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 1893. 
 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
MASSACHUSETTS: 
 
 A TYPICAL AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. 
 
 C A ^I B R I D G E : 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 
 (Hnibrrsitu ^Jrrss. 
 1893. 
 
 C O-Jof^^ 
 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Plymouth Rock 9 
 
 The Old State House . 15 
 
 Faneuil Hall 17 
 
 Old North Church 19 
 
 Old South Church 21 
 
 Washington Elm 23 
 
 Bunker Hill Monument 29 
 
 The Home of Longfellow 33 
 
 The Birthplace of Whittier 35 
 
 State House 37 
 
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 MASSACHUSETTS: 
 A TYPICAL AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 'TpHE cradle of Massachusetts history was discovered 
 within the memory of living men. Under the 
 carved oaken beams of the Manor House at Scrooby, in 
 the northern part of Nottinghamshire, England, about 
 1604, the Pilgrim Church was born. Here, on the 
 banks of the Idle, gathered farmers, artisans, and la- 
 borers from the three counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, 
 and York. The bond of a common relis^ious faith held 
 them together. John Robinson, their spiritual teacher, 
 was nobly assisted by William Brewster, the Elder of 
 the congregation, and by William Bradford, then a 
 young man, but with great business and administrative 
 abilities. 
 
Massachusetts 
 
 Forced to leave a monarcli}', they took refuge in a 
 republic, where, from the previous \isit of Brewster, 
 they knew there was " liberty for all men." The same 
 tyranny which drove out so many good men from Eng- 
 land had already nearly ruined the woollen and other 
 textile manufacturers of Norfolk, many of whom brought 
 their capital and skill to Leyden. In this rich city lixcd 
 several hundred English people, including contractors, 
 manufacturers, soldiers serving in the Dutch army, and 
 students in the University. Thither, in j6io, came 
 Robinson and his congregation, thus making the second 
 English church in the city. During the Twelve Years' 
 Truce these prospective citizens of Massachusetts re- 
 mained in the municipality and the federal republic, 
 learning much of government, politics, business, and 
 handicraft, as their own and the Leyden records show. 
 Of the Pilgrim company, William Bradford, Isaac Aller- 
 ton, Degory Priest, and many others became citizens of 
 the municipality, and thus gained experience in the 
 working of republican institutions. Before their eyes 
 they saw in full operation, in a union of sovereign states 
 bound in federal union by a written constitution, and 
 under the red, white, and blue flag, common public free 
 schools, toleration of religion, the registration of deeds, 
 
A Typical American Commonwealth. 7 
 
 mortgages and wills, the written ballot, freedom of the 
 press, democratic government in church affairs ; and, 
 among the Anabaptists, who were numerous around 
 them, complete separation of Church and State. In a 
 word, these men, destined to be the founders of the 
 greatest republic in the world, had here every facility, 
 in a free republic, to reinforce practically their ideas 
 and inheritance of English freedom. 
 
 Yet because their sons and daughters were marrying 
 into native families, their vouno- men enlistinor in the 
 army led by Maurice, and their people likely to be 
 swallowed up in the Dutch nationality, withal desirous 
 of propagating their tenets of independency, these Eng- 
 lish Independents resolved to cross the Atlantic to the 
 New World. In their enterprise they were joined by 
 Miles Standish, one of the captains in the English 
 contingent of the Dutch army. 
 
 They made their journey in boats by canal to Delfs- 
 haven, embarked on the ''Speedwell," and crossed to 
 Southampton, where they were joined by John Alden and 
 other colonists, and the "Speedwell" by the "Mayflower." 
 After many vicissitudes, including kind treatment by the 
 people of Plymouth, they made their wintry voyage of 
 nine weeks across the Atlantic. The " Mayflower " had 
 
8 Massachusetts : 
 
 a tonnao^e less than that of a i^ood Erie Canal boat. One 
 hundred and one persons landed on the shortest day of 
 the year, December 21, 1620; and the first or common 
 house was begun on Christmas Day. Soon a group of 
 seven rough dwellings sheltered the company. 
 
 Without giving the name of Scrooby, Austerfield. or 
 Bawtry to any of their settlements, they called the place 
 Plymouth, and formed the " Old Colony." Other emi- 
 grants from Leyden and England joined them; but at 
 the end of ten years the\- had not increased bevond the 
 number of three hundred persons, or about the total 
 number of Robinson's Leyden congregation at its 
 highest. The oldest street in New England is Le\-den 
 Street in Plymouth, Mass. The most famous boulder 
 in the world is Plymouth Rock, — a bit of stone as 
 geographically erratic and as influentially enduring as 
 the Pilgrim Fathers themseh-es. Their simple but 
 heroic life has been glorified in j^oetry, i)ainting, fiction, 
 and oratory. 
 
