USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 14
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His successor, Peleg W. Chandler, was city solicitor from 1846 to 1853, and has left two monuments behind him, the city code of 1850 and the charter of 1854. Of the two, the former is the better. It presents a complete picture of the city laws and ordinances prior to the charter of 1854, and contains some historical references. Mr. Healy was the head of the law department from 1856 to 1882. In 1881 the office of corporation council was created for him (ordin. of March 30, 1881). He was the pupil and partner of Daniel Webster, and him- self the Webster of our municipal law. He was not a literary lawyer, and few of his opinions are published. But it was in part due to his sturdy honesty and courage that the affairs of the city were kept un- tarnished at a time when municipal extravagance was not uncommon,
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and corruption sometimes charged against other cities. He was annually elected by the city council; he reigned while government by committee was supreme ; his speech was homely; he was incapable of an indirection ; but he kept the corporation straight. The law of the corporation, perhaps, deserved no other monument than the name of its honest and faithful servant (a portrait and sketch of Mr. Healy ap- peared in the Municipal Register of 1882). It is not creditable to the city that its law department continues to be "under the charge of the corporation counsel and the city solicitor jointly " (Rev. Ord. of 1892, 46). The United-States Department of Justice is better arranged. It is to be regretted, also, that all formal opinions given by the law de- partment of the city are not published. They might be an honor to the department and a light to the corporation. The city has had good law at a small cost.
Bridge Department.
On November 3, 1828, the city appointed a superintendent of the free bridge. A few years later a superintendent of the Boston south bridge was appointed. The free bridge is now known as the Federal- street bridge, and the Boston south bridge is called the Dover-street bridge. The principle established by the appointment of the bridge superintendent has proved a source of great expense. In 1857 the city had seven superintendents of as many free bridges; on May 22, 1811, the two bridges to Charlestown, and the two to Cambridge, were added (auditor's report for 1811-72, 19, 41, 81). The Revised Ordinances of 1885 united all bridges, except three to Cambridge, under one super- intendent of bridges, who began to serve on April 5, 1886, taking charge of more than twenty bridges over navigable waters. The ordi- nance of March 9, 1891, placed all highway bridges under the care of the superintendent of streets, thus restoring the establishment to the simple arrangement with which it began in 1828. Meantime the number of bridges maintained in part or wholly by the city is seventy- five, and the total number of publie bridges in the city is a hundred and ten (ann. rep. of city engineer for 1892-93, 14). The first bridge that connected Boston with any of its neighbors, Charles-river bridge, was opened to the public on June 17, 1786. Forty years later there was no free bridge in Boston. Exactly a hundred years after the com- pletion of the first Boston bridge, some twenty superintendents of bridges, nearly all elected annually by the city council, were reduced
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to the rank of draw-tenders, under a general superintendent, who be- came a mere division chief in 1891.
Had not Boston yielded to annexation, the history of its bridges might be simpler. South Boston was annexed for the benefit of South Boston, and did not rest until the free bridge of 1828 was accepted by the city, the outlay in the first fiscal year thereafter being more than $3,000. To make the city accept the bridge, the owners paid $1,602, which was immediately required to put the bridge in order. The Dover-street bridge was purchased at $3,500, and then a larger sum was expended on repairs. The Charles-river bridges to Charlestown and Cambridge were obtained on the like principle as the free bridge of 1828. The South-Boston bridges, in particular, were the subject of meetings, debates, divisions, legislation, and great excitement. But South Boston committed the city to the principle that bridges are ways to be maintained, like other ways, out of the annual tax. Later on, in the case of the Charles-river bridges, the same principle was applied to structures connecting the city, not with another part of the city (South Boston), but with the municipalities on the other side of Charles river. Is it inconsistent in East Boston to ask for a free bridge, or, in default of that, for free ferries? To be sure, the people of Boston have had a free road to South Boston since 1828, and across Charles river since 1858 (for historical notes see the code of 1876, 64). To be sure, the city is rich; but New York is richer, and the East-river bridge is not free. The people of Boston and the General Court have always had great faith in the city treasury, and the treasury has justified this con- fidence. In addition, the city has provided sumptuously for the suburbs whose inhabitants desired to do business in Boston. No wonder the proposition is now made that Boston build elevated roads, tunnels, and tracks of steel in order that the suburbs may have free access to the market they want, and none of the expense that main- tains the great metropolis.
