DELIVERED AT THE'1 ERECTION OF A MONUMENTAL rTONE IN THE Vi7- A S1 L F S O F FO,P R O P IH A -V[, August 29th, 1862, COMMEMORATIVE OF TEIl PLANTING OF THE POPHAM COLONY ()N THE P EN I N SLA OF SABI N 0, August 19th, O. S., 1607, ESTABLISHING THlE TITLE OF ENGLAND T( THE CONTINENT. ]BY J'OHN A.. POOR. N E W- Y OR K: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, PUBLISHER ANTD BOOKSELLER, 688 BROADWAY, COR. OF AMITY STREET. 1863. AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED AT TIE ERECTION OF A: MONUMENTAL STONE IN THE xWA I LS O F mOlRtT POPIHAIM, August 29th, 1862, COMMEMORATIVE OF THE PLANTING OF THE POPHAM COLONY ON THE PENINSULA OF SABINO, August 19th, O. S., 1607, ESTABLISHING TItE TITLE OF ENGLAND TO THE CONTINENT. BY JOHN A. POOR. NEW-YORK: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, 683 BROADWAY, COR. OF AMITY STREET. 1863. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by JOIN.A.- POO0R, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maine. of the H3NINSUIA oF SAB WO. IT. 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THE Portland Daily Advertiser of August 30th, 1862, published the following: THE POPHAM CELEBRATION. Friday, the 29th, was a most delightful day for celebrating the Two hundred and fifty-fifth Anniversary of the planting of Popham Colony on the Kennebec. Some five or six thousand people, coming from all parts of the country, assembled at Fort Popham on this occasion. In every respect the celebration was a great success. Between eleven and twelve o'clock the ceremonies of commemoration, of erecting the Memorial Stone, commenced, Hon. Charles J. Gilman, of Brunswick, the Marshal of the day, reading the following brief statement: "Two hundred and fifty-five years ago this day, under the auspices of t Royal charter granted by King James, there assembled on the Peninsula of Sabino, and near to this spot, a party of Englishmen, and formed the first civil Protestant government of the New World, and by formal occupation and possession, established the title of England'to the continent. In the year 1607, in the month of August, on the 19th day of the month, the Commission of George Popham for the Presidency of the new Government was read. Capt. Raleigh Gilbert, Jarpes Davies, Richard Seymour, the preacher, Capt. Richard Davies, and Capt. Harlow, were all sworn assistants. "In commemoration of this event, the HIistorical Society of this State, corresponding with citizens in -different parts of the State, have instituted this celebration, and it is proposed from time to time, in the valley of the Sagadahoc, on the Peninsula of Sabino, to recall and to illustrate events of the past, and by this and future celebrations to assign to Maine her true historic position. On this spot, under the direction of the distinguished Chief of the Bureau of Engineers, and his accomplished assistants, a fort is in process of construction. In compliance with a petition of John .iv A. Poor and Reuel Williams, dated Wasshington, November 18th, 1861, Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War, by the advice of' Gen. Totten, determined to associate this fort with the name of Popham and the history of his colony., " In order that the record of events which have transpired may be made still more vivid and impressive, it has been thought fit and proper to insert in a wall of the fort a memorial stone. The President of'the Historical Society, the President of Bowdoin College, the - representative of the government of the State, the representative of the government of the United States, and the Grand Masonic Lodge of Maine, in the disposition and adjustment of this stone will participate. Before the commencement of these interesting exercises, let us imitate the example of those who stood here two hundred and fifty-five years ago this day. As the Rev. Richard Seymour, Chaplain of the Colony, was invited to perform acts of religious worship, thei, so now do I invite Right Rev. Bishop Burgess, Bishop of the Diocese of Maine, to perform religious worship, according to the ceremonial of the Episcopal Church'of that day." Then followed the impressive services of the Episcopal Church, Right Rev. Bishop Burgess officiating, such religious services as the Popham colonists used, upon their first landing. A brief historical statement wasI next read by William Willis, President of the Mlaine Historical Society. President Woods, of Bowdoin College, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society, next solicited the consent of the State and of the'United States to permit the erection of the Memorial Stone. Hon. Abner Coburn responded for the State, Capt. T. L. Casey, of the U. S. Engineers, for the United States. The erection of te Memorial Stone was then completed with Masonic ceremonies by the Grand Lodge of Maine, J. H. Drummond, Grand Master. Following these ceremonies, which had been interspersed with appropriate music by Poppenburg's Band, of the 17th Regular Infantry, came the Oration by John A. Poor. THE Address of Mr. Poor, as now published, contains the paragraphs which were omitted for want of time, at the Celebration. A DDR 1E, S S. WE commemorate to-day the great event of American history. We are assembled on the spot that witnessed the first formal act of possession of New-England, by a British colony, under the authority of a Royal Charter. We have come here, on the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of that event, to rejoice in the manifold blessings that have flowed to us fromr that act, -to place on record a testimonial of our appreciation of the value of that day's work,- and to transmit to future generations, an expression of' our regard for the illustrious men who laid the foundation of England's title to the Continent, and gave a new. direction to the history of the world.,We meet under circumstances of deep'and peculiar interest.- The waters of the same broad Sagadahoc,* move onward in'their majestic course to the ocean; the green summit of the beautiful Seguin still lifts itself in the distance standing sentinel and breakwater to beat back the swelling surges of the sea; the flashing foam of the Atlantic still-washes the rocky shores of the Peninsula of Sabino, and the secure anchorage of this open, bay receives the tempest-tost bark, as on the day that the " Gift of God," the gallant flyboat of. * Sagadahoc, or Scachedahlock, is Indian, and signifies, "The going out of the waters," or the mouth of the river. Eaton's Annals of Warren, p. 15. 16 George Popham, helped into port Raleigh Gilbert's good ship " Mary and John," freighted with the hopes of a new empire. Behind us rises the green summit of yonder mount, around whose sides soon clustered the habitations of the! intrepid Popham and his devoted companions; and the same rocky rampart that then encircled this proud bay, stands unmoved amid the changes of two hundred and fifty-five years. All else i8 changed. The white sails of many a gallant ship now cover this broad expanse of water; a towering light-house rises high above the summit of Seguin, throwing the rays of its Fresnel lens far out into the darkness, and along these rocky shores; habitations of men dot every point of the surrounding landscape, while the stout steamer, unlike the ship of olden time, gladly encounters the rude waves of the ocean. "Against the wind, and against the tide, Still steady, with an upright keel." * But the heart of man has changed less than all, in these two hundred and fifty-five years. It still bows submissive to Almighty God, and lifts its voice in prayer and praise, as when in the solemn service of his ritual their pious preacher uttered these memorable words: "At what time soever a sinner dqth repent him of his sills from the bottom of his heart, I will blot all his wickedness out of my remembrance, saith the Lord." "I will go to my Father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee: I am no more worthy to be called thy son." All this was permanent and enduring. The same duty and the same dependence upon God, as then, are upon us all. We seem to see before us the faithful * For description of the localities alluded to, see Note A, in the Appendix. { King James's Liturgy of 1604. Richard Seymour,* clad in the habiliments of the priesthood, as we hear the same accents of prayer and praise that he uttered,-when, before him knelt the faith. ful Popham and. his hardy comrades, whose deep responses were borne upward to the mercy-seat. We listen to-day to the same strains of music, and to the same lessons, that first burst forth from human lips, on the shores of this great continent! That same sense of sinfulness that then found utterance in the language of the liturgy, finds expression in our hearts to-day; and may it please the Father of mercies so to mould all hearts, that these words of penitential confession shall find willing utterance from all lips, and these words of prayer and praise, raised in devout aspiration from all hearts, be continued from generation to generation through all time, till there shall be one fold and one Shepherd, and this mortal reach immortality at the final consummation of all things. The greatness of an event is to be measured by the influence it exerts over the destinies of mankind. Acts of sublime moral grandeur, essential to the education of the race, may surpass in real magnitude the most brilliant achievements of material success, and the silent eloquence of truth, do more to conquer the fierce spirit of war, than the most imposing triumphs of warlike ambition. The ignominious execution of the Teacher of our Religion, in a remote and obscure province of the Roman Empire, was an event of so little interest at the time, as to be overlooked by the great writers of Roman history. The rise of the Christian sect in Judea, was noticed by the younger Pliny in his letter to the Emperor Trajan within the next hun* Who was Richard Seymour? See sketch of him by Bishop Burgess, Appendix B. 8 dred years;* but no human vision could then have foreseen, that. their despised doctrines, would, within the' next few hundred years, have become enthroned in the home of the Caesars, and give law' to the civilized world. When Hannibal led his disciplined troops from the shores of Africa, through the perilous passes of the Pyrenees and across the Alps, into Italy, and slew more in number of the Roman youth, than the entire force of his army, we instinctively honor this sublime exhibition of martial genius and energy. When at last he failed to conquer Rome, only from the lack of succor from his own countrymen, whose jealousy of his success destroyed their country, we respect that indignant sense of justice that bequeathed his bones to a foreign resting-place, lest his unworthy countrymen should in after-times be honored, by the homage done to his remains. We weep at:every fresh recital of the splendor of his achievements, and the magnitude of his misfortunes, however much we may value the superior civilization of the Roman people over that of the Carthaginians, as we reflect that the history of future times hung suspended, on the issue of that campaign. We are willing to rejoice, that at last his ungrateful nation was blotted from the earth, and Carthage lives only as a dishonor to history, while his name stands foremost, among warriors and heroes. When the brave and accomplished Champlain returned to France after an absence of three and a half years in Acadia,t having explored all these shores, and given them the names they now bear, and placed the *Lib. x. Epistle 99, A.D. 107. { Champlain, with De Monts and his associates, sailed from St. Malo March 17, i'604, in two ships. They returned to St. Malo September 28, 1607. See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, and the authorities there cited, p. 20, et seq. 9 symbols of the authority of his sovereign, from Cape Breton to Cape Cod, confidently anticipating the future greatness of his race and nation in this their secure home in the finest portion of the new world, he found that the charter granted to De Monts under which he held and occupied the country, had been lrevoked,* and that the most hopeful plan of empire ever revealed to human eyes, had been marred if not destroyed. With generous valor he sought a new home amid the snows of the St. Lawrence, and in 1608 planted the flag and the power of France, upon the shores of that mighty river, where his bones now lie, in the midst of the race he there planted. But the folly of, the great King Henry of Navarre, could not be overcome by any heroism on his part, for the stronger foothold of Sir Ferdinando Gorges had meanwhile been planted on the shores of this open sea, from Sagadahoc to Plymouth, and the flag of France was compelled to- withdraw across the Sagadahoc,- never more to return thither after 1 607', and finally lay in the dust before that cross of St. George, which first floated from the rocky ramparts of Quebec on the 18th of September, 1759,t and the power of France was swept from the continent forever. But all hearts instinctively honor the immortal Champlain. The sympathy of all generous minds ever flows forth, at the utterance of his name. His monument still exists, in. sight of' an admiring posterity, more en.during than this stone we have this day raised in honor of another, and it shall forever remain in perpetual beauty, while the waters from.the lofty summits of the Adirondac, mingling with those * Champlain's Voyages, p. 44, 45, 99, (ed. 1632.) L'Escarbot, p. 619;. 2d edition, 1612. { The battle was fought September 13,'1759; the surrender of Quebec was agreed on in the evening of the 17th, and the English flag raised, on the morning of the 18th. 10 of the Green Mountains, shall fill the deep recesses of the Lake, that bears the honored name, Champlain!' Our duty to-day calls us to honor another, and a greater than Champlain; not greater in purpose, but in the results he achieved for humanity and his race, and more entitled to our sympathy from the blessings we owe to his labors, —the man -that gave NorthAmerica to his nation, and died without even the poor reward that followed his great rival. That colossal empire which Champlain planted on the St. Lawrence, and watched over- till the close of his life,t which eventually held four fifths of the, continent, was unable to regain its possession on these Atlantic shores, and from this cause alone, it finally fell beneath the power and sagacity of England's greatest war minister, Pitt, who gave to the heroic Wolfe, in his youthful prime, the noblest opportunity for fame that has yet fallen to a leader of armies. But the hero who gave the continent to England, was neither Pitt nor Wolfe, but another and greater than either, the illustrious and sagacious KInight, whose manly daring and persevering energy, upheld the drooping cause of colonization in its darkest hours, against individual jealousy and Parliamentary injustice; and saw, like Israel's great law-giver, from the top of the mountain, the goodly land that his countrymen should' afterwards possess, though he was not allowed to enter it.: All honor, this day, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. His praise is proclaimed by Puritan voices, after more than two hundred years of unjust reproach. His monument * See Mrs. Sigourney's charming Sonnet to Champlain, in Note C of the Appendix. f Champlain died in the discharge of the duties of the office of Governor-General of Canada, at Quebec, Dec. 25th, 1635.: See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, p. 80, and note. 11 stands proudly erect among the nations, in that constitutional government of these United States which sheds blessings on the world.* His name, once perpetuated in our annals, was stricken from the records of the State, and no city, or town, or lake, or river, allowed to bear it to future times. But a returning sense of justice marks the American character, and two hundred years after his death it is heard once more in honorable renown.t Busy hands, guided by consummate skill, are now shaping into beauty and order, a work of enduring strength and national defense, that does honor to his name, and rising in sight of our chief commercial city, more beautiful in situation than any that graces the Aegean coast, or smniles from the Adriatic shore-the metropolis, too, of his ancient " Province of Mayne" "-proclaims, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Father of English colonization in America;. And in after-times, * Gorges foresaw and predicted the independence of the colonies of NorthAmerica, of the British crown. Briefe Narration, p. 51, vol. ii. Maine Hist. Coll., also Poor's Vindication, p. 83. 