p. 27, l. 17). Only fifty years from Bunker Hill we have seen marvelous changes both in this country and in Europe (p. 27, 1. 18-p. 28, l. 33). While we are enjoying this unexampled prosperity, we have still among us survivors of the war; to you, survivors of Bunker Hill, to you also, unquenchable spirit (Warren), who gave up life on this field of war, and to you, veterans of half a century, we express our universal gratitude (p. 29, l. 1-p. 31, 1. 31). Passing over the familiar incidents of the battle and the events leading up to it, we notice briefly that before the battle there was no strong feeling of unity in the colonies or abroad, but that after the battle all stood as a unit, shoulder to shoulder, against the mother country (p. 31, 1. 32p. 35, l. 14). To you, fortunate man (Lafayette), whom the news of these events roused to action, and through whom the electric spark of liberty was conducted from the New World to the Old, we express the happiness which your presence brings to us at this scene of commemoration of the deeds of the great patriots, and we express the hope that it may be long before anyone shall write your eulogy (p. 35, 1. 15-p. 36, 1. 26). Invited by the spirit of the occasion to consider the changes of the last fifty years in this country and elsewhere, we are impressed with three features that especially characterize the present age: (a) the vast spread of knowledge; (b) the improved condition of the individual; (c) the bettering effect of these two things on the state of the governments of the world (p. 36, 1. 27-p. 43, 1. 31). Our duty is to preserve unblemished to the world the cheering example of our popular government, and to hold sacred the obligations which have devolved on this generation (p. 43, l. 32-p. 45, 1. 30).

From this analysis it will be seen that no one central theme is started at the beginning of the speech and developed systematically to the end. Instead, the orator takes up a number of items suggested by the nature of the occasion, and eloquently discusses each. Intermingled with these reflections are stirring

apostrophes to the hero who was first celebrated by a monument on the battle site, to the heroes of the battle who were present in the audience, and to the distinguished guest from abroad. Yet it is evident that a single thought permeates the whole address, the thought of the duty of national patriotism, as an inheritance from those who made the nation possible. Surely in its general construction the speech measures up to the best tests of oratory of this character.

With regard to the details of the construction of the speech it may be pointed out that the individual paragraphs are excellent rhetorically and have also a genuine oratorical swing. Analyzed closely, most of the paragraphs will be found to contain a single idea developed thoroughly and consistently. Examine, for instance, the last paragraph of the oration, and observe how closely and energetically the speaker dwells on the idea of the duty of the men of 1825 in the carrying on of the free government established by their forefathers. The continuity of the thought, too, is admirable. From sentence to sentence the paragraph idea runs on to a forcible and effective final statement in the last sentence.

But the rhetorical analysis of the thought, revealing as it does, almost always, paragraph unity and continuity, scarcely reveals the spirited oratorical swing of the paragraphs. To feel this oratorical fervor is easier than to understand how it is gained, for there is always the element of emotion in utterances such as these. The gathering of groups of two or three or four similar phrases into a sentence, the repeating of the same form of sentence structure through a long series of sentences (see page 26), the modulation of effect by varying the sentence length, and the selection of strong Saxon words help in producing the oratorical tone. One can appreciate the speech fairly well through detailed examination of the paragraphs in order to discover these devices. Such a study is bound to reveal something of the secret of the orator, but from the very nature of

the address cannot be expected to bring one a complete understanding. This commemorative oration is pre-eminently one to be felt and enjoyed through oral interpretation leading to an increasing sense of the patriotic duties of the present generation. A genuine thrill of devotion to country roused by the speech will be of more value than anything else to be gained from its painstaking study, and will on the whole give one a better conception of the true significance of the orator's effort and its true place in the field of commemorative oratory.

