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THE
NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE
AND
BAY STATE MONTHLY.
OLD SERIES FEBRUARY, 1886. NEW SERIES
VOL. IV. NO. 2. VOL. I. NO. 2.
Copyright, 1886, by Bay State Monthly Company. All rights reserved.
Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article.
TUFTS COLLEGE.
BY REV. E. H. CAPEN, D.D.
[Illustration]
Tufts College is situated on the most beautiful and commanding eminence
in the southeasterly part of Middlesex county, within the town of
Medford and on the borders of Somerville. This eminence was formerly
called Walnut Hill, on account, it is said, of the heavy growth of
hickory timber with which it was covered at the time of the settlement
of the colony, but is now called College Hill, on account of the
institution which crowns it. The land on which the College is built is a
part of the farm which the late Charles Tufts received by way of
inheritance; and, when asked by his relatives what he would do with the
bleak hill over in Medford, he replied, "I will put a light on it." The
tract of land originally given by Mr. Tufts consisted of twenty acres.
Subsequently he gave his pledge to add other valuable tracts adjoining.
This pledge has been fulfilled, so that the plot of ground, belonging to
the College, given by Mr. Tufts, embraces upwards of one hundred acres.
The late Deacon Timothy Cotting, of Medford, also gave to the College at
his decease, a piece of land lying near the institution containing
upwards of twenty acres. In consequence of the munificence of Mr. Tufts,
it was determined that the College should bear his name.
[Illustration: President Capen.][A]
The definite impulse which resulted in the establishment of Tufts
College may be traced to the sermon preached by Hosea Ballou, 2d., D.D.,
before the General Convention of Universalists, in the city of New York,
September 15, 1847. In this sermon Dr. Ballou urged the "duty of general
culture" and the importance that a denomination should have "at least
one college placed on a permanent basis," with such clearness and
emphasis that the movement at once took organic shape and went forward
without pause from that hour. Dr. Ballou declared that one hundred
thousand dollars was the least sum with which the work could begin and
have any prospect of success. The Rev. Otis A. Skinner was appointed to
obtain subscriptions to a fund to that amount. The sum was a large one
in the then condition of the Universalist body. But in an undertaking of
that kind, Mr. Skinner knew no such word as fail. It took years for the
accomplishment of his task; but in the summer of 1851 he was able to
announce that the subscription was completed. A meeting of the
subscribers was held in Boston on the sixteenth and seventeenth of
September of that year. A board of trustees was designated who
subsequently fixed upon the present site of the institution and
determined its name. Application was made to the Legislature for a
charter, which was granted April 21, 1852. The original charter
conferred the power to grant every kind of degree usually given by
colleges, "except medical degrees." This restriction was removed by act
of the Legislature, dated February 2, 1867.
[Illustration: COLLEGE CHAPEL.]
[Illustration]
In July, 1852, the Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D.D., was elected president of
the College. But he declined to accept the office on the terms
prescribed, and in May, 1853, the Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D., was
chosen to the office, which he filled until his death in May, 1861. In
July following his election the corner-stone of the main College hall
was laid by Dr. Ballou. The event was one of great interest and
significance, and drew together a large company of people from different
sections of the country. A year was spent by the president in visiting
the most prominent institutions of learning at home and abroad,
preparatory to organizing the new College, and laying out its course of
study. In the work of organization, Dr. Ballou received important and
valuable assistance from John P. Marshall, the present senior professor
and dean of the College of letters. The College was first regularly
opened for the admission of students in August, 1855, though a few
students had been residing at the College and receiving instruction from
the president and Professor Marshall during the previous year. In the
beginning the success of the institution was as marked as its friends
could reasonably expect. But the great anxiety attending the beginning
and development of so important an undertaking seriously affected the
health of Dr. Ballou, and he was cut down before the College could avail
itself of the transcendent abilities which he brought to the discharge
of his duties, and before he could witness the almost unexampled
material prosperity awaiting it. President Eliot generously said not
long since that the remarkable growth of Harvard University in these
later years is largely the fruit of the efforts of James Walker, a fit
contemporary and fellow-worker in the cause of education with Dr.
Ballou. Truly, other men labor and we enter into their labors. In an
important sense the College was the creature of Dr. Ballou's brain. He
had so clear a conception of the nature and scope of an institution of
learning of the highest grade suited to this latitude and these times,
and he was so successful in producing a conviction of its possibilities
in the minds of rich men, that they were ready to devote to it their
all. But he died before the fruits of his labors had begun to appear.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF CHAPEL.]
In the spring of 1862, the Rev. A. A. Miner, D.D., was elected to
succeed Dr. Ballou, and continued to hold the office until his
resignation in February, 1875, a period of nearly thirteen years. Dr.