Quarantine and City Physician.
The city council of 1824, apparently anxious to delegate as little power as possible, and to increase the number of its servants, under- took to do all the work previously transferred to the board of health. The astonishing ordinance of May 31, 1821 (code of 1827, 170), estab- lished three coordinate health departments,-the city marshal, to take care of health in the city; the commissioner of health, to take care of
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quarantine matters; and the superintendent of burial grounds. This officer, Deacon Hewes, rose to some importance. The city owned the " funeral cars," and conducted the funerals, took care of the cemeteries, and the superintendent kept the mortality record. The ordinance re- quiring the city to conduct funerals and to supply the funeral cars, continued until 1869, though the office of superintendent of burial grounds was changed, in 1849, to that of city registrar, which still con- tinues (in 1893). This office is now devoted to the recording of births, marriages, and deaths, the former having been transferred from the city clerk's office. The department, it appears, came from the board of health (code of 1818, 73), to which it may return, unless departments are to be multiplied. The records of marriages and deaths in Boston are strikingly accurate; those of births are not. If the registry depart- ment has not served the cause of medical science or vital statistics, it has been careful of all records within its province, and accurate in essentials, the value of the papers being personal and legal, rather than medical.
The board of health, established in 1799, had received from the selectmen all quarantine matters, and did very well. The early city government transferred the general supervision of the quarantine service to a commissioner, who was abolished in 1826 (code of 1827, 172). Of course, the board of health and the commissioner employed a physician to do the work; in 1826 the "resident physician, " as they called him, was made the head of the quarantine service. He was called resident physician because he did not reside at the quarantine station, which was Rainsford island, as in the past. In 1841 the resi- dent physician's title was changed to port physician ; he was required to vaccinate all suitable applicants, and he was virtually the city phy- sician, though the mayor and aldermen fancied themselves to be the real board of health because they were the nominal board. In 1849 the office of city physician was established (Mun. Reg. for 1850, 85- 90); and the port physician was transferred to Deer Island, which was made the quarantine station, and was to contain the house of industry, the house of reformation, and other correctional establishments previ- ously located at South Boston. The quarantine hospital was trans- ferred, in 1866, to Gallop's island, the pearl of the harbor islands. From 1826 to 1849 Dr. J. V. C. Smith was the resident or port phy- sician. He attended to his business, studied local history, and later on was mayor for two terms. Another city physician, Dr. S. A. Green,
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was mayor in 1882. The wise ordinance of 1872 restored all quaran- tine matters, all health matters, cemeteries, and kindred affairs to the board of health, which appoints its own physicians, and has done well, although its jurisdiction might be larger. In a large sense, quarantine and public health are not a municipal subject, perhaps; but the Boston quarantine and health service is good.
Public Lands.