1 Gorges died in 1647. On the 6th of September, 1846, the Hon. George Folsom, of New-York, in an address before the Maine Historical Society, brought his claims to the public notice. See vol. ii. Maine Hist. Collections, p. 1. $ FoRT GoRGEs.-The new Fort in Portland Harbor, erected by the United States Government, on Hog Island Ledge, has been named by the Secretary of War, FORT GORGES, in honor of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "the original proprietor of the Province of Mayne and the Father of English Colonization in America." In November last a petition was presented to the Secretary of War, as follows, namely: To THE HON. JOHN B. FLOYD, SECRETARY OF WAR: The undersigned, citizens of Maine, respectfully ask, that the new fort now being erected in Portland Harbor by the United States Government, may be named FORT GORGES, in honor of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, "the original proprietor of the Province of Mayne, and the Father of English Colonization in America." And as in duty bound will ever pray. Wm. Willis, Ether Shepley, John A. Poor, Jed'h Jewett, John Mussey, George Evans, Ashur Ware, Samuel Fessenden, Samuel Jordan, Geo. F. Emery, Charles Q. Clapp, Joshua Dunn, N: Deering, H. I. Robinson, Samuel P. Shaw, E. H. Elwell, Winm. P. Preble, P. Barnes, Henry Willis, Moses Macdonald, Manasseh H. Smith, John Neal, Oliver Gerrish, Jabez C.Woodman, Geo. F. Shepley, D. W. Fessenden, A. W. H. Clapp, Thomas H. Talbot, F. A. Quinby, Win. Senter, John M. Adams, Chai-les A. Lord, and others. Similar petitions were presented from Augusta, and the same were transmitted through Capt. Kurtz, of the Engineer Corps, in charge of the construction of the Fort. 12 when his race shall become not only masters of the continent, but of the earth, and his mother tongue the universal language, History shall perpetuate the deeds of his genius, and Song shall make his name immortal.* The question that the European nations were called upon to solve, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, was, who should hereafter occupy and possess, the broad belt of'the temperate zone of the New World, from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas. All previous explorations were preliminary efforts towards this one great object, but the question remained open and undecided. The voyages of the Northmen to these shores, interesting to the curious, are of no historic value, because not connected with the colonization of the country-unless it shall hereafter appear that Columbus obtained from them information, as to the extent of the Western' Ocean. At the' time of discovery by Columbus, the only races inhabiting the New World, north of Mexico, were tribes of wandering savages, incapable of accepting or acquiring habits of civilized life. An extinct race, had left their mounds in the West, and their deposits of oyster-beds along the shores of the Atlantic, and passed from traditionary story. The adventurous Magellan in 1520 proved, by the firSt voyage round the world, the extent of the new continent, and in 1579, Sir Francis Drake, the first Eng. lishman that circumnavigated the globe, in that daring The lion. John Appleton, Assistant Secretary of State, interested himself in the matter, and has forwarded us for publication the following note: WASHINGTON, April 2d, 1860.. VERY DEAR SIR: I am much obliged for your note of this date. You may say to your correspondent in Maine, that the Secretary of War has ordered the fortification he refers to to be named' For,t Gorges." Yours,' very truly, W. R. DRINKARD. lion. JOHN APPLETON, Asst. Sec'y of State. -Portland Advertiser of April 10th, 1860. t See in Note C, in Appendix, Mrs. Sigourney's admirable Poem on Gorges. 13 voyage which excited the admiration of his countrymen, gave the name of New-England to the Pacific shores of the continent, which name Captain John Smith afterwards, to strengthen the title to the country, affixed to the Atlantic slope.* But till the beginning of the seventeenth century, North-America, north of Florida, remained unpeopled by Europeans. The Spaniards, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutchl, and the English, had all made voyages of discovery, and laid claims to the country.' As early as 1542, it was parceled off to the three powers first named; Florida, belonging to Spain, extending as far nort)i as the thirty-third parallel of latitude; Verrazzan, or New-France, from the thirty-third to the fiftieth parallel; and Terra Corterealis, northward to the Polar Ocean, thus named in honor of Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese,- who explored the coast in the year 1500. The Spaniards were in pursuit of mines of gold and silver, the Portuguese in quest of slaves, and the French with hopes of profit in the fur trade, and crude but indefinite ideas of colonization. Spain and Portugal originally claimed the New World by grant from the Pope.t England, practically abandoning all claim from the discoveries of Cabot' on the Atlantic, and Drake on the Pacific coasts, laid down, in 1580, the broad doctrine, that prescription without occupation was of no avail; that possession of the country was essential to the maintenance of title. Prescriptio si6ne 0o8esione, hand valeat.$ Before this time, the attention of England had been turned to the northern parts of America, with a view to colonization. As early as March 22, 1574, the Queen * John Smith's Description of New England, vol. ii. p. 2, Force's Tracts. Mass. Historical Coll. 3d series, vol. vi. p. 104.' Bull of Pope Alexander VI. 1493. $ Camden's Eliz. Annales, 1580. See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, p. 9. 14 had been petitioned to allow of the discovery of lands in America "fatallty reserved to England, and for the honor of Her _llajesty."* Sir Humphrey Gilbert's charter "for planting our people in America," was granted by Elizabeth, June 11, 1578, and in 1580 John Walker and his companions had discovered a silver mine in Norumbega. The explorations of Andrew Thevett, of John Barros, and John Walker, alluded to in the papers recently discovered in the British State Paper Office, under date of 1580, we find nowhere else recorded. The possession of Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was abandoned on his loss at sea, and it was not till 1584, that the first charter to Sir WValter Raleigh was issued, by Elizabeth. Raleigh named the country VIRGINIA, in honor of his Queen. Of the two colonies sent out by him, one returned, the other perished in the country, leaving no trace of its history and no record of its melancholy fate.t Thus, at the period of Elizabeth's death, in 1603, England had not a colonial possession on the globe. Sir Richard Whitbourne had made voyages to Newfoundland in his own ship in 1588,: and in 1600 there was a proposition to the Queen for planting a colony in the orth-wes8t of Ameriea,~ in: which can be unmistakably traced the agency of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who it now appears was also concerned in the voyage of Gosnold in 1602, of Pring in 1603, and of George Weymouth in 1605, the earliest ones of which we have any authentic record.ll That eloquent passage in Gorges' Briefe Narration, in which he gives "the reasons and * Calendar of Colonial State Papers, edited by Sainsbury, vol. i. page 1. i Bancroft's History, vol. i. pp. 102, 10'7. Ct alendar of Col. State Papers, vol. i p. 82. ~ See this paper in full in Poor's Vindication of Gorges. Appendix. See Gorges' letter to Challons. Poor's Vindication, p. 384. 15 the means of renewing the undertaking of Plantations in America," deserves our highest praise; and it excites feelings of the warmest gratitude toward him, for it is a modest and touching statement, of his own heroic efforts, in the cause of American colonization.* But the Hollanders and the French were equally aroused to the importance, and inflamed with the purpose, of seizing upon these shores. The vast wealth of the Dutch, their great commercial success prior to this time in both the East and West-Indies, gave them the advantage. Champlain, with greater knowledge of North-America than any of his rivals, had accompanied Pont Grave to the St. Lawrence, by direction of the King, in 1603, when, on his return to France, he found Acadia granted to De Monts, a Protestant, and a member of the King's household, under date of November eighth, 1603, extending across the continent, between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude.t In the spring of 1604, De Monts, accompanied by Champlain, Pont Grave, Poutrincourt, and the learned and accomplished historian L'Escarbot, sailed from Dieppe for the occupation of the NEW WORLD. They planted their colony at St. Croix, within the limits of our own State, in 1604,$ and in the spring and summer of 1605, explored the coast under the lead of Champlain, from Campseau to Cape Malabar, twelve miles south of Cape Cod,'"searching to the bottom of the bays," the same year that Weymouth explored this most excellent and beneficial river of Sagadahoc. To make sure of the country, Champlain, Champdore and L'Escarbot remained three and a half years, fishing, trading with the natives, anil occupying at Boston, Pis* Gorges' Briefe Narration, p. 16. L'Escarbot, p. 432, 2d edition. 1612. tSee Poor's Vindication.of Gorges, p. 23, note. cadouet, (Piscataqua,) Marchin, (Portland,) Koskebee, (Casco Bay,) Kinnibequi, (Kennebec,) Pentagoet, (Penobscot,) and all east, to Campseau and,Cape Breton. Returning to France in 1607, they found the charter of De Monts revoked,* on account of the jealousy of his rivals, and a small indemity from the King their only reward, for these f6ur years of sacrifice and unremitting toil. This shortsightedness of the great Henry of Navarre; cost France the dominion of the New World. For on the return of Weymouth to Plymouth, in 1605, with five savages from Pemaquid,. Sir Ferdinando Gorges gathered from them full particulars of this whole region, its harbors rivers, natural- characteristics and features, its people and mode of government.t Associating with himself. the Earl of Southampton,$ Gorges, relying upon these circumstances as a means of inflaming the imagination of his countrymen, petitioned the King for a charter,~ which he obtained, under' date of April tenth, 1606,j1 granting to George Popham,.and seven others,' the continent of North-America, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, extending one hundred miles into-the mainland, and including: all islands of the'sea within one hundred miles of the shore. This charter is the basis on which rests the title of our race to' the New World.'It provided for a local gbvernment at home, intrusted to a *L'Escarbot, p. 460, 2d edition. 1612. Champlain, pp. 44, 45, 99. j' Gorges' Briefe Narration. 3laine Rist. Coll. vol. ii.-p. 19. i Henry Wriothesley, Earl. of Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakspeare, was the third earl of that name, and grandson of Thomas Wriothesley, Lord High Chancellor of England, under Edward VI. Created a peer February sixteenth, 1547, he died in 1550. His son Henry, was Lord'Treasurer, and' grandfather of Iady Rachel Russell.. His patent of nobility was declared forfeited, under Elizabeth, but restored by-James in 16)i3. The third earl, Treasurer of the Virginia Company, and the patron of letters and of American. colonization, died in command of an English regiment, in the Dutch service, in the Netherlands, in 1624. The fourth earl died in 1667, and the title became extinct. ~Strachey's Travaile into Virginia, p. 161. See this charter in full in Poor's Vindication of Gorges. Appendix. 17 Council of Thirteen, with two companies, one of North, and the other of South-Virginia, for carrying into execution the plans of colonization in the country.* The venerable Sir John Popham,t Chief-Justice of England by the appointment of Elizabeth, a man of vast wealth and influence, became the patron of the Company; and his son, Sir Francis Popham, was appointed by the King, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, one of the Council of Thirteen, under whom, as the Council of Virginia, the work of colonization was to be carried forward.4 From the great fame of Chief-Justice Popham, and his interest in the matter, the colony sent by the NorthVirginia Company was popularly known as Popham's Colony, though his name was not in the charter, or included among the Council. "The planting of NewEngland in the North, was by Chief-Justice POPIIAM," said the Scotch adventurers, in their address to the King, September ninth, 1630, recently brought to our notice from the British State Paper Office.~ In a work entitled -Encouragement to Colonies, by William Alexander, Knight, in 1625, he says: "Sir John Popham - The COUNcIL OF VIRGINIA, appointed by King James, November twentieth, 1606, consisted of fourteen persons instead of thirteen. Their names are given in a subsequent note. f Sir.John Popham was born at Huntsworth, near Wellington, in Somersetshire, in 1531. He was at Oxford in 1547, became distinguishedat the bar in 1560; was made Sergeant at Law, and Solicitor General, June twenty-sixth,:1579. He was Speaker of the Commons in 1581; became Attorney-General June first,1581. He was knighted 1592; made Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench June eighth, 1592. He.assisted at King James's coronation in 1603. September fifth and sixth, 1604, King James and the Queen were entertained at Littlecote, the residence of the Chief-Justice. He was the richest lawyer of his time, having an income of ten thousand pounds per year. He died June first, 1607, and'was buried at WVellington. His eldest son was Sir Francis Popham, whose eldest son, John Popham, married June twenty-first, 1621, Mary, only daughter of Sebastian Harvey, at Stoke Newington, but had no children. The family of the Chief-Justice is supposed to be extinct. The fact of his appointment as Chief-Justice by Elizabeth, in the later years of her life, proves him to have been a great lawyer. Elizabeth appointed the ablest men she could find to public office. $ See this charter in full in Poor's Vindication. Appendix. This paper is now printed for the first time in the appendix to Poor's Vindication of Gorges. 2 18 sent the first colony that went, of purpose to inhabit there near to Sagadahoc."* But until the comparatively recent publication of Strachey, the history of this colony was almost unknown. Two unsuccessful attempts at planting a colony were made in 1606.t On the thirty-first of May, 1607, the first colony to New-England sailed from Plymouth for the Sagadahoc, in two ships-one called the " Gift of God," whereof George Popham, brother of the Chief-Justice,j was commander; and the other, the " Mary and John," commanded by Raleigh Gilbert-on board which ships were one hundred and twenty persons, for planters. They came to anchor under an island, supposed to be Monhegan, the thirty-first of July. After exploring the coast and islands, on Sunday, the ninth of August, 1607, they landed on an island they called St. George, where they heard a sermon, delivered unto them by Mr. Seymour, their preacher, and so returned aboard again. On the fifteenth of August they anchored under Seguin, and on that day the " Gift of God" got into the river of Sagadahoc. On the sixteenth, after a severe storm, both ships got safely in, and came to anchor. On the seventeenth, in two boats, they sailed up the river — Captain Popham in his pinnace, with thirty persons, and Captain Gilbert in his long-boat, with eighteen persons, and " found it a very gallant river; many good islands therein, and many branches of other small rivers falling into it," and returned. On the " eighteenth, they all went ashore, and there made choice of a place for, their plantation, at the mouth or entry of the river, on * A copy of this rare work is in the possession of Gen. Peter Force, of Washington City. f See Poor's Vindication, pp. 38, 39.: Note by R. H. Major, editor of Strachey's Travaile into Virginia, p. 27. Published by the Hakluyt Society-one of the volumes of its series. Hubbard's History of Massachusetts Bay, p. 10. 