Miner did not take up his residence at the College nor relinquish his
connection with the School Street parish in Boston, of which he was
pastor. But he visited the College daily, or as often as his presence
was required. It was during his presidency and largely through his
instrumentality that the extraordinary material development of the
College was secured. Very soon after its establishment, Silvanus
Packard, a prosperous merchant and a parishioner of Dr. Miner, who was
without children, announced his intention of making Tufts College his
child. He gave generously to it during his lifetime, and, dying,
bequeathed to it nearly the whole of his property, amounting to nearly
three hundred thousand dollars. The donations and legacies of Mr.
Packard exceed in amount those of any other benefactor. The one who
comes the nearest to him in the aggregate of his gifts is Dr. Wm. J.
Walker. This gentleman divided his princely estate between the following
institutions: Amherst College, the Museum of Natural History in Boston,
Tufts College, and Williams College. The share which Tufts College
received in this distribution was upwards of two hundred thousand
dollars. The benefactions of Dr. Walker are remarkable, if we remember
that he was an alumnus of Harvard College, an Episcopalian in religion,
that his trusted friend and counsellor at the time he was arranging for
the disposal of his property was Thomas Hill, D.D., the president of
Harvard University, and that Tufts College was in the earliest stages of
its development. But notwithstanding these facts, sufficient in
themselves to warp the judgment of ordinary men, his vision was clear
enough to enable him to see that there was room for another great
college to grow up in the neighborhood of Boston, even under the shadow
of that ancient and renowned university.
[Illustration: :MEMORIAL:WINDOW:CHAPEL:]
Another notable friend of Tufts College was Dr. Oliver Dean. In the
beginning he made very liberal offers, provided the institution should
be placed in Franklin. Subsequently he devoted the greater portion of
his wealth to the founding of Dean Academy, one of whose functions was
to be the fitting of young men for the College. He also showed still
more distinctly his favor to the College by contributing in all $90,000
to its funds.
But the College was especially fortunate in its infancy and when it was
practically without funds in having for its treasurer Thomas A. Goddard,
a wealthy merchant; a man utterly void of personal vanity, whose eyes
swept over the whole field, and who, wherever he saw that the cause
could be promoted by a timely benefaction, very simply and
unostentatiously bestowed it. So when the College was almost entirely
without funds and had but a small part of the income needed to meet its
current expenses, he quietly paid the deficiency out of his own pocket
and preserved it from debt.
At the conclusion of the first half of the college year, 1874-75, Dr.
Miner, having previously resigned his pastorate in Boston, tendered his
resignation of the presidency of the College. Neither institution,
however, was willing to accept his resignation, and each sought to
retain his entire services. After mature deliberation he decided to
accept the invitation of the parish, and his official connection with
the faculty of the College which he had held with distinguished ability
and success for thirteen years was thus permanently severed.
The Hon. Israel Washburn, Jr., the war Governor of Maine, was chosen as
his successor. But he promptly declined the office. The trustees then
determined to make a new departure and place an alumnus of the College
at its head. Accordingly the present incumbent, at that time pastor of
the First Universalist Church of Providence, R. I., and a graduate of
the class of 1860, was elected to the vacant chair in March, 1875, and
was inaugurated on the second day of June following. Whatever may be the
ultimate verdict concerning the wisdom of the trustees in the selection
which was then made, no one will deny that the calling of an alumnus to
the post has had the effect of quickening the interest and securing the
co-operation of the graduates of the institution beyond anything that
could have been done.
I come now to speak briefly of certain changes in the internal life of
the College, many of which have taken place under my own eye, and with
the shaping of which in important respects, during these later years, I
have had something to do. In the matter of development few institutions
in this country have made greater progress. It is a long step from what
the College was when I knew it as a student, to its present condition;
so that those who were only acquainted with its life fifteen or twenty
years ago would scarcely recognize it as the same life to-day. Indeed
the modifications which have been introduced into its discipline and
into its courses of study have aroused an interest in its work outside
of and beyond mere denominational lines, and are beginning to attract to
it students from many miscellaneous sources.
