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 Cit2 Government 
 
 an a^bress ^elivere^ at the delebratton of the 
 
 jTiftietb anniversary of tbe ITncorporation of 
 
 Hewburi^port as a Citip, 3une 24, 1901, 
 
 bi? aibert E. ipillsburi?. 
 
Author. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 ^^1 
 
 OF 
 
 ALBERT E. PILLSBURY. 
 
 The event which we celebrate today, the new birth 
 of the town into a city, is more than a change in the form 
 of government. Cities were the earliest seats of what 
 we call civilization. "Civis" — the citizen — was a title 
 of honor. The walled city was the stronghold and 
 defence of learning and the arts. The ancient world 
 survives in the history of its cities. To us it is little 
 more than Ilium, Babylon, Carthage, Athens, Rome. 
 Cities were and are the centers of wealth and power. 
 They are the distinguished members of the state. So 
 the admission of a town into the sisterhood of cities has 
 an interest and significance beyond that which attends 
 the mere increase of numbers. It is the opening of a new 
 day. The community takes a higher rank, and with it 
 every inhabitant acquires a new distinction. The local 
 pride and public spirit of a home-loving people naturally 
 unite to set apart such an event for public commem- 
 oration. 
 
 Newburyport has another and a peculiar reason for 
 observing it. This anniversary is more than the mere 
 recurrence of a date. Fifty years ago a new town had 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 begun to arise here, on the foundations of the old; a 
 town of different interests, different customs, largely of 
 different people. The city charter marked the full open- 
 ing of the new industrial age, of which half a century is 
 now completed. 
 
 The celebration of these civic anniversaries may 
 mean much or little, according to the spirit which inspires 
 it. They are natural halting-places in the procession of 
 events, where we stop and look backward a moment over 
 our course. But we move forward, not backward. Such 
 a day is not for idle boasting, as one who putteth off his 
 harness. It is a day to look forward, and to gird up the 
 strength for new tasks; fortunate they who can look for- 
 ward with tranquil eyes. If Newburyport were a decay- 
 ing city, her character gone, her enterprise extinct, her 
 great history but a perishing memory; if we could not 
 look to the past without regret nor to the future without 
 apprehension; this would be an idle and unmeaning 
 holiday, soon over and soon forgotten. But if, on the 
 other hand, we find in the record of fifty years, and in 
 forecast of the years to come, that which will sustain 
 hope, strengthen confidence, and stimulate courage; if 
 our holiday banners are the ensigns of an advancing 
 march, and our bells and cannon speak with the voice of 
 resolve no less than exultation; nay, if taking counsel 
 even of our mistakes, we can gather from the experience 
 of the past new wisdom for the benefit of the future, then 
 indeed will this be no empty celebration, but a day to be 
 marked and remembered in the city's calendar. 
 
 I ask leave to speak here as one of this family. 
 When Edward Rawson, town clerk and local magistrate 
 of Newbury, removed to Boston in 165 1 to take the place 
 of Colonial Secretary, he sold his homestead on the 
 "country road," now High street, to my first ancestor in 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NKWBURYPORT 
 
 this countr}^ whose lineal descendants have possessed it 
 down to this day. I regret that his only claim to peculiar 
 distinction seems to have been in getting himself fined, in 
 the sum of "one noble," for his part in that thirty-years 
 war which shook the foundations of old Newbury church, 
 the Parker- Woodman controversy. But he stood for the 
 rule of the majority, and time has vindicated him. Three 
 generations of my ancestors, and many more of my 
 kindred, have mingled their bones with your soil. All of 
 my name and family in America look to this spot as the 
 cradle of their race in the new world. It is no unlineal 
 hand that I extend to you in embracing the opportunity 
 to acknowledge, if I cannot repay, the natural debt which 
 we all owe to the home of our fathers. 
 
 It was an ancient superstition that great events are 
 attended by storms and portents. Those who observe 
 such things may like to recall that in the midst of the 
 movements at the state capital which brought this city 
 into existence, in the spring of 1851, a great tempest 
 swept over this region, the like of which, according to 
 local tradition, was never known here before. Probably 
 most of us will agree that no special significance or effect 
 upon the fortunes of Newburyport is to be ascribed to 
 this convulsion of nature. There is another contempora- 
 neous fact of more interest which did affect them. It was 
 only a narrow chance, hardly more than an accident as it 
 now appears, that gave birth to this city. It will not be 
 without interest to relate how the event came about 
 which furnishes the occasion for this festival. 
 
 On the fourteenth day of January, 1851, Abner Ken- 
 iston and one hundred and eighty-four others, "inhabitants 
 of that part of Newbury called Belleville parish," pre- 
 sented to the General Court their petition, praying that 
 "the territory aforesaid, bounded southeasterly by New- 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 buryport, from the Merrimac river to Anvil Rock in 
 common pasture, being the southwesterly corner of 
 Newburyport, and thence by a straight line to the north- 
 easterly corner of Newbury in Birchen meadow, may be 
 set off from Newbur}^ and incorporated into a town by 
 the name of Belleville." 
 
 This was the latest in a long series of applications to 
 the legislature by the people of Newburyport or adjacent 
 parts of Newbury, indicating discontent with their situa- 
 tion under the act of 1764, by which Newburyport was 
 made a town of an area variously stated at from six 
 hundred and thirty to six hundred and forty-seven acres, 
 the smallest ever known to the province or common- 
 wealth. The prosperous village of Newburyport had 
 soon overflowed these narrow borders. This overflow, 
 bound to Newburyport in interest but to Newbury in law, 
 was a disturbing element in the old agricultural town. 
 There was jealousy and bickering in the management of 
 its affairs, between the men who plowed the land and the 
 men who plowed the sea. Petitions for annexation of 
 parts of Newbury to Newburyport were presented to the 
 legislatures of 1794, 1821, 1827, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1843, 
 and 1847, without success. In 1828 some inhabitants of 
 Belleville, or the "• fifth parish," asked for incorporation 
 as a separate town, to which Newbury assented; but 
 others asked for annexation to Newburyport, and both 
 movements were defeated. In 1846 the legislature was 
 asked to reunite Newbury and Newburyport, but New- 
 bury would not have you. 
 
 Upon the petition for the incorporation of the town 
 of Belleville, in 1851, notice was ordered to Newbury, 
 and on February 8th the town voted not to oppose it. 
 In this petition, and this action of the town of Newbury 
 upon it, there was a large possibility that Newbur3^port 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 
 
 might never come into existence as a city. The only 
 surviving member of the legislative committee on towns 
 of that year* is aiithorit}' for the statement that upon first 
 consideration of this petition it appeared that the differ- 
 ences of three-quarters of a century between Newbury- 
 port and Newbury were likely to be merged in the new 
 town of Belleville. In this posture of affairs, a seemingly 
 trifling intervention changed, in hardly more than a day, 
 the whole course of events and of your future history. 
 
