f the Massachusetts Colony forbade Irish
immigration--probably more for religious than racial reasons. On reading
the ancient petition for the incorporation of the town one is struck by
the fact that practically every single name of the one hundred and fifty
signers is English in origin, the few which were not having been
anglicized. All of these facts point to a homogeneous stock, with the
same language, traditions, and social customs. Obviously there is a
connection between the governmental genius displayed by Quincy's sons
and the singular purity of the original English stock.

Little did Wampatuck, the son of Chickatawbut, realize what he was doing
when he parted with his Braintree lands for twenty-one pounds and ten
shillings. The Indian deed is still preserved, with the following words
on its back: "In the 17th reign of Charles 2. Braintry Indian Deeds.
Given 1665. Aug. 10: Take great care of it."

Little did the Indian chief realize that the surrounding waters were to
float hulks as mighty as a city; that the hills were to furnish granite
for buildings and monuments without number; and that men were to be born
there who would shape the greatest Ship of State the world has ever
known. And yet, if he had known, possibly he would have accepted the
twenty-one pounds and ten shillings just the same, and departed quietly.
For the ships that were to be built would never have pleased him as well
as his own canoe; the granite buildings would have stifled him; and the
zealous Adamses and the high-minded Quincys and Sewalls and all the
rest would have bored him horribly. Probably the only item in the whole
history of Quincy which would have appealed to Wampatuck in the least
would have been the floating down on a raft of the old Hollis Street
Church of Boston, to become the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree
in 1810. This and the similar transportation of the Bowditch house from
Beacon Street in Boston to Quincy a couple of years later would have
fascinated the red man, as the recital of the feat fascinates us to-day.

Those who care to learn more of Quincy will do well to read the
autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and "The Education of Henry
Adams." Those who care more for places than for descriptions of them may
wander at will, finding beneath the surface of the modern city many
landmarks of the old city which underlies it. They may see the
scaffolding of the great shipyards latticing themselves against the sky,