One of the chief difficulties in the way of local patronage has been the
overshadowing influence of Harvard University. It was scarcely to be
expected that an institution planted in such close proximity to that
powerful and venerable seat of learning would, in the beginning, attract
students from its immediate neighborhood. Many persons have thought that
the location of the College is a mistaken one on that account. But
colleges are not made in one day nor in one decade. It will take more
than Leland Stanford's twenty millions of endowment to give his
University a solid and enduring fame. Colleges, indeed, like all the
great and permanent institutions by which society is upheld, and the
welfare and progress of humanity are secured, are the slow growth of
generations. The selection of the present site of the College cannot be
regarded as other than fortunate; first, because of its proximity to
Boston, the most important literary centre of the new world, where it
may constantly feel the pulsations of every intellectual movement that
takes place in the domain of thought; and, secondly, because, owing to
its contact with the foremost college in the land, it has been compelled
to adopt and maintain the highest standards in its work. The result of
this is seen in the steady growth of recent years. During the last five
or six years there has been a good percentage of attendance from schools
in the immediate neighborhood of the College which have heretofore sent
their students almost exclusively to Harvard. Men have been drawn to the
College wholly without reference to denominational lines, simply because
they believed the College had advantages to offer unsurpassed by any
institution in the country. Within the last two years the College has
made a gain in students of at least forty per cent. The whole number who
entered the different departments in the year 1884-5 was sixty-one, and
although the number entering in 1885-6 was somewhat less, yet the whole
number in the College is greater than ever before, namely, one hundred
and forty, of whom twenty-six are in the Divinity School, and the
remainder in the College of letters.
The course of study originally adopted was substantially that of the
leading New England colleges. It has adhered throughout very firmly to
its standard. The ten associated colleges of Southern New England voted
at their annual meeting in 1879 that it is desirable to adopt a system
of uniform requirements for the admission of students. Tufts was one of
the first to accept the scheme proposed by the conference of examiners
in the different institutions. The faculty as originally constituted
consisted of three professors beside the president; and for many years,
the entire work of the College was performed by not more than five
teachers. The gifts and benefactions of Dr. Walker, designed mainly for
the promotion of mathematics and related branches of study, enabled the
trustees to enlarge the facilities for instruction on the side of
science. A professorship of civil engineering was created in 1867. This
department has been enlarged gradually, until now men may receive
complete courses of professional instruction in civil, mechanical, and
electrical engineering. Some very able engineers, holding important and
responsible positions, have received their training here. The subjects
of natural history, physics, and chemistry have each been assigned to
separate chairs. The department of physics has two excellent working
laboratories. Besides the regular work in physics with the College
classes, original investigations are carried on under the direction of
Dr. Dolbear, the professor of physics, and assistant-professor Hooper.
In the department of chemistry, the organic research laboratory has been
very carefully equipped for that line of work, and offers facilities for
original investigation which will compare favorably with those of any
similar laboratory in the country. During the past year very
considerable additions to chemical knowledge have been made by Professor
Michael and his able corps of assistants. Of the department of natural
history we shall speak later on.
The only degree given in the beginning as a reward for residence and
study in the College was that of Bachelor of Arts. But the presence of a
large number of students who were not prepared to take that course of
study in full led to the organization of two additional courses, one
leading to the degree of Civil Engineer, and the other to the degree of
Bachelor of Philosophy. The latter course has received many
modifications, and in the autumn of 1875 it was determined to make it a
four years course, the same in all respects as the regular course,
except that it omits Greek and substitutes instead of it the modern
languages and some elective work in science. Previous to 1875 the work
of the College was mainly prescribed, with but little opportunity for
optional or elective studies. At that time the scope of electives was
greatly broadened. There are now eleven full courses of electives open
to students. From the middle of the junior year, a very large percentage
of the student's work is in those lines which he chooses for himself. It
was decided also, immediately after the elective system went into
effect, to confer special honors at the time of graduation upon any
student who attains distinction in any particular study and in two
cognate studies, under such rules as the faculty have prescribed.
Another important movement in the direction of sound scholarship was
made about this time. It was determined that the degree of Master of
Arts, which, so far, had been granted to all graduates of the degree of
A.B. who applied for it after three years from their graduation, should
be conferred only upon such graduates of the regular and philosophical
courses as should pursue, during a residence of not less than one year,
under the direction of the faculty, a prescribed course of study in at
least two departments. The privilege of graduate study was also opened
to those holding like degrees from other colleges. The result of this
action has been to retain at the College for more protracted and
profound study ambitious and scholarly men out of every class.
The modifications of discipline have been no less important either in
their character or results. Formerly in all the New England colleges an
elaborate system of rules, enforced by an oversight, which often
amounted to espionage, was thought to be necessary to good order and the
proper moral development of young men. In the eyes of the students, the
faculty of a college seemed to be little else than a grand court of
inquisition for the trial and punishment of offences against discipline.
