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 ^ovcUc^icVj "^ctst ctnb ^Present, 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN THE 
 
 SECOND CHURCH, DORCHESTER, 
 
 DECEMBER 26, ISGB. 
 
 REV. JAMES 11. MEANS. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 PUBLISHED BY MOSES If. S ARGENT. 
 
 No. U, CORNMIII.L. 
 1S70. 
 
 }%\-^ 
 
Rand, Avery, & Frye, Printers, Boston. 
 
 4>^ 
 
CORRESPOX DEXCR 
 
 Rev. James II. Means. Doiiciiester, Dec. 27, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Tlie undersijrned, in common with those who listened to 
 tlie timely historical discourse delivered by you yesterday morning, de- 
 sire to express the gratitude which they feel for the instruction it aQbrded, 
 and for tlie appropriate and able discharge of duty it involved. Believ- 
 ing that its publication will subserve the general good in preserving the 
 history of our ancient town, we most respectfully solicit a copy for the 
 press. 
 
 Marshall P. Wilder. 
 
 J. W. Brooks. 
 
 T. V. Shaw. 
 
 C. T. S. TOWNSEND. 
 
 Joseph Clapp. 
 
 James C. Sharp. 
 Elbridge Torrey. 
 Thomas D. Quincy. 
 Charles P. Tolman. 
 
 DoRcnESTEij, Dec. 31, 1869. 
 
 Gentlemen, — In compliance with your request, and with sincere 
 thanks for your kind judgment, I iierewith transmit a copy of the ser- 
 mon you desire for pul^lication. 
 
 A\'ith much regard. 
 
 Your friend and pastor, 
 
 J. M. MEANS. 
 Hon. M. 1'. Wilder and otliers. 
 
S E R M N. 
 
 Psalms xvi. 6: "I rave a goodly heritage." 
 
 At a meetinii: of the '"' Court of Assistants " of Mas- 
 sacbusetts Colony, held at Charlestown, Sept. 7, 1030, 
 corresponding to Sept. 17 of our present style, it was 
 voted, "That Trimountain be called Boston; and 
 Mattapan, Dorchester." The streams thus flowing 
 from a common source, after winding in separate 
 channels for nearly two hundred and forty years, are 
 again to be united ; and as Dorchester thus termi- 
 nates its independent existence, it seems a fitting 
 time to survey the scenes of the past. Our ancient 
 town has a name honorable from the first, and unsul- 
 lied, and a history full of interest. 
 
 Its first settlers formed part of the expedition, 
 which, ten years after the settlement of the Pilgrims 
 at Plymouth, was fitted out in the west of England 
 under Gov. Winthrop. He himself embarked on 
 board the " Arbella " at Cowes, Isle of Wight, while 
 about a hundred and forty of his associates, from the 
 
6 
 
 counties of Devon, Dorset, and Somerset, went on 
 board the " Mary and John," of lour hundred tons 
 burden, Capt. Squeb, master, lying in the harbor of 
 Plymouth. They were accompanied to the place of 
 embarkation by the Rev. John White, the minister 
 of old Dorchester, a man of great learning and zeal, a 
 member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 
 belonging to the Church of England, but warmly 
 esteemed by the Puritan party, who, it is said, " bore 
 to him more respect than they did to their bishop." 
 In all the preliminary arrangements, this good man 
 had shown the greatest activity ; and, acting in the 
 spirit of John Robinson, " he breathed into the enter- 
 prise," as Bancroft says, " a higher principle than the 
 desire of gain." It was, therefore, a most worthy 
 impulse which led the first settlers to give to the new 
 town, in honor of Mr. White, the name of Dorchester. 
 The "Mary and John" sailed upon the 20th of 
 March ; but, in those days of tedious navigation, 
 more than two months were consumed by the voy- 
 age ; and not until the 30th of May did they reach 
 the shore. Capt. Squeb, I am sorry to say, treated 
 them unhandsomely. He had engaged to take them 
 to Charles River ; but he rudely put them ashore at 
 Nantasket, refusing to go farther : though it is some 
 satisfaction to read that he "was afterwards obliged to 
 pay damages for this conduct." The company was 
 
