state has no duty raore imperative than that
of preserving the records which tell the story of
those who have made New Harapshire what it is.
In my own official life, there were few things
which I consider of more importance than the
beginning of that movement which has resulted in
the continued publication of the "Provincial and
State Papers." The present and the future histo
rians of the state must find in these papers the chief
material for their work ; and the appointment of
Dr. Nathaniel Bouton as state historian, during my
second term as governor of the state, marks the
earliest raoveraent towards the preservation and
publication of these papers.
When I think of the many associations con
nected with this place, now dignified by this monu
ment to Gen. John Sullivan, I am impressed by the
fact that the history of the state demands that the
early features of New Hampshire's life shall have
raore complete rehearsal. Perhaps there is no man
living so well fitted to record the story of the early
struggles in this part of the state as is Dr. Quint.
The exhaustive researches he has made should not
be lost. At whatever expense, if not by public
appropriation then by private subscription, in which
I shall be glad to bear some share, his work should
be carried on, and the results published. For the
sake of those who are to come, we cannot afford to
forget the services of those who have gone before.
Nothing we can leave our children can be worth

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 89
more than the story of what their fathers have suf
fered and have accomplished.
Mr. President, it is a pleasure to me to be here,
to listen to the eloquent addresses frora this plat-
forra, and to unite with these representative raen in
doing honor to this hero of the trying hour of our
nation's birth. He being dead, yet speaketh. His
life is a perpetual force, not only in our American
Union, but throughout the world. For the sphere
of the influence of the noble raan, the knight of
freedom and independence, cannot be limited.
Wherever the rights of man are recognized, and
so long as government by the people shall endure,
the name of John Sullivan must be as one of the
imperishable, of those "who are not born to die."
ADDEESS OF HON. JOHN 0. LINEHAN.
Me. Chaieman : Although appreciating the
honor of being called upon to speak on this occa
sion, and in the presence of such a distinguished
audience, still, were I to consult my own inclina
tions as well as the comfort of my hearers, I should
much prefer to remain a listener. However, I
have made it a rule through life to try to respond
to any call raade upon rae, and I will not raake this
an exception. I can truthfully say that thus far,
this has been for rae one of the pleasantest gather
ings I have ever attended. Like John Sullivan, I
am of Irish origin, but unlike him, of Irish birth,
and the tributes so eloquently and so ungrudgingly
paid him by the speaker of the day, by Senator
Chandler, and by our good governor, are appre-

90 DEDICATION OP THE
ciated by none more than by myself. For though
here nearly half a century, I have never forgotten,
and never shall forget, the land of my ancestors, a
land that for over a hundred and fifty years has
been closely connected with the best interests of
this country, and from which came thousands who
did their full part in the establishment and mainte
nance of our government. I am also interested from
the fact that I was born almost within the shadow
of the walls of a castle built by one of Sullivan's
ancestors, and as a child had heard around the fire
side the traditions of his family, which was one of
the most distinguished in the south of Ireland
long before the Normans came to England under
William the Conqueror.
A few years ago, it was my privilege to be pres
ent at a meeting of a well-known historical associa
tion where one of the speakers expressed in strong
language his resentment at the treatment of New
Hampshire in the average description of the Battle
of Bunker Hill, all the glory as a rule being
given to Massachusetts when New Hampshire fur
nished the greater part of the men who fought
there. Now those who, like myself, are of Irish
birth or parentage, and who are interested in the
good name of their mother-land, have the same
fault to find with the average gathering of this
character (to which, however, this is a marked
exception), for although natives of Ireland and
their sons have taken a prominent part in the his
tory of New Hampshire frora the days of Darby
Field, " The Irish Soldier for Discovery," who