When Boston became a city, it held large tracts of land. Boston owned a township in Maine, and within the city limits it owned large estates at the north end, Fort Hill, and especially some 280 acres of neck lands, so called. These latter became the South End, a name that continned long after Roxbury had been annexed. By filling, the real estate of the corporation was greatly increased, and for sixty years the city was a large operator in the land market. From 1834 to 1880 it had a superintendent of lands, who performed the ministerial duties con- nected with the preparation of the lands for the market, and their sale. The directing was done by committees, and on the whole it was well done. The system invited malfeasance, yet the city was not defrauded. The ordinance of 1834 (code of 1834, 298) required the superintendent of public lands to sign contracts and agreements, and in case he was prevented authorized the mayor to execute all legal instruments. This illustrates the view the city government took of its power. Nor was it strange that the committees on lands committed certain errors of judg- ment, among them the costly blunder in the Suffolk-street district so called. This district covers the territory between Pleasant, Washing- ton, Dover, and Tremont streets, about 31 acres, and was nearly all wrested from tide water. But the grade adopted was so low that when additional land was filled in, the Suffolk district could not be drained and was subject to overflows when the tide was high. It had to be raised at an expense of some $2,500,000. Yet when Middlesex street was accepted by the city, in 1831, who could foresee that the Back-Bay basin would be filled in as far as the mill dam, now Beacon street ? Very likely the city might have become rich, had its public lands been leased instead of sold. On the other hand, the committee contrived to sell the public lands for immediate improvements of the first order. The policy pursued was not the best, perhaps, but nobody was wronged. A government that does not wrong the people, has nothing to regret. The larger part of the streets laid out by the committee on lands has
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borne the test of time, and continues among the best improved estates in Boston. The public lands of the city, not otherwise cared for, passed in 1880 to the street commissioners.
Harbor.
In 1842 the office of harbor master was established. In 1889 the office was wisely transferred to the board of police. The jurisdiction of the police has been gradually extended over the outer harbor as well, and over certain adjacent territory (St. 1864, ch. 50; 1868, ch. 168). The wonder is that no harbor police was had until 1842, and that hardly any harbor legislation was passed until 1832. Up to that time the harbor was generally treated as public property with which men might do as they chose, provided no individual was wronged. The result was that the harbor of Boston was greatly injured; for in the early days of the city the government of the United States did very little for harbors. Harbor lines, beyond which piers must not extend, were first established in 1834 (ch. 229) ; a map of the inner harbor, with a view to its preservation, was made by the Commonwealth in 1847; and early in the sixties, mainly at the suggestion of Mayor Lincoln, the harbor was surveyed, by the city of Boston, again with a view to its preservation and improvement. Since then the government of the United States has cared for the harbor with great liberality, while the Commonwealth regulates riparian interests, and the city performs police duty. This police duty, it is interesting to think, covers a hun- dred square miles or more; the original area of Boston proper was less than one square mile. The United States Coast Survey published its first chart of the Boston harbor in 1856.
Minor Departments.
In 1849 the city was first authorized to appoint coal weighers. The law is important to coal consumers, especially such as buy in very small quantities. The city commissions these sworn weighers by the score, and the arrangement works. From the outset the municipal govern- ment has supervised weights and measures with skill and care; yet it would have been well to lodge the appointment of all weighers and measurers with the city sealer, and to attach the latter to the police department. The traditional phrase of the General Court in providing for municipal officers of a minor character vests their appointment in
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the selectmen, or mayor and aldermen, respectively, the result being that the mayor of Boston has to appoint thousands of officers every year, or more than the greatest care of one man can readily supervise. The city government, on the other hand, made few attempts at con- solidating departments and offices, the tendency being rather in the opposite direction, partly, perhaps, on the theory that all appointments have something of patronage about them, and that patronage is worth having. It may have been for some such reason, coupled with the dis- like of novelty in public affairs, that Boston appointed a surveyor of hemp as late as 1850, and an assay master as late as 1857. The assay master had to certify, under the law of 1223, that distilleries did not use lead in their apparatus, and the surveyor of hemp had to certify, under an act which expired in 1738, that certain hemp and flax grown in this "province" were "of great service to the crown " (? Prov. Laws, (3). Perhaps it was the love of ereating departments that led the government of 1852 to make its messenger a sort of a department officer, and the Revised Ordinances of 1890 to establish the "city mes- senger department." Of course, the city government had a messenger from the start, and the selectmen had under the Province, but without es- tablishing a separate department. The superintendence and lighting of street lamps was the duty of the night watch up to 1854, the captain of the watch receiving an allowance as superintendent of lamps. When the watch was merged in the police department, in 1854, a separate lamp department, with a separate superintendent, was created, and is still continued, although the department might be a bureau under the superintendent of streets. The aldermen treated lamps as their special province, and the common council was unable to get a voice in the matter, the law of 1722 having authorized the selectmen to set up street lamps, and the aldermen having been made the heirs of the selectmen, although the city council had the sole right to create the office of superintendent of lamps.
