USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Municipal history of the town and city of Boston during two centuries : from September 17, 1630, to September 17, 1830 > Part 15
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the mode of relief provided for them in the House of Industry, and accordingly refused to assent to the transfer of more than forty. These they discharged in the mode they before adopted, and of this number only thirty-two could be persuaded to go to South Boston. It was also soon ascertained that several of these pau- pers, who, after having been discharged by the Overseers, had refused to go to the House of Industry, and others who had run away from that establishment, wholesome restraint being unsuited to their idle and vicious habits, had been again received into the Almshouse in Leverett Street, without any notice being given to the Directors of the House of Industry and the City Council.
These proceedings were so destructive of the discipline of this institution, that the Committee resolved, on the fourth of Sep- tember, to make a final attempt to effect, if possible, a transfer of those inmates ; and accordingly on that day, had, for that pur- pose, an interview with the Overseers of the Poor, and received from them a statement that there were one hundred and forty- four adults and ninety-nine children in the Almshouse, who were neither siek nor maniacs. And when the Committee deemed it their duty to require the concurrence of the Overseers in the trans- fer of those paupers to the House of Industry, to their surprise that Board, on the tenth of November, passed a vote refusing to concur in the transfer of any of this great number, for the reason that " they were not, in the opinion of the Overseers, in a condi- tion to be discharged from their care and oversight."
The Committee which had been appointed on this subject, on the seventeenth of June, 1824, therefore communicated these facts to the City Council on the fifteenth of November, and, without making any comment on this refusal, declared their opinion that " the whole course of proceedings of the Overseers of the Poor, in relation to the House of Industry and the Alms- house, as well as the great amount of the cash expenditures of that Board, and the obstacles they had thrown in the way of their accountability to the City Council, strongly indicated the necessity and duty of the City Council to obtain, if possible, that the subject of the poor should be placed on a different foot- ing than that which at present exists under the laws of the Com- monwealth ; that the experience of two years had evinced that a constant succession of embarrassments had obstructed the attempts of the City Council to produce that amelioration in the
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condition of the poor, and that limitation of the expenditures of that department which was originally intended by the wisdom of the citizens of Boston, when they laid the foundations of the House of Industry ; " and they " suggested to the City Council the duty of inquiring whether these embarrassments are not inseparable from the incompatibility of the powers existing in, or claimed by the Overseers, when brought into connection with the powers and authorities now unquestionably vested by the charter of the city in the City Council;" that "by the theory of this charter, the branches which combine its legislative and executive powers, are competent for the management of all the concerns of the city, and among these the care of the poor, one of the most important in point of expense, and one of the most critical in point of interest. By the theory of the Board of Over- seers this great concern is thrown into the hands of twelve men, chosen in wards, without much reference to the greatness of the pecuniary trust, and still less to the extent of their claimed pow- ers. Thus, for instance, this Board has, according to their claims, a right to expend what they please, on whom they please, and how they please ; sometimes supporting paupers in the house, and sometimes out of the house; sometimes paying them by monthly and quarterly drafts on the treasury ; sometimes paying them by cash out of their own pockets, and charging the amount in a weekly or monthly settlement; and in these ways there actually passes through their hands annually from thirty to forty thousand dollars." The Committee in this statement did not include the great annual expenditure of the incomes of eleemo- synary funds, amounting, as is asserted, to a capital of more than one hundred thousand dollars, over which the Overseers claimed entire control, and were reluctant authoritatively to give publicity to the exact amount. The Committee, after further commenting on the extreme inconvenience and inexpediency of this state of things, recommended that a Committee of both branches should be appointed, and instructed to consider and report at large on the subject. This report was accepted, and the Mayor, Alder- men Odiorne, Child, and Eddy, and the President, (Oliver) and Messrs. Savage, E. Williams, Prouty, and Curtis, of the Com- mon Council, were accordingly appointed to consider the general relations of the Overseers of the Poor and the city, and report the measures which ought to be adopted on the subject.
