^otAY ofDedic^ 
 
 [iitlS 
 
 Ebene^er l^nigKt Dexter Statue 
 
 189. 
 
 ^^ "''^^ " ■ /^ms».^:)diiwteil<^'^i9i^i^^ 
 
Book, r 7 Ts 2j 
 
4*>3t,'--_^^'' 
 
 
^aeii 
 
REPORT OF THE EXERCISES 
 
 Dedication of the Statue 
 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE 
 
 CITY OF PROVIDENCE ^t^trv^^^."^ 
 BY ryH.c-dJiA^.-. 
 
 HENRY C. CLARK, Esq. 
 
 JUNE 29, 1894. 
 
 Zbc lpro^n^cncei press : 
 
 Snow & Farnham, City Printers 
 
 IS Custom House Street. 
 
 1894. 
 
'OCr 
 
i- 
 
 
 Resolution to Print 500 Copies of the Report of the 
 
 Dedicatory Exercises of the Statue of 
 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter. 
 
 [Approved December 4, 18Q4.] 
 
 Resolved, That the joint special committee appointed 
 by resolution No. 401, series of 1893, and Nos. 21 and 
 384, series of 1894, be and said committee is hereby- 
 authorized and directed to have printed for the use of the 
 City Council five hundred copies of the report of the 
 dedicatory exercises of the statue of Ebenezer Knight 
 Dexter on June 29, 1894, the expense thereof to be 
 charged to the appropriation for printing. 
 
REPORT. 
 
 On June 13th, 1893, Henry C. Clark, Esq., pre- 
 sented to the Board of Aldermen the following 
 communication, viz. : 
 
 Providence, R. I., June 13, 1893. 
 
 To THE Honorable Mayor and City Council of 
 Providence : 
 
 Gentlemen : If you will expend Five Thousand Dol- 
 lars ($5,000 00) in improving the " Dexter Training 
 Field," I will give, to be placed upon the ground, a bronze 
 statue of Columbus to be cast by the Gorham M'f'g Co. 
 
 Accepting the offer will tend to beautify the city, honor 
 the discoverer of America, the memory of Ebenezer 
 Knight Dexter, encourage home talent, and recognize 
 those who have given our city a world-wide notice by the 
 manufacture of their wares. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 H. C. Clark. 
 
 This communication was referred on the same 
 day to a joint special committee, consisting of 
 Aldermen Myron H. Fuller, Henry B. Winship 
 and Charles E. Harris, and Councilmen George L. 
 
6 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 Vose, Wm. P. Vaughan and Augustine Giblin,with 
 instructions "to confer with the Commissioners of 
 the Dexter Donation relative thereto and to report 
 thereon." 
 
 This committee immediately organized by the 
 selection of Alderman Myron H. Fuller as chair- 
 man, and D. F. Hayden as secretary. After hold- 
 ing a conference with Mr. Clark, that gentleman 
 submitted the following proposition to the com- 
 mittee, viz. : 
 
 Providence, July 6, 1893. 
 
 To MvKOx H. Fuller, Esq., CJiainiian of the Joint 
 Special Coviinittee of the City Council : 
 
 I desire through you to state to your committee and to 
 the City Council that I have decided since my communi- 
 cation of June 13, 1893, offering to place a statue of 
 Columbus on Dexter Training Field that it would be more 
 appropriate to have a statue of the "benefactor and friend 
 of the unfortunate," Ebenezer Knight Dexter, placed 
 upon the Training Field that he gave to the city. In 
 recognition therefore of Mr. Dexter's memory I hereby 
 agree to place a bronze statue of Ebenezer Knight Dex- 
 ter, to be cast by the Gorham M'f'g Company, on Dexter 
 Training Field, instead of a statue of Columbus, provided 
 the city will furnish a suitable pedestal for said statue, 
 and also expend the sum of $3,000 for the improvement 
 of said Training Field. 
 
 W. C. Clark. 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 7 
 
 Upon the receipt of this generous proposal the 
 committee reported on July 20, 1893, to the City 
 Council as follows, viz. : 
 
 Report of the Joint Committee Relative to the Gift 
 OF H. C. Clark to Dexter Training Field. 
 
 To THE Honorable the Citv Council of the City of 
 Providence : 
 
 The joint special committee appointed by resolution 
 No. 401, current series, upon the communication of 
 Henry C. Clark relative to the gift of a statue of 
 Columbus to be placed on Dexter Training Field, and 
 " to confer with the commissioners of the Dexter Dona- 
 tion relative thereto and to report thereon," respectfully 
 report : 
 
 That they have considered the matter and have con- 
 ferred with the commissioners of the Dexter Donation 
 and with Mr. Henry C. Clark, whose generous proposi- 
 tion has evoked universal commendation from our citi- 
 zens. At a meeting of your committee, held on July 5th, 
 1893, Mr. Clark expressed a desire to substitute a statue 
 of Ebenezer Knight Dexter, the " benefactor and friend 
 of the unfortunate" for that of Columbus, a suggestion 
 that elicited the hearty approval of your committee — for 
 if any statue is to be placed upon Dexter Training Field 
 it should be one of the great philanthropist who, not only 
 gave this tract of land to the city, but who, also, as a 
 token of his strong attachment to his native town, and 
 
8 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 out of an ardent desire to "ameliorate the condition of the 
 poor" bequeathed to the city a munificent gift of lands 
 and an asylum that bears his name. 
 
 Having conferred with the commissioners of the Dex- 
 ter Donation, your committee consulted with the city 
 solicitor as to whether the erection of a statue as proposed 
 would violate the provisions of the will of the donor 
 as to the use of said Training Field ; and having been 
 assured by the law officer ct the city that the placing 
 of a statue upon Dexter Training Field would be 
 regarded in the light of an adornment and in no sense 
 diverting the use of the same as a training field, and being 
 also assured that this view will be cordially accepted by a 
 large number of our citizens who have expressed a 
 desire that Mr. Clark's proposition should be accepted by 
 the city, your committee recommend the acceptance of 
 the proposed gift of Mr. Henry C. Clark by the City 
 Council, and that suitable provision be made for the re- 
 ception, location and unveiling of said statue of Ebenezer 
 Knight Dexter. They therefore submit the accompany- 
 ing resolutions and recommend the passage of the same. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, for the committee, 
 
 MvRON H. Fuller, 
 
 CJiain)ian. 
 
 Subsequently the City Council directed the Park 
 Commissioners to expend the sum of $3,000 in 
 concreting the walks and grading Dexter Training- 
 Field, and on April 6, 1894, the City Council, 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 9 
 
 having obtained authority from the General 
 Assembly, instructed the Park Commissioners to 
 contract for the construction of a suitable founda- 
 tion, base and pedestal for the proposed statue of 
 Ebenezer Knis^ht Dexter, and also for curbinor 
 around said statue. 
 
 On June 25, 1894, the Committee having the 
 matter in charsfe was authorized to make arrange- 
 ments for the reception and dedication of the 
 statue and to arranoe for suitable exercises on the 
 occasion of the unveiling of said statue and its 
 formal presentation to the city. 
 
