THE BOSTON JUBILEE.
The year 1851 is memorable for the celebration, at Boston, of the
opening of the Ogdensburg Railway, to connect Boston with Canada and the
Lakes, and also of the Grand Junction Railway, a semicircular line by
which all the railways radiating from that city are linked together, so
that a passenger starting from any one of the city stations can take his
ticket for any other station on any of those railways, either in the
suburbs or at distant points. I am not aware that so perfect a system
has been attempted elsewhere. The natural configuration of its site has
probably suggested the scheme. Boston proper is built on an irregular
tri-conical hill, with its famous bay to the east; on the north the wide
Charles River, with the promontory and hills of Charlestown and East
Cambridge; on the south Dorchester Heights. Between the principal
elevations are extensive salt marshes, now rapidly disappearing under
the encroachments of artificial soil, covered in turn by vast
warehouses, streets, railway tracks, and all the various structures
common to large commercial cities.
It was in the month of July, that a deputation from the Boston City
Council visited our principal Canadian cities, as the bearers of an
invitation to Lord Elgin and his staff, with the government officials,
as well as the mayors and corporations and leading merchants of those
cities, and other principal towns of Upper and Lower Canada, to visit
Boston on the occasion of a great jubilee to be held in honour of the
opening of its new railway system.
Numerous as were the invited Canadian guests, however, they formed but a
mere fraction of the visitors expected. Every railway staff, every
municipal corporation throughout the Northern States, was included in
the list of invitations; free passes and free quarters were provided for
all; and it would be hard to conceive a more joyous invasion of merry
travellers, than those who were pouring in by a rapid succession of
loaded trains on all the numerous lines converging upon "the hub of the
universe."
Our Toronto party was pretty numerous. Mr. J. G. Bowes was mayor, and
among the aldermen present were Messrs. W. Wakefield (who was a host of
jollity in himself), G. P. Ridout, R. Dempsey, E. F. Whittemore, J. G.
Beard, Robt. Beard, John B. Robinson, Jos. Sheard and myself; also
councilmen James Ashfield, James Price, M. P. Hayes, S. Platt, Jonathan
Dunn, and others. There were besides, of leading citizens, Messrs. Alex.
Dixon, E. G. O'Brien, Alex. Manning, E. Goldsmith, Kivas Tully, Fred.
Perkins, Rice Lewis, George Brown, &c. We had a delightful trip down
the lake by steamer, and at Ogdensburg took the cars for Lake Champlain.
We arrived at Boston about 10 a.m. Waiting for us at the Western
Railroad Depot were the mayor and several of the city council of Boston,
with carriages for our whole party. But we were too dusty and tired with
our long journey to think of anything but refreshments and baths, and
all the other excellent things which awaited us at the American Hotel.
Here we were confidentially informed that the Jubilee was to be
celebrated on temperance principles, but that in compliment to the
Canadian guests, a few baskets of champagne had been provided for our
especial delectation; and I am compelled to add, that on the strength
thereof, two or three worshipful aldermen of Toronto got themselves
locked up for the night in the police stations.
It is but justice to explain here, that a very small offence is
sufficient to procure such a distinction in Boston. Even the smoking of
a cigar on the side-walks, or the least symptom of unsteadiness in gait,
is enough to consign a man to durance vile. The police were everywhere.
The first day of the Jubilee was occupied by the members of the
committee in receiving their visitors, providing them with comfortable
and generally luxurious quarters, and introducing the principal guests
to each other--also in exhibiting the local lions. On the second day
there was an excursion down the harbour, which is many miles long and
broad. Six steamboats and two large cutters, gay with flags and
streamers, conveyed the party; champagne was in abundance (always for
the Canadian visitors!)--each boat had its band of music--very fine
German bands too. Then, as the flotilla left the wharf and passed in
succession the fortifications and other prominent points, salvoes of
cannon boomed across the bright waters, re-echoing far and wide amid the
surrounding hills. President Fillmore and his suite were on board the
leading vessel, and to him, of course, these honours were paid. On every
boat was spread a banquet for the guests; toasts and sentiments were
given and duly honoured; and to judge by the noise and excited
gesticulations of the banqueters, nothing could be more complete than
the fusion of Yankees and Canadians.
