BOSTON AND ITS STOR\ 1630-1915 Ti'sl iscZ^ZS tf^cZ-Zy//* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/bostonitsstory16bost HONORABLE JAMES M. CURLEY, MAYOR OF BOSTON. BOSTON AND ITS STORY 1630 — 1915 A RELATION PREPARED BY EDWARD M. HARTWELL Secretary Statistics Department Chairman EDWARD W. McGLENEN City Registrar EDWARD O. SKELTON Journalist and Historian APPOINTED BY His Honor JAMES M. CURLEY Mayor of Boston tftfSTKUT HILL. MASS, City of b;oston PRINTING DEPARTMENT 1916 COPYEIGHT 1916. ClTT OF BOSTON 53826 BOSTON AND ITS STORY, Boston has been an important place for more than two hundred and fifty years. Its history is intimately bound up with that of Massachusetts, of which it is the capital, and of New England, of which it has long been the metropolis. It has suffered many vicissitudes and under- gone striking transformations in respect to territory and topography, as well as the form of its government, but from the beginning it has been a seed-plot and nursery of advanced political and social ideas and experiments. The purpose of these pages is twofold: (1) to furnish a clue to the history of Boston as an individual com- munity that, owing to the force of circumstances and the spirit of its people, has played a conspicuous and influen- tial part in the larger development of Massachusetts, of New England and of the nation ; and (2) to indicate the nature of the events that gave historical significance to memorable sites and objects .that have survived the ravages of time and still excite interest and veneration. So it is not a history that we present to our readers, but rather a relation or narrative concerning the development of "a poor country village" into a great city of vast and varied interests and of commanding rank. It is not our purpose to attempt to recount with fulness of detail all or even most of the deeds of which Bostonians are proud, or to pass judgment upon men or measures involved in controversial questions as to morals or politics that once seemed of vital moment and are still capable of arousing warm discussion. Such matters are better left to technical historians and partisan pamphleteers. 4 Boston and Its Story. We conceive our relation as somewhat resembling the report which Capt. John Smith published in 1616 on his exploration in 1614 of the coast of what was then generally known as North Virginia. "In this voyage/' he says, "I took the description of the coast, as well by map as writing, and called it New England." His original map showed the trends of the coast line from "Pennobscot to Cape Cod." There appear also the principal head- lands, bays, river mouths and Indian villages along the shore, together with a few outstanding mountains and not a few outlying islands, but the bulk of the back country is prudently left blank. In later editions of the map considerable portions back from the shore contain additional geographical data, notably in the region at the head of Massachusetts Bay. "New England," says Smith, "is that part of America in the Ocean Sea opposite to Nova Albyon in the South Sea, discovered by the most memorable Sir Francis Drake in his voyage about the world. In regard thereto this is stiled New England, being in the same latitude. New France, off it is Northward; Southward is Virginia, and all the adjoining Continent, with New Granado, New Spaine, New Andolosia, and the West Indies." It is noteworthy that in the course of three hundred years all the names enumerated above by the Admiral of New England, save New England, Virginia and the West Indies, have faded from the map ; and also that New England remains the most distinctively individual section of the United States, which include much of Smith's New France and New Spaine, as well as Drake's Nova Albyon (California) . Smith's map is still of interest not only because it was the first, and for years the standard, map of New Eng- The Godfathek of New England. 5 land, but also because we find on it a spot named " Bos- ton," by King Charles I., who was Prince of Wales when Smith made humble suit that he " would please to change their Barbarous names, for such English, as Posterity may say, Prince Charles was their Godfather." So it was a Stuart Prince who confirmed Smith's choice of New England as against the names Nusconcus, Canaday, Pemaquidia and Norumbega (all of which were then current) and substituted English for Indian names on the original map dedicated to him. Strange to say it was at Accomack, named Plimouth by Prince Charles, that the Pilgrim Fathers laid out their New Plymouth in 1620. The name of the Indian village of Accomenticus (Agamenticus) was changed to Boston in 1616. Later the Lord Proprietor of that part of Maine named it Gor- geana, about 1641 (after himself), and directed that it should be styled and organized as a city corporation. Old York in Maine is usually held to contain the site of the Boston of 1616, which as Gorgeana in 1641 or there- abouts had the first Mayor in New England. Smith's map was frequently revised and republished. Its tenth state, issued in 1635, shows two Bostons, ours on the south bank of the Charles River and the Stuart Boston on a bay east of what is still known as Mount Agamenticus. Lest we forget what we owe to the Godfather of New England, it may be well to note some sites whose names commemorate his gracious complaisance. He named Cape Ann in honor of his mother and the Charles River in honor of himself. In honor of his father he renamed Cape Cod, Cape James, and in honor of his House he gave the name of Stuard's Bay to what is now known as Cape Cod Bay. 6 Boston and Its Story. Practically all the Charlestons and Charlestowns in the country were named directly or indirectly for King Charles I. or King Charles II., while the capes of Virginia still bear the names that Smith on his way to Jamestown in 1607 gave them in honor of his sovereign's heirs, Prince Charles and his elder brother, Prince Henry. In Massachusetts, the County of Duke's County, incor- porated" 1695, commemorates the transfer of Martha's Vineyard from the Duke of York's Province to the Bay Colony. Other Stuart memorials are found in the names of Maryland, so called in compliment to Henrietta Maria, Charles the First's Consort, and New York, named for his son James II., to whom as the Duke of York the greater part of New Netherland was given by Charles II., in 1664, after its seizure from the Dutch. Although the colonizers of Virginia and New England suffered much at the hands of the Stuarts it should be remembered that it was owing to their good nature that the first permanent English settlements were effected. In Smith's career the changeful spirit of the promoters of colonization of the English possessions in the New World is reflected. Beginning as a hardy adventurer and knight-errant, he became first an explorer, then a practical colonizer and then a writer on the best methods of effecting and conducting English settlements in New England. Again and again his ambition to plant an outpost for trading and fishing on the coast, which he had mapped and to which he had given the name it still bears, was balked. In 1631, the year of his death, the sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England published his last book, viz., " Advertisements for the inexperienced Planters of New England, or any- The Admiral of New England. 7 where." In it he makes mention of the Brownists (Pilgrims) on Plymouth Bay, which bay he had visited in 1614, and of Mr. Winthrop's new settlement at the head of Massachusetts Bay, which he had happily characterized as "the Paradise of these parts," although he had never set foot there. His was the fate of many another American pioneer who came after him. Shortly before he died he wrote, "But I see those countries shared before me by those who know them only by my description." Ten years before the publication of Smith's Descrip- tion of New England, the English crown had adopted the policy of actively promoting the colonization of those parts of North America which it claimed to possess by virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots in 1497 and 1498 under the patronage of Henry VII. How little that astute and avaricious potentate appreciated the value of the continent discovered by the Cabots may be inferred from an entry said to have been made in his private accounts, viz., "To the man that found the new island, £10." Although the discoveries of Columbus led many enter- prising seamen to set out for the New World in quest of new trade routes to the Orient, and incidentally to acquire new lands for their royal patrons, it was not until the time of Queen Elizabeth that the English began to rival the Spaniards and the French in exploration of the New World. The voyages then undertaken by Drake and Frobisher and Sir Humphrey Gilbert were made under authority of letters patent from Queen Elizabeth to seek and gain possession of lands not hitherto occupied by some Christian power. The patent granted to Gilbert in 1578, subsequently taken over by Sir Walter Raleigh, 8 Boston and Its Story. empowered him to discover and possess any unsettled lands in North America. It also granted a practical monopoly of trading and planting in the region north of Florida, to which the name of Virginia was given in honor of the " Virgin Queen." Raleigh was essentially a prospector for mines and a fortune hunter, although he vainly attempted to found a settlement at Roanoke Island. Raleigh and his agents did but little exploring. When Raleigh was sent to the Tower in 1603 by King James I. the rights conveyed under his patent from Elizabeth reverted to the crown. Meanwhile, in 1602, the first noteworthy exploration of the coast of North Virginia was made by Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, without Raleigh's permission, in the "Concord." Gosnold's patrons were the Earl of Southampton and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, military gov- ernor of Plymouth, who were anxious to inform themselves as to the nature and resources of the region in question. Gosnold's bark, with thirty-two persons on board, sailed from Falmouth on March 26, 1602. On May 14 they made what are now known as Cape Porpoise and the Nubble off Cape Neddick on the coast of Maine. At the Nubble, which Gosnold named Savage Rock, Indians in "a Biscay shallop" were met with. One of them, who wore Christian clothes and could speak a little fisherman's English, described the coast with the aid of "a piece of chalk." The next day the party took "great store of cod" off "a mighty headland," which Gosnold named Cape Cod, — the first place in Massa- chusetts to receive an English name. Skirting the coast to the southward they landed, May 21, on an island, to which the name of Martha's Vineyard was given. Gay Head was visited and named Dover GOSNOLD AT CUTTYHUNK, 1602. 9 Cliff. After touching at Dartmouth on the mainland they landed, May 28, at Cuttyhunk, the most westerly of the Elizabeth Islands. The party stayed at Cuttyhunk till June 17, busily engaged in cutting sassafras wood and cedar logs, plant- ing wheat, barley, oats and peas to test the soil, and in building a small fort on an islet within a pond. Gosnold planned to make his headquarters there with twelve men for six months so that he might explore further. But on June 8 it was found that they had barely six weeks' provisions instead of enough for six months. So the first English foothold in New England had to be abandoned. On June 18 the Concord bore away from Nomans- land for England, which was reached after a voyage of thirty-five days. Their cargo of sassafras and cedar yielded a profit, although Raleigh demurred at their selling it all at once lest the market should be depressed. In 1603 Capt. Martin Pring came out to North Virginia in command of the ship "Speedwell" and the bark " Discoverer." His party numbered fifty-four men. The venture for which £1,000 had been subscribed by merchants and "the chief est inhabitants" of Bristol had Raleigh's permission. Their first landfall was among the islands of Penobscot Bay. Pring explored the Saco River for five miles from its mouth; skirted the mouths of the Kennebunk, York and Piscataqua Rivers; then he "bore into the Great Gulf which Capt. Gosnold had overshot" the year before, i. e., he entered the lower reaches of Massachusetts Bay and discovered the present Plymouth Harbor, which he named Whitson Bay. He loaded the Discoverer with sassafras and des- patched her to England about the end of July. Mean- while, like Gosnold, he had succeeded in getting grain, 10 Boston and Its Story. peas and beans to grow. He was visited by many Indians, concerning whose characteristics and disposition he made a full and rather favorable report. On August 8 or 9 the Speedwell sailed for England, which was reached after an absence of six months. Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, was appointed Lieu- tenant-General of Acadia by the King of France and set forth with two vessels to establish a colony in New France. Samuel de Champlain accompanied him. They cruised along the coast of Nova Scotia, and built a settle- ment on St. Croix Island (August 8, 1604), in the St. Croix River, which is now the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. Champlain, exploring farther to the westward, discovered the island of Mount Desert, gave it the name it still bears, and then sailed up the Penobscot as far as the site of Bangor. On June 18, 1605, the De Monts expedition set sail from St. Croix "in quest of a place better adapted for an abode and with a better temperature." Champlain was in command as pilot. The party numbered some thirty persons. Coasting westward leisurely, they anchored off Thatcher's island, Cape Ann, in the evening of July 15. On the 16th Champlain landed on the beach near Land's End. In his journal he states: "We named this place Island Cape. I made the savages understand as well as I could, that I desired them to show me the course of the shore. After I had drawn with a crayon the bay and the Island Cape where we were, with the same crayon they drew the outline of another bay, which they represented as very large; here they placed six pebbles at equal distances apart, giving me to understand by this, that these signs represented as many chiefs and tribes. . . . Continuing our course to the west-southwest, we saw numerous islands on one Champlain Visits Boston Harbor. 11 side and the other. Having sailed seven or eight leagues we anchored near an inland (in Boston Harbor) whence we observed many smokes along the shore and many savages running up to see us. Sieur de Monts sent two or three men in a canoe to them, to whom he gave some knives and paternosters to present to them. . . . All along the shore there is a great deal of land cleared up and planted with Indian corn. The country is very pleasant and agreeable, and there is no lack of fine trees. ... I observed in the bay all the savages had described to me at Island Cape. We passed by some islands cov- ered with wood. There is, moreover, in this bay a very broad river (the Charles) which we named River du Guast. It stretches, as it seemed to me, towards the Iroquois, a nation in open warfare with the Montagnais, who live on the great river St. Lawrence. " On July 17 Champlain sailed out of Boston Harbor, skirting the south shore. Entering Plymouth Harbor, they saw cabins and gardens of the natives, who flocked to the shore and danced for them. Champlain went ashore and was cordially treated by the natives. From Plymouth, Champlain circled the bay to the southward and, rounding Cape Cod, which he named Cape Blanc, entered Nauset Harbor, where a landing party went to obtain water. From Nauset the party returned to St. Croix, and De Monts loaded his barks with the frames of the houses and transported them to Port Royal, twenty- five leagues distant. In 1608 Champlain effected at Quebec the first permanent settlement in New France. It would appear that no Englishman entered Boston Bay prior to 1621, when it was visited by a party from Plymouth under command of Myles Standish. In 1605 Capt. George Waymouth came out to New England in the "Archangel" in the interest of certain promoters who were considering that region as a field in 12 Boston and Its Story. which to make investments. Waymouth's explorations, which lasted barely a month, were chiefly confined to the St. George's River and the islands between it and Pema- quid. He set up a cross on Allen's Island May 29 and landed June 13, at the site of the present town of Thomas- ton, Maine. Three days later he sailed homeward, carry- ing five natives that he had kidnapped from Pemaquid. The memory of this outrage rankled long in the breasts of the redmen, who later on were much more friendly to the French, who proved better neighbors than the English. In the summer of 1606, Pring made a second voyage to New England and carefully explored the rivers and harbors from the Penobscot to the Kennebec. He made a map which was highly praised by Sir F. Gorges, who took an extraordinary interest in all that related to North Virginia. Unfortunately, no trace of Pring's map has come down to us. This report of Pring is said to have determined the Plymouth Company to plant a colony at Sagadahoc at the mouth of the Kennebec River. In 1606 a company of associates, to whom Raleigh had assigned his trading privileges, petitioned James I. for a charter. The charter was issued April 10, 1606, and a stock company was formed for the establishment of two colonies in Virginia. The company comprised two divisions, known respectively from their headquarters as the London and Plymouth companies. The former was granted jurisdiction between 34° and 38° north latitude, and the latter between 41° and 45°. The inter- vening territory, i. e. } 38°-41°, was to go to whichever company should first establish a permanent colony. The king reserved the power to nominate a resident council in each colony, while a council having its seat in England First Settlement in New England, 1607. 13 was given general supervision of both. A more liberal charter was granted in 1609, making the company virtually independent and governed by a representative body. The first permanent English settlement in America was effected at Jamestown in 1607 by the agents of the London Company, among whom were Capt. John Smith and Capt. Gosnold. Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice, like Sir F. Gorges, was a prominent member of the Plymouth Company, which undertook the planting of a colony at Sagadahoc, on the Kennebec River. Associated with George Popham, who was styled President of the colony, was Capt. Raleigh Gilbert, a kinsman of Sir Walter Raleigh. Two ships, the "Gift of God" and the "Mary and John/' sailed from England on June 1, 1607. They arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec on August 18, having explored Allen's Island and other points during the preceding fortnight. The patent and the ordinances prescribed for the govern- ment of the colony having been read, all hands fell on the 20th to building a fort. Fifteen houses, a chapel and a storehouse were also built. The winter was severe. President Popham died before spring. Gilbert, who assumed charge, was harsh in his treatment of the Indians, who became hostile. In May, 1608, word came that Sir John Popham, the principal financial backer of the colony, had died. Gilbert returned to England in the fall of 1608 in order to lay claim to the estate of Sir John Gilbert, who had died in July. So the remainder of the colonists promptly abandoned the Sagadahoc settlement and returned to England. Their reasons for so doing are noteworthy, viz. : "No mines discovered, nor hope thereof being the main intended benefit to uphold this plantation, and the fear 14 Boston and Its Story. that all other winters would prove like the first, the com- pany by no means would stay any longer in the country." Gorges wrote a relation of the voyages to Sagadahoc, in which the term "New England" appears, — probably its first use. The dismal report of the Popham colonists respecting the winter climate of North Virginia chilled the ardor of English speculators and explorers so that there were no more summer excursions to that coast until 1614, when Smith undertook to find mines and kill whales for his employers — certain merchants of Bristol. Smith did not really expect to find gold and soon gave up the hunt for whales and fell to gathering data for his map and relation, while most of his shipmates were fishing for cod. Smith was a firm believer in the future of New England and hazarded his life and fortune towards realizing his hopes. But he frankly declared that he was not so simple as to suppose that any other motive than riches would "ever erect there a commonwealth or draw company from their ease and humours at home to stay in New England." It was the staying qualities of the Pilgrims who founded New Plymouth in the winter of 1620-21 that gave a new impetus to colonial ventures in New England. The economic success of the feeble colony at Plymouth seems to have caused what would now be called "a sensation" in England. At any rate, they proved that English men and women could make a living in New England. In the midst of their struggles some of their brethren in England wrote thus to them — "Let it not be grievous unto you that you have been instrumental to break the ice for others. The honor shall be yours to the world's end." ■ The Mayflowek Pilgrims, 1620. 15 "It was left," says John Fiske, "for religious enthusiasm to achieve what commercial enterprise had failed to accomplish." In the little town of Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, resided a body of people who, during the reign of Eliza- beth, were known as Separatists because of their religious belief. They disputed the authority of the Anglican Church, declaring that it was not a true church and that it was sinful to attend its worshiping assemblies and listen to the preaching of the Word of God therein. The severe laws passed by Parliament against those who refused to accept the supremacy of the National Church so harassed the Separatists that in 1608 they went to Holland. In Leyden, where they settled, they secured employment and their number was augmented until their membership amounted to some three hundred. They were happy and contented in their new home until upon the horizon of Europe began to loom the dark clouds of the coming Thirty Years' War, when, too, the waning industries of Leyden imperiled their employment and their sufferings began. Then the question of removal was agitated. Representations being made to the crown, permission was granted to the company to make a settle- ment upon the crown lands in Virginia. Arrangements were perfected with the Merchant Adventurers' Com- pany of London to fit out a ship to convey them to Virginia and to furnish them with means of sustenance for one year after they had reached their new home. The terms presented to them caused great discussion and a majority voted against accepting them; but the minority, being large, listened to their leader, William Brewster, and loyally stood by him and agreed to accom- pany him to the new land. On July 1, 1620, an agree- 16 Boston and Its Story. merit was drawn up and approved, whereby for seven years everyone who went should have equal interest in everything, and the undertaking be carried on for the common good, until, at the expiration of that time, all should be divided between the Adventurers and the Pilgrims. From Delfthaven, July 23, the Pilgrims sailed in the ship " Speedwell," for Southampton where the "Mayflower" met them. They were transferred to that ship, and sailed from Southampton August 15 for Plymouth, England, and on September 16 the historic Mayflower, of one hundred and eighty tons, with one hundred and two Pilgrims on board and twenty boys and eight girls, children of the emigrants, set out for the new world. The crown authorities had granted them permission to go to what is now New Jersey, with the intention that the Pilgrims should make their settlement at that part which was near to the territory occupied by the Dutch, but not in direct contact with them. The voyage was long and stormy, and the Mayflower was driven far from her course. On the sixty-seventh day, November 21, she cast anchor in Provincetown Harbor. During the voyage those who had been sent over by the London Company and who were not in sympathy with the religious views of the Pilgrims endeavored to sow the seeds of discord and were at times turbulent. Governor Winslow in his Journal says : "It was thought good there should be an Association and agreement that we should combine together in one body, and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows word for word." HE MAYFLOWER COMPACT. • ■% -a^re /oyec& su./tie&S o£ ou.v- arecx.cS jZ-uerajjfnJ- ford- )&'**# tcvtteS £y J jrr&cs- erf fo<=£, flj^fe«/ inAwe^'wce^rfiJw^ A x ^r U^w*: offers «&<&*} W *J V<*** /Ce*r~°f A fr,«*^ | TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE. In y e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall sub- jects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y e grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y e faith, &c, haveing undertaken, for y e glorie of God, and advaneemente of y e Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y e first colonie in y e Northerne parts of Vir- ginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y e presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y e ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordi- nances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y e generall good of y e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd y e 11. of November, in y e year of y e raigne of our sov- eraigne lord, King James, of England, France, & Ireland y e eighteenth, and of Scotland y e fiftie fourth. An : Dom. 1620. The Mayflower Compact. 17 Winslow's reference is to the compact which was drawn up in the cabin of the Mayflower, November 11, (old style), the night before the first landing at Province- town. Thus the founders of Plymouth met a disquiet- ing situation, and provided for the civil government of their enterprise. It was the first instrument issued in America that embodied the principle of consent on the part of the members of the community. Concerning the compact, John Quincy Adams declared : " This is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive, original, social compact which specula- tive philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government. Here was a unanimous and per- sonal assent by all the individuals of the community to the association by which they became a nation." Possibly this is the most fulsome expression of the views held by the older writers as to the political significance of the Mayflower compact. John Carver was chosen Governor. William Brew- ster, although not ordained, was chosen Ruling Elder, the spiritual head of the company. Myles Standish was made captain and military commander. The morning after the signing of the compact the first landing on New England soil by the Pilgrims was made by Capt. Myles Standish and sixteen men. Exploration of the territory within a few miles, during which signs of Indians were observed, convinced them that the location was undesirable. Upon returning aboard ship it was decided that Standish and his men should take a small shallop and cruise along the coast. This was done, and the first night's stop was at what is now Wellfleet. Here they were attacked by Indians, who fled at the first fire from Standish 's men. 18 Boston and Its Story. Proceeding further along the coast they finally reached an island and the sight of land a short distance away led them to sound the depth of water in the harbor. Finding it sufficient for ships of good draught, they made the historic landing December 21, 1620 — and New England was born! Five days later the Mayflower sailed into the harbor with the company of Pilgrims, and cast- ing anchor the historic voyage was ended and their new- world life began. As their eager feet touched first upon that revered granite rock they gave to it a deep consecration. Then and there began a new era in America's great experiment! There landed that day an independent church, claiming a direct connection with Christ, as did the church in the beginning, but without human link or mediation. These people were peaceful, affectionate, industrious, moderate in government, and just, one to another. Such were the people who, as they progressed, enacted laws, fundamental but mild, which to-day serve to control in part our great country. To them we owe the first law for trial by jury, for registry of lands in public books, of taxation, of the first customs' order, and of the first laws enacted in America providing for an equitable distribution of property among widows and children. It was on December 26, 1620, just one hundred and two days from its departure from Plymouth, England (by a singular coincidence there were one hundred and two Pilgrims aboard), when the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor. Immediately they planned for their settlement. A street called Ley den was laid out, the original plan of which is still in existence. Lots of ground to build upon were set out to various men, but first they erected a "Common House." That The Pilgrims at New Plymouth. 19 first winter at Plymouth was most disastrous to the Pilgrims, one-half their number dying from lung troubles. The survivors were haunted by the ever-present fear of an attack from the Indians, but these fears were need- less. The Indian Samoset came among them giving evidence of peaceful intentions, and a few days later returned with Chief Squanto and Grand Chief Massasoit, with whom they made a treaty of peace. Upon the death of Governor Carver, in 1621, they elected William Bradford as Governor. This year the ship " Fortune" arrived, bringing stores and thirty-five emigrants, followed directly by the "Anne," with thirty-one. Between this date and 1629 there arrived a sufficient number of immigrants to make the total number of Pilgrims about three hundred. And this was the greatest number that gathered at Plymouth under their adventure. The principal men of Plymouth, under whose direc- tion affairs were conducted, were William Bradford, William Brewster, Edward Winslow, Myles Standish and Isaac Allerton. The religious instructions of the colony were imparted by Brewster, the Ruling Elder, and it was not until 1629 that they had an ordained minister, the Rev. Ralf Smith. Between 1630 and 1633 many of the colonists began to seek homes outside of Plymouth. There were removals to Duxbury, Marshfield, Eastham, Scituate, Taunton, Yarmouth, Dartmouth and other places. About 1634 people from the Bay Colony began to settle within the domain of the Pilgrims and thereafter, with few excep- tions, it was to the arrival of such people that the increase of the colony from without was due. When the General Court of Deputies from the several 20 Boston and Its Stoky. towns was established in 1639 so large had been the immigration from Massachusetts Bay that six towns or settlements besides Plymouth were represented. As the years passed, the people of both colonies gradually came closer together until finally they were merged into one people politically, but continued under the wise religious administration of Brewster, who died in 1643; of Winslow, who left for England in 1646; and Bradford, who died in 1657, leaving an invaluable account of the Pilgrims from 1620 to 1648, which is known as Bradford's History. Bradford's manuscripts may be seen at the State House in the State Library. The success of the Pilgrims in maintaining their foot- hold at Plymouth seems to have drawn the attention of enterprising men in England to the shores of Massachu- setts Bay. Thomas Weston, the agent and treasurer of the adventurers in London, who had financed the Plymouth colonists, sold out his stock in that venture and set about establishing a plantation in the neighborhood of Plymouth on his own account. In May, 1622, his advance agents arrived and purchased a site from the sachem of the Wessagusset Indians, on the south shore of the Bay, at a place now known as Weymouth. Two months later Weston's colonists, some seventy in number, arrived. They seem to have been ill selected, insuffi- ciently provisioned, and poorly organized. The Plymouth people treated them hospitably, for many of them were ill, and helped them procure corn and beans from the natives to eke out their supplies. In March, 1623, the Wessagusset Indians became threatening, having formed a plan to destroy both the Plymouth and Wessagusset settlements. Myles Standish, with nine men, came to their aid, slew EDWARD WINSLOW, GOVERNOR PLYMOUTH COLONY. The Old Planters, 1622-25. 21 some Indians and put the rest to flight. Acting on advice of Standish, who shared his provisions among them, they abandoned their stockade and sailed away at the end of March for Monhegan, leaving only two of their number to repair to Plymouth with Standish. In 1622 Gorges and Mason obtained a grant of all the land between the Kennebec and the Merrimac. In 1623 Robert Gorges, son of the indefatigable Sir Ferdinando, obtained a grant of some 300 square miles on the north side of Massachusetts Bay. In September, 1623, the younger Gorges, having come over to look after his grant, took possession of Weston's abandoned stockade at Wessagusset, although it was on the South Shore. The next spring Gorges got word from his father that it was impossible to raise funds to further the enterprise. Accordingly Gorges returned to England, leaving Rev. William Morell, an Anglican clergyman, in charge of the plantation, where Samuel Maverick had arrived meanwhile in the Gorges' interest. Morell held on till the spring of 1625, when he returned to England. That summer, Captain Wollaston, accom- panied by the picturesque Thomas Morton and a band of indented servants, set up a plantation opposite Wessa- gusset on the present Fore River, within the bounds of what fourteen years later was set off from Boston as the town of Braintree. Meanwhile, Maverick had begun a fortified house at Winnissimet (Chelsea) on the north side of the Bay. Rev. William Blackstone, who had been MorelPs assist- ant, repaired in 1625 to the Shawmut peninsula, and built him a cabin on the westerly side of the hill over- looking the present Boston Common. Thus Blackstone became the first white settler of Boston. 22 Boston and Its Story. Although the settlers at Plymouth concerned themselves mainly with agriculture they were not devoid of com- mercial enterprise. Their leaders, having established amicable relations with their Indian neighbors, sought out the savages at the head of Massachusetts Bay in order that they might trade with them also for grain and furs. As time went on, the Pilgrims established fishing stations at Cape Ann and on the coast of Maine, and built a fort on the Connecticut River, near the site of the present Hartford. Boston has always owed much to the natural advan- tages of its location. But those advantages were not revealed to English eyes until an expedition from the Plymouth Colony rounded the Shawmut peninsula and landed at Mishawum in the early fall of 1621. In September of that year, Governor Bradford sent ten men in a shallop, under command of Myles Standish, on an expedition, whose main purpose was to establish favor- able trade relations with the Indians at the head of Massachusetts Bay. They sailed from Plymouth at midnight of Tuesday, September 18. Skirting the south shore of the Bay, they anchored under the lee of a large island before sunset on Wednesday. They found the island uninhabited. It was claimed by one of the party in the name of David Thompson, then a resident of Plymouth, in England. Thompson took possession, afterwards and the island still bears his name. The next morning, on crossing to Squantum Head, the explorers first encountered Indians. At Savin Hill they entered into negotiations with the sachem whom they found there. He was friendly, being a subject of Massa- soit, and acted as their guide past the peninsulas, now Standish Visits Boston Harbor, 1621. 23 known as South Boston and Boston Proper, in the after- noon, till they reached the great cove of Mishawum (Charlestown) , in which they passed the night at anchor. Early on Friday morning, two men being left to guard the boat, the party marched into the country in search of Indians. Following the trails near the Mystic River, they appear to have penetrated as far as the present High street of Medford, or even to the present Winchester. Although the Indians were shy, they gave the English- men food and sold them furs. Moreover, they promised to plant corn and save their beaver skins as the basis for future trading. The celerity of Standish's movements and despatch of business was noteworthy, for we read that in the afternoon of Friday his party started for home, which was reached the next day before noon. The shores and waters at the mouths of the Charles and the Mystic Rivers had impressed the explorers favorably, and they reported that: " Better harbors for shipping cannot be, than here are. At the entrance of the Bay are many rocks and islands, and in all likelihood, very good fishing ground. Many, yea most of the islands have been inhabited, some being cleared from end to end, but the people are all dead or removed.' ' Bradford's History notes that the party " brought home a good quantity of beaver and made report of the place, wishing that they had been there seated, but it seems the Lord, Who assigns to all men the points of their habitations, had appointed it for another use." 24 Boston and Its Story. That use, as events proved, was to make Boston a stronghold of Puritanism and the metropolis of New England. The ideals and projects of the earlier explorers and planters of New England were untinged by Puritanism. The founders of New Plymouth were Separatists as well as exiles. They are properly to be classed as Puritans* but they were out of touch and sympathy with the main body of that party, who were moderates in doctrine and policy. It was not till the struggle between Charles I. and the Country Party began to assume portentous proportions and the prospects of purifying church and state grew dark, that the leaders of that party, being impressed by the success of the Pilgrims in planting a self-sustaining colony, began to look on New England as their New Caanan. It was natural that they should look toward the region about Massachusetts Bay as their land of refuge. Already by 1626, a few pioneer Puritans (who had withdrawn from Plymouth, like Roger Conant, or had been expelled from there, like John Oldham and the Rev. John Lyford) had settled at Natascot (Nantasket) and Cape Ann. Moreover, the region between the Kennebec and Merrimac rivers had been granted to Sir F. Georges and John Mason, and the region southwest of Buzzards Bay was debatable land, whose occupation was likely to arouse the ill-will of the Dutch in New Netherland. So, aside from its superior advantages on other accounts, the region between the Merrimac and the Charles rivers was the most eligible left as the objective point of a Puritan migration. In 1623 a small company of merchants of Dorchester, in the west of England, undertook to establish a fishing Settlements at Cape Ann and Salem. 25 station and plantation, with a preacher in attendance, on Cape Ann. Rev. John White, a prominent Puritan clergyman of Dorchester, appears to have taken an active interest in this project, to forward which some £3,000 were subscribed. In 1624 a small beginning was made, and in 1625 Roger Conant became Governor, i. e., superintendent of the plantation, and Rev. John Lyford its minister. In 1626 three vessels were sent over; one of them bore cattle and provisions. In the fall of 1626 the fishery was abandoned, and Conant with a few associates removed to Naumkeag (Salem) as a preferable place for tillage and pasturage. Rev. John White promised to exert himself to secure a patent and send out men and supplies if Conant would stay by this remnant at Naumkeag. Accordingly, a patent granted March 19, 1627-28, was secured from the Plymouth Council for New England. It conveyed a tract of land extending three miles north of the Merrimac at its most northerly point and three miles from the Charles River at its most southerly part and westerly from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea (Pacific). Of the six patentees, five were gentlemen from Dorchester or its neighborhood. This patent encroached upon territory previously granted to Robert Gorges, out of which John Gorges had granted certain tracts to John Oldham and Sir William Brereton, but the Bay Company ignored their claims. In June, 1628, Capt. John Endicott, one of the pat- entees, sailed in the " Abigail" with a party of fifty or sixty persons to found a settlement. Endicott arrived at Naumkeag on September 6, and on landing was met by Conant and his associates. Endicott produced his commission and there arose some controversy on the 26 Boston and Its Story. part of the old planters and Endicott, but an agreement was effected through Roger Conant, and the settlement was named Salem, the Hebrew name for peace. The Puritan migration to Massachusetts Bay was recruited chiefly from two centers, viz., Dorchester, in the west of England, and Lincolnshire and other of the eastern counties. After Endicott was sent out by the Dorchester patentees in 1628, the scope of their plans was enlarged. They petitioned Charles I. for a charter of incorporation, which was granted March 4, 1628-29. Associated with the six patentees, as incorporators, were twenty others, representing interests that centered in London, and in Boston, Lincolnshire, respectively. The company was styled "The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." The territory conveyed by the patent of the previous year was regranted to the new company, which became the first chartered colony in New England. In the spring of 1629 the Bay Company fitted out three ships, which conveyed some 400 persons and 140 head of cattle, etc., to Salem. Three ministers, viz., Rev. Samuel Skelton, Rev. Francis Higginson and Rev. Francis Bright, accompanied the expedition. A copy of the charter was sent to Captain Endicott, who was appointed Governor at Salem by the company. The company named seven persons, including the three ministers, to act with him as Assistants in governing the colony accord- ing to instructions from the company. In the company's letter this is found : " If, at the arrival of this ship, Mr. Endicott should be departed this life (which God forbid) or should happen to die before the other ships arrive, we authorize you, ST. BOTOLPH'S CHURCH, BOSTON, ENGLAND. Old Boston, A Puritan Stronghold. 