 On the same day a resolution was passed by the 
 City Council as follows, viz. : 
 
 Resolved, That His Honor the Mayor be and he is 
 hereby requested to accept and also to take the care and 
 custody of the statue of Ebenezer Knight Dexter, to be 
 presented to the City by Henry C. Clark, Esq,, on June 
 29th, 1894, on behalf of the City of Providence, 
 
 In the meantime the work of preparing Dexter 
 Training Field had been in progress ; the founda- 
 tion, base and pedestal for the statue had been 
 constructed and the figure had been placed in 
 position. In the supervision of this important 
 work the Committee desire to acknowledge the 
 valuable assistance rendered by Mr. R. H. Deming, 
 
lO DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 chairman of the Park Commissioners, by the 
 representatives of the Gorham Mfg. Co., and by 
 the donor of the statue, Mr. Clark. 
 
 The day assigned for the unveiUng of the statue 
 June 29th, dawned auspiciously, but clouded 
 up and was somewhat showery in the afternoon, 
 though not sufficient to interfere with the pro- 
 gramme. At 2 o'clock, Chairman Fuller and 
 Messrs. Winship, Harris, Vose, Vaughan, Giblin 
 and Secretary Hayden, of the Committee of 
 Arrangements, met in the reception room of the 
 City Hall, to receive the invited guests, prominent 
 among whom were His Excellency Gov. D. Rus- 
 sell Brown, Secretary of State Charles P. Bennett, 
 Col. Daniel R. Ballou, Acting Mayor; Hon. A. C. 
 Barstow, Hon. Jabez C. Knight, Hon. Charles Sid- 
 ney Smith, Hon. Wm. S. Hayward, Hon. H. R. 
 Barker, B. B, Knight, Esq., R. H. Deming, Esq., 
 Hon. Thomas Durfee, the orator of the day. Rev. 
 Edward Holyoke, Henry C. Clark, Esq., State and 
 city officers, members of the commission on the 
 Dexter Donation, members of the City Council and 
 a number of citizens. A procession was subse- 
 quently formed in front of the City Hall, the 
 United Train of Artillery, Col. Cyrus M. Van 
 Slyck commanding, with Reeves' American Band, 
 acting as escort. The route of march was through 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. I I 
 
 Dorrance, Westminster and Dexter streets to the 
 centre of Dexter Training Field, where the statue 
 was located, concealed beneath the folds of an 
 American flag. 
 
 The statue is a handsome bronze figure eight feet 
 in height, and stands upon a magnificent granite 
 pedestal nine feet high, designed by Mr. R. H. 
 Deming of the Park Commission. Mr. Dexter 
 is represented in continental costume ; in his 
 left hand is a walking stick and in his right 
 a partially opened scroll of parchment. The in- 
 scriptions on the pedestal are as follows : 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE 
 CITIZENS OK PROVIDENCE, BY 
 
 HENRY C. CLARK, ESQ., 
 
 IN HONOR OF 
 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter, 
 
 WHO GAVE HIS PROPEKTY FOR THE BENEKIT OF THE PUHLIC AND THE HOMELESS. 
 1S93. 
 
 The other inscription is : " Leaving nothing but 
 a headstone to mark our passage through life does 
 not make the world better. They live best who 
 serve humanity the most." 
 
12 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 The cost of the statue was nearly $5,000, and it 
 has been pronounced an admirable and accurate 
 portraiture of the great philanthropist. 
 
 When the procession arrived at Dexter Train- 
 ing Field it was found that a large concourse of 
 people had assembled to do honor to the memory 
 of Mr. Dexter, while some six hundred pupils 
 from the Bridgham and Messer Street Grammar 
 Schools, in charo^e of Musical Director E. P. Rus- 
 sell, had also taken their station near the large 
 stand reserved for the speakers. State and city 
 officers and invited guests. The United Train of 
 Artillery having escorted the procession to the 
 grand stand, immediately formed as a guard of 
 honor, surroundinsf the statue. 
 
 o 
 
 Alderman Fuller, chairman of the committee of 
 arrangements, acted as master of ceremonies, and 
 the exercises were then opened with the "Jubel" 
 overture by Reeves' American Band. 
 
 Rev. Edward Holyoke offered prayer, and then 
 the school children sang " God of Our Fathers," 
 accompanied by the Band. 
 
 Chairman Fuller then introduced Mr. Henry 
 C. Clark, the donor of the statue, who spoke as 
 follows : 
 
ebenezer knight dexter. i 3 
 
 Presentation Address of Henry C. Clark, Esq. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Last, 
 BUT NOT Least, the Children : 
 
 In presenting the statue of Mr. Dexter to the citizens 
 of Providence it is befitting to give a brief sketch of his 
 life. 
 
 As he has no contemporary living to perform the ser- 
 vice, we shall have recourse to history. 
 
 " Ebenezer Knight Dexter, son of Knight and Phebe 
 (Harris) Dexter, was born in Providence, April 26, 1773. 
 Early in life he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and pur- 
 sued his business with such industry and careful attention 
 that, in a few years, he accumulated a handsome fortune. 
 He was Marshal of the District of Rhode Island for sev- 
 eral years before his death. ' He held the office,' says 
 Judge Staples, 'in most inauspicious times for himself. 
 During the embargo, non-intercourse and war, his duties 
 were arduous, and sometimes directly contravening the 
 wishes and the interests of a large portion of the com- 
 munity. Yet he so carefully and skillfully managed that 
 he lost not the esteem and respect of his fellow-towns- 
 men, nor the confidence of the government.' 
 
 "The condition of the poor of his native town seems 
 to have awakened his deepest sympathy, and induced him 
 to make generous provisions for their wants. It was 
 found that by his will he had committed in trust to the 
 town of Providence what must ever be regarded as a 
 princely donation." 
 
14 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 " The Rhode Island American, of the date of Aug. 20, 
 1824, a few days after the death of Mr. Dexter, which 
 occurred Aug. 10, says : 'The forty-acre farm in Provi- 
 dence Neck, a part of this liberal bequest, is given on the 
 condition that the town shall erect thereon, within five 
 years, an almshouse, which is to be enclosed with an 
 extensive and permanent wall, within twenty years, and we 
 hope erelong to see a Dexter Asylum rearing its walls in 
 these pleasant and productive fields.' 
 
 "The freemen, in town meeting, November 22, 1824, 
 voted to accept the gift thus generously bestowed, on 
 the conditions upon which it was made by the donor, and 
 directed that the property, to be forever known as the 
 * Dexter Donation,' should be kept distinct from the other 
 property and funds of the town, by the town treasurer. 
 In 1826 a building committee was appointed to superin- 
 tend the erection of the Dexter Asylum, which cost 
 somewhat over $43,000, and was completed in 1830. It 
 was in all respects a first-class structure, and admirably 
 adapted to the uses for which it was designed. The stone 
 wall, built around the forty-acre lot, which, according to 
 the directions of the will, was to be three feet at the sur- 
 face of the ground and eight feet high, was finished in 
 1840. It is 6,220 feet in length, and, as originally built, 
 contained 7,840 cords of stone, and cost about $22,000. 
 Some changes and improvements on the building have 
 been made within a few years, which have added greatly 
 to its convenience and its architectural beauty. 
 
