Accounts of the celebrations which have been held in Plymouth within
my memory, or described to me by those who witnessed them, are
worthy of record. I shall first, however, give a list of Pilgrim
celebrations conducted by the Old Colony Club, the town, the Pilgrim
Society, the first and third parishes, the Robinson Society and the
Fire Department, with the names of orators.
1770, Old Colony Club, Edward Winslow, Jr., of Plymouth.
1772, Old Colony Club, Rev. Chandler Robbins of Plymouth.
1773, Old Colony Club, Rev. Charles Turner of Duxbury.
1774, Town, Rev. Gad Hitchcock of Pembroke.
1775, Town, Rev. Samuel Baldwin of Hanover.
1776, Town, Rev. Sylvanus Conant of Middleboro.
1777, Town, Rev. Samuel West of Dartmouth.
1778, Town, Rev. Timothy Hilliard of Barnstable.
1779, Town, Rev. William Shaw of Marshfield.
1780, Town, Rev. Jonathan Moore of Rochester.
1798, Town, Dr. Zaccheus Bartlett of Plymouth.
1800, Town, Hon. John Davis of Boston.
1801, Town, Rev. John Allyn of Duxbury.
1802, Town, Hon. John Quincy Adams of Quincy.
1803, Town, Rev. John T. Kirkland of Cambridge.
1804, First Parish, Rev. James Kendall of Plymouth.
1804, Town, Hon. Alden Bradford of Boston.
1806, Town, Rev. Abiel Holmes of Cambridge.
1807, Town, Rev. James Freeman of Boston.
1808, Town, Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris of Dorchester.
1809, Town, Rev. Abiel Abbot of Beverly.
1811, Town, Rev. John Eliot of Boston.
1815, Town, Rev. James Flint of Bridgewater.
1816, First Parish, Rev. Ezra Shaw Goodwin of Sandwich.
1817, Town, Rev. Horace Holley of Boston.
1818, Town, Hon. Wendell Davis of Sandwich.
1819, Town, Hon. Francis C. Gray of Boston.
1820, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Daniel Webster of Boston.
1822, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Eliphalet Porter of Roxbury.
1824, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Edward Everett of Cambridge.
1826, Third Parish, Rev. Richard S. Storrs of Braintree.
1827, Third Parish, Rev. Lyman Beecher of Boston.
1828, Third Parish, Rev. Samuel Green of Boston.
1829, Third Parish, Rev. Daniel Huntington of Bridgewater.
1829, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Wm. Sullivan of Boston.
1830, Third Parish, Rev. Benjamin Wisner of Boston.
1831, Third Parish, Rev. John Codman of Dorchester.
1831, First Parish, Rev. John Brazier of Salem.
1832, Third Parish, Rev. Jonathan Bigelow of Rochester.
1832, First Parish, Rev. Converse Francis of Watertown.
1833, First Parish, Rev. Samuel Barrett of Boston.
1834, Pilgrim Society, Rev. George W. Blagden of Boston.
1835, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Peleg Sprague of Boston.
1837, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Robert B. Hall of Plymouth.
1838, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Thomas Robbins of Mattapoisett.
1839, Third Parish, Rev. Robert B. Hall of Plymouth.
1841, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Joseph R. Chandler of Philadelphia.
1845, Pilgrim Society, dinner with speeches.
1846, Third Parish, Rev. Mark Hopkins of Williamstown.
1847, First Parish, Rev. Thomas L. Stone of Salem.
1848, Robinson Society, Rev. Samuel M. Worcester of Salem.
1853, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.
1855, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Wm. H. Seward of Auburn, N. Y.
1859, Pilgrim Society dinner and speeches.
1870, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop of Boston.
1880, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.
1885, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.
1886, Fire Department, dinner and speeches.
1889, Pilgrim Society, Hon. W. P. C. Breckinridge of Lexington, Ky.,
and a poem by John Boyle O’Reilly of Boston.
1895, Pilgrim Society, Hon. George F. Hoar of Worcester, and a poem
by Richard Henry Stoddard of New York.
On the 24th of January, 1820, the Pilgrim Society was incorporated
and a committee of arrangements consisting of Nathan Hayward, Wm.
