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diff --git a/old/13632.txt b/old/13632.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f2c361 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13632.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4222 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 5, +May, 1884, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 5, May, 1884 + A Massachusetts Magazine + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci, the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team and Cornell University + + + + + +[Illustration: Chester A. Arthur] + + + + +THE BAY STATE MONTHLY. + +_A Massachusetts Magazine_. + +VOL. I. + +MAY, 1884. + +No. V. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by John N. +McClintock and Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at +Washington. + + * * * * * + +CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. + +BY BEN: PERLEY POORE. + + +Chester Alan Arthur was born at Fairfield, Vermont, October 5, 1830. His +father, the Reverend Doctor William Arthur, was a Baptist clergyman, who +emigrated from county Antrim, Ireland, when only eighteen years of age. +He had received a thorough classical education, and was graduated from +Belfast University, one of the foremost institutions of learning in +Ireland. Marrying an American, Miss Malvina Stone, soon after his +arrival, he became the father of several children. Chester was the +eldest of two sons, having four sisters older and two younger than +himself. While fulfilling his clerical duties as the pastor, +successively, of a number of Baptist churches in New York State, Dr. +Arthur edited for several years The Antiquarian, and wrote a work on +Family Names, which is highly prized by genealogists. Of Scotch-Irish +descent, he was a man of great force of character, impatient of +restraint, at home in a controversy, and frank in the expression of his +opinions. He was a pronounced emancipationist, although he never +expected to see the overthrow of slavery, which it was his good fortune +to witness, as his life was spared until the twenty-seventh of October, +1875, when he died at Newtonville, near Albany. He was a personal friend +of Gerrit Smith, and they had participated in the organization of the +New York State Anti-Slavery Society, which was dispersed by a mob during +its first meeting at Utica, on the twenty-first of October, 1835 (the +day on which William Lloyd Garrison was mobbed in Boston, and was lodged +in jail for his own protection). A friend of the slave from conscience +and from conviction, Dr. Arthur was never backward in expressing his +convictions, and his children imbibed his teachings. + +When a lad, young Arthur enjoyed at home the tutelage of his father, +whose thorough knowledge of the classics enabled him to lay the +foundation of his son's future education broad and deep. He entered +Union College in 1845, when only fifteen years of age. His collegiate +course was full of promise, and every successive year he was declared to +be one of those who had taken "maximum honors," although he was +compelled to absent himself during two winters, when he taught school to +earn the requisite funds for defraying his expenses, without drawing +upon his father's means. Yet he kept up with his class, and when he was +graduated in 1848, he was one of six out of a class of over one hundred, +who were elected members of the Phi Beta Kappa, an honor only conferred +on the best scholars. + +Following the natural inclination of his mind, young Arthur began the +study of law, supporting himself by teaching and by preparing boys for +college. It so happened that two years after he was the preceptor of an +academy at North Pownal, Vermont, a student from Williams College, named +James A. Garfield, came there and taught penmanship in the same academy +for several months. + +In 1853, young Arthur went to New York City, by the invitation of the +Honorable Erastus D. Culver, whose acquaintance he had made when that +gentleman represented the Washington County district, and Dr. Arthur was +the pastor of the Baptist Church at Greenwich. Mr. Culver had been noted +in Congress as an advanced, anti-slavery man, and he was prompted to +take an interest in the son of a clergyman-constituent, who did not fear +to express anti-slavery sentiments, at a time when the occupants of +pulpits were generally so conservative that they were dumb upon this +important question. Before the close of the year, young Arthur displayed +such legal ability and business tact, that he was admitted into +partnership, and became a member of the firm of Culver, Parker, and +Arthur. The firm had numerous clients, and the junior partner soon +became a successful practitioner, uniting to a thorough knowledge of the +law a vigorous understanding and an untiring industry which gained for +him an enviable reputation. + +Among other cases on the docket of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, was one +known as the Lemon slave-case. A Virginian named Jonathan Lemon +undertook to take eight slaves to Texas on steamers, by the way of New +York. While in that city a writ of _habeas corpus_ was issued, and the +slaves were brought into the court before Judge Elijah Paine; Mr. Culver +and John Jay appearing for the slaves, while H.D. Lapaugh and Henry L. +Clifton were retained by Lemon. Judge Paine, after hearing long +arguments, declared that the fugitive slave law did not apply to slaves +who were brought by their masters into a free State, and he ordered +their release. The Legislature of Virginia directed the attorney-general +of that State to employ counsel to appeal from Judge Paine's decision to +the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Mr. Arthur, who was the +attorney of record in the case for the people, went to Albany, and after +earnest efforts procured the passage of a joint resolution, requesting +the governor to employ counsel to defend the interests of the State. +Attorney-General Hoffman, E.D. Culver, and Joseph Blunt were appointed +by the governor as counsel, and Mr. Arthur as the State's attorney. The +Supreme Court sustained Judge Paine's decision. The slave-holder, +unwilling to lose his "property," then engaged Charles O'Conor to argue +the case before the State Court of Appeals. There the counsel for the +State were again successful in defending the decision of Judge Paine, +and from that day no slave-holder dared to bring his slaves into the +city of New York. + +Mr. Arthur, who had naturally taken a prominent part in this case, was +regarded by the colored people of New York as a champion of their +interests, and it was not long before they sought his aid. At that time, +colored people were not permitted to ride in the street-cars in New York +City, with the exception of a few old and shabby cars set aside for +their occupation. The Fourth-avenue line permitted them to ride when no +other passenger made objection. + +One Sunday, in 1855, Lizzie Jennings, a colored woman, returning from +having fulfilled her duties as superintendent of a colored +Sunday-school, entered a Fourth-avenue car, and the conductor took her +fare. Soon after, a drunken white man objected to her presence, and +insisted that she be made to leave the car. The conductor pulled the +bell, and when the car stopped, told her that she must get out, offering +to return her fare. She refused, and the conductor then offered to put +her off by force. She made vigorous resistance, exclaiming: "I have paid +my fare, and I have a right to ride." Finally, the conductor called in +several policemen, and, by their joint efforts, she was removed from the +car, her clothing having nearly all been torn from her in the struggle. +When the leading colored people of the city heard of this, they sent a +committee to the office of Culver, Parker, and Arthur, and requested +them to make it a test case. + +Mr. Arthur brought suit against the railroad company for Miss Jennings, +in the Supreme Court, at Brooklyn. The case came on for trial before +Judge Rockwell, who then sat upon the bench there. He had just decided, +in a previous case, that a corporation was not liable for the wrongful +acts of its agent or servant, and when Mr. Arthur handed him the +pleadings, he said that the railroad company was not liable, and was +about to order a nonsuit. Mr. Arthur called his attention, however, to a +recently revised section of the Revised Statutes, making certain +railroad corporations which carried passengers liable for the acts of +their conductors and drivers, whether wilful or negligent, under which +the action had been brought. The judge was silenced, the case was tried, +and the jury rendered a verdict of five hundred dollars damages in favor +of the colored woman. The railroad company paid the money without +further contest, and issued orders to its conductors to permit colored +people to ride in its cars, an example that was followed by all the +other street railroads in New York. The colored people, especially "The +Colored People's Legal Rights Association," were very grateful to Mr. +Arthur, and for years afterward they celebrated the anniversary of the +day on which he won the case that asserted their rights in public +conveyances. + +When a lad, young Arthur had always taken a great interest in politics, +and it is related of him that during the Clay-Polk campaign of 1844, +while he and some of his companions were raising an ash pole in honor of +Harry Clay, they were attacked by some Democratic boys, when young +Arthur, who was the leader of the party, ordered a charge, and drove the +young Democrats from the field with sore heads and subdued spirits. His +first vote was cast in 1852 for Winfield Scott for President, and he +identified himself with the Whigs of his ward when he located in New +York City. In those days the best citizens served as inspectors of +elections at the polls, and for some years Mr. Arthur served in that +capacity at a voting-place in a carpenter's shop, which occupied the +site of the present Fifth Avenue Hotel. When, in 1856, the Republican +party was formed, Mr. Arthur was a prominent member of the Young Men's +Vigilance Committee, which advocated the election of Fremont and Dayton. +It was during this campaign that he became acquainted with Edwin D. +Morgan, and gained his ardent life-long friendship. + +Animated by a military spirit, Mr. Arthur sought recreation by joining +the volunteer militia of New York, and he was appointed +judge-advocate-general on the staff of Brigadier-General Yates, who +commanded the second brigade. The general was a strict disciplinarian, +and required his field, line, and staff officers to meet weekly for +drill and instruction. Mr. Arthur thus acquired the rudiments of a +military education, and became acquainted with many of those who +afterwards distinguished themselves as officers in the volunteer army of +the Union. + +General Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon, of +Fredericksburg, Virginia, a daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon, +of the United States Navy, who had gained honorable distinction when in +command of the naval expedition sent to explore the river Amazon. His +heroic death, in 1857, is recorded in history among those "names which +will never be forgotten as long as there is remembrance in the world for +fidelity unto death." In command of the steamer Central America, which +went down, with a loss of three hundred and sixty lives, he stood at his +post on the wheelhouse, and succeeded in having the women and children +safely transferred to the boats, remaining himself to perish with his +vessel. General Sherman has characterized this grand deed of unselfish +devotion as the most heroic incident in our naval history. Mrs. Arthur +was a lady of the highest culture, and in the varied relations of +life--wife, mother, friend--she illustrated all that gives to womanhood +its highest charm, and commands for it the purest homage. She died in +1880, after an illness of but three days, leaving a son and a daughter, +with a large number of mourning friends, not only in society, of which +she was an ornament, but among the poor and the distressed, whose wants +and whose sufferings she had tenderly cared for. + +When the Honorable Edward D. Morgan was elected Governor of the State of +New York, he appointed Mr. Arthur engineer-in-chief on his staff, and +when Fort Sumter was fired upon, the governor telegraphed to him to go +to Albany, where he received orders to act as state +quartermaster-general in the city of New York. General Arthur at once +began to organize regiments,--uniform, arm, and equip them,--and send +them to the defence of the capital. His capacity for leadership and +organization was soon manifest. There was no lack of men or of money, +but it needed organizing powers like his to mould them into disciplined +form, to grasp the new issues with a master-hand, and to infuse +earnestness and obedience into the citizens, suddenly transformed into +soldiers. His accounts were kept in accordance with the army +regulations, and their subsequent settlement with the United States, +without deduction for unwarranted charges, was an easy task. It was by +his exertions, to a great extent, that the Empire State was enabled to +send to the front six hundred and ninety thousand men, nearly one fifth +of the Grand Army of the Union. + +There were, of course, many adventurers who sought commissions, and some +of the regiments were recruited from the rough element of city life, who +soon refused to obey their officers. General Arthur made short work of +these cases, exercising an authority which no one dared to dispute. +Neither would he permit the army contractors to ingratiate themselves +with him by presents, returning everything thus sent him. Although a +comparatively poor man when he entered upon the duties of +quartermaster-general at New York, he was far poorer when he gave up the +office. A friend describing his course at this period, says: "So jealous +was he of his integrity, that I have known instances where he could have +made thousands of dollars legitimately, and yet he refused to do it on +the ground that he was a public officer and meant to be, like Caesar's +wife, above suspicion." + +When the rebel ironclad steamer Merrimac had commenced her work of +destruction near Fortress Monroe, General Arthur, as engineer-in-chief, +took efficient steps for the defence of New York, and made a thorough +inspection of all the forts and defences in the State, describing the +armament of each one. His report to the Legislature, submitted to that +body in a little more than three weeks after his attention was called to +the subject by Governor Morgan, was thus noticed editorially in the New +York Herald of January 25, 1862:-- + +"The report of the engineer-in-chief, General Arthur, which appeared in +yesterday's Herald, is one of the most important and valuable documents +that have been this year presented to our Legislature. It deserves +perusal, not only on account of the careful analysis it contains of the +condition of the forts, but because the recommendations, with which it +closes, coincide precisely with the wishes of the administration with +respect to securing a full and complete defence of the entire Northern +coast." + +Governor Morgan appointed General Arthur state inspector-general in +February, 1862, and ordered him to visit and inspect the New York troops +in the army of the Potomac. While there, as an advance on Richmond was +daily expected, he volunteered for duty on the staff of his friend, +Major-General Hunt, commander of the Reserve Artillery. He had +previously, when four fine volunteer regiments had been organized under +the auspices of the metropolitan police commissioners of of the city of +New York, and consolidated into what was known as the "Metropolitan +Brigade," been offered the command of it by the colonels of the +regiments, but on making formal application, based on a desire to see +active service in the field, Governor Morgan was unwilling that he +should accept, stating that he could not be spared from the service of +the State, and that while he appreciated General Arthur's desire for +war-service, he knew that he would render the country more efficient aid +for the Union cause by remaining at his State post of duty. + +When, in June, 1862, the situation had an unfavorable appearance, and +there were apprehensions that a general draft would be necessary, +Governor Morgan telegraphed General Arthur, then with the Army of the +Potomac, to return to New York. The General did so, and was requested, +on his arrival, to act as secretary at a confidential meeting of the +governors of loyal States, held at the Astor House, on the twenty-eighth +of July, 1862. After a full and frank discussion of the condition of +affairs in their respective States, the governors united in a request to +the President to call for more troops. President Lincoln, on the first +of July, issued a proclamation, thanking the governors for their +patriotism, and calling for three hundred thousand three-years +volunteers, and three hundred thousand nine-months militia-men. Private +intimation that such a call was to be issued would have enabled army +contractors to have made millions; but the secret was honorably kept by +all until after the issue of the proclamation. The quota of New York was +59,705 volunteers, or sixty regiments, and it was desirable that they +should be recruited and sent to the front without delay. General Arthur, +by special request of Governor Morgan, resumed his duties as +quartermaster-general and established a system of recruiting and +officering the new levies, which proved wonderfully successful. In his +annual report, made to the governor on the twenty-seventh of January, +1863, he said:-- + +"In summing up the operations of the department during the last levy of +troops, I need only state as the result the fact that through the single +office and clothing department of this department in the city of New +York, from August 1 to December 1, the space of four months, there were +completely clothed, uniformed, and equipped, supplied with camp and +garrison equipage, and transported from this State to the seat of war, +sixty-eight regiments of infantry, two battalions of cavalry, and four +battalions and ten batteries of artillery." + +In December, 1863, the incoming of the Democratic state administration +deprived General Arthur of his office. His successor, +Quartermaster-General Talcott, in a report to Governor Seymour, paid the +following just tribute to his predecessor:-- + +"I found, upon entering on the discharge of my duties, a well-organized +system of labor and accountability, for which the State is chiefly +indebted to my predecessor, General Chester A. Arthur, who, by his +practical good sense and unremitting exertion, at a period when +everything was in confusion, reduced the operations of the department to +a matured plan by which large amounts of money were saved to the +government, and great economy of time secured in carrying out the +details of the same." + +Resuming his professional duties, at first in partnership with Mr. +Gardiner and afterward alone, he became counsel to the city department +of taxes and assessments, with an annual salary of ten thousand dollars, +but he abruptly resigned the position when the Tammany Hall city +officials attempted to coerce the Republicans connected with the +municipal departments. + +When the next presidential election drew near, General Arthur entered +enthusiastically into the support of General Grant, and was made +chairman of the Grant Central Club, of New York. He also served as +chairman of the executive committee of the Republican State Committee of +New York. In 1871, he formed the afterwards well-known firm of Arthur, +Phelps, Knevals, and Ransom. + +President Grant, without solicitation and unexpectedly, appointed +General Arthur collector of the port of New York, on the twentieth of +November, 1871. He accepted the position with much hesitation, but it +met with the general approval of the business community, many of the +merchants having become personally acquainted with his business ability +during the war. He instituted many reforms in the management of the +custom-house, all calculated to simplify the business and to divest it, +to a great extent, of all the details and routine so vexatious to the +mercantile classes. The number of his removals during his administration +was far less than during the rule of any other collector since 1857, and +the expense of collecting the duties was far less than it had been for +years. So satisfactory was his management of the custom-house, that, +upon the close of his term of service, December, 1875, he was +renominated by President Grant. The nomination was unanimously confirmed +by the Senate without reference to a committee, a compliment very rarely +paid, except to ex-senators. He was the first collector of the port of +New York, with one or two exceptions, who in fifty years ever held the +office for more than the whole term of four years. + +Two years later General Arthur was superseded as collector by General +Merritt. The Honorable John Sherman, secretary of the treasury, on being +questioned as to the cause of the removal of General Arthur as collector +of customs at New York, said:-- + +"I have never said one word impugning General Arthur's honor or +integrity as a man and a gentleman, but he was not in harmony with the +views of the administration in the management of the custom-house. I +would vote for him for Vice-President a million times before I would +vote for W.H. English, with whom I served in Congress." + +General Arthur, in a letter written by him to Secretary Sherman, on his +administration of the New York custom-house, said:-- + +"The essential elements of a correct civil service I understand to be: +First, permanance in office, which, of course, prevents removals, except +for cause. Second, promotion from the lower to the higher grades, based +upon good conduct and efficiency. Third, prompt and thorough +investigation of all complaints and prompt punishment of all misconduct. +In this respect I challenge comparison with any department of the +Government, either under the present or under any past national +administration. I am prepared to demonstrate the truth of this statement +on any fair investigation." + +Appended to this letter was a table in which General Arthur showed that +during the six years he had managed the office the yearly percentage of +removals for all causes had been only two and three-quarters per cent. +against an annual average of twenty-eight per cent. under his three +immediate predecessors, and an annual average of about twenty-four per +cent. since 1857, when Collector Schell took office. Out of nine hundred +and twenty-three persons who held office when he became collector on +December 1, 1871, there were five hundred and thirty-one still in office +on May 1, 1877, having been retained during his entire term. Concerning +promotions, the statistics of the office show that during his entire +term the uniform practice was to advance men from the lower to the +higher grades, and almost without exception on the recommendation of +heads of departments. All the appointments, excepting two, to the one +hundred positions paying two thousand dollars salary a year, and over, +were made on this method. + +Senator George K. Edmunds, at a ratification meeting, held in +Burlington, Vermont, on the twenty-second of June, 1880, said:-- + +"I have long known General Arthur. The only serious difficulty I have +had with the present administration was when it proposed to remove him +from the collectorship of New York. No one questioned his personal honor +and integrity. I resisted the attempt to the utmost. Since that time it +has turned out that all the reforms suggested had long before been +recommended by General Arthur himself, and pigeonholded at Washington." + +Meanwhile General Arthur had rendered great services as a member, and +subsequently a chairman, of the Republican State Committee, and had +united his party from one success to another through all the mazes and +intricacies which characterize the politics of New York City. +Vice-President Wheeler said of him:-- + +"It is my good fortune to know well General Arthur, the nominee for +Vice-President. In unsullied character and in devotion to the principles +of the Republican party no man in the organization surpasses him. No man +has contributed more of time and means to advance the just interests of +the Republican party." + +The National Republican Convention, which assembled at Chicago, in June, +1880, was an exemplification of the popular will. The respective friends +of General Grant and of Mr. Blaine, equally confident of success, +indulged during a night's session in prolonged demonstrations of +applause when the candidates were presented that were unprecedented and +that will not probably ever be repeated. Neither side was successful +until the thirty-sixth ballot, when the nomination of President was +finally bestowed on General Garfield, who had, as a delegate from Ohio, +eloquently presented the name of John Sherman as a candidate. + +The convention then adjourned for dinner and for consultation. When it +reassembled in the evening, the roll of States was called for the +nomination for Vice-President. California presented E.B. Washburne; +Connecticut, ex-Governor Jewell; Florida, Judge Settle; Tennessee, +Horace Maynard. These successive names attracted little attention, but +when ex-Lieutenant-Governor Woodford, of New York, rose, and, after a +brief reference to the loyal support which New York had given to General +Grant, presented the name of General Chester A. Arthur for the second +place on the ticket, it was received with applause and enthusiasm. The +nomination was seconded by ex-Governor Denison, of Ohio, Emory A. +Storrs, of Illinois, and John Cessna, of Pennsylvania. A vote was then +taken with the following result: Arthur, 468; Washburne, 19; Maynard, +30; Jewell, 44; Bruce, 8; Davis, 2; and Woodford, 1. The nomination of +General Arthur was then made unanimous, and a committee of one from each +State, with the presiding officer of the convention, Senator Hoar, as +chairman, was appointed to notify General Garfield and General Arthur of +their nomination. The convention then adjourned _sine die_. + +Returning to New York, General Arthur was welcomed by a large and +influential gathering of Republicans, who greeted him with hearty +cheers. That night he was serenaded by a large procession of +Republicans, which assembled in Union Square and marched past his +residence in Lexington Avenue, with music and fireworks. A few weeks +later, a letter was addressed to him, signed by Hamilton Fish, Noah +Davis, and upwards of a hundred other prominent Republicans, inviting +him to dine with them at the Union League Club, and stating that, in +common with all true Republicans, they rejoiced at the happy issue of +the earnest struggle in the Chicago convention. They