AN 
ADDRESS 
DELIVERED 
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING 
OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL 
SOCIETY, 
HELD AT 
BOSTON, MASS., WEDNESDAY, JAN. 7, 1863. 
* BY WINSLOW LEWIS, M. D., 
PRESIDENT OF TIIE SOCIETY. 
BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
1863. AN 
ADDRESS 
DELIVERED 
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING 
OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL 
SOCIETY, 
HEED AT 
BOSTON, MASS., WEDNESDM, JAN. 7, 1863. 
BY WINSLOW LEWIS, M. D., 
PRESIDENT OP THE SOCIETY. 
BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
1863. Reprinted from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1863, by 
J. MUNSELL, ALBANY, N. Y. ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen, Members and Friends of our Society: 
You will, I am sure, readily agree with me, that our first duty, at 
this, the first meeting in a New Year, is to express our grateful 
thanks to Him, in whose hand, rest all the things both of Time and 
of Eternity, for his mercy and goodness in permitting so many of us 
—even of those who have traveled a long way on Life’s Journey— 
to enter in health and peace and happiness upon another annual 
stage of our earthly pilgrimage. 
You are all well aware, that I hold in hearty veneration and 
esteem these anniversaries, these great and sacred landmarks along 
the vast plain of time; and that I would gladly—however old- 
fashioned it may seem to some—witness an increased warmth and 
enthusiasm, in the celebration of such annual festivals as Christmas 
and the New Year, the one, the New Year’s Day of salvation to the 
sinning, suffering soul of man; the other, the New Year’s Day of 
lengthened life to his body, and of renewed energy, fertility and joy 
to the whole world of animate and inanimate nature, by which he is 
surrounded. Let us then rejoice and be thankful that 
“ The King of Light, Father of aged Time, 
Hath brought about that day, which is the prime 
To the slow gliding months; when every eye 
Wears symptoms of a sober jollity, 
And every hand is ready to present 
Some service in a compliment.” —Poole. 
and, as we each and all have already doubtless displayed, in gifts 
and kindness to our families and friends in private life, the warm 
and genial feelings, awakened by the birth of the New Year; so let 
us resolve to day, not to allow this society in which we all have so 
near and dear an interest, to be without some New Year’s gift from 
each of us. 4 
Annual Address. 
It was amiably and well expressed by Bourne: “If I send a New 
Year’s gift to my friend, it shall be a token of my friendship: if to 
my benefactor, a token of my gratitude: if to the poor, which at 
this season must never be forgot, it shall be to make their hearts 
sing for joy: and give praise and adoration to the Giver of all good 
gifts.” And another more recent writer observes: “ On New Year’s 
Day, the man of business opens new account-books; ‘a good begin- 
ing makes a good ending.’” Let every man open an account with 
himself, and so begin the New Year, that he may expect to say at its 
termination, it has been a good year. In the hilarity of the season, 
let him not forget that, to the needy it is a season of discomfort. 
“ There is a satisfaction, 
In doing a good action.” 
and he who devises liberal things, will find his liberality return to 
him in a full tide of happiness.” 
Now, in these remarks, so beautifully applicable to the general 
duties of the season, may also be found some special lessons for us. 
As we enter this place of meeting, our separate and individual feel- 
ings and interests become merged for the time, in the common con- 
cerns of our association. We must now think and feel as members 
of the Historic-Genealogical Society of New England. And no one 
here, I imagine, will be inclined to deny, that this society has the 
strongest claims upon our friendship and our gratitude. As the 
mental and the spiritual transcend, in beauty and in majesty, the 
material and mortal; so to every refined and cultivated mind, the 
dearest and most cherished friends must ever be those studies and 
pursuits, which tend, at once to enlighten and exalt the intellect, and 
to humanize and sanctify the heart. To this class belong preemi- 
nently, if purely and properly pursued, the studies, to whose culti- 
vation our society is devoted; and of which I may fairly observe in 
the words of Cicero: “ Haze quidem stuclia doctrince, quce quidem pruden- 
tibus et bene institutis pariter cum cetate crescunt, ut honestum illud Solonis 
sit, quod ait versiculo quodam, senescere se multa in dies addiscentem : qua 
voluptate animi nulla certe potest esse major,” “ and these indeed are the 
pursuits of learning, which with the discreet and well educated, 
keep pace with the progress of age, so that that is a fine observation 
of Solon’s, when he declares in one of his verses, that ‘every day 
which adds to his age, adds to his learning,’ an intellectual pleasure, 
than which none can be more intense.” Such studies, and especially 
those of biography and history, have been also well denominated by 
the same great author: “ Solatio et oblectamenta vitae” a title, the Annual Address. 
