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PRESIDENT CLINTON: I'd like to share Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord
Hymn," a poem he wrote to commemorate the completion of the battle
monument, to honor the fallen heroes at the battles of Lexington and
Concord in the Revolutionary War, and to invoke the enduring spirit
of patriotism that inspires us down to the present day.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's
breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the
shot heard 'round the world. The foe, long since in silence slept, alike
the conqueror in silence sleeps, in time the ruined bridge has swept
down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this
soft stream, we set today a votive stone that memory may their deed
redeem. When like our sires, our sons are gone, spirit that made those
heroes there, to die, and leave their children free. Let time and nature
gently spare the shaft we raise to them, and thee."
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