19 the west side, (for the river bendeth itself towards the nor-east and by east,) being almost an islahnd, of good bigness, in a province called by the Indians,' Sabino'so called of a Sagamo, or chief commander, under the grand bashaba." On the nineteenth, they all went ashore where they had made choice of their plantation, and where they had, a sermon delivered unto them by their preacher, and after the sermon, the President's commission was read, with the patent,* and the laws to be observed and kept.t * By the original charter, the company had the right to sell lands, work mines, coin money, transport thither colonists, expel by force all intruders, raise a revenue by imposts, carry out goods free of duty to the Crown, for seven years, with a denization of all persons born or residing in the country. - A constituent code of laws was prepared, and signed by King James, in accordance with the provision to this effect set forth in the seventh section of the charter of April tenth, 1606. ILucas's Charters of the Old English Colonies, p. 4. This constituent code is contained in two ordinances, or articles of instructions, from the King, namely: I. Ordinance dated November twentieth, 1606, appointing Sir William Wade, Thomas Warr, Esq., Sir Henry Montague, Sir Walter Cope, Thomas James, Esq., John Doddridge, Esq., Sir FrancisPopham, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, John Eldred, Esq., Sir John Trevor, Sir George More, James Bagg, Esq., Sir William Romney, Sir Thomas Smith, as the Council of Virginia. This ordinance provided that 1. Each colony may elect associates, and annually elect a President for one year; and assistants or councillors for the same time. 2. The Christian religion shall be preached and observed as established in the realm of England. 3. Lands shall descend to heirs as provided by law in England. 4. Trial by jury of twelve men, in all criminal cases. Tumults, rebellion, conspiracy, mutiny and sedition, murder, manslaughter, incest, rape and adultery, only, are capital offences. 6. In civil causes, the President and Council shall determine. They may punish excesses in drunkenness, vagrancy, etc. 6. All produce, or goods imported, to be stored in the magazine of the Company. 7 They shall elect a clerk and treasurer, or cape-merchant. S. May make laws needful and proper, consonant with the laws of England 9. Indians to be civilized and taught the Christian religion. 10. All offenders to be tried in the colony. 11. Oath' of obedience to be taken. 12. Records of all proceedings and judgments fully.set forth and preserved, implying a right of appeal. In all criminal cases, magistrates to suspend sentence -till'opportunity of pardon is had by the king. These were the laws "to be observed and kept." ( See Poor's Vindication of Gorges. Appendix.) II. Ordinance, dated March 9th, 1607. On the recommendation, or nomination, of the Southern company, the following additional members of the Council of Virginia were appointed, namely: 20 "George Popham, gent., was nominated President. Captain Raleigh Gilbert, James Davies, Richard Seymour, Preacher, Captain Richard Davies, Captain Hiarlowe, were all sworn assistants; and so they returned back again." Thus commenced the first occupation and settlement of New-England. On a careful examination of this patent of King James, and of the articles, instructions and orders by him set down for the government of these colonies, we are struck with the sagacity and statesmanship every where evinced by the monarch. He rose superior to the notions of his times, reduced the number of capital offences to ten, and declared none should be capital but the more gross of political, and the more heinous of moral crimes. He gave them all the liberties they could desire. In the subsequent charters for Virginia and NewEngland, the same broad principles of self-government were in the main reenacted. In the contests with the King and Parliament of England, one hundred and fifty years later, the coloSir Thomas Challoner, Kt., Sir George Kopping, Kt., SirEdw'd Michilbourne, Kt., Sir Henry Nevil, Kt., Sir Thomas Rowe, Kt., Sir Thomas Smith, Kt., Sir Robert Mansfield, Kt.,,Sir Fulke Grevil, Kt., Sir Robert Croft, Kt., Sir Maurice Berkeley, Kt., Sir John Scott, Kt., Sir Edward Sandys, Kt., Sir Thomas Holcroft, Kt., Sir Oliver Cromwell, Kt., Sir Anthony Palmer. Sir Robert Kelligrew, Kt., On the recommendation or nomination of the Northern Colony, the following additional members of the Council of Virginia were appointed: Sir Edw'd Hungerford, Kt.,Sir Richard Hawkins, Kt., Bernard Greenville, Esq., Sir John Mallett, Kt., Sir Bartholomew Mlitchell,Kt.,Edward Rogers, Esq., Sir John Gilbert, Kt.,* Edward Seamour, Esq., Rev. Matthew Sutcliff; D.D. Sir Thomas Freake, Kt., These appointments made the Council of Virginia to consist of forty instead of thirteen. There was a further provision that "any twelve of them, at least for the time being, whereof six at least to be members of one of the said colonies, and six more at least to be members of the other colony," " shall have power to choose officers, call meetings," etc. (See Poor's Vindication of Gorges. Appendix.) *Strachey, p. 301, Maine Hist. Coll. vol. iii. * Oldmixon's History of British Empire in America, says Sir John Gilbert was President of the Northern Virginia Company, p. 41. Stith's History of Virginia, pp. 74, 75. 21 nists only demanded their ancient rights, as subjects of the British crown. From August 19, 0. S., 1607, the title of England to the new world was maintained. At this place they opened a friendly trade with the natives, put up houses and built a small vessel, during the autumn and winter. Richard Bloome, in his History of the Present State of the Territories in, America, printed in London 1687, says: "In the year 1607, Sir John Popham and others settled a plantation at the mouth of the river Sagadahoc. But Capt. James Davis chose a small place, almost an Island, to sit down in, when, having heard a sermon, read *the patent and laws; and after he had built a fort, sailed further up the river. They call the fort St. George, Capt. George Popham being President; and the people (savages) seemed to be much affected with our men's devotion, and would say King James is a good King, and his God a good God; but our God, 5Tanto, is a naughty God. "In January, in the space of seven hours, they had thunder, lightning, rain, frost and snow all in very great abundance." On the 5th of February, 1608, George Popham died,* and his remains were deposited within the wall of his fort, which was named Fort St. George. It is well known that the Popham Colony, or a portion of them, returned to England in 1608, with the ship they had built on this peninsula, the first specimen of naval architecture constructed on this continent, named the " Virginia of Sagadahoc." But this possession of the Popham Colony proved * Prince's New-England Chronology, p. 118; Brodhead's History of New-York, p. 14. 22 sufficient to establish the title. The revocation of the charter to De Monts gave priority to the grant of' King James, covering the same territory, and this formal act of possession was ever after upheld, by an assertion of the title by Gorges. It was sufficient, effectually, to hold the country against the French and Spaniards alike.* When Argall, in 1613, destroyed the French settlement at Mount Desert, t the French Minister demanded satisfaction at the hands of the British nation. But no notice was taken of this * The Spanish Secretary of State in 1612 and 1613 complained to King James for allowing his subjects to plant in Virginia and Bermuda, as the country belonged to Spain, by the conquest of Castile who acquired it by the discovery of Columbus, and the Pope's donation; to which Sir Dudley Carleton, Secretary of State, by order of King James made answer: " Spain has no possessions north of Florida. They belong to the crown of England by right of discovery and actual possession by the two EEnglish colonies thither deducted, whereof the latter is. yet there remaininig. These countries should not be given over to the Spanish." Cal. of Col. State Papers, vol. i. p. 14, Nos. 28 and 29; also page 16, Nos. 31 and 32. In the memorials of the English and French Commission concerning the limits of Nova-Scotia or Acadia, under the Treaty of Utrecht, the French Commissioners say: " The Court of France adjudged that they had the right to extend the western limits of Acadia as far as the River Kinnibequi," (p. 39.) On page 98 of the same Collections it says: i" Chief-Justice Popham planted the colony at Sagadahoc." f MOUNT DESERT was so named by Champlain in 1605. The English named it Mount llfansell, in honor of Sir Robert Mansell, the highest naval officer of England, one of the grantees of the Virginia Company of 1609, and of the New-England Company in 1620. But it has retained the name of AMount Desert. It has always been celebrated for the excellence of its harbor and the boldness of its shores. It is the most celebrated locality on the Atlantic coast, and one of the three great harbors of the continent. The French Jesuits, who settled there in 1613, called it St. Saviour. Their precise place of settlement is described in the Relations of the Jesuits, vol. i. p. 44, 46, and has been identified by the accurate explorations of the Hon. E. L. Hamlin, of Bangor, the present year. In Poor's Vindication of' Gorges, Appendix, page 103, is a translation of the Jesuit Relation, describing this place, and of its destruction by Argall. What is of still more interest is the fact that this was the easternmost limits of.MaeJosheen, or of the English discoveries up to 1609. See Purchase, vol. iv. p. 187/3. I'Escarbot, the historian of New-France and of De Monts' expedition, says the Sagamo lfiarchin was residing at their next place west of Kinnibequi, and they named the place Mcerchin, (Portland,) in honor of himu. Marchin was slain in 1607, and Bessabes was chosen captain in his place. Bessabes was slain also, and than Asticowz was chosen in his stead. According to the statement in Purchase, vol. iv. p. 1873-4, at the easternmost part of Mavosheen, at the river of Quibiquesson, dwelt Asticozu. In 1613, Asticon was dwelling at Mount Desert, and the assurance givell by his followers to Fathers Biard and Masse of his being sick and desirous of baptism at their hands, led them to go thither, and finally to yield to entreaties for making their settlement there, instead of at Kadesquit, (Kenduskeag,) Bangor, on the Penobscot, as they had agreed in 1611. It would seem from these facts that tile authority of Asticou extended from Mount Desert to the Saco, the river of the Sagarno Olmouchirn. t Calendar of Colonial State Papers, vol. i. p. 1. 23 demand, because the French could show no claim of title. Again in 1624, M. Tillieres, the French Ambas. sador, claimed the territory of New-England as a portion of New-France, and proposed to yield all claim to Virginia, and the country as far south as the Gulf of Mexico; overlooking entirely the title of Spain to Florida, which had always been recognized as extending to the thirty-third parallel of north latitude. France had at this time become, aware of the importance of securing the title and possession of these shores.-* King James called on Sir Ferdinando Gorges to prepare a reply to the claims of the French nmonarch.' Whereunto," says Gorges, " I made so full a reply (as it seems) there was no more heard of their claim." f From the abstract of this reply, recently printed in the Calendar of British State Papers, it would seem that no notice was taken of the Leyden flock, who were then at Plymouth; but Sir Ferdinando Gorges based the claim of his government on the ground of the charter of 1606, and the formal occupation of the country under it, with a continued claim of title. In 1631, Champlain, the greatest mind of his nation, ever engaged in colonial enterprise, the boldest and most wary of all his countrymen, second only to Gorges in the results he achieved, in his memoir to his sovereign, as to the title of the two nations, says "King James issued his charter twenty-four years ago, for the country from the thirty-third to the forty-fifth degree. England seized the coast of New-France, where lies Acadia, on which they imposed the name of NewEngland." I The Dutch West-India Company, in their address * Cal. of Col. State Papers, vol. i. p. 60. + Gorges' Briefe Narration, p. 40. 1 Doe. Hist. of New-York, vol. ix. p. 112. 24 to the States General, 1632, say: "In the year 1606, his Majesty of Great Britain granted to his subjects, under the names of New-England and Virginia, north and south of the river, (Manhattoes,) on express condition that the companies should remain one hundred miles apart. Whereupon the English began, about the year 1607, to settle by the river of Sagadahoc. The English place New-England between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude." * In Garneau's History of Canada, speaking of the destruction of Mount Desert, and Port Royal, in 1613, he says: "England claimed the territory to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude." This was seven years before the date of the New-England Charter. This claim was founded on possession; for England stoutly maintained, from the time of Elizabeth onward, that without possession there was no valid title to a newly discovered country. This view of history is overlooked by Puritan writers, and those who follow their authority. That protection of the British nation which enabled the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, and the humble followers of Robinson, to establish, unmolested, homes in the New World, under organized forms of government, was grudgingly acknowledged by them, and the man who secured to them these blessings, and watched over them with the same jealous care as of his own colony - they always stigmatized as their great enemy,+ because, among other acts of humanity, he allowed the mild and conscientious men, who could not yield implicit obedience to their fierce doctrines, and nmore barbarous iaws,: to escape into Maine, and there remain * Holland Doe. N. Y., p. 61. + Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 14; Bradford's Hist. of Plymouth, p. 328. t None but church members shall be allowed the privileges of freemen.-Statute of 1631, Massachusetts Colony Laws, p. 117. 25 unharmed. When Cromwell granted to Sir Thomas Temple the country east of the Sagadahoc, at the time that the persecution of the Quakers was at its greatest height, with the design of affording them a place of refuge beyond the limits even of the Province of MIaine, * which they had just conquered by violence; the anger of Massachusetts Puritans fell upon the head of the Protector, himself a Puritan, and an Independent of the straitest sect at home. But time allows no allusion to-day to historic details, except what is essential to the vindication of the truth of history. The fact that the 19th of August, Old Style, is the true date of the foundation of England's title to the continent, is all we are called upon to establish. It may be said, that in giving this prominence to the occupation of the country by the colony of Popham, we overlook other events of importance in establishing the English title —the possession of the Elizabeth Isles by Gosnold in 1602, and the settlement of Jamestown May 13th, 1607, prior to the landing of the Popham Colony at Sagadahoc. Iln reference to the occupation of Elizabeth Isles by Any attempt to change the form of government is punishable with death.-Statute of 1641, Col. Laws, p. 59., Absence from meeting on Sunday, fast, or thanksgiving, subjected the offender to a fine.-Col. Laws, p. 103. Keeping or observing Christmas was punishable by fine.-Col. Laws, p. 119. Wages to be regulated in each town by vote of the freemen of each.-Col. Laws, p. 156. Baptists are to be punished by banishment.-Colony Laws, 1646, p. 120. Quakers to be imprisoned and then banished, on pain of death if they returned. -Colony Laws, 1658, p. 123. Witches shall be put to death -Colony Laws, 1641, p. 59. Magistrates shall issue warrants to a constable, and in his absence to any person, to cause Quakers to be stripped naked from the middle upward; tied to a cart's tail, and whipped from town to town till conveyed out of our jurisdiction.