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 44
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APPENDIX.
The loss of this branch of liberty was submitted to with reluctance, and endured with great impatience. The deep yearning of our fathers' hearts after their ancient liberty is to be seen in every subsequent page of their political his- tory, and was one of the active, though hidden canses of our Revolution,
On the second great principle of colonial liberty, that taxation and represent- ation are inseparable, the American Revolution turned.
Now, the just estimate made by our fathers of the importance of that princi- ple, - the self-devotion with which they maintained it, the boldness with which they put in jeopardy life, liberty, property, reputation, whatever man holds dear in'hope or in possession to vindicate it, -are the great central points from which radiates their glory at the Revolution.
At a superficial view, we are inclined to wonder at the inflexible firmness of our fathers, in opposition to the stamp and tea taxes, and the other British impo- sitions at that period. The amount small ; comparatively little burdensome; for the most part affecting articles of luxury or of occasional use. We are tempted to exclaim, what grievous oppression in all this ? A single year of war would exceed in expense the loss in fifty years from such taxes. And when we look at the subject in point of principle, their condition would not have been a whit worse than innense classes of British subjects who pay taxes without having any voice in the choice of their rulers. Arguments and facts of this kind were urged on our fathers in every form of reason aud eloquence ; enforced by appeals to their hopes from the smiles of royal favor; by appeals to their fears from the terrors of royal power. But they stood as the mountain rock, which alike mocks the melting heat of the summer's suu, and the uprooting blasts of the winter's storm. By such considerations, the flame of their enkindled zeal was neither quenched nor allayed. Their unyielding fixedness of principle in this respect does infinite credit to their sagacity and virtue.
For when we consider more carefully this principle, so earnestly asserted by Great Britain, and so resolutely resisted by our fathers, we shall find that, to human view, it contained the whole hope of American independence for the then present and all future times. The possibility of American independence at any time depended upon the union of the Colonies in some common principle of opposition to the pretensions of Great Britain. Now, this right being con- ceded, it was scarce possible that any such conmon principle should exist ; much less become a bond of nion among the Colonies. This right admitted, every thing else was but mode and measure, - an affair of discretion. What hope that they, who conld not unite in resistance to the whole right, could be ever brought to combine in resistance to a particularly oppressive degree in the exer- cise of it ? Besides, how easy would it have been for Great Britain, by settling any obnoxious degree, in mode or measure, differently in different colonies, to take from some all motive to cooperate in the resistance of others! This princi- ple, therefore, being yielded, there was to human view no subsequent hope of independence for the Colonies. That principle was worthy, therefore, of all the importance attached to it by our fathers; worthy of all the sacrifices they made in its defence. Their foresight, their energy and inflexible spirit on this point, are among the brightest beams in the glory of that day.
Of a similar type is the self-denial to which they submitted, and the hazards which they voluntarily incurred for the sake of that principle. By submission,
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they would, in their own time, have enjoyed peace, secured plenty, attained external protection under the shield of Great Britain, and in the gradnal advance of society, they had reason to expect to arrive, even in the colonial state, at a very elevated and enviable condition of prosperity. On the other hand, what were the hazards of resistance ? - The untried, and not to be esti- mated perils of civil war ; - " a people in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood," to rush on the thick bosses of the buckler of the most powerful State in Europe, the one most capable of annoying them, -- without arms or resourees, to enter the lists with the best appointed nation on the globe ; - desti- tute of a sloop of war, to wage hostilities with a country whose navies com- manded every sea and even their own harbors. In case of success, - the chance of anarchy and the unknown casualties attending a new organization of society. In case of failure, -exile, confiscation, the scaffold, the fate of some ; to bear the opprobrious names of rebel and traitor, and to transmit them to a disgraced posterity, the fate of all.
What appeals to selfishness ! what to cupidity ! what to love of ease, to fear, and to pusillanimity ! But onr fathers took counsel of a different spirit, - of the pure ethereal spirit which glowed and burned in their own bosoms. In spite of the greatness of the temptation and the certainty of the hazard, they resisted; and the front ranks of opposition were filled, not by a needy, promiscuous, unknown, and irresponsible erowd, but by the heart and mind and strength of the Colony ; by the calm and calculating merchant; by the cautious capi- talist ; by the sedate and pious divine ; by the far-looking, deep-read lawyer; by the laborious and intelligent mechanic. We have no need to repeat names. The entire soul and seuse and sinew of society were in action.
The spirit of our Revolution is not to be sought in this or that individual, nor in this or that order of men. It was the mighty energy of the whole mass. It was the momentous heaving of the troubled ocean, ronsed indeed by the coming tempest, but propelled onward by the lashing of its own waters, and by the awful, irresistible impulse of deep-seated passion and power.
