REHOBOTH IN THE PAST. HISTOEICAL ORATION DELIVERED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1860, BY SYLVANUS CHACE NEWMAN, A. M., MEMBER OP THE KHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY; AND GENEA- LOGICAL SECRETARY OF THE BLACKSTONE MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN SEEKONK, [the Ancient Rehoboth,] AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE DAY, COMPLETING TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN YEARS OF ITS HISTORY. "Bekold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made." Josh, xxii., 28. PAWTUCKET: PBINTED BY ROBERT SHERMAN, MAIN STREET. 1860. Entered, according to Act of Congi'ess, in the year 1860, by Sylvanus Chace Newman, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for Rhode Island. NOV 8 )9b L_. [COERESPONOENCE.] Seekonk, July G, 1860. Bear Sir, — At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebra- tion at Seckonk on the 4th inst., holden this day, the enclosed resolve was unanimously adopted, and it affords me pleasure to be the instrument of communicating the same to you. Permit me also to express the sense of gratitude which the Committee, in common with their fellow citizens, feel for the most acceptable service per- formed by you on that occasion, and also personally to solicit a compliance with the very general wishes of our inhabitants. "With profound respect, your obd't servant, JOSEPH BROWN. To S. C. Newman, Esq. [COPY.] ^^ Resolved, That the thanks of the Committee of Arrangements be pre- sented to S. C. Newman, A. M., of Pawtucket, for the interesting and val- uable Historical Oration delivered by him at the Congregational Church, at Seekonk, on the 4th inst. Voted, That the Chairman, Joseph Brown, Esq., be a Committee to com- municate the foregoing resolution, and request a copy for the press." JOSEPH BROWN, Chairman. Attest : Wm. Ellis, Secretary. Pawtucket, R. L, July 10, 1860. Dear Sir, — Your kind note of the 6th inst., enclosing a copy of the resolution of the Committee for the late Festal Gathering in Seekonk, requesting a copy of my Oration delivered on that occasion, has been received. I am under obligations to the Committee for their favorable estimate of my discourse, and, relying upon their judgment, cheerfully comply with their request. Be pleased to accept my acknowledgments for the kind terras in which you have conveyed the request of the Committee, and be assured that I am, dear sir, Respectfully your obt. servt., S. C. NEWMAN. To Joseph Brown, Esq., \ Chairman of Committee, &c., J- Seekonk, Mass. ) DEDICATION. To THE Inhabitants of my Native Town, having been HONORED with AN INVITATION PROM THEIR COMMITTEE TO DELIVER IT, THIS OrATION, WITH WARM GRATITUDE FOR THE sympathizing attention with which it was received, is rljspectfully and affectionately Dedicated, By their Friend, S. C. NEWMAN. INTRODUCTOEY NOTE The following Oration is here printed from the manuscript as origi- nally prepared and delivered. In a field so broad, and covering so large a portion of time, it was found difficult to condense into the limits of a popular discom-se much that might be interesting to the future, in a historic point of view. Indeed, many of the facts were obliged to be so briefly alluded to as to render them hardly intelligible to the general reader ; but an attempt has been made to, in some measure, remedy this, and also to correct some long standing historic mistakes, by a series of appendant notes, referred to in the text by reference letters. Much time and labor has been bestowed in examining the sources from which early writers drew then" reported facts, and in research for other material relative to those times referred to in this discourse. And it is beheved that from the care thus bestowed upon the 7niuutice, the general aspect of this brief picture of Rehoboth in the Past will be found as substantially correct as so brief a limit could well admit of. The author would here tender his thanks to all who may have in any way contributed to the general success of that interesting Festal Gath- ering, in favor of which, the Public, as reflected from the Pulpit and the Press, has already pronounced its verdict. ORATION. Fellow Citizens: The partiality of the projectors of this pious gathering has placed me in a rather delicate j)osition, on account of my relationship to the founder of this ancient town and church ; but I shall endeavor to forego all such considerations, and seek to present ungarnished truth, let its inspiring mantle fall as it ma}^ On the centennial milestones that mark the sfreat highway of civilization, even back to the days of an- cient learning and artistic splendor, may be ,seen the graphic inscription, " We are living in an extraordi- nary age." This has been the spontaneous exclama- tion of observing men in every past age ; and it has been relatively true. Nor has it lost any of its truth in this, our age ; but rather returns upon us in ten- fold force. We, too, are living in a truly wonderful asre. Nature has commenced revealins: her sublimer mysteries. Science has commenced in earnest to open her inner temple, and is rapidly upsetting the mis- takes of the past, and is scattering the seeds of utility broadcast over the age in which we live. Time is an insatiable depredator, and by silently appearing to 10 take nothing, is too often permitted to take all. But, in this age, if we go to the site of Babylon or Nine- veh, and see nothing externally but a heap of dust — if in gazing externally at the prostrate columns and shattered capitals of Palmyra, Baalbec and Thebes, we read nothing but ruin — if, in fancy, we take our stand in the dim, hushed temple of Karnak, and by the red glare of torchlight can read nothing but the dialect of eternal decay, — yet by skillfully applying the smooth and polished keys of present Science to the labyrinth- ian locks of Nature and ancient art, the accuracy of the present state of the comparative anatomy of things will cause a few apparently useless fragments to reveal all the fair proportions of the ancient structure, and reproduce it in all its dimensions. If Time has dealt harshly with the sculptured marble, it is now within the reach of reproduction ; and what is still more won- derful in this age, if the shade of Time has stealthily drawn his decomposing brush over the speaking can- vas, robbing the pictured form of its grace, and tar- nished the cheek of beauty, it is an achievement of this age that the fair and manly forms that once sat by the easels of Titian, Rubens or Raphael, though defaced by time, or earlier incompetent restorers, can now, by scientific art, be restored to all the exact original grace and tints once imparted by the pencils of those great masters. But am.ong the many other prominent features of this age, is that of its spirit and energy in antiquarian research, and in drawing forth from the musty archives of the past^ detached and faded facts, and, through the comparative anatomy of Truth, restore something of the originals, and place them in 11 more durable condition, for the benefit of present and coming generations of men. In attempting to present on this occasion something of the original settlers of this venerable town, I shall not summon them from yonder cemetery, in their skeletons of bones, and offer them to your mental view merely in shrouds and coffins, but shall endeavor to reclothe them with flesh and sinew, and to drape them in the habiliments of their once mortal exist- ence, and, in some measure, present them as they trod this consecrated platform of religious and social life two hundred years ago. And, first, I will endeavor to present a glance at the life of the founder of this town and its first pastor. Dr. Cotton Mather, the learned author of the Magna- lia, is one of the principal colonial historians who has given us information on this matter ; but he has fallen into some mistakes, thereby misleading later annal- ists, which I have corrected from earlier and authen- tic sources. Rev. Samuel Newman was the son of Richard New- man, who was a glover, or dealer in gloves and other leathern articles of apparel, and who lived in respecta- ble standing at Banbury, Oxford county, fifteen miles from Oxford University, in England. The records of the church at Banbury show^ that this child was bap- tized, or christened, May 24, 1602, and as the rules of the church required this ceremony within two weeks from birth, when circumstances would permit, he was probably born about the 10th or 12th of May, 1602. The annals of the times present us with but little minutice in his earlier life, so that we can only form 12 our estimate of the boy by surrouiicling circumstances and the subsequent man. The family had long been noted in the realm of England for their uniform adhe- sion to the Protestant religion, and also for their piety and oreneral moral rectitude. Under these influences the boy exhibited studious habits and also contempla- tive propensities. His parents bestowed upon him a good early education, and then placed him at the Uni- versity of Oxford. He first entered St. Edmund's Hall for study at the age of fourteen, that department be- ing a cheaper mode of living, but was afterwards reg- istered as a member of Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated with its honors October IT, 1620, at the age of eighteen, (a) With all his early proclivities thus nourished and cultivated, and his studious intimacy with Rev. Dr. Featly, an eminent theologic Professor^ and also his intimacy with Rev. William Gouge, (who, for nine years, was never once absent from morning and evening prayers, and who read fifteen chapters of the Bible every day during that nine years,) with men like these for his chosen associates, though far superior in years, it is not much of a wonder that a writer of that age remarked that '' he early became a very able minister of the New Testament."" (/>) Dr. Mather, with his accustomed carelessness in minutiiCy states that the religious persecutions of the times caused him seven removes from churches in England, and finally his eighth remove to America. The last is true, but all else is a seven-fold mistake, having no better foundation than his hallucinations of withcraft. This young and talented ornament to the christian world temporarily supplied several different pulpits 13 during the absence of their pastors, and was really settled nowhere till in 1625, then aged twenty-three, when he was installed pastor of Midhope Chapel, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ; and on that occasion his congregation presented their young and brilliant preacher with this ministerial cane, now two hundred and thirty-five years old, and a hale old rosewood staff yet. [Cane exhibited.] He remained at that church ten years, or until 1G35. In that year the degrading religious persecutions of Archbishop Laud, who was afterwards suddenly made a head shorter, reached the climax of bitterness for non-conformity to those whim- sical outward ceremonials which, to the really intelli- gent and christian people, so much resembled the old Roman hierarchy; and it was in that year, 1635, and not in 1636 nor 1638, as related by some of our early annalists, that this man, with his young family and a sister Elizabeth, came to America. In that year there Avas a large emigration, and "among them a company who, in the records of Dorchester, are called the second emigration. Among them was Rev. Richard Mather, the progenitor of that race in America, and our Samuel Newman, as passengers together. In that year, owing to a large emigration from Dorchester to Connecticut, including their pastor, Rev. Mr. Warham, this new company took the place of those leaving, and purchased their lands and improvements. Mr. Mather and the new comers reors-anized the church and drew up a new covenant, which afterwards served as the basis of nearly all New England, and in this organization Mr. Newman participated. He resided at Dorchester four years, instead of one or two, as has 14 often been stated ; and the records of Dorchester say that he was a useful citizen among them in organizing their civil and religious condition, and a useful man in a variety of ways. It does not appear that he was in the ministry while at Dorchester, any more than as a member of the church, and perhaps an occasional preacher, but was engaged in writing his Concordance to the Bible, and waiting for a suitable field of labor when called for. He was a freeman of the Massachu- setts Colony and a housekeeper while at Dorchester ; and in his will, twenty-five years later, mentions his old house-servant at Dorchester, and makes her a bequest. In 1639 the church at Weymouth had got itself into three contending factions under three teachers, who were there at the same time, viz.: Mr. Hull, Mr. Jen- ner and Mr. Lenthal. In this state of things the peo- ple of Weymouth invited Mr. Newman to become their sole pastor in 1G39. He consulted his friends and his duty, and concluded to gratify their wishes. He im- mediately sold his lands to Mr. Mather, as appears by deeds, and took charge of the church at Weymouth, and in him all the people of Weymouth cordially uni- ted ; and thus permanently commenced his ministerial labors in America. In Weymouth he gave ample sat- isfaction to all his people, and besides his duties as a citizen and pastor, he was diligent in carrying forward his great work, the first /«// Concordance to the Bible ever attempted. He remained there till the spring of 1644. His people, joined by others of Hingham, con- cluding that a settlement at this place would afford them better lands and a pleasanter location, miited in 15 purchasing of Massasoit a territory ten miles square ; and pastor, church and people, leaving a SDiall minor- ity remaining, migrated to this spot and settled as a new community ; and regarding their pastor as their Joshua, tliey constituted him, by common consent, the founder and namer of this new town. The original Indian name of this place, Seekonk, was a union of two Indian words, seeld, black, and oiik, goose, or large bird ; — thus it meant hJack goose, or what we call wild goose ; and the Indians thus named it from the great numbers of that bird which in that age congregated in the neighboring Cove, on the west side of this place. Thus originated this town, to which the pastor gave the scriptural name of Rehoboth, remarking that " the Lord hath opened a way for us." He probably had in mind the twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis, verse 2 2d, which reads thus : " And he called the name of it Rehoboth ; and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." This Hebrew term signified a broad way or street, a broad place, a plateau, and certainly the topography of this place will justify its adoption as a proper name. Having thus traced this pious man from the place of his birth to this his last abiding place, I will en- deavor to group together the outlines of his history, and that of his chosen people, down to the period of his death. On commencing- life anew, each rendered in the amount of his property, for purposes of taxa- tion ; and Mr. Newman's amount was £530. [c) The first houses were log, thatched buildings, with large stone chimnej^s; and they built the town in a semi- circle, called " the ring of the town," open on the west, 16 with the church in the centre, and within a few feet of this present building; and the general outlines of the town are now plainly visible. At this period they were not considered as belonoino- to or connected with either the Massachusetts Colony or the Plymouth Col- ony, but w^ere, in reality, an independent plantation. And in this condition, while they could consult their general wants at the public and frequent town meet- ings, yet they felt the need of something of a court or tribunal, to whom they should submit ; and to meet this, the pastor drew up an instrument which yet remains in the archives of the town, and wdiich still bears the autograph signatures of the thirty heads of families as then existing. It provided that once