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 Jtx arms J| opit ari) 
 
University of California Berkeley 
 
 From the Library 
 
 of 
 DAPHNE MUSE 
 

 
MEMORIAL TO CRISPUS ATTTJCKS. 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 CRISPUS ATTUCKS, SAMUEL MAVERICK 
 JAMES CALDWELL, SAMUEL GRAY 
 AND PATRICK CARR 
 
 K ROM TH B 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON 
 
 [The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, may be regarded as the first act in the drama of the American Revolution. 
 ' From tliut moment," said Daniel Webster, " we may date the severance of the British Empire." The presence of the 
 British soldiers in King street excited the patriotic indignation of the people. . . .. Led by Crispin Attacks, the 
 mulatto slave, and shouting, "The way to get rid of these soldiers is to attack the main guard ; strike at the root ! this 
 ii the nest!" with more valor than discretion they rushed to King street, and were fired upon by Captain Preston's 
 company. Crispus Attucks was the first to fall ; he and Samuel Gray and James Caldwell were killed on the spot. 
 Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded. Historical Research, bf George Livermore. Meat. Hist. 
 
 B O STO N 
 
 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL 
 
 i 889 
 
CITY OF BOSTON. 
 
 IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, November 26, 1888. 
 
 Ordered, That the Clerk of Committees be authorized to prepare for pub 
 lication, under the direction of the Committee on Printing, an account of the 
 proceedings at the dedication of the Crispus Attucks Monument, and that the 
 said Committee have the volume printed as a city publication, the expense 
 incurred thereby to be charged to the appropriation for printing. 
 Passed. 
 
 Sent down for concurrence. 
 December 13, came up concurred. 
 Approved by the Mayor December 17, 1888. 
 A true copy. 
 Attest : 
 
 JOHN T. PRIEST, 
 
 Assistant City Clerk. 
 
PAGE 
 
 ACTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OK MASSACHUSETTS ..... 11 
 
 ACTION OF THE CITY OF BOSTON ...... 19 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT ....... 27 
 
 UNVEILING THE MONUMENT ON BOSTON COMMON 31 
 
 Prayer by Rev. Eli Smith 33 
 
 Remarks of William H. Dupree ..... 36 
 
 Remarks of Governor Oliver Ames . * . . . . 33 
 
 Remarks of Mayor Hugh O'Brien ....... 39 
 
 EXERCISES AT FANEUIL HALL 43 
 
 Prayer by Rev. Albert H. Plumb 43 
 
 Remarks of Governor Oliver Ames ...... 46 
 
 Remarks of Mayor Hugh O'Brien 46 
 
 Poem by John Boyle O'Reilly 51 
 
 Address by Mr. John Fiske 59 
 
 LETTERS ......... 93 
 
 Frederick Douglass ........ 93 
 
 Dr. Henry I. Bowditch 95 
 
 Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D 9G 
 
 Rev. David Gregg .......... 96 
 
 Hon. John M. Langston 96 
 
ACTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
ACTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 IN the spring of 1887 the following petition was presented to 
 the Legislature : 
 
 To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Com 
 monwealth of Massachusetts, in General Court assembled: 
 
 The undersigned petitioners, citizens of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts, respectfully represent 
 
 That in the Granary Burial Ground, in Boston, rest the remains of 
 Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Jonas Caldwell, and Samuel Maverick, 
 who, together with Patrick Carr, led by Crispus Attucks, were the 
 first Martyrs in the cause of American Liberty, having been shot by 
 the British soldiers on the night of the fifth of March, A.D. 1770, 
 known as the Boston Massacre. Their names appear on the records 
 and history of that time, but no stone marks their burial-place. 
 
 We, therefore, respectfully request that a suitable monument may 
 be erected to the memory of these early patriots of the Revolution. 
 
 And, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc. 
 
 LEWIS HAYDEN, 
 A. H. GRIMKE, 
 HENRY J. GARDNER, 
 N. P. BANKS, 
 WM. CLAFLIN, 
 WM. B. WASHBURN, 
 WILLIAM GASTON, 
 ALEXANDER H. RICE, 
 JOHN D. LONG, 
 BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 
 GEORGE D. ROBINSON, 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, 
 HENRY CABOT LODGE, 
 LEOPOLD MORSE, 
 JOHN E. RUSSELL, 
 PATRICK A. COLLINS. 
 
 And many 
 
 JOHN F. ANDREW, 
 A. W. BEARD, 
 HUGH O'BRIEN, 
 WM. H. DUPREE, 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY, 
 BUTLER R. WILSON, 
 E. B. HASKELL, 
 JOHN Q. ADAMS, 
 CHARLES R. LADD, 
 HENRY J. WELLS, 
 CHARLES R. CODMAN, 
 GEORGE W. LOWTHER, 
 ABNER C. GOODELL, JR., 
 DR. HENRY I. BOWDITCH, 
 REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS, 
 
 D.D., 
 other well-known citizens 
 
 W. W. BLACKMAR, 
 MARTIN BRIMMER, 
 CARROLL D. WRIGHT, 
 F. A. WALKER, 
 R. P. HALLOWELL, 
 M. P. KENNARD, 
 A. E. PILLSBURY, 
 HARRIS C. HARTWELL, 
 ROLAND WORTHINGTON, 
 CHARLES L. MITCHELL, 
 
 C. B. TlLLINGHAST, 
 
 WILLIAM H. JARVIS, 
 REV. J. T. JENIFER, D.D. 
 THOMAS P. TAYLOR, 
 JOHN H. LEWIS, 
 JOHN J. SMITH, 
 of the State. 
 
12 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 As a result thereof the following resolve was adopted without 
 opposition in either house, and was promptly signed by His 
 Excellency, Gov. OLIVER AMES : 
 
 [CHAPTER 53.] 
 
 dTommontoealtfj of 
 
 In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-Seven. 
 
 EESOLVE PROVIDING FOR THE ERECTION OF A MEMORIAL TO 
 CRISPUS ATTUCKS, SAMUEL GRAY, JONAS CALDWELL, 
 SAMUEL MAVERICK, AND PATRICK CARR. 
 
 Resolved, That the Governor and Council be and they are hereby 
 authorized and requested to cause to be erected in some public 
 place in the city of Boston a suitable memorial or monument to 
 the memory of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Jonas Caldwell, 
 Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr, who were killed by British 
 soldiers in the streets of Boston, on the fifth day of March, in 
 the year seventeen hundred and seventy, upon the occasion known 
 as the " Boston Massacre ; " also to cause suitable headstones to 
 be placed at the graves of the said persons, where their locations 
 can be ascertained. The amount to be expended under this re 
 solve shall not exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars. 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, May 6, 1887. Passed. 
 
 CHAS. J. NOTES, Speaker. 
 
 IN SENATE, May 11, 1887. Passed. 
 
 HALSEY J. BOARDMAN, President. 
 
 MAY 17, 1887. Approved. 
 
 OLIVER AMES. 
 
 SECRETARY'S DBPARTMENT, BOSTON, Nov. 28, 1888. 
 A true copy. 
 
 Witness the Seal of the Commonwealth. 
 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, 
 of the Commonwealth. 
 
ACTIOX OF THE COMMOXWEALTH. 13 
 
 [CHAPTER 16-1 
 
 Commonfoealtfj of 
 
 In ihe Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-Eight. 
 
 RESOLVE CONCERNING THE ERECTION OF A MEMORIAL TO 
 CRISPUS ATTUCKS AND OTHERS. 
 
 Resolved, That Chapter fifty-three of the Resolves of the year 
 eighteen hundred and eighty-seven be and hereby is amended by 
 striking out the word " Jonas," and inserting in place thereof the 
 word " James," so that it shall read James Caldwell instead of 
 Jonas Caldwell. 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Feb. 17, 1888. Passed. 
 
 CHAS. J. NOTES, Speaker. 
 
 IN SENATE, Feb. 20, 1888. Passed. 
 
 HALSEY J. BOARDMAN, President. 
 
 FEB. 21, 1888. Approved. 
 
 OLIVER AMES. 
 
 SECRETARY'S DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, Nov. 28, 1888. 
 A true copy. 
 
 Witness the Seal of the Commonwealth. 
 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, 
 Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
 
 From a number of designs submitted, the Governor 
 and Council selected that one made by Mr. EGBERT KRAUS, 
 and the contract was awarded to him by the following 
 
 o 
 
 order : 
 
14 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 COUNCIL CHAMBER, BOSTON, July 27, 1888. 
 
 Ordered, That the design submitted by Robert Kraus, for a 
 memorial to be erected to the memory of Crispus Attucks, Samuel 
 Gray, Jonas Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr, as pro 
 vided in Resolve, Chapter 53, of 1887, be approved; provided, that 
 there shall be no outlay on the part of the Commonwealth until 
 a contract shall have been duly executed, insuring the completion 
 of the work contemplated by said resolve, including suitable head 
 stones, at an expense not exceeding ten thousand dollars. 
 
 Adopted. 
 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, Secretary. 
 
 SECRETARY'S DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, Nov. 28, 1 888. 
 
 A true copy. 
 
 HENRY B. PEIRCE, 
 
 Secretary of the Commonwealth. 
 
 On the fifth day of September, His Excellency the Gov 
 ernor sent the following letter to a number of public-spirited 
 gentlemen : 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 DEAR SIR, At some date in the near future, which is to be 
 fixed, the monument in commemoration of Crispus Attucks and 
 others, who were victims of the Boston Massacre, is to be placed 
 by the Commonwealth on Boston Common. Under the terms of 
 the resolve providing for the erection of this memorial, there is 
 no provision for anything beyond the cost of its being con 
 structed. 
 
 It is thought by many that its unveiling should be marked by 
 some demonstration ; and in order that this may take place, the 
 public must be so interested in the matter as to provide for it 
 sufficient funds. 
 
ACTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 15 
 
 I take the liberty of suggesting to you that you confer a 
 favor upon all the people of the Commonwealth if you will 
 become one of a voluntary committee, whose duty it shall be to 
 arrange for an appropriate dedication of the monument, such 
 arrangement to include the collection and disbursement of the 
 money which may be needed to carry out the plan that may be 
 determined upon by those who will form the committee. 
 
 I am yours very respectfully, 
 
 OLIVER AMES, 
 
 Governor. 
 
 In response to the above letter, the following gentlemen met 
 at the State House, and organized a committee to make 
 arrangements for the unveiling and dedication of the monu 
 ment : 
 
 LEWIS HAYDEN, CHAS. L. MITCHELL, 
 REV. CHAS. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., JOHN H. LEWIS, 
 
 WILLIAM O. ARMSTRONG, D. TOY, 
 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY, A. H. GRIMKE, 
 
 JOHN J. SMITH, JOHN J. TEEVENS, 
 
 JOHN A. DALY, WM. POWER WILSON, 
 
 J. C. CHAPPELLE, N. G. GASKINS, 
 
 JOHN PATTEN, DR. HENRY I. BOWDITCH, 
 
 WM. H. DUPREE, BUTLER R. WILSON, 
 E. M. CHAMBERLIN. 
 
 Mr. William II. Dupree was made chairman, and Butler 
 R. Wilson and Edwin M. Chamberlin were made secretaries. 
 
 The committee invited Mr. John Fiske, of Cambridge, to 
 deliver the historical address, and Mr. John Boyle O'Reilly 
 to write a poem. Both invitations were accepted, and the 
 14th of November was selected as the day upon which the 
 services were to be held. 
 
16 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Faneuil Hall was secured, and for the better accommoda 
 tion of the military and civic organizations invited to take 
 part in a parade preceding the exercises, a thousand seats 
 were placed on the floor of the hall, and the gallery was 
 reserved for special guests holding tickets. 
 
 Among those invited by the committee on behalf of the 
 Commonwealth were the following : His Excellency the Gov 
 ernor, the Executive Council, the Senators and Representa 
 tives of Massachusetts in Congress, United States civil 
 officers in Boston, the judges of the Supreme and Superior 
 Courts, the heads of State Departments, the members of 
 the General Court, the Mayor of Boston, the Board of 
 Aldermen, the senior member from each ward of the Com 
 mon Council, and representatives of the Press. 
 
ACTION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 
 
ACTION OF THE CITY GOVEENMENT. 
 
