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A MEMORIAL TO 
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 PATRICK A. COLLINS 
 
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 The popular impulse to perpetuate the name 
 and the public record of Mayor Patrick A. 
 Collins by some form of memorial grew strong 
 and pressing soon after his death in September, 
 190.5. Just a week after his interment in 
 Holyhood Cemetery, a meeting of representa- 
 tive men of Boston was held, at .53 State Street, 
 to consider ways and means to meet the demand 
 of the people for recognition of his high char- 
 acter and of his distinguished services to the 
 Nation, the State, and the City. The chair 
 was occupied by the Hon. Richard Olney, 
 and there were present prominent clergymen 
 of various religious beliefs, bankers, merchants, 
 lawyers, doctors, and personal friends. 
 
 Brief addresses were made by the distin- 
 guished chairman and by many prominent 
 members of the representative assemblage, and 
 all the speakers favored the establishment of 
 some form of memorial to be designed in a 
 manner suitable to the wishes of the people 
 and acceptable to the artistic sense of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 An Executive Committee was chosen to give 
 effect to the desires of the people as they found 
 expression in the press and in the addresses 
 of the gentlemen who had responded to the call. 
 This committee was empowered by vote to 
 raise the funds needed, to determine the form 
 which the Memorial should take, and to proceed, 
 without further instructions, to do all that the 
 meeting had outlined. 
 
 At the head of this body Mr. Jerome Jones 
 was placed. Mr. James J. Storrow was chosen 
 
Treasurer, and Mr. M. P. Curran was made 
 Secretary. With these were associated, by unani- 
 mous vote of the meeting, Dr. John G. Blake, 
 Robert M. Burnett, Right Rev. William Byrne, 
 D.D., the Hon. Edwin Upton Curtis, the Hon. 
 Thomas J. Gargan, Lieutenant-Governor Curtis 
 Guild, Jr., Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, Right Rev. 
 William Lawrence, D.D., James M. Prendergast, 
 A. Shuman, General Charles H. Taylor, and 
 Lucius Tuttle. 
 
 This Committee entered upon the arduous 
 and delicate task imposed upon it with earnest- 
 ness and zeal. It issued an appeal to the public 
 for subscriptions. The answer to this was so 
 prompt and generous that within two days 
 there was substantial evidence that the work 
 of the Committee would have the support of 
 the community. The appeal was issued on 
 September 27, 1905, and on September 29 the 
 Treasurer acknowledged through the press the 
 receipt of $11,290. On October 16, or in six- 
 teen working days, there was received $25,- 
 674.25, or more money than the Committee 
 asked for. 
 
 No collectors or solicitors were employed. 
 Every dollar received by the Treasurer was 
 sent in or brought in; and there were over 600 
 contributors, the sums ranging from $500 to 
 ten cents. It may be said that the record in 
 this case is probably without parallel. The 
 Committee closed the subscription lists on 
 October 29, and the Treasurer had then in his 
 possession the sum of $26,444.12. 
 
 The Committee decided early in its delibera- 
 tions that the Memorial should be an addition 
 to the artistic treasures of the city, and that it 
 
should assume the form of a gateway to one of 
 the public parks or of a statue in one of the 
 squares. It was decided also that, if possible, 
 a Boston artist should design and execute the 
 work. With this object in mind the Committee 
 issued an invitation to Boston sculptors, archi- 
 tects, and persons of artistic taste to submit 
 suggestions, designs, models, or advice which 
 might aid the Committee in its purpose to get 
 the best and most meritorious plan for the 
 Memorial. 
 
 It soon came to be known that four eminent 
 sculptors of Boston had begun to work on the 
 plans and designs, and that all of them had 
 adopted the scheme of a statue as the most 
 fitting. The Boston Society of Architects cheer- 
 fully responded to the request of the Committee 
 for advice and counsel. Messrs. J. Randolph 
 Coolidge, Jr., R. S. Peabody, and C. H. Black- 
 all, acting as a committee of that body, rendered 
 voluntary and valuable assistance in the selec- 
 tion of the best design and the most desirable 
 location for the monument. 
 
 On February 1, 1907, a contract was signed 
 by the chairman of the Committee, and H. H. 
 Kitson and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson for these 
 purposes: "The sculptors agree to design, 
 execute, furnish, and erect for the Committee 
 a suitable granite and bronze memorial to the 
 late Patrick A. Collins, Mayor of Boston, sub- 
 stantially in accordance with the model and 
 plans approved by the Committee on October 
 4, 1905, subject to the approval of said Com- 
 mittee and the Art Commission of the City of 
 Boston." 
 
 On November 2, 1908, this Memorial was 
 
unveiled, dedicated, and presented to the City 
 of Boston. An account of the ceremonies and 
 proceedings incident to the closing of the Com- 
 mittee's work of a little over three years will 
 be found in succeeding pages. 
 
