In behalf of the Trustees of the City Library, I receive with extreme
pleasure the keys which you have placed in my hands. The completion of
the noble building, which the city government now confides to our care,
is an event to which the Trustees have looked forward with the greatest
interest, and which they now contemplate with the highest satisfaction.
They deem themselves especially honored in their connection with an
institution, for whose use this stately and commodious edifice has been
erected, and which they doubt not is destined to be instrumental of the
highest good to the community, and to reflect lasting credit upon the
liberality, public and private, with which it has been founded and
endowed.
The city of Boston, owing to peculiar circumstances in its growth and
history, has been at all times, as I think, beyond most cities in the
world, the object of an affectionate attachment on the part of its
inhabitants; a feeling entitled to respect and productive of good, even
if it may sometimes seem to strangers over-partial in its
manifestations. It is not merely its commanding natural situation, the
triple hills on which it is enthroned, its magnificent bay and harbor,
and the group of islands and islets that sparkle like emeralds on their
surface; not merely this most admirable common, which opens before our
windows, delightful even at this season of the year, and affording us in
summer, in its noble malls and shady walks, all that the country can
boast of cool and beautiful and salubrious, transported to the heart of
the city, "the poor man's pleasure-ground," as it has been well called,
though a king might envy it;--nor the environs of our city of surpassing
loveliness, which enclose it on every side in kindly embrace; it is not
solely nor principally these natural attractions which endear Boston to
its citizens. Nor is it exclusively the proud and grateful memories of
the past,--of the high-souled fathers and mothers of the land, venerable
in their self-denying virtues, majestic in the austere simplicity of
their manners, conscientious in their errors, who, with amazing
sacrifices and hardships never to be described, sought out new homes in
the wilderness, and transmitted to us delights and blessings which it
was not given to themselves to enjoy;--of those who in succeeding
generations deserved well of their country,--the pioneers of the
Revolution, the men of the stamp act age, whose own words and acts are
stamped on the pages of history, in characters never to be effaced;--of
those who, when the decisive hour came, stood forth in that immortal
HALL, the champions of their country's rights, while it scarcely yet
deserved the name of a country; it is not exclusively these proud and
grateful associations, which attach the dutiful Bostonian to the city of
his birth or adoption.
No, Mr. Mayor, it is not exclusively these, much as they contribute to
strengthen the sentiment. It has its origin, in no small degree, in the
personal relation in which Boston places herself to her children; in the
parental interest which she cherishes in their welfare, which leads her
to take them by the hand almost from the cradle,--to train them up in
the ascending series of her excellent free schools; watching over them
as a fond father watches over the objects of his love and hope; in a
word, to confer upon them a first-rate school education at the public
expense. Often have I attempted, but with very partial success, both in
this country and in Europe, to persuade inquiring friends from the
countries and places where no such well-organized system of public
education prevails, that our free schools do really afford to the entire
population means of elementary education, of which the wealthiest
citizen is glad to avail himself.
And now, Mr. Mayor, the enlightened counsels of the city government are
about to give new strength to those ties of gratitude and affection,
which bind the hearts of the children of Boston to their beloved city.
Hitherto the system of public education, excellent as it is and wisely
supported by a princely expenditure, does but commence the work of
instruction and carry it to a certain point; well advanced, indeed, but
far short of the goal. It prepares our young men for college, for the
counting-room, for the office of the engineer, the _studio_ of the
artist, the shop of the artisan, the laboratory of the chemist, or
whatever field of employment they may be destined to enter, but there it
leaves them, without further provision for the culture of the mind. It
disciplines the faculties and forms a taste for the acquisition of
knowledge, on the part of our young men and women, but it provides no
means for their exercise and gratification. It gives them the elementary
education requisite for their future callings, but withholds all
facilities of access to those boundless stores of recorded knowledge, in
every department, by which alone that elementary education can be
completed and made effectual for the active duties of life.
But to-day our honored city carries on and perfects her work. The
trustees, from their first annual report to the present time, have never
failed to recommend a first class public library, such as that, sir, for
whose accommodation you destine this noble building, as the completion
of the great system of public education. Its object is to give to the
entire population, not merely to the curious student, but to the
inquisitive member of either of the professions, to the intelligent
merchant, mechanic, machinist, engineer, artist or artisan, in short, to
all of every age and of either sex, who desire to investigate any
subject, either of utility or taste, those advantages which, without
such an ample public collection, must necessarily be monopolized by the
proprietors of large private libraries, or those who by courtesy have
the use of them; nay, to put within the reach of the entire community
advantages of this kind, far beyond those which can be afforded by the
largest and best provided private libraries.
