USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Proceedings at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, September 21, 1886 > Part 9
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The PRESIDENT : Ladies and Gentlemen, the next toast is, -
Our Naturalized Fellow-Citizens ! Loyal to every duty of peace or war. Happy, proud America knows no distinction between her children by birth and her children by adoption.
I had invited Rev. ROBERT J. JOHNSON, my friend and a friend of Dedham, to respond, but he is unavoidably absent. He however sent his reply, which is as follows : -
ADDRESS OF REV. ROBERT J. JOHNSON.
Mr. PRESIDENT, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, - The invi- tation to speak to the sentiment which has just been offered, reached me only yesterday. My words there-
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fore must of course be of a hastily-considered character, and far from doing justice to the broad field of patriotic survey and reflection which it opens out.
The naturalized citizens of Dedham join as heartily as their native-born neighbors in celebrating this anniversary of its settlement as a town. They feel an equal pride in its history, and an equal pride in its future. !
You have well said that America "knows no distinction between her children by birth and her children by adop- tion ; " and indeed it is the distinctive glory of our land that she welcomes to the support and the shelter of her flag all the honest manhood of the world, no matter under what skies it was born. Our orators may descant upon the glories of America through all the centuries to come with- out finding any nobler thing to say of her than has been already said in two famous and familiar lines,-
" For her free latch-string never was drawn in Against the poorest child of Adam's kin."
The great and far-seeing men who founded the Republic which thus opens its arms to all the children of men, had the prescience to perceive that its destiny and mission was to be the home of a more comprehensive nationality than any that the world had yet seen, in which all civilized races should merge to form the mightiest people of all time. We look back to their work, and say that they builded better than they knew; yet after all, they but fol- lowed the instinct of their situation. For we must remem- ber that Hamilton, Gallatin, Gates, Steuben, Montgomery, Witherspoon, and many other of the Revolutionary states- men and soldiers, and several of the signers of the Dec- laration of Independence, were themselves emigrants to this country, foreigners by birth and Americans by adop- tion. What, therefore, could be more natural than that they should have laid the foundations of our government
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broad enough to sustain a national life whose blood should be enriched by continual drafts from the original sources of its being? The wisdom of the fathers has been grandly justified by a century of marvellous growth and progress. The benign spirit which framed a political and social order to which all the sons of Adam were freely bidden to come in, has resulted in building a nation of three millions up to a nation of sixty millions of people. The census of 1880 shows that since the year 1820 over ten millions of people have come into this country from foreign lands, and of this number three millions came here from the land of Emmet, O'Connell, and Parnell. They have brought here stout hearts and willing hands; and, more than this, they have brought with them a valuable element in our citizenship, and a tower of strength to the institutions which they have made their own.
The sentiment you have proposed, Mr. President, recog- nizes the naturalized citizen as loyal to every duty of peace or war. History justifies this recognition. In every crisis which the country has been called to face, the citizen of foreign birth has been found faithful and devoted. On every battlefield of the Revolution, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown; in the war that carried our flag to the capital of Mexico and gave us the Californias; and still more con- spicuously in the war for the preservation of the Union, - the adopted American proved himself a brave soldier and a true citizen.
