rK / Hollinger pH 8^ Mm Run H)5.2193 1^^ , S/^ . (PaJ^^Sjtl^ LUXITBV AND THK FINK ARTS, — IN S05IE OF THEIK MOliAI. AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS. 73 64 AN M31 M7 opy 1 ADDRESS DELIVERED IN AID OF THE FUND FOR BALI/S EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF WASHINGTON. 13 MAY, 1859. ROBERT C. WINTHROP. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. M DCCC LI.V. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, IN AID OF THE FUND FOR BALL'S EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF WASHINGTON, EVENING OF 13 MAY, 1859, / BY ROBERT C. WINTHROP. H BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. M DCCC LIX. .vfj/vVv Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by Little, Brown and Company, In the Clerli's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts RIVERSIDE, Cambridge: PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. INTRODUCTION. The following Address was first delivered in Baltimore, on the evening of 2d of May, 1859, in aid of the Funds of the Young Men's Christian Association of that city. It is here published, by request, as delivered at the Music Hall in Boston, on the l<3th of May following, in aid of an object for which it had been previously promised. On this latter occasion, after a chorus by the " Orpheus Glee Club," whicli had kindly volunteered for the purpose, the object of the Address was introduced as follows, by the Hon. Alexander H. Rice, as Chairman of a Committee, appointed by the Artists of Boston, to procure funds for casting in bronze the design of Mr. Thomas Ball for an Equestrian Statue of Washington : — Ladies and Gentlemen : — I have been requested by the committee who have in charge the erection of Ball's equestrian statue of Washington in the city of Boston, to introduce the subject and the orator of the evening. And remembering that those who read books commonly skip the preface, especially if it be long, in their eagerness to reach the in- terest of the following volume, I shall a^iply the warning to the present occasion, and hope to secure your patience for the prepara- tory w^ord by postponing for a moment only the intellectual banquet for which we are already impatient. I shall therefore perform my whole duty if I but sound the homely note of preparation, and hint at the object to be attained, leaving all the poetry of the theme to the same eloquent lips whose inauguration of other monuments and statues, of marble or imperishable bronze, has likewise adorned the literature of our country with contributions equally beautiful and permanent. [Applause.] Nothing more strikingly indicates the progress of taste and the maturity of general intelligence, than the interest which is beginning to be exhibited in the multiplication of objects belonging to the department of the Fine Arts. Specimens of these will indeed always be found among the appendages of wealth and luxury ; but they become peculiarly significant, when, obedient to the voice of the people, Art, in her noblest forms, joins hand in hand with History to bear the examples of human greatness down the pathway of time. Viewed in the light of local interest only, it was eminently fitting that the first popular statue erected in Boston should be that of her own native and illustrious son, the Printer- philosopher, Franklin. And perha[)s it is equally proper that the second should be that of the great forensic genius of New England, who made this state and city his chosen home, and whose public career is so intimately associated with their social and political history. But viewed even in this light, or in any light, what other name can be mentioned for this honor before his, who, living was declared to be " first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen ; " and to whose memory Death gave an im- mortal consecration of fame and aflfection. [Applause.] The merit of initiating the present enterprise belongs to the artists of Boston, who, besides fulfilling the dictates of patriotism, embrace in their purposes a fraternal tribute to the genius and worth of a distinguished member of their own profession. And as it may be concluded that we have fairly reached the period when commemorative art in this country shall be in general requisition, it is also proposed that this statue shall exhibit the resources of our own State in the production of works of its class. The artist is a citizen of Boston ; the statue will be modelled here ; it will also be cast in bronze at some one of the foundries of Massachusetts, and it is expected that abundant funds for defraying its cost will flow from the generosity of our own people. The general supervision of the work has been given to a committee appointed by the artists themselves ; but it is the desire of all concerned therein to secure, as far as practicable, the cooperation of the public in such manner as may be agreeable to the varying tastes of individuals. The committee, however, take the present opportunity to state that it is proposed to hold a Fair some time in October next, on a scale of liberality, if possible, never excelled in this city, the proceeds of which will be devoted to this object. And they take pleasure, also, in saying that the ladies, always the admirers of genius and heroism, and who are only less than omnipotent in their