USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 42
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Between 1822 and 1857 Boston had 6 senators. The first apportionment under Article XXI. and XXII. amendments to the Constitution reduced the number to 5; but the second, in 1866, restored it to 6; and the third, in 1876, increased it to 8. One senator, however, has always been shared with Chelsea, Revere (or North Chelsea), and Winthrop.
VOL. 111 .- 38.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Down to 1857 the numerical strength of the House of Representatives varied largely, and with it, though not in proportion, the delegation from Boston. In 1823 and 1824 the city had 25 members, and in 1825 24 in a House of 236; in 1826, 20 in 197; in 1827, 16 in 236; in 1828, 40 in 395 ; in 1829, 55 in 539; in 1830, 59 in 493 ; in 1831, 60 in 481; in 1832, 52 in 528; in 1833, 63 in 574; in 1834, 39 in 570; in 1835, 67 in 615; in 1836, 70 in 619; in 1837, 74 in 635 ; in 1838, 57 in 480; in 1839, 20 in 521; in 1840, 56 in 521; in 1841, 35 in 391. From 1842 to 1850, inclusive, the Boston delegation numbered 35, but the number of the whole House varied in these years as follows: 336, 352, 321, 271, 264, 255, 272, 263, 297. In 1851 and 1852 Boston had 44 representatives in Houses of 396 and 402 respectively ; in 1853, 39 in 288; and from 1854 to 1857, inclusive, 44 in 310, 380, 329, and 327. Since then the House has consisted of 240 mem- bers, of which, under the first apportionment, Boston had 26; under the second, 33; and has under the third, and at present, 47.
The changes in the size of the House of Representatives between 1822 and 1857 were incident to the somewhat complicated system of apportion- ment, and the several apparent discrepancies in the proportion of the Boston delegation are but the natural results of the majority rule then in use. For instance, in 1838 the Boston City Council voted in convention, in accordance with the original charter, to fix the number of representatives to be elected that fall at 56; but at the election on the second Monday in November only 20 received a majority, and at the election to fill the 36 vacancies none at all, so that in 1839 the city was represented in the lower branch of the General Court by only 20 men.
A number of notable benevolent and educational institutions located in Boston, although not all exclusively of Boston, are beneficiaries of the Com- monwealth. One is the Massachusetts General Hospital, which received with its charter in 1811 a conditional grant of the Province House estate, embracing a tract of land measuring 87 feet on Washington Street, and extending back 267 feet to Province Street. This estate was leased by the Hospital in 1817 for 99 years for what now seems the incredibly low rental of $33,000 for the entire term. In consideration of its grant the State has a representation of 4 members on the board of trustees. The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind receives a regular annual grant of $30,000, and the School for Idiots and Feeble-Minded Youth $17,500; for which, however, the State receives a partial return in the education and care of some of its charges, and has also representatives on the supervisory boards. Special grants are made from year to year to other institutions, particularly the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, which received $9,000 at the hands of the last legislature. The sites of the buildings of the Boston Society of Natural History and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the gift of the Commonwealth, so that the bread which Boston cast upon the waters in giving the Common- wealth the State-House site came back to it after many days; and by a
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resolve of the legislature of 1880 the city of Boston was granted " perpetual right to hold, occupy, and control, free of rent or charge," a parcel of land at the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth streets, containing some 33,000 fect, for the erection of a new public library building.
