USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 44
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In 1830 the society for the suppression of intemperance petitioned for permission to have a band of music on the Common on the afternoon and evening of election day and on July 4th, and an appropriation was made for this purpose.
In 1831 it was necessary to hold two elections for the purpose of selecting a mayor. There were three candidates-Charles Wells, Wil- liam Sullivan, and Theodore Lyman, Jr. None of the three received a majority and Sullivan withdrew from the second contest in which Wells
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was successful. The first three mayors of Boston were chosen from the aristocratic class. Wells was of the "common people" and his candidacy may be ascribed to a protest against the domination of the upper social strata in city affairs. In some respects he was well qualified for he had served in both the city council and the board of aldermen. Although his election was in the nature of a protest against excessive expenditures, they were not materially reduced during his three years of office.
The opposing candidates in the election which took place in Decem- ber, 1833, were the two who had opposed Mr. Wells in 1831. Theodore Lyman, Jr., was the Democratic or Jackson candidate, and William Sul- livan that of the National Republican. Mr. Lyman was successful and served during two terms. Just after his election he sent a message to the city council calling attention to the necessity for bringing "a copi- ous and steady supply of pure and soft water into the city of Boston." The subject was referred to a committee which selected Colonel Loammi Baldwin, incidentally the originator of the Baldwin apple, to make a sur- vey of the sources of supply, but it was not until twelve years later that the plan recommended by Colonel Baldwin was put into operation. It was during the administration of Mr. Lyman that the Ursuline convent on Mt. Benedict, in what was then Charlestown but is now Somerville, was destroyed by a mob. It was also while Mr. Lyman was mayor that William Lloyd Garrison was dragged through the streets by a pro-slav- ery mob and afterward lodged in jail for protection. Mayor Lyman was severely criticized for failure to disperse the mob prior to the riot but it appears that he used as effectively as possible the small police force available.
At the election in December, 1835, Samuel T. Armstrong, the Whig candidate, was elected. He had had considerable experience in pub- lic life, having been a member of the board of aldermen for four years and Lieutenant Governor of the State for three years, during the last of which he served as acting Governor, after the election of Gov- ernor John Davis to the Senate. The only act of his administration which has come down to this generation is the erection of an iron fence which may still be seen enclosing a part of Boston Common. He was not a candidate for reelection.
Samuel Atkins Eliot succeeded him and served for two years. He was a Boston merchant of approved character and marked ability. Though his administration was marked by a period of severe business depression, he put through some important administrative measures, the principal of which was the thorough reorganization of the fire depart- ment. He attempted to reorganize the police department but with less success.
Jonathan Chapman, a Whig, was elected mayor in 1839 and held the
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office for three years. The first year of his administration was signalized by the establishment of the Cunard line of steamers between Boston and Liverpool. Mayor Chapman incurred the antagonism of the liquor inter- ests by increasing the police force temporarily for the express purpose of prosecuting the violators of the liquor laws and by his opposition to license. During his administration the railroad advocated by Mayor Otis was completed and connection with the Hudson River was opened in 1841.
His successor was Martin Brimmer. He continued the economical financial policy of his predecessor and made a material further reduction in the city debt. During his administration he appealed to the General Court for authority to secure a water supply from ponds in Natick and Framingham as had been recommended by Colonel Baldwin.
Martin Brimmer having declined to run for a third term, there were three candidates for the succession. A new political party sprang into the field with Thomas Aspinwall Davis as its standard bearer. This was the Native American party, the predecessor of the "Know Nothing." Josiah Quincy, Jr., son of Boston's second mayor, was the candidate of the Whigs and Adam W. Thaxter, Jr., of the Democrats. Quincy re- ceived 4,464 votes on the first ballot, Davis 3,911 and Thaxter 2,173. As there was no majority, Mr. Quincy withdrew and Thomas Wetmore was put in his place. On the second ballot Mr. Davis was ahead. Col. Charles G. Greene, who had taken Mr. Thaxter's place as the Democratic candidate, received enough votes to prevent a choice, and it was not until the eighth ballot was taken on February 21, 1845, that Mr. Davis received enough votes to elect him. It was during the administration of Mayor Davis that the Legislature passed an act giving the city the right to take water from Long Pond but the act was made subject to accept- ance by the people. It was rejected but not by a large vote and the prin- cipal cause of its rejection was the unusual powers given to the water commissioners who, by the terms of the act, would have been the agents of the city council.
