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This article is part of the online feature "Bunker Hill Memory."
On June 17, 1825— the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill— the Marquis de Lafayette laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. Over the next eighteen years, the building of the Monument progressed slowly. In 1843, construction finally finished, and Senator Daniel Webster dedicated the Monument.
The members of the Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA), who championed the Monument’s construction, had their own ideas about what it represented. They wanted a symbol that would "proclaim the magnitude and importance of [the Battle of Bunker Hill] to every class and every age."1 This interpretation of the Monument's meaning has remained prominent today.
Even at the time of construction, not everyone agreed on this one meaning. Some veterans, whom the Monument supposedly honored, rejected it. They felt the energy and money spent on its construction would be better used to support veterans. Other activists cited unfulfilled promises of the Revolution in their critiques.
These differences signaled the beginning of tensions surrounding the Battle’s commemoration. Even today, the Monument continues to have different meanings for everyone who interacts with it.
Explore the perspectives and voices of community members reacting to the construction of the Monument. What assumptions do you bring when visiting or thinking about the Bunker Hill Monument?
Major Caleb Stark
Construction of the Monument: Major Caleb Stark Quote
Quote from "Letter from Major Caleb Stark to the Bunker Hill Monument Association, April 10, 1825."
I have powerful national objects to the adoption of this project, for the following reasons: First, those who made this notable stand on this sanguinary hill have almost all passed to those shades where military honors are not more highly appreciated than they have been in the United States; secondly, the actors in this bloody scene (the Revolutionary War), after having performed their part in a manner perhaps unparalleled in ancient or modern history, were refused by the government the rewards that were so solemnly promised in the hour of the most critical danger: and... [the government] still continue[s] a deaf ear to the crying demands for justice claimed by the disbanded officer and soldier. And now, sir, in room of giving them the bread that was solemnly promised, the debt is to be paid by a stone!!
Letter from Major Caleb Stark to the Bunker Hill Monument Association, April 10, 1825.
Major Caleb Stark served during the American War for Independence, most notably at the Battle of Bunker Hill. His eight years of service led him to later advocate for the rights of war veterans. He had witnessed over the years how the leaders of the young nation repeatedly debated the extent to which war veterans and their families should receive pensions. When the Bunker Hill Monument Association selected him to be a member, Stark declined. He opposed the Association's plan to memorialize the Battle of Bunker Hill with a monument. Stark believed the government continued to fail veterans and a Monument should not overshadow this injustice.
Learn more about Major Caleb Stark
Bunker Hill Monument Association
Construction of the Monument: Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA) Quote
Quote from Daniel Webster, "Oration at the cornerstone-laying ceremony of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825."
Let it not be supposed that our object is to perpetuate national hostility, or even to cherish a mere military spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it forever... We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and every age.
Daniel Webster, Oration at the cornerstone-laying ceremony of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825. Voiced by Annette Tecce, President Bunker Hill Monument Association.
When established in 1823, the Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA) became the formal organization responsible for the memory of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Its goals included preserving the Bunker Hill battlefield (on Breed's Hill) and building a monument to commemorate this battle. At the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1825, the BHMA held a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the monument. Daniel Webster, one of the founders of the Association, spoke at this ceremony and he shared the purpose of the monument with the audience.
Learn more about Bunker Hill Monument Association
Seth Luther
Construction of the Monument: Seth Luther Quote
Quote from Seth Luther, "An Address to the Working Men of New England, on the State of Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and America, 1836."
The unfinished monument is a most excellent emblem of our unfinished independence. There let it stand unfinished, until the time passes away when aristocrats talk about mercy to mechanics and labourers. There let it stand unfinished, until our rights are acknowledged, and we, as working men, will carry it to its destined height without screwing a five dollar bill out of the hard earnings of the poor man, or appealing to our fair countrywomen to replace money which we believe has been expended— extravagantly; leaving, after all, that structure a moument [sic] of disgrace to this age and this nation, and a deeper, blacker disgrace to some of its managers, who, while they are calling on us for money to raise a monument to national glory, are using their influence to prevent us from improving our condition in any way whatever...
Seth Luther, An Address to the Working Men of New England, on the State of Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and America, 1836. Voiced by: Thomas Zion, Park Maintenance Worker, Marine Veteran.
Seth Luther was the son of a pensioner of the American Revolution, who would become one of New England's most prominent labor activists. Like other activists of his time, Luther often evoked the principles of the Revolution in his work.
Fanny Appleton
Construction of the Monument: Fanny Appleton Quote
Quote from "Letter from Fanny Appleton to Isaac Appleton Jewett, 9 Sep. 1840."
The men do not alone monopolize the interests of the day but all the extra female fingers in the state (an unmentionable majority by the late census) have been worked to the bone for this famous Fair to hoist up Bunker hill Mt to a respectable height & this very day is displayed a goodly array of our fair ladies behind counters loaded with the million pretty trifles female brains create & needles execute. My patriotism came out at my fingers’ ends in the shape of a mock Monument, half-finished – with a scene of little work-women hoisting stones &c & one solitary ‘loafer’ slinking about it in an attitude of astonishment – a very well-designed satire I assure you on the necessity of women’s help to raise this slow-growing obelisk...
Letter from Fanny Appleton to Isaac Appleton Jewett, September 9, 1840.
The privileged daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Frances "Fanny" Appleton participated in the Ladies Fair, an event which helped fund the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument. In a letter recounting her contribution to the Fair, she pointed out the vital role that women played in the completion of the Monument.
Learn more about The Ladies Fair
Learn more about Fanny Appleton
Footnotes
- Daniel Webster, “Webster’s First Oration on the Bunker Hill Monument,” June 17, 1825, in Webster’s First Bunker Hill Oration June 17, 1825 with Introduction, List of Masterpieces and Notes, edited by Alexander S. Twombly (New York, Boston, & Chicago: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1897), https://archive.org/details/danielwebstersfi01webs/mode/2up, 35.
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