-Colony Laws, p. 125. Under these laws Baptists had their ears cropped in Boston as late as 1658, and Quakers were put to death. *N. Y. Doc. Hist. vol. ix. p. 71, 75. 26 Gosnold, it is sufficient to say, that it was prior to the date of the Royal Charter, and consequently of no legal effect in establishing title. As to the settlement of Jamestown, it was south of the fortieth parallel of latitude, and therefore did not come in conflict with the French King's prior charter to De Monts. The territory between the fortieth and tihe forty-fifth degrees only, was in dispute. Although the maps of the time made New-France to extend from. the thirty-third to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, France practically abandoned the country south of the fortieth. degree firom the time of the grant of the charter to De Monts, so that below that line south, it was open to any people who might have the courage to possess it; this south line of De Monts' grant, intersecting what is now Pennsylvania, just north of the city of Philadelphia, cutting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois-very nearly in their centre. Had there been no English settlement or occupancy north of the fortieth parallel of latitude prior to 1610, when Poutrincourt obtained a new grant of Acadifa, the whole'country north of that line must have fallen into the hands of the French. The reason, undoubtedly, why France at this time extended her claims no further south than the fortieth parallel was, a fear of exciting the jealousy and hostility of the Spaniards. In 1562, when Ribaut and Laud.onniere planted at Port Royal, Spain looked upon it, as an invasion of her just domain, and promptly expelled the French invaders. Recent discoveries show that she watclhed with a most jealous eye the fate of the earlier voyages of Cartier from 1534 to 1541.* Spain, at that time, was the great military and naval power of Europe. There can be no doubt that the limiting of De Monts' charter to the fortieth parallel of latitude, seven degrees See Historical Magazine, January, 1862, p. 14. 27 short of all her previous claims, was induced by at dread of Spanish interference. Spanish jealousy showed itself equally in opposition to the English occupation of the country, but their prompt assertion in 1613 of their title, averring the actual occupation of the country, and the denial, on the part of King James, of any validity in, the Bull of the Pope, upheld the right'of England. It was not Spain, however, but France that became the actual competitor of England in the struggle for the new dominion. The relations of Spain and France were friendly. Between Spain and England there were many irritations, and so far had this ill-feeling grown, that the capture of English ships by Spanish cruisers was not an uncommon occurrence, as in the case of Challons, and others, bound to New-England, for purposes of colonization. The French, therefore, made no claim to that Virginia occupied by the colony at Jamestown, while Spain claimed the whole country. French plans of empire looked northward and westward, resting their base on the great inland sea, or gulf lying inside Cape Sable and Cape Cod, where, for a whole century previous, from 1504, and onward, their fishermen had found the choicest treasures of the sea. Whoever held this region, as all now see, must eventually become the dominant power of the New World. The. national feeling was not fully aroused in either country to the greatness of the prize at stake. Champlain comprehended the true measure of the occasion, and its importance to his country; while Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with equal grasp of intellect, rested on a more secure foundation the confidence of his sovereign. 28 But the people of England were incapable of estimating the value of the prize, or doing justice to the man who secured- it. In the debate in the House of Commons, in 1 621 and 1622, on the bill to abrogate or annul the NewEngland charter, and throw open the fisheries, briefly reported in the parliamentary journals, the issue was, " Whic7h is of most value, fishing or plantatcions?" and the result showed that the enemies of colonization were in the ascendant, and a bill to this effect passed the House. By the influence of the King acting with the Lords, it was prevented from becoming a law.* From the time of the first conflict at Mount Desert, where Father Du Thet was killed in defending his home, in 1613-the first shedding of blood between the French and English on this continent-till the fall of Quebec, in 1759, and the Treaty of Peace consequent thereon, in 1763, surrendering New-France to Great Britain, there was a strife of races, of nationalities and of religion for the territory of New-England, while Virginia, along the. Atlantic slope, was never molested by the French. The western boundary of Virginia was the Pacific Ocean, and she came into conflict with France when she crossed the Alleghanies and descended into the Mississippi Basin, and there met the French settlers, who had seized upon the western waters, claiming a continuous possession of the enitire regions drained by the waters of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. Had England acquired nothing in the way of title in the New * April 19, 1621, "Mr. Neale said three hundred ships, at least, had gone this year from these ports," p. 591. Nov. 20, 1621,' Mr. Glanville moved to speed the bill," etc. "Sir Ferdinando Gorges hath exhibited patent," etc. "Friday next Sir F. G., to be heard," p. 640. Dec. 1, 1621, Bill under consideration. " Mr. Guy moves a provision; debate by Mr. Neale, Mr. Secretary', Dr. Gooch, Sir Edward Gyles, Mr. Guy, and Shewell, which is of most value, fishing or plantations? ~120,000 brought in annually by fishing." "Provision lost. Bill passed, p. 654."-Extracts from the Journal of the Commons. 29 World north of the fortieth parallel prior to the Plymouth Plantation in 1620, there is no reason to doubt that France would have swept the British power from the continent at the first clash of arms with Great Britain. It was this possession of the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, within the limits of the fortiet'h and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, prior to 1610, that settled the future destiny of the continent of North-America. The consummation of title, therefore, perfected by the act of possession of August nineteenth, O. S. 1607, by the Popham Colony, whose two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary we this day celebrate, must, if these premises are admitted, forever remain the great fact in the history of the New World. The Maine Historical Society, whose duty it is made, by the charter establishing it, "to collect and preserve whatever may tend to explain and illustrate the civil, ecclesiastical, and natural history of this State and the United States," was pleased to approve of the act of two of its members, then in the service of the State, who petitioned the authorities of the General Govern1ment, that this great work of national defence, then about to be undertaken, should be named ForiT POPIHAM, in honor of George Popham, the Governor, who led the first British Colony into New-England, under the charter of April 10, 1606, and who, discharging the duties of his office as President, and presenting a report in the form of a letter, to the King, dated at Fort St. George, December 13, 1607,* here ].aid down his life —the first man of the English race whose bones were laid beneath the soil of New-England. * Popham's Letter in the Maine lHist. Coll. vol. v. p. 341. 30 The venerable Chief of the Engineer Bureau of the United States Army, to whom this petition was referred, ever jealous of the honor of his country, not only as to the character of its military structures, but as to the names, to'whose honor they should attestpromptly indorsed the application, and it met the ready approval of the Secretary of WVar.* To mark, with greater distinctness, the event thus commemorated, the Maine Historical Society asked permission to place within the walls of this Fort a MEMORIAL STONE, bearing on its face an appropriate inscription of the event; and that a TABLET, in memory of George Popham, so honorably associated with the great event of that period, should be allowed to form a portion of its walls. By the favor of the Government we have this d.ay performed that duty, with appropriate form and ceremony. The learned President of the Maine Historical Society has announced the historic facts on which this somewhat novel proceeding has taken place. The accomplished and honored Chief Magistrate of the State has given to the occasion the influence of his official * The following correspondence, copied from the files of the War Office, shows the prompt action of the Government in the matter: To THE HON. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War: The undersigned, citizens of Maine, respectfully request that the new Fort to be erected at the mouth of the Kenebec river, in Maine, may be named FORT POPHAM, in honor of Cajt. George Popham, brother of the learned Chief-Justice Popham, of England. Capt. George Popham, as the Governor of the first English Colony in New-England, built a fort at or near the site of the proposed fort, in the year 1607, where he died February 5, 1608, and was buried, being the first person of his race whose bones were laid beneath the soil of New-England, and whose grave will be appropriately marked by the fort that rises over his place of burial.(Signed) JOHN A. POOR, WASHINGTON, November 18, 1861. REUEL WILLIAMS. This proposal for a name was favorably received at the Engineer Bureau, by General Totten, who laid the matter before the Secretary of'War. On the 23d of November, General Cameron acted on the foregoing petition, and entered thereon: "Name approved. "SI.MON CAMERON, Secretary of War. "WARP DEPARTMENT, Washington, November 23, 1861." station, and the more acceptable service of eloquent words, proclaiming the importance of the event commemorated, upon the history of the country and the world, while the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Maine and the President of our oldest Seminary of learning, as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society, have jointly participated in the appropriate services of this occasion, and that most ancient, Masonic Fraternity, has lent to the celebration whateveri of dignity or grace. the wisest of their Order have been able to embody in artistic form and expression. With the consent of the Government, these imposing ceremonies have proceeded, and finally the skillful hand of him who is charged with the construction of this Fort,' will place this stone in its final resting-place-for the information of those who come after us-proclaiming to future times, in the simple eloquence of truthful words, that THE FIRST COLONY ON THE SHORES OF NEW-ENGLAND Was Founded Here, August i9th, 0. S. 1607, under GEORGE POPHAM. It would ill comport with the dignity' of this occasion to fail to speak of him, whose name is thus imperishably connected with the history of our State and Nation. To his family and the events of his life others may more appropriately refer. WVe allude to him as a public man, and to his claims to public gratitude and respect. His chief distinction is, that he was one of the eight persons named in the great charter of April 10th, 1606, and that he led to these shores the first colony under that charter. In it he is styled gentleman, Y Captain T. L. Casey, U. S. Engineers. 32 and he must have been a man of consequence and posi. tion, from the fact that he was one of its grantees. After his death, Gorges, in a few brief lines, thus sums up his character: " He was well stricken in years, and had long been an infirm man. IHowsoever, heartened by hopes, willing he was to die in acting something that might be serviceable to God, and honorable to his country."* A glorious consummation of a long life, devoted to duty, to his country, and his God.t Within the'walls of this Fort, and as a companionpiece to the memorial stone, which records the historic fact of this day's celebration, the Maine Historical Society will place a tablet in memory of George Popham, expressing, in that sonorous Latin language which he employed in his communication to the King, and which was at that time used by all who wrote for enduring fame, these words: In Memoriam GEORGII POPHAM, Angliae qui primus ab oris Coloniam collocavit in Nov. Anglia terris, Augusti mense annoque MDCVII. Leges literasque Anglicanas Et fidem ecclesiamque Christi In has sylvas duxit. Solus ex colonis atque senex obiit Nonis Februariis sequentibus, Et juxta hunc locum est sepultus. Societate Historica Mainensi auspicante, In praesidio ejus nomen ferente, Quarto die ante calendas Septembres Annoque MDCCCLXII. Multis civibus intuentibus, Hic lapis positus est. * Gorges' Briefe Narration, p. 22, vol. ii. Maine Hist. Coll. j Mrs. Sigourney has since embodied in song, in one of her happiest efforts, the heroic deeds of Popham. See Appendix C. 33 [TRANSLATION.] IN MEMORY OF GEORGE POPHAM Who-first from the shores of England Founded a Colony in New-England August, 1607. He brought into these wilds English-laws and learning And the faith and the Church of Christ. He only of the colonists, -and in his old age, died On the fifth of the following February And was buried' near this spot. Under the auspices of the Maine Historical Society In the Fort bearing his name August 29, 1862, In the presence of many citizens This stone was placed. This fort, so conspicuously placed, bearing these appropriate testimonials, thus becomes a fitting monument to perpetuate the events of the early history of NewEngland, and transmit to future times, the memory of those illustrious men who laid-the foundation of English colonies in America; to which the laws, the institutions and civilization of England were transferred, and from which, has sprung the glorious fabric of American Constitutional Government. Standing here to-day, in sight of the spot where Popham, two hundred and fifty-five years ago, took upon himself the office of President, and near the place where, on the fifth of February following, he died, it seems our privilege to be' admitted into his presence-chamber, as for the last time he had summoned around him his faithful assistants and companions, and gave commands for the future. The scene is worthy of a painter's pencil and a poet's pen. The ever-faithful and heroic Raleigh Gilbert, "a man," says Gorges, "worthy to be 34 beloved of them for his industry and care for their wellbeing"-the future President of the colony-is by his side. The pious Richard Seymour administers to him words of comfort and consolation. Captain Richard Davies, of all his assistants, was absent in England. His devoted companions stand around their dying chief, when, in the language of Israel's great law-giver, laying the burden of the government on Joshua, he might well say to Raleigh Gilbert: "Be strong and of a good courage, for thou must go with this people into the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them: and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord he it is that doth go before thee: he will be' with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed." "So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley inr the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." In the far-distant future, not two hundred and fiftyfive years from this day, the period of time that has intervened since his death, but in' that period of more than three thousand years to come, like that from the death of Israel's law-giver, to that of Popham, these stones which are here builded, shall mark the place of his sepulture, and the myriads of thronging pilgrims, led by eager curiosity, to tread the soil of this peninsula of Sabino, hereafter made classic by song and story, shall pause and read, on that memorial stone, the record of his great work; and when we who are now here, shall have passed away, and beyond the reach of story or tradition, Popham's name shall live in the history of the mighty race, who have changed this continent from one 35 vast wildernesss to a marvel of refinement and beauty, fitted for the enjoyment of civilized man. His sagacity and ability are best evidenced by the fact, that after the experience of t;wo hundred and fiftyfive years, the highest military skill has confirmed the wisdom of his choice of a place of settlement, by the adoption of it as the proper site of the great work of defence for the Kennebec River.