USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > The celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, September 15, 1885 > Part 5
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This town is older than the Commonwealth. You sit here in your age of two hundred and fifty years. The Commonwealth came a long time afterward ; and only out of Hingham and Cohasset and Charles- town and Dorchester and Roxbury and Boston and Concord and Lexington and hundreds of others do we have any Commonwealth at all. There can be no power of the State except that found in the municipalities, and none in them but that which comes into the homes of the people, -aye, into
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the hearts of the men and women themselves. Therefore it is true, as the President said, that Massachusetts is but the larger edition of Hing- ham; and God will bless her surely in the future if she shall continue to be loyal to the under- lying principles of good order and decency and manhood that have made this town so strong and distinguished as she is. You celebrate the anni- versary, as I understood the orator this morning to say, of the incorporation of the town. The Secre- tary of the Commonwealth is here, and he will tell you that he has searched day and night to find the original charter of the town of Hingham, and so far as his eye could discover, - I make this statement here now so that it may be subject to correction by some after speaker, -all that he could trace was this : that on the second day of September, 1635, it was resolved, " The settlement at Bear Cove shall have hereafter the name of Hingham." You had your name changed, that is all; took it from the old town across the water. And on that day Con- cord was really set out, her six miles square; but Weymouth, your near neighbor, likewise was given a new name. The settlement had commenced, as the orator truly told you this morning, a year or two before, and continued along down for several years thereafter.
Now we stand at the end of the two hundred and fifty years, -a long time compared with man's three- score and ten, many generations rolled up in that
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time, and yet nothing, a mere span, placed alongside the ages of the world, the records of great cities and countries in other lands. Why, you are older than Harvard College. You are older even than the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. You are more than a hundred years in antiquity beyond the Cadets, that so handsomely, nobly, and efficiently performed escort and protection for the Governor this morning. And you go back into a time when there were but eleven other towns recognized in the State. Only eleven ! And singularly enough, it is the fact that the Colonists then began to complain that there was not room in Massachusetts for all the people, and they crowded them over into Connecticut, and the settlement of that ancient State followed. What think you if in all these years, by some power divine or human, the sun in the heavens could have painted upon delicate plate the transactions of each year, and before you to-day could have been placed the succession of marvel- lous representations? In your own minds, so far as you have watched the current of events, you picture it, and what a thrilling presentation of life you have! Right in this cove here, upon these rocky hills, along this edge, you find the few settlers coming, then more and more, until you have, by rapid processes, the town developed and a settle- ment established for all time.
Nor is the influence of such a town found alone within its own borders. It is undoubtedly true that
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a great many persons here present have come home to-day. They dwell elsewhere. Sons and daughters of Hingham are found all over the country, aye, in various parts of the world, and carry her influence everywhere. More than that, too, it is always to the credit of a town that she keeps good cordiality at her doors. It testifies of her good quality when others like to visit her, and, better still, when they come here to spend their lives. Adopted citizenship is sometimes the best proof of the quality of origi- nal citizenship. Men go to countries where they can better their condition. Wanderers come from Maine to settle in Hingham, because they can do better; and they indeed not only bless themselves but richly benefit the communities of which they afterwards form a part.
