— .\ 1 ,\— ; — ■— — — » ■.—••nS' \ A\ -Mfr 4, 'V^^VrfZ^^Vx^^ /y •vl^/v D o EXERCISES IN CELEBRATING THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY SETTLEMENT OF CAMBRIDGE r...... Held December 28, 1880 PrintcS fag orttr of tljc Citg Cnuncil CAJMBRIDGE CHARLES W. SEVER JSnibtrsttg JSnoftstore 1881 The extemporaneous speeches at the Celebration were stenographed, and the volume edited, liij Robert P. Clapp. ort, where, on the U)th of April, 1775, four citizens were killed by British soldiers returning from Lexington. 2d. The mansion of Professor Longfellow, on Brattle Street, in Ward 1, which was the headquarters of Washington in 177.^. .3d. The Washington Elm, at the southwesterly corner of the Common (already m.u'ked), where Washington assumed command of the American army. 4th. The spot on the westerly side of Inman Street at the head of Austin Street, in Ward 2, where formerly stood the ancient house whicli was General Putnam's headquarters. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 9 5th. The brow of the hill at the junction of Otis and Fourth streets, in Ward 3, wliere an important fort was erected during tlie siege of Boston. Of a different character are some other memorable spots, namely : — Where the first meeting-house in Cambridge stood, on the west- erly side of Dunster Street, a little noith of the point midway be- tween Mount Auburn and Winthrop Streets. Also where tlie second, third, and fourth meeting-houses stood, on the southerly side of Dane Hall (the Law School), fronting on Harvard Square. The principal founder of Cambridge, in 1G30, was Governor Thomas Dudley, who resided on the lot at the northwest corner of Dunster and South Streets. He was one of the foremost men in the Colony, and more than any other the father of this town at the commencement of its settlement in 1631. No memorial of liim is jireserved here, even by affixing his name to a street, square, or building. A monumental stone might not be inappropriate. Half a century later, Thomas Danforth, who was Deputy-Gov- ernor from 1679 to 1692, except during the usurpation by Andros, WMs in many respects tlie most eminent man who ever resided here. (See History of Cambridge, pp. 114, 530.) He was the acknowledged leader of the patriotic party up to the revolution of 1689, in describing wliicli Dr. Palfrey says: "More than any other man living in Massachusetts, Thomas Danforth was competent to tiie stern occasion." He resided on the northerly side of Kirk- Innd Street, near the Scientific School. The exact spot is known. No visible memorial of him is now to be found in Cambridge. For more than a liundred and sixty years, from 1633 to 1794, a spot on Harvard Street was the residence of very eminent men and their families, — Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. Thomas Shepard, and Rev. Jonathan Mitcliell, tlie first, second, and third ministers of tlie First Church ; of Hon. John Leverett, a Judge of the Su- preme Court and President of Plarvard College, and of Rev. Ed- ward Wigglesworth, D.D., and his son of the same name, who were successively HoUis Professors of Divinity in Harvard Col- lege. Such a spot seems worthy of commemoration. Until 1793 there were only two avenues between Cambridge and Boston, namely, through Charlestown and through Brookline .Tnd Roxbury. West Boston Bridge was commenced in 1792, and 10 INTRODUCTOHY NOTE. completed in the next year, with a causeway extending from its westerly end to the junction of Main and Front Streets, in Ward 4. Here a small public square affords a conspicuous location for a stone to commeniorate an event which so materially affected the subsequent prosperity of Cambridge and the convenience of its inhabitants. Respectfully, LUCIUS R. PAIGE. M. G. Howe, Esq. I venture to add that we are approaching very near to the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the day, Dec. 28, 1630, when it was decided by the Governor and Assistants to build here a town, with the intention that it should become the seat of gov- ernment. (See History of Cambridge, p. 6.) Is not that event worthy of some public notice? L. R. P. An order was adopted providing that a committee be ap- pointed to consider where in tiie city memorial tablets should be placed, and rejwrt the estimated expense of erecting them. The matter was taken in cliarge by the same Committee as above mentioned. September 29, 1880, an order was adopted appropriating $1,000 (afterwards increased to $1,300) to defray the expenses of a celebration on the 28th of December ; and the same Com- mittee as before, with tlie addition of Alderman Gilmore and Councilmen Dudley and Durant, were instructed to perfect suitable arrangements for the occasion. The Committee on Tablets and Index Stones reported, recommending that such marks be placed at the following- named places : — On the land at the corner of Otis and Fourth streets, now occupied by the Putnam Schoolhouse, being the site where Fort Putnam was erected, a tabltet. In Ward .5, on the westerly side of North Avenue, a few rods southerly of its junction with Spruce Street, where, on the 19th of April, 1775, four citizens were killed by Hritish soldiers retreating from Lexington, an index stone. An index stone at the house of Professor Longfellow, on Brattle Street, INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 11 which was the headquarters of Washington in 1775. An in- dex stone at a spot on the westerly side of Innian Street, at the head of Austin Street, formerly the site of Putnam's head- quarters. An index stone on land on the northerly side of Kirkland Street, where formerly stood the residence of Thomas Danforth, Deputy-Governor, and Commissioner of the United Colonies at every session from 1662 to 1678. An index stone at the northwest corner of Dunster Street, where stood the residence of Thomas Dudley, one of the founders of Cambridge. An index stone where the first meeting-house stood, on the westerly side of Dunster Street. The report was accepted, and the recommendations were soon afterwards carried into effect.' The Joint Special Committee on the Celebration was or- ganized as follows : — THE COMMITTEES. School Exercises. Alderman Henisy H. Gilmore, Councilmen John Conlan, Fred. H. Holton. Literary Exercises. Alderman Moses G. Howe, Councilmen Sanford II. Dudley, William B. Durant. Jianquet. Alderman Francis L. Chapman, President Charles AValker, Councilman William L. Lathrop. Co-operative Committee of the School Board. Sumner Albek, William H. Orcutt, George A. Coburn, William Fox Richardson, Horace E. Scudder. The several committees entered zealouslj' upon the perform- ance of their duties, and, as the results proved, employed the means at their disposal with thoughtful and discriminating care. ' An article giving a brief description of these tablets and the subjects which they commemorate will be found on page 131 of this volume. 12 INTKODUCTOKY NOTE. Invitations to attend the celebration were sent as follows : — THE INVITED GUESTS. Rutherford B. Hayes President of the United States. Hon. J.^MEs A. Gaufield .... President-elect " " Gen. U. S. Grant New York. Hon. William M. Evarts Secretary of State. " Charles Devens Attorney-General. " George F. Hoar Senator from Massacliusetts. " He.nry L. Dawes " " " " AViLLiAM Claflin Representative to Congress, Eighth (Mas.s.) District. " John W. Caxdler . Representative-elect, Eighth (Mass.) Dist. His Excellency Jon.x D. Long .... Governor of JIassachusetts. The Governor's Staff Hon. Horace Gray . Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mass. President Charles W. Eliot and Fellows of Harvard College. Prof. Henry W. Longfellow Cambridge. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Boston. Hon. E. S. Tobey Postmaster of " A. AV. Beard Collector of the Port of " " George P. Sanger . . . . U. S. District Attorney, " " N. P. Banks U. S. Marshal, Boston. " Robert C. AVinthroi- Brookline. Ralph AValdo Emerson Concord. John G. AVhittier Amesbury. B.ibRNST.iERNE B.joRXSON Bergen, Norway. Hon. iAlARSHALL P. AViLDEK Doicliester. Dr. AVilliam Everett Quincy. A. F. Randolph Fredericton, N. B. Hon. J. Steadman " " Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D Cambridge. " A. P. Pf.abody, D.D " " Lucius R. Paige, D.D " " AVilliam Newell, D.D " IXTUODUCTORY NOTE. 13 Col. T. W. HiGGiNSON Cambridge. Ex-Mayor J.