234 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL FESTIVAL. 



in all their majTnificence, I find '' the half had not 

 been told me." Oh, no, sir. The pen that de- 

 seribes that exhihition should he in the hands ol" a 

 Loupox, or a Downing, or ot" my too kind friend 

 (General Dearborn, or of one no less kind, your 

 own, Mr. President, if you will allow me so to 

 say, or of a Hovey, or my friend Breck, erewhile 

 Editor of the <>ood old New En<>;land Farmer. 



Not presuming tlien upon any attempt to do 

 justice to your fiuits and your flowers, might one 

 venture to allude, in their ahsence, to some of 

 your (Treat and good men, and hy great, understand 

 me, not to mean your successful politician — your 

 witty and clamorous demagogue, who may happen 

 sometimes to get even into the highest places, as 

 the crow may happen to light or be blown by a 

 gust of wind upon the eagle's nest; — no sir, when 

 I speak now of a great man, I mean a statesman, 

 sagacious and profound — animated through life by 

 a noble ambition to be useful to his country, to 

 illustrate it by his talents — to elucidate its inter- 

 csts, to preserve its honor, and to seek jts true 

 glory in the maintenance of its character for jus- 

 tice and peace ! — leaving popularity to follow or 

 stay behind, according to the po()ubir discernment 

 or popular caprice; and, trusting to the sometimes 

 truthlul, but someiimes very slow and apparently 

 very reluctant Hat of history! Sir, to sit for suelt 

 a sketch, feeble as it is, on whom should I call but 

 on Webster ! — "Black Dan, the great expound- 

 er," as we call him in the South. And then if re- 

 quired to go in search of an historian, — easily the 

 rirst of American, if not of all living historians, — 

 need we go beyond the gate? of your own city, and 

 whom should we name? — why Prescott to be 

 sure! And again will you allow me to name a 

 scholar, alike erudite and elegant — one who has 

 studied in their own tongues the literature, the in- 

 stitutions, and the philosophy of all civilized na- 

 tions of ancient and of modern times — one who has 

 risen, aye sir, in my humble esteem, risert from the 

 station of ambassador, even to the tirst court of all 

 Christendom, to a presidency — yes, sir, a presi- 

 dency for which, when attained — as it can only be 

 attained by knowledge and true worth — there can 

 be no mistake about qualifications. And who is 

 he? Sir, I need not beat longer about the bush — 

 the name of Everett is uppermost in the minds of 

 all who hear me. And though last not least, may 

 I refer to another of your good men as well as 

 great, though he too is absent; were it possible 

 for Bostonians to forget him, we here, your hon- 

 ored and delighted guests, would promptly call 

 upon you to be proud of one among the many, 

 whose hearts expand quite as fast as their self 

 earned and well-earned fortunes accumulate — one 

 who has the foresight to lay the foundations of his 

 bounty deep and strong, thai its seed may be scat- 

 tered as wide as the press can carry them, and as 

 its fruits endure as long as your own rocks of New 

 England. Sir, all unskillul as is the limner and 

 feeble the sketch, is there any need to underwrite 

 the portrait with the name of Abbott Law- 

 rence? 



Well sir — not daring to venture on a description 

 of your Horticultural exhibition, which we all 

 came to see; nor to portray in the colors they de- 



serve, a few among your many great and good 

 men, should I venture on the yet more dangerous 

 task of anything like an adequate expression of 

 what we strangers whom you have honored with 

 your welcome, must say when we go home, as 

 well as we can say of the yet more magnificent 

 display you have so wisel^^, if not so cunningly 

 contrived to get up of the Fair sex of old Massa- 

 chusetts! Ah no, Mr. President! you have in- 

 volved this humble advocate and worker at the 

 plough, the Loom and the Anvil, in difficulties deep 

 and wide enough already — that task must be left 

 to some much more finished scholar — some gentle- 

 man of acknowledged discrimination and tact, and 

 as it took a Leandeh and a Byron to swim the 

 Hellespont, your grateful guest must leave to such 

 eloquent orators as speaker Winthrop on your 

 right, and Mayor Quincy on your left, to essay 

 compliments worthy of such a choice collection of 

 ladies. May it not be indeed suspected without 

 prejudice to those who were left at home, that 

 every ladies' escort came here, like those who 

 came with other offerings, to contend far a premi- 

 um! I would that my friend Kennedy was here 

 at my elbow, to undertake what would be so con- 

 genial to his taste. And yet sir, I will venture to 

 ofl'er a sentiment, or a thought which may have 

 interest for you gentlemen in the character in 

 which we from abroad have the happiness to meet 

 you at your bidding — as Horticulturists, and some 

 application it may have for you Ladies: 



Tlie 'Nursery — in doors and out of doors It is Xhtre ilial 

 me;isniGs should be taken to secure good fruit— both here 

 and liereafier. 



The President said that among our guests we 

 are also favored by the presence of Mr. Downing, 

 the author of several standard works on gardening 

 and the rural arts. I propose — 



A J Downing, Esq: Abroad, Princes honor his name by 

 the pre*enlalion uf ■• Gold Medals". — at home, the sovereign 

 people lionor it, in many a lowly but tasteful cottage, and 

 praise it amid tlie quiet beauty of many a lovely land, 

 icape. 



Mr. Downing replied: 



Mr. President — I am, I assure you, much at a 

 loss to reply to these kind and flattering allusions. 

 I should be entirely at a loss, did I not feel that 

 they convey encomiums far beyond my deserts — 

 for I am not vain enough to appropriate such un- 

 locked for compliments. 



I look around me this evening sir, with mingled 

 feelings of pride and regret — pride, in the beauti- 

 ful exhibition of yesterday and to-day, as an Ame- 

 rican — regret in it as a New-Yorker. 



Year after year, we, cultivators of other states, 

 find ourselves (a little unwillingly, perhaps,) 

 drawn to these Bostcn shows, as to the acknowl- 

 edged court of 1- lora and Pomona — the great focus 

 of horticultural light in the United States. Why 

 it is that other cities, why especially that of New- 

 York, foremost in so many useful and beautiful 

 arts, should lag so far behind in this, I cannot 

 well understand. There is proof enough, all 

 around me here, that the Yankee spirit is the 

 spirit of all others to beget good fruits ; there is 

 proof enough, in all the annals of the fatherland, 

 that the Dutch love flowers, and gardens almost 