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 91
was sent here by Capt. John Mason in 1631,
down to the time that John Sullivan led the attack
on the fort at Newcastle, they have all been cred
ited, not to Ireland, but to Scotland, by a class
of writers who totally ignore the origin of the
people of both countries.
" By Mac and O' you'll always know
True Irishmen, they say;
But if they lack the O' or Mac,
No Irishmen are they."
Our New Hampshire McNeils, McDufees, Mc-
Murphys, and McKeans were not, so far as blood
was concerned, strangers to the O'Neils, O'Duffys,
O'Murphys, and O'Kanes, and the same can be
said of others bearing different names. Let that
be as it may, however, this is the first meeting
called to celebrate an event connected with the
record of a New Hampshire raan of Irish parent
age, that the individual whose raemory is thus
honored was not styled a " Scotch-Irishman."
John Sullivan sprang frora a race of soldiers.
His grandfather was an officer in the garrison of
Liraerick, dying later in the French service, and
his father was born in that city during its siege
by Williara III. Many of his relatives bearing the
same name distinguished themselves in the armies
of France, of Spain, and of Austria. In his veins
flowed the blood of the Norman Butlers and Fitz
geralds, who had become, in time, " more Irish than
the Irish themselves." His brother Jaraes was
governor of Massachusetts, attorney-general of the

92 DEDICATION OF THE
commonwealth, and historian of Maine. His brother
Daniel led one hundred raen to Bunker Hill and
lost his life in the cause to which John had de
voted his health and fortune, and his brother Eben
served in the Continental Army from the beginning
to the end of the struggle.
It seems, therefore, like retributive justice to
find the grandson of the Liraerick soldier paying,
with interest, his grandfather's debt to the govern
ment that had driven his father into exile, for on
the authority of one of the king's provincial coun
cillors, whose words have been quotedby the speaker
of the day, he, John Sullivan, was the first man to
coramit an overt act against the government, for
which his property was threatened with confisca
tion, and himself with death. So much for his
origin, and I crave your indulgence for dwelling
upon it, but if New Hampshire resents the attempt
of Massachusetts to appropriate to herself the
greater part of the glory of Bunker Hill, surely
you will pardon me for trying to retain for Ireland
credit due the birthplace of the father of John
Sullivan. Leaving his origin out of the question, however,
a better American, a more capable, a more useful,
or a raore fearless man than John Sullivan our state
never possessed. All his thoughts, his impulses,
and his actions frora the time he grew to manhood
down to the hour of his death were for the best
interests of the land that gave him birth. The out
break of the Revolution found him in health and
prosperous, as such things were measured in those

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. . 93
days. Its close left him broken in health and de
pleted in purse.
This monument will ever be a reminder to the
people of Durham, and to the strangers who pass
it by, of a raan whose sole thought, and whose
every action, was to aid in the establishment on
this continent of a government of the people; for,
as he said in his letter to Meshech Weare in July,
1775, "All governments are, or ought to be, insti
tuted for the good of the people; and that form of
government is the most perfect when that design is
raost nearly and effectually answered."
In accordance with the plan outlined by hira in
this letter, the state governraent of New Hamp
shire was instituted, and nearly a century later the
principles thus enunciated by him were expressed
by Abraham Lincoln on the Gettysburg battle-field,
in the immortal address wherein he spoke of " a
government of the people, by the people, for the
people." But his most enduring monument, and one that
the ravages of time can neither efface nor destroy,
will be found in the record of his deeds as a patriot,
a statesraan, and a soldier in the provincial, revolu
tionary, and state papers of New Harapshire. No
man of that period occupies more space therein, and
his correspondence, which seeras endless, is evi
dence of his ability, his zeal, his love for his native
state, and his tireless labor in behalf of liberty.
What a record of the man these papers contain!
In 1766, a young unknown lawyer in the town of
Durham; in 1774, a major in the colonial militia;