\.mes D. Gueen " " Cu.M(LES TlIEODOKE RuSSELL " " George C. Richardson " " J. Warren Merrill " " Ezra Parmenter " " Charles H. Saunders " " H. O. Houghton " " Hamlin R. Harding " Isaac Bradford Exeter, N. H. " Frank A. Allen Cambridge. " Samuel L. Montague " Mayor-elect James A. Fox " John S. Ladd, Esq Justice of Police Com-t, " The Mejibeks of the City Council, and Heads of Departments. Hon. F. C. Latrobe Mayor of Baltimore, Md. " Frederick O. Prince " Boston. " George P. Sanderson " Lynn. " R. M. PuLsiFER " Newton. " Eli Cully " Fitchburg. " F. T. Gueeniialge " Lowell. " George A. Bruce " Somerville. " Charles F. Johnson " Taunton. " Charles S. Siiapleigii " Haverhill. " Lewis J. Powers " Springfield. " F. II. Kelly " Worcester. " William S. Green " Fall River. " W. T. SouLE " New Bedford. " A. J. Bacon " Chelsea. " J. J. Currier " Newburyport. ■' J. R. Simpson " Lawrence. " Henry K. Oliver " Salem. The Chairmen of the Selectmen of Arlington, Belmont, Wa- tertown, and Waltham. THE CELEBRATION. THE hour of sunrise of the anniversary clay was heralded by the ringing of the church bells, and by a salute of one hundred guns on the Common. Fortunately the sun it- self ushered in the morning, its rays gilding the spires through the city, and giving promise of a bright and clear day. Later the clouds gathered and allowed only occasional glimpses of the sunlight, but the temperature was mild, and altogether the day was favorable to a successful celebration. Coming in midwinter, the anniversary naturally did not occasion any street display, or extended decorations by the citizens. The City Hall, however, bore marks of the decorator's skill, and its usually plain appearance was lost in a tasteful holiday attire. The flags of all nations wei-e streaming from two lines diverging from the summit of a flag-pole at the centre of the roof to the sidewalk, while the national colors were folded gracefully around the city's shield over the entrance to the building. Red, white, and blue were festooned from the windows, and the figures "16.30" and "1880" were in gold on either side of the door. The intelligent attention paid by the large numbers who witnessed the proceedings through the day showed that the people did not fail to catch the spirit of the occasion, and to appreciate the significance of its teachings. The celebration comprised three separate entertainments, — a festival for the children in the Sanders Theatre in the morning, an oration at the same place in the afternoon, and 16 THE CELEBRATION. a banquet at Union Hall in the evening. Of these, perhaps the first was the most inspiring for the moment, and tiie most memorable in its associations. In the centre of the group of dignitaries upon the platform were the poets Holmes and Longfellow, and bent upon them was the eager gnze of a thousand happy school-children gathered in the auditorium. In front of its owner stood the arm-chair made from the wood of the " spreading chestnut-tree," ^ which was pi-esented to Mr. Longfellow by these very scholars less than two vears before ; and his poem " From my Arm-chair," written to thank them for their gift, was one of the selections read by IMr. Riddle. The climax of the scene was when Mr. Longfellow, quite ' unexpectedly to all, rose and made a shoi't extempore address. He was greeted with a ti"emendous burst of applause, and when he had finished, the sea of youthful faces was uproar- ious with delight. The audience that gathered in the afternoon were well re- warded by the orator's vivid " retrospect of the half-hidden past," presented with his accustomed dignity and scholarly grace ; and all who came from Union Hall at the close of the festivities testified that the banquet was a fitting end for the celebration. The Mayor won applause from all for the ability, dignity, and grace with which he performed his part in the proceed- ings ; and the Committee of Arrangements were deservedly congratulated, because notiiing occurred to mar tlie harmony and enjoyment attending the exercises of the entire day. ' This tree, desciilicd by the poet in "The Villafie Blacksmith," was on the west side of Brattle Street, opposite Farwell Place, and re- mained standing till May, 1870, when it was cut down in order to widen the street. The wood in the chair was finished in imitation of ebony. A brass plate below the cushion bears these words: " To the anthor of the Villatje Blacksmith this chair, made from the wood of the spreading chestnut tree, is presented as an expression of grateful regard and ven- eration by the children of Cambridge: who with their friends join in best wishes and congratulations ou this anniversary, February 27, 1879." THE MORNING EXERCISES SANDERS THEATRE. THE MORNING EXERCISES SANDERS THEATRE. T ONG before half-past ten o'clock, tbe hour for the ex- -*— ' ercises to begin, the vestibule of Memorial Hall re- sounded with merry youthful voices, and when that hour had arrived, twelve hundred children from the public schools filled the lower part of the theatre. The Webster School occupied the centre of the balcony, with the Putnam and Thorndike Schools and the AUston and Shepard Schools seated on either side. The orchestra, as the position of honor, was assigned to the Harvard and Washington Schools, as the masters, A. B. Magoun and Daniel Mansfield, were the teachers longest in the city's service. ^ At one end of the stage was seated a choir of one hundred and fifty voices, selected from the older members of the Grammar Schools ; and the centre was occu- pied by the Mayor, the members of the city government, the heads of departments, Francis Cogswell, Superintendent of Schools, the school committee, and the following invited guests: President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard College, Hon. John W. Candler, Hon. A. W. Beard, Professor Henry W. I.ongfellow, the Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody, the Rev. Dr. Alex- ander McKenzie, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Col. T. W. Higginson, and others. The gallery, and every available place for general spectators, was completely filled. ' Forty-three and thirty-nine years, respectively. 20 THE MOKNIXG EXERCISES The exercises were in the following order : — PROGIIAMME. March • Orchestra. Prayer The Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D. Singing The CiiiLnnEX. Address ^Mayor James M. AV. II am.. Music ORCIIESTIiA. Address President Charles W. Eliot. Singing The Childre.v. Address Prof. TIexry W. Longfellow. Reading — " From my Arm-chair " .... Mr. George Riddle. Poem Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Singing The Children. Reading— " The Cataract of Lodore" . . . Mr. George Riddle. SiiiTing The Children. The instrumental music was by the Orchestra of the Dana Council, Legion of Honor, twenty-five performers, under the leadership of Mr. William E. Thomas, and was a fitting coun- terpart to tiie charming effect produced by the spirited songs of the chorus, which had been under the skilful training of Mr. N. Lincoln, the teacher of music in the public schools. The instrumental pieces comprised the " Boccaccio March," by Franz von Suppe : Galop, " Shooting Star," by R. Bial ; Overture, " Aurora," by Schlepgerill ; Galop, " Polo," by Catlin ; and the vocal selections were " Farewell to the Forest," Mendelssohn ; Choral, " Wondrous King of Heaven," by Dr. Marx ; " Song of Titania's Fairies," Mozart ; " God and King," partly from Costa; "Guardian Genius of tlie Swiss," Tobler; "O'er the waters gliding," Mozart; and "Swiftly we fly," Lincoln. The accompaniments were played by Dr. J. ^L Keniston. AT THE SANDEKS THEATRE. 