Cheers! A Selection of 50th Anniversary Toasts
Only a small amount of material survives from the very first Concord Fight anniversary celebration in 1825. Of these few papers, a list of toasts written and given by a member of the 1825 Committee of Arrangements enumerates what the celebration planners, and certainly Concord residents, were hoping to honor for the 50th anniversary. Because the 1825 celebration focused on history, memory, and honoring the surviving veterans, the toasts center exclusively on notable people, places, events, and ideas of significance to the American Revolution and Concord's role in it. There are thirteen numbered toasts on the original document. A selection of seven, with transcriptions, are available below.
Toast to George Washington, 1825.
Transcription: "The memory of Washington."
Toast to the first gun fired, 1825.
Transcription: "The first gun fired in opposition to British troops in America: The signal to arms, and prelude to victory, freedom and independence."
Toast to Massachusetts, 1825.
Transcription: "Massachusetts. On her soil was first planted, the tree of civil liberty whose branches are spreading over the face of the earth."
Toast to the Concord Fight, 1825.
Transcription: "Concord Fight—An electrick spark which for half a century has shaken the world."
Toast to the surviving patriots, 1825.
Transcription: "The Surviving Patriots of the 19th of April, 75—May their latter days be as happy as their former were glorious."
Toast to the American Revolution, 1825.
Transcription: "The American Revolution—Its effect has been and will be, to keep crown'd-heads and tyrants in hot water—Demagogues and upstarts in disgrace, and the great body of the people in happiness."
Toast to General Lafayette, 1825.
Transcription: "Gen. Lafayette—The best monument of his fame is his name alone."