hailed the general +approval of its work as an auspicious omen, and looked forward +confidently to the labors of the canvass. They felt an especial and +personal gratification in the fact that the ticket selected at Chicago +bore his name. His faithfulness in public duties, his firmness and +sagacity in political affairs, so well understood by his fellow-citizens +in New York, had met with national recognition and won for him this +well-deserved honor. Their efforts in his support would be prompted, not +only by personal zeal and enthusiasm, but by the warmth and zeal of +strong personal friendship and esteem. That they might have an +opportunity more fully to express to him their sincere congratulations +and hearty good wishes, they invited him to meet them at dinner at the +Union League Club. + +General Arthur, in acknowledging the receipt of this letter, expressed +his sense of the kindness which had prompted both the invitation itself +and the flattering assurances of confidence and regard by which it was +accompanied. If circumstances had permitted, he should have been pleased +to have accepted the proffered hospitality, and for that purpose no more +congenial spot could have been selected than the headquarters of the +Union League Club, an association so widely famed for its patriotic zeal +and energy, and so efficient in the support of the principles and policy +of the Republican party. He was constrained, however, from +considerations of a private nature known to many, to decline the +invitation. + +On the fifteenth of July, 1880, General Arthur formally accepted the +position assigned to him by the Chicago convention, and expressed at +length his own personal views on the election laws, public service +appointments, the financial problems of the day, common schools, the +tariff, national improvements, and a Republican ascendency, saying, in +conclusion, that he did not doubt that success awaited the Republican +party, and that its triumph would assure a just, economical, and +patriotic administration. + +The political campaign of 1880 was earnestly contested by the great +political parties. The Republicans were victorious, and their ticket +bearing the names of Garfield and Arthur was triumphantly elected. On +the fourth of March, 1881, General Arthur took the oath of office in the +Senate Chamber as Vice-President of the United States, and half an hour +later General Garfield was inaugurated on a platform before the east +front of the Capitol, in the presence of the imposing military and civil +procession which had escorted him with music and banners. When the +ceremony was concluded, the distinguished personages around the new +President tendered their congratulations, the assembled multitude +cheered, and a salute fired by a light battery stationed near by was +echoed by the guns at the navy yard, the arsenal, and the forts around +the metropolis. + +Republicans congratulated each other on the indications of a vigorous +administration, governed by a conscientious determination to promote +harmony. But a few months had elapsed, however, before President +Garfield was cruelly assassinated, in the full vigor of his manhood, and +the Republican party was at first stricken with apprehensions. These +gloomy doubts, however, soon disappeared as the incidents of Mr. +Arthur's patriotic and useful life were recalled, and a generous +confidence was soon extended to the new President. + +President Arthur took the oath of office in New York immediately after +the death of General Garfield, and he repeated it in the Capitol on the +twenty-second of September, in the Vice-President's room. The members of +General Garfield's cabinet, who had been requested by his successor to +continue for the present in charge of their respective departments, were +present, with General Sherman in full uniform, ex-Presidents Hayes and +Grant, and Chief Justice Waite in his judicial robes, escorted by +Associate Justices Harlan and Matthews. There were, also, present +Senators Anthony, Sherman, Edmunds, Hale, Blair, Dawes, and Jones, of +Nevada, and Representatives Amos Townsend, McCook, Errett, Randall, +Hiscock, and Thomas. Ex-Vice-President Hamlin, of Maine, and Speaker +Sharpe, of New York, were also present. + +When President Arthur entered the room, escorted by General Grant and +Senator Jones, he advanced to a small table, on which was a Bible, and +behind which stood the Chief Justice, who raised the sacred volume, +opened it, and presented it to the President, who placed his right hand +upon it. Chief Justice Waite then slowly administered the oath, and at +its conclusion the President kissed the book, responding, "I will, so +help me God." He then read the following address:-- + + +THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. + +For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its Chief Magistrate +has been removed by death. All hearts are filled with grief and horror +at the hideous crime which has darkened our land; and the memory of the +murdered President, his protracted sufferings, his unyielding fortitude, +the example and achievements of his life and the pathos of his death, +will forever illumine the pages of our history. For the fourth time the +officer elected by the people and ordained by the Constitution to fill a +vacancy so created is called to assume the executive chair. The wisdom +of our fathers, foreseeing even the most dire possibilities, made sure +that the Government should never be imperiled because of the uncertainty +of human life. Men may die, but the fabrics of our free institutions +remain unshaken. No higher or more assuring proof could exist of the +strength and permanence of popular government than the fact that, though +the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional successor is +peacefully installed without shock or strain except the sorrow which +mourns the bereavement. All the noble aspirations of my lamented +predecessor which found expression in his life, the measures devised and +suggested during his brief administration to correct abuses and enforce +economy, to advance prosperity and promote the general welfare, to +insure domestic security and maintain friendly and honorable relations +with the nations of the earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the +people, and it will be my earnest endeavor to profit, and to see that +the Nation shall profit, by his example and experience. Prosperity +blesses our country; our fiscal policy is fixed by law, is well +grounded, and generally approved. No threatening issue mars our foreign +intercourse, and the wisdom, integrity, and thrift of our people may be +trusted to continue undisturbed the present assured career of peace, +tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which have enshrouded +the country must make repose especially welcome now. No demand for +speedy legislation has been heard. No adequate occasion is apparent for +an unusual session of Congress. The Constitution defines the functions +and powers of the executive as clearly as those of either of the other +two departments of the government, and he must answer for the just +exercise of the discretion it permits and the performance of the duties +it imposes. Summoned to these high duties and responsibilities, and +profoundly conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust +imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on Divine guidance and the +virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of the American people. + + * * * * * + +As President Arthur read his message his voice trembled, but his manner +was impressive, and the eyes of many present were moistened with tears. +The first one to congratulate him when he had concluded was Chief +Justice Waite, and the next was Secretary Blaine. After shaking him by +the hand, those present left the room, which was closed to all except +the members of the Cabinet, who there held their first conference with +the President. At this cabinet meeting the following proclamation was +prepared and signed by President Arthur, designating the following +Monday as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer:-- + + + _By the President of the United States of America_; + + A PROCLAMATION: + + Whereas, in his inscrutable wisdom, it has pleased God to remove + from us the illustrious head of the Nation, James A. Garfield, late + President of the United States; and whereas it is fitting that the + deep grief which fills all hearts should manifest itself with one + accord toward the throne of infinite grace, and that we should bow + before the Almighty and seek from him that consolation in our + affliction and that sanctification of our loss which he is able and + willing to vouchsafe: + + Now, therefore, in obedience to sacred duty, and in accordance with + the desire of the people, I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the + United States of America, do hereby appoint Monday next, the + twenty-sixth day of September, on which day the remains of our + honored and beloved dead will be consigned to their last + resting-place on earth; to be observed throughout the United States + as a day of humiliation and mourning; and I earnestly recommend all + the people to assemble on that day in their respective places of + divine worship, there to render alike their tribute of sorrowful + submission to the will of Almighty God and of reverence and love + for the memory and character of our late Chief Magistrate. + + In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal + of the United States to be affixed. + + [Sidenote: [SEAL.]] + + Done at the city of Washington, the twenty-second day of September, + in the year of our Lord 1881, and of the independence of the United + States the one hundred and sixth. + + CHESTER A. ARTHUR. + + By the President: + + JAMES G. BLAINE. Secretary of State. + +President Arthur soon showed his appreciation of the responsibilities of +his new office. Knowing principles rather than persons, he subordinated +individual preferences and prejudices to a well-defined public policy. +While he was, as he always had been, a Republican, he had no sympathy +for blind devotion to party; he had "no friends to reward, no enemies to +punish;"--and he has been governed by those principles of liberty and +equality which he inherited. His messages to Congress have been +universally commended, and even unfriendly critics have pronounced them +careful and well-matured documents. Their tone is more frank and direct +than is customary in such papers, and their recommendations, extensive +and varied as they have been, show that he has patiently reviewed the +field of labor so sadly and so unexpectedly opened before him, and that +he was not inclined to shirk the constitutional duty of aiding Congress +by his suggestions and advice. An honest man, who believes in his own +principles, who follows his own convictions, and who never hesitates to +avow his sentiments, he has given his views in accordance with his +deliberate ideas of right. + +The foreign relations of the United States have been conducted by +Secretary Frelinghuysen, under the President's direction, in a friendly +spirit and when practicable with a view to mutual commercial advantages. +He has taken a conservative view of the management of the public debt, +approving all the important suggestions of the secretary of the +treasury, and recognizing the proper protection of American industry. He +is in favor of the great interests of labor, and opposed to such +tinkering with the tariff as will make vain the toil of the industrious +farmer, paralyze the arm of the sturdy mechanic, strike down the hand of +the hardy laborer, stop the spindle, hush the loom, extinguish the +furnace-fires, and degrade all independent toilers to the level of the +poor in other lands. The architect of his own fortune, he has a strong +and abiding sympathy for those bread-winners who struggle against +poverty. + +The reform of the civil service has met with President Arthur's earnest +support, and his messages show that every department of the government +has received his careful administration. Following the example of +Washington, he has personally visited several sections of the United +States, and has especially made himself acquainted with the great +problem of Indian civilization. + +President Arthur's administration has been characterized by an elevated +tone at home and abroad. All important questions have been carefully +discussed at the council table, at which the President has displayed +unusual powers of analysis and comprehension. The conflicting claims of +applicants for appointments to offices in his gift, have been carefully +weighed, and no action has been taken until all parties interested have +had a hearing. The President has a remarkable insight into men, promptly +estimating character with an accuracy that makes it a difficult matter +to deceive him, or to win his favor either for visionary schemes, +corrupt attacks upon the treasury, or incompetent place-hunters. He has +shown that he has been guided by a wise experience of the past, and a +sagacious foresight of the future, exhibiting sacrifices of individual +friendship to a sense of public duty. + +Possessing moral firmness and a just self-reliance, President Arthur did +not hesitate about vetoing the "Chinese Bill" and the "Bill making +appropriations for rivers and harbors" for reasons which he laid before +Congress in his veto messages. The wisdom and sagacity which he has +displayed in his management of national affairs has been especially +acceptable to the business interests of the country. They have tested +his administration by business principles, and they feel that, so long +as he firmly grasps the helm of the ship of state, she will pursue a +course of peace and prosperity. + +In dispensing the hospitalities of the White House, President Arthur has +exhibited the resources of a naturally generous disposition and a +refined taste. His remembrance of persons who call upon him, and whom he +may not have seen for years, is remarkable, and his hearty, genial +temperament enables him to make his visitors at home. His vigorous +vitality of body and mind, his manly figure and expressive face, add to +the dignity of his manner. A ready speaker, he at all times rises to the +level of an emergency, and he invariably charms those who hear him by +his courtesy of expression, which is the outward reflection of a large, +kind heart. + +President Arthur's numerous friends contemplate the prominent events of +his eventful life without regret, and with a sincere belief that they +will be sustained by the verdict of impartial history. Utility to the +country has been the rule of his political life, and he has arrived at +that high standard of official excellence which prevailed in the early +days of the Republic, when honesty, firmness, patriotism, and stability +of character were the characteristics of public men. Under his lead, the +Republican party, disorganized and disheartened after the sad death of +General Garfield, has gradually become strengthened and united on the +eve of another presidential victory. + + * * * * * + +YESTERDAY. + +BY KATE L. BROWN. + + + Adown the aisles of yesterday + What fairy notes are ringing, + And strange, sweet odors, rich and rare, + The western winds are bringing! + + The deeds we counted poor and mean, + Now shine with added glory, + And like a romance, reads the page + Of life's poor, meagre story. + + But vanished from our wistful sight, + Too late for vain regretting, + The joys, that the remorseful heart + With sacred gold is setting. + + Ah! dearest of all earthly hopes + Within the soul abiding, + The lost, lost life of yesterday + The heart is ever hiding. + + + + * * * * * + + +THE BOUNDARY LINES OF OLD GROTON.--I. + +BY THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. + + +The original grant of the township of Groton was made by the General +Court, on May 25, 1655, and gave to the proprietors a tract of land +eight miles square; though during the next year this was modified so +that its shape varied somewhat from the first plan. It comprised all of +what is now Groton and Ayer, nearly all of Pepperell and Shirley, large +parts of Dunstable and Littleton, smaller parts of Harvard and Westford, +Massachusetts, and a portion of Nashua, New Hampshire. The grant was +taken out of the very wilderness, relatively far from any other town, +and standing like a sentinel on the frontiers. Lancaster, fourteen miles +away, was its nearest neighbor in the southwesterly direction on the one +side; and Andover and Haverhill, twenty and twenty-five miles distant, +more or less, in the northeasterly direction on the other. No settlement +on the north stood between it and the settlements in Canada. Chelmsford +and Billerica were each incorporated about the same time, though a few +days later. + +When the grant was made, it was expressly stipulated that Mr. Jonathan +Danforth, of Cambridge, with such others as he might desire, should lay +it out with all convenient speed in order to encourage the prompt +settlement of a minister; and furthermore that the selectmen of the town +should pay a fair amount for his services. During the next year a +petition, signed by Deane Winthrop and seven others, was presented to +the General Court asking for certain changes in the conditions, and +among them the privilege to employ another "artist" in the place of Mr. +Danforth, as he was overrun with business. The petition was referred to +a committee who reported favorably upon it, and the request was duly +granted. Formerly a surveyor was called an artist, and in old records +the word is often found with that meaning. + +Ensign Peter Noyes, of Sudbury, was then engaged by the grantees and he +began the survey; but his death, on September 23, 1657, delayed the +speedy accomplishment of the work. It is known that there was some +trouble in the early settlement of the place, growing out of the +question of lands, but its exact character is not recorded; perhaps it +was owing to the delay which now occurred. Ensign Noyes was a noted +surveyor, but not so famous as Jonathan Danforth, whose name is often +mentioned in the General Court records, in connection with the laying +out of lands and towns, and many of whose plans are still preserved +among the Archives in the State House. Danforth was the man wanted at +first for the undertaking; and after Noyes's death he took charge of it, +and his elder brother, Thomas, was associated with him. The plat or plan +of the land, however, does not appear to have been completed until +April, 1668. The survey was made during the preceding year. At a meeting +of the selectmen of the town, held on November 23, 1667, it is recorded +that a rate should be levied in order to pay "the Artest and the men +that attended him and his diet for himself and his horse, and for two +sheets of parchment, for him to make two platts for the towne, and for +Transportation of his pay all which amounts to about twenty pounds and +to pay severall other town debts that appear to us to be due." + +[Illustration: Groton Plantation as shown on a plan made in 1668 by +Jonathan Danforth] + +A little further on in the records a charge of five shillings is made +'ffor two sheats of Parchment.' These entries seem to show that two +plans were made, perhaps one for the town and the other for the Colony; +but neither copy is now to be found. An allusion is made to one of them +in a petition, presented to the General Court on February 10, 1717, by +John Shepley and John Ames. It is there mentioned that "the said Plat +tho something defaced is with the Petitioner;" and is further stated +"That in the year 1713 M'r Samuel Danforth Surveyor & Son of the +aforesaid Jonathan Danforth, at the desire of the said Town of Groton +did run the Lines & make an Implatment of the said Township laid out as +before & found it agreeable to the former. W'h last Plat the Petitioners +do herewith exhibit, And pray that this Hon'ble Court would allow & +confirm the same as the Township of Groton." + +While the original plan has been lost or destroyed, it is fortunate that +many years ago a copy was made, which is still preserved. In June, 1825, +the Honorable James Prescott was in the possession of the original, +which Caleb Butler, Esq., at that time transcribed into one of the town +record-books, and thereby saved it for historical purposes. Even with +this clew a special search has been made for the missing document, but +without success. If it is ever found it will be by chance, where it is +the least looked for. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the +outlines or the faithfulness of the copy. The relative distances between +the streams emptying into the Nashua River, however, are not very exact; +and in the engraving for the sake of clearness I have added their names, +as well as the name of Forge Pond, formerly called Stony Brook Pond. + +Accompanying the copy is a description of the survey, which in +connection with the drawing gives a good idea of the general shape of +the township. Perhaps in the original these two writings were on the +same sheet. In the transcript Mr. Butler has modernized the language and +made the punctuation conform to present usage. In the engraved cut I +have followed strictly the outlines of the plan, as well as the course +of the rivers, but I have omitted some details, such as the distances +and directions which are given along the margins. These facts appear in +the description, and perhaps were taken from it by the copyist. I have +also omitted the acreage of the grant, which is grossly inaccurate. + + + Whereas the Plantation of Groton, containing by grant the + proportion of eight miles Square, was begun to be laid out by + Ensign Noyes, and he dying before he had finished his work, it is + now finished, whose limits and bounds are as followeth, + + It began on the east side of Nashua River a little below + Nissitisset hills at the short turning of the River bounded by a + pine tree marked with G. and so running two miles in a direct line + to buckmeadow which _p'rtains_ to Boston Farms, Billerica land and + Edward Cowells farm until you come to Massapoag Pond, which is full + of small islands; from thence it is bounded by the aforesaid Pond + until you come to Chelmsford line, after that it is bounded by + Chelmsford and Nashoboh lines until you come to the most southerly + corner of this Plantation, and from thence it runs West-North-West + five miles and a half and sixty four poles, which again reacheth to + Nashua River, then the former west-north-west line is continued one + mile on the west side of the river, and then it runs one third of a + point easterly of north & by east nine miles and a quarter, from + thence it runneth four miles due east, which closeth the work to + the river again to the first pine below Nissitisset hills, where we + began: it is bounded by the Farms and plantations as aforesaid and + by the wilderness elsewhere; all which lines are run and very + sufficiently bounded by marked trees & pillars of stones: the + figure or manner of the lying of it is more fully demonstrated by + this plot taken of the same. + + By JONATHAN DANFORTH, + April 1668. + Surveyor. + +The map of Old Dunstable, between pages 12 and 13 in Fox's History of +that town, is very incorrect, so far as it relates to the boundaries of +Groton. The Squannacook River is put down as the Nissitissett, and this +mistake may have tended to confuse the author's ideas. The southern +boundary of Dunstable was by no means a straight line, but was made to +conform in part to the northern boundary of Groton, which was somewhat +irregular. Groton was incorporated on May 25, 1655, and Dunstable on +October 15, 1673, and no part of it came within the limits of this town. +The eastern boundary of Groton originally ran northerly through +Massapoag Pond and continued into the present limits of Nashua, New +Hampshire. + +On the southeast of Groton, and adjoining it, was a small township +granted, in the spring of 1654, by the General Court to the Nashobah +Indians, who had been converted to Christianity under the instruction of +the Apostle Eliot and others. They were few in numbers, comprising +perhaps ten families, or about fifty persons. During Philip's War this +settlement was entirely deserted by the Indians, thus affording a good +opportunity for the English to encroach on the reservation, which was +not lost. These intruders lived in the neighboring towns, and mostly in +Groton. Some of them took possession with no show of right, while others +went through the formality of buying the land from the Indians, though +such sales did not, as was supposed at the time, bring the territory +under the jurisdiction of the towns where the purchasers severally +lived. It is evident from the records that these encroachments gave rise +to controversy. The following entry, under date of June 20, 1682, is +found in the Middlesex County Court records at East Cambridge, and shows +at that time to re-establish the boundary lines of Nashobah:-- + + + Cap't Thomas Hinchman, L't. Joseph Wheeler, & L't. Jn'o flynt + surveyo'r, or any two of them are nominated & impowred a Comittee + to run the ancient bounds of Nashobah Plantation, & remark the + lines, as it was returned to the genall Court by said m'r flynt at + the charge of the Indians, giving notice to the select men of + Grotton of time & place of meeting, w'ch is referred to m'r flint, + to appoint, & to make return to next Coun Court at Cambridge in + order to a finall settem't + +Again, under date of October 3, 1682 ("3. 8. 