21 PRAYER BY THE REY. DR. A. P. PEABODY, D.D. Our Father who art in heaven, God of our flithers and our guide, helper, unfailing friend, we look to thee with humble and heartfelt gratitude in memory of thy loving providence for us, and for those whose honor is precious in our memory, and has been so in thy sight. We thank thee for those who laid the founda- tions of our republic ; for those who came hither to worship thee in freedom, to seek thy counsel and trust in thy guidance. We thank thee for the precious names that have come down from our early history ; for the great men in Church and State, whose virtues and services we to-day commemorate. We thank thee for their consecration to Christ and his Church. We thank thee for the sacred influences that flowed from that consecration and from their whole lives, in all that they did for their own day and generation, and in all that they did for those who succeeded them. We thank thee, Father, that here- have ever been cherished the in- terests of wisdom and of learning ; that here the young have ever been held as w^orthy of sacred regard, of fiiithful training, and of the deepest concern of every heart. We thank thee for these children ; for all in them of rich and glad promise ; for all that from week to week in their progress, in their learning, and in their knowledge, gives us the hope that they will well fill the places of their fiithers, the places of us who must soon pass away. Father, command upon them thy rich blessing. May they be trained in the knowledge, not 11 THE MORNING EXERCISES only of things human, but of things that are divine. Ma^- they be brought up in the nurture and admoni- tion of the Lord. May thine early benediction rest upon them, and follow them in all their ways of life, and as they are united here in songs of praise and thank.sgiv- ing, may they be united around thy throne in heaven to render thee thanks for all thy goodness while they were here on earth. Command th}^ rich blessing on them, and may they feel the power of divine truth, the power of the Saviour's love, the power of the world to come. May the teachers, in their whole spirit, in their entire example, shed a benign influence upon the young and bring blessings to those under their charge, and may the record of their fidelity be in heaven and its witness on high. Let thy love be with us now in all that we say and do, in all that we think and feel, in this season of sacred commemoration ; and grant that the blessings bestowed upon our fathers may rest upon us and upon our children from generation to generation. We offer our prayer in that name which is above every name, and through Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, to thee, Lord, our God, be all honor, and praise, and glory, and gratitude, forever. Amen. OPENING ADDRESS BY MAYOU HALL. It gives me great pleasure, in behalf of the city of Cambridge, to welcome our guests on this anniversary, and congratulate our citizens on the results of these two hundred and fifty years, as well as on the prospects spread out before us. It is an added gratification to AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 23 receive and extend the welcome within the walls of this beautiful edifice, erected to commemorate the heroic devotion of those who died to preserve unbroken the Union our fathers established ; erected to tell this and future generations that the republic we received and transmit must remain forever one and inseparable. It is especially fitting that we meet here to-daj-, hav- ing for our host an institution which, since the begin- ning of its history, has been so largely identified with the civil, intellectual, and religious welfare of our land. It is always interesting and instructive to see two old people together. We shall certainly antici- pate much in seeing Cambridge, two hundred and fifty years old, and Harvard College, two hundred and forty- two years of age, sitting down for an hour together to-day. What could more appropriately introduce the day we observe than a service by the scholars of our public schools, — that institution our fathers established side by side with the church ; that which has filled these two hundred and fifty years with so much of bless- ing and hope, and which shall be one of the sti'ong bulwarks of our republic for generations yet to be ? Should the time ever come when either the church or the public school shall be deemed of little importance, we may well write in larger letters on our procla- mations, " God save the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts." It is a question more often asked, perhaps, than an- swered, Why, on such an occasion as this, does so large a share of the interest and delight of the day centre in 24 THE MORXING EXERCISES the eliildren's service, more than in the convivial part of the day's entertainment? It certainly cannot be sentiment ; althongh we feel the reason more than we can describe it in words, because it reaches down to the very roots of our being, and our deepest feelings never can be expressed. There is, or should be, within us all a natural desire to be associated with succeeding generations, in our thoughts and feelings and j^ur- poses, and not to pass from this life having failed to impart to them some good impulse, or to live in them and in otlier generations through them. And these children are the connecting link between our genera- tion and those to come. It is pleasant and often restful to muse on the past, and let memory wander among scenes and with faces that have been familiar. It is stimulating to lot imagi- nation reach on to future years, and to think and hope that wdien our forms shall have vanished from sight here, other lives may be so influenced by ours that the good we have received from the past Ave may transmit to them ; and so each generation shall be the better for that which has gone before. Fifty years to some of our friends here must .seem, in the retrospect, a short period ; but when the next semi-centennial comes, probably most of us who have reached even adult years will have completed our work on earth. But these children shall stand in our places, and repeat anew the lessons we learn to-day. Hence such an occasion as this seems peculiarly to link the past, the present, and the future together. May it l)e in a chain w^hose constantly added links AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 25 shall, SO far as our influence goes, be strengthened in its fibre to hold the past and future indissolubly together. No thoughts of mine, however, can add to the inter- est of this occasion so much as that which we have all come especially to see and hear. At a later part of the day I shall expect to tax your patience by speaking more at length. I will merely add, in closing, that we trust the children here will be so impressed by this occasion, that our two hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary may be to them a beacon that shall ever guide to higher purposes and nobler lives. The Mayor, in introducing President Eliot, said: "The progress made in the last few years by the iiistitutiou in Avhich we all take great pride is due largely to the wonderful energy and executive ability of its President, — perhaps the youngest the College ever had, — whom I now have the pleasure of presenting." ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT. We are met to commemorate a beginning, — a be- ginning of wdiat has proved to be a vigorous and en- during life. Now all beginnings of life greatly interest mankind, be it the planting of a tree, or of the seed coi'u which brings the great crop of ^utumn, or the planting of a town, or the birth of a child or of a na- tion. But beginnings are apt to be very small, and I want to carry your thoughts for a few minutes back to the small beginning of this town. It was on a wintry day like this, when a few men 26 THE MOKNING EXERCISES came over from Boston, rowed up Charles River, per- haps as the easiest mode of approach, handed on the hillock where now is Harvard Square, and decided that they would there build a fortified town. There were no bridges, no roads then. It is mentioned that there was a path which led from Charlestown to Watertowii. You can imagine how much travel there was in those days along this path, and through the rude streets of the new town ; for it was ordered very early in the hi.story of Cambridge, that no man should cut down a tree and leave it lying across the highway for more than seven days. A tree lying acro.ss the higliway for a week would interrupt traffic considerably now ; but then there was very little to interrupt. These people that settled Cambridge were very poor, humble, hard-working people. We must not think that they foresaw all that we .see ; tha.t it ever entered into their minds to conceive what was to grow out of their planting, — a pro.sperous town and a new nation. They were a farming people; their wealth, such as they had, was in their fields, their horse.«!, oxen and cows, hens and swine ; and most of the laws and regulations passed during the early life of Cambridge related to the care and tending of these sources of their support. When Cambridge was fifty 3'ears old, the Rev. John Rogers, the minister of Ipswich, was elected President of Harvard College. The minister was the most con- siderable man in a New England town at that day ; and the President of Harvard College was one of the most considerable men in the Colony. Now tradition tells us that when the Rev. John Rogers came from Ip.swich AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 27 to establish himself in Cambridge as the President of Harvard College, he walked all the way, and drove his cow before him. That was a pei'fectly natural method, and a simple necessity in those times. I wonder if many of you children live in a house that is not plastered, and not more than half finished in any respect. Well, Benjamin Wadsworth, who was President of the College so lately as 1737, was obliged to move into the old house which now stands in Hai'vard Square (the Wads- worth House, as it is now called) before it was plas- tered, — before it was more than half finished. That is the way they had to live in those times. We must not think of this people as great and prosperous : they Avere poor, resolute, industrious, hard-working people, who had a great trust in God. Thus for two hundred years this small farming population held Cambridge together, and prepared it for the richer and more numerous generations that were to follow. And now we see it a populous, rich, and prosperous place ; and we have come into possession of it by inheritance, as it were, though probably there are very, very few children or grown people in this room who can trace their descent in any degree, however remote, to the original inhabitants of the place, or even to the fami- lies that settled here in the first fifty years. Most of us have come hither from other towns, and many from other countries. What have we come to ? We have come to a famous town, to an historic town, and, what is more, to a town which is perfectly sure to be dear to English-speaking people for generations to come. I suppose most people would say that Cam- 28 THE MOKXIXG EXERCISES bridge ^vas chiefly famous, first, for the very early establishment within its borders of a seat of liberal learning, — a seat of learning where have been trained, generation after generation, pious ministers, learned scholars, great statesmen, and brave soldiers ; secondly', that it was famous because here the first national army was gathered, and here the greatest of Americans first took conmiand of that army. That act of Washington under the old elm was an act of surpassing courage and of immeasurable effect. Be sure, children, that you go and stand under the tree, so that each of you may be able to tell your children's children that when you were a child you stood beneath the very tree •which sheltered Washington from the July sun when he drew his t^word and took command of the little army paraded before him on the sandy Common. I said that Cauibridge was sure to be famous and dear to men's hearts for many generations yet to come. Why is this so sure ? History teaches that the men whose influence is deepest, whose works and deeds and lives are of dearest memory, are poets. Every week, in yonder Sever Hall, hundreds of young Americans come together to listen with delight to the works of poets who lived thousands of years ago. And so, in generations to come, the works of Cambridge poets will be familiar and dear to millions of our descendants. I hope, children, you all know the three houses in Cam- bridge where these Cambridge poets have lived. 1 am sure you know the house where Washington once lived, wb.ere Mr. Longfellow now lives, on Brattle Street. Go and see the house on Kiniwood Avenue, where Mr. AT THE SANDERS THEATKE. 29 Lowell lives; and go and see, too, the house behind the new Gymnasium, where Dr. Holmes was born. These houses ax'e of wood ; they must disappear. Be sure that you will be able to tell your grandchildren nothing which will so interest them as that you knew the houses where Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell lived when you were children ; and, more than that, tell them that you saw two of those poets — Longfellow and Holmes — sitting beside each other on the stage in Sanders Theatre, when they were more than seventy years old, in the year when Lowell was the Minister of the United States in England, — the year when we celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Cambridge. Governor LoXG, who was expected to address the chikb'en at this point in the exercises, liad sent word that he could not attend until afternoon. In announcing this fact the Mayor said that what would be lost in one way would be gained in .another ; for, though he had expected that all would have to content themselves with the golden speech of one poet and the golden silence of another, he had just persuaded Mr. Long- fellow to say a few words in place of the Governor, and hence that silence would most agreeably be broken. REMARKS BY HENRY W. LOXGFELLOAV. My Dear Young Friends, — I do nqt rise to make an address to you, l)ut to excuse myself from making- one. I know the proverb says that he who excuses himself accuses himself, — and I am Avilling on this oc- casion to accuse myself, for I feel very much as I suppose some of you do when you are suddenly called 30 THE MORNING EXERCISES upon in your class-room, and are obliged to say that you are not prepared. I am glad to see your faces and to hear your voices. I am glad to have this oppor- tunity of thanking you in prose, as I have already done in verse, for the beautiful present you made me some two years ago. Perhaps some of you have forgotten it. but I have not ; and I am afraid, — yes, 1 am afraid that fifty years hence, when you celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of this occasion, this day and all that belongs to it will have passed from your memory : for an English philosopher has said that the ideas as well as children of our youth often die before us, and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching, where, though the brass and marble re- main, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away. " It needs no word of initu'," said tlie Maj'or, "on sucli an occasion us this, to reniinJ the childfen of the great pleasiu'e they took in presenting this chair to our dear friend who is wltli us to-day ; and I am sure we sliall be glad to listen to the reading, by ]\Ir. Riddlk, of the words Professor Longfellow wrote to the children in response to their gift." FROM MY ARM-CIIAIK. Am I a king, that I shouM call my own This splendid ebon throne? Or by wh;it reason, or what right' divine, Can I proclaim it mine? Only, |)erli:i|)s, l)y right divine of song It may to me belong ; Only because tiie spreading chestnut-tree Of old was sung by me. AT THE SANDERS THEATRE. 