PROCEEDINGS.

SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 25, 1906, AT THE HALL OF

THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN BOSTON.

Vice-president HON. SAMUEL A. GREEN of Boston occupied the chair.

The following members were present:

Nathaniel Paine, Samuel A. Green, Edward L. Davis, James F. Hunnewell, Edward H. Hall, Charles C. Smith, Edmund M. Barton, Samuel S. Green, Henry W. Haynes, Andrew McF. Davis, Solomon Lincoln, Daniel Merriman, William B. Weeden, Henry H. Edes, A. George Bullock, G. Stanley Hall, William E. Foster, Charles P. Greenough, Edwin D. Mead, Charles Francis Adams, Francis H. Dewey, Calvin Stebbins, James L. Whitney, George H. Haynes, Waldo Lincoln, John Noble, George P. Winship, Austin S. Garver, Samuel Utley, Edward H. Gilbert, E. Harlow Russell, Benjamin T. Hill, Edward G. Bourne, Anson D. Morse, Deloraine P. Corey, Clarence S. Brigham.

In the absence of the Recording Secretary, Mr. Edmund M. Barton was chosen as Secretary pro tem.

The report of the Council was read by NATHANIEL PAINE, A. M. It was accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication.

A Memorial of the late President of the Society, the Hon. STEPHEN SALISBURY, prepared by Rev. EDWARD E. HALE, D. D., was read by Mr. SAMUEL S. GREEN.

The Council presented for election to membership the name of Frederick Lewis Gay, A. B., of Brookline, Massachusetts. A ballot was taken, and Mr. Gay was duly elected.

ANDREW MCFARLAND DAVIS, A. M., reported as follows: "While this ballot is being taken, I would like to take the opportunity to report that as a delegate of the Society appointed in the absence of the other officers from Worcester, by the senior member of the council, I attended the Franklin bi-centenary exercises of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia which covered four days last week. The extent of the preparations was something remarkable, and the expenditure of money was great. Marvellous executive capacity was displayed in all the arrangements, to carry out which the State of Pennsylvania had appropriated twenty thousand dollars. I do not intend, however, to go into the affair in any detail at this time, but simply wished to have it placed in the record that we were represented there, and that every courtesy was extended this Society."

Mr. SAMUEL S. GREEN called attention to that part of the report of the Council relating to the real estate devised by Mr. SALISBURY. On his motion, the Hon. SOLOMON LINCOLN and Mr. GREEN were appointed a committee to prepare a vote with reference to it.

The Society listened to a paper by Prof. ANSON D. MORSE of Amherst College on "The Principles of Thomas Jefferson." Prefacing his paper, Prof. MORSE said: "All of us have noted that appeal to the principles of Thomas Jefferson is frequently made in support of hostile policies, and it becomes therefore an object of some importance to try to find out what these principles really are. This suggested to me the study and the outline of the results which I wish to lay before you. The study is larger in its material than I had supposed it to be, and the results are less definite

than I hoped that they would be; and I can report, in general, progress rather than dependable conclusions. And I would ask of members of the Society as a special personal favor wherever the method pursued, which will be indicated clearly, and wherever the conclusions indicated, seem to vary from those which you would employ, and those which you yourselves have reached, if you would very kindly let me know of the differences, it will help me in the completion of this study, which I hope in the end to make complete and thorough."

Mr. SOLOMON LINCOLN: "I should like to offer the following vote and I have a word of explanation before I reach it. It relates to the property given to the Society by Mr. Salisbury, and it is obvious that in dealing with real estate, some formal action and vote of the Society will ultimately be necessary; and it is equally obvious that the Society as a body cannot deal with negotiations of purchases and sales. Therefore I offer this vote:

"Voted, that the Council have authority to deal with the real estate devised to the Society by its late President, either by way of sale, exchange, or otherwise, and to purchase other real estate with the proceeds of the sale of the devised property if sold; the action of the Council to be ratified by such further and formal action of the Society as may be necessary to perfect the title to any real estate sold or acquired under the provisions of this vote."

After some discussion a vote of the society was taken on the action proposed by Mr. Lincoln, and it was unanimously adopted.

A paper dealing with the ancient customs and beliefs of the time of Columbus, was prepared and presented by Prof. EDWARD G. BOURNE, of Yale University.

Mr. ANDREW MCF. DAVIS: "I should like to ask Prof. Bourne whether in the account of the arrival of the clothed strangers, there was either any intimation of where they came

from, or any description of the clothing which they wore, or whether they arrived by sea. That would probably be so, but whether there was any distinct evidence in the tradition of the method of their arrival?"

Prof. BOURNE: "Apparently not. I read all there was. It is possible the story might have originated through some stray vessel of some Central Americans, who were clothed, coming to the island, and that may have given the start to it."

Mr. DAVIS: "The question might arise whether it was connected with the various traditions relative to the arrival of clothed strangers running all through the accounts of the Indians of North America, given by priests and travellers. In studying those things, we have to consider first the influence of the white man on the traditions, and second, the influence of the writer himself, on the story which he records. Obviously, there are many reasons why the Spaniard should distort and falsify events, but here you are getting back behind all possible influence by whites upon events, and here you have nothing to deal with but the writer himself. Everywhere in the Northwest, even up in the neighborhood of Hudson's Bay there were stories current of the arrival from the west of strangers in curious clothes. The accounts of the Indians were necessarily ambiguous as to where this event took place. From some of them it might be inferred that it was the Great Salt Lake. From others that it was the Gulf of California-or perhaps the Oregon Coast. These stories I collated in my discussion of the Journey of Moncacht-Apé which I read before this Society April 25, 1883. Even though we do not find any direct connection between these stories and the book referred to by Prof. Bourne, even though they are widely different, there is a possible foundation for the whole upon the same basis; this may be the same tradition that is found among all our Northern Indians,

of the arrival of foreigners upon the coast, which you run across even up to Hudson's Bay."

Mr. WILLIAM E. FOSTER, of Providence, R. I., read a paper entitled, "The Point of View of History."

Mr. GEORGE P. WINSHIP, of Providence, in connection with Mr. Foster's paper, read some extracts from the correspondence of Mr. William Palfrey, who in 1762 was clerk in a store in Boston.

The meeting was dissolved, and many of the members repaired to the Hotel Somerset for luncheon.

Attest:

EDMUND M. BARTON, Recording Secretary pro tempore.