ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS BOSTON ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE JULY 4, i896 HON. JOHN F. .FITZGERALD [DOCUMENT 50 1896] BOSTON PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL 1897 0f IN BOAKD OF ALDERMEN, July 6, 1896. Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be, and hereby are, extended to the Hon. JOHN F. FITZGERALD for the eloquent and patriotic oration delivered by him on the Fourth of July, in commemoration of the One Hun- dred and Twentieth Anniversary of American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the said address and his portrait, for publication. Adopted unanimously by a rising vote. Sent down for concurrence. JOHN H. LEE, Chairman. IN COMMON COUNCIL, July 9, 1896. Concurred unanimously. JOSEPH A. CONRY, President. Approved July 13, 1896. JOSIAH QUINCY, Mayor. A true copy. Attest : JOHN M. GALVIN, City Clerk. ORATION. MR. MAYOR AND FELLOW CITIZENS: Faneuil Hall is to-day the witness of the city's tribute to the immortal scroll which proclaimed the independ- ence of the thirteen colonies and changed the reign of kings and queens for the rule of the common people. Where else in this broad land is more hallowed ground ? Where else on this continent, more than in this hall, can the pilgrim, weary and heart- sore, cease his tire- some journey and gather anew the lost fires of patriotic zeal? No place in the United States is richer in his- toric association and surroundings, and no spot should be held in deeper reverence than the Cradle of Liberty, within whose walls was first whispered the irrevocable word, "Independence." Last year, through the medium of two large conven- tions, Boston was the Mecca of thousands of visitors from all parts of the country nay, I might say from all parts of the world. The gates of the city were thrown wide open, our latchstrings were unstrung, and boundless hospitality was lavished on our visit- ing friends on every hand. Both the State and the city vied in their efforts to make the occasion a memo- rable one, and each citizen, in his own humble way, extended the right hand of fellowship to the noble band 6 ORATION. of Christian workers who gathered here in July, and again in the following month to the gallant array of Knights Templar. We all felt proud that our grand old city had been thus honored, and from public buildings and private residences alike the stars and stripes, Old Glory waved in the breeze in glad welcome to the countless throng. Every one here who was in the city at that time saw them by the thousand, walking through our busy streets, taking possession completely of our narrow side- walks, driving us good-naturedly to the pavement, and you can all bear witness to the happiness depicted on their faces that they were privileged to walk through the historic streets of Boston town. Reverentially and with bared heads they visited the graves of the illustrious dead in the King's Chapel and Granary burying-ground, thrown open, I believe, for the first time in years, and traced on their copy books the inscriptions from the headstones. As they gazed about in silence and wonder on the graves of these old revolutionary heroes, they might well have exclaimed, in the beautiful lines of Thomas Bailey Aldrich "Rich is the land, O death, that gives you dead like our dead." They crowded the Old South Church and the Old State House, both abounding in relics of revolutionary days, and went down into the old North end and gazed with wonder and with bated breath upon the tower from whose steeple swung the lantern of Paul Revere FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 7 on the 18th of April, 1775. They went over to Charlestown and stood under the shadow of the tall granite shaft of Bunker Hill, and breathed fresh inspi- ration on the ground where Warren fell. There was, however, one place dearer to them than all the rest ; one spot more holy and inspiring, old Faneuil Hall, within whose sacred precincts we are assembled to- day. They had read in their history that Faneuil Hall played a more important role during the Revolution than any other spot in the land, and they were anxious to pay homage to the grand old structure. Massachu- setts was the ring-leading colony, and as Massachusetts led the thirteen colonies, so the town of Boston led Massachusetts, and Boston always spoke from Faneuil Hall. It may justly be said of the town meetings held in this hall, "Sentire quae volunt et quae sentiunt dicere licet." They think as they please and speak as they think. Those were the sentiments that guided the town in mass meetings assembled, where every man gave free expression to his views, and the ideas there proclaimed were afterward incorporated in the Declaration of Inde- pendence. An English writer of that same period, speaking of the town meetings in Faneuil Hall, said : " The town meeting at Boston is the hot-bed of sedi- tion. It is there that all their dangerous insinuations are engendered; it is there that the flame of discord and rebellion was first lighted up and disseminated over the provinces ; it is therefore greatly to be wished that 8 ORATION. Parliament may rescue the loyal inhabitants of that town and province from the merciless hand of an igno- rant mob, led on and inflamed by self-interested and profligate men." Here in town meeting, Otis thundered from out his stormy soul and roused the hearts of his hearers to resistance with his impetuous eloquence, breathing into this nation, as it were, the breath of life, and first giv- ing to the world the grand axiom that taxation without representation was tyranny. James Otis was the head and front of the opposition to the arbitrary writs of as- sistance, and time and time again in this old hall did he lend all the eloquence at his command in opposition to these measures. John Adams in speaking of him said : " Otis was a flame of fire. With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid sum- mary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity and a torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away