Davis, Jr., and Nathaniel Spooner was chosen for the celebration
of the next anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims. It was
determined to make the first demonstration of the Society a memorable
one. It is creditable to the foresight of the society that they
selected Mr. Webster for orator. He was only thirty-eight years of
age, and had not so far as was generally known, reached the maturity
of his powers. Before coming from Portsmouth to Boston in 1816, he
had served two terms in the lower house of Congress, and was then
practicing successfully at the Suffolk bar. He had, however, leaped
into fame by his argument in the United States Supreme Court in
1818 in the Dartmouth College case. In 1769 a corporation called
the “Trustees of Dartmouth College” was chartered to have perpetual
existence, and power to hold and dispose of the lands for the use
of the college, and the right to fill vacancies in their own body.
In 1816 the New Hampshire legislature changed the corporate name to
“The trustees of Dartmouth University,” and made the twelve trustees,
together with nine others to be appointed by the Governor and
council, a new corporation with the property of the old corporation,
with power to establish new colleges and an institution under the
control of twenty-five overseers. After a transfer of the property
had been made the old trustees brought an action of trover to recover
it on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the act. The act of
the legislature was declared constitutional by the Superior Court of
New Hampshire, and by a writ of error the case was carried to the
United States Supreme Court in 1818, where, in 1819, the decision of
the New Hampshire Court was reversed, and the act of the legislature
declared unconstitutional. Mr. Webster’s argument had never before
been equalled, and has never since been surpassed.
At the time of the celebration, whoever, within an easy distance
from Boston, could secure accommodations in Plymouth availed himself
of the opportunity. I have letters addressed to my grandfather,
written in August, asking him to engage lodgings of some sort. There
were three hotels in Plymouth, all of them crowded with guests, and
every spare bed in town was secured. On the day of the celebration,
by stage, by private carriage, and public hack, visitors came on a
two days’ trip in the dead of winter, fortunate if able to obtain a
whole or a part of a bed, while the drivers slept in their carriages.
But fortunately the day of the celebration was as mild as Indian
summer. I was told many years ago by a man who remembered it, that
he sat through a part of the day by an open window in his shirt
sleeves. There has been preserved by the Pilgrim Society a parchment
containing the autographs of all who attended the dinner, so that the
array of distinguished men who listened to Mr. Webster is not left
to the imagination. Among the visitors were, Rev. John T. Kirkland,
President of Harvard, Professors Edward Everett, Geo. Ticknor and
Levi Hedge, Rev. Abiel Abbot, Rev. Abiel Holmes, Rev. John G.
Palfrey, Rev. John Pierce, Rev. Converse Francis, Rev. James Flint,
Rev. Alexander Young, Rev. Charles Lowell, Rev. Francis Parkman, Rev.
Wm. P. Lunt, Judge John Davis, Isaac P. Davis, Thomas H. Perkins,
Francis C. Gray, Levi Lincoln, Stephen Salisbury, Timothy Bigelow,
Laban W. Wheaton, Martin Brimmer, Benjamin Rotch, Amos Lawrence,
Thomas Bulfinch, Theron Metcalf, Nahum Mitchell, Wm. S. Otis, George
A. Trumbull, Augustus Peabody, Henderson Inches, Francis Baylies,
Willard Phillips, Henry Grinnell, Samuel A. Eliot, Isaiah Thomas,
Dudley A. Tyng, Isaac McClellan, Amos Binney and others of no less
distinction. No such an assembly had ever before gathered in New
England as that which filled the church of the First Parish on that
memorable day. The scene was worthy of the best efforts of the
painter’s art. The galleries reserved for the ladies, seemed with
the mingling of colors in dress and hats and fans like banks of
summer flowers mellowing the sombre garb worn by the society and
their guests on the floor below. Mr. Webster wearing small clothes
and buckles and shoes, and over all a silk gown, stood on a raised
platform in front of the high oak pulpit and began his oration with
words to which his audience was in the spirit to heartily respond,
“Let us rejoice that we behold this day.”
