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 CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 FOUNDING OF THE OLD COLONY 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE OEATION 
 
 DELIVEKED AT TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 MAY 4, 1903, 
 
 BY 
 
 John Ordronaux 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 1903. 
 
CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 
 FOUNDING OF THE OLD COLONY 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED AT TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 MAY 4, 1903, 
 
 BY 
 
 John Ordrokalx 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 1903. 
 

 Gift 
 
 Odmegie Instit.iitioll 
 
 il; ■uf'ho: ;: Office, 
 f?S'07 
 
ORATION. 
 
 My presence among you to-day is an event which justly 
 awakens feelings of profound gratitude and astonishment ; of 
 gratitude, because of the length of days with continuing 
 health granted me by our Almighty Father; and, next, of 
 astonishment at the rare combination of circumstances which 
 has assigned me so prominent a part in the exercises of the 
 occasion. 
 
 This Golden Anniversary, so gratifying to you, is a day of 
 startling reminiscences to me. All my fellow members who 
 assembled in the study of Rev. Mr. Emery half a century ago 
 to organize this Society, have gone to their final reward, and 
 I, alone, spared by the will of a benevolent Creator, am 
 present as their last survivor to participate in these festivities. 
 Surely, no reflecting mind can fail to see the guiding hand of 
 a superintending Providence in these mysteries of survivor- 
 ship which cluster about longevity. 
 
 It is fifty years to-day since the General Court of Massa- 
 chusetts granted to the Old Colony Historical Society a 
 charter bestowing upon it an official life, with the right of 
 perpetual succession. I was here at that time as a young 
 lawyer recently admitted to the Bar, and a participant in the 
 organization of this Society. Having thus witnessed its official 
 
4 OLD COLONY HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 birth, and helped to rock its infant cradle, the permission 
 now vouchsafed me to return after so long an interval, in 
 order to witness its fiftieth anniversary, constitutes an epoch 
 in my life of too unique a character not to awaken feelings of 
 wonder, rising into bewilderment. To be thus called upon to 
 mingle the present with the distant past; to revive and renew 
 its miscellaneous associations long faded from view; to set 
 back the clock of the century and reproduce the events of its 
 past hours ; to open the catacombs of memory and search its 
 records with inquisitorial eyes — all these acts of reminiscent 
 reproduction seem like the interjection of a feverish dream 
 among the cold realities of a noisy, bustling, discordant world. 
 
 There are occasions in life which can never be anticipated 
 or purposely constructed. They cannot be designed by any 
 ingenuity of man, nor repeated at the command of his will. 
 This is one of them, and, in the natural order of time, it is 
 both a privilege and an opportunity which can come to us 
 but once. Summoned by a sense of duty to appear here in 
 order to answer your roll-call, and to rehearse the history of 
 the origin and subsequent career of our Society, I stand as 
 the representative of two distant periods, to each of which I 
 can extend a hand. The first roll-call which I made as its 
 Secretary was in May, 1853. Were I to repeat it to-day, no 
 answering voice would be heard. Neither the call of duty 
 nor the allurements of affection can bring back these de- 
 parted colleagues. 
 
 Fifty years forms a large chapter in the life of any modern 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 6 
 
 literary society. Fifty years to look back upon and to re- 
 view, not statistics alone, or tabulated collections of antiqui- 
 ties in your Hall, but much of this work occurring in the 
 midst of, and included in the daily life of an active community 
 like your own — quick to perceive, strong to undertake, 
 zealous to accomplish — a hive of industry whose inhabitants 
 are " Ever reaching to those things which are before ! " Fifty 
 years in which to count the graves of an extinguished 
 generation of friends and fellow workmen, and to find myself 
 the last laborer of them all, still able to raise my voice to do 
 honor to their memory. 
 
 " Can such things be, 
 
 And overcome us like a summer's cloud 
 
 Without our special wonder?" 
 
 To recall all these varying disconnected facts, brings 
 before my eyes a tumultuous stream of names, persons and 
 events that strikes my imagination now, like a tale woven in 
 the loom of historical fiction. Explanations cannot, however, 
 always explain the unexpected, unaccountable changes in 
 men's circumstances. Unseen, yet ever present, is that 
 sovereign "Divinity which shapes our ends" through the 
 labor of our hands, yet independent of our will. For, after 
 all that can be said about it, human life in its last analysis is 
 but a succession of mysteries and miracles born from the 
 womb of Time, each in its turn destined to be disclosed 
 through its fulfilment of some fore-ordained divine purpose. 
 All that we can be sure of in human destiny, is, that He who 
 
6 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 holds the issues of life in the hollow of His hand never abdi- 
 cates His sovereignty. 'Tis His to will and to do; 'tis ours 
 to hear, submit and obey. 
 
 In answering, therefore, your very flattering invitation to 
 act as your Orator in a review of this many-sided epic, I have 
 felt that I was obeying a doubly imperative summons speak- 
 ing to me through the voice of duty, and coming as if from 
 the graves of the founders themselves. And since they are 
 not here to prompt my memory or guide my pen in writing 
 their annals, I trust that I shall not fall into the error of 
 unrolling so large a canvas that my untrained brush may 
 not be able to fill it. 
 
 Now and then, in the lives of institutions, as in those of 
 men, there come occasions when it is proper to pause for self- 
 examination ; when it seems a duty to review past actions and 
 to measure their results ; when the fitting time has arrived to 
 institute, as it were, a day of judgment — to summon parties, 
 to hear witnesses, and to pronounce a verdict upon the facts 
 as presented. This is the mission of History, whether record- 
 ing the lives of institutions or of men, the differences between 
 which are surface differences alone, the essentials not being 
 widely dissimilar. Such an occasion is the present one. It 
 marks a period of many busy, fruitful years since the found- 
 ing of this Society, which now offers its life to the scrutiny 
 of a public examination. If you ask me for its monument, it 
 is here — partly in stone, partly in antiquarian contributions, 
 which, under the name of transactions are designed to rescue 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 7 
 
 your early history from the engulfing waters of oblivion. To 
 speak more specifically, that monument consists of public 
 records, of private annals, of domestic antiquities, whether 
 heirlooms, or other household treasures, of biographical 
 sketches, of families, together with family portraits, their 
 coats of arms and hatchments, the lingering relics of heraldic 
 practice ; of private letters, old newspapers, book accounts 
 and such other floating miscellaneous papers as will stand for 
 exhibits of either laws, customs or manners existing during 
 the Colonial or Revolutionary period of American history. 
 All these have been collected and stored in its Memorial Hall. 
 This Museum of Antiquities, charged with the custody and 
 safekeeping of these precious treasures, is the monument I 
 offer you, as an ever-living witness to the fifty years labor of 
 the sous and daughters of the Old Colony. Small in its 
 architectural dimensions and already indicative of its growing 
 incapacity to meet the demands of its increasing accumula- 
 tions, it pleads with touching emphasis for enlargement. 
 Amid all surrounding monuments of municipal progress here, 
 whether dedicated to educational, commercial or literary 
 purposes, the members of our Society may point to this 
 humble treasure house of ancestral memories with feelings of 
 true filial pride and congratulation. It is a flower of piety 
 grown in the soil of material thrift, small in itself yet fragrant. 
 The past achievements of Taunton as a centre of industrial 
 activity and of commercial energy were, in my day, second 
 to those of no community occupying this colonial soil, and 
 
