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 35
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
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which may well be denominated, from its early and later results, the first and original declaration of independence by Massachusetts.
" By God's assistance, we will be ready in our persons, and with such of our families as are to go with us, to embark for the said plantation by the first of March next, to pass the seas (under God's protection) to inhabit and continue in New England. Pro- vided always, that before the last of September next, THE WHOLE GOVERNMENT, TOGETHER WITH THE PATENT, BE FIRST LEGALLY TRANSFERRED AND ESTABLISHED, TO REMAIN WITH US AND OTHERS, WHICH SHALL INHABIT THE SAID PLANTATION." 1 Generous reso- lution ! Noble foresight! Sublime self-devotion ; chastened and directed by a wisdom, faithful and prospective of distant conse- quences! Well may we exclaim, -" 'This policy overtopped all the policy of this world."
For the advancement of the three great objects which were the scope of the policy of our ancestors, -intellectual power, religious liberty, and civil liberty, - Boston has in no period been surpassed, either in readiness to incur, or in energy to make useful, personal or pecuniary sacrifices. She provided for the education of her citizens out of the general fund, antece- dently to the law of the Commonwealth making such provision imperative. Nor can it be questioned, that her example and influence had a decisive effect in producing that law. An intel- ligent generosity has been conspicuous among her inhabitants on this subject, from the day when, in 1635, they "entreated our brother Philemon Pormont to become schoolmaster, for the teaching and nurturing children with us," to this hour, when what is equivalent to a capital of two hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars is invested in school-houses, eighty schools are maintained, and seven thousand and five hundred children edu- cated at an expense exceeding annually sixty-five thousand dollars. No city in the world, in proportion to its means and population, ever gave more uniform and unequivocal evidences
1 See " A true coppie of the agreement at Cambridge, 1629," in Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of the Colony of Massachu- setts Bay, p. 25, signed by
Richard Saltonstall, John Winthrop,
Thomas Sharp,
Kellam Browne, Increase Nowell,
Thomas Dudley, William Vassal,
Isaac Johnson, William Pynchon,
Nicko : West,
John Humfrey,
William Colbron.
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of its desire to diffuse intellectual power and moral culture through the whole mass of the community. The result is every day witnessed, at home and abroad, in private intercourse and in the public assembly ; in a quiet and orderly demeanor, in the self-respect and mutual harmony prevalent among its citizens ; in the general comfort which characterizes their condition; in their submission to the laws; and in that wonderful capacity for self-government, which postponed for almost two centuries a city organization ; - and this, even then, was adopted more with reference to anticipated, than from experience of existing evils. During the whole of that period, and even after its population exceeded fifty thousand, its financial, economical, and municipal interests were managed, either by general vote, or by men appointed by the whole multitude ; and with a regularity, wis- dom, and success, which it will be happy if future adminis- trations shall equal, and which certainly they will find it diffi- cult to exceed.
'The influence of the institutions of our fathers is also appa- rent in that munificence towards objects of public interest or charity, for which, in every period of its history, the citizens of Boston have been distinguished, and which, by universal con- sent, is recognized to be a prominent feature in their character. To no city has Boston ever been second in its spirit of liberality. From the first settlement of the country to this day, it has been a point to which have tended applications for assistance or relief, on account of suffering or misfortune; for the patronage of colleges, the endowment of schools, the erection of churches, and the spreading of learning and religion, from alnost every section of the United States. Seldom have the hopes of any worthy applicant been disappointed. The benevolent and pub- lic spirit of its inhabitants is also evidenced by its hospitals, its asylums, public libraries, almshouses, charitable associations - in its patronage of the neighboring University, and in its sub- scriptions for general charities.
