Such were some of the outstanding deeds of the day. But these were the
deeds of men and the deeds of men always have an inward significance. In
distant Philadelphia, on this very day, the Continental Congress had
chosen as the Commander of their Army, General George Washington, a man
whose clear vision looked into the realities of things and did not
falter. On his way to the front four days later, dispatches reached him
of the battle. He revealed the meaning of the day with, one question,
"Did the militia fight?" Learning how those heroic men fought, he said,
"Then the liberties of the Country are safe." No greater commentary has
ever been made on the significance of Bunker Hill.

We read events by what goes before and after. We think of Bunker Hill
as the first real battle for independence, the prelude to the
Revolution. Yet these were both after-thoughts. Independence Day was
still more than a year away and then eight years from accomplishment.
The Revolution cannot be said to have become established until the
adoption of the Federal Constitution. No, on this June day, these were
not the conscious objects sought. They were contending for the liberties
of the country, they were not yet bent on establishing a new nation nor
on recognizing that relationship between men which the modern world
calls democracy. They were maintaining well their traditions, these sons
of Londonderry, lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray, and these
sons of the Puritans, whom Macaulay tells us humbly abased themselves in
the dust before the Lord, but hesitated not to set their foot upon the
neck of their king.

It is the moral quality of the day that abides. It was the purpose of
those plain garbed men behind the parapet that told whether they were
savages bent on plunder, living under the law of the jungle, or sons of
the morning bearing the light of civilization. The glorious revolution