UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON, 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY, 1866, 
 
 EEV. S. K. LOTHROP, D. D. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 Some Account of the Municipal Celebration of the Ninetieth Anniversary 
 
 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 ALFKED MUDGE & SON, CITY PEINTEKS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
 
 1866.
 
 CITY OF BOSTON. 
 
 In Common Council, July 5, 1866. 
 
 RESOLVED : That the thanks of the City Council are due and 
 they are hereby tendered to Rev. SAMUEL K. LOTHKOP, D. D., 
 for the eloquent and patriotic Oration delivered by him before 
 the Municipal Authorities of Boston on the occasion of the 
 XCth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independ- 
 ence; and that he be requested to furnish a copy of said 
 Oration for publication. 
 
 Sent up for concurrence. 
 
 JOHN C. HAYNES, Pres. pro tern. 
 
 In Board of Aldermen, July 7, 1866. 
 Concurred. 
 
 G. W. MESSINGER, Chairman. 
 
 Approved July 7, 1866. 
 
 F. W. LINCOLN, JR., Mayor. 
 
 453410
 
 ORATION. 
 
 Mr. Mayor, Gentlemen of the City Council, Friends 
 and Fellow- Citizens : 
 
 My words may be dull, but the occasion has an 
 eloquence of its own; my thoughts may be feeble, 
 but the day clusters with memories, associations and 
 hopes that should give it power and make it an 
 inspiration to our hearts. Patriotism is an instinct 
 of humanity. Whether it be amid the snows of Lap- 
 land or the arid deserts of Arabia, wherever, what- 
 ever it may be, barren or beautiful, every man 
 loves his country, and every true man is ready to 
 live and labor, to toil, sacrifice, suffer, and, if 
 need be, to die for his country. But we, of all 
 people, should love our country; our patriotism has 
 so much to sustain it, that it should be not simply 
 an instinct, but a principle ; a deep conviction of 
 the judgment as well as a warm emotion of the 
 heart. We have a glorious past, a grand though 
 
 troubled present, and a future rich in such hopes 
 
 i*
 
 O JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 and promises as never before invited the energies, 
 or met the honest, pure, noble ambition of any 
 people. Nay, our patriotism should find its founda- 
 tion and nourishment in religious faith, faith in 
 God, faith in humanity, and faith in those great 
 principles of liberty and love, with which Christianity, 
 for eighteen centuries, has been striving to impreg- 
 nate the heart of the world, and which, under the 
 providence of God, have here a grander opportu- 
 nity for development, expansion and application than 
 was ever offered them before. 
 
 History is the unfolding of God's thought, the de- 
 velopment of his purpose. Its epochs are the foot- 
 prints of the Almighty on the sands of time. In 
 our land, and in all that relates to it, these foot- 
 prints are so distinct and impressive that we must 
 be infidel indeed, if we do not mark and stud} 
 them with reverence and gratitude. 
 
 The hand of God in our country, the tokens of 
 his benignant purpose to protect and advance in it 
 the interests of liberty and humanity, is a theme 
 for whose details volumes would be required; the 
 few paragraphs of an oration can only sketch the 
 outline. 
 
 It begins with the discovery of America, which 
 was so wonderfully opportune in time, that we no
 
 OEATION. 1 
 
 longer ask why the Western Hemisphere was kept 
 concealed for so many ages from the Eastern, the 
 untravelled waters of the Atlantic rolling between 
 them. Had the discovery been made a few centuries 
 earlier, the semi-barbarous institutions and feudalism 
 of the Old World would have been transplanted in 
 their vigor to the New, and social America would 
 have been little more than a reproduction of social 
 Europe. Had the discovery been delayed a few 
 centuries, the new ideas and principles in regard 
 to religious and civil liberty, government, society, 
 man, the Gospel in all its applications, which the 
 Reformation called forth, would, in all human proba- 
 bility, have had but a short-lived, struggling exist- 
 ence. Confined to Europe, they would have been 
 strangled, crushed, put down and kept down by 
 those influences of habit and custom, of civil and 
 ecclesiastical power, which have there opposed their 
 progress, and so long prevented their legitimate re- 
 sults, the enfranchisement and elevation of humanity. 
 Well may we bow in adoring faith before that be- 
 neficent Providence, which so ordered it, that just 
 when it was most needed, when the Reformation 
 broke the slumbers of Europe and stirred its commu- 
 nities, as they have never been stirred before, to 
 intense intellectual, moral and social activity, then
 
 8 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 this new continent, discovered less than half a century 
 before, offered to this activity a new and fair field; 
 and the new ideas and principles, which in Europe, 
 overborne in the struggle with long established insti- 
 tutions, and hereditary organizations, forms and 
 usages, would here have failed to work out any grand 
 results upon a great scale, found here, on the virgin 
 soil and comparatively unoccupied territory of this 
 new world, an opportunity for untrammelled devel- 
 opment, a development which for more than two 
 centuries has steadily increased, giving impulse and 
 progress to humanity, producing results which form 
 one of the grandest and most interesting chapters in 
 the history of our race, and sending back upon the 
 Old World influences, which have been and will be 
 more and more salutary and beneficial. 
 
 If ever civil and religious liberty, that boon 
 which every man craves for himself and every noble 
 man would accord to others, if ever that great, 
 intelligent, responsible freedom, which, through the 
 gospel and the spirit of the Lord, comes to the 
 soul of man, is to prevail over the earth, if it 
 is ever to maintain a strong foothold among the 
 nations, it will be because, at the hour of its 
 utmost need, God gave it opportunity to plant itself 
 on this new continent, and strike its roots so deep
 
 ORATION. 9 
 
 that no despotic power could tear them up, no 
 storm of passion and folly blight the blossoms, or 
 destroy the fruit of the tree. 
 
 Beginning thus with the auspicious time of the dis- 
 covery of our country, the wonderful workings of a 
 wise and merciful Providence may be traced all 
 through the infancy, the growth and progress of every 
 colony established therein from Maine to Georgia. 
 In the planting of the Plymouth colony, where a 
 few noble men and high-souled women stepped upon 
 a low, shapeless rock, against which the waves of 
 the Atlantic had beaten for centuries, and the world 
 knew not of it and cared not for it, and by their toils 
 and tears, their sufferings and sacrifices, made that 
 rock to become one of the sacred spots of earth, 
 hallowed by the noblest memories and grandest re- 
 sults, there may be more of romance, more of thrill- 
 ing incident and wonderful achievement, than in that 
 of some of the others ; but these elements so abound 
 in all, that, if we have faith as a grain of mustard 
 seed, our hearts must prompt us to recognize and 
 adore a divine purpose and providence, wonderfully 
 manifested in the events connected with the early 
 settlement .and colonization of our country, till we 
 come down to that great epoch in its history, of 
 which this day is the commemoration.
 
 10 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, I need not dwell 
 upon the principles, nor recite the incidents of that 
 solemn and sublime struggle of our fathers for 
 independence, in the success of which we gather 
 here at this hour, citizens of this free Common- 
 wealth, inheritors in this grand republic. These 
 principles have entered into the education of our 
 people for generations. These incidents are written 
 in our histories, taught in our schools, graven upon 
 our memories, familiar as household words upon our 
 lips. But it was a glorious struggle. It was an 
 appeal to arms, to the God of battles, as necessary 
 and as justifiable as it was triumphant. That was 
 not a rebellion, any of whose authors felt con- 
 strained to acknowledge, that the government from 
 which they would separate, and so far overthrow, 
 was the wisest, the best, the most paternal and 
 beneficent ever instituted. That was not a rebel- 
 lion whose success was to put limitations upon 
 liberty, and give extension and a deep, terrible per- 
 manence to slavery. That was not a rebellion 
 so utterly without cause, in any grievance endured, 
 or oppression exercised, that its instigators or authori- 
 ties never made, and never dared attempt to make, 
 any public proclamation to the world of the wrongs 
 they had to redress, of the rights they would vindi-
 
 EAT ION. 11 
 
 cate, or of the spirit and purpose of the new nation- 
 ality they would establish. No, it was not such 
 a rebellion. That grave, calm, solemn document, 
 which our fathers put forth ninety years ago to-day, 
 and which has just been so admirably read to us this 
 morning, that document, its preliminary utterances, 
 rightly understood and interpreted, not " glittering 
 generalities," but solid, substantial and everlasting 
 verities, having their foundations in that eternal 
 justice, which is older than all institutions, and 
 anterior to all governments save that of God, that 
 document, its recital of facts so true in letter and 
 spirit, as to defy refutation or denial, that docu- 
 ment, which at once assumed and will forever hold 
 its place, as one of the most important historic 
 documents of the world, the natural and legitimate 
 child of that Magna Charta of England, which 
 England violated and trampled upon when she 
 attempted to oppress and subject us, that docu- 
 ment the Declaration of Independence, vindicates 
 our fathers to the judgment, while its successful 
 maintenance secures to them the admiration and 
 gratitude of mankind. 
 
 It was a glorious struggle, just in its origin, 
 noble in its purpose, grand in its success, grander 
 because that success was a triumph over the
 
 12 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 prowess of England, the most signal defeat to 
 her power, the greatest loss to her possessions she 
 ever sustained. Never, before or since, have any of 
 her colonies or territorial possessions succeeded in 
 throwing off her yoke. It has been attempted in 
 India, hi Canada and the West Indies, and the 
 attempts have failed. Wherever, in any quarter of 
 the globe, England gets a foothold, plants her 
 standard and erects her forts, there she holds on 
 against all intruders and against all revolt; and it 
 is true to-day as of yore " her drum-beat 
 follows the sun, and may be heard all around 
 the earth." In addition to her large colonial terri- 
 tories, or in connection with them, she holds 
 some of the most important and salient points 
 of the globe in either hemisphere. It is, and 
 has ever been her policy to seek possession of such, 
 a policy which the commercial and political inter- 
 ests of this country, especially on our Western coast, 
 and in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, demand that 
 our government should withstand by all just and 
 honorable means. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, it 
 was supposed that ocean steam - navigation would 
 cripple the maritime power of England ; but it has 
 largely increased it, because England alone, England 
 to a greater extent than any other nation, that all
 
 ORATION. 13 
 
 but omnipresent power whose centre is London, can 
 send her merchant or war -steamers into all the 
 waters of the globe, and everywhere coal at her 
 own ports, beneath the shadow of her own flag 
 and the protection of her own guns, an advantage 
 she will not fail to hold, to use exclusively for 
 herself when she needs, to extend when she can. 
 It was a glorious struggle, the revolutionary strug- 
 gle of our fathers, and a signal defeat and loss to 
 power of Great Britain. But the point, I wish to 
 make, is the testimony it affords to a benign purpose 
 on the part of the Divine Providence towards this 
 land, and the interests and progress of humanity as 
 connected with it. In the general aspects of the 
 struggle, there are three particulars worthy of especial 
 notice in this connection. First, the quick and thor- 
 ough union of the colonies, when the hour for forci- 
 ble resistance arrived, and the stern appeal to arms 
 had to be made. Here were thirteen colonies, three 
 millions of people, a sparse population, a vast 
 territory, with none of the modern facilities for 
 personal intercourse, the diffusion of information, 
 or for concert of action. Single, isolated rebellion 
 on the part of any or all of these colonies would 
 have been a failure. It would have been speedily 
 crushed. By a wise foresight our fathers were led
 
 14 JULY I, 1866. 
 
 to provide against this ; and suddenly, through means 
 whose suggestion and efficacy seem wonderfully provi- 
 dential, the thirteen became a unit, with a general 
 Congress, and Articles of Confederation strong enough 
 to carry them through as long and severe a struggle, 
 as liberty ever exacted of her champions. 
 