27 Mr. Skelton and Mr. Samuel Sharpe, to take care of our affairs and to govern the people according to order, until further order." The ships arrived in June, and Endicott, following instructions, promptly sent men "to inhabit in the Bay" in order to forestall Oldham who had laid claim to terri- tory there under R. Gorges's patent. Accordingly, a settlement was effected in the peninsula of Mishawum in July, 1629. The settlers named it Charlestown, and proceeded to establish a town there which was the first place in New England to assume the town polity, — Salem, like Plymouth, being governed by a Governor and Council. Boston, on the river Witham, in Lincolnshire, was an important seaport. It appears to have been a principal stronghold of the English Puritans. About seventeen miles from Boston was Sempringham, a seat of the Earl of Lincoln, one of the leaders of the Puritan party. Mr. Isaac Johnson and Mr. John Humphrey were brothers-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln. Thomas Dudley was his steward, i. e., the manager of his estates. Simon Bradstreet, destined like Dudley to become prominent in the affairs of the Bay Colony, was a member of the earl's household, as was the Rev. Samuel Skelton, who seems to have been his domestic chaplain. It is also clear that the Rev. John Cotton, Vicar of St. Botolph's Church in Boston, the Rev. Thomas Hooker, who had been a refugee in Holland because of his nonconformity, young Roger Williams and Mr. John Winthrop of Groton, in the County of Suffolk, were on intimate terms with the Puritan coterie that was headed by the Earl of Lincoln. The Cambridge meeting so called, held on August 26, 28 Boston and Its Story. 1629, which resulted in an agreement, signed there by twelve gentlemen, that they would in March ensuing go out to New England with their families in case the charter and government could be transferred thither legally, appears to have been the direct result of con- ferences at Sempringham between the representatives of the Dorchester and Boston groups of Puritans. It is quite likely that in the company sent out to Salem in 1629 the Rev. Samuel Skelton represented the Earl of Lincoln. At any rate, the first church organized in the Bay Colony, and perhaps the first Congregationalist Church in America, was organized at Salem, July 20, 1629. Mr. Skelton was chosen minister, and Mr. Higgin- son, teacher. It is specifically stated by one who was present that the names of the candidates were written on pieces of paper, and that Mr. Skelton, having "more voices" (votes) was chosen minister. It would appear from Thomas Dudley's letter to the Dowager Countess of Lincoln, written in March, 1631, that the plan of the leaders of the Puritan Exodus of 1629-30 was to establish a fortified town, three leagues up the Charles River, and that they had determined before leaving England to name that town Boston. It is significant, therefore, that when they were obliged to "plant dispersedly," that the Court of Assistants, while still in Charlestown, on September 7, 1630, ordered that " Trimountaine shall be called Boston." Evidently they expected it to become the principal town in the Bay. It should be noted that the western men were a rela- tively well-organized group under the leadership of the "Rev. Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick, with many godly families and people under their care, from Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire." The western people Massachusetts Company Chartered, 1629. 29 had sailed on March 20, 1630, in two ships and arrived at Nantasket on May 30, that is, a fortnight before the arrival of the "Arbella," with Governor Winthrop, at Salem. This furnishes further evidence that the exodus of 1630 was promoted by both the Dorchester and Boston groups of Puritans in the old country. The Puritan Exodus from England, 1630-40, was a carefully planned movement. In general it may be said that from the accession of James I. in 1604 it was the policy of the English king to promote the colonization of the regions in America, which were held to be possessions of the crown by virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots in 1497-98. The earliest attempts to establish colonies in South and North Virginia had the express permission of the reigning house, embodied in royal letters patent. King James I. refused "freedom of religion" to the Pilgrim Fathers, but promised not to hinder them from settling within the jurisdiction of the London Company that had effected, through its agents, the planting of Jamestown in 1607. The promoters of the Puritan Exodus, taking into consideration the untoward circumstances and mistaken measures that had signalized previous attempts at coloni- zation, sought to secure larger powers from King Charles than their predecessors had been able to secure from King James. Accordingly the Dorchester patentees, as has been stated, prevailed on the King, in March, 1629, to grant a charter of incorporation to them and their associates under the title of "the Governor and Company of Massa- chusetts Bay in New England." The company was duly organized, with its seat in London. It appointed Endicott as Governor and certain 30 Boston and Its Story. others as Assistants to administer affairs at Salem, which did not become a town until after the transfer of the charter and the seat of government to Massachusetts in the summer of 1630. This transfer was made in pursu- ance of a definite policy to obviate the disadvantages of dual government that had so hindered the early develop- ment of the Virginia colony. Owing to the adoption of this farsighted policy, the company was enabled to secure the adhesion of a group of well-to-do and influential members of the Puritan party in England, mostly residents of Lincolnshire and East Anglia, who agreed at Cambridge, in August, 1629, to go out with their families, in March, 1630, to establish a permanent settlement that should afford a refuge to themselves and their harassed compatriots. The company was reorganized in London on October 20, 1629, by the choice of John Winthrop as Governor, John Humphrey, Deputy Governor, and eighteen others as Assistants. Among these, who generally were termed Magistrates thereafter, were fourteen men who had been named as incorporators in the charter. It is more than probable that it was the intention of the company to establish a Puritan Commonwealth, beyond the reach of interference from the home government. At any rate they did so, and so fulfilled Sir F. Gorges's prophecy regarding them. It has been estimated that some 1,500 persons, brought on twelve ships, found their way to the shores of Massa- chusetts Bay in the summer and fall of 1630. These immigrants were not only more numerous and comprised more home-seekers than any body of English colonists that had sat down within the American possessions of the English crown, but they were better organized for '" ' '" .' . * , ..■■: ' ., ■'.■■'■*"■• "■. ;A '■'■: \;i- '■ .■?>. '■'?;■' ',':'" : . ■'''■' ' • '"' -"?'.;'% f ' " ■ . '. ' ' - ; ' •- :' '•' ••; " -.:•' . •'.. .-' -' l^i3S'SK-l3!lSS-^ ... ; : . ■' : ■- ' ' .,.,.. , , ■■.■•.■,.■'■'•.' .•'■•.. PP*^R3^kr> . . ' • ! ." :" ■."' -^ v ;■ — ,^, - ? iM : %-Jh ';■:.:. ■■,.. J '-.--:-:..,v. : / ' '•' : 4 HBp 1 ;; < 1* ; ■ ■■ ■ ■ . ' WSMmm •f : ', *"~ *, » ^ . ' -1 '■ '1 ^ -^isiZiB , J 'iKmKbb t^^^^^^^OkLfj'- » „. '•. ■ . . ^1 *' - :■■;.■:■"■':■" '"': ",-' ■'. -" *'• -■.':•■■ :-,:''- ; -i' -i. ' .-i'- 1 '.'^; -.-7 .•'..' ';•"■'-■ ■• ■ •: ■'-• ^/;. . . '- . . -,' .-. -. ■ '■$■.■■■ -■>■' ■■'■■■ ■ ^MMM^:^ ■ .->,■■■" . .- •fe-4^;v-;-- -iiii^ ^.. ^^hvwwtdpb. GOVERNOR WINTHROP, 1630. Settlements in the Bay, 1630. 31 economic and political growth and development; they were more united in their views and aims, and were more abundantly furnished with cattle and implements of agriculture, as well as with cannon and other munitions for defence. It was originally planned to build "a town fortified three leagues up the Charles River" for the colonists of 1630. The mouth of the river was then supposed to be in the neighborhood of Nantasket, where the colonists from Dorchester, in the west of England, were forced by their obdurate shipmaster to land on May 30, 1630. The passengers on Winthrop's ships, the first of which arrived at Salem, June 12 (old style), soon proceeded to Charles- town, whose site had been occupied and laid out by men from Salem in the summer of 1629. Evidently Charlestown (although it contained a Great House where Winthrop and several of the Assistants were lodged for some weeks) proved ill adapted for the building of "a town fortified." At any rate, many people, who crowded the tents and shacks at Charlestown, fell sick from infectious diseases that had started on shipboard. Scarcity of springs of fresh water aggravated the situation within the Charlestown peninsula. "We were forced, 3 ' says Deputy Governor Dudley, "to change counsel and for our present shelter to plant dis- persedly, some at Charlestown, some at Boston, some upon Mistick, which we named Meadf ord (Medford) , some of us westward on Charles River, four miles from Charles- town, which place we named Watertown; others of us two miles from Boston in a place we named Rocksbury (Roxbury) ; others upon the river of Saugus, between Salem and Charlestown, and the western men four miles south of Boston, at a place we named Dorchester, ... so they who had health fell to building." 32 Boston and Its Story. Dudley had been a soldier in the Low Countries, and the selection, in December, 1630, of a site for "a fort to retire to, . . . if any enemy pressed us thereunto after we should have fortified ourselves against the injuries of wet and cold," doubtless met with his approval and may have been largely owing to his insistence. This place, a mile or more from Watertown, was known as the Newe Towne, until by authority it was named Cambridge in 1638. The Indian name of the peninsula selected by the founders of Boston for their original settlement was Shawmut, signifying sweet or living waters, it is said. It may be noted in passing that a certain Indian medicinal spring in West Quincy bears the name of Shawmut to this day. Certainly the peninsula did abound in springs of fresh water, a fact that seems to have led Governor Winthrop and his immediate followers "to sit down" there instead of at Charlestown, where the water supply was inadequate. The inhabitants of Charlestown called the same penin- sula Trimountaine, because the three peaks of what is now called Beacon Hill confronted them across the river toward the south. The Assistants held a court at Charlestown on Septem- ber 7, 1630 (old style), at which it was ordered that " Tri- mountaine shall be called Boston; Mattapan, Dorchester, and the towne upon Charles River, Waterton." Charles- ton or Charlton was so named from its situation on the Charles River by its settlers in the summer of 1629. Roxbury, frequently called Rocksbury in the early records, probably took its name from the numerous ridges of conglomerate, or Roxbury pudding stone, as it is Old Boston and Its Namesake. 33 now called, found within its territory. Meadford (Med- ford) on the Mystic was distinguished for its meads or meadows. The Newe Towne, projected late in 1630, went by that name till 1638, when because it had become the seat of Harvard College its name was changed by authority to Cambridge. Saugus, the eighth of the Primary Towns of Massachusetts, bore an Indian name that was soon changed to Linn or Lynn. Boston derived its English name from Boston, an important port upon the River Witham that flows into the Wash, in Lincolnshire. Old Boston held a promi- nent place in Puritan annals. Thence the Separatists of Scrooby set out for Holland in 1608. It was a hotbed of Puritanism in the years just preceding the exodus of 1630 to New England. Several of the most prominent leaders of the exodus, notably Mr. Isaac Johnson and Mr. John Humphrey, sons-in-law of the third Earl of Lincoln, were residents of Boston. Thence, too, came later on a group of men who exercised great influence in the affairs both of the colony and of Boston, among whom may be mentioned Thomas Leverett, who had been Mayor of Boston; Richard Bellingham, who had been its Recorder, and Atherton Hough, who had been an alderman there, as well as the Rev. John Cotton, who, in 1633, was ejected by Archbishop Laud from the pastorate of Old Boston's most famous church, that of St. Botolph, the tutelary saint of sailors of the east of England. Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet, who came out in 1630, were also from the neighborhood of old Boston. The word Boston is usually held to mean Botolph's ton or town. In the fourteenth century such forms as 34 Boston and Its Story. Botolestone and Botolfs tune occur. Lambarde, about 1577, says the place was then called Bostonstow, though "commonly and corruptly called Boston." It seems most probable that our Boston was so named in compliment to Mr. Isaac Johnson from Old Boston, who was one of the most influential and highly esteemed of the Magistrates who came out to New England in 1630. Johnson died three weeks after the town was named. The eight places enumerated by Dudley, that were planted dispersedly in the summer and fall of 1630, speedily assumed the town form of government for the management of their local affairs and may be fairly designated as the Primary Towns of Massachusetts. It was fortunate for their founders that their arrival was in the summer instead of late in the fall, as had been the case ten years before with the founders of Plymouth, else the former would not have been so much better "fortified against the injuries of wet and cold" than were the Pilgrim Fathers. The charter provided that the company, including the Freemen, should be convened in a Great and General Court (assembly) at quarterly intervals, and that the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants — to be chosen by the Freemen annually in Easter term, at the Court of Elections — might hold courts monthly or oftener if necessary. It is a remarkable fact that neither the General Court nor the Court of Assistants, which met frequently in the period 1630-35, can be shown to have exercised either a stimulating or shaping influence upon the development of the eight primary towns, if we except their selection of the site for the Newe Towne. So far as appears from the Colonial Records, begun in August, 1630, or the records of the several towns, which begin in Primary Towns Self-organized, 1630. 35 most cases in 1634, each town was self-planted and self- organized, although the choice of the names of Boston, Dorchester and Watertown were confirmed by orders of the Court of Assistants. No definite grant of territory can be cited to any of the self -formed groups who "fell to building" as soon as the necessity of " planting dispersedly" was realized. Each group of settlers appears to have selected a tract of land and thereupon, without challenge or instruction from superior authority, to have allotted house and garden plots, set apart certain tracts as planting fields within a common fence, and other tracts of unenclosed waste as common pastures, common meadows or common wood- lands. The earliest records of these groups, in which frequent use of the term "town" and "townsmen," " townes-meeting," etc., is made, abound in references to the passage of penal orders (by-laws), the choice of overseers of the fields, herdsmen, allotters, "men chosen for the town's occasions," and the like. The formula used in recording what we should term a vote is usually "It is agreed and concluded," "It is agreed by general consent" or "It is ordered." In general, the admission of new townsmen or inhabi- tants, the division and allotments of lands, the choice of officials and committees and the passage of orders for the regulation of fields, fences and commons expressed the will of a general public meeting or primary assembly made up of townsmen, i. e., the men who were house- holders and had a right to plant in the common fields or send cattle, to the common pastures. As to details of procedure and nomenclature, usage varied, but it is clear that at the outset all the towns whose records are avail- able were organized as simple, agrarian communities on a 36 Boston and Its Story. free democratic basis. The development of the three essential organs peculiar to the town polity, viz., the town meeting, town orders, or by-laws, and selectmen, appears to have taken place more or less contemporaneously in the Primary Towns before 1635. The suffix by found in the names of many places in the east of England is of Danish origin. It is synonymous with the Old English ton. March 3, 1635, the General Court passed an order giving statutory sanction to measures and methods that had already been developed by custom in the Primary Towns. The most significant provisions of the order in question were as follows : "The freemen of every town, or the major part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns ; as also to lay mulcts and penalties for the breach of their orders, not exceeding xx s ; also to choose their own particular officers as constables, surveyors for the high ways; and the like." Subsequently the electoral franchise in the towns was extended "to all Englishmen twenty-four years of age, of honest and good conversation, being Rated at twenty pounds estate in a single Country Rate, and that have taken the Oath of Fidelity to this Government." The date of this is uncertain, but it conforms closely with an order of the General Court of 26 May, 1647, except that the latter contains no property qualification whatever. Thus the electoral franchise in the towns was more liberal than that of the Freemen, who alone could vote for deputies and magistrates, the freemanship by an order of the General Court, passed in 1631, being restricted to church members. The order of 1635 served as a sort of general town code Town and Township. 37 in accordance with which grants of common land and of town privileges were made for the establishment of new towns. After 1635, when the settlement of the back coun- try became active, the main provisions of the order were embodied in the organic law in 1641, when The Bodye of Liberties was adopted as the result of a referendum. Town and township are used as synonymous terms in The Bodye of Liberties, which provide that: "The freemen of every Towne or Towneship shall have full power to choose yearly or for lesse time out of them- selves, a convenient number of fitt men to order the planting on prudentiall occasions of that Town according to Instructions given them in writeing," etc. The territory of a town ultimately came to be called a township, and town came to signify the members of the town community in their corporate capacity. Thus the terms "town" and "township" in Massachusetts acquired the general meaning which they have to-day throughout the United States. The meaning which originally attached to those terms in England was just the reverse. A township of land as ordinarily understood to-day by surveyors throughout the country means a tract six miles square and containing 23,040 acres. In 1735 the Gen- eral Court granted three such "townships of land" to the Town of Boston. When in 1635 the General Court began to make grants of land for the establishment of new land- ward plantations, it was ordered: "that there shall be a plantation at Musquetaquid (Concord), and that there shall be 6 miles of land square to belong to it." Whether this use of six miles square as the area of a township was novel or original is an interesting question whose answer we do not know. 38 Boston and Its Story. While the terms town and township occur quite often in the earliest records, town meeting and selectmen were not in common use till later. Thus, although the records show that men were chosen in 1633 in Dorchester and in 1634 in Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown and Boston to perform the duties of selectmen, as we under- stand them, still it is probable that the first citable instance of the use of the term " Selectmen" in the records of a town is found in an order passed "At a General Town's Meeting" in Boston, on March 4, 1642. As appears from the rates levied on the several towns, Boston's primacy in ratable property was not established till 1637, although in the interval, 1630-36, it ranked either first or second. Yet the pressure of population and the need of more land for agricultural purposes were sooner felt in Boston than elsewhere. This was doubt- less owing to the fact that Boston was practically the seat of government and to its advantageous position in respect to the ship channel, which rendered it the commercial center of the colony from the first. In acreage Boston was one of the smallest of the towns. Its area hardly exceeded 750 acres, in all proba- bility. Moreover, there was very little wooded land within its limits. In 1632 Boston was granted by the General Court a neck of land at Pullen Point (Winthrop), and was given "liberty to fetch wood from Dorchester neck (South Boston) for 20 years." In 1633 it was given the right "to fetch wood continually" from a part of Noddle's Island, the whole of which in 1637 was granted to Boston. Judging from the present area of Chelsea, Winthrop, Revere, Brain tree, Quincy, Randolph, Hol- brook, Brookline and East Boston, whose original sites were granted to Boston "for its enlargement" in the Boston's Fields and Commons. 39 period 1632-37, the Boston town meeting in 1639 — the year before Braintree was set off as a separate town — exercised jurisdiction over fully 43,000 acres of land, of which hardly two per cent lay within the Boston peninsula. To-day, despite all the territory that has been added to Boston since 1804, by annexation, the total area of Boston is placed at only 30,666 acres. By 1635 Boston had at least four planting fields within the Neck, besides one on Noddle's Island and another at Muddy River (Brookline) . It had already acquired fifty acres of The Common by purchase for £30 from Black- stone, and it is manifest from entries in the records that it had other common pastures outside the Neck, e. g., at Pullen Point Neck and at Muddy River. Charles- town and Dorchester, and probably Watertown and Cambridge, had also laid out planting fields and set apart common pastures. Boston's two tracts of common within the Neck, viz., the fifty acres purchased from Blackstone in 1634 and the common next to Roxbury Gate, together with her commons laid out at Braintree, Muddy River and Pullen Point Neck, must have amounted to over 4,000 acres. By 1795 all of Boston's common lands and all of her commons outside the Neck had been disposed of by grant or sale; so that the town began the nineteenth century with only 2,218 acres of hard land, including Noddle's and Breed's Islands. After the Neck lands had been filled in and sold off about the middle of the last century (with the exception of Blackstone and Franklin squares, contain- ing 4.83 acres all told), "The Common" became the sole and shrunken remainder of Boston's ancient commons. To-day it amounts to 48.40 acres, or, with the Public Gar- 40 Boston and Its Stoky. den, to 72.65 acres. The Common is valued at $46,000,000 and the Public Garden at $9,000,000. Like Boston, the other Primary Towns long ago divided up or sold their common lands and commons. -None of the districts annexed to the city has added appreciably to the commons of Boston. Boston's communal holdings of strictly agricultural lands passed into the hands of private owners earlier than was the case in the other Primary Towns. The Town of Boston in 1645 transformed the allotments of arable, meadow, etc., within and without the Neck, within a common fence, as well as all house plots and gardens, into holdings in fee simple, and Boston's formative, agrarian stage of development came to an end and was forgotten. So completely forgotten that most modern scholars have overlooked its significance, as an episode that links up the development of the primitive Massachusetts town community with the old Saxon tun or ton and Danish by communities established by the invaders of Britain from the sixth to the eleventh centuries, which were later overgrown and masked by the manorial and feudal systems that were largely developed after the Norman Conquest. The rapid passage of Boston through its preliminary, agrarian stage of development was accelerated and inten- sified by the greater diversity and complexity of Boston's civic and social life, attributable to her primacy among her sister towns by reason of the fact that she was at once the most populous, the foremost politically, being the capital, and the foremost commercially, because of her possession of superior port facilities and her location at the gateway to the interior. It was inevitable that Boston should become the metropolis of New England. Charlestown the First Town. 41 Unusual interest attaches to the records of Charlestown, both because it was the first settlement in Massachusetts organized as a town, and because its early records are more complete than those of any other of the Primary Towns. The first entry in the Charlestown records is as follows, but it should be noted that "in Anno 1628" should read "in Anno 1628-29" since the settlement took place early in July, 1629 (new style) : "The Inhabitants yt first setled in this place & brought it into the denomination of An English Towne was in Anno 1628 as folios: vizt. Ralph Sprague Richd Sprague William Sprague John Meech Simon Hoyte Abra-. Palmer Walter Pamer Nicholas Stowers John Stickline Tho. Walford Smith, yt lived heere alone before Mr. Graves who had charge of the Company of Pat- tentees with whom hee built the great house this yeare for such of the sd Company as are shortly to come over wch aftr- wards became the Meeteing house. And Mr. Bright Minister to the Companies Servants: "By whome it was Jointly agreed & concluded yt this place on the North side of Charles River by the Natives called Mishawum shall henceforth from the name of the River bee called Charlestowne wch was also confirmed by Mr. John Endicutt Governour." "It is Jointly agreed & concluded by the Inhabitants of this Towne yt Mr. Graves doe moddle, & lay out the forme of the Towne with Streets about the Hill wch was accordingly done and aprooved of by the GovernoV "It is Jointly agreed & concluded yt each Inhabitant have A two-Acre Lott to plant upon, & all to ffence in Common wch was accordingly by Mr. Graves measured out unto them." 42 Boston and Its Story. "Uppon which — Ralph Sprague & othrs began to build theire nouses, & to prpare ffenceing for theire Lotts wch was aftrwds sett up almost in a Semi-Circular forme on the South and South East side of yt field laid out to them, wch lies scituate on ye Northwest side of the Towne Hill." It is worthy of note that Mr. Graves was an engineer and that the lines of his original "moddle" (model or town plan) are still discernible on the maps of the Charlestown District, which was annexed to Boston in 1874. In the records for 1630, a fence order is found, and also the following, concerning Charlestown's first planting field within a common fence : "Agreed & concluded by the Inhabitants of this Towne yt the great Corne field shalbee on the Eastside of ye Townehill, the ffence to Range allong even with those dwellings where Water Pam(ers) house stands & so along towards ye necke of Land, & yt to every Inhabitant dwelling within the necke bee given two Acres of Land for an houseplott & two Acres for every Male yt is able to plant; ... & yt ye Cattle bee kept without upon the Maine." In 1632, the inhabitants chose a man to "keepe the Milch Cattle of this Towne in A Heard without the necke of Land upon the Maine till the end of Harvest." In the records for 1633, the following occur: "Agreed & concluded the 9- of Jann r by the Inhab- itants of this Towne, yt Nicholas Stowers keepe the Towne heard the yeare ensueing, & yt hee drive the heard forth to theire food in the Maine every morning & bring them into towne every evening, & to have 50 bushells of Indian Corne for keeping the Milch Cowes till Indian harvest bee taken in, hee is also to have the benefitt of keepeing such othr Cattle as shall come into Towne this Summ r :" Emergence of Selectmen, 1633-34. 43 " Agreed & concluded (in April) by the Inhabitants of this Towne that the sume of tenn pounds bee collected of the sd Inhabitants, & bee paid in to John Winthrop, Esqr., & Governor, & the rest of the Gen*, interested in the Great house built in Anno 1628 by Mr. Graves & the Companies servts wch is for the purcha(se) of the sd house, now the publicke meeteing house of this Towne, all wch was accordingly done." The Great House had been built in 1629 to serve as the Governor's residence. Because of Winthrop's settlement in Boston, it became unavailable for its original purpose. After serving as a meeting house for two years, it was sold for £30 and turned into a tavern. It was finally burnt down in the fire which destroyed Charlestown, June 17, 1775. It is noteworthy that the inhabitants of Charlestown for the first five years met together whenever it was necessary to take action on the affairs of the town. In "9ber" i. e., November, 1634, "Towne meeting" emerges in the records for the first time. But frequent meetings of the "Townsmen in Generall," entailed "great trouble and charge of the Inhabitants," so they jointly agreed that eleven men should, for the ensuing year, "entreat of all such businesses as shall concerne the Inhabitants of this Towne the choice of officers excepted." This agree- ment was signed by thirty-three men, who bound themselves to submit to what the eleven chosen men "or the greatest part of them shall conclude." Thus on February 10, 1634, selectmen (although not so denominated in the records) were chosen in Charlestown for the first time. Officers charged with the duties of selectmen (although that term did not definitely emerge till 1642 and then in the Boston records), were chosen in other towns as early 44 Boston and Its Story. as: (1) October 8, 1633, in Dorchester; (2) February 3, 1634, in Cambridge; (3) August 23, 1634, in Watertown; and (4) October 6, 1634, and probably earlier in the same year in Boston. The number, tenure and designa- tion of such officers varied greatly; but seven and nine became general. It would appear from the records that Charlestown established its East Field in 1629, and its first common for pasture in 1630. By 1638, the town had at least six common fields, besides common hay grounds or meadows, and one or more commons in which rights of "cow com- mons" or "cow's grass" were recognized as a species of negotiable property, appurtenant to a homestead. The founders of Boston were fortunate in their choice of a site. The moving cause of the migration of Governor Winthrop and his immediate following from Charlestown appears to have been the urgent necessity of finding springs of fresh water. They found such springs at the foot of Trimountaine, favorably situated both on the south of the present State street, in Spring Lane, and north of State street in the vicinity of Dock Square. Accordingly, the first buildings in the town were erected near those points as centers, facing the Great Cove which made up from the inner harbor and indented the northeast side of the peninsula. So the new town was started a little back from the shore of the Great Cove, but was conveniently placed in relation to the ship channel. This advantageous location proved an inestimable asset to Boston in its development as a maritime town. Early visitors to Boston were inclined to dilate upon its natural advantages. Thus, Wood, who visited it soon after its settlement, says its "situation is very pleasant ... It being a Necke and bare of wood they are not Boston in 1650. 45 troubled with three great annoyances of Woolves, Rattle- snakes and Musketoes." At the same time he notes that "their greatest wants be Wood and Medow-ground being constrayned to fetch their building timber and fire-wood from the Hands in Boates, and their Hay in Loyters" (lighters). No wonder as the place began to fill up rapidly with newcomers, the General Court made generous grants of noncontiguous territory to Boston "for its enlargement." None the less, it was well for the first settlers that they did not have to expend their energies upon clearing their Neck of forests and Indians. Following is a condensed description of the harbor as Neal saw it in 1719: "This Harbour is made by a great company of Hands whose high Cliffes shoulder out the boistrous Seas. . . . It is a safe and pleasant Harbour within, having but one common and safe entrance, and that not very broad; there scarce being roome for three ships to come in board- and-board at a time, but being once within there is roome for the Anchorage of 500 Ships." Certain of Boston's characteristics, about 1650, are set forth by Johnson in his " Wonder-Working Providence," thus: "The chief e Edifice of this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-bankes, and wharfed out with great industry and cost, the buildings beautifull and large, some fairely set forth with Brick, Tile, Stone, and Slate, and orderly placed with comly streets, whose continuall inlargement presages some sumptuous City. . . . Good store of ship- ping is here yearly built, and some very faire ones: both Tar and Mastes the Countrey affords from its own soile; also store of Victuall both for their owne and Forreiners- ships who resort hither for that end: this Town is the very Mart of the Land; French, Portugalls, and Dutch come hither for Traffique." 46 Boston and Its Story. Again, Johnson says: "Boston, Charles-Town, Salem, and Ipswitch, our Maritan Towns began to encrease roundly, especially Boston, the which of a poor country village, in thrice seven years, is become like unto a small City, and is in election to be a Mayor Town suddainly, chiefly encreased by Trade by Sea." Johnson probably alludes to the petition of Boston in 1650, to be incorporated as a city, a request that was not granted by the General Court. Not till 1822 did Boston become "a Mayor Town," although projects for making it one were brought forward in 1650, 1659, 1667, 1708, 1744, 1762, 1784, 1791, 1804, and 1815. The plans for incorporation were mostly rejected by the people, — so strong was their preference for their town polity. In general, the towns of 1630, in their ground plan, conformed with the type introduced by the Angles and Saxons into Britain from Germany. There was a central or nuclear aggregation of homesteads arranged in close lines about an open space, or on both sides of a long street, and a complex of outlying fields and open lands held in common. True to their inherited instincts and traditions, the first settlers of Boston placed their houses on both sides of a street leading up from the waterfront. The western or upper part of this Water or Market street as it was called (now State street) widened out into a market place, including about three-fourths of an acre — which itself opened into the High street that ran north to Roxbury along the line of the present Washington street. As the extant town records contain no entries prior to September 1, 1634, and the records of the Colony are silent on the subject, we cannot tell just when or how the Boston Common. 47 lands of Boston Proper were first allotted. But the Boston records from 1630 to 1640 are mostly concerned with grants of house lots, garden plots, and allotments in the planting fields and commons; the regulation of fences and the pasturage of swine and cattle. It is clear that by the end of 1634-35 there were four common fields enclosed for planting within the Neck, since on February 9 the town meeting ordered that all fences should "be made sufficient before the second day of the second month, " i. e., April 2, 1635, and be looked to by overseers for the four fields that were named. Already, on November 10, 1634, it had been ordered by the town that five men named should "make and assess a rate of £30 to Mr. Blackstone . . . and to make a rate for the young cattle and cows Keeper at Muddy River' ' (Brookline). The "rate to Mr. Blackstone" was to defray the purchase of fifty acres that the General Court had granted him to hold forever, in April, 1633. Thus the town acquired title to what became known as "The Common." It is noteworthy that the first appropriation by the town for a public building was authorized on February 23, 1635, when it was "agreed that there shall be a little house built, and sufficiently paled yard to lodge the cattle in of nights at Pullen point neck" before the 14th day of April, 1635. The Common is the most conspicuous visible memorial within our borders of the primitive conditions that marked the beginnings of the "poor country village that in thrice seven years became like to a small City." It is at once the most impressive and best preserved of our memorials. The very fact that it has been preserved with so little change from early Colonial times, through all the mar- 48 Boston and Its Story. vellous growth of Boston, in territory, in population, in wealth, and importance as a port, and as the center of political and civic activities, enhances the veneration and affection that attach to the Common as a unique memorial and a priceless possession. The Common is a visible reminder of the circumstances under which the town was settled and organized. Boston's ancient shore line was obliterated long since by made land. Centry Hill (Beacon Hill) has been reduced to one-half of its original height, and bears hardly a trace of its three-peaked summit that suggested the name of Trimountaine for the whole peninsula. Mill Hill (Copp's Hill) has been much cut down, and the Fort Hill has utterly disappeared, but The Common remains, as it ever has been, a distinctive feature of the ground plan of Boston. The sky line and shore line of the Boston peninsula have been radically modified, owing to the exigencies of growth and progress. The original coves have swal- lowed up a large part of the original hills. Thus the old Mill Pond or North Cove was filled in, beginning in 1804, with material from Beacon Hill. About 1825, Copp's Hill contributed of its substance to the filling of Com- mercial and Fulton Streets in the Great Cove, and fifty years later, Fort Hill, occupying thirteen acres, was razed to the street level, and the gravel used to fill in the remainder of that cove inward from the line of the present Atlantic Avenue. According to official figures, the reclaimed land in Boston Proper on January 1, 1894, was 1,018 acres, resulting from the following operations, viz., at North Cove, begun 1804, 70 acres; West Cove, begun 1803, 80 acres; South Cove, 1806-43, 186 acres; Back Bay, Boston's Old Coves. 49 1857-94, 570 acres; Great Cove, 1823-74, 112 acres. The probable original area of hard land in Boston Proper was about 750 acres. The whole area of the town, according to the first official survey ordered by the State in 1794, was 783 acres. Here and there within the area adjacent to the present business section of the city, traces of the original highways and lanes of Boston Proper can be made out by an anti- quarian. But within the last hundred years, owing to the extension of streets into the reclaimed districts, the general street plan of Boston has been radically trans- formed. Changes in the underground plan of Boston have also been numerous and radical, owing to the build- ing of sewers, the extension of water mains, and the con- struction of tunnels and subways. Two circumstances tended to enchance the importance of the infant settlement of Boston, viz., its accessible* location, in relation to the other plantations, and the fact that Governor Winthrop had his home in it. Thus, in his "New England's Prospect," Wood, who visited Boston while it still had "rich corne-fields and fruitefull Gardens," says "this Towne although it be neither the greatest, nor the richest, yet it is the most noted and frequented, being the Center of the Plantations where the monthly Courts are kept. Here likewise dwells the Governour." On the landward side, Boston was accessible from Dorchester and Roxbury by the High Street that ran through the Neck from the Market Place to the mainland. This street or road was nearly two miles in length. To reach Boston from the other towns, one had, till 1661, either to cross one or more tidal rivers, or to follow 50 Boston and Its Story. the ship channel; consequently, the question of terminal facilities for handling water-borne traffic had to be met. Just when or where the first piers were built cannot be exactly stated, but it is clear that there was a common landing place on the shore of the northern sector of the Great Cove as early as 1634. The first entry in the extant records of Boston is dated September 1, 1634, and sets forth the action of "the 10 men for managing the affairs of the town." It forbids the " laying of stones and logges near the bridg and landing place," under penalty of 5 shillings unless they were " marked by a pole or a beacon." One of the ten was appointed to see that the order was carried out. The landing place was on the banks of a creek that made up as far, perhaps, as the foot of the present Brattle .street. This secondary cove, which, till it ceased to exist, was generally known as the Town Dock, was not finally filled in until the extension of Faneuil Hall Market was effectuated in the period 1823-26. In the early days access to the Town Dock from the Market Place was had through Shrimp ton's Lane on the line of the present Exchange Street. The bridge alluded to in the foregoing order may have been over the head of the dock, or possibly one of the bridges over the Mill Creek which connected the cove with the Mill Pond. North and South Margin streets and Causeway street approximately represent, at present, the original shores of the Mill Pond, which took its name from the tidal grist mills on its borders. Mill Hill, later called Copp's Hill, was early utilized for the erection of wind mills, as were some of the other hills also. The terms North End and South End are still in common use. Originally they served to designate the regions ■:,:-,,--. ' Carti di laVille,Ba.ye.itInviro>js Dt a B AS TON i i>. i.. • ... • *-' «./., ;;•.■■■•'• '•''..'n.-, H ...:.s.. '"-'- *';•.:.,..:... y w^'-'-V-'"!';;'" N '' lH \ . v .vv IS i ^ f , .. . •Mstof*" A. !-I.\"-. V... , v. ,^. I) E ■_> g ■ . 'mjtok /a . B a S 1 o K FRANQUELIN S MANUSCRIPT MAP 1693 THE EARLIEST KNOWN MAP OF BOSTON AND ITS VICINITY Early Bridges and Ferries. 