Perhaps that part of the oration which gave to it its chief
distinction, was that denunciatory of the slave trade. A law was
passed by Congress in 1808 abolishing the trade, but it had slumbered
on the statute books until Mr. Webster twelve years later, breathed
into it the breath of life. In a town, which was in early days within
the Plymouth colony, the trade was still carried on, and by this fact
the scathing words of the oration were inspired. “I hear the sound of
the hammer. I see the smoke of the furnace where manacles and fetters
are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who by
stealth and at midnight labor in this work of hell, foul and dark as
may become the artificers of such instruments of misery and torture.
Let that spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New England.”
There was another passage, never more needed than today to be
impressed on the public mind, relating to military achievements.
“Great actions and striking occurrences having excited a temporary
admiration often pass away and are forgotten. * * Such is frequently
the fortune of the most brilliant military achievements. Of the ten
thousand battles which have been fought; of all the fields fertilized
with carnage; of the banners which have been bathed in blood; of
the warriors who have hoped that they had risen from the field of
conquest to a glory as bright and as durable as the stars, how few
that continue to interest mankind. The victory of yesterday is
reversed by the defeat of today; the star of military glory rising
like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen; disgrace and disaster hang
on the heels of conquest and renown; victor and vanquished presently
pass away to oblivion, and the world goes on in its course with the
loss only of so many lives, and so much treasure.”
A dinner was served in the Court House, then building, by John Blaney
Bates of Plymouth, who also served the supper for the ball held in
the same place. I have a letter addressed to my grandfather in the
summer of 1820, showing that an invitation to Mr. Everett to deliver
a poem after the oration was contemplated, and that Mr. Everett said
he would accept such an invitation. But wise counsels prevailed, and
it was thought best to give to Mr. Webster alone the honors of the
day.
In 1822 Rev. Eliphalet Porter of Roxbury delivered an address before
the Pilgrim Society, but no record of the ceremonies of the day have
been preserved.
In 1824 Edw. Everett was the orator of the Pilgrim Society, and on
Wednesday, the 22d of December, a crowd of strangers visited the town
to hear the eloquent orator. Mr. Everett, after graduating at Harvard
in 1811, was settled pastor of the Brattle street church in 1813, to
succeed Rev. Joseph Stevens Buckminster, who died in 1812. In 1814
he was chosen Eliot Professor of Greek at Harvard, and from 1815
to 1819, he spent in study and travel in Europe preparing for his
duties as Professor. In 1819 he returned and entered upon his office,
resigning in 1824, in which year he delivered an address before the
Phi Beta Society, and was chosen member of Congress. His oration was
a splendid effort, and I was told by Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, who was
present, that it was repeatedly said at the time that his oration
came fully up to the Webster standard. But time failed to justify the
comparison. Beauty of imagery, and a grace of delivery, captivated
for the hour, but like the elusive tints of the rainbow, they were
forgotten, when the thunder and lightning which had preceded it were
recalled. After the oration, a dinner was served in Pilgrim Hall, the
cornerstone of which was laid on the first of the previous September,
and which was finished in time for the celebration.
The celebration in 1829 was the first of which I have any
recollection. I was then seven years of age, but I remember being
carried up North street and along Main and Court streets to see the
illumination of the town on the evening before the celebration. Even
that I should perhaps have failed to remember had I not got something
in one of my eyes and gone home crying. Hon. William Sullivan of
Boston delivered the oration, the son of James Sullivan, who was
Governor of Massachusetts in 1807. Mr. Sullivan was one of the
leaders of the Boston bar, but as far as I know this was the first
opportunity to display his powers as an orator. During a winter’s
residence in Philadelphia in 1844, I became intimate with his son,
John T. S. Sullivan, a man of more varied accomplishments than any
man I ever personally knew. He was a master of the Spanish, French,
Italian and German languages, was an excellent singer, a skilful
performer on the piano, guitar, banjo and harp, and a story teller
who would put Depew and Choate to the blush.
On Monday, December 22, 1834, Rev. George W. Blagden of the Boston
Old South church, was the orator of the Pilgrim Society, and in the
absence of the President, Dr. Zaccheus Bartlett presided, assisted by
Judah Alden of Duxbury, Wilkes Wood of Middleboro, Wm. W. Swain of
New Bedford, Henry J. Oliver of Boston, John Thomas of Kingston, and
Josiah Robbins of Plymouth. Samuel Doten was chief marshall, and the
dinner in Pilgrim Hall, as well as supper for the ball in the same
place, was furnished by Danville Bryant of the Pilgrim House. During
the year preceding the celebration a handsome glass chandelier fitted
for candles was hung in Pilgrim Hall, and the present wooden portico
was built. During the day Dr. James Thacher, then eighty years of
age, was knocked down and run over by a carriage, but not seriously
injured.
