FELLOW-CITIZENS,--I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this very
kind welcome I have received at your hands to-night on coming upon the
platform. I assure you, gentlemen, if I felt at liberty to waste the
precious hours of this evening upon any thing relating to myself, I
could say much more than I do to thank you for your great kindness.
But, gentlemen, we are met here on public business. You have heard what
we are asked to do. We are asked to petition the city government, and
send a committee of force to the city government (not as if the
government were at all reluctant, but that they may know the feeling of
the people of Boston), and ask the city government to go to work at
once, and see that Boston has, as soon as possible, these necessities
for her honor, her health, and her beauty. [Applause.]
In thinking of this subject, Mr. President and gentlemen, it occurred to
me that it was a very singular fact, and not altogether to the credit of
human nature, that great numbers of persons cannot live together without
extreme inconvenience. Now, Robinson Crusoe, when he lived on the Island
of Juan Fernandez alone, was not troubled with any question of public
parks, or drainage, or health. Things took care of themselves. But when
you get two or three or four hundred thousand Robinson Crusoes in a few
square miles, you find the whole state of things is reversed, that you
require all the patience, all the science, a large part of the money,
and a large part of the industry, of the population, that you may live
at all, and on any terms. The lower parts of our nature, the animal
parts, tend to produce certain results which the intellectual parts are
expected to meet and control. If they do not that, men become savages;
if they do, they are enlightened.
Now, in this great and enlightened city of Boston, the pride of us all,
the "Athens of America," as we all know we are [laughter], and, as our
friend Dr. HOLMES there has told us, the "Hub of the Universe"
[laughter], it would hardly be respectful to say that one of the
questions before us was, Which of those two roads we were going to
take,--whether we were going to let the intellectual and moral parts
have the upper hand, or whether we were going to sink beneath the
material part. And yet, gentlemen, that is a good deal the question that
is before us to-night.
Why, look at the progress which is inevitably made where you get great
numbers of human beings together. You must have drainage, you must look
to the health of the population, and then you must look to their
recreation and their amusements (for they will have them); and, if they
are not good and creditable and honorable, they will not cease to exist,
but they will come before us in the most shameful and unwholesome form.
We used to be told, gentlemen, that Boston had natural parks all about
her, and she did not need any artificial parks. Well, now, I am not in
favor of any artificial parks. All I ask is, that the beauty of the
environs of Boston may be preserved. [Applause.]
We are on the defensive. We are defending the wholesomeness and the
beauty of our beloved city against this encroachment of population. Why,
the time was--Mr. ROPES will tell you when the time was--when the Back
Bay was a beautiful sheet of water, filled at high tide, carrying the
healthful air through the whole city. But then the necessity of
population called for its filling up, and it is now piled in upon, and
we have there now what Dr. CLARKE called "a natural cesspool."
We changed the Back Bay from a beautiful bay, where the wholesome tides
of the ocean swept in, to a natural cesspool.
Well, now, look at the lanes and roads in the suburbs of
Boston--beautiful. As you ride over them, there are trees hanging over
them, and there are bushes on each side: you say it is charming. Well,
go out there the next year. The selectmen if it is a town, the city
government if it is a city, have changed all that. They have made a
straight line right through it, and widened the streets sixty feet; cut
down every tree, and made it one of the most disagreeable and painful
spectacles that the eyes could rest upon. It is their duty so to do: it
is a necessity. And so you go on destroying the beauties of the city,
destroying its wholesomeness, destroying its charm; and now we have got
to meet that tendency, and we have the power to meet it. We have the
intellect, we have the money, we have the will, and we have the taste;
and we would be incensed if any one should suggest that we do not. And
yet we have allowed every city in the United States to get in advance of
us. [A voice, "That's so."] Chicago has three thousand acres of parks;
Philadelphia, five thousand; New York, one great park of about one
thousand acres; and almost every city in Europe has better, more
handsome and attractive accommodations than the city of Boston. I am
ashamed to say it; but it is so. I trust, however, gentlemen, that,
before I ever have the honor of addressing you again, we shall have
taken the first step to remove this odium from the city of Boston.