 On a platform in front of the veiled monument 
 sat Mayor George A. Hibbard, Archbishop 
 William H, O'Connell, and the memorial com- 
 mittee. At 11 o'clock a.m. Mr. Jerome Jones, 
 chairman of that committee, introduced His 
 Grace, the Archbishop, to open the proceedings 
 with prayer. The assembled guests who occu- 
 pied the seats on the observation stand then heard 
 him deliver impressively the Lord's prayer : — 
 
 Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed 
 be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will 
 be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give 
 us this day our daily bread; and forgive 
 us our trespasses, as we forgive those who 
 trespass against us. And lead us not into 
 temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen. 
 
ADDRESS BY MR. JEROME JONES. 
 
 Mr. Jerome Jones for the committee said: — 
 We have assembled here to-day to dedicate 
 a memorial to a distinguished citizen of Boston. 
 Little more than three years ago we were 
 startled by the intelligence that Patrick A. 
 Collins, Mayor of Boston, had passed away. 
 The impulse was spontaneous and wide-spread 
 that something more than the usual marks of 
 sorrow should bear witness to our affection for 
 him. At a meeting of those who had known 
 him best a committee was appointed to con- 
 sider what form a memorial should take, and 
 to provide means for its erection. In less than 
 one month the voluntary offerings of more than 
 five hundred of his friends had amounted to 
 nearly thirty thousand dollars. 
 
 The career of the subject of this outburst 
 of popular affection had appealed in no ordi- 
 nary degree to the interest of his fellow-citizens. 
 A poor immigrant boy, working at manual 
 labor, by dint of industry, faithfulness, alert- 
 ness, and square dealing, had risen to a high 
 place in his profession, and had won conspicu- 
 ous honors in the service of the public. These 
 are too well known to need recital here. They 
 have become a part of the cherished history 
 of this community. 
 
 His likeness in enduring bronze, soon to be 
 unveiled to your view, with the monument of 
 which it is a part, would fail of its real purpose, 
 were it merely to mark our grief at a personal 
 loss or even to express our sense of Boston's 
 obligation to a distinguished public servant. 
 
10 
 
 This i_tz:;::^. *_d ..:: ::::" : d: _t: rdrssdr-r 
 than this. It should speak to the generations 
 of Boston of the future, children as they will 
 be of every race and f ait_ »ound in n 
 
 cases by the comradeship of poverty and of toil, 
 telling them, as they rise in their long line, that 
 here is a land of opportunity, where indv 
 and faithfulness and honor may win their de- 
 served rewards. Tin memorial will become 
 in a larger sense a monumen: American 
 
 opporbi: ance that is here held 
 
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 manfully to life's work and life's dut 
 
 The subject of this memorial learned a trade. 
 He id: t _.i_-t d .-: .„ £:•?:. He then prepared 
 himself by study and effort for usefulness in a 
 wider field. Daniel Webster's allusion to the 
 crowds at the bottom of the ladder and the 
 
 strikingly exemplified than in the career of 
 Patrick A. Collins. While doing his work 
 
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 self ready to stand securely on the rungs which 
 
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 a£ d e light Id all who came in contact with him: 
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SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE BY MAYOR 
 HIBBARD. 
 
 To the formal presentation the mayor replied : 
 This memorial is intended to serve as a last- 
 ing tribute to Patrick A. Collins, always regarded 
 as an example of the highest type of our citi- 
 zenship. A man of the strictest integrity, his 
 public activities throughout his career were 
 actuated by the highest ideals. Thoughtless of 
 self, but ever mindful of the welfare of others, 
 — his character at all times unsullied, — his capa- 
 bilities and virtues were recognized and appre- 
 ciated, not only by this country, but by the 
 governments and people of other lands. 
 
 I cannot express in any more forcible or 
 direct manner my appreciation of his high 
 and conspicuous Americanism or his lofty pa- 
 triotism than by quoting this excerpt from one 
 of his notable addresses: "I kneel at the altar 
 of my fathers, and I love the land of my birth, 
 but in American politics I know neither color, 
 race, nor creed. Let me say here and now that 
 there are no Irish voters among us. There are 
 Irish-born citizens, like myself, and there will 
 be many more of us, but the moment the seal 
 of the court was impressed upon our papers 
 we ceased to be foreigners and became Ameri- 
 cans. Americans we are, Americans we will 
 remain, and your children, native-born men, 
 and mine, I trust, will live together in amity and 
 peace in this great and free country as Ameri- 
 cans. In this lies the safety of our institutions, 
 in this is the guarantee of the Union." 
 