31 Well I remember it in all its prime, When in the summer-time The affluent folinge of its branches made A cavern of cool shade. There by the blacksniiih's forge, beside the street, It.s blossoms while and sweet Enticed the bees, until it seemed alive. And murmured like a hive. And when the winds of autumn, with a shout, Tossed its great arms about, The shining chestnuts, bursting from the sheath, Dropjied to the ground beneath. And now some fragments of its branches bare. Shaped as a stately chair, Have by my hearthstone found a home at last, And whisper of the Past. TheT^anish king could not in all his pride Repel the ocean tide ; But, seated in this chair, I can in rhvme Roll back the tide of Time. I see again, ns one in vision sees. The blossoms and the bees. And liear the children's voices shout and call. And the brown chestnuts fall. I see the smithy with its fires aglow, I hear the bellows blow. And the shrill hammers on the anvil beat) The iron white with heat ! And thus, dear children, have ye made for me This day a jubilee, And to my more than threescore years and ten Brought back my youth again. • 2 THE MOi:XING EXEKCISES The hoavl hath its own nuMuo, y, like the uiina, Au.l in it are enslirinea The precious keepsakes, into ^vhicl■. is wrouglit The giver's hiving thought. Only your love an.l your remembrance couhl Give life to this dead wood, And make these branches, leafless now so long. Blossom again in song. influence are not confined to their own age oi 1. nd, since th i Ihie is cone out through- all the earth and the.r word to , ^f l.e world ' It gives me great pleasttre, therefore, r•;;:l:^^;^one^ho needs no title, -OUVE. ''Xu.^^Siltic applause which greeted him had sub- aided, Dt- HoLllES spoke as follo«» : — roEll I!Y OLIVEU WENliEI.I. HOLMES. 1 .m a,mom.cef OP THE CiTY GOVERNMENT, Mr. MaTOK, Youii Excellency, and Fellow-Citizens : — Two hundred and fifty years ago the spot where we now stand was a part of" that vast forest region which then comprised all Eastern Massachusetts. Wolves roamed through this forest in packs, bears and lynxes abounded, deer were plenty, and sometimes a great moose made his way, stealthy and stately, among the denser trees. The woods showed that combination of varied species which formed then, as now, the nuiin difference between the American and European land- scapes ; the oaks and pines grew intermingled, and there were elms on the meadows and willows by the watercourses. Laurels, dogwood, and sas.safras, mostly new to the first settlers, filled uj) the underwood ; and even at Christmas time the arbutus or mn^ytlower car- peted the woods with its creeping vine, and showed, from its abundant buds, in mild seasons, the pink edges of its petals, — a thing of beauty and hope amid the bare- ness of a wiiitrv world. OKATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 45 To a forest spot such as I have described, at a point not very far from this, a joarty came through the woods, two hundred and fifty years ago to-day, exploring from the httle settlement of Watertown, to seek a fit place for a fortified town. "After divers meetings," says Deputy-Governor Dudle}', " at Boston, Roxburj^, and Watertown, on the 28th of December, we grew to this resolution, to bind all the assistants ... to build houses at a place a mile east from Watertown, near Charles River, the next spring." And Johnson, in his " Won- der-working Providence," says that they came here Avishing rather to " enter farther among the Indians than hazard the fury of malignant adversaries, who in a rage might pursue them," — these pursuers being doubtless the French. The mile east from Watertown was computed not from the present village of that name, but from the early settlement near Mt. Auburn, whose site is still marked by the quaint old burial- ground, whose stones record' the minister of the parish, Mr. Thomas Bailey, as a '• pious and painfull preacher," and tell us of his wife Lydia that she "went off sing- ing and left us weeping." But who are these who have come througli the for- est on this late December day of 16.30, and whom we mny fancy as resting for their noonday repast beside some spring whose traces are still visible; in its heredi- tary willow-trees ? There is Governor Winthrop, as we see him in Greenough's statue, Avearing ruff and short cloak, and showing, in his alert and eager look, how lightly he bears his two-and-forty years. He landed on this continent only in June, and, whether to dwell 46 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. in Salem, Charlestovvn, Boston, or Cambridge, he hardly knows. Beside him is Deputy-Governor Dudley, twelve years older, and showing in his hardy and impetuous manner the traces of his youthful military service ;igainst the Spaniards at Amiens under Henri Quatre. He knows full well what he wants, and the project of this fortified town is largely of liis planning. With them are, perhaps, Endicott, Saltonstall, Bradstreet, and Cod- dington, for all these are " assistants " at the time, ^ome of them are in peaceful array, others wear steel caps and corselets ; and they have with them, most likely, a few yeomen, always on the watch, and keeping the matches lighted in their firelock muskets. Yet their talk is peaceful and prayerful, and tliey give to this armed halt in tlie forest something of the flavor of a camp-meeting. Some of them doubtless remark on the agreeableness of the spot where they are, and indulge in quaint pleasantry about it ; one, perhaps, says that the dining-hnll is "large, high, curiously hung with green ; " another, that it is " accommodated with the pleasancy of a murmuring rivulet." They hnve come to seek a place for a fort ; tliey are in reality fixing tlie site of a city. All the Cambridge of to-day — its fbrt)- two thousand people, its $50,000,000 of taxable prop- erty, its great University — all this is the remote result of that one semi-military picnic in the woods, two hundred and fifty years ngo. But the inunediate outcome of it is to be a fortified village, created after some delays, and under the inex- pressive uiuue of Newtown. Even after Winthrop has abandoni'd the new settlement, stout Dudlev secures ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 47 an appropriation of sixty pounds to build a " pallysa- doe," or stockade, around it. A thousand acres are ordered to be thus " impaled " with trees set in the ground ; a mile and a half of trees being thus placed, at tlie very lowest estimate (that of Wood),' — the stock- ade not including the side toward Charles River. What a task for the men of this little settlement to fell, remove, and plant these thousands of trees, and to dig round them a fosse or trench, so well executed that I remember parts of it still existing as a ditch in my boyhood ! The willows on the football ground of the students, at the edge of Oxford Street, are the last memorial of that great labor undertaken two centuries and a half ago. Let us fancy that something of the vigor of Dudley and his followers is reappearing in the muscles that now conduct their attack and defence on that spot, althougli it be with no heavier ordnance than a football. Time passes, and the " pallysadoe " keeps the new village safe. In 1633 Wood saj-s of the inhabitants, that " most of them are very rich, and have great store of cattle ; " both which statements would certainly savor of exaggeration if made of their descendants. In that year Cambridge is found assessed as high as any town in the Colony except Dorchester; in 1636 it goes beyond all others. The privilege of being liberally taxed begins early, and on this point, at least, we are true to the traditions of our fathers. But there is, we find, a- threatened change in the whole condition of NcAvtown ere long. As we look in 1 Wood's New England Prospect, p. 4o. Holmes's Cambridge, p. 9. 