“In old Faneuil, that guild temple of traders and aldermen,
butchers and clerks, hucksters and civic magistrates, the
spirit of the people conceived an embryonic nation.”
Among early Bostonians who owned argosies and had a prosperous trade
with France and England was a young bachelor named Peter Faneuil,
who, like Paul Revere, was descended from Huguenot refugees. He was
the heir of his uncle, Andrew Faneuil, who died in 1738 and left a
large fortune. Fond of good living and hospitable, “Here’s to Peter
Faneuil!” was the toast often proposed above brimming bumpers. From
Madeira he ordered amber wine, from London, chariots and sets of
crested harness, and fine stuffs, buttons and laces. His ships carried
cargoes of tobacco, black walnut, fish, stoves and general merchandise.
At forty years of age he was a prince among Colonial merchants. He
had, moreover, pride in Boston’s advancement, and offered “at his own
cost and charge” to build a market for “the use, benefit and advantage
of the town.” Later, the donor of the market house instructed his
architect, the renowned John Smibert, to add a hall above the space
given over to provisioners’ stalls. In 1742 the two-story brick
building was completed. When Peter Faneuil received the formal thanks
of Boston, he made the prophetic response, “I hope what I have done
will be for the service of the whole country.” A year later he died,
and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground.
The chamber over the market became the seat of public offices, and, as
the Town Hall, was in demand for patriotic celebrations, debates and
banquets. In 1761, all of the structure except the walls was destroyed
by fire. As no benevolent townsman offered to duplicate Faneuil’s
gift, the selectmen were empowered to raise the necessary funds for
rebuilding by holding a lottery. “Faneuil Hall Lottery Tickets” bore
the signature of John Hancock, then a young politician of promise. In
1763 the reconstructed Town Hall was ready for occupancy. It was this
rebuilt meeting-place that became the forum of free speech in Boston,
the Altar of Liberty from which rose the flame that “roused a depressed
people from want and degradation. Here those maxims of political truth
which have extended an influence over the habitable globe, and have
given rise to new republics, were first promulgated.”
The Stamp Act (1765) was denounced within its arched and pillared
walls, and the repeal celebrated with festivities. Revenue laws were
discussed, and when troops were ordered to the provincial capital,
a convention in session here raised a fearless voice in defence of
Colonial independence. The day following the massacre of the fifth
of March, 1770, a mass meeting was called in the Hall, but so many
citizens responded that it was necessary to repair to Old South Church,
where there was more room. Early in November, 1773, John Hancock
presided over a Town Hall meeting, the object of which was to protest
against threatened importations of tea by the East India Company of
London. At numerous conclaves the tea question continued to agitate the
grave townsfolk, until on December sixteenth a group of patriots in the
disguise of Indians summarily put an end to discussion by dumping the
cargoes of the newly-arrived tea ships into Boston harbor.
Faneuil Hall echoed to vigorous protests against the Port Bill,
which so vitally affected Boston commerce, and from the same “Old
Faneuil” printed letters were dispatched to the other colonies for the
purpose of presenting facts and securing coöperation against proposed
aggressions by the mother country. At Faneuil Hall representatives
of General Gage assembled one tragic day to receive the arms of the
Bostonians. In joyous contrast were the meetings held in the honored
edifice after the evacuation of the city by British troops.
French naval officers and the Marquis de Lafayette were feasted here;
two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, were guests of
honor at Faneuil Hall banquets; and in 1793 the execution of Louis
XVI was celebrated by sons of freedom who sympathized with the French
Revolutionists.
In the year 1806 the sturdy building was remodeled and enlarged. During
the naval war with England, citizens again held meetings in the Town
Hall to inveigh against renewed violations of their “national rights
and sovereignty.” In the “Cradle of Liberty” Charles Francis Adams,
Daniel Webster, Wendell Phillips, Edward Everett, Rufus Choate and
Charles Sumner championed justice and democracy. In 1834, at a memorial
meeting for Lafayette held in Faneuil, Edward Everett delivered one
of his most glowing and eloquent orations, in which he extolled the
departed French patriot as the “Lover of Liberty.” Referring to the
Hall in which he spoke, he said, “The spirit of the departed is in high
communion with the spirit of this place.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 10, SERIAL No. 158
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: OLD NORTH CHURCH, BOSTON, MASS.--ASSOCIATED WITH THE
RIDE OF PAUL REVERE]
_THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY_
_Paul Revere_