USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 41
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When the time came for selecting candidates for the next city govern- ment, the dissatisfaction with Mr. Prince's administration found expression in a petition, signed by some twenty-five hundred tax-paying citizens " representing all parties and all classes," asking Mr. Henry L. Pierce, who had retired from Congress at the end of four years' service, to allow his name to be used as the Citizens' candidate for mayor. The call was too imperative to be disregarded; and Mr. Pierce stood as the candidate of the Citizens and also of the Republicans. Mr. Prince was renominated by the Democrats. There was a very bitter contest, which resulted in the
289
BOSTON UNDER THE MAYORS.
election of Mr. Pierce by a majority of about two thousand three hundred votes.
On taking office Mr. Pierce made an address to the city government, which was highly commended by the representatives of all parties. Refer- ring to some of the schemes which had been devised for improving our local government by a limitation of the suffrage, or by transferring the more important duties to commissions appointed by the State authori- ties, he said : -
" While I am fully sensible of the defects in our present system of municipal administration, I cannot help regarding with distrust any scheme for curing them by a radical change of the New England system under which we have grown up, and which, notwithstanding its defects, has thus far produced better results than any other system that has been tried in this country. . .. It is hardly probable that a con- dition of things can arise in any city in New England where those who have an in- terest in maintaining order will be outnumbered by those who hope for some personal benefit by creating disorder ; therefore, if those who have interests at stake will bestir themselves to protect their interests, - and there is no safety in any scheme which can be devised unless they do so, - they can better accomplish their purpose by outvoting their opponents than by undertaking to deprive them of privileges they now possess. In a recent argument in favor of extending household suffrage to the counties in Eng- land, Mr. Gladstone says the franchise is an educational power. The possession of it quickens the intelligence, and tends to bind the nation together. It is more impor- tant to have an alert, well-taught, and satisfied people than a theoretically good legis- lative machine."
The most important act of Mr. Pierce's second administration was the reorganization of the police department. The regular police force at this time consisted of seven hundred and fifteen men. They were appointed by the mayor with the approval of the aldermen, and held office during good behavior. The powers of the mayor, the aldermen, and the chief of police were not clearly defined, and in consequence the discipline of the depart- ment was very lax'. Mayor Cobb, in his address to the city council of 1876, had strongly urged the appointment of a commission to administer the department; but the Democrats were at that time united in their opposi- tion to the creation of any more " three-headed commissions," and there were some prominent Republicans who doubted the expediency of giving any more power to the mayor. While the feeling against commissions in general was not much changed during the two following years, the growing inefficiency of the police department was so clearly seen that when Mayor Pierce pointed out the improvements which had been made in the fire and health departments by putting them under commissions, and declared his belief that a like improvement would follow the appointment of a commis- sion to have charge of the police department and the execution of the laws in relation to the sale of intoxicating liquors, public opinion forced the city council to give its sanction to the measure. An act was obtained from the Legislature authorizing the mayor, with the approval of the city council, to VOL. 111 .- 37.
290
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
appoint three commissioners to serve for a term of three years each. The appointments of the mayor were readily confirmed, and the commissioners organized on July 8, 1878.
A further reduction of nearly $900,000 was made in the tax levy of this year; so that, although the assessors made a reduction of seventeen million dollars in the valuation of property, the rate of taxation was reduced from $13.10 to $12.80 on a thousand.
At the end of the year Mr. Pierce declined a re-election; and Mr. Fred- erick O. Prince was again brought forward as the candidate of the Demo- crats. His opponent was Colonel Charles R. Codman, who was the nominee of the Citizens and Republicans. The feeling that Mr. Prince had been rather hardly pressed in the preceding election led to a sort of reaction in his favor, which returned him to office with a plurality of about seven hun- dred votes. There was a marked improvement in his administration during his second term, so that he had the partial endorsement of a Citizens' nomi- nation for a third term, and was elected by a majority of about two thousand six hundred votes over Mr. Solomon B. Stebbins, the Republican candidate. During these last two years (1879-80), the time of the government has been occupied mainly in carrying out the important measures previously
John Phillips JosiahQuay H & Cotig Theoane Lyman W charles Wells Same A Elist
SamoJ. Amintring M. Bummer
-
Benjamin Laver
AUTOGRAPHIS OF THE MAYORS.
