AN 
 
 ORATION 
 
 bELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 01 n AUTHORITIES OF - BOSTON, 
 
 FIFTH OF JULY, 1869, 
 
 IN CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 $ n^lj)-tljbt> S'tti^i^ci'sarg of l^mcric^ft' Jnbepeabcucc, 
 
 BY HON. ELLIS W. MORTON. 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
 
 1869. 
 
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AN 
 
 <V 
 
 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON, 
 
 FIFTH OF JULY, 1869, 
 
 IN CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 gtmtiT-tfjirtr §,nmbersaru oi %\mxuRn Jntujpnbena, 
 
 BY HON. ELLIS W. MORTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 
 
 186 9. 
 

CITY OF BOSTON 
 
 In Board of Aldermen, July 6, 1869. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented 
 to the Hon. Ellis W. Morton for the eloquent Oration delivered 
 by him before the municipal authorities of Boston, on the occa- 
 sion of the Ninety-third Anniversary of the Declaration of 
 American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a 
 copy of the same for publication. 
 
 Passed. Sent down for concurrence. 
 
 BENJ. JAMES, Chairman. 
 
 In Common Council, July 8, 1869. 
 Concurred. 
 
 WM. G. HARRIS, President. 
 
 Approved, July 9, 1 809. 
 
 NATH'L B. SHURTLEFF, Mayor. 
 
 A true copy. 
 
 Attest : 
 
 S. F. McCLEARY, City Clerk. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 To God, to the Fathers, to the preservers of 
 our Nation's Independence, are due reverent and 
 grateful acknowledgments in this joyful commemora- 
 tion of the brightest day in our history. The flame 
 of the new-found liberty which illumined that day 
 is an inextinguishable beacon to souls oppressed 
 who dare dream " that all men are created equal ; 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 unalienable rights." A journey in discovery of the 
 causes which culminated in our deed of self-manumis- 
 sion, would lead only to an uncertain end. The 
 Declaration of Independence was not a single fruit ; 
 it was a harvest. Inscrutable Providence had mys- 
 teriously sown the seed. The precious germs were 
 scattered alike by the burning hands of martyrs 
 and the unconscious hands of tyrants. It was the 
 will of Heaven that the falling dew of the Fourth 
 day of July, 1776, should christen our "Free 
 and Independent States." 
 
 But we may conceive that had the religion of 
 our fathers been the growth of more genial nurture, 
 
6 JULY 5, 18f.9. 
 
 or had its exercise been unrestricted, had their 
 uncompromising faith been tried in the develop- 
 ment of a less rugged home, had George the 
 Third spared his beneficent oppression, then had 
 the problem of self government been to us unsolved. 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity." 
 
 The Omnipotent veils the fulness of His designs. 
 The Puritans, who challenged the perils of the sea 
 to wrest religious liberty from the hardships of an 
 unknown land, knew as little of religious liberty as 
 the men of the First Continental Congress knew 
 of civil liberty. 
 
 The religious liberty of the Puritans was a right 
 to worship in their own way — a denial of the right 
 to others. The practice of their austere devotions 
 fixed the limit of the freedom they would have 
 planted. They were unsuspicious of the bounty of 
 the soil upon which ihey set their altars. They 
 dreamed not that the fire of their fierce convictions 
 would burn into a mellow light, in which all Chris- 
 tian hearts might approach Deity by their own paths. 
 Those uncompromising spirits were elected to a 
 peculiar w^ork, and the fearlessness, the wisdom, the 
 fidelity, which marked their labor, the reverence 
 which hallowed it, have won the favor of God and 
 the praises of man. 
 
ORATION. 7 
 
 The period including 1774 and 1776, was 
 freighted with blessings so rich, that those noble 
 men, who were alternately demanding and imploring 
 civil rights, recognized them not. They realized not 
 the robust growth of the tree of liberty in their 
 midst, till their witless monarch and his ministers, 
 as a reward for their unswerving fealty, shook its 
 fruit into their laps. This was the period that gath- 
 ered the first Continental Congress ; that Congress, 
 by which " all old religious jealousies were con- 
 demned as low-minded infirmities " ; that Congress, 
 in which Patrick Henry uttered the " hope that 
 future ages would quote their proceedings with 
 applause " ; that Congress, in which the student may 
 clearly trace the title of nearly every chapter of 
 our political history — it was the period in which the 
 summoning rays of the lanterns in the tower of the 
 North Church, signalled the advent of unknown 
 civil and religious liberties ; it was the period which 
 called that other Congress to herald your indepen- 
 dence, and mine. 
 