Because of continued ill health, Mr. Davis sent in his resignation in October, but the city council declined to accept it and he was the nom- inal head of the city government until his death on November 22d. Dur- ing the interval between his death and the election of his successor, the chairman of the Board of Aldermen, Benson Leavitt, served as acting mayor.
At the election on December 8, 1845, Josiah Quincy, Jr., was again nominated by the Whigs, John T. Heard by the Democrats and William S. Damrell by the Native Americans. Mr. Quincy was easily elected and, three days after his election, the City Council elected him to fill the office until the beginning of the next municipal year. Mayor Quincy
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served in the office of mayor for three years. As in the case of his father, his administration was characterized by energy and ability. He took up the vexed question of the water supply in his first inaugural address and acted with such vigor that in a few months after his inauguration ground was broken for the beginning of what in later years was known as the Cochituate water supply. The act which was passed at Mayor Quincy's instigation was accepted by the citizens with only 348 votes against it. On August 20th the ceremony of breaking ground took place. It was at this time that Mayor Quincy called attention to the name "Long Pond," which he said was without any distinctive character and sug- gested that the Indian name "Cochituate" should be substituted. The work was carried on with such expediency that on October 25, 1848, the last year of Mr. Quincy's incumbency, the water was brought into the city itself and the gate opened with elaborate ceremony. As an illus- tration of the excellence of Mr. Quincy's administration and the sub- stantial foundation upon which the finances of Boston rested, the city borrowed a million dollars at a little less than five per cent, a lower rate than could be obtained by the Federal government at that time. It was during Mayor Quincy's administration that the police force was reor- ganized. He selected as city marshal the celebrated Francis Tukey, who was for many years at the head of the department. He was an officer of the French school possessing great courage, efficiency and audacity, and made himself the terror of evil doers as well as of his political oppo- nents. While he was at the head of the department it was a force in local politics and a factor in deciding more than one election. The night watch and the police were, at this time, distinct bodies. The watch num- bered 150 men while the police force consisted of twenty-two day men and eight night men. It was not until 1853 that the Legislature passed an act uniting the watch and the police.
Extensive tracts of land lying on the south bay were laid out, made ready for the market and sold at the suggestion of the mayor. There were also many reforms in the public school system during Mr. Quincy's term of office.
John Prescott Bigelow, like his predecessor, a Whig, was elected in a field of four candidates. During the three years of his administration, the liquor question occupied a leading place in the public mind. He repudiated the policy of Mr. Quincy and his aldermen of refusing licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors. He declared that the attempt to suppress the traffic in this manner had failed. There were more drink- ing places than ever before, with an increase in intoxication and crime. He recommended the reestablishment of the license system. At this same time the Grand Jury of Suffolk County expressed the opinion that the entire interdiction of the sale of liquor was impracticable in a large
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city. Nevertheless, the aldermen unanimously opposed granting the licenses. In 1851 drunkenness and crime had increased to such an extent that the aldermen again took up the question and asked Marshal Tukey a number of questions relative to the traffic. He was requested to fur- nish an opinion "As to the best method of checking the increase of crime and traffic in liquor." His answer was "Execute the law." And this ended the aldermen's attempt to deal with the question for that year.