291
BOSTON UNDER THE MAYORS.
Met Rice Prachy
Mis Sorcrops
nath BShu Deff fra Gas tine Henry Line Still loft.
Frederick V. Punão
AUTOGRAPHS OF THE MAYORS.
adopted,-the improvement of the sewerage system, the construction of a park on the Back Bay, the enlargement of the water works, the construction of sewers in the Mystic valley to preserve the purity of the water supplied from that source, and the erection of a costly building for the English High and Latin schools. The most important among the new projects now (1880) under consideration are the establishment of public parks in West Roxbury, at South Boston Point, and on the banks of Charles River; and the erection of a new county court house, and public library building.1 On Sept. 17, 1880, the city government celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary of the settlement of Boston. A bronze statue of John Winthrop,2 which
1 For the last named purpose the General Court of 1880 granted to the city, free of rent, a parcel of land containing about thirty-three thou- sand square feet, situated on the southerly cor- ner of Dartmouth and Boylston streets ; the only conditions being that the erection thereon of a library building should be begun within three years, and that the library should be open, under reasonable regulations, to all the citizens of the Commonwealth. [See the chapter on " Libraries " in Vol. IV .- ED.]
? A heliotype of this statue is given in Vol. I. Jonathan Phillips, who died in July, 1860, be- queathed to the city of Boston $20,000 " as a trust fund, the income of which shall be annually ex- pended to adorn and embellish the streets and public places of the city." On the recommenda- tion of Mayor Cobb in 1875, the aldermen voted to use a portion of the income from the fund to erect a statue of Josiah Quincy. The order was given to Mr. Thomas Ball, and the statue was placed in front of the city hall, as a companion
·
292
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
had been erected in Scollay Square, was unveiled in the morning. Then followed commemorative services in the Old South Church, where the Mayor delivered an address of some length on the character and services of Win- throp; 1 and later in the day there was a great procession, the largest, it was said, that ever walked the streets of Boston.
And here the sketch of Boston " under the mayors" comes to an end. During the fifty-nine years that the city government has been established the population of Boston has increased from about 45,000 to 362,535; more than eight fold. About 215,000 persons live within the area covered by the first city charter; and 147,500 persons live on the territory which has been annexed since 1867. The current expenses of the city in 1822 amounted to $249,000 ; in 1880 the appropriations for current expenses, in- cluding interest on the city debt, amounted to $10,190,387, - a forty-fold increase. The valuation of property for purposes of taxation amounted in 1823 to $44,896,800 ; in 1880, to $639,462,495, -an increase of about four- teen-fold. The highest valuation of taxable property, $798,755,050, and the largest tax levy, $12,045,902, were in 1874, the second year after the great fire, which destroyed about seventy-five million dollars worth of property.
Of the twenty-three persons who have held the office of mayor of Boston, thirteen were born in the city; all of them were born in New England ; . eleven were graduates of Harvard College, and three were graduates of other colleges. Some of them have been men of distinction; most of them have been men of ability; no one of them has retired from office with any stain resting upon his character. The city has been fortunate in the charac- ter of the men who have served her, both in the legislative and executive departments of the government. The high standard of official integrity which has been maintained is largely due to the efforts of those citizens who have associated from time to time to resist the introduction of national party politics into the management of the city business. They have for many years held the balance of power between the two great political parties, and they have kept the leaders of both in wholesome fear of the consequences of making appointments to office for party purposes, or of using the city's money to promote party interests.
James M. Bugleen
piece to the Franklin statue, and unveiled Oct. 11, 1879. See Mayor Prince's address, City Docu- ment, 115, 1879. In 1879 the aldermen contracted for copies in bronze of the two representative statues of Massachusetts in the capitol at Wash- ington,-Samuel Adams, by Miss Anne Whitney, and John Winthrop, by Richard S. Greenough,- the expense of making them to be charged to the income from the Phillips Fund. The statue of Adams was unveiled July 4, 1880. Scc oration by
Robert D. Smith, Esq., City Document, 103, 1880. A portion of the income from this fund was also used to beautify the lot of land at the junction of Columbus Avenue and Pleasant Street, on which there is the group emblematical of Emancipa- tion, presented to the city in 1879, by Mr. Moses Kimball. Sce City Document 126, 1879.
