THE

THE THIRD MEETING

HE THIRD MEETING-a Special Meeting called by the President in place of the stated winter meeting of THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, was held the twentyfirst day of December, nineteen hundred and five, at a quarter before eight o'clock in the evening, in Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the purpose of celebrating the Two Hundred and Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of Cambridge.

The President, RICHARD HENRY DANA, presided, and the meeting was open to the public.

Many invited guests were present, including members of the City Government, the School Committee, and the Principals of the Public Schools of the City of Cambridge, Presidents of Historical and other Societies, former Mayors of Cambridge, and chief Executive Officers of neighboring cities and towns.

The printed Programme was as follows:

IN CAMBRIDGE

chestra of the Cambridge Latin School.

REV. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, D.D.

Minister of the First Church in Cambridge (Congregational).

RESPONSE FOR HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRES. CHARLES W. ELIOT, LL.D.
POEM (written for the occasion)
ADDRESS

MR. WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
COL. THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON.

OPENING ADDRESS OF RICHARD HENRY DANA

MEMBERS OF THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, LADIES AND
GENTLEMEN :

WE have met to celebrate the 275th anniversary of the founding of Cambridge. It has been facetiously said that Boston is a suburb of Cambridge, and Boston, as we all know, is the hub of the universe. Perhaps there is a little foundation for that facetious remark in history, for it was first intended that Cambridge should be the capital of the new Commonwealth, and for three years the government sat at Cambridge, out of the first seven years of the colony; and you remember, of course, that during the siege of Boston, Cambridge again had a similar honor. There are, I think, some other respects in which she can claim a conspicuous part in the things of real importance in our nation.

Going through the streets of Cambridge on a summer's day, one is struck with the number of people that are walking about who do not live here. What are they here for? They are here for the historical sights and the literary associations of the City of Cambridge. Cambridge is particularly rich in these things, — things that count for something. They count for so much that I believe Cambridge may claim a very conspicuous position not only in this Commonwealth, but in the whole country; and if we claim in the field of literature not only those who have chiefly written in Cambridge, but those who were born and educated here and afterwards lived in the adjoining suburb of Boston, we begin to see that Cambridge is justly called the literary metropolis.

And yet, with all this richness of literary and historical subjects and associations within the domain of Cambridge, how strange it is that we have never had, except for a fleeting moment, an historical society. Now we have started one. We are a little late. We have lost some of the sources of information, I am sorry to say, but we expect with industry to gather together all that can be had, and future generations will thank us for what we shall have done.

Now, as to the work of this society, I hope we shall do something more than the mere locating of the palisade, or the finding where the first president's house was, or the exact location of this, that, or the other house or street. Those are all valuable, but why? Because they are connected with people of character. Now, I should like to see our historical society take a deep interest in the character of our ancestors. At one time it was common to laud to the skies the virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers. I am rather sorry to see, creeping into the historical pamphlets, a habit of criticism of their failings and faults. They doubtless had those; they had the failings of their own virtues; but let us remember that a good many things that we criticise them for were the common faults of those days all over the world, and our ancestors had them in less degree than many others. But, after all, if we can only copy their virtues I think we shall do well. I think we need them to-day, the truth, the courage, the uprightness, the manliness, and the high aspiration; and then, if we will make up for their deficiencies, if we will add to their virtues everything we think they may have lacked, such as a good sense of humor, friendliness, consideration for others, and more charity of judgment, then Cambridge may again be the metropolis in the realm of great ideals. Already it seems to me we have in Cambridge something for which we may well be proud, and that is the simplicity of life which we see all around us. We owe it probably largely to the University, that appreciation of the things that are worth having, — the intellectual endowments, music, literature, and art, the kindly neighborly feeling; and when we think how this country is growing in material things, how people surround themselves with larger and larger houses and more and more comforts, until at last the things, as Emerson says, "mount the saddle and ride mankind," it seems to me that it is well for Cambridge—just as she sent out from

here the soldiers that went to Bunker Hill; just as she sent out the first company of the first regiment in the Civil War; and just as she has sent out many of the great ideas that have taken hold of the community, now to send forth that idea of plain living and high thinking for which she is so justly noted.

It is something that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has always taken a deep interest in Cambridge; has always had something to do with Harvard University, and Harvard University is Cambridge. The Commonwealth had for a long time, as you know, a part in the government of the College. That has now passed, but she has never ceased to take an interest in it, and I don't believe any of us would think that we had got our College degree if the Lancers did not escort the Governor out to Commencement. It is unfortunate that the Governor cannot represent the Commonwealth to-night, but we have somebody who well represents the good name of this old State. It is something that we have an attorney general who maintains the highest and best traditions of the bar, who can try a cause célèbre with justness and fairness, not turning the public prosecutor into a public persecutor, who, by his conduct of his great office receives the applause of all wise and just thinkers, and especially of those who are expert, viz., the members of the bar. We have him here to-night, and I therefore take great pleasure in introducing to you the Hon. HERBERT PARKER, the Attorney General, to reply for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

ADDRESS OF HERBERT PARKER

MR. CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT ELIOT, Ladies and Gentlemen: GRATEFULLY I appreciate your courtesy that gives me opportunity to share with you in this dignified, inspiring, and instructive occasion. Years past I came to Cambridge to seek the truth, and all that I have discovered had its source here. I come again tonight to discover that the truth again confronts me here, not in the over-courteous, gracious words of your dignified presiding officer, but through the frank speech of the analyst and annotator of our time, the newspaper writer. You may think I am unduly

elated, my friends, because now, for the first time, I rise to the Olympian heights of this platform, to which heretofore I had only gazed with uplifted eye. But I speak to you in chastened spirit and in all humility.

Mr. President, though you be the presiding officer of a historical society, though I gratefully appreciate your kindly words, take lesson from the stern candor of this newspaper writer and be severe and accurate in your speech rather than enthusiastic in your hospitality, which is part of your kindly nature.

This historian of the newspaper, in one of the journals the other day, forecast this occasion—a friend has sent me the article, for there are always friends who send one this kind of communication. Very justly the writer has said that Cambridge had no occasion to go outside of her own borders for men of eloquence, of learning, and of distinction; I will read the words of the article: "The ancient city has not been obliged to go abroad for eloquent and distinguished speakers, the only exception being the attorney general." And so, having read you the observations of my friends the journalists, I now proceed to verify the exception of which this article gave you notice.

I have come down to-day from a remote country town west of you, but not wholly dissociated from this City of Cambridge and its early history; it is matter of no small pride to me, Mr. President, that two hundred and fifty years ago, in spite of all the then attractions and uplifting associations that obtained here in Cambridge, there were wise and discreet men who, leaving their dwelling places by the Charles, went westward to the meadows of the Nashua, and in 1650, Sergeant Phillips, here in the even then classic shades of the College, and speaking of what is now my own loved town of Lancaster, and of the particularly beautiful fertile valleys of the then Pennacook River, said, even to Cambridge men, that this new country was "a place desirable as any in the land." And from thenceforward there has been a more or less constant emigration from Cambridge to Lancaster.

We, in turn, claim as your Chairman has claimed in regard to Boston, that the great City of Cambridge is but a suburb of our town, and, indulging in a bit more of historical recollection and reflection, I ask you to pardon my boasting of my own community, for boastfulness with regard to one's own loved habita