Truant Officers.
In 1850 the mayor and aldermen appointed the first truant officers. In 1873 the appointment of these officers was wisely transferred to the School Committee, and in 1893 the appointment was confined to persons certified by the civil-service commissioners of the Commonwealth. In Colony days the selectmen were the truant officers; in 1735 the over- seers of the poor had joint authority; when the city was established,
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and Mayor Quincy had his struggle with the overseers of the poor, the city had a great many truant officers, namely, the mayor, every alder- man, any director of the house of industry, any director of the house of reformation, any overseer of the poor (Act of March 4, 1826, sec. 3; Act of March 21, 1843), the result being total neglect. Nominally the house of reformation was the truant school; but the authorities of the public institutions were at liberty to transfer inmates from one establish- ment to another, and unable to effect a full separation of the vicious from the unfortunate. It has been intended to establish a parental school, especially for minors not simply criminal; but the management has not been entrusted to the School Committee (St. 1886, ch. 282). The ancient confusion, therefore, continues ; for if there were a parental school, the commissioners of public institutions and the school com- mittee would have joint authority over an establishment nominally parental, but correctional in fact. The subject falls properly under the care of the School Committee, which appoints the truant officers.
Market Department.
Under the interesting ordinance of September 9, 1852, the city ap- pointed a superintendent of the Fanenil-Hall market, since called the superintendent of markets (Rev. Ord. of 1890, p. 64), and previously known as the clerk of the market, the first being chosen in 1649. This is, in one respect, the most interesting office under the city government. The modern city of the Germanic world owes its first character largely to market laws; and a trace of these early laws still survives in Boston (Rev. Ord. of 1892, ch. 43, sec. 60). When markets became a neces- sity, special laws for regulating them were required. The administra- tion of these market laws and regulations was vested in the market towns; whence the piepowder courts, courts with summary proceed- ings, and municipal courts, round which gathered the municipal rights and duties that distinguish a market town from other municipalities. The Boston market place retained the medieval law, and a part of it still reigns within the limits of the Faneuil-Hall market. Within these limits the ordinance of 1852 permitted free trade only two days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively. The purpose of the market is to give the people of Boston the full advantage of open competition in the sale of perishable provisions, and to give the farmers within the neighborhood of Boston a certain advantage over distant rivals. A history of the market laws has not been written. In early English
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cities the mayor was generally clerk of the market and judge of the piepowder court, whence his popular title "your honor," which still survives in Boston, by a sort of atavism (see G. L. Gomme's Index of Municipal Offices, 11).
Water Department. Engineer and Surveyor.
The Boston water supply has more interest as a financial and engin- eering enterprise than in law. Up to the present time the work has cost nearly twenty-four million dollars, and is sufficiently vast to transcend mastery by one mind. The literature of the subject is a library. In 1825 the City ordered the first report upon the subject, and in 1834 Loammi Baldwin's famous report pointed to the supply that was taken. In 1846 the proper authority was obtained, and the work begun, Nathan Hale, James F. Baldwin, and Thomas B. Curtis being the commissioners who carried the Lake Cochituate supply to Boston, at an expense of four million dollars. The introduction of water was duly celebrated on October 25, 1848. In 1849 an ordinance established the Cochituate Water Board, to consist of a commissioner, an engineer, and a water registrar who, together with the committee on water, were to manage the great undertaking. In 1850 the board was so changed as to consist of an alderman, a member of the common council, and five citizens at large, who served withont pay. The board was chosen by the city council, as were the city engineer and the water registrar, whose offices were created by the same ordi- nance (Oct. 31, 1850). The city council, then, created three depart- ments, where one would have sufficed. And yet the arrangement worked. The board was faithful, the engineer excellent, and the water . registrar all that was wanted, as far as the assessment of water rates was concerned. The first report of the new board, issued in 1852, pre- sented a good history of the establishment.
