CITY OF BOSTON.

IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, July 6, 1874.

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to the Hon. Richard Frothingham, for the eloquent and patriotic oration, delivered by him, before the municipal authorities of Boston, on the ninety-eighth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a copy thereof for publication.

ORATION.

MR. MAYOR, GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL, FELLOWCITIZENS:

The annual town-meeting, held in Boston in 1783, voted "that the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence should be constantly celebrated by the delivery of a public oration, in which the orator shall consider the feelings, manners, and principles which led to this great national event, as well as the important and happy effects" that" shall forever continue to flow from it." From that time there has been a succession of utterances giving expression to the love and veneration in which successive generations on this historic soil hold the memory of the sages and heroes of the Revolution. The men of Boston of that era, by their unswerving devotion to principle, won the admiration of their brethren in all the colonies, and the gratitude of posterity.

We meet to-day, not as citizens of a town, or of a city, or of a State, but as Americans. From the time of the morning guns and bells to eventide, when the sky is brilliant with illuminations, the thought is fixed

on the country. What a spectacle of progress it has presented, as the three millions who began the national life with the aim of planting here the seeds of Christian civilization, grew to forty millions! Commonwealth after commonwealth rose and took their places by the side of the thirteen original States, and thus as co-equals entered into the great inheritance of liberty and law,—each, by planting the school and the church, aiming to keep active those safeguards of our institutions, public education and religion. Boston presents a type of this progress. Its population was but sixteen thousand when it did the great service in behalf of the principles of the Revolution; a population of three hundred and seventy-five thousand rejoices in the happy effects that flowed from the triumph. To-day, with the addition of Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, and Roxbury, there may be said to be a new Boston. Hence, the community dwelling in the beautiful natural scenery in which Joseph Warren was born, the communities around Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall, join now, for the first time, to celebrate the glorious Fourth. As their famed "Committees of Correspondence" met of old in council to promote the cause of liberty and union, so may their descendants be ever ready to stand forth in their defence.

The work of to-day is a work of peace. Boston is

growing. On every side we see life and vigor. The way in which enterprise is covering with solid structures the recent desolation by fire, and the activity in the marts of trade, show how alive business men are to their opportunities. May the inhabitants of the places recently incorporated with Boston catch something of the spirit of the original town, and become sensitive to its interests and honor. Unquestionably it is destined to be a great city. There cannot be a wiser policy than to take every step with such a future in view. Indeed, nothing is surer than a continuous growth of Boston, because nothing is surer than that its priceless privileges, its noble educational and charitable activities, its commerce and its arts, will ever have, what is essential to them, the protective shield of a great nation.

We are here to celebrate the day in which the birth of the nation was announced to the world. The Saxon, the Celt and the Norman, the Scot, the Swede and the Huguenot came here, encountered the hardships of the wilderness, and began a new civilization. They brought with them old ideas and principles; but here they assumed a significance they never had before. They brought here the Christian idea of man; on it they built their superstructure, and the individual took his proper place in the political system. They brought with them the idea of the municipality; but in their hands this primordial political unit be