 In his inaugural address, His Honor Mayor O'Brien re 
 ferred to the fact that the Crispus Attucks Monument, for 
 which the State had appropriated the sum of ten thousand 
 dollars, was nearly completed, and he recommended that a 
 location be provided for the monument on Boston Common, 
 in accordance with the desire of the Governor and Committee 
 in charge. The matter was referred to the Joint Standing 
 Committee on Common and Public Grounds. Subsequently, 
 on the 28th of August, a message on the subject was re 
 ceived by the Board of Aldermen from His Honor the 
 Mayor, covering a communication from His Excellency Gov 
 ernor Ames, as follows : 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON, 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Aug. 20, 1888. 
 
 To the Honorable the City Council: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, The monument to Crispus Attucks will be com 
 pleted in about six weeks. The City Council last year appropri 
 ated two thousand dollars for a foundation from the Phillips fund. 
 It will be necessary to commence work immediately on the foun 
 dation, but the location of the monument has not yet been fixed 
 by the City Council. 
 
 His Excellency Governor Ames, whose communication is here 
 with submitted, has made a selection near the West-street gate of 
 the Common, and I hope you will give it your favorable consid 
 eration. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 HUGH O'BRIEN, 
 
 Mayor. 
 
20 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, Nov. 2, 1887. 
 His Honor MAYOR HUGH O'BRIEN : 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have your favor of the 1st inst., in which you 
 say that it appears to you that I "have the sole right to place 
 the Attucks Monument." 
 
 If such be the case, I would select for the position on which 
 to place that memorial a spot on the Cominpn, just south of the 
 West-street gate, between the Tremont-street mall and the mall 
 from West street to Park square, nearly on a line with the store 
 on the east side of Tremont street which is occupied by Messrs. 
 Hallet & Cumston. 
 
 Thanking you heartily for the privilege which you have in this 
 matter accorded me, 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 OLIVER AMES, 
 
 Governor. 
 
 These communications were in like manner referred to the 
 Committee on Common and Public Grounds. 
 
 As it was discovered that there were serious objections to 
 locating the monument upon the site selected, from the fact 
 that the foundation would come in contact with the water- 
 pipes laid through the Common, the matter was brought to 
 the Governor's attention, and a new site was selected at a 
 point southerly of that first selected, and information to that 
 effect was communicated to the City Council on October 1, 
 by the following messages from His Honor the Mayor, 
 namely : 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON, 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Oct. 1, 1888. 
 To the Honorable the City Council: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I enclose herewith a communication from His Ex 
 cellency the Governor concerning the site for the monument to 
 
ACTION OP THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 Crispus Attucks. It will be observed by the plan which accom 
 panies the communication that the Governor has chosen a spot 
 for the site close by the one formerly selected by him. As the 
 work is far advanced, and the city is ready to put in the foun 
 dation, so that the dedication of the monument can take place the 
 present month, it is very desirable that the City Council promptly 
 ratify the action taken by the Governor. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 HUGH O'BRIEN, 
 
 Mayor. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, BOSTON, Sept. 27, 1888. 
 DEAR MR. MAYOR, Because of the representation to me that to 
 place the Attucks Monument on the site first selected by me 
 would be attended by certain difficulties which will not be insur 
 mountable, but will be inconvenient, I have this day visited the 
 Common, and have decided that the monument shall be placed 
 in the same plot of land, but southerly of the place first chosen, 
 very nearly at the point which corresponds to that marked with 
 the figures " 85 " on the enclosed plan, and opposite the store on 
 Tremont street occupied by the "White Sewing Machine Company. 
 
 I am yours sincerely, 
 
 OLIVER AMES. 
 HON. HUGH O'BRIEN, Mayor of Boston. 
 
 The message was referred to the Committee on Common 
 and Public Grounds. 
 
 In connection with the above, Alderman Wilson offered 
 the following : 
 
 Ordered, That His Honor the Mayor be authorized to expend 
 in behalf of the city a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars 
 in connection with the arrangements for dedicating the Crispus 
 Attucks Monument on Boston Common ; said sum to be charged 
 to the appropriation for incidentals. 
 
22 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 The order was passed by both branches of the City Coun 
 cil, and approved by the Mayor October 13. 
 
 On the 18th of October a report was received in the 
 Board of Aldermen from the Committee on Common and 
 Public Grounds, recommending the passage of the following 
 order, namely : 
 
 Ordered, That the site selected by His Excellency the Governor 
 for the location of the Crispus Attacks Monument on Boston 
 Common be hereby approved. 
 
 Report accepted, order passed under a suspension of the rule. 
 Sent down. 
 
 The order was passed by the Common Council in con 
 currence, and approved by the Mayor October 13. 
 
 On the 19th of November the following message was 
 received in the Board of Aldermen from His Honor the 
 Mayor in relation to publishing a memorial volume, con 
 taining an account of the proceedings at the dedication of 
 the monument, namely : 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON, 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nov. 19, 1888. 
 
 To the Honorable the City Council : 
 
 GENTLEMEN, The dedication of the monument to Crispus 
 Attucks, in which the State and the city participated, was quite 
 a memorable event in the history of Boston. I therefore recom 
 mend that a memorial volume be printed, containing the addresses 
 and proceedings on that occasion. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 HUGH O'BRIEN, 
 Mayor. 
 
ACTIOX OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 The message was referred to the Joint Standing Com 
 mittee on Printing, and on the 26th of November the 
 committee reported the order, which was adopted, and 
 which prefaces this volume. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. 
 
DESCEIPTION OP THE MONUMENT. 
 
 The Monument is of Concord granite, twenty-five feet 
 six inches high, and measures ten feet six inches at the base. 
 The pedestal, which is round, except where a rectangular 
 projection is made to support the statue and receive the 
 relief, is eight feet two inches high. The bas-relief on the 
 face of the pedestal represents the Boston Massacre in 
 King street. In the foreground lies Crispus Attucks, the 
 first victim of British bullets ; the centre of the scene is 
 the old State House, behind which may be seen the steeple 
 of the old brick or First church, which stood on Cornhill, 
 now Washington street. In the upper left-hand corner is 
 the following inscription : " From that Moment we may 
 date the Severance of the British Empire. Daniel Web 
 ster ; " and in the upper right-hand corner, " On that Night 
 the Foundation of American Independence was laid. John 
 Adams." Under the relief on the base appears the date, 
 " March 5, 1770." Above the bas-relief stands " Free 
 America." With her left hand she clasps a flag about to 
 be unfurled, while she holds aloft in her 'right hand the 
 broken chain of oppression, and crushes beneath her 
 right foot the royal crown, which, twisted and torn, is fall 
 ing off the plinth. At her left side, clinging to the edge 
 of the plinth, is an eagle. Its wings are raised, its beak 
 is open, and it has apparently just lit. Its pose is in 
 unison with the fiery spirit of its mistress, shown in the 
 serious, determined, and heroic gaze of her upturned face. 
 
28 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 The statue is seven feet high, and weighs one thousand 
 seven hundred and ninety pounds. Beneath the apex of 
 the shaft, cut into the surface, are thirteen stars, which sug 
 gest the original thirteen States of the Union. Below the 
 stars in raised letters appear the names of Crispus Attucks, 
 Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and 
 Patrick Carr, the five victims of the massacre. 
 
UNVEILING THE MONUMENT ON BOSTON 
 
 COMMON. 
 
UNVEILING THE MONUMENT ON BOSTON 
 COMMON, 
 
 The day set apart for the unveiling and dedication of 
 the monument was a most delightful one. Better weather 
 could not have been chosen. 
 
 Promptly at 11 o'clock A.M. the procession of military 
 and civic organizations moved from the corner of Beacon 
 and Charles streets to the State House, where the Governor 
 and other guests were received in escort. It then moved 
 down Beacon and School streets to the City Hall, where 
 the Mayor and representatives of the City Government 
 were received. Thence it marched through School, Wash 
 ington, and Boylston streets, and entered the Common at 
 the Park-square entrance, and then proceeded through the 
 Boylston and Tremont street malls to the site of the monu 
 ment which stands in the centre of a triangular lot facing 
 Tremont street in the following order : 
 
 Detachment of Mounted Police. 
 
 CHIEF MARSHAL. 
 
 Major Frederick B. Bogan. 
 
 CHIEF OF STAFF. 
 
 Capt. C. F. A. Francis. 
 
 AIDS. 
 
 George Sparrow, Joseph Lee, 
 
 Robert J. Taylor, Nelson T. Wentworth, 
 
32 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Lieut. W. H. McCafferty, Daniel Hayes, 
 
 Dr. T. O'Donnell, W. J. Williams, 
 
 Charles Johnson, Charles E. Harris. 
 
 Germania Band, 32 men. 
 
 Company L, 6th Regiment, M.V.M., 
 
 Capt. George VV. Brady, commander, 55 men, 
 
 with staff, consisting of 
 Adjutant W. S. Butler, 
 Quartermaster Summers, 
 Paymaster George "W. Lowther, 
 Lieutenant Bell. 
 Second Separate Company Rhode Island Militia, 
 
 Capt. J. E. Fraser, commander, 30 men. 
 First Separate Company Rhode Island Militia, 
 
 Capt. R. "W. Blunt, commander, 30 men. 
 
 Governor Ames, Hon. George F. Hoar, Mr. John Fiske, Mr. 
 John Boyle O'Reilly, Rev. Andrew Chamberlain, Rev. Albert 
 H. Plumb, D.D., Rev. Eli Smith, the Executive Council 
 and heads of State Departments, members of Senate 
 and House of Representatives, Mayor O'Brien 
 and members of Board of Aldermen and 
 Common Council, the Citizens' Commit 
 tee, New York and Newport Fishing 
 Club, represented by Commodore 
 James W. Mars, Dr. P. W. 
 Ray, and V. C. Mur 
 ray, and other in 
 vited guests in 
 
 carriages. 
 
 Allen's Fife and Drum Corps. 
 
 Robert A. Bell Post 134, G.A.R., 
 
 Capt. I. S. Mullen, commander, 48 men. 
 
 Shaw Guard Veteran Association, 
 Major J. Wesley Furlong, commander, 40 men. 
 
 W. H. Carney Camp, S.V., 
 Capt. John D. Powell, commander, 40 men, 
 
UNVEILING THE MOXUMEXT. 33 
 
 with Captain Cushman, Lieutenant Clark, 
 and Captain Kelly, honorary staff. 
 
 Boston Brass Band, 30 men. 
 
 Boston Patriarchie No. 4, G.U.O. of O.F., 
 
 H. Black, commander, 57 men. 
 
 Crispus Attucks Lodge K.P., 
 George W. Winston, commander, 30 men. 
 
 Arriving at the monument, the procession entered the semi- 
 diamond-shaped enclosure around it, and the State and city 
 officials and the Citizens' Committee, with invited guests, oc 
 cupied a platform erected in front of the monument ; and 
 in the midst of thousands of people, the ceremonies began 
 a little past the noon hour. 
 
 The Germania Band played " America," and then the REV. 
 ELI SMITH, of Springfield, offered the following prayer : 
 
 PRAYER OFFERED BY REV. ELI SMITH. 
 