Following the orator this morning, you noticed that he spoke of one characteristic of the early people of this town, and that was, boldness in speech, fearlessness to express sentiments. That is not peculiar to this town. Any one who has had an opportunity to see the people of this Commonwealth from the Governor's position knows that there are in several communities, and have been from time immemorial, people who express their minds when- ever they want to. But it is certainly characteristic to this extent, that search the records of the old towns in this State and you will find towering up now in history the men who stood out at that time ready to declare their opinions, whether the people
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liked them or not, and you will discover there the names of men who were put to fine and imprison- ment, to general condemnation, because they uttered unwelcome sentiments. They stood up nevertheless, and history now sees those men, but forgets to know or represent that there were others who conformed to everything and everybody at will. You recollect that John Haynes was Governor of Massachusetts in 1635. He was rigid in discipline while exercising the chief office of this Commonwealth. He partici- pated in the banishment of Roger Williams. But after his settlement in Connecticut his ideas became somewhat modified. He had felt that a person should only have the views that were to correspond with those in power and authority; but afterwards he said to Roger Williams in Connecticut, " I think I must now confess to you that God hath provided and cut out this part of the world for a refuge recep- tacle of all sorts of consciences." That is what New England is made up of, - all sorts of con- sciences in all sorts of people, with tongue and voice and thought to express what one will. That is the true freedom, and that our fathers really lived for and settled here for and builded for; and the result has far exceeded the anticipations that they dared to indulge in 1635. It is a good deal of comfort for a man now in these modern days to have this all re- hearsed before him, especially if he is one that the press, in its gentle administrations, touches with an unkind hand now and then. So, my friends, if you
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find in the morning journal that somebody is brought under severe censure and criticism, it may be that by and by, when that newspaper is forgotten as the very dust in the street, his name will be enrolled on high for the admiration of the millions. Possibly he, out of his courage, will have made his mark upon his time. Very likely he may be in the right all the while, and know within his conscience and his heart that he is speaking the truth that God even would own, and out of his own convictions cannot keep silent.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, the President told me at the outset, very quietly, that not more than ten minutes was expected of Governors in these days. I know this much, however, that just now he has no more power in the Commonwealth than anybody else. He cannot even command a single man in the Cadets, not one of them, nor issue an order that they would treat with respect; and so I break over his injunction and go beyond my ten minutes.
. This is the day really for the sons and daughters of Hingham, and, considering that, I must give way to them. What right have I, except as I speak for the whole people of the State, for the time being ? What privilege have I here, that I should take your time and your attention? You want to have those speak from this platform who have been in and of you ; who have sat within your homes, part of your home circles; who come back here to renew the
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kindly associations of hand and voice and eye; who are indebted and endeared to you in every form - men perhaps who were here fifty years ago, and took part in the great exercises of that celebration. You want to hear what have been the accomplish- ments of all these people in the times past, and I certainly should not prevent your enjoyment of the opportunity.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, we stand here with the two hundred and fifty years accomplished. We speak of the pride of the past, - we ought to; but we are not fit to appreciate it unless we have resolu- tion and purpose for the future. The President has well selected the great and distinguished of the town and pointed to them as leading the way, as blazing the path through the forest, and he has gone farther and taken in those who by some act attracting at- tention make themselves strong among the people where they live. But I take you all in. You may select your one, two, or even a score of persons in a town and put them aside, and they constitute but a very small portion of that whole people. Looking up and down the seats that are before me, seeing the faces, knowing the intellect and the power and the culture and the good heart that is in this audience, I know that the future resides with you; and whether one man or another is Governor, one man or another lives here or lives there, it is of small consequence compared with what you each do in your homes and in your daily life.
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Now, ladies and gentlemen, the Commonwealth is here to-day, and she will be here fifty years hence, though every one of us has disappeared forever. She stands every day with her towns and her cities. New people come up to call her their own from time to time, and she has her perpetuity in their strength and in their success. She gives you welcome to- day. She asks God's blessing for your future, and trusts it will be as honorable as we know the past has been.
The PRESIDENT. - Ladies and gentlemen, I never for a moment undertook to command the Governor of this Commonwealth that he should limit his speech to ten minutes. I simply, and with as much delicacy as I could, advised him not to exceed ten minutes. He ran great risk in not taking my advice.
The Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth, on whom I am not going to call, informs me that his Constitutional duty is to go about with the Governor and to supply his deficiencies. But the Governor is never guilty of any deficiency, therefore the Lieutenant-Governor always remains silent. I am sure, however, although I respect his wish not to speak on this occasion, we all unite in paying him the tribute of our respect, due not only to his office but to him as a citizen and as the son of the father who so many years represented this District in Congress, and in whom the people of the District
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never lost confidence. I should be happy to call also upon my friend, the Secretary of State, whose fund of humor never runs dry; but the Common- wealth, of course, must not monopolize all the time on this occasion, and if he once began you would never let him sit down.
