USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Danvers > Centennial celebration at Danvers, Mass., June 16, 1852 > Part 10
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The history of this town has its importance and interest as a portion of that of New England. It is connected with the earlier history of Massachusetts, and with that great struggle by which our Independence was achieved. We believe that the inhabitants have not lost those traits which distinguished their ancestry ; that some of the old Puritan love of religion and religious liberty lingers here ; that the same patri- otic blood flows in their veins which was poured out so freely in the
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first and subsequent battles of the Revolution ; and, if ever they should be called again to vindicate their liberties, the young men would go forth with as much courage and alacrity, to engage in mortal strife, as those whose names are perpetuated by yonder monumental granite.
We hope that as the citizens of the town turn their eyes more in- tently upon their history, and commune with the spirits of their re- ligious and heroic fathers, they will catch a new inspiration, and that they will attach themselves, more firmly than ever, to those institutions and elements of strength, which have given them their New England character and prosperity.
The town has not grown so rapidly as some others in the Common- wealth ; but it has gone forward with a steady, quiet, vigorous growth, till it stands among the most considerable towns in the State. Our motto is, "Onward." We have an appropriate name, whose significa- tion is indicative of progress.
The name Danvers is compounded of the two words "De" and "Anvers." We have been informed to-day of the origin of the appli- cation. I have had a curiosity to ascertain the meaning of the term. It is well known to many that Anvers is the French pronunciation of Antwerp, a once flourishing city of Netherlands, and still possessing magnitude and importance. By the kind assistance of Mr. Sibley, the Assistant Librarian of Harvard, I have been directed to an old geo- graphical folio, in which the signification of the name is discussed. The opinion of the most judicious antiquarians is there stated. Aen- werp, from which Antwerp is derived, is an old Flemish word denoting addition, accession, progress. The waters of the river Scheldt, on whose banks it is situated, carried down a large quantity of alluvial material, which they deposited on the site of Antwerp, and laid the foundation of the city. The soil on which it stands is added to the natural soil-thence the name. It was applied to us with a kind of prophetic intimation. We accept it as our motto, and as indicative of our condition. Addition,-gradual, steady addition,-like the deposits which a river makes of the soil which is diffused through its waters,- a rich addition, as all alluvial soil is known to be. Addition to our agricultural resources,-addition to arts and trade,-progress in re- sources, wealth, industry, enterprise, virtue, humanity, the spirit and principles of religion, and every element that contributes to elevate, adorn, and bless a Town, State, and Nation. The river of our pros- perity, which flows down from the past, continues to make its constant, silent deposit of the selectest materials, enlarging, deepening, enriching the foundations on which we hope to stand till the end of time.
There is one respect in which we claim not only to have made a great advance, but to stand before the age.
I refer to the great subject of Demonology and spiritual communica- tions. Whatever there is in spiritual manifestations, either by rapping or turning over tables, that is supposed to indicate progress in this world or the other, we can exhibit an account of phenomena which surpass them all. We are a hundred and sixty years in advance of all these manifestations. The people of " Salem Village " had communications with spirits in 1692, and, according to received accounts, spirits much more powerful than indicate their presence now. They could not only
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rap floors and ceilings, but rap shoulders and knuckles, and inflict the most grievous wounds. They could not only turn over tables, but fly through the air without wings. The people of Danvers have had such spiritual wonders passing among them that they have little or no taste for these modern exhibitions. They look down upon them as inferior imitations. Their reputation is so high in these matters, and their point of progress so far ahead, that they can afford to stand still and wait for the age to come up. But you may be assured that if ever they should see fit to take up this subject again, they will throw every thing that now appears into the shade. They will exhibit spirits which will not only turn over tables, but will capsize the White Moun- tains, and rap loud enough to be heard across the Atlantic. They hope that they shall not be unduly pressed to make developments in reference to this matter ; but if they are driven to extremities, and called upon to vindicate their equality to the progress of the age, they will not shrink from the effort, and will throw all the glory of the age into the shade, by reason of the " glory that excelleth."
