USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Boston, September 17, 1880 > Part 3
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can be hid. The hills on which it was built, and which gave it the designation which was changed for Boston, on the 17th of September, 1630, have been levelled and swept into the sea, and we, who knew them and played on them as boys, now look for them in vain. But Boston remains, - with a character all its own, with a history which can never be obliterated, and with a future, as we all hope and believe, not less prosperous or less glorious than its past. Oh, if those who laid its strong and deep foundations, two centuries and a half ago, could look down upon it to-day, and see to what greatness it has grown; what a fame it has acquired at home and abroad; what wide- influences it has exerted in every good cause over this whole continent, and how they themselves are now honored and revered, they would be more than rewarded for all their toils and tears, and sacrifices and sufferings, and would fully realize that, by God's blessing, they had achieved a work worthy to be commemorated throughout all generations!
But " Not unto us, not unto us," would be their cry, "but unto God's name give the praise!" The statue which is to be unveiled to-morrow has in one hand the Charter of Massachusetts, and in the other the Word of God, - copied carefully from the old family Bible which the governor him- self brought over with the charter, and which is now a precious possession of my own. Divine and human laws are thus presented together, - faith and freedom, religion and liberty, - a liberty, as Winthrop defined it, "to do that only which is good, just, and honest." So may it ever be!
Let me hasten to a conclusion, Mr. Mayor, by expressing the hope, and trust, and earnest prayer of one who, having - witnessed and participated in two of these jubilees, can only contemplate a third with the eye of faith, that, as half centu- ries and whole centuries shall roll away in the long future, our
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beloved city may still and ever preserve its ancient character for honor and public spirit; may still maintain its old renown for devotion to union, liberty, and law; may still be famed for its institutions of religion, education, and charity; and, above all, may still be upheld and blessed, ruled over and overruled, by the God of our fathers, and our God! In the familiar words of the chosen motto of our city seal, - as borrowed from the invocation of the wisest of kings and of men, at the dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, -- " Sicut patribus, sit Deus nobis."
The Mayor then presented the Hon. WILLIAM A. COURTENAY, Mayor of Charleston, S.C., who spoke as follows : -
ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM ASHMEAD COURTENAY, MAYOR OF CHARLESTON, S.C.
Fellow-Citizens of Boston, - It is to me a high privilege to share in the festivities of this most interesting occasion, which carries our thoughts in retrospect through the centuries to that early settlement, the two hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of which you are about to commemorate. Survey- ing from this point of time our impressive past, it is permitted us to feel that we are actors in the vast unfolding of a continent which the voice of prophecy in the remote past had so clearly foretold: "There shall come a time in later ages when ocean shall relax his chains and a vast conti- nent appear, and a pilot shall find a new world, and Thule shall be no longer earth's bounds." The prophecy has been fulfilled. In the wonderful century which saw at its beginning the coronation of Elizabeth, and at its close the death of the great commoner, the shores of this, our now wide domain, were being trod by the first settlers
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of Port Royal and Jamestown, of New Amsterdam and Plymouth, of Boston and Charleston. In looking over the fields of our great conquests we are reminded of an origin from different lands, under different languages, in a magnifi- cent age, and of the duties which should go hand in hand with our privileges; and so it concerns us all, as citizens of a common country, that our great republic shall grow even more and more in wisdom, power, and splendor, in the years to come, and that this western world of civil liberty and self- government shall remain to those who are to come after ns.
You have been pleased to honor South Carolina and her chief city, in these anniversary ceremonies, by special mention. I recall the circumstance, that on a festive occasion, in a neighboring city, only a few years ago, a friend who re- sponded for our State said in plaintive accents, "I feel that in answering for South Carolina at this time and on this occasion I am introducing a spectre at your feast." How happily different I am circumstanced to-night! I speak now for a State with renewed life; with a wise and beneficent government ; with her fields and forests weighted with thirty millions of remunerative crops; with the hum of many profitable industries everywhere heard within her borders, and with fresh popula- tion coming to her from many quarters. But, above and beyond all these evidences of material prosperity, I speak for a people not only prosperous and contented, but who, having bravely survived the sorrows and sacrifices of the near past, are looking forward to an inviting future, keenly alive to im- pulse and achievement, with ardent hopes and large plans, in this the birth-time of their new public life, and no political „aspirations outside of the union of States, which is " to give to liberty a continent to exist in."