 "The Asylum began to be occupied in the latter part of 
 the summer of 1828, under the superintendence of Mr. 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. I 5 
 
 Gideon Palmer, the number of paupers received into it 
 at first being sixty-four, including five children. The 
 Dexter Asylum is an institution, of which, with its beauti- 
 ful surroundings, the citizens of Providence are justly 
 proud. The far-seeing sagacity and benevolence of its 
 donor have secured for the poor of the city a comfortable 
 home for all time to come, not surpassed by the almshouse 
 of any other city in the country." 
 
 Leaving nothing but a headstone to mark our passage 
 through life does not make the world better. He lived 
 to make the world better by his living. He gave the ac- 
 cumulations of his life to the noblest virtue, charity. The 
 many who are gone, the living and the innumerable who 
 are to come, will owe him monuments in blessings for 
 sheltering them in the days of their adversity. He illus- 
 trated that a man can be a Christian in practice, without 
 being stuffed with dogmas. The text, "Well done, thou 
 good and faithful servant," can be justly placed to his 
 memory. Following his example will benefit humanity, 
 give honor to the followers and their posterity. 
 
 " Tis not the whole of life to live " 
 " One crowded hour of joyful life is more than an age without a name." 
 
 Now, Mr. Mayor, we trust in passing the statue into the 
 care of our city fathers that they will continue to beautify 
 these grounds in the honor of the dead philanthropist, 
 always remembering that a "thing of beauty is not only a 
 joy forever," but an educator. 
 
 With Mr. Clark's concluding words the flags en- 
 closing the statue were gracefully wafted aside and 
 
1 6 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 Mr. Clark's gift — a Gorham masterpiece of art — was 
 exposed to public view. There was an immediate 
 outburst of enthusiastic admiration and applause, 
 augmented by the inspiring strains of the Band 
 which was meanwhile playing the " Star Spangled 
 Banner." When the approbation of the assem- 
 blage had subsided, the Chairman introduced Act- 
 ing Mayor Daniel R. Ballou, who received the gift 
 on behalf of the City of Providence, and who spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 Acting Mayor Ballou's Address. 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 In the swirling, swiftly flowing current of our complex 
 civilization, men are inclined to neglect, if not to disregard 
 the lessons which have been drawn from the experiences 
 of human kind. It is profitable, therefore, to pause now 
 and then, amid the engrossing activities of a busy life, 
 and take a retrospective view of past events, that our 
 minds may be so enlightened thereby that our future 
 action shall be guided by wisdom and prudence. 
 
 It stands undisputed that whatever of wisdom mankind 
 has acquired has been drawn from the vast fields of 
 human experience, which stretch back through the un- 
 numbered centuries of man's strange, eventful history. 
 
 Man was created and thereupon invested with all the 
 functions of a sentient, reasoning being, and laws were 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 17 
 
 at the same time laid clown for his guidance, but wisdom 
 was given to him only after he had eaten the bitter fruits 
 of experience. 
 
 In the great fields of human action mankind have rarely- 
 been guided by wisdom, and even now, after all these 
 centuries of human trial, wisdom does not fill the earth 
 with its presence. 
 
 As the scanty store of the precious metals has been 
 wrung from the reluctant earth by exhausting toil, priva- 
 tion and suffering, so has the meagre store of human wis- 
 dom been garnered in the vast fields of man's experience 
 through the slow and painful processes of human struggle, 
 of failure, and of success. 
 
 Man in the higher civilization of the age, has learned, 
 and only under the severe discipline of experience, that 
 the wise man is he who liveth an upright and unselfish 
 life. Man dies and passes away, and if he has lived a pure 
 and useful life and if his deeds have been good his mem- 
 ory will be cherished and honored among men. and his 
 name will be associated for all time with the virtues which 
 his life work exemplified. 
 
 When we invoke the memory of George Washington it 
 is only to recall his exalted manhood, his commanding 
 virtues, and his illustrious services in the great cause of 
 American Independence, and when the sad, care-worn 
 face of the revered Lincoln rises before our minds, it is 
 only to lose sight of the man in the memory of his 
 untiring devotion, his sublime faithfulness and his grandly 
 broad humanity, nobly displayed in the mighty task of 
 guiding our common country through its awful perils. 
 3 
 
1 8 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 We speak of Washington Irving, but the personality 
 of the man is lost amid the glories of his resplendent 
 genius in the great world of letters ; so of Franklin, as 
 we bend low before the altar of his great wisdom ; and so 
 of Peabody and Childs, in the warm glow of the humane 
 charities which glorified their successful life works. 
 
 The future generations of our city's augmenting popu- 
 lation will come and go. Some of their thronging num- 
 bers as they pass this spot will pause to look at this 
 quaint figure, clad in the antique garments of an earlier 
 civilization. Few will recognize it as that of Ebenezer 
 Knight Dexter, but all will recognize it as that of the 
 author of a noble charity, which is more an imperishable 
 monument to his memory than statues of marble or bronze. 
 
 Turning to Mr. Clark, the speaker said : 
 
 " It was a happy thought, sir, that led you to generously 
 bestow upon our beautiful city, the scene of the struggles 
 and successes of your own busy and honorable life work, 
 this creation of art in honor of the memory of one who, 
 living, made princely provision, and for all time, for the 
 unfortunate poor of his native town. 
 
 Our streets and public places are adorned by few works 
 of art, but what we hav^e are rich in historic value. 
 
 In the little park in beautiful Elmwood, stands a spirited 
 statue of the great Discoverer who opened the gates of a 
 New World, through which was borne the germ that took 
 deep root in our New England soil, and which has 
 grown and expanded into a mighty empire. In the midst 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 19 
 
 of the sylvan beauty of our picturesque Roger Williams 
 Park stands an ideal figure of the great apostle of civil and 
 religious liberty, who, by a lively experiment, demonstrated 
 to the world the successful application of these benign 
 principles in human government. His grateful country- 
 men proudly point to this feature in our matchless system 
 as the crowning glory of our American civilization. 
 
 Down in the great centre of business traffic, where the 
 current of human activities runs swift and strong, stands 
 an imposing monument erected by a grateful people to 
 the memory of the Union soldiers, slain in battle, and 
 opposite this the equestrian statue of Rhode Island's 
 great soldier hero. These represent the patriotism and 
 the valor of the brave sons of our gallant State who 
 shared the perils and the glories of preserving a nation's 
 life. Near the point of convergence of the two great 
 business streets of our city stands a noble figure of the 
 great Mayor of Providence, who by the potency of his 
 resolute spirit lifted his native town out of the deep ruts 
 of provincial inertness and raised it into line with the pro- 
 gressive cities of the country. While some of his fellow- 
 citizens differed with him in matters of public policy, 
 yet his great zeal and earnestness, his public spirit and 
 courage, his untiring energy and determination of pur- 
 pose to advance the city's interests on the lines of progress, 
 challenged their respect as well as admiration. 
 
 This statue, which you, sir, have generously conferred 
 upon the city, is rare in historic interest. It represents 
 the closing period of the transition state from colonial to 
 national life, from a town organization to that of municipal 
 government. 
 
