USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Commemorative discourse pronounced at Quincy, Mass., 25 May, 1840 on the second centennial anniversary of the ancient incorporation of the town : with an appendix > Part 5
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The May-pole of 1627 and the May-pole of 1840-the oppo- site poles of festivity.
The next sentiment was from the Chair : -
John Adams, a native of Quincy. The glory of his life, like the day of his death, shall never fail from the remembrance of the sons of men.
The following letter, received from the Hon. J. Q. Adams, was then read by the President.
JOHN A. GREEN,
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.
Washington, 18 May, 1840.
SIR, - I have received your letter of the 7th inst., containing the obliging invitation to me to attend the celebration of the cen- tennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Braintree, on the 25th of this month. The necessity of my attendance upon my public duties at this place, deprives me of the power of com- plying with this invitation, for which I am duly grateful. I pray the company to accept instead of my presence my best wishes for the health and happiness of them all.
I am, very respectfully, Sir, Your obedient serv't, J. Q. ADAMS.
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After which he proposed -
John Quincy Adams - This is not an occasion to praise the liv- ing; and distant be the day when any inscription shall bear his name, or any tongue pronounce his eulogy.
And following this
The name of John Hancock, a native of Quincy, - With Ameri- can Liberty it arose - with American Liberty alone it can perish.
The following letter was received from Professor John G. Pal- frey.
Boston, 23d May, 1830.
DEAR SIR, - I am unexpectedly deprived, by an unavoidable engagement, of the pleasure which I promised myself, when I ac- cepted the invitation, with which I was honored by the citizens of Quincy, to attend the very interesting occasion of Monday next. If a convenient opportunity occurs, will you do me the favor to submit, in my behalf, the following sentiment to the attention of the company ?
The Town of Quincy-The home of Wheelwright and Codding- ton ; the birth place of Hancock, the Adamses, and the Quincys; a spot to be held in everlasting remembrance in the history of re- ligious and civil liberty.
The following sentiment was received from Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, who was prevented by other engagements from comply- ing with the invitation to attend : -
Braintree and Quincy -Their men and their hills - their scions and their sienite ; the first have furnished some of the ablest hands by which our Revolution was achieved; the last has supplied the materials of the proudest monument by which it will be commemor- ated.
The President then proposed
John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr. - The defenders of Pres- ton. Together they stood as the advocates of Liberty and Law, - together they sleep amid the graves of their Fathers;
" Thus joined in fame, in friendship tried, - No chance could sever, nor the grave divide."
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The Rev. George Whitney of Roxbury, being requested to give a sentiment, rose and said :- It will not be expected of me, Mr. President, after the long and I am afraid sufficiently tedious utter- ance I have already put forth, to make anything like a set speech here, but I will ask your patience and that of our friends in recur- ring to a brief incident of former times.
As I passed, a day or two since, the place where we are now assembled, and saw the Pavilion going up in preparation for this interesting occasion, an anecdote occurred to me I had heard a long time ago in reference to the elder Adams, the point of which may be turned with singular force to this spot and the distinguished personages associated with it. It is said that when President Adams, senior, was minister to the Court of St. James, he was called upon, at his lodgings, by Sir Benjamin West, who invited him to a morning walk. They went out together as far as Ken- sington Gardens, conversing on various topics. Upon their arrival at the spot already named, Sir Benjamin West thrust his cane into the ground, and with a strong expression of patriotic feeling, turning at the same time to Mr. Adams, exclaimed, " Here, Sir, was the origin of the American Revolution." "How so?" said Mr. Adams. "It was thus," replied Sir Benjamin. "When George III. was about to take to himself Queen Charlotte, following the wisdom of the old adage - first your cage and then your bird - he summoned one of his ministers into his presence, and informed him that it was his purpose to have a new Palace for the Queen : and that the necessary funds must forthwith be supplied. ' We have noth- ing in the Treasury,' replied the minister, ' not a penny.' 'That will be no impediment,' replied the King; ' the Palace we must have ; we have only to tax the Colonies.' - The Colonies were taxed. The stamp act was imposed. We see what they got by it. Here, Sir, was the origin of the American Revolution." *
When we come to speak of the secondary causes of that great
* The reader may find a little different version of this anecdote in Tudor's Life of James Otis, p. 206. The main incidents, however, are the same. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens join each other : and it was somewhere thereabouts, -on the spot occupied by Sir Benjamin West, -where the King had proposed to locate the palace. Possibly the pleasing of the Queen might have concerned him less than the pleasing of himself or even of his courtiers.