94 DEDICATION OP THE
in May of the same year, a delegate to the Conti
nental Congress ; in December following, the leader
of the party that captured the powder at New
castle; a brigadier-general in 1775; a major-gen
eral a year later, distinguished for gallantry at
Germantown and Brandywine; in command at
Rhode Island in 1778, and in 1779 leading the
expedition against the Six Nations, which resulted
in the overthrow of the most coraplete organization
of Indians ever effected on this continent. The
thanks of the imraortal Washington and of the
Continental Congress, as expressed in general orders
and appropriate resolutions, are the best evidence
of the character of his services in the campaign, for
after this event there were no repetitions of the
massacre of Wyoming and Cherry Yalley. Four
monuments erected by the grateful people of the
Empire State mark the route traversed by his vic
torious troops, and a county named in his honor
evinces the love and respect in which the memory of
John Sullivan is held by the citizens of New York.
His military career ends here. He returns to his
home with ruined health and exhausted resources,
but even in that condition he responded to the calls
made upon him by the people of New Hampshire,
who had, from the time the struggle began, placed
the most implicit confidence in his counsels. In
November, 1775, when the Connecticut troops re
fused to serve beyond their term of enlistment, in
response to his appeal, thirty-one companies of
sixty-four men each were recruited and sent from
New Hampshire. In response to the request of the

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 95
people of New Hampshire, Sullivan was sent by
Washington to Portsmouth to superintend the con
struction of harbor defenses against a supposed
naval attack of the eneray.
In 1777 Massachusetts was asked to co-operate
with New Harapshire in an appeal to Washington
to have hira appointed to the command of the
Northern army, and in November of the same year
he received the thanks of the general court for his
conduct in Rhode Island, all of which is proof of
the love and esteem in which he was held in New
Hampshire. On his return from the army, the
New Hampshire council and assembly voted an
address congratulating him on his safe return.
The necessities of the times demanding his aid,
he was directed in March, 1780, to draft a bill to
regulate the militia. In June, 1781, he was elected
to represent his state in the national Congress, and
in January, 1782, he was chosen commander of the
forces in the western part of the state. The same
month and year he was appointed attorney-general
of the state. In 1788 he was president of the state
convention, which adopted the Federal constitution.
Later, he was president of the state senate, a mem
ber of the executive council, a presidential elector,
and for three years was president of the state, the
official title of the governor at that time. He was
appointed judge of the district court of New Hamp
shire by his old commander, Washington, whose
confidence and esteem he had always retained, and
while holduig this position died, on the 23d of Jan
uary, 1795, at the age of fifty-four.

96 DEDICATION OP THE
The trust reposed in hira by the iramortal leader
of the Continental Array, and by the people of his
native state, was shared by his railltary associates
in the great contest, for on the forraation of the
Order of the Cincinnati he was chosen by his
fellow-officers the commander of the New Hamp
shire branch of the association.
From 1774 to 1795, twenty-one years, his whole
time had been devoted to the best interests of his
state and country. His active career began when
he was thirty-three years of age; it ended on his
death-bed at fifty-four. This record is his best
monument, and it will exist as long as the granite
hills of the state he loved, for in its interests he
sacrificed fortune and health, and realizing this fact,
Matthew Patten, for the Committee of Safety, wrote
him during the war, " That the Almighty may
direct your counsels, be with you in the day of
battle, and that you may be preserved as a pattern
to this people for many years to come, is our fer
vent prayer." And with this epitaph for the mon
ument, the fervent sentiments of a Christian patriot,
for such was Matthew Patten, I lay my tribute on
the grave of John Sullivan.
ADDEESS OF PATEICK H. SULLIVAN.
As by the stroke of a magician's wand, the
present and all that pertains to it have this day been
put away from sight and mind, and the citizens of
the greatest republic that the world has seen, revel
in the past, which is their grandest heritage. As in
a dream we move to-day, spirits of another time