12 
 
 I am deeply gratified that, as mayor of the 
 city of Boston, I have the opportunity to accept 
 this tribute to his memory. The inscription 
 upon it portrays the broadness and liberality 
 of the man, and the municipality is grateful to 
 the donors. It shall be the duty and the pleas- 
 ure of the citizens to preserve the memorial 
 in perpetuity. 
 
 Owing to the inclemency of the weather, the 
 committee decided to hold the further exercises 
 incident to the dedication in the ball-room of the 
 Hotel Somerset, and thither the guests went, 
 on invitation. On a raised platform were 
 seated the living former mayors of the city and 
 all persons having part in the exercises. When 
 all were seated, Chairman Jones introduced the 
 Hon, John D. Long, who delivered the formal 
 address. 
 
EX-GOYERXOR LONG'S ADDRESS. 
 
 It is not the discharge of a perfunctory duty, 
 but a labor of love, to take my part in this tribute 
 to Patrick Andrew Collins. With you who 
 knew him well, and to whom he is still a warm, 
 living personality, I delight to join in putting 
 in permanent place in the heart of the city 
 which honored him and which he honored this 
 lifelike counterfeit of his face. With you I 
 vividly recall his generous eloquence, his spark- 
 ling and kindly wit, his magnanimous spirit, his 
 embodied integrity of mind and heart. 
 
 Some one of our talented representatives of 
 his fellow Irish blood would more eloquently 
 
 Eortray his life and character, as Mr. Curran 
 as so admirably written his biography. But 
 I am here because to those in charge it has 
 seemed fitting that the word of this occasion 
 should be spoken by one of that stock which is 
 indebted to him for so handsomely promoting 
 in our social and political life the assimilation 
 with that stock of his own. Erin and Columbia 
 ioin in this tribute as in vonder statuarv crroup 
 they support mm, one on either side. 
 
 That word, heartfelt, if meagre, I speak 
 as his friend countryman and lover. And 
 I speak it for the Puritan and Pilgrim as well 
 as for his own and every other nationality* whose 
 blood has mingled with theirs and his. And 
 I speak it to you who represent all these inter- 
 woven fibres of our present cosmopolitan citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 We are erecting a memorial not to a famous 
 man of past time who has become a historic 
 
14 
 
 figure and only whose historic characteristics 
 have filtered down to us, — a distillation of un- 
 mixed virtues rather than a personality of flesh 
 and blood, — but to one who was our recent 
 contemporary and who, active in our chief 
 municipal office, his voice ringing in the very 
 front of the conflicts of the time, his counsel 
 sought, his service invaluable, was cut off in 
 his prime, the touch of his hand still lingering 
 in ours. No need to draw, for your own con- 
 sciousness at once paints upon your mind's 
 eye, the picture of the man, the tall, easy- 
 swinging figure, the attractive kindly intelligent 
 mobile face, the responsive smile, the swift apt 
 repartee, the cordial manner. 
 
 It is this that gives a special charm to the 
 tribute we now pay him. Our city is rich in its 
 statues of its great ones. Among them are 
 statesmen, soldiers, reformers, philanthropists, 
 scholars, some of them undoubtedly superior 
 to him in permanent fame, in conspicuousness 
 of service, and in lasting influence. But at 
 sight of which of them, as we gaze at the like- 
 ness, so quickly springs from the heart the 
 smile or tear of responsive comradeship ? 
 
 It is a good feature in our modern life that the 
 personal memorial is so frequent, — such as that 
 most impressive and beautiful figure of the shel- 
 tering angel of death, the handiwork of the 
 foremost of American sculptors, at the grave of 
 the wife of a private citizen; or the published 
 volume of the life of the woman who, as head 
 of a great female college, gave it larger distinc- 
 tion and range, but who also gave to her home, 
 from the heart of which the volume came, the 
 benediction of paradise. It is a peculiar de- 
 
15 
 
 light of this occasion that we blend the personal 
 and public recognition of one who adorned 
 private and public life, and who at once won 
 the confidence of the people he served and the 
 love of the hosts of friends he made. 
 
 It seems to me, contrary to the conventional 
 notion, that the dominant chord in the life of 
 Collins is that of good fortune, — fortunate in 
 the stock from which he came, in the island of 
 his birth, in the gifts of nature's bestowal, in 
 his education, and in the circumstances which, 
 under a seemingly frowning providence, hid 
 the smiling faces of good angels who hovered 
 about him and guided his footsteps. To be 
 born an Irishman is to inherit the daring spirit 
 inspired by centuries of resistance to political 
 and religious oppression, by the heroisms of 
 a subject but stubbornly resisting race, and 
 by the traditions which associate every inch 
 of native soil with legend and story of adventure 
 and brave deeds. It is to inherit the contagious 
 ardor that springs from the undaunted uprising 
 out of the bitterness of defeat as well as out 
 of the glory of victory, and from the song of the 
 native poet, the eloquence of the orator, the 
 intense passion of the patriot, and the height of 
 religious and national enthusiasm. 
 
