USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Semi-centennial of the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, 1896 > Part 9
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Although fondly devoted to the arts and ways of peace, and knowing the havoc and horrors of war, yet our city has ever sought to preserve the martial spirit of hier people, and has at all times sustained and eneouraged the citizen soldiery of the state, for she understands that the strong arm of military power may at some time be invoked to sustain her civil authority at home or to protect and defend her rights abroad. And she has always favored and honored that military organization, whose origin dates
RT. REV. DENIS M. BRADLEY. BISHOP OF MANCHESTER.
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL ORATION.
back almost to her own birthday, and whose praiseworthy object is to keep forever bright and burning the patriot fires of the Revolution, and to preserve in immortal honor the names and the deeds of those old heroes who wore the continental uniform.
The wealth of our city is not confined to her material resources. Upon her roll of honor we read today the names of those who have brought to her treasures far richer, more precious, and more enduring than the accumulated fortunes of all her citizens. The names upon that roll are found in the records of the pulpit, in the list of lawyers, physicians, and business men, while in her military annals tlicy beam with a luster unsurpassed. Among the clergy, there is one whose name is in all your minds and whose presence is recalled by many. For almost thirty-five years his voice was heard in the old Hanover-street church. Forcible, sincere, and eloquent, beloved by his people, respected and honored by all who knew him, he labored zcalously and effectively for the moral and religious improvement of this community, and our city can never forget or fully measure the value of the life, the services, and the teachings of the Rev. Dr. Wallace. There was one who came here early in the life of our city, of a different faith, born in a foreign land, whose devout and intelligent spirit was impressed upon a large number in this community, and whose influence in the support of civil administration, in the education of his people, and in elevating and ennobling the life of our city, merits, and should receive, a grateful acknowledgment. He was called the pioneer in New England in the education of the people of his faith, and not only among those to whom he ministered, but among all our citizens, there remains a respectful and appreciative memory of the Rev. William MacDonald. Upon that roll
we read the names of five who have been governors of the state: Frederick Smyth, James A. Weston, Ezekiel A. Straw, Person C. Cheney, and Moody Currier. We read the names of judges of our courts; conspicuous among them one, with an illustrious ancestry, who added to the title of the good citizen, the distinguished honor of being the chief justice of our state. There, too, are the names of attorney-generals of high rank, advocates of pre-eminent ability, men who have won a national fame in the halls of congress, and that of the great senator who was afterwards a judge of the district court of the United States. We read, too, the names of the good physicians, whose mem- ories are cherished in the homes of our citizens, and educators who faithfully and ably trained and guided the footsteps of the young.
In that field of human effort where genius and ability are measured at their true worth, we find the name of him who was one of the leaders of his party, and who possessed that masterful mind which controlled so ably for so many years a great newspaper enterprise. Contemporary with hin, but of a different political belief and party, was the editor of another of the leading papers of our state, a man devoted to his business, of great ability, and who filled a large place among those forces which mold and govern publie opinion, and in the hereafter the great newspaper fraternity will always recognize, among its ablest and most distinguished editors, the names of John B. Clarke and James M. Campbell. We have with us today a remnant of that Grand Army which entered the city of Mexico in triumph, and gave prestige and renown to American arms. We appreciate the services and honor the valorous deeds of these survivors, and of their comrades who have passed away.
When the War of the Rebellion commenced and the news of the attack upon Fort Sumter reached our city, Manchester responded with the same spirit that animated the patriot fathers in the Revolution. Her sons were worthy of their sires, and at their first official meeting the mayor was ordered to cause the Stars and Stripes to be raised over the city hall, there to remain until that flag was recognized as the national emblem all over this broad land, and at a publie meeting it was unanimously resolved to pledge the last man and the last dollar for the preservation of the Union. Under the various calls of the government two thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight of the sons of Manchester went forth to the battlefields of the South. No truer, better, braver, soldiers enlisted in that great war. They were willing to sacrifice their lives upon the
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JOHN B. CLARKE.