8 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 the progress she had made in the development of the me- 
 chanic arts had justly placed her among the foremost cities 
 of the old Bay State. Capital and industry had both com- 
 bined to enlarge her home business and to expand the horizon 
 of her external commerce. And although younger cities 
 have sprung up about her, the hum of her industries is still 
 everywhere heard in her streets, and, like the music of the 
 reaper's scythe, proclaims the in-gathering of the generous 
 daily harvest. In all these past years the smile of a superin- 
 tending Providence has never been withheld from her citizens 
 or their labors. Neither fire, flood or pestilence have ever 
 desolated her homes. Her's is, indeed, a beautiful picture of 
 the sunshine and prosperity which attends the steady con- 
 servative practice of the arts of peaceful industry. Measured 
 by ordinary commercial standards of prosperity, such results 
 are very gratifying to worldly ambition. They are also a 
 spur to zeal and serve to maintain the momentum acquired by 
 the arts thus successfully practiced. But material success 
 alone should not be the sole object of municipal government, 
 or the highest aim of individual effort. Man lives universally 
 through his sentiments and affections before he does through 
 his intellect. The great agitating storms of life, at either 
 extreme of joy or sorrow, of hope or failure, of confidence or 
 its breach, all take their rise in the one common center of our 
 human emotions. It has always been true that " One touch 
 of Nature makes the whole word kin." Our public parks 
 and flower beds, our libraries, our music halls, our poetry and 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 9 
 
 the drama, all testify to the demands of a spiritual appetite 
 for objects which cannot be taken in the hand ; which cannot 
 be weighed, measured or transferred by trade or barter. 
 
 Therefore, viewing all the wide avenues of prosperity with 
 which Taunton abounds ; the teeming industries which fill 
 the air with ceaseless pulsations from forge, furnace and 
 factory ; the whirl of mill wheels and the ringing of anvils ; 
 viewing all these absorbing interests in the drama of her daily 
 life as causes for congratulation, it is still more gratifying, in 
 the light of this day's observances both to know, and to feel 
 that neither the roaring of the loom, the singing of the shut- 
 tle, the clang of the hammer or the thunder of machinery, 
 have silenced the voice of affection and reverence which still 
 speaks in the lives of the descendants of the Pilgrims. It 
 was not, therefore, the commerce or the mechanic arts of 
 Taunton ; not the loom, or the spindle ; not the factory or 
 the furnace, the cotton, the iron or the silver industry ; it 
 was not either of these, or all combined, that gave life and 
 breath to the Old Colony Historical Society. It was none of 
 these promoters of material prosperity that called it into 
 being. Nay, if you ask for the motive which prompted its 
 creation, the answer will be found in the Fifth Command- 
 ment: "Honor thy father and thy mother." 
 
 This Fifth Commandment, which stands forth so promi- 
 nently in the moral code of all civilized nations, is no new 
 canon of obligation, but forms part of the traditional religion 
 and domestic usages of races whose antiquity antedates by 
 
10 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 many centuries that of our own Christianity. It belongs to 
 no age and to no particular people. The Chinese have 
 practiced it as an article of faith from times remote enough 
 to stand in the very dawn of history, and so intense is their 
 reverence for this dogma of ancestor worship and the law of 
 sacrilege which it embodies, that, in the recent Boxer rebel- 
 lion, among the most flagrant crimes charged against the 
 government was that of allowing foreigners to run railroads 
 through native cemeteries and thus to desecrate their soil. 
 The presence of this fifth commandment in the Tables of the 
 Law was the re-affirmation of a Divine law already implanted 
 in the human heart, and forming part of that universal con- 
 science in which are to be found the roots of all moral 
 conduct and positive jurisprudence. In its domestic aspects, 
 it was intended as a tribute of filial gratitude to our parents 
 when living, and to their memory when dead ; and in its 
 grander influences upon human society it has ever been a 
 controlling force in the perpetuation of ancestral virtues and 
 achievements. 
 
 Reverence and loyalty are due to every good family name 
 and family character, and should form a part of the religion 
 of all reflecting minds. When, therefore, the duty was as- 
 signed me as its first Secretary to construct its Seal, I made 
 the legend upon it speak the baptismal vow with which the 
 Society dedicated itself to the service of the memory of the 
 Fathers. For, behind the glamor of its legislative charter ; 
 behind the thought which had engendered the idea of a 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 11 
 
 Historical Society for the Old Colony of Massachusetts ; behind 
 the faith which built its foundations in serene hope of a future 
 which we to-day enjoy and glorify ; behind all these underly- 
 ing elements, spoke the still, small voice of loyalty — loyalty 
 to ancestors, loyalty to the memory of Bradford and Brew- 
 ster, Winthrop, Winslow, Prince and Standish, who had 
 planted the first seeds of our national polity and national 
 character. 
 
 The historian of a historical society has a double task to 
 accomplish ; first to describe scenes in which he has himself 
 been an interested spectator, if not an actor, and next to 
 portray occurrences, both personal and public, often involving 
 unwritten customs and traditions, where the individual action 
 is essentially submerged in the larger action of the community. 
 His object, then, must be to present to posterity a panorama 
 of events, sometimes connected, sometimes disparted, but 
 preferably in their aggregate appearance and results. The 
 spirit of the subject, rather than an itemized schedule of 
 events should constitute the animating motive of his work, 
 the minor details of which may not deserve special mention 
 at every stage of his narrative. This is particularly the case 
 with the history of a literary institution whose life is best re- 
 flected in the records of its administration. We cannot, how- 
 ever, escape the presence of the personal element in corporate 
 action, since it represents in varying degrees the external 
 character of men, their industry, their fluctuating endeavors, 
 their purposes, their hopes, the obstacles encountered by 
 
12 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 them, and the success achieved. The annals of our Society 
 include portions of contemporary, as well as of colonial and 
 revolutionary history. We have not been dealing with 
 legends, ballads, or old-wives' stories, but with substantive 
 facts remembered by living witnesses, or recorded in accessi- 
 ble documents. 
 
 It is common to speak, without exception, of any cor- 
 poration as a soulless body by reason of the legal metaphor 
 embodied in its definition, " an artificial person, invisible, 
 intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law." But 
 ours was never such from its very inception. It has always 
 had a soul, and that soul is loyalty to the Fifth Commandment. 
 The men who founded it represented in their action obedience 
 to the spirit and the letter of this Divine Law. The motives 
 which prompted them, and the spirit which has ever directed 
 its course have all been soul-born and spiritual, instead of 
 being material, motives. No breath of worldly desire ; no 
 stain of ambition for local fame, power or secular gain, ever 
 entered as a moving consideration into its foundation. 
 Throughout their labors, the personal equation of zeal, energy 
 and loving enthusiasm always carried the plus sign before it. 
 Outside also of this field, their sense of duty was broad and 
 comprehensive. It was alive to all public wants, whose de- 
 mands were an ever-standing call for action. Therefore, was 
 it that their aftections were not confined alone to the narrow 
 sphere of a historical society having but a limited field of 
 activity, as a noiseless collector of antiquities. Far from it. 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 13 
 
 Their good citizenship embraced a wider territory at the Bar, 
 in the Church, on the Bench, and carried with it more miscel- 
 laneous and more responsible duties. To you who lived in 
 close touch and daily relations with them — while I, as a fifty- 
 year absentee can only speak from hearsay and tradition — to 
 you, it is well known that the honored names of Morton, 
 Daggett, Reed and Emery, will occupy a larger space in the 
 municipal history of Taunton, even than they do in that of 
 our Society. Nor should we omit from this galaxy of our 
 worthies the name of John D. W. Hall, who, if not himself, 
 among the founders, yet, as the Editor of a local journal, 
 gave us, from the very first, the hearty support of his paper, 
 and, later on, when filling the office of Secretary, devoted 
 with an irrepressible ardor the declining years of a long life 
 to the services of the Society. 
 
