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 Copy 1 - 
 
 EDGARTOWN DIVISION. 
 
 ARGUMENT 
 
 HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 
 
 THE COMMITTEE ON TOWNS. 
 
 IN BEHALF OF 
 
 THE PETITIONERS, FOR AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE 
 
 NORTHERN PART OF EDGARTOWN (oAK BLUFFS, 
 
 VINEYARD GROVE, ETC.) AS A NEW TOWN. 
 
 TO BE CALLED 
 
 COTTAGE CITY, 
 
 BOSTON, FEBRUARY 14, 1879. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 foanti, Slberg, & (Co., printers to ttje (Eommanfocaltlj, 
 
 117 Franklin Street. 
 1879. 
 
EDGARTOWN DIVISION. 
 
 ARGUMENT 
 
 HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 
 
 THE COMMITTEE ON TOWNS, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF 
 
 THE PETITIONERS, FOR AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE 
 
 NORTHERN PART OF EDGARTOWN (OAK BLUFFS, 
 
 VINEYARD GROVE, ETC.) AS A NEW TOWN, 
 
 TO BE CALLED 
 
 COTTAGE CITY, 
 
 BOSTON, FEBRUARY 14, 1879. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 ftanto, &berg, & Co., printers to tfje Commonfoealtlj, 
 
 117 Franklin Street. 
 1879. 
 
^<1 
 
 
 / 
 
CLOSING ARGUMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 
 
 FOR THE PETITIONERS. 
 
 Boston, Feb. 14, 1879. 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — It would be folly in me if I 
 undertook to disclaim any familiarity with legislative affairs. I con- 
 fess to some experience in matters of legislation. I think I appre- 
 ciate my own position, the position of those I represent and of the 
 committee whom I address ; and I assume that you understand that 
 you are performing the highest duty which can be intrusted to a 
 citizen under the Constitution and law. We are not in a police 
 court, or in a justice's court, or in the Superior Court, or in the 
 Supreme Judicial Court ; but we are in the great and General Court, 
 which is the highest tribunal of the Commonwealth. And we are 
 here in the performance of the highest duties which we owe the Com- 
 monwealth. The people come here and ask the Legislature to enact 
 laws under the Constitution. And what does the Constitution say is 
 the duty of the Legislature in this regard? Why it says in art. 4 
 of chap. 1, upon the legislative power, that you shall make, ordain, 
 and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, 
 statutes, and ordinances, as you shall judge to be for the good and 
 welfare of this Commonwealth, and not repugnant to the Constitution 
 thereof. And this Commonwealth, I need not say, passes beyond the 
 limits of the island of Martha's Vineyard, and reaches every citizen, 
 every man, woman, and child within its limits ; and it is your sworn 
 duty to legislate for the whole of them, -to the best advantage of 
 the whole of them. 
 
 Now, then, laying down that proposition, that the Legislature is to 
 
legislate for the general welfare of the whole people, what is your 
 duty as the committee of both Houses? Why, it is your duty to 
 shape, to consider, and to prepare the legislation which you will 
 report to your two branches ; and that involves a careful considera- 
 tion of facts, a careful consideration of law, and a report which shall 
 guide and govern the Legislature in its action. I am free to say, after 
 an experience in legislation which began in 1847, that it is seldom, 
 and it ought to be less frequent, that the Legislature go against the 
 report of a committee, because in the committee-room, with time and 
 consideration and discussion, the committee get a better appreciation 
 of the subjects we submit to them for their consideration than the 
 Legislature can by any debate. Therefore I am anxious, I desire, 
 and I shall insist, that the petitioners whom I represent here to-day 
 shall receive a favorable report at your hands upon the evidence and 
 upon the precedents. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Bowman, yesterday insisted that this was a case 
 without a precedent. Well, I am not disposed to contradict him. It 
 is not necessary that I should controvert that proposition. There 
 always is a time when the first precedent is established. I believe in 
 precedents as much as my brother upon the other side ; but I have , 
 learned that the precedent which I find in the decision of an Irish 
 court, made five hundred years ago, is of very little value to-day in the 
 courts of Massachusetts. Times change, and men change with them. 
 While your precedent follows the change, it is of value ; but, when the 
 circumstances have changed, your precedent ceases to be of any 
 value. Now the precedent here is wanting. Why? Because, in the 
 history of the Commonwealth, probably no such community was ever 
 founded as you will find to-day or next summer in Cottage City. 
 But, because there is no precedent, are 3-011 not to legislate ? On the 
 contrary, because a new state of affairs has arisen, you are to legis- 
 late to meet exactly the condition of things which has arisen in the 
 progress of events. Because a new disease has broken out in the 
 community, the hospitals are not to be shut up, the apothecaries' 
 shops are not to be cleaned out, and the doctors to be hanged ; but we 
 are to find a remedy for that disease. Now we have here upon the 
 territory which we ask you to incorporate a state of facts which 
 never existed before, so far as I know, in this Commonwealth. We 
 have a population — a resident population — of 502 on the first day 
 of this month. 
 
 The Chairman. Do you mean a resident population within Cot- 
 tage City ? 
 
Mr. Train. Within the territory which we ask you to incorporate 
 into a new town. Nobody has assailed my figures ; and I assume that 
 they are correct, — a resident population of 502. Well, now what is 
 remarkable about that population is, that it is a representative popu- 
 lation. There are upon that territory, adults entitled to vote, 132. 
 There were last year 96 voters. My brother upon the other side 
 claims this year 75 or 76. I don't care which wa}' he takes it. I 
 have a right to every man as a representative man who has a right to 
 register and to vote at the annual election. There are therefore 132 
 representative men. Who do they represent ? Well, in the first 
 place, they represent their own families, — their wives and children. 
 And the resident population I assume to be something like 600 
 people. I gave you 150 families the other day. Allowing 5 people 
 to a family would give you 750 individuals. Well, now, what 
 brought them there ? Twenty years ago there were not 20 people 
 on that territory, if I understand it. The laud was not worth talking 
 about. Somebody testified here that he hired the whole laud pur- 
 chased by one of the land companies for a dollar a year. What 
 brought this resident population of 750 upon this territory ? Why, it 
 was the desire of religious people — starting first with the Methodist 
 denomination — to find a place where they could for a short period, 
 away from the troubles and turmoils of this world, devote themselves 
 to the worship of God, cultivate their spiritual graces, and return to 
 their worldly duties refreshed and invigorated in body and soul by so 
 doing. 
 