The trustees are anxious that the institution, whose prosperity they
have so much at heart, should continue to be viewed in this light; as
one more added to the school-houses of the city, at which Boston boys
and girls, when they have outgrown the other schools, will come to carry
on the education which has been there commenced; where Boston men and
women, "children of a larger growth," may come to acquire that
additional knowledge which is requisite for the most successful
discharge of the duties of the various callings of society,--which
opens, in its pursuit, the purest sources of happiness,--and which,
without reference to utility, contributes so materially to the grace and
ornament of life.
I am aware that there is still floating about in the community a vague
prejudice against what is called book-learning. One sometimes hears
doubts expressed of the utility of public libraries; opinions that
they are rather ornamental than necessary or useful; and the fact that
our time-honored city, never indifferent to the mental improvement of
her children, has existed more than two centuries without one, is a
sufficient proof, that, until within a very few years, their
importance has not been practically felt. There is perhaps even now a
disposition to claim some superiority for what is called practical
knowledge--knowledge gained by observation and experience (which most
certainly the trustees would not disparage), and a kind of
satisfaction felt in holding up the example of self-taught men, in
supposed contradistinction from those who have got their knowledge
from books. No name perhaps is so frequently mentioned for this
purpose as that of Franklin, who, because he had scarce any school
education and never went to college, has been hastily set down as a
brilliant example to show the inutility of book-learning. It has been
quoted to me in this way, and to show that libraries are of no use,
within three days.
Now, Mr. Mayor, I need not tell you that there never was a greater
mistake in point of fact. A thirst for books, which he spared no pains
to allay, is the first marked trait disclosed in the character of
Franklin; his success throughout the early period of his life can be
directly traced to the use he made of them; and his very first important
movement for the benefit of his fellow-men was to found a public
library, which still flourishes;--one of the most considerable in the
country. Franklin not a book-man! whoever labors under that delusion,
shows that somebody else is not a book-man, at least so far as concerns
the biography of our illustrious townsman. We happen to have a little
information on that subject, in a book written by Franklin himself. He
there gives a very different account of himself, and I would ask any one
who entertains the idea to which I am alluding, at what period of
Franklin's career he supposes this taste for books began to be
manifested by him; how soon he ceased to be a self-formed man? Perhaps
after he had struggled through the years of his youthful poverty,
escaped to Philadelphia, set up in business as a printer, and begun to
have a little money in his pocket. I need not tell you, sir, that it was
earlier than that. Was it, then, while he was the clever apprentice to
his brother, the editor of a journal, and wrote articles for its columns
in a disguised hand, and tucked them under the office door, enjoying the
exquisite delight of being ordered to set up his own anonymous articles;
was it then, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, that this fondness for
reading, under the stimulus of boyish authorship, disclosed itself?
Earlier than that. Well, then, at the grammar-school and Master
Brownwell's writing-school, which he attended from eight to ten (for
there are boys who show a fondness for reading, even at that tender
age); was little Benjamin's taste for books developed while yet at
school? Earlier than that. Hear his own words, which you will permit me
to read from that exquisite piece of autobiography to which I have
already alluded: "From my INFANCY I was _passionately_ fond of reading,
and all the money that came into my hands was laid out in purchasing
books. I was very fond of voyages. My first acquisition was Bunyan's
works, in separate little volumes. I afterwards sold them to enable me
to buy R. Burton's _Historical Collections_. They were small chapman's
books and cheap, forty volumes in all. My father's little library
consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read. I
have often regretted [and this is a sentence that might be inscribed on
the lofty cornice of this noble hall] that at a time when I had such a
thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen in my way....
There was among them Plutarch's Lives, which I read abundantly, and I
still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a book of
Defoe's, called an _Essay on Projects_, and another of Dr. Mather's,
called an _Essay to do Good_, which"--did what, sir? For I am now going
to give you, in Franklin's own words (they carry with them the
justification of every dollar expended in raising these walls), the
original secret of his illustrious career--what was the effect produced
by reading these two little books of Defoe and Cotton Mather? "they
perhaps gave me a turn of thinking, which had an influence on some of
the principal future events of my life." Yes, sir, in the reading of
those books was the acorn that sprouted into that magnificent oak; there
was the fountain-drop which a fairy might have sipped from a buttercup,
from which has flowed the Missouri and the Mississippi,--the broad, deep
river of Franklin's fame, winding its way through the lapse of ages, and
destined to flow on, till it shall be ingulfed in the ocean of eternity.