At noon, a regatta was held, which, the weather being fine, with a light
breeze, was pronounced by yachtsmen a distinguished success. At five
o'clock the citizens crowded in vast numbers to the Western Railway
Station, there to meet His Excellency the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine,
with his brother Colonel Bruce and a numerous staff. He was welcomed by
Mayor Bigelow, a fine venerable old man of the Mayflower stock. Mutual
compliments were exchanged, and the new comers escorted to the Revere
House, a very handsome hotel, the best in Boston. Everywhere the streets
were lined with throngs of people, who cheered our Governor-General to
the uttermost extent of their lung-power.
On the third day took place a monster procession, at least a mile and
a-half in length, and modelled after the plan of the German trades
festivals. Besides the long line of carriages filled with guests, from
the President and the Governor-General down to the humblest city
officer, there was an immense array of "trades expositions" or pageants,
that is, huge waggons drawn by four, six, eight and sometimes ten
horses, each waggon serving as a model workshop, whereon printers,
hatters, bootmakers, turners, carriage-makers, boat-riggers,
stone-cutters, silversmiths, plumbers, market-men, piano-forte makers,
and many other handicraftsmen worked at their respective callings.
The finest street of private residences was Dover Street, a noble avenue
of cut stone buildings, occupied by wealthy people of old Boston
families. The decorations here were both costly and tasteful; and the
hospitality unbounded. As each carriage passed slowly along, footmen in
livery presented at its doors silver trays loaded with refreshments, in
the shape of pastry, bon-bons, and costly wines. The ladies of each
house, richly dressed, stood on the lower steps and welcomed the
visitors with smiles and waving of handkerchiefs. At two or three places
in the line of procession, were platforms handsomely festooned, occupied
by bevies of fair girls in white, or by hundreds of children of both
sexes, belonging to the common schools, prettily dressed, and bearing
bouquets of bright flowers which they presented to the occupants of the
carriages.
I could not help remarking to my companion, one of the members of the
Boston City Council, that more aristocratic-looking women than these
Dover Street matrons, were not, I thought, to be found in all Europe. He
told me not to whisper such a sentiment in Boston, for fear it might
expose the objects of my complimentary remark to being mobbed by the
democracy.
At length the procession came to an end. But it was only a prelude to a
still more magnificent demonstration, which was the great banquet given
to four thousand people under one vast tent covering half an acre of
ground on the Common. Thither the visitors were escorted in carriages,
with the usual attention and solicitude for their every comfort, and
when within, and placed according to their several ranks and localities,
it was truly a sight to be remembered. The tent was two hundred and
fifty feet in length by ninety in width. The roof and sides were all but
hidden by the profusion of flags and bunting festooned everywhere. A
raised table for the visitors extended around the entire tent. For the
citizens proper were placed ten rows of parallel tables running the
whole length of the inner area; altogether providing seats for three
thousand six hundred people, besides smaller tables at convenient
spots. There were present also a whole army of waiters, one to each
dozen guests, and indefatigable in their duties.
The repast included all kinds of cold meats and temperance drinks.
Flowers for every person and great flower trophies on the tables;
abundance of huge water and musk melons, and other fruits in great
variety and perfection, especially native grown peaches and Bartlett
pears, which Boston produces of the finest quality. Also plenty of
pastry of many tempting kinds. It took scarcely twenty minutes to seat
the entire "dinner party" comfortably, so excellent were the
arrangements.
Before dinner commenced, Mayor Bigelow, who presided, announced that
President Fillmore was required to leave for Washington on urgent state
business; which he did after his health had been proposed and
acknowledged. A little piece of dramatic acting was noticeable here,
when the President and Lord Elgin, one on each side of the Mayor, shook
hands across his worshipful breast, the President retaining his
lordship's hand firmly clasped in his own for some time; a tableau which
gave rise to a tumultuous burst of applause from the whole assemblage.
Then commenced in earnest the play of knives and forks, four thousand of
each, producing a unique and somewhat droll effect. After the President
had gone, Lord Elgin became the chief lion of the day, and right well
did his lordship play his part, entering thoroughly into the prejudices
of his auditors while disclaiming all flattery, pouring out witticism
after witticism, sometimes of the broadest, and altogether carrying the
audience with him until they were worked up into a perfect frenzy of
applause.
"The health of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland" having been proposed by His Honour Mayor John P.
