USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old South church (Third church) Boston. Memorial addresses, Sunday evening, October 26, 1884 > Part 5
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ing. The purpose of the meeting was to provide for taking down the edifice of wood on the old site, where he had wor- shipped for more than fifty years, and substituting for it the brick edifice still standing, which you have abandoned. Grievous was the pain and lament of the Judge over that proposal. He did not live to witness its completion. Some very marked changes-the most revolutionary, he would have been readily reconciled to. When you explained to him the national flag, he would doubtless approve that we were no longer governed from across the water. Our grand school- houses would have pleased him. The Public Library and the street railways would have gratified him, unless you had whispered to him that they were used on the Sabbath. The numerous bright gas-lights at night he would approve, re- membering that he had in his time often gone out at mid- night, carrying a lantern, in search of a midwife. He would stand amazed over this whole region of parks, gardens and palatial dwellings, known to him as a wide, shallow bay of salt-water, now filled up to his own farm, at Sewall's Point in Brookline.
But what a racking of all his sensibilities, if unchanged, it would have been, to face a thousand of the features, habits, incidents and facts about this city, which in his day, occupied by a homogeneous English community, was kept under re- straint by an austere morality and a power of repression. His hand as a magistrate was put forth against the imported organist for the " box of whistles" in King's Chapel, who undertook to smuggle in his frivolous skill to teach some children how to dance. He uttered his solemn protest when he heard the rumor of some proposed theatrical entertain- ments in the Town House. What horror would strike him when told that dancing and dramatic exercises were now parts of some of our church entertainments ! He sturdily opposed, and refused to sell a piece of his own land for, the building of a church in Boston for the forms of worship of the monarch and realm of England. What would he have said to all these churches and halls of ours for all creeds and no creed-Roman
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Catholic, Synagogues, Spiritualist Temples, etc .? He fre- quently entered in his Journal his delight over the very slight recognition of Christmas. What would he say now, when the dealers in holiday goods work the whole community into a fever of excitement in that season, and children are turned into little highwaymen, demanding what you mean to give them for a Christmas present? Good children in his day had for a present a copy of that grim and sulphurous poem- Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom." You would not have found it agreeable work to have explained all things to, and answered all the questions of, the resurrected Judge. As to some things, be sure you would have had to hesitate and stutter and perhaps turn away your face, wishing your utterly perplexed companion would not ask so many and just such questions. For his part I know that he, the honored, revered and beloved magistrate, neighbor, friend and saint of his day would implore you to let him go quietly back to the scenes, associates, ways and doings of his own time.
Put the truth now plainly and in full force. By the standards and principles which Sewall conscientiously applied to him- self and others in his day, a large majority of all who are now living in Boston, would be offenders, culprits, in some form or degree-about some thing, opinion, habit or way of life. As such, they would have been by him rebuked, censured, restrained, put under some disability, fined or imprisoned. Habits and usages, amusements and dissipations, indulgences and tolerated iniquities, all around us, would draw out his sternest rebuke, as in no way admitting of justification, or even of allowance as conditions of real individual liberty among us. Sewall cannot summon us before his tribunal ; but there is a higher tribunal before which we are all amenable.
In reconstructing through Sewall's pages the domestic, social and civil habits and institutions of his time, we may fall to musing over this question : Suppose this community had been left to the natural development of those habits and institutions, strictly through its own homogeneous population, increasing and modifying from the original English Puritan
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stock, without the flooding in here of foreign and incongruous elements, swamping our own native born element, and introducing here, ideas, customs, amusements, and religious beliefs and observances, which were most intolerable to our ancestors, and to be rid of which forever, was a prime object of their exiling themselves from the old world. The most demonstrative annual pageant in this city is on " St. Patrick's Day." That this should be so, and should cause no protest, and should be even complacently enjoyed as a spectacle by those who hardly understand its significance-this may be taken as a type of the transformation which has been wrought here from the old traditions of our heritage.
It is better that the old Puritan Judge should stand com- memorated on that plain tablet, than that he should come back here to have his soul vexed by the heresies and enor- mities of this present generation. Nor with our enlargement, freedom, abounding appliances and facilities, our compass of differences and necessary tolerances, our broader horizon for outlook, our range in the ventures of questioning thought, even if an element of degeneracy, and a parting from some- thing supremely good, is the purchase price of all we have, -should we be happy to turn back the stream and float to the springs of a rude and toiling life with our fathers. We have no reproaches for them. May our posterity have as good reason to honor, and as little cause to apologize for, us, as we have for them.
