The Century Book of Famous Americans. The story of a young people's pilgrimage to historic homes. With ... illustrations

Front matter

STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS. IN LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO. ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN RESOLUTION THE CENTURY BOOK OF FAMOUS AMERICANS THE STORY OF A YOUNG PEOPLE'S PILGRIMAGE TO HISTORIC HOMES BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS AUTHOR OF "THE CENTURY BOOK FOR YOUNG AMERICANS," "HISTORIC BOYS," "A BOY OF THE FIRST EMPIRE," ETC. WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON, T. FISHER t7VWTN. THE CENTURY CO., NEW YORK Copyright, 1S96, by The Century Co. The De Vinne Press.

Introduction

Office of the President-General, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. of the American Revolution Washington, D. C, June 18, 1896. THE organization of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was the outgrowth of that notable epoch in American history when from the Pacific coast the tidal wave of patriotic enthusiasm started, and by its might and power kindled in the hearts of men and women interest in the Colonial and Revolu tionary periods which had so long lain dormant. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was organ ized in Washington, D. C, October II, 1890. Its objects are: "(1) To perpetuate the memory and the spirit of the men and women who achieved American Indepen dence, by the acquisition and protection of historic spots and the erection of monuments ; by the encouragement of historical research in relation to the Revolution, and the publication of its results ; by the preservation of documents and relics, and of the records of the individual services of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots, and by the promotion of celebrations of all patriotic anniversaries.

(2) To carry out the injunction of Washington in his farewell address to the American people : ' To promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge,' thus developing an enlightened public opinion, and affording to young and old such advan tages as shall develop in them the largest capacity for performing the duties of American citizens. (3) To cherish, maintain, and extend the institutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of country, and to aid in securing for mankind all the blessings of liberty." To-day the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, numbering fourteen thousand five hundred, supplemented by the organization of the National Society of the Children of the American Revolution, numbering fourteen vu introduction hundred and thirty, whose motto is, " For God and country," stand united, to main tain the objects of the National Society as presented in the constitution and by-laws of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

By the authority of the National Board of Managers this brief introduction is written, and it is a free-will offering. It may be well, further, to state that the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution have no other interest in " The Century Book of Famous Americans " than to wish it all success in its endeavor to place before the youth of our country an account of the lives of some of the men who have helped to make America famous. Letitia Green Stevenson President General. THE GARDEN AT MOUNT VERNON SOME BOSTON SPIRES. FROM A PRINT (1758* IN THE KING'S COLLECTION IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I In Boston Town i The Birthplace of Franklin — The Story of James Otis — Tories and Traitors — The Webster Buildings — The Samuel Adams Tablet — The Father of the Revo lution — A Novel Pilgrimage.

II In the Home of two Presidents 17 Quincy Granite and Quincy Men — The Little Old Houses — " Sink or Swim " — On Penn's Hill — A Great Father and His Famous Son — An Historic Mansion. Ill In the Old Colony 33 From Plymouth to Duxbury — The Puritan Captain — The Webster Farm — Marshfield by the Sea — Daniel Webster's Story — The Home of a Great Ameri can. IV In the Nation's First Capital 49 New York's Greatest Man — A Tour of the Old Town — Famous Men aud His toric Points — The Story of Alexander Hamilton — A Remarkable Character. V The Home of the Liberty Bell 65 Where Franklin Lived — An Extraordinary Man — The Story of a Helpful Life — Landmarks and Relics — Lndependence Hall and the Liberty Bell. VI At the Gateway of the West 83 Philadelphia's Place in History — A New Plan of Pilgrimage — In the Month of the Chesapeake — The Old Dominion — Richmond and Patrick Henry.

X TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE VII A Famous Old Capital 103 Richmond on the James — A City Set on a Hill — Relics and Reminders — A Jeffersonian Atmosphere — No Sectionalism in Heroism. VIII With the Sage of Monticello 117 At Charlottesville — Up the Little Mountain — The House with T7V0 Fronts — The Grave on the Mountain — The Story of a Statesman. IX In the Blue-Grass Country 137 Over the Hills into Kentucky — The Three Giants — The Champion of a Mistake — Calhoun's Story — The "Millboy of the S/ashes" — Blue-grass Land scapes — Ashland, the Home of Henry Clay. X In and Around the Hermitage 157 Jack's Discomfiture — Beautiful Kentucky — The Dark and Bloody Ground — Louisville Hospitality — Glimpses of Jackson — At * the Hermitage — Old Alfred's Reminiscences — Relics and Stories — The Home and Character oj Old Hickory.

