Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

434 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
West Springfield Grays, and an inde])eudent company from East
Longmeadow, which latter were noticeable by having two men at
their head in Indian costume. The mechanics marched through
several streets before they halted at the Hampden Coffee-house, and
were there joined by the governor and staff, officers of the day, and
soldiery. They proceeded at once to the First Parish meeting-house,
Avhose capacity was sorely taxed with as brave a throng as ever
gathered there. Judge Morris's address took two hours in its delivery,
and is quite familiar to the people of this generation and to library
frequenters, and has been much used abroad as the basis of historical
articles upon the early history of this town. After the exercises in
the meeting-house, the guests and the officers of the day were es-
corted to the town-hall on State street ; George Bliss was president
of the day, and John Howard, Justice Willard, Charles Stearns,
James W. Crooks, George Ashmun, Charles Howard, and George
Bancroft were vice-presidents. Tables, provided for nearly four
hundred guests, were furnished by Mr. Bishop, of the Springfield
Hotel. Governor Everett, George Bancroft, and other distinguished
gentlemen " occupied the circular seats around the president." The
galleries were filled with soldiery, but its interest to us centres in the
toasts and speeches,
Edward Everett added the elegance of his diction when he spoke to
propose the toast, " The fathers of New Euglaud — their faults were
the faults of the age ; their piety, courage, and perseverance were
their own. Time, which destroys all things, will strengthen their
work and honor their memory."
Mr. Bliss had noted in his remarks that Richard Everett, one of
the early settlers of Springfield, was a relative of Governor Everett.
His Elxcellency expressed his surprise and gratification, and then took
up the weighter matters of the hour, in the following manner :
I regard such a celebration as a noble day of recompense for the tribulations
of other times. Would not William Pynchon, sir, on the very day when his
book, written with the heavy rebuke of the fathers of church and state, was igno-
—