undertakings, have already engaged in this service with an enthusiasm which ensures success. [Applause.] It has always been the source of honest pride to her people that in the catalogue of patriotic Statcis, Massachusetts has held an hon- orable position, and it is a continued gratification in our time to feel that wlien the record of those who have manifested their venera- tion of the peerless Washington sh dl be gathered, it will be among her durable honors that her sons and daughters, among them, him whom, preeminent in the service, it is needless to name, have been earnest in securing to posterity the unaltered home of the Father of his country. [Applause.] Here also again, in the capitol of the State, surrounded by the ancient military landmarks, which neither the lapse of time nor the hand of improvement has quite obliterated, within the sound of ar- tillery from the spot where the Commander-in-chief first drew his sword in the presence of the continental army, will a new memorial rise to perpetuate his fame. And among the cheering auspices of the undertaking, I find not the least to be the privilege of announc- ing to you as one of its earliest supporters and advocates, the orator of this evening; another honored son of Massachusetts, whose ears I may not oftend with the language of personal compliment, and whose public services and private virtues supersede an introduction to this audience of his fellow citizens — the Honorable Robert C. WlNTIIROP. M ADDRESS. I WAS not at all surprised, my friends, on my return home yesterday from a brief Southern tour, to find that the wars and rumors of wars from abroad, which are agitating" and engrossing the public mind, and the ele- mental revolutions at home, which precipitated us into midsummer a few days since only to plunge us back again so soon into this cold and cheerless spring, should have somewhat overclouded the prospects and the promise of this occasion. But the glorious sunshine which we have enjoyed this afternoon, the inspiring strains of this charming band of choristers, and still more the eloquent and excellent re- marks of my valued friend who has just introduced me so kindly, bave dissipated all doubts and forebodings, and have assured me that the cause which I am to plead is already safe, and that we shall none of us have occasion to repent that we have " set this Ball in motion." — My only apprehension is, that the occasion may hardly seem to call for so grave and formal a discourse, as that which, according to my promise, I now proceed to deliver. It would not be easy, I think, to name a more interest- 8 iiig or a more instructive memorial of our Revolutionary period, than the " Journal of a Voyage to England," — with the account of what he saw and heard and did there in the years 177^ ^"^^ ^17^-> — % that eminent and elo- quent young Boston patriot, — Josiah Quincy, Jr, — who died, alas, within sight of his native shores on his return home, just eighty-four years ago on the 26th of April last, leaving a name which, even had no fresh renown been earned for it in a later generation, could not foil to have been held in the most grateful remembrance, through all ages of our country's history, by every friend of Amer- ican liberty. This journal will be found in the admirable Memoir of its author, prepared and published in the year 1825, by his early distinguished and now venerable and venerated son. The Memoir has long been out of print, and copies of it are not always easily to be procured. But it well deserves a place in every American library, and it is greatly to be hoped that a new edition of it may be forth- coming at no distant day from the same filial hand ; — a hand still untrembling under the ceaseless industry of more than fourscore years, and never weary of doing another, and still another, labor of love for his kinsfolk, his fellow-citizens, or his country. One of the most striking passages of this journal is that which describes an interview between our young Boston Cicero, as Quincy was deservedly called in those days, and that distinguished member of Parliament and friend of America, Col. Bar re. Among the statesmen of the mother country, during the early part of our Revolutionary contentions, the name 9 of no one was more familiar or more endeared to our American patriots than that of Isaac Barre. A self- made man, of lunnble Irish jjarentag'e, he had served upon this continent, as an officer of the British army, before the oppression of the colonies which led to their separation had commenced. He was with Wolfe, as an aid-de-camp, at the capture of Quebec, where he received a wound which was destined to cost him his eyesight be- fore he died. Some of you may, perhaps, remember a pleasant anecdote, whi<:h Mr. Webster used to tell with the highest relish, when he was himself suffering- from an almost blinding' catarrh during the season of roses or of hay, — the story of Lord North, who was afflicted with total blindness before his death, saying- of Col. Barre, after he also had become blind, — "Although the worthy gentleman and I have often been at variance, there are few men living who would feel more delighted to see each other." Barre returned home, however, to become adju- tant-general, governor of Stirling Castle, and a member of the House of Commons. In this latter capacity