51 separated by the Mill Creek, — the North End being really an island and not the tip of the peninsula. Mill Creek, following the line of the present Blackstone street, was spanned by two bridges: One, the Mill Bridge, was a fixed bridge, where Hanover street now runs, and the other, a swing or drawbridge, connected the North and South Ends on the line of what is now called North Street. It is noted in the records of the Court of Assistants, dated 14 June, 1631, that "Edw: Converse hath undertaken to sett up a fiery betwixte Charlton & Boston, for which hee is to have ij d for every single person, & Id. apeece if there be 2 or more." This ferry seems to have been maintained down to 1786, when it was superseded by Charles River Bridge, 1,503 feet long, which was opened with much ceremony June 17, 1786. It was the first bridge erected to connect Boston with the mainland. The tariff of tolls for the ferriage of passengers from Boston to Charlestown and Winnissimett as established by the Boston Town Meeting in February, 1635, was for one person Qd. ; for two persons Qd. ; above two persons, 2d. a person. Two years later, the ferry tolls to Noddle's Island were fixed at 2d. for a single person; 3d. for two persons and Id. apiece for more than two. In the absence of precise information as to the capacity of the ferry craft of primitive Boston, one is inclined to wonder what means were taken to transport "the dry and gelt beasts," the calves, goats, etc., to the summer pas- tures at Pullen Point, Muddy River, etc. It seems probable, however, that our forefathers had a pretty effective system of scows or lighters for transporting cattle 52 Boston and Its Story. as well as hay and wood. The Boston terminus of the ferry to Charlestown and Winnissimett was on the Charles River, at the base of the Mill Hill and at the foot of the present Prince street. The first shop in Boston was located on what is now the northeast corner of State and Washington streets, i. e., it was at the head of the Market Place, in whose immediate neighborhood the business or financial center of Boston has remained from that day to this. The shipping business of Boston in early times centered around the Town Dock. The Town was liberal in its allotment of "cove lots," and in the privileges of wharfing granted to their owners, who included the principal men of the town. Mention is made from time to time of warehouses belonging to the Town on the waterfront, but the improvement of that front, excepting the erection of batteries for defensive purposes, was largely left to private initiative. In 1646 the Town leased the Town Dock to an associa- tion of prominent wharf owners and merchants. In 1649, the reversion of the lease, which was to run eighty years from 1646, was sold by the Town to James Everill for £6 16s. lOd. per annum for the use of the free school. It appears that the lessees spent £818 in improvements of the dock in the period 1644-49. In 1710 the lease of 1649 was surrendered to the Town on condition that the Town pay the lessee £14 per annum till the expiration of the lease in 1726. In 1713-14 the Town Dock was let for £28. In 1785 it was claimed on behalf of the Town that it had expended nearly £2,000 towards filling in the dock. In March, 1822, just before the first city charter was adopted, a committee of the Selectmen was appointed to Boston Pier. 53 take legal advice on the subject of the Town Dock and the Town's rights in it. The new market-house improve- ment, 1823-26, led to the filling up of what remained of the Town Dock, and a City Wharf was established upon the shore to the east of the market district. It does not appear that the Town ever engaged in any extensive improvement of the waterfront of the Great Cove or elsewhere. The erection of Boston Pier (Long Wharf) from the tongue of land at the foot of King street (State street) early in the eighteenth century was a private undertaking. It added greatly to the facilities of the port and to the fame of Boston on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1710 the Town authorized six associates to build a pier. It was stipulated that it should provide: (1) a public way thirty feet on one of its sides for the use of the inhabitants and others forever; (2) at about the middle of the wharf, a gap sixteen feet wide " covered over, for boats and lighters to pass and repass"; and (3) that the head of the wharf should be left free for the town to place guns on if the need of defence should arise. Such were the conditions on which "the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston" conveyed their rights at the March meeting in 1710 in the wharf and flats "unto low water mark" to the projectors of the Long Wharf. The erection of Long Wharf was a notable achievement, and served to shift the center of the shipping interest from the Town Dock to the foot of King street. In a sense, the Long Wharf was an extension o'f King street to the ship channel, so that there resulted a direct road- way from deep water into the Market Place. Daniel Neal, who visited Boston in 1719, characterized Boston as "the most flourishing Town for Trade and 54 Boston and Its Story. Commerce in English America." He quotes official returns of the " Collectors of His Majesty's Customs" to show that " there was 24,000 Ton of Shipping cleared annually" at Boston. In this connection the following extract from Neal is of interest: " At the Bottom of the Bay is a noble Pier, 1800 or 2000 Foot long, with a Row of Ware-houses on the North Side, for the Use of Merchants. The Pier runs so far into the Bay, that Ships of the Greatest Burthen may unlade without the Help of Boats or Lighters. From the Head of the Pier you go up the chief Street of the Town, at the Upper End of which is the Town House or Exchange, a fine piece of Building, containing besides the Walk for the Merchants, the Council Chamber, the House of Commons, and another spacious Room for the Sessions of the Courts of Justice. The Exchange is sur- rounded with Booksellers Shops, which have a good Trade. There are five Printing-Presses in Boston, which are generally full of Work, by which it appears, that Humanity and Knowledge of Letters flourish more here than in all the other English Plantations put together; for in the City of New York there is but one Bookseller's Shop, and in the Plantations of Virginia, Maryland, Caro- lina, Barbadoes, and the Islands, none at all." The estimated population of Boston in 1719, according to Neal, was " about 20,000." This was an overesti- mate as the first census of Boston, made in 1722, after an epidemic of smallpox, found only 10,567 inhabitants, of whom 4,549 were north and 6,018 south of Mill Creek. Recent deaths, from smallpox amounted to 844. Neal's observations were both complimentary and informing. Thus he says: "The Town of Boston lies in the Form of a half Moon round the Harbour, the surrounding Shore being high, Boston's Streets in 1719 and 1916. 55 and affording a very agreeable Prospect. A considerable Part of the Peninsula upon which the Town stands, is not yet built upon; but yet there are at present twenty- two Allies, thirty-six Lanes, forty-two Streets, and in all together about three thousand Houses, several of which for the Beauty of the Buildings may compare with most in the City of London. The Town is well paved, and several of the Streets as wide and spacious as can be desired." At the present writing, February, 1916, the paved and accepted streets of Boston amount to 2,357 in number, with an aggregate length of 593.62 miles, 94.67 miles of streets being accredited to the City Proper. Booming Boston began early. Mr. William Burgis, an enterprising bookseller, in 1723 published a "South East View of Ye Great Town of Boston," which is char- acterized as "the Capital of New England, and Mistress of America." "New England," he says, "is become one of the most Delightful Countrys in the World; the Winter being now Moderate and pleasant by Reason of the Clearing of the Woods; in the West and North West parts of the inland Countrys, the air is Exceedingly Clear and pleas- ant, Perfectly well Agreeing with the English Constitu- tions; for which Reason the Gentlemen of the West India Islands often go thither to Recover their Healths." Burgis' s view shows the location of no less than fourteen ship yards in the town. The natural advantages of Boston as a seaport and rail- road center in our own day were comprehensively set forth by the City Surveyor of Boston, in 1893, as follows: "Boston is the only direct seaport outlet, by position and other great natural advantages resulting from its excellent and sheltered harbor, of all the section of country 56 Boston and Its Story. comprised within the territory of the New England States, the Great Northwest, and the Canadian Provinces lying north and east of the Great Lakes. "The original shore line of the city proper so favored railroad approaches, that within a circle described by a radius of less than half a mile around the business center of the city are located the great terminal stations of the Fitchburg, the Boston & Maine, the New York, New Haven, & Hartford, the Boston & Albany, and the New York & New England railroads (on lands reclaimed from the sea), so that it may be said that these great arteries connecting the city with the territory drained by these trunks, their branches, feeders, and connecting lines, penetrate to the very heart of the business community; an advantage of no mean importance in measuring the situation from the standpoint of the commercial competi- tion of our nearest neighbors. "Thus to inland commerce, the city proper occupies a concentric location much resembling the hub of a wheel, from which these trunk lines of railroad radiate like spokes, while to international trade the same section lies in an eccentric position to the great ship basin, a combination which, for rapid and economic distribution, could not well be excelled in this age of concentration and economy of time and space." The fact that Boston is still the capital of Massachusetts, as it has been throughout most of its history, gives it a unique position among the great cities of the country. The first meeting of the Great and General Court of the Bay Company was held in Boston "for the establishing of the government " on October 19, 1630. Yet the only formal action tantamount to making it the capital, that can be adduced, is the following entry in the record of a Court of Assistants held on October 3, 1632, which reads : "It is thought by generall consent that Boston is the fittest for publique meetinge of any place in the Bay." Governor Must Live in Boston. 57 The following order of the General Court, dated May 23, 1655, may be construed, perhaps, as a recognition that Boston had became the capital of the Commonwealth by the process of natural selection : "It is ordred that who soever shall be chosen Gouno r , shall with the first oppertunity make his abode in Boston, or some adjacent towne or place within foure or fiue miles of Boston, & shall there contynue his abode dureing the tyme of his goument." Both Charlestown and Newe Towne were aggrieved by Governor Winthrop's choice of Boston as his place of residence. After Winthrop was left out of the governor- ship, in 1634, the General Court met rather frequently at Newe Towne. Party spirit ran high in 1637, when the Court of Elections was held under a tree in the present Cambridge Common. The election that resulted in the recall of Vane and the election of Winthrop was almost riotous. Sewall states in his Diary that his father walked forty miles in order to vote for Winthrop. Although Cambridge endeavored to thwart Boston's manifest destiny, the records show that by far the greater number of courts of election were held at Boston in the period 1635-49. Meanwhile, owing to changes in the system of judi- cature and the establishment of counties, Boston had become the seat of the highest or appellate court within the Colony. In 1636, quarterly courts, to be presided over by at least one of the Magistrates, were established for the trial of minor civil and criminal causes at Ipswich, Salem, Newe Towne and Boston. In addition, four " Great Quarter Courts," consisting of "the Governor and the rest of the Magistrates," were appointed to be held at Boston. Probably the sessions of these courts, 58 Boston and Its Story. as well as those of the General Court, were held in the meeting house of the First Church of Boston, which was located on the Market Place. In 1643 the whole jurisdiction was subdivided into four shires, for military as well as judicial purposes, and Boston became the shire town of Suffolk County, and has remained so ever since. In 1659 the first Town House of Boston was completed. It was a combination of town, market and court house, and soon became the recognized seat of the Colonial Government. It was the seat of the town government until the town offices were removed to Faneuil Hall, which was erected at the head of the Town Dock in 1742. The Town House occupied most of the area now covered by the "Old State House" at the head of State street. The settlers of Boston made the market place a prom- inent feature in their town plan. State street of our day appears at first to have been called interchangeably the Water Street and the Market Street. Its widest part, covering hardly three-quarters of an acre, where it opened into the main street or highway to Roxbury, soon became known as the market stead, or market place. Allusion to it as the Market Place is found in the Town records as early as 1636. From 1633, when the General Court ordered that a market should be kept in Boston every Thursday, till 1733, when the town voted that a market house for the middle of the town should be erected in Dock Square, the original market place was the political and business center of Boston. On the south side of the place, or just below it, Governor Winthrop had his residence for a time. On the same side the meeting house of the First Church, in which town meetings were held for many years, stood where the First Town House, 1658. 59 Brazer Building now stands. On the southwest corner Capt. Robert Keayne, perhaps the leading merchant and money lender of the town, had his house and garden. The first shop built in Boston is said to have stood on the northwest corner of the market place, and "down the street were the lots of Rev. John Wilson (pastor of the First Church) and seven others." Westerly, although not immediately adjoining the market place, was the prison yard, at the head of the present Court square. In 1640 the meeting-house was sold and a new one built on the site now occupied by the Rogers Building, just west of the market place. Some persons wished to put the new meeting house on "the green," near the site of the present Old South Church, but, as Governor Winthrop tells us, "Others viz. the tradesmen especially who dwelt about the market place desired it might stand still near the market, lest in time it should divert the chief trade from thence." Even to this day the center of the chief trade has scarcely shifted from its original seat. Captain Keayne, who died in 1656, bequeathed £300 to the town for a market house and a conduit to be erected in the market place "in the heart of the towne," conceiving that the market house would ■ — " be usefull for the country people that come with their provisions, for the supply of the towne, that they may have a place to sitt dry in and warme both in cold raine and durty weather & may have a place to leave their corne or any other things safe that they cannot sell, till they come again . . . also to have some convenient room or too for the Courts to meete in . . . and so for the Townes men & Commissioners of the Towne." So the first Town House was built in 1657-58 out of the proceeds of Keayne's bequest and from funds privately 60 Boston and Its Story. subscribed, which amounted to nearly £400 more. The house, 66 feet long and 33 feet wide, was of wood, and was set upon twenty-one pillars 10 feet high, on the site of the present Old State House. In its structural features, as well as the uses to which it was put, the Town House conformed closely with the type then common in the old country. The space under the structure within the pillars was used as an exchange — "chambers" being provided upstairs for the courts and for town officials. It continued to be the seat of the town government till 1742, when Faneuil Hall superseded it as a market and town house. By order of the General Court one-half the cost of repairing it in 1667 and 1671 and of rebuilding it after it was burned in 1711 and again in 1747 was borne by the Province, the other half being equally shared by the County and the Town. The state offices were removed to the new State House in 1798. From 1830 to 1841 the Old State House served as the City Hall. It is remarkable how slightly the civic center of Boston has shifted from its original location. Its situation since the founding of the town may be summarily stated as follows: (1) For one hundred and twelve years, %.. e., 1630-1742, the seat of the government of the town was on or in the Market Place, and for the last eighty-three years of that period in the Town House; (2) for eighty years, i. e., 1742-1822, it was in Faneuil Hall, at the head of the Town Dock; (3) from 1822-30 the offices of the Mayor and City Council were in the Old Stone Court House, known, too, as Johnson Hall, on School street; (4) from 1830-41 the Old State House, at the head of State street, served as the City Hall; (5) from 1841 till the present day (about seventy-five years) the seat of the city government has remained in School street, and for ^f|\iiii§ 1 44 mm mi %r-^jv Ll UJ O cc Q Z XJL_£i_____. Beginnings of Court Square. 61 over fifty years in the present City Hall, which was dedicated on September 18, 1865. In other words, speaking broadly, in the two hundred and eighty-six years since Boston was settled, the seat of government was for two hundred and three years where it originally struck root, within the limits of the original Market Place; for eighty years it was in the Faneuil Hall Market House, and for eighty-three years it has been on School street. It has always been in or near the financial center, and its. migratory movements have all taken place within a circle of hardly more than 300 yards' radius. The present offices of the Mayor and City Council are 850 feet nearer the site of the first Town House than were the Selectmen's Rooms in Faneuil Hall. There is only one lot of land belonging to the City in Boston Proper that has been continuously devoted to public uses since it was set off from common land in the early days of the town. It is covered by the Court street end of the present City Hall Annex, and was originally included within the Prison Yard. On October 3, 1632, the Court of Assistants ordered, "That there shall be a house of correction and a house for the beadle built at Boston." Inasmuch as the order by the same Court "That a market shall be kept at Boston upon every Thursday" is dated March 4, 1634, it is probable that the Prison Yard was older than the Market Place. The Prison Lane ran westerly from the Market Place on the line of the present Court street. The prison was. hardly more than 100 yards distant from the Market Place. In 1754 an office for the Probate Court was built in the Prison Yard. In 1767 that office was demolished and a courthouse, first opened in 1769, was erected on its site. From that date till the " Old Court House" was demolished 62 Boston and Its Story. in 1911, to provide a site for the present City Hall Annex, there was always a courthouse on this site. The Old Stone Court House, so called, on School street, was another building, erected in 1810. But Keayne's Town House, as it was sometimes called, remained the seat of the General Court from 1659 till 1798, when the present State House became the seat of the State Government. In 1787 the town bought " Fos- ter's Pasture," at the corner of the present Boylston and Tremont streets, with the intention of presenting it to the State as a site for a new State House. The Foster lot was ultimately incorporated within the limits of The Common, and in 1794-95 the town bought Governor Hancock's pasture on Beacon Hill, and presented it to the State. Accordingly, the new State House was erected there in the interval 1795-98. In 1803 the city acquired by purchase, from the State and the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, all right and title to the Old State House. From 1803 to 1829 the Old State House was leased for business and other offices. In 1830 it was fitted up as the City Hall, and was occupied as such till 1841, when the building was again abandoned to business purposes. In 1881-82 business offices were again banished from the Old State House; the structure was restored, and it has been maintained ever since as a historical monument. A portion of it is now utilized as a station of the Washington Street Tunnel, but the upper floors are occupied by the Bostonian Society as a museum. For a century and a half immediate access to Boston across the Charles River was had only by means of ferry- boats. Meanwhile, the town of Cambridge built a bridge at the cost of £200 across the Charles River from Cam- Boston's Bridges, 1786-1915. 63 bridge to Little Cambridge, so called, which later became the town of Brighton. This bridge, which was completed in 1662, was known as the " Great Bridge," and was the only traffic bridge across Charles River until the opening of the Charles River Bridge from Charlestown to Boston that was completed in 1786. So, for nearly one hundred and twenty-five years prior to 1786, wheeled vehicles from the towns north of the Charles could reach Boston only by way of the Great Bridge and the road through Muddy River (Brookline), which connected it with the road from Roxbury into Boston. The site of the Great Bridge from Cambridge is now occupied by the North Harvard Street Bridge, in the Brighton district. The Charles River Bridge, opened in 1786, was a toll bridge, and the property of a private corporation. So, too, was the West Boston Bridge that was opened for travel in 1793, and the Canal or Craigie Bridge, that was opened in August, 1809. In 1858 the three bridges named were made free bridges. All crossed the Charles River, and served to greatly facilitate access from the landward towns to Boston. At present there are 154 bridges in Boston, of which 45 are maintained by railroad corporations. The main- tenance of 64 is met wholly by the City of Boston, which shares the expense of maintaining 42 more. There are also 3 bridges maintained by the Metropolitan Park Commission. In the fiscal year 1914-15, the maintenance of Boston's bridge service cost $301,712, and $195,373 were expended for bridge construction. In respect to ferry service, it may be added that tolls and other income for the year 1914-15 amounted to $105,913, while the expenditures amounted to $293,671. 64 Boston and Its Story. Foot passengers carried on the ferries numbered 6,024,967, and vehicles, 979,352. It should be noted that East Boston (Noddle's and Hogg islands) is connected with the Boston tunnel and subways by a tunnel under the harbor. Passengers carried through this tunnel numbered 17,218,206 in the same year, yielding revenue from tolls of $148,410. On February 7, 1916, the collection of ferry tolls from passengers through the East Boston Tunnel ceased. The City of Boston maintains two ancient public markets whose rents have been a source of considerable revenue for nearly three generations. While Boston was a town it made several attempts to reduce the cost of the necessaries of life. Aside from improving its market houses, since Boston became a city, in 1822, it has attempted little and accomplished less towards lowering the cost of living within its borders. The records of Boston abound in orders intended to prevent forestallers and regrators from exacting unreason- able prices for provisions, but the frequent reiteration of such orders and the nature of the complaints which led to their passage indicates that they were more honored in their breach than by their observance. The Selectmen of Boston were accustomed periodically to prescribe the weight of the loaf of marketable bread according to the price of grain and the kind of bread. We find the assize of bread proclaimed by the Selectmen as late as 1798. During most of the eighteenth century Boston bought grain at wholesale and sold it at retail to the people of the town; thus on March 14, 1715, the Town authorized the Selectmen to (1) borrow money for the purchase of 3,000 bushels of Indian corn, 500 bushels of rye and 500 bushels of wheat and (2) to procure convenient places in O 2 UJ- * (5 O Q q 5 The Town Granary, 1728-95. 65 for storing it. Three months later the Town voted to apply the proceeds of the sale of certain common lands, amounting to £1,500, to "the purchasing of corn and other provisions as the Town shall direct." Whatever loss might accrue was to be made good by the Town so that the fund should not be exhausted. By 1774 the fund was reduced to about £150. In 1728 the Town voted to build "a Granary in the Common near the Alms House," and appropriated £1,100 for the purpose. Accordingly a granary capable of holding 12,000 bushels of grain was erected in The Common. It remained in charge of the Committee for the Buying of Grain till 1783, when the committee was discontinued. The committee, which was chosen annually by the Town, set the retail price of the grain, which was sold by the Keeper of the Granary, who was accustomed to present his accounts to the Town annually in the month of March. The Town voted in 1795 to sell the Granary and the land on which it stood. It is said that the building was removed in 1809 and turned into a hotel. In 1741 the Town chose a committee of three "to invest £700 in Cord wood, at the most reasonable rate, to be laid in some convenient places at each end and in the middle of the Town; in order to supply the inhabitants as the necessities of the season shall call for." Other measures for securing fire wood at reasonable rates for the benefit of the people could be cited. The year 1779 was one of great distress and scarcity and signalized by rapid depreciation of the currency and ruinous enhancement of prices. The authorities of Boston took unusual measures to regulate the prices of provisions and almost all other commodities as well. Thus the Town voted "That shops or stalls be opened in the several 66 Boston and Its Story. parts of the Town for supplying the inhabitants with butchers' meat"; and the Selectmen were directed "to publish an Advertisement acquainting the Publick that Slaughter Houses are provided by the Town for the accommodation of the People in the Country who may send their Creatures to this Market for the Supply of the Inhabitants." The price of flour was set at £30 per hundred weight; and that of fire wood at from £13 10s. to £23 per cord according to quality. The Selectmen were empowered to build fish stalls near the market place, to fix the prices of fish, and to make " arrangements with those that may be ready to supply this Market with Fish." In addition, the Granary was set apart as a magazine or general store for the sale of groceries and provisions at regulated retail prices to the inhabitants. Speaking broadly, Boston has always had a system of public markets. The first settlers laid out their town around a market place, in which a market house was erected in 1657-58, at a cost of £700 provided by Keayne's bequest and private contributions. In 1733 market houses were erected in Dock Square and at the North and South Ends. In 1737 a mob demolished the Center Market, in Dock Square, and those at the North and South Ends were soon discon- tinued on recommendation of the Selectmen. But the principal market place remained at the head of the Town Dock, where Peter Faneuil, an opulent merchant, offered in 1740 to build a market house if the town would pro- vide for its maintenance and regulation. The Town grudgingly accepted the offer by a majority of seven in a total vote of 727. To secure that majority the friends of the market had to resort to sharp practice and debar delinquent taxpayers from voting. Market regulations .affile mm ...Iliiii FANEUIL HALL, "THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY. Public Market Houses. 67 were frequently a bone of contention, both before and after the erection of Faneuil Hall. The new market house, which contained a large hall and offices for the town officials, was opened in 1742. It was named Faneuil Hall. This structure, which was of brick, was two and a half stories high and 100 feet long by 40 feet wide. Access to the market space, under the hall, was had on all sides through archways of brick. The building was rebuilt in 1762-63, after its destruction by fire; and in 1805 its width was doubled and a third story added, at a cost of over $50,000. After the New Faneuil Hall Market, generally known as the Quincy Market, was opened in 1826, the market under Faneuil Hall was dis- continued for many years. In 1858 it was reopened and its stalls have been leased to market men, from time to time, ever since. Both the Quincy and Faneuil Hall market houses belong to the enclosed type of market house, and contain permanent stalls, with cellars underneath. The Quincy Market, so called, is a granite edifice, two stories high. It is 535 feet in length by 50 feet in width. The second story is occupied by offices, most of which, e. g. } that of the Produce Exchange, are leased for other than market purposes. The original cost of the building (on which about $241,600 have been spent for alterations and repairs) was $150,000. This market improvement, which was completed in 1826, gave Boston the finest market house in the country, at a time when the inhabitants of the city numbered only some 56,000 souls. The undertaking, which met with considerable opposition, involved the purchase and demo- lition of numerous stores and wharves and the filling in of the Town Dock and adjacent flats. As a result the city 68 Boston and Its Story. acquired: (1) a spacious and well appointed market house, covering 27,000 feet of land; (2) six new streets and the enlargement of a seventh, including 167,000 feet of land; (3) salable building lots covering 26,000 feet; besides (4) flats and dock and wharf rights to 142,000 square feet. The financial results of the Quincy Market improve- ment, 1825-1911, may be summarized as follows: Receipts $6,620,653 Expenditures 2,474,191 Excess of receipts . . . . $4,146,462 Receipts include $1,178,753 from sales of land; and expenditures include $1,240,281 for land and buildings, in addition to $241,665 for repairs and alterations. The financial results of the erection of Faneuil Hall and the maintenance at intervals of a public market under it cannot be set forth with the same completeness as for the Quincy Market House, which was originally authorized as "an extension of Faneuil Hall Market." No authoritative statement of the cost of Peter Faneuil's gift to the town in 1742 has come down to us; and a clear statement of the cost of rebuilding after the fire of 1761 — mostly out of the proceeds of a public lottery — cannot be found. However, it appears that the gross receipts of the hall and market amounted to $570,474 against total expenditures of $255,289 for the period 1890-1911, yielding a net income of $315,185. Counting receipts and expenditures of the two market houses we have the following aggregates: Re- ceipts, $2,398,007; expenditures, $577,213; net income, $1,820,794. The Old State House. 69 For the five years 1910-11 and 1914-15 receipts from the two market houses have averaged $123,343 and expenditures $12,249. The Old State House is more intimately associated with the history of Boston than any building now stand- ing. Faneuil Hall was rebuilt in 1762, and the Old South Meeting House was built in 1729; each of them was the scene of important events during the Provincial and Revolutionary periods; but neither of them played any part in the history of the Colonial Commonwealth or of the Dominion of New England. Although Faneuil Hall became the seat of town govern- ment after the town's books and papers were taken there in October, 1742, by vote of the Town, the term Town House clung to the structure, which was often called the Court House and less frequently the State House even before the Revolution. Thus in 1770 the General Court when convened at Cambridge protested that the writs had specified that it was "to be held at the Town House in Boston." Inasmuch as the most significant events of which it was the scene related to the government of the Commonwealth or the Province, we prefer in this con- nection to designate the building as the Old State House. The Old State House was the scene of many momentous and stirring events. Thither Sir Edmond Andros was escorted by "the Guard of the 8 Company es" on his arrival December 30, 1686, — and there he ruled as Gover- nor of the Dominion of New England. Thither he was taken on April 18, 1689, after his capture to meet the leaders of the rebellious people. From its balcony "a long declaration" justifying the deposition of Andros was read. The Old State House was the headquarters of the "Council for the Safety of the People and the Conservation of the 70 Boston and Its Story. Peace/' which assumed the reins of government April 20, 1689. There on May 22 was held the Convention of Delegates from the towns that prevailed on the "Old Magistrates," with Simon Bradstreet as Governor, to "accept the care and Government of the people of the Colony according to the rules of the Charter . . . until by direction from England there be an Orderly Settlement of Government." On May 14, 1692, Sir William Phips arrived from England bringing the Charter of William and Mary, in accordance with which Massachusetts and Plymouth were merged in their Majesties' Province of Massa- chusetts Bay. Sewall notes in his diary "Monday, May 16, eight Companies and two from Charlestown guard Sir William and his Councillors to the Townhouse where the Commissions are read and the Oaths taken." Throughout the Provincial period the Governor and Council appear to have held their sessions in the chamber at the east end of the Old State House. The Council Chamber figured frequently in ceremonious occasions. The newly arrived governors were inducted into office there, and state funerals, receptions and festivities were held there. It would appear that at times there was a balcony or gallery, opening from the Council Chamber, that overlooked the head of King Street where the people were wont to congregate at times of public interest or excitement. From this balcony important events were made known to the public. Thus in 1699, we read that "Drum is beat and Allowance and Disallowance of the Acts is pub- lished." Acts of the Provincial Legislature were subject to approval of the Privy Council in England, it should be remembered. In May, 1702, the accession of Queen H 11 THE MASSACRE OF PATRIOTS BY BRITISH TROOPS, 1770, DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OLD STATE HOUSE. The spot is marked by paving stones arranged in a circle on State Street, opposite Exchange Street. Trials in Old State House. 71 Anne was proclaimed here. In 1709 a the Act of Parlia- ment regulating Coin is published by Beat of Drum and Sound of Trumpet." On May 16, 1766, the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act was announced from here. The " Boston Massacre" on March 5, 1770, was within sight of the east balcony of the Old State House. Here in May, 1774, the last Royal Governor, Thomas Gage, was proclaimed. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed "with great parade and exultation from the balcony at the east end. . . . The ceremony was closed with a proper collation in the Council Chamber." April 23, 1783, the Proclamation of Peace was announced here by the Sheriff of Suffolk County. In 1780 John Hancock of Boston, the first Governor of the State of Massachusetts, was inducted into office in the Old State House. In 1789 President Washington reviewed the procession in his honor from a balcony erected in front of the center window of the Hall of Representatives at the west end of this building. Mention should be made of some of the notable judicial proceedings which took place within the Old State House. The last of the courts for the trial of persons accused of witchcraft in 1692-93 were held here, but the Boston jury's verdict was always " Ignoramus." In 1699 Captain Kidd was examined here by Governor Bellomont on the charge of piracy. Here in 1761 James Otis made his famous argument against the Writs of Assistance. John Adams, who heard him, wrote " every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. . . . Then and there the child Independence was born." In 1769 four men, who had resisted a press gang of 72 Boston and Its Story. the "Rose" frigate and killed the officer in command of the gang, were tried here for piracy and murder. The court decided that it was a case of justifiable homicide. In 1770 Captain Preston, who was in command of the soldiers concerned in the "Boston Massacre," was tried here and fully acquitted, although two of his soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter. While the Council Chamber was the headquarters of the Governor and Council during the Provincial period, the House of Representatives had its chamber on the same floor. In the House of Representatives more or less constant opposition to the Governor and Council was kept alive. In 1765 Sam Adams appeared for the first time as a Representative from Boston. In February, 1768, the House passed a bill ordering letters to be written to the other colonies, "with respect to the im- portance of joining with them in petitioning His Majesty at this time." This was one of Adams's measures. The English government demanded that it should be rescinded, but the House, by a vote of 92 to 17, refused obedience. In September, 1768, news came that the home govern- ment had determined, on account of previous riots, to send British troops from Halifax and Ireland to Boston. As the Legislature was not expected to meet for a year, the Town Meeting of Boston took action and voted to hold a convention on September 22, of delegates from all the other towns, "in order that such measures may be concerted and advised, as His Majesty's service and the peace and safety of his subjects in the province may require." "It must be allowed by all," says Hutchinson, "that the proceedings of this meeting had a greater tendency towards a revolution in government than any preceding < D U < > . LU VO 00 ^ e? - o 5= CO _J O < CO DC UJ O 2 Z C5 h- co 2 D- uj o o 00 DC ^ I- Withdrawal of Troops, 1770. 73 measures in any of the colonies. The inhabitants of one town alone took upon them to convene an assembly from all the towns, that, in everything but in name, would be a House of Representatives." The fleet with the soldiers arrived at Nantasket, September 28. There were a thousand men under command of Lieutenant Colonel Dalrymple. One regi- ment pitched its tents on The Common, the others found shelter in Faneuil Hall for the night. " The next day Governor Bernard ordered the doors of the Town House to be opened, except that of the Council Chamber; and such part were lodged there as Faneuil Hall rooms would not accommodate. The Representative room was filled in common with the rest." In May, 1769, the Legislature as soon as it was organized resolved that "An armament by sea and land investing the metropolis and the military guard with cannon pointed at the very door of the State House, where this Assembly is held, is inconsistent with that dignity, as well as that freedom, with which we have a right to deliberate, consult and determine." They refused to transact business while the troops remained, and the Governor adjourned the Legislature to Cambridge. Finally, two regiments were sent back to Halifax, the 14th and 29th remaining here. It was in the Council Chamber of the Old State House that Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson and the Council were finally induced by the determined stand of the delegation from the town meeting, headed by John Hancock, to advise the removal of the regiments from the town to the castle. Here it was that Adams replied when to appease the people Colonel Dalrymple agreed to order one regiment to the castle, "If the Lieutenant Governor 74 Boston and Its Story. or Colonel Dalrymple or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two, and nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops will satisfy the public mind or preserve the peace of the province." "After a little awkward hesitation it was agreed that the town should be evacuated and both regiments sent to the castle." This, in March, 1770, was the first evacuation of Boston by the British. The founders of Massachusetts were Englishmen born and bred but they were Puritans who had been engaged in the incipient stages of the fateful struggle between the crown and the hierarchy on the one hand and the Parliamentary Party on the other. In 1629 the outcome of the contest as to the objects for which the Puritans were striving, i. e., reform in church and state, seemed desperate. In the self-same week Charles I. dissolved the Parliament, that had no successor till 1640, and granted the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritan migration was born of struggle and fore- boding, but the emigrants who were harried out of England by the absolutist king and the subservient Laud were courageous and resourceful as well as far sighted. Their dream of a theocratic state composed of like-minded believers and based on imaginative interpretation of the laws and institutions of the primitive Israelites proved illusory. Their strenuous endeavors to realize their dream ended in disaster, for Charles II. revoked their charter and compelled them to exercise a toleration which they abhorred and to allow freedom of worship to Anglicans, Baptists and Quakers, whom they disliked or despised. But in the realm of constructive politics, the founders The Forefathers Founded a Commonwealth. 75 of Massachusetts builded better than they knew. In that field they achieved great and abiding results. They transformed a trading company into a Puritan Common- wealth that endured for nearly half a century. It finally crumbled under the continued assaults of its enemies on both sides of the Atlantic, after the Restoration of the Stuart dynasty resulted in the degradation of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts Bay into a Crown Colony. But the expatriated Englishmen who were driven into the New England wilderness succeeded in laying there the foundations on which the free State of Massachusetts was subsequently raised. The framework and constitu- tion of government under which we live is full of ghosts that have never been completely laid since first they began to walk in the fateful half-century, 1634-84. The constitutional history of Massachusetts, in whose development Boston and the citizens of Boston played ever a conspicuous part, may be summarily divided into periods, as follows: la. The Colonial Period, under the Charter 1629-1685. This period was signalized: (1) by the sub- version of the charter by the Magistrates, 1630-1633; (2) by the Uprising of the Freemen in 1634, when having secured their rights they instituted the representation of the towns by Deputies, and entered upon a prolonged contest with the oligarchy, in which the party of popular rights finally triumphed, having meanwhile secured the institution of the secret ballot, proxy voting, primary elections and the referendum, as well as the adoption of the Bodye of Liberties, in 1641, as a part of the organic law to supplement the charter. lb. Inter-Charter Period, 1686-1692. This period covered the denial of the rights formerly enjoyed 76 Boston and Its Story. under the charter, the suppression of representative institutions, the arbitrary rule of Andros as Royal Governor from 1686 till 1689 when the colonists rose in revolt, deposed Andros and established a revolutionary government that continued by permission of the Crown till 1692. II. The Provincial Period, 1692-1774. This was signalized, under the Charter of William and Mary, by constant bickering with the appointees of the Crown, and after 1765, when the Stamp Act was passed, by remon- strances verging on resistance to the repressive measures of King and Parliament — some of which were directly aimed at the Town of Boston. III. The Revolutionary Period, 1775-1780. This was marked by armed rebellion, adhesion to the Declaration of Independence, the institution of a revo- lutionary government by the Council and House of Rep- resentatives, elected annually by the people, 1775-1779. IV. The State Period, 1780-1916. During this period the State of Massachusetts, which joined the Federal Union in 1788, has been governed under the forms and principles laid down in the Constitution of 1780, and the amendments thereto. The formative stages of the evolution of government in Massachusetts from its primitive beginnings, 1629, till the adoption of the present Constitution in 1780, are indicated in more detail in the Appendix. The circumstances surrounding the Puritan pioneers on their arrival in what the Admiral of New England had prophetically characterized as "the Paradise of these parts," were distinctly favorable to innovation and experimentation in political and economic as well as in ecclesiastical matters. Although their territory was on K\NG'S CHAPEL, TREMONT AND SCHOOL STREETS. Innovations Introduced by the Forefathers. 