Earlier today, I spoke at the battlefields of Lexington and Concord, where 250 years ago today the farmers, merchants and tradesmen of Concord, Lexington and nearby towns and villages faced the army of a mighty empire.
They were fired upon. They returned fire with what Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the shot heard round the world.” That day, they began a revolution that gave us our nation.
The courage of the ordinary people who stood their ground in Concord is awe-inspiring.
But there was more than individual bravery on display. There was collective determination; unity of purpose and action; and a deep, widely shared belief in the right to self-government.
Two riders set out from Boston, Paul Revere and William Dawes. As they reached each village, dozens more fanned out across the countryside to sound the alarm.
When the redcoats got to Lexington, 80 militia members stood their ground. When they got to Concord, they met 500 men and were outnumbered. By the time they finished their retreat to Boston, 4,000 militia members had mustered to attack their lines.
In the following days, 20,000 gathered to begin the Siege of Boston, fight the Battle of Bunker Hill, and eventually win the War for Independence. They came from all across what is now our state, and from New Hampshire and Connecticut too.
Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans walked 137 miles, across nearly the whole length of Massachusetts, to join the Continental troops in Cambridge. Black and Indigenous soldiers fought for a freedom they would long be denied. Women were vital as spies and strategists.
In the end, the commitment was absolute. Massachusetts rose up, together, as one. And a new nation, forged in the defense of freedom, began to see itself in action.
The spirit that burned bright in Lexington and Concord has never faded in Massachusetts.
At every moment in our history, we answered the call of liberty and advanced the cause of freedom. Leading the abolitionist movement to resist and end slavery. Leading the women’s rights movement and universal suffrage. First in the right education, first in the right to healthcare, first in Civil Rights and equality under the law.
Freedom is a force that, once kindled, cannot be denied.
I am committed, and we must all be committed, to ensuring that Massachusetts champions freedom at this moment in our history.
It is a moment, unfortunately, when our founding values are being dismissed, undermined, and attacked from the highest office in the land.
The right to due process and a fair hearing. The right to speak freely. The freedom of the press. The independence of the courts. The right to study and learn and use your talent to advance human knowledge. The great flowering of freedom that grew from the seed planted here in Massachusetts is at risk. The rights and freedoms that America was built on. Our success. Our example. Our leadership.
In Massachusetts we must be, and we will be, the champions of freedom once again.
Not just because they are rooted deeply in our past, but because they are the hope for our future.
This weekend, we celebrate this history and honor the values our heroes fought for. And we renew the commitment to that freedom which has always defined Massachusetts — and always will.
-Maura Healey