a year the whole town should have a voice in choosing nine discreet men from among themselves, and that the decision of a majority of the nine should be final in all matters of dispute or disagreement. It was a very simple arrangement, but as it possessed equity powers, and was selected by the people themselves, and called " townsmen," it answered all its purposes, juid has existed, with various alterations of its powers, down to your present " selectmen." This compact was signed July 3, 1643. (d) The town was afterwards annexed to the Plymouth Colony, and so remained till the union of the two colonies in 1691. The church instructed the town, and the town provided for the church ; and for more than a century following seemed to provide for the church as a part of itself. The first public meetings were held under the shade of trees in suitable weather, and in private houses when the season required it, both religious and secu- lar. The first we hear of a meeting-honse was in October, 1646, when a tax was made to build one. The meeting-house was partially made and rendered habitalDle in 1647, and it stood where now is the wall of the cemetery, and its south side was where the tomb now is. In 1648 there was a tax ^ov finishing the meet- ing-house. In 1659 they enlarged the meeting-house by putting on what the vote calls a " new end," and contracted that it be shinsrled as well as Goodman Payne's house ; and from this period the house lasted, with some repairs, fifty-nine years, or until 1718, when they built the second house, fronting with the old one, but thirty feet east of it. That second house I have seen ; it had two sets of galleries, one above the other, and it disappeared in 1814, four years after this pres- ent house was erected, in 1810, having lasted, with various repairs, ninety-six years ; and at last became a residence for sheep and bats, and finally its lumber was used in erecting the present town-house or hall. But from this meeting-house digression let us return to their first years. In the absence of bells, they beat the drum to give notice of the time for public worship ; and seating the meeting according to seniority and other orders of respectability was the delicate task of a yearly committee appointed by the town. In some parts of New England it was the custom to preach by the hour, as measured by the hour-glass, and the preacher must preach till the sand had run out, wheth- er his ideas had all run out or not; (c) but such was not the case with this people, — they had an able min- ister, who measured his discourse by its importance and his ability in condensing it. Everything wore a 18 religious aspect ; l)ut tliey took no part in tlioso super- stitious follies involved in the early laws of Connecticut nor the persecutions at the headquarters of the Bay Colony at Boston. The first settlers of this place were very generally men of good abilities, and of con- siderable more than ordinary education for those times. But they were an isolated plantation ; and it provokes a smile to read on their town records of 1649 the ap- pointment of a committee of two of their ablest men, John Brown and Stephen Payne, with powder to em- ploy a surveyor ; and for what ? why to accomplish the difficult task of finding the way to Dedham ! a journey now traveled in about forty minutes. This vote alone is a whole chapter in the history of the diflerence between their times and ours. They were on good terms with their Indian friends, and having purchased and paid for their lands, the Indians fully acknowledged their peaceable possession down to the time of Philip's war. (/) There was a very faithful Indian, whose original name ought to have been pre- served, but whom the settlers called Sam, whether after their pastor or otherwise I know not, but he was the general shepherd for the town in watching their flocks and herds at the great " Ox Pasture," and drivino; the cows home at nig-ht and distributing;: them about in their appropriate yards ; and such was the esteem in which he was held, that on the books of the town there is a vote admitting him to all the privi- leges of citizenship. This is the first instance, and I think the only instance, in all our colonial history, wdiere a native born American has been naturalized on his own soil by a community of foreigners j but 19 the name of " Uncle Sam " yet remains a very popular cognomen for our common country. Their town meetino;s were held in their meetinir- house, and for many years "Father Bowen," as the records calhMr. Richard Bowen, was a sort of stereo- typed moderator; and he also served as clerk. And here a word on the term 3Ir. It w^as very rarely applied, and only to clergymen and citizens of much more than ordinary distinction, and more rarely than we now use the title of Honorable. The common title, as we now use Mister, was Goodman, and for 3frs. they used the term Goodwife or Goody ; — thus Goodman and Goody Paine instead of Mr. and Mrs. Paine. I mention this little fact because it will throw lii»;ht on old books when being read by young persons ; and this was not a peculiar trait in this people, but com- mon to that ac!:e in all the colonies. Their loo: houses, with clay-thatched roofs, resembled a thing two stories in front and no story in the rear, the back eaves reach- ing nearly to the ground and towards the north to ward off storms, and the front facing the south to enjoy the sun. The fi re-place and oven of stone, and chimney- flue of board lined with clay, were of large dimensions, so that there were little sitting-rooms on each side of the huge fire, with oak benches for sofas, from which they could look out of the chimney and see the same stars, planets and moon which had shone on them in their native Europe, with inspiring visions of the homes of their forefathers. Fire-wood was plentiful, and their food, clothing, furniture and general habits were so plain and substantial that they knew not the w\ant of valerian root, homoeopathic globules, or artificial bloom 20 for their cheeks. In these independent castles there were rehgious purity, much innocent merriment and general neighborhood sociality ; and barley beer, made by the goody or mother of the family, was the common beverage when they exceeded water. In this plain, unsophisticated manner, with pitch-pine knots whit- tled into candles, they spent their winter evenings in teaching children to read, write and cipher, and in cheerful social parties, frequently attended by their smiling pastor, who, with all his puritan gravity, was often caught at play with the assembled children of the Avhole neighborhood as if they had been his own. (//) The young men were ambitious in the art of tilling the soil, and of being found at church on the Sabbath ; and the girls, though constant at church, were hardly considered marriageable till, in addition to their daily practice in the art of housekeeping, they could show a pillow-case full of stockings of their own knitting, and woollen, linen and tow dresses enough, spun with their own hands, to last them till their first born daugh- ter would be old enough to begin to pull flax. Every- body learned a trade, and that trade was, the art or mystery of being diligent in some real utility. How different were those girls from ours ! I am not here to say which are the best ; but if the Great Author of the celebrated sermon on the Mount were here, he might see fit to repeat his own words in reference to many of the young ladies of this age : " They toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Their mode of travel was generally on foot. There were but few horses for horseback, and no carriages other than the 21 ox carts for farming ; and when new comers began to settle at a distance from the " ring of the town," they often took their families to meeting with ox teams. But with all this simplicity of social condition, they were a pious, intelligent, law-abiding and hos2:>itable people, exhibiting much of genuine goodness, and left an example that entitles the soil that here they once trod to be regarded as consecrated ground, — conse- crated to religion, to sound morality and to good citi- zenship ; and, as such, their memory is entitled to our gratitude and respect. Such was the general aspect of this community doAvn to 1663, the j)eriod of the death of their pastor, and such were the people with whom he held daily inter- course, and to whom he weekly, and often semi-weekly, imparted his ministrations. I will now attempt a brief summary of his life and character ; and in doing this shall offer no high-wrought eulogy, but simply present him in the position to which he is fairly entitled, and the position which I think he is destined to occupy in coming ages. His Concordance. There had been partial Concord- ances, or rather indexes to certain parts of the Bible, attempted by Cardinal Charo, in the thirteenth cen- tury, and by several others in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but the fivstftiU Concordance in English, that on which Cruden's and all later ones are based, was writ- ten or compiled by Samuel Newman. The first edition was printed at London in 1643, the last year of his ministry at Weymouth. The second edition was pre- pared in this town and printed at London in 1650, and 22 tlic third and last edition, still more complete, was prepared here and printed at London in 16-58, two hundred and two years ago this year; and here is the identical copy he reserved for his own nse. It has been pronounced by Biblical scholars a monument of learning, genius, industry and skill. To the christian world, as its sacred literature then was, the admirable arrangement and perfect execution of this task was a glittering casket of diamonds, cut from the Scriptures, and set, for convenience, in pictures of gold. Highly and justly as this perfect guide to every significant word in the whole Bible, Apocrypha and all, was prized in Europe and America, this infant town, though then a wilderness, could claim the honor of its production. But, " Each pleasure hath its poison, too, And every sweet a snare." His publishers at London failed and defrauded him of all pecuniary reward for his labors; and about the time of his death, another edition being called for by the sales it met with, it was re-published at Cambridge University, England, under the high-sounding title of the " Cambridge Concordance," faintly crediting its authorship to the initial letters " S. N.," in small type, without statin o; whether of Old or New Eng;land, or the moon. Perhaps it would be difficult to find in the whole history of authorship an instance of more flagrant wrong committed upon a toiling scholar, about leaving the world, and unable to speak for himself by a distance of three thousand miles. But it was said by the Psalmist of old, " The righteous shall be in ever- lasting remembrance," a reward of far more value than 23 booksellers' remittances; and I am proud of an op- portunity, though at the distance of two centuries, to vindicate his memory on this the original site of his achievements, though I could wish that the task had fallen to abler hands. Thus much of this sacred monu- ment of his literary labors. His intellectual and keligious character, and his DEATH. It is to be regretted that thirteen years after his decease, his library and papers, bequeathed in his will to his son Noah, and successor in the ministry, fared hard at the burnino; of the "ring; of the town" on the 28th of March, 1676, by the Indians in Philip's war. Only a fragment of his diary escaped that con- flagration, but it is an important one. It w^as the j)rivate platform of his life, and the one on wdiich cotemporary w^'iters say he implicitly stood during his whole residence in America. This brief but im- j)ortant document is as follows : " Notes or marks of grace I find in myself; not wherein I desire to glory, but to take ground of assurance, and after our apostle's rules, to mahe my election siwe, though I find them but in weak measure : 1. I love God, and desire to love God, principally ybr himself. 2. I desire to requite evil with good. 3. A looking up to God, to see him and his hand in all things that befall me. 4. A greater fear of displeasing God, than all the world. 5. A love of such christians as I never saw, or received good from. 6. A ^ri'e/'when I see God's commands broken by any person. 7. A mourning for not finding the assurance of God's love, and the sense of his favour, in that comfortable manner, at one time as at another ; and not being able to serve God as I should. 8. A willingness to give God the glory of any aiility to do good. 9. A joy when I am in christian company, in Godly conference. 24 10. A grief, when I perceive it goes ill with dmstians, and the contrary. 11. A constant performance of secret duties, between God and my- self, mornina; and evenino;. 12. A bewaihng of such sins which none in the world can accuse me of. 13. A choosmg of s?{^e?7'«^ to avoid sin." As liis implicit practice of, and adherence to, these thirteen golden rules, offsprings of their great proto- type in the New Testament, is corroborated by ample cotemporar}^ testimony, no other evidence need be adduced to exhibit his as a well balanced, pure and lofty christian character. The more they are scru- tinized from a christian stand-point, the purer and brighter they will shine. And, to a suggestive mind, this number of thirteen might appear as rather ominous, for they would have strengthened the moral force of that immortal document we have heard read to-day as the platform of the thirteen new-born States, crea- ting a vast Eepublic, which can permanently endure only on a basis of political righteousness. There are two events in his life which we could wish had never occurred, because they were misrepre- sented in the history of those times ; but neither of them did his character any permanent harm, as they received their false coloring from the careless use of words by earlier and partizan historians. I would not shroud his faults in the mantle of his virtues, ample as that would be to cover them, for that would not be honest. That he participated in the limited vision that belongs to our mortal existence there can be no doubt. The sun itself has spots, and imperfection is clearly 9H admitted in the twelfth item of his personal platform. The two events are these : Eight persons, with Oba- diah Holmes as their leader, adopting the Baptist sen- timents, voluntarily withdrew from this church and held meetings of their own. The censure imputed to the pastor by the polemical wTiters of those times consisted in what they tortured into harshness in excommunicating these persons from his church, when all he did in the matter was to formally discontinue their names as members of his church, after they had voluntarily withdrawn. The word excommunicate was not the right term ; it implied an unkindness that he never manifested. It is true that Obadiah Holmes was unmercifully and w^rongfully whipped for his re- ligious opinions, but it was done for the exercise of those opinions in another place, and by the rigid, per- secuting authorities at Boston, and in a colony that had no control over Rehoboth. In religious tolera- tion, the governments of the Massachusetts and Ply- mouth Colonies were two very different bodies, and so were the people that sustained them ; and this was one of the freest towns in this colony. But toleration, in those days, was as far as any of them could see, and to be tolerant was to be magnanimous. But tol- eration implies the reserved right to withhold that which is tolerated. The great idea that perfect relig- ious freedom, in all matters of conscience, was an in- herent, inalienable right in man, was reserved for an outcast of the Massachusetts Colony, and not the Ply- mouth. The sublime truth of "soul liberty" was a celestial spark that ignited the heart of Roger Wil- liams alone, but was destined by Omniscience to shed 4 26 its radiance over our entire world. The intolerant severity wrongfully attributed to Rehoboth, had no real existence. And I think that if our