USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Popular history of Boston > Part 11
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MR. GARRISON IN THE HANDS OF THE MOB.
313
The Antislavery Struggle.
1842.
In no single city did the principles for which he contended gain a firmer or wider influence than in Boston, where he had been mobbed.
In the autumn of 1842 George Latimer, a native of Vir- ginia, was arrested in Boston without a warrant, on the claim that he was a fugitive slave. The case was brought before the courts. Chief Justice Shaw ruled that " the statute of the United States authorized the owner of the fugitive to arrest him in any State to which he might have fled."
Latimer was held as a prisoner to await further action.
The old spirit of the Revolution was revived again. The city was full of indignation at such an infringement on the rights of personal liberty.
In October, on the last Sabbath evening in the month, a great audience met in Faneuil Hall. Speeches were made and the citizens recorded themselves as protesting : -
" By all the glorious memories of the Revolutionary strug- gle,
" In the names of justice, liberty, and right,
" In the awful name of God,
"Against the deliverance of George Latimer into the hands of his pursuers."
Letters in sympathy with the spirit of the meeting were read from John Quincy Adams, George Bancroft, and others.
Latimer was set free, a philanthropist paying to his owner the price of his freedom.
The event caused the question of the moral right of slave- holding to be everywhere discussed, and the result was a growing sense of the wrong of the institution of slavery. Some of the most brilliant men of Boston became eloquent advocates of the antislavery cause. Among these were Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker, and Dr. Samuel G. Howe. John G. Whittier became the poet of the cause,
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and young Charles Sumner began to bring to it the weight of his scholarship and convincing eloquence.
The antislavery societies prepared the way for the Free Soil party, and this party was in turn the beginning of the great political movement against slavery.
On the 3d of October, 1850, there was another exciting antislavery meeting in Faneuil Hall, at which words of elec- tric and impassioned eloquence were spoken. Millard Fill- more had signed the Fugitive Slave Law. The Free Soil party, hitherto small, under the influence of the popular in- dignation awakened by this law became strongly reinforced. It held its convention on the date and at the place we have named, and was addressed by Charles Sumner, who was just entering upon his public career.
Mr. Sumner's condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Law was unsparing in the extreme. He said, -
" Other presidents may be forgotten, but the name signed to the Fugitive Slave Bill can never be forgotten. There
are depths of infamy as there are heights of fame. I regret to say what I must, but truth compels me : better for him had he never been born."
THEODORE PARKER.
A more exciting scene was witnessed in Faneuil Hall in 1854. Anthony Burns had been ar- rested under the Fu- gitive Slave Act and lodged in jail. The' antislavery men called a meeting.
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FIRST SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR SOLDIERS' FAMILIES.
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The Antislavery Struggle.
1861.
Theodore Parker was present ; Phillips, Stowell, and Dr. Howe. Such an influence went from this meeting that the militia had to be called out to guard the Court House.
Burns was surrendered to his master on the 2d of June. He was to be taken from his cell to the ship. The city be- came feverish with excitement. He was conducted from ¿ Court Street to the wharf in the centre of a hollow square of armed men, protected by the militia and by cannon. The streets were draped in black, the bells tolled, the expression of public disapproval was so emphatic as to be awe-inspiring and terrible.
The contest between freedom and slavery ended in war. Fort Sumter fell in the spring of 1861. The whole North burned to retrieve the nation's honor.
Washington was threatened. On the 15th of April Governor Andrew received a telegram from Washing- ton, asking him to send fifteen hun- dred men for the protection of the city. The answer of the governor to the president was immediate, and FORT SUMTER. the response of the militia to the governor's call as prompt. On the morning of the 16th volunteers began to arrive. The State soon became a camp. The wealthy men of Boston , pledged their money for the support of the soldiers' families. The Boston banks offered to loan the State $3,600,000 with- out security, to meet any emergency that might arise. On the 19th of April - the Lexington and Concord Day - the 6th Massachusetts regiment was attacked in Baltimore and four of the men were killed.
Boston now gave her resources to the struggle. At the close of the year 1862 Massachusetts had in active service fifty-three regiments of infantry, twelve companies of light
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Young Folks' History of Boston.
artillery, three of heavy artillery, and one regiment and sev- eral companies of cavalry.