1682."), it is entered +that-- + + + The return of the committee referring to the bounds of Nashobey + next to Grotton, was p'rsented to this Court and is on file. + + Approved + +The "return" is as follows: + + + We Whose names are underwritten being appointed by y'e Hon'rd + County Court June: 20'th 1682. To run the Ancient bounds of + Nashobey, haue accordingly run the said bounds, and find that the + town of Groton by theire Second laying out of theire bounds have + taken into theire bounds as we Judge neer halfe Indian Plantation + Seuerall of the Select men and other inhabitants of Groton being + then with us Did See theire Erro'r therein & Do decline that laying + out So far as they haue Inuaded the right of y'e Indians. + + Also we find y't the Norwest Corner of Nashobey is run into y'e + first bounds of Groton to y'e Quantity of 350 acres according as + Groton men did then Show us theire Said line, which they Say was + made before Nashobey was laid out, and which bounds they Do + Challenge as theire Right. The Indians also haue Declared them + Selves willing to forego that Provided they may haue it made up + upon theire West Line, And we Judge it may be there added to + theire Conveniance. + + 2: October: 1682. + Exhibited in Court 3: 8: 82: + & approved T D: R. + + JOSEPH WHEELER + + JOHN FLINT + + A true Coppy of y'e originall on file w'th y'e Records of County + Court for Middx. + + Ex'd p'r Sam'll: Phipps Cle'r + + [Massachusetts Archives, cxii, 331.] + +Among the Groton men who had bought land of the Nashobah Indians were +Peleg Lawrence and Robert Robbins. Their names appear, with a diagram of +the land, on a plan of Nashobah, made in the year 1686, and found among +the Massachusetts Archives, in the first volume (page 125) of "Ancient +Plans Grants &c." Lawrence and Robbins undoubtedly supposed that the +purchase of this land brought it within the jurisdiction of Groton. +Lawrence died in the year 1692; and some years later the town made an +effort to obtain from his heirs their title to this tract, as well as +from Robbins his title. It is recorded at a town meeting, held on June +8, 1702, that the town + + + did uote that they would giue Peleg larraness Eairs three acers of + madow whare thay ust to Improue and tenn acers of upland neare that + madow upon the Conditions following that the aboue sd Peleg + larrances heirs do deliuer up that Indian titelle which thay now + haue to the town + +At the same meeting the town voted that + + + thay would giue to robart robins Sener three acers of madow where + he uste to Improue: and ten acers of upland near his madow upon the + Conditions forlowing that he aboue sd Robart Robbins doth deliuer: + up that Indian titels which he now hath: to the town. + +It appears from the records that no other business was done at this +meeting, except the consideration of matters growing out of the Nashobah +land. It was voted to have an artist lay out the meadow at "Nashobah +line," as it was called, as well as the land which the town had granted +to Walter and Daniel Powers, probably in the same neighborhood; and also +that Captain Jonas Prescott be authorized to engage an artist at an +expense not exceeding six shillings a day. + +Settlers from the adjacent towns were now making gradual encroachments +on the abandoned territory, and among them Groton was well represented. +All the documents of this period relating to the subject show an +increased interest in these lands, which were too valuable to remain +idle for a long time. The following petition, undoubtedly, makes a +correct representation of the case:-- + + + To his Excellency Joseph Dudley Esq'r Captain Gen'll & Governour in + Chief in & over her Majesties Province of the Massachusets Bay &c: + togeither with the honourable Council, & Representatives in Great + and Gen'll Court Assembled at Cambridge Octobe'r 14'th. 1702. + + The Petition of the Inhabitants of Stow humbly sheweth. + + That Whereas the honourable Court did pleas formerly to grant vnto + vs the Inhabitants of Stow a certain Tract of Land to make a + Village or Township of, environed with Concord, Sudbury, Marlbury, + Lancaster, Groton, & Nashoby: And Whereas the said Nashoby being a + Tract of Land of four miles square, the which for a long time hath + been, and still is deserted and left by the Indians none being now + resident there, and those of them who lay claim to it being + desireous to sell said land; and some English challenging it to be + theirs by virtue of Purchase; and besides the Town of Groton in + particular, hath of late extended their Town lyne into it, takeing + away a considerable part of it; and Especially of Meadow (as wee + are Well informed) Wherefore wee above all o'r Neighbour Towns, + stand in the greatest need of Enlargement; having but a pent up + smale Tract of Land and very little Meadow. + + Whence we humbly Pray the great & Gen'll Court, that if said + Nashoby may be sold by the Indians wee may have allowance to buy, + or if it be allready, or may be sold to any other Person or + Persons, that in the whole of it, it be layed as an Addition to vs + the smale Town of Stow, it lying for no other Town but vs for + nighness & adjacency, togeither with the great need wee stand of + it, & the no want of either or any of the above named Towns. Shall + it Pleas the great & Gen'll Court to grant this o'r Petition, wee + shall be much more able to defray Publick Charges, both Civil, & + Ecclesiasticall, to settle o'r Minister amongst vs in order to o'r + Injoyment of the Gospel in the fullness of it. Whence hopeing & + believing that the Petition of the Poor, & needy will be granted. + Which shall forever oblidge yo'r Petition'rs to Pray &c: + + THO: STEEVENS. Cler: + In the Towns behalfe + + [Massachusetts Archives, cxiii, 330.] + +This petition was granted on October 21, 1702, on the part of the House +of Representatives, but negatived in the Council, on October 24. + +During this period the territory of Nashobah was the subject of +considerable dispute among the neighboring towns, and slowly +disappearing by their encroachments. Under these circumstances an effort +was made to incorporate a township from this tract and to establish its +boundaries. The following petition makes a fair statement of the case, +though the signatures to it are not autographs: + + + To His Excel'cy: Joseph Dudley Esq: Cap't: Generall & Gov'r: in + Chief in and over Her Maj'ties: Province of Mass'ts: Bay in + New-England, Together with y'e Hon'ble: the Council, & + Representatives in Gen'll: Court Assembled on the 30'th of May, In + the Tenth Year of Her Maj'ties: Reign Annoq Dom'i: 1711,--The + Humble Petition of us the Subscribers Inhabitants of Concord, + Chelmsford, Lancaster & Stow &c within the County of Midd'x in the + Province Afores'd. + + Most Humbly Sheweth + + That there is a Considerable Tract of Land Lying vacant and + unimproved Between the Towns of Chelmsford, Lancaster & Stow & + Groton, as s'd Groton was Survey'd & Lay'd out by Mr. Noyce, & the + Plantation Call'd Concord Village, which is Commonly known by the + Name of Nashoba, in the County of Midd'x: Afores'd. & Sundry + Persons having Made Entrys thereupon without Orderly Application to + the Government, and as we are Inform'd, & have reason to believe, + diverse others are designing so to do. + + We Yo'r Hum'ble Petitioners being desirous to Prevent the + Inconveniences that may arise from all Irregular Intrusions into + any vacant Lands, and also In a Regular manner to Settle a Township + on the Land afores'd, by which the frontier on that Side will be + more Clos'd & Strengthened & Lands that are at Present in no wise + beneficiall or Profitable to the Publick might be rendred + Servicable for the Contributing to the Publlick Charge, Most Humbly + Address Ourselves to your Excy: And this Honourable Court. + + Praying that your Petitioners may have a Grant of Such Lands + Scituate as Afores'd. for the Ends & Purposes afores'd. And that a + Committee may be appointed by this Hon'ble: Court to View, Survey + and Set out to Yo'r. Petitioners the s'd. Lands, that so Yo'r. s'd. + Petitioners may be enabled to Settle thereupon with Such others as + shall joyn them In an orderly and regular manner: Also Praying that + Such Powers and Priviledges may be given and confered upon the same + as are granted to other Towns, And Yo'r Petitioners shall be Most + ready to attend Such Directions, with respect to Such Part of the + s'd. Tract as has been formerly reserv'd for the Indians, but for a + Long time has been wholly Left, & is now altogether unimprov'd by + them, And all other things which this Hon'ble: Court in their + Wisdom & justice Shall See meet to appoint for the Regulation of + such Plantation or Town. + + And Yo'r: Hum'ble: Petitioners as in Duty Bound Shall Ever Pray &c. + + Gershom Procter + Sam'll. Procter + John Procter + Joseph Fletcher + John Miles + John Parlin + Robert Robins + John Darby + John Barker + Sam'l: Stratton + Hezekiah Fletcher + Josiah Whitcomb + John Buttrick + Will'm: Powers + Jonathan Hubburd + W'm Keen + John Heald + John Bateman + John Heywood + Thomas Wheeler + Sam'll: Hartwell, jun'r: + Sam'll: Jones + John Miriam + + In the House of Representatives + June 6: 1711. Read & Comitted. + 7 ... Read, & + + Ordered that Jo'a. Tyng Esq'r: Thom's: Howe Esq'r: & M'r: John + Sternes be a Comittee to view the Land mentioned in the Petition, & + Represent the Lines, or Bounds of the severall adjacent Towns + bounding on the s'd. Lands and to have Speciall Regard to the Land + granted to the Indians, & to make report of the quantity, & + circumstances thereof. + + Sent up for Concurrence. + + JOHN BURRIL Speaker + In Council + June 7. 1711, Read and Concurr'd. + ISA: ADDINGTON, Secry. + + [Massachusetts Archives, cxiii, 602, 603.] + +The committee, to whom was referred this subject, made a report during +the next autumn; but no action in regard to it appears to have been +taken by the General Court until two years later. + + * * * * * + +THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN-HOUSE. + +By J.B. SEWALL. + + +A Recollection of my boyhood is a large unpainted barnlike building +standing at a point where three roads met at about the centre of the +town. When all the inhabitants of the town were of one faith +religiously, or at least the minority were not strong enough to divide +from the majority, and one meeting-house served the purposes of all, +this was the meeting-house. To this, the double line of windows all +round, broken by the long round-topped window midway on the back side, +and the two-storied vestibule on the front, and, more than all, the old +pulpit still remaining within, with the sounding-board suspended above +it, bore witness. Here assembled every spring, at the March meeting, the +voters of the town, to elect their selectmen and other town officers for +the ensuing year, to vote what moneys should be raised for the repair of +roads, bridges, maintaining the poor, etc., and take any other action +their well-being as a community demanded; in the autumn, to cast their +votes for state representative, national representative, governor of the +State, or President of the United States, one or all together, as the +case might be. + +Many such town-houses, probably, are standing to-day in the New England +States,--I know there are such in Maine,--and they are existing +witnesses to what was generally the fact: towns, at the first, when +young and small, built the meeting-house for two purposes; first, for +use as a house of worship; second, for town meetings; and when in +process of time a new church or churches were built for the better +accommodation of the people, or because different denominations had come +into existence, or because the young people wanted a smarter building +with a steeple, white paint, green blinds, and a bell, the old building +was sold to the town for purely town purposes. + +When the settlements were made, the first public building erected was +generally the meeting-house, and this in the case of the earlier +settlements was very soon. In Plymouth, the first building was a house +twenty feet square for a storehouse and "for common occupation," then +their separate dwellings. + +The "common" building was used for religious and other meetings until +the meeting-house with its platform on top for cannon, on Burial Hill, +was built in 1622. "Boston seems to have had no special building for +public worship until, during the year 1632, was erected the small +thatched-roof, one-story building which stood on State Street, where +Brazer's building now stands."[A] This was in the second year, the +settlement having been made in the autumn of 1630. In Charlestown, "The +Great House," the first building erected that could be called a house, +was first used as the official residence of the governor, and the +sessions of the Court of Assistants appear to have been held in it until +the removal to Boston, but when the church was formed, in 1632, it was +used for a meeting-house. + +[Footnote A: Memorial History of Boston, vol. i, p. 119.] + +Dorchester had the first meeting-house in the Bay, built in 1631, the +next year after settlement, and by the famous order passed "mooneday +eighth of October, 1633," it appears that it was the regular +meeting-place of the inhabitants of the plantation for general purposes. +The Lynn church was formed in 1632, and the meeting-house appears to +have been built soon after, and was used for town meetings till 1806. It +was the same in towns of later settlement. In Brunswick, Maine, which +became a township in 1717, the first public building was the +meeting-house, and this also was the town-house for almost one hundred +years. Belfast, Maine, incorporated in 1773, held its first two town +meetings in a private house, afterwards, for eighteen years, "at the +Common on the South end of No. 26" (house lot),[A] whether under cover +or in open air is not known, after that, in the meeting-house generally, +till the town hall was built. In Harpswell, Maine, the old +meeting-house, like that described, when abandoned as a house of +worship, was sold to the town for one hundred dollars and is still in +use as a town-house. + +[Footnote A: Williamson's History of Belfast.] + +The town-house, therefore, though it cannot strictly be said to have +been coeval with the town, was essentially so, the meeting-house being +generally the first public building, and used equally for town meetings +and public worship. + +How early, then, was the town? When the settlement at Plymouth took +place, in one sense a town existed at once. It was a collection of +families living in neighborhood and united by the bonds of mutual +obligation common in similar English communities. But it was a town as +yet only in that sense. In fact, it was a state. The words of the +compact signed on board the Mayflower were, in part: "We, whose names +are underwritten ... do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the +presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves +together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and +preservation, ... and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame +such just and equal laws, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to +time, as shall be most meet and convenient for the general good of the +colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." + +These words were the constitution of more than a town government. They +erected a democratic state--a commonwealth. It was a general government +separate from and above the town governments which were afterwards +instituted. It enacted general laws by an assembly of deputies in which +the eight plantations in the colony, which afterwards became towns, were +represented. These laws were executed by a governor and an assistant, +and were of equal binding force in all the plantations after, as well as +before, these plantations became towns. + +The Massachusetts Colony came over as a corporation with a royal charter +which gave power to the freemen of the company to elect a governor, +deputy-governor, and assistants, and "make laws and ordinances, not +repugnant to the laws of England, for their own benefit and the +government of persons inhabiting their territory." The colonists divided +themselves into plantations, part at Naumkeag (Salem), at Mishawum +(Charlestown), at Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Mystic, and +Saugus (Lynn), and while the General Court, as the governor, +deputy-governor, and assistants were called, made general "laws and +ordinances" for the whole, the plantations were at liberty to manage +their own particular affairs as they pleased. They called meetings and +took action by themselves, as at Watertown, when, in 1632, the people +assembled and expressed their discontent with a tax laid by the court, +and at Dorchester as previously referred to. To Dorchester, however, +belongs the honor of leading the way to that form of town government +which has prevailed in New England ever since. It came about in this +way. The settlement was begun in June, 1630, and for more than three +years the people seem to have managed their affairs under the +administration of the Court of Assistants by means of meetings. At such +a meeting, held October 8, 1633, it was ordered "for the generall good +and well ordering of the affaires of the plantation," that there should +be a general meeting of the inhabitants at the meeting-house every +Monday morning before the court, which was four times a year, or became +so the next year, "to settle & sett downe such orders as may tend to the +general good as aforesayd, & every man to be bound thereby without +gainsaying or resistance." This very interesting order is given entire +in the Memorial History of Boston.[A] There were also appointed _twelve +selectmen_, "who were to hold monthly meetings, & whose orders were +binding when confirmed by the Plantation." + +[Footnote A: Vol. i, p. 427.] + +Here was our New England town almost exactly as it is to-day. The +inhabitants met at stated times and voted what seemed necessary for +their own local order and welfare, and committed the execution of their +will to twelve selectmen, who were to meet monthly. Our towns now have +an annual meeting for the same purpose, and elect generally three +selectmen, who meet at stated times,--sometimes as often as once a week. +Watertown followed, about the same time, selecting three men "for the +ordering of public affairs." Boston appears to have done the same thing +in 1634, and Charlestown in the following year, the latter being the +first to give the name _Selectmen_ to the persons so chosen, a name +which soon was generally adopted and has since remained. + +The reason of this action it is easy to conjecture, but it is fully +stated in the order of the inhabitants of Charlestown at the meeting in +which the action for the government of the town by selectmen was taken: +"In consideration of the great trouble and charge of the inhabitants of +Charlestown by reason of the frequent meeting of the townsmen in +general, and that, by reason of many men meeting, things were not so +easily brought into a joint issue; it is therefore agreed, by the said +townsmen, jointly, that these eleven men ... shall entreat of all such +business as shall concern the townsmen, the choice of officers excepted; +and what they or the greater part of them shall conclude of, the rest of +the town willingly to submit unto as their own proper act, and these +eleven to continue in this employment for one year next ensuing the date +hereof." + +Town government, thus instituted, was recognized the next year--1636--by +the General Court, and thereafter the towns were corporations lawfully +existing and endowed with certain fixed though limited powers. + +The plantations of the Plymouth Colony followed the example. In 1637, +Duxbury was incorporated, and at the General Court of the colony, in +1639, deputies were in attendance from seven towns. + +"Thus," says Judge Parker,[A] "there grew up a system of government +embracing two jurisdictions, administered by the same people; the +Colonial government, having jurisdiction over the whole colony, +administered by the great body of the freemen, through officers elected +and appointed by them; and the town governments, having limited local +jurisdiction, such as was conceded to them by the Colonial government, +administered by the inhabitants, through officers and agents chosen by +them." + +[Footnote A: Origin, Organization, etc., of the Towns of New England.] + +By this change,--the invention of the colonists themselves without copy +or pattern,--the colonies were transformed from pure democracies into a +congeries of democratic republics; and each town-house, or whatever +building was used for such, became the state-house of a little republic. +And this is what it is in every New England town to-day. + +Was not, then, the New England town-house a thing of inheritance at all? +Yes, so far as it was a building for the common meeting of the +inhabitants of the town, and so far as it was a place for free +discussion and the ordering of purely local affairs. The colonists came +from their English homes already familiar with the town-hall and its +uses so far. If one will turn to any gazetteer or encyclopaedia which +gives a description of Liverpool, England, he will find the town-hall +described as one of the noble edifices of that town. The present +structure was opened in 1754, but it was the successor of others, the +first of which must have dated back somewhere near the time when King +John gave the town its charter--1207. Or he may turn to the town of +Hythe in the county of Kent. In its corporation records, it is said, is +the following entry, bearing date in the year 1399: "Thomas Goodeall +came before the jurats _in the common hall_ on the 10th day of October, +and covenanted to give for his freedom 20_d_., and so he was received +and sworn to bear fealty to our Lord the King and his successors, and to +the commonalty and liberty of the port of Hethe, and to render faithful +account of his lots and scots[A] as freeman there are wont." In another +entry, in the same year, the building is mentioned again as the "Common +House." + +[Footnote A: The "lot" was the obligation to perform the public services +which might fall to the inhabitants by due rotation. "Scot" means tax.] + +We may go further back than this. History tells us that "the boroughs +(towns) of England, during the period of oppression, after the Norman +invasion, led the way in the silent growth and elevation of the English +people; that, unnoticed and despised by prelate and noble, they had +alone preserved the full tradition of Teutonic liberty; that, by their +traders and shopkeepers, the rights of self-government, of free speech +in free meeting, of equal justice by one's equals, were brought safely +across the ages of Norman tyranny."[A] The rights of self-government and +free speech in free meeting, then, were rights and practices of our +Anglo-Saxon ancestry, and we are to go back with them across the English +channel to their barbarian German home, and to the people described by +Tacitus in his Germania, for the origin, as far as we can trace it, of +this part of our inheritance. These people were famed for their spirit +of independence and freedom. The mass are described as freemen, voting +together in the great assemblies of the tribe, and choosing their own +leaders or kings from the class of nobles, who were nobles not as +constituting a distinct and privileged caste. "It was their greater +estates and the greater consequence which accompanied these that marked +their rank." When we first learn of these assemblies, they are +out-of-doors, under the broad canopy of heaven alone, but the time came, +as the rathhaus of the German town to-day attests, when they built the +common hall or town-house; and we, to-day, in this remote and then +unknown and unconjectured land of the West, are in this regard their +heirs as well as descendants.[B] + +[Footnote A: Green's Short History of the English People, chap. ii, sec. +6.] + +[Footnote B: The present rathhaus of the quaint old city of Nuremberg, +built in 1619, is a notable building, much visited by travelers. Around +the wall of the hall within runs the legend: "Eins manns red ist eine +halbe red, man soll die teyl verhoeren bed,"--"One man's talk is a half +talk; one should hear both sides."] + +In what, then, is the New England town-house more than, or different +from, the English town-house? In this, that it is the state-house of a +little democratic republic which came into existence of and by itself of +a natural necessity, and not merely governs itself, making all the laws +of local need and executing them--levying taxes, maintaining schools, +and taking charge of its own poor, of roads, bridges, and all matters +pertaining to the health, peace, and safety of all within its bounds, in +a word, all things which it can do for itself,--but also in +confederation with other little democratic republics has called into +being, and clothed with all the power it has for those matters of common +need which the town cannot do, the State. The State of Massachusetts, +from the day that the people created the General Court the body it still +is, by electing deputies from the towns,--representatives we now call +them,--to sit instead of the whole body of freemen, with the governor +and council, for the performance of all acts of legislation for the +common good, is the outgrowth of and exists only by virtue of the towns. +The towns created it, compose it, send up to it its heart-and-life +blood. This it is which makes the New England town unique, attracting +the attention and interest of intelligent foreigners who visit our +shores. Judge Parker says: "I very well recollect the curiosity +expressed by some of the gentlemen in the suite of Lafayette, on his +visit to this country in 1825, respecting these town organizations and +their powers and operations." In the same connection he adds that "a +careful examination of the history of the New England towns will show +that," instead of being modeled after the town of our Anglo-Saxon +ancestors, or the free cities of the continent of the twelfth century, +"they were not founded or modeled on precedent" at all. Mr. E.A. +Freeman, however, puts it more truthfully in saying: "The circumstances +of New England called the primitive assembly (that is, the Homeric +agora, Athenian ekklesia, Roman comitia, Swiss landesgemeinde, English +folk-moot) again into being, when in the older England it was well-nigh +forgotten. What in Switzerland was a _sur_vival was in New England +rather a _re_vival."