On April 19, 1875, the Hon. John M. Osborn, Senator from the Ninth senatorial district (Hillsdale county), offered the following preamble and resolutions, which were adopted by a unanimous rising vote:

Whereas, This nineteenth day of April, 1875, is the one hundredth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first engagements of the American Revolution, where our patriot fathers, in behalf of liberty, first offered armed resistance to royal tyranny, it is fitting that all patriotic citizens of the republic, to found which our sires, a hundred years ago to-day, shed their blood, should appropriately recognize their gratitude to the nation's first martyrs, and join in honoring their hallowed memory; therefore,

Resolved, by the Senate, in behalf of the people of Michigan, That we reverently record our transcendent admiration for the true nobility of character, sublime, self-sacrificing patriotism, and

exalted and unselfish heroism which those patriots evinced on that memorable day, and thankfully acknowledged the magnitude of the unrequited obligations resting upon those whose fortune it has been to enjoy the fruits of the triumph of the struggle for independence, at the commencement of which the valiant yeomen of Lexington and Concord gave their lives in testimony to the rights of mankind.

Resolved, That we appreciate the inestimable privileges and grave responsibilities bequeathed to us as a part of that rich inheritance, sealed by the blood of those patriots who died in the name of liberty, and we rejoice that the shield of this republic, which has endured for a century, gives protection to the oppressed of every land, and its flag floats over forty millions of freemen, but not one slave; that at last American citizenship means equality before the law.

Resolved, That, emulating the glorious example of our revolutionary sires, the people of Michigan renew again their pledge of loyalty to the republic, and devotion to freedom.

Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the honored dead of Lexington and Concord, the Senate do now adjourn.*

Following the resolutions is a memorial tablet, appropriately inscribed to the memory of the Concord and Lexington martyrs.

BUNKER HILL.

The fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill was appropriately commemorated by the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument, a memorial obelisk, erected by private subscription and dedicated to the heroes of the first revolutionary battle. The corner-stone was laid by General Lafayette, then the nation's guest, and the oration was pronounced by Daniel Webster, to an immense concourse of people. This address is one of the finest specimens of Mr. Webster's oratory, and its peroration, addressed to the veterans of the battle, who stood before him, reaches the height of eloquence.

The monument was completed in 1842. It is a square shaft of Quincy granite, two hundred and twenty-one feet high, thirty-one feet square at the base, and fifteen at the top. Its cost was about $150,000. On June 17th, 1843, the sixty-eighth anniversary of the battle, it was dedicated. Mr. Webster was again the orator, and his second oration was not inferior to the first.

The most imposing and magnificent of the preliminary Centennial celebrations was that of the battle of Bunker Hill, which occurred in Boston, on June 17th, 1875. It was estimated at the time that, besides the citizens of Boston themselves, not less than 300,000 people from abroad were present to witness the commemoration. The day was opened with the clangor of bells, the thunder of cannon, and strains of patriotic music. The city was brilliantly decorated, in every quarter, with banners, inscriptions and devices. In the forenoon, Governor Gaston and staff reviewed the State militia, under the command of Major-General B. F. Butler. Nearly 20,000 troops were in line.

* Michigan Senate Journal, 1875, page 909.

Among the distinguished visitors were Vice President Wilson, Generals Sherman, Burnside and Hawley, Speaker Blaine, Senators Boutwell and Ferry, and the governors of nine states, including Governor Bagley, of Michigan. In the afternoon, a procession was formed and marched to the site of the battle of Bunker Hill, in Charlestown. It was over ten miles in length, and one of its most striking features was the presence in it of two companies of militia from the states lately in rebellion the Washington Light Infantry, from Charleston, South Carolina, bearing the famous "Eutaw banner," and the Norfolk Blues, from Norfolk, Virginia. These companies were received at Boston with a specially cordial hospitality, which signified the general desire to forget the dissensions caused by the late rebellion. The Fifth Regiment of Maryland infantry, and many companies and regiments from the Northern States, were also honored guests, and took a prominent part in the procession. The presi dent of the day was George Washington Warren, a lineal descendant of the gallant general who fell at Bunker Hill. The orator of the day was General Charles Devens, Jr., and Oliver Wendell Holmes read the poem, a ballad of Bunker Hill. Informal speeches by General Sherman, Vice President Wilson, Governors Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, Bedle, of New Jersey, Ingersoll of Connecticut, and Dingley, of Maine, concluded the exercises.

THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

The details of the celebration of this event are not at hand, but in the proceedings of the United States Centennial Commission of May 20, 1875, occurs the following:

Mr. Prosser, of Tennessee, offered the following resolution :

Whereas, The people of the states of North Carolina and Tennessee are engaged this day in celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the day having been set apart thereto by gubernatorial proclamation; and,

Whereas, This Centennial Commission is in hearty sympathy with the people of those States, in the celebration of this memorable event; therefore,

Resolved, That this Commission send greeting to the citizens of North Carolina and Tennessee, and cordially join with them in doing honor to the memory of the patriotic citizens of the former State, who, one hundred years ago, put forth the declaration above referred to, and thus placed themselves in the vanguard of a movement designed to bring about and establish a nationality consecrated to liberal ideas of humanity, to a republican form of government, and to the doctrine that governments should be organized by the people, and for the general welfare.