Rev. Dr. George Washington Blagden, son of George and Anne (Davies)
Blagden, was born in Washington, D. C. October 3, 1802 and graduated
at Yale in 1823 and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1827.
He was ordained in Brighton, Mass, in 1827, installed in the Salem
street church in Boston in 1830 and in the Old South church in
Boston, in 1836. He was made Doctor of Divinity by Yale in 1843, by
Union College in 1849 and by Harvard in 1850. While _pastor emeritus_
of the Old South, he died Dec. 17, 1884.
On Tuesday, December 22, 1835, an oration was delivered before the
Pilgrim Society by Hon. Peleg Sprague of Boston. Mr. Sprague, son of
Seth and Deborah (Sampson) Sprague of Duxbury, was born April 27,
1793, and graduated at Harvard in 1812. He studied law at Litchfield
law school, and was admitted to the Plymouth bar in 1815, and settled
in Augusta, Maine, removing at the end of two years to Hallowell. He
was Representative in 1820-1; member of Congress from 1825 to 1829;
United States Senator from 1829 to 1835, when he moved to Boston.
He was Judge of the United States District Court from 1847 to 1865,
and died in Boston, October 13, 1886. On that occasion Samuel Doten
was chief marshal, assisted by John Tribble, Sylvanus Harlow, Eliab
Ward, John Washburn, Ichabod Shaw and Nelson Holmes. At the dinner
Alden Bradford, the president of the society presided, assisted by
Jos. Tilden of Boston; Wilkes Wood of Middleboro; Phineas Sprague of
Duxbury; Dr. Samuel West of Tiverton; Samuel A. Frazier of Duxbury,
and Benjamin Rodman of New Bedford. Hon. Edw. Everett of Boston was
one of the numerous speakers, and Miss Harriet Martineau, who was the
guest of Dr. Zaccheus Bartlett, was present at both the dinner and
ball. She was very deaf, and conversation with her was difficult. I
was a boy of thirteen, but I remember standing near her accompanied
by Mrs. Dr. Winslow Warren, when Judge Warren as he joined the group
was asked if he did not wish to be introduced to her. The air of the
hall was thick and heavy with dust, which together with the music of
the band made the ear sensitive to sounds, and as the Judge replied
that he could not make her hear he was surprised to hear her say “I
think, Judge, that you will have no difficulty.” I had once very much
the same experience. I called on a friend who had a guest who had
been stone deaf many years, and had learned the art of reading what
was said, in the motion of the lips. I did not know this, and when my
host left the room temporarily, I asked her to return soon, as it
would be embarrassing to be left with a person with whom I could not
engage in conversation, and was astonished to hear the lady say she
thought we could talk well enough together. Though I wore a moustache
her eye read what her ear could not hear.
In 1837 an address was delivered before the Pilgrim Society by Rev.
Robert B. Hall, a notice of whom may be found in a previous chapter,
to which I take this opportunity to add that in 1849, after his
return to Plymouth to take up a permanent residence, he accepted an
invitation to preach for a time in the Robinson church.
In 1838 Rev. Thomas Robbins of Rochester delivered an anniversary
address before the Pilgrim Society. Mr. Robbins, son of Ammi Ruhamah
and Elizabeth (LeBaron) Robbins, was born in Norfolk, Conn., August
11, 1777. He entered Yale College in 1792, and in 1795 removed to
Williams College, where he graduated in 1796. Immediately after his
graduation he returned to Yale and graduated there in the same year.
He spent two years in teaching in Sheffield, Mass., and Torringford,
Conn., and in studying for the ministry. In 1798 he was licensed to
preach by the Litchfield North Association, and engaged in missionary
service until 1809, when he was settled in East Windsor, where he
remained until 1827. After a year at Stratford, Conn., he was settled
in that part of Rochester, Mass., which is now Mattapoisett, where
he remained until 1846. He gathered a valuable library, which he
gave to the Connecticut Historical Society, with the understanding
that he should be appointed librarian with a suitable salary, and
he continued in that office until his death, which occurred at
Colebrook, Conn., September 13, 1856.
