128 79 33MB
English Pages 103 Year 1896
Achievements of Civilization
THE
BOOK OF WEALTH Wealth
in
Relation
to
Material
AND
Intellectual Progress and Achievement BEING
An Inquiry into the Nature and Distribution of the World s Resources and Riches, and a History of
the Origin and Influence of Property, its Possession, Accumulation, and Disposition in all Agesand among all Nations,as a Factor in Human Accomplishment,an Agency
of Human Refinement, and in the
Evolution of Civilization
from the Earliest to the Present Era
BY
HUBERT HOWE BANCROET ? SECTION TEN
NEW YORK
THE BANCROFT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1900
F0O9 B ZJ3 v. I 0
Copyright, 1896, by HUBERT H. BANCROFT. Types and Press of THE Blakely Printing Company. Chicago.
551
&3C$. tOo\
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-EIGHTH NEW ENGLAND STATES Riches ben good to 'em that han well ygetten ’em. ami that well can usen 'em. If thou be right rich, thou shall find a great number of fellows and friends: and if thy fortune change, that thou wax poor, farewell friendship ami fellowship. Yet. they that hen bond and thrall of liniage shuln lie made worthy and noble by riches. Sor rowful and nrshappy is the condition of a poor Iteggar. for if he ax not his meat he dieth of hunger, and if he ax he dieth for shame: and algates necessity eonstraineth him to ax. Therefore wol I show you how ye shulcn be have you in gathering of your riches, and in what man ner ye shulen usen 'em. First, ye shulen geten 'em wilhouten great desire, by good leisure, sokingly, and not over haiCily. for a man that is too desiring to get riches al»andoneth him first to theft and to all other evils. And. s!r. ye shulen get riches by your wit and by your travail, unto your profit, and that withouten wrong or harm doing to anv other person -In gotten riches ye musten flee idleness: and afterward ye shulen usen the riches which ye han gotten by your wit and by your travail in such manner than men hold you not too scarce.
ne too »{taring, ne fool-large, that is to say. over large a spender. The goods that thou hast ygetten. use 'em by measure, that is to sayen. spend measurably; yet ye shulen flee avarice, using your riches in such manner that men sayen not that your riches ben yburied. but that ye have 'em in your might and in your wielding Afterward, in getting of your riches and in using of 'em. ye shulen alway have three things in your heart, that Is to say our Lord God. conscience, and good name. For no riches ye shulen do nothing which may in any man ner displease God that is your creator and maker. And yet I say furthermore, that ye shulen always do your business to get your riches so that ye get ’em with a good conscience. Afterward, in getting of your riches and in using of 'em. ye must have great business that your good name be alway kept and conserved. He that trusteth him so muckle in his good conscience, that he despise th or setteth at nought his good name or los. and recketh not though he kept not his good name, nis but a cruel churl.—C'/mucer.
HEN the son of Eric the Red entered Boston bay he saw several peninsulas jutting out from the mainland, on one of which were three hills, and on one of the hills three peaks, hence Tri mountain, and later Tremont. There the town was built, and the top of one the hills, called Beacon, was taken off and thrown into a mill pond, to the satisfaction of the people and the im provement of both hill and pond. As the centurv came and went, the east-side flats of Boston net k were filled, likewise Back bay. and Boston became one of the fairest PLYMOUTH ROCK cities on earth, all the towns around in due «JOI
THE TOOK OF ll'E// A 77/
902
time becoming likewise Boston. It was in 1630 that the place was settled by the Massachusetts company under John Winthrop, but in due lime contention arose, and the weaker ones were driven away, the expelled finding refuge, some in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and some with the New Netherland people. This was in 1638, the same year that the public school at Cambridge, then Newtown, received the bequest from the estate of John Harvard, which was the foundation of Harvard college. Skipping along on the hill-tops of history, we have the establishment of a mint in 1651; two large fires in 1676 and 1679; troubles with their rulers, Charles and James of England; serious concern about witches and quakers in 1692 and afterward; another great fire in 1711, and ten years later the small pox. with fierce opposition to the introduction of inoculation by Zabdiel Boylston, who was king philip supported in his efforts by Cotton Mather. In 1747 press-gang riots; in 1755 an earthquake; in 1760 still another fire; in 1765-8, stamp-act and other riots; in 1770 the so-called Boston massacre; in 1773 the tea-party episode; in 1775 the battle of Bunker hill: then war, and yet again in 1812; abolitionism in 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison issued The Liberator. then and for a dozen years thereafter pro-slavery mobs; in 1840 a line of steamships to Europe; in 1844 water from Cochituate lake; cholera in 1849; civil war matters in 1861 and after; and a greater fire than any in 1872. But out of this, and out of all fires, moral physical political and religious. Boston emerged sanctified to assume yet higher beauties and nobler utilities. A volume would be indeed too small properly to describe what has here been done,—the institutions of learning established, the purification of political and religious liberty, and the evolution of the aesthetic in matters physical moral and mental. Boston has always been a wealthy city, and her people intellectual; why should not culture result? In 1800 the assessed valuation of property, real and personal, was $ 15,000,000; in 1880, $639,000,000. Population in 1790. 18.000; in 1900,—how much over half a million? Banking began in Boston with the establishment of a branch of the Philadelphia Bank of North America in 1782; now some sixty banks aggregate a capital of nearly as many millions. The Boston parks and boule vards are fast becoming exceedingly beautiful. Among public buildings may be mentioned that 'cradle of liberty,’ Faneuil Hail, erected and given to the town for a market, in 1742. by Peter Faneuil; Old South Church, erected in 1730; the old state house, built in 174S. The present state house, on Beacon hill.