[A] + +[Footnote A: Introduction to American Institutional History, Johns +Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science.] + +Our New England town-house, therefore, is a symbol of institutions, +partly original with our fathers, partly a priceless inheritance from +Old England the land of our fathers, and nearly in the whole, if not +quite, a regermination and new growth of old race instincts and +practices on a new soil. + +The New England town is not an institution of all the States, but its +principle has invaded the majority. To the West and Northwest it has +been carried by the New Englander himself, and is being carried by him +both directly and indirectly into the South and Southwest, and will show +there in no great length of time its prevailing and vitalizing power. + +It was Jefferson, himself a Virginian, reared in the midst of another +system, aristocratical and central in its character, who said: "These +wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their +governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever +devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government +and for its preservation." + +The New England town-house, therefore, is significant of more than its +predecessor in England or Germany. While with them it means freedom in +the management of local affairs, beyond them it means a relation to the +State and the National government which they did not. It means not +merely a broad basis for the general government in the people, that the +people are the reason and remote source of governing power, but that +they are themselves the governors. Every man who enters a New England +town-house and casts his vote knows that that expression of his will is +a force which reaches, or may reach, the Legislature of his State, the +governor in his chair, the National Congress, and the President in the +White House at Washington. He feels an interest therefore, and a +responsibility which the voter in no other land in the world feels, and +the town-house is an education to him in the art of self-government +which no other country affords, and because of it the town is an +institution teaching how to maintain government, local, state, and +general, and so bases that government in self-interest and beneficial +experience, that it is a pledge of security and perpetuity as regards +socialism, communism, and as it would seem every other revolutionary +influence from within. It is in strong contrast with the commune of +France. France is divided for the purposes of local government into +departments; departments into arrondissements; and arrondissements into +communes, the commune being the administrative unit. The department is +governed by a prefet and a conseil-general, the prefet being appointed +by the central government and directly under its control, and the +conseil-general an elective body. The arrondissement is presided over by +a sous-prefet and an elective council. The commune is governed by a +maire and a conseil-municipal. + +The conseil-municipal is an elective body, but its duties "consist in +assisting and to some extent controlling the maire, and in the +management of the communal affairs," but the maire is appointed by the +central government and is liable to suspension by the prefet. + +The relation of the citizen to the general government in France is +therefore totally different from that of the citizen of the United +States to his general government, and the town organization is a school +of free citizenship which the commune is not, and so far republican +institutions in America have a guaranty which in France they have not. + + * * * * * + +BUNKER HILL. + +BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON, U.S.A., LL.D. + +Author of The Battles of the American Revolution. + + + [(a) The occupation of Charlestown Heights on the night of June 16, + 1775, was of strategic value, however transient, equalizing the + relations of the parties opposed, and projecting its force and fire + into the entire struggle for American Independence. (Pages + 290-302.) + + (b)The Siege of Boston, which followed, gave to the freshly + organized Continental army that discipline, that instruction in + military engineering, and that contact with a well-trained enemy + which prepared it for immediate operations at New York and in New + Jersey. (Pages 37-44.) + + (c) The occupation and defence of New York and Brooklyn, so + promptly made, was also an immediate strategic necessity, fully + warranted by the existing conditions, although alike temporary. + (Pages 34-161.)] + + +An exhaustless theme may be so outlined that fairly stated data will +suggest the possibilities beyond. + +Waterloo is incidentally related to the crowning laurels of Wellington; +but, primarily, to the downfall of Napoleon, while rarely to the assured +growth of genuine popular liberty. + +No battle during the American Rebellion of 1861-65 was so really +decisive as was the first battle of Bull's Run. As that Federal failure +enforced the issue which freed four millions of people from slavery, and +had its sequence and culmination, through great struggle, in a +perpetuated Union, so did the battle of Bunker Hill open wide the breach +between Great Britain and the Colonies, and render American Independence +inevitable. + +The repulse of Howe at Breed's Hill practically ejected him from Boston, +enforced his halt before Brooklyn, delayed him at White Plains, +explained his hesitation at Bound Brook, near Somerset Court-House, in +1777, as well as his sluggishness after the battle of Brandywine, and +equally induced his inaction at Philadelphia, in 1778. + +[Illustration: The Battle of Breeds Hill, on Bunker Hill. Compiled and +Drawn by Col. Carrington.] + +Just as a similar resistance by Totlben at Sevastapol during the Crimean +War prolonged that struggle for twelve months, so did the hastily +constructed earthworks on Breed's Hill forewarn the assailants that +every ridge might serve as a fortress, and every sand-hill become a +cover, for a persistent and earnest foe. + +Historical research and military criticism suggest few cases where so +much has been realized by the efforts of a few men, in a few hours, +during the shelter of one night, and by the light of one day. + +The simple narrative has been the subject of much discussion. Its +details have been shaped and colored, with supreme regard for the +special claims of preferred candidates for distinction, until a plain +consideration of the issue then made, from a purely military point of +view, as introductory to a detail of the battle itself, cannot be barren +of interest to the readers of a Magazine which treats largely of the +local history of Massachusetts. + +The city of Boston was girdled by rapidly increasing earthworks. These +were wholly defensive, to resist assault from the British garrison, and +not, at first, as cover for a regular siege approach against the Island +Post. They soon became a direct agency to force the garrison to look to +the sea alone for supplies or retreat. + +Open war against Great Britain began with this environment of Boston. +The partially organized militia responded promptly to call. + +The vivifying force of the struggle through Concord, Lexington, and West +Cambridge (Arlington now), had so quickened the rapidly augmenting body +of patriots, that they demanded offensive action and grew impatient for +results. Having dropped fear of British troops, as such, they held a +strong purpose to achieve that complete deliverance which their earnest +resistance foreshadowed. + +Lexington and Concord were, therefore, the exponents of that daring +which made the occupation and resistance of Breed's Hill possible. The +fancied invincibility of British discipline went down before the rifles +of farmers; but the quickening sentiment, which gave nerve to the arm, +steadiness to the heart, and force to the blow, was one of those +historic expressions of human will and faith, which, under deep sense of +wrong incurred and rights imperilled, overmasters discipline, and has +the method of an inspired madness. The moral force of the energizing +passion became overwhelming and supreme. No troops in the world, under +similar conditions, could have resisted the movement. + +The opposing forces did not alike estimate the issue, or the relations +of the parties in interest. The troops sent forth to collect or destroy +arms, rightfully in the hands of their countrymen, and not to engage an +enemy, were under an involuntary restraint, which stripped them of real +fitness to meet armed men, who were already on fire with the conviction +that the representatives of national force were employed to destroy +national life. + +The ostensible theory of the Crown was to reconcile the Colonies. The +actual policy, and its physical demonstrations, repelled, and did not +conciliate. Military acts, easily done by the force in hand, were +needlessly done. Military acts which would be wise upon the basis of +anticipated resistance were not done. + +Threats and blows toward those not deemed capable of resistance were +freely expended. Operations of war, as against an organized and skilful +enemy, were ignored. But the legacies of English law and the inheritance +of English liberty had vested in the Colonies. Their eradication and +their withdrawal were alike impossible. The time had passed for +compromise or limitation of their enjoyment. The filial relation toward +England was lost when it became that of a slave toward master, to be +asserted by force. This the Americans understood when they environed +Boston. This the British did not understand, until after the battle of +Bunker Hill. The British worked as against a mob of rebels. The +Americans made common cause, "liberty or death," against usurpation and +tyranny. + + +THE OUTLOOK. + +Reference to map, "Boston and vicinity," already used in the January +number of this Magazine to illustrate the siege of Boston, will give a +clear impression of the local surroundings, at the time of the American +occupation of Charlestown Heights. The value of that position was to be +tested. The Americans had previously burned the lighthouses of the +harbor. The islands of the bay were already miniature fields of +conflict; and every effort of the garrison to use boats, and thereby +secure the needed supplies of beef, flour, or fuel, only developed a +counter system of boat operations, which neutralized the former and +gradually limited the garrison to the range of its guns. This close +grasp of the land approaches to Boston, so persistently maintained, +stimulated the Americans to catch a tighter hold, and force the garrison +to escape by sea. The capture of that garrison would have placed +unwieldy prisoners in their hands and have made outside operations +impossible, as well as any practical disposition of the prisoners +themselves, in treatment with Great Britain. Expulsion was the purpose +of the rallying people. + +General Gage fortified Boston Neck as early as 1774, and the First +Continental Congress had promptly assured Massachusetts of its sympathy +with her solemn protest against that act. It was also the intention of +General Gage to fortify Dorchester Heights. Early in April, a British +council of war, in which Clinton, Burgoyne, and Percy took part, +unanimously advised the immediate occupation of Dorchester, as both +indispensable to the protection of the shipping, and as assurance of +access to the country for indispensable supplies. + +General Howe already appreciated the mistake of General Gage, in his +expedition to Concord, but still cherished such hope of an accommodation +of the issue with the Colonies that he postponed action until a +peaceable occupation of Dorchester Heights became impossible, and the +growing earthworks of the besiegers already commanded Boston Neck. + +General Gage had also advised, and wisely, the occupation of Charlestown +Heights, as both necessary and feasible, without risk to Boston itself. +He went so far as to announce that, in case of overt acts of hostility +to such occupation, by the citizens of Charlestown, he would burn the +town. + +It was clearly sound military policy for the British to occupy both +Dorchester and Charlestown Heights, at the first attempt of the +Americans to invest the city. + +As early as the middle of May, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, as +well as the council, had resolved "to occupy Bunker Hill as soon as +artillery and powder could be adequately furnished for the purpose," and +a committee was appointed to examine and report respecting the merits of +Dorchester Heights, as a strategic restraint upon the garrison of +Boston. + +On the fifteenth of June, upon reliable information that the British had +definitely resolved to seize both Heights, and had designated the +eighteenth of June for the occupation of Charlestown, the same Committee +of Safety voted "to take immediate possession of Bunker Bill." + +Mr. Bancroft states that "the decision was so sudden that no fit +preparation could be made," Under the existing conditions, it was indeed +a desperate daring, expressive of grand faith and self-devotion, worthy +of the cause in peril, and only limited in its immediate and assured +triumph by the simple lack of powder. + +Prescott, who was eager to lead the enterprise and was entrusted with +its execution, and Putman, who gave it his most ardent support, were +most urgent that the council should act promptly; while Warren, who long +hesitated to concur, did at last concur, and gave his life as the test +of his devotion. General Ward realized fully that the hesitation of the +British to emerge from Boston and attack the Americans was an index of +the security of the American defences, and, therefore, deprecated the +contingency of a general engagement, until ample supplies of powder +could be secured. + +The British garrison, which had been reinforced to a nominal strength of +ten thousand men, had become reduced, through inadequate supplies, +especially of fresh meat, to eight thousand effectives, but these men +were well officered and well disciplined. + + +THE POSITION. + +Bunker Hill had an easy slope to the isthmus, but was quite steep on +either side, having, in fact, control of the isthmus, as well as +commanding a full view of Boston and the surrounding country. Morton's +Hill, at Moulton's Point, where the British landed, was but thirty-five +feet above sea level, while Breed's Pasture (as then known) and Bunker +Hill were, respectively, seventy-five and one hundred and ten feet high. +The Charles and Mystic Rivers, which flanked Charlestown, were +navigable, and were under the control of the British ships-of-war. + + +AMERICAN POLICY. + +To so occupy Charlestown, in advance, as to prevent a successful British +landing, required the use of the nearest available position that would +make the light artillery of the Americans effective. To occupy Bunker +Hill, alone, would leave to the British the cover of Breed's Hill, under +which to gain effective fire and a good base for approach, as well as +Charlestown for quarters, without prejudice to themselves. + +When, therefore, Breed's Hill was fortified as an advanced position, it +was done with the assurance that reinforcements would soon occupy the +retired summit, and the course adopted was the best to prevent an +effective British lodgment. The previous reluctance of the garrison to +make any effective demonstration against the thin lines of environment +strengthened the belief of the Americans that a well-selected hold upon +Charlestown Heights would securely tighten the grasp upon the city +itself. + + +BRITISH POLICY. + +As a fact, the British contempt for the Americans might have urged them +as rashly against Bunker Hill as it did against the redoubt which they +gained, at last, only through failure of the ammunition of its +defenders; but, in view of the few hours at disposal of the Americans to +prepare against a landing so soon to be attempted, it is certain that +the defences were well placed, both to cover the town and force an +immediate issue before the British could increase their own force. + +It is equally certain that the British utterly failed to appreciate the +fact that, with the control of the Mystic and Charles Rivers, they +could, within twenty-four hours, so isolate Charlestown as to secure the +same results as by storming the American position, and without +appreciable loss. This was the advice of General Clinton, but he was +overruled. They did, ultimately, thereby check reinforcements, but +suffered so severely in the battle itself that fully two thirds of the +Americans retired safely to the main land. + +The delay of the British to advance as soon as the landing was effected +was bad tactics. One half of the force could have followed the Mystic +and turned the American left wing, long before Colonel Stark's command +came upon the field. The British dined as leisurely as if they had only +to move any time and seize the threatening position, and thereby lost +their chief opportunity. + +One single sign of the recognition of any possible risk-to themselves +was the opening of fire from Boston Neck and such other positions as +faced the American lines, as if to warn them not to attempt the city, or +endanger their own lives by sending reinforcements to Charlestown. + + +THE MOVEMENT. + +It is not the purpose of this article to elaborate the details of +preparation, which have been so fully discussed by many writers, but to +illustrate the value of the action in the light of the relations and +conduct of the opposing forces. + +Colonel William Prescott, of Pepperell, Massachusetts, Colonel James +Frye, of Andover, and Colonel Ebenezer Bridge, of Billerica, whose +regiments formed most of the original detail, were members of the +council of war which had been organized on the twentieth of April, when +General Ward assumed command of the army. Colonel Thomas Knowlton, of +Putnam's regiment, was to lead a detachment from the Connecticut troops. +Colonel Richard Gridley, chief engineer, with a company of artillery, +was also assigned to the moving columns. + +To ensure a force of one thousand men, the field order covered nearly +fourteen hundred, and Mr. Frothingham shows clearly that the actual +force as organized, with artificers and drivers of carts, was not less +than twelve hundred men. + +Cambridge Common was the place of rendezvous, where, at early twilight +of June 16, the Reverend Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard College, +invoked the blessing of Almighty God upon the solemn undertaking. + +This silent body of earnest men crossed Charlestown Neck, and halted for +a clear definition of the impending duty. Major Brooks, of Colonel +Dodge's regiment, joined here, as well as a company of artillery. +Captain Nutting, with a detachment of Connecticut men, was promptly +sent, by the quickest route, to patrol Charlestown, at the summit of +Bunker Hill. Captain Maxwell's company, of Prescott's regiment, was next +detailed to patrol the shore in silence and keenly note any activity on +board the British men-of-war. + +The six vessels lying in the stream were the Somerset, sixty-eight, +Captain Edward Le Cross; Cerberus, thirty-six, Captain Chads; Glasgow, +thirty-four, Captain William Maltby; Lively, twenty, Captain Thomas +Bishop; Falcon, twenty, Captain Linzee, and the Symmetry, transport, +with eighteen guns. + +While one thousand men worked upon the redoubt which had been located +under counsel of Gridley, Prescott, Knowlton, and other officers, the +dull thud of the pickaxe and the grating of shovels were the only sounds +that disturbed the pervading silence, except as the sentries' "All's +well!" from Copp's Hill and from the warships, relieved anxiety and +stimulated work. Prescott and Putnam alike, and more than once, visited +the beach, to be assured that the seeming security was real; and at +daybreak the redoubt, nearly eight rods square and six feet high, was +nearly complete. + +Scarcely had objects become distinct, when the battery on Copp's Hill +and the guns of the Lively opened fire, and startled the garrison of +Boston from sleep, to a certainty that the Colonists had taken the +offensive. + +General Putnam reached headquarters at a very early hour, and secured +the detail of a portion of Colonel Stark's regiment, to reinforce the +first detail which had already occupied the Hill. + +At nine o'clock, a council of war was held at Breed's Hill. Major John +Brooks was sent to ask for more men and more rations. Richard Devens, of +the Committee of Safety, then in session, was influential in persuading +General Ward to furnish prompt reinforcements. By eleven o'clock, the +whole of Stark's and Reed's New Hampshire regiments were on their march, +and in time to meet the first shock of battle. Portions of other +regiments hastened to the aid of those already waiting for the fight to +begin. + +The details of men were not exactly defined, in all cases, when the +urgent call for reinforcements reached headquarters. Little's regiment +of Essex men; Brewer's, of Worcester and Middlesex, with their +Lieutenant-Colonel Buckminster; Nixon's, led by Nixon himself; Moore's, +from Worcester; Whitcomb's, of Lancaster, and others, promptly accepted +the opportunity to take part in the offensive, and challenge the British +garrison to a contest-at-arms, and well they bore their part in the +struggle. + + +THE AMERICAN POSITION. + +The completion of the redoubt only made more distinct the necessity for +additional defences. A line of breastworks, a few rods in length, was +carried to the left, and then to the rear, in order to connect with a +stone fence which was accepted as a part of the line, since the fence +ran perpendicularly to the Mystic; and the intention was to throw some +protection across the entire peninsula to the river. A small pond and +some spongy ground were left open, as non-essential, considering the +value of every moment; and every exertion was made for the protection +of the immediate front. The stone fence, like those still common in New +England, was two or three feet high, with set posts and two rails; in +all, about five feet high, the top rail giving a rest for a rifle. A +zigzag "stake and rider fence" was put in front, the meadow +division-fences being stripped for the purpose. The fresh-mown hay +filled the interval between the fences. This line was nearly two hundred +yards in rear of the face of the redoubt, and near the foot of Bunker +Hill. Captain Knowlton, with two pieces of artillery and Connecticut +troops, was assigned, by Colonel Prescott, to the right of this +position, adjoining the open gap already mentioned. Between the fence +and the river, more conspicuous at low tide, was a long gap, which was +promptly filled by Stark as soon as he reached the ground, thus, as far +as possible, to anticipate the very flanking movement which the British +afterward attempted. + +Putnam was everywhere active, and, after the fences were as well secured +as time would allow, he ordered the tools taken to Bunker Hill for the +establishment of a second line on higher ground, in case the first could +not be maintained. His importunity with General Ward had secured the +detail of the whole of Reed's, as well as the balance of Stark's, +regiment, so that the entire left was protected by New Hampshire troops. +With all their energy they were able to gather from the shore only stone +enough for partial cover, while they lay down, or kneeled, to fire. + +The whole force thus spread out to meet the British army was less than +sixteen hundred men. Six pieces of artillery were in use at different +times, but with little effect. The cannon cartridges were at last +distributed for the rifles, and five of the guns were left on the field +when retreat became inevitable. + +Reference to the map will indicate the position thus outlined. It was +evident that the landing could not be prevented. Successive barges +landed the well-equipped troops, and they took their positions, and +their dinner, under the blaze of the hot sun, as if nothing but ordinary +duty was awaiting their leisure. + + +THE BRITISH ADVANCE. + +It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon when the British army +formed for the advance. General Howe was expected to break and envelop +the American left wing, take the redoubt in the rear, and cut off +retreat to Bunker Hill and the mainland. The light infantry moved +closely along the Mystic. The grenadiers advanced upon the stone fence, +while the British left demonstrated toward the unprotected gap which was +between the fence and the short breastwork next the redoubt. General +Pigot with the extreme left wing moved directly upon the redoubt. The +British artillery had been supplied with twelve-pound shot for +six-pounder guns, and, thus disabled, were ordered to use only grape. +The guns were, therefore, advanced to the edge of an old brick-kiln, as +the spongy ground and heavy grass did not permit ready handling of guns +at the foot of the hill slope, or even just at its left. This secured a +more effective range of fire upon the skeleton defences of the American +centre, and an eligible position for a direct fire upon the exposed +portion of the American front, and both breastwork and redoubt. + +The advance of the British army was like a solemn pageant in its steady +headway, and like a parade for inspection in its completeness. This +army, bearing knapsacks and full campaign equipment, moved forward as +if, by the force of its closely knit columns, it must sweep every +barrier away. But, right in the way was a calm, intense love of liberty. +It was represented by men of the same blood and of equal daring. + +A strong contrast marked the opposing Englishmen that summer afternoon. +The plain men handled plain firelocks. Oxhorns held their powder, and +their pockets held their bullets. Coatless, under the broiling sun, +unincumbered, unadorned by plume or service medal, pale and wan after +their night of toil and their day of hunger, thirst, and waiting, this +live obstruction calmly faced the advancing splendor. + +A few hasty shots, quickly restrained, drew an innocent fire from the +British front rank. The pale, stern men behind the slight defence, +obedient to a strong will, answer not to the quick volley, and nothing +to the audible commands of the advancing columns,--waiting, still. + +No painter can make the scene more clear than the recital of sober +deposition, and the record left by survivors of either side. History has +no contradictions to confuse the realities of that momentous tragedy. + +The British left wing is near the redoubt. It has only to mount a fresh +earthbank, hardly six feet high, and its clods and sands can almost be +counted,--it is so near, so easy--sure. + +Short, crisp, and earnest, low-toned, but felt as an electric pulse, are +the words of Prescott. Warren, by his side, repeats. The words fly +through the impatient lines. The eager fingers give back from the +waiting trigger. "Steady, men." "Wait until you see the white of the +eye." "Not a shot sooner." "Aim at the handsome coats." "Aim at the +waistbands." "Pick off the commanders." "Wait for the word, every +man,--_steady_." + +Those plain men, so patient, can already count the buttons, can read the +emblems on the breastplate, can recognize the officers and men whom they +had seen parade on Boston Common. Features grow more distinct. The +silence is awful. The men seem dead--waiting for one word. On the +British right the light infantry gain equal advance just as the left +wing almost touched the redoubt. Moving over more level ground, they +quickly made the greater distance, and passed the line of those who +marched directly up the hill. The grenadiers moved firmly upon the +centre, with equal confidence, and space lessens to that which the +spirit of the impending word defines. That word waits behind the centre +and left wing, as it lingers at breastwork and redoubt. Sharp, clear, +and deadly in tone and essence, it rings forth,--_Fire_! + + +THE REPULSE. + +From redoubt to river, along the whole sweep of devouring flame, the +forms of men wither as in a furnace heat. The whole front goes down. For +an instant the chirp of the cricket and grasshopper in the fresh-mown +hay might almost be heard; then the groans of the wounded, then the +shouts of impatient yeomen who spring forth to pursue, until recalled to +silence and duty. Staggering, but reviving, grand in the glory of their +manhood, heroic in restored self-possession, with steady step in the +face of fire, and over the bodies of the dead, the British remnant +renew battle. Again, a deadly volley, and the shattered columns, in +spite of entreaty or command, speed back to the place of landing, and +the first shock of arms is over. + +A lifetime, when it is past, is but as a moment. A moment, sometimes, is +as a lifetime. Onset and repulse. Three hundred lifetimes ended in +twenty