1 Sce City Document, 1880, containing a full account of the celebration, prepared by Mr. William H. Lee.
CHAPTER III.
BOSTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH UNDER THE CITY CHARTER.
BY HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN D. LONG, LL.D., Governor of Massachusetts.
T HE subject of this chapter has its beginning in the presentation to the General Court of the following petition : 1-
" The undersigned, being a Committee authorized and instructed by the Town of Boston, most respectfully represent -
. " "That the present size of the Town renders it impossible any longer to carry into effect the principles on which its present government is founded, as this is presumed to be exercised by the inhabitants at large, assembled in Town-meeting. There is no Hall in the Town capable of containing all the legal voters ; and if such a room ex- isted its dimensions would be too extensive to admit of wise conceit or true delibera- tion by the citizens. The duty of attending Town-meetings is therefore becoming more and more neglected ; and a very small minority of persons now decide upon the public concerns of the whole community. The consequences are a want of unity, regularity, and responsibility in the management of the prudential affairs of the Town. 'The evils of such a state of things have been hitherto diminished by the intelligence, prudence, and integrity of the different Boards that have been separately entrusted with the management of various branches of Town affairs, yet no skill nor integrity can supply the deficiencies of the present system, which oblige the Town so frequently to trouble the Legislature with applications for minute local regulation. Trusting that the 'l'own may continue to partake in the growing prosperity of the Commonwealth with which its own is so inseparably and entirely blended, the time must soon arrive when the inconveniences and losses incident to an impracticable form of government will be greatly and oppressively increased. The experience of actual disadvantages, together with a principle of foresight, have convinced a majority of the citizens that the present moment of calm in the public mind is a suitable one to adopt an altera- tion which will be not only a present relief, but a preventive remedy for dangerous tendencies. As the citizens of this State, with a view to this case, have recently made an amendment to the Constitution authorizing the erection of city governments, the
1
1 [For the proceedings of the town leading to this petition, see Mr. Bugbee's chapter next pre- ceding. - ED.]
294
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
necessity of some change, it would appear, has become obvious not only to the inhab- itants of this Town, but to the majority of the Commonwealth.
" For the reasons thus briefly stated, we pray your honorable Body to cstablish a City Government for the Town of Boston.
" BOSTON, January 14, 1822.
DANIEL MESSINGER.
WILLIAM SULLIVAN.
CHARLES JACKSON.
GEORGE DARRICOTT.
MICHAEL ROULSTON. GERRY FAIRBANKS.
ISAAC WINSLOW.
THOMAS BADGER.
GEORGE BLAKE.
JAMES DALEY.
LEMUEL SHAW. HENRY FARNAM.
W. TUDOR. WILLIAM STURGIS.
LEWIS G. PRAY.
This paper is endorsed as follows : -
" In House of Representatives, Jan. 15, 1822. Read and Com'd to the Com-, mittee on Incorporation of Towns, etc. .
" Sent up for concurrence. JOSIAH QUINCY, Spkr.
" In Senate, January 15, 1822. Read and concurred. JOHN PHILLIPS, Presid't."
It is a notable fact that President Phillips became the first, and Speaker Quincy the second, mayor of the new city, - the former filling the office one year, and Mr. Quincy five years. Two other presidents of the Senate have also been mayors of Boston,-one of them, Harrison Gray Otis, pres- ident in 1808-10, and mayor in 1829-31; and the other, Josiah Quincy, Jr., president in 1842 and 1844, and mayor in 1846-48. Since then, two mayors of Boston have become governors of the Commonwealth, - Alex- ander H. Rice, mayor in 1856-57, and governor in 1876-78; and William Gaston, mayor in 1871-72, and governor in 1875. The roll of the Boston Common Council of 1853 contains the names of two men who subsequently rosc to the chief magistracy of the State, - Henry J. Gardner and Alex- ander H. Rice. Chief-Justice Bigelow was a member of the Common Council from Ward Seven in 1843; and the Hon. Joseph A. Pond, president of the Senate in 1866-67, and the Hon. Charles R. Train, late attorney- general of the Commonwealth, saw service in the same body. Before he became mayor, the Hon. Henry L. Pierce was a member of the popular branch of the General Court; and the number of those is legion who have held under both governments less distinguished but honorable offices.