 One of the first museums and memorial edifices in 
 the American Union enshrines the Pilgrim relics in Ply- 
 mouth. As early as 1769 Forefathers' Day (December 
 21) was inaugurated by a local celebration which is now 
 perpetuated in a dozen New England societies and 
 
A Typical American Coniinojnucalth. 
 
 nearly fifty Congregational and other clubs throughout 
 the United States. In 1822 Pilgrim Hall was dedi- 
 cated; in 1S67, the imposing granite canopy placed over 
 Plymouth Rock; and in 1889, the completion of the 
 National Pilgrim Monument was celebrated. On this oc- 
 
 r 
 
 f 
 
 ! 
 
 
 ■1 
 
 ■' 
 
 PLYMOUTH ROCK. 
 
 casion the oration was most appropriately given by the 
 Hon. W. C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, of Scotch-Irish 
 and Presbyterian ancestry, and the poem by John Boyle 
 O'Reilly, a Roman Catholic Irish-American. Besides 
 the bronze tablet in memory of John Robinson in Ley- 
 den, it is proposed to rear at Delfshaven a memorial to 
 
I o Massac h tiseits 
 
 the Pilgrim fathers and mothers, and in recognition of 
 the hospitahty of tlic tolerant Dutch republic. 
 
 Small and poor as the Pilgrim colony and republic 
 was, and much greater and richer as became the later 
 Puritan immigration and Bay Colony, the spirit of the 
 former is the more typically American. The people of 
 the United States may be outliving Puritan ideals, but 
 they love more and more the Pilgrini spirit and practice. 
 Our national tradition and procedure are Pilgrim rather 
 than Puritan, in favor of toleration and the separation 
 of Church and State, less rigor of form with a sweeter 
 and purer Christianity. The Pilgrims were reinforced 
 Englishmen, tempered and mellowed in a tolerant re- 
 public. They were men of three lands. Both colonies 
 in Massachusetts were as mustard seed and leaven. But 
 while the Puritan, or Bay, colonists represent phenomenal 
 growth and extensiveness, the Pilgrims stand for the leav- 
 ening, or intensive, principle in the making of America. 
 
 At Plymouth was the first successful settlement of a 
 colony, consisting mostly of Englishmen, on the shores of 
 the Indian country, — meaning "great hill,"— or of the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name " Massa- 
 chusetts " came probably from a single elevation overlook- 
 ing Boston Harbor (Blue Hill, near Milton); and part of 
 
A Typical American Commonwealth. ii 
 
 it still lives in that of Wachusett Mountain. Possibly, 
 centuries before, the Norsemen had settled and begun 
 civilization at Norumbega ; and it may be some of the 
 names on the map are of Norse-Indian origin. What- 
 ever may be the ultimate issue of the question of the 
 Northmen's occupation of the Charles River region, or 
 about Taunton, Massachusetts glories in the possession 
 of the Dighton Rock, with its Runic inscriptions ; while 
 Professor Eben Norton Horsford, scholar, inventor, and 
 philanthropist, has reared, on a rocky height near 
 Waltham, a lofty tower of pebble and bowlder, with 
 detailed inscription upon a polished granite shaft. On 
 Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston, Leif Ericson stands 
 in bronze efifigy on a red stone pedestal, carved in 
 likeness of a dragon-prowed viking's craft. Among the 
 settlements that failed may be noticed those of Bar- 
 tholomew Gosnold (at Cuttyhunk) and Martin Prynne. 
 How lonQT the " Skraalinors," or red men, inhabited 
 the land we know not. Somewhat over a thousand 
 Indians, of more or less mixed blood, still dwell on 
 Massachusetts soil, mosth^ on the coast or islands, and 
 a venerable missionar}' society still makes annual grants 
 of money for their religious nurture. The memory of 
 the Indians is eternally embalmed in the many sonorous 
 
12 iMassachusclts 
 
 names of rivers, mountains, and natural landmarks in 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 The " Bay Colony " was besfun at Salem in 162S, under 
 John Endicott, and reinforced and enlarged by John 
 Winthrop, who came over to Charlestown in 1629 with 
 a charter. In these two later emigrations were about 
 thirteen hundred people. The Pilgrims never had any 
 patent or charter, but under the royal document com- 
 mitted to Winthrop the Puritan government was formed, 
 lastino- sixty years. Not beins: satisfied with the water 
 and other natural conditions at Charlestown, many of 
 the people crossed the Charles River to Shawmut, wliich 
 means "near the neck." Then " Bostonia Condita" 
 could be written; for IJoston, named later after the town 
 founded by St. Botolph in England, was settled and its 
 career begun. Until the coming of the Rev. John 
 Cotton, — of whom Bishop Phillips Brooks was a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation, — the new settlement 
 at Shawmut, near the farm of Blackstone, now Boston 
 Common, was dubbed " Post Town," because not at first 
 flourishing. When, a decade later. King Charles and 
 the Parliament were at odds, probably more colonists 
 returned to England than emigrated to Massachusetts 
 until the Revolutionary War. 
 
