The watershed between these two forms the valley of the Concord
and Merrimac Rivers, which is the first military line of defence in New
England west of the sea-coast. It is for this reason that the first
struggle for American independence took place on the banks of the
Concord River, and not elsewhere; a fact that might have been predicted,
though not of course with certainty, when Boston was first settled.
One would like to know how this rural community with martial destiny
before it happened to obtain the name of Concord. Did the Rev. Peter
Bulkley, descendant of the Plantagenets, who first organized society in
that valley, did he come there for peace and repose after a religious
controversy in Boston? No doubt the sloping hillsides and broad sunny
plain with the sluggish river winding through it looked very restful to
him, after the rugged country through which he had passed; but we fear
that he found discord and contention already before him, as many have
who came there since for a like purpose. Was there a strange fatality in
the name, so that Patrick Henry might say with added force, "Gentlemen
may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace"? Is it true that peace and
war are reciprocal like night and day,--one a rest and preparation for
the other, and at the same time its natural consequence? Certain it is
that no individual life is interesting or valuable in which there has
not been a severe struggle; and periods of warfare have often proved to
be powerful stimulants for human energy and intellect.
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