I have a telegram here from Prof. James Hall, a native of the town, distinguished for his scientific attainments, who regrets that he cannot be with us.
On Saturday last I telegraphed to the President of the Day at Concord, -
Hingham congratulates Concord on the celebration of their common birthday. Hope you will have a good time, sister.
Concord replies with this telegram : --
CONCORD, MASS., Sept. 15, 18S5. To the President of the Day, Hingham :
The Low Hills to the Seashore send greeting and con- gratulations. Concord replies to her twin, " many happy returns."
THE CONCORD CELEBRATION, by the President of the Day.
George B. Bartlett, of Concord, sends these rhymes : -
From Concord Bridge the moss-grown manse this loving greeting sends, ----
Hingham and Concord ought to be the very best of friends ;
For glorious as we think ourselves, it still is very true
One of our best and holiest men we doubtless owe to you.
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Good Dr. Ripley, full of grace, of credit and renown,
Was born of reverend ancestry within your ancient town.
Three quarters of a century he held us in his care,
With cxhortation and reproof, with solemn word and prayer, To make us worthy of the men who bravely fought and died, And of the ones who lived and wrote, and thus were glorified. On Tuesday and on Saturday we count our deeds and sing 'em, And join in loving harmony old Concord and old Hingham.
GEORGE B. BARTLETT.
Isaac Hinckley sends a letter : -
CODMAN HILL, DORCHESTER, MASS., Sept. 4, 1885. Starkes Whiton, Esq., Chairman of Committee on Invitations, Hingham, Mass. :
DEAR SIR, - I was much gratified by the receipt of the invitation to visit the good old town, my birthplace, on the 15th inst. I have delayed my reply, having hopes that I might be able to accept the invitation, but my physicians have nearly decided that I must start for Colorado before the 15th inst. I must, therefore, with more regret than I can express, forego the pleasure of visiting Hingham on the day of the Celebration. Thanking the Committee for recollecting their townsman on this occasion,
I am very truly yours, ISAAC HINCKLEY.
Senator Hoar sends a letter : -
WORCESTER, Sept. 8, 1885.
MY DEAR GOVERNOR LONG, --- It seems now quite certain that I shall not be able to be at your interesting celebration on Tuesday. I have a professional engagement, of the first importance, which will take me all day and far into the evening on that day. I should like of all things
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to hear Mr. Lincoln's address and the other speeches, which I shall eagerly read. The town of Hingham is, I believe, of just the same age as my own native town, Concord. They have many resemblances. If the British did not march your way in 1775, I am sure you would have made it quite as hot for them, if they had. I am sure, too, that the old faith of the Puritan and of the Revolution, the old constancy, the old love of liberty, the old purpose to fight an age-long battle, if need be, for constitutional govern- ment, the old purpose to endure to the end, abides in both, unquenched and unabated. I am
Yours very truly, GEORGE F. HOAR.
Richard Henry Stoddard, a native of Hingham, sends a letter. It is an excellent letter, but the hand- writing shows that he graduated from Hingham before penmanship was made a fine art :-
NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 1885.
MY DEAR SIR, - My absence from the city for some weeks past prevented me from getting your kind invitation to be present at the Hingham anniversary until many days after it was written. I have tried very hard to do my share towards celebrating it, but without success, for I have not been, and shall not be, able to furnish my townsmen with a hymn, or any other verse, for that occasion. I am sen- sible of the honor they have done me; but if I cannot write what I should like to, why, I cannot, and there it ends. If I had not tried to do this very seriously this note would have been written days ago. Will you kindly tell the gen- tlemen of your Committee how sorry I am to have to write this note? The earliest recollections of my life cluster about Hingham, which I see plainly, as I write this, as it was
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over fifty years ago. I am proud of having been born there, and should be glad to have my dust (when I am done with it) committed to the earth in its old burying-ground on the hill. But it is no longer an old burying-ground, for when I saw it last it was spick-and-span new, laid out in gravel walks, grass plats, and peopled with monuments. Regretting my inability to join my townsmen as I hoped at one time, I am
Yours truly, R. H. STODDARD. Mr. STARKES WHITON.