everything before him. Every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain." Here, also, within these walls rang out alike a clarion note in advocacy of armed resistance the voice of John Hancock, who afterward, though proscribed and threatened with death, affixed his signature to the FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 9 Declaration of Independence; of Josiah Quincy, the illustrious kinsman of our present mayor; of Paul Revere and of Joseph Warren. One man, however, greater than all the rest, has his name inseparably con- nected with the scenes that transpired in this hall in the revolutionary days. His was the master-hand among the patriots, the Palinurus, the morning-star, the father of the revolution. He it was who animated, enlightened, fortified and roused the admiring throng. "He was," as John Adams so well said, "born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitae that tied America to England." Such a man was Sam Adams. The zeal and devotion of this great soul was some- thing tremendous. If not in the town meeting, then through the medium of the newspaper he would un- bosom his patriotic spirit, and it was a common occur- rence to see him haranguing his fellow-townsmen, sitting side by side with some ship carpenter on a block of oak, just above the tide, or with a shopkeeper in a fence corner, sheltered from the wind. His case is without parallel as an example of devotion to the public weal. The pittance he received as a public servant hardly supplied him with food, and he was dependent on the kindly aid of friends to furnish him with proper clothing, and yet, according to the testimony of his bit- terest opponents, he was absolutely incorruptible. He was essentially a man of the people, and his daily associates were mechanics and laborers. His compara- 10 ORATION. tive poverty, his plainness of manner and dress, his utter disregard for ceremony and display, made him the idol of the masses. He was an ardent advocate of short terms of office, and felt that power must ever return speedily to the people who gave it, so that the representatives might recognize the fact that they were the creatures, not the masters, of their constituents. He towered in majesty and in influence above all his associates. " I am the State," said Louis XIV., but his line ended in the grave of absolutism. " Forty cent- uries look down upon you," was the address of Napoleon to his army in the shadow of the pyramids ; yet his soldiers saw the dream of eastern empire vanish in blood. But Adams, pouring into the ear of every citi- zen his burning words, "Resistance to oppression and tyranny," stated the keynote of representative obliga- tion, and propounded the fundamental principle of constitutional government. With a wisdom inspired of the Almighty, he began in this hall by blending, yet preserving, local self-gov- ernment with national authority, and the rights of the State with the majesty of the republic. The appeals of Demosthenes to the Athenian democracy, the fierce in- vective of Cicero against the wickedness of Catiline, the tremendous outburst of Mirabeau during the French Revolution, the pleadings of Chatham in the British Par- liament, yielded feeble results compared with the tremendous consequences of the utterance of Sam Adams hi town meeting here. FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 11 I do not think I go beyond the bounds of truth when I say that without Sam Adams and the town meeting independence would never have been thought of, and the union of the thirteen states would have been an impossibility. John Fiske, our eminent historian, in speaking of this remarkable person said : " A man whom Plutarch, if he had only lived late enough, would have delighted to include in his gallery of worthies ; a man who, in the history of the American revolution, is second only to Washington." Is it to be wondered at, then, that our visitors of last year crowded this sacred edifice and stood enthralled within its mighty presence? Can we afford to be less appreciative than they ? It is the sum of all experience and teaching that human thoughts and actions are more or less influenced by environment. Sacred and historic spots are bound to kindle anew patriotic fire and devotion. It is impossible for any American to visit this hall and not go away a better citizen and firmer patriot. Therefore, I think it is a wise and happy thought that brings us together to-day in this old hall, in town meeting, as it were, to cele- brate the nation's birthday and pledge anew our loyalty to her institutions and her laws. One week ago I wandered down into this old hall to gaze on the paintings of Massachusetts' illustrious sons, and to commune for a while in their majestic presence. It so happened on my journey hither that my eye was gladdened by the sight of hundreds of school children 12 ORATION. on their way to the school festival in Mechanics Hall. A great many of them I knew by name, coming as they did from my own part of the city, and I noted in the happy throng the child of the American, of the Irish- man, of the Jew, of the Italian and of the Swede. Marking the varied race characteristics, I was led to ask myself, Which of these belong to the "beaten races," the phrase so often used nowadays by those op- posed to immigration. Surely none of these seemed beaten ; all was energy and hope and joy, typical of our young nation's future. I made up my mind, uncertain until that moment, that I could not do my country a better service than to devote part of my time to-day to answering some of the statements that have been so frequently made of late against the foreigner and his descendants. A further incentive to this line of thought was given me when I, a few short moments afterwards, entered this hall and gazed on the noble face of our martyred President Lincoln, who, in the fulness of his mighty heart, feared not to admit to equal rights and privileges 4,000,000 of that long crushed, but undying, negro race. I thought of the words of the Declaration of In- dependence, "that all men are created free and equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalien- able rights, among which is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and as these words flitted through my mind my eye wandered along the wall until arrested by the painting of one of God's noblemen, Wendell Phillips. FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 13 I could see him standing upon this platform, in the face of an angry mob, a young man, unknown to fame, with Boston's best blood coursing through his veins, and the best culture of Harvard in his brain, with a tongue set aflame by just indignation, replying to the attorney-general of the Commonwealth, who was speak- ing in defence of the murder of Love joy, and I heard these remarkable words fall from his lips : " Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down princi- ples which place the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips would have broken into voice, to rebuke the recreant American the slanderer of the dead." Following to the end this remarkable utterance I find it closing with these burning words : " When liberty was in danger, Faneuil Hall had the right, and it was her duty, to strike the keynote for the Union." What nobler thought then, to-day, than to defend the down-trodden and oppressed of every land in Faneuil Hall. They have come here from every clime, the strong, the vigorous and the healthful, willing toilers, to carve with their own hand and to mould in their own fashion the way to fortune and to favor in this the land of their adoption. They no sooner land upon our shores than they respond in every way to the grand vital principles and requirements of the nation, and readily assimilate themselves to all that is good and patriotic among our citizens. 14 OEATION. It would not have been possible, without the assist- ance of the honest and hard-working laborer from the old country, to construct the thousand of miles of rail- road that annihilate distance in this country today, and bring the remotest parts of the nation in close communication with each other. The traffic and com- merce developed by these roads could not have sprung up, and the magnificent cities and villages that now adorn our western frontier would never have had an existence. An agitation of similar character to the present one sprung up about the year 1850, directed at that time against the Irish, as the present agitation is directed against the Italian, the Austrian, and the Jew. Since that period more than 13,000,000 of people have landed upon our shores, and the progress of the nation during that period has been marvellous. The history of the country during the past half-century furnishes statistics more eloquent than words of the great value immigration has been to this land. Wages were higher, the mechanic and laboring man had more steady employment, and happiness and prosperity was universal throughout the country. During these years if the increase of population depended upon the surplus of persons born and growing to manhood's estate over those dying, our population, instead of being 70,000,000, would have been nearer 40,000,000. The increase of our population is a blessing rather than a menace, and every other nation on the face of the FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 15 globe encourages rather than retards this movement to- day. It is a source of great joy and pleasure to Ger- many that her population has increased within the last five years from 49,000,000 to 52,000,000, and France, in order to increase her numbers, has put a premium on fecundity by granting an exemption from taxation to fathers who have a certain number of children. We have all been witnesses of the great rivalry between the cities of New York and Chicago in regard to population, and we know of the great joy among the inhabitants of these cities when the increase was large and whole- some. In the West and South to-day, there are more than 700,000,000 acres of unoccupied land. Dividing this territory into 150 acres a piece, we have 4,375,000 homesteads. If occupied, and allowing five to a family, we would have nearly 25,000,000 more mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. What a tremendous increase in the consumption of groceries, of farming implements, of manufactured goods of every description, and what tremendous prosperity would prevail in every part of our land. Every loom in every cotton and woollen mill in the East would be set in motion, and every factory and every workshop would thrive with the hum of re- newed industry. The test proposed at the present time forbids the coming into the country of all persons between the ages of fourteen and sixty who are unable to read and write in their own or the English language. In the figures 16 ORATION. prepared by the immigration league, showing the per- centage of illiterates that land upon our shores, the Portuguese have the largest number, 67.35 per cent being unable to read and write. Nothing could have proven to my mind the utter fallaciousness of this test more than these figures. I have been in a position all my life to note the racial characteristics of the Portu- guese, and I cheerfully testify to their worth and value as American citizens. There is no class of people in our country more sober, more hard-working, more honest and more industrious than the Portuguese, and the United States is better off to-day because of the thou- sands of that race who have made this country their home. The existing law prohibiting all idiots, insane per- sons, paupers or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suffering from loathsome or dangerous diseases, persons who have been convicted of felony or other in- famous crime, a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, or any person whose ticket or passage is paid by the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, if properly enforced, seems to me sufficiently strong. Where would this country be to-day if immigration laws were in force at the time John Ericsson and the mother of Phil Sheridan came to this country ? The test proposed under the new law is the same as is now required by the laws of Massachusetts for all voters, the reading and writing of five lines of the con- stitution of the United States, except that the immi- FOUKTH OF JULY, 1896. 