 Now, my friend yesterday took occasion to say that all this result 
 was accomplished by Edgartown, — that Edgartown did all this. 
 And I suppose he would give my old friend, Mr. Vincent, the Regis- 
 ter of Probate, the credit for all the spiritual progress and all the 
 carnal progress that has been made upon that territory for the last 
 twenty years. Well, Mr. Vincent is a very clever old gentleman. I 
 have known him for a good while. I wish I was younger, so that I 
 should not have known him so long. And he has a weakness about 
 this camp-meeting. And the trouble was, that, when my friends 
 upon the other side set him agoing, they could not stop him ; and if 
 they had not taken him on to the steamboat, and carried him back to 
 Martha's Vineyard, he would have been talking now. Mr. Vincent 
 was an element in this pi'Ogress undoubtedly, because it began by 
 a little association of the Methodists upon the Vineyard ; but the 
 Methodists from the main found that this was a desirable place for 
 their purposes, and so they went over upon the Vineyard. And from 
 
6 
 
 that has grown up this community, representing the people who con- 
 gregate there, of the best people in this country, and of all religious 
 denominations, — Methodists, Baptists, Orthodox, Universalists, Uni- 
 tarians. They all go there, and they are all the better for going 
 there. And the more they get together, and rub the sharp points off 
 of the bony structure of their theology, the better it is for them, and ■ 
 the better it is for everybody. 
 
 Upon this territory there are 1,200 people, or thereabouts, who own 
 cottages, and for a longer or shorter period in every year reside there. 
 That was the only one of the elements in my statistics that my 
 friends upon the other side undertook to controvert. We have gone 
 over them carefully since ; and we find that there are, instead of 1,200 
 taxed in Cottage City, of all classes of buildings, 1,058. 
 
 Mr. Bowman. Tents and every thing else, — barns. We made a 
 count last week, and it was 799. 
 
 Mr. Train. We made a count too. It don't make any difference. 
 There are houses enough there to accommodate a resident population 
 of 8,000 people whenever they choose to occupy them. And for a 
 short period, during the camp-meeting week, the population reaches 
 to the number of 30,000. Well, 30,000 people are a good many 
 people : 30,000 people are almost as many people as live in South. 
 Boston or East Boston or Somerville, or a great many other towns 
 that I could name. And it is pretty difficult for us to comprehend the 
 wants of 30,000 people aggregated together there for a period of 
 time ; the needs of the resident population ; the needs of the transient 
 people ; the protection which they need by way of police, by way of 
 protection against fire, by way of sanitary measures and regulations. 
 We have proved the want of an adequate police, of an adequate pro- 
 tection against fire, and the entire absence of any measures or regu- 
 lations for the protection of the health of these people. A few police- 
 officers, appointed by the selectmen of Edgartown, alike unknowing 
 and unknown, are no terror to evil-doers, either local or transient. 
 A couple of chemical engines, in case of conflagration, would only 
 provoke the derision of the devouring element ; and these are private 
 property, and with no competent men to work them at that, and in a 
 locality so circumstanced, that, if a fire gets well under way, every 
 building in Cottage City must be destroyed. I remember once, in 
 1862, calling upon Secretary Stanton, telling him I wished to go on 
 to Gen. Gordon's staff for a little service. It was just after the sec- 
 ond battle of Bull Run, and Gen. Gordon had come into Washing- 
 ton without any staff, and he wanted me to go and help him. It was 
 
during the adjournment of Congress, and I was disposed to go and 
 do what I could for nvy country. I went up to Secretary Stanton, and 
 said to him: "Mr. Secretary, I want a commission of some kind, 
 because I want to go through the Maryland campaign with Gen. Gor- 
 don ; and, if I should happen to be taken prisoner, I want to be sub- 
 ject to the right of exchange." , Said he: ".Air. Train, I tell 30U 
 what I wish you would do. I wish you would go home to Massachu- 
 setts, and raise a regiment ; and, if you will, I will give you a commis- 
 sion as colonel to-morrow morning." Said I: " Mr. Secretary, if I 
 was competent to put a thousand men in the field, and take care of 
 them after I got them there, I would resign my seat in Congress, and 
 accept 3'our commission in an instant ; but I am afraid to take that 
 responsibility. I don't know how to take care of masses of men ; and 
 they would get sick, and the}- would die, and I should die of seeing 
 them die." Now apply that in a small way to a population of 
 30,000 people aggregated upon 3,000 acres and lots of land in Mar- 
 tha's Vineyard during the months of July and August or September, 
 — two or three months as the case may be, — and see what a respon- 
 sibility there is upon somebody in that regard, — in a sanitary regard, 
 I mean. You remember what Capt. Damrell and the other witnesses 
 said upon this subject. There is no system of sewerage and no 
 sewerage for Cottage City, no sanitar}' regulations, and never have 
 been ; and, if the present condition of affairs shall continue much 
 longer, Cottage City will be exposed to an epidemic as fatal as was 
 the yellow-fever, in 1878, in the city of Memphis. Now this thing is 
 to grow, or it is to die out, just accordingly as you shall incorporate 
 this town or refuse to do so. I assume that here is an enterprise 
 which, in the language of the Constitution, is for the common welfare, 
 and that you are going to legislate for it ; and that you are going to 
 legislate in such a way as that the permanent population, — the popu- 
 lation who own property there, and spend months there, — and the 
 transient people who come there and spend a week or ten clays, are to 
 be cared for and provided for. I assume that, because I know that 
 you intend to act faithfully, and as wise legislators, for the interests 
 of all the people of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Now, then, what is to be done? How is that to be accomplished? 
 I submit, with great respect to the committee, and to my friends upon 
 tiie other side, that that is not to be accomplished by placing these 
 people under a government, — a local government seven miles away, 
 and the weakest government at that known in our State. I believe 
 in towns myself. I think everybody who has read the political history 
 
of this country, and compared it with any other, — who has com- 
 pared the political history of New England with any other section of 
 the Union, — will say that a New-England town is the pride and 
 glory of human government. I was brought up in a New-England 
 town ; I have held its offices ; and, as a mode of education, a New- 
 England town meeting is worth as much as the schools, — grammar 
 schools, high schools, and every thing else. There is nothing like it, 
 except the Legislature of Massachusetts ; and the character of the 
 Legislature of Massachusetts, which is higher to-da}* than that of any 
 other legislative body, grows out of the fact that you are all educated 
 in a New-England town meeting. I had rather go into a town meet- 
 ing on the first Monday in March, to legislate for the people there, 
 than to go into the Congress of the United States. Every thing is 
 done with propriety, ever}- thing is discussed understandingly, and 
 every man's rights are cared for. Whether they have a lobby about 
 the town meeting, I never heard. Perhaps the}* have in Somerville ; 
 but I don't think they have in the country towns. 
 
 Now I say, Mr. Chairman, that these people whom I represent 
 to-day cannot be cared for ; and this enterprise must eventually be 
 abandoned, unless 3*011 give them an act of incorporation, so that 
 the}* can care for themselves upon their own territory. The village 
 of Edgartovvn and three-quarters of the voters of the town are 
 seven miles distant. The officers are seven miles distant, and must 
 always be so, as the sand and marsh which separates Edgartown 
 village from Cottage City forbids a nearer relationship ; and such a 
 government at such a distance is entirely inadequate for the people 
 whom I represent. 
 