At the celebration, December 22, 1841, Hon. Joseph Ripley Chandler of
Philadelphia, delivered the oration. A dinner was served in the lower
Pilgrim Hall, at which Hon. Nathaniel Morton Davis, president of the
society, presided, assisted by Abraham Hammatt of Ipswich, Pelham
Winslow Warren of Lowell, Joshua Thomas Stevenson of Boston, Gershom
B. Weston of Duxbury, Thomas Prince Beal of Kingston, and Barnabas
Churchill of Plymouth. Among the speakers were Samuel M. Burnside,
President of the American Antiquarian Society, and Rev. John L.
Russell. Mr. Chandler was born in Kingston, August 25, 1792, and
early became a clerk in Boston, soon after teaching school, and about
1815 removing to Philadelphia. In that city he and his wife engaged
in teaching a school, and in 1822 he became connected with the
_United States Gazette_, and from 1826 to 1847, was editor. He was a
member of the city council from 1832 to 1848, a delegate to the state
constitutional convention in 1836, a member of Congress from 1849 to
1855, and travelled in Europe from 1855 to 1858, in which latter year
he was minister to the two Sicilies. He died in Philadelphia, July
10, 1880.
In 1845 the Pilgrim Society departed from their usual custom, and
omitting an oration, celebrated the twenty-second of December by
a short service in the First church, at which Rev. Dr. Francis
Wayland, president of Brown University, and Rev. Dr. James Kendall
officiated, and a dinner in the passenger station of the Old Colony
Railroad, which had been closed in and floored over for the purpose.
On that occasion Pelham W. Hayward was chief marshal, and as one
of the marshals, I then began in an humble way, a participation in
the celebrations of the Pilgrim Society, which has continued in
the various positions of chief marshal, member of the committee of
arrangements, and presiding officer without interruption down to the
present time. At the dinner Hon. Charles Henry Warren, president of
the society presided, assisted by Col. John B. Thomas of Plymouth,
Henry Crocker, Abbot Lawrence and David Sears of Boston, and John
H. Clifford of New Bedford. The dinner was served by J. B. Smith
of Boston, and was contributed to by a baron of beef from Daniel
Webster, and a turbot and saddle of mutton brought from England in
the Cunard Steamer Acadia, from S. S. Lewis, the agent of the Cunard
Company. The speakers were Josiah Quincy, president of Harvard, Rufus
Choate, George S. Hillard, Edward Everett and Nathaniel Morton Davis,
ex-president of the society. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes read a poem,
written for the occasion, entitled “The Pilgrim’s Vision.”
The speech of Mr. Everett is worthy of special comment as showing
how thoroughly he had studied the art of oratory. Before the dinner
he sent a message to the caterer, Mr. Smith, asking him to place an
orange by the side of his plate. At the close of his speech, after
refuting the charge that the Pilgrims were narrow and bigoted he
said, “But by their fruits ye shall know them; not by the graceful
foliage which dallies with the summer breeze; nor by the flower
which fades and scatters its perfume on the gale; but by the golden,
perfect fruit (seizing the orange, and lifting it above his head) in
which the genial earth, and ripening sun have garnered up treasures
for the food of man, and which in its decay leaves behind it the
germs of a continued and multiplying existence.”
The next celebration conducted by the Pilgrim Society occurred
August 1, 1853, the anniversary of the departure of the Pilgrims
from Delfthaven. On the 16th of June in that year a committee of
arrangements was chosen by the trustees consisting of Richard Warren
of New York, president of the society, Timothy Gordon, Andrew L.
Russell, Eleazer C. Sherman and Wm. S. Russell of Plymouth; Nathaniel
B. Shurtleff, Charles Henry Warren and James T. Hayward of Boston.
I was appointed Chief Marshal, and I appointed Samuel H. Doten and
John D. Churchill, aids and the following assistant marshals; Wm.
Atwood, Wm. Bishop, Charles O. Churchill, Winslow Drew, John H.
Harlow, Barnabas Hedge, George H. Jackson, Thomas Loring, John J.