 The incorporation of cities in Massachusetts had 
 been undertaken reluctantly and with many doubts, which 
 even a constitutional amendment hardly quieted, and not 
 until the town-meeting of Boston, with forty thousand 
 inhabitants, had become an unmanageable body. But 
 Salem and Lowell had followed in 1836, Cambridge in 
 1846, New Bedford in 1847, Worcester in 1848, Lynn in 
 1850, and by 185 1 the movement was well under way. 
 To Caleb Cushing, then representing Newbury in the 
 legislature, it was suggested by the legislative committee 
 that it would be more in line with current events to 
 enlarge Newburyport and give it a city charter than to 
 create another small town. It would seem that the com- 
 mittee suspended action upon the Keniston petition, that 
 Mr. Cushing might seize the opportunity to make New- 
 bur3'port a city. 
 
 Apparently he lost no time in acting upon this hint. 
 On February 13th he presented a memorial of Jacob 
 Merrill and twenty-two others, who had signed the 
 Keniston petition, withdrawing from it their names and 
 support; a remonstrance of Francis Lord and seventy- 
 three other residents against it; and a similar remonstrance 
 from Sarah Little and eleven other women residents, 
 declaring that "although unused by our former habits 
 
 • Hon. James Dinsinoor, of Lowell. 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 and the customs of the country to active interest in 
 political or municipal affairs, 3^et we believe it to be our 
 right, and feel it to be our duty, to express our opinions 
 and wishes upon this question." To this early but active 
 assertion of woman's rights this city may owe its exist- 
 ence. Two days later these remonstrances were followed 
 by a petition of Moses Pettingell and one hundred and 
 one others, residents of the Ridge and Joppa, and two 
 days later still by a similar petition of William Goodwin 
 and forty-nine others, residents of the westerly part of 
 Newbury, for annexation of their territory to Newbury- 
 port. February 19th, immediately following these peti- 
 tions and remonstrances, and apparently in pursuance of 
 an understanding with the committee, the petitioners for 
 the town of Belleville were given leave to withdraw. 
 Upon the petitions for annexation, notice was ordered to 
 Newbury and Newburyport, which voted their assent. 
 The annexation bill was reported April 3d, and became a 
 law April 17th. One week later Newburyport appointed, 
 in town-meeting, a committee of ten, headed by Mr. 
 Gushing, to apply for a city charter. Their petition was 
 presented the following day, and a charter was reported 
 May I St, which became a law May 24th by the approval 
 of Governor George S. Boutwell, who remains among us, 
 full of years and honors, to witness the fiftieth anniver- 
 sary of the act. June 3d the charter was accepted by the 
 inhabitants, June i6th city officers were elected, and June 
 24th, fifty years ago this day, the new government was 
 organized, and Newburyport took her place among the 
 cities of the commonwealth. 
 
 The new city paid her newly-annexed inhabitants 
 the appropriate compliment of selecting from their num- 
 ber, as the first mayor, that remarkable man whose hand 
 had been so active in procuring the charter. The 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT >J 
 
 versatile genius of Caleb Gushing was never more strik- 
 ingly illustrated than at this period when, within the 
 space of a year and a half, he is found filling in succession 
 the offices of representative in the legislature, mayor of 
 Newburyport, justice of the supreme judicial court, and 
 attorney general of the United States. Of his colleagues 
 in the original city government of 185 i, your esteemed 
 fellow-citizen, Philip K. Hills, alone survives to join in 
 this commemoration. 
 
 The city of Newburyport stands out against an 
 historic background, the like of which, in richness of 
 color and variety of interest, belongs to few cities even 
 of this ancient and historic commonwealth. To the eye 
 of the native or descendant it reflects all the hues of this 
 radiant nimbus. The very sound of the name stirs the 
 historic imagination. Without any artificial advantage, 
 never a capital nor even a county-seat, the capital itself 
 hardly excels this city in wealth of historic memories. 
 
 Fortunately it is not left to me to relate her history. 
 It is written in the pages of Gushing, his first published 
 work; in Goffin's history of the Newburys, that New 
 England classic, to which all paths of antiquarian research 
 finally lead; in the later work of Euphemia Vale Smith; 
 in the "Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian," a picture, 
 perfect as a cameo, of the actual daily life of the people 
 of old Newburyport; and in that sumptuous volume in 
 which a worthy son and citizen here present* has painted 
 with the hand of affection, for the delight of posterity, the 
 men and scenes hallowed by local tradition, now disap- 
 peared or disappearing. The muse of Whittier has cast 
 her spell upon it. It has been sung in the verse of native 
 
 • Ex-Mayor John James Currier. 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 poets, and recited b}^ orators on many occasions — and 
 yet the whole story of Newburyport has never been told. 
 We cannot turn from the picture without a passing 
 glance, nor can we rightly view the city of today without 
 a brief retrospect, however imperfect, of the events which 
 gave it birth. 
 
 The history of Newburyport falls naturally into four 
 principal divisions: the colonial period, of settlement and 
 natural growth, of Puritan theology, witchcraft, earth- 
 quakes, and the first promptings of freedom, leading up 
 to the incorporation of the town in 1764; the days of the 
 old town in its prosperity, from the close of the Revolution 
 to the great fire and the war of 181 2; the years of doubt 
 and discouragement that followed, from which the town 
 emerged with the beginning of manufactures, culminating 
 in the birth of the city; and the half-century now com- 
 pleted. We cannot separate the early history of New- 
 buryport from that of old Newbury, nor make a distinct 
 partition of its honors or memories between them. If a 
 Solomon came to that judgment, each would have it 
 remain one and indivisible. But our Newbury and West 
 Newbury neighbors will indulge us in the recollection 
 that much, perhaps most, that is remarkable in the history 
 of the old town was enacted on this spot, and so is justly 
 part of the heritage and possessions of Newburyport, 
 and as such we must claim the right to speak of it; a 
 claim the more readily to be conceded as we cannot take 
 their history from them though taking it to ourselves. 
 
