Class. 
 
CELEBRATION 
 
 BY THE 
 
 INHABITANTS OF WORCESTER, MASS., 
 
 CENTENNIAL ANNIYEESA11Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 JULY 4, 1876. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 
 
 %$oxtt$ttv: 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 
 MDCCCLXXVI. 
 
T"74 
 
 •fioS 
 
 3 o\ 
 
 WOKCESTEB : 
 
 PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON. 
 
 1876. 
 

 The following resolve and order were adopted by the City 
 Council at their first meeting after the Celebration : — 
 
 '& 
 
 CITY OF WORCESTER. 
 
 In City Council, July 10th, 1876. 
 
 Resolved : — That the City Council hereby tenders its thanks to the Hon. 
 Benj. F. Thomas, for his eloquent and able Oration, delivered on the Centen- 
 nial Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, 
 July 4th, 1876; and that he be requested to furnish a copy thereof for 
 publication. 
 
 Ordered : — That the Committee of Arrangements for Celebrating the Cen- 
 tennial Fourth of July, appoiuted February 14th, a. d. 1876, be, and they are 
 hereby, authorized to have printed fifteen hundred copies of the oration 
 delivered by Judge Thomas, July 4th, a. d. 1876, together with a complete 
 and concise history of the celebration, for the use of the City Council ; the 
 expense thereof to be charged to appropriation, for incidentals. 
 
 Approved July 11th, 1876. 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Mayor. 
 
 (A copy.) Attest, 
 
 Samuel Smith, City Clerk. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Pages. 
 
 I. The Preparations, 10-20 
 
 II. Exercises of the Day, 21-25 
 
 III. The Oration, • 29-81 
 
 IV. Processions, Decorations, and Illuminations, 85-105 
 
 V. Historical Notes, 109-122 
 
 VI. Ancient Buildings and Historical Localities, 123-146 
 
The Committee on Printing, for the Celebration by the City of 
 
 Worcester, of the Fourth of July, 1876, herewith submit the result of 
 
 their labors. The limits of the volume have compelled them, with 
 
 regret, to omit many details of the private displays and decorations of 
 
 the clay, and to refer chiefly to such alone as were of a public nature. 
 
 The President of the United States, in his proclamation, last Spring, 
 
 expressed the hope that Cities and Towns would publish an account of 
 
 their July celebrations this year ; and it therefore seemed proper to this 
 
 Committee to add to the account of the exercises here, some historical 
 
 notes and memoranda, compiled by one of their number, in regard to 
 
 affairs which occurred in the town at about the time of the Declaration 
 
 of Independence ; together with a list of previous celebrations of its 
 
 anniversary. 
 
 Clark Jillson, Mayor. 
 Charles A. Chase. 
 Nathaniel Paine. 
 Richard O'Flynn. 
 J. Evarts Greene. 
 
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
PREPARATIONS. 
 
 ACTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 
 
 Early in the year, the question of having a suitable com- 
 memoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of American 
 Independence was agitated in the City Council, and the following 
 order was adopted : — 
 
 CITY OF WORCESTER. 
 
 In City Council, Januaky 31st, 1876. ' 
 
 Ordered : — That Aldermen Pratt and Lapham, with Councilmen Gaskill, 
 Crane and Kickham be a Joint Special Cominittee, to consider and report 
 upon the expediency of celebrating the Centennial Fourth of July in an 
 appropriate manner. 
 
 Approved February 1st, 1876. 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Mayor. 
 
 (A copy.) Attest, 
 
 Samuel Smith, City Clerk. 
 
 This Committee presented the following Report, which was 
 accepted, and its recommendations adopted by the City 
 Council : — 
 
 CITY OF WORCESTER. 
 
 In City Council, February 14th, 1876. 
 
 The Joint Special Committee appointed to consider and report upon the 
 expediency of Celebrating the Centennial Fourth of July in an appropriate 
 
12 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 manner, have attended to the business committed to them, and report that 
 the Committee are unanimous in the opinion that the Centennial Anniversary 
 of our National Independence should be observed in a manner worthy of the 
 occasion. 
 
 The Committee recommend the appointment of a Joint Special Committee 
 of the City Council, to consist of the Mayor, ttvo Aldermen, the President of 
 the Common Council and three Councilmen, with power to make all necessary 
 arrangements therefor. They also recommend that the Hon. George Bancroft 
 be invited to deliver the oration ; also, that au appropriation of $3,000 be 
 made by the City Council, to defray the expense that may be incurred. 
 
 The Committee recommend that a meeting of the citizens be held at an 
 early day to choose a Committee to act in concert with the Committee of the 
 City Council, and the adoption of the accompanying order. 
 
 Sumner Pratt, 
 M. A. Lapham, 
 
 E. B. Crane, 
 
 F. A. Gaskill, 
 W. Kickham, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 CITY OF WORCESTER. 
 
 In City Council. 
 
 Ohdered :— That the Mayor and Aldermen Jourdan and Williams, the 
 President of the Council, and Councilmen Lovell, O'Sullivan and Kawson, be 
 a Joint Special Committee, with power to make all necessary arrangements 
 for celebrating the Centennial Anniversary on the Fourth day of July next. 
 
 Ordered : — That the sum of Five Thousand Dollars be, and the same is 
 hereby, appropriated to defray the expense which shall be incurred by the 
 Joint Special Committee of the City Council in Celebrating the Centennial 
 Anniversary of our National Independence; and the Mayor is hereby author- 
 ized to draw his orders on the City Treasurer for the payment of all such 
 bills of expenditure as shall be authorized and approved by said Committee 
 for said purpose to the amount of said sum, and that the same be charged to 
 the account for incidental expenses. 
 
 Approved February 29, 1876. 
 
 (A copy.) Attest, 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Mayor. 
 
 Samuel Smith, City Clerk. 
 
ACTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 13 
 
 In accordance with the recommendation of the City Council, 
 the Mayor extended the following invitation to the Hon. George 
 Bancroft : — 
 
 CITY OF WORCESTER. 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Mayor's Office, February 14th, 1876. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Being duly authorized by the City Council of the City of Worcester. 
 I hereby extend to you a cordial invitation to deliver an Address to the City 
 Government and People of said City, on the Fourth day of July next. 
 
 The citizens of Worcester will gladly welcome you to the home of your 
 childhood. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Mayor. 
 Hon. George Bancroft, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Mr. Bancroft declined the invitation of the City Council in the 
 following letter : — 
 
 No. 1623 H Street, 
 Washington, D. C, 3Iarch ith, 1876. 
 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 The affection I bear to the City of Worcester makes it difficult 
 for me to decline your invitation to return to the place of my nativity and 
 the home of my childhood, and address its government and people on the 
 Fourth day of July next. 
 
 This conflict between my most cherished local attachment and ray sense of 
 what it is prudent for me to undertake, have kept my mind long in suspense, 
 and must plead with you as my excuse for the delay in replying to your 
 note. 
 
 Yet I have deemed it on every other occasion discreet and necessary to 
 decline any invitation to speak' to a large assembly; and it is with the utmost 
 regret that I find myself, on the present occasion, obliged to forego the honor 
 and delight of meeting and addressing you on our approaching Centenary 
 Anniversary. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Geo. Bancroft. 
 The Honorable Clark Jillson, 
 
 Mayor of the City of Worcester, Mass. 
 
14 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 After receiving the letter of Mr. Bancroft declining the invita- 
 tion to deliver the oration, the Committee having the matter in 
 charge voted to invite the Hon. B. F. Thomas, of Boston, to per- 
 form that service. 
 
 Judge Thomas accepted the invitation in the following 
 letter : — 
 
 Boston, March 29th, 1876. 
 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 I have received your kind invitation on behalf of the City Council 
 to deliver an address to the City Government and People of Worcester on 
 the Fourth of July next. 
 
 I find it not easy to decline any service the City of Worcester asks at my 
 hands, and will try to discharge the duty assigned to me. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Benj. F. Thomas. 
 Hon. Clark Jillson, and 
 Thomas J. Hastings, Esq., 
 
 Committee. 
 
 In accordance with the recommendation of the Committee of 
 the City Council, it was decided to invite several citizens known 
 to be interested in a proper observance of the day, to unite with 
 them in making the necessary arrangements. The members of 
 the Citizens' Exchange having expressed their interest in the Cele- 
 bration by the appointment of a Special Committee to aid in 
 making it a success, the Committee of the City Council invited 
 the gentlemen so designated to act upon the General Committee. 
 
 The General Committee, as finally constituted, was as 
 follows : — 
 
 City Government : 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Mayor; 
 
 WM. H. JOURDAN, Aldehmax; JOHN M. WILLIAMS, ALDERMAN; 
 
 THOMAS J. HASTINGS, President Common Cocxcil; 
 
 ALBERT A. LOVELL, CORNELIUS O'SULLIVAN, O. F. RAWSON, 
 
 Common Councilmen. 
 
PREPARATIONS. 15 
 
 Citizens at Large : 
 
 C B. WHITING, W. A. DENHOLM, SAMUEL D. NYE, 
 
 STEPHEN SALISBURY, Jr., RICHARD O'FLYNN, 
 
 E. B. STODDARD. 
 
 Citizens' Exchange : 
 
 GEORGE F. VERRY, HENRY H. CHAMBERLIN, E. H. KNOWLTON, 
 
 CHAS. B. PRATT, A. D. WARREN, 
 
 A. M. PARKER. 
 
 The Committee voted that there should be two Processions ; 
 the first consisting of Military and Civic Organizations, to take 
 place in the forenoon ; and the other, in the afternoon, to be a 
 Trades' Procession, representing the various business interests of 
 the City of Worcester. It was' also decided that the public 
 buildings be decorated on the day of the celebration and illumi- 
 nated in the evening, and that the public generally be earnestly 
 invited to take part in this demonstration. 
 
 Besides the formal exercises of the day at Mechanics Hall, it 
 was voted, that there should be a Concert by the Children of 
 the Public Schools at an early hour in the day, to be given in a 
 tent to be erected on the Common. 
 
 On Monday the 3d of July, the project of having the Declara- 
 tion of Independence read for the benefit of those who did not 
 attend the exercises in Mechanics Hall, was started, and arrange- 
 ments were made to that effect. Colonel J. A. Titus was selected 
 as the reader, and the spot where the Old South Church porch 
 stood when the Declaration was first read in the State was select- 
 ed as the place for the reading. Col. Titus accordingly read the 
 Declaration from this historic spot, while the exercises in the hall 
 were in progress. 
 
 The General Committee appointed the following Sub-Com- 
 mittees, to take charge of the various details of the Celebration : — 
 
 On Firing Salutes, Music, etc. 
 O. F. RAWSON, Chairman ; R. H. CHAMBERLAIN, E. T. RAYMOND, 
 J. M. DRENNAN, ARTHUR A. GOODELL, 
 G. EDWARD SMITH. 
 
16 CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 
 
 On Emblems. 
 
 ALBERT A. LOVELL, Chairman; CHARLES *B. WHITING, 
 
 EDWARD W. LINCOLN, JOHN G. HEYWOOD, 
 
 STEPHEN SALISBURY, Jr., S. J. WILCOX, 
 
 GEO. E. FRANCIS, J. STEWART BROWN, 
 
 WM. S. BARTON, H. WOODWARD, 
 
 BENJ. ZAEDER. 
 
 Trades' Procession. 
 
 WM. H. JOURDAN, Chairman; SAMUEL D. NYE, JAMES H. MELLEN, 
 
 ANDREW ATHY, D. F. PARKER, CHARLES BELCHER, 
 
 C. W. GILBERT, H. M. WITTER. 
 
 Civic Organizations and Bodies. 
 
 J. A. TITUS, Chairman; A. D. WARREN, GEORGE SUMNER, 
 
 JOHN S. BALDWIN, CORNELIUS O'SULLIVAN. 
 
 Citizens' Teams and Banners. 
 
 CHARLES B. PRATT, Chairman; HENRY H. CHAMBERLIN, 
 
 GEORGE S. BARTON, GEORGE P. KENDRICK, 
 
 CHAS. A. WILLIAMS, HARLAN FAIRBANKS. 
 
 Decoration and Illumination of Common. 
 J. M. WILLIAMS, Chairman; E. B. STODDARD, H. A. MARSH, 
 LEWIS W. HAMMOND, J. K. CHURCHILL. 
 
 Citizens' Ont-door Decoration, etc. 
 
 W. A. DENHOLM, Chairman; WM. H. BLISS, A. M. PARKER, 
 
 E. H. KNOWLTON, J. J. RUSS. 
 
 Tent and Fixtures. 
 
 CHAS. H. PECK, Chairman; DAVID BOYDEN, C H. M. BLAKE, 
 
 P. F. MURRAY, WM. O'CONNELL. 
 
 Exercises in the Tent. 
 
 THOMAS J. HASTINGS, Chairman; A. P. MARBLE, JAMES GREEN, 
 
 WM. B. HARDING, WM. T. HARLOW, F. A. GASKILL, 
 
 JAMES DRAPER. 
 
 Procession, Route, etc. 
 
 JOSIAH PICKETT, Chairman; SIMON E. COMBS, 
 
 JAIRUS B. LAMB, W. S. B. HOPKINS, 
 
 JAMES T. BRYANT. 
 
PREPARATIONS. 17 
 
 Printing. 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Chairman; CHARLES A. CHASE, NATHANIEL PAINE, 
 RICHARD O'FLYNN, J. EVARTS GREENE. 
 
 Invitations and Eeceptions. 
 
 CLARK JILLSON, Chairman; C. DEVENS, Jr., STEPHEN SALISBURY, 
 
 GEORGE W. RICHARDSON, D. WALDO LINCOLN, 
 
 WM. H. JOURDAN, HENRY CHAPIN, 
 
 ISAAC DAVIS, GEO. F. VERRY. 
 
 At an early day, Gen. Josiah Pickett was appointed Chief 
 Marshal, to have in charge the processions on the day of the 
 celebration, and, having accepted the invitation, he appointed the 
 following aides : — 
 
 Chief of Staff: 
 Major E. T. RAYMOND. 
 
 Aides : 
 
 Gen. A. B. R. SPRAGUE, Gen. W. S. LINCOLN, Gen. A. A. GOODELL, 
 
 Gen. D. D. WILEY, Surgeon J. M. RICE, Maj. L. G. WHITE, 
 
 Capt. T. S. JOHNSON, Capt. C. S. CHAPIN, 
 
 Capt. D. M. EARLE, Lieut. W. B. HARDING, 
 
 Serg't HARLAN FAIRBANKS, 
 
 H. M. WITTER, HENRY A. MARSH, Dr. NAPOLEON JACQUES, 
 
 Dr. F. J. McNULTY, STEPHEN SALISBURY, Jr., 
 
 R. M. GOULD, JOHN N. MORSE, Jr., 
 
 A. A. LOVELL. 
 
18 
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The following invitation was extended to his Excellency the 
 Governor, the Ex-Mayors of the City, and to many of the former 
 residents of Worcester : — 
 
 ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 1776. 
 
 1876. 
 
 OF 
 
 Jjmei'icLin ^ndefimdmw. 
 
 The Inhabitants of the City of Worcester cordially invite 
 you to be present on the 4th day of July, 1876, and join with 
 them in Celebrating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the 
 Nations Independe?ice, in this City. 
 
 Clark Jillson, 
 Charles Devens, Jr., 
 Stephen Salisbury, 
 George W. Richardson, 
 D. Waldo Lincoln, 
 Wm. H. Jourdan, 
 Henry Chapin, 
 Isaac Davis, 
 George F. Verry, 
 
 Committee of Invitation and Reception. 
 Guests Received at the City Hall at 9 A. M. 
 
PREPARATIONS. 19 
 
 Governor Rice declined the invitation, regretting his inability 
 to be present. 
 
 The following Ex-Mayors were present, and took part in the 
 festivities : — 
 
 Peter C. Bacon, Henry Chapin, George W. Richardson, P. 
 Emory Aldrich, Alexander H. Bnllock, Phinehas Ball, W. W. 
 Rice, Edward L. Davis, D. Waldo Lincoln. 
 
 Among those present at the exercises in the Hall, were Judge 
 Charles Devens, Jr., of the Supreme Judicial Court, the venera- 
 ble Rev. George Allen, and Hon. Stephen Salisbury, honored 
 citizens of Worcester. 
 
 Hon. George Bancroft, formerly a resident of Worcester, 
 
 declined the invitation of the Committee in the following 
 
 letter : — 
 
 Newport, July 1st, 1876. 
 
 My Dear Sirs : 
 
 Your invitation to join you in celebrating the coming One 
 Hundredth Anniversary I receive with answering gladness. 
 
 No place in the Union has a better right to keep it than my native town, 
 which, in every great crisis, has been true to the nation. To the prophetic 
 wisdom of the politicians of Worcester John Adams listened and mused till 
 the fire burned and lived within him, so that he became the colossal defender 
 of American Independence. In the struggle against slavery as a Massachu- 
 setts institution, it records only victories bloodless and complete ; and when, 
 at a later day, the cry arose that the Union was in danger, its voice was heard 
 on all the hill-sides, and its sons were arrayed in countless battle-fields. 
 
 I shall be present on the 4th with you in spirit, and am, and shall ever be, 
 with affection and fidelity for the place of my birth, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 Geo. Bancroft. 
 
 To Messrs. Clark Jtllson, 
 
 Charles Devfns, Jr., 
 Stephun Salisbury, 
 Geo. W. Richardson, 
 D. Waldo Lincoln, 
 William H. Jourdan, 
 Henry Chapin, 
 Isaac Davis, 
 Geo. F. Verry, 
 
 Committee of Invitation and Reception. 
 
20 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The Hon. Emory Washburn, of Cambridge, for many years a 
 prominent and honored citizen of Worcester, was also obliged to 
 decline the invitation of the Committee : — 
 
 Cambridge, June 28th, 1876. 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 I thank you cordially for the honor of an invitation to be present 
 on the coming 4th July at the Celebration of the Inhabitants of the City of 
 Worcester. It would have given me great pleasure to accept it if a previous 
 engagement upon the same day did not compel me to decline it. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Emory Washburn. 
 
 Hon. Clark Jillson and others, 
 
 Committee. 
 
EXERCISES OF THE DAY. 
 
 The Exercises at Mechanics Hall were carried out in accord- 
 
 ance with the followino- 
 
 PROGRAMME 
 
 Chorus. — Hail Columbia! 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Eev. Charles M. Lamson. 
 
 Our God and Father ! On this day of celebration we confess Thee, Thy 
 wisdom, love, and the glory of Thy name. Thou hast established our 
 country, and to Thee we give honor and gratitude. 
 
 We thank Thee for the liberty that has been achieved. May it be main- 
 tained and preserved. May we live again the virtues of our fathers, and give 
 to our children what we have as a legacy from them. May we study their 
 "Spirit, and remember their wisdom and devotion. 
 
 God bless our Union of States. In unity may they preserve peace and 
 honor. May they grow strong and great and pure. 
 
 God bless the day and all who celebrate its return. God bless us, and 
 make us better able to do our work, to live more wisely, and be fitted by the 
 faithful performance of present duty for future responsibility. In the name 
 of Christ, Amen. 
 
 Chorus. — Hail Columbia. 
 
 READING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 By Herbert B. Howard, 
 
 Junior Class of the High School. 
 
22 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 ODE. 
 Written by Hon. Clark Jillson. 
 
 One hundred years ago to-day, 
 A few brave souls prepared the way 
 To found an empire, strong and free, 
 Defying legions o'er the sea. 
 
 They set their banner on the hills, 
 New-born and fresh as mountain rills, 
 That all the world might see its stars, 
 And count its thirteen flaming bars. 
 
 The bells proclaimed a nation's birth, 
 And spread the tidings o'er the earth ; 
 The state rejoiced — united, free, 
 Their watchword "Death or Liberty." 
 
 The struggle came ; and face to face, 
 With polished steel or gleaming mace, 
 Two armies stood as firm as rock, 
 To give and take the battle shock. 
 
 The youthful empire won the field, 
 And England's pride was doomed to yield; 
 Oppression was compelled to cease, 
 Beneath the arching bow of Peace. 
 
 The nations wondered when they saw 
 Triumphant Liberty and Law; 
 And we recount their pledges o'er, 
 Proclaiming peace forevermore. 
 
 His Honor, Mayor Jillson, then introduced the Orator of the 
 Day, in the following words : — 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : 
 
 Our nation rejoices to-day. The States affirm their fidelity to 
 each other as they stand side by side upon the verge of a new century. The 
 City of Worcester, proud of its history in the olden time, adds a willing 
 voice to the grand chorus of loyal municipalities, and gratefully renews a 
 faithful devotion to the true spirit of American liberty. Those unconquerable 
 patriots, who met in secret conclave and open town meeting, in public assem- 
 blies and in the Continental Congress, uttering defiance to the most powerful 
 nation on the earth, have passed away; but their words, culminating so 
 grandly in the clear, bold autograph of John Hancock, appended to that 
 
EXEKCISES OF THE DAY. 23 
 
 immortal pioneer of liberty, the Declaration of Independence, gave life and 
 vitality to a great Republic, the future of which is as full of hope as its past 
 is of glory. The history of these men speaks to us from the sacred shrine of 
 yonder consecrated temple,* where, amid glittering bayonets, they knelt in 
 prayer for the common safety. How great the change within a period of one 
 hundred years ! The walls of that ancient edifice were not decorated with 
 banners, emblems, or graceful festoons. Children were not gathered there as 
 we see them to-day in the freshness of their young lives, to echo through its 
 solemn arches the thrilling notes of victory, or to soothe the weary soldier 
 with anthems of peace. 
 
 But the founders of the Republic in time of peril were urged on to duty 
 by believing that an overruliug Power had favored them with a special 
 blessing in placing at the head of their fearless armies such men as Wash- 
 ington and Lafayette, under whose guidance, with the inspired words of 
 Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry upon their lips, they established our 
 independence forever. 
 
 To-day, after the lapse of a century, we meet to commemorate the virtues 
 of our- fathers, and, amid patriotic demonstrations, ringing of bells, the roar 
 of cannon and the glare of illumination, to impress upon all American citizens 
 how strongly they are bound to cherish the memory of those heroes of 1776. 
 
 One hundred years ago, on the Fourteenth day of July, the Declaration of 
 Independence, then on its way from Philadelphia to Bostou, was intercepted 
 at Worcester, and read for the first time in Massachusetts by a distinguished 
 defender of the American Colonies, Mr. Isaiah Thomas. 
 
 On this occasion, I have the honor to introduce to you as the Orator of the 
 Day, one of his descendants, Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas. 
 
 ORATION. 
 
 Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas, LL. D. 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 The Chorus consisted of the Pupils of the High School. 
 G. William Sumner, Organist. Edward S. Nason, Conductor. 
 
 The Old South Church. 
 
24 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 CONCERT, 
 
 BY THE PUPILS OF. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 One of the most charming features of the celebration was the 
 Concert by the Pupils of the Public Schools, in a mammoth tent 
 on the Common, at 7.45 a. m. There were about twelve hundred 
 in the chorus, selected principally from the Grammar Schools ; 
 the groups of happy children, in charge of the principal teach- 
 ers, the girls generally dressed in white and the boys in their 
 holiday attire, each carrying a neat national nag. They were 
 
 arranged on tiers of seats in regular elevation from the con- 
 es o 
 
 ductor's stand in front. On the right of the conductor was an 
 organ and piano, and on the left the four Worcester bands for 
 accompaniments. Mr. C. P. Morrison presided at the organ, and 
 Mr. G. W. Sumner at the piano, with Mr. E. S. Nason for con- 
 ductor. The portion of the tent not occupied by the singers and 
 bands was closely packed with a deeply interested audience, and 
 thousands were around the tent, enjoying as well as they could 
 the sweet strains of the young songsters. 
 
 The concert was conducted in accordance with the following 
 programme : — 
 
 CENTENNIAL CONCERT, 
 
 IN THE TENT ON THE COMMON, BY THE 
 
 SCHOLARS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 
 
 July Uh, 1876, from 1% to 9 o'clock, A. M., 
 
 ASSISTED BY THE 
 
 WORCESTER BRASS BAND, 
 
 WORCESTER NATIONAL BAND, 
 
 WORCESTER FRENCH BAND, 
 
 WORCESTER IRISH BAND. 
 
 MB. C. P. MOBBISOX, Organist. 
 
 MR. O. WILLIAM SUMNER, Pianist. 
 
 MB. EDWABD S. NA80N, Conductor. 
 
EXERCISES OF THE DAY. 25 
 
 PROGRAMME. 
 
 1. America. 
 
 Full chorus of 1200 voices, bands, organ and piano. 
 
 2. Our Native Land. 
 
 Scholars of the eighth and ninth grades, organ and piano. 
 
 3. Independence Day. 
 
 Song, by the boys, chorus by all the voices, bands, &c, 
 and tableau with flags. 
 
 4. Mount Vernon Bells. — To the Memory of Washington. 
 
 Song, by twenty-eight youug ladies from the eighth and ninth 
 grades. 
 
 5. The Red, White and Blue. 
 
 Song, by boys, chorus by all, with bands, &c. 
 
 6. Keller's American Hymn. 
 
 Full chorus, bands, organ and piano. 
 
 7. Flag of the Free. 
 
 Song, by boys, with full chorus. 
 
 8. New England. " 
 
 9. Star Spangled Banner. 
 
 Full chorus, bands, organ, piano, and tableau with 
 flags. 
 
ORATION 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN THOMAS, 
 
 July 4, 1876. 
 
ORATION 
 
 It was a quiet summer's morning in the then village 
 of Worcester, loveliest of the inland villages of the 
 " Bay," indeed of the New England. In 1776 and for a 
 half century later, the village consisted chiefly of a 
 single broad way, leading from the north square to the 
 Common or training-ground, running through this val- 
 ley and begirt with these hills which nature and culture 
 had made so beautiful. The street lined on either side 
 with elms, the neat, many of them elegant, mansions 
 standing back from the road, with grass-plat or flower- 
 bed in front and shrubbery at the sides, and the general 
 air of comfort, refinement, and taste, were the delight 
 of all travellers. The shire of the county, the residence 
 of its officials, it was distinguished then as now for its 
 society of educated men and beautiful and accomplished 
 women. 
 
 On the training-ground and around the western porch 
 of the meeting-house the people of the village had been 
 suddenly gathered; standing on the porch a young man 
 of twenty-seven years was reading to the intently list- 
 ening group the Declaration of Independence. Early 
 
30 CENTENNIAL CELEBRA1ION. 
 
 on Sunday morning, the 14th of July, 1776, the mes- 
 senger bearing the Declaration to Boston had been 
 intercepted, and a copy obtained, which was now read 
 publicly for the first time in Massachusetts Bay. 
 Young as was the reader, he had already a history. 
 Trained in what has so often proved the best of colleges, 
 the printing office, Isaiah Thomas had established In his 
 native city of Boston, six years before, the " Massa- 
 chusetts Spy." For six years he had given his press 
 and himself to the cause of freedom in the colonies. 
 The " Spy " became a power in the Massachusetts Bay. 
 The provincial government hoped to buy the young 
 printer : he was not in the market ; it tried to intimi- 
 date him : he was without fear; it tried to suppress 
 him, but he baffled and defeated its craft and its power, 
 gaining new strength and influence by every conflict. 
 Trained by the severest discipline of narrow and adverse 
 fortune, struggle was to him second nature. Striking 
 to the root of things, aggressive, defiant of the civil 
 and military power of province, parliament and crown, 
 threatened openly with violence by the soldiers and 
 privately with assassination, his press and life were in 
 such imminent peril that John Hancock and other 
 friends insisted upon his removal from Boston to the 
 interior. In a few days they said it w r ould be too late. 
 On the evening of the 16th of April, 1775, with the aid 
 of Gen. Warren and Col. BigeloW, two presses and a 
 few types w r ere ferried over the river to Charlestown 
 and put on their way to Worcester. 
 
 In the great debate between prerogative and freedom, 
 
ORATION. 31 
 
 his press had been among the first to rise from the dis- 
 cussion of the rights of the colonists as English sub- 
 jects, to the higher plane of their rights as men. The 
 Declaration he was reading was the culmination of his 
 faith and hopes. 
 
 The listening village, — it too had a history, of ten 
 years' strife, so fierce that social and family ties were 
 burned as flax in its flame ; bitterer even than the con- 
 flicts of arms. In these, wrath and bitterness are 
 ejected with the cannon or rifle shot or thrust of bayo- 
 net, and humanity resumes its sway ; but the wrath that 
 finds no outlet but words is kindled and fanned by their 
 breath to intenser heat. Some of her citizens most 
 eminent for ability, culture and social influence, led by 
 James Putnam, the learned and eloquent attorney- 
 general of the province, had adhered to the royal cause, 
 attesting their fidelity to their convictions ' by suffering 
 reproach, confiscation, and exile. 
 
 The sons of liberty had had too their cross. These 
 matrons and maidens, listening with moistened eyes 
 and throbbing breasts, had husband, son or brother who 
 had been in the terrible march through the wilderness 
 to Canada, and had fallen by the bullet from the ram- 
 parts or perished in the snows before Quebec. Their 
 gallant leader in debate and arms, Col. Bigelow, village 
 blacksmith, patriot, soldier, statesman, had been for six 
 weary months a prisoner in its citadel. Fitting it is that 
 his monument should stand by the side of that which a 
 grateful city has erected to the memory of the later 
 soldiers who died to save what he toiled and suffered to 
 
32 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 win. Marking the opening and closing gate-ways of 
 the century, they bear witness to the same spirit of self- 
 sacrifice, the same devotion to duty and country, in the 
 sons as in the sires. 
 