JAMES M. CAMPBELL.
NEW HAMPSHIRE' FIRE !INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING.
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL ORATION.
altar of their country to save the republie and the union of these states. They believed that the interests of the present and of future generations demanded this awful sacri- fice, and with the spirit of the holy martyrs they marched to battle as if
"The fittest place where man can die, Is where he dies for man."
The soldiers from this city formed a part of every military organization in this state exeept the Eighth and Seventeenth regiments, and were in nearly all of the great battles of that long and bloody conflict, and one of her sons, a distinguished soldier, General Richard N. Batchelder, has just completed a long and honorable service in the highest office of the quartermaster's department. They were with Shattuck on the red field of Fredericksburg, in the vain assaults on Marye's Heights, where New Hampshire's dead lay nearest to the foe. They were with Donahoe on many a field where Irish valor helped to win the fight; with Meade on those three immortal days at Gettysburg; with Sheridan at Cedar Creek and Winchester, where the cry of defeat was changed into the shout of victory, and with Grant at Appomattox, where the Stars and Bars went down in the gloom of eternal night, and the Stars and Stripes went up in the glorious liglit of eternal day. Some of our brave soldiers wear upon their breasts medals of priceless honor, which the government they helped to save has bestowed upon them. They held the Union line before Richmond in the closing scenes of the war, as they had held the line on many a field before, and like the Swiss patriot, Arnold Von Winkelreid, were ready to receive in their own bosoms the sheaf of spears that was intended to pieree their country's heart. The names of our heroes, living and dead, are recorded on the brightest pages of history, but we wish that we could write them
"On every star that shines,
Engrave their story on the living sky To be forever read by every eye."
Ours is indeed a city of homes, presided over today, as in all the past, by "The grace of women pure and fair As the mayflower's bloom when the woods are bare."
Their influence, commencing at the cradle, has ever gone forth for that which was best and noblest in the life of our eity. They were with the pioneers and helped to build our earliest homes, and they shared in the dangers and endured all thic hardships of a frontier life. They were patriots in the Revolution, and with a woman's ardent devo- tion sustained the cause of liberty. In the great civil war, they inspired the Union soldier with a purer and deeper love of country. Like ministering angels they were at the hospitals where the sick and wounded needed their helpful service and loving eare. They shared in the woes and agonies of that long and gloomy night of war. They saw the strong and stalwart of their household go forth to battle, and bade them a last adieu. They suffered the pangs and tortures of unmeasured grief at the loss of loved ones, and the hearts of many were buried at the South, in the unknown graves. But from every hearthstone went out their words of encouragement and cheer, and from the domestic altar went up their prayers to the God of battles, that the noblest cause for which man ever fought might be crowned at last with victory. They have ever been the light and comfort of home, the faithful teachers in every school, and the willing toilers at the loom, the desk, the shop, and store. We are honored by their presence today, and our highest meed of praise goes out from every heart to those brave and noble women who have been in all our past the most faithful and the most constant helpers in every enterprise and effort which would make our city progressive, honor- able, and great.
Our city has always been fortunate in her choice of a chief executive. Three of her mayors have been governors of the state, one a judge of our supreme court, one an adjutant-general of the state, one is our present efficient postmaster, and another is the distinguished presiding officer of this occasion. Today she takes pride in the intelligence, enthusiasm, tact, and executive ability of her young mayor, under whose
THE MANCHESTER BANK BUILDING.
THE MONADNOCK AND UPTON BLOCKS.
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL ORATION.
direction, constant attention, and unremitting effort this great undertaking, the eele- bration of our golden anniversary, has been inaugurated and so successfully carried on toward its completion, and to him, and to a zealous, able, and most efficient com- mittee, all, with one accord, return the largest measure of gratitude and thanks.