 I have said that the men of 1774 knew not of 
 civil liberty. To them liberty was an English pro- 
 duction. Their hope was of English liberty. Just 
 men, suftering injustice, their eyes opened not to the 
 omnipotence of justice. 
 
8 JULY f), 18 69. 
 
 Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, the immortal 
 author of the Declaration, all disclaimed a dispo- 
 sition for independence. But the appeals unheard, 
 the petitions rejected by the King of Britain, were 
 answered by the King of Kings. To that loyalty 
 which acknowledged the sovereignty, while it resisted 
 the oppression, of the mother country. He offered a 
 Republic. Patriotism then became an unconquerable 
 force. 
 
 How shall we honor the men and the virtues of 
 those days'? Would we render tribute to the most 
 upright, to the most patriotic, to the wisest, to 
 the most temperate, to the most charitable, to the 
 bravest, to the most modest, — all had their 
 representative in Washington. " If you speak 
 of solid information and sound judgment," said 
 Patrick Henry, " Washington is the greatest man 
 of them all." John Adams attested the worth 
 of " the modest and virtuous, the able, generous, 
 and brave general." The chosen of all the Colonies, 
 he was particularly the choice of New England. 
 A Virginian, he belonged to Massachusetts. He 
 it was, who desired to " raise one thousand men, 
 subsist them at his own expense, and march at their 
 head for the relief of Boston." He it was, who 
 gained Boston from the enemy, and to whom the 
 
ORATION. 9 
 
 selectmen said : " Next to the Divine power we 
 ascribe to your wisdom that this acquisition has 
 been made with so little effusion of blood." His 
 was the sovereign character of the Revolution. To 
 him, then, let us pay the homage due to the men 
 whose sturdy virtue moulded determined courage 
 into the rare deeds which have made us Indepen- 
 dent Americans. 
 
 It is most fitting that Boston should have 
 set up an enduring figure of this embodiment of 
 the goodness and greatness which distinguished 
 the past, and should pilot the future days of the 
 Hepublic. Happy has been the genius of the 
 Boston sculptor in fashioning the plastic clay to 
 such happy service. Fortunate have been our 
 artisans who taught the willing metal to daguerro- 
 type his creation. That work shall be our pride, 
 the admiration of all. The treasures of the earth, 
 the conception of the artist, the handicraft of the 
 artificer have gladly contributed to reproduce the 
 form ; let society reproduce the qualities of Wash- 
 ington. Said Cato, " The best way to keep good 
 acts in memory is to refresh them with new." 
 
 But we are brought to another period in the recol- 
 
10 JULY 5, 1869. 
 
 lection that his devoted services had been well-nigh 
 wasted, but for the unlimited loyalty of the Saviors 
 of the Union : those whose presence in our midst is 
 our honor ; those whose headstones are their grateful 
 country's most sacred souvenirs. 
 
 In the ground prepared for the institutions which 
 made our declared independence a reality, there was 
 left undisturbed the most baneful poison known to 
 political toxicology. 
 
 A revel in the records of the unexampled prosperity 
 of the new nation, whose lavish resources ministered, 
 in every variety of climate, from every quality of soil, 
 out of the native storehouses of noble and baser 
 metals, by grand rivers and outstretched coasts, to 
 wealth and happiness, and whose government was 
 benign, was embittered by the exposure of the rank 
 growth of slavery. The good and the wise viewed 
 the spread of this evil root with dismay and per- 
 plexity. In 1860, the injustice of stolen labor re- 
 ceived a decided recognition in the triumph of a party 
 pledged to a lawful resistance of its introduction into 
 unpolluted soil. Then was manifested the accursed 
 sway of the " peculiar institution." So subtle had 
 been its noxious influence, nursing sensuality, indo- 
 lence and ease, that it was regarded as the vital 
 support of the South. Slavery was the balm ; free- 
 
ORATION. 11 
 
 dom the poison. Secession was to be the antidote of 
 freedom; it proved the antidote of slavery. The 
 haughty rebels attempted parricide ; they committed 
 suicide. As captives of war the slaves were originally 
 enforced into bondage, and by a retributive justice, as 
 " captives of war " they first gained a deliverance from 
 bondage. 
 