Sidney Howard Gay writes :-
WEST NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND, N. Y., Aug. 28, 1885.
Messrs. Whiton, Thaxter, and others, Committee:
GENTLEMEN, - I regret very much that I am compelled to deny myself the pleasure of joining with you in the celebration of the 15th proximo. But permit me to add that, though I cannot be with you, I agree most heartily and piously in the duty of commemorating the birthday of that good old mother, who has given to the country, directly and indirectly, more citizens eminent in their day and generation for civic virtue, ability, and usefulness than have come from any other one spot, probably, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - God save her. With many thanks for your kind remembrance of me, I remain your friend and townsman,
SIDNEY HOWARD GAY.
If Mr. Reeves will now play " Sweet Home," we shall be very much obliged to him.
." Home, Sweet Home " was played by the band.
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The PRESIDENT. -- Our next toast is, --- Plymouth County.
It was the courting of Hingham by the two counties of Suffolk and Plymouth that led the poet to say, ---
" How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away."
After flirting with both, an example that not one of her daughters has ever followed, Hingham kissed her hand to the Puritan but gave it to the Pilgrim. To respond for the fortunate suitor, -and that is the only suitor for a lady's preference that is ever of any consequence, -- I shall call upon an humble rail- road hand whose daily business it is to put on the brakes. He may possibly have responded before for the Old Colony. I am sure that his heart is so full of love for her - he told me " an affection of the heart" would compel him to accept our invitation here - that neither his inexperience in public speaking nor the terrors of my awful command will prevent him from paying her a tribute as fresh - and now I speak most sincerely - as though, returning from college, he were laying his first sheaf at her feet instead of the hundredth, each last more beautiful than the rest. I present you Judge Thomas Russell, of the Railroad Commission.
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ADDRESS OF HON. THOMAS RUSSELL.
MR. PRESIDENT, - Plymouth county rejoices in the good taste which Hingham finally showed in her choice of a legal residence. In return she has made every son of Hingham an heir of the Pilgrims by adoption and a son of the Old Colony by brevet. We think it fortunate that the same county holds the grave of Governor Bradford and of Governor Andrew, - one foremost in founding a free govern- ment, the other among the foremost in maintaining it, - each combining a firm faith in everything that is good, with a liberal capacity for accepting any- thing that is better. We err sometimes in speaking of Plymouth, town and county, as if their history ended in 1620. We owe it to the fathers to show that their sons have not been wholly unworthy of them. It is good to recall the fact that Myles Standish was followed by Colonel Church, a native of the soil, whose exploits rank him with the heroes of romance, and whose humanity is one proof more that the bravest are the most merciful. The great- ness of Bradford and of Winslow did not perish with them. They lived again in generations of soldiers and statesmen. We have neglected our colonial memories. Everybody has heard of Bloody Brook, where " the Flower of Essex " fell among the meadows of Deerfield. The spot is marked by a monument, and better marked by the eloquence of
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Everett. But no monument marks the spot on the banks of the Pawtucket where fifty young men of Plymouth county, led by the gallant Michael Peirce, were cut off, but not until they had slain thrice their number. So all the world has heard of the Charter Oak. But only local tradition tells of the scene when Andros tried in vain to seize our charter. And again, when he laid his hand upon Clarke's Island, Duxbury and Plymouth sent their minister and ruling elder to resist his tyranny. It may be said that the result was disastrous. But the defiance was given. And our fathers knew the truth, though they had not heard the words, -
" For Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft is ever won."