inacle up of excellent m<aterial, "a very godly and re- 
 ligious people, and many of them persons of note and 
 figure." A church had been duly organized before 
 starting, and Rev. John Maverick and Rev. John War- 
 ham, who came with them, set apart as the pastors. 
 Roger Clap was there, — a young man twenty-one 
 years of age, destined to hold an honorable position in 
 the new settlement. John Smith came also, of course ; 
 and three others, unmarked perhaps at the time, but 
 the ancestors of three major-generals of our army in 
 the War of the Rebellion, — John Benham, from whom 
 descended Gen. Benham; Stephen Terry, the progeni- 
 tor of the valiant soldier who took Fort Fisher and 
 Wilmington ; and Matthew Grant, to whom we trace 
 the lineage of the President of the United States. 
 Well might that little ship buffet bravely the tem- 
 pests of the Atlantic, bearing as she did the I'uture 
 fortunes of a great and struggling people, and the 
 father of one who was to show C;i3sa.r's prowess, 
 without Caesar's fatal ambition ! 
 
 After a few days spent in exploration, the weary 
 emiirrants were attracted towards "a neck of land fit 
 to keep their cattle on " (the peninsula since known 
 as South Ijoston), and established themselves in that 
 vicinity. They built their first meeting-house on the 
 plain, near what is now the corner of Cottage and 
 Pleasant streets ; a small huilding with thatched roof. 
 
8 
 
 and, perhaps, mud walls, — pallisadoed and guarded 
 by night, because the depository of military as well as 
 spiritual supplies. Here one of the pastors, engaged 
 in the somewhat unclerical fimction of drying pow- 
 der, overheated the firepan, and came near blowing 
 himself and the meeting-house into pieces together, 
 — a warning to all ministers to be careful in their 
 treatment of combustibles. 
 
 The first settlers struggled hard. " Many," says 
 Roger Clap, " were in great straits for want of pro- 
 visions for themselves and their little ones." Fish 
 and clams — which they called, in Scripture phrase, 
 " the abundance of the sea, and treasures hid in the 
 sand," — were their special reliance. 
 
 But of one commodity, which has always been ap- 
 preciated by the true sons of Dorchester, they had 
 enough; and that was — land: no limited area of 
 four or five thousand acres, as at present ; but a ter- 
 ritory stretching from South-Boston Point thirty-five 
 miles by the road, to within one hundred and sixty 
 rods of the Rhode-Island boundary, and five or ten 
 miles in width ; including the modern towns of Mil- 
 ton, Stoughton, Sharon, Canton, Foxborough, and 
 Hyde Park, with parts of others, as well as the more 
 important territory of South Boston. 
 
 Yet the region must have been rather wild ; for 
 we find such early records as this : — 
 
9 
 
 Oct 30, 1G3S, — " For tlie better encouragement 
 of any that shall destroy wolves, it is ordered that 
 for every wolf any man shall take in the Dorchester 
 plantation, he sliall have twenty shillings for the 
 first, fifteen shillings for the second, and ten shillings 
 for every wolf afterwards." 
 
 And there were more formidable foes. Though 
 the Indians were generally friendly, considerable 
 anxiety on their account was felt during the Pequot 
 War, and at other times ; and the house is still stand- 
 ing at Neponset where a bold female of Elder George 
 Minot's family was attacked and shot at by an In- 
 dian ; but, shutting the doors, she returned the fire, 
 wounding her assailant, and completing his discomfit- 
 ure by a shower of hot ashes and coals. He was 
 found dead the next day ; and the authorities of 
 the colony gave her a silver bracelet, in token of her 
 heroism, with the inscription, " She slew the Narra- 
 gansct hunter." 
 