 The events which made every day an epoch, from 
 the lowering of the insignia of the Union on Sum- 
 ter to the raising again of those same colors, are 
 too freshly stored in the memories of all, far too 
 deeply graven in the hearts of many, to invite their 
 recital. 
 
 Reviewing in a glance the thrilling drama of those 
 days, we behold again the lurid scenes of treason 
 in gloomy contrast with the spontaneous uprisings of 
 loyalty. We renew the few days of doubt and fear 
 struggling against ever contending, ever dominant 
 hope and confidence. 
 
 We see the arms of the Union, now in the halo 
 of victory, and then in the darkness of defeat, 
 always unflinching, until at last, over the dread 
 horrors of war and its unexampled barbarities, 
 rises the sun of triumph and peace. 
 
 The integrity of the llepublic is solemnly vindi- 
 cated, the crime of rebellion is terribly rebuked, 
 the wrong of slavery is sadly expiated. 
 
12 JULY5,18G9. 
 
 " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Of human 
 vengeance none has followed the traitors. It was 
 foreign to the noble man chosen as the assassin's 
 victim ; it was unexecuted by the people to whom 
 he was endeared. When from sickening rehearsals 
 of the atrocities of Andersonville, of Libby and of 
 Belle Isle, the student of future days would turn, 
 in hot resentment, to the pages of retaliation, he 
 will find them not. His surprise will associate 
 with the wonder of his discovery that England, whose 
 outcries against the sin of bondage had been as 
 violent as they were hollow, was first to recognize 
 the Slave Confederacy. Indulgence has followed at 
 the heel of victory. The people have worn their 
 joy with forbearance, their grief with charity. 
 
 " High treason," said Bacon, " is not written in 
 ice ; that when the body relenteth, the impression 
 should go away." 
 
 The blot of rebellion has soaked up too much 
 blood, the stains of its cruelties are too deep to be 
 efi"aced. They are only hidden by the curtain of 
 peace. "Woe to them who shall first draw its folds 
 aside. The war has seriously tested, though not 
 measured, the nation's capacities ; it has proved the 
 constitution elastic enough to bend and too tou^jh 
 to break ; it has been happily ended in the face of 
 
ORATION. 13 
 
 foreign hostility. Shall we name our most deserving 
 creditors'? It were a vain endeavor, for, 
 
 " The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, 
 Because we see it ; but what we do not see 
 We tread upon, and never think of it." 
 
 The most distinguished generals had a host of 
 counterparts in the ranks ; the leader was a leader 
 only by virtue of followers ; the courage of the rear 
 waited on the boldness of the front. Every uniform 
 that covered a loyal heart hid a jewel — every jewel 
 was a gem. The people have set one of the most 
 brilliant in the front of the crown of government in 
 representation of the rest. 
 
 To all the defenders of the Union, by sea and by 
 land, a perpetual eulogium is due. 
 
 When the gallant soldier, returned to his accus- 
 tomed paths of industry, seeks to participate in the 
 prosperity his service has bought, make room for 
 him. His interregnum of peril should not dam the 
 flow of fortune. 
 
 When the battered veteran, with disabled hands, 
 petitions the plethoric purse of trade to comfort 
 his half-drained life, let quick memory recall the 
 days when the Ship of State was in peril of wreck 
 and he saved her. He asks not charity. Pay him 
 his salvage. 
 
14 JULY 5, 1869. 
 
 The sleeping dead have venerated graves, and the 
 reward of Heaven. Loving friends and a grateful 
 country keep their mantles green. When the smiling 
 bloom of Spring gladdens the earth, faithful comrades 
 cull her choicest blossoms, and in solemn, sympathetic 
 concourse, carry the sweet tokens of fraternal remem- 
 brance to the resting places of those whose glory it 
 was to die for their country. As the tender flower 
 touches the grassy mound of a fallen patriot, perhaps 
 a tear bears it company. 
 