OLD STATE HOUSE BOSTON
stands on land purchased of the I lancock family. Here, within and without, are statues and busts of Governor Andrew and Samuel Adams, of Washington Webster and Lincoln. Other objects of interest arc the Masonic temple, Natural History building; Horti cultural and Odd Fellows halls; Institute of Technology, Public library. Museum of Fine Arts, and Boston university, not to men tion a score anti more of beautiful churches.
FANEU'L HALL BOSTON
THK TOOK OF II FAI..TH
903
Banished from the Massachusetts colony, Roger Williams and five others proceeded to Narragansett bay, and found on Rhode Island a spot suitable for their purpose, which they called Providence, “in gratitude to God for his providence to them in their distress," now a city second in New England in wealth and population only to Boston. Here is Brown university, founded at Warren in 1764 as Rhode Island college: also historical, scientific, and literary societies and libraries. Commerce, which here once held sway, has given place to manufactures, conspicu ous among which are cotton and woollen fabrics, engine locomotive and other iron works, gold, silver, sewing machines, bicycles, rifles, and other ROBERT c- W:NTHR0P industries. The Corliss engine, here developed by George II. Corliss, became world renowned. SAMUEL ADAMS New Bedford is a city of much wealth and liberality. The Social library, founded in 1803, received a bequest of s 100.000 in 1863 from Miss S. A. Howland, who also gave a like amount for city water-works. Nantucket was at one time the largest whaling station in the world, having in 1775 no less than 150 vessels engaged in the trade. But about 1800 came a decline, and New Bedford became first in that in dustry, having 410 vessels in 1854. But this hazardous and exciting industry was fated to give way before the large production of petroleum, since which New Bedford has built up manufactories of cotton, wool, silver-plate, iron, and copper. Salem did a large business with the East Indies a hundred yearsago, but of late years its attention has been turned to manufactures. Many are the historical and religious associations which cluster about the place, giving rise to several important institutions, prominent among which stand the Peabody academy, founded in 1867, which purchased and refitted the old East India marine hall, built in 1824 by the East India Marine society, and where still remain the East India Museum and Essex Institute collections. At Danvers, two miles away, is the Peabody Institute. In Essex street, Salem, is Plummer hall, built with funds given by Miss Plummer to the Salem Athenaeum, where are the libraries of .Athenaeum, Essex institute, and South Essex Medical society, while near by is the relic of the oldest church building in New England, erected for Roger Williams in 1634. George Peabody, born to poverty at Danvers in 1 795, gave to his parents all he earned, and at their death was left without a dollar. Worked in a store after that at Newburyport, and then in another at George town D C, was in business for himself at 19, first in America and then in London, where he finally became a banker, made $9.000.000. and left it all to charity, partly in London and partly in the United States. His name is synonymous with BOSTON COMMON IN WINTER all that is noble just and gener ous. Among the original Salem merchants, prior to 1670. was William Hollingworth. His daughter married Philip English whose name was given to a street, and in whose great house was found, when demolished in 1833, a secret room into which to retire when accused of witchcraft, for even the rich and powerful were not always safe from accusation. Immediately on landing, the pilgrim fathers had the question to face. What shall civilization do with savagism when the native is not wanted to till the land, as in the south, nor to hunt game for peltries as in the north; when soul-saving is an incident rather than an excuse; when, in short, the aboriginal inhabitants of the coveted lands arc wholly and altogether in the way? We will try to be friendly, but we must protect ourselves from insult and injury. We will purchase what land we require at a cent an acre, and the red men must crowd up and move back. This is enough to pay when the price is accompanied by our superior ethics, as set forth in our blue-laws with colored witch-burning and quakerhanging illustrations. The promises of Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags in Massachusetts, made in 1621 to Governor Carver, three months after the founding of Plymouth, were faithfully kept to the day of his death, but during the reign of his son JOHN ADAMS King Philip, the Pennacooks of New Hampshire, with other New England natives, unable