A Typical American Commonwealth. 13 
 
 The first settlers were toilers on land rather than on 
 sea. As usual in the course of histoiy, the poorest land 
 was taken first, because it needed less preparatory work 
 of axe, mattock, and fire for the reduction and removal 
 of the timber, and the extraction of stumps from the soil. 
 The landscape of Massachusetts has been carved and 
 laid chiefly by the glacier, and the handwriting of God 
 on the rocks is everywhere evident. Four divisions, both 
 geological and typographical, are noted. Cape Cod and 
 Plymouth County arc made of rearranged glacial drift. 
 From the shore region towards Connecticut River, the 
 rocks belong to the Laurentian, Cambrian, and Carbo- 
 niferous ages. In the middle of the three counties — 
 Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden — lies a great basin 
 abounding in the footprints of colossal reptiles. Slabs 
 of these triassic rocks, containing nine thousand tracks, 
 are stored up, like some great terra-cotta library recov- 
 ered from a buried world, in the museum of Amherst 
 College. First discovered on a Sunday in the last cen- 
 tury by a pious worshipper on his way home from the 
 meeting-house, they were supposed to be the work of 
 " Noah's raven." Westward from the Connecticut River 
 basin, in Berkshire County, is a series of highly meta- 
 morphosed rock, probably as old as the Silurian period. 
 
1 4 Massac Ji 71 setts 
 
 From the first, however, the resources of the State 
 in economical geology, except a very little silver, lead, 
 coal, emery, and iron, have been exhibited mainly in 
 Ouincy granite, red sandstone, and marble. Indeed, it 
 may be said that the mines of Massachusetts are in the 
 sea, or above the soil in the character and habits of her 
 citizens. True type of the brain-nourishing food of the 
 people, the cod deserves praise as the one fish which 
 can be cooked in all ways, and eaten at all seasons of 
 the year. Indeed, physicians have publicly declared that 
 baked codfish and potatoes form the ideal food. To 
 this, however, supi)lementi ng the colonial clams and corn, 
 the native housekeeper out of her New England kitchen 
 will add brown bread, baked beans, fishballs, doughnuts, 
 pum]:)kin pics, all cooked and served in approved Boston 
 style. It is certain that the first order of brains has been 
 long nourished on this standard diet. Rejecting Christ- 
 mas and Lent, the Pilgrims and Puritans struck a bal- 
 ance by instituting Thanksgiving and P^ast days. 
 
 P^roni the first, the people began cheerfully to replen- 
 ish and subdue the earth. Many of the early Puritans 
 were skilled fishermen or dealers in the produce of the 
 sea before they crossed the Atlantic ; and the prospective 
 wealth to be obtained from the ocean was one of the 
 
A Typical American Cominonivcalth. 
 
 15 
 
 strong inducements, in addition to the urgency of con- 
 science, which led them to this part of the world. From 
 the first history of the Commonwealth to this day, there 
 has been more wealth drawn out of the water than from 
 the land. For food, oil, and 
 fertilizers, the cod, whale, 
 and finny spoil of all sorts 
 have been caught by billions. 
 The Indians within her bor- 
 ders, who first taught the 
 settlers how to tread out a 
 mess of eels and to cook 
 succotash, were of Algonquin 
 stock ; but before the Rev- 
 olution the Iroquois had 
 named the governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts Kinshon, " the 
 Fish." Shortly after this a 
 golden cod was hung in 
 
 the State House, and under the golden dome on Beacon 
 Hill it still hangs, as the true symbol of the wealth of 
 the Bay State. 
 
 From July 4, 1631, when John Winthrop launched 
 " The Blessing of the Bay," Massachusetts men have 
 
 THE OLD STATE HOUSE. 
 
1 6 Massachusctls 
 
 been good shipbuilders. Their vessels became in less 
 than a century the finest in the world. A permanent 
 school of naval science and experience was founded in 
 the fisheries and carr\ing trade, from wliich some of 
 Americas greatest na\al heroes have been graduated. 
 Among the descendants of early settlers may be named 
 Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, John 
 A. Winslow, and a host of others. 
 
 In the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Civil wars no 
 State has a naval record like that of the Bay State. In 
 the War of Independence, over one-half of the American 
 shi])s and sailors were from Salem, Boston, New Bed- 
 ford, and other ports of Massachusetts. They first car- 
 ried tlie American flag around the world, and th.en into 
 every sea, becoming the common carriers of the world. 
 The "Constitution," or "Old Ironsides," commanded by 
 Captain Isaac Hull, and the "Essex," on which fought 
 Porter and the boy l\arragut, were both built on Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, and manned largely by her sailors. Be- 
 sides nourishing manv heroes in our navy, who weie 
 born in her borders, the Bay State claims the honor of 
 adding largely to astronomy, navigation, ship-hygiene, 
 and allied sciences, in the ])ersons of her sons, — Benja- 
 min Thompson (Count Rumford), S. F. B. Morse, of 
 
A Typical American Coinnwmvcalth. 
 