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NOTE.
Reference is made on page 56 to Judge Sewall's letter to the church-meeting, opposing the building of a new Meeting- house. He requested that his dissent might be entered upon the Church Records, which your late pastor, Dr. Manning, informed me was not complied with. As it is a characteristic paper, I here copy it from the Judge's Letter Book.
"To the Reverend Mr. Joseph Sewall, & to the Reverend Mr. Thomas Prince, Pastors of the South Church in Boston, and to the Brethren of said Church, assembled in a Church Meeting, on Tues- day, the seven & twentieth day of February, 1727-8.
In which Meeting Two Questions are to be Answered to wit: Whether the Old Meeting House shall be Repaired, or a New One builded.
That our Meeting House needs Repairing, is Apparent : and I ap- prehend that it ought to be done as soon as the Season of the year will admit.
But as for the building of a New Meeting house, it is now unseason- able. God in his holy Providence preserving this, seems plainly to advise us to the contrary. This is a very good Meeting house, and we have not convenient room to build a New one in, while this is standing. And considering the Terrible Earth-Quakes we have had, shaking all our Foundations, it behooves us to walk humbly with our God and to observe the divine Counsel given to Barach by the Prophet Jeremiah in the forty-fifth Chapter : And to take care that we do not say in the Pride and greatness of heart, We will cut down the Sycamores, and change them into Cedars, Isaiah, 9. 10. We ought to look not only on our own Things, but also on the Things of others, Philip. 2. 4., and beware that we do not unjustly and violently Oust them out of what they are lawfully possessed of.
Besides, I fear the Mischief is like to be distressing, for want of a place to worship God in, while the New Meeting House is setting up.
Upon these, and such like Considerations, I dissent from those Brethren, who promote the building a New Meeting house at this Time, and pray that what I have written may be enter'd upon the Church Records. SAMI SEWALL.
Mr. Edward Bromfield, Esq. came to me to persuade me to go to the Meeting warn'd last Lord's Day, and desired me that if I did not go, I would write. Accordingly I writ as I could in great Hurries, Mon- day being Probat Day. I sent for Mr. Bromfield, and he kindly carried it for me, and delivered it, and it was read."
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SAMUEL SEWALL,
BORN AT BISHOP-STOKE, ENG., MARCH 28, 1652.
Being sent for by his father to come to New England, he arrived here with his mother, July 16, 1661.
GRADUATED AT HARVARD COLLEGE, 1671. RESIDENT FELLOW AND LIBRARIAN.
MARRIED By Governor Bradstreet, to Judith Hull, Feb. 28, 1676, N. S.
JOINED IN COVENANT WITH SOUTH CHURCH, March 30, 1677. MADE A FREEMAN, MAY, 1678.
Undertook the Management of the Printing Press, Boston, Oct. 12, 1681. Resigned the office Sept. 12, 1684.
Followed mercantile business for some years.
CHOSEN DEPUTY, OR REPRESENTATIVE, TO THE GENERAL COURT From Westfield, Hamp., Nov. 7, 1683. COMMISSIONED ON THE COUNCIL, JUNE 11, 1686.
Sailed for England, Nov. 22, 1688. Landed on return, Nov. 29, 1689. 1692 .- ONE OF THE ROYAL COUNCIL OF THE PROVINCE. Appointed by Governor Phipps, June 13, 1692, as ONE OF THE SEVEN JUDGES,
By Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer, for trial of Cases of Witchcraft. - From 1697 to 1703, -
SELECTMAN, MODERATOR, OVERSEER OF THE POOR.
July 25, 1699 .- Commissioned by Governor Lord Bellomont, a JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT. October 14, 1699 .- Made a
COMMISSIONER OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS.
His hair becoming thin, first wore his "black cap" to Lecture, as a " testimony against Periwigs."
June 24, 1700 .- Published the first Anti-Slavery Tract, " THE SELLING OF JOSEPH."
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June 2, 1701 .- Elected
CAPTAIN OF THE ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY.
Sept. 16, 1713 .- Attends the Ordination of his son Joseph, as Colleague Pastor of the South Church.
June 19, 1717 .- Appointed by Governor Shute JUDGE OF PROBATE OF SUFFOLK.
Oct. 19, 1717 .- His wife, Judith (Hull) Sewall, dies. Feb. 11, 1718 .- There being a vacancy on the Bench, he asks, and receives from the Governor, the office of
CHIEF JUSTICE. Takes the oath April 25.