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 97
than this. Again the country stretches about us, an
almost unbroken wilderness ; New York and Phila
delphia are no longer within speaking distance, and
Europe lies a fabulous way beyond infinite leagues
of the tossing sea. The men who surround us are
of a nobler, more heroic t3rpe; molded, it would
seera, upon another plan; unlike the men of to-day
in customs and temperament. These men are the
progenitors of the new nation, the unconscious
founders of the greatest race old mother earth has
ever borne. There is stern work to be done here in
the new world, and nature and the elements, the
reluctant soil and savage neighbors have conspired
to prepare for the task men who will not shrink,
who will not flinch. Human liberty, overpowered
in the old world, has made her way across the
trackless ocean to fight the last fight. Here and
now, on new ground, among the sturdy colonists,
she takes a last stand, knowing that defeat here
means defeat forever. How well she chose her
time and place you all know, and it is for me to
offer only a very brief tribute to the man who
helped to accomplish this great work, and to the
state which gave him for its accomplishment.
Time, like Death, is a great leveler. It destroys
in its onward course memories dear and seemingly
perpetual. But the roll of the years that have
passed since first the white man trod the Western
continent is not wholly a dry enumeration of men
who have been born and who have died and whose
total history upon earth is to be summed up in these
few trite words. Nor have all the events, the hap-

98 DEDICATION OP THE
penings of that long period, the sarae empty
epitaph. To be sure, thousands of raen have lived
upon this coast whose pulses stirred and whose
brains throbbed with pure and lofty purposes, that
we may never know. Their brief course was run,
the grave closed over them, oblivion has claimed
thera, and the children of their children know them
not. " No soul shall tell, nor lips shall number
The names and tribes of you that slumber.
No memory, no memorial."
But there are men whose careers have defied the
grim shadows that gather at each raan's torab to
enshroud and obliterate every raemory that might
endear him to the future, men who have traced their
lives upon the book of time in characters so lumi
nous they shine and glow to-day, and will forever.
Such a raan was General John Sullivan. How
much do we not owe to the daring of his genius
and the steadfastness of the purpose which upbore
him through the trials and struggles of the stormy
time in which he lived? The men of New Hamp
shire in the days of Sullivan are a fair type of the
American colonist. He was imbued with a love of
God and a filial reverence for the mother-land.
England or Ireland, as the case might be, was the
loadstone which always attracted his admiration
and devotion. Not lightly could he sever ties so
dear. The hardy yepman, home from toil in the
fields or amid the virgin forests which surrounded
his humble home, went back in fancy to the good
old days of yore, and be he Irishman, Englishman,

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 99
or Scotchman, his heart was bound up in the tight
little island across the sea that held the ashes of
his kindred. Amid such raen and such surround
ings the youth of Sullivan was passed. The people
of that day were full of stern purpose and aniraated
with the hope of carving out in the western world
a new and perhaps greater Britain than the one left
behind. But they were not blind, nor could they
be deceived. Passionately devoted as they were to
the mother-land, they could not shut their eyes to
the schemes of oppression that were being hatched
against them in Parliaraent, and it is to their eter
nal credit that after the first candid and honest pro
test they made no effort to do so. They remem
bered the glories of the days that were, and all the
tender thoughts that the word "home" summoned,
but they could not forget the Starap Act, the Tea
Tax, and the Boston Massacre. A soldiery was
quartered upon them, troopers who every day
became more insolent, and already bore themselves
as conquerors araong the conquered. The spirit
of the colonists, who had suffered the severities of
the Canadian winter in the French and Indian
wars, chafed beneath this restraint. They had
measured their valor with the English soldiers on
the Plains of Abraham and before the batteries of
Louisburg, and they knew that the American
troops, rough and uncouth though they might be,
had nobly borne themselves in the battle's front.
Not thoughtlessly could they enter upon a struggle
with the greater power, but the idea of submission
to petty oppressions already begun, and more

