Morning journal and courier., 1884-07-05
Saturday, July 5. 1884.
The Oration

We celebrate to day two events which seem
 at first sight too far separate in importance to
 be commemorated the same day, and to have
 in fact only the slightest relation to one sn-
 other. The first of these we remember every
 year with much of music and pomp, the dec-
 laration of the independence of the United
 Colonies, the sudden uprising of nation al
 ready great and holding the promise of i'm
 measurable greatness in the future. It was
 recognized as an event of mighty importance
 and the echo of the bill that upon the fourth day of July, in the gear of grace one thou
 sand seven hundred and seventy six, pro-
 claimed liberty throughout the land, was
 heard throughout the world. Of 8 very diff ferent sort was the second event which we to-day celebrate. A little village of less than $500 inhabitants changed it's form of self government, and thenceforth called itself 8 city. For in the year 1784 the State of Con l necticut broke out with an eruption of cities. By acts of legislature the villages of New Haven, Hartford, Middletown, New London and Norwich were all invested with the new dignity. I cannot discover that these events produced any particular commotion in the
 of Massachusetts sent up shout of derisive
 laughter at these puny little cities that Con necticut had brought forth, while the great
 and noble town of Boston was then only a l town, and Rspired to be nothing more. And
 even within the boundaries of Connecticut ana III 'Lno RlHu, ASplrIuS utGlo DGI&S
 themselves these acts of legislature were not ! hailed with the ringing of bells and the boom of artillery. Each new | born city upon it's appointed day | met and chose it's officers. The
 city of New Haven met for the first time | upon the 10th day of February, 1784, and elected as mayor it's most distinguished citi- ! zen, Roger Sherman, then absent from the | city because Congress, of which he was 8 l member, was in session, who eight years be- fore, as representative of the colony of Con-
 necticut, had written his name beneath the
 Declaration of Independence, and who three years later as the representative of the sov- erI ign commonwealth of Connecticut was to
 write his name beneath the Constitution of the United States. And he did not decline
 to be the mayor of this latter city of hls hab-
 itatlon. And he was right; for to-day it adds
 lustre even to his honorable name that he
 was the first chief magistrate of this city of
 New Haven It took the voters three days to elect all the officers and it was only upon
 February 12 that the city fairly got going.
 But It has kept on going ever since.
 The reason for the sudden blos-
 soming of the Connecticut cit-
 ies is largely 8 matter of conjecture.
 It has been suggested that New Haven was
 seized with the deaA6 to be as big as New
 York. Now New York had 8 city charter, therefore New Haven must have one so she petitioned the Legislature with success. Then all the promising little towns of Con
 neotiout were seized with desire to be as
 big as New Haven, so they petitioned like
 wise and the Legislature desiring to be i'm partial, gave to all alike. This theory Is sup
 ported only by the slightest evidence, and l am happy to discard it as being unworthy. I prefer to believe that the inhabitants of 1 these towns and the Legislature of Con-
 necticut were possessed by sudden spirit of prophecy. These little towns were really | rather too small for such portentous thing | as city charter. But they had 8 sublime | faith that they would grow up to it. The
 careful mother may make suit
 of clothes several sizes too large for
 her small boy. And when he is
 in them the neighbors may laugh. | But she has full assurance of hope that
 before they are worn out they will have to be
 enlarged. The State of Connecticut seems | to have exercised similar prescience in the
 clothing of her infants. People laughed al them then, but no one laughs at them to-day l The charters that seemed SO much too big
 have had to be enlarged again and again. Fal down the long century with steady, stately | tread has marched the fair sisterhood of the 1 Connecticut cities in such increasing num- I bers and in such increasing beauty, with New | Haven in the van. Can any space of the l wide earth so small as Connecticut show such l D sisterhood, SO progressive, so abounding in | moral health, of such rare and varied beauty! Verify l believe not. This second event which we celebrate to-day, namely, the incor- poration of the city of New Haven, had near
 ly as great significance. It was not only the l beginning of the corporate life of this fair
 and famous city, but it was the beginning | of new order of things for the State of Con-
 necticut For it is not the reorgan-
 ization of New Haven alone that we
 now commemorate, nor yet the incor-
 poration of the fair cities of 17S4
 We commemorate rather the beginning oi
 municipal life in this commonwealth, the
 commencement of that phenomenon which
 in these latter daJs has changed the whole | face of the State, hnd poured its life and energy through channels of which the fathers ] never dreamed. This celebration therefore l is not for ourselves alone. Nor Is It in be-
 half of those five original cities. The act o1
 January 21, 1764, which incorporated New
 Haven laid the foundation and furnished the l model for the municipal government of all 1 the cities of Connecticut. But the event had l even 8 wider significance. There were al l ready, indeed, several cities in the United I States. New York and Albany had received | charters from James II in the year 1886.
 Richmond, then Q very small village, had been | incorporated in 1742. Philadelphia had also | received g charter in 17O1 from the .proprie-
 tors of Pennsylvania. Besides these, l there were doubtless some others. Bnt the incorporation of New
 Haven was, believe, the first in- stance in which one of the United | States, acting in it's independent l and sovereign capacity, granted city charter.
 And New Haven was therefore in it's origin
 the first distinctively American city incorpo- | rated by the law of an American State 1 Therefore this event has real connection With the Declaration of Independence, for l the growth of the cities has been one of the 1 most remarkable and important features of ! the extraordinary development of the nation l inf JuIv
 the life of it's cities depends in large measure
 the life of the nation. With it's cities the
 nation must stand or fall. In the cities are
 all the extremes of culture and ignorance, of l wealth and poverty, of virtue and
 vice, of lofty public spirit and of
 selfish greed. The more scattered ru-
 ral population only act as a check 1 upon them, for in concentration there is | strength, be it for good or evil. The cities,
 therefore, hold the future of the nation in
 their control, with them is the veal or the ] woe of the majestic republic. Not then as
 light or trifiAg thing do we remember the
 first incorporation of a city in the United l States. We remember it rather as an event
 of the highest significance, important not I only in itself, but insxpressibly Important in what it stands for, the municipal life of a great nation. It has been announced that
 was to deliver to you historical address and it might be expected that would give 1 JOu h 5AeCc0 or WuRt N0W haV0n was 1OO years ago But that has already been done by far more competent hand than mine and with completeness that leaves nothing to
 be desired. The paper read by Prof. Dex-
 ter before the New Haven Colony Historical
 society, and which is to be printed. has fur
 nlshed me with almost all the information
 concerning New Haven in 17S4
 which I may incidentally use in the
 course of this address. To attempt to do what has been already so well done would be
 an evidently superhuous work. Further
 mere, 1t is plainly impossible in this short
 hour of a crowded day to trace with any de-
 tail the history of the entire growth for 8 century. That is the work of the careful
 and laborious historian, who has unlimited
 time and the scope of printed volumes. And
 that such 8 historian is among us and that
 we shall in due time receive the fruits of his
 Iabors we are glad to know. But the most
 that we can hope now to do is to point out
 some of the lines along which the city has
 moved in it's progress through the years.
 the line along which the city has had it's
 fullest developments in one of which the petitioners for the charter never thought.
 They hoped for great commercial center sending out it's merchant fleets to the ends of
 the earth; they did not expect a great man.
 ufacturing city, and yet New Haven has be- come. In 17S4 the manufactoriss of New
 Haven were apparently a paper mill and