XI Beside the Mississippi 173 Uncle Tom's Latest — Mammoth Cave Explorers — The Birthplace of Lincoln — Across the Prairies — By the " Father of Waters" — Where Grant got His Experience — A Leader's Life — A Hero's Death. XII At Lincoln's Home 193 The Mississippi Valley — Pioneers of France — In Lincoln's Land — The Sim plicity of it All — The American — A "Rebel's" Tribute. XIII By the Potomac 211 In the Big City of the West — Across Ohio — In the Land of Romance — The Great While Dome — At Mount Vernon — The Greatest of Men. XIV Talking it Over 233 Famous Americans in Washington — Homeward Bound — A "Quiz" in Fame study — Impressions — Patriotism — Memories — Good-by. Index MOUNT VERNON IN 1796.

Chapter I In Boston Town

The Birthplace of Franklin — The Story of James Otis — Tories and Traitors — The Webster Buildings — The Samuel Adams Tablet — The Father of the Revolution — A Novel Pilgrimage. HEY had left the Old South Meeting-house with its revolutionary relics, and were slowly sauntering down the sunny side of Milk street when Jack seized his uncle's arm. " Look over there, Uncle Tom ! " he cried. " See what it says on that building : ' The Birthplace of Franklin.' Why, I did n't know that Franklin was born in Boston. I thought he was a Philadelphian." " He was an American, Jack," Uncle Tom replied. "I sometimes think he was the first real American. But he was Boston born and bred. You ask Roger. I imagine every boy who goes to the Boston Latin School and tries for the Franklin medal knows of the clause in Franklin's will that tells the story. 'I was born in Boston,' it says. 'I owe my first instruction in literature to the free grammar schools established there.' And so he set aside five hundred dollars, the interest from which was to provide, forever, for silver medals for ' the most deserving boys ' of what afterward became the English High and Latin schools of his native town.

But, though born in Boston, Philadelphia was the home of Franklin for the greater part of his life." "Why, yes; of course I know that, Uncle Tom," Marian declared. " Don't you remember the story, Jack, about Franklin's first day in Philadelphia ? " X I "To be sure I do," broke in Jack; "that 's when he saw the girl who afterward became his wife, with a loaf of bread under each arm, eating another." Marian laughed so merrily at this that people in the street turned to see who could be so very hilarious in the shadow of the Old South. "Now, is n't that just like Jack? " she cried. " You 'd think it was Franklin's wife who was eating the bread. And how could any one walk the streets with a loaf under each arm and eating another? Franklin did n't have three hands, did he ? " " I guess I put a loaf too many in the story," Jack con fessed.

" But what of that ? Franklin could have eaten it that way if any one could. He was smart enough to do anything. And so that 's where he was born, is it ? " 'That 's the spot," said Uncle Tom. Some people declare his birthplace was down on Hanover street, but it now seems pretty certain that the little Milk street house was the right one. " But not in that tailor's shop, surely," said Christine. "Why, it does n't look nearly old enough.'' "Of course not," Marian de cided. " Why, Franklin was born in when was he born, Uncle Tom ? " " Seventeenth of January, 1706," promptly replied her uncle, who, as all the boys and girls de clared.wasalways "great on dates." " I 'm afraid," he continued, "your making the birthplace of Franklin out of that iron building across the way about equals Jack's three arms, though I must say that the stories all uphold Jack's three loaves."

"Aha! Miss Smarty ; what did I tell you ? " cried Jack, trium. THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON. Franklin's birthplace is opposite the farther end. phantly. " I said Franklin could do it. I 'm going to try it some day." "No; that building over there is, of course, on the site of Franklin's birthplace," Uncle Tom explained. " It simply marks with its memorial tablet the spot on which stood, until the year 1810, the queer little top heavy wooden cottage in which Ben jamin Franklin was born." " That was a good deal like Franklin himself, was n't it, Uncle Tom?" Bert commented — "heavy in the upper story, you know." "Good enough, Bert!" laughed Uncle Tom. " Yes ; you may say it was typical. I wish we had more such tablets as that one over the way. It is one of the best history teachers for young Americans that I know of — and for old ones, too," he added.

" But come ; let's move on. There 's nothing else about that build ingto remind us of Franklin, and Faneuil Hall is n't far away." FRANKLIN'S BIRTHPLACE House formerly on Milk street, Boston They had arrived in Boston that morning on a sight-seeing tour — Uncle Tom Dunlap and his nephews Jack Dunlap and Albert Upham, his niece Marian Dunlap, and her "best friend" Christine Bacon. Of course you remember them — that group of wide-awake boys and girls who, under Uncle Tom's guidance, " did " Washington so thoroughly, from the Consti tution to the Capitol, and studied into the making of the American nation. In the dark doorway of Faneuil Hall Roger was waiting, according to appointment, to welcome and join them. You remember him too, I hope — Roger Densmore, " the boy from Boston." He was to do the honors of •'the Hub" for the young folks from "Gotham."