From his "infancy," sir, "passionately fond of reading," nay, with the
appetite of a vulture, with the digestion of an ostrich, attacking the
great folios of polemic divinity in his father's library. Not a dull
boy, either; not a precocious little bookworm; fond of play; doesn't
dislike a little mischief; sometimes, as he tells us, "led the other
boys into scrapes;" but in his intervals of play, in his leisure
moments, up in the lonely garret when the rest of the family were
asleep, holding converse in his childhood with the grave old
non-conformists, Howe and Owen and Flavel and Baxter,--communing with
the austerest lords of thought; the demigods of puritanism.
Franklin not a book-man? Why, he goes on to tell us that it was "this
bookish inclination which at length determined his father to make him a
printer," against his own inclination, which was for the sea; and when
he had thus by constraint become a printer, his great consolation was,
as he says, that "I now had access to better books. An acquaintance with
the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small
one, which I was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my
chamber reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was
borrowed in the evening and was to be returned in the morning, lest it
should be found missing."
Then he made the acquaintance of Mr. Matthew Adams, an ingenious,
sensible man, "who had a pretty collection of books." He frequented the
printing-office, took notice of the bright little apprentice, and "very
kindly proposed to lend me such books as I chose to read." Having taken
to a vegetable diet at the age of sixteen, he persuaded his brother to
allow him in cash half the price of his board,--lived upon potatoes and
hasty pudding,--soon found that he could save half even of that little
allowance (which could not have exceeded two-and-six-pence a week,
lawful money), and this poor little economy "was an additional fund for
buying books." What would the poor, underfed boy, who was glad to buy
books on the savings of his potato diet, have said could he have had
free access to a hall like this, stored as it soon will be with its
priceless treasures?
Further, sir, while working as a journeyman in England, he says, "I
made the acquaintance of one William Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop
was next door. He had an immense collection of second-hand
books."--(Somewhat, I suppose, like our friend Burnham, in
Cornhill.)--"Circulating libraries were not then in use, but we agreed
that on certain reasonable terms, which I have now forgotten, I might
take, read, and return any of his works. This I esteemed a great
advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could."
Finally, sir, as I have already said, Franklin's first important
movement for the good of his fellow-men was the foundation of the public
library in Philadelphia. At his instance, the members of a little club
to which he belonged, tradesmen and mechanics of narrow means, threw
into common stock the few books which belonged to them. A subscription
was then obtained from fifty young men, principally tradesmen, of two
pounds each, and ten shillings _per annum_, and with this little fund
they began. "The books were imported, the library was opened one day in
the week for lending them to the subscribers, on their promissory notes
to pay double the value if not duly returned." "This was the mother,"
says Franklin, "of all the North American subscription libraries, now so
numerous. It has become a great thing itself, and continually goes on
increasing. These libraries have improved the general conversation of
the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as
most gentlemen from other countries, and, perhaps, have contributed in
some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in
defence of their privileges."
Those are the words of Franklin, Mr. Mayor, which I read from his own
book. Our excellent friend the President of the Commissioners (Hon. R.C.
Winthrop) has justly felicitated himself on having been the first person
publicly to raise his voice in this noble hall. He must be a happier man
than I who can speak an earlier or an abler word than his on any
occasion; but I claim the credit of having read from the first book
opened in this hall;--and what is more, sir, I mean to have the
satisfaction of presenting the first volume given to the library, since
this building came into the care of the Trustees. In your presence, Mr.
Mayor, and that of this vast assembly on this first of January, 1858, I
offer this copy of Franklin's Autobiography in Sparks's edition, as a
New Year's gift to the Boston Public Library. Nay, sir, I am going to do
more, and make the first, and perhaps the last, motion ever made in this
hall; and that is, that every person present, of his own accord, if of
age,--with the consent of parent or guardian, if a minor,--man, woman,
boy, or girl, be requested, on going home, to select one good book, and
in memory of the poor boy, who half-fed himself to gratify his taste for
reading, present it as a New-Year's gift to the Boston Public Library. I
make you that motion, Mr. Mayor, and I call upon all present to give me
their voices: especially I ask the cooperation of the fairer and better
part of creation. If nowhere else, woman's rights shall be respected in
this hall, while I have anything to do with it. I pray you, Mr. Mayor,
put the question, and then I'll finish my speech.
His Honor the Mayor then rose and stated the question, which
was seconded by Mr. Winthrop. The mayor particularly called
on the ladies to vote, and a unanimous and emphatic aye
resounded through the vast hall. The negative was then
called and no response made. His Honor, amidst great
cheering and laughter, pronounced it a unanimous vote. Mr.
