How Shall Peace Terms Be Made With Germany by Honorable James P. Baxter (1918) Sprague's Journal of Maine History Volume 6 page 132-133 Among the recent contributions to Maine newspapers, one of the most important was in the Lewiston Journal Oct 31, 1918 by Honorable James Phinney Baxter, ex-Mayor of Portland and a well known author and publicist on "How Shall Peace Terms Be Made With Germany." For the benefit of our readers fifty or more years from today, we append the following items from Maine newspapers. They both refer to Monday, November 11, 1918, the day when America and the entire world learned for certain that Germany had finally made an unconditional surrender to the forces of freedom. Before such readers may see this we presume that the eleventh day of November will have been made an international Thanksgiving Day: An interesting feature of the Victory celebration at Paris Hill, Monday, was the firing of the historic musket that was brought over from London in 1683 by Thomas Parris, the founder of the family in this country, and has been fired every Fourth of July by some of his descendants since 1776. This gun was carried in war for American Independence thru six campaigns and several battles by Capt. Josiah Parris and has not been fired by his grandson, Hon. Edward L. Parris, in celebration of the great world victory for democracy over autocracy. Chief Justice Cornish, who marched at the head of the Augusta lawyers in the parade Monday evening, said it was the second patriotic parade at the close of the war in which he had marched. When of April 9, 1865, the message came that Lee had surrendered, the people went wild with joy and gratitude, mill, stores and schools were closed all gave themselves up to celebrating the event. Judge Cornish was a boy of ten going to school at the old Waterville academy. The people of Waterville made quick plans for a parade and all the scholars were part of the procession. * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.