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This Committee, on the twenty-ninth of November, made a report exhibiting the incompatibility of the existing relations between the Overseers of the Poor and the City Council with the interests of the city, and recommending that the whole subject should be submitted to a general meeting of the citizens, and proposing measures which, if sanctioned by them, would termi- nate these collisions of authority.1 To the end, also, that if a board assuming a qualified independence of the City Council should afterwards be permitted to exist, it should be the result of the voluntary act of the citizens, and should not be attributa- ble to any shrinking from, or dereliction of duty on the part of the City Council.
The report was accepted unanimously in both branches of the City Council, and six thousand copies were printed and imme- diately distributed throughout the city. A meeting of the in- habitants was then called for the sixteenth of December ensu- ing. At this meeting very warm and exciting debates occurred, occupying the whole morning, and resulting, after several poll- ings, in a rejection of the measures proposed by the City Coun- cil, by a majority of only thirty-one, in an assembly casting eight hundred votes. The proceedings were then so far reconsidered, as to refer the whole subject to a committee of twelve persons, who were instructed to call, at their discretion, another general meeting of the inhabitants, at which the votes on the report they might submit should be taken by ballot.
This Committee reported at length ; and, after dilating on the necessity and importance of the office of overseers of the poor from " the fact, that overseers of the poor are by law trustees of various legacies and donations to certain descriptions of poor, then amounting to ninety thousand dollars, the income of which, the donors, confiding in the humanity, prudence, and integrity of the acting overseers of their day, and justly inferring that the good sense of the people would lead them to elect similar cha- racters as successors in after times, have at various periods placed at the disposal of the overseers so chosen, to be applied in most cases to such as had seen better days, and were not resident in the Almshouse nor partakers of the public bounty in other ways," proceeded to declare their opinion, that " the election of
1 See Appendix K.
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the overseers by the people is not only conformable to the wishes of the citizens, but an ancient practice, which circumstances do not require them to relinquish." In conformity with this opi- nion, the Committee recommended to the citizens for their adop- tion, resolutions declaring the inexpediency of complying with the propositions submitted to them by the City Council. The Committee then appointed the nineteenth of May ensuing for a general meeting of the citizens, to take into consideration their report.
On the eighteenth of November, the Directors of the House of Industry again reported to the City Council the state of the institution, congratulated the public on its success, and expressed their strong hopes that great and lasting good would result from it to the morals and interests of the city, and repeated their urgency for an appropriation of five thousand dollars for the erection of a stockade fence, as being advantageous to the present institution, and essential to a house of correction. The appro- priation required was immediately granted by the City Council.
The sale of the Almshouse in Leverett Street, in March, 1825, at length put an end to the controversy relative to the transfer of the poor.
The Committee which had effected the sale declared that no delay ought to occur, in compliance with their stipulations rela- tive to clearing the house in Leverett Street of all its inmates; and on their recommendation, two resolves were passed by the City Council, directing all the paupers to be removed to South Boston, on or before the fifteenth of April ensuing, and the mem- bers of the former Committee on the subject of the transfer of the poor to the House of Industry were appointed to have an interview with the Overseers, with authority to make such transfer. Accordingly, before that day, the house in Leverett Street was cleared of its inmates, in conformity with the re- solve of the City Council; and, on a petition of the Over- seers of the Poor, they assigned the southeast chamber of the second story in Fancuil Hall to that board, as a place for their meeting and a deposit of their records. On the eighteenth of April, the Committee charged with the transfer of the poor to South Boston reported to the City Council that it had been effected, and two hundred and nine individuals had been removed, making the number now in the House of Industry
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two hundred and eighty-one; and that all the inmates, particu- larly the aged and respectable females, whose comfort and ac- commodation deserved particularly to be considered, expressed to the Committee their content and gratitude for the change, and their regret that it had been so long delayed. The City Council, therefore, after all the difficulties with which they had long contended, had the great pleasure and satisfaction of be- holding their labors, with regard to the House of Industry, crowned with complete success.