Webster takes for granted a knowledge in his hearers of the incidents of the battle. He says, on page 31, "The occasion does not require of me any particular account of the battle of the 17th of June, nor any detailed narrative of the events which immediately preceded it." In the four following paragraphs, however, he does give a narrative of the events which preceded the battle. He tells how Massachusetts had been singled out by the English government as an object for severe punishment, and he explains the effect upon that colony and neighboring colonies of this severity of treatment. out how the clash at Lexington and Concord accentuated the bitter feeling of resistance and brought the united New England colonies to the next field of battle. So much, in brief, he tells of the events preceding the battle.

He points

Still, he neglects to give many incidents of the fight, assuming a knowledge of these. Seven years before the time of his speech he published, in the North American Review (July, 1818), a glowing description of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Unfortunately most students nowadays do not seem to have the knowledge which Webster takes for granted. Let us therefore start with the specific references which are made by the speaker in his oration and then gather together a few other items to give a connected idea of the contest. On page 29, lines 9-16, Webster says to the venerable warriors, "You see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning

Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying; the impetuous charge; the steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror may be in war and death; all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more." He then calls his venerable auditors' attention to the fact that the towers and roofs of Boston are now filled with the whole happy population, instead of with terrified wives and children, and to the fact that the ships in the Navy Yard at the base of the hill are the nation's, that they are not hostile sloops of war as on the day of the conflict. These details, it will be observed, are mostly oratorical generalizations; at most battles there is the impetuous charge and the summoning of manly courage to vigorous resistance. The only specific details are regarding the onlookers and the fleet, Again, there is a reference to the event on page 29, line 34, when the orator says that he looks in vain in the audience for Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, and Bridge, a great muster roll of names possessing for those who know the details of the battle something of the wonderful effect described by Macaulay as belonging to the catalogue of names in Milton's epic. Again, on page 36, lines 2-7, in the personal words to Lafayette, comes another reference, the most specific and definite contained in the speech. "You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the incredible diligence of Prescott; defended, to the last extremity, by his lion-hearted valor; and within which the corner stone of our monument has now taken its position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with him." Here, as before, the definiteness is largely that of a rollcall of honor, though the part taken by Prescott is mentioned specifically. The "little" redoubt, in a historical rather than an oratorical narrative, would be described as "eight rods square"

(Bancroft). With these three references, the details supplied by Webster stop. The account in his oration delivered 17 June, 1843, upon the completion of the monument, is also oratorical in its character, omitting specific historical details. Let us therefore go to Bancroft and Frothingham, the historians, for a connected, definite account of the contest.

The topography1 of the battle ground is important to understand if one would grasp the essential facts of the contest. Richard Frothingham, in his centennial Battle of Bunker Hill, 1875, gives at page 15 an admirable diagram of the region. In the same author's pamphlet entitled The Battle-field of Bunker Hill, published in 1876, the frontispiece is an excellently clear engraving of early Charlestown. On a narrow peninsula north of Boston and separated from it by the Charles River, half a mile wide, was the village of Charlestown. The other side of the peninsula was bounded by the Mystic River. These elements in the situation are still about the same. There have been changes, however, in the hillsides, which, owing to the growth of Charlestown, do not retain their original contour. Just back of Charlestown was Breed's Hill, about seventy-five feet high. Beyond it, close to the neck of the peninsula, was a higher summit, Bunker Hill, a hundred and ten feet high. The ground sloped gradually down from Bunker Hill, then rose into Breed's Hill. It was difficult to tell just where one hill stopped and the other began. From Breed's Hill to the

1 There is much confusion about the topography. Maps in popular histories differ widely. In the long list of nearly contemporary accounts, also, cited by Frothingham in his History of the Siege of Boston, there is much diversity of statement regarding the topographical features. Some of the accounts call the hill just back of Charlestown Bunker's Hill, and the one farther northwest, near the mouth of the peninsula, Breed's Hiil; some call the hill back of the town Charlestown Hill. The map by a British officer appearing in Frothingham's History shows Bunker's Hill to have been directly back of Charlestown; but the account by the Committee of Safety, July 25, 1775, explicitly names the hill nearest the isthmus as Bunker Hill, and the one nearest Boston as Breed's Hill.