The improvement by the Commonwealth of its Back Bay lands and the South Boston flats has of necessity required the co-operation of the city government in the extension of streets and the building of bridges and sewers. Under what is known as the tripartite agreement between the Commonwealth, the city, and the Boston Water-Power Company, the Back Bay territory was divided, some 108 acres going to the Commonwealth, and an equal quantity to the Water-Power Company, - the city to receive a small quantity of the land when filled, in satisfaction of certain claims. The Commonwealth and the Water-Power Company filled their respective portions to a certain grade, devoting a suitable proportion of the new land to streets and passage-ways, in which they laid sewers and set edgestones, while the city paved and maintains the streets and ways. The Common- wealth completed its filling at a cost of something over $1,600,000, and has disposed of all but about 3 acres. Nearly 145,000 feet were given for the sites of the buildings of the Natural History Society and the Institute of Technology, about 6,500 feet transferred to Trinity Church, 164,000 to the city, and over 2,000,000 devoted to streets and passage-ways. The sale of the remainder has netted the State, in round numbers, $3,000,000, furnish- ing a notable exception to the ordinary results of State management of business enterprises. In the improvement of the South Boston flats, yet incomplete, special relations exist between the State and the city, under the four-part agreement between the Commonwealth, the Boston and Albany Railroad, the Boston Wharf Company, and the city of Boston, the other parties doing certain filling, and the city agreeing to build two bridges across Fort Point Channel to connect the new land with the old. One of these, the Congress-Street bridge, is constructed, but the other awaits the filling of the land to which it is to furnish access. The magnificent arca already here rescued from the ocean is guarded by a great sea-wall, girt with railroad tracks, and improved by the warehouses, elevators, and coal-sheds of the New York and New England Railroad. The process of filling is still going on, and will only stop when Castle Island is reached. Lying at deep water, and in the very heart of the city, these improvements will make a port for Massachusetts of unrivalled capacity and promise for the future.
There are judicial decisions touching the relations between the Common- wealth and cities which, though not particularly affecting Boston, are of sufficient general interest to deserve mention. One, in the case of Buttrick v. Lowell (1 Allen, 172), concerns the liability of a city for injurious acts of its police officers. Says the court : -
" Police officers can in no sense be regarded as agents or servants of the city. Their duties are of a public nature. Their appointment is devolved on cities and towns
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
by the legislature as a convenient mode of exercising a function of government ; but this does not render them liable for their unlawful or negligent acts. The . . . powers and duties with which police officers and constables are entrusted are derived from the law, and not from the city or town under which they hold their appointment. . . . Nor does it make any difference that the acts complained of were done in an attempt to enforce an ordinance or by-law of the city. The authority to enact by-laws is delegated to the city by the sovereign power, and the exercise of the authority gives to such enactments the same force and effect as if they had been passed directly by the legislature. They are public laws of a local and limited operation, designed to secure good order and to provide for the welfare and comfort of the inhabitants. In their enforcement, therefore, police officers act in their public capacity, and not as the agents or servants of the city."
Boston has several military organizations bearing peculiar relations to the Commonwealth. First is the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany, dating back two hundred and forty-three years, in whose ranks have marched governors, judges of the supreme court, senators, and generals, and whose officers are to this day invested with the badges of their authority by the Governor in person. Next in order of seniority is the First Corps of Cadets, the Governor's body-guard, whose first tour of duty was to escort William Shirley, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on a visit to the Colony of Rhode Island in 1741. It was at first known as the Inde- pendent Company of Cadets, and as such was commanded by John Hancock in 1774. Hancock was summarily dismissed from the command by Gover- nor Gage in a letter (still preserved in the archives of the corps), on the receipt of which the company promptly gave up the Governor's standard, and informed him that the dismissal of their first officer was equivalent to disbandment. The company thereupon disbanded, but did not become extinct, reviving in 1776 under the name of the " Independent Company," and reorganized under its present charter in 1786.
Another of Boston's famous corps is the National Lancers, whose gay uniforms and fluttering pennons have for so many years given a touch of color and picturesqueness to the Governor's Commencement Day proces- sion from Boston to Cambridge.
There are other Boston military companies having a long and honorable record, -the "Tigers," the school of Boston soldiers since 1798, and the " Fusiliers," who had the honor of being Governor Hancock's body-guard on general election day in 1792; but the "Ancients," the "Cadets," and the "Lancers " alone bear at present any exceptional relationship to the Com- monwealth. Massachusetts will never forget, however, the days when every Boston military organization represented her; and there is hardly a field of battle in the South whose story does not tell how gallantly they bore her flag, and how proudly they sustained her martial fame.
