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 AN 
 
 A D D E E S S 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, 
 
 PRONOUXCED IN 
 
 KINGS CHAPEL, BOSTON, 
 
 ON THEIR FOURTH ANNIVERSARY, 
 
 October 20. ISlfi, 
 
 BY THE REV. WILLIAM BENTLEY. 
 
 WORCESTER: 
 
 PUINTJID FOU THE 80C1KTY. 
 
l< 6 
 
 ?^ 
 
 IM3 . 
 
 t-/72 
 
 No i54 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THF, 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 
 ^^^ • 
 
 Alcove, 
 
 Shelf, 
 
The inaiuiscript notes of this A(:Idrc,«s, now for the first time 
 printed, were foinul anioug papers of the author wliich came to 
 the Society on the death of the late William B. Fowlk. As thej', 
 evidently, had not been prepared for the press, the Publishing Com- 
 mittee have ventured to re-arrange some expressions, and omit a few 
 sentences whose meaning was not clear. This paper has long been 
 desired to take its place in the series of Proceedings of the Society 
 at their periods of meeting. 
 
 The following vote, passed on the day of the delivery of the Address, 
 is taken from the Records : 
 
 "Afternoon, at the 
 
 Stone Chapel, October 23, 1816. 
 Voted, Tliat the Hon. Mr. Robbins and the Rev. Mr. Jenks be a Committee to express the 
 thanks of the Society to the Rev. Mr. Bentley for tlie Address delivered this day, and to 
 request a copy of the same for tlie press." 
 
 At a meeting of the Society in January following, the Committee 
 reported " progress," and there the matter appears to have rested. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Ik multiplying the associations of life, regard mnst be paid, 
 not to the objects only, but to the means which they affoi-d. 
 Under the general name of an institution of Arts and 
 Sciences might be included any researches which the public 
 favor ought to embrace. Everything relating to man is his- 
 tory, but Antiquity regards a particular period of society, 
 and may have its immediate and indispensable obligations. 
 We have boasted of our schools, and every historian has 
 given us the praise which our success has secured to us ; but 
 if the historian could have examined a book of antiquities, 
 he might in a few lines have exhibited to the reader, not 
 alone the effect, but the powerful causes which had con- 
 curred to produce it. From the neglect of antiquities 
 we have almost lost the knowledge of the elementary books 
 which preceded, in the course of instruction, tliose of the past 
 century. And even our first historian, Hubbard, who was 
 the first founder of a school upon appropriated funds, and 
 was at ease in his condition, was reported to a most atten- 
 tive biographer as a pauper, and as neglected in his old 
 age ; when he died the richest in his profession, and with 
 greater acknowledgments from his charge than any minis- 
 ter has received before or after his times. No man could 
 make more diligent inquiry, or employ greater impartiality 
 than his biographer had done, but he had not the aid 
 of an antiquary. The same thing is to be observed of the 
 2 
 
son of the greatest merchant of the first century of our his- 
 tory. He gave his talents and a portion of his wealth to the 
 college, and resided and died in Charlestown ; and yet the 
 value of these services, and of this character and influence, 
 did not prevent the denial of these facts, when they were 
 announced in the present generation, even by those who had 
 high claims upon the public favor, and were in circumstances 
 which might be deemed the best for information on this sub- 
 ject. We may observe further that the most flourishing 
 university in our country so little encouraged the work of 
 the antiquary, that among few of its sons are to be found 
 the elementary books which were copied from the manu- 
 scripts of the most able instructors, and even presidents of 
 the establishment, though these constitute elements from 
 which the true history of the University must be given, and 
 become of the highest value in connection with the true his- 
 tory of instruction in our elementary schools. Had the 
 labors of the antiquary been duly encouraged, the best 
 part of our history could not have been found at the present 
 day in its present very imperfect state. If no study be 
 more interesting to man, than that of liis own race, and no 
 part of it more dear than that of his kindred and country, 
 the study in which we engage must have the highest com- 
 mendation, particularly at a time when general neglect has 
 almost excluded us from the best information respecting the 
 origin of our own institutions, and the progress and means 
 of our own prosperity. 
 
 The part I shall assign myself on the present occasion 
 will be by the aid of the antiquary to correct some vulgar 
 errors respecting the true character of the past generation. 
 As that generation has too freely been represented as a race 
 of fanatics, it has been more difiicult for the historian to 
 conceive how that which has been destructive in every other 
 country, should have ultimately been so successful in this. 
 And not having any proper aid from the antiquary, he is 
 
obliged to admit causes inadequate to the great effect, and to 
 leave hastily the whole in the obscurity in which he finds it. 
 By fanaticism here, we do not intend any opinions of an- 
 cient or modern times, or of any nation, but that impulse 
 from imagination that acknowledges no restraint from civil 
 authority or the knowledge the age in which it appears 
 — that is blind, impetuous, and dangerous. 
 