In point of fact, a very large percentage of the time of college
officers was spent in that business. At Tufts, perhaps more completely
than in any other New England college, all this is changed. Formal rules
relating to conduct have been abolished. Men are put entirely upon their
honor, and are no longer watched. Since 1875, there has not been a
single case of a student summoned before the faculty or a committee of
the faculty for discipline. Under this policy the gain in the orderly
behavior, moral tone, and contentment of students has been immense. For
eleven years only one student has been sent away from the College for
misconduct; and not more than one or two, so far as I remember, have
left the College because of dissatisfaction either with its methods or
its facilities; while the relative percentage of those who graduate to
those who enter has risen in twenty years from sixty-three per cent to
nearly eighty per cent, placing us, in this respect, in the front rank
of New England colleges.
The whole number of graduates is now about four hundred. Of this number
representatives may be found in the principal walks of almost every one
of the learned professions. As an indication of the quality of
scholarship produced, it may be remarked that the catalogue of 1885-6
shows that no less than nine of the officers of instruction and
government, including the president, are from its own graduates. The
board of trustees consists of twenty-nine persons. Of this number ten
are from the alumni of the College.
Silvanus Packard by will directed that the trustees should establish and
maintain out of the rents and profits of his estate, one theological
professorship. The Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D.D., was elected Packard
Professor of Theology, and the Divinity School, with Dr. Sawyer at its
head, was organized and opened for the admission of students in 1869. At
first one professor was associated with Dr. Sawyer and very soon another
was added to the faculty. There are at present four professors besides
Dr. Sawyer in the Divinity School. The course of study, at the opening
of the school, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Divinity was three
years. But so large a number of those applying for admission were found
to be deficient in elementary training that the course was lengthened to
four years for all, except college graduates.
In order to give greater encouragement to men having the Christian
ministry in view to secure college training before entering the Divinity
School, after the present year, while a preparatory course of one year
for all who have not the degree of A.B. will be retained, the degree of
B.D. will be given exclusively to college graduates. Upwards of sixty
students, since the organization of the School, have taken the
prescribed course in theology and received the degree of Bachelor of
Divinity. Of this number nearly one half are in charge of important
parishes in Massachusetts, and others in different parts of the country
are occupying some of the most prominent and influential pulpits.
When the present site of the College was selected, the hill was without
trees and almost repulsive in its nakedness. The erection of the main
college building and the first dormitory only served to heighten its
windswept appearance. But other important buildings have been added;
walks and driveways have been laid out; trees have been planted and have
attained, on the southerly slope, a thick and heavy growth, and are
beginning to get a hold upon the northerly side; the reservoir of the
Mystic Water Works is established upon the summit of the hill, and, in
effect, forms a part of the College grounds; so that, in the summer
season, there is no more beautiful or attractive spot in the whole
region about Boston than College Hill. In 1882-3 a very important
feature was added to its cluster of buildings by the erection of a stone
chapel from funds provided by Mary T. Goddard. The style of the edifice
is Romanesque with a genuine Lombardic tower. It is as graceful a piece
of architecture as can be found in this part of the country and is a
worthy memorial of the woman, who, with her noble husband, has been so
efficient a promoter of the origin and growth of the institution. Since
the completion of the chapel, Mrs. Goddard has built and finished at her
own expense an excellent gymnasium.
One of the most important additions of recent years has been the
founding of the Barnum Museum of Natural History. In the spring of 1883,
the writer suggested to the Honorable P. T. Barnum that as he had been
all his life engaged in collecting rare objects in certain departments
of natural history for the purpose alike of popular amusement and
instruction, it would be most appropriate for him to leave behind him,
as his monument, a natural history museum in connection with the College
of which he was one of the original promoters and founders. The response
was instantaneous. He directed me at once to procure plans and
specifications of a building which would admit of indefinite extension,
and submit to him an estimate of the cost. In accordance with the
foregoing scheme, the present museum building has been erected; and a
beginning has been made also in the endowment fund. The museum, which
is only the central portion of what is intended to be a much larger
building, is a structure of dignity and beauty. The first, or basement
floor, which is almost wholly above ground, is occupied by the
steam-engine and by the necessary laboratories and work-rooms. The
second, or main floor has, besides a large lecture-room, a grand
vestibule, containing a marble bust of the donor, by Thomas Ball. Here
the larger and more important specimens of natural history now belonging
to the College are deposited. Here also the skin of Jumbo and the
skeleton of the white elephant are to find their ultimate resting-place.
The third floor comprises a large exhibition hall, fifty feet wide by
seventy feet long, with a gallery running completely around it. In
addition to the important cabinet already belonging to the College, Mr.
Barnum authorized Prof. Henry A. Ward to furnish a fine zooelogical
collection. This collection comprising several hundred choice specimens,
selected with special reference to purposes of instruction, has been
received, mounted and set up in cases specially designed for the
purpose.
