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Crawford
1397916
omantic days in old Boston ANNEX
M. L.
CARDS FROM POCKET DO NOT REMOVE
PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY, IND.
7
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00465 2100
GC 974.402 B65CRM
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ROMANTIC DAYS IN OLD BOSTON
" The great memories, noble deeds and sacred places of old Boston are the poetry of history and the keenest ripeners of character." - WENDELL PHILLIPS.
"The history of Boston is written in the best things that have befallen this land." - HENRY WARD BEECHER.
" Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straight- ened out for a crow-bar." - OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE.
From the painting by Thomas Sully, made in 1832, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Centenary Edition
ROMANTIC DAYS IN OLD BOSTON
THE STORY OF THE CITY AND OF ITS PEOPLE DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
BY
MARY CAROLINE CRAWFORD ( > AUTHOR OF "OLD BOSTON DAYS AND WAYS," "THE ROMANCE OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE," "SOCIAL LIFE IN OLD NEW ENGLAND," "IN THE DAYS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS," ETC. 1
f
With Numerous Illustrations
NON . REFERT
ONOS.HABEASZ
3L.B.&O%
SED . QVAME
BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1922
£
Copyright, 1910, 1922, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
All rights reserved
Published October, 1922
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE TO THE CENTENARY EDITION
B ECAUSE Boston is this year celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of its grad- uation from a town into a city, the oppor- tunity seemed ripe to revise and bring up to date this book about Boston in the nineteenth century which, for some years now, has been out of print.
1397916
Much has happened to Boston during the dozen years which have elapsed since the Fore- word to the first edition was printed But more - much more - has happened to the world. It may still be true that "the anti-slavery strug- gle will be the romance of American history," but the way in which the boys of Boston - and of all the other cities and towns and villages of our land - were equipped for war and trans- ported to Europe on the wave of an overwhelm- ing enthusiasm to "make the world safe for democracy," may well constitute the romance of international history when that story shall be written in its entirety.
With the idealism that made this high achieve- ment possible, nineteenth-century Boston had,
vi PREFACE, CENTENARY EDITION
I am persuaded, much to do. At the present moment, too, certain small but devoted groups in Boston are striving, just as Bostonians strove in the sad days that followed our Civil War, to make sure that what Boston boys died for shall not perish from the earth.
The enfranchisement of women, for which Boston in the nineteenth century struggled as did no other city of the country, has become a realized ambition since this book first appeared. Let us hope this new gift of power may yet help Boston, and the world, to realize that other dream of enfranchisement connoted by the words Brook Farm, - that romantic experiment in equality of opportunity whose epitaph Haw- thorne best pronounced when he said, "More and more I feel we at Brook Farm struck upon what ought to be a truth !"
65 MT. VERNON STREET, BOSTON June, 1922
M. C. C.
FOREWORD
W E Americans have a curious habit of dating back our heroes and of refusing the stamp of authentic valor - at least in our histories - to any act of moral or physi- cal courage which has happened since the Revolution. John Hancock we glibly dub " patriot," though he never fought at all, and in many ways was admittedly a man of pretty small calibre. It seems never to have occurred to those in charge of the spiritual sustenance of our youth that, beside William Lloyd Garri- son, Hancock shrinks to really pitiful pro- portions. Webster's "Bunker Hill Oration " we read, to be sure, but the emphasis is always put upon the Bunker Hill rather than upon the Webster. And I never heard the name of Wendell Phillips pronounced during the years in which I prepared, in the Boston public schools, for college. This in spite of the fact that our country cannot present a finer example of moral heroism than Phillips exemplifies; nor has any orator ever given to the world
viii
FOREWORD
more stirring appeals to noble action than did he. Clear-sighted foreigners perceive the truth of what I am here trying to say - and in this book endeavor to prove. Fredrika Bremer observed long ago: " The anti-slavery struggle will be the romance of American history."