Readers of Revolutionary history know how large and honorable a share Irishmen had in the sacrifices and vic- tories of that birth-struggle of the Republic. It has been said of the gallant Richard Montgomery, who joined the army of Washington in the gloomy winter of 1775, that " a detailed history of his military career would form an epitome of our early Revolutionary struggle." The name of John Stark, the hero of the battle of Bennington, is
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closely associated with the same epoch. Major Andrew McCleary was not the only Irishman who fought on Bunker Hill, though his giant form is one of the most striking figures in that famous battle. The name of Carroll, of Carrollton, lives forever as one of the signers of the great Declaration, of Irish blood and lineage; and we may recall that the first printer and publisher of that immortal docu- ment was John Dunlap, a native of Ireland and a brave officer under Washington. In the same line of Revolu- tionary memories we are proud to recount the names of Edward Hand, Washington's favorite adjutant-general; of Henry Knox, Washington's chief-of-artillery and afterwards a member of his cabinet; of Stephen Moylan, another of Washington's favorite generals ; of Ephraim Blaine, one of Washington's quartermasters, and from whom James G. Blaine is descended; of George Ewing, who shared the terrible winter of 1777 with Washington at Valley Forge, and whose son was the distinguished Senator Thomas Ewing, of Ohio; of Daniel Morgan, whose skill and valor won the battle of the Cowpens, and later helped to defeat Burgoyne; of John Sullivan, another of Washington's trusty generals, afterwards Governor of New Hampshire, and whose brother, James Sullivan, was one of the carly Governors of Massachusetts; of James Graham, who com- manded in fifteen battles against the King's troops before he was twenty-three years of age; and of John Gibson, who fought in all our battles with England, from Trenton to Yorktown.
In the naval combats of the war for Independence Irish bravery was not less conspicuous. It was Jerry O'Brien who fought and won our first battle on the seas with the British John Rogers. The first commodore of the Amer- ican navy commissioned by Washington was John Barry, the son of a Wexford farmer, who in answer to Lord Howe's offer of a bribe of twenty thousand guineas said :
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" I am a poor man, but the King of England has not money enough to buy me." David Porter was another Irish naval officer of distinction in the same struggle, father of another David Porter, who was one of the foremost heroes of 1812, and grandfather of the Admiral David D. Porter of our own day. And when we come down to the second war with Britain, the names of Andrew Jackson and Alexander Macomb in our army, and of Decatur, Porter, Blakeley, Rodgers, McDonough, Perry, and Stewart in our navy, all bear historic testimony to the signal services which men of Irish birth or parent- age rendered to the early cause of American liberty. This does not exhaust the list by any means; I have merely enumerated a few of the more shining names. George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Washington, says: "Of the operatives in war - the soldiers I mean - up to the coming of the French, Ireland furnished in the ratio of one hundred for one of any foreign nation whatever." Well, indeed, may the Irish- born citizen of America feel that his patriotism has its roots deep down in the deeds of his forefathers, and proudly claim that the American flag is his, not merely by the right of his own sworn allegiance, but by all the sacred associations that cluster around more than a cen- tury of partnership in the sacrifices and successes that have made America the first nation of the earth. The Irishman who could do aught else but love America would, in the light of this history, be an unaccountable phenomenon.
We all know how, at the call of Lincoln in a later crisis, the ranks of the great armies that poured Southward to defend the flag were swollen by thousands upon thousands of these men who had learned to love America with a love as deep as any that was borne towards her by her native sons. The generals of the great war included many a gal-
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lant man of Irish birth or blood, - Sheridan, Shields, Cor- coran, Meagher, and a hundred others whose names I do not need to rehearse, because the history of that struggle is still fresh in the general recollection. The roll-calls of the regiments that followed Grant through the Wilderness, marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan down the valley of the Shenandoah, or stood with Meade and Hancock at Gettysburg, bear eloquent testimony to the profound and fervent patriotism of the foreign-born citizen-soldier. We have the authority of Holy Writ for saying that greater love hath no man for another than that he lay down his life for him. Nor can there be any greater love of country than that which offers itself a willing sac- rifice on the altar of her necessity. The good old town of Dedham knows how well her adopted citizens kept faith with the flag in the nation's hour of need. The monument on which she preserves the record of her contribution to the long list of heroes who perished that the Republic might live, includes the names of many gallant sons of Erin, who, loving their adopted land with all the ardor with which they loved their own, went forth from the workshops, the factories, and the farms of this peaceful town and returned no more.
Speaking now, as I may be permitted to do, more especially of our citizens of Irish birth and descent, who form about one third of the present population of Dedham, I can say for them without boasting that they not only love their chosen country, but are deeply attached to the State and to this historic town. Their homes are here and all their treasures; and "where the treasure is, there will the heart be also."