October 29, 1719 .- Married by his son, Joseph, to the Widow of William Tilley, her third marriage.
May 26, 1720 .- She dies very suddenly.
March 29, 1722 .- Married by his son-in-law,
the Rev. William Cooper, to the Widow of Robert Gibbs.
June 4, 1725 .- Declined re-election to the Council, after thirty-three years of service under the Province Charter.
July 29, 1728 .- Under increasing infirmities, resigns the offices of CHIEF JUSTICE AND JUDGE OF PROBATE.
January 1, 1730, N. S .- Judge Sewall dies, after a month's illness, in his seventy-eighth year. Of his seven sons and seven daughters, two of the former, and one of the latter, survive him.
Committed to the Hull Tomb, in the Granary Burial Ground.
SAMUEL ADAMS
BY THE
REV. EDWARD G. PORTER, A.M.
"HE SAT SERENE UPON THE FLOODS, THEIR FURY TO RESTRAIN ; AND HE, AS SOVEREIGN LORD AND KING, FOREVERMORE SHALL REIGN.
"THE LORD WILL GIVE HIS PEOPLE STRENGTH, WHEREBY THEY SHALL INCREASE ; AND HE WILL BLESS HIS CHOSEN FLOCK WITH EVERLASTING PEACE."
SAMUEL ADAMS.
THIS Church may well be congratulated to-night upon its inheritance of a long roll of names worthy to be commemo- rated by successive generations. It is a high distinction, rarely given to any church, to have had, not only among its ministers, but in the ranks of its lay members, such illustri- ous personages as those to whom yonder tablets are now consecrated.
A new sentiment will hereafter invest this beautiful build- ing, drawn not merely from the enlarged and generous ac- commodations recently made for worshippers, but also from the memories which will be awakened here by the presence of these silent reminders of a glorious past. We honor our- selves by keeping thus before us the men whose names and achievements have been so conspicuously associated with our common faith and our common freedom.
From whatever point of view we regard Samuel Adams, we find him worthy of grateful remembrance and distin- guished honor ; whether as a private citizen, exemplary in all the walks of life, or as a public servant, discharging faith- fully the many trusts that were committed to his care ; wheth- er we consider his brilliant intellectual endowments, or the rirtues and graces of his devout Christian life ; whether we admire most the lofty, intrepid, sagacious spirit which was always prepared for any crisis, or that equally characteristic ind uncommon trait which led him to yield to others the re-
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wards justly due to himself ; whether we regard him as " the man of the town-meeting," or representative in the Assem- bly, or member of the Continental Congress, we see him in each and all of these positions exhibiting surprising ability, vast resources and incorruptible integrity. So many indeed are his claims to consideration in American history that the more our scholars have studied his life the more do they find themselves disposed to award him the highest praise both for what he was and for what he did. The real strength of such a character is seen in the clear, sharp lines in which he has impressed himself upon his generation and upon his country. Not one of his famous contemporaries has been honored with so many significant and distinguishing titles as he. In all our minds his name is associated with one or more of these familiar soubriquets : the Father of the Revolution ; the American Cato ; the Chief Incendiary ; Tribune of the People ; Instar omnium ; the Cromwell of New England ; the Last of the Puritans. It matters not whether these appella- tions originated among his friends or his enemies ; they all express the strongly-marked personal supremacy of the man.
If it be asked why so great a man as Samuel Adams has waited almost a century for any suitable recognition at the hands of his countrymen, the answer is ready. We have neglected nearly all our ancient worthies until recently, giv- ing them a very inadequate place both in literature and in art. We have tolerated rather than appreciated them in our history, assigning them any such accidental place as favor or prejudice might suggest. It may also be said that in most cases our fathers themselves failed to teach us the importance of historic memorials. They were generally busy men, ab- sorbed in the work given them to do, and they had little thought for the record that would have to follow. And we too have been so occupied in the work of our own day that we have been sadly indifferent to the lessons which a faithful study of the past might have taught us.
But, happily, we have entered upon a new era in such matters. We have caught at last the inspiration which he-
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roism and virtue ought to awaken in every patriotic heart. Already there are three statues of Samuel Adams in our country : one at Lexington erected ten years ago, another in the Capitol at Washington, and the third a conspicuous orna- ment of our own city since 1880. To these we now grate- fully add the tablet which has been most appropriately placed on the walls of this sanctuary.