Bigelow, was received, as the Boston account of the Jubilee says, "with
nine such cheers as would have made Her Majesty, had she been present,
forget that she was beyond the limits of her own dominions; and the band
struck up 'God save the Queen,' as if to complete the illusion." The
compliment was acknowledged by Lord Elgin, who said:
"Allow me, gentlemen, as there seems to be in America some
little misconception on these points, to observe, that we,
monarchists though we be, enjoy the advantages of
self-government, of popular elections, of deliberative
assemblies, with their attendant blessings of caucuses, stump
orators, lobbyings and log-rollings--(Laughter)--and I am not
sure but we sometimes have a little pipe-laying--(renewed
laughter)--almost, if not altogether, in equal perfection with
yourselves. I must own, gentlemen, that I was exceedingly amused
the other day, when one of the gentlemen who did me the honour
to visit me at Toronto, bearing the invitation of the Common
Council and Corporation of the City of Boston, observed to me,
with the utmost gravity, that he had been delighted to find,
upon entering our Legislative Assembly at Toronto, that there
was quite as much liberty of speech there as in any body of the
kind he had ever visited. (Laughter.) I could not help thinking
that if my kind friend would only favour us with his company in
Canada for a few weeks, we should be able to demonstrate, to his
entire satisfaction, that the tongue is quite as 'unruly' a
'member' on the north side of the line as on this side. (Renewed
laughter.)
"Now, gentlemen, you must not expect it, for I have not the
voice for it, and I cannot pretend to undertake to make a
regular speech to you. I belong to a people who are notoriously
slow of speech. (Laughter.) If any doubt ever existed on this
point, it must have been set at rest by the verdict which a high
authority has recently pronounced. A distinguished American--a
member of the Senate of the United States, who has lately been
in England, informed his countrymen, on his return, that sadly
backward as poor John Bull is in many things, in no one
particular does he make so lamentable a failure as when he tries
his hand at public speaking. (Laughter.) Now, gentlemen,
deferring, as I feel bound to do, to that high authority, and
conscious that in no particular do I more faithfully represent
my countrymen than in my stammering tongue and embarrassed
utterance (continued laughter), you may judge what my feelings
are when I am asked to address an assembly like this, convened
under the hospitable auspices of the Corporation of Boston, I
believe to the tune of some four thousand, in this State of
Massachusetts, a State which is so famous for its orators and
its statesmen, a State that can boast of Franklins, and Adamses,
and Everetts, and Winthrops and Lawrences, and Sumners and
Bigelows, and a host of other distinguished men; a State,
moreover, which is the chosen home, if not the birthplace of the
illustrious Secretary of State of the American Union.
(Applause.)
"But, gentlemen, although I cannot make a speech to you, I must
tell you, in the plain and homely way in which John Bull tries
to express his feelings when his heart is full--that is to say,
when they do not choke him and prevent his utterance altogether
(sensation)--in that homely way I must express to you how deeply
grateful I and all who are with me (hear, hear), feel for the
kind and gratifying reception we have met with in the City of
Boston. For myself, I may say that the citizens of Boston could
not have conferred upon me a greater favour than that which they
have conferred, in inviting me to this festival, and in thus
enabling me not only to receive the hand of kindness which has
been extended to me by the authorities of the City and of the
State, but also giving me the opportunity, which I never had
before, and perhaps may never have again, of paying my respects
to the President of the United States. (Applause.) And although
it would ill become me, a stranger, to presume to eulogise the
conduct or the services of President Fillmore, yet as a
bystander, as an observer, and by no means an indifferent or
careless observer, of your progress and prosperity, I think I
may venture to affirm that it is the opinion of all impartial
men, that President Fillmore will occupy an honourable place on
the roll of illustrious men on whom the mantle of Washington has
fallen. (Applause and cheers.)
"Somebody must write to the President, and tell him how that
remark about him was received. (Laughter.)
"Gentlemen: I have always felt a very deep interest in the
progress of the lines of railway communication, of which we are
now assembled to celebrate the completion. The first railway
that I ever travelled upon in North America, forms part of the
iron band which now unites Montreal to Boston. I had the
pleasure, about five years ago, of travelling with a friend of
mine, whom I see now present--Governor Paine--I think as far as
Concord, upon that line.
"Ex-Governor Paine, of Vermont--It was Franklin.
"Lord Elgin--He contradicts me; he says it was not Concord, but
Franklin; but I will make a statement which I am sure he will
not contradict; it is this--that although we travelled together
two or three days--after leaving the cars, over bad roads, and
in all sorts of queer conveyances, we never reached a place
which we could with any propriety have christened Discord.