 A view of the political world finds the star of the 
 United States bright as the brightest in the shining 
 constellation of great powers. The sensitive balance 
 that weighs governments marks a gain for ours. The 
 jealous monarchies, whose counterfeit smiles gave place 
 to honest frowns behind the smoke of battle, would 
 have us forget their forgetfulness. They reflect that 
 the popular government, which has proved invulner- 
 able from within, may be impregnable from without. 
 The war has strengthened us. It has made dismem- 
 berment impossible. The attempted syncretism of 
 freedom and slavery no longer vexes us. The new 
 cement of common equality is impervious to the threat- 
 ening waves of any sea. 
 
OKATION. 15 
 
 We harbor no apprehensions for our foreign rehi- 
 tions. If the force of our fair demand affainst Enjr- 
 land does not press its early discharge, it is a valuable 
 force to possess. There is, however, reason for con- 
 fidence that the availability of its possession need 
 never be taxed. If England has agreed with the 
 two Johnsons, who wore our authority, while they 
 failed to represent us, to a treaty whose w^elcome 
 was an unceremonious rejection, it does not argue a 
 denial of justice when justice is exacted. Means are 
 not wanting to obtain it; but an expenditure of 
 threats will njt purchase conviction of the stock 
 from which we sprang. Lord Clarendon has lately 
 said, " he hoped what had occurred would promote 
 and not hinder the negotiations." Towards such a 
 disposition we may trust that Motley, succeeding the 
 distinguished Adams, after the brief interlude of our 
 non-representation, may approach with a dignified 
 freedom and courteous firmness which shall secure 
 an acceptable result. 
 
 We look from the high watch-tower of our Ke- 
 public upon foreign powers with tranquil assurance. 
 
 We observe England following, not by steps, but 
 by strides, the behests of the people. A monarchy, 
 the government finds its nobility a cumbrance. 
 Necessity is engrafting life peerages upon the tree of 
 
16 JULY 5, 1869. 
 
 hereditary aristocracy. Nature has decreed that the 
 cion shall determine the fruit. The nobility of merit 
 is sapping the nobility of birth. The people are 
 dictating, and the government is modif\ing its 
 polity. 
 
 France permits little repose to the coup d'etat- 
 crowned sentinel of the empire. The rent-service 
 he renders for the tenancy of the throne, is the 
 drudgery of interminable watchfulness. Would he 
 engage in the pleasing employment of " rectifying " 
 the boundaries of his territory — he must watch its 
 uneasy capital. When his august neighbors went 
 out to battle, they could leave their doors open 
 toward France — the emperor was engaged at his 
 post. " Paris is France," and Paris is his avowed 
 enemy. The recent elections increase the burden 
 of his vigilance. He must do more than he has 
 done, more than any man can do for the advance- 
 ment of France, to dazzle her into blindness to her 
 fetters. In his perpetual vigils, one hand grasps the 
 throat of liberty. The endurance of that grip meas- 
 ures the present rule of France. It cannot last 
 long. The people demand, and there must follow 
 a modification of their government. 
 
 Spain is freeing herself from the corruption of 
 long-endured evils. She is casting down the rusty 
 
ORATION. 17 
 
 bars to progress. She has driven her arbitrary 
 queen into an exile, where she is displaying the 
 wealth amassed from the wretchedness of unhappy 
 subjects. The experiment of Spain's tardy relief, 
 will claim the most judicious heed. Our sympathy 
 and best wishes should stretch out to the bruised 
 people, who have smitten tyranny in the face. 
 
 If we were to extend our observations further, 
 we should still follow the ruts of the wheels of 
 political change. We should recognize in every 
 foreign sky, the influence of our free atmosphere. 
 
 The present year has witnessed in serenity the 
 retirement of one who occupied the Presidential 
 Chair, and has viewed with profound satisfaction 
 the inauguration of a successor to Lincoln. The 
 Presidency has sought Grant: he received it. He 
 has never solicited rank ; he has been rated by his 
 deeds. An indomitable leader, he asks only to fol- 
 low the will of the people. Honored by those 
 who have singled him out as their representative, 
 his evident integrity of purpose and calm determi- 
 nation in its pursuit should enlist unanimous esteem. 
 
 The reviving South will read in his elevation 
 the pledge of an equitable administration, and a 
 certain defence of loyalty. 
 
 3 
 
18 JULY 5, 1869. 
 
 The withdrawal from political life of the late 
 Secretary of State, has recently followed a long 
 term of valuable labor. His state and his country 
 have heavily assessed his untiring energy, his 
 abundant information and his sound judgment. His 
 important service as a sagacious, faithful statesman, 
 is entitled to the requital of liberal thanks. 
 
