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 40
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community. It will be your, and my, endeavor to maintain and increase this happy mutual understanding and respect. But difficult questions concerning duties, made complex and uncertain by the interfering passions, interests, and prejudices existing in all great combinations of men, must necessarily occur. On occasions of this character, those will be most sure to find the correct rule of truth and duty, who seek it with a sense of strict subordination to those moral and religious sanctions, under which the wisdom of our fathers laid the found- ations of the prosperity of this people.
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THE MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, JANUARY, 1827.
Gentlemen of the City Council : --
Ir is proper, on occasions of this kind, to survey the general relations of our city, and, from the measures of preceding City Councils and their results, to gain light and strength for future duties.
The condition of every city must be estimated from general circumstances, and particular facts. Among the former are the state of its population, whether increasing, or diminishing; the state of its improvements, whether progressive, or stationary ; above all, the state of public opinion concerning the conduct of its affairs. Among the latter, are the condition of its finances, with reference to debt and resources ; and the condition of its police, with reference to order, har- mony, and morals. The advance of our city, in population and improvements, requires no illustration. In respect of both, it has been as rapid as 'there was any just reason to expect; perhaps, to desire. The satisfaction of our fellow- citizens with the general conduct of their affairs, has been indicated by recent events ; the language of which cannot be mistaken, and which is at once conso- latory and encouraging.
The state of the finances of our city is not less a subject of congratulation. Their condition has been, of late, very fully developed by reports of Committees of both branches of the City Council. Nothing more will be necessary, therefore, on this occasion, than to present some general views on the subject.
The character of every financial condition depends upon comparison of debt with resources. The mere fact of the existence or non-existence of a city debt, is in itself neither a matter of praise or blame. The right to create such debt is a power granted by the city charter to the City Council. Powers, granted to public bodies, are like talents, bestowed on individuals. Both are respectively responsible for the neglect, or exercise, of them. To neglect to use the power to create a debt, or any other power, on proper occasions, and for the purposes for which it was granted, is as truly an abuse, as it is to use either on improper occasions, and for purposes for which it was not granted.
Hlas a debt been created, by public agents, having authority to that effect ? Their merit, or demerit; in this respect, depends upon the fact of its being created
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for proper objects, or on a just necessity. If the objects be of a nature, for which it is proper to create a debt, then merit, or demerit, depends upon the importance of the objects attained, compared with the amount of the debt created. If, by creating a debt for such objects, resources adequate to its ulti- mate discharge be also created, there is no case, in which the power to create a debt can be more unexceptionably exercised ; nor can there be any, more indicative of the wisdom and financial skill of public agents ; except it be, when the resources, thus created, shall be adequate, not only to the ultimate discharge of such debt, but also to add a considerable surplus to the public treasury.
The present city debt may be stated to be, in round numbers, one million of dollars. Of which, one hundred thousand was incurred under the town govern- ment, and nine hundred thousand under the city. Of this last amount, there was incurred, for objects of general improvement, $234,000
For the purchase of land west of Charles Street, .
58,000
For the extension of Faneuil Hall Market, 608,000
Constituting the debt stated above as incurred by the city govern- ment, of
$900,000
With respect to the above portion of the increased debt, which has been applied to purposes of general improvement, it would, perhaps, be sufficient to remark, that the circumstances of the time, and the nature of the objects, ren- dered the expenditures of this class peculiarly expedient ; that the concurrence of our fellow-citizens in the measures adopted on this subject by the City Coun- cil, has been indicated by unequivocal tokens ; and those measures have, subse- quently, been sanctioned by distinet marks of general approbation. It cannot, however, but be satisfactory to know the amount of the expenditures for these objeets, which has been already paid ont of the funds acerning within the years in which they were authorized, and the comparative proportion which has been cast, in the form of debt, on future years.
During the four last years, from 1823 to 1826, inclusive, there has been expended
For schoolhonses and land, $80,000
" engines, engine-houses, land, and all expenses of the Fire Department, 34,000
common sewers, beyond what they have as yet produced, 15,000
" ward-rooms and buildings at Deer Island, 5,000
widening streets, (exclusive of the operations of the Committee for the extension of Faneuil Hall Market,) 106,698 .
" paving and repair of streets, 119,900
buildings, and improvements connected with the House of In- dustry, and Correction, 90,451
reservoirs, .
9,000
Making a gross aggregate of . $160,049
In the above enumeration, no notice has been taken of expenditures, on account of general instruction of schools, health, cleanliness of streets, general police, or support of the poor, either by the Overseers, or the Directors of the House of Industry. The objects selected are those of a permanent character
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and prospective usefulness, and which, from their nature, have a direct influence on the convenience and hopes of future times. When, for such objects, four hundred and sixty thousand dollars have been expended in a course of four years, of which two hundred and thirty thousand have been paid out of funds accruing within those four years, it seems altogether'unexceptionable, that a like amount of two hundred and thirty thousand dollars should be distributed, for reimburse- ment, on the years which are to come.
