ADI-)I:)ElSS AND SPEECHES
lITPON t lHIF (O5vrI pI'ri()-N' 1O
LEDY7ARD FREE BRIDGE!
JV —LY FIUiST, 1859.








ADDRESS,
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE COMPLETION
OF THE
FIRST FREE BRIDGE!
ACROSS
CONNECTICUT RIVER,
BY
Prof. E. D. SANBORN.?TOOETHER WITH A REPORT OP THE PROCEEDINGS AND BEMARKS OF
Dr. BOTU:RN3tES, Dr. CROSBY, ~Prof. PA.TTEIR$O.N,
and WVm. I-. DUNCAN, Esq.
JULY 1st, 1859.
HANOVER, N. H.:
PUBLISHED BY B. D. HOWE,
BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER.
P. B. COGSWELL, PRINTER, CONCORD, N. H.








ADDRESS, ETC.
On the first day of July, 1859, a large and highly respectable
audience, composed of citizens of Norwich and Hanover, with
the Students of Dartmouth College and Norwich University,
gathered in the College Church at 3, P. M., to celebrate the
completion of the first Free Bridge over the Connecticut River.
The exercises were opened by a voluntary from the choir, and an
appropriate prayer by the Rev. Dr. Bournes. After which,
Prof. Dixi Crosby, President of the meeting, arose and addressed the assembly as follows:
FELLOW CITIZENS: —I prefer this form of salutation from its
associations-for with it is connected the idea of every place
and every occasion, where freemen meet for an open expression
of opinion-for a mutual interchange.of thought and for counsel,
how the greatest strength may result from the most perfect
union. The School District- the Town- the County- the
State - and the Federal Whole are all indicated and with it the
idea of that perfect union we are to-day met to consecrate and
in honor of which our nation's flag is so proudly waving from
yonder staff.
There occur in the history of every town, every State, and
every nation-certain epochs pregnant with good or fraught
with danger-which demand public recognition from the people,
and it is one of the former we are to-day met to celebrate.
I hold it to be improper upon this occasion to enter upon any
comparison of the relative merit due to those individuals who
have labored to accomplish so desirable a result. To say whose




4
services might have been dispensed with, or without whose aid
the project might have failed, would, upon this occasion and ia
this presence, be out of place. It is sufficient that a public
work has been accomplished, which is of vital importance to us
all. And if during the long, weary years of our probation, the
magnitude of the undertaking has at any time created a corresponding warmth of feeling and opinion, and if any have felt
aggrieved or have " set down aught in malice," let this day's
proceedings be regarded as the funeral service of all such sentiments, and the resurrection day of that neighborly kindness
and town friendship, which was not dead, but only slept.
But I will no longer detain you, but beg the privilege of introducing the historian and orator of the occasion, Prof. E. D.
SANBORN.
Prof. Sanborn rose amid the enthusiastic applause of'the
audience, and delivered the following admirable address, which
was listened to with profound attention, and only interrupted by
the frequent cheering with which his pertinent hits and eloquent
periods were received:FELLOW CITIZENS: - A work has been completed. A duty
has been performed. A conflict has been waged. A victory
has been won. The work whose completion we celebrate, today, cannot be compared with the pyramids or the ponderous
architecture of the valley of the Nile; but it is infinitely more
useful than the temples of Karnac, Edfou and Dendera or those
towering monuments that keep perpetual watch and ward on the
borders of the great desert, on whose rock-hewn sides time has
traced, in mystic lines, the history of forty centuries.  The
Egyptians were famed for their wisdom. They led the civilization of the world for fifteen centuries. They were the teachers
of the Greeks. Their science and their philosophy constituted
the foundation onr which subsequent nations built; yet they had
not knowledge enough to construct a bridge. The far-famed
Thebes, styled by Homer " the hundred gated Thebes," stood on
both banks of the Nile; and its different divisons were never
united by a bridge. Our new-made structure over the Con



5
necticut would have spanned the Nile, where that mighty city
stood; but the old Egyptian never conceived of a work of art
so useful and requiring so much skill and science in union, to
hang it above a running stream. The Nile was literally alive
with boatmen driving all sorts of water craft with oars and sails
from the trough hollowed from a single trunk, the papyrus shallop smeared with bitumen, the fragile boat of light earthern ware
and the raft of reeds, to the stately barge for commerce and
the royal yacht for pleasure.
The grain and fruits of the Delta passed up the Nile to the
markets of Diospolis; and the downward current bore on its
tide, the quarried stones of the Thebaid to Sais and Canopus.
No bridge spanned the sacred stream throughout the fifteen
hundred miles of its known course. Herodotus says that there
were twenty thousand towns upon its banks. The average
width of the valley of the river never exceeded seven miles.
If within these narrow limits, one half the number of towns
mentioned by the Greek traveller, ever existed, the constant
ferrying of people from bank to bank must have afforded cause for
incessant motion upon the wwater. Fishers and fowlers, too,
diversified the scene. No nation of'antiquity had so much occasion for bridges as the Egyptians. For a considerable portion
of the year their whole arable land was flooded by the Nile so
as to resemble an archipelago with scattered islands rising here
and there above its surface. Their occupations forced them to
live upon the water much of the time, yet they never found
means to unite, by a permanent structure, the opposite banks of
the divine river. They were acquainted with the arch but seldom employed it in building. They built their temples and
palaces of stone. Their walls were massive, thick, and sloping
from the base to the battlements. This feature of their architecture is supposed to have been derived from the mud walls
idi mounds of their awnestos. The roof asad "oveyed  ways
were flat, composed of enormous blocks of stone extending from
one wall to another or from one column to another. Even their
gates, and doors were not arched. Existing ruins reveal these
facts. It was probably due therefore, to their ignorance and




6
want of skill that they never bridged the Nile. The arch does
not appear in Egypt, according to Mr. Wilkinson, till the 18th
dynasty of kings, when there existed a close connection
with the Assyrians, who understood the principle of the arch.
A small vaulted chamber of baked bricks has been found
at Nimroud; but there are no traces of an arch or vault used
on a large scale. The roofs of Assyrian palaces and temples
were flat. The use of columns seems not to have been known
till after the occupation of Assyria by the Greeks. The Babylonians had sufficient science to bridge over the Euphrates.
Their city stood on both banks of this river and the bridge,
which united the two divisions, is stated by some authors to
have been five furlongs in length. It consisted of piers with
beams laid horizontally from. pier to pier. The river is said to
have been turned from its channel, while the piers were built.
This is the oldest bridge of which we have any record. There
is no mention of such a structure in the Old Testament. The
Chinese are probably the pioneers of the world in this kind of
mechanism. "The bridge of Tsuen-tcheou-fou, the capital of
Fo-kien, has more than 100 arches. At Tsuen-tcheou, there is
a bridge with 300 stone piers with angles toward the river."
Some of their bridges are very long, very strong, and very old.
They use pointed, semi-circular, polygonal and semi-eliptical
arches in their various stone bridges. Their construction is
curious, ingenious and wonderfully permanent.
When South America was conquered by the Spaniards, light,
elastic suspension bridges had been constructed by the Incas
across mountain torrents and yawning chasms. The same kind
of bridges still exists in that country. They are very narrow,
not exceeding four and a half feet in width, and being built of
light and flexible materials, oscillate, like a pendulum, in a terrific
manner, when they are crossed.  Sometimes a single rushope
sustains a swinging chair or carriage, which is drawn across by
another rope. This is almost equivalent to travelling in a balloon. The danger is probably quite as great.
The Persians, in their invasion of European countries, made
use of bridges of ships. Darius in passing into Scythia is said




7
to have bridged the Thracian Bosporus with boats, superintended by a Greek engineer named Mandrocles. The same king
made a bridge of ships across the Danube over which report
says he led 700;000 men, a number greatly exaggerated. The
most famous bridge of ships ever built, was that constructed
by Phoenician and Egyptian seamen, for Xerxes over the Helles
pont, seven eighths of a mile in length. The first bridge was
broken up by a storm and the enraged despot lashed and fettered
the sea in his ire. The second was built of 360 triremes on the
side next to the Propontis, ranged lengthwise across the stream,
and 314, on the other side facing down the current, all secured
by anchors, and cables united them. The whole was made fast
to the shore by enormous cables twisted from ropes of flax and
papyrus bark and stretched tight by means of a windlass on
each side. This bridge partook of the nature of suspension
bridges, as the chief power that kept it at its moorings was on
the land. The decks of the vessels were covered with planks
which were strown with boughs of trees with a stratum of earth
above them. On either side were bulwarks to prevent the
horses from being alarmed in crossing. The transit of the invading army occupied seven days and nights, as the story runs.
The Greeks were a maritime people.    The Athenians, like
the modern English, gloried in their supremacy upon the seas.
They almost lived upon the water. Ships, boats and rafts were
far more familiar to their thoughts than bridges. In the.days
of their highest renown, when their architecture had reached a
degree of perfection which has never been surpassed, when
their porticoes were lined with paintings and their very streets
adorned with statues, the people waded over the Cephisus for
the want of a bridge. Their streams were small and limited in
extent. This fact, perhaps, made them more indifferent about
facilities of transit. The Greeks do not seem to have valued
the arch sufficiently to excel in the building of bridges or sewers.
The Romans delighted in stupendous arches and capacious
domes. The cloaca maxima is among the oldest stone structures
in existence.- It is said to have been built by Tarquinius Prisens \to drain Rome of its surplus waters. It is formed of three




