CELEBRATION, AT DANVERS, MASS. JUNE 16, 1852. "Lives there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, SCOTT. BOSTON: PRINTED BY DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, No. 37, CONGRESS STREET. 1852. ADDRESS, BY JOHN W. PROCTOR. WELCOME, friends of Danvers, to the land of your birth, and of your choice! It gladdens the heart to meet so many cheerful countenances on this One Hundredth Anniversary of the independent municipal existence of our town. In behalf of my fellow-citizens, I bid you all a hearty welcome here. Your presence gives assurance that we have not mistaken your sympathies with the occasion of our meeting. Why these thronging crowds in every avenue of the town? Why has the farmer left his plough,—the tanner his vat,— the currier his beam,-the trader his shop,-the shoemaker his bench, and every one his employment? Why this gathering of thousands of children,-the future men and women, to govern and adorn,—and the interest that beams in every expression of their animated countenances? Why have our friends from the North, the South, the East, and the West, favored us with their presence? Is it not to bring to mind the virtues, the toils, the sufferings of our fathers? "It is a privilege to learn what shall be from what has been,to turn experience into prophecy,to view in the mirror of the past, the vision of the future." The settlement of Salem, early known as Naumkeag, was begun by Roger Conant and others, in 1626, and much increased, in 1628, by the arrival of John Endicott and others, all emigrants from England. |