 The sorrows of Ireland, the very essence of 
 pathos, yet infused with the vivacity, the quick 
 wit, the shrewdness, and cheery humor of the 
 race, have made it to its children a land of inspi- 
 ration and eager hope. Was there ever a more 
 impassioned loyalty to mother land i Its states- 
 men, orators, soldiers, devotees, priests, poets, 
 and writers, more often than otherwise serving 
 and illumining other lands than their own, have 
 
16 
 
 enrolled their names on the upper scrolls of 
 fame. Its natural beauties, from which so 
 many a worthy son has been exiled, have never 
 lost their hold on his memory or his dreams. 
 Who does not know that exquisite description 
 by Macaulay of picturesque Kerry, within fifty 
 miles of which Collins was born, — "the most 
 beautiful tract in the British Isles, — the moun- 
 tains, the glens, the capes, stretching far into the 
 Atlantic, the crags on which the eagles build, 
 the rivers brawling down rocky passes, the 
 lakes overhung by groves in which the wild 
 deer find covert. On the rare days when the 
 sun shines out in all his glory the landscape has 
 a freshness and a warmth of coloring seldom 
 found in our latitude. The myrtle loves the 
 soil. The arbutus thrives better than even on 
 the sunny shore of Calabria. The turf is of 
 a livelier hue than elsewhere; the hills glow 
 with a richer purple; the varnish of the holly 
 and ivy is more glossy; and berries of a brighter 
 red peep through foliage of a brighter green." 
 
 To say, then, of Collins that he had the gifts 
 of his race and of his native isle is to attribute 
 to him some of the most charming and brilliant 
 qualities of human nature. It is to associate 
 him with the romantic legends of the days 
 "when the O'Neils and O'Donnells were inde- 
 pendent princes," with the exquisite sentiment 
 and humor of Goldsmith, the luminous elo- 
 quence of Burke, the splendid heroism of 
 Sarsfield, the tuneful verse of Moore, the pathos 
 of Emmet, the devotion of Father Mathew — 
 but why count all the sparkling jewels of the 
 diadem! Other lands have as great treasures 
 of glorious names and memories; but with 
 
17 
 
 Ireland, perhaps owing to the very sorrows 
 and afflictions which for so many years either 
 drove her sons into exile or repressed them at 
 home, her inspirations have seemed to intensify 
 themselves into the spirit and culture of her 
 children as have those of no other land. How 
 many examples of this come to our minds! — 
 none more striking than Collins whom we honor 
 to-day. And let me not forget his especially 
 chosen and close confreres whose symposiums 
 with him are already among our local traditions, 
 O'Reilly and Roche and Gargan, the turf above 
 two of whom has for many months been green 
 and above the other has just been watered 
 with our tears. 
 
 Of such stuff as this surely must have been 
 the angels that ministered at the birth of Collins ; 
 and fitting it was that in his humble native 
 Irish cot in Ballanafauna, ere yet his lips could 
 lisp in numbers, the great orator Daniel O'Con- 
 nell laid the benediction of his hand upon the 
 boy's head, predicting his rise to fame and 
 dedicating his life to public service. May not 
 at the same time the electric spark of that 
 eloquent tongue have flashed into the boy's 
 soul and charged it full! 
 
 In 1848, at four years of age, Collins was an 
 immigrant to this country from Ireland. His 
 father, an Irish tenant farmer under the depres- 
 sion of the Irish landlord system, had died the 
 year before and left his family in poverty. It 
 was the year of the famine which, robbing the 
 Irishman of his potato, robbed him of all he had 
 of his own in this world's goods. The father 
 was a man of strong natural parts, with a schol- 
 arly bent that found expression in fugitive 
 
18 
 
 verse. He was of that class of men of more than 
 ordinary natural abilities, industry, thrift, and 
 force, an exodus of whom the famine of that 
 year sent to our shores. In their earnestness, 
 their loyalty to their religious faith, their en- 
 durance and toil, their neighborly allegiance 
 to one another, they were not unlike our Puritan 
 ancestors, whose immigration two centuries 
 earlier was also prompted by discontent with 
 conditions in the mother land. Their strongly 
 marked Celtic faces, many of which I recall 
 and have known as types which the sculptor 
 would choose, indicated their natural strength 
 of character, needing only education and oppor- 
 tunity. Deprived at home of ownership in the 
 soil, they here seemed to seek, first of all, each 
 his own house and lot of land. They worked 
 hard wherever work was to be had, but the 
 benefit of their labor was now their own. With 
 careful economy and great thrift they added 
 slowly but surely to the acquisition of property 
 which was at last theirs in their own right. 
 They were proudly self-supporting, and the 
 beggar or the pauper was not among them. 
 So they became an added rock for the security 
 of property, not to be carried away by any craze 
 for the disorganization of society or led astray 
 by the frenzies of the fanatic or irresponsible 
 agitator. 
 
