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

488 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
substantial aid. The patriot's address at the old First Church was
elaborate aud eloquent. It was his first sight of Massachusetts, and
his tongue was loosened :
" With you, citizens of Massachusetts," he
exclaimed, " the love of liberty is more than affection — it is prin-
ciple," and he added :
—
One of my companions stopped here in New England, in tlie house of a
workingman, who labors hard at the wages of .$2 a day, and he found in the
modest but neat and comfortable house besides the bible and newspapers, a trans-
lation of some lioman classics, Bentham and Patrick's history of the United
States. Now, gentlemen, where the workingmen draw spiritual life from divine
revelation by private judgment and converse daily with Roman classics — those
ever-fresh sources of generous sentiment — and are familiar with Bentham's An-
alysis of Diet, philosopliical utilitarianism, and draw daily inspiration of philan-
throphy and of their country's history, there I easily can understand how the
heart of man remains generous in common national prosperity and wraps itself
not up in the selflshiiesss of undeserved hapi^iness.
Rev. Francis Tiffany, of Baltimore, was ordained as pastor of the
Unitarian church, in December, 1852, Dr. G. W. Buruap, of Balti-
more, Md., preaching the sermon. The Hampden Savings Bank was
organized at this time.
The Springfield City Guard, in 1852, elected these officers : Captain,
John B. Wyman ; first lieutenant, Timothy D. Pelton ; second
lieutenant, Joseph C. Pyuchon ; third lieutenant, James Kirkham ;
fourth lieutenant. Burton jM. Ford. In the autumn of 1852 Richard
Walkley, Jr., was tried for the murder of his father, Augustus L.
Soule and AVilliam G. Bates defending him, and District Attorney
Sumner was assisted by Attorney-General Clifford. He was con-
victed.
The legislative committee reported favorably in April (1853) a
bill chartering a branch of the Canal Railroad, to be called the
Springfield & Farmington Valley Railroad. This was secured after
a long contest which had entered into most of the local elections in
this region for some time. The Senate, however, killed the measure,