8
concentric arches of which the innermost is a semicircular
vault of fourteen feet in diameter, composed of hewn stone
without cement. It is to day as perfect as it was 2500 years
ago and is a veryv remarkable monument of the skill of that
early day. The Romans excelled in works of practical utility.
They built magnificent aqueducts, roads and bridges. Stone
arches they carried to a high pitch of perfection. The oldest
stone bridges known to history, (several of which still exist,)
were built by the Romans. Their solidity, proportions and
durability show that they were constructed on scientific principles. The oldest structures of this kind were not distinguished
for the breadth of their arches or the lightness of their piers.
Strength, and majesty marked Roman works as they did the
Roman mind. Thechord of their arches, in early times, seldom
exceeded 80 feet.  They were mostly semicircular.   Pliny
mentions two large bridges in Greece, which are supposed to
have been built after the conquest of that country by the Romans. One of them spanned the Acheron and was 1000 feet
in length. The other united the island of Euboea to Boeotia,
across the straits of Euripus, which in the narrowest part, is
about forty yards in width. There were at different times eight
bridges across the Tiber, in Rome. The oldest was called Pons
Sublicius, or the wooden bridge. It was built by Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome, provided such a man ever lived.
The bridge was a reality whatever may have been the fate of
the reputed builder. The old story says it was cut down during
the war of Porsenna, the Etrurian, while Horatius Codes, singlehanded, prevented the enemy from entering upon its Northern
end. It was rebuilt without nails so that it could be removed if
necessary. with greater facility. The reconstruction was superintended by the high priests; hence they are called " pontifices," pontiffs or bridge-builders. It is a pity that all pontiffs
could not be as well employed. A wooden bridge was standing
in the place where the last was built, in the age of Augustus,
700 years later. Ovid alludes to it in the following distich:
"      Tpr quoque priscorum irgo simulacra virorum
Mittere roboreo acirpea ponte solet."




9
This first Italian bridge and those of Lodi and Magenta will
be forever memorable in history as the theatres of great battles.
The Roman bridge was a favorite resort for beggars; hence a man
without visible means of support was called " aliquis de ponte,"
a man from the bridge. There was a small island in the Tiber,
between the city and mount Janiculum on the North. A bridge
connecting the city with the island on which some temples stood,
was built about the time of the conspiracy of Catiline by Lucius
Fabricius. The other portion which joins the island to Janiculum
was built by Cestius Gallus, in the reign of Tiberius. Both
these structures still stand, the one a monument of republican
enterprise; the other of imperial exaction. Roman bridges in
the provinces were numerous and often imposing in appearance.
They were the chief embellishments of their military roads
which intersected every part of the empire. Their magnificent
ruins exist in Italy, Portugal and Spain to attest the scale of
grandeur with which works of national utility were constructed
by this practical people. One of the finest of these structures
still exists- entire at Ariminum, now Rimini in Italy. It was
commenced by Augustus and completed by Tiberius.
Trajan reared a magnificent bridge over the Danube. It was
3010 feet in length and 48 high. Twenty-two arches were
supported by twenty-three piers, with a platform of wood above.
There exists a representation of it on the column of Trajan at
Rome. It was destroyed by Hadrian under pretence that it
would let in the barbarians upon Roman territory; or as others
assert, from envy because his reign would be signalized by no
such work of art. Other authorities describe the bridge differently. It has with them, greater length and height. It was
built in the narrowest, and of course, the deepest and most rapid
portion of the river. For that day, it was a work of astonishing magnificence. During the dark ages, the Moors were celebrated for their bridge-building. The bridge of Cordova over
the Guadalquiver remains to bear witness to their success. In
the eighteenth century, bridges were built in France by religious
societies as a work of benevolence. Travellers were often
robbed by banditti in crossing rivers. The'"Brethren of the




10
Bridge," as they were styled, built bridges, established ferries
and erected caravansaries on the banks of rivers to prevent such
outrages and facilitate travel. Queen Matilda, in the 13th
century, came near drowning in crossing the river Lea at Stratford, England.  She, thereupon, built a stone bridge over the
stream called c Le Bow," from the Latin " De Arcubus "
The bridge that spans the Rhone, at Avignon, was built by a
religious Society.  It was composed of eighteen arches, the
largest of which was measured by a chord of 110 feet. The
oldest bridge in England is the Gothic triangular bridge at
Croyland, in Linconshire, the county from which many of our
Puritan ancestors emigrated. It is said to have been built A.
D. 860. It is so steep that only foot passengers can cross it.
The longest bridge in England belonging to the dark ages is
that over the Trent at Burton, in Straffordshire. It was built
in the 12th century, of squared freestone. It has 34 arches
and is 1545 feet in length. The London bridge was commence
in 1176, and for many years sustained dwelling houses upon it,
like the solid earth. They were not removed till the 18th century. Till 1750, there was only one bridge across the Thames.
Two carts could not cross it abreast. For nearly a century
prior to that date, strenuousTefforts had been made to bridge the
Thames higher up. The Londoners were exclusive in their
claims. It would ruin the city they said, to have another place
for carts to cross the river. They succeeded in defeating the
charters of other bridges till 1750. No less than nine bridges
now span the Thames within a few miles from its mouth. The
new London bridge allows four vehicles abreast, besides side
walks for persons on foot. No less than 12,000 carriages and
60,000 pedestrians cross it daily.
The first attempt to use cast iron in bridge building, was at
Lyons, in France, in 1755. It did not succeed. An English
architect by the name of Pritchard, not long afterwards built a
cast-iron bridge over the Severn, of 100 feet span. The next
attempt was made by the famous Thomas Paine, " stay maker,
privateersman, exciseman, school-master, poet, politician, legis.
lator and arch infidel." He undertook to build an iron bridge




11
over the Schuylkill of 400 feet span. He had the castings
made in England, and the bridge was set up near London, on
Paddington Green. Paine was unable to meet his debts, and
it was sold and set up over the river Wear at Sunderland, in
1796. It is even now regarded as one of the boldest experiments in engineering ever executed. About the close of the
last century, an English stone mason by the name of Telford
became quite famous by the construction of cast iron arched
bridges over small streams in England. He proposed to rebuild the London Bridge with a single arch, of 600 feet chord,
but at that time the project was regarded as visionary, and
rejected. Now there are five bridges crossing the Thames
within the precincts of London. The longest cast iron arch in
England is in the Southwark bridge, being measured by a chord
of 240 feet. The most extensive stone arch known is over the
Dee at Chester, 200 feet across. In the early part of this century, suspension bridges supported by wrought iron chains came
into use. The most remarkable of these structures is hung
over an arm of the sea called the Menai Straits, between
Wales and the island of Anglesea. It was superintended by
Mr. Brown Telford, who had built so many roads and bridges
that his cotetnporaries styled him "'Pontifex maximus" and the
Colossus of Roads."
The piers are nearly 200 feet high, and the bridge swings
100 feet above the water. The weight thus hung in the air is
489 tons, a work infinitely more difficult of execution than the
rearing of Egyptian obelisks, or rolling up mighty blocks to lift
the pyramids so high as " to meet the sun in his coming."
Pendent bridges are often injured by oscillation. An inconsiderable weight sometimes snaps the chains by the vibration which
is communicated to them from the regular movement of the
progressing burden. A suspension bridge near Manchester was
broken down by the regular tread of 60 soldiers marching over
it. The longest bridge of this kind spans a valley in Switzerland. The space between the towers is 870 feet. The cables
are composed of fine wires, like the Atlantic cable, each containing 1056 threads bound by ligatures of the same material