But the youthful enthusiasm of the newly- made city expressed itself also in literature, in art and in experiments with life. Steele said of a certain lady that to have known and loved her was a liberal education; to have shared in Boston's life and loved what it stood for during the nineteenth century was a liberal education. I remember once to have felt this with a pang of unmistakable envy at a dinner given by the Boston Authors' Club to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, president and vice-president of the club. Norman Hapgood, Clyde Fitch and Owen Wister, all of whom were just too young to have shared in the stirring events of which Mrs. Howe and Col. Higginson were important parts, referred in their speeches to the wonderful opportunities those two had enjoyed from the very fact of living when and where they did - and the rest of us younger folk feelingly echoed these sentiments. For though the twentieth century will have its opportunities, also, they will not be so akin to things literary as were the opportunities of the nineteenth century. Willis
ix
FOREWORD
said of London that the cultivated American peculiarly enjoys the place because he there sees whole shelves of his library walking about in coats and gowns, and an age when, as Wister happily put it at that dinner, - in referring to Mrs. Howe and Higginson, - " a lady could turn her pen into a sword and a gentleman his sword into a pen " must of necessity be the Golden Age to literary workers.
Yet other high notes, also, were struck in the nineteenth century, notes upon which we of the twentieth century may well work out a life-symphony. The equality of woman, about which Margaret Fuller wrote an epoch-making book and for which Phillips all his life contended, we have yet to realize; and the fulfilment in some measure of that "sweetest dream ever dreamed in America," the Brook Farm experi- ment, - of which Hawthorne said towards the end of his life that "posterity may dig it up and profit by it," - remains. Yes! to us, also, are given wrongs to right and shackles to strike from the wrists of slaves. It is my hope, then, that this book, by recalling freshly the heroes of the nineteenth century, may help to hearten heroes for the twentieth.
It but remains to speak with gratitude of the many courtesies and quotation privileges extended to me. Most of these are acknowl- edged in the text, but I wish here particularly
X
FOREWORD
to express my appreciation of the kindness of the Houghton Mifflin Company, who as pub- lishers of the works of the most eminent Ameri- can authors, at least in the New England group, have necessarily been often appealed to and never in vain; to the invaluable Memorial His- tory of Boston; to Mr. Francis Jackson Garrison, who has read my chapter on The Anti-Slavery Movement and given me much-prized help in connection with it; to Mr. John Bouvé Clapp, who placed at my disposal the results of his research in connection with the old Boston Museum; to E. P. Dutton and Co., who brought out The Recollections of an Old Musician; and to the Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company, publishers of Mrs. Ednah Dow Cheney's Remi- niscences and of Wendell Phillips's Orations.
In the matter of illustrations thanks are further due, and are gladly given, to the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, to the Boston Athenaeum and to the Bostonian Society for permission to reproduce certain valuable pic- tures in their possession; also to Mr. Frederick P. Vinton, the artist, a number of whose por- traits of distinguished Bostonians are here used, and to Mr. Louis A. Holman, who has again given me the benefit of his keen scent in the matter of appropriate contemporary illustrations. To the attendants at the Boston Public Library and to Charles Knowles Bolton
xi
FOREWORD
of the Boston Athenaeum I feel deep obliga- tion also. How greatly do such courteous custodians of untold treasures lighten an author's labor !
M. C. C.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, MASSACHUSETTS, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE TO THE CENTENARY EDITION V
FOREWORD vii
I. THE MOULDING OF A CITY .
1
II. BROOK FARM: AN ESSAY IN SOCIALISM
24
III. THE REAL ZENOBIA .
55
IV. WHEN THE SLAVE WAS A HERO 83
V. WENDELL PHILLIPS : AGITATOR 150
VI. THEODORE PARKER AND HIS MUSIC HALL PULPIT 197 VII. BOSTON'S SHARE IN THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 233 VIII. THE OLD BOSTON THEATRES AND THEIR STARS 238
IX. SOME ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS WHO MADE THE CITY FAMOUS 281
X. SOCIAL QUEENS AND THE WORLD THEY RULED . 306
XI. THE OLD TIME HOSTELRIES AND THEIR STAGES 325 XII. THE GREAT BOSTON FIRE 354 · . XIII. SOME FAMOUS VISITORS AND THE WAY WE EN- TERTAINED THEM 362
XIV. BOSTON AS A LITERARY CENTRE . 382
XV. IN AND OUT OF SOME OLD BOSTON PLAYHOUSES
404
INDEX .
