THE DAY.

Our Forefathers. May the blessings purchased by their perseverance, sufferings and toils, enkindle a flame of gratitude in the bosoms of their descendants, that shall be extinguished only by the last beat of their hearts.

The antient town of Plymouth. May every view of the consecrated rock, excite in its inhabitants, an emulation of the enterprize and industry of the first settlers.

The venerable Sachem MASSASOIT, whose unshaken adherence to treaties, forms a dignified contrast, to the "punic faith" of modern Frenchmen.

song, (written by a Citizen of Philadelphia) to the tune of the "President's March.” Will be sung by Mr. Fox; accompanied by the full band, and a grand chorus (p. 3/1).

In the same paper of April 27 we read:

...

NEW THEATRE. MRS. FRANCIS's Night. THIS EVENING, April 27, Will be presented a new Comedy, . . . called TIT FOR TAT. . . . In the course of the Comedy Mr. Fox will, for the second time and by particular desire, sing a new Song (written by a Citizen of Philadelphia) to the tune of the PRESIDENT's MARCH (p. 3/3).

Under the title of "SONG," the words were printed in the same paper of Satur-" day, April 28 (p. 1/2), and in the same issue it was stated that "On Monday afternoon will be published At Carr's Musical Repository, The very favourite New Federal Song As sung by Mr. Fox at the New Theatre, written by J. Hopkinson, Esq adapted for the voice, piano forte, flute, violin, guittar and clarinet, and ornamented with a very elegant Portrait of the President Price 25 cents" (p. 2/2). Under the title of "NEW SONG," Hail Columbia was printed in the Columbian Centinel of May 2, preceded by this note: "The following has been sung on the boards of Philadelphia. Every man of the least musical talents, ought to learn it, and sing it to his fellow citizens" (p. 3/1).

The following advertisement appeared in the Columbian Centinel of Wednesday, May 30, 1798:

Adams and Liberty. ON FRIDAY Morning will be published from the press of THOMAS and ANDREWS, and sold at all the Book-stores, The BOSTON PATRIOTIC SONG, Called, ADAMS & LIBERTY. Written by THOMAS PAINE, A. M. To be sung at the Anniversary Meeting of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, on that day (p. 3/2).

The same paper of June 2 stated:

CHARITABLE FIRE SOCIETY. Yesterday, at the Anniversary of the Charitable Fire Society, an excellent and well adapted Oration was delivered by Judge TUDOR, to the most numerous and brilliant Assembly we have seen on any similar occasion. The Boston patriotic song of "ADAMS and LIBERTY," written by Mr. PAINE, was sung and re-echoed amidst the loudest reiterated plaudits. Dr. FAY did great justice to its merits (p. 2/4).

In the same paper of June 2 (p. 3/2) Mr. Barrett announced that he would sing the song at his benefit on June 4, and it was printed in the same paper of June 9 (p. 1/3). Dr. Nahum Fay (H. C. 1790) and Giles Leonard Barrett are the persons alluded to.

Success to the Fisheries, and unfading laurels to the able negociators, who secured to the United States this incalculable source of wealth, and nursery of

seamen.

Governor SUMNER. May his Administration be as wise and pure, and his memory as lasting and precious, as the first Governor of the Old Colony.

The memory of Dr. JEREMY BELKNAP. May some future Biographer, render that justice to his exalted merit, which his masterly historic pages, have done to our illustrious ancestors.

Congress. May it be purged from the unblushing perfidy of Mason,1 and the polluted saliva of Lyon.2

The warm political feelings of the time were hinted at by the Plymothean who wrote the account of the 1797 celebration. The main exercises of the day were always conducted with dignity at Plymouth, but the informal entertainments which followed afforded opportunities for the display of partizanship which were not neglected; and the toasts offered in 1798 drew from a Boston newspaper the following criticism:

THE CELEBRATION OF OUR FOREFATHERS

AT PLYMOUTH

By their truly pious and worthy Minister and others of the primitive stamp as to Religion and Politics (as given in Saturday's Centinel) does real honor to the memory of their departed worthies. The doings of some Federalists of the modern stamp after Dinner, is a melancholy discovery that in Plymouth as well as Boston, there are too many of their Posterity who dishonor them by their sentiments and practises, and are melancholy evidences that they are indeed the DEGENERATE Plants of a NOBLE VINE.3