In this movement, those who were foremost were not always those of most influence ; nor were the exciting causes always the most obtrusive to the eye. All were pressed forward by the spirit inherent in the commmity; by force of publie opinion and sense of duty, which never fell behind, but was often in advance of those who were called leaders.
The event has shown that our fathers judged rightly in this movement ; that their conception was just concerning their means and their duties; that they were equal to the crisis in which Providence had placed them ; that, daring to be free, their power was equal to their daring. They vindicated liberty for them- selves ; they transmitted it to us, their posterity. There is no truer glory, no higher fame known or to be acquired among men.
How different would have been onr lot at this day, both as men and citizens, had the Revolution failed of success, or had the great principle of liberty on which it turned been yielded. Instead of a people free, enlightened, rejoicing in their strength, possessing a just consciousness of being the authors and arbiters of their own and their country's destinies, we should have been a multitude with- out pride of independence, without sense of state or national sovereignty, looking across the ocean for our rulers; watching the Atlantic sky, as the cloud of court
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loensts, tempted by our greenness, came warping on the eastern breeze; waiting on the strand to catch the first glimpse of our descending master, - some trans- atlantic chieftain, some royal favorite, some court sycophant, -- sent to govern a country, withont knowing its interests, without sympathy in its prospects; resting in another hemisphere the hopes of his fame and fortune. Our judges coming from afar; our merchants denied all commerce except with the parent state ; our clergy sent us, like our clothes, ready made, and cut in the newest court fashion. None but conformists allowed to vote; none but churchmen eligible. Our civil rights subject to crown officers; our religions, to a foreign hierarchy, cold, selfish, vindictive, distant, solicitous about glebes and tithes, but reckless among us of the spread of the light of learning or the influence of the gospel.
How different also would have been the fate and aspect of the present age, had the American Revolution never commenced, or had it failed ! Under Pro- vidence, this Revolution has been the chief, if not the sole cause of that impulse to the human mind, which, during the last half century, has changed the face of Europe, and elevated the hope of man. The light of truth and reason reflected across the Atlantic from the mighty mirror of American liberty, penetrated the cottages of peasants and the cabinets of kings. The nmultitude were propelled upon thrones. Kings have consequently been induced to soften the rigors of ancient servitude. In every part of Europe the chains of subjects are lightened. Sovereigns daily realize, more and more, the necessity of admitting the people to a voice in their councils, and to a qualified weight in state affairs. Under the influence of this condition of things, knowledge has been increased and diffused; the rights of man vindicated ; a free intercourse of commerce, science, and arts introduced on both sides of the Atlantic, unparalleled in human history, and giving promise of an advancement in freedom, morals, and refinement, exceed- ing the hope or conception of former times. Under these auspices, the patriotic theories and visions of Milton, Harrington, Algernon Sidney, and Locke, are beginning to be realized; the capacity of man to govern himself to be demon- strated ; the great truth promulgated and carried home to the bosoms of all sove- reigns, even the most arbitrary, that they who would govern man long umst govern him justly, and treat him as a rational, accountable, and moral being ; that they must respect his essential rights, and even towards servitude itself, recognize the principles of a substantial freedom.
Such was the genius and character, and such the prond results of the Ameri- can Revolution ; such the glory of our fathers; such the glowing points from which that glory radiates.
It is suitable, and it is our duty ou this occasion to inquire, what it is to main- tain that genius and character ? what it is to deserve, and what to disgrace those ancestors ?
In listening to the preceding development, fellow-citizens, it is impossible that each of yon should not have realized, individually, your interest in the character and conduct of our fathers. It is a law of nature. The virtue and glory of fathers is the most precious inheritance of their posterity. By this law, an indis- soluble, moral union, connects times past and future with times present. With- out that law, man would be a creature of the day, grovelling in selfishness, wal- lowing in the mire of sense, with eye and taste and thought all downward, with no backward regard, with no forward hope, with no upward aim. But this eter-
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nal, moral connection, which is established by Providence in his nature, gives him, as it were, existence in the days of old, and existence in the times which are to come; and instead of a being destined, as the term of his natural life seems to indicate, to exist only a few short years, bestows upon him, even in this world, a glorious immortality.
By this law it is made the duty of man in every age, in gratitude for the inhe- ritance he receives, to transmit it faithfully to those who succeed ; not dimi- nished, not corrupted, not soiled, but if possible enlarged, strengthened, purified, increased both in splendor and usefulness.