 A survey of our domestic condition discovers 
 auspicious omens on every side. The broad stream 
 of prosperity, which has never ceased to flow north 
 of the fields of rebellion, is swelling and enlarging 
 as it courses on. 
 
 Fate is obscuring the identity of the former South. 
 Her people no longer take counsel of their false 
 augurs. They no longer gather about the leaders 
 who took them to failure. Their old idols are 
 bereft of honor and denied confidence. The hand 
 of Fortune is remodelling the South for a future, 
 in which free and enlightened industry will win the 
 palm of progress and influence. The weight of 
 her new importance will, ere long, be felt through- 
 out the Union. 
 
 The waves of emigration continue to roll steadily 
 upon our shores. The pioneer emigrants, who 
 brought muscle to serve us in grappling for wealth, 
 are followed by those who bring offerings of skill. 
 
ORATION. 19 
 
 While the current from Ireland is unabated, the tide 
 from Germany and Northern Europe is outstripping 
 it. Emigration from England's intelligent classes is 
 also surging upon our borders. The Old World 
 sends us a town every week. Every recruit to our 
 population has a value. His removal is a loss to the 
 place of his nativity, upon whose means he has 
 grown, and a gain to us. Every day's labor he 
 brings is a contribution to our coffers. Our greatest 
 enterprises take shape through the toil of foreigners. 
 They keep close companionship with the spirit of 
 improvement as it marches over the country leaving 
 iron tracks for traffic to follow. They make bold 
 acquaintance with the virtue of our soil, and impress 
 it into productive exercise. They lend hard hands 
 to the workshop and the warehouse. The ready 
 absorption of the emigrant's capital proves its advan- 
 tage, and is suggestive of the richness of our unde- 
 veloped substance. 
 
 In all directions we spy enterprise crowding upon 
 enterprise. " The wave behind impels the wave 
 before." By the iron-edged route to the Golden 
 Gate great railroads are made by-paths. Already 
 our commerce is jeering at the resistance of Darien 
 to the friendly embrace of the Atlantic and the 
 Pacific. The art of surgery is threatening the band 
 
20 JULY 5, 1869. 
 
 by which nature has tied the twin Americas like 
 the twins of Siam. The giant undertaking of yes- 
 terday is the pigmy of to-day. 
 
 In telling the promise of the country's future, 
 extravagance would be tameness, 
 
 " For thy vast bounties are so numberless, 
 That them or to conceal or else to tell 
 Is equally impossible." 
 
 After scanning the broad domain of national 
 sovereignty, we turn to our own Commonwealth with 
 affectionate pride. Though she has freely sent her 
 sons and her money to build up new territory, she 
 continues in the vanguard of States. She has 
 regarded with pleasure the increasing stature of 
 rival sisters, fostered by her capital. It may be, 
 however, that wholesome prudence is now dictating 
 a more rigid application of her means to the 
 irrigation of her own soil. 
 
 Her intelligence is undenied ; her political influence 
 is conspicuous ; the lustre of her credit is untar- 
 nished. In prudent charity, she is profuse ; in educa- 
 tion, unsparing ; in legislation, prodigal ; in her public 
 models of art, original ; and in tunnelling, a learner. 
 
 We are a law-enacting, law-abiding people. No 
 instruction of the " Declaration of the Rights of the 
 
ORATION. 21 
 
 Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," 
 is more faithfully observed than that which declares 
 that, " The Legislature ought frequently to assemble 
 for the redress of grievances, for correcting, strength- 
 ening, and confirming the laws, and for making new 
 laws, as the common good may require." 
 
 The legislature of the last six months has secured 
 the "common good "for six months to come in the 
 enactment of Five Hundred and Sixty- Nine " Acts 
 and Resolves." Imagine the consternation with which 
 such a record would fill Jonathan Swift, who, a cen- 
 tury and a half ago, said: "If books and laws con- 
 tinue to increase as they have done for fifty years 
 past, I am in some concern for future ages, how any 
 man will be learned, or any man a lawyer." 
 