77 the confines of civilization they did not have to fight the Indians in order to gain a foothold. The Atlantic Ocean separated them from Whitehall and Lambeth, whose occupants, moreover, became increasingly preoccupied with men and measures in the British Isles. As frontiers- men they had a virgin soil in which to plant, without interference from meddlesome neighbors. But they were frontiersmen of an unusual sort. It was the spirit of the men who planted the Bay Colony (a spirit developed by self-examination, by trial and by sacrifice) that impelled them to depart from ways to which they had been accustomed rather than the strange conditions in which they were placed, that chiefly conduced to render their experiments memorable and thankworthy. Necessity forced the settlers of 1630 to become inventive. On their arrival, in June, at Salem, they found it neces- sary to share their provisions with Endicott's people and to despatch a ship to England for more. Therefore it became necessary, even before they were forced "to change counsel and plant dispersedly," for them to set free the indented servants who had been sent out in considerable numbers to provide laborers for the plantations. It became a matter of course for the Primary Towns to make grants of land to such of "the inferior sort" as were "able to plant." The adoption of this policy inured then and later to the economic welfare of the colony — in contrast with certain of the proprietary colonies which suffered from the development of a peasantry of poor whites. The Bay Company introduced not a few rather startling innovations, when one considers the antecedents of the immigrants who composed it. They were enabled to make history because of their willingness to cut loose from tradi- tion. They instituted a system of land tenure involving 78 Boston and Its Story. a radical departure from the feudalistic system of lease- holds and rentals to which they had been accustomed, even though some of them had been Lords of Manors before they became emigrants. The title to land was vested in the Company; but in the early grants and allotments, whether by the General Court or by the Primary Towns, comparatively few traces of land rents are to be found. Grantees were treated as shareholders at first, and before long became owners in fee simple of their holdings and were free to devise them by will. So landlordism with its train of suffering and bitterness that have hardly been eradicated as yet in Great Britain was avoided by the founders of Massachusetts. It was a fortunate thing for their successors that free trade in land was so soon established. Democratic tendencies had freer and fuller scope in the chartered colony of Massa- chusetts Bay, where there was no peasant tenantry, than in the proprietary colonies, e. g., New Netherland and Maryland, in which the manorial system largely prevailed. Having established freedom of purchase and sale of lands and tenements, the forefathers naturally proceeded to institute a simple system of public records of their own. Infant Boston, like its sister towns, devolved the duty of recording land grants and transfers within its borders upon its own chosen officials. Therein is found the germ of our later system of registration of deeds and wills. Town customs in due time hardened into statute law. Witness the remarkable action of the General Court, in 1639, when it was "Ordered and decreed: That there bee records kept of all wills, administrations, & inventories, as also of the dayes of every marriage, birth, & death of every pson w h in this iurisdiction. Marriage Solemnized by the Magistrates. 79 It: To record all mens houses & lands, being certified vnder the hands of the men of every towne, deputed for the ordering of their affaires. Item: To record all the purchases of the natives." The act set forth a scale of fees for entry of the various items by the man "chosen to record things" and further provided "such townes to bee fined 40s as shall faile to send up their certificates." Massachusetts was the first modern Commonwealth to require that a public record should be made of "every marriage, birth and death." The Massachusetts squirearchy was of a totally different sort from their Britain contemporaries. The squire, like any other landowner, had to hire his help — for none of his townsmen owed him suit or service. Moreover, the squire could not present a church living to anyone. As a member of a church society he could vote to call a minister or a teacher but he had no advowsons at his disposal. Even a settled minister had no estate in his office, and was liable to dismissal under the prevalent congregational system of church organization and government. However exalted their social position, parsons and squires, as such, in Massachusetts were never accorded special political privileges over tradesmen, farmers or shipmasters. The newly arrived immigrants "were not willing to bring in the English custom of ministers performing the solemnity of marriage," so on August 18, 1630, some three weeks before Shawmut was named Boston, "the Governor married Captain Endicott to Gibson," as Winthrop himself tells us. Governor Bellingham rather scandalized his fellow Magistrates in 1641, when he carried the doctrine of secular marriage so far as to marry 80 Boston and Its Story. himself! But the feature of his unusual performance which excited most criticism was the fact that he had failed to comply with the statute requiring publication in his place of residence of his intention of marriage a fortnight in advance of the event. The earliest as well as the later records of the Company, of Boston, and the other towns disclose a repugnance to the terminology of the Church Calendar. Although the charter provided that the quarterly courts of the Com- pany should be held on certain days in the terms of Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas forever — the records of all such courts from 1629 onwards are set forth in purely secular phraseology as to days of the month and week. It was English usage then, as now, to specify the year of the sovereign's reign in which an act, decree, or what not was passed, but regnal years are conspicu- ous by their absence from the public records of Massa- chusetts during the colonial period. But the unchartered Separatists of New Plymouth dutifully continued to use regnal years till a comparatively late date, although like their more aggressive brethren in the Bay they banished the use of Saints' Days from their vernacular and their calendar. It is noteworthy that the control and management of the public schools was never committed to the clergy as such. The towns appear to have taken the initiative in the establishment of schools. Thus, by a vote of the Town Meeting of Boston, on April 13, 1635, Philemon Pormort "was intreated to become schoolmaster, for the teaching and nourturing of children with us." This vote marks the beginning of the Public Latin School whose principal object since its establishment has been fitting boys to enter college. In its early days it was usually BOSTON CITY HALL, SCHOOL STREET. Site of first Latin School in America. Boston's Schools and School Committee. 81 called the Free School. Its maintenance was met partly by fees, partly by the town rates and other income and partly from lands and funds set apart for its use by the Town. Writing and reading schools for instruction in elementary subjects were established later. Gradually the Town gave over to the Selectmen the engagement of schoolmasters and the inspection of schools. They in turn appointed committees of visitation, com- posed of justices, clergymen and other notables to aid them. Ultimately in 1789, when the town adopted a new "System of Public Education," what has since been known as the School Committee emerged. The committee then constituted consisted of twelve men in addition to the Selectmen. Practically the whole management and regulation of school affairs was intrusted to the School Committee, which has always been an elective body chosen by the people. School boards, now common throughout the English-speaking world, appear to have originated in Boston. The Boston system of 1789 provided for the main- tenance of: (1) a Latin Grammar School for boys; (2) three writing schools; and (3) three reading schools. The south, center and north parts of the town had each a writing and a reading school, in which instruction was provided for children of both sexes from seven to fourteen years of age. Boys to enter the Latin School had to be ten years old and might continue there for four years. Schools similar to the Boston Latin School were estab- lished in Dorchester and Roxbury in 1639. In 1645 the Town of Dorchester adopted an elaborate scheme for the oversight and ordering of their school by three Wardens to be chosen by the Town for life. How long 82 Boston and Its Story. the system obtained does not appear. Possibly, Dor- chester should be credited with the invention of an inchoate School Committee one hundred and forty years before that of Boston took definite shape. However, Boston annexed Dorchester in 1870. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the beginnings of the free schools of Massachusetts, aside from their institution and endowment by the towns, was their democratic basis and their freedom from control by the clergy. In 1647 the General Court passed an Act requiring every township of fifty householders to provide instruc- tion in writing and reading for all children; and any town with one hundred families was required "to set up a grammar school" for the instruction of youth to "be fitted for the university." Certain innovations, introduced quite casually, were continued without the sanction of a definite enactment. It may be argued that it was the policy of the leaders to let customs ripen gradually, partly because that was the way in England and partly from caution lest the publication of formal enactments, involving departure from existing law and custom, should evoke criticism, and provoke attack from ill-wishers. But to their chagrin, such a policy proved impracticable as regards the changes wrought in the framework of their government in response to the demands of the people for statutory limitations of the discretion of the Magistrates in the exercise of their executive and judicial functions. The United States and the several States of the Union all have written constitutions, in contradistinction to the so-called unwritten constitution of England. It is interesting to note that the pronounced predilection Uprising of the Freemen, 1634. 83 for a written constitution, now considered a distinctively American trait, manifested itself at an early stage in the constitutional development of the Bay Colony. Before the Colony was five years old, the term Com- monwealth had begun to supplant the term Company, witness the votes of the General Court in 1634. Several popular democratic devices, besides the secret ballot, that are highly lauded in our day, on account of their supposed modernity, were tested and found good by the Bay colonists, e. g., the referendum and primary elections. But formal institution of "the recall" was unnecessary, so long as annually recurring elections enabled the electors to "get at" their Magistrates, who were judges as well as legislators, it should be remembered. It is a curious fact that the present Constitution of Massachusetts, although it has been revised by two con- ventions, still provides that delegates to the Congress of the United States "may be recalled at any time within the year, and others chosen and commissioned in their stead." Of course, this provision has been inoperative since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 1788. No instance of this form of recall in Massachusetts has come to our notice. In 1634 what may be called the Uprising of the Free- men occurred. In effect, it was a bloodless revolution that resulted in the introduction of a principle not set forth in the charter, but which, speaking broadly, has underlaid the government of Massachusetts ever since. That principle was embodied in the establishment of a body of Deputies to represent the Freemen of the towns "in all affairs of the Commonwealth, wherein the Freemen have to do, the matter of election, of Magistrates, and other officers only excepted." 84 Boston and Its Story. In the period 1630-33, the Magistrates exceeded con- siderably the powers granted them by the charter. As is not infrequently the case with persons in power who are deeply sensible of their own rectitude, the Magistrates seem to have thought themselves indispensable to the well ordering of the community; so much so that they had kept their numbers small and, to enhance their power to do good, had encroached at times upon the chartered rights of the Freemen. The Magistrates manifested oligarchical propensities at the very first General Court of the Company held in Massachusetts, viz., that of October 19, 1630. Although the term of office of the Magistrates expired on that day no election was held. Indeed no election of Assistants took place until May, 1632. This first Court at Boston was evidently "run" by the Magistrates, who forebore to admit any of more than one hundred applicants for the freemanship; and secured the assent of the people to the subversive proposal "that the Assistants from amongst themselves should choose a Governor and Deputy Governor, who with the Assistants should have the power of making laws and choosing officers to execute the same." In 1631 the General Court "to the end (that) the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men" limited the freemanship to "members of some of the churches." This limitation of the electorate occa- sioned some discontent later on, but remained practically unmodified for over fifty years. In 1632 the Court of Assistants levied a rate of £60 upon the towns to defray the cost of building a palisade "about the newe towne." This aroused popular appre- hension. At Watertown, "the pastor and elder assembled Introduction of Secret Ballot, 1634. 85 the people and delivered their opinion, that it was not safe to pay moneys after that sort for fear of bringing themselves and posterity into bondage." The Magis- trates succeeded in inducing the Watertown men to confess themselves in error, but the next General Court conceded the appointment of two men from every plan- tation u to conferre with the Court about raiseing of a publique stocke." But this and some other concessions did not satisfy the people. Early in April, 1634, after the notices of the Court of Elections, to be held in May, had been sent out, each of the eight principal towns deputed three men to meet and consider matters to be brought before the Court. Having met in Boston, they " desired a sight of the patent, and, conceiving thereby that all their laws should be made at the general court, repaired to the governor to advise with him about it." Winthrop endeavored to convince them that their demands were unreasonable, but they remained unconvinced. The General Court held in Boston, May 14, 1634, is memorable in the annals of Massachusetts. It was marked by several innovations, e. g., the presence of an unusual number of Freemen, the introduction, contrary to English usage, of papers, i. e., written ballots in the election of officers, as well as the institution of deputies to represent the towns. Moreover, at this Court, Mr. Cotton preached what was probably the first in a long series of " Election Ser- mons." The annual sermon to the Legislature has long since been given up, but a reminder of the ancient custom lingers in the sermon delivered before its annual election to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of 86 Boston and Its Story. magistrate ought not to be turned into the condition of a private man without just cause ... no more than the magistrates may not turn a private man out of his free- hold without like public trial." But the Freemen were in no mood to entertain such doctrine, being bent on drastic action. Before proceeding to the election, they revoked the Oath of a Freeman which the Assistants had formulated six weeks before and established a new form. The former oath had practically exacted sworn obedience to the magistracy. The new oath required the Freemen " within the jurisdiction of this commonweale" to swear to be "true and faithful to the government," and contained no mention of Governor or Assistants. They then passed resolutions embodying their interpretation of the powers of the General Court under the charter, and declared that none but the General Court had power to choose and admit Freemen, or to make and establish laws, or to elect and appoint officers or to raise moneys and taxes and to dispose of lands. At the election which followed, through the use of the secret ballot, they quietly left John Winthrop out of the governorship, which he had occupied since October 20, 1629, and relegated him to the ranks of the Assistants, where he was kept for two years, till he was chosen Deputy Governor under Vane. In the interim he did good service as one of the allotters and men chosen for the town's occasions in Boston. After 1634 the Deputies formed a co-ordinate part of the government of the Commonwealth and shared abundantly in the development of its institutions and control of its affairs. In 1644 the General Court was divided into two chambers, concurrent action of which was made Electoral and Apportionment Systems. 87 requisite for the enactment of orders. The first election of a Speaker of the House of Deputies took place in May, 1644. Although the charter provided that 18 Assistants should be elected annually, after the removal of the government to Massachusetts, their number fluctuated between 7 and 12 down to 1679, when the crown gave positive orders that the full number of Assistants should be chosen annu- ally. Accordingly, in 1680, and thenceforward, 18 Assist- ants were chosen from the candidates nominated at the primary elections. Possibly the small number of Assistants prior to 1679 was owing to the disinclination of the Depu- ties to an increase in the number of Magistrates. The Freemen found the secret ballot a serviceable device. At the Court of Elections, 1634, Winthrop was left out of the governorship; Dudley, his successor, was similarly left out in 1635, as was Haynes in 1636, and Henry Vane in 1637. In 1635 Roger Ludlow, who had been Deputy Governor the year before, was left out of that office and of the Assistants as well. Ludlow and Haynes went to Connecticut where they became pillars in the State ; and Vane returned, in a pet, to England . Endicott was also left out of the Assistants in 1635, and Coddington and Dummer, of the Vane faction, were similarly left out in 1637. Another innovation of the Colonial electoral system was "proxy-voting." It was tried first in 1636, and estab- lished in 1637. Under this system, the Freemen's votes hi the towns for every Magistrate were sealed up and sent to Boston to be canvassed at the Court of Elections. As late as 1680, and probably even after the charter was revoked in 1684, the Freeman might give his vote for Magistrates in person or proxy at the Court of Elections. 88 Boston and Its Story. So that Court never wholly lost its character as an annual primary assembly. It was the actual votes, not returns of the number of votes cast by the Freemen, that the Deputies carried to Boston. After 1636, Deputies were chosen by ballot, and in 1643 it was ordered "That, for the yearly choosing of Assist- ants, the freemen shall use Indian Corn and Beans, the Indian Corn to manifest Election, the Beans contrary." In 1647 the use of "papers open, or once folded, not twisted or rolled up," was ordained by the General Court. The apportionment of Deputies under the system estab- lished by the General Court in 1634 was based on the number of Freemen in a town, the town being made the electoral district. One Deputy was allowed for 20 Free- men; two for 20-40; three for above 40, by an order of 1636. But three years later, the number of Deputies for a town was reduced to two. In 1681 Boston, as the result of persistent claims, was given permission to send three Deputies to the General Court, and from 1692, under the Provincial Charter, Boston was privileged to elect four Deputies. The fifteen years following the Uprising of the Freemen was a period of controversy between the parties of pre- rogative and popular rights, represented respectively by the Magistrates and the Deputies. The exigencies of the struggle led to an unusual number of novel proposals, and to several new devices and experiments. The Magis- trates were pertinacious and ingenious in their attempts to limit the number of Deputies, and to modify the system of elections. But the General Court manifested a height- ened solicitude to know the mind of the Freemen on matters of counsel and the making of laws, especially when changes affecting the fundamental laws and the Introduction of Primary Elections, 1640. 89 apportionment of Deputies were under discussion. It is noteworthy that the following schemes proposed for limiting the number of Deputies were referred to the towns, viz., that for every 10 Freemen in a town, one should vote for the rest at the Court of Elections; that Deputies should be elected by counties instead of towns; that the number of Deputies from a town should be reduced from two to one. In all these cases, the referendum resulted in the defeat of the proposal to lessen the number of Deputies. So Massachusetts may be characterized as the " Mother of the Referendum." The practice of resorting to a referendum, on doubtful questions, which grew up in the period 1639-47, became the natural procedure in times of doubt and turmoil, e. g., 1684, 1689, 1766 and the period 1776-80. That the referendum has played an important and influential part in the development of the Constitution of Massachusetts can hardly be gainsaid. A novel system of primary elections, for the Nomination of Magistrates, was developed by a series of tentative measures in the period 1639-49. It continued with slight interruption, e. g., during the incumbency of Andros, and but few alterations till the Province charter took effect in 1692. The first action taken towards the nomi- nation of Magistrates seems to be that mentioned by Winthrop in his account of the election of 1639. "At this court," he says, " there being want of assistants, the governor and other Magistrates thought fit (in the warrant for the court) to propound three amongst which Mr. Downing, the governor's brother-in-law was one . . . Yet the people would not choose him." For that matter, the people would not choose either of the other two nominees. 90 Boston and Its Story. It seems probable that the nomination of new Assist- ants by the Magistrates in 1639 provoked the next General Court to provide for the Nomination of Magis- trates by the Freemen in the towns. After some experi- ments, e. g., the holding of a nominating convention at Salem, in 1643, the system was evolved, by 1649, whereby the Freemen of every town were ordered to be called together annually some day in the last week of November, "to give in their votes in distinct papers for such persons as they desired to have chosen Assistants at the next Court of Elections, not exceeding twenty in number." The sealed-up votes of the Freemen were then to be carried to the shire towns on the last Wednesday of March follow- ing. Each shire meeting was charged to choose "one Commissioner" to carry the votes, on the second Tuesday of April, to Boston "there to be opened in the presence of two magistrates if they be in town." "The twenty with the most votes shall be the men, and they only, which shall be nominated at the Court of Elections." This was the system that obtained with but slight changes till the end of the Colonial Period. To the establishment of the Colonial system of direct nominations, the following results may be fairly attrib- uted: first, the general system of choosing Magistrates at large was so supplemented by the holding of primary elections as to make the final choice by the Freemen at the election itself more deliberate and intelligent; second, the primary elections resulted in the nomination of a relatively large number of candidates who had attained prominence as members of the House of Deputies, and so commended themselves as candidates for the magistracy. Thereby the Freemen kept on hand a sort of preferred list of Deputies and Ex-deputies from which they were Beginnings of the Caucus, 1635. 91 accustomed to fill vacancies caused by death, disfavor, or removal from the Colony. Thus, of 55 new men elected to the magistracy in the period 1634-92, inclusive, 82 per cent had been members of the House of Deputies. So it came about that the electoral system of the Bay Colony was remarkably complete and adequate. It grew rapidly under the stress of local needs and party feeling into an effective instrument for expressing the desires of the electorate. The Freeman, provided he was a church member, had a vote: (1) in the choice of elders and teachers in his church, and in the conduct of its affairs; (2) in the choice of Selectmen and other town officers, and on all prudential affairs of the town, and in the choice of Deputies to represent the town in the General Court; (3) in the nomination and election at large of the Magistrates, and therefore of the justices who presided over the judicial courts. Only slight traces of primary elections to determine candidates for town offices or Deputies can be found, but rudimentary forms of the caucus may be discerned in certain pre-election agreements mentioned by Gov. Winthrop as arousing criticism before the development of primary elections had begun, e. g., in 1635, when Lud- low was left out, and again in 1639, when some of the elders strove to prevent the election of Winthrop as Governor. But it is to be noted that the primitive caucus was for general and not local candidates. In 1635, when Haynes was elected Governor, Ludlow, the former Deputy Governor, was altogether left out of the magistracy, partly, according to Winthrop, because he "protested against the Election of the governor as void, for that the deputies of the several towns had agreed upon the election before they came." This, until an earlier instance is brought to light, may be taken as the first 92 Boston and Its Story. legislative caucus in Massachusetts. Perhaps the elders held a caucus in 1639, when they vainly strove to prevent Winthrop's election as Governor. Two years later, Bellingham's election was " labored for." We know of no instances of primary elections to choose candidates for Deputies in the towns. Boston has usually been credited with the origination of the caucus. The term is supposed to be a corruption of "Caulkers" who were wont to manifest much pre-election activity in Boston. It is fairly certain that the caucus was domesticated in Boston early in the eighteenth cen- tury, when the father of Sam Adams was active in the " Caulkers' Club"; and that just before the Revolution there were at least three well-organized "caucus clubs" in the town. Boston did, in 1669, institute local primary elections for the benefit of its two outlying districts, viz., Muddy River (Brookline) and Rumney Marsh (Chelsea), as appears from the following order relative to their inhabitants, passed by the Boston Town Meeting on March 10, 1673: "Ordered, That they have liberty before the day of Election annually for the time to come to meet together and make choice of officers fit for their several precincts and return their names to the public town meeting for election, according to an order 15th March, 1669." The Freemen in 1635 exemplified the Puritan venera- tion for the written word by a demand for written laws: "The deputies," Winthrop tells us, "having conceived great danger to our state in regard that our Magistrates, for want of positive laws, in many cases, might proceed according to their discretions, it was agreed that some men Introduction of the Referendum, 1639. 93 should be appointed to frame a body of grounds of laws, in resemblance to a Magna Charta, which being allowed by some of the ministers and the General Court should be received for fundamental laws." The movement thus initiated resulted in the adoption and enactment in 1641 of the "Bodye of Liberties." During the interval 1635-41, several committees were appointed by the General Court to expedite the matter, but it is evident that the Magistrates and the elders fol- lowed a policy of delay and avoidance. Finally, two models of heads of fundamental laws were drawn up. One was prepared by Rev. John Cotton of Boston, which was characterized as "a copy of Moses His Judicials," the other was by Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, who had been trained as a lawyer. In 1639 the General Court ordered that "the models concerning a form of government and laws to be established" should be drawn up into "one body" by a committee charged "to take order that the same shall be copied out and sent to the several towns that the Elders of the churches and the freemen may consider of them against the next General Court." This reference of the two models appears to have been the first recourse of the General Court to a constitutional referen- dum. Ward's model, not Cotton's, was acepted. Finally it was voted by the General Court on December 10, 1641, "That the body of laws formerly sent forth among the Freemen should stand in force," etc. The Bodye of Liberties was not chiefly a code of statutes; it was in some respects a prophetic type of the Bill of Rights and Frame of Government adopted as the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts in 1780. The Bodye of Liberties was one of the results of the Uprising of the Freemen in 1634. 94 Boston and Its Story. It was, in effect, a supplement to the charter of 1629, as may be inferred from the second paragraph of its preamble, which reads as follows : "We hould it therefore our dutie and safetie whilst we are about the further establishing of this Government to collect and express all such freedomes as for the present we forsee may concerne us, and our posteritie after us. And to ratifie them, with our sollemne consent." Among the liberties guaranteed by the Bodye of Liber- ties to the Freemen was "full power to choose annually . . . out of themselves a convenient number of fit men to order the planting or prudentiall occasions of that Town, according to Instructions given them in writing." The records of Boston abound with references to instructions both to the Selectmen and Deputies. Thus, on March 20, 1679, the Freemen chose a committee to "draw up instructions for the Deputies of the General Court on behalf of the town." August 29 following, the two deputies of the General Court "made a return of what was committed to them by their instructions to promote at the said Court for the town." The Freemen voted that the Deputies should at the next session "again move and press the 5th Article in their instructions con- cerning the augmentation of Deputies of this town." It is noteworthy that the Freemen in the last of the 16 Articles of their instructions desired the Deputies "to make a return of what shall be done in the premises at the end of each session." The Freemen were particularly insistent in their desire to "have deputies in the General Court proportionable to our number of freemen." They alleged, inasmuch as every town that had twenty Freemen might send two Deputies, and no town more than two, Instructions to Boston Representatives, 1764. 95 that "all the Freemen in each town more than twenty have no vote in the General Court. . . . And shall twenty Freemen have equal privileges with our great Town that consists of near twenty times twenty Freemen, and bears their full proportion of all public charges." The General Court on March 16, 1680, passed an order allowing Boston to choose three Deputies. So it appears that the Freemen of Boston secured recognition of the principle, at least with regard to Boston, that represen- tation should be based upon numbers. This was of far- reaching effect, for the same principle was recognized by the Provincial Charter. Boston, because of its greater numbers, was allowed to send four representatives to the General Court. This was in marked contrast to the basis of apportionment which obtained then and even throughout most of the nineteenth century in Rhode Island and Connecticut. There, whatever the size of the towns, the number of representatives in the General Court was the same for each town. So Boston should be credited with having rendered the Massachusetts sys- tem of representation more democratic than that of the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut, that are usually cited as examples of a more liberal democracy than obtained in the Mother Colony of Massachusetts. It appears to have been a well established custom, at least in Boston, of the Freemen in the latter part of the Colonial period, and of their successors, the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants, throughout the Provincial period, to give written instructions to their Deputies and Repre- sentatives. They were enabled thereby to exercise influence upon legislation through what we may call a primitive form of initiative. In 1728 the Boston Town Meeting voted unanimously 96 Boston and Its Story to instruct their Representatives "not to fix a salary for the Governor." In retaliation for such disrespect toward the king, Burnet caused the sessions of the General Court to be held at Salem and Cambridge instead of Boston for a time. In 1729, after Burnet's death, they were resumed in Boston. The period 1764-80, i. e., from the initiation of Gren- ville's measures for taxing the colonies until the adoption of the Constitution of Massachusetts, affords numer- ous instances in which Massachusetts towns exemplified the principles of the initiative. In this period instruc- tions by the towns, particularly the Town of Boston, played a large part in the controversy with the Royal Governors, the king and Parliament, and in the devel- opment of the American doctrine of popular rights. Indeed a fair sized treatise on the Nature of Government and the Rights of the Subject might be compiled from the instructions to their representatives by the Town of Boston. The instructions to the Boston Representatives, in 1764, as in several later years, were the handiwork of Samuel Adams — the ablest and most farseeing American poli- tician of his day. These instructions of 1764 are remark- able in both their tone and content — they strike the keynote of the prolonged debate between Massachusetts and the British Government. In the exercise of their "Constitutional Right of expressing their mind and giving such Instruction ... as they shall Judge proper," the constituents of the Boston Representatives urged them to use their "utmost endeavors to promote Public frugality as one means to lessen the Publick Debt" incurred on account of the late war. There is apprehen- sion of "new taxations" by Parliament. SAMUEL ADAMS, THE GREAT PATRIOT. Instructions to Boston Representatives, 1766. 97 "If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without ever having a Legal Representative where they are laid are we not reduced from the Character of Free Subjects to the Miserable State of tributary Slaves. We therefore earnestly recommend it to you to use your utmost endeavors, to obtain in the General Assembly all necessary Instructions and advice to our Agent, . . . that he may be able to remonstrate for us all those Rights and Privileges which Justly belong to us either by Charter or Birth. As his Majesty's other Northern American Colonys are embark'd with us in this most important Bottom, we further desire you to use your Endeavors that their weight may be added To that of this Province; that by the united Applications of all who are Aggrieved, All may happily obtain Redress." On September 18, 1765, Instructions for the Represen- tatives of the Town after expressing "the greatest Dis- satisfaction" with the Stamp Act add: "And we think it incumbent upon you by no Means to Join in any publick Measures for Countenancing and assisting in the Execution of the same: But to use your best endeavors in the General Assembly, to have the Inherent unalienable Rights of the People of this Province asserted and vindi- cated." The instructions were passed unanimously. In 1766 Bostonians were greatly rejoiced over the repeal of the Stamp Act, and the Town Meeting voted that "every Inhabitant be desired to Illuminate his Dwelling House," and appointed a committee to report "what they think may be further necessary for the Town to do, in order to testify their Gratitude," etc. The Representatives were instructed "to bring forward and promote such an order as shall make the debates in the House of Representatives as public as those in the House of Commons in Great Britain, that you may be very watchful over our Just rights, liberties and privileges. 98 Boston and Its Story. And give us notice whenever you apprehend them in danger; and for the total abolishing of Slavery from among us ; that you move for a law to prohibit the impor- tation and purchasing of slaves for the future. In the next place with respect to North America in general it is our advice and instruction, that you keep up a con- stant and friendly intercourse with the other English Governments on the Continent." One may find in this last injunction a forecast of the Circular letter of 1768 and the statements issued by Com- mittees of Correspondence in 1772 and later. In 1772 Governor Hutchinson's refusal to comply with a petition of Boston to allow the General Assembly to meet impelled the Town on November 2 to vote unanimously, on the motion of Mr. Samuel Adams: "That a Committee of Correspondence be appointed to state the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in Particular as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several Towns in this Province and to the World as the sense of this Town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof that have been made. Also requesting of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this Subject." The committee's report, a lengthy one, was duly con- sidered by the Town, and unanimously adopted, on November 20, 1772, and was published in pamphlet form. In its Statement of Rights and List of Infringements and Violations of those rights, this declaration both in its subject matter and phraseology reads much like a forecast of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. So much so that a correspondent of John Adams assured him that the Declaration of Independence contained nothing new. Statement of Rights, by Boston, 1772. 99 The Statement of Rights by Sam Adams begins as follows : " Among the natural Rights of the Colonists are these, first, a Right to Life; secondly, to Liberty; thirdly, to Property; together with the Right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. Those are evident branches of, rather than deductions from the Duty of Self Preservation, commonly called the first Law of Nature. . . . When Men enter Society it is by voluntary consent; and they have a right to demand and insist upon the performance of such conditions and limitations as form an equitable original compact." The List of Infringements numbers twelve in all. One will suffice here. "1st. The British Parliament ' have assumed the power of legislating for the Colonists in all cases whatsoever, without obtaining the consent of the Inhabitants, which is ever essentially necessary to the right establishment of such a legislative." While suffering from the effects of the Boston Port Bill, the people of Boston were greatly stirred by the news that Parliament had passed still other "intolerable Acts." At a Town Meeting, held on July 26, 1774, Boston "accepted Paragraph by Paragraph" a Letter to the other Towns relative to "Two Acts of Parliament, altering the Course of Justice and annihilating our free Constitu- tion of Government." The second of the acts alluded to provided that no Town meeting, except for an election, should be held in the Province, without the written per- mission of the Royal Governor, — who was also given power to prescribe what matters should be considered in such meetings. On September 1, 1774, General Gage, the last Royal 100 Boston and Its Story. Governor, issued writs for an election of Representatives to the General Court to be convened on October 5 at Salem. On September 25, an election was held for four Representatives from Boston. At the same meeting three persons were appointed and impowered by the Town, — "in addition to our four Representatives to join with the Members who may be sent from the Neighboring Towns in the Province, at a Time to be agreed on, in a General Provincial Congress." The Representatives from Boston were instructed "To adhere firmly to the Charter . . . and to do no Act which can possibly be construed into an Acknowledg- ment of the Act of the British Parliament, for altering the Government of Massachusetts Bay. . . And as we have Reason to believe that a Conscientious Discharge of your Duty will produce your Dissolution, as an House of Representatives, We do hereby impower and instruct you to join with the Members, who may be sent from this and the Neighboring Towns in the Province, and to meet with them on a time to be agreed on, in a General Provincial Congress, to act upon such Matters as may come before you, in such a manner, as shall appear to you most con- ducive to the true Interest of this Town and Province, and most likely to preserve the Liberties of all America." De Tocqueville may well have had the Town of Boston in mind when he wrote : "The American Revolution broke out, and the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people came out of the town- ships and took possession of the State. Every class was enlisted in its cause; battles were fought and victories obtained for it; it became the law of laws." As soon as the meaning of the Regulating Act of 1774 became clear, which forbade the holding of Town meetings without the written permission of the Governor, the PRINTING OFFICE OF JAMES FRANKLIN, WHERE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN LEARNED THE PRINTING TRADE. In the upper story was located the Longroom Club, over which Samuel Adams presided, and where the meetings of the Patriots were held which led to the Revolu- tion and Independence of the Nation. Corner Court Street and Franklin Avenue. Boston Wishes Constitutional Convention, 1777. 