5 
acknowledged correctness of which, is sufficient to establish their 
claim, and the claim of the society, whose object is their promotion 
upon our warm and lasting gratitude. This society moreover 
stands thus simultaneously towards each one of us, in the position 
of a friend and benefactor, conferring great and important benefits; 
and also of a child, still asserting its claim upon our tender affection 
and watchful care. Let us then, in regard to it “so begin the New 
Year, that, in the words of Hone, “ we may expect to say at its 
termination, it has been a good year” and let us practically bear in 
mind the proverb “a good beginning makes a good ending.” 
Impressed and depressed as the minds of most of you probably are, 
by the present political aspect of our country, it may at first appear 
to be an inappropriate and unfavorable time for proposing any mea- 
sure calculated to involve expense or risk; yet this is exactly what 
I am about to propose, as your New Year’s gift and service to this 
society; and I hope to show you that, not only is the time appro- 
priate for such a proposal, but that those very circumstances of the 
time, which you and I so deeply lament and deplore, are precisely 
the circumstances which call for such renewed and increased efforts 
on our part, as may indeed render this New Year, at its termination, 
a good year to the prosperity and usefulness of our society. Let me 
first, however, briefly review the progress we have made during the 
past year, and our present position. We shall then the more cor 
rectly understand the point of departure from which we are now 
about to start. 
During the past year there have been added to the library 380 
bound volumes, 1898 pamphlets, 36 original MSS., and 20 volumes of 
newspapers. 
There are 30 honorary members, 14 life members, 355 resident 
members, and a large number of corresponding members. Of these 
21 resident, 5 corresponding and 3 honorary members were admitted 
during the last year. 4 honorary, 7 resident and 3 corresponding 
members have deceased the past year And 16 biographical and 
genealogical notices of great interest have been prepared and read 
by our very accurate and able officer, Mr. Trask. 
Even from this brief summary, you will have learned some cheer- 
ing and gratifying facts. It is very gratifying and very cheering to 
know that, while so many public societies and private individuals 
have fallen into debt and difficulty during the past year, our society 
stands free and unincumbered; and that not one hill, properly audited, 
has ever had to be presented a second time for payment. 6 
Annual Address. 
For this healthy and creditable state of affairs, we are, I am bound 
to say, greatly indebted to the ability and care of our excellent trea- 
surer, Mr. Towne. And from him I am authorized to announce to 
you that, providing a sufficient number of life memberships can be 
secured, by which the sum of $1000 will accrue to the society, there 
will be donated to it a like amount from one of its members. That 
this munificent offer will be fully carried out, you can have no better 
assurance than that of our treasurer, who, I am much inclined to 
suppose, is very strongly identified with the generous donor. It 
is also a source of satisfaction to learn that so large an increase of 
members has taken place during the last year, and that the total 
number of resident members reaches so respectable a number as 
355 — a number much larger than that of many learned societies of 
much older standing — consisting of persons of education, refine- 
ment and character. Many of the names upon the list are those 
of men well known to fame. The number and the nature of the 
papers read during the last 12 months have both been such as to 
reflect much credit on the labor and zeal of the gentlemen who pre- 
pared them. The value of the biographical notices especially can- 
not be too highly estimated, nor too gratefully acknowledged. The 
preparation of such papers is one of the most patent and proper 
duties of our society, nor can I too earnestly recommend for the 
imitation of all our brethren, the admirable example set them both 
by our former and present historiographers. I may have to allude 
to this subject again, and therefore will only pause at present to 
remark that such biographies, carefully and conscientiously pre- 
pared, deposited in the archives of the institution, and at the close 
of each year bound in volumes, systematically arranged and furnish- 
ed with indexes, will form a body of literature of incalculable value 
to the present and future generation, and, as a consequence, will 
reflect the greatest credit on this our society. 
It is in no invidious spirit towards other societies of a partially 
similar character to our own that I refer, as I do most emphatically, to 
a feature in our constitution, which seems to me to be especially 
worthy of commendation, and to give the society a strong claim upon 
the encouragement and support of our fellow-citizens, 1 was about to 
say “of the educated classes” of our community; but, thanks to our 
liberal political institutions, and to the wise and noble men who 
framed them, we have no uneducated classes. I allude to the broad 
and liberal principle, which throws opon the door of our society to 
every man of cultivated mind and upright character; in this respect Annual Address. 
r* 
i 
following the example of our sister institution of New York. We 
all know that, both in this country and in Europe, a narrow and ex- 
clusive, wrongly called “conservative” spirit, guides the action of 
many learned societies, and renders it a matter of great difficulty 
for any “ novi homines” to gain admission within their jealously 
guarded precincts. 