They have the means of doing this, of which the public are not generally aware. On the grounds which I occupy, stood, formerly, the house of Rev. Mr. Parris, in which Salem Witchcraft commenced. There is a rose-bush which stood in the garden, or front yard connected with the house, and which I think grew there in 1692. And my reason for the belief is that it gives evidence of being possessed of extraordinary powers of vitality. It has been cut down by the scythe in all stages of the moon, and when the signs of the almanac were all right ; it has been repeatedly ploughed up ; but it will live on-it grows as vigorously and blooms as beautifully as ever. I have no doubt that it is bewitched-that is, as much bewitched as any person or thing ever was bewitched. I had cut off a slip which I intended to exhibit, but unfortunately have lost it. The audience need not have been afraid of it ; I am not a medium, and have no means of calling its latent virtue into action. The bush I suppose to be a reservoir of witch fluid, which the inhabitants have only to find means to bring into operation, to make such awful demonstrations as would surpass all former fame. They have no mischievous designs at present, but will be ready to put down all rival pretensions when the exigency requires it. In the meantime, instead of making any further progress in de- monology, they will turn their attention to more earthly matters.
On this occasion, which closes the first century of our municipal existence, it is natural to recur to what has transpired within that period. It is among the most eventful centuries which have elapsed. When this portion of Salem was made a district, Washington was only twenty years of age, and has acquired all his transcendent and immor- tal fame since that period. The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence was a lad still younger. Scarcely more thought was entertained of being severed from the mother country and living under this republican government, than now exists in China that that country, in twenty or thirty years, will adopt our political institutions. What a vast change has taken place in the country and world ! The century on which we have entered will witness still greater changes. American Republicanism will have diffused itself over Europe. Republics will line the whole coast of dark and degraded Africa. Our ideas and
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institutions will have penetrated the depths of Asia. This town will probably be a populous city, sending up its numerous spires to the heavens, and having streets crowded with a busy population.
As we take leave of this day, we look forward with hope, not un- mingled with solicitude, to the future. We bequeath to the generations following, of this century, a precious inheritance. We bequeath to them a soil devoted to God by prayer, and baptized into the name of Liberty by Revolutionary blood ; and charge them never to alienate from its high consecration. We bequeath to them the graves and memory of most worthy men, whose characters we hope they will ever respect, and whose virtues we trust they will copy. We bequeath to them a religion whose spirit we pray that they may ever cherish, and principles of liberty which we hope will ever burn with unquench- able ardor in their hearts. We bequeath to them homes, which we desire may continue to be adorned with domestic virtue and the richest sources of peace. We bequeath to them habits of industry, love of order, attachment to temperance, privileges and institutions which we implore that they may preserve and perfect with the greatest care. We hope that when the morning of June 16, 1952, shall dawn upon this town, it shall illuminate a religious, free, intelligent, improved, prosperous, happy people.
The first regular sentiment was then announced as follows :-
His Excellency the Governor-Honorably known for the interest he has taken in our Revolutionary history. We hail his presence here as a testimony of his appreciation of the part taken by Danvers in that great struggle for Constitu- tional Liberty.
Governor BOUTWELL responded substantially in the following terms :
Mr. President :- It is true that I have come here to take an humble part in commemorating the services of your Revolutionary ancestors ; and the noble character they bore in the great struggle for freedom, is worthy of all the festivities and pageantry of this occasion.
But it is not to those services only, and the emotions they inspire, that these moments are dedicated. We are carried to Colonial and Provincial times, and remember that a Republic was founded at noon- day, in the sight of the world. Uncertain history traces the Roman Empire to a band of robbers, while human knowledge seeks in vain for the origin of the institutions of Great Britian. How fortunate the contrast which America presents ! Our humble origin, our slow, but sure progress, as well as present power, all are known. There is neither uncertainty nor mystery in American history.
These municipal anniversaries are important. The orator and poet may preserve minute, though well authenticated, facts, and treasure traditions, which will give life and intelligence to the historian's page.