904
////:' /iOOK O/< Il /;>//. 77/
to withstand the continued restrictions imposed upon them, broke; out in 1675 in open war. which resulted in the loss of 600 lives of the colonists. 13 towns. and st.000.000 worth of property. William Pynchon, who came from JL Roxbury in 1636 to found Springfield, limiting the population to 40 or 50 families, was obliged to flee that early New England boomerang, religious persecution, after which the savages came and burned the place. Two hundred years later scores of furnaces were roaring night and day in the manufacture of fire arms for use in the civil war. Boston has been considered a wealthy and prosperous place, for its JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL • j.jze certainlv one of the wealthiest in the world. It was settled in 1630 'L'" ‘ 7MA’ O/' //7:z//_ ///
Mix 11.1.\x\- Among those prominent in the history of New England, and born there, are:—Maim.. Jacob Barker, Swan Island. 1779-1871. economist and ship owner; Janies Brooks, Portland, 1810 73, journalist; George B. Cheever. Hallowell, 1807, clergy man and author; George S. Hillard. Mechine, 1808. author; Rufus King, Scarborough, 1755 *827, statesman; Henry W. Longfellow, Portland, 1807. poet; Edward Preble, Falmouth Neck, 1761-1807. naval officer; N. P. W illis, Portland, 1806-67, author. New HvmiSHIRE, Nathan Appleton. New Ipswich. 1799 1861. Boston merchant and cotton manufacturer; Samuel Appleton. New Ipswich. 1766>853, Boston merchant and philanthropist, gave St.000.000 to education; Edmund M. Blunt. Portsmouth,- 1770-1862, hydrographer; Benjamin F. Butler, Deerfield. 1818, general; Lewis Cass, Exeter, 1782-1866, statesman and general; Salmon P. Chase, Cornish. 1808-73, statesman; James Freeman Clarke. Hanover, 1810. clergyman; Charles A. Dana. Hinsdale. 1819 97, journalist; Henry Dearborn. Hampton. 1751-1829, general. John A. Dix. Boscawen. 1798. politician and general; Samuel G. Drake, Pittsfield. 1798. author; William P. Fessenden, Bos cawen, 1800-69, statesman: John P. Hale, Rochester. 1806-73. statesman; Charles Francis Hall. Rochester, 1821 71. arctic ex plorer; Franklin Pierce. Hillsborough, 1804 69. president of the United States; Daniel Webster, Salisbury. 1782 1852, statesman: the Wentworths, John and Benning, 1671, etc, statesmen ami patriots; Joseph E. Worcester, Bedford. 1784-1865, lexicographer; Noah Worcester. Hollis. 1758-1837, clergyman, author, and filer at Bunker Hili; T. B. Aldrich, Portsmouth, 1837, poet; Horace Greeley, Amherst, 1811, journalist, founder of the .Yew York Tribune. Vermont, Stephen A. Douglas, Brandon. 1813 61. statesman; Rufus W. Griswold, Benson, 1815-57, author; Augustus A. Hayes, Windsor, 1806, chemist; Ethan Allen Hitchcock. Vergennes, 1798 1870, author; Hiram Powers, Woodstock, 1805 73. sculptor; Asahel C. Kendrick, Poultney, 1809. author: John G. Saxe, Highgate, 1816, poet; John Todd, Rutland, 1800-73, clergyman and author; Horace Wells, Hartford, 1815-48, dentist, discoverer of anaesthesis; Brigham Young, Whittingham, 1801, Mormon leader; Joseph Smith, Sharon, 1805-44, Mormon prophet; Chester A. Arthur. Fairfield, 1830-86, president of the United States; George F. Ed munds, Richmond, 1828, lawyer ami senator. Mass.m hlseti s, Samuel Abbott, Andover, 1732-1812, Boston merchant, founder of Andover Theological Seminary: Charles Francis Adams. Boston. 1807, statesman; Jolin Adams, Braintree, 1735 1826, president of the United States; Jolin Quincy Adams, Braintree. 1767 1848. president of the United States; Samuel Adams, Boston. 1722-1803, statesman; Daniel Appleton, Haverhill, 1785-1849, New York publisher: George Bancroft, Worcester, 1800 1891. his torian; E. B. Bigelow, West Boylston. 1 1814 79, inventor of power loom; Jacob Bigelow, Sudbury, 1787, physician and t writer; Amos Binney, Boston. 