 Could we read the thought of the most thoughtful of 
 that listening group, should we find any prophecy of the 
 seven years of war to uphold the Declaration, and the 
 seven years of confusion and disorder, not to say 
 anarchy, before the blessings of liberty should be 
 secured by stable and efficient government, and the new 
 nation assume in fact, as in word, " its equal station 
 among the powers of the earth " ? 
 
 RISE AND GROWTH OE THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 But the local celebrations, national and local, have 
 been had. The memories of Lexington and Concord, 
 of Bunker Hill and Boston, by eloquence and poetry 
 have been given to the keeping and trust of the new 
 century. This day belongs to the rise and growth of 
 the Republic, to the causes that made us " one people " 
 and a " free people," and to the development and pro- 
 gress of the nation for the first century of its life. 
 Some contribution to this history, however fragmentary, 
 or in the narrow line of one's own study and thought, 
 has seemed to me the fitting service of the occasion. 
 
 The rise and growth of the Republic, — I find great 
 significance in these words. States grow, they are not 
 built ; they are the fruit of time and nature rather than 
 of speculation and contrivance. When seemingly built, 
 
ORATION. 33 
 
 the structure, to endure, must be of materials which the 
 experience and reforms and amendments of generations 
 have fashioned to the builder's hand. The living state 
 grows out of the wants and necessities of a people, and 
 is the embodiment and expression of its physical, intel- 
 lectual, and moral life. When its capacities and wants 
 have outgrown existing forms of government, by 
 reform, or oftener by revolution, it adapts government 
 to its new demands and necessities. 
 
 Yet, when we look back upon its history it is seen 
 that what we call revolution is but evolution, — the slow 
 procession and lifting up from a lower to a higher type 
 of civil polity. The gods grind slowly. "As for the 
 philosophers," said Lord Bacon, " they construct imagi- 
 nary laws for imaginary commonwealths, but their dis- 
 courses are as the stars, which give little light because 
 they are so high." 
 
 Free institutions are of especially slow growth. We 
 may trace the progress of English liberty for at least 
 six and a half centuries, from the morning twilight of 
 July 15, 1215, when on the little island of the Thames, 
 between Staines and Windsor, the sturdy barons wrested 
 from a subject king the great charter of freedom. From 
 the gray of that morning streamed the rays which thread- 
 ing cloud, tempest, and eclipse have belted the round 
 earth with the light of English liberty. Slow, indeed, 
 and devious its progress as the river which witnessed its 
 rising, which the traveller sees now with languid cur- 
 rent, now seemingly at rest, now with gentlest curve, 
 now as if wandering back to its fountain, through sweet 
 
 5 
 
34 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 meadow and lawn, by battle-field and village spire and 
 churchyard, round castle-walls, by college-towers and 
 palace-gardens, beneath the shade of Westminster, 
 through the world's " mighty heart," moving, ever mov- 
 ing to the sea. 
 
 The vastness of the theme appals me. The brilliant 
 historian and son of Worcester, whom you hoped to 
 have had with you to-day, has given some five thousand 
 pages to the history of the Republic to the close of the 
 Revolution. To confine myself within any bounds, I 
 must look at the history in a single aspect, the legal and 
 constitutional, — dryest, perhaps, and least attractive, but 
 not, I think, the least useful. The marvellous material 
 growth and expansion, the increase in wealth, in num- 
 bers, in the comforts and luxuries of living, in intel- 
 lectual culture, in science, in art, in that union of science 
 and art by which we have subjected the laws of nature 
 to the will and service of man, — have conquered time 
 and space, and brought the most distant climes and 
 peoples into society and neighborhood ; the subduing 
 of the wilderness, the hand-to-hand grapple with the 
 savage, the stirring incidents of the old French war, of 
 the war for independence, of the war for the freedom of 
 the seas, of the war for national integrity and life, — I 
 must forego all these. 
 
 The useful, I had almost said the only useful way of 
 studying our civil institutions is the historical. The 
 difficulty is to know where to begin, — perhaj)s you will 
 think, where to end. 
 
ORATION. 35 
 
 Rev. Dr. Prince, who would write the chronology of 
 New England, went back to the creation, and on his 
 return voyage landed four years after the planting of 
 Massachusetts. Simple as this method may seem, it was 
 nevertheless true that all past history was a contribution 
 to the humble chronicle he was meaning to write. The 
 life of to-day is the fruit of the whole life of the past, 
 and the seed of the future. In the divine economy 
 there is no waste of light or of power. The line of 
 progress, though we may not always trace it, is clear to 
 Him who sees the end from the beginning, and in whose 
 logic, slow it may be but infallible, effect follows cause, 
 though ages may intervene. 
 
 Dealing with matters of history, I must use the freedom 
 of history ; her words are or should be words of truth 
 and soberness. It is among the mysteries that, beings 
 of hope and aspiration, we find always the Golden Age 
 in the twilight of the past instead of the kindling dawn 
 of the future. There are men who so hug the illusion, 
 oldjenough to be rebuked by Solomon, that " the former 
 days were better than these," that had they been present 
 at creation, instead of joining with the stars when they 
 sang together, and the sons of God when they shouted 
 aloud for joy, they would have mourned in solemn 
 dirges the sad departure of chaos and old night. 
 
 The world moves, onward and upward, in a spiral line 
 it may be, but the world moves. A just sense of the 
 wisdom of our fathers, a grateful sense of their labors 
 and sacrifices, is healthful for mind and heart ; the 
 belief that "all wisdom and virtue died with them, and 
 
36 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 that we are degenerate sc 
 ful because it is not true. 
 
 that we are degenerate sons of noble sires, is not health- 
 
 PL ANTINTG OF THE COLONIES. 
 
 To understand the rise and growth of the Republic 
 we must go back, for a moment, to the settlement of the 
 colonies. Nothing could be more fortunate, or, if we 
 see Providence in history as in nature, more providen- 
 tial, than the time and circumstances of their planting. 
 The time was fortunate. Had they been planted soon 
 after the discovery of the continent they might have had 
 a very different fate and history. 
 
 In the intervening century came the Reformation, 
 rousing from its lethargy the mind and conscience of 
 Europe, and which, however imperfect its immediate 
 fruits, was for all time the assertion of the freedom of 
 the individual spirit in its highest relations, and as a 
 necessary result, however slowly develoj^ed, in its rela- 
 tions with the State. 
 
 "With the Reformation came the Bible in the vernacu- 
 lar, the open Bible. We shall fail to understand the 
 political character of our fathers unless we bear in mind 
 that for the first century of our history the Bible was 
 to them not only the record of the divine will and pur- 
 poses, but the great instrument of their culture, their 
 political and civil, their secular as well as religious, law 
 and guide ; and we shall not be far out of the way if 
 we discover that in some phases of their life they found 
 more significance and exhibited a more practical faith in 
 
ORATION. 37 
 
 the Old Testament than in the New ; in Moses, the 
 prophets, than in the beatitudes of the Mount. 
 
 We are also to remember the wonderful intellectual 
 development of England, in all the spheres of thought, 
 in the last quarter of the sixteenth and first quarter of 
 the seventeenth century, in which the philosophy of 
 Bacon was to the study of nature what the Reformation 
 was to religion. 
 
 It was fortunate, be it said with all respect for the 
 Church, Catholic or English, that the ]STew England 
 colonies, whose policy and thought have so largely 
 influenced and moulded those of the Republic, were 
 founded by the most protesting of Protestants and the 
 most dissenting of Dissenters. Our history needed this 
 peculiar element, — the capacity of suffering, the sturdy 
 self-reliance, the vigilant outlook of pilgrim and Puri- 
 tan, the sterner stuff, the firmer fibre of which the men 
 and women were made, who could leave England in the 
 days of its material prosperity, the homes of their child- 
 hood' the graves of their fathers, facing wilderness, want 
 and savage, simply to pray as the Spirit taught them to 
 pray ; who, though they might have worshipped in 
 solemn temples, in cathedral choirs, the eye ravished 
 with beauty and the air with music, preferred the rude 
 log-house in the forest or the temple not made with 
 hands, and to royal favor the favor of the King of 
 kings ; who, instead of basking in sunshine could stand 
 out in the cold, and when they got into their new homes 
 could bar the doors not only against all sorts of intrud- 
 ers, but against bishop and king ; men and women who, 
 
38 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 though not withoul the failings of their time and failing* 
 of their own which it i> not easy to love, had the quali- 
 ties which fitted them to be the founders of empire, 
 conditores imperioriwfi, and what is higher and better, 
 the founders of free states. 
 
 We must remember also that the colonies were settled 
 after the opening of that great conflict between freedom 
 and prerogative in England, which in its later stages we 
 call the Great Rebellion, and of which the first great 
 issue was the denial of any power of taxation except by 
 the people represented in Parliament. The colonists 
 bore to their new homes the logic and the courage of 
 this debate. " England," said Mr. Burke, " is a nation 
 which I still hope respects and formerly adored her free- 
 dom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part 
 of your character was most predominant/' 
 
 This great conflict drew to itself all the thought, 
 activity, foresight, and vigilance of crown and parlia- 
 ment and people, and led to the neglect of the colonies 
 for a generation. When the storm subsided for a time 
 into the dead sea of despotism and rottenness, and 
 attention was drawn to the colonies as possible sources 
 of profit, they had acquired a considerable degree of 
 strength and stability. They had from necessity become 
 adepts in the art and practice of independent local gov- 
 ernment, and their confidence in and attachment to it 
 were thenceforth the conviction and passion of their 
 history. Indeed the New England colonies during the 
 first generation of the planters were substantially inde- 
 pendent states. The only practical limitation upon their 
 
ORATION. 39 
 
 independence was in the powers they conferred upon 
 the confederation of the 'New England colonies, and the 
 forming of that confederation was not only the assertion 
 of self-government, but the germ and prophecy of a 
 new nation. 
 
 Nor must we leave out of the account the distance of 
 the colonies from England, the three thousand miles of 
 inhospitable ocean that rolled between ; without steam 
 or telegraph equal to half the circuit of the globe to- 
 day. To the colonies, remoteness was to some extent 
 neglect, and neglect was safety. It took a long rod and 
 outstretched arm to reach them. " To every thing there 
 is a season and a time to every purpose under the 
 heaven." ~No man can venture to say that with the 
 present facilities of access and intercourse, the present 
 practical neighborhood of England and America, local 
 self-government or separate government would have 
 been secured. The ocean, with its depths throbbing 
 with command and threat, and the steamer flitting over 
 its bosom, swifter than a weaver's shuttle, to enforce 
 them would have been not a barrier but an easy path- 
 way to aggressive and restraining power. 
 
 There was one gift of England to the colonies, — I 
 had almost said her only gift,— that of wise and good 
 men. The little island has always been magna parens 
 virum and never more fruitful than when the colonies 
 were planted. She sent, or rather by her harsh discipline 
 drove, to the wilderness some of her choicest spirits, men 
 of liberal culture, trained in her best schools and in her 
 universities, by whose wisdom, foresight, and goodness 
 
40 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 were laid the foundations of that system of educa- 
 tion for the whole people which in onr progress towards 
 free institutions has been the most efficient motive 
 power, our inspiration, our safety ; and so may be for 
 the coming generations unless they make the sad mis- 
 take of divorcing the culture of the brain from the 
 culture of the heart. 
 
 Another thing the planters brought with them was 
 the common law of England. On this matter there has 
 been, I think, no little mistake and exaggeration. The 
 fact is, that the young states could not have lived under 
 the common law of England as it was at the opening of 
 the seventeenth century : they would have been crushed 
 by the weight of the armor. 
 
 AVhat the colonists brought with them was so much 
 only of the common law as was adapted to their condi- 
 tion. In Virginia it was more closely adhered to ; but 
 the common law, which the New England colonists did 
 not like, was found not to be adapted to their condition. 
 Its rules which protected their rights as men, its doc- 
 trines and muniments of personal liberty, they adopted 
 and used, not always with their brethren or the stranger 
 within their gates, but always and often effectively 
 against arbitrary power at home. The laws regulating 
 the descent of land in the mother country they would 
 not have. They saw that the effect of the rule t by 
 which the real estate passed to the eldest son had been 
 to keep property in few hands, and thus to build up and 
 sustain an aristocracy. The change of the law by 
 which landed estate was divided among the children 
 
ORATION. 41 
 
 (the eldest son, however, taking two parts) had more 
 influence than any other one fact in leading the way to 
 democratic institutions. We shall not appreciate its full 
 influence unless we recollect how large a proportion of 
 what we call property was then real estate. To-day 
 colossal fortunes may be built up without a rood of land. 
 Indeed, by our system of corporations and corporate 
 stocks, vast quantities of landed estate have been trans- 
 muted into personal property. 
 
 So much it seemed to me well to say as to the time 
 and circumstances of the • planting of the colonies and 
 of the material of which they were composed. 
 
 FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 A word should be said as to the forms of government 
 under which the plantations grew up to States. 
 
 By the settled principles of public law the country 
 occupied by the colonies was part of the dominion 
 belonging to the Crown of Great Britain by right of 
 discovery ; with perhaps the additional title in the case 
 of New York of right by conquest from the Dutch. 
 The title to every acre of land was held immediately or 
 mediately by grants from the Crown. Whatever title 
 the Indian may have had to the soil, it was the exclusive 
 right of the government to extinguish it, and to exclude 
 all persons from gaining any title by grants from the 
 natives. With the moral basis of this law I have not to 
 deal. It is the law recognized by all civilized states, 
 and affirmed by our highest judicial tribunal. 
 
 6 
 
42 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Again, all civil authority used in the colonies was 
 derived from the Crown as representing the sovereignty 
 of the British Empire. The voluntary compacts, as 
 those entered into in the harbor of Cape Cod and in 
 Rhode Island, Connecticut, and N~ew Haven, however 
 important in the lessons they taught of the true founda- 
 tion of government in the consent of the governed, 
 were temporary only and clearly in conflict with the 
 settled law of the time. 
 
 The different forms of colonial governments, the 
 charter, the provincial, and the proprietary, are worthy 
 of attention as indicating the want of any uniform and 
 stable policy in the parent country, and especially in the 
 most important feature of all, the extent of self-govern- 
 ment granted and control reserved by the granting 
 power; though on this last point it should be remarked 
 that there was. nothing Crown or Parliament esteemed 
 as less binding than the solemn contract contained in a 
 colonial charter. 
 
 Some of the charters, had they been held sacred, 
 would have given the people of the colonies govern- 
 ments substantially independent. The charter creating 
 the body politic by the name of " the Governor and 
 Company of the Massachusetts Bay in ]STew England " 
 when the corporation was removed and the charter 
 transferred, so that the powers of government might be 
 used by the actual settlers, with the breadth of construc- 
 tion they gave to the powers granted and the rigid 
 limitation of the powers reserved, really created an 
 independent State. 
 
ORATION. 43 
 
 The charter granted by Charles II. to Rhode Island 
 established so free a government that it continued to be, 
 with slight changes, the organic law of the State for 
 sixty-five years after the separation; and for freedom in 
 matters of religious concernment, was in advance of 
 some of the present constitutions of the States of the 
 Union. But whatever the difference of forms of gov- 
 ernment, into the consideration of which I have not time 
 to enter, there was in all the pledge " that all subjects of 
 the Crown who should become inhabitants in the col- 
 onies and their children born there should enjoy all the 
 liberties, franchises, and immunities of free and natural 
 subjects, as if they and every one of them were born 
 within the realm of England," — words of large import 
 which England forgot, but the colonists did not. 
 
 The other fact to be remarked is that either by these 
 charters or by their own acts and the acquiescence of 
 the Crown and Parliament, they established representa- 
 tive assemblies, which slowly but firmly absorbed to 
 themselves the powers of government, as the House of 
 Commons in England has done by holding the purse 
 and the power to say " we give and grant." 
 
 Much of the work of human life is like that of 
 Penelope on the shroud of Laertes, — the unravelling in 
 the night what was woven in the day. But the history 
 of the colonies from the time of then* planting to the 
 close of the French War in 1763, with retrocession here 
 and there, was a struggle for self-government, freedom, 
 and the right to grow on the one hand, and for the 
 tightening of bonds and repression on the other. 
 
44 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 INTERIOR LIFE OE THE COLONIES. 
 
 The circumstances and conditions of the interior life 
 of the colonies, which seem at first view adverse to their 
 growth and material prosperity, were most influential in 
 moulding the character of their institutions and opening 
 the way to ultimate freedom and independence. The 
 subduing of the wilderness, the conflicts with the sav- 
 age, and, when the savage was quiet, with each other, 
 bred in them hardihood and self-reliance, and a certain 
 aptitude not to say love of combat with sword, tongue, 
 and pen. The separation and isolation within the colo- 
 nies, of town, precinct, and school district, gave the 
 habit and practice of local government. Wherever 
 there" w T ere people enough to have a meeting-house, 
 school-house, tavern and store, grew up a little democ- 
 racy, and these democracies, represented in the legisla- 
 ture, made up the State. 
 
 This attachment to local government, and jealousy 
 and distrust of outside power by the colonists, is the 
 key to and solution of much of their future history. 
 Beneficent in its early results, and later when kept 
 within reasonable bounds, it has in the great exigencies 
 of our nation's history crippled our strength and imper- 
 illed our safety. They were attached to their charters, 
 because they secured to them the rights and immunities 
 of English subjects ; but their construction of the char- 
 ters was always in the direction of self-government ; 
 and to the laws of England, which restricted this right 
 or their rights of trade and commerce, they gave the 
 
ORATION. 45 
 
 smallest share of obedience practicable. In every stage 
 of their history, there, is constantly outcropping the 
 opinion and sentiment that the young States were 
 planted by their care, watered by their tears, preserved 
 by their vigilance, the fruit of their labors, and that any 
 attempt of the parent country to control and subordin- 
 ate and sacrifice their interests to her own, was not only 
 in violation of their rights as* English subjects, but of 
 their higher rights as men. 
 
 ACTS OF NAVIGATION AND LAWS OF TRADE. 
 
 Such was the colonial policy of England, as illus- 
 trated in her acts of navigation and laws of trade ; she 
 neglected the colonies, except when they grew to be 
 sources of profit to herself, to her trade and manufac- 
 tures ; and then came the policy of monopoly and 
 repression. 
 
 I remember being deeply impressed by reading some 
 remarks made by Mr. Huskisson, one of the wisest of 
 English statesmen, in 1826, in the House of Commons : 
 " It is generally believed," he said, " that the attempt to 
 tax our American colonies, without their consent, was 
 the sole cause of the separation of those colonies from 
 the mother country. But if the whole history of the 
 period between the year 1763 and the year 1773 be 
 attentively examined, it will, I think, be abundantly evi- 
 dent that, however the attempt at taxation may have 
 contributed somewhat to hasten the explosion, the train 
 had been long laid in the severe and exasperating 
 
46 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 efforts of this country to enforce, with inopportune and 
 increasing vigor, the strictest and most annoying regu- 
 lations of our colonial and navigation code." 
 
 " Every petty adventure in which the colonists em- 
 barked was viewed by the merchants of this country 
 and the Board of Trade of that day as an encroachment 
 on the commercial monopoly of Great Britain. The 
 professional subtlety of lawyers and the practical 
 ingenuity of custom-house officers were constantly at 
 work in ministering to the jealous but mistaken views 
 of our seaports. Blind to the consequences elsewhere, 
 they persevered in their attempts to put down the spirit 
 of commercial enterprise in the people of New England 
 until those attempts roused a very different spirit, — that 
 spirit which ventured to look for political independence 
 from the issue of a successful rebellion." 
 
 My own studies and reflection have led me to think 
 that the laws of navigation and trade were, if not 
 the proximate, perhaps the predominant and most 
 efficient cause of separation. 
 
 The importance of their study is obvious. They 
 show the earlier and later policy of England towards 
 her colonies, her settled purpose to subordinate their 
 commerce, trade, and manufactures to her own. They 
 touched all the colonies, the Southern as well as the 
 Northern, the tobacco of Virginia and the rice of 
 South Carolina, as well as the lumber, fish, and cattle of 
 New England, thus indicating to them that there were 
 vital matters in which their interests were one. 
 
 Mr. Webster said, — I do not know whether the 
 
ORATION. 47 
 
 remark has got into print, — that the best way to study 
 the history of England was in her statutes at large. I 
 cannot embody the provisions of these statutes in 
 an address, but must content myself with a very 
 general and, of course, imperfect outline. 
 
 The commercial monopoly did not begin with acts of 
 Parliament, but with orders of the king, in council. 
 
 Soon after tobacco was imported into England 
 (162 1 ) , heavy duties were laid upon it by orders of the 
 crown. As this " daft " king in his " counterblast " had 
 announced that the habit of smoking proceeded directly 
 from the Evil Spirit, it is strange he did not strike at 
 the root, and forbid the raising of the tempter's seduct- 
 ive enchantment. The planters sent it to Holland, when 
 came a new order that no tobacco or other product of the 
 colonies should thenceforth be carried into any foreign 
 ports, until they were first landed in England and the 
 customs paid. 
 
 The beginning of restrictive legislation, curiously 
 enough, was with the convention or republican parlia- 
 ment of 1651, which confined the trade with the planta- 
 tions to English or colonial built ships, belonging to 
 English subjects, or subjects of the 23lantations, with 
 the exception of such articles as should be imported 
 directly from the original place of manufacture in 
 Europe. This was a regulation of commerce springing 
 from the rivalry of England with Holland, 'then the 
 great carrier of the world, but as the colonies were not 
 then building ships the result was they had to pay the 
 English carrier his own price. 
 
48 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The Act of the 12th Charles IL, two years 
 after his restoration (for the English Statute Book 
 ignores the reign of her greatest soldier and ruler), 
 affirming the same restrictions as to ships, ordered that 
 sugars, tobacco, and other enumerated articles, products 
 of the plantations, should, if exported, instead of being 
 carried directly to the place of consumption, be first 
 landed in England, Wales, or -other British plantation. 
 To the list of enumerated articles additions were made, 
 from time to time, of molasses, tar, pitch, turpentine, 
 rice, furs, and many others. The object and effect of 
 these laws was to force the colonies to sell their 
 products in the English market only, for they could not 
 be sold to any other people without paying the charges 
 of freight to Great Britain, the port dues and commis- 
 sions there, and a second freight to the country of 
 sale. In substance, the command was, sell to us or not 
 at all. 
 
 So much for the export trade, and the market for the 
 sale of colonial products. An act tAVO years later 
 (1663) limited the import trade and commerce of the 
 colonies, providing that no commodity of the growth or 
 manufacture of Europe should be imported into the 
 king's plantations, but what shall have been shipped in 
 England, Wales, or town of Berwick, and in English 
 built shipping, and carried directly to the plantations. 
 That is, yon may sell only to us and you must buy only 
 of us, whether the thing purchased be of our growth or 
 manufacture or not. If a man went from Boston to 
 Scotland to buy carpeting, he must first ship to Eng- 
 
ORATION. 49 
 
 land, pay the dues and commissions there, then find an 
 English ship to carry it to his home, however much 
 better or cheaper freight could be found elsewhere. 
 
 In the preamble to this act, among the reasons given 
 for its adoption, are the keeping the colonies in " a 
 firmer dependence upon England, and the ' vent ' of 
 English woolens and other manufactures and com- 
 modities." 
 
 To this point of time the intercourse of colony with 
 colony had been left free, but in 1672 certain colonial 
 products, transported from one colony to another, were 
 subjected to duties ; for example, sugars, tobacco, and 
 cotton wool. 
 
 In the view of the colonies these acts were not only 
 destructive to their interests, but in violation of their 
 charters, which secured to them the liberties, franchises, 
 and immunities of English subjects. In Massachusetts 
 and Rhode Island they were pretty faithfully disobeyed, 
 and in the other New England colonies so generally 
 that in 1675 the Lord's committee of the colonies in- 
 quired of the Lord Treasurer, Danby, with a sort of 
 grim humor, " whether the commisioners of the customs 
 considered the Acts as extending to New England ?" 
 
 Representations were about the same time made to 
 the King, by English merchants and manufacturers, that 
 the inhabitants of New England disregarded the Acts 
 of Navigation and traded freely with all parts of 
 Europe, by which the navigation and revenues of Eng- 
 land were greatly injured,- and their dependence on the 
 parent country rendered less secure, if not totally 
 
50 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 destroyed ; which being interpreted meant, We can't 
 sell them our goods at our own prices ; they have the 
 folly to buy where they can buy cheapest. Their prayer 
 was that the people of New England might be com- 
 pelled to obey the laws, that is, buy of them only. The 
 committee on plantations having heard the complaints, 
 resolved that " the Acts should be enforced." But it 
 was — as we have discovered in this age of resolutions — 
 one thing to resolve and another to execute. And in 
 1677, we find Edward Randolph, in answer to inquiries 
 of the committee of plantations, stating that in Massa- 
 chusetts no notice was taken of the Acts of Navigation 
 or any other laws made in England for the regulation 
 of trade, and adding, " All nations have free liberty 
 to come into its ports and vend their commodities 
 without any restraint, and in this as well as other 
 things that Government would make the world believe 
 they are a free State and do act in all matters accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 The agent of Massachusetts wrote from England 
 " that without the laws were complied with there can 
 nothing be expected but a total breach and all the 
 storms of displeasure that may be." The General 
 Court, in reply, acknowledged that they had not been 
 observed, " because they had never received their assent, 
 and therefore were not obligatory. They apprehended 
 them to be an invasion of the rights, liberties, and prop- 
 erties of the subjects of His Majesty in the colony, they 
 not being represented in parliament." They say, how- 
 ever, that as His Majesty had signified his pleasure that 
 
ORATION. 51 
 
 the Acts should be observed in Massachusetts, they had 
 made provision by a law of the colony that it should be 
 attended to. This provision was the Colony Act of 
 October, 1677. As it was frequently stated in the con- 
 troversies resulting in separation, that the power of 
 parliament in the matter of regulating commerce and 
 the external taxation of the colonies had never been 
 questioned, and so affirmed by Franklin in his examina- 
 tion before the House of Commons in 1766, and by 
 Macaulay, apparently upon his authority, a century later, 
 it may be well to note this declaration of the General 
 Court of Massachusetts, as one of many instances in 
 which that power was denied. 
 
 The revolution of 1688, which did so much to 
 enthrone " liberty in law " in England, proved of little 
 advantage to the colonies ; none whatever in matters of 
 trade and commerce. The Dutch king brought with 
 him none of the spirit of commercial freedom of Hol- 
 land. Iif 161)6, when his attention had been withdrawn 
 for a time from the affairs of the continent, the Board 
 of Trade was authorized to inquire into the condition of 
 the plantations, as well with regard to the administra- 
 tion of government, as in relation to commerce, and 
 (here we have again the policy of England in a nut- 
 shell) "how these colonies might be rendered most 
 beneficial to this kingdom." An act was passed about 
 the same time for the vigorous enforcement of the Acts 
 of Navigation, authorizing, among other things, officers 
 "to visit, search, and seize, vessels and their cargoes, and 
 to enter all houses and storehouses, to seize goods 
 
52 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 illegally imported, and declaring any law or usage of 
 the colonies in conflict with the Acts of Navigation, or 
 with any other law hereafter to be passed in this 
 kingdom relating to the plantations, null and void." 
 
 But the genius of enterprise and industry in the New 
 England colonies was irrepressible. 
 
 In the early part of the eighteenth century the 
 colonies, especially those of New England, had become 
 engaged in a lucrative trade with the French, Spanish, 
 and Dutch West Indies, the northern colonies carrying 
 to them fish, lumber, grain, horses and cattle, and taking 
 in exchange the products of those islands, rum, sugar, 
 and molasses. 
 
 The English sugar-planters complained of this trade 
 as injurious to them, and in 1733 Parliament imposed 
 heavy duties on rum, sugar, and molasses, imported from 
 foreign colonies ; duties so onerous as to have resulted 
 in prohibition and the entire cutting off this branch of 
 their trade, had the laws been fully enforced, but 
 happily they could not be fully enforced ; the protecting 
 ocean rolled between. 
 
 This brief outline may give you some idea of the 
 attempts of English merchants to monopolize the trade 
 in the products or raw material of the colonies. 
 
 Not less greedy and grasping were the manufacturers 
 of England. No sooner did the colonies begin to 
 manufacture for themselves, than the English manufac- 
 turers determined to prevent any interference with their 
 own industries, and this not by making cheaper or better 
 
ORATION. 53 
 
 goods, but by depriving the colonies of any right or 
 power to compete with them. 
 
 In 1699 the policy of repression began by an Act 
 providing that no wool yarn or woollen manufacture 
 should be shipped or laden in the colonies, in order to 
 be transported from thence to any place whatsoever. 
 
 In 1719 the House of Commons declared that " the 
 erecting manufactories in the colonies tended to lessen 
 their dependence on Great Britain." Language has 
 been said to be an instrument for the concealment of 
 thought. The disguise is too thin here : We should 
 write, to lessen the profits of our business. 
 