aged friend, Avho, thank God, still lives, and is with us here to-day, the venerable and learned historian of the great and respectable Baptist denomination in this and other countries, [Rev. Dr. Benedict,] had written his lumi- nous history imder the developments of the present day, instead of a half century ago, I think that he, with all his acknowledged ability and fairness of pur- pose, would have more amply shielded the memory of this generous and high-minded christian scholar. The other regretted event is brief Several citi- zens, whose zeal probably swerved their judgment, reported to the pastor that Mr. Holmes had made a false statement on some matter at court ; and, in a public discourse on the importance of moral recti- tude, the pastor alluded to this report, not then suffi- ciently doubting its truth. Mr. Holmes brought an action for damages of £100. The pastor appeared at court, fully admitted the allusion he had made, and presented the testimony of those wdio thus informed him, they further testifying that they were mistaken and not Avillful in the charge. The court, seeing no evidence of intentional wrong on the part of the ac- cused or his informers, dismissed the idea of any dam- age, and ordered that the pastor should pay only the few shillings of cost. The complainant, Mr. Holmes, expressed himself perfectl}'' satisfied that the pastor had intended him no Avrongful injury, and preferred to pay the cost himself; and, in his next public dis- course, the pastor took occasion to set the Avhole mat- 27 ter right. This case still stands thus on the Plymoiitli records; yet there have not been wanting religions partizans who have stated that the pastor of this chnrch was prosecnted for defamation, damages £100, without giving its honorable termination. And this complain- ant was the same Ol^adiah Holmes who had been for- merly dismissed from this church at his own request, but not '^^excommunicated ;" and his manly feelings ex- hibited in this case show how little he supposed the meek pastor of this ancient church had to do with his being whipped at Boston for his religious opinions by those ministerial tigers who were so " voracious to do good." Hospitality and generosity were marked features in his character. AVe read in Goldsmith of a parson " Passing rich with forty pounds a year." Our pastor had fifty pounds a year, but as he was the largest tax-payer in the town, excepting two, his peo- ple gave themselves but little trouble about paying him, deeming their wants for improvements to be greater than his, and with which he found but little fault. He loved his church as if it had been his fam- ily, and taught his family as if it had been his church ; and his church was pretty nearly the town. Once, on a journey from Boston to Rehoboth on horseback, [after that committee, with their civil engineer, had found the way to Dedham,] our pastor accidentally heard of a set lecture to be delivered by Rev. Richard Mather, at Dorchester, for the particular benefit of certain noted irreligious men. He resolved to hear it, and, turning his horse, rode to Dorchester, arriving 28 there just as Mr. Mather was opening his meeting with prayer. Mr. Mather pressed him into his own place as preacher for the occasion, thus unexpectedly. Our pastor delivered one of his off-hand " christian philippics y^ and the result was that, in after days, several eminent christian citizens of Dorchester dated their conversion from that meeting. Very few of his discourses were ever committed to writing. He is described by his almost forgotten co- temporaries as a lively, energetic and highly eloquent extemporaneous speaker, whose perspicuous sermons, like the orations of Homer's Nestor, " Whose lip dropped language sweet," and which fell like the dews of Hermon on his cap- tive congregations ; and if stenography or phonogra- phy had been as common then as now, this old town might have furnished one of the richest caskets of jewels in our country's theologic literature. In a sort of three-fold eulogy pronounced by an eminent clergyman of those times, the year 1663 is termed a memorable year, inasmuch as in that year Norton of the Massachusetts Colony, Stone of the Connecticut Colony, and Newman of the Plymouth Colony, — the three divines from whom their respec- tive colonies were then drawing their largest share of christian light and influence, — all three expired within a few days of each other ; a fact to which President Stiles of Yale College, a century later, adds his cor- roborative testimony. This remark alone, among the distinguished men of that age, implied no small dis- tinction. 29 But althonglihe has lived in the floating paragraphs of biographical dictionaries, and in the detached and fading scraps of a too mnch neglected department of by-gone literature, and in his Concordant folio of Bibli- cal jewels of utility and energy, yet his grave, in yon- der cemetery, remains unmarked by a fragment that tells his name ; and his memory is almost in the con- dition of another of more distant times, of whom it was said : " He was an ornament to the age in which he lived, but, in the multiplied troubles of the age, he had no historian, and was forgot." I have but little faith in what is now passing over this age under the name of " Spiritualism," but I know of nothing in revelation, or in the laws of Nature as thus flir developed in the fields of physical or intellec- tual philosophy, that positively precludes the idea that the disembodied existences of just men made perfect take cognizance and interest in the more refined por- tions of the mode of existence in which they once had so great an interest. In the absence of all positive proof, analogy would seem to favor the position that they do. The apostrophy in rhetoric is based on this probability. If, then, your departed pastor of this ancient church, with his beloved Deacons Cooper and Carpenter, and Goodman Paine, and Wheaton, and Bowen, and Read, and all that pious band of warm- hearted christians who, two centuries ago, trod in cheerful meekness this consecrated soil, — if they are now witnessing with interest this pious gathering of their descendants to commemorate them, let us listen a moment, with the ear of imagination, and catch some faint resemblance of their thoughts to us, as 30 ihoy are Ijreathed on seraphs' wings and wafted from their celestial portals. " Descendants and successors, now gathered on the spot of our once mortal existence ! With a vision incomprehensible to you, w'e turn a moment from our higher employments, and with sympathetic in- terest in your present existence, we greet you in the dialect of earth. AVhen we once breathed the life that you now breathe, we, like you, w^ere mortal and imperfect, and stood upon a probationary foundation. We only acted in earnest the best we then knew, and in the ligrht of that Revelation which was then our guide, and should now be yours. In our weakness we were sustained through our faith in promised grace, and clothed in the mantle of the great atone- ment. Thus equipped in the armor of Christ, who is now our associate, we were admitted to these realms wdiere just men are made perfect, and where they reap the legitimate awards that flow, as a natural result, from their innate purity, thus made perfect through Divine influence. In the light of these, our mortal trials and immortal triumphs, we sa}^ to you, live on in the full discharge of your duty ; — to the best of your ability fulfil every Divine command, and cling to the atonement, in all its essential conditions, as your ark of safet}^. Thus answer the greatest ob- ject of your mortal existence, and, in due time, come to us. Then will we joyfully introduce you to scenes which mortal eye hath not seen, nor ear heard — a blissful beatitude, unknown and unexpressed in the dialect of man ; and, with you, enjoy such an exist- ence, in unfading life, through endless duration. In- 31 habitants of our once earthly abode ! We appreciate the objects of your innocent, fraternal gathering, the first of its kind since we were summoned away ; and, with thoughts like these, we beckon you to a better world, at the appointed timcj and until you thus meet us — adieu !" Returning from this digressive apostrophy, we will close the ecclesiastic portion of our review by de- scribing the singular death of the first pastor of this church, and then turn our attention to civic thino-g. His death was different from that of the ordinary lot of men, but I do not regard it in that miraculous light in which it was then viewed, wonderful and ex- traordinary as it truly was. From the nature of his Biblical studies in compiling his Concordance, he had every part of the Divine revelations under constant rumination, and this, to him, was the means of arriv- ing at an extraordinary measure of that sanctity which these great truths, rightly improved, would naturally inspire. Thus, as he drew towards the close of his life, he seemed to advance more and more towards the beginnings of his final triumph over his portion of our fallen nature ; and a foresight of its joys very observably, but calmly, irradiated his whole being. On Sunday, June 28, 1663, 0. S., one hundred and ninety-seven years ago this year, he delivered his last sermon, from Job xiv., 14 : " All the days of my appoint- ed time will I wait, until my change come." In that discourse he presented a brilliant synopsis of his whole christian teachings since he had been their shepherd, informing his sorrow-smitten congregation that his mission upon earth was closed, and imparted his final and tearful benedictions, though then in perfect health and but sixty-one years of age. He was seen no more mingling in the affairs of men, and spent the follow- ing seven days at his house, in the midst of his family altar, where his physical nature gradually grew weak without pain and without any visible cause ; and as his mortal structure receded, his spiritual being visi- bly increased in heavenly irradiation. On the fol- lowing Sunday, July 5, the church drum was silent, and ceased to call the accustomed congregation, and men met each other that morning in silent salutation and with downcast and foreboding countenances. A few select members of the church spent some time in an interview with their pastor, at his house, in the afternoon, of the minutiee of which there is no record, other than at the termination of it, he asked Deacon Cooper to close the parting with prayer ; immediately after which, he turned his face from the gaze of mor- tals towards the wall of the room, and calmly spoke these words : " And now, ye angels of the Lord Jesus Christ, come, do your office !" and gently falling back upon his couch, breathed no more. Such was the manner of his death, as attested by Rev. Drs. Mather, Elliot and others ; and accounts of it were drawn up at the time by several clergymen and others, and sent to their friends in England ; but they gave to it a miraculous shade to which these sin- gular facts were not entitled. The laws of physical and intellectual life were less understood then than now ; and there was no miracle about it. It was sim- ply a result ; not a general, but an occasional result, flowing from a deeply pious and energetic intellectual christian life ; and was but another of the very few, but Avell authenticated, instances oi jrrenioiiiiion, or that premonitory presentiment whereby, for some Divine Providential reason, unknown to us, but which we have no right to question, — a well developed instance among the few who have been permitted to foresee the time and circumstances of their own exchange of worlds. His departure was long and deeply lamented by his bereaved flock, and throughout New England. In his toil on his Concordance and Biblical studies he was compared with Neander, a Rector of a German Uni- versity, who, in the preceding century, had spent many years of vast labor in making notes and com- mentaries on the Greek classics of antiquity ; and, in view of all these facts, an eminent scholar of another colony wrote the following brief but comprehensive Latin epitaph to his memory, which, if future piety and justice should ever set up a stone to his yonder lonely grave, might, with propriety, be a part of its inscription : " Mortuns est Neander Xov-Anglus, Qui ante mortem dedicit mori, Et obiit ea morte qua; potest esse, Ars bene moriendi." Which permit me to offer in an English dress : Thus died the Neander of New-England, Who iu his life had learned how to die, And whose death may be called the Art of dying wel {h) For the five succeeding years there was no settled minister of this church; but Rev. Mr. Symes, Rev. John Miles and Rev. Mr. Burkley were severally em- ployed to supply the desk until March, 1GG8, when Noah Newman, youngest son of the former pastor, 34 having then completed his preparatory studies, was ordained as the successor to his father -, and after ten years of acceptable and appreciated service, died in 1678, and his grave is yonder, by the side of his father's. I have identified the location of each, but " No stone now tells Their name, their worth, their glory." The third pastor was Rev. Samuel Angier; from 1679 till his health failed in 1692. The fourth was Rev. Thomas Greenwood ; settled in October, 1693. [The record looks like 91, but it is a faded 3.] The fifth was Rev. John Greenwood, son of the for- mer, and ordained 1721. These two Greenwoods were most worthy and pious men, and their memory should long be kept green as the woods of perennial summer. The sixth was Rev. John Carnes, a graduate of Har- vard, and installed April 18, 1759. He resigned his post in 1764, and from 1776 to the close of the Revo- lution was a chaplain in the American army, — nine years representative in the Legislature, and a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Convention that adopted the National Constitution. He died in 1802, aged 78, a patriotic and pious citizen of unblemished reputation. The seventh was Rev. Ephraim Hyde, a graduate of Yale College, ordained May 14, 1766, preached seven- teen years, and died in 1783, aged 45. He was much beloved by his people, and his grave is in yonder cemetery. The eighth was Rev. John Ellis, a graduate of Har- vard College in 1750. He was a chaplain in the army 30 tiiroiiglioiit the entire Revolution, a.ncl installed over this church March 30, 1785, dismissed, at his own re- quest, in 1796, from age and infirmities, and died at Norwich, Connecticut, 1806, aged 78. During the min- istry of Mr. Ellis, the neighboring and highly respec- table and flourishing Baptist Church on the south end of this Common was organized, in 1794. That church had its origin in a mistaken view of the ownership of certain legacies bequeathed to this society at an earlier period. They believed, or appeared to believe, that a donation made and accepted for a specific purpose, could be changed for another purpose at the will of a majority of its recipients ; and they being then in a majority, barred the doors of this church until the Supreme Ju- diciary, after a patient and most thorough investigation, unbarred them and restored order. But no crimination nor recrimination need now be uttered, for this state of things soon died away, and the two churches, though different in what I regard as non-essential human creeds, have long walked hand in hand in the spirit of unity ; and down to this day are exhibiting inter- changes and religious courtesies but rarely met Avith, and are setting an example of genuine liberality wor- thy of all christian commendation ; and they approach nearer than any instance within my knowledge to that immortal line in the writings of an English bard, a sen- timent which will one day pervade the whole world : '• Be all distinctions, in the chrtsiian, lost." The ninth pastor of this church was Rev. John Hill ; installed September 22, 1802, and lost his life by the kick of a horse in 1816. I was present at his funeral. 