 In rehearsing the annals of our association from its incep- 
 tion, I am dealing with both original and reflective history. 
 The former enables me to relate events which passed before 
 my eyes, and in which I took part. Unfortunately, the time 
 occupied by this period was too short to enable me, at this 
 day, to do more than give you from personal knowledge what 
 is only the preface to the fifty years of life we are now cele- 
 brating. My removal from Taunton in July, 1854, only one 
 year after the Society's incorporation, breaks, of necessity, 
 the continuity of this personal knowledge, and I am left in 
 the position of a late gatherer of such disconnected facts, 
 records and public events as have been kindly furnished me 
 
14 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 by your Secretary. Without his generous aid, I should have 
 been unwilling to accept the responsibilities of this hour, and 
 equally unable to meet its exacting demands for historical 
 accuracy. I owe it, therefore, to Mr, Seaver, as well as to my- 
 self, to make this public statement, in order that merit may 
 be acknowledged where merit is deserved. Had I remained 
 a member of your community and in close touch with your 
 contemporary history in its varied relations to this Old Colony 
 Society, my equipment as your Historian Avould have reached 
 much nearer to what you had a right to expect. But all this 
 was prevented by my removal. Moreover, the dry statistical 
 facts of reflective history, however carefully collated or pre- 
 sented to an audience, cannot be expected to enchain their 
 attention, or to impart sentiment to an occasion dedicated to 
 rejoicing and congratulations. To be interesting, such facts 
 should be picturesque. They should represent living efforts 
 moved by human affections and be a picture of the kaleido- 
 scope of social life. They should bespeak the movements of 
 the heart, the mind and the hand — the energy of warm blood 
 and the ardor of temperament. These are the constructive 
 forces of life in action, and, when directed by an uplifting 
 purpose, are the things which impart nobility to the labors of 
 men. In our descriptions of them there may be coloring and 
 there may be philosophy, but there need not be conjecture 
 alone, for truth does not allow us to draw upon our imagina- 
 tion. The despotism of a fact wherever met, must be 
 acknowledged and accorded its due influence. 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 15 
 
 We cannot, however, at will separate biography from 
 history in the lives of institutions, any more than in those 
 of men. It will always remain true that " All the world 's 
 a stage," and life, whether local or national, whether in a 
 public arena or a private home, only parts of a universal 
 drama. The theatres and court-rooms we visit, and the 
 romances we pore over in print, afford us no scenes or 
 incidents more stirring to heart and mind than those we daily 
 move among as witnesses or actors. In raising, therefore, 
 the curtain of our Society's chronology, I must first in- 
 troduce an element of biography which justice, friendship 
 and reverence for the memory of its founders alike combine 
 to demand. And, where all are equally meritorious, it is 
 difficult to discriminate by exclusion. Yet, there was one 
 conspicuous leader whose name, like Abou Ben Ahdem's, in 
 the poet's vision, "led all the rest." It is the name of 
 
 NATHANIEL MORTON 
 
 and to his memory we owe the homage of our gratitude for 
 the foundation of the Old Colony Historical Society. To 
 him exclusively, belongs the merit of having foreseen the 
 expediency of this local association and its future usefulness, 
 as a conservator of historical antiquities still ungathered. 
 
 It was a bold move to make under the shadow and within 
 the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the 
 parent of all similar associations in the Commonwealth ; a 
 
16 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 society then already 60 years old, well intrenched in the 
 esteem of the people, and possessed of a library and rich 
 stores of colonial history and antiquities. It had claimed the 
 attention and received the assistance of the scholars, states- 
 men and divines of the Commonwealth. A long series of 
 publications bore witness to the regularity of its meetings 
 and the efficiency of its work, as shown in the character of 
 those official transactions. Every new item of local history 
 seemed, or was expected, to drift by some underlying and 
 mysterious current of attraction toward its shelves, and to 
 require to be passed under its scrutiny before receiving a cer- 
 tificate of authenticity. Like our national currency, its 
 papers passed everywhere without discount. Its lynx-eyed 
 officers were quick to prick the bubbles of historical conceit, 
 and to explore the errors of apprentices in archseology. It 
 could safely be said that if you found any item of Massachu- 
 setts history vouched for by that Society, the record of its 
 truth was closed, and no appeal from it could be taken. 
 And there were, also, at that time other antiquarian societies 
 in existence, such as the American Antiquarian Society of 
 Worcester, incorporated in 1812 ; the Pilgrim Society of Ply- 
 mouth in 1820, the New England Historical and Genealogical 
 Society in 1815, and the Essex Institute in 1848, but of these 
 the Pilgrim Society was the only historical one within the 
 limits of the Old Colony. 
 
 It is needless to say that all the foregoing Societies 
 were ever on the alert for fresh acquisitions of materials 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 17 
 
 to add to their treasures, and not likely to have refused 
 their acceptance from whatever portion of the Common- 
 wealth they might have come. I dwell upon these facts 
 to show the boldness of the undertaking embraced in 
 the foundation of our Society by iVir. Morton, and the loyal 
 determination to leave no portion of the Old Colony un- 
 searched for relics of the days and labors of your ancestors. 
 How well this good office has been discharged during the past 
 fifty years, I leave to the treasures contained in your Hall, 
 and your transactions to prove. They speak of labors per- 
 formed by prying eyes in out-of-the-way places ; of garrets 
 ransacked, store-rooms overhauled ; of ancient, weather- 
 stained letters and other papers rescued from the enveloping 
 dust of scores of years. All these constitute historical 
 exhibits of an uncontradictable character, and may safely be 
 trusted as guides in forming your verdict. 
 
 I have said that we owe to the memory of Nathaniel 
 Morton the homage of our gratitude as the founder of this 
 Society. Nothing less will justify historical truth or vindi- 
 cate my right to appear as its exponent. And the Brief 
 which I hold to-day in behalf of this Society, while including 
 him as one of its important points, calls for its treatment on 
 a basis of friendship and personal regard, no less than on that 
 of truth and historical accuracy. 1 cannot forget that for 
 nearly two years I occupied very close relations to him, both 
 as a student and member of his family, and, although over 
 forty years have elapsed since his death, this is the first 
 
18 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 opportunity ever given me of paying a public tribute to his 
 memory. However late this may appear, I am happy to be 
 able to bring my little measure of cotton and oil to feed this 
 lamp of remembrance. He was a lawyer of superior talents, 
 with the most brilliant prospects which a distinguished 
 ancestry, influential connections and a successful professional 
 practice could open before him. But, dying in mid-career, at 
 the early age of 34, his sun set while it was yet day, and his 
 way was barred to that professional eminence which he 
 seemed so conspicuously destined to reach. That which was 
 accorded to his distinguished father, as Governor of the 
 Commonwealth, and to his eminent brother, as its Chief 
 Justice, never came to him. Unfortunately, the "dry light of 
 Jurisprudence" did not present such allurements to his mind, 
 as to kindle in it the fervor of a consecrated worshipper. 
 His successes cost him little eifort, or even preparation. It 
 seemed that his talents secured him such easy victories at the 
 Bar that he never felt the necessity of pressing them to 
 their full capacity. Had he lived longer, age and rivalry 
 would have broadened his view of that necessity. 
 