The library has had, on the whole, a very satisfactory growth. Dr.
Ballou's extraordinary love for books led him to bestow particular
attention upon its formation. He was unremitting in his solicitation of
gifts from friends and acquaintances and from publishers and
booksellers. The interest awakened by him has never flagged. There are
now in the possession of the College upwards of twenty thousand bound
volumes, many of them rare and of great value, and eight or nine
thousand pamphlets. The collection has entirely outgrown the quarters
assigned to it, and needs a building specially adapted to its use. A
gentleman of ample fortune has privately assured the president that such
a building shall be supplied at an early day.
The College has been distinguished for its liberal policy towards those
young men who are obliged on account of limited means to struggle for
their education. The charge for tuition is $100 a year. But there are
more than thirty scholarships in the gift of the College. By means of
these the tuition may be cancelled for those who prove their worthiness
by superior attainments. In addition to these, gratuities are given in
cases of need, so that the instruction is practically free to all men of
promise and fidelity whose circumstances require it. It is a gratifying
fact that some of the most distinguished and successful of its graduates
are from among those who have enjoyed its pecuniary favors, and who
would have found a liberal education impossible without them. Moreover,
on account of the isolation of the College, there being no villages in
immediate contact with it on either side, it is not only extremely
favorable for study, but admirably adapted to those who are obliged to
practise economy. Probably there is no institution in America where a
student can have equal advantages at so low a cost.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The publishers have taken the liberty of incorporating in his
article this portrait of President Capen.
THE MENDICANT.
BY CLINTON SCOLLARD.
Like some way-weary mendicant came I
Unto the court where Love holds potent reign,
And there in desolation I was fain
Before the gateway to lie down and die.
But one came forth who heard my mournful cry,
Nor mocked nor spurned me with a cold disdain,
But cheered me, saying, "Do not nurse thy pain!
Be brave and bid the ghosts of dead days fly!"
Then I arose and cast the Past aside,
And felt within my breast a gladness great
That I dared meet the eyes that beamed above:
And all the future time was glorified,
For I, who was a beggar at the gate,
Became a dweller in the court of Love.
THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC IN MASSACHUSETTS.
BY PAST COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF GEO. S. MERRILL.
When the American Volunteer Army was disbanded in 1865, by reason of the
completion of the great work for which it was organized, had it been
individually suggested to each one of that million of men whose eager
faces were turned homeward, to become united in a veteran association,
probably ninety-nine out of a hundred would have responded, "No; I've
had all that I want of soldiering; no more for me."
And yet, so strong did the ties of war-comradeship prove; so tender were
the memories of camp and march, of bivouac and battle; so full of
heart-stirring events was the record of intimate service in the face of
great peril, that even before the final disbandment, among the earlier
returning veterans, soldier associations had already sprung into
existence. Quite a number of these had their origin in 1864, and even
the date and place of birth of the Grand Army of the Republic, with its
membership of over three hundred thousand, is in doubt; two States at
least, Indiana and Illinois, claim its parentage; and while there are
absolutely no reliable data as to the place or exact time of the
preliminary meetings out of which the great organization grew, there is
a tradition--if the dim memories of only twenty years ago can be so
called--that at a casual meeting of returned volunteers in Illinois in
the latter portion of 1865, it was discovered that in the little group
nearly all were possessed of certain mysterious signs, grips, and
pass-words, by which various small bands of firm friends in rebel
prisons had secretly bound themselves together for mutual protection. To
no men had the value of organization come more forcibly than to these;
and in this almost chance gathering was the beginning of the Grand Army
of the Republic. There was, early enough after the close of the war,
another reason beyond all questions of sentiment or association,
demanding some form of organization among the returned soldiers and
sailors. Empty sleeves, single legs, eyeless sockets, and emaciated
bodies were too often coupled with personal necessities, and the maimed
and diseased in need of charity or employment began to point out the
larger and growing demand for organized work in behalf of suffering and
dependent ones; and to what hands could this be so well committed as to
those of old comrades in arms? The Post of the Grand Army of the
Republic holding the first regular charter was organized in Dakota,
Illinois, in the early spring of 1866, and in July following a
department, including then some forty posts, was organized in that
State.
In October of the same year the association had extended into eight or
nine other States, and a call was issued for a convention to be held at
Indianapolis, Indiana, November 20, 1866, and here the National
Encampment had its organization.
Massachusetts was not represented in the gathering, the Grand Army at
that time having but just obtained a foothold in this State. In
September, 1866, a convention of returned soldiers and sailors
representing nearly all the northern States was held at Pittsburg, Penn.
Among those present from Massachusetts were Gen. Charles Devens, Gen. N.