I have examined with some care the lists of the members of some 
of these exclusive societies, and I have failed to discover that, as a 
body, they are superior, in point of learning, virtue, or any other 
mental or moral endowment, to hundreds of those so jealously ex- 
cluded from their ranks. Our society utterly ignores and rejects all 
such exclusiveness. Our object is, distinctly and avowedly, to pro- 
mote, in the most thorough and practical way, the studies of History 
and Genealogy. We believe that in a well educated community like 
that of Massachusetts, there are very few indeed, who are not quali- 
fied to assist, more or less, in this useful and patriotic work; and 
still fewer, who, if they feel a present deficiency, do not desire to 
supply it, by seeking to gain the knowledge of which they stand in 
need; and therefore, putting aside all pi'esumptuous claims and 
narrow distinctions, we invite all men of intelligence and good 
character, who appreciate the value and importance of these our 
special pursuits, to come and join us, and thus to assist in diffusing 
the beneficial results of our labors more widely and generally 
throughout our country. 
These are all cheering and gratifying points in the review of our 
progress thus far; and now I repeat that renewed exertions and an 
enlarged machinery are needed by our society, and that the present 
critical and trying time is precisely that which, so far from being in- 
auspicious and unfavorable to such a proposal, imperatively calls for 
it, in the strong united tones of duty and of patriotism. Turn back 
with me the glance of memory over even the last twelve months— 
the retrospect indeed is a sad one, and yet, with all the sadness, 
there mingles the feeling of a just and lofty pride. How many a 
noble son of America and Massachusetts after having endured suf- 
ferings and sacrifices, and performed deeds of valor, unsurpassed 
by the best men and bravest heroes of any land or age, has that brief 
period seen borne to his bloody grave. To a certain extent, indeed, 
it is all too true that 
“ We’ve fallen on gloomy days. 
Star after star decays.; 
Many a bright name, that shed 
Light o’er our land is fled! 8 
Annual Address. 
Dark falls the tear of him that mourneth 
Lost joy or hope that ne’er returneth: 
But brightly flows the tear 
Wept on a soldier’s bier! 
But peace to each manly soul that sleepeth, 
Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth! 
Long may the fair and brave 
Sigh o’er each hero’s grave 1 ” 
Yes! here lies our consolation, and the comfort and consolation of 
the many mourning hearts throughout our land. Few indeed are 
there amongst us, who have not been called to bewail the loss of 
some one near and dear amongst the hero-dead, that have been 
offered, voluntary victims, on the, sacred altar of their country’s liber- 
ty and safety; but amidst all our mourning, we derive some consola- 
tion from the thought, that 
“ Brightly flows the tear 
Wept o’er a hero’s bier.” 
To each and all of these, our honored hero-dead, the words of the 
great Grecian orator, uttered above the funeral-pyre of his country- 
men, slain in a like defence of a noble republic aga'inst a tyrannical 
and helot-holding oligarchy, are peculiarly applicable. I give you 
their purport in Dr. Arnold’s summary and paraphrase: “ They have 
died for their country and her praise is theirs. My task is then mostly 
completed; yet it may be added, that their glorious and beautiful 
lives have been crowned by a most glorious death. Enjoying and 
enjoyed as had been their life, it never tempted them to seek by un- 
worthy fear to prolong it. To repel their country’s enemies was 
dearer to them than the fairest prospect which added years could 
offer them; and having gained this, they were content to die; and 
their last field witnessed their brightest glory, undimmed by a single 
thought of weakness. Let us follow, then, their example, contem- 
plating our country’s greatness, till our minds and hearts are fully 
inspired with a sense and a love of it! This is but the natural fruit 
of virtues such as theirs, whom we are now lamenting. They, when 
they could give her nothing else, gave her their own lives, and their re- 
turn is an enduring monument in every heart, in every land, forever! Let 
us do likewise, remembering that to us to live conquered and de- 
graded, after so much dominion and glory, would be far more bitter 
than the momentary pang of triumphant death! There is also one 
brief passage in this speech so gloriously eloquent, that I cannot re- 
frain from giving you the literal translation of the Greek—It is this: Annual Address. 
9 
“ For the whole world is the grave of illustrious heroes, nor is it 
merely the inscription upon monuments in their native land, that pre- 
serves their memory: but even in the land of foreigners, there is 
cherished in regard to them, an unwritten memorial of the heart, rather 
than of a material monument.” 