 Morals and manners were pretty carefully watched 
 in those early days. In 1039, the General Court for- 
 bade " the excessive wearing of lace ; " and ordained 
 that " hereafter no garment shall be made with short 
 sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arm may be 
 discovered;" and, shrewdly foreseeing that some 
 would say the dresses were already made, they fnr- 
 tlier oidered that none should wear such, even if 
 
 h 
 
10 
 
 made, " unless they cover their arras to the wrist with 
 linen or otherwise." '•' 
 
 The selectmen were " the fathers of the town " in 
 more than a figure. They looked after the children, 
 and, in 1655, required that all parents and masters 
 should catechize their children " in some sound and 
 orthodox catechism." They also called to account 
 those who were without employment, or not under 
 family government. Thus, in 1672, Robert Styles 
 " was called to answer for idleness;" and " it was found 
 that neither he nor his wife improved their time as 
 they should." Peter Lyon, who seems to have been 
 of a milder nature than his name would indicate, had 
 let his sons do as they pleased ; but promised the se- 
 lectmen that " for the time to come he would look 
 after them more diligently." Timothy Wales was 
 obliged to appear with his boys, who were found 
 "very ignorant, and unable to read." If such pater- 
 nal oversight of ill-managed families were attempted 
 now, the office would certainly be no sinecure. 
 
 But the grand reliance of our fathers was the 
 
 * In respect to temperfince, our fathers had soiiie peculiar ideas; though, after 
 their fashion, they seem to have had a prohibitory law and the puialfy of confisca- 
 tion ; for we find this record : — 
 
 "A court holden at Boston, Aug. 7, 1632: It is ordered that y'^ remainder of 
 Mr. Allen's Strong-water, being estimated aboute 2 Gallandes, shall be delivered 
 into ye hands of y^ Deacons of Dorchester, for y^ benefit of ye poore there, for 
 his selling of it dyvers tymes to such as were drunke by it, he knowing thereof." 
 A duty of distribution wiiicli would rather astonish the deacons of the present 
 generation. 
 
11 
 
 church and the .school. These stood side by side; and 
 it has been finely written that they felt they need 
 
 " Ne'er drca'l the t-ceptic's puny hands, 
 AVliile near the school the church-spire stands ; 
 Nor fear the blinded bigot's rule, 
 While near the church-spire stands the school." 
 
 In regard to education, some of our townsmen 
 have urged a high claim. On the 2()th of May, 1G39, 
 a ttix of £20 yearly was laid upon the proprietors of 
 Thompson's Island, for " the maintenance of a school 
 in Dorchester." The island was at this time held by 
 the town, under a grant from the General Court, so 
 that " the proprietors " included the whole body of 
 citizens. This was before any such action had been 
 taken in Boston ; and it is affirmed to be " the first 
 public provision made for a free school in the world, 
 by a direct tax or assessment on the inhabitants of a 
 town." In December, 1641, the grant was more fully 
 and exactly confirmed in a w'ritten agreement signed 
 by the principal citizens. The New-England system 
 of free schools is our special boast : we believe it has 
 given our people an intelligence and independence 
 of character without which our civil liberties never 
 would have been won, much less preserved ; that it 
 has made New England what it is ; that it is an 
 agency without which the South never can be regen- 
 
12 
 
 erated : and surely, therefore, it is no slight honor to 
 be able to trace back the system to so ancient an ori- 
 gin here. I may add, that, from that early day to 
 this, the town has been foremost in the cause of edu- 
 cation. Repeated grants — at one time a thousand 
 acres of land — were made for the support of schools. 
 In 1674 Christopher Gibson, a soap-boiler, — but 
 one who plainly believed in cleansing more than the 
 clothing of the peojDle, — gave the most of his prop- 
 erty " to the free school of Dorchester, for perpetu- 
 ity," — a bequest now worth, perhaps, $50,000. 
 Lieut.-Gov. William Stoughton, one of the most 
 eminent of the sons of Dorchester, — who, though 
 never ordained, preached for a season, and was invited 
 six times to become pastor of the church in this 
 town, and who, in an election-sermon before the Gen- 
 eral Court, originated that phrase so often quoted, 
 " God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice 
 grain into this wilderness," — this large-hearted man, 
 in 1701, left a legacy, now amounting to over 
 $3,000, to increase the salary of the teachers; and 
 it is quite in accordance with all the past, that the 
 most costly building in the present town should be 
 the edifice erected for our high school. 
 
 The original system was remarkably solid. The 
 " wardens," or committee, were chosen for life. Their 
 rules make no mention of vacations ; but the scholars 
 
13 
 
 were to attend school for eight months of the year, 
 from seven o'clock in the morning till live in the after- 
 noon ; and for the other months, from eight till four ; 
 with an intermission from eleven o'clock to one; 
 which, however, on Mondays, was shortened an hour, 
 that they might show their teacher " what they liad 
 learned on the Sabbath day preceding." The teach- 
 ers were also to catechize their scholars every Satur- 
 day' afternoon, and to regard " the rod of correction 
 as an ordinance of God, necessary sometimes to be 
 dispensed unto children." 
 