 This point is important in another aspect. No one 
 of these colonies, in the exercise of individual sover- 
 eignty, declared itself independent of Great Britain, or 
 undertook in its own name to be, or to set up a new 
 nationality on the earth. As colonies they were 
 subject to Great Britain; as revolting colonies they 
 instantly became united, and within eight and forty 
 hours after the first blow of armed resistance was 
 struck at Lexington, troops from more than one of 
 these colonies were acting in concert in the siege of 
 this city. As colonies uniting in revolt, they passed 
 into a confederacy of States, and thus made to Eng- 
 land and to the world their " Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence ;" and from a Confederacy of States they passed 
 under the Constitution into a Union, not of the States, 
 but of the people: "We, the people of the United 
 States, do ordain and establish this Constitution, which, 
 with the laws and treaties formed under it, shall be the 
 supreme law of the land, anything in any State consti- 
 tution or legislation to the contrary notwithstanding."
 
 ORATION. 15 
 
 Not for an hour has any one of these States been 
 an independent State, universally known and rec- 
 ognized among the nations in its exercise of the 
 rights of absolute sovereignty. At first the most 
 important of these rights vested in Great Britain ; 
 then they were assumed, I had almost said, rather 
 than transferred to the Continental Congress ; and 
 then, by a grand and solemn act of the people, they 
 were committed to a Federal or National govern- 
 ment, under the Constitution of the United States. 
 The most important right of absolute sovereignty 
 these Colonies or States ever exercised was to part 
 with that sovereignty, and confer its highest and most 
 essential attributes upon a central or Federal au- 
 thority, that by union that might become great, re- 
 spectable and strong before the world, which, in its 
 separate parts, would remain insignificant and power- 
 less. This seems to be the historic fact, that no 
 one of these States has ever been an independent, 
 absolute sovereignty, and this fact seems to have 
 an important bearing upon that doctrine of " State 
 rights " and " the sovereignty of the States " which 
 since 1798 has been the bane of our internal polit- 
 ical action. This doctrine was the essential germ of 
 our recent civil war, whose fruits, in this instance,
 
 16 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 that war has crushed, but, as was to be expected, 
 has not entirely eradicated or destroyed the germ 
 itself. God forbid that it should have life enough 
 to revive, and unfold into another rebellion. 
 
 The second signal feature, in the revolutionary 
 struggle of our fathers, was their indomitable .energy 
 and perseverance, amid tremendous discouragements, 
 at a cost of large sacrifices, painful sufferings and 
 privations. Here I will not detain you with details, 
 nor attempt to give you pictures of that, which has 
 so often been portrayed by the masters of patriotic 
 eloquence. We all know, that upon any compari- 
 son of means, men, money, munitions and instru- 
 mentalities of war of all kinds, the struggle seemed 
 hopeless at the beginning ; and often and often, at 
 the end of many a campaign during those seven long 
 years, the fortunes of our fathers seemed dark and 
 utterly desperate. But they did not and would not 
 give it up ; their enthusiasm kindled afresh after 
 every disaster and defeat; their small resources, often 
 apparently exhausted, failed not to offer fresh sup- 
 plies when called for; their bold confronting, year 
 after year, all the power and policy of England, 
 reached at last that sublime, unselfish, indomitable, 
 moral heroism, which always conquers because it must
 
 EAT I ON. 17 
 
 conquer, and which at length compelled England to 
 acknowledge that the brightest jewel of her crown 
 was gone, and that these United States were a 
 power no longer subject to her control. 
 
 How shall I speak of the third signal and pro- 
 vidential feature in that great revolutionary strug- 
 gle of our fathers'? their great Leader, wonderful 
 beyond all comparison in the intellectual and moral 
 combinations that formed his character, the Providen- 
 tial Man, raised up to carry them forward through 
 transcendent difficulties to a grand success, and adorn 
 their records with the most glorious and unspotted 
 name in all human history. Niagara stands alone, 
 unrivalled among the cataracts of earth, and man 
 might as well attempt to create it, as by pen or 
 pencil to give an adequate description or impression 
 of it. Thus Washington stands so unrivalled in the 
 combinations of his life, character and career as 
 fortunate as he was 'great, and as good as he was 
 great and fortunate that one might as well under- 
 take to create as to describe him. I shall not 
 attempt it; but this I may say, that the more I 
 read history, the more I study biography, the 
 more I contemplate human nature, and aim to form 
 correct moral estimates of men, the more the char- 
 acter of Washington, in its glorious beauty, in the 
 
 2*
 
 18 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 august sublimity of its splendid combinations, looms up 
 before my imagination, my feelings and my judgment, 
 as the grandest to be found in the authentic records 
 of our race, save those records, short and simple, 
 that contain the glorious gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 Does any one maintain that in the raising up of 
 such a man, to be the leader of our fathers in 
 their revolutionary struggle, to be the model, guide, 
 and inspiration in all coming time, to the new 
 development and progress, which humanity is 
 to make on this continent, he sees nothing won- 
 derfully providential; that in all this struggle, he 
 finds no special token of a benignant purpose of 
 the Almighty, in regard to the interests of liberty 
 and humanity in this land, I can only answer, 
 that I envy not the coldness or the scepti- 
 cism of his heart, which seems be wanting in 
 the great element of faith, faith in the invisible, 
 the spiritual and the eternal, which has ever been 
 one of the noblest attributes of the noblest minds. 
 Most persons will recognize, and delight to recognize, 
 the hand of God in that glorious Revolutionary 
 struggle of our fathers, whose importance can never 
 diminish, and the memory of which can never die. 
 It was the first stern conflict between the despotism 
 of the Old World and the liberty of the New.
 
 ORATION. 19 
 
 111 that conflict liberty triumphed, lifting up our 
 country " from impending servitude to acknowledged 
 independence ; " and that triumph should stand before 
 us to-day as " the Lord's doing, marvellous in our 
 eyes," a testimony to his gracious purpose to pro- 
 mote the interests and progress of humanity in our 
 land, and throughout the world. 
 
 And that testimony abides ; it abounds all through 
 the record of our wonderful prosperity and progress, 
 since the conclusion of that struggle. The formation 
 and adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States aiford an impressive illustration of this. All 
 human instruments have something of weakness and 
 defect, stamping their origin. It is easier to 
 destroy than to create, to find fault than to make 
 perfect ; and the Constitution of the United States 
 never has been, is not now, never will, be beyond 
 the reach of objection. But when we calmly review 
 the state of the country, after the close of the 
 war of independence; when we contemplate all the 
 circumstances of the times, the necessities that re- 
 quired, and the obstacles that stood in the way of a 
 stronger government than the old confederacy, all 
 the diverse rights, interests, opinions, prejudices, 
 that had to be harmonized ; then the Constitution 
 stands before us wonderful in its penetrating and
 
 20 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 comprehensive sagacity, its all-embracing political 
 wisdom ; an instrument of civil organization and 
 government so perfect, that could there always 
 have been found an integrity adequate to its 
 just, dispassionate and impartial administration, it 
 would, of necessity, have made the people living 
 under it as happy and prosperous as the limitations 
 of earth permit. 
 
 Wonderful in its formation, its adoption ulti- 
 mately by the people of all the States, so different 
 in character and population, and so widely sev- 
 ered, is even more wonderful than its formation ; 
 and when we look at the great general results 
 produced by this Constitution, observe how imme- 
 diately it brought prosperity and power, raised our 
 country from a feeble to a mighty nation, gave it 
 a name and an influence over all the earth ; when 
 we consider how it has conferred upon many millions 
 of people such blessings, comforts, privileges, oppor- 
 tunities, as no government ever conferred before 
 upon a like number, making our land such an 
 " oasis in the desert " of the world, that for half 
 a century past, emigrants from other countries have 
 thronged to it, as they never thronged to any land 
 before; finding here a security, a happiness, and an 
 opportunity they could find nowhere else on earth,
 
 OEATION. Zl 
 
 when we consider these things, the formation 
 and adoption of the Constitution of the United 
 States are events so wonderful, so extraordinary 
 upon any calculation of human probabilities, that 
 we are justified, nay, constrained to regard them as 
 such an overruling of Providence, such tokens of 
 a benignant protection of liberty in this land, that 
 they should not only quicken and invigorate our 
 patriotism, but give to it something of the sanctity 
 and power of religious faith. 
 
 But all will admit, probably, that the most impres- 
 sive evidence and exhibition of an overruling Provi- 
 dence, in the history of our country, is its present 
 condition, and the terrible scenes and the great 
 crisis, through which we have just passed in our 
 recent civil war. 
 
 The origin and responsibility of this war rest not 
 exclusively with the men of this generation. At long 
 intervals, years ago, the differing seeds from which 
 it sprung were planted. The first planting was at 
 Plymouth in 1620, when our fathers made there 
 the first permanent lodgement of liberty in the land. 
 The second, by a singular coincidence, was in the 
 same year, when a Dutch man-of-war entered James 
 River, with some Africans on board who were sold 
 as slaves, and thus, in Virginia, the first germ of
 
 22 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 Slavery took root on Anglo-American soil. The third 
 planting was in 1776, when a committee of the 
 Continental Congress at Philadelphia, with Mr. Jef- 
 ferson at its head, made that grand declaration, that 
 "all men" "all" had certain inalienable rights, 
 of which no government could innocently deprive 
 them. The fourth and last planting was in 1787, 
 when the Constitution of the United States, that 
 instrument, so glorious in other respects, under- 
 took, in singular inconsistency with its Preamble, 
 to join together, in peaceful fellowship, under 
 one government, Liberty and Slavery. The thing 
 was impossible; and in this particular, though 
 not in its general spirit and purpose, the Con- 
 stitution was a failure. 
 