It is significant that the Commonwealth has placed as her fittest repre- sentatives in the national gallery at Washington the statucs of two men of Boston. As in the days of Winthrop and Sam Adams, so Boston stands
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BOSTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH.
now, a representative of Massachusetts. It represents in its myriad manu- factories, mills, and workshops, and in the well-tilled and fertile fields which lie about it, the varied industries of the State. It represents in its marts, in its busy stores and massive warehouses, the enterprise and solidity of hier trades. It represents in its fifty millions of bank capital, and in the character of its financiers, her pecuniary wealth and stability. It represents in its fifty millions of savings-bank deposits the thrift and economy of her people. In its hospitals, asylums, and charitable institutions it represents the benevolent and public spirit for which Massachusetts is pre-eminently clistinguished. It represents in its public schools the best results of that system of popular education which is one of the Commonwealth's chief glories, and in its higher institutions of learning her best scholarship and broadest culture. In its pulpits it represents the devoutness and the zeal of the olden time, with the toleration and liberality of the later. In what- ever constitutes the prosperity of Massachusetts, Boston stands her worthy representative ; and there is hardly a school-house or a fireside in the Commonwealth that has not contributed to the population, the character, the enterprise, and the good name of this its capital city.
Fting
[NOTE. - The Editor is indebted to Captain A. A. Folsom for a list of the commanders of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company ; and of the one hundred and seventy-one commanders from 1638 10 1880, forty-seven have been residents of Hoston and Suffolk County, as follows : -
Capt William Alexander, 1806; Capt. Bozoun Allen, 1696 ; Maj .- Gen. Humphrey Atherton, 1650, 1658; Lieut. Edwin C. Bailey, 1862, 1871; Col. John Ballentine, 1703, 1710: Capt. Samuel Barrett, 1771 ; Capt. Jonas S. Bass, 18co; Maj. William Bell, 1774, 1786; Col. George Tyler Bigelow, 1846; Maj. George Blanchard, 1805: Capt. Ed- mund Bowman, 1807: Maj. Martin Brimmer, 1826; Maj. Francis Brinley, 1848, 1852, 1858; Capt. John Carnes, 1649 ; Lieut .- Col John Carnes, 1748; Maj. George O. Carpenter, 1868; Col. Samuel Checkley, 1700 ; Capt. Joshua Cheever, 1741; Col. Thomas E. Chickering, 1857; Capt. Thomas
Clark, 1796; Maj. Thomas Clarke, 1653, 1665; Capt. Thomas Clarke, Jr., 1673: Maj. Moses G. Cobb, 1855 ; Brig .- Gen. Robert Cowdin, 1863 ; Maj. Andrew Cunning- ham, 1793 : Maj. James Cunningham, 1768 ; Capt. Nathan- iel Cunningham, 1731: Brig.Gen. Amasa Davis, 1795; Brig .- Gen. Thomas Davis, 1835; Capt. William Davis, 1664, 1672 ; Col. Thomas Dawes. Jr., 1766, 1773; Brig. - Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, 1816; Maj. Thomas Dean, 1819 : Maj. Louis Dennis, 1838; Col. William Downe, 1732, 1744; Lieut .- Gov. William Dummer, 1719; Capt. Thomas Edwarils; 1753 : Col. Thomas Fitch, 1708, 1720, 1725; Maj. Dexter H. Follett, 1874; Capt. Albert A. Folsom, 1876; Capt. James A. Fox, 1864: Capt. Theophilus Frary, 1682 ; Lieut .- Col. Jonas H. French, 186: ; Capt. Lemuel Gardner, 1803; Col. Robert Gardner, 179); Capt. Martin Gay, 1772 ; Col. Daniel L. Gibbens, 1824 ; Maj .- Gen. Ed- ward Gibbons, 1639, 1641, 1646, 1654; Maj Alex. Hamilton Gibbs, 1823 ; Capt. John Greenough, 1726; Maj. Newman Greenough, 1758 ; Capt. Ralph Hart, 1754; Capt. Thomas