It is, perhaps, not sufficiently borne in mind that the Irish-American has special and peculiar incentives to the love of his adopted country. We appreciate our blessings largely by contrast; the boon of liberty is more valued
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by those who have lived and suffered where liberty was not; the blessings of free government are estimated more nearly at their true value by those who have endured the curse of tyranny and oppression. The citizen of Irish birth comes here with just such an appreciation of liberty and free government; he knows, by bitter experience, what it is to be denied the inalienable rights of "life, lib- erty, and the pursuit of happiness." Finding here what was denied to him in the land of his birth, he naturally and rapidly acquires a sincere and ardent attachment to the institutions of his adopted land, which in depth and intensity far exceeds that of his more favored fellow-citi- zens, who never felt the weight of despotic rule.
It is well that we should not forget that patriotism is the child of religion. Love of God involves love of man and love of country. Cardinal Manning says : "It is a part of our Catholic theology that a man is bound by the gift of piety to love his country. . . . Our countrymen are our kindred. Their welfare, their peace, their defence, their prosperity, ought to be an object of our most hearty, res- olute, self-denying, and self-sacrificing devotion. We are like men on board ship, - all that are together have one common interest; they are all alike in peril or in safety." This conception of the moral obligations of the individual citizen to the whole community of which he is a part, which I quote from the great Catholic prelate of England, is the conception which Irishmen carry with them into all lands, wherever their lot may be cast. In this spirit I am glad to join these commemorative exercises.
Two centuries and a half is a long period in the annals of American civilization. It carries us back to the very beginnings of our Continental story. Age gives character to communities as well as to individuals. Our town is one of the oldest places of settled habitation in New England, and the town-meeting - which Adams, I think, calls "the
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miniature republic"-has given to it a continuous career of orderly self-government. It has partaken of the growth of the State as a whole, and shared in the changes which that growth has brought about. Nevertheless, it has pre- served much that was well worth keeping from former generations, - a reputation for honesty, integrity, and or- der as a community,- and it has successfully blended the old with the new; so that we may to-day not only look back to the past with satisfaction, but forward to its fu- ture with hope. The naturalized citizen will be, as he has already been, an important and a valuable factor in that future. I venture the prophecy that he will never be found wanting in the performance of his whole duty to the township or to the grand old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He realizes fully that whatever makes for the welfare and prosperity of either, makes also for his welfare and prosperity.
In behalf, then, of your naturalized fellow-citizens, claim- ing with you an equal pride in its honorable past, and an equal share with you in the honorable and happy future which, if it please God, is yet in store for it, I join you, with all my heart, in wishing all good wishes for the prosperity of the town of Dedham.
The PRESIDENT : There is one more toast, and only one, -
The Town of Dedham ! Stable in character, prudent and conservative in conduct, she points with pride to two hundred and fifty years of steady and unbroken progress ; to every obli- gation promptly met ; to her ample treasury and her freedom from debt ; to her liberal appropriations for public education ; and to her happy, contented, and prosperous inhabitants.
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I have the honor of introducing to you, to re- spond to this toast, A. B. WENTWORTH, Esq., of Dedham, one of our board of Selectmen.
ADDRESS OF ALONZO B. WENTWORTH, ESQ.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - I should € prefer at this late hour to follow the example of Father Johnson, and submit my speech to the reporters; but as the representative of the present town government, a few words will be pardoned with which to conclude the highly satisfactory exercises of this occasion.
Although Dedham has been shorn of the ample terri- torial proportions of 1636, when she extended from Cam- bridge to the Providence Plantation, she has preserved unsullied the essential elements of the grant to the original proprietors. To the adjoining city on the north, and to the towns on the east, south, and west, she has given of her territory, and contributed to make new municipalities, some of which to-day excel her in wealth and population ; but she has, none the less, maintained in all its fulness her character as a well-ordered and progressive community.
