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 4
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MUNICIPAL IHISTORY.
quence, appointed, composed of persons very equally selected from the two political parties, which, at that time, divided the town and commonwealth, with instructions to consider and report any alteration in the town government they deemed expe- dient.
They had frequent meetings and long deliberations, and in March reported to the inhabitants a system 1 of municipal govern- ment, in which they had carefully endeavored to combine a strict regard to the efficiency of the new organization of authority, with as little offence as possible to the prejudices and habits of the inhabitants. Notwithstanding this endeavor, and, although the composition of the committee had effectually neutralized all political elements, the inherent attachment of the inhabitants to the form of town government was not diminished. A warm, and somewhat tumultuous debate ensued, resulting in a decided negative of the whole report.
No farther attempt to change the town organization occurred until 1815, when Charles Bulfinch, who had been chairman of the board of selectmen and superintendent of police ever since the year 1800, and two other efficient members of that board, were not reelected. The circumstance was a subject of very general surprise and regret. Every elected member of the board of select- men immediately resigned, and, on a second trial, Mr. Bulfinch 2
Webster, Thomas Lewis, Jr., Amasa Stetson, Sammuel Sturges, Thomas Edwards, Nathan Webb, Isaiah Doane, Joseph Hall, William Spooner, James Prince, William Smith, Edward Gray, Harrison G. Otis, Rufu- Green Amory, James Sullivan, George Blake, John Davis, Charles Jarvis, William Brown, and Charles Paine.
1 The following outline will give a sufficient general idea of this system: -
A town council to be constituted of the seleetmen, chosen by the citizens in general meeting, and of two delegates from each ward, chosen in ward meetings. By this town council an intendant and all other town officers were to be chosen ; except the town elerk, the overseers of the poor, board of health, firewards, school committee, and assessors, all of whom were to be chosen by the inhabit- ants in town meeting ; the intendant to have the appointment of a police officer, and to be ex officio the presiding officer of the board of selectmen, and with them to have the superintendence of the police and execution of the laws.
2 Few men deserve to be held by the citizens of Boston in more grateful remembrance than Charles Bulfinch. After being gradnated at Harvard, his father, a physician of eminence and fortune, permitted him to travel in Europe and cultivate his taste for the fine arts. On his return, he turned his attention to the improvement of his native town, and induced other citizens of wealth and enterprise to unite with him in the purchase of a portion of waste and marsh land, in forming it into streets, and erecting a range of buildings, now known as Franklin Place. The cenotaph of Franklin and the open space around it were given by him and his associates to the public. This undertaking, which was too
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
and the other members of the board of the preceding year were reinstated by decided majorities.
'These occurrences again directed public attention to the dis- advantages of town government, and, on the petition of a large number of the inhabitants, a committee formed of two indi- viduals, elected in each ward, was authorized to consider the expediency of a change of the government.
In October, 1815, this committee 1 presented a bill, accompa- nied by an explanatory report, which were printed for general distribution, and a town meeting was called on the thirteenth of November ensuing, to decide upon its acceptance. The system now proposed, was the nearest approximation to a city form of government any previous committee of the town had ventured to attempt,2 and the result came nearest to success, it being rejected only by a majority of thirty-one ; nine hundred and fifty- one being in the negative, and nine hundred and twenty in the affirmative.
