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 36
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Though anguish rends the father's breast, For them, his dearest and his best, With him the waste who trod - Though tears that freeze, the mother sheds Upon her children's houseless heads - The Christian turns to God!
VIII.
In grateful adoration now,
Upon the barren sands they bow.
What tongue of joy e'er woke such prayer,
As bursts in desolation there ?
What arm of strength e'er wrought such power, As waits to crown that feeble hour ?
There into life an infant empire springs ! There falls the iron from the soul ;
'There liberty's young accents roll, Up to the King of kings !
To fair creation's farthest bound,
'That thrilling summons yet shall sound ;
The dreaming nations shall awake,
And to their centre carth's old kingdoms shake. Pontiff and prince, your sway Must crumble from that day ; Before the loftier throne of Heaven, 'The hand is raised, the pledge is given - One monarch to obey, one creed to own, That monarch, God, that creed, His word alone.
IX
Spread out earth's holiest records here, Of days and deeds to reverence dear ; A zeal like this what pions legends tell ? On kingdoms built In blood and guilt, The worshippers of vulgar triumph dwell - But what exploit with theirs shall page, Who rose to bless their kind ; Who left their nation and their age, Man's spirit to unbind ? 31
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Who boundless seas passed o'er, And boldly met, in every path, Famine and frost and heathen wrath, To dedicate a shore, Where piety's meek train might breathe their vow, And seek their Maker with an unshamed brow ; Where liberty's glad race might proudly come, And set up there an everlasting home ?
X.
O many a time it hath been told, The story of those men of old : For this fair poetry hath wreathed Her sweetest, purest flower ; For this proud eloquence hath breathed His strain of loftiest power ; Devotion, too, hath lingered round Each spot of consecrated ground, And hill and valley blessed ; There, where our banished Fathers strayed, There, where they loved and wept and prayed, There, where their ashes rest.
XI.
And never may they rest unsung, While liberty can find a tongue. Twine, Gratitude, a wreath for them, More deathless than the diadem, Who to life's noblest end, Gave up life's noblest powers, And bade the legacy descend, Down, down to us and ours.
XII.
By centuries now the glorious hour we mark, When to these shores they steered their shattered bark ; And still, as other centuries melt away, Shall other ages come to keep the day. When we are dust, who gather round this spot, Our joys, our griefs, our very names forgot,
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Here shall the dwellers of the land be seen, To keep the memory of the Pilgrims green. Nor here alone their praises shall go round, Nor here alone their virtues shall abound - Broad as the empire of the free shall spread, Far as the foot of man shall dare to tread, Where oar hath never dipped, where human tongue Hath never through the woods of ages rung, There, where the eagle's scream and wild wolf's cry Keep ceaseless day and night through earth and sky, Even there, in after time, as toil and taste Go forth in gladness to redeem the waste, Even there shall rise, as grateful myriads throng, Faith's holy prayer and freedom's joyful song ; There shall the flame that flashed from youder Rock, Light up the land till nature's final shock.
XIII.
Yet while by life's endearments crowned, To mark this day we gather round, And to our nation's founders raise The voice of gratitude and praise, Shall not one line lament that lion race, For us struck out from sweet creation's face ? Alas! alas! for them - those fated bands,
Whose monarch tread was on these broad, green lands; Our fathers called them savage - them, whose bread, In the dark hour, those famished fathers fed :
We call them savage, we, Who hail the struggling free, Of every clime and hue ; We, who would save The branded slave, And give him liberty he never knew : We, who but now have caught the tale, That turns each listening tyrant pale, And blessed the winds and waves that bore The tidings to our kindred shore ; The triumph-tidings pealing from that land, Where up in arms insulted legions stand ;
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There, gathering round his bold compeers, Where He, our own, our welcomed One, Riper in glory than in years, Down from his forfeit throne, A craven monarch hurled, And spurned him forth, a proverb to the world !
XIV.
We call them savage - O be just ! Their outraged feelings sean ; A voice comes forth, 'tis from the dust -
The savage was a man ! 'Think ye he loved not ? who stood by, And in his toils took part ? Woman was there to bless his eye - The savage had a heart ! Think ye he prayed not ? when on high He heard the thunders roll, What bade him look beyond the sky ? The savage had a soul !
XV.