Her duty to the Colony, the Commonwealth, and the Republic has been faithfully performed throughout her history. The men of Dedham were with Captain Church at Mt. Hope, with Sir William Pepperrell at Louisburg, among the "embattled farmers" at Lexington and Con- cord, with Washington at Valley Forge and Yorktown, with McClellan at Antietam, and with Grant at Appomattox. She contributed the illustrious name of Horace Mann to the cause of education, the eminent services of Haven, Metcalf, Colburn, and Wilkinson to the judiciary, and to the councils of the Republic Dexter and Dowse and Fisher Ames. Through all the changes of two and a half cen-
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turies her simple town government, with its Selectmen and other town officers, has been maintained. Town-meetings have been regularly held, where town business is trans- acted, appropriations made, town officers elected, and men and measures discussed. Indeed, the town government alone remains in its original form.
The Province, Confederation, and Colony are gone; the church, which was the counterpart of the old town, has been divided; but the town government remains, a monu- ment to the good sense and free spirit of its founders. Their brightest anticipations are excelled in the comfor- table houses of her thrifty farmers, the extent and variety of her industrial pursuits, the beauty of her suburban residences, her imposing public buildings, and the material prosperity of all her citizens.
In receiving the congratulations and good wishes of her children and grandchildren on this occasion, Dedham, without boasting, can say that the purposes of her original settlers in organizing popular government have been faithfully pursued. If she has been conservative and prudent, she has not been obstructive or prudish. Her obligations have been faithfully kept; her appropriations for schools, highways, and the poor have been ample; her devotions to deserving charity have been liberal; and no debt with its weight of accumulating interest has been allowed to burden her citizens. Her growth has been natural and healthy; and, pursuing the simplicity of the fathers, she presents to-day the rich fruition of the conceptions and hopes of the good and brave men who first penetrated the forests and established here a settlement.
It cannot be expected, in the course of nature, that many of us will be present at the third centennial, in 1936; but I can express no better wish for those who may be than that a more abundant measure of prosperity may
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attend their increasing numbers, - and for the town, that her affairs may in the mean time be administered with a like fidelity and sense of public responsibility.
The exercises at the tent closed at 5.30 o'clock, the lateness of the hour forbidding other speeches which had been expected. The SCHUBERT CLUB, under the direction of Mr. ARTHUR W. THAYER, furnished appropriate music for the afternoon, which added much to the enjoyment of the occa- sion.
At two o'clock, P. M., a concert was given by the NORWOOD BAND on the Church Green.
A collation was furnished by the Committee of Arrangements to the Cadets, upon Mr. WARREN's grounds on High Street, during the afternoon, and their band gave a complimentary concert to a large company of ladies and gentlemen there assembled.
At four o'clock, P. M., the CADET BAND gave a concert on the Church Green.
At sunset a national salute was fired and the church bells rung, and a concert was given by the Norwood Band on the Common.
At seven o'clock, P. M., a very elaborate display of fireworks, under the direction of Mr. GEORGE R. JOHNSTONE, was made on the Common, followed by a general illumination of the town, the burning of
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tar-barrels, etc. A reception and dance at Memo- rial Hall, with music by Baldwin's string band, closed the festivities of the day.
A final meeting of the Committee of Arrange- ments was held on Saturday, September 25, when the thanks of the Committee were tendered the Secretary for his efficient and valuable services, and the Chairman was requested to extend the cordial thanks of the Committee to the Chief-Marshal, Orator, and Presidents of the Day, and to the vari- ous committees and others who had assisted in the very successful celebration.
THE HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
T HE collection of articles of local and historic interest which was displayed in the Unitarian Vestry attracted much attention, and proved to be one of the most interesting features of the celebra- tion. Notwithstanding the short time allowed for preparation, the Committee were able to present a collection of rare merit and value. The response to the appeal of the Committee was prompt and enthusiastic, and the extent and variety of the col- lection was a genuine surprise and a source of gratification to a very large number of visitors.
A prominent feature of the exhibition was the representation of an old-fashioned New England kitchen, the tasteful and intelligent handiwork of some of the young ladies of the Committee, illus- trating the primitive habits and simple life of those who dwelt in the Dedham of a century ago.