In 1864 Governor Andrew said to the Legislature, " Our volunteers have represented Massachusetts during the year
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MASSACHUSETTS SIXTH IN BALTIMORE.
just ended on almost every field and in every department of the army where our flag has been unfurled, - at Chancellors- ville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Fort Wagner ; at Chickamauga, Knoxville, and Chattanooga ; under Hooker, Meade, Banks, Gilmore, Rosecrans, Burnside, and Grant. In every scene of danger and duty, -along the Atlantic and the
1864.
The Antislavery Struggle. 319
Gulf, on the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Mississippi, and the Rio Grande ; under Dupont, Dahlgren, Foote, Far- ragut, and Porter, - the sons of Massachusetts have borne their part, and paid the debt of patriotism and valor."
Massachusetts sent 159,165 of her sons to the war.
On the high ground of the Common the tall shaft of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument shines through the trees ; and in the public square from which Columbus Avenue stretches away amid streets and blocks of wealth and taste, stands the Emancipation Monument, and all good people look upon them both with patriotic pride as they recall the war record of Boston and Massachusetts.
" Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, The eternal years of God are hers."
,
"O, MANY a time it hath been told, The story of those men of old : For this fair Poetry hath wreathed Her sweetest, purest flower ; For this proud Eloquence hath breathed His strain of loftiest power ; Devotion, too, hath lingered round Each spot of consecrated ground, And hill and valley blessed ; There where our banished fathers strayed, There where they loved and wept and prayed, There where their ashes rest.
" And never may they rest unsung, While Liberty can find a tongue. Twine, Gratitude, a wreath for them, More deathless than the diadem, Who to life's noblest end Gave up life's noblest powers, And bade the legacy descend Down, down to us and ours."
CHARLES SPRAGUE.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BOSTON OF TO-DAY.
SUCH was Boston in the past ; such were its founders ; such were the foundations that these great and good men laid.
How wonderful in contrast is the scene to-day !
In colonial times Boston embraced a peninsula of six hun- dred and ninety acres. The peninsula has vanished ; 1700 acres were acquired by the city when South Boston and East Boston were added to its area; 10,100 when Roxbury and West Roxbury were annexed ; 4800 when the gardens of beautiful Dorchester were received. To-day the area of Boston is more than 20,000 acres. Bridges span its rivers on every hand. Its suburbs are among the most lovely in the world.
In 1790 Boston had a population of something more than 18,000 ; in 1800, of 24,000 ; in 1820, of 43,000 ; in 1840, of 93,000 ; in 1850, of 136,000 ; in 1860, of 177,000 ; and in 1870, after the annexation of Roxbury in 1867, and of Dor- chester in 1869, of 250,000. The annexation of Charlestown, West Roxbury, and Brighton added greatly to the population, and to-day (1881) Boston contains about 370,000 souls.
We said the peninsula had vanished. The neck of it has been broadened into a wide and populous area, and where the high tides once washed the sands the finest private residences now stand. Over the old flats or Charles River marshes
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Commonwealth Avenue now stretches more than a mile in length and two hundred and forty feet wide. The old salt meadows are grand squares ; the very hills have been lowered to push away the embouchures of the Charles.
The city has nearly thirty thousand buildings. Over it shines the gilded dome of the State House on Beacon Hill. This building was commenced in "Governor Hancock's pas- ture " in 1789. From the dome, which is open to the pub- lic, the harbor with its fifty islands, the Blue Hills of Milton, and an immense extent of country full of elegant houses, with clustering spires and towers, may be seen. In the Doric Hall, or rotunda, are many historic relics and beautiful busts and statues.
The valuation of Boston in 1800 was a little more than $15,000,000 ; in 1870 it was nearly $600,000,000. In. 1840 the average amount of property to each inhabitant was less than $900 ; to-day it is nearly $2,500. Boston is one of the richest cities in the world.
It was a town of churches at the beginning. It has now one hundred and fifty regular churches and some two hun- dred religious societies.
The Puritans esteemed education next to religion, and provided the best schools for their children. The schools in Boston number nearly four hundred; they are the best in the country, and the free public school buildings are the finest ever erected. Harvard University is the leading college of America. The music schools of Boston are the best in the country, and one of them is the largest in the world.
In 1852 Joshua Bates, whose bust may be seen in Bates Hall, offered the city $50,000 for the purchase of books, if a suitable library were provided. The offer was accepted, and thus began the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street. The library now contains nearly four hundred thousand vol-
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STATE HOUSE.
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Boston of To-day.
1869.
umes, and is, next to the library of Congress, the largest in the country, and in point of value one of the best in America.