Each day has its history. All of us help to give character to our day, and are therefore responsible for that character. So of a town. Each of our more than three hundred towns has its history. From the lives and opinions of individual men comes the history of towns ; and from the lives and opinions of individual men, combined with our municipal annals, comes the history of states and the nation.
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It is not a mistake that we judge a town by its leading or notable men. If a community has produced men of talents, courage, or learning, it is not an idle delusion in the public mind which gives prominence to that fact. We cannot but receive the idea of represen- tative men. Eminent statesmen, orators, warriors and philosophers, are only the leading statesmen, orators, warriors and philosophers of the communities in which they dwell. The native nobility of one man is some evidence of the general, even though inferior, nobility of the race to which he belongs. Many generations and many men contrib- uted to the creation of one Shakspeare ; and the fame of one Shak- speare immortalizes a nation. Washington represented the heart, and illustrated the principles, of the American people. It would not be too much to say that he was indebted to his country, and therefore his countrymen may well share the immortality of his name and character.
It is in this view that I have listened to your story of the deeds of the heroic men of Danvers and of the County of Essex. First of all, the fame of those deeds is yours, citizens of Danvers and of Essex ; but beyond your claim, though not superior to it, that fame belongs to Massachusetts and to the country. The value of a deed of heroism or patriotism, or of a progressive step in learning or civilization, is local and peculiar at the same time that it is universal and indivisible. When, therefore, you unfold the character of Foster, or narrate the services of Putnam, you speak to us even who are citizens of other counties. But you are not, 1 take it, confined to the present limits of your town. As Danvers was once Salem, so Salem, for all time, must contribute to the just renown of Danvers. You have an equal interest in Endicott, whose unostentatious worth was appreciated by the whole colony. In the Higginsons, of three generations, whose piety, patriot- ism, and learning, identified their names with the history of Massachu- ' setts. In William Hathorne, who seemed fitted for every position, either in the council, field, or church. In the Brownes, who were liberal men, and contributed to the college at Cambridge.
But, gentlemen of Danvers, your claim to the public spirit and courage of the one hundred men who marched to the line of danger on the 19th of April, 1775, is first, but not exclusive. So the value you attach to the fact that Putnam was a native of Danvers, arises from the consideration that a republic is jealous of any exclusive appropriation of his bold patriotism and generous recklessness of danger.
In modern times, also, the County of Essex has produced many distinguished men. This occasion, I think, will permit an allusion to two, whose acquaintance I enjoyed. I speak of Mr. KING, of Danvers, and Mr. SALTONSTALL, of Salem. Mr. King was better known to you than to me; but I knew him enough to appreciate the integrity of his character, and his conscientious discharge of the duties of private and public life.
I knew Mr. Saltonstall in the last months-I cannot say years-of his existence. But, sir, I knew him enough to admire and respect the bland simplicity and elegant purity of his life and conversation ; and all who knew him appreciated the kind qualities of his heart, to which were added a high order of talents and reputable learning. In
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the closing moments of his life, I doubt not he was sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, and approached his grave
"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
The men and the generations of whom we have heard to-day have passed away. Their deeds live and act-but they rest from their labors.
For you, however, there is a future as well as a past. From 1754 to 1850, your population has increased from less than eighteen hundred to more than eight thousand souls. Production and trade have in- creased in a greater ratio even.
But let us contemplate, sir, if we can, the condition of this town an hundred years hence, when its inhabitants shall meet to review the. deeds of Putnam, Foster, and their associates ! They will dwell in a city of thirty, forty, or even fifty thousand people. Salem will contain at least an hundred thousand souls. Great changes will they recount .. Great deeds will they narrate. The list of eminent men will be: lengthened-nobly lengthened.
And, O, our country, what shall then be thy condition and' fate ? No harm shall come to thee. Thy flag shall then, as now, wave over the most distant seas, and thy power be respected by the rudest people. Thy territory shall not be limited, but extended ; the Union, taking root more and more firmly in the hearts of the people, shall promise immortality ; while noble cities upon our oceans, lakes, and majestic rivers, shall rival in population, business and wealth, the most pros- perous of ancient or modern times.