12
every two feet. The suspension bridge over the Niagara river,
two miles below the falls, is perhaps as remarkable a structure
of the kind as this country affords. It cost about $400,000.
The English would have made the expense double that sum.
The span is 820 feet, and the bridge swings 250 feet above the
stream,
The cables are ten inches in diameter, composed of 3640
wires. Hitherto, it has answered the end for which it was built,
and proiises to be durable. The construction of railroads has
multiplied bridges indefinitely. Since 1825, more than 25,000
have been built in England alone. Iron is the principal material now used for such structures. " In England, the pig iron
produced in one year (1857) amounted to 3,636,377 tons,
which at an average of $20 per ton, would yield an income of,
at least, $72,500,000. In the first cast iron bridges the aoch
was used. Mr. George Stephenson first employed for small bridges
cast iron beams, then cast-iron arch girders with the lower web
larger than the upper, then tubular bridges made of boiler
plates riveted together. One of the most remarkable products
of human ingenuity is the bridge which crosses the valley be.
tween Newcastle and Gateshead. Newcastle occupies the sides
and summits of three acclivities which rise steeply from the
river Tyne. It is the great coal mart of England; hence it is
very important to enter it without climbing a hill.; The problem
of Mr. Stephenson was to throw a bridge across the deep ravine
in the bottom of which runs the river, a navigable river crowded
With vessels. The gorge is very deep, so that to one descend.
ing into it in the night it seems to be the very mouth of Tar-.
tarus. For centuries, the travel and traffic from the North and
South plunged down into this abyss, crossed this modem  Styx
on a bridge, and then climbed the other side into the upper air.
The sides of these hills ace covered with antique dwellings and
shops. The river at this point is 515 feet wide; the width of
the valley to be bridged above it 4000 feet, The bridge passes
far above the tops of the houses on the sides of the gorge and
of the ships in the river. The construction of the bridge re.
quired great skill and invention. A pier must be set up in the




13
middle of the river. Piles were driven to the depth of 32 feet
in the sand, Titanic steam hammers weighing thirty hundred
each, dealing sixty or seventy strokes in a minute, sent one of
these denuded trees to bed in about four minutes. The extricated heat was sometimes so great as to set the head of the
pile on fire. After the piles were all driven, it was very difficult
to build a coffer dam that would shut out the water. The surrounding pressure forced in the water through the quick sands
from the bottom, and no success was had till they rubbled and
cemented the coffer dam. It required no little lbor and skill
to make a concrete water-proof foundation on the bottom of a
deep river flowing over quick sand. More than 400,000 cubic
feet of material was used in constructing the piers alone, and a
much larger amount in the abutments on the land. The double
bridge above for the railroad and for passengers on foot and in
carriages, is made entirely of wrought and cast iron. It was
completed in 1849.  Such a work strikes the spectator with
awe and astonishment. It seems to surpass the finite powers of
man. It is certainly very far in advance of any thing ancient
artists ever conceived of or executed. Still greater skill and
ingenuity have been exhibited in other places in securing the
foundation for bridges, where sandsimud or bogs were to be
crossed. Iron has been used for this purpose, also. Dr. Pott
invented cast iron cylindrical piles open at the bottom and closed
at the top, except where a suction tube is inserted by which the
air or water forcing its way through the mud into the cylinder
is exhausted and the atmospheric pressure from above forces it
down. These tubular piles, like those in Artesian wells, may
be united and sunk to any depth which the situation requires.
Mr. Mitchell also invented screw pipes which are turned' like
an auger, and thus forced home till they meet some solid material torest upon. rBut where stones obstruct this boring process, the huge tubes have been used as diving bells, containing
workmen within them who sometimes work their way like worms
to the depth of 90 feet below the surface. These tubes are at
least seven feet in diameter, and fresh air is supplied from above
by a steam forcing pump. The mud, sand and stones dug up




14
from the bottom are passed up in buckets to a chamber above,
and then the orifice is closed by a wrought iron cover, which
can be securely bolted. From the chamber above the workmen
at the surface have the means of drawing up or letting down
whatever they please. So a solid foundation is constructed upon
shifting sands, yielding mud or porous rag stone.
Those theorists, who hold to the necessary decline of all nations, sometimes prophecy that ages hence, some philosopher
from New Zealand perhaps, may sit upon one of the mouldering
arches of London Bridge and muse, like Mariiis amid the ruins
of Carthage, upon the instability of national greatness. Suppose, then, that 3000 years hence, when a long night of barbarism has settled upon Albion's sea-girt isle,
"That precious stone set in the silver sea,"
some artificer in the progress of a new civilization, should find a
nest of these cast-iron piles, 50 feet below the surface of the
ground, which, perhaps, by geological changes, may then be the
body of a mountain instead of the bed of a river! How many
ingenious theories would be broached to account for the strange
discovery. Some opponents of science would doubtless pronounce
them mere lusus naturae, products of the divine hand, placed
there to try the faith of ai unbelieving generation! Others
would boldly assert that they were wrought by human skill;
and thus, an interminable war of words would be waged over
these dumb witnesses of a better age. The English author,
Speed, speaking of the fossil Ammonites of St. Hilda, in Yorkshire, calls them " certain stones fashioned like unto serpents,
folded and wrapped round like a wreath; even the very pastimes of nature, who, when she is wearied with serious workes,
sometimes forgeth and shapeth things by way of sport and recreation." Had the pyramids been swallowed up by an earthquake 2500 years ago, tnd disinterred by modern geologists,
we should doubtless find some antiquated thinkers who would
class them among Nature's sports.
I have previously described the suspension bridge which spans
the Menai Straits. This was built for ordinary travel. More
recently a tubular bridge of iron has been hung over this same




15
arm of the sea for the running of cars. It is called the Britannia bridge. It is 1513 feet in length. It was raised in four
divisions by the hydrostatic press, without human power except
to regulate the machinery; each section weighing with the appliances necessary to raise it 1800 tons. When the successive
sections were all united in one continuous tube, at an elevation
of 100 feet above the water, a train of cars drawn by three engines, laden with 300 tons of coal, attended by about 40 carriages containing six or seven hundred passengers, on the 5th
of March, 1850, passed through it in safety, having settled the
iron structure in the centre only four-tenths of an inch. Some
scientific engineers maintain that the roof of this bridge being
double, and the intervening space being divided into septs like
a honey-comb, is as strong as though it were made of solid iron.
Certainly no ordinary weight carried in the usual routine of
railroad business, has ever displaced or shattered a single plate
or bolt in the cellular tissue of this iron frame. How far superior is this as a work of art to any thing the ancients ever
dreamed or thought of. The " Victoria Bridge," across the
St. Lawrence, which is now building, is constructed after the
same model. It will be two miles in length. Its estimated cost
is $6,250,000. The iron tubes are to be supported by 24 piers.
The centre span is 330 feet; the others 242. The piers are
fifteen feet wide, except the two centre ones, which are eighteen.
These narrow structures of masonry are built to resist the flow
and crushing weight of all the ice of this mighty river, with all
the avalanches of ice that come rushing and tumbling from 2000
miles of the river and lakes above, at a speed often of ten miles
to the hour. When completed it will surpass in length, massive solidity, strength and durability, any other similar work in
the world. Though Americans boast their superiority in yachts
and reapers, horse-tamers and chess-layers, yet as bridgebuilders, the English have no peers. In the use of iron for
rails, bridges and steamers, they can safely challenge the competition of the world. If the Great Eastern is ever floated out
of the Thames, it will be the largest vessel that ever walked
the water of any ocean. It is larger than Noah's ark. It is




16
nearly an eighth of a mile in length. It is made of 30,000
plates of iron, united by 3,000,000 rivets, and weighs 12,000
tons. We expect a visit from it. Money alone is needed to
put the monster in motion, and drive it to our shores. The
English Engineers are peculiarly bold and persevering. The
tunnel under the Thames, the first railroad from Manchester to
Liverpool, the bridge over the Menai Straits, and the iron
steamer, the Great Eastern, were all carried forward against the
most powerful opposition and obstacles, both material and moral,
apparently insurmountable. The inspiration of genius makes
men bold, decided and enthusiastic. Men who conceive great
ideas are usually very persevering. Their plans master them.
A. great invention absorbs the whole attention, and the man talks
of nothing else. There is a letter in existence written by Marion de Lorme, in 1641. It describes her visit to the Bicfre,
the celebrated mad house of Paris. She says:-" We were
crossing the court, and I, more dead than alive with fright, kept
close to my companion's side, when a frightful face appeared
behind some immense bars, and a hoarse voice exclaimed,'I
am not mad, I am not mad!    I have made a discovery that
would enrich the country that adopted it.' What has he discovered? asked our guide -. Oh, answered the keeper, shrugging his shoulders, something trifling enough; you would never
guessit. It is the use of the steam of boiling water. His
name is Solomon de Caus; he came from Nornam dy four years
ago, to present to the king a statement of the wonderful effects
that might be produced from his invention. To listen to him,
you would imagine that with steam you could navigate ships,
move carriages; in fact, there is no end to the miracles which he
insists upon it could be performed." This man was so persistent in his appeals,, that the king's minister to be rid of him put
him in a mad house. -.ere he moaned out his weary plaint, "I
am not mad, I am not mad! I have made a discovery i" And
so he had; but the ignorant court could not appreciate it. He
published a book on the power of steam and its uses, which was
afterwards, embodied, to a considerable extent, in a work published by the Marquis of Worcester, entitled " The Century of