P. Banks, Major A. S. Cushman, and Chaplain A. H. Quint. On reaching
Pittsburg, the attention of the Massachusetts comrades was attracted by
badges worn by a large number of delegates, particularly from Indiana
and Illinois, bearing the legend, "Grand Army of the Republic;" and so
numerous were these badges that a spirit of inquiry was quite naturally
awakened as to the character and objects of this "Soldiers' Masonic
Order," as it was termed by the uninitiated. After some consultation, a
number of the Massachusetts delegates, including those we have named,
were informally inducted into the organization, in the parlor of B. F.
Stevenson, who at the first national encampment a few weeks later was
made provisional Commander-in-chief; the ritual and unwritten work was
communicated to the new members, and they were fully empowered to
organize posts in Massachusetts, General Devens being appointed
provisional Grand Commander of the department. On returning from
Pittsburg there was something of a rivalry for the organization of the
first post. Comrade Cushman, who had been active in the association of
the "boys in blue," was especially enthusiastic; and, capturing an old
army associate upon the train homeward, he poured into his ears such an
account of the new organization, that as soon as they reached New
Bedford, they went out into the highways, and summoned a sufficient
number of their comrades; and on that very day, Oct. 4, they organized
the first post of the Grand Army of the Republic in Massachusetts. This
still holds the initial number, Wm. Logan Rodman Post, No. 1, of New
Bedford. The charter fee was at once forwarded to provisional Commander
Devens, thus making sure of the coveted distinction.
A day or two later, these comrades organized a second post at Nantucket
and a third at Taunton. Comrade Cushman exhibited such zeal and
earnestness in this work that provisional Commander Devens insisted on
having that position formally transferred; and the latter therefore
resigned, and asked for the appointment of Mr. Cushman in his stead,
which was accordingly made. As in the case of the national history of
the Order, partially consequent thereon, but in a larger degree because
of the destruction of all the department records in the great Boston
fire, the early story of the Grand Army in Massachusetts is incomplete
in many details, but it appears certain that during the existence of the
provisional department under Comrade Cushman, ten posts were organized.
On the seventh of May, 1867, a permanent department was organized by a
delegate convention called at New Bedford, Commander Cushman being
elected Department, or, as then termed, Grand Commander.
Inspiring his new official associates with something of his own ardor,
Commander Cushman divided the state into ten districts, with a
recruiting officer to each, and the "missionary work" was so vigorously
prosecuted that the commander was able to welcome to the regular annual
encampment in January, 1868, the representatives of over forty posts,
with a membership of fully two thousand, while applications for nearly a
score of additional posts were nearly ready for consideration. During
the year 1867, a visit of Gen. P. H. Sheridan to Boston was made the
occasion of a torchlight parade of the posts of the Grand Army, and the
fine appearance made by the organization on this first public display
attracted general attention, and was doubtless one means of largely
increasing the membership.
As has been stated, on account of the careless compilation of records at
national headquarters, and the substantial downfall of the posts in the
West, where its great strength was at first, the history of the early
years of the order is left in much uncertainty. But the organization had
in the western states a wild, riotous growth; the meagre reports extant
naming two hundred thousand as the membership in 1867; but the utter
lack of organization, and the intrusion of politics, left the order,
almost as speedily as it had sprung into existence, a complete wreck.
At the close of the year 1870, the department of Illinois, where the
Grand Army had its birth, had been reduced from over three hundred
posts, and a membership of forty thousand, to less than twenty-five
posts, and these barely existing in name; and two years later its entire
membership was but two hundred and thirty-eight. Indiana, with two
hundred and seventy-nine posts, and thirty thousand membership, had
become utterly disorganized; Iowa, with one hundred and forty-four
posts, had ceased to have a recognized existence; the thirty posts in
Kansas had dwindled to nine; Minnesota had shrunk from twenty-five to
two posts; the one hundred and twenty-nine posts in Missouri had no
department existence; in Wisconsin, of seventy-nine, less than a dozen
were left, and in Pennsylvania, one hundred and forty-three out of two
hundred and twenty-four had been disbanded. At the session of the
National Encampment in May, 1870, the Adjutant-General reported that
only three departments, Massachusetts being one, could give the exact
number of the members upon their rolls, and the national headquarters
were then involved in over $3,000 of indebtedness.
But in Massachusetts, the founders of the Grand Army of the Republic
wisely bolted and double-barred the doors against the intrusion of
partisan topics, and the growth of the organization was steady and
continuous. In January, 1868, comrade A. B. R. Sprague was elected to
succeed Commander Cushman, and at the end of his term was able to report
seventy-three posts, with a membership of six thousand one hundred and
eighty-nine.