The occurring circumstances of every age make indeed the duties of each suc- ceeding generation different. But in consulting concerning those duties, it will not be difficult for this or any future age to determine in what they consist, pro- vided, according to the example, and in the language of our fathers, we endea- vor " so to understand our liberty and duty as to beget nity among ourselves, and to act and speak as becomes prudent, honest, conscientious, and faithful mnen."
It is true, that we in this age are not called as our fathers were, to take our lives in our hands, and bare our breasts to the tempest and shock of war. But such dangers and sacrifices are not essential to the existence of true glory. This, as I have endeavored to illustrate, consists not in the particular part we are called to act, but in the maner in which we perform the part to which we are called. The essence of true glory is principle. Our fathers endured the hard- ships and despised the dangers of the field of battle, not for the sake of the spe- cies of glory there to be acquired, but because battle was the mode appointed by Providence for them to vindicate their truth to the relations of things in which it had placed them. They could, in no other mode, have fulfilled their duty to those relations.
Now this glory is just as applicable to ns as to them. The labors and sacrifices of our fathers have indeed left us a noble inheritance. But our tenure of that inheritance is not absolute, but conditional. If we would maintain it and trans- mit it unimpaired to our posterity, we must, like our fathers, be true to the rela- tion of things in which we stand ; and particularly to those in which we stand to that very inheritance. Now, truth to those relations, as it respects us, con- sists in our fulfilling the conditions on which the continuance of that inheritance depends. These conditions are, - that we understand our liberties; that we value them as we ought ; that we are willing to make the sacrifices of time, labor, and attention necessary for the preserving them, and are vigilant in defending them, not against external foes, to which, in all probability, we shall never be called, but against a much more insidious foe, -the passion, corruption, and weakness of our own hearts.
The great principle for which our fathers contended, and the maintaining of which constituted their glory was, in fact, the right of self-government, -the right of choosing their own rulers ; in other words, the right of possessing them- selves, and of transmitting to posterity the elective franchise in its most pure and perfect state. Now, this great privilege it belongs to us to maintain by a right and wise use of it ; and to transmit it to posterity the purer by our example, the safer by our use, and the more precious from the obvious blessings resulting from this our fidelity. This is our duty. In this consists our glory.
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Let every man, therefore, who inquires what it is to deserve, and what it is to disgrace our ancestors, consider his conduct in this respect. Let him ask him- self, whether he truly appreciates the nature and greatness of that privilege; whether he is faithful to liberty, to morals, and religion, in the exercise of it ; whether he is indifferent about it, or neglects it, or sports with it. And so let every man answer for himself; his own conscience being his judge. And let all remember that, in the ways of Providence to nations, as well as to individuals, there is retribution as well as favor. No people ever did, or ever can, long enjoy any privilege, and, least of all, the elective franchise, who systematically under- value it, or abuse it, or are even indifferent about it.
Again, truth to liberty, to virtue, to our ancestors, and to the relation of things in which we stand, has respect also to the manner in which we conduct towards those on whom the elective lot has fallen, and in whose favor it has been declared.
It is the nature of man, under a free constitution, to divide into parties, according to that diversity of views, interest, opinions, passions, and even fancies, which are inseparable from his constitution. This condition of things is not to be deprecated or condemned. It is to be understood and acted upon.
Now, the duty which each individual in a free republie owes to rulers is just the same, whether they do or do not belong to the particular sect or party he happens to prefer. Truth to the relations of things in which we stand, requires that our rulers should be judged, not by any previous prejudice or theory, but by their conduct while in power ; by the measures they recommend and counte- nance. These measures are to be received in a candid, generous spirit, and with fair and manly construction. Those, therefore, will be false to the genius and character of our . Revolution, who, regardless of the measures of rulers, shall wage war upon them, merely because they do not belong to their own particular sect or party, or who shall deery wise measures or misrepresent the motives of just ones, with the sole view of pulling down one individual or of building up another ; or who, making the liberty of debate or of the press a cloak for licen- tiousness, shall pervert both or either to purposes of malevolence or slander.
Above all, those will be false to the gentins and character of our Revolution who shall associate themselves with political leaders without reference to princi- ples; who shall deny rulers the chance to show their real projects by the course of their administration, but shall wage war upon them from the very beginning, on the principle of political extermination.
There can be no surer sign that the liberties of a people are hastening to a dissolution than their countenancing those who form parties on men and not upon principles. Whenever the only question is, whether Casar or Pompey, Lepidus or Mark Anthony shall rule, and the people are corrupt or debased enough, from mere personal affection or preference to flock to either standard, such a people are not far distant from a revolution which will not leave them even the poor privilege of choosing their own masters.