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Hawkins, 1644 ; Maj .- Gen. William Heath, 1770: Lieut .- Col. Daniel Henchman, 1738, 1746; Maj. Joseph L. Hen- shaw, 1865: Col. Sir Charles Hobby, 1702, 1713 ; Capt. Melzar Holmes, 1808; Capt. William Homes, 1764; Capt. William lowe, 1814; Capt. William Hudson, 1661 ; Capt. John Hull, 1671, 1678; Col. Thomas Hunting, 1827; Capt. Edward Hutchinson, 1657; Col. Edward Hutchin- son, 1717, 1724, 1730; Col. Elisha Hutchinson, 1676, 1684, 1690, 1697; Col. Thomas Hutchinson, 1704, 1718; Col. Joseph Jackson, 1752; Capt. Robert Jenkins, 3d, 1790; Capt. Isaac Johnson, 1667; Capt. Robert Keayne, 1638, 1647 ; Capt. Samuel Keeling, 1716; Capt. Thomas Lake, 1662, 1674 ; Maj .- Gen. Sir John Leverett, 1652, 1663, 1670 ; Cal. Benjamin Loring, 1818; Capt. Caleb Lyman, 1739; Brig .- Gen. Theodore Lyman, Jr., 1822 ; Col. Charles A. Macomber, 1839; Col. Thomas Marshall, 1763, 1767 ; Gen. Aug. P. Martin, 1878; Capt. Edward Martyn, 1715; Capt. Hugh McDaniel, 1750; Col. Daniel Messenger, 1804, 1810 ; Capt. Francis Norton, 1655; Capt. James Oliver, 1656, 1666; Capt. Peter Oliver, 1669; Lieut .- Col. Peter Osgood, 1809; Col. Nicholas Paige, 1695; Maj. John C. Park, 1853 ; Maj. James Phillips, 1802 ; Col. John Phillips, 1685 ; Col. John Phillips, 1747, 1759; Capt. Parker H. Pierce, 1830 ; Col. Edward Gordon Prescott, 1833 ; Lieut .- Col. Josiah Quincy, Jr., 1829 ; Brig .- Gen. John H. Reed, 1866 ; Capt. John Roulstone, 1815 : Maj. Benjamin Russell, 1801, 1812 : Lieut .- Col. George P. Sanger, 1854; Capt. Ephraim Savage, 1683 ; Lieut .- Col. Habijah Savage, 1711, 1721;
1727 : Maj. Thomas Savage, 1651, 1659, 1668, 1675, 1680 ; Col. Thomas Savage, Jr., 1705 ; Capt. Thomas Savage. 1757 : Maj .- Gen. Robert Sedgwick, 1640, 1643, 1648 ; Maj. Samuel Sewall, 1701 ; Maj. Samuel Sewall, 2d, 1734; Cal. Samuel Shrimpton, 1694: Col. Amasa G. Smith, 1837 ; Capt. Thomas Smith, 1722; Capt. John L. Stevenson, 1877; Col. Ebenezer W. Stone, 1841 ; Capt. Ebenezer Storer, 1749 ; Lieut .- Col. Israel Stoughton, 1642 ; Brig .- Gen. William H. Sumner, 1821 ; Lieut .- Col. John Symmes, 1755, 1761 ; Maj. Charles W. Stevens, 1880; Col. William Tailor, 1712; Cul. William Tailor, 1760 ; Lieut .- Col. New- ell A. Thompson, 1843 ; Capt. Onesiphorus Tilestone, 1762; Capt. Samuel Todd, 1797; Cnl. Penn Townsend, 1681, 1691, 1698, 1709, 1723 ; Brig .- Gen. John S. Tyler, 1832, 1844, 1847, 1860; Lieut .- Gen. John Walley, 1679, 1699, 1707; Capt. Josiah Waters, 1769 : Col. Josiah Waters, Jr., 1791 ; Capt. Samuel Watts, 1742; Capt John Welch, 1756 ; Brig .- Gen. Arnold Welles, 1811 ; Capt. George Welles, 1820; Col. Jacob Wendell, 1735, 1745; Col. John Wen- dell, 1740 ; Col. Jonathan Whitney, 1813 ; Col. Marshall P. Wilder, 1856; Capt. Jonathan William, Jr., 1751 ; Capt. John Wing, 1693; Col. Edward Winslow, 1714, 1729 ; Brig .- Gen. John Winslow, 1792, 1798; Lieut -Col. Adam Winthrop, 1706 : Brig .- Gen. Grenville T. Winthrop, 1834 : Brig .- Gen. John T. Winthrop, 1825; Maj .- Gen. Wait Winthrop, 1692; Capt. Richard Woodde, 1677 : Col. Isaac Hull Wright, 1850; Col. Edward Wyman, 1872; Col. Charles W. Wilder, 1879 .- ED.]
CHAPTER IV.
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
BY GENERAL FRANCIS W. PALFREY.
