As our nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this issue explores the people, ideas, and stories that continue to shape its legacy. Inside, Professor Robert A. Gross offers fresh perspective in “A Referendum on Independence,” while a special foldout guide, “Following in Thoreau’s Footsteps,” invites you to explore the landscapes that inspired him. Discover an unexpected connection in “A Tale of Two Authors,” revisit the moving story of “A Hawthorne Homecoming,” and enjoy summer events, arts, and ways to experience Concord firsthand.
The road to American independence took time to complete, and Massachusetts, despite its reputation as a vanguard state, was not always in the lead. In 1775, even after the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, most Patriot leaders were still seeking restoration of colonial rights within the British empire. Thomas Paine broke the logjam with the publication of Common Sense early the next year. The instant best-seller argued the case for separation by appealing to economic and political self-interest, emotional resentment of a brutal and oppressive king, and a utopian vision of America as “an asylum for mankind.”
Two white horses pulled the hearse into Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a top-hatted driver at the reins. A band of mourners followed on foot as they made their way toward Authors’ Ridge.
Except for the bright sunshine, this scene wouldn’t seem out of place in a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But it happened a mere twenty years ago, on June 26, 2006. That was the day Hawthorne and his wife and daughter were reunited after his death separated them 142 years earlier.
From almost the very beginning of Concord’s founding in 1635, the Hoar family played a prominent role in the town’s history. Recognized for their leadership in law, politics, and social reform, in addition to their distinguished legal and political careers, the Hoars shaped both local government and national policy. Described as “leaders to a higher and better sphere, both in social and political sense,”1 they were better known around town—and throughout Massachusetts—as the Royal Family of Concord. And none of them lived up to the family ideal of public service better than George Frisbie Hoar.