101 question of establishing a new form of government began to be agitated. Thus, one of Sam Adams's correspondents, in a letter dated July 29, 1774, declared "It would be best to form a New Charter for ourselves," and on September 12, Dr. Joseph Warren wrote to Adams, "Many among us and almost all in the Western Countys are for taking up the old Form of Government according to the first Charter." At a Town Meeting in Boston, held on May 23, 1776, to consider a referendum issued by the House of Repre- sentatives, it was voted unanimously: "That if the Honble. Continental Congress should for the safety of the Colonies, declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, they the Inhabitants, will solemnly engage with their Lives and Fortunes to support them in the Measure." By this vote Boston instructed its Representatives to vote to authorize the Massachusetts Delegates in Con- gress to vote for Independence. Early in May, 1777, the House of Representatives recommended the towns to instruct their Representatives to act with the Council in forming a Constitution of Government. On May 26 the Town adopted instructions in which their Representatives were "directed by a unanimous vote in a full meeting, on no Terms to consent" to the General Court's forming a new Constitution. The instructions intimate that "This matter at a suitable time will properly come before the people at large to delegate a Select Number for that purpose, and that alone." The Assembly and the Council resolved on June 17 to act as a Convention, and their plan of a Form of Govern- ment was finally ordered printed on December 11, and 102 Boston and Its Story. in May following, the Constitution of 1778, so called, was submitted to the voters of the State. The Boston Town Meeting voted unanimously on May 25 (968 votes being cast) against ratification of the Constitution, chiefly because it had not been framed by a convention chosen especially for the purpose by the people, and furthermore, because it was not prefaced by a bill of rights. The instructions by the Town of Boston, adopted May 26, 1777, embodied what was, perhaps, the first intimation of a desire for a special convention elected by the people to frame a constitution to be submittted to the people for their acceptance or rejection. Be that as it may, it is indisputable that the people of Massachusetts in the spring of 1779, in response to a referendum emanating from the House of Representatives, emphatically declared their desire for: (1) "a New Constitution"; and (2) "the call- ing of a State Convention for the sole purpose of forming a new Constitution." Accordingly the Constitutional Convention of 1779, the first of its kind anywhere, was called. In it Boston was represented by twelve delegates. James Bowdoin of Boston was President of the Convention. Although the Convention met first at Cambridge on September 1, 1779, most of its sessions were held at the Old State House in Boston, where the first General Court of the State of Massachusetts was organized on October 25, 1780. In accordance with a Resolve passed March 2, 1780, the Constitution was submitted to the people. It was duly ratified; but no official statement either in print or manuscript can be found as to the whole number of votes for and against ratification. It seems probable from the incomplete manuscript returns extant, that at least 13,000 votes, 12,000 yeas and 1,000 nays, were cast on Adoption of Constitution, 1780. 103 the acceptance of Article I., Part I. of the Bill of Rights. Like the Convention that framed it the Constitution of 1780 was the first of its kind in America, in that it was adopted by vote of the people. All of the earlier State Constitutions were framed and adopted -by legislative assemblies without an express mandate from the people. The Boston Town Meeting having considered the pro- posed Constitution, paragraph by paragraph, on May 3 and May 4, 1780, on May 8 voted to accept the Constitu- tion as a whole (" except the 3d Article of the Bill of Rights and the 2d Article of the 1st Chapter relative to the mode of Electing Senators") by a vote of 886 yeas to 1 nay. Two days were then devoted to the Third Article of the Bill of Rights, which being amended was finally accepted by a vote of 420 yeas to 140 nays. The article in question authorized and empowered the Legis- lature: (1) to require the Towns to maintain at their own expense public worship and public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality; and (2) to enjoin attendance of all subjects upon the instructions of such teachers. In 1833 this Article was rescinded, in accordance with a constitutional referendum — although a similar refer- endum in 1821 had resulted in a majority against rescission of the Article. It is worthy of note that Boston in 1833 as in 1821 and 1780 voted strongly against Article III. of the Bill of Rights. On September 4, 1780, the first State election under the new Constitution was held. There were 12,281 votes cast for Governor, 600 in Maine, 11,681 in Massachusetts. Maine remained a part of Massachusetts till 1820. John Hancock, like Sam Adams, a product of the Boston Town Meeting, was elected Governor, receiving 11,207 votes, or 104 Boston and Its Story. 91.25 per cent of the total vote for Governor. James Bowdoin, his principal competitor, received 1,033 votes. When we remember that at the election of 1780 the people of Massachusetts were free for the first time since 1692 to elect their Governor, the total vote for Governor seems a light one; particularly as has been mentioned already the vote on the acceptance of the Constitution of 1780 appears to have exceeded 13,000. Another notable feature of the vote for Governor in 1780 was the failure of 71 towns, i. e., 24 per cent of 297 towns, to make return of any vote for Governor. Some 76 towns, of which 42 were in Massachusetts, appear not to have made return of any vote regarding the Constitution of 1780. The Sons of the Revolution may well note that the voting habits of their fathers were rather peculiar. The people of Massachusetts, having secured a con- stitution to their liking, were content to leave it unchanged for forty years. Since 1820, one article in the Bill of Rights and 31 articles in the Frame of Government have been altered through the ratification of 44 amend- ments of the Constitution. In altering the Consti- tution, the people have acted with much deliberation and have shown their dislike of wholesale or headlong changes. Only two conventions to revise the Constitution have been held. The first, held in 1821, proposed fourteen distinct amendments, of which only nine were ratified, although several of the rejected amendments were adopted in later years. The second Constitutional Convention, that of 1853, submitted eight "propositions" to be answered by "Yes" or "No." That numbered "One" was a blanket referendum, covering what was in effect a revised constitution, embodying many radical Constitution of 1780. 105 changes; the other seven were categorical propositions. However, all eight were rejected. On the pending question of holding a third Constitutional Convention, the public has shown but slight interest as yet. As a whole, the Constitution has undergone no very radical or essential change either in its essence or struc- ture in one hundred and thirty-six years, although it has been considerably democratized in certain features. For instance, religious and property tests have been abolished, manhood suffrage established, and the sphere of the electorate much enlarged. Moreover, support of Protestant ministers by the towns and required attendance upon the instructions of the clergy has not obtained for eighty-three years. Originally, the apportionment of Senators was based upon the proportionate amount of taxes paid in the sena- torial districts and apportionment of Representatives was based upon ratable polls. A more democratic basis was introduced in 1840. Since 1857, the basis of appor- tionment of both Senators and Representatives has been the number of legal voters found by a decennial census of the state. Originally, a candidate was debarred from certain offices unless he had a certain amount of property, and property tests hedged in the right to vote for State officers. But that has all been changed by constitutional amendments, ratified by the people. In 1891 the payment of a poll tax ceased to be a prerequisite to registration as a voter. Down to 1855, a majority of votes cast was required in the election of civil officers. Since then, a plurality has sufficed. Again, in 1855, the election of Councilors, Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor and Attorney-General was taken from the Legislature and given over to the people. Of 70 questions referred to the voters of Massachusetts 106 Boston and Its Story. in the interval 1780-1915, inclusive, 62 related to changes in the Constitution. Forty-four proposed amendments were ratified and 18 were rejected. In 18 instances, Boston's vote on a referendum was opposed to the major vote of the state outside of Boston. In 10 cases the vote of Boston turned the scale. Thus, in 1821, Boston's majority of 994 for empowering the Legislature to grant city charters, countervailed a majority of 932 in the rest of the state against so doing. Again, in the same year, it was proposed to require no other oath than that of allegiance from any civil or military officer. The amend- ment was ratified because Boston gave it an affirmative majority of 2,245 against an adverse majority of 943 outside of Boston. In 1853, when eight questions were referred to the voters by the Constitutional Convention, Boston voted contrary to the rest of the state on seven of them, and thereby prevented their ratification. On the eighth question, which was likewise negatived, Boston and the state outside of Boston, both cast a majority in the negative. The majority in Boston against radical changes in the Bill of Rights and the Frame of Govern- ment was 5,785, against an affirmative majority elsewhere of 857, while on forbidding the support of sectarian schools from public moneys, Boston gave an adverse majority of 4,672 against a majority favoring the pro- posal of 4,271 in the rest of the state. It is noteworthy that the eight referenda in 1853 evoked unusual popular interest, so much so that the total votes on the questions submitted ranged from 100.8 to 101.8 per cent of the total vote for Governor. Massachusetts men were not so prominent and influ- ential in transforming the Confederated Colonies into the United States of America, i.e., 1787-88, as they had been Constitutional Convention, 1788. 107 in the Continental Congress, 1774-76. Yet the Town of Boston, voicing the mercantile interests of the place, showed their concern over the weakness of the central government of the Confederacy in 1785, when British goods were being dumped upon the Boston market and the Congress was powerless to retaliate upon the contemptuous and selfish policy of Great Britain. The Town Meeting instructed its Representatives in the General Court to exert their utmost influence with that body to request the Governor "to open a correspondence with the Supreme Executive of the Other States to concert the means of National Unanimity and Exertion." The primary purpose of the Annapolis Convention of 1786 was to "decide upon a uniform system of regulations for commerce." Only 5 states were represented, so it adjourned, having issued a call for a convention to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787; then, in the course of 4 months, the proposed Constitution of the United States was framed. On submission to the people of the several states, Massachusetts, by its Convention, was the sixth of the 9 necessary states to ratify the instrument, by a narrow majority of 19 in a total vote of 345 on February 6, 1788. The major part of the Massachusetts Convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1788 was unfavorably disposed to the instrument when it met. So were Sam Adams and John Hancock, who were mem- bers of the Convention. Elbridge Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, had refused to sign it when the Continental Congress adopted it for submission to the 13 states. By adroit management, the Federalist leaders secured the support of Adams and Hancock. Theophilus Parsons, 108 Boston and Its Story. of Boston, seems to have been the master mind in winning their support by argument and finesse. Indeed it is fairly certain that Parsons wrote the speech in which Hancock theatrically announced his adhesion; and that certain amendments proposed by the Massachusetts Convention, and subsequently adopted by the other states of the Union, were drafted by Parsons, so as to allay Sam Adams's objections to the instrument, as originally submitted. Adams was also influenced by the demon- stration (organized by Paul Revere) of the Boston mechanics at the Green Dragon Tavern in favor of the Constitution. Opposition to the adoption of the Constitution was most vigorous and menacing in Massachusetts and Virginia. The favorable action of the Massachusetts Convention in February doubtless contributed to like action by the Virginia Convention in June, 1788. Of the 10 amend- ments proposed at the first session of the first Congress of the United States, September, 1789 (and duly ratified by December 15, 1791), three of the most important were originally drafted by Theophilus Parsons of Boston, in deference to the views of Adams and Hancock, the most notable and influential spokesmen of the Town Meeting of Boston in their day and generation. Boston got busy before it got big. Being the principal port of New England, it has always been a bustling place of trade in its day and generation. Infant Boston began as a frontier town, with its face towards the Atlantic and its back towards an unexplored continent. Boston, even during its formative, agrarian stage, before the colonists began to seek alluvial plains to the westward, was an active maritime town and the seat of a growing overseas and coastwise commerce. Boston as a Poet. 109 Throughout its history, Boston has been the entrepot of New England. While the Puritan exodus from Eng- land lasted, and it did not cease till 1640, Boston's com- merce was mostly with the mother country, whence came immigrants, cattle and supplies in large numbers and quantities. In 1634, when the Bay Colony had per- haps 4,000 English inhabitants in some twenty villages on or near the coast, Winthrop notes the arrival in June of "fourteen great ships at Boston and one at Salem." The importation of settlers reached its flood in 1638 or thereabouts, when Winthrop says "there came over this Summer twenty ships and at least three thousand persons." It has been estimated that in the period 1630-40. the arrivals in the colony in 298 ships numbered 21,200 pas- sengers, in about 4,000 families; and the cost to the immi- grants for transportation, cattle, supplies, etc., has been set at £192,000. So large an influx of home seekers stimulated both trade and agriculture. Many of the leaders of the migration belonged to the landed gentry, but, in the process of becoming pioneer immigrants, it would appear that their views and prac- tices underwent somewhat of a sea-change. They came away protesting their loyalty to the Anglican Church, but very shortly became Separatists, to all intents and purposes, and embraced the views, as regards church government, exemplified by their neighbors at New Plymouth. No aristocratic scruples prevented them from engaging in trade and industry when occasion served. Although they were ardent seekers after the Bread of Life, they were not neglectful of means to secure their daily bread — in good measure. Of the Magistrates who came out in 1630, several 110 Boston and Its Story. became active men of affairs. Thus, Governor Winthrop built the first Massachusetts sea-going vessel, "The Blessing of the Bay." It was launched July 4, 1631, on the Mystic River, where he had a farm called "Ten Hills." This craft, a bark of perhaps 60 tons, was used in coastwise and West India trade. Coddington, Pyn- chon, Endicott and Sir Richard Saltonstall became active traders and promoters of industrial progress. Governor Winthrop's sons, particularly John Winthrop, Jr., who was an Assistant 1632-49, and later Governor of Connecticut, were active in commercial ventures and attempts to establish iron and salt works. The first ship built in Boston was the "Trial," of about 200 tons. She was built for Boston merchants in 1642. When ready to sail on her maiden voyage to Fayal, with pipe staves and fish, Mr. Cotton "was desired to preach aboard her," but delivered his sermon in the meeting house because "the audience would be too great for the ship." In 1643 the Trial was sent to Bilbao, in Spain, with fish, which was sold there at a good rate, and from thence she freighted for Malaga. She arrived in Boston March 23, 1644, laden with wine, fruit, oil, iron and wool, "which was of great advantage to the country and gave encouragement to trade." As soon as she was again fitted, she was sent to trade with the French along the eastern coast towards Canada. This record of Winthrop's, regarding the ventures of the Trial, is typical of the course of early trade in the Bay. Fish was the staple commodity for barter with foreign ports from the first. The fisheries constituted the principal commercial resource of the colony and were carefully promoted by its government. It was said that in 1641 300,000 dry fish were sent to market. The Boston and the Fisheeies. Ill Bay fisheries seem first to have been undertaken in 1633 by men of Dorchester, who engaged actively in the fur trade also. It was claimed that the Bay cod were twice as large as those caught on the Grand Banks. Capt. John Smith had declared that the New England fisheries promised better than the "best mine the King of Spain hath." In the working of this mine, the Bay colonists developed great energy and enterprise, so that fish was a staple commodity throughout the Colonial and Provincial periods. The General Court took measures for the pro- motion and protection of the fishery. Thus, in 1639, vessels and stock engaged in fishing were exempted from "all country charges" for seven years, and it is note- worthy that fishermen and shipwrights were exempted from military duties. The Rev. Hugh Peter, in 1635, was very active in his efforts to procure capital to set up a fishing business in Massachusetts. The importance of the fishery was a favorite topic in his pulpit deliverances at Boston and Salem. The British State Papers of 1664 are authority for the statement that Boston, with 14,300 (sic) souls had a great trade to Barbadoes in fish and other provisions; 300 vessels traded to the West Indies, Virginia, Madeira, etc., and 1,300 "boats" fished in the waters about Cape Sable, and there was a great mackerel fishery in Cape Cod Bay. It may be that "Boston," as was frequently the case, here meant Massachusetts. The wars between England and France caused fluctua- tions in the trade of New England. Thus, during King George's War, which broke out in 1744, the exports of codfish from Massachusetts Bay in 1748 were only some 53,000 quintals, whereas in 1716 they had amounted to 120,384 quintals. In 1769 the merchants of Boston cal- 112 Boston and Its Story. culated that upwards of 400 vessels were constantly employed in the fishery, whose annual profits of upwards of £160,000 were remitted to meet the cost of imports from Great Britain. Boston, like other towns, sometimes made special efforts to promote the fishing interest. In 1753, while the French and Indian War was waging, the Town leased Deer Island at an annual rent of 20 shillings for seven years to a company that had set up a fishing station at Point Shirley, in Chelsea, on condition that twenty vessels belonging to the inhabitants of Boston should be employed constantly. In 1758, because of depredations by the French on the fishing fleet,' the lessees of Deer Island surrendered their lease. In 1781, less than two months after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the Town Meeting of Boston adopted vigorous instructions to its Representatives, and voted to incorporate them in a circular letter to the other maritime towns of Massachusetts. This action was taken in response to a letter from the Town of Marblehead in relation to "the Fishery." As usual, the "Hon ble Samuel Adams, Esq r ." was placed at the head of the committee to draft the instructions and the circular letter. The instructions say: "In a Time of Peace — We must depend only upon the Staple Commodities of our own Country for the Sup- port of our commerce. These commodities exclusive of the Fishery, will consist only of Lumber, and a small quantity of Inland Provisions. These Articles were never supposed more than Sufficient to ballance our West India Importations; for every European Article of con- sumption therefore (which was formerly paid for by our Fish and Oyl) the Trade must be in debt." The Fisheries of Massachusetts. 113 The instructions conclude: "We instruct and direct you, in the Approaching Sessions of the Legislature of this Commonwealth to move for and to use your influence to procure an Application to Congress, that they would give positive Instructions to their Commissioners for negotiating a Peace, to make the right of the United States to the Fishery an Independ- ent Article of the Treaty." The instructions of Boston to its Representatives in 1783 contain the following injunction: " You will always remember that you represent a Trad- ing Town; and therefore while you justly give your Attention to every Consideration which may lead to promote Agriculture in its utmost extent, you will not fail to exert yourselves in proposing and enforcing every Measure Adapted to cherish and extend our Trade, and to encourage the Fishery, which by the Blessing of Heaven is secured to us by the Treaty of Peace." Now, as from the beginning, the fisheries constitute an important industry in Massachusetts, notwithstanding the fact that manufactures, transportation and trade each employ vastly greater numbers of persons and amounts of capital. Returns of the last Federal Census show, for 1908, that Massachusetts ranked first among the States of the Union as to (a) capital invested in fishing; (6) value of fishing vessels; and (c) the value of products, — although she was third as regards number of vessels and of persons employed. For the whole country, among products of the fisheries, oysters, salmon and cod were ranked in the order named as to value. Massachusetts stood first as to the catch of 18 species of salt-water food fish, including cod, haddock and 114 Boston and Its Story. mackerel. The fishing industry of the state centers in Gloucester and Boston. For these ports, the best available returns are for 1905. In that year, the Glouces- ter fleet numbered 313 vessels, aggregating 24,776 tons, and gave employment to 4,264 fishermen; the corre- sponding figures for Boston being 109 vessels, 8,898 tons, and 1,669 fishermen. Investments in sea and shore fisheries amounted to $4,594,000 in Gloucester, against $1,425,000 in Boston. The value of food fish returned was $3,343,000 for the former, and $2,385,000 for the latter. The value of food fish preparations, including pickled and salted fish, was $6,707,000 for Gloucester, and $618,000 for Boston. But Boston outranks every other port in the country as a market for fresh fish, oysters being excluded. In 1914, receipts of fresh fish at Boston amounted to 922,311 quintals, valued at $2,609,877, against 493,438 quintals, valued at $1,031,769, landed at Gloucester. In the same year, 99.8 per cent of the fish landed at Boston were classed as fresh and 0.2 as salt, whereas at Gloucester the corresponding per cents were 57.9 and 42.1. During its growth and prosperity, the American whale fishery centered in Massachusetts. It does so still, although the industry has dwindled to a pitiful remnant of its former proportions. The value of its products amounted to $2,323,000 in 1880, but to only $497,000 in 1908. In 1908 the whalers of Massachusetts, hailing mostly from New Bedford, were credited with $89,000 worth of whalebone, or 45 per cent of the United States ; and $247,000 worth of oil, or 88 per cent of the United States. The whale fishery of New England had its beginning in the last half of the seventeenth century in the salvage of stranded whales on the shores of the Island of Nan- The Whale Fishery. 115 tucket and of Cape Cod. Whale hunting in boats was the next step. It culminated at Nantucket in 1726, when the catch numbered 86. For the whaleboat and the schooner, a foremost place among Yankee inventions may be claimed. The first schooner rigged vessel was built at Gloucester in 1714, but the development of the whale- boat began still earlier. As the shore and boat fishery of the right whale grew less, ventures in sea-going craft increased. The first vessel in this business was registered in 1698 at Nan- tucket, where 9 sloops were registered in 1714, a year after the pursuit of sperm whales began. The "Hope," of 40 tons, built in Boston, was the largest. In 1730 the number of vessels had increased to 25, with an out- put of 3,700 barrels of oil. John Hull, the mintmaster, is said to have started in Boston the exporting of whale oil about 1670. At any rate, Boston was the principal commercial port for the whale fishery in its early period. Randolph noted the export to England of 200 tons of oil in 1687. In 1745, just before the Nantucketers began to hunt whales in Arctic waters, they sent 10,000 barrels of oil to Boston. The British government encouraged this fishery by a bounty of 40 shillings a ton for oil in 1745. The manu- facture of sperm candles was a derivative result of the sperm whale fishery. In 1761 New England had 8 such factories and Philadelphia one. The industry suffered a severe set back at the out- break of the Revolution, when Nantucket, which was still its chief center, had more than 1^0 vessels, averag- ing 100 tons, afloat. The estimated annual produce of the fishery, when the Boston Port Bill took effect, was: 53,500 barrels of oil and 75,000 pounds of bone. In 116 Boston and Its Stoey. 1775 Massachusetts gave bounties for the encourage- ment of the fishery; but it continued to languish till after the close of the war. About 1789 the pursuit of whales was extended to the Pacific Ocean. "The Golden Age of the business was in the years 1835-46. Then the United States, and chiefly New England, employed 678 ships and barks, 35 brigs, 22 schooners. They registered 233,189 tons, and were valued at $21,075,000. At the same time, the foreign fleet included 230 vessels. . . . After the full develop- ment of the deep sea fishery, New England easily led all the world." In 1629, when the Bay Company was incorporated, the colonial policy of England was largely what the King chose to make it, — Parliament had practically no say in the matter. Moreover, the commercial policy of the Kingdom was still ill-defined and feeble. Under its charter, the Company was free "to transport to New England persons and commodities of every sort without paying any custom or subsidy either inward or outward for seven years." It was likewise exempted for twenty- one years from all taxes and impositions upon imports or exports so far as the realm of England was concerned. In the period 1630-40, despite the machinations of Archbishop Laud, Sir F. Gorges and others of the King's party against the chartered rights of the Bay Company, immigrants poured into New England through the port of Boston, and the Bay Company was transformed by the informing Puritan spirit into an almost independent state. The founders of Massachusetts, enjoying the privileges of free trade, were able to work out their economic development in their own way. Under the stimulus of opportunity, their commercial Beginnings of Commerce. 117 instincts were speedily aroused. Accordingly, the trade of Boston grew both in volume and variety from the first, by reason of the enterprise shown in developing coastwise traffic in fish and furs, corn and tobacco. Thus, in May, 1631, there arrived in Boston a pinnace from Virginia laden with corn and tobacco, and in 1634 a single vessel brought 10,000 bushels of corn from thence. Winthrop's bark, the Blessing of the Bay, launched in 1631, traded with the Dutch at Manhattan, and with Saint Kitts, one of the West India Islands, as well as with English settle- ments in New Hampshire and Maine. Winthrop makes frequent mention of the arrival at Boston, in coastwise craft, of passengers bound for England. In 1633 a small ship of sixty tons was built at Medford. This craft, "The Rebecca," in 1634 brought 500 bushels of corn from Narragansett, and in March, 1636, arrived from Bermuda "with 30,000 weight of potatoes, and store of oranges and limes." The number of craft engaged in this early coastwise trade cannot be stated, but in 1635 the number of English ships trading to New England was put at more than "forty sail," of which "six at least" were said to belong in New England. In the period 1640-60, which was signalized by the Civil War, the emergence and downfall of the Puritan Commonwealth in England, the Puritan Commonwealth in the Bay continued to prosper. In 1643 the Long Parliament showed its favor by formally granting it free trade. This measure seems to have stimulated industrial enterprise in and about Boston. Massachusetts fisher- men began to extend their operations to the Banks of Newfoundland. Exportation of masts to England, which began as early as 1634, attained large proportions. Ship- building began in Boston in 1642, where a rope-walk had 118 Boston and Its Story. been started in 1641. By 1719 there were fourteen ship- yards in Boston, and by 1741 it sustained an equal number of rope-walks. It was officially set forth by the Lords of Trade, in 1721, respecting the Province of Massachusetts, that the people had "all sorts of common manufactures, but that the branch of trade that was of most importance to them, and which they were best enabled to carry on was the building of ships, sloops, etc." About 150 vessels were built in a year, measuring 6,000 tons, mostly for sale abroad, while there were about 190 sail owned in the Province, besides 150 boats employed in the coast fisheries. In 1736 there were 43 vessels on the stocks at one time in Boston, and 41 in 1738. In 1749 the number of such vessels had declined to 15. But the decline of ship- building at Boston in this period is attributable in some measure to its increase in other towns of Massachusetts, e. g m) Gloucester and Haverhill. It is said that in the period 1769-71, "more than one half of the American tonnage, or from 10,000 to 12,000 tons, were built in Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire. By 1642 the manufacture of linen and cotton cloth had begun on a modest scale, and in 1643, when Boston granted 3,000 acres of land to John Winthrop, Jr., and his asso- ciates for the encouragement of the iron works at Brain- tree, ambitious undertakings for the smelting of native iron ore were projected. But ship building was the lead- ing branch of manufactures in Boston for more than a century. About this time, trade with the West Indies became more active, and Boston merchants extended their trade to the Azores and the Canary Islands, as well as to Spain and Portugal. The brisk trade with the West Indies brought in much Spanish silver, some of it counter- The Navigation Act. 119 feit. So, in 1652, the General Court established a mint in Boston, and John Hull of Boston, a leading business man and an extensive ship owner, was made mintmaster. The mint was discontinued when Andros was Governor. During the Protectorate of Cromwell, the commercial policy of England became more vigorous and definite. Originally instituted for the purpose of wresting commer- cial supremacy from the Dutch, it exerted a powerful and malign influence upon the development of the colonial policy of the British government for over a century after the Restoration in 1660. Cromwell's Navigation Act of 1651 provided that all colonial trade should be carried on in ships built and owned in England or her colonies, and that as regards certain commodities, trade should be with England only. But Cromwell did not enforce the act against New England. The Restoration in 1660 marked the opening of a new era in the history of the American colonies. The British government set about controlling both the trade and internal affairs of its overseas dependencies. The Council for Trade and Plantations was revived. This was the forerunner of the Lords of Trade whose ill-judged activity in the eighteenth century proved a potent factor in the alienation of the colonies. In 1660 and 1663 the Navi- gation Act was re-enacted. Notwithstanding repeated threats to the contrary, strenuous efforts to enforce it were not made for a dozen years. Possibly Charles the Second's rising displeasure with the Bay Colony was somewhat mitigated for a time, by the present, in 1666, of masts for the royal navy which are said to have cost the General Court £2,000. Mention is made of a present to the King of samp, cranberries and codfish from Massa- 120 Boston and Its Story. chusetts and the Merry Monarch's favorite oath is said to have been " Cod's fish!" But complaints continued against Massachusetts and, in 1676, Edward Randolph, who became its inveterate enemy, arrived in Boston as an agent of the Crown. After two months' stay, during which his attention was chiefly confined to the colony, " commonly called the Corporation of Boston," he returned to England, and made a highly interesting report of his investigations. In Boston, "the mart-town of the West Indies," there was " no notice taken of the Act of Navigation." It had extensive commerce with "most parts of Europe." Vessels had been sent even "to Guinea, Madagascar and those coasts laden with masts and yards for ships." He reported that the "ves- sels built in or belonging to that colony" numbered thirty, ranging between 100 and 250 tons' burden, besides 700 of less than 100 tons. Randolph, who is said to have made eight voyages to New England in nine years, succeeded in inducing Charles II. to institute more rigorous measures for the control of New England. Late in 1679 he arrived for the second time in Boston, having been appointed "collector, sur- veyor, and searcher of customs" in all the New England colonies. He brought a letter from the King, enjoining "a strict obedience to the Acts of Trade and Navigation." Randolph seized several vessels, but could not secure their condemnation by the courts. He formally complained to the King against the obstructive and evasive "Bos- toneers," charging, among other things, that through their violation of the acts and consequent engrossment of the West India trade, his Majesty was annually deprived of £100,000 in the customs. In 1681 he returned from England with enlarged powers and brought still more SIMON BRADSTREET, THE LAST COLONIAL GOVERNOR. Free Trade in Massachusetts. 121 peremptory orders from the crown, coupled with threats against the charter, although the General Court in 1679 had passed an act requiring compliance with the Naviga- tion Act. The struggle went on and resulted in the revocation of the Charter in 1684; seizure of the Colony's liberties into the King's hands in 1686; and Andros's tyranny from 1686-89. So in its clash with the Crown over restrictions on its trade, the Bay Colony lost its charter and was reduced to the condition of a Royal Province. But it should be remembered that in 1679, after pro- fessing compliance with the royal commands, the General Court wrote to its agents regarding the Acts of Trade and Navigation that "they apprehended them to be an invasion of the rights, liberties, and properties of the subjects of his Majesty in this Colony, they not being represented in parliament, etc." It is rather startling to find the kernel of Sam Adams's argument against the Stamp Act set forth in 1679 by a General Court, pre- sided over by the conservative. Simon Bradstreet, who had been a Magistrate ever since 1629. With Bradstreet 's death in 1697, at the age of ninety-four, the last of the founders of Massachusetts passed away. Massachusetts down to 1692 enjoyed free, open trade with all the world, by reason of the fact that the restric- tive measures of the Stuarts were little better than dead letters, owing to the feeble efforts of the authorities to secure their enforcement and the success of the merchants in evading them. King William III., like his successors, was committed to a vigorous commercial and colonial policy, but it was reserved for the House of Hanover to develop that policy to such a degree as to infuriate and alienate all America. 122 Boston and Its Story. The Royal Governors of Massachusetts from Andros to Gage were generally placemen. Hutchinson's com- ment on Governor Burnet is applicable to most of them. "He did not know the temper of the people of New Eng- land. They have a strong sense of liberty, and are more easily drawn than driven." Sir William Phips, the first Royal Governor, was a self-made man and a native New Englander, but not a Massachusetts man. He was the son of a Maine mechanic, and became a shipmaster. His success in raising a Spanish treasure ship and his extraordinary honesty in turning all of the recovered treasure, some £300,000 in value, over to his employers won him his knighthood. But Phips was a better ship- master than Governor. He was a two-fisted brawler and was summoned to England, where he died in 1698, to answer complaints against certain high-handed proceed- ings against the King's agents in Boston. The Earl of Bellomont, a rather easy-going personage, succeeded Phips. He occupied two gubernatorial chairs, being at once Governor, of Massachusetts and Governor of New York. He died in New York in 1701. His suc- cessor in Massachusetts was Joseph Dudley, a native of Roxbury, who was succeeded by Samuel Shute, an English- man, in 1716, in whose administration the struggle between the colonists and the Royal Governors may be said to have begun. Bellomont was impressed by the extent of Boston's trade, and ventured the statement that "there were more ships belonging to the town of Boston than to all Scotland and Ireland." He reported that in 1698, when there were 63 wharves in Boston and 14 in Charlestown, 193 ships were owned in Boston. In 1709 Governor Dudley Commerce of Boston, 1709-16. 123 set their number at 250. In 1716 the value of exports from New England was estimated at £300,000. The returns of the commerce of Boston for the three years ending June 4, 1717, accounted for the clearance of 1,267 vessels (of which 1,200 were plantation built), amounting to 62,688 tons, and employing upwards of 8,000 men. This was an average of 422 vessels, and of more than 20,000 tons for the three years. The clearances from the port of New York for the same period averaged 7,000 tons. The following statement shows the destina- tion of the vessels outward bound from Boston in the period mentioned. Cleared for : West Indies 518 Europe 43 British Plantations 390 Madeira, Azores, etc . . . 34 (coastwise?) Bay of Campeachy in Great Britain. 143 Mexico 25 Foreign plantations ... 58 Ports unknown 11 Newfoundland 45 In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the manufacture of rum from molasses introduced a new element into the industrial and commercial activities of Boston and New England. The beginnings of the dis- tilling industry are rather obscure. Originally, molasses appears to have been considered a useless by-product by the sugar planters of the West Indies, so that Boston traders secured an abundant supply of it at favorable rates in exchange for fish. Emanuel Downing, Governor Winthrop's brother-in-law, began distilling in Salem, in 124 Boston and Its Story. 1648. Mention is made of a stillhouse in 1714 in Boston, which, a dozen years later, was credited with eight such establishments. The Molasses Act, passed by Parliament in 1733, levied a prohibitive duty of Qd. per gallon upon molasses imported into the Colonies from other than British ports. It aimed at the breaking up of trade with the French, Dutch and Spanish islands which furnished Massachusetts and Rhode Island distillers with most of their molasses. In 1764 the duty was reduced to 3d. per gallon. But the acts were evaded and rum continued to be a staple com- modity in colonial trade, and a cause of friction with the British government for more than a generation. The enforcement of the Molasses Act, as in the case of the Navigation Act, was lax and fitful and at times corrupt. It has been noted that during the middle third of the eighteenth century, "The whole commercial atmosphere of the colonies was surcharged with illicit trade in one or another form." The Boston Town Meeting appealed to the General Court in 1735 for an abatement in the Province tax, and alleged that the Molasses Act had lessened "the Distil- lery of this Town at least one half," thereby interfering with the export of rum to almost all parts of British America. Consequently trade was hampered with New- foundland as well as with the Carolinas, etc., for naval stores, rice, grain and flour. In 1742, when Boston renewed its plea for abatement of taxes, the Town Meeting's memorial declared that the general trade of the Town was less by one half than in 1735, the amount of molasses distilled was barely two thirds of what it had been in that year; trade with the West Indies was "reduced to almost nothing," as was The Distilling Industry. 