USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > An address delivered on the viii of October, MDCCCXXX, the second centennial anniversary, of the settlement of Roxbury > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
5
-
31
those for the deliverance from foreign domination had rendered sufficiently terrible. But we must not despair ; the fiat has gone forth, and those infant republics will ultimately be embraced in a second American Union.
Those bright visions of universal emancipation, on which we had so long gazed in the east, disappeared like the delusive and evanescent shadowings of the mirage ; and once more, the dreary waste of despot- ism opened upon the view, distinct, cheerless and illim- itable. The unholy league of kings determined to eradicate every vestige of moral, physical and practi- cal liberty ; and if constitutions and charters were tol- erated in form, they ceased to be regarded as reali- ties ; for even the names are odious to princes, and are considered incompatible with their haughty preten- sions of unlimited domination. They act on the pre- posterous and inverted theory, that the people are their passive subjects, and that they are not subject to the sovereign will of the people ; that the created be- comes supreme by the very exercise of that omnipo- tent power which gives it existence ; that there is an inexplicable transubstantiation of attributes, which it is criminal to investigate, and impious to discredit. So complete were the conquests of legitimacy, that the murmurs of discontent were either silenced by terror, or expiated in the dungeon or on the scaffold. The volcano of revolutions, so fearful and disastrous to the Pompeias of royalty, appeared closed for ever ; and we had, for a period, abandoned all hopes of freedom in Europe,-save in that glorious isle, that verdant Oasis in the vast Sahara of royalty, where repose the ashes of our ancestors : but how suddenly,
-
١٠
35
-how unexpectedly have they been revived. France again is free ; her heroic sons have a second time proclaimed their rights, broken the chains which had been forged for their irremediable bondage, bid defi- ance to the myrmidons of oppression, and hurled the presumptuous tyrant from his throne.
What was deemed impossible of accomplishment, during a generation, at least, and had been generally ranked among the bare possibilities of the distant future, has come upon us like the revelation of Sinai to the wonder-stricken Israelites! At the moment when the monarchy appeared as firmly established as during the splendid reign of the fourteenth Louis ; amidst the rejoicings of the court, for a kingdom conquered and a prince deposed, the reign of the proud Bourbon has been terminated. During thirty years of adversity, that ill-starred man " had learned nothing and forgot nothing." He had grown old without experience, and reigned without judgement. Abandoned by his army and execrated by his sub- jects, the false, perfidious and perjured Charles has been banished the realm, and doomed to expiate his crimes in perpetual exile.
2029294
What an imposing spectacle does that vast empire now present ; how amazing the transition; how fraught with incidents of stupendous import ; what bewildering thoughts rush upon the mind ;- the past, the present and the future seem mingled and con- founded, each claiming the precedence of intense contemplation. We had lived during an age of rev- olutions ; witnessed a rapid succession of mighty events ; and when the lengthened series appeared to have closed at last, we are again astounded by
DESE.
36
still another, and of far more momentous, yet glad- dening consequence. To the friends of constitu- tional government, it is a gleaming bow of promise, that nations, henceforth, shall be free.
In this majestic scene, the regenerated spirit of man assumes a grandeur, unprecedented in the an- nals of his race. It is the triumph of mind; the sublime developements of its loftiest attributes ; the magnificent result of far reaching intelligence. That nobility of the soul, which takes precedence of all earthly distinctions, all created rank, all degrees of regal consequence, has boldly put forth its claims of preeminence, and demanded the sanction of public opinion,-the only sovereign to whom it deigns to owe allegiance. The people have learned to appre- ciate its divine potency, and guided by its influence, where is the power that can again humble their pride, debase their character, and reduce them to an igno- minious state of slavery ?
How pleasing to behold the veteran and venerated Lafayette,-the last surviving general of our revolu- tion, maintaining the stern integrity of his charac- ter and gathering fresh laurels, as the distinguished advocate and soldier of Liberty. On this occasion of universal gladness, we have especial cause of gratulation, that American citizens were seen in the thronged ranks, mingling their blows and their blood with their ancient allies, where the heady current of the battle-tide most raged; and when victory was achieved, and the welkin rang with the enthusiastic shouts of " Long live Lafayette," " The FATHER OF THE FRENCH," joyfully recognized the well known voices of his transatlantic children.
