USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Ipswich > The celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, August 16, 1844 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
94
THE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
While I am not disposed to condemn the Puritans, who endeavored to found a theocracy in the forests of New Eng- land, I may be pardoned for saying that they were dependent on the military men who had been invited to cross the ocean, and who were not disposed to submit to the striet laws dic- tated by bigotry. At Ipswich, which was one of the frontier towns behind which Boston and Salem found security, Major General Denison, and others with martial reputations, gave proof of that military spirit which the soldiers of Ipswich afterwards displayed so gallantly and so gloriously in the old French war, in the Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain, and in the recent contest for the suppression of the Rebellion.
But, sir, I am to speak of the " guests " of Ipswich. Shall I go back to the Norsemen, who were here 877 years ago, or to Captain John Smith, who called the place Argona when he vis- ited it in 1614 ? Shall I go back to Governor Winthrop, who came here in 1637; or to President Rogers of Harvard Col- lege, whose father preached here, and who married a daughter of General Denison ; or to Governor Shute, who was escorted from here to Newbury by the once famous Ipswich troop ? Shall I recall the visit of that gifted Frenchman, the Marquis de Chastellux, or that of the Father of his Country, George Washington, who here reviewed in 1789 the Third Essex Regiment, many of whose officers had served under him during the Revolution ; or of General Lafayette, who in 1824 once more fraternized with liis old comrade Colonel Wade, who was the commander in the Revolution (permit me to say) of my maternal great-grandfather, Robert Dodge of the Ipswich hamlets ? Shall I recall those guests of Ipswich, - John Adams, Lowell, Parsons, Dexter, Webster, Story, Cushing, and Choate, - who often, with others " learned in the law," used to plead for their clients in the old Court House, and then tell stories at the tavern fireside ?
What a brilliant panorama would the visits of the dis- tinguished guests of Ipswich make ! and how much could be said about them, did time permit ! But, sir, I will not weary
95
REMARKS OF REV. GEORGE LEEDS, D.D.
your patience, and I will leave the subject in the hands of my eloquent coadjutor, expressing in conclusion a hope that the good old town of Ipswich may long continue to hospi- tably welcome her guests, and that her sons and daughters may say of lier, as the Italians did of their beloved city, Esto Perpetua ! - " Be thou eternal."
THE TOAST-MASTER. - I will also invite the Rev. GEORGE LEEDS, D.D., to respond to this toast.
REMARKS OF THE REV. GEORGE LEEDS, D.D., OF BALTIMORE.
IT is both a pleasure and an honor, Mr. President, to second the response which has been so felicitously made to you on behalf of the invited guests of Ipswich. I am proud to be numbered among them. To share in the hospitalities of the ancient town is a most agreeable distinction. And yet I am no stranger to Ipswich, - at least to its picturesque surround- ings, - though I could wish for a more intimate acquaintance than I have with the good people that inhabit it. This is the place of my summer holiday and the abode of some of my nearest of kin. The mother of my children, though a native of Salem, was born of parents who went from Ipswich ; and the roots of my family life, I anticipate, will cling more tenaciously to this genial soil than to any other spot, in the person of my only grandson.
We were told in eloquent words this morning of that worthy ancestry by which this settlement was planted. The son of a Puritan myself, I recognize gladly the many eminent virtues of the fathers from whom we are descended. Whatever the faults of our sires, -and their faults were patent, - they were not deficient at least in integrity of principle, in lofty purpose, in heroic courage. They were known for their fear of God and their love for the institutions of religion and learning. They brought with them to this country their
---
---------
96
THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
notions of civil and political privileges. The orator of the day has told us that their sentiments on these, and other kin- dred subjects, did not originate with themselves, however they were fostered most successfully here. Traceable back, in the germ of them, even to an Aryan source, they were unfolded in Old England by a slow growth of civilization abetted by the grace of the Christian faith. Letters and arts and humani- ties, and all that dignifies inan, and conserves society, were the product of ages of human improvement. And such was the hold that hereditary things had obtained upon our fathers, that they imported into New England, not only their ideas of liberty and rights, but even a union of the Church with the State, of ecclesiastical ties with governmental rule, differing from the Establishment which they had left behind them, chiefly in this, - in that the State in Great Britain was nominally first : in the Colonies, the Church was actual leader, and enforced her own discipline by policies and laws. I am sure there are none of us who would revive that order; but I should profoundly regret, if, to a suspension of its influence, any decline could be traced in that fear of the Almighty, and reverence for his Word and ordinance, which are the stability of all times.