 Well, my friend says it is without a precedent. In one sense it 
 is. Therefore we will make a precedent. When there is no prece- 
 dent, we make one. Here is a valuation of $1,197,435 upon the 
 territor}* which we ask you to set off" from Edgartown. It is occu- 
 pied by the number of voters, and by the permanent population, which 
 I have already given you ; but they own a very small share of that 
 valuation. The people who are really pecuniarily, financially inter- 
 ested in Cottage Cit}* live there but a short period of the 3*ear ; and 
 yet to them it is the most interesting period of the whole year in their 
 lives. It docs more for their health, for their comfort, for their 
 spiritual growth, than all the rest of the year. Now, then, these 
 non-residents arc the people who come here and ask you to incorporate 
 this town. And why do they do it? The answer, to my mind, is 
 plain enough. The permanent residents upon this territory are the 
 
people who have gone there to supply the wants of the non-residents 
 when they are there during the summer months, and to watch over 
 and protect their property when they are away during the rest of the 
 year ; and the interests of the resident population upon this territory 
 and of the non-resident population are identical. But for the non- 
 residents, the residents would starve to death, and everybody on 
 Martha's Vineyard would starve to death, I guess. At- any rate 
 they have got to hunt up some new employment. There are a few of 
 my old friends, like Capt. Jernegan and Mr. Osborne, who earn a 
 few dollars up here lobbying during the winter; but what the rest of 
 them do, the Lord only knows. The}" live on what they have saved. 
 I am sony for them ; but they are an enterprising people, and where 
 there is a will there is a way. 
 
 Now I agree that such a condition of things is without precedent ; 
 and I say, therefore, you must make a precedent, and you must pro- 
 tect this property and these people in this way, or the whole amount 
 of money which has been invested within the limits of Cottage City 
 must be sunk, and will be sunk. 
 
 Now it is remarkable, I think, very remarkable, — for I know the 
 enterprise and the ability of my friends on the other side, not onby 
 the counsel, but my friends from Edgartown, who are versed in the 
 ways of the world as well as in the wa} r s of the Church, ; — very re- 
 markable, that there is not a non-resident remonstrant to this applica- 
 tion : I don't know of one. If my friends can point him out, I would 
 like to see him, — pay something for him as a curiosity. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Bowman, had the audacity yesterday to argue for 
 two mortal hours that this was an application for minorities, and that, 
 if you reported a bill, you would report it upon the application of 
 minorities. I say it was not true, with great respect to him. If it 
 were, that is no reason why you should not legislate. Minorities 
 have rights in New England that majorities are bound to respect ; 
 but the great burden of my brother Bowman's argument yesterday 
 was that this was an application in behalf of minorities. I say the 
 argument is not true ; and that reminds me that the argument of my 
 friend, therefore, was not beautiful. The French rhetoricians have a 
 maxim that nothing is beautiful that is not true. Therefore I say to 
 my brother upon the other side that his argument was not beautiful 
 because it was not true, and I would much prefer to stand at the 
 muzzle of such a wind-gun than to stand behind it and fire it otf. 
 
 But to come back to the question of minorities : the petitioners, 
 non-resident petitioners, represent $354,570 ; the resident petitioners 
 
10 
 
 include $108,350, — making $462,920. The amount of property 
 represented b} r the remonstrants in Cottage Citj^, including their inter- 
 est in the land corporations, is $56,650. How is that? The amount 
 of property represented by the remonstrants in the old town, after di- 
 vision, is $382,535. But every remonstrant here is from Edgartown. 
 And the reason is obvious enough, and they are honest enough, or 
 else they cannot help telling it when the question is put to them, to 
 say that it is purely with them a pecuniary question. My old friend, 
 Mr. Dunham, the last witness that was called, — I put that very ques- 
 tion to him, and he said if he lived in Cottage City he should go 
 for division. Yes, of course he would. Well, now, we have got 
 $571,270 represented here asking for this change, if I have made no 
 mistake. 
 
 I took Mr. N orris's figures, made up to the night before last ; and 
 the non-residents amount to $354,570, the residents to $108,350, 
 — making $462,920. Now you have got upon the territory $56,650, 
 and you assume that all the others are opposed to this change; 
 whereas I assume that "silence gives consent." Now it cannot be 
 claimed that there is a man interested in Cottage City, excepting the 
 Edgartown men, that is opposed to this division. I know of people, 
 in Canada who are interested in lots down there, and spend their 
 summers there. I cannot' get them to come here and testify ; but 
 they are entitled to protection, and we want them to come just as 
 much as they want to come, and they are entitled to consideration 
 at your hands just as much as the resident population are. And why 
 should they not be considered? Now, as against $462,920, we have 
 the beggarly sum of $56,650, which includes the interest which the 
 gentlemen in Edgartown have in the stock of the land corporations 
 upon that territory. I know whereof I affirm ; and I understand 
 that I shall be subject to criticism, and I am willing to take it. This 
 is a better showing than ever was made before upon an application 
 for the division of a town, I venture to say, in the whole history of 
 the legislation of Massachusetts. I have not applied the mathematics 
 to it; but my belief is, that we hold more than four-fifths in favor of 
 the change, as against one-fifth which is owned by remonstrants who 
 live in Edgartown. 
 
 Mr. Bowman. One-fourth by your own figures, Mr. Train. 
 
 Mr. Train. I claim the whole valuation, less $56,650. 
 
 Mr. Bowman. You claim all the silent people? 
 
 Mr. Train. Yes. The land companies are not represented here. 
 They have not been asked to sign a petition. I don't suppose, how- 
 
11 
 
 ever, they dared to ask them. If they had been asked, they might 
 not have signed, because they may have some private axes to grind, 
 which might be interfered with if they had, and this application 
 failed. Of the land companies, there are 200 shares taxed at 
 $91,325 ; and the remonstrants own 74 shares, — all Edgartown men. 
 Of the Vineyard Grove Company there are 150 shares, $22,400. 
 The remonstrants own 17 shares of that. Now, to be added to this 
 property is the property represented by the Baptist people who have 
 recently gone in there, represented by Deacon Lamson of Shelburne 
 Falls, whose name is not on the petition ; but he is one of those 
 gentlemen to be included in Mr. Bowman's charge of lobbying, as 
 he has the incorporation of Cottage City much at heart. 
 
 Now, then, I want this committee to tell me, upon their official 
 responsibility, why a community that comes here upon the showing 
 which we have made should not have an act of incorporation. In 
 the first place, I declare it here to-day as my opinion, and I believe 
 it is the opinion of every wise legislator, that it is good polic3 r to 
 increase the number of towns in our State just so often as a new 
 town can be incorporated and administered better than the people 
 set off can be governed within the limits of the old town. Political 
 considerations do not enter into the question now, as they did when 
 I was a young man. When I first came to the Legislature, there were 
 between six and seven hundred members in the House. Every town 
 was represented ; and I am free to say that I should not be sony if 
 it were so to-day. I don't think the Commonwealth would lose any 
 thing by the extra expense of paying for the additional number. 
 But politically the question is not affected, because you vote in dis- 
 tricts for representatives ; you vote in districts for senators. Your 
 State and county tax is not affected by it ; and the only question is 
 one of municipal administration. Now, then, when you can create 
 a new municipality without injury to the old municipality, with a fair 
 number of voters, with an amount of intelligence that shall enable 
 them to administer the new town successfully, and a valuation that 
 shall enable them to administer the new town successfully, you should 
 do so, and thus add another to these institutions of the Common- 
 wealth which you love, and which yon want to cherish. 
 