It is obviously impracticable to give any just idea of the amount of these charities. They flow from virtues which seek the shade and shun record. They are silent and secret out- wellings of grateful hearts, desirous unostentatiously to aeknow- ledge the bounty of Heaven in their prosperity and abundance. The result of inquiries, necessarily imperfeet, however, authorize
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the statement, that, in the records of societies having for their objects either learning or some public charity, or in documents in the hands of individuals relative to contributions for the relief of suffering, or the patronage of distinguished merit or talent, there exists evidence of the liberality of the citizens of this metropolis, and that chiefly within the last thirty years, of an amount, by voluntary donation or bequest, exceeding one million and eight hundred thousand dollars. Far short as this sum falls of the real amount obtained within that period from the liberality of our citizens, it is yet enough to make evident, that the best spirit of the institutions of our ancestors survives in the hearts, and is exhibited in the lives, of the citizens of Boston ; inspiring love of country and duty; stimulating to the active virtues of benevolence and charity; exciting wealth and power to their best exercises; counteracting what is selfish in our nature ; and elevating the moral and social virtues to wise sacrifices and noble energies.
With respect to religious liberty, where does it exist in a more perfect state, than in this metropolis ? Or where has it ever been enjoyed in a purer spirit, or with happier consequences? In what city of equal population are all classes of society more distinguished for obedience to the institutions of religion, for regular attendance on its worship, for more happy intercourse with its ministers, or more uniformly honorable support of them ? In all struggles connected with religious liberty, and these are inseparable from its possession, it may be said of the inhabitants of this city, as truly as of any similar association of men, that they have ever maintained the freedom of the Gospel in the spirit of Christianity. Divided into various sects, their mutual intercourse has, almost without exception, been harmonious and respectful. The labors of intemperate zealots, with which, occa- sionally, every age has been troubled, have seldom, in this metro- polis, been attended with their natural and usual consequences. Its seets have never been made to fear or hate one another. The genius of its inhabitants, through the influence of the intel- lectual power which pervades their mass, has ever been quick to detect " close ambition varnished o'er with zeal." 'The modes, the forms, the discipline, the opinions, which our ancestors held to be essential, have, in many respects, been changed or oblite- rated with the progress of time, or been countervailed or super-
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seded by rival forms and opinions. But veneration for the Sacred Scriptures and attachment to the right of free inquiry, which were the substantial motives of their emigration and of all their institutions, remain, and are maintained in a Christian spirit, (judging by life and language,) certainly not exceeded in the times of any of our ancestors. The right to read those Scriptures is universally recognized. The means to acquire the possession and to attain the knowledge of them are multiplied by the intelligence and liberality of the age, and extended to every class of society. All men are invited to search for them- selves concerning the grounds of their hopes of future happiness and acceptance. All are permitted to hear from the lips of our Saviour himself, that " the meek," " the merciful," " the pure in heart," " the persecuted for righteousness' sake," are those who shall receive the blessing, and be admitted to the presence, of the Eternal Father; and to be assured from those sacred records, that, " in every nation, he who feareth God and worketh right- eousness, is accepted of him." Elevated by the power of these sublime assurances, as conformable to reason as to Revelation, man's intellectual principle rises " above the smoke and stir of this dim spot," and, like an eagle soaring above the Andes, looks down on the clondy cliffs, the narrow, separating points, and flaming craters, which divide and terrify men below.
It is scarcely necessary, on this occasion, to speak of civil liberty, or to tell of our constitutions of government; of the freedom they maintain and are calculated to preserve; of the equality they establish; the self-respect they encourage; the private and domestic virtues they cherish; the love of country they inspire; the self-devotion and self-sacrifice they enjoin ; - all these are but the filling up of the great outline sketched by our fathers, the parts in which, through the darkness and per- versity of their times, they were defective, being corrected; all are but endeavors, conformed to their great, original conception, to group together the strength of society and the religious and civil rights of the individual, in a living and breathing spirit of efficient power, by forms of civil government, adapted to our condition, and adjusted to social relations of unexampled great- ness and extent, unparalleled in their results, and connected by principles elevated as the nature of man, and immortal as his destinies.
