MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY

VOL. VIII

APRIL 1882

No. 4

THE

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON'

HE conclusion of such a work as the Memorial History of Boston may justify notice, it being of an exceptional character, and worthily rounding the quarter-millenary period. The last of the four sumptuous volumes dedicated to Boston's remarkable history possesses substantially the same features that characterize its fellows, combining elegant letter-press with interesting and valuable illustrations, the composition of the various monographs showing capacity, good taste, and full general knowledge, though there are some things to which exception may be taken. The work and the subject are almost equally unique, neither having any true prototype.

For two hundred years, but more especially during the last century, Boston has been engaged in making up for neglected opportunities. Though modern in comparison with many cities of the old world, Boston is not to be rated with any of the mushroom cities of the West that have proceeded with a bound from wigwam and log cabin to marble or brown stone. Boston has grown by slow and easy stages from the original thatched roof and wooden chimney to the massive, palatial fire-proof. The same is true of the mental and moral development, and much of the progress has been made in the face of prejudice, stubbornly fought and conquered.

Boston began with an enormous, but not useless, mistake. The early colonists separated themselves from the old world by a violent wrench, casting aside its social life and religion, well-nigh turning their backs upon European civilization, and essaying in the new world something severely original. Their ideal was not realized, and the savage himself, who was driven from the peninsula of Shawmut, did not look with more regret to

'The Memorial History of Boston, including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Edited by Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University. In 4 volumes. Vol. IV.: The Last Hundred Years. Part II. Special topics. Issued under the business superintendence of the projector, Clar ence F. Jewett. pps. 713. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1881.

the vanishing past than was exhibited by the old settler when contemplating the ruins of his cherished plans. Nevertheless, the friends and followers of the first inhabitants built better than they knew, giving a fresh interpretation to European principles and ideas. Besides it was not long before they began to reach out toward the things that had been left behind. At the end of the first century, Boston had made some advancement, or at least unlearned much that it was needful to unlearn; while during the last century the work of reconciliation with old hostile forces has been characterized with much success, so that to-day, in many respects, the people are nearly back to the point of departure. In fact, Boston is rapidly becoming in character a European city, deliberately adopting the most of those things that the founders cordially despised. A large portion of the fourth volume of the Memorial History is so much confession, even though it is not made with the frankness that would be justifiable. Of late the people have made great strides, the ease with which communication with the old world is maintained contributing to the general result; for there is a certain mean or average toward which educated intelligence tends, in defiance of all vagaries. Prejudice sets up only temporary barriers in the way of healthy progress, and only for a time prevents the normal crystallization of society; and therefore, at the end of the next quarter-millenary of Boston, the historian may discover more clearly than now, in the attempt of the early inhabitants to shape society according to their own notions, an analogy to that abortive force registered in flaws on quartz, the crystals of which, however, overcoming every abnormal tendency, take shape in obedience to a well-defined law. Society, like every mineral body, tends to assume a definite shape; and not a few of the chapters in this volume which deals in "special topics" illustrate what is here laid down, showing as they do the men of Boston rising superior to the lower or secondary law, and engaged in a courageous struggle to rectify the mistakes of the fathers, and get abreast of that trans-atlantic world which the Congregational Non-conformists, unlike other classes of colonists, had resolved to leave behind.

The first chapter deals with "Social life in Boston," and shows what the early worthies would characterize as the "decay," but which we may better call reconstruction. This had set in a hundred years ago, and is indicated even by so inconsiderable a thing as the prevalent "wig," for the people at large no longer considered the affectation of such an incumbrance a sin calculated to draw down the divine displeasure, but held that in dress and adornment they might reasonably follow the best examples found in civilized European countries. The outside of the head simply pointed to the progress of a revolution going on within. That the departures from the

ideas of the early inhabitants were always for the best, it is not our business to prove. In seeking to get even with the old world they were not always wise, for with wigs they adopted some things more harmful and much more lasting. That, however, is not the fault of the Memorial History. We are only concerned with the fact, that the last hundred years has proved fruitful in practical dissent from the Elders of the Bay, who have been and are still being stoned by those who build their tombs.

Following chapters treat of the topography of Boston, its industries, its importance as a manufacturing centre, of its canal and railroad enterprise and finance, the rise and progress of insurance, and of the trade, commerce and navigation. In these connections the founders of the city would discover little with which they would not incline to agree. The ancients were emphatically men of business, and though we are taught in this volume that their aim in coming to the new world was the establishment of religion, a claim that no class of colonists failed to put in, they nevertheless made a business of business, and devoted their energies to thrift. The average "founder," too, would regard the modern map of the peninsula with a satisfaction little less than supreme, showing, as it does, how their descendants have added land to land, largely increasing the habitable area; while the wise methods by which the people are now seeking to establish a supremacy in manufactures, transportation and trade, might go far, perhaps, to condone the sad falling off which they would find in other departments, if they could return to view once more the scene of their early attempts. They would be gratified also by an examination of the present educational system, though in the matter of public libraries they would not like to find thousands of youth, of both sexes, issuing forth from the elegant structures devoted to the preservation of books, with so large a proportion of novels under their arms, with scarcely a boy in town knowing even of the existence of the Westminister Catechism. Still greater and more justifiable concern, perhaps, would be felt in considering "philosophic thought in Boston," though, possibly, such men as John Winthrop and his friends might feel slightly amused by finding all the "philosophic thought" under a single class of hats. At all events, there are not a few moderns who, as they turn over the pages of the chapter in question, will smile at an exhibition which excludes an entire school of thinkers from the realm of thought. This is in the line of infinite jest.

"The women of Boston" are considered somewhat in the light of an illused class, being represented as without any particular influence from the time of the "persecution" until the dawn of the Revolution; though Oldmixon is quoted as saying, that "a gentleman from London would almost think