The Rev. Chandler Robbins died in 1799 and was succeeded by the Rev. James Kendall, who was ordained on January 1, 1800. Hence in 1799 "The day was so near that appointed for the ordination of the Rev. Mr. KENDALL, that it was not celebrated by a public

1 Stevens Thomson Mason, United States Senator from Virginia; Matthew Lyon, Member of Congress from Vermont. The following toast was offered at the celebration of Washington's birthday at Concert Hall: "May the Lion of the Green Mountains be considered by every good citizen as the meanest reptile in creation: the pismire of America" (Columbian Centinel, February 24, 1798, p. 2/4).

2 Columbian Centinel, January 5, 1799, p. 1/3.

• Independent Chronicle, January 7, 1799, p. 3/2.

discourse; nor, apparently, by a private meeting. Of the celebration in 1800, we read:

FEAST

OF THE "SONS OF THE PILGRIMS” AT

PLYMOUTH.

Plymouth, Dec. 24, 1800.

THE

HE anniversary of the first landing of our Fore-fathers in this town, which forms a distinguished era in the history of our country, was celebrated on the 22d instant, in a manner worthy the interesting occasion. . .

When assembled in the sanctuary, the Rev. Mr. KENDALL, introduced the exercises, with an appropriate prayer, . . . After singing an ode, composed for the celebration, by a gentleman of the town, who has taken deep draughts at the "castalian fount;" JOHN DAvis Esq. delivered a discourse, in which with his accustomed ability and delicacy, he traced the heaven born Pilgrims, through the immense toils, hardships and perils, they were compelled to conflict with, from debilitating scarcity, and pestilential disease, from the rage of the elements, and the desolating sword of the wilderness, from the first impression of their feet, on the shores of this new world, until their settlement assumed the face of security, and in a natural as well as moral sense, "the wilderness blossomed as the rose." In fact, this discourse, will be a valuable acquisition as a picturesque and correct historical epitome, of one of the most stupendous enterprizes, recorded in the annals of time, and effected by a set of worthies, who exhibited a hardihood of character, and a dignified christian philanthropy, unknown in the systems, or to the feelings, of infidel philosophers.

The services concluding, with another ode, sung on former similar occasions; a very large number of the inhabitants of Plymouth, with strangers of the first distinction, both of the clergy and laity, met at Mr. Wetherell's and were richly regaled, from a table plentifully furnished, . . .

1 T. M. Harris's Discourse (1808), p. 32.

This word appeared for the first time at Plymouth in the oration delivered that day by Judge Davis, who said: "Driven by storms, or deceived by their ship master, instead of their place of destination, this spot is selected for settlement, and this day completes one hundred and eighty years, since your soil was first impressed by the weary feet of those illustrious pilgrims" (in J. Morse and E. Parish, Compendious History of New England, 1804, p. 375).

After this congenial entertainment, the following toasts were drank by the company with great cordiality. . .

The memory of the governors Carver, Winslow, Prince and Bradford. In whom were eminently combined, the suavity of a Sumner, the intelligence of a Bowdoin, the fortitude of a Trumbull, and the energy of a Gilman.1

The memory of the intrepid Captain MILES STANDISH, who, by his active vigilance, in shielding the illustrious Pilgrims, from the remorseless tomahawk, merited, like Lincoln the appellation of the christian hero.

...

The Boston pilgrim society. Descended from the same renowned origin, may no other emulation be known, than a solicitude of superior excellence.

Toasts were also drunk to John Adams, Governor Strong, Massasoit, Uncas, the memory of Dr. Belknap; and "A splendid ball in the evening, in which the ladies, brightened by their charms, the scene of hilarity, closed the celebration; and perfect decency and rational enjoyment were the order of the day." 4

In 1801 an interesting piece of pageantry5 was performed:

1 Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts; James Bowdoin, Governor of Massachusetts; Jonathan Trumbull (H. C. 1759), Governor of Connecticut; John Taylor Gilman, Governor of New Hampshire.