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It is not, however, from local position, nor from general cir- cumstances of life and fortune, that the peculiar felicity of this metropolis is to be deduced. Her enviable distinction is, that she is among the chiefest of that happy New England family, which claims descent from the early emigrants. If we take a survey of that family, and, excluding from our view the unnum- bered multitudes of its members who have occupied the vacant wildernesses of other States, we restriet our thoughts to the local sphere of New England, what scenes open upon our sight! How wild and visionary would seem our prospects, did we indulge only natural anticipations of the future! Already, on an area of seventy thousand square miles, a population of two millions; all, but comparatively a few, descendants of the early emigrants! Six independent Commonwealths, with constitu- tions varying in the relations and proportions of power, yet uniform in all their general principles; diverse in their political arrangements, yet each sufficient for its own necessities ; all harmonions with those without, and peaceful within ; embrac- ing, under the denomination of towns, upwards of twelve hun- dred effective republics, with qualified powers, indeed, but pos- sessing potent influences ; - subject themselves to the respective State sovereignties, yet directing all their operations, and shaping their policy by constitutional agencies; swayed, no less than the greater republics, by passions, interests, and affections ; like them, exciting competitions which rouse into action the latent energies of mind, and infuse into the mass of each society a knowledge of the nature of its interests, and a capacity to under- stand and share in the defence of those of the Commonwealth. The effect of these minor republics is daily seen in the existence of practical talents, and in the readiness with which those talents can be called into the public service of the State.
If, after this general survey of the surface of New England, we cast our eyes on its cities and great towns, with what won- der should we behold, did not familiarity render the phenomenon almost unnoticed, men, combined in great multitudes, possessing freedom and the consciousness of strength, - the comparative physical power of the ruler less than that of a cobweb across a lion's path, - yet orderly, obedient, and respectful to authority ; a people, but no populace; every class in reality existing, which the general law of society acknowledges, except one, - and this
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exception characterizing the whole country. The soil of New England is trodden by no slave. In our streets, in our assem- blies, in the halls of election and legislation, men of every rank and condition meet, and unite or divide on other principles, and are actuated by other motives, than those growing out of such distinctions. The fears and jealousies, which in other countries separate classes of men and make them hostile to each other, have here no influence, or a very limited one. Each individual, of whatever condition, has the consciousness of living under known laws, which secure equal rights, and guarantee to each whatever portion of the goods of life, be it great or small, chance, or talent, or industry may have bestowed. All perecive, that the honors and rewards of society are open equally to the fair competition of all; that the distinctions of wealth, or of power, are not fixed in families ; that whatever of this nature exists to-day, may be changed to-morrow, or, in a coming generation, be absolutely reversed. Common principles, interests, hopes, and affections, are the result of universal edneation. Such are the consequences of the equality of rights, and of the provisions for the general diffusion of knowledge and the distribution of intestate estates, established by the laws framed by the earliest emigrants to New England.
If from our cities we turn to survey the wide expanse of the interior, how do the effects of the institutions and example of our early ancestors appear, in all the local comfort and accom- modation which mark the general condition of the whole coun- try ; - unobtrusive indeed, but substantial ; in nothing splendid, but in every thing sufficient and satisfactory. Indications of active talent and practical energy exist everywhere. With a soil comparatively little luxuriant, and in great proportion either rock, or hill, or sand, the skill and industry of man are seen triumphing over the obstacles of nature; making the rock the guardian of the field ; moulding the granite, as though it were clay ; leading cultivation to the hill-top, and spreading over the arid plain, hitherto unknown and unanticipated harvests. The lofty mansion of the prosperous adjoins the lowly dwelling of the husbandman; their respective inmates are in the daily inter- change of civility, sympathy, and respect. Enterprise and skill, which once held chief affinity with the ocean or the sea-board, now begin to delight the interior, haunting our rivers, where the
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music of the waterfall, with powers more attractive than those of the fabled harp of Orpheus, collects around it intellectual man and material nature. Towns and cities, civilized and happy communities, rise, like exhalations, on rocks and in forests, till the deep and far-resounding voice of the neighboring torrent is itself lost and unheard, amid the predominating noise of success- ful and rejoicing labor.