48 AFTEKXOON EXEllCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. upon its few rectangular streets, and its sixty or seventy houses, we see an luiwonted disturbance, one Maj" morn- ing. Tliere is a gathering ot a hundred men and women, equipped as for travel, in the little market-place now called Winthrop Square. The drum which sometimes calls them to church is beating; there is a crowd of men, and another crowd of cattle, lowing, impatient, shaking their horns as if it were Brighton MiU'ket. Presently a horse-litter comes slowly pacing through the square, bearing a pale lady; other women walk beside her, and a clergyman in velvet cloak, worn some- what threadbare, comes gravely on. He pauses and perhaps offers prayer, the men and women adjust bur- dens on their shoulders, the drum beats again, and the whole crowd — minister, lady, men, and animals — set off slowly along the Watertown road. It is the scene described by Winthrop, May 31, 1636, saying: "Mr. Hooker, pastor of the church of Newtown, and most of his parishioners, went to Connecticut; his wife was carried in a horse-litter, and they drove one hundred and sixty cattle, and partook of their milk ])v the way." It was truly a i)astor with his Hock, and with his herd also. Times are altered. In the present frequency of ministerial changes, it Avould create a good deal of con- fusion in the streets ii" every migrating clergyman took with him the greater part of his congregation and one hundred and sixty head of cattle. But there .seems a visible interference of Pi-ovidenoe to protect the new-born town. As the Rev. Mr. Hooker goes, tlie Rev. Mr. Shepard conies, " the holy, heav- enly, sweet-affecting, and soul-ravishing Mr. Shepard." ORATIOX BY COLOXEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 49 He comes Avith other settlers, and makes this memoran- dum : " Myself, and those that came with me, found many houses empty, and persons willing to sell." He takes Mr. Hooker's house, he takes his parish, he llually takes his daughter for a wife; never was there a transfer so convenient. If Dudlej- is the civil and military founder of the town, then is Shepard its sjoir- itual founder. In the next year, 1637, we see him opening with jjrayer the famous synod here held to pronounce against '• antinoraian and familistic opin- ions," of v.-hich synod he is the leading spirit. "A poore, weake, pale-complectioned man," as he is de- scribed by contemporaries, and now but about thirty years old, he yet j^ours forth such power that the s3"nod, under his guidance, condemns " about eighty opinions, some blasphemous, others erroneous, all un- safe," sa3"s even the tolerant Winthrop. What is cer- tain is that by this bold leadership and by his various virtues Mr. Shepard so wins the confidence of the Col- ony, that, when the plan for establishing a college is formed. Cotton Mather tells us, " Cambridge, rather than any other place, was pitched upon to be the seat of that hnppy seminary." Surely it is gathering grapes of thorns and figs of thistles to extract one happy seminary out of eighty pestilent heresies ; but we find it done. It was a glorious thing in that little colony, which could only raise £60 to defend itself from savages, to appropriate £400 to protect itself from ignorance.' 1 "It is questionable whether a more honorable specimen of public spirit can be found in the history of mankind." — Dwight's Travels in New England (1821), i. iSl. 4 50 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. Shepard, in securing for this town a college, did more for it than Dudley, who secured for it a " pallysadoe." And the College also brought with it the name, so that Newtown was soon changed (May, 1638) to Cambridge, in memory of the English Cambridge, where so many of tlie Puritan clergy had been reared. Henceforth it was, through its whole career, a college town. I do not know whether to find this illustrated in the fact that, during the very year after the institution was opened, the town had to pay a fine of ten shillings for not keep- ing its stocks and watch-house in working order. It is observable, also, that the first President, D mister, gave his hearty approval of an alehouse kept Ijy one whom he calls "Sister Bradish," on the ground that she sold such "comfortable pennyworths" to the students; and that it was afterwards found needful to have a college brewery, situated near Stoughton and Hollis Halls, which brewed ale expressly for tlie students till about the time of the Revolution, and made " Sister Bradish" and her pennj'worths superfhious. At any rate, so great was the importance of the College as a feature in the new settlement, tliat Mr. Paige has unearthed, among the manuscripts of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a memorandum dated Sept. 30, 1783, to the effect that in tiie early days the per.sons appointed to lay out roads into the interior did it so far as the bank by Mrs. Biglow's in Weston, and that this was as far as would ever be necessary, it being about seven miles from the College in Cambridge.^ ' Paige's Cambridge, p. 126. ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. IIIGGIXSON. 51 Yet we must regard Cambridge not alone as the seat of the College, but as being for a time the seat of the colonial government. Not only do we find the courts held here, but the very elections, — men from the farthest extremes of the Colony sending their votes or " proxies " hither, or coming in person. Let us look in upon the exciting contest of 1637, Avhere Vane and Winthrop are arrayed against each other. The Colo- nists are assembled on the afternoon of Maj- 17, in a fashion borrowed from the parliamentary elections in England, beneath an oak-tree on the northerly side of Cambridge Couunon. It is a celebrated tiee, which has got its full growth, though the Washington Elm is still but a sapling. There is much excitement, and some of the voters are ready to lay violent hands upon each other, — the party of Vane wishing to postpone the choice of officers, that of Winthrop desiring to proceed to it at once. At last there is a stir in the crowd, and against the trunk of the great oak-tree there rises, with struggling and clambering, the form of the Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of Boston. He is now forty- nine years old, and, being stout in person, has given his hat to one parishioner, his Geneva cloak to another, and climbs with bands somewhat dishevelled and face a good deal fluslied. Clinging with one hand, probably^ and gesticulating with the other, he harangues the peo- ple, bids them look to their charter and they will find that they have come here to elect officers and nothing- else. His voice is echoed by a general cry of" Elec- tion, election, election ! " The choice is made at once, and Winthrop supersedes Vane, the last year's governor, 52 AFTEKNOON KXEItCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. all in consequence of this more than stump speech, with a whole oak-tree for a pedestal.^ In 16-51 we find the town extended to its greatest size, — long and thin, as becomes an oveigrown youth, — measuring eighteen miles in length, and only a mile in width. It is shaped like a pair of compasses, one leg extending through the region now known as Arling- ton, Lexington, Bedford, and Billerica, and the other shorter limb through Brighton and Newton, the present Cambridge representing only the head. All that later becomes Cambridgeport and East Cambridge is a region of meadow and salt marsh called the Neck, intersected by natural canals ; having no roads, with no means of access to Boston except by boat, and visited from Cam- bridge only for purposes of fishing and hunting.^ It may fill us with admiration for the courage and j)atient toil of our ancestors when wo perceive how the succes- sive parts of the overgrown Cambridge of 1G51 are lopped away, and see a new city reclaimed from bog and marsh to take its place. If we thank the founders of the church and the state, we must also thank that long series of unknown benefactors who, with noiseless lal)or, put dry ground beneath their feet, till at length our City Hall stands where the spring tides of the river once came. But where are the aboriginal iidiabitants of the soil while this goes on? Who are these five swarthy boys, who tread swiftly with light steps the streets 1 Holmes's Cambridge, p. !). Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 170. Ilutchiii.son's History of >lassachusetts, i. CL ^ See Dr. Abiel Holmes's Memoir of Cambridgeport, p. 1, in appen dix to his sermon at the ordinatiun of Kev. T. B. Gannett, Jan. 19, 181 1. ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGIXSOX. 53 of the little town, in the year 1659 ? They turn into Crooked Street, now Holyoke Street, and enter the door of a little schoolhoase, just where the deserted printing-office now stands. This is the house of Mr. Elijah Corlet, that " venerable old schoolmaster in Cambridge," as Cotton Mather calls him, wlio teaches " a faire grammar school for boys, that still, as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge." Only two of the Indian pupils ripen to that extent, but those two, Joel and Caleb, are called forth on Com- mencement Day, 1659, just before entering, and are examined by the President in turning a chapter of Isaiah into English. More interesting than either of these, perhaps, is another of Master Corlet's scholars, who passes into that other imiversity, the printing- press, and there toils, the livelong day, on Eliot's Bible and Pierson's Indian Catechism. These are tlie propositions he prints, in alternate English and Indian, " How do you prove that there is but one God ? Answer. Because singular things of the same kind, when they are multiplied, are differenced among themselves by their singular properties ; but there cannot be fomid another God differenced from this by any such like properties." ^ Singular, indeed, were the properties of an intellectual diet like this, and we cannot wonder that Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Indus, remains the only aboriginal name on the Harvard catalogue, or that he died of rapid consumption within a few months after taking his degree. Another year passes by, and what stern strangers are 1 Dr. J. H. Trumbull, in Memorial History of Boston, i. 467. 54 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. these, representing European civilization instead of savage wildness ? Their presence links the little town with events that have shaken the Old World to its centre. The same ship that, in 1660, brings to Boston the news of Charles II. 's restoration, brings also two of those who doomed his father to death. Gofle and Whalley, known in popular parlance as '• the Colonels," land in Boston, go at once to Cambridge, and " are en- tertained by the magistrates with great solemnity and feasted," even when proclaimed as " traitors " to the crown. Goffe's diary has in part been printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society. It makes little of feasting or solemn entertainments, but touchingl}' de- scribes a visit paid to Ehler Frost in his poor abode. " A glorious saint," writes the exile, '' makes a mean cottage a stately palace : were I to make my choyce, I would rather abide with this saint in his poor cottage than with any of the princes I know of, at this day, in the world." There is a grim dignity in this compli- ment, coming from a man who had helped rid the world of at least one prince. The regicides stayed but a short time in Caml)ridge, yet long enough to leave to our local dialect a singular oath, which I remember distinctly to have heard here in boyhood, '• By GofTe- Whalley ! " It is a curious commentary on the career of these bold men, that their names should have been the object of malediction throughout one continent, and the vehicle of it in another. With such diver.se elements in society, the Cambridge of that day cannot have been the dull, prosaic place we sometimes fancv when we think of a Puritan town. ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 55 Life was varied by the perils and excitements of frontier life, mingled with the pomps and the crimes of a type of society now passed away. Consider how much of adventm'e was represented by the hunts which brought in seventy-six wolves' heads as late as 1696, and which yielded annually " many " bears down to the period of the Revolution. Recall the picture of tho.se magnificent funerals, like that of Andrew Belcher, in 1717, when ninety-six pairs of kid gloves were issued, and fifty suits of mourning clothes Avere made for guests, at the cost of the estate. Or turn from this to the tragedy enacted at the Gallows Lot, near what is now Arlington Street, then the northwesterly corner of the old Common. It is 1755; there is still slavery in Massachusetts, and two negroes belonging to Captain Cod man, of Charlestown, have committed " joetty trea- son " by murdering their master. They are drawn on sleds to the place of execution. Mark, a young fellow of thirty, is hanged, and PhillLs, " an old creatui^e," is burned to death at a stake ten yards from the gallows. When we think that this fearful tragedy took place but one hiuidi-ed and twentj'-five years ago, and that it does not seem to have created a protest or a ripple in pub- lic opinion, shall we not be charitable to those com- munities in which the virus of slavery has worked far more profoundly and more recently than with our fathers ? ^ ' I am ii^minded by my friend Professor James B. Thayer, of the Harvard Law School, that the punishment of death for petty treason, defined in the dictionaries as " the offence of killing a master or a hus- band," was in ITo.i punishable with de.ath by English law, without spe- cial reference to chattel slavery or to the race of the servant ; but it may 56 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. But we nuist hasten onward. The sliadow of the jjfreat Revolution draws near. Nowhere better than in Cambridge can we understand how essentially this was an outbreak of the people, as distinct from the wealthier classes. After the original simplicity of the settlers, when Winthrop censured Dudley for wainscoting his house, had cotne a period of social magnificence. From Brattle Square to Mount Auburn there extended an unbroken series of stately houses representing the aris- tocracy of Cambridge, — the Brattles, Vassalls, Lech- meres, Olivers, Ruggleses, and the rest. Madame Riedesel, the wife of a general captured with Burgoyne's army, w'rote thus about them: "Never had I chanced upon such an agreeable situation. Seven families, who were connected with each other, partly by the ties of be doubted whether it would have been actually inflicted, at that period and on this soil, e.xcept when the crime was aggravated by these two con- sidei-atious. As to the burning, it was regarded as an act of hnmanity, strange to say, in the opinion of that period. The punisiiment for petty treason in case of men was to be " hanged, drawn, and quartered:" and Blackstone says, in respect to women, tiiat " in treasons of every kind the punishment of women is the same, and different fro'n that of men. For as the decency due to the sex forbids the exposing and publicly mangling their bodies, their sentence (which is to the full as terrible to sensation as the otiier) is to be drawn to the gallows and there to be burned alive." And again he says, " The punishment of petty treason, in a man, is to be drawn and hanged, and in a woman to be drawn and burnt; tiie idea of which latter punishment seems to have been handed down to us by the laws of the ancient Druids, which condemned a woman to be burnt for murdering her liusband: and it is now the usn.al punish- ment for all sorts of treason committed by tiiose of the female sex." (Blackstone's Commentaries (ed. 1700), iv. 0.3.204.) Pike's "History of Crime " (ii. pp. .378, .379, 049) shows that there were two cases of tlic burning of women for petty treason in the Western Circuit of England between 1782 and 178t, and the author seems to think the latter the last case known. Petty treasou was made simple murder by Mass. Sts. 17Si, c. CO. OKATIOX BT COLONEL T. W. IIIGGINSOX. / relationship and partly by affection, had here farms, gardens, and magnificent houses, and, not far off, plantations of fruit. The owners of these were in the habit of meeting each other in the afternoons, now at the house of one, now at another, and making