 Whether the idea of founding this Society originated with 
 Mr. Morton, or was the product of another mind, cannot now 
 be known, but he, at least, was the first to present a plan for 
 it in a concrete form. I had never heard of the project until 
 he broached the subject to me. This was in the autumn of 
 1852, soon after my arrival in Taunton. At that time his 
 father-in-law, Mr. Francis Baylies, author of a Historical Mem- 
 oir of the Colony of New Plymouth, was still living. As a 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 19 
 
 ripe scholar and historian, his interest in American history 
 did not confine itself to the Old Colony alone, for he had 
 planned a work of extensive proportions to embrace 
 the administrations of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and 
 Madison. Skeleton outlines of these several works had 
 already been drafted, and, after his death, were submitted to 
 me for examination. It is chiefly, however, as the historian 
 of the Plymouth Colony that Mr. Baylies will be remembered, 
 and it is a reasonable presumption, in view of his wide 
 knowledge of local history, that he was consulted, together 
 with Gov. Morton, Mr. William Baylies, Mr. Edmund Bay- 
 lies, and members of the clergy and Bristol County Bar who 
 were personal friends of Mr. Morton. I was present at most 
 of these preliminary meetings, but, being in their nature in- 
 formal, kept no record of them. The project grew rapidly, 
 under the increasing conviction that such a Society had before 
 it a field of antiquarian research, which had not yet been 
 exhausted. 
 
 At that day, the phrase, "Old Colony," when intended to 
 describe a geographical territory, was popularly used as a 
 term of familiar application to the fringe of towns bordering 
 upon Massachusetts Bay, or to the Counties of Plymouth and 
 Barnstable, because representing the soil first trodden by the 
 Pilgrim Fathers. As a matter of history and civil govern- 
 ment, this was plainly an error, but names of places when 
 popularly interpreted do not always indicate their claims to 
 authenticity, and their continued use more often depends 
 upon some accident of adhesiveness, than upon geographical 
 
20 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 accuracy. The earliest use of the term which I can find was 
 made by an association of Plymouth citizens who organized 
 themselves under the title of the Old Colony Club, in 1769 
 and which was dissolved in 1773. In like manner, a news- 
 paper called the Old Colony Reporter was established in 
 1821, and the Old Colony Bank of the same place was char- 
 tered in 1832. With the single exception of the Old Colony 
 Iron Works, of Taunton, established about the year 1850, the 
 prefix "Old Colony" does not appear, outside of Plymouth 
 County, to have been attached to any corporation until 181-1, 
 when the Old Colony Railroad was chartered as a corporation 
 operating a road between Plymouth and Boston, and which 
 was followed by our own incorporation in 1853. This further 
 fixed the name as one of geographical limitation to the coun- 
 ties of Plymouth and Bristol, and by continued use has now 
 become generally adopted and intrenched in the popular 
 memory. Mr. Morton, Mr. Ellis Ames and Judge Daggett, 
 being careful lawyers and painstaking antiquarians, when a 
 name for our Society was under discussion, had these facts 
 before them, and took the broad ground that ours was not a 
 misnomer, but that we always formed a portion of the Old 
 Colony and had been so recognized from the first in the early 
 history of Gov. Bradford (2). Their views being heartily 
 endorsed by their associates, we were incorporated as the only 
 Historical Society under our present title. 
 
 Acting upon these grounds, when the Society instructed 
 me, as its first Secretary, to construct an appropriate seal, I 
 
 (1) Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. 1, p. 3. 
 
 ( 2 ) Bradford's History, p. 44. 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 21 
 
 placed in its centre, and as its leading feature, Plymouth 
 Rock with the date 1620, and the legend, "Lux prima 
 occidentis," over a sunburst. This was an acknowledgement 
 of Plymouth's precedence in receiving the earliest light of civil 
 and religious liberty in the Colony, and outside of this, I 
 inscribed our own baptismal vow of " Patrum memorium 
 custodire," with a border, containing the official name of our 
 Society. Such is the glyptic interpretation of our Seal with 
 the underlying motive of its construction. 
 
 This completed our legal equipment of a charter and a 
 seal, but, although our act of incorporation was of the date of 
 May 4, 1853, no formal organization occurred until the 23d 
 of February, 1854, when, at a meeting held at the study of 
 Rev. Mr. Emery, its first Board of officers was elected, con- 
 sisting of the following persons : 
 
 President, Nathaniel Morton, Esq., Taunton. 
 Vice Presidents'. Rev. Samuel H. Emery, Taunton. 
 
 Hon. John Daggett, Attleboro. 
 Directors: Rev. Mortimer Blake, Mansfield. 
 
 Hon. Samuel L. Crocker, Taunton. 
 
 Ellis Ames, Esq., Canton. 
 
 Henry B. Wheelwright Esq., Taunton. 
 
 William R. Deane, Esq., Boston. 
 
 Caleb Swan, M. D., Easton. 
 Recording Secretary and Librarian : Edgar H. Reed, 
 Taunton. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary : John Ordronaux, Taunton. 
 Treasurer : Hodges Reed, Esq., Taunton. 
 
22 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 The next step to be taken by the Society related to the 
 acquisition of a suitable home for its future collections. Mr. 
 Morton had had this object under consideration from the 
 very beginning, and, soon after our incorporation, informed 
 me that he had purchased the Old Taunton Bank building, 
 corner of Cedar street, with the intention of having it passed 
 over to the Society. Meanwhile, a subscription list had been 
 opened representing its capital, which had then been fixed 
 at 15,000, divided into $1,000 shares of 15.00 each, and the 
 public were invited by suitable circulars to become stock- 
 holders. A committee of 10 was also appointed to solicit 
 subscriptions. In response to this invitation, the records 
 show that 252 shares only were sold, aggregating 11,260. As 
 the Old Bank building, according to the consideration men- 
 tioned in the deed of conveyance, had cost Mr. Morton 
 $3,750, the amount of the capital then subscribed was inade- 
 quate for its purchase, and the premises remained in the 
 hands of Mr. Morton until his death. 
 
 From 1854 to 1885, the Society being without a fixed 
 habitation, held its meetings at various places, according as 
 circumstances favored special localities. Its active member- 
 ship was then small, and its meetings without particular sig- 
 nificance. Under the law of organic growth, it had not yet 
 reached the plane of a working capacity. Time enough had 
 not elapsed to make itself felt as a working force. Yet dur- 
 ing all these years, there was a growing feeling of the impor- 
 tance of collecting historical treasures of a perishable nature, 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 23 
 
 stored in out-of-the-way places, and daily exposed to the risks 
 of conflagration or other destructive agencies. This feeling 
 finally assumed a concrete form of action on the occasion of 
 the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the settlement 
 and incorporation of Taunton, when, at a meeting of the 
 Society held on July 20, 1885, Rev. Dr. Emery introduced 
 the following resolution : 
 
 "Whereas, the Old Colony Historical Society has had an 
 honorable existence as an incorporated body for more than 
 thirty years and deserves well in its high aims and purposes 
 of the Old Colony, 
 
 "Therefore, Resolved : That it is a titting time as we pro- 
 pose celebrating the birthday of these early towns, to revive 
 the attempt begun in 1854, but never consummated, to pro- 
 vide a permanent building for historical purposes and a 
 suitable place of deposit for books and valuable papers and 
 documents connected with the early history of the Old 
 Colony." 
 