433
ILLUSTRATIONS
FRANCES ANNA KEMBLE . Frontispiece
From the painting by Thomas Sully, made in 1832, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
JOSIAH QUINCY, SECOND MAYOR OF BOSTON . Facing Page 8
From the painting by Gilbert Stuart in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
VIEW OF BOSTON FROM EAST BOSTON, IN 1848
8
COLONNADE ROW, WHICH STOOD ON TREMONT STREET SOUTH OF WEST STREET
=
9
LEONARD VASSALL HOUSE, SUMMER STREET, ON THE SITE NOW OCCUPIED BY HOVEY'S STORE
9
HOUSE OF WILLIAM GRAY, WHICH STOOD ON THE CORNER OF SUMMER AND KINGSTON STREETS .
12
OLD BEACON HILL
16 13
From a contemporary drawing by J. R. Smith.
HARRISON GRAY OTIS, THIRD MAYOR OF BOS- TON
13
From a bust by Clevenger.
MRS. REBECCA CODMAN BUTTERFIELD WHEN AT BROOK FARM · .
66 26
From a daguerreotype.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE IN 1840
26
From the painting by Charles Osgood.
BROOK FARM BUILDINGS .
66 27
After a contemporary drawing.
A PIECE OF BROOK FARM SCRIP SHOWING SIG- NATURE OF CHARLES A. DANA, TREAS- URER .
"
27
.
xvi
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHARLES A. DANA
Facing Page
42
After a daguerreotype.
DR. ORESTES A. BROWNSON, AS HE LOOKED WHEN AT BROOK FARM
42
GEORGE RIPLEY
" 42
FATHER HECKER IN HIS PRIME
42
From a rare photograph in the possession of the Paulist Fathers, New York.
SOUTH SIDE OF TEMPLE PLACE, ABOUT 1865 .
43
BOSTON FROM THE STATE HOUSE, ABOUT 1858
43
MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI
68
From a daguerreotype
ELIZABETH PEABODY
68
From a portrait in the possession of the Eliza- beth Peabody House, Boston.
HARRIET MARTINEAU
69
MASONIC TEMPLE, AS IT LOOKED WHEN AT COR- NER OF TREMONT STREET AND TEMPLE PLACE
69
THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH HEADINGS OF THE LIBERATOR; THE FIRST HEADING WAS PLAIN LETTERING
100
CHURCH GREEN .
101
JOY STREET CHURCH, WHERE THE NEW ENG- LAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY WAS ORGAN- IZED .
101
DIX PLACE, SHOWING THE HOME OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
66
116
OLD STATE HOUSE, WHERE GARRISON WAS
MOBBED
116
TREMONT STREET, SOUTH OF SCHOOL STREET, ABOUT 1850
117
DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX From a daguerreotype taken in 1858.
.
117
MRS. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
117
From a daguerreotype taken about 1852.
MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN
66
130
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON AND WENDELL
PHILLIPS .
130
From a photograph.
ILLUSTRATIONS
xvii
BOSTON'S FIRST HOLY CROSS CATHEDRAL, CHANNING'S CHURCH IN BACKGROUND · Facing Page 131
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING ·
131
THE HOME OF WENDELL PHILLIPS, WHICH STOOD AT 26 ESSEX STREET Mr. Phillips is shown just entering the door.
66 162
WENDELL PHILLIPS' STUDY
From a photograph.
FRANK SANBORN
From an early photograph.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON .
66 163
After the Hawes portrait.
DANIEL WEBSTER'S HOUSE, WHICH STOOD ON THE CORNER OF SUMMER AND HIGH STREETS .
178
DANIEL WEBSTER
178
From a daguerreotype made by Richards, of Philadelphia, about 1850.
CHARLES SUMNER
66
179
DR. SAMUEL A. GREEN
66
179
From a painting by Frederic Vinton, in the possession of the Groton Library.
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
190
From the drawing by George Richmond,
London, 1853.
MARY A. LIVERMORE
190
LUCY STONE
A PROCESSION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY
COURT STREET .
66 191
THEODORE PARKER
202
From a daguerreotype.
THEODORE PARKER'S CHURCH IN WEST ROX- BURY
66 202
CORNER OF TREMONT AND BROMFIELD STREETS, ABOUT 1870
203
OLD BOSTON MUSIC HALL, WHERE PARKER PREACHED .
216
THE CITY HALL OF PARKER'S DAY .
¥ 216
162
163
.