expensive for the period, seriously affected his fortunes, and the art he had stu- «tied for amusement became his profession. As the principal architect of the town of Boston and its vicinity, the state house and many other public build- ings were erected on his plans. During the many years he presided over the towa government, he improved its finances, executed the laws with firmness, and was distinguished for gentleness and urbanity of manners, integrity and purity of character. Under his superintendence, Fanenil Hall was enlarged to double Wie ancient arva, and the streets of the town greatly improved. In 1818, he was Aptsdated by President Monroe architect of the Capitol at the city of Washing-
" The members were, --- John Phillips, John T. Apthorp, Ebenezer T. An- Ana, Francia Well, John Mackay, Lynde Walter, Jonathan Whitney, Wil- Lius Homer, Jacob Rhoades, Thomas Badger, J. C. Rainsford, John Cotton, Brottand Welater, A. Crocker, William Mackay, John Wood, Joseph Howe, Jawes Iobiosom, Benjamin Smith, Josiah Quincy, George Blake, Benjamin Wat
* The following outline will give a sufficient general idea of this plan : --
The nylo or title fot the municipal organization was proposed to be, -- ". The Intendant and Municipality of the Town and City of Boston." The municipal- ity to consist of the selectmen chosen by all the citizens in town meeting, and of two delegates from each wand, chosen by the inhabitants of the ward. This municipality to have power to elect annually all the officers now chosen by the town, except selectmen, overseers of the poor, school committee, town clerk, fire- wands, board of health, and amessory, who were to continue to be chosen by the inhabitants at large in town meeting. The " intendant" was to be chosen annu- ally by the selectmen and delegates, together with the overseers of the poor and board of health. The powers to be exercised, according to this project, by the intendant and the other organic bodies it constituted, were marked out with suffi- cient general precision ; and as all the then existing boards were continued, and to two of them a voice was given, in conjunction with the municipality, in the election of the intendant, it was hoped that a sufficient deference had been paid to popular habit and feelings, to insure its adoption.
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
In 1821, the impracticability of conducting the municipal interests of the place, under the form of town government, be- came apparent to the inhabitants. With a population upwards of forty thousand, and with seven thousand qualified voters, it was evidently impossible calmly to deliberate and act. When a town meeting was held on any exciting subject in Faneuil Hall, those only who obtained places near the moderator could even hear the discussion. A few busy or interested individuals easily obtained the management of the most important affairs, in an assembly in which the greater number could have neither voice or hearing.
When the subject was not generally exciting, town meetings were usually composed of the selectmen, the town officers, and thirty or forty inhabitants. Those who thus came were, for the most part, drawn to it from some official duty or private interest, which, when performed or attained, they generally troubled them- selves but little, or not at all, about the other business of the meeting. In assemblies thus composed, by-laws were passed; taxes, to the amount of one hundred or one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, voted, on statements often general in their nature, and on reports, as it respects the majority of voters pre- sent, taken upon trust, and which no one had carefully considered except perhaps the chairman.
In the constitution of the town government there had resulted in the course of time, from exigency or necessity, a complexity, little adapted to produce harmony in action, and an irresponsibi- lity irreconcilable with a wise and efficient conduct of its affairs. On the agents of the town there was no direct check or control; no pledge for fidelity, but their own honor and sense of charac- ter. The prosperity of the town of Boston, under such a form of government; the few defalcations which had occurred; the frequent, and often for years uninterrupted, reelection of the same members to the officiating boards, are conclusive evidences of the prevailing high state of morals and intelligence among the inhabitants.
.
Besides the principal boards of selectmen, the overseers of the poor, and that of health, there were the board of firewards, of assessors, and of the committee of the schools. The executive power was, in effect, divided among the three first above-namned. Each of these claimed independence of the other; cach pos-
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
sessed a qualified control in respect of expenditures; while, at the same time, their respective authorities were often obscurely separated, and sometimes identical. It is evident that, among independent boards thus constituted, petty jealousies, rivalry, and collisions must occasionally take place ; which accordingly happened.
