Parks for the People Proceedings of a Public Meeting held at Faneuil Hall, June 7, 1876

Excerpt

Pursuant to a call published in all the daily papers, and signed by a large number of prominent citizens and tax-payers of Boston, a public meeting was convened in Faneuil Hall on the evening of Wednesday, the 7th of June, 1876, to take action on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Park Commissioners. The hall was crowded by an intelligent and enthusiastic audience; and the proceedings as reported verbatim in the columns of the "Boston Morning Journal," were as follows:—

The meeting was called to order at eight o'clock by Mr. John W. Candler, who said,—

Gentlemen,—As Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, I have been requested to call this meeting to order. It is usually the case, that, when a mass meeting of citizens is to be held, a great deal of labor has to be performed in preparing for and organizing the meeting. But I am glad to say, that, on this occasion, the important advantage of having a public almost entirely in our favor was enjoyed by the Committee. We found a strong and intelligent and deep-seated sentiment almost unanimous throughout the community, in favor of having the City Government take prompt and favorable action upon the report of the Park Commissioners. [Applause.] We found the community earnest and enthusiastic in the desire that a system of parks should be projected for the city of Boston, to insure the health, and to make certain and positive the prosperity, of our citizens in the future. The Committee had only to present the call or address through the press, which some of you have read, to find hundreds ready to indorse it; and the authorities had only to open wide the doors of Faneuil Hall to have the people throng here, as they have to-night, to manifest the sentiment which they feel so generally.

Gentlemen, we have with us to-night men of science, philanthropists, the representatives of the learned professions. We have the capitalist; we have the merchant; we have the mechanic; and we have the daily laborer, who toils from the rising to the setting sun,—we have them all here, to give out a voice to-night, expressing the opinions of the people, which can neither be misrepresented nor misunderstood. [Applause.]

It is not my duty, gentlemen, to make a speech. You have here this evening to address you, the representatives of every class, the best that can be afforded in any city, the leading men of the city of Boston in the different professions. It is only necessary, in the discharge of my duty, that I should read to you the names of the gentlemen whom you will be asked to elect as the officers of this meeting. They are as follows:—

PRESIDENT.

The Hon. JOSEPH S. ROPES.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Charles Francis Adams, William Amory, Richard Frothingham, Peter C. Brooks, Martin Brimmer, George C. Richardson, Benjamin F. Thomas, Edward S. Rand, Henry P. Kidder, Thomas J. Gargan, Eben D. Jordan, C. A. Richards, John C. Crowley, William B. Bacon, Aaron D. Williams, Charles F. Donnelly, Wm. W. Clapp, Benjamin Deane, Richard Olney, William Atherton, Thomas Gobin, William Endicott, jun., Albert Bowker, Daniel J. Sweeney, Patrick T. Jackson, R. M. Pulsifer, Roland Worthington, John G. Blake, M.D., J. H. Chadwick, Lewis Coleman.

SECRETARIES.

HAMILTON A. HILL.      WILLIAM E. PERKINS.

The list of names was unanimously approved; and the announcement of the election of the gentlemen named therein was received with applause.

Mr. Candler continued, I have the honor of introducing to you Joseph S....