 17 
 
 telegraphic fame, Nathaniel Bowditch, Benjamin Pierce, 
 Benjamin Franklin, tamer of lightning and discoverer 
 of the Gulf Stream, and her adopted son, Louis Agassiz. 
 John Adams, who in 18 19 modestly disclaimed being 
 "the father of the American navy," was nevertheless 
 influential in forming it, under 
 Admiral Hopkins, in 1776. 
 Adams gave names to the first 
 five vessels, one of which, the 
 " Andrea Doria," at St. Eusta- 
 tius, in the West Indies, No- 
 vember 16, 1776, received from 
 tlie Dutch governor, Johannes 
 de Graeff, the first salute ever 
 fired in honor of the American 
 flag. The " amphibious " regi- 
 ment of Alarblehead, led by the 
 doughty General John Glover, 
 
 manned the boats which ferried over Washington's army 
 after the battle of Long Island and before the victory of 
 Trenton. 
 
 When we inquire into the ancestral origin of the 
 people who began our Commonwealth, we find that five- 
 eiehths of them came from those eastern and southern 
 
 FANEUIL HALL. 
 
I S Massac/i usc//s 
 
 counties of England whicli border on the North Sea or 
 English Channel, — that region whieh ma)- be called the 
 centre of the commerce of Europe, where many c)Cean 
 waters meet, and at which the mouths of many great 
 rivers from the interior of Europe are found. Here the 
 Celtic, Norse, and Teutonic nations mingled. The rail- 
 way station next to Scrooby, named Ranskill (Ravenskelf, 
 "mound of the ravens"), is but typical of the settlements 
 of the Norsemen in England, and the rich infusion of 
 Norse blood in those parts of England, whence came 
 the Plymouth men. Their Norse blood explains that 
 love of the water and of ships which is so natural to 
 the sons of Massachusetts. 
 
 In few portions of the Union has the study of ances- 
 trv been so diligently carried on ; and in tlie number of 
 historical, antiquarian, and historic-genealogical societies 
 Massachusetts leads all the States. In the \olumes of 
 local history published, commemorative statues, soldiers' 
 monuments, tablets marking historic spots, memorials 
 of distinguished men and women of local, state, or 
 national fame, " Old South " and other courses of lec- 
 tures on Anierican history, the raising of flags on ]niblic 
 schools, — the example of the Bay State deserves imita- 
 tion everywhere. Though her population is no longer of 
 
A Typical Anicricaii Conunomvcalth. 
 
 19 
 
 preponderantly English or native American stock, and 
 is already more than half of Canadian-French, Nova 
 Scotian, Irish, or other stocks, the effort is constant to 
 educate all in the principles of American self-restraint 
 and freedom., and in their responsibil- 
 ities as citizens. 
 
 With their traits cf enterprise and 
 daring inherited from their Teutonic 
 and Norse ancestors, the colonists 
 joined love of discipline, a passion for 
 law. They wanted good government, 
 and for the sake of it they were will- 
 ing to sacrifice personal convenience 
 or desires. In the New World they 
 laid out their towns on the old Frisian 
 model, with a " common," or com.mon 
 land. Civilization advanced by social 
 settlements, not by isolated cabins, 
 by towns with churches, schools, 
 music, culture. A system of political order was evolved 
 in which there was the nicest balance between individual 
 freedom and combination. 
 
 The military spirit from the first was dominant. The 
 fighting qualities of their ancestors, the old Saxons and 
 
 OLD NORTH CHURCH. 
 
20 Massac/iHselts 
 
 Frisians, were manifest. Miles Standish and hi> mail- 
 clad nien returned the rattlesnake skin stuffed with 
 bullets and powder, and began \\ar just as soon as tlie 
 Indians wanted it, — possibly sooner. The Ancient 
 and Honorable Artillery of Boston was organized in 
 1637. Among the first imports to the colony from the 
 West Indies, about 1640, was cotton for the wadding 
 of corselets to render harmless Indian arrows. Tlic 
 war with the Pequots in 1637, and King Pliih]ys War, 
 1 645-1 646, which reduced the colony to half of its 
 strengtli in blood and treasure, issued in victory for the 
 white man. 
 
 For two generations longer the settlers were harried 
 by French and Indians from the North. Against the 
 northern waves of invasion from Canada there was no 
 breakwater; the frontier was all exposed. But on the 
 west tliere was, stanrling like an imj:)regnnble mountain 
 wall, tlie Confederacy of tlie Iroquois, the Six Nations, 
 who, through the genius of Arendt Van Curler, — after 
 whom the New York Indians named the Governor, and 
 those of Canada Queen Victoria, — had been won, first 
 to the Dutch, and then to the En<'lis]i side, as asfainst 
 the r^Tnch. Yet, despite the constant alarms from the 
 savage foe and the danger of inxasion from Canada, 
 
A Typical Auiericaii Commonwealth. 
 
 21 
 
 the indomitable military spirit of the people enabled 
 them to strike the trouble at its source, and to dry up 
 the poisonous springs of disaster. Hence during a 
 period of nearly seventy years their thoughts were occu- 
 pied with the reduction of Canada. 
 After several unfortunate expedi- 
 tions, the plain farmers of New 
 England, led by merchants and 
 lawyers, through a happy combina- 
 tion of circumstances aiding their 
 own valor and genius, captured 
 the ereat fortress of Louisburo^. 
 One of the first statues raised in 
 the United States to the honor 
 of Columbus stands in Louisburg 
 Square, in Boston. 
 