 The young Irish-American of this generation, 
 full-fledged for all the flights of American politics, 
 profession, and business, will do well if he main- 
 tains the standard of the honest thrift and faith- 
 ful service of the immigrants of 1847. Above 
 all their domestic and family relations are worthy 
 of all praise. These were strengthened by 
 
19 
 
 their religious obligations and their unswerving 
 allegiance to their Church. Few men have less 
 sympathy than I have with the claims of 
 ecclesiastical infallibility and domination. I 
 have the Puritan's disrelish for religious forms 
 and ceremonies and the radical's instinctive 
 refusal of the miraculous and supernatural. 
 But I acknowledge with grateful and swift 
 appreciation the tremendous influence of the 
 Catholic Church for good in our social life. How 
 it ignores all distinctions among its worshippers 
 and puts them all on the level of a common 
 equality before the altar of their faith! What 
 was a king's crown to Becket? How it holds 
 its people in loyalty to its standards! Nothing 
 is more striking than its fruit in the purity and 
 devotion of the family circle. For generations 
 the Catholic woman and wife in our country 
 has been an example of fidelity, whether in the 
 service of others or in the thrifty and indus- 
 trious administration of her own household. 
 Her daughters in turn she has trained in good 
 morals and useful labor. Indeed, she deserves 
 the crown of womanly purity and service. 
 
 Such were the men and women from whom 
 Collins came. Of that stamp was his widowed 
 mother, who, a pilgrim on "the bleak New Eng- 
 land shore," sought for her little ones the bless- 
 ings of a land of freedom, and for their sake 
 dared and bore all the privations and hard- 
 ships of her scanty lot. Hers were the true 
 mother's sacrifice and lifelong devotion. And 
 did she not have her proud reward? And 
 his were the true son's love and appreciation to 
 the last. 
 
 If I have dwelt at length on these things, 
 
21 
 
 working in fields and coal mines, driving a 
 market wagon and running an engine and other 
 machinery. Fancy what spirit meantime burned 
 within the boy's heart, what dreams were there! 
 At the end of the two years, in 1S.59. the family 
 came back to Boston. And. now a full adult, 
 he found more permanent employment as an 
 apprentice in a leading upholstery shop, of 
 which four years later, at nineteen, he became 
 foreman. He lived in South Boston, walking 
 to and fro. He was a charter member of the 
 upholsterers' union. Already his interests were 
 expanding, putting out their roots and feelers 
 into all that environed him. The opportunities 
 of his scanty leisure, sometimes robbed from 
 sleep, were neither wasted nor neglected. He 
 attended evening schools or spent his evenings 
 in the public library. His reading there was 
 wide range, ancient and modern history, the 
 standard novels, the best essayists and poets, — 
 all the best of these. He read as wisely and 
 as well as if directed by a college instructor, 
 enriching his mind with literary treasures from 
 which in after-life he eloquently drew, and which, 
 gathered in his ampler days into a generous li- 
 brary of his own. were his oft-sought and un- 
 failing refreshment and delight. 
 
 Meanwhile he was. of course, full of ardor 
 in the cause, which was then of acute interest, 
 of his native land. He was in intense sym- 
 pathy with its advocates in America and Ireland. 
 He joined its organizations, but his good sense 
 led him to insist on keeping the Irish issue out 
 of American politics. He made public addresses 
 and wrote articles for publication, and was fast 
 establishing a local reputation for clear, cogent 
 
22 
 
 reasoning and expression and for a style direct, 
 eloquent, and as free from grandiloquence or 
 floridity as if, again, he had been under college 
 instruction. Already it was evident that his 
 true vocation was in the line of a profession 
 opening into the channels of public service. 
 At twenty-three he was an educated man. 
 The mechanic's toil, the evening school, the 
 curriculum of the public library, the immediate 
 close touch with the people, and their quick 
 responsive recognition of this bright, eager 
 spirit who was of them and who shared their 
 sympathies, — all these assured his rise as no 
 college degree could have done. Education 
 is the same, whatever the channel through which 
 it comes; and it came to him free and full 
 through the institutions and the atmosphere 
 of the city which he lived to repay and to honor. 
 Landing on our shores a child, all the best op- 
 portunities of American life had opened at once 
 wide before him; and he seized them. What 
 a lesson to all young men in humble circum- 
 stances! What seems so exceptional in the 
 pathway of his career is really only the ordinary 
 and natural pathway that is open to any who 
 will walk in it, — not always to the same goal, 
 but always to equal rewards of self-respect 
 and faithful service. The exceptional thing 
 in him is that he was wise enough to choose the 
 right path. I am right in saying that his was 
 from the first a fortunate career, but it was so 
 because, like Lincoln, he improved the means 
 to make it so. 
 