In accordance with the above resolution, the following telegram was sent:

To our fellow citizens celebrating the Mecklenburg Declaration at Charlotte, North Carolina:

The United States Centennial Commission, in annual meeting, near Independence Hall, send most cordial and fraternal greetings, with the warmest wishes for your success and happiness. Pray come up, as your fathers did, to meet your brothers and finish the work, next year, at Philadelphia.

NR

II. THE CENTENNIAL FOURTH.

EVER before, in the history of the world, were the people of a continent so moved by a common impulse and at the same time, as were the people of the United States on the Fourth of July, 1876. We have seen persons held in rapt wonder, admiration, or awe, or breaking forth in spontaneous expressions of enthusiasm, as the sentiments or emotions were strongly appealed to. We have seen audiences held spell-bound, or joining their voices in loud acclaim, by the power of eloquence, or the achievements of valor. Cities have moved en masse in testifying their homage to some great principle, or to some person either feared or beloved by them. The people of ancient Rome assembled at given times in their capital city to hold high carnival through the mistaken agencies of brutality and vice, and from the Coliseum three hundred thousand voices were hushed in suspense, or raised in horror or applause, at the brutal exhibitions of the arena.

Whether as affecting single individuals or congregations of persons, the things which in the past have evoked manifestations of human feeling have been addressed more immediately to the senses. The individual is a single body, as masses of persons moved by a common impulse, become one body. Rome, from her seat of power, possessed no magic agency by which she could inspire her extremities; hence she called her representative agents from the body of her empire that they might gloat their brutal tastes on the tortures of the innocent victims of shameless triumphs, and receive the inspiration that should stimulate them to new conquests, spoliation and rapine.

*The Coliseum was commenced by Vespasian, and completed by his son Titus, two years and nine months being occupied in its construction, employing the enforced labor of many thousands of captives. Its maximum capacity is generally put at about 110,000, but additions are said to have increased it to more than 300,000. "I went to see the Coliseum by moonlight. It is the monarch, the majesty of all ruins; there is nothing like it. All the associations of the place, too, give it the most impressive character. When you enter within this stupendous circle of ruinous walls and arches, and grand terraces of masonry, rising one above another, you stand upon the arena of the old gladiatorial combats and Christian martyrdoms; and as you lift your eyes to the vast amphitheater, you meet, in imagination, the eyes of a hundred thousand Romans, assembled to witness these bloody spectacles. What a multitude and mighty array of human beings! and how little do we know in modern times of great assemblies! One, two, and three, and at its last enlargement by Constantine, more than three hundred thousand persons, could be seated in the Circus Maximus!"-Rev. Orville Dewey.

The occasion of the Centennial Fourth gave the world to realize more sensitively the agency of the unitizing forces that the century has developed. The telegraph, the railway, and other agents of intercommunication, brought the people of the whole country into such sympathetic rapport that the jubilant impulse, flashed from point to point, awakened the simultaneous acclaim throughout the land, and in sympathizing breasts in other lands. The amphitheatre is obsolete, for we have no need to summon the nobles and grandees to the capital city to receive a base inspiration and diffuse it throughout the empire, but the inspiration of the hour thrills magnetically through the vast nerve structure that permeates the remotest part of our imperial Republic.

The Centennial Fourth was greeted at midnight. At a given hour, could an observer have been placed at a sufficient altitude, with senses sufficiently acute, he would have seen a line of rockets shooting up from the eastern and southern seaboard, and would have heard the simultaneous booming of cannon and ringing of bells along the same line, and seen the people astir like bees in a disturbed hive. A few minutes later, as time advances by the law of the sun, and a north and south line on the meridian of Albany would have shown similar animation, and successively Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, San Francisco, would have awakened to the advancing blaze and peal, and boom and cheer. And these demonstrations were not confined to the land, but distant seas were lighted up and made tremulous as by the throat of Thundering Jupiter, from thousands of vessels floating under the stripes and stars.

With such greeting was the first hour of the Centennial Fourth ushered in; and such summary but imperfect picture of the grand ceremonial must suffice under this immediate head. Commemorative exercises during the day were as universal as was the greeting with which it was received, but outside of our own State, only the national celebration at Philadelphia, and other exercises contemporaneous therewith, will be noticed.

THE GREAT NATIONAL CELEBRATION AT PHILADELPHIA.

The commemorative exercises at Philadelphia on the fourth of July, 1876, were mainly under the charge of the Centennial Commission and the authorities of Philadelphia, but were national in their character. The formal exercises were held in Independence Square, fronting Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. These are located on Chestnut street, between Fifth and Sixth streets. Independence Hall is well