LETTER TO THE MAYOR OF BOSTON, FOR THE CELEBRATION JULY 4,
1854.
SENATE CHAMBER, 1st July, 1854.
Dear Sir,--I have been honored by the invitation of the municipal
authorities of Boston to unite with them in commemorating the
approaching anniversary of our National Independence.
Please tender to them my gratitude, that they have thus remembered me,
an absent citizen, who tries to serve truth and justice in the sphere
where he has been placed. Pleasure would take me home among congenial
souls, but duty keeps me here.
The approaching anniversary of Independence in Boston should be
something more than a show and expense. It ought to be the occasion
of a practical vow to those primal principles of Freedom which have
been assailed. Our municipal history should be carefully read, and,
unless we are prepared to disown our fathers, the conduct of Boston
at memorable times should be set forward anew, as an example which
her children must never forget. I do not refer to the violent act by
which her harbor was converted into a "teapot"; but I would especially
dwell on the peaceful opposition, which, according to her own records,
now preserved at the City Hall, she organized against a tyrannical
and unconstitutional Act of Parliament,--"bearing testimony against
outrageous tumults and illegal proceedings," but never failing to
"take legal and warrantable measures to prevent that misfortune, of
all others the most to be dreaded, the execution of the Stamp Act."
The City Clerk will find these words in his books, under date of
24th March, 1766, whence I have with my own hand copied them. With
this great precedent of Freedom in my memory, I ask the municipal
authorities--should I be remembered at their hospitable board--to
propose in my name the following sentiment.
_The City of Boston._--While still in colonial dependence, and with
no aim at revolution, her municipal fathers steadfastly opposed the
execution, within her borders, of an unconstitutional and tyrannical
Act of Parliament, until, without violence or collision, it was at
first practically annulled, and at last repealed. Truly honoring the
Fathers, let Boston not depart from their example.