 A conflict between Liberty and Slavery existing 
 under one government, among one people, was inevi- 
 table, " irrepressible." It begun early, it lasted long. 
 It may be traced all through our national legislation 
 and policy ; and in the legislation of the last twenty 
 years, there are so many, and such violent and wan- 
 ton encroachments of Slavery upon Liberty, that one 
 is almost tempted to think, (though no positive proof 
 thereof in letters or speeches could be found,) that 
 the hope, if not the purpose and policy of the lead- 
 ers and advocates of Slavery, was to goad and drive
 
 ORATION. 23 
 
 the North to the initiation of rebellion, that thus 
 they might place themselves before the world, in the 
 light of loyal defenders of an existing Government 
 and Constitution. 
 
 Though not disposed to uphold or approve all 
 that was said and done at the North, I am disposed 
 to maintain that the admission of Texas, by a 
 gross and palpable violation of constitutional pro- 
 visions ; the Mexican war, unnecessarily precipitated 
 upon the country by an invasion of territory of which, 
 to say the least, it was doubtful whether it belonged 
 to Texas, and the consequent acquisition of large addi- 
 tions to the area of slavery ; some of the odious 
 and arbitrary features unnecessarily introduced into 
 the Fugitive Slave Bill; the miserably contemptible, 
 as well as wicked legislation in regard to Kansas, 
 and finally the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 that these were such violations and encroachments 
 upon the rights, interests and progress of liberty on 
 this Continent, as, combined, afforded to the free 
 States a more justifiable cause for revolt, rebellion, 
 revolution, than the so-called Confederate States can 
 ever declare and mak^ good before the world. 
 
 But the people of the free States would not rebel. 
 They felt that under a popular representative gov- 
 ernment, where the will of the people, legitimately
 
 24 JULY 1, 1866. 
 
 expressed, is the controlling force that ultimately 
 accomplishes all that ought to be done, armed 
 resistance is almost never necessary or justifiable. 
 Liberty, also, which loves order and obeys law to 
 the utmost, was willing to bide its time, and trust 
 its existence and progress to the irresistible logic of 
 truth and principle. This logic prevailed more and 
 more, till at length the Republican party was or- 
 ganized. According to its original platforms, this 
 party did not propose to disturb slavery where it 
 existed, but simply to restrict its power and preva- 
 lence to the limits it had already reached, limits 
 whose resources it had not exhausted, but where, 
 as an industrial institution, it still had room for an 
 indefinite expansion. 
 
 This party, after one or two defeats, triumphed 
 in the national election of 1860, and raised Abra- 
 ham Lincoln to the chief magistracy of the nation. 
 I need not attempt the eulogy of this man's 
 character or career. At the instance of our 
 City Government, this has already been done by 
 abler hands than mine. That he was a person of 
 peculiar talents, admirable wisdom, perfect honesty, 
 and pure, disinterested purpose, will, I presume, be 
 admitted by all. The growing developments of his 
 personal character while in office, his public policy
 
 OEATION. 25 
 
 under circumstances of as deep perplexity, painful 
 anxiety, and involving issues of as gigantic impor- 
 tance as ever embarrassed the head of any nation, 
 and his untimely death at the hand of yiolence, 
 making him at once the champion and the martyr 
 of liberty, these invest his name and fame with 
 such attributes of gloom and glory, that we become 
 at once sad and reverent as we speak of him. 
 There can be little doubt that as years roll on, 
 dissipating the mists of passion, and leading to a 
 clearer appreciation, the historic judgment of the 
 nation and of the world will lift him up to a 
 high place among the providential men of the race; 
 will place him near to Washington, as the second 
 deliverer and Father of his country, less fortunate 
 in his personal fate, but thoroughly wise, honest, disin- 
 terested, patriotic, worthy of our gratitude and our 
 reverence. 
 
 His election was the signal for the weak work 
 of secession, and the wicked work of rebellion and 
 revolution, to begin. This work, in its successive 
 steps, in its widening progress, in its final issue, 
 abounds with testimonies to the purpose of the 
 Almighty Providence to protect and advance the 
 interests of liberty and humanity in our country, and 
 thereby throughout the world. The very neglects
 
 26 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 which we condemned, the very misfortunes and de- 
 feats, which five years ago we regretted, have all 
 contributed to fulfil this purpose. 
 
 There can be no question that during the summer 
 and autumn of 1860, the President of the United 
 States, with the mutterings of the coming storm in 
 his ears, and the shadow of its dark cloud resting 
 upon the close of his administration, had he listened 
 to the suggestions of the late Lieutenant- General, 
 Winfield Scott, that glorious old soldier, as wise 
 and patriotic as he was brave, might have quietly 
 put all the forts on the Southern coast in such condi- 
 tion, and so disposed of the military and naval 
 force of the United States, that secession, like nul- 
 lification, would have reached only to a paper 
 ordinance, perhaps not to that, and armed rebellion 
 would never have raised its bloody hand. 
 
 If England in the spring of 1861, instead of being 
 swift through her Secretary for Foreign Aifairs to 
 speak of the " late " United States, and grant bellig- 
 erent rights to the rebels, and thus encourage her 
 people to furnish them with munitions of war and 
 supplies of all kinds, had, true to her interest and 
 honor, as well as her professed abhorrence of slavery, 
 expressed her sympathy with the constitutional gov- 
 ernment of the United States, and her determina-
 
 OEATION. 27 
 
 tion to stand by it in the struggle, there can be 110 
 doubt that the resources of the so-called Confederacy 
 would have been exhausted at a very early day. 
 
 And if, in that first great battle of the conflict at 
 Bull Eun, in July 1861, the Union arms had con- 
 quered, and we had driven the rebels back to Rich- 
 mond, or beyond it,, to the selection of some other 
 spot to be its temporary capital, probably hundreds 
 and hundreds of thousands of persons in the South- 
 ern States, who up to that hour had hesitated 
 between rebellion and loyalty, would have decided in 
 favor of the latter, and the Union sentiment at the 
 South, feeling secure of protection, would have de- 
 clared itself so strongly, that the rebellion and its 
 confederacy would have collapsed before the expira- 
 tion of its first year. 
 
 But this immediate or early suppression of the 
 rebellion would have left the nation just where it 
 was before, the cause of strife unremoved, una- 
 bated; it would have stanched the blood, salved 
 over the wound, but left the virus within to poison 
 the system, to work disease and decay, to bring on, 
 at some other time, in some other form, another 
 death-struggle for national liberty and life. He, who 
 presideth over the nations, had a broader and more
 
 28 JULY 1, 1866. 
 
 benignant purpose, and His overruling is legibly 
 written upon the whole course of the conflict. 
 
 This conflict, initiated by the rebel leaders for an 
 independent confederacy, that should give permanence 
 and power to slavery, and entered into by the 
 government of the United States after patient reluc- 
 tance, originally not to disturb slavery, but to main- 
 tain its own authority over a territory and people, 
 who had no sufficient cause for revolt, and whose 
 obedient allegiance it might rightfully claim, 
 this conflict went on, widening the range of its 
 operations, unfolding more and more distinctly the 
 good and evil principles, the sources of weakness 
 and of strength involved in it, and presenting 
 more and more clearly, also, the issues that 
 must be reached in order to a permanent peace ; 
 till at length the way was prepared, opportunity 
 came, necessity demanded, and the President of the 
 United States, in the exercise of that august war- 
 power which the Constitution lodged in his hands, 
 with all due qualifications and formalities, made the 
 proclamation emancipating all the slaves in the rebel 
 States. 
 
 This important measure was at first received 
 with regret and surprise by some; but it is now, I
 
 OEATION. 29 
 
 believe, everywhere, at home and abroad, by every 
 thoughtful person, regarded as just and wise ; officially 
 a right, and morally a brave and noble act. To have 
 made that proclamation earlier would have been a 
 mistake ; to have delayed it longer would have been 
 a crime, a crime against the Union whose preserva- 
 tion demanded, whose Constitution authorized it, a 
 crime against liberty and humanity which so earn- 
 estly plead for it. Followed as it soon was by the 
 enlistment of colored troops, and by amendments of 
 the Constitution abolishing slavery, legitimately passed 
 by Congress and adopted by the required number 
 of States, this proclamation may now be regarded 
 as the thunder-bolt, beneath which the rebel confed- 
 eracy staggered to its fall, while to us, like the 
 fiery column to the Israelites of old, it was " a 
 burning and a shining light," beneath whose guiding 
 glow the Union, victorious at every point through 
 its moral as well as physical strength, with erect 
 mien and manly confidence, walked forward to a 
 triumphant peace, to glory and permanence. 
 
 Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens : Distance is said 
 to lend enchantment to the view, but it is also 
 necessary to give correctness to the vision ; we are 
 too near to our late civil war to judge of it cor- 
 rectly in all its events and proportions. In five years 
 3*
 
 30 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 we have made a history which, only at the close 
 of fifty years, can be so fully and accurately written, 
 as to be in all particulars thoroughly understood 
 and justly appreciated. 
 
 But there are some facts and principles in rela- 
 tion to it that we can understand, and they are 
 worthy of a moment's notice. It was at once the 
 most gigantic civil war on record, and the 
 shortest. The Peloponnesian war was virtually a 
 civil war, corresponding in some particulars to ours. 
 The States of Greece, represented in the Am- 
 phictyonic council, were bound together by various 
 ties of nationality, which would have been closer 
 and stronger, save that an idea, expressed by a 
 different word but similar to our idea of State 
 sovereignty, kept them apart and led to their ruin, 
 through a war which, interrupted by a short truce, 
 lasted twenty-seven years. This war was important 
 in its influence upon the fortunes of Greece, and 
 upon the civilization and progress of the world; 
 but in itself it was confined to a territory not much 
 larger than one of our large States ; and the greatest 
 number, which either side ever brought into the 
 field in any one campaign, was sixty thousand men, 
 and never in any one battle were so many as these 
 engaged on one side.
 
