58 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



If the western end of the State was willing to lead off in 

 trying an experiment, no doubt the east and the centre 

 took pleasure in the fact, with a purpose to copy, should the 

 experiment prove successful. That it was an experiment 

 sufficiently appears in the accounts given by Mr. Watson 

 himself of it, and of his tremulous apprehension lest cer- 

 tain phases of the enterprise should fail of popular approv- 

 al and support. Although such shows in England, guided 

 .and patronized by dukes and earls, and perhaps princes of 

 the royal blood, had been successful, it did not necessarily 

 follow that the results would be the same in dealing with 

 the plain farmers of Massachusetts. One bent on finding 

 something hidden or disguised in the motives to action or 

 non-action on the part of the trustees of the Massachusetts 

 .society might better, perhaps, search in another direction. 

 In its early history the society had prejudices enough to 

 overcome, and epithets enough to endure without exposing 

 itself, needlessly, to the embarassment of the one or the 

 other. The proposal to give a cattle show was first made 

 to its trustees, and discussed by them, in 1801. Amidst the 

 hot politics that raged, during the following decade, it may 

 have been apprehended that any step, of the kind proposed, 

 would be declaimed about as an attempt to introduce "a 

 monarchical institution.' 7 But after the republican farmers 

 of Berkshire had set the example, that fear, if it had ex- 

 isted, ceased. 



The suggestion made in 1801 was that the show should 

 be given in Cambridge ; but when, in 1815, a decision was 

 arrived at, Brighton was chosen, as being already of fame 

 as a rendezvous for farmers at its cattle market, a fame 

 which dates as far back as 1775, when it was made the 

 headquarters, or place of assembling, of cattle and other 

 stores of the commissary department of Washington's 

 army, then besieging the town of Boston. The patriotic 

 associations of the place, though doubtless appreciated, had 

 no influence upon the decision of the trustees, but rather, 

 the fact that the premium cattle of the show would find 



