Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-06

enty-eighth Psalm, and offered prayer, after
which the following hymn, written by Rev. A.
c. DenisOn of Middefeld, Ct, formerly pastor
of the First Congregational church in Leicester,
was sung by the choir;
From far aud near to-day we come,
AS children to our early home,
These pleasant scenes again to greet
These friends of by-gone years to meet
These smiling wales, these massive hills,
These cleaning lakes, these laughing rills,
| Are little changed from year to year;
All! not SO we who gather here!
But where are they who;dwet upon
These hills In seventeen twenty-oneg
Lies busy walks no more they tread,
Their names long numbered with the dead.
1t may be we shall never more
Clasp hands upon this earthly shore;
But may we, an unbrOken band,
All meet at last at Gods right hand.
| The band played again, and then MIR. May, in
brief speech introduced Hon. Emory Wash
burn, a son OF Leicester, and man well known
and honored throughout the commonwealth, Of
which he was once governor, as orator of the
day. We will attempt to give our readers but
an abstract of his able and interesting grafton :
ADDRESS OF HON. EMORY wAsHBURN.
He offered his congratulations that on day dedi-
Gated TO the c0mmem0rat10n OF a nations indeppn.
dence, his auditors permitted to gather for the
celebration of such an anniversary, to read in its
visible prosperity how wisely its founders planted
the town, the germinal principle of free and indie
pendent community. In the tight of the history of
the town and of its founders he said might be read
an epitome of the agencies which, upon a broader
field, built up the COLONY into state, and spread
out the little belt of population that then Rugged
the shores of the Atlantic, into vast and mighty
republic. But interesting as was the train Of
| thought thus suggested, he found one more i'm
pressve and affecting in the recollection of those
who in the past have walked those Streets and by
an effort of the imagination are brought back to
walk the paths they loved of yore but the sense of
reality intervenes, and we find
"0ur playmates have passed on,
And left us counting, on the spot
The faces that are gone"
Passing from these personal retrospections he
proceeded to brief historical sketch Of the town.
Its first meeting for the transaction of municipal
business was held on the first Monday in March,
It'll He felt the appropriateness of celebrating
this event at the same time with the celebration Of
the nations birthday, for the real causes and origin
Of the American revolution, he said, took their
most active and efficient form in the little indepen-
dent democracies, called towns into which the col
Onies of Plymouth and Massachusetts bay were
early divided. He doubted if any thing had
done so much toward promoting and sustaining
sefgovernment, in people, as these organizations.
In the old world, all the power is from central
body, and if the people endeayor to proclaim re-
public, they fail, for instead of governing them
selves they accustomed to outside force that
they fall into dtscord till some strong hand usurps
power again, while from the very first the people of
their domestic affairs, by their own intelligent ac-
tion in town meetings. and regular and sufficient
Is this central power, that when the colonial gov
ernment of Massachusetts was suspended, from Oc-
tober o. 1714, to July 20, 1T75 the towns kept on
their accustomed routine and supplied govern
ment for the whole province, till the organization
of the continental congress.
Nor does it speak well for the maintenance of
the democratic form of government sustained by
the selfregulating power of the towns that instead
of exercising their ownpolice, they have been made
dependant, for its most important department, upon
one appointed by the state. Such was not the the
DRY the practical workings of the original sys-
TEN. AS colonies, while owning allegiance to the
home government in their domestic affairs they
were as free as are to-day. The freemen of the
state came together, each having his voice and
vote, experimenting all local matters and choosing
delegates to make general laws only. In this way
the colonists learned how to govern and take care
| OF themselves. 1t was the towns which spoke and
acted and their action became the tone and pulse
of the sentiment of the colony. In the absence of
newspapers, the town meetings were mediums for
the examination OF all political questions.