The remaining objects, for which this increased debt has been incurred, are the lands at the bottom of the Common, west of Charles Street, and the exten- sion of Faneuil Hall Market. In the report of the Committee on the last men- tioned subject, which was printed and distributed through the city by order of. the last City Council, it is, I apprehend, satisfactorily shown, that the fair esti- mated value of the property transferred to or vested in the city by that Commit- tee is, in point of amount, not far short of the whole debt of the city. If to this be added the fair estimated value of the lands west of Charles Street, no man can reasonably question that both descriptions of property are, of themselves, alone sufficient to discharge the whole debt of the city, and also to add no ineon- siderable, probably a large, surplus to the City Treasury. Both, as available resources, have been attained by the operations of former City Councils. Both have been chief causes of the greatness of the increase of the city debt.
To this it is no answer to say, that the property, both in the Market and in the land west of Charles Street, has very intimate relations to the ornament, comfort, and health of the city, and ought never to be sold. Grant such to be the fact ; . it only shows, that, while the marketable value of this property is demonstrably more than the whole city debt, its value to the city is still greater than its marketable vahe. Whereby the wisdom and fidelity of former City Councils is still more apparent ; being evidenced, not only by the excess of the marketable value of. this property beyond the city debt, but also by the great excess of its value to the city, considered as a property to be retained, over its value, considered as a property to be sold. It seems scarcely possible, that any public debt can be justified on stronger grounds, than can the whole which the city government has incurred. It has been for proper objects. It has been faithfully applied. It has created resources sufficient, if the City Council choose so to use them, to discharge forthwith not only the whole debt of which they have been the cause, but also the whole antecedently existing debt of the city. If the City Council do not choose so to use them, it is because, in their sound discre- tion, they believe them to be more valuable as a possession than as a resource. No better evidence can be given of financial skill and representative fidelity.
In relation to our police, it is not to be expected, that a city with a population equal to ours can exist, with fewer interruptions of its peace, or violations of its municipal rules. Complaints, under every branch of police, have dinfinished in a very extraordinary degree during the past year. Those parts of the city most characterized by tendency to vice and disorder, have, by the vigilance of the public officers, been kept in a state of comparative order, satisfactory to the good citizens in their vicinity.
Looking forward to the duties of the coming year, it is a subject of congratu- lation, that the foresight and enterprise of past years have limited to compara- tively a narrow sphere the necessity of future expenditures. Those great,
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obvious, and expensive improvements, paving the Neck, reducing Pemberton's Hill, widening Court Street, the Roebuck Passage, and Merchants' Row; above all those, relieving the embarrassments resulting from the narrowness of the great central Market of the city, are finished. The City Councils of former years have taken the responsibility of exercising the powers intrusted to them, with a fearless and independent spirit ; exhibiting a confidence in the virtue and intelligence of their fellow-citizens, which events have shown not to have been misplaced.
I do not perceive that the City Council of the present year will be called, by the public interest, to take the lead in any new and expensive project. Parti- cular local improvements will be suggested, from time to time, by those interested in their success, and will receive from the City Council that attention they may respectively merit. Circumstances indicate, that our chief duty will be to finish what we have begun ; to make productive the property we have acquired; to improve and correct existing establishments, rather than to devise new ones ; above all, to arrange our resources on the principle of a distinct and permanent provision for the gradual extinction of the existing city debt. Circumstances seem favorable to such a system. At present, the proceeds of the city lands, when sold, with the addition of fifteen thousand dollars to be applied annually to the redemption of the capital, and another sum of fifteen thousand dollars to be applied annually to the payment of the interest of the city debt, constitute the general appropriations for those objects. The specific appropriation for the same objects, of the whole property and incomes transferred to the city by the Com- mittee for the extension of Faneuil Hall Market is, in my judgment, a measure of great propriety and expedieney ; and I recommend it. Upon general prin- ciples, it is proper, not to consider property obtained by debt as property ; that is, as a subject of complete ownership, and applicable to general objects of expenditure, until the debt for which it was incurred is paid. It is expedient, becanse such a measure would, I know, give great satisfaction to many of our very judicions fellow-citizens.
Should a measure such as I suggest be adopted, it would be right, perhaps, to withdraw one of the sinns of fifteen thousand dollars at present appropriated for the debt, by way of offset for the old market revenues. The remaining fifteen thousand dollars, with the present Faneuil Hall Market and wharf revenues, will constitute an annual amount of fifty-eight thousand dollars, applicable to the discharge of the principal and interest of the debt; and, with the proceeds of the Neck lands and of the lands now to be sold, transferred to the city by the Faneuil Hall Market Committee, will make a sufficient provision for the city debt, and relieve the annual resources of the city from future burden on that account.