Those noble words of Pericles, or rather of Thucydides, so strik- 
ingly appropriate to the glorious deeds and glorious deaths of our 
warrior-slain, ought to endear the study of Grecian history to every 
American heart. It is most gratifying to know that the spirited and 
patriotic diligence of some of our members, has secured for our 
archives, memoirs of several of those noble lives given by the old 
Bay State to the cause of our country. But of very many, we have, as 
yet, no record. This deficiency I would urge you earnestly to lose no 
time in supplying. Let it not be said that this New England Society, 
professedly devoted to the studies of Biography and History, has failed 
to secure and register an authentic memorial of even one of that host of 
New England heroes, who, since the commencement of this unhappy 
war, have attested by their life-blood, their love of country, of constitu- 
tion and of liberty 1 This duty, then, I would in the first place, respect- 
fully, but energetically, commend to the prompt and earnest attention 
of all my brethren of this society. As yet, the means and materials for 
its fulfillment are easily accessible; but every month, nay, every week, 
and every day, will make its effective performance more difficult and 
laborious. Let not the anniversary of this, our first meeting of the 
new year, return, without seeing our library supplied with a com- 
plete list of these records of the patriotic heroism by which this dark 
and trying time of our republic has been so gracefully adorned, and 
so brightly illustrated. Nor would I have records merely in the 
form of MSS., but as they so well deserve, in the more permanent and 
more useful form of volumes printed and published by our society. 
We should then have, even in that collection alone, a library of ines- 
timable value, full of the most soul-inspiring life-lessons for the 
instruction and elevation of the hearts and minds of our childrens’ 
children; lessons that will, with God’s blessing, prove the strongest 
and most enduring bulwark through all time, of American pros- 
perity, power and independence! And before I leave this subject, 
let me observe, as a matter of no slight significance and importance, 
more particularly to such a society as ours, that the majority of 
those, our departed heroes of whom I have been speaking, were as 
distinguished for their love of literature and of history, as for their 
valor on the battle-field. Almost all of them might, could he come 10 
Annual Address. 
once more among us, fairly appropriate to himself and his career, the 
words of Cicero, in his well-known defence of Archias, “Nisi mul- 
torum prceceptis multisque literis mihi ab adolescentia suasissem, nihil esse in 
vita magnopere expetendum, nisi laudem et honestatem: in ed autem perse- 
quenda omnes cruciatus corporis, omnia pericula mortis atque exsilii, parvi 
esse ducenda ; nunquum me, pro salute vestra, in tot ac tantas dimicationes, 
atque in hos profligatorum hommum quotidianos impetus obfecissem,” which 
I may freely translate, as addressed by them to America in general, 
and to their native state in particular : “ Had I not thoroughly con- 
vinced myself, from my youth upwards, by the example and instruc- 
tion of many, and by much reading, that nothing in life was worthy 
of eager pursuit, except glory and honor: but that in seeking to 
attain these, all sufferings of the body, all dangers of death and exile, 
ought to be esteemed of little account, I would never have exposed 
myself in defence of your safety, to so many and so deadly struggles, 
and to those constant attacks of reckless rebels.” 
And again, my friends, I would not be content, nor have you to 
be content, even with these documentary memorials of our illustrious 
dead, all valuable and desirable as these may be. I would have the 
very form and features of each of this glorious band of patriot mar- 
tyrs kept in familiar presence before the eyes of the members and 
friends of our society in the sculptured marble, and on the painted 
canvas. It was a wise and admirable custom of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans, to consecrate the cognate arts of sculpture and of paint- 
ing, to the preservation of the memory of their departed great ones. 
Nor was it merely their temples, council halls, and other public 
buildings, that were thus adorned with the forms and the faces of illus- 
trious statesmen, warriors, patriots, but even each private citizen of 
moderate means and rank, was greeted, as he entered the hall of his 
home, with the sight of busts and portraits, whose expressive fea- 
tures, illumined by the light of noble deeds, warned him to avoid 
all that was mean, and cowardly, and base, and to aim at and seek 
after “pro virile parte,” with all the power at his command, the vir- 
tuous, the patriotic and the noble ! 
Even these two suggestions which I have thus, under the strong 
impulse of duty, ventured to offer for your consideration — the one 
of an extended library of contemporaneous biography, the other of 
an auxiliary collection of busts and portraits, must either presuppose 
or involve as a necessary consequence, another very serious and 
important step — a step from which, at a time of pecuniary public 
embarrassment like the present, the society may, at first sight, Annual Address. 