them- selves merry with music and the dance, living in pros- perity, united and happy, until, alas ! this ruinous war severed them, and left all their houses desolate except two, the proprietors of which were also soon obliged to flee." These men had not only the high social posi- tions, but the civil and military offices. Brattle was major-general of the province and colonel of the train- band ; Henry Vassall was lieutenant-colonel, and Oliver was lieutenant-governor of the province. Up and down Brattle Street they walked, as a Cambridge author has said, "scarlet-coated, rapiered figures, . . . creaking on red-heeled shoes, lifting the ceremonious three-cornered hat, and offering the fugacious hospi- talities of the snuff-box."' So uniformly did they take the wrong side in the Revolution that this -chain of houses was popularly called •■ Torv Row ; '•' and I can remember to have heai'd that name still sometimes given to Brattle Street in ray boyhood. But these houses are now identified with the later and more lasting intellectual honors of Cambridge. The long-celebrated school of William Wells was in the house of Ruggles ; Margaret Fuller lived in that of Brattle ; Lowell (were he only with us to-day!) still occupies that of Oliver; Longfellow has * Lowell's Fireside Travels, p. 80. 58 AFTERXOOX EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. given a more permanent fame to that of Vaissall. The " Tory Row " of our ancestors has become the '^ Glorv Row " of our poets. Let us revisit that street in fancy, as it appeared when the days of the Revohitiou were approaching-. It must be remembered that, alter the Boston Port Bill had reduced the whole region to distress, tliere came an order that the members of the governing council should not be elected, as belbre, by the General Court, but that they, with the governor and lieutenant- governor, should be appointed by the crown. It hap- pened that the Lieutenant-Governor, Oliver, and two Councillors, Danforth and Lee, were citizens of Cam- bridge. Against these last officers, called habitually "mandamus" councillors, from the word with which the royal order began, great popular wrath arose. Coidd we look on tlie viciuit}- of Cambridge on Sept. 2, 1774:, w^e should see parties of excited men draw- ing together from all Middle.sex County, bringing arms, ammunition, and provisions, and finally depositing these in improvised camps, nnd luu-rying on, amned with sticks only, to the town srpiare of Cambridge, pausing on the way, sometimes, to hoot and groan before the houses on " Tory Row." Round the court-house steps we should see a gathering of several thousand men, talking, gesticulating, swearing ; yet they are not a mad mob, but, as Oliver afterward assures Gage, " the freeholders of the county." At last there rises among them the figure of an infirm man, almost seventy-five years old, — Judge Danforth, who has been a member of the council by thirty-six successive ORATION BY COLONEL T. W. HIGGINSON. 59 elections. There is a general hush to hear him, anfl he tells them, with a voice still firm, that he had meant to accept the appointment, believing that he could serve them in it, but that, finding the general popular feeling against it, he has resolved to resign it. He gives them a written pledge : " Although I have this day made an open declaration to a great concourse of people who assembled at Cambridge that I had re- signed my seat at the council board, yet, for the further satisfaction of all, I do hereby declare under my hand that such resignation has actually been made." Judge Lee, a younger man, standing by Danforth, makes a similar declaration ; the meeting unanimously votes that it accepts the declaration, and also that it dis- approves of mobs, riots, and the destruction of private property, — this vote being carried, probably, amid a flourishing of sticks which looks a little inconsistent with its spirit. But the end is not yet. Just as all seems subsid- ing, an obnoxious revenue commissioner, Benjamin Hallowell, unluckily drives through the town and is recognized ; horsemen to the number of one hundred and sixty make after him ; part are disarmed and re- turn ; but one person, wdio comes down to history only as " a gentleman of small stature," keeps on after Mr^ Hallowell, and stops his chaise. Hallowell snaps his pistols in vain, jumps from his chaise, and mounts his servant's horse, then gallops through Roxbury to Boston. His horse drops exhausted within the gates, and he runs on foot toward the camp, crying aloud that all Cambridge is risen in rebellion, and thousands 60 AFTERNOON EXERCISES AT SANDERS THEATRE. of men are at his heels. Never before was one gentle- man of small stature so enormously multiplied. The camp is up ; friends of the patriotic cause send a mes- senger on a fleet horse to Cambridge, where the mob is not yet dispersed. The crowd accepts the defiance, and marches to the house of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, — the house now occupied by Professor Lowell, — and he is summoned forth, — "a dapper little man," as con- temporary fame describes him. ' The}' require him to resign his office in writing, which he does, and adds: •' My house at Cambridge being surrounded by about four thousand people, in compliance with their com- mand I sign my name." Then, and not till then, the crowd disperses. It is easy to see in this armed gathering of Middlesex freeholders in Cambridge a fit preparati(m for that other armed gathering a little more than six months later, when many of the same men shall assemble to waylay Percy's troops on the Concord road. But the Cambridge turmoil ends in peaceful dispersal, and. after the maimer of Anglo- Saxons, by eating and drinking. The Boston Gazette' says : " The gentlemen from Boston, Charlestown, and Cambridge having provided some refreshment for their greatly fatigued brethren, they cheerfully accepted, took leave, and departed in higli good humor and well satisfied." Let us hope that at the feast the health of the gentleman of small stature was drunk with an eminently appropriate three times three. Let us hasten forward to that period of seven months ' Drake's Historic Fields aiirl Mansions, p. 319. ' Sfpt. 5, 1774, quoted in Paiges Cambridge, p. 151. ORATIOX BY COLONEL T. \V. IIIGGINSON. (il later, the eve of the first revolutionary skirmish. We owe to a Cambridge woman, Mrs. Hannah Winthrop, j^erhaps the most vivid picture of that night of trial, "the hor- rors of that midnight cry," as she calls it, " preceding the bloody battle of Lexington." The women of Cam- bridge are aroused in the night by the beat of drums and ringing of bells. They are told that the British troops are marching on an expedition, and that, on their return, they are to burn the College and lay waste the town. The women take refuge with their children at '' a place called Fresh Pond," in sight and hearing of the skirmishing at West Cambridge, or Menotomy. There are seventy or eighty women with their children watching, while every shot may tell of the ruin of a home. They spend the night there, and the next day are ordered to Andover, whither the treasures of the College have already been sent. They begin their pilgrimage, alternately w'alking and riding. The roads are full of women and children ; they cross the fields of Menotomy, now Arlington, then a part of Cambridge, where the dead bodies lie unburied. This is one woman's account.' Meanwhile, upon these very fields, another woman, wife of John Hicks, has sent her boy of fourteen to look for his father. The child comes upon him dead by the roadside, with William Marcy and Moses^ichardson close by. All these are from Cambridge. Hicks has served in the " Boston Tea Party," and he and Richardson are both beyond military age. Marcy is a half-witted youth. The boy procures help and a wagon, and he ' Women of the American Revolution, by Elizabeth F. Ellet, i. 94,9.5. ()2 AFTERNOON EXEKCISKS AT SANDEItS THEATRE. and some of the Avoiueii return home with their dead, ria.stil}', by toichli