I venerate the Pilgrim's cause, Yet for the red man dare to plead - We bow to Heaven's recorded laws, Ile turned to nature for a creed ; Beneath the pillared dome, We seek our God in prayer ; Through boundless woods he loved to roanı, And the Great Spirit worshipped there : But one, one fellow-throb with us he felt ; To one divinity with us he knelt; Freedom, the self-same freedom we adore, Bade him defend his violated shore ; He saw the cloud, ordained to grow, And burst upon his hills in woe ; He saw his people withering by, Beneath the invader's evil eye ;
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Strange feet were trampling on his fathers' bones ; At midnight hour he woke to gaze Upon his happy cabin's blaze, And listen to his children's dying groans : He saw - and maddening at the sight, Gave his bold bosom to the fight ;
To tiger rage his soul was driven, -
Mercy was not - nor sought nor given ; The pale man from his lands must fly ; He would be free - or he would die.
XVI.
And was this savage ? say, Ye ancient few, Who struggled through Young freedom's trial-day - What first your sleeping wrath awoke ?
On your own shores war's larum broke :
What turned to gall even kindred blood ?
Round your own homes the oppressor stood : This every warm affection chilled,
This every heart with vengeance thrilled, And strengthened every hand ; From mound to mound, The word went round - " Death for one native land !"
XVII.
Ye mothers, too, breathe ye no sigh, For them who thus could dare to die ? Are all your own dark hours forgot, Of soul-sick suffering here ? Your pangs, as from yon mountain spot, Death spoke in every booming shot, That knelled upon your ear ? How oft that gloomy, glorious tale ye tell, As round your knees your children's children hang, Of them, the gallant Ones, ye loved so well, Who to the conflict for their country sprang.
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In pride, in all the pride of woc, Ye tell of thein, the brave laid low, Who for their birthplace bled ; In pride, the pride of triumph then, Ye tell of them, the matchless men, From whom the invaders fled !
XVIII.
And ye, this holy place who throng, The annual theme to hear, And bid the exulting song Sound their great names from year to year ; Ye, who invoke the chisel's breathing grace, In marble majesty their forms to trace ; Ye, who the sleeping rocks would raise, To guard their dust and speak their praise ; Ye, who, should some other band With hostile foot defile the land, Feel that ye like them would wake,
Like them the yoke of bondage break, Nor leave a battle-blade undrawn, Though every hill a sepulchre should yawn - Say, have not ye one line for those, One brother-line to spare, Who rose but as your Fathers rose, And dared as ye would dare ?
XIX.
Alas ! for them - their day is o'er, Their fires are out from hill and shore ; No more for them the wild deer bounds, The plough is on their hunting grounds; The pale man's axe rings through their woods, The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods, Their pleasant springs are dry ; Their children - look, by power oppressed, Beyond the mountains of the west, Their children go - to die.
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XX.
O doubly lost! oblivion's shadows close Around their triumphs and their woes. On other realms, whose suns have set, Reflected radiance lingers yet ; There sage and bard. have shed a light That never shall go down in night; 'There time-crowned columns stand on high, To tell of them who cannot die ; Even we, who then were nothing, kneel In homage there, and join earth's general peal. But the doomed Indian leaves behind no trace, To save his own, or serve another race ; With his frail breath his power has passed away, His deeds, his thoughts are buried with his clay ; Nor lofty pile, nor glowing page Shall link him to a future age, Or give him with the past a rank : His heraldry is but a broken bow, His history but a tale of wrong and woe, His very name must be a blank.
XXI.
Cold, with the beast he slew, he sleeps ; O'er him no filial spirit weeps; No crowds throng round, no anthem-notes ascend, To bless his coming and embalm his end ; Even that he lived, is for his conqueror's tongue, By foes alone his death-song must be sung; No chronicles but theirs shall tell His mournful doom to future times ; May these upon his virtues dwell, And in his fate forget his crimes.
XXII.
Peace to the mingling dead ! Beneath the turf we tread,
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Chief, Pilgrim, Patriot sleep - All gone! how changed! and yet the same, As when faith's herald bark first came In sorrow o'er the deep. Still from his noonday height, The sun looks down in light ; . Along the trackless realms of space, The stars still run their midnight race ; The same green valleys smile, the same rough shore Still echoes to the same wild ocean's roar : - But where the bristling night-wolf sprang Upon his startled prey,
Where the fierce Indian's war-cry rang Through many a bloody fray ; And where the stern old Pilgrim prayed In solitude and gloom, Where the bold Patriot drew his blade, And dared a patriot's doom - . Behold ! in liberty's unclouded blaze, We lift our heads, a race of other days.
