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 29
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[ again express my hope, that these remarks will not be con- sidered ill-timed. They are a testimony offered in defence of the memory of the honored dead, and of patriotic survivors who have not the same opportunity of speaking for themselves. 'Their object is not personal favor, though I am free to admit, that I am not indifferent to the desire of removing doubts and giving satisfaction to the minds of any who, by a magnanimous pledge of kind feelings towards me, have a claim upon me for every candid explanation and assurance in my power to afford.
Moreover, the harmony of our fellow-citizens may be promot- ed by a right understanding of these matters. The history of republican states and cities is soon told. Parties grow up from honest difference of opinion on the policy of measures. In pro- cess of time, the subject of controversy dies a natural death ; and if personal animosities could be buried in the same grave all would be well.
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In that event, the people would have a respite from party struggle, and when new contests and dissensions should arise, they would again choose sides from principle, and take a new departure from each other, free from the fetters and irritation of former alliances. The virulent humors of the body politie would not collect in the old wounds, but be again dispersed and cured by the course of nature. But this happy termination of political strife, with its original causes, seems not to accord with experi- ence. The names and badges and attitude of parties are pre- served ; antipathies become habits. Men resolve to differ eter- nally, without cause, for the mere reason of having once differed for good cause. One portion of the people is excluded by the other from the public service. Parties become factions. The torch of discord blazes while the fire of patriotism expires, and the fierce and unholy passions which have rent the Republic sur- vive its ruin. May our beloved city prove an exception to these sad examples.
Gentlemen, the duties on which we are about to enter are not classed with those of high political dignity ; but if they are less fascinating to the ambitious, they are not without attrac- tion to the benevolent.
We are intrusted with the care of institutions which have a . daily bearing upon the morals, education, health, and comfort of our fellow-citizens. Our population exceeds that of more than one State at the time of admission into the Union. Its interests are not the less precious, because they are condensed in one spot. While the political government are occupied with counsels which look to the wealth and safety and glory of the nation, what better can we do than to consult together for the happiness of those among whom many of us were born and all of us live, and which is indissolubly linked to our own.
On you, gentlemen, I shall rely for concurrence, in whatever may tend to this object, and I will refer by messages to your intelligence and consideration all matters that, by the charter, require that direction.
On the twelfth of January, the subject of the flats lying to the eastward of Faneuil Hall Market came under the consideration of the City Council, and a committee was raised and invested with full authority to fill them up; and to borrow money for
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that object, on the terms and on the conditions and restrictions contained in the vote on that subject of the preceding City Council. In October, the superintendent of these operations reported them to be finished, and the cost of filling the flats up as having been seventeen thousand three hundred dollars.
On the nineteenth of the same month, a petition from a number of citizens was presented, praying for such an alteration in the city charter, that the warden and inspectors in the respeet- ive wards may have the right to receive the vote of any person duly qualified, though his name be not borne on the voting list. The subject was referred to a committee of both branches of the City Council, of which the Mayor was chairman, who, on the second of February, reported that "it would not be expedient to grant the right prayed for, to the warden and inspectors, as it would be giving them the power of deciding upon the qualifica- tions of voters amid the urgent business of an election; that such a power would be liable to great interruption in its exer- cise, under such unfavorable circumstances ; would produce dis- putes and delay, and give rise to different decisions in different wards under similar circumstances and evidence, tending also to render the lists of the voters imperfect, and in the end useless, as the citizens would be remiss in procuring their names to be entered, knowing that the remedy could be done at the polls. On the whole subject, the Committee refer to a report made December twenty-second, 1828,1 to the last City Council, (which was then printed and distributed,) " for an elaborate exposition of facts and principles relative to this subject." It is on the whole believed, that whatever improvement can be made in the means of enabling the citizen to ascertain whether his name be inserted on the list of voters, and to enable him to have it thus placed, prior to the election, ought to be adopted; but that no government is bound to protect its citizens against wilful negli- gence and inattention to their own privileges. By this report two resolutions were submitted, the first requesting and direct- ing the Assessors to take proper measures for making out the voting lists, in each ward, by noting the names of the qualified voters at the time of making out the tax lists, so that the voting lists may be completed in each ward as near as may be at the
1 See page 237.
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same time with the tax lists of such ward ; and that they prepare and transmit to the Mayor and Aldermen, corrected voting lists of all the wards, on or before the first day of October, in each year.
The second, declaring it to be the duty of the Mayor and Aldermen, as soon as they shall have received a certified tran- script of the voting lists, pursuant to the preceding resolution, to cause a copy thereof to be posted in some public place in each ward, and to give publie notice, in one or more newspapers of the several places in which such lists shall be posted. The above report was accepted, and the resolutions passed, in the City Council.