he signalized himself, withiu two days after taking his seat, by a bold and blunt philippic upon no less formidable and illustrious an opponent than William Pitt, the great Earl of Chatham ; and not long afterwards he was among the few members of parliament wlio ventured to resist the passage of the Stamp Act, making a powerfid and admi- rable reply on that occasion to the celebrated Charles Townsend, the most eloquent of all the advocates of that ill-starr'd, — if I ought not rather to call it, in view of all its fortunate consequences, — that auspicious and glorious measure. '* There has been nothing of note in Parlia- 10 ment, (writes Horace Walpole on the 12th of February, 176.5,) but one slight day on the American Taxes, — which Charles Townsend supporting, received a pretty heavy thump from Barre. who is the present Pitt, and the dread of all the vociferous Norths and Rigbys, on whose lungs depended so much of Mr. Grenville's power." This is the speech which has become so familiar to the declamation of the schools, and which will readily be re- membered by those striking- exclamations and replies, — " They planted by your care ! No, your oppressions planted them in America ! They nourished up by your indulgence ! They grew by your neglect of them ! They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence ! " Barre was also the first to foretell distinctly the residt of the oppressive measures which he was so bold in opposing. " I prophesied on the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765, (said he just four years after wards, j what would happen thereon ; and now in March, 17^9, I fear I can prophesy further troubles, — that if the whole peo- ple are made desperate, finding no remedy from Parlia- ment, the whole continent will be in arms immediately, and perhaps these provinces lost to England forever." So signal, indeed, had been his efforts, on repeated occa- sions, in favor of the rigiits and privileges of the Colo- nies, that the people of Boston, at a town meeting in 1765, — at which James Otis presided and Samuel Adams was present and took part in the proceedings, — not only voted an address of thanks to Col. Barre and Gen. Con- way, but ordered that the portraits of both those gentle- men, as soon as they could be procured, should be sus- 11 pciidt'd in Fanciiil Hall, " as a staiuliiig momiiiu'iit to all posterity of the virtue and justice of our l)enefactors, and a lasting" proof of onr own gratitude. " That was aniong" the earliest formal and puhlic applications of the Fine Arts to historical monuments in our New England annals. And the order was duly and honorahly executed. At the Boston town meeting of May 8, 17675 only a few days more than ninety-two years ago, a letter was directed to he written to Col. Barre. announcing that his picture had heen received and placed iu Faneuil Hall. That of Gen. Conway was also procured ahout the same time ; hut I am sorry to add that hoth these portraits, together with others, perhaps, of even greater artistic value, disappeared during the occup.-mcy of the town hy the British army in l'J'J5—6, hoth of them having heeu either destroyed or carried away. Barre is said to have heen the first person who gave to oiu- Boston rehels the cherished title of ' Sons of Liberty.' And, as an evidence of the estimation in wliich he uas held in Massachusetts as late as 177^5 I ^^^^J remind you that a noble agricultural town in the heart of the Com- monwealth was called by his name, which it still bears ; the odious name of liutchinson having been repudiated to make way for it. And though Col. Barre did not contimie to sustain our cause, — as he could hardly have been expected to do, — after we were once at open war with bis own land ; although he was even l)etrayed into a vote for that abominable measure, the Boston Port Bdl ; I cannot help thinking that it would still be a most agreeable souvenir of those early services to American liberty, if the completion of a full century from the date 12 when it was first placed tliere, should find that same por- trait of him, (hy Sir Joshua Reynolds I dare say,) if it could anyhow be recovered, once more hanging on the walls of old Faneuil Hall, side by side with that of Quincy himself, which ought certainly to be there, also. There will be time enough, however, for Boston folUs, who are proverbially full of notions, to think about this, between now and the 8th of May, 1867. Meanwhile, having refreshed your memories with a brief account of the career and character of this young Irish friend of American freedom, let me turn to the interview between him and our patriot Quincy, as described in the journal to which I have already referred. That interview took place on the 2d day of Janu- ary, lyT-^i ''^^ Bath, well known, at that period and since, as one of the most fashionable watering-places of England, and it is thus introduced by the spirited young journalist : — " January 2d. Was visited by Hon. Mr. Temj)le, who spent an hour with me. Went again over Bath, in order to review the buildings. Spent the afternoon with Mrs. Macaulay,^ and went in the evening to a ball at the new rooms, which was full and very splendid. The rooms are very elegant, and the paintings which cover the win- dows, — taken from the draughts of the figures found at the ruins of Herculaneum, — have a fine effect. This evening, (he adds,j I had two hours' conversation with Col. Barre, and from him I learned that lie was once the 1 She was the accomplished lady whose History of England was hardly less celebrated in those days than that of her distinguished namesake in these, having been pronounced both by Horace Walpole and by the poet Gray, as " the most sensible, unailected, and best liistory of England that we have had yet," although Hume's had been published long before. 