A MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND CITY.OF BOSTON, DURING TWO CENTURIES. FROM SEPTEMBER 17, 1630, TO SEPTEMBER 17, 1830. BY JOSIAH QUINCY. BOSTON: CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 1852. A us 13171.5.9 B St. + HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF JUNE 28, 1938 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by JOSIAH QUINCY, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE THE municipal affairs of the inhabitants of Boston were conducted under the form of town government, established by the early settlers of New England, from 1630 to 1822, when, on their petition, they were incorporated into a city by the Legislature of Massachusetts. Through eight succeeding years, three successive administrations presided over the new form of government thus established. The author of this history held the office of Mayor during almost six of these years, at a period when the principles, by which legislative and executive measures ought to be guided, were diligently sought and carefully applied, according to the powers conferred by the city charter. The people of Boston had surrendered, with reluctance, the management of their municipal concerns, which they had maintained in popular assemblies for nearly two centuries; and the jealousy with which they watched the measures of the new authorities, rendered a frequent and full development of motives and consequences expedient and important. At the close of his administration, it therefore appeared to the author, that a municipal history of the town, and an accurate account of the transactions in the first years of the city government, would be useful and interesting to the public in future times, and was due to the wisdom, fidelity, and disinterested services of his associates. These views were intimated in an address to the Board of Aldermen, on taking final leave of the office of Mayor, on the third of January, 1829; and on the sixth, on his petition, the succeeding City Council having granted liberty of access to the City Records, this History was commenced. The completion of it was unavoidably postponed by the acceptance of the Presidency of Harvard University, an appointment made and confirmed by the Corporation and Overseers of that Seminary, on the fifteenth and twentyninth of the same month, and by the official duties assumed and discharged until August, 1845. After the lapse of twenty years, at the urgency of friends who had a right to influence, the work was resumed; and, being finished, is now, at the close of the author's eightieth year, offered to his fellow-citizens, with his best wishes for their long enjoyment of an efficient municipal government, and for the uninterrupted prosperity of the city of Boston. JOSIAH QUINCY. BOSTON, February 4, 1852. |