17
Inventions." But poor de Caus, who was more than a century
in advance of his age, lost his liberty in consequence of his
noble discoveries. So an ignorant world often treats its scientific benefactors.
The first surveyors of the railroad from Liverpool to' Manchester were mobbed by the owners of the soil; their instruments were broken and they were driven off by violence. * The
men who proposed the road were hated by the land owners as
much as if they had desigred to convert their fields into camps
for a standing army.' Some years later, when a bill to incorporate that road was before parliament, the engineer, Mr. George
Stephenson, was examined by acute lawyers before the commit.
tee of'Parliament, as if he had been a spy of France plotting
an invasion of the country. In the lower house, Sir Isaac Coffin
denounced the project as a most flagrant imposition. He would
not consent to see the widow's premises invaded. He asked in
the most dignified, senatorial manner: " how would any person
like t& have a railroad under his parlor window?  What, I
should like to know," said he, " is to be done with all those who
have advanced money in making and repairing turnpikes?
What with those who may still wish to travel in their own or
hired carriages, after the fashion of thMir forefathers? What is
to become of coach-makers, harness-makers, and coachmen, innkeepers, horse breeders and horse dealers? Is the House aware
of the smoke aftd noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive
engines, passing at a rte of eight or ten miles an hour occasion?
Neither the cattle plowing in the fields nor grazing in the meadows could behold them without dismay! Iron would rise in
price 100 per cent., or more probably, be exhausted altogeher!
It would be the greatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance
of quiet and comfort, in all parts 9f the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent!"  Such w4 the groans of conservatism. But the bill was obtained at an expense of $185,000,
and within one year after the road was built, land all along the
line was selling at almost fabulous prices; and the cattle plowed
and fed in quiet! The road was opened in 1830. The transit
which used to be made in coaches, in four hours, was made by
2




18
rail in half an hour, and the travel was tripled the first year.
The annual saving to the public in money, to say nothing of
time, was $1,250,000 a year. Lords Derby and Sefton, who
succeeded in forcing the road from their lands, afterwards patronised a rival road on condition it should pass through their
estates. Interest enlightens the blind.
When the bill for the erection of a suspension bridge over
the Danube at Buda-Pesth, was before the Diet of Hungary, in
1829, the nobles were shocked by the -proposition that they
should be taxed for such a purpose. The Judex Curise shed
tears on the occasion and declared solemnly, that he would
never pass that ill-fated bridge, from the erection of which he
should date the downfall of the Hungarian nobility. The bridge
was only partially finished in 1849, when the Hungarian rebellion broke out.  Still it was so covered that advancing and.
retreating armies crossed it. The Austrians endeavored to
blow it up. A ton and a half of powder was fired at once, but
the iron fabric stood firm. It was completed after the war and
is now pronounced by the Hungarians " the eighth wonder of
the world."  When the bridge, which I have Already described,
was built over the valley of the Tyne, the people of Gateshead
sorrowed over the innovation. One prominent citizen used to
exclaim as he heard the steam hammer driving down the piles:
" There goes another nail in the coffin of Gateshead." Some
people's religion is only a reverence for what is old and a hostil
ity to everything new. Mere change even for the better is disagreeable to most men. Opinions soon harden into prejudices;
and modes of action at first adopted by imitation or caprice soon
become fixed habits. Prejudices and habits form an invincible
coat of mail to the conservative. When Fulton was experimenting with steam on the water, he made trial of a new boat on the
Seine. It was not succ9sful. Capitalists and officials turned
upon him a cold shoulder at once; but he, like all men who
originate great plans, was importunate. He gained the ear of
Napoleon. He advocated with enthusiasm his project of navigating the ocean by steam. The emperor was weary of him
and said to the American ambassador, Mr. Livingstone:




19
" Debarrassez-moi de ce fou d' Americain;" rid me of this fool
of an American. It was easy to close the palace door against
the stranger, but it was impossible to stifle, by an imperial edict,
the stirrings of genius. The autocrat went down, but steam
went up and Fulton's fame rose with it.
Appended to Goldsmith's beautiful poem, " the Traveller,"
are a few pithy lines penned by Dr. Johnson. Among them are
the following:
" In every government though terror reign,
Though tyrant kings or tyrant laws restrain,
How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
This is sheer stoicism. To hearts panting for great deeds:
to brains teeming with new discoveries; to hands full of latent
enterprise, it is unspeakably fallacious. Tyrants and lays have
often arrested the march of improvement, stifled the voice of
freedom, crushed the defenders of liberty and extinguished hope
in brave hearts. Ignorant tyrants and unequal laws have often
stamped their age with immobility and moral death. Monopolies, privileges, titles and corporate trusts in perpetuity, have
been the agencies by which the hand of industry has been
crippled. Until the close of the last ~ession of the British Parliament, the largest portion of her immense colonial possessions
were governed by commercial corporations. The East India
Company was an imperium in imperio, wielding a power superior to that of any European monarchy. The larger part of
British North America, a country exceeding in size the territory
of the thirty-three United States, was governed by a corporation. Indeed this entire continent, so far as English influence
extends has been settled by chartered companies and by proprietors receiving their authority from the crown. That whole
system of carrying on commerce and c onization by corporations
and monopolies has been' forever abolished. In past ages, the
most important business of all nations has been transacted
through the agency of corporations.  Companies and guild,
special privileges secured by charters and grants, and exclusive
monopolies have proved to be the greatest obstacles, next to
royal prerogatives, to the progress of civil liberty. The institu



20
tions which were once useful and necessary, by corrupt administration of their power and funds, have become oppressive and
injurious.  The rotten boroughs of England which, till the partial reform of 1832,* hung like a millstone upon the neck of
freedom, and the rights of franchise, are still agitating the British empire from the Shetland Isles to Lizard Point, like the
throes of a political earthquake. Their days are numbered.
They will soon pass away and coming generations will wonder
that they ever existed. The chief office of the European legislator now is to undo the work of his predecessors and remove
old abuses sustained by law and use. This has been the oflce
of philanthropists and reformers since the days of Luther; and
the wars which have deluged that continent in blood for three
centuries, have arisen from  the hostility of corporations, privileged orders and titled imbeciles to the people's rights.  There
are some enterprises which cannot be conveniently carried on
by individuals. In such cases a union of capital and influence
is necessary; but even then, it is fast becoming the general conviction, that ordinary partnerships are preferable to chartered
corporations. The numerous frauds that have grown out of our
railroad and factory companies have made them objects of suspicion and aversion to a tajority of the honest yeomanry of the
country.  "Corporations," said Lord Coke, "cannot commit
trespass, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have
no souls." The public are beginning to think that they who
manage them either have no souls or inevitably lose them, when
they take office.
How far are Corporations responsible? This is a grave moral
question. The highest pecuniary interests of the public are
entrusted to them. A large portion of the wealth of the whole
community is invested in them.  Our temporal prosperity, in a
* "There are," said Mr. Bright, in his speech at Birmingham,-" in the
House of Commons, at present, 330 members, (more than half,) whose whole
number of constituents do not amount to more than 180,000; and there are, at
the same time, in Parliament, 24 members whose constituents are upwards of
200,000 in number; and while the constituents of the 330 members are assessed
to the property tax at ~15,000,000, the constituents of the 24 members are
assessed to the same tax at more than ~24,000,000.