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event, Mr. President, - for independent of all that might be gathered up, we cannot but feel that from the development of the original principles on which the Pilgrims started, the Revolution and the Declaration of Independence were both sooner or later certain to come forth, - it seems to me, that it turns out to be our privilege with singular propriety and force, on this very spot, to imitate the action of Sir Benjamin West, and to say with emphasis, in his own words also - Here, here, Sir, was the origin of the American Revolution.
'This spot, Sir, was the birth-place of John Hancock, whose name is first on the scroll of the Declaration of Independence. The house that gave him birth, and in which his cradle was rocked, stood but a few yards from the head of this Pavilion. The remains of the cellar are visible yet. In after times this place became first the residence of the glowing patriot, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and down further still a part of the landed property of the illustrious John Adams, "par nobile fratrum." When we consider what were the signal and successful efforts of these eminent champions of liber- ty in the great cause alluded to, we can hardly find room for a doubt, that but for their agency the American Revolution might not and the Declaration of Independence certainly would not have occurred as early as they did. Here, then, may we also be permit- ted to say was the origin of these great events.
I have already, in another place, alluded to some of the eminent personages who in earlier and later times have honored our soil. Fabulous history tells us that Cadmus, having slain the Dragon that guarded the fountain sacred to Mars, sowed his teeth, and there sprung up from them armed men. Our fathers, if they did not slay the Dragon of persecution, would not at least suffer them- selves to be slain by him. Instead of his teeth, they sowed here their own principles, which in time were destined to grind him to powder.
In conclusion, I will give you as a sentiment,
Our beloved native soil - May there be springing up from it, in all the future as in the two hundred years that are past, armed men, - armed neither with sword, helmet, nor buckler, but with those exalted principles, the hope of the world, which elevate at the same time that they adorn humanity.
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Dr. Z. B. Adams next rose, at the request of the President, and gave
The Granite Rocks of Quincy, as connected with her prosperity and wealth : - In the words of the eloquent orator of the day, I would say, " he who despairs under such a burden deserves not to know what he carries."
The President then requested a sentiment from Charles F. Adams, Esq., who began by remarking that, although entirely unused to any public appearance on occasions of this kind, he could not resist the feeling which prompted him to express to all who were here assembled, the deep sense of gratitude he entertained for the very kind notice that had been this day taken of those with whom na- ture had connected him.
Yet, in considering whatever share of merit it was the present disposition to award to their public services, the reflection ought at once to suggest itself, that it was the offspring of the soil of this old town and the natural consequence of the principles early incul- cated and long adhered to. And when Mr. Adams looked around him and thought of the names of many of the persons who sat here, and compared them with those which are recorded in the annals of the town, even from the day of its settlement, it was matter of gratification to him to find how often they proved the same. These might indeed be regarded as the good old roots (if he could be allowed the expression) first planted in a healthy soil, which had been going on from generation, shooting forth new and green and healthy branches, conducing at one and the same mo- ment to be the pride, the ornament, and the support of our common country.
It had been already remarked, in another place, this day, how fruitful this town was in associations, and this Mr. Adams took to be the great use of celebrations of the sort. They revived the recollections of the past, and presented ideas which could not fail to produce a beneficial action of the mind for the future. Indeed, how could it be otherwise, when there was hardly a spot in Quincy to which a young man could look, without thinking of something in connexion with it to improve his heart or to rectify his head ? Here, on this very site we were now occupying, it was that a worthy pastor lived, who passed his days not merely in teaching his flock
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the principles of faith, but gave the best evidence of his success in instilling rules of practical conduct, by educating a son, (John Hancock,) who, when he came of age and the day of trial arrived and he was called upon to choose between the probable loss of fortune and adherence to his country, never hesitated, but bravely stuck to his country and let the fortune go.
And here, too, on this same spot, succeeded to him another father, who brought up another son, (Josiah Quincy, Jr.) And this son as he advanced in life devoted his strength to the cause of his country. And when it pleased God that this strength should depart from him, and he fell into weakness of body, then came the trial for his patriotism. He was told by his physicians in Eng- land that, if he wished to recover, he must abandon his duties and go to recruit his exhausted powers at certain medicinal springs - yet notwithstanding this, he chose to go on, to stick to his country and to give up his life.