minutes. + +Putnam hastened to Bunker Hill to gather scattering parties in the rear +and urge coming reinforcements across the isthmus, where the fire from +British frigates swept with fearful energy, but nothing could bring them +in time. The men who had toiled all night, and had just proved their +valor, were again to be tested. + +The British reformed promptly, in the perfection of their discipline. +Their artillery was pushed forward nearer the angle made by the +breastwork next the redoubt, and the whole line advanced, deployed as +before, across the entire American front. The ships-of-war increased +their fire across the isthmus. Charlestown had been fired, and more than +four hundred houses kindled into one vast wave of smoke and flame, until +a sudden breeze swept its quivering volume away and exposed to view of +the watchful Americans the returning tide of battle. No scattering shots +in advance this time. It is only when a space of hardly five rods is +left, and a swift plunge could almost forerun the rifle flash, that the +word of execution impels the bullet, and the entire front rank, from +redoubt to river, is swept away. Again, and again, the attempt is made +to rally and inspire the paralyzed troops; but the living tide flows +back, even to the river. + +Another twenty minutes,--hardly twenty-five,--and the death angel has +gathered his sheaves of human hopes, as when the Royal George went down +beneath the waters with its priceless value of human lives. + +At the first repulse the thirty-eighth regiment took shelter by a stone +fence, along the road which passes about the base of Breed's Hill; but +at the second repulse, supported by the fifth, it reorganized, just +under the advanced crest of Breed's Hill for a third advance. + +It was an hour of grave issues. Burgoyne, who watched the progress from +Copp's Hill, says: "A moment of the day was critical." + +Stedman says: "A continuous blaze of musketry, incessant and +destructive." + +Gordon says: "The British officers pronounced it downright butchery to +lead the men afresh against those lines." + +Ramsay says: "Of one company not more than five, and of another not more +than fourteen, escaped." + +Lossing says: "Whole platoons were lain upon the earth, like grass by +the mower's scythe." + +Marshall says: "The British line, wholly broken, fell back with +precipitation to the landing-place." + +Frothingham quotes this statement of a British officer: "Most of our +grenadiers and light infantry, the moment they presented themselves, +lost three fourths, and many nine tenths, of their men. Some had only +eight and nine men to a company left, some only three, four, and five." + +Botta says: "A shower of bullets. The field was covered with the slain." + +Bancroft says: "A continuous sheet of fire." + +Stark says: "The dead lay as thick as sheep in a fold." + +It was, indeed, a strange episode in British history, in view of the +British assertion of assured supremacy, whenever an issue challenged +that supremacy. + +Clinton and Burgoyne, watching from the redoubt on Copp's Hill, realized +at once the gravity of the situation, and Clinton promptly offered his +aid to rescue the army. + +Four hundred additional marines and the forty-seventh regiment were +promptly landed. This fresh force, under Clinton, was ordered to flank +the redoubt and scale its face to the extreme left. General Howe, with +the grenadiers and light infantry, supported by the artillery, undertook +the storming of the breastworks, bending back from the mouth of the +redoubt, and so commanding the centre entrance. + +General Pigot was ordered to rally the remnants of the fifth, +thirty-eighth, forty-third, and fifty-second regiments, to connect the +two wings, and attack the redoubt in front. + +A mere demonstration was ordered upon the American left, while the +artillery was to advance a few rods and then swing to its left, so as to +sweep the breastwork for Howe's advance. + + +THE ASSAULT. + +The dress parade movement of the first advance was not repeated. A +contest between equals was at hand. Victory or ruin was the alternative +for those who so proudly issued from the Boston barracks at sunrise for +the suppression of pretentious rebellion. Knapsacks were thrown aside. +British veterans stripped for fight. Not a single regiment of those +engaged had passed such a fearful ordeal in its whole history as a +single hour had witnessed. The power of discipline, the energy of +experienced commanders, and the pressure of honored antecedents, +combined to make the movement as trying as it was momentous. + +The Americans were no less under a solemn responsibility. At the +previous attack, some loaded while others fired, so that the expenditure +of powder was great, almost exhaustive. The few remaining cannon +cartridges were economically distributed. There was no longer a +possibility of reinforcements. The fire from the shipping swept the +isthmus. There were less than fifty bayonets to the entire command. + +During the afternoon Ward sent his own regiment, as well as Patterson's +and Gardner's, but few men reached the actual front in time to share in +the last resistance. Gardner did, indeed, reach Bunker Hill to aid +Putnam in establishing a second line on that summit, but fell in the +discharge of the duty. Febiger, previously conspicuous at Quebec, and +afterward at Stony Point, gathered a portion of Gerrishe's regiment, and +reached the redoubt in time to share in the final struggle; but the +other regiments, without their fault, were too late. + +At this time, Putnam seemed to appreciate the full gravity of the +crisis, and made the most of every available resource to concentrate a +reserve for a second defence, but in vain. + +Prescott, within the redoubt, at once recognized the method of the +British advance. The wheel of the British artillery to the left after it +passed the line of the redoubt, secured to it an enfilading fire, which +insured the reduction of the redoubt and cut off retreat. There was no +panic at that hour of supreme peril. The order to reserve fire until the +enemy was within twenty yards was obediently regarded, and it was not +until a pressure upon three faces of the redoubt forced the last issue, +that the defenders poured forth one more destructive volley. A single +cannon cartridge was distributed for the final effort, and then, with +clubbed guns and the nerve of desperation, the slow retreat began, +contesting, man to man and inch by inch. Warren fell, shot through the +head, in the mouth of the fort. + +The battle was not quite over, even then. Jackson rallied Gardner's men +on Bunker Hill, and with three companies of Ward's regiment and +Febiger's party, so covered the retreat as to save half of the garrison. +The New Hampshire troops of Stark and Reed, with Colt's and Chester's +companies, still held the fence line clear to the river, and covered the +escape of Prescott's command until the last cartridge had been expended, +and then their deliberate, well-ordered retreat bore testimony alike to +their virtue and valor. + + +THE END. + +Putnam made one final effort at Bunker Hill, but in vain, and the army +retired to Prospect Hill, which Putnam had already fortified in advance. + +The British did not pursue, Clinton urged upon General Howe an immediate +attack upon Cambridge; but Howe declined the movement. The gallant +Prescott offered to retake Bunker Hill by storming if he could have +three fresh regiments; but it was not deemed best to waste further +resources at the time. + +Such, as briefly as it can be clearly outlined, was the battle of Bunker +Hill. + +Nearly one third of each army was left on the field. + +The British loss was nineteen officers killed and seventy wounded, +itself a striking evidence of the prompt response to Prescott's orders +before the action began. Of rank and file, two hundred and seven were +killed and seven hundred and fifty-eight were wounded. Total, ten +hundred and fifty-four. + +The American loss was one hundred and forty-five killed and missing, and +three hundred and four wounded. Total, four hundred and forty-nine. + +Such is the record of a battle which, in less than two hours, destroyed +a town, laid fifteen hundred men upon the field, equalized the relations +of veterans and militia, aroused three millions of people to a definite +struggle for National Independence, and fairly opened the war for its +accomplishment. + + +NOTES. + +NOTE 1. The hasty organization of the command is marked by one feature +not often regarded, and that is the readiness with which men of various +regiments enlisted in the enterprise. Washington, in his official report +of the casualties, thus specifies the loss:-- + +Colonel of Regiment. Killed. Wounded. Missing. + + Frye, 10 38 4 + Little, 7 23 - + Brewer, 12 22 - + Gridley, - 4 - + Stark, 15 45 - + Woodbridge, - 5 - + Scammon, - 2 - + Bridge, 17 25 - + Whitcomb, 5 8 2 + Ward, 1 6 - + Gerrishe, 3 5 - + Reed, 3 29 1 + Prescott, 43 46 - + Doolittle, 6 9 - + Gardner, - 7 - + Patterson, - 1 1 + Nixon, 3 - - + +NOTE 2. The record, brief as it is, shows that hot controversies as to +the question of precedence in command are beneath the merits of the +struggle, because all worked just where the swift transitions of the +crisis best commanded presence and influence. + +NOTE 3. As both the Morton and Moulton families had property near the +British landing-place, it is immaterial whether hill or point bear the +name of one or the other. Hence the author of this sketch, in a memorial +examination of this battle, elsewhere, deemed it but just to recognize +both, without attempt to harmonize differences upon an immaterial +matter. + +NOTE 4. The occupation of Lechmere Point, Cobble Hill, Ploughed Hill, +and Prospect Hill, as shown upon the map of Boston and vicinity, +rendered the British occupation of Bunker Hill a barren victory, +silenced the activity of a thousand men, vindicated the wisdom of the +American occupation, however transient, rescued Boston, and projected +the spirit of the battle of Bunker Hill into all the issues which +culminated at Yorktown, October 19, 1781. + + * * * * * + +THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. + +BY RUSSELL STURGIS, JR. + + +In the sketch of the Boston Association, which appeared in the April +number of this Magazine, mention was made of the work of Mr. L.P. +Rowland, corresponding member of Massachusetts of the international +committee, in establishing kindred associations throughout the State, +This article is to give a brief history of the spread and work of these +associations, and I am largely indebted to Mr. Sayford, late state +secretary, for the data. It was natural that as soon as it was known +that an organization had been formed in Boston to do distinctive work +for young men, that in other places where the need was realized the +desire for a like work should spring up; but, in the absence of +organized effort to promote this, very little was done, and in 1856, +five years after the parent association was formed, there were only six +in all, that is, in Boston, Charlestown, Worcester, Lowell, Springfield, +and Haverhill. + +In December, 1866, the Boston Association called a convention, when +twelve hundred delegates met and sat for two days at the Tremont Temple. +General Christian work was discussed, but the distinctive work for young +men was earnestly advocated. + +When Mr. Rowland undertook the work, as an officer of the international +committee, it spread rapidly, and in 1868 there were one hundred and +two, and in 1869, one hundred and nine, associations in Massachusetts. +This number was, later, somewhat further increased. + +Up to 1867 there had been no conference of the state associations, but +at the international convention, at Montreal, in that year, it was +strongly urged upon the corresponding members of the various States and +provinces that they should call state conventions, and thus the first +Massachusetts convention of Young Men's Christian Associations was held +at Springfield, October 10 and 11. The Honorable Whiting Griswold, of +Greenfield, was president, and among the prominent men present were +Henry F. Durant and ex-Vice-President Wilson. In 1868, the convention +met at Worcester; in 1869, at Lowell. At this time there were fifty +associations reporting reading-rooms, and thirty were holding _open-air +meetings_, which means, that, since there are many persons who never +enter a building to hear the gospel, it should be taken to them. Since +these services are almost peculiarly a characteristic of association +work, let me describe them. One or two men, clergymen or laymen, are +appointed to take charge of the meeting, while from six to ten men go +with them to lead the singing. Having reached the common or public +square where men and women are lounging about, the group start a +familiar hymn and sing, perhaps, two or three, by which time many have +drawn near and most are listening; then mounting a bench or packing-box, +the leader says he proposes to pray to the God of whom they have been +singing, and asks them to join with him; then with uncovered head he +speaks to God and asks him to bless the words that shall be spoken. +Another hymn, and then some Bible scene or striking incident is read and +commented upon, and when interest is fairly roused the gospel is +_preached in its simplicity_ and a _direct appeal_ made to the people. +There is a wonderful fascination in this service--a naturalness in all +the surroundings, so like the circumstances of our Lord's discourses, +that makes God's nearness felt, and inspires great faith for results. +Great have been these results--how great we shall know by-and-by. Many a +soul has thus been born by the sea, in the grove, on the village green, +at the place where streets meet in the busy city. How can we reach the +masses? is the earnest question of the church. _Go to them!_ To the +association is due the fact that thousands of laymen are to-day +proclaiming the gospel in all parts of the world, successful through +their simple study of the Word and the encouragement and training which +they have received in this school. + +The fourth convention was held in Chelsea, in 1870, on which occasion +the Honorable Cephas Brainard, chairman of the international executive +committee, said: "To promote the permanency of associations, our labor +must be chiefly for young men; increasing as rapidly as possible +edifices of our own; and cultivating frequent fraternal intercourse with +the eight hundred associations in the land." Up to 1881 no agents had +been appointed by the state convention to superintend its work. Mr. +Rowland was taking time, given him for rest, to visit associations and +towns needing them. + +At the international convention, in 1868, at Detroit, two Massachusetts +men met, who were to be largely instrumental in carrying on the work in +the State so dear to them; and in 1871, in far-off Illinois, these two +men--K.A. Burnell, and he who has almost without a break served on the +Massachusetts committee to this day--met again, prayed for +Massachusetts, consulted together, and the result was that at the +convention of 1871, at Northampton, a state executive committee was +appointed. + +At this time calls from many parts of the State were coming to the +association workers from pastors of churches for lay help and they felt +that these calls must be met. Mr. Burnell was engaged to conduct the +work, and with the help of the committee individually, meetings of two +and three days were held in from forty to sixty towns each year for +three years. This work was continued by paid secretaries, still largely +aided by the committee, till 1879. + +During this time but little was done to strengthen existing +associations, and nothing in establishing new ones, therefore, while the +influence of the convention of associations was greatly felt throughout +the State, the associations themselves suffered. Very many were doing +nothing, and many had ceased to exist. + +We should not dare to say that the associations did wrong in thus giving +themselves to the evangelistic work, while the calls for it were greater +than the committee could meet. This work engrossed them till the calls +began to slacken, and then they awoke to the fact that they were +neglecting their true work, a special instrumentality in which they +believed and for which they existed--that is, "A work for young men by +young men through physical, social, mental, and spiritual appliances." + +This led to a series of resolutions at the Lowell convention, in 1879, +directing the committee to confine their efforts to the strengthening +and organizing of associations, and to appoint a secretary to give his +whole time to the work. + +Mr. Sayford was called from New York, appointed general secretary, and +began to work in January, 1880. + +At this time there were thirty-five associations in the State, only four +of which had general secretaries, paid men who gave all their time to +the work. + +In October, the number of secretaries had more than doubled, nine being +at work. The total membership at this time was, in round numbers, six +thousand, with property amounting to about two hundred and ten thousand +dollars. + +The thirty-three associations which reported at this time at the Lynn +convention represented somewhat more than five hundred active working +men, and they conducted one hundred and ten religious meetings a week. + +In 1881, the only addition of note was the beginning of the railway work +in the State, when a general secretary was employed, and rooms opened at +Springfield by the Boston and Albany Railroad Company. This important +work, carried on most vigorously at various railway centres in other +States, had for some time been pressed upon the state committee, but +they had been unable to obtain any footing till now. At the convention +of this year, at Spencer, the advantage of association work in colleges +was brought out in an able paper by our present state secretary, then a +representative of Williams College. + +At this convention the committee on executive committee's report said: +"It is evident from the reports of executive committee and state +secretary, that, while the process of the last two years has decreased +the number of the associations in the State, it has greatly increased +their efficiency. Some associations were found to have been long since +privately buried, though the name was allowed to remain upon the door. +These have been removed. Others had been left to die uncared for in the +field. These have been decently buried. Some were found so sick as to be +past hope, and their last days were made as comfortable as possible +under the circumstances. Others were found to be more or less seriously +ill, and have been skilfully treated. The result is that at least +twenty-four associations are well, and could do much more work if they +chose; while ten, in robust condition, and under the management and +inspiration of skilled general secretaries, are doing grand work for +young men in their several localities." + +The reduction here spoken of is from one hundred and nine associations +in 1869 to thirty-four in 1881; yet the work was being better done by +the smaller number, and it is thus accounted for: Few dreamed to what +this work would grow, therefore their aim was extremely vague, and the +methods were inadequate. Seeing the need,--deeply interested in the +salvation of young men,--the _idea_ of the association took everywhere. +They sprang up all over the State. Organization followed organization in +rapid succession, and then they waited to be told what to do, or flung +themselves into the first seeming opening with no thought whether it was +the work for which they were formed; and we remember of hearing of one +Young Men's Christian Association whose whole energies were concentrated +upon a mission Sunday-school in a deserted district,--a good work, but +not a proper Young Men's Christian Association's work, when it +represented all that was being done. + +Two things, however, were accomplished, even in those early days, for +which we must always be very grateful, and in themselves are a +sufficient _raison d'etre. Young men were trained_ to work, and the +reflex influence upon their minds was very great, and the real unity of +the church of Christ was manifested as never before. The Young Men's +Christian Association in town and village formed the natural +rallying-point for all united work. A third great blessing should be +mentioned. Not only has the unity of Christ's church been manifested, +but also its distinctive standing upon the great Bible doctrines of the +cross, which vitally separate it from all other religious bodies. + +Gradually the greatness of this work for young men has been appreciated, +as the strong opposing forces have been met. The association is intended +to influence those who are in the energy and full flush of young +manhood, when the desires are strong, most responsive, and least +guarded. The social instinct then is very strong. It is natural, and +must be met in some form. Sinful allurements of every kind invite the +young man, hurtful companionship welcomes him, the ordinary appliances +of the church have no attraction for him. The association must see to it +that his social craving is met by that which is interesting enough to +attract him, and yet is safe. To counteract baleful attractions, others +which call forth strong sympathy, and appliances which _cost_, in every +sense of the word, must be furnished. + +This means pleasant rooms, books, papers, good companionship, classes, +lectures, concerts, the hall, and the gymnasium; but more important than +all, a trained man who shall give his whole time and heart to the work, +and be amply remunerated. + +Since these things are more or less necessary to successful effort for +young men, it will readily be seen why so many associations have ceased +to exist. + +The committee have come to the conclusion that every town in the State +where rooms can be kept open in charge of a general secretary should +have a Young Men's Christian Association, and where these cannot be +furnished we are not anxious to establish it. + +At the convention of 1882, in Charlestown, it became apparent that, to +meet the calls for evangelistic work and push the distinctive +association work, two men were required. Two, therefore, were appointed: +one to give his time largely to evangelistic work, the other wholly to +that of the association. In the following year, 1883, the evangelistic +secretary decided to do the same work independently of the committee, +and the whole energy of the state secretary has been devoted to the +organization of association work. + +We may safely say that, although numerically small, never before has +this work been so efficiently organized as now, and never has there been +so much done as now for young men. At the convention of 1881, a +constitution was adopted which binds the different state associations in +organic union. These hold an annual convention of three days, at which +time one half of the executive committee is chosen, thus making it a +perpetual body. This committee represents every section of the State, +and meets monthly for consultation; while the individual members are +means of communication between headquarters in Boston and other +respective sections. There is a further subdivision into three +districts, each of which holds a quarterly conference of one day, under +the management of the district committee. + +The associations now number 35. +Membership, about 11,300. +Employing general secretaries, 19. +Having buildings, 7. +Value of buildings, say, $490,000. +Value of building funds and lots, $50,000. +Having rooms, 23. +Having gymnasiums, 8. +Annual expenses, about $65,000. + +This is only a beginning. This work for young men is far too important +to remain within such limits. Every town in the Commonwealth of seven +thousand inhabitants should have a fully equipped association. Some +smaller towns already have. + +My excuse for this sketch is: first, the importance of the subject; +second, the ignorance concerning it of a large portion of the Christian +community; third, that the blessings of the work and its support may be +shared by far greater numbers; and, lastly, that the courtesy of the +editors of The Bay State Monthly afforded altogether too good an +opportunity for making this work known, to be lost. + + * * * * * + +TOWN AND CITY HISTORIES. + +BY ROBERT LUCE. + + +The United States government has now in press two volumes of the census +of 1880, entitled The Social Statistics of Cities. These statistics have +been in process of preparation for some four years, under direction of +Colonel George E. Waring, jr., the eminent sanitary engineer, of +Newport, Rhode Island. They will fill two large quarto volumes of +something over six hundred pages each; and as each page will average +over one thousand words, it will be seen that the work will, at least, +be massive and imposing, like most government publications. Unlike many +of these, however, it will not be dull, unintelligible, or valueless. +The fact that one half of it is devoted to the history of the cities of +our land is well-nigh sufficient proof that these epithets cannot be +applied to it, and the question is settled beyond a doubt when it is +learned that the greater part of the labor has been performed by people +who are well known in the literary world, and who brought to their task +experience and ability,--rare qualifications to be found combined in +government employees. Colonel Waring himself, though a clear thinker and +good writer, furnished comparatively little manuscript to the volumes, +but he has revised them thoroughly, and has stamped them with his +individuality. + +It was Colonel Waring's original design to embrace in his work the +statistics of the twenty largest cities of the country, and these +happened to be the cities that in 1880 had more than one hundred +thousand inhabitants. Then it was decided to allow the smaller cities to +be represented if they chose, and early in the work steps were taken to +induce them to furnish the necessary material. Over two hundred of the +largest were given all the opportunities for representation that could +be asked for, and, as a consequence, nearly every community in the land +containing more than ten thousand inhabitants has a more or less full +account. Each one of these is prefaced by a small outline plan, on which +is marked the direction in which the surrounding cities lie, and the +distance to each. Accompanying this plan are tables of the population at +different decades, and of the sex, color, and nativity of the present +population. Then comes an historical sketch, and then an account of the +present condition of the community. This last describes the location and +topography fully; gives the principal features of the country +immediately tributary; details the facilities for communication given by +railroads and by water; gives statistics about the climate; describes +the public buildings and public works, including water