I remember with great pleasure that the early settlers at Agawam came over the water in the good ship " Arbella," or sailed in its company. From the cabin of that vessel was addressed by its inmates, and in the name of the rest, that filial and touching farewell to the mother-church of England, at whose breasts they acknowledged they had been spiritually nurtured, and for whose welfare they promised that they would continue to pray in their poor cottages in the wilderness.
I remember, also, Mr. President, that the elder Ipswich by the Orwell, for which the younger was named, had been wont to pride itself greatly for the visit of kings to its borders. Edward I., Edward III., Queen Elizabeth, and George II. honored it with their presence in their respective times. But the Ipswich we celebrate was born of a prince, wholly royal, save in blood. John Winthrop the younger was the son of
الـ
97
REMARKS OF REV. GEORGE LEEDS, D.D.
a father equally illustrious with himself. They were both rulers in their day, chief magistrates of Colonies ; and their distinguished line re-appears this hour in the courtliest gen- tleman of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of her most honored citizens, who has favored you with a letter of congratulation, written in his own graceful and instructive terms.
I love to recall the fact that the Ipswich in fatherland had once its seat of learning, twin-sister to a foundation second to none in Oxford. I should like to compare lesser things with great, modest Mantua with Rome, and speak of your own goodly schools in the past, under Cheever and Cowles, and Miss Grant and others, which also, alas ! are extinct, like Wolsey's college in the village which gave him birth. But I forbear. The want of time forbids me.
I thank you, Mr. President and kind friends, both on my own account and that of these numerous guests you have so generously welcomed; and I join with them in invoking a benison on your town and its people, on your homes and your hearts, on the places of your worship and your places of edu- cation, on the memorials of your fathers in the High School of Thomas Manning and the Public Library of Augustine Heard, on the monument you have erected to your patriot sons who died in the defence of our common country, on the peaceful industries of your village, on your teeming farms, on your cattle feeding in large pastures, and may I add, Mr. Presi- dent, on your own Heartbreak Hill, the watch-tower of the Indian maiden who looked hence for her lover, and waited in vain for his return from the treacherous sea, until, as I trust, one true bachelor heart, responding to her call, brought peace to her troubled spirit. Excuse me, Mr. Haskell; but I am not sure that your name was not originally Hearts-Kill, which, for euphony and for short, was changed to the one you bear. Should this be so, I am confident that this goodly assembly will agree with me, that if, in some pre-existent state, all un- consciously now, all innocently then, you were the unhappy occasion of breaking the peace, and disappointing the hope, 7
98
TIIE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
of some young daughter of the forest, you have done the ut- most in your power to make reparation by devoting a single undivided, unwedded life to her remembrance, and by going in your old age to meditate on her story.
I give you for a sentiment, Mr. President, "The Town of Ipswich, ' beautiful for situation,' at the confluence of the river and the tide-water, of the fresh stream from the meadows with the salubrious inlet from the ocean. Borrowing honor from the past in history, and worth from her present claims upon her children, she justly expects them to add to her lustre in the generations to come."
Or, in words which an aged friend and relative who has just retired from your banquet would have been glad to utter, I propose for him, "This lovely and picturesque" region.
" Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee." ;
The band played a selection.
LETTER FROM THE POET WHITTIER.