(Laughter and applause.)
* * * * *
"As to the citizens of Boston, I shall not attempt to detail
their merits, for their name is Legion; but there is one merit,
which I do not like to pass unnoticed, because they always seem
to have possessed it in the highest perfection. It is the virtue
of courage. Upon looking very accurately into history, I find
one occasion, and one only upon which it appears to me that
their courage entirely failed them. I see a great many military
men present, and I am afraid that they will call me to account
for this observation (laughter)--and what do you think that
occasion was? I find, from the most authentic records, that the
citizens of Boston were altogether carried away by panic, when
it was first proposed to build a railroad from Boston to
Providence, under the apprehension that they themselves, their
wives and their children, their stores and their goods, and all
they possessed, would be swallowed up bodily by New York.
(Laughter.)
"I hope that Boston has wholly recovered from that panic. I
think it is some evidence of it, that she has laid out fifty
millions in railways since that time."
After his lordship, followed Edward Everett, whose speech was a complete
contrast in every respect. Eloquent exceedingly, but chaste, terse and
poetical; it charmed the Canadian visitors as much as Lord Elgin's had
delighted the natives. Here are a few extracts:--
"It is not easy for me to express to you the admiration with
which I have listened to the very beautiful and appropriate
speech with which his Excellency, the Governor-General of
Canada, has just delighted us. You know, sir, that the truest
and highest art is to conceal art; and I could not but be
reminded of that maxim, when I heard that gentleman, after
beginning with disabling himself, and cautioning us at the onset
that he was slow of speech, proceed to make one of the happiest,
most appropriate and eloquent speeches ever uttered. If I were
travelling with his lordship in his native mountains of Gael, I
should say to him, in the language of the natives of those
regions, sma sheen--very well, my lord. But in plain English,
sir, that which has fallen from his lordship has given me indeed
new cause to rejoice that 'Chatham's language is my mother
tongue.' (Great cheering.)
* * * * *
"We have, Sir, in this part of the country long been convinced
of the importance of this system of communication; although it
may be doubted whether the most sagacious and sanguine have even
yet fully comprehended its manifold influences. We have,
however, felt them on the sea board and in the interior. We have
felt them in the growth of our manufactures, in the extension of
our commerce, in the growing demand for the products of
agriculture, in the increase of our population. We have felt
them prodigiously in transportation and travel. The inhabitant
of the country has felt them in the ease with which he resorts
to the city markets, whether as a seller or a purchaser. The
inhabitant of the city has felt them in the facility with which
he can get to a sister city, or to the country; with which he
can get back to his native village;--to see the old folks, aye,
Sir, and some of the young folks--with which he can get a
mouthful of pure mountain air--or run down in dog days to
Gloucester or Phillips' beach, or Plymouth, or Cohassett, or New
Bedford.
"I say, Sir, we have felt the benefit of our railway system in
these and a hundred other forms, in which, penetrating far
beyond material interests, it intertwines itself with all the
concerns and relations of life and society; but I have never had
its benefits brought home to me so sensibly as on the present
occasion. Think, Sir, how it has annihilated time and space, in
reference to this festival, and how greatly to our advantage and
delight!
"When Dr. Franklin, in 1754, projected a plan of union for these
colonies, with Philadelphia as the metropolis, he gave as a
reason for this part of the plan, that Philadelphia was situated
about half way between the extremes, and could be conveniently
reached even from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in eighteen days! I
believe the President of the United States, who has honoured us
with his company at this joyous festival, was not more than
twenty-four hours actually on the road from Washington to
Boston; two to Baltimore, seven more to Philadelphia, five more
to New York, and ten more to Boston.
"And then Canada, sir, once remote, inaccessible region--but now
brought to our very door. If a journey had been contemplated in
that direction in Dr. Franklin's time, it would have been with
such feelings as a man would have now-a-days, who was going to
start for the mouth of Copper Mine River, and the shores of the
Arctic Sea. But no, sir; such a thing was never thought
of--never dreamed of. A horrible wilderness, rivers and lakes
unspanned by human art, pathless swamps, dismal forests that it
made the flesh creep to enter, threaded by nothing more
practicable than the Indian's trail, echoing with no sound more
inviting than the yell of the wolf and the warwhoop of the
savage; these it was that filled the space between us and
Canada. The inhabitants of the British Colonies never entered
Canada in those days but as provincial troops or Indian
captives; and lucky he that got back with his scalp on.