 When our settlements began, they soon perceived the fa- 
 vorable opportunities to promote their independence. The 
 only difficulty was political, from the consideration of the 
 allegiance they owed to the country from which they came, 
 and from the dangers of powerful neighbors. But this diffi- 
 culty did not prevent very important measures to hasten the 
 time in which it might be accomplished, or very serious pro- 
 jects respecting the manner of it. The first project was from 
 Mr. Williams, who, regardless of every prejudice in his time, 
 was for a new civil constitution, and an open separation from 
 all ecclesiastical dominion. The spirit we might commend, 
 but not the means. More was due to what men were, and 
 much more to what they might become. It was fanaticism 
 which opposed itself to this project, because it was too bold 
 on points on which fanaticism could then take no instruc- 
 tion. It failed, and we need say no more at present 
 about it. 
 
 We cannot refuse to admire the first project, and to de- 
 clare that it was not a civil investigation that frustrated it. 
 The next became more successful, as it threatened nothing 
 to fanaticism, and was executed without alarm to civil preju- 
 dices ; and it may be considered as that begun in the time of 
 Mr. Peters. This embraced three objects : the greatest com- 
 mercial activity, the display of mercantile wealth, and the 
 substitution of civil for religious festivities ; and the anti- 
 quary will tell us that these three objects were most remarka- 
 bly accomplislicd in the first generation. For tlie attainment 
 of the first it was necessary to command the wealth collected 
 
in the country, belonging to the richest settlers, and obtained 
 from the best directed industry. We know not a circum- 
 stance that can be added to those which this project em- 
 ployed. The Capital had not assumed a mercantile superi- 
 ority. In the negotiations of the country respecting its com- 
 mercial interests, it employed the activity it found in Mr. 
 Peters and his friends. Possessed of the claims of precedency 
 in civil affairs, and holding the university in its neighborhood, 
 it granted the full use of all the public stock to those who 
 were content with the use, and really rewarded the Capital 
 by transplanting, in the event, the greatest wealth into its 
 bosom, with a large portion of that which was retained, after 
 it had circulated in its own channels. We find, as early as 
 1658, a large importation for the two chief towns, in three 
 ships from England only, amounting to six thousand pounds 
 sterling. The country had not then, in this part of it, any 
 settlement which had existed one-third of a century. The 
 whole character of this commerce the antiquary may assist 
 to develop, and may exhibit it in all the correct forms in 
 which business was done in the best houses of London, or 
 Amsterdam, or the most established marts of Europe. 
 
 But as the existence of this commerce has not been 
 doubted, we may at present entertain ourselves more properly 
 with the exhibition of mercantile wealth, from which we are 
 to collect the extent of its influence upon public manners. 
 We have too long been taught to believe that at first every 
 thing bore the marks of a poverty, which, though voluntary, 
 was real ; that the austerity of manners did well enough 
 agree with the horrors of a wilderness, being content 
 only to supply the first wants, and erect a cabin which the 
 waste of fuel rendered inhabitable. But what shall we say 
 when we discover what articles an inventory of a first set- 
 tler did embrace ? The nature of the argument obliges an 
 enumeration with which we here might be inclined to 
 dispense, but with which they who wish plenary evidence may 
 
9 
 
 be satisfied. Nor is it a solitary example. It is the exact 
 measure at which wealth held its reputation. 
 
 At the mansion house we find every description of out- 
 houses, adapted to every domestic convenience. For business 
 we find the upper and lower warehouses and wharf, and the 
 accommodations which belong to them. We are then car- 
 ried to the store chamber, in which supplies are abundant. 
 In the mansion house we find every apartment designated 
 for its exclusive purposes. In the old hall we find floors of 
 great firmness, walls covered with panels which fill their 
 whole height, and windows of large dimensions and deep 
 seats, measuring the whole thickness of the frames and the 
 work around them. We then ascend to the Red chamber, 
 the Glass chamber, passing the Hall chamber and Corner 
 chambers, leaving below, besides rooms for domestic ser- 
 vices, the counting-house and entry. Above are all the con- 
 veniences for the many servants emploj^ed in the house. Of 
 the articles which the domestic furniture includes we may 
 reckon above 70 articles of plate of every description, giving 
 1056 ounces, equal to £352. In the out-houses we find 
 places for the family horse, and whatever may increase 
 domestic enjoyment. Nor are these pleasures solitary. The 
 life of the town is assisted by all the advantages of adjacent 
 farms and cultivated territory. One farm a few miles from 
 home has 200 acres ; another at a greater distance, 800 acres. 
 Houses and lands, besides, were holden by various claims, or 
 under leases. Nor among the stores of the family do we 
 find less than three pi})es of Madeira reserved for domestic 
 use. An inventory of 70 pages is entitled to so much 
 notice. But this quotation would be less pertinent were it 
 without example. We might adduce the same things from 
 other estates, and if in some of them the amount might be 
 less, it would not be because any articles we have enumerated 
 were omitted. Such houses as 3'et remain, erected in the 
 first century, give ample confirmation to these legal records 
 
10 
 
 of wealth. We are not to suppose that this wealth, so dis- 
 played, liad not everything which could aid its duration and 
 give it the perfection of which the age was capable. We 
 find, in the many Corinthian capitals, that the huge Gothic 
 coverings had not obliged them to forget the effect which a 
 whole front could receive from the just elevation of Grecian 
 orders; and the rudeness of the wilderness had not made 
 them forget the regular pavements on which their buildings 
 were approached. 
 