On the second of February, 1829, a committee of the City Council was appointed on the memorial of the Directors of the House of Juvenile Offenders, of which the Mayor was Chair- man, who reported, that " they had repaired to the site of the institution for the purpose of inspection, and examining into the state of its discipline, government, and general condition, and had a full conference and comparison of views with the Direct- ors and Superintendents of said House and of the House of Industry, with which the same is in some measure connected ; and after due examination into the premises, the Committee are gratified in expressing their approbation of the fidelity, industry, and ability, which are manifested in the administration of the affairs of the institution, by the Directors and other officers, and their persuasion of the real advantages resulting and promised to the C'ity and Commonwealth from the system established and enforced by those who have the management of it, in all the departments ; and that the thanks of the community are spe- cially due to those individuals who have devoted, and persevere in devoting, their time and attention to the advancement of its interests, with no other reward but that of conscious benevo- lence, and a regard to the cause of humanity." The Report concluded with a recommendation to the City Council to carry into view the measures suggested by those Directors, which were presented in the form of a bill, defining more precisely the powers and duties of those Directors, and of the other officers of the institution.
On the ninth of February, the Mayor nominated Thomas C. Amory, Chief Engineer of the Fire Department, which was
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concurred in by the City Council ; and on the same day all the Assistant Engineers of the last year were nominated, and appointed by unanimous vote of that body. And on the twenty-ninth of the same month the Assistant Engineers all presented a memorial to the City Council, "requesting that measures may be taken, as soon as consistent with the con- venience of the city authorities, to elect others to supply their places ; and that in the mean time they will act as heretofore, and give all the aid and assistance in their power in subduing the common enemy." On the twenty-fifth of March ensuing, a vote passed the Board of Aldermen, giving their thanks to the late Assistant Engineers of the Fire Department, for the fidelity and alacrity uniformly manifested by them in the discharge of their arduous duties, with an assurance of the sense entertained by the Board of the value of their services and example, in pro- moting the efficient organization of that department. On the same day, the vacancies thus created were filled by electing twelve other citizens to constitute a new board of Assistant Engineers. And on the first of April ensuing, the salary of one thousand dollars for the Chief Engineer was established by the city authorities, to be computed from the sixteenth of the pre- ceding February, and paid quarterly. Until this tine the ser- vices of the Chief Engineer had been gratuitously rendered.
In February, 1828, petitions having been presented to the Legislature of the State by the proprietors of wharves at the northerly part of the city, for permission to extend them into the channel of the harbor, the Mayor, apprehensive that such a permission might injuriously affect the free navigation of the chanel, requested the Legislature to suspend its proceedings, and by special message brought the subject before the City Council, as being obviously of great importance ; stating that, although it is quite conceivable, that, in certain situations, wharves may be extended to some reasonable length into the channel without detriment to the harbor, yet it may be expected, that privileges granted to one set of proprietors, will be clanned with great importunity by others ; and that embarrassment may arise to the city government from precedents, established with- out due consideration; that it by no means follows of course, that, because a license may be granted to extend a wharf in a place where the channel is wide, and where the current would
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not be injuriously affected, a similar permission should be given in other cases, to which the dimensions of the channel and the effect on the current would present serious objections. Caution and deliberate examination by impartial judges, seemed to him requisite to make proper discrimination, to preserve limits and terms to every such license, as well as to the mode of carrying it into effect. In some positions, wharves erected on piles might be tolerated, which, if of solid construction, would be formidable nuisances. The Mayor, therefore, suggested the expediency of appointing commissioners, composed of merchants and others acquainted with the circumstances of the harbor, to examine and report upon every such application, such facts and opinions as may guide the city government in deciding on its merits; and that every permission granted by the Legislature should be on condition, that the work be executed in a mode satisfactory to the agents of the city government. This recommendation resulted at first in the passing, by the Board of Aldermen, of two resolutions, requesting the Mayor to present a remonstrance on the subject, in behalf of the City Council, and suggesting the expediency of having the entire power over the whole subject delegated to the city authorities. These resolutions were, how- ever, non-concurred in the Common Council, and an order passed proposing a joint committee of the City Council, to take such measures as they may deem proper to protect the rights and interests of the city, in the extension of wharves into the chan- nel of the harbor, with power to appear before the Committee of the Legislature that had the subject in hearing; and, if neces- sary, to employ the City Solicitor to maintain the rights of the city in the premises. In this resolution the Mayor and Alder- men concurred.
