|.4,J |. -4 I' i-l-- (H» F73-26 QI5 ^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^KPP EAmmmmmifUmimmiiimm^yms.mjiii^H'ifjMffjiffffy^^^ Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 witii funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/orationdelivered1885garg ORATIOi^ DELIVERED BEFORE THE lil^ iountil m\h §iimm nl Jnslon^ ONE HUNDRED AND NINTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLA- RATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, JULY 4, 1885, THOMAS J. GARGA:Nr. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. MDCOCLXXXV. CHURCH ILL* BOSTON. 3805 CITY OF bosto:n^. In Board of Aldermen, July 6, 1885, Resolved, That the thanks of the Cit}' Council are due and are hereby tendered to Thomas J. Gargan, Esq., for his able, interesting, and eloquent Oration on the occasion of the one hundred and ninth anniversary of American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for publication. Passed. Sent down for concurrence. August 27, came up concurred. Approved by the Mayor, September 2, 1885. A true copy. Attest : " AUG. N. SAMPSON, ORATION. Mr. Mayor and Fellow- Citizens of Boston : — One hundred and nine years ago this morning George the Third was King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Colonies in North America; yet, before the setting of the sun on that day the fairest portion of his JN^orth Ameri- can colonists had forsworn their allegiance, and declared their independence. That proclamation of independence they made good by seven long and painful years of unequal war. We rejoice and congratulate each other that we have lived to see the auspicious opening of another Independence Day. The large audience assembled here; the multitudes that have suspended their ordinary labors and fill the streets of this great city, and of every city, town, and hamlet in the several States and territories of the Union; the thousands of faces aglow with joy and sympathy, — attest and proclaim that the day and the events which it commemorates have left a deep impression in our hearts, and that this generation of Americans 6 ORATION. has not forgotten the teachings of the fathers. It is fitting and appropriate that, on the anni- versary of such a memorable day in our annals, we should indulge somewhat in retrospection. The English-speaking people have had two great epochs in their history which materially affected their liberties, — not only their liberties, but the liberties and governments of the civilized world. The first epoch was in the early part of the thirteenth century, when the barons of England determined to resist the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and the assumption that the king could do no wrong. Several conferences had been held with King John, and finally the barons assembled at Saint Paul's, in London, where Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter- bury, who had been appointed by the pope to that see, despite the opposition of the king, called them to order, and read to them, and commented upon the provisions of the Great Charter of England. They answered by loud acclamations of approval, and Langton admin- istered the oath by which they bound themselves to each other "To conquer or die in defence of their liberties." The terms of the charter were at first indignantly refused by King John. He JULY4,1885. 7 exclaimed, after hearing it read, " They might as well have demanded my crown. " But the assemblage at Stamford, in Easter week of the year 1215 of the barons, and two thousand knights, their esquires and followers, with Robert Fitzwalter at their head, and the march to and occupation of London by the barons, brought the king to a sense of the real condition of existing affairs, and a time and place were ap- pointed for a conference. At Runnymede the king met the barons. On one side stood Fitzwalter arid the majority of the barons and nobility of England ; on the other side the king, and eight bishops and fifteen gentlemen, as his trusty advisers ; and there the king most unwillingly signed the great charter of English liberties, — signed for you and for me and for all men. Those liberties are now the common property of all nations. The charter provided that the subject should be secure in his person, liberty, and property; that he should not be deprived of either without due process of law; that the courts should no longer follow the person of the king, but be held in some certain place ; confirmed to all cities, boroughs, and towns the enjoyment of their ancient liberties according to the terms of 8 ORATION. their charters, and reaffirmed the right of trial by jury. Looking down six centuries of time, enjoying as we do the full blessings of liberty, we can appreciate the importance of that day's meeting at Runnymede. There not only King John, but all kings were, for the first time, de- feated by the people ; there the first real battle was fought; there the first real victory won. The principles embodied in the charter were not new. The English people were simply demanding that the king should observe the prerogatives of the fathers which a succession of kings had gradually usurped. Though the charter had been signed, the battle was not ended. It was not supposed that its terms would be cheerfully observed by King John, who believed that it had been wrung from him by force. Yet he was too diplomatic to show his displeasure openly; and, while he appeared to conform, he secretly intrigued and endeavored to nullify the provisions of the charter. ]^or were his successors any the less tenacious of what they considered their kingly rights. It required no less than thirty-eight successive rati- fications to give the provisions of the charter the full force and efiect of law. But the people deeming therein was the expression of their just JULY 4, 1885. 