 I claim, Mr. Chairman, that we have proved a case. If I re- 
 member Mr. Bowman's first proposition, it was that we must prove 
 a case. How are we to prove a case? Well, we are to prove a 
 case by showing, first, that our necessities require an act, and that 
 we have an intelligent population that can manage municipal affairs ; 
 
 l"#fC. 
 
12 
 
 next, by showing that we have valuation enough to administer muni- 
 cipal affairs without burdening the tax-payers ; and, third, that we do 
 not injure the municipality from which we propose to withdraw. 
 That last proposition is to be taken with a qualification ; and that is 
 this, — that if the benefit to be derived from the new incorporation 
 exceeds the injury which would be suffered by the old corporation, 
 then the new corporation is to be created. The history of this divis- 
 ion of towns is familiar to everybody. My experience goes back as 
 far as 1846, and began with the incorporation of the town of Ash- 
 land, which was four miles from Hopkinton, and four miles from 
 Framingham, and four miles from everywhere ; and they wanted to be 
 incorporated because they were a little village upon the Boston and 
 Worcester Railroad it was then (Boston and Albany now), utterly 
 distinct from all the other towns with which the}' were connected. 
 They never went to town meeting except to vote for representative ; 
 and they had a great fight, and they got incorporated finally ; and 
 now Ashland is one of the most flourishing towns that you will ride 
 through, Mr. Chairman, as you go out to Albany upon that road. 
 Four miles was the limit there. Take any other town ; take Everett ; 
 take my brother Bowman's own town, Somerville. Can anybody, 
 tell me why Somerville should have been incorporated particularly? 
 Its business was all in Boston. Its politics were all in Charlestown, 
 and have been ever since. But they were up there upon three hills, 
 — Spring Hill, Winter Hill, and Summer Hill, I guess, — any hill; 
 and they wanted to be incorporated, and it was a wise thing to do ; 
 and the municipality grew, finally became a city, and is certainly a 
 city of which Brother Bowman is proud, as it is proud of him. 
 
 Take Everett; take Norwood ; take an}' of* these towns. The his- 
 tory of applications of this character is that the petitioners come to 
 the Legislature, and fight on until they finally accomplish the result ; 
 and, if my friend will point me to a single instance where the parties 
 petitioning for a new town have not eventually succeeded, I would 
 like to know it as a precedent. I have not been able to find one. and 
 don't believe there is one. It costs my clients something to come to 
 the Legislature and go through this hearing ; and it costs them more 
 than it does the Edgartown people, because they have to share in the 
 expense of Edgartown, and to pay Brother Bowman and pay me too. 
 The}* don't come here except upon a public pressure, which means 
 business, means n want, means a necessity, means a determination. 
 That want, that pressure, is found in the fact that we pay eleven- 
 eighteenths of the tax of Edgartown, for which we receive substan- 
 
13 
 
 tially no return ; that, when we go to a town meeting in Edgartown 
 and ask a favor, we go as a minority, and therefore suppliants ; and 
 that we can get nothing, unless we give to Edgartown proper the 
 lion's share. 
 
 My friend said yesterday that Edgartown was the father of this in- 
 fant, and then talked about the land companies. Edgartown people 
 were very anxious to take stock in the land companies ; but I never 
 knew that the land companies originated this enterprise. I thought it 
 was the camp-meeting people that began this enterprise, and that the 
 land companies, mixing up a little of the worship of this world with 
 their reverence for sacred things, went there and got possession of 
 land, and undertook to make some money out of it. I thought the 
 land companies were secondary, and I always supposed that one of 
 the hardest pieces of work that my Methodist brethren would have to 
 perform would be to convert the directors of these land companies. 
 
 Now that brings me to say, — and I was diverted for the purpose of 
 indulging in a little pleasantry, — that the complaints which are made 
 here cannot be without foundation. I didn't open any dissatisfac- 
 tion personally between the citizens of this territory which I repre- 
 sent and the town of Edgartown. I meant to keep it all out as well 
 as I could, because I thought I had a case upon the statistics, and 
 upon the geograplry, and upon the general wants of the people resort- 
 ing here, which would satisfy the committee. But you cannot keep 
 these things out ; and the moment the witnesses began to talk, and 
 Brother Bowman began to cross-examine, that moment the animosi- 
 ties began to crop out. Mr. Bowman says these things are entirely 
 unreasonable. Perhaps they are. It don't seem of very great 
 importance to Brother Bowman to be a selectman of Edgartown, or 
 a school-committeeman, or a highway surveyor ; and yet, to the 
 community in which these gentlemen live, that is just as proper an 
 object of ambition — either one of these places — as any other. 
 They are most useful offices, most honorable offices ; and every man 
 in his municipality, who has the capacity and the character to fill 
 one of those offices, should have a fair chance. 
 
 Now it is perfectly certain that this opposition to the incorporation 
 of Cottage City is led by a little ring down at Edgartown village. 
 They have held all the offices from time immemorial, and supposed 
 they were born with the right to administer all the offices at Edgar- 
 town which should cover the whole county. I don't know ; I cannot 
 specify : but my impression is that Capt. Jernegan and Mr. Osborne 
 and Judge Pease, and my other friend there, Richard L. Pease, Mr. 
 
14 
 
 Kenniston, and all the other gentlemen remonstrating — every one of 
 them — hold a place, and very properly hold it. I don't complain : 
 thej- are all respectable men. I am not scolding about these men, as 
 my brother did about my clients yesterday : only I say, that up in our 
 neighborhood, where we have more people and more money than they 
 have at Edgartown, it would have been pretty well if they could have 
 remembered us in their distribution of town offices before last year. 
 We never got any thing until after we went away from the State 
 House last year with a black eye. After that, somebody in Cottage 
 City was elected, I believe, to some place or other ; but that was 
 about the time when we didn't care much whether we received an 
 office or not. But, in the nature of things, it is not to be supposed 
 that Edgartown will do any thing more for us than she is obliged to. 
 Why should she? Why does she want to retain us within her 
 borders? Simply because Cottage City is a nice milch cow ; simply 
 because we pa}* Edgartown from seven to eight thousand dollars a 
 year more than we receive from her. Now, if I were a citizen of 
 Edgartown, I should go with the Edgartown people clear up to the 
 handle. I should come up here ; I should employ Gen. Foster and 
 Mr. Nichols and Mr. Young and everybody else ; and I should lobby 
 everybody to prevent any such change as that : but it would not do 
 any good. Mr. Bowman talks about lobbies, howls about lobbies. 
 
 " I heard a lion in the lobby roar." 
 