 We have perfected political science to such a de- 
 gree that we make law enough in one day to suffice 
 for that day and one more. While the community 
 exult in the guarantee of safety for half a year, the 
 student takes courage in the opportunity to master 
 the laws before they are abrogated. 
 
 The legislature of this year has set the seal of 
 assent to that amendment to the Constitution of the 
 United States, which declares that, " The right of 
 citizens of the United States to vote shall not be 
 denied or abridged by the United States, or by any 
 
22 JULY 5, 18G9. 
 
 State, on account of race, color, or previous condi- 
 tion of servitude." The " Fifteenth Amendment " cuts 
 at a stroke a Gordian Knot which the studied 
 theories of the wisest and most humane have 
 essayed to untie. After statesmen had tasked their 
 lives in the vain attempt to gently undo the knot 
 of slavery by gradual emancipation, it was finally 
 cut by the sword of war. It were better, our legis- 
 lators have said, to sever this last knot of political 
 inequality by the sword of peace. Those who had 
 misgivings must have done wisely to smother dis- 
 trust, in the decision to execute complete justice 
 without delay. 
 
 In our latest legislation touching commercial in- 
 terests, we have reason for congratulation. The 
 heavy demands of our great railroads for increased 
 facilities and extended connections indicate present 
 thrift, and a design to propitiate good fortune by 
 generous provisions. The readiness with which these 
 demands have been heard, and the sound liberality 
 which has been their response, demonstrate an ex- 
 panding appreciation of our business capacities and 
 necessities. Narrow jealousy of Boston, if it has 
 ever been entertained, has not found an asylum in 
 the last legislature. It has been at once conceded 
 that the importance of the capital vitally concerns 
 
ORATION. 23 
 
 the Commonwealtli, and that in amplifying its 
 channels of trade, in magnifying its prominence as 
 a market, and in enlarging its space for growth, the 
 common welfare is promoted. 
 
 An absurd effort to transfer a department of the 
 City Government to the guardianship of the State, 
 to satisfy the ill-based prejudices of a few warped 
 minds, has met a swift rebuff, as severe as it was 
 merited. 
 
 A threat to make an example of Boston, for an 
 alleged sluggishness in the enforcement of a certain 
 law, was coldly denied the solace of a faint echo. 
 Whenever the eminence of our City Government 
 shall tempt an invidious attack, it should encounter 
 an indignant repulse in the deafening protests of 
 every citizen susceptible of honest pride, or the sen- 
 timent of justice. Though a subversion of the po- 
 lice functions of all our municipalities would escape 
 the odium of a blow at one only, the impolicy of 
 such a conquest by the State should condemn it. 
 The democracy which calls upon the individual to 
 contribute only the necessary allotment of his natural 
 liberty to society, upon the town to surrender only 
 essential powers to the State, and upon the States 
 to gauge their contribution of sovereignty by their 
 
24 JULY6,1869. 
 
 compact, is worth, more than a score of chameleon 
 statutes. 
 
 The wisdom of charging upon each community 
 the responsibility of preserving peace and order 
 within its limits finds its proof in the voluntary 
 establishment of the police organizations coveted 
 for the State. The owner is the most vigilant guard 
 of his treasure. Each community has the closest 
 interest in its own self-defence. If disease creeps 
 into the body, we invoke ^Esculapius. We seek to 
 cure, not to kill. If abuses should steal into muni- 
 cipal administration, the people will engage in stern 
 pursuit of a cure. Not till our town governments 
 are bedridden, should they call for nurses from the 
 state hospitals. 
 
 Much time has been consecrated this year to a 
 " Chapter " of the Blue Book, whose chief recom- 
 mendation to favor is its liability to repeal. In 
 the Declaration of Eights, " temperance " is ac- 
 counted as one of the principles " absolutely 
 necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, 
 and to maintain free government." This " Chapter," 
 adopted after most solemn deliberation, in contempt 
 of this principle, has put a seductive intoxicant 
 under the protectorate of the State. By designed 
 omission, an acknowledged intoxicant is legally 
 