20 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 Standing upon the heights of a fully completed century, 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter had witnessed the closing scenes 
 and events of a period in American history glorified both 
 by the birth of a nation and the initiation of anew civiliza- 
 tion. Standing also upon the threshold of the present 
 century, he saw it launched upon its mighty career. No 
 whisper fell upon his ear, or revealed to his thought the 
 marvellous things which, responsive to the advancing 
 intelligence and self-reliant spirit of the age, the mys- 
 terious future was destined to unfold. 
 
 The great struggle for independence revealed to him the 
 necessity of a citizen soldiery to protect the institutions 
 of his country, and acting upon that idea, he devised to 
 his native town this magnificent field whereon you have 
 erected his statue to be held in perpetuity and to be used 
 exclusively as a training ground for schooling the citizens 
 of Providence in the duties and discipline of the soldier. 
 From the magnitude of his charitable devises he doubt- 
 less foresaw a growing community and a consequent 
 increasing condition of suffering and distress among the 
 unfortunate poor, which strongly appealed to his sympa- 
 thetic nature. 
 
 Thus, while this statue serves to commemorate a valued 
 historic period, pregnant with mighty consequences to 
 the future of unborn millions, it also does honor to the 
 memory of a public benefactor. 
 
 To you alone, sir, is due all the honor of having per- 
 petuated in enduring bronze the form and features of this 
 humane and public-spirited citizen of a past generation. 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 21 
 
 It is a generous action and worthy to be repeated by 
 others of our wealthy and generous fellow-citizens. 
 
 And now, sir, in behalf of the city of Providence, 
 whose accredited representative I have the honor on this 
 occasion to be, and with a lively appreciation of the 
 distinguished privilege, I accept this splendid gift. 
 
 I speak for all the people of our great city who will 
 hereafter be invested with the possession and also be in 
 the enjoyment of this unique adornment, in asking you to 
 accept their grateful thanks, as well as my own. 
 
 I assure you that it will be religiously cherished and 
 protected by the strong arm of the city government ; that 
 it will be suitably maintained and handed down from gen- 
 eration to generation, not only in appreciation of your 
 generosity, but as a fitting tribute of respect to the mem- 
 ory of a worthy citizen of the ancient town of Providence, 
 and also as a deserved acknowledgment of the noble charity 
 of which he was the author. 
 
 " In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, 
 But all mankind's concern is Charity; 
 All must be false that thwart this one great end 
 And all of God that bless mankind, or mend." 
 
 The following Dedication Ode, written for the 
 occasion by Miss Sarah C. Padelford, with music 
 by Emory P. Russell, was then rendered by the 
 school children, viz. : 
 
2 2 dedication of the statue of 
 
 Dedication Ode. 
 
 Words by Sarah C. Padclford. Music by Emory P. Russell. 
 
 This fair June day we gather here 
 To sing in chorus loud and clear, 
 
 Yielding to him our praise, 
 Who gave unto the people's needs ; 
 In mem'ry of whose kindly deeds 
 
 This statue now we raise. 
 
 The weak and needy know the name 
 Engraven here for lasting fame, 
 
 For still, at his behest. 
 To shelter are the homeless led. 
 The naked clothed, the hungry fed. 
 
 The weary given rest. 
 
 When war's alarum's smote the aii", 
 And discord rent our country fair. 
 
 This was a tented field. 
 Rhode Island's sons were, marshalled here, 
 W'hen forth they marched 'mid shout and cheer 
 
 To die — but never Aield I 
 
 Under the flag of Peace to-day. 
 We sing in chorus, glad and gay, 
 
 In praise of gen'rous deeds. 
 Who giveth of his means, is blest, 
 But he who renders self, gives best 
 
 Ihito his neighbors' needs. 
 
 Hon. Thomas Durfce, Ex-Chicf Justice of Rliode 
 Island, was then introduced by Chairman Fuller, 
 and his address was as follows : 
 
ebexezer kxigiit dexter. 23 
 
 Oration by Hon. Thomas Durfee. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Ebenezer Knight De.xter created for himself, in the 
 will that he left, a monument more imperishable than 
 bronze. That he did so, however, does not make a statue 
 to his memory the less appropriate. His testamentary- 
 benefactions were, in intent, dedicated not to himself, but 
 to the town which he loved and to the poor whom he pitied ; 
 and they are the beneficent expressions of his love and 
 his pity. It is only incidentally that he is commemorated 
 by them. The statue is dedicated to him for the city, and 
 it declares to the world the city's gratitude to him for his 
 benefactions and the city's admiration of him for his vir- 
 tues. It identifies and accentuates the sentiment which 
 it expresses in the form of the expression. I congratulate 
 the donor on the happy thought that inspired him to have 
 it modelled and cast, and to offer it for erection on a site 
 so altogether fitting for it. I trust I may be pardoned if 
 I further say, what so naturally occurs to me to say, that 
 he has set an example worthy of imitation, even should 
 his imitator or imitators have to go far back to the days 
 of Canonicus and Miantinomi for another such subject. 
 
 It is customary, when a memorial statue is dedicated, 
 for the orator to give some sketch of the life and charac- 
 ter of the person commemorated. The custom is so emi- 
 nently appropriate that I do not venture to depart from it, 
 though the extreme paucity of materials for such a sketch 
 tempts me to do so. 
 
24 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter was born April 26, 1773, and 
 died August 10, 1824. His whole life was spent in Provi- 
 dence. He was a descendant in the sixth generation of 
 Gregory Dexter,* the "dear and faithful friend" of Roger 
 Williams. Gregory was born at Olney, Northampton 
 county, England, in 1610, and died in Providence, in 1700. 
 Early in his life he left Olney for London, where he 
 engaged in business as printer and stationer. In 1643, 
 when Roger Williams was in London for the procurement 
 of the first charter, his "Key into the Language of 
 America" came out there under the imprint of Gregory 
 Dexter. The old Providence records, however, seem to 
 show that the latter had taken up his residence in Provi- 
 dence several years earlier ; but whenever he came, his 
 education and ability quickly gave him prominence. He 
 frequently represented the town as commissioner under 
 the first charter; he was one of the grantees of the second 
 charter and a deputy or representative under it. He was 
 Town Clerk for several years, and he filled divers other 
 stations of dignity and trust, and was, for a time, pastor 
 of the First Baptist Church. The infant town was, un- 
 happily, full of contentiousness ; he brought to it a spirit 
 of moderation and forbearance. He lived ninety years, 
 and, dying, left his name unblemished. We see him 
 rather vaguely by the flickering light of old records and 
 notices ; but, so well as I can make him out, he was a 
 man of noble nature, open-minded to the truth, and scru- 
 pulous — sometimes overmuch, yet sweet-tempered and 
 
 *As follows: Grcs:ory, horn 1610; Stephen, 1647; John, 1670; Stephen, 1703; 
 Knight, 1734; Ebinczer Kni!,-I.t, 1773. 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 25 
 
 conciliatory, a lover of his kind, religious, and indefatiga- 
 ble in well-doing, and he seems to have transmitted, along 
 with his blood, a goodly portion of his virtues to his 
 descendants. 
 