21
high degree, depends on the fidelity of our public agents. Recently, the confidence reposed in corporation officials, has been
grossly betrayed. It is fast becoming the general opinion that
funds can not be safely invested in any institution.managed by
irresponsible directors.
Millions of money have already been lost by the management
of railroads. It seems probable, now, that most of the capital
stock of the roads, already constructed, will be a dead loss to
the owners. Many of the roads have been badly located to accommodate some ambitious president or favor some local interest.
Rival roads have been built by disaffected parties, and both the
old and the new investments have been rendered worthless.
Men have been induced to subscribe to the capital stock of new
roads by exaggerated accounts of the; freight and travel to be
accommodated, and by the delusive hope of a sudden rise of
land, in every village through which a road passes. These
promises have been disappointed. Then, the intriguing directors have advocated branch roads, to secure railroad facilities
for themselves or their friends, and these have proved a failure.
Companies have incurred large debts, and at the same time
large dividends have been declared and paid by bprrowedpnoney. This has been the policy of directors, till the roads they
managed lost credit and became bankrupt; then, the ingenious
device of " preferred stock" was invented, and capitalists were
induced to risk large sums from the hope of increased interest
with the best security. This plan preferred the new subscribers and deferred and robbed the old. It was wrong in its inception and oppressive in its operation. This project soon failed,
and bonds were issued pledging the capital stock of the holders
for the payment of them. Each annual report announces to
the stockholders an increase of income, but no dividends. The
floating debts, too, increase with an overflowing treasury. The
bond-holders find that they have been duped; they get no interest. The increased expenses of running the roads absorb all of
the income. They begin to inquire for a legal remedy. They
are gravely told that the law can not aid them. Railroads are
new institutions. The common law has no decision by which




22
their rights can be protected. They may seize the road, but
they can not run it; for they are not the corporation.  So the
mortgagees begin to doubt whether their lien upon the road is
of any value. Soon, they learn that great frauds have been
committed by confidential agents of their favorite roads. Fictitious stock has been issued. The law is again appealed to, but
the oracles of Themis " palter in a double sense."  There are
no precedents. The villain must go "unwhipt of justice,"
because of the deficiencies of the law. If a poor, starving
laborer steals a loaf of bread to satisfy his hunger, the law has
a fearful penalty for the offence. If a gentleman defrauds a
company of thousands, or even millions of dollars, and retires to
a private palace to enjoy the fruits of his robbery, the law has
no punishment for him. How strange that the highest crimes
can not be punished.  What a farce is our common law, if the
greatest villains can not be reached by it. The statute law is
our only remedy and that is only prospective. Bank officials
are beginning to copy the frauds of those of railroads. Almost
every week makes startling disclosures of robberies, committed
on a large scale; and, what is very remarkable, few of the offenders gre punished.
The same state of things, prevails in England. A recent
number of the Edinburgh Review reveals the monstrous abuses
which have been practiced upon the public by railroad agents,
contractors, lawyers, engineers, directors and menbers of parliment. These worthies seem to have been leagued together to
cheat the stockholders of their honest dues. More than 150
members of parliament are directly interested in railroad speculations, in sums varying from ~291,000 downwards to a single
share. The parliamentary expenses for securing charters have
varied from ~650 to ~3000 per mile! In one contest, ~57,
000 were spent among six counsellors and twenty solicitors.
The sums expended in legal and parliamentary intrigues, for
nine years past, have reached ~480,000, an average of ~53,000 per annum! Enormous prices have been paid for land
damages. In one case ~120,000 were paid for land said to be
worth only ~5000.




23
The frauds perpetrated by agents, lawyers, politicians and
officials are truly astounding. The light is just beginning to
shine upon the secret operations of men whom the public have
trusted and honored in this country. It is now a common saying among railroad stockholders, " I have no confidence in the
managers of these roads. Property is not safe in their hands.
I mean to sell every share I own and leave these rotten institutions to their fate." But is there no remedy f6r these abuses?
Must the business of the whole community be arrested because
honest men can not be found to manage public trusts? The
stockholders are generally so numerous that they can not meet
in person to investigate the proceedings of their agents. They
must trust somebody. If faithful servants can not be found,
society must be dissolved into its original elements, and no improvement can be made except by individuals. But we are not
yet reduced to this dilemma. Reform will do the work for us.
The men who have proved recreant to their trust must be removed, and honest men installed in their places. The laws must be
altered to meet the present wants of the public, and corporate
property may yet be safe.
In our country, stocks in turnpikes and bridges have been the
favorites of capitalists. They have:been ready to invest their
funds in them, because they have generally yielded liberal dividends. The public good is seldom considered by the proprietors. Their object is gain; and they care not at what expense
of money or inconvenience to others it is acquired. In the
early history of the country, our legislatures gave unlimited
powers to such corporations under the impression that they were
public benefactors, as, in many instances, they doubtless were.
In recent times, charters are rarely granted, in our State, without a reserved right to amend them if the public good requires
it. This is a democratic doctrine which has received much
abuse from conservatives, but time and experience have demonstrated its utility beyond a doubt. The public good should in all
cases, override all privileges and all merely legal claims of individuals. If the government can take my person and compel me to
fight for my country, a fortiori, it may take my property




24
for the common defence. The right of "eminent domain"
is essential to the existence of any government. It cannot defend itself without it. If the life and estate of an individual
may be rightfully taken for public uses, is the property of a
soulless corporation more sacred?  Can the creature of law
insult its creator and refuse submission to his reasonable requisitions? It is an axiom of our governments, both of the United
States and of each of the separate states, that " all power is
derived from the people." The legal voters are the sovereigns.
They can create and they destroy, when the greatest good of
the whole requires it. The highest Courts in the country are
guided by these principles. When the public cal imperatively
for improvements, chartered rights must yield. So the Supreme
Court of the United States has repeatedly decided; and we
have reason to believe that they will be guided by a regard for
the public welfare in all similar decisions for the future. The
constitution of the United States was established expressly " to
promote the general welfare;" and all its departments, legislative, executive and judicial, ought to be administered with a
strict regard to this fundamental principle of the organic law of
the land. When the country was sparsely settled and the tillers
of the soil were poor, it was considered sound policy by our legislatures to invite capitalists to build roads and bridges and take
toll of travellers for their remuneration. The exigencies of the
times called for such enactments. That day has now gone by.
The people have become wealthy; and, wherever the public
wish to travel, the property of the community ought to build
and support convenient bridges and highways. Toll-gates are
contrary to the genius of our free institutions and are only tolerated from necessity. Where men travel on foot or in their
own carriages, in a country as populous and wealthy as New
England, they should no more be taxed for the privilege than
they should be taxed for the sun and air. It is for the interest
of every man, whether he remains at home or scours the country, to aid in the construction of free roads and free bridges.
If he be a farmer or a mechanic, his produce or his manufactures must be carried over those roads, though he may never




25
pass out of the shadow of his own house or shop. Every community is a joint-stock  company.   That which benefits one
ultimately benefits all. The market man who brings his produce over a free bridge can sell it cheaper than he who pays toll.
The drover who drives his beeves and sheep over a free road
can afford to give a higher price for them than he who pays a
fee every twelve miles at a turnpike gate.  Corporations having
no souls seldom " feel for others' wo." Shylock, in their view,
was a model financier. They exact all that " was nominated
in the bond."
" I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To christian intercessors. Follow not;
I'll have no speaking; I'll have my bond."
History records only one instance in which a toll gate was opened without the proffered fee.  That occurred in the biography
of the celebrated Captain Gilpin. The poetic record stands thus:
" And still as fast as he drew near'Twas wonderful to view,
How in a trice the turnpike men
Their gates wide open threw."
But this generous act was done byi mistake as appears by the
veracious record which recites his unfortunate return on the
same track:
"And now the turnpike gates again
Flew open in short space;
The toll-men thinking as before
That Gilpin rode a race."
Like most officials, they expected a doceur in private. Disappointment even to such men, may be " blessings in disguise."
Corporations are usually fond of litigation. They are very sensitive to the least encroachment upon their legal rights. They
have a high respect for the law when it promotes their interest;
but when the lawyer's bull gores the farmer's ox, " that alters
the case."  Insurance companies are very rigid in exacting assessments, but very reluctant to pay losses. The general rule
has been to contest a claim where there is the slightest legal




26
ground to evade its payment; to enforce a claim where the defendant can be badgered into submission. The law seems more
terrible when it is backed by a wealthy corporation. The agents
of such august bodies seem to regard themselves as exempt from
the claims of the "higher law," so long as they can plead in
excuse for their oppressive acts, "the vote of the company."
Toll bridges and turnpikes like the guilds and corporate societies of mechanics, in the dark ages, have been useful in their
day, but like those fraternities, they are the offspring of ignorance, and poverty, anti social in their tendency and hostile to
the best interests of the masses. Their moral influence, in a
wealthy and intelligent community, is evil only and that continually. They lead to contention, promote quarrels and excite
litigation. They prevent trade and interrupt social intercourse.
Even the natural barriers of mountains and rivers, provoke hostilities between the dwellers upon opposite sides of them.' Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one."
" Rivals," says Dr. Trench, " in the primary sense of the word
are those who dwell on the [opposite] banks of the same stream."
A  toll-bridge brings them  io nearer together. A free bridge
would make their interests one, and prevent rivalship. The
villages of Norwich and Hanover would have been more wealthy,
populous and prosperous than they now are, if they had taxed
themselves, twenty-five years ago, to build and support a free
bridge across the Connecticut. In our own little community,
most articles of food command city prices. Local causes have
operated to enhance the market value of every kind of table
provisions. Emigration has taken the young and enterprising
farmers and mechanics from our own town, to our cities, manufacturing towns and to the West, hence the amount of produce
raised for consumption and sale, is much less than it formerly
was. Our supplies are now to a great extent, furnished from
Vermont. We can not procure them at home, if we would.
The railroad, on the opposite bank, like a net, takes most of the
surplus produce of the surrounding country to the cities below