DU URING the eighteenth century Boston could hardly be called a grow- ing town. There were fluctuations in the number of its people; but it is not far out of the way to set that number at twenty thousand as an average from 1700 to 1800.1 By the census of 1810 its population was given as 33,250. As had been the case almost from the earliest days of the settlement, so in the beginning of the nineteenth century, its citizens were largely dependent upon commerce for their prosperity. The state of things existing upon the continent of Europe was very prejudicial to that com- merce. In common with the other residents of the seaboard, the citizens of Boston complained especially of wrongs to commerce from the British orders in council, and the retaliating French decrees. Great Britain refused to admit that free ships made free goods, and that arms and military stores alone were contraband of war, and that ship-timber and naval stores were excluded from that description. The British practice of impressing our seamen, and of capturing American vessels bound to or returning from ports where her commerce was not favored, was also a standing grievance. From such causes the state of feeling in Massachusetts at the beginning of the year 1812 was far from placid. In a general way it may be said that the Federalists were opposed to war; but though strong in New England they were weak in Congress. They had, however, always favored a navy; but the other great political party, the Democrats or Republicans, opposed this, till the naval victories of 1812 caused them to change their minds. It was
1 [There are a few notes in Whitman's An- cient and Honorable Artillery Company, p. 324, on the general apathy in militia matters immediately following upon the peace, and on the impulse to militia organization which took place in Boston at the time of the Shays Rebellion. As a result of this movement the Ancient and Honorable Artil- lery Company renewed their meetings, which had been omitted since 1775; the Corps of Cadets was reorganized, with Samuel Bradford for comman- der; the Republican Volunteers (infantry), and a light infantry company, Ilarrison Gray Otis com-
mander; the Massachusetts Fusileers, Captain William Turner, - all began their history, not all to continue long. A cavalry company was raised, with Rufus G. Amory as captain ; followed by the Boston Dragoons, Captain Henry Purkitt, who had been of Pulaski's Cavalry Corps in the Rev- olution. Some years later (1803) when Governor Strong brigaded the Suffolk Militia, prominent among them were the Washington Light Infan- try, Captain Loring; the Boston Light Infantry, Captain Henry Sargent ; and the Winslow Blues, Captain Messenger. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
understood that the President of the United States, Mr. Madison, was anxious to avoid war, but that he was also anxious to secure a renom- ination ; and it was believed that he might think the support of the more fiery spirits, like Clay and Calhoun, necessary for his ends, and that he might determine to purchase their support by consenting to war. The war feeling was naturally weak on our unprotected seaboard, and stronger in the interior. Even in Massachusetts, however, public opinion was much divided. In January, 1812, a motion was lost in our Senate by a single vote for a call on the Government for information about impressment; about the employ- ment of ministerial printers to aid in destroying our own, and in establishing over us a British government; about plots for incendiary fires, and threats of assassination. In the same month, however, the Senate appears to have concurred with the House in ordering that the Secretary of the Common- wealth should give any certificate which might be necessary to procure the release of American seamen, free of any charge.