 OEATION. 31 
 
 The great civil war, under various leaders with 
 mingled fortunes, through which Rome passed from 
 a Republic to an Empire, lasted twenty years. In 
 the first great battle of this struggle, at Pharsalia, 
 between Csesar and Pompey, the whole number in 
 both armies, very unequally divided, did not reach 
 to eighty thousand men ; and in its last, at Actium, 
 between Anthony and Octavius Csesar, though about 
 one hundred thousand men were assembled on either 
 side, only a very small portion of these were actually 
 brought into the conflict. The Roman Empire at 
 this time contained three times the population of 
 the United States ; yet the great military captain, 
 Julius Csesar, who for a brief period was master 
 of it, never commanded in person, at one point, so 
 many men as were in some of our army corps. 
 The glorious civil war in England, known as the 
 " Great Rebellion," by which free constitutional gov- 
 ernment became the boon of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 everywhere, lasted seven years ; yet the largest army 
 that either King or Parliament had in the field 
 during this struggle did not exceed twenty-five thou- 
 sand men. Cromwell's broad fame, as a military 
 commander, rests upon a few battles and campaigns, 
 conducted in a comparatively small area of territory, 
 and with a force seldom exceeding twenty thousand
 
 32 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 men, about as many as served for Sherman's ad- 
 vance-guard of " bummers " in his grand march 
 through Georgia and the Carolinas. The combined 
 armies of Caesar and Pompey, disputing the empire 
 of the world, were less than the quota which some 
 of our large States sent into the field in our re- 
 cent struggle; and this little State of Massachusetts 
 furnished more troops than Julius Caesar ever com- 
 manded, more than all Greece brought together in 
 the long struggle that rent her in pieces ; more than 
 fought on both sides in the great English Rebellion. 
 And what is the explanation of this contrast 1 ? 
 Simply this, I conceive. Ours was a war of the 
 people and for the people, their liberties and their 
 progress against an oligarchy. Even the English 
 Rebellion, though liberty was promoted by it, was 
 in a great measure a war of oligarchies, a struggle 
 between titled and un-titled land owners, for place 
 and power ; and the great civil wars of the Roman 
 triumvirates were wars between oligarchies, struggles 
 between patrician leaders, who could gather no more 
 troops than they could pay by plunder, confiscation 
 and robbery. The long and fatal contest in Greece 
 was between patrician leaders and States, some of 
 whom, Athens, for instance, had only sixty thousand 
 freemen from whom to enlist her soldiers, while
 
 ORATION. 33 
 
 she had four hundred thousand slaves, whom she 
 did not dare to arm for the contest. Ours, on 
 the contrary, was a war of and for the people. 
 Not a war which the government constrained the 
 people to wage and support, but one which the 
 people constrained the government to wage for its 
 own protection and their liberties, in behalf of a 
 country which they loved, and of institutions and 
 principles which they cherished with national pride 
 and filial reverence. Hence when the call came, 
 they sprang to arms by the half-million, gloried in 
 what may be called a self-imposed taxation, and 
 poured out their blood and treasure without stint, 
 and thus made it at once the most gigantic and 
 shortest civil war on record. 
 
 We can understand that it was a war of conflicting 
 ideas and principles, which in its progress unfolded 
 more and more the character of these principles, 
 their healthful or baneful influence upon the mind 
 and heart of man. It was a war between Liberty 
 and Slavery, the records of which are full of dis- 
 closures, which tell in behalf of liberty as a grand 
 ennobling principle, and put a darker and deeper 
 shadow upon slavery as barbarous and brutalizing. 
 
 All war is bad, subjecting men to such evil 
 influences, that nothing but stern necessity could lead
 
 34: JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 a thoughtful man to uphold it; and I do not intend 
 to urge that all that the government, troops, people 
 and press of the North did and said, during our recent 
 struggle, is to be unqualifiedly approved. Undoubt- 
 edly there are things that we must regret and con- 
 demn. Nor do I mean to say that there is nothing, 
 absolutely nothing, in the rebel record that we can 
 approve ; no acts of courtesy, or nobleness, or mag- 
 nanimity, such as call forth our admiration even 
 for a foe. Undoubtedly there are many such. But 
 there is nothing in our record of which we need 
 be ashamed ; while there are things in rebel record 
 which the world will- forever condemn. There 
 is nothing in our record like Belle Isle, the Libby, 
 Andersonville, Salisbury, Fort Pillow, or Fort Wag- 
 ner ; nothing like the attempt to fire Northern 
 cities and bring indiscriminate suffering, destruc- 
 tion of property, poverty, death, upon men, women 
 and children ; nothing which gives the shadow 
 of a shade of color for such a charge against 
 any one, as that which the President of the United 
 States has ventured to bring against the head of 
 the late Confederate Government, - complicity with 
 assassination and murder. 
 
 Our record is a glorious record in behalf of the 
 nature, character, and influences of liberty, glori-
 
 OEATION. 35 
 
 ous in the reluctance with which the National 
 Government unsheathed the sword of war, and 
 in the spirit in which she used it, glorious 
 in the skill and military genius displayed by 
 our generals, and in the bravery, the sacrifices 
 and the patriotic devotedness of our troops, and 
 iii their general character and conduct as men as 
 well as soldiers, glorious in the general spirit and 
 action of our people, in their Sanitary Commissions, 
 their Christian Commissions, their Freedmen's Relief 
 Associations, hi all the noble efforts of the women 
 of the country, and in the thousand Florence 
 Nightingales, who, without the meed of world- wide 
 fame and honor, humbly, quietly, in the self-sacri- 
 ficing spirit of a loyal patriotism and a womanly 
 tenderness, went forth to instruct the ignorant in 
 schools, to nurse the sick and comfort the dying 
 in hospitals. Ours is a glorious record ; and not 
 denying any thing there may be good and glorious 
 in the record of the Confederacy, so called, the 
 two records, taken as a whole, hold up to us two 
 forms, two portraits, drawn, as it were, by an 
 almighty artist, in living lineaments, one Liberty, 
 an angel of light to benefit and bless, the other 
 Slavery, a demon of wrath to curse and destroy, 
 not so much those upon whom she fastens her
 
 36 JULY 1, 1866. 
 
 fetters, as those to whom she grants her privileges 
 and her power. 
 
 The nation and the world needed these por- 
 traits. They will be studied long and much ; their 
 instruction will be heeded, and their influence felt, 
 for many centuries. The war was a conflict of 
 principles ; and the whole exhibition of the con- 
 flict and its results seem so clear and immediate a 
 revelation of the divine will and law in regard to 
 slavery, as to make it absurd to appeal to one or 
 two obscure passages in the Bible, written in the 
 infancy of the world, and insist that these are to 
 be interpreted to the support of slavery as a divine 
 institution, a declaration of God's eternal purpose, 
 that a portion of his creatures should forever re- 
 main in that unhappy condition. 
 
 We can form some conceptions of the misery 
 and ruin from which this war, successfully prose- 
 cuted to the preservation of the Union, has saved 
 us. These conceptions will be more vivid, if we 
 call to mind, for a moment, the fate of the Greek 
 republics. At the time of the breaking out of the 
 great civil war between them, these republics had 
 reached the summit of their glory. Pericles had 
 conceived the grand idea of forming them into a 
 federal union something like ours, under one gen-
 
 OEATION. 37 
 
 eral government and a common capital. Had lie 
 succeeded, the fate of Greece and the story of the 
 world for centuries would have been different ; 
 but he failed. The selfish and ambitious, the men 
 of ordinary talents, but eager for power, felt that 
 they would lose influence and position in a united 
 Greece ; and so the miserable idea of petty state 
 sovereignties prevailed. Instead of forming a union 
 that would have been for the strength, the glory 
 and the preservation of all, these republics rushed 
 into a war, which ended in the exhaustion and 
 ruin of all. Our union had already been formed 
 under a nobler than Pericles ; and the object, the 
 attempt of the war was to break it up. Once 
 broken, the two fragments would not long have 
 remained entire. 
 
 The very idea upon which many southern men, 
 particularly those who were in the army and navy, 
 undertake to defend their treason, viz., that their 
 State claimed and had a right to their first alle- 
 giance, would have compelled them to resist the 
 central despotism, by which alone the Confederacy 
 could have been held together, when once it became 
 independent ; so that soon the States that were to 
 compose it would have been fighting among them- 
 selves. The northern republic, the glory of the
 
 38 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 old Union gone, its grand inspiration no longer a 
 power in the heart, would soon probably have be- 
 come a prey to internal dissensions, and so all 
 over the land there would have been wars and 
 fightings, confusion and disaster ; and these would 
 have continued and increased till exhaustion came, 
 and by the close of half a century, some new 
 Philip of Macedon, as in Greece, or some new 
 Louis Napoleon, as in Mexico, would have ap- 
 peared, and under the mild term of intervention, 
 would have seized the liberties of a people, who 
 had shown themselves unworthy to possess and 
 incompetent to maintain them, and who would be 
 glad to accept even despotism, if it brought peace. 
 In all the glorious past, there is nothing more 
 glorious, no more distinct token of a benignant 
 purpose, on the part of the Almighty Providence, 
 in regard to the interests of liberty and humanity 
 in our land, than the clear triumph of the Gov- 
 ernment in our late civil war. That triumph, with 
 all its accompaniments, has brought us to a grand 
 position before the world and among ourselves. It 
 has shown us the power of a free people when 
 true, and determined to be true, at any cost of 
 sacrifice and effort, to great ideas and principles. 
 It has preserved the Union, whose destruction was
 
 ORATION. 39 
 
 attempted, and made it more stable than it was 
 before. It has abolished slavery, and so withdrawn 
 the only element that stood in the way of a living 
 unity and a hearty nationality among the whole 
 people. It has wiped out the one dark spot upon 
 our escutcheon, the one terrible inconsistency, which 
 alone had been our shame at home, and our re- 
 proach abroad. It has amended and improved the 
 Constitution of the United States, which, worthy of 
 our support before, may now claim the unqualified 
 allegiance, the devoted loyalty of our hearts and 
 lives, and challenge the admiration of the world. 
 It has shown liberty to be a grand and glorious 
 thing, a principle and a power, which we may 
 well wish to have prevail more and more among 
 the nations. 
 
 But our national position, though grand and glo- 
 rious, is not without difficulties and troubles, that 
 awaken anxiety, and demand the exercise of a 
 large political wisdom. 
 
