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

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 611
the United States to protect the smaller States from the encroachnieiits of the
larger ones. It is the buhvark of the smaller States in the midst of those greater
and more numerous, without which the uncontrolled members would submerge
and swallow them up ; and so important its provisions of equality of vote among
the States, guaranteed in the Senate, appeared to the founders of our institutions,
that they so built it into the Constitution that it cannot be taken out by any
amendment, as every other provision of that Constitution can be. Massaclm-
setts holds the guaranty of her equality in the Senate by title absolutely inde-
structible as long as the government endures. It can be wrested from her only
by revolution, or by revolutionary surrender. In tliat body Massachusetts has
had in the past representation always worthy of her great name, and the high
commission with which she has intrusted that representation. After the two
great names of Webster and Sumner, the illustrious in history, tlie old county
of Hampshire of blessed memory — alas that it was ever divided I —
stands forth
in the front rank with the names she has furnished to that representation.
Caleb Strong, one of the first senators for Massachusetts, stern, stubborn, in-
corruptible, and patriotic; Ashmun, a name illustrious in both houses of Con-
gress and at the bar of the Commonwealth; Mills, the scholar, the statesman, and
orator of a listening and charmed Senate; Isaac C. Bates, whose voice rang
in my ear like a silver trumpet the first time when a boy I entered the court-
house at Northampton, and whose mantle is now worn so gracefully and so
worthily by a descendant of the same stock in your neighboring town. These
were the " River Gods" of their day (applause), and to these illustrious names
the old county of Hampshire may point her present and future generations for
ensample and for emulation.
Railroad Commissioner Kinsley said : —
Mr. President and Gentlemen, — It was always my luck when a boy in Spring-
field to be put at the tail-end of any fun that was going on, but I generally got
in. And now, at 12.45 in the morning, after you have listened to the eloquent
speeches that have been made, I am called upon to say a few words for the " old
boys " of Springfield.
I will begin where my friend Mr. Ames Wells left off., He spoke of a
worthy gentleman, Mr. Elijah Blake, who used to be the terror of the boys.
But there was another worthy gentleman, whom I remember and wliom you all
remember very well, Mr. William Hatfield, who was a constable of the town, and
who took care of the boys that sometimes made fun at Dr. Osgood's church.
I remember one time when the missionary spirit was prevailing in Springfield,