When the Puritans came to Boston it was because of the healthful springs of water on the peninsula. The fountains that welled up from the earth where is now Louisburg Square, with its odd figures of Columbus and Aristides, have dis- appeared, long ago drawn away by the over-demand on their hidden sources. The spring near Governor Winthrop's old residence, where now is dark Spring Lane (beyond the Old South Church), around whose pump the women used to gossip in Anne Hutchinson's time, is also gone. But Bos- ton is a place of pure water, now as of old. In 1848, while Josiah Quincy, Jr., was mayor, water was successfully intro- duced into the city from Lake Cochituate, twenty miles dis- tant. The lake covers six hundred and fifty acres. It was arranged that this water should be brought in a brick conduit eleven miles long to a grand reservoir in Brookline, and thence to distributing reservoirs in Boston, East Boston, South Boston, and the Highlands. The principal reservoir in Brook- line covers twenty-three acres. In 1869 a stand-pipe was erected in Roxbury by means of which pure water is supplied to the highest levels of the city houses.
In 1869, after the settlement of the issues of the war, a great musical festival, called the " Peace Jubilee," was held in Boston in a coliseum, built to accommodate fifty thousand people. One hundred and eight musical societies united in forming a chorus of some ten thousand voices, and these, to the accompaniment of nearly one thousand instruments, a battery of artillery, and anvils and bells, sang the favorite hymns and songs of America and the great patriotic chorals of the world. It was June ; the city was filled with beautiful flowers ; the singers of all the towns of New England gathered here, and the Common wore the appearance of a great fair. No one who attended can ever forget Boston in those serene,
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Young Folks' History of Boston.
fragrant, and bright June days. Another jubilee, at which the singers numbered nearly twenty thousand and the instru- ments nearly two thousand, was held in 1872.
On the evening of the 9th of November, 1872, a fire was discovered in a dry-goods building on the corner of Kings-
ICE
TRANSCRI
BOSTONTRANSCRIPT
AROMAT
CURBIER TBOTT & CO.
CORNER OF WASHINGTON AND MILK STREETS, BEFORE THE GREAT FIRE.
ton and Summer Streets. A cold wind was rising, and about nine o'clock the people were greatly excited to behold Sum- mer Street a wall of flame. In the night the wind blew heavily, the flames spread in all directions, and the great granite warehouses seemed to melt before them like lead. It
"SUMMER STREET A WALL OF FLAME."
331
" The Old South stands."
1872.
was Saturday night. The fire raged until Sunday noon. Sixty-five acres, the centre of the wholesale trade of the city, were covered with blackened heaps of ruin. Eight hundred buildings were destroyed. The loss was estimated at $80,- 000,000.
The fire was arrested at a point near the Old South Church. This historic building was saved by the heroic efforts of the firemen.
"THE OLD SOUTH STANDS."
Loud, through the still November air, The clang and clash of fire-bells broke ; From street to street, from square to square, Rolled sheets of flame and clouds of smoke. The marble structures reeled and fell, The iron pillars bowed like lead ;
But one lone spire rang on its bell Above the flames. Men passed, and said, " The Old South stands !"
The gold moon, 'gainst a copper sky, Hung like a portent in the air ; The midnight came, the wind rose high, And men stood speechless in despair. But, as the marble columns broke, And wider grew the chasm red, - A seething gulf of flame and smoke, - The firemen marked the spire and said, " The Old South stands !"
Beyond the harbor, calm and fair, The sun came up through bars of gold, Then faded in a wannish glare, As flame and smoke still upward rolled. The princely structures, crowned with art, Where Commerce laid her treasures bare ; The haunts of trade, the common mart, All vanished in the withering air, - " The Old South stands !"
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. Young Folks' History of Boston.
" The Old South must be levelled soon To check the flames and save the street ; Bring fuse and powder." But at noon The ancient fane still stood complete. The mitred flame had lipped the spire, The smoke its blackness o'er it cast ; Then, hero-like, men fought the fire, And from each lip the watchword passed, - " The Old South stands ! "
All night the red sea round it rolled, And o'er it fell the fiery rain ; And, as each hour the old clock told, Men said, " 'T will never strike again ! " But still the dial-plate at morn Was crimsoned in the rising light.
Long may it redden with the dawn, And mark the shading hours of night ! Long may it stand !