-
37
It was under the banners of this republic, that the valiant commander of the National Guards first un- sheathed his sword for freedom, and in many a well fought field, purchased, with his blood, the valued rights of an American citizen. As the brave lieu- tenant, the zealous compatriot and the steadfast friend of Washington, his name is embalmed in every heart. For more than half a century, his preeminent virtues and constant fidelity to the rights of man have been severely tested. He has endured the scathing miseries of an insulted exile, the horrors of the dungeon, and the withering influence of poverty, with an unabated fortitude, and a constancy of prin- ciple and of purpose, which all Grecian and all Ro- man story cannot match. "Without fear and with- out reproach," he has bid defiance to the rigours of oppression ;- in three memorable revolutions, he has loomed,
"Like a great soa-mark, standing every flaw, And saving those that eyed him ;"
and by his recent bold and generous conduct,-his last and grandest achievement, which has secured the Freedom of Elections, suppressed a National Hierarchy, and given to his country a " Republican King," he has conquered universal admiration.
The nations of Europe will emulate the example of France ; the freedom of the Press having been there permanently established, it becomes the lever of Archimedes, and will move the world. The fate of absolute monarchies has been irrevocably doomed ; -while despots wielded their iron sceptres with apparent primeval confidence and power, the start- ling denunciation has appeared upon their palace
---
38
walls, in flaming characters, so prominent, distinct and comprehensible, that no master of the Chaldeans is required, to make known the maddening inter- pretation. That huge and terrific system of abso- lute, unlimited and irresponsible sovereignty, which the combined kings of Europe fondly believed they were successfully establishing, has been shivered to atoms by the lightnings of intelligence.
The American Republic has been a living and perpetual precedent of what man can and will ac- complish, when reason sways the empire of the soul, and death is considered preferable to degrada- tion ;- like the orb of day, it has illumined the po- litical firmament, vivified the dormant energies of the mind in the darkest realms of tyranny, and cheered the oppressed in every region of the globe. In vain the base minions of royalty confidently looked for its declining splendour, and anxiously awaited its going down in eternal night; but it still rides high in the ecliptic of its glory, and culminates in perpetual noon, -lighting onward, innumerable nations, in their tri- umphant march of freedom.
-
NOTES.
A.
The following account of Roxbury is contained in New-England's Pros- pect, a small but interesting work, published by William Wood, who vis- ited this country in 1633.
A mile from this town, [Dorchester, ] lieth Roxbury, which is a fair and handsome country town ; the inhabitants of it being all very rich : a clear and fresh brook runs through the town, and a quarter of a mile to the north is a small river called Stony River, upon which is built a water mill. Up westward it is something rocky, whence it hath the name of Roxbury.
B.
Extract from Prince's Chronological History.
" Sept. 28, 1630. The third court of assistants at Charlestown. Pre- sent the Governor, Deputy Governor, Captain Endicott, Messrs. Ludlow, Norwell, Coddington, Bradstreet, Rossiter, Pynchon.
Ordered, 3d, that fifty pound be levied out of the several plantations for Mr. Patrick and Mr. Underhill ;* (I suppose for some military pur- pose,) namely,
1. Charlestown to pay - 71.
2. Boston 11 7. Salem 3
3. Dorchester 7
5. Watertown 11 6. Medford to pay - 31.
8. Wessaguscus, after
4. Roxbury 5 called Weymouth 2
9. Nantasket 1
At a Court held in Boston on the 26th of July, 1631, it was ordered, --- " That every first Tuesday in every month, there be a general training of Captain Underhill's company at Boston and Roxbury," from which it ap- pears it was composed of the freemen of both of those towns.
C.
William Pynchon or Pinchon was appointed a Colonel in the militia after he settled in Springfield, where he also acted as Indian Agent, and prosecuted a lucrative trade, with the numerous tribes on the borders of Connecticut river, till 1652 ; but, as Mr. Savage observes, " having re- ceived some ill treatment from the government, on account of his relig- ious principles, he with Capt. Smith, his son-in-law, went to England
* Underhill commanded the first military company which was organized in the colony.
-
10
NOTES.
never to return. I presume Pynchon had written a book, above the spirit of that age ; for our government, in a curious letter to the Prince of fa- naticks, Sir Henry Vane, give no clear idea of its doctrines. See 3 His. Coll. 1. 35. His son John was of the Council in 1665, and many of his descendants are in places of public usefulness in Springfield and its neigh- borhood, and at Salem."*
After his return to England, he published an answer to Mr. Norton's attempted refutation of his religious dialogue.
Great efforts have been made to procure a copy of Mr. Pynchon's tract on " Justification," but without success. If any individual possesses that celebrated pamphlet, it is very desirable that it should be placed in one of our public libraries ; that, with Norton's reply and Pynchon's rejoin- der, would make a most rare and interesting volume.
* Note by the Hon. James Savage in Gov. Winthrop's History, vol. 1, p. 12.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.