 He now in 1867, at twenty-three, began the 
 study of the law and at the same time began 
 his public political career. What more natural 
 
23 
 
 than that this gifted young man, attending a 
 caucus of the Democratic party, better educated 
 than most men, his self -earned culture already 
 recognized among his associates, should be asked 
 to address the meeting ! What more natural than 
 that, under the impression made by him, he should 
 on the spot be chosen a delegate to the State 
 Convention of the party and a few months later 
 elected a representative to the General Court! 
 In that capacity he served two years, and then 
 served the next two years in the Senate, "the 
 youngest man," says Mr. Curran, "that ever 
 donned the senatorial toga in Massachusetts." 
 Point me in all the annals of the Common- 
 wealth to a more fortunate start for a young 
 man in public life. To what college graduate 
 has come so speedy an opening? 
 
 Of course, his foot was now on the ladder, 
 not by any means on the lowest round, and his 
 rise was assured. His legislative record had 
 been one of liberal and efficient service, espe- 
 cially in the removal of sectarian limitations 
 upon civil rights and in the development of 
 the commercial interests of the harbor of Boston. 
 And his reputation as a clear, eloquent, forci- 
 ble speaker was established. 
 
 At the end of his senatorial term in 1871, 
 at twenty-seven years of age, he opened his law 
 office. His capital in his new vocation was no 
 heritage of wealth, no potent array of corporate 
 or social influences, — as indeed these have rarely 
 been the capital of the successful lawyer, — ■ 
 but an alert, cultured mind, an unblemished 
 reputation for personal worth, the prestige of 
 honorable political service, the confidence of 
 the plain people who knew him, the courage of his 
 
24 
 
 convictions, and, above all, a consciousness of 
 that combination of talent with common sense 
 and honesty which is the best working genius. 
 
 Practice soon came, and from small begin- 
 nings rose to large and remunerative returns. 
 Had he devoted himself to it exclusively, and not 
 been drawn from it by the demands of a more 
 public career, he would have had not only the 
 living lawyer's eminence, but also, alas! the 
 dead lawyer's oblivion. The law is a jealous 
 mistress, and his political service compelled 
 him to be away long and often from her side. 
 In view of this it is the more striking that he 
 should have attained and held a place at the 
 bar among those of the legal profession whose 
 names are quickest recognized when the roll 
 of honor is called. 
 
 Not often at a meeting of the bar in com- 
 memoration of its dead members have more 
 earnest and appreciative tributes been heard 
 than at that for him. He practised in all our 
 courts. He was especially apt and strong 
 before juries. He was always in demand at 
 hearings before legislative committees. And 
 need I say that he was beloved by his fellow- 
 lawyers ? They cannot speak of him without 
 recalling his winning and lovable personality. 
 
 But his chief fame is in his more public 
 career. Almost continually an executive officer 
 and leader in the councils and organizations 
 of the Democratic party, member of each branch 
 of the General Court of Massachusetts, member 
 of Congress, president of the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention at St. Louis in 1888, consul- 
 general to London, mayor of Boston at which 
 post he died, and a familiar figure on the plat- 
 
25 
 
 form in political campaigns and at banquets, 
 public meetings, and receptions to distinguished 
 guests and indeed on all civic and institutional 
 occasions, he became the most prominent man 
 of his race in New England, if not indeed in 
 the United States. Before he was thirty, he was 
 chairman of the Democratic City Committee of 
 Boston. He was an efficient speaker on the 
 stump in 1874 in the election of Governor 
 Gaston, who put him on the gubernatorial mili- 
 tary staff as Judge Advocate General with the 
 title of General. It was a title, however, which, 
 with no taste for sounding military titles in 
 piping times of peace, he never relished. In 
 the presidential campaign of 1876 he was an 
 earnest advocate of Tilden, not only at home, 
 but in the Middle and Western States, winning 
 increased reputation for convincing eloquence. 
 