 A committee was appointed to act and report upon this 
 resolution. As a result of the success of their labors, in the 
 ensuing year, at a meeting held October 11, 1886, the Presi- 
 dent announced that three-fourths of the purchase money 
 necessary to secure the Cedar street chapel had been raised, 
 and urged the continuance of the work of collecting funds. 
 This was speedily accomplished, and on September 25, 1886, 
 the Society finally came into possession of its permanent 
 home through a deed of conveyance executed by Mr. Joseph 
 
24 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Dean, its previous owner, reciting among its covenants that : 
 
 "The purpose of the grantee in taking this deed free 
 from all conditions, restrictions or limitations, and absolutely 
 in fee, is to devote the property forever to those uses for 
 which the Old Colony Historical Society was incorpor- 
 ated." (*) 
 
 In the interval occurring between 1854 and 1886, there 
 had been occasional meetings of the Society, and generally at 
 different places. One, in particular, deserves mention be- 
 cause celebrating its 25th anniversary. It was held in the 
 Common Council room, April -30, 1878 ; Rev. Henry M. 
 Dexter offered prayer ; President Daggett made some re- 
 marks, and Rev. Dr. Emery read a sketch of the origin and 
 progress of the Association during its first 25 years, and Rev. 
 Dr. Tarbox, of Boston, presented a paper on the differences 
 between the Pilgrims and Puritans. Following this, there 
 came a long season of remarkable inactivity, for which no ex- 
 planation can now be given. From 1860, until 1885, no ex- 
 tended records of meetings of the Society appear to have 
 been kept; dates alone of their occurrence are the sole ex- 
 hibits I can find. This lethargy was doubtless occasioned by 
 the want of a home and rallying centre around which to 
 gather those historical treasures which have since multiplied 
 so rapidly, and have imparted to the Society so living a char- 
 acter, with such large prospects of usefulness. Meanwhile a 
 taste for antiquarian research, and a zest in gratifying it had 
 
 (3) There were 84 contributors to this purchaBe, of which Mr. Dean was himself 
 the leading and Iarge»>t. 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 25 
 
 begun to exhibit itself. This initiative and its results can 
 best be illustrated by a few statistics. 
 
 Its membership on starting was 250. It now represents 
 644, of which 259 are life, 276 resident, 103 corresponding, 
 and 26 honorary. The capital allowed by the original char- 
 ter was $15,000. In 1887 the charter was amended by ex- 
 tending the limit of its capital to $50,000. No right estimate 
 of the present value of its property can be made, outside 
 of its hall and library, estimated to be worth about $9,650, 
 because its most valuable property consists of things which, 
 being in their very nature irreplaceable, are consequently 
 priceless. 
 
 Since the acquisition of a Memorial Hall, its strides in pop- 
 ularity have been rapid and extensive. It would seem as if 
 the public, though tardy in recognizing the important duty it 
 was performing as a local historian, was seeking to make 
 amends for past omissions of interest. As proof of this may 
 be eited the fact that 123 family portraits now grace its 
 walls; 400 volumes of historical memoirs of towns and per- 
 sons, together with school reports, are on its shelves ; also 
 hundreds of pamphlets; 201 volumes of newspapers begin- 
 ning with the first one printed here in 1820, and quantities 
 of relics whose miscellaneous character forbids any particular 
 enumeration. What it most seriously needs now is a fire- 
 proof building in which to preserve and exhibit such articles 
 as cannot safely be exposed in its Hall, together with its own 
 records. Every year makes the demand for such protection 
 more and more imperative. 
 
26 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 From a summary schedule of records furnished me by 
 your Secretary, Mr. Seaver, it appears that from 1854 to 1868 
 meetings of the Society were held with apparent regularity, 
 sometimes only for the election of officers and generally with 
 little or no business to transact. From June 6, 1868, to Feb- 
 ruary 23, 1878, a period of nearly eleven years, no meetings 
 at all were held. The Society seems to have fallen into a 
 state of suspended animation. Why this should have oc- 
 curred, there appears no good reason to show. It happened 
 as events in life will sometimes, without any inculpating cir- 
 cumstances lying at anyone's door. The Society was adrift. 
 It was still without a home. Judge Daggett had been its 
 president since the death of Mr. Morton in 1856, and so con- 
 tinued until 1886, a period of thirty years, but his advanced 
 age and declining health had long disabled him from taking 
 any active part in its movements, and it slumbered in con- 
 sequence. Upon his death, Rev. Samuel H. Emery was 
 elected President, remaining so until his own decease in 
 1902. Thereupon, a regenerative process seems to have be- 
 gun its good work. This subsequent period of 16 years 
 marks a most gratifying regeneration of all the affairs of the 
 Society, together with great accessions to its antiquarian 
 treasures. Bequests began to flow in, and donations, in ad- 
 dition to those already received for the purchase of its Hall, 
 were made to the amount of !|3,000. There have also been 
 manifestations of rapidly increasing public interest in the 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 27 
 
 welfare of the Society ; contributions of historical papers have 
 been read at its meetings ; it has issued five volumes of trans- 
 actions, and a sixth is in process of publication. This marks 
 the golden age of its past history, and merits something more 
 than a passing notice. For, if success be the parent of suc- 
 cess, we have here great promises for the future of a Society 
 which already stands on a footing of parity with any similar 
 association in the Commonwealth. But that success was not 
 accidental. It had a living force behind it. 
 
 In one of those crisp apothegms of Emerson, unfolding 
 the secret of a great moral truth, he tells us that an institu- 
 tion is often but the lengthened shadow of one man. His- 
 tory has many illustrations of this truth, which operates 
 alike in small bodies as in great ; nor need we go far to find 
 an instance. If there be in our Society's history any one 
 man whose lengthened shadow was long a moving spiritual 
 force in its life work, that man was Samuel Hopkins Emery. 
 He was among its founders, and stood next to Morton in 
 the chronology of its origin. But even as Elder Brewster, 
 though next to Bradford in the Plymouth Colony, was in 
 fact the moving spiritual force of that community, so Emery 
 acted a corresponding part in our Society. And, as Morton 
 died soon after its foundation, and Daggett was physically 
 incapacitated for nursing and developing an institution re- 
 quiring residence among, and deep roots in the affection of 
 a communit}', it was providentially left to his successor to be 
 our Moses and regenerator. Who that ever knew him, and 
 
.^8 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 followed his labors in behalf of this Society, will venture to 
 believe that without him we could have said this day to the 
 world, Come, examine us, and see what has been done 
 through the leadership of this faithful steward of our his- 
 torical vineyard. No talent of his was ever buried in a 
 napkin, or left at rest. His enthusiasm was without abate- 
 ment in any labor which he undertook, and his quickened 
 pulse imparted electrical energy to everything he touched. 
 Possessed of a fervid temperament, his warmth of heart and 
 zeal were an inspiring force to all around, for he was one of 
 those devoted servants of the Lord who firmly believe that 
 he who plougheth, should plough in hope. And thus it was 
 that, to the very last, he carried throughout his life-work an 
 atmosphere of glowing ardor that shone in his countenance 
 like the golden sunset of a tropical sky. 
 
 It is a somewhat singular fact that the first years of our 
 Society were years of great activity. Dr. Emery, in his his- 
 torical sketch, at the celebration of its 25th anniversary on 
 April 30, 1878, remarks that 
 
 "With such industry did the Old Colony Historical So- 
 ciety work, the first fifteen years of its existence, from 1853 
 to 1868, that it seems to have settled down into a state of in- 
 action from sheer exhaustion, but there are symptoms of a 
 new awakening of this somewhat ancient Society at the pres- 
 ent time." 
 