After such examples, it was not fit that the dwelling, which knew them both, should stand the risk of desecration by succes- sors of less exalted purposes. And it had been the will of Heaven, as if designing to prevent it, that a fire should soon after break forth and sweep it from the face of men. Yet the land remains and will continue, it is to be hoped, in hands ever anxious to pro- vide that it shall be put only to noble uses.
Again, there was still at the foot of a hill yonder, an old house which had been the dwelling of a worthy farmer - and he had given little to his son (John Adams) but right notions. Yet, even these proved to him in after life an ample inheritance, for he fol- lowed them out, and as God was pleased to grant to him a mod- erate competency and long life, he went straight forward in his course, and died as he had lived with independence on his lips.
These were instances of a more extended reputation than fell to the lot of most of our other citizens, but it was not for a mo- ment to be supposed that the same feeling, which made itself so visible to the world in them, did not glow with equal ardor in the breasts of their fellows of this town. Why, it was but a few days ago that Mr. Adams was reading a letter - yes, a letter from a Quincy woman to her husband, dated in the second year of the revolutionary struggle, in which she writes to him that even then more than half of the male population of the town, between the
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ages of fifteen and sixty, was acting in the field or on the water against the British, and that if this went on much further the women would have to gather the harvest ; and she adds, that for her own part she thinks she could help to gather the corn and husk it, but she fears she should make a poor figure at digging pota- toes.
Mr. Adams concluded by again exhorting the young men of the town to be mindful of these facts, for they could be turned to use- ful account even in the regulation of the daily industry of life. In allusion to the incident quoted from the letter, he would pro- pose for a toast -
The harvest of 1776 in the town of Braintree - When the corn and potatoes were left to be gathered by the women, because a more precious crop, matured from the seedtime of 1640, demanded the labor of all the men.
Mr. C. P. Cranch, poet of the day, at the solicitation of the chair, presented the following sentiment : -
The New England character ; - Like our Granite hills, may it long continue to clothe over the everlasting rock of principle with the evergreen of the best and most beautiful affections.
I rise- said Mr. Frederic A. Whitney - at your request, Mr. President, by the side of the poet of the day, but failing to catch the inspiration of his fancy and beauty with which he has enter- tained us, turn to the musty rolls of tradition for an incident which may be recalled as we commemorate the Fathers of our Town and those eminent in character and life, who have trodden its soil. Of this latter class, one has been passed over, whom, two centuries since, the court and ministers of the second Charles would hardly have spared. It has been reputed that our forest and rocks be- came the shelter and resting place of one of that large body, who, favoring the sect of the Independents, brought Charles I. to the block, and at the restoration of his son to the throne, fled for their lives from England.
Some years since, I gathered from the lips of an aged citizen of this town, whose numerous descendants are yet with us, who was remarkable for his retentive memory and exceeding accuracy in all matters of fact, this tradition. His childhood, he told me, had been with those who had conversed with this lonely exile for
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liberty. Within his own memory, there had stood on a hillock, not far from the spot on which we are assembled, the humble abode of the old refugee. Here, as said tradition, under the assumed name of Revel, he lived and died; and his funeral was honored by the attendance of his Excellency, the Provincial Governor, and of distinguished men from the neighboring metropolis of Boston.
I stand not up to claim for this ancient personage a place among the Regicide Judges. The historian of the United States, whom we hoped to have seen with us this day, has not written his name with those of Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell, known to have been three of the Judges who found shelter in America, dwelling first in Massachusetts and afterwards fleeing to Connecticut. But the restoration of Charles II. made other victims than the Judges a sacrifice to the memory of his beheaded father ; else Peters, for instance, the friend, 'honored and beloved ' of Roger Williams, might have escaped the gallows. And if not one of those who sat in judgment on King Charles I., doubtless our exile was one who for their principles and in their cause fled to our shores.
It was enacted concerning the oracle of Pythos, that though it uttered doubtful responses, they should not be utterly disregarded. So without blindly reverencing, should we ever regard the voice of tradition. On the strength of the tradition now cited, and for the sake of adding another name to those whom this day brings to mind, I will propose, Sir,
The Memory of Thomas Revel, an Exile for civil liberty from his own land to this place - May the principles of freedom, for which with the Stuarts he contended, live ever on the soil that be- came the home of the Puritan and the English Independent.