 The situation of the town favored both inland trade 
 and foreign commerce, — ''terra marique" is appropriately 
 written on the city's scroll — and here the commerce of 
 Massachusetts practically began; a commerce which not 
 only filled the purse but broadened the horizon. It 
 quickened the narrow and somber life of that Puritan 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURVPORT 
 
 people with the elements of romance that lie in the 
 wonders and mysteries of the sea. They saw visions of 
 far-off lands, and dreamed of voyacres and the prizes of 
 adventure. It was with the peace of 1783 that the golden 
 age of old Nevvburyport began. For a generation follow- 
 ing, its story is unique in the history of New England. 
 Toward the end of the eighteenth century Europe was in 
 arms. The neutrality of the United States, and its natural 
 advantages for commerce, threw into American hands a 
 large share of the carrying trade of the world. The skill 
 of Newburyport shipwrights, and the energy and courage 
 of Newburyport merchants and mariners, opened to this 
 modest provincial town a career of marvelous prosperity. 
 It was a time of great hazards, but of great profits. Out 
 of commercial enterprise a town arose here which almost 
 rivalled the brilliancy of a foreign capital. Then New- 
 buryport, a grand dame arrayed in silks and jewels, 
 holding her court in a splendor almost regal, drew to her 
 feet much of the brightest and best of the character, 
 intellect, and culture of the commonwealth. Here the 
 Tracys, the Daltons, the Jacksons, the Lowells, the Bart- 
 letts, the Greenlea fs, theWiggles worths, theWheel wrights, 
 the Hoopers, the Littles, the Lunts, the Hales, the 
 Browns, and other families of no less worth, formed a 
 constellation whose luster makes a shining page in the 
 history of the town. Stately mansions, fitted and adorned 
 with European luxury, surrounded with gardens and 
 terraces, rose along the "ridge", the villas of opulent mer- 
 chants stood in the midst of baronial estates in the 
 environs, gorgeous equipages filled the streets, the gentry 
 clothed themselves and their families in broadcloths, 
 velvets, and laces, and dined off plate at banquets mel- 
 lowed with the choicest vintages of the world, and 
 wealth, intellect, and culture united to make Newburv- 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 port a social and commercial center hardly inferior in 
 attractions to the metropolis itself. In wealth and popu- 
 lation it was second only to Boston and Salem; in com- 
 mercial and social importance it was hardly second to 
 either. 
 
 But all this splendor blossomed from a single root, 
 and it withered almost as soon as it had grown. 
 With the approach of the war of 1812 the clouds gathered 
 over Newburyport. In the midst of the strangulation of 
 commerce by embargoes and non-intercourse acts came 
 the devastating fire of May 31, 181 1. Fortune had veiled 
 her face. From these multiplied calamities the old New- 
 buryport never arose. When prosperity returned, it 
 was a new day and a new town. Before the fire, New- 
 buryport had seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four 
 souls and more than seven millions of wealth. It took 
 thirty years to regain her former numbers, and the 
 property valuation of 181 1 was never again reached until 
 1856, nor permanently restored until 1865. 
 
 The decline of old Newburyport was the inevitable 
 result of causes of wider operation than the war or the 
 fire. When commerce again spread her wings, after the 
 war of 181 2, they bore her away from Newburyport to 
 the greater ports and harbors more favored by nature. 
 The day of small craft was past. The bar at the river's 
 mouth was an obstacle to vessels of larger draft and ton- 
 nage which no degree of local enterprise could sur- 
 mount. Then came the Middlesex canal, diverting the 
 inland trade. For a generation Newburyport was almost 
 at a standstill. Some of her capitalists were ruined, 
 others sought new fields of enterprise, and those who 
 remained could not in a moment repair the disasters 
 which had shattered their fortunes. From the fire to a 
 time near the middle of the century there was doubt, 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT II 
 
 discouragement, stagnation. But the universal law of 
 compensation was at work. As one thing goes, another 
 comes. The seed of the future prosperity of Newbury- 
 port was planted in 1834, ^^e year that saw the erection 
 of the first cotton factory. The smoke of the chimneys 
 of the Essex mill was the signal that manufactures had 
 come in, to take the place of commerce. This mill was 
 soon followed by others, and by shoe manufacture, an 
 ancient industry of the town, on an extended scale. The 
 opening of the Eastern railroad, in 1840 followed by the 
 connection of the city with the Boston & Maine railroad, 
 in 1850, stimulated these and other enterprises, and by 
 185 I Newburyport was fairl}' entered upon a new indus- 
 trial career, destined to excel and to outlast the excep- 
 tional but unstable fortunes of the old town. And with 
 this revival of industry the city began. 
 
 A survey of the ensuing fifty years, of which this 
 day marks the completion, would show that Newburyport 
 has kept fully abreast of the age in all the lines of civic 
 development. Public spirit and private munificence have 
 combined to endow the city with every agency and 
 appliance for the promotion of the public welfare. The 
 introduction of gas lighting in 1852, since supplemented 
 by electricity; the founding of the public library in 1854, 
 a memorable event in the history of any city; the con- 
 struction of the City railroad, in 187 1, connecting the 
 water-front with the Boston & Maine railroad; the open- 
 ing, in 1873, of the first horse-railway, between New- 
 buryport and Amesbury, now developed into a network 
 of electric lines extending in all directions; the gift to 
 the city, in the same 3'ear, of the Atkinson common as a 
 public pleasure ground; the liberal bequest, in 1880, for 
 the erection of a city almshouse, completed and occupied 
 
12 FIFTIETH AKXmiRSARY OF THE 
 
 in 1889; the introduction of a public water suppl}-, in 
 1881; the incorporation of the Wheel'w^right Scientific 
 School, in 1S82; the endowment, in 1883, of that most 
 gratefiil of all public charities, a free hospital, to which 
 public-spirited citizens have since made substantial con- 
 tributions, crowned by the recent gift of land and means 
 for the erection of a new hospital building; the unique 
 benefaction, in 1885, for the watering of the public 
 streets; the public sewerage S3'stem, begun in 1889, now 
 so far extended as to embrace the greater part of the cit}'; 
 these and other public improvements, which time forbids 
 me to enumerate, have marked the progress of the city. 
 
 The finer aesthetic sense, which refuses to be satisfied 
 with merely material things, has not been inactive during 
 this period. The statue of Washington has risen in the 
 park; the bronze figure of Garrison, the most illustrious 
 son of Newbur3-port of the last centur}', whose appeal for 
 human rights she refused in a moment of madness to 
 hear, stands a perpetual witness to the final triumph of 
 truth; and public fountains, pleasure grounds, and other 
 objects of art and beaut}-, are ministering to the eye and 
 the taste and stimulating public spirit to emulate the 
 generosit)^ of the benefactors of the cit}-, whose names 
 will be held in grateful remembrance. 
 
 The religious activity for which this community was 
 remarkable from the earliest times, if abated in zeal is 
 unimpaired in its wholesome influence upon the public 
 morals and the social welfare of the city. Charitable, 
 scientific, historical, and literary enterprises have contin- 
 ued in undiminished vigor, maintaining the high character 
 of the city for intelligence, public spirit, philanthropy, 
 and all the social virtues. 
 