 War always leaves, peace always opens many 
 questions that are to be settled, not by force, but 
 by reason and judgment, by mutual forbearance and 
 a mutual desire to do that which is right and best. 
 The agitation of the waves never ceases the moment 
 the storm subsides. And yet with us there has been
 
 40 JULY i, 1866. 
 
 far less agitation than might have been expected. 
 It is but fifteen months since the war ceased, yet 
 never before, I apprehend, did any nation at the 
 close of so brief a period, after so gigantic a con- 
 flict, find itself in so good condition as this nation 
 finds itself to-day. There have been no wide com- 
 mercial embarrassments, no great financial crises, 
 nothing to bewilder, disturb or arrest the industry 
 or enterprise of the country ; but these, with all the 
 capital they can command, are putting themselves 
 forth in various ways to repair the waste which war 
 has caused : and under their influence many ques- 
 tions will settle themselves, or rather be settled by 
 the force of laws, which passion, prejudice and 
 unwise legislation may do something to thwart, but 
 cannot utterly annul. 
 
 The Southern people may say, as the newspapers 
 tell us they do say, that they will not sell their land 
 to the Yankees ; that they will not encourage the 
 emigration of Northern men and Northern capital. 
 It is very natural that they should say this, but 
 they cannot " fight it out on this line." Some will 
 try undoubtedly, (it would be surprising if they did 
 not,) but whenever it comes to a clear question 
 between passion and prejudice on the one hand,
 
 OEATION. 41 
 
 and interest and progressive wealth on the other, 
 interest and progressive wealth will carry the day. 
 
 They will not sell their land to the Yankees ; 
 but the lands are there, untilled and unoccupied, 
 with streams, timber, mines, waiting for labor, 
 enterprise and capital to unfold their resources 
 and make them productive. And these, the incu- 
 bus of slavery being removed, will flock in and 
 find opportunities, will receive a welcome, and 
 produce more and more their inevitable results, 
 and a new order of things will spring up, and 
 before she knows it, free Virginia, in wealth, in 
 population, in exports, may regain that precedence 
 of New York which she held in the old colonial 
 times; and many of the Southern States, now poor 
 and exhausted, may hereafter, in wealth, in intelli- 
 gence, in intellectual and moral power, in all that 
 adorns and elevates a community, rival many of their 
 Northern sisters, and none will glory in that rivalry 
 more than these sisters themselves. 
 
 Undoubtedly, as we learn through the newspa- 
 pers, from private letters and various other sources, 
 many things are said and done at public meetings, 
 at private gatherings and in all manner of ways 
 at the South, which indicate that there is still 
 
 4*
 
 42 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 a large measure of disloyalty there ; a determi- 
 nation on the part of many to cherish feelings 
 of hatred and and dislike toward the Union and the 
 North; to oppose any improvement in the condition 
 of the negro, and keep him as far as possible in the 
 condition of serfdom; and, in general, in all possible 
 ways to fan the embers of disloyalty, sedition, and 
 treason, in the hope that they may be kept alive 
 and made to blaze out again hi destructive fury. 
 This ought not to surprise or disturb. It was to be 
 expected ; and when we consider how absolutely 
 their hopes have been disappointed, their plans frus- 
 trated, and their great enterprise, upon which they 
 entered with such boastful confidence, brought to a 
 miserable failure, we ought not to expect that there 
 should be at once a universal and cheerful acqui- 
 escence in such untoward results ; but we in our 
 grand triumph should certainly be willing to exer- 
 cise a large and patient forbearance toward the irri- 
 tations of disappointment. 
 
 Two things which are of essential importance 
 are fixed forever. Slavery is abolished. The negroes 
 are free, and though not invested, as many other 
 persons are not, with what may be called some 
 of the privileges of citizenship, yet through that 
 grand enactment, the Civil Rights Bill, they
 
 ORATION. 43 
 
 are protected and secured in all their essen- 
 tial rights as free men: and the enjoyment 
 and possession of these rights will bring such 
 a sense of manhood and such desire and oppor- 
 tunity to improve, that if they remain anywhere 
 long or largely in actual serfdom, the fault 
 will be chiefly their own. If we will but refrain 
 from returning railing for railing, we may safely 
 leave it to time, and to other combining and con- 
 spiring influences to remove the irritations of dis- 
 appointment, to extinguish the scattered embers of 
 disloyalty, and, through a better knowledge and a 
 better intercourse between them, bring the people 
 of the North and South to such mutual respect and 
 confidence as shall bind them in strong attachment 
 to each other, and to the Union that makes them 
 one people. 
 
 Undoubtedly, there are many questions in regard 
 to reconstruction, and readmission to political rights, 
 and the extent to which deprivation of these rights, 
 or other punishment shall be inflicted upon rebels, 
 that still remain to be determined, and the determi- 
 nation of which, amid the different opinions that are 
 expressed, excites painful anxiety in many minds. 
 The difficulties, originally inherent in this subject, 
 have been somewhat enhanced by that sad event,
 
 44 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 which raised to the Presidency of the nation one 
 elected to be its Vice-President. 
 
 Our experience, fortunately not frequent, teaches 
 that it is a great misfortune to the nation to have, 
 and a terribly trying position to the individual to 
 be, what has been, improperly yet expressively, 
 termed " an accidental President of the United 
 States." According to the ordinary custom and 
 course of political affairs among us, the person put 
 into the Vice-Presidency has commonly little more 
 of political distinction or office to expect. He is 
 not so much in the line of succession or advance- 
 ment, as prominent members of the Cabinet, the 
 Senate, or the House of Representatives . As Vice- 
 President, his powers, position and prospects are 
 limited; and if, through the death of the President, 
 he is suddenly intrusted with " the powers and 
 duties of the said office," it is perhaps too much 
 to expect, that he should be so much larger than 
 the office, so much stronger and superior to the 
 circumstances, as to be able to meet the position 
 naturally and simply, without thought of self, and 
 with no considerations other than those of the 
 public good to influence his action and policy. 
 
 On being thus called to this position, the first 
 strong feeling or consciousness of the individual must
 
 OEATION. 45 
 
 be, that he was not elected to it by the suffrage of 
 the people, that it was not expected that he would 
 have to fill it, that there is perhaps a general 
 feeling of regret that he has been summoned to it ; 
 and this is naturally followed by some questioning 
 as to how far the sympathy and confidence of the 
 party that elected him will gather to his support ; 
 while immediately there are indications more or less 
 distinct, and sometimes very distinct, that the 
 opposite party regard him with more sympathy and 
 confidence than they did his predecessor, and far 
 more than they ever expressed for himself previ- 
 ously, and stand, waiting and anticipating, ready to 
 welcome any such changes of policy as will enable 
 them to give him their party indorsement. The 
 next step, in the succession of emotions, is the feel- 
 ing that it does not become his dignity, or his 
 talents, or the great powers and interests intrusted 
 to him, to be the mere heir-at-law, as it were, 
 simply the executor of his predecessor's policy and 
 plans ; and so he begins to diverge from these, 
 and diverges more and more, till at length, the 
 divergence from the principles and policy of the 
 friends, who elected him to the Vice-Presidency, 
 becomes so great, that there is nothing left for him
 
 46 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 but an attempt to have a policy and a party of 
 his own. 
 
 I can conceive of no position in any govern- 
 ment, certainly there can be none in our own, 
 attended with so much personal discomfort, so 
 full of trial, temptation and difficulty as that of a 
 President, inducted into his high trusts and duties, 
 by such an event as brought the present incumbent 
 to the chair of state. The very difficulties of his 
 position give him a peculiar claim to all that chari- 
 table and forbearing judgment, which we are con- 
 tinually called upon to exercise toward all men in 
 public and political life. Such judgment we should 
 endeavor to exercise toward him, though we may not 
 be able to approve or indorse all his acts, or 
 disposed to relinquish our adherence to those prin- 
 ciples of policy, which we conceive to be of essential 
 importance in the present exigencies of the country. 
 
 This policy and all the matters connected with 
 reconstruction belong, I suppose, upon the theory of 
 our Government, specially, if not exclusively, to its 
 legislative rather than its executive department ; 
 and we may confidently hope, I think, that the 
 policy of Congress, if it need modification, will be 
 so modified, will be made so just and wise and
 
 ORATION. 47 
 
 generous as to secure the confirmation of the Pre 
 sident, and be approved and upheld by the people. 
 The only desire, which any thoughtful, dispassionate 
 person can have, in regard to all the points involved 
 in the question of reconstruction, is that they 
 should be so settled as to promote the safety of 
 the country, prevent the initiation of any future 
 rebellion, and efface, as far and as fast as possible, 
 all traces and all sources of sectional strife and dis- 
 cord. No man can desire that anything should be 
 done, that any deprivation should be prolonged or 
 any punishment inflicted, in the mere spirit of vin- 
 dictiveness. 
 
 In all cases of this kind there are two points, 
 two extremes, to be avoided: undue lenity on the 
 one hand, undue severity on the other. The lesson 
 of history teaches that the mistake, which all rulers 
 are apt to make, is that -of undue severity. We, 
 I apprehend, are in no danger of error in this 
 direction. We are the most good-natured peo- 
 ple in the world; it is one of our great faults 
 that we immediately feel a strong sympathy for the 
 criminal, a tender compassion for the wrong-doer, 
 the moment he gets within the grip and grasp of 
 the law. The fact that fifteen months have passed
 
 48 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 since the close of a rebellion, which, all things con- 
 sidered, must be regarded as the most gigantic polit- 
 ical crime on record, and yet no one has been tried, 
 convicted or punished, is pretty conclusive testimony, 
 that there is nowhere any spirit of vindictiveness or 
 cruelty, on the part of the people or their rulers. 
 Multitudes have been pardoned, but no one has 
 been punished. 
 
 The great military chief of the rebellion, a 
 man whom the United States Government had edu- 
 cated, supported, honored and trusted, whose antece- 
 dents and position gave that government the strongest 
 claims to his unswerving allegiance, and whom history 
 will hold largely responsible for all the barbarous 
 cruelties inflicted upon Federal prisoners, this man 
 is, and has been for some months, quietly acting as 
 the President of a college; has been permitted, as 
 a paroled prisoner of -war, to take charge of 
 the education, the formation of the characters of 
 the young men of the nation! I may challenge 
 the records of all the civil wars of the world, to 
 present a parallel to such leniency, to adduce an 
 instance in which the great military commander of 
 an organized rebellion, of four years' duration, was 
 permitted, without trial or punishment thereon, to
 
 ORATION. 49 
 
 glide quietly into a position of such trust, honor and 
 responsibility, as that of the head of a literary and 
 educational institution. 
 