In the grand contest between France and Eng- land for the possession of a continent, Plymouth county bore a full share. There are no brighter names upon the English standards than Quebec and Louisburg. In one our New England fathers stood side by side with the troops of old England. In the other they stood almost alone. In the first crusade against Louisburg the fishermen of Ply- mouth were the earliest to arrive. In its second capture the name of a Plymouth captain is linked forever with that of the heroic Wolfe. As I read at Halifax, a short time since, the military records of early times, it was pleasant to find such orders as
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these: "Parole for the day, 'Pembroke,' 'Marsh- field,' and ' Plympton.'" Passing since through our own little Halifax, I heard a fellow-passenger won- dering that any one could have found his way from that place to a battle-field. The reader of history knows that when loyalty and duty have called, whether in 1745, or '55, or '75, or in 1812, or in 1861, there is no hamlet in the Old Colony so small or so remote that its sons could not find their way to a battle-field.
In revolutionary days our little towns followed closely the lead of Boston. When strangers have looked at the Rock, and stood upon Cole's Hill, I love to point out the gambrel-roofed house which was the home of James Warren, President of the first Provincial Congress, and to tell of the day which Sam. Adams spent there, the last of the Puri- tans, holding high council with this true son of the Pilgrims. There Warren gave to Adams the plan of committees of correspondence, - that most effec- tual aid to independence. When this message was sent from Plymouth Rock to Faneuil Hall, then Richard Warren, sleeping in his Pilgrim grave, struck a blow for freedom with which the continent was to ring. This device was part of the authentic furniture of the Mayflower.
A host of worthies stood by Warren in his own town. Nor was any town wanting. Kingston tells of Sever, of Drew, - best among all, of Captain Sampson, first naval officer commissioned by Con-
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gress. What an unbounded smile must have spread over the bay as his brig of two hundred tons sailed down Jones's River to meet the "Empress of the Seas." Duxbury tells of her Wadsworth, her Brad- ford, her Aldens, - of a town so stripped of men that women gathered the harvest. Marshfield can boast of General Thomas, the trusted friend of Washington, who gained for him the bloodless vic- tory of Dorchester Heights, driving Howe out of Boston by the spades and shovels of Plymouth county farmers. It was not their fault that they had no chance to use their muskets. The men of the northern towns were led to Trenton, and Princeton, and Saratoga by their Baileys, and Cushings, and Turners. I need not speak of Hingham. One of her sons has shown to-day that, pass what laws you please as to distribution of estates, talent and worth will descend from father to son, although not all to the eldest son. Middleboro sent Colonel Sproat to serve on many a battle-field, and then to float down the river in the flat-boat " Mayflower" to aid in founding the State of Ohio, and to baptize it in the name of Freedom. Rochester is proud of her gal- lant Haskell, and Wareham tells of Major Fearing, as distinguished in war as your own Fearing was in all civic virtues. Of Pembroke I have spoken here before, as making the first public threat of independ- ence, but not until she had demanded the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. Now let me pass over a long period and say a word that could not have
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been said thirty years ago. Thank Heaven, the time has passed when universal freedom was a forbidden subject at such a festival. In those dark days liberty had in no part of the country more devoted friends than in Plymouth county. Her representative in Congress was John Quincy Adams, living beyond her borders, but receiving her votes, and animated always by the spirit of his Pilgrim ancestors. She furnished one illustrious victim to slavery. Among the noblest of Lowell's poems is a tribute to Charles T. Torrey, once of Scituate, now enrolled among the noble army of martyrs whose fame is confined to no place or time.
In the worst days, when the fugitives from oppres- sion were obliged to fly once more, when they were seized in Boston and were not safe even in Worcester, then they came to Plymouth, as if some instinct told them that no slave-hunter would dare to trample on the graves of the Pilgrims; and so the dear old town received a second colony of exiles for freedom.
One word of material matters : Our whole county, like our state, barren of soil and fruitful of men, is a noble product of free labor. Two of her children -- one born on her soil, the other just missing a Plymouth birthplace - carried out the greatest en- terprise and won the greatest industrial triumph that the world ever saw. The first Pacific railroad "came over," not in the " Mayflower," but in a very early ship, with the ancestors of Oakes and Oliver Ames.
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