 It would seem, however, that the girls hardly en- 
 joyed equal privileges with the boys. They were 
 sent to "dame schools," to be taught reading and 
 spelling, sewing, and the working of samplers; but in 
 1784, — only eighty-five years ago, — some advanced 
 advocates of woman's rights carried this vote in the 
 town-meeting : " That such girls as can read in the 
 Psalter be allowed to go to the grammar-school from 
 the 1st of June to the 1st of October." Dr. Harris 
 says, that, in those days, the daughters were sometimes 
 baptized in the First Church by the names of " Pa- 
 tience," " Waitstill, " " Hope," and " Waitawhile ; " and 
 I think we can see the significance of the names. 
 
 But the Church towered above all other agencies 
 of culture, in the judgment of our fathers. As we 
 liave seen, they brought hither pastors nnd a regular 
 
14 
 
 ecclesiastical organization. In 1636, this church, 
 which was the oldest in the colony of Massachusetts 
 Bay, emigrated to Windsor, Conn., and became the 
 first church in that new commonwealth. Another 
 was gatliered here in that year, and Rev. Richard 
 Mather was installed as pastor. This eminent minis- 
 ter — the father of Pres. Increase, and grandfather of 
 Dr. Cotton Mathei; — was one of the leading spirits 
 of his day. For thirty-three years he labored with 
 apostolic faithfulness ; and I know not how I can so 
 well show you the spirit of the man as by reading a 
 few sentences from a farewell address, which, before 
 his death, he placed with every family of the town.='= 
 
 " First of all," says this godly pastor, '' I beseech 
 you, be not slighty, but serious, in the great work of 
 sorrow for your sins, of contrition and humiliation of 
 soul in sight and sense thereof 
 
 " 2. Labor to be men of sound judgment and 
 understanding in the ways of religion. 
 
 " 3. Content not yourselves to live without the 
 fiiithful ministry, and other holy appointments and 
 ordinances of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " 4. Think it not enough to serve the Lord your- 
 selves alone, in your own persons, but be sure to have 
 
 * Copies of this are now very rare. I do not know of one in Dorchester. The 
 Congregational Library in Boston possesses an imperfect copy; and there is one 
 complete in the " Prince Library, " deposited with the Tublic Library of the city. 
 
15 
 
 special care that your children and families may 
 serve him also. 
 
 " 5. Content not yourselves with the name of 
 Christians, or church-members, nor with mere pro- 
 fession, or an external form of religion ; but see that 
 you be religious in sincerity and truth. 
 
 '• 6. Above all things, be careful, in all your desires 
 and endeavors, to make out after the enjoyment of 
 God himself, and of communion with his blessed Ma- 
 jesty as your chief good. 
 
 " 7. With all seriousness and uprightness, choose 
 the Lord Jesus, and him alone, as the all-sufficient way 
 and means for your enjoyment of God the chief 
 good." 
 
 Would that the time permitted me to show how 
 tenderly, and with what cogency of Scripture proof, 
 these several exhortations are presented. " There 
 were giants in those days;" and when we see their 
 mighty hold on the Word of God and the powers of 
 eternity, their faith, their fervency in prayer, their 
 elevation above the world, we feel sometimes that 
 the men of this day, sceptical, pleasure-loving, are 
 not worthy to unloose the latcliet of their shoes. 
 
 But the church history of Dorchester constitutes a 
 topic by itself,* which, however leluctantly, we are 
 
 * From 1030 to 180fi — a period of 178 years — there was but one clinrcli in tlie 
 town. Most of tlie pastors en joyeil II Ioii« term of service: Kev. Iliclianl Matlicr 
 
16 
 
 obliged to pass by, only alluding briefly to one re- 
 markable enterprise. 
 