Boston, with her ampler resources and larger responsibili-
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ties, sends cordial greetings, too, to the old city of Gadsden and Moultrie. Happy reunion of early friends! What though the two cities have been separated in thought and deed, since the heroic days when Moultrie's guns sent answer back in no unintelligible signal to Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill! The issues which had divided them have now passed away for- ever! Time is valuable for the lessons it imparts. Behind St. George's chapel, at Windsor Castle, there is a nook whose sombre shadow matches well the significance of its centre-piece, - for there stands a memorial, harmonizing with the noble arches, the knightly banners, and the grand monuments of its historic interior and shadowy cloisters. In. the midst of this emerald grass-plot rises a tall, slender cross of stone, without ornament of any kind, nothing to rivet the attention or take captive the imagination. Yet in the pano- rama of this great museum of history there are few spots more profoundly impressive. Men stand around this simple royal memorial, and tell how the last of the Bonapartes, dying in a distant land, in the ranks of his hereditary enemies, is honored at this ancient home of kings by a queen who has happily outlived the antagonisms and passions of her people in the early years of this century. And so, too, may the people of our wide-spreading Union, with grateful hearts, tell of this noble city, whose distinguished son uttered the first potent word of reconciliation, when he asked that the names of the places of civil strife should be removed from the victorious flags of the restored Union. Other sons of Boston, acting out this noble thought, have since done the work which that symbol of St. George's chapel teaches. The school- house, the Home of Rest, the private charities of Charleston. have each felt the ministering hand of the sons and daughters of this generous city, and on every New Year's day the widows
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and orphans of some who once " wore the gray" are reminded of Boston's continuing charity.
It is the consciousness of these pleasant things which brings me here to-night, to make acknowledgment of so great a consideration and sympathy for the " city by the sea," during a period when public opinion was not as advanced in kindly thoughts as now; and I am here, also, while I congratulate you on the beautiful aspect of your city, which salutes us here to-night, to utter the hope that the yet fairer outlook it be- tokens may be fully realized; that she may enjoy the dignity of age without its decays, and have through the centuries all the gladness and growth of youth to augment her fame and her fortune.
Mr. Courtenay's remarks were warmly applauded.
Hon. C. II. McINTOSH, of Ottawa, was then introduced, and said : -
ADDRESS OF HON. C. H. MCINTOSH, MAYOR OF OTTAWA, CANADA.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, - When I left my quiet home in Ottawa I had not anticipated being obliged to surrender to His Honor the Mayor of Boston, and forced to speak. However, ladies and gentlemen, the character of the occasion, the character of those present, and the nature of the subject, demand a few words from me. It is related that when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the first salutation they received was from Samoset, the Indian chief, who came for- ward exclaiming, "Welcome, welcome, Englishmen !" although the arrival of these wanderers - I might call them exiles- - presaged the invasion of his hunting-grounds and the extinction of his council-fires. The chivalry implanted in the heart of Samoset has but increased with civilization: and it is not too
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much to assert that now a welcome from the citizens of Boston serves as a passport for its recipient throughout the world.
Mr. Mayor, I do not lightly estimate the honor conferred, in being asked to accept the city's hospitalities during a jubilee . commemorative of the naming of Boston two hundred and fifty years ago. The compliment is not to me, but to the capital city of the Dominion, of which I have the honor to be chief magistrate, and my only regret is that one more worthy, one more eloquent, is not here to adequately return thanks, on behalf of the Dominion of Canada, for your generous reception.