 But the accommodations of the possessor did not terminate 
 with the habitation in which he dwelt. The ornaments of 
 person were as well known and as eagerly sought as in any 
 age, and the antiquary may produce letters from the most 
 devout families, and even from the families of ministers, in 
 which the taste of the greatest city in the world is as 
 earnestly consulted as to dress and colors as we could 
 imagine it might be in an age of luxury and beauty. Nor 
 was the severity of republican manners allowed to interfere 
 with these indulgences, and these enjoyments of wealth and 
 beauty. The destruction of such good things under the pre- 
 tence of zeal, would have been more extravagant in that 
 age than in our own. Such as have seen the wives of elders, 
 who survived to the past century, well know that no persons 
 were more rich in their apparel, or more careful of respect at 
 home and abroad. The effects were not limited. In religious 
 assemblies, the magistrates and citizens in commission had 
 their special seats, and the valuation of estates was seen, not 
 barely in the records of office, but in public meetings, and 
 even in the catalogues of their rising institutions of educa- 
 tion. Whatever could thus have influence upon the whole 
 character of life, should not be overlooked by the historian, 
 and the antiquary should be ready to supply ; as without it 
 the most false calculation might be made of the condition of 
 society and of the real means of its advancement to that 
 state which may command our respect and admiration. 
 
11 
 
 But another subject jet lies before us, which will disclose 
 not barely a spirit of imitation, but the discernment which 
 posterity will appreciate as belonging to character, if not 
 honorable to genius and a refined civil polity. It is that 
 to which we referred when we mentioned a substitute of civil 
 for religious festivities. It is entitled to minute investigation, 
 which at some future time it will undoubtedly receive. It is 
 an odious task to impose restraints upon the passions of men, 
 and particularly to attempt to change the expressions of them. 
 Civil governments have preferred to associate public festivities 
 with the religions principle, to become more sure of the act 
 and of the principle. In Christendom this sentiment had lost 
 none of its force at the reformation, and the same motives 
 which had induced Christian nations to adopt the festivities 
 of civil governments by changing, not the form, but occasion 
 of them, would still urge an enlightened government not to 
 forget all these experiments upon human nature. The pur- 
 pose of our country was not to abound in civil festivities and 
 the public aids of the passions, but to restore to the State, 
 and to the institutions it adopts, the exclusive indulgence of 
 all the festivities it would create. We might have expected 
 from superstition that the ancient solemnities would remain, 
 and from theory, tliat if they were denied all the pomp 
 they had assumed to awe and engage the senses, the convic- 
 tion which could produce so great a change, would wage an 
 eternal warfare with every sportive scene and passionate in- 
 dulgence. But what can be done by a sect, cannot be done 
 by human nature. "What Christian nations might allow to 
 religious orders with benefit to society could never be im- 
 posed upon the whole social character. What the indul- 
 gence of the Church had made the duty of religious orders, 
 was left in our country to private manners. What was 
 then to be the substitute for the domestic observance of 
 christenings and tlie solemn pomp of consecration ? What 
 was to reconcile the people to an almost total exclusion 
 
IS 
 
 from even the ceremony of baptism ? What was to per- 
 suade them that the recurrence of Easter day and Christ- 
 mas was not to divide the years, and that the canonical 
 days were to pass without any notice ? As commerce 
 was to enrich society, the launches of ships were ren- 
 dered important amusements of the people ; and the en- 
 tertainments on such occasions gave the men of active busi- 
 ness an opportunity to excite tlie strongest affections to 
 themselves by these public exhibitions, and by a liberal pro- 
 vision for the working men they employed. The expenses 
 as reported to us, would be sufficient for some of our mod- 
 ern entertainments. Military reviews had all the attention 
 of the government, and the articles of military dress have 
 in some families been preserved beyond a century. They 
 were occasions on which the rich revealed their love of 
 honors, while they denied themselves no badge of office, and 
 no ceremony which had been preserved in any book of disci- 
 pline. The court days were not less festive than the 
 military, and were celebrated in the most distant settle- 
 ments ; while the humble sports and generous feats of 
 strength assigned to the annual period of their elections 
 were as sure to be repeated as the diversions of a birth- 
 day or of a coronation. Such substitutes might answer 
 for the sportive passions, but in the hour of bereavement 
 superstition might insist upon all its claims. How dis- 
 pense with the ritual of the dead and impose an uninter- 
 rupted silence upon the house of mourning, the funeral pro- 
 cession, and the visit to the tomb or the grave ? How 
 forbid the funeral anthem, or the devout ejaculation to 
 the saint ? Yet our fathers did impose this silence. After 
 the last breath the language of prayer ceased from the lips of 
 the minister of rehgion. He had no other office than that of 
 every neighbor, to join in the same procession, or to take his 
 place at his pleasure among mourning relatives and friends. 
 The expenses on such occasions were the greatest which 
 