 Now I don't know much about the lobby, — not half as much as Brother 
 Bowman, because he has been in the Legislature in modern times. I 
 don't know exactly what he means Ijv a lobby. He finds a great 
 deal of fault with our circular. The great criticism which Brother 
 Bowman put upon that circular was, that it requested the party to 
 whom it was addressed to see his senator or his representative, and 
 post him up about this movement. Do you call that lobbying? is 
 that lobbying ? Is there any impropriety in that ? What do I have a 
 senator or representative for? I have got a measure before the Legis- 
 ture. I vote for my representative, and he represents me in the one 
 branch. How is he going to represent me unless he knows what I 
 want? How is my senator going to know what I want unless I go 
 and tell him? And suppose, instead of going myself, I employ Capt. 
 Jernegan or Mr. Osborne to go and tell him. Is there any harm in 
 that? is there any wickedness about that? If there is, we will have 
 a week's devotion set apart to it next summer down at Cottage City. 
 I sav there is nothing in that circular of which anybody is to be 
 
15 
 
 ashamed, or which requires any defence ; and it is all the answer that 
 my friends upon the other side have made to this case. Mr. Carpen- 
 ter brought me that circular, —I mean, not the circular, but the table 
 of statistics accompanying it, — and I examined it. It was not in the 
 form that I wanted to use before the committee ; and I re-formed it, 
 and put it into the form which I gave to you when I opened the case. 
 Again : the charge is, that these gentlemen got up a false and ficti- 
 tious statement by which to obtain signatures in favor of this measure 
 to influence the committee and the Legislature. I say there is not a 
 word of truth in it, and nobody will say so outside of the State 
 House, outside of the committee-room, — not one word. Why, these 
 gentlemen have too much personal character, in the first place, to risk 
 themselves upon a false statement that could be detected in five min- 
 utes. They said in that circular, as I recollect, that the town debt 
 had not been reduced but $316 within a given period, and that there 
 was no reason why it should not have been reduced, because the 
 money had been appropriated to reduce it. Well, it turned out that 
 there "was a vote appropriating $15,000 for the railroad, which they 
 didn't discover on the town books, and something else, — I have for- 
 gotten now, — which brought them into an apparent error. But I 
 would like to know why the town of Edgartown should have built a 
 railroad from Oak Bluffs to Katama at a cost of $15,000, and sell it 
 for less than $400, and claim that it was done in the interests of the 
 residents of Cottage City. Everybody knows better than that, and 
 they know it ; and they know that every appropriation of any magni- 
 tude—the appropriation for concreting the beach-road — was done in 
 the interests of the land companies and the village of Edgartown, and 
 not in the interests of the people that I represent. The railroad from 
 Oak Bluffs to Katama was built, in the interest of that corporation, 
 to divert the people from Cottage City to Katama. All well enough, 
 but not in the interest of the people whom I represent. If they could 
 have got up another colony down at Katama, I would have been very 
 glad to have had it accomplished. I would be delighted to have any 
 thing done that shall relieve our Edgartown friends. I have a great 
 respect for them ; but I don't want them to charge it to some poor 
 widow woman whom I represent, who owns a cottage-lot at $75, when 
 it is got up in the interest of the corporation at the other end of the 
 road. It was utterly unjustifiable ; and, if they will find any applica- 
 tion on behalf of the residents of the territory which I represent for 
 that appropriation, I would like to consider it. And so of the 
 amount expended for concrete upon the beach-road, which was done 
 upon the application of Mr. E. P. Carpenter. 
 
16 
 
 Now the fact is that we own the largest amount of property, and 
 we have to pay the largest amount of taxes. And they do exactly 
 what is human nature, — allow us just as much as is necessary, as they 
 think we can get along with, and the rest they put into their own 
 pockets ; that is to say, the rest goes for the benefit of the town of 
 Edgartown in general. Well, that cannot be helped : that is human 
 nature. 
 
 Now I don't put my case upon any ground of dissatisfaction on 
 the part of Mr. Luce or Mr. Norris or Capt. Dias or anybody 
 else. They live in Eastville, and my friends seem to have a great 
 hostility to Kastville. That grows out of the fact that these gentle- 
 men live there. They live there, and they are pretty respectable 
 men, — as respectable as the Edgartown men. I don't claim any thing 
 more for them. But Mr. Norris has been sheriff of the county, — and 
 you have seen them all, — and they are all respectable men. They 
 happen to represent the people who own the property in Cottage 
 City, and that brings them into the fore-front of this fight, and there- 
 fore they are assailed by m} T friend upon the other side ; and when 
 they are attacked, and when they are asked the reasons why they want 
 this change made, they go on and tell }'ou. Well, the}' are of some 
 account. You will all agree that to them, and to the people whom I' 
 represent, they are of very great importance, because we have got a 
 colony there which must be cared for ; and we think it will be better 
 cared for by the people who are under our control, than by those who 
 are seven miles awa}\ And nobody has charged them, that I know 
 of, with any thing more than exaggeration. Mr. Bowman thought 
 they slightly exaggerated yesterday ; but I guess the exaggeration is 
 about an even thing upon the one side and upon the other. 
 
 M} r friend says there is no incompatibility. Well, I don't know 
 what you mean by incompatibility. It has a legal definition as be- 
 tween husband and wife. But if he means that there can ever be 
 any peace between this locality which I represent and the town of 
 Edgartown, then there is an incompatibility, and this contest will go 
 on until the Legislature gives us a bill, or until the colony is given 
 up. If that is incompatibility, then I claim that it is established. 
 
 It is quite immaterial whether Mr. Norris pays $10 tax .or $20 tax. 
 Mr. Norris and Capt. Luce and Capt. Dias, and the other gentlemen 
 who are here, — Mr. Willett and Mr. Hatfield and those men, — are 
 men of intelligence and men of character ; and it does not depend 
 upon the amount of silver which chinks in their pockets whether the}' 
 are to represent the non-residents of Cottage City or not. My 
 
IT 
 
 friend sneered at Mr. Hatfield because he could not build a church : 
 he thought that was all theoretical, all nonsense. Maybe ; but it is 
 all real to Mr. Hatfield : he believes it. and lie always will believe it ; 
 and he will come here next year, and tell the Committee on Towns in 
 the Legislature of 1880 the same story that he has told here this 
 year, and somebody will believe him some time. 
 
 Now my friend went into a tabulated statement to show that we 
 cost them more than Ave paid to them. It is not true ; but, if so, 
 why don't you let us go? If we are nothing but a burden upon the 
 town of Edgartown, why should we not be allowed to depart? We 
 have shown that we are able to pay our own bills. We have put 
 upon the stand here intelligent men, intelligent enough to manage 
 the affairs of a new municipality. Why should not we be allowed to 
 go and take care of ourselves, and not be obliged to go to Edgartown, 
 seven miles, whenever we want any legislation for our benefit, and 
 there to get it or to be spurned, as the case may be, because we are 
 in a minorit}' and they alwa3 T s can govern and control us ? 
 