Thus you perceive, fellow-citizens, that the glory of our fathers which we this (lay celebrate, was not of a temporary or individual character; that there is nothing exclusive in its nature ; that it may be shared and emulated by the truly noble of our race in every age ; that it essentially consists in possessing and exhi- biting in all our public relations a pure, just, elevated, and manly spirit.
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And now, fellow-citizens, consider your privileges ; consider your duties. By the virtues of your fathers, you have been preserved from colonial bondage. Beware lest you become subjected to a more grievous bondage of base, igno- ble passions. As they subdued their enemies in the field, do you subdue those enemies which have their strongholds in the human heart, and which have laid low in the dust the proud hopes of all former republics, - " ambition, ava- rice, love of riches, and the corruptions of prosperity." 1 Be as just, as tempe- rate, as moderate in preserving your liberty, as your fathers were bold and dar- ing in repelling the chains of servitude. Be penetrated with "a love of liberty, of religion, of justice and virtue, and inflamed with a sacred zeal and affection for your country." 1 Thus it may be hoped, that through the combined and strenu- ous endeavors of true and faithful men in all times, there shall be gradually infused into the mass of mankind loftier thoughts, higher aims, more generous motives, whereby the human character being elevated and refined, shall become more worthy, and thus more capable of perfect freedom. And so this temple of liberty, the foundations of which were laid on the fourth of July, 1776, in blood and peril by our fathers, shall, by the labors, councils, and virtues of all the good and great of present and future times, be enlarged and extended in true propor- tions of moral architecture, till its pillars embrace the universe, and its dome vault upwards with a more than human skill, - with glorious archings of celes- tial wisdom, resplendent with purest faith, radiant with immortal truth, crowned with revealed hope, - to the joy and rest of man on the promise and in the pre- sence of the Eternal.
1 Milton's Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, contra Claudii Salmasii Defensionem Regiam.
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APPENDIX.
(M. Page 57.)
THE MEMBERS OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT, FROM 1822 TO 1830, INCLUSIVE.
1822. - MAYOR, JOHN PHILLIPS.
ALDERMEN, -
Samuel Billings, Ephraim Eliot, Jacob Hall, Joseph Head,
Joseph Jenkins, . Joseph Lovering, Nathaniel Pope Russell, Bryant Parrott Tilden.
COMMON COUNCIL. WILLIAM PRESCOTT, President.
Ward 1.
William Barry, Thaddeus Page, Charles Wells, Simon Wilkinson.
Ward 2.
Martin Bates, Benjamin Lamson, Henry Orne, Joseph Stodder.
Ward 3.
Theodore Dexter,
Joshna Euunons, Samuel Jones.
Ward 4.
Joseph Cooledge, Samuel Perkins, Robert Gould Shaw, Joel Thayer.
Ward 5.
George Washington Coffin, Thomas Kendall, Horatio Gates Ware, Isaac Winslow.
Ward 6.
Samuel Appleton, Thomas Motley, Jesse Shaw, William Sullivan.
Ward 7.
Jonathan Amory, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Augustus Peabody, Enoch Silsby.
Ward 8.
David Watts Bradlee, Peter Chardon Brooks, James Perkins, Benjamin Russell, :
Ward 9.
Jonathan Davis,
Hawkes Lincoln,
William Prescott, John Welles.
Ward 10.
Andrew Drake, Daniel Lewis Gibbens,
David Collson Moseley, Isaac Stevens.
Ward 11.
Geo. Watson Brimmer, Asa Bullard, Barzillai Holmes, Winslow Lewis.
Ward 12.
Cyrus Alger, John French, John Howe, Moses Williams.
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APPENDIX.
1823. - MAYOR,
JOSIAHI QUINCY.
ALDERMEN.
Daniel Baxter, George Odiorne, David Weld Child, Joseph Hawley Dorr,
Ashur Benjamin, Enoch Patterson, Caleb Eddy, Stephen Hooper.
COMMON COUNCIL. JOHN WELLES, President.
Ward 1.
Thaddeus Page, Simon Wilkinson, John Elliot, Joseph Wheeler.
Ward 2.
Martin Bates, Benjamin Lamson, Joseph Stodder, John Parker Boyd.
Ward 3.
Theodore Dexter, Samnel Joues, John Richardson Adan, John Damarisque Dyer.
Ward 4.
Joseph Cooledge, Samuel Perkins, Robert Gould Shaw, Henry Farnam.
Ward 5.
Thomas Kendall, Isaac Winslow, Elias Haskell, John Sullivan Perkins.