The reciprocal relations of Boston and the Commonwealth under the city charter, strictly interpreted, are purely official in their character, and form a subject of but narrow scope, differing in no principle from those exist- ing between the Commonwealth and her other municipalities. Seeking them in the city charter itself, we find the inhabitants of Boston made a corporation at their own request, and the administration of their fiscal and prudential concerns vested in a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. All the powers formerly vested in the selectmen, cither by statute or by the usages, votes, or by-laws of the town, and also the powers of county com-
295
BOSTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH.
missioners, are given to the board of aldermen; and the aldermen and common council, acting concurrently as the city council, are endowed with authority to provide for the assessment and collection of taxes for all pur- poses for which towns may raise money, to appoint various executive offi- cers, and even to make by-laws and ordinances, with fines for breach thereof. But these powers were by no means plenary, and with the increas- ingly rapid growth of the city came more and more frequent applications for fresh grants. So numerous did these become, that in 1870 the city council constituted a joint standing committee on legislative matters, whose duty it is to advocate or oppose measures at the State House as the city's interest demands. During the session of the General Court of 1879 some thirty matters directly affecting the city of Boston were presented, -eight of them petitions from the city government, -and the average each session for the past ten years has been about twenty-five. The legislation respecting Boston bridges will serve as an example of how much has been required. The Boston South Bridge, now known as the Dover-Street Bridge, was sold to the city by the original proprietors (among whom were William Tudor and Harrison Gray Otis), under an act of the General Court of 1831 ; and another act was passed in 1876, authorizing the widening of the bridge to sixty feet. The Federal-Street Bridge was established by a corporation (the Boston Free Bridge) created by an act of the General Court under which the city purchased the property. The Mount Washington-Avenue Bridge was acquired by the city under a similar act. The Broadway Bridge was built by the city under chapter 188 of the acts of 1866; the Congress-Street Bridge, under chapter 326 of acts of 1868, and nearly, if not quite, all the smaller bridges were bought from private proprietors under special laws. The Charles-River and Warren bridges were turned over to the cities of Boston and Charlestown by chapter 322 of act of 1868 and acts amendatory thereof. It was by commissioners appointed under chapter 302 of acts of 1870 that the expense of maintaining the West-Boston and Craigie's bridges was apportioned between Boston and Cambridge; and the legislature has been called upon more than once to decide disputes between Boston and Chelsea over the maintenance of the Chelsea bridge. In 1874 acts were passed granting authority for the building of a bridge by Boston and Cam- . bridge, from a point on Beacon Street across the Charles River to Cam- bridge, and also a bridge to form part of an avenue from Brattle Square, Cambridge, to Market Street, Brighton; but neither has been constructed. The Cochituate water supply, the Boston registration and election laws, and hundreds of matters, ranging in moment from the purity of the ballot-box to the regulation of street-corner peanut-stands, have been subjects of leg- islation, the briefest history of which is too voluminous to attempt within these limits.
The great fire of Nov. 9 and 10, 1872, was the occasion of a special session of the General Court, which convened November 19. His Ex- cellency Governor Washburn, in his address to the Legislature, said : -
-
296
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
" The loss of Boston is the loss of the Commonwealth. Our ties are such that this calamity affects even those of us who live in the. remotest parts of the State. The municipal government of the city and a large number of its most eminent business men think that a few measures of immediate legislation are necessary. So far as I am informed, or can learn, the universal sentiment of those who reside or do business here is that they are abundantly able to meet the stress of the time from the resources now at their command, if they can have the assent of the State to such steps as re- quire its sanction. It is thought advisable that assurance of a loan for a term of years at a moderate rate of interest should be given those who are unable to rebuild without assistance. ... It is of the greatest importance that the waste places should be re- covered as soon as possible with stores and warehouses of the most substantial kind, fully adapted to the requirements of a large and widely extended trade. As a means to this end the city will ask authority to issue its bonds, having not less than ten years to run, and bearing a rate of interest not exceeding five per centum in gold, or six per centum in currency."