36 He was an erudite linguist in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and well versed in the various departments of English literature. In addition to his ver}^ accepta- ble ministerial duties, he kept a school for the above named studies ; and was beloved by his church and the youth under his charge. His wife was Eoby Bowen ; born at Coventry, Rhode Island, November 29, 1T6G, a lineal descendant, in the fifth generation, from " Father Richard Bowen,'' the town clerk and standing regulator of town meetings in this place two hundred years ago ; and she still survives in yonder house of her departed husband, in sight of this church, and at the age of nearly ninety-four, and being the nearest link that connects us w4th the first settlers of this ancient town. The w^ord grandfather, with two greats to it, will carry this lady back, genealogically, to England, at a period when the passengers of the Mayflower w^ere quietly located in Holland, and when no Indian in these colonies had ever beheld a pale- faced European. This fact arose from several gene- rations being l)orn late in the lives of their fathers. "Father Bowen" died February 4, 1675, at an ad- vanced age, [I know not what,] and two families of his grand-children, containing fourteen persons, lived one thousand and thirty-nine years, being an average of over seventy-four 3'ears each. De morluis nil nisi venim. The fc/ff/i is our friend. Rev. James 0. Barne}^, the present pastor, a graduate of Brown University, and ordained February 4, 1824, and whose labors and success, and whose long appreciation by this people. is a subject which will tell its own story able task, of which I have no prescriptive right to rob the future historian. Long may it yet be before his successor shall be finally announced. Thus much of this ancient church. The town, as it originally existed, has given birth to seven towns and fragments of three or four more ; and in the follow- ing order : Swansea, in 1667 ; Attleborough, in 1694 ; Cumberland and Barrington as it now is, and Warren, in 1746 ; Seekonk, in 1812 ; and Pawtucket, in 1828. Thus, to use geographically a genealogical figure, this old town has had three children and four grand-chil- dren, — all now living and doing well. The venerable mother, instead of one log-thatched church and thirty families, now has thirty-eight churches and thirty thou- sand inhabitants ; and, as oftshoots and adopted chil- dren, we cordially, in her behalf, extend to you all a maternal and fraternal greeting. Without time for anything like connected history, we can only slightly glance at a few of the leading events within the limits of this mother of towns. Here, for forty years, lived, and died, the venerable patriarch who was the first and sole white inhabitant of Boston, and who raised from English seeds the first apple in New England. Here, too, Roger Williams, [whose skeleton, by one of Nature's singular trans- mutations, now exists in w^ood,] built his cabin and planted his first and last corn, before going to settle the first free State in the world. (/) Here was shed the first blood in King Philip's war, and here was cap- tured the last of his commanders; and that direful 38 drama, wliicli for more than twelve montlis dreiiclicd New England in blood, and spread fire and devasta- tion in every direction, was opened and closed here. Twenty-nine of the men of this sparsely settled town were furnished for the army, thirteen of whom were in the great fight at Narragansett, in Khode Island ; and those who remained to take care of the wives and children, contributed four hundred and eighty-four pounds, five shillings and five pence, in all, for the support of that Indian war. These patriotic sacrifices were in all sorts of sums, from one shilling by Ebenezer Amidown, to one hundred pounds by Nathaniel Paine. The great city of New York was indebted to this town for special favors two centuries ago. After Manhattan had been settled by the Dutch, they were joined by a colony of English. This mixed people were without an organized government, and no man among them was fitted for the task. They harrowed the services of a citizen of this town, who understood Dutch and En*dish, and had all the other necessary qualifica- tions in an eminent degree. He straightened their difficulties, organized a good municipal government, and was unanimously elected the first mayor of the city of New York. He was re-elected ; and after serv- ing two years, thought he had got them trained so that they could manage for themselves, took leave of them, receiving their united benedictions, and re- turned to his family and home in this town ; and his grave is with us to this day; — the worthy Thomas Willett. (,/) The town has given birth to several very eminent men, and among them Benjamin West, the distinguished Professor of Mathematics and As- 39 tronomy in Brown University — a philosopher whose merits and reputation are co-extensive with astro- nomical science. There was another of " Nature's noblemen " amons: the original settlers of the town, whose grave is with us to this day ; — John Brown, who was elected and served as Governor's Assistant for seventeen years. He was the first magistrate in the United Colonies who raised his voice against coercive support of the ministry, taking the stand that all church support should be voluntary, and backed his precepts by lib- eral example. He was a man of abilities, intelligence^ 'piety and patriotism, and was buried wdth military and civic honors in 1662. He has worthy descendants, one of whom is chairman of the Committee of Arrange- ments on this occasion. As we glide down into later periods, we are arrested by the fact that in the affairs of the Revolution this town acted a noble and patriotic part. The hatred of oppression and love of liberty coming in contact early, struck a spark that ignited the united hearts of this people, and continued to blaze, undiminished, till the completion of National Inde23endence. The town unanimously voted instructions to their representa- tives in the Legislature to resist, to the last extremity, and inch by inch, every act of aggression on the part of the British Crown. A letter of these instructions by the town's Committee of Correspondence, presumed to have been drawn up by its chairman, Ephraim Starkw^eather, breathes a s^Dirit of intelligence, judg- ment and patriotism, clothed in a soul-stirring elo- quence, but rarely to be found in the whole annals 40 of that great Revolution, and gave evidence that the seeds of the sublime eloquence of Otis found a con- genial and prohfic soil in the hearts of the people of this town. The drafts upon this town for men, for various peri- ods of military service, required two hundred and six, which were all answered promptly. The voluntary en- listments, for various terms of time, were one hundred and four. Thus the town furnished three hundred and ten of its men, from beardless youth to veterans in age, for the continental army, thirty-seven of whom served as commissioned officers ; and the records show but one single desertion from the post of military duty. Besides furnishing its portion of the supplies called for by the government for the military chest, the town voluntarily imposed heavy taxation upon itself for the comfort of its own absent soldiers ; and the inhab- itants also made voluntary contributions, six pounds of which came from this church, for the relief of the ' poor of Boston, sufferers by means of the Boston port bill ; and the treasurer of the Provincial Congress ac- knowledged the receipt of ten pounds from this town to help sustain the expenses of that body. Through- out the Revolution, the patriotic conduct of this people will bear an honorable comparison with almost any spot in the whole thirteen colonies, and deserves to be remembered in gratitude by all their descendants. And throughout all the past history thus glanced at, the town has been ample in its provisions for the edu- cation of its youth, as then compared with surrounding places ; and perhaps in this is to be found the secret of much of its early reputation and patriotic influence, {k) 41 But let us turn from these tedious locals, and pay a glancing tribute of respect to our common country, especially as this is her natal day. Such are the facil- ities of the present day, and for which we should be profoundly thankful, that the history of the Revolu- tion, and a good view of our subsequent annals, have become i familiar to the school-boys; but there are points in our colonial existence which may have too much escaped the attention of even "children of a larger growth." By this I mean, there is a sort of three-fold connecting idea, through which may be seen the gradual development of our childhood of colonial history, and our manhood in the final inde- pendent Union of this Republic. On the 11th of November, 1620, [old style,] there was drawn up, on the lid of a chest, on board the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor, and signed by forty- one of the principal men of the first band of Pilgrims, a platform of civil government which, notwithstand- ing all the civic and ecclesiastic aberrations from it in later times, contained the elemental seeds of all that is now valuable in the civil polity of this great Western Empire. I think that the more that brief but comprehensive document is studied, and studied, too, in connection with the noble and most instruc- tive farewell discourse of John Robinson, their pastor, before they left Leyden, the more will this important and fundamental truth become apparent. (/) This is the first point in what I denominated a three-fold idea, the whole essence of which was, under God, kiiman freedom enshined in human progress. The second point in this progress was in 1G52 ; and 6 42 it developed itself through the medium of coinage. The coinage of money has, in all nations, ever been considered a prerogative of the government ; and de- vices upon coin are intended as emblematic of some leading proclivity of the people. The first coin struck in North America, at Boston, in 1652, was intended as a Liberty coin. It was, in later times, and for special reasons, called the " Pine Tree Shilling," but it was no such thing; it was as bold an effort at a Declaration of Independence as they then dare make, and was founded on the following passages from the seven- teenth chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel : " Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel. And say, thus saith the Lord God ; a great eagle with great wings, long wings, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar : He cropped off the top, and carried it into a land of traffick ; he set it in a city of merchants : and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar ; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." It is a quite remarkable feature in the Prophet Eze- kiel, that the success of man, under Divine Providen- tial blessing, is variously typified under the idea of a ring within a ring — the first as enclosing the acts of men, and the outer ring as the surrounding Providen- tial protection. We are now prepared to present the solution of this prophetic riddle as exhibited in this first coin, erroneously, but for reason of fear, called the " Pine Tree Sliilling," pence, and so forth. The coin has a cedar tree enclosed in a ring, with the word " Massachusetts " in an outer ring ; and on the opposite side, " 1652 : XII pence," in the inner ring, and " New England " in the outer ring, or between the two rings. This coin was thus struck in the time of the Common- 43 wealth, under Cromwell, when the restraints of mon- archy were hardly thought of in the colonies. They thought that they were a full grown, goodly cedar ; but they were too fast ; the time indicated in Ezekiel's riddle had not yet come. In a little time, Charles Second came to the throne ; monarchy was restored ; and they began to be fearful about their coin. The King's Commissioners reported it to him, but knew nothing about the riddle of Liberty contained in it. Sir Thomas Temple, who was well acquainted in New England, and a sound friend to the colonies, and yet a confident of the King, suddenly ameliorated much of the King's ill feeling from this encroachment upon his prerogative in coinage. The King asked Sir Thomas why they dared to coin money contrary to law? He took some of these shilhngs from his pocket, and showing them to the King, remarked, evasively, that these people knew but little about law ; that they were coined merely for convenience, not supposing there would be any objections. The King asked what tree that was? Sir Thomas told him it was the Royal Oak of Boscobel. [When Charles Second, in his attempt to regain his fatiier's throne, was routed by the army of Cromwell, at Wor- cester, he saved his life by hiding in the thick boughs of an oak tree at Boscobel ; and after his restoration, this tree acquired the name of the Royal Oak • and Sir Thomas Temple thus evasively called the tree on the coin the Royal Oak, in honor of his preservation, adding that they dare not put his name on, being then under the Commonwealth.] The King, smiling, said : " They are a set of honest dogs ; let them coin their 44 .sliillingR." And tliey continued to coin their shillings and pence, without much alteration, calling it an oak or a pine, as best suited their whim, only keeping out of siijfht the original secret of their cedar tree coin. There is wisdom to be learned from this second point in our three-fold idea of the development of American freedom. They were right, in the great outer ring of God's ultimate designs, in setting His eagle to crop the monarchies of the Old World and to replant the twigs to grow into Republics — setting the first example in our portion of the earth. But nations, like men, are some- times impatient and too fast. They thought the small twig plucked from the top of the prophetic cedar of Lebanon, and developed in the miniature platform of the Mayflower, had grown into a goodly tree at Boston in thirty-two short years, so that it could bear national fruit, and shelter, in its ample boughs, " all fowls of every wing;" or, in other words, welcome the op- pressed of all nations under their protecting shadow. But such was not the case ; the time had not arrived ; they had to do more than to " wait a little longer." . o i " Man, in feebleness, cnn plan. But God, in wisdom, executes." Their emblematic Declaration of Independence was, indeed, the still, small Vox Dei, but, in His wisdom, not then to be ratified by the Vox popidi ; but, after a cen- tury and a quarter more had rolled away, and Divine Providence had so shaped the affairs of men that all was ripe, then came, in thunder tones, the Vox Dei, ratified, in universal acclamation, by the Vox populi, and developed itself in the immortal declarative Char- 45 ter of our Liberties, read here to-day ; — and although they had no further need of the boughs of the cedar, having received the whole canopy of the stars as our immortal birthright, yet they retained the agent that cropped the twig, and commissioned his ever-expand- ing wings to hover over the down-trodden stranger from every clime, and to forever glitter upon our coin as an emblem of the great enigma of human freedom and human rights, {m) Such is the three-fold idea of the gradual develop- ment of the great problem of human rights, as seen in the summary of our colonial history. From the Declaration of Independence, eighty-four years ago to-day, the history of the growth and present ener- gies of our Kepublic is known of all men, and per- haps is well expressed, in a single word, by the term Progression. A progress in that art and skill which are essential to a nation's prosperity, — progress in that knowledo-e which Lord Bacon declares to be but an- o other name for power, — progress in those all-conquer- ing energies which have stamped their impress not only throughout our own land, but on the distant na- tions of the Eastern World, and unbarred the icy gates of the frozen North, — progress in all the elements of that civilization which is commanding the universal re- spect of the nations of the earth, — and progress in the knowledge