Ward 6.
Joseph Stacy Hastings, Joel Prouty, John Stevens, William Wright.
Ward 7.
Jonathan Amory, Enoch Silsby, Samuel Swett, Charles Pelham Curtis
Ward 8.
Benjamin Russell, James Savage, Eliphalet Williams,
Samuel King Williams.
Ward 9.
Jonathan Davis, Hawkes Lincoln, John Welles, Lewis Tappan.
Ward 10.
Aaron Baldwin, David Francis, Francis Johonnot Oliver,
Thomas Beale Wales.
Ward 11. Asa Bullard, Charles Howard, Josiah Stedman, Joseph Willett.
Ward 12. Samuel Bradlee, Noah Brooks, Francis Jackson, Charles Sprague.
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APPENDIX.
1824. -- MAYOR,
JOSIAH QUINCY.
ALDERMEN,
Daniel Baxter, George Odiorne, David Weld Child, Joseph Hawley Dorr, Ashur Benjamin,
Enoch Patterson, Caleb Eddy, Stephen Hooper, (died September,) Cyrus Alger, ( November.)
COMMON COUNCIL.
FRANCIS JOHONNOT OLIVER, President.
Ward 1.
William Barry, John Elliot, Joseph Wheeler, Michael Tombs.
Ward 2.
William Little, Jr., Oliver Reed, Joseph Stone, Thaddeus Page.
Ward 3.
John Richardson Adan, John Damarisque Dyer, Edward Page,
William Sprague.
Ward 4.
Joseph Cooledge, Robert Gould Shaw, Jeremiah Fitch, Win. Rounsville Pierce Washburn ..
Ward 5.
Elias Haskell, Eliphalet Porter Hartshorn, George Washington Otis, Winslow Wright.
Ward 6.
Joseph Stacy Hastings, Joel Prouty, William Wright, Thomas Wiley.
Ward 7. Charles Pelham Curtis, William Goddard, Elijah Morse, Isaac Parker.
Ward 8. Benjamin Russell, Eliphalet Williams, Samuel King Williams, Benjamin Willis.
Ward 9.
Jonathan Davis, Hawkes Lincoln, John Ballard, John Chipman Gray.
Ward 10.
Thomas Beale Wales, James Savage, Phineas Upham, Francis Johonnot Oliver,
Ward 11.
Josiah Stedman, Samuel Frothingham, Giles Lodge, Charles Sprague.
Ward 12. Samnel Bradlee, Francis Jackson, Isaac Thom, Charles Bemis.
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APPENDIX.
1825. - MAYOR, JOSIAH QUINCY.
ALDERMEN.
Daniel Carney, Jolm Bellows, Josiah Marshall, John Damarisque Dyer,
Thomas Welsh, Jr., George Blake, Henry Jackson Oliver, Jolin Bryant,
COMMON COUNCIL. FRANCIS JOHONNOT OLIVER, President.
Ward 1.
William Barry, John Elliot, Robert Fennelly, Lewis Lerow.
Ward 2.
Oliver Reed, Seammel Penniman, Benjamin Clark, John Fenno.
Ward 3.
John Richardson Adan, Thomas Wells, Abraham Williams Fuller, Amos Farnsworth.
Ward 4.
Joseph Cooledge, Wm. Rounsville Pierce Washburn, George Hullett, Theodore Dexter.
Ward 5.
John Sullivan Perkins, Ezra Dyer, Charles Tracy, William Simonds.
Ward 6.
Joseph Stacy Hastings, Thomas Wiley, Isaac Waters, Samuel Thaxter.
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Ward 7.
Charles Pelham Curtis, William Goddard, Elijah Morse, Isaac Parker.
Ward 8.
Eliphalet Williams, Benjamin Willis, Jeffrey Richardson, Josiah Bradlee.
Ward 9.
John Chipman Gray, Franklin Dexter, Jeremiah Smith Boies, Levi Meriam.
Ward 10.
Francis Johonnot Oliver, James Savage, Jonathan Simonds, John Parker Rice.
Ward 11.
Samuel Frothingham, Giles Lodge, George Morey, Jr., Joshua Vose.
Ward 12.
John Stevens, Adam Bent, Oliver Fisher, Ephraim Groves Ware.
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APPENDIX.
1826. - MAYOR,
JOSIAH QUINCY.
ALDERMEN.
Daniel Carney, John Bellows, Josiah Marshall, Thomas Welsh, Jr.,
Henry Jackson Oliver, John Foster Loring, Francis Jackson, Edw. Hutchinson Robbins.
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