13 
 
 in social life could occur. Eveiy one provided for the chari- 
 ties or tokens which were to be his last shifts to his friends and 
 neighbors. It is tlie fate of the antiquary, that, while he 
 finds it necessary to exhibit such circumstances, they will 
 be often thought too trifling by those w4io know not how to 
 appreciate them in real history, where they ma}^ not even be 
 mentioned. What should we think, in times of economy, of 
 one hundred pounds in funeral charges, which had no other 
 object than compliance with the custom 'i Should we 
 imagine it was an age of poverty when custom required the 
 purchase of 40 dozen pairs of gloves, of which the greater 
 part were used at the funeral, and sixty gold rings, of which 
 some were valued at live pounds, and. none so low as half 
 that amount? What sliall we say of a bill which exceeded 
 400 pounds, and not far from sterling value? We have no 
 occasion to pay such a price for redemption from any Euro- 
 pean custojns we miglit discommend. The lapse of time 
 destroys the spell which long habits impose, and we can en- 
 joy an innocent freedom upon these subjects. But the dan- 
 ger of relapse will be an apology for the first settlers, which 
 will be admitted by every candid man. And how shall we 
 judge fairly of them if we have not their manners before us, 
 and cannot assign the causes which were sufficient to advance 
 their civil state beyond that of other European colonies. 
 
 It is to commerce we are indebted for. the advancement 
 of our settlements to that success which no errors of 
 opinion could overthrow ; and while it was aide to yield 
 such advantages, we surely owe it such an investigation as 
 will lead us to })ut a full value upon its resources and its 
 opportunities. If we are indebted to Mr. Peters for his 
 concurrence in tiie measures of our commerce, we are not 
 less indebted to Mr. Norris, his successor, for his aid to in- 
 dustry in tlie arts by whicli the commerce of our settlements 
 was assisted ; and we cannot have better evidence of the 
 general interest than the relapse into the greatest domestic 
 3 
 
14: 
 
 danger ujion the decline of commerce, and the general 
 fears wliicli the revohition in Enghiud seemed to occasion. 
 All the great houses of commerce had establishments in 
 the Capital, and conducted all their business in this manner. 
 Thej established some of their children, and possessed 
 houses, stores, and wharv.es, by which their business had 
 the same ample advantages, in different situations, and even 
 upon such parts of the shore as supplied lumber, or ilsh, or 
 any thing which could be valuable in the market. Never 
 do we discover greater anxiety than after the restoration, 
 when the monarch proposed to unite a part of the present 
 province of Maine to the government of New York, with 
 which before no serious competition had arisen. The first 
 thing was to provide competent ship-builders, and each set- 
 tlement was ambitious to claiui the best specimens of naval 
 architecture ; but the enterprise of Mr. Peters soon produced 
 a ship of 300 tons, and the timber hills are still known from 
 which he supplied his workmen. The artificers of that day 
 still have posterity in the same occupations ; and from them 
 have been obtained the models of their vessels, the price of 
 tonnage, and all the articles supplied in the market for ship- 
 building. We find by arrivals at Boston, from Europe, the 
 value of the commerce during the commonwealth. We find 
 one cargo invoiced 2949£. ; three company ships at 343T£. ; 
 one at 1666£. ; another at 1387£. ; another at 5835£. ; another 
 at 2975£. Voyages to France are mentioned, as well as to 
 England. The three ships, Prudence, Mary, and Speedwell, 
 are reckoned at 4943£. ; the Trial to France at 1328£. and 
 America to France 3825£. We content ourselves with a 
 cursory notice, from which we may infer to what amount 
 voyages in the first generation liad arisen. 
 
 We are led to inquire about the domestic trade, and we find 
 early from the families of Endicott and Hathorne, persons 
 residing in Maine to secure the lumber trade. The history 
 of this trade will give the value of the first purchases 
 
 4 
 
15 
 
 in that country, and the extent of their conflicting claims. 
 At one time a merchant had debts at the Eastward 
 amounting to above 1200£. in sums advanced in the himber 
 trade. Tlie agreements with the logmen give the same 
 general character to the trade which it still retains. The 
 fishing voyages were made in four fares, and the stock and 
 respective fares were made out great and small generals, as at 
 the present time. The greatest care was taken to reserve 
 on the shores the most suitable lots of land for the fishery, 
 which gave employment to many hands ashore ; and the 
 regulations prevented any purchases which should give ex- 
 clusive privileges in particular places, so that the great 
 changes which arose from the different location of settle- 
 ments, were due to the different localities of the fishing 
 business. The fishery at home was so settled into a system 
 that the gains were chiefly witli tliose who could ship to a 
 market after making their purchases from the fishermen. 
 The business, from its regularity, soon became the exclusive 
 or general employment of whole settlements, to which 
 it gave its own manners and character ; raising, as in 
 Europe, a most hardj^ and enterprising race for all naval 
 adventures. 
 