On the sixteenth of September, 1824, the Mayor announced to the City Council the death of Alderman Hooper, a lawyer of great promise, who, by his talents and virtues, had obtained an extensive local influence, which, during the short period he was suffered to remain in public life, he had successfully applied to the advancement of the best interests of the city. A resolve Was. immediately passed, expressing deep sympathy with his family, and a committee appointed to make arrangements for the City Council to attend the funeral, and to recommend such marks of respect as were justly due to his virtues, talents, and public ser- vices.
In November, the vacancy in the Board of Aldermen, which this event occasioned, was supplied by the election of Cyrus Alger.
In March, 1824, the representatives of two political parties, came before the Mayor and Aldermen, each claiming the use of Faneuil Hall on the evening preceding an election, under circumstances which deeply excited the feelings of both. After much deliberation that Board determined that the right should no longer depend upon the priority of application, but hereafter by alternation ; and that the claims of the two parties for the ensuing election, being nearly equal, should be decided by ballots, prepared by the City Clerk in their presence ; it being declared, that the unsuccessful party should have a right to the Hall on the evening of the next succeeding election. In this decision the representatives of the contending parties acquiesced.
On the nineteenth April, 1824, the joint Committee on quaran- tine regulations, of which the Mayor was chairman, reported, that, by the city charter, the whole subject relative to quarantine was invested in the City Council; that, in 1822, they had trans- ferred those powers to the Board of Health, who had executed
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them in the character and with the attributes of an independent board; that doubts had arisen concerning the constitutionality of that transfer; and that this arrangement was not consonant to the spirit of the city charter, nor justified by its provisions ; that those powers were a personal and untransferable trust to the City Council; that, although they must be exercised by the agency of others, the body by which they are exercised ought to be so organized that its dependence, in every act of its power, should be felt and acknowledged, otherwise, the City Council have a responsibility without power of control, and the trust of the charter is violated or abandoned; that it was a question of great delicacy and seriousness, worthy of the most anxious con- sideration of the City Council, whether the exercise of those powers by a board like that of the Commissioners of Health, regarding itself as independent, was a fulfilment of the obliga- tions, however wise and respectable might be the members of that board; and that, deeming it their duty to propose a different organization for the exercise of that trust, the Committee re- commended the resolutions of the following general tenor : -
1. That there should be appointed, in May, annually, health commissioners, by concurrent vote of the City Council.
2. That they should have power to carry into effect all the powers relative to the quarantine of vessels, the health, cleanli- ness, and comfort of the city, and the interment of the dead.
3. That there should be, in like manner, appointed a physician for Hospital Island; and also, in case of infections diseases, three consulting physicians.
4. 'That there should be a joint committee annually appointed, to prepare rules and regulations and superintend the proceedings of the Commissioners; and, in case of any doubt or question, to submit the subject for the decision of the City Council.
These resolves were adopted in both branches, and the subject left for the action of the ensuing City Council.
Accordingly, on the third of May, in the ensuing city year, the Mayor, Aldermen Child, Eddy, and Hooper, with Messrs. Russell, Morse, Adan, Upham, and William Wright, of the Common Council, were appointed a committee on that subject; and, in pursuance of the policy recommended by these resolves, the agency of the Board of Health was superseded by an ordi- nance of the City Council, passed on the thirty-first of May,
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1821, relative to the police of the city, by which the whole sub- ject was placed under the control of a single commissioner, as has already been stated in this work.1 On the same day, a vote passed both branches of the city, unanimously expressing their thanks to the members of the late Board of Health, for their faithful and laborious services.