If there is one thing above another characteristic of us Canadians, at a time like this, it is extreme diffidence and excessive modesty; but, as you are a studious and observant people, it is almost superfluous to tell you so, for if a nation should feel self-satisfied on any occasion it ought to be when money is being received; and you know how diffident we were when pressed by your national government to accept the proceeds of the Halifax fishery award !
As in that case, so in others; and it is only that my heart warms towards you, and the light of brotherly love and good fellowship is observable in your faces, that I attempt to briefly address such a large and intelligent audience. As I walked through your city and viewed the marvellous progress made, even within the past quarter of a century; as I gazed upon the statues reared in honor of your great men, - I could not help thinking that the descendants of the early settlers had also erected an everlasting monument to their progenitors and themselves when they built the City of Ottawa! - Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I mean Boston, - you see it is a case of " Though lost to sight, to memory dear."
The character of Boston's early pioneer life, the difficul- ties to be faced, the obstacles to be overcome, even now, with
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all modern appliances and modern ingenuity, seem almost insurmountable. I saw statues erected to perpetuate the memory of Benjamin Franklin, Horace Mann, Edward Ever- ett, Daniel Webster, Alexander Hamilton, and other illustrious sons, whose deeds have made the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts famous in history, and could not but give intellectual hospitality to the thoughts: here is reared a city proclaiming trumpet-tongued what human industry may accomplish ; here is a city that has given to literature some of the brightest intellects the Creator ever inspired ; here is a city that has added to science some of its most brilliant and exquisite achievements ; here is a city that has contributed to the leg- islative halls of the nation men of giant minds and boundless patriotism, and taught the world a lesson of charity and liber- ality by the munificent contributions of many of her sons towards her libraries and public institutions ; and the names of Lawrence, Phillips, Everett, Ticknor, Parker, Bigelow, and Bates, suggest themselves as men who have set bright exam- ples in distributing the treasures Providence made them stew -- ards of.
Glancing over the pages of history one is struck by the number of memorable events connected with the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, many of the most important occurring in the month of September. It was in that month, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers weighed anchor and left Old England ; in that month, 1630 (an occasion so eloquently alluded to by the Hon. Mr. Winthrop to-night), the name of Boston was given to a lot of straggling tents and rough cabins; in that month, 1759, the fortress of Quebec surrendered, the sons of - Massachusetts assisting in the assault, and the Colonial As- sembly of Massachusetts ordering a monument to the memory of Wolf. Happily the bitterness and bickerings engendered
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by the strife of those days have passed away, and to-day French Canadians and English mingle politically and socially, one vying with the other in manifestations of loyalty to the British Crown.
But, sir, above and beyond all this, was it not in the month of September, 1787, that the Constitution of the United States, that work of great men, was signed ? And was it not in September, 1851, twenty-nine years ago, that you celebrated what was then considered the completion of your magnificent railroad system? Now, I do not know whether you have a patron saint ; but assuredly, if you have, it must be Saint September, - a month of happy augury, a month crowded with memorable events and incidents in your local as well as national history. The only mistake your forefathers made in emptying the three cargoes of tea into the bay was, that they did not do it three months sooner; but they probably made all preliminary arrangements in September, and as they proved they knew their own business best I shall not question their wisdom of dates.
Mr. Mayor, we Canadians appreciate to the fullest extent your public spirit and national progress, and we are not in- mindful of the fact that whatever adds to your greatness exer- cises a beneficial effect upon every inhabitant of the North American continent. We look upon you as neighbors, as friends, as co-laborers in the vineyard of human industry ; and we earnestly pray for perpetual amity between the three great branches of the British family. We pray, too, that the mem- ory of many fratricidal conflicts may be veiled in oblivion, and that the book of blood be closed forever. The struggle must not be upon the battle-field ; it must be upon the commercial marts, in the workshops, in the factories, and for preeminence in the arts of peace. We may reserve to ourselves the right
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to glory in the traditions of the British Empire ; you may glory in your Constitution, baptized, as it was, in the blood of patriots ; we may claim that on our system of government we have grafted all the better portions of the British Constitu- tion ; but whatever either claims should serve but to establish universal brotherhood throughout the entire continent. I dare not ask you to model your Constitution in every respect after that of the mother-country; neither should you care what form of government we are most devoted to. The poet has said : -
" Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree ? Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried, If he kneel not before the same altar with me ?"