 O Lord, our Heavenly Father, we bow before Thee 
 to-day in humble acknowledgment of Thy goodness 
 and greatness. The heavens declare Thy glory, and 
 the firmament showeth Thy handiwork. Before the 
 mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst 
 formed this earth or the world, even from everlasting 
 to everlasting, Thou art God. We rejoice that Thou 
 hast ever borne rule in the aifairs of men, and that 
 Thou hast given nations to see Thy power and might. 
 Thou wast Israel's God; and because they trusted in 
 Thee, Thou didst work in a wonderful way with them, 
 and didst cause them to become more powerful than 
 all other nations besides. Thou wast their cloud by 
 day, their pillar of fire by night; and Thou didst even 
 
34 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 make a way for them through the sea. It was only 
 as they turned from following Thee, and became rebel 
 lious subjects, that they were discomfited before their 
 enemies. As we look back over the history of the 
 past, we are made to see that no nation or people have 
 been destined to a very long or prosperous career that 
 have not made the Lord their God. Help us, O Lord 
 God, to take these things to heart; and as we desire 
 success and perpetuity may we ever be loyal to Thee. 
 Our thoughts now dwell upon two of the greatest 
 struggles in which the American people have engaged, 
 the one of 1776, the other of 1861. We thank 
 Thee that through the one the principle of no taxa 
 tion without representation was vindicated, and that 
 this country was severed from Great Britain; and that 
 through the other the mistaken notions of the right 
 of secession were settled by the sword, and human 
 slavery forever abolished from our land. We thank 
 Thee that in both these struggles there were engaged 
 those of an oppressed race, who for centuries had 
 been made to toil as bondmen. We thank Thee for 
 the exhibitions they gave of patriotism, of love of 
 country, when they themselves were without a country. 
 We thank Thee that the first blood of the revolu 
 tionary conflict was shed by a black man, a repre 
 sentative of the race with whom so many of us here 
 are identified. We take great pride in the fact that 
 bravely he lost his life battling for the right. We 
 rejoice that it is our privilege a grand one may we 
 esteem it to do honor to-day to Crispus Attucks 
 and his brave compatriots, in the very city where they 
 
UNVEILING THE MONUMENT. 35 
 
 fell, a century and more after the event. We thank 
 Thee that Massachusetts, the Cradle of Liberty, 
 Massachusetts, foremost ever in that which is good; the 
 birthplace of the anti-slavery movement; the home of 
 Garrison, of Simmer, of Phillips, of Andrew, and of 
 Wilson; the first to throw open her schools to the 
 black man, and to recognize his manhood, is also the 
 first to do honor to him in rearing a monument to 
 commemorate his valor and patriotism in a great 
 conflict. May it be that Massachusetts shall feel, that 
 as she by this monument is honoring the dead, and 
 giving courage and hope to a race with whom one 
 of the dead was identified, that so is she doing honor 
 to herself. We pray Thee to bless the Governor 
 of our Commonwealth and the Legislature of our 
 State, also the Mayor of this city, to whom we are 
 in so great measure indebted for the occasion given 
 us to celebrate to-day. Help us to lay aside every 
 weight and everything that may tend to retard our 
 progress. Grant that all those plotting against the 
 peace of our Government may be foiled in their 
 schemes. Grant that the time may come, and hasten, we 
 beseech Thee, its coming, when we shall know no 
 ^orth, no South, no East, or West; when race or creed 
 shall not enter into the question of the solution of 
 any of our problems of government; but when we shall 
 be indeed United States, and the proudest boast of 
 our citizens shall be that they are American citizens. 
 Bless, we pray Thee, the President of these United 
 States, and all associated with him in authority. 
 Grant now to us O Lord, we do beseech Thee, 
 
36 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Thy Holy Spirit. Be Thou in the services of this 
 day. May the words spoken by those who have 
 been selected for the occasion not fall upon dull and 
 inattentive hearers, but may they be as seed cast in 
 good ground. Give it unto us in years to come, 
 to look back with joy to this day as one of the 
 brightest and best of our lives. And now we ask 
 Thee to bless, comfort, sustain, and strengthen us; and 
 to Thee, the only wise God, our Creator and Preserver, 
 be praises, glory, and dominion, both now and forever- 
 more. Amen. 
 
 Mr. WILLIAM H. DUPREE, chairman of the Citizens' Com 
 mittee, then opened the formal exercises of the unveiling in 
 the following words : 
 
 Fellow- Citizens , As chairman of the Committee of 
 Arrangements, it becomes my duty to open the exer 
 cises that have been appointed for this time. In the 
 occurrence which we commemorate, the colored race 
 has a profound interest, for one of that race was 
 the principal figure in it. From the sacrifice of that 
 day, the people rose with new inspiration, the deter 
 mination to achieve their liberation, if not from for 
 eign tyranny, at least from domestic oppression, was 
 fixed by this. Whatever the immediate purpose was, 
 it hastened the formal Declaration of Independence. 
 On the fourth day of March, the British troops 
 seemed to be immovably intrenched in Boston, and 
 the enactments of their superiors were supposed to 
 be the paramount law of the land. On the 5th, by 
 
THE MONUMENT. 37 
 
 the death of Attucks and his comrades, submission to 
 English law gave place to active opposition; and 
 when the governor would have compromised on the 
 6th by removing one of the two regiments from 
 the town, the fervor and firmness of the people 
 proved too much for him, and both regiments were 
 taken away. The people were masters. The real 
 authority had been wrested from the king, and 
 assumed by his subjects. The death of these men 
 made the republic secure. The events which followed 
 were the necessary sequence of this, and so, on 
 Sept. 3, 1788, the official stamp of legality and 
 regularity was given to the " disorderly " attack on 
 the troops thirteen years before. 
 
 It is well to raise monuments on the fields of 
 Lexington and Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and York- 
 town, to the defeats and triumphs of those times; 
 but can any fact be more worthy of remembrance 
 than the first and undisciplined resistance of those 
 heroic souls that, aflame with the fire of freedom, 
 would not wait to fight in well-formed battalions? 
 
 If there had been no commencement to the strug 
 gle, there would have been no end to it. Grand 
 enterprises grow from small beginnings. Those who 
 dare against the greatest odds deserve, in the event 
 of ultimate success, the greatest praise. The impor 
 tance of an action is measured by the final results 
 of it. The republic started out in her career of 
 enlarging freedom when the mercenaries of the crown 
 were first forced from her soil. 
 
 The greatest thing about the late Civil War was 
 
38 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 the abolition of slavery. The raid of John Brown 
 commenced the effort; the emancipation proclamation 
 concluded it. Brown led the march for freedom. 
 The great thing about the war of the Revolution 
 was the abolition of royal rule the enthronement 
 of popular sovereignty. Fate dictated the Peace of 
 1783, that for all peoples and for all times has 
 forever affirmed the right of rebellion against tyranny 
 when Attucks fell in 1770. 
 
 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, recognizing 
 the high importance of this date in our annals, has 
 erected this monument in commemoration of it. It 
 is the office of the chief representative of the State 
 to unveil and present this memorial to you. 
 
 I have the honor to introduce His Excellency the 
 Governor. 
 
 Governor AMES responded, as representing the Common 
 wealth, in the following words : 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, We meet here to-day to 
 unveil a memorial of no common deed. We are 
 about to show in all its significance a tribute to 
 those who first gave their lives in that struggle with 
 the mother country which led to our birth as a 
 nation, and which gave us a chance to develop as 
 a people. This is the first monument which the 
 State has ever raised, although it has custody of 
 many that have been presented to it; and in placing 
 it where it is, the Commonwealth has sought, through 
 its Governor and Council, to not only give it an 
 
UNVEILING THE MONUMENT. 39 
 
 appropriate situation, but to join with the city of 
 Boston in its perpetual custody. The ready response 
 of His Honor the Mayor to my suggestion that it be 
 placed here, insures for it that care which we all 
 desire. 
 
 I show to you all and I bespeak for it careful 
 inspection the tribute in stone and bronze that 
 Massachusetts erects to not the least of its heroes. 
 
 As the Governor closed, Miss Lillian E. Chappelle, daugh 
 ter of Mr. J. C. Chappelle of the committee, pulled the 
 string that bound the canopy of American tricolor that hid 
 the monument, and it dropped gracefully to the pedestal, 
 when there was a concerted shout of delight by the assem 
 bled thousands. 
 
 His Honor HUGH O'BRIEN, Mayor of Boston, was then 
 introduced, and said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: Your Excellency r , On account of 
 the exercises in Faneuil Hall I will merely say at 
 this time that I accept this gift in the name of our 
 citizens of Boston, and I congratulate you, Mr. 
 Governor, that during your administration the State 
 of Massachusetts has been patriotic enough to erect 
 a monument to Crispus Attucks and his martyr 
 associates. 
 
 The procession then re-formed and proceeded to Faneuil 
 Hall, marching through Tremont, Court, and State streets to 
 the site of the massacre, and thence down State to Mer 
 chants row to the Hall. 
 
EXERCISES AT FANEUIL HALL. 
 
EXEECISES AT FANEUIL HALL, 
 
 Faneuil Hall was crowded at the hour appointed for the 
 exercises to commence by an audience composed of people 
 from all parts of the Commonwealth and adjoining States. 
 
 On the platform, among others, were His Excellency 
 Gov. Oliver Ames, Lieut. -Gov. J. Q. A. Brackett, Hon. 
 George F. Hoar, ex-Gov. Alexander H. Rice, Hon. 
 Henry B. Peirce, Mayor Hugh O'Brien, Hon. P. B. S. 
 Pinchback, of Louisanna, Col. M. M. Cunniff, Curtis 
 Guild, Jr., Charles Lincoln Smith, William W. Wheildon, 
 T. A. Ridley, Joseph Lee, Lewis Hay den, Judge Cowley, 
 of Lowell, Robert Treat Paine, Jr., Hon. John H. Smythe, 
 ex-Minister to Liberia, Rev. A. A. Miner, D.D., Rev. J. 
 C. Price, of Saulsbury, N.C., and the Citizens' Committee. 
 
 At 1.25 P.M. the Germania Band performed a medley of 
 patriotic airs, at the conclusion of which the REV. ALBERT 
 H. PLUMB, D.D., pastor cf the Walnut Avenue Congrega 
 tional Church, made the following prayer : 
 
 Almighty God, the God of our fathers, we adore 
 Thee as the Father of all flesh. 
 
 Thou hast "made of one blood all nations of 
 men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," 
 and Thy "tender mercies are over all Thy works." 
 
 In every age and every land and upon all peoples 
 Thy bountiful benefactions have descended, and Thy 
 providential guidance has been bestowed. 
 
44 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 For, although we gratefully acknowledge that Thou 
 hast shed peculiar blessings on this land and nation, 
 as Thou didst on thy chosen people in ancient time, 
 we adore the largeness of Thy purpose in our his 
 tory as in theirs. Thou didst say to Abraham, the 
 father of the faithful, the friend of God, "In thee 
 shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 
 
 And "in the fulness of the time" of the seed 
 of Abraham Thou didst send forth Thy Son, the 
 Saviour of the world, "the one Mediator between 
 God and men," "that He should taste death for 
 every man." 
 
 And O Thou God of nations, who hast led forth 
 the migrations of all wandering peoples, and hast 
 hedged in the dwelling-places of the stable nations, 
 we look with wonder and awe on the orderly pro 
 cedure of Thy plans of mercy for all mankind in 
 our own history, as Thou hast brought to these 
 shores so many representatives of such various races 
 of men. And we praise Thee that under the benign 
 influence of the institutions Thou didst aid our 
 fathers here to plant, there has been here enjoyed, 
 in the sight of all nations and for the benefit of all, 
 more, we believe, than ever elsewhere before, a prac 
 tical recognition of those great truths, fundamental 
 to all right social order, the fatherhood of God, 
 and the brotherhood of man. 
 
 O God, we confess with sorrow, that human his 
 tory has been marred, and the upward progress of 
 mankind delayed, by the practical denial of these 
 truths. "We mourn that in this guilt we ourselves 
 
EXERCISES AT FAXEUIL HALL. 45 
 
 have shared. Oh, help us sincerely to repent of all 
 unfilial conduct towards Thee, of all unbrotherly feeling 
 towards our brother-man. 
 
 Forgive us all our sins, through the mediation of 
 Thy Son our Lord. 
 
 And may the commemorative exercises in which 
 we are now engaged fill our hearts with new ad 
 miration for all heroic self-sacrifice for the honor of 
 God and the good of man. Let Thy blessing rest 
 on all who have aided in building the monument we 
 dedicate this day. Smile, especially, we pray Thee, 
 on Thy servants the Governor of this Commonwealth, 
 and the chief magistrate of this city, that their 
 official acts in these services may lead all the citizens 
 whom they represent to cherish a larger reverence 
 for liberty and law. 
 
 Open Thou our hearts to the words which shall 
 be spoken by orator and poet, in praise of virtue 
 and valor and resistance to wrong. 
 
 May the echo of the words here spoken, and the 
 sight hereafter of the stones of memorial this day 
 consecrated, calling to mind the long-past hour 
 when the soil of our streets was reddened by the 
 blood of patriots of different lineage and color, 
 lead successive generations of men to cherish the 
 spirit of charity and love towards all mankind. 
 
 Guard Thou our liberties, gracious God, our free 
 ballot, our free press, our free schools. 
 
 And may liberty of thought, liberty of speech, 
 and liberty of worship never perish from our land. 
 And the glory shall be thine. Amen. 
 
46 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Chairman DUPREE then introduced His Excellency, Gov 
 ernor AMES, as the presiding officer of the occasion, and 
 Governor AMES, coming forward amid applause, said : 
 
 We have just come from our beloved Common, where 
 has been unveiled a monument erected to the mem 
 ory of a noble race and noble men. Those men who 
 are our special guests to-day are representatives of a 
 race whose brother, Attucks, was the first one to 
 fall in that great massacre. The opinions of other 
 and wiser men have been given, and I will only say 
 that this is a most fitting tribute to the memory of 
 an occasion which did much toward freeing our 
 nation from British rule. Allow me to introduce 
 your Mayor. 
 