 Now it is not a question of public necessity. My friend sa^s we 
 are bound to prove a case of public necessity, like a case for taking- 
 land under the right of eminent domain. It is not any such question : 
 it is a question of policy. Can you create a new town which shall be 
 for the advantage of the people residing upon that territory, and 
 thereby increase the wealth of the Commonwealth, without injuring 
 the old town from which the new town is to be taken? If you can, 
 — if you thereby accommodate the people in the new town without 
 injury to the old town, — then I submit, Mr. Chairman, you are 
 bound to do it. It is a pure question of policy, not of removing a 
 neighbor's landmark. Coming back to the question of Avhat you 
 mean in the Constitution by the words "common welfare:" we 
 don't give them the poor part of the town ; we don't give them any 
 thing that they have created. We simply ask to keep what we have 
 made ourselves ; and the figures show that we don't affect the power, 
 the capacity, of the town of Edgartown to manage its municipal 
 affairs as well in the future as she has in the past. We are not a 
 company of rich people. I don't so understand it. 1 understand the 
 great beauty of this enterprise, — while there are some rich people in 
 it undoubtedly, that the means of spending a few months in a com- 
 fortable way, under religious influences, in a healthy atmosphere, are 
 enjoyed by numbers of people who together cannot aggregate thou- 
 sands of dollars. And I know them : I know the Lowell people, the 
 Adamses who were here, and Captain Howe, whom I examined, 
 
18 
 
 Captain Damrell, and the whole class of men who come here to 
 represent the non-residents. They are not rich men : they are good 
 men, strong men, valuable men ; but they don't go down there be- 
 cause they have rich equipages, and drive up and down the beach- 
 road upon the concrete. That is not what they go there for ; and 
 they don't carry their teams down there, because they don't own 
 them. I never knew Captain Damrell owned but one horse, and that 
 belonged to the city of Boston. 
 
 Now, then, I submit, Mr. Chairman, in the first place, that we have 
 proved a case ; in the second place, that the people demand it ; in 
 the third place, that there are grievances ; and, in the fourth place, 
 that it is in conformity to public policy ; and, in the fifth place, that 
 it is not unjust to Edgartown ; and, in the sixth place, that it is a non- 
 resident matter, and they, the non-residents, are to be considered, — 
 thus reversing the propositions of my learned friend upon the other 
 side. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I have said, and I am sorry I have been so long 
 about it, pretty much all I wish to say. I have no doubt that I have 
 said that which was of minor importance, and omitted many things 
 which were of greater importance ; but that happens to ever}' public, 
 speaker. I am free to say that my heart is very much in this mat- 
 ter. I never heard of it until a few weeks ago, and then, upon 
 investigation, I thought, upon the figures which I gave to you at the 
 opening, that these parties were entitled to their bill. And I can 
 see, I think I can see in the future, with a municipality there devoted 
 to its own interests and not interfering with Edgartown, an institu- 
 tion the like of which the world never saw, which shall contribute to 
 the health and the strength and the comfort, and the intellectual and 
 moral and religious improvement, of all our people ; and I want it 
 accomplished. " And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in 
 the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a cover 
 from storms and from rain." 
 
19 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following table was used in the opening and at the hearing, 
 and I believe is substantially correct : — 
 
 There are upon the territory which it is proposed to incorporate, 
 Feb. 1, 1879,— 
 
 Families 150 
 
 Those entitled to vote 132 
 
 Children under fifteen years of age ..... 140 
 
 Cottages and dwellings ........ 767 
 
 Taxable buildings 1,058 
 
 Churches 3 
 
 Schools 2 
 
 Hotels 15 
 
 Grocery-stores 7 
 
 Markets 2 
 
 Blacksmiths' shops 2 
 
 Livery-stables 6 
 
 Steam-mills 2 
 
 "With the various mechanics found in any town or village necessary to 
 supply the wants of the people. 
 
 The valuation of Edgartown, May 1, 1878, is . $2,043,525 00 
 
 of Cottage City same time . . 1,197,435 00 
 
 of Edgartown after division will be . 846,090 00 
 
 of Edgartown in 1865 was . . 1,035,467 00 
 
 The total assessments of the town in the three years, 
 
 1876, 1877, 1878 97,373 27 
 
 Of this amount Cottage City paid . , . . 59,505 89 
 
20 
 
 Cottage City is to be charged for the same period as follows : — 
 
 Her portion of State and county tax and of the ir 
 
 on town debt ($35,063.72) . 
 Expended for police ..... 
 
 for poor (estimated) 
 
 for schools and school-houses 
 
 for highways and bridges 
 
 for special road to Highland Wharf 
 
 for incidentals .... 
 
 for her part of salaries of town officers 
 
 for her part of sinking fund . 
 
 Total 
 
 $21,427 83 
 
 1,153 
 
 00 
 
 1,000 
 
 00 
 
 2,062 
 
 00 
 
 2,930 
 
 00 
 
 2,600 
 
 00 
 
 672 
 
 00 
 
 1,150 
 
 00 
 
 3,666 
 
 67 
 
 $36,661 
 
 50 
 
 Showing that Cottage City has paid into the town treasury over the 
 amount expended upon her territory, or, in other words, a net gain to 
 the old town Of $22,844.39, or, per annum, of (last three years) 
 $7,614.78. 
 
 Last year a division would have given Cottage City, on the basis of 
 the then valuation, about £§ of the town debt ; this year the fraction 
 is about ±1, or an increase of about $1,800. 
 
 There are 19 cities and 306 towns in the Commonwealth. 
 
 The present taxable acreage of Edgartown is 15,489 acres; the 
 taxable acreage of proposed new town, about 3,000 acres ; the line 
 adopted by the committee gives an acreage of 4,500, or greater 
 than Chelsea, Somerville, Nahant, Marblehead, Arlington, Everett, 
 Provincetown, and others. 
 
 The population of the proposed town was, on Feb. 1, 1879, 502 ; 
 or more than the towns of New Ashford, Mount Washington, Mashpee, 
 Gay Head and Gosnold (both in Dukes County), Monroe, Leyden, 
 Shutesbury, Rowe, Heath, Holland, Montgomery, Tolland, Pelham, 
 Prescott, Westhampton, Boxborough, Carlisle, Dunstable, and Hull. 
 
Cottage City vs. Edgartown. 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE PETITIONERS' CASE. 
 
 To Senators and Representatives. 
 