and practice of Christianity, without which no nation can be permanently prosperous or happy. Such are the leading features of our Republic to-day. It is true that we can see the threatening penumbra of a dark cloud in the South, and hear the distant mutterings of a harmless thunder, and we can occa- 46 hiionally pee faint and unmeaning Hashes of political lightning ; but showers are refreshing to the land, and usually give us a purer atmosphere. It is not in the power of any men, or parties of men, to rend asunder our well cemented bond of Union, merely because it is not yet what we should all like to have it. We may be too fast in our anticipations, as well as the little nation of Massachusetts in 1652, when they coined their shilling. The halcyon days of a political millenium are not to be ex23ected till Divine Provi- dence sees best ; and we must be content to each one endeavor to clear his own skirts from all wrong, and " wait a little longer." This year we are only passing through one of our accustomed quadrennial political spasms, and before another twelve-month shall have rolled away, we shall again see a noble spectacle — a ceremony that makes thrones and diadems tremble — that of one national administration quietly and sub- missively laying down the robes of office, and another administration as quietly and calmly putting them on ; and all this mighty change, involving the interests of many millions of our race, at the simple will of the sovereign people, expressed through a harmless bal- lot, instead of a hostile bullet. Our Republic has hardly yet begun its career in the destiny assigned it. We are yet to pass through many more revolutions ; so that if the statesman of to-day could re-visit his native home a century hence, lie would search in vain for some of his now familiar institutions. But these approaching revolutions are not to be produced by the cartridge-box ; they will be achieved at the ballot-box, and under an increased 47 influence of the band-box. And although there may be politicians who would, if they could, blot out the principles of the founders of the Republic, and sell their immortal birthright for the potage of office, yet there is a recuperative moral power always held in re- serve, and equal to the emergency. To short-sighted and desponding men it has certainly appeared as if de- parted greatness itself had fallen into the hands of polit- ical degeneracy, and that even the principles and fame, and name and dust of Washington were to be driven into oblivion. But there is, in the providence of God, " A sovereign balm for every wound, A cordial for our fears ;" and the name and fame, and principles and counsels, and sacred dust of the revered Father of his Country shall be preserved, and exert their intended influence on unborn generations of men ; and for this we have an ample guaranty in the fact that woman, the cheer- ing solace in man's last extremity, — sublime woman, — now holds the keys of Mount Vernon. And now, Fellow-citizens, may that overruling Di- vine Providence whose protection has encircled the inhabitants of this ancient settlement throuo;h the sunshine of prosperity and storms of adversity for more than two centuries, still protect and bless you and your descendants, down the long vista of coming ages; and may the lessons of wisdom and fraternal influence which the motive of your gathering this day is so well calculated to inspire, be inscribed as with a sunbeam on the tablets of your town, and all its churches, and there leave its impress forever. APPENDANT NOTES [Note A. — Page 12.] Extract from the " Athene et Fasti Oxonienses," by Anthony Wood, Third London Edition ; now in Library of Harvard University : " Samuel Newman, a learned divine of his time, received education in this University ; but being puritanically affected, he left it, went into New England, became a Congregational man, minister of the Church of Rehoboth there, a zealous man in the way he professed, indefatigable in his studies, and marvelously read in the Holy Scriptures." This extract and a correspondence between Wood and Dr. Licrease Mather in 1690, contain some discrepant inaccuracies, but they have been carefully collated and corrected from the records of the Univer- sity, so that the sentence in the text contains the facts in a condensed form. [See said correspondence in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. VII., p. 187, Third Series. [Note B.— Page 12.] This Dr. Featly was one of the brilliant scholars of his day, and Wil- liam Grouge was one of the ministers called the " Assembly of Divines," and was appointed one of the annotators of the Bible. They each wrote a prefatory advertisement, which is in the third edition of Newman's Concordance ; thus giving their high sanction to the merits of his Bibli- cal attainments. [See more of them in note on the Concordance, and in Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary. [Note C— Page 15.] Taking into view the then price of lands, the general price of mer- chandize, and annual cost of living as style was then, and it will be 7 50 APPENDANT NOTES. found that £500 was a larger estate than $20,000 would be now. Thus he was then ranked among then- wealthy men ; but he used it as becoming a meek, pious and humble christian, — aonsidering it in the light of a boon from heaven, with which he was bound to be kind, benevolent and charitable to the less fortunate of his flock. [XoTE D.— Page 16.] " This combination, entered into by the general consent of all the inhabitants, alter general notice given the 23d of the 4th month [July] . We whose names are underwritten, being, by the providence of God, inhabitants of Seacunk, intending there to settle, do covenant and bind ourselves one to another to subject our persons [torn off — probably, according to law and equity] to nine persons, or any five of the nine, which shall be chosen by the major j)art of the inhabitants of this plan- tation, and we [torn off — probably, promise and agree'] to be subject to all wholesome [torn off — probably, rules and regulations made] by them, and to assist them, according to our ability and estate, and to give timely notice unto them of any such thing as in our conscience may prove dangerous unto the plantation, and this combination to continue untill we shall subject ourselves jointly to some other government." (Signed,) * Walter Palmer, Ephraim Hunt, *p]dward Smith, Peter Hunt, Edward Bennett, *William Smith, Robert Titus, John Peren, Abraham Martin, Zachery Roades, John Matthewes, Job Lane, Edward Sale, *Alexander Winchester, Ralph Shepherd, *Henry Smith, Samuel Newman, *Stephen Payne, William Cheesborough, Ralph Allen, *Richard Wright, Thomas Bliss, *Robert Martm, George Kendricke, *Richard Bowen, John Allen, Joseph Torrey, WilUam Sal)in, James Clarke, Thomas Cooper. The orthography as in the original is retained in the above. Those marked thus * were the first chosen " townsmen," — in Decem- ber, 1643. and their first meeting as such, January 3, 1643, 0. S., APPENDANT NOTES. 51 and Alexander Winchester was chairman. From a comparison of these dates and other circumstances, I suppose this compact was made at Wey- mouth, before the general migration, which most probably did not take place till the spring of 1644, 0. S.* These thirty names were nearly or quite all then heads of families, and may be considered as the original, actual settlers of Rehoboth, although there were nojj-resident stockhold- ers in the company, more or less of whom, at various periods, joined them as later residents. The phrase " uitendhig there to settle " will justify this view of the matter. Stockholders were those who participated in the expense of fixtures and unprovements, and not speculators in lands, so cheap that seven towns cost fifty shillings and a coat. [See Note F. [Note E.— Page 17.] For many of these early New England habits, see Sears's " Pictures of Olden Time," and Palfrey's Hist. New Eng., Vol. II. [Note F.— Page 18.] This town was originally bought of Massasoit, in 1641, for ten fath- oms of beads or wampum [money]. This was delicate shells strung like beads, and was the Indian currency. Their white they called wampum [white], and their black money they called suckauhock — seki being their adjective for black. This bead money was nine shillings the fathom in 1630, but, owing to the fall of tha price of beaver^in Eno-land, it was, at the time of this purchase, only five shillings per fathom ; so that this town cost £2 10s. of English money, and a coat which the chief made them throw in to boot. This trade was made at the house of Roger Williams, at Providence, he acting as interpreter. Thus the Indians, without a written language, transacted their business in "black and white " — especially their cash trades. [For Indian Coin, see Williams's Key, p. 128. [Note G.— Page 20.] These facts are gathered from a brief family record and notes wi"itten by his grandson in an old family Bible which I deciphered twenty years ago, and then almost illegible. *The year then commenced on the 25th of JIarch. 52 APPENDAISTT NOTES. [Note H.— Page 33.] Mucli of this note is extracted from an able but too brief a paper read before the Old Colony Historical Society by its President, Hon. John Daggett. Such parts of it as are from his paper are here enclosed in brackets : [The work now exhibited to the Society is an interesting relic of the past. It is the third edition of Rev. Samuel Newman's " Concordance of the Bible." This Concordance seems to have l)een not merely a new work, but substantially an original work, and the author of it was a minister of the retired settlement of Rehoboth, about ten miles from the ancient Cohannet [Taunton]. Most of the first generation of ministers in the New England Colonics were learned men, educated at the Universities in England — at first, ministers of the Established Church, who, from non-conformity, were obliged to flee from religious persecution at home, and to seek an asy- lum in the American wilderness. Many of them were eminently prac- tical men, fitted by their varied experience in life to be the advisers, the guides, or the pioneers, of their flocks in these early settlements. Among them was Samuel Newman, who followed, or rather led, his people into the rough and hardy soil of Rehoboth, where an original settlement was formed in 1643, and where he remained in the laborious and faithful discharge of his duties as pastor of the first church for a period of twenty years. He died July 5, 16G3. He was a learned man ; and had a large library for that age. His English books wore appraised at £4 ; his other books at £18 ; by the latter I understand his classical works in the ancient languages. This library he bequeathed to his son Noah. Any one having an ordinary knowledge of books, must see at once that such a work required great labor, research and discrimination ; and leai-ned divines who have examined it, and are well qualified to judge of its merits, say that it is a work of great learning and ability, especially for that age, when Biblical literature was comparatively imperfect and lunited. It was a work of gi-eat utility ; not only in itself, but as laying the foundation for subsequent works of a similar character. In 1662, a short time before Newman's death, an edition of this work, somewhat altered, was published by the learned scholars of Cambridge University, England, at the University Press, which was afterwards known to the APPENDANT NOTES, 53 public as the " Cambridge Concordance " — thus robbing Newman, the real author, of the reputation which belonged to him. A copy of this Cambridge edition is in the hands of the writer. Its title-page is " A Concordance of the Holy Scriptures; with the various Readings both in Text and Margin, by S. N. [ University Seal,'] Cambridge. Printed by John Field, printer to the Universitie 16G2." In the preface, however, the editor (whose name is not given) acknowledges that it is founded on Newman's work and his plan adopted. On comparing, it will be found that Newman's quotations are abridged. It is related of the author, that, while pursuing the work at Rehoboth, he was obliged, from the scarcity of materials for light in that infant set- tlement, to use pine knots for the purpose. It is justly a matter of no little satisfaction to us that the author of such a monument of learning and industry, should have completed it while he was an inhabitant of the Old Colony. Notices of this work are found in several of the ancient historians and writers. Mather, in his INIagnalia, says of him: "He was a hard student ; and as much toil and oil as his learned namesake, Neander, employed in illustrations and commentaries vipon the old Greek pagan poets, our Newman bestowed in compiling his Concordances of the sacred Scriptures." In the celebrated "Life of Hugh Peters," the work is erroneously attributed to Cruden, who did not publish his Concordance till about a hundred years after Newman ; the biographer evidently confounding the one with the other. " The Rev. ]Mr. Newman, an eminent scholar in the University cf Oxford, Eng., &c. This pious Clergyman with his pious companions, went and formed the settlement of Rehoboth. They built a Church and encircled it with a set of houses like a half moon, facing the west, where they worshipped the Creator with great devo- tion, and Newman taught their children the arts and sciences gratis. In that barren soil Newman spent a useful life, and made to himself a name in the Christian Church that will last as long as the Bible. There he formed the first Concordance of the Old and New Testaments, which was ever made in the English tongue. The energy and Herculean labor m this necessary Index of the Bible, even astonished both the Old and New World," &c., &c. In this edition, of 1G58, are two prefaces — one written by D. Featly, and the other, by W. Gouge. Some interest to us, attaches to their 5-4 APPENDANT NOTES. names from their eomaeetion with Newman's Concordance. Who were they ? The first was doubtless no other than the famous Dr. Daniel Featly, a learned and distinguished divine in England. He was born at Chai'lton, Oxfordshire, March, 1582, and educated at Oxford, and was made fellow of Corpus Christi, 1602. He was distinguished as a theologian, and by his eloquence as a preacher, was appointed Chaplain to Sir Thomas Edmond, Ambassador to France, where he remained with him for three years. In 161.3 he was Rector of Northhill, Cornwall, Chaplain to Abbott, the Primate, and Rector of Lambeth. In 1617 he received the degree of D. D., and was promoted by his patron to the rectory of All-Hallows, London, which he afterwards exchanged for Acton ; and finally became the last Provost of Chelsea College, where he died in April, 1645. He was imprisoned in 1643, for his oppo- sition to the Covenant, and came near losmg his life. He was the author of " Oygnea Cantio,''^ 1629, and "the scholastic duel between him and King James," besides some forty religious works of a controversial character. William Gouge, the writer of the other preface, was also a distin- guished divine and author. He was minister of Blaekfriars. He was educated at King's College, where "he was remarkable for not being absent from morning and evening pi'ayers for nine years, and for read- ing 15 chapters of the Bible every day." He died Dec. 16, 1653. He was author of "The whole Armor of God," "Exposition of the Lord's Prayer," " Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews," and other religious works. [See Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary. He [Newman] had a large family of children. Among them was Samuel, Jr., supposed to be the oldest, who lived and died at Reho- both ; Antipas, the minister of Wenham, who married Ehzabeth, daugh- ter of Gov. Winthrop, and who died Oct. 15, 1672 ; Noah, who was his father's successor in the ministry, and who died April 16, 1678. His wife was Joanna, daughter of Rev. Henry Flint, one of the first minis- ters of that part of Braintree which is now Quincy ; Hopestill, a daugh- ter, born at Weymouth, Nov. 29, 1641, became the wife of the Rev. George Shove, the third minister of Taunton, and died March 7, 1674. They had five children — three sons and two daughters. Their blood still circulates in the veins of our neighbors ; their descendants arc in our vicinity. Mr. Newman made a will, which seems not to have haan discovered APPENDANT NOTES. 