Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/34

 beating off three assaults by British regulars, who lost more than a thousand men.

Congress immediately authorized the enlistment of 20,370 men for service in the neighborhood of Boston. They apprehended great trouble in keeping the patriot ranks thinned down to that meager stand. The first shot at Concord Bridge had rung around the world, according to an optimistic poet. Colonial martyrs lay dead. Redcoats went tramping across the land, and the colonists were supposed to be ablaze with indignation. Yet, at the end of a month, only 966 volunteers had presented themselves. That was not much of a rush. My son, you ought to have seen how beautifully they restrained their enthusiasm. Their rush was most deliberate and decorous.

Now don’t get cranky, and suppose that I am throwing rocks at anybody’s venerable New England ancestors. Your own venerable ancestors in Virginia and Georgia did precisely the same thing. What I’m talking about is the bad system.