Should these funds be placed under the supervision of commissioners, com- posed of public officers, ex officio, appointed by the City Council, it would give a more permanent and efficient character to the system, without creating any new office or expense. Where funds are vested in a board, exclusively charged with these duties, it is found, by experience, to introduce order and distinctness into financial relations. Their general state is more easily comprehended by the community, and the productive efficiency of the funds is less likely to be dis- turbed or diverted, by general and extraneous financial exigencies.
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Among the objects to which I allude, under the heads of finishing what we have begun, and of making prodnetive the property we have acquired, are the making sale of the lands above-mentioned, invested in the city by the Committee for the extension of Faneuil Hall Market, and which, to whatever objects the proceeds are appropriated, ought not long to be delayed ; and the putting to use parts of Faneuil Hall, formerly occupied as a market.
In this connection, I am irresistibly impelled to express opinions, which I would willingly avoid, inasmuch as I have reason to fear they may be at variance with those of men, whose judgments I respect, and cross interests or views, with which I have certainly no wish to interfere. But the city charter, by making it the duty of the Mayor, from time to time, to recommend " all such measures as may tend to improve the finances, the police, health, security, cleanliness, com- fort, and ornament of the city," intended that, in fulfilling this duty, he should follow the deliberate convictions of his own judgment. To him who holds this office, and who acts in relation to it upon right principles, it ought to be of no consequence whatever, so far as respects himself, whether any particular measure he recommends be or be not adopted. But, it will always be of infinite moment to his sense of well-performed duty, that his deliberate views of the interests of the city should be known ; and, fearlessly of all personal consequences, made manifest.
Under these sanctions, I recommend that the subject of the nses, to which the vacated portions of Faneuil Hall and of the space on its western end shall be applied, should be considered in connection with the sale and uses, proposed to be made of the land, lying in the rear of this (the county) court-house, and between it and Court Street.
This last-mentioned traet of land is a most valuable property. It cannot, however, be made to produce its market worth, without previously providing for the accommodation of the courts, which occupy the building at present in front of that land.
This subject has hitherto been considered as a distinct concern ; and, as such, it has been proposed to erect another court-house on that part of the land which lies most distant from Court Street, at an estimated expense of certainly not less than thirty thousand dollars, exelsive of the value of the land to be ocenpied by the building, which, at the least fair estimate, cannot also be worth less than ten thousand dollars.
The vacated parts of Faneuil Hall have also been considered as a distinet subject ; and as such it has been proposed, that they should be fitted up for shops and stores also, at a very considerable expense.
Should these plans be carried into effect, the consequence will be, that the city will possess two expensive court-houses, in the vicinity of each other; and the city authorities will be left as occupants of an inconvenient and insufficient portion of one of them, under ciremustances, with which it is impossible they can be for many years content. If the present opportunity be lost, of making a simple and economical arrangement, both of the publie offices and of the courts, such as the nature and relations of this property seem unequivocally to indicate, I cannot question, that, before a very few years elapse, the City Comeil will find themselves compelled to creet, at a great expense, a City Hall; which expense, by taking advantage of the present occasion, may be saved.
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Nothing can be more inconvenient, for facilitating business, than the location of our public offices. The Mayor and Aldermen, City Clerk, Anditor, and Officer of Police, are in one building. The Assistant City Clerk in another. The Treasurer, in a third. The Assessors, Overseers of the Poor, and Directors of the House of Industry, in a fourth. Neither building convenient as it respects the other. Now the interest of the city plainly dictates, that the intercourse between these different departments of public service should be made easy by every possible local aceonunodation. By concentrating them under one roof, they would always be in a position mutually to derive and communicate inform- ation ; and occasionally to aid each other, in case of pressure of public business in either department ; thereby greatly increasing power, knowledge, and facility in conducting it.
Besides, not one of our publie city offices is possessed of a fire-proof place of deposit. All the records of the city are exposed without any except the most common security, against the most destructive of all elements.
These circumstances strongly impress my mind with the duty of recommend- ing that all these important subjects should be considered in one general, con- nected view.
With respect to the location of the City Council and city offices, I conceive there can be no place more suitable than Fanenil Hall. ' Since the removal of the Market and the widening of Merchants' Row and the Roebuck Passage, the objection on account of noise in the vicinity of that building is greatly obviated ; and will be more, if not wholly, as soon as by carrying into effect the proposed Marginal Street, the heavy city and country travel from Long Wharf and State Street to the northern parts of the city, shall be determined through that aveme. Besides, the meetings of the Board of Aldermen being chiefly, and those of the Common Conneil, with few exceptions, wholly in the evening, they would be but little exposed to interruption from that cause.