 To sustain the immense financial 
 burden thus imposed upon them by 
 their naval and military enterprise, 
 
 the people of Massachusetts were obliged to coin money, 
 1 652-1 682, and in 1690 to emit bills of credit. Being 
 practically an independent republic, Massachusetts put 
 no roval effigy on those circular bits of metal, which are 
 usually assumed to be the symbols of state sovereignty. 
 
 OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 
 
Alassachiiscits 
 
 Taking the pine-tree as the typical natural feature on 
 her landscape, symbolical of vigor, steadfastness, and 
 abilit}- to stand alone, she stamped the effigy of this 
 majestic tree upon her shilHngs. Understanding polit- 
 ical economy, she made coins less in value than those of 
 the same name in England, so that they would be kept 
 at hoiiie. Sixpenny and threepenny pieces were also 
 minted. In country places to this day the Pennsyha- 
 nian in Massachusetts is amused to find that six shillings 
 are yet believed to make a dollar. The pine-tree, after- 
 wards, with the rattlesnake, a[)peared on the IMassachu^ 
 setts colonial flag, until both these symbols were eclipsed 
 by the standard bearing her coat of arms as a sovereign 
 State, and by the Stars and Stripes of the Union, — "the 
 one flag she holds niore sacred than her own." The 
 great seal of state {sioilhim rcipublicac Massachusctlcnsis) 
 bears the figure of a tufted and moccasined Indian 
 holding bow and arrow, standing beside a star, and under 
 a mailed hand grasping a sword. The martial legend 
 is from the Latin of that flower of ICnglish chi\alr\-, .Sir 
 Philip Sidney, who fell, in the Dutch War of Inde- 
 jDcndencc, at Zut])hen, — "By the sword she seeks calm 
 repose under libertv." 
 
 When Charles II. came upon the throne, he made 
 
A Typical American Coniiiwnzucalth. 
 
 23 
 
 inquisition into tlie way things had been going on in 
 the Bay Province ; and thinking that these people across 
 the sea were taking and gaining too many Hberties, he 
 revoked the charter, and 
 sent Sir Edniund An- 
 dros over to be his 
 deputy and the royal 
 governor. Androsmade 
 a fool of himself in a 
 great many ways, and 
 the people rose up in 
 due time aiid put him 
 in prison. When the 
 Stadholder of the Dutch 
 republic became King 
 William III. of Eng- 
 land, he granted a new 
 and more liberal char- 
 ter, which remained the 
 supreme law of the col- 
 ony until there was 
 
 formed the Provincial Congress of 1774. Under this 
 charter the "Old Colony" was, in 1692, swallowed up, and 
 becam.e one with the " Bay Colony." Massachusetts had 
 then a population of forty-seven thousand. 
 
 
 WASHIXGTON EI,I\I. 
 
24 MassacJiiisclls 
 
 Among- the famous men of tliis period, from 1620-1692, 
 were, in the Plyniouth or Old Colony, Governors Carver 
 and Bradford, the two W'inslows, Prence, Hinckle}-; in 
 the Bay Colony, Endicott, Winthro]), Dudley, Haynes, 
 Vane, Bellingham, Leverett, Bi-adstreet, Joseph Dudley, 
 Andros, and Danforth. Other names famous in theology, 
 literature, enterpri>e, or soeial life, are those of John Alden, 
 Anne flutehinson, Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather, 
 John Cotton, Thomas Shepard, John Eliot, Henry Dun- 
 ster, \\ illiam Pynchon, and others. 
 
 Some idea of the intellectual foundation upon which 
 the reputation cf the State rests may be gained from the 
 fact that to Massachusetts came a large majorit}- of the 
 one hundred Puritan clergymen who had been in the 
 Church of EnQ-land, and were uni\ersitv-bred men. Har- 
 vard University grew out of a public school founded at 
 Newton in 1636, and settled at Cambridge in 1639. P^or 
 over a quarter of a millennium " P\air llar\ard" has sent 
 out her graduates to do the world's work in ex'cry line of 
 human achievement. 
 
 Under Queen Anne and the liouse of Brunswick tliere 
 was comj)arative ])rosperity, and the taking up of new 
 land and settling of new towns went on aj)ace. The cen- 
 tre of the State was well dotted with farms and villages, 
 
A TvpLcal American Cojnnionwcalth. 25 
 
 and as early as 1735 the Berkshire Hills were crossed, and 
 the site of Pittsfield, under the name of " Boston Planta- 
 tion," laid out. Indeed, not only is the name of Boston 
 repeated twenty-five times on the map of the United 
 States, but in northwestern America " Boston " was, among 
 the aborigines, the synonym for white man. 
 