27
us. Besides a convenient depot to arrest the market man, at
some seasons of the year, speculators, scour the adjacent country and buy at the doors of the farmers every animal, vegetable
and edible root which they can possibly spare. If we would have
our tables supplied, we must pay the Vermont farmer an extra
price for his time and his toll in bringing across the river that
which he could as well sell at his own door. A toll gate or
ferry, operates like an embargo on all inland trade. It repels
travel and traffic. It harms our friends and aids our rivals. It
lessens our patronage, cripples our prosperity and diminishes
our population. It is estimated that our village consumes 3000
cords of wood every year. About one half of this fuel is drawn
across the river. When the old bridge was in existence, it was
the doctrine of the corporation that it: was an infringement of
their legal rights to cross the river on the ice. Of course, not
only the wood brought from Vermont, but the ice taken from
the river for summer use, was required to pay toll. Thus the
price of the commonest necessaries of life was greatly enhanced. The property of the college and of the community around
it will be essentially promoted by a free bridge. There is an
eloquence in its strong timbers and unobstructed pathway, that
invites patronage and wins the market man and the traveller to
our village. The student whose limited purse yields not the required fee for extending his daily walk to the green hills of
Vermont, no longer wanders like a disconsolate ghost, without
his obolus on this side the river. Visitors who honor with their
presence, our anniversaries, will no longer pay a tax for setting
foot upon our soil';' and those periodical contests waged for more
than half a century, by inconsiderate youths with the Cerberus
that kept the gate, have received their final quietus. If any
event of our brief existence here should call forth our gratitude
to divine Providence, it is the abolition of old abuses and the
enlargement of our freedom. Liberty to go where we please,
is as dear as the right to think what we please. Freedom of
motion is as desirable as freedom of conscience; indeed it is
often more productive of peace and contentment. We are told,
in oriental story, of an industrious citizen who lived seventy




28
years within the walls of his native city without ever passing
through its gates into the adjacent country. The monarch of
that city heard of his domestic habits and wishing to try the
effect of a compulsory residence upon the aged man, forbade
by a decree, his leaving the city upon any occasion during the
rest of his life. This prohibition broke his spirit and he pined
away and died of grief at the loss of his freedom.
It is true the exaction of money, at a gate, does not operate
like an armed police to prevent our passage, still it exercises a
moral restraint almost as coercive. When we walk or drive,
we choose the road that is unobstructed and shun that which is
legally or illegally barred. The state of Vermont, has not a
single toll bridge within its limits. The words which Cowper
applied to fugitives from oppression, in England, apply to us:
"And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd."
Massachusetts, too, has made those expensive brdges which lead
into Boston free to all who come and go. The tendency of
public opinion is toward the abolition of tolls every where on
bridges and turnpikes. There is now one point on the Connecticut where travellers may cross the river without paying for the
privilege. A work of emancipation for this noble stream has
been commenced, successfully prosecuted and triumphantly completed through six miles of its length. The present generation
will see the entire four hundred miles of its channel liberated
from the odious incumbrance of corporate privileges which obstruct social progress and claim exemption from those laws which
govern individuals. It has been demonstrated, too, that a landing place can be found in Vermont for a bridge that is owned in
New Hampshire; that our neighbors not only do not oppose the
construction of a pier upon their soil, but their benevolence is
greater than our faith. They furnish the land and build the
abutment of their own choice. They take the lead in the enterprise. They begin the work and the bridge advances from their
side to ours. In fact, had it not been for the ingenious objectons of counsel, learned in the law, posterity would never lave
known the legal difficulties the petitioners had to encounter. It




29
cost the parties in litigation, at least, $1000 to demonstrate by
the successive decisions of three N. H. Courts,the legal possibility
of a free bridge across the Connecticut; and had it not been
for the prompt and beneficent action of the trustees of Dartmouth College in aid of the enterprise, another siege as long as
that of Troy might have been sustained by the Supreme Court
of the United States.  But no wily Calchas, "scelerumque
inventor Ulysses" could have forced their wooden horse within
that sacred citadel. His entrance was effectually barred by immemorial usage, by previous decisions and by constitutional
provisions. The bridge with all its interests is safe. It is open
and free. Let no Vandal hand be raised to deface this noble
structure or injure one fibre of its timbers. Palsied be the arm
that shall aid in its demolition and speechless be the tongue that
would plead for its disfranchisement. Long may it stand as a
monument of patriotic effort, of generous contributions, of liberal concession and successful compromises. All parties ought
to rejoice that pontroversy is ended, legal rights protected, the
public.welfare promoted and the seal of universal approbation
set upon the finished labors of the town.
At the close of the address, Prof.,Crosby said, that  Having
heard from the Historian, we would now like a Theological view
of the subject," and called upon Rev. Dr. Bournes, of Norwich
University, who spoke as follows:LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:- If I had any notion that a se t
speech were expected from me this day, I certainly should not
now present myself before you. I am not at all prepared to
make a formal address to you, but have been asked by a Committee to come here from Norwich to express the joy of our villagers, at the completion of the Bridge, and to assure the people
of Hanover that we most cordially sympathize with them in their
satisfaction at this happy event. We know that Roads —the
means of communication between nations, and villages, and men
-are highly valuable. They are the very bonds of affection
between neighbors. They bind them together by cords of love
and mutual regard - and bridges are emphatically the knots
that tie them together. We feel deeply thankful for the prospect that this may be so in the case of our two villages.




30
We will send you our good rock-maple, our beech and our
birch wood to warm you in winter. We will send sugar too, and
eggs and butter, and many other good things to the ladies of
Hanover, to help them to sustain creditably the load and agony
of their hospitalities at Commencement, and we feel sure we
shall be abundantly paid for these things.
But we hope for more than these merely material advantages
from this Free Bridge. We hope the two people will be better
acquainted with one another. We feel sure, too, that if we see
each other oftener we shall like one another better. The separation between two villages is oftentimes the greater as the distance between them is less. Hanover people and Norwich people know more of, and see more of the people of Boston than
they do of each other. We hope this may not be so in future.
No people, no man can live long alone, cut off from neighbors
without being the worse for it.
Little villages that are shut out from the rest of the world
become selfish and inordinately conceited. They cannot compare themselves with other people, and s6 it happens that they
learn to think far too much of themselves, and too meanly of
other people. They resemble in this respect a boy of whom I
once heard. I do not pretend to know his name very accurately, but I believe he was a near relative of the celebrated Mrs.
Partington. This boy thought his father's farm was the very
finest piece of land in all the world - he knew it was better than
any other place - any body could see it had the best location
in all the world, for just you stand in front of father's door and
look up and you would see it is right under the centre of Heaven. People of small villages have too much of this same temper in them. But roads and bridges dispel these delusions.
They may diminish somewhat individual satisfaction but they
greatly improve a society-make them more kind, liberal, and
social. We rejoice then most sincerely in the completion of this
Free Bridge.
I must say a few words in reference to one part of the admirable address we have just4ieard from the learned and eloquent gentleman who has preceded me. I should not wish to
stand forward as the advocate of old fogyism. We are by no
means the enemies of progress. But I think we should not forget that the old bridge in its day did good service. We cannot
join in any general condemnation of corporations, nor in any
general cry of execration against them as being always corrupt,
and in their very nature injurious to a country. We cannot deny that corporations and companies have oftentimes been selfish




31
and exacting. We cannot deny that they have too often held
back a community in their advancement to prosperity. But
withal this they have done good service. The country at large
is greatly indebted to companies and corporations. There is a
time - there is a certain stage of society in which corporations
are the very best things for them; we cannot get along without
them.'When a country is young and poor, and finds employment for
all its means and money in private works, it needs corporations
to execute public works. If, at this stage the rich men do not
combine themselves into corporations, and execute public works,
these works will not be done at all. The general interest suffers,
and the permanent improvement of the country is neglected.
The part of wisdom is to accept the services of these corporations when we want them; to give them thanks for the good
they do us, but to retain them no longer than is absolutely necessary; to use corporate bridges rather than have none, but to
build free ones as soon as possible.
And if corporations cling rather too tenaciously to their property, if they are disposed to sacrifice the public welfare in some
degree to their private profit, we must resist them and shake
them off. But when we have done this good work, when we are
clearly out of their hands, let us not cherish ill will against those
corporators, but offer them the right hand of fellowship, and invite
them to share with us in the common benefit we have achieved
for all. They may have been too koee for gain, but in these days
who can condemn his brother on a charge like this? who is fit
to throw the first stone at them? Let this bridge cover any
little chasm or rent that may have been made in our society by
a perhaps too eager assertion of personal rights, too prolonged a
defence of personal property; let it unite all in love. We are
so accustomed when we hear or speak of a new country to think
of Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, or some of those places in the far
West, that we forget the age of these towns we live in; we forget
that they are still really very young-very new places. Neither
of these villages or towns is yet ope hundred years old. I find it
stated in Thompson's History of Vermont, that in 1761,
THREE men came into the town of Norwich and went and pitched their tent on the margin of the Connecticut, and at that
time there were two men living in Hanover.
Surely when we take facts like these into account we should
not complain that corporations still exists amongst us, we should
rather rejoice that we have so soon began to free ourselves from
them.