Long may it stand ! where God was sought In weak and dark and doubtful days ; Where freedom's lessons first were taught, And prayers of faith were turned to praise ; Where burned the first Shekinah's flame In God's new temples of the free ;
Long may it stand, in God's great name, Like Israel's pillar by the sea ! Long may it stand !
On the 17th of June, 1875, occurred the Centennial Cele- bration of the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was one of the most imposing peace pageants ever seen in America. It also happily proved the occasion of a formal exchange of expres- sions of good-will and renewed friendship between the repre- sentatives of the North and South.
Boston is a lovely city in mid-June, with its old historic streets, fine avenues, and grand trees ; but the day of the celebration was one of the most delightful of the season. An immense concourse of people, estimated at a quarter
LACRIPT OFFICE
"THE OLD SOUTH STANDS."
335
The Boston of To-day.
1875.
of a million, witnessed the march of the Centennial pro- cession through streets roofed with banners that gayly toyed and played with the mellow sunlight. The procession itself was nearly ten miles long.
In the procession were a Baltimore regiment and parts of a Virginia and South Carolina regiment. The splendid New York Seventh Regiment, with its glittering uniforms ; the Penn- sylvania regiments, with Governor Hartranft ; the Providence Light Infantry, with General Burnside ; General Sherman, Vice-President Wilson, and a large number of men associated with recent history, - all received a hearty recognition.
HENRY WILSON.
The march of the Southern regiments was a complete ova- tion through all the route.
The celebration was full of incidents calculated to inspire harmony of feeling between the late hostile States. A pal- metto-tree was planted at the foot of Bunker Hill Monument,
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Young Folks' History of Boston.
and so Massachusetts and South Carolina were made by their traditional emblems to stand side by side. The great organ was surrounded by palmettos and palms, and it pealed forth a fortissimo welcome when the troops from Charleston came filing into the Music Hall. Yet nowhere have been heard stronger or more stirring words, presenting Northern views of the late war, than on that same platform of Boston Music Hall.
On the Soldiers' Monument in Charlestown-an imposing gran- ite structure which especially honors Massachusetts soldiers who fell in the streets of Balti- more - the Maryland regiment placed an immense shield of flowers, bordered with trailing smilax, which was itself inwoven with flowers.
General Fitz Hugh Lee spoke in Music Hall on the occasion of the Governor's re- ception to invited guests. When he closed his ad- dress the orches- tra burst forth with "Auld Lang Syne." The flag of Eutaw, which had just been un- furled in honor of the South Caro- i. MI lina soldiers, was
SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT.
1877.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. 337
waving before the great organ, among the palmettos, and the audience was deeply stirred by old memories and new hopes.
On Sept. 17, 1877, there was another great military and civic procession on the occasion of the dedication of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. The entire military force of the State paraded, and was reviewed by President Hayes. From the top of this lofty monument the statue of America overlooks the city.
Our young readers have nearly all seen this beautiful work of art, but not all who have seen it may know the meaning of the four large bronze reliefs.
The one in front represents the departure for the war. A regiment is seen marching by the State House steps. The figures are -
Colonel Lowell,
Colonel Shaw,
Colonel Cass,
Mounted officers from left to right.
General Butler,
General Reed,
On the steps of the State House are -
Rev. John Turner Sargent,
Governor Andrew,
Rev. A. H. Vinton, Wendell Phillips,
Rev. Phillips Brooks, H. W. Longfellow, and others.
Archbishop Williams,
The second relief represents the work of the Sanitary Com- mission. The principal figures are -
Rev. E. E. Hale,
E. R. Mudge,
A. H. Rice,
James Russell Lowell,
From left to right.
Rev. Dr. Gannett,
George Ticknor,
W. W. Clapp,
Marshall P. Wilder,
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Young Folks' History of Boston.
The third relief gives a view of the return from the war. It contains forty figures. Among them are -
General Bartlett,
Governor Claflin,
General Underwood,
Charles Sumner,
General Banks,
C. W. Slack,
General Devens,
James Redpath,
Senator Wilson, J. B. Smith.
The fourth relief is a naval scene.
The most interesting locality in Boston, after the Common, is, perhaps, Art Square. Fronting it, or very near it, are the Art Museum, Trinity Church, the new Old South Church, Second Church, the Institute of Technology, and the Mu- seum of Natural History. The boulevard of Commonwealth Avenue is near, and the boulevard of Huntington Avenue stretches away from the square for more than a mile.