CITY CHARTER OK NEWBURYPORT 
 
 13 
 
 This is a material age, and Newburyport is an indus- 
 trial city. A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts has 
 recently remarked that if you wish to stir this generation 
 of Americans to enthusiasm, you must do it with a column 
 of figures. While there is truth in this satire, I shall not 
 assume that the people of Newburyport can be moved 
 only by an account of material growth or commercial 
 profits. But figures may be pregnant with the most sig- 
 nificant facts, and these symbols must be emplo3ed to 
 measure the material progress of a community like this. 
 The industrial history of Newburyport in these fifty 
 years discloses some interesting and remarkable facts, of 
 which the most notable is the great increase of wealth and 
 industries in contrast with the slow growth of popu- 
 lation. 
 
 In 1850 the town, by the Federal census, had 91^72 
 inhabitants. It is said in written statements presented to 
 the legislature with the annexation petition, of 185 1, 
 agreeing in this though differing in other particulars, 
 that the population of the annexed territory was 2842. 
 Assuming this to be correct, and the weight of evidence 
 seems to support it though the number has been differ- 
 ently stated, the original population of the city in 1851 
 was 12,414. In 1900 it was 14,478. The gain in half a 
 century is 2064, being 16.62 per cent., or one-sixth, an 
 average of but one-third of one per cent, yearly. Each 
 decade except that following i860, and each period of 
 five years since 1870 except the last, shows a slight gain. 
 The Federal census of 1900 charges Newburyport with a 
 loss of 74 inhabitants since 1895, which has doubtless 
 been more than made good by this time — certainly it 
 would be if the census were taken today. The increase 
 in the number of ratable polls since 1851 is 1831, a gain 
 of 72 per cent, as against a gain of less than 17 per cent. 
 
14 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 in total population; 87 per cent, of the whole gain in 
 numbers being of this class. This is characteristic of a 
 manufacturing population, but it indicates an unusual 
 proportion of those who are not "set in families." 
 
 The exhibit of the wealth and industries of the city 
 is in marked contrast with this slight increase of numbers. 
 From 185 I to 1900 real property has increased in value 
 from $2,596,400 to $7,286,000, a gain of 180 per cent.; 
 in other words, it has nearly trebled. Personal property, 
 including corporate stocks not appearing in the local val- 
 uation, has risen from $2,880,200 in 1851 to $3,632,033 
 in 1900, a gain of $751,833, or 26 per cent. The whole 
 wealth of the city has risen from $5,476,600 in 185 i to 
 $10,918,033 in 1900, or more than 99 per cent. Thus 
 property has substantially doubled while population has 
 increased but one-sixth; in other words, wealth has in- 
 creased about twelve times as fast as population. 
 
 Industrial statistics were not compiled in 1850. The 
 growth of the local industries within the city period can 
 be approximately shown by comparing those of 1845 and 
 1855 with those of 1900. In 1845 ^^e six leading indus- 
 tries were, in this order, cotton goods, boots and shoes, 
 machinery and metal goods, shipbuilding, snuff and to- 
 bacco, clocks, watches and jewelry. The amount of cap- 
 ital invested in all industries, as nearly as known, was 
 $757,300, the average number of persons employed 1598, 
 the whole annual value of products $841,258. In 1855 
 shipbuilding temporarily superseded boots and shoes as 
 second in importance, foods supplanted jewelry, and the 
 order was, cotton goods, shipbuilding, boots and shoes, 
 machinery and metals, snuff and tobacco, food products. 
 The whole capital invested was $1,467,300, persons em- 
 ployed 2904, value of products $2,422,632. 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEVVBURYPORT 15 
 
 In 1900 the order of importance was, boots and shoes, 
 cotton i^oods, building, clothing, food products and metals, 
 Shipbuilding and tobacco manufactures had disappeared 
 from the six leading industries. Clothing and building 
 had come in, and boots and shoes had forged ahead of 
 cotton goods and taken the first place. The whole capi- 
 tal invested was $3,863,199, persons employed 3076, value 
 of products $5,685,768. 
 
 In the fifty-five years from 1845 to 1900 the capital 
 invested in manufacturing industries had increased over 
 410 per cent., or nearly five-fold; the number of persons 
 emplo3'ed had increased about 93 per cent., or nearly 
 double; the value of products had increased over 575 per 
 cent, or more than six-fold. In the forty-five years from 
 1855 to 1900 the increase of capital invested was over 163 
 per cent., or nearly treble; the increase in persons em- 
 ployed was about 6 per cent.; the increase in the value 
 of products was over 134 per cent., or more than double. 
 
 It is evident that the increase in manufacturing in- 
 dustries was well under way between 1845 and 1855. 
 They were planted and growing before the city arose. 
 The value of products of the industries has increased in 
 a larger proportion than the capital invested, and in more 
 than six times the proportion of persons employed; a 
 result due, without doubt, to improved machinery and 
 facilities, to the change in the character of the industries, 
 and to skilful management. The value of manufactures 
 has more than doubled while population has increased but 
 one-sixth; in other words, the ratio of increase in the 
 products of manufacture is more than twelve times as 
 great as in population. 
 
 One plain conclusion from these facts may well be 
 the subject of congratulation here. The material inter- 
 ests of the city have prospered because there is a healthy 
 
1 6 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 diversity of industries and employments. In the old 
 times everything was centered in commerce, and when 
 commerce shook her elusive wings and Hew away from 
 old Newburyport, she took prosperity with her. In the 
 city of today prosperity is safely anchored in the found- 
 ations of a score of mills and factories. 
 
 We are celebrating the adoption of city government, 
 and some consideration of that subject cannot be out of 
 place. As much that must be said of it is not to its credit, 
 I begin by saying, as fortunately may be said with truth, 
 that city government in Newburyport has developed no 
 occasion for unusual complaint. This city is at least as 
 fortunate as its neighbors. If there is dissatisfaction here 
 with city government, or if it is declining in character, 
 this result may fairly be ascribed to inherent defects of 
 the system. Accordingly, in glancing at this subject, 
 which can be done here only in the broadest perspective, 
 I speak only of city government in general. If it has 
 succeeded here, there is no better reason for this celebra- 
 tion. If it has not, we can make no better use of a 
 moment than to consider the reasons. The subject is of 
 general importance, as the movement of population now 
 sets strongly towards the cities, in which two-thirds of 
 the people of this Commonwealth are dwelling at this 
 moment. 
 