9 rights the great charter prevailed, and was the precursoi* of the American Dechiration of Inde- pendence, which marked the second great epoch in the history of EngHsh-speaking people. As the great charter was the dawn, so the Declara- tion was the full noon of Liberty's day. From Runnymede to Philadelphia was five and a half centuries, — centuries full of toil and trouble and battle for the right. Every privilege which we enjoy has been obtained by strife. The strife and battles are not equally distributed. One generation battles through all its life for a prin- ciple; the next enjoys the fruits of the battles in peace, and too often undervalues the sacrifices of its predecessors. So, during those centuries, in England there were alternate periods of battle and peace to preserve and maintain the great charter, and to acquire the still further right of the people to assemble in parliament and make their own laws. One of the advantages which accrued from the ]^rorman conquest was the insistance of the right of local self-government, which the JNTormans brought from home, and to which they clung with great tenacity. That custom was, after the last mass on Sunday, and the congregation were dis- missed from religious service, to assemble on the 10 ORATION. common or green in front of the church, and discuss the questions of new roads, local rates, and taxes, and all matters appertaining to the material welfare of the people of the parish. Here we find the first trace of that democratic institution which spread through many parts of England, and which the colonists brought over with them to Massachusetts, and which was the origin of, and is known in our day as, the l^ew England town-meeting. The Massachusetts Bay colonists modified the ]^orman town-meeting to this extent: they attemjited to establish a kind of theocracy, — a government of Church and State. In the Plymouth colony, as a condition of receiv- ing the franchise, the candidate must have been of "sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion." The govern- ment was a strange admixture of the Old and the l^ew Testament, and a combination of the Hebrew and the English common law. But the later colonists brought with them substantially the government by town-meeting, — the germ of our whole system of democratic government. The events which led uj^ to the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence have been so often repeated by the great orators JULY 4, 1885. 11 of the Republic, — and great they were; our poets have sung of them in majestic verse; our writers have lovingly given us all the details and the inner hves of the principal actors in that great dramatic epoch of our history : so, on each re- curring Fourth day of July, the story has for us a new interest, a fresh charm. We see, as it were, before us, in imagination, the 'New England colonists landing at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay; the men from the north of Ireland peo- pling I^ew Hampshire; the Quakers at Pennsyl- vania; Lord Baltimore and his English and Irish Catholic colony at Maryland; the Cavaliers in Vir- ginia, and the Carolinas and Oglethorpe at Georgia, — all brave, sturdy men, planting colonies that con- tinued to grow and flourish despite the indifierence and neglect of the English government. " Owing her nothing, but through a wise and salutary neglect generous nature was suffered to take her own way to perfection." We see on the north and west the efforts of France to establish a new empire along the St. Lawrence and the great lakes; Champlain and Montmorenci, with intrepid courage and daring, by exploration and occupa- tion, extending the boundaries of ^ew France; 12 ORATION. La Salle and Joliet discovering the Mississippi river from the north; and the final efforts of all the French commanders to push eastward the boundaries, until the clash of arms came which ended at Quebec in the death of "Wolf and Montcalm, and forever ended the dream of the empire of ^ew France on the J^Torth American continent. With the peace of Paris the flag of England floated over a vast and princely domain, extend- ing from the frozen north to the Gulf of Mex- ico, from the Atlantic on the east to the Missis- sippi river on the west; yet the Te Deum had been scarcely finished at Saint Paul's, the pealing of the bells or the echoes from the salvoes of artillery at London ceased, in honor of the rati- fication of that treaty, when the king and his ministry began to dismember the empire which had cost them so much of blood and treasure to acquire. In 1763 George III. and his ministers talked of America as the brightest jewel in the British crown. But the Hanoverian King of England still believed with Louis XIY., "I am the State;" and, without examination of the colonial charters, he demanded JULY 4, 1885. 13 that Parliament should tax the colonists for the expenses of the late war; but the king* had yet much to learn of the temper and character of his American subjects. The days of King John and the divine rights of kings had long since vanished. Kumors of the attempted imposition of taxes by the British Parliament had crossed the seas, and early in 1764, at the May town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, before it was known that the stamp act had passed, Samuel Adams read these instructions from Boston to her representatives: " There is no room for delay if taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid. Are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? AVe claim British rights, not by charter only; we are born to them. Use your endeavors that the weight of the other ^orth American colonies may be added to this province, that by united application all may obtain redress." We know how futile were the efforts of the provinces to obtain redress. It did seem, upon the repeal of the stamp act, that the British ministry had a lucid interval, and were preparing to adopt a statesman-like policy. It was a brief interval, indeed, and the breach. 14 ORATION. gradually widened; the British House of Commons refused with scorn even so much as to receive petitions from the colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Carolina, remonstrating against the passage of unjust tax laws. Such being the temper of the British Parliament the colonists had no alternative but resistance. In 1765 the delegates from nine colonies met at 'New York. From South Carolina came the mes- sage: "There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker known on the continent, but all of us Americans." The people did not feel that they were rebelling against authorities or law^; they be- lieved that the crown, the ministry, and the parlia- ment were violating their ancient charters. They w^ere not refusing to pay a just proportion of a war debt; they wanted to assess that debt upon their own people, according to the local laws and usages of the colonies, or to have representation in the general Parliament. The colonists had few friends in England; there were Chatham and Fox,. Col. Barre and Burke, — a brave minority in Par- liament, — who seemed to compi-ehend the gravity of the situation, and the magnitude of the task the king and his ministers had undertaken. In vain did Mr. Burke plead for reconcihation with JULY 4, 1885. 