 The commerce in America soon became greatest in small 
 vessels, even those employed in the fishery with the West 
 Indies. Barbadoes appears at the most ■early period very 
 often on the books of the merchant. It was at a later time 
 that conquest gave to the English Jamaica, which soon be- 
 came a favorite island. In one of the Ketches in the first 
 West India voyages, we find Pork, Mackerel, Bass, Cod, 
 Tar, Flour, Peas, Oil, and Butter, invoiced at 253£. The 
 whole in quarters at 469£. Voyages were made to other 
 islands in the West Indies, as the laws of trade and pros- 
 pects of success did admit, and also to the Madeira Islands, 
 and the islands of its neig]d)orhood, particularly Fayal. 
 The trade to Bilboa, in the Bay of Biscay, was also early 
 
16 
 
 known and much used, as well as the trade to other parts 
 of Spain and to Portugal. 
 
 With whatever interest we regard the foreign trade, we 
 may find there the causes which have concurred to produce 
 the union of our States, as these appear in the different 
 periods of our history from the beginning. Though it be 
 true that our existence under the same government must 
 have supplied the most powerful causes of union, yet it is 
 evident that our rapid progress did at every period obtain 
 for us advantages never derived from this same government. 
 The political wisdom which resigned to the British nation 
 the settlements which the Dutch and the Swedes had made 
 in the most flourishing part of our country, was directed by 
 the slow growth of those plantations, and the higher value 
 of our own. The same policy arrested the regions in the 
 North, which had been possessed by the French, and those 
 which had been held by the Spaniards in the South. And 
 it is the same condition of things which has given to the 
 States, since the revolution, the extensive regions of Louisi- 
 ana. Whatever any portion of the Southern States may 
 claim from the priority of date to their settlements, we 
 trust it will not be questioned that tliey were inferior to 
 us in their commerce at the period of which we treat, and 
 if they have not been indebted to our example, they must 
 confess they were later in the school of conmierce than our- 
 selves. 
 
 Our first southern voyages were to Virginia, under which 
 name was included the southern portion of the States, as 
 the whole, our own territory included, was South and North 
 Virginia. We soon find clearances for Virginia and Mary- 
 land. For a century these voyages were made by our fisher- 
 men in the winter season in their fishing craft, and often 
 upon freight. The principal articles were corn and pork and 
 naval stores, which were brought for domestic consumption. 
 Our own trade was much limited, even at a later 
 
17 
 
 period, by the habits which had been formed in the first 
 generation. 
 
 The trade with New York began as the first generation 
 was passing off'. While a Dutch settlement, we have evi- 
 dence enough of the jealousy towards it which New Eng- 
 land maintained. But when all claims beyond its immediate 
 territories had ceased, in 1665, the spirit of commerce con- 
 ceived a new opportunity for trade. The Dutch A^'est India 
 Company failed at the time our commerce began. Tliey had 
 not agreed upon their limits till 1650, and had not time to 
 restore confidence before the union under the same gov- 
 ernment. We find goods advertised to New York in 1665, 
 and a freight paid to the same place for 30£; the adventure 
 being more than seven times that sum. Another freight 
 was paid in another vessel in the same year. We discover 
 the uncertain character of this commerce in the payment of 
 cash, and we observe that two pipes of wine found a good 
 market. These seem to have been some of the measures to 
 open a commerce which has since been of great value to the 
 Union, and the intercourse never afterwards was long inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 The trade with Rhode Island plantations, and with Con- 
 necticut, was adventured by the same merchants, and had 
 continued from the beginning. But as many of their sailors 
 were from our plantations, similarity of habits had brought 
 many of their vessels into our ports, and of our vessels into 
 their own in turn. Tlie Ketch beginning was upon such 
 voyages, and we find orders expressed to go to the south- 
 ward to fall into the sound of Rhode Island and of Con- 
 necticut, to make up their cargo of Wheat, Corn and Pork. 
 The freights for fish to the Isles of Shoals, and for Piscata- 
 qua and Portsmouth and Great Island, which were early in 
 a flourishing condition from the fishery, are often mentioned. 
 In the same manner visits were made to Cape Sable on 
 the coast below us Our adventurers often suffered from 
 
18 
 
 the Indians in the higher hititudes. It was at a later period 
 that the whale fishery had vessels from all our ports, but the 
 oil which was procured was alwaj^s in our ports. The wliole 
 view of an infant people in such progress may yield impres- 
 sions very favorable to their industry. 
 
 One thing is very honorable to the character of our first 
 merchants, and it was the unbounded credit they gave to 
 each other. Whatever was judged expedient for a voyage, 
 and was to be found in the possession of any other merchant 
 it was obtained upon credit, or the owner was invited to be- 
 come interested in the voyage which it could render produc- 
 tive. We often find sums as large as the whole amount of 
 property upon credit, without any embarrassment to the 
 merchant, if tlie articles he might require were in the mar- 
 ket. This confidence was not confined to business. All the 
 supplies which are necessary to domestic life, are obtainable 
 in the smallest quantities, while we find the greatest luxuries 
 furnished as the occasions or wishes of neighbors may re- 
 quire. Hardly a wine of any quality could be named that 
 could not be found, and it was no part of their temperance 
 to live penuriously, but to have the best without abuse and 
 with friendship. 
 
