in which Massachusetts and Harvard and Connecticut and Yale, respectively, were in sympathy and harmony, and in which divergent influences display themselves.

Dr. ELLIS said that the usual resolutions would be adopted; and he announced that Mr. Roger Wolcott had been nominated by the Council to prepare a memoir of Mr. Robbins.

The Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP then said:

I have a little communication which may not be wholly without interest, and which will at least serve to fill up a few spare minutes this afternoon. It deals with a Massachusetts Town and with a late distinguished citizen of Boston; and if it has more about myself than I could wish, I am sure the Society will pardon me. It is an episode in the history of the National Monument to Washington, which has been recently completed and dedicated.

About the 1st of July, 1885, I received, at Richfield Springs, N. Y., where I was passing a few weeks for the benefit of my wife's health, as well as my own, the following letter:

HON. R. C. WINTHROP :

GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS., June 29, 1885.

DEAR SIR, I send you by express to-day a tin box of money contributed in this town for the Washington Monument. It was overlooked by my predecessor in office of Town Clerk, and was only recently handed to me. Noticing your name on the box as one of the sub-committee, I take the liberty to send it to you.

Very respectfully,

C. J. BURGET, Town Clerk.

The box was accordingly forwarded to Boston; and on my return to my summer residence at Brookline, on the 27th of July, I found it awaiting my examination.

It has recalled some interesting facts which I proceed to mention before they are lost to my memory.

It happened that my venerable friend the late Thomas. Handasyd Perkins had been particularly impressed with the Oration which I delivered on the laying of the corner-stone of the National Monument to Washington, on the 4th of July, 1848. He had known Washington personally, had spent a day with him at Mount Vernon, and had conceived and cherished

the most exalted sense of his character and services and principles. The Oration had revived all his early enthusiasm in regard to Washington's pre-eminence, and it seemed that he could not read it or hear it too often. He even had it read aloud to him and to his family circle, on more than one Sunday evening, by his son-in-law the late William H. Gardiner, as Mr. Gardiner himself told me; and he afterwards published, at his own expense, for distribution and sale, a cheaper edition of it than that published by the Monument Association at Washington, in order to secure it a wider circulation.

More than four years afterwards I received from him the following note:

BOSTON say BROOKLINE, Thursday, A. M. DEAR SIR, When at Washington, I visited the Monument, the foundation of which you aided in laying. It was at a standstill, to my great chagrin. I determined therefore, on my return, to endeavor to raise enough to induce the gentlemen who have charge of the business to recommence the work. The Government, it is thought, will not let the work be suspended for want of funds. I want to consult you respecting the matter, and if you are in the vicinity will thank you to call. I have already written to Mr. Bates,1 who I have no doubt will give his thousand dollars, and induce other Americans abroad to do something. I think a considerable sum can be raised before Congress rises. I will head the list with $1,000. William Appleton will do the same, as will many others. I passed some days at Washington very pleasantly, and saw Mr. Fillmore, who was very gracious.

Your friend,

T. H. PERKINS.

This note was written by "the Colonel," as he was always called, and received by me on the 23d of December, 1852. He was then in his eighty-eighth year, and he died less than two years later.

I did not fail to call at once on my venerable friend, and I found him full of enthusiastic interest in the subject of his note. After some consultation it was agreed by us that a meeting of gentlemen should be held at his own house without delay, to devise a plan for carrying out the purposes which he

1 Joshua Bates, the eminent banker, the founder of the Boston Public Library.

had so much at heart. Meantime he begged me to draft an appeal to the people of Massachusetts for contributions to the Monument, to be signed by the gentlemen who should assemble at his call. I accordingly prepared the following paper:

TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS:

The undersigned take the liberty to appeal to you in behalf of an object which cannot fail to be deeply interesting to every true American heart.

On the 4th day of July, 1848, the corner-stone of a Monument to GEORGE WASHINGTON was laid, with imposing ceremonies, in the city which bears his name. It was designed to be a national monument to the acknowledged Father of his Country. It was projected under the auspices of an Association of which John Marshall and James Madison had been successively presidents. A considerable sum of money had already been raised, and it was confidently believed that when the structure was once fairly commenced, and before the sum in hand should have been expended, there would be a sufficient interest excited in the object to insure an ample contribution for its completion.