 Perhaps city government is not, on the whole, so 
 black as it is painted. The complaints against it are ex- 
 aggerated in the heat of party warfare, or by the criticism 
 of theorists who forget that perfection cannot be reached 
 in the actual running of governmental machinery. 
 Making due allowance for all this, there are substantial 
 grounds of dissatisfaction, which challenge the attention 
 of all students of public affairs who realize how much 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT I7 
 
 more closely the interests of the average citizen are 
 bound up with the local than with the general govern- 
 ment, in a country where the municipality absorbs more 
 than four-fifths of all the direct taxes, and municipal 
 debts are ten times greater than all other public obliga- 
 tions. And it must not be forgotten that the sight of 
 open misgovernment is demoralizing. If tolerated, it will 
 corrupt the springs of public virtue. Unless the people 
 change the character of the government for the better 
 the government will change the character of the people 
 for the worse. 
 
 The general discontent with the actual results of city 
 rule is evident from the fact that it is one of the most 
 irrepressible themes of popular discussion. The press 
 teems with it, publicists theorize upon it in volumes of 
 learned essays, statisticians embellish it with figures, 
 legislatures labor with it and give birth to whole libraries 
 of statutes more or less impotent or mischievous, and the 
 failure of all these attempts at reform has led to the sug- 
 gestion of a variety of other remedies, ranging in force 
 and character from disfranchisement to lynching. It 
 must be conceded that if the genius of this people for 
 self-government has failed anywhere, it is at this point. 
 The general inefficiency of city government in this coun- 
 try stands confessed. Our commonwealth is happily yet 
 free from any great municipal scandal or any flagrant 
 example of misrule, but we cannot be surprised that 
 towns qualified for city government hesitate to adopt it, 
 and that at least one of our cities is today seriously con- 
 sidering the question of surrendering its charter. 
 
 The process of degeneration is familiar. Municipal 
 expenditure, necessarily large, usually extravagant, not 
 infrequently reckless, offers an irresistible temptation to 
 the large and growing class of those who wish to live 
 
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 without work at the public expense. Wheresoever the 
 carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. A 
 municipal "ring" is evolved, which controls the city gov- 
 ernment, a "boss" arises who controls the ring, the peo- 
 ple are dethroned, power passes from responsible officers 
 to irresponsible and unscrupulous hands, and the way is 
 open for a carnival of misrule. The public moneys are 
 diverted from their proper uses to enrich a horde of 
 political parasites; salaried offices are confiscated as the 
 legitimate spoil of the workers; jobbery takes toll of all 
 municipal expenditure; and even the public schools and 
 the public charities are made to pay tribute of corrup- 
 tion. Public office acquires a bad name. Citizens who 
 have the largest stake in honest government turn their 
 backs in contempt upon the public service and abdicate 
 all active participation in political affairs, and the descend- 
 ants of the men who waged a seven years' war against 
 threepence a pound on tea quietly submit to be looted of 
 millions by political gangs organized for plunder, whose 
 operations are a public scandal, and whose existence in 
 the face of a well-directed public sentiment would be 
 impossible. 
 
 There is one short, if cynical, answer to all this. 
 Popular government will never be better than the people 
 who make it. If the people of the cities are no better 
 than their government, if they have really become indif- 
 ferent, reckless, and corrupt, if character is declining, if 
 public spirit is becoming extinct, municipal and all other 
 misrule is accounted for. The general popular indiffer- 
 ence to misgovernment is a striking phenomenon, the 
 causes of which lie deeper than our inquiry today can 
 extend. But it is yet true, whatever the portents, that if 
 the whole people of any city could be polled upon the 
 direct issue of honest government, they would speak for 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT I9 
 
 it with no uncertain voice. The practical difficulty is 
 that an active and resolute minority, having a personal 
 interest to make the public treasury a subject of private 
 plunder, contrive by superior zeal and organization to 
 control or suppress the political influence of an indiffer- 
 ent and heedless majority. A large proportion of the 
 voting population of most cities has no substantial stake 
 in honest administration. The taxpayers are usually a 
 minority. Those who vote are not those who pay. 
 
 The inefficiency of city government is due to a variety 
 of causes. Some of them are inherent and unavoidable; 
 a fact not always remembered. Conditions vary with 
 natural situation, systems of local law, the character of 
 industries and population, and other circumstances. No 
 system would be the best everywhere. Our system has 
 some features which are undesirable anywhere, and for 
 the perpetuation of these, at least, there is no justification. 
 Any efficient remedy must be so simple as to be easily 
 applied, it must recognize unalterable facts and condi- 
 tions, and it must restore to city government the control- 
 ling power of sound public sentiment. 
 
 The government of all cities is necessarily expensive. 
 This appears in the financial history of Newburyport, as 
 it must in all cities. Debt and taxation are growing here 
 even more rapidly than wealth and industries. Density 
 of population, by itself, generates new needs and calls for 
 large expenditures, unnecessary and unknown in rural 
 neighborhoods. The streets of a city must be lighted, 
 paved, and cleaned. A city must have a public water 
 supply and a system of sewerage, in the interest of public 
 health. It must have police protection for the preserva- 
 tion of the public peace. It must have an efficient fire 
 department for the protection of property. All these and 
 other like charges, the sum total of which forms a large 
 
20 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 part of municipal expenditure, are made necessary by 
 mere congestion of population. The form of government 
 is not responsible for them. And now the steady advance 
 of state socialism, in high places no less than in low, is 
 constantly throwing new burdens upon the public which 
 have been and should be borne by private enterprise. 
 The best that can be done in dealing with the unavoidable 
 burdens is to secure honesty and prevent extravagance. 
 If the city buys no more than it needs, and if it gets an 
 honest equivalent for the purchase price, there is no 
 ground of complaint. And as wealth centers in cities, 
 these charges, under honest administration, are easily 
 borne, and the public benefits which they provide are 
 usually worth much more than their cost. 
 
 The most radical of all the difficulties with city gov- 
 ernment is in the anomalous relation between cities and 
 the state. The accepted legal theory here is that local self- 
 government is not a constitutional right but a political 
 privilege, to be granted or withheld by the legislature in 
 such measure as it sees fit. A city is but a branch of the 
 state government, and as such a mere agency and instru- 
 ment of the legislative will. It has the form of self- 
 government but not the substance. All its public powers 
 are held at sufferance of the legislature, which ma}^ grant 
 such as it pleases, modify or withdraw them as it pleases, 
 or step in on any occasion and exercise by its own hand 
 the powers which it has granted to the city. The guber- 
 natorial veto, not always wisely or justly exercised, adds 
 another complication to legislative control. It has 
 hitherto been understood that the power of the state to 
 compel a city to tax its inhabitants is limited, at most, to 
 the common public needs. But judicial wisdom now 
 declares that objects in the nature of luxuries, to be paid 
 for by compulsory taxation, may be forced upon a city 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 21 
 
 against its will by legislative decree; that a city may be 
 compelled to adorn itself with parks, for example, or 
 incidentally with improved architecture, at its own 
 expense and according to the legislative taste. If such a 
 power exists, it can have no limit except the legislative 
 pleasure. Fancy a gallery of pictures or statuary selected 
 by a committee of the General Court and the bill sent to 
 the city by order of that body — yet to this we may 
 come. 
 