XXIII.
All gone! the wild beast's lair is trodden out ; Proud temples stand in beauty there ; Our children raise their merry shout, Where once the death-whoop vexed the air : The Pilgrim - seek you ancient place of graves, Beneath that chapel's holy shade ; Ask, where the breeze the long grass waves, Who, who within that spot are laid :
The Patriot- go, to fame's proud mount repair, The tardy pile, slow rising there, With tongueless eloquence shall tell Of them who for their country fell.
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XXIV.
All gone ! 't is ours, the goodly land -- Look round - the heritage behold; Go forth - upon the mountains stand, Then, if ye can, be cold.
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See living vales by living waters blessed, Their wealth see earth's dark caverns yield, See ocean roll, in glory dressed, For all a treasure, and round all a shield : Hark to the shouts of praise Rejoicing millions raise ; Gaze on the spires that rise, To point them to the skies, Unfearing and unfeared ; Then, if ye can, O then forget To whom ye owe the sacred debt - The Pilgrim race revered ! The men who set faith's burning lights Upon these everlasting heights, 'To guide their children through the years of time The men that glorious law who taught, Unshrinking liberty of thought, And roused the nations with the truth sublime.
XXV.
Forget ? no, never - ne'er shall die, Those names to memory dear ; I read the promise in each eye That beams upon me here. Descendants of a twice-recorded race, Long may ye here your lofty lineage grace ; ''l' is not for you home's tender tie To rend, and brave the waste of waves ; "Tis not for you to rouse and die, Or yield and live a line of slaves ; The deeds of danger and of death are done : Upheld by inward power alone, Unhonored by the world's loud tongue, ''I' is yours to do unknown, And then to die unsung. 'To other days, to other men belong "The penman's plaudit and the poet's song ; Enough for glory has been wrought, By you be humbler praises sought ; In peace and truth life's journey run, And keep unsullied what your Fathers won,
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XXVI.
Take then my prayer, Ye dwellers of this spot - Be yours a noiseless and a guiltless lot. I plead not that ye bask In the rank beams of vulgar fame ; To light your steps I ask A purer and a holier flame. No bloated growth I supplicate for you,
No pining multitude, no pampered few ; 'Tis not alone to coffer gold, Nor spreading borders to behold ;
'Tis not fast-swelling crowds to win,
The refuse-ranks of want and sin - This be the kind decree : Be ye by goodness crowned,
Revered, though not renowned; Poor, if Heaven will, but Free ! Free from the tyrants of the hour,
The clans of wealth, the clans of power,
The coarse, cold scorners of their God ; Free from the taint of sin, The leprosy that feeds within,
And free, in mercy, from the bigot's rod.
XXVII.
'The sceptre's might, the crosier's pride, Ye do not fear ;
No conquest blade, in life-blood dyed, Drops terror here - Let there not lurk a subtler snare, For wisdom's footsteps to beware ; The shackle and the stake, Our Fathers fled ; Ne'er may their children wake A fouler wrath, a deeper dread ; Ne'er may the craft that fears the flesh to bind, Lock its hard fetters on the mind; Quenched be the fiercer flame That kindles with a name :
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The pilgrim's faith, the pilgrim's zeal, Let more than pilgrim kindness seal ; Be purity of life the test, Leave to the heart, to Heaven, the rest.
XXVIII.
So, when our children turn the page, To ask what triumphs marked our age, What we achieved to challenge praise, Through the long line of future days, This let them read, and hence instruction draw : " Here were the Many blessed,
" Here found the virtues rest,
" Faith linked with love and liberty with law; " Here industry to comfort led,
" Her book of light here learning spread ; " Here the warm heart of youth
" Was wooed to temperance and to truth ; " Here hoary age was found,
" By wisdom and by reverence erowned. " No great, but guilty fame
" Here kindled pride, that should have kindled shame ;
" THESE chose the better, happier part,
" That poured its sunlight o'er the heart ;
" That crowned their homes with peace and health,
" And weighed Heaven's smile beyond earth's wealth ;
" Far from the thorny paths of strife " They stood, a living lesson to their race, " Rich in the charities of life, " Man in his strength, and Woman in her grace ;
" In purity and love THEIR pilgrim road they trod,
" And when they served their neighbor felt they served their God."
XXIX.