17 grant can read or write these lines in his own language, and I think the Board of Election Commissioners who are now engaged in the work of registering all voters in the city of Boston could give ample evidence from, their experience that there are hundreds of good men in Boston to-day unable to read and to write properly five lines of the constitution of the United States. What will be the result if the test of illiteracy is put into force? The strong, willing laborer who is unlet- tered and untaught, whose strong and sturdy right arm and honest heart we are in need of will be driven back, and in his place will come the immigrant with too much education, the Communist, the Socialist, the Anarchist, who labor with their tongues and disseminate strife and discord and discontent among the laboring men. The commissioner of immigration in his report says : " We know of no immigrant landed within a year who is now a burden upon any public or private institution. The class of immigrants have been of a good, healthy and hardy character, well qualified to earn a livelihood wherever their services were required. They comprised both skilled and unskilled laborers." The report also says : " The money we know they actually brought with them amounted to $4,126,723, but, as the immigrant is only required to satisfy the in- spector as to the amount when under $30, I think it is safe to say that the amount of money brought into this country last year amounted to many millions more. This amount, while small in comparison with the 18 ORATION. magnificent wealth of this country, yet, taken in con- nection with the zeal and enthusiastic labor of the immigrant that has changed the face of this continent within the last half century, turning deserts into green fields and forests into thriving towns and villages, has contributed more to the sum of human happiness in this country than the millions of the bonanza kings wrung from the hard earnings of the American people, and sent across the water to support a paupered no- bility to live lives of luxurious ease in London and on the continent. Legislation is more necessary to my mind to prevent the outflow of American millions for pampered foreign aristocracy than for the stoppage of pure, honest and wholesome immigration. Those who object to immigration cannot do so on the ground that the country is not large enough, for the census of 1890 shows : COUNTRIES. Square Miles. Inhabitants. Inhabitants per Square Mile. United States 3 602,990 62 622,256 17 Europe 3,555,000 380,200,000 107 Germany 211,108 49,421,064 235 11,373 6,060,043 530 If the United States was populated to-day as densely as Belgium, one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, we could support 1,500,000,000 people, or 100,000,000 more people than are contained in the FOUETH OF JULY, 1896. 19 whole earth to-day, and yet, with a ratio at the most of twenty inhabitants to the square mile, against over five hundred for some of the most prosperous nations of Europe, we are seriously thinking of closing our gates to honest and remunerative labor. Mr. Gompers, one of the recognized heads of labor in this country, speaking of the immigration question, said : " While, in my opinion, it may be necessary to restrict immigration in some form, American working- men are reluctant to impose any restraint upon the natural right of a man to choose his own place of abode." And President Eliot of Harvard, speaking on the same subject, said : "I believe every healthy and honest man or child brought into this country to be an altogether desirable addition to the resources of the United States. Consequently, I think that immigra- tion should not be restricted, except by rules intended to keep out paupers, criminals, and persons with incu- rable or dangerous diseases. More laborers, skilled and unskilled, are just what this half -unoccupied continent wants." To show how the labor of this country has been bene- fited during the years of our greatest immigration, I wish to adduce some figures taken from the Senate re- port of 1893, on prices, transportation and wages. The table of wages in leading occupations is given, every tenth year for some time before the war, in comparison with the wages paid a quarter of a century later : 20 ORATION. Occupation (per diem). 1840. 1850. 1860. 1890. Plasterers $1 50 $1 75 $1 75 $3 50 1 50 1 50 1 50 3 00 Blacksmiths' helpers 83| 83-J- 83| 1 75 Painters 1 25 1 25 1 25 2 50 Wheelwrights 1 25 1 25 1 25 2 50 Carpenters ....... 1 29 1 41 1 52 1 94 Engineers 2 00 2 25 3 00 4 25 Firemen 1 25 1 37 1 44 1 65 Laborers 81 1 04 99 1 25 Machinists 1 45 1 55 1 76 2 19 Watchmen 1 10 1 00 1 00 1 55 Eailroads (per diem). 1840. 1850. 1860. 1890. Baggagemen $1 53 $1 53 $1 91 2 11 Brakemen (freight) 1 00 1 00 1 16 1 85 Brakemen (passenger) 1 15 1 15 1 25 2 00 Carpenters 1 22 1 33 1 30 2 00 Conductors (freight) 1 66 1 68 1 61 2 57 Conductors (passenger) Engineers (locomotive ) Firemen ( locomotive ) 2 11 2 14 1 06 2 30 2 15 1 15 3 19 2 30 2 00 3 84 3 79 2 00 Foremen, masons 2 50 2 50 2 50 4 10 Painters 1 50 1 43 1 32 2 17 Average 87.7 92.7 100 168.6 FOUKTH OF JULY, 1896. 