The visit of General Lafayette rendered the years 1824 and 1825 a period of universal jubilee in the United States. Although the testimony of delight at his presence, which cities and states vied with each other in repeating, belong to the history of the nation, yet the proceedings of the municipality of Boston, as the triumphal procession swept through its precinets, requires here a brief notice and distinct reminiscence.
In March, 1824, the Mayor, in compliance with a vote of the . City Council, addressed the following letter to Lafayette.
BOSTON, U. S. A., 20 March, 1824.
SIR, - Your intention to visit the United States has been made known to its citizens by the proceedings of their National Legislature. The city of Boston shares in the universal pleasure which the expectation of so interesting an event has diffused ; but it has causes of gratification peculiarly its own. Many of its inhabitants recollect, and all have heard of your former residence in this metro- polis ; of the delight with which you were here greeted on your second visit to this country ; and of the acelanation of a grateful multitude which attended you when sailing from this harbor, on your last departure from the United States ; and also of that act of ummificence, by which in later times you extended the hand of relief in their distress. These circumstances have impressed upon the inhabitants of this city a vivid recollection of your person, and a peculiar inte- rest in your character, endearing you to their remembrance by sentiments of personal gratitude, as well as by that sense of national obligation with which the citizens of the United States are universally penetrated.
With feelings of this kind, the City Council of Boston, in accordance with the general wish of their constituents, have directed me to address this letter to you, and'to express the hope that, should it comport with your convenience, you would do them the honor to disembark in this city, and to communicate the assurance that no event could possibly be more grateful to its inhabitants ; that nowhere could you meet with a more cordial welcome; that you could find nowhere hearts more capable of appreciating your early zeal and sacrifices in the cause of American freedom, or more ready to acknowledge and honor that cha- racteristie uniformity of virtue, with which through a long life, and in scenes of unexampled difficulty and danger, you have steadfastly maintained the cause of an enlightened civil liberty in both hemispheres.
Very respectfully, I am your obedient servant,
JOSIAH QUINCY, Mayor of the City of Boston. 1 See ch. v. p. 73. 13 *
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ANSWER OF LAFAYETTE.
To the Mayor of the City of Boston :
PARIS, May 26, 1824.
SIR, - Amidst the new and high marks of benevolence the people of the Uni- ted States and their representatives have lately deigned to confer upon me, I am proud and happy to recognize those particular sentiments of the citizens of Bos- ton which have blessed and delighted the first years of my public career, and the grateful sense of which has ever since been to me a most valued reward and support. I joyfully anticipate the day, not very remote, thank God, when I may revisit the glorious cradle of American, and, in future, I hope, of universal liberty. Your so honorable and gratifying invitation would have been directly complied with in the case to which yon allude. But while I profoundly felt the honor intended by the offer of a national ship, I hope I shall incur no blame by the determination I have taken to embark, as soon as it is in my power, in a pri- vate vessel. Whatever port I first attain, I shall, with the same eagerness, hasten to Boston, and present to its beloved and revered inhabitants, as I have the honor to offer to the City Council and to you, sir, the homage of my affec- tionate gratitude and devoted respect. LAFAYETTE.
General Lafayette landed at New York on the sixteenth of August, 1824, amidst those demonstrations of interest and grati- tude, which every heart and hand in the United States was pre- pared to reiterate; and on the twentieth he. left that city for Boston, under a military escort. During the whole course of his journey, he received continued evidences of general delight. From the lines of Massachusetts he was attended by the Aids of Governor Eustis, and was received by him at his seat in Rox- bury, on the evening of the twenty-third. On the succeeding morning, seated in a baronche the city had provided, he was escorted by a cavalcade of more than a thousand citizens to the lines of Boston, where he was met by the city authorities in car- riages, with a large military escort, and was thus addressed by the Mayor, standing in the barouche, in which were seated the Committee of the City Council.