The seventh national census taken in 1850 gave Boston a population of 136,881. The valuation of property within the city amounted to $180,- 500,000 and the tax rate was $6.80 a thousand. The work of installing the water supply was completed the last year Mayor Bigelow was in office, and before he retired he was able to state that every part of the city was supplied with pure water. A new alms house on Deer Island was com- pleted and the first telegraphic fire alarm introduced in the same year.
Political Animosities-Political animosities ran high at this time when discussion of the slavery question was at its height. The Board of Aldermen refused the use of Faneuil Hall for a reception to Daniel Webster on the ground that a similar application had not long before been refused the Abolitionists. The Common Council endeavored to placate Mr. Webster by tendering him an invitation to address the citi- zens of Boston in Faneuil Hall at such time as he should elect, and the mayor and aldermen concurred unanimously with the council after pass- ing a resolution asserting their own independence. As might have been expected, Mr. Webster declined the invitation coldly. The result was that in the election of this year, 1851, every member of the aldermen and the mayor were retired to private life.
Benjamin Seaver, the Whig candidate, was chosen by one more than the united votes of his four opponents on the second election. Although Marshal Tukey had been one of the active workers in Mr. Seaver's be- half, he criticized severely some of the appointments which the mayor made to the police force and in consequence he was himself removed.
The most important act of Mr. Seaver's administration was the vote to erect a building for a public library. Mr. Seaver was a candidate for reëlection in 1853 as the nominee of the Whig party, his opponents being Jerome Van Crowninshield Smith and Jacob Sleeper. Dr. Smith was the candidate of the Native American party and Mr. Sleeper of the Temperance party. Three ballots were required, on the last of which Dr. Smith received the necessary majority. It was said of Dr. Smith that he was never taken quite seriously. He did, however, complete the amalgamation of the night watch with the police department, raising the force under the charge of the chief of police to 250 men with two deputies and eight captains of divisions. The department remained as organized
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at this time until 1878 when it was placed under a commission. The new police force was called upon on the first day that it took up its duties to suppress a riot caused by the attempt to release Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from the custody of the United States officers. In Novem- ber of this year, Boston voted to accept a new city charter which had been presented to the Legislature in the previous year. One of the results of this charter was that the cumbersome method by which it was necessary for the mayor to have a majority of the votes cast to secure election was abolished and the candidate having the highest number was elected.
Alexander Hamilton Rice, the citizens' candidate, was chosen mayor in 1855. The Native American, or Know Nothing party as it had come to be known, supported the Democratic candidate, Dr. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff. He failed of election by some 2,000 votes, showing the gen- eral disrepute into which the party had fallen. During Mr. Rice's ad- ministration nothing of moment was accomplished but the affairs of the city were conducted wisely and with strict regard for economy.
His successor was Frederick Walker Lincoln, Jr., who was elected in the fall of 1857 and gained the confidence of the people to such an extent that he was later reelected during the crucial period of the Civil War. It was in the second year of his administration that the General Court passed an act annexing considerable land in what is now known as the Back Bay, formerly included within the city of Roxbury, from a large part of which was formed the public garden.
Civil War-With the clouds of civil war gathering over the country, political feeling ran to extraordinary heights. In the election of 1860 Joseph Milner Wightman was the nominee of the Democratic party and of the old line Whigs, while Moses Kimball was chosen by the newly formed Republican party. Mr. Kimball had been a member of that Board of Aldermen which refused the use of Faneuil Hall for the Web- ster reception in 1851 and Mr. Wightman, formerly a Whig, was elected by a majority of 63,000 votes. Extraordinary economy was the order of the day because of the necessary outlay for war purposes, but Mayor Wightman recommended that a new city hall be built and was sustained by the city council. The corner-stone of the building was laid December 22, 1862. Because he was regarded as hardly a strong enough man to guide the destinies of the city in the critical times of the Civil War, Mr. Wightman was defeated for reelection, his opponent being Frederick W. Lincoln, who had previously served three terms as mayor. During Mayor Lincoln's second administration the Chestnut Hill reservoir was built at a cost of over two million dollars. The new city hall was finished and dedicated September 18, 1865.