and gas works; +gives figures about the streets, horse railroads, and markets; touches +upon the places and methods of amusement, and the parks and +pleasure-grounds; the sewers, the cemeteries, sanitary organization +(boards of health), and the system, or lack of system, of municipal +cleansing,--all receive especially full treatment, as would naturally be +expected when a sanitary engineer of Colonel Waring's stamp had charge +of the work; the police department gets its share of the space; and in +some cases the schools, fire department, and commerce are represented. +The material from which these accounts were compiled was, in the main, +obtained by sending schedules of questions to the various town and city +officials; in the case of some of the largest cities the material was +secured by special agents, but in general, the desire of the cities to +be represented was considered sufficient guaranty that the schedule +would be filled out fully and accurately, and this generally proved to +be the case. + +The historical sketches of the smaller cities and towns were compiled +from information obtained in the same way, and from gazetteers, +encyclopaedias, town and city histories, and all other sources available +at the headquarters of the bureau. To the preparation of the sketches of +the twenty largest cities, especial attention was devoted, and the +results have been correspondingly valuable. Perhaps the most important, +both from the historical and literary point of view, will be the sketch +of the history of New Orleans, written by George W. Cable, who is better +known as a novelist, but who has no mean abilities as an historian. His +familiarity with the Creole element in New Orleans past and present, +together with a very happy style of writing, have made for him more +than a national reputation, from which this sketch will not detract. +Originally his work was intended to occupy some ninety pages of the +report, but later, unfortunately, it had to be condensed into fifty. +Luckily it will not be found necessary to omit a number of interesting +maps that accompany it. + +Next in value, perhaps from the purely historical point of view the most +valuable, or at least the most complete, of all, comes the sketch of the +early history of St. Louis, by Professor Waterhouse. The author became +greatly interested in his task, and spent a vast amount of time in +collecting materials for it. From the care bestowed on the work, it may +be taken for granted that this will be as full and accurate an account +of the settlement and early history of the "Philadelphia of the West" as +can possibly be compiled. It is expected that it will occupy fifty or +sixty pages of the report, and even then it will only bring the history +down to 1823, when the first city government was organized. + +The largest of the Eastern cities furnish little chance for original +work in an historical line, but yet the sketch of New York by Martha J. +Lamb, of Philadelphia by Susan Cooledge, and of Boston by Colonel +Waring, will be acceptable additions to the very scanty stock of +American historical literature. + +The words "very scanty" are used most advisedly, for in very truth the +American _historian_ is a _rara avis_. Of American compilers-of-facts, +to be sure, there have been and are very many, but an aggregation of +details is not a history, nor can a man who makes a book out of local +gossip and the biographies of local heroes and heroines be called an +historian. The truth of this fact has been most forcibly impressed on +the writer in the course of preparing for the Census Bureau historical +sketches of many of the leading cities of the country, and he has become +thoroughly convinced that of all the vulnerable portions of American +literature that which pertains to the history of American towns and +cities is the most vulnerable. + +In the first place, American town and city _histories_ are few. In the +second place, the books that pretend to be such are many, and as a rule +historically worthless. In the third place, both the real and the sham +are intensely dull. + +Real histories are few, evidently because there is not demand enough to +encourage historians to enter the field, and not because material is +lacking. With the exception of the Atlantic seaboard, our country has +been developed in an age pre-eminent for records and statistics; and +there is scarcely a town or city in the land that has not its records +and its public documents, its newspaper files and its Fourth-of-July +orations,--all replete with information waiting for the historian. +Nearly every State has its Historical Society, and Pioneer Associations +are as plenty in our glorious West as was the fever and ague with which +their members were baptized. If the golden opportunities of +autobiography are lost, the American historian of the future will have +to be satisfied, as must be satisfied the New England historian of +to-day, with the meagre, lifeless information given by records, and the +hyperbolical, untrustworthy knowledge to be obtained from local +tradition and gossip. + +We need go no farther to find the first reason why American histories +are so meagre and dull. They are not pictures from life. The fact is, +that the historian might as well try to write a valuable and interesting +history from the materials which our older cities possess, as a painter +might try to paint the battle of Crecy from the details given by +Froissart. To be sure we have all seen such pictures, but who has more +than admired them? + +The absence of contemporaneous literature has been the greatest +misfortune of all history. Every student knows how great and deplorable +are the breaks constantly met with in tracing the thread of past events. +Shall we, then, let the students of posterity remain in the dark on such +questions as these: why Providence became the second city of New +England; why she left Newport so badly in the race for prosperity; why +Buffalo and Cincinnati went up, while Black Rock and North Bend went +down; why Chicago became the largest manufacturing city on the +continent; why New England kept the town-meeting, and the West preferred +the township and the county; and why a thousand and one other important +things happened. To be sure we have had Bancroft, and Sparks, and +Hildreth, but these and their brethren have told us as little about the +history of the people as Lingard, Hume, Hallam, and all the rest of them +told England. Within a very few years historians have begun to see this +defect, and such men as Green, Lodge, and MacMaster have undertaken to +give us histories of the people, the first and last taking the lead on +their respective sides of the Atlantic. MacMaster's work is excellent as +far as it goes. His first volume is deep and scholarly, and does credit +to American literature. It is clear that the task of its preparation was +immense, and more time must have been spent in merely collecting +authorities than has been bestowed altogether on more pretentious +histories. Where Mr. MacMaster found all these authorities is a puzzle, +for even such libraries as those in Boston and Cambridge have not all +the materials for such an undertaking. Yet even he leaves many points +untouched, or cursorily disposed of. Among the subjects referred to, of +which we would like to learn more, may be mentioned: the township system +of the West, the development of American municipal institutions, and, +above all, the origin and rise of the various centres of population and +business which we call cities. + +The history of a nation should be compiled in the same way that the +French people of the _ancien regime_ compiled their lists of grievances +to be presented to the king. In the early States-generals the deputies +of all the orders received from the electors mandates of instructions +containing an enumeration of the public grievances of which they were to +demand redress. From the multitude of these _cahiers_ (or codices), the +three estates, that is, the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate +(the people), compiled each a single cahier to serve as the exponent of +its grievances and its demands. When this complex process had been +completed and the three residual cahiers had been given to the king, the +States-general, the only representative body of France, was dissolved. + +Thus it should be with our national history. Already the clergy have +presented their cahiers in the shape of church histories and theological +essays innumerable. The nobles, that is, the statesmen and politicians, +have formulated their lists of grievances in such works as Thirty +Year's View, The Great Conflict, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in +America, etc. But where is the cahier of the third estate? The +States-general has met and the _tiers etat_ is not ready. What excuse +have they? Quick comes the answer: "Our electors have sent in but few +cahiers, and these are defective. We cannot tell our king, the nation, +what the people were and what they are, what they have and what they +want, until they tell us. Our cahier must wait the pleasure of the +people." Meanwhile, the regent, irreverently called Uncle Sam, who rules +the land while his master is away in Utopia, reads the cahiers of the +nobles, laughs in his sleeve at that of the clergy, and forgets all +about that of the third estate. Or if he thinks of it at all, it is only +to try to fill its place with twenty-four-volume Census Reports and +massive tomes from the other departments. + +The cahiers of the third estate are, in truth, few and defective, yet +there are some communities that have done their work well. For example, +there is The Memorial History of Boston which does credit even to the +Hub of American historical literature. It was the work of cultivated +men, and although the cooks were many, the broth is excellent. That the +people were a-hungering for just such broth is shown by the fact that +the net profits from it in the first twelve months after publication, as +it is said, were over fifty thousand dollars. + +Boston is almost the only city in the land that has been the subject of +a full, accurate, and interesting history. The History of New York, by +Martha J. Lamb, is not so full as might have been wished, but is +otherwise unexceptionable. New York is fortunate in having the most +graphic and humorous history of its early days that any city in the +world ever had, but nobody except Diedrich Knickerbocker himself ever +claimed a great amount of accuracy and truthfulness for his unrivaled +work. + +It was to be expected that our older cities,--those whose seeds were +planted by Puritans, Dutch traders, Catholic fugitives, Quakers, +Cavalier spendthrifts and rogues, Huguenot exiles, and in general the +motley crowd that sought the land of milk and honey in the seventeenth +and early part of the eighteenth centuries,--it was to be expected that +these cities would have historians _ad nauseam_. The very nature of the +early colonization of America, the elements of romance and adventure so +conspicuous in the history of early days on the Atlantic coast, gave +warrant to such expectations, and the event has justified them. But +where the romance and adventure end, the historian lays down his pen. It +is left to the census enumerator to complete the work, and the brazen +age of statistics follows the golden age of history. + +As the cities in the heart of the continent have very little of the +picturesque in their history, the same line of reasoning would lead us +to expect that the historian would carefully avoid them, or else write +only of their earliest days, when Dame Fortune was yet coquetting on the +boards with Mr. Yankee Adventurer. Again we are not mistaken, for we +find that what few critics are present when the curtain is rung up, +leave the house when the first act ends with the death of the aforesaid +adventurer. How the fickle dame flirts with all the neighboring young +men, and at last, at the end of the second act, has her attention led +by Captain Location to the hero of the piece as a suitable mate for her +wayward daughter, Miss Prosperity,--all this is usually written up from +hearsay. For the third act, wherein the twin brothers Steamboat +Navigation and Railroad Communication help the hero to press his suit, +the imagination often suffices. The grand finale, however, brings back +some of the old set of critics, together with a host of new ones, who +describe in glowing language the setting of the act, the costumes, the +music, etc., and tell minutely how young Miss Prosperity blushingly yet +boldly promises to be forever true to the gallant hero, now known under +his rightful name of Mr. Metropolis. Ac-cording to the critic, this +grand drama always ends happily for all concerned; the acting is always +perfect,--the best ever seen on the stage; the scenery has seldom been +equaled, never excelled. And this is the way the public hears about +every "greatest drama ever produced on any stage." + +Do you think the critic too harshly criticized? Look for yourself. Take +Cleveland, if you want a good city with which to begin your explorations +among the histories of Western cities. Here is one of the loveliest +places in all the basin of the Great Lakes--rich, prosperous, beautiful. +It was the one city which alt the travelers through the West in the +second quarter of this century united in declaring to be attractive. For +instance, J.S. Buckingham, who visited America forty-three years ago, +complimented Cleveland as follows, in a book called The Eastern and +Western States of America: "The buildings of Cleveland are all +remarkably clean and neat, many of them in excellent architectural +style, and, like the dwellings we saw at Cincinnati and other towns of +Ohio, all evincing more taste, love of flowers, and attention to order +and adornment than in most of the States of the Union." Mrs. Pulzky, who +accompanied Kossuth in his journey through America, in 1852, wrote in +her diary: "Cleveland is a neat, clean, and agreeable city, on Lake +Erie. Americans call it the 'Forest City,' though the original forests +have disappeared. Cleveland has a most lovely aspect; with the exception +of the business streets, every house is surrounded by a garden. It was +for the first time that I found love of nature in an American +population. On the journey, until here, I had always missed +pleasure-grounds and trees around the cottages." + +The growth of Cleveland was steady and healthy. Although foreigners came +to it in large numbers, it has been and is a representative American +city. The spirit of public improvement early made itself felt here, as +has been intimated by the above quotations; wide avenues, beautiful +dwellings, pleasure-grounds, both public and private,--all the +attractions that a lavish expenditure of money can secure were bestowed +upon it. The oil discoveries of a quarter of a century ago made many of +its citizens wealthy, and their city was so pleasant to live in, that, +unlike most Western people who have gained sudden wealth, they stayed at +home to spend their money. + +From the history of the rise of such a community, much might be learned. +Yet in the large libraries of the East we find only one book on the +subject, and Poole's mammoth Index--that "Open, sesame," of the literary +man--refers us to not a single magazine article of any sort on +Cleveland. The book referred to is entitled Early History of Cleveland, +with Biographical Notices of the Pioneers and Survivors; its author was +Colonel Charles Whittlesey. As is the case in almost all such histories, +the biographical notices form a very considerable portion of the book, +and, as usual, its value is diminished in an exactly equivalent degree; +for the biographies of Western pioneers are fully as tedious and +valueless as the catalogue of ships in the second book of Homer. And, +oh! the garrulity of the biographers, the minuteness of detail, the +petty incidents, the host of dates! With these we are inflicted because +some adventurous Yankee happened, by sheer luck, to build the first +shanty on what became the site of a great city, or chanced there to be a +pioneer victim of the "shakes" or the jaundice! + +Whittlesey's book contains four hundred and eighty-seven pages. Of these +he uses up seventy-six before he gets a civilized man in what became +Cuyahoga County, and fifty more before he gets any actual settlers to +the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. The history of the next thirteen or +fourteen years, down to the War of 1812, fills the mass of the book, +details being here given that really have historical value. The last +forty pages are devoted to the history of the two or three following +decades. Nothing is told us about the actual development of a great +city,--the haps and mishaps, the successes and failures, in short, the +growth, of the community. + +This same Colonel Whittlesey, in a volume entitled Fugitive Essays, +published a sketch of the history of Cleveland covering the same ground +more concisely, and also giving a few extra details about the history +between 1812 and 1840. + +These constituted the sum total of works solely devoted to Cleveland +which were accessible to a writer in the East. The Ohio Historical +Collections, by Henry Howe, a series of sketches of the counties, +cities, and towns of the State, added a little to the meagre stock of +information. For further knowledge, the public must be thankful that the +argus-eyed tourist has not left the place unnoticed, and that the +mathematically-inclined gazetteer has told us from time to time the +number of Cleveland's churches, banks, and city councilmen, and other +equally important facts! + +Take another lake city--Buffalo. The growth of this city has been rapid. +Its sudden rise to the dignity of a metropolis was largely due to that +most interesting of the many important internal improvements of the +first half of the century,--the Erie Canal. With the development of +Buffalo was identified the rise of lake navigation and the grain +elevator. Its population has been increased by the addition of a large +foreign element, which has had its due influence on manners, morals, and +public life. It appears from the report of the board of health for 1879, +that, in 1878, of the children born in Buffalo, nineteen hundred and +seventy-five were of German descent; of all other descents, two thousand +and fifty-six,--a difference of only eighty-one. The city has indeed +been thoroughly Germanized, if we may coin the word. + +Here are things of which we would know more. Yet what do we find about +them? Save in meagre or verbose pamphlets, nothing. To be sure, there +was a book written which claimed to be about Buffalo, but a microscopic +examination would fail to find in it anything worth knowing about the +history of this community. The author of that book, William Ketchum, had +the audacity to name it, as we read on the title-page, "An Authentic and +Comprehensive History of Buffalo, with some account of its early +inhabitants, both savage and civilized." It was published in Buffalo in +1864, in two octavo volumes, containing respectively four hundred and +thirty-two and four hundred and forty-three pages. To comprehend the +utter absurdity of the thing, we shall have to glance at history a bit. + +It will be remembered that during and for some time after the +Revolutionary War the country about the Niagara River remained in the +possession of the British. The Seneca Indians, who sided against the +Colonies in that war, and who were driven from their homes by the +expedition of General Sullivan in 1779, gathered around Fort Niagara and +became such a nuisance that the English had to set up anew in +housekeeping these faithful allies and disagreeable neighbors. One of +the villages they started was at Buffalo Creek. Our historian, Ketchum, +has twenty-five chapters in the first volume of his Authentic and +Comprehensive History of Buffalo. He gets the Senecas settled at Buffalo +Creek in the twenty-fourth! + +During the rest of the century the inhabitants of this Indian village on +the ground where Buffalo was to stand, consisted of redskins and +semi-redskins, a few Indian traders who doled out the firewater, and a +settler or two. The present city of Buffalo, according to the +encyclopaedia (and for once that mass of condensed wisdom is correct +about the date of settlement of a Western city), was founded in 1801, by +the Holland Land Company, which opened a land office here in January of +that year. The notice of this event may be found in the region of page +146, in vol. ii, of Ketchum's book,--the uniform lack of concise +statement, the huge amount of irrevelant matter, and the absence of +lucid summaries and intelligent comment, making more exact reference +impossible. + +The rest of this "comprehensive history" is occupied with the course of +events down to December 30, 1813, when the British burnt the town, +leaving but two houses standing--a dwelling-house and a blacksmith's +shop. Here, having brought his Phoenix to ashes, our comprehensive +historian brings his narrative to an abrupt end. This is at page 304. +Then follows the "appendix," an invariable feature of city histories, +which makes of every one of them a huge anti-climax. In this instance, +one hundred and thirty-nine pages of appendix contain, according to the +author, "for the purpose of preservation, a mass of papers not +absolutely necessary to the elucidation of the history contained in the +body of the work. Most of them consist of original papers and letters +never before published, and which are now, for the first time, placed in +an accessible and permanent form." To compare small things with great, +these documents are made just about as "accessible" as are the State +papers to which Carlyle devotes so much paper and bile in his book on +Oliver Cromwell. + +In short, this book contains much valuable information, which is very +hard to extract, and when extracted is not germane to the history of the +city of Buffalo. + +Some information about Buffalo's history was found in a pamphlet on the +Manufacturing Interests of the City of Buffalo, published in 1866. In it +were historical sketches, covering about twenty-five pages,--verbose, +with little meat, written in the flowery style so dear to the heart of +the American editor or "Honorable" when extolling the virtues of his +constituency. Turner's History of the Holland Purchase, published in +1849, and containing six hundred and sixty-six pages, would have been +more useful, had it not been composed for the greater part of the +biographies of insignificant pioneers, and had not the rest related in +the main to the early history of the section. A book promising much on +the outside was Hotchkin's History of Western New York. An examination +of the title-page, however, dampened our expectations, for there was +added the rest of the title, namely, "And of the Rise, Progress, and +Present State of the Presbyterian Church." The book proved indeed a +delusion and a snare, for of its six hundred pages more than nine tenths +pertained to church affairs,--were part and parcel of the cahiers of the +clergy. As for the magazine articles on Buffalo, they are few and, from +the historical point of view, insignificant. + +Of far more interest than the histories of either Cleveland or Buffalo, +though perhaps no more important, is that of their nearest common +neighbor of equal rank,--Pittsburgh. In very many respects this is one +of the most interesting cities in the Union, which is mostly due to the +fact that it has such a remarkable location, and that its topography is +picturesquely unique. Here we have the strange combination of the +blackest, smuttiest, dirtiest hole in the United States,--at night, as +Parton said: "All hell with the lid taken off,"--with surroundings half +rural, half urban, which for loveliness can scarcely be rivaled by any +other city in the land. Sir Henry Holland, who was of the Prince of +Wales's suite, when he visited Pittsburgh, remarked to one of the +committee of reception that he had, in 1845, spent a week in an +equestrian exploration of the suburbs of Pittsburgh; that he had +traveled through all the degrees of the earth's longitude, and had not +elsewhere found any scenery so diversified, picturesque, and beautiful +as that around Pittsburgh. He likened it to a vast panorama, from which, +as he rode along, the curtain was dropping behind and rising before him, +revealing new beauties continually. "If the business portion of +Pittsburgh is a city, half enchanted, of fire and smoke, inhabited by +demons playing with fire, the surrounding portion is also under +enchantment, of a different kind, and smiles a land of beauty, +brightness, and quiet. The one section might be a picture by Tintoretto, +and the other by Claude Lorraine." + +On the twenty-fourth of November, 1753, no human habitation stood on the +peninsula between the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers. On that day +Washington recorded in his journal: "I think it extremely well situated +for a fort, as it has absolute command of both rivers." In the following +spring the English began the erection of a stockade here, which, on the +twenty-fourth of April, was surrendered to the French under Captain +Contrecoeur Who at once proceeded to the erection of Fort Du Quesne. + +Round this name centres a wealth of incident, romance, and history, but +no one has risen to do it justice. Braddock's ill-starred expedition was +followed by the abandonment of the fort by the French, in November, +1758, and its subsequent rebuilding as Fort Pitt. The fate of the little +hamlet which sprang up around it was for a long time most dubious, but +its position as a frontier post on the line of the ever +westward-retreating Indians, and on the edge of the vast unknown +wilderness, just beginning to allure adventurous pioneers, kept it from +falling into the oblivion with which it was threatened by the +dismantling of the fort and the troublous Revolutionary times. Yet as +late as 1784 so experienced a man as Arthur Lee, the Virginian, who had +been a commissioner at the court of Versailles with Franklin and Deane, +and who visited this hamlet in December of this year, said of it: +"Pittsburgh is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in +paltry log-houses, and are as dirty as in the north of Ireland, or even +in Scotland. There is a great deal of small trade carried on, the goods +being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per cwt. from +Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take in the shops money, flour, and +skins. There are in the town four attorneys, two doctors, and not a +priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor chapel; so that they are +likely to be damned without the benefit of clergy. _The place, I +believe, will never be considerable_." + +This "small trade" which Lee speaks of was to develop in a very few +years to gigantic proportions, and was to make Pittsburgh for the while +the commercial metropolis of the West. She maintained this position +until the westward march of civilization had left her far in the rear; +and then the garrison which the vast army of pioneers left here found in +the coal and iron under their very feet a Fortunatus's purse. Thus, far +different was the fate of Pittsburgh from that of Marietta, Portsmouth, +Lexington, and the like, which sank into comparative obscurity as soon +as they had ceased to be outposts of Uncle Sam's army of emigrants. + +Here, then, do we lack materials for history? What historian could ask +for a more romantic starting-point than Old Fort Du Quesne? a more +interesting topic for a chapter than Fort Pitt? a more picturesque +subject than the batteurs and voyageurs of the Ohio? What more fruitful +themes can there be than the rise of the iron, the glass, the oil +industry, the steamboat commerce of our interior, the subjection of the +Monongahela, the combination of a city which reminds the traveler of +Hades, with suburbs which suggest metaphors about Paradise? And can he +not find food for inquiry and thought in the great riots of 1877? + +Yet the only historian of Pittsburgh is Neville B Craig, whose short and +not over-attractive history ends with the middle of this century, if we +remember rightly. His subject is neither thoroughly nor ably treated, +and it is not presented to the public in an agreeable form. The book is +one of the past generation, and we publish better histories than did our +fathers. In 1876, Samuel H. Thurston presented the public with a small +volume, entitled Pittsburgh and Alleghany in the Centennial. It +contained a little history and a great deal of bombast; and, moreover, +the greater part of it was filled with statistical details pertaining to +the Centennial year alone. Yet from this book had to be taken most of +the historical sketch which will be found in the Census Report. Egle's +History of Pennsylvania tells us something about Pittsburgh, and +magazine articles are plenty, though historically of little value. + +St. Louis is more plentifully supplied with histories than any other +Western city, and these histories are as much worse as they are more +numerous. One of these deserves notice, from the fact that its +title-page so ridiculously and exasperatingly misrepresents its +contents. This page reads as follows: "Edwards's Great West and her +Commercial Metropolis, embracing a complete History of St. Louis, from +the landing of Ligueste, in 1764, to the present time; with portraits +and biographies of some of the old settlers, and many of the most +prominent business men. By Richard Edwards and M. Hopewell, M.D. +Splendidly illustrated. 