 In 1731 complaints were made to parliament that 
 " the colonies were carrying on trade, and setting up 
 manufactories detrimental to the trade, navigation and 
 manufactures of Great Britain." The Board of Trade, 
 being directed to inquire, reported that such was the 
 fact, enumerating among the manufactures, those of 
 wool and flax, iron, paper, hats and leather. I find, 
 however, no legislation immediately following the 
 report. 
 
 In 1732 the company of hatters in London complained 
 to parliament that hats in large quantities were made in 
 New England and exported to Spain, Portugal, and the 
 British West India Islands. Their influence procured 
 an Act (1732), first, to prevent the exportation of hats 
 from the colonies to foreign countries ; secondly, from 
 being carried from one colony to another ; and thirdly, 
 because folly was capable of a further step, hats were 
 forbidden being " shipped or laden upon a horse, cart or 
 
54 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 other carriage with the intent to be exported to any other 
 plantation, or to any place whatever." It was further 
 provided that no hatter in the colonies should employ 
 more than two apprentices at once, or make hats unless 
 he had served an apprentice to the trade seven years ; 
 and that no black or negro should make a hat. One is 
 led to ask what sort of brains were under the hats of 
 England, to deal thus with colonies who, as Montesquieu 
 expresses it, " had become great nations in the forests 
 they were sent to inhabit." 
 
 The iron manufacturers were equally anxious that the 
 dependence of the colonies on the mother country 
 should not be lessened. In 1750 pig iron and bar iron 
 might be imported into England duty free, but parlia- 
 ment prohibited the erection or continuance of any mill 
 or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating 
 forge, or any furnace for making steel, under the penalty 
 of two hundred pounds. Nay, more, every such 
 engine, plating forge, and furnace was declared a com- 
 mon nuisance, to be abated by the governors of the 
 colonies, on the information of two witnesses on oath, 
 within thirty days, or the governors to forfeit five 
 hundred pounds for each neglect of duty. 
 
 These statutes are a faithful and abiding record of 
 the dealings of England with her American colonies, of 
 the narrow, jealous and selfish policy she pursued up to 
 the time of separation in the regulation of their com- 
 merce, trade, and industries, of her settled purpose to 
 use, restrict or suppress them for her own aggrandize- 
 ment. I confess I could never read the record without 
 
OKATION. 55 
 
 wrath and indignation ; and I do not find myself in a 
 very amiable mood in reviewing her dealings with us 
 since the separation. With all my reverence for her 
 jurisprudence, and especially her muniments of personal 
 liberty, her literature, her great masters in every depart- 
 ment of thought, for her social and domestic virtues, 
 to us she has been less than magnanimous, less than 
 just. 
 
 It is of no use to say such were the policy and wisdom 
 of the times. The colonial policy of France, Spain and 
 Portugal was in the spirit of their own governments at 
 home ; that of England in direct conflict with the spirit 
 of her constitution. England was capable of wiser and 
 better things. The questions involved were to be 
 settled, not by a broad political economy of the freedom 
 of commerce and industry, but by the simplest, most 
 elementary principles of justice and right. And the 
 folly and injustice of the whole colonial policy were laid 
 bare by the wisest and profoundest of her writers on 
 economical science, Adam Smith, in his lectures at the 
 University of Glasgow, in 1748, afterwards embodied in 
 the " Wealth of Nations," published in the year 1776 ; 
 to the industries of the world a new declaration of inde- 
 pendence. At the close of his great chapter on the 
 colonial policy he denounces the English laws of trade 
 as " a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of 
 mankind." 
 
 VIGOROUS ENFORCEMENT OE THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 
 
 What our fathers called the French war was the final 
 
56 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 struggle between England and Prance for dominion in 
 America. 
 
 After the capture of Quebec, which really settled the 
 issue, the claim was made in parliament to raise revenue 
 in America to meet some share of the burdens the war 
 had imposed on the mother country, and to defray the 
 expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the 
 colonies. 
 
 The efforts and sacrifices the colonies had themselves 
 made in the war were well known. Thirty thousand 
 colonial soldiers had fallen by disease or the sword. 
 The expenditures of Massachusetts alone had exceeded 
 by two and a half millions of dollars the sum reimbursed 
 by parliament, and this without resort to paper money. 
 She had kept an average of from four to seven thousand 
 men in the field, besides men for garrison duty and 
 recruits for the British regiments. Parliament, in the 
 year 1763, voted more than seven hundred thousand 
 dollars to repay the expenses of the provinces in the 
 last year of the war, — a direct admission that they had 
 contributed to the common cause more than their just 
 proportion. 
 
 Prudence would have said to the British ministry, 
 "We must deal gently with the colonies. They no 
 longer need our protection ; they have no longer the 
 French and the Indian on their western frontier. 
 French statesmen and English had predicted that the 
 taking of Canada by England might result in their 
 independence. With almost prophetic sagacity Yer- 
 gennes had said, "England will repent of having 
 
ORATION. 57 
 
 removed the only check that could keep her colonies in 
 awe. They stand no longer in need of her protection. 
 She will call on them to contribute towards supporting 
 the burdens they have helped to bring on her, and they 
 will answer by striking off all dependence." 
 
 Ministry and people undervalued then, as they had 
 ever before and have ever since, the capacity and spirit 
 of Englishmen born on American soil. This sense of 
 superiority had been constantly shown to the American 
 officers and troops in the seven years' war, and had 
 alienated and wounded them. On the other hand, the 
 intermixture of the soldiers of the colonies and the pur- 
 suit of a common end had tended to remove, to some 
 extent, local prejudices, and to give to the colonists a 
 sense of common interests. 
 
 In 1760 the British ministry determined to enforce 
 the Navigation Acts with greater rigor. No time could 
 be more inopportune for such a purpose, and this, per- 
 haps, explains why it was selected. Orders were sent 
 to the officers of the customs to enforce them, especially 
 in Massachusetts where they had been openly disobeyed. 
 For this purpose the officers applied to the Superior 
 Court of the Province for writs of assistance, as they 
 were called, to enable officers to break open shops, 
 warehouses and dwelling-houses in search of goods 
 imported in violation of these laws. 
 
 The legality of the writs was argued before the 
 Superior Court, James Otis appearing for the merchants 
 of Boston to contest their issue. The traditions would 
 show that though the legality of the writ was keenly 
 
 8 
 
58 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 contested, the more effective part of the argument with 
 the people was the vigorous and eloquent attack upon 
 the justice and validity of the whole body of the laws 
 the writ was sought to enforce, as in violation of the 
 charter, of the English constitution, and of natural 
 justice. 
 
 There can be no doubt of its effect, not only upon his 
 hearers, but upon the public mind and heart throughout 
 the continent. It struck a chord to which all the colonies 
 were responsive. It touched grievances they all had 
 suffered, and for the removal of which unity of action 
 was the only hope. John Adams puts the matter with 
 an intensity which, with the old man eloquent, seems to 
 have grown with years, " Otis was a flame of fire. Ameri- 
 can independence was then and there born. Then and 
 there was the first scene of the first act of opposition 
 to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain." Treating the 
 drama of which he speaks as the united opposition of 
 the colonies, the remark is just. 
 
 There can be no doubt with the careful student of our 
 history that the practical grievances sustained by the 
 Acts of Navigation and of Trade were many and mani- 
 fold, as compared with any imposed or sought to be 
 imposed by internal taxation. They swathed the grown 
 man with the bandages of childhood. They dwarfed 
 and crippled the growth of the colonies. They were 
 not merely taxes on property acquired, but a denial of 
 the right to acquire it. To the Northern colonies who 
 had no great staples and could not live by agriculture 
 alone, they were a denial of the means of living. 
 
ORATION. 59 
 
 The difficulty was that the power of parliament to 
 regulate the commerce of the empire had been too 
 generally conceded, and it was not readily seen how 
 these Acts were to be taken from under this general 
 and comprehensive power. When, however, attention 
 was drawn to the matter of internal taxation, and the 
 attempt to raise revenue by acts of a parliament in which 
 the colonies had no voice, it was perceived that the same 
 objection was applicable to any laws whose direct pur- 
 pose or effect was to raise a revenue from the colonies. 
 The colonists were slow, however, in reaching this 
 result. In the report of the committee on colonial 
 rights in the Colonial Convention of 1765, at New 
 York, it is acknowledged " that the parliament collect- 
 ively considered as consisting of king, lords and com- 
 mons, are the supreme legislature of the whole empire, 
 and as such have an undoubted jurisdiction over the 
 colonies, so far as is consistent with our essential rights, 
 of which also they are and must be the final judges, 
 and even the applications and petitions to the king and 
 parliament to implore relief in our present difficulties 
 will be an ample recognition of our subjection to and 
 dependence on that legislature." 
 
 Dr. Franklin, in his examination in the House of 
 Commons, in 1776, — the most striking of all the exhi- 
 bitions of his wonderful shrewdness and tact, — declared 
 that "the authority of parliament was allowed to be 
 valid in all cases except such as should lay internal 
 taxes. It was never disputed in duties to regulate 
 commerce." One must speak with trembling under the 
 
60 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 shadow of so great a name, but, as before shown, the 
 records are otherwise. Xor can the distinction Franklin 
 draws between the external duty laid on a commodity 
 and an internal tax, to wit, that the payment of the first 
 is voluntary and the other forced, — voluntary because 
 the subject is not compelled to buy the commodity after 
 the duty is added, — be regarded as sound. As applica- 
 ble to the necessaries or comforts of life, there is no 
 difference. The House of Assembly, New York, put 
 this matter with great clearness and force the year 
 before : " For with submission, since all impositions, 
 whether they be internal taxes or duties paid for what 
 we consume, equally diminish the estates upon which 
 they are charged, what avails it to any people by which 
 of them they are impoverished ? Everything will be 
 given to preserve life ; and though there is a diversity 
 in the means, yet the whole wealth of a country may 
 be as effectually drawn oft" by the exaction of duties as 
 by any other tax upon their estates." 
 
 The declaration of rights by the Continental Congress 
 of 1774, after claiming for the colonies free and exclu- 
 sive legislation in all cases of taxation and internal 
 policy, indicates that on the subject of external taxation 
 there had been great change and progress of opinion. 
 
 " But from the necessity of the case," says the decla- 
 ration, " and a regard to the mutual interests of both 
 countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such 
 Acts of the British parliament as are bona fide restrained 
 to the regulation of our external commerce, for the 
 purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the 
 
ORATION. 61 
 
 whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial 
 benefits of its respective members ; excluding every idea 
 of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on 
 the subjects in America without their consent." It is safe 
 to say that this distinction would soon have been found 
 unsatisfactory ; that some of the most oppressive of the 
 laws of trade could not be said to have distinctly for 
 their object the raising of revenue, but to secure to the 
 English subjects on the other side of the water monopo- 
 lies in trade and manufactures, not only offensive to 
 the pride, but destructive to the interests of the English 
 subjects in America. 
 
 They could not and ought not to have tolerated the 
 distinction. If a man had brains and could raise wool 
 he had a right to make a hat to cover them, and if he 
 found iron ore in his soil he had a right to make a pot 
 to boil his fowl or pork. These are natural home-bred 
 rights, which no refinement of logic or policy and no 
 force of precedent can take away or impair. 
 
 INTERNAL TAXATION. 
 
 The enforcement of the Navigation Laws was but 
 part of the plan now entered upon to raise a revenue 
 from the colonies. That for internal taxation soon 
 followed, and underlying these a purpose and design so 
 to modify the government of the colonies as to bring 
 them more directly under the power of parliament and 
 crown. In the winter of 1764 a resolution was adopted, 
 without a negative vote, by parliament, that it might 
 
62 CENTENNIAL CELEBEATION. 
 
 " be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the colo- 
 nies." On the loth of February, 1765, the bill for the 
 Stamp Act was introduced in the House of Commons. 
 On the 27th it passed, with less resistance than usually 
 was made to a common turnpike bill. On the 8th of 
 March the bill was agreed to by the House of Lords 
 without debate or dissenting vote. On the 22d of 
 March it received the royal assent by commission, the 
 king being, as now understood, insane. The distinction 
 between internal and external taxation, if seen, was 
 utterly disregarded by the ruling statesmen of England, 
 if men may be called statesmen whose course was 
 marked by such pride, weakness, vacillation, and 
 capacity of doing the wrong thing almost every time, 
 and the right thing at the wrong time, as char- 
 acterized the British ministry and King from the 
 close of the French war to the peace of 1783. Such 
 a plan had been suggested to Robert AYalpole and 
 "William Pitt, but their robust sense had rejected it. 
 We could not state to-day the impolicy of these mea- 
 sures more forcibly than Walpole did years before they 
 were adopted : " I will leave the taxation of the Ameri- 
 cans for some of my successors who may have more 
 courage than I have, and less a friend to commerce than 
 I am. It has been a maxim with me during my admin- 
 istration to encourage the trade of the American 
 colonies to the utmost latitude ; nay, it has been neces- 
 sary to pass over some irregularities in their trade with 
 Europe ; for by encouraging them to an extensive, 
 growing foreign commerce, if they gain £500,000, I am 
 
ORATION. 63 
 
 convinced that in two years afterwards, full £250,000 of 
 this gain will be in His Majesty's exchequer, by the 
 labor and product of this kingdom, as immense quanti- 
 ties of every kind of our manufactures go thither, and 
 as they increase in the foreign American trade more of 
 our produce will be wanted. This is taxing them more 
 agreeably to their own constitution and laws." 
 
 The entrance upon the policy of the internal taxation 
 of the colonies seemed to attract as little attention with 
 the people of England as with parliament. The ques- 
 tion whether John Wilkes should have a seat from 
 Middlesex was deemed of much higher moment. But 
 whatever the state of opinion and feeling in England, 
 in America such had been the progress of opinion that 
 the logic of the policy was substantially settled, and the 
 practical question was the mode of resistance. With 
 the enforcement of the navigation laws superadded, 
 submission to men like our fathers was impossible. One 
 party or the other must give way. These were the 
 entering wedges ; the acts of the next ten years were 
 but the blows of the beetle. 
 
 The repeal of the Stamp Act was but a lull in the 
 storm, and accompanied as it was by the assertion of 
 the right of parliament to bind the colonies in all cases 
 whatever, and followed by the declaration of the leader 
 of the ministerial party in the House of Commons 
 (Charles Townsend) , " that America should be regu- 
 lated and deprived of its militating and contradictory 
 charters, and its royal governors, judges, and attorneys 
 
64 CENTENNIAL CKLEBRATION. 
 
 rendered independent of the people," was an act of 
 supremest folly. 
 
 The repeal was followed the next year by what was 
 known as the Townsend Revenue Act, imposing duties 
 on glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea, making pro- 
 visions for the execution of the laws already existing, 
 for establishing a Board of Customs at Boston to collect 
 revenue, and for legalizing writs of assistance. The 
 line of separation distinctly drawn, discussion, increas- 
 ing in intensity and bitterness, served only to widen the 
 breach, till the colonies reached the conclusion that there 
 was no safety in conceding to parliament any legislative 
 power over them. 
 
 The suggestion of representatives from the colonies 
 in parliament was impracticable. The distance, with 
 the then means of intercourse, was too great, and the 
 power and influence of the home government and repre- 
 sentation would have utterly overshadowed them. 
 
 And the other system thought of for granting supplies 
 to the crown by the colonial legislatures would, as De- 
 Lolme suggested to Franklin, have proved unsatisfac- 
 tory to the people of England, as tending directly to 
 make the crown independent of the House of Commons. 
 The only solution of the difficulties was separation. 
 
 If one were asked to state with precision the legal 
 cause of separation he would find it difficult to give an 
 answer. The statesmen and jurists of the colonies and 
 of later times have never agreed upon the matter. 
 
 It is difficult to say that taxation without representa- 
 tion was, an hundred years ago, a violation of the rights 
 
OEATION. 65 
 
 of the colonists as English subjects. It has oeen esti- 
 mated that not more than a tenth part of the English 
 people were represented in parliament. Whole com- 
 munities, like the city of Manchester, had no representa- 
 tion. In spite of the splendid declamation of Chatham 
 it is not plain to see how there can be sovereign power 
 without the power to tax. 
 
 " Let," said Lord Chatham, " the sovereign authority 
 of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong 
 terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every 
 point of legislation whatever, that we may bind their 
 trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every 
 power whatever, except that of taking money out of 
 their pockets without their own consent." As matter of 
 good sense the distinction cannot be maintained. If I 
 am forbidden to use brain or hand to get money into my 
 pocket it is useless to complain of a tax which assumes 
 to take it out. 
 
 It does not meet the difficulty to say that " taxes were 
 a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone." The 
 proposition was not quite true, for the concurrence of 
 the lords and the assent of the king were necessary to 
 a tax. But if true, it was also true that the House of 
 Commons was part, and the most effective part, of the 
 sovereign power of England. 
 
 Now, assuming the existence of a constitution in 
 England paramount to an Act of parliament, which 
 means that an Act of parliament including king, lords 
 and commons may be declared void by the courts, it is 
 
 9 
 
66 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 not easy to see that the navigation laws were not within 
 the sovereign power to regulate commerce. 
 
 It is easy to see that they were most flagrant abuses 
 of power, that they were in violation of the spirit of 
 the colonial charters, that they were destructive of the 
 liberty, happiness, and growth of the colonies, that they 
 justified and required revolution, and appeal from the 
 constitution of England to the elder charter, on which 
 the divine hand had written the sacred rights of human 
 nature. Charles James Fox said, that " among the con- 
 troversies that had arisen there is no other in which the 
 natural rights of men on the one hand and the authority 
 of artificial institutions on the other were so fairly put in 
 issue," and the united colonies an hundred years ago to- 
 day, declaring the causes which impelled them to the 
 separation, put the issue on the simple ground of 
 natural rights ; averring that to secure these rights, 
 "governments are instituted among men, deriving their 
 just powers from the consent of the governed ; that 
 whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
 of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
 abolish it." 
 
 The declaration was itself the act of separation. It 
 recognized as an existing fact the union of the colonies 
 into " one people." It was " one people " dissolving the 
 political bands that had connected them with another, 
 and assuming its separate and equal station among the 
 powers (or nations) of the earth. " Such had been the 
 revolution of opinion as to the power of parliament, 
 that the declaration ignores its existence, refusing to 
 
ORATION. 67 
 
 recognize that the colonies had ever had any connection 
 with or dependence upon it. Parliament is known in 
 the declaration by the word ' others.' It charges the 
 king with having combined with ' others ' to subject us 
 to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unac- 
 knowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts 
 of pretended legislation." 
 
 The union of the colonies was necessary for their 
 common defence and protection, and for admission into 
 and intercourse with the society of nations. The differ- 
 ences, the local prejudices, resulting from their charters 
 and forms of government, their manners, religion, tastes, 
 trades, and domestic policies, were for a time forgotten, 
 or at least waived in the presence of common interest 
 and peril, and of a common longing for larger liberty 
 and freer development. It required no great delibera- 
 tion or sagacity to decide what should be the character 
 of their institutions or the forms of their governments. 
 
 Republican institutions were not more their purpose 
 and aspiration than the necessity of their condition. 
 The power of the crown taken away, there was left no 
 material out of which to construct lords temporal or 
 spiritual, or court or king. Indeed, so democratic had 
 their governments grown to be that it is marvellous to 
 see how slight a change of frame-work was necessary 
 to convert the Province of Massachusetts Bay into the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 GOVERNMENT IN THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 There was a new nation, but without established 
 
68 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 government. The articles of confederation, though 
 their preparation was begun in 1776, were not submitted 
 to the States till November, 1777, and, requiring the 
 unanimous consent of the States, did not go into eifect 
 till March 1, 1781 ; less than eight months before the 
 surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his army to the com- 
 bined forces of France and the United States, and the 
 substantial termination of the war. There was, how- 
 ever, a government, of somewhat indefinite powers, bat 
 a national government. It is sometimes called a revo- 
 lutionary government, but in the instructions given by 
 the provincial and state assemblies to their delegates 
 will be found, I think, authority for the powers actually 
 used by the Continental Congress. 
 
 The resolution of the Provincial Congress of ~New 
 Jersey, laid before Congress on the 28th of June, 1776, 
 may be cited as an example : — 
 
 "Unite with the delegates of the other colonies in 
 declaring the united colonies independent of Great 
 Britain ; entering into a confederation for union and 
 common defence ; making treaties with foreign nations 
 for commerce and assistance, and to take such other 
 measures as may appear to them and you necessary for 
 these great ends ; promising to support them with the 
 whole force of this province ; always observing, what- 
 ever plan of confederacy you enter into, the regulating 
 the internal policies of this province is to be reserved to 
 the Colony Legislature." 
 
 But if not by original grant its powers were certainly 
 used with the acquiescence of the new States. If 
 
ORATION. 69 
 
 springing from the exigencies of the new nation, 
 Government would have expanded its powers to meet 
 its exigencies, as did the Puritan parliament of 1645, 
 and the convention of 1688. It declared independence, 
 it carried on war, it organized a national army and 
 navy ; it established prize courts ; it emitted bills of 
 credit and contracted debts on national account ; it 
 regulated duties on imports and exports ; it made 
 treaties, it formed foreign alliances ; it created for six 
 months a dictatorship ; but it consisted of a single 
 house of delegates from the States, each State having 
 an equal vote. Its great defect was the want of power 
 to execute its own decrees — if it made a requisition for 
 troops, to enforce it, or if it made a requisition for 
 money, to levy and collect a tax. 
 
 Had there been power in the National Government to 
 use at its will and discretion the resources of the 
 country, the war might have been brought to a much 
 earlier close and without foreign aid. 
 
 THE CONFEDERATION. 
 
 I am entering upon the familiar paths of history, and 
 must hasten my steps. One lesson which our history 
 constantly teaches us, I must venture to repeat ; it is 
 the deeply-rooted and excessive attachment of our 
 fathers to local government, through all its gradations, 
 from the school district to the State ; with what firm- 
 ness, even under the pressure of imminent danger to 
 liberty and life, they refused to give to the Continental 
 Congress adequate powers to carry on the war ; how, 
 
70 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 when the war was over, they fell back within their old 
 boundaries ; with what reluctance they conceded to the 
 national government its most essential functions ; by 
 what close and narrow construction they sought to limit 
 and restrict the powers so reluctantly granted ; and 
 how, when the powers of the central government have 
 been strained, the people, the exigency past, fall back 
 upon their old love, caring not so much for government 
 for the people as government by the people ! 
 
 It was out of this state of conviction, habit, and 
 feeling that the confederation was begotten, born, and 
 died. It fell from its inherent weakness. Its defects 
 may be stated in a word : — 
 
 It was a league of States in which they had equal 
 power. 
 
 It was without power to regulate commerce. 
 
 It legislated for States and governments instead of 
 the individual subject or citizen. 
 
 But its greatest vice and weakness was the want of 
 power to construe and execute its own laws. It had an 
 indefinite discretion to call for men and money. It 
 could not command obedience, and, as " government is 
 not influence merely," it did not receive it. Without 
 power to provide for the national debt to foreign nations 
 or its own citizens, it was, from birth to death, at home 
 and abroad, a shame and a reproach. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 But this ugly adversity had a jewel in its breast. 
 Out of this nettle danger we plucked the flower, safety. 
 
ORATION. 71 
 
 Out of this confusion and disorder came the Constitu- 
 tion and solid union and living nationality. The people 
 were very slow in reaching the conclusion that radical 
 change was necessary. I do not think it can be fairly 
 said that a majority of the people were in favor of the 
 Constitution. Mr. John Quincy Adams, in his oration 
 on the Jubilee of the Constitution, declared in his em- 
 phatic way that " the Constitution was extorted from 
 the grinding necessity of a reluctant people." Its 
 adoption was one of the occasions in which the leading 
 minds of the country had a predominant influence. 
 
 My own impression has been that the weight of 
 Washington's opinion and character, and the expecta- 
 tion that he would be called upon to administer the new 
 government, turned the scale. Fortunate man, not only 
 in the elements of his character, but in his great oppor- 
 tunities, — the war for the independence of his country 
 and the establishment for it of firm and stable yet free 
 government ! As Mont Blanc among the Alps lifts 
 itself in simple grandeur above the surrounding sum- 
 mits, so in this age of great men rises the lofty form 
 and majestic presence of him who " was first in war, 
 first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 
 
 To the genius and foresight of Hamilton, when a 
 young man of twenty-three years, we owe perhaps the 
 first suggestion of a national government with sover- 
 eign powers. The first proposition of a convention to 
 revise and amend the Confederation was from the 
 Legislature in New York, in 1782, and probably at 
 Hamilton's suggestion. The proposition which led 
 
72 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 directly the way to the convention which framed the 
 Constitution came from the Legislature of Virginia, in 
 January, 1786, for a convention from the States to 
 regulate commerce with foreign nations. Five of the 
 States only sent delegations to it ; but these concurred 
 in an earnest application to Congress to call a con- 
 vention to revise, amend, and alter the Articles of 
 Confederation. 
 
 The delegates of twelve of the thirteen States met in 
 May, 1787. Fortunately for the country, it was a union 
 of men of capacity, experience, wisdom, probity, and 
 breadth of views never surpassed in a deliberative body 
 among men. They went beyond their instructions. 
 Instead of simply revising or altering the Articles of 
 Confederation, they reported a Constitution to be or- 
 dained and established by the people of the United 
 States, — a constitution which was to act, not upon 
 States nor through the States upon citizens of States, 
 but directly upon citizens of the United States ; with 
 a broad but well defined sphere of national government, 
 within that sphere supreme and clothed with adequate 
 powers to construe and execute its own laws. As com- 
 pared with the confederation, it was a revolution. The 
 union under the Articles of Confederation was made 
 perpetual, and by their terms no alteration could be 
 made in any of them unless the alteration was agreed 
 to by Congress and confirmed by the legislature of 
 every State. It was a compromise. In the constitution 
 of the senate, clothed with high legislative, executive, 
 
ORATION. 73 
 
 and judicial functions, and in other important features, 
 the old equality of the States was continued. 
 
 The attachment to State institutions, the jealousy of 
 central power, were the obstacles the friends of national 
 government had to overcome in the convention and on 
 the question of the ratification of the constitution by 
 the people in the States. To these, fidelity to history com- 
 pels us to add, the existence in a portion of the people 
 of a spirit of hostility to law and order and any form 
 of efficient government in state or nation, which the 
 confusion and disorder of the times and the imbecility 
 of government had tended to create and foster. 
 
 The new government went into operation in April, 
 1789. It was when, on the 30th of April, 1789, Wash- 
 ington was inaugurated as President, the United States 
 really assumed " its equal station among the powers of 
 the earth." 
 
 There were defects in the Constitution ; there have 
 been errors and defects in its administration : but in 
 spite of these it has given to this country for eighty- 
 seven years the most stable and beneficent government 
 the century has known. It has settled the question 
 whether free government is possible among men, and 
 for the last half-century the governments of England 
 and of the continent have, it may be unconsciously, 
 been profiting by its example. When other matters in 
 our history vex or wound us, as they will if we feel a 
 stain like a wound, we may for solace turn to the proem 
 of the Declaration and the preamble of the Constitution 
 
 10 
 
74 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 as the first verses of the best chapters of the past cen- 
 tury's history. 
 
 THE NEW CENTURY. 
 
 With what emotions, with what convictions, did we 
 hail the dawning light of the new century ! "Were the 
 wings of the morning those of the angel of death or of 
 life, of despair or of hope ? I answer for myself, of life 
 and of hope ; nay, more, of faith and of trust. We 
 have causes for anxiety and watchfulness, none for 
 despair. The evils of the time are not incurable, and 
 the remedies, simple and efficient, are in our hands. 
 
 We have passed through a period of expenditures 
 almost without limit, and, therefore, of infinite tempta- 
 tions. Wars, it would seem, especially civil wars, 
 loosen the moral ties of society. Civil convulsions 
 always bring more or less bad men to the surface, and 
 some are still afloat, — men, whose patriotism not ex- 
 hausted in contracts for effete muskets, spavined horses, 
 and rotten ships, are ready and waiting for like service. 
 
 We have, in the feverish, delirious haste to get rich, 
 which a currency capable of indefinite expansion always 
 excites, results, more direct and palpable, in unsettling 
 values and the foundations of public and private faith, 
 trust, and confidence. 
 
 The evils are curable, but not by noise of words, not 
 by sonorous resolutions without meaning, or only the 
 meaning the very simple reader injects into their empty 
 veins. 
 
 We may put an end to corruption by leading our- 
 
ORATION. 75 
 
 selves honest lives, by refusing to put any man into a 
 public trust, no matter what his qualifications or past 
 services, who is corrupt, or suffers himself to walk on 
 the brink, or winks at those who are wading in ; by 
 using the old-fashioned old testament prescriptions for 
 rulers, — " Men of truth, hating covetousness." " Thou 
 shalt take no gift." " Ye shall not be afraid of the face 
 of man." 
 
 The evils of a vicious currency can be remedied only 
 by return to the path of the constitution and of com- 
 mercial integrity. The principles are simple and 
 elementary. The " lawful money " of the United States 
 is the coin of the United States, or foreign coin whose 
 value has been regulated by Congress ; that is the 
 constitutional doctrine. Money is a thing of intrinsic 
 value, and the standard and measure of value ; that is 
 the economical doctrine. A promise to pay a dollar is not 
 a dollar ; that is the doctrine of morality and common 
 sense. We cannot vitalize a falsehood, make the 
 shadow the substance, the sign the thing signified, the 
 promise to pay itself payment. Great as is the power 
 of Congress, it cannot change the nature of things. 
 