The Adams family have already an honored place upon the records of this church. Samuel the patriot was a mem- ber of it during the last fourteen years of his life. His pa- rents and grandparents worshipped in its communion, and his mother was baptized and married by its ministers.
The church of God is designed to be the foster-mother of its children. It fulfils its functions only when it nourishes and developes the best types of manhood. It is allowed cer- tain privileges, under our laws, from the conviction which the American people have had from the beginning, that it is the best supporter of the civil power and the surest guaran- tee of a pure and intelligent patriotism which the state pos- sesses. And this claim for the church has been abundantly established in the history of New England, not only in the substance of its teaching, but in the men whom it has taught. It is an inevitable deduction of logic that such men as Samuel Adams are the visible product of the New England church. Nothing else could have made them what they were. They were born and nurtured, trained and moulded under its pow- erful and penetrating influence. No one questions that the strong theology and the republican government of these churches, under an enlightened ministry, created the sturdy and independent patriots who laid broad and deep the found- ations of our liberties. The doctrine of human rights, which became so popular in the colonies, was really formulated and at last legalized by those who, under the prevailing system of religious teaching, had reasoned it out of the Sacred Scrip- tures as God's assured gift to man. It was certainly a growth, but a growth under the favorable conditions of a democratic church which was the first in the history of the world to edu-
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cate all its people in the principles of civil and religious liberty.
We cannot disconnect this Puritan patriot from the earlier age out of which he sprang, and for which he ever cherished sentiments of the deepest reverence. Born in 1722, eight years before the death of Judge Sewall, and within a century of the settlement of Boston, he was near enough to the ori- ginal founders of the colony to partake of their spirit and to carry on their work. His father, Samuel Adams, Senior, was the son of Captain John Adams, a descendant of that Henry Adams of Braintree, from whom came also the distin- guished branch of the family which has always remained near the early homestead in what is now the town of Quincy.
Undoubtedly the subject of this sketch received his early bias in the direction of politics from his father, who was ac- tively engaged in public affairs,1 and who in 1724 was one of the founders of the famous Caulkers' Club, a political organi- zation from which our word caucus is supposed to have been derived. That he was also prominent in ecclesiastical mat- ters is shown by his being one of the organizers, and, later on, one of the deacons of the New South Church in Summer Street,2 of which, in 1719, his relative Samuel Checkley be- came the first pastor.
Mrs. Adams3 was a woman of deep religious principle, a true helpmeet to her husband, and faithful in her efforts to bring up her children in the fear of God and the practice of virtue. It is due to these parents to say that the healthful influences which they created in their home went far to pro- duce that devout turn of mind which was always a prevailing trait in their distinguished son.
1 He was a justice of the peace, a se- lectman of the town, and a representa- tive in the Assembly. In his business as a brewer he accumulated considera- ble property.
2 This enterprisc was undertaken by Mr. Adams and thirteen others in 1715, for the purpose of having a place of worship ncarcr their homes. The new site would be very accessible to Pur- chase Street, where the Adams family then lived. It has been generally stat-
ed that Mr. Adams was a deacon of the Old South Church. As this is not proved by the records, it is probably a mistake arising from the fact that he was chosen deacon of the New South (in July, 1726, with Mr. Daniel Loring), and as he had previously been a mem- ber of the Old South (from 1706 to 1715) it was a natural inference that he had also held the office of deacon there. 3 Mary, daughter of Richard Fifield of Boston.
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Their house' in Purchase Street was a spacious and com- fortable dwelling surrounded by a garden and commanding a fine view of the harbor. Here Samuel the patriot was born, being the second son in a family of twelve children. He was baptized on the day of his birth, Sunday, April 16, 1722. His early education was obtained at the public schools, and he was fitted for college under the elder Lovell. At the age of fourteen he was admitted to Harvard, where he made for himself an excellent record, acquiring such a familiarity with the classics that he was able through life to quote from them readily in his writings with much effect. He was also a dil- igent reader of the standard authors in philosophy, divinity and political science. The names of the students at that day were not arranged as now alphabetically, nor on the basis of scholarship, but according to the social standing of their fam- ilies. This must have been a delicate matter for the authori- ties to arrange, but the custom was adhered to for thirty years after this. In the class of 1740, numbering twenty-two mem- bers, Samuel Adams ranked as fifth, while Samuel Langdon, afterwards the president of the college, was the eighteenth. It is interesting to notice that the first name in the list was that of Thomas Prince (died in 1748), son of the eminent pastor of this church. At one time Adams had looked forward to the ministry as his profession, encouraged by his parents and by the inclination of his own mind. He was deeply interested in the great religious awakening which had followed the preaching of Edwards and Whitefield, and under ordinary circumstances he would doubtless have continued his theologi- cal studies, but the political excitements of the time led him to think of the law as the field in which his duty might lie, and toward which his ardent nature was strongly inclined. But his father's pecuniary embarrassments2 just at this time compelled
1 Built by Mr. Adams about 1712; taken by the British troops during their occupation of Boston ; not occupied by the family afterwards; sold to Philip Wentworth in 1802.