100 DEDICATION OP THE
shameful humiliations in store, was not to be enter
tained for a raoment. They began to gird them
selves for the fray, which they now saw must soon
be at hand.
It is at this time that the genius of Sullivan dis
plays itself. As has been already said, his race had
never learned to bear English tyranny meekly.
None saw more clearly than he that the colonists,
in order to preserve their liberties, nay, even their
self-respect, must take a stand against the home
government and maintain it to the bitter end.
Having come to this conclusion, it was not in his
nature to sit idly by, lest perchance events might be
so shaped as to preclude all possibility of the suc
cess of the cause he held so dear. He realized that
it was a time for action, that the theorist and
dreamer must be sent to the rear, and that if the
colonists would be in any way prepared for the
impending conflict, they raust be up and doing.
Frora this train of reasoning was evolved the scherae
for the capture of powder at Fort William and
Mary. Coolly planned and daringly executed, that
has always seemed to me one of the most signifi
cant episodes of the Revolutionary period. To
appreciate it fully we must remember that it took
place before actual hostilities began, when as yet
it was generally hoped that the struggle might
be averted. The punishment that awaited failure
or detection raight well have deterred them from
such an awful risk. But the cannon's mouth is not
the only criterion of heroism. It is easy to do
deeds of surpassing bravery amid the din and sraoke

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 101
of battle, when the ear is pierced with the call of
bugle, the heart sustained with the roll of drum,
and the brain frenzied with the shouts of victory
alraost assured. The Revolutionary War is rich in
heroisra of this sort, from Lexington to Yorktown.
But I find Nathan Hale, the patriot spy, standing
pinioned upon the scaffold, about to suffer an igno
minious death, a grander figure than Anthony
Wayne at Stony Point, and to my mind, Sullivan
and his companions, gliding down the silent river
amid the shadows of night, to pit themselves against
the English garrison at Newcastle, present a pic
ture which for patriotism and undaunted heroism,
matches well the famous crossing of the Delaware.
Such is the man whom to-day our state seeks to
honor, and in so doing honors herself and is the
more endeared to her loving children. New Hamp
shire, she of the granite hills and sturdy raen, to
day recalls to the nation the debt it owes for the
son she has given for its foundation and demon
strates anew that she is preeminently a standard of
the Araerican state. Here the perfection of the
governmental principles of all the ages is applied
to a body of citizens who are determined that free
dom and equality shall cease to be mere words and
shall stand for something at last. Greece arose
like Cytherea from the sea, dazzled and delighted
her uncouth neighbors for a while and then, forget
ting the fundamental principles upon which her sta
bility and glory depended, went down in shame
before all raankind. Rorae, on a grander scale,
repeated the same humiliating and shameful spec-

102 DEDICATION OP THE
tacle. On the western shores, the men who love
man are once more striving to carry out the idea of
universal brotherhood, and the corner-stone of their
system is the American state, which received its
irapetus at the Continental Congress where Sulli
van so well represented his native state.
After all, we are forced to admit that although
our task to-day is a labor of love, it is in some
senses an unnecessary one. Sullivan needs no
monument to perpetuate his memory. That wUl
never fade. More enduring than bronze, more
storm-defying than the granite of his native hills,
it will survive to animate with noble purpose gen
erations yet unborn. A great life is never lived in
vain. It will pulsate through ages to come, to in
spire American youth in crises now unthought of.
Gen. John Sullivan has already builded a monu
ment greater, grander, broader than any reared by
mortal hands. It is called the American nation.
Its governmental influence extends from the Atlan
tic to the Pacific, but its raoral influence encircles
the globe. In the humble hamlet of the European,
on the plateaus of Asia, yea, amid the dense for
ests of Africa, is heard the whisper of the land of
promise across the sea, where law and justice reign,
and where liberty never sleeps. She is the asylum
of the down-trodden from every clirae, and the dust
of the heroes who slumber in her bosom, of Wash
ington and Sullivan, and Putnam and Stark, is a
pledge that the glad promise which she holds out
to all mankind will never be broken.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 103
ADDEESS OF COLONEL DANIEL HALL.
Me. Peesident: There is but little to glean in
any field of history or research which has once
been traversed by our distinguished orator of the
day. In undertaking to pass over such a field, one
is reduced to the same .necessities as General Sheri
dan said a bird would be in the Shenandoah Val
ley — that " he could n't fly over it, after his army
had been there, without carrying his rations."
Especially are we indebted to him for the inter
est, and zeal, and critical acumen, but at the same
time, loving and reverential spirit, with which he
has studied, and written, and spoken upon the early
history and deeds of Southern New Hampshire.
We are under obligations to hira for bringing to
light much of the history of the dear and beautiful
land which we now inhabit, the cradle and nursery
of Araerican liberty.
If it were in accord with the proprieties of the
occasion, I should be terapted to dwell upon the
circurastances, which raust be regretted by all,
which have stood in the way of the great work he
might have given us, illustrative of the early his
tory of New Hampshire — which would have de
lighted us as Scott delighted the world by his
" Tales of the Scottish Border," and sent his name
down to all future generations as Scott did his, not
exactly by achievements in the realm of romance, —
I do n't mean that, — but by his labors in the clearer
and more searching light of historical inquiry.
The story of General Sullivan's life and services

