Keeping Alive the Principles – Steady and solemn refusal…
Every April we re-enact the alarm and muster of April 19, 1775. Captain William Smith arrives by horse at the White Church in Lincoln, and the church bell rouses us from nearby houses, to muster in Lincoln Center. Early the following Monday morning, we muster by Bemis Hall, and after a salute to the patriots buried in the cemetery, we march to Concord along Sandy Pond Road, the same route taken by the original minute men of Lincoln. We are proud to be an example of “steady and solemn refusal to be subject to the whims and caprices of any man or body of men.
Perpetuating the Memory…
It wasn’t about Glory or Destiny in 1775
And on a Sunday in late April, we assemble at Pierce House in Lincoln, along with a contingent of British Redcoats, and march to the Lexington Road cemetery for a ceremony honoring the Lincoln patriots and British soldiers buried there. We believe that if we could ask Sippio Brister, Josiah Parks, or John Hoar…or any of the patriots buried in Lincoln about why they acted as they did…they would not talk about glory or about destiny, or being remembered. Instead, they would talk about the right to self-determination. They would say, “It isn’t just about taxation, but about my rights and responsibilities to participate in law-making, based upon moral principles.”