The commissioners who built the works were also appointed by the city council, but they were paid. They secured the service of E. S. Chesbrough, engineer, and overcame all obstacles occasioned by indif- ferent regulations and divided authority. The act of 1846, under which the work was done, is interesting, also, for the first mention of a sink- ing fund in the history of the city government. The sinking fund was controlled by the mayor, treasurer, and auditor of the city, yet it was not well managed. Apparently a part of the water revenue was ex- pended for new construction, and the sinking fund was supplied from
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the general tax levy (see the auditor's annual report for 189, p. 9). In 1827, therefore, this subject was transferred to the board of sinking- fund commissioners. The case shows that at times a good law may operate indifferently, and that an indifferent law will not prevent the right men from doing their duty. The union with Charlestown brought the Mystic water works under the control of the city, and led, in 1826, to the establishment of the Boston Water Board, consisting of three . paid members, appointed for terms of three years, respectively, by the mayor, with the approval of the city council up to 1885, and the board of aldermen since. The ordinance provided, also, that the members of the board should not be directly or indirectly interested in any matter or thing connected with the water works (code of 1876, 941). The intent of the ordinance is obvious. Nor has it been necessary to construe the terms. The city has had good water, apparently at a fair price, and certainly without disgrace.
The engineering department owed its origin to the water works, but the bridges, sewers, and parks made it an office of general importance, and the increase in street work led, in 1868, to the separate establish- ment of the surveying department. This department should have remained a bureau under the city engineer; but the betterment law of 1866 (ch. 174) gave added importance to the aldermen's committee on laying out and widening streets, and the city surveyor was made their clerk. But the "care and supervision " of the office were vested in a special committee, which fixed the salaries of the subordinates, and had the approval of their appointment and discharge. The same prin- ciple was applied to the engineering department. The heads were elected by the city council for a year at the time. None the less both departments were efficient, possibly because the publicity of the super- vision was a protection. Systematic work was not possible in offices that took their orders from " any committee of the city council," yet the city was well served. As the water department is supposed to pay for itself, it is an open question how far it should employ engineers and other officers paid entirely from the water revenue. Its sinking fund used to get replenished from the general tax levy, and some of its law, engineering, and other expenses are still charged to general appropria- tions. On the other hand, the water revenue may be used, under the law (St. 1892, ch. 213), for new construction. To have made the water registrar an independent department, which assesses the water rates, seems odd, unless it is proper to multiply departments.
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THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
At the time when the popular interest in public schools was inflamed, the city of Boston received the gift of some books from Paris, and con- cluded that these documents were a proper nucleus for a free public library. In 1848 the General Court authorized the city to expend not exceeding $5,000 a year for such a purpose. In 1850 Edward Everett offered a thousand volumes of public documents, and Mayor Bigelow $1,000. In 1851 the General Court authorized cities and towns to establish and maintain public libraries open to "the inhabitants there- of." Boston being allowed to expend $28,000 the first year, and about $7,000 a year for maintenance. In 1852 Mayor Bigelow suggested the appointment of a librarian, whose work began May 13, and of trustees, whose first report led Joshua Bates to offer $50,000 toward the library, the city to find a suitable building. In the same year the permanent board of trustees was organized under an ordinance which called also for the annual election of a librarian by the city council. In 1853 the General Court authorized the expenditure of $150,000 for the library, up to December 31, 1856, and $10,000 a year thereafter. In 1854 the library had the services of a librarian, who was chosen by the city council; of trustees chosen in the same way; of commissioners who were to provide the library building; and of the usual committee, with the mayor left off. The circulating department was opened on May 2, 1854. On January 1, 1858, the library building in Boylston street was dedicated; in 1863 the trustees were authorized to appoint the librarian and superintendent, subject to the approval of the city council; in 1869 the trustees received authority to appoint their subordinates, but the city council was represented in the board up to 1885. The law limit- ing the library expenses to $10,000 a year had been repealed in 1857, and in 1878 the trustees were incorporated, with leave to hold property up to $1,000,000.
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