 The defeat of his candidate gave him a respite 
 from political service, which he improved by 
 a visit to Ireland, whose cause was always dear 
 to him. Parnell, then its leader, had recently 
 been in America, where the famous Land League 
 had been formed and Collins made its first 
 president. For months, speaking in all our 
 large cities, he had devoted himself to its ad- 
 vancement and to the work of raising hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars to be sent to Ireland. As 
 might have been expected, therefore, on his ar- 
 rival there his welcome was heartily enthusi- 
 astic, distinguished by the gift of the freedom 
 of the city of Dublin and a municipal banquet. 
 But his devotion to that cause never blinded 
 him to fair play. When Cavendish and Burke 
 were foully assassinated in the public park in 
 Dublin, Collins, then in Boston, presided at a 
 
26 
 
 meeting in Fanenil Hall, and denounced in no 
 uncertain terms "the miscreants," as he called 
 them, who had brought discredit on the cause 
 he held dear. 
 
 He was a member of Congress from the 
 Boston district for three terms, from 1883 to 1889. 
 His election, like all his elections to public 
 office before and afterwards, came to him, not at 
 his own solicitation or seeking, but at the 
 demand of party constituencies, which, because 
 of their recognition of his merit, fitness, and 
 ability, solicited and sought him as their best 
 and strongest man. There could perhaps be 
 no better test than this of his superiority and 
 of the qualities which to-day make us single 
 him out for an honor which is paid only to 
 the greater lights. I have an impression that 
 he was ambitious for the culture of a full 
 life rather than for place; that the former 
 he sought through books, companionships, or- 
 atory; that the latter came to him without his 
 seeking, and that its exactions and routine, 
 while faithfully met, were not altogether to 
 his taste. 
 
 While in Congress, he served on the Judi- 
 ciary Committee, its legal atmosphere being 
 especially agreeable to him. He was largely 
 interested in all questions that affected the com- 
 mercial interests of Boston. He was charged 
 with the passage through the House of the 
 bankruptcy bill, which he was one of the fore- 
 most in preparing. He spoke rarely on the 
 floor, but always with effect. He took no part 
 in the running of partisan parliamentary ma- 
 chinery. He was, as with his genial and com- 
 panionable habit he could not help being, 
 
27 
 
 popular with both sides, and was held in high 
 esteem. It was during this service that he so 
 emphatically rebuked the overzealous or under- 
 honest representative of certain interests who 
 offered him a large sum of money because, 
 unconscious of them and actuated only by his 
 own convictions, he had effectively advocated 
 some bill by which they benefited. He could 
 not be paid more than he could be purchased 
 in the line of his duty. Creditable as was his 
 Congressional career, it had little charm for 
 him. He declined a fourth election, and moved 
 out of his constituent district to avoid it. 
 
 And yet, though returning to legal practice 
 from which came his support, he could not 
 help being for the remainder of his life a public 
 man. The demand upon him was irresistible. 
 He continued to be, as he had been, in the van 
 of his party year after year. In the presidential 
 campaign of 1884 there was no more effective 
 speaker on the Democratic stump than he. 
 Mr. Blaine's hold on what was called the Irish 
 vote was strong. Some influential leaders and 
 newspapers of that complexion were earnestly 
 for him. It is not too much to say that Collins 
 by a masterly and most effective speech at 
 Albany, directed to that element, turned the 
 tide, and turned it so far that the election of his 
 candidate, Mr. Cleveland, was thereby as- 
 sured. If any one man elected Cleveland, it 
 was Collins. From that time on he was in 
 demand in all the doubtful States. 
 
 If he was not given a seat in Cleveland's 
 cabinet as the representative of New England, 
 it was not because he had not earned that dis- 
 tinction, but probably because of some political 
 
28 
 
 exigency in the political situation; for Presi- 
 dent Cleveland fully appreciated his deserts 
 and capabilities, and the relations between 
 them were always those of cordial mutual 
 esteem and regard. In evidence of this Cleve- 
 land, after his second election in 1892, gave 
 one of the most lucrative and sought-for posi- 
 tions in his gift to Collins, appointing him consul- 
 general at London. Something of poetic in- 
 terest attaches itself to the thought of this poor 
 peasant boy, driven from his native isle by gov- 
 ernmental oppression, now in his prime return- 
 ing to it a distinguished citizen of the United 
 States and its honored consular representative 
 at the great capital of the British Empire under 
 whose allegiance he was born. It is to the 
 honor of that empire that its government gave 
 him cordial reception, with no reservation be- 
 cause of his lifelong and conspicuous associa- 
 tion with the elements that had so persistently 
 sought from England more generous recogni- 
 tion of Irish rights. For four years he was at 
 this post, the recipient of manifold courtesies 
 and commanding in the discharge of his duties 
 the approval of his countrymen at home and 
 abroad and of the authorities to whom he was 
 accredited. 
 
