This is part of a series on Lafayette’s visit to Massachusetts August 23, 1824 to September 3 1824.
August 30, 1824 was Lafayette’s last full day in Boston until his return nearly a year later. He had already stayed an extra day to witness the militia demonstrations on the Common on August 30. Despite being pressed for time he consented to visit Portsmouth NH on September 1 stopping in several towns along the way. Mayor Quincy had made arrangements for his accommodations and meals to assure that he would be back in Boston by noon on September 2 to start his trip back to New York. Somehow it all worked out thanks to an all-night carriage ride on the night of the first through the morning of the second.
As the General rose early on the morning of August 31 he was starting on a long and busy day with some difficult weather ahead. We should note that the times in the historic accounts are necessarily imprecise and would have been local rather than based on a time zone. Most significantly there was no daylight savings time. Nonetheless, I have left them as they appeared in the sources.
Lafayette’s escort included Mayor Quincy, the governor’s aide de camp Colonel Colden and a troop of cavalry.
Josiah Quincy
When Lafayette arrived at the high ground at Chelsea he was met by the whole population of the village. A salute of artillery announced his arrival. The Mechanic Light Infantry Company of Salem was there to honor him. Revered Joseph Tuckerman of the First Church of Chelsea Mass addressed him
“BELOVED GENERAL – The inhabitants of Chelsea will detain you but for a moment, to express the joy and gratitude with which your presence inspires them. We thank you for your sacrifices in our cause; and we thank God, who made you to be an instrument of so much good for us. Your visit to our country will give new strength to the institutions, for which under God we are essentially indebted to your services. Its influence will be felt through the civilized world, and it will advance the cause of human liberty and happiness. Yours, Sir, is a triumph of moral, and of Christian feeling. History has but one page, on which it has recorded a similar triumph; and that is the page, on which is inscribed the progress of WASHINGTON through our States. May God, who made you so early in your life to be a distinguished benefactor of our nation, and who has preserved you to see the matured fruit of your toils, in the establishment here of the freest institutions on earth, have you in his holy keeping, and crown you with choicest blessings! And, when your course of virtue and of glory shall be finished here, may your reward be made perfect and eternal.”
Lafayette replied:
SIR-I give to you, and to those in whose name you address me, my affectionate thanks. I rejoice to see the happiness that everywhere surrounds me; and I wish all possible prosperity to the inhabitants of this place.
Joseph Tuckerman
Reverend Joseph Tuckerman (1778-1840) graduated from Harvard in 1798 in the same class as William Ellery Channing. Tuckerman became the pastor of First Church of Chelsea Mass in 1801 and remained there till 1826. In 1826 he moved to Boston where he began a Ministry at Large to serve the poor. This new sort of ministry had a profound effect. Author Janeen K Grohsmeyer wrote about him on the Unitarian Universalist Association website:
“Joseph Tuckerman died in 1840, when he was 62 years old. But his social service lives on. Boston still has the Ben Frat, though it’s now called the UU Urban Ministry. And Joseph Tuckerman’s ideas—of treating everyone with respect, of seeing alcoholism as a disease instead of a sin, and of accepting our responsibility to stop poverty—are shared and acted on by people all around the world. Unitarian Universalists have placed his ideas in our seven Principles, and we still remember and honor the Unitarian minister Joseph Tuckerman for the way he made service his law.”
For information on the bicentennial of Lafayette’s tour check out lafayette200.org.