 As we have claimed for this town priority in estab- 
 lishing a free school, so may we also assert a prece- 
 dence in the great work of Home Missions. In 1695, 
 when Carolina and Georgia were almost wastes, a 
 call came from those " southern plantations " for aid 
 in establishing the institutions of the gospel. Here 
 was the call met, and a church organized, with Rev. 
 Joseph Lo^d, who had been a teacher in the town, as 
 
 from 1636 to 1669; Rev. John Danfortli from 1682 to 1730; Rev. Jonathan Bowman 
 from 1730 to 1773; when, after over forty years' foithful service, trouble arose, and 
 he was accused, among other things (a solitary sufferer), of preaching too short 
 sermons. He stoutly defended himself by asserting that he spoke fast, and " would 
 deliver as much in fifteen minutes as some would in half an hour; " but it was of 
 no use: the Dorchester people would have full measure. Rev. Moses Everett suc- 
 ceeded him, being pastor from 1774 to 1793, when Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, D.D., 
 was settled, — a man of much learning, whose pastorate continued till 1836, and 
 whose memory is still most affectionately che.-ished in the town. A very interesting 
 incident in his history is worthy of record. While a student in Harvard College, he 
 was exceedingly straitened for a support, and was one diy walking into Boston, 
 giving way to many moody thoughts concerning his hard lot. Suddenly he per- 
 ceived on the end of his walking-stick a metallic ring, which proved, on examina- 
 tion, to be of gold. He took it to a jeweller, who not only purchased it for a liberal 
 price, but pointed out the motto upon it: "God speed thee, friend." The 
 young man burst into tears: Providence seemed to be rebuking his despondency; 
 and he never forgot the lesson. 
 
 While Dr. Harris w.as pastor of the First Church, the Second was organized in 
 1808, and Rev. John Codman, D.D., ordained its minister. His devoted and useful 
 labors were rendered for thirty-nine years, until his death in 1847. During his 
 ministry the church steadily increased in numbers and efficiency, and his influence 
 still lives. There are now in the town fourteen churches of different denomina- 
 tions,— four Unitarian, four Trinitarian Congregationalist, two Baptist, two Method- 
 ist, one Episcopal, and one Roman Catholic. 
 
17 
 
 pastor, to go forth for the extension of Christ's king- 
 dom. Mr. Danforth, of the First Church, dismissed 
 them with his blessing, saying pithily, as he referred 
 to God's providence as having opened the way, 
 "There is somethino; worth the seeking;, if God lio;hts 
 the candle." The enterprise was a snccess. The 
 descendants of these colonists are livino; now in Geor- 
 gia ; the church they founded still exists ; and the 
 place where they settled has been bright with the 
 radiance of liberty and piety ever since. It took 
 the lead in resistance to British oppression in 1776: 
 it hung back from secession in 18G1. A visitor 
 once said that the inhabitants of that precinct differed 
 from those of the surrounding country, '-as the Jews 
 did from the Canaanites." 
 
 In other ways, also, the town showed an enlarged 
 public spirit. Repeated references are made in the 
 records to the instruction of the Indians ; and in 1657, 
 at the request of Rev. John Eliot, the town set apart 
 six thousand acres at Punkapoag for tlieir use, — a 
 grant at that time unprecedented. They have all 
 passed away ; but some of you may remember how 
 touchingly Mr. Everett spoke of one, who, within his 
 remembrance, " used to come down once or twice a 
 year to the seaside, hovered a day or two about 
 Squantum, strolled off* into the woods, and, with 
 plaintive wailings, cut away the bushes from an 
 
1; 
 
 ancient mound, which, as he thought, covered the 
 ashes of his fathers; and then went back, — a silent, 
 melancholy man, the last of a perished tribe." 
 
 In all the movements which preceded the great 
 struggle of the Revolution, our fathers were active. 
 As early as 1765 the town records begin to show 
 the uneasiness of the people at the successive en- 
 croachments on their liberties. They protested 
 against the stamp-act; in 1770 they resolved to use 
 no more tea, except in sickness; and when, in 1773, 
 — after the tea was destroyed in Boston harbor, — a 
 half-chest floated ashore near Commercial Point, and 
 was picked up by one of our citizens, he was required 
 to surrender the article, and make an apology in 
 public town-meeting. The same year, resolutions 
 w^ere passed in the strongest terms of patriotism, of 
 which this is one : — 
 
 "^Resolved, That, should this country be so unhap- 
 py as to see a day of trial, for the recovery of its 
 rights, by a last and solemn appeal to Him who 
 gave them, we should not be behind the bravest of 
 our patriotic brethren ; and that we will at all times 
 be ready to assist our neighbors and friends when 
 they shall need us, though in the greatest danger." 
 