190
xviii
ILLUSTRATIONS
WASHINGTON STREET, SOUTH OF MILK STREET IN 1858
Facing Page
217
GOVERNOR JOHN A. ANDREW . From the painting by William Morris Hunt, in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
"
" 234
From a photograph taken in 1862.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, AET. 20 From a crayon drawing by Eastman Johnson.
"
235
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON AS COLONEL OF THE FIRST SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUN- TEERS
"
244
FANNY ELLSLER
From a drawing by W. K. Hewitt.
LORENZO PAPANTI
"
244
From a painting in the possession of The Bostonian Society.
PARK SQUARE, 1870 .
" 245
PARK SQUARE, 1880 . ·
245
GREEN ROOM OF THE BOSTON MUSEUM .
260
FOYER OF THE BOSTON MUSEUM .
260
MRS. VINCENT .
" 261
261
WILLIAM WARREN From the painting by Frederic Vinton, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
HENRY CLAY BARNABEE
274
CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN
"
274
COLISEUM IN WHICH THE PEACE JUBILEE OF 1869 WAS HELD ·
275
FITCHBURG STATION, IN THE HALL OF WHICH JENNY LIND GAVE HER FINAL BOSTON CONCERT .
275
284
WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT From a painting by himself, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
WASHINGTON ALLSTON
284
234
COLONEL ROBERT GOULD SHAW
.
235
.
.
ILLUSTRATIONS
xix
OLE BULL ON HIS FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA . Facing Page 285 From a drawing by F. O. C. Darley.
JENNY LIND
285
CARL AND PAREPA ROSA . .
66
296
CAMILLA URSO . .
296
ADELAIDE PHILLIPS .
296
CARL ZERRAHN AS DIRECTOR OF THE PEACE JUBILEE
¥ 297
ANNIE LOUISE CARY
297
MRS. HARRISON GRAY OTIS
314
From the painting by G. P. A. Healy, in the possession of The Bostonian Society.
MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE.
315
From the bust by Clevenger, in the possession of the Howe family.
PARLOR AT 13 CHESTNUT STREET IN WHICH THE RADICAL CLUB MET . .
320
MRS. JOHN T. SARGENT, LEADING SPIRIT OF THE RADICAL CLUB . From a photograph in the possession of Franklin Haven Sargent, New York.
320
OLD ELM, BOSTON COMMON
321
THE BACK BAY FROM THE PUBLIC GARDEN, 1860 .
321
THOMAS GOLD APPLETON, THE FAMOUS BOSTON WIT
332
From the painting by Frederic Vinton, in the possession of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
OLD FRANKLIN STREET, SHOWING THE ROOMS OF THE "BOSTON LIBRARY" OVER THE
ARCH ON THE RIGHT
332
BROMFIELD HOUSE, ABOUT 1860
¥
333
OLD BOWDOIN SQUARE, SHOWING AN EARLY HOME OF FRANCIS PARKMAN
342
TRAIN USED IN 1835 ON FIRST TRIP OVER BOS- TON AND LOWELL ROAD
342
FORT HILL SQUARE IN 1858 .
"
342
XX
ILLUSTRATIONS
OLD RESERVOIR, WHERE THE STATE HOUSE EXTENSION NOW STANDS . ·
Facing Page 343
THE REVERE HOUSE, RECENTLY TORN DOWN .
350
TREMONT HOUSE, 1870
350
HOLMES' "THE LONG PATH," BOSTON COM- MON. FROM THE CORNER OF JOY AND BEACON STREETS TO BOYLSTON STREET
351
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES IN THE STUDY OF HIS BEACON STREET HOME .
351
OLD TRINITY CHURCH AFTER THE BOSTON FIRE
358
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE FIRE RUINS .
358
OLD TRINITY CHURCH, SUMMER STREET, ABOUT 1870 . .
66
359
PHILLIPS BROOKS, AET. 21 From an ambrotype.
RENFREW BALL IN THE BOSTON THEATRE
366
ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY DRILL- ING ON BRATTLE STREET IN 1858
367
THE LATE EDWARD VII AS HE LOOKED WHEN VISITING BOSTON IN 1860 .
367
From a photograph made by command of Queen Victoria just before the Prince sailed for America.
MRS. ANNE GILCHRIST . 374
From the painting by her son, Herbert Har- lakenden Gilchrist.
DELIA BACON
374
From a daguerreotype taken in May, 1853.