11 
somewhat shrink, but which I believe to be of absolute and essential 
consequence to its continued and increased vigor and usefulness. I 
allude, of course, to the procuring of a building capable of accommo- 
dating such collections with convenience, as well as of affording for 
our meetings a hall better adapted by situation, size and architect- 
ure, to the enlarged numbers, and now acknowledged dignity of our 
society. I recently had the pleasure of inspecting the rooms and 
equipments of a kindred society, and that society not a very old one, 
in the city of New York — the New York Historical Society, and I 
confess that something of chagrin, though not, I trust, of ungenerous 
envy, mingled with the admiration, which that inspection excited 
within me. In addition to many other things o£ vast utility in pro- 
moting the special aims of the society, I saw there a large, valua- 
ble and admirably arranged library, in which the historical student 
can scarcely fail to find each and every book required for the effect- 
ive prosecution of his studies and researches. But in addition to 
this, I was at once surprised and gratified to find embodied among 
the treasures of the society, and located in its library, a vast and 
various collection of Egyptian antiquities, comprising upwards of 
eleven hundred specimens, many of them very rare and valuable, of 
ancient Egyptian art. 
This splendid collection has become the property of the society 
through the munificence of the citizens of New York, and as I gazed 
upon it, and reflected upon a fact so creditable to the generosity and 
public spirit of a community which, with perhaps a somewhat exag- 
gerated sense of literary superiority, we of Boston are apt to identify 
chiefly with the successful pursuit of trade and commerce, I could 
not altogether suppress a hope that so noble an example might act 
as a wholesome stimulus upon the public spirit of our city, in impell- 
ing it to encourage and help in some similar way, or by the gift of 
a suitable site for our new offices, an institution which has now given 
ample proof, as well of its great usefulness to the community, as of 
the liberal character of its constitution and arrangements. But this 
was by no means all that attracted my attention in the rooms of the 
New York Historical Society, the visitor to which may gratify his 
curiosity and love of the antique, by an inspection of the Lenox 
Collection of Nineveh Sculptures, a collection which, when increased, 
as it shortly will be, by the American collections now awaiting the 
space and means of arrangement, will, I am informed, bear to be 
compared with the far-famed Nineveh Remains of the Sloane Museum 
of London. Besides these relics of ancient art, which are the pro- 12 
Annual Address. 
perty of the society, its general attractiveness and means of useful- 
ness have been largely increased, by its becoming the custodian and 
exhibitor of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, a collection with which 
must ever be honorably associated the name of Luman Reed, to whose 
cultivated taste, sound judgment and expansive generosity, that 
Gallery of Art owes its foundation. Other interesting collections of 
paintings are there deposited also for exhibition, and the generosity 
both of artists and of the friends of history and art, has been dis- 
played in presenting many valuable portraits as gifts to the society. 
Here again I would say, not to our members alone, but to the friends 
of history and biography in learned and literary Boston, “ Go ye and 
do likewise.” 
Many of you will agree with me, as well in my admiration of this 
New York institution, and of the munificence of the community in 
affording it such liberal and valuable support, as in regard to the 
desirability of securing for ourselves a more eligible and commodi- 
ous building, adorned with suitable apparatus, in the form I have 
suggested of library, busts and paintings; and yet may consider it 
little better than an Utopian dream, to propose the attainment of 
such an object at the present time. Pardon me, if I dissent from 
this doubt. Through a life of some length, I have maintained a firm 
and unwavering faith in the prompitude and willingness of the 
citizens of Boston, to encourage and support any cause, that should 
exhibit substantial proof of its intrinsic worth and its public utility. 
Such proof has now been afforded by the unobtrusive, but steady and 
persevering labors of this society, during a period more than long 
enough to test the soundness and merit of any undertaking; and I 
cannot bring myself to believe that the public of Boston will show 
less liberality towards a society, whose labors appeal more directly, 
through the channels of biography and genealogy, to the sympathy 
and support of each individual member of the community, than that 
of commercial New York has exhibited towards one, whose wider 
and less personal field of history, unassociated with these kindred 
departments, causes its column of interest to rest solely and entirely 
on the broad basis of love of literature. 
Do not imagine, I pray you, that I would seek this public support 
11 in forma pauperis,” or as begging any favor. I should be very 
sorry to make even a remote allusion to such a topic, did I not be- 
lieve that we deserved it, as a matter of justice and of right. New 
England at large, and Massachusetts more particularly, and Boston 
most of all, already owe a deep debt to the labors of this society, Annual Address. 