This may not wake the poet's verse, This souls of fire may ne'er rehearse In crowd delighting voice ; Yet o'er the record shall the patriot bend, His quiet praise the moralist shall lend, And all the good rejoice.
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XXX.
This be our story then, in that far day, When others come their kindred debt to pay : In that far day ? - O what shall be, In this dominion of the free, When we and ours have rendered up our trust, And men unborn shall tread above our dust ? O what shall be ? - He, He alone, The dread response can make, Who sitteth on the only throne, That time shall never shake ; Before whose all-beholding eyes Ages sweep on, and empires sink and rise. Then let the song to Him begun, To Him in reverence end : Look down in love, Eternal One, And 'Thy good cause defend ;
Here, late and long, put forth thy hand, To guard and guide the Pilgrim's land.
APPENDIX.
(A. Page 43.)
THE MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MAY, 1822.
Gentlemen of the City Council : -
THE experience of nearly two centuries has borne ample testimony to the wisdom of those institutions which our ancestors established for the manage- ment of their municipal concerns. Most of the towns in this Commonwealth may, probably, continue to enjoy the benefit of those salutary regulations for an unlimited series of years. But the great increase of population in the town of Boston has made it necessary for the Legislature frequently to enact statutes of local application, to enable the inhabitants successfully to conduct their affairs; and at the last session, with a promptness which clains our gratitude, on the application of the town, they granted the charter which invests it with the powers and immunities of a city. Those who have attended to the inconveniences under which we have labored, will not attribute this innovation to an eager thirst for novelty, or restless desire of innovation. The most intel- ligent and experienced of our citizens have for a long period meditated a change, and exerted their influence to effect it. Difference of opinion must be expected, and mutual concessions made, in all cases where the interests of a large commu- nity is to be accommodated. The precise form in which the charter is to be presented, may not be acceptable to all; but its provisions have met with the approbation of a large majority, and it will receive the support of every good citizen.
Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Board of Selectmen : -
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The members of the City Council acknowledge their obligations to you, for the attention and care which you have bestowed in all the arrangements for their accommodation. They tender their thanks for the friendly and respectful senti- ments expressed in the address which accompanied the delivery of the ancient act of incorporation of the town, and the recent charter of the city.
During the short period which has elapsed since I was elected to the office, the duties of which I have now solemnly undertaken to discharge to the best of my ability, I have devoted such portion of my time as I could command to exa- mine the records of your proceedings, with the able assistance which your Chair-
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man most readily afforded me; and they furnish full evidence of the ability, diligence, and integrity of those who have been justly denominated the Fathers of the town.
Gentlemen, you will now be relieved from labors, the weight of which can only be duly estimated by those excellent citizens who have preceded you in office. You retire with the consciousness of important duties faithfully and honorably discharged. Our best wishes attend yon, whether engaged in public employments or in private pursuits. May you be useful and prosperous, and long continue your exertions to advance the interest and honor of our city.
Those who encourage hopes that can never be realized, and those who indulge unreasonable apprehensions because this instrument is not framed agreeably to their wishes, will be benefited by reflecting, how much more our social happiness depends upon other causes than the provisions of a charter. Purity of manners, general diffusion of knowledge, and strict attention to the education of the young, above all a firm, practical belief of that Divine revelation which has affixed the penalty of unceasing anguish to vice, and promised to virtue rewards of inter- minable duration, will counteract the evils of any form of government. While the love of order, benevolent affections, and Christian piety distinguish, as they have done, the inhabitants of this city, they may enjoy the highest blessings under a charter with so few imperfections as that which the wisdom of our Legislature has sanctioned.
To enter upon the acuinistration of this government by the invitation of our fellow-citizens, we are this day assembled. When I look around and observe gentlemen of the highest standing and most active employments, devoting their talents and experience to assist in the commencement of this arduous business, in common with my fellow-citizens, I appreciate most highly their elevated and patriotic motives. I well know, Gentlemen, the great sacrifice of time, of care, and of emolument, which you make in assuming this burden. It shall be my constant study to lighten it by every means in my power. In my official inter- course, I shall not enenmber you with unnecessary forms, or encroach on your time with prolix dissertations. . In all the communications which the charter requires me to make, conciseness aud brevity will be carefully studied. I will detain you no longer from the discharge of the important duties which now devolve upon you, than to invite you to unite in beseeching the Father of Light, without whose blessing all exertion is fruitless, and whose grace alone can give efficacy to the conneils of human wisdom, to enlighten and guide our delibera- tions with the influence of his Holy Spirit, and then we cannot fail to promote the best interests of our fellow-citizens.