 The judicial view of the relations between the state 
 and the city is contrary to all the facts of our history. In 
 Massachusetts we know that the towns made the state, 
 not the state the towns. Apparently it would have been 
 easy, clearly it would have been more wholesome, to hold 
 in the outset that the privileges of the towns under the 
 ancient charters were not disturbed by adopting the con- 
 stitution; leaving to them at least such local indepen- 
 dence as they had previousl}^ enjoyed, and carrying over 
 these powers and privileges of the inhabitants unimpaired 
 upon the erection of a town into a city. But the other 
 view was adopted in the earliest times and has always 
 been maintained; with the result that, whereas under the 
 crown the local communities enjoyed a liberal measure 
 of freedom, under the republic the}' are but little more 
 than mere vassals and dependencies of the state. 
 
 Nor have we any constitutional restraints against 
 special legislation for cities; though there is some com- 
 pensation for this in escaping the necessity of resort to 
 the absurd devices employed to evade such restraint in 
 states where it exists. It rests with the legislature alone 
 to determine when, upon what pretext, and to what 
 extent it will interfere in the direct government of any 
 city. It may take in charge the appointment and removal 
 of city officers, — and while actual legislative interference 
 
22 KXKTIKTH ANNIVERSARY OF TJfE 
 
 in Massachusetts has not yet extended farther than 
 assumption of the control of the police, it was but the 
 other day that the legislature of a neighboring common- 
 wealth turned out the officers of three great cities, filling 
 their places with its own nominees, and the courts were 
 obliged to sustain this action as within legislative power. 
 Tlie legislature may extend or curtail the tax levy, or the 
 borrowing power; dictate what money the city may or 
 shall spend and for what purposes; lay out streets; con- 
 struct or order the construction at the city's expense of 
 public buildings or other public works; or compel the 
 city to contribute to the cost of enterprises in which it 
 has no title and may have no real interest. The public 
 property of the city is wholly under legislative control, 
 and may be dealt with and disposed of as the legislature 
 sees lit. While this is a reasonable rule for public prop- 
 erty of a character recjuiring one uniform system of con- 
 trol, the public highways for example, it is not reasonable 
 that a city should be wholly subject to tlie legislative will 
 as to property held for local purposes. Still more unjust 
 and absurd is it that the city should be subject to compul- 
 sory levies of taxation to provide objects of indulgence 
 wholly beyond the proper public necessities, and that it 
 should have no secure title to property paid for by taxa- 
 ti(jn ol' its inhabitants. Such a system is wrong in prin- 
 ciple and j)ernici(jus in results. 
 
 The direct consequence of unrestrained legislative 
 control (jf cities is to bring chaos upon municipal admin- 
 istration. How much money shall be raised by taxation, 
 or borrowed, or spent, or for what, may be determined at 
 h(;nie or it may be determined at the state capital, accord- 
 ing to the exigencies of politics. If a city job is defeated 
 in council or vetoed by the mayor, the promotors per- 
 suade a compliant legislature to do it or order it done; 
 
CITY CHARTER OK NEWBURYPORT 23 
 
 and conversel}', if a city undertakes a proper public 
 enterprise to which an active minority is opposed, they 
 invoke, often successfully, the interference of the legislat- 
 ure to prevent it. Where power is scattered responsibil- 
 ity disappears. Neither state-house nor city-hall can be 
 held accountable for what goes wrong. The people, 
 having no real power, cease to feel any responsibility. 
 They become indifferent to their own political duties and 
 even to the character of their candidates for municipal 
 office; knowing that if good men are elected they may 
 be controlled or thwarted by a superior power, and trust- 
 ing that if bad men are elected the same power can be 
 persuaded to stand in their way. 
 
 In some of the later constitutions of western states 
 cities are given a much larger power of self-government 
 than they have elsewhere enjoyed; an interesting experi- 
 ment, the result of which should shed light upon the path 
 to municipal reform. In important constitutional changes 
 Massachusetts moves with deliberation. It is no easy 
 task to draw the line between powers which ought to be 
 confided to the cities and towns and powers which must 
 remain in the state. A large measure of central control 
 is essential to a symmetrical system. This is no time or 
 place to pursue the discussion of changes in municipal 
 polic}' so radical as to disturb the constitutional founda- 
 tions; but no radical and permanent reform can be 
 expected until cities are endowed with more of the rights 
 and powers of responsible self-government. 
 
 The adoption of city government involves abandon- 
 ment of the town-meeting, justly regarded, not only by 
 us who have been brought up under it but by all intelli- 
 gent students of public questions, as the best form of 
 local rule ever applied to our affairs. It makes every 
 voting citizen a member of the governing body, with a 
 
24 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 direct share of the power and of the responsibility. The 
 majority, which always desires good government, is 
 actually in control. For this, city government substitutes 
 a representative system which is not in fact representative. 
 It does not, as a rule, actually reflect the opinions or the 
 desires of the people. Cut off from direct participation 
 in the government, divested of the sense of responsibility 
 which goes hand in hand with power, his part reduced to 
 voting once a year, usually for the candidates of a packed 
 caucus, the average citizen, except in some emergency, 
 lapses into indifference and his weight ceases to be felt 
 in the scale. Under the one S3^stem he is on the spot, 
 looking after his own affairs; under the other, while in 
 theory represented by the one-hundredth or five-hun- 
 dredth part of an alderman or councilman, in truth he 
 counts for no more than a cipher in the sum total of the 
 results. In proportion as the will and conscience of the 
 individual citizen are eliminated from it, the character of 
 the government declines. It ceases to be government by 
 or for the people. An essential factor of the problem is 
 to bring back the people to the actual control of their 
 affairs. 
 