 So long as the power is left, or assumed to be left, to 
 make a promise to pay payment, there will be no per- 
 manent security for the stability of values, or of public 
 or private faith. 
 
 One other cure of corruption is open to us, — the 
 stamping out of the doctrine that public trusts are the 
 spoils of partisan victory. The higher councils may 
 perhaps be changed. An administration cannot be well 
 
76 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 conducted with a cabinet, or other officers in confiden- 
 tial relations, opposed to its policy ; but ho such reason 
 for change applies to ninety-nine hundredths of the 
 offices, now exposed in the market as rewards for 
 partisan service. 
 
 Otherwise than in these evils I fail to see especial 
 proofs of the degeneracy of the times. 
 
 Whether the men and women of this generation had 
 fallen from the standard of their fathers and mothers, 
 we had satisfactory evidence in the late war. I care 
 not to dwell upon its origin or to revive its memories. 
 The seceding States reaped as they had sown ; having 
 sown to the wind, they reaped the whirlwind. Against 
 what was to them the most beneficent of governments, 
 known and felt only in its blessings, they waged, it 
 seemed to us, causeless war, for their claim to extend 
 slavery into the new States and territories never had 
 solid ground of law or policy or humanity to rest upon ; 
 they struck at the flag in which were enfolded our most 
 precious hopes for ourselves and for mankind. They 
 could not expect a great nation to be so false to duty as 
 not to defend, at every cost, its integrity and life. 
 
 But while, as matter of good sense and logic, the 
 question seemed to us so plain a one ; that the Union 
 meant nothing if a State might at its election withdraw 
 from it ; that under the Articles of Confederation the 
 Union had been made perpetual ; that the Constitution 
 was adapted to form a more " perfect union " than that 
 of the Confederation, more comprehensive, direct, and 
 efficient in power, and not less durable in time ; that 
 
ORATION. 77 
 
 there was no word in it looking to separation ; that it 
 had careful provisions for its amendment, none for its 
 abrogation ; capacity for expansion, none for contrac- 
 tion ; a door for new States to come in, none for old or 
 new to go out ; we should find that, after all, upon the 
 question of legal construction, learned and philosophical 
 statesmen had reached a different conclusion ; we should 
 find, also, what as students of human nature we should 
 be surprised not to find, that the opinions of men on 
 this question had, at different times and in different 
 sections of the country, been more or less moulded, 
 biased and warped by the effects, or supposed effects, 
 which the policy of the central power had on the 
 material interests and institutions of the States. Such 
 examination, not impairing the strength of our convic- 
 tions, might chasten our pride. But aside from the 
 logic, men must be assumed to be honest, however mis- 
 guided, who are ready to die for the faith that is in 
 them. 
 
 But not dwelling upon causes, but comparing the 
 conduct of the war with that of the Revolution, I do 
 not hesitate to say that in the loyalty and devotion of 
 the people to country ; in the readiness to sacrifice 
 property, health, and life for her safety ; in the temper 
 and spirit in which the war was carried on ; in the 
 supply of resources to the army, men as well as money ; 
 in the blessed ministrations of woman to the sick, 
 wounded, or dying soldier ; in the courage and pluck 
 evinced on both sides ; in the magnanimity and forbear- 
 ance of the victors, the history of the late war shows 
 
78 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 no touch of degeneracy, shows, indeed, a century of 
 progress. 
 
 If its peculations and corruptions were more con- 
 spicuous, it was because of the vaster amounts expended 
 and the vastly greater opportunities and temptations to 
 avarice and fraud. The recently published letters of 
 Col. Pickering furnish additional evidence of the frauds 
 and peculations in the supplies to the armies of the 
 Revolution and of the neglect of the States to provide 
 food and clothing for the soldiers, when many of the 
 people, for whose liberties they were struggling, were 
 living in comparative ease and luxury. The world 
 moves. 
 
 There is one criterion of which I cannot forbear to 
 speak, the conduct of the soldiers of the late war upon 
 the return of peace ; how quietly and contentedly they 
 came back from the excitements of the battle-field and 
 camp to the quiet of home life, and to all the duties of 
 citizenship ; with a coat, perhaps, where one sleeve was 
 useless, with a leg that had a crutch for comrade, but 
 with the heart always in the right place ! 
 
 The burdens of the war are yet with us ; the vast 
 debt created, these heavy taxes consuming the very 
 seed of future harvests ; the vacant seats at the fireside. 
 Fifteen years, and half a generation of men, have 
 passed away since the conflict of opinion ripened into 
 the conflict of arms. They have been years of terrible 
 anxiety and of the sickness of hope deferred ; yet if 
 their record could be blotted from the book of life, if 
 the grave could give up its noble dead, and all the 
 
ORATION. 79 
 
 waste spots, moral and material, resume the verdure 
 of the spring-time, no one of us would return to 
 the state of things in 1860, with the curse of slavery- 
 hanging over us and the fires of discord smouldering 
 beneath us. The root of alienation, bitterness, and hate 
 has been wrenched out, and henceforth union and peace 
 are at least possible. 
 
 We have no right, the Roman moralist would tell us, 
 and no cause, to despair of the republic. 
 
 The elements of material prosperity are all with us ; 
 this magnificent country, resonant with the murmurs of 
 two oceans, with every variety of soil, climate, and 
 production to satisfy the tastes or wants of man ; with 
 its millions of acres of new lands beckoning for the 
 plough and spade ; with its mountains of coal and iron 
 and copper, and its veins of silver and gold waiting like 
 Enceladus to be delivered ; its lakes, inland seas ; its 
 rivers the highways of nations. We have bound its 
 most distant parts together with bands of iron and 
 steel ; we have answered the question of Job ; we send 
 the lightnings over it " that they may go, and say 
 unto us, Here we are." 
 
 We have all the tools of the industries and arts which 
 the cunning brain of man has invented and his supple 
 fingers learned to use, and abundant capital, the 
 reserved fruits of labor, seeking a chance for planting 
 and increase. 
 
 The means of intellectual growth are with us. We 
 have in most of the States systems of education open- 
 ing to every child the paths to knowledge and to good- 
 
80 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 ness ; destined, we hope, to be universal. And he who 
 in our day has learned to read in his mother-tongue 
 may be said to have all knowledge for his empire. 
 
 And our laws, though by no means perfect, were 
 never so wise, equal, and just as now ; never so infused 
 with the principles of natural justice and equity, as to- 
 day. Indeed, in no department of human thought and 
 activity has there been in the last century more intelli- 
 gent progress than in our jurisprudence. 
 
 Whatever may be said of creeds and formulas of 
 faith, there never was so much practical Christianity as 
 now ; as to wealth, so large a sense of stewardship ; as 
 to labor, so high a recognition of its rights and dignity ; 
 into the wounds of suffering humanity never the pour- 
 ing of so much oil and wine ; never was man as man, 
 or woman as woman, of such worth as to-day. 
 
 In spite of criticism we have yet the example and 
 inspiration of that life in which the human and the 
 divine were blended into one. 
 
 In spite of philosophy, God yet sits serenely on his 
 throne, his watchful providence over us, his almighty 
 arm beneath us and upholding us. 
 
 For an hundred years this nation, having in trust the 
 largest hopes of freedom and humanity, has endured. 
 There have been whirlwind and tempest; "it has mas- 
 tered them, bending only as Landor says the oak bends 
 before the passing wind, to rise again in its majesty and 
 in its strength." It has come out of the fiery furnace of 
 civil war, its seemingly mortal plague-spot cauterized 
 and burned out, leaving for us to-day a republic 
 
OKATION. 81 
 
 capable of almost infinite expansion, in which central 
 power may be reconciled with local independence, and 
 the largest liberty with the firmest order. 
 
 Stanch, with every sail set, her flag with no star 
 erased, this goodly Ship of State floats on the bosom of 
 the new century. 
 
 In her we " have garnered up our hearts, where we 
 must either live or bear no life." 
 
 And now, God of our fathers, what wait we for but 
 thy blessing ? Let thy breath fill her sails, thy presence 
 be her sunshine. If darkness and the tempest come, 
 give her, as of old, pilots that can weather the storm. 
 
 11 
 
PROCESSIONS, DECORATIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
PROCESSIONS. 
 
 For some days before the Fourth of July, pigns of prepara- 
 tion for the Centennial Anniversary were abundant. Bunting 
 hung in festoons here and there on the fronts of Main street 
 buildings, and other forms of decoration were occasionally seen. 
 The dry goods dealers tempted their customers with a liberal 
 display of the national colors in bunting and other fabrics, and 
 there was a brisk trade in colored lanterns and other illumi- 
 nating devices. Little other business, in fact, was done for a week 
 before the day than that which, in one way or another, concerned 
 the preparations for the grand display. Taste and invention 
 were tasked to devise and skilful hands to execute the varied 
 forms of decoration demanded for buildings and grounds and for 
 the elaborate pageant of the processions. The means of making 
 exultant patriotic and other noises were, of course, provided in 
 abundance. 
 
 The first stroke of midnight was the signal for a general out- 
 burst of explosive patriotism, to which every sound-producing 
 instrument yet devised by man contributed. This, however, was 
 unorganized and desultory jubilation. At sunrise the systematic 
 ringing of bells and cannon firing began. At about the same 
 time, or soon after, the parade of the " Studlefunk Brigade " 
 took place. This was a succession of grotescpie representations, 
 many of them with a satirical purpose and showing much humor 
 in the design and considerable skill in execution. This beginning 
 of the day's festivities brought out great numbers of the people, 
 and the streets were crowded with amused and applauding 
 throngs. 
 
 The most notable event of the day after the Concert of the 
 Pupils of the Public Schools, in the great tent on the Common, 
 
86 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 at 7.45 A. M., was the Military and Civic Procession, which took 
 up its line of March through Main street to« Wellington street 
 and via Wellington, Chandler, Irving, Pleasant, Ashland, Elm, 
 Oak, Cedar, Chestnut, Bowdoin, Harvard, Highland and Main 
 streets to Mechanics Hall, and after leaving the City Government 
 at the Hall, through Main and Park streets to Salem square, in 
 the following order : — 
 
 Detachment of Mounted Police, under command of JosErii M. Dyson. 
 Chief Marshal, GENERAL JOSIAH PICKETT. 
 
 Chief of Staff, Major E. T. Raymond. 
 
 Aids, Gen. A. B. R. Sprague, Aids, Gen. William S. Lincoln, 
 Gen. Arthur A. Goodell, Gen. D. D. Wiley, 
 
 Surgeon J. Marcus Rice, Major L. G. White, 
 
 Capt. T. S. Johnson, Capt. C. S. Chapin, 
 
 Capt. David M. Earle, Lieut. W. B. Harding, 
 
 Aids, Sergt. Harlan Fairbanks, Aids, Dr. Napoleon Jacques, 
 Henry A. Marsh, R. M. Gould, 
 
 Dr. F. J. McNulty, John N. Morse, Jr. 
 
 Stephen Salisbury, Jr. Albert A. Lovell. 
 
 Henry M. Witter, 
 
 FIRST DIVISION. 
 
 Worcester Brass Band, T. C. Richardson, leader, 21 pieces. 
 
 Marshal, General Robert H. Chamberlain. 
 
 Assistant Marshals, Colouel J. M. Dreuuan, Captain W. S. Lincoln, 
 Lieutenant D. F. Parker. 
 
 Worcester Light Infantry, Captaiu Levi Lincoln, commanding, 36 men. 
 
 Worcester City Guards, Lieutenant E. R. Shumway, commanding, 35 men. 
 
 City Government, Orator of the Day, and Invited Guests, in 15 carriages. 
 
 Fifth Battery Light Artillery, Captain J. G. Rice, commaudiug, 8 guns, 
 
 64 men. 
 
PROCESSIONS. 87 
 
 SECOND DIVISION. 
 
 French Band, P. H. A. Baribeault, leader, 21 pieces. 
 Marshal, Major Nathan Taylor. 
 
 Assistant Marshals, Lieutenant C. N. Hair, Dana K. Fitch, Lieutenant 
 George W. Brady. 
 
 Worcester Continentals, Colonel W. S. B. Hopkins, commanding, 83 men.* 
 
 Johnson's Drum Corps, 13 pieces. 
 
 Post 10, G. A. R., Commander J. B. Lamb, commanding, 86 men. 
 
 St. Jean Baptiste Society. — President, Joseph Marchessault ; Vice-President, 
 
 Urgele Jacques; 2d Vice-President, Louis Verner; Recording 
 
 Secretary, A. Faucher ; Treasurer, Narcise Boulax, 
 
 180 men. 
 
 St. Andrew's Society. — President, William Finlay; Vice-President, James 
 
 Little ; Recording Secretary, William McKenzie ; Treasurer, 
 
 John Provan ; Marshal, George B. Grasse ; 
 
 Standard Bearers, John Harning, 
 
 George Weir, 75 men. 
 
 THIRD DIVISION. 
 
 Father Mathew Temperance Band, J. B. Waters, leader, 23 pieces. 
 Marshal, Andrew Athy, Esq. 
 
 Assistant Marshals, John J. O'Gorman, Lieutenant James Cullen, Captain 
 Geo. B. Chandley, Wm. Hickey. 
 
 Sarsfleld Guards, Captain M. H. Murphy, commanding, 36 men. 
 
 Father Mathew Temperance Society. — President, James H. Mellen; Vice- 
 President, Patrick C. Conlin ; Recording Secretary, Patrick 
 O'Connor; Treasurer, Timothy Murphy, 190 men. 
 
 Father Mathew Temperance Cadets. — Captain, James Doyle; Lieutenant, 
 James Mahoney, 80 boys. 
 
 Irish Catholic Benevolent Society. — President, John L. Murphy; Vice- 
 President, William Kickham ; Recording Secretary, John Timou ; 
 Treasurer, Jeremiah Murphy, 120 men. 
 
 Ancient Oi'der of Hibernians. — Division No. 1 : President, John J. O'Gorman; 
 
 Vice-President, Stephen Haggerty ; Recording Secretary, Andrew 
 
 O'Leary ; Treasurer, Phillip Moore, 200 men. 
 
 *"The Worcester Continentals," an independent military organization, made their first appear- 
 ance in public on this occasion, Their uniform was in the style of that of the officers of the Conti- 
 nental army in the Revolution. 
 
88 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Division No. 2: President, Andrew Athy : Vice-President, Richard .Matthews; 
 Recording Secretary, John Landers; Treasurer, William 
 Collins, 150 men. 
 
 Division No. 3: President, John Kelley; Vice-President, Earthy Lavin; 
 
 Recording Secretary, Dominick Lavin; Treasurer, John Moore, 
 
 130 men. 
 
 FOURTH DIVISION. 
 
 Worcester National Band, A. W. Ingraham, leader, 20 pieces. 
 
 Marshal, Alzirus Brown, Esq. 
 
 Assistant Marshals, S. M. Richardson, R. J. Tatman, John Lagassy. 
 
 Worcester Fire Department. — Chief Engineer, Simon E. Combs, mounted; 
 
 Assistant Engineers, William Brophy, John W. Loriug, 
 
 Samuel H. Day, G. N. Rawson. 
 
 Steamer Old Governor Lincoln. 4 horses, 12 men, ex-members of the 
 Company, under command of Phineas Guild. 
 
 Steamer Governor Lincoln Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 
 
 Steamer Governor Lincoln, No. 1, 4 horses, 12 men; Charles Allen, foreman. 
 
 Hook and Ladder John W. Loring, No. 1, 4 horses, 20 men; P. L. Church, 
 
 foreman. 
 
 City Hose, No. 1, 2 horses, 10 men; Henry E. Robbins, foreman. 
 
 Protector Hose, No. 7, 2 horses, 10 men; Samuel Barnes, foreman. 
 
 Steamer Fire King, No. 3, 4 horses. 
 
 Mount Vernon Hose, No. 8, 2 horses, 10 men; J. H. Townsend, foreman. 
 
 Ocean Hose, No. 2, 2 horses, 10 men; David Poland, foreman. 
 
 Steamer S. E. Combs, No. 2 Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 
 
 Steamer S. E. Combs, No. 2, 4 horses, 12 men ; M. C. Viall, foreman. 
 
 Niagara Hose, No. 4, 2 horses, 10 men ; V. A. Lonsby, foreman. 
 
 Steamer Rapid, No 4 Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 
 
 Steamer Rapid, No. 4, 4 horses, 12 men ; George W. Dickinson, foreman. 
 
 Relief Hook and Ladder, No. 3, 4 horses. 
 
 Fire Patrol, 4 horses, 8 men; Hiram Williamson, foreman. 
 
 Babcock Extinguisher, No. 1, 2 horses, 4 men; O. J. Buzzell, assistant 
 
 foreman. 
 
PROCESSIONS. 89 
 
 Eagle Hose Company, No. 3, 2 horses, 10 men; E. J. Fogerty, foreman. 
 Steamer A. B. Lovell Hose Carriage, 2 horses. 
 
 Steamer A. B. Lovell, No. 3, 4 horses, 10 men; E. J. Watson, foreman. 
 Yankee Hose Company, No. 5, 2 horses, 10 men; Joseph Bolio, foreman. 
 
 Tiger Hose Company, No. 6, 1 horse, 10 men, Geo. S. Coleman, foreman. 
 Hook and Ladder No. 2, 4 horses, 20 men ; Jeremiah Hennessy, foreman. 
 
 In the line were over 1,000 men, and their general appearance 
 was much admired. 
 
 The next, and the most brilliant and attractive display of all, 
 was the " Trades Procession," which name is not comprehensive 
 enough to include all its features, though it fairly describes its 
 general character. It was admirably organized, and in its details 
 gave either a suggestion or an elaborate representation of nearly 
 every kind of business, except those commonly called pro- 
 fessional, carried on in the city. The great length of the proces- 
 sion, the variety of its constituents, the display of gay colors and 
 brilliant metal and the ingenious and effective designs, wrought 
 out with a patience and skill seldom devoted to the elements of a 
 single day's pageant, made it a series of admirable and satisfying 
 spectacles. The route of this procession was from Lincoln 
 square to Webster square and back again, and it was so long that 
 its head had made two-thirds of the return march when the rear 
 had traveled only one-third of the distance from the point of 
 departure. In the line were 413 teams and nearly 800 horses. 
 This procession was organized in eight divisions, each of which 
 was led by an elaborately-decorated car, representing some 
 nation of those from which the inhabitants of Worcester derive 
 their origin. The procession moved in the following order : 
 
 Detachment of Mounted Police. 
 
 Chief Marshal, Gen. Josiah Pickett, and his Staff. 
 
 Escort : 
 
 Battalion of Mounted Butchers, Charles Belcher, commanding. 162 men. 
 12 
 
90 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 FIRST DIVISION. 
 
 The First Division was composed chiefly of representative dis- 
 plays of workers in metals and machinery, General R. H. 
 Chamberlain, marshal ; Col. J. M. Drennan, Capt. W. S. Lincoln, 
 Capt. John G. Rice, assistant marshals. Worcester Brass Band, 
 21 pieces, T. C. Richardson, leader. 
 
 The car was in the form of a chariot, which was twenty feet 
 long, twelve feet wide and seventeen feet high. The sides, the 
 tops of which were seven feet from the ground, were heavily 
 festooned with red, white and blue, with white and maroon for 
 a background. A canopy of red, white and bine and national 
 flags covered the car, being semi-circular in form at the rear. 
 On the sides, hung at the gatherings of the festoons, were six 
 large shields bearing the coat of arms of the United States. 
 Under the semi-circular section of the canopy, seated on a 
 raised platform, ten feet from the ground, was a young lady, 
 Miss Kinney, representing the United States. She wore a 
 Roman toga, ornamented with stars of gold, and upon her head 
 was a helmet of white silk velvet of unique design, ornamented 
 with golden stars. The national colors enveloped her dress 
 below the toga, and fell in graceful folds upon the platform 
 on which she was seated. Below, overlooked by the central 
 figure, were seated thirteen young ladies dressed in white and 
 wearing wreaths of laurel, representing the thirteen original 
 Colonies. The representatives of the Colonies were Misses Mary 
 P. Matoon, Minnie W. Tarbell, Isabel J. Gibbs, Ella L. Taft, 
 Mary E. Drennan, Mary G. Messenger, Emma L. Sutton, Stella 
 G. Alton, Anna M. Rice, Mary E. Sherman, Lizzie F. Daniels, 
 Louisa M. Gunderson, Julia R. Walker. 
 
 Each of these young ladies supported a shield upon which the 
 name of the Colony she represented was painted in ornamental 
 letters. On one side of the central figure was a large shield of 
 the United States, and on the other was a sword and American 
 eagle. The whole was drawn by six handsome gray horses. Six 
 Continentals, mounted, acted as escort to the car. 
 
PKOCESSIONS. 91 
 
 SECOND DIVISION. 
 
 The Second Division comprised chiefly representatives of the 
 furniture, book, harness, trunk and musical instrument trades 
 and hatters. Major Nathan Taylor, marshal ; Lieut. Chas. N. 
 Hair, Lieut. George W. Brady, Dana K. Fitch, assistant marshals. 
 French Band, 24 pieces, in a carriage. 
 
 EMBLEM, — FRANCE. 
 
 The car, twenty-two feet long and ten wide, was drawn by six 
 horses, ridden by knights in glittering mail. In the centre was 
 a large canopy, trimmed with evergreen and gold fringe. At 
 the front was a pictorial design of the Bell of Liberty, flanked 
 on either side by a French Zouave and an American soldier. 
 Perched on the top of the bell were the white monarchical flag 
 of France in 1776, and the American flag with thirteen stars. 
 Between the flags was a shield, with the inscription, " Les sons de 
 la cloche de la Liberte ont ete entendus par la France," — the peals 
 of the liberty bell have been heard by France. The design at the 
 end of the car was a trophy of flags, with shields, inscribed, 
 " The friendship of France and America has been continuous for 
 a century. May it last forever." On the top of the canopy 
 columns were the French tricolor and American flags, with 
 shields bearing the names of McMahon and Grant. Around the 
 bottom of the platform was a rich tricolor drapery, covered with 
 shields, on which were inscribed Marion, De Grasse. Rocham- 
 beau, D'Estaing, Brandywine, Yorktown ; Longfellow and 
 Yictor Hugo, poets ; Powers and Bartholdi, arts ; De Tocque- 
 ville and Claudio Jamet, historians. In the canopy facing to the 
 front was a goddess (Miss C. Lacroix), dressed in white satin, 
 holding a white flag — le drapeau fleurdelise — in one hand ; and 
 in the other, resting on the cushion, was a diadem. In front, to 
 the right, stood Lafayette (Henry Escousse), dressed in a conti- 
 nental suit of blue satin. On the left stood Washington (Cyrille 
 Paqnette), dressed in a black velvet suit, richly ornamented with 
 beads, a fac-simile of the suit worn at Lady Washington's 
 receptions. Over their heads was a shield, inscribed " Washing- 
 ton, Lafayette," and the flags of monarchical France and of 
 America. Over all of this representation of the revolutionary 
 
92 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 period, showing the friendship of the two countries, waved the 
 French white and American flags, while the date, 1776, indicated 
 the date of the event. The rear half of the car was devoted to 
 a representation of 1876. 
 
 In the canopy facing the end of the wagon was a French 
 Goddess of Liberty (Miss A. Lacoste), dressed in blue satin, and 
 holding the French tricolor. Facing her on one side was a 
 French Zouave, and on the other an American infantry-man, 
 represented respectively by Leon Robert and John B. Lepire, 
 each bearing the flag of his country. Two soldiers, one of each 
 nation, were also represented by MM. E. Pleau and H. St. 
 George. The guard of honor consisted of six mounted pages, 
 dressed in a brilliant costume of the sixteenth century, with 
 feathered caps and capes of maroon velvet, with white satin 
 puffs. They each carried a small banner of red, white and blue, 
 with gold fringe. In the corners were 1776 and 1876, while 
 suitable mottoes were inscribed in the centre. The pages were 
 Dr. Louis Verner, L. A. Letourneau, Frank A. Payau, 11. M. 
 Couture, N. P. Huot and A. Charbonneau. 
 
 The drapery and general decoration of the car were tasteful 
 and elaborate, and reflected much credit upon the following 
 committee, named at a meeting of the French residents of this 
 city, to whom had been offered the honor of representing France, 
 their mother country : Ferd. Gagnon, president ; Leon Robert, 
 John J. B. Primeau, Dr. N. Jacques, Dr. L. Verner, A. G. 
 Lalime, Wm. Arrouquier, A. Charbonneau, P. Langlois, Henry 
 Escousse, A. Belisle and L. A. Letourneau. The committee 
 followed the car in two carriages. 
 
 THIRD DIVISION. 
 
 The Third Division contained the display of the makers of 
 farming tools and machinery, milkmen, florists and farmers. 
 Charles B. Pratt, marshal ; Waldo E. Sessons, John S. Brigham, 
 George A. Barnard, assistant marshals. 
 
 EMBLEM, — FLORA. 
 
 The goddess and her two attendant priestesses, were repre- 
 sented in a Roman triumphal car, with Roman costumes ami 
 
PROCESSIONS. 93 
 
 decorations. They were surrounded by the four seasons, each 
 with two attendants, forming a group of twelve, appropriate to 
 the months of the year. The palms and other tropical plants 
 which were used in adorning the car were beautiful, one 
 gorgeous palm, which crowned the whole, being nine feet high, 
 and the leaves a yard across. The shape ot the car was oval, 
 with pedestal in the centre, and the gilding and painting was very 
 rich and elaborate. It was decorated with several Latin mottoes, 
 following a common Italian custom. The work of arranging 
 this emblem devolved on Mr. John G. Hey wood and S. Salis- 
 bury, Jr., who were assisted by Messrs. Thomas O. Alexander 
 and Eugene Hilton, who did the painting and gilding ; and by 
 Messrs. John Coulson and Thomas Murphy, gardeners for 
 Messrs. Salisbury and Hey wood, who assisted in the floral work, 
 the plants being furnished from the greenhouses of Mr. Salis- 
 bury. The parts were taken by fifteen young ladies of the High 
 School. Miss Jennie B. Willard was Flora, and her companions 
 were Misses Abbie F. Wood, Hattie G. Gates, F. Josie Kinsley, 
 Emma F. Dearborn, Emma Goddard, Erfie M. Riley, Ginevra J. 
 Lawler, Mary J. Walker, Mary L. Fifield, Minnie Rawson, 
 Carrie E. Griggs, M. Gertrude Griggs, Abbie L. Stearns, and 
 Florence A. Gates. 
 
 FOURTH DIVISION. 
 
 The Fourth Division contained representatives of the grocers 
 and provision dealers, bakers, confectioners and liquor dealers. 
 Colonel J. A. Titus, marshal; Capt. George M. Woodward, Lieut. 
 E. W. Wellington, Capt. William McCready, assistant marshals. 
 
 EMBLEM, — SCOTLAND. 
 
 The car representing Scotland was 18 feet long and 8 feet 
 wide, and was drawn by four black horses, ridden by two post- 
 illions in Highland costume. The frame- work consisted of four 
 columns, one at each corner of the platform. Springing from 
 the tops of the columns were four graceful ogee braces, 
 reaching to the top of an elevated central column, on which 
 was a platform three feet in diameter, where stood a blooming 
 Scotch thistle, five feet high. Springing from this platform were 
 arches, over-topping the thistle, with the old defiant motto, 
 
94 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 " Nemo me impune lacessit" translated on the opposite side as 
 " Touch me not with impunity." The ends were finished with 
 half-circle arches, St. Andrew's Cross filling the space from the 
 bottom edge of the front arch to a brace across the top of the 
 corner columns. The cross was handsomely decorated with 
 spines of the thistle in full bloom. On the top of the front arch, 
 over the cross, was a large bunch of blooming heather, imported 
 from Scotland. On the rear arch, the space was filled by an oval 
 frame, containing' a suspended floral crown. 
 
 The front arch bore the inscription, " From the heath-covered 
 mountains of Scotland we come." On the rear arch, "Here's a 
 health, bonnie Scotland, to thee." The side rails, from front to 
 rear columns, were decorated with a box plaiting of royal Stuart 
 plaid ribbon, nine inches wide, over which was festooned a heavy 
 gold bullion fringe, four inches wide. The bottoms of the front 
 and rear arches were trimmed similarly. A deck, the whole 
 length on each side of the car, was suspended four feet below 
 the platform, on which rode the guard of honor. The back- 
 ground of the lower decorations was of red and blue ; over this, 
 and entwined at every point possible, the trimmings were of 
 Scotch plaids of the clans Gordon, Argvle, McGregor, Forbes 
 and royal Stuart. Shields, flags and flowers put on the finishing 
 touches to the decorations. 
 