104 DEDICATION OP THE
has been graphically told to-day, and can never fail
to be interesting to the American people. His
career at every stage was striking and honorable.
A poor boy, son of an Irish immigrant, he rose by
his unaided, native resources to a high position at
the bar, at a very precocious age. He was among
the earliest and boldest advocates of the cause of
Independence, and put his principles into practice
by leading in the first overt act of the Revolution,
forcibly seizing the military stores of England, and
using thera in armed resistance to British tyranny
and the British crown. As a member of the First
Continental Congress, he counseled ever and un
waveringly a policy of separation from the raother
country. Without preparatory training, and with
very limited means of martial education, he was
raised at once to high military rank, and as a gen
eral officer under Washington, often his second in
command, he was engaged in numerous great bat
tles, and enjoyed under hira raore of independent
command than any other officer. In these respon
sible situations, he always acquitted himself with a
valor and courage never doubted, and inferior to
no other soldier. He sacrificed his personal for
tune, and all his opportunities for wealth and pre
ferment, in the service of his country. After his
military service ended, as a raember of Congress
again he was foreraost among the great men who
negotiated the terras of peace and launched the
governraent upon its magnificent course. Again
in New Hampshire, as a lawyer and attorney-gen
eral, he commenced that forensic career as a bril-

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 105
liant advocate, which he and his lineal descendants
carried on for nearly half a century. As his crown
ing civic honor, he was made president of the colo
ny, elevated to the highest post in their gift by
the people who had known him from infancy, who
knew his honor, and ability, and services to the
state and country. Finally, as a jurist, he was ap
pointed to the highest judicial place in the state, as
a raark of the special confidence and partiality of
George Washington.
In all the phases and all the trusts of his life, it
must be the verdict of every careful and discrimi
nating student of that life that General Sullivan
was a man of comraanding talents, a writer and
orator of distinguished ability, a soldier without
fear and without reproach, a patriotic man, a man
of honor and integrity, and courage unimpeacha
ble. There was a good strain of blood in these SuUi-
vans, — the younger brother, James, attorney-gen
eral and governor of Massachusetts, being fully the
general's equal as a lawyer, orator, writer, and
statesman, — and it coursed down hotly through the
veins of several generations. There was the warra,
emotional Irish temperament, which has been asso
ciated with genius and eloquence the world over
for centuries. The tones of its graceful and flowery
speech have resounded in our courts of law, in our
legislative halls, and on our platforms to this day ;
and the sarae teraperament is full of the dash and
intrepidity, the fiery 6lan which has enabled the
Irish soldier in all tirae to tread the battlefields of