 When the applause subsided, Mayor O'BRIEN said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am 
 aware that the monument to Crispus Attucks and 
 his martyr associates has been the subject of more 
 or less adverse criticism, and that by some they are 
 looked upon as rioters, who deserved their fate. I 
 look upon it from an entirely different standpoint. 
 The Boston Massacre was one of the most impor 
 tant and exciting events that preceded our Revolution. 
 The throwing of the tea overboard in Boston harbor, 
 the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere's ride to Lexington, 
 with other exciting events, had, no doubt, great in 
 fluence in uniting the colonists as one man against 
 unjust taxation and British oppression; made possible 
 
EXERCISES AT FA^EUIL HALL. 47 
 
 the war of the [Revolution and the Declaration of 
 Independence, that immortal document which pro 
 nounced all men free and equal without regard to 
 color, creed, or nationality. 
 
 I rejoice with you, Mr. Chairman, that after the 
 lapse of more than one hundred years, the erection 
 of the Attacks Monument on Boston Common ratifies 
 the words of that declaration, that all men are free 
 and equal, without regard to color, creed, or nation 
 ality; and that the memory of the martyrs whose 
 blood was shed in the cause of liberty in 1770 will 
 thus be preserved and honored for all time. 
 
 The Germania Band again played patriotic music, and 
 Governor Ames then introduced MR. JOHN FISKE, of Cam 
 bridge, the well-known historian and lecturer, who delivered 
 the oration of the occasion amidst the closest attention of 
 the great audience, who frequently interrupted the speaker 
 with applause and various expressions of approval. 
 
 The KEV. ANDREW CHAMBERLAIN, of New Bedford, was then 
 introduced, and read with great satisfaction the poem written 
 by MR. JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. 
 
 At the conclusion of the poem, the REV. ALBERT II. PLUMB 
 pronounced the benediction. 
 
POEM 
 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY 
 
CBISPUS ATTUOKS. 
 
 NEGRO PATRIOT. KILLED IN BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1770. 
 
 [The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, may be regarded as the first act in the 
 drama of the American Revolution. "From that moment," said Daniel Webster, 
 "we may date the severance of the British Empire." The presence of the British 
 soldiers in King street excited the patriotic indignation of the people. . . . Led by 
 Crispus Attucks, the mulatto slave, and shouting, " The way to get rid of these soldiers 
 is to attack the main guard ! strike at the root ! this is the nest ! " with more valor 
 than discretion, they rushed to King street, and were fired upon by Captain Preston's 
 company. Crispus Attucks was the first to fall : he and Samuel Gray and James 
 Caldwell were killed on the spot. Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally 
 wounded. Historical Research, by George Livermore. Mass. Hist. Society.] 
 
 shall we seek for a hero, and where shall we find a story? 
 Our laurels are wreathed for conquest, our songs for completed 
 
 glory ; 
 
 But we honor a shrine unfinished, a column uncapped with pride, 
 If we sing the deed that was sown like seed when Crispus At 
 tucks died. 
 
 Shall we take for a sign this Negro-slave, with unfamiliar name 
 With his poor companions, nameless too, till their lives leaped forth 
 
 in flame? 
 
 Yes, surely, the verdict is not for us to render or deny ; 
 We can only interpret the symbol ; God chose these men to die 
 As teachers, perhaps, that to humble lives may chief award be 
 
 made ; 
 That from lowly ones and rejected stones the temple's base is laid ! 
 
52 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 When the bullets leaped from the British guns, no chance decreed 
 
 their aim : 
 
 Men see what the royel hirelings saw a multitude and a flame ; 
 But beyond the flame a mystery ; five dying men in the street, 
 While streams of severed races in the well of a nation meet ! 
 
 Oh, blood of the people ! changeless tide, through century, creed, and 
 
 race ! 
 Still one as the sweet salt sea is one, though tempered by sun and 
 
 place ; 
 
 The same in the ocean currents, and the same in the sheltered seas ; 
 Forever the fountain of common hopes and kindly sympathies. 
 Indian and Negro, Saxon and Celt, Teuton and Latin and Gaul 
 Mere surface shadow and sunshine, while the sounding unifies all ! 
 One love, one hope, one duty theirs ! No matter the time or ken, 
 There never was separate heart-beat in all the races of men ! 
 
 But alien is one of class, not race ; he has drawn the line for 
 himself ; 
 
 His roots drink life from inhuman soil, from garbage of pomp and 
 pelf; 
 
 He times his heart from the common beat, he has changed his life- 
 stream's hue ; 
 
 He deems his flesh to be finer flesh, he boasts that his blood is 
 blue. 
 
 Patrician, aristocrat, tory, whatever his age or name, 
 
 To the people's rights and liberties a traitor ever the same. 
 
 The natural crowd is a mob to him, their prayer a vulgar rhyme ; 
 
 The freeman's speech is sedition, and the patriot's deed a crime. 
 
 Wherever the race, the law, the land, whatever the time or throne, 
 
 The tory is always a traitor to every class but his own. 
 
 Thank God for a land where pride is clipped, where arrogance 
 stalks apart ; 
 
 Where law and song and loathing of wrong are words of the com 
 mon heart ; 
 
THE POEM: CKISPUS ATTUCKS. 53 
 
 Where the masses honor straightforward strength, and know when 
 
 veins are bled 
 That the bluest blood is putrid blood that the people's blood is 
 
 red! 
 
 And honor to Crispus Attucks, who was leader and voice that 
 
 day, 
 The first to defy, and the first to die, with Maverick, Garr, and 
 
 Gray. 
 
 Call it riot or revolution, his hand first clenched at the crown ; 
 His feet were the first in perilous place to pull the king's flag 
 
 down ; 
 His breast was the first one rent apart that liberty's stream might 
 
 flow ; 
 For our freedom now and forever, his head was the first laid low. 
 
 Call it riot or revolution, or mob or crowd, as you may, 
 
 Such deaths have been seed of nations, such lives shall be honored 
 
 for aye. 
 They were lawless hinds to the lackeys, but martyrs to Paul 
 
 Revere ; 
 
 And Otis and Hancock and Warren read spirit and meaning clear. 
 Ye teachers, answer ! what shall be done when just men stand in 
 
 the dock? 
 
 "When the caitiff is robed in ermine, and his sworders keep the lock ; 
 When torture is robbed of clemency, and guilt is without remorse ; 
 When tiger and panther are gentler than the Christian slaver's 
 
 curse ; 
 
 When law is a satrap's menace, and order the drill of a horde 
 Shall the people kneel to be trampled, and bare their neck to the 
 
 sword ? 
 
 Not so ! by this Stone of Resistance that Boston raises here ! 
 By the old North Church's lantern, and the watching of Paul 
 Revere ! 
 
54 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Not so ! by Paris of 'Ninety-Three, and Ulster of 'Ninety-Eight ! 
 By Toussaint in St. Domingo ! by the horror of Delhi's gate ! 
 By Adam's word to Hutchinson ! by the tea that is brewing still ! 
 By the farmers that met the soldiers at Concord and Bunker Hill ! 
 
 Not so ! not so ! Till the world is done, the shadow of wrong is 
 dread. 
 
 The crowd that bends to a lord to-day, to-morrow shall strike him 
 dead. 
 
 There is only one thing changeless : the earth steals from under our 
 feet, 
 
 The times and manners are passing moods, and the laws are in 
 complete ; 
 
 There is only one thing changes not, one word that still survives 
 
 The slave is the wretch who wields the lash, and not the man in 
 gyves ! 
 
 There is only one test of contract : is it willing, is it good ? 
 There is only one guard of equal right, the unity of blood. 
 There is never a mind unchained and true that class or race allows ; 
 There is never a law to be obeyed that reason disavows ; 
 There is never a legal sin but grows to the law's disaster. 
 The master shall drop the whip, and the slave shall enslave the 
 master ! 
 
 O Planter of seed in thought and deed ! has the year of right re 
 volved, 
 
 And brought the Negro patriot's cause with its problem to be 
 solved ? 
 
 His blood streamed first for the building, and through all the 
 century's years, 
 
 Our growth of story and fame of glory are mixed with his blood and 
 tears. 
 
 He lived with men like a soul condemned derided, defamed, and 
 mute ; 
 
 Debased to the brutal level, and instructed to be a brute. 
 
THE POEM: CRISPUS ATTUCKS. 55 
 
 His virtue was shorn of benefit, his industry of reward ; 
 
 His love ! O men, it were mercy to have cut affection's cord ! 
 
 Through the night of his woe, no pity save that of his fellow- 
 slave ; 
 
 For the wage of his priceless labor, the scourging block and the 
 grave ! 
 
 And now, is the tree to blossom? Is the bowl of agony filled? 
 
 Shall the price be paid and the honor said and the word of out 
 rage stilled? 
 
 And we who have toiled for freedom's law, have we sought for 
 freedom's soul? 
 
 Have we learned at last that human right is not a part, but the 
 whole ? 
 
 That nothing is told while the clinging sin remains part uncon- 
 f essed ? 
 
 That the health of the nation is perilled if one man be oppressed? 
 
 Has he learned the slave from the rice-swamps, whose children 
 
 were sold has he 
 With broken chains on his limbs, and the cry in his blood, " I am 
 
 free?" 
 Has he learned through affliction's teaching what our Crispus 
 
 Attucks knew 
 When Right is stricken, the white and black are counted as one, 
 
 not two? 
 
 Has he learned that his century of grief was worth a thousand years 
 In blending his life and blood with ours, and that all his toils and 
 
 tears 
 Wi-re heaped and poured on him suddenly, to give him a right to 
 
 stand 
 
 From the gloom of African forests in the blaze of the freest land ? 
 That his hundred years have earned for him a place in the human 
 
 van 
 Which others have fought for and thought for since the world of 
 
 wrong began? 
 
56 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 For this shall his vengeance change to love, and his retribution 
 
 bum, 
 Defending the right, the weak and the poor, when each shall have 
 
 his turn. 
 
 For this shall he set his woful past afloat on the stream of night ; 
 For this he forgets, as we all forget, when darkness turns to light ; 
 For this he forgives, as we all forgive, when wrong has changed to 
 
 right. 
 
 And so must we come to the learning of Boston's lesson to-day ; 
 The moral that Crispus Attucks taught in the old heroic way, 
 God made mankind to be one in blood, as one in spirit and 
 
 thought ; 
 And so great a boon, by a brave man's death, is never dearly 
 
 bought ! 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 ME. JOHN FISKE 
 
THE "BOSTON MASSACKE." 
 
 We have met here to-day, in the venerable building 
 which has so long been known to Americans as the 
 Cradle of Liberty, to commemorate one of the most 
 significant and impressive events in the noble strug 
 gle in which our forefathers succeeded in vindicating, 
 for themselves and their posterity, the sacred right 
 of self-government. Among the incidents of that 
 stirring period, there are perhaps none more worthy 
 of our careful study than those which attended the 
 compulsory withdrawal from Boston of the troops 
 which had been sent here for the purpose of intim 
 idating its citizens and aiding in the enforcement of 
 an odious system of revenue laws which the people 
 had had no voice in making, and to which it was 
 impossible for them tamely to submit without losing 
 their own self-respect and imperilling the safety and 
 happiness of future generations. When John Adams, 
 in alluding long afterward to the memorable 5th of 
 March, 1770, declared that " on that night the foun 
 dation of American independence was laid," he spoke 
 with the vehement emphasis that was customary t with 
 him. Yet while it may not be necessary to adopt 
 the statement in all its literal force, it serves to 
 show us how deeply the events of that evening 
 
60 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 were graven upon the writer's mind; and it recalls 
 with such vividness the temper and spirit of the 
 time, as to lead us back to the true historical point 
 of view. There is a sense in which John Adams' 
 remark was quite true. In order to point out the 
 real significance of the Boston Massacre and its 
 place in American history, I must invite your at 
 tention for a few moments to the circumstances 
 which led to the presence of British troops in Bos 
 ton from the autumn of 1768 to the spring of 
 1770. 
 