 Nine characters were presented : Sir William Wallace by J. 
 McGregor Smith, and Robert Bruce by J. L. Scott, representing 
 national independence, were clad in armor, Wallace bearing a 
 claymore, and Bruce a battle axe. The shield of the former was 
 inscribed, " Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled," and of the latter, 
 "Scots, wham Bruce hath af ten led." Poetry was represented 
 by Robert Burns (Alexander Thomson'), and Sir "Walter Scott 
 ("William Finlay). Burns was standing at the plough, dressed in 
 the antique ploughman's suit of bis day, and over him stood 
 " Colia " (Miss Jennie B. Weir), dressed in white, with a royal 
 Stuart tartan sash across her shoulder, and on her head a wreath 
 of holly, placing a mantle of Gordon tartan on his shoulders. 
 The idea presented was taken from the poet's own words, "The 
 Poetic Genius of my country found me as the prophet hard Elijah 
 did Elisha at the plough, and threw her inspiring mantle over 
 
PROCESSIONS. 95 
 
 me." On the plough was the motto, " A roan's a man for a' 
 that." Sir Walter Scott was dressed in a gray tweed suit, with 
 a shepherd's plaid thrown over his shoulders and a Kilmarnock 
 bonnet on his head. A handsome pointer dog lay at his side. 
 On his shield was the inscription, "This is my own, my native 
 land." Mechanical industry was represented in James Watt, by 
 John Speirs. He was dressed as a mechanic, with paper cap. 
 At his side stood a painting representing a fire-place with a 
 boiling tea-kettle, steam rushing from its spout ; also a small 
 steam engine. His shield was inscribed, " The first conception 
 of steam power. James Watt, 1760." 
 
 The next character was John Knox, the Presbyterian minister, 
 the founder of parochial schools and religious emancipation. He 
 was represented by Hugh Brown, who was dressed in a clergy- 
 man's garb of 1560, standing at a desk. The inscription on 
 his shield was, " John Knox, 1560. I stipulate that the People 
 be Educated." At the front of the car stood Alex. Buchanan, 
 piper of the Boston Caledonian Club, in full costume, entertain- 
 ing all hearts with Scotch airs. At the rear of the car stood ex- 
 Chief Wm. Grant, of the Boston club, in an elegant Highland 
 costume, representing a modern Highlander. Master James W. 
 Thomson acted as page, dressed in full Highland costume. 
 
 The guard of honor to the car was a delegation of chieftains and 
 clansmen from the Boston Caledonian Club, dressed in full High- 
 land costume, viz : Munroe Ross and Robert Barnes, with battle- 
 axes ; Hugh Sinclair and John Adam, standard bearers ; James B. 
 Hill and James Johnstone, with claymores. The committee, 
 accompanied by Chief J. G. McCormick, of Boston, and G. B.* 
 Grassie, of Bolton, the two latter dressed in magnificent High- 
 land costumes, followed the car in open barouches. The car was 
 constructed and decorated by a committee appointed by the 
 Worcester St. Andrew's Benefit Society, consisting of the 
 following gentlemen : Wm. McKenzie, chairman ; Thomas 
 Provan, George Weir, James Speirs, John Plaining, Hugh 
 Brown, treasurer ; and John W. Dobbie, secretary. 
 
96 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 FIFTH DIVISION. 
 
 The Fifth Division comprised representatives of the business 
 in coal, stone and ice. Andrew Athy, marshal ; J. J. O'Gorman, 
 Capt. George B. Chandley, Lieut. James Cullen, William Ilickey, 
 assistant marshals. Father Mathew Temperance Band, in a 
 carriage. 
 
 EMBLEM, — IRELAND. 
 
 The car representing Ireland was preceded by a procession of 
 ancient Irish kings, chieftains and warriors, in the following 
 order: Gallowglass chieftain, in green and gold tunic, saffron 
 trunks and hose, carrying an ancient battle-axe (Timothy Cronin); 
 three trumpeters, in costumes of the regiment of Lord Clare, of 
 the Irish brigade which took part in the Battle of Fonteno} T , 
 May 11, 1745 — Daniel Savage, John Riorden, John P. O'Con- 
 nell; King Brian Born, as he appeared when leading the Irish army 
 to battle against the Danes, at Clontarf, near Dublin, on Good 
 Friday, 1014. He wore a crown studded with precious stones, 
 saffron-trimmed tunic, embroidered with gold, saffron trunks and 
 hose, red sandals, a long, flowing mantle of green velvet, lined 
 with scarlet satin, trimmed elaborately with bullion and adorned, 
 with precious stones, holding in his hand the royal sceptre 
 (Maurice O'Flynn). King's pages: Four pages, in green and 
 gold — two on each side — one holding the horse's bridle and the 
 other the King's mantle (John P. O'Leary, Bernard O'Rourke, 
 Patrick McDermott, J. J. Lynch); four Gallowglasses, in flowing 
 cloaks of saffron and gold, brass helmets, each armed with a 
 battle-axe (James Kelly, Thomas Finneran, Patrick Morrissy, 
 Michael Brown) ; Standard Bearer, in Gallowglass costume, 
 carrying an Irish flag (Eneas Lombard); Roderick O'Connor, 
 last king of Ireland. He wore a crown of gold, adorned with a 
 plume of emerald green, a richly-embroidered tunic of green and 
 gold, white satin-spangled tights, an embroidered golden harp on 
 his breast and a flowing robe of white satin (Jeremiah F. 
 Healey) ; Guard to King — two ancient Fenians, in armor, each 
 carrying pike and skein (James McGrath, Patrick Hackett). 
 
 The car was drawn by six horses, each horse accompanied by 
 two ancient Irish soldiers, in Gallowglass costumes, carrying 
 
PROCESSIONS. 97 
 
 battle-axes, represented by John Delany, Thomas Leahy, M. 
 Cronin, John O. Toner, John Walsh, Mark Duggan, Patrick 
 O'Hara, Patrick Casey, Dennis Hines. The car was twenty-two 
 feet in length, twelve feet in width and fifteen feet high. Hiber- 
 nia was seated on a raised platform in the centre of the car, be- 
 neath a canopy, surmounted by an Irish flag ; from the top of the 
 canopy a streamer extended to each of the four corner posts of the 
 car, each post being surmounted by an Irish flag. Miss Annie 
 Condon, representing Hibernia, was splendidly dressed in green, 
 saffron and gold, with a crown of gold set with emeralds. She 
 was attended by four young ladies, dressed in white, with green 
 sashes and wreaths upon their heads. They were seated on a 
 lower platform, on each side of Hibernia. The young ladies' 
 names were Miss Julia Mahoney, Miss Eliza Fitzgerald, Miss 
 Maggie E. Kenney, Miss Mary E. Melavin. At the feet of 
 Hibernia was seated an ancient Irish harper, with harp in 
 hand, with long, flowing white hair and beard, wine-colored tunic, 
 saffron hose and red sandals ; represented by Michael Murtagh. 
 
 On each corner of the car stood four Irish Chieftains, clad in 
 glittering armor, with helmets, visors and drawn swords, each 
 supporting a shield, on which was inscribed the name of one of 
 the four provinces of Ireland, as follows : Ulster, Michael Ford ; 
 Leinster, Thomas Sweeney ; Munster, Maurice Cronin ; Con- 
 naught, Kiernan Murray. In the centre of the rear of the car 
 stood an ancient Fenian Chief, in charge of a magnificent Irish 
 flag (John A. Kelly). 
 
 The car was handsomely decorated with the national colors of 
 the United States and of Ireland, intermingled with streamers of 
 green, white and gold, profusely trimmed with evergreen wreaths 
 and flowers. From the platform of the car to the ground, on 
 red drapery, which entirely concealed the wheels of the car, 
 were arranged shields, thirty-two in number, designating the 
 thirty-two counties of Ireland; around each were festoons of ever- 
 green, and between, these were festoons of red, white and gold. 
 
 Following the Emblem Car, was an Irish Jaunting Car, on 
 
 which were seated four venerable Irish gentlemen : William 
 
 Fitzgerald, Henry G. Roche, Michael O'Hagan and James Mc- 
 
 Glinchy ; driven by Michael Early. 
 13 
 
98 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The committee who designed and had charge of the repre- 
 sentation followed in a carriage : Frank M. Drennan, John L. 
 Murphy, John Keney and Matthew O'Meara. 
 
 The general management of the representation was assumed 
 by delegates from the Irish societies of the city, of which 
 Patrick C. Conlin was chairman, and Richard O'Flynn secretary 
 and treasurer ; valuable assistance being rendered by the citizens 
 at large. 
 
 CD » • 
 
 SIXTH DIVISION. 
 
 The Sixth Division included the express companies, stables, 
 city teams, water carts, &c. Alzirus Brown, marshal ; Capt. E. 
 A. Wood, S. M. Richardson, R. J. Tatman, assistant marshals. 
 
 EMBLEM, — ENGLAND. 
 
 The Car of England in the procession was twenty feet in 
 length and ten feet in width, the general design being in the 
 shape of a ship, to represent that country's vast merchant navy 
 and commerce. In the centre, seated on a large, solitary rock, 
 with the lion crouched at her feet, was Britannia (Mrs. James 
 Pursey), dressed as usually represented in the arts, with scale- 
 armor bust, helmet, &c, holding in her right hand the trident, 
 her left resting on the shield. On either side of this central 
 figure stood a British soldier (Mr. Freeman), and sailor (Mr. C. 
 W. Walls), on projections of the platform of the car ; and 
 between them and the rock were placed trophies suitable to 
 each — that behind the sailor being a full-rigged ship with all 
 sails set, and behind the soldier a cannon, pile of shot, &c. 
 At the four corners of the car were placed the principal colonies 
 of England, viz : Australia (Mr. Richard Holt), India (Mr. John 
 Wood), Canada (Mr. Henry Cole), West Indies (Mr. Charles 
 Nuttal) ; beneath each of which was a shield, inscribed with the 
 coat of arms of the colony, the costumes of the figures being those 
 worn in each country. Life-size busts of Milton, Byron, Shakes- 
 peare, and Newton, represented literature and science, — these 
 being also placed at the corners of the car, and facing diagonally 
 outwards. On the projections from the car, by the side of each 
 of the six figures, was a staff eight feet high, surmounted by a 
 
PROCESSIONS. 99 
 
 gold spear-head, supporting a banner of white and gold, bearing 
 the name of the colony or profession in scarlet. In the rear end 
 of the car was a blacksmith (Mr. R. Hoyle), with anvil, hammer, 
 &c, representing the mechanical arts. 
 
 The decorations and trimmings were mainly scarlet — the Eng- 
 lish color. The body of the car was box-plaited to within six 
 inches of the ground, with scarlet, having a fringe, a foot in 
 depth, of deep blue, edged with gold and studded with gold 
 lions. Around the edge of the platform ran a line of evergreens, 
 festoons of the same hanging beneath it. Over the stern of the 
 ship hung the " English ensign " and the " stars and stripes," 
 looped up together, and falling in graceful folds almost to the 
 ground. A canopy, surmounted by a Tudor crown, from 
 which sprung a small pennon, shaded the central figure of 
 Britannia, the supports of the canopy covered with evergreens, 
 forming arches which sprung from the base of the rock. This 
 canopy was white, with a fringe of scarlet edged with gold and 
 gold lions on the ground of it. Four scarlet and gold pennons, 
 attached to staffs with gold spear-heads, rose from the spring of 
 the arches, and from the bow of the ship was suspended an 
 anchor. 
 
 Mr. W. H. Johnson, dressed as Neptune, drove the car, which 
 was drawn by four horses, whose harness was trimmed with red, 
 white and blue. Following the car were the committee of 
 arrangements, in carriages : Mr. S. P. Triscott, chairman ; Mr. 
 George Cleveland, Mr. John Dawson, Mr. W. T. Back, Mr. I 
 Davis, Mr. C. F. Lawrence, Mr. James Broadbent. 
 
 SEVENTH DIVISION. 
 
 The Seventh Division represented the lumber dealers, black- 
 smiths, slaters, potters, drain pipe makers &c. A. B. Lovell, 
 marshal ; J. W. Jordan, L. C. Kenney, Hermann A. Lange, 
 assistant marshals. Worcester National Band, in a carriage. 
 
 EMBLEM , — GERMANY. 
 
 The German Car was twenty -three feet long, eight feet wide and 
 fifteen feet high, built to represent the old castle Kyffhauser, 
 a ruin in Thuringia, of which a legend tells us of Frederick 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
100 CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 
 
 • 
 
 I. the German Roman emperor, resting under its walls, and 
 awakening every one hundred years, when he details his 
 attendants to ascertain if Germany is prepared to be united, 
 and if not he returns to the vaults for another hun- 
 dred years' sleep. The work on this tower was admirably 
 done, the ruin being well represented. Ivies and mosses 
 were clinging to the sides, and a terrace formed the base, 
 with green grass and small oak trees growing thereon. Seated 
 on a throne at the base of the tower, and resting partially 
 against it, was Germania, a beautiful figure, dressed throughout 
 in rich black velvet. Embroidered on the breast was a hand- 
 some golden eagle, and about her waist an elegant sword belt. 
 In her left hand she supported an elegant flag of Germany 
 moving above the tower, while her right hand rested on the 
 hilt of a drawn sword. On her head she wore a beautiful 
 coronet, with two miniature castles worked in the front. Below 
 Germania was a group of three of the Muses, representing 
 music, art and history. The corners of the car were guarded by 
 Halberdiers, who appeared able to repress all attempts at inva- 
 sion. Turners and students, in their respective uniforms, 
 occupied positions at the sides. The wagon was also heavily 
 draped with German colors, showing in each festoon a different 
 color of the principal German States. The driver of the six 
 horses drawing the chariot was. clad in the costume of Arminius, 
 the Prince of the Cheruscan tribe. Two Uhlans, two hussars, 
 a cuirassier and artillerist, representing the four mounted corps 
 of the German army, formed an escort to the car. The horses 
 were also handsomely decorated with the German colors. Com- 
 mittee of arrangements: R. Volkmar, Pres., Ch. Schlenker, Sec, 
 Benj. Zaeder, Pud. Hacker, Leop. Strauss, Ph. Dutten, Jul. 
 Gunther, Aug. Biihler, Herm. Lang, Geo. Trott, Fried. Geyer, 
 Dan. Hentz, Com. Finames, Leop. Strauss, Geo. Krumsick, H. 
 Eisentrant, P. Bauer, F. Blasy. Germania, Mrs. Jacob Henrich ; 
 Muses, Misses Eidt, A. Zaeder and L. Kochler. 
 
 EIGHTH DIVISION. 
 
 The Eighth Division comprised gentlemen's driving teams ; 
 Lieut. David F. Parker, marshal ; Capt. M. Y. B. Richardson, 
 
PROCESSIONS. 101 
 
 Charles W. Moody, Gen. Percy Daniels, assistant marshals. 
 Swedish Brass Band, in a carriage, 15 pieces, C. Ekbled, leader. 
 
 EMBLEM, — SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 The Scandinavian Car represented Norway, Sweden and 
 Denmark. The platform — fourteen feet long by eight feet wide, 
 and five and a half feet from the ground — was covered with the 
 Scandinavian colors and trimmed with evergreens. Upon a seat, 
 in the centre, was enthroned the Goddess of Liberty (Miss Selma 
 P. Aalstrom), dressed in pure white, with trimmings of the 
 national colors, a helmet adorning her head, and holding in her 
 hand a banner, ten feet by eight, having on one side the 
 Scandinavian coat of arms, and on the other a Northman's ship 
 of the tenth century, sailing for our shores, with the words, 
 " America discovered A. D., 1000." In front of the goddess 
 were representatives of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, in their 
 respective costumes of one hundred years ago, each holding in his 
 hand the flag of that date ; Norway being represented by Olaus 
 Hanson, a Norwegian ; Sweden by Swen Hammer, a Swede ; 
 and Denmark by C. G. Blomstrom, a Dane. 
 
 Behind the goddess, were three distinguished representatives 
 of the present age : John Ericsson, the inventor of the caloric 
 engine and the world-renowned " Monitor," personated by 
 Alfred Johnson ; Albert Thorwaldsen, the noted sculptor, repre- 
 sented at ' work on an outline model just moulded by him, 
 personated by Edward Hammerstrom ; and Ole Bull, the cele- 
 brated musician, personated by Nils Peterson. 
 
 In the rear of the platform was a Union soldier of Norway 
 and Sweden, represented by Edward Ericson, dressed in the 
 national uniform, and on each side of him a union flag of the 
 two countries. Over all was a rich canopy, fourteen feet from 
 the ground, covered with the Scandinavian colors ; and six feet 
 above this was an American flag, six feet by eight. 
 
 On each side of the car, printed in large letters, was the word 
 " Scandinavia." The car was drawn by four horses, led by M. 
 Hanson, C Sandbo, O. Olson and A. Hanson, dressed in the 
 costumes of Norway and Sweden. 
 
DECOKATIONS AND ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 The decorations of buildings and grounds throughout the city 
 were of a most elaborate nature, far exceeding anything of the 
 kind ever before attempted here. 
 
 The work of decorating the Common and the buildings and 
 monuments thereon was done by the city, and the work was 
 much admired. At the west gable-end of City Hall was a 
 shield, resting upon a glory of national flags. Suspended from 
 this were streamers running to the sides of the building below, 
 finishing with the coat of arms of Massachusetts on one side, 
 and the seal of the United States on the other. Covering the 
 middle window in the second story of the west end was an 
 admirable life-size painting of Washington, with a glory of 
 American flags as a background. The main entrance below was 
 draped with national flags. On the northerly and southerly sides 
 of the building were heavy festoons of red, white and blue, a 
 shield, bearing the name of one of the States, being suspended 
 at the gatherings of the festoons. On the easterly end of the 
 building streamers and national flags were hung in profusion. 
 
 On the westerly side of the Old South Church was an arch, 
 standing where the old porch through which the church was 
 entered, was located. This was twenty-one feet high, ten feet 
 deep and fourteen feet wide, and the frame-work was entirely 
 covered with red, white and blue. In the centre of the arch was 
 a handsome shield of the United States, with a glory of national 
 lags as a background, while on the sides of the arch were thir- 
 teen shields representing the thirteen original colonies. Below 
 the national shield, on a background of white, in varied colored 
 letters, the public were informed that " Here stood the porch 
 where the Declaration of Independence was first read in Massa- 
 chusetts." South of this porch was a painting, ten feet long 
 
DECORATIONS AND ILLUMINATIONS. 103 
 
 and seven feet wide, representing Columbia. This painting was 
 surrounded by national flags, hung in graceful festoons. In the 
 space between the porch and the painting of Columbia was a 
 handsome flag of France, draped with pennants of red, white 
 and blue. At the north end of the church, covering the cir- 
 cular window in the gable, the English and American flags were 
 draped together, from which streamers were suspended. Two 
 lines of streamers of signals and pennants were suspended 
 between the belfry and the City Hall, one running to the west- 
 erly end, and terminating with the flag of Tuscany, and the other 
 to the easterly end, and terminating with a Brazilian flag. At 
 the south end, in the centre, was a large pennant of red, white 
 and blue, from which streamers of flags ran to either side of the 
 building. 
 
 The base of the Soldiers' Monument was wound with festoons 
 of red, white and blue, and the disc was covered with streamers 
 intertwined with festoons of evergreen running through wreaths 
 of the same material. Double festoons of evergreen were also 
 intertwined with the red, white and blue at the base. 
 
 On the top of the Bigelow Monument was an evergreen 
 wreath, from which streamers ran to either corner of the base, 
 and back through the wreath at the top. Each of the four 
 recesses was covered with American flags, handsomely draped 
 with wreaths of evergreen hung at intervals. The base was also 
 handsomely covered with heavy festoons of red, white and blue, 
 upon which rested festoons of evergreen. 
 
 At Lincoln Square, the grand decoration consisted of a triple 
 arch 126 feet long and 52 feet high in the centre, extending 
 from the corner of Salisbury's block at the junction of the new 
 lines of Union street to a large elm tree in front of the Salisbury 
 mansion. Four wooden columns supported the decorating 
 material, which consisted mainly of tricolored bunting. At the 
 top of the columns floated American flags. In the centre was 
 hung a semi-circle, bearing on the west side the inscription, 
 " North Square, — ancient centre of Revolutionary spirit." On 
 the east side the inscription was, " Our country — all of it." The 
 top of the circles was surmounted with a spread eagle, a silver 
 star, and cluster of small flags, while underneath were large 
 
104 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 American shields. In the centre of the north arch was a large 
 American shield, with " 1776 " on the face aud " 1876 " on the 
 rear. Over this was a silver star. The south arch was similarly 
 arranged, with the dates on the shields reversed. The columns 
 were covered with bunting, and on the west face of the two 
 centre ones were medallions of Washington and Lincoln. The 
 effect of the display was very fine, and attracted general 
 admiration. 
 
 The American Antiquarian Society building was tastefully 
 decorated with national colors. Over the entrance was placed 
 a spread eagle, perched on a globe. Streamers ran from the 
 roof to the centre and lower story. On either side of the upper 
 story windows were large American shields. On the top of 
 the building floated a regulation American flag, inscribed, " The 
 past at least is secure — the future is full of promise." Small 
 flags of other nationalities floated from the roof, and a mammoth 
 flag was hung across the head of Salisbury street. 
 
 The Exchange Hotel, corner of Market street, where General 
 Washington took breakfast when he passed through the town on 
 his way to take command of the army, was decorated with bunt- 
 ing and flags. A placard over the room north of the office' 
 announced that the room was once occupied by the " Father of 
 his country. 11 
 
 On the ancient house known as the " Dix House" on Main 
 Street at the foot of " Court House Hill," now occupied by 
 Samuel Davis, Esq., was this inscription: " This was the residence 
 of General Warren's family during the siege of Boston." A 
 house on the west side of Lincoln Street, a few rods north of 
 Lincoln Square, bore the inscription : " Near this spot once stood 
 the Hancock Arms Tavern." 
 
 The Lincoln House block was conspicuously adorned with 
 colored fabrics, gracefully arranged, and bore two placards : One 
 reading, " This spot marks the location of the King's Arms 
 Tavern. The towns-people compelled the keeper to take down 
 the sign, when it was burned in the street;" and the other, 
 " Lafayette was the guest of General Lincoln at a house which 
 formerly stood on this spot. Sept. 22d, 1824." 
 
 As the dusk of evening approached, lanterns and colored fires 
 
DECOKATIONS AND ILLUMINATIONS. 105 
 
 made the night more brilliant and splendid than the day had 
 been, and the throng in the streets was scarcely less. 
 
 The centre of attraction was the Common, where the illumina- 
 tion was done under the direction of the city. In the City Hall, 
 behind each sqnare of glass, a French lantern was hung, and the 
 effect was such that the old building was really something of 
 which the citizens might well be proud. In the belfry of the 
 Old South Church were a number of red lanterns, a simple yet 
 pleasing display. Lines of lanterns, of the bucket and globe 
 patterns, were hung in festoons between the trees on the Front, 
 Main, Park and Salem street sides, and in nearly all the trees 
 lanterns were hung in profusion. Near the main path was a 
 handsome chandelier of lanterns, and lines of the same were 
 stretched from the top of the flagstaff to the four corners. A 
 Magnesium light illuminated the Soldiers' Monument, and the 
 effect throughout was very fine. 
 
 Throughout the city, almost every dwelling, shop and office 
 was illuminated more or less profusely. Many of the devices 
 were very ingenious and tasteful, and the number of paper 
 lanterns was astonishingly great. Altogether, nothing of the 
 kind could well be more satisfactory than this celebration of 
 the Centennial Fourth. The enthusiasm of the people was 
 genuine and hearty, and the celebration was notable for the 
 excellent management of the public authorities, the general 
 co-operation of all classes of citizens, and the total absence of 
 any serious accident or failure. 
 
 14 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 It has been deemed appropriate to give a few facts which 
 indicate, in some degree, the condition of affairs in the town of 
 Worcester a century ago, especially as to the stand taken upon 
 the important political questions then agitating the country. 
 This now prosperous city, with its fifty thousand inhabitants, 
 was then a village, with less than two thousand, and probably had 
 not over two hundred and fifty voters, yet it was prominent 
 and active in political affairs. 
 
 Although many of the most respected citizens, and most of the 
 officials, were loyal to the British government, the majority were 
 strongly opposed to the arbitrary measures of parliament, which 
 were likely to affect, as they believed, the independence and 
 well being of the people. 
 
 As early as December, 1773, the leading whigs of Worcester 
 had formed a society for discussion and consultation upon civil 
 and religious affairs, called the "American Political Society," 
 which was an exponent of the political rights of the people. It 
 also took an active part in town affairs, and often discussed 
 questions that were afterwards acted upon in town meeting, on 
 whose deliberations and doings it had a marked influence. The 
 real purpose of the Society was undoubtedly to control the 
 actions of the royalist party, then consisting of the wealthy and 
 influential men of the town. * 
 
 Early in 1774 the Society took strong ground against the 
 action of the home government in placing a duty on tea and other 
 goods imported from Great Britain to the Colonies. A vote or 
 
 * This Society was probably to a certain extent a secret one, for it is stated that in the only 
 instance on record of a member being dismissed, he was requested to sign a solemn compact or 
 declaration, that he would " faithfully and inviolably keep all the articles of the Society secret as 
 truly as if he still belonged." Owing to internal troubles and disagreements, the society was 
 dissolved in June, 1776. 
 
110 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 resolution was passed in which the members agreed not to buy 
 any English goods, and especially not to buy or use any tea, 
 imported from England or elsewhere, until the act imposing a 
 duty thereon was repealed. Other resolutions of a similar nature 
 were adopted from time to time, which gave great offence to 
 the loyalists, of whom there were a considerable number, and 
 also encouraged the whigs to greater zeal in their resistance to 
 the aggressions of the crown. 
 
 In May, 1744, resolutions were adopted by the town, in the 
 form of instructions to Joshua Bigelow, the newly-elected repre- 
 sentative to the General Court. He was instructed to be decided 
 in opposition to the objectionable acts of Parliament, and to 
 oppose the approval of all claims for indemnity for the tea 
 thrown overboard in the harbor of Boston. He was especially 
 urged to make it one of his first objects to work for and require 
 a strict union of the Colonies, and to pursue every legal measure 
 that might tend thereto, viz : — 
 
 " That" committees of correspondence be kept up between the several 
 houses of assembly through the colonies ; and that you by no means fail to 
 use your utmost endeavors, that there be a general Congress formed of 
 deputies from the same ; that so we may unite in some safe and sure plan, 
 to secure and defend the American liberties, at this important crisis of 
 aft airs."* 
 
 Other equally decided instructions had before been adopted by 
 the town, which the loyalists strongly opposed ; but not succeed- 
 ing in their opposition, they petitioned for a special meeting, in 
 the hope that they might be able to secure a reconsideration of 
 the resolutions. After a long and excited discussion upon the 
 question, they were defeated in their efforts. They then resorted 
 to what seemed the only course left, and presented a protest 
 against the resolutions, which was most loyal in its tone, and 
 was signed by fifty-two inhabitants. 
 
 The acceptance of the protest was refused by the town, but 
 Clark Chandler, the town clerk, himself among the signers of the 
 protest, as were several of his relatives and friends, copied the 
 protest on the records, and also sent a copy to Boston for 
 publication. 
 
 History of Worcester.— By William Lincoln, p. 79. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. Ill 
 
 The protest, prefaced with a note to the printer, was published 
 in the " Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston Weekly News- 
 Letter," of June 30th, 1774, as follows :— * 
 
 "Messrs. Printers, 
 
 If you please you may give the following Protestation &c of us 
 few friends of truth, peace and order, a place in your paper : For it is 
 believed that we and many others thro' the Province have too long already 
 held our peace. 
 
 " At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Worcester held there on 
 the 20th day of June, A. D. 1774, pursuant to an application made to the 
 selectmen by 43 voters and freeholders of the same town, dated the 20th day 
 of May last, therein, among other things, declaring their just apprehensions 
 of the fatal consequences that may follow the many riotous and seditious 
 actions that have of late times been done and perpetrated in divers places 
 within this province; the votes and proceedings of which meeting are by us 
 deemed irregular and arbitrary : 
 
 Wherefore, we, some of us who were petitioners for the said meeting, 
 and others, inhabitants of the town, hereunto subscribing, thinking it our 
 indispensable duty, in these times of discord and coufusiou in too many of the 
 towns within this province, to bear testimony in the most open and unreserved 
 manner against all riotous, disorderly and seditious practices, must therefore 
 now declare, that it is with the deepest concern for public peace and order 
 that we behold so many, whom we used to esteem sober, peaceable men, so 
 far deceived, deluded and led astray by the artful, crafty and insidious prac- 
 tices of some evil-minded and ill-disposed persons, who,- under the disguise 
 of patriotism, and falsely styling themselves the friends of liberty, some of 
 them neglecting their own proper business and occupation, in which they 
 ought to be employed for the support of their families, spending their time 
 in discoursing of matters they do not understand, raising and propagating 
 falsehoods and calumnies of those men they look up to with envy, and on 
 whose fall and ruin they wish to rise, intend to reduce all things to a state of 
 tumult, discord and confusion. 
 
 And in pursuance of those evil purposes and practices, they have imposed 
 on the understanding of some, corrupted the principles of others, and dis- 
 tracted the minds of many, who, under the influence of this delusion, have 
 been tempted to act a part that may prove, and that has already proved, 
 extremely prejudicial to the province, and as it may be, fatal to themselves ; 
 bringing into real danger, and in many instances destroying, that liberty and 
 property we all hold sacred, and which they vainly and impiously boast of 
 defending at the expense of their blood and treasure. 
 