* To this spot multitudes shall annually repair, for this region will continue to be, what it ever was, to the early navigators and colonists of both France and Englanda chief point of interest. The French historian L'Escarbot, speaking of this river, says "it shortened the way" to the great river of Canada.t Gosnold's landfall, in 1602, was at Sagadahoc.$ Pring, in 1603, made it the chief point of his discoveries; and the great voyage of Weymouth was tb "the most excellent and beneficyall river of Sagadahoc."~ Here the English remained in 1608 and 1609, as related by the French Jesuits.ll Here Vines pursued his voca* See Note A, with its accompanying Map. f L'Escarbot, p. 49'7.: Strachey, Hakluyt Society edition, p. 155; caption at the head of the chapter. See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, p. 30, note 2. ~ Much controversy and discussion have arisen as to the route of Weymouth, and as to the river he explored. Belknap's authority was generally accepted, fixing it at the Penobscot, till the critical eye and more ample knowledge of the late John McKeen, Esq., detected its errors. He maintained that the Kennebec was the true river. Mr. George Prince and Rev. Mr. Cushman have argued in favor of the. river St. George. Mr. R. K. Sewall and Rev. Mr. Ballard maintain the views of Mr. McKeen. Hon. W. Willis adheres to Belknap's authority. Strachey's positive statement that it was the Sagadahoc, was unknown to Belknap. I find in Purchase, a fact not alluded to by any of these writers, that may aid in solving the difficulty. John Stoneman, of Plymouth, who went out with Weymouth, in 1605, sailed as pilot in the ship Richard, of Plymouth, in charge of Henry Challons commander, in Gorges' employ, to found the colony at Sagadahoc, in 1606. Nicholas Hine, of Cockingrton, near Dartmouth, was master. Although Challons failed of his object, by disregarding his instructions, and was taken cap:tive by the Spaniards, his purpose of going- to Sagadahoc is expressly stated, and his pilot was of Weymouth's party in 1605. This discovery of the name of Hine, as master under Challons, also relieves us of the difficulty in the apparent contradiction between Gorges and Strachey; the former using the name of Challoln as master, the latter calling the master's name Haines, leading us to suppose there were two several voyages, instead of one in fact. I Relations of the Jesuits, vol. i. p. 36. 36 tion,* and hither all the fishing vessels came, because the finest fish were taken in this region. The salmon of the Kennebec are to this day known in all our cities. The Council of New-England, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1622, set apart " two great islands in the river of Sagadahoc to be reserved for the public plantation," and " a place between the branches of the two rivers" "for a public city."t- Though the strife of races and of nationalities has kept back'the settlement of this whole region, and the still more disastrous conflicts of rival grants and hostile occupation, destroyed for generations all plans of improvement, who shall dare to say that these plans shall not be realized? When this Acadian peninsula, with its one hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, and its abundant resources, shall contain a population equal to that now peopling the British Isles,-this magnificent estuary, with its deep sea-soundings, discharging a larger volume of water than any river of the Atlantic coast, between the St. John and the Mississippi, may become' the chief seat of wealth and power, of the mighty race who inhabit the continent,-why then may not the history of other lands become ours, and another Liverpool here rival the great commercial city of NewEngland; and Boston become to the city of the Sagadahoc, what Bristol is to the great shipping port of the Mersey?. We miss from our celebration to-day, one who was instrumental in creating the immediate occasion of it, and in affixing the name of Popham to this great pub*Gorges' Briefe Narration, p. 24. f Minutes of the Council of New-England, July twenty-fourth, 1622. Calendar of Col. State Papers, vol. i. p. 32. This paper is given in full in Poor's Vindication of Gorges, in the Appendix. f The extraordinary advantages of Bath for a naval and military depot, are admitted by all military engineers, but no effort adequate to such a consummation has yet been made. 87 lic work, and who looked forward with prophetic eye to this day's proceedings. The propriety of associating important historic events with works of national defence, and of attesting thereby to the fame of the actors therein, met the approval of his mature judgment, and his last act of public duty was an appeal to the Secretary of War for the erection of this fort, and affixing to it the name it now bears.* His stern countenance relaxed into a smile at the first suggestion of this anniversary celebration, and the placing within the walls of this fort of this memorial stone. Born on the banks of this river, the place of his birth continued. for fourscore years to be his home; and without the aid of anything but his strong character and his indomitable will, he reached wealth and eminence early in life, and bore at the close of it, the title of " the first citizen of Maine." t This is not the time or place to pronounce his eulogy; an abler pen at the appointed hour shall perform this pleasing duty. But among the many memorials of, his enterprise and public spirit that adorn the banks of the Kennebec, this fort attests and will attest the praise of Reuel Williams, while it is made by this day's celebration a fitting monument to preserve in remembrance the greater events of an earlier time. 1We must not, in this connection, forget our obligations to the people of the colony of Massachusetts, and the early settlers of Plymouth, for their share in conquering the continent for our race, though dealing harshly with Maine. $ These Massachusetts Puri*By appointment of Governor -Washburn, Mr. Williams visited Washington, November first, 1861, as one of the Commissioners of Maine, in. reference to the public defences of the State, his first visit after eighteen years' absence. He retired from the Senate in i843, resigning after having been re6lected for six years. He left Washington November eighteenth, 1861, after a personal interview on that day with the Secretary of War. t Hon. I. Washburn, Jr., Governor. of Maine. t See petition of Edward Godfrey and other inhabitants of Maine, to the Parliament of the Commonwealth. Cal. Col. State Papers, vol i. p. 479. 38 tans of the Saxon type, inheriting all the gloomy errors of a cruel and bloody period, under the iron rule of the Tudors, were ready to demand of Elizabeth the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity against Papists, but refused obedience to it themselves. Nor would they yield to the decision of a majority of the clergy, who in 1562, in full convention, voted to retain the priestly vestments and the forms of a liturgy. While agreeing to all the doctrines of its creed, they grew restless under the forms of the church service, elevated non-essentials into the dignity of principles, and stigma. tized the Prayer-Book and the priestly robes as badges of Popery. They imagined that by a severe austerity they secured the favor of God, and became his chosen people. They mistook their hatred of others for hatred of sin. They set up their own morbid convictions as the standard of right, and rather than submit to the laws of their own land, they endured their penalties, or sought escape from them by expatriation. Once planted on the shores of New-England, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay endeavored to exterminate every thing that stood in the way of their ambition. * Hence, after their conquest of Maine, they Also, Godfrey's Letters in Mr. Geo. Folsom's Catalogue of Papers in the English State Paper Office in relation to Maine, pp. 52, 54. * The charter of the Massachusetts Company of March 4th, 1629, authorized them to make laws and ordinances for their government, "not contrary to t1me laws of England." Notwithstanding this they proceeded at once to frame a code of laws designed for the purpose, abrogating the laws of England whenever they stood in the way of their own wishes. The obvious purpose of the charter was to allow such minor regulations to be made as might meet the peculiar wants of the local population. A similar provision is inserted in charters in modern times, designed to allow the recipients of such grants to exercise their rights in any way they choose, not infringing any of the general laws of the State. These Puritans construed their grant differently from all others, because they designed to establish a religious community on a plan of their own, discarding all portions of the English law, unless reinacted by themselves. Their be-praised Body of Liberties enacted in 1641, but not printed till within about thirty years since, virtually abrogated the laws of England. Equally striking was their claim to the territory of Maine. The political troubles at home, from 1637 to the restoration of Charles II., hi 166(0, withdrew public 39 gloried in extirpating every trace of title granted to others, making war on whatever was opposed to them, aiming at unlimited despotism. True, they planted other men's fields, instead of devastating them, and seized upon the territory of others by the same authority and in the same spirit as the Israelites drove out the tribes, that formerly possessed the valley of the Jordan. It is hardly necessary to remind the student of American history that, at the close of the seventeenth century, as at the beginning, the two great geographical divisions of English dominion on this continent, north of the Delaware, were " the Provinces of New-York and Sagadahoc." Such are the definitions employed in the grant of that dominion by King Charles II. to his brother, the Duke of York; and such are the titles under which the Duke of York, when he ascended the throne as James II., commissioned his Governor, Col. Thomas Dongan, afterwards Earl of Limerick, to exercise authority over these countries. In England, a country of precedents, where the law advisers of the Crown always scrupulously adhered to ancient records in the preparation of official documents, such recognition, eighty years after the death of George Popham, is another proof, if any were wanting, of the legal establishment of England's claims in these latitudes being inseparable from the foundation of the first settlement, which to-day we commemorate. To review, in the most hurried manner, the events attention almost entirely from America, and it was not till 1676 that the heirs of Gorges, nearly worn out in the controversy, obtained a decision in their favor against her usurpations. Thereupon'March 13, 1677, for ~1250 they purchased the title of Gorges' heirs. - Finally in 1684, on scire factcs, the Court of Chancery declared their charter forfeited, and thereby put an end to the Massachusetts theocracy. A new charter protecting all Protestant Christians in the exercise of their religion, was granted by William and Mary, in 1691, including the colony of Plymouth and of Massachusetts, the Province of Maine, and Sagadaho~, under one government, and Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, was appointed; Governor. 40 affecting our race, that have transpired within the two hundred and fifty-five years since it was planted here, would transcend the proper limits of this occasion. Less than five millions of people, at that time engaged in the ruder forms of labor, were shut up in' the narrow limits of the British Isles,-those who speak the English language to-day in the two hemispheres, hold dominion over one fifth of the earth's surface, and govern one fourth of the human species. Their material greatness commenced with colonizing North-America. Slowly, patiently and in much suffering, our fathers gained possession of this soil. The title was secured by the act of possession of the Popham Colony. Others came in to help to hold it; political troubles at home favored emigration hither; and one hundred years after Popham, three hundred thousand people of'the Saxo-Norman race inhabited the then eleven existing colonies. During the next sixty years they had mastered the French, and gained the Atlantic slope from the St. Lawrence to Florida. Before the end~of the next one hundred years the same people had grown into the Colossal Empire of the West, embracing thirty-four States, and regions yet unpeopled of still greater extent, including, in all their dominions, a territory equal to the continent of Europe, inhabited by more than thirty millions of human beings, speaking one language; while a new power has arisen in North-America, the Colonial Empire of Great Britain, extending over a larger, but less valuable territory than the United States, and containing more than three millions of inhabitants. Temporary differences and periods of alienated feeling, will from time to time arise, but nothing can prevent the gradual and cordial union of the Englishspeaking people, of this continent in every thing essen* See Appendix D. 41 tial to their highest welfare. Though divided into various governments, each pursuing its own lawful ends, in obedience to that principle of political harmony, that allows each to revolve, in its own appropriate orbit, around its common centre, an enlightened sense of justice, and obedience to the Divine law, as the highest of all good to communities and states, is the daily lesson of their life. Let, then, each returning anniversary of this day's commemoration draw closer and closer the bonds of fraternal fellowship, and strengthen those ties of lineage that shall gradually encircle the earth, and constitute all mankind of various races and( nationalities, one final brotherhood of nations. Two hundred and fifty-five years have sufficed to change thiS wilderness continent, as if by enchantment, into the home of a refined civilization. Cultivated fields, clustering villages, the refinements of city life, rise to our immediate view; stretching from this point eastward to Ascension Bay, northward to the Laurentian Hills — southward to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the Pacific seas, where San Francisco, at the Golden Gate, at the touch of the telegraph, sends to us kindly greetings for this hour. The improvement in agricultural implements, the wonders of the power-loom and the spinning-jenny, the marvels of the steamship, the mysteries of the photograph, the magic of the telegraph, and the omnipotent power of the locomotive railway, have since been made our ever-willing ministers, so that man seems almost invested with ubiquity and omnipotence; yet each revolving year brings forth new marvels, till the finite mind is overwhelmed at any attempt to forecast the future. And the historian of our race traces back this development to the two first acts in the great drama of American history by which the title of England to the Con 42 tinent was established; the first, closing with the 1grant of the Great Charter.f April 10th, 1606 the second, with the formal act of possession of the New World under it, August 19th, 0. S. 1607, thereby making the title, forever clear and unquestionable. On that day, and upon this peninsula of Sabino, was unfurled that proud flag that had so long braved the battle and the breeze; then our fathers' flag-and now the flag of the Fatherland-and beneath its waving folds were proclaimed, for the first time, the political principles which lie at the foundation of free governnent, in ever memorable words. "I give," said King James, " to my loving subjects, liberty to settle Virginia, in the north of America, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude. I authorize them to transport thither any of my own people, or those of other lands, and appoint over them a government of their own choice, subject to my approval, according to the laws of this kingdom. I authorize them to work mines, coin money, collect duties by imposts, and to expel all intruders therefrom by military force; and I declare, that all children born therein, and all persons residing therein, are, and shall always remain citizens, entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the loyal subjects of the British realm. "And I do further declare, that these, my lovingl subjects, shall have the right annually to elect a President, and other officers;. that the Christian Religion, established in this our kingdom, shall be therein preached and observed; that lands shall descend to heirs, according to the provisions of our ancient laws; that trial by jury of twelve men is established in all criminal cases, with a, right of pardon by the King; that in civil causes the President and Council shall determine between party and party, keeping full records 43 of all proceedings and judgments, with a right of appeal to the King in council; that no man shall be tried as an offender outside of the Colony where the alleged offence was committed, and no offences shall be capital except tumult, rebellion, conspiracy, mutiny, and sedition, murder, manslaughter, incest, rape, and adultery. And I do further declare, and ordain, that my loving subjects in America shall forever possess and enjoy the right to make all needful laws for their own government, provided only, that they be consonant to the laws of England. And' these, my loving subjects, shall be, and forever remain, entitled to the protection of the British Crown, and I establish over them the government of the King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland."* This charter of liberties was never revoked. It was a decree of universal emancipation, and every man of ally color, from any clime, was by this act of King James redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled, the moment he touched the soil of America, between the thirtyfourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude; and he at once became entitled to all the rights of citizenship- one hundred and fifty years before the decree of Lord Mansfield struck off the chains and fetters from the African in England. This ordinance also established the right of the people to self-government, subject only to the paramount authority of the Crown and Laws of England. These solemn formalities, unknown to any other of the early colonies, counselled by the Lord ChiefJustice of England, whose brother, as President of the infant commonwealth, planted on these shores the emblems of the authority of his nation,-proclaimed in no doubtful accents to all other nations, that here, the title * See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, Appendix, for this constituent Code of Laws of King James. 44 of England was established. That pledge of the protection of his government, which every Englishman has always felt when he planted his foot on any portion of the empire, of his sovereign, gave strength and courage to this colony,-and when the humble settlers of Plymouth, thirteen years later, impressed with their feet the sandy shores of Cape Cod, the claim of England to the country had been vindicated and established, against the asserted claims of both Spain and France. The power of England remained undisturbed wvest of Sagadahoc, and southward, till it was finally yielded on the third of September, 1T83-one hundred and seventy-six years from the time it was first plantedwhen all political connection with Great Britain was dissolved, on the conclusion of the Definitive Treaty of Peace. In announcing that fact, King George the Third said: "In thus admitting their -separation from the Crown of these kingdoms, I have sacrificed every consideration of my own, to the wishes and opinions of my people. I make it my humble and earnest prayer to Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of the empirie; and that America may be free from the calamities which have formerly proved, in the mother country, how essential monarchy is to the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, language, interest, affections may, and I hope will yet prove a bond of permanent union between the two countries. To this end neither attention nor disposition on my part shall be wanting." Memorable words, for they admit the national error. But the repentance of the King had come too late. The loyal subjects of King James had planted on these shores the principles of civil and religious liberty, under his guidance and his express authority, and it was not in the power of King or Parliament, after one 45 hundred and seventy-six years of the exercise of these rights, to reclaim them by force of arms. It was in defence of rights granted by King James that our fathers took up arms, against the arbitrary enactments of King George the Third and his Parliament, under the lead of Sir George Grenville, then first Minister of the Crown. They defended a principle since made universal in its application, in every part of the British Colonial- Empire. They claimed only their rights as loyal subjects of Great Britain. Our fathers charged the acts of oppression, commencing in 1763, and ending in the Revolution of 1116, on the King, as the responsible head of the British government, but the exact truth still remains obscured, from want of public access, till a recent date, to the state papers of that period. If the odium of these acts shall justly fall on the head of the Minister rather than on the King, to what an eminence of guilt did Sir George Grenville attain, and how different the award of future over cotemporary times and opinions, as to-the claims to veneration of the two men of England most intimately associated with American affairs, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the father of English Colonization in America, a private citizen,-and Sir George Grenville, the highest officer of state, who inaugurated those measures that caused the final separation of the thirteen North-American Colonies from the British Crown,-an event, under the circumstances in which it was achieved, every day seen to have been most disastrous to humanity and our race. The mind of each one present instinctively turns back to-day, over this long line of history, pausing to survey, in this broad sweep, the great epochs that mark its progress. It lingers longest in contemplating the initiatory steps that gave title and possession to the gae ad'ossint 46 country,-and delights to loiter, here, around this cherished spot, and recall to present view the deeds of Gorges andc Popham, and those who assisted them to transport hither the Saxo-Norman race; for that race, planted on this new continent, has favored and illustrated every thing that tends to the advancement of freedom and humanity, whatever may have been its occasional errors. We have established our power as a people, developed the natural resources of our country, and demonstrated the ability of our government to resist foreign aggression. One further duty remains-the vindication of its principles in reference to ourselves. Can a government, resting for its strength and support on the consent of the governed, so far maintain its power as to suppress insurrection without weakening the safeguards to personal liberty? Can popular elections fill the highest offices of the state, and insure that strength and stability to the government, that can vindicate its power in times of domestic insurrection, or open rebellion, like that, now shaking it to its foundations? Putting our trust in that power that alone can save us, invoking that arm that can alone be stretched forth for our deliverance, we bow our wills to the Divine teaching. What though at this hour clouds and darkness hang like a thick pall over our country, and' in the excess of our marvellous prosperity, we are called for a time to. self-abasement and trial, the race shall survive all shocks of civil strife and of foreign invasion, and rise superior to both; this free government emerge into the full strength and measure of its giant proportions; and "the gorgeous ensign of the Republic," known and honored throughout the earth, shall once more float, full and free, as in former days, over a united and prosperous people. A P P E ND IX. NOTE A. To enable those not familiar with the localities of Sabino, to understand the allusions made to them, a map and a brief description are given. The' Sagadahoc river, so famous in the early history of the country, is formed by the junction of two large rivers, the Androscoggin and the Kennebec, at Merrymeeting Bay,* twenty-five miles from the sea, from which junction the Sagadahoc is a deep estuary of very irregular width, often contracted into narrow limits, but carrying a large volume of water to the ocean. At its mouth, between Stage Island on the eastern shore, and the lower end of the Peninsula of Sabino on the west, it is about a mile and a half in width. One mile above this, is its narrowest point, where the north-east point of the Sabino Peninsula projects far out into the channel, nearly opposite which point,i only a few rods higher up the river, the lower end of a sharp rocky isle, called Long Island, narrows the main channel to less than a third of a mile. There is no navigable passage on the eastern side of this'island. This outermost north-eastern point of the Sabino Peninsula is the site of Fort Popham. It was occupied by a small fort in the war of 1812. Above this point opens out Adkins Bay, extending south-west for a mile or more, where formerly it evidently connected with the ocean. In De Barre's chart, made for the British government between 1764 and 1774, it is laid down as flats, subject to the overflow of the tide, between this Bay and the ocean. At the present time, there is enough of earth formed by action of the sea, to afford a good road-bed, free from overflow, connecting Sabino with the mainland. From Merrymeeting Bay south to the ocean, there is a constant succession of narrows, formed by high, sharp, projecting points of rock, alternating into broad reaches or bays. A reach of some miles in front of the city of Bath, varying from one half to a mile in width, having abundant depth of water, forms one of the noblest landlocked harbors in the world, when the river turns, first east, at right angles, then again south, between high, rocky shores, with great depths of water. Nothing can be more beautiful. or picturesque than the sail between Merrymeeting Bay and the sea. As you descend towards the mouth of the river, the Island of Seguin, a high, rounded, rocky ridge, rising one hundred and forty feet above the sealevel, stands directly in front, apparently closing the mouth of the river, though three miles distant from it, clothed with a native growth of evergreen to its summit. Above this, rises a first-class lighthouse, holding in its spacious iron lantern a Fresnel lens of the largest size, seen for more than twenty miles at sea, and for a very great distance from the high lands of the interior. The Peninsula of Sabino is the outer point of the mainland, on the right *Marimitin. See Father Dreuilletts' Journal of an Embassy from Canada to New-England, in 1650, published from a translation of John G. Shea, with valuable inotes, in the Collections of the New-York Historical Society, 1857, vol. iii. Second Series,- part i. page 303. The country was then occupied from Cushnoc (Augusta) to Merrymeeting Bay. 48 or west bank of the river, three miles from Seguin. It is very nearly an irregular triangle in shape, its shortest line fronting the Sagadahoc-the other two side-lines formed, one by Adkins Bay, and the other by the ocean. It rises into two rocky ridges, lying nearly east and west of each other, with a deep depression running north and south the bulk of the land, lying west of it, where it rises from two to three hundred feet into two considerable peaks in a ridge running north and south. In the valley, or narrow depression running north and south, the land is free from stones, and the soil is made up chiefly of sand.' Toward its.southern end there is a beautifully clear lake or pond of fresh water sufficient for the wants of the Peninsula. The level of this lake is only about thirty or forty feet above the sea, and is said at times to be reached by the flashing spray which is dashed with prodigious force at times upon this rocky shore. Near the shore of Adkins Bay is a spring of water half a mile from the site of Fort Popham, near which, are remains of ancient habitations; and those who have explored the localities profess their belief that the principal fort was in the " vicinity of this spring." There is an old gentleman still living, more than ninety years of age, who was present at the celebration, who testifies to the ploughing across a covered way between the ruins of an old fort and this spring of water, in his early days. The whole Peninsula was originally covered with a forest growth, and materials would have been abundant for the building of houses and a stockade fort. As to the probable site of their fort, that must depend upon the purpose of its construction. If an European foe, Spaniard or French, was dreaded, the site of the present fort would naturally be chosen., If, on the other hand, the enemy they feared was the Indian, they would naturally select a spot convenient to fresh water, where they could best guard the approach of the foe, coming across the neck, that alone connected the peninsula with the main. The site pointed out as that of their fort, would, in that view of the case, be at once determined on the southern shore of Adkins Bay, near to the neck,. in the vicinity of this spring. No one can fail to perceive the wonderful foresight of the men who selected this spot for their plantation. Easily approached at all times by water, capable of being defended at all points, those in possession of this peninsula hold complete control of the country and the rivers above, one of the finest agricultural districts in New-England. It was also the finest river for fish on the coast. When the Pilgrims of Plymouth were considering the question of abandoning their home, from the poverty of the soil and the want of means of subsistence, Sir'Ferdinando Gorges gave them a valuable tract of land on the Kennebec in 1629, at the time he established their boundaries at Plymouth, which they farmed out to advantage, deriving thence, and from the fisheries their chief means of support. The facts stated by Father Dreuilletts, at the time of his visit in 1650 and 1651, are of great historic interest. At the time of the celebration, the level floor or parade of the fort was occupied by the large assemblage of people. A platform facing east, overlooked the fort and the Sagadahoc river; resting for its background against the end of the.large shed occupied for dressing stone. This platform was occupied by the distinguished guests from abroad, the members of the Historical Society, the Masonic fraternity, and those taking part in the celebration. The various steamers and barges in attendance, the United States revenue cutter, and a large fleet of smaller craft, all gaily dressed in flags, lay at anchor in Adkins Bay. A strong tidal current swept past the fort, aided by a stiff north-west wind. The speaker's stand commanded a complete view of all the localities alluded to. 49 Half a mile from the fort, a few rods north of the pond or lake before spoken of, on a ridge rising fifty feet above the ocean-level, the large canvas Pavilion was spread, stretching east and west, looking like one vast cathedral in the distance, all its masts crowded with flags. At the conclusion of the services at the fort, the company marched in procession to the Pavilion,;where, with refreshments and speeches, the remainder of the day was occupied. NOTE B. RICHARD SEY MOUR. AT the Pavilion, after a few introductory words, connecting the sentiment proposed with the name of the Chaplain of the Colony, Bishop Burgess read the following paper: MR. PRESIDENT: Who was Richard Seymour? And why should he be remembered with honor? The house of Seymour, the second among the English nobility, first rose to eminence through the elevation of Queen Jane, the daughter of Sir John Seymour, the favorite wife of Henry the Eighth, and the mother of Edward the Sixth. Her brother, Sir Edward Seymour, became Earl of Hertford, and in the minority of his nephew, King Edward, was created Duke of Somerset, and governed the realm as Lord Protector. He was twice married, and his second wife, Anne Stanhope, being a lady of high descent, it was made a part of his patent of nobility, that his titles should first be inherited in the line of her children, and only iin the event of the failure of that line, should pass to his children by his first wife, Catherine Fillol, and their descendants. Accordingly, the honors forfeited when "the Good Duke," as the Protector was called, perished on the scaffold, being afterwards restored, passed down in the younger line, till it expired in Algernon, Duke of Somerset, in 1750, when they reverted to the elder line, in which they continue till this day. In the mean time, this elder branch had been seated, all along, at Berry Pomeroy, in Devonshire, a few miles from Totness, from Dartmouth, and from the sea. The eldest son of the Protector, Sir Edward, a Christian name which continued in the eldest sons for eight generations, died in 1593. This son, Sir Edward, the grandson oT the Protector, was married in 1576, and died in 1613, having had, according to one account; five sons; according to another, three, besides four daughters. The youngest son, according to both accounts, bore the name of Richard, and this great-grandson of the Protector Somerset, was, I suppose, the Richard Seymour who was the Chaplain of the Popham Colony. The case is sustained as follows: There is no other person of the name known in genealogical history. Amongst sixty-nine male descendants of the Protector, he is the only Richard. His age corresponds with the chronology of the occasion. His father having married in 1576, the youngest of three or even of five sons might well have been'born within ten years after, so as to have been, in 1607, a young clergyman, just from the University. What more probable than that such a young man should be attracted by this noble adventure, as it happened to be in the hands of his immediate friends? His residence corresponds with the locality of the enterprise. It was within fifteen or twenty miles of Plymouth, and amongst those gentlemen of Devonshire, who chiefly formed the' company with whom this undertaking originated. Of the Plymouth company of 1620, his brother, Sir Edward Seymour, was one of the incorporated members. 