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At the end of the Civil War the curtailment of city activities had been such and the increase of valuations and the tax rate so extensive that the debt was but $625,000 larger than in 1861.
Otis Norcross was elected in 1866 and served one year. He was extremely conservative, a man of great firmness and strongly opposed to any increase in the city's indebtedness. It was during his administration that the city of Roxbury was annexed to Boston. The union had long been under consideration as it was felt that the interests of the two municipalities were identical. The Legislature granted the necessary authority and the act was accepted by the inhabitants of both cities. At the time of its annexation, Roxbury had 30,000 inhabitants.
Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, an unsuccessful candidate against Mayor Norcross was elected in the 1867 election. Dr. Shurtleff was the first candidate who had always been a Democrat to be chosen mayor. Dr. Shurtleff, however, did not use his office to further the interests of any party organization. His administration was characterized by great street extension and improvement in South Boston, East Boston and Boston proper.
In 1869 an act of the Legislature annexing Dorchester to Boston was accepted by the voters in both places and it was united to the larger city in 1870, adding 10,000 to the population.
The census of 1870 gave to Boston a population of 250,526, of which 79,599 were native born males and 82,941 native born females. The foreign born males numbered 40,318 and the females 47,668. This rapid growth of the foreign born population has undoubtedly been a potent factor in shaping the political destiny of the city.
William Gaston, formerly a Whig but the candidate of the Demo- cratic party, was elected at the December election in 1870. He was an able lawyer and a good administrator for ordinary times but he had the misfortune to be called upon to deal with two emergencies demanding qualifications he did not possess-determination and promptness in action. The state of the city's health was one of the matters that occu- pied considerable attention during the first year of his administration. The aldermanic committee which had acted as a sort of board of health had failed to take proper measures to enforce sanitary measures. Com- plaints were made of the unwholesome meats sold in the markets and to crown all, the smallpox epidemic, the worst the city had experienced in many years, took scores of lives. Although Mayor Gaston in his inaug- ural address had advocated the creation of a board of health, and the cry of discontent at the smallpox outbreak was so great that the aldermen heeded it and enacted an ordinance creating a health board of three, the mayor failed to make the appointments.
In the last year of the Gaston administration occurred the great
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Boston fire of 1872. Much criticism was made of the manner in which the fire department was handled and the mayor, as chief executive, was held responsible for the deficiencies in the organization. This more than any one other fact contributed to his defeat in the election of 1872 by Henry Lillie Pierce, who was nominated and elected by the Republicans on a non-partisan platform. One of his first acts within ten days of his assumption of office was the organization of a board of health and the taking of effective measures for checking the epidemic of smallpox. He also undertook immediately the reorganization of the fire department and forced the passage of an ordinance placing the fire fighting force in charge of a commission of three. Mayor Pierce served but ten months, resigning to take a seat in Congress. The boundaries of the city were enlarged during his administration by the annexation of Charlestown with 30,000, West Roxbury with 9,000 and Brighton with 5,000. A charter commission was also appointed but the instrument that it recom- mended was not accepted by the council.
Samuel Crocker Cobb was the successor to Mayor Pierce. He was elected by a vote that was nearly unanimous, the first in the history of Boston to be so elected and, it may be added, the last. He had origin- ally been a member of the Whig party but later had generally acted with the Democrats. His administration was characterized by firmness and moderation. Several important improvements in connection with the streets and parks were made during his administration but it was not marked by any spectacular event. In the last year that he was elected to office he was opposed by both Republican and Democratic candidates, but running on a Citizen's ticket, he was elected.