 And, as it appears to us, that many of this town seem to be led aside by 
 strange opinions, and are prevented coming to such prudent votes and reso- 
 lutions as might be for the general good and the advantage of this town in 
 particular, agreeably to the request of the petitioners for this meeting. 
 
 And as the town has refused to dismiss the persons styling themselves the 
 
 *It was also printed in the Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston Post Boy and Advertiser for 
 July 4th, 1774. 
 
112 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 committee of correspondence for the town, and has also refused so much- as 
 to call on them to render an account of their past dark and pernicious pro- 
 ceedings : 
 
 We, therefore, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do each of us declare 
 and protest, it is our firm opinion, that the committees of correspondence in 
 the several towns of this province, being creatures of modern invention, 
 and constituted as they be, are a legal grievance, having no legal foundation, 
 contrived by a junto to serve particular designs and purposes of their own, 
 and that they, as they have been and are now managed in this town, are a 
 nuisance : And we fear, it is in a great measure owing to the baneful influence 
 of such committees, that the teas of immense value, lately belonging to the 
 East India Company, were, not long since, scandalously destroyed in Boston, 
 and that many other enormous acts of violence and oppression have been 
 perpetrated, whereby the lives of many honest, worthy persons, have been 
 endangered, and their property destroyed. 
 
 It is by these committees also, that papers have been lately published and 
 are now circulating through the province, inviting, and wickedly tempting, 
 all persons to join them, fully implying, if not expressly denouncing the 
 destruction of all that refuse to subscribe those unlawful combinations, 
 tending directly to sedition, civil war, and rebellion. 
 
 These, and all such enormities, we detest and abhor; and the authors of 
 them we esteem enemies to our king and country, violators of all law and civil 
 liberty, the malevolent disturbers of the peace of society, subverters of the 
 established constitution, and enemies of mankind." 
 
 This is certified to be a true copy from the Town Records of 
 Worcester, by Clark Chandler, Town Clerk. 
 
 As soon as the whigs discovered that this protest had been 
 entered upon the town records, they were, as a matter of course, 
 very excited and justly indignant with the clerk, for having, 
 as they claimed, exceeded his powers, and insulted the town by 
 his procedure. A petition was at once presented to the selectmen, 
 asking" them to call a special meeting to take action upon the 
 unwarrantable proceeding of the clerk. 
 
 At a meeting held the 24th of August, 1774, resolutions, pre- 
 pared by a committee previously appointed, were adopted, 
 denouncing the protest of the tories in the strongest terms; 
 and as it appeared " that the same is recorded in the town book, 
 notwithstanding the many aspersions against the people of this 
 town, and without the liberty or knowledge of the town ; " 
 Therefore, it was 
 
 " Voted, that the town clerk do, in the presence of the town, obliterate, 
 erase, or otherwise deface the said recorded protest, and the names thereto 
 subscribed, so that it may become utterly illegible and unintelligible."* 
 
 * History of Worcester.— By William Lincoln, p. 83. 
 

 &> 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 113 
 
 The clerk thereupon, in open town meeting, with his pen 
 defaced the pages on which the obnoxious record was made ; but 
 this not proving satisfactory to the patriotic voters then assem- 
 bled, he dipped his fingers into the ink and, drawing them across 
 the records, so effectually accomplished the object that the words 
 have indeed become utterly illegible, as may be seen by an 
 inspection of the volume in the hands of the city clerk.* 
 
 The following vote, reprimanding and admonishing the town 
 
 clerk, was also passed : — 
 
 "Mr. Clark Chandler: Whereas, this town, at their annual meeting in 
 March last, as well as for several years before, honored you by choosing you 
 for their clerk, relying on your fidelity, that you would act for the honor of 
 the town, and find themselves much disappointed by your conduct in 
 recording on the town book the scandalous protest of William Elder and 
 others, filled with falsehood and reflections against the town, we have just 
 reason to fear you was actuated in the matter by unjustifiable motives, and, 
 at this time, exhort you to be more circumspect in the execution of [the 
 duties of] your office, and never give this town the like trouble, of calling a 
 town meeting again on such an occasion. The town wish to see your behavior 
 such as may restore you to their former good opinion of you." 
 
 The people of the town continued to be excited upon public 
 affairs, and set about preparing for a struggle which, it was felt, 
 might soon be forced upon them ; and they foresaw that, so arbi- 
 trary and intolerant had become the requirements of the home 
 government, the result might be a separation from Great 
 Britain. In October, 1774, another series of instructions were 
 passed by the town, to be observed by Capt. Timothy Bigelow, 
 their delegate to the Provincial Congress, soon to be convened 
 at Concord, which had the true ring of independence, and 
 breathed a spirit of the strongest opposition to any action which 
 should compromise their rights. 
 
 By these instructions he was requested, among other things, to 
 
 obtain redress for grievances of various kinds, to procure the 
 
 restoration of free trade, the removal of the king's troops, and 
 
 to favor the appointment of a " Captain-General " to command 
 
 the militia. They also say : — 
 
 " As the first charter given to this Colony was violated, and as we think 
 wrongfully wrested from us by Great-Britain, and our second and late 
 
 * A reduced fae-simile of this page of the town records, reproduced by the heliotype process, is 
 given as being a unique specimen of patriotic indignation. 
 
 15 
 
114 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 charter is nullified and destroyed by late Acts of the British Parliament, to 
 wit: by their assuming the authority of making laws binding upon us in all 
 cases whatever; and to enforce our compliance having sent ships of war, and 
 blocked the port and harbor of our metropolis, and troops in hostile array to 
 dragoon the people, and the Governor independent of the people for his 
 support, &c, &c. * * * That if all infractions on our rights by Acts of 
 the British Parliament be not redressed, and we restored to the full enjoy- 
 ment of all our privileges contained in the charter of this Province, granted 
 by their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary, to a puuctilio, before 
 the day of your meeting, — that then and in that case you are to consider the 
 people of this Province as absolved on their part from the obligation therein 
 contained, and to all intents and purposes reduced to a state of nature; and 
 you are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the disso- 
 lution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phcenix, a new form, 
 wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people for their 
 existence, as such, whatever unfavorable constructions our enemies may put 
 upon such a procedure. The exigency of our public affairs leaves us no other 
 alternative from a state of anarchy or slavery." 
 
 More than fifty years ago, an honored citizen of Worcester,* 
 
 in an address at the dedication of the Town Hall, thus alludes 
 
 to this bold action of its citizens before the Declaration of 
 
 Independence was adopted : — 
 
 " We have heard much just praise bestowed upon the bold and overpower- 
 ing eloquence of James Otis and Patrick Henry ; but vehement and daring as 
 they were, they could not have uttered their sentiments in a more decisive 
 tone than do the humble records of Worcester those of its citizens. They 
 could not have repelled aggression in a more resolute manner, nor more 
 warily shunned the snares that were set for an unsuspecting people. The 
 inhabitants could not be brought in any manner, direct or indirect, to 
 acquiesce in the usurpations of the crown. They would not permit their 
 representative to be sworn by an officer not appointed according to the pro- 
 visions of the Provincial Charter, nor to sit where the deliberations of the 
 Legislature would be overawed by an armed force. Their resolution was to 
 yield no right, to submit to no infraction; and if they could not enjoy the 
 privileges secured by the charter, to establish an independent government, 
 and commit the issue to a just God, if an appeal to arms should ensue." 
 
 It was in Ma} 7 , 1776, that a town meeting was held, at which 
 it was voted that " if the Continental Congress should declare the 
 American Colonies independent of Great Britain, we will support 
 the measure with our lives and fortunes." These proceedings 
 show the feeling of the town at that period, and are proof tl at 
 they foresaw that the issue would probably be the separation 
 from the parent country. 
 
 • Hon. Jotau Davis, May 2d, 1825. 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 115 
 
 "While the people of Worcester were so earnest in their 
 demands for liberty of conscience, as well as of the body, they 
 were not unmindful of the desires of others to have secured to 
 them the same blessings. The following advertisement, from the 
 " Massachusetts Spy " of June 21st, 1775, indicates the feeling 
 of the community at that early date in regard to negro slavery : — 
 
 " Whereas, the negroes in the counties of Bristol and Worcester, the 24th 
 of March last, petitioned the Committee of Correspondence for the County of 
 Worcester, (then convened in Worcester,) to assist them in obtaining their 
 freedom. Therefore, — 
 
 In County Convention, June 14, 1775. 
 Resolved, That we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly the Negroes 
 in this country. And that whenever there shall be a door opened, or opportunity present, for 
 anything to be done toward the emancipating the Neqroes, we will use our influence and endeavor 
 that sucli a thing may be efFecled. 
 
 Attest, William Henshaw, Clerk." 
 
 The time soon came, however, when something more than 
 words was necessary, and the patriotic citizens of the town were 
 prepared and ready to respond even to the giving of their lives 
 to uphold the principles they had so boldly advocated. 
 
 When the news of the attack on Lexington and the fight at 
 Concord was received in Worcester, on the 19th of April, 1775, 
 the bells were rung and cannon fired to call out the militia or 
 minute men. A company, under Capt. Timothy Bigelow, was 
 soon under arms upon the Common, and after a prayer by Rev. 
 Thaddeus Maccarty, started on its march to the scene of con- 
 flict. Other troops soon followed, and before the next morning 
 over one hundred men were on their way towards Boston. An 
 appropriate monument to the memory of the brave officer who, 
 on that April day, led his company to the defence of their fellow- 
 citizens, has been erected by one of his descendants, on the 
 Common from which he inarched a century ago.* 
 
 But it is not the purpose of these notes to give a detailed 
 account of this interesting epoch in the history of the town. 
 This has already been well done by William Lincoln, the historian 
 of Worcester; and during the present year another citizen, Mr. 
 
 *The monument erected to the memory of Col. Bigelow, was completed in the Spring of 1861, and 
 was dedicated on the 19th of April of that year, the anniversary of the departure of the minute men 
 in 1775 for the seat of war near Boston. Only two days before the dedication, the Worcester Light 
 Infantry, who were expected to have joined in the exercises of the day, had started with the Sixth 
 Regiment of Massachusetts Militia, for the defence of Washington, and at the very time the cere- 
 monies of dedication were going on, they were bravely fighting their way through the streets of 
 Baltimore. 
 
116 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Albert A. Lovell, interested in preserving memorials of the past, 
 has published a " History of Worcester in. the War of the 
 Revolution." 
 
 It was a short time before the affair at Lexington that Mr. 
 Isaiah Thomas, then publishing a newspaper in Boston, sent a 
 press and types to Worcester, anticipating that the conflict 
 between the people and the British troops would soon render it 
 impossible to remain in Boston. He was assisted in the removal 
 of the .press and types by the patriotic Timothy Bigelow. Select- 
 ing a dark night for the purpose, they took them across the 
 river to Charlestown, from whence they were removed to Wor- 
 cester, and set up iu the basement of Col. Bigelow's house. Mr. 
 Thomas himself arrived in Worcester soon after the attack on 
 Lexington, having escaped from Boston, leaving most of his 
 property behind him. He commenced the publication of the 
 " Spy " under the name of the " Massachusetts Spy or American 
 Oracle of Liberty," with the words, "Americans ! — Liberty or 
 Death ! — Join or Die /" printed over the title. 
 
 The first number was printed May 3d, 1775, and has additional 
 interest from being the first thing printed in Worcester. This 
 paper also contained the first regular account of the battle of 
 Lexington. 
 
 In a letter to a member of the General Court, written October 
 2d, 1775, Mr. Thomas makes some interesting statements in 
 regard to his escape from Boston, and to the difficulties encoun- 
 tered in starting the " Spy " in Worcester. As a matter of 
 historical interest the contents of this letter are here given, 
 copied from the original, in the possession of the American 
 Antiquarian Society : — 
 
 "Worcester, October 2, 1773. 
 
 Sir: — I have the honor of receiving two letters from you which you sent 
 by Order of the Hon. House, desiring me to send no more papers to them on 
 account of the Colony. In your last, Sir, you mention " that it is thought 
 highly improper to continue the papers if they were to be paid for; 
 but that it was possible you had been misinformed and that the Printers 
 intended those papers as a present, as you till of late supposed." I will 
 agreeable to your request, inform you of the true state of the matter and 
 humbly submit it to consideration. 
 
 A few days before the late memorable Battle of Lexington, I applied at 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 117 
 
 Concord, to a member of the Hon. Delagates, then sitting in Congress, among 
 whom was the Hon President, to ask their opinion, if it was not proper, as 
 public matters then were, for me to remove my Printing Office out of Boston, 
 as I found the Liberty of the Press, in that devoted Capital, daily declining 
 and myself growing more and more obnoxious to the Enemies of our once 
 happy Constitution, and more particularly so to our then Military Masters 
 (some of whom had carried their Resentment so far, as Twice to endeavor to 
 assassinate me, for no other reason, as I humbly conceive, than doing the 
 little in my power, in the way of my Profession, towards supporting the 
 Rights and Privileges of my countrymen.) The Hon. Gentlemen informed 
 me that they thought it was highly requisite I should immediately remove 
 myself and printing materials out of Boston, as in a few clays it might be too 
 late. I accordingly went and, as soon as could be, packed up my Press and 
 types, and in the dead of night, stole them out of town. Two nights after 
 this the Troops went to Lexington, and the next evening Boston was entirely 
 shut up : — I escaped myself the day of the battle and left everything my tools 
 excepted behind me. Some of the delagates of the Hon. Congress, in a day 
 or two after desired me to get my Press ready for Printing as they had 
 several things to be done. I informed them of my unfortunate circumstances 
 at that time — fleeing from Boston, without any money to purchase stock; (I 
 had just labored through another year with my paper, and it being the custom 
 for subscribers to pay yearly, all that I should at that time have possessed, was 
 then, and is noiv, in the hands of my numerous subscribers now scattered 
 throughout the Continent, to the amount of above Three Thousand Dollars.) 
 The Hon. Committee of Supplies were so kind as to order me paper for a 
 present supply, as something was due to me from the Province, and I was 
 requested immediately to continue the publication of the Massachusetts 
 Spy. 
 
 In a few days after this, I was ordered with my tools to Concord, thither I 
 directly went myself, but before my tools could possibly arrive, the Congress 
 had adjourned to Watertown, and it was told me by several of that honorable 
 body, that it was best for me to continue for the present at Worcester. As 
 none of the Boston printers then published a paper, or were like to do it, 
 myself excepted, I was desired by many gentlemen, both in the Congress, the 
 different committees, and the army, to forward mine to them; and several 
 who I imagined knew my circumstances, told me I should send a number to 
 the Congress and to the head Quarters : — I immediately Established a Post to 
 the army to bring me intelligence, and carry my Papers to the Hon. Congress 
 and the army. As matters were then in much disorder, together with my 
 residing at such a distance, added to the desire I ever have had of doing my 
 Country all the service in my power, I did what my superiors bade, without 
 ever inquiring — Who was to reward me ? — And as it was thought I could serve 
 my country best in the capacity of a Printer, I went on publishing my paper, 
 although at that time, I had not 200 subscribers exclusive of what I sent to 
 the Hon. Congress, the Committees and Army. I never meant to make any 
 great profit by the papers I have sent, and have only charged one Penny for 
 each paper, which is hardly what it cost me for the Stock and Labor, exclusive 
 of any emolument. If the Hon. House, after this detail (for the length of 
 
118 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 which I humbly crave your forgiveness, as I thought it best to be particular) 
 should think I was too forward and do not merit any pay, either for the papers, 
 or any part of the Postage, I shall content myself with their determination. 
 
 Your candor Sir will excuse the inaccuracies of this Letter, wrote in haste, 
 as I have just now an opportunity of transmitting it to you. 
 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 your obliged, 
 
 humble servant, 
 
 Isa. Thomas. 
 P. S. 
 
 I have sent weekly, since my publishing in this place 100 papers to the Hon. 
 Congress while they sat, and afterwards the same number to the Hon House — 
 80 to the Head Quarters in Cambridge — 60 to Headquarters in Roxbury— 16 to 
 the Hon Council, 16 to the Committee of Supplies, and 16 to the Committee 
 of Safety. In the whole 288 papers, weekly for which I have only charged 
 6s per week postage. 
 288 papers for twenty weeks at Id each and 6d per week postage £31. — 10 
 
 I. T." 
 
 The " Spy " took strong ground for the doctrines soon after 
 adopted and promulgated by Congress in the Declaration of 
 Independence, and Mr. Thomas had been so earnest in his 
 demands for equal rights for all, while editing the paper in 
 Boston, that, in a letter written to him by John Hancock, April 
 4, 1775, he was addressed as the " Supporter of the .Rights and 
 Liberties of Mankind." 
 
 From October, 1775, to July, 1776, the " Spy " was published 
 on Fridays, after that, on Wednesdays. Early in 1776 Mr. 
 Thomas, desiring to establish a press in another part of the State, 
 leased his newspaper to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, 
 young lawyers of Worcester, and their names first appear as 
 publishers in the issue for June 21, 1776. 
 
 Mr. Thomas, however, still kept his interest in the town, and 
 was present in July, 1776, to take a prominent part in an event 
 which citizens of Worcester look back to with pride and satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 As is well known, the Declaration of Independence was passed 
 in the evening of July 4th, 1776, by Congress, and signed on 
 that day by the President, John Hancock, and the Secretary, 
 Charles Thompson, but it may not be equally well known, that it 
 was not signed, in its completed form, by the members, till the 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 119 
 
 gecond day of August following. Immediately after its passage, 
 it was 
 
 " Resolved, that copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, 
 conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several com- 
 manding officers of the Continental troops ; and that it be proclaimed in each 
 of the United States and at the Head of the Army." 
 
 As soon, therefore, as copies could be printed, it was sent by 
 couriers to the different States. Having been first publicly read 
 at Philadelphia the 8th of July, it was received in New York, at 
 Washington's head-quarters, on the 9th, and in the evening it 
 was read at the head-quarters of each brigade. 
 
 By some means, however, rumors of the passage of the act 
 had reached Worcester in advance of the messenger with the 
 attested copy, for in the " Massachusetts Spy " of July 10th, 
 we find the following announcement : 
 
 " It is reported that the Honorable Continental Congress have declared the 
 American Colonies independent of the Monster of imperious domination aud 
 cruelty— Great Britain ! Which we hope is true." 
 
 The confirmation of this rumor was received in Worcpster on 
 Saturday the 13th, or Sunday the 14th of July, and was read 
 publicly for the first time in New England by Isaiah Thomas, 
 from the roof of the west porch of the Old South Meeting- 
 House, and also on Sunday, after service, in the house itself. It 
 is supposed that the messenger of Congress was intercepted 
 on his way through the town, by Mr. Thomas, and a copy of the 
 important document secured. It was printed in the "Spy" of 
 July 17, for the first time in any newspaper in New England.* 
 The Declaration was read in Boston on the 18th of July, from 
 the balcony of the State House, by Col. Thomas Crafts, to an 
 immense concourse, including not only the loyal people but 
 many of the British officers and men who were held as prisoners 
 in Boston. It is said the British officers were especially requested 
 
 * A fac-siraile of this number of the " Spy," from the original, in the possession of the American 
 Antiquarian Society, published by the Campbell Printing Press Co., of New York, for distribution 
 at the International Exhibition, Philadelphia, is given as one of the illustrations of this pub- 
 lication. 
 
120 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 to 1)0 present in full uniform on the occasion. It was received 
 with great demonstrations of joy from the patriotic inhabitants, 
 by the ringing of bells, firing of cannon, and the cheers of the 
 people. The " Spy," in its account of the affair, says that on 
 the same evening — 
 
 " Every sign of the King's Arms, or any resemblance of it, whether Lion or 
 Crown, Pestle, Mortar and Crown, Hare ami Crown, together with every sign 
 that belonged to a tory, were taken down, and the latter made a general 
 conflagration in King street." 
 
 The time which elapsed between the reception of the Declara- 
 tion in Worcester and its publication in the Boston newspapers 
 may be accounted for by the fact, that the messenger leaving the 
 former place on Sunday the 1-ith of July, would not reach 
 Boston in time to have it printed in the " Boston Gazette and 
 Country Journal" of Monday ; consequently, there being no other 
 paper published till Thursday the 18th, the Declaration did not 
 appear in print till the issues of the " Continental Journal and 
 Weekly Advertiser " and the " New England Chronicle," both 
 published on that day, and was not printed in the Gazette till the 
 22d. 
 
 Without doubt the official copy was at once forwarded to the 
 Council, then in session at Watertown, who gave orders for a 
 proper celebration of the passage of such an important act, and 
 for its promulgation in Boston. The preparations for the cele- 
 bration, which, as may be seen by the account in the Boston 
 papers, was somewhat imposing, undoubtedly caused delay, so 
 that it was four days after its reading in Worcester when the 
 Declaration was publicly read in Boston. 
 
 On Monday of the next week, after the reading of the Declara- 
 tion (the 22d), the first public celebration of its adoption took 
 place in Worcester, and is thus reported in the " Spy " of the 
 24th :— 
 
 " On Monday last, a number of patriotic gentlemen of this town, animated 
 with a love of their country, and to show their approbation of the measures 
 lately taken by the Grand Council of America, assembled on the Green, near 
 the liberty pole, where, after having displayed the colors of the thirteen con- 
 federate colonies of America, the bells were set ringing and the drums a 
 
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 and cruelties of the aforefaid 
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 by order of the Conference, 
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 L T E R T O W 
 
 mfe of Representatives, June 2 
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 the fame, particularly ment 
 each tools fo delivered, and f: 
 y directed to return faid to 
 nen as foon as conveniently 1 
 lave done ufing them in ft 
 
 nt up for concurrence. 
 
 Timothy Danielfon, Speak. P 
 n Council, June 24, 1776. 
 
 Read and concur'd 
 John Lowell, Dep'y Sec'ry, P 
 :ed to by the Major part of t 
 A true Copy. Ateft. 
 
 John Lowell, Dep'y Sec'ry. 
 Houfe of Representatives, July : 
 IRE AS it is of great importance 
 •nfe of this colony, in the prej. 
 t'-Bri'tain, that a fufficient quan 
 '>e immediately procured: 
 >re, Refolved, That it be re< 
 
Or, American ORACLE of LIBERTY. 
 
 " Undaunted by Tyrants we'll DIE or be FREE." 
 (Vol. VI.) WORCESTER, Wednesday, July 17, 1776. Numb. 273. 
 
 • In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. 
 
 A DECLARATION 
 
 By the Representatives of the 
 
 UNITED STATES of AMERICA. 
 
 lu Genual Congrbm aflembled. 
 
 HEN in the rourfe of human 
 events it becomes neceflary for 
 one people to dilfolve the politi- 
 ,,] ban ; which have lonnefted 
 them with another, and to affume 
 among the powers of" earth, the 
 feparate and equal ftation to which 
 the laws of nature and of nature's God intitle 
 them, a decent rcfpecT to the opinions of" man-' 
 kind requires thai they Should declare the caufes 
 which impel them to a fcparation. 
 
 We hold thete truths to us self-evident, that 
 all men arc created equal, that they arc endowed 
 by their creator with certain unalienable rights, 
 that among these arc life, liberty, and the pur- 
 
 fuit of happinefs That to fecure thefe rights, 
 
 governments are inftituted among men, deriving 
 their juftt powers from the consent of the govern- 
 ed, thai whenever any form of" government be- 
 comes deftructive of thefe ends, it is the right of 
 the people to .liter or to abolifh it, and to inilitute 
 v eminent, laying its foundation on such 
 principles, and organizing its powers in such form 
 as to them (hall feem moft likely to affect their 
 fofet) and happinefs. Prudence, indeed, will 
 
 dictate that governments long eftablished mould 
 not be changed for light and tranficnt caufei ; 
 and accordingly all experience hath mown, that 
 more di'fpofed to fuffcr, while evils 
 are fufferable, than to right themfelvea by abolifh- 
 ing the form to which they are accuitomed. But 
 when a long train of abufes and usurpations, pur- 
 hum invariabl) the fame object, evinces a defign 
 to reduce them under abfohite defpotifm, it is their 
 right, it is their duty, to throw off fuch government, 
 and to provide new guards for their futun 
 ritv. Such has been the patient fufferance of thefe 
 Colonu '■ which 
 
 constrains them to alter their former lyiteme of 
 government. The hiftory of the prefent king of 
 Great-Britain, is a hiftory of repeated injuries and 
 having i'n direft object the efta- 
 blimmcnt of an abfolute tyranny over thefe ftatcs. 
 To prove this, let facts be fubmittcd to a candid 
 world. 
 
 He has refufed his affent to laws, the moft 
 
 He has forbidden his governors to | 
 immediate and prefling importance, unlefs fuf- 
 pended in their operation till his affent (hould be 
 obtained; and when fo fufpended, he has utterly 
 neglected to attend to them. 
 
 He has refufed to pals other laws for the accom- 
 modation of" large districts of people, unle 
 people would rclinquifh the right of representation 
 ineftimable to them, and 
 formidable to tyrants only. 
 ■ He has called together legiflative bodies at 
 ■ '. uncomfortable, and diftant from the 
 their public records, for the Ible pur- 
 pofe of fatigucing them into 1 compliance with his 
 mealures. 
 
 He has defolvcd reprefentative houfes repeatedly 
 for opposing with manly Grmnefs, his invafion on 
 the rights of the people. 
 
 'i rctufed for a long time, after uich, dif- 
 
 :,, to caufe othera to he elected ; whereby 
 
 the legiflative powers, incapable of an annihilati- 
 
 on, have returned to the people at large for their 
 exercife ; the ftate remaining in the mean time 
 cxpofed to all the dangers of invafion from with- 
 out, and convulfions within. 
 
 He has endeavoured to prevent the population 
 of thefe liatcs ; for that purpofc obflructing the 
 law - for naturalization of" foreigners ; refuting 
 to pafs others to encourage their emigrations hither, 
 and railing the conditions of new appropriations of 
 lands. 
 
 He has obftructed the administration of juflice, 
 
 by refufing his affent to laws for establishing ju- 
 
 wers. 
 
 He has made judges dependent on his will a- 
 
 lone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount 
 
 and payment of their falaries. 
 
 Ik has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
 fent hither fwarms of officers to harrals our peo- 
 ple, and eat out their fubftance. 
 
 pi among us, in times o. peace, Hand* 
 without the confent of our lcgiflatures. 
 He has affected to render the military indepen- 
 dent of and fuperior to the civil power. 
 
 He has combined with others to fubject us to a 
 jurifdidtion foreign to our conftitution, and unac- 
 knowledged by our laws ; giving his all'ent to their 
 acts of pretended legiflation : 
 
 For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
 among us. 
 
 For protecting them by a mock trial, from pu- 
 niftiment for any murders which they fhould com- 
 mit on the inhabitants of thefe liatcs : 
 
 For cutting off our trade with all parts of the 
 world : 
 
 For impi ling taxes on us without our confent : 
 For depriving us, in many cafes of the benefits 
 of trial by jurj : 
 
 For transporting us beyond feas to be tried for 
 pretended offences : 
 
 For abblifting the free fyftem of Englifli laws 
 
 in a neighbouring province, eitablifhing there in 
 
 in government, and enlarging 
 
 is to render it at once an example and fit 
 
 inftrument for introducing the fame abfolute rule 
 
 into thefe colonies: 
 
 For taking away our charters-, abolishing our 
 most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally 
 the form of our governments: 
 
 For fufpending our own lcgiflatures, and de- 
 claring themfelves invested with power to legiflate 
 for us in all tales whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated government here, by declar- 
 ing us out of his protection, and waging war a- 
 gJinst us. 
 
 He has plundered our leas, ravaged our coafts, 
 burnt our towns, and deftroyed the th 
 people. 
 
 He is, at this time, transporting large armies of 
 foreign niu mpleal the works ot 
 
 death, defoli • "Ireadj begun with 
 
 circumllances of cruelt) and peri 
 rallellcd in 1 h 
 worthy the head of a eh ilizet 
 
 He has constrained out fellow citizens, taken 
 captive on the high feas, to bear arms against their 
 cpuntry, to I itioncrs of their friends 
 
 and brethren, or to fall themfelvcs by their hands. 
 He has excited domesti< infurreclions among us, 
 ■ b 1 en ! ■■■ on the inhabitants ol 
 
 our frontiers, the mercilefs Indian savages, whole 
 known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished de- 
 ftruction oj in n litions. 
 
 In every stage of Shefe oppreffions wc nave peti- 
 tioned in \\ Xt: most humble terms, our repeated pe- 
 
 titions have been anlwered only by repeated inju- 
 ry. A Prince whole character is thus marked by 
 every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be 
 the ruler of a free people. 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in attention to our 
 Britifh brethren. We have warned them from 
 time to time of attempts bv their legislature to ex- 
 tend an unwarrantable jurifdiftibl Kl We 
 have reminded them of the circumllances of our 
 emigration and fettlement here. We have appealed 
 to their native juftice and magnjnimitv, and we 
 conjured them by the ties of our common kin- 
 dred to tlifavow their ufurpations, which would in- 
 evitablj interrupt our connections and correfpon- 
 dence. They too have been deaf to the voice ot 
 juftii e and of confanguinity. Wi must therefore 
 acquiefce in the neceffity, which den 
 feperation, and hold them as we hold the rest ot 
 mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. 
 
