Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-26
Speech of Hon. Emory washburn,


eester, March 10, 1857.
After few remarks upon the manner in which,
without any previous notice, he had seen himself
announced in the papers, as being expected to
speak on that occasion, Mr.. Washburn SAID. that
IN so august a presence, standing, for the first
time, in that magnificent Temple of Art, filled
as it was with those who had demonstrated, in
their own lives and fortunes, how honorable art
and labor may be, he could not forbear indulging
in a train of thought which that occasion had
suggested, of the connection between the Me
ehanlc Arts, Mechanic Associations, and c9mmu-
mites of Mechanics, and the elevation Of the
race, and the progress of human freedom
Though they need not 90 beyond what they
there Witnessed for illustration of the natural
tendencies ct these, he was happy to believe that
the history Of other days and other people sus-
tanned the high claim which he was disposed 10
make in behalf of the Mechanic Arts
Most OF them had doubtless read, within few
months, the works Of our distinguished scholars
and iellow-cltizens, whose names, historians,
had acquired worldwide fame-Prescutt and
Motley, upon the subject Of Netherlands Hol-
land, and the provinces of the Low Countries in
Europe, in which the condition Of those States
was described, they existed before The COM
mencement OF the long struggle with Philip of
Spain They had read, how, while most Of the
rest of the continent was shrouded in the dark
ness of Ignorance and of Papal superstition, the
Mechanic Arts had there made Judgment and
under their Influence, communities had grown up
IN which general comfort, taste, and refinement
had kept pace with individual independence and
advancement in the scale of moral and social
cultivation.
1t was in that region little favored though it was
by nature, that honorable labor and honest indus
try buitup cities, where the manufacturer and me-
chanlc dwelt side by side with the merchant whose
trade they sustained, and the ship.owner, whose
sails whitened the distant oceans in the prosecu-
ton OF that commerce to which our manufacturers
had given impulse and employment Nor was
that all Agriculture fOurished as it had rarely
fourished elsewhere. The Fine Arts found
home there, and cathedrals and palaces-works
upon which the world now gazes with admira-
tlon-lent their beauties to those cities OF arti-
zans and laborerS.
But, above all, there was cherished, within
those communities, the germ of a free and indie
pendent mind. How this was done, it was not
difficult to analyze. The mechanical mind is, al
most necessarily, to some extent, inventive
one. And, no one can exercise this power of in
Vention, without becoming conscious that he has
a mind capable of thinking its own thoughts, or
lndulge IN such trains OF reasoning, without un-
consciously, perhaps, questioning the right of
other wills, to limit and control the action of his
own mind. And, when it is remembered that the
very nature of mechanical business brings men
together IN masses, In shops, in villages, and
communities, where the action of mind on mind
Is constant and immediate, we cannot be sur
prSed to find communities like these the earliest
prepared to break away from the slavery of ecele.
slastlcal domination, or civil power. And, such
was the history Of that country, as was witnessed
in the thirty years of dreadful struggle which
Protestant freemen maintained with the power of
despo,ism, the Inquisition, and the Church
Nor was that a solitary example The very
prosecutions to which the artizans of the Low
Countries were subjected, drove them into Eng
land, and laid the foundation of that system of
successful indOatTV nd ,pb; oh n
ton, the freest on the Eastern Continent, has so
long been pre-eminent.
lie needed not to stop and trace the influence
OF the mechanic arts upon the mother county,
lie would follow our ancestors to these shores
and, 1t any one asked, what were among the
causes which secured to them prosperity and ulti
mate success, one of the principal of these would
be found to be, the estimation in which the in
dustrial classes were always held here. Labor
was always honorable and the moment the peo.
pie took upon themselves to frame a government
for an independent State, they guaranteed to la.
Dor that it should be free
New England, and, first of all, Massachusetts,
to her honor be it said by her Constitution,
and through her courts, proclaimed this,as an ell
ement OF her political being
1t was, besides, hewas proud to say, in this very
city, then avlliage and before a Worcester County
jury, that a Worcester County lawyer, whose
pane finds so worthy represen tatiye in one they
had justjust listened to (Gov Lincoln with SO
what every court in Massachusetts, since that
day, had maintained, and, he thanked God, he
could believe, ever would maintain, that the dusky
hue OF human skin did not, here, rob its owner
OF his rights as man, or his capacity of sharing
the privileges of citizen.
But, he had no occlsion, before such an audi
ence, TO speak of the part which the mechanic
arts and the communities where these have -four
ished, have taken in making New England what
she is, as free and prosperous people. Nor
hn Elm ATr,rr -
confines, indulge in a single sentiment, or word,
to which those. who differed from him in sect or
party, could properly take exception.
But, who could doubt, that, if institutions,
such as those by which they were here surround
ed, could be planted in that portion Of our coun-
try, where an institution of different character,
traught with so much evil, was exerting its
blighting influence, they would be felt for good
Let communities be formed there like those we
meet with, in the various parts of New England;
let masses OF men and women, such as he saw
before him, be gathered in villages, where the
water falls of the South, now idle, might be made
to do the work of thousands of human hands;
Let temples and halls of beauty arise there, such
as they were that day dedcating, and who could
doubt that it would be the harbinger of the over
throw of slavery, by the free and voluntary
action of the people, on its own ground 1t
would make free labor, there, what it is here, and
what God meant it should be-honOrable and uni
versal.
lie was one OF those who looked forward with
confidence to the time when the human race shall
be emancipated, and mankind shall be free, in
spite of egislation,be it of Congress of Court.
How this great problem was to be wrought out,
he did not presume to guess. But whenever the
ways of Providence, by which this work shall be
achieved shall be laid open, The agency, direct or
indirect, of the Mechanic Arts and mechanical
pursuits, would, he did not doubt, be felt and
universally acknowledged
Standing prominently, this agency did,
among others, in this work of human improve
ment, it was well that they had come together to
dedicate this Hall, rising in eminent beauty inthe
midst OF this beautiful city, to the cause of HUI
man Culture, Social Refinement, and Universal
Freedom.
New Publications.