106 DEDICATION OF THE
Europe and America with the pace of a victor and
hero. If General Sullivan met with defeat in most of
his battles, so also did Washington himself. Let
it be never forgotten that independence was won
not by fighting so much as by the Fabian policy of
avoiding fighting, or rather by the Fabian and
fighting poHcies combined. It is easy to account
for this by the simple ti-uth famihar to every mili
tary man and every student of history, that the raw
anduntriedleviesof the American colonies, until sea
soned by discipline and battle, could not be success
fully pitted against the veteran legions of Europe.
But despite a complete consensus of opinion as
to General Sullivan's courage, patriotism, and intel
lectual superiority, he has been the object of grave
and weighty personal attack. Our great American
historian, Bancroft, usually so just and discriminat
ing, seems to have entertained a special hostihty to
him. Nowhere does he praise him, but finds every
possible occasion to criticise and disparage him.
He blames him for every mishap of the army when
he is near it, and not content with innuendoes and
other evidences of his prejudices scattered every
where throughout his great work, he "thunders in
the index " in the most teiTific way, the text referred
to not seldom failing to support the overdrawn
language of the table of contents. In only one
place do I remember that Bancroft says a word in
his praise, but a tribute to his personal courage is
extorted from him by Sullivan's splendid intrepidity
at the Battle of the Brandywine.

SULLIVAN MONUMENT. 107
These charges have been formally met and re
futed by the historical societies of Massachusetts
and New Hampshire, by Amory in his "Life of
Sullivan," and to-day most triuraphantly, as it
seems to me, by the masterly address to which we
have listened ; so that General Sullivan's fame
would seem to be safe from further aspersion.
Indeed, the defense of this day must be to the
author a grateful service to the memory of one of
the earliest, most active, devoted, and indomitable
patriots of our revolutionary era — a service de
manded by the truth of history.
It is the tendency of the critical and skeptical
spirit of the age to throw down our historical
idols ; but it seems to me that while truth is always
to be preferred to falsehood, it is time to call a halt
to this depreciatory spirit, this disposition to ferret
out and expose with exaggeration the inevitable
flaws in great public characters. It cannot be that
the great things of history have been accoraplished
without men of heroic mold, and so let us keep
some of them enthroned in our reverence.
Take away, O historical iconoclast ! if you will,
old " Homer and the tale of Troy divine ! " obliter
ate the walls of Troy and the miraculous annals of
early Rorae! blot out Roraulus and Remus, and even
Alexander and Napoleon, and the other blood-thirsty
tyrants and conquerors of history ! But leave us
our own Washington, and leave us Greene, and La
fayette, and Sullivan, our ideals of patriotism and
love of liberty, who enjoyed the confidence and
affection of Washington to the last hour of his life.

108 DEDICATION OF THE SULLIVAN MONUMENT.
Twenty-five years ago, the biographer of Gen
eral Sullivan said, — " It is to be hoped that at sorae
future day the state, as she grows in prosperity,
and is raore disposed to value the services which
established her independence and free institutions,
will erect in her capital or near their sepulchres,
statues or monuments to the memories of her dis
tinguished Revolutionary worthies."
New Hampshire has been tardy in paying this
tribute of gratitude to her illustrious sons ; but
within a few years past she has raade a good begin
ning, and Weare, and Thornton, and Stark are
already thus honored. To-day she comes to per
form this office of duty and reverence to another
of her worthies, — lawyer, orator, soldier, patriot,
chief magistrate of the state. Here, on the spot
chosen by him as his dwelling-place on earth, and
as his grave, — here, in the old town of his adoption,
she raises his monument, modestly but significantly,
and by it she proclaims her judgment that John
Sullivan is worthy of lasting commemoration as
one of the most serviceable of the raen it was her
great honor to contribute to the cause of Araeri
can independence.

YALE

S.?f' •¦ "

t *<

•¦"¦>?.f».'''l