 We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNI- 
 TED STATES OF AMERIC \, 
 CONGRESl A Hem! led, appealing to the fuprcme 
 Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our inten- 
 tions, do, in the name, and by the authority, of 
 the good people of thefe colonies, folemnly puhlifh 
 and declare, that thefe United Coloni 
 of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPEN- 
 DENT STATES ; that they are abfolved from all 
 allegiance to the Britifti Crown, and that all poli- 
 tical connection between ihem and the state o r 
 Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally diflol- 
 ved ; and that as free and independent Slates, they 
 have full power to levy war, conclude peace, con- 
 tract alliances, eftablish commerce, and do all other 
 acts and things which independent ftatea ma) ol 
 right do. And for the fupport of this declaration, 
 with a firm reliance on the protection of divine 
 providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
 lives, our fortunes, fonour. 
 
 Signed by order and in behalf of the I 
 
 JOHN HANCOCK, Prefident. 
 Atteftt Charles Thump on, Sec'rv. 
 
 SHEPHARDand HUNT, 
 
 BEG leave to inform the public that 
 the Co-partnership between them 
 and Dr. WILLIAM PAINE is this 
 Day defolved. And as there are diverfe 
 accounts that yet remain unfetded belong- 
 ing to Paid Compan) ; and as the ac< ounts 
 are in the hands ot faid Shephard and 
 Hunt, they defire that all Inch accounts 
 ma) be adjufti d, a • foon as poffible. — 
 They would alio acquaint their former 
 Cuftomers and others that they (hall con- 
 tinue the Apothecaries bufiness in the 
 lame (lore, (formerly occupied by Paine 
 and Compan) I and have on hand a con- 
 siderable aflbrtment of Drugs, both Che 
 mical and Galenical ; together with a 
 number of the moll approved Patenteed 
 Medicines, which the) will sell on as 
 reafonable terms as the unhappy and dif- 
 ficult times will admit of. 
 
 SHEPHERD and HUNT. 
 Worcejtcr, July 10, I 76. 
 
King and 
 
 poffible 
 
 eftablifh 
 
 ie to pof- 
 
 :fident. 
 
 N, 
 
 Tal Court 
 regulating 
 Select -men 
 <ide at the 
 •■ iron Jho- 
 '.ame to de- 
 ufe of the 
 it may be 
 in erecling 
 
 each, and 
 they are 
 1 upon ap- 
 Me, or any 
 to the aft 
 command- 
 againll the 
 )g their re- 
 boning the 
 jid officers 
 ols to the 
 ]nay be af- 
 jrtifying as 
 
 ] 
 
 . T. 
 t 
 
 I 
 i T. 
 
 he council. 
 
 V. T. 
 
 l ' 
 
 t z, 1776. 
 
 f for the de- 
 ■:nt ftruggle 
 tity of Lea- 
 
 ommended 
 
 man of war and the Defence ; the Comet fired 
 fome guns at the tender, but being at a cgnfidera- 
 ble diftance, it is fuppofed, without eflecf. 
 
 NEW-PORT, June 10. 
 
 Lall Saturday arrived here the fliip True Blue, 
 of 200 tons, taken about 14 days paft, by the brig 
 Cabot, Capt. Hinman ; her cargo confills of 1 1 5 
 puncheons, and 22 hogfheads of rum : 84 hogf- 
 heads, 20 tierces, and 1 8 barrels of fugar ; 20 
 tierces of coffee ; 60 bags and 2 cafks of pimento ; 
 200 bags and 10 cafks of ginger, 182 bags of 
 cotton, and 48 hide. She was from Jamaica, 
 bound to Lancafler in England, mounted 6 carriage 
 guns, and had 16 men, but made no refinance. 
 Capt. Hinman was waiting for a fhip of 600 tons 
 when this prize left him. 
 
 June 20, Laft Friday arrived here from a cruiie 
 the brig Andrew Doria, Capt. Biddle, who about 
 41 days before took two tranfport mips from 
 Greenock in Scotland, having on board each 100 
 Scotch troops ; Capt. Biddle took out the offi- 
 cers, navigators and failors, to the number of 49, 
 w^th all the fmall arms and baggage of value, 
 manned the fhips with his own men and kept 
 company with them 1 3 days ; when being a little 
 without Nantucket fhoals, they were chafed by 
 five vessels, one a pretty large man of war, upon 
 which he ordered the prizes to fleer different 
 courfes, and though the man of war chafed him 
 night coming on he foon loft sight of them. We 
 hope foon to hear of the prizes being arrived at 
 fome fafe port. The prifoners brought here were 
 landed on Friday evening, who report that 
 they were part of 33 fail of tranfports which left 
 Greenock in company, having 3000 troops on 
 board bound to Bofton. 
 
 THE good People of this County are 
 hereby informed, that there are a confider- 
 able number of prifoners in this town, who are 
 willing to go out to fervice, if proper perfons fhould 
 appear to hire them. The method of obtaining 
 them is as follows : 
 
 The persons applving, mull have a certificate 
 from the Committee of Safety, &c, of the town 
 where each applicant belongs, recommending them 
 to be friendlv to the American cause, — and mull 
 have a receipt from faid Committee to be given to 
 the Sheriff, and give a receipt to them ; at the fame 
 time engaging to return the prifoners whenever 
 
 ' 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 121 
 
 beating : After which, the Declaration of Independence of the United States 
 was read to a large and respectable body, among whom were the selectmen 
 and committee of correspondence, assembled on the occasion, who testified 
 their approbation by repeated huzzas, firing of musketry and cannon, bonfires 
 and other demonstrations of joy; When the arms of that tyrant in Britain, 
 George the III., of execrable memory, which in former times decorated, but of 
 late disgraced the court house in this town, were committed to the flames and 
 consumed to ashes ; after which, a select company of the sons of freedom, 
 repaired to the tavern, lately known by the sign of the King's Arms, which 
 odious signature of despotism was taken down by order of the people, which 
 was cheerfully complied with by the innkeeper, where the following toasts 
 weredrauk; and the evening spent with joy, on the commencement of the 
 happy era." 
 
 Among the toasts offered on this occasion were the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 " Prosperity and perpetuity to the United States of America. The Presi- 
 dent of the Grand Council of America. The Grand Council of America. His 
 excellency General Washington. The Patriots of America. Every Friend of 
 America. George rejected and liberty protected. Sore eyes to all tories, 
 and a chestnut burr for an eye stone. Perpetual itching without the benefit 
 of scratching, to the enemies of America. Speedy redemption to all the 
 officers and soldiers who are now prisoners of war among our enemies. The 
 Selectmen and Committees of Correspondence for the Town of Worcester. 
 May the enemies of America be laid at her feet. May the freedom and 
 independency of America endure, till the sun grows dim with age, and this 
 earth returns to chaos." 
 
 In conclusion, the report sa} r s : — 
 
 "The greatest decency and good order was observed, and at a suitable 
 time each man returned to his respective home." 
 
 The town records for 1776 show that a special town meeting 
 was called for the 30th of September, to act upon the question of 
 adopting a State Constitution. The fourth article of the warrant 
 calling the meeting reads as follows : — 
 
 "Agreeable to a Resolve of the General assembly of September the seven- 
 teenth, Recommending to all the male inhabitants of Each Town in this 
 State, being free and of Twenty one years of age and upwards, to consider of, 
 vote and Determine, whether they will give their consent that the present 
 House of Representatives of this state with the Council, if they consent, in 
 one body with the House, and by equal voice, should consent, agree on and 
 16 
 
122 CENTENNIAL CELEBKATION. 
 
 enact such a Constitution and form of Government for this State as the said 
 House of Representatives & Council as aforesaid, on. the fullest and most 
 mature Deliberation shall judge will most Conduce to the safety, peace and 
 happiness of this State in all after successions and generations. Or do or act 
 any other matter or thing Respecting the premises, agreeable to said resolve, 
 which they may think proper." 
 
 From the records of the meeting held that day it appears 
 no immediate action was taken in the matter, it having been 
 voted : — 
 
 "That Considering the importance of forming a new Government for this 
 state, agreeable to a Resolve of the General assembly of the 17 h of September 
 Instant, and the propriety of all the freemen in the state having a fair oppor- 
 tunity to give their voice in the matter, and the great number of the freemen 
 of this town from being absent for the defence of this and the other American 
 States, this article be referred to the adjournment of this meeting." "Meeting 
 adj • to 3 Monday in Dec." 
 
 The Declaration of Independence is recorded on the town 
 book immediately after the record of the above meeting.* 
 
 If the objects of this publication would admit, it would be 
 interesting to continue these notes, so as to embrace the more 
 exciting times of the Revolution, in which the town of Worcester 
 took an active part and responded with promptness, as it has in 
 later days, to the country's call for men to fight in its defence. 
 
 Notices of some of the ancient buildings and historical localities 
 and a brief chronology of the most important events in the history 
 of the town, from its settlement to the War of the Revolution, 
 are given, which, it is believed, will be a source of information to 
 those of our citizens who have not the time to consult extended 
 and elaborate histories. 
 
 * Town Records, Vol. 4, page 72. 
 
ANCIENT BUILDINGS AND HISTORICAL LOCALITIES 
 
 IN WORCESTER. 
 
 The Old South Meeting-House. 
 
 The oldest and most interesting of the public buildings now 
 standing in Worcester is the Old South Meeting-Honse, on the 
 Common. This ancient edifice stands upon nearly the same spot 
 as that occupied by the second building erected for public 
 worship in 1719. 
 
 The necessity for a new meeting-house was brought to the 
 notice of the town by the following article in the warrant for a 
 town meeting, called March 2, 1761, viz : — 
 
 " To see if the town will build a suitable House for y e Publick Worship of 
 God and give such Directions relative thereto as they may Judge Proper." 
 
 Nothing was done at this time, however, in the matter, and 
 
 although the question was brought up at several subsequent 
 
 meetings, it was not till March 8, 1762, that definite action was 
 taken. Then the town voted : — 
 
 " That there be a new meeting House Built for the Public worship of God, 
 that the same be erected as nigh the present House as y e Ground will admit 
 off, and that James Putnam, Josiah Brewer and Timothy Paine, Esqrs & 
 Messrs Elisha Smith Jr Joshua Bigelow, Capt. Daniel Ward and John 
 Chaudler Jr Esq be a committee to calculate the cost of a House seventy feet 
 long fifty five feet wide and Twenty eight feet posts, — and what the Difference 
 will be between Building s d House with Brick or wood and lay the same 
 before the Town to give further Direction toward Building said House." 
 
124: CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The result of this action on the part of the town was the com- 
 mencement of the building June 21st, 1768, tke location having 
 been fixed at the meeting of May 18th, when the following votes 
 were passed : — 
 
 "Upon the fifth Article of the Warrant relative to the alteration of the 
 Place for the New Meeting-House the Question being put if the Town would 
 give order for setting s d House on y e Gravelly Knole between Mr. Putmana 
 and the Burying Place & it Passed iu the negative. — Therefore, 
 
 " Voted — that the Committee for Building the New Meeting-House, as soon 
 as may be pull down the Old Meeting House and save what stuff they can, and 
 that the New Meeting House be sett on y spot where the old one stands, as 
 may be convenient, and that the new House Front y Country Road. Former 
 votes of the Town in March, 1762, Notwithstanding." 
 
 " Voted, That the s d Comittee Hire a suitable Number of men to Raise the 
 New meeting House in the cheapest manner they can, and that there be no 
 Public Entertainment." 
 
 The first assembling of the congregation in the new house 
 (although it was not entirely completed) was on Thanksgiving 
 Day, December 8th, 1763, on which occasion Rev. Thaddeua 
 Maccarty, the minister of the town, delivered a thanksgiving and 
 historical sermon. 
 
 That the house was not fully completed at the time of the 
 sermon by Mr. Maccarty, is shown by the town records, from 
 which it appears that at a meeting held the 12th day of Decem- 
 ber, 1763, in the " new meeting-house " it was voted : — 
 
 "That it be an Instruction to y e Committee for Building y new Meeting- 
 House that they build a Porch at y e Front Door so as to accommodate going 
 into y e Front Gallery." 
 
 Also at an adjourned meeting held the 14-th of the same 
 month it was voted that: — 
 
 "Whereas y Town at this Meeting gave Instructions to y Committee for 
 Building a Porch at y Front Door so as to accommodate going into y e Front 
 Gallery y Town taking y same into further consideration, voted that y 
 s d Committee only build a low Porch at s d Door." 
 
 This edifice was erected by the town in its municipal capacity, 
 and was owned by the town till the second parish (Rev. Dr. 
 Bancroft's) was incorporated in 1787, when it became the pro- 
 perty of the first parish. 
 
OLD SOUTH CHURCH, IN WORCESTER, 
 As it appeared in 1776. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 125 
 
 In 'this house the inhabitants met, not only for religious 
 services, but to transact all the town business, it being for many 
 years the only building where the citizens could assemble for 
 that purpose. Here the people gathered in July, 1776, to hear 
 Isaiah Thomas read the Declaration of Independence ; and, un- 
 doubtedly, within its walls many debates took place upon the 
 affairs of the country and the rights and liberties of the inhabit- 
 ants. The parsonage, occupied by Rev. Mr. Maccarty, was on 
 the south side of the Common, near the corner of Park and 
 Portland streets. 
 
 The following description of the building is taken from Mr. 
 Lovell's " History of Worcester in the War of the Revolu- 
 tion " : — 
 
 "The original dimensions were 70 feet in length by 55 in width, with a 
 tower on the north, surmounted by a spire 130 feet high. * * * The 
 principal entrance was through a porch on the west side, and there was 
 also an entrance through a porch at the south end, and another through 
 the tower on the north. The porch at the main entrance had wide double 
 doors in front aud single doors at the sides. The entrance through the tower 
 was also by doors on the three sides. The floor of the meeting house was 
 provided with sixty-one large square box pews and seven long pews on each 
 side of the broad aisle, — these last being free. Those at the right on entering 
 were assigned to the men, and those on the left to the women. In front of 
 the pulpit was the pew for the deacons, and the pew for the aged and deaf. 
 Over the pulpit was the high sounding board with its pendant dove. On three 
 sides was a very deep gallery, the pulpit being raised high enough to be in 
 full view of every seat."* 
 
 In accordance with the rules of the Cambridge Platform 
 accommodations were provided for the Elders, the pew directly 
 in front of the pulpit being called the Elders', although such 
 officials were not recognized by the rules of the parish. This 
 pew was occupied on the Sabbath by the aged and deaf, and by 
 the Selectmen at town meetings when receiving the votes. 
 
 Slight changes were made from time to time in the interior 
 arrangements of the building. In 1783, " four of the back free 
 seats were taken out and new square pews put in their place." 
 
 * We are indebted to Mr. Albert A. Lovell for the use of the heliotype of the Old South Church 
 as it appeared iu 1776. 
 
126 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 In 1828, the most radical change was made, the old square pews 
 being all removed, and the present long pews Substituted. The 
 ancient pulpit (which was on the east side of the room) and 
 the sounding board with a dove and olive branch suspended from 
 the centre were likewise removed. The porch on the west side 
 was taken down and the wings added on each side of the tower. 
 In 1834 another change was made, by removing the south porch 
 and extending the building in that direction twenty-five feet ; the 
 present long windows were substituted for the small ones in 
 1871. 
 
 The Common, or Training- Ground. 
 
 The Central Park or Common was laid out very early in the 
 settlement of the town, and was originally much larger than at 
 present. 
 
 In 1669, at a meeting of a committee appointed to have in 
 
 charge the laying out and planting a settlement or " plantation 
 
 about fourteen miles from Marlborough," voted: — 
 
 " That there bee a plase reserued in coraon neare the center of the towne 
 convenient for that purpose, about twenty acres for a trayning plase and to 
 set a school house upon ; as near as may bee where the meeting house should 
 be plased." 
 
 In 1732, the proprietors appointed Moses Rice, Thomas 
 Stearns and Benjamin Flagg, dr., a committee to make a survey 
 of the common land near the meeting-house. They made their 
 report in November, 1731, from which we find that the Common 
 had much decreased in size since it was originally laid out. The 
 committee say : — 
 
 " Pursuant to a vote of the Proprietors of the Comon and undivided land 
 in the south part of Worcester, May the 17th, 17;S2, appointing us a Committee 
 to return a plat of the Comon Land by the Meeting House in Worcester, 
 having surveyed the same find eleven acres and one hundred and forty rod 
 including the Burial place and the road thro' the said Comon is Bounded as 
 described in this platt herewith returned & survey by Benj'a. Flagg. 
 
 All of which is submitted to the Proprietors by us." 
 
 Encroachments upon the Common, as thus laid out, have been 
 made from time to time, so that it is now reduced to about seven 
 acres. 
 
 forty or fifty years ago there were two travelled roads across 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 127 
 
 the Common — one from the north-west to the south-east corner, 
 the other from the south-west corner, at the present junction of 
 Main and Park streets, to the north-east corner, near the house 
 of Capt. Daniel Goulding, which was in 1S29 a tavern, kept by 
 Nathaniel Eaton, and stood near the present location of Hough- 
 ton's Block. 
 
 For many years, besides being used for the training ground 
 and musters of the militia, it was the place used for the 
 annual cattle shows, as well as for menageries and other travel- 
 ling exhibitions. On the south-east corner, near the junction of 
 Park street with Salem Square, was one of the town school- 
 houses, and just back of that, the town pound fronting on what 
 was at one time known as the Baptist Hill, now Salem Square. 
 
 Till about the year 1834, at which time a substantial wooden 
 fence was built, the Common was not enclosed, except that part 
 reserved for a burial ground which was surrounded by a stone 
 wall. 
 
 Jonas Rice, the first settler in the town at the permanent 
 settlement in 1713, was buried in the burial ground on the Com- 
 mon in 1753.* Here also, in 1781, was buried the Rev. 
 Thaddeus Maccarty, the first minister of the Old South Church ; 
 and in 1790, Col. Timothy Bigelow, and in 1796, Major William 
 Treadwell — soldiers of the Revolution. 
 
 This burying ground was formerly at the east end of the Com- 
 mon and in use from 1730 to 1795, when it was discontinued, 
 and the ground in Mechanic street taken by the town for burial 
 purposes. 
 
 On or near the spot where the flagstaff now stands, and a 
 little west of the Bigelow monument, was the cannon house 
 of the Worcester Artillery, the hearse house, and for many 
 years a building occupied by the hook and ladder company. 
 
 The Town Hall was not erected on the Common till 1825, 
 being formally opened May 2d of that year, on which occasion 
 the late Gov. John Davis delivered an address by request of the 
 town. 
 
 * In Barton's " Epitaphs from the Cemetery on Worcester Common," it is stated that Mr. Rice 
 was the first school teacher of the town, having been appointed in April, 1726. He also served as 
 Town Clerk, Eepresentative to the General Court and as one of the Judges for the Inferior Court 
 for Worcester. His son Adonijah was the first male child born in Worcester. 
 
128 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The Old Coukt-IIouse. 
 
 Another ancient building, standing on Trumbull Square and 
 now occupied by Mrs. George A. Trumbull, was formerly the 
 Court-House, and located on Court Hill. It was erected in 
 L751, to take the place of that built in 1733, which was found 
 too small for the purposes of the county. The size of the 
 new one was thirty-six by forty feet, and it was for about fifty 
 years occupied by the Courts. 
 
 It was tliis building that the insurgents, to the number of 
 three hundred or more, took possession of in 1786, defying the 
 Court and, with bayonets charged, preventing its entrance. The 
 Chief Justice, Artemas Ward, did not retire even when the 
 soldiers advanced and pressed their bayonets against his breast, 
 but remonstrated with the commander of the insurgents for some 
 time, after which the Court was finally obliged to withdraw to 
 the United States Arms tavern when it was adjourned till the 
 next day. 
 
 In October, 1763, just before the South Meeting-House was 
 so far advanced in its construction as to admit ot occupancy, 
 a town meeting was held in the Court-House (the old Meeting- 
 House had probably been taken down), and at a later period it 
 was occupied for religious purposes on Sundays, by the Second 
 Parish (Rev. Dr. Bancroft), while their own house was in pro- 
 cess of erection. 
 
 The removal to its present location, about the year 1803, 
 drawn by eighty yoke of oxen, was considered a great under- 
 taking at the time. For a brief period after its removal, it was 
 occupied by an English lady, who kept a fashionable school for 
 young ladies. 
 
 The Court-House was originally a one-story building, with a 
 high room having an arched ceiling. It was raised from the 
 street about live or six feet, with a flight of steps at the front 
 entrance, and the door opened directly into the courtroom. 
 1'nder the building was a space where the gallows and pillory 
 were kept. The necessity for a new and more commodious room 
 was thus referred to in the " Spy " of June 18, 1800 : — 
 
 " The Court House in this place is pronounced bj' every person to be too 
 small and very inconvenient and altogether unlit to transact the busiuess of 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 129 
 
 the county. During the very warm weather last week the house was found 
 intolerable, and persons necessarily attending were compelled frequently to 
 leave it to prevent suffocation." 
 
 It was occupied soon after its removal by Dr. Joseph 
 Trumbull, father of the late George A. Trumbull, and has 
 continued in the possession of the family ever since. 
 
 In this house is a fine portrait of Dr. Trumbull; also one of 
 Samuel Paine, a Worcester loyalist; both of which were painted 
 in London. 
 
 The corner-stone of the present brick Court-House was laid 
 Thursda}'', October 1, 1801, an J it was completed in September., 
 1803. 
 
 King's Arms Tavern. 
 
 Among the decorations of the Lincoln House, at the corner of 
 Main and Elm streets, on the occasion of the 4th of July cele- 
 bration, was a placard inscribed : — 
 
 " This spot marks the location of the King's Arms Tavern. The towns- 
 people compelled the keeper to take down the sign, when it was burned in 
 the street." 
 
 " Lafayette was the guest of Governor Lincoln at a house which formerly 
 stood on this spot, in Sept., 1824." 
 
 As early as 1732 this tavern was kept by Capt. Thomas 
 Sterne, and after his death, in 1772, by his widow, Mary Sterne, 
 who remained there till her death, in 1784. Before the Declara- 
 tion of Independence was passed, it was the resort of the loyalists 
 of the town, and the place where they prepared and signed the 
 famous protest of 1774, an account of which has been given on 
 another page. 
 
 In August of the same year, the Worcester County Conven- 
 tion, or Congress of the Committees of Correspondence, held 
 two sessions in this tavern, but, "by reason of the straitness of 
 the place, and the number attending" it w r as adjourned to the 
 County Court-House. 
 
 The occasion referred to above, when the sign bearing the 
 
 royal arms was taken down and destroyed, was on the first 
 17 
 
130 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, 
 in 1776, a report of which, from the " Massachusetts Spy," is 
 given on a preceding page. 
 
 Upon this site, the late Governor Levi Lincoln erected a 
 dwelling house, which is now a part of the hotel known as the 
 Lincoln House. Here, in 1824, General Lafayette was the guest 
 of Mr. Lincoln (then called Judge Lincoln, he having received 
 an appointment to the Bench of the Supreme Judicial Court a 
 few months before). 
 
 The papers of the day state that Lafayette arrived in Wor- 
 cester on Friday, September 3d, 1824, having been received at 
 the West Boylston line by an escort of cavalry, under command 
 of Capt. James Estabrook, and that Judge Lincoln met him at the 
 north part of the town in a barouche drawn by four gray horses. 
 At Clark's tavern, a mile or two from the village, a regiment of 
 Light Infantry, under Lieut.-Col. Ward, was added to the escort. 
 At the entrance to Dr. William Fame's estate, on Lincoln street, 
 an arch of flags was erected over the street ; another over Court 
 Hill, decorated by the ladies of the town. The children of the 
 public schools were arranged on each side of the street at this 
 point, and threw branches of laurel before the carriage of 
 Lafayette. Another arch of flags was erected on Main street 
 near the Worcester Bank. On the arrival of the procession 
 at Judge Lincoln's house, the Judge, in behalf of the Committee 
 of Arrangements, delivered an address of welcome, which was 
 responded to by the General. 
 
 There is but little to be found, either in the newspapers or 
 elsewhere, in regard to the King's Arms Tavern, and the date 
 of its erection, as well as of its disappearance, is involved in 
 doubt. 
 
 The United States Arms. 
 
 This building, now known as the Exchange Hotel, was built 
 sometime during the war of the Revolution, by Mr. Nathan 
 Batch, one of the active and energetic business men of Worcester, 
 and he was its first landlord. Originally, it was a two-story 
 building, of not more than half its present size, and for many 
 years was considered the best tavern in the place. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 131 
 
 It was afterwards kept by Capt. William Barker, and he was 
 succeeded in 1807 by Col. Reuben Sikes, one of the founders of a 
 line of stages between Boston and Hartford, who made many 
 improvements to the house, adding a hall on the- north side. 
 Capt. Samuel B. Thomas succeeded Col. Sikes about the year 
 1S21, and while in his hands the third story and a portico were 
 added. 
 
 This building possesses historical interest from having been the 
 scene of many of the prominent events in the so-called " Shays 
 Rebellion." In September, 1786, the Court of Common Pleas, 
 Chief Justice Artemas Ward presiding, met at the United States 
 Arms and opened the Court, as they were prevented from 
 entering the Court-House by a body of armed men, under 
 Capt. Adam Wheeler, of Hubbardston, who had gathered there 
 to prevent the opening. In November following, another 
 attempt was made to hold the Court, but it was again con- 
 vened at the United States Arms, being still prevented by the 
 insurgents from entering the Court-House. 
 
 The resistance to the holding of the courts in Worcester county 
 was continued till December, 1786, when the Court was obliged 
 to convene at the Sun Tavern ; * but adjourned in conformity to 
 instructions from the Governor, to the 23d of January following. 
 The insurgents, however, not being aware of the adjournment, 
 met in Worcester early in December,, in large numbers, and made 
 their head-quarters at the United States Arms. Two companies 
 of the Worcester militia were ordered out, and, after forming in 
 front of the Old South Church, marched down Main street to 
 the tavern, where they found the insurgents drawn across the 
 street to receive them. The order being given the militia to 
 charge bayonets, they advanced towards their opponents, who 
 did not stop to receive them, but wheeled and took a position on 
 Court Hill ; the militia marched on to the Hancock Arms, beyond 
 Lincoln Square, and then returned to their quarters. 
 
 The rebellion was soon after suppressed, many of the insur- 
 gents suffering great hardships in their flight from Worcester, 
 which took place during a severe snow storm. A full account of 
 
 * In 1786 the Sim Tavern was on Main, near Elm street, where the Lincoln House now stands, and 
 was kept by Capt. John Sowers. Before the Revolution it was called the King's Arms. 
 
132 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 the action of the insurgents in Worcester, and of the causes 
 which led to the insurrection, is given in Lincoln's History. 
 
 In October, 1789, President Washington passed through 
 Worcester, and was at the United States Arms, where he 
 remained a few hours and took breakfast. He was escorted 
 from the Leicester line by a number of prominent citizens on 
 horseback ; and, on his arrival in town, the bells were rung and 
 a salute of eleven guns fired. At his departure, another salute 
 was fired and he was again escorted, by the gentlemen who 
 received him, as far as the town of Marlborough. 
 
 The Hancock Arms, just alluded to, was located on the west 
 side of Lincoln street, not far from the present Lincoln Square 
 station of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad. Here the Shays 
 insurrectionists made their head-quarters in December, 1786; and 
 in early times it was a famous resort for the wits and wags of the 
 town, and was often the place of meeting of the "American 
 Political Society." In 1788, it had for a sign, a portrait of Gov. 
 Hancock, and was kept by Mr. Luke Brown. It was destroyed 
 by an incendiary fire, December 24, 1824. 
 
 The Paine House, on Lincoln Street. 
 
 This ancient house, located on the west side of Lincoln street, 
 north of the terminus of the street railway, was raised just 
 before the revolutionary war, but not completed till afterward-, 
 and was formerly known as " The Oaks." Timothy Paine, who 
 came to Worcester with his father, Nathaniel Paine, of Bristol, 
 in 1738, purchased the farm in 1759 and built the main part of 
 the present house. He and his sons, William and Samuel, 
 were loyalists, he being one of the Mandamus Councillors 
 appointed by the King in 1774. So great was the excitement 
 upon political matters at that time, that the indignation against 
 any one who accepted an office from the King was very decided, 
 and Mr. Paine's case proved no exception, notwithstanding the 
 high esteem in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. He was 
 obliged not only to resign his office but to read his resignation to 
 a large number of the inhabitants, who had gathered on the 
 Common to hear it. He then lived in a house on the west side 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 133 
 
 of Lincoln street, and a few rods north of the Hancock Arms. 
 It is said that in the early days of the Revolution, some American 
 soldiers were quartered at this house, and manifested their feel- 
 ings towards its owner bv cutting the throat of his full-length 
 portrait. 
 
 Notwithstanding his royalist ideas, Mr. Paine was much 
 respected and honored by his fellow-citizens, and held many 
 important offices. He was Town Clerk from 1753 to 1763, 
 Register of Deeds, 1761 to 1778, member of the Executive 
 Council of the Province, from 1766 to 1773, and for many years 
 represented the town at the General Court. He died at Wor- 
 cester, July 17, 1793. 
 
