



Produced by Betsie Bush, Martin Pettit and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from scans of public domain works at the
University of Michigan's Making of America collection.)






PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

PROCEEDINGS OF A PUBLIC MEETING
HELD AT FANEUIL HALL,

JUNE 7, 1876.

BOSTON:
FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & CO.
1876.




CONTENTS.

ORGANIZATION OF MEETING                    5

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH S. ROPES              7

  "    "  MR. GEORGE B. CHASE             10

  "    "  MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN.       11

  "    "  DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES       20

  "    "  REV. ROLLIN H. NEALE, D.D.      26

  "    "  REV. J. P. BODFISH              27

  "    "  COL. CHARLES W. WILDER          31

  "    "  MR. JOSEPH F. PAUL              33

  "    "  HON. P. A. COLLINS              36

LETTER OF DR. EDWARD H. CLARKE            38

COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED                  45




FANEUIL HALL MEETING IN FAVOR OF PUBLIC PARKS.


Pursuant to a call published in all the daily papers, and signed by a
large number of prominent citizens and tax-payers of Boston, a public
meeting was convened in Faneuil Hall on the evening of Wednesday, the
7th of June, 1876, to take action on the recommendations contained in
the Report of the Park Commissioners. The hall was crowded by an
intelligent and enthusiastic audience; and the proceedings as reported
_verbatim_ in the columns of the "Boston Morning Journal," were as
follows:--

The meeting was called to order at eight o'clock by Mr. JOHN W. CANDLER,
who said,--

GENTLEMEN,--As Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, I have been
requested to call this meeting to order. It is usually the case, that,
when a mass meeting of citizens is to be held, a great deal of labor has
to be performed in preparing for and organizing the meeting. But I am
glad to say, that, on this occasion, the important advantage of having a
public almost entirely in our favor was enjoyed by the Committee. We
found a strong and intelligent and deep-seated sentiment almost
unanimous throughout the community, in favor of having the City
Government take prompt and favorable action upon the report of the Park
Commissioners. [Applause.] We found the community earnest and
enthusiastic in the desire that a system of parks should be projected
for the city of Boston, to insure the health, and to make certain and
positive the prosperity, of our citizens in the future. The Committee
had only to present the call or address through the press, which some
of you have read, to find hundreds ready to indorse it; and the
authorities had only to open wide the doors of Faneuil Hall to have the
people throng here, as they have to-night, to manifest the sentiment
which they feel so generally.

Gentlemen, we have with us to-night men of science, philanthropists, the
representatives of the learned professions. We have the capitalist; we
have the merchant; we have the mechanic; and we have the daily laborer,
who toils from the rising to the setting sun,--we have them all here, to
give out a voice to-night, expressing the opinions of the people, which
can neither be misrepresented nor misunderstood. [Applause.]

It is not my duty, gentlemen, to make a speech. You have here this
evening to address you, the representatives of every class, the best
that can be afforded in any city, the leading men of the city of Boston
in the different professions. It is only necessary, in the discharge of
my duty, that I should read to you the names of the gentlemen whom you
will be asked to elect as the officers of this meeting. They are as
follows:--


                              PRESIDENT.

                       THE HON. JOSEPH S. ROPES.

                           VICE-PRESIDENTS.

     CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, WILLIAM AMORY, RICHARD FROTHINGHAM, PETER C.
     BROOKS, MARTIN BRIMMER, GEORGE C. RICHARDSON, BENJAMIN F. THOMAS,
     EDWARD S. RAND, HENRY P. KIDDER, THOMAS J. GARGAN, EBEN D. JORDAN,
     C. A. RICHARDS, JOHN C. CROWLEY, WILLIAM B. BACON, AARON D.
     WILLIAMS, CHARLES F. DONNELLY, WM. W. CLAPP, BENJAMIN DEANE,
     RICHARD OLNEY, WILLIAM ATHERTON, THOMAS GOBIN, WILLIAM ENDICOTT,
     JUN., ALBERT BOWKER, DANIEL J. SWEENEY, PATRICK T. JACKSON, R. M.
     PULSIFER, ROLAND WORTHINGTON, JOHN G. BLAKE, M.D., J. H. CHADWICK,
     LEWIS COLEMAN.

                            SECRETARIES.

               HAMILTON A. HILL.      WILLIAM E. PERKINS.


The list of names was unanimously approved; and the announcement of the
election of the gentlemen named therein was received with applause.

Mr. CANDLER continued, I have the honor of introducing to you JOSEPH S.
ROPES, Esq., a merchant of Boston, who has been called to fill a great
many places of trust, and who has always been found able in the
discharge of every duty, and faithful in every trust committed to him.




SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH S. ROPES.


FELLOW-CITIZENS,--I thank you for the honor you have done me in inviting
me to preside on this auspicious occasion. You have come together
to-night, not to quarrel with one another's politics, not to abuse one
another's rival candidates, but to hold a friendly consultation upon one
of the most important and interesting and agreeable subjects which can
engage your attention,--the subject of public parks for the city of
Boston. [Applause.]

Gentlemen, I was born in Boston; and I well remember the time when our
cows were pastured on Boston Common, when the Back Bay was not a myth,
but a reality, and when at least a portion of the summit of Beacon Hill
was covered with green fields, on which were seen sometimes "raree
shows" and travelling menageries. Since that time, our city has grown
and swelled, and stretched itself north and south, and east and west,
striding over one arm of the sea, filling up another, swallowing the
neighboring towns one by one, taking two mouthfuls for Roxbury, and one
for Dorchester, and one for Charlestown and Brighton together, until it
has expanded its population sevenfold, and its area almost seventy times
seven, within fifty years. Yet there stands Boston Common just where and
just what it was--no larger, and thank heaven! as yet no smaller [loud
applause]--than it was fifty years ago.

Where are the breathing-places for this enlarged metropolis? Where are
the places of common resort for quiet and healthful enjoyment and
peaceful recreation for this expanded population? Where are the noble
parks and the wide-spreading groves? Where are the places fit for public
entertainment, which we find in every other large city in the civilized
world?--such as we see in London and Paris and Berlin and Vienna and
Florence and Rome and Naples--yes, even for the few brief months of
summer, in the northern capitals of Stockholm and St. Petersburg? And
echo answers, "Where?" [Laughter and applause.]


                      "Gone like a vision!"


My friends, I need not tell you that this matter has excited the
interest of our philanthropic and public-spirited citizens, and
especially of the medical faculty, to whom it is, in its sanitary
aspect, a matter of most important practical interest. And, through
their representations to the city government and to the state
legislature, a bill was brought before the legislature, which I had the
honor myself to report in the House of Representatives a little more
than a year ago, and which was passed by large majorities in both
houses, authorizing the city of Boston to purchase and to take lands
within its own limits for laying out public parks, and to co-operate
with adjacent towns in laying out conterminous parks for the common
benefit and advantage of citizens on both sides of the line.

This measure was opposed (as all such measures are opposed) on the
ground that "it would lead to jobbery and extravagance." And the answer
was ready at hand, that all public enterprises are liable "to lead to
jobbery and extravagance," but that the abuse of a good thing is no
argument against its valid use [applause]; that it is for the citizens
themselves