INTRODUCTION

THE first step toward a formal recognition in his native town of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin was taken in the Massachusetts General Court on January 26, 1905, when a resolve was offered by Representative Joseph J. Leonard, of West Roxbury, for the appointment of a committee of five by the Governor to arrange for a proper celebration to be held in Boston, on January 17, 1906.

This resolve passed in due course its various stages in the Legislature and became a law by the approval of His Excellency William L. Douglas, Governor of the Commonwealth, May 1, 1905.

The appropriation which this resolve carried was made conditional on concurrent action and a like appropriation by the City Council of Boston. On October 9, 1905, Acting Mayor Daniel A. Whelton sent a message to the City Council recommending such action, which was promptly taken, in the form of an order authorizing the acting mayor to appoint five citizens of Boston to coöperate with the committee on the part of the Commonwealth in arranging for the celebration, and also making a suitable appropriation.

Under the authority thus given Governor Douglas, on September 13, 1905, appointed as the committee on the part of the Commonwealth:

The Hon. Samuel Abbott Green, the senior ex-mayor of Boston and the librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, chairman; Lindsay Swift, Esq., of the Boston Public Library; Patrick J. Guerin, Esq., secretary of the Franklin Typographical Society; C. B. Tillinghast, Esq., librarian of the State Library, and Edward H. Clement, Esq., editor of the Boston Evening Transcript.

October 28, 1905, Acting Mayor Whelton appointed as the committee on the part of the city of Boston:

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Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairman of the managers of the Franklin Fund, chairman; the Right Rev. Mgr. William Byrne, D.D., Vicar-General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston; James J. Phelan, Esq., of the firm of Hornblower & Weeks, and vice-president of the Federal Trust Company; Martin T. Joyce, Esq., president of the Central Labor Union of Boston, and Francis H. Manning, Esq., of the firm of Luce & Manning, wool merchants.

The joint committee met on November 4, 1905, at the State Library in the State House, which was thereafter its regular place of meeting, and organized by the choice of the Hon. Samuel A. Green as chairman, Lindsay Swift, Esq., as secretary, and James J. Phelan, Esq., as treasurer. Since it was apparent that there would be a large amount of clerical and detail work in preparing for the celebration, the committee, on November 8, engaged Mr. Edward S. Sears as assistant secretary.

Sub-committees on the observance of the day in the public schools (Messrs. Clement and Swift); on invitations (Messrs. Green, Pritchett, and Tillinghast); auditing committee (Messrs. Guerin and Manning); on reception and platform (Messrs. Manning, Guerin, and Joyce), were appointed at subsequent meetings of the full committee.

Symphony Hall was engaged as the place for holding the public exercises on the afternoon of January 17, 1906.

The sub-committee on invitations prepared a list, which the general committee ratified, comprising the names of resident officers of the United States government, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the county of Suffolk, and the city of Boston; members of Congress from Massachusetts; the General Court of Massachusetts, and the Boston City Council; the national and state judiciary; members of the principal state, city, and metropolitan boards and commissions; representative clergymen of various denominations; historical, patriotic, and literary societies; organizations representing the allied printing trades; institutions of learning; charitable and benevolent organizations; former governors of Massachusetts; former mayors of Boston; mayors of suburban cities; and men and women prominent in various fields of activity. Invitations were sent out in the following form:

THE JOINT COMMITTEE

APPOINTED BY THE

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

AND BY THE

CITY OF BOSTON

INVITES YOU TO ATTEND

THE EXERCISES

ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

AT SYMPHONY HALL, BOSTON, Wednesday, JANUARY 17, 1906

AT 2.30 P.M.

This invitation does not admit to the exercises, but a
ticket is necessary and can be secured by application
to the Committee not later than January 10, 1906.

In all, about eighteen hundred invitations were issued and about twelve hundred answers were received; and seats were assigned to all who accepted.

It was voted to invite the Franklin Typographical Society a body, as being especially representative of the craft to which Franklin was so devoted during his long and distinguished career. The entire first balcony, seating about six hundred, was placed at the disposal of this society. The second balcony was thrown open to the public without tickets.

Mr. Clement, chairman of the sub-committee on the observance of the day in the public schools, held several conferences with Mr. George H. Conley, the superintendent of schools; and with the musical director, other officers of the school department, and several members of the Boston School Committee. The outcome of these meetings was a cordial and unanimous vote by the School Committee, authorizing a hearty coöperation in the plans of the Franklin Bi-centennial Committee and the adoption of the suggestions of the latter body; and the furnishing of an admirable chorus of nearly two hundred pupils of the public schools and a remarkably efficient orchestra of forty-one pieces from the English High School, both of which organizations contributed largely to the success and enjoyment of the exercises in Symphony Hall.

Mr. Swift, the other member of the same sub-committee, prepared a pamphlet of sixteen pages, consisting of selections from Franklin's writings, which was liberally supplied to the schools and from which, on the morning of the anniversary, extracts were read in nearly all the high and grammar schools of the city.

The sudden and much lamented death of Superintendent Conley, on December 20, 1905, caused this committee deep regret, but did not interfere with the execution of the plans already formulated by the committee, under the instructions of Mr. Conley's temporary successor, Supervisor Walter S. Parker.

The general plan and scope of the commemorative exercises occupied the attention of the committee during its first few sessions, the details of the programme being reserved for later consideration. An ode or poem and an oration or a number of short addresses seemed indispensable. As poet of the occasion, the Hon. James Jeffrey Roche, former editor of The Pilot and now American consul at Genoa, Italy, was the natural first choice of every member of the committee. An invitation was sent to him by the secretary on the day of the second meeting of the committee, November 8, to prepare a poem to be read at Symphony Hall, and to designate some person whom he would wish to read it. On November 20 a cable message was received from Mr. Roche, accepting the invitation, and a few days later a confirmatory letter came, suggesting Dr. Lory Bacon Fenderson, of Boston, as reader. Dr. Fenderson courteously complied with the request of Mr. Roche and the committee to read the poem.

On November 27 it was voted to invite the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, president of Clark College, Worcester, to deliver the principal oration; to invite Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, chairman of the managers of the Franklin Fund, to prepare and read a concise history of that fund; and to invite the Governor and the Mayor to make brief remarks at Symphony Hall. It was voted that Ex-Mayor Green, chairman of the general committee should preside at these ceremonies.

The committee voted to request the Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D., as the lineal successor in the pastorate of the Old South Church to the Rev. Samuel Willard, who baptized Franklin on the very day