for the preparation that enables us to defend our soldiers and ourselves
from savages. Massachusetts is not going to repudiate these patriotic
services. To do so now would mean more than repudiating the Government.
It would mean repudiating the devotion of our brave men in arms,
repudiating the sacrifice of the fathers, mothers, wives, and dear ones
behind, and repudiating the loyalty of the millions who subscribed to
the Liberty Loan,--it would mean repudiating America.

Massachusetts has decided that the path of the Mayflower shall not be
closed. She has decided to sail the seas. She has decided to sail not
under the edict of Potsdam, crimped in narrow lanes seeking safety in
unarmed merchantmen painted in fantastic hues, as the badge of an
infamous servitude, but she has decided to sail under the ancient
Declaration of Independence, choosing what course she will, maintaining
security by the guns of ships of the line, flying at the mast the Stars
and Stripes, forever the emblem of a militant liberty.




XIV

DEDICATION OF TOWN-HOUSE, WESTON

NOVEMBER 27, 1917


I was interested to come out here and take part in the dedication of
this beautiful building in part because my ancestors had lived in this
locality in times gone past, but more especially because I am interested