21 It is fashionable to-day to cry out against the immi- gration of the Hungarian, the Italian and the Jew, but I think that the man who comes to this country for the first time, to a strange land, without friends and without employment, is born of the stuff that is bound to make good citizens. I have stood on the docks in East Boston and watched the newly-arrived immigrant gaze for the first time on this free land of ours. I have seen the little ones huddle around the father and the mother, and look with amazement on their new surroundings. The family were in a new country ; they had forsaken the pleasures and memories of their native land, and had left behind them home and friends, to earn a livelihood in this great empire of the West. What hardships and what struggles awaited them, God only knew, but I said in my heart on many an occasion, " May the Almighty guide them to their new homes and bless them with prosperity and happiness in this land of plenty." Niagara Falls has been the wonder and amazement of the entire world during the past century. Its tremendous force and power have been a marvel for years, and how best to use its terrific possibilities was unanswered until a short time ago, when the genius of a Hungarian immigrant, Nicola Tesla, gave the secret to the world, thereby proclaiming to the universe that the Huns, in former days one of the most powerful nations on the globe, were in the front rank in intelli- gence, industry and civilization. Columbus, the great Italian navigator, the grand dis- coverer of America's shore, is too closely woven with 22 ORATION. our history to have us suppose for a moment that any of his kin, honest and industrious, should be driven beyond our gates. Italy has always had a tender spot in the heart of every true American, and even to-day the education of our scholars in painting, sculpture, lit- erature and the arts is incomplete without a visit to that glorious clime. It does not seem possible that the blood that flowed through a Virgil, a Dante, a Michael Angelo, a Raphael, a Cavour on the Italian side, or the blood that coursed the veins of a Disraeli, of a Montefiore, of a Spinoza, of a Mendelssohn and Rubenstein on the Jewish side, can in any way contaminate ours ; on the contrary, the blending will develop the type of American manhood which is to-day the admiration of the civilized world. In the great crisis that confronts us to-day, the great- est since the civil war, the attempt to paralyze business, stifle industry and sacrifice the national honor by the creation of a dishonest dollar, the ignorant foreigner stands like a wall of adamant, in the cause of honest finance. As in the great contest over slavery, where they stood solidly in support of the policy of President Lincoln, they are now united, almost in solid phalanx, in maintaining and preserving the credit of the country. The thought that any large element of the population of the country is willing to-day to promote a private interest at the expense of the financial peace and busi- ness prosperity of this country, and bring untold ruin on every industry and into every home in our land, is FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 23 appalling; yet this is precisely the condition of mind into which a large section of our country in the South and West has drifted. Last year there were held in the savings banks in Massachusetts $439,269,861.1 5,represented by 1,302,479 accounts, or an average of $337.25 to each person. More than half the entire population of the State, including men, women and children, are represented by accounts in these institutions, a pretty good record in a State where nearly sixty per cent of the people are either foreign born or of foreign parentage, and it seems absurd to suppose that any system of finance could be proposed seriously which would diminish the purchasing power of the money one-half. These de- posits represent the savings of years of toil and labor, the only reserve in case of accident or sickness earned on the basis of a dollar calling for one hundred cents in any part of the world. However, the people can always be trusted in times of peril, and I have con- fidence that when the issue is fought, the sound, sober sense of right and justice will prevail, and the credit and honor of the American people be maintained. We are celebrating to-day the anniversary of a strug- gle which was participated in by men of many races. If we examine the genealogy of the patriots of the early days we will find evidences which prove that the blood of all nations contributed to the building up of this great nation. Washington sprang from English stock, the Adamses from Welsh, Paul Jones and Patrick 24 ORATION. Henry from the Scotch, General Sullivan, Commodore Jack Barry and Charles Carroll from the Irish, Paul Revere, Lafayette and John Jay from the French, Steu- ben from the German, Kosciusko and Pulaski from the Polish, General Van Rensselaer from the Dutch. It has seemed to me, therefore, that this was a fitting occasion upon which to reiterate and defend the cherished principle, established in and through that struggle, that not birthplace, not origin, but civic virtue and obedience to the laws alone shall determine the standing of citi- zens in this country. I do not stand for a ruinous and blind hospitality ; but I do insist that before distinctions are drawn, the inevitable effect of which is to stigmatize one class and exalt another, the logical supports upon which these distinctions are founded shall be free from gross and demonstrable error. I do protest against this latter-day attempt to set people against people and to preserve those frontier lines of European nationality which, if left to the action of natural forces, will slowly but surely oblit- erate themselves here. In the early struggles the Pu- ritan in New England, the Catholic in Maryland, the Dutchman in New York and the Huguenots in South Carolina all joined in contributing to the magnificent result. Driven as they were from foreign lands, they had endured every kind of persecution, and on many a bloody battlefield had learned to imperil their lives in the cause of human rights. The principles of free govern- ment and the liberty of conscience had been impressed FOUKTH OF JULY, 1896. 