ORATION. 25 
 
 considered non-intoxicating. Temperance repudiates 
 such a senseless fiction of law. It is but the 
 sorry ally of a party. Let the Muses hasten to 
 immortalize our State drink, for laws are transient. 
 Our statute books have long since ceased to wear 
 the title of " The Perpetual Laws of Massa- 
 chusetts." I think Scythia must have had prohi- 
 bitory legislation when Anacharsis said that " laws 
 were like cobwebs, where the small flies were 
 caught and the great break through." Extreme 
 legislation touching moral questions has seldom 
 purchased permanency. " Moderation is the silken 
 string running through the pearl chain of all 
 virtues." If, perchance, the cider cask should 
 prove weak armor ; if the autumn yield of the 
 non-intoxicating intoxicant should fail to float the 
 new statute, it may be well to remember that, 
 " in medio tutissimus ihisT 
 
 The disposition of the " Female Suff"rage " ques- 
 tion for a brief period, recalls our obligation to the 
 legislature, for what has not been done. 
 
 The gentle persuasions and SAveet threatenings of 
 those restive women, who sigh for entrance into the 
 " higher sphere " of caucuses and conventions, have 
 been received with a gallantry that must have 
 smoothed the refusal of their petitions. Those 
 
26 JULY5,1869. 
 
 relations of the sexes which nature has ordained, 
 and time approved, will govern us a little longer. 
 But natiu'e is growing old-fashioned; experience 
 loses its value in an age of inventions, and any 
 average tyro in theology can explain away the Bible 
 to order. How soon man may be led to subordi- 
 nate himself to woman, for such would be the effect 
 of female enfranchisement in Massachusetts, some of 
 us dare not consider. 
 
 "New customs, 
 Though they be never so ridiculous, 
 Naj', let them be uumauly, yet are followed." 
 
 Timid men already feel the skirts of their gar- 
 ments lengthening into petticoats. Women should 
 not vote because God has not given them the power 
 to enforce their will, and law without means to 
 execute it is not law. Woman's strength is in her 
 weakness ; her defence is in her defencelessness. But 
 such strength and such defence will not sustain 
 governments. That man is a criminal who neglects 
 to provide the shelter of a roof for his wife, and 
 stand ready to defend it. Government is only the- 
 shelter of society. Man must erect it, and defend 
 it. Woman's law is the influence of her virtue, 
 her modesty and her beauty, and that law, read at 
 
ORATION. 27 
 
 the hearthstone, is transcribed in halls of legislation 
 by hands able to maintain it. Those who claim that 
 our laws would be purer if women voted, should 
 know that they are already better than society is. 
 Man legislates, not according to what he is, but 
 according to what he ought to be. Our laws are 
 as tender of the rights of women as they are 
 favorable to the welfare of men. The bounty of 
 our government is sufficient for all. It has made 
 Massachusetts a citadel in war, a garden in peace. 
 " God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 
 
 It is a congenial duty to direct a moment's reflec- 
 tion to our sterling city. It would be an attractive 
 diversion to invest fancy with light pinions and float 
 back to the Boston of yore. Imagination would 
 warm with novel interest in hovering over the nur- 
 sery in which our city grew from tender infancy to 
 chartered majority. It would delight in resigning 
 to the waves their old dominion, usurped by solid 
 buildings ; in re-carpeting with green the pleasant 
 fields, invaded by crowded blocks of stone and brick ; 
 in coercing granite piles raised up by ambitious 
 trade to surrender their foundations to those broad 
 
28 JULY 5, 18G9. 
 
 mansions, whose doors opened to the traditional 
 luxury of spaciousness ; in replanting those little 
 oases, whose now heavy laden soil once knew only 
 the delicate burden of flowers ; in giving back South 
 Boston, and ceding the beautiful Highlands to the 
 ghost of Roxbury. We should revel in an Asmo- 
 dean flight over the Boston in which a century ago 
 to-day the General Court was contending for the 
 inseparable connection of taxation and representation. 
 
 But the Boston which surrounds us, so rapidly 
 extending its outlines of warehouses and dwellings 
 that their recognition is conditional upon active ob- 
 servation, so thoroughly repairing the errors of the 
 past, that narrow streets are suddenly lost in broad 
 avenues, and little courts in crowded thoroughfares, 
 is the Boston which wins our thoughts in this hour. 
 
 Of our culture and refinement, of our fidelity to 
 the virtuous principles of early days, let others 
 speak. The city's hospitality — to mention it here 
 were to lessen it. It is told in almost every tongue. 
 