1803-47, I savant; George S. Boutwell. Brookline, 1818, statesman; Nathaniel Bowditch, Salem, 1773-1838; James Bowdoin. Boston, Alexander graham bell 1727 -90, governor, gave name to Bowdoin College: Zabdiel Boylston, Brookline, 1680-1766.physician. William Cullen Bryant,Cummington, 1794, poet; Rufus Choate, Essex, 17991859, lawyer: Jos. G. Cogswell, Ipswich, 1786-1871, scholar; Caleb Cushing, Salisbury, 1800, jurist; Francis Dana, Charlestown. 1743 1811. jurist; Timothy Dwight, Northampton, 1752 1817, clergyman and scholar: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Boston, 1803, essayist; Wil liam M. Evarts, Boston, 1818, lawyer; Edward Everett. Dorchester. 1794 1865, statesman and orator; Eli Whitney, Westborough. ¡765 ¡825, inventor of the cotton-gin; Thomas Blanchard, Sutton, 1788 1864, inventor; John Lowell, jurist, 1743. Francis Cabot Lowell, merchant, 1775, Newburyport; John Lowell, Boston, 1799-1836, founder of Lowell institute; James Russell Lowell, Cambridge, 1819, poet; Horace Mann, Franklin, 1796 1859, educationist; Wil liam L. Marcy, Stockbridge, 1786-1857, statesman; William T. G. Morton, Charlton. 1819 68. dentist; Samuel F. B. Morse, Charles town, 1791 1872, telegraph inventor; George Peabody, Danvers, 1795 1869, merchant; Theophilus Parsons, father ami son. jurists;
Wendell Phillips, Boston. 1811. orator; Timothy Pickering, Salem. 1745-1829, statesman; Theodore Parker, Lexington, 1810 60. orator and abolitionist; Francis Parkman. Boston. 1823, author; Edgar Allen Poe, Boston, 1809 49. poet: David Porter. Boston, 1780 1843, naval officer; William H. Prescott, Salem, 1796 1859. histo rian; Israel Putnam. Salem, 1718-90, general: Josiah Quincy. Boston, 1772 1864, statesman; R. H. Stoddard, Hingham. 1825. author: Joseph Story, Marblehead, 1799 1845. jurist: Edward Bellamy, Chicopee Falls, 1850, author; Cyrus W. Field, Stockbridge. merchant; Austin Flint, Petersham, 1812, physician; Benja min Franklin, Boston, 1706-90, philosopher and statesman; William Lloyd Garrison, Newburyport. 1804. abolitionist: Edward Everett Hale. Boston, 1822. clergyman and author; John Hancock, Quincy, 1737 93. statesman; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Salem, 1804 64. author; Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Cambridge, 1823. author; Edward Hitchcock, Deerfield, 1793 1864, geologist; Oliver Wendell Holmes. Cambridge. 1809, author; Joseph Hooker. Hadley, 1815, general: Harriet G. Hosmer, Watertown, 1830. sculptor; Elias Howe. Spencer, 1819 67, sewing-machine inventor; Thomas Hutchinson. Boston, 1711 80, governor; Charles T. Jackson, Plymouth, 1805. physicist; Amos and Abbott Lawrence. Groton, 1786, etc, merchants and philanthropists; Benjamin Lincoln, general. Levi Lincoln, statesman, Hingham, 1733, etc; Benjamin Wade. Springfield. 1800-78, statesman; Charles Sumner, Boston, 1811-74, states man; George Ticknor, Boston, 1791-1871, author; Charles Dud ley Warner, Plainfield. 1829. author; James Warren, Plymouth, Joseph Warren. Roxbury. 1726 etc, patriots; Elkanah Watson. Ply mouth, 1758-1842, merchant; E. P. Whipple, Gloucester. 1819. author and lecturer; John G. Whittier, Haverhill, 1807, poet; John and Samuel Phillips, Andover, 1719 etc, founded Exeter and Andover academics; Aphraim \\ illiams, Newton. 1715-55. soldier, ami founder of Williams college; Winthrop. John and Rob ert C., Boston, ¡714 etc, descendants of SAMUEL F. B MORSE John Winthrop; Silas Wright. Amherst, 1795 York. 1847, statesman, abolitionist, and governor of 1780-1842, clergyRhode Island, William E. Channing. Newport. man and author; George W. Curtis. Providence, 1824. author: Nathaniel Greene, Potowhommet, 1742-86, general: O. H. Perry. Newport, 1785-1819, commodore. Connecticui, Ethan Allen. Litchfield, 1739-89, general; Benedict Arnold. Norwich, 1740-1801. general and traitor; Amos B. Alcott. Waterbury, 1799-1888, phi losopher; Lyman Beecher, New Haven, 1775-1863, clergyman: Henn Ward Beecher, Litchfield. 1813-87. pulpit orator: Harriet E. Beecher-Stowe, Litchfield, 1812. author: John Brown, Torring ton. 1800-59. abolitionist: Elihu Burritt. New Britain. i8tO, scholar: Isaac Chauncey. Black Rock. 1772-1840. naval officer: Nathaniel
7//Æ BOOK OF WEALTH Chipman. Salisbury, 17521843. jurist; Manesseh Cutler. Killing!}, 1742 1823. scientist; J o n a t h a n E d w a r