BOSTON: ITS PROPER BOUNDARIES.
Letter to Hon. G. W. Warren, of Charlestown, on the Annexion to Boston of the Suburban Towns, October 4, 1873.
Coolidge House, October 4, 1873.
DEAR MR. WARREN,—I should be glad to meet your friends in a conference on the question, How Boston shall be rounded so as to be in reality itself. I cannot meet with you, but I unite in your purpose, as I understand it, and especially with regard to Charlestown.
I doubt if the future Boston will be content until it holds and possesses all the territory which hugs the harbor bearing its name, so that in Boston harbor nobody shall land except in Boston.
Evidently Boston should contain all Bostonians, which it does not now. I know no better way of accomplishing this result than by widening the circle of its jurisdiction.
But there is a stronger reason. Every capital is a natural focus of life, politically, socially, and commercially; and every person living in this natural focus properly belongs to the capital. So it is with London, Paris, and Vienna,—each of which is composed of suburbs and faubourgs grouped about the original city; and so in reality it is with Boston,—for the places about the city, though called by different names, are parts of the same unity, which needs nothing now but a common name.
A capital may be artificial or natural. The artificial body is that formed by original unchangeable boundaries. The natural body is that combination, cluster, or expansion which changes with the developments of time and to meet the growing exigencies.
With these views, I find the various processes of annexion only a natural manifestation, to be encouraged always, and to be welcomed under proper conditions of population and public opinion. I say “annexion” rather than “annexation.” Where a word is so much used, better save a syllable,—especially as the shorter is the better.