In faith let us believe that all then will be well ; that the stars and stripes of our national ensign will wave over a free, happy and united people ; that liberty to all men will be given and enjoyed ; that our commerce will be protected on every sea ; and, finally, that one hun- dred years hence witnesses may be present to testify that America and Americans have not degenerated.
Governor Boutwell concluded with the following sentiment :
The Onward Prosperity of Danvers-May the next Centennial Celebration be enjoyed by a people as richly blessed as the present, and as justly proud of their ancestors.
The second regular toast was in honor of Gov. John Endicott, and his descendants. It was eloquently responded to by WM. C. ENDI- COTT, Esq., of Salem, as follows :
Mr. President :- I regret that the sentiment you have proposed should not be answered by some one more worthy than myself. For he who would represent the presence of the great and influential of their time, should have something more than their name to entitle him to respond to their praises.
Old John Endicott is not represented here by any, who have a fame of their own that can claim fellowship with his ; and I rise merely to acknowledge the honor you have done his memory by the sentiment you have proposed.
16 P
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This, sir, is peculiarly a Danvers festival. All the associations of the past and the present, all the history and the incidents of two hun- dred years, are gathered here to-day ; and here, too, are collected, from all parts of our wide-spread land, those who claim a parentage within your fair borders, and those who feel a deep interest in the place and in the people. In the latter class I must rank myself. But, sir, though I cannot reckon it among the accidents of my life to have been born upon your soil, still there is many a tie that places it next in my affections to the spot of my birth ; it was here that much of my boyhood was passed. I know every farm-house upon your hill-sides, and every road upon your surface ; and amid the sea of faces around me, there are many whose genial lineaments were impressed upon my memory by a thousand little kindnesses, when memory was most im- pressible. For two centuries my fathers tilled your soil, and beneath it their bones are buried. I claim therefore, sir, if not of you, that I am with you to-day in interest and feeling.
John Endicott was the first landholder of Danvers. Under a colo- nial grant in 1632, he took possession of a portion of your soil.
You stated, sir, in your opening address, that the growth of Danvers, during two hundred years, had not been rapid. But, sir, if that stern old Puritan could stand here to-day, and look back through the years that are past, tracing each wave of progress as it has swept over the land, from the time when he rocked Danvers in a cradle, to to-day the fulfilment of its manhood, more, vastly more than his hoping heart ever dared to dream of, would such a vision realize. He would recall it, as he knew it, waving with the original forest, with here and there the sparse and scattered clearing, where the sturdy settler was subdu- ing the wilderness, and making the earth tributary to his wants ;- and he would see it, to-day, the home of a numerous, prosperous, and happy people, pouring their active and intelligent industry through all the channels of the useful arts, and celebrating here, with so much thankfulness and joy, the hour of their nativity. The churches that dot your surface would remind him that the great cause of religious liberty,-the great interest of a devout religion, for the better establish- ment and the lasting maintenance of which he crossed the sea, is as dear to the hearts of the people now as then. And the schoolhouses at every corner, and the bright and joyous throng of public school children gathered here, would tell him, that the system first suggested by himself in 1641, to educate the children of the state from the treas- ury of the state, is now the established principle of the land. It is hardly necessary to comment upon the results of that system ; every one within the sound of my voice has probably been the recipient of its bounty, and feels to-day its influence upon himself.
And such, Mr. President, as he would see Danvers to-day, he would see all the little republics that have sprung from the Puritan stock. The change has been a mighty one for the work of but two centuries, and the brain grows giddy as we strive to estimate the changes of the next. That it has been so mighty, we owe it to the Puritans with all their faults, and to those wise principles of government, morals, re- ligion and law, which they brought here. The start was a good one, the foundation was a strong one,-and if the race be feeble, and the
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superstructure weak, ours is the fault. Almost with a divine prescience, they laid the foundations of the state to withstand the shock of ages, as if they knew what a mighty structure was to be reared upon them in the coming time, which would gather within its walls the fugitives from all lands.