 The prevailing American form of city government, 
 a mayor and a council of two branches, is an anachronism, 
 and, as applied to the government of our cities, an absurd- 
 ity. It is sometimes supposed to be copied from English 
 or other European forms of municipal government. It is 
 really framed upon a model much nearer at hand, though 
 quite as ill-suited to the purpose. In the struggle of 
 centuries for popular rights, our English ancestors worked 
 out the fabric of king, lords, and commons; an executive 
 head and a legislature of two branches, one representing 
 aristocratic power, the other the rights of the people. 
 This general form was brought over to this country in 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 25 
 
 the colonial charters, and was naturally followed in the 
 earliest state constitutions, and later in the Federal consti- 
 tution. When cities began to arise, it had become so 
 fixed in the popular conception of government that it was 
 carried into city charters, and there, with some slight 
 variations, it has alwa3^s remained. A form of govern- 
 ment essential to preserve the balance of powers and 
 interests between the great estates of the realm, in dealing 
 with the policies of a nation, may be very ill-adapted to 
 the control of a city under institutions founded on equal 
 rights and universal suffrage. City government, while 
 not wholly a business affair, as is sometimes said, consists 
 so largely in the collection and disbursement of money 
 that the machinery should primarily be adapted to the 
 honest and efficient conduct of such business. Among 
 the people of a city there is no natural division of classes 
 or interests calling for distinct representation; and if 
 there were, such representation is not secured under the 
 present forms. The only actual division is between those 
 who want the government prudently conducted and the 
 public funds honestly applied to their proper uses, and 
 those who do not. The original reason for a legislative 
 body of two chambers, — that each may represent a differ- 
 ent class or interest, — does not exist. The remaining 
 reason, — to secure further deliberation, and that each 
 may be a check upon the excesses of the other, — is not 
 satisfied by the existing system. It does not in fact 
 answer this purpose. In fact the two branches divide 
 and weaken responsibility, multiply opportunities for log- 
 rolling, and impair the directness and force which are 
 more essential in the control of city affairs than the larger 
 deliberation which great public questions demand. 
 
 Two rules or principles seem essential to efficient 
 municipal organization. First, the whole executive power 
 
26 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 and responsibility should be vested in a single head; on 
 the principle of Napoleon's aphorism that " nothing is so 
 bad as a bad general, except two good generals." Second, 
 all legislative power, — the power to determine all ques- 
 tions of the general policy of the city, — should be vested 
 in a single council, so large as to be a real representative 
 body. In short, the system must contain the means of 
 developing the true public sentiment, by responsible pub- 
 lic discussion, and the means of efficient execution of the 
 policy and the measures ordained by the deliberative 
 branch. 
 
 The powers of the council, being wholly of a legis- 
 lative character, confined to settling the broader questions 
 of policy which arise in city affairs, its duty is substan- 
 tially discharged in the enacting of standing ordinances, 
 — and the fewer they are and the less they are meddled 
 with the better, — and in determining, once in each year, 
 the amount and general destination of all appropriations 
 and of the tax levy or loans required to meet them. 
 These questions once disposed of, the whole power and 
 duty of carrying the policy of the council into effect is 
 left to the executive. For all these purposes, a few 
 meetings early in the year would ordinarily be enough. 
 The members of the council being thus relieved of the 
 necessity of constant attendance and attention throughout 
 the year, public-spirited citizens may be induced to accept 
 membership in such numbers as to make it a truly repre- 
 sentative body of the whole people, restoring to city gov- 
 ernment the vigor and directness of control, and the 
 element of personal interest in the governing power, 
 which was lost in abandoning the town-meeting. The 
 number may be as large as can conveniently assemble for 
 public deliberation. In a city of moderate size this would 
 afford room for an ample representation of all elements 
 of the population. 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 27 
 
 It is idle to talk of wholly eliminating the influence 
 of political parties from any form of municipal govern- 
 ment. Our habits of political thought and action will 
 always make themselves felt. The existing party organ- 
 izations will always be brought to bear with more or less 
 effect. Non-partisan city government must be secured 
 b}' indirection, if at all. Fix upon the head of the gov- 
 ernment a degree of responsibility which he cannot evade 
 and dare not abuse, and it will matter little what party 
 label he wears. Make the representative body so broad 
 that no scheme can be carried through it on party lines 
 or from partisan motives, and the government will be as 
 free of partisan influences as any government can be 
 where political parties exist. 
 
 It is not for me to advise the people of Newburyport 
 to disturb or experiment with their local government. 
 These suggestions are contributed to the general discus- 
 sion of a question of the highest importance to the inhab- 
 itants of cities. There is much reason to believe that the 
 reform of city government in general, at least in cities of 
 moderate size, must be sought and may be found in the 
 application of the principles thus briefly indicated. If the 
 occasion should arise, this city is perhaps as well adapted 
 as any, in size, character, and situation, to put their 
 merits to proof. 
 
 Yet when all discussion touching forms of govern- 
 ment is ended, the character of the people remains the 
 vital thing. A thrifty and vigorous race will prosper in 
 spite of bad government. There is in all healthy human 
 society a tendency to improve its condition. It was long 
 ago observed that no form or degree of misgovernment 
 will do so much to make the situation of the people 
 worse as the instinctive effort of every individual to 
 
28 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 improve his own situation will do to make it better. It 
 was a remarkable body of men that peopled this region. 
 They were predestined, by their own qualities, to political 
 independence, but they would have grown great in spite 
 of crowns or parliaments. If the folly of a mad king 
 had not driven the American colonists to throw off his 
 rule, if it were possible to conceive of the colonies as 
 continuing dependencies of Great Britain, the character 
 of the Puritan immigration would have raised up here, in 
 the fullness of time, a state so mighty as to overshadow 
 the imperial power of the mother-country herself. It is 
 no light task to hold up the standard raised by such a 
 race. Think of the great men who have gone in and out 
 upon this very spot. If some magic power could summon 
 back to their former haunts the shades of the illustrious 
 dead whose names and memory are among the treasures 
 of this city, what a glorious company would people these 
 homes and streets! Thomas Parker, Samuel Sewall, 
 Edward Rawson, William Dummer, the John Lowells 
 and Francis Cabot Lowell, Tristram Dalton, George 
 Whitefield; Jonathan, Charles, and Patrick Tracy Jack- 
 son; Thomas Dawes, Theophilus Bradbury, George 
 Thatcher, Robert Treat Paine, Jacob Perkins, Nicholas 
 Pike, William Wheelwright, Dudley A. Tyng, Edward 
 Bass, Samuel Webber, Cornelius C. Felton, William 
 Plumer, Daniel Dana, John Quincy Adams, Theophilus 
 Parsons, Rufus King, Benjamin and Simon Greenleaf, 
 Caleb Gushing, Lucy Hooper, Hannah F. and Benjamin 
 A. Gould, George Peabody, Benjamin Hale, George R. 
 Noyes, Samuel S. Wilde, William Lloyd Garrison, John 
 Pierpont, Samuel J. May, George Lunt, James Parton, 
 Eben F. Stone, — a galaxy of pioneers, preachers, schol- 
 ars, poets, philanthropists, jurists, statesmen, scientists, 
 mechanicians, merchant princes, captains of industry, 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 29 
 