15 America. Addressing the House of Commons he said: "The use of force alone is but temporary; it may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again, and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered." Mr. Burke subsequently moved the resolution, that the colonies ought to have repre- sentation in the High Court of Parliament, and, finding all his efforts voted down, concludes: "I have this comfort, that in every stage of the American affairs I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced the confusion, and may bring on the destruction, of this empire. I have gone so far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my country, I give it to my conscience." The wisest statesman and philosopher of his time, whose fame has outlived that of all his contemporaries, foresaw that war was inevitable if the king and ministry persisted. George IH. was honestly consistent in two things: he cordially hated the Il^orth American colonists and the Cath- olics. Appended to Lord Brougham's "Biographi- cal Sketches of Lord ISTorth" are some autograph notes of the king, which give us an insight to his character. " The times certainly require," 16 ORATION. writes the king, "the concurrence of all who wish to prevent anarchy. I have no wish but the prosperity of my own dominion; therefore I must look upon all who would not heartily assist me as bad men, as well as bad subjects." lie reasons : " I wish nothing but good, therefore every man who does not agree with me is a traitor and a scoundrel." And in this category he placed all his ^orth American colonists, as well as the great author of " Reflections on the Revolution in France." We can see at this dis- tance of time, and in the present light, that reconciliation was impossible. George III. con- sidered himself anointed by a divine commission, therefore his rebellious subjects were to be flogged into submission; and that he had the support of his country is shown by the address in favor of coercing the colonies, which was carried in Parliament by a vote of 304 to 105 in the Commons and by 104 to 29 in the House of Lords. We had as few friends in 1775 in Parliament as we had in the dark days of 1862, when a long list of fifty-one dukes, noble lords, marquises, and members of Parliament subscribed millions of dollars for the bonds of the Southern Confederacy, — that the American idea of govern- JULY4,1885. 17 ment founded upon manhood suffrage might be destroyed. The vote of Parhament meant war, and, as Patrick Henry predicted, " The next breeze from the ^N^orth brought to Virginia the clash of resounding arms." The Continental Congress was called together at Philadelphia. They assembled not m pomp and power, as did the barons at Punnymede; yet were no less determined. Two engagements had been fought during the sitting; the armies were in the field, and many jet hoped for reconciliation. The debates m Congress were upon matters of serious import to the colonies. No wiser, more patri- otic, or braver men were ever gathered together than the men of the Continental Congress. To test the sense of that Congress, on the 7th day of June, 1776, Pichard Henry Lee, of Virginia, arose in his place, and offered this resolution: " Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all alle- giance to the British Crown, and that all politi- ^cal connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved, and that a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies for their 18 ORATION. consideration and approbation." In that resolution was epitomized the Declaration of Independence; it was adopted on the 11th of June, and two committees appointed, — one on the Declaration of Independence, the other to prepare Articles of Union. At the head of the Committee on Declaration was Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, then in his thirty-third year, and the author of the great declaration of the rights of man. On the 28th day of June was achieved the great naval victory over Sir Peter Parker, at Charleston, and on the same day the Committee on the Declaration of Indepen- dence presented its report. As the delegates from Pennsylvania and ]^ew York had not received their powers or instructions to vote for it, action was delayed until the 4th day of July. The vote was by colonies, each colony casting a single vote. It was a long and anxious day, and late in the evening John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, announced that the decla- ration had been carried, and the Fourth of July became forever memorable and glorious in our annals. The 'New York delegation were not authorized to vote for independence until the 9th of July, and did not sign until August JULY 4, 1885. 19 2d. The Pennsylvania vote was by a minority of the v^hole delegation. The doctrine "that all men are created equal, and have certain in- alienable rights," had about it a touch of sub- limity. The doctrine "that government rests upon the consent of the governed" startled all Europe. "Audacious, foolhardy men," exclaim the states- men and philosophers of Europe, " to imagine that a government can be successful where all the people have a voice! Such a doctrine we might expect from the lips of Thomas Jefferson, youth- ful and inexperienced, and tinctured with all the heresies of France, where he so recently so- journed; and that radical Sam Adams, we are not surprised at finding him among the signers of the declaration. But what folly and madness have seized the conservative men of the colonies, that they dare trust their lives and property under such a form of government." At a later period Macaulay prophesied "that soon the poor in the United States, worse than another inroad of Goths and Vandals, would begin a general plunder of the rich." Scholars and pessimists have flouted universal suffrage, and condemned our great charter of the Fourth of July. Car- lyle blasphemously said, " Democracy will prevail 20 ORATION. when men believe the vote of Judas as good as that of his Master." Yet, notwithstanding all these sneers and prophecies, this government has lived one century, and has entered into the second with more strength and vigor than any nation on the globe. Its public credit stands unchal- lenged; it has increased in wealth and population to a marvellous degree. During the first century of its existence it has witnessed the revolution of 1789 in France, the Consulate, the first empire, the Bourbon restora- tion, the destruction of the Bastile, and the revo- lution of 1830, Louis Philippe, and again the rising of " '48," the coup cCetat, the second empire and its fall, the Commune, and the present so-called Republic in France, the Carbonari in Italy, and the revolutions in Germany. And if England has escaped the war and misery of her continental neighbors it is for the reason that her statesmen, profiting by American experience, and noting the progress of events on this side of the Atlantic, have made immense concession to the popular will. Catholic emancipation, the repeal of the corn-laws, the reform act, the dis- establishment of the Irish Church, the doubling of the franchise, and the more recent bill, by JULY 4, 1885. 