They inspected Faneuil Hall with due reverence. " Who called it the Cradle of Uiberty, Uncle Tom ? " Christine inquired, as they descended the stairs and walked across to Ouincy Market. "James Otis, another famous Bostonian," Uncle Tom replied. "He delivered the address of dedication when this hall was rebuilt. He was the man who really started the American Revolution, you know." "What! James Otis?" cried Jack. "Why, I thought Patrick Henry A BOSTON BOY WHO BECAME FAMOUS. Benjamin Franklin. Born in Boston in 1706. did that — the 'gentlemen - may - cry - peace - peace - but - there - is - no - peace ' man." " No ; historians give the credit largely to Otis," Uncle Tom replied. " He really made the first move toward independence, years before Patrick Henry's fiery speech. For when, in 1761, four years before the passage of the Stamp Act, James Otis, in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, in this very town of Boston, resisted the granting of what were called the Writs of Assistance, the first scene of the first act of opposition to British tyranny was opened. 'Then and there,' declared John Adams, fifty years after, 'the child Independence was born.' So, let us give to James Otis the credit that is justly due him."

" All right ; let him have it ! " said Jack, administering an appreciative and emphatic slap to a particularly large beef carcass that hung obtrusively in his pathH " Whereabouts did he live, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert. " Right here in Boston, Bert," his uncle replied. _£. " Oh, can't we see the house ? " Marian inquired. "Somehow, it always makes people seem more real if one can only see where they once lived ; does n't it, Christine ? " "I don't believe his house is standing now," said Uncle Tom. " Do you know, Roger ?" THE BIRTHPLACE OF INDEPENDENCE. Roger was obliged to con fess his ignorance, though he interior view of Old State House, Boston, where James Otis delivered his famous speech ; chair of Elbridge Gerry ; bust of James Otis. said he believed there was something to do with Otis in the Old State House on Washington street.

"That 's where he made the famous speech, of which I told you, against the Writs of Assistance," said Uncle Tom. "We '11 go in there later. And I '11 see if I can find out about the house of James Otis. His was a brief but brilliant career, boys and girls ; as sad in its ending as it was promising at the opening. He was a bright young Boston lawyer. Engaged by the British government to look after its cases in the Boston 1* courts, he threw up his position and all its advantages, because he would not argue a case that seemed to threaten the liberties of the people. He became the people's champion, an eloquent and impassioned orator, a tire less worker for liberty, one of the leaders of the early Boston patriots, a member of the first Continental Congress, and destined, apparently, to play an important part in the drama of Independence.

Then, suddenly, all changed. In a coffee-house here in Boston he was set upon by a gang of ruffianly Tories, knocked senseless, made an incurable lunatic, and, the very year that the Revolution he had started ended in success, he was killed by a stroke of lightning." " George ! that was rough, though, was n't it? " said Jack. "Those horrid Tories!" exclaimed Marian. "Oh — I just despise them ! " " But those were rough, hard days, Marian," said Uncle Tom; "and both sides had their evil instruments. The fact that men were Tories did not make them bad. Every one has a right to his opinion ; it is the way he handles his opinion that makes him either a public friend or a public foe. America has yet to learn and acknowledge the real service that the forces of opposition have done for her development."

" Oh, Uncle Tom, how can that be ? " demanded Bert. " Do you mean to say that the Tories were a benefit? " cried Marian. " In what we call the broad sense, most certainly I do," Uncle Tom replied, "much as it inflames your ardent Americanism to hear me proclaim it. The Tories of the Revolution and the Copperheads of the Civil War, though detested by patriots, were themselves, as a rule, conscientious, hon est, and kind-hearted people, who loved their homes and their families just as dearly as do your fathers and mothers. They meant well ; they even loved their native land : but their standards were not as lofty, nor was their love of country as unselfish as with those whom they opposed." " Why, Uncle Tom ! " exclaimed Marian, to whom such a doctrine seemed all wrong. "So, as I say," went on Uncle Tom, "they were really a benefit to the nation.