In April, 1829, the Mayor communicated a letter from a com- mittee appointed by the citizens of Augusta, in the State of Georgia, stating " that that city had recently suffered greatly in consequence of a tremendons conflagration," which had con- sumed about two hundred houses, and deprived more than fifteen hundred persons of a house, and praying relief. The City Coun- cil accordingly ordered, that a copy of the letter should be sent to cach of the pastors of the several churches in Boston, and authorized the Mayor to recommend, in behalf of the Board, a contribution thereon for the relief of those sufferers. On the
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twenty-fifth of May, Alderman Armstrong, as Treasurer of the contributions of the several churches in the city for the relief of the sufferers of Augusta, stated, that the amount collected was two thousand two hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty- eight cents, which the City Council authorized the Mayor to transmit to the Committee appointed by the sufferers to receive contributions, which was immediately done, and in June follow- ing, the receipt of that amount was acknowledged by the Committee, in a letter to the Mayor, "expressing the grateful feelings with which so acceptable a benefaction had been re- ceived, heightened by the reflection, that neither distance nor the absence of intimate relations could repress an exercise of libe- rality so honorable to his fellow-citizens." This letter was ordered by the City Council to be entered at large on their records, and be published.
In May, 1829, it having been represented to the Mayor, that causes were slowly but certainly operating unfavorable effects upon the navigable waters of the inner harbor, and that the part of the channel extending from the Long Wharf, or thereabouts, southerly to the new bridge at South Boston, is gradually becoming more shallow from various causes ; that vessels lying at the wharves in that space are endangered by easterly and northeasterly storms; and that there is no position, in that quarter, which can safely be occupied by steamboats, owing to the peculiarity of their construction, he presented the subject by special message to the attention and vare of the city govern- ment, stating that if the flats, lying in the channel, (beyond the reach of individual claims,) were the property of the city, im- provements might be made upon them by means of breakwaters or island wharves, that would afford effectual protection to the wharves and harbor in that quarter, and obviate the increasing shallowness of the channel; that such improvements might be made withont expense to the city, and possibly on contracts that would afford some ultimate revenue; that the flats are manifestly not, and can never become, of value to the Common- wealth, except indirectly, as they may be subservient to the safeguard and navigation of the harbor; and that it could not be doubted, that upon suitable application on behalf of the city to the Legislature, a cession might be obtained of the flats above-mentioned, and which, being in possession of the city,
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might, under their direction and authority, be converted to the public benefit ; that it would seem more proper and necessary, that these flats should become the property of the city, inas- much as memorials are frequently presented to the Legislature for private grants and immunities, by the proprietors of wharves and estates lying in that neighborhood, (and others may be anticipated,) of the reasonableness or injurious tendency of which, as well as of the limitations and regulations to which, if granted, they ought to be subjected, the city government would possess the most competent means of deciding, the premises being constantly under their observation. The Mayor, therefore, suggested the appointment of a committee, with full powers to apply to and endeavor to obtain from the Legisla- ture a grant of the premises, or of a portion thereof, sufficient for the purposes above expressed. These views of the Mayor were immediately carried into effect in the City Council, by appointment of a committee for the purposes expressed in the message.
In June following, the Committee reported, that the views presented by the Mayor were correct, and confirmed by the opinion of the Boston Marine Society, who had investigated the subject at their request; and resolutions were reported and passed by the City Council, authorizing the Mayor to apply to the Legislature for a grant of the flats specified, and the Sena- tors and Representatives of the city were requested to aid in obtaining the grant.
In February, 1829, on a petition signed by the requisite number of qualified voters, a warrant was issued by the City Council for a general meeting of citizens, on a day appointed for that purpose, to give in their ballots, by yea and nay, on the following resolutions : -
1. Resolved, That in our opinion it is expedient for the Com- monwealth to construct a railroad, on the most eligible route from Boston to the western line of the county of Berkshire, so that, in conjunction with the authorities of the State of New York, it may be extended to the most desirable point on the Hudson River, near Albany or Troy ; and also from Boston to the Pawtucket River, at or near Providence, in the State of Rhode Island.
2. Resolved, That in case the Legislature should deem it
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expedient to construct said railroads, wholly at the expense of the State, that the city government be authorized and requested to apply to the Legislature for an act to enable any cities, towns, or bodies corporate, or individuals, to subscribe for such portion of said stoek as may not be taken by the State, on such terms and conditions as may be deemed expedient.
On the day appointed, a general meeting of the citizens of Boston was holden in Fanueil Hall, and both resolutions were passed by upwards of three thousand votes in the affirmative to less than sixty in the negative.
An application to that effect was immediately made by the City Council to the Legislature, in conformity with those reso- lutions.
In November, a number of citizens petitioned the City Coun- cil, praying them to appropriate a suitable piece of land on the flats between the Western Avenue and Boylston Street, in aid of, and as a convenient terminus for warehouses, and a depot for a railroad, then proposed from the city to Brattleborough, in Vermont. This petition was referred to the Mayor and Alder- man Loring, and to Messrs. Everett, Ellis, and Rayner, of the Common Council.