 It was a natural sequence that, after his return, 
 he should be the choice of his party for Mayor 
 of Boston. Defeated in 1899, he was elected 
 to that biennial office in 1901 and again in 
 1903, holding it at the time of his death. He 
 entered upon its duties with high purpose, with 
 an earnest zeal for the honor and credit of the 
 city, and with an especial ambition to save it 
 from those inroads of extravagance and plunder, 
 
29 
 
 those raids upon the public treasury, and those 
 attempts to secure selfish privilege and franchise, 
 which are the bane of American municipalities 
 and the cure of which is the crying problem of 
 the day. Reform in these lines is slow and hard, 
 but in his honesty and integrity there was every- 
 where confidence, and these were the bulwarks he 
 opposed to every flagrant or insidious foe to the 
 good name or material interest of the city. 
 
 But they were not a bulwark against the 
 inroads of a life of incessant wear and tear in 
 
 Sublic service upon his physical constitution, 
 [e had sought a brief period of recuperation at 
 Hot Springs, Virginia. There suddenly the 
 angel of death stood at his side bringing rest, 
 and he died September 14, 1905. The sorrow 
 was universal. A hundred thousand people 
 thronged the streets of Boston at his funeral. 
 From all parts of the country and from the 
 island of his birth came messages of apprecia- 
 tion. The press, without distinction of party, 
 paid him warm tributes. The Suffolk bar met 
 in his honor. Boston had a memorial service. 
 A fund, contributed by hundreds of citizens, 
 representing all parties, races, professions, and 
 business interests, was raised to erect this per- 
 manent memorial which we unveil to-day. 
 
 I have detailed, in brief and lacking outline, 
 the record of his public service. But that record, 
 even were it complete, would be only a skeleton, 
 — the dry bones. It is the heart within, it is 
 the man himself, the warm blood coursing in his 
 veins, wit sparkling in his eye, his lips speaking, 
 — it is these that I would recall now as when I 
 began. What a copious nature it was! He 
 was a magnanimous man. Malice was not in 
 
30 
 
 him. He fought hard, but he fought fair. He 
 did not strike below the belt. We who differed 
 from him knew him for a dangerous but always 
 an honorable foe. His mind was large and 
 liberal. His outlook was broad and generous. 
 Devoted to the religious faith of his fathers, 
 fervently devoted to the cause of Erin, he was 
 outspoken in his demand that neither should 
 stand in the way of the political duties and obli- 
 gations of American citizenship. 
 
 A son of toil, his youth spent in manual work, 
 early a charter member of a labor organization, 
 he yet recognized the rights of both capital and 
 labor. In the conflicts between them which 
 seem to grow more acute the more prosperous 
 each becomes, how invaluable would be now 
 and in the near years to come his counsel and 
 his influence! As a leader in one of our great 
 political parties, how invaluable in keeping its 
 rudder true! As a citizen, how invaluable in 
 the tremendous problem of preserving the bal- 
 ance between progress and conservatism! With 
 the immense inflow of elements from abroad 
 which have not been trained in our conventional 
 and old-time political and social system, we 
 look to his race, with its instinctive drift into 
 politics, its loyalty to ecclesiastical authority, 
 its thrift and material holdings, and its conse- 
 quent direct interest in the security and stability 
 of property and social order, as now, and here- 
 after to be still more, one of our great conserva- 
 tive forces. Would he were still living to em- 
 body and enforce its influence! 
 
 As head of a family, loyal son, devoted hus- 
 band and father, where is there a sweeter pict- 
 ure or a better example of domestic life ? What 
 
31 
 
 wonder that whether in Washington or London, 
 his heart turned to the Massachusetts fireside, 
 and that no official honor, no triumph of the 
 forum, no plaudit of delighted audiences, sup- 
 planted the charm of home, the voices of wife and 
 children, the serene companionship of his books ! 
 
 It was indeed a copious, a sweet, genial nature. 
 The sunshine ran through it. Some of his bright 
 sayings are as familiar among us as household 
 words. Rising sometimes to the height of the 
 orator, always through his speech played the 
 lambent glow of kindly humor. It was a pleas- 
 ure to meet him, to clasp hands with him, to 
 exchange with him the passing word. And, 
 after all, in this brotherly intercourse of ours, 
 well as we think we know one another, how 
 much more than these fleeting intercommunica- 
 tions do we get ? 
 
 But this was not all. Underneath were the 
 structural honesty and integrity of the man. 
 He was worthy of the trusts reposed in him. 
 No evil was in his thought. He was an honor 
 to his native Ireland, the welfare of which was 
 close to his heart. He was a loyal citizen and 
 servant of our Commonwealth which he made 
 his home, and of the nation which he made his 
 own. He is an example to every aspiring young 
 man, whatever his race or circumstances, of 
 the value and fruit of an honest and true and 
 therefore of a happy life. 
 
 "Far may we search before we find 
 A heart so manly and so kind." 
 
 Green as the Emerald Isle forever be the turf 
 of Massachusetts above him! 
 

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