 Despite their ability to take care of themselves, the 
 Massachusetts men were all loyal to the old country, and 
 to her kings and the king's favorites, notwithstanding 
 that so many of these proved themselves such foolish peo- 
 ple. Hence in the naming of the Massachusetts towns 
 we find a remarkably large number of the names of Eng- 
 lish kings, their palaces or places of residence, and of the 
 king's servants or favorites ; and one can read in the 
 names of these towns the story of English politics. The 
 limit was reached and the line was drawn in 1775, when, 
 a town having been named after General Gage, and called 
 Gageborough, the people petitioned to have the name 
 changed, which was done. After that no shadow of roy- 
 alty in any form was cast upon the nomenclature of the 
 Commonwealth. In 1776 the first of the many towns in 
 the United States called after the great Virginian received 
 its name. Mount Washington, from the Legislatnre, as 
 being the highest in ^lassachusctts, as well as in Berk- 
 shire countv. 
 
26 I\Iassaf//usc//s : 
 
 During the period of llie royal governors the jDeoplc 
 pushed westwardl}' with axe and ritie, elearing the forests, 
 improving wild beasts off the face of the earth, and mak- 
 ing the wilderness bloom with roads, towns, churches, and 
 hearth-fires. On the sea the)- caught fish, chased whales, 
 built u}) a profitaljle trade, sold l^'riday food to the southern 
 Europeans, and traded off for Old World comforts and 
 luxuries the best ships then afloat. Thev imported W est 
 India molasses, and made New England rum; traded 
 in and kei)t black slaves; n^.aintained the public schools; 
 drank cider at home, and strong licjuors at the meetings 
 of ])arson and deacons, — and did a host of things good 
 and bad, like other saints and sinners. I'he jjowder-horns 
 carved in the frontier-camp with geographical, historical, 
 and more or less poetical annotations; the " melancholy 
 sampler" made b\- the woir.en at home; the chief litera- 
 ture theological, "the air black with sermons;" religious 
 life keen, stern ; social life serious; politics always exciting; 
 newspapers few, and books not so many as well read, — 
 show the strong, sim})le, intense life of the people, and the 
 character of Massachusetts in formation. With the spin- 
 ning-wheel at home fitted to work flax or wool, the busy 
 women made clothing, as well as cooked and farmed. In 
 the field or on the sea, the men became veterans ready 
 
A lypical American Couunonwcalth. 27 
 
 for Revolutionary regiments or Continental pri\ateers, 
 " In all labor there is profit" was the motto of these free- 
 men, always prepared for peace or war. 
 
 In the governorship we find Phipps, Stoughton, Bella- 
 mont, Dudley, Tailer, Shute, Dummer, Burnett, Belcher, 
 Phips, Pownal, Hutchinson, Bernard, and Gage. In the- 
 ology, Jonathan Edwards eclipsed all lesser lights with 
 his profound thought, brilliant writings, and continental 
 fame. 
 
 The English Revolution of 16SS, by which Puritanism 
 practically triumphed, and by which much that the Com- 
 monwealth had striven for was attained, and by which 
 also toleration was first secured to Independents and 
 other free-churchmen in Enirland. was alwavs a sore 
 thing to royalty and aristocracy in that country; and a 
 policy was inaugurated which, whatever the pretexts alleged 
 or the matters of detail professed, was intended to undo 
 the work of the Revolution. The House of Brunswick, 
 led by King George III., was particularly active in this 
 abominable policy, and one of its measures was the taxa- 
 tion of the colonies without their consent ; and these colo- 
 nies, following out the precedents of the republic in which 
 so many of the Pilgrims and Puritans had been trained, 
 and of their English ancestors, at once resisted. Massa- 
 
2 8 Massac h n setts 
 
 chusctts and X'irginia led in protest and rcxDlt, Agitation 
 was begun, and public opinion was roused. As in Xew 
 York, the people had always voted the yearly salar)- of 
 the governor, and refused anything like j^ernianent su]> 
 port ; and during the seventy-five years' quarrel over the 
 subject they had been pretty well educated in matters of 
 political finance. 
 
 In 1776 the Sons of Liberty first began to gather 
 under the old Liberty Tree, which stood on the corner 
 of what is now Washington and Bo\lston Streets in Bos- 
 ton. Li October, 1770, Boston, which had only twelve 
 thousand inhabitants, was ;';arrisoi";ed by one thousand 
 red-coats, camped on the Common, On March 5. 1770 
 twelve "lobster backs." led bv Captain Preston, fired on 
 the crowd that was jeering at them, ar.d blood was shed 
 in front of the old State House. A monument to the 
 civilians who were victims in this massacre stands near 
 the Mall, on Boston Common, facing 'Fremont Street. 
 After "the excursion of the king's troops to Lexington 
 and Concord," and the resistance of th.c ])atriots, who 
 claimed "the right to pass unmolested along the king's 
 highway," came the British victory at lUmker Hill. The 
 r(?d-coats embarked near the old Proxidence depot. 
 About where the statue of Leif lu'icson stands lav some 
 
A Typical American Coiiinwnweallh. 
 