I say nothing, concerning the natural and prond associations inseparable from that ancient and far-famed temple of American liberty, because, should other considerations justify, it is impossible there can be, on this subject, more than one sentiment and feeling among citizens of Boston, and that deeply favorable to the connecting, by an intimate and perpetual nion, all future municipal labors and character, with a place, consecrated by the patriotic services of our chiefest statesmen, and endeared by recollections of talents and virtues, which have identified the name of this city with the carliest, the purest, and the most impe- rishable honors of our revolution.
In regard to economy, this consideration will favor the course I suggest. A building, capable of accommodating all the city offices, with suitable and separate rooms and fire-proofs, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commou Council, with their respective halls and committee-rooms, may, I have reason to believe, be erected, on the western end of Faneuil Hall, at probably a less expense, but certainly for a sum not materially greater, than the proposed new Court House ; and, at a com- paratively small expense, probably not more than the value of the land necessary to be occupied by the proposed new Court House, a room, as extensive in point of size as that at present occupied by the Supreme Judicial Comt, might be prepared in this building, (the county Comt House,) for the courts of the United States; and the present room, occupied by the Common Council, might be
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reserved for the Common Pleas. At any rate, when it is considered, that this is the only mode in which the public offices can be concentrated under one roof, except at the expense of a new City Hall, the evidence in favor of its economy is decisive. By a plau of this kind, the higher courts of the State, and those of the United States, will be located in one building; the city authorities, with the public offices, in another; and the whole land in the rear of this (the county) Court House, and between it and Court Street will be left, without incumbrance or diminution, at the disposal of the City Council.
I have been thus particular in detailing my views on this subjeet, because I deem the result of the deliberations of the City Council upon it, to be very important, in its character and consequences. Having conscientiously discharged my own duty, I cheerfully leave the subject to the City Council, with a certainty that they will do theirs; and give as much weight to these suggestions as their nature deserves, and no more. Whether they coincide or differ with me in opinion, I shall equally respect and support their decision.
It is known to the City Council, that great complaints have lately existed, concerning the state of the voting lists. In relation to the duty of preparing those lists, and of responsibility for their correctness, the general opinion was understood to be, that the provisions of the city charter had made no change, but that, as under the town government, that duty and responsibility rested on the Assessors. The Mayor aud Aldermen have, accordingly, heretofore acted under that impression; and considered their duty to be only that of revising and amending errors which might occur in the voting lists furnished by the Assessors.
Antecedent to the last election, in consequence of a communication from the Assessors, the tenor and precise bearing of the terms of the city charter on this subjeet, were brought under the distinct consideration of the Mayor and Alder- men. By that communication it appeared that, in the opinion of the Assessors, " the duty of making out the voting lists," was devolved by the city charter ou the Mayor and Aldermeu ; and that the duty of the " Assessors, Assistant Assessors, und other officers of the city," was to aid the Mayor and Aldermen in the per- formance of their duty, as they might direct.
Although this construction did not coincide with former practice, or pre- conceptions, the Board of Aldermen immediately adjourned to the Assessor' room, and proceeded, by a committee, to execute the duty, according to the literal construction given to the charter by the Assessors; and, calling in aid some of the Assistant Assessors and other officers of the city, in addition to the aid given by the Assessors themselves, they caused lists, additional to the printed lists, to be made out and transmitted to the wards; a course of proceeding which has, as far as has come to my knowledge, given general satisfaction, and obviated every difficulty which had been the source of complaint at former elections.
The view taken by the Assessors, of the city charter, is, as I understand, as follows. The responsibility, that correct lists are made out, rests upon the Mayor and Aldermen. As incident to this responsibility, it is incumbent on them to direct the time, manner, and form of making out the voting lists. By the pro- visions of the city charter, they have a right to.require the aid of the Assessors, which aid it is their duty to give. By this construction, it is not understood that the Assessors claim to be exempted from the actual labor of making out the voting lists, nor yet from the duty of comparing them with their books, and
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certifying their correctness ; but only that, so far as respects their fellow-citizens, the Mayor and Aldermen are responsible that it shall be done, and in proper time, form, and manner ; and that the Assessors are responsible to them and to the City Council, that whatever aid. they shall, on this subject, be required to give, shall be faithfully yielded.
Although I know, that there is not an universal assent to this construction of the city charter, yet, as above expressed and explained, I deem it my duty not to conceal my own concurrence with it. It seems to me not only just, as a matter of construction, but that such ought to be the provisions of the city charter, is wise and expedient, as a matter of principle. It is vital to the rights of election, that the voting lists should be correct. The duty of seeing, that so essential an interest is seenred, should be intrusted only with the highest executive anthor- ities of the city; and those who are responsible directly to their fellow-citizens, through the process of election.
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