Acting thus, when the subject of declaring the
colonies independent ofthe British crown was un-
der discussion, on the 26th of May 1776 the people
Of Leicester, acting for themselves soemnly voted
without dissenting voice. "that in case the Hon.,
the Continental congress- should declare these colo
MES independent of Great Britain, they would sup
port said congress in calculating such measures at
the risk of their lives and fortunes" This was fol-
lowed, in June, by like resolve by the people of
Spencer. And nobly did both keep the pledge
In celebrating the two events to which the day
has been consecrated he would have it remembered
planted the town, for the two events were fifty
years apart. If would do justice to the actors in
both, we must go back and call up the pioneers in
| this till then unbroken wilderness They were of
| pure English stock, several being direct immi-
grants, and none more than two three removes
/ from native English parents. Small farmers, re-
| lying on their own efforts, they grew up with
condition of great equality among them, and their
isolation from the rest of the world resulted in
tual dependence and strong ties of sympathy and
| attachment. The growth of the town was slow,
and its families were scattered; thew built "garr-
son houses" in six different parts of the town for
refuge from Indians. 1t the frontier, and on
| the east there were only few families in Worces-
| ter, and the means Communication were meagre,
| the Connecticut path from Boston to the Con-
necticut settlements being laid out as road years
| after the town was settled and the roads at the
north and south of still later date. They were
an isolated community dependent upon themselves
alone for success but they knew their needs and at
| the outset made provision for a Westinghouse,
| minister and a school.
They left but meagre written record, but we are
not at loss to infer something of their purposes
They recognized no man as master or patron. Con3
scious of their own integrity they were to build up
homes; possessed of neither poverty riches
| they were content with their humble lot. care
full examination of the inventories of the estates of
t he citizens taken from fifteen to forty years after
/ Judge Minzies f2700 real and f319 personal;
that of John Lynde, Jr., f1377 real and f19OO
personal; Others ranged from f680 to f327. While
these lists embrace the most triing articles of fur
niture, he said he had found neither carpet nor
clock in any, while as the property of the richest
at from Is Sd to 40s; another of substance had
one valued at As, while in numbers of others no
article of the kind can be found. John Lynde Jr.,
the hrst school-master and justice of the peace
had "LibTdEy Of books Latin and English" valued
at IL, 49,, 3d. while the books of three other SUBJ
stantial families ranged in value from As. to 15s.
He gave an interesting sketch of the social habits
and domestic lives of those primitive settlers They
were on social and political scale of equality,
they were adherents of the prevailing ideas of re-
| ligous belief and church policy had learned the
| lesson Of self government, and they owned their
own lands They were manly and independent of
spirit If they knew but little of the outer world,
or OF science, they were conversant with the work
ings of their own hearts, and dwelt much upon the
solemn and mysterious connection there is between
man and his Maker, in the light of that revelation
which they accepted without reserve
While it would be out of place to raise questions
OF creeds on such occasion, it cannot be denied
that the Calvinism of that day was calculated to
make class of profound thinkers, whatever may be
thought of its doctrines as system of faith. The
very effort to comprehend and reconcile with ones
reason the 1neXpllcable mysteries of original SIM of
free-wil and REORGANIZATION, an exercise of in
telectual gymnastics, which helped to develop and
strengthen powers of the mind, which, under ordi-
nary circumstances, would have laid dormant and
inactive. Right or wrong, it was just such sys-
TEN of faith suited to fit that generation for
inc work which they were commissioned to de-
Another circumstance showing their character
and spirit, is the manner in which they struggled
against pecuniary endorsements lin their attempts
to establish free schools. In 113i they made proYis-
ION for it, but were obliged to suspend it the follow
ing year, though they resumed 1t in 1733 No school
the meeting house on the common, 20 by 16 feet in
size and 81 feet between joints. When the meet
ing house was built it placed in the woods upon
the common land, and there were only two houses
near it, one where Mr.. Mays now is and the other
where Capt. Knights's stands. The latter was sin-
gle story, and was kepta public house.
The speaker said he had description of the viii
lage from an eye witness who knew it in 1867, fifty
years after the first settlement. The public house
above referred to had just been burned. The little
nondescript school house still standing. rude
brush fence which came up to the meeting house in
its rear, enclosed the burying ground then in use.
The dwelling of the first minister stood some TWEEN
y or thirty rods northeast from the meeting house.
and small building, of two rooms, stood where
the tavern now is. If to these are added small
house near the brook west of the common, and an
other between that and the common, small house
on the slope of the hill east of the meeting house.
and two or three small houses upon the south road
one near where the late Mr.. Hobart lived 1t will in
clude the entire village and its surroundings they
were within the memory of persons who were
known to many who were listening to the address,
He said that with all the counteracting influences
which tended to make the early settlers selfish and
exclusive he was led to believe they had an ele-
ment of liberality in their natures which amounted
at times to magnanimity. Their convictions in