His successor was Frederick Octavius Prince, a Democrat, who de- feated the Republican candidate, Nathaniel J. Bradlee by 700 votes. He was distinctly a partisan mayor and the difficulties into which he fell in endeavoring to reconcile the best interests of the city with the demands of his supporters resulted in so much dissatisfaction that at the end of his first term Henry Lillie Pierce responded to the demand of the Repub- licans and citizens and again was elected mayor. In his second admin- istration, which continued through but one year, as he declined to stand for reelection, the most important achievement was the reorganization of the police department, which at this time consisted of 715 men who were appointed by the mayor with the approval of the board of alder- men. Although vigorously opposed by the Democrats and some prom- inent Republicans, both parties having found the police department use- ful, a three-headed commission was placed in charge of the police force. Mayor Pierce also succeeded in reducing the tax rate to $12.80.
As Mayor Pierce declined a second nomination, Frederick O. Prince was put up by the Democrats and elected over Col. Charles R. Codman,
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nominated by the citizens and Republicans. His second administration gave such satisfaction that he was elected for a third time, defeating the Republican candidate, Solomon B. Stebbins, by more than 2,000 votes. Although Mayor Prince made an earnest endeavor at retrenchment, the demands for improvements were so insistent that the tax rate reached $15.20. The most important accomplishments during his administration were improvements in the sewerage system, construction of parks at the Back Bay, and the extension and enlargement of the water works. The new courthouse, the public library building and several public parks were under way when he left office.
He was succeeded by Samuel Abbott Green, who served but one year. He was largely responsible for many extensions in the park system, urging that the fund left by Benjamin Franklin be used for the purpose of enlarging the existing parks and for the creation of others. Mayor Green lived to see many of his recommendations put in effect.
Mayor Green had been opposed by Albert Palmer and at the end of the first year of his administration, Palmer was again a candidate, win- ning by a vote of 21,713 to 19,575. Like his predecessor, Mayor Palmer was a one-year man. In his inaugural he spoke scathingly of the cor- ruption which had crept into the electoral system in Boston and scored the excessive use of money to secure the success of candidates irre- spective of party. He declared that the expense far exceeded the limit of what was legitimate for political expenditure. He was a strong advo- cate of the abolition of the poll tax as a requisite for voting. Mayor Palmer endeavored to keep the running expenses of the city down and made economy the watch word of his administration, although business in Boston experienced a great revival during the year that he was mayor. The mayor also attacked the prevailing registration laws and suggested many changes, some of which were carried out.
Mr. Palmer declined to be a candidate for reelection and was suc- ceeded by Augustus P. Martin, a Republican, who defeated Hugh O'Brien, president of the Common Council and the Democratic candi- date, by 27,494 to 25,950. The administration of General Martin, which lasted but one year, was devoted largely to the completion of public works begun under preceding mayors. He advocated the election of aldermen by districts instead of at large on the ground that a more direct responsibility and more accurate will of the people would be insured. Mayor Martin endeavored, without complete success, to pre- vent political interference with city employees. The city departments employing large numbers of men, especially the fire, police, and public works departments, were honeycombed with political workers and, according to Mayor Martin, their employment "depended upon the ticket given or sold to them by some politician or upon the contribution of a
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day's wages for political purposes." Largely because of his influence the civil service law for city employees was enacted which, together with the changes which went into effect the following year, considerably improved political conditions. These real reforms were, however, fatal to Mr. Martin's political ambitions and he was defeated in the election of 1884 by his former opponent, Hugh O'Brien.
Mr. O'Brien was the first mayor of Boston who was not a native born citizen. He was a native of Ireland but came to Boston when very young. He had had a large experience in the city council and had taken a leading part in municipal politics. He was mayor of the city for four terms, defeating successively John M. Clark and Thomas N. Hart. Mayor O'Brien was not satisfied with the charter amendments of 1885, believing that the mayor should have full power and that Boston should not be singled out among the cities of the commonwealth for special legislation. Throughout his administration he did his utmost to prevent interference in city affairs by the General Court.
Financially his administration was a success, for in spite of the tax limit fixed at $12.80 as a maximum by act of the Legislature, he kept the tax within the prescribed limit and brought the city debt within the two per cent limit prescribed by law.
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