50 This brings us to the most decisive circumstances, which are not a little interesting in the light which they cast upon the history of the colony. At Dartington, close by Berry Pomeroy, was then, and still is, the seat of the old family of Champernoun, which " came in with William the Conqueror." Francis Champernoun, who came to' Maine as one of the Councillors under, the patent of Gorges, and settled at Kittery, was the nephew of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Therefore, either Gorges himself, or his sister, or his sisterin-law, must have married a Champernoun. Gorges was Governor of Plymouth, and was the soul of these expeditions long after. The mother of Sir Walter Raleigh was also a Champernoun; and as she was of course the mother also of his half-brother, the gallant Sir Humphrey Gilbert, it follows that his son, Raleigh Gilbert, the admiral of this expedition, was the grandson of a Champernoun, and had an affinity with Gorges through that family. Sir John Popham had several children, amongst whom was a daughter Elizabeth, who was married to Sir Richard Champernoun; and thus there was affinity between the families of Gorges, Gilbert, and Popham through the household at Dartington. Sir Edward Seymour, the father of Richard Seymour, was married, as has been said, in 1576, and his wife was Elizabeth, daughter of' Sir Arthur Champernoun; and thus the chain of'relationship is complete between the families of Gorges, Raleigh, Gilbert, Popham and Seymour. Richard Seymour, therefore, the son of Edward Seymour, was related to Gorges, the projector of the colony, to Popham, its patron, to Popham, its President, and to Gilbert, its admiral, all throughthe common link of the family of his mother. When they sought a Chaplain, they found one in Richard Seymour; and no other Richard Seymour is known except this relative of theirs. May we not regard the identity as, I will not say demonstrated, but fairly established, to the extent of a reasonable conviction? - The connection between the families of Seymour and Popham ceased not with that generation. Sir John Popham, though Wellington, in Somersetshire, was his birth-place and burial-place, purchased from the family of Darell, to which the grandmother of the Protector. belonged, the seat of Littlecote, in Wiltshire, on the borders of Berkshire, and here resided his descendants. -Sir Edward Seymour, grand-nephew of Richard Seymour, married Letitia Popham, daughter of Francis Popham, Esq., of Littlecote, andc had a son named Popham Seymour; and the next Sir Edward, his eldest son, married another Letitia, daughter of Sir Francis Popham, also of LittIecote. This hereditary friendship accords with the association on this. spot. But Richard Seymour has his honor, this day, not from his memorable descent, but from the place assigned him by the Providence which presided over the destinies of this now Christian land. He was not the first English clergyman who ever preached the Gospel or celebrated the Holy Communion in North-America; that honor fell to Wolfall, in 1578, on the shores of Newfoundland or Labrador. He was not the first English clergyman in the United States;: for Hunt had already begun his pastoral office on the banks of the James. He was not even the first Christian teacher within the limits of'Maine; for L'Escarbot, a Huguenot, had instructed his French associates in 1604, on an island in the St. Croix. But Seymour was the first preacher of the Gospel in the English tongue, within the borders of New-England, and of the free, loyal and unrevolted portion of these United States. Had he inherited all the honors of his almost royal great-grandsire, they would have given him a far less noble place than this, in the, history of' mankind. 51 NOTE C. THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE BY GOVERNOR GEORGE POPHAM, AUGUST, 1607. BEFORE the Mayflower's lonely sail Our northern billows spanned, And left on Plymouth's ice-bound rock A sad-eyed pilgrim band; Ere scarce Virginia's forest proud The earliest woodman hewed, Or gray Powhatan's wondering eyes The pale-browed strangers viewed; The noble Popham's fearless prow Essayed adventurous deed; He cast upon New-England's coast The first'colonial seed; And bade the holy dews of prayer Baptize a heathen sod; And'mid the groves a church arose Unto the Christian's God. And here, on green Sabino's marge, He closed his mortal trust, And gave this savage-peopled world Its first rich Saxon dust. So, where beneath the drifted snows He took his latest sleep, A faithful sentinel of stone Due watch and ward shall keep; A lofty fort, to men unborn, In thunder speak his name, And Maine, amid her thousand hills, New-England's founder claim. L. H. SIGOURNEY. HARTFORD, CT., Sept. 3, 1862. LE SiEUR DE CHAMPLAIN. ONWARD o'er waters which no keel had trod, No plummet sounded in their depths below, No heaving anchor grappled to the sod Where flowers of ocean in seclusion glow; From isle to isle, from coast to coast he prest With patient zeal and chivalry sublime, Folding o'er Terra Incognita's breast The lilied vassalage of Gallia's clime. Though Henry of Navarre's profound mistake Montcalm must expiate and France regret; Yet yonder tranquil and heaven-mirrored lake, Like diamond in a marge of emerald set, Bears on its freshening wave, from shore to shore, The baptism of his name till time shall be no more. HARTFORD, CT., Oct. 1, 1862. L. HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. 52 SIR FERDINANDO GORGES. NOT'mid Ambition's sterner sons, inspired with restless rage, Whose wreaths of laurel stain with blood the snow of History's page, Nor'mid those sordid hordes who wrap their souls in cloth of gold, And smother every generous aim in that Laocoon fold; But with the men whom age on age complacently shall view Unostentatious in their course, and like the pole-star true, Who nobly plan, and boldly aid the welfare of their raceSir Ferdinando Gorges' name shall find an honored place. On the new Western Continent, his earnest eye was bent, Nor rising cloud, nor rolling storm obscured his large intent; Though Raleigh, that chivalrous friend, upon the scaffold bled, And many an unexpected foe upreared the hydra head; Though adverse fortune ruled, and loss his flowing coffers drained, And monarchs vacillated sore, and parliaments complained; Yet with a persevering zeal that no defeat impaired, When others failed, he onward pressed-where others shrank, he dared. Then colonizing ships went down beneath the engulfing main, Or on their cargoes fiercely fed the pirate power of Spain, And homeward from their rude abodes the baffled planters steer, Discouraged at the hardships dire that vex the pioneer; The wily Aborigines* his proffered kindness grieved, And the great Bashaba himself all Christian trust deceived: Still as the beacon rises brave o'er desdlation's flood Sir Ferdinando Gorges, firm in faith's endurance stood. He ne'er beheld New-England's face ithat woke such life-long toil, Nor traversed with exploring foot his own manorial soil, Nor gazed upon those crested hills where misty shadows glide, Nor heard her thundering rivers rush to swell old ocean's tide, Nor like the seer on Pisgah's cliff one distant glance enjoyed Of those delightful vales that oft his nightly dreams employed; Yet still with deep indwelling thought and fancy's graphic art He bore-her strongly-featured scenes depictured on his heart. She gave him no memorial stone'mid all her mountains hoar, Nor bade one islet speak his name along her sounding shore, Nor charged a single mirrored lake that o'er her surface spread To keep his image on its wave till gratitude was dead: The woodman in the forest hews, the kingly mast to rear, And forth the fearless vessel goes to earth's remotest sphere; But who of all the mariners upon the watery plain Gives praise to that unswerving knight, who loved the hills of Maine HARTFORD, CT., NOV. 5, 1862. L. H. S. * Some native Indians being brought to England, were kindly received by Sir Ferdinando Gorges into his family, from whom he acquired, much information of their country, its scenery and productions. One of them, a native of Martha's Vineyard, named Epinow, artfully invented a story of a mine of gold in that region. A vessel having been fitted out for the coast of New-England by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and the Earl of Southampton, Epinow went in it, arid when it approached his native island leaped into the sea and swam ashore.' Soon a shower of arrows from about twenty canoes was discharged on deck, much disconcerting the crew. This expedition, like several other unsuccessful ones, returned without having performed any service adequate to the equipment. 53 NOTE D. ESTIMATED TERRITORY AND POPULATION OF THE GLOBE. -Square miles. Populatioii. Europe,.... 3,500,000.............. 275,000,000 Asia,............... 16,800,000..............720,000,000 Africa,............. 11,700,000........... 100,000,000 America,.............16,000,000............... 0,000,000 Odeanica........ 4,000,000.............. 35,000,000 52,000,000 1,200,000,000 ENGLISH SPEAKING OR ENGLISH GOVERNED. Square miles. Inhabitants. United States of America,.................. 3,250,000..... 31,445,080 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,.. 122,556..... 29,334,788 British Colonies and Dependencies,........... 8,124,528.....189,610,665 Total,............................11,497,084.. 250,390,533 THE FOLLOWING TABLE GIVES IN DETAIL TEE BRITISH TERRITORY AND POPULATION IN 1861. AREA. ARA. COUNTRIES, ETC. SQ. POPULTION. CONTES. POPULATION. -Europe. - Singapore, 275 92,749 England................ 50,922 18,949,930 Native States subordinate Wales,................7,398 1,111,795 to Bengal,.. 515,535 38,702,206 Scotland,............. 1,324 83,061,251 to Madras............. 51,809 5,213,671 Ireland............... 32,518 5,764,542 to Bombay............ 60,575 4,470,370 Channel Islands: Man................... 282 52,88339 British India/.,-'.-. 1,465,831 180,377,148 Jersey................ 62 56,078 Guernsey, with adjacent Ceylon,................, 24,700 1,759,528 Islands,.......... 42 29,846 Labuan,.......... 50 1,163 Alderney, 6...... 6 4,9338 Hong-Kong,............ 29 75,503 Sark,....... 2 583 Aden................... 10 80,000 Army, Navy, and Sailors,.. 03,491, i ~ [, -- / /~ Total in Asia,.... 1,490,1201 182 293,342 United Kingdom,.... 122,556 29,334,788 A Africa. Gibraltar..2...... 17,750 G1ambia...........2,000 5,693 Maltese Islands,.......115 136,271 Sierra Leone,............ 3000 88,318 Ionian Islands,........ 1,045 229,726 Gold Coast.............. 6,000 151,346 Heligoland........... 5 2,800 [Cape Colony,.......... 104,921 267,096 X___.___ _-[ Caffraria,.. 22,000 120,000 Total in Europe,..... 123,723 29,721,355 Natal................... 18,000 121,068 St. Helena,, 47 5,490 Asia. Mauritius............... 708 238,363 Bengal Presidency....... 221,969 40,852,397 Seychellcs............. 200 8,27 Madras...... 132,090 22,437,297 Bombay "......{ 131,544 11,790,042 Total in Africa... 15~,876 955, 650 North-West Provinces,. 105,759 33,655,193 Punjab..... 73,535 10,435,710 Oceanica. As-Sutlej States,....... 8,090 2,282,111 New South-Wales,....... 356,480 350,553 Oude.................... 25,000 5,000,000 Victoria................ 86,940 544,677 Nagpore or Berar,....... 76,432 4,650,000 South-Australia,....... 898,830 117,967 Pegu................... 82,250 570,180 Western Australia, 988,980 14,823 Tenasserim Provinces,... 29,168] 115,431 Queensland,.'............ 450,780 30,115 East'n Straits Settlem'ts: North-Australia,. 698,770 6,987 Penang and Wellesley,. 251 90,688 -- Malacca and Naning, 1,049 19,103 Australia,.......... 2,983,780 1,365,122 ~,4| 1,0L.........|' 2,980,780, 1,065,122 54 BRITISH TERRITORY AND POPULATION IN 1861.-Continued. AREA. NAREA. COUNTRIES. POPULATION. COUNTRIES. POPULATION. SQ. M. SQ. M. Tasmania,.............. 22,629 89,971 St. Vincent,... 132 80,128 New-Zealand,........... 95,500 129,47711 Tobago............. 1441 16,863 Norfolk Island,......... 18 600 St. Lucia............... 296 26,471 Auckland Island,........ 500 100 Nevis, 21 9,601 Feejee Islands,...... 8,034 188500 St. Christopher, 68 23,177 - Antigua,......... 108 8,75 Total in Oceanica... 38,10,461 1,418,1776 Montserrat,... 47 7,653 Virgin Islands.92 6,689 America. Dominica,..... 274 25,230 Vancouver............... 12,756 25,000 Barbuda,........ 72 1,170 British Columbia......... 287,250 64,000 Anguilla................ 84 3,052 Hudson Bay Co.'s Ter... 2,250,000 11,000 Labrador,........... 170,000 1,650 West-Indies...... 15,66 942,245 Canada West,.......... 147,882 1,896,091 Canada East,............ 209,990 1,111,566 Guayana: New-Brunswick,......... 27,704 252,047 Essequibo,............ 44,000 22,925 Nova Scotia, etc.,...... 18,746 830,699 Berbice............... 25,000 29,003 Prince Edward.... 2,184 80,648 Demerara............. 21,000 75,76T Newfoundland,.. 85,913 122,958 Falkland Islands,........ 6,29 59 Bermuda Islands,.... 19 11,612 Balize, (Honduras,).... 18,600 18,600 South-America,...102,29 128,234 North-America,...... 8,250,944 3,485,811 Total in America,. 8,868,904 4,556,850 Bahama Islands,......... 5,094 81,402 European,.. 1238,723 29,7121,355 Turk's Isl. and the Caicos, 430 4,428 Asiatic,...... 1,490,120 182,298,842' Jamaica................. 6,250 441,264! African,... 156,876 955,650 Cayman Islands,......... 260 1,760l Oceanic,...............,1071,461 1,418,776 Trinidad, 2,020 78 845 American,........... 6890 4,556,350 Barbadoes.............. 166 161,2011... Grenada.............. 155 5517 1 GRAND TOTAL,....... 