[Applause.]
Some six years ago, I think it was, the people got greatly in earnest
that this park should be undertaken. They saw that the progress of the
manufactories was fast destroying the beauties of Boston; that they were
taking up the land in the suburbs rapidly: and, when I said that your
green lands were destroyed, with their beautiful curved lines, I forgot
to mention that your beautiful sheets of water are in the same danger.
Why, look at Fresh Pond, look at Jamaica Pond! They are beautiful
objects to gaze upon: but when manufactories begin to surround them,
when there are soap manufactories and tanneries, and I do not know what,
draining into the pond, the result is, that the water is unwholesome,
that the fish die, the water cannot be drunk, and then physicians begin
to tell their patients, "You had better move out of that neighborhood."
Are you aware, gentlemen, that that is coming upon us, that we must meet
it, and avert it?
Some years ago, the people of Boston were earnestly in favor of a park,
or system of parks. The legislature, for some reason or other, required
that the project should receive a vote of two-thirds of the people. That
was extraordinary and hard. But it did receive a vote of two-thirds of
the people of Boston proper, and more than two-thirds; but from the
accident of a newly added portion of the city, for some reason or other,
taking a slant in a certain direction, they voted very largely against
it, and it fell through. We must take warning from that; for land that
would have made then a handsome park, which we could have had, we cannot
have now at all. It would cost altogether too much to take
dwelling-houses and factories and railroad beds, if we could, for a
park.
Well, after six years of restlessness, at last we went before the
legislature again; and we got an act passed, authorizing the appointing
of commissioners with powers. That act passed, helped by our most able
fellow-citizen, MR. ROPES, chairman of this meeting; and it was
submitted to the votes of the people of Boston; and the park project was
carried by the votes of this entire population,--Boston, East Boston,
Charlestown, South Boston, Dorchester, Brighton, which make, all
together, a very large and most decisive majority. And therefore,
gentlemen, the question is not, Shall we have parks? you have decided
that; but the question is, Whether, having determined to have them, we
shall rest content with saying so? whether we will have our paper parks,
as we have our paper money, with nothing to rest upon [laughter], or
whether we shall have genuine parks, with life and trees, and have
sheets of water? Now we are here to-night to say it is the latter that
we want. [Applause.]
Fellow-citizens, that statute authorized the appointment by the MAYOR,
subject to approval, of three commissioners. Well, that was wise. It
was not nine, seven, nor five; but it was three. Well, his Honor the
Mayor, who has presided with so much dignity, wisdom, and integrity
[applause] over the city of Boston for two years,--and we would be glad
to get him for a third year, if his health would permit it
[applause],--his Honor the Mayor appointed three gentlemen as
commissioners, in whom this community have entire confidence. There are
no politics among the Board of Commissioners; there is no jobbery in the
Board of Commissioners; and I will venture to predict, gentlemen, that,
when they finish their task, there will be no investigation. [Great
applause.]
I was amazed on looking over their charge. Why, I found an item of
coach-hire for the whole period of their service, nine dollars. Why, it
would not have been enough to take three common councilmen from Parker's
or Young's. [Laughter.] But it is all they have charged; and how, on
that sum, they succeeded in riding around Boston, I do not know. Their
experience with persons who let carriages must have been much more
favorable than mine has been. But not only have they done honorably,
economically, and frugally, they have put into their work an amount of
brain-labor, an amount of patient investigation and of good judgment,
which no one can have an adequate opinion of who has not read their
book; but, if he has not, I hope he will. And at least this I may be
allowed to say, I do not think any citizen of Boston has the right to
object to those parks, or to be silent or indifferent on the subject,
unless he has read the report of the Commission, and knows what is
proposed, and has been done. [Applause.] They have consulted the best
authorities. They have consulted Mr. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD, who laid
out Central Park in New York, and he is the highest authority on the
construction of parks in the country; and he has been all over this
neighborhood, viewing the localities, and they have taken every thing
into consideration; and, gentlemen, what is the result? They do not
propose to us one great park of a thousand acres, at an almost
unattainable distance; they do not propose a great park that nobody can
get to, unless he gives a day to it, and a good deal of money: but they
have adopted a system based upon the natural characteristics of the
neighborhood of Boston. And what better could they do? At East Boston,
they have given them a park upon the water-side, where they will always
have the fresh breezes of the sea. At South Boston, they have given them
a park upon the water-side, one directly opposite Fort Independence, and
then another one, called the South Park, larger; and Chester Park, which
you are all familiar with, is already extended, and nearly ready to be
used as far as Beacon Street; and thence it is to go over to Cambridge,
and be the quickest means of access to the University. That same avenue
is to be extended easterly till it strikes the farthest of the South
Boston parks, opposite Fort Independence; and, when that is done, you
will be able to drive or walk, according to your powers of walking, from
the park opposite Fort independence, into the city, and across it, to
Harvard University.
