The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 5, May, 1884 | Page 9

civilization.
President Arthur's administration has been characterized by an elevated
tone at home and abroad. All important questions have been carefully
discussed at the council table, at which the President has displayed
unusual powers of analysis and comprehension. The conflicting claims
of applicants for appointments to offices in his gift, have been carefully
weighed, and no action has been taken until all parties interested have
had a hearing. The President has a remarkable insight into men,
promptly estimating character with an accuracy that makes it a difficult
matter to deceive him, or to win his favor either for visionary schemes,
corrupt attacks upon the treasury, or incompetent place-hunters. He has
shown that he has been guided by a wise experience of the past, and a
sagacious foresight of the future, exhibiting sacrifices of individual
friendship to a sense of public duty.
Possessing moral firmness and a just self-reliance, President Arthur did
not hesitate about vetoing the "Chinese Bill" and the "Bill making

appropriations for rivers and harbors" for reasons which he laid before
Congress in his veto messages. The wisdom and sagacity which he has
displayed in his management of national affairs has been especially
acceptable to the business interests of the country. They have tested his
administration by business principles, and they feel that, so long as he
firmly grasps the helm of the ship of state, she will pursue a course of
peace and prosperity.
In dispensing the hospitalities of the White House, President Arthur has
exhibited the resources of a naturally generous disposition and a refined
taste. His remembrance of persons who call upon him, and whom he
may not have seen for years, is remarkable, and his hearty, genial
temperament enables him to make his visitors at home. His vigorous
vitality of body and mind, his manly figure and expressive face, add to
the dignity of his manner. A ready speaker, he at all times rises to the
level of an emergency, and he invariably charms those who hear him by
his courtesy of expression, which is the outward reflection of a large,
kind heart.
President Arthur's numerous friends contemplate the prominent events
of his eventful life without regret, and with a sincere belief that they
will be sustained by the verdict of impartial history. Utility to the
country has been the rule of his political life, and he has arrived at that
high standard of official excellence which prevailed in the early days of
the Republic, when honesty, firmness, patriotism, and stability of
character were the characteristics of public men. Under his lead, the
Republican party, disorganized and disheartened after the sad death of
General Garfield, has gradually become strengthened and united on the
eve of another presidential victory.
* * * * *
YESTERDAY.
BY KATE L. BROWN.
Adown the aisles of yesterday What fairy notes are ringing, And
strange, sweet odors, rich and rare, The western winds are bringing!

The deeds we counted poor and mean, Now shine with added glory,
And like a romance, reads the page Of life's poor, meagre story.
But vanished from our wistful sight, Too late for vain regretting, The
joys, that the remorseful heart With sacred gold is setting.
Ah! dearest of all earthly hopes Within the soul abiding, The lost, lost
life of yesterday The heart is ever hiding.

* * * * *
THE BOUNDARY LINES OF OLD GROTON.--I.
BY THE HON. SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D.
The original grant of the township of Groton was made by the General
Court, on May 25, 1655, and gave to the proprietors a tract of land
eight miles square; though during the next year this was modified so
that its shape varied somewhat from the first plan. It comprised all of
what is now Groton and Ayer, nearly all of Pepperell and Shirley, large
parts of Dunstable and Littleton, smaller parts of Harvard and Westford,
Massachusetts, and a portion of Nashua, New Hampshire. The grant
was taken out of the very wilderness, relatively far from any other town,
and standing like a sentinel on the frontiers. Lancaster, fourteen miles
away, was its nearest neighbor in the southwesterly direction on the one
side; and Andover and Haverhill, twenty and twenty-five miles distant,
more or less, in the northeasterly direction on the other. No settlement
on the north stood between it and the settlements in Canada.
Chelmsford and Billerica were each incorporated about the same time,
though a few days later.
When the grant was made, it was expressly stipulated that Mr. Jonathan
Danforth, of Cambridge, with such others as he might desire, should
lay it out with all convenient speed in order to encourage the prompt
settlement of a minister; and furthermore that the selectmen of the town
should pay a fair amount for his services. During the next year