 The undersigned, a commit tee on behalf of 
 the petitioners for a division of the town of 
 Edgartown, have the honor to present the 
 following statement, of their ease, prefaced 
 by a brief explanation of the circumstances 
 that have produced the evils from which they 
 now seek relief, through action of the Legis- 
 lature. In the northern part of this town 
 there is a sandy, uncultivated peninsula, form- 
 ed by the waters of yineyard Sound on the 
 east, and by Vineyard Haven harbor and 
 "Lagoon Pond" on the west, the area being, 
 in the aggregate, some three square miles, 
 and situated six miles from the village of Ed- 
 gartown, the distance intervening being made 
 up of ponds, marshes, and dull, flat stretches 
 of sandy fields. Through the centre of this 
 peninsula there is a ridge of moderately high 
 elevation, and upon this, and a portion of the 
 easterly slope, there are large numbers of 
 scrub oak trees. The growth near the shores 
 of the sound is somewhat larger and of more 
 sturdy character, and beneath the grateful 
 shade, made by the interlacing branches of 
 the largest of these trees, gathered, many 
 years ago, in the summer time, a few pious 
 spirits, of the Methodist denomination, to 
 hold, for a brief season, a camp meeting. 
 Under the auspices of the originators, natives 
 of the town, the growth of these annually re- 
 curring camps was slow, but, iu course of 
 time, visitors from the main, sympathizers in 
 this primitive style of worship, were attrac- 
 ted thither, and there soon developed a won- 
 derful expansion of growth, both in numbers 
 and religious sentiment. 
 
 The movement now took on a new aspect, 
 and from being a purely local affair it grew 
 
 to one of national importance in the de- 
 nomination, and the tide of travel that an- 
 nually set in toward Martha's Vineyard 
 sought better accommodations by the substi- 
 tution of steamers for sailing vessels, the 
 building of landings at two different points, 
 and other conveniences suited to the require- 
 ments of the demand created by a new order 
 of things. It is well to state here, as a fact 
 to he borne in .mind, that, aside from some 
 eight or ten houses at Eastville, on the Vine- 
 yard Haven side of Cottage City, the territo- 
 ry proposed to be included in the new town 
 some twenty years ago, and even up to a 
 much more recent period, was scarcely mar- 
 ketable. The land certainly could not be 
 tilled with profit, and it is even said that it 
 was exempt from taxation for a long time. 
 At all events, the locality winch now consti- 
 tutes Oak Bluffs, but a short time prior to the 
 organization of the Oak Bluffs Land Co., was 
 leased for the sum of $1 per season. With 
 the increasing numbers that annually came to 
 the city for the summer, the matter of pro- 
 viding for man's inner wants, became one of 
 importance. Provisions and produce were 
 brought from the main land, and were neces- 
 sarily expensive. To obviate this, it was 
 thought that a road should be built to Vine- 
 yard Haven, so that dependence might be 
 placed upon the farmers of the interior of the 
 island for the necessary supply. But this 
 was to bring Vineyard Haven much nearer than 
 Edgartown was, even in a straight line, the 
 distance to the latter being six miles, and to 
 Vineyard Haven, by the new road, only two 
 and one-half. The inbred jealousy between 
 the I wo villages, would not permit Edgar- 
 
town's sanction of this much-needed conven- 
 ience. Petitions to the latter town, asking 
 that it would assist in building the road, 
 were hardly listened to. At last relief was 
 sought of the Legislature, and, after a hard 
 fight, the General Court passed a special act, 
 which empowered the courts to appoint com- 
 missioners, who should build the road and 
 assess the expenses on the towns interested. 
 
 The expressed objection on the part of Ed- 
 gartown, was, that the new road was not 
 needed, and how valid this objection was, 
 appears when it is stated that in a siugle 
 month, soon after its completiou, 6000 teams 
 and 20,000 people made use of it. 
 
 This was the first difficulty of a serious na- 
 ture with Edgartown, and is important in 
 this conuection as showing the animus of 
 the people of the old town against the new- 
 comers. The new road having demonstrated 
 its necessity, a fact of which Edgartown 
 people, it would seem, must have known, a 
 correlative fact of infinite importance soon 
 manifested itself to their minds, and that 
 was, that Vineyard Haven was getting all the 
 benefit of local traffic. At the same time, 
 too, Katama, just below Edgartown village, 
 on the ocean side of the island, was in the 
 market with its house lots, in which many of 
 the wealthy villagers had invested a good 
 deal of money. To get people from Cottage 
 City to Katama, ami incidentally to Edgar- 
 town itself, became a serious problem. 
 Some Boston capitalists, too, were interested 
 in Katama lands, and they suggested a beach 
 road from Cottage City to the village, and 
 thence over the fields to the terminus at Ka- 
 tama. Some of the leading politicians of 
 Edgartown thought their influence in the 
 matter was worth sundry house lots at Oak 
 Blufl's, but the capitalists referred to did not 
 believe in that way of doing things, and de- 
 clined the influence of a lobby in town meet- 
 ing. However, the prospect of a rapidly- 
 growing city to tax, and the promised em- 
 ployment of the poll tax voters and old 
 horses of the town, which was guaranteed 
 by special vote of a town meeting, stimula- 
 
 ted the people to support the measure, and it 
 was resolved that a road nine miles long 
 should be built from Oak Bluffs to the " sound- 
 ing sea." Engineers estimated a 40-foot ma- 
 cadamized road would cost $40,000, and offer- 
 ed to build it at that price. A responsible 
 party in the town agreed to do the same for 
 .$30,000, but "those in authority," having in 
 mind the foregoing promises, thought the 
 town could pay more, and at last the much- 
 coveted road was built, and a debt of some 
 $60,000 was contracted therefor. As a means 
 of getting people away from Cottage City 
 this road was not a success, and so the town, 
 the following year, voted more money for 
 another, and this time .$15,000 was sunk in a 
 narrow-gauge railroad. This, adjoining and 
 running parallel to the Beach road, has ren- 
 dered the latter useless and even dangerous 
 as a pleasure drive, for which the leading 
 burghers of Edgartown would have you think 
 it was specially built. The shallowness of 
 this pretext is apparent when it is remem- 
 bered that the " pleasure drive," as such, was 
 destroyed by building the railroad the year 
 following the completion of the former. 
 And if further evidence were needed to 
 prove that the road was never built for the 
 benefit of the north end, it appears in the en- 
 tire absence of any petition from the voters 
 of that section in favor of the project, as 
 well as in the fact that they spoke and voted 
 against it in town meeting. 
 
 Of course the villagers, put upon their de- 
 fense, attempt to show that their dealings 
 with Cottage City have been in all respects 
 equitable and just, as would be expected. 
 But their arguments are specious and made 
 up of statements and figures perverted to 
 their convenience. They say, that they have 
 paid out for concreting in Cottage City $11,- 
 400 against $3100 in the village; true, but of 
 the first named amount $7000 was spent in 
 concreting the Oak Blurts end of the Beach 
 Road, and it was the only item of any benefit 
 to Cottage City out of an expenditure of $75,- 
 000 by the town. Again, $L'600 of the above 
 amount was expended to build a new road 
 
from the old post office to the Highland 
 Landing. This was done last spring upon re- 
 turning from the hearing before the legisla- 
 tive committee, and was the price paid to 
 still the opposition of certain prominent -gen- 
 tlemen in the Camp Meeting Association and 
 Highland Company, who had formerly given 
 their support to the project of division, and 
 of this there is abundant evidence. Any and 
 all arguments which the village people adduce 
 are as easily disposed of as these and they 
 are simply mentioned to convey an idea of 
 their whole case. But granting that these 
 expenditures last stated are for the sole bene- 
 fit of Cottage City, it is but begging the ques- 
 tion, for the true test is, not how much has 
 been spent, but what ought in justice to have 
 been spent, in this locality? The solution of 
 this question appears in the table appended, 
 which shows the leceipts and expenditures of 
 the town for tlie past six years : 
 