Hon. B. L. Wales of Randolph next proposed
William Coddington - familiarly known to the youngest school- boy of Braintree as the munificent donor of the Coddington School Fund : his memory will be cherished, and his name hallowed by all future generations, so long as common schools continue the pride of New England, - the right-arm of our national defence.
John Whitney, Esq., in proposing a sentiment, remarked - that in reflecting upon the great and good men who had been reared upon our soil, and casting our thoughts forward to the ages that
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should follow, the great question rose before us to be settled, - whether, so far as depended upon our exertions, the long line of eminent individuals should be continued, or a broken link should fall out in the chain connecting the present with the future. This question - he continued - rests for its decision upon the young men of our town. I will, therefore, Mr. President, offer as a sen- timent -
The Young Men of Quincy : - When they recollect the states- men and patriots who have claimed this as their birth-place, may they be emulous to follow them in all that is great and good, and thus become the ornaments and the pride of our land.
Captain Josiah Brigham, one of the former commanders of the Quincy Light Infantry, addressed the chair as follows : -
Mr. President, - Having been called on for a sentiment, I would merely remark, that it was not my privilege to be born in Quincy. But, Sir, it has been my fortune to spend the largest portion of my life in this ancient and distinguished town. I have lived here very hap- pily with the inhabitants for about thirty years, and I feel as though I had a right to share, in some degree, in that just pride which the native born inhabitants feel, from the circumstance that this town can justly boast of having given birth to a greater number of Presidents and eminent men than any other town in the State, or in the United States. It gives me great pleasure, on this interesting occasion, to meet with so many of the inhabitants of Quincy, and with those who originated here, but whose fortunes have caused them to locate in other places. And it gives me additional pleasure, at this time, to meet again with the military Company who have this day performed escort duty. It was my fortune, in the early part of my life, to be associated with that Company ; and conse- quently I have ever since felt an interest in its continued existence and prosperity, - a gratification also in meeting with them, as it always brings to my mind fresh recollections of past feelings and associations. That Company is now one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, Light Company in the Commonwealth. It is now fifty years old, and but a few weeks since it celebrated the fiftieth anni- versary of its incorporation. - In the time of the last war between the United States and Great Britain, in the fall of 1814, that Com- pany was called out by the State authorities, and ordered to march
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to Boston. It was stationed at South Boston, where it remained in the service of its country for about two months. It was my lot to be a member of the Company at that time. Since then the Com- pany has passed into other hands. At this hour it is one of the best disciplined and most respectable Independent Companies in the State. Sir, I will on this occasion give as a sentiment,
The Quincy Light Infantry - Now fifty years old. Its mem- bers always ready to answer the call of their country - always ready to perform escort duty. May the Company continue to exist in prosperity from generation to generation, until it shall perform escort duty on the Third Centennial Anniversary of the incorpo- ration of this ancient and honored town.
The Rev. John Gregory proposed the following sentiment : -
The sons and daughters of Quincy - May they mingle with their patriotism the social and domestic virtues, and may their firesides be the calm retreat of every heartfelt enjoyment of " sweet home."
Mr. John A. Green, chairman of the committee of arrangements, offered -
The Fair Sex-Our joy in youth, - our companions in man- hood, - our solace in age.
Mr. James F. Brown proposed
Quincy, Braintree, and Randolph - May they become united in sentiment and feeling as when combined under one act of Incor- poration.
The President announced the following sentiment from James Newcomb, Esq. of Quincy, which he said the gentleman preferred not to deliver himself, for a reason which would be obvious to the ladies when they heard it.
Woman -the friend and guide of man - Her sphere is the do- mestic circle - her influence the " still small voice."
The ladies being applied to for a sentiment, presented the follow- ing in reply.
The gentleman who first voted to admit the ladies to a public dinner - May his table never want the comfort and graces, not omitting the still small voice, which it is their vocation to furnish.
After this followed a number of volunteer sentiments.
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VOLUNTEER SENTIMENTS.
Fair Harvard- A contemporary of the pilgrim fathers - with the experience of two centuries, she intrusts her literary treasures and her historical inscriptions to the Quincy granite.
The Blue Hill - The first landmark hailed by the mariner as he approaches the still bay of the Massachusetts. May the princi- ples of those who first settled at its foot be as permanent as its color and as enduring as its base.