GENERAL LAFAYETTE, - The citizens of Boston welcome you on your return to the United States ; mindful of your early zeal in the cause of Ameri- van independence, grateful for your distinguished share in the perils and glories of its achievement. When, nrged by a generous sympathy, you first landed on these shores, you found a people engaged in an arduous and eventful struggle for liberty, with apparently inadequate means and amidst dubious omens. After the lapse of nearly half a century, you find the same people prosperous beyond all hope and all precedent ; their liberty secure, sitting in their strength, without fear and without reproach.
In your youth you joined the standard of three millions of people, raised in an
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uncertain and unequal combat. In your advanced age you return, and are met by ten millions of people, their descendants, who greet your approach and rejoice in it. This is not the movement of a turbulent populace, excited by the first laurels of some recent conqueror. It is a grave, moral, intellectual impulse.
A whole people in the enjoyment of freedom as perfect as the condition of our nature permits, recur with gratitude, increasing with the daily increasing sense of their blessings, to the memory of those, who by their labors and in their blood laid the foundation of our liberties.
Your name, sir, the name of Lafayette, is associated with the most perilous and most glorious periods of our Revolution - with the imperishable names of Washington and of that numerous host of heroes who adorn the proudest archives of American history, and are engraven in indelible traces on the hearts of the whole American people. Accept then, in the sincere spirit in which it is offered, this simple tribute to your virtues.
Again, sir, the citizens of Boston bid you welcome to the cradle of American independence and to scenes consecrated with the blood shed by the earliest mar- tyrs in the cause.
REPLY OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE.
To the Mayor and People of Boston :
The emotions of love and gratitude which I have been accustomed to feel on my entering this city, have ever mingled with a sense of religious reverence for the cradle of American, and let us hope it will be hereafter said, of universal liberty.
What must be my feelings, sir, at the blessed moment, when, after so long an absence, I find myself again surrounded by the good citizens of Boston. When I am so affectionately, so honorably welcomed, not only by old friends, but by several successive generations ; when I can witness the prosperity, the immense improvements that have been the just reward of a noble struggle, virtuous morals, and truly republican institutions.
I beg of you, Mr. Mayor, Gentlemen of the City Commeil, and all of you, beloved citizens of Boston, to accept the respectful and warm thanks of a heart which has, for nearly half a century, been particularly devoted to your illustrious city.
The Mayor then took a seat with Lafayette. .
The entrance of Lafayette into the city was announced by raising the American flag on the cupola of the State House and on Dorchester Heights, from whence a salute of one hundred and one guns was fired. The streets were profusely decorated ; arches with appropriate mottoes were raised in Washington Street ; and during his progress, for more than three miles, all the bells of the city were rung, and he was welcomed by more than seventy thousand inhabitants of the city and its vicinity. Every roof, window, balcony, and steeple, was put in requisition by the excited multitude, which, by its throng, often impeded
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the progress of the barouche. The day was cloudless, cool, and serene, and every circumstance propitious to general enjoyment. On the Common, Lafayette passed through two lines formed by several thousand children, pupils of the public schools, attired in uniform, and each wearing his portrait stamped upon a ribbon. From the State House, where his reception by the Governor was announced by a national salute from the Common, he was escorted to the mansion at the corner of Beacon and Park Streets, which had been obtained and furnished for his resi- dence, during his visit, by the city authorities; and he after- wards attended a public dinner given by them in his honor. During the week of his continuance in the city, he was escorted by the Mayor and a Committee of the City Council, to visit every object of interest within and around the city, and no testi- mony of respect and gratitude was omitted.
On the thirty-first of August, the Mayor accompanied Lafay- ette, on his departure for New Hampshire, to the lines of Boston on Charles River Bridge, where he was received by the aids of the Governor of the Commonwealth and an escort of cavalry.
At parting, he requested the Mayor to assure the citizens of Boston that "it was impossible for words to do justice to the emotions excited in his heart by the distinguished kindness and honor with which he had been welcomed by them ; that they would ever be associated with his most precious recollections ; and that he warmly reciprocated their expressions of respect and regard."
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