The management of the finances of the town presented a curious and somewhat anomalous spectacle. The three boards, of selectmen, overseers of the poor, and board of health, being the exclusive expending agents of the town, were also consti- tuted a committee of finance. They chose annually, in conven- tion, the treasurer and collector of the town, settled his accounts, and every year, in the month of March, presented to the town a general statement of the expenditure of each board; and, after deducting the effective incomes, an estimate of the amount of tax necessary to be raised, to meet the anticipated expendi- tures of all the boards for the ensuing year. The tax thus proposed was often voted at a' town meeting, in which the `members of those boards themselves constituted a majority of the inhabitants present. When raised and collected, the pro- ceeds of the tax were drawn for by each of these boards, according to their respective exigencies, of which each board was the sole judge for itself. Thus, while these boards were exclusively the expending power, they virtually exercised the whole power of taxation. For the annual town tax was almost ever, without exception, regulated by their estimates ; and cach board having, individually, or in conjunction with the other boards, the power of borrowing money and of making contracts, independent of any previous vote of the town, both the power of forming and declaring the requisite annual amount of tax was, in fact, in their hands. A conviction of the want of safety and of responsibility in a machine thus complicated and loosely combined, became at length so general, that the inherited and inveterate antipathy to a city organization began perceptibly to diminish. About this time, also, one of the most common and formal objections to a city organization was removed. The constitution of Massa- chusetts, which was passed in 1780, contained no express author- ity to establish a city organization; and, in every attempt to change that of the town, it never failed to be zealously con-
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
tended, that the legislature of the commonwealth possessed no such power. But by the amendments to the constitution, made by the convention of 1820, and adopted by the people, this power was expressly recognized. The question, therefore, now stood on its own merits, and independent of constitutional objections. The debates, also, which occurred in this convention had a tend- ency to open the eyes of the inhabitants to their own interests, and to allay some of the long-cherished prejudices against a city organization.
'The first step to the measures which finally led to this great change in the form of town government was rather incidental than preconcerted, and was the result of circumstances, which might be anticipated from the complicated and ill-arranged organization of the town system.
Early in the commencement of the civil year, 1821, votes had passed in town meeting, for miting the office of county and town treasurer in one person. The three boards constituting the committee of finance had disregarded those votes, and different persons were chosen to these offices.
This proceeding was highly disapproved by the inhabitants. Votes were passed in town meeting censuring the committee of finance; and a committee was chosen to take measures for car- rying into effect their views relative to the union of those offices in one person.
About the same time, great discontent arose in respect to the county expenditures ; and a committee was chosen to devise measures that the town might become a county by itself. Very full reports were made by both these committees, and a very general desire became apparent, that a more economical and practical management of the town concerns should be effected. Accordingly, on the twenty-second of October, a committee of thirteen inhabitants 1 was selected, to whom the two former reports were referred, with instructions to report to the town "a complete system relating to the administration of the town and county, which shall remedy the present evils."
1 The members of this committee were, - John Phillips, William Sullivan, Charles Jackson, Josiah Quincy, William Prescott, William Tudor, George Blake, Henry Orne, Daniel Webster, Isaac Winslow, Lemuel Shaw, Stephen Codman, Joseph Tilden.
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
On the tenth of December, 1821, this committee made their report; 1 but did not venture to go farther than to recommend some improvements in the government of the town; and directed their principal endeavors to the establishing of a police. court, consisting of three justices paid by salaries, instead of a court of sessions, paid by fees ; and to effect the transfer of the transac- tion of the financial and other business of the town from a gene- ral meeting of the inhabitants to a town council. The com- mittee did not deem the inhabitants to be prepared to change the form of the executive of the town; they, therefore, left it in the hands of the selectmen, with such powers as the town coun- cil might from time to time confer on them.
After considerable debate, Benjamin Russell, an inhabit- ant at that period distinguished for his great activity and influ- ence on all occasions of political excitement, popular with the party predominating at that time in the politics of the town, and a leader among the mechanics, openly declared that the commit- tee " had not gone far enough in its alterations, and, in his opi- nion, a great change had been effected in the minds of the inha- bitants on the subject of city government," and concluded his remarks, by moving "that the report should be recommitted to the same committee, with the addition of one person from each ward of the town, with instructions to report a system for the goverit- ment of the town, with such powers, privileges, and immunities as are contemplated by the amendment of the constitution of the commonwealth, authorizing the General Court to constitute a city government." This motion was accordingly adopted, and twelve persons chosen and added to the former committee.2
On the thirty-first of December, 1821, this committee of twenty-
1 Of this system the following is a brief outline : -
The town government to be thus altered, -a body of assistants, to be chosen annually in the wards, in a ratio of one for each nine hundred inhabitants, which, according to the then last census, would constitute the number of forty- one. These assistants, with the selectmen, were to form a town council, and be charged with specified powers, and subject to specified restrictions.