 29 
 
 of the British ships-of-war, one of them commanded by- 
 Captain Linzee ; and much of what is now the handsom- 
 est part of Boston was then mud and ooze, under tidal 
 water. Colonel Prescott led 
 his militia well, and held them 
 against the artillery and infantry 
 fire of the regulars till his pow- 
 der was all gone. Then English 
 pluck snatched victory out of 
 the jaws of defeat, and over the 
 redoubt the Union Jack waved 
 the same day. Nevertheless, 
 the defeat was so glorious that 
 Americans have, on the lost 
 field, soon regained, erected a 
 granite obelisk, a statue of 
 Prescott, and inscribed bronze 
 tablets commemorating the rank 
 and file. In the hall of the 
 Massacliusetts Historical Soci- 
 ety the swords of Linzee and 
 
 Prescott, whose grandchildren were joined in marriage, 
 are crossed in an entwining wreath. Along the road 
 from Boston to Lexington memorial stones mark the 
 historic spots reddened by patriot blood. 
 
 HUNKER nir.L .AR)XU.MKNT. 
 
30 Massachiisetls 
 
 The old elm in Cambridge, near the Harvard Univer- 
 sity grounds, under which Washington took command 
 of the Continental army, still stands. Dorchester Heights 
 being fortified, and the city and harbor commanded, the 
 city was evacuated on Saint Patricks Day. Both the 
 Saiiit and the good riddance are celebrated on March 17, 
 under the form of " Evacuation Day." 
 
 Bunker Hill dictated the tactics of the war. The 
 British, who had not been under fire from 1762 to 1775, 
 got such a taste of the power of the Massachusetts rifle 
 that they were never known froni that time forth to 
 attack bv assault Americans who were behind intrench- 
 ments; they relegated this unpopular work entirely to 
 Hessians. In the Revolution Massachusetts furnished 
 probablv half of the men for the Continental army, 
 and possibly three-fourths of the American force upon 
 the ocean. On the scroll of fame the names of the sons 
 of Mars and of Massachusetts are sown thickly like 
 stars in the heavens. Standish, Church, Williams, Ward, 
 Warren, Gridley, Knox, Lincoln, Putnam, Eaton, Hill, 
 Hooker, Lander, and a host of minor lights are among 
 those whose valor and abilities are gratefully remembered 
 in the wars of the Colony, the State, and the Nation. In 
 the war for the Union, besides contracting a debt of over 
 
A Typical American Commonwealth. 31 
 
 fifty millions, Massachusetts sent nearly 160,000 men into 
 the armies of the Republic. 
 
 In the making of constitutions the old Bay State has 
 been fruitful. The first was drawn up in the cabin of the 
 " Mayflower." Besides patents and charters there have 
 always been the town meeting and the General Court, — 
 that is, local and state legislatures, each governed by 
 written rules. When Massachusetts separated from the 
 mother country, — the last General Court under royal 
 authority dissolving on the day of the battle of Bunker 
 Hill, — the Provincial Congress, which had met Octo- 
 ber 5, 1774, and February i, 1775, assumed both the 
 legislative and executive powers. The first constitution 
 submitted to the people by this Congress was rejected 
 by popular vote March 4th. The constitution, drawn up 
 mainly by John Adams, was accepted by the popular 
 vote in 1780. It declared the Commonwealth to be a 
 free, sovereign, and independent State. After Shay's 
 Rebellion no great civil trouble was experienced, and 
 the wheels of the political machinery have moved 
 smoothly unto this day. The boundaries of Massachu- 
 setts have been settled after negotiation with every one 
 of the five States adjoining. The title to Maine was 
 acquired in 171 7, and relinquished in 1820. In juris- 
 
Massach ii setts 
 
 prudence and statesniansliip tlic long roll of names 
 includes those of Sewall, Story, Parsons, Shaw, Otis, 
 Ames, Samuel, John, and John Ouincy Adams, Ouincy, 
 Webster, Choate, K\erett, and Sumner. 
 
 Of her governors under the constitution, the first was 
 John Hancock, also President of the Continental Con- 
 gress. He served from 1780 to 1785, and his mansion, 
 — a superb specimen of colonial architecture, — stood 
 on Beacon Hill, fronting Boston Common. It is this 
 typical Massachusetts house which has been chosen for 
 reproduction at the Columbian Exposition. His impos- 
 ing sign-nianual, as bold as though made by a crowbar, 
 yet as artistic as a writing-master would desire, is, of 
 all the signatures to the Declaration of Independence, 
 most easily read at a distance. After Hancock came 
 Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, Sumner, Ciill, Gore, Gerry, 
 Strong, Everett, Washburn, the great war governor John 
 A. Andrew, and others. 
 
 From the first cargo of fish, beaver, and sassafras 
 sent home to ]:)ay the Pilgrims' debts, and the first 
 bargain made at home with wampum, Massachusetts 
 has had a steadily dexeloping commercial history. In 
 finance, commerce, banks, savings-banks, insurance, the 
 loaning of money and investments made for the building 
 up of the country, her record is a noble one. 
 
A Typical Aniericaii Commonwealth. 
 