John Wheelwright and Oliver Cromwell -They set a ball in motion which the whole civilized world cannot stop.
The blessings we derive from our fathers - Like the light of the source of day reflected from every object we forget the fount from which it flowed.
The shadows of the past -They leave no trace behind, but they give grace and beauty to the spot over which they hover.
Those who take their drop from the bucket ; - they will never be found with the drop in their eye.
The day - When we make a pastime out of past time.
The first settler of Quincy - Although a man cannot always be merry and wise, at proper times it is wise to be merry.
The Farmers of Quincy - May they suffer no root of bitter- ness to spring up among us, nor any to show the cloven foot, except they be neat cattle.
Those who live on Rock Common - May they soon be again able to make their bread out of stone.
The first Railroad in the United States - It connected the rocky mountain in Quincy with the Atlantic. The last Railroad in the United States - it shall connect the Rocky Mountains of the West with both the Atlantic and the Pacific tide.
The City of Quincy in Adams County, Illinois, and the towns of Quincy in Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee -May their pros-
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perity be as lasting as our own, although it is not like ours, founded upon a rock.
Our Fathers - Fishermen before they were shepherds - they got along by hook as well as by crook.
Independence - Its first germ appeared on Mount Wollaston ; and when, one hundred and fifty years after, it was publicly pro- claimed, a son of Braintree, one of its most distinguished advocates, urged its annual celebration with bonfires and illuminations ; this son is now its fearless supporter even on the floor of Congress; may it be held sacred in our country "till rolling years shall cease to move. "
Dr. Z. B. Adams then addressed the chair as follows : -
Mr. President, - We have alluded with great propriety to our Fathers and our Mothers, -the early settlers of New England. It appears to me there is still a very interesting class, whom it would be wrong in us to pass by with neglect, - the young ladies. And I will venture to add, therefore, even at this late hour,
The Young Ladies, emigrants to this country in 1620; - they must have been possessed of energy and true fire, for they caught their sparks from the " Leyden Jar."
Dr. Lewis Joseph Glover followed Dr. Adams with some very entertaining professional remarks in allusion to Quincy, his native place, - his interest in her welfare, and the healthy state in which, in her advanced age, her symptoms evidently discovered her to be. But the lateness of the hour, and the movement already making towards an adjournment, did not enable him to say all that he in- tended.
The sun was already rapidly declining. The President of the day, early in the course of the dinner, had presented to the atten- tion of the company a piece of parchment, headed with a part of the closing paragraph in the Discourse of the Hon. Daniel Webster at Plymouth in 1820, on which it was his wish that the names of those present should be written ; - the parchment then to be de- posited in some safe place and handed down to those who should come up to celebrate a similar occasion, one hundred years hence.
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This suggestion was readily complied with, and two hundred and eighty-six names were subscribed.
The President likewise suggested in closing, that in order to connect the present more particularly with the coming century, and to honor the day, the young men of Quincy should form a society, for the purpose of ornamenting the town with trees, es- pecially the burial yard, which, growing for a century, should appear in perfection to the company on the 25th of May, 1940. This suggestion likewise met with a cheerful and ready response.
The President then further suggested that as the meeting was about to be broken up, they should adjourn, to meet in the same place, to celebrate the Third Centennial Anniversary on the 25th of May, 1940, which was adopted without a dissenting voice.
The company then left the pavilion, and might be seen wending their ways towards their various homes, - the bells on the churches ringing out their merry peals, - the cannon on President's Hill pouring its echoing roars over hill and valley, and the sun with his retiring rays gilding the distant hill tops as with glittering gold.
The evening was spent in social and family intercourse, recounting the interesting events and associations of the day, and by a party of young ladies and gentlemen in a Ball at the Hancock House.
We cannot close this imperfect sketch of the Celebration, some account of which we were anxious to transmit to those who should come after us, better than in the beautiful language of the orator at Plymouth, and so happily inscribed, by the President of the day, at the head of the parchment already alluded to. Including the whole matter it runs thus.
HANCOCK LOT - QUINCY-MASSACHUSETTS.
We who celebrate the 25th of May, 1840, would welcome you, who a century hence shall fill the places we now fill, " to this pleas- ant land of the Fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance, which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science and the delights of learn-
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ing. We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, to the happiness of kindred and parents and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting truth ! "
HECKMAN BINDERY INC.
FEB 97
Bound -To-Pleas® N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962
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