THE FIRST OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE, WASH- INGTON AND SCHOOL STREETS .
375
JAMES T. FIELDS
375
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH'S HOME AT PONKAPOG
66
386
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH'S STUDY, 59 MT. VERNON STREET
386
OLD BOSTON CUSTOM HOUSE IN WHICH HAW- THORNE SERVED AS A YOUNG MAN ..
387
WILLIAM SMITH SHAW, FIRST LIBRARIAN OF THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM .
From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in the possession of the Boston Athenaeum.
-
390
359
ILLUSTRATIONS
xxi
JAMES PERKINS, WHO GAVE TO THE ATHENAEUM ITS EARLY HOME ON PEARL STREET . Facing Page 390
OLD READING ROOM OF THE BOSTON ATHE- NAEUM, BEACON STREET
66
391
EXTERIOR OF ATHENAEUM TODAY
66 391
BATES HALL READING ROOM IN THE OLD BOS- TON PUBLIC LIBRARY
398
CHARLES COFFIN JEWETT, FIRST SUPERIN- TENDENT OF THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
398
JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY
66
399
From a photograph by Chickering in the pos- session of Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly.
ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS From a painting by Frederic Vinton.
"
399
HOWARD ATHENAEUM ABOUT 1865 .
66
410
OLD NATIONAL THEATRE, PORTLAND STREET
410
LOBBY OF THE OLD GLOBE THEATRE
411
FOYER OF THE BOSTON THEATRE
.
411
ROMANTIC DAYS IN OLD BOSTON
CHAPTER I
THE MOULDING OF A CITY
I T was a very charming, comfortable old town - this Boston of uncrowded shops and untroubled self-respect which, in 1822, reluctantly allowed itself to be made into a city. For not lightly nor impetuously was the old plan of town government abandoned. Though the venerable John Adams, " the man of the town meeting," had generously set aside his own personal predilections and had cast a ballot (in 1820) for an amendment to the State Constitution that should enable freemen in large municipalities to delegate to represent- atives "the privileges of voting supplies," many there were - Josiah Quincy among them - who so firmly believed that the town-meeting form was peculiarly suited to the character of the people of New England that they resisted
.
2
ROMANTIC DAYS
with all the power they possessed the impending change.
Yet the time for this change had certainly come. Quincy himself, in his Municipal History of The Town and City of Boston (written after the struggle had long been ended), amply justifies the step: " When a town-meeting," he says, " was held on any exciting subject in Faneuil Hall those only who obtained places near the moderator could even hear the discussion. A few busy or interested individuals easily obtained the management of the most important affairs in an assembly in which the greater number could have neither voice nor hearing. When the subject was not generally exciting town-meet- ings were usually composed of the selectmen, the town officers and thirty or forty inhabitants. Those who thus came were, for the most part, drawn to it from some official duty or private interest, which when performed or attained, they generally troubled themselves but little or not at all about the other business of the meeting. In assemblies thus composed, by- laws were passed, taxes to the amount of one hundred or one hundred and fifty thousand dollars voted on statements often general in their nature, and on reports, as it respects the majority of voters present, taken upon trust, and which no one had carefully considered except, perhaps, the chairman."
3
IN OLD BOSTON
None the less, when the subject of adopting a city charter was brought before a " special meeting of the inhabitants " (in January, 1822), the vote on the test proposition " that the name of 'Town of Boston ' should be changed to 'City of Boston'" was very close-only two thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven in the affirmative against two thousand and eighty- seven in the negative. The number of qualified voters at this time was between seven and eight thousand, about one-sixth of the total popu- lation, which, according to the national census of 1820, was forty-three thousand two hundred and ninety-eight.
It is interesting just here to observe how slowly Boston had increased in population during the past thirty years and to contrast this with its increase after the city charter was taken out. In 1790 the population of the town, including the people settled on the islands in the harbor, was 18,320. From 1790 to 1800 the increase was 6,617 or 36.11%; from 1800 to 1810, the increase was 8,850 or 35.48%; from 1810 to 1820 the increase was 9,511 or 28.14%. During the decade marked by the change in the form of government, however, the increase was nearly double that of the ten years preceding.
