40 BANQUET TO THE 



oldest mllitar}'- organization of the Republic of 

 the United States, The Ancient and Honorable 

 Artillery Company. 



This ancient and well-styled "Honorable" com- 

 pany of citizen-soldiers was incorporated in 1638, 

 eight years after the settlement of Boston, and has 

 continued two hundred and forty-five years in unin- 

 terrupted and meritorious service. During Shays's 

 Rebellion, the Governor and other officers of the 

 State often met the Ancients at Faneuil Hall in con- 

 sultation upon military affairs. The company has 

 had many illustrious commanders. Mr. Wilder was 

 the one hundred and fifty-fifth in regular succession, 

 elected in 1856. The volunteer militia of Massachu- 

 setts was not then honored as it has been at later 

 periods. In the discussion of the constitution, in 1853, 

 it was urged (not by reformers or non-resistants only, 

 but by eminent citizens of high rank in civil and mili- 

 tary service), that the militia should be organized for 

 police service only, and that no soldier in any case 

 should be required to leave the State except upon his 

 own consent, nor even then except to accompany the 

 Governor. At public celebrations, on national anni- 

 versaries, the best organized military companies were 

 assailed with burning words of scorn and derision. 

 A few years later, fewer than could have been antici- 

 pated at that time, Massachusetts had ordered one 

 hundred and fifty-three thousand of her troops to 