32
We of Vermont do not yield to the men of Hanover iA our
sense of the benefit to be derived from a Free Bridge -nay,
more, we claim that we have from the very first been aware of
the value of it-from the first, too, we have looked forward
confidently to the time when a Free bridge would span this
beautiful River, and one, at least, of our citizens gave clear
proof of his admirable foresight in this particular, and also of
his determination to assist, at least to throw no impediment in
the way of accomplishing this good work. Doctor Lewis aliays
said there ought to be a Free Bridge between these towns - he
ought to have the credit of his wisdom and his desire to promote
the public welfare. When the corporation were about to raise
their first bridge, they applied to Dr. Lewis to buy the land on
the Vermont side for a landing, but he would not sell it. He
leased it for twenty years to them, on condition that he and his
family should always cross toll free. He never did sell the
landing place. He never would sell it.
This is now, I believe, the fourth bridge that has been erected
at this point. I trust it may long remain to join these Towns
in friendship and kindly neighborhood. We invite all Hanoverians to cross over and see us. We think we have greener hills
than you have. We think we have pleasanter roads and drives
than you have, We invite you to come and see them and enjoy
the benefits of them. We invite all ladies and gentlemen. We
are selfish in giving this invitation. We expect much pleasure
from the increased intercourse between these villages. We have
often derived great benefit already from your visits. The last
person who crossed the first bridge before its fall was a messenger for the Doctor-we hope we shall not often need the Doctor amongst us, but when we do, we shall hope to see him
speedily and shall make him welcome.
And those Wandering Ghosts of whom the learned gentlemen
has spoken, as flitting along these New Hampshire shores. If
there be any of them, of wasted forms, emaciated with abstinence, exhausted with application and study —tottering along
for relaxation and a little wholesome exercise, we invite them to
cross this Free Bridge, to come to our side, to refresh themselves, to renew their strength, to gain new vigor that they may
return and resume their labors, and be able to go forth healthy,
resolute, thoroughly furnished, complete in body and mind, to
do service for their country as scholars, men and citizens.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I must conclude as I began, by saying that Norwich deeply sympathizes with you on this happy
event. We most heartily join with you in thanking God that we




33
have been able without serious loss or accident to complete this.
Bridge.
At the conclusion of Dr. Bournes' speech, which was received
with much applause, the chairman remarked that the services of
the day would be deficient without a little Philosophy, and called
upon Prof. Patterson, who furnished it in the following happy
manner:LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: - I do not propose at this time,
to do so unwise a thing as to follow the able and eloquent address to which we have had the pleasure of listening, with any
extended remarks of mine. The best speech I can make, under the circumstances, is to say ditto to Mr. Burke.
I am glad however of this unexpected opportunity to congratulate my fellow citizens of both Norwich and Hanover,
upon the completion of our free bridge. The committee of the
town who have had the oversight and direction of this matter,
have ably discharged their duties, and the work is consummated.
There it stands, strong and free, stretching its long arms to
either shore of our beautiful river, and clasping in its firm embrace two sister states, as if impatient of their separation. In
its progress it has been a " Bridge of Sighs," but in its completion, it is a pledge of harmony and prosperity.
We may well believe that posterity will number our bridge
among the distinguished works of this age, for like the bridges
of Trajan and Caesar so celebrated in history, it has been built
in times of war, and like those noted structures, it will doubtless,
be greatly promotive of the arts of peace. It will not only ex.
tend the area of friendly social intercourse and good neighborhood, and add to the convenience and pleasure of every citizen,
but opening a free channel between the green and fertile hills of
Vermont, and the not less kind, but more exacting soil of our
Granite State, it must induce travel, quicken trade, create enterprise and add to the prosperity of every interest of society,
through an extended section of both States.
I would not limit my congratulations to the adjacent villages
and sister Institutions thus drawn into a more intimate relation, but would extend them to all of the citizens of the towns
in which they are located, for it opens two markets in place of
one, and though it may create competition, it will enlarge the.
sphere of business and enterprise, and thus give increased'value
to labor, personal property and real estate. Monopolies cam
8




34
rarely be- extensively and permanently useful or profitable.
But even if it were not so, no people ever lost anything, in the
long run, by an act of patriotic, generous public spirit.
A free and unobstructed passage across the river at this point
is demanded, not only for our present convenience, but for our
future prosperity as a community.
Only a few days since, in a conversation with some gentlemen
in Concord in relation to locating a court in this place, they started the objection, and it was their only objection, thattwe had no
bridge over the Connecticut. I had the extreme satisfaction of
being able to state to those gentlemen that we had a bridge, a
free bridge, a bridge " born and bred in courts" and having a
natural proclivity to Judges and Lawyers, and able to endure
any amount of good usage from the members of the bar, and I
extended to them a cordial invitation to come and locate among
us, if the anticipated change in the organization of the courts
should ever occur.
We have a just pride in having erected the first free bridge
over the Connecticut, but I venture to prophesy that it will be
the first of a series of free bridges and that we shall not long
enjoy our blessing alone. But there is another aspect to the
subject.  A bridge may be made a study as a work of art.
A modern bridge properly constructed is in some sort a history and illustration of science, and it is not a little singular
that the cultivated nations of antiquity were so slow in discovering and applying the principltes of science involved in such
structures. It is said thaa t Athens, even in the age in which
Pericles adorned the metropolis with those monuments of architectural genius, whose beauty and perfection of art have made
their ruins the wonder and the study of succeeding ages, there
was no bridge across the river which intercepted the most frequented thoroughfare of the city. But because ancient Athens
flourished in spite of her want of a bridge, I see no reason why
our little Athens should not be made to flourish with one.
True science is the Pontifex Maximus who works in all material and in all time, and is trammeled by no prescriptive rights or
slavish reverence to the past.
We have come together in no spirit of unkindness to exult
over that venerable bridge,
"That lay erewhile a holocaust
From out whose ashy womb,"
our nobler, freer structure, Phenix like has risen, but as citizens
to congratulate each other on the completion of a public work.




35
The day is auspicious, and whatever may have been our accidental relation to the enterprise hitherto, let all partake of the
spirit of these rejoicings. Here let all differences be'bridgeS,
and'so long as this work shall stand a monument of the enterprise and public spirit of the people, so long may it be made a
channel for the interchange of neighborly hospitalities and social friendship.
William H. Duncan, Esq., was now called upon by the President, to edify the audience with a legal view of the case in
hand. And that they were edified was evident from the attention given to and the applause that followed the subjoined
remarks:LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-When I was told that there was
to be a celebration, and that speeches were to be made on account of the completion-and upon the occasion of the acceptance, by the Town of Hanover-of the first Free Bridge over
Connecticut River, I could not help being reminded of one of
our most distinguishing national peculiarities, which is that of
speech making upon every conceivable occasion. I also could
not help thinking, that the man, who attempted a speech upon
such a subject, ought to possess the facility and the power which
some one attributed to the younger Pitt, to wit:-The ability
to speak a King's speech off-hand, upon the spur of the moment.
But we found the man, and the right man; too, for the occasion,
and what a flood of learning has he poured out upon the subject;
it is like one of the spring freshets of our own River, or rather
I should say we have had a White Mountain avalanche of literature upon all the famous bridges of either ancient or modern
times.
If the opening of a great line of Railroad —the completion
of a Canal-or the introduction of the Cochituate water into
Boston, or the Croton into New York, is thought worthy of
being celebrated by long processions, and still longer speeches,
by waving banners, and exultant music, all conspiring to form a
festal scene of spontaneous, universal joy and congratulationwhy should not we, in our quiet and beautiful village, in our
more quiet, and less ostentatious manner, celebrate an event
which contributes, relatively speaking, as much to our comfort
and welfare, as does the Railroad to a whFle community, or as
the introduction of a new supply of water to a great city.
But, Sir, this occasion carries me back, far back into the past.




