time Mr. Everett was Governor of the Commonwealth. Early in the day the Charlestown Light Infantry, Captain James Dana, and the Columbian Guards, Captain E. O. Eaton, made a parade and visited Boston, halting at Faneuil Hall. Here they received the Independent Company of Cadets the Governor's bodyguard. Taking them under escort they marched to Charlestown, to the Governor's residence on Harvard Street. They were entertained by His Excellency, who had invited many of his friends and fellow-citizens to meet them. The three companies constituted the escort for the procession, which was formed under the direction of Samuel Etheridge, chief marshal of the day, and proceeded to the Unitarian Church, where an oration was delivered by Alexander H. Everett, the distinguished brother of the Governor. An ode was written for the occasion by Thomas Power, of Boston. In the afternoon a dinner was given in the Town Hall, served by Gorham Bigelow, of the Mansion House, and presided over by Benjamin Thompson; and it was here that Mr. Everett made the speech which, in his volume of printed speeches, is referred to as having been delivered at a public dinner in Charlestown. At this dinner Robert C. Winthrop was present as one of the Governor's aides, and made a speech; so also was John H. Clifford, afterwards Governor, another of the aides. Two others of the Governor's staff were present, Charles F. Andrew, of Salem, and Daniel Fletcher Webster, of Boston. President Josiah Quincy, Commander John Downes, the French Consul, and other distinguished persons were present at this celebration. Nine survivors of the

battle of Bunker Hill and three other soldiers of the

Revolution were present in the church to hear the oration, a portion of which was especially addressed to them. And just now, while we are endeavoring to show our grateful appreciation of the value of the services of the soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, may we not intensify its importance by referring to what was gained by the men of the Revolution and left to be preserved by them? Eleven years before this celebration, when Lafayette was here to assist in the laying of the cornerstone of the monument, two hundred survivors of the battle were present to take him by the hand. They were thanked for their services by Daniel Webster in his great speech, in these words: "In the name of this generation, in the name of your country, and in the name of Liberty, we thank you." Mr. Everett referred to this fact, and closed his remarks to the twelve who were listening to him as follows:

You now attend in diminished numbers. He, too, that noble stranger, the last major-general of the Revolutionary army, our illustrious friend, fellow-citizen, and guest, after passing through fresh trials, after achieving new prodigies of patriotism and valor, has closed his high career. You alone are left. Venerable friends and fathers! We greet you with deeper interest as the scanty sole survivors of this memorable day. We rejoice that so many of you have been permitted to witness another solemn celebration of its return, to hear once more, however feeble the voice that utters them, our cordial acknowledgements of your services and worth. May your lives be preserved yet longer, for many years to come, and when in the fullness of time and honors you too shall be gathered to your fathers and your brothers in arms, may you have the satisfaction in your

last moments of seeing the prosperity of the country, which you did so much to establish, still unimpaired as it is now.

While referring to the death of Warren the orator took from his vest pocket the identical musket-ball which caused his death, wrapped in a piece of paper stained with his blood. It was taken from the dead body the morning after the battle, by Mr. Savage, a British high officer in the Boston Custom House at that day, and was given to Rev. William Montague, of Dedham, Massachusetts, who was in London in 1790 and who brought it to America as a relic of the Revolution. Mr. Everett's oration was printed, and appended to it is the affidavit of Mr. Montague to the above effect.

Governor Everett brought with him to the dinnertable in the afternoon, and read to the company assembled, several original orders of General Ward, written about the time of the battle in 1775, which had recently been found in a neglected corner of the State House.

AUGUST 16, 1890.

present

battle of Bunker.

XLII

George Washington

Charlestown Ever Faithful to His Memory.

N Chapter XXXI. I have said that Major Benjamin Frothingham so distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War that General Washington on his visit to Massachusetts after the war honored him with a call at his house on Main Street. This is a pleasing recollection; and it is a gratifying thought that the old town was ever faithful in remembering the inestimable value of the life and character of Washington.

In The Charlestown Enterprise of February 19, 1893, was an article, written by Mr. Hunnewell, entitled "Charlestown Paid Tribute to Washington While He Lived." In this article reference is made to the scarcity of a pamphlet printed by John Lamson at his office near Charles River Bridge, containing an account of a celebration in Charlestown on the 22d of February, 1797, the sixty-fifth anniversary of the birthday of Washington, with the prayer of Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D.D., and the oration of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, before King Solomon's Lodge of Free Masons, in Warren Hall.

Fortunately one of the few copies of this pamphlet now in existence is owned by Mr. Hunnewell, and he quotes from it enough to impress us with the feeling

that the Charlestown of that day was full of love for Washington and of grateful and affectionate remembrance of his services to his country. He had just declined another nomination for the Presidency and was about to retire to private life, and the patriotic spirit of the old townspeople could not let the anniversary of his birthday pass without a special expression of their appreciation of the immeasurable value of his life and character. Thus the day was set apart for remembrance of him whose memory we cherish as the "Father of his Country, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

I have recently been presented with another old pamphlet, which is referred to in Mr. Hunnewell's "Bibliography of Charlestown and Bunker Hill," and which was printed in 1800 by authority of the town of Charlestown, containing an account of its action on receiving news of the death of Washington; and it seems to me that this will be a good time to reprint a portion of that

account.

Washington died December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, his beautiful home on the banks of the Potomac, in Virginia. On the eighteenth of December, with military and Masonic honors, his body was placed in the family vault at the foot of the long lawn leading from his house to the river, and there the service of the church was read over it. "Three general discharges by the infantry, the cavalry, and eleven pieces of artillery, which lined the banks of the Potomac, back of the vault, paid the last tribute to the entombed commanderin-chief of the armies of the United States and to the venerable departed hero."