8,241,084 218,945,458 The oldest of the present Colonies of Great Britain is Newfoundland, obtained by settlement in 1608; Bermuda was obtained in 1609; St. Christopher, in 1623; Barbadoes, in 1625; Nevis, in 1628; Bahamas, in 1629; Gambia, in 1681; and Antigua, in 1632. There are fifty distinct colonial governments over the British possessions. NOTE E. From the N. Y. Christian Times of Nov. 20, 1862. THE POPHAM CELEBRATION. ACTION OF THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. AMONG the pleasing incidents not remotely connected with the meeting of the General Convention, was the gathering of a number of the members of that body, both clerical and lay, of acknowledged interest in historical pursuits, at the October meeting of the New-York Historical Society, to notice appropriately the late celebration of the Popham settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec. Invitations were extended by the courtly and accomplished President of the New-York Historical Society, the Hon. Luther Bradish, in behalf of the Society, to a number of the Bishops, to the delegation from the Diocese of Maine, and to several prominent members of the Maine and Massachusetts Historical Societies at that time in New-York, to be present on this-interesting occasion. The invitation was very generally responded to; and, among others, the Rev. James Craik, D.D., of Kentucky, President of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies; the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Prof. 55 Shattuck, of Boston; the Rev. Dr. Edson, of Lowell; the Hon. John A. Poor, and the R'ev. William Stevens Perry, of Portland, members of the Maine Historical Society, were received by a large and brilliant assembly, consisting of prominent historical and literary characters of New-York and vicinity, in the, elegant hall of the Society, on:Second Avenue. After the paper of the evening was read, the Hon. Luther Bradish, Prqsident of the Society, said, that. in reporting upon the miscellaneous business of the Society, it was his pleasing duty to refer to an interesting event that had taken place during the vacation-the celebration in Maine of the founding of the English race in the New World., In many particulars, this celebration was one of the most memorable and successful historical commemorations that had yet taken place. On the Peninsula of Sabino, at the mouth of the ancient Sagadahoc, the modern Kennebec river, in the State of'Maine, the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the first English colony on the shores of New-England was celebrated on the 29th of August, 1862, at which, after the use of the old words of prayer and praise 6f the English Prayer-Book of that time, an eloquent and appropriate oration, with speeches, was delivered, and other proceedings took place, at the erection of a monumental stone in the walls of Fort Popham. The New-York Historical Society, through its President, was honored with an invitation to participate in that celebration. Absence from home prevented his receiving the invitation in time to be present, had his health permitted. He had replied in what he trusted were appropriate terms. He was glad to know that other members of this Society had responded for our city and State. He regretted that we had not been able to do full justice to our sense of obligation to our sister Society in Maine. He trusted the Society would in some form take notice of it in an appropriate manner. The Hon. George Folsom, a son of Maine, and well known as the learned historian of one of Maine's cradle.homes of civilization and Episcopacy, rose, and said he fully sympathized in all that had fallen from the President; he regretted that absence in Canada, with his family, prevented his acceptance, in person, of the honor done him by an invitation. He asked leave to introduce the following resolution: "Resolved, That the New-York Historical Society has observed with pleasure the efforts of the Historical Society of Maine to perpetuate the earliest history of their State, by associating important historic events with the great works of national defence of the United States Government; that they acknowledge with satisfaction the courtesy extended by the Historical Society and citizens of Maine, inviting the Society and its officers to participate in the commemorative celebration of the founding of the first colony on the shores of New-England, on the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of that event, on the 29th of August, 1862, at which time a memorial stone was placed in the walls of Fort Popham commemorating the establishment of the first Protestant civil government on the shores of NewEngland; that this Society cordially approves the act of its President, in his reply to the invitation to participate in that celebration, and the goodwill therein expressed; that all such efforts to preserve and illustrate the history of our race in the new world are worthy of general notice." The Hon. J. Romeyn Brodhead said he seconded the resolution with great pleasure. He was pleased further to learn that several members of the Maine Historical Society had honored our meeting by their presence this evening, as had the President of the Historical Society of Massachusetts. Among others from Maine, the orator of the Popham Celebration, the Hon. MIr. Poor, was present, and he trusted this resolution would be adopted and that Mhr. Poor would be called on to favor us with some reply thereto. The resolution was unanimously adopted. In reply to a call from the President, Mr. Poor said his associates of the Maine Historical Society and other friends from Maine present, with himself, felt personally complimented by the action here taken, in reference to the Popham Celebration. He rose with a feeling of embarrassment to return thanks for this cordial and unlooked for compliment. He doubted not that the Historical Society of DAine would, in its own befitting manner, return appropriate acknowledgnments for this generous courtesy on the part. of the New-York Historical Society. The Popham Celebration, so courteously alluded to, had already borne fruits, in awakened attention to the. study of the early history of the country, and we are largely indebted to eminent historical minds of New-York for much of the interest already attached to it.. The fact so happily alluded to by your own historian, Mr. Brodhead, the political connection between New-York and Maine under the charter of Charles II., in his most interesting and appropriate reply to the invitation to speak for the great metropoli.s of thle New World, cannot fail to excite a feeling of mutual sympathy, at this day, with the more recent but increasing commercial intimacy of the two States. It is certainly refreshing to revive and recall, for this brief hour, the kindly intercourse of other days. It is a fact, almost forgotten, even by the active men of this time, that much the largest portion of Maine was at one time under the same government as that of New-York, and that Gyles Goddard, the renowned representative from Penmaquid, sat in the Legislature of New-York in 1684, chosen by the free-holders of the county of Cornwall, in ancient Sagadahoc. This' letter of Mr. Brodhead, already published in the Maine papers, will be preserved in our memorial volume as one of the choicest of the many interesting contributions to its pages. The courteous and appropriate letter of your President is already published in the papers of Maine. One from the Hon. Mr. Bancroft, the most eminent of living American historians, and another from one of Maine's honored sons, Mr. Folsom, are promised for this volume. Mr. Folsom's invaluable labors in bringing to light and. preserving the earliest history of his native State, have been publicly acknowledged by formal resolutions of the Maine Historical Society. New-York, therefore, will have a foremost position, if not, in fact, the post of honor, in the records of that commemorative festival. That celebration was well calculated to attract attention, for in its purpose it appeals at once to the sympathy of all who speak the Ehglish language, or share in any proper measure a feeling of pride at the achievements of our race. It had for its object the due observance of the great fact, the planting of our race in North-America, with the language, literature, laws, and religion of England, an event, if rightly comprehended in its relations and consequences, of as much importance as any one that has taken place since the establishment of the Roman Empire. Eight years before the Leyden Church had been gathered in Holland, under the charge of the pious Robinson, twenty years before they set foot on Plymouth sands, the purpose of "planting colonies in the north-west of North-America " had been set forth in a paper on file in the British State Paper Office. More than thirteen years prior to the voyage of the May Flower, the title of Old England to New England had been secured by a formal act of possession and occupation at the mouth of the Sagadahoc by Governor Popham's colony.* No Frenchman ever set foot on the Atlantic 4 The Seven Articles of the Leyden Flock, signed by Robinson and Brewster, sent to Kinf. James before their departure from Holland, signifying their full assent to the authority of the English Church, form a striking contrast to their subsequent pretensions, under the guidance of such men as Bradford and Winslow. See Poor's Vindication of Gorges, p. 108, for this remarkable document in full. 57 shore, claiming title west of the Kennebec, after the planting of Popham's colony in 1607. I The Colonial Empire of Great Britain, the wonder of this age, had its root in the charter of April tenth, 1606, and its development in the New-England charter of 1620, both granted on the petitions of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The great idea'of a-strong central government; having extended dominions in distant lands, divided into separate provinces, communities, and states, each enjoying equal and just laws, suited to the local wants of each, fully developed in action under the rule of Cromwell, originated in an earlier day, and in the mind of him who secured those great charters, and maintained them till the soil of the New World was planted with our race, where it has gradually advanced toward universal dominion. The failure of Sir -Huimphrey' Gilbert, of Sir Walter Raleigh, and of Sir Richard.Grenville to comprehend the geographical and commercial laws that control the destiny of races and of empires, imposed on Sir Ferdinando Gorges, or rather left to him, the task of occupying the continent of NorthAmerica, from the fortieth to the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude, in which limits, in spite of individual jealousy and parliamentary injustice, he achieved the great work of English colonization in America. In their zeal against monopolies, in 1621 and 1622, the Commons of England declared "fishing is of more value than plantations in Almerica," and would have abandoned the continent to the French but for the pertinacity, foresight, and enlightened views of Gorges, and his favor with the King, from the possession of these great qualities. But the chief significance of the Popham Celebration, undoubtedly, is the introduction of a new principle in the naming of our forts, making them serve the double purpose of national defence and of preserving the memory of the great events in our history. We have seen the national honor tarnished, and. the moral sense of the nation shocked, by the bestowal of unworthy names-names of mere partisan leaders- upon national vessels, forts, and other public works. This form of coarse flattery panders to the lower tastes of men and destroys the independence of official men, who are made the recipients of it. It was, therefore, with a feeling of relief that Gen. Totten'was pleased to accept the proposal -of affixing to the great work in- Portland harbor the name of'Fort Gorges, in honor of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the father of English colonization in America, and naming the new work at the mouth of the Sagadahoc or Kennebec Fort Popham, in a similar spirit, and we hope to see this rule made universal. Especially do'we look forward to the construction of a new fort, to guard the entrance to Portland harbor, to be named Fort Gosnold, and placed on the shore of Cape Elizabeth, the first point of the northern main of New-England, touched by that great English navigator, who has left on record the details of his discovery, of the NewEngland coast in 1602. The fitness of the policy proposed will be readily appreciated by all men endowed with any share of that quality we call the historic sense; for all know that the reputation of no public man is secure within the first hundred years after his death. Personal ambition, partisan, motives, and narrow views characterize the popular movements of every age-our own as of all past ones-and the value of no man's life can be justly measured in his own time. We build monuments, we name towns, cities, and counties, for men that a future age will hold in disfavor. We almost execrate the memory of men to-day, that a later time shall honor. We rear in affected grandeur an obelisk in devotion to the demon of war, that the calmer reason of the coming centuries will demolish or condemn. We do homage to popular partisan leaders to-day, whose doctrines have undermined the foundations of our Government and brought upon us civil war. a1 58 Thanks to the good sense of the people of the Empire State, they have preserved the name of their great navigator, Hudson, from any possibility of forgetfulness or decay, by affixing it to the great river of the mountains that must forever bear to this great metropolis the treasures of an expanding commerce with the interior. Looking back to the first dawnings of American history, we are beginning to discover the superior lustre of the great lights that guided hitherward the adventurous and heroic spirits of that great age. Under their benignant glow we revisit the spots made sacred by self-denying labors. We hope to strengthen our love of what is noble and heroic by an annual pilgrimage to that spot where, in prayer and faith, the foundations of empire in the New World were laid. Associating the history of Maine with New-York, so appropriately done by Mr. Brodhead, may serve to increase your interest in our State. Maine - so rich in historic interest, so full of legendary romance, so marked by the fascinations of its scenery;* the territory claimed by the great European powers, Spain, Holland, France, and England; the home of the earliest French settlers and of the first English colonists; the Norumlbega of Milton's Paradise Lost, the Miavosheen of Purchase's strange narration; "discovered by the English in 1602,'3,'5,'6,'7,'8, and'9;" the Newo —England of John Smith in 1614, and of later times-obeys the law of historic'as of commercial gravitation and gladly finds sympathy, " without reservation," in the great metropolis of the Western World. Maine, too, builds the ships that fill the docks of the East River and the Hudson. She lifts from her quarries the granite columns that form the ornaments and support of your public edifices, and the rich colonnades and solid walls of the Treasury Extension at Washington. She needs, most of all, the pen of the historian and the pencil of the painter, to be made as familiar as household words in the private residences of the Fifth Avenue and Madison Square, by means of landscapes that shall equal in beauty the richest scenery of the Rhine and the Alps; true to nature from the seasjores, the valleys, and the'mountains of Maine. With her summer retreats thus laid open, she shall annually attract pleasure tourists of other lands than our own. Rejoicing in the success of your Society, and grateful for your generous courtesy, I may be allowed to close, as I began, by expressing' for our Society and its members, here present, the assurance of our hearty thanks. * "We, Americans, neglecting both the surpassing magnificence-nay, often sublimitv -and the rare loveliness of various districts of our own Continent, wander forth across the seas, to seek, at great expense, and amid physical and moral dangers, scenery in foreign lands, which falls short of the attractions of much we possess at home. Thus, how few are alive to the glorious and varied beauty of that zone of islands, which, commencing with the perfection of Casco Bay, terminates with the precipitous seal-frequented shores of Grand-Menan, at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. Of all the Archipelagoes sung by the poet, described by the historian, and depicted. by the painter, there is none which can exceed, in its union of charms, those two hundred miles of intermingling land and ocean, where, lost in each other's embrace, the sea seems in love with the land, and the shore with the foam-frosted waves!"-General J. Watts de Peyster's Dutch ia Maine, p. 44.