How well the department of Massachusetts kept, through these early
years, the Grand Army banner in the front, is evidenced by the
following:--
The percentage in this department alone of the entire membership in the
United States was, in 1872, 38 per cent; 1873, 42 per cent; 1874, 43 per
cent; 1875, 38 per cent; 1876, 32 per cent; 1877, 33 per cent; 1878, 30
per cent; 1879, 21 per cent.
From the latter year, because of the rapid growth in Pennsylvania and
New York, and of the reorganization and great increase of the
departments in western states, this percentage was rapidly decreased to
six per cent in 1885, but for ten successive years the official
national reports accord to Massachusetts, in all respects, the position
of "the banner department." In April, 1868, Commander-in-chief Logan
issued his order for the observance annually of the thirtieth of May as
a Memorial Day, "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise
decorating the graves of those who died in defence of their country
during the late rebellion," and the ceremony into which so much of
tenderness and patriotic love has since been wrought, was most heartily
inaugurated in this department.
Comrade F. A. Osborn succeeded Commander Sprague, occupying the position
during the year 1869. Within his term, a new ritual, establishing three
grades or degrees, was adopted by the National Encampment, largely in
compliance with the desires of the members of the western departments,
against the earnest opposition of Massachusetts, where was a strong wish
to "let well enough alone." This change was the first adverse blow felt
in this department, where not only was the rapid and continuous growth
of the organization retarded, but in a single quarter ending Sept. 30,
1869, there was a net loss of one thousand seven hundred and nine
members. But this was partially recovered during the subsequent three
months, and the Assistant Adjutant-General was able to report at the
close of the year, one hundred and seventeen posts, with nine thousand
members. During this year there was put in operation the system of
careful inspection of the several posts by department officers, which
has since become a part of the national regulations, and which, from its
inception in this department, has contributed so largely to the
efficiency and growth of the organization. With the retrogression of the
western departments, Massachusetts in this year went to the front in
point of numbers, as confessedly also in perfection of organization and
completeness of Grand Army work, and held that position until 1880, when
Pennsylvania passed her in point of membership. It will be impossible in
the limit of this article to speak in detail of each distinctive year's
administration, but the numerical loss of membership was not the most
serious result of the introduction of the grade system; among those who
then dropped out of the organization, disbelieving in the departure from
the original simplicity of forms, were some of the most active and
influential members, the loss of whose interest and personality was
severely felt for years.
During 1870 and 1871, the growth was small, and high water mark for that
period was reached in the first quarter of 1873, when a membership of
ten thousand and seventy was reported. From this point came a reaction,
the numbers slowly and steadily diminishing for six years, the lowest
point in membership being reached in the spring of 1879, when there were
but seven thousand seven hundred and forty-eight upon the rolls.
From that time, slowly at first, but without retrogression, the
membership has risen to its present point, numbering eighteen thousand.
The question of an appropriate badge, which had received much
consideration by two successive National Encampments and their
committees, was finally settled by a resolution passed October 28, 1869,
adopting the design now in use, to be made of bronze from cannon
captured during the war.
During one or two years of the Grand Army in this state, there was no
organized charity work, but the necessity for systematized action early
became evident, and in 1870 posts began the establishment of a relief
fund, placed in the hands of trustees, and administered by special
committees; and in this direction Massachusetts has grandly led all
other departments, having expended in the past fifteen years, from the
various relief funds of posts, over $600,000.
This work has been most thoroughly systematized, in nearly every
instance cities being divided by wards, and large towns into districts,
with a special investigating committee for each, and, from the intimacy
of association, the knowledge of records, and the veterans' natural
hatred of shams, a like amount of money could hardly have been as
judiciously or economically disbursed through any other channels; while
from no hands could aid to the family or dependent ones of a needy
veteran come with so little of the chilliness of reluctant charity as
from those of old comrades-in-arms.
Unlike most, perhaps every other charitable society, the larger part of
this money has, continually, from the first, been expended in behalf of
those who are not of its membership.
From time to time the posts have appealed to the public, by fairs,
concerts, lectures, and like entertainments, for the means to replenish
their relief funds, and the response has ever been worthy the generosity
and patriotism of the Commonwealth.
At the present time, the posts have in these funds about $120,000.
