198 C. F. Adatns you to-day in the history of your own state of Wisconsin, or in the magic record relating to the dev'elopment of what we see fit to call the Northwest. Indeed I am not here as an individual at all ; nor as one in any way specially qualified to do justice to the occasion. I am here simply as the head for the time being of what is unques- tionably the oldest historical society in America, and, if reference is made to societies organized exclusively for the preservation of his- torical material and the furtherance of historical research, one than which few indeed anywhere in existence are more ancient of years. As the head of the Massachusetts Historical Society, I have been summoned to contribute what I may in honor of the completion of this edifice, the future home of a similar society, already no longer young ; — a society grown up in a country which, when the Massachusetts institution was formed, was yet the home of aboriginal tribes, — a forest-clad region known only to the frontiers- man and explorer. Under such circumstances, I did not feel that I had a right not to answer the call. It was as if in our older Massa- chusetts time the pastor of the Plymouth, or of the Salem or Boston church had been invited to the gathering of some new brotherhood in the Connecticut Valley, or the lighting of another candle of the Lord on the Concord or the Nashua, there to preach the sermon of ordination and extend the right hand of fellowship. And in this connection let me here mention one somewhat recondite historical circumstance relating to this locality. You here may be more curiously informed, but few indeed in Massa- chusetts are to-day knowing of the fact that this portion of Wis- consin — Madison itself, and all the adjoining counties — was once, territorially, a part of the royally assigned limits of Massachusetts. Yet such was undisputably the fact ; and it lends a certain propriety, not the less poetic because remote, to my acceptance of the part here to-day assigned me. Accepting that part, I none the less, as I have said, propose to break away from what is the usage in such cases. That usage, if I may have recourse to an old theological formula, is to improve the occasion historically. An address, erudite and bristling with sta- tistics, would now be in order. An address in which the gradual growth of the community or the institution should be developed, and its present condition set forth ; with suitable reference to the days of small things, and a tribute of gratitude to the founders, and those who patiently built their lives into the edifice, and made of it their monument. The names of all such should, I agree, be cut deep over its portico ; but this task, eminently proper on such occa- sions, I, a stranger, shall not undertake here and now to perform.