2 In connection with the " Land Bank Scheme," or " Manufactory Com- pany," as it was sometimes called, IO
a joint-stock association organized by some of the leading men of Boston to relieve the distress occasioned by the depreciated currency and general de- cline of public credit. The scheme failed through the violent opposition of the Government which enforced an act against the existence of such companies.
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him to turn his attention to mercantile business, for which he had no aptitude. His experience, however, was of value in strengthening his purpose to engage in public affairs as soon as the opportunity offered. On taking his Master's degree at Cambridge in 1743, at the early age of twenty-one, he chose for his thesis a subject which clearly indicated the are- na upon which he would like to contend : " Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved." Boldly maintaining the af- firmative, he laid down propositions which gave the key-note to his whole life. The contests which even at that early day were coming on between the Crown officers and the representa- tives of the people seemed to challenge his energies, and he was soon found organizing a political club and editing a news- paper. Both as a speaker and a writer young Adams engag- ed warmly in the discussion of public questions, and was soon recognized as a leader of no ordinary power. Many of his essays were directed against the administration of Shirley, whose civil and military measures he stoutly opposed as tending to subvert the "rights and liberties " of the colonists.
We are not surprised to learn that the business affairs of one so wholly given to politics would necessarily suffer. For a short time he was in the counting-room of Thomas Cush- ing.' Then he engaged in business for himself on a moder- ate capital furnished by his father. Failing in that he was reduced to very narrow circumstances. Soon after, his father died, leaving to him as the oldest son the care of the family and the settlement of the estate. The following year (Octo- ber 17, 1749) he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Checkley, a woman of rare excellence, with whom he lived but eight years, when she died, leaving two children.2 A tender tribute to her is found in the family Bible,3 written
1 Father of the patriot of the same name.
2 Samuel, afterwards a surgeon in the war, who died unmarried; and Hannah, who married Capt. Thomas Wells of the Continental Army.
3 This Bible, which had belonged to
the patriot's father, is a rare edition and contains interesting family records both by the father and the son. It afterwards became the property of Samuel G. Drake, and is now in the Livermore Collection at Cambridge. See N. Eng. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., vol. viii. p. 283.
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on the day of her death : "To her husband she was as sin- cere a friend as she was a faithful wife. Her exact economy in all her relative capacities, her kindred on his side as well as her own admire. She ran her christian race with remark- able steadiness, and finished in triumph ! She left two small children. God grant they may inherit her graces."
Seven years later (December 6, 1763, the Rev. Mr. Checkley officiating) Mr. Adams married for his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Wells, an English merchant who had settled in Boston many years before. This union proved to be long and happy. Mrs. Adams possessed many accom- plishments, not the least of which was her ability to make her home always attractive, even under privations such as are not often encountered by one in her position. Her prudence and thrift, combined with her strength of character and earnest piety, eminently fitted her to be the companion of a man whose life was largely engrossed in public affairs. Amid all the trials and vexations of political strife, he never failed to find in his home that repose and refreshment which he so much needed. He was a man of the finest sensibilities, able to appreciate the virtues and sacrifices of his wife, and ever ready to bestow upon her that affection and sympathy which belonged to his generous nature. The brief descriptions of their family life furnish us with an interesting picture of the domestic simplicity and order of a well-regulated Puritan home in the last century. It is a picture of contentment with- out riches, cheerfulness without hilarity, refinement without pride, and religion without hypocrisy. Friends were always welcome, and generously entertained, though hospitality on a large scale was impossible. Meetings of the Club1 and of various committees were often held here, and occasionally persons of distinction from other places were invited. Books were not as numerous then as now, but such as they had were well selected and carefully read. Household worship, grace at meals, and the singing of psalms, were a daily exercise in
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