21 which more than 2,000,000 new votei's have been added to the hsts, — measures, all of them which were, when originally proposed, denounced as revolutionary, — have been adopted, and are now part of the constitution of the British empire; all of the so-called strong governments in each decade during the last half century having been advancing towards the doctrine of the American Declaration of Independence that "All govern- ment rests upon the consent of the governed." "When the fathers of this republic founded the government upon the right of the people as opposed to the doctrine of the divine right of kings, they were not mere theorists and rash experimenters; there must have been men in the Continental Congress who had thought seriously and soundly upon this question, — men not unfa- miliar with the teachings of the early philosophers and doctors ; for Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great doctor, says "that the ruler has not power of making law, except in as much as he bears the person of the multitude." And Sir Thomas More, in spite of Henry VIII., maintained that the king held his crown by parliamentary title ; and Suarez taught " that whenever civil power is found in one man, or legitimate j)rince, by ordinary 22 ORATION. right, it came from the people and community, either proximately or remotely; it cannot be other- wise possessed so as to be just." Bellarmine concludes: "Divine right gave the power to no particular man; it therefore gave the power to the multitude." The men of the Continental Congress were not Socialists or Communists; they i-ecognized fully the rights of individual property, and had faith that thp people would resjject and protect these rights. Having once fully adopted the principles of the Declaration, the States in their Constitutions recognized the right of the people to participate. Maryland, which was the first of the colonies to grant civil and religious liberty, was the first State to proclaim universal suflrage, and to introduce the most democratic forms into her whole government. De Tocque- ville says : " When a nation begins to modify the elective qualification it may easily be foi-eseen that, sooner or later, all qualification will be abolished." It is useless, then, to discuss prob- lems concerning, and difficulties affecting, our form of government upon any other basis than that the people govern. It is fashionable and customary in our day, at social-science meetings, at the clubs and at conventions, to decry uni- JULY4,1885. 23 versal suffrage. But it is an established fact, and the people are the masters. Mr. Disraeli truthfully said, in " Yivian Grey," " The people, sir, are not always right; the people, Mr. Grey, are not often wrong." The people carried us grandly through the revolution, and on all great questions affecting our institutions they have been instinctively right. On the very question that finally threatened the destruction of the Union, the people in the colo- nies early anticipated danger. As in 1772, upon the petitions from all parts of the colony, the Legis- lature of Virginia memorialized the King of Great Britain upon the dangers of slavery, and expressed the desire that the slave-trade might be abolished. The king answered, " That upon pain of his highest displeasure the importation of slaves should not be obstructed." Yet, in the very same year, the highest court of judicature in England de- cided the celebrated Somersett case, that no man could make a slave of another. While the British orators and statesmen indulged in copious rhetoric about the freedom of a single slave, and boasted that the moment his foot touched the shores of England he stood forth redeemed and disen- thralled, the government continued to sanction the 24 ORATION. traffic that sent thousands into bondage and en- tailed untold misery upon posterity. As indicating the opinion of the people of the colonies at the time of the adoption of the Federal constitution it may be mentioned that there were abolition societies in Maryland, Virginia, 'New York, and Pennsylvania. James Madison, in the constitutional convention, strongly opposed the proposition, coming from a northern delegate, for the extension of the time for the abolition of the slave-trade. Luther Martin and William Pinkney, of Maryland, in the House of Delegates, and Mr. Iredell, of North Carolina, were all in favor of the early removal of what they con- sidered a great danger threatening the republic. The latter said, in the State convention of ]!^orth Carolina, "When the entire abolition of slavery takes place it will be an event which must be pleasing to every generous mind and to every friend of human nature." The framers of the Declaration of Independence, keenly ahve to the popular sentiment, intended the abolition of the slave-trade in that omitted clause, which Mr. Jefferson said "was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, and not without tenderness, too, to some of our northern brethren, who, though they had few JULY4,1885. 25 slaves themselves, were very considerable carriers of them to others," The framers of our consti- tutional government, despairing of uniting the colonies under the Federal Union, and realizing, in the language of Burke, that "All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on com- promise and barter," were forced to accept some compromises, and recognized the existence of slavery, though every Southern man in the Con- tinental Congress voted for the ordinance of 1787, which made all the territory north and west of the Ohio river free territory forever. Montesquieu wrote: "If a republic is small it is destroyed by a foreign power; if it is large it is destroyed by internal disorder." But he wrote in 1747, before the railway and the telegraph had annihilated time and space. Our history and growth have thus far disproved the truth of this assertion, yet we had that within our body politic which almost destroyed the republic. The debates in Congress of 1820, and the re- peal of the Missouri Compromise, gave us more than a generation of fierce and bitter agitation on the slavery question. On the one side were urged the arguments for the Constitution, the law, and 26 ORATION. logic ; on the other side were humanity and the people. The latter prevailed, as they have in every great struggle. " Ever the truth comes uppermost And ever is justice done." To accomplish that justice this government was shaken to its foundations; and yet, when the war came upon us, where did we find the courageous men, the brave and willing hearts, ready to die in defence of country ? In the ranks of the common people. As Wendell Phillips scathingly remarked, through all the crisis " there was nothing so cowardly in the Northern States as a million dollars, except two millions." Do not mis- understand me as implying that the men of wealth did not respond nobly and generously during the war to the call of the government ; yet truth compels us to admit that in the beginning they had less faith in the government than was dis- played by the masses of the people. This govern- ment, that, according to the predictions of the philosophers and statesmen of Europe, was to crumble and disappear at the first sign of in- ternal disorder, through four years of terrible civil war proved itself surprisingly strong. Of the JULY4,1885. 