 In 1774, the town boldly voted to pay its tax to 
 the treasurer appointed by the Provincial Govern- 
 ment, instead of the treasurer of the Crown. In 
 
19 
 
 1776, Nvliile tlie British troops hold possession of Bos- 
 ton, intrenchments were suddenl}' thrown up on Dor- 
 chester Heights, which led, in accordance with Wash- 
 ington's expectations, to the evacuation of the city. 
 It was the first marked success of the war. - The 
 rebels," wrote Gen. Howe to Lord Dartmouth, " have 
 done more in one night than uiy whole army would 
 have done in a month." Among those " rebels" were 
 a good proportion of Dorchester men, who, by special 
 direction of the commander-in-chief, had been pre- 
 paring fascines on a farm " in the upper part of the 
 town." 
 
 On the 23d of May of the same eventful year, be- 
 fore the declaration of independence, the town voted^ 
 ^' that, if the Continental Congress should think best 
 to declare an independency with Great Britain, we 
 will support them with our lives and our fortunes." 
 It was such voting as this, with the firm ring of intel- 
 ligent and devoted patriotism, that strengthened the 
 national assembly for its work. The strengtli of the 
 nation lay, not in wealth or in numbers, but in just 
 this tough fil)re of manly determination to resist 
 oppression. 
 
 When the war came, Dorchester never tliuchcd 
 from her position. Money for bounties and wages 
 was voted year after year with unfailing liberality; 
 ;iii(l. what cost far greater sacrifice, '"'nearly one-third 
 
20 
 
 of the men belonging to the town, above the age of 
 sixteen years, were in the army." There were but 
 few Tories here, and they found it agreeable to change 
 their residence. Our fathers, I suspect, used often to 
 help them in such migrations ; for in a quaint journal 
 kept by Col. Samuel Pierce, it is recorded, under 
 date of April 19, 1777, "There were five Tories 
 carted out of Boston, and tipt up in Roxbury, and 
 ordered never to return, upon peril of death. There 
 seems now to be some resolution in the people." 
 
 When peace, won by a love of liberty which could 
 never be subdued, at last returned, the town, like the 
 country, entered on a long career of steady though 
 uneventful prosperity. Its territory was reduced at 
 different times, — the greatest loss being by the seiz- 
 ure of South Boston, in 1804, to which Dorchester 
 never gave consent; but the population constantly 
 increased ; and the town, liberally supporting its 
 schools and churches, enjoyed a character for stabili- 
 ty, intelligence, and piety. 
 
 Nature certainly did much to make it attractive. 
 The hills which diversify its surface ; that outlook 
 upon the bay studded with green islands, which never 
 ceases to charm ; the harbor itself, enlivened by the 
 white sails of one of the great commercial centres of 
 our land ; the fields, rewarding industry and yielding 
 pleasant fruit under skilful culture; the healthful 
 
21 
 
 air IVoni the ocean, — all these give us an inheritance 
 in which we may well rejoice. 
 
 When we think, also, how much peace and iroocl- 
 wili. and how little altercation, there has been here ; 
 how much comfort in our modest homes, and how 
 little poverty ; what general health has been enjoyed, 
 what freedom from all epidemics, so that men live here 
 to be old, and then live on, ten or twenty years, to be 
 still older; when we argue, as one of our neighbors 
 loves to, that " certainly the United States form 
 the best country in the world, and Massachusetts 
 is the foremost of the states, and Dorchester the 
 pleasantest town in Massachusetts," — then surely it 
 is demonstrated that '• the lines have fallen to us in 
 pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage." 
 
