AMERICAN ELM. .-,il7 
in August, 1775. One Job Williams was the leader of the party that accom- 
plished the feat, leaving nothing but the stump above ground the root they could 
not touch. One of their comrades lost his life by accident on the occasion. 
This tree had been planted one hundred and twenty-nine years, (according to the 
Pemberton MSS.) ' in 1646, and bore the first fruits of Liberty in America.' \\ e 
are informed by an old and reputable inhabitant, who was present at the tin. 
that the tree when cut, made fourteen cords of wood." < 
The Liberty tree at Providence, in Rhode Island, was also an elm. and stood 
in Olney's Lane, in front of a house formerly occupied as a tavern. It is said to 
have been remarkable for its size, and served as a point of reference to strangers 
when they arrived in the place. This elm was dedicated to the " Sons of I liberty" 
on Monday, July 25th, 1768, when a great concourse of people had assembled, 
and an animated discourse was delivered from the summer-house in the tr< e, by 
Mr. Silas Downer, a member of the bar. The people placing their hands on the 
tree, he pronounced aloud the following words : "We do. in the name and behalf 
of all the true sons of liberty in America, Great Britain, Ireland. Corsica, or 
wheresoever they may be dispersed throughout the world, dedicate this tree of 
liberty. May all our counsels and deliberations, under its venerable branches be 
guided by wisdom and directed for the support and maintenance of that liberty 
which our forefathers sought out and found under the trees in the wilderness; 
may it long flourish, and may the sons of liberty often repair hither to confirm 
and strengthen each other. When they look toward this sacred elm, may they 
be penetrated with a sense of their duty to themselves and their posterity, and 
may they, like the house of David, grow stronger, while their enemies, like the 
house of Saul, shall grow weaker and weaker Amen." 
TREES OF FRIENDSHIP. 
In the town of Natick, in Massachusetts, in front of the residence of the Rev. 
Mr. Peabody, successor to the Apostle Eliot, near the site of the old Indian 
meeting house, there formerly stood two stately elms, which were planted in 
about the year 1722. It is related by Mr. John Welles, that a deputation of In- 
dians came to their newly-settled minister, bearing these trees upon their shoul- 
ders, requesting permission to plant them out before his door, as a mark of their 
regard, or as the "Tree of Friendship." These trees, it is said, flourished for 
about ninety years, when the larger one was struck by lightning, and soon 
after died. The other shortly after began to decline, and subsequently fell into 
a state of decay. The girth of these trees, at a foot above the ground, was 
twenty-one feet, having acquired an annual increase of trunk of about nine- 
tenths of an inch. 
In the year 1752, Mr. Peabody died, and the year following, he was succ< 
by Rev. Stephen Badger, who, on taking up his residence in that vi.inny. was 
soon after visited by some 'Indians of the same tribe, with the request that they 
might also plant the "Tree of Friendship" before Ins door. The request was 
granted, and two elm trees were planted, which are still standing, in lull vigour 
having attained about the same dimensions as those planted m 1 i 22. 
THE GREAT ELM IN BOSTON. 
The noble elm, which stands so conspicuously near the centre of the Common, 
in Boston, and which adds so much to the picturesque beauty of those public 
grounds, is much revered by the citizens, and usually attiacts the adm.ration and 
* Boston News-Letter and City Record, Edited by Dr. Jerome v. C. Smith L p. 19. 