This Committee, in December following, reported, "that the establishment of railroads connecting the city with the interior country, is of such vital importance to the prosperity of the former, as to leave no room to doubt, that the city government will ever be actuated by a disposition to promote the success of these ope- rations, (when plans for them shall be matured,) by all reason- able aid and means within the limits of their constitutional authority. The location of land for the termination of such railroads in the city, appears to the Committee to involve many important considerations, which, in the present incipient stage of the business, the City Council are not competent to examine and weigh. It is a measure, also, upon which any company obtaining a charter would reserve the right of deciding for itself; and a premature assignment of lands for the proposed object might not only be rejected by such company, but prevent sub- scriptions to the stock by individuals, who would be dissatisfied in perceiving the adoption of views, which might preclude them from an entire freedom of voting and deciding npon what might be deemed a very essential feature in any enterprise of this
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kind." The Committee, therefore, recommended the passage of a resolve : - " That it is not expedient for the City Council to make any grant or assignment of land for the accommodation of railroads, until one or more charters of incorporation shall be obtained for the construction of such railroads, and the City Council shall thus be enabled to aet upon distinct information of all circumstances, in reference as well to the provisions of such charters, and as to their authority to make such grants under the charter of the city and the laws of the Common- wealth." This resolve was passed in concurrence by both branches of the City Council.
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CHAPTER XX. CITY GOVERNMENT. 1830. HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Mayor.1
Prosperous State of the City - Embarrassment of the Manufacturing Interests, and its Causes - Completion of the City Wharf - State of the City Debt - Sale of Public Lands -- Condition of the Flats to the West of the Neck - State of the Court-Ilouses - Protection of our Outer Harbor - Centennial Celebration resolved upon - Grant of the City Hall for Sales of Domestic Manufactures Rescinded - Sale of Spirituous Liquors on the Common Pro- hibited - Old State House to be called " The City Hall" - Centennial Cele- bration of the Settlement of Boston.
THE records of the Mayor and Aldermen on the fourth of Jan- uary, 1830, state, that " a message was received from the Mayor, expressing his regrets that indisposition prevented his having the honor of meeting the gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen and Common Council in their own chambers; and, therefore, he respectfully requested their presence at his house, at such hour as might be agreeable to them, to qualify for their respective functions. The members of both branches of the City Council then proceeded to the mansion-house of the Mayor, where the government was organized with the usual solemnities; after which, the Mayor delivered the following inaugural address : -
GENTLEMEN OF THE CITY COUNCIL :-
The season has returned, in which we who are chosen by our fellow-citizens to administer their municipal concerns for the current year, are expected to enter upon the discharge of our respective functions.
Our acknowledgments are due to the Great Disposer of all events for having preserved to our constituents, throughout the
1 The whole number of votes were 1,966 ; of which the Mayor received 1,844. The Aldermen were Henry J. Oliver, John F. Loring, Sanmel T. Armstrong, Benjamin Russell, Winslow Lewis, Charles Wells, Moses Williams, John B. M'Cleary.
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past year, the possession of the principal blessings, on which depend the welfare and comfort of populous cities. The health- iness of the city, always unrivalled, has been preserved at least to its usual standard. With the advantages of health have been united those of plenty. Our markets and magazines are filled to exuberance with all that is needful for sustenance, or condu- cive to comfort and luxury, at reasonable and reduced prices. We live also in a state of peace, which seems not to be threat- ened with approaching interruption. The public concerns of the State and nation are thus far well-administered, and no indication is manifested, in the communications of the executive government of the United States, of plans or schemes of policy calculated to inspire apprehensions of measures unfavorable to the interests of this community. These circumstances seem to embrace all that is requisite for the prosperity of an industrious and enterprising people. They have, however, for the last two years, been counteracted by others, which have opposed se- rious impediments to our advancement. The capitalists and merchants of this city, influenced by the strong demonstrations manifested in other parts of the Union in favor of the manufac- turing policy and by the patronage of government, and allured by fallacious estimates of great profits made by others, in vio- lence of their natural predilections and habits, have invested an undne portion of capital in manufacturing establishments. Their example was followed by those whose capital consisted wholly in their spirit of enterprise. Hence ensued a disastrous competition. The establishments bottomed on substantial funds were stimulated to launch forth beyond the natural and reason- able limits of those funds. They could not renounce the market without min, and their rivals could not maintain themselves in it without sacrifices, that must end in ruin. This crisis was eagerly seized by the British manufacturers as furnishing an occasion to extinguish, perhaps forever, the manufacturing spirit in this country ; and they inundated our market with the redun- dancy of their own. Hence resulted an excessive plethora, and consequent depreciation of value, loss, and sacrifice by forced sales. Owing to these incidents, combined with the unwise and improvident system of our legislation as respects manufac- turing corporations, and with the nucertainty of the future policy of the goverment, disturbed by the vehemence of opposition to
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