 In every generation are the names of those who 
 have acted well their part, in the fear of God. In 
 that old burying-ground, first used in 1033. and hav- 
 ing more ancient inscriptions than any cemetery in 
 our land, save one in Jamestown, Va., there sleep not 
 only the '' rude forefathers of the hamlet," but many 
 of wide and lasting influence. Among the native- 
 born sons of Dorchester have been a president of 
 Harvard College, two governors of the common- 
 wealth, two lieutenant-governors, — one of whom 
 was also a chief-justice, — the first bishop of the 
 Episcopal church in Massachusetts, and the most emi- 
 
22 
 
 nent living American historian/'^ Most tenderly do 
 we recall the memory of that scholar and orator who 
 filled the highest offices of state at home and abroad ; 
 the music of whose voice and diction charmed more 
 ears than any other in our land ; who was spared by 
 a kind Providence to give to his country the aid of 
 his impassioned eloquence in the hour of her great- 
 est peril ; and yet who never so poured his heart from 
 his lips as when he came back to the cradle of his 
 childhood, and rehearsed with filial fondness the story 
 of his native town. 
 
 Not less to be honored, though less distinguished 
 than these, were they, among the living and the dead, 
 whose actions showed, onl}^ a few years ago, that Dor- 
 chester was true to the spirit of her early days. 
 When the War of the Rebellion commenced, and 
 through its progress, what general unanimity of feel- 
 ing here ; what liberality of giving ; what quick re- 
 sponse to the country's call from hundreds of our gen- 
 erous youth; what jjatience of endurance in many 
 lonely and bereaved homes ; what steadiness of pur- 
 pose till the end came : — and then, looking back, we 
 found, that, with a population of about ten thousand, 
 we had sent twelve hundred and seventy-seven to 
 
 * Reference is made to Pres. Mather, Gov. Everett, Gov. G irdaer, Lieut.- Gov. 
 and Chief Justice Stoughton, Lieut. -Gov. Taylor, Bishop Bass, and Hon. J. L. 
 Motley. 
 
23 
 
 the field ; and when we reared the nioninnental shaft 
 to the " unreturning l)rave," there were ninetj'-seven 
 names of our townsmen (oh, what precious names!) 
 to be recorded upon it. 
 
 " We have a goodly heritage;" and, taking now a 
 final glance at our whole history, I am impressed 
 with this fact: that we owe whatever has been bright 
 and honorable, above all, to our fathers' /ai^A m God. 
 AVe have no miserable legends of ancestors suckled 
 by wolves, such as the historians of Rome recorded ; 
 but true narratives of an exile for conscience' sake, 
 dan foundations laid in faith and prayer. And, while 
 much outwardly has changed, the savor of that seri- 
 ous, earnest piety remains. It has given us a pecu- 
 liar character ; and, if we w'ould preserve that, let us 
 support Christian schools and the ordinances of the 
 gospel. 
 
 Education ought not to be sectarian ; but it must 
 be religious, — tliat is, based upon a culture whicli 
 reco'mizes God, our accountabilitv to him, and the 
 authority of his revelation. Our churches also, with 
 their appointed ministry and services, are essential to 
 the preserving of our inheritance. If we would keep 
 the institutions we have received, we must cherish 
 the truths in whicli tliey originated. A sneering and 
 unbelieving age cannot hold the possession won in 
 
24 
 
 an age of faith. It will be spoiled by the Philis- 
 tines. 
 
 A solemn responsibility is laid npon us ; and if no 
 longer under a separate name we fulfil our w^ork, it 
 will be our happiness to be joined with those of com- 
 mon memories and a kindred spirit. Boston is a 
 Puritan city; it is even widely regarded as the very 
 representative of Puritanism ; it has a character, 
 moulded by the influences of the Bible, which distin- 
 guishes it from other great cities of our land. 
 
 As it now throws open its gates, it offers us a gen- 
 erous welcome ; and we are genially to accept the 
 alliance. We shall soon be at home : we need not 
 banish one cherished memory, any more than the 
 daughter forgets her father's house when she enters 
 beneath the roof of her husband. We are to come 
 into a larger community, and ought, therefore, to 
 cultivate larger ideas and broader sympathies ; re- 
 joicing that we shall be " citizens of no mean city," 
 but of one whose influence is felt through the land, 
 and felt for good ; whose boast is not wealth, but 
 thought; whose " notions " are truths; whose prog- 
 ress and glory, in which we are henceforth to share, 
 is in the line of our own fathers' aims and prayers. 
 May the uniting streams pour onward through the 
 great future with a peaceful and ever-widening flow ! 
 
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