25 upon each of these classes in the different lands they had fled from, and when these same ideas were attacked by the English crown they united in the defence of a common principle. Let it not be said then of our generation that it has proved recreant to this heritage of noble sentiment. Let it not be said of us that petty apprehensions of remote peril have persuaded us hastily to break with a tradition supported by one hundred and twenty years of trial. Let it not be said that we have by a crusade of disguised proscription narrowed and perverted the meaning of Independence Day. Rather let it be said that, beset by grave trials, as all must admit we are, we resisted the temptation, however plausibly advanced, to forego a received principle of our government, pre- ferring at whatever cost of temporary embarrassment that our flag should still wave over a nation which has been so long "the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the refuge of the oppressed." Very apt do the beautiful lines of Lowell seem to me here : Though taught, by fate to know Jehovah's plan That only manhood ever makes a man, And where free latchstring never was drawn in Against the poorest of Adam's kin. I have laid before you in general lines, my fellow- citizens, the magnificent services rendered in the devel- opment, of this nation by that section of her citizens, now fully twenty-five million strong, who are agitated 26 ORATIOX. against and stigmatized in certain quarters, under the comprehensive description, foreigners. I have shown you that if a balance of mutual obligations were struck, we, and not they, are the debtors. It remains for me to point out and repeat in the summary man- ner which my limitations of time impose, the specific charges, supported by tables of specious statistics, which are brought against them. Briefly, then, it is alleged that the foreigner has proved himself undesirable because he is exceptionally criminal, because he furnishes a disproportionate num- ber of paupers and lunatics, because he is responsible for political corruption in large cities, and because his personal habits and standard of living are comparatively low. The charge of pauperism and that of degradation of habits, which is its necessary consequence and concom- itant, is ungenerous, unrepublican and un-American. How long since in this country has it been a legitimate reproach to any man that he is poor? And who, I would ask, bears the heavier responsibility for the squalor and misery which darken the crowded sections of our large cities the foreign occupant or the native landlord of those blots upon civilization, the tenement houses ? The percentages of lunacy and crime among the foreign-born are, it is true, apparently high. But this excess is only apparent, for both lunacy and crime are strictly manifestations of adult life, so that a population, composed largely of adults, like our foreign-born popu- FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 27 lation, is, so to speak, arithmetically selected to show a high artificial proportion of lunatics and criminals. As to the vague charge of political laxity, I will con- tent myself with saying that recent disclosures in regard to our county affairs and the subserviency to corporate influence of a Senate, assuredly not foreign in its mem- bership, in the matter of free transfers for the people of Boston are sufficient to offset whatever little of con- crete evidence the assailant of the foreigner has conde- scended to offer on this score. The city of Boston only a few days ago dedicated a magnificent memorial to the noble immigrant, poet and patriot, John Boyle O'Reilly. It stands in one of our beautiful public squares, and is an ornament and mas- terpiece of its kind. It not only commemorates the virtue of a great soul, but also emphasizes the fact that our so-called foreign citizens are equally interested in adorning our city with the most beautiful creations of art and sculpture. It serves as another instance of the broad Americanism of all classes. This is as it should be. We should strive to make her beautiful as well as great. Let her squares and statues and public build- ings be inspirations to the loftiest conceptions of artistic truth and beauty, just as the crumbling landmarks in her older sections stand daily incentives to the intensest spirit of patriotism. In this connection it is also pleas- ing to learn of the action, last week, of the city govern- ment in appropriating funds for a statue of Gen. Joseph Warren. 28 ORATION. A movement is on foot also, which should receive en- couragement, for placing on Park-street Church a tablet, commemorating the fact that within those walls for the first time resounded the strains of America's national anthem. Hard by, as an additional evidence of increased patriotic interest in our city, we witness this week the completion of a memorial shaft over the too-long neglected grave of John Hancock. Close by him in splendid companionship, lie Bowdoin and Fan- euil and Paul Revere. Further on, almost side by side with the victims of the horrid massacre, " whose dead be commemorated," lie the bones of Sam Adams. His tomb extends out below the sidewalk, under the hurry- ing feet of thousands, who unknowingly press on over the head of Boston's greatest son. The safety and perpetuity of this republic has more to fear from the lack of public spirit on the part of its citizens than from any influx of immigration, no mat- ter how large. There should be more of that patriotic feeling which urges noble minds to sacrifice private in- terest for the public good. This lack of sense of public duty was forcibly brought to my mind the other day, when I noticed in the public press an account of a movement by some of the business men of Boston to re- frain from putting then* names on the voting list so as to avoid jury service. I was very much surprised at this state of affairs, as no nobler duty devolves upon the citizen than that of serving equally with the judge as the arbiter in differences between man and man, and in meting out exact justice to all. FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 29 It is a noble privilege, and one of the priceless heritages of a free country, to try a man by a jury of his peers, and no citizen should be so lacking in patriotism and in devotion to public service as to refuse his advice and judgment at prescribed periods. In a government of which every citizen is an essential part there should be no evasion of duty. The proper administration of our whole system of government depends upon the careful and unscrupulous exercise by all the people of every