Their principles, I trust, are with us still. They recognized no am- bition as worthy, but that which ministered to the general welfare ; they aimed at the useful alone ; they discarded forms, and rites, and cere- monies ; they regarded religion not as mystery, but as a reality ; they thought all men equal, and recognized no superior but their God. They left no memorials of their greatness carved in marble, or painted on canvas ; they reared no temples and no palaces, nor did they seek to revive here the glories of Old England. How unlike in this the other colonists of America !
The Spaniards, with their armies, pierced into the forests of the New World, and wherever their steps have been, they have left turret and battlement, column and spire,-the stern castle, and the stately cathedral with its swelling organ, its statues and its pictures ; and the splendors of old Spain were mirrored in the new. And the weak civ- ilization, that struggles for existence in Spanish America, tells the story of their folly.
But, sir, the Puritan left his memorials graven upon a more enduring substance than marble or canvas ; he left them stamped upon the char- acter of his posterity. In the love of liberty regulated by law,-in the indomitable energy, thrift, and enterprise,-in the religious senti- ment and the moral purpose,-in the wide-spread, comprehensive sys- tem of education,-in everything that has contributed to the moral elevation and material prosperity of the people of New England, we read the works of the Puritan. What a charter, sir, is this, for the liberties and the true glory of a nation !
There was a stern utility in all the aims of the Puritan, which de- prives life, with us, of many of its graces and refinements ; and while we retain their glorious characteristics, let us remember that it is our mission to engraft upon. them and to cultivate the love of letters, of science, and of art, and make the land we have inherited as famous for its culture as it is for its progress ; and while we strew our path with the monuments of our success in the useful and material arts,- while we level the mountain, and bridge the sea, and make the iron and the steel throb with intelligence, let us strive also to leave behind us monuments of intellectual triumphs, which shall outlast the struc- tures of human hands.
But I am reminded, sir, by my recollection of the history of Danvers, that many of your citizens have labored well and faithfully in the vineyards of letters and science. There is a long list of divines, be- ginning in the early days of your history, and coming down to the present time, who have found leisure, amid the duties of their calling, to cultivate a taste for letters, and to enrich the literature of the land. You, Mr. President, well represent them here. There was Eppes, known as " the greatest schoolmaster in New England," famous for his classical learning and his genial culture. In later times there was Read, distinguished for the encouragement he gave to science, manu-
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factures, and the arts, and to whom, perhaps, the world would have been indebted for the steamboat, if his means had been equal to his ingenuity. Bowditch, too, passed his youth among you, and the burn- ing genius of the boy first gazed with awe and wonder upon the moon rising over your own hills. . There is one among you now,-I see him here,-whose humorous and brilliant pen brings laughter and delight to many a fireside, and of whom I will only say that he writes too lit- tle. There was another, whom many of you doubtless remember,- he was a college companion of my own,-the young, the graceful, and accomplished scholar, cut off in the first bloom of his manhood ; he lived too short a life for the world to know him, but the memory of his virtues and his talents is dearly cherished by all his friends.
Pardon me, Mr. President, for trespassing so long upon your atten- tion ; the hour is replete with thought and feeling. In conclusion, I would express the hope that your future may be, like your past, hon- orable, prosperous, and happy.
A sentiment alluding to the former unity and present concord be- tween Salem and Danvers, was responded to by Hon. CHARLES W. UPHAM, Mayor of Salem, who spoke as follows :
Mr. President :- The unity of spirit and the identity of interest spoken of in the sentiment just announced, between Danvers and Salem, secure our sympathy in this occasion. But not these alone. There is a stronger and closer tie binding us together, as the gentlemen of the glee club have just told us. We hold to you a parental relation. You are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. I bear testimony to, although I have not the power adequately to express, the feelings of the people of Salem in the brilliant pageant of this your Centennial Celebration. They are identical with the deep, the tender, the fervent sensibility with which a fond and proud parent rejoices in the welfare, honor, and happiness of a cherished and meritorious child.
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