125 the building of ships, which had formerly given employ- ment to more persons than all other branches of trade taken together. Incidentally, it may be noted that in the period 1735-42, the Town Rate rose from £7,800 to £11,000; the charge for the poor from £2,070 to £5,000; the support of the ministry from £8,000 to £12,000. Moreover, the excessively high price of provisions was a source of impoverishment to Boston. An influential factor in the unsatisfactory condition of Boston's finances and com- merce at this time was the inflation of the currency, caused by the issue of paper money, that had been going on for more than twenty years. Doubtless the commerce and manufactures of Boston were deranged at times, owing to annoying instructions from his Majesty to the Governors of Massachusetts; to economic disturbances, owing to England's frequent wars with continental powers; and to the stubborn insistence of the merchants on trading with whom they pleased. But in spite of the lugubrious utterances of Bostonians and others as to the decline of the Town's commerce, the fact remains that notwithstanding increased competition with other colonial ports, and of restrictive measures by the British government, Boston never lost its primacy as a port until it was closed by the Boston Port Act in 1774. It is certain that trade was brisk in 1750, and that rum helped to make it so. Rum from Boston or Newport distilleries was then the staple export in the ventures to the Gold Coast in exchange for negroes and gold dust. In an official document it was reported that in 1750 there were 63 distilleries in Massachusetts, in which more than 15,000 hogsheads of molasses were consumed. The report notes that rum served as merchandise for 126 Boston and Its Story. Guinea, the Banks of Newfoundland, and the southern colonies, "and as store for consumption of about 900 ves- sels engaged in the various branches of their trade at sea." The report also mentioned that 200 vessels were engaged annually in the mackerel and other small catch for the West Indies; 400 vessels in the cod fishery; and 100 in the whale fishery. In another official statement, dated in 1764, it was estimated that for more than 30 years Rhode Island had annually sent 18 vessels with 1,800 hogsheads of rum to the Gold Coast. The Guinea negroes were mostly disposed of in the West Indies or the southern colonies. Still, there was a market for slaves in Massa- chusetts as in Rhode Island, even in the second third of the eighteenth century. A writer in the Boston News Letter, in 1769, claimed that 23,743 negroes were imported " into this province," in the period 1756-66. Very likely the negroes entered at Newport, R. I., were included in the total credited to Massachusetts. In 1774 the New Eng- land colonies forbade the importation of negroes. But the manufacture of New England rum continued to be an important and lucrative interest in Massachusetts long after the Revolution. The distilling of rum from molasses still centers in Bos- ton and its immediate vicinity. In 1914, out of 19 such concerns in the United States, 6 were in Massachusetts, and 3 in Boston. In the fiscal year 1915, the exports of rum from Boston amounted to 1,161,435 gallons, valued at $1,555,086. In other words, the exports of rum from Boston in 1915 equalled 94 per cent of the total quantity exported from the United States, and 98 per cent of its value. In the five years 1910-14, the annual value of the rum exported from Boston averaged $1,649,000. Most of it went to the West Coast of Africa. The Molasses and Stamp Acts. 127 In the period 1764-74, the relations of England and her American colonies became strained to the breaking point. The triumphant close for England of the French and Indian War, in 1763, removed one of the strongest bonds between the mother country and the colonies. The colonial policy of the British government grew increasingly arbitrary and exasperating. Grenville's Ministry under- took: to enforce the acts of Trade and Navigation more stringently than they ever had been; to raise revenue for the imperial treasury by taxation of the colonies; and to establish a Colonial Department, in place of the Lords of Trade, for the more effectual control of all the colonies. In 1764, Parliament re-enacted the Molasses Act of 1733, in such terms as to protect the British West Indian planters as against the northern colonies. The sugar plantations in the British West Indies were, in large part, owned by men resident in England, who were able to influence parliamentary elections, while the colonists had no votes in Parliament to trade with the King's friends. The Massachusetts General Court protested that the effect of the act would be to close the markets, both in the West Indies and in Europe, against New England fish — thus rendering useless vessels worth £100,000, and throwing 5,000 seamen out of employment. In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed. It met with such opposition on both sides of the water as to cause its repeal in 1766. But in that year, to save the face of the govern- ment, the Declaratory Act was passed, which asserted the right of Parliament to tax the American colonies. Hutchinson dates the revolt of the colonies from 1766. At any rate, the Declaratory Act aroused renewed appre- hension and resentment in Massachusetts. In 1767, the Townshend Act, levying colonial taxes on glass, lead, 128 Boston and Its Story. paints, paper and tea, was passed. The East India Com- pany, although it had a practical monopoly of the tea trade, was in financial straits. The act remitted the export duty from England of one shilling per pound, but laid a duty of three pence per pound on teas imported into America from England. But the colonies were not to be cajoled by the proffer of cheaper teas at the expense of what they deemed their inalienable right — not to be taxed by the British Parliament in which they were not represented. Moreover, the New Englanders, like the English, could procure smuggled tea from Holland. The East India Company claimed that the annual consumption of tea in America at this period amounted to more than £3,000,000 in value. In Boston, the act led the Town Meeting to declare against the importation of English commodities, and in 1768, a combination was formed "to eat nothing, to drink nothing, to wear nothing imported from Great Britain, " and the merchants agreed not to import British goods. Accordingly, English exports to New England declined from £430,809 in 1768 to £223,696 in 1769, or 48 per cent. In 1770, Parliament, acknowledging that the Town- shend Act embodied a mistaken commercial policy, repealed all the taxes levied under the act, except that on tea. The retention of the tea tax was attributed to the insistence of the King, who was said to "have Boston on the brain." Late in 1773, a crisis was precipitated by the arrival of vessels from England with cargoes of tea, consigned to agents of the East India Company. The company also sent consignments to its agents in New York, Philadel- phia, and Charleston, S. C. Vigorous opposition in all four colonies defeated the purposes of the East India The Boston Poet Bill. 129 Company. But the " Boston Tea Party," on December 16, 1773, when a party of Bostonians, disguised as Mohawk Indians, threw the cargoes of three vessels into the harbor, drew upon Boston's devoted head the resentment of the King and Parliament. In order to punish Boston, the Boston Port Act was passed in March, 1774. It provided that Boston should cease to be a port of entry on the first of June, 1774, unless the Town would indemnify the East India Company for the loss of its teas; and furthermore, that the adminis- trative offices of the colony should be removed to Salem. The Port Act was followed by the Regulating Act which practically annulled the charter of the Province without notice. It provided that members of the Council should thereafter be appointed by the King. The act also forbade town meetings throughout the Province, except for hold- ing annual elections, or by the special permission of the Governor for the consideration of matters prescribed by him. Another act legalized the quartering of British troops in Boston or in other towns. General Gage, the commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces in America, was sent to Boston as Royal Governor of Massachusetts, to enforce these acts. Gage was the second professional soldier to be made Governor of Massachusetts. As in the case of Andros, his predecessor s his administration ended in a revolution! On June 1, 1774, the Boston Port Bill took effect. At noon, when the custom house was closed, the bells were tolled. "The ruin, and starvation of Boston at once began. The industry of a place which lived by the build- ing, sailing, and unloading of ships was annihilated in a single moment." The act was so drastic that the move- ment of boats from wharf to wharf, or of scows from the 130 Boston and Its Story. islands in the harbor to the town, and even the passage of ferry boats was interdicted. Some notion of the extent of Boston's commerce at this lime may be gathered from the following statement concerning entries and clearances of the port in the year 1773: Entries. Clearances. 1773. 1773. From West Indies 192 From West Indies 134 Great Britain 71 Great Britain 26 Other Ports 324 Other Ports 251 587 411 The woful plight of Boston aroused sympathy through- out the Province and the colonies. The suffering town received aid in cash and provisions from near and far. The largest contribution in money was £3,000 from South Carolina. The cause of Boston shortly became that of the colonies, and led to the calling of the first Continental Congress, which met in September, 1774, in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Town Meeting took active measures to meet the exigency. A Committee of Ways and Means to succor the poor of the town was appointed, and various public works to provide them with employment were authorized. Through the Committee of Correspondence, an appeal was sent to all the other colonies "to stop all Importations from Great Britain and Exportations to Great Britain and every part of the West Indies till the Act for Blocking up this Harbor be repealed." When the Continental Congress met in September, 1774, it unanimously resolved that after the first day of the following December there should be no importation, purchase or use of commodities from Great Britain or Ireland, and that after a year, " unless the grievances of America are redressed before that time, exportations to •— *-^^ t *» y ^- ■■ l^i,„n -jj* 1 " THE OLD NORTH CHURCH. From the steeple of this church Paul Revere's lantern April 18, 1775. s were hung the night of Boston the Lord Mayor of America. 131 those countries from the colonies should cease." It may be noted that British exports to New England averaged £409,000 annually in the five years preceding the Revolu- tion, against imports averaging £384,000 in value. When the new Parliament met it was confronted by a very different state of affairs from that anticipated by its predecessor, which had been assured by the Prime Min- ister that "By punishing Boston, all America would be struck with a panic." Edmund Burke assured Parliament that the "cause of Boston is become the cause of all America. By these acts of oppression, you have made Boston the Lord Mayor of America." But Parliament proceeded, in the spring of 1775, to enact the Restraining Bill, which forbade trade from New England ports except to the British Isles and the British West India Islands. Meanwhile, the contest between Governor Gage and the Town of Boston proceeded on such lines as to lead to armed revolt at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill in 1775. Thus, Boston furnished the scene and the actors in the opening act of the drama of the American Revolution. Maritime enterprise in Massachusetts during the Revolution was largely diverted into privateering, which proved a profitable business, although a considerable trade with French ports was developed also. During the war, the number of registered privateers belonging to Boston rose to 365, while those of Salem numbered 180. Local trade was considerably stimulated by the arrival of the French fleet in 1780. After the close of the war, in 1783, the trade of Boston began to resume its wonted channels as regards the fishery and shipbuilding. But Great Britain obstinately clung to its old commercial policy and refused to modify the 132 Boston and Its Story. Navigation Act or to permit reciprocity in trade between its ports and those of the United States. In the commer- cial warfare that followed, the merchants of Massachu- setts had to seek new markets, so embarrassing were the British restrictions on commerce between the United States and the ports of the United Kingdom and its remaining colonies in America. In 1849, Great Britain first allowed vessels from the United States to carry cargoes from the British West Indies to England. It was not till 1854 that reciprocity in trade was established by treaty between the British possessions in America and the United States. Unfortunately, the treaty was abrogated by the United States in 1866. The British orders in council were intended to shut American ships out of the carrying trade and to prevent commercial intercourse between the British West Indies and the United States in any but British ships. In 1786, Parliament passed an act forbidding British subjects to own or employ any American-built ship unless it were built before 1776, although ships could be built in New England and sold in England for one-third less than British-built vessels. Nevertheless, by 1788, commercial prosperity had begun to smile again on Boston. The building of larger ships had begun, and Boston and Salem merchants were already fitting out vessels for China and the East Indies. At the beginning of August, 1788, " trade continued brisk" in Boston, when exports aggregating some £216,000 for a year were reported, and four large ships of 300 tons were about to be launched. Among the leading exports, one finds mention of: fish, £66,245; New England rum, £50,620; oil, £34,864, and pot and pearl ashes, £30,485. I^fi Q -w o Z < a, DO _J c aT 15 Z ." O UJ £ x £ E * UJ Z bfl CO — a> z U. j= (D "£J a. -C (/> < £ 3 C -O o > 0) <*> en < z to -C 2 "" o -C " h- i- s D _J o ° iA > J3 J^ UJ to r»- cc X — UJ -^ t« 1- C^ >> u. "^ _i Q_ O u. -S ^ 1 K > _l -(^ -C z o 1.5 ^ Boston's Trade with China. 133 In July, 1788, orders were received in Boston, from an American agent in Canton, for the building of a larger ship than had ever been constructed in America. Accord- ingly, the " Massachusetts" of 820 tons, and "of a remark- ably fine model" was laid down in Germantown (in Quincy, near Boston). She was suited with sails and cordage made in Boston. She was launched in Sep- tember, 1789, and seven months later sailed for Batavia and Canton. In Canton she was sold for $65,000. In 1789, Boston sent 44 vessels to the northwest coast, to India and to China. The beginnings of the trade with China, via the Isle of France (Mauritius), was made by a Salem ship, the " Grand Turk," in 1758. In 1787 the French opened the isles of France and Bourbon to Americans on equal terms with their own citizens. Of 23 American vessels arrived in those island in 1789, 16 were Boston or Salem craft. In this branch of the China trade, outward bound ships carried mixed cargoes of goods imported from the Conti- nent of Europe, besides West India goods and domestic products of the United States. The same ships, returning, brought teas and coffee, spices, silks and muslins, for which there was an active demand in the principal ports on the Atlantic seaboard that had close commercial relations with Boston. Massachusetts enjoyed a large share of the trade with Russia, which had begun as early as 1784. In 1803, of 90 American vessels arrived at St. Petersburg, in the course of three months, 54 belonged in Massachusetts. Iron bars and rods in large quantities, imported from Russia, were utilized by the slitting mills of Massachu- setts, which, about 1790, began the making of nails and 134 Boston and Its Story. screws by machinery. The Russia trade continued to be large and profitable till the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. The first American vessels to circumnavigate the globe were the Boston ship " Columbia," of 212 tons, and the sloop "Washington," of 90 tons. They were fitted out by an association of Boston merchants, and despatched, in 1787, to the Pacific coast to procure furs from the Indians, to be exchanged for teas in Canton. After an absence of nearly three years, the Columbia arrived in Boston on August 10, 1790, when "the whole population of the town assembled on the wharves to welcome her." In May, 1792, Captain Gray of Boston, in the Colum- bia, discovered the great river of Oregon and named it after his ship. It is said that the Indians on that coast called all white men "Bostonais." Subsequently, the trade with China, in which the Columbia was the pioneer, assumed large proportions, besides stimulating the shipyards of Boston to produce larger and faster ships. In the two and one half years ending January 9, 1803, of 34,357 sea-otter skins imported into China, valued at about $859,000, 88.5 per cent were carried in Boston vessels. During the same period over one million seal skins were sent from the northwest coast to China. They were worth perhaps $900,000. The China trade of Boston culminated about the middle of the nineteenth century. It was unfavorably influenced by ill-advised legislation of Massachusetts, in 1824, when a tax of 1 per cent was laid on sales of merchandise at auction. Cargoes in this trade were then usually disposed of at public auction. It was not till 1852 that this handi- cap was removed; but meanwhile the China trade had been largely diverted from Boston to New York. In Exports of Ice from Boston. 135 1857, of 41 ships arrived in New York from China — 20 belonged in Boston. In the same year, only 6 ships arrived from China at Boston. About one hundred years ago the export of ice from Boston to Martinique and Jamaica in the West Indies was started. In 1833, a small cargo of ice was shipped from Boston to Calcutta. The trade thus initiated later gave Boston the key to lucrative and extensive commerce between Calcutta and the United States. In 1857, upwards of 10,000 tons of ice were exported from Boston to the East Indies. The trade culminated in 1867, when the amount exported was 27,000 tons. In that year the foreign and coastwise export of ice from Boston reached its maximum, viz., 142,463 tons The Calcutta trade of Boston reached its highest development in the years 1856-59. Of 122 ships loaded for the United States at Calcutta in 1857, carrying 189,267 tons, valued at $17,000,000, 75 per cent came to Boston, and earned freight that was estimated at $2,000,000. In the four years noted the average annual number of arrivals was 79, with an average tonnage of 121,271. The greatest number of arrivals in this trade was 96 ships in 1857. In 1859, New York began to gain upon Boston, but it was not till 1867 that the importa- tions to New York actually exceeded those to Boston. Before the Civil War, 75 per cent of the Calcutta goods imported at Boston were shipped again coastwise, thus affording a second freight to ship owners. During the Colonial and Provincial periods commerce with the West Indies bulked large in the trade of Massa- chusetts and Boston. Thus, in 1676, Randolph character- ized Boston as the "Mart town of the West Indies." In 1709, Massachusetts had 120 ships trading with those 136 Boston and Its Story. islands, or 48 per cent of all its ships. In 1741, New England's commerce was estimated at £200,000, equally divided between Old England and the West Indies. In 1773, of 998 entries and clearances at Boston, 326, or 32.7 per cent, were in the West India trade, against 97, or 9.7, with Great Britain. Although intercourse with the British West Indies was much hampered by the restrictive policy of Great Britain from 1783 to 1849, still considerable trade was carried on between American ports and those of the non-British islands. Exports from Boston to the British and French West Indies in 1790 amounted to 2.078 and 3.285 million dollars, respectively, against 6.889 millions' worth sent to the United Kingdom. Of 392 clearances at Boston in 1793, one hundred and nineteen were to the West Indies against 11 to British home ports. Throughout the nineteenth century' Boston maintained a considerable trade with the West Indies, but relatively it was and is now of less consequence than in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, when British restrictions upon it proved a potent factor in precipitating the Revolution. On the basis of values, Boston's trade with the West Indies was 9.8 per cent of its total trade in 1880, and 6.8 per cent in 1915, as compared with its proportionate trade with Great Britain, viz., 69.5 in 1880, and 46.6 in 1915. In 1790, of 542,962 tons entered in the overseas trade from all foreign countries, Europe furnished 44.3 per cent and the West Indies 49.5. Of the European tonnage, viz., 240,485, 47.1 per cent, were owned in the United States, 52.5 in foreign countries, and 43.2 in the United Kingdom. Of the West India tonnage, viz., 268,735, 62.3 BIRTHPLACE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 17 MILK STREET, WITH INSERT OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AT UPPER RIGHT. Shipping at Boston, 1790. 137 per cent were owned in the United States, 37.7 abroad, and 34.6 in the United Kingdom. In 1790, the aggregate tonnage of entries into ports of the United States was 766,091, of which two-thirds belonged to the United States, and less than one-third to the United Kingdom, and 197,368 tons were entered at Massachusetts ports (Boston and Salem), or 25.8 per cent of the tonnage entered in the whole country. Massa- chusetts entries of American shipping, viz., 177,022, included 99,123 tons in oversea trade, 53,073 in the coasting trade, and 24,826 in fishing vessels. In other words, the combined entries at Boston and Salem amounted to 35.2 per cent of the tonnage entered in the country, in United States vessels, (27.3 per cent of the oversea trade entered, 46.9 of those in the coasting trade, and 94.6 of fishing vessels entered). The following statement shows the rank of the Massa- chusetts ports, in comparison with their principal rivals: Tonnage Belonging in 1790 to Poets. All Nations. United States. Foreign Countries. 197,368 109,918 92,114 177,022 56,997 48,274 20,346 52,270 43,840 Of course, in 1790, there were no steamships represented in the tonnage entered in Massachusetts. In 1890, of 2,315 craft entered at Boston, with a total tonnage of 1,449,870, 1,525 were sailing ships, with a tonnage of 302,353, or 20.9 per cent; against 790 steamers, with a total tonnage of 1,147,517, or 79.1 per cent. In 1790, 138 Boston and Its Story. of the total entries of tonnage, 89.7 per cent were in American vessels, and 10.3 in foreign. In 1890, of 1,449,870 tons, only 13.6 per cent were in American against 86.4 in foreign bottoms. The corresponding per cents for 1915 were 11.3 and 88.7. Foreign arrivals, in the year 1790, at the port of Boston were 455, while, in addition, the vessels employed in the coasting trade were said to number 1,200 sail. In the fiscal year 1790-91, duties collected in the ports of Massa- chusetts amounted to $420,707, about one-seventh of the total for the ports of the United States. The exports of Massachusetts in the fiscal year 1792 were valued at $3,389,922. Foreign entries in 1793 were 376, and foreign clearances 292. Pemberton's " Description of Boston/ ' in 1794, credits the town with eighty wharves and quays. Pemberton says (November, 1794): "The harbour of Boston is at this date crowded with vessels. Eighty-four sail have been counted lying at two of the wharves only. It is reckoned that not less than four hundred and fifty sail . . . are now in this port." The most famous of American naval frigates, "The Constitution," was built by Edmund Hart at his wharf in Boston, the site of which is covered by the present Constitution Wharf. The Constitution, of 1,567 tons, was launched October 21, 1797. She carried 52 guns. She served against the French in 1799, and did brilliant service in the War of 1812, in which she gained the name of "Old Ironsides." Her e-fitted hulk is now kept as a memorial at the Charlestown Navy Yard, which was established in 1800. The sails of the Constitution were made in the Granary of Boston, and the sail-cloth of Teade of Boston, 1793-1815. 139 which they were made was woven in a factory at the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets. The product of this factory is said to have amounted to between eighty and ninety thousand yards per annum, and to have competed successfully with the duck brought from abroad. The almost continuous warfare between Great Britain and France, in the period 1793-1815, wrought havoc on the commerce of Boston, and more especially on its trade with Europe. Again and again the Town Meeting expressed its displeasure with the measures taken by the Federal government to meet the selfish and contemptuous policy of both France and England towards the infant empire of the United States. Witness: (1) its denuncia- tion, in 1795, of the Jay treaty with England, and appeal to the President not to ratify it; (2) its appeal in 1808, for the repeal of the Embargo Act; and (3) its circular letter of June 15, 1812, to the towns of Massachusetts, containing a long series of spirited resolves in favor of impartial neutrality. These resolves were adopted less than a week before the declaration of war against Eng- land. In their preamble the Bostonian views of the situa- tion were tersely stated as follows: "The Decrees of France; the Edicts of England, and the Acts of Congress, though intended to counteract each other, constitute a triple league for the annihilation of American commerce, and our Government, as if weary of waiting for a lingering dissolution, hastens to des- patch the sufferer, by the finishing stroke of a British War." In 1807, the shipping of Boston amounted to 310,309 tons, or more than one third of the mercantile marine of the United States. In 1810, the foreign and coast- 140 Boston and Its Story. wise tonnage owned in Massachusetts was 495,203, or more than the combined tonnage of the States of New York and Pennsylvania. In 1814, Boston's exports were valued at only $118,285, involving a decrease of $5,733,- 736, or 97.9 per cent, from 1811. In 1816, the year after peace was made, the exports of Boston showed a gain of $7,925,692, or 6,700.5 per cent, from 1814. In the calendar year 1915, the exports of Boston were valued at $119,- 498,929 against $5,244,398 in 1815. During the War of 1812, there was a revival of priva- teering, and Boston participated actively in it. A recent writer places the value of British vessels destroyed by American privateers, during the war, at $9,400,000, or $40,000 less than the losses inflicted by the British on American shipping. Boston is credited with 31 privateers, and Salem with 40, against 58 for Baltimore, and 55 for New York. The early revival of the East India trade, after the War of 1812, caused a demand for faster ships. Profiting by the speedy quality of the Baltimore clippers, the northern ship-yards evolved a new sort of ship, characterized as "cod-headed and mackerel-tailed." In 1821, one of them, the " George" of Salem, astonished the world by coming home from Calcutta in 95 days. She went out the next season in 89. She was known as the "Salem Frigate," and made 21 Indian voyages, none taking more than 100 days. Her type was superseded by the clipper ship, a Yankee invention, that revolutionized the carrying trade of the world. The "Rainbow," of 750 tons, designed by John Griffiths of New York, was the pioneer of this class. She was launched in that city in January, 1845, sailed in February, and arrived home again in September follow- ing, to the confusion of the critics of her " crazy model/ ' Boston's Clipper Ships. 141 She was widest amidships, whence she tapered fore and aft. She had a knife-like concave prow, and a sharp, narrow stern. The "Sea Witch," Griffith's second clipper, on her maiden trip, in 1846-47, ran from Sandy Hook to Hong Kong in 104 days, and returned in 89. Later she established the record for that run of 77 days. In Janu- ary, 1851, she reached San Francisco from New York in 97 days. But seven months later her achievement was eclipsed by the "Flying Cloud," of 1,782 tons, which made the same run in 89 days, a record that still stands. The Flying Cloud was constructed at the East Boston yard of Donald McKay. In the course of two years McKay turned out 6 record breaking clippers. His "Lightning," of 2,083 tons, in 1853, on her maiden trip to Liverpool from Boston, made a day's run of 436 miles, that has never been surpassed by a sailing-ship. Not till 1889 did an ocean-going steamship do better. Another ship from the McKay yard, the "James Baines," built for a Liverpool firm, covered the distance between Boston Light and Rock Light, Liverpool, in 12 days 6 hours. In 1854, the Baines made the run from Liverpool to Melbourne in 63 days, and returned in 69 days. No sailing ship has ever done better than that in circling the globe. Naturally Boston clipper ships found a ready sale among shipping houses both in Europe and America. In 1854, a Liver- pool firm ordered 4 clipper ships of an average tonnage of 2,409, of Donald McKay, for the Australian trade. At Donald McKay's ship-yard at East Boston some 52 ships (ranging in tonnage from 700 in 1847, to 4,555 in 1853), aggregating 75,590 tons, were launched in the period 1845-69. In the period 1848-57, McKay built 42 ships, aggregating 63,190 tons. Among them were eight of over 2,000 tons. The activity of the four East Boston yards 142 Boston and Its Story. culminated in 1854, when 39 vessels, amounting to 52,157 tons, were built; 7 of them, of 14,719 tons burden, were launched from the McKay yard. The largest of all clipper ships, McKay's " Great Republic," was 325 feet long and of 4,555 tons burden. She was launched October 4, 1853. Three months later she was burned to the water's edge in New York. When rebuilt, she had 3 decks instead of 4, and was reduced in tonnage to 3,337 tons. She served as a transport in the Crimean and Civil wars. She made the run from New York to San Francisco in 92 days. She was sold to a Liverpool Company in 1865. In 1872 she had to be abandoned at sea. After 1856, ship building in Boston declined and has never regained its former eminence. Steam ships dis- placed clipper ships, and the United States, owing to its unreadiness to compete in the construction of iron steamers, lost control of the carrying trade. Since 1860, the foreign commerce of the United States has been forced to rely on foreign bottoms, mostly British. It is worthy of note that in 1857 an iron steamship of 1,250 tons burden was built for the Pasha of Egypt at one of the East Boston yards. Although many of the crack clippers built in Boston were acquired by British or other European owners, their records for speed stiU stand to the credit of their original American skippers and crews, whose seamanship was the despair of their rivals during the heyday of the clippers. Seldom did an American clipper, or a British clipper built on American lines, outsail an American clipper handled by an American crew. In a sense, the American clippers, with then sharp lines and enormous spread of canvas, were huge yachts, and in yacht racing, then as now, American skippers and sailors were sefcond to none. Diversified Interests of Boston. 143 As late as 1830, the business interests of Boston were chiefly commercial and its manufactures were mainly devoted to the building and rigging of ships. In the decade 1830-40, the city's interests became more diversi- fied, as did those of New England, owing to the introduction of steam as a motive power on land and sea and the rapid growth of mills and factories. By 1835, thanks to the enterprise of its merchants, Boston had railroad connection with Lowell, Providence and Worces- ter; and in 1841, when the line between Worcester and Albany was opened, Boston gained railroad connection of a sort with the West. Boston capitalists were already heavily interested in the development of New England industries. So Boston, in response to changing conditions and new opportunities for the investment of capital, became the financial center, or counting house, of the transportation and manufacturing, as well as of the commercial, activities of New England. In 1840, Boston ranked as the fourth city of the United States in respect to population. It was still the second port, having 241 houses with a capital of $11,676,000 engaged in the foreign trade. The capital of its 25 banks amounted to $17,300,000; and its manufactures repre- sented an investment of $2,770,250. In 1840, the popu- lation of Boston was upwards of 93,000, showing an increase of 50,000, or 123.3 per cent, from 1820. Foreign arrivals, in 1840, were: 1,953 at New York, 538 at Philadelphia, and 1,628 at Boston, showing relative increases of 29.3, 29.6 and 153.6, respectively, from 1830. The tonnage entered at Boston from foreign ports in 1841 was 286,315, an increase of 156,353 tons, or 120.3 per cent, from 1821. In 1841, foreign imports amounted to ,911,958, and exports to $9,424,186. 144 Boston and Its Story. The year 1840 was signalized by the establishment of regular steam communication between Boston and Liver- pool, via Halifax, the British government having granted a heavy subsidy to the Cunard Company to carry the mails between Liverpool, Halifax and Boston. The first Cunarder, the " Unicorn," arrived at Boston, June 2, 1840, and docked at a wharf which had been specially built at East Boston by the merchants of Boston, to be leased to the company at a nominal rental for twenty years. The choice of Boston as the terminus for the Cunarders was in recognition of the nearness of the port to the maritime British provinces, and the superiority of its harbor and wharf accommodations. Speaking broadly, the port of Boston has ranked second only to New York in the value of its foreign commerce most of the time since 1840. In the period 1890-1915, Boston ranked second in eighteen years, third in 4 years and fourth in 4 years. It fell to third place in 1903, and was again third in 1915. In respect to value of imports, it has been second in every year of the period. The volume and importance of the trade between Boston and Great Britain was greatly stimulated by the establishment of steam communication with Liverpool in 1840. Boston's trade with the United Kingdom has become the largest branch of its total commerce. In 1880, of Boston's total foreign trade, 69.5 per cent were with Great Britain; the corresponding per cent in 1915 was 46.6. The early Cunarders were essentially mail and passenger boats, although they served too for the carriage of high- class freight. Several attempts were made to establish regular packet lines between Boston and England in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1844, a notably successful effort in this direction was made by Enoch Train, a Boston merchant, who established a line Culmination of Shipbuilding at Boston. 145 of sailing packets between Boston and Liverpool to carry coarse and heavy freight. It was Train who induced Donald McKay, of Newburyport, to remove to East Boston, where he began building packets for the Train line in 1845. In the period 1845-53, McKay built 10 ships, aggregating 13,069 tons, for this line. One of McKay's most famous clippers, the Flying Cloud, was built in 1851 for the Train line, although it was under the flag of a New York house that she became famous in the Cali- fornia trade. The Warren line of steamers is the twentieth century successor of the old Train line of sailing packets that did a large business under various names during the last half of the nineteenth century. Oversea traffic in Boston was active, varied, and on the whole lucrative, in the decade of 1850-60. Yet the decade stands out as the period in which the foreign commerce of the port began to wane. Its prosperity under the old order of things culminated in 1856-58. In 1855, the tonnage of shipping owned in Boston reached its maximum, viz., 541,644; and the total tonnage repre- sented by entries and clearances in the foreign trade was 1,395,949, or 66,271 tons more than it was in 1865. In both years the proportionate tonnage was 52 and 48 per cent, respectively, for American and foreign bottoms. In 1855, when there were built in and about Boston 44 vessels, with a tonnage amounting to 45,988, and 22 more of 27,877 tons were on the stocks at the end of the year, shipbuilding reached its high-water mark. Boston clearances for California and Australia fell from 149 in 1853 to 47 in 1857. In 1857, Boston was still pre-eminent in the Russia trade; but it had lost control of the China trade, and was destined soon to lose its hold on the Calcutta trade. In 1851, the merchant marine of the United States held 146 Boston and Its Story. a commanding position in the carrying trade of the world in respect to efficiency and extent. It did so because American shipyards were able to turn out larger and faster wooden ships at lower cost than the British shipyards could. As regards tonnage, the British Empire surpassed the United States by 16.5 per cent; but American mer- chantmen commanded higher freight rates, lower rates of insurance, and were more profitable to their owners. In the period 1850-59, 334,563 tons of American shipping were sold to foreigners, equal to one-tenth of the whole output of the yards during the period. After the repeal of the British Navigation Act in 1849, British merchants were free to buy ships anywhere; but American merchants, down to 1914, were forbidden by our Navigation Acts to do so. Ultimately, a goodly portion of the clipper ships, which had contributed so much to American prosperity in the period 1851-56, passed into the possession of foreigners, and American merchants could neither buy nor build shipping of the new type to advantage. While the Civil War was waging, 1862-65, the registered tonnage of the United States, owing to sales to aliens, decreased by 774,652 tons. In the year ending June, 1915, under authority of the Ship Registry Act of August 18, 1914, American registers were issued to 148 vessels, of 523,361 tons, valued at 33.4 millions of dollars. Over six-tenths of that tonnage were transferred from the British and barely twenty-eight per cent from the German flag. So, in 1914-15, the foreign shipping transferred to the American flag exceeded by only 297 tons the American shipping sold to foreigners in the years 1863 and 1864. The decline of the merchant marine of the United States, following the panic year 1857, reflected both WASHINGTON STREET, FROM WATER TO MILK STREET, I860. The five brick buildings to the left of the Old South Church composed the first brick business block erected in Boston. The first and second ones mark the site of Governor John Winthrop's home, in which he died. Decline of American Shipping. . 147 world-wide and local conditions. During the first half of the decade 1850-59, there was abnormal activity in the construction of wooden clipper ships, owing to the rush of gold seekers to California and Australia. At the same time the increase in the number and efficiency of iron steamships, mostly British, began to undermine the ascendency of the merchant marine of the United States. The steam tonnage of the United States in 1856, amounting to 89,715, was scarcely one-sixth of that of the British Empire, while the gain from 1851 was only 44 per cent for the United States, against 104 per cent for the British Empire. Sales of American tonnage to aliens in 1860 were 74 per cent less than they had been in 1855. Besides the changes effected by improvements in naval architecture, since the middle of the last century, radical changes have been made in the methods of conducting overseas trade throughout the world since the later sixties, owing to the opening of the Suez Canal and the develop- ment of submarine telegraphy. Merchants have ceased to be merchant adventurers; middlemen and brokers have multiplied and supercargoes have become extinct. It is clear that the decline in the ascendency of the United States in the carrying trade was well advanced before it was accelerated by the Civil War. After the Civil War the demands upon American capital and enterprise for developing the resources of the interior of the country were so inviting and compelling that the nation was apparently content to leave the handling of its foreign trade to the owners of foreign ships. Thus, on the basis of value, while in 1855 the per cent of the foreign commerce of the United States carried in American vessels was 76, in 1865 it was only 28; it fell further to 13 in 1890, and in 1915 was only 14 per cent. 148 Boston and Its Story. The following statement affords a comparison of the composition of the merchant marine of the world and the United States, in respect to construction and motive power, in 1915: Kind of Ship, Pekcentage Distribution of Tonnage in: The World. United States ■ Registered. Wooden 3.9 96.1 7.2 92.8 23 3 Metal 76.7 Sailing 22.6 Steam 77.4 In the foregoing statement, barges, canal boats and gas- driven craft are excluded from the registered tonnage of the United States. Nevertheless, the larger per cents of wooden and sailing tonnage of the United States are striking. This is probably attributable to the preponder- ance of coasting trade. The documented merchant marine of the United States, which includes enrolled and licensed, as well as registered vessels, has greatly changed in character since 1855, as is shown in the following statement : DOCUMENTED TONNAGE — UNITED STATES. Per Cent bt Trade. Year. Total. Foreign. Coasting. Whale Fishery. Cod and Mackerel Fishery. 1915 8,389,429 5,096,782 5,212,001 22.20 29.79 45.06 77.32 66.35 48.80 0.11 1.65 3.58 0.37 1865 2.21 1855 2.56 Increase of Business in Boston Since 1865. 149 The following table affords a comparative view of the increase in population, assessed valuation and certain outstanding business interests of Boston in the half century since the close of the Civil War. 1915. ^Increase from 1865. Pee Cent of Increase. 1865-1915. 1890-1915. Population * Valuation Bank clearings Commerce : Total Imports Exports Tonnage Manufactures (1914): Value of products . . 745,439 $1,573,164 8,256.936 260.129 152.653 107.476 4.124 284.802 553,121 $1,201,271 5,915.047 214.160 128.112 86.047 2.794 193.852 286.12 323.02 252.58 487.84 525.89 449.11 210.11 213.14 66.22 91.37 60.93 94.01 142.78 50.94 66.38 35.02 ; Excepting population, 000's are omitted in the table. Although the value of the products of the manu- facturing establishments of Boston in 1914 (the last year for which the figures are available) exceeded the value of its commerce in 1915 by 24.7 millions of dollars it is noteworthy that the absolute and relative increases in the value of imports and exports were considerably greater than those in the value of manufactured products in the last twenty-five years as well as in the last fifty 150 Boston and Its Story. years. Moreover, the largest per cents of increase, for both periods in the table, are those relating to foreign commerce. Manifestly, notwithstanding the enhanced importance of the financial and industrial interests of Boston since the decline of the American merchant marine set in, its commercial interests still warrant its ancient designation as a "Trading Town." In 1865 the value of Boston's foreign trade amounted to 1.89 per cent of its bank clearings. The corresponding per cent for 1915 was 3.15. As regards the value of products of manufactures, it was 3.45 per cent of bank clearings in 1915 against 3.88 in 1865. In 1915 Boston's foreign trade amounted in value to 91.34 per cent of the value of manufactured products, against 48.66 in 1865. As a manufacturing center Boston is distinguished by the wide range of its industries. Ranked by value of products (expressed in millions of dollars), the leading industries of Boston, in 1914, were: (1) Printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals, 17.915 millions; (2) confectionery, 14.796; (3) boot and shoe cut stock and findings, 13.909; (4) men's clothing, 13.729; (5) boots and shoes, 13.253; (6) printing and publishing, books, music, etc., 12.680; (7) foundry and machine shop products, 12.350; (8) bread and bakery products, 11.413; (9) women's clothing, 9.609; and (10) malt liquors, 8.836. Far down the fist of minor industries " shipbuilding, including boats," appears with an output valued at $325,300. Boston ranks higher in finance and commerce than in manufactures. Thus, in 1909, it ranked eighth among the manufacturing cities of the United States; third in bank clearings and fourth in total foreign trade, and was second in value of imports. At the close of the fiscal year 1915-16, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston ranked third, or next to that of Chicago, as regards resources and earnings. In 1912, just before the Federal Reserve Bank was established, the twenty national banks of Boston were credited with a " banking power" of 271.5 millions of Rank of Boston in Finance and Commerce. 