The session lasted thirty days. A bill was passed authorizing the city to issue bonds to the amount of $20,000,000, with interest at five per cent gold and six per cent currency, to run fifteen years ; the proceeds to be loancd to owners of sites of burned buildings. No bonds were issued, however, the act being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. A general law, au- thorizing the formation of new insurance companies was enacted, with con- . siderable other legislation concerning insurance. The act for the regulation and inspection of buildings in Boston was amended extensively, - thicker walls, with brick, iron, or stone supports, being required, and the law being made generally more stringent, and the penalties for its violation heavier. Acts were also passed requiring the board of aldermen to establish a grade of not less than twelve feet above mean low water, and prohibiting the con- struction of any cellar below that grade, and the use of any such cellar except for storage purposes under license from the board of aldermen; authorizing the city council to remove the Coliseum Building 1 if not taken down within a reasonable time; incorporating the Merchant's Exchange; to provide for the appointment by the governor and council of a commission of three civil engineers to investigate and report a plan for a thorough system of drainage for Boston and its vicinity within a radius of ten miles from the City Hall; 2 to provide for the issue of bonds in licu of lost or destroyed bonds of the Commonwealth; to authorize the Old South Church proprietors to lease their meeting-house on Washington and Milk streets for use as a post- office.
But while the city has been constantly requiring legislation, it has sustained a very different relation to the Commonwealth in point of con- tributions to the support of the State government. In 1822 Boston paid $26,550.50 of the State tax of $75,000, or more than thirty-five per cent.
1 This was a wooden structure near the cross- ing of the Boston and Albany, and Boston and Providence Railroads, erected for the musical festival of 1872.
2 This act was conditional on the acceptance of the Boston City Council, and as no action was taken thereon the commission was never appointed.
297
BOSTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH.
At a rough calculation, the population of the State at that time was 550,000, and that of Boston about 50,000, or less than ten per cent of the whole. The United States census of 1830 found 610,408 inhabitants in Massa- chusetts, and 61,392- a little more than ten per cent - in Boston, while the city paid that year $24,874.50, or over thirty-three per cent of the State tax of $75,000. Comparing the statistics on these points in later years, we find that in 1860, with a population of 177,840 in the State total of 1,231,066, -less than fifteen per cent, - the city paid $82,245 of the State tax of $249,995, which is over thirty-three per cent. In 1870 the population of the State was 1,457,351, and of the city 250,526, or seventeen per cent, while the city's share of the State tax was $933,775, or thirty-seven per cent of the total of $2,500,000. The present year its portion of the State tax was even larger, being $619,110 out of $1,500,000, or more than forty-one per cent. The returns of the United States census for 1880 give the State a population of 1,783,086, and the city 362,535, or a little less than twenty and a half per cent of the whole.
The representation of Boston in the General Court has been substan- tially, of course, in proportion to its population. The city's delegation in 1822 consisted of 6 senators in a Senate of 30, and 25 members in a House of Representatives numbering 236. The senators were John Phillips, John Willis, Jonathan Hunnewell, Warren Dutton, Lemuel Shaw, and Joseph Tilden; and the representatives were Josiah Quincy, Benjamin Russell, Thomas H. Perkins, William Prescott, William Tudor, Lynde Walter, James Savage, Benjamin West, Nathan Appleton, John Cotton, Gedney King, Enoch Silsby, Peter C. Brooks, Joseph Lovering, George W. Otis, Nathan Hale, Jonathan Phillips, Heman Lincoln, Edward Winchester, Francis C. Gray, Theodore Lyman, Jr., Henry Bass, Eliphalet Williams, William Shimmin, and Francis J. Oliver.
We find in the lists of the successors of these gentlemen the names of Samuel T. Armstrong, David Sears, Francis Jackson, David Henshaw, David Lee Child, Caleb Loring, Horace Mann, Theophilus Parsons, Robert C. Winthrop, George S. Hillard, Joseph T. Buckingham, George T. Curtis, John P. Healy, Charles Francis Adams, George T. Bigelow, Jolın G. Palfrey, Samuel A. Eliot, Samuel G. Howe, and J. Lothrop Motley; and among the delegates from the city to the Constitutional Convention of 1853 were William Appleton, James M. Beebe, Sidney Bartlett, Jacob Bigelow, George W. Blagden, Rufus Choate, Francis B. Crowninshield, Samuel A. Eliot, Henry J. Gardner, Nathan Hale, George S. Hillard, Frederick W. Lincoln, Jr., J. Thomas Stevenson, John S. Tyler, and George B. Upton.
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