The Soldiers Monument in Cambridge

S H. SAUNDERS, MAYOR. Fellow Citizens: On this spot, famed in our Revolutionary history, where the illustrious Washington first assumed command of the American Army, we meet to-day to commence our work, and to lay the corner-stone of this structure, which shall commemorate in the great future the real actors of the great struggle from which we have so recently emerged; and which shall bear their names, and transmit their memories to generations yet unborn, and shall manifest somewhat the sacrifices made by them for the free institutions which we enjoy. We cannot, I think, yet realize the magnitude, or too highly appreciate the momentous consequences, of this contest, or the great principles of self-government involved ; but we can offer our thanks to that kind and overruling Providence (who seeth the end from the beginning), that our nation wascarried safely through this great peril. No words of mine at this time can fitly eulogize the deeds of those who, with no hope of gain to themselves, but with an intense love of country, became a willing sacrifice and gave up their lives, choosing death rather than that this government of our fathers should be destroyed. Standing in this place, I can only acknowledge the debt as one impossible for us to repay. They have won a title to the nation's highest glory. The value of their deeds, and the result brought about by their successful heroism, will be felt by the whole civilized world, while it has shaped t...