What lessons has New England, in every period of her his- tory, given to the world! What lessons do her condition and example still give! Ilow unprecedented ; yet how practical! How simple ; yet how powerful! She has proved, that all the variety of Christian seets may live together in harmony, under a goverment, which allows equal privileges to all, - exclusive preeminence to none. She has proved, that ignorance among the multitude is not necessary to order, but that the surest basis of perfect order is the information of the people. She has proved the old maxim, that " no government, except a despotism with a standing army, can subsist where the people have arms," is false. Ever since the first settlement of the country, arms have been required to be in the hands of the whole multitude of New England ; yet the use of them in a private quarrel, if it have ever happened, is so rare, that a late writer, of great intelligence, who had passed his whole life in New England, and possessed exten- sive means of information, declares, "I know not a single instance of it."1 She has proved, that a people, of a character essentially military, may subsist without duelling. New Eng- land has, at all times, been distinguished, both on the land and on the ocean, for a daring, fearless, and enterprising spirit; yet the same writer2 asserts, that during the whole period of her existence, her soil has been disgraced but by five duels, and that only two of these were fought by her native inhabitants! Per- haps this assertion is not minutely correct. There can, however, be no question, that it is sufficiently near the truth to justify the position for which it is here adduced, and which the history of New England, as well as the experience of her inhabitants, abundantly confirms ; that, in the present and in every past age, the spirit of our institutions has, to every important practical purpose, annihilated the spirit of duelling.
1 See Travels in New England and New York, by Timothy Dwight, S. T. D., LL. D., late President of Yale College, vol. iv. p. 331.
2 Ibid. p. 336.
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Such are the true glories of the institutions of our fathers! Such the natural fruits of that patience in toil, that frugality of disposition, that temperance of habit, that general diffusion of knowledge, and that sense of religious responsibility, inculcated by the precepts, and exhibited in the example of every genera- tion of our ancestors !
And now, standing at this hour on the dividing line which separates the ages that are past from those which are to come, how solemn is the thought, that not one of this vast assembly, not one of that great multitude who now throng our streets, rejoice in our fields, and make our hills echo with their gratula- tions, shall live to witness the next return of the era we this day celebrate ! The dark veil of futurity conceals from human sight the fate of cities and nations as well as of individuals. Man passes away ; generations are but shadows ; there is nothing stable but truth ; principles only are inmortal.
What then, in conclusion of this great topic, are the elements of the liberty, prosperity, and safety which the inhabitants of New England at this day enjoy ? In what language, and con- cerning what comprehensive truths does the wisdom of former times address the inexperience of the future ?
Those elements are simple, obvious, and familiar.
Every civil and religious blessing of New England, all that here gives happiness to human life or security to human virtue is alone to be perpetuated in the forms and under the auspices of a free commonwealth.
The Commonwealth itself has no other strength or hope than the intelligence and virtue of the individuals that compose it.
For the intelligence and virtue of individuals, there is no other human assurance than laws, providing for the education of the whole people.
These laws themselves have no strength or efficient sanction, except in the moral and accountable nature of man, disclosed in the records of the Christian's faith ; the right to read, to construc, and to judge concerning which, belongs to no class or caste of men, but exclusively to the individual, who must stand or fall by his own aets and his own faith, and not by those of another.
The great comprehensive truths, written in letters of living light on every page of our history, the language addressed by every past age of New England to all future ages is this, -
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Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom ; freedom none but virtue ; virtue none but knowledge ; and neither free- dom, nor virtue, nor knowledge has any vigor or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith and in the sanctions of the Christian religion.