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APPENDIX.
(B. Page 59.)
THE MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MAY, 1823.
Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen, and Gentlemen of the Common Council : -
IN accepting the office, to which the suffrages of my fellow-citizens have called me, I have not concealed from myself the labors and responsibilities of the station. Comparing my own powers with the nature and exigencies of the pre- sent relations of the city, I should have shrunk instinctively from the task, did I not derive, from the intelligence and virtues of my fellow-citizens, a confidence which no qualifications of my own are capable of inspiring.
In entering upon the duties of this office, and after examining and considering the records of the proceedings of the city authorities the past year, it is impos- sible for me to refrain from expressing the sense I entertain of the services of that high and honorable individual who filled the Chair of this city, as well as of the wise, prudent, and faithful citizens, who composed, during that period, the City Council. Their labors have been, indeed, in a measure, unobtrusive ; but they have been various, useful, and well considered. They have laid the found- ations of the prosperity of our city deep, and on right principles; and, whatever success may attend those who come after them, they will be largely indebted for it to the wisdom and fidelity of their predecessors. A task was committed to the first administration to perform, in no common degree ardnous and delicate. The change from a town to a city had not been effected without a considerable oppo- sition. On that subject many fears existed, which it was difficult to allay ; many jealousies, hard to overcome. In the outset of a new form of goverment, among varionsly affected passions aml interests, and among indistinct expecta- tions impossible to realize, it was apparently wise to shape the course of the first administration, rather by the spirit of the long-experienced constitution of the town, than by that of the unsettled charter of the city. It was natural for pru- ilent men, first intrusted with city authorities, to apprehend that measures par- taking of the mild, domestic character of our ancient institutions, might be as useful, and would be likely to be more acceptable, than those which should develop the entire powers of the new government. It is yet to be proved, whether, in these measures, our predecessors were not right. In all times the inhabitants of this metropolis have been distinguished, preeminently, for a free, elastic republican spirit. Heaven grant, that they forever may be thus distin- guished ! It is yet to be decided, whether such a spirit can, for the sake of the peace, order, health, and convenience of a great and rapidly-increasing popula- tion, endure withont distrust and discontent, the application of necessary city powers to all the exigencies which arise in such a community.
In executing the trust which my fellow-citizens have confided to me, I shall yield entirely to the influences, and be guided exclusively by the principles of the city charter ; striving to give prudent efficiency to all its powers; endeavor- ing to perform all its duties, in forms and modes at once the most useful and most acceptable to my fellow-citizens. If at any time, however, through any intrinsic incompatibility, it is impracticable to unite both these objects, I shall, in
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such case, follow duty ; and leave the event to the decision of a just, and wise, and generous people. In every exigeney, it will be my endeavor to imbibe and to exhibit, in purpose and act, the spirit of the city charter.
What that spirit is, so far as relates to the office of Mayor; what duties it enjoins ; and by what principles those duties will, in the course of the ensuing administration, be attempted to be performed, it is suitable to the occasion, and I shall now, very briefly, explain.
The spirit of the city charter, so far as relates to the office of Mayor, is charac- terized by the powers and duties it devolves upon that officer.
By him, " the laws of the city are to be executed ; the conduct of all subordi- nate officers inspected; all negligence, carelessness, and positive violations of duty prosecuted and punished." In addition to this, he is enjoined to " collect and communicate all information, and recommend all such measures as may tend to improve the city finances, police, health, security, cleanliness, comfort, and ornament."
The spirit of the city charter in this relation may also be collected, by consi- dering these powers and duties in connection with the preceding form of govern- ment. One great defect in the ancient organization of town government was, the division of the executive power among many ; the consequent little respon- sibility, and the facility with which that little was shifted from one department, board, or individual, to another ; so as to leave the inhabitants, in a great mea- sure, at a loss whom to blame for the deficiency in the nature or execution of the provisions for their safety and police. The duty, also, of general superintend- ence over all the boards and public institutions, being specifically vested no- where, no individual member of either of them could take upon himself that office, without being obnoxious to the charge of a busy, meddlesome disposition. The consequence was, that the great duty of considering all the public institu- tions, in their relations to one another and to the public service, was either necessarily neglected, or, if performed at all, could only be executed occasion- ally, and in a very general manner.
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