13 
collective and individual, for a very large number of most interest- 
ing and valuable memoirs of citizens, prepared by our members not 
alone for the journals of our institution, but for the public press of 
Boston; and should the community come forward to-morrow and pre- 
sent us with the free gift of a commodious and handsome building, 
it would only be discharging a just debt of gratitude. But though 
I confidently look for this eventual recognition of our claims and 
services, I would not wait for, or depend upon it alone just now. It 
was a true and pithy saying of one, whose memory is dear to every 
son of Boston, that “God helps those who help themselves,” and I 
believe that, even now, how dark soever the political and pecuniary 
atmosphere all around may be, sufficient public spirit and sense of 
individual duty will be found, even in our own body, to supply the 
means for building, or otherwise securing, both a more convenient 
and eligible building than this, and also for forming the nucleus, at 
least, of that collection of sculpture and painting, which I hold to 
be of such vital consequence to the successful prosecution of our 
labors, in the promotion of biographical and historical studies.1 Nor 
do I, for a moment doubt, that even now, as soon as proof is 
afforded of this our willingness to “ help ourselves ” that, so far at 
all events as the site for a building is concerned, the city will be 
ready and willing to extend to us a helping hand. In this, as in 
many another cause, success depends upon a just and well-founded 
courage and confidence. I, for one, believe we deserve it. I feel 
sure that the circumstances of the time are precisely such as de- 
mand a vigorous and self-sacrificing effort on our part, and no less 
confident am I, that if we put forth that effort, pulling with a “long 
pull and a strong pull, and a pull all together” we shall succeed, 
and thus render the year that is now new, when it becomes old and 
draws towards its end, emphatically a good year for our society and 
for our own consciences. At all events, I would say, let us simply 
endeavor in this as in all else, to discover the path of duty, and, 
having so discovered, to pursue it manfully and fearlessly, taking as 
our motto, the noble words of Addison, 
“ ’Tis not in mortals to command success, 
But we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.”1 
And now, my friends, before I offer for your consideration another 
1 A member of the society has already offered to be one of thirty to contribute 
$1000 each, making a total of $30,000, to furnish the society with a suitable build- 
ing.—Ed. 14 
Annual Address. 
suggestion, to my mind of very weighty importance, permit me to 
deprecate the idea of assuming to myself any greater knowledge or 
wisdom than is possessed by those around me. I am very conscious 
that many, that most of my brethren of this society are far more 
competent than I, to afford you wise and wholesome counsel; but 
you will, I am sure, give me credit for being sincerely desirous of 
promoting the lasting usefulness and well-being of a society in 
which, from the first, I have taken so deep and lively an interest; 
nor do I think that its younger members will be unwilling to listen 
to such suggestions, as a life neither of short duration, nor limited 
or little experience and familiarity with such studies and pursuits, as 
form more especially the subjects of our labors and lucubrations, 
may in some degree qualify me to present to them. Perhaps, 
towards them, at least, I may, without immodesty or presumption, 
adopt the words of the great orator, “Rome’s best mortal mind,” 
from whom I have already made more than one quotation: “ Nihil 
necesse est mihi de me ipso dicere: quanquam est id qnidam senile, oetatique 
nostra conceditur.” We are living and acting a history, which it will 
be the task and duty — a most solemn and momentous one — of our 
successors to record truly and impartially: at present, passion and 
prejudice and party feeling, are all too strongly and keenly excited 
to render it possible for the most conscientious and upright man 
amongst us to give a strictly truthful and impartial account, even 
of those occurrences which are daily taking place within his own 
immediate sphere of observation. We have only to glance at and 
compare the accounts of such occurrences in the more respectable 
journals of opposite sides of politics, to be thoroughly convinced of 
the truth of this assertion. Fair and impartial history cannot be 
written till the eyes of the historian are cleared, by the lapse of 
time, and the subsidence of excitement, from all the obscuring films 
of prejudice and passion, by which the vision of the most conscien- 
tious and upright is almost as liable to be darkened and perverted 
for a time, as that of the avowed political partizan, visionary en- 
thusiast or bigoted fanatic. It is not uncommon to hear among 
those who foolishly strive to depreciate the study of history and 
biography, such an inference as this, drawn from the diverse and 
contradictory colorings given by different narrators to events which 
happen in our own time and almost within our own personal cogniz- 
ance: “ If (they say) it is so difficult to ascertain the exact truth of 
such events as these, transpiring in our own immediate neighborhood 
and time, how can we place any confident reliance on the records of 
ancient history, on the works of those who lived so long ago as Annual Address. 
15 
Herodotus and Thucydides and Livy, or even of the comparatively 
modern authors of European history ?” The objection appears, at 
first sight, very fair and specious, but only at first sight. A little re- 
flection will show that it rests on no better or more solid foundation 
than many another smart saying and sneering criticism, that from 
time to time have been launched against all that is venerable and 
holy in knowledge and religion. For my own part I can sit down 
and peruse Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War with far 
more security and confidence than I feel while reading many a record 
of events that occurred in the last generation. More or less of the 
dross of the original jealousies and prejudices of country, sect or 
party, still adheres to, and alloys the pure metal of fact and truth, 
in these more recent narratives. But the long lapse of time and the 
persevering labors of a stern, searching and antagonistic criticism, 
have long since cleared away from those ancient records, all this 
obscurity and corrupting dross, while moreover our own eyes, un- 
dimmed by any shade of party or personal or national prejudice, are, 
in this case, qualified more readily and perfectly to discern the 
golden vein of truth. 