Now that is a good deal; but they have taken another step. They propose
to take the water-front of the Charles River basin; and there is nothing
in Nature so beautiful, so well adapted to the needs of a city, as a
park, or boulevard, or promenade, directly on a water-front, especially
if that water is sea-water,--if it is brought in and carried out by two
daily tides. What more beautiful, what more wholesome, what more
invigorating, during the hot season of the year, than to have an open
boulevard, where you can sit, or walk, or ride,--a place for the fresh
sea-water of the ocean brought in pure to you every day! Well, they mean
to preserve that, and give us about two hundred feet for a driveway, a
saddle-horse way (a saddle-pad, I think they call it), and footpath, a
place for flowers and trees, as it extends along the water-side,
beginning by Leverett Street, and going out as far as Brighton. Then
from there they mean to take this great Back Bay, which Dr. CLARKE
properly called a natural cesspool, and keep a large part of it under
water, the ocean to be let in and let out at our option, so that it can
be always kept pure; and yet such a quantity of it, that it will be a
sort of inland sea, where we can have regattas, and where every
gentleman may keep his boat, and every boy may keep his scull; and
perhaps it is just as well a boy's skull should be there as anywhere
else a large part of the time. [Laughter.]
Then, gentlemen, they are going to take Jamaica Pond, and have a park
or driveway around the pond; then the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, that has
a parkway one hundred feet in width, where you can drive or walk at your
pleasure. In West Roxbury they are to have a mountain-park, which will
be the largest (about five hundred acres); and it is well called a
providence, because it is high, it is rocky, it has a thoroughly sylvan
look, like a forest. You would feel as if you were fifty miles from
Boston, if you were where you could not see the city. At the same time,
it is beautiful for a park. There are very few houses there; and it is
difficult to make it salable for residences. But they have selected this
spot; and they are going to give us the best park of the city, and then
have all these parks connected by parkways, thus making them so
convenient of access, that every poor man in Boston can take his child
by his hand, and for five cents a head can be carried out to any one of
those parks by the railroads. [Applause.]
And, when he gets there, he can show this poor boy or girl, who has
passed all the winter, and all the opening spring, in an alleyway,--he
can show them, by a wholesome ascent of two hundred feet only, slow,
gradual, one of the noblest prospects in the world,--the ocean pouring
up into these great bays, and floating the great ships that come and go,
the Bunker Hill Monument and the Navy Yard, the University, and the
great series of cities that surround us. And, more than that, he can
show him or her Wachuset Mountain, and over the top of Mount Monadnock
in New Hampshire.
Now I ask you, fellow-citizens, if it is not worth while for the city of
Boston to improve these opportunities. We have been most fortunate in
our Commissioners,--in their wisdom, in their frugality, in their
intelligence, and their public spirit; and I hope, gentlemen, you will
study their Report. It is easy reading, pleasant reading; and if, when
you get home, you find your boy or girl engaged over some novel,
especially if it is a yellow covered one, take it right out of his or
her hand, and ask them to read that Report.