THE TOAST-MASTER. - A very pleasant letter has been received from Mr. Whittier, which will be read at this time : -
AMESBURY, 8 Mo. 14, 1884. To the Committee of the Ipswich Celebration.
GENTLEMEN, - I very much regret that I am not able to avail myself of your kind invitation to the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Ipswich, the ancient Agawam. There are few towns in New England of older date, or about which cluster more interesting historical and legendary associations. Like your neighbor, Old Newbury, while it has sent its emigrants over the continent, it has re- tained its home reputation for honest manhood and worthy womanhood. " Beautiful for situation " on its fair river and pleasant hills, overlooking bay and islands, the homesick eyes
99
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
of its far-wandering children may well brighten with joy as they gaze once more on its familiar and fondly remembered scenery.
Thanking you for the invitation to a celebration in which every son of Essex, whether present or absent, will have an interest, I am very truly your friend,
JOHN G. WHITTIER.
THE TOAST-MASTER. - Old Ipswich was a busy place. An historian of the first century, in speaking of it, says that among her manufacturers were rope- makers, coopers, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, glovers, tailors, soap-makers, maltsters, ship-builders, tanners, and curriers. In variety of occupation our modern town can hardly equal the ancient Agawam. Still we are not an idle people. Our acres are still tilled, our factory-wheels are still heard; and our next sentiment shall be,
" The Agricultural and Other Industrial Pursuits of Ipswich ; "
to which response will be made by one than whom I cannot conceive a fitter person, the Hon. GEORGE B. LORING, United States Commissioner of Agriculture.
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, -I am sure I agree with the president of this occasion, that Ipswich is a busy place. It always has been a busy place ; it has always done its business well; and both its intellectual and its prac- tical work, as you have been told, has been thoroughly well done on all public and private occasions. I have no doubt whatever that the sermon that Governor Winthrop preached here so many years ago was a model sermon to all the old clergy, and may be to all the young clergymen hereabouts, both
1
.
n
T.
100
THE TOWN OF IPSWICH.
in doctrine and in phraseology. We will accept that as a per- fect sermon. One of the most remarkable papers ever written in this Commonwealth, the paper that did more to guide this State on to the adoption of our Constitution, was concocted here in Ipswich, and is known as the "Essex Result." The most admirable centennial oration I have ever listened to in my life was delivered here this morning. I have delivered many a similar oration myself, sir. [Laughter and applause.] I am an expert in that kind of literature, and I know exactly how men peruse the annals of a town until the great pano- rama opens before their mind. Now, as I went on and lis- tened to that elaborate, philosophical, and eloquent account of what Ipswich had done here in her theological, ecclesiastical, and political capacity (a record for this town before which the sermon of Governor Winthrop and the Essex Result will pale hereafter into insignificance as the student of this town pur- sues its annals), - as I listened to that discourse, my mind was occupied continually in the attempt to ascertain where this intellectual effort proposed to culminate, what the great final capstone of the monument of this town was to be. And my heart leaped up when I heard the orator say, "Now, my friends, I come to the foundation of all this great truth ; I come to the business of this town, to the hard toil of our fathers, to the fundamental business upon which rests all educational interests, all theological efforts, all that makes us capable of understanding and realizing the great efforts of the mind of man." And my heart rejoiced more and more when I learned that the fathers here were all farmers. When I realized that there were representatives still in this Commonwealth of Sal- tonstall the first abolitionist, and of John Rogers the first martyr, who prided themselves at this day more that they were farmers than that they were abolitionists or martyrs, I felt that my time had at last come, and that I could take you all by the hand, and wander over the fertile fields of Ipswich, and admire these lands, in which six acres was considered farm enough ; where every man was allowed a little garden- patch, because it was supposed the more land a man had, the
101
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
poorer he grew ; in which the great agricultural industry of this country found its cradle, its birthplace, - that industry which occupied the entire attention of our fathers here, and without which all the sermons of Governor Winthrop, and all the papers of Theophilus Parsons, would have perished from the earth, and been heard of no more, and our clerical young brother would have had no opportunity to deliver his oration upon the power and prosperity of his birthplace.