55 by any of tlie liistorians or genealogists. The extracts which I have obtained from it S3ttle some heretofore doubtful points. His wife's name was Slbel. He appoints Stephen Fame, sen., Thomas Cooper, Lt. Hunt, " overseers to give advice to my distressed Widow." He names his three sons, Samuel, Antipas and JVoah, and three daughters. To Antipas he gives some ''land at Wenham,''^ and to his three daugh- ters £b each. Hopestill is mentioned by name. He gives ten shilhngs to his old servants, Mary Humphrey of Dorchester, Elizabeth Cubby of AVeymouth, and Elizabeth Palmer of Rehoboth, and the same amount to " Lydia Winchester, his present servant." Rev. Samuel Newman was buried in the Old Burymg Ground at Seekonk. His dust has there mmgled with his mother earth, but no monument marks the spot. A man of so much usefulness and distinc- tion in his day and generation as Rev. Samuel Newman, should not be suffered to remain without even the ordinary memorials of the dead — such as mark the last resting place of the most humble tenant of the grave. We often neglect the living and honor the dead ; but we some- times honor the living and forget the dead.] Thus fiir I have extracted from Mr. Daggett's able paper before the Historical Society. I will now correct a slight mistake or two in the above, and make some additional illustration in these matters. " A large family." He had three sons and one daughter [Hopestill]. The " three daughters " alluded to in the will are daughters-in-law, the wives of his three sons, a very common expression in those times ; and he gives them [in addition to what he had given their husbands, his sons,] £5 each, and ten shillmgs each to his former house-maids, as mere tokens of his kind personal remembrance of them, calling them " daughters," &c. The other general features of the will are sufficently correct as represented by Mr. Daggett. This third edition of the Concordance is very rare. There is a copy of it in the Athenaeum at Boston, presented by King William IH., as stated in gold letters on its cover. The copy which I possess is the one reserved by its author for his own use. It is a large folio, printed at London, 1658, in small, antique type, and contains 1370 pages. It has passed through the ownership of six different clergymen, and was presented to me in 1858, just two hundred years from the date of its imprint, by the surviving heii's of the late Rev. Dr. Wight of Bristol, 66 APPENDANT NOTES. Rhode Island, at the suffeestion of Gov. Dimond and the Hon. Nathaniel Bullock, to wliose kindness and historic and antifj^uarian prochvities I am indebted for this interesting memorial of the past. From President Stiles's MS. diary : " Four very considerable men, Williams, Blackstone, Newman and Gorton, lived in a vicinity, with no connection and little acquaintance." — " Nov. 18, 1771. I lodged at Mr. Hide's at Rehoboth. [Rev. Ephraun Hyde, the seventh pastor.] He cannot recover any of Mr. Newman's MSS. ; he supposes they fell into tlie hands of the late Mr. Avery, of Norton, by a marriage con- nection." Comment. — Blackstone lived in Rehoboth, Williams in Providence, and Gorton was the factious controversialist at Warwick, Rhode Island, differing with pretty much everybody else, and sometimes differing with himself. Gov. Arnold, in his excellent history of the State, says he was the " veriest leveller recorded in history." The libraries of Blackstone and Newman were burnt by the Indians ; and there is no evidence of much written intercourse between any of these four ' ' very considerable men." With Gorton he would not be likely to have much intercourse ; but as there is no written evidence to the contrary, and as the other three were educated men, and were also men of enlarged and liberal views for those times, there is no doubt of there having been much more familiarity and christian courtesy between them than is warranted by the remark of Dr. Stiles. About the recovery of Newman's MSS., as alluded to by Mr. Hyde, I have made pretty diligent research, and the result is that there were none to recover ; — the conflagi'ation at Reho- both, March 28, 1676, by the Indians, seems to have settled that matter. The fragment of his papers containing the thirteen articles of his pri- vate platform [on page 23] first appeared in print in Mather's Magnalia, and was doulitless preserved through a copy permitted to be taken by some friend during its author's life time, and wliich afterwards fell into Mather's hands. The Latin epitaph on page 33, of which I have made a rather free translation, was also written by Dr. Cotton Mather, and is in his Magnalia. And here I desire to record my own impressions of Mather and his works, without prejudice, and without any desire to compromise the opinions of anybody else. Dr. Cotton Mather was a veiy learned man — a very pious man — a very talented man — a very good man, and an able theologian and preacher of the gospel, according to the standard of his times. But his mind was of that imaginative cast APPENDANT NOTES. 57 which, without a rigid control, rendered him an unsafe historian and biographer. 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X* to o tc ^ % to (D — fl .5 S '^ J S ^ "5 fl .2 '^ fl 55 =« -^ o X o tc'" •;= tfi tJ fl 73 P! t; H pi is fl >^ i n tc c re ? 0) re '^ 0) fl a; X >^ 60 6 H a .s "2 -s fl ° d P FULL AND COMPLETE llErOllT OF TUR • ECCLESIASTIC AND CIVIC BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT SEEKONK, [the Ancient Rehobotii,] JULY 4, 18G0. [PKKrAREU AT THE REtiUBST OK TBK COMMITTEE.] HISTOEICAL CELEBRATION. In' the month of May, 1860, a meeting of the Congregational Church at Seelconk was holden to take into consideration the subject of projecting some sort of a celebration of the ancient settlement of that town and church. A Committee of Arrangements were chosen, and the whole matter placed in their hands, — the Committee requesting their pastor. Rev. Mr. Barney, to sit with their body as an advisatorj member. After extending invitations to such as they desired to take part in the exercises, and receiving their replies, the Committee issued the following public notice as a programme of their intended celebration : ECCLESIASTIC AND CIVIC CELEBRATION, AT SEEKONK, MASS. It has been proposed that the Religious Societies and the Citizens of Seeliouk and the seven towns of which the ancient Rehoboth has been the nursing Mother, should hold a friendly, religious and patriotic gath- ering at the orIg"nal Congregational Churcu thereof, at Seekonk, on July 4th, 1860, at 10, a. m., for the purpose of commemorating the orlg'n and historic scenes of the ancient R3hobofch, [now S3ekonk], and of passing in review the life and character of its orlg'nal founder, and of paying re3p3ct to th3 ever m3morable birth-day of our Common Country. That this gathermg may be simple and unostentatious, and yet befit- ting a religious and patriotic people, the following brief Programme has 10 74 THE CELEBKATION. been adopted, excluding powder and other emblems of War, while at sunrise and sunset the peals from the Church Bells will " ring out " their respects for the National Anniversary. ORDER OF EXERCISES, I. Invocation to the Throne of Grace by Rev. Constantine Blodgett, D. D., Pastor of the Congregational Church of Pawtucket. DO II. Reading of select portions of Scripture by Rev. A. H. Stowell, Pastor of the First Baptist Church at Seekonk. HI. Music and Hymn by the Choir. IV. Prayer by Rev. James 0. Barney, present and tenth Pastor of this the original Church, and who will also conduct the exercises. V. Reading of the Declaration of Independence by Hon. Johnson Gardner, a native of the town, and descendant of one of its early settlers. VI. National Ode by the Choir. VII. Historical Oration by S. C. Newman, A. M., of Pawtucket, a native of the ancient Rehoboth, and lineal descendant in the seventh generation from its founder and first Pastor. VIII. Original Hymn written for the occasion. IX. Remarks and Benediction by Rev. David Benedict, D. D., of Pawtucket. At the close of the services, the company will repair to a temporary Pavilion near the Church, where [at a moderate price] all who desire it THE CELEBRATION. 75 can join the festive board and partake of refreshment and the enjoyment of enlightened sociality ; and all who have a taste for this class of historic gatherings, without distinction of party, creed, sect or sex, and especially those descendants in neighboring States, the ashes of whose ancestral forefjithers repose in the ancient Cemetery connected with this venerable Church, are hereby invited to mingle in these sacred and patriotic festivities. JOSEPH BROWN, ROBERT M. PEARSE, JOSEPH B. FITTS, ISAIAH HOYT, WILLIAM ELLIS, Committee of Arrano-ements. Note. — Several interesting antiquated relics of this people, more than two cen- turies ago, will be exhibited on this occasion. W^ith this announcement, printed in circulars with correspond- ing envelopes for convenience, and in the newspapers in the vi- cinity, the Committee entered upon the discharge of their duties •with intelligence, ability and energy ; and their success will be best told in the following account of the result, compiled prin- cipally from reporters of the press, (for whom the Committee furnished special accommodations, both in the church and at the dinner,) commencing with the remarks of the very able reporter [E. R. Gardiner] of the Providence Evening Press, issued on the afternoon of July 5.* While our Providence streets were the scene of the din and discomfort inseparable from a city celebration of the Fourth, it was a pleasant fortune to escape from them and participate in a more quiet and more pleasurable mode of paying respect to the national anniversary provided in a rural suburb. The broad and grassy plateau of Seekonk, venerable with historic interest ; its ancient church and cemetery, containing monuments that now *Justice requires us to say that the several journals there represented, viz : the Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle, Pawtucket Observer, Providence Post and Press, Boston Journal, and some others, all published able but more or less condensed reports ; and in this description we have drawn more or less from them all, with- out being able to credit them in detail. 76 THH CELEBRATION. show the date of 1653 ; its romantic loveliness of scenery, its neat dwellings, its gay pavilion and its happy group of people, from distant towns and States, returning to do honor to the founders and the historic scenes of their ancient birth-place, presented a spectacle long to be remembered by those who wit- nessed it as it yesterday thus appeared. Never was more ap- propriate place or occasion for such re-union, and never were the details of a memorial meeting better planned or more suc- cessfully carried out. In the judicious selection of speakers and the felicitous manner in which they performed their duties ; iu the well-timed sentiments and the excellent and abundant cheer that was provided ; in the numbers and the enthusiasm of the participants ; in the feeling of deep reverence for the past exci- ted, and in the loveliness of the day, all was a complete success. Such interesting festivities have perhaps never before been known in Seekonk ; never probably were its bright fields and pleasant drives so well and so extensively appreciated as yesterday. The daeds of the men associated with these scenes in early days were vividlj' brought up in review before their descendants who had assembled from the seven towns of which the ancient Rehoboth has been the nursing mother, to commemorate the fame of a no- ble ancestry. A deep impression pervaded all that they were indeed standing on classic ground, and they united as those who might never meet again in paying tribute to the virtues and exploits of their fathers as exhibited on that soil two hundred years ago. At an early hour, crowds of people began to gather from the neighboring towns and villages, and although the railway station was near the location, — putting the place in connection with the surrounding country, — yet there were visible at one time, eight hundred and five family carriages on that broad plateau. It was by far the largest gathering ever witnessed there since the settlement of the town ; yet such was the admirable arrange- ments of the Committee, that not a g\:n, nor even a single pow- der-cracker, was fired, nor the least appearance of intoxicating liquors or unbecoming behavior witnessed throughout the day. THE CELEBRATION. 77 in all that sober, reflective, contemplative and yet eminently cheerful multituile. The first part of the exercises, those announced in the pro- grara'.ne, Avas held in the Congregational Church ; and at 10 o'clock, A. M., the appointed time, the venerable edifice was filled to overflowing. The invocation for Divine assistance was by Rev. Constantine Blodgett, D. D., Pastor of the Congre- gational Church at Pawtucket. The reading of select portions of Scripture was by Rev. A. H. Stowell, Pastor of the First Baptist Church at Seekonk, and were appropriate selections read from a Bi'ole printed at Geneva in 1608, and brought by Gov. Bradford in the Mayflower in 1620, now two hundred and fifty- two years old. A fervent and very appropriate general prayer was offered by Rev. James 0. Barney, the tenth and present Pastor of this ancient church, who also conducted all the exer- cises in these services by introducing the different participants at the proper time and place. The Declaration of American Independence of July 4, 1776, was read in good style by Hon. Johnson Gardner, now of Pawtucket, but a native of Rehoboth. The Oration of the day was delivered by S. C. Newman, A. M., of Pawtucket. It occupied about two hours in its delivery, but was of sufficient interest to command the closest attention of the audience throughout. The Oration was both ecclesiastic and civic, according to the programme, and the audience gave evi- dence that the orator of the day had acceptably performed the task assigned him. The following original hymn written for the occasion by Rev. William M. Thayer, of Franklin, Mass., was sung after the conclusion of the Oration : Wliat voices from the silent past, In whispers clear and low, That tell / never tliink less of God and tlie Bilile. You not only had among them, Sir, your ministers, your physicians and your jurists, but you also had poets ; and well do I remember one of the efforts of one of those rustic bards which was taught me ]jy one of my ancestors nearly fifty years ago. The young man was burning a coal-pit then not far from where we are now assembled, and going from here to Providence, he purchased a quart of new rum. On his way back, he hnbibed so freely that he became intoxicated, and fell into his coal-pit and came near being burned to death ; and after having par- tially recovered, he perpetrated the following verse, in which there is probably more truth ihsiU poetry : " A quart of rum from Providence come ; — And through that sin, I plainly see, The pit did funk and I got drunk, And that's the eend of me." But, aside from these simplicities, I rejoice that so much of the puri- tanic spirit is here to-day. Theirs was a spirit of stern integrity ; and in listening to the Oration to-day, we found that Rehoboth was on hand in the Revolution, to furnish her quota of men to defend the liberties of the country. As a descendant from Old Rehoboth, I am glad to be here. And I thank God that many of my ancestors were men who feared Him and kept His commandments. I feel honored in the privilege of mmgling in these festivities, and in paying our respects to this venerable mother of seven towns. God bless her. The third sentiment was — The difficulties encountered and overcome by the