27 23,000,000 of population in the IS'orthern States one in eight, or 3,000,000, took up arms in defence of the government and the Union. In the last year of the war they cheerfully acquiesced in the expenditure of $1,000,000,000, and as cheerfully submitted to the increased burden of taxation con- sequent upon this debt. And when at length, after the long, dark night came the dawn, and the com- mander of the Union armies had received the surrender of the last army in the field against the government, in the hour of national rejoicing the assassin's arm struck down the people's ruler, — then came the supreme test of this government of the people. Under any of the so-called strong governments of Europe, had such a catastrophe happened, the victorious general of the army would have been proclaimed dictator, and have founded a line of kings; but in this republic the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence was not for- gotten: "That all government rests upon the con- sent of the governed;" and the duly elected Yice- President of the United States took the oath of office and became President, as prescribed by the constitution and laws. Another inspiring example, that strengthens our faith in the people, was given in 1876, when 28 ORATION. both parties claimed to have elected the President: one, because they had possession of the govern- ment, and desired to retain it; the other, for the reason that they had a majority of the votes, and had elected their candidate. Was it the presence of the commander-in-chief of the army, or the concentration of troops at Washing- ton, that brought a peaceful solution of the ques- tion? A*^o! It was the assemblage of the people, regardless of party ties, in mass meetings, in all the large cities and towns of the country, that by the power of public opinion compelled Congress to vote for the bill creating the electoral com- mission. The people, by their voice and action, demonstrated that love of country was more potent than love of party. Let us not speak doubtingly nor disparagingly of the people's judgment when we reflect upon the action of the fifteen eminent judicial minds that formed the commission. Thus far, through the blessings of Divine Providence and trust in the people, we have maintained our government and kept the Union whole. We are not unmindful of the dangers that beset our course. We realize " that early and provident fear is the mother of safety." I do not believe that danger lies in the direction JULY 4, 1885. 29 which so many predict. We must take counsel of our experience, and not our prejudice. Mr. Curtis, the editor of "Harper's Weekly," in speaking of the dangers threatening the re- public, said, in his oration at Concord, in 1875, "Massachusetts has a large population, with no hereditary traditions connecting them with the soil." If he meant to imply that a very large portion of the population of Massachusetts do not trace their descent from Puritan ancestry, that is true. But if he apprehends danger from that source, can he have read the history of his country aright ? Can he believe that we, who have walked the streets of Boston for nearly forty years, do not love our native city? — we, who remember that in these same streets walked Sir Harry Yane, the broadest and most Catho- lic man of his time; we, who were familiar with the history of Faneuil Hall before we knew our alphabet, and knew the story of the Old South and the tea in Boston harbor ere we had con- quered the multiplication table; whose infant feet had time and again passed the old North Church, and looked up searchingly at the old tower for Paul Revere's lanterns, and ascended Copp's Hill to look upon Charlestown ; and, before we were ■)0 ORATION. out of jackets, stood on Bunker Hill under the shadow of the tall gray shaft, and, with uncov- ered head and reverent mien, looked upon the spot where Warren fell; we, who have walked these streets with prouder tread, because of Sam Adams, and James Otis, the elder Quincy, and sturdy John Adams; we, who have had glimpses of the stalwart form of Webster, the defender and expounder of the Constitution, who have listened to the polished tones of Everett, the matchless eloquence of Choate, and heard Sumner thunder forth his fierce denunciations of the slave power ; and again during the native American excitement of the " Fifties," in the face of popular clamor defending the rights of all citizens under the law; we, who heard in front of the Old South Church, in the early days of the rebellion, the great tribune of the people, Wendell Phillips, "the noblest Roman of them all," appealing to all citizens to stand by the government in the hour of peril. Have we been insensible to all these events, or unmindful of what these men taught? 'No, thank God ! We know no other country. Our love for Boston, and Massachusetts, and the Union is as strong and lasting as any who claim descent from Puri- JULY4,188 5. 31 tan ancestry. Had the orator so soon forgotten the story of Massachusetts in the war of the re- bellion? The gallant soldier now on the Supreme Bench, whose Puritan lineage cannot be ques- tioned, who marched and fought on a score of battle-fields with these men, might have quieted his fears. He would, aside from his personal experience, have pointed to the monuments and tablets in memorial halls of the several towns and cities in the Commonwealth, on which are inscribed the names of the heroic dead Avho fell in the great war for the preservation of the Union, and have shown him that these men had bequeathed a rich legacy of patriotism to pos- terity, and had left traditions to their children, and children's children, with which history will indissolubly bind them to the soil forever. A short time since I was in yonder historic town of Lexington, inhabited principally by agri- culturists. I read upon a monument the names of those soldiers of Lexington who gave their lives to their country in the war of the Kebel- lion. They were twenty in number, and among them one may read the names of John O'JN^eil, Dennis McMahon and Timothy Leary, — names certainly that did not occur in the Mayflower's 32 ORATION. list of passengers, — and so in more than two hundred towns in the State may be found such records. The rolls at the Adjutant- General's office and the navy list afford abundant evidence that they have so identified themselves with the his- tory of Massachusetts and the Union that they have not only traditions, but a record which will endure to the end of time. There are some of us who still remember the first preparations for the great civil war. Men were not inquiring about family traditions then. Are you for the Union? Are you willing, if necessary, to give your life to the cause? We remember one stalwart regiment that went to the field with no hereditary traditions, and one can read to-day on the monument at Gettysburg, erected to their memory, these words : — The Ninth Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers served during three years' campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and was in forty-two engagements, including the following, viz. : Peninsular campaign, Hanover Court-House, Seven days' battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chaucellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness campaign. What a host of patriotic memories are recalled by these names, even to us, the cool lookers-on JULY4,1885. 