 "on fame's eternal bead-roll worthie to be fyled." These 
 men have given to Newburyport a character and distinc- 
 tion that will remain so long as the city stands. Cities 
 live in their character, not less than individuals. The 
 home of great men, the theater of great events, the birth- 
 place of ideas or forces which have helped to move the 
 world — these possess an interest which space cannot 
 limit nor time subdue. It was the character of the men 
 and women of Newburyport that gave the town its fame. 
 It was peopled by the flower of the Puritan immigration; 
 — narrow men, perhaps; bigoted; austere; but meaning 
 to be just and determined to be free. Some things they 
 did which timid souls would forget, but nothing which can- 
 not be openly avowed. Much of the wealth of old New- 
 bur3'port, no doubt, came over the bar in the cabin or 
 hold of the privateer, a hanger-on of war now passed into 
 disrepute, and none too soon — but privateering was then 
 legitimate warfare. Every step in their history was 
 traced in character and courage. Look at them in the 
 times of the embargoes. Foremost as they had been 
 among the patriots of the Revolution, when the war of 
 181 2 was forced upon the people, — an unnecessary war, 
 pursued by measures of folly, more disastrous at home 
 than abroad, — the men of Newburyport stood up and 
 denounced it as foolish and unnecessary. They opposed 
 it openly. They despised the embargo, and trampled it 
 under their feet. And who shall say that this bold and 
 manly stand against the blunders of an incompetent 
 administration was not truer patriotism than the servile 
 complaisance that knows no right or wrong save at the 
 command of power? The patriot is he who sets his 
 country right, and stands in the way when it goes wrong. 
 If this is not patriotism, the Revolution was not. I do 
 not say that these men were all heroes, but they were not 
 
3© FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 cowards, hypocrites, nor sycophants. They were neither 
 ashamed nor afraid. It is an inspiration to recall them. 
 It is a virtue to emulate them. Long may they be remem- 
 bered here, and long may the race survive upon this spot 
 which they made forever memorable! 
 
 And as it is character, not numbers, that distinguishes 
 a city, I trust that no citizen of Newburyport is disturbed 
 by the slow growth of its population. The welfare of a 
 city, or the happiness of its people, does not turn upon 
 its place in a census-table. Moderate growth is natural, 
 healthy, and desirable. The rapid swelling of a city may 
 be no less a symptom or prognostic of disease than the 
 swelling of a limb. It is no ill-fortune that the character, 
 the identity of old Newburyport has not been swallowed 
 up and effaced in the swarming population which now 
 sets toward cities, and submerges others less fortunate 
 than this. There is a satisfaction in thinking of this 
 ancient community, robed in the dignity of her past, 
 content to stand aloof from the hustling crowd in noble 
 disdain of the folly that sees, or thinks it sees, greatness 
 in bigness, — a weakness from which not even statesmen 
 are exempt, even more fatal to nations than to men 
 and cities. It is not difficult to account for the position 
 of Newburyport. But for one of her most characteristic 
 and interesting traits, her people today would be counted 
 by tens or scores of thousands. Newburyport may fairly 
 claim to have been the great colonizing town of the great 
 colonizing county of the great colonizing state of the 
 Union. Immediately after the Revolution, and to some 
 extent before it, her people began to look abroad for 
 "fresh fields and pastures new." Their pioneer blood 
 would not allow them to rest in one spot, however attract- 
 ive. The movement thus begun has never ceased. Her 
 people have been scattered like the seeds of the pine, and 
 
CITY CHARTER OF NEWBURYPORT 3I 
 
 like the seeds of the pine they have taken root and 
 grown. There is hardly a quarter of the earth in which 
 they are not to be found. It was said at one of your 
 anniversaries, a few years ago, that in the single city of 
 New York were then living three hundred natives of 
 Newburyport. Her filaments cover the whole North and 
 the great West as with an invisible web, every thread 
 vibrating to her influence and binding some new and 
 distant community to the parent stock. Her children 
 have settled states; they have built towns and founded 
 cities. If you would number the people of Newburyport, 
 look for them by the rivers and bays of Maine, on the 
 hills of New Plampshire, in the valleys of Vermont, 
 where they were among the first pioneers; beyond the 
 Hudson and the Ohio, along the shores of the great lakes, 
 on the banks of the Father of Waters, all over the plains 
 that stretch to the range of the Rockies, and beyond to 
 the Golden Gate — in every prosperous community 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific seas on which the genius 
 of New England has set its mark; wherever New Eng- 
 land energy has cleared the forest, planted the soil, opened 
 the mine, or harnessed the stream to the wheels of indus- 
 try; wherever New England thrift bears fruit of pros- 
 perity; wherever the New England conscience strength- 
 ens public probity and holds up the standard of public 
 morals; wherever the sterling New England character 
 guides the thought and shapes the policy of states — there 
 you will find the people of Newburyport, still sowing and 
 gathering the harvest first planted on Quascacunquen by 
 Thomas Parker and his little company, near three cen- 
 turies ago; carrying the old town in their hearts; feeling 
 her own pulsations in their blood; inspired with her 
 memory and vindicating her example; — their numbers, 
 character, and influence bearing witness that if Newbury- 
 
32 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 port has lost her own, she has taken the nation in 
 exchange. 
 
 What events confront us in the coming half-century 
 which opens with this day, it is not given us to know. 
 There will be changes, many and great. Science has but 
 begun to unlock the secrets and unloose the forces of 
 nature. Thought is everywhere fermenting today, as 
 never before, with the complex problems of human 
 society. Even the character of nations seems changing 
 — let the American people look to it that their own is 
 not transformed. For Newburyport, the vista opens upon 
 the fairest prospects. Seated upon this beautiful spot, 
 where the Merrimac, theme of poetry and romance, 
 returns its waters to the sea; where the eye takes in a 
 prospect of enchanting beauty — the spires and gables of 
 the city, the smiling fields, the solemn woods, the silver 
 river, the majestic waste of ocean; — endowed with every 
 agency devised by man for the promotion of health, 
 comfort, social elevation, and material welfare; planted 
 upon the stable foundation of varied and flourishing 
 industries; alive with intelligence, charity, culture, relig- 
 ion, and crowned with the halo of splendid memories, — 
 such are the happy conditions in which the record of the 
 new half-century begins. May it be written in prosperity. 
 May it be written in honor. May it be such that they 
 who make it can look upon it with satisfaction, and they 
 who come after with gratitude and pride. And when the 
 chapter is closed; when the children of Newburyport, on 
 the returning anniversary, gather about the ancient 
 mother to crown her with the garland of an hundred 
 years; may she say of this generation, with fond remem- 
 brance, as she turns her smile undimmed by age on those 
 who then surround her, — "Among all my children who 
 have cherished me with stout hearts and willing hands, 
 they too were worthy of my love and my benediction." 
 
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