 The troubles and disorders in Boston which led to 
 the Revolution began soon after the grant of writs of 
 assistance to the revenue officers in 1761. These 
 writs of assistance were general search-warrants, em 
 powering the collectors of customs to enter houses 
 or shops in search of smuggled goods, but without 
 specifying either houses or goods. This made it 
 possible for a revenue officer to visit anybody's 
 house, perhaps from mere private spite, and lay 
 hands upon such articles as it might please him to 
 condemn as having been brought into town without 
 paying duty. The exercise of such an odious tyranny 
 was sure to be resisted, and it was resisted. During 
 the next half-dozen years, there were many instances 
 in which warehouse doors were barricaded and the 
 officers successfully defied. Into the midst of this 
 irritation came the Stamp Act of 1765, a law which 
 was repealed the next year because it was found 
 impossible to enforce it in any of the colonies. 
 The immediate fruits of the Stamp Act were riots 
 
THE ADDRESS. 61 
 
 in Xew York and Boston and elsewhere ; and one 
 of these riots in Boston was perhaps the most shame 
 ful affair in all the history of this town. It is quite 
 characteristic of mob law to strike in the wrong 
 places, and to punish those who have not offended. 
 An impression got abroad that Chief Justice Hutch- 
 inson had favored the passage of the Stamp Act, 
 and had acted as an informer against certain mer 
 chants suspected of breaking the revenue laws. This 
 impression was entirely incorrect, but under the in 
 fluence of it, one night in August, 1765, a drunken 
 mob broke into Mr. Hutchinson's house, threw his 
 furniture and pictures into the street, and destroyed 
 the noble library which he had been thirty years in 
 collecting, and which contained many priceless his 
 torical documents, the loss of which can never be 
 repaired. Let us here particularly observe that this 
 disgraceful affair was at once disowned and condemned 
 by the people of Boston. Before Governor Bernard 
 next morning had time to summon the Council, a 
 town-meeting here in Faneuil Hall had expressed its 
 abhorrence of the work of the rioters, and similar 
 expressions of feeling were soon heard from town- 
 meetings all over the Commonwealth. The ring-leaders 
 were imprisoned, and the Legislature, chosen by the 
 people, hastened to indemnify Mr. Hutchinson, so far 
 as possible, for the damage inflicted by the mob. 
 This incident shows conclusively that the people of 
 Massachusetts felt no sympathy for rioters; and it 
 should be borne in mind when we come to consider 
 the very different feelings which were called forth 
 
62 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 by the circumstances of the Boston Massacre. Let 
 us not fail to note that the great popular leader, 
 Samuel Adams, whom the loyalists were fond of 
 calling the " chief incendiary," was emphatic in his 
 condemnation of the Hutchinson riot. One of Adams' 
 favorite maxims was, "Always keep your enemy in 
 the wrong." He knew that the American people 
 were in the right, and therefore always appealed to 
 reason, and always deprecated any resort to violence. 
 We may now pass to the year 1767, when Par 
 liament, under the lead of Charles Townshend, passed 
 a new revenue law for America. If the old revenue 
 laws were odious because of the harsh way in which 
 they were enforced, this act of 1767 was doubly 
 odious because of the principle which it involved. 
 Hitherto such acts had been passed with the design 
 of regulating the commerce of the British Empire. 
 This Townshend act, in laying duties upon tea and 
 other articles, had a very different purpose. Under 
 pretence of regulating commerce, it sought to deprive 
 the Americans of their right of self-government. 
 This was at once evident from the way in which 
 the revenue derived from the tea and other articles 
 was to be used. It was to be used for defraying 
 the cost of a civil service to be established in all 
 the colonies, and to be directly responsible to the 
 crown. There had been much dispute for fifty years 
 as to the way in which the governors' salaries 
 should be paid. The act of 1767 was the prelude to 
 a series of measures for taking this question out of 
 the hands of the people entirely. It was five years 
 
THE ADDRESS. 63 
 
 more before the most serious of these measures, at 
 tacking the independence of the judges, was passed; 
 but the whole policy of the British Government was 
 so clearly indicated in the preamble to the act of 
 1767 that the Americans could not mistake it. 
 People often talk as if the American Revolution 
 originated in a mere money dispute, or else in some 
 theoretical discussion over the right of representation. 
 This is a grave mistake. It was far from being a 
 mere question of paying duties, and there was much 
 more in it than an assertion of abstract principle. It 
 was something that came home with grim reality to 
 everybody's door. Tea was selected as the chief ar 
 ticle for taxation, because it was supposed that 
 people could not get along without it. In its act 
 of 1767, the British Government said to the American 
 people, " We know very well that your wives and 
 daughters will never give up their quiet social 
 entertainments, in which tea is deemed indispensable. 
 We are therefore going to tax that article, and with 
 the money which you thus cannot help paying, we 
 are going to defray the salaries of your governors 
 and judges, and thus make them entirely independent 
 of you, and responsible only to us." What was this 
 but a shameless demand that the American people 
 should part with their liberty? It was answered in 
 three ways. Merchants in all the colonies answered 
 by forming associations pledged to buy no more 
 goods of any sort from England until the act of 
 1767 should be repealed. The ladies answered by 
 forming associations pledged to wear homespun clothes 
 
64 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 and drink no more tea until the Government should 
 retreat from its position. The Massachusetts Assembly 
 answered in 1768 by its famous circular letter ad 
 dressed to the other colonies, inviting them to coop 
 erate with Massachusetts in resisting the enforcement 
 of the law, and in petitioning for its prompt repeal. 
 
 This circular letter enraged King George and his 
 ministers,, and an order in council presently called 
 upon the Massachusetts Assembly to rescind it. At 
 the same time orders were sent to the assemblies of 
 all the other colonies, forbidding them to pay any 
 heed to the Massachusetts circular, under penalty of 
 instant dissolution. Thus said the king, and how 
 was he answered? For the first time, perhaps, in 
 any American legislative body, there was uttered a 
 threat of rebellion. " We are asked to rescind, are 
 we?" said James Otis; "let Great Britain rescind 
 her measures, or the colonies are lost to her for 
 ever ! " After a debate of nine days, the Massachu 
 setts Assembly decided, by a vote of ninety-two to 
 seventeen, that it would not rescind its circular let 
 ter. The Assembly was immediately dissolved by 
 Governor Bernard, but its vote was hailed with de 
 light all over the country, and " the Illustrious 
 Ninety-two " became the favorite toast on all con 
 vivial occasions. In several other colonies the as 
 semblies passed resolutions expressing their sympathy 
 with Massachusetts, and for so doing they were 
 turned out of doors by the governors, in conformity 
 to the royal order. 
 
 A decisive issue Avas thus rapidly forming between 
 
THE ADDRESS. 65 
 
 the colonies and the crown; and as the freedom of 
 all was alike involved in it, the way was fast being 
 smoothed for the beginnings of the American Union. 
 As the ministry were inclined to try conclusions, 
 especially with Massachusetts and with Boston, every 
 thing that was done here for the next seven years 
 was watched with intense interest, and was fraught 
 with peculiar significance for the whole country. In 
 the spring of 1768, the fifty-gun frigate " Romney " 
 was sent to mount guard in Boston harbor and aid 
 the revenue commissioners; and while she lay there, 
 several of the citizens were seized and impressed as 
 seamen. 
 
 ^Now, while the town was very indignant over 
 this lawless kidnapping of its citizens, on the 10th 
 of June, John Hancock's sloop " Liberty " was 
 seized at the wharf by a boat's crew from the 
 :? Romney," for an alleged violation of the revenue 
 laws, though without official warrant. Insults and 
 recriminations ensued between the officers and the 
 citizens assembled on the wharf, until after a 
 while the excitement grew into a mild form of 
 riot, in which a few windows were broken, some 
 of the officers were pelted, and finally a pleasure- 
 bout belonging to the collector was pulled up out 
 of the water, carried to the Common, and burned 
 there, when, at length, Hancock and Adams arriv 
 ing upon the scene, put a stop to the commotion. 
 A few days afterward a town-meeting was held in 
 Faneuil Hall; but as the crowd was too great to be 
 contained in the building, it was adjourned to the 
 
66 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 Old South Meeting-House, where Otis addressed the 
 people from the pulpit. A petition to the Governor 
 was prepared, in which it was set forth that the 
 impressment of peaceful citizens was an illegal act, 
 and that the state of the town was as if war had 
 been declared against it; and the Governor was re 
 quested to order the instant removal of the frigate 
 from the harbor. A committee of twenty-one lead 
 ing citizens was appointed to deliver this petition to 
 the Governor at his house in Jamaica Plain. In his 
 letters to the Secretary of State, Bernard professed 
 to live in constant fear of assassination, and was 
 always begging for troops to protect him against the 
 incendiary and blackguard mob of Boston. Yet, as 
 he looked down the beautiful road from his open 
 window that summer afternoon, what he saw was not 
 a ragged mob armed with knives and bludgeons, 
 shouting "Liberty or death," and bearing the head 
 of a revenue collector aloft on the point of a pike, 
 what he saw was a quiet procession of eleven chaises, 
 from which there alighted at his door twenty-one 
 gentlemen, as sedate and stately in demeanor as those 
 old Roman senators at whom the Gaulish chief so 
 marvelled. There followed a very affable interview, 
 during which wine was passed around; and next 
 day the Governor's answer was read in town-meeting, 
 declining to remove the frigate, but promising that 
 in future there should be no more impressment of 
 Massachusetts citizens; and with this compromise the 
 wrath of the people was, for the moment, assuaged. 
 Affairs of this sort, reported with gross exaggera- 
 
THE ADDRESS. 67 
 
 tion by the Governor and revenue commissioners to 
 the ministry, produced in England the impression 
 that Boston was a lawless and riotous town, full of 
 cutthroats and blacklegs, whose violence could only 
 be held in check by martial law. Of all the mis 
 conceptions of America by England which brought 
 about the American Revolution, perhaps this notion 
 of the extreme turbulence of Boston was the most 
 ludicrous. During the ten years of excitement which 
 preceded the war of independence, if we except 
 the one shameful riot in which Hutchinson's house 
 was sacked, there was much less uproar and confu 
 sion in Boston than might reasonably have been 
 expected. In all this time not a drop of blood was 
 shed by the people, nor was anybody's life for a 
 moment in danger at their hands. The only fit 
 ground for wonder is that they behaved themselves 
 so quietly. The disturbance attending the seizure 
 of the sloop " Liberty " was a fair sample of the 
 disorders which occurred at moments of extreme ex 
 citement, and it was nothing compared to the riots 
 which used to happen in London in those days. 
 ? The worst you could say about Boston," observed 
 Colonel Barre in Parliament, r? was that she was 
 imitating the mother-country." 
 
 Even before the affair of the " Liberty," the Gov 
 ernment had made up its mind to send troops to 
 Boston. The avowed purpose in sending them was 
 to preserve order; and such events as the sacking 
 of Hutchinson's house must have gone far toward 
 creating in England a public opinion which should 
 
4 
 
 68 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 sanction such a measure. But beneath this avowed 
 purpose lay the ultimate purpose, on the part of the 
 king and his friends, of intimidating the popular 
 party and enforcing the Townshend act. The people 
 of Boston understood this perfectly well. They knew 
 that the Townshend act was contrary to the whole 
 spirit of the British constitution; and in this they 
 were at one with many of the ablest and most 
 liberal statesmen of England. There were no dis 
 orders that had not directly originated in British 
 aggression, not one. Let this unjust and mischiev 
 ous act of legislation be repealed, and there would 
 be no disorders to be repressed. Whatever the 
 ostensible purpose by which the sending of these 
 troops was justified to the British people, there could 
 be no doubt as to its real meaning. It meant the 
 substitution of brute force for argument; it meant 
 military tyranny. And this, I say, the people of 
 Boston knew full well, although some of their de 
 scendants seem to have forgotten it. 
 