The Picture Room contained more than forty portraits, many of them of rare artistic merit, of persons identified with Dedham families. The collection of miniatures, photographs, engravings, and small paintings in oils and water-colors was also large and valuable.
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The main hall of the building was almost entirely filled with a collection of more than a thousand specimens of ancient articles, embracing very valu- able contributions of Indian and Colonial relics, silver, glass, china, plated and wooden ware, chairs, furniture, household utensils, embroidery, fancy- work, wearing apparel, etc., tastefully arranged and displayed, the mere enumeration of which would fill many pages of this volume.
It had been the intention of the Committee in charge of the Historic Collection to further mark the day of the celebration by planting two trees in the rear of the Unitarian Church ; but the season proving too early for their safe transplanting, that interesting ceremony was necessarily postponed. Hon. THEODORE LYMAN, of Brookline, having gen- erously given the Committee two beautiful Norway maple-trees, taken from his nursery, they were set out under the direction of the Chairman of the Committee on the 5th of November. May the three hundredth anniversary of the town's incorpo- ration find them flourishing in vigor and beauty !
REPORT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HISTORIC TABLETS AND MONUMENTS.
T HE Committee appointed by the town, to whom was assigned the agreeable duty of erecting tablets or monuments to mark places and objects of historic inter- est, and of restoring and preserving any such existing monuments in the town, in the discharge of that duty aimed to use the sum placed at their disposal for the preservation and perpetuation of such historic objects and places as have public and permanent interest. While such localities may not be numerous in Dedham, the number might with propriety have been extended further, had the appropriation been more ample.
Two historic monuments are dear to the memory of all who were either born or reared in Dedham. The old brick Powder House " on the great rock in Aaron Fuller's land " is a place where several generations of Dedham boys and girls have delighted to resort, and whither they turn after years of absence to view again the charming landscape. The plain unfinished stone which has stood in the corner of the court-house yard during the memory of those now living has had a mystery about it which few could solve, if it has not escaped the observation of many who have passed it daily for years. It did not re-
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quire much deliberation to determine that these monu- ments of ante-Revolutionary times were worthy of especial attention. The ancient burial-place where reposes the dust of all the first generation of Dedham settlers also called for some permanent designation. The original training-field, known in later times as the "Great Com- mon," for the preservation of whose boundaries there has been in former times a singular indifference, although it is perhaps the only ground in Dedham to which the pub- lic have an indisputable right, certainly deserved to be marked in such a manner that its original purpose should not be wholly forgotten. And finally, the location of the first mill and dam has a great interest, since in their erection was signally shown the great enterprise and fore- sight of the founders of the town.
To these five places and monuments the Committee have been obliged to confine their attention. Bronze tab- lets bearing simple historic inscriptions in polished raised letters, made by M. H. Mossman, of Chicopee, Mass., have been placed on the Powder House and "The Pillar of Liberty ;" and a third has been inserted in a stone specially selected for the purpose, and placed in the wall of the old Parish Burial-Ground.
The Committee also on the day of the anniversary celebration, with a moderate sum drawn from the gen- eral appropriation by the authority of the Committee of Arrangements, were enabled to designate by temporary in- scriptions a number of interesting places where old houses and buildings formerly stood, and to give the dates of the erection of some prominent houses now standing. A list of these will be found at the end of this report.
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THE BURIAL-PLACE.
At the first recorded meeting of the proprietors, Aug. 18, 1636, before the settlement had been named Dedham by the General Court of the Colony, while it was yet called by the settlers themselves Contentment, lots were set out and measured by Thomas Bartlet to seven persons named, each lot containing twelve acres, -all of which was con- firmed at this meeting; and from the description of these lots in the Book of Grants it appears that the lot of Nicho- las Phillips, one of the seven men, was abutted upon Charles River towards the north, and the swamp and burying-place towards the south, the high street running through the same.
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