“ What bearing has all this” you may ask, “on the present duty of 
this our society?” I answer, a most important one. It is not, as I 
have said, in our power at present to write a correct and impartial 
history of the mighty and momentous struggle, through which our 
beloved country, and as represented by her, the high and holy cause 
of the progress, civilization and freedom of humanity at large, are 
now passing; but it is in our power to secure and provide for our 
successors the means necessary to the fair and full accomplishment 
of that most onerous and most responsible duty. I think it was first 
some remarks of Lord Macaulay, an observation of the sources from 
which he drew so large an amount of graphic and life-like pictures 
of English history; and secondly, some suggestions of my esteemed 
friend, the Librarian of Harvard University, that originally impressed 
upon my mind, the great importance of preserving for the after use 
of the historian, the various journals, pamphlets and periodicals, that 
emanate from the press, more especially in a period of great event, 
and consequently of great excitement like the present. 
Publications, that may seem to us even of a very trivial or worth- 
less kind, may prove of immense, almost incalculable value to him, 
who amid the calm of a more peaceful future, shall undertake this 
mighty task of giving a true and life-like picture of the stirring and 
startling events, in the midst of which we are moving, living, acting, 16 
Annual Address. 
and of the more secret, as well as more powerful motive powers that 
have propelled and sustained the machinery of those events in its 
rapid and resistless action. 
An apt illustration of this value to the historian, of documents 
that might to a superficial eye, appear utterly useless for historic 
purposes, and indeed in their nature, quite unsuited to the dignity of 
history, just occurs to me in connection with Macaulay’s celebrated 
work; in the early part of which, when examining the condition of 
artisans and laborers in the reign of Charles II, he draws valuable 
information from so low and insignificant a source as a ballad of the 
time, preserved in the British Museum. You will not deem it irrele- 
vant in me to quote his words: “The common people of that day 
were not in the habit of meeting for public discussion, or of haran- 
guing, or of petitioning Parliament. No newspaper pleaded their 
cause. It was in rude rhyme that their love and hatred, their 
exultation and distress, found utterance. A great part of their his- 
tory is to be learned only from their ballads. One of the most re- 
markable of the lays chanted about the streets of Norwich and Leeds 
in the time of Charles the II, may still be read in the original ‘broad- 
side.’ I will quote a few lines, premising that it is a master clothier, 
who is supposed to be speaking: 
‘ We will make them work hard for sixpence a day, 
Though a shilling they deserve, if they had their full pay 
If at all they murmur, and say it is too small, 
We hid them choose whether they’ll work at all. 
Then hey ! for the clothing trade ! It goes on hrave, 
We scorn for to toyl and moyl, nor yet to slave ; 
Oar workmen do work hard, but we live at ease, 
We go when we will, and come when we please.’ ” 
Now who, I ask you, even of the most intelligent and far-seeing 
persons that may have heard that rude doggerel sung in the streets of 
Leeds or Norwich would or could have anticipated that, two hundred 
years afterwards, one of the most accomplished of modern historians 
and scholars, would derive from it, strong corroborative evidence of 
the condition of the English artisan in their own time ? Yet such has 
been the case! 
Is not this then a strong and striking warning to us, to preserve 
in the archives of our society, copies of the journals, periodicals, po- 
litical pamphlets, yes, and even satirical squibs and caricatures, of 
this eventful time, as likely to be of equal or greater benefit to the 
future historian of the great American civil war? I feel myself 
warranted in commending this suggestion to your thoughtful consi- Annual Address. 
17 
deration, believing, as I do, that every member, may, in this way, at 
very little cost or trouble to himself, confer a valuable service, not 
alone upon our institution now, bat upon the cause of truth, and the 
interests of our posterity hereafter. And, as our librarian is already 
more than sufficiently tasked by the present labors of his office, I 
would add the further suggestion, that those, who may think this 
hint worthy of adoption, should so arrange their respective col- 
lections of such fugitive literature in volumes similar to those already 
on our shelves, that they will entail no further trouble on the libra- 
rian, than that of labeling and entering them on the catalogue. 