The town to form a county by itself'; and the treasurer of the town to be that of the county. The Court of Sessions to be abolished, and its duties transferred to other bodies.
A police court to be established, to have cognizance of all civil and criminal causes cognizable by justices of the peace.
2 This addition to the committee was constituted of George Darracott, Redford Webster, Thomas Badger, James Davis, Henry Farnham, Michael Roulstone, John Cotton, Lewis G. Pray, Benjamin Russell, William Sturgis, Daniel Messin- ger, and Gerry Fairbanks.
-
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
five reported a system of municipal government conformably to their instructions, recommending indeed a change of the name of " town " for that of " city," but not venturing to introduce the names usual in city organizations, lest the ancient jealousy, which now seemed to slumber, should be awakened. In their stead, the committee proposed that the exceutive should be called " Intendant," the executive board, consisting of seven persons, " Selectmen," and the more numerous branch " a Board of Assist- ants ; " all of whom, in their aggregate capacity, should be called " the Common Council." The intendant to be elected by the selectmen ; the selectmen by general ticket ; the assistants, being forty-eight in number, four to be chosen for each ward ; the over- seers of the poor, firewards, and school committee, by the intend- ant, selectmen, and assistants ; the state and United States offi- cers by general ticket.
After a debate of three days, in which the report was amended, by denominating the executive board " Mayor and Aldermen," the latter to consist of eight persons, the name of the " Board of Assistants " being also changed into that of the " Common Coun- cil," and, in their aggregate capacity, " the City Council," the mayor, aldermen, overseers of the poor, firewards, state, and Uni- ted States officers to be chosen by the citizens at large, voting in wards, the report was so far accepted as to be submitted to the inhabitants for their acceptance. On the points connected with these amendments, the debate in town meeting chiefly turned ; but little opposition was made, or modifications proposed, to those features of the plan, which related to the distribution and limitations of powers among the several branches of the govern- ment, or to the organization of the police court.
During the debate of the three days, considerable warmth was manifested, and some confusion occurred; but the report, as amended, was finally submitted to the inhabitants for their sanc- tion, in the form of five resolves, to be decided by ballot of yea and nay. Of which the tenor was as follows : -
1. That we approve of the alteration in the form of town government submitted by this report.
2. That the United States and commonwealth officers be chosen in ward meetings.
3. That the city council determine the number of representa- tives to the General Court.
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
4. That we approve that the town should be a county by itself, and that the town treasurer be county treasurer, that the court of sessions be abolished, and a police court substituted.
5. That the name of " Town of Boston " should be changed into that of " City of Boston."
On Monday, the seventh of January, 1822, the ballots of the inhabitants were taken on the above resolves, and all were passed in the affirmative as follows : -
Yeas.
Nays.
Majority. 799
1. 2805
2006
2. 2611
2195
416
3. 2690
2128
462
4. 4557
257
4300
5. 2727
2087
6-10
The assent of the inhabitants being thus expressed in favor of this great change, measures were immediately taken to obtain the sanction of the legislature of the commonwealth.
C
CHAPTER HIL.
TOWN GOVERNMENT.
1821 - 1822.
The Almshouse removed from Beacon Street to Leverett Street - Overseers of the Poor remonstrate on its Condition - Proceedings of the Legislature of Massachusetts on the Subject of Pauperism -- Erection of a House of Industry authorized by the Inhabitants of Boston - Noble Conduct of Samuel Brown - His Character - House of Industry erected - Act of Incorporation of the City obtained and accepted - John Phillips chosen Mayor.
THE defects and insufficiency of the Boston Almshouse became a subject of earnest complaint soon after Massachusetts attained the rank of an independent state. By a report of a committee of the town in the year 1790, it appears that it was destitute of a separate hospital or infirmary ; that persons of every age and character were lodged under the same roof ; the sick disturbed by the noise of the healthy ; and the aged and infirm endangered and annoyed by the diseased and profligate. All attempts to change the locality of the institution were unsuccessful until the year 1801, when an almshouse was erected in Leverett Street, and that in Beacon Street discontinued and the land sold.
