APRIL 23, 1934

Descendants of the embattled farmers whose shot was heard around the world met at Lexington Wednesday, on the eve of the 159th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, and selected a delegation to go to Washington and "protest against unreasonable interference by the federal government" in the affairs of "a free people."

If we had a little more of the spirit of '75 and '76, it would have a wholesome influence in clearing the air of many radical departures from the principles on which the republic was founded and recovery would be more rapid.

As a part of the ceremonies on the green the protests were read Thursday before the Tomb of the Minute Men who fell in the skirmish with the British on April 19, 1775, while a delegation, already on the way to Washington, was preparing to submit a copy of the protest to congress.

The "petition" bearing the names of 1,200 Lexington citizens, followed the form usually employed by Lexington citizens in colonial days in their protests to state and provincial governing bodies.

The document set forth that "when a free people choose duly elected representatives, they invest them with the responsibility of preserving their constitutional rights to own property and to exercise freedom of individual enterprises."

Continuing, the petition declared that when a free people feel that their rights are being trespassed upon "and that the guidance of government is being influenced by advisers not chosen by the people, it is a duty as well as a right of the people to express their determined disapproval."

There is much more in the same vein.

There can be no mistaking the temper of the sturdy Americans, whose patriotism has been fed by close contact with an environment which must always be dear to every man who cherishes the glory of his Revolutionary forefathers and is devoted to the institutions under which this country has distanced every other on the globe in the march of progress and the advance of civilization.

In this Lexington protest there are no vague suggestions that satellites of the Brain Trust have enunciated radical doctrines and have talked of supplanting a Kerensky with a Stalin, but the blunt truth is put forward, in substance, that the American voter is quite capable of choosing his own representative and does not expect the government at Washington to call in professional "experts" to shape the course of the country along lines far different from those contemplated by the founders and different from any platform on which today's representatives have been elected.

The signatures on that petition were only 1,200 in number, but those men at Lexington expressed the sentiments in the hearts of millions of Americans all over this country.

It is a clear call back to sanity. --Macon Telegraph.