(Laughter.) This state of things existed less than one hundred
years ago; there are men living in Massachusetts who were born
before the last party of hostile Indians made an incursion to
the banks of the Connecticut river.
"As lately as when I had the honour to be the Governor of the
Commonwealth, I signed the pension warrant of a man who lost his
arm in the year 1757, in a conflict with the Indians and French
in one of the border wars, in those dreary Canadian forests. His
Honour the Mayor will recollect it, for he countersigned the
warrant as Secretary of State. Now, Sir, by the magic power of
these modern works of art, the forest is thrown open--the rivers
and lakes are bridged--the valleys rise, the mountains bow their
everlasting heads; and the Governor-General of Canada takes his
breakfast in Montreal, and his dinner in Boston;--reading a
newspaper leisurely by the way which was printed a fortnight ago
in London. [Great Applause.] In the excavations made in the
construction of the Vermont railroads, the skeletons of fossil
whales and paloeozoic elephants have been brought to light. I
believe, Sir, if a live spermaciti whale had been seen spouting
in Lake Champlain, or a native elephant had walked leisurely
into Burlington from the neighbouring woods, of a summer's
morning, it would not be thought more wonderful than our fathers
would have regarded Lord Elgin's journey to us this week, could
it have been foretold to them a century ago, with all the
circumstances of despatch, convenience and safety. [Applause.]
"I recollect that seven or eight years ago there was a project
to carry a railroad into the lake country in England--into the
heart of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Mr. Wordsworth, the lately
deceased poet, a resident in the centre of this region, opposed
the project. He thought that the retirement and seclusion of
this delightful region would be disturbed by the panting of the
locomotive, and the cry of the steam whistle. If I am not
mistaken, he published one or two sonnets in deprecation of the
enterprise. Mr. Wordsworth was a kind-hearted man, as well as a
most distinguished poet, but he was entirely mistaken, as it
seems to me, in this matter. The quiet of a few spots may be
disturbed; but a hundred quiet spots are rendered accessible.
The bustle of the station house may take the place of the
Druidical silence of some shady dell; but, Gracious Heavens!
sir, how many of those verdant cathedral arches, entwined by the
hand of God in our pathless woods, are opened to the grateful
worship of man by these means of communication. (Cheers).
"How little of rural beauty you lose, even in a country of
comparatively narrow dimensions like England--how less than
little in a country so vast as this--by works of this
description. You lose a little strip along the line of the road,
which partially changes its character; while, as the
compensation, you bring all this rural beauty--
"The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, the garniture of fields,"
within the reach, not of a score of luxurious, sauntering
tourists, but of the great mass of the population, who have
senses and tastes as keen as the keenest. You throw it open,
with all its soothing and humanizing influences, to thousands
who, but for your railways and steamers, would have lived and
died without ever having breathed the life giving air of the
mountains; yes, sir, to tens of thousands, who would have gone
to their graves, and the sooner for the privation, without ever
having caught a glimpse of the most magnificent and beautiful
spectacle which nature presents to the eye of man--that of a
glorious combing wave, a quarter of a mile long, as it comes
swelling and breasting towards the shore, till its soft green
ridge bursts into a crest of snow, and settles and dies along
the whispering sands!" (Immense cheering.)
"But even this is nothing compared with the great social and
moral effects of this system, a subject admirably treated, in
many of its aspects, in a sermon by Dr. Gannett, which has been
kindly given to the public. All important also are its
political effects in binding the States together as one family,
and uniting us to our neighbours as brethren and kinsfolk. I do
not know, Sir, [turning to Lord Elgin,] but in this way, from
the kindly seeds which have been sown this week, in your visit
to Boston, and that of the distinguished gentlemen who have
preceded and accompanied you, our children and grandchildren, as
long as this great Anglo-Saxon race shall occupy the continent,
may reap a harvest worth all the cost which has devolved on this
generation." [Cheers.]
Other speeches followed, which would not now interest my readers. In due
time the assemblage broke up, and the guests streamed away over the
lovely Common in all directions, forming even in their departure a
wonderful and pleasing spectacle.
We Canadians remained in Boston several days, visiting the public
institutions, presenting and receiving addresses, and participating in a
series of civic pageants, the more enjoyable because to us altogether
novel and unprecedented. Our hosts informed us, that they were quite
accustomed to and always prepared for such gatherings.