In this far-famed valley of the Merrimack rests our imperial city. Her streets in regular and far-extended lines are embowered by the sheltering elm and maple; her squares and parks, many of them the gift of her great Amoskeag Corporation, lie like emerald shields upon her bosom, while far and wide her broad expanse is studded with her imposing public buildings, her stately business blocks, her magnificent residences, and her gigantic mills and shops. To the east, supplying her with an abundance of the purest water, lies her fair Lake Massabesic, with its enchanting scenery, wooded islands, and shaded shores. Around her are the eternal hills and monntains, which seem to enfold her in their loving embrace, and to defend her by their massive walls. From the west the Uncanoonucs, striving to keep the clouds and storms away, look kindly down upon her from their double towers, and nearer, like some huge rampart, stands bold Rock Rimmon, grimly guarding her western portals, while down her valley the obedient river lingers to expend her gathered powers upon the waiting wheels, and then, when her generous work is done, flows on in triumph through her natural channel toward the sea.
With such a heritage, with such a history, and with such a people, we make our entrance today upon a new and untried field of action. The voices of children and the bright faces of the young tell us of the morning, and that the blessed sunlight of our prosperity is yet but slightly advanced toward the meridian, while happy and auspicions omens from every side reveal to us the glory of the future and tell us to advance in the way our fathers trod.
"Then forward men and women! Let the bell Of progress echo through each wakened mind! Let the grand chorus through our numbers swell. Who will not hasten shall be left behind! Who conquers, shall a crown of glory find; Who falls, if faithful shall but fall to rise. Free from the tear drenched clay that clogs mankind, To where new triumphs greet his eager eyes; Forward will ever be the watchword of the skies."
Today, with united front, proud of our city and of her grand achievements, proud of her mighty industries which, now diversified, are stronger than before, and proud of the illustrious names and deeds of her sons and daughters, who have given to her an immortality of honor, we are marching forward, with our banners streaming in a prospering breeze, and inscribed in letters of golden light with the word "Progress."
The approving smile and cheer of the good and true inspire us with hope and courage. The overarching skies, so beautiful and bright and clear on this glad September after- noon, pronounce their benediction. Those venerated men and women who still remain, survivors of a former generation, with uplifted hands, trenmilons with age, invoke upon us all a father's blessing, while the spirits of our departed heroes seem to beckon us on, brightening our pathway and directing us in our onward and upward course.
With such aid, encouragement, and inspiration, with the most cheering hopes of the future, with pledges of loyalty and fidelity to the example and teachings of the honored men and women who have gone before, and with a supreme faith in that Providence whose protecting arm has been around and about us in all the past, we enter upon the duties of the coming century.
The entire audience, led by the quartet, then sang "America," and the exercises closed by the recital of the Lord's prayer and benediction by Rt. Rev. Denis M. Bradley, Bishop of Manchester.
ERECTED 1896. MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL.
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CHILDREN'S DAY. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9.
Under the direction of Superintendent of Schools William E. Buck, and the committee on school exercises, a very entertaining and instructive program was carried out in the tent on the Straw grounds. at 9 A. M. on Wednesday, September 9. Over three thousand children of the public and parochial schools, in charge of their teachers, assembled in the tent, and as many more of the parents and friends of the pupils attended the exercises. All were seated by a corps of ushers in charge of Channing Cox. It was undoubtedly the largest audience ever seated at one time in the city of Manchester. Upon entering the tent each of the children was given a special souvenir of the occasion in the shape of an aluminum medal, bearing the city seal and a suitable inscription.
FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE IN MANCHESTER.
Seated upon the platform were Mayor Clarke, Superintendent Buck, the school committee, principals of the various schools, and clergymen. The school children had been drilled by Musical Director William J. McGuiness, and the patrotic songs rendered by the three thousand voices were an especially pleasing feature of the program.