 I have no desire that any one should suffer the 
 extreme penalty, which under the law attaches to the 
 crime of treason ; but for its moral influence upon 
 the country and the world, it does seem to me of 
 the highest importance, that through the indictment 
 of some one, a crime so great as this rebellion should 
 be brought to solemn and unsparing legal investiga- 
 tion, and that there should be, on the records of the 
 highest tribunal of the country, a verdict of guilty and 
 a sentence of condemnation. That verdict reached, 
 that condemnation declared, I care not then what 
 clemency the government may exercise. God for- 
 bid that we should thirst for any man's blood ! 
 
 Everything points to the late President of the Con-, 
 federacy, so called, as the individual against whom 
 these grave legal proceedings should be instituted. 
 Moreover, this man stands before the country charged 
 by the present President of the United States, in 
 a solemn proclamation issued under the seal of 
 State, with complicity in that foul conspiracy which 
 accomplished the assassination of his predecessor, 
 and attempted that of other important members of 
 the United States Government. One would not 
 
 5
 
 50 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 have that arch-traitor, the head of the rebel .Con- 
 federacy, treated with personal injustice. Personal 
 and national honor alike forbid the President of the 
 United States to keep the grounds, upon which this 
 grave charge was made, much longer among the 
 secrets of the executive archives. The charge 
 should either be withdrawn, or brought to legal 
 investigation, or the facts upon which it was made 
 should be published to the world, that the world 
 may pass its moral verdict thereon. 
 
 Some measure, some limited, temporary measure 
 of political deprivation of political rights, as a po- 
 litical punishment for a political crime, would seem 
 to be deserved by the rebels, and imperiously de- 
 manded b) the safety and honor of the country. 
 
 I am not statesman enough, and certainly not 
 enough of a politician, to understand the nice dis- 
 tinctions that have been made between " re-construc- 
 tion " and " restoration," between rebel States being 
 " in " or " out " of the Union ; nor have I been able 
 to get at the idea, under a government like ours, 
 of a State as an entity, independent of the people 
 who compose it. Through some mental or moral 
 defect, it may be, I have only been able to reach 
 to this general idea, which I supposed was an 
 axiom of all civil polity; namely, that armed and
 
 OEATION. 51 
 
 organized rebellion put everything at .hazard. If it 
 succeed it gains all ; if it fail it loses all all 
 that it had, all that it sought ; and its vanquished 
 instigators are at the discretionary disposal of the 
 government that subdues them, have no rights but 
 to be treated in such way as mercy, wisdom, judg- 
 ment, humanity may dictate, and the best interests 
 of the nation, whose life they have imperilled, and 
 whose peace they have outraged, may demand. 
 
 If this be not an axiom in civil polity, a principle 
 inherent in all civil government, I see not how there 
 can be any security against frequent rebellions or 
 insurrections. If our fathers had failed in their great 
 revolutionary struggle, and had at length said, " We 
 submit, we withdraw and annul our Declaration of 
 Independence, we admit your right to tax us without 
 representation, but we claim our old colonial charters 
 and all the rights secured to us by those charters," 
 Great Britain would probably have laughed at the 
 idea, declined the proposal, and made answer, " Your 
 colonial charters : you broke, violated, forfeited these, 
 when you undertook to rebel and be independent. 
 You have no claim now, even to your old colonial 
 rights, and we do not think it is safe to trust you 
 with them at present; we do not wish to encourage 
 another rebellion among you. When your loyalty is
 
 52 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 clearly re-established, when it is evident that you are 
 and mean to be good- citizens and subjects, we will 
 restore your charters and all your colonial privileges, 
 but not till we are satisfied on this point." This, 
 which Great Britain might have said to our fathers, 
 which any government, from principles inherent in all 
 governments, may say to vanquished rebels, our own 
 government has a right to say to the people and 
 States lately in rebellion against it. 
 
 This right must be admitted, or we must admit, 
 that the war, on the part of the government, 
 w r as wrong from the beginning; and this position 
 leads, by a swift and irresistible logic, to the anni- 
 hilation of the Federal Government, and the intro- 
 duction of anarchy into the country. That something 
 of this sort may and must be said is, I believe, 
 admitted by all, except perhaps the rebels them- 
 selves. In fact, something of this character has 
 already been said, and what more is necessary 
 will be said ; a just measure of individual and 
 temporary deprivation of political right will be 
 awarded, and the Executive, the Congress and the 
 People will uphold it, and the world will commend 
 it as just and wise and right: and under its influence 
 the country will work its way out of these present 
 difficulties, and enter upon that career of glory
 
 OEATION. 53 
 
 which is before her, a career so grand, that imag- 
 ination fails and falters in attempting to form an 
 adequate conception of it. 
 
 Never had any other people a future before them, 
 making such demands upon their energies, their ambi- 
 tion, their highest aspirations. No thoughtful and 
 reflecting mind, baptized into the spirit of faith in a 
 divine purpose and providence guiding the educa- 
 tion and destinies of the race, can refuse to cherish 
 the conviction, certainly the hope, darkened it may be 
 by occasional doubts, but never sinking into despair, 
 that here, in this country, beneath the influence of 
 our civil and religious liberty, our social institutions, 
 and the grand opportunity offered by this broad, new 
 continent, there is to be a development of humanity, 
 a progressive social life, such as has been nowhere 
 exhibited in the world before, corresponding in its 
 fruits of intelligence, comfort, happiness, in the large- 
 ness of its spirit and form, its beauty and power, to 
 the largeness of the scale, on which nature here dis- 
 plays itself in our mountains, lakes, rivers and bound- 
 less prairies. In every mind, that has ever cherished 
 it, that hope must be stronger and brighter to-day 
 than it ever was before. 
 
 Oar material prosperity is all but inevitable. Situ- 
 ated in the temperate zone, an immense territory, 
 
 5*
 
 54 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 stretching from north to south more than two thou- 
 sand miles, and from east to west across the conti- 
 nent, from ocean to ocean, with a wide variety of 
 climate, soil, productions, with mineral wealth of 
 every kind and of incalculable amount, with a net- 
 work of rivers, navigable and fertilizing, spread over 
 that wonderful Mississippi basin, whose annual har- 
 vest might almost feed the race, our country has such 
 material resources, is such a miniature world in itself, 
 that nothing but the most reckless obstinacy and per- 
 severing folly can prevent its material growth and 
 prosperity. 
 
 Its very condition at this moment, as it emerges 
 from a costly civil war, carrying, as if it were a 
 feather's weight, an amount of debt which would 
 crush many other nations, is at once a testimony 
 to its recuperative energies, and a prophecy of its 
 future progress. Everywhere there is hope, cheer- 
 fulness, enterprise, and revelations, more and more 
 distinct, of the exhaustless resources and the mighty 
 productive power of the nation. Soon a ship canal 
 in our own territory will leave Niagara still a thing 
 of beauty and grandeur, but no longer an obstacle, 
 and put our navigation of the great lakes in a con- 
 dition not to be easily disturbed. Some, who hear 
 me, will live to see the completion of that gigantic
 
 ORATION. 55 
 
 project, a railroad across this continent. In its 
 domestic uses and benefits, the effect of this upon 
 our internal development and progress cannot be 
 over-estimated ; while as a connecting link, a short 
 direct route between Western Europe and Eastern 
 Asia, it will, in all probability, become a great high- 
 way of traffic and travel between these two great 
 centres of Christian and heathen civilization. Should 
 this be the result, it will so materially change the 
 relations between them, that the commercial index 
 on the dial-plate of time will point pretty distinctly 
 to an hour, when the metropolitan city of our own 
 country will take precedence of London, as the mon- 
 eyed and commercial centre of the world. 
 
 But there is something much more important to a 
 nation than its material wealth and grandeur. These 
 can only secure it a short-lived existence ; they will 
 be but sure precursors of its ruin, unless accompanied 
 by a moral development, an intellectual culture and 
 strength, that shall enable the people to resist their 
 temptations, and use prosperity and power for high 
 and noble purposes. Intellectual and moral culture go 
 together ; they cannot be widely separated ; the for- 
 mer necessarily carries with it a large amount of the 
 latter ; and the intellectual and moral culture of the 
 people of this country must be regarded by every
 
 56 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 patriotic mind as the first thing to be secured and 
 the last to be neglected : worthy of every effort and 
 sacrifice, of the most patient labors, and of the most 
 costly contributions we can make to it. 
 
 This culture must be universal and progressive for 
 these are the conditions of our liberty. It must reach 
 to the highest, that it may be their inspiration and 
 glory. It must reach to the lowest, that it may be their 
 resource, their defence, their incentive ; add to their 
 dignity, enlarge their honor, and guide their power. 
 Two ideas, the one narrow and the other false, which 
 have been recently advocated with more ability than 
 they deserve, must find no acceptance among us. 
 "We are educating too- much," it is said: "reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, the simplest rudiments of knowl- 
 edge, are all that is necessary for the mass of the 
 people. More only unfits them for their position and 
 their duties." The mass of the people ! Who shall 
 dare thus to separate himself from the mass of the 
 people, and maintain that the education, which is 
 necessary and good for him, is not good for all to 
 whom it can be offered? This mass is perpetually 
 shifting its particles ; the poor of to-day are the 
 rich of to-morrow, and the rich of to-day the poor of 
 to-morrow, and the intellectual and moral culture that 
 is good for any is good for all. Unfits them for their
 
 OEATION. 57 
 
 position and duties ! Is there any position in which 
 ignorance is better than knowledge'? or whose duties 
 stupidity can better discharge than intelligence? Show 
 me one person, who has more education than he can 
 \ use to advantage in his position, one person, who has 
 been too highly educated for his own happiness, 
 honor and usefulness, or for the good of the com- 
 munity ; and for that one person, I will bring you 
 an army of an hundred thousand persons, whom the 
 same education has made happier, nobler, more use- 
 ful, lifted them up, and enabled them to help lift up 
 the community in all things good, worthy and desira- 
 ble. Go into some humble dwelling in this city, 
 whose support is the daily toil of the father, (it may 
 be in some very humble occupation,) and you will 
 find perhaps that the oldest daughter is attending 
 our Girls' High and Normal School. Are we doing 
 that family and the community an injury by giving 
 that daughter so good an education'? Are we doing 
 her an injury by developing her mind by all the 
 knowledge imparted, and her heart by all the influ- 
 ences that surround her at that school"? I maintain 
 that the chances are ten thousand to one, that this 
 daughter is a beam of moral sunlight in that dwell- 
 ing, its ornament, its defence, its incentive,
 
 58 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 its glory. She is introducing to it, it may be, better 
 principles and habits, a higher tone of thought, feel- 
 ing and conduct. She is better fitted every way to 
 discharge the duties of her position, to meet both 
 the temptations and the opportunities that may come 
 to her in life ; and should she ever have a home of 
 her own, whether it be humbler or higher than the 
 one she now fills, she will make it a home of intel- 
 ligence and virtue ; and the more such daughters in 
 the same position in life we can so educate the 
 better, the safer for the community. 
 