With the incoming of Commander Horace Binney Sargent, in 1876, the Grand
Army entered upon a new and broader field in its work of fraternal
charity; large as had been the liberality of Massachusetts towards its
veterans, the Commonwealth yet lacked for its own what the national
government had established for the helpless and needy wards of the
Republic,--a Soldiers and Sailors Home. With the same earnestness and
fervor which had made him the trusted military confidant of Governor
Andrew, and later, a splendid commanding officer in the field, Commander
Sargent threw himself into the work of securing this great need of the
Commonwealth. The times were far from auspicious; business was suffering
from severe depression, property values were feeling the apparent
shrinkage incident to the approach to a coin basis, Comrade Sargent
personally being among the foremost sufferers, while the strength of the
Grand Army was from these causes constantly diminishing; and, at the
outset, not a few of the members of the organization doubted the
necessity for, or feared the failure of, the project. But there was
contagion in the fiery enthusiasm and terrible earnestness of Commander
Sargent, and, slowly at first, but surely, the plan won its way.
Breaking their hitherto and since invariable rule of "one term"
elections of department commander, the comrades in Massachusetts a
second and a third time re-elected Commander Sargent, and, before the
close of the latter term, he saw the beginning of the end in the
establishment of a Soldiers Home on Powder Horn Hill, Chelsea.
The work had been of slow growth; the posts were appealed to, public
meetings were held, and at camp-fires and other gatherings the necessity
for the procurement of a Home was strongly urged; but during the earlier
months there were only a few tangible evidences of prospective success,
here and there a small contributor, so that many who had been
enthusiastic became downcast and discouraged. But there was one comrade
whose faith failed not, and when the workers wearied, Comrade Sargent
became only the more resolute and determined. During his second term, he
was able to announce the receipt of a small bequest in the will of a
generous lady, and this afforded the basis for yet more persistent
appeals to the public. An act of incorporation was procured from the
legislature, by which the control of the institution was placed in the
hands of the Grand Army, by the selection of a majority of the trustees
from this organization. With the small amount of money secured, a
beginning was made by the purchase of the property now used as a Home,
and on the eighth day of June, 1881, the dedicatory exercises were held,
and the Home opened July 25 of the following year. Already, however, a
movement had been inaugurated for a grand bazaar in December, at the
Mechanics' Building in Boston. Gen. Sargent, who had been chosen
President of the Board of Trustees, which position he filled until his
removal from the state, succeeded in interesting a large number of the
leading citizens of the state, and was fortunate in calling to his aid
as chief marshal, Col. A. A. Rand, to whose admirable organizing powers
much of the success of the bazaar was due. The women, always loyal to
the veterans, went enthusiastically into the work, the posts joined
heartily, and the general public responded liberally, and at the end
nearly fifty thousand dollars was turned over to the Treasurer of the
Home, which, with the addition of $10,000, the munificent gift of Capt.
J. B. Thomas, enabled the managers to pay the balance of the purchase
money upon the property, and largely increase the number of inmates. For
more than five years past, the deserving applicants have been in excess
of the capacity of the Home, and there was also an imperative necessity
for enlarged hospital accommodations.
In 1884, therefore, steps were initiated for the Carnival, held in
Boston in February, 1885. By another bit of good fortune, Col. A. C.
Wellington was secured as chief marshal, and again success crowned the
effort, over sixty thousand dollars being realized as the net result.
The legislature makes an annual appropriation of $15,000 towards the
support of the Home, which now contains one hundred and ten inmates, to
be increased about thirty upon the completion of the new hospital
building.
Since the institution of the Grand Army in Massachusetts, its commanders
have been as follows:--
1866, provisional, Chas. Devens, A. S. Cushman; 1867, A. S. Cushman;
1868, A. B. R. Sprague; 1869, Francis A. Osborne; 1870, James L. Bates;
1871, William Cogswell; 1872, Henry R. Sibley; 1873, A. B. Underwood;
1874, J. W. Kimball; 1875, Geo. S. Merrill; 1876-77-78, Horace Binney
Sargent; 1879, J. G. B. Adams; 1880, John A. Hawes; 1881, Geo. W.
Creasey; 1882, Geo. H. Patch; 1883, Geo. S. Evans; 1884, John D.
Billings; 1885, John W. Hersey; 1886, Richard F. Tobin.
The Assistant Adjutant-Generals, to whose systematic work this
department has been so greatly indebted for its efficiency, have been
Thomas Sherwin, Henry B. Peirce, James F. Meech, and Alfred C. Munroe.
Having for eight years led in members and excellency all the departments
of the country, with its record of over $600,000, expended in its relief
work, with $120,000 now held for that purpose, with a membership of
nearly eighteen thousand, and possessing the only Soldiers Home in the
nation, established solely through its own efforts and still maintained
in its hands, the Grand Army of Massachusetts has a right to be proud of
its exemplification of the virtues of "Fraternity, Charity, and
Loyalty."
ON DETACHED SERVICE.
AN EPISODE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
BY CHARLES A. PATCH, MASS. VOLS.