After a selection by the First Regiment Band, Superintendent Buck called the. audience to order and introduced the presiding officer, Mayor Clarke, who said:
My Young Friends :- We have today reached one of the most interesting and joyous events of Semi-Centennial week,-Children's Day. In many respects it is the most notable of all the splendid demonstrations the city has taken part in, for while few of us who have thus far assisted in the exercises of the week may reasonably expect to be here to participate in Manchester's centennial celebration, there are thousands before me this morning who will be here to join efforts in the anniversary occasion that will round out the full one hundred years of Manchester's incorporation as a city. It is a source of the greatest satisfaction to the committee of arrangements to find the area covered by this massive spread of canvas filled in every part with the bright youth of Manchester, and to see every educational institution, whether public or private, repre- sented in this large and happy gathering. This is your day, my children, and I hope that you will enjoy it to the fullest extent and that it will come back to you in sweet memory in after years. The remarks of our speakers will be addressed especially to you, and will not be of a lengthy character. The musical exercises are to come from you, and these we count upon to be the best on the program.
After an impressive prayer by Rev. Fr. John J. Lyons, rector of St. Anne's church, the children sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Edwin F. Jones, city solicitor, was then introduced.
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
ADDRESS OF EDWIN F. JONES.
Mr. Chairman and Friends, Old and Young :- A celebration like this of Manchester's, in which the children played no part, would be woefully incomplete. For past accom- plishments, present conditions, without the prospect of future growth, lose their luster and their interest. All the previous exercises of this week's celebration have been calculated to recall the achievements and the glories of the past, and to typify the strength and greatness of our city's present development. This gathering of the chil- dren, however, is like a benediction; it is the crown of all the festivities. For in these young and active figures, in these happy faces, in these intelligent eyes we may read the promise of the better things for Manchester which are yet to be. They give us hope and the assurance of a future with which all we are and all we have been are not to be compared.
And best of all, it seems to me, is the fact that they are here as school children. For education, a generous, well-directed education, is the best gift one generation can make unto the next. Manchester's schools have ever been, and are now, her pride. Children, see to it that you take full advantage of the opportunities for learning which are given you. Your parents' fondest wish, your city's dearest hope is that in her schools you may grow up to be useful members of society; may learn to become honest and intel- ligent citizens of our great republic.
Education is not a mere exercise of the memory; it is not simply the learning of a number of facts. There is something more than attaining ability to read and spell, to write and cipher. It means the fullest development of all our faculties and all our powers, physical and mental. Real education teaches us to think and to reason for ourselves; to exercise that divine quality which animates the human brain, and distin- guishes us from the brute creation, and makes man master over nature.
Education means work, constant and persevering. Its first great lesson is that industry is essential to success; that nothing on this earth, worth the having, can be had without it; that labor, whether of the hands or of the brain, is honorable. It recommends the practice of industry to all; it condemns idleness as one of the worst of vices. The truly educated man or woman is never ashamed of honest toil, is never afraid of hard work.
Education leads us to the knowledge that, in this world, nothing exists without some cause; and teaches us to look for the causes of the things we see; and to realize that, under similar circumstances, like causes will produce like results. Thus we learn from the events of the past to reason as to those to come. This power makes us, to a certain extent, masters of the future, and enables us to work today with some assur- ance for the morrow.
Education inculcates honesty. It shows us that truthfulness and fair dealing will win us better results than lies and unjust conduct towards our neighbors. Education is of the heart as well as of the mind and hands. And it is not confined to the schools. It reaches out into the home, and into all the daily walks of life. It is for the old as well as young. Our education is completed only with life itself.
But the chief aim of the education of the schools is to fit the children for their duties as citizens. They should there be taught the nature of the government under which they live, its various departments, municipal, state, and national, its powers and its limitations. They should there learn to realize the inestimable privileges of American citizenship and the sacred duties which those privileges import. We live in a land where the people rule, where majority is king. Our proudest boast is the freedom of our institutions. But freedom does not mean unrestrained license; it does not mean that we may all do just as we please. It means liberty for each man to do and to enjoy what he best can do and enjoy for himself without trespassing upon the right
REV. JOHN J. LYONS.
WILLIAM J. McGUINESS.
REV. G. A. GUERTIN.
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
of his neighbor to the same privilege. Our laws aim to give such liberty and to pun- ish such trespassing. We seek the greatest good of the greatest number. Each must yield a little for the greater good of all.