 In September, 1768, it was announced in Boston 
 that the troops were on their way, and would soon 
 be landed. There happened to be a legal obstacle, 
 unforeseen by the ministry, to their being quartered 
 in the city. In accordance with the general act of 
 Parliament for quartering troops, the regular bar 
 racks at Castle William in the harbor would have 
 to be filled before the town could be required to 
 find quarters for any troops. Another clause of the 
 act provided that if any military officer should take 
 upon himself to quarter soldiers in any of His 
 
THE ADDRESS. 69 
 
 Majesty's dominions, otherwise than as allowed by 
 the act, he should straightway be dismissed the 
 service. At the news that the troops were about 
 to arrive, the Governor was asked to convene the 
 Assembly, that it might be decided how to re 
 ceive them. On Bernard's refusal, the selectmen of 
 Boston issued a circular, inviting all the towns of 
 Massachusetts to send delegates to a general con 
 vention, in order that deliberate action might be 
 taken upon this important matter. In answer to the 
 circular, delegates from ninety-six towns assembled 
 in Faneuil Hall, and, laughing at the Governor's 
 order to "disperse," proceeded to show how, in the 
 exercise of the undoubted right of public meeting, 
 the colony could virtually legislate for itself in the 
 absence of its regular Legislature. The convention, 
 finding that nothing was necessary for Boston to do 
 but insist upon strict compliance with the letter of 
 the law, adjourned. In October, two regiments the 
 Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth arrived, and were 
 allowed to land without opposition, but no lodging 
 was provided for them. Governor Bernard, in fear 
 of an affray, had gone out into the country; but 
 nothing could have been further from the thoughts 
 of the people. The commander, Colonel Dalrymple 
 of the Fourteenth, requested shelter for his men, but 
 was told that he must quarter them in the barracks 
 at Castle William. As the night was frosty, how 
 ever, they were compassionately allowed to sleep in 
 Faneuil Hall, ^"ext day the Governor, finding every 
 thing quiet, came back, and heard Dalrymple's com- 
 
70 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 plaint. But in vain did he apply in turn to the 
 Council, to the selectmen, and to the justices of the 
 peace, to grant quarters for the troops: he was told 
 that the law was plain, and that the Castle must first 
 be occupied. The Governor then tried to get pos 
 session of an old dilapidated building which belonged 
 to the colony, but the tenants had taken legal 
 advice, and told him to turn them out if he dared. 
 Nothing could be more provoking. General Gage 
 was obliged to come on from his headquarters at 
 New York; but not even he, the commander-in-chief 
 of His Majesty's forces in America, could quarter 
 the troops in violation of the statute, without run 
 ning the risk of being cashiered on conviction 
 before two justices of the peace. So the soldiers 
 stayed in tents on the Common, until the weather 
 grew so cold that Dalrymple was obliged to hire 
 some buildings for them at exorbitant rates and at 
 the expense of the crown. By the time this ques 
 tion was settled, two more regiments the Sixty- 
 fourth and Sixty-fifth had arrived, and were 
 quartered in some large storehouses on Wheel 
 wright's wharf. The Fourteenth was quartered in a 
 building on Brattle street, owned by James Murray, 
 and henceforth known as " Murray's Barracks ; " the 
 Twenty-ninth was quartered between King and 
 "Water streets; and the main guard was accommo 
 dated in King street near the Town House. Small 
 detachments were posted at the ferries and on 
 Boston Neck, and two cannon were planted on 
 King street with their muzzles pointing toward the 
 
THE ADDRESS. 71 
 
 Town House for what purpose it would be hard to 
 say; hut it could hardly be otherwise interpreted by 
 the people than as a menace and an insult. 
 
 Xo sooner were the soldiers thus established in 
 Boston than Samuel Adams published the series of 
 letters signed "Yindex," in which he argued that to 
 quarter an army among the people of Massachusetts 
 without the consent of the Legislature was as unjusti 
 fiable and as gross a violation of the Bill of Rights 
 as it would be to quarter an army in London with 
 out the consent of Parliament. In other words, the 
 troops were intruders and trespassers in Boston; they 
 had no right to be here at all, since the Govern 
 ment had transcended its constitutional powers in 
 sending them. This was part and parcel of Adams' 
 doctrine, that the Massachusetts Legislature was as 
 supreme in Massachusetts as the Parliament in Great 
 Britain; that Americans must be governed by law 
 makers chosen by themselves, and not by law-makers 
 chosen by other people. It was to maintain this 
 doctrine that the Revolutionary War was fought; 
 and our forefathers, who maintained it, were quite 
 right in holding that the soldiers were intruders, who 
 might with entire propriety be warned off the prem 
 ises or forcibly ejected, should occasion require it. 
 For the present the milder course of petition to the 
 king was the proper one; and in the annual March 
 meeting of 1769, a paper was adopted, praying for 
 the removal of the troops. In April the ministry, 
 without consulting Governor Bernard, instructed Gen 
 eral Gage at New York to use his own discretion 
 
72 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 as to keeping the troops at Boston or withdrawing 
 them. Early in June Gage ordered the Sixty-fourth 
 and Sixty-fifth Regiments away from Boston, and in 
 the letter in which he advised Bernard of this order, 
 he asked him if it would not be better to remove 
 the other two regiments also. The citizens, hearing 
 of this, held a town-meeting, and declared that the 
 civil magistrates were quite able to protect life and 
 property, so that the mere presence of the troops 
 was an insult to the town. Bernard, however, wrote 
 to Gage that it would not be prudent to remove 
 the troops, though perhaps one regiment in the town 
 and one at the Castle might be enough. The result 
 was that nothing more was done, and the Fourteenth 
 and Twenty-ninth Regiments remained at their quarters. 
 In July, Bernard sailed for England, leaving affairs 
 in the hands of Hutchinson as lieutenant-governor. 
 
 "While these things were going on, the soldiers 
 did many things that greatly annoyed the people. 
 They led brawling, riotous lives, and made the 
 quiet streets hideous by night with their drunken 
 shouts. Scores of loose women, who had followed 
 the regiments across the ocean, came to scandalize 
 the town for a while, and then to encumber the alms- 
 house. On Sundays the soldiers would race horses 
 on the Common, or would play ? Yankee Doodle " 
 just outside the church-doors during the services. 
 Xow and then oaths, or fisticuffs, or blows with 
 sticks were exchanged between soldiers and citizens, 
 and at length a much more serious affair occurred. 
 One evening in September a dastardly assault was 
 
THE ADDRESS. 73 
 
 made upon James Otis at the British Coffee House 
 by one Robinson, a Commissioner of Customs, 
 assisted by half a dozen army officers. It was a 
 strange parallel to the assault upon Charles Sumner 
 by Brooks of South Carolina, shortly before the War 
 of Secession. Otis was savagely beaten, and received 
 a blow on the head with a sword, from the effects 
 of which he never recovered, but finally lost his 
 reason. The popular wrath at this outrage was 
 intense, but there was 110 disturbance. Otis brought 
 suit against Robinson, and recovered two thousand 
 pounds in damages, but refused to accept a penny 
 of it when Robinson confessed himself in the wrong, 
 and humbly asked pardon for his irreparable offence. 
 During the next six months the tension of feeling 
 steadily increased. Dr. Franklin wrote from London 
 that he lived in constant dread of the news of 
 some outbreak that might occasion irreparable mis 
 chief. In the course of February, 1770, there was 
 an unusual number of personal encounters. In one 
 or two instances criminals were forcibly rescued from 
 the hands of the constable. Citizens were pricked 
 with bayonets. On the 22d of that month, a well- 
 known informer named Richardson, being pelted by 
 a party of school-boys, withdrew into his house, 
 opened a window, and fired at random into the 
 crowd, killing a little boy, Christopher Snyder, about 
 eleven years of age, and severely wounding a son 
 of Capt. John Gore. The funeral of the murdered 
 boy took place on Monday, the 26th, and was 
 attended by a grand procession of citizens. It was 
 
74 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 with some difficulty that Richardson, on his way to 
 jail, was protected from the wrath of the people. 
 On his trial in April he was convicted of murder, 
 but after two years in prison was pardoned. TV r e 
 can well understand that the state of feeling in the 
 days following the little boy's funeral must have 
 been extremely intense. Quarrels and blows were 
 constantly occurring that week. The Twenty-ninth 
 Regiment, according to Hutchinson, contained a 
 number of. rough and ill-disciplined fellows, and as 
 their quarters were very near Mr. John Gray's rope- 
 walk, they came into frequent collision with the 
 workmen. 
 
 On Friday things assumed a decidedly warlike 
 aspect. About noon a soldier put his head into 
 one of the windows of the ropewalk, and gave 
 vent to his spleen in oaths and taunts, until pres 
 ently a workman came out and knocked him down, 
 while another took away his sword. The soldier 
 then went to the barracks and returned with a dozen 
 companions armed with clubs. A fight ensued, in 
 which the soldiers were worsted, and beat a retreat. 
 Presently they returned again, reenforced to * the 
 number of thirty or forty; but all hands in the 
 ropewalk were now ready to receive them, and they 
 were again beaten off with bruises and scars. Cut 
 lasses were used, and some blood was drawn, though 
 no one was seriously hurt. On Saturday, Colonel 
 Carr, commander of the Twenty-ninth, complained 
 to Governor Hutchinson; and on Monday the com 
 plaint was laid before the Council, and several mem- 
 
THE ADDRESS. 75 
 
 bers of that body declared their opinion that the 
 only way of insuring against a deadly affray was 
 to withdraw the two regiments from the town to 
 the Castle. In the afternoon a hand-bill was posted 
 by the soldiers, informing the rebellious people of 
 Boston that they were determined to join together 
 and defend themselves against all opponents. There 
 was some anxiety among the citizens, and people 
 gathered in groups on street-corners, discussing the 
 situation. The loud and angry threats of the soldiers 
 led many to believe that a massacre was intended. 
 It was time, they said, to wet their bayonets in the 
 blood of these New England people. At about eight 
 in the evening, a crowd collected near the barracks 
 in Brattle street. Conspicuous among the throng 
 was a very tall colored man, who seemed to be 
 acting as a leader. From bandying abusive epithets 
 with the soldiers, the crowd went on to pelt them 
 with snowballs, while, in turn, blows were dealt with 
 the butt-ends of muskets. Presently, Captain Gold 
 finch coming along, ordered his men into their 
 barracks for the night, and thus seemed to have 
 stopped the affray. But meanwhile some one had 
 got into the Old Brick Meeting-house, opposite 
 the head of King street, where the Sears Building 
 now stands and rung the bell; and this, being 
 interpreted as an alarm of fire, brought out many 
 more people into the moonlit streets. It was now 
 a little past nine o'clock. Bands of soldiers and of 
 citizens were hurrying hither and thither, and the 
 accounts of what happened are as disorderly and 
 
76 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 conflicting as the incidents which they try to relate. 
 There were cries of " Town-born, turn out ! the red 
 coats are going to kill us ! " and responses from 
 the soldiers, " Damn you, we will walk a lane 
 through you all ! " Between the limits of what are 
 now known as Dock square and School street in the 
 one direction, and Scollay square and Long wharf in 
 the other, there was the surging of the crowd, 
 not a vast and continuous crowd, but a series of 
 groups of enraged men, gesticulating and cursing, 
 actuated by no definite plan, but simply giving inco 
 herent utterance to the passions which had been 
 so long restrained, and were at last wrought up 
 beyond endurance. 
 
 In Dock square, "a tall gentleman in a large white 
 wig and red cloak " harangued the crowd for a few 
 minutes, and they listened quietly while he was 
 speaking. Who this mysterious person was, or 
 what he said, has never been ascertained. Presently 
 there was a shout of rt Hurrah for the main guard ! 
 there is the nest ! " and the crowd began pouring 
 into King street, through Exchange lane, while the 
 tall colored man, whose name was Crispus Attucks, 
 led a party in the same direction through the lower 
 part of Cornhill, now included in Washington street. 
 
 In front of the Custom House, on the corner of 
 King street and Exchange lane, a sentinel was pac 
 ing. A few minutes before, as Captain Goldfinch 
 passed by on his way to stop the affray in Brattle 
 street, a barber's apprentice had reviled him for 
 having had his hair dressed and gone off without 
 
THE ADDRESS. 77 
 
 paying. The sentinel knocked the boy down, and 
 was forthwith pelted with snowballs by other boys. 
 While this was going on, the crowd from Dock square 
 arrived upon the scene, and the sentinel retreated up 
 the steps of the Custom House, and called for help. 
 Some one ran to the guard-house and cried, f They 
 are killing the sentinel ; turn out the guard ! " Captain 
 Preston and seven or eight privates from the Twenty- 
 ninth came up the street upon the double-quick, prod 
 ding people with their bayonets and shouting, " Make 
 way, damn you, make way ! " " Are you going to 
 murder people?" asked a sailor. r Yes, by God! 
 root and branch," was the reply. As the soldiers 
 formed in a half-circle around the sentry-box, and 
 Preston ordered them to prime and load, the book 
 seller Henry Knox, afterward major-general in the 
 Continental Army, seized the captain by the coat, and 
 warned him that if blood was shed he would have to 
 answer for it with his life. " I know it," said Preston. 
 K I hope," said another gentleman, " you do not in 
 tend to fire on the people." " By no means," said 
 Preston. The crowd pressed up to the muzzles of 
 the guns, threw snow in the soldiers' faces, and dared 
 them to fire. Amid the clamor and scurry there 
 were so many cries of " Fire ! " that it would not 
 have been strange had some one of them been mis 
 taken for an order. It is most likely that no such 
 order was given by Preston; but all at once seven of 
 the levelled pieces were discharged, not simultaneously, 
 but in quick succession like the striking of a clock. 
 The first shot, fired by a soldier named Montgomery, 
 
78 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 killed Crispus Attucks, who was standing quietly at a 
 little distance leaning upon a stick. The second, fired 
 by one Kilroy, slew Samuel Gray, who was just step 
 ping toward the fallen Attucks. The next killed James 
 Caldwell, a sailor, standing in the middle of the street. 
 Samuel Maverick, a boy of seventeen, and Patrick 
 Carr had heard the church-bell, and come out to see 
 where the fire was. They were shot and mortally 
 wounded as they were crossing the street. Maverick 
 died next morning, Carr nine days later. Six other 
 men fell, dangerously, but not fatally, wounded. 
 
