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

610 SPRINGFIELD, 1G36-1S86.
times, we promise to be good neighbors, active, earnest workers with you for
the prosperity of the State and nation, joining with you in every good word and
worlt.
United States Senator Dawes said :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — First let me thank you for tliis kind manifes-
tation, and say that I am quite aware, at this festival of the sons of Springfield,
that the time belongs to others, and not to me. I would be quite content to yield
it all to those who have so many pleasant, friendly memories to recount to de-
light and charm you. I know it becomes me to make acknowledgment of this
toast in the briefest possil)le maimer ;
—
but before I do that, you M'ill pardon me,
even at this late hour, if I make my bow to the city of Springfield. She has
won my heart to-da}', and I am quite impatient to make avowal of the attach-
ment. I have been captivated by the regal splendor with which she has come
forth to receive our congratulations upon this most distinguished of all her birth-
days, decorated and blushing like a bride, and yet as stately and dignified as a
matron, swelling with pride as her children gather around her Avith their offer-
ings. She receives our offerings, she receives our congratulations, and acknowl-
edges the compliments we pay her with becoming grace and dignity. Increasing
years, as has been said so many times to-day, have not brought to her decrepitude
or decay, but perennial youth and beauty adorn her brow. The mother of a
grand array of towns and cities which have sprung up along this beautiful valley,
she is yet the youngest of them all (applause), "the fairest of her daughters
since born." Could the cities of New York and Boston have seen her to-day in
her glory, they would have been ashamed of that petty jealousy and rivalry to
prevent her being a port of delivery for foreign commerce. But they fight
against the stars, and their discomfiture, as well as her triumph, is certain in the
near future. This spectacle which we have witnessed to-day could have been
witnessed nowhere else but in this country, and under no other government but
ours ; for nowhere else could those elements of Massachusetts' growth, which
made her successful as the founder of towns and of States, have had free scope
and development.
I should have been glad, Mr. President, to have spoken of the place and
functions of the United States Senate in that government, had you not reminded
me before I got up that there would not be any time to say much of anything to
you on the toast to which I was called to speak. But, sir, if I cannot say any-
thing more, there is some satisfaction in saying that the United States Senate
needs no defence or encomiums from me. It was jjlaced in the Constitution of