Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

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.