You may think it absurd; but, ten to one, it will interest the children
more than the novel would. It will certainly give them more valuable
instruction; and I venture to say it will interest them more. I felt
quite carried away by it. It seemed to me it must be a fancy; but, when
I turned to their accounts (and they are all mercantile men), I was
amazed to see at what small cost it could all be done. And, gentlemen, I
want to detain you a moment longer on statistics, and show that it has
increased the value of property in every city that has had a park, by
bringing houses all about the parks, and by detaining as inhabitants of
the city, to be taxed in the city, those men who skulk in small towns to
throw the burden of the expense of their own city on those who stay
behind. [Applause.] All we want to do to-night is to say to the city
government that we are in earnest about this matter, and that we want
the work done now. [Applause.]
I tell you, gentlemen, it is very doubtful, if this fails, whether you
will have another Board of Commissioners to compare with the present. I
tell you it is doubtful, whether there will be a state of things in
Boston which will be any thing like as favorable as the state of things
we are in now. But I can tell you one thing that is certain; and that
is, if you postpone it, you cannot have the parks that they propose. The
growth of population will be crowding over it; speculators will buy it;
the ponds will become injured; and the expense will be so great, that
you will shudder at the thought of it. And, more than that, the parks
that you ask for in another ten years will be four or five miles from
the centre of population now, and I confess that one great argument with
me for instant action is, that I want the parks to be as accessible as
possible to all those persons especially who do not own their private
carriages, and cannot give a day to it. [Applause.]
And last of all, Mr. President and gentlemen, it should be done for
economical reasons, as has been stated very well by the address and in
the resolutions, because there never was a time, and I hope there never
will be a time again, when the land was so cheap as it is now; and, when
we take this land for parks, we take it at its present price. There has
not been a time for many years, and I hope there never will be a time
again, when the price of labor is as low as it is now [applause]; and
that labor we would employ at once, and the laborers are begging for
employment. Why, there is not one of you who has not often and often,
within the last two years, perhaps it is not extravagant to say, felt
his heart bleed when he has been stopped in the way by evidently honest
men, who would say, "We can't find any thing to do. We have looked
everywhere; and there is no work for us." [A voice, "That's so."] Yes,
that is so. Now, some philanthropists, and some political economists,
have told us that the government ought always to find employment for
everybody; it is the duty of the city to see that everybody has work:
but, though I do not advocate any such doctrine as that, I advocate this
doctrine,--that whenever the community has any thing it ought to do, and
which will employ laborers (and this is a hard time on the laborers),
then is the time that they ought to do it. [Applause.] So that it is not
only good economy, but it is humanity, that dictates an instant advance
upon this work. To save the land that we can get now in a low market,
and to employ laborers who are paid low wages, but are glad to get even
that, and to prevent the entire failure of this scheme so carefully and
beneficially made, we shall ask the city government to work at once.
Now, there are others much more able to speak of the finances of the
city government than I am; but we always do find, that, when a thing
ought to be done, there is a way of doing it; and we sometimes find,
that, when things ought not to be done, there is a way of doing them. I
wish to say one word more, before I take my seat, on the report and
scheme of these Park Commissioners; and that is its entire equitableness
in its attention to localities. It has left no part of the city that is
not benefited. Charlestown cannot have a park, because it is built over,
and there is no room for one. If there was room, they would have one.
They must annex; and then they can have a park. [Laughter.] East Boston
has a park; South Boston has a park; then comes the great West Roxbury
Park; then comes the Bussey Farm, which I omitted to mention; and then
comes Jamaica Pond and Chestnut Hill Reservoir Park, and the park roads
connecting them all, and uniting them; and then the water-front on all
that part of the city of Boston where the water-fronts are not needed
for commerce.
I say, therefore, this plan is equitably divided among the citizens
according to their residence; and it is accessible to all, and the plan
is economical, and the time is auspicious. Therefore I hope that you
will with unanimity adopt the resolutions, and call upon the city
government to proceed at once. [Applause.]
THE PRESIDENT. Allusion has been made to the "Hub of the Universe;" and
you will all understand, that, when any thing is the matter with that
Hub, the diagnosis must be made not only by an able physician, but by an
able spokesman. [Laughter and applause.] I have great pleasure in
introducing to you one who combines both, and a hundred other qualities,
Dr. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. [Applause.]