 It would be difiicult, if not impossible, at this late day to 
 assign any satisfactory reasons for this sudden drop in the 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 29 
 
 progress of the Society, unless we borrow a figure from math- 
 ematics and say that the height of a pyramid should always 
 accompany the breadth of its base, and, in consequence, that 
 our height then reached was all that our base could sustain, 
 or, in a more popular view, it might be the effect of that sud- 
 den exhaustion which often overtakes enterprises started at 
 too rapid a pace. Whatever, then, may have been its cause, 
 for which I can find no more logical syllogism than this, it is 
 a fact that somewhere along in the Eighties the Society be- 
 gan broadening its base, and its elevation followed in a cor- 
 responding ratio. This should stand as a useful lesson to us 
 Americans, who feel that our superior activity could have 
 built Rome or the Pyramids in a day, and have swung St. 
 Peter's mighty dome into place like the lid of an iron pot, at 
 the single toss of a steam derrick. But historical societies 
 are not architectural problems. They have deeper and wider- 
 spreading roots, and their growth must draw its sap from the 
 affections and living interests of the community in which 
 they have their home. Dr. Emery's lengthened shadow 
 seems to have been the animating force which wtought the 
 new awakening of the Society's activities. 
 
 Somewhere about the year 1886 occurs the dawn of this 
 new dispensation, with Dr. Emery, Judge Bennett and 
 Charles A. Reed on deck, or at the helm, to be followed by 
 Messrs. Brayton, Lovering, Crapo, Porter and Judge Fuller 
 and the veterans, Edgar Reed and John W. D. Hall. Now it 
 was that with this inviting Memorial Hall and a broadly 
 
30 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 scattered membership, an aDtiquarian harvest of relics began 
 rapidly flowing in. Contributions came from far and near. 
 And let the truth be known that this harvest of historical 
 treasures which adorns your walls, or loads your shelves, 
 comes not alone from male members. In the list of busy 
 gleaners the sisterhood stands high. The daughters of the 
 Old Colony have been side by side with her sons in filial 
 loyalty. For every Boaz, there has been a Ruth ; for every 
 Aquila, there has been a Priscilla ; for every Timothy and 
 Titus, there has been a Phoebe and a Triphcena. Industrious 
 hands like those of whom the Scriptures make honorable 
 mention, because of the practice of household virtues, have 
 toiled with ardor in gathering heirlooms, and these ancestral 
 crumbs have been more precious and more priceless than 
 many of those accessions upon which the impress of a na- 
 tional greenback currency has been stamped. 
 
 Among these treasures of the past, whose numbers already 
 exceed our architectural capacity to contain them, one has 
 come to us of so weird a character as to elicit unusual won- 
 der. Hoary with age, with undeciphered inscriptions await- 
 ing, like another Rosetta stone, its own particular interpreter, 
 the Dighton Writing Rock continues to be a marvel to an- 
 tiquarian scholars. Had Columbus or Americus Vespuccius 
 touched it with their feet, we should have felt that they had 
 impressed upon it a character almost sacred. But, older than 
 Plymouth Rock, older even than Columbus, older, in fact, 
 than modern history, it stands unique in solitary and unap- 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 31 
 
 proachable grandeur. The true meaning of its inscription 
 being still a matter of litigation among archaeologists, I can- 
 not undertake to express an opinion upon the merits of its 
 claims as an alleged Scandinavian monument. But, whether 
 that inscription be runic, or of later Indian origin, it marks 
 at least an important event in the history of the ancient Vin- 
 land, the Goode. And having now become part of our ac- 
 quisitions, it belongs to our history, whether obtained by 
 gift, purchase or devise ; nor can we, in good conscience, ven- 
 ture to impeach the international reputation of that relic by 
 casting doubts upon its title. If our antiquities were re- 
 stricted to the period alone of English colonization of this 
 continent, the Dighton Rock would represent nothing of 
 value to us. But I know of no hard-and-fast rule by which 
 we are debarred the privilege of collecting any relics of the 
 past residence or labors of any ante-Columbian occupants of 
 the soil of the Old Colony. An abstract of the title to this 
 Rock shows that in 1857 it was purchased by Mr. Niels 
 Arnzen, of Fall River, from Mr. Thomas F. Dean, of Berke- 
 ley, on whose land it lay, for the sum of $50. In that trans- 
 action, it seems Mr. Arnzen was acting as a Trustee for Mr. 
 Ole Bull, the celebrated violinist, who, not being an Ameri- 
 can citizen, could hold no title in real estate. After Mr. 
 Bull's death, he not having completed the purchase, Mr. 
 Arnzen, himself a Scandinavian, made a gift of the property 
 to the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians of Copen- 
 hagen, in 1860, who accepted it as a genuine monument of 
 
32 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 the visit of Scandinavian navigators to this coiitinent about 
 the year 1008. A proposition to remove the Rock to Copen- 
 hagen having failed of accomplishment, the Society presented 
 it to the Old Colony Historical Society, by a deed of quit- 
 claim dated January 30, 1889. And here it is destined to 
 remain as our last surviving relic, "amid the wrecks of matter 
 and the crush of worlds." 
 
 In this hasty and summary review of the fifty years labors 
 of the Old Colony Historical Society, there is continuing 
 reason for congratulation and still more for hope. History, 
 said Mr. Webster in one of his public addresses, is God's 
 providence in the affairs of men. Wherever we examine a 
 group of facts, or periods of time, or combinations of events 
 of inexplicable connection, we find this to be true. On every 
 side it is made plain that we cannot sever ourselves from the 
 Divine government, nor step outside of its jurisdiction. The 
 father of modern philosophy, in writing upon Fortune, holds 
 up to view the strong faith in which the great minds of an- 
 tiquity, without even the light of revelation to guide them, 
 rested in that belief. That which they called Fortune, we 
 call Providence, a power which makes for righteousness with 
 grace abounding. 
 
 The history of some portions of the Old Colony has not 
 yet been exhausted by writers. The larger dramas of the 
 colonial period, such as Indian wars, religious dissensions, the 
 establishment of State and Town governments, their boun- 
 daries and conflicting claims, the support of a state religion 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 33 
 
 by local taxation, and church membership as a qualification 
 for citizenship, all these ancient questions which formerly- 
 disturbed the peace of good men's minds have disappeared 
 before the light of a broader conception of Christian fellow- 
 ship and of civil liberty. Although much has, in these larger 
 directions of historical inquiry, been chronicled by early an- 
 nalists, and more still has been sketched by later ones anx- 
 ious to leave no field unswept, there are chapters of domestic 
 life yet slumbering in undiscovered relics that deserve to be 
 rescued from the destructive agencies of time, weather and 
 accident. Crumbs are being still gathered whose value at 
 times surprises us. Let the threshings continue ; let the 
 gleaners keep up their work. Old farm houses — attics — 
 store-rooms — closets — trunks, and wherever else collections 
 of family papers have been made, should be diligently 
 searched. Many a curious, and many a valuable discovery 
 has been made in this way of useful historical material. Prof. 
 Thorold Rogers' monumental work, entitled "Six Centuries 
 of Labor and Wages in England" was compiled largely from 
 searches made among old farm registers, stewards' accounts, 
 family expense books, bills and receipts, and other similar 
 waste-basket materials. 
 