 The church-bells now began pealing, the alarm was 
 spread through the town, people flocked by hundreds 
 to the scene, the drums beat to arms, the Twenty- 
 ninth Regiment was called out and drawn up for 
 platoon-firing, and a general slaughter seemed immi 
 nent, when the arrival of Hutchinson put an end to 
 the tumult. The scholarly lieutenant-governor, in his 
 study in North square, had heard the bells, and sup 
 posed there was a fire somewhere; but soon there 
 came knocks at his front door, and flurried and breath 
 less cries that "the troops had risen on the people." 
 Making all haste to King street, he shouted indig 
 nantly to Preston, "Are you the commanding officer?" 
 " Yes, sir." " What do you mean by firing on the 
 people without an order from a civil magistrate." All 
 that could be heard of Preston's reply was something 
 about saving the sentry. A sudden surge of the 
 crowd pushed Hutchinson in through the door of the 
 Town House. He ran up-stairs into the Council 
 Chamber and came out on the balcony. In spite of 
 
THE ADDRESS. 79 
 
 his Tory sympathies, his lofty character and the 
 memory of his splendid public services still gave him 
 much weight with the people, and they listened quietly 
 as he addressed them. A court of inquiry was ordered, 
 the soldiers were sent to their barracks, Preston and 
 his squad were arrested, the people slowly dispersed 
 to their homes, and it was three o'clock in the morn 
 ing before Hutchinson left the scene. 
 
 In the forenoon the Council advised the removal 
 of the offending regiment, the Twenty-ninth, but 
 in the afternoon an immense town-meeting, called at 
 Faneuil Hall, adjourned to the Old South Meeting 
 house; and as they passed by the Town House, the 
 lieutenant-governor, looking out upon their march, 
 judged " their spirit to be as high as was the spirit of 
 their ancestors when they imprisoned Andros, while 
 they were four times as numerous." All the way from 
 the church to the Town House the street was crowded 
 with the people, while a committee, headed by Samuel 
 Adams, waited upon the lieutenant-governor, and re 
 ceived his assurance that the Twenty-ninth Regiment 
 should be removed. As the committee came out from 
 the Town House to carry the lieutenant-governor's 
 reply to the meeting in the church, the people pressed 
 .back on either side to let them pass; and Adams, lead 
 ing the way with uncovered head through the lane 
 thus formed, and bowing first to one side and then to 
 the other, passed along the watchword " Both regi 
 ments or none ! " When, in the church, the question 
 was put to vote, three thousand voices shouted, "Both 
 regiments or none ! " and armed with this ultimatum 
 
80 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 the committee returned to the Town House, where 
 the lieutenant-governor was seated with Colonel Dal- 
 rymple and the members of the Council. Then Adams, 
 in quiet but earnest tones, stretching 1 forth his arm 
 and pointing his finger at Hutchinson, reminded him 
 that if, as royal governor of the province, he had the 
 power to remove one regiment, he had equally the 
 power to remove both; that the voice of three thou 
 sand freemen demanded that all soldiery be forth 
 with removed from the town; and that if he failed 
 to heed their just demands, he did so at his peril. 
 " I observed his knees to tremble," said the old hero 
 afterward, " I saw his face grow pale, and I enjoyed 
 the sight ! " Before sundown the order had gone 
 forth for the removal of both regiments to Castle 
 William, and not until then did the meeting in the 
 church break up. 
 
 It has often been remarked that this scene in 
 the Council Chamber would make a fine subject for 
 an historical painting. This removal of the instruments 
 of tyranny at the behest of a New England town- 
 meeting was certainly one of the most impressive 
 scenes in history, and it summed up the coming 
 Revolution as an overture sums up the musical drama 
 to which it is prefixed. It was four years before 
 British troops were again quartered in Boston; and 
 on the sixth anniversary of the memorable scene in 
 the Council Chamber, General Howe looked with rue 
 ful gaze at Washington's threatening batteries on 
 Dorchester Heights, and decided that it was high 
 time to retreat from the town. When the news of 
 
THE ADDRESS. . 81 
 
 the affray in King street, and the consequent removal 
 of the troops, reached England, the king's friends 
 were chagrined, and there was some discussion in 
 Parliament as to whether it would do to submit 
 tamely to such a defeat. It was suggested that the 
 troops ought to be ordered back into the town, when 
 Colonel Barre pithily asked, "If, under the circum 
 stances, the commanders over there saw fit to remove 
 the troops, what minister here will venture to order 
 them back? " As nobody was ready with a reply 
 to this question, the subject was dropped; but for 
 many years afterwards the Fourteenth and Twenty- 
 ninth Regiments were familiarly known in Parliament 
 as l? The Sam Adams Regiments." 
 
 It was the sacrifice of the lives of Crispus Attucks, 
 Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and 
 Patrick Carr that brought about this preliminary 
 victory of the American Revolution. Their death 
 effected in a moment what seventeen months of 
 petition and discussion had failed to accomplish. 
 Instead of the king's representatives intimidating the 
 people of Boston, it was the people of Boston that 
 had intimidated the king's representatives. Mature 
 is apt to demand some forfeit in accomplishing 
 great results, and for achieving this particular result 
 the lives of those five men were the forfeit. It is, 
 therefore, historically correct to regard them as the 
 first martyrs to the cause of American independence; 
 as such they have long deserved a monument in the 
 most honorable place that Boston could give for the 
 purpose; and such a place is Boston Common. If 
 
82 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 experience did not teach us how full the world is 
 of paradox and looseness of thought, I should deem 
 it incredible that any student of history should ever 
 have doubted so plain and obvious a conclusion. 
 The present generation of historical students is very 
 creditably engaged in attempts to do justice to the 
 motives of the Tories of the Revolution, who have, 
 in many instances, been maligned and misunderstood. 
 Such attempts deserve our warmest sympathy, for it 
 is the duty of the historian to understand the past, 
 and only in so far as he divests himself of partisan 
 prejudice can he understand it. But in order to be 
 fair toward Tories, it is not necessary to become 
 Tories ourselves. We seem to be in some danger 
 of forgetting this obvious caution. Some of our 
 scholars seem to have swung around into the Tory 
 view of the events which ushered in the Revolution, 
 and things have been said about the Boston Massacre 
 which one would think fit to make glorious old 
 Samuel Adams turn in his grave. The motives and 
 purposes of the victims have been belittled or as 
 persed. In truth, we know little or nothing about 
 their motives and purposes; but we may fairly sup 
 pose them to have been actuated by the same feel 
 ings toward the soldiery that animated Adams and 
 Warren and the patriots of Boston in general. The 
 five victims were obscure men. As we have lately 
 been reminded, they did not belong to our "first 
 families." This, however, did not prevent Doctor 
 Warren from calling them "our slaughtered brethren," 
 and I do not suppose anybody that heard this phrase 
 
THE ADDRESS. 83 
 
 from the lips of that high-minded patriot would have 
 attributed it to a seeking after political effect. The 
 immense concourse of people, including our " first 
 families,'' that followed them on the 8th of March to 
 their grave in the Old Granary Burying-ground, unques 
 tionably regarded them as victims who had suffered in 
 the common cause. Of their personal history next to 
 nothing is known. Three of them Caldwell, Carr, 
 and Maverick would seem to have been by-standers 
 accidentally shot. Of the two who took a prominent 
 part in the affair, Gray was one of the workmen 
 at the ropewalk; Attucks was a stranger in Boston. 
 He was a sailor employed on Captain Folger's 
 whaleship from Nantucket, which was lying in Boston 
 harbor. He was described as a mulatto, and may 
 very probably have been the slave Crispus, six feet 
 two inches in height, who ran away from his master, 
 AVilliam Browne, of Framingham, in the fall of 1750, 
 and was duly advertised in the "Boston Gazette" 
 of November 20, in that year. If that be the case, 
 he was about forty-six years old at the time of his 
 death. It has also been argued that he may have 
 been a Natick Indian, since the name Attucks is 
 certainly an Indian name signifying " deer." Quite 
 likely he had both Indian and African blood in his 
 veins; such a thing was not unusual in the country 
 about Framingham. At the time of his death his 
 home is said to have been in the Island of Nassau, 
 and he was apparently embarked for North Carolina, 
 working his way, perhaps, towards his home. From 
 this time until independence was won, there was 
 
84 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 hardly a struggle in which brave men of his race 
 and color did not nobly acquit themselves. 
 
 Such was the famous "Boston Massacre." The 
 excellent British historian, Mr. Lecky, observes that 
 "there are many dreadful massacres recorded in the 
 pages of history, the massacre of the Danes by the 
 Saxons, the Massacre of the Sicilian Yespers, the Mas 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew, but it may be questioned 
 whether any of them produced such torrents of indig 
 nant eloquence as this affair." (Hist. Eng. III., 367.) 
 In commenting upon the very gentle sarcasm here 
 implied, I would remind Mr. Lecky that it will not 
 do to try to measure history with a foot-rule. 
 Lord Sherbrooke better known as Robert Lowe 
 declared a few years ago, in a speech on the 
 uses of a classical education, that the Battle of Mar 
 athon was really of less account than a modern 
 colliery-explosion, because only one hundred and 
 ninety-two of the Greek army lost their lives. 
 From such a point of view, one might argue that 
 the " Boston Massacre " was an event of far less im 
 portance than an ordinary free fight among Colorado 
 gamblers. It is needless to say that this is not the 
 historical point of view. Historically, the "Boston 
 Massacre" is not only important from the fresh 
 impetus it gave to the nascent revolutionary feeling 
 among the Americans at that time, but it furnishes 
 an instructive illustration of the high state of civil 
 ization that had been attained by the people among 
 whom it happened, by the oppressors as well as 
 those whom it was sought to oppress. The' quar- 
 
THE ADDRESS. 85 
 
 tering of troops in a peaceful town is something 
 that has in most ages been regarded with horror. 
 Under the senatorial government of Rome, it used 
 to be said that the quartering of troops, even upon 
 a friendly province and for the purpose of protecting 
 it, was a visitation only less to be dreaded than an 
 inroad of hostile barbarians. When we reflect that 
 the British regiments were encamped in Boston dur 
 ing seventeen months, among a population to whom 
 they were thoroughly odious, the fact that only half 
 a dozen persons lost their lives, and that otherwise 
 no really grave crimes seem to have been committed, 
 is a fact highly creditable both to the discipline of 
 the soldiers and to the moderation of the people. 
 In most ages and countries the shooting of half a 
 dozen citizens under such circumstances would either 
 have produced but a slight impression, or, on the 
 other hand, would perhaps have resulted on the spot 
 in a wholesale slaughter of the offending soldiers. 
 The fact that so profound an impression was made 
 in Boston and throughout the country, while at the 
 same time the guilty parties were left to be dealt 
 with in the ordinary course of law, is a striking 
 commentary upon the general peacefulness and de 
 corum of American life; and it shows how high and 
 severe was the standard by which our forefathers 
 judged all lawless proceedings. And here it may 
 not be irrelevant to add that, throughout the con 
 stitutional struggles which led to the Revolution, the 
 American standard of political right and wrong was 
 so high that contemporary European politicians found 
 
86 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 it sometimes difficult to understand it. And for a 
 like reason, even the most fair-minded modern 
 English historians sometimes fail to see why the 
 Americans should have been so quick to take offence 
 at acts of the British Government which doubtless 
 were not meant to be oppressive. If George III. 
 had been a bloodthirsty despot, like Philip II., of 
 Spain; if General Gage had been like the Duke of 
 Alva; if American citizens by the hundred had been 
 burned alive or broken on the wheel in New York 
 and Boston; if towns such as Providence and Hart 
 ford had been given up to the cruelty and lust of 
 a beastly soldiery, then no one would ever have 
 found it hard to understand why the Americans 
 should have exhibited a rebellious temper. But it is 
 one signal characteristic of the progress of political 
 civilization, that the part played by sheer brute force 
 in a barbarous age is fully equalled by the part 
 played by a mere covert threat of injustice in a 
 more advanced age. The effect which a blow in the 
 face would produce upon a barbarian will be wrought 
 upon a civilized man by an assertion of some far- 
 reaching legal principle, which only in a subtle and 
 ultimate analysis includes the possibility of a blow 
 in the face. From this point of view, the quickness 
 with which such acts as those of Charles Townshend 
 were comprehended in their remotest bearings is the 
 most striking proof one could wish of the high 
 grade of political culture which our forefathers had 
 reached through their system of perpetual free 
 discussion in town-meeting. They had, moreover, 
 
THE ADDRESS. 87 
 
 reached a point where any manifestation of simple 
 brute force in the course of a political dispute was 
 exceedingly disgusting and shocking to them. To 
 their minds the careless or wanton slaughter of five 
 citizens conveyed just as much meaning as a St. 
 Bartholomew massacre would have conveyed to the 
 minds of men in a lower stage of political develop 
 ment. 
 