33 of a later generation! To them who participated in all their dire disaster, as well as flush of vic- tory, think you they hold no traditions that bind them to this country of their adoption? What more eloquent eulogium can be paid to this regi- ment than the concluding line of the inscription on the monument: — '' Whole number of casualties, 863 " ! I remember at Chancellorsville in the Twenty- eighth Massachusetts Regiment every commissioned ofiicer was killed or disabled; and yet it returned again and again to the onset, under command of its sergeant-major. I recall that 13th day of De- cember, 1862, in front of Fredericksburg, French's Division was almost annihilated. Of Meagher's Brigade of 1,200 stalwart men only 200 were mustered at roll-call at the close of the battle. One thousand of their companions in arms were left dead or wounded on the tield. We call to mind one incident in that day's fight particularly honor- able and glorious to Massachusetts. The Twenty- first Kegiment of volunteers had marched out in line of battle. One after another of its gallant stand- ard-bearers had been shot down until stepped forth Sergeant Thomas Plunkett. In the fierce 34 ORATION. storm of shot and shell both arms are shattered, but, claspmg the flag in the reeking stumps, blinded by agony, his warm blood saturated the flag he saved with honor. He walked our streets until a few^ months ago, when he joined so many of his comrades who had gone before. The city of Worcester mourned him as one of her illustri- ous dead, and honored him as one of the bravest of the brave ; and yet we are told men such as he cannot hope to leave traditions which may bind them or theirs to the soil. Time will tell some few years hence, w^hen we, answering a younger generation, asking the history of his monument, tell them we knew him in life, had spoken with him; that we had seen him bearing so bravely and j)atiently those scars and mutilations that an emperor might have envied ; and if the youth should have exclaimed, " Oh that I could have seen the heroic original! " and, with interested and upturned gaze, should ask who was the original of that statue, we might answer, "A poor immigrant boy; one who had no hereditary traditions that bound him to the soil." Yet, so long as will spring in human hearts a responsive throb at the rehearsal of brave deeds, his fame will be secure in Massachusetts. ' - JULY4,1885. 35 Men who have made great sacrifices to main- tain a government will not willingly permit its destruction. The danger to our government does not lie in that direction. We are in more danger from the indiiFerence, and, to speak plainly, paradoxical as it may appear, from the ignorance of the so-called wealthy and cultured classes than from the common people. My ex- perience has taught me that, as a rule, the masses vote more understandingly than those who, by the accident of birth or fortune, assume to be their betters. Watch* men listen to the discus- sions at clubs when men of wealth or culture and respectability meet, — men who are supposed to represent what is best in our American life. What are the topics of conversation? You may learn who has the oldest Madeira in his cellar; the vintage of claret on the dinner-table; the best method of cooking a duck; the names of some of the painters and sculptors; maybe some superficial observations on art; the newest gossip about the opera-singers; who wrote the latest novel, or was the winner of the Derby. The saving remnant may speculate on the doctrines of evolution, and discuss the unknowable cause. But let an earnest man, whose necessities com- 36 O K A T I N . pel him to spend his days in manual labor, yet desires to keep abreast of the times, inquire from one of these gentlemen, What is this bill that has passed the Legislature in relation to the limitation of taxation in cities? What are the main pro- visions of the new city charter; how does it affect citizens generally? I heard something in relation to a bill regulating naturalization; can you give me any information as to the changes made in the present laws? Who has charge of spending the ten millions annually assessed upon the citizens of Boston? What steps must I take to exercise the franchise? Gentlemen of the clubs, how many of you could give intelligent answers to these questions? Do you suppose that any form of government can exist if the brains and capital neglect their most important duties? If there has been a low tone in the public service; if there have been incompetency and corruption in public life, have you not, by your indifference and silence, stood by and consented? Go into the workshops of the mechanics; attend the meetings of the labor unions, the temperance, charitable, and benefit associations; listen, and you will hear the keen- est discussions of men and measures. The effect JULY4,1885. 37 of the tariff upon labor and necessaries of life; the leader's ability; that leader's honesty; the effect of this legislative enactment upon local rights; the policy of the new ministry in Eng- land; its possible effect upon our federal relations, — all questions of public interest. Every man feels that he is a citizen, and has an interest in the government. If, now and then, demagogues mislead them, it is but for the moment, and you will find that the demagogues took advan- tage of some real grievance which your igno- rance or indifference failed to notice and remedy. To quote Jeremy Taylor: "I cannot but think as Aristotle (Lib. 6) did of Thales and Anax- agoras, that they may be learned but not wise, or wise but not prudent, when they are ignorant of such things as are profitable to them. For, suppose men know the wonders of nature, and the subtleties of metaphysics, and operations mathematical, yet they cannot be prudent who spend themselves wholly on unprofitable and ineffective contemplation." — " Suppose the men of character and influence perform their duty," you may reply, " are there not other changes that threaten this republic?" Yes! "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." The