And as in religion, so let it be in all national affairs; let us be good soldiers in the army of Freedom, of Peace, of Progress, and in our commercial affairs forget, at times, that one flag does not cover us all.
I am glad, indeed, to know that the bonds of generous inter- national feeling are being strengthened day after day ; and we Canadians glory in your successes, as we would sympathize with you in your misfortunes. I remember many years ago reading a motto that graced one of your public edifices on a festive occasion, and it will bear repetition here; it was this :-
" Then let us haste the bonds to knit, And in the work be handy ; That we may blend God save the Queen With Yankee Doodle Dandy !"
"You, gentlemen, have your special tariff' arrangements ; we, too, have lately inaugurated a new fiscal policy. It is all very well to hew wood and draw water; but, as you
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found many years ago, it becomes rather monotonous to hew and draw all the time for other people; one likes to own a portion of the wood, and sometimes to drink a little of the water. So we are endeavoring, by a revised tariff, to develop our interests, to give permanency and fulness to our native re- sources, and vitality to our industrial institutions.
There is no feeling of jealous antagonism towards the United States, for I really believe that, so soon as our Dominion is in a position to do it, the right hand of commercial fellow- ship will be extended and some measure of the reciprocal rela- tions once existing be again restored. We are children; you have reached the prime of life, and we found it rather difficult to jump a sixty-inch hurdle, while you could step over our seventeen and a half inch bars without drawing breath.
I said that we were trying the experiment of a new tariff, and, although we pinch your commercial corns a little, I believe the result will prove beneficial to both of us. Our aims and responsibilities are not widely dissimilar; the intercourse between us is almost as close as between State and State, and it behooves us on the soil of North America to cultivate feelings of amity towards one another, and to demonstrate that on this side of the Atlantic exists one of the greatest confederation of freemen the world has ever known.
Gentlemen and ladies, I again thank you, and, through you, the citizens of Boston, for affording me the opportunity of being present here to-night; the recollection of your hospitality will ever be a green spot in my memory. Proud I am to sce to-night the flags of both countries intertwined; so may they ever be, fold within fold, color blending with color, until " their varying tints unite and form in heaven's light one arch of peace."
Mr. MeIntosh's remarks were received with great applause.
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Hon. WILLIAM M. EVARTS, Secretary of State, was next intro- duced, and said : -
ADDRESS OF THE HON. WILLIAM M. EVARTS.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, - When your com- mittee, some months ago, was so kind as to visit Washington to invite the President and the members of his Cabinet to join in this great celebration, I told them that there was one claim which the City of Boston had upon me that I never had failed to recognize, and should not do so in this her festivity; and that is, that I was born, and educated, and bred in Boston. And while it was a matter of regret with the President that his plans for his visit to the distant parts of the Union would not permit him to be present, and while all of the Cabinet could not find it in their power to leave either their vacations or the calls of duty elsewhere, the Attorney-General and myself, being natives of this city, felt that we could not refrain from the pleasure, and that at least our merit as natives of Boston would be recognized, whatever difference of opinion there might be in regard to any of the rest of our lives. I had two very good reasons, as I thought also, for having some curiosity to be present. One was, that I remember perfectly well the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary, when I, as a scholar of the Latin School, was a part of the demon- stration of that day; and a feeling that I would like to compare Boston and the celebration of that day, with Boston now and its present display of itself, and my views as a boy with my views as a man, led me to wish to be present. Another reason, which I think you will recognize as sound and pertinent, is that I had no expectation of being able to be present on the three hundredth anniversary.