 Total assessments for six years, $196,329.5 
 
 x ye 
 
 Cottage City pays of this 
 
 $119,979.20 
 
 Cost of Cottage City to the town in the same time : 
 Interest, State and County Tax, $6S.ooo; our 
 
 part $41,554.00 
 
 Police ..... 2,Soo.oo 
 
 Poor (estimate) . . . Q00.00 
 
 Schools and School Houses . 5.565.09 
 
 Incidentals .... 3,ooo.oo 
 
 . Sundry items not included in Inci- 
 dentals .... 3,000.00 
 Town Officers . . . 3>°55-47 
 Highways .... 9,630.00 
 
 Total Cost . 
 Net gain to Edgartown in six years 
 
 $69,504.56 
 
 $5o.474-64 
 
 This balance in our favor is sufficient to pay 
 Cottage City's portion of the town debt. 
 This much the town has recklessly expended 
 for the old village, outvoting the remonstrants 
 from Cottage City in these expenditures as it 
 has in everything that Cottage City has want- 
 ed for itself. But, it may be asked, what 
 claim has Cottage City to object to these 
 measures, and why does it demand to be made 
 a town by itself ? Briefly, because from a 
 tract of valueless land, it has become a terri- 
 tory within whose limits there is about $1,- 
 200,000 of taxable property ; because it pays 
 over one-half of the taxes; because it has 
 a minority of votes, and is always out-voted 
 in town meeting, and is never enabled to get 
 
 its proportionate share of the town's expen- 
 ditures; because it is distant six miles from 
 Edgartown village: because of the shameful 
 extravagance in voting away money, for the 
 misgovernmeut of the past ten years, and for 
 other reasons that will appear in the facts 
 and figures appended; 
 
 there are 1200 houses and some twenty or 
 more hotels in Cottage City; 30,000 people are 
 present oftentime in the height of the season ; 
 the town gives the camp-meeting authorities an 
 average of .$110 for police per year, and they 
 pay out of their own pockets 8230.50 ; the town 
 has always refused to provide any adequate 
 means for extinguishing fire, to which the 
 city is particularly liable, and the citizens 
 have formed engine companies amoug them- 
 selves and are at their own expense for 
 everything needful therefor; the total valu 
 ation of the town is $2,013,525; non-resident 
 property in Cottage City, $875,520; resident 
 property, $321,915; total valuation of Cot- 
 tage City, $1,197,435; of the old village, 
 $84(5,090; 111 persons are assessed as resi- 
 dents in Cottage City, and 25 more ought 
 to be, but the assessors won't assess them ; 
 valuatiou of resident real estate has been 
 diminished $179,250 in five years, and non- 
 resident increased in same time $8100, and this 
 during the hardest of hard times ; in thirteen 
 years 39 Selectmen of the township have been 
 chosen, of which number Cottage City has had 
 four; 39 School committee men were chosen, 
 of whom Cottage City hasn't had any; out 
 of 39 Assessors in this time Cottage City has 
 had seven ; permanent population of the pro- 
 posed new town 502 ; we have three churches, 
 two schools, seven groceries, two markets, 
 two blacksmith shops, six livery stables, two 
 steam mills, drug stores, shoemakers, wheel- 
 wrights, carpenters, painters, etc., everything 
 that goes to make upa community; there are 
 306 towns and 19 cities in the state, and as a 
 town, in the matter of valuation, we shall 
 stand No. 142 ; as to real estate valuation No. 
 94 ; as to population and voters there are 20 
 towns containing less ; our acreage is about 
 3000, or greater than Chelsea, Somerville, Na- 
 hant, Proviucetown, etc; the two sections of 
 
the town are already divided geographically, as 
 of the proposed boundary line more than 
 three-fourths is water ; 
 
 we believe our interests are not properly 
 guarded by the other section ; that what this 
 section most needs it does not obtain at the 
 hands of the present town : and what it does 
 not require nor ask for is forced upon it and 
 it is made to bear unjust burdens in conse- 
 quence ; 
 
 we believe a- community commingling with 
 the non-residents annually and learning their 
 wants and wishes will be far more ready to 
 listen to their requests and admonitions than 
 a community which they do not know, having 
 interests discordant with theirs ; 
 
 one of the results of a division of the towu 
 will be to put men living in the immediate 
 neighborhood in charge of town affairs, whose 
 interests are identical with non-residents, and 
 who will be more judicious in their manage- 
 ment of the affairs of the new towu ; 
 
 besides, wasteful extravagance in outlays for 
 needed improvements will be checked, the 
 residents' interests being iu harmony with 
 that of the non-residents. 
 
 At the end of the fiscal year 1S72-3, the net 
 
 indebtedness of the town was . . . $SS, 942.66 
 
 At the end of the fiscal year 1877-S, the net 
 
 indebtedness was SS.626.66 
 
 Showing in the 5 years a total reduction of 
 
 During the same time there -ivas n 
 the reduction of the debt about 
 
 ■d/or 
 
 fcji6.< 
 
 $24,000 
 
 The sinking fund will reduce the debt some- 
 what more than the sum given above — it 
 being about $9000 at the present time. 
 
 The annual appropriation for the sinking 
 fuud has, however, been distinct from that Tor 
 
 the reduction of the debt, and only affects 
 the net indebtedness. But it does not ac- 
 count for any portion of the .$24,000. 
 
 Still further, take the items of Schools and 
 Poor separately : — 
 
 Schools and School Houses, — amount raised 
 
 since 1871 $28,648.87 
 
 Of this Cottage City pays . . . $17,507.60 
 
 There has been expended in Cottage City in 
 the same time (including- the cost of a 
 new School House, $2200, nearly one- 
 third of the whole outlay) . . , $7,S9 S -S7 
 
 Net gain to Edgartown on this item . $9,909.03 
 
 Support of Poor, — amount raised since 1S71, $24,152.00 
 
 Of this amount Cottage City pays, $14,759.47 
 Cost of our poor for same time (es- 
 timate) 1,200.00 
 
 Gain to Edgartown 
 
 $■3059-47 
 
 These, then, and many more, are the rea- 
 sons why the taxpayers in Cottage City have 
 petitioned the Legislature to be incorporated 
 into a new town, and for a precedent they 
 cite the division of Adams and North Adams, 
 of Dartmouth five times, Bridgewater, Hamp- 
 ton, Holbrook, and numerous other towns in 
 the State, for much less reason than they ask 
 to be set off from the town of Edgartown. 
 
 For the "Committee of Thirtv," 
 
 Oliver Ames, 
 
 J. W. WlLLETT, 
 
 I. N. Luce, 
 Joseph Dias, 
 Howes Norris, 
 
 Executive 
 Committee. 
 
 Cm i'a(;e City, 
 Martha's Vineyard, Feb., 1879. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 ■■111 
 
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