Trinity Church, a French Romanesque structure, such as might have been seen in Aquitaine in the Middle Ages, is one of the most beautiful buildings in America. It was conse- crated in 1877, when a procession of more than one hundred clergymen entered the main portal. Its famous frescos are by John La Farge. In the great tower these frescos repre- sent Moses and David, Peter and Paul, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
The Museum of Fine Arts is both a school and an exhi- bition. In the entrance hall are works by great sculptors, pottery by the mound-builders, Gobelin tapestry, and an- tiques from the Alhambra. The Greek rooms are rich in casts and statues, including the Sumner Collection. The Egyptian room contains the Way Collection of Egyptian antiquities. The picture galleries have works by nearly all the great masters of art of recent times, and many specimens of the old masters.
In the hall, just over the staircase, are two remarkable pic- tures. One of these is the Madness of King Lear, by Ben-
339
A Story of Washington Allston.
1843.
jamin West ; the other is Belshazzar's Feast, by Washington Allston, - a work that occupied the painter's attention for forty years, and on which he spent the last days of his life.
A STORY OF WASHINGTON ALLSTON.
Allston was one of the purest of men from youth to age.
He taught his pupils that character was the first essential to success in any art.
We once met a pupil of Allston, now one of the most fa- mous landscape painters in the country. He related many beautiful anecdotes of the great painter, and described his sudden death, and the scene in Cambridge churchyard when the moon broke through the summer clouds as the coffin was opened for the last time.
" There is one thing that Allston used to say to me that I shall never forget," he said with feeling: "it was a lesson that every young man should learn.
"'Young man,' he would say, ' be pure. No one ever can become a truly great artist without purity of character. Na- ture never reveals her beauties to a mind clouded with any grossness of character.'
" He seemed to try to impress upon me the fact that he who deviated in the least from strict morality became some- thing less of a man than he might have been."
The lesson which Allston taught his pupils, and sublimely illustrated in his own life, is one that every young man who has an aspiration for success in any æsthetic calling should learn. " Nature never reveals her beauties to a mind clouded with any grossness of character." Men of weak moral char- acter do often make a reputation in literature and art, but they are always "something less than they might have been."
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Near West's picture is Scheffer's Eberhard Mourning over the Body of his Son.
EBERHARD.
The clarions rung, the bugles played, The fight was hot and hard ; Before the town of Göttingen Fast fell the ranks of Swabian men, Led on by Eberhard.
Count Ulric was a valiant youth, The son of Eberhard ; The bugles played, the clarions rung, His spearmen on the foe he flung, And pressed the foemen hard.
" Ulric is slain !" the nobles cried." The bugles ceased to blow. But soon the monarch's order ran, " My son is as another man, Press boldly on the foe."
And fiercer now the fight began, And harder fell each blow ; But still the monarch's order ran, " My son is as another man, Press boldly on the foe."
O, many fell at Göttingen, Before the day was done ; But victory blessed the Swabian men, And the happy bugles played again At the setting of the sun.
We have ended many of these chapters with a story. We will here close with some account of
1845.
A Gigantic Relic.
341
A GIGANTIC RELIC.
The rarest collections of scientific relics are often the most unvisited, and it is a somewhat singular fact that the choicest and most instructive curiosities in many of our larger cities are not to be found in the popular museums. Thousands of people living in the city of Boston, who are familiar with the stuffed animals and astonishing wax figures in the old Boston Mu- seum, and are accustomed to air their fancy among the re- spectable fossils and gorgeous tropical birds in the Museum of Natural History, have perhaps never so much as heard of the wonder-exciting collection of anatomical curiosities known as the Warren Museum.
The building stands in a quiet, tenantless part of Chestnut Street, between Charles Street and the Charles River, but a few steps from Beacon Street and the Public Garden. It is made of brick, with heavy iron doors and shutters, and of all places would be the least likely to attract the eye of the stranger, but for the inscription over the door, -
"ERECTED BY
DR. JOHN COLLINS WARREN."
Dr. John Collins Warren was the son of Dr. John Warren, a most skilful surgeon in the American army during the Revolutionary War, and the founder of the Medical School in Harvard College. He was educated in the best medical schools of London and Paris, and on the death of his father, in 1815, was elected Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Harvard College, and in 1820 was placed at the head of the surgical department of the Massachusetts General Hospital, a position that he held for thirty-three years. During the latter period he made the most extensive collection of ana- tomical specimens to be found in the country. A part of
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