 33 
 
 In her industrial career, Massachusetts was first agri- 
 cultural, then naval, then manufacturing. The boot- 
 shaped State leads all others in the manufacture of 
 foot-gear. In early days the Essex County men built 
 ships and sailed them, or went fishing or trading in 
 summer, and made 
 shoes in winter. "Han- 
 nah at the window 
 binding shoes " took 
 her share of the lio^ht 
 manual labor ; and now 
 a great army of shoe- 
 makers, from Pittsfield 
 to Brockton, keeps half 
 the people of the United 
 States well shod. The 
 
 inventive genius blossomed early. In the manufacture of 
 textiles, in hardware, in notions of all sorts, the business- 
 man must be constantly alert to avail himself of the latest 
 improvements in machinery, else he soon falls back in 
 the procession of the successful. Water-power first, then 
 steam, and finally electricity, are the motors harnessed 
 and driven by man. Named in the order of their im- 
 portance, the chief manufactures of the State are shoes, 
 
 THE HOME OF LONGFELLOW. 
 
34 Massaclmsetts : 
 
 cottons, woollens, iron, and paper. A network of rail- 
 ways stretches across the State, which is almost as 
 famous for its good roads and sign-posts as for its two 
 and a half millions of apple-trees. The making of 
 electrical equipment is a new and thriving industry. A 
 notable chapter in this progress of power and the mas- 
 tery of Nature's material and forces has been written 
 by Massachusetts men, among whom we may name 
 Rumford, Scholfield, Elias Howe, Samuel W'illiston. and 
 scores of living inventors, who have almost made wood, 
 stone, metal, and fibre think as well as toil for man. 
 At first from the sea, and then from the mills of the 
 Merrimack \alley, came the wealth of Boston. Water, 
 whether salt or fresh, has always been made to serve 
 the State. The Merrimack is the father of many towns. 
 LonQ-fellow has Horified honest toil, and Whittier sunq; 
 the songs of labor. 
 
 Yet, brilliant and solid as is her reputation in things 
 material, this Commonwealth has other glories in which 
 she excels. Her mark on the nation has been deepest 
 in ii'itellectual and moral achievements. She has led in 
 religion, reform, education, and literature. The church- 
 spire and the school-house are the pre-eminent features 
 in her landscapes. The free common school system 
 
A Typical American Commonwealth. 
 
 35 
 
 sustained by public taxation is almost coterminous with 
 her history; while in its development, Massachusetts has 
 ever stood foremost among the States in the national 
 commonwealth. Besides her graded, high, normal, agri- 
 cultural, scientific, technological, professional, and special 
 schools, her colleges 
 and universities, for 
 both sexes and all 
 classes, her women's 
 colleges, — Wellesley, 
 Smith, Mount Hol- 
 yoke, — women's clubs 
 and open avenues for 
 woman's work and 
 advancement are no- 
 table. The first news- 
 paper, the first "print- 
 
 ery," the first translation and publication of the Bible 
 within the limits of the United States, besides other 
 initiatives of lesser note, were at Cambridge or Boston. 
 The Almanac, the Freeman's Oath, the Bay Psalm Book, 
 Eliot's Indian Bible, and the New England Primer, were 
 amons: the incunabula. From the librarv brought over 
 by Elder Brewster to Plymouth, to the imposing Boston 
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF WHITTIER. 
 
36 Massachusetts : 
 
 Free Public Library on Copley Square, the people have 
 kept their iriinds well nourished with solid reading. In 
 the number of her public libraries, "free to all," the Bay 
 State leads the world. American literature began at 
 Plymouth, was developed in the coast region and from 
 thence as w^ell as from the Berkshire Hill country has 
 received world-wide recognition. In historiography, Brad- 
 ford, Winthrop, Hutchinson, Sparks, Palfrey, Prescott, 
 Motley, Bancroft, and Parkman ; in philosophy, William 
 Pynchon, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, \\\ E. 
 Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Theodore Parker; 
 in poetrv, R. H. Dana, Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, and 
 Holmes; in oratory, Winthrop, Philli])s, Brooks; infec- 
 tion, Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe, J. G. Holland ; in art, 
 Copley, Stuart, Allston, Hunt, Greenough, Story, and 
 Ball, — with a host of lesser or living names, — adorn 
 the long roll of Massachusetts. 
 
 Since the elimination of negro slavery from our na- 
 tional life, and the close of the War for the Union, the 
 poiHilation of Massachusetts has doubled, and her wealth 
 increased manifold. In Faneuil Hall, the old Cradle 
 of Liberty, the Robert E. Lee Camp and the John A. 
 Andrew Post have dined together in fraternal reunion, 
 and on Pumker Hill, as one band, the I)lue and the (iray 
 
A Typical American Commonivealth. 
 
 joined in fresh consecration of loyalty to our common 
 country. 
 
 In this barest outline of the history of Massachusetts, 
 we have but pointed out the primal elements ; it is for 
 
 STATE HOUSE. 
 
 the visitor to the Columbian Exposition to study the 
 flower and fruit. Refraining from quotation of the 
 Census Report of 1890, and inviting the sons of IMassa- 
 
;^8 Alassaclnisetts. 
 
 chusetts from liomc and from afar, in America or from 
 the ends of the earth, to inspect her material, Hterary, 
 and educational exhibits, we ask again from them in 
 behalf of the old Bay State the ancestral prayer, — 
 
 oBoti ^ifi\st X\yt Commontjucaltl). 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 012 565 9 4