Russell, Edward W. Russell, Nathaniel B. Spooner, George Simmons,
Jeremiah Farris, Samuel Shaw, B. H. Holmes, Isaac Brewster, Wm.
R. Drew, George G. Dyer, Daniel J. Lane, Wm. H. Nelson and George
Bramhall of Plymouth; Waterman French of Abington; Phillip D. Kingman
of Bridgewater; Matthias Ellis of Carver; Charles Henry Thomas,
Wm. Ellison and George B. Standish of Duxbury; James H. Mitchell
of East Bridgewater; James H. Wilder of Hingham; Perez Simmons of
Hanover; Nathan Cushing of Hanson; Robert Gould of Hull; Joseph S.
Beal of Kingston; Harrison Staples of Lakeville; J. Sampson, Jr., of
Middleboro; W. N. Ellis of Marion; George M. Baker of Marshfield; G.
W. Bryant of North Bridgewater; Zacheus Parker of Plympton; George
F. Hatch of Pembroke; Theophilus King of Rochester; Wm. P. Allen
of Scituate; Albion Turner of South Scituate; Thomas Ames of West
Bridgewater; Lewis Kenney of Wareham; LeBaron Russell, Rufus B.
Bradford, Solomon J. Gordon, George P. Hayward, Thomas Russell, Isaac
Winslow and Pelham W. Hayward of Boston.
A large number of guests was invited, including the President of the
United States; members of the cabinet; the Governor of Massachusetts;
members of Congress and U. S. Senators from Massachusetts; the Mayor
of Boston; President of the Massachusetts Senate, and Speaker of
the House of Representatives; Wm. H. Seward, John J. Crittenden,
Nathaniel P. Banks, Charles H. Warren, Robert C. Winthrop, Abbott
Lawrence, Josiah Quincy, Judge Peleg Sprague, George Bancroft, John
P. Kennedy, the presidents of Harvard, Yale, Williams, Brown, and
Amherst colleges, Jared Sparks, John P. Hale, Edward Everett, Oliver
W. Holmes, the Plymouth Church, Southwark, England, the authorities
of Delfthaven, Leyden, Southampton and old Plymouth, the New
England societies of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Charleston,
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, New Orleans, Detroit,
San Francisco and Washington, and many others, too numerous to
mention. The New York Light Guard, which had been invited to attend
the celebration with the New England Society of New York, arrived
in the afternoon of Sunday, and with Dodworth’s band marched to
their quarters provided in the old Hedge house in Leyden street,
which happened at that time to be vacant, and was fitted up for
their accommodation. The town was profusely decorated; arches were
erected on Court, Main, North, Summer and Pleasant streets, and
every building was decorated with flags and mottoes. The inscription
in large letters on the house of Wm. Brewster Barnes, opposite
Pilgrim Hall, “August 1, Forefathers’ Day Thawed Out” attracted
much attention. The features of the day were a religious service in
the First Church in the early forenoon, a procession and a dinner.
The service consisted of Scripture reading by Rev. Dr. George W.
Blagden of the Old South Church in Boston, a prayer by Rev. Dr.
James Kendall, preceded and followed by the singing of appropriate
hymns, and a benediction by Rev. Chas. S. Porter of Plymouth. The
dinner was provided by John Wright of Boston in a mammoth tent, which
covered more than the easterly half of Training Green, with the
speaker’s platform in the middle of the westerly side, and was set
for twenty-five hundred persons. The procession with its head near
the chief marshal’s headquarters, which were located on the Samoset
House lawn, marched north to Lothrop street, then countermarching
and proceeding through Court, Main, Leyden, Water, Market, High,
Summer and Pleasant streets to the tent which was completely filled,
about seven hundred ladies having been admitted before the arrival of
the procession to seats on one side of each table. The order of the
procession was as follows: Escort, Boston Brigade Band, The Standish
Guards, Abington Artillery, Samoset Guards, Halifax Light Infantry,
Plymouth Band, Chief Marshal and Aids. President and officers and
committee of arrangements of the Pilgrim Society, Governor of
Massachusetts and staff, attended by the Corps of Independent cadets,
and Adjutant General, South Abington band, presidents of New England
societies, and of the Cape Cod Association, United States Senators,
members of Congress, president of the State Senate, United States
District Attorney, Attorney General of Massachusetts, invited guests,
New England Society of New York, attended by the New York Light Guard
and Dodworth’s band, Pilgrim Society, town officers, clergy, school
teachers, South Bridgewater band, and the Plymouth fire department.