 It is an inquiry that will be made on this subject, were 
 the benefits derived by society contemplated by those who 
 were the instruments of them, or were they only in pur- 
 suit of wealth, regardless of the general advantages which 
 might arise to the whole community ? It is upon the answer 
 to this inquiry that their highest value must depend. 
 It is a known and acknowledged truth, that the greatest 
 merchants were the greatest benefactors of the infant colony. 
 The proudest building of our capital was the donation of a 
 merchant, and the greatest merchant of Salem not only was 
 liberal on all great occasions, but he assisted in building 
 places of worship, in erecting a college, and in endowments 
 of both college and schools ; and his example was followed 
 
19 
 
 by his posterity without any diminished effort. The charac- 
 ter o-ained in the first days of our existence has served as 
 the guardian of our better years, and of our richest hopes. 
 The son of Mr. Brown was supplied from the wealth of his 
 father, and gave his best services to the college and to the 
 churches. Though he accepted no pastoral charge, he per- 
 formed all its duties, and honored the college and the 
 churches, as well by his services as by his bounty. It would 
 be odious to distinguish families, but wliat families have done 
 more honor to our country and to our college than those 
 of Leverett or Winthrop ! The civil and military and 
 learned professions have had their greatest ornaments from 
 such families as possessed tlie wealth of the country, and 
 this had no other source but its commerce. Public honors 
 had not in that age rich endowments. From the bounty of 
 the rich our public institutions were maintained, and educa- 
 tion in the first generation had all the assistauce which en- 
 lightened Europe could afford. Says Mr. Peters, writing 
 to Deacon Orne, my desire is that my wife should return 
 to America, and I propose to follow. It was my mind that 
 my cousin Downing should educate my child and dwell in 
 my house. This j^erson was afterwards a minister abroad in 
 the reign of Charles the second. And it should be remem- 
 bered that no dissensions in churches, no questions of mili- 
 tary obligations, and no parties for famil}^ interests, arose 
 from combinations among men of business. Their share in 
 the confidence of the people came from the industry they 
 promoted around them. We have not any works from the 
 press to which we can appeal, as the press was almost alto- 
 gether surrendered to the government and to the ministers 
 of religion ; but none of the public documents bring them 
 into disgrace, or allow us to impute any public calamities 
 to their interference. The people nev-er suffered from their 
 independence, and never were betrayed by any eftbi-t to 
 corrupt them. It was in our towns that their infiuence was 
 
20 
 
 most felt, and that the best schools were found. Public 
 opinion has assigned to the ministers of religion the special 
 qualifications for teachers of literature ; but in the oldest 
 settlement, scarce a year can be named in which the in- 
 struction of youth was not found to be directed by men 
 who had no offices in the church. 
 
 In the military service we discover their constant pre- 
 eminence. They seem to have inherited those honors. And 
 this distinction, which began from the influence of charac- 
 ter, has not been lost in our own times. Such lienors were 
 shared among the best citizens, who combined heroism with 
 their agricultural pursuits ; but in every part of our country 
 we have seen the tendency of corresponding pursuits to fur- 
 nish candidates for military promotion. It is not to bestow 
 an undue share of praise, that this respectful notice is taken 
 of an invaluable class of citizens, but to disclose how much 
 the antiquar}'^ may do in restoring history to its truth and its 
 simplicity. Enough is known of past events, and related in 
 accordance with unquestionable facts, to satisf}^ us that it is 
 from the active habits of men and nations tlieir hopes must 
 arise ; that whatever office they assign to opinions, it must be 
 to increase the public virtue of the age. That part of national 
 character is the best which preserves industry, provides its 
 means, enlarges its honors, and secures its blessings. We 
 need not employ a single quotation from foreign history. 
 We have only to examine our own. The dangerous opinion 
 that the State has a religion to defend against the right of 
 private judgment, repeatedly involved our settlements in 
 imminent danger. One of the best friends of civil liberty was 
 obliged to retire. One of the greatest men of the settlement, 
 by the strength of his genius, gave authority to persecution. 
 Had not a power existed to restrain this zeal, every hope 
 must have been abandoned. Repeatedly the same spirit en- 
 dangered that balance between the undiscerning and the 
 wise, upon which public safety depends ; and it was from the 
 
21 
 
 aid which the interests of commerce afforded and the light it 
 gave, that the balance was restored and the higher wisdom 
 prevailed. Society still continues to need the same balance, 
 and it is by the power we can command, and can 
 suitably direct, that we accomplish the best good. It 
 is not the quantity of the power, but the suitable applica- 
 tion of it. 
 
 How much we are indebted to the vigilance of com- 
 merce for our present political situation is well known. 
 What our gratitude ought to be to the agency which sup- 
 ports our public institutions, which prevents religion from 
 all the degradation that superstition could introduce, which 
 gives patronage to our arts, which excites domestic industry 
 and rewards it, that preserves the tine arts for our man- 
 ners, and the best amusements to exclude the worst, it is 
 needless to declare. It is enough if the antiquary can 
 show us our former obligations ; we trust our own prudence 
 will accept the same guardianship, and that the more we 
 know of the true cause of oiir greatness, the more sure and 
 exalted it will appear. 
 