 The father of Ebenezer Knight Dexter has left on 
 record evidence of his regard for education,* and we may, 
 therefore presume that the son received as good an edu- 
 cation as the local schools then existing could afford. We 
 may also presume that when he left school it was to 
 enter, so soon as prepared, upon his business career ; for, 
 as Judge Staples says in his Annals of Providence, " he 
 was educated a merchant, and pursued his business with 
 such strict attention and industry that he was able to 
 retire with a fortune when most men begin to think of 
 accumulating one." His success, however, was probably 
 due not wholly to his industry, but partly also to his 
 having had the good fortune to embark in business on 
 that rising tide of prosperous trade and commerce which 
 followed the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He 
 was appointed in 1810 United States Marshal for the 
 District of Rhode Island.f "He held the ofifice," says 
 Judge Staples — and no better authority can be asked — "in 
 most inauspicious times for himself. During the em- 
 bargo, non-intercourse and war, his duties were arduous 
 and sometimes directly contravening the wishes and 
 
 ♦ He was one of seventeen who "from regard to the instruction of youtli in the most 
 necessary parts of learning," had, prior to 1770, joined with the town of Providence 
 in erecting a commodious brick schoolhouse, two stories high, therein.—/?. /. Colo- 
 nial Records, vol, vit., p. b. 
 
 t His official bond was filed in the District Court for the Rhode Island District, 
 May 7, iSio. 
 
 4 
 
26 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 interests of a large portion of the community ; yet he 
 so carefully and skillfully managed that he lost not the 
 esteem and respect of his fellow townsmen nor the 
 confidence of the government." Indeed, his continuance 
 in the office for more than fourteen years, until death 
 removed him, is plenary proof that he was satisfactory 
 alike to the government and the community. As mar- 
 shal he superintended the taking of the United States 
 censuses of 1810 and 1820. 
 
 In 1 8 19 he suffered a heavy affliction in the death of 
 his wife, an excellent and accomplished lady, a daughter 
 of the Honorable David Howell, then District Judge for 
 the Rhode Island District. She had borne to her hus- 
 band only one child, who lived but a few months.* Five 
 years after her death he himself died, still a widower. 
 The day after his death the Providence 6^^;:'^'//^ announced 
 it as follows : 
 
 " Died yesterday morning, after a protracted illness 
 which he bore with manly fortitude, Ebenezer Knight 
 Dexter, in the 53d year of his age. In all the relations 
 of his life he was a man of exemplary morals. As a son, 
 a brother and a husband, dutiful, affectionate and liberal ; 
 prompt and conscientious in the discharge of his official 
 duties, scrupulous and just in his dealings, and attached 
 by principle to the institutions and liberties of his country, 
 his death is a subject of regret to a numerous circle of 
 
 * The moiiunicnt erected by the City of Providence, in the North Burying Ground, 
 in coninicmoration of Mr. Dexter and his benefactions, has on its westerly flice 
 the following inscription, to wit : — " Waitstill Dexter, wife of Ebenezer Knight 
 Dexter, born June 27, 1776. Died June 15, 1S19;" and under it the following, to 
 wit:— "Their only child, Mary Dexter, died March 10, iSoi,aged 5 months and 10 
 days." 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 2 J 
 
 relatives and friends, to his neighbors and fellow citizens 
 and to the public institutions of which he was an active 
 and eflficient member. Funeral this afternoon from his 
 Mansion house on Benefit street, where his relatives and 
 friends are requested to attend." 
 
 I have given the notice entire because it is the com- 
 pletest portrayal of him that I have discovered, and prob- 
 ably the completest that exists. It is the picture of a 
 singularly noble and attractive character, replete with 
 manly and manifold life and activity, yet gentle and ten- 
 der. It was evidently drawn by a friendly hand, but care- 
 fully, after vivid impressions received from life, and 
 doubtless it presents him as he appeared in his habitual 
 walk and conversation. 
 
 When the contents of Mr. Dexter's will, executed some 
 two and a half months before his death, became known, 
 they exhibited him in a new, and, in some respects, nobler 
 aspect, as a munificent public benefactor. The will gave 
 to the town the spacious plain around us for perpetual use 
 as a training field ; the forty acres of land where the Dex- 
 ter Asylum now is, for the use and accommodation of the 
 poor of the town ; and finally, subject to some compara- 
 tively small legacies, and to the charge of a few annui- 
 ties, all the residue of his estate, real and personal, to be 
 kept, with power to convert it into other forms of invest- 
 ment, as a permanent fund forever for the benefit of the 
 poor of the town. The town, at a meeting specially held, 
 accepted the gift in resolutions of grateful appreciation 
 and eulogy of the giver, voting that it be denominated 
 "The Dexter Donation." The town also adopted suit- 
 
28 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 able provisions for its care and management, which have 
 since been duly observed. The worth of the property to 
 the town, when given, was estimated at $60,000, and it 
 has since increased to very many times as much. The 
 donation was certainly, for the time, a most extraordinary 
 benefaction. Since then seventy years have brought their 
 changes, with a growth of riches then undreamed of, and 
 yet no second benefactor of the town or city has appeared 
 to challenge Mr, Dexter's preeminence. 
 
 It is natural for us, when we contemplate an act of such 
 far-reaching beneficence, to wish to know how the 
 doer of the act was led to do it. The wish is as proper as 
 natural ; for any knowledge is valuable which throws light 
 on the springs of character and conduct, or on the pro- 
 cesses of human progress. In Mr. Dexter's case it is 
 readily seen that the death of his child and wife largely 
 released him, in making his will, from the obligations of 
 family and kinship. But such opportunities for charitable 
 devise frequently occur without being improved. There 
 is need of other motives ; and, hence, and the more espe- 
 cially since good deeds are bettered by good motives, it is 
 a pleasure to learn from Mr. Dexter himself the motives 
 which influenced him. He has declared them in his will. 
 They were, he says, "a strong attachment to my native 
 town and an ardent desire to ameliorate the condition of 
 the poor and contribute to their comfort and relief." 
 Public spirit and benevolence, two of the purest and loftiest 
 of human motives ! Every expression which I have seen, 
 coming from his contemporaries, is confirmatory of the 
 sincerity of his declaration. 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 
 
 29 
 
 It would be instructive to trace in detail the manner in 
 which these motives were developed; but, with the little 
 that we know of him, this is impossible. The contempo- 
 rary history of his town, however, and of the times in 
 which he lived, suggests probabilities which may properly 
 detain us a moment. He was born a year after the burn- 
 ing of the Gaspee, three years before the declaration of 
 independence, and he was nine years old when the war 
 came to an end and peace was proclaimed. He was thus 
 the child of an heroic age, when public spirit, perfusing 
 the air, was the life-breath of noble souls. His father, 
 before the war, had been colonel of the Providence County 
 Militia, and naturally his house would be visited by sol- 
 diers and patriots, and the son would often hear the vicis- 
 situdes of the war discussed, now with hope, now with 
 anxiety, always with public-spirited devotion. So too he 
 must often have listened to the romantic stories of the 
 privateers that frequented the harbor, and that, from time 
 to time, eluding the British cruisers in the bay, scoured 
 the ocean for prizes, which taken reinforced alike the 
 resources and the confidence of the citizens. And, finally, 
 when peace returned and independence was assured, he 
 doubtless watched with others the procession of the 
 people, as, with banners and music, it marched through 
 the streets, to the accompaniment of bells and cannon and 
 the gratulatory cheers of enthusiastic spectators, in cele- 
 bration of that great event. True, he was but a child, 
 too young to comprehend the full significance of what he 
 saw and heard, but he was not too young to share the 
 -emotions and catch the spirit of his elders ; for what 
 
30 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 child who has outgrown his cradle, is too young for that ? 
 And after the war was past, the memories of the war 
 remained, to be repeated over and over in his hearing, 
 with pardonable preference always for whatever told most 
 for the gallantry and the glory of the town. And so for 
 long his childish predilections would be fostered and 
 invigorated. 
 
 Later there was the growing commerce of the town. 
 We are told, on the authority of a letter addressed to 
 Congress, in 1790, by a corporation created to keep the 
 channel of the river open, that the number of vessels 
 then belonging to this port exceeded the number then 
 belonging to New York. What a stimulus it must have 
 been to his young civic pride and interest to see them 
 beating up the river, or riding at anchor in the harbor, or 
 lying at the wharves discharging the merchandise of many 
 countries and climes, or receiving their outward freights ; 
 some of them swarming with sailors of outlandish speech 
 and picturesque attire. In 1787 the ship General Wash- 
 ington, Captain Jonathan Denison, made the first voyage 
 from this port, and one of the first from any American 
 port, to Canton. I think it is not unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that Ebenezer Knight Dexter was one of the specta- 
 tors who watched her, dropping down the river and disap- 
 pearing on her long and lonely course across the Atlantic 
 and over unfamiliar seas, and that when, after more 
 than nineteen months, she returned, he was among the 
 visitors who boarded her and listened to her sun-browned 
 mariners telling of the immemorial wonders of the 
 Orient. Oh no ! the ancient town did not fail of 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 3 I 
 
 incidents to feed the fancy and nourish the affections 
 of its children. 
 
 In the first decade after the war the principal matters 
 of public concern were the contest over paper money and 
 the contest in regard to the adoption of the Federal Con- 
 stitution, and in both the town was on the winning and 
 wiser side. Its wisdom, however, doubtless became more 
 patent to Mr. Dexter after he was in business and had 
 profited by it, and surely, while he was sharing the town's 
 prosperity he would not let his liking for it abate. His 
 seems to have been a social and sensitive nature, quick 
 to respond to all genial and elevating influences, and 
 prompt to recognize the obligations of gratitude, however 
 incurred ; and when in his long last illness, childless and 
 wifeless, he reviewed his past and remembered his many 
 pleasant associations with the town, and more vividly 
 realized how closely his fortunes and its fortunes had been 
 identified, and how much his life, engrafted into the larger 
 life of the community, had been augmented and improved 
 thereby — his public spirit, asserting itself, naturally 
 moved him to his crowning act, the final expression of his 
 civic affection, the munificent testamentary donation 
 which brings us together here today to do him honor. 
 
 There is also much in the circumstances of his life to 
 show how his kindly feeling for the poor and his ardent 
 desire to ameliorate their condition may have been devel- 
 oped. The town where he lived was scarcely more than a 
 village. Its population at the close of the war was 4,310 ; 
 in 1 810 it was only 7,614, and in 1820, four years before 
 his death, it did not exceed 12,000. In such small places 
 
32 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 rich and poor live more closely intermingled than in 
 larger ones, and their respective characters and fortunes 
 are better known to one another. Now when the Revo- 
 lutionary War broke out its effect in Providence was to 
 interrupt the course of business and curtail the means of 
 livelihood, adding to the ranks of the poor and the indi- 
 gent. And when, after the war, business revived, the 
 poor did not all profit by the revival ; for, meanwhile, 
 many had become superannuated, or broken in health and 
 spirit, and had to give way to younger or stronger men. 
 It was a time when the duty of making adequate pro- 
 vision for the poor was faintly felt, and when the neg- 
 lect and cruel treatment, too generally prevalent in alms- 
 houses, seldom provoked condemnation commensurate 
 with the wrong, so that the prospect of pauperism was so 
 abhorrent that many suffered the extremes of destitution 
 rather than yield to it. This wretched plight of the poor 
 could not but have been known to others as well as to Mr. 
 Dexter ; but while they passed it lightly by, he took it feel- 
 ingly to heart, and, in his later years, ardently desired to 
 ameliorate it ; and hence the beneficent charities of his will. 
 Under the will many parcels of real estate came to the 
 city. Two of these have a special interest, because 
 while the others were permitted to be sold and the pro- 
 ceeds funded, they were required to be kept undisposed 
 of ; so that, if the city be true to its trust, they will 
 remain the everlasting mementoes, conspicuous to all gen- 
 erations, of the public spirit or of the public spirit and 
 benevolence of the testator. One of them is the oj)en 
 tract around us. It was devised for use as a training 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 33 
 
 field and for "no other use or purpose whatsoever;" 
 express direction, illustrative of the gentle-heartedness of 
 the giver, being superadded, that no public execution of 
 criminals should ever be permitted to take place upon it. 
 Latterly its use as a training field has much dimmished, 
 and its flat, vacant surfaces, unenlivened by the pageantry 
 of military parade, have lost a portion of their ancient 
 attractiveness. Let us hope that the statue today un- 
 veiled, so estimable in art and interesting in portraiture, 
 may restore it to favor and lead to improvements which, 
 consistently with the trust, will make it permanently 
 popular. 
 
 The other parcel, so inalienably devised, is what the 
 testator called his " Neck Farm," now the Dexter Asylum 
 grounds, across the river on the city's eastern slope, 
 fronting the sunrise. I trust there are among my 
 hearers some who, in these enchanting summer days, 
 occasionally drive or ramble through that delightful 
 neighborhood. If such a one, when he reaches the 
 Asylum grounds, will enter, instead of passing them, 
 and, standing on the gentle acclivity where long ago 
 Mr. Dexter doubtless often stood and watched his cattle 
 cropping the quiet pastures below, will let his eyes 
 wander, and loiter as they wander, over the ample spaces 
 covered from boundary to boundary with varied and rich- 
 est tilth ; then, looking beyond the walls, remark how the 
 city in its growth is girdling them round with handsome 
 houses, and then, still further gazing, delight his vision 
 with the wide extent and variety of the remoter prospects, 
 he cannot but find himself surprised with a sudden grow- 
 5 
 
34 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 ing sense of the material value and beauty of the place. 
 But he should remember, too, that besides the Asylum 
 grounds, there are properties supplementary to them, now 
 annually yielding an income of over sixteen thousand dol- 
 lars ; and if, remembering this, he will also remember that 
 the poor of the city have enjoyed this double bounty of 
 the will for nearly seventy years, and that, by the letter 
 of the will, they will continue to enjoy it forever — then 
 the benefaction will present itself to him anew in still 
 loftier aspects, in the light of which the more material 
 aspect, which had so captivated his regard, will seem to 
 dwindle and disappear ; — for who can compute the benefits 
 to the poor — physical, moral, spiritual — which have 
 already accrued from it, or even begin to conceive those 
 which are to follow in the endless march of the ages yet 
 to come ? 
 
 I am aware that there is another view which, in the 
 rapid growth of the city, is coming more and more to the 
 front ; but to-day I prefer to view the gift as the donor 
 and his contemporaries viewed it ; and, when I read the 
 grateful acknowledgments with which his contemporaries 
 committed the town to the trusts, I feel quite sure that 
 nobody then had put on the disenchanting spectacles of 
 the statistician or the tax assessor. 
 
 Ebenezer Knight Dexter is a conspicuous example of 
 the public-spirited citizen who exercises his public spirit 
 for the behoof of his own town. The example suggests 
 to me some remarks, in closing my address, upon the high 
 uses and effects of such a spirit so exercised. Of course 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 35 
 
 public spirit, however exercised, if worthily, is praise- 
 worthy. There are times when, as a matter of duty, town 
 or city must be postponed to the State, and there are also 
 times when State, town and city must all be postponed to 
 the nation, and when the public-spirited citizen, looking 
 beyond State and town or city, must stand ready to pour 
 out his means and his heart's blood also, for the salvation 
 of the nation, or for the promotion of its welfare. Such 
 a time was our late Civil War. But, ordinarily, for the 
 private citizen, his nearest duty is to the town or city 
 where he lives, has his home, rears his family and consorts 
 with his fellow citizens in the common concerns of daily 
 life. The citizen who addicts himself to a cosmopolitan, 
 instead of a civic, public spirit, too often lets his philan- 
 throphy run to waste while he potters with Utopian day- 
 dreams or hollow abstractions yielding no fruit. The 
 reason is obvious. The citizen who aspires to do any 
 clear, tangible good, cannot do it in the abstract or gen- 
 eral, but must do it, if at all, in the concrete and particu- 
 lar ; and he finds a thousand opportunities for so doing it 
 in the town or city where he lives for one that he finds in 
 the broad world outside of it. 
 
 Let us pass to another point of view. Cities, espec- 
 ially the larger and more metropolitan, have played a 
 great part in civilization. Such cities are centres of life 
 and light, naturally developing or attracting genius, learn- 
 ing, ambition and leadership. It is to 
 
 "Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
 And eloquence," 
 
36 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 more than to the whole Greek peninsula besides, that we 
 owe that finer Hellenism, prized so highly by scholars as 
 the very capstone of a completed culture. It was Rome 
 that originated the mighty movements which resulted in 
 the conquest and pacification of the ancient world, fitting 
 it for the easier dissemination of the Christian faith. 
 And it was Venice which, insulated amid the marshes 
 of the Adriatic, while the Roman Empire was falling into 
 ruins, organized herself as a republic, and, espousing the 
 sea, reached out after the commerce and the arts of the 
 Mediterranean and the Orient, and, grasping them, 
 acquired the incalculable riches thence accruing; and 
 which, crowned with architectural beauty, commands, even 
 in her decay, the admiration of travellers from all lands. 
 These are cities of preeminent renown in history, and more 
 such might be mentioned. I pass on to cities less famous, 
 but not less serviceable to mankind. In Mediaeval Europe, 
 when liberty, gasping under the oppressions of feudalism, 
 was ready to expire, it was the cities, widely scattered, 
 which gave it refuge and, invincibly warding their civic 
 franchises, preserved it, and with it, the rudiments of 
 self-government, for more auspicious ages. And, coming 
 to our own land, it was in town meetings and in spontane- 
 ous town assemblages, rather than in colonial legislatures, 
 that, in ante-revolutionary days, the principles of the 
 revolution were discussed and the minds of our fore- 
 fathers convinced and fortified for the desperate struggle 
 which gave us our national independence. 
 
 But why do I cite these trite and tedious instances } 
 Because they are instances of cities and towns made 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 37 
 
 what they were by the public spirit of their citizens. 
 Some of them may have been favored by circumstances ; 
 but it is not the circumstances, but the citizens of a city 
 that make for it historic importance and renown. They 
 all started from small beginnings, and some of them, 
 planted amid hostile circumstances, were moulded into 
 greatness by constant conflict with them. The citizens 
 were compelled, generation after generation, to unite for 
 the common good, until necessity bred in them a habit of 
 public spirit, which, grafted on their natures, became a 
 heritable potency of the race. The Roman citizen of the 
 more heroic period felt Rome pulsating in his blood and 
 bracing every fibre of his being. I cite the instances, 
 too, because they show that the exercise of public spirit 
 by the citizen for his city, does not stop with the city, but 
 often reaches in influence and effect indefinitely beyond 
 it. Let us not delude ourselves with the idea that this is 
 not as true to-day as it was of old. Who shall presume 
 to cast the horoscope of a good purpose worthily fulfilled } 
 Who can tell us how widely it will diffuse, or how long it 
 will perpetuate itself.? If the citizens of Providence 
 could put her in the forefront of American cities, for 
 whatever is best in civic development, what better could 
 they hope to do, if it were only for the light which would 
 shine from her for others } But such a city could give 
 leading as well as light, and surely the times are coming 
 which will cry aloud for both. 
 
 Mr. Dexter showed his public spirit by giving directly 
 to his town. Others who have land or money to give, 
 may prefer to give it through one or more of the chari- 
 
38 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 table or educational institutions of the city ; and so given, 
 it will often more effectually accomplish the giver's pur- 
 pose than if given to the city itself, and will be 
 equally expressive of his public spirit. And of course 
 there are other ways besides giving by which the citizen 
 can show his public spirit. He may show it in business, 
 if he will keep an eye open to the public good ; as when, 
 for instance, he introduces or largely develops and im- 
 proves a valuable industry of superior grade, and aims, 
 therein, at high excellence and beauty of workmanship, as 
 well as at his own profit. The city as well as the citizen 
 takes a step forward when this is done. The establish- 
 ment which cast our statue, and which I may therefore 
 mention to-day, is a capital illustration. The creation 
 or extension of such a business brings to the city an 
 increase of excellent citizens, which is a great benefit ; and 
 also gives her a larger business outlook and a wide 
 repute for beautiful achievement in the industrial 
 arts, which is both benefit and prestige. Citizens who 
 thus serve their city are as much its benefactors as the 
 givers of land or money, and as much entitled to their 
 proper meed of praise and gratitude. Such benefits are 
 not the less real because collateral rather than immediate; 
 but, on the contrary, as factors in the city's growth and 
 improvement, they are vastly more real and important. 
 And so the citizen may show his public spirit even when 
 he builds a house for himself, if, looking beyond mere 
 physical or personal needs, he will make it a handsome 
 instead of a common or ugly structure. How much more 
 delightful as a place of residence, how much more valu- 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 
 
 39 
 
 able as property, the city of Providence would be if its 
 houses had always been so built! And how small the ad- 
 ditional outlay in comparison with the resulting benefit ! 
 These are but illustrative suggestions. When the right 
 spirit generally prevails and the right motives influence, 
 such chances to promote the city's welfare will continu- 
 ally suggest themselves. 
 
 My subject has range enough to warrant my saying a 
 few words on city politics. Every city has or ought to 
 have its own politics, determined by its own needs, inter- 
 ests and opportunities ; and there is no good reason why 
 the selection of city officers should not be determined in 
 the same manner, regardless of party. But, so long 
 as party makes the nominations, the voter, when 
 there is little or nothing else to determine his choice, will 
 instinctively vote for the candidate of his own party. He 
 cannot be blamed for it ; it is human nature ; and all of 
 us, if we are not cranks, like to humor our human nature 
 when we can without harm. But suppose the right can- 
 didate is put up by the wrong party, what then shall the 
 voter do .'' Undoubtedly vote for the right candidate, and 
 so, while doing his duty by the city, teach his party to 
 put up right candidates of its own ; or, if it run short, 
 borrow from its opponents. There is no way in which 
 the voters as voters can more effectually show their pub- 
 lic spirit and serve the city. Such a practice would tend 
 not only to make the parties more careful to nominate 
 their best men, but also to make their best men more 
 willing to be nominated ; since, under such a practice, an 
 election would be indeed an honor, tantamount to a patent 
 
40 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 of civic nobility. There are city offices, too, in which 
 excellent service ought to ensure continuance of tenure, 
 so that the city may benefit by the experience as well as 
 by the fidelity of the incumbent. 
 
 Sometimes, however, as I have intimated, the difficulty 
 is not to get the right nomination made, but to get the 
 right nominee to accept. No man can presume to decide 
 for another in such case ; but surely it is no presumption 
 to say that, if the office seek the man because he has 
 peculiar fitness for it, the man will show a true public 
 spirit by consenting to accept it ; and that in any event, 
 if just to himself, he will not refuse without first seriously 
 considering whether it will not show a culpable lack of 
 public spirit for him to do so. I suppose there are citi- 
 zens who would be more than glad to run for Congress, 
 and glad to run for the General Assembly, who, if the 
 office of alderman or common councilman were pro- 
 posed to them, would turn from it with distaste, as a place 
 of much drudgery and little distinction. Yet, if such a 
 citizen would calmly reflect, he might find another side 
 coming into view, raising the question whether, after all, 
 the city office would not be for him the office of the greater 
 public usefulness, and therefore the more honorable for his 
 acceptance. Many a man has gone to Congress to be 
 so completely lost in his party, that he could individ- 
 ually reappear only to be counted at the roll-call, or to 
 make a speech that nobody listened to when it was 
 delivered, and very few read after it had been printed, who, 
 as alderman or councilman, could easily have found the 
 place where ho would have done great service for the 
 
EBENEZER KNIGHT DEXTER. 4 1 
 
 city, and have gained a host of friends to appreciate and 
 honor his worth and work. 
 
 To the man of large views and commensurate ability 
 the sphere of civic service offers peculiar opportunities, 
 beyond the purview of party tyranny, for making his per- 
 sonality felt and his genius effective. Josiah Quincy, the 
 second Mayor of Boston, lived to be ninety-two years old. 
 Previous to his mayoralty, he had served his State eight 
 years as representative in Congress, and acquired celeb- 
 rity as a consummate orator and statesman ; after his 
 mayoralty, he was nineteen years President of Harvard 
 University and rendered extraordinary services to that 
 ancient seat of learning ; and yet we are told by one who 
 well knew his history, that "in the six years that he served 
 the city he did the work which gave him his highest fame, 
 and, in the retrospect of a long and varied career, the 
 most satisfaction." But we need not seek abroad for ex- 
 amples. At the western junction of Weybosset and West- 
 minster streets stands the statue of a Mayor who spent 
 his best years in the service of the city, constantly initiat- 
 ing new measures of progress and improvement, often 
 bitterly opposed, but never unappreciated, and finally com- 
 memorated by his fellow citizens with gratitude and 
 honor. These were both public-spirited civic servants. 
 We may be incapable of matching their services ; but at 
 a time like this when, in a neighboring city, the air reeks 
 with shameful revelations of official malversation and 
 infidelity, we should at least emulate the spirit that 
 inspired them. There is a way in which, if our hearts be 
 set to make our citv excellent among cities, we can all 
 
42 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OF 
 
 help to do it ; and that is, by trying to make ourselves 
 excellent among citizens ; for a city is worthy as its 
 citizens are worthy, noble as they are noble, great as they 
 are great ; and it cannot become, or for long remain, either 
 worthy, or noble, or great, in the better meaning of 
 "great," in any other manner. I utter familiar truths, 
 but the occasion gives them emphasis. 
 
 My address draws to its close. A moment more and 
 we leave the statue here, a silent preacher on its solitary 
 pedestal. Here let it remain, while generation follows 
 generation and the city grows and thickens around it ; 
 and here, so long as it remains, let it continually preach, 
 with unobtrusive iteration, its wordless but impressive 
 sermon on the high value of public service, or of public 
 service and benevolence, exercised by the citizens for the 
 city's welfare. 
 
 At the conclusion of Judge Durfee's oration the 
 audience joined in singing "America," and the 
 services concluded with the benediction, pronounced 
 by Rev. Edward Holyoke. 
 
ebenezer knight dexter. 43 
 
 Report of the Joint Committee on the Gift of Henry C. 
 Clark, Esq., to the City. 
 
 To THE Honorable the City Council of the City 
 OF Providence : 
 
 The joint special committee appointed by resolution No. 
 401, series of 1893, and authorized by resolution No. 
 384, series of 1894,10 arrange for the dedication of the 
 statue of Ebenezer Knight Dexter, presented to the city 
 by Henry C. Clark, Esq., respectfully report: 
 
 That they have fully discharged the duty assigned them, 
 that the beautiful statue given to the city was dedicated 
 with appropriate exercises on Dexter Training Field, on 
 June 29th, and that the unveiling and dedication was 
 attended by a representative gathering of our citizens, by 
 the State and city officials, and by a large number of the 
 children of the public schools. 
 
 In recognition of this munificent gift to the city your 
 committee submit the accompanying resolutions, tender- 
 ing the thanks of the City Council to the donor of said 
 statue, and also to print the report of the dedicatory 
 exercises, and unanimously recommend the passage of 
 the same. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, for the committee, 
 
 Myron H. Fuller, Chairman. 
 
44 dedication of the statue. 
 
 Joint Resolution of the City Council. 
 No. 637. 
 
 [Approved December 4th, 1SQ4.] 
 
 Whereas, Henry C. Clark, Esq., on June 29th, 1894, 
 formally presented to the city of Providence a magnificent 
 bronze statue of Ebenezer Knight Dexter, the city's 
 noblest benefactor and friend of the poor and homeless ; 
 and 
 
 Whereas, The citizens of this city recognize the patri- 
 otic spirit that prompted this generous gift for the orna- 
 mentation of the Dexter Training Field and for the per- 
 petuation of the memory of an illustrious philanthropist ; 
 now, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That the City Council hereby tenders to 
 Henry C. Clark, Esq., on behalf of the citizens of Provi- 
 dence, this expression of its grateful appreciation of his 
 patriotism and generosity in endowing his native city with 
 so munificent a gift, and that the thanks of the City Coun- 
 cil be hereby offered to Mr. Clark for the artistic statue 
 of Ebenezer Knight Dexter that he has erected on the 
 Dexter Training Field. 
 
 Resolved, That the City Clerk be and he is hereby 
 directed to have a copy of this testimonial suitably 
 engrossed and presented to Mr. Clark, the expense thereof 
 to be charged to the appropriation for contingencies. 
 
■J^ 
 
me^ 
 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 00141116071 #