 " But no," cries the advocate of the false idea, 
 "intelligence and virtue do not go together; education 
 increases the ingenuity, but it does not diminish the 
 amount of crime ; and the records of the courts show 
 that many persons brought into them as criminals 
 have had the highest advantages of education;" and 
 so, because Satan was once an angel of light, the 
 light should be put out and all live in darkness ; 
 for that is the amount of the argument. Because the 
 wise are sometimes weak, because the educated are 
 sometimes -criminal, education must be limited. It 
 is a false argument, for the failure of some should 
 never forbid the effort of any or all. As a general 
 statement, it cannot be true that the nearer men
 
 ORATION. 59 
 
 approach to their Maker in one of his attributes, 
 knowledge, the farther they recede from him in 
 another, goodness. Education is an incalculable good; 
 all who have received any measure of its benefits 
 and blessings, feel it to be a good. It is the power 
 that has raised man from ignorance to knowledge, 
 from barbarism to civilization, and carried him for- 
 ward continually to a more advanced civilization, a 
 more glorious social condition; and, therefore, the 
 the higher we carry it, the more we extend and 
 diffuse it, the better for our country and the world. 
 We at least in this country, (to use the expression 
 I have used once before this morning,) " we must 
 fight it out on this line." We cannot go back. Our 
 idea is that of freedom. We have determined that 
 every man is and shall be free in this land; and 
 freedom has no security, no defence, protection or 
 safeguard but education, and that moral power and 
 principle which education brings ; and this education, 
 to preserve our freedom and accomplish our purpose, 
 must be broad, generous, universal and progressive, 
 must keep pace with our material growth and pros- 
 perity, so that the nation may be morally as strong, 
 wise, pure and noble, as it is great, wealthy and 
 powerful.
 
 60 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 Friends and fellow-citizens, let me relieve your 
 patience by saying in conclusion, that no extent of 
 territory, however large ; no amount of material 
 prosperity, however grand; no intellectual and moral 
 culture even, however advanced and widely diffused, 
 can give us all that we need to fulfil the great mis- 
 sion that is before us. These things are necessary 
 ingredients, but there must be something to unite, 
 to bind them together. They are incidental; they 
 may make a country, but they cannot make a nation. 
 What is necessary to make a nation, and that nation 
 powerful and permanent, is a spirit of nationality, 
 living and breathing in every heart, binding all to 
 common ideas, principles and interests, to a common 
 purpose and destiny. Thus considered, nationality is 
 as glorious, sublime and powerful a sentiment, as it 
 is sweet, lovely and venerable. We of all people 
 should have a spirit of nationality: the grandeur of 
 our country as it came from the hands of God de- 
 mands it ; our condition, prospects, privileges and 
 opportunities demand it. Let it be everywhere cul- 
 tivated and cherished, let it swell and breathe in 
 every soul, binding all these millions of hearts, from 
 the waters of yonder bay to the city of the Golden 
 Gate, into one great national heart, that shall live
 
 ORATION. 61 
 
 and throb with love and loyalty to all that our flag 
 symbolizes, to all that the Constitution secures, to all 
 that liberty means, to all that humanity desires and 
 would achieve, then this Great Republic, which, but 
 yesterday, the despots of Europe thought was crum- 
 bling to pieces, shall rise again like a giant to in- 
 struct, overshadow and outlast them all.
 
 APPENDIX
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY, 1866 
 
 BY an order of the City Council, approved May 1st, 1866, 
 the following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to make 
 suitable arrangements for the Celebration of the Ninetieth Anni- 
 versary of the Declaration of American Independence : Alder- 
 men THOMAS GAFFIELD, Chairman, GEORGE W. MESSINGER, 
 EDWARD F. PORTER, SAMUEL D. CRANE, BENJAMIN JAMES, 
 JONAS FITCH, CHARLES W. SLACK; Councilmen JOSEPH STORY, 
 President, WILLIAM J. ELLIS, JOHN MILLER, ELAM W. 
 HALE, GRANVILLE MEARS, JAMES J. FLYNN, JARVIS D. BRA- 
 MAN, CHRISTOPHER A. CONNOR, GEORGE P. DARROW, JOHN 
 C. HAYNES, CHARLES CAVERLY, Jr., HUBBARD W. TILTON, 
 GEORGE P. FRENCH. His Honor, Mayor LINCOLN, was invited 
 to consult with the Committee, and to preside on all public 
 occasions connected with the celebration. 
 
 Under the direction of this Committee a programme was 
 arranged and carried out which gave general satisfaction. The 
 day was ushered in by the ringing of bells, and the firing of 
 national salutes from the Common and Mount Washington by 
 detachments of the Second Battery, M. V. M., Captain C. W. 
 Baxter. The public buildings were decorated by Messrs. Lam- 
 prell & Marble, and flags were displayed at all prominent 
 points.
 
 66 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 At 6 o'clock in the morning the firemen assembled in Charles 
 Street, with their steam engines, hose, and hook and ladder car- 
 riages, and formed a procession with the right resting on Bea- 
 con Street. The procession was marshalled by Mr. G. H. 
 Allen, Secretary of Board of Engineers, and at seven o'clock 
 was put in motion over the following route : Beacon to Arling- 
 ton Street, down Commonwealth Avenue to Berkley Street, 
 countermarching in Commonwealth Avenue to Arlington Street, 
 thence through Boylston, Pleasant, and Tremont Streets, Union 
 Park, Washington, Boylston, Tremont, Court, Greene, Leverett, 
 Spring, Allen, Blossom, Cambridge, to Charles Street. The 
 men were uniformly dressed, and their fine appearance called 
 forth the applause of the people, who lined the sidewalks along 
 the route over which they passed. 
 
 Under the direction of Mr. P. S. Gilmore a concert was 
 given at 8 o'clock, on the Common, by one hundred musicians. 
 
 .The following programme was performed : 
 
 1 American Hymn, Modern Composition. Keller. 
 
 2 Concert Polka, " Golden Kobin." Bosquet. 
 
 3 Overture, "Allesandro Stradella." Flotow. 
 
 4 Union Kailroad Galop, with imitations. Downing. 
 
 6 Grand Selections from " Martha." Flotow. 
 
 6 Continental Melange, " Sounds from Europe." Jullien. 
 
 Musical and other entertainments, chiefly for the Children of 
 the Public Schools, were provided at the Boston Theatre, Music 
 Hall and Tremont Temple, under the management of a Com- 
 mittee of the Warren Street Chapel, subject to the direction of 
 the City Committee. 
 
 At the Music Hall, performances were given on the Great 
 Organ by Mr. G. E. Whiting, and vocal and instrumental music 
 was furnished by the Alleghanians and Swiss Bell Ringers. At 
 Tremont Temple there were five exhibitions of Natural Magic, 
 Legerdemain, Ventriloquism, and Punch and Judy, by Professor
 
 CELEBRATION. 67 
 
 Bryant. At the Boston Theatre facilities were afforded for 
 dancing and promenading. 
 
 At 9 o'clock a procession, composed of members of the City 
 Government and invited guests, was formed at the City Hall, 
 under the direction of Col. John Kurtz, Chief Marshal. The 
 procession was escorted by a battalion of boys from the Latin 
 and English High Schools, under the command of Col. Thorn- 
 dike Nourse, through the following streets: School, Beacon, 
 Arlington, Boylston, Tremont, and Winter streets, to the 
 entrance to Music Hall. The order of exercises at the Music 
 Hall was as follows : 
 
 1 Music by the Orchestra. 
 
 2 National Hymn " Hail Columbia " Organand Orchestra. [Sung 
 by four hundred children of the Public Schools.] 
 
 3 Prayer by Rev. Henry M. Dexter. 
 
 4 National Songs Arranged by Carl Zerrahn. 
 
 5 Reading of the Declaration of Independence, by John D. Philbrick, 
 Esq., Superintendent Public Schools. 
 
 6 Keller's "American Hymn," Organ and Orchestra. 
 
 7 Oration, by Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, D.D. 
 
 8 Original Hymn, by Rev. D. A. Wasson. 
 
 Hail to the day whose happy morn 
 Breaks into joy of hopes new born ! 
 While .earth in triumph greets the sky, 
 Till heaven to earth peal glad reply. 
 
 Hail to the land whose millions all 
 
 With Freedom's cause will stand or fall ! 
 
 Again to-day their oath is given : 
 
 " Man's right on earth, his King in heaven ! " 
 
 Hail to the heroes who bore down 
 The proud that stole from heaven its crown, 
 And told the world with speaking sword, 
 " Lo, man is free, and God is Lord ! " 
 
 Thou who art Liberty and Law, 
 Nigh unto us, thy children, draw; 
 Kindle in us the ancient fires, 
 And give true sons to noble sires. 
 
 7*
 
 68 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 The singing was performed by a choir selected from the 
 pupils of the Grammar Schools, under the direction of Carl 
 Zerrahn. 
 
 One of the new features in the celebration of the day was a 
 sailing regatta in the harbor. The judges were Mr. Daniel 
 Briscoe, Chairman, Captain Charles Bobbins, Captain Josiah G. 
 Lovell, Captain John Greer, and Captain Alfred Nash. 
 
 The first race was for centre-board and keel yachts of fifteen 
 tons and upwards (new measurement). Two prizes were offered 
 silver pitchers valued at $100 each one for the winning 
 keel, and the other for the winning centre-board yacht. The 
 course was as follows: Down Broad Sound, leaving Ram Head 
 Buoy on the starboard, and Fawn Bar on the port ; rounding the 
 Flag Boat, which was stationed oif Nahant, leaving it on the 
 starboard ; returning by the same route back, passing south of 
 the Judges' Boat. The distance was twenty-five miles, including 
 six miles allowed for beating home. 
 