13 IVieiid ol i\li". I Ititclmison in (tj)j)()sitl<>ii to Gov. Powimll, but that lie had for a h)i)i>- time, and es})ecial]y since his last arrival in I'^noland, ^\■holIy deserted him." In tlie course of this conversation, Col. Barre made the following remarks : " Abont fifteen years ago, 1 was through a consideraI)le j)art of your country; — for in the ex])e/rannis). — What glory would not this reflect upon America! It would be found that she has already more heroes than she could procure marble and artists, — and your public Halls, your Curice^ why should they not offer in relief and paintings, the battles of Bunker's Hill, of Saratoga, of Trenton, of Princeton, of Monmouth, of Cowpens, of Eutaw Springs. Thus would you perpetu- ate the memory of these glorious deeds ; thus would you maintain even through a long peace, that national pride, so necessary to the preservation of liberty ; and you might, without alarming even that liberty, lavish rewards equal to the sacrifices she has received." The gallant Marquis did not live to see any part of his suggestion accomplished. Our country was not in a con- dition, at that periotl of its history, to spare any of its 56 time or its means for the commemoration of its lieroes or patriots. Boston did, indeed, as early as 1790, set up on Beacon Hill a simple Doric colunm, surmounted by our then newly adopted national emblem — the Eagle — in commemoration of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and of the great Revolutionary events by which it was preceded. But Beacon Hill itself was long ago removed into the midst of the sea, and the shaft reduced to its original elements of brick and stone. The old tablets, however, are still to be seen in the Doric Hall of the State House, and I have sometimes wished that the whole column might be set up again, in its primal proportions and simplicity, peering above trees and flagstaff', on the highest elevation of Boston Com- mon, with the original tablets in its pedestal. But the memorials of that day were few and economi- cal. Nor can I regret that such honors were not awarded to livinof men, however illustrious. It is time enough for such distinctions, when death has closed the account and set his seal upon the record, and when tlie judgment of posterity has confirmed the impressions and ratified the decrees of contemporaries. It is rash to accept the ap- plauses of the hour for the verdict of history. It is dangerous to pronounce upon the ultimate merits of a whole life, from the brilliancy of its opening, or even from the steadier lustre of its middle passages. Had their daring and chivalrous exploits during the early stages of the Revolution been crowned with such rewards, Ben- edict Arnold and Aaron Burr would have had statues in all our streets, — to be hurled from their pedestals long before this time, — ^dashed into pieces and crumbled 57 into powder beneath tlie feet ot" ti betrayed and out- raged people ! But there is no h)noer any fear in coniniemorating, by suitable and proportionate rnonunients, the truly great men of the Colonial or of the Revolutionary period. Their fame is beyond the reach of accident, and their forms may well be seen decorating our halls and squares. The work has been auspiciously commenced. The wish of the Marquis de Chastellux is in process of being accom- plished. The great chapters of our history may be read on the walls of our National Capitol, and even his own portrait is not wanting to at least one of the groups. Franklin may be seen, in marble or in bronze, in the cities of his burial and of his birth. Warren is on Bunker Hill. James Otis is at Mount Auburn, and Adams will soon be there with him. While there is scarce a city in our land, in which the peerless presence of the transcendent Wash- ington — Pater ^ Liberator^ Defensor Patrice — may not be hailed upon the canvas or in sculpture. The exquisite portrait statue by Houdon came first, and nothing will ever surpass, or equal it, in interest or in beauty. But the an- cient and illustrious State of Virginia has now worthily set the example of a more elaborate and composite memo- rial, — no huge unmeaning pile of stone, exhibiting nothing but the fidelity of the commonest mechanic art, — no gro- tesque combination of allegorical and exaggerated shapes, — but a glorious group of her own sainted sons, Henry and Jefferson, Nelson and Lee, Mason and Marshall, as they stood proudly and loyally and lovingly in life, cluster- ing around him who was ever above them all, and chal- lenging, alike for him uiul for themselves, the affectionate 58 remembrance ot a grateful posterity ! Coming from the hands of an American artist of the highest genius, and whose early loss the country and the world have not yet ceased to deplore, — it has every title to the admiration of all who shall be privileged to behold