151 dollars, or $383.83 per capita. In this respect Boston was first among the financial centers of the United States. The banking system of Boston began in 1784, when the first of its incorporated banks, viz., the Massachusetts Bank, was established. The Provident Institution for Savings of Boston is the oldest incorporated savings bank in America. Of the twenty-three savings banks in Boston, in 1915, with upwards of 318.5 millions worth of assets, and 297.3 millions dollars due depositors, the Provident Institution ranked first, with 56.3 millions of assets, and 52.6 millions due depositors, or $504.94 per account on the average. The Boston Clearing House Association was established in 1856, with a mem- bership of twenty-nine banks. Since the beginning of the fiscal year 1914-15 the imports and exports of all ports in Massachusetts have been so returned as to render it impossible to separate the figures for the old port of "Boston and Charlestown" from those for Massachusetts. In 1912, 99.54 per cent of the foreign trade of all ports in the State were credited to Boston. For the sake of simplicity we may still speak of the commerce of Boston, although the com- merce credited to Boston in the foregoing table includes that of a few other ports whose customs business has now to be handled in Boston. Boston, then, in 1915, ranked third among the seaports of the United States in total trade; second in imports and fifth in exports; being credited with 5.85 per cent of the foreign trade of the United States; 9.12 per cent of its imports, and 3.88 per cent of its exports. Judged by the combined value of imports and exports, Boston, in 1915, ranked nine- teenth among the ports of the world, i. e., between Montreal and Shanghai. In imports, Boston's rank was sixteenth, although it was forty-ninth in total tonnage. Among the ports of the United States Boston is pre- eminent by reason of the high ratio of imports to its total trade. It was 58.68 in 1915 against 37.68 for the whole country. The corresponding figures for other leading ports were 44.59 for Philadelphia, 43.82 for 152 Boston and Its Story. New York, 27.58 for New Orleans, 15.92 for Baltimore and 4.22 for Galveston. Excess of imports over exports at Boston is not a new phenomenon, although in the United States, as a rule, exports have exceeded imports in value in thirty-eight years of the period 1866-1915. At Boston, imports showed an excess in twenty-eight years and exports in twenty-two years — of the twenty-two, sixteen fell in the period 1889-1904. In the last fifty years the ratio of imports to total trade was 52.43 at Boston, as compared with 43.40 for the rest of the country. For the period 1890-1915, imports at Boston amounted to 2,422.3 millions of dollars, equal to 8.48 per cent of the United States; and its exports were 2,383.0 millions, or 6.09 per cent of the United States. The per cent of imports to total trade at Boston for the twenty-five years was 50.41. The statement on page 153 shows the standing of Boston among the seven leading ports of the country in 1915. Values are given in millions of dollars. In 1915 the port of Boston ranked fourth in respect to tonnage entered, eighth in tonnage cleared, and sixth in total tonnage, which amounted to 4.41 per cent of the United States. Vessels entered numbered 1,488, with a total tonnage of 2,463,651, as against 1,161 cleared, having a total tonnage of 1,659,802. Of the aggregate tonnage, 11.29 per cent was classed as American, and 88.71 as foreign; 96.52 per cent were credited to steam vessels and 3.48 to sailing ships. Only 14 vessels entered in ballast, the residue, or 99.06 per cent brought cargo; whereas 350 vessels, or 30.15 per cent, cleared in ballast. Of the tonnage entered, 99.14 per cent represented cargo laden vessels. This Boston's Standing Among Ports of the Country. 153 was a higher per cent by 8.47 points than that of New York. Boston was, therefore, first among United States ports in the number and tonnage of vessels bringing cargo. Only 69.85 per cent of the vessels cleared were not in ballast. No other of the seven principal ports had so high a per cent of vessels cleared in ballast as that of Boston, viz., 30.15. Galveston came next with 20.9. Principal Ports in 1915. Total Trade. Imports. Exports. Port. 6 > "513 03 P 03 03 03-^-2 03* d > o dig 03-tf .£ Ph 03° > •£ r C m d 03 S 03-^^ Ph 1. New York 2. New Orleans . . 3. Boston 4. Galveston .... 5. Philadelphia. . 6. San Francisco, 7. Baltimore. . . . 2,124. 6 289.1 260.1 240.5 163.6 157.6 156.9 47.82 6.51 5.86 5.41 3.68 3.55 3.53 931.0 79.7 152.7 10.1 72.9 76.1 24.9 55.61 4.76 9.12 0.61 4.36 4.54 1.49 1,193.6 209.3 107.5 230.4 90.7 81.5 131.9 43.12 7.57 3.88 8.32 3.27 2.94 4.77 Viewed from whatever angle, it would appear that the port of Boston is distinctively an importing center. This is not strange when it is remembered that the mills and factories of New England obtain their raw material largely from abroad, and that the natural channel into New England for foreign supplies and commodities is through Boston Harbor. 154 Boston and Its Stoey. As regards volume of trans- Atlantic passenger business, Boston is second only to New York. In the year ending June 30, 1914, arrivals and departures at Boston numbered 138,096, or 5.06 per cent of the United States. Arrivals amounted to 96,157 (aliens, 81,341; citizens of the United States, 14,816), and departures were 41,939 (aliens, 25,838; citizens of the United States, 16,101). The annual average number of passengers arrived from foreign countries at Boston, in the twelve years 1904-15, was 71,486, of whom 51,151 were immigrants. The greatest number of immigrant arrivals in any year was 70,164 in 1907. In 1914 they numbered 69,365, but only 15,983 in 1915. Philadelphia ranks next to Boston in the num- ber of immigrants arrived, with an average of 36,640 for the twelve years. A goodly number of immigrants destined for New England enter the country at New York, but Boston, as a rule, is the port of entrance into the promised land for most new comers into New England; as it was in the beginning, so is it now. Sentimental interest attaches in large measure to the action of the General Court in 1635, when it was ordered that a beacon be set and a ward kept on Sentry Hill "to warn the Country of any danger." In that action, coupled with the erection of batteries within the town and on Castle Island, and the establishment of an organized militia, the "anointed eye" may discern a foregleam of the spirit of '76. These measures of the General Court, in 1635, expressed the resolve of the imperiled Colony to resist the avowed designs of Laud and others of the King's minions in England against the chartered liberties of New England. Providentially, the danger was averted; but, broadly speaking, the erection of a potential torch on the summit VIEW OF STATE HOUSE, 1916. Beacon Hill and Beacon Isle. 155 of Beacon Hill was a portentous event. Thereby, the Beacon became a landmark in both the physical and the historical landscape. Thenceforward, till Independency was achieved, the fires of liberty were kept alight. A century and a quarter have elapsed since the dis- appearance of the Beacon; but for more than a century the present State House, topping Beacon Hill, has served as an impressive land-mark to wayfarers approaching the city, either by sea or land. To the distant observer the gilded dome of the State House, and the still loftier tower of the new Custom House, serve to mark the head of the Boston ship channel. For the benefit of mariners the General Court erected, in 1715-16, the first lighthouse in America, on or near the Beacon Isle, at the mouth of the Boston ship channel. The lamps of Boston Light were first lit on September 14, 1716. In 1739 the light-keeper was appointed "the pilot of Boston Harbor," and the Province established a scale of pilotage fees. In 1789 the United States took over Boston Light. At present there are eight lighthouses in or near Boston Harbor maintained by the Federal Government, whose lights are visible from 11 to 17 miles. The founders of Boston builded better than they knew, when, for the sake of securing good drinking water, they located their dwellings under the lee of Trimountaine on the shores of the coves at the head of the deep water ship channel, within "the Lake" formed by the islands of the inner harbor; and then proceeded to lay out their market place at a point about which the business activities of the Town, the Commonwealth and New England have centered ever since. No city planning board could have done better, indeed it may be doubted whether any such, in our own day, has done nearly so well. 156 Boston and Its Stoky. The history of Boston is singularly rich in elements of interest to the student of the evolution of political institutions. Whether one considers the development of Boston as a tract of land, or as a body corporate and politic, the wonder grows that one of the great cities of the world should have developed out of so small and simple a germ. The outstanding practical problem for the first settlers of Boston was the development of their realty within the neck of Shawmut. By the fall of 1634, when the first extant records of the town were set down by Winthrop, the town of Boston had developed the three essential elements of the town polity, viz., a town meeting, town orders or by-laws, and a com- mittee of ten (selectmen) charged with the management of the town's affairs during the intervals between the general meetings of the inhabitants. Already considerable portions of the "plain neck" had been transformed into homesteads, with garden plots, planting fields enclosed within common fences, and tracts of unenclosed waste reserved for common pasture. More- over, to meet Boston's growing needs for fuel and timber, arable and pasture, considerable tracts of outlying terri- tory had been granted by the General Court. A market place had been laid out, as had streets connecting the three nuclear groups of habitations with one another and with Roxbury on the main land. The administrative needs of the town had become' so considerable and pressing that the Town Meeting, finding itself no longer equal to their adequate control, had begun to empower certain of its members to act for the Town and report their doings from time to time to the Town. So vigorous and adaptable was the simple polity of the town that as Boston grew in importance as the capital of The Town op Boston, 1821. 157 the Colony, and the principal maritime town in English America, it was able to create new organs to subserve new functions. In the last stage of its development as a town, just before the charter of incorporation was secured in 1821, the Town of Boston, both in its physical features and in its governmental machinery, presented wide and striking contrasts to any other town, anywhere. On the one hand, it differed from other towns in the number and character of its public and private buildings, wharves, shipyards, and factories; while its more complex and varied interests, as a subdivision of the State of Massachusetts, were reflected in a larger and more expert body of public officials as well as by a larger and more comprehensive body of by-laws. In their General Meetings the Primary Towns passed penal orders (by-laws) without let or hindrance. In 1636, the right of the Freemen "to make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns" was ex- pressly sanctioned by an order of the General Court. The Bodye of Liberties, in 1641, confirmed that right. In 1692-93, a comprehensive act was passed relating to the powers and privileges of towns throughout the Province. It contained a provision requiring the approval, by a court of Quarter Sessions, of all "town orders or by-laws"; but the provision was repealed in 1696. Early in the eighteenth century the General Court must have revived the requirement for a town to submit its by-laws to the justices of a county court, inasmuch as in 1710 and there- after Boston's by-laws were customarily submitted to the Quarter Sessions of Suffolk for approval and confirmation. While the course of the statutes relating to by-laws in the period 1696-1785 cannot be precisely stated, it is certain 158 Boston and Its Story. that since 1785 the towns of Massachusetts have been subject to superior authority in the matter of passing by- laws. As late as 1903, the statutes provided that " Before a by-law takes effect, it shall be approved by the Superior Court," etc. Since 1904, the by-laws of all towns have had to be submitted to the Attorney-General of the Com- monwealth for his approval. Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1780, the General Court has shown a marked tendency to encroach on the ancient autonomy of the Massachusetts towns. But the cities, and especially Boston, have suffered greater losses in respect to home rule' than the towns have. Article II. of Amendments to the Constitution, empower- ing the General Court "to constitute municipal or city governments," was adopted in 1821. It still contains the provision that "all by-laws made by such municipal or city government, shall be subject at all times to be annulled by the General Court." In political organisms, as well as in the animal kingdom, increase in size, i. e., growth, necessitates what is techni- cally termed differentiation of parts and specialization of functions, or else retarded development will result. The working of this law is traceable in the formation of new organs to meet new needs in the political organism of Boston, both as a whole, and also in the evolution of specific parts of the organism, e. g., the town meeting, the select- men, and the school committee. Thus, the selectmen constituted a special executive organ, fashioned by the Town Meeting out of a few of its own members to order the prudential affairs of the town. Accordingly, in the earlier days, the Selectmen sometimes acted as allotters of land, as surveyors of highways, as assessors of rates and taxes, and as an inchoate school committee. They also The Board of Selectmen. 159 had power to admit new inhabitants as well as to appoint minor officials, such as cow keepers and fold keepers. When the town treasurer and recorder emerged first, in 1640 and 1645, respectively, they were chosen by the Selectmen. The Selectmen chosen by the Town Meeting were usually chosen to serve for six months down to 1645; thereafter they were regularly chosen for one year. It was not unusual for the Town to choose Selectmen from among the most able and eminent of its citizens. Thus, John Winthrop, who was a selectman in 1634, served continuously in that capacity in the period 1639-46. During six of those years he was Governor or Deputy Governor. Richard Bellingham, another of the Colonial governors, was a selectman of Boston at least five times. Of later governors who had served as selectmen, John Leverett, Thomas Hutchinson, and John Hancock may be mentioned. John Hancock was a selectman throughout the period 1765-76. Indeed, when he presided over the Continental Congress in July, 1776, Hancock was still a selectman of Boston. It is noteworthy that the Town never chose the chair- man of the Selectmen, who were free to organize their board as they thought fit. It is clear from their records that the board frequently chose sub-committees for special purposes, and that the Town Clerk kept their records. In their latter days the chairman had a salary, e. g., in 1821, that officer was paid SI, 200. That any other member of the board received a salary does not appear. It is remarkable how meagre is the mention of the Chairman of the Selectmen, either in their own records or those of the Town. It was voted by the Town, in 1684, that in all cases coming before the Selectmen, 160 Boston and Its Story. "when there is an equal vote, the president for that time" should have a casting vote. Casual mention of the Chair- man of the Selectmen occurs in the records of an election of Representatives in 1776 and occasionally elsewhere. Public office in the early days was considered a public trust. In 1647, the General Court passed an act pro- viding a penalty of 20 shillings for every refusal to serve a town as constable, selectman, or highway surveyor. The Boston records abound in instances in which men chosen constable paid fines or were excused. In Boston, as provided by statute, the fine for declining a con- stableship was £10. In other towns, the corresponding fine was £5. As early as 1637, the Town voted to bear the charges for the meetings of the Selectmen. Accordingly, we find the board ordering the constable to pay £2 18s., in Novem- ber, 1641, "for diet for the Townsmen." The first occurrence of the term "Selectmen" was on March 28, 1642, approving the payment of "18s. for Dyet, beere, and fire for the Selectmen," among whose names one finds those of the then Governor and Treasurer of the Colony. Boston's system of salaries and pay rolls had very humble beginnings. Thus, in 1635, the Town voted that the keeper of the dry cattle should be paid 5 shillings a head for his services. In 1642, the Selectmen ordered: (1) that the Constable pay "5 bushells of Indian Corne" to one of the field keepers for the last year; and (2) that the keepers of the milch herd, on The Common, this summer, should "have a bushell of Indian Corne for each cowe," and one-half the forfeitures for unyoked swine found at large. Four years later, all clerks of the market, by an order of the General Court, were allowed one- The Pay op Town Officers. 161 third of all forfeitures collected by them, the other two- thirds to go to the poor. In 1700, the Town instructed the Selectmen to have a piece of plate, worth £20, made as a testimonial for James Taylor, who had served as Town Treasurer for 8 years and never charged more than £5 per annum, and to pay him £10 for the previous year. A year later, the Treasurer's salary was fixed at £15. In 1712, the salary of the Treasurer, who was also Town Clerk, was still £15. In the same year, 2 Collectors of Taxes were allowed 3d. in the £ for collecting the rates. In 1770, the Treasurer was allowed £100 for salary and office expenses; and the compensation of 4 collectors was fixed at from 4d. to 12d. in the £, according to the promptness of their collections. In 1780, owing to the inflation of the currency, the Treasurer was allowed £220 for salary and expenses. In 1812, the offices of Treasurer and Collector of Taxes were united in one man, whose salary was $1,500; he was also allowed $1,500 wherewith to pay 3 deputies and a clerk. The deputies had certain perquisites too, includ- ing " Poundage of 4 per cent" on collections. In 1813, the sum of $2,500 was voted the Treasurer and Collector for his own salary and the pay of such deputies and clerks as the Committee of Finance should find to be necessary. At this time there were 3 Assessors at an annual salary of $816, when the Town Clerk's salary was $1,000. In 1821 salaries ranged as follows : Chairman of Selectmen $1,200 Police Officer $900 Principal Assessors (3) 1,000 Clerk of the Market 800 Assistant Assessors (24) 100 Secretary to Firewards 200 Treasurer 2,500 Messenger to Firewards 300 Town Clerk 1,000 Messenger to Selectmen 365 Judge of Municipal Court 750 162 Boston and Its Story. The range of salaries of heads of certain principal departments in 1915 is shown in the following statement: Mayor $10,000 City Clerk $5,000 Superintendent of Schools 10,000 City Collector 5,000 Corporation Counsel 9,000 Chairman, Park and Recrea- Public Works Commissioner. .. 9,000 tion Department 5,000 Chairman, Health Department, 7,500 Fire Commissioner 5,000 City Auditor 6,000 Chairman of Assessors 4,500 Librarian, Public Library 6,000 Chairman, Street Commis- Police Commissioner 6,000 sioners 4,500 Chief Justice, Municipal Court, 5,500 Superintendent of Market 3,000 City Treasurer 5,000 Of the various boards derived directly from the Select- men of early days, the School Committee is the only one that has been continuously chosen by the people from its origin till the present time. Therefore it is unique among the departments of Boston. Originally, the " Inhabitants of Boston" in Town Meeting elected teachers, fixed their salaries, voted supplies and decided on the erection and location of school houses. Then it became customary to commit such matters to the Selectmen. Early in the eighteenth century there began a series of tentative steps towards the evolution of the School Committee. Thus, in 1709, the Town chose a special committee to consider the affairs of the Free Grammar School (Latin School). The Committee reported that the master's salary should be advanced to £100, and that he ought to have the assistance of an usher, in which recommendations they said they had the "Concurrent Opinion, and Advice of ye Revrd. Min- isters." Furthermore, the Committee recommended that the Town appoint " inspectors of the School" to consist of "a Certain Number of Gentlemen, of Liberal Educa- tion, Together with Some of ye Revd. Ministers." Accord- Beginnings of the School Committee. 163 ingly, five men, all laymen, were appointed to serve as " Inspectors of the Grammar School," for one year. Apparently, the inspectors were not continued in 1712; for in that year the Town chose a committee to inspect the Free Writing Schools and report on the advisability of establishing a writing school at the North End. In 1714, the Committee recommended, and it was voted, "That it be left with the Selectmen to purchase a piece of Land Sutable to Sett a School House on there." At the March meeting, in 1718, the Town voted "That the Revd. Ministers, together with the Selectmen, are desired to be the Inspectors of the Grammar Schools for the year ensuing." Somewhat later, it was usual for the Town Meeting annually to desire the Selectmen to invite the ministers and other notables to aid them in inspecting the public schools and in reporting to the Town on their condition. In the period 1758-88, the records abound in reports of such committees, who usually lubricated their business by a dinner at the Town's expense. The visitation usually occurred in the first week of July, and probably marked the close of the school year. In 1770, the Committee of Visitation included (besides the Selectmen, the Representatives of the Town, and the Overseers of the Poor) no less than 42 prominent gentle- men, including James Otis, Esq., Mr. John Adams, Commodore Hood, and 5 clergymen. The Committee found 909 scholars in 5 schools, viz., 202 in the North and South Grammar Schools, and 707 in 3 writing schools, "all in very good order." On July 6, 1774, "the Selectmen proceeded, with the Gentlemen invited, to a visitation of the publick Schools; but upon account of the present distress, the Dinner usual on such days was 164 Boston and Its Stoey. laid aside." In the year ending March, 1787, £45 14s. were expended on the visitation of the schools. On September 23, 1789, the Town adopted a "New System of Education," and on October 20, following, chose 12 men in addition to the 9 Selectmen to carry the system into operation. Since that date Boston has always had an elective School Committee. In 1812, the town appropriated $200 towards the maintenance of a school for African children, under the School Committee. In 1818, when the Town voted to provide schools for children between 4 and 7 years of age, a new committee was instituted. It was known, till its abolition in 1854, as the Primary School Committee. It originally consisted of 36 members, 3 from each ward. It was chosen annually by the General School Committee. The year before it was abolished and the Primary Schools turned over to the General School Committee, the Primary School Com- mittee numbered 196 members. From 1822 till 1834 school affairs were managed by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, together with the School Committee, consisting of 12 members chosen annually, or one from each ward. The Aldermen were eliminated by act of Legislature in 1835, but the Mayor was ex-officio President of the board till 1885. The new charter of 1854 provided for a School Committee consisting of the Mayor, the President of the Common Council and 6 members from each ward. By 1874, owing to increase in the number of wards by annexation, the School Committee had increased to 116 in number. The board was reduced .to 25, including the Mayor, in 1876; and again in 1906 to 5 members. Now, as ever since 1854, the regular term of members of the School Committee is three years. The board has elected its Chairman since 1885. Public Schools in 1821 and 1915. 165 Since 1875: (1) members of the School Committee have been elected at large, instead of by wards; (2) the administrative functions of the board have been much reduced and simplified; and (3) the duties and responsibility of the Superintendent of Schools, as well as of his expert assistants, have been greatly augmented — both in kind and degree. Women have been eligible to membership in the School Committee since 1875. Since 1901 the construction, furnishing and maintenance of school buildings have been in charge of the School House Commissioners, three in number, who are appointed for the term of three years by the Mayor, from time to time. Since 1900 the School Department has been priv- ileged above any other in Boston, in that, by statute, a fixed portion of the tax rate has been set aside for the public schools. That portion increased from $2.71 per $1,000 of valuation in 1900 to $4.07 in 1915. In 1915, 19 per cent of the expenditures from taxes and general income were for the public schools. The following tabular statements may serve to indi- cate the expansion of the School Department since Boston became a city: Number of Schools, Teachers and Pupils. 1820-21. 1914-15. Schools. Teachers. Pupils. Schools. Teachers. Pupils. Latin and High 1 29 6 38 207 3,827 16 *208 542 * 2,339 17,373 * 102,270 Totals 30 44 4,034 224 2,881 119,643 * Includes Kindergartens: 24,218 pupils; about 900 teachers in night and special schools are excluded. 166 Boston and Its Stoky. School Expenditures. 1820-21. 1914-15, Maintenance $36,932 8,113 $6,065,656 New buildings 1,071,802 Totals $45,045 $7,137,458 Scale op Salaries of Teachers. 1820-21. 1914-15. Latin and High: $2,000 1,000 600 600 240 $3,780 to $4,068 2,484 to 3,204 Junior Masters 1,478 to 2,916 2,820 to 3,420 600 to 1,224 Elementary: A Superintendent of Schools was first chosen about 1857. The Superintendent of Schools now receives $10,000 per annum. Boston as a political entity started on apparently even terms with its contemporaries in 1630. Like them, it was a self-organized group of home seekers bent on making a living for man and beast by utilizing its com- munal lands for homesteads, planting fields and pastures, after the manner initiated by Charlestown the year before. Its organization was simple and thoroughly democratic. Its local affairs were discussed and ordered Boston in the Colonial Peeiod. 167 by its primary assembly (town meeting), composed of householders and allottees, each of whom had an equal voice in the conduct of affairs and the choice of officers, e. g., herdsmen, cow-keepers, overseers of fields and fences and men chosen for the town's occasions (selectmen). But there were two circumstances that made for the advantage of Boston as compared with other towns, and enabled it to distance them in numbers, wealth and influence. They were these: (1) The Governor and several of the principal Assistants lived in Boston and held their courts (assemblies) there; and (2) its unrivaled situation at the head of the Bay, close to the deep water channel, and at the gateway to the interior. Possessed of such advantages at the outset, it was inevitable that Boston should attain leadership in the political and eco- nomic development of the Commonwealth prior to the Restoration in 1660. Of no other town could Johnson have said in 1650, as he did of Boston, that "in thrice seven years" it is "become like to a small City. . . . whose continuall inlargement presages some sumptuous City." Comparison of the records of Boston and her sister towns during the Colonial period discloses a fuller and richer civic life that was reflected in the deliberations of the Boston Town Meeting, and in its instructions to its Deputies in the General Court, as well as in the increase in the kind and number of officers, chosen by the Town or appointed by the Selectmen, to give effect to the Town by-laws and the orders of the General Court. As bearing on the point last mentioned, the results of the Town elections in 1637 and 1681 (the year in which Boston was first accorded three Deputies instead of two) 168 Boston and Its Story. are significant. At the March meeting in 1637, eleven men were " Chosen for these next six monethes to over- see and sett order for the townes occasions as formerly hath beene." The " chosen men" shortly afterwards appointed four " surveyors for highwayes"; seven men "to look unto field fences and gates" in the four plant- ing fields, and a "fold keeper" to take charge of tres- passing beasts. At a later meeting in 1637, the Town chose a constable for a year's term. In March, 1681, the Town elected: a Moderator; 7 Selectmen; 10 Constables, 8 for Boston and 1 each for Muddy River and Rumny Marsh ; 5 Clerks of the Market ; 7 Surveyors of Highways; i e.,4 for Boston, 2 for Muddy River, and 1 for Rumny Marsh; 3 Sealers of Leather; 2 Water Bailiffs; 2 Packers of Flesh and Fish; 1 Meas- urer of Salt; 3 Scavengers; 3 Criers; and 8 Hog Reeves. On the same day, the Selectmen chose a Recorder (Town Clerk) and a Treasurer; besides minor officers to' the number of 30, e. g., Sealer of Weights and Measures, Cullers of Pipe Staves, Corders of Wood, Overseers of Wood Corders, Measurers of Corn, and Measurers of Boards. The Town was already divided into 8 companies, i. e., districts each supplying 100 soldiers. These were fore- runners of the eight wards established first in 1712. Late in April, 1681, the Selectmen appointed 3 "tythinge men" for each of the 8 companies, and 4 others, i. e., 2 each for Muddy River and Rumny Marsh. In 1681, the public buildings of Boston included the Town House in the market place, the Almshouse originally built in the Common in 1660, and several school houses. Doyle, in his "English Colonies in America," empha- sizes the fact that "The Town meeting of Boston became Town Officers in the Provincial Period. 169 a power in the political life of the whole colony/' and suggests that the meeting "reached maturity" in 1728, when the Town voted unanimously against settling a salary upon the Royal Governor, and instructed the Representatives for Boston to oppose any action looking to that end. Governor Burnet was highly incensed against Boston, and sought to punish her by removing the General Court to Salem, besides reporting the matter in vituperative terms to the Lords of Trade in England. Thenceforward, Boston was generally a thorn in the side of the King's representative in Massachusetts. The results of the Town election, in March, 1728, bear witness to certain advances in the development of the government of Boston since 1681. Thus, in 1728, in addition to officers chosen in 1681, 7 Assessors and 7 Overseers of the Poor were chosen in the Town Meeting. Overseers of the Poor were first chosen in 1691, and Assessors in 1694. Collectors of Taxes were chosen in 1733 and thereafter; but in 1728, taxes were still col- lected, as in the early days, by the constables, although in the period 1712-14, collectors had been chosen as such. In 1728, the Town voted to erect a Granary in The Common, where the Bridewell, for insane and disorderly persons, had been placed already. The Keayne Town House, built of wood in 1657-58, had been replaced by a brick structure in 1711, in which the offices of the Town, County and Province were located. Not till 1733 was the public market of the middle of the town removed to Dock Square, in whose neighborhood it still remains. In 1738, a Workhouse was added to the public institu- tions in The Common. Town elections, for the first half of the eighteenth 170 Boston and Its Story. century as in the seventeenth century, were generally held early in March, which was the first month according to the prevalent calendar. Even now, the " March meeting," signalized by annual reports and the election of officers for the ensuing year, is the principal town meeting of the year throughout Massachusetts. March originally marked the beginning of the calendar as well as the official year. Even after England adopted the Gre- gorian or new style calendar, in 1752 (since when the numbered months, September-December, inclusive, have belied their names) — the March meeting in Boston was chiefly devoted to the election of town officers. It should be remembered that separation of municipal and state elections, which has long obtained in Massachusetts, appears to have been originally instituted, at least as regards Boston, in 1659, when it was voted by the Town Meeting that "the Selectmen shall for the future appoint the times of the meeting for the Freemen, distinct from the general townes meetings." The election of Deputies, Representatives, and after 1780 of state officers, was generally presided over by the Selectmen; and at least in the Provincial period, and thereafter, the number of votes cast were recorded in the minutes. But the numeri- cal results in the election of town officers were very seldom recorded. The fiscal year in Boston, during most of its existence as a town, coincided with the official year; but in 1723- 1821, the annual elections at the March meeting took so much time that "the consideration of money matters" was usually, by formal vote, continued or deferred till the May meeting. Accordingly, the fiscal year in Boston began on May 1 . So it was till 1892, when February 1 was made the beginning of the fiscal year. In very many of the The Last Town Election, 1821. 171 towns of Massachusetts the fiscal year still begins or closes in March, i. e., in the first month (old style). After the Revolution the town government of Boston became still more highly organized. For instance, the School Committee was instituted in 1789, and the Board of Health in 1799. During the last twenty-five years of its existence as a town, the government of Boston bore little resemblance to that of its compeers by reason of the variety of semi-independent boards having jurisdiction in its. local affairs. But, notwithstanding the growing dissatisfaction with the unwieldy and archaic nature of the governmental machinery, the people of Boston clung to their town polity and defeated no less than four schemes to make Boston a city in name, as well as in fact, in the period 1784^1815. Finally, in 1821, the people of Boston reluctantly decided to petition the General Court for an act of incor- poration. The precipitating cause for this decision is found in the unsatisfactory relations of the Town to the County of Suffolk, in which Boston was the predominant partner. The County consisted of the towns of Boston and Chelsea. But the County taxes, of which Boston paid fully 99 per cent, were levied and spent by the Court of Sessions, whose justices, being appointees of the Gover- nor, were wholly outside the control of the Town Meeting of Boston. The last election of town officers of Boston was held March 12, 1821, at which 2,443 votes were cast for Select- men, in contrast with: (1) 4,399 cast for Governor on April 2, 1821, at the election of State officers; and (2) 2,659 — the maximal vote on the fourteen articles of amendment to the Constitution of Massachusetts, which were submitted to the voters of Boston on April 9, 1821. 172 Boston and Its Story. It may be added that the vote on the adoption of the City Charter, on March 1, 1822, totalled 4,672. The last town election resulted in the choice of officers as follows : 7 Selectmen, chosen also to serve as Surveyors of Highways; a Town Clerk; a School Committee of twelve; 12 Overseers of the Poor, and of the Workhouse; 30 Firewards; 20 Surveyors of Boards and other Lumber; 6 Fence-Viewers; 6 Cullers of Hoops and Staves; 9 Cullers of Dry Fish; 4 Hogreeves, Haywards and Field Drivers; 3 Inspectors of Lime; 2 Surveyors of Hemp; 2 Surveyors of Wheat; and 2 Assay Masters. The number of Firewards had trebled since 1711, when they were first instituted. Besides the officers chosen in the Town Meeting, there were: (1) the members of the Board of Health, one in and for each of the twelve wards; (2) 24 Assistant Assessors, 2 in each ward. All of them were chosen in annual ward meetings presided over by Wardens — who were elective officers. The Principal Assessors in addition were chosen in convention by the twenty-four Assistant Assessors. The Town Treasurer was annually chosen by a convention made up of the Selectmen, Overseers of the Poor and Board of Health, who together formed the standing Com- mittee of Finance which controlled, in large measure, the fiscal policy and affairs of the Town. Usually the con- vention chose the Treasurer to be Collector of Taxes, too. There was a County Treasurer (annually elected by the voters of Suffolk County). He was responsible to the Court of Sessions, whose justices, in addition to their judicial functions, levied the County taxes, controlled the expenditure of the County income, and managed the County institutions. Some ardent advocates of commission government have jf^ ■IP OLD SOUTH CHURCH, CORNER WASHINGTON AND MILK STREETS. Boston in 1821. 173 declared that the Town of Boston, during its later years, when it had upwards of 40,000 inhabitants, was governed efficiently by the Board of Selectmen, after the manner of a modern commission. But the records disclose a cumbrous system of administration by semi-independent boards, and a composite budget, representing the demands of the State, the Court of Sessions, the Selectmen, the School Committee, the Overseers of the Poor, and the Board of Health. The civic life of Boston had become so intricate and complex that the simple organs of govern- ment that had so well served their purpose during the Colonial and Provincial periods, no longer sufficed. Even the man in the street could perceive that. So Boston, 191 years after its foundation, although it had developed into the most populous and illustrious town in the world, by vote of the Town Meeting on October 22, 1821, instructed a committee to " report to the town, at a future Meeting, a complete system relating to the administration of the Town and County which shall remedy the present evils." The report of the committee was rendered on December 10, when the committee was enlarged and instructed "to report a system of Municipal Government for this town, with such powers, privileges and immunities, as are contemplated by the amendment of the Constitution, authorizing the General Court to constitute City governments." The scheme proposed was accepted by the Town on January 7, 1822. The charter petitioned for by the Town, in accordance with this vote, was embodied in "An Act to Establish the City of Boston," which act, known as the First Charter, was accepted by the Town on March 4, 1822, by a vote of 2,797 yeas to 1,881 nays. Thereby Boston became the first city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 174 Boston and Its Story. the largest city in New England. Until 1835, when Salem was incorporated, Boston was the only city in Massachusetts. According to the last Massachusetts census, the popu- lation of Boston, on April 1, 1915, amounted to 745,439, or 20.18 per cent of the total population of the State. On the same date there were 34 other municipalities in Massachusetts incorporated as cities, with an aggregate population of 1,818,195, or 49.23 per cent of the population of the State. It may be noted, however, that in 1915 there were also 19 towns of 12,000 inhabitants or over that were eligible under the Constitution to apply to the Legislature for a city charter. The existence of so large a number of towns of city-size shows how strong a pre- dilection remains in Massachusetts for the form of town government. In 1915, the population of Brookline, the most populous and richest town in the State, was 33,490, or 12,736 less than the estimated population of Boston when it was incorporated in 1822. The management of the fiscal affairs of Boston was ex- tremely simple during the Colonial Period from 1630-92. For many years, rates were levied from time to time, as occasion arose, to defray current expenses or to pay rates levied upon the Town by the General Court. The following instances are typical. The first entry of a fiscal nature, in the extant records of Boston, is dated October 6, 1634, when the Town deputed five men together with the constable "to make a rate for the levying of £40 assessed upon the towne by order of the last General Court." December 28, 1640, "the rate made by the townesmen, i. e., the Selectmen, amounting to £179, the 13th of the 10th month, 1640, for the discharge of the country levy, was delivered to Mr. Henry Webb, Early Rates and Taxes in Boston. 175 Constable of Boston." Again we find, in the records of the Selectmen: "19; 9; 64. This day A rate for Country (Colony) and Town occasions to the value of £620; 19s.; 6d. was delivered to the Constables to be levied according to law." An embryonic form of appropriation order emerges in 1698, as appears from the following extract from the records of that year: "July 11th. At a public town meet- ing of the inhabitants of Boston, . . . voted and agreed that a rate of £800 should be raised by the Select- men upon the inhabitants of said town for the relief of the poor and other necessary charges of said town." At the March meeting in 1728, the terms of the appropriation are much more explicit. It was then: " Voted A Grant of £4,700 To be Raised on the Inhabitants and Estates within this Town, for Relief of the Poor, Defraying the charges of the watch, paving and Other Necessary charges arising within and for the Town, the Year Ensuing." In 1735 a similar grant of £7,800 was voted "to be raised by a Tax on Polls and Estates," etc. Usually the rates were assessed by the Selectmen as has been stated, but a commissioner was sometimes chosen by the Town to join with the Selectmen "to make the Country rate," e. g., in 1651 and 1660. Later the function of such Commissioner was to join with the Selectmen "to take a valuation of the estates and number of heads of the inhabitants," to serve as a basis for assessing the Country Tax. Such valuations were made as early as 1685 and frequently thereafter. In 1694, Assessors were first chosen instead of the former commis- sioner. Seven Assessors were chosen by the Town in 1694; 1696-1707 the number changed from five to nine. In 1700 the Town voted "to have no other Assessors but 176 Boston and Its Story. the Selectmen/' and similar votes were passed in some years of the period 1702-10. Beginning with 1711, Asses- sors appear to have been chosen annually in Town meeting. In 1712 the Town voted to choose two collectors of rates, and allow them three pence in the pound as fees. In 1713 and 1714 the Selectmen were authorized to appoint two collectors; but in 1715 and thereafter till 1733, the collection of taxes was performed by the con- stables. From 1733 onward the collectors of taxes appear to have been chosen annually by the Town as a matter of course. The Town had no treasurer till April, 1641, when the Selectmen chose "a Treasurer for the town stock which shall arise from sale of lands, or by any other ways than by ordinary rates, to Continue until another be Chosen in his place." July 26, 1641, the Selectmen chose John Oliver, " Treasurer for the Town and to keep the Town book." Thenceforward until 1691 the Town Treasurer seems to have been appointed by the Selectmen as the records contain frequent mention of such appointments. However, he was chosen in Town Meeting in 1685, 1686 and 1687. It would appear that after 1691 the Treasurer was usually chosen annually by the Town. In the period 1802-13, inclusive, the person chosen Treasurer by the Town was also chosen Collector of Taxes. From 1814 to 1821, inclusive, the election of the Treasurer and Collector of Taxes was in the hands of the Committee of Finance, first constituted in 1812. It consisted of the Selectmen, the Overseers of the Poor and the Board of Health. In each of the years indicated the Treasurer was elected to serve as Collector also. In 1641 two committees to consider accounts were appointed by "the men chosen to order the Towns occa- Auditing Committee 1641-92. 