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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 
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City Document—No. 22. 


ADDRESS 


OF 


WILLIAM ELLISON, ESQ., 


BEFORE THE 


Common Council of the City of Roxbury, 


DECEMBER 31, 1855. 


ROXBURY: 
PRINTED POR THE CITY COUNCIL. 
1855. 


The Common CounciL oF THE City oF Roxsury for the 
year 1855, held their last session on Monday evening, Dec. 31. 
After the business of the evening had been disposed of, Henry P. 
Shed, Esq. of Ward 5, rose and offered the following resolution : 


Resolved, That the thanks of this Council be extended to 
WiuuiaM Eiison, Hsq., for the able, impartial and dignified 
manner in which he has, during our sessions of the past year, 


discharged his duties as President of the Council. 


Remarks of an eloquent and appropriate character were made 
by Jos. W. Robbins and Jas. W. Cushing, Esqs. of Ward 9, 
and Franklin Williams, Esq. of Ward 1, heartily endorsing the 
resolution; after which the vote of thanks was unanimously 
passed. 

The President of the Council then addressed the members in 


the following speech. 


ed dU Abistysitol 


GENTLEMEN OF THE Common CoUNCIL,— 


T HARDLY dare trust myself to the task of an extemporaneous 
reply to the personal, but undeserved compliment contained in 
the resolution you have this moment so unanimously passed. My 
own full heart, full at this moment to overflowing, would prompt me 
to cull the choicest flowers of language and of eloquence, had I the 
power, and present them a free-will offering for your kind accept- 
ance. But do we not all know, Gentlemen, how poorly eloquence 
of words translates the gratitude of those inward emotions, which, 
like some pent up Utica, seem confined within us. Your own 
lundly feelings I know will prompt you to accept an unstudied 
reply that comes warm and gushing from the inward man. 

Gentlemen, we have been associated together, for the year that 
is just expiring, in our capacity as legislators for this goodly City 
of Roxbury ; but a few sands are yet to fall and the present City 
Government will have passed into history. I trust that we may all 
of us be enabled to look back upon that page of the past, that records 
our official acts, with that inward satisfaction that arises from the 
consciousness of having done our duty, and of having employed 
our talent for the benefit and the welfare of an enlightened con- 
stituency. 


4 CITY DOCUMENT.—No. 22. 


Gentlemen, our labors here have in truth and in deed been 
labors of love. Within this pleasant circle we have passed many 
social and agreeable evenings, cultivating the friendship and re- 
spect and esteem of each other. Now where so much harmony 
and good feeling has always prevailed, our official actions cannot 
be otherwise than acceptable and profitable to our constituents. 
Gentlemen, the present City Government has been largely indoc- 
trinated with the spirit of Young America. It has pushed from 
their stools the ghosts of old antecedents, and has infused a re- 
form element into the political history of Roxbury that our suc- 
cessors need not fear to encounter. 

The improvements that have been made around us, are of such 
a character that no citizen need ask to have them pointed out. 
They are seen and known and recognized by every one who walks 
the streets of our fair city. They present themselves in widened 
thoroughfares and well laid sidewalks; and over the Egyptian 
darkness that has always hung like a midnight pall over the city, 
we have now well-lighted streets, cheering the pedestrian whose 
business or whose pleasure prevents him from an early return to 
his home. | 

I think, Gentlemen, it may very properly be said of a well- 
lighted city, that it ‘hangs upon the cheek of night, like a rich 
jewel in an Ethiop’s ear.” But, Gentlemen, we cannot but be 
admonished by the political separation which is soon to part us, 
that a new administration is soon to occupy the positions we now 
occupy. To that new administration let us, like good citizens, 
extend the right hand of fellowship and bic '>em God speed in all 
their efforts to advance the welfare and pre.,crity of our common 
interests. These political changes cannot but bring forcibly to 
our minds that important and wholesome truth, that the rulers 
and the ruled are separated only by temporary barriers. 


ADDRESS OF MR. ELLISON. 5 


The recent municipal elections, both in this city and in our 
neighboring City of Boston, have failed to shake my confidence in 
the ultimate triumph of a true Americanism. ‘The platform of 
1844, that platform upon which my first political American offer- 
ing was laid, had but two planks,—an extension of the naturaliza- 
tion laws of the United States, and the national doctrine that 
none but Americans should rule America. That platform is 
broad enough and national enough, at the present day, to uphold 
every true hearted American, who is willing “‘ to march under the 
flag and keep step to the music of the Union.” I have a strong 
and an abiding faith and belief, that the American party is yet 
destined to act an important national part in the administration 
of national affairs. Until that, no distant day, let us, as a party, 


> and in the meantime let us 


be content to “ wait for the wagon,’ 
burnish yet brighter our armor for the great national political 
conflict in which we are to engage. 

But, Gentlemen, permit me, at the risk of still trespassing upon 
your indulgence, to make a few brief remarks more personal to 
myself and to you. My labors in this exalted and important po- 
sition, from which I am about to retire, have been made pleasant 
and easy and agreeable, by your unvarying kindness and indul- 
gence to any errors of judgment I may have committed, or to 
any short comings in wisdom and ability ; and if, in retirmg from 
this chair, I may be allowed to put off the harness of office, with- 
out leaving behind me any of those unpleasant remembrances that 
service in official capacity so often engenders, I shall be more 
than amply comperssted for any personal sacrifices that I may 
have been called « ,emake. 

But, Gentlemen, allow me to assure you that all your manifold 
acts of kindness are registered upon that “tablet of memory 
where every day I shall turn the leaf to read the account.” 


6 CITY DOCUMENT.—No. 22. 


Amid the shifting scenes and uncertainties of life, it could hardly 
be expected that even our little circle should be entirely exempt 
during the past year from the common lot of mortality ; but by 
the blessings and the bounty of a Divine Providence, we, who 
entered upon our political labors at the commencement of the 
present year, are now found at its close in the enjoyment of ap- 
parent good health, if not all of us in the enjoyment of prosperity. 
To that Giver of every good gift, who watches over governments 
as well as individuals, let us return our silent, but sincere and 
heartfelt thanks, and may we all be so prepared, that “ when our 
summons comes to join the innumerable caravan, that moves to 
that mysterious realm, where each shall take his chamber in the 
silent halls of death, that we go not like the quarry slave at night, 
scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed by an unfal- 
tering trust, may we approach the grave like one who wraps the 
drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant 
dreams.” 

Gentlemen, allow me to tender to you my best wishes for your 


individual happimess and prosperity. 


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