great French writer, 38 ORATION. whom I have before quoted, wrote in 1830 : " I am of the opinion that the manufacturing aris- tocracy which is growing- up under our eyes is one of the harshest that ever existed in the world; but, at the same time, it is one of the most confined and least dangerous. N^evertheless the friends of democracy should keep their eyes anxiously fixed in this direction, for, if ever a permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy again penetrate into the world, it may be pre- dicted that this is the gate by which they will enter." We know in Massachusetts and ISTew England that much of our discontent has come with our increase in manufactures. While the people are benefited by large manufactories, and division of labor, making many articles much cheaper, the individual laborer has been correspondingly degraded. When manufacturing enterprises were under the control of individuals there existed a personal interest and an individual sympathy between the employer and the employe. But since the increase in corporations the man feels that he is looked upon as a piece of machinery, of no use except to earn dividends for those who live in distant towns or cities, with no sym- JULY4,18 8 5. 39 pathy for liim, or interest in the local affairs of his town, except to have their manufacturing property bear as small a portion of the town tax as possible. Watch carefully, then, the atti- tude of representatives in the Legislature, and be not unmindful that corporations are by their very organizations grasping and controlling. A still greater danger than the manufacturing cor- porations is the great power concentrated in the hands of a few men, under the name of railroad corporations. The founders of this republic wisely abolished the law of primogeniture. Could they have foreseen the coming and the growth of these great corporations, and their power to control the land by fixing the prices of the products of the soil, they would have guarded us in that direction. We are not too late, however, to pro- vide, by appropriate legislation in our several States, that while every man shall be entitled to the products of his labor and his accumulated earnings during his life, the public safety, how- ever, and the greater good of the greatest num- ber demand that he shall not select one sinofle individual in his family and bequeath to him his whole fortune, if in personal property. If the 40 ORATION. laws limiting" the descent and acquisition of real property have been wise and beneficial, — and who doubts that they have been, — then the time has come when there is much greater need for con- trolling the insane ambition of men to make their heirs great and powerful, by placing in the hands of a single person an enormous fortune, which engenders discontent, and inevitably tends to cor- ruption, and threatens the safety of our insti- tutions. We cannot too jealously guard these institutions and the principles of our government. The chief provisions of our Constitution are, absolute freedom of religion; the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms; compensation for private property taken for public uses; trial by jury according to common law, and that all powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. One of the rights reserved to the people was the right to manage their local affairs, and to be secure in their chartered rights. This principle was insisted upon as early as the time of King John, and was the eighth article of the famous Magna Charta; it was always held sacred in Massachusetts until the Legislature of 1885 JULY*, 1885. 41 Struck a blow at the principle which underlies our whole system of government. When Boston cannot govern herself w^e may well despair of the republic. We all know that an overwhelm- ing majority of the people of Boston are intelli- gent, industrious, law-abiding citizens, capable of managing their own local affairs; and when they want legislation they have still the right to assemble in mass meeting, and if they have a grievance demanding legislative redress they will make that grievance known. Law has not an atom of strength only so far as public opinion endorses it. Do the men who propose to change the heads of our civil army suppose that that small force of eight hundred men is the power which keeps this city safe? Absurd dreamers ! Your life, goods, and good name rest on the law-abiding mood and self- respect of the people who walk the streets of Boston, and not upon the paltry force of eight hundred men. We have had narrow-minded legislation in Massachusetts in the past, but the sober second thought of the people caused its repeal; and I have no doubt that ere many years the men engaged in the attempt to strike down local self-government in Boston will be as 42 ORATION. thoroughly ashamed of then' action as men are to acknowledge to-day that they were members of the hnow-notJiing Legislature of 1854 and 1855. The great danger to our republic, and perhaps the greatest danger which many see, is the con- centration of population in the great cities of the Union. At the close of the war of the Revolution not more than three per cent, of our population lived in the cities. To-day twenty per cent, of our people are in the cities. The problem is to govern them wisely. The pessimists see nothing but the inevitable destruction of our government from the masses in our cities. Many men, with more property than judgment, want the poorer citizens disfranchised and the suffrage limited. This can never be done. If it could it would not remedy the evil. Revolutions do not move backwards. The State of Rhode Island has a property qualification for voters, yet it is notorious that in her elections she is one of the most corrupt States in the Union. Governors and senators have shamelessly bought their elec- tions. IS^o, fellow-citizens, there must be no dis- JULY 4, 18S5. 