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.