Ours is the fairest, the happiest, the freest land on which the sun shines in his daily round. Our people have the best homes, the best food, the best clothing of all the peoples of the world. Our government bears more lightly upon the people than any other. For the people make the government themselves, they choose the officials, and to them the officials are responsible. You, my young friends, will soon be voters; you will soon be helping to name the officers and to shape the policies of the nation. Labor diligently to become good men and women; honest, industrious, and intelligent men and women. For only so can you become good citizens and perform properly the duties of citizenship.
Read and study the history of your country. Learn how our ancestors labored and struggled and suffered that we may, today, enjoy the blessings of this free and popular government. Learn how our land was settled; how our institutions were formed; by what sacrifices they have been preserved for us. Read the story of the settlement of our own New England, and note the lesson it imparts. See those devoted men and women who, nearly four hundred years ago, left their homes in Old England; gave up all they held dear, their friends, their firesides, the graves of their loved ones, and crossing a stormy, wintry sea, planted on these then bleak and barren shores their altars and, though they knew it not, laid the foundations of a new nation. And all for what? For the right to worship God after the dictates of their own consciences. So they gained religious liberty, and through long years of contest with the wild forces of nature, with the wilder beasts of the field, and the still wilder human inhabitants of the forest, they preserved the freedom of conscience, and handed it down to us as our most valued heritage. Let us guard it sacredly and well, and let us never deny it to others. Let no man be proscribed for religion, sect, or opinion's sake.
Again, mark how the colonies resisted a tax in levying which they had no voice. The tax was small, but the principle was great. They said: "No representation, no tax- ation. All government rests upon the consent of the governed." The king and parlia- ment undertook to enforce their decrees with arms. The great declaration of 1776 followed. Washington, Green, and Stark led brave men on many a bloody field, until independence was achieved, and a new government, one "of the people, for the people, and by the people" was born in the family of nations, and in our constitution the prin- ciples of the declaration found embodiment and life. But struggles, sacrifices, bloodshed were required before civil freedom could be won. Let us use all the powers of good citizenship to maintain it.
And yet again, when treason raised its slimy head and undertook to destroy the government it had cost so much to make, mark how the patriotism of the North was aroused when Lincoln's call for troops was heard. Read the story of those days of rebellion, when beneath the shining folds of the Stars and Stripes marched Grant and Sherman and Sheridan, and four hundred thousand of the bravest men who ever shouldered musket gave up their lives that the constitution might be preserved, that the Union might be saved, and that personal freedom, which had long been for the white race, might be given those with black skins. Let us show the same love of country, the same devoted patriotism, if not on fields of strife, then by performing in our varied walks of life the duties of citizenship as honest, law-abiding, self-respecting Americans.
Such are some of the lessons to be learned in the common schools. Children, see to it that you ponder them well; study their meaning; avoid the errors and imitate the virtues of those who have gone before. Thus you will become good citizens, who will serve your country well, and of whom your city will be proud. And when you shall be
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ADDRESS OF REV. G. A. GUERTIN.
conducting (as some of you surely will) the celebration of the second one half century of Manchester's life as a chartered municipality, you may look back on years of well doing and be able to say with truth that the second was better than the first. For happiness, good order, prosperity will surely prevail so long as good citizenship is universal.
After a selection by the band, the chairman presented Rev. Fr. G. A. Guertin, assistant pastor of St. Augustine's church.
ADDRESS OF REV. FR. G. A. GUERTIN.
Your Honor, Reverend Gentlemen, Young Friends of the Schools :- There was a time, years ago, when this city was very small. In those days, all the school children grouped together would not have covered more than one tenth of the space you now occupy. A few short streets leading to the mills and lined on either side with blocks of boarding-houses, the city hall, some stores, a cluster of modest homes on the opposite bank of the river, and-behold Manchester in 1846! A visitor would have walked through it all, as you can readily perceive, in a very limited time.
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