The intense hatred they aroused in their opponents only drew the determined people closer together, and led them to stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of the cause of liberty. Even those roughs who spoiled the life of James Otis, when they struck down one patriot, inspired a dozen others to be still more ardent in the cause he championed, and to carry forward his work. Think of that, boys and girls, as you study the crises in American history. Tories and traitors, instead of weakening our cause, helped it by the spirit and will that they aroused ; and these led straight to victory. That thought will help you, perhaps, better to understand Thomson's perplex ing line : " From seeming evil still educing good." " Why, was it Thomson who said that ? " queried Christine. " I thought it was Pope."

" No, my dear ; wrote certain lines it was Thomson," Uncle Tom replied. " But Pope that are even more applicable to all knotty problems of whys and wherefores. Who knows them ? " No one knew just to what *....... lines of Pope Uncle sN^SL- Tom referred ; so, IN TORY TIMES. A patriot woman escaping from the Tories and the British. as they paused before the historic wharf where the disguised patriots flung over the offending chests of tea, he repeated the lines he had in mind : " All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee ; All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see ; All Discord, Harmony not understood ; All partial Evil, universal Good; And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite, One truth is clear : Whatever is, is right ! " As they passed along Summer street on their way from the old wharf of the Tea Party to the enlarged and renovated State House on Beacon Hill, Uncle Tom stopped short and pointed across the way to a six-story business block at the corner of High and Summer streets THE STATUE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

In front of the Boston City Hall. " See anything peculiar about that building? " he asked. The boys and girls studied it from top to bottom. "'The Webster Buildings,'" read Marian, looking toward the roof; while Bert's eye, traveling faster, stopped at the lettering above the second story. "'The Home of Daniel Webster,'" he read. "Is that so? Did Daniel Webster live there ? " he asked. " I never noticed that," confessed Roger, " and I 've passed here hundreds of times." " Roger, my boy," said Uncle Tom, "you 're not the only American who has no eyes for his own historic surroundings. Yes ; the city house in which Webster lived once stood on that spot. Then, as now, it was a rounded corner ; but to-day, you see, it is the heart of a business center. There he entertained Lafayette in 1824, and there he lived at the height of his fame."

" He was a great man, too, was n't he, Uncle Tom ? " said Marian. "Great in many ways," her uncle replied. "Come now, what do you know about Daniel Webster, boys and girls ? " " A great lawyer," suggested Bert. "A great statesman," said Marian. "A great debater," hazarded Roger. "A great fisherman," put in Jack. A great American," said Christine. He was all of those," Uncle Tom nodded. He was twice Secretary of State," said Roger. But never President," commented Jack. He made a famous speech against Hayne," said Bert. But went back on the people who elected him," asserted Jack. No ; did he, Uncle Tom ? " demanded Marian. " Why, yes ; don't you know, that 's what Whittier's poem ' Ichabod' was all about," Christine announced. " Our history teacher told us that." " Say, rather," said Uncle Tom, with a smile at the criticisms of his youth ful convoy, " that the people progressed faster than their leader.

Daniel Web ster was a great man, a wise man, a noble man ; but the one great question of his day, slavery, was dividing the country North and South. And when a man, however ardently he loves peace and union, tries to please two peo ple at once, he has a hard time of it, and ends by pleasing neither. That was Daniel Webster's case ; and Whittier's fiery verses, to which Christine refers, were but the expression of the advancing thought of the people of the North — too deeply roused to be calm, too strong of purpose to be discriminating. They had forged far ahead of Webster, though he had been the idol and champion of the very people who now called him recreant." " But if he thought he was doing right," said Jack, " I call it pretty hard lines to be pitched into like that." " My dear Jack," replied Uncle Tom, "if you are ever a leader, look ahead.

Lead on to the end. Those who follow often push to the front, and the leader who lags behind is like the fellow who loses his rank in school or ' goes down foot ' — he simply ' is n't in it,' as you boys say." They crossed Washington street and in Indian file threaded the nar row and crowded sidewalk that borders the upper side of Winter street. At a "canon," as Jack called it, which cleft the blocks of tall stores on Winter street and which, they saw, was called Winter Place, Uncle Tom halted his five followers, and bade them read the bronze tablet set in the dead wall of a great dry-goods store. They did so. The tablet advised them that, on this corner, once stood the house in which lived Sam uel Adams, " the Father of the Revolution." "How many 'fathers' did the Revolution have, anyway ?" demanded Jack.

THE SITE OF THE HOME OF SAMUEL ADAMS. On Winter Place, Boston. " I thought you told us, Uncle Tom, that James Otis was its ' respected parient' ' "I merely quoted John Adams's words to the effect that Otis was the ' father of Independence,' " Uncle Tom explained; " and, in this land of ours, the desire for independence was the forerunner of revolution." "Then Otis was a sort of grandfather to it, was n't he?" Jack com mented. " Samuel Adams ! " said