On Feb. 24, 1812, at a meeting of the selectmen of the town of Boston, there was presented an application from a number of gentlemen styling themselves a committee from the Republican Convention of the County of Suffolk, requesting the use of Faneuil Hall on the first Thursday of March following. Thereupon it was voted -
" That the selectmen are not acquainted with the existence of any such public body, and as the hall was built and enlarged for the use of the town, they cannot consent that it should be occupied for any purposes which in their opinion would not meet the approbation of the town."
On the 4th of April, Congress passed an act laying an embargo for ninety days from and after the passage of the act on all ships and vessels in the ports and places within the limits or jurisdiction of the United States, cleared . or not cleared, bound to any foreign port or place ; with a proviso permitting the departure of foreign vessels, either in ballast, or with the goods, etc., on board the same, when notified of the act.
On the 10th of the same month, Congress passed an act authorizing the President of the United States to require of the exccutive of the several States and Territories to take effectual measures to organize, arm, and equip according to law, and hold in readiness to march at a moment's warning, their respective proportions of one hundred thousand militia. Early in June the Massachusetts House of Representatives, upon the motion of Mr. Putnam, of Salem, -
" Resolved, as the opinion of this House, that an offensive war against Great Brit- ain, under the present circumstances of this country, would be in the highest degree impolitic, unnecessary, and ominous ; and that the great body of the people of this Commonwealth are decidedly opposed to this measure, which they do not believe to be demanded by the honor or interest of the nation ; and that a committee be appointed to prepare a respectful petition to Congress to be presented, praying them to avert a calamity so greatly to be deprecated, and by the removal of commercial restrictions to
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BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
restore so far as depends on them the benefits of trade and navigation, which are indis- pensable to the prosperity and comfort of the people of this Commonwealth."
This resolution was passed by a vote of four hundred and two to two hun- dred and seventy-eight, and the address reported in accordance therewith was adopted by a vote of four hundred and six to two hundred and forty; but a protest, signed by one hundred and eighty-six members of the House, was presented and placed on file. The Senate concurred, and thereupon the Leg- islature of Massachusetts sent to Congress a memorial against the war.1 The counsels of those who favored war prevailed, however, and on the 18th of June the President of the United States signed the bill declaring war; and on the 23d of the same month the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts delivered to the Senate of that State a message from the Governor, communicating a letter from the Honorable James Lloyd, a senator from Massachusetts, covering a declaration of war against Great Britain. There- upon the House appointed a committee to consider the question of passing a resolve requesting the Governor to appoint a Fast " in consequence of the great and distressing calamity of the late unexpected Declaration of War." Two days after, the House, one hundred and forty-nine to three, ordered accordingly, " On account of the great and distressing calamity which God in his holy Providence has permitted to be brought on the people of these - United States."
Thus the United States of America were at war with Great Britain, and Boston was one of the most important seaport towns of the United States. Besides the forces of the General Government, Massachusetts had her own militia to look to; and, so far as names were concerned, this was an impor- tant force. The whole male population, substantially, between the ages of eighteen and forty, was enrolled in the militia. The militia was arranged into seventeen divisions,2 and a major-general for each was chosen from time to time by the Senate and House of Representatives, and publicly qualified with much form. A brigade under the law of Congress was composed of four regiments, each of two battalions of five companies, and each company of sixty-four privates. The efficiency of much of this force was little more than nominal. The defences of the harbor were then as follows : 8 -
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