 Portions of Gov. Bradford's Letter Book, which, like his 
 "History of Plymouth Plantations," was lost to view for many 
 years, were accidentally discovered among waste papers in a 
 grocery store in Nova Scotia, and subsequently published in 
 the Massachusetts Historical Collections. Almost every 
 
34 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 chapter of human history has some lost pages in it, for which 
 we should search. Sooner or later these lost jewels may be 
 found and the gap be filled. Time and patience are the great 
 agencies of success in historical researches. 
 
 It is true that the public are not generally interested in 
 antiquarian pursuits. They prefer to follow the movements 
 forward of society, rather than to trace them in retrospect. 
 The former are more picturesque, because they present a 
 moving panorama of actual life, with its varied colors and 
 vicissitudes. The past, consequently, has few attractions to 
 those who wish to be in close touch with present events, and 
 to feel their presence in the very air they breathe. But the 
 function of a Historical Society is not to amuse itself, and be 
 entertained with present events, so much as it is to gather 
 and store those that have contributed to the movement of 
 the past ; to preserve events that have marked advancement 
 and progress ; events that constitute a link in the chain of 
 cause and effect, and tend to illustrate God's purposes in the 
 destiny of mankind. In other words, a historical society 
 should be a court of historical justice, whose duty it is made 
 to decide upon the legitimacy of claims for recognition in the 
 annals of a country. 
 
 The Old Colony has been fortunate in the possession of 
 founders whose merits have been too often rehearsed in pri- 
 vate and official chronicles to require any repetition on this 
 occasion. They were men and women of strength and pur- 
 pose ; their lives had been disciplined in the school of high 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 35 
 
 endeavor, and they were acquainted with the vicissitudes 
 which attend upon expatriation, upon political persecution 
 and religious disfranchisement. In England, a dissenter from 
 the Established Church was, in their day, regarded as the 
 social and political inferior of a high churchman. This 
 formed a barrier to social intimacy and influence. But 
 although Dissenters and Separatists from the Ecclesiastical 
 Establishment, they did not discard the principles of the 
 English Common Law, which they had brought with them, 
 for they began laying the foundations of our civil polity by 
 establishing the Town as the political unit of popular govern- 
 ment, and, in accordance with those principles, gave it a 
 parochial character with sovereign power in the Church, as 
 the nursery of citizenship and of civil liberty. Reduced to 
 their simplest expression, these foundations rested upon the 
 Bible, the common school and equality of all men before the 
 law. 
 
 In his address at the laying of the cornerstone of 
 Bunker Hill Monument, Mr. Webster could pronounce no 
 higher eulogium upon their virtues than by placing their 
 religious character in the foreground of his praise. Allow 
 me to quote his words: 
 
 " The character," said he, " of our countrymen, moreover, 
 was sober, moral and religious, * * * . We had no domes- 
 tic throne to overturn, no privileged orders to cast down, no 
 violent changes of property to encounter. In the American 
 Revolution no man sought or wished for more than to defend 
 
36 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 and enjoy bis own. None hoped for plunder or spoil. * * * 
 And we all know it coald not have lived a single day under 
 any well founded imputation of possessing a tendency adverse 
 to the Christian religion." 
 
 These were the men and women who founded the families 
 of which you are the descendants, and they have left names 
 whose memory you have here pledged yourselves to preserve. 
 
 But, in common with other portions of New England, the 
 Old Colony has suffered from the disappearance of old county 
 families whose names were formerly familiar in the Town 
 Meeting, in the Church, at the Bar, and on the Bench. 
 These were representative American families who formed and 
 guided the public opinion of their communities, and gave it 
 an almost statutory power in the government of civil affairs. 
 Our colonial governments constituted an agricultural demo- 
 cracy, and our leading families had their homes in the 
 country. These homes were often birthplaces of successive 
 generations. They had witnessed the beginnings of married 
 life and the funerals of parents and grandparents. They 
 were shrines consecrated by the memory of the most im- 
 portant events in family life, and were endeared by ties that 
 neither time, accident or changes of circumstance could alter. 
 Cities had not yet risen to such prosperity with commercial 
 allurements, as to win families away from their ancestral 
 acres. The country home still remained the impregnable 
 fortress of family affection and contentment. But, in a world' 
 of changes and chances, men, families, states — all must take 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 37 
 
 their turn. The unexpected of yesterday becomes the actual 
 of to-day, and sadder than all changes has been the weaken- 
 ing of the original American spirit which for nearly two 
 centuries had pervaded home life— had directed Church 
 authority and discipline, and had so animated civil govern- 
 ment itself that even courts took cognizance of it in constru- 
 ing the limits of public policy as applied to the police powers 
 of the state. Call that American spirit, as you please, 
 whether Puritan, Colonial, or Provincial, it is still the only 
 true commonwealth and ethical spirit, on which a democratic 
 Christian republic can be permanently established. It has 
 been successfully tested in domestic peace and in civil war' 
 in federal organization and in federal reconstruction, and has 
 withstood every strain put upon it. In public estimation, it 
 embodies the entire genius of our form of Government, 
 whether in structure or administration. This American 
 spirit, combining religion with local autonomy as the basis 
 of civil liberty, was the cornerstone of our Commonwealth 
 system. ( 1 ) It was born and nursed in the country homes 
 of the original colonies, but attained its most salient form in 
 the Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 The men who formed the original pillars of our republican 
 government were, for the most part, farmers whose families 
 had had their roots in the soil of our colonies for several 
 generations. They were full of the American spirit of inde- 
 pendence, with names well known in public affairs. The 
 Church council and the town meeting were the schools for 
 
 (1) Frothingham's "Rise of the Republic of the U. 8.," p 22. 
 
38 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 their political education, where the chair of the Moderator 
 and of leading Committees was usually filled from their 
 ranks. The strength and authority of these country families 
 has been everywhere destroyed by their removal to cities. 
 In so doing, their identity became merged in that of the mis- 
 cellaneous crowd. Cities, in fact, are the graveyards of 
 family names and traditions, where their descendants become 
 too often indifferent to the value of their political heritage 
 and allow themselves to drop into indolence and insignifi- 
 cance. Yet, experience shows that the power of a great name 
 need not soon expire. It may be kept strong to conjure with 
 in successive generations, if descendants will only continue to 
 transmit an unsullied character. There is a family in this 
 state, now in its fifth generation, whose voice always com- 
 mands attention and respect when dealing with subjects of 
 public interest ; nor is it here alone, for its reverberations 
 come back to us from other parts of the country, carrying 
 with them similar evidences of continuing veneration. 
 
 A good lineage everywhere carries with it the duty of 
 reverence and perpetuation. Respect for a strong character 
 is universal. Mankind, without distinction of tribe, nation 
 or creed, have ever felt an interior, uplifting force, in the 
 consciousness of being well-born. Statues, obelisks and 
 marble sepulchres testify to this veneration for ancestor- 
 memory. Looking at its universality, it approaches almost 
 to an intuition which religion develops into a duty. All men, 
 as well as all nations, need to have ideals — ideals of virtue, of 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 39 
 
 honor, of truth, of honesty — and a reasonable family pride is 
 one of those conservative forces in human society which de- 
 serves to be respected and cultivated. It is capable of acting 
 both as a stimulus to patience and perseverance in good works, 
 and as a deterrent from evil, in moments of temptation. It 
 establishes ideals of honorable conduct and generous dealing 
 which serve as barriers to greed and commercial rapacity. 
 Fools may distort family pride into self conceit and vanity, as 
 they may distort religion into idolatry, divine worship into 
 jugglery, or solemn ceremonials into mere harlequin perform- 
 ances. They may distort, but they cannot destroy it. Its 
 roots are implanted in the human heart as the spiritual com- 
 plement to the Fifth Commandment. 
 