Now, sir, what was the industrial condition of this town in the early days ? You have read a long list of its occupations. I suppose there might have been one ropemaker, perhaps one shoemaker, perhaps one cooper. There may have been every variety of occupation, because every man in those days had to be his own shoemaker, and his own cooper, and his own car- penter, and his own wheelwright. And the material condition of this town- its carts, its wagons, and its shoes - illustrated the skill of the mechanics that made them most thoroughly. In the first place, however, they were farmers. They came here because they were farmers. John Winthrop and Richard Saltonstall sent them here because they were farmers. And with their shrewdness and thrift, which have characterized the succeeding generations of these families, they came here because they knew perfectly well that John Endicott had made a financial failure in Salem, and it was time to do something for the prosperity of the rising Colony. Naumkeag was three thousand pounds in debt. - We don't believe in having any debt in Salem now, do we, sir ?
MR. -. - Theoretically.
MR. LORING. - And so to-day, sir, when our necessities in Salem equal our opportunities, we send to Ipswich, and call on the intellectual and practical force of this town to come to our aid. Salem, sir, owes much, as we all know, to the sons of Ipswich, whose ancestors were farmers, and who now enjoy that system of landholding which the fathers of New England organized in the beginning, - a system which gave them that power and that strength which has made her people what they are.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
1
-
102
THE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
I am often reminded, when topics like these are discussed, of the opinion expressed by De Tocqueville nearly half a cen- tury ago with regard to the genius and power of the American Republic. His attention was naturally turned, on his arrival here, to the seat of government, where he expected to find the mainspring of our civil and economic action. His own country presented to his mind the most remarkable example of the influence exerted by a powerful and controlling central organization upon national civilization. To him Paris was France. From that great seat of power went forth all the forces which animated and controlled French energy and French thought. The author received his inspiration, the publicist his guidance, the artist his direction, the cultivator of the soil his relation to the land he cultivated, from the centralized forces which gathered around the capital of his country. To Washington, therefore, the mind of De Tocque- ville naturally turned, and to Washington he directed his steps. The organization of our government was a matter of deep interest to him. The working of its various branches, all engaged in a common object, presented the problem which had been undertaken in no other country, and the solution of which depended entirely on the success of that Republic whose work began at the planting of the Colonies, and was the slow growth of centuries of toil and trial and conflict. He turned his attention to the executive branch of the gov- ernment, in which the older countries had laid the corner- stone of their civil fabric; but neither in the person nor in the prerogative of the President did he find that vital force by which the working of a government could be guided or controlled. Naturally attracted by the representative body born immediately of the popular will, he expected to find in the two Houses of Congress the fountain of popular power, the spirit which had built up, and would naturally support, a popular government. But here, too, he was disappointed. He turned his steps to the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States ; but in this august body he discovered nothing which would promote the growth of the Republic in peace, or
103
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
nerve its arm in war. Passing from these scenes, in which he found the machinery, and not the motive-power, he devoted himself to the study of the people themselves in their various occupations and industries. Remembering the relation which the peasantry of France bear to the land on which they live, he expected to find among the yeomanry of this country the animating spirit of our free institutions. In this he was not mistaken. He declared that the division and subdivision of American lands among the American people, with the civil rights and privileges which go with it, made this people great and powerful for every emergency, and for demands of pros- perity and peace. He knew well that under the Code- Napoleon, France was divided into small landholdings, now numbering nearly a million ; but he also knew, that, with the peasant proprietors of France, there could be found no such opportunities as belong to him whose civil lessons were taught in the town-meeting and the caucus. IIe came here to learn what American institutions were, and he found every land- holder not only the possessor of a farm, but the possessor also of civil liberties of which we are all proud, and which we all enjoy. To the citizen in every walk in life, the service of this country is so open and so attainable, that the passage from private to public life is as natural as the breaking of the dawn, or the quick succession of the revolving seasons. The landholders, who constitute a large proportion of our popula- lation, pass with a certain admirable fitness of judgment from the land to the halls of legislation and to the popular assembly. De Tocqueville saw all this. He saw that resistless love of public service which inspires the active thought of the American people, that wisdom which they exercise in the successful appeal to a popular vote, that self-poise in political prosperity, that self-possession and courage, which they mani- fest under political defeat. To a people thus animated, to popular institutions thus founded, to the ownership of landed estates, with all the rights and privileges which go with it, he attributes the power of the American Republic, the only true Republic on the face of the earth.