177 sions." The first, a committee of three, were charged "to take up the accounts of Mr. John Cogan," who had served as constable in 1640. In August, 1641, two were appointed to "Rectify the Accounts concerning Charge of Fencing in the mill field." These entries of 1641 appear to be the first instances recorded of the appointment of an auditing committee. At the Town Meeting held March 9, 1685, on motion of the Selectmen, a committee of three was chosen "to examine the Accounts (of the Selectmen) of all rates made by them and how disbursed." On April 13, 1685, the committee reported on the accounts of the Treasurer from April, 1679, to July 1, 1684. June 24, 1689, the Town voted that a committee of three "Audit the Selectmen's Accounts of the years past." March 14, 1692, the committee presented a report to the Town, covering the accounts of the Selectmen for the three years, 1688-90. In 1709 the Town chose a committee "to Audit the Accounts of the Committee for Fortifications in the year 1706. And the Accounts of the Committee Appointed in this present year 1709 for repairing the Platforms, etc., at the South Battery, and also the Treasurer's Accounts for this present year." Beginning with 1713, the annual election of an Auditing Committee, by the Town, appears to have been the rule. The reports of the Auditing Committee down to 1776, as set forth in the records, consisted of a brief statement as to the total receipts and expenditures of the year, and the amount and nature of the balance at the end of the year. Occasionally a special committee was appointed on the state of the treasury, or on the accounts of the collectors of taxes who were often in arrears. 178 Boston and Its Story. The records for 1769 contain an elaborate report by a Special Committee appointed "To examine the Town Treasurer's Account . . . and to make a full enquiry into the state of the Town Treasury and Debts and Credits of the Town, as also to report the same with what sum or sums of Money may be necessary to be raised for the ensuing year as a Town Tax." The Town voted to raise £8,000 by tax, the sum recommended by the Committee, to defray the Town's charges for the ensuing year. This was an innovation. In addition the Town chose five persons to be a " Standing Committee to inspect the state of the Town Treasury from time to time to Report upon that and other Money Matters." Although the committee made another report in 1769 it seems not to have been continued; but its appointment foreshadowed the estab- lishment of a committee on estimates. In 1770 the Auditing Committee was given enlarged powers, being by vote of the Town " desired to Report from time to time a state of the Treasury respecting the Debts and Credits, and on any matters they may think proper." The report of the Auditing Committee presented November 27, 1776, was unusually full and explicit. The report showed a balance against the Town of £8,181-13-11, of which £7,008 were for notes and interest unpaid. The committee concludes "When the sums already voted are borrowed and Provisions made for the present year the Town will be in Debt the amazing Sum of £15,681-13-11, which there appears to be no Fund to discharge." In the year 1779-80 Boston's burdens assumed por- tentous proportions owing to the demands made upon her for contributions in men and supplies for carrying on the war and to the enormous inflation of the currency. Tax Burden in 1780. 179 In 1780 the taxes voted by the Town, mostly for loans, amounted to £1,500,000 in currency, or say £37,500 in specie. Several special committees in* addition to the usual auditing committee were appointed in 1781. One was a committee to give in an estimate of the sum neces- sary for defraying the expenses of the current year, and to determine upon appropriations of the same. The committee recommended a tax of £9,000 in gold and silver, etc., to be appropriated as follows: One-third to discharge the drafts of the Overseers of the Poor; one- third to discharge unpaid drafts for 1779 and 1780 of the Overseers and Selectmen; and the residue, with any remainder from the other appropriations, towards dis- charging the interest and part of the principal of the debts of the Town. The committee recommended that "the Treasurer immediately open a New set of Books to be kept in specie.' 7 The Auditing Committee in 1782 estimated the amount of the Town's debt at £20,425 in specie. The Committee on Estimates was continued in each of the years 1783-89. In 1790 the Town directed the Auditing Committee to also "report the sum Necessary to be raised for the Services of the Present Year." Simi- lar votes were annually passed in the period 1791-1812. In 1812, by a vote of the Town, "the Selectmen, Over- seers of the Poor, and Members of the Board of Health were constituted a Committee of Finance, to superintend the administration of the monied concerns of the Town." By an Act of 1813, the Committee of Finance of Boston was directed to annually appoint in June or July a Treasurer and a Collector or Collectors of Taxes. Accord- ingly the fiscal affairs of Boston, from 1813 till 1822, when the Town was incorporated a city, were largely 180 Boston and Its Story. managed by the Committee of Finance, which issued annual reports in print; and the members of the three boards, constituting the Committee of Finance, in annual convention, elected a Town Treasurer and a Collector of Taxes. During that period, 1813-21, the person elected Treasurer was also elected Collector of Taxes. The Committee of Finance issued twelve annual reports, viz., nine in the period 1813-21 and three in the years 1822-24. The office of Auditor of Accounts was estab- lished by an ordinance passed August 2, 1824. The first report of the Auditor of the City of Boston appeared in 1825. The Auditor has published a report in every year since 1825. As a rule down to 1795, when it was determined to sell the sites of the Almshouse, etc., in The Common and apply the proceeds towards the purchase of land on Lev- erett street and the erection of a new Almshouse, etc., public buildings were placed on land belonging to the Town. As a rule, too, public buildings, aside from schoolhouses, were either given to the Town, or their cost was largely, if not mainly, met by contributions from public-spirited citizens. When such contributions were insufficient they were eked out by levying special rates upon the taxpayers, or by establishing a lottery, e. g., for the rebuilding Faneuil Hall in 1762. For 150 years after its settlement Boston's landed possessions were so considerable and available as to render the establishment of a funded debt unnecessary. Although the Town frequently found it difficult to meet its current obligations, it was not till 1812 that the ques- tion of debt requirements became an urgent one. When the Town became a city in 1822 Boston's funded debt amounted to only $100,000, all incurred for county buildings, then erecting. City Debt in 1822. 181 By far the greater part of the sums which Boston has borrowed at interest, since its settlement in 1630, has been expended on internal improvements, viz., the widening and extension of old streets, the construction of new streets, the building of sewers, the filling in of coves and marshes, and the laying out of parks. Naturally the largest and most expensive undertakings for the objects mentioned, as well as for bridges and water works, have been effected since Boston became a city in 1822. Since the incorporation of the City of Boston in that year, Boston proper has been transformed in respect to its sky line, its ground plan and its system of subterranean conveniences. The funded debt of Boston was only $100,000 in 1822, when Boston became responsible for all the debts and expenses of the County of Suffolk, as it had been for fully nine-tenths of them, during the period 1803-21 when Boston and Chelsea made up the county. The city debt in 1822 was in effect a county debt, as it' had all been incurred for county buildings. The infer- ence that the Town of Boston had no experience in incurring and providing for debt, because the city inherited no debt incurred for Town purposes would be unwarranted. The Town of Boston in the period 1630-1821 was frequently in straits to meet its own run- ning expenses, not to speak of its obligations to the Govern- ment of the Colony, Province and State. As a rule the Town defrayed its extraordinary expenditures out of rates and taxes or by the sale of real estate. But the borrowings of Boston while it was a town were mostly occasioned by conditions of peril or distress, e. g., in 1711, when the Town authorized a loan of £1,000 for making a line of defence across the Neck; in 1775, when the Treasurer was directed to borrow £1,000 for 182 Boston and Its Story. one year for the supply of the Almshouse, and £1,018 to pay the Province Tax of 1774; in 1776, when the principal of the outstanding notes of the Town amounted to £7,029, and in 1812, when Boston was paying interest on some $100,000 of Town and County notes. But the banner year was 1780, when the loans authorized by the Town, mostly to meet requisitions for contributions towards carrying on the war, amounted to £1,460,000 in Continental currency, or say £36,500 in specie. As a rule the cost of public buildings in Boston, prior to the extension of Faneuil Hall Market in 1825, leaving county buildings out of account, was defrayed by gifts, sales of real estate and taxes. By leases and gifts to the builders of wharves and docks the Town had pretty much lost control of the waterfront long before it became a city. As the Town was one of the original plantations, the demands for laying out of streets, market place and com- mons within the Neck were readily met by allotments of common land. The most prolific sources of extraordinary expenditures in early Boston were fortifications and the relief of the poor. The southernmost hill in Boston got its name from the fort whose erection was begun in 1632. On February 23; 1635, at a general meeting upon public notice, it was " agreed that for the raising of a new Worke of fortifica- tion upon the Forthill, about that which is there already begun, the whole town will bestow fourteen days' work, by equal proportions.'' Seven commissioners were authorized "to set down how many days work would be equal for each man to do," and to determine what sums those who "were of greater ability and had fewer servants should pay." Twelve of the leading men lent £50 to this work. Fortifications 1632-46. 183 In 1636 it was ordered by the General Court "That the inhabitants of Boston shall have the use of six pieces of ordnance, and that there shall be xxx lb. in money given to them, towards the making of a platform at the foot of the Fort Hill at Boston, and the inhabitants of the said town are to finish the said work at their own charges before the General Court in May next." This work was later known as the Sconce or South Battery. The fort at Castle Island, begun in 1634, was built and maintained by the Country. In 1639 a grant of 500 acres at Mount Wooliston was made "for the use of the Cannoneer of Boston." The North Battery appears to have been started in 1646, at the instance and cost of the inhabitants of the North End, "whose hearts the Lord hath made willing to set about the erecting and main- tenance of a fortification at Walter Merry's Point." In 1673, when England was at war with Holland, the "Councell of the Countrie" recommended to the Select- men of Boston the. erection of a wall or wharf upon the flats before the Town as a protection "from fire ships in case of an enemy." On September 5, 1673, the Town voted: (1) Not to bear the cost of the proposed work; and (2) that the Selectmen might "order and dispose of the flats before the town for the security of the town as they may judge." Accordingly, the Selectmen drew up a plan for a work or wharf of wood and stone to be 2,200 feet long, with a breadth of 22 feet at the bottom and 6 feet high; to extend from the South Battery to Skarlett's Wharf, at the North End. To such of the inhabitants as should undertake the work the Selectmen offered to convey the flats between the proposed wall and the town, with the right to build wharves and warehouses "200 feet back 184 Boston and Its Story. towards the town." No man should be allowed to subscribe or undertake for less than 20 feet of the wall or wharf. By November 11, 1673, forty-one sections (ranging from 20 to 150 feet), amounting to 1872 feet, were subscribed for. Such was the origin of the Barricado or Outwharf which is shown on Sheafe's map of 1708. The Barricado, however, was a much less substantial structure than was originally projected. It appears to have consisted chiefly of a wall of upright piles or timbers driven into the flats, without wharves, but with three gaps in it to afford passage to ships. Atlantic avenue, con- structed 1875, occupies the site of the Barricado, only traces of which are shown on Bonner's map of 1722. In March, 1696, the Town voted to allow the payment of £200 (out of the town rate of £500, granted that day) towards repairing the fortifications. But the town expected to be reimbursed out of the Province treasury. On March 8, 1697, the Town voted to raise £500 for the fortification and to buy powder, etc. In June, 1706, the Town voted a tax of £1,000 to be laid out in extending the North Battery; repairing the South Battery and for the fortification of the. Neck; and a further tax of £1,000 was voted in October of the same year for the same purpose. In 1711 the Town granted £1,000 for making a line of defence across the Neck between Boston and Roxbury, to be borrowed by the Treasurer from the inhabitants; and in May, 1712, another grant of £1,000 for finishing the line of defence on the Neck was voted. In 1733 the Town voted to raise £10,000 on polls and estates to defray the cost of repairing the batteries and building extensive new .fortifications at Fort Point Chan- nel and Long Wharf. In July, 1734, the vote was recon- sidered and reversed, although meanwhile the Town had Fortifications 1697-1739. 185 voted to petition the General Court to loan £10,000, the Town to be repaid in annual installments. Finally, in August, 1734, the Town appropriated £714, to be raised bf a tax, to defray expenditures already made on the fortifications. In 1739 the defenceless state of the Town and the danger of attack from the sea again became an urgent subject. The Selectmen in a report, on March 10, 1739, recommended that the proceeds of the sale of three town- ships (embracing 69,120 acres in all), granted to the Town by the General Court in 1735, and sold for £3,660 in 1736, be devoted to repairing the batteries or raising other fortifications as the Town should judge necessary. Just a year later, the Town chose a committee, consist- ing of the Overseers of the Poor and the Collectors of Taxes, to raise £20,000 by subscription for "Putting the Town in a proper Posture of Defence." Elaborate plans, involving an expenditure of £18,200, were proposed for strengthening the batteries and build- ing a series of piers, and providing hulks to fill up the channel (if necessary) between Castle William and Governor's Island. In 1742, after much debate and considerable negotia- tion, the Province granted £1,000 for repair of the North and South Batteries; and the Town appropriated the residue of the proceeds of the sale of the three townships of land to the same purpose. It should be noted, that in 1741 the Town appropriated £700 out of those proceeds to buying cord wood for the supply of the inhabitants. It was voted to sell the South Battery in 1785, and the North Battery in 1787. It does not appear that an enemy ever appeared before the batteries or the Barricado to open fire upon them. The first reference to the poor of Boston occurs in the 186 Boston and Its Story. records of a General Meeting held March 23, 1635, when because "the wood upon the neck of land towards Roxbury hath this last winter been disorderly cut up and wasted, whereby many of the poor Inhabitants are disappointed of relief they might have had there in after and needful times"; it was generally agreed that three men, with the three Deacons, should "consider who have been faulty herein, and set down what restitution of Wood unto the poor such shall make according to their several proportions." Ten months later the Town voted: "That the poorer sort of the Inhabitants such as are members or likely so to be, and have no Cattle shall have their proportion of allotments of planting ground, and other assigned unto them by the Allotters, and laid out at Muddy river." The allotments were to be four acres or five per head according to their locations. In 1639 the General Court made it the duty of the Town "to settle and provide for poor persons." From time to time outdoor aid* was granted to various individuals, e. g., in 1658, when the town treasurer was ordered by the Selectmen to pay the house rent of Jonathan Negus for that year. At the same time it was ordered that the town treasurer should dispose of a legacy of £15 given by William Paddy to the poor of the Town. In November, 1660, the Town authorized the Selectmen "to make use of a piece of ground in the Common for the erecting an almshouse upon with suitable accommodations." It was also ordered that a bequest of 100 pounds from Mr. Henry Webb be used towards building the Almshouse; and Capt. R. Keayne's bequest of "120 pounds for the use of the poor" was appropriated for the same purpose. In 1682 the Almshouse in The Common was destroyed by fire. The Town voted to Sale of Sites in the Common. 187 rebuild it and to provide a convenient stock and utensils to employ persons that may work there. It was also voted that the sum to be raised by the way of rate for the building and stock forementioned "shall not exceed 1,000 pounds without further advice of the town." This institution, which was sometimes called the Workhouse, was continued on its original site at the corner of the present Beacon street until a new Almshouse was opened in 1800, on Leverett street, in the West End. Early in the seventeenth century a Bridewell for dis- orderly and insane persons was built in The Common near the Almshouse. In 1738 a Workhouse was added to the public institutions, in The Common, which included the Granary erected in 1728. In 1795 the Town voted to sell all the land occupied by the Almshouse, Workhouse and Granary, together with "house lots in the land opposite the mall," to defray the expense of purchasing land at Barton's Point and erecting thereon "a commodious set of buildings for the accom- modation of the sick and poor inhabitants on a plan to be approved of by the Selectmen." Accordingly, in the period 1796-1816, the Town sold sites taken originally from The Common for more than $78,000. In November, 1675, a rate amounting to £2,641 "for the occasions of the country for the Indian War" was committed to the constables of Boston. This rate, to meet the expenses of King Phillip's War, appears to be the heaviest rate that Boston was called upon to raise during the Colonial period. The relief of the poor con- stituted so large a part of the Town's occasions that it came to stand first in the preamble of orders for raising rates to meet current expenses, as for instance, in 1698, the Town voted that "a rate of £800 should be raised by 188 Boston and Its Story. the Selectmen upon the Inhabitants of said town for the relief qf the poor and other necessary charges." At the March meeting of 1691 four gentlemen were chosen " Overseers of the Poor" for the year ensuing. This was the first election of Overseers of the Poor as such. In 1692 the General Court passed an Act defining the powers and duties of the Overseers of the Poor of Boston and other towns. The Overseers of the Poor were incorporated by Act of Legislature in 1772. It was the first board concerned with the conduct of the Town's affairs to be formally constituted a corporation. The present corporation has its own treasurer in whose custody are various funds, mostly bequests, for the relief of the poor, aggregating $896,056. At present the Over- seers of the Poor have charge of (1) the Wayfarers' Lodge, opened in 1878, which gives free lodging to home- less men who are out of work. It exacts work in its wood- yard for meals furnished; and (2) the Temporary Home, opened in 1870, for destitute women and children. One of the main reasons for first dividing the Town into wards, in 1712, seems to have been to facilitate the adminis- tration of poor relief and the management of idle and disorderly persons by a Committee of Visitation, consisting of Justices, Overseers of the Poor, etc. In 1679 Boston suffered from a conflagration on account of which the Deputies to the General Court were instructed by the Town to ask for an abatement of the "last rate to the country which was above £800." The Deputies were also instructed to seek legislation, giving the Town power "to eject all such persons that come from other towns or countries to reside here without due and orderly admis- sions, etc., for want of which power the town is filled with poor, idle and profane persons, which are greatly preju- dicial to the inhabitants, and that those Eastern people Growth of Poor Relief, 1679-1780. 189 arid others that came hither for shelter and relief in time of War may be removed, having been very chargeable to the town already." The relief of the poor in Boston was proportionately more burdensome than in any other town, because of Boston's eminence as a maritime town and because it became a favorite place of refuge in times of distress and warfare. Thus in 1742 the census takers of the Town returned the number of souls as 16,382, not including 110 in the Alms- house and thirty-six in the Workhouse. They add that " there is about 1,200 widows included in the above number of souls, one thousand whereof are in low circum- stances & a great number of other persons so poor that they are not taxed." Already in 1735, Boston had petitioned the General Court for an abatement of its tax, because of the decay of trade and the growing expenses of the Town. The cost of maintenance of the poor in 1734 amounted to £2,070 against £940 five years before. Of eighty-eight persons in the Almshouse only one-third were "town born chil- dren." It was suggested that the burden " ought to be proportionally borne by the Province." "The Addi- tional Number of the town inhabitants" was claimed to be ""chiefly owing to the resort of all sorts of poor people, while the town has no power to repell or prevent the growing evil." In 1775, when the Town was staggering under the burdens caused by the war, out of £60,000 levied in taxes for ordinary expenses, no less than £16,000, or say £400 in specie, were for the sole use of the Almshouse. Similarly, in 1780, £70,000 in Continental currency were appropriated for the Almshouse. In March, 1781, it was necessary to organize a committee of thirty-six, three in each ward, to solicit subscriptions 190 Boston and Its Story. for the Almshouse, to be deducted from the next taxes " to prevent the opening of the doors of the Almshouse that such as may be able may go from door to door seeking such relief of their compassionate and Christian Towns- men as might save them from perishing." Using the term charity in a broad sense to include the various agencies of the City for the care and relief of its dependent population, the ordinary expenditures of Boston for charity in the year 1914-15 amounted to $1,199,149 (exclusive of $892,801 for hospitals), viz., (1) Children's Institutions, $117,948; (2) Reform School, $76,203; (3) Infirmaries, $224,772; (4) Lodging Houses, $20,714; (5) Out-door relief by Overseers, $484,018; and (6) Miscellaneous, $275,494. According to the last Federal Census, there were in 1910 eighteen cities in the United States having 300,000 or more inhabitants. Among them Boston, with a population of 670,585, ranked fifth. In 1912, the town of Hyde Park, which had 15,507 inhabitants in 1910, was annexed to Boston. The Massachusetts Census as of April 1, 1915, found 745,439 persons within the present limits of Boston. The first enumeration of the population of Boston was made by the town in 1722, when 10,567 persons were found after 844 had died of smallpox. By 1750 the population had increased to 15,730. Governor Gage's census of 1775 reported 6,573 inhabitants in the town, and the Provincial Census of 1776 found only 2,719. By 1790, when the first Federal Census was taken, Boston had a population of 18,320. In 1822 Boston was incor- porated as a city with an estimated population of 46,226. Its population as a town was 43,298 in 1820, of whom more than nine-tenths were found in Boston proper, i.e., within the limits of the original settlement of 1630. Annexed Territoey of Boston. 191 Perhaps the peninsula of Shawmut taken up by the original settlers of Boston in the late summer of 1630 contained 750 acres of hard land. Through the filling in of coves and flats and the extension of the shore line the area of Boston proper has increased to 1,904 acres, or 6.9 per cent of the land within the present limits of the city. The most extensive reclamation schemes, as well as the largest additions of annexed territory, were effectuated during the nineteenth century. In 1800 the total area of land in Boston amounted to 2,218 acres, of which 783 acres were in Boston proper and 1,435 acres in territory annexed since 1630, or 35.3 and 64.7 per cent, respectively. Most of the annexed territory of present Boston was acquired in the period 1868-74. The acreage of annexed districts since 1630, when annexed, is shown approximately in the following state- ment. Acres of Land Annexed to Boston Proper. Acres. Per Cent. 1632-37 .... 1,435 5.9 1804-55 .... 795 3.3 1868-74 .... 19,213 79.0 1912 2,869 . 24,312 11.8 Total 100.0 Present land in Boston, 27,684 acres. Fully 89.6 per cent of the present territory of the City of Boston was settled originally in 1629 or in 1630. Six several municipalities have been merged by acts of annexation with Boston proper, viz., the cities of Charlestown and Roxbury and the towns of Dorchester, West Roxbury, Brighton and Hyde Park. Charlestown was settled in 1629, and the others, except Hyde Park, in 192 Boston and Its Story. 1630. West Roxbury, till it was set off as a separate town in 1851, was a part of Roxbury, while Brighton, till it became a town in 1807, was a part of Cambridge. Yet the fact remains that the Boston town meeting in 1639 held sway over more acres of land by more than 15,000 than are included within the jurisdiction of the city government to-day, owing to the fact that most of the territory granted by the General Court to Boston "for its enlargement" in the period 1634-37 was, in the period 1639-1739, set off from Boston to form separate towns, e. g., Braintree in 1640; Brookline in 1705, and Chelsea in 1739, whereby Boston lost approximately 41,000 acres of its outlying possessions. Broadly considered, the ninety odd years that have elapsed since Boston adopted city government may be characterized as a period of internal improvements throughout the United States. Every organ of govern- ment, national, state and local has been brought into play to meet the ever changing conditions of a young and undeveloped country. In the interval the processes and machinery of municipal housekeeping have been revolu- tionized as well as those of warfare, agriculture, transpor- tation, industry and commerce. On the whole, the govern- mental machinery of the nation and the several States has been less radically transformed and has stood the strain better than that of the urban communities as a class. As a city, Boston has not attained the rank which it relinquished when it ceased to be a town. Peerless as a town, it entered a new class of competitors when it became a city. It has had to re-form itself in the face of the multifarious and perplexing problems which have beset American cities, both old and new, ever since the first third of the last century. Boston as a City. 193 Among its compeers, Boston is admitted to be eminent, but not preeminent. It has borne well its part and achieved distinction in education, in letters, in art and science, as well as in enterprise and wealth. But it is hardly likely that any city will soon, if ever, occupy so dominant a position among the cities of the Union as Boston once held among its towns. It is not surprising that American cities are less highly developed than their elder sisters of the Old World, when one considers how meagre and amorphous was the body of urban tradition anywhere in the United States, when the chief centers of population became congested from the influx of domestic and foreign immigrants, and how many novel and unforeseen practical problems city authori- ties have had to grapple with in their rather frantic attempts to keep pace with the discoveries of science and the improvements in technology and engineering, which have been made during the last hundred years. The portentous growth in urban population since the early decades of the nineteenth century has caused a tremendous increase in the volume and cost of city business. It is worthy of note that, in 1915, the ordinary expenditures of Boston were 36.432 millions of dollars against 19.954 of the Commonwealth. Even more staggering and unex- ampled has been the increase in the complexity of munic- ipal administration owing to the variety and number of new objects of expenditure, both ordinary and extraor- dinary. Some inkling as to changed conditions in urban com- munities brought about merely by the growth of popula- tion is afforded by such facts as these: (1) the estimated population of New York City as of January 1, 1916, viz., 5,597,982, exceeds by 597,982 the enumerated population 194 Boston and Its Story. of the United States in 1800; and is upwards of two and a half millions more than the population of the Union according to the census of 1790; (2) Boston's population of 745,439, according to the census of 1915, exceeds by 222,157 the population of Massachusetts in 1820. More- over, the composition of the population has been vastly changed in the interim. Thus, the census of 1910 showed that 35.9 per cent of the inhabitants of Boston were foreign-born whites; and that 74.2 per cent were of foreign white stock or parentage. Of the total population, 60.72 per cent were derived from the following principal sources, viz., England, 3.90; Ireland, 26.49; Italy, 7.42; Russia, 9.58; Canada, 13.33 (0.89 French, and 12.44 from Other Canada) . But such facts are insignificant in comparison with the changes wrought in city housekeeping by the introduc- tion, since 1820, of illuminating gas, electric lighting, street cars, tunnels, water works, sewerage works, free bridges, public hospitals, public parks, night schools and free text books, — not to speak of modern improvements in street paving, street cleaning, the disposal of garbage, and the conservation of the public health. Yet in 1915, the city and county officials of Boston numbered only 15,056, while those of the Commonwealth numbered 25,065. The history of the city government of Boston reflects the same general conditions that have influenced the growth and expansion of the other large cities of the coun- try. It has been marked by many experiments, based upon "happy thoughts" and by tentative measures which were often halting compromises. As in most of the great cities of the country, development has not kept pace with growth; as it has been well-nigh impossible to adapt or THE FIRST ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL IN NEW ENGLAND, WITH FEDERAL STREET CHURCH IN BACKGROUND. It was situated on Franklin Street. The First City Charter, 1822. 195 readjust governmental machinery which was adequate and effective in a semi-rural community to meet modern metropolitan conditions, involving a congested popula- tion, increasingly made up of aliens. Boston, like most other large American cities, is still in the process of transi- tion, but is groping its way towards the light of a better day, when it is to be hoped civic righteousness shall prevail over short-sighted and selfish politics, in state houses, as well as in city halls, throughout the land. The city government instituted in 1822 differed most radically from the town government of 1821, in that the government of the city was vested in a mayor and city council. The city council, consisting of two legislative boards, took the place of the town meeting; but it also had large administrative and executive powers. The mayor and aldermen constituted the upper chamber, and the common council, consisting of 48 members, 4 being chosen in and for each ward, constituted the lower chamber. The mayor and 8 aldermen were chosen at large. As in the town, so in the city, ward officers, con- sisting of a warden, clerk, and inspectors of elections, were chosen in each ward; their functions being to conduct elections. The mayor ex officio presided over the meetings of the board of aldermen, and appointed their committees. The committees of the common council were appointed by the president of that board, which, besides choosing its own president, chose its own clerk. The city clerk, chosen by the city council, acted as recording officer for the mayor and board of aldermen. Certain of the old boards were given a place in the new scheme of government, viz., the school committee, the overseers of the poor, and the fire wards; but the powers of the old board of health were 196 Boston and Its Story. vested in the city council. The city treasurer and the city clerk, like the city auditor, whose office was established in 1824, were chosen by the city council. In the course of a few years, the fire wards were abolished, and a fire department was organized in their stead. A thoroughly organized police department, under the management of a commission did not emerge till 1878. It is probably fair to say that the new city government was intended to involve as little departure as possible from the framework and conceptions of the old govern- ment of the town. The charter even contained a provi- sion for the summoning by the aldermen, under certain conditions, of " general meetings "■ for the consideration of the common good, and giving instructions to the city council. It was in such "city meetings" that the ques- tion of water supply was debated for many years. Such meetings appear to have ceased in the early forties. It may be noted that 40 years later, statutory provisions for the holdings of such meetings are found. The charter of 1822 provided for representation of the several wards. Thus, in each. of the ward meetings, there were chosen annually, 4 common councilmen; 3 fire wards; an overseer of the poor, and a member of the school committee. The newly organized city had no general system of sewers, no public water supply, no city engineer, no city solicitor or corporation counsel, and only an inchoate police department. The mayor, though titu- larly the chief executive officer, was to a large extent, a figure head. One outstanding characteristic of the city government of Boston under its first charter may be emphasized, namely, the extent to which the administrative business of the city was intrusted to joint committees made up of Present Government of Boston. 197 members of the board of aldermen and the common council. This feature was also strongly marked in the government of Boston under the so-called new charter of 1854 and the revised charter of 1885, although under the latter instrument the joint committees were somewhat shorn of the powers they had formerly exercised in the matter of the employment of labor and the making of contracts. Viewed objectively, and in the large, the government of Boston as a city, in contrast with its government as a town, has been subjected to an unusual amount of tinker- ing. Genuine development, as the result of purposive experimentation, is discernible, but that development has been less natural and orderly than was the develop- ment of the government of the town as such. Moreover, the General Court allowed the town a larger measure of home rule than it has accorded to the city. The present government of the City of Boston differs in many respects from that which was organized in 1822 under the first charter. Notwithstanding the greatly augmented number of departments which have come into being since 1822, the general structure of the present government, consisting of the mayor and city council of 9 members elected at large, is much simpler than it was down to 1909. Still, it must be said that the present scheme of government presents some excrescences, e. g., the police department, whose official head is appointed by the Governor; the licensing board, which controls the issuing of licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquor within the city, all of whose members are appointed by the Governor; and the finance commission, also appointed by the Governor. The latter is an advisory board, established under the amended charter of 1909. No 198 Boston and Its Story. other city in Massachusetts is in the same class as Boston in these respects. Moreover, the heads of departments, appointed by the mayor, are subject to approval by the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission, which also is charged with the duty week by week, and month by month, of approving the pay rolls of the City of Boston. These peculiar features of the present government of Boston bespeak the policy of the Legislature to restrict and meddle with the municipality to an extent which does not obtain with regard to the other 36 cities of the Com- monwealth. It would appear that Boston has been singled out for the limitation of its home rule on grounds of political expediency, rather than those of enlightened statesmanship. Another policy which has developed since 1822 is that of denying the citizens of Boston the right to vote upon amended charters; so that it is now true that Boston is practically the only city in the Commonwealth that is debarred from that privilege. Numerous acts of legislature have been passed from time to time, authorizing the institution of new adminis- trative departments or the re-organization of old ones. But the years 1854, 1885 and 1909 stand out as those in which comprehensive attempts were made to revise or amend the structure of the city government. In 1854 the city charter was revised by an act of the General Court, which down to 1884, was commonly known as the new charter. It did not essentially change the organization of the city government, although under it the mayor had rather more power than under the first charter. Administrative control was still largely left in the hands of committees of the city council. In 1885, the character of the city government was considerably changed by an act of legislature, that sought to con- Development of City Government, 1822-1909. 199 centrate more power and responsibility in the hands of the mayor. This act was not referred to the voters of Boston as the earlier charters had been. It gave power to the mayor to remove, as well as to appoint, heads of departments. His veto was strengthened, and he was empowered to disapprove any order of the city council, and to disapprove items in loan and appropriation orders, subject to passage over his veto by a two-thirds vote of the city council. He was relieved from presiding over the meetings of the aldermen and the school committee. The control of the police was taken from the city and vested in a commission, appointed by the Governor. At present, the police department is managed by a single commissioner. It would be a tedious and not very informing task to trace the increase in the number and the transformation in character of the departments since 1822. Re-organ- ization and consolidation have played a great part in their history during the last fifteen years, but they have been effected largely by piece meal, and by rather hap- hazard measures. Certain general tendencies in the development of the city government of Boston since 1822 may be noted. The most outstanding are: (1) the tendency to concen- trate power and responsibility in the hands of the mayor and to make him more and more the executive head of the government; (2) to cut down the number and powers of the legislative department of the government. This policy culminated in 1909 in the abolition of the board of 13 aldermen, who were elected at large, and of the common council, which then numbered 75, three being elected from each of the 25 wards ; (3) the tendency to remove depart- ment administration from the interference or control of the city council. 200 Boston and Its Story. Probably no son of Boston looms larger in the eyes of the world than Ralph Waldo Emerson. Certainly none of her sons has equaled Emerson as an interpreter of Boston and its story. Hear him! " This town of Boston has a history ... Its annals are great historical lines, inextricably national; part of the history of political liberty. . . . America is growing like a cloud, towns on towns, States on States; and wealth (always interesting, since from wealth power cannot be divorced) is piled in every form invented for comfort or pride. . . . Moral values become also money values. When men saw that these people, besides their industry and thrift, had a heart and soul and would- stand by each other at all hazards, they desired to come and live here. A house in Boston was worth as much again as a house just as good in a town of timorous people, because here the neighbors would defend each other against bad gov- ernors and against troops; quite naturally house rents rose in Boston. Besides, youth and health like a stirring town, above a torpid place where nothing is doing. In Boston they were sure to see something going forward before the year was out. For here was the moving principle itself, the primum mobile, a living mind agita- ting the mass and always afflicting the conservative class with some odious novelty or other; a new religious sect, a political point, a point of honor, a reform in education, a philanthropy. . . . There never was wanting some thorn of dissent and innovation and heresy to prick the sides of conservatism. . . . Here stands today as of yore our little city of the rocks; here let it stand forever, on the manbearing granite of the North. Let her stand fast by herself. She has grown great. She is filled with strangers, but she can only prosper by adhering to her faith. Let every child that is born of her and every child of her adoption see to it to keep the name of Boston as clean as the sun; and in distant ages her motto shall be the prayer of millions on all the hills that gird the town, 1 As with our Fathers, so God be with us.' Sicut Patribus, Sit Deus Nobis! " DATE DUE ~ m v Te "*»9'i * 1007 GAYL.ORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 01197878 53826 F7T73 AUTHOi TITLE ^38£e is; - BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. Books may be kept for two weeks and may be renewed for the same period, unless re- served. Two cents a day is charged for each book kept overtime. If you cannot find what you want, ask the Librarian who will be glad to help you. The borrower is responsible for books drawn on his card and for all fines accruing on the same.