 President John Adams, while dwelling on the subject of 
 family pride in one of his letters to his wife, uses these notable 
 words: 
 
 " The virtues and talents of ancestors should be considered 
 as examples and solemn trusts, and produce meekness 
 modesty and humility, lest they should not be imitated and 
 equalled. Mortification and humiliation can only be the 
 legitimate feelings of a mind conscious that it falls short of 
 its ancestors in merit." ( 1 ) 
 
 And, in an earlier letter to Hannah Adams, he discloses 
 his own personal feelings more trenchantly by saying: 
 
 " If I could ever suppose that family pride were anywhere 
 excusable, I should think a descent from a line of virtuous 
 independent New England farmers for one hundred and sixty 
 
 (1) Works of John Adams, Vol. 1, 464. 
 
40 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 years a better foundation for it, than a descent through royal 
 or noble scoundrels ever since the flood." ( 2 ) 
 
 The same reasons which were felt to justify this Revolu- 
 tionary patriarch and uncompromising democrat in his 
 acceptance of family pride as a tribute to ancestry, justifies it 
 in all the living descendants of the early New England colon- 
 ists. They were your ancestors, as well as his own. The 
 same fountain furnished both streams. Nor should this feel- 
 ing be limited to New England alone. In all the original 
 Thirteen States there must still be remnants of old represen- 
 tative families slowly passing into oblivion. We cannot 
 afiord to part with names that stand on our Declaration of 
 Independence or among the framers of our Constitution 
 or on our Revolutionary Rosters. Those names were borne 
 by men who were the architects of our political fabric and 
 who built its enduring walls. Therefore, it should be the 
 duty and purpose of all Historical Societies to resuscitate 
 these decaying names by doing what the Old Colony His- 
 torical Society has been aiming at, in preserving the mem- 
 ory of the Fathers. Let these fading patronymics be 
 brought to the front and let their descendants be stimulated 
 to emulate their spirit and their virtues. Our times sadly 
 need a revival of Puritan siraplicitj^ and earnestness in the 
 household. Since now, more than ever, it is cause for very 
 solemn reflection, to see prosperity bringing in its train a 
 moral indifference to things formerly held sacred ; to see a 
 falling off in respect for the old family Bible and the 
 
 (2) Works of John Adams, Vol. 9, 676. 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 41 
 
 practice of family worship ; for the old American Sabbath ; 
 for the "Old Homestead" with its local, immutable associa- 
 tions, and for the purity and dignity of public office. These 
 are national heirlooms deserving preservation. I repeat that 
 there is reason for very serious anxiety in seeing all these 
 sacred traditions undergoing disruption. They entered into 
 the genius of American civil liberty and sustained its spirit- 
 Moreover, they especially embodied the inherited Puritanism 
 to which we owe not alone the foundations of the Republic, 
 but the power given by its spirit to the conduct of our Revo- 
 lution, without which, in the words just quoted from Daniel 
 Webster, that Revolution would not have lived a single day. 
 Yet, these are the national ideals which Americans of to-day 
 are willing to stand by and see diluted, and washed out by 
 the tide of miscellaneous immigration, and the tawdry imita- 
 tion of foreign nobility in the customs of the most favored 
 circles of our own people. Surely, American citizenship shows 
 need already of much repairing, and these repairs should 
 begin in the family, the initial political unit of the State. 
 
 Let it never be forgotten that the firesides of the Old 
 Colony were the original nurseries of piety, sobriety and 
 loyalty in New England. These principles, continually 
 practiced in them had so saturated its atmosphere as to have 
 become directing elements in the formation of personal 
 character. None could escape their benign, protective, 
 strengthening touch. They entered into the public as well 
 as the domestic life of its people, accompanying them 
 
42 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 wherever they went and lingering with them to the last. 
 Whence it followed that the most valuable legacy of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers to their children was the three-fold one of the 
 Bible, the Common School and the Town Meeting. Without 
 these foundation stones, our Republic would not have survived 
 to witness its own Centennial. No wonder is it, therefore, that 
 the places in which this legacy first found a home should have 
 always exerted a mysterious, attractive power over the hearts 
 of their children. They can not stray beyond its reach. 
 That power and the reverence which accompanies it should 
 never be allowed to expire. And, because it is both a memory 
 of past virtues, and a hope of their continuing practice, there 
 is cause for exultation in the fact that the uplifting influence 
 of this love of Home, as a generator of patriotism, is so meri- 
 toriously illustrated in the example of those Colonial families 
 who still retain their roots in the soil of New England, or 
 annually observe a Home-returning Thanksgiving Day or 
 Home-coming-week. 
 
 If I have dwelt with such emphasis upon the high mission 
 of historical societies in our country to preserve those ideals 
 of government known as the original American spirit, it is 
 because I see daily evidences that European civilization has 
 not proved itself capable of supplying its own betterments, 
 in either civil liberty, or even in the industrial arts ; that it 
 has not yet freed itself from the trammels and duplicity of 
 mediaeval diplomacy ; that nations still live by the practice 
 of dissimulation and mutual distrust, and turn away with 
 cowardly insincerity from opportunities to lessen war and to 
 
OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 43 
 
 cultivate peace ; and finally that even the Hague convention 
 constitutes only a rope of sand by which none feel themselves 
 to be seriously bound. Moreover, these governments have 
 proved to be, to their own subjects, only " broken cisterns that 
 can hold no water," with the ghost of internal revolution con- 
 stantly rising before them ; and that, in sheer despair of 
 finding any remedies at home, they are all turning to make 
 alliances with the United States as the only remaining spirit 
 of civil liberty which can extricate mankind from serfdom to 
 dynasty and territorial rapacity. Whereupon, and, for the 
 first time in our history, kings now condescend to fellowship 
 with plain American citizens, to invite them to their tables, 
 and to solicit from them, as a favor, American ideas of 
 political economy in the modern arts of commerce and the 
 cultivation of domestic industries. These royal heads, like 
 the sheaves in Joseph's dream, all make obeisance to our 
 federal genius in its various developments in commerce and 
 the arts. Are not these potent signs of the high character 
 which the American spirit of government has everywhere 
 won for itself — in China, in Cuba, in Venezuela, and in the 
 Philippines ? Are we not its Trustees, and bound to protect 
 and promote it ? 
 
 It is true that the Sons and Daughters of the American 
 Revolution have organized themselves into a Grand Armj^ 
 for the preservation of the ideals of American history and 
 American nationality. But justice demands that their picket 
 line should always be held by the children of the Old Colony. 
 
44 OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 It was my privilege to stand beside the cradle of this 
 Society half a century ago. It is my privilege to-day to 
 witness its mature manhood and the long train of its valuable 
 historical acquisitions. This Golden Anniversary marks on 
 the dial of time its greatest Thanksgiving Day. Well have 
 the sons and daughters of the Old Colony supplemented with 
 their own labors the humble beginnings of the Founders. 
 There is still more to be done. Let the good work go on, 
 let the reapers not grow weary, nor cease to gather in the 
 harvest. With faith and good works, they may hope to see 
 a still more glorious Thanksgiving Day when the sunrise of 
 May 4, 1953, shall usher in their centenuary. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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