 It was not strange, therefore, that Samuel Adams 
 and his friends should have been ready to make 
 the ? Boston Massacre " the occasion of a moral 
 lesson to their contemporaries. As far as the offend 
 ing soldiers were concerned, they were most honor 
 ably dealt with. There was no attempt to wreak 
 a paltry vengeance on them. Brought to trial 
 on a charge of murder, after a judicious delay 
 of seven months, they were ably defended by John 
 Adams and Josiah Quincy, and all were acquitted 
 save Montgomery and Kilroy, who were convicted of 
 manslaughter, and branded in the hand. There were 
 some hot-heads who grumbled at the verdict, but the 
 people of Boston generally acquiesced in it, as they 
 showed by choosing John Adams for their representa 
 tive in the Assembly. At the same time, such an 
 event as the ' r? Boston Massacre " could not fail for a 
 long time to point a moral among a people so unused 
 to violence and bloodshed. Paul Revere, who was 
 one of the earliest of American engravers, published a 
 quaint colored engraving of the scene in King street, 
 which for a long time was widely circulated, though 
 it has now become very scarce. Below the picture 
 
88 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 are the following verses, written in the rhymed ten- 
 syllable couplets which the eighteenth century was so 
 fond of turning out by the yard : 
 
 " Unhappy Boston ! see thy sons deplore 
 
 Thy hallowed walks besmeared with guiltless gore, 
 
 While faithless P n and his savage bands 
 
 With murderous rancour stretch their bloody hands, 
 Like fierce barbarians gi-inning o'er their prey, 
 Approve the carnage and enjoy the day. 
 
 If scalding drops from rage, from anguish, wrung, 
 If speechless sorrows labouring for a tongue, 
 Or if a weeping world can aught appease 
 The plaintive ghosts of victims such as these, 
 The patriot's copious tears for each are shed, 
 A glorious tribute which embalms the dead. 
 
 But know ! Fate summons to that awful goal, 
 Where Justice strips the murderer of his soul ; 
 
 Should venal c ts, the scandal of the land, 
 
 Snatch the relentless villain from her hand, 
 
 Keen execrations on this plate inscribed 
 
 Shall reach a Judge who never can be bribed." 
 
 These last lines give expression to the feelings of 
 those who . condemned the verdict of the court, and 
 they show how intense was the indignation over the 
 bloodshed and the sympathy for the victims. The 
 self-restraint shown by the people, while under the 
 influence of such feelings, is in the highest degree 
 creditable to Boston; and the moral lessons of the 
 story are such as ought never to be forgotten. 
 Adams and Warren, and their patriot friends, were 
 right in deciding that the fatal 5th of March should 
 
THE ADDRESS. 89 
 
 be solemnly commemorated each year by an oration 
 to be delivered in the Old South Meeting-house, 
 and this custom was kept up until the recognition 
 of American independence in 1783, when the day 
 for the oration was changed to the 4th of July. 
 At the very first annual March meeting after the 
 massacre, it was proposed to erect a monument to 
 commemorate it. The form of the proposal shows 
 that the character of the event was understood by 
 town-people at that time as I have endeavored to 
 set it forth to-day. In dedicating this memorial on 
 Boston Common after the lapse of more than a cen 
 tury, we are but performing an act of justice too 
 long delayed. There let it stand for future genera 
 tions to contemplate as a monument of the wickedness 
 and folly of all attempts to employ brute force in 
 compelling the obedience of the people to laws which 
 they have had no voice in making. 
 
LETTERS. 
 
LET TEE S. 
 
 The Citizens' Committee invited the Hon. FREDERICK 
 DOUGLASS, the distinguished anti-slavery orator, to make an 
 address in Faneuil Hall at the dedicatory exercises. Mr. 
 Douglass wrote as follows, declining the invitation : 
 
 LETTER FROM HOX. FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 
 
 CEDAR HILL, ANACOSTIA, D.C., Oct. 5, 1888. 
 WILLIAM H. DUPREE, B. R. WILSON, E. M. CHAMBERLIN : 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Your respected letter informing me that a monu 
 ment in commemoration of Crispus Attucks and others who fell in 
 the massacre in State street, March o, 1770, will be unveiled by 
 the Commonwealth at 11 o'clock, Wednesday, November the 14th 
 next, and also inviting me to deliver the oration on that occasion, 
 came in my absence ; otherwise you should have had an earlier 
 answer. I exceedingly regret that my entire time and strength 
 from now until the 6th of November, being pledged to the work 
 of the National Republican Committee, with appointments already 
 made, will prevent the acceptance of the invitation with which you 
 have honored me. I shall probably come out of the campaign, as 
 out of previous ones, with little nervous force left for immediate 
 work of any kind, certainly not enough to prepare an address 
 suitable to an occasion so historic and grand as that proposed 
 for the 14th of November. 
 
 I hardly need say that I am deeply sensible of the honor 
 conferred upon me by your invitation, or that I am happy in the 
 thought that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is about to com- 
 
94 THE ATTUCKS MEMORIAL. 
 
 memorate an act of heroism on the part of one of a race seldom 
 credited with heroic qualities. I believe that Massachusetts is first 
 in this recognition, as she has been first in much else that is 
 noble, magnanimous, and brave. It was Massachusetts that, under 
 the lead of her great war-governor, John A. Andrew, first armed 
 and equipped two colored regiments for service against the late 
 slave-holding rebellion. It was Massachusetts that, in those dark 
 days, gave to the Senate Charles Surnner and Henry Wilson ; and 
 I do not forget that it was Massachusetts, by her advanced 
 sentiments, made it comparatively safe for me to dwell within her 
 borders when a fugitive, not from justice, but from slavery, fifty 
 years ago. The recollection of these and other facts would strongly 
 incline me to comply with your invitation but for the impossibility 
 already mentioned. While, however, I cannot promise to deliver the 
 oration, I do hope to be able to be present as an interested spec 
 tator of the ceremony of unveiling the proposed monument on the 
 14th of November next, and to listen to the oration in old Faneuil 
 Hall, upon whose platform, in other days, the grandest words for 
 freedom and patriotism found utterance, and have since gotten 
 themselves incorporated in the laws, and measurably in the life, of 
 the American people. It is meet that your grand old Common 
 wealth should take the lead in honoring the memory of patriots 
 and heroes, of whatever race and color. She has this right by 
 reason of eminent fitness. The tide of her civilization has alone 
 risen to the level of this commemoration. Colored men fought 
 with Perry on Lake Erie. Colored men fought at Red Bank in the 
 Revolution. Colored men fought, and fought bravely, at New Orleans, 
 under General Jackson, But no monument commemorates their 
 services. I do not doubt, however, that the time will come when 
 the colored man will have the same measure of justice accorded to 
 him by others that Massachusetts now accords to Crispus Attucks, 
 the hero of the State-street massacre in 1770. 
 
 Looking upon the magnificent monument erected in the city of 
 Paris to the memory of Alexander Dumas, one of the most brilliant 
 literary men of the whole constellation of French writers, I could 
 not but credit Frenchmen with a higher degree of justice and im- 
 
LETTERS. 95 
 
 partiality to colored men than had yet been attained by my own 
 countrymen. But when the monument to Crispus Attacks takes 
 its place in Boston, this unfavorable comparison can no longer be 
 made. In common with millions of my colored brethren all over 
 our land, I rejoice and am exceeding glad that Boston is to have 
 among her many other distinctions this noble concession to justice 
 and patriotism in the person of one of a hitherto disparaged and 
 
 despised people. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 FIJEDERICK DOUGLASS. 
 
 LETTER FROM DR. HENRY I. BOWDITCH. 
 
 NOVEMBER 14, 1888. 
 MR. BUTLER R. WILSON : 
 
 DEAR SIR, I had received an official notice from the authori 
 ties at the State House, and an invitation to be present at the 
 unveiling of the monument erected by the State to the martyrs 
 to liberty, who fell in State street, March 5, 1770. 
 
 Your kind letter received last evening induces me to say to you 
 that nothing but the present state of my health prevents me from 
 accepting the invitation. 
 
 The two historical societies who have their headquarters in Bos 
 ton have, by their committees, protested against the erection of a 
 monument to commemorate a " mod," as they call the event in 
 State street, and the just (as these historical gentlemen would say) 
 death of "rioters." That "mob" was, according to Daniel Webster, 
 the commencement of the war of the Revolution. I cannot see 
 why we should have our "Minute Man" at Lexington, or our 
 monuments at Concord and Bunker Hill, if this first clash of arms 
 in State street which some of the most prominent of the patriots 
 of the Revolution celebrated year after year cannot be justly 
 commemorated . 
 
 Wishing you complete success, I remain, 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 IIKNRY I. BOWDITCH. 
 
9(3 THE ATTUCKS MEMOKIAL. 
 
 LETTER FROM REV. PHILLIPS BROOKS, D.D. 
 
 223 CLARENDON STREET, 
 
 BOSTON, Nov. . r >, 1888. 
 BUTLER R. WILSON, ESQ. : 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I thank the committee for their invitation, and 
 I should be very glad to do the duty which they ask of me, if 
 it were possible. But I am very sorry to say that I cannot be 
 at Faneuil Hall at the hour appointed for the dedication 
 exercises. 
 
 I must therefore beg you to excuse me, and believe me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 LETTER FROM REV. DAVID GREGG, D.D. 
 
 PARK STREET CHURCH, 
 BOSTON, MASS., Nov. 5, 1888. 
 MR. BUTLER R. WILSON : 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have an engagement in New York City for 
 November 14, a wedding. Were it not for this I would gladly 
 comply with the request to close the Faneuil Hall exercises of 
 that date with prayer. I would esteem it a great honor to be 
 present at the dedication of the monument to Crispus Attucks. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 DAVID GREGG. 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. JOHN M. LANGSTON. 
 
 PETERSBURG, VA., Nov. 12, 1888. 
 
 HON. OLIVER AMES, and others. Committee, etc.. Boston, Mass.: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
 
 your invitation to attend the dedication, on the 14th inst., of the 
 
 monument erected by your State to Attucks, Maverick, Caldwell, 
 
LETTERS. 97 
 
 Gray, and Carr. It would give me great pleasure to be present 
 on such occasion. Thus, while I honored the heroic dead, I 
 might have my soul inspired to new, earnest duty in behalf of the 
 country and race, to promote whose interests and welfare they died. 
 Pressing duties, however, detain me at home, and I am only able 
 to tender you my thanks for the great service which the old 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts does humanity, especially the 
 negro race, in the erection of a monument which shall tell to 
 posterity how nobly these, her black revolutionary sons, among 
 the very first to fall, March 5, 1770, to consecrate and make 
 possible our national independence and free institutions, demeaned 
 themselves in the face of danger and in the midst of fiery 
 struggle. 
 
 Most respectfully and sincerely yours, 
 
 JOHN MERCER LANGSTON. 
 
V