 The arts which commerce would encourage, are such as 
 best support its true interest. It could not expect in 
 an infant country to rival the proud establishments of 
 Europe. Its first independence must be of the aids which 
 its first necessities would require. The prudence which 
 would provide mills for the preparation of food, would pro- 
 vide mills for the himber trade, and the necessary articles 
 for the management of the fisheries. All these would be 
 of little use without ship-building. This art was soon 
 introduced, and we are persuaded upon the best instruction ; 
 as Mr. Peters, when in the Low Countries, had visited the 
 works which the great Richlieu had established when he en- 
 deavored to collect by every allurement, the best workmen 
 in Europe into the French service. In the families of 
 the most early emigrants of this craft from Europe, we 
 4 
 
22 
 
 find only such books as were of later date than the first gen- 
 eration, and a few French engravmgs. 
 
 For a sloop we find the following proportions : Upon 
 the keel 41 feet, by 15 on the beam, and by 6^ feet in 
 the hold. Having 2^ feet in the waist, a steerage and cabin, 
 a rake afore and aft, and two ports on a side. Contract 
 upon the last day of June, to be delivered afloat in Septem- 
 ber at 3£ 5s. per ton. Another, double masted, to have 50 
 feet keel, and the rake of the stern post before 12 feet, and 
 the breadth of the beam 19 feet, with a good round bow 
 under water. The depth of the hold 9 feet 9, and three 
 feet between decks from plank to plank, a rising abaft for a 
 quarter deck 14 inches, to come to the main mast; the wales 
 to be 5 inches thick, and wale pieces to be as long as possi- 
 ble, and one strake of plank on the wales, and another under 
 of 4 inches, and tract line of dead rising 7 feet 9, sweep 
 answerable. All the futtocks (tuthucks) of white oak. No 
 plank to exceed 12 inches in breadth when worked, timber 
 grown to the mould. Eight pounds to be paid per ton. 200£ 
 at laying the keel, 100£ at the wales, 100£ at the upper deck, 
 and to make up the two-thirds in money at delivery, and 
 the payment of a third in goods. Another with a pink stern 
 in April, to be finished in August at 10£ per ton. Keel 42 
 feet, 16 feet beam, and 7 feet 8 inches hold. 100£ at rais- 
 ing, 100 when demanded, and last at finishing, with all the 
 usual customs attending such contracts. A special regard is 
 always paid to the quality of the tiral)er. At this time the 
 iron was an article of importation, though able smiths were 
 in the country to work it, and perhaps in as great variety as 
 at present, as it was employed in more domestic uses than in 
 our times, and polished for the best purposes. The Spanish 
 iron is sometimes charged at double the price of English, 
 and always above it. The Spanish steel had the same prefer- 
 ence. Canvas is reckoned at 30 pence a yard. The carpen- 
 ters were led to combine very difierent labors, as may be 
 
23 
 
 known from the following contract : The house that is to 
 be built, must have the following dimensions. Its length 24 
 feet from inside to inside, and its breadth 18 feet. The 
 length of stud 10 feet between wall plate and ground sill, 
 with three lengths of joist, to jett at the end next the street 
 2 feet, with handsome pendulas. One gable end on the 
 west side and towards the north end, together with sleepers 
 for the lower floor. The frame to be completely raised, 
 and the price in goods, 12 pounds. To furnish the house in 
 addition to the plate, was the great quantity of pewter which 
 was required, for which we have a ready substitute. Thirty- 
 iive pounds was not an uncommon portion ; in some families 
 we And 452 weight. The form of it differed from that in 
 present use, as the dishes partook of the shape adapted to the 
 separate use of liquids, so that the depressed part did not ex- 
 ceed a third of the wliole diameter. The articles of plate 
 were all imitated in this metal ; and we find in the list, tank- 
 ards, basins, salvers, dishes, plates, bowls, goblets, porringers, 
 cups, pots, and spoonis of every size. To riches and strength 
 tliey added ornament. 
 
 Some of the specimens of painting which remain have no- 
 thing superior in the durability and combination of colors j 
 andlhe art to which they had recourse, seldom gave them 
 cause to renew their call for its aid in their apartments for 
 several generations. The greater use of wood for the apart- 
 ments very much confined the labors of the mason, who had 
 seldom any opportunity to display his skill but in places 
 which required more strength than beauty ; the decora- 
 tions on the parts of the chimney which passed beyond the 
 roof being the principal display of taste abroad, as the hearth 
 and the tile were around the fire. These seldom required 
 repair. So great was the confidence in the cement, and so 
 free its use, that no complaint was made against the smallest 
 stones which could be used in a wall ; and the unbaked clay 
 and light bricks which were interposed between the two 
 
24 
 
 wooden surfaces of the rooms sufficiently guarded against 
 the exterior cold. Tlie aid of the glazier was admitted more 
 sparingly in private houses. Windows in common apart- 
 ments were small, and differed more in tlie forms in which 
 the glass was cut and leaded than in the size. T^he exclu- 
 sion of strong light, whether for health or from habit, was 
 never regarded as an inconvenience in any season ; as it was 
 thought to be as well adapted to cool the air in summer as 
 to the confinement of the warm' air in winter. 
 