 But the citizens of Boston may well felicitate them- 
 selves upon the fast spread of roofs, covering pros- 
 perous trade, productive toil and happy homes, and 
 upon the notable enterprises which are stimulating 
 activity at every point. 
 
OEATION. 29 
 
 We are fortunate in a City Government, whose 
 judgment does not serve their doubts. 
 
 " Our doubts are traitors, 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
 By fearing to attempt." 
 
 They have perceived that municipal growth prop- 
 erly appeals for improvements, and that bold im- 
 provements draw on bold growth. They have not 
 doubted, but let the wisdom of liberal expenditures 
 justify the rate of taxation. To the city, taxation is 
 galvanism. If it excites the citizen, it is an extra 
 gain. E-ust consumes the vitals of a community. 
 Boston must teach well her children, succor gener- 
 ously her unfortunate, defend warily the public 
 health, maintain an efficient police (the State permit- 
 ting), make damp places dry, hills level, crooked 
 places straight, narrow places wide, adorn and multi- 
 ply her parks, foster trade, entice commerce, keep 
 her " latch-string out," celebrate National Indepen- 
 dence, and have "contingent expenses"; and for 
 this the assessors' battery must be adequately 
 charged. When the battery becomes feeble, citizens 
 may hope for a millennium, but should suspect 
 decline. 
 
 No recent event is so pregnant with future advan- 
 tage as the union of Dorchester with Boston. Im- 
 
30 JULY5,1869. 
 
 perious necessities, prognosticated in population 
 rapidly augmenting, in the swelling hum of traffic 
 outgrowing: its familiar limits, and in the loud-voiced 
 murmurs of industrial employments increasing in 
 extent and variety, have compelled Boston to besiege 
 in amity the territory of her neighbors. 
 
 The peaceful capitulation of Dorchester has been 
 no less a victory for her than a triumph for us. 
 She no longer opposes the barrier of her boundaries 
 to our expansion : our magnitude no longer over- 
 shadows her, but is hers. Dorchester's lungs will 
 breathe for Boston ; Boston's heart will pulsate for 
 Dorchester. Our welcome sister but contributes a 
 beautiful emerald to the diadem she is henceforth to 
 wear 
 
 As we embraced E,oxbury with warm greetings 
 last year, as we salute Dorchester in loving recep- 
 tion this year, let us hope to extend the courtesies 
 of our hospitality to Brookline next year. Annex- 
 ation is our true policy, wisely recognized by the 
 Commonwealth. Aggregation of numbers is essential 
 to the fulness of the importance, the authority 
 and the worth which should be destined for 
 Boston. Humanity clusters. Throngs attract indi- 
 viduals. The larger the population, the faster 
 will it gather. But space is an indispensable 
 
ORATION. v^31 
 
 pre-reqiiisite to wholesome aggregation. Give Boston 
 room, make timely i3rovision for healthful increase, 
 perpetuate her good government, and those who 
 come after us may wield an influence whose power 
 shall govern an empire of usefulness, and whose 
 usefulness shall exalt its power. This generation 
 owes the next a munificent heritage. 
 
 " A setting sun 
 Slionld leave a track of glory in the skies." 
 
 The signs of Boston's future eclipse her present, 
 as her present outshines the past. But situated as 
 she is, she can attain her meridian prosperity only 
 by energetic development of every resource. Muni- 
 cipal vigor must constantly attend, and sometimes 
 launch private enterprise. If, however, her riches 
 are but the gradual gain of exertion, she will re- 
 member that when Jupiter sends Plutus, he limps, 
 when Pluto sends him, he runs. 
 
 Education, the mail of popular government, is 
 wrought out in schools whose excellence is Boston's 
 chief honor. School-houses are esteemed our best 
 arsenals, instructors our best armorers. The jealous 
 advancement of learning will be one of the surest 
 guarantees of the future of our hope. 
 
 But wealth is corrupting, learning is hollow, and 
 
32 JULY 5, 18G9. 
 
 art is impure where the Divinity is unacknowledged. 
 He alone can intrench our present fortune, or assure 
 a splendid future. Let accumulating wealth be 
 directed by intelligence, let intelligence be inspired 
 by religion, and upon a soil to which patriotism is 
 indigenous, the Boston of hereafter, from an impos- 
 ing grandeur, shall gratefully turn back to us, as 
 we reverently remember those who planted and 
 watered our city in days gone by. 
 
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