36
I think of the contrast between this section of the country, as
it now is, as to its facilities for travel and transportation, and
what it was sixty or seventy years since, when a charter was
obtained for building a Toll Bridge over the Connecticut, between this place and Norwich. The charter was obtained about
1794. Previous to this time a large part of the heavy trade of
this part of the country was carried on with Hartford and New
York, by means of boats upon the river, and sloops and schooners upon the Sound. The roads between this place and Boston
were so poor, that Madam Smith, the wife of Professor Smith,
formerly of the College, was obliged to make her bridal tour
from Boston to this place horseback.
A large part of the capital for building the Bridge was furnished by the Merchants of Boston, not for the sake of making
a profitable investment, but with the intention of diverting the
trade of Northern Vermont from Hartford and New York to
Boston. The Higginsons, the Salisburys, the Phillipses were
among the stockholders,-names distinguished for mercantile
honor and probity, and which have been inherited, and worthily
worn by many of their descendents.
The building of this Bridge was the first link in that chain of
Internal Improvement, which has done so much towards developing the resources, and which has added so immensely to the
comfort and material prosperity of this section of the country.
The second link in this chain of Internal Improvement was
the construction of the Fausth New Hampshire Turnpike. A
charter was obtained in 1800 for making a road from a point on
the East bank of Connecticut River, in Lebanon, nearly opposite White River, to a point in the West bank of the Merrimack
River, either in the town of Salisbury or Boscawen, with a
branch road from the Easterly abutment of the White River
Falls Bridge, running south-easterly to intersect with the main
trunk. This has now become, I believe, a public highway.
The third link in this chain of improvement was the building
of the White River Falls Locks and Canals, which were chartered in 1807, and completed in 1810, at an expense of nearly
forty thousand dollars, —an enterprise set on foot and completed
by a single individual, then a young man, a little more than
thirty years of age. President Dwight, in his tour through
New England in 1803, speaking of overcoming the difficulties
in the navigation of Connecticut River at the White River Falls
says, " at present the quantity of business is insufficient to justify the expense necessary for this purpose." In 1812, speaking of this undertaking, he says, " my expectations have been




37
anticipated by a period of many years."  I would say of this
enterprise, that for nearly forty years, it was to its proprietor a
source of alnlost constant litigation, of excessive annoyance and
anxiety, and at the same time of most ample and satisfactory
returns.
It is now a little more than thirty years since the completion
of the Erie CaOal. Its great success roused all the men of enterprise, and led them to form projects for cutting canals wherever practicable or profitable. A plan was set on foot about
1828 for making a canal on the banks of the Connecticut, from
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal in Northampton, Massachusetts, to Barnet, Vermont, a distance of one hundred and sixtyfive miles, thereby furnishing water communication by means of
this Canal, the Hampshire and Hampden Canal, and the Farmington Canal, with New Haven, Connecticut, a distance of
two hundred and fifty-one miles. A great many of the men
of pith and mark, residing in or near the valley of the Connecticut from the Canadian line to Hartford and New Haven, in
Connecticut, in the several States of Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, were interested in this project.
The late Henry L. Ellsworth, then of Hartford, Connecticut,
was one of these men. He advocated this enterprise by speaking and writing most favorably in its behalf.
James Hillhouse, of New Haven, Connecticut, was another
of these men-a man of Herculean frame, with an intellect to
match-a man of character and itiuence not only in his own
State, but in the National Councils, crowning a long life of
political honors by serving as a Senator of the United States,
an office under our government second only to the Chief Magistracy of the Country. He was a politician-I beg pardon- a
statesman in those days when in order to hold high office, a man
must have been a man of refinement —of cultivation —a gentleman-he must have possessed not only political distinction,
but must have held also a high social position. I recollect well
seeing the venerable and distinguished gentleman, when on a
visit to our section of the country, manifesting all the ardor and
enthusiasm of youth in this great project.
Col. L. Baldwin, Civil Engineer of the United States, was
another of these men. Under his direction a corps of engineers, composed of young men, many of whom became distinguished in after life, among them a son of Governor Clinton,
made a reconnoisance of the valley, and if I recollect right the
line of the canal was staked out from the northern terminus of
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal to Barnet, Vermont.




38
DeWitt Clinton, then at the zenith of his power and hid fEme,
examined the country with aview to this undertaking from New
Haven, Connecticut, to Barnet, Vermont, giving to the project
his advice, his encouragement, and the results of.his most ample
experience.
At about the same time there was a rival project for improving the river, by deepening its channel and increasing the size
of its locks and canals, so that steamboats of a light draught
could pass from Hartford to the Fifteen Mile Falls.. RBut this
project was thrown into the shade by the contemplated canal.
Fortunately for the country, neither of these projects succeeded.
It would have been time, labor, and money thrown away.
Of the present railroad system I need not speak. Some of
you have pleasant, very pleasant associations connected with it,
and some of you have associations connected with it that are
neither pleasant nor profitable.
But what a contrast between to-day and sixty or seventy
years since. We are rushed along from Boston to this place
by rail in as many hours as it took good Madam Smith days to
make her bridal tour between the two places.
It is not yet three-fourths of a century since Col. Enoch
Hale built the first Bridge across Connecticut River. This was
at Bellows Falls. Dr. Dwight, in his " Travels through New,
England," says that " when Col. Hale first formed the design
of building this Bridge, its practicability Ivas generally denied,
and the undertaker was laughed at for seriously proposing so
romantic a project."  He built the bridge at an expense of
twenty-seven hundred dollars, and it ruined him.
Belknap, speaking of this bridge in 1792, says " it is the
only bridge across Connecticut River, but it is in contemplation
to erect one thirty-six miles above, at the Middle Bar of White
River Falls."
If the great and good Dr. Dwight, who was truly, while he
lived, the Jupiter Tonans of the New England Church, and in
Connecticut one of the Dii Majores in the State —a man of
whom you might, almost without exaggeration, say that when he
"Shook his ambrosial locks, and gave the nod,"
it was truly to the lay gentry, and the inferior clergy, I use the
term not invidiously,
"The stamp of Fate, the sanction of a God,"
if he thought it worth while to speak. of building the Bridge at
Bellows Falls-if the learned Belknap thought it not unworthy
of the historic pen to record the intention of building the White




39
River Falls Bridge-surely it will not be said of us that we are
here to-day exchanging congratulations upon the accomplishment of a trivial, or an unimportant event.
It is an old adage, that'" we should speak well of a bridge
that has carried us well over —of the Old Bridge let us all
say, " Peace to its ashes," and may all the ill-will, hard feeling and bad blood that may have been engendered by the late
contest be from this time, henceforth, and forever, with its ashes
in the deep waters of the river buried.
So much for the material aspect of this subject. I had
intended to say something of the historical associations connected with the places around the Bridge-something of Ledyard,
that world-renowned traveller.  Near the place where the
Bridge now stands, he felled, or stole the lofty pine which
he made into a' dug out," launched it upon the stream, and
clothed in a bear skin, his only companions an Ovid and a New
Testament, made that wondrous voyage down the river in this
primitive bark. But I fear that voice, time, and the patience
of my hearers would all fail me, and I forbear.
It only remains for me to perform a duty, which has been imposed upon me by the citizens of the place, a duty, at once,
pleasing and sad.
We have been informed, (addressing himself to the speaker of
the occasion) that it is your intention, to use a technical phrase,
to take up your connections with the College," and take to
yourself a new home upon the distant and opposite bank of the
"' Great Father of Waters."  Allow me to assure you that we
have all heard of this with feelings of regret, of great, and deep
regret. For a quarter of a century we have known and highly
appreciated your many excellent social and civil virtues.
As a man, as a citizen, as a magistrate, we have ever found
you " ready for every good word and work."  We can offer
you no higher or better wishes-and this we do from the depth
of our hearts-than that in your new and distant home your
health, your prosperity, your happiness, may be equal to your
unbounded energy, your unlimited versatility.
At the close of Mr. Duncan's speech, Dr. Crosby remarked
that the audience had now listened to History, Theology, Philosophy, and Law, and asked if a medical opinion was desired, to.
which interrogatory a decided affirmative was given. "I have
then," said he, "but a single remark to make of the old Bridge:
from the violence of its convulsions and the length of time it




40
was dying, it must haVe had a strong constitution."  The chairman further said:-" It is important that our Bridge should have
a name. Many years since, as Mr. Duncan has told us, John
Ledyard launched his self-wrought " dug-out," and took the
first step in that long series of journeys which ended in making
his name a household word wherever courage and perseverance
are valued as they should be. The tree that was shaped into
the canoe was cut a few rods north of the present Bridge. I
therefore move that our new structure be christened the " Ledyard Free Bridge."
The resolution was put, and resulted in an unanimous affirmative.
"' And as it is the custom when a prince is born, to announce
the fact by a salvo of artillery, I have the pleasure of informing
you that the christening will be ratified by a national salute,
fired by the young gentlemen connected with the Norwich Uni
versity, immediately after the close of these services."
The audience then listened to another fine voluntary, per
formed by the Handel Society, at the close of which the meeting
adjourned.