political function. To-day at high noon another star is added to our flag, another State is officially recognized on the glorious banner of the stars and stripes. Originally thirteen, now forty-five grand Commonwealths. The same con- stitution which guided the destinies of the thirteen colonies, amended by the bill of rights and the acknowl- edgment of the equality of all men before the law, now guards the safety and prosperity of the forty-five. At the beginning of the present century seven fam- ilies guided the destinies of as many kingdoms in Italy, but six of them have seen their thrones overturned and their countries disappear from the map of Europe. Spain has seen tremendous changes, and to-day is being besought by the civilized world to give freedom and inde- pendence to the great island of Cuba. The princes of the German empire, after struggles which engaged the at- tention of the civilized world, have conceded a constitu- tion for their people, and have divided with them the power so arbitrarily wielded by Maria Theresa and 30 ORATION. Frederick the Great. Even in England marvellous changes have taken place, and the authority of the crown has devolved upon ministers who hold office sub- ject to the will of the people, and equal powers with the House' of Lords have been vested in the House of Commons, who are chosen by the people from among the people. During all this time our government has weathered every crisis, has adapted itself to every condition, has assimilated diverse nationalities with alien customs and languages, and has succeeded in winning their passion- ate love and loyalty, and developed in them the true spirit of our American institutions. As we gaze around this hall, on the paintings of Massachusetts' illustrious sons, we recognize the fact that no one age can claim a monopoly in the great men she has given to the nation. During the wiiole one hundred and twenty year's of the nation's life her sons have contributed their share to her glory and grandeur. Hancock and Adams and Warren gave way to Ever- ett and Choate, Burlingame and Andrew, Sumner and Wilson, Phillips and Hoar. Her greatest son, whose august presence is fittingly portrayed in the magnificent painting hung over the rostrum, was too renowned for the environment of any State but Massachusetts. The ablest supporter and defender of the constitution, his voice and name were known from the Atlantic to the Pacific as the great bulwark of our national independ- ence, and the recognized champion of the integrity and FOURTH OF JULY, 1896. 31 pepetuity of the American republic. The living voice is silent in the grave, but as we gaze on this marvellous picture we can almost hear those beautiful words of eulogy on his native State, uttered in the famous debate with Hayne, portrayed in this painting, in which he said; " Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts ; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is se- cure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for inde- pendence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia ; and there they will lie forever." And " Sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood and full of its original spirit." And later on in that same address, his noble tribute to the union is a fitting end to the theme of every Fourth of July orator : "While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies beyond ! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, 32 ORATION. may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union; on States dis- severed, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the glorious ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable inter- rogatory as, i What is all this worth ' ? nor those words of delusion and folly, i Liberty first and union after- wards,' but everywhere spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, that other sentiment, dear to every true Ameri- can heart, 'Liberty and Union now and forever, one and inseparable.' " A LIST BOSTON MUNICIPAL ORATORS. BY C. W. ERNST. BOSTON ORATORS APPOINTED BY THE MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES. For the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. NOTE. The Fifth-of-March orations were published in handsome quarto editions, now very scarce ; also collected in book form in 1785, and again in 1807. The oration of 1776 was delivered in Watertown. 1771. LOVELL, JAMES. 1772. WARREN, JOSEPH. 1 773 . CHURCH, BENJAMIN. 1774. HANCOCK, JOHN.* 1775. WARREN, JOSEPH. 1776. THACHER, PETER. 1777. HIGHBORN, BENJAMIN. 1778. AUSTIN, JONATHAN WILLIAMS. 1779. TUDOR, WILLIAM. 1780. MASON, JONATHAN, JUN. 1781. DAWES, THOMAS, JUN. 1782. MINOT, GEORGE RICHARDS. 1783. WELSH, THOMAS. For the Anniversary of National Independence, July 4, 1776. NOTE. A collected edition, or a full collection, of these orations has not been made. For the names of the orators, as officially printed on the title pages of the orations, see the Municipal Register of 1890. 1783. WARREN, JOHN. 1 1784. HIGHBORN, BENJAMIN. 1785. GARDNER, JOHN. a Reprinted in Newport, R.I., 1774, 8vo, 19 pp. 1 Reprinted in Warren's Life. The orations of 1783 to 1786 were published in large quarto ; the oration of 1787 appeared in octavo ; the oration of 1788 was printed in small quarto ; all succeeding orations appeared in octavo, with the exceptions stated under 1863 and 1876. 36 APPENDIX. 1786. AUSTIN, JONATHAN LOBING. 1787. DA WES, THOMAS, JUN. 1788. OTIS, HARRISON GRAY. 1789. STILLMAN, SAMUEL. 1790. GBAY, EDWAED. 1791. CRAFTS, THOMAS, JUN. 1792. BLAKE, JOSEPH, JuN. 2 1793. ADAMS, JOHN QuiNCY. 2 1794. PHILLIPS, JOHN. 1795. BLAKE, GEORGE. 1796. LATHROP, JOHN, JUN. 1797. CALLENDER, JOHN. 1798. QUINCY, JOSIAH. 2 ' 8 1799. LOWELL, JOHN, JuN. 2 1800. HALL, JOSEPH. 1801. PAINE, CHARLES. 1802. EMERSON, WILLIAM. 1803. SULLIVAN, WILLIAM. 1804. DANFORTH, TnoMAS. 2 1805. DUTTON, WARREN. 1806. CHANNING, FRANCIS DANA.* 1807. THACHER, PETER. 2 ' 6 1808. RITCHIE, ANDREW, JUN. Z 1809. TUDOR, WILLIAM, JuN. 2 1810. TOWNSEND, ALEXANDER. 1811. SAVAGE, JAMES. 2 1812. POLLARD, BENJAMIN.