Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1884 — The Birthplace of Liberty. [ARTICLE]

The Birthplace of Liberty.

From Woburn I advanced on Lexington. It is a very pretty village, and externally contains but few evidences of poor folks. The historic green on which the battle was fought was a small triangular piece of ground, inclosed by a railing and shaded with elm and hickory trees. It contains a liberty pole, by which is a mounted iron cannon, and at a little distance is a plain granite shaft, erected in 1799 to the memory of the seven men of Lexington who fell there. I notice that one “John Brown” ilso died at Lexington. About the top or “lubber” of the liberty pole is a gilt inscription indicating this as “the birthplace of American liberty.” It was a warm Indian summer October afternoon when I sat on the green. The quiet reigning over the village was such that the crow of a rooster could be heard through the entire place. A gang of Italians engaged on some public work were rolling and lunching on the grass; children talking and laughing were on their way to school; young ladies tripped along with music-rolls in their hands; people went in and out of houses with marketbaskets; washing was going on; clothes were hung to dry in back yards; a grocer’s wagon rattled along the street; a sand cart followed. And this was Lexington, and apparently not a soul thinking of tlie skirmish between a company of American farmers and a battalion of English troops, which has been so often told in story, history, and song.—Cor. Sen Francisco Chronicle.