t Gettysburg, and at the
second battle of the Marne. Stupendous results, the product of a people
working with an everlasting purpose.

While celebrating the history of Westfield, this day has been set apart
to the memory of one of her most illustrious sons, General William
Shepard. To others are assigned the history of your town and the
biography of your soldier. Into those particulars I shall not enter. But
the principles of government and of citizenship which they so well
represent, and nobly illustrate, will never be untimely or unworthy of
reiteration.

The political history of Westfield has seen the success of a great
forward movement, to which it contributed its part, in establishing the
principle, that the individual in his rights is supreme, and that
"governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."
It is the establishment of liberty, under an ordered form of government,
in this ancient town, by the people themselves, that to-day draws us
here in admiration of her achievements. When we turn to the life of her
patriot son we see that he no less grandly illustrated the principle,
that to such government, so established, the people owe an allegiance
which has the binding power of the most solemn obligation.

There is such a disposition in these days to deny that our Government
was formed by, or is now in control of, the people, that a glance at the
history of the days of General Shepard is peculiarly pertinent and
instructive.

The Constitution of Massachusetts, with its noble Declaration of Rights,
was adopted in 1780. Under it we still live with scarce any changes that
affect the rights of the people. The end of the Revolutionary War was
1783. Shays's Rebellion was in 1787. The American Constitution was
ratified and adopted in 1788. These dates tell us what the form of
government was in this period.

If there are any who doubt that our institutions, formed in those days,
did not establish a peoples' government, let them study the action of
the Massachusetts Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in
1788. Presiding over it was the popular patriot Governor John Hancock.
On the floor sat Samuel Adams, who had been the father of the
Revolution, preeminent champion of the liberty of the people. Such an
influence had he, that his assertion of satisfaction, was enough to
carry the delegates. Like a majority of the members he came opposed to
ratification. Having totally thrown off