former. It is a magnificent monument of this angle of the Common. The Masonic Temple is not unworthily supported on the opposite corner by the Hotel Boylston, a site which will never lose interest as the home of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. In the old mansion-house was born Charles Francis Adams, who has erected the splendid edifice we are regarding. Boylston Street was the ancient Frog Lane of the South End. Its route was the same as now, except that the sea washed the southerly end at the foot of the Common. We have remarked that the fathers of Boston were not particular about names. The future was veiled from them, and any peculiarity served their purpose. The amphibious croaker may have rendered the air of the neighborhood vocal with his evening song in the day of Adams or his neighbor Foster. Sloughs and mud-holes were common to the vicinity. It is recorded that one, both wide and deep, lay in front of Mather Byles's house. The selectmen were importuned to see to it without avail, until one morning a pair of them got their chaise stuck fast in the midst, when the parson accosted them with, "Well, gentlemen, I am glad to see you stirring in this matter at last." The "Old Man eloquent" is one of the honored names on the roll of the Boston Bar. The Athenæum was enriched by his private library at a merely nominal sum. He studied law with Theophilus Parsons, and wrote powerful political articles under the signature of Publicola, in 1791, advocating neutrality with France. Minister to Holland, England, and Prussia, he was intimate with Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Pitt, and their contemporaries of the period of the French Revolution. A member of the United States Senate from 1803 to 1808, his views on the measures of Mr. Jefferson were in conflict with those of Massachusetts, and he resigned. He was minister to Russia in 1809, and a commissioner at Ghent in 1815. Again minister to England in 1817, he became subsequently Mr. Monroe's Secretary of State, and his successor in 1825. In 1831 he was returned to Congress, where he continued until his sudden decease in the Capitol in 1848. "This is the last of earth; I am content," were the last words he spoke. Mr. Adams was minister to Russia during the invasion of Bonaparte. When questioned as to the burning of Moscow, he stated that both the Emperor and Rostopchin, the governor, denied having ordered it. Had the government assumed the responsibility, they would have been obliged to indemnify the sufferers. In Miss Quincy's Memoir are some interesting personal recollections of Mr. Adams while at the court of St. Petersburg. Said he : "I never saw Alexander on the throne. He was a man who cared little about thrones, and was one of the most complete republicans, in character and manners, I have ever known. He used to walk the streets of St. Petersburg every day, and stop and talk to every one he met. He was extremely popular, and I do not believe he was carried off by treachery. Alexander, during the whole of the war with Bonaparte, exposed himself as much as any of his officers. At the close of that war he was undoubtedly one of the first generals in Europe. Moreau was killed at his side by a cannon-ball from the walls of Dresden." Speaking of Moreau's death, Mr. Adams observed : "He was fighting against his country, which no man can ever be justified in doing. A man, if he disapproves a government or a war, may remain quiet and neutral; but nothing should ever induce him to take up arms against his country. I saw Moreau's funeral at St. Petersburg, which was attended with great pomp." The victor of Hohenlinden was excluded by decree from the ranks of the French army, July 6, 1804, and under the surveillance of a colonel of gendarmes went to Cadiz, where he embarked for the United States. Moreau was in America eight years, during which he travelled extensively, visiting Boston among other places. The venerable William Minot, of this city, stated, at a recent interview, that he remembers seeing the general in a passing carriage while he was in Boston. He went to Niagara Falls, and descended the Ohio and Mississippi. A small affluent of the Missouri is named for him. the He lived for some time at Morrisville, in Pennsylvania, in a house purchased by him on the banks of the Delaware, most conspicuous in the place. The general was very affable and hospitable. He also resided in New York, where he was much consulted by American politicians, though he sedulously abstained from party intrigue himself. After a residence of about eight years in the United States he returned to Europe, to engage in the strife then raging there. The American vessel which carried Moreau this was in 1813- was permitted to pass the blockade by Admiral Cockburn, at the request of the Russian minister. - His death-bed was attended by the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, and Emperor Alexander, who manifested the deepest grief at his loss. Metternich, Schwartzenburg, and the allied generals visited him, and Alexander, who had a great friendship for the dying general, held him a long time in his arms. The following is an extract of a letter to Madame Moreau, written by him, with a steady hand, while sinking under the amputation of his limbs : "My dear friend, at the battle of Dresden, three days ago, I had both legs carried away by a cannot shot. That scoundrel, Bonaparte, is always lucky." Charles Francis Adams passed his boyhood with his father at St. Petersburg, and while the elder Adams was minister at the court of St. James, the son went to an English school. He studied law in Webster's office, and was admitted to the bar, but never practised. Mr. Adams, after having edited a Boston newspaper, and served in the legislature, was the candidate of the Free Soil party for the Vice-presidency in 1848. But Mr. Adams is best known by his diplomatic services at the same court where his father served so long. His conduct of delicate negotiations during the great civil war was such as to place him at the head of American diplomats. His services were recently required by our government in the negotiations at Geneva, arising from the Alabama and other claims. Mr. Adams married a daughter of Peter C. Brooks, a wealthy citizen of Boston. In this corner of the Common, and adjoining the Burying Ground on the east, were situated the hay-scales, after their removal from the corner of West Street, and also a gun-house; the latter was transferred, in 1826, to a location near the present Providence depot. It contained a laboratory, well furnished with warlike material. There was also a laboratory on Pleasant Street, between the corner of Boylston and Pfaff's Hotel, during the Revolution, on what is now called Park Square, and another, subsequently used by Frothingham, Wheeler, and Jacobs as a carriage factory, and seen in the frontispiece. The first manufacture of duck was begun by an incorporated company in Boston, about 1790. They erected buildings on a large lot in Boylston Street, at the corner of Tremont. In 1792 they were in the full tide of success, employing four hundred operatives, and turning out fifty pieces a week of excellent canvas. Here were manufactured the Constitution's sails, so that she was an American ship throughout, except in her armament. The manufacture of cotton began in New England as early as 1643, and calico printing was undertaken in Boston before 1794. OLD LOOM. During the war of 1812 a number of field-pieces belonging to the government were collected in this corner of the Common, and the city military took turns mounting guard over the park. The New England Guards, which were organized in 1812, performed their share of this duty, and several of the members, among whom was Abbott Lawrence, got their one hundred and sixty acres of land from the general government in requital for a certain term of service here, at the Charlestown Navy Yard, and at Noddle's Island. There were sixty-seven names on the muster-roll in 1814, and in 1859, after the lapse of nearly half a century, forty-three of the sixty-seven were still living, of whom a mere handful of aged men now survive. CHAPTER XI. A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON CONTINUED. Prescott. Common Burying-Ground. - Joshua Bates. — Public Garden. - Ropewalks. THE HE Common Burying-Ground has but little antiquity compared with the Chapel, Copp's Hill, or Granary Cemeteries. It was opened after these in 1756, and has, according to its changing relations with others, been called at various times the South and Central Ground. Under Mayor Armstrong, the Boylston Street Mall was carried across the foot of the Common, cutting off some of the tombs on that side of the graveyard. The owners of the vaults resisted the invasion of the sacred dust, but the improvement was accomplished by which Beacon and Tremont Street Malls were connected. Unsupported tradition has given to the Common Ground the credit of being first used for negro burials, but we find no better evidence of this than that some very thick skulls were dug up at a considerable depth from the surface. It is known, however, that this was the sepulchre of such of the common soldiers as died from disease during the British occupation, and of those who died from their wounds received at Bunker Hill. They were buried in a common trench, according to military custom, and many of the remains were exhumed when the excavations were proceeding at the northwest corner of the yard. |