There are not a few kindred topics on which I would willingly 
dwell, but I feel, gentlemen, that I have already trespassed on your 
kind patience too long. I feel very deeply impressed with the im- 
portance of the measures, which I have ventured to commend to 
your attention. I believe those measures would be fraught with 
great and enduring benefit to our society, and I also believe them to 
be uot only possible, but practicable. If, however, your mature consi- 
deration and collective wisdom should be in an opposite conclusion, 
then I would only ask you to believe, that they have originated in 
the promptings of a heart sincerely and ardently desirous of seeing 
this society raised to that elevated rank and extended sphere of 
usefulness, the attainment of which would at once, in my opinion, be 
a most just reward of its own labors and pursuits, and a most solid 
and enduring benefit to the people of New England. 
However this may be, I conclude, as I began, with an earnest 
prayer, that you all, and this, our society in particular, may, at its 
termination, have reason to acknowledge with gratitude to the Giver 
of all Good, that this New Year shall have proved a Good Year! OFFICERS FOR 1863. 
WINSLOW LEWIS, A. M., M. D., of Boston.* 
President, 
Massachusetts. Rev. Martin Moore, A. M., of Boston. 
Maine. Hon. John Appleton, A. M., of Bangor. 
New Hampshire. Hon. Samuel D. Bell, LL. D., of Manchester. 
Vermont. Henry Clark of Poultney. 
Rhode Island. John Barstow of Providence. 
Connecticut. Rev. F. W. Chapman, A. M., of Ellington. 
Vice-Presidents, 
Honorary Vice-Presidents, 
New York. Hon. Millard Fillmore, LL. D., of Buffalo. 
New Jersey. Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, LL. D., of Newark. 
Pennsylvania. Hon. William Darlington, M. D., LL. D., of West Chester. 
Maryland. S. F. Streeter, A. M., of Baltimore. 
Ohio. Hon. Elijah Hayward, A. B., of Connelsville. 
Michigan. Hon. Lewis Cass, LL. D., of Detroit. 
Indiana. Hon. Ballard Smith of Terre Haute. 
Illinois. Hon. John Wentworth, A. M., of Chicago. 
Wisconsin. Cyrus Woodman, A. M., of Mineral Point. 
Iowa. Rt. Rev. Henry W. Lee, D. D., of Davenport. * 
Corresponding Secretary, 
Rev. Caleb Davis Bradlee, A. M., of Roxbury.* 
Secretary, 
Edward S. Rand, Jr., A. M., of Boston.* 
Treasurer, 
William B. Towne of Brookline.* 
Historiographer, 
William B. Trask of Dorchester.* 
Librarian, 
John H. Sheppard, A. M., of Boston.* 
Editor of the Historical and Genealogical Eegister, 
John Ward Dean of Boston. 
Directors, Standing Committees, and Trustees. 
Directors. 
Committee on Finance. 
Rev. Martin Moore, A. M., of Boston. 
Joseph Palmer, A. M., M. D., of Boston, 
John Ward Dean of Boston. 
Hon. George W. Messinger. 
John Barstow of Providence, R. I. 
Frederick Kidder of Boston.* 
Hon. George W. Messinger of Boston. 
J. Tisdale Bradlee of Boston. 
John M. Bradbury of Boston. 
Jeremiah Colburn of Boston.* 
Rev. Abner Morse, A. M., of Boston. 
Richard Briggs of Brookline. 
William S. Appleton, A. B., of Boston. 
Committee on the Library. 
William B. Trask of Dorchester.* 
Hon. Chas. Hudson, A. M., of Lexington. 
Rev. Elias Nason, A. M., of Exeter, N. H. 
John Ward Dean of Boston. 
William H. Whitmore of Boston. 
Publishing Committee. 
Trustees of the Bond Property and Fund. 
Almon D. Hodges of Roxbury. 
Frederic Kidder of Boston. 
Thomas Waterman of Boston. 
Committee on Lectures and Essays. 
William Read Deane of Brookline. 
Rev. F. W. Holland, A. M., of Cambridge. 
Rev. W. Gilbert, A. M., of West Newton. 
Thomas Cushing, A. M., of Boston. 
J. Gardner White, A. M., of Boston. 
Trustees of the Barstow Fund. 
William B. Towne of Brookline. 
Almon D. Hodges of Roxbury. 
J. Tisdale Bradlee of Boston. 
* These with the past presidents, Rev Joseph B. Felt, LL. D., of Salem, Hon. William Whiting, A. M., 
of Roxbury, Samuel (I. Drake, A. M., of Boston, and Col. A. D. Hodges of Roxbury, are exofficio mem- 
bers of the Board of Directors. The treasurer is exofficio a member of the Finance, and the librarian of 
the Library Committee.