Everett resumed--
No, sir, if there is one lesson more than another directly deducible
from the life of Franklin, it is the close connection of a thoroughly
practical and useful life and career with books, libraries, and reading.
If there is a thing on earth which would have gladdened his heart could
he have anticipated it, it would be the knowledge that his native city,
in two generations after his death, would found a library like this, to
give to the rising generation and to the lovers of knowledge of every
age that access to books, of which he so much felt the want. And could
it be granted to him, even now, to return to his native city, which
dwelt in his affections to the close of his life, his first visit would
be to the centre of the ancient burial-ground, where in after-life he
dutifully placed a marble slab on the graves of his parents; his second
visit would be to the spot in Milk street where he was born; his third
to the corner of Union street and Hanover street, where he passed his
childhood, in a house still standing; his fourth visit would be to the
site of the free grammar school-house, where, as he says in his will, he
received "his first instruction in literature," and which is now adorned
with a statue which a grateful posterity has dedicated to his memory;
and his last and longest would be to this noble hall, where you are
making provision for an ample supply of that reading of which, "from his
_infancy_ he was _passionately_ fond." The trustees have done what they
could to connect some reference to Franklin with an institution which
would have been the object of his warmest affections, by providing that
every Franklin medal boy shall be entitled to its privileges; and
inasmuch as the accumulating fund which he bequeathed to the city, and
which now exceeds seventy thousand dollars, has proved almost wholly
unavailing for the primary object of the bequest, it deserves
consideration whether, when it has reached a sufficient magnitude, as it
will before the end of this century, the interest of the fund, if it can
be legally done, might not advantageously be appropriated, as a
permanent endowment for the support of the library.
I have not proposed at this time, sir, on the part of the trustees, to
make a formal speech; I have preferred to let Benjamin Franklin speak
for us. This day belongs of right to the commissioners for building the
library, ably represented as they are, by our distinguished friend their
president, who has done such ample justice to the subject; and to you,
Mr. Mayor, as the organ of the city government, whom I cannot but
congratulate on closing your official career,--in all respects so
honorable to yourself and so acceptable to your fellow-citizens,--by an
act, I am sure, most grateful to your own feelings and most auspicious
of the public good. It is not yet the time for the trustees to speak. A
more fitting opportunity may hereafter present itself, when the books
shall be placed on the shelves, the catalogue printed, and the library
opened for public use. Occasion may then, perhaps, with propriety be
taken, to illustrate the importance and utility of such an institution;
to do justice to the liberality on the part of the city government and
the individual benefactors by which it has been founded, endowed, and
sustained; and especially to the generosity of our greatest benefactor
and esteemed fellow-countryman, Mr. Bates, whose letters announcing his
first munificent donation of fifty thousand dollars, alluding to his own
early want of access to books, assign that as the moving cause which
prompted his liberality. It will be the pleasing duty of those who may
then be intrusted with the administration of the library, to pay a
fitting tribute to so much public and private bounty.
In the mean time, sir, we must throw ourselves on the patience and
considerateness of the city council and the community. Not much short of
sixty thousand volumes are to be brought together from four different
places of temporary deposit, and assigned to their final resting-places
in this hall and the circulating library below. Here they are to be
arranged on the shelves, the cards and slips which pertain to them, far
more numerous than the volumes themselves, reduced to alphabetical
order; a separate catalogue of each alcove prepared; and a comprehensive
catalogue of the whole collection, without which it will be little
better than an unmanageable mass, prepared and printed. Every thing
which could be done beforehand, has been anticipated; but much of the
work was of necessity reserved till the books should be placed on the
shelves. In the interval, and while this labor is going on, the library
in Mason street will be left in possession of the books most in request
for daily circulation, and will be closed at last only when it becomes
absolutely necessary that they also should be removed to the new
building.
But it is time for me to conclude. The shades of evening are falling
around us; those cressets which lend us their mild and tasteful
illumination will soon be extinguished; and the first day of the
New-Year, rich in the happy prospects we now inaugurate, will come to a
close. May the blessing of Heaven give effect to its brightest
anticipations. A few more days,--a few more years,--will follow their
appointed round, and we, who now exchange our congratulations on this
magnificent New-Year's gift of our city fathers, shall have passed from
the scene; but firm in the faith that the growth of knowledge is the
growth of sound principles and pure morals, let us not doubt, that, by
the liberality of the city government and of our generous benefactors at
home and abroad, a light will be kindled and go forth from these walls,
now dedicated to the use of the FREE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, which will
guide our children and our children's children in the path of
intelligence and virtue, till the sun himself shall fall from the
heavens.