 Things in ordinary use, both of wood and metal, were 
 soon provided by the labors of artificers in the country, and 
 soon became articles of traffic with the more Southern set- 
 tlements. In leather, such articles as were reqmred for com- 
 mon purposes were readily supplied, and not of an inferior 
 quality. But such articles as were variously colored never 
 were profitable enough for extensive manufacture. In 
 woolen and linen, nothing could be found in daily apparel 
 which had not been gained by domestic and female labor ; 
 but it was no cause of reproach to wear on great occasions 
 the cloths from the best foreign manufactures, and to con- 
 tinue them in families for special use in many generations. 
 Tliis ambition was by no means exclusive, and every honest 
 citizen was commended for it ; particularly if he received 
 such a valuable inheritance from some worthy ancestor. 
 A love of ancestors was in everything encouraged. The 
 walls of the wealthy were hung with the full-length portraits 
 of their progenitors. Figures less than life-size were seldom 
 seen, and it is upon this account we have so few heads ol 
 the first settlers. When the first painting was defaced, the 
 picture was lost. It was not till the second century that the 
 engraver was taught to preserve by many copies the sup- 
 posed resemblance of a man whose memory had been ren- 
 dered dear to posterity. Had the last art been coeval in 
 our customs with the first, we should have secured many 
 pleasures for posterity. 
 
25 
 
 Of all the apartments, that for sleep was supplied with 
 everything which taste or wealth conld administer. No 
 richer specimens of art and expense have been ever ex- 
 hibited. It has been imagined that the fine arts were 
 neglected, and should our own customs be the test, this 
 might be admitted. From the manner in which the psalmo- 
 dy of the Church was performed, this inference was 
 drawn. But it should be remembered that in all Christian 
 churches the music was directed from the altar, and limited 
 as the service by its canons, and that the protestant and re- 
 formed churches made no innovation. The first attempt to 
 reform this part of worship was from the plea that the tunes 
 did not admit variety of measure and expression. In the 
 first generation domestic devotion was always accompa- 
 nied -with music ; and no compositions passed through more 
 editions than the simple poems which chastised all the pas- 
 sions into devotion. 
 
 Nor were they strangers to graceful motion. No invec- 
 tives against any abuses ever excluded the song or the dance 
 from families of every condition, and a greater propor- 
 tion were acquainted with the movements and melodies than 
 probably in our own days. The greatest difference in man- 
 ners probably arose from the union of all ages. Every- 
 thing indulged in for sport or pleasure was common to the ' 
 aged and to the young, and no occamon supplied mo- 
 tives for separation. It was not imagined that passions 
 which were born with us and brought up together were ever 
 to be separated, but that in age they required the same 
 company they had ever enjoyed. It was the cheerfulness of 
 age that was the guardian of youth, and the sjanpathy was 
 more blessed as it was perfect. What pleasure the antiquary 
 has who can sit down with such company, and is not dis- 
 gusted with some unusual ceremony, when he reads the 
 pure sentiment that it loves ! He can see all the affections 
 in which he delights, though at first they may seem to speak 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 411 614 2 
 
 26 
 
 a strange language. With him nothing is disguised by its 
 habit, or recommended but by its native claims. He knows 
 the patriarch by his gray hairs, and by the charms of his 
 countenance, whether he be found in the habiliments of 
 fmcient or modern times. He as[<:s no table of chronology 
 for the date, and distinguishes circumstances as readily as 
 the merchant can his gold, or his weights and his measures. 
 He can no more confound the man with his appearance, 
 than the substance of a book with the sentiment of it. And 
 he will no more judge of that of wliich lie knows not the 
 condition, than he would of the contents of an apartment 
 into which he has never been suffel-ed to enter. Antiquaries 
 have been judged as our ancestors have been. They have 
 been denied to be gold because they have not the same 
 inscriptions as current money. It is because they are the 
 pure and not counterfeit coin that we love them. They tell 
 us, as we read them, when they were made, and offer them- 
 selves at their real worth. To others they are only old 
 gold, if even this property be known. The standard and the 
 value belong to a better judgment. To ourselves and to our 
 country we owe more discernment. If we remember pros- 
 perity, we should know how it was gained. It is not enough 
 that some cause be assigned, or that the report should not 
 be questioned. It is the truth we seek, and the truth, 
 wherever we dig, we would find. A single fact may dissi- 
 pate error and set us free. Human life is a display of virtue 
 and vice, and of truth and error. Genius has been busy 
 with it, and talent employed in it ; but genius has not pos- 
 sessed it at pleasure, and talents have not commanded it. 
 Five are wise and live are foolish. The lawgiver sur- 
 prises us with a theory of the passions and a project for 
 a good government. The civilian makes the best of the 
 laws as he finds them. But some mind that sees things ex- 
 actly as they are, puts the smallest weight he can find on the 
 balance, at the point which can move the world.