Happily, there was now beginning to be room for an increased population. Nathaniel Inger-
e
d
4
ROMANTIC DAYS
soll Bowditch, who in his Gleaner papers characterizes Mr. Uriah Cotting as the " Chief Benefactor of Boston," appears to have been well within the facts of the case. For Mr. Cotting, as the projector of the Roxbury Mill Corporation by whose "gigantic enterprise " the Mill Dam was built, really made it possible for Boston to grow. This undertaking drew in its train a series of constructions by which alone the town has been enabled to become a great city.
The charter which led to this complete change in the town's physical conformation was passed in 1814. In the early summer of 1821 the Mill Dam was finished and opened for travel. Upon the granting of the charter the Daily Advertiser printed a communication signed " Beacon Street " which began as follows: " Citizens of Boston! Have you ever visited the Mall; have you ever inhaled the Western breeze, fragrant with perfume, refreshing every sense and invigorating every nerve? What think you of converting the beautiful sheet of water which skirts the Common into an empty mud-basin, reeking with filth, abhorrent to the smell, and disgusting to the eye? By every god of sea, lake or fountain it is in- credible!" By 1821, however, the same paper is printing the following praise of this very project: "The road over the Boston and Rox-
5
IN OLD BOSTON
bury Mill-Dam was opened for passengers for the first time yesterday morning when a caval- cade of one hundred citizens and upwards, headed by General Sumner and Major Dean, passed over. . . General Sumner in a per- tinent address took occasion to advert to the magnitude of the undertaking the completion of which they were met to celebrate. . . . He reverted to the position of Boston thirty-four years ago when there was only one passage from the peninsula to the main. 'It was then,' he said, ' our town resembled a hand but it was a closed one. It is now open and well spread. Charlestown, Cambridge, South Boston and Craigie's Bridges have added each a finger, and lately our enterprising citizens have joined the firm and substantial thumb over which we now ride."
Thus it was quite a sizable territory over which John Phillips was elected mayor in 1822. Phillips had already served Boston as public prosecutor, as a member of the House and Senate of Massachusetts and as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. But it was to his charm of manner and to his " pliable disposi- tion " rather than to his previous public serv- ices that he owed his election as first mayor of Boston. For Harrison Gray Otis and Josiah Quincy had both been in the lists with him and had only withdrawn their names because
6
ROMANTIC DAYS
of the nomination, at the last moment, of a third candidate, Robert C. Winthrop, the presence of whose name on the ticket had made it impossible for either of them to carry the " majority of all votes " necessary for a choice. Phillips, therefore, came in as a compromise candidate; but he offended so few people that he would undoubtedly have been speedily re-elected, upon the expiration of his term, had not ill health made him refuse to run again.
Thus it was that the real task of " moulding the city " fell rather to the second mayor than to the first. Josiah Quincy, who was elected when Mayor Phillips retired, has left such an impress upon the government of Boston that he is generally called the city's great mayor. One reason for this is that he did many things during his six years of office. Another is that he had the chance and the ability to let pos- terity know about his activities. For it rarely happens that a mayor has so good an oppor- tunity to tell just what was accomplished during his administration as Mr. Quincy made and improved when he published in 1852 his Mu- nicipal History of The Town And City of Bos- ton. More than three-quarters of this book are devoted to an account of what was done during the six years when its author was mayor! But one should have no quarrel with the book or with its hero on that account. So many and
7
IN OLD BOSTON
such important things were done. In Mayor Quincy there was no over-cautious and timid reference to public opinion with its attendant shrinking from responsibility. He found many reforms needed and he manfully set himself to bring them about. Street begging was almost entirely suppressed during his time, admirable measures for the relief and care of the poor were introduced, a new market-house (Quincy Market) was erected and the city was so effectually cleansed that a striking alteration was observable in the mortality reports. Where one in forty-two had died during the ten years before 1823, during the last three years of Mr. Quincy's administration the mortality was but one in fifty-seven! It has indeed passed almost into a proverb that Boston had never had clean streets before this time, - and has never had them since. Moreover, this energetic mayor reorganized the fire department and the police guardians, thus making the city a safe and a peaceful place of residence. So orderly was the conduct of the citizens that twenty- four constables and eighty watchmen (of whom never more than eighteen were out at a time) were enough to make everybody in Boston quite at ease concerning their lives and property. It is Mayor Quincy, also, that we must thank for planting the splendid trees on the Charles street mall of the Common; and
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