early settlers of New England, though formidable in their nature, and apparently well calculated to discourage and dishearten the most sanguine, yet those very difficulties and obstacles gave a tone to the character of those early adventurers and their posterity, that has made New England what she is. 11 82 THE CELEBKATION. Rev. William M. Thayer of Franklin, Mass., (author of the " Bobbin Boy,") who was expected to respond to this sentiment, being absent, Rev. David Benedict, D. D., of Pawtucket, re- sponds as follows : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Under the circumstances arising from the absence of the gentleman expected to respond to the sentiment liere given, I may reasonably be permitted to make a few brief remarks, in a somewhat different direction from what I should if I had intended to make a special response to that comprehensive field of historic truth. I am well pleased with celebrations of this kind, and particularly with the rapidly increasing efforts which are now so generally being made to collect and preserve the record of the doings, the trials and the suc- cesses of our New England ancestors, — a labor which has been too much and too long neglected by almost all classes of the American people. Although I cannot trace my pedigree to the first settlers of Old Re- hoboth, and have no ancestral claims to a relationship with that worthy band of men, yet for more than a half century I have been on very inti- mate terms with a portion of their descendants. In 1804 I became a resident of Pawtucket, [on the Massachusetts side of the river,] which was then within the limits of the venerable town whose bi-centennial anniversary we this day celebrate. Here I found a small but godly company of the members of this famous community, who united with the few members of my own order [Baptists] in sustaining religious ser- vices m the only house of public worship then in that place. These people became my steady hearers and supporters until a church of their own order [Congregationalists] arose in that place, — an offshoot from this venerable parent church. With the ministers of this wide spread town and its vicinity, I frequently exchanged pulpits; and I have preached in the double-galleried meetmg-house described by the orator of the day. Thus such an intimacy was formed with this people, that I do not come here as a stranger on this joyous and praiseworthy occasion. And besides, I claim to be a representative of a somewhat numerous portion of the population of this originally widely extended town, in which many of our faith have lived and died ; and from which, at differ- ent times, no inconsiderable numbers of this class of men, [Baptists,] both mhiisters and laymen, have performed important services m other regions to which they have emigrated. THE CELEBRATION. 83 Ephraim Starkweather, Esq.,* the very talentefl gentleman so truth- • fully alluded to in the Oration to-day, was the founder of an important and highly respectable family in that part of the ancient Rehoboth now called Pawtucket. He was one of the substantial members of the com- munity to which I have referred. He was a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College. From this very intelligent and worthy christian citizen, I learned the leading facts of the history of Newman and his adventurous associates, and of the transactions of those men with Massasoit, the famous Indian chief, the early and firm friend of Roo:er Williams, — the o-reat outlines of those times I learned from Mr. Starkweather, long before the valuable labors of Daggett and Bhss were published to the world. I had, in my earliest years, formed a very favorable opinion of the Old Plymouth Colony, within whose ancient boundaries we are now assembled, and this opinion was strengthened and confirmed as I became more and more acquainted and familiar, in later life, with the records and character and christian liherality of this ancient people. f With regard to the toast, to which I have not even attempted to re- spond, I have only time and strength to say : That the evidences of " the difficulties encountered and overcome " by our forefathers, are universally spread over the early history of New England ; they were the schools in which the perseverance, the honor, the integrity and ulti- mate standard of liberality of our far-famed New England character was formed — a character which has left and is yet to leave, and permanently stamp, its impress on the unborn States yet to belong to our glorious Union of confederated members of this great Republic, whose birth we this day also celebrate. Those obstacles, overcome by the toil of perse- verance and high-toned trust in Grod, will long shine as beacon lights for the stimulation of a laudable pride of nationality to the intelligent future. But, Mr. President, I must close, and only beg leave to add, that the non-sectarian character of this glorious festival fully appears in the pro- *That gentleman lias a grandson, Hon. Samuel Starkweather, now living in Cleveland, Oliio, late one of the District Judges of that State. A great-grandson, James Oliver Starkweather, Esq., is now Cashier of the Slater Bank at Pawtucket. There is a fact relating to this Ephraim Starkweather of Eehoboth which is not much known in history, and it is this : Gov. John Hancock, while the storm of British oppression was lowering over New England, called to his side a board of l)rivate Councillors, as confidential advisors, and this Mr. Starkweather of Eehoboth was one of Hancock's choice, and served in that private but honorable capacity. tSee page 26. s. c. n. 84 THE C E L E li II A T I N . •gramme of your Committee, and their admirable execution of it ; and if I were to offer a sentiment, it would be something like this : The grave is the sepulchre of all human creeds : and beyond it will be the entire harmony of all their pious advocates. Fiddi certa intrcvs. The fourth sentuTient was — The Early IHgtonj of this Qilonij—lt awakens au honest pride in the hearts of the people. Hon. John Daggett of Attleborough, President of tlie " Old Colony Historical Society," responded in the following manner : Mr. President, Ladles and Gentlemen : I am happy to respond to such a sentiment as the one just proposed. It is worthy of remembrance on this occasion. The Plymouth Colony — the " Old Colony," as we familiarly call it — ^has become a great historic name. It will fill a noble page in history ; and, as the population of this country flows westward from the Pilgrim shore, the Old Colony looms boldly up to view, and will ever be a prominent object through the vista of the Past. There is the old, lowly home of a great nation — there, its birth-place. The general character of the Pilgrims should be held up to coming generations in everlasting remembrance. They were the unconscious founders of a great Western Empire. As the swelling population of this country expands and spreads itself over a vast continent, the fixme of the Pilgrims will go with it, and " grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength." Yes, we are proud to claim such an ancestry — to belong to the land of the Pilgrims. You are natives of the Old Colony. This ancient t'»wii, whose birth you have met to celebrate, was included in the limits of this time-honored colony. You are assembled on sacred ground, — standing on Pilgrim soil, — that land to which history will look for the foundations of our institutions and the germs of great events. The founders of the Old Colony were fitted to carry on, successfully, tlie apparently humble, but eventually great enterprise for which Provi- dence had designed them. They were men of f lith and men of courage. They were men of genuine faith and trust in Providence, or they never would have forsaken, as they did, their native land for conscience' sake — that land t(i which they were bound by the ties of kindred and h(tme. THE CELEBRATION. 85 It was a tryino; moment when, in the frail Mayflower, they, exiles though they were, looked for the last time, with eyes bedimmed with tears, on the green fields and white shores of England — that " clear old England," the home of their fathers and the home of their own childhood ; they never would have severed those ties nor quit those scenes endeared to them by so many associations, to meet the perils of a wide ocean and an unknown world, if they had not been moved by a great moral power, — with hearts trusting in Providence, — sustained by an unfaltering faith, — men who valued conscience above all other things. If they had not been of such a stamp, they would not have turned away from the comforts and endearments of their native land, to banish themselves to the then uttermost parts of the earth, and to plant their homes in the wilderness. They were also men of true courage, or they never could have faced the dangers and endured the trials to which their situation exposed them during the early periods of their history. The public and private his- tory of their lives furnishes decisive evidence of this fact. There were many occasions during their colonial existence wliich " tried men's souls." Their readiness to meet danger and death in their most appalling forms was fully tested in the bloody scenes of Philip's war, which swept with such terrible destruction over the infant colony. Within our own limits was the scene of the most disastrous and hard-fought battle of the whole war, in proportion to the numljers engaged. One of its severest blows fell upon the settlement around the very spot on which we stand, in the destruction, by the torcli of the enemy, of the dwellings of the settlers. You have all read the sad story of " Pierce's Fight;" how with his sixty-three English and twenty Cape Indians he passed over these Plains with his little army, doomed so soon to perish on a bloody field ; how on his passage through th« place he was joined by five of our townsmen, and all went in search of the foe, who were supposed to be in tlie vicin- ity ; how they courageously attacked the enemy and pui-sued them till they were drawn into an ambuscade and were finally surrounded by more than five times their own number. They were thus completely encom- passed by the enemy. They must then have known their fate. Tiiere was no retreat and no quarter — it was victory or death ! At the commencement of the fight, Capt. Pierce formed his men into a circle "double-double distance all round," so as to present a front to the enemy in every direction. There and thus they stood for nearly three hours m these appalling circumstances, till almost every man fell either dead or wounded ! This was a test of tlieir couraa-e. Even the 86 THE CELEBRATION. coward, wlien surrounded liy the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war," inspired by the enhvening strains of martial music, and attended by numerous hosts, may rush boldly onward in the hour of battle, but here our friends had no external aids — nothing to sustain them but their own brave hearts ! Well did the old clu'onieler call this battle-ground the "Bed of Honor." Honor, then, to the memory of the brave men who thus died in defence of their firesides and their homes. To be de- scended from those men is a prouder title of nobility than " All the blood of all the Howards." The orator of the day has alluded to some of the eminent men that have been born in Rehoboth. Within this plantation was l)orn one per- son who has presided over Yale College ; another who has been Chief Justice of our Supreme Court ; Benjamin West, a distmguished Profes- sor in Brown University, whose name is co-extensive with astronomical science ; Dr. Nathan Smith, a man eminent in literature and philosophy. All will remember the name of Maxcy, who was born within the limits of Rehoboth, President of three colleges, one of the most eminent moral philosophers, and one of the most brilliant pulpit orators of his day. This is a family gathering — a meeting of the descendants of the early inhabitants of Rehoboth. Shall we call the roll of the revered dead ? Did time permit, it would be interesting to read over the names on the list in the presence of their descendants. Some one here present could respond to almost every name on it. Every one of tae founders of Rehoboth is probably represented here to-day. Oh, that I could, by some magic art, or rather, by some Divine power, recall the forefathers of the town from their sleep of two hundred years, and restore them, for a brief time, to then* eaithly homes, and here let them pass in review before us in their antique costumes, with their Puri- tan manners and customs ; let them here meet tlieir children face to face ; let them cast a new glance over these once familiar places of their earthly pilgrimage ; let each venerable form, as he enters and surveys the assem- bly, recognize his own children in the names and the features we bear ! What a strange vision to them ; how interesting to us ! And how changed the scene from the early days of the Pilgrims ! Here is the Great Plain, once encircled by the " ring of the town;" above is the same blue sky and smiling sun ; and there are the bright waters of the Narragansett. But all else is changed ; all other things have become new ! The log house, the red Indian, the interminable forests, have all vanished. THE CELEBRATION. 87 Forever honored be those who, with brave hearts and unwavering faith, — patient to endure so many sufferings, and to meet so many dan- gers, — came here to subdue the wilderness, and to pknt, on these beautiful shores of the Narragansett, the institutions of Religion, and Learning, and Freedom — that priceless heritage which you, their chil- dren, are now enjoying ! Their remains repose in that old Burying Grround within our sight, and have long since returned to their native dust ; but tfiey still live in these their children — in tlie names you bear — in the example of their lives ; — in the principles which they have trans- mitted to you ; they still live in that influence which lingers around to hallow these scenes of their -earthly pilgrimage. Grod bless their memory. The fifth sentiment was — The Clergy of Ancient Eeliobotli. Rev. CoNSTANTiNE Blodgett, D. D., Pastor of the Congre- gational Church in Pawtucket, responded to this sentiment in the following appropriate remarks : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: You can scarcely be aware of the task which you have assigned, in your call upon me. You have called me to retrace through all the past of the ancient Rehoboth, the character and mfluence of a succession of humble, modest men, who pursued the " even tenor of their way " among the successive generations of this rural population. How shall I measure the influence, how weigh the moral power, of these ministers of the gospel — whom many, even yet, persist in regarding as httle better than a series of town paupers, for whose support the town has been chargeable from year to year ? But, Mr. President, there is a great law of social and moral influ- ence, under the action of which it may be seen that the clergy of this ancient town have been a power among this people, and have left a record, alike honorable to themselves and to the wisdom and grace of Grod, who called them into such a ministry. By office and position they have l^een benefactors in many ways, and to a degree which we may fail adequately to estimate. And yet there are two lines of illustrative argument by which we may make, in a measure, obvious and appreciable the benign influence of the men who liave filled the place of ministers of religion among this people. 