 Dr. William Paine, left Worcester before the commencement 
 of hostilities, going to England, where, in 1775, he received the 
 appointment of apothecary to the British army, and afterwards 
 served in America. In October, 1782, he was appointed hy Sir 
 Guy Carleton, physician to his Majesty's hospitals in North 
 America, and, for awhile, was stationed at Halifax. After the 
 war he returned to Worcester and for many years practised his 
 profession. He was one of the original corporators of the 
 American Antiquarian Society and its first Yice-President. He 
 died in Worcester, April 19, 1833. 
 
 Samuel Paine left Worcester a few weeks after the attack 
 on Concord and Lexington, having been arrested by order 
 of the town, and sent to Cambridge or Watertown. He soon 
 escaped, and went into Boston, where he was at the time of the 
 battle of Bunker Hill and during the siege. At the evacuation 
 of Boston by the British, he went to England, and remained 
 there for several years, receiving a pension from the British 
 Government. He died in Worcester, June 10, 1807. 
 
 It has been said that the Paine estate' was on the list for 
 confiscation during the war, but this is undoubtedly an error, as 
 there appears to be no record to confirm it. The house is 
 probably one of the oldest now standing in Worcester, and has 
 since its erection been occupied by five generations of the same 
 family. 
 
 The Dix House. 
 The old mansion standing on Main street, nearly opposite the 
 
134 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 head of School street, and now occupied by Mr. Samuel Davis, 
 was for several years the residence of Dr. Elijah Dix, physician 
 and apothecary. He was apprenticed in 1765, for three years, 
 to Dr. John Green, senior, " to learn the art of physiek and 
 chirurgery," and then began practice in Worcester, having 
 his office and store in a building a little south of his house. Dr. 
 Dix was a very public-spirited citizen, and took great interest in 
 everything that conduced to the prosperity of the town. He 
 was an active mover in the building of the Worcester and 
 Boston turnpike, which, at the time, was considered to be a great 
 advantage to the travelling public. In 1784, Dr. Dix took a 
 prominent part in the formation of a joint-stock company for the 
 erection of a new school-house in the central part of the town, 
 consisting, besides himself, of Levi Lincoln, Joseph Allen, John 
 Green, Nathan Patch, Palmer Gonlding and others. Their object 
 was to have a more suitable building than the ordinary town 
 school-house, where an academy or school could be kept for the 
 benefit of their children, and also in the hope that there might 
 be a greater interest in the education of the young. A building 
 was erected on a large open lot on the west side of Main street, 
 just south of Hobbs's block, which was, in 1801, sold to the town, 
 and for many years was known as the Centre School-house. 
 
 Most of the large and beautiful elm trees which have been 
 such an ornament to Main street were planted by, or at the 
 suggestion of, Dr. Dix, but unfortunately, the modern ideas of 
 improvement havo caused most of them to be cut down. He 
 removed to Boston in 1795, where he built and opened a large 
 drug store on the south side of Faneuil Hall. It was in the 
 garden of Dr. Dix in Boston, that the pear, so long and favorably 
 known to horticulturists by his name, originated. 
 
 The most interesting fact, however, that can be mentioned in 
 regard to this house and its occupants is, that it was the home, 
 at one time, of some of the immediate family of Dr. Joseph 
 Warren, who was killed at Bunker Hill. It is the tradition 
 that they occupied the house from a short time before the battle 
 of Bunker Hill till after the evacuation of Boston. A former 
 occupant * of the house states that upon a pane of glass in one 
 
 * Mr. (Jlareudou Uarris. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 135 
 
 of the chamber windows, the name of Mercy Scollay was written 
 with a diamond. This lady, it will be remembered, was said to 
 have been betrothed to Gen. Warren for his second wife, and 
 after his death she had for a time the care of his three younger 
 children. 
 
 [Since writing the foregoing we have received through the kindness 
 of Prof. E. H. Lefringwell, of New Haven, Conn., extracts from four 
 letters written by General Warren to Dr. Dix, in relation to the occu- 
 pancy of this house by the family of Warren. These extracts are 
 confirmatory of the tradition we have alluded to, and also fix with 
 more certainty, the time when the family came to Worcester. A letter 
 addressed to Miss Mercy Scollay is also quoted, and confirms our sup- 
 position that she was in Worcester with the children of Dr. Warren.] 
 
 Prof. Leffingwell states the substance of these letters as follows: 
 
 First Letter. 
 
 Boston, February 24, 1775. 
 
 " I must request you to have the house you mentioned ready to receive 
 some of my goods in three or four days." He expressed a wish, that if the 
 goods should arrive before any of his family, they should be taken care of, as 
 the trunks and chests contain things of the greatest value to him. He begs 
 that the matter may be kept secret, and that after his people arrive, it may 
 not be known what family they belong to, until he follows them. 
 
 Second Letter. 
 
 Boston, April 10, 1775. 
 
 He states that many of [his goods are out of town, and desires him to hire 
 two wagons and send them to the house of Mrs. Mary Warren, in Koxbury, to 
 take as many of his goods as they can carry. 
 
 He hopes that his children and family will arrive at Worcester by next 
 Thursday night, April 13, 1775, and desires him to give them the best direc- 
 tions in his power. 
 
 Third Letter. 
 
 Cambridge, May 10, 1775. 
 
 Bequests him to call on Miss Scollay, at his house in Worcester, and ask 
 her to give a reasonable reward to the bearer for carting up one load of his 
 goods. 
 
136 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 Fourth Letter. 
 
 Cambridge, May 10. 
 
 To his dear friend, Miss Mercy Scollay : — 
 
 Acknowledges receipt of her letter, and is happy in bearing that she and the 
 family are all in health. Says the "young gentlemen" told him that Dr. Dix 
 wanted to be informed respecting the sowing of some wheat. Says In- shall 
 acquiesce with thankfulness in his (Dr. Dix's) judgment, and wishes him to 
 hire ten or twelve acres more of land, as he shall keep several horses, and 
 cannot think of being deprived of indulging himself in the pleasures of agri- 
 culture. Desires him to direct in the matter of repairs, agreeably to his own 
 taste, as he knows he should like it, and wishes to be remembered in the 
 most affectionate manner to all friends. 
 
 Fifth Letter. 
 
 Cambridge, May 13, 1775. 
 
 States that your (Dr. Dix) many kindnesses have made the strongest im- 
 pressions of gratitude on his mind, and while he has not had an opportu- 
 nity to acknowledge them, hopes that within a fortnight lie may pay his 
 respects to him and his lady. Says that Miss Scollay mentions their (Dr. and 
 Mrs. Dix's ) goodness in the strongest terms. Would be glad if he (Dr. D.) 
 could hire twenty or thirty acres more of land, near the house, as he must 
 keep three or four horses, and wants to have something of a farm. 
 
 Expresses the wish, that as he has so many applications for labor from 
 miserable fugitives who have fled from Boston, he would gladly provide for 
 them. He therefore wishes that the men and women in the house may be 
 provided with accommodations elsewhere. Closes the letter with " any sum 
 of money that you may want for your private use, pray take." 
 
 I have also a letter of Dr. John Warren, addressed to Dr. Jonas Dix, Wor- 
 cester, dated Cambridge, June 30, 177"), in which he says, that understanding 
 that Dr. D. has, in some measure, the care of his deceased brother's family, 
 and not being able to have a personal interview with him at that time, he begs 
 him to take all possible care to render them comfortable, and prevent their 
 being in want of anything necessary. Says that as soon as he has leisure, he 
 will repair to Worcester, in order to fix matters upon a firmer basis. He 
 holds himself and brothers responsible to Dr. Dix, for all necessary charges 
 he may be at. 
 
 [There is also an account, unsigned, dated April, 1775, Dr. Joseph 
 Warren to Elijah Dix, Dr., for £30 12s. tyd., and appears to be for 
 repairs on the house. A memorandum, written and signed by Dr. Dix, 
 endorsed " Mem. to be annexed to Dr. J. Warrens account" This 
 is as follows : — 
 
 " I have not charged any rent, as Dr. Joseph Warren had agreed with me to 
 purchase the farm, — came to a price, — aud was to finish the bargain by 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 137 
 
 taking a deed, when he came up to Worcester, and desired me to make repairs 
 
 upon his account, which repairs were not of more real value to me than his 
 
 improvement of the house, aud was worth to me, from the time his family 
 
 entered it, until they quitted the same, including a pasture of twenty acres, I 
 
 hired, by his order, for his use, which cost me six pounds ; also have not 
 
 made any charge for my personal service in taking care of, and providing for, 
 
 the family." 
 
 (Signed) ELIJAH DIX. 
 
 [There is also a bill of Palmer Goulding, who, from its contents, 
 I suppose was a shoemaker.] 
 
 " 1775. Dr. Elijah Dix to pay for sundrys d'd Doctor Joseph Warren's 
 Famely : — 
 
 June 26. To one pare for the negro man .... 8s. 
 
 to one pare for the Dafter 4s. id. 
 
 to the sons 3s. M., to the child 2s. 8d. 
 
 July 6. to mending oue small pare id. 
 
 Sept. 22. 2 pare for Betsey 6s. id. 
 
 The Baldwin House. 
 
 This house stands on Main street, at the foot of George street, 
 and, one hundred years ago, was the residence of Nathan Bald- 
 win, who came to Worcester from Medford in 1756, and 
 became ' one of the most respected and prominent men in 
 the town. He was one of the founders of the " American 
 Political Society " and chairman of the committee which framed 
 its constitution and by-laws. Mr. Baldwin w T as an active poli- 
 tician, and a friend of Col. Timothy Bigelow and other noted 
 patriots of that day. An examination of the town records and 
 the history of Worcester shows that he was a most energetic 
 citizen, and was the recipient of many important trusts from his 
 fellow-townsmen. 
 
 As a member of a committee appointed in May, 1766, to pre- 
 pare instructions to Ephraim Doolittle, the representative to the 
 General Court, he became the author of resolutions which con- 
 tained the earliest expression on the records of the town, of the 
 revolutionary feeling against the royal government. 
 
 He was considered the ablest writer of the patriotic party, 
 and prepared the resolutions adopted by the town in 1774, 
 to which we have previously referred, and against which the 
 18 
 
138 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 famous loyalist protest was made. lie was Selectman in 1770, 
 Town Clerk in 1775, and for several years Register of Deeds. 
 
 This house was occupied for many years by William Eaton, a 
 grandson of Adonijah Rice. Mr. Eaton died in 1859, at the ripe 
 age of 92. He took an active interest in town affairs up to the 
 last year of his life, and his erect form as he walked the streets 
 was familiar to man}' of our citizens. He held various offices 
 in the gift of the town, among them that of a Selectman, for 
 eight years, and a Representative to the General Court for about 
 the same time. 
 
 Note. — Besides the authorities quoted from in these notes, there 
 have been many valuable suggestions received from a series of his- 
 torical papers, published in the "Worcester Palladium" in 1855, and 
 republished in the same paper in 1857-58 and 1874, under the title of 
 "Carl's Tour in Main Street." These very interesting and valuable 
 contributions to the history of Worcester were prepared for the press 
 by the late Hon. John S. C. Knowlton. They will prove of great use 
 to the future historian of Worcester, giving, as they do, many details in 
 regard to prominent citizens, and the location of public and jjrivate 
 buildings in Worcester a generation ago, which cannot be found else- 
 where. Mr. Knowlton was assisted in collecting the material for the 
 series, by the late Clarendon Wheelock. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF 
 WORCESTER, PREVIOUS TO THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 1657. The first grant of laud within the limits of the present boundaries of 
 this town was made. 
 
 1668. In October, hind was granted to Daniel Gookin and others, and a 
 
 committee was empowered to lay out a town. 
 1673-4. t First settlement made in 1674. John Eliot, the "Apostle to the 
 
 Indians," visited the Indian town Pakachoag, near the present site 
 
 of the College of the Holy Cross. 
 1675. Settlement abandoned, in consequence of trouble with the Indians. 
 1684. Town resettled, and incorporated iu October of that year. 
 1702. Again abandoned, by reason of the hostility and depredations of the 
 
 Iudians. 
 
 1713. Permanent settlement effected. Jonas Rice came to the settlement 
 
 with family, and remained there without other families about two 
 years. " He settled on a farm ou the cross road leading from the 
 Sutton to the Grafton road,' and was joined by his brothers 
 Gershom and James, and others, with their families, in the Spring of 
 1715." * 
 
 1714. First male child born; son of Jonas Rice. 
 
 1715. First death in the town after the settlement of 1713 (Jonathan 
 
 Hubbard). 
 
 1716. First building for the purpose of public worship erected. 
 
 1722. First town meeting held, in September, by special order of the General 
 Court. 
 
 1731. The County of Worcester created and Worcester made the shire town. 
 The first Probate Court in the County held in the Meeting-House 
 July 13, and the first Court of Common Pleas held August 10. The 
 first Supreme Court of Judicature held September 22. 
 
 1740. The first School-House built by the town, at north end of Main Street. 
 
 1763. The present Old South Church erected. 
 
 1765. Vote of the town instructing its representative to join in no measure 
 countenancing the Stamp Act. 
 
 1774. Militia Companies marched from Worcester as far as Shrewsbury, on 
 their way to Boston, it having been reported that a body of the 
 King's troops had made an incursion into the county to capture 
 gunpowder. 
 
 MS. Notes of William Lincoln. 
 
140 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 1775. April 19th. One hundred and ten men, under Capt. Timothy Bigelow 
 
 and Capt. Benjamin Flagg, marched for the. seat of war on the 
 news of the battle of Lexington being received. The news of the 
 battle was received in Worcester, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of 
 the day succeeding the march of the British troops from Boston. 
 The minute men marched at once, making their lirsf halt at Shrews- 
 bury, where they received orders to proceed immediately, and they 
 reached Watertown at day-break the next morning.* 
 
 1776. Sunday, July 14. Declaration of Independence read by Isaiah Thomas 
 
 from the porch of South Meeting-IIouse. 
 
 CELEBRATIONS IN WORCESTER ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 The orations designated by a * have been printed. 
 
 1776. The first celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of independ- 
 ence, in Worcester, was on Monday, July 22d, 1776, an account of 
 which, taken from the "Massachusetts Spy," is given on a previous 
 page. 
 
 1779. The second celebration (so far as can be learned from the newspapers of 
 the day), took place in 1779. The "Spy" reports that, the 4th of July 
 coining on Sunday, the celebration was postponed till Thursday the 
 8th, at which time "the day was ushered in by the ringing of bells, 
 the firing of cannon and a display of the Continental flag; at twelve 
 o'clock thirteen cannon were fired ; in the evening the Court House 
 was illuminated, thirteen rockets were fired, and a display of other 
 fireworks; greatly to the satisfaction of many respectable and 
 staunch friends to the common cause of our nation, who were 
 assembled at the Court House from this and the adjacent towns. 
 Mutual congratulations were given and a number of toasts suitable 
 to the occasion were drank." 
 
 1789. There was a military celebration, with a procession, composed of a 
 
 Company of Horse, commanded by Capt. Drury, of Leicester; the 
 Worcester Train of Artillery, commanded by Capt. John Stanton; 
 and the two Infantry Companies of the town, all under command of 
 Major [Phinehas] Jones. 
 
 1790. By the Worcester Artillery Co., which fired a salute on Court-House 
 
 Hill, and had a dinner at Mower's tavern. t 
 1791.* Military celebration by the four companies of the town. An oration 
 by Edward Bangs, aud an original ode, written for the occasion. 
 
 * MS. notes of William Lincoln, in possession of the American Antiquarian Society. 
 tCapt. Ephraim Mower's tavern was at the corner of Mechanic street, near the spot where 
 Clark's Block now stands. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 141 
 
 1792. Civic and military celebration, with a dinner at Heywood's tavern, at 
 
 which fourteen patriotic toasts were drunk, with a discharge of 
 cannon after each.* 
 
 1793. Artillery Company paraded and partook of a repast at Capt. Heywood's, 
 
 and fired a salute of fifteen guns. 
 
 1795.* Oration by Joseph Allen, Jr., at the South Meeting-House. The usual 
 dinner took place, with toasts, accompanied by firing of cannon. 
 
 1796.* Oration at the South Church by Francis Blake, of Rutland. The 
 dinner at Mower's tavern, at which sixteen toasts were given, 
 accompanied by a discharge of artillery after each. 
 
 1797.* Oration by Dr. Oliver Fiske. Civic and military celebration, with the 
 usual dinner. The Worcester Train of Artillery also partook of a 
 supper at Capt. Heywood's inu, and, according to the " Massa- 
 chusetts Spy," " the anniversary was closed with decent^Hilarity." 
 
 1798.* Oration by Rev. Samuel Austin, with the usual military procession 
 and dinner. After the oration, the celebrated song, "Adams and 
 Liberty," was sung with great applause. 
 
 1799. An oration was expected from Pelatiah Hitchcock, of Brookfield; but, 
 on his way from that place the orator was seized with a sudden 
 sickness, and was unable to reach Worcester. The usual dinner 
 was served at Mower's Hall, and in the evening the Artillery Com- 
 pany had a supper at Capt. Heywood's tavern. 
 
 1800.* Oration by Edward Bangs, at the North Meeting-House (Dr. Ban- 
 croft's). 
 
 1801.* Oration by Isaac Story, of Sterling. 
 
 1802.* Oration by Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore, of Leicester. The civic 
 procession was escorted by Capt. Healey's Company of Artillery to 
 South Meeting-House, where the oration was delivered. 
 
 1803.* Oration, delivered at the South Meeting-House, by John William 
 Caldwell. 
 
 1804.* Oration by William Charles White of Rutland. 
 
 1805.* Procession, escorted by the Artillery Co., Capt. Slater; and the 
 Infantry Co., Lieut. Flagg. Oration by Daniel Waldo Lincoln. 
 
 1808.* Procession, escorted to South Meeting-House by Artillery Co., Capt. 
 Curtis. Oration by Major Estes Howe. 
 
 1810.* Civic and military celebration. Escort by the Light Infantry, Capt. 
 William E. Green. Oration by Levi Heywpod. Declaration of 
 Independence read by Maj. Levi Lincoln. 
 
 1811.* Celebrated by the young men of the town between the ages of 16 and 
 21, with an oration by John W. Hubbard, at the South Meeting- 
 House. 
 
 *Capt. Daniel Heywood's inn was on the present location of the Bay State House. 
 
142 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 1812.* Celebrated by the Washington Benevolent Society, with a procession 
 escorted by the Light Infantry, under Capt. John W. Lincoln ; and a 
 dinner in a building erected for the purpose on Federal Hill. 
 Oration by Hon. Francis Blake. 
 
 Also celebrated by the Republicans. A procession, escorted by the 
 Worcester Artillery. Oration by Enoch Lincoln, and an ode by 
 Edward D. Bangs. The festivities of the day closed with a display 
 of fireworks. 
 1814.* Celebration by the Federal Republicans, escorted by the Light Infantry, 
 Capt. John W. Lincoln. The oration by Edwin A. White, at the 
 North Meetiug-IIouse. Also a civic procession, escorted by the 
 Artillery, Capt. Samuel Graves. Oration at South Meeting-House by 
 Ktjoice Newton. 
 
 1815.* Republican celebration, with a dinuer, under an arbor erected in front 
 of Captain Slater's house. The oration by Peleg Sprague. 
 
 1S1G.* Celebrated by the Federal Republicans. Oration by John Davis, at 
 South Meeting-House. 
 
 1817.* Oration by Pliny Merrick, Esq. Ode by Edward D. Bangs. 
 
 1818.* A procession, escorted by the Worcester Light Infantry; an oration 
 by Austin Denny, and a dinner at Hathaway's Hall. 
 
 1819.* Republican celebration. A procession, escorted by the Light Infantry, 
 Capt. Sewall Hamilton. An oration by Edward D. Bangs, at the 
 South Meeting-House. 
 
 1820. Republican celebration. A procession, escorted by the Light Infantry, 
 
 Capt. John Coolidge. An oration by Charles H. Warren, Esq. 
 
 1821. Republican celebration, with an address by Henry Rogers (editor of 
 
 the "National iEgis "). 
 
 1822. No regular celebration this year. An address was delivered to a small 
 
 gathering of citizens by Rev. Jonathan Going. 
 
 1823. Democratic celebration, with an oration by Francis B. Stebbins, at 
 
 South Meeting-House. A dinner, presided over by Otis Corbett, in 
 a bower near the hotel of Nathaniel Eaton. The procession was 
 escorted by the Worcester Rifle Corps, Capt. Nathaniel Gales. 
 
 1824. A procession, escorted by the Light Infantry, Capt. Artemas Ward, 
 
 2d; with an oration by William Lincoln, Esq. A dinner was served 
 in a bower ou land of Maj. Samuel Allen, a few rods east of the 
 meeting-house. 
 
 1825. Celebration by the Light Infantry, with an oration by Richard Hampton 
 
 Vose, a member of the company. 
 
 1826. The first celebration under the auspices of the town authorities. An 
 
 oration was delivered by Charles Allen, Esq. A dinner was served 
 in the Town Hall, presided over by Isaiah Thomas, with music by 
 the Worcester Harmonic Society, Emory Perry, President. The 
 procession, under command of Brig.-Gen'] Nathan Heard, was 
 escorted by the Worcester Rifles, Capt. Thos. Howe; Worcester 
 Artillery, Capt. Elijah Flagg; and Worcester Light Iufautry, Capt. 
 John Whittemore. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 143 
 
 1827. Celebration by the fraternity of Odd Fellows, with an oration at the 
 North Meetiug-House, by Thomas Kinnicutt, Esq., and a poem by 
 Richard Hampton Vose, Esq. After the exercises in the meeting- 
 house, there was a dinner, presided over by Hon. John Davis. 
 
 1829. A celebration with a procession of citizens, escorted by the Provi- 
 
 dence Light Infantry, Capt. Field; Leicester Light Infantry, Capt. 
 [Joseph D.] Sargent; Worcester Light Infantry, Capt. Charles A. 
 Hamilton; and the Worcester Artillery, Capt. Leonard W. Stowell. 
 Oration by Hon. John Davis, and an ode by Emory Washburn, Esq. 
 
 1830. Citizens' celebration, with a procession, under the direction of Gen- 
 
 Nathan Heard. Oration by Peter C. Bacon, Esq. At a dinner, after 
 the oration, at Capt. Thomas's Hotel, the following toast was pro- 
 posed by Isaac Goodwin, Esq., " Our venerable townsman, Isaiah 
 Thomas, Esq., who first promulgated the Declaration of Independence 
 to the inhabitants of this vicinity from the church and press." 
 
 1831. Young men's celebration, with a procession, escorted by the Worcester 
 
 Rifles. An oration by Edwin Conant, Esq., and a poem by Benj. F. 
 Thomas, Esq., at the North Meeting-House. There was also another 
 procession of citizens, escorted by the Light Infantry, Capt. William 
 S. Lincoln, and an oration by Samuel M. Burnside. 
 
 1832. Celebration by the Republicans or auti-Jackson party, with an oration 
 
 by George Folsom, Esq. Procession, under Timothy W. Bancroft as 
 marshal, escorted by the Rifle Co. and the Light Infantry, Capt. 
 Zenas Studley, at the South meeting-house. The day was also 
 celebrated by the citizens without distinction of party, with au 
 oration by Benjamin F. Thomas, at the North meeting-house. 
 1833.* Celebration under the auspices of the town authorities. A procession 
 escorted by the Light Infantry and the Rifle Company, an oration by 
 Edward Everett. An oratorio under the direction of Emory Perry, 
 was given in the evening, also a grand ball at Estabrook's Hotel. 
 183L Celebrated by the Whigs. An oration by Franklin Dexter, of Boston, 
 at the brick meeting-house (Dr. Bancroft's). A dinner at Worthing- 
 ton & Clark's (the United States Hotel), at which Levi Lincoln 
 presided. 
 
 1835. Celebration, Monday, July 6th, on the completion and formal opening 
 
 of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. A procession, composed of 
 about 300 citizens of Boston and vicinity, escorted by citizens of 
 Worcester and the Light Infantry, Capt. Charles H. Geer. A collation 
 was served at the Town Hall, at which Gov. Levi Lincoln presided. 
 Speeches were made by the presiding officer, Hon. Nathan Hale, 
 president of the railroad company, Hon Edward Everett and others. 
 During the collation, about 500 ladies were given an excursion to 
 Westborough. Hon. Charles Allen was chairman of the Committee 
 of Arrangements. 
 
 1836. Celebrated by the Whigs of the town, with an oration by Benjamin F. 
 
 Thomas, Esq. A dinner in the Town Hall, presided over by Thomas, 
 Kinnicutt. 
 
144 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 1837. A celebration by the Jackson Democrats, with an oration by Robert 
 Rantoul, Jr. 
 
 1839. An oration was delivered by William Lincoln, at New Worcester. 
 
 1840. A Democratic Celebration, with an oration by Rev. Orestes A. 
 
 Brovvnson. 
 1844. Celebration by the Whigs, with speeches from several gentlemen. 
 
 1850. A celebration, with a poem by Charles Thurber. 
 
 1851. Free Soil Celebration, with an oration by Hon. John P. Hale. 
 1853. An oration by Francis Wayland, Esq. 
 
 1856. An oration by Homer B. Sprague (printed in the "Massachusetts 
 Spy"), and, on the 9th of July, a grand Floral Procession. 
 
 1859. A grand floral procession. 
 
 1860. The corner-stone of the Free Public Library was laid, and addresses 
 
 were delivered by Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, Mayor of the city, and 
 other gentlemen. 
 
 1865. An ovation to returned soldiers. A trades' procession ; parade of the 
 children of the public schools, &c. 
 
 1868. Military and civic procession. The military organizations, under 
 command of Col. Robert H. Chamberlain, cousisted of six companies 
 of the 10th Regiment, M. V. M., the State Guard (of Worcester), 
 Lieut.-Col. David M. Woodward; and the Highland Cadets, Capt. 
 L. G. White (from the Highland Military Academy in Worcester). 
 The fire department of Worcester, A. B. Lovell, chief engineer, 
 formed a part of the procession. There was also a cavalcade, con- 
 sisting of gentlemen mounted, and driving light and fancy teams, 
 and draft horses ; in all, about 500 horses. 
 
 1876.* Military and Civic Procession in the morning, and a grand Trades' 
 Procession in the afternoon. An oration by Hon. B. F. Thomas, of 
 Boston. The Worcester Continentals, an independent military 
 organization, dressed in the style of the Revolutionary period, made 
 their first appearance on this occasion. 
 
HISTORICAL LOCALITIES. 145 
 
 Since the last pages of these notes came from the press, we have 
 been favored, through the kindness of Mr. Stephen Salisbury, with a 
 copy of an original letter, addressed to his father, who was a merchant 
 in Worcester one hundred years ago, by Col. Timothy Bigelow, to 
 whom reference has been made in the early pages of this pamphlet. 
 
 The letter, though bearing different dates, was written upon one 
 sheet of small-sized letter paper, the last date being only three days 
 before the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne. As it has never appeared in 
 print before, we have deemed it of sufficient interest to present it 
 here. 
 
 "Camp at Stillwater, Oct. 7, 1777. 
 
 " Sir,— I arrived in camp last Saturday. Nothing of importance has turned 
 up since, except a small skirmish that happened yesterday between oar piquet 
 guard and the enemie's, when the latter was drove to their lines. We had 
 one man mortally wounded, and three others slightly. There is great deser- 
 tion from the enemy, not less that 8 or 10 for many days back, mostly Ger- 
 mans. The enemy are strongly fortifying their camp. 
 
 " I am much pleased at finding such a perfect union among the different 
 corps of officers. It is the happiest camp I ever was in. Officers & soldiers 
 put the greatest confidence in the General imaginable.* His treatment of the 
 officers and soldiers is quite opposed to that of Schuyler. I should not have 
 wrote to you before I had something of more importance to communicate, had 
 it not been to ask the favor to buy some brown sugar." 
 
 " Saratoga, Oct. 14, 1777. 
 
 " Since I wrote the above, we have almost been in one continual action with 
 the enemy, but not in very close order, since the 7th inst. (for the particulars 
 of which I would refer you to Mr. Liucolnf), but in close pursuit. We are now 
 all round them, and it is common to have 30, 40 or 50 deserters & prisoners 
 come in for several clays past. The Canadians, we are told by the deserters, 
 have mutinied, and decline having anything further to do in the matter, & 
 was promised by the General that they should go home in a few days. They 
 lost Gen. Frazer iu the action of the 7th, an officer of approved merit, who 
 commanded the light troops, in whom they put the greatest confidence, & 
 give it as one reason we took the field, their early loss of that officer. Upon 
 the whole I hardly can realize that the great Burgoyne is reduced to such a 
 distressed situation as you may depend he is at present. How the scene may 
 
 * Gen. Horatio Gates, t Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 19 
 
146 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 change I cannot fully determine ; but from the present situation of things, I 
 expect to give you soon a further good account. 
 
 "What I wrote respecting sugar, the other day, I have not had time to 
 think of since. Would only inform you that it is with great difficulty we can 
 get any such thing here, so that if you can spare me a few pounds, when my 
 baggage is brought from Worcester, it would be very acceptable in this place. 
 Remember my love to Mrs. Bigelow & children. 
 
 " Believe me, Sir, to be with much 
 
 " esteem your friend, 
 
 "TIMO. BIGELOW." 
 
-^ <-*rj*^ 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 INHABITANTS OF WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
 
 O F T II E 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 JULY 4. 1876 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 
 MDCCCLXXVI. 
 
I 
 
 /&x 
 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0014 111 2168 4