it. I have just re- turned from seeing it for the first time, and no one can leave it without the reflection, that the great mission of American Art has here at least been successfully exempli- fied — to adorn the State, to exalt the Commonwealth, to illustrate its history, and to perpetuate, for the admiration and emulation of mankind, the memories of those match- less men, by whom the union and liberty and independ- ence of our country were so nobly established and de- fended. And now the artists of Boston, — incited by the spirited and admirable design of a most meritorious brother artist, — have appealed to us to aid them in plac- ing Massachusetts by the side of Virginia in this precise mode of connnemorating the Father of his Country. I rejoice that our native artists have thus spoken out, united- ly ajid earnestly, for themselves, and I trust and believe that their appeal will meet with a cordial and generous response. I do not forget that other and excellent de- signs for a similar work have recently been produced, — ■ one by Mr. Ball Hughes, who has so long resided in our neighborhood, and another by our own Richard Green- ough, lately residing in Paris, and just returned to his native country. I trust that both of them will be called for and cast, somewhere or other, at no distant day. Philadelphia cannot do better than adopt one of them ; while the otlier may well be taken, in due time, to decorate 59 those consecrated grounds at Mount Vernon, wliicli the efforts of American ladies, aided and inspired by the elo- quence of our incomparable Everett, will soon have re- deemed from all j)roj)rietorship less comprehensive than that of the whole people of the Union. Yet, my friends, the end of my Address must not forget its beginning. We may go too far, we may go too fast, in these memorials. We may exhaust upon single works and single subjects all that art can rightfully claim from a wdiole generation. We may bestow upon monuments and memorials that which is wanted, that which is needed, for the relief of the destitute, for the education of the young, or for the institutions of religion and the worship of God. We must not forget that the soul of the humblest livino;- man is of more worth, than the dust of the mightiest dead that e\'er trod the ways of glory or sounded all the depths and shoals of honor. State Statues, merely, will not sustain and shore up these cherished institutions of free- dom. Graven images, even of our most saintly iieroes, are but a poor substitute for the worship of that Almighty Being to whom w^e owe it, that our horse and his rider, instead of being thrown into the sea like those of Egypt of old, have become associated forever with the most glorious triumphs of Liberty. We must not rob our charities, or starve our churches, to decorate our squares or even to magnify our benefactors, — and fortunate, for- tunate is it, wdien both objects can be worthily blended, as in the Memorial Church of the Puritans in London, for which an eloquent English voice is at this moment pleading among us. But no such considerations are in- volved in this design. It is one which contemplates no 60 extravagant or disproportionate outlay. A single Fair, in this very Hall, — like that which finished the monument on Bunker Hill, or endowed the Asylum for the Blind, or relieved the treasury of the Boston Provident Associa- tion at a moment of its utmost need, or more recently assured the erection of a Hospital for Incurables, under the auspices of ladies like those I see before me, — will accomplish the entire work. And it will be accomplished. The artists and the lovers of art, in our city, have pronounced the imperative decree, that this admirable design of Washington, — as he mounted his charger under the Old Cambridge elm on the Sd of July, 177"^5 to take command, for the first time, of an American army for the relief of Boston, — or as he stood on yonder heights and witnessed his first great victory, while the British fleet and the British forces sailed out of our harbor on the 17th of March, 177^: — ^^r as he reined up in yonder street to receive the homage of every true Boston heart, as First President of the United States, on the 24th day of October, 17^9, — that this design shall no longer remain in precarious, perishable plaster, but shall assume a form as durable as our grati- tude or his own fame. And to that decree, as well as to this Address, I feel assured that all who hear me will give a hearty and unanimous Amen ! -=^1 APPENDIX. Rp:solved, that this Committee gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the Honorable Robert C. Wintiirop, in complying with their invi- tation to deliver his admirable address upon " The Fine Arts and tiieir relation to Historical Monuments," in aid of the erection in Boston of Ball's Equestrian Statue of Washington, and that they return to him their sincere thanks for his service, with the assurance, that among the pleasing associations which will accompany the undertaking, none will be more encouraging than the interest which he so promptly and so accept- ably manifested. Thomas Russell. Alex. H. Rice. Benjamin Ciiampney. F. H. Underwood. John D. W. Joy. Geo. H, Chickering. Warren Sawyer, S. E. Guild. Hammatt Billings. Ciias. G. Loring, Jr. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 076 952 6