* 1818. LIVERMORE, EDWARD ST. LOE. 2 Passed to a second edition. 8 Delivered another oration in 1826. Quincy's oration of 1798 was reprinted, also, in Philadelphia. Not printed. 5 On February 26, 1811, Peter Thacher's name was changed to Peter Oxenbridge Thacher. (List of Persons whose Names have been Changed in Massachusetts, 1780- 1892, p. 21.) APPENDIX. 37 1814. WHIT WELL , BENJAMIN . 1815. SHAW, LEMUEL.. 1816. S ULLI v AN , GEORGE . 2 1817. CHANNING, EDWABD TYRREL. 1818. GRAY, FRANCIS -GALLEY. 1819. DEXTER, FRANKLIN. 1820. LYMAN, THEODORE, JUN. 1821. LORING, CHARLES GREELY. 2 1822. GRAY, JOHN CHIPMAN. 1823. CURTIS, CHARLES PELHAM. 2 1824. BASSETT, FRANCIS. 1825. SPRAGUE, CHARLES. 6 1826. QUINCY, JosiAH. 7 1827. MASON, WILLIAM POWELL. 1 828. SUMNER, BRADFORD. . 1829. AUSTIN , JAMES TRECOTHICK . 1830. EVERETT, ALEXANDER HILL. 1831. PALFREY, JOHN GORHAM. 1832. QUINCY, JOSIAH, JUN. 1833. PRESCOTT, EDWARD GOLDSBOROUGH. 1834. FAY, RICHARD SULLIVAN. 1835. HILLARD, GEORGE STILLMAN. 1836. KINSMAN, HENRY WILLIS. 1837. CHAPMAN, JONATHAN. 1838. WINSLOW, HUBBARD. "The Means of the Per- petuity and Prosperity of our Republic." 1839. AUSTIN, IVERS JAMES. 1840. POWER, THOMAS. 1841. CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR. S " The True Uses of American Revolutionary History." 8 1842. MANN, HORACE. 1843. ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS. 8 Six editions up to 1831. Reprinted also in his Life and Letters. 7 Reprinted in his Municipal History of Boston. See 1798. 38 APPENDIX. 1844. CHANDLER, PELEG WHITMAN. "The Morals of Freedom." 1845. SUMNER, CHARLES. 10 "The True Grandeur of Nations." 1846. WEBSTER, FLETCHER. 1847. CART, THOMAS GREAVES. 1848. GILES, JOEL. "Practical Liberty." 1849. GREENOUGH, WILLIAM WHIT WELL. "The Con- quering Republic." 1850. WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY." "Washington and the Principles of the Revolution." 1851. RUSSELL, CHARLES THEODORE. 1852. KING, THOMAS STARR. 12 "The Organization of Liberty on the Western Continent." 12 1853. BIGELOW, TIMOTHY. 13 1854. STONE, ANDREW LEETE. 2 1855. MINER, ALONZO AMES. 1856. PARKER, EDWARD GRIFFIN. "The Lesson of '76 to the Men of '56." 1857. ALGER, WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE." "The Genius and Posture of America." 1858. HOLMES, JOHN SoMERS. 2 1859. STJMNER, GEORGE. 18 1860. EVERETT, EDWARD. 1861. PARSONS, THEOPHILUS. 1862. CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR. 1863. HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL." 1864. RUSSELL, THOMAS. 8 Delivered another oration in 1862. 9 There are five editions ; only one by the City. 10 Passed through three editions in Boston and one in London, and was answered in a pamphlet, Remarks upon an Oration delivered by Charles Sumner .... July 4th, 1845. By a Citizen of Boston. See Memoir and Letters of Charles Suinner, by Edward L. Pierce, vol. ii. 337-384. " There is a second edition. (Boston : Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1850. 49 pp. 12.) " First published by the City to 1892. 13 This and a number of the succeeding orations, up to 1861, contain the speeches, toasts, etc., of the City dinner usually given in Faneuil Hall cm the Fourth of July. APPENDIX. 39 1865. MANNING, JACOB MERRILL. "Peace under Liberty." 1866. LOTHROP, SAMUEL KIRKLAND. 1867. HEPWORTH, GEORGE HUGHES. 1868. ELIOT, SAMUEL. "The Functions of a City." 1869. MORTON ELLIS WESLEY. 1870. EVERETT, WILLIAM. 1871. SARGENT, HORACE BINNEY. 1872. ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JUN. 1873. WARE, JOHN FOTHERGILL WATERHOUSE. 1874. FROTHINGHAM, RICHARD. 1875. CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN. 1876. WINTHROP, ROBERT CHARLES." 1877. WARREN, WILLIAM WIRT. 1878. HEALY, JOSEPH. 1879. LODGE, HENRY CABOT. 1880. SMITH, ROBERT DicKSON. 18 1881. WARREN, GEORGE WASHINGTON. "Our Repub- lic Liberty and Equality Founded on Law." 1882. LONG, JOHN DAVIS. 1883. CARPENTER, HENRY BERNARD. "American Character and Influence." 1884. SHEPARD, HARVEY NEWTON. 1885. GARGAN, THOMAS JOHN. i* Probably four editions were printed in 1857. (Boston : Office Boston Daily Bee. 60 pp.) Not until November 22, 1864, was Mr. Alger asked by the City to furnish a copy for publication. He granted the request, and the first official edition (J. E. Far- well & Co., 1864. 53 pp.) was then issued. It lacks the interesting preface and appendix of the early editions. There is another edition. (Boston : Ticknor & Fields, 1859. 69 pp.) A third (Boston : Rockwell & Churchill, 1882. 46 pp.) omits the dinner at Faneuil Hall, the correspondence and events of the celebration. ' There is a preliminary edition of twelve copies. (J. E. Farwell & Co., 1863. (7), 71 pp.) It is " the first draft of the author's address, turned into larger, legible type, for the sole purpose of rendering easier its public delivery." It was done by "the liberality of the City Authorities," and is, typographically, the handsomest of these orations. This resulted in the large-paper 75-page edition, printed from the same type as the 71-page edition, but modified by the author. It is printed " by order of the Common Council." The regular edition is in 60 pp., octavo size. 40 APPENDIX. 1886. WILLIAMS, GEORGE FREDERICK. 1887. FITZGERALD, JOHN EDWARD. 1888. DILLAWAY, WILLIAM EDWARD LOVELL. 1889. SWIFT, JOHN LINDSAY." "The American Citi- izen." 1890. PILLSBURY, ALBERT ENOCH. "Public Spirit." 1891. QUINCY, JosiAH. 20 "The Coming Peace." 1892. MURPHY, JOHN ROBERT. 1893. PUTNAM, HENRY WARE. "The Mission of Our People." 1894. O'NEIL, JOSEPH HENRY. 1895. BERLE, ADOLPH AUGUSTUS. "The Constitution and the Citizen." 1896. FITZGERALD, JOHN FRANCIS. 17 There is a large paper edition of fifty copies printed from this type, and also an edition from the press of John Wilson & Son, 1876. 55 pp. 8. 18 On Samuel Adams, a statue of whom, by Miss Anne Whitney, had just been completed for the City. A photograph of the statute is added. Contains a bibliography of Boston Fourth of July orations, from 1783 to 1889, inclusive, compiled by Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. 20 Reprinted by the American Peace Society.