More than four years have now elapsed, and the Monument has reached a height of a hundred and twenty-six feet from the ground. Four hundred feet remain to be built up in order to complete the original design, and the resources of the Association are wellnigh exhausted. Occasional contributions continue to come in from various parts of the country, but not to an amount or with a regularity to give assurance that the work can be prosecuted afresh at the opening of the ensuing season.

The idea will not be entertained for an instant that in this day of our national prosperity and pride a Monument to WASHINGTON can be suffered to remain unfinished for want of funds. An intelligent and grateful people will never permit this well-merited tribute to one whose memory will ever stand first in all their hearts to be left permanently incomplete.

But in order that the means for finishing it may be seasonably procured there is need of some concerted and systematic action. There must be a commencement somewhere of an earnest effort to acquaint the whole community with the character and condition of the work, and to give direction to the interest which such an object cannot fail to create; and there must be an example, in some quarter of the country, of a general and generous contribution among all classes, ages, and sexes of the people.

Where can such an effort be so appropriately made, where can such an example be so fitly exhibited, as in Massachusetts ? It was here that

the great Revolution of Independence began. It was here that the first resistance to oppression was manifested. It was here that the first blood was shed. It was here, upon our own Massachusetts soil, that WASHINGTON first drew his sword in defence of American liberty. It was here that his first triumph was achieved, in expelling the enemy from Boston, and in restoring our metropolis to a condition of civil freedom, which has never since been interrupted. And nowhere have the benefits and blessings of the Federal Constitution, over whose formation WASHINGTON presided, and which afterwards he so wisely and nobly administered, been more signally enjoyed and illustrated than in our own ancient and beloved Commonwealth.

Let Massachusetts lead the way, then, in the completion of this National Monument to WASHINGTON. Let every man, woman, and child within her limits seize the opportunity of testifying their gratitude for his unequalled services, their reverence for his pure and spotless character, their adherence to his lofty principles and patriotic policy, and their affection for a memory which will be hallowed in all ages and in all lands.

It cannot be doubted that other States will be incited by our example to do their share, also, in a work which was designed to be accomplished by the united efforts of the whole American people.

The meeting was held and organized, with Thomas H. Perkins as Chairman, his grandson, T. H. Perkins, Jr., as Secretary, and Ignatius Sargent as Treasurer.

The appeal was dated "Boston, Feb. 1, 1853," and was sent forth to the people of Massachusetts with the following signatures:

Of these twenty-six signers only three, I believe, are still

living.

Before the meeting adjourned a sub-committee was appointed to carry out the plans of Colonel Perkins; and by this committee a great number of subscription books were prepared, with the appeal to the people as an introduction, which were sent to official persons and leading individuals in all the cities. and towns of Massachusetts.

Tin boxes were also prepared and distributed for receiving the contributions of the people. This is one of them. Upon these tin boxes the following short appeal was pasted, in large type:

THE

NATIONAL MONUMENT

ΤΟ

WASHINGTON,

IS STILL UNFINISHED.

Let every son and daughter of Massachusetts cast in their mite for its completion. Let those who cannot afford dollars give dimes, or even half-dimes. Let no one refuse to contribute something to the com

memoration of the FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.

THOMAS H. PERKINS,

ABBOTT LAWRENCE,

ROBERT C. WINTHROP,

RICHARD FROTHINGHAM, JR.,

SAMUEL WALker,

Sub-Committee.

Boxes are prepared for every town. Which shall be filled first?

The good old Colonel, in his eighty-eighth year, devoted no little time and labor to the preparation of these tin boxes. I wrote the inscription, or label, for them at his request; but he had it printed, and pasted it on many, if not on all, of them with his own hand. He made it his work for many months to prepare and distribute them, sometimes carrying them in person to hotels and halls and offices where they could be fastened to the walls and attract public attention. I know not which of them was "filled first," - if any of them were ever filled. But this Great Barrington box comes back to me last, after the Monument has been completed, at the end of thirty-seven years