 The yachts which participated were the "Nettie," 54.84 tons, 
 schooner-rigged, centre-board, entered and commanded by Dex- 
 ter H. Follett; the "Edwin Forest," 36.16 tons, schooner, keel, 
 by Captain John Low ; " Surprise," 32 tons, schooner, keel, by 
 Captain Quinn; the "Alice," 27.44 tons, sloop, keel, owned by 
 T. G. Appleton, but sailed by A. H. Clark ; and the " Minnie," 
 20.25 tons, schooner, keel, by B. F. Bibber. The " Edwin For- 
 rest " was the winner of the first prize. Time, 2 hours 32 min- 
 utes and 20 seconds. The prize for centre-board was won by 
 the " Nettie." 
 
 The second race was for centre-board and keel yachts of five 
 and under fifteen tons (new measurement) ; and the prizes were 
 two medallion pattern silver pitchers, valued at $75 each one 
 for the winning keel, and the other for the winning centre-board 
 yacht. The course sailed by this class of yachts was from the
 
 CELEBRATION. 69 
 
 judges' boat down West Way, leaving Thompson's Island on the 
 starboard, Spe ctacle Island on the port, round west head of Long 
 Island to the Narrows, leaving Eainsford Island on the starboard, 
 Fort Warren on the starboard, Gallop's Island on the port, 
 Lovell's Island on the starboard; and return, leaving Nicks' 
 Mate on the port, passing up between Sound Point Beacon and 
 east end of Long Island, leaving Fort Independence on the port, 
 City Point on the starboard, then to the judges' boat, passing it 
 to the southward, thus making a distance of about eighteen miles, 
 allowing three miles made in beating. 
 
 The yachts entered for this race came to moorings in the fol- 
 lowing order: "Iris," 11.52 tons, sloop-rigged, centre-board, 
 entered and commanded by John F. Pray; "Tartar," 12.86 
 tons, sloop, centre-board, by Charles A. Hayden; "Columbia," 
 12.95 tons, sloop, keel, by Augustus Russ; "Violet," 11 tons, 
 sloop, centre-board, by Eben Denton; "Napoleon," 8.09 tons, 
 sloop, centre-board, by T. D. Boardman ; " Osceola," 7.04 
 tons, schooner, keel, by L. Shellhammer ; "Mercury," 6.92 tons, 
 schooner, keel, by J. E. Herman; "John Quincy Adams," 5.91 
 tons, schooner, keel, by. A. Lothrop; "Mist," 5.80 tons, sloop, 
 keel, by Joshua H. Pitman; "Scud," 5.63 tons, sloop, centre- 
 board, by Charles E. Folsom; "Dawn," 6.37 tons, schooner, 
 keel, by Frank A. Bibber; "Ranger," 6 tons, schooner, keel, by 
 Elijah Harris. 
 
 On the outward stretch the " Tartar " had her mast carried 
 away, and was obliged to withdraw. The "Iris " kept the lead, 
 and came home in 1 hour 9 minutes and 40 seconds after she 
 started. The " Violet " came next, I minute and 55 seconds 
 behind the " Iris ; " the " Scud " next, 3 minutes and 34 seconds 
 behind the " Violet ; " and the " Napoleon " next, 40 seconds in 
 the rear of the " Scud." Of the keel boats, the " Columbia" 
 came home in 1 hour 23 minutes 26 seconds, with the "John 
 Quincy Adams" 1 minute 55 seconds behind. The "Mercury," 
 "Mist," and "Osceola" brought up the rear. The "Scud"
 
 70 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 was declared the winning centre-board by allowance on mea- 
 surement, and the " John Quincy Adams " was declared the 
 winning keel, by allowance on measurement. 
 
 For the third and last race three prizes were offered the 
 first a silver pitcher, valued at $60 ; the second a silver goblet, 
 valued at $40; the third prize, a silver goblet, valued at $25. 
 This race was for centre-board and keel yachts, measuring 
 in length twenty feet and upwards from stem to rudder 
 post, and under five tons; and the course was from the 
 judges' boat down to the Red Buoy No. 6, on the Lower Middle, 
 rounding it on the starboard, thence to Spectacle Island, leaving 
 it on the port to Moon Head, leaving it on the starboard, round- 
 ing Flag Boat, stationed in Quincy Bay, leaving it on the star- 
 board ; returning, leaving Moon Head and Thompson's Island 
 on the port, passing flag boat, on a line and south of the judges' 
 boat, leaving it on the starboard, thence to flag boat, stationed 
 in Old Harbor, leaving it on the starboard, and returning pass- 
 ing south of the judges' boat, making a distance of about ten 
 miles. Allowance for beating the same as in the second race. 
 
 The yachts entered were the "Arion," 21 feet 6 inches, 
 schooner rigged, keel, by A. P. Ford; the "Echo," 26 feet, sloop, 
 centre-board, by H. F. Barker; the "Marion," 27 feet 5 inches, 
 schooner, keel, by Daniel Bobbins; "Little Nellie," 22 feet, 
 sloop, keel, by N. C. Greenough ; " Ariel," 20 feet, schooner, 
 keel, by John M. Downing; "Ion," 21 feet, schooner, keel, by 
 William Snowdon; "North Star," 20 feet, schooner, keel, by 
 Arthur L. Scott; "Cora," 25' feet, sloop, keel, by Joseph H. 
 Blake; "Minnehaha," 20 feet, schooner, keel, by N. Curtis; 
 " Parqueta," 24 feet, sloop, keel, by W. Burrows ; " Electra," 26 
 feet, sloop, keel, by J. H. Sears ; " Mary Ellen," 23 feet, sloop, 
 centre-board, by Androis Lane; "Mandy," 21 feet, sloop, cen- 
 tre-board, by C. Hill of Dorchester ; " Coquette," 20 feet, sloop, 
 centre-board, by J. B. Kingman of Dorchester; "Secret," 22 
 feet, sloop, centre-board, by J. Brinney; "Magic," 25 feet,
 
 CELEBRATION. 71 
 
 centre-board, by R. M. Pratt ; and " Clitheroe," 24 feet, schooner, 
 centre-board, by Benjamin Dean. 
 
 The first prize was awarded to the " Clitheroe," (centre- 
 board,) the second prize to the "Electra," (keel), and the third 
 to the " Marion," (keel). 
 
 The rowing regatta took place on Charles River, at 3 
 o'clock, P. M. The judges were Messrs. R. F. Clark, H. T. 
 Rockwell, E. C. Bates, S. A. B. Abbott, P. H. Colbert, H. W. 
 Foley, D. J. Sweeney, and John T. Gardner. 
 
 The first race was for single scull wherries, distance two 
 miles ; first prize, $75 ; second prize, $50. The following are 
 the names of the boats, and the contestants, in the order of 
 their positions: "Admiral Farragut," J. Driscoll, of Boston; 
 " George Thatcher," Walter Brown, of Portland ; " Experiment," 
 George Faulkner, of Boston ; T. F. Doyle," P. Foster, of Bos- 
 ton ; " J. D. P.," F. W. Sargent, of Boston. The wherries started 
 at 23 minutes and 45 seconds after 3 o'clock. The " Thatch- 
 er " took the lead and kept ahead throughout the race, winning 
 in 17 : 10. The " Doyle " came in next, having turned the stake 
 second, and won the second prize in 1 8 : 1 1 J. The " Experi- 
 ment" was third, in 19 :0; the "Admiral" fourth, and " J. D. 
 P." last. 
 
 The second race was for double scull wherries, distance three 
 miles; first prize $100; second prize, $50. Four boats had 
 been entered, although but two appeared at the start. These 
 were, in order of position, the " John A. Andrew," rowed 
 by P. J. Brennan and M. J. McKee, and the " C. B. H.," by Ed- 
 ward Hollis and James Sullivan. The "John A. Andrew" 
 came in about two lengths ahead, in 27 : 49, and the " C. B. H." 
 in 27: 57. 
 
 The third race was for four-oared boats, distance three miles ; 
 first prize, $125; second prize, $50. The following boats and
 
 72 JULY 4, 1866. 
 
 crews appeared, being all those entered, with the exception of 
 the " Union," of Worcester. They occupied positions in order 
 of naming: "Volunteer," Jas. Cleary (stroke), D. H. Brenen, 
 
 E. J. Rodgers, M. J. Gleason (bow), Boston ; " Frank Quinn," 
 Dennis Leary (stroke), John Blue, Robert Ellis, Henry Burden 
 (bow), New York; "Young Neptune," Andrew Gallagher 
 (stroke), James Clarke, John McGrath, Thomas Gait (bow), St. 
 John; "Thetis," Edw. Woodard (stroke), Edw. McCawley, 
 Geo. Price, Geo. Nice (bow), St. John, N. B. ; " Geo. C. Wig- 
 gins," James Thompson (stroke), Robert Fulton, Matthew 
 McWiggin, John Morris (bow), St. John ; " Union," L. S. King 
 (stroke), H. F. Lambert, G. H. B. Hill, E. B. Robins (bow), 
 Boston. The "Thetis" rounded the stake first, the "Young 
 Neptune " second, followed by the " Frank Quinn," " Volunteer," 
 " George C. Wiggins," and the " Union." In this order the 
 boats came in, the " Thetis " well ahead in 20 : 39 ; " Young 
 Neptune," 21:01; "Frank Quinn," 23:1; "Volunteer," 
 30 :li. 
 
 The fourth race was for six-oared boats, distance three miles ; 
 first prize, $150; second prize, $75. Four entries had been 
 made, of which the following made their appearance at the 
 start: "Una," Walter Brown (stroke), J. F. Webber, R. Wil- 
 liams, A. P. Harris, F. H. White, H. C. Davis (bow), Portland, 
 Me. ; " Piscataqua," Elias A. Staples (stroke), F. A. Staples, F. 
 
 F. Staples, Wm. A. Paul, Alexander Dixon, J. H. Paul (bow), 
 Elliot, Me. The stake was rounded first by the " Una," which 
 came in well ahead in 20 :41 ; the "Piscataqua" making 21 : 16. 
 
 A very large number of people assembled on the parade 
 ground of the Common, during the afternoon, to witness Mr. 
 Samuel A. King's ascension in the large balloon " Queen of the 
 Air." When the balloon was only partially inflated it escaped 
 from the nettings, and after being carried some distance by the
 
 CELEBEATION. 73 
 
 wind it collapsed. Mr. King immediately procured a smaller 
 balloon, called the " General Grant/' in which he made an 
 ascension at seven o'clock. He was carried with great rapidity 
 over Chelsea and Lynn, and in half an hour from the time he 
 started succeeded in landing at Ipswich. 
 
 During the evening very satisfactory exhibitions of fireworks 
 were given upon the Common, and at East and South Boston, 
 by Mr. E. L. Sanderson.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 IIHURL MAY 171961
 
 
 3509 

 
 HS1