Men of Massachusetts ! Citizens of Boston! Descendants of the early emigrants ! consider your blessings; consider your duties. You have an inheritance acquired by the labors and sufferings of six successive generations of ancestors. They founded the fabric of your prosperity in a severe and masculine morality ; having intelligence for its cement and religion for its groundwork. Continue to build on the same foundation and by the same principles ; let the extending temple of your coun- try's freedom rise in the spirit of ancient times, in proportions of intellectual and moral architecture, - just, simple, and sublime. As from the first to this day, let New England continue to be an example to the world of the blessings of a free goverment, and of the means and capacity of man to maintain it. And, in all . times to come as in all times past, may Boston be among the foremost and the boldest to exemplify and uphold whatever con- stitutes the prosperity, the happiness, and the glory of New England.
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CHAPTER XXIIL. CITY GOVERNMENT. 1830. HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Mayor.
An Ode, pronounced before the Inhabitants of Boston, on the 17th of Septem- ber, 1830, at the Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of the City. By Charles Sprague. I.
NOT to the Pagan's mount I turn, For inspiration now ; Olympus and its gods I spurn - Pure One, be with me, Thou! Thou, in whose awful name, From suffering and from shame, Our Fathers fled, and braved a pathless sea ; Thou, in whose holy fear, They fixed an empire here, And gave it to their Children and to Thee.
II.
And You! ye bright ascended Dead, Who scorned the bigot's yoke, Come, round this place your influence shed ; Your spirits I invoke. Come, as ye came of yore, When on an unknown shore,
Your daring hands the flag of faith unfurled, To float sublime, Through future time, . The beacon-banner of another world.
III
Behold! they come - those sainted forms, Unshaken through the strife of storms ; Heaven's winter cloud hangs coldly down, And earth puts on its rudest frown ;
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But colder, ruder was the hand,
That drove them from their own fair land ; Their own fair land - refinement's chosen seat, Art's trophied dwelling, learning's green retreat ; By valor guarded, and by victory crowned, For all, but gentle charity, renowned. With streaming eye, yet steadfast heart, Even from that land they dared to part, And burst each tender tie ; Haunts, where their sunny youth was passed, Homes, where they fondly hoped at last In peaceful age to die ; Friends, kindred, comfort, all they spurned - 'Their fathers' hallowed graves ; And to a world of darkness turned, Beyond a world of waves.
IV.
When Israel's race from bondage fled, Signs from on high the wanderers led; But here - Heaven hung no symbol here, Their steps to guide, their souls to cheer; They saw, thro' sorrow's lengthening night, Nought but the fagot's guilty light ; The cloud they gazed at was the smoke, That round their murdered brethren broke. Nor power above, nor power below, Sustained them in their hour of woe; A fearful path they trod, And dared a fearful doom ; To build an altar to their God, And find a quiet tomb.
V.
But not alone, not all unblessed, The exile sought a place of rest ; ONE dared with him to burst the knot, That bound her to her native spot ; Her low sweet voice in comfort spoke, As round their bark the billows broke ;
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She through the midnight watch was there, With him to bend her knees in prayer ; She trod the shore with girded heart, Through good and ill to claim her part ; In life, in death, with him to seal Her kindred love, her kindred zeal.
VI.
They come - that coming who shall tell ? The eye may weep, the heart may swell, But the poor tongue in vain essays A fitting note for them to raise. We hear the after-shout that rings For them who smote the power of kings ; The swelling triumph all would share, But who the dark defeat would dare, And boldly meet the wrath and woe, That wait the unsuccessful blow ? It were an envied fate, we deem, To live a land's recorded theme, When we are in the tomb ; We, too, might yield the joys of home, And waves of winter darkness roam, And tread a shore of gloom - Knew we those waves, through coming time, Should roll our names to every clime ; Felt we that millions on that shore Should stand, our memory to adore - But no glad vision burst in light, Upon the Pilgrims' aching sight Their hearts no proud hereafter swelled; Deep shadows veiled the way they held ; The yell of vengeance was their trump of fame, Their monument, a grave without a name.
VII.
Yet, strong in weakness, there they stand, On yonder ice-bound rock, Stern and resolved, that faithful band, 'To meet fate's rudest shock.
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