104
THE TOWN OF IPSWICHI.
Now, sir, the tanners and coopers and carpenters whom you have enumerated were the farmers, as well as the mechanics, of this town in the early days. They tilled the virgin soil here with skill and success. And not only they, but their professional brethren also, were members of that great agri- cultural community which occupied the entire area of the Colonies, developed their wealth, made the laws, fought out the wars. The clergy of New England, from whose firesides went forth the cultivated men of the land to guide the coun- sels and regulate the affairs of the State, and whose power in the pulpit constituted an ecclesiastical rule which has seldom been equalled, were farmers, as well as preachers, - thrifty, toiling, successful farmers. Their faith was fixed ; their doctrines were established with authority. They had passed beyond the discussion of "fixed fate, freewill, fore- knowledge absolute," into high discourse on all these recog- nized and undoubted points. And having accepted their faith, and allowed their minds to be guided by it in the great paths of truth, they devoted their hours by day to their corn- fields and potato-patches and orchards. In the long warm summer afternoons they might have been found following the hay-cart with an economy and patient care hardly known to Ruth as she gleaned in the fields of Boaz. Their salaries were small; their industry was great ; their toil as clergymen and farmers was incessant; their usefulness was everywhere recognized ; their lives were devoted; their memories are sacred. The physicians of that day, like their more power- ful companions in the pulpit and the counting-house, owned broad lands, took care to stock their farms with good cattle, were ready at any time to receive from the patient whom they had killed or cured a choice bit of land by will ordered as a compensation for their professional services. Seldom did the lawyer carry his client through a long and tedious and com- plicated case in the courts, that he did not become possessed of the client's favorite woodlot before the case was finished. They all looked upon the land as a real possession. They all made farming the foundation of their business. They loved
105
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING.
and believed in the occupation. Their virtues were as firm as the hills they owned and admired. They were faithful and able citizens, the pillars of State ; and, when war darkened ' the land, they fought for their altars and their fires, and by their deeds of valor won from the great poet and philosopher, sitting in the shadow of that monument erected to com- memorate their noble acts as Revolutionary sires, that proud tribute -
" Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world."
But I am reminded that I must leave this delightful pic- ture, and pass on to the consideration of the present day. Connected with agriculture, and supplying the farmer with his local market, may now be found manufacturing com- munities made up of a busy and thriving people. Shoes, cloth, cordage, are all made here, and give life and energy and wealth to the town : forty-nine shoemakers, as the census tells us, and four hundred and forty-nine cloth-makers, de- scendants of those whose homespun clothing was spun by their wives, and woven by their daughters, the fair girls of a former generation, whose little weaving-rooms -just large enough to hold the weaver and the loom, and narrow enough to keep out all loving and lounging interference - still remain untenanted, it is true, but filled with memories of domestic happiness and thrift, -the commencement of an industry now employing hundreds of thousands of persons, and giving profitable investment to hundreds of millions of dollars. For the convenience of the early inhabitants, too, the peripatetic cobbler went from place to place with his lapstone and seat, producing, after many a day of toil at the fireside, a pair of boots which time and wear alone could bring into proper proportions - the dawn of that industry which to-day enables an operative to turn out a thousand shoes a day, and which last year produced a hundred million dollars in the State of Massachusetts alone. And so, too, has modern agriculture here advanced with rapid strides. While the manufacturers of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.