Of Boston as it was up to the year 1838 and 1839, when
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I left the Law School at Cambridge to go to New York, I have a very thorough knowledge. You may remember that the boys of Boston were divided into animosities against one another from their residence in different parts of so great a city. I was a " West-Ender," and it was perfectly understood that any "North-Ender" or "South-Ender" was not to be admitted within our lines without a severe drubbing ; and the same punishment was bestowed upon ns whenever we crossed their limits. I think the "West-Enders " were not quite as famous for vehemence, and perhaps for success, in these battles as the "North-Enders." The " North-Enders " really didn't use civilized methods of warfare, and, of course, a cultivated community like the boys at the West End were at a certain disadvantage in these rival conflicts.
The first public dinner that I ever was present at was one that was given to me in Faneuil Hall when I was ton years old. To be sure there was quite a member of other young persons in the same predicament of having received medals at the public schools; and there was an honorable and useful habit of giving a public dinner to the medal scholars . in Faneuil Hall, which I hear has since been discontinued; and, in fact, I observe that even on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, which might lead naturally to some such festivity, the dinner is omitted. Now, that dinner given, as I say, to me- but if there was any other medal boy speaking to you he would say to him - was an important introduction to life to me, and if I have ever gained in my later life any credit for either eating or speaking at dinners, it has been owing to that early hospitality. I have never seen a dinner that seemed to me so great, and I don't know that there has ever been a day in my life in which I have felt that I really was so important a part of the commmity in which I lived, as
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on that day. And then when I thought that the community in which I lived was no mean community, but the City of Boston, which is the very central figure of all that was valuable, and noble, and virtuous, in the life of America, why, of course, to be no mean citizen of no mean city was a very great honor indeed.
Cotton Mather speaks of Boston at that early day as "the great metropolis of the whole English America." Boston has never got ahead of that situation since. The early condition of fame then acquired makes it impossible for Boston to surpass itself in that direction, and, having gained it, she quietly relinquished the contest in mere numbers and wealth to those other confluent streams of population which come together from nobody knows where.
Boston and Boston boys have been very much a topic of consideration, and sometimes of dispute, in other parts of the country. It is a great good fortune to a man to be able to add something to the reputation of Boston if he stays here, but that is very difficult; but to be able to add reputation, even in the smallest degree, to the city of our birth and our love by leaving it, why, that is an immense satisfaction. It is much easier to gain a reputation anywhere else in this country than it is to keep a reputation in Boston, because Boston is really the master of the judgments of the whole country about people. What Boston thinks of a man that lives in New Orleans, or in Chicago, or in New York, is the final judgment of what he is and what he is worth; and while everybody that was not born in Boston don't admit it, yet they feel it in their hearts. Boston boys, as I understand it, when we were growing up, were most the pride of Boston and most the subject of public attention. But I have noticed that for some years the girls of Boston have been more in the minds 7
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of our countrymen, to say nothing of being in their hearts and on their lips. And the girls of Boston have this advantage in their removals and circulation throughout this great country, impressing always the interest of Boston, of being able to do it under an assumed name, and not being so much detected, and so easily, as the boys are.
But I think, gentlemen and ladies, that the Boston people, those born here, those who have always lived here from their birth, and those who have come here by the attraction of this metropolis of New England, in order to make their fortunes and their fame, must all feel a great pride and a great self- respect for themselves as Bostonians when they see what Boston is now, what it was, and what it continually, without a break, has been in all the higher relations of civic duty, of devotion to country, of the love of the whole country, and in the participation in the great movements of American society that have advanced us from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and made us, in the judgment of all the great powers of the world, their equals in strength and their superiors in happiness. If there is any good thing that has been done in this country, I will not say that Boston has always been the first mover or the only or the greatest promoter of it; but I will say that no great and valuable movement of this country, and of the age, has ever had to contend against the resistance of Boston. If American liberty, if American law, if American patriotism, has been made wider in its dominion, seeurer in its footing, nobler in its promise, Boston has had its share in the whole; and in one sense Boston is still, in the great and noble sense of moral and intellectual influence, upon which all things hang in this free country of ours, Boston, without much exaggeration, may be said to be still what Cotton Mather said it was. - "the great metropolis of the whole English America."
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