0» THE CELEBRATION. One line of such argument is, to suppose that from the beginning there had been no such class of men in the town of Relioboth. Sup- pose there had never been a Sabbath observed, a sanctuary erected, a sermon preached, a prayer offered in public assemblies of worship, at marriages or at burials. What kind of a town would tliis have become ? What had been the character of the people 't What the state of educa- tion '? What the progress in learning, arts, sciences, and all the amenities and adornments of a christian civilization ? What would have been from year to year the value of real estate in the towns into wliich the ancient Rehoboth has been partitioned ? What would be the value of real estate this day under such a regimen ? We instinctively close our eyes on the gloomy reality. We dare not picture to ourselves the results of such an experiment in civil, social, moral and religious training. Ye minis- ters of the altar of Grod ! we honor your memory ; we embalm in our grateful hearts your holy lives and your manifold works of love for the blessing of your own generation and the generations following ! Blessed are ye, and blessed shall ye be among men, — to the praise of the glory of Divine grace ! The other line of illustration is this. Let every minister of religion be this day banished from all these goodly municipalities into which ancient Rehoboth has grown. Let every meeting-house be demolished, and a solemn and perpetual covenant be enacted that there never shall be another minister of religion, another sanctuary, another sermon, an- other public or social prayer, in all future years. What would be the effect of such a measure upon the present condition and the future pros- pects of this population? What would become of our moral, benevolent, religious, social and educational institutions ? How would fare our in- dustrial pursuits ? What would be the effect from year to year on the value of these farms and goodly homesteads, where the fathers dwelt and prospered and worshiped in their day ? How would the grand list of the towns stand from one decade of years to another ? Think out the true answer to such questions, and you will agree with me in the conclusion that we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the clergy of Rehoboth, and to that Grod who appointed them to such ministry. But who shall attempt to measure the magnitude of the results which they achieved, when we rise to a view of the influence which they have exerted on the spiritual and immortal interests of those who have Hved and died under tlieir ministrations, and been sharers in the priceless THE CELEBRATION, 89 benefits which they were enaljied to bestow on their contemporaries, and throuo;h them, on after generations? On the Inroad fields of eternity, our illustration must find its comple- tion. Into that blessed state we may not follow them now. But in it, may we ourselves read their completed histories, and learn to bless God anew for the works and benign influence of the " Clergy of Ancient Rehoboth." I only add that it would not become me to attempt to speak of the personal character and attainments and labors of men so far removed from our day as are the Newmans and their successors in the ministry. Of the sacred learning of the elder Newman, we have heard from the orator of the day. We may suppose them all to have been sound, able, learned men, qualified for the high functions of their office, and com- mending themselves to men's consciences, m the sight of God, by their holy lives and their public teachings, drawn, in the true Protestant method, from the oracles of revealed Truth. Be it ours, who have entered into their labors and embraced from the heart their Protestant faith, to imitate their virtues, and to reverence, cherish and obey that sacred Word, of wliich they were such devout students and such able expounders. Thus may we, and those who come after us, stand accepted before the God of our fathers, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The sixth sentiment was — The Medical Profession of Ancient Eehoboth. Doct. Benoni Carpenter of Attleborough responded to this sentiment as follows : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is good for us to be here to-day. We all claim to be directly or indirectly, as I suppose, the descendants of Old Eehoboth ; and if there be one sentiment stronger than another, if there be one internal instinct more potent than all others, it is where a man desires at some time in his life to return to the spot that gave him birth. I claim, Mr. Presi- dent, to be one of the dnect and lineal descendants of the first William Carpenter, who lived over on the other side of this Conunon. Though born in a different county, I deUght to be here, and to see so many of the Old Rehoboth people surrounding me. And, Sir, I suppose from 12 00 THE CELEBRATION. the sentiment that I am expected to answer particularly for the medical profession that originated in this town ; and when I say this town, 1 mean witliin the limits of Old llehoLoth, ineludmg this town and the towns surrounding. Were I to go into details in relation to these men, my task would be a difficult one, for whatever else Rehoboth has been, it certainly has been exceedingly prolific in physicians. I can do no more in this connection, nor is it proper that I should so do, than sim- ply give you the names of the medical men who have originated in this town. I will begin first with that part of Rehoboth now designated Seekonk. The first physician in this town of whom I have any knowledge (and the knowledge I have of him I obtained from my grandmother, who died one hundred years old,) was Dr. David Turner, residhig in the southern part of Rehoboth proper, near Palmer's River — a j)hysician of the soul and of the body ; a preacher on the Sabbath, administering to the moral and religious necessities of men, and during the remainder of the week taking care of their physical health. He was a man of a good deal of wit and a good deal of sensitiveness, a man very much esteemed by the people of his time. He died in 1757, aged 63. Dr. Thomas Bowen, who hved near the time of Dr. Turner, was also a distinguished physician, as well as a mihtary colonel. One of the first physicians of this town of whom I have any knowl- edge was Dr. Joseph Bridgham. From him descended the Bridghams of the adjacent city ; and then' name has spread from this town over different parts of the coimtiy. One of the most distmguished names in science, especially medical science, but not limited to that entu'ely, — a name known all over New England for the energy of its bearer, — was that of Dr. Nathan Smith. He originated in that part of Rehoboth near the residence of Dr. Whit- marsh, in the southern part of this town. A poor boy, he fought his own way along through life. He had an especial taste for surgery, and became Professor of Surgery in Yale College. After continuing there in that capacity a great many years, he left and founded the medical department in Dartmouth College. He was the father of scientific sur- gery in New England. Nearly all his descendants were physicians. One died in the city adjacent nearly a year ago. Another physician origmating in this town was Dr. Daniel Thurber, born not far from Newell's Tavern. He studied medicine and settled in Bellingham, and was extremely endeared to his people there. There THE CELEBRATION. 91 may be those here wlio knew his value among those who employed him, and how greatly he was lamented when he passed away. A family of physicians originated in this town by the name of Bunn, who were men of great celebrity, and practiced, I think, in Providence. Another name was that of Dr. Levi Wheaton, who also originated in Rehoboth, in the southeast part of what is now Seekonk. I will say of him, in passmg, m the language of Pope, — " An honest man's the noblest work of God." If I was ever acquainted with a man whom I believed to be strictly and purely honest, and whom I believed to be devoted to his profession, who did everything in his power, l^y study and scientific research, for the pui'pose of mitigating the sufferings of mankind, that man was Dr. Levi WTieaton. Another name known to this town was Dr. Ridley. He practiced during the Revolutionary war in the army. He was a man of a great deal of eccentricity, and not remarkably well acquainted with the insti- tutions of this country. I remember attending a patient m some part of the town where he had previously been visiting. The man had wanted him to take his pay in corn, and shelled out to him all the pig corn. The old gentleman was not pai'ticularly well pleased. But by and by the same man was sick again, and sent for the Doctor to attend him. Pie did not get well, but kept lingering along in his ilhiess for some time, and finally said to the Doctor, " What is the reason I do not get well faster'? Here I am, unable to get about, and yet I have been under your treatment for a long time." " Never mind," said the Doc- tor, "I am only trying to work that ])ig corn out of you." Dr. Hutchings, who died a few years since, and Dr. Allen, of whom I knew but little, were among the earlier physicians in this vicinity. This town also gave rise to several men of the medical profession by the name of Bucklin. One of them went Soutli, and died on his way to Texas. Another was settled in Holliston ; while a third was settled adjacent to this place, and some of us attended his funeral a few years since. I would not forget to mention in the catalogue of medical men who have orisfinated in Old Rehoboth, the name of Miller, of whom I need say nothing to any citizen of this vicinity. In the town of Rehoboth proper, the name of Fuller occurs to me as 92 THE CELEBKATION. about the first physician that practiced here — a man of skill and emi- nence, especially as a surgeon. The name of Bullock is also prolific in physicians. One venerable man of that name, who resided in the southwestern part of the to^Ti, lived to be one hundred years old. Dr. Robertson studied medicine with Dr. Blackington, and after- wards went to Boston and became an eminent physician in that city. The Drs. Blanding — I might mention several of them of that name — originated in this town. One I must allude to particularly, who studied medicine here in Rehoboth with Dr. Fuller, settled in Attleborough, and afterwards passed to Camden, South Carolina, where he practiced, and became an eminent scholar in natural history. A few years before he died, his cabuiet of natural history was probably larger than that of any single individual in the United States. The specimens he left in Camden, where he died, are beautiful and elegant, and would repay any individual who takes an interest in that branch of study for making a journey there to view them. I now come to my own name, which I would not mention but for the fact that it has been wonderfully prolific in physicians. Rehoboth proper has given rise to certainly eight physicians of the name of Caq^enter, and how many more I do not know. A very considerable branch of the Carpenters in Vermont originated in this town of Old Rehoboth. There are a good many of them who are likewise physicians. Pawtucket gave rise to Dr. Billings, who afterwards left and went to Mansfield, and died in that town. Dr. Davenport also practiced and died in this town. Dr. Manchester was another. There is also the name of Dr. Stanley of Attleborough. Swansea also gave rise to a hereditaiy race of physicians — grandfather, father and son all living together at the same time. The elder was a hundred years of age while the younger was livmg. I know but very httle of others in that town except the Winslows. In addition to these names, there may be mentioned as among the physicians of the past, Drs. Fowler, RodlifF, Bliss, Bolton, Thayer, Wheelock, Johnson and Hartshorn, each of whom were ornaments to the medical profession. There is one fact which I very much delight to be able to mention in relation to the medical men who have originated in Rehoboth, and that is, their perfect exemption from quackery from the beginning to the end. However scientific they may have been, (and certainly some THE CELEBRATION. 93 have been very much so,) or however mucli they may have been want- ing in science, one thing they have been true to, and that is, the opinion that a profession that has existed hundreds and thousands of years must of necessity, from all the knowledge thus transmitted, be a little more learned and scientific than the little windfalls of to-day and yesterday. They have generally pursued that course that has made them an orna- ment to theii- profession and a blessing to hmnanit}'. Allow me. Sir, in closing, to offer the following sentiment : Old Rehoboth, in he)' broadest domain — ]^ay she continue to be, as she has been, productive of good men and beautiful women. The seventh sentiment was — The Legal Profession of Ancient Rehoboth. Simeon Bowen, Esq., of Attleborough, responded in the fol- lowing manner : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Convened as we are on this anniversary of our national independence, in the shade of yonder sacred and venerable chui'ch erected to God, and on this fair and level plain ; basking as we are to-day in the rich sun- light of a glorious civilization ; rejoicing as we do in the rich fruition of a thousand blessings — the blessing of peace with all nations, the blessing of free schools and of the general diffusion of knowledge, the blessings of a free government, of a pohtical confederacy of States enjoying civil and religious liberty — it becomes us now and here to look both to the past and the future, and to consider by what means, agencies and influ- ences we have reached this national felicity of position, and by what instrumentalities our present glory and prosperity may be augmented and perpetuated. It is, Mr. President, a little more than two centuries ago that these ftur and cultivated fields which we behold to-day rejoicing in peace and plenty, and smiling with fruits and flowers, were only a dark and almost impenetraljle forest, inhabited only by wild beasts and by roving tribes of rude and warlike savages. A Httle more than two centuries ago it was that an immortal vessel, the Mayflower, with her precious freight of human souls, was fii'st moored in Plymouth harbor ; and then and there the Pilgrim Fathers, our ven- erable ancestors, destined, under Divine aid, guidance and protection, to 94 THE CELEBRATION. inaugurate a more glorious civilization than the world liad ever before l)eheld, first stepped foot upon our shores. Then and there, as ever true to tlieir noble mission and to the dictates of their consciences, they went forth into the wilderness, under an unpropitious wintiy sky, to meet and battle with trials, disasters and difficulties. And with what success was their enterprise and achievements attended ? Before their omnipotent amn the forest receded ; under their wise ordina- tion, government was instituted, schools established, churches erected, and towns and villages sprung up as if by magic. Fully imbued with religious zeal, stern in morality, rigid in virtue, patient in toil, brave in the midst of dangers, ardent, earnest and hopeful, they went onward in their great enterprise conquering and to conquer, and there laid broad and deep the foundations of a mighty empire. Heroically they lived, heroically they died; and, dying, they bequeathed to their descend- ants and to us, their posterity, a rich heritage — the glory they achieved and brought with them, and the distinguished example of piety and vir- tue, patience and fortitude and courage. And when I ask to-day, Mr. President, what influences and agencies have contributed to make New Eno-land what she now is m morality, intelligence, prosperity and glory, . I would pomt, with reverence and gratitude, to the Pilgrim Fatliers. They passed away, and their descendants, fired vnth the spii-it of the fathers, took up the work laid down by them in death, and pushed it on to a glorious triumph. We have met here to celebrate this day upon which our fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence, and to commemorate the virtue of those patriots who there enrolled their names. We have come up here to kindle anew the fires of patriotism on the altars of Freedom, and declare anew our devotion to the cause of Liberty, to renew our mutual pledges of fidelity to the Constitution and the Union. But, Mr. President, I was called upon to respond to a sentiment, — " The Legal Profession of Ancient Rehoboth," — and this may seem like a di