At the President’s table sat at his right and left Rev. Dr. James
Kendall, Rev. Dr. George W. Blagden, Hon. Edward Everett, Governor
John H. Clifford, Hon. Chas. H. Warren, Hon. Chas. Sumner, Hon.
John P. Hale, Hon. H. A. Scudder, Hon. Richard Yeadon, Hon. Chas.
W. Upham, Rev. Sam’l Osgood, Rev. Chas. S. Porter and Hiram Fuller.
The speeches were of a high order, elaborate and eloquent. Governor
Clifford in his speech rebuked the reckless spirit which proclaims
manifest destiny as our National guide in the following words: “But
what is the manifest destiny doctrine of our day with which we are
constantly stimulating our national arrogance and self conceit?... I
believe the most recent and authoritative exposition of it is that
it is one of the inexorable conditions of our country’s existence,
“to march, march, march” in the path of Pagan Rome as restless as
the eternal tramp of the Wandering Jew ... till its mission is
accomplished. Sir, are we content to abide by the example of our
fathers? Which will you carry from this scene of joyous festivity
and pious commemoration—a prayer that the forward march of the
country you love, and in which your children are to live shall
be symbolized by the Wandering Jew or by the Christian Pilgrim.”
Governor Clifford was then forty-four years old, and consequently
he was not uttering the sentiments of over caution which sometimes
characterize old age. If any of my readers think that he was, they
will be pleased with the following eloquent passage in the speech of
Mr. Everett, which followed. In speaking of the great work of the
Pilgrims not yet finished he said: “The work—the work must go on. It
must reach at the North to the enchanted cave of the magnet within
never melting barriers of Arctic ice; it must bow to the Lord of day
on the altar peaks of Chimborazo; it must look up and worship the
Southern cross. From the Eastern most cliff on the Atlantic that
blushes in the kindling dawn, to the last promontory on the Pacific
which receives the parting kiss of the setting sun as he goes down
to his pavilion of purple and gold it must make the outgoings of
the morning and evening to rejoice in the gladsome light of morals
and letters and arts.” This was a poetic sentiment of great beauty
illustrating the art of eloquence which Mr. Hale turned into ridicule
in his later speech when he said, “I find that the boldest tropes
that ever rung beneath the dome of your Federal capitol are tame to
the conceptions which have been poured forth from Pilgrim lips upon
Pilgrim ears today. We heard there of men whose powers of digestion
were so capacious that the idea of swallowing Mexico at a meal did
not alarm them. Today in the most eloquent language we have had the
genius of our country taking her seat at the center of magnetic
attraction swallowing Chimborazo for supper, and kissing sunset with
an affectionate embrace.”
The other speakers were Mr. Sumner, Dr. Blagden, Charles W. Upham,
Richard Yeadon, Henry A. Scudder, Rev. Samuel Osgood and Hiram
Fuller. In the evening there was a brilliant display of fireworks,
music by the Brigade band in Town Square, and a reception at the
house then occupied by President Warren, now the home of Colonel
Stoddard.
John Henry Clifford was born in Providence, January 16, 1809, and
graduated at Brown in 1827. After studying law he settled in New
Bedford and began his public career as Representative in 1835. He was
Attorney General from 1849 to 1853, and from 1854 to 1858, having
been chosen governor in 1852. He received in 1849 from Harvard a
degree of LL. D., and died in New Bedford, January 2, 1876.
John Parker Hale was born in Rochester, N. H., March 31, 1806, and
graduated at Bowdoin in 1827, and was admitted to the bar in Dover
and settled there. He was a representative in 1832, and United
States District Attorney from 1834 to 1841, member of Congress from
1843 to 1845. In 1846 he was speaker of the New Hampshire House of
Representatives and United States Senator from 1847 to 1853, and
from 1855 to 1865. He was minister to Spain from 1865 to 1869, and
candidate of the Liberty party for president in 1852. He died in
Dover, November 19, 1873.