1860. $5." This seemed to promise well, but when +we turned the page and read the introduction, our expectations were, to +say the least, somewhat shaken, and our sense of the eternal fitness of +things somewhat shocked, when we found the citizens of St. Louis called +"a powerful Maecenas." Shade of Virgil! What a profanation! + +Any book that is preceded by a dedication, a preface, an introduction, +and a full-page portrait of the author (with a big A), must, in the very +nature of things, be a monstrosity. But, leaving these anomalies out of +account, in the present instance, the composition of the book is +sufficient proof that the epithet is not undeserved. "And this is so, +for,"--as Herodotus would say,--in a book called Edwards's Great West, +the "Great West" is summarily and mercilessly disposed of in just five +pages. Then follow eighty-two pages of biographies and portraits, +ingeniously defended by the author as follows: "Biographies of those who +have become identified with the progress of the great city, who have +guarded and directed its business currents year by year, swelling with +the elements of prosperity, and who have left the impress of their +genius and judgment upon the legislative enactments of the State, must +be sought after with avidity, and must be fraught with useful +instruction." There is no question that these biographies are fraught +with useful instruction--all biographies are; but to assert that they +must be sought after with avidity is a little too much to be swallowed. +Such assertions show either deplorable ignorance or unwarrantable +misrepresentation of human nature, and in this case we are convinced it +must be the latter. Edwards knew perfectly well--for he seems to have +been sane--that nobody but the subjects of these biographies would seek +them "with avidity," and he made these plausible, bombastic assertions +to excuse himself for having sprung such a trap on an unsuspecting +public. That he tries to palliate the offence is, sufficient proof of +his guilt. + +Mark what he says about the "splendidly illustrated" portion of his +book. "It will be a source of satisfaction to the reader," says he, +"that the engravings of individuals who adorn this work are not drawn by +the flighty imagination from airy nothingness, but represent the +lineaments of men," etc. "Airy nothingness" is refreshing! + +Part II, also, is almost wholly devoted to biographies, one batch being +introduced with this sage remark: "Biography is the most important +feature of history; for the record of the lives of individuals appears +to be invested with more vitality and interest than the dry details of +general historical narrative." Q.E.D.--of course. With Part III we reach +the history of St. Louis, contained in one hundred and eighty pages, +and worth more or less as a history. Then come one hundred and seventy +pages more of biographies, an appendix of fifteen pages, and about +thirty pages of views of manufacturing establishments. And this book is +called The Great West. No further comment seems necessary. + +Of all the many rich and racy things the writer has run across in his +explorations in the literature of American cities, the richest and +raciest is a book called St. Louis: The Future Great City of the World, +by L.U. Reavis. The very title-page gives an inkling of the nature of +the contents by its motto, savoring somewhat of cant: "Henceforth St. +Louis must be viewed in the light of the future--her mightiness in the +empire of the world--her sway in the rule of states and nations." This +book, strangely enough, was "published by order of the St Louis County +Court," in 1870, on the petition of forty-five of the leading citizens +and firms of the city, who were represented before the court by a +committee headed by Captain James B. Eads, the renowned engineer, and +containing one captain, five honorables, and two esquires. The first +edition consisted of one hundred and six pages, which were as +vainglorious and boastful, as crowded with laudatory adjectives, glowing +periods, and bombastic prophecies, as ever one hundred and six published +pages were. + +However, it evidently suited the St. Louis palate, for a second edition +bears date of the same year, and in 1871 a third appeared in a +considerably enlarged form. This last one is the most interesting, for +it contains a preface and a finis which for pure, undiluted presumption +have never been excelled. The former is entitled "Explanatory," and is +worth quoting entire: "A presentation of Causes in Nature and +Civilization which, in their reciprocal action tend to fix the position +of the FUTURE GREAT CITY OF THE WORLD in the central plain of North +America, showing that the centre of the world's commerce and +civilization will, in less than one hundred years, be organized and +represented in the Mississippi Valley, and by St. Louis, occupying as +she does the most favored position on the continent and the Great River; +also a complete representation of the great railway system of St. Louis, +showing that in less than ten years she will be the greatest railway +centre in the world." Even the most arrogant citizen of St. Louis would +hardly have the boldness to maintain that ten years after this prophecy +was made, in 1881, St. Louis was "the greatest railway centre in the +world," or even that she was one of the greatest. As to the one-hundred +years prophecy nothing can as yet be affirmed, for it has eighty-seven +years more to run, but if the last thirteen can be taken as a criterion, +St. Louis has a big contract on her hands. + +The last page is the most curious in the book, and in its way is +certainly unique. It is called "A Closing Word," and, being printed in +italics, has an air of emphasis and force peculiarly appropriate. The +author begins: "Thus have I written a new record--a new prophecy of a +city central to a continent of resources;" and so he goes on for half a +page of ridiculous bombast until he finishes the climax of epithets by +calling this "the Apocalyptic City-- + + 'The New Jerusalem, the ancient seer + Of Patmos saw.' + +"All hail! mistress of nations and beautiful queen of civilization! I +view thee in the light of thy destiny. Thou art transfigured before me +from thy present state to one infinitely more grand, and which +overshadows and dwarfs all civic forms in history. + +"The influence of thy empire will pervade the world with invisible and +electric force. Yet, vivifying and benignant capital,--emporium of trade +and industry, seat of learning and best-applied labor, pivotal point in +history, supreme and superb city of all lands,--I behold thy majesty +from afar, and salute thee reverently as the consummation of all that +the best human energies can accomplish for the elevation and happiness +of our race. + +"All hail! Future Great City of the World, and 'Glory to God in the +Highest and on Earth Peace, Goodwill toward Men.'" + +This reminds one equally of Walt Whitman and Artemas Ward. Yet it is not +burlesque. It appears to have been written in good faith, and for this +reason the incongruity of such a grandiloquent rhapsody on such a +prosaic subject is all the more noticeable. As an example of "fine +writing" it has seldom been surpassed, and for sheer nonsense it is +unequaled in American literature. + +These books on St. Louis call to mind a history of Milwaukee of a +somewhat similar nature--similar in its magnificent pretensions to the +last-described work, and in its biographical characteristics to +Edwards's Great West. The book referred to was published in Chicago, in +1881, by the Western Historical Company, A.T. Andreas, proprietor. Holy +Herodotus! To think of history becoming a thing of "companies"--on a par +with life insurance, railroads, gas-works, and cotton factories! And an +"historical company" with a proprietor, too! + +But let us look into this monumental tome. (Do not think that adjective +hyperbolical, for surely monumental is not too strong a word to describe +a book which would just about balance in weight an unabridged +dictionary.) Some idea of the immensity of the undertaking can be +obtained when, as the preface says, "it is known that nearly one year's +time was consumed and an average force of twenty-five men employed in +the labor of obtaining information and preparing the manuscript for the +printer's hands. The result of this vast effort is the presentation of a +History which stands unparalleled in the experience of publishers." The +book is a quarto and contains sixteen hundred and sixty-three pages. The +letter-press is unexceptionable; each page is surrounded by a neat +border; the paper is good; the binding is excellent. + +And yet the actual history of this city dates back little more than half +a century--not a lifetime. Here is history with a vengeance! The riddle, +however, is solved the instant we glance over the pages, for we find the +mass of the book made up of biographies,--biographies in front, +biographies to the right, biographies to the left, everywhere +biographies,--to the grand sum total of nearly four thousand. A book +much like this would have been made had the Crown published the Giant +Petition trundled into Parliament on a wheelbarrow in the times of +George the Third, when Lord George Gordon was the hero of the day. About +as valuable, about as readable, about as bulky, about as good for +kindling fires! + +But let the perpetrator plead his cause in his own words--and it must be +conceded he does it well. "The plan of the History of the city of +Milwaukee, which is herewith presented to the public," he says in his +preface, "possesses the merit of originality. It is based upon the fact +that in all older regions, a serious deficiency exists even in the most +exhaustive histories which it is possible now to compile through the +absence of personal and detailed records of pioneer men and deeds. The +primary design of this work is to preserve for future historians as +complete an encyclopaedia of early events in Milwaukee, and the actors +therein, as patient labor and unstinted financial expenditure can +procure." + +We thank the Western Historical Company, or Mr. Andreas, for this +benevolent and philanthropic spirit, but really he must not expect us to +believe that pecuniary profit is only a _secondary_ design of this work. +But supposing for a moment that the primary design was as philanthropic +and unselfish as Mr. Andreas would have us think, let us consider its +worth; for, if we grant this premise, we must admit the truth of the +conclusion reached, and then must give unstinted praise to the fruits of +such a conclusion, a volume like the one before us. But the premise is +specious and false. The deficiency that exists through the absence of +personal and detailed records of _pioneer_ men and deeds is not serious: +on the contrary, in most cases, we should be devoutly thankful that it +exists. Of the generations after that of the pioneers we would know +much; of that of the pioneers themselves, something. But who is there, +or will there be, that cares a picayune whether the third cobbler in +Milwaukee (this history would call him the third manufacturer of shoes) +was born in April or June, 1806, or whether he came from Tipperary or +Heidelberg, or whether his wife died of the pneumonia or the +whooping-cough? To be sure we would be glad to know whether the early +settlers of Milwaukee were mainly young or mainly old when they came +here, whether they were mainly German or Irish, and what where the +prevalent diseases in different localities at an early period, but to +ask an intelligent being to wade through nearly four thousand "personal +histories" in order ascertain these facts is, to say the least, somewhat +of an imposition on his good nature. + +Later on in his preface the author contradicts himself in this regard, +for he shows us how far from philanthropic were the publisher's motives +and how little he thought of posterity in inserting these biographies, +by writing the following well-turned and suggestive sentences: "It may +be asked, Why have the biographical sketches of comparatively obscure +men been inserted? The reasons are obvious to business men and should be +to all. None but citizens are represented. Whatever Milwaukee is her +citizens have made her. Shall the publisher exercise a power higher than +the law, and erect a caste distinction or estimate each man's work from +some fictitious standard of his own? Assuredly not. If, in the +preparation of this work, a citizen has shown commendable pride, and +aided its publisher by his patronage, he is entitled to mention in its +pages. Such men and women have received a sketch, but the fact of +pecuniary assistance has not biased the character of the book." + +This is a very specious attempt to throw a glamour of respectability +over a very unpleasant and repugnant fact, namely: that a mass of +"biographical sketches of comparatively obscure men" has been given to +the public under the guise of a history of a city, with the sole object +of making money. It is indeed consoling to know that "none but citizens +have been represented," but why this statement should be coupled with +the platitude that follows it would be hard to say. And then the utter +ridiculousness of the nonsense about the publisher exercising a power +higher than the law and erecting a caste distinction! "What fools these +mortals be!" + +But whatever may be said of the historical value of such books as the +above, there can be little doubt that they are remunerative business +enterprises, for the country has of late years been flooded with them. +Perhaps we ought to be thankful for any history at all of these new +Western cities, even though the wheat therein be so scarce and the chaff +so plenty. The prevalence of this same affliction--the biographical +history--in literary New England seems more anomalous than it does in +the West, but it is even more widespread. A fair type of the Eastern +species is the Quarter-Centennial History of Lawrence, Massachusetts, +compiled by H.A. Wadsworth, in 1878. It contained seventy-five very poor +wood-engravings, called portraits by courtesy, which, with the +accompanying biographies, were inserted to represent the leading (?) men +of the city at an entrance fee of five or ten dollars apiece. + +Next in number below the biographical histories, but far above them in +value, come what may be called the chronological histories, that is, +those which make little or no attempt to group the important facts of a +city's history in homogeneous chapters, but which, diary-like, give all +facts, important as well as insignificant, in the order of their +occurrence. Fortunately most local historians of this sect have made +more or less attempt at bringing like to like, although they have +generally preserved the purely chronological order within their groups, +whether these be of subjects or periods. Among the histories of the +larger cities, Scharf's Chronicles of Baltimore comes to mind as typical +of this class. This work, published in 1874, is an octavo of seven +hundred and fifty-six pages. The author tells the truth when he says in +his preface: "The only plan in the work that has been followed has been +to chronicle events through the years in their order; beginning with the +earliest in which any knowledge on the subject is embraced, and running +on down to the present." The book is printed "solid," with not a single +chapter-heading from one end to the other, so it is not strange that it +contains such an immense amount of material. + +The great fault of this book, as of all books of this class, is the lack +of the proper classification, the scholarly reflection and comment, the +thoughtful contrast and comparison, the exercise of intelligent judgment +in forming conclusions,--all which are necessary to make history +palatable, not to say valuable. Nowhere is this lack shown more forcibly +than in this book in the treatment of the subject of riots and mob +violence. It may not be generally known, especially among the younger +portion of the community, that no American and but few European cities +have such an unenviable and disgraceful record on this head as +Baltimore. The accounts of its riots remind one too forcibly of the +worst days of the French Revolution, and all of them read more like the +incidents so plentiful in the sensational stories of the day, than like +the cold, dispassionate record of history. And this, mind you, is the +record of a city famed far more for monuments, pleasure-grounds, and +beautiful women, than for lawlessness and sans-culottism, a city proud +of its families and its culture, a city one of the oldest and richest in +the land. However unpleasant it may be to look at the black side of such +a city's history, yet the study must be profitable if by it we +Americans, proud of our tolerance and our humanity, jealous of aught +past or present that may blot our escutcheon, wondering at and +scornfully pitying nations that could have had Lord George Gordon riots +and blood-thirsty land-leagues, a reign of terror and a commune,--if we +may learn not to be quite so arrogant in our righteousness, quite so +boastful in our Pharisaism; if we may learn how much reason we of the +New World have to bear in mind, when we read about the past and present +of the Old World, the divine command: "He that is without sin among you, +let him first cast a stone at her." + +Yet Scharf gives merely the bare details of these, the most vivid scenes +in Baltimore's history, and goes little into causes or results, leaving +us almost wholly in the dark as to how a civilized city in the most +enlightened country on earth could have grafted on its history such +anomalous things as these riots. This feature of Baltimore's history +seems to us to be the feature most peculiar to itself, and, therefore, +like that feature of a human face peculiar to the person we are +studying, the most interesting; but our historian gives it no +distinctive treatment, puts no emphasis on it, forces the reader to +compare, contrast, account for, explain, and draw conclusions for +himself. That he should slide over this side of Baltimore's history +would be natural enough, but of this he cannot be accused. His treatment +of this subject is characteristic of the whole book. + +As a good example of an even more disappointing type of chronological +histories we may take the History of Lynn, including Lynnfield, Saugus, +Swampscott, and Nahant, by Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall, an octavo +of six hundred and twenty pages, published in 1865. The book seems to +have been condensed from a series of very poor diaries, and the mass of +detail under the year-headings is ridiculous in its minuteness and +laughable in its absurdity. Every year has its paragraphic entries, more +or less full. The narrative of one year may here be quoted to show the +nature of the whole, and, for that matter, the nature of fifty similar +town histories. + +1758. "Thomas Mansfield, Esquire, was thrown from his horse on Friday, +January 6, and died the next Sunday. + +"A company of soldiers, from Lynn, marched for Canada, on the +twenty-third of May. Edmund Ingalls and Samuel Mudge were killed. + +"In a thunder-shower, on the fourth of August, an ox belonging to Mr. +Henry Silsbee was killed by lightning. + +"A sloop from Lynn, commanded by Captain Ralph Lindsay, was cast away on +the fifteenth of August, near Portsmouth." + +In this pretended "History," the whole of the eighteenth century +receives but sixty-two pages, and that part of the nineteenth which had +elapsed at the time of publication receives only one hundred and +seventeen. In the latter an average entry is the following, under date +of 1856:-- + +"Patrick Buckley, the 'Lynn Buck,' ran five miles in twenty-eight +minutes and thirty-eight seconds, at the Trotting Park, for a belt +valued at fifty dollars. And on the fourth of December, William Hendley +ran the same distance in twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds." + +The "Lynn Buck," seems to have been an important personage in those +days, for we read under date of 1858:-- + +"The 'Lynn Buck,' so called, walked a plank at Lowell, in February, a +hundred and five consecutive hours and forty-four minutes, and with but +twenty-nine minutes' rest. A strict watch was kept on him." + +We are very glad to know about the "strict watch," but really it was too +bad of the authors not to let us know if those forty-four minutes, also, +were not consecutive. They might, too, have told us to advantage +something about the _modus operandi_ of "walking a plank." It has been +the general impression that the man who walks a plank performs the +operation in an unpleasant hurry--unpleasant for him; and that he will +take all the rest he can get--before he begins; and that he has an +eternal rest, or unrest, after he has finished. But perhaps this has +been a wrong impression. If the authors are alive, it is due to the +public that they should rise and explain. + +Enough of pleasantry. Let us examine the book with serious mind, if we +can. Everybody knows that shoes have been the making of Lynn, that they +are and have been for years the backbone of its prosperity, the life of +its business. To say that Lynn is the greatest shoe-manufacturing city +in the country, and, for that matter, in the world, may be an +exaggeration, but it is a very common one. In a history of Lynn we might +expect this fact to be at least recognized. Let us see how that is in +the present case. + +The shoe business was not unknown in Lynn before 1750, but in that year +it first got a firm footing here. So we are not surprised to find the +fact mentioned, but we are somewhat disappointed to find only half a +page given to it. Beyond this, mention of the shoe trade in the last +century is very slight, as, no doubt, was the trade itself. Since 1800, +however, the trade has been rapidly increasing, and has gradually +assumed enormous proportions. Yet in this precious volume we find the +subject mentioned just once in the chronological annals, _three lines_ +being devoted to it under the head of 1810: "It appeared, by careful +estimation, that there were made in Lynn, this year, one million pairs +of shoes, valued at eight hundred thousand dollars. The females (!) +earned some fifty thousand dollars by binding." To be sure, the burning +of two shoe factories received, respectively, two and three lines; the +formation of an ineffective board of trade by shoemakers, ten lines; and +of an equally fruitless union by journeymen shoemakers, ten lines. A +page and a quarter (_mirabile dictu_) is devoted to a shoemakers' strike +with no definite result. In a biography, the connection of its subject +with the shoe business is mentioned in a quoted letter. A quick job by a +shoemaker receives six lines, and one by another, four; and the death of +a third is mentioned. + +In an appendix the state of the shoe business in 1864 is discussed at +length in a third of a half-page! All we learn from it is that by the +State returns in the year ending June 1, 1833, there were made +9,275,593 pairs of shoes valued at $4,165,529. In the year ending +September 1, 1864, about ten million pairs of shoes were made, valued at +fourteen million dollars (probably paper, not gold, value), and the +number of shoe manufacturers was 174; of men and women employed, 17,173. +As the total population of Lynn at that time was little if anything over +twenty-three thousand, it will be seen that even these figures are +untrustworthy, or else the shoe business played even a greater part in +Lynn affairs than is generally supposed. + +And this is all the mention to be found in a History of Lynn concerning +the backbone of the city--that great industry to which it almost wholly +owed its population of 38,274 in 1880. Can any one maintain that this +sort of a book is a history? + +And so we might go on, finding history after history of the towns and +cities scattered through New England and the Middle States, most of them +on a par with those last mentioned, in all styles of print and binding, +some decrepit and musty with age, others fresh and enticing, with gaudy +covers and scores of illustrations; some like Sewall's History of Woburn +with no table of contents or index, and so practically useless; a few +like Staples's Annals of Providence, scholarly and creditable; yet none +of them ideal histories. But occasionally we meet an oasis in this vast +waste, and though it may not be a paradise, yet we are too grateful for +the water that nourishes the palms and the grass, that refreshes our +parched mouths and wearied bodies, to think that in other climes we +might call it brackish and unclean. + +Such is the effect that the History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts has on +us. Here is a book that might well be taken as a standard by town +historians. The very history of the History will show its merits. + +At a town meeting held in the Town Hall, in Pittsfield, August 25, 1866, +so the preface says, Mr. Thomas Allen rose, and stated that on the +centennial of the First Congregational Church and parish, namely, April +18, 1864, he had been requested by a vote of the parish to prepare an +historical memoir of that parish and church, embodying substantially, +but extending, the remarks he made at that meeting. He stated that, in +looking over the records of the town and parish, he found them +intimately connected, so that a history of the one would also be a +history of the other; and he had found the history of the town highly +interesting, and honorable to its inhabitants. True, there were no +classic fields in Pittsfield, consecrated by patriotic blood spilled in +battle in defence of the country, as in Lexington and Concord, simply +because no foreign foe in arms ever invaded its soil; but it was not the +less true that Pittsfield had always promptly performed her part, and +furnished her quota of men and means, in every war waged in defence of +the country and the Union; and that in the intellectual contests +through which the just principles of republican government, and civil +and religious freedom, have been established in this country, the men of +Pittsfield, on their own ground and elsewhere, have ever borne a part +creditable alike to their wisdom, their sagacity, and their patriotism. +Pittsfield, therefore, had a history which deserved to be written. The +first settlers had all passed away; and their immediate descendants, +witnesses of their earlier struggles, were whitening with the frosts of +age, and were also rapidly disappearing. If the records of their history +were to be gathered together, and preserved in a durable form, it was +time that the duty be undertaken. He was satisfied that an honorable +record would appear, and worthy of the place to which God had given so +much that is beautiful in nature. + +These remarks were so sensible, their spirit was so noble, their form so +forcible, that at once a committee of five was appointed to compile, +write, and supervise the publication of a history of the town, and an +appropriation was made to defray the expense. This committee chose Mr. +J.E.A. Smith to aid them, and, according to the title-page, he compiled +and wrote the book under their general direction. It was published in +two octavo volumes: the first contained five hundred and eighteen pages, +and appeared in 1868, bringing the history from 1734 down to 1800; the +second, containing seven hundred and twenty-five pages, was not +published until eight years later. The second volume brought the history +down to date, and with the first formed an unbroken, readable narrative, +written in perhaps as good a style as town history could warrant us in +expecting. Not the least deserving of praise are the indexes, the lack +of which found in most books of the sort does more to lower their value +than any other defect. The man who writes a history without indexing it +thereby shows his utter lack of the most essential requisite in an +historian--a knowledge of the art of codification. He also calls down +upon his head the curses of every student who tries to use his book. + +An abundance of illustrations is not rare enough in town histories to +merit applause, but they are so seldom worth looking at that the +presence of such admirable ones as we find here attracts more than +passing notice. If American art were to be judged by the generality of +such illustrations, we would do well to say as little as possible about +the slurs and sneers of foreign critics. In such case silence would be +the better plan. + +The preface to the second volume contained the following suggestive +sentences:-- + +"The original plan of the work was to make the earlier portions more +full than the later: indeed, to give but a brief skeleton of recent +affairs: it being exceedingly difficult to make contemporary history +satisfactory to those who have taken part in it. We have, in a few +instances, departed from this course, for reasons which will suggest +themselves to the reader." + +In these sentences may be found the germ of almost the only idea in the +making of this truly admirable book which deserves severe criticism, and +most certainly the severest condemnation should be given to this and all +similar ideas. The notion that history should be written in a way that +will be _satisfactory_ to those engaged in it is radically wrong, unless +perchance by a _satisfactory_ way is meant a way that in point of truth, +accuracy, and fulness, will suit those who have a more or less personal +share in the events to be recorded. But here it is evident that the word +has not this meaning, or at least has a great deal more than this +meaning. In this connection it seems to be a euphemism for _pleasant_. +Certainly no one will dispute that an historian of contemporary events +would find very difficult even the attempt to make his work pleasant to +his contemporaries. It is the endeavor to do this which has vitiated +all the histories so far written of the late Civil War. The same +principle made Thiers's French Revolution an almost worthless book as a +history. To come down to lesser things, the same principle underlying +and pervading all American local histories has done more toward making +them worthless than any other single defect. In the name of truth and +justice we ask, "Why should the writing of history be made satisfactory, +pleasant, to those who aid in the making of it?" We want the _truth_ +about the near, as well as the far, past. Let us do unto our descendants +as we would that our ancestors had done by us, and tell them the truth +about ourselves. + +Perhaps we ought to be more lenient in the case of this history of +Pittsfield, in consideration of the fact that this was a _public_ work, +and, therefore, more caution had to be exercised than we would otherwise +have expected. Of course no employee would like to displease even a +single member of the corporation that employed him. Possibly the same +argument might be raised in defence of any historian, in that the public +is virtually his employer. Here, however, reasoning by analogy fails, +for the public is a very large body, and will seldom take up the cudgel +in defence of any single individual. This is a question, however, which +should be settled on the ground of right, not of expediency. But even if +the right be left out of account, the expedient in this case is not +necessarily opposed to truth and accuracy. This is well shown by the +phenomenal success of The Memorial History of Boston, mentioned above. +It may be well just here to say a little more about this admirable work, +for it is even more typical of what an ideal city history should be, +than that of Pittsfield is of the ideal town history. + +From the title-page we learn that The Memorial History of Boston, +including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, was edited by Justin +Winsor, and issued under the business superintendence of the projector, +Clarence F. Jewett, in 1880. The nature of the book is learned from the +preface, which says: "The history is cast on a novel plan: not so much +in being a work of co-operation, but because, so far as could be, the +several themes, as sections of one homogeneous whole, have been treated +by those who have some particular association and, it may be, long +acquaintance with the subject. In the diversity of authors there will, +of course, be variety of opinions, and it has not been thought +ill-judged, considering the different points of view assumed by the +various writers, that the same events should be interpreted sometimes in +varying and, perhaps, opposite ways. The chapters may thus make good the +poet's description: + + 'Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea,'-- + +and may not be the worse for each offering a reflection, according to +its turn to the light, without marring the unity of the general +expanse." + +Among those who contributed one or more chapters to this work were +Justin Winsor (the editor), Charles Francis Adams, Jr., R.C. Winthrop, +T.W. Higginson, Edward Everett Hale, H.E. Scudder, F.W. Palfrey, +Phillips Brooks, Andrew P. Peabody, Henry Cabot Lodge, Josiah P. Quincy, +and Edward Atkinson. Such names as these are more than enough to insure +the truth, accuracy, and historical value of the book. Each one of them +discussed one or more topics, and then their work with that of the less +famous contributors was arranged chronologically, making a logically +consecutive series of essays complete in themselves. The whole was +published in four elegantly printed volumes, containing, in all, +twenty-five hundred and seventy-seven pages. + +This is the kind of a history which is of value, not only for immediate +use, but also for future reference; and this is the kind that gladdens +the heart and cheers the labors of the student and the writer. It is the +lack of such histories which makes incomplete and unsatisfactory such +works as the one in the hands of the government which called forth this +article. For it must not be supposed that the historical part of The +Social Statistics of Cities of 1880 will be either complete in every +part or wholly satisfactory. Yet perhaps it will be complete enough to +answer its end, which is to afford an opportunity for seeing why the +cities and towns described have reached their present condition. It is +on the accounts of their present condition that the value of the work +must chiefly rest. + +To the historians in succeeding generations these accounts will be +invaluable, for they will give information about the cities as they were +in the year 1880, which is not likely to be embodied in any other +permanent form. It has been shown how large a proportion of the local +histories of America have been found wanting in these things. It is not +to be expected that the immediate future will see any decided +reformation. Then it is clear of how great value to the "future +historian of recent events," to quote one of Daniel Webster's phrases, +will be such work as this that has been undertaken by the National +government. It will be of so great value because, as we can say with +little exaggeration, the history of the cities is the history of the +nation. The city to-day plays a most important part in national affairs. +It is, indeed, and for aught we can see must continue to be, the Hamlet +of the play. Few people realize this. Few people know that over one +fifth of the population of the land is gathered in the large towns and +cities. At the beginning of the century the ratio of the urban +population to the rural was only as one to fifteen. No reason is +apparent why the increase in the ratio should not be equally steady and +rapid for many generations. That this same change has taken place in all +_civilized_ portions of the world is, in truth, most significant. In +England the progress of the cities has been in the same direction, and, +as nearly as can be judged, in the same ratio as that of wealth, +learning, and happiness. + +Call to mind what Macaulay said, nearly half a century ago, in chapter +iii of his History of England: "Great as has been the change in the +rural life of England since the Revolution (1688), the change which has +come to pass in the cities is still more amazing. At present, a sixth +part of the kingdom is crowded into provincial towns of more than thirty +thousand inhabitants. In the reign of Charles II, no provincial town in +the kingdom contained thirty thousand inhabitants, and only four +provincial towns contained so many as ten thousand inhabitants." Since +this was written, the change, if not so marvelous, has been equally +important. + +As to our own country, the change can in no way be shown more clearly +than by the following table, which will be published in the Census +Report:-- + + + + +TABLE SHOWING THE GROWTH OF UNITED STATES CITIES FROM 1800 TO 1880. + +[Transcriber's note--This table has been transposed to make it fit. For +each year, Pop. is the Aggregate Population of all cities in that size +range; % is the percentage of the total Population of the United +States.] + +______________________________________________________________________ + | Total | Cities of Population: | + |Population| 10,000- 50,000- 100,000- Over | + | of U.S. | 49,999. 99,999. 499,999. 500,000.|Grand total +______________________________________________________________________ +1800| 5,308,483|Pop.| 161,134 24,945 60,989 104,113| 351,181 + | | % | .03 .0047 .011 .019 | .068 +1820| 9,633,822|Pop.| 214,270 43,997 186,293 194,683| 639,243 + | | % | .021 .0046 .019 .02 | .069 +1830|12,866,020|Pop.| 316,360 83,960 278,067 289,980| 968,367 + | | % | .025 .0065 .021 .0225 | .075 +1840|17,069,453|Pop.| 461,671 150,682 504,016 447,078| 1,563,487 + | | % | .027 .0088 .029 .025 | .091 +1850|23,191,876|Pop.| 990,080 314,182 933,039 763,724| 3,001,025 + | | % | .043 .013 .04 .033 | .13 +1860|31,433,321|Pop.|1,654,183 446,575 1,483,472 1,750,020| 5,334,250 + | | % | .052 .014 .047 .055 | .17 +1870|38,558,783|Pop.|2,526,432 676,990 2,302,961 2,311,410| 7,817,793 + | | % | .066 .017 .059 .06 | .20 +1880|50,155,783|Pop.|3,479,658 947,918 3,087,592 3,123,317|10,638,485 + | | % | .069 .019 .06 .062 | .21 +______________________________________________________________________ + +The city is not only the growing centre of a growing nation--it is also +the centre of all intellectual growth. The city is the home of the bar, +the hospital, the press, the church, and the state. The city is the +outcome of civilization, for it is the product of commerce and +manufactures, and these mean civilization. + +Then if any history be of value, if the record of the past be of any use +in guiding the present and helping toward the future, surely the history +of the city is the most important of all history. + +PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES. By Justin McCarthy, M.P. One volume, +pp. 448. Harper and Brothers: New York. 1884. + + +The brilliant History of Our Own Times, in two volumes, by the same +author, and published four years ago, has now been presented to the +public in a reduced size. While it was necessary to leave out many of +the striking and rhetorical passages in the process of condensation, +which formed so pleasing a portion in the larger work, the strictly +historical matter remains unchanged. His history, beginning with the +accession of Queen Victoria, in 1837, and extending to the general +election, in 1880, the date of the appointment of the Honorable W.E. +Gladstone to the premiership of England, covers a period of intense +interest, and with which every intelligent person should be familiar. +Mr. McCarthy's work is destined to be, for some time to come, the +standard account of English affairs for the last fifty years. + +One of the most valuable reference works of recent publication is The +Epitome of Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History. By Carl Ploetz. +Translated from the German, with extensive additions, by William H. +Tillinghast, of the Harvard University library. One volume. pp. 618. +Houghton, Mifflin, and Company: Boston. 1884. + +The author of the original work, Professor Doctor Carl Ploetz, is well +known in Germany as a veteran teacher and writer of educational books +which have a high reputation, excellence, and authority. With regard to +the present work, it should be observed that it has passed through seven +editions in Germany. As a book of reference, either for the student or +the general reader, its tested usefulness is a sufficient guaranty for +its wide adoption in the present enlarged form. The scope of The Epitome +may be summarized as follows: Universal history is first treated by +dividing it into three periods. First, ancient history, from the +earliest historical information to the year 375 A.D. Second, mediaeval, +from that date to the discovery of America, in 1492. Third, modern +history, from the last date to the year 1883. + +We have received from the author, the Honorable Samuel Abbott Green, +M.D., a pamphlet entitled "Notes on a Copy of Dr. William Douglass's +Almanack for 1743, touching on the subject of medicine in Massachusetts +before his time." It is specially interesting to the members of the +medical fraternity, as well as to antiquaries. + +CORRECTION.--The article upon Lovewell's fight at Pigwacket, printed in +the February number of the Bay State (page 83), contained a trifling +error, but one which deserves correction. It is stated that the township +of land with which the General Court, in 1774, rewarded the services of +the troops under Lovewell, was subsequently divided, forming the towns +of Lovell and New Sweden. The mistake was upon the name of the latter +town. It should have been written Sweden. New Sweden is the recent +Swedish colony of Aroostook County. + +I.B.C. + + + + +[Illustration: Boar's Head House] + +From the eastern end of Long Island, toward the west and south, extends +a dreary monotony of sandbeach along the whole Atlantic coast, to the +extreme southern cape of Florida, thence along the shores of the Gulf of +Mexico to the Rio Grande, broken only by occasional inlets. The +picturesque coast scenery is mostly north and east of Cape Cod. +Following along the seaboard from Cape Ann, one comes, a few miles north +of the mouth of the Merrimack River, in view of a bold promontory +extending into the waters of the Atlantic, and aptly named, in years +agone, Boar's Head. + +The traveler in search of a delightful seaside resort for the summer +need go no further. For here, amidst the most charming of marine +scenery, that veteran landlord and genial host, Stebbins H. Dumas, has +erected, for the benefit of the public, a hotel, spacious, well +appointed, and ably conducted; inviting and especially homelike; every +room commanding a view of the ocean. + +Boar's Head is a promontory; its level summit of about a dozen acres, +sixty feet above the highest tide, clothed in the greenest verdure. It +is in the form of a triangle, the cliffs on two sides of which are +lashed by the waves of the restless ocean; while toward the main, the +land falls away gently to the level of the marshes. The hotel is situate +on the crest of this incline. From the veranda, which commands the +landward view, the prospect is wide and pleasing. To the north trends +Hampton Beach in a long sweep to Little Boar's Head and the shores of +Rye and Newcastle; inland are broad stretches of salt marsh, its surface +interwoven with the silver ribbon of the creek and stream; beyond are +glimpses of restful rustic scenes, improved by near approach; spires +pointing heavenward from all the peaceful villages, and, further away, +Agamenticus and the granite hills of New England; to the south, the +beach runs on toward Salisbury and Newburyport. But the great view from +Boar's Head is from the ocean apex of the promontory. Here, beneath the +grateful shade of an awning, with the waves breaking rythmically at the +foot of the cliff far beneath, one can sit and ponder on the immensity +of the ocean and dream of the lands beyond the horizon. From here the +whole seaboard, from Thatcher's Island to York and Wells, is in view; +the Isles of Shoals loom up on the horizon, while the offing is dotted +with coasters and yachts of every rig and construction. Calm, indeed, +must it be when no wind is felt on Boar's Head; and during those +exceptional days of the summer, when the land-breeze prevails, the broad +verandas around three sides of the hotel afford the most grateful shade. +The broad acres between the house and the bluff is a lawn for the use of +the guests, where croquet and tennis may be highly enjoyed in the +invigorating ocean air. + +During the evening, when the atmosphere is clear, there are visible from +the Head thirteen lighthouses. When the shades of night and the dew have +driven the guests to seek shelter within doors, the great parlor affords +to the young people ample room for the cotillion or German, while the +reception-room, office, and reading-room lure the seniors to whist or +magazines. Of a Sunday, the dining-room answers for a chapel; and in +years past, the voice of many an eloquent preacher has echoed through +the room, and reached, through the open windows, hardy but devout +fishermen on the outside. + +These same fishermen bring great codfish from the outlying shoals, +delicious clams from the flats, canvas-back duck, and teal, and +yellow-leg plovers from the marshes, to tempt the delicate appetite of +the valetudinarian. + +Boar's Head is on the seacoast of the old town of Hampton, in the State +of New Hampshire. Taking a team from Mr. Dumas' well-stocked stable, one +will find the most delightful drives, extending in all directions +through the ancient borough. The roads follow curves, like the drives in +Central Park, and two centuries and a half of wear have rendered them as +solid and firm as if macadamized. Three short miles from the hotel is +the station of Hampton, on the Eastern Railroad, by which many trains +pass daily. + +[Illustration] + +For the historical student the region affords much of interest. Here, in +the village of Hampton, in the year 1638, in the month of October, +settled the Reverend Stephen Batchelder [Bachiler] and his followers, +intent to serve God in their own way and establish homes in the +wilderness. The river and adjoining country was then known as +Winnicunnett. The settlers, for the most part, came from Norfolk, +England, and so desirable did they find their adopted home that many +descendants of the original grantees occupy to-day the land opened and +cleared by their ancestors. In this town, in 1657, settled Ebenezer +Webster, the direct progenitor of the Great Expounder, and here the +family remained for several generations. + +Within the limits of the old township, which was bounded on the south by +the present Massachusetts line, on the north by Portsmouth and Exeter, +and extended ten miles inland, were included the territory of some half +dozen of the adjoining townships of to-day. Here lived Meshach Weare, +who guided the New Hampshire ship of state through the troublous times +of the Revolution. Over yonder, near the site of the first log +meeting-house, is pointed out the gambrel-roofed house of General +Jonathan Moulton, the great land-owner. He it was, in the good old +colony days, who drove a very large and fat ox from his township of +Moultonborough, and delivered it to the jovial Governor Wentworth as a +present to his excellency, and said there was nothing to pay. When the +governor insisted on making some return, General Moulton informed him +that there was an ungranted gore of land adjoining his earlier grant +which he would accept. In this manner he came into possession of the +town of New Hampton--a very ample return for the ox; at least, so +asserts tradition. + +Colonel Christopher Toppan, in those early days, was largely engaged in +ship-building. For many years the people of Hampton were employed in +domestic and foreign commerce, and it was not until the advent of the +railroad that Hampton surrendered its dreams of commercial +aggrandizement. + +One road leads up the coast to Rye and Portsmouth; another, through a +most charming country, to Exeter; another, to Salisbury and Newburyport, +and many others inland in every direction. + +Boar's Head is the best base from which to operate to rediscover the +whole adjoining territory. + +The first house on the Head was built, in 1808, by Daniel Lamprey, whose +son, Jeremiah Lamprey, began to entertain guests about 1820. The first +public house in the vicinity, a part of the present Boar's Head House, +was built, in 1826, by David Nudd and associates. From them it came, in +1865, into the possession of Stebbins Hitchcock Dumas, who, nineteen +years before, had commenced hotel life at the Phenix, in Concord. Under +Mr. Dumas' management the house has grown steadily in size as well as in +popularity, until to-day it ranks as one of the great seaside +caravansaries of the Atlantic coast. + +When a fisherman in his wanderings through the forest discovers a pond +or stream well stocked with sparkling trout, he keeps his information to +himself, and frequently revisits his treasure. So is it apt to be with +the tourist and pleasure-seeker. Here, season after season, have +appeared the same men and the same families--noticeably those who +appreciate a table supplied with every delicacy of the season, served up +in the most tempting manner. + +Has the guest a desire to compete with the fishermen, he is furnished +every convenience, and by a basket of fish "expressed" to some distant +friend can demonstrate his piscatorial powers. On the favoring beach, +hard by the hotel, are bathhouses where one can prepare to sport in the +refreshing billows. The halls and rooms of the hotel were built before +those days when those who resort to the seabeach were expected to be +accommodated within the area of their Saratoga trunks. Spacious, +comfortably furnished, each opening on a view of the ocean, the rooms of +the hotel are very attractive and pleasing. + +The hotel is opened for the reception of the public early in June, and +remains open into October, before the last guest departs. + +The gentle poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, thus writes of Hampton +Beach:-- + + "I sit alone: in foam and spray + Wave after wave + Breaks on the rocks.--which, stern and gray, + Shoulder the broken tide away,-- + Or murmurs hoarse and strong through mossy cleft and cave. + + "What heed I of the dusty land + And noisy town? + I see the mighty deep expand + From its white line of glimmering sand + To where the blue of heaven on bluer waves shuts down. + + "In listless quietude of mind + I yield to all + The change of cloud and wave and wind; + And passive, on the flood reclined, + I wander with the waves, and with them rise and fall. + + * * * * * + + "So then, beach, bluff, and wave, farewell! + I bear with me + No token stone nor glittering shell; + But long and oft shall memory tell + Of this brief thoughtful hour of musing by the sea." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue +5, May, 1884, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, *** + +***** This file should be named 13632.txt or 13632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/6/3/13632/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci, the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team and Cornell University + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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