2 Presumably the reference is to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.

Though called the "Boston pilgrim society," I do not understand that those who celebrated Forefathers' Day in Boston had a regular organization.

• Columbian Centinel, December 31, 1800, p. 1.

In a book just published Ralph Davol says:

A procession through the streets of floats, on which historic occasions are rigidly impersonated by "live people trying to look like dead ones," is commonly called a pageant in America, for example at Philadelphia, or the HudsonFulton celebration. . . . Research as to the beginning of modern American Pageants indicates that the spirit was manifest as early as 1627 at the Merry Mount revels. The Meschianza given by British soldiers at Philadelphia in the Revolution was an old English pageant. The first use of the name "pageant" the writer has been able to find applied to a community festival in America was at Marietta, Ohio, (1888). This was before modern pageants became the rage in England (Handbook of American Pageantry, 1914, pp. 27, 31).

Mr. Davol does not say when the procession of floats at Philadelphia took place, but perhaps he refers to the one that occurred there on July 4, 1788, of which a description, beginning as follows, will be found in the Columbian Magazine for July, 1788:

N Friday the fourth day of July, 1788, the citizens of Philadelphia, in

honour of the ratification of the FEDERAL CONSTITUTION by TEN of the UNITED STATES, presented the most brilliant and interesting spectacle that ever occurred in the annals of the new world, and which has scarcely been surpassed by

Plymouth, Dec. 25.

The anniversary of the landing of our ancestors, at Plymouth, was celebrated here on the 22d inst. with filial piety, and affectionate regard. The usual procession was formed, headed by the public officers, and consisting of the inhabitants of all ages, with many gentlemen of distinction from the vicinity, preceded by Capt. TURNER'S independent company, in complete uniform; and making a circuit round the town, escorted the officiating clergyman, accompanied by several of his respectable brethren, to the meeting-house of the Rev. Mr. KENDALL. After a solemn address to Heaven, and singing an appropriate ode, the Rev. Mr. ALLYNE, of Duxborough, in a well chosen discourse, delighted a crouded audience, by pourtraying with great energy of illustration, the exalted character of the Pilgrims, . . . The solemnities of public worship being ended, the gentlemen were sumptuously regaled with all the varieties of fish and wild meat the climate affords at this season, at Old Colony, and Freedom Halls; no one room being spacious enough to accommodate the whole company. After dinner, the following toasts were drank at Old Colony Hall:

the splendor of the ancient or modern triumphs of Asia or of Europe (ii. 391400).

Fifty-eight trades and professions were represented, and "The number of persons in the procession has been calculated (but we think too low) at 5000, and it is likewise said that there were about 17,000 on Union Green" (ii. 400). This, however, was not the earliest procession of the sort. The Federal Constitution was ratified by the Massachusetts Convention on February 6, 1788, and on February 8th a huge procession of trades took place in Boston. This, declared the Massachusetts Centinel of February 9th, was "an exhibition, to which America has never witnessed an equal; and which has exceeded any thing of the kind, Europe can boast of" (viii. 169. See also the issue of February 13th, viii. 174). "The Processions in our Capitals," said the Massachusetts Spy of August 7, 1788, "have hitherto been novelties in this country. That at Boston, on account of the State's adopting the Federal Constitution, was the first - since which almost every capital town in the United States, among other demonstrations of joy for the Federal Constitution, have produced a Procession" (p. 1/4).

The word "pageant," which Mr. Davol has not found in this country earlier than 1888, was employed in a somewhat unexpected quarter in 1852, when Lieutenant John W. Gunnison described under that name the dedication by the Mormons of their temple at Nauvoo just before being driven from that place in 1846, and "the presentation" at Salt Lake City, a few years later, "to the governor of Deserét of the Constitution of the United States, and their own, for his and his successors' guardian care" (The Mormons, or, Latter-Day Saints, pp. 132, 138). The word also occurs, applied to celebrations on Pope Night, as early as 1752 (Massachusetts Archives, xlvii. 357).