The new building was of enlarged dimensions and accommo- dations, but its interior arrangements did not permit the separa- tion of age and misfortune from vice and vagrancy. In 1802, one year after the removal of the almshouse to Leverett Street, the importance of erecting another building, for a house of cor- rection, was forcibly urged on the town by a committee of the selectmen, of which Charles Bulfinch was chairman, accompa- nied by estimates of the probable cost. Its immediate erection
was, however, postponed, on account of the pecuniary exigencies of the town. No further proceedings occurred until 1812, when the Overseers of the Poor themselves memorialized the town on the inconveniences of the Leverett Street Almshouse, and stated that among. four hundred persons, then its inmates, nearly three hundred were aged, or invalids, or children ; fifty were sick in the hospital, and twenty insane ; that fifty were able to perform differ -
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
ent kinds of work, some of whom were subjects of the House of Correction ; and with much feeling and pathos urged upon the town the necessity of erecting a building for that purpose, in the yard of the Almshouse, and prayed for authority and an appro- priation for the object. The report was unanimously accepted by the town, but nothing was effected in consequence; and the condition of the poor in the Almshouse continued without ame- lioration.
In 1820, the state of pauperism attracted the attention of the legislature of Massachusetts ; and on the motion of one1 of the representatives of the town of Boston, a special committee was raised on the pauper laws, of which the mover was appointed chairman. 1822052
On the recommendation of this committee, the legislature passed a resolve, requesting the towns in Massachusetts to trans- mit to the secretary of state such information as their experience had suggested, on the best mode of supporting the poor. In January, 1821, the returns of the towns were referred to the same committee, who made a report containing abstracts of the most important statements in those returns, and of their conclu- sions on the subject, which were printed by order of the legisla- ture, and distributed throughout the Commonwealth.
In May following, the town of Boston, on the petition of Joseph May and others, raised a committee to consider the sub- ject of " panperism at large." Of this committee, the chairman of the legislative committee was also appointed chairman, and not having been present at the town meeting, he had no know- ledge of the petition, until he was apprised by the petitioners that the cause of his selection, as the chairman of the committee, was the coincidence of their views with the principles of his legislative report. That committee, therefore, in general, guided their proceedings by those principles, and referred to them in their reports to the town, which, being successively sanctioned by the votes of the inhabitants, became the basis of the institu- tion now called " the House of Industry," at South Boston.
The principles of that report to the legislature, being the results of the experience of both England and Massachusetts, were as follows : -
1 Josiah Quincy.
1
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
"1. That of all modes of providing for the poor, the most wasteful, the most expensive, and most injurious to their morals, and destructive of their industrious habits, is that of supply in their own families.
"2. That the most economical mode is that of almshouses, having the character of workhouses or houses of industry, in which work is provided for every degree of ability in the pauper, and thus the able poor made to provide, partially, at least, for their own support; and also the support, or at least the com- fort, of the impotent poor.
"3. That of all modes of employing the labor of the pauper, agriculture affords the best, the most healthy, and the most cer- tainly profitable ; the poor being thus enabled to raise always at least their own provisions.
"4. That the success of these establishments depends upon their being placed under the superintendence of a board of over- seers, constituted of the most substantial and intelligent inhabit- ants of the vicinity.
"5. That of all causes of pauperism, intemperance in the use of spirituous liquors is the most powerful and universal."
Coinciding in the above views, the committee of the town of Boston 1 held frequent meetings and discussions ; and examined particularly into the situation of the Boston Almshouse. Their views were corroborated and confirmed by a report made to them, at their request, by the Overseers of the Poor of the town, dated the twenty-ninth of March, 1821, which stated that only thirty- six rooms could be appropriated to lodging the inmates of the institution ; that these rooms ought not to have more than eight or ten persons each, but that some of these rooms have been, in some winters, crowded to nearly double that number for a short time ; that the overseers could not distinguish the cases of the deserving and undeserving by any certain rule, but that not more than one fourth part were absolutely of the former class ; and that the others might be graduated from temporary to absolute dissoluteness, intemperance, &c.
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