Charles Sumner was born in Boston, January 6, 1811, and graduated at
Harvard in 1830. The only political office he ever held was that of
United States Senator, to which he was chosen in 1851, remaining by
successive elections in office until his death, which occurred in
Washington, March 11, 1874.
Charles Wentworth Upham, son of Joshua Upham, a noted loyalist, was
born in St. John, N. B., May 4, 1802, and graduated at Harvard in
1821. In 1824 he was settled as colleague pastor of Rev. John Prince
of the First Church in Salem. In 1844 he relinquished preaching on
account of a partial loss of voice, and thenceforth devoted himself
to literature and politics. In 1852 he was Mayor of Salem, and after
serving some years as Representative, was President of the Senate in
1857 and 1858. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention
in 1853; a member of Congress from 1853 to 1855, and died in Salem,
June 14, 1875.
Rev. Samuel Osgood was born in Charlestown, August 30, 1812, and
graduated at Harvard in 1832. After leaving the Cambridge Divinity
school in 1835 he was settled in Nashua, N. H., in 1838, and in 1841
over the Westminster Unitarian church in Providence. In 1849 he
became pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Unitarian, in New York,
where he remained until 1869. In 1870 he was ordained deacon in the
Episcopal church, and continued in that faith until his death, April
14, 1880.
Hiram Fuller was born in Halifax, Mass., at a date unknown by me,
but probably about 1807. I remember hearing him say that the first
time he ever came to Plymouth he rode on a charcoal cart. He opened
a private school in Plymouth in 1832, keeping it at various times
in Robbin’s Hall on Middle street or Paine’s hall, as it was later
called, and in Old Colony Hall in the rear of the present market of
C. B. Harlow. He went from Plymouth to Providence about 1835 or 1836,
where he taught school for a time, and afterwards opened a bookstore.
He went from Providence to New York, where he became associated with
N. P. Willis and George P. Morris in the editorship of the _New
Mirror and Home Journal_, retaining his connections with those papers
during a period of fourteen years. Under the name of Belle Brittan
he published a volume of brilliant letters, and devoted much of his
time to miscellaneous literary labors. When the Civil War came on his
sympathies were enlisted in behalf of the South, and finding New York
an uncongenial residence, went to England, where he remained until
his death. At one time he had an editorial connection in London, with
a newspaper called the _Cosmopolitan_, but I have reason to believe
that the issue of the war and the consequent loss of English interest
in the Confederate cause, left him stranded and reduced in a foreign
land.
In 1855 the anniversary of the Landing was celebrated on the 22nd
of December, on which occasion Hon. Wm. H. Seward of Auburn, N.
Y., delivered an oration in the First Church. The incident which
I remember more distinctly than any other in connection with the
oration, was Mr. Seward’s lighting a cigar the moment the benediction
was pronounced as he stood on a raised platform in front of the
pulpit. He was a confirmed smoker, and like too many other confirmed
smokers of our day had little regard for the time and place for the
indulgence of his habit. The dinner was prepared by J. B. Smith of
Boston in Davis Hall, and Richard Warren, president of the Pilgrim
Society, presided. The speakers were: Mr. Seward, Hon. George S.
Boutwell, Rev. John S. Barry, Wendell Phillips, Rev. Thomas D.
Worrell of London, Rev. Dr. George W. Briggs and Hon. B. F. Butler
of New York. The last named gentleman sharing with the Massachusetts
General a distinguished name, was born in Kinderhook, N. Y., Dec.
15, 1795, and on his admission to the bar became in 1817 partner of
Martin Van Buren. He was Attorney General of the United States, under
Andrew Jackson, from 1831 to 1834, acting secretary of war under
Van Buren, and from 1838 to 1841, U. S. District Attorney for the
Southern District of New York. He died in Paris, France, Nov. 8, 1858.
William Henry Seward, the orator of the day, was born in Florida,
N. Y., May 16, 1801, and graduated at Union college in 1820. He was
admitted to the bar in 1822, and settled in Auburn, and in 1830 was
chosen State Senator on the anti-masonic ticket. In 1838 he was
chosen Governor, and re-elected in 1840, and in 1849 was chosen U. S.
Senator. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln secretary of
state, and continued in office until the close of President Johnson’s
term. He died in Auburn, October 10, 1872.