[8] favor, than you can discourage bad books at the moment you are buying and circulating them.1Social unity was assisted by old organizations and clubs. The Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, has long done good service in preserving the details of national and local history,2 and its succession of presidents, distinguished by the names of Savage, Winthrop, and Ellis, are an assurance of genuine merit in investigation.3 The Wednesday Club, its members meeting at one another's houses, which in 1877 completed its first century, has at all times enrolled names honorably known in science, literature, and public life.4 The Corps of Cadets, a militia company with a regimental organization older than the Revolution, has drilled young lawyers, doctors, and merchants in the positions of a soldier, some of whom fleshed their maiden swords on the battlefields of the Civil War. Children were then taught dancing by the elder Papanti, as now by his son; and his hall, now resorted to only by youths, was before 1850 often the scene of assemblies where one might see the wit, beauty, and fashion of the town. The household life of Boston at this time was most attractive. Travellers have noted the ‘perfect politeness, courtesy, and good breeding’ which prevailed in it. The Virginian,5 who had been taught that there was nothing good in Yankees, and the Englishman,6 who was filled with equal prejudice against all Americans,
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1 ‘Life’ of Ticknor, vol. II. p. 235. The social exclusion practised by Ticknor on Sumner and antislavery men is mentioned in Adams's ‘Biography’ of Dana, vol. i. pp. 128. 176, 177. It will be seen that Judge William Kent, though as ill-affected toward anti-slavery agitation, thought the attempt of Ticknor, the Eliots, and others to ostracize Sumner, ‘unwise and unfair.’
2 Its first centenary was commemorated Jan. 24, 1891, with an oration by T. W. Higginson, and addresses by Rev. George E. Ellis and Robert C. Winthrop; and the public exercises were followed by a reception at Mr. Winthrop's house.
3 Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and Henry Wilson, the last an historian as well as Senator and Vice-President, were not admitted to the Society. Richard Hildreth's ‘History of the United States’ did not bring him membership while he remained in Boston, but after his removal to New York he was made a corresponding member. Sumner was not chosen a member till a few weeks before his death. James Freeman Clarke's membership came late in his life, though his knowledge of history was always wide and accurate. All these were antislavery agitators.
4 Mr. Winthrop on the occasion, May 9, 1877, described the distinguished membership at different periods. R. C. Winthrop's ‘Addresses and Speeches,’ vol. III. p. 459. There has been also the Thursday Club, of which Mr. Everett was at one time President, and the Friday Club, to the latter of which Mr. Ticknor belonged. At the Thursday Club the custom has been to read papers on scientific subjects.
5 An account of William Wirt's impressions during his sojourn in Boston in 1829 is given in his ‘Life’ by J. P. Kennedy.
6 Dickens's ‘American Notes.’ The best description of the literary life of Boston at this period, given by any foreign visitor, is by John G. Kohl, a German, in his paper entitled ‘The American Athens,’ contributed to Bentley's Miscellany, and reprinted in ‘Littell's Living Age,’ Jan. 18, 1862, and H. T. Tuckerman's ‘America and her Commentators,’ pp. 311-318. His visit was made in 1857.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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