43 franchise ment. Trust the people. Corruption has not vitiated the masses. It has poisoned our legislative bodies to some extent : we must begin our reforms there. Carefully examine all assessments of taxes ; criti- cally scrutinize all expenditures of the public moneys, and rigidly investigate all charges of malfeasance in public office ; visit all persons found guilty of dishonesty with the severest penalties, and render them forever incapable of holding positions of public trust; and let the quality of our condemnation be not strained, but be visited "upon him that gives as well as him that takes." Hold to this course steadfastly, and you will strike at the root of the evil in the government of our great cities. The people are rightly inclined, and mean to vote for honest and competent men. The ten- dency in our cities for twenty years, on the part of our men of culture and wealth, has been to place themselves beyond the people. Our public men, and writers on public matters, are continu- ally firing over their heads, and addressing some constituency which has no existence except in their own imaginations. The people in cities are, like the people every- 44 ORATION. where, human, and very human; and, to use Mr. Lincoln's words, if we hope to govern them wisely " we must keep near to the common people." Power being in the people, that they may use it dis- creetly, our first duty is to provide proper educa- tion. A distinguished historian has said : " We have two educations, — one from teachers, the other we give ourselves." The last is the principal education of the masses. They acquire it by con- tact with the world, take much of it in, as it were, through the pores. Is it not important, then, that men claiming to be educated should be able to impart to the people information upon subjects vitally affecting their well-being, as well as the interests of the whole community? The younger generation should be especially educated in Amer- ican history. Frederick the Great said to his son's tutor: " IN^ot too much of the classics, but thoroughly educate in the history of European nations for the last one hundred years." Yet book-learning is not everything. Ask the judges of our courts, who, in their turn, hold the criminal terms. Who are the criminals, — the immi- grants of the first generation, possessed of little book learning? — and they will answer: I^o, the J U L Y 4 , 1 8 8 5 . 45 generation born upon the soil, having had the advantages, to a certain extent, of our pubUc schools. It is not my province to criticise; I call attention to results. But can any thinking man hope to maintain a government dependent upon the votes of the people, if, in the system of edu- cation, the youth receives no moral training? I believe, with Thomas a Kempis, " It is better to feel compunction than know the definition thereof." Fellow-citizens, I have endeavored to call at- tention to the remarkable growth of our country, to the strength and weakness of our form of government. I think the candid critic will admit, after a careful survey of the history of the last century, that this government of the people has many advantages for our country over that of any other form in the world. We are now, in Massachusetts, 2,000,000 of people. During the last forty years a great change has taken place in the character of our population. In 1840 only 34,31S of the population were of foreign birth. In 1880 there were 443,402 persons of foreign birth, and, reckoning those of the first and second generations born upon the soil, I am sure that I do not exaggerate, when I state that half the population of this State to-day does 46 ORATION. not trace its origin to Puritan ancestry, but are of a later emigration. One of our first duties is to assimilate our population. We live under a government where majorities rule. This fact we must recognize. If any cherish the delusion that any class or body have an hereditary right to govern, that delusion must be abandoned. Demagogues and self-seekers must be ruthlessly crushed. I^o man has a right to claim recognition or public ofl&ce for what he has achieved in some other land, before he became an American citizen. Merit, fitness, and fidelity to the re- public should be the test, and we cannot too severely condemn those who oppose men emi- nently qualified because of their race or religion. True statesmanship seeks the unity of the people of the Commonwealth. We ought not to feel discouraged if in our legislative bodies some men have been corrupted by the use of money, and have proved false to their oaths and to their trust. We do not forget that Louis XIV. had the courtiers of King James under his pay; that Lord Bacon disgraced his high office by accept- ing a bribe; that the noble government of Eng- land has not hesitated in any emergency to buy governors, parliaments, and provincial assemblies JULY4,1885. 47 at wholesale. 'Despair not; there is in our country a strong undercurrent of virtue, and a growing public sentiment, that inspires us with faith that the people are being aroused to that proper public spirit which will insure the per- petuity of our institutions. And now, fellow- citizens, on this day of days, let us not depart from this place without a grateful appreciation of what we owe to Almighty God for the bless- ings and benefits bestowed upon us; and when we reflect that throughout this great country fifty-five millions of people are rejoicing with us for the peace, prosperity, and happiness which they enjoy, there should come to us a solemn reminder of the duties which have devolved upon us as citizens of the Republic. " I have an ambition," says Lord Chatham : " it is the ambition of delivering to my posterity those rights of freedom which I have inherited from my ancestors." Such an ambition should be ours. We can never pay the debt we owe to the gen- erations that have preceded us, but the genera- tions to come will hold us responsible for the sacred trust delegated to our keeping. If we desire to honor the memory of those men who in the first epoch won the great chartei', and 48 OEATION. made possible the next great epoch of the Declaration of Independence, let us cherish self- government, remembering that self-government politically depends upon self-government person- ally. Let us recall to-day, with grateful hearts,' the memories of the soldiers and statesmen of the Revolution, who perilled so much for the idea which this day commemorates ; nor should we be unmindful of the country of Lafayette, De Grasse, and Rochambeau, that came so gener- ously to our assistance and made oar victory certain. And while to-day we cherish the memory of the men of the Revolution we will not forget those heroes of the second war for the Union. We rejoice that human bondage no longer exists in all our territory; and, now that the civil war is long over, we forget all that is gloomy and terrible in our history, for we are assured that, in the sympathy that wS feel for the commander of the Union armies in his great afiliction, the sorrow is as genuine on the southern as on the northern side of the Potomac, and we realize once more that we are Americans all. So long as we cherish and honor the names of Wash- ington, Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln, and the JULY4,1885. 49 principles which their hves exemplified, the Amer- ican Union is secnre, and there will arise from the hearth-stones of a grateful, happy people, on each succeeding Fourth day of July, at the rising of the sun and the going down thereof, an earnest, heart-felt prayer of thanksgiving and praise, and far above the sounds of other rejoic- ings, the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon, will be heard the fervent exclamations: God preserve to us the heritage of the fathers! Ood save the American Union!