014 077 464 9% Hollinger pH 83 Mill Run F03-2193 oy 1 DEBT OF MASSACHUSETTS TO DORCHESTER. TOWN MEETING AND FREE SCHOOL. ADDRESS J. EVARTS GREENE, PILGRIM CHURCH, DORCHESTER, JANUARY 27, 1S94. DEBT OF MASSACHUSETTS TO DORCHESTER. TOWN MEETING AND FREE SCHOOL ADDRESS BY J. EVARTS GREENE, IN PILGRIM CHURCH, DORCHESTER, JANUARY 27, [S94. WORCESTER, MASS. : PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON. 1S94. ADDRESS. As I look from my chamber window just before sun- rise at this season, a bright star appears in the pale gray sky, a little above the crest of a hill to the westward. A few moments later I am aware of a dusky glow nearer the horizon, and suddenly a great light flashes out along the summit of the hill, and flames there, red and splendid, while all the valley across which I look lies in shadow. So to a prescient observer, if he were a lover of libertv and political progress, the institutions established here, which we now commemorate, might have seemed a glim- mering point of light, suggesting hope, and as it grew broader and brighter, a glorious beacon, announcing that government of the people, by the people, and for the people had dawned upon the world. The glory that I see upon the hill-top on these winter mornings is but the reflection of the rising sun from the windows of the Polytechnic Institute. That beacon of liberty, kindled on this spot by our ancestors, is a sacred fire, fed and increased by their descendants from age to age until the people of a continent rejoice in its light and dwellers beyond the seas see its brightness and share its blessing. Stated town meetings, selectmen and free public schools are the safe foundations on which the political institutions of New England were built, or to change the figure, they are the germs from which these institutions developed. We may safely say, I think, that they had their origin here. They were not the adaptation to changed conditions of institutions or the direct result of habits of political thought and action formed in England. It is true that village communities, some of which sur- vive to this day in India and Russia, are among the early institutions of our race. But if such communities ever existed in England among our Keltic or Teutonic ancestors, they perished so long ago that no memory or tradition of them remained. They had their influence, doubtless, upon the history of the race, since we may be sure that no national character or custom or institution is precisely the same as it would have been if what came before it had been other than it was, but this influence was not distinct and traceable. We may confidently say, therefore, that the men of Dorchester did not adopt, but created these institutions. They chose to govern themselves in local matters. Their plain good sense which now seems to us, as it was, wis- dom of the highest strain, prompted them to say: "The source of local laws and regulations shall be the stated meeting of the townsmen ; to see that these regulations are observed and to manage our common affairs we will choose selectmen." This action seems simple, obvious and almost inevitable to us now, but these were notable and daring inventions then. Not less so was the third — the free public school, concerning which the convictions and purposes of the Dorchester men were doubtless well expressed in the words chosen by the inhabitants of an adjoining town a few years later. They, when founding a school which has grown and is growing larger, stronger, and more useful from year to year, and is now, in its two hundred and forty-ninth year, the oldest with one exception of the distinct educational institutions of this country, declared their motives in these words: "The inhabitants of Roxburie, out of their religious care of posteritie, have taken into consideration how necessarie the education of their children in litera- 5 ture will be to fitt them for public service both in churche and commonwealthe in succeeding ages." How, through this religious care of posterity, the children of Massachu- setts have been fitted for the public service in succeeding ages, history has recorded at some length, and she has not yet laid down her pen, but will hereafter, we doubt not, write much notable matter of the achievements, the wisdom and the civic virtue of Massachusetts men in these and later times. These colonists of Dorchester were statesmen — con- ditores imperii. It seems to me that the lexicographers have not sufficiently noted the distinctive difference in meaning of the two words — statesman and politician. I think I find in the usage of the best writers warrant for these definitions : A statesman is one who, occupied with the affairs of government, indicates the objects to be sought and plans in outline the measures by which these may be gained ; the politician fills in the outlines of the statesman's plans and attends to the detail of their exe- cution. These terms, of course, are relative, not abso- lute. The ultimate object of all statesmanship and poli- tics should be the well-being and happiness of the people. Between this and the pettiest activities of public life are many gradations. Some of the things done or attempted may seem to be ends or means, to be within the domain of statesmanship or of politics according to the point of view. Either the statesman or the politician may deserve honor or contempt, as his motives are pure and his prac- tices honest or the reverse. A man may be pre-eminent as a statesman and at the same time a consummate poli- tician as was Lincoln. The statesman points the way, the politician avoids, removes or surmounts obstacles in the path. Judged by this standard, the moderator of the first town-meeting, the first board of selectmen, the guides of public opinion among these Dorchester colonists, were wise and provident statesmen, not to be lightly esteemed in comparison with more famous men of their own or other times because the community which they served was small and poor. I do not much believe in " mute in- glorious Miltons" ; for a Milton could not be mute ; but a "village Hampden" maybe as strong in character, in courage and in intellect as the national hero, whom the world knows and all his countrymen revere. A mathematical problem which deals with inches only may be as difficult as if its units were the inconceivable stellar distances. The perplexities of a finance minister who is compelled to face a prospective deficit of some scores of millions, may perhaps demand no greater sagacity than that which enables many a manager of a small enterprise to make both ends meet with a revenue of a few hundreds. Self-government or any other form of government is not simple and easy because a commun- ity is small ; if it were, so many colonizing enterprises would not have been dismal failures. Nor does it of necessity become difficult as territorial area and the num- ber of people increase. What is necessary and insures success, is that the institutions of government, adopted or created, shall be suited to the character and conditions of the people. The men of Dorchester saw this truth clearly. Their institutions were perfectly adapted to the needs of their own time, and so simple and so solidly based on the facts of human nature and unchanging prin- ciples, as to admit of easy and natural adjustment to changing conditions without danger of disturbing their sure foundations. They were not devising temporary expedients. With a grand confidence in the stability of their own work, they knew that they built for succeeding ages. Let us not be too sure that " they builded better than they knew." They knew that their foundations were good, and though they could not foresee precisely the outlines of the super- structure, its height and dimensions, and the details of its decoration, they had no doubt that it would be a fair, spacious and stately building. The task of carrying forward the work they had so well begun they left without fear to the posterity, who they had taken good care should be fitted for the public service both in Church and Commonwealth in succeeding ages. Have we, their successors, been as wise as they? Have we made the most of the inheritance they left us? We have raised upon their foundations a building of which we need not be ashamed. We have added from generation to generation much that is stately, splendid and commodious. But have we been careful enough to keep the foundations sound and stable? I have feared that in these days, in our regard for temporary convenience, we have remitted somewhat of that religious care of posterity which is needful to insure the best service of the Commonwealth in succeeding ages. If the political education of the town- meeting has been so useful as philosophic historians have declared, and as those we have counted the wisest of our statesmen have believed, have we not reason to fear that the men of Massachusetts in the next generation, a large majority of whom will have had no such education, will be politically ignorant and incompetent, not fitted for the public service, in comparison with their ancestors? More than half the people of Massachusetts are now inhabitants of cities, where the free discussion of public matters of a local nature by any townsman, in the pres- ence and subject to the decision of all, is unknown. Our communities have become so large that town-meetings are impossible. A pure democracy is unsuited to these conditions. This is the fact, and we must recognize it. But have we made the best of it? Are not representative institutions possible, that would give us more than we now have of the advantages of the town-meeting? Might 8 we not have large city assemblies — three hundred mem- bers, I should not think too many — chosen by some sys- tem of proportional or equitable representation, meeting once a year, or oftener if special business should make it necessary, in which the affairs of the city should be dis- cussed and settled, the amount of appropriations and the objects of expenditure determined, and other regulations and ordinances enacted, the administration being confided to responsible executive officers? It seems to me practicable ; and among the advantages of such a system would be that the knowledge and dis- cussion of public affairs would be more widely diffused among the people ; every young man of talent and politi- cal ambition might reasonably expect to have, in the course of a few years, a place in that assembly, where he could prove his capacity and be in training for higher public service ; the wisest and best citizens would more willingly accept membership of such an assembly than of our city councils as now constituted; all classes, condi- tions and opinions would be fairly represented as they should be ; the opportunities for rings, corruption and misgovernment would be fewer. We should have simply a condensed town-meeting. I think we might also strengthen the foundations laid by our fathers by adopting some scheme of proportional representation by which the abuses and the injustices of our present system of elections might be removed. Our government is not now in theory or in fact a government of the majority. Ought it not to be made so, that the majority might rule ? This is not a fitting occasion for fully developing this thought, but I trust the suggestion of it is not out of place. It becomes us, however, while honoring our fathers for their wisdom, to endeavor to deal as wisely with the prob- lems of our time as they did with those which confronted them two hundred and sixty years ago. That we and our posterity may be inspired by their example, we must keep their deeds and the debt we owe them in remem- brance. Surely filial reverence and gratitude should prompt the Massachusetts of to-day to raise here some visible me- morial of the fact that the foundations of our political insti- tutions were laid on this spot by the men of Dorchester. The great architect, whose bones lie beneath the choir of the cathedral which he built, has for his memorial the inscription. "If you seek a monument, look around." That monument is large, stately and enduring enough for such fame as his, but how trivial in size, how mean in design, how perishable in substance, compared with that which should keep these men of Dorchester in per- petual remembrance. Let a memorial stone be placed, bearing some such inscription as this : HERE WAS HELD THE FIRST TOWN-MEETING. HERE SELECTMEN WERE FIRST CHOSEN. HERE THE FIRST FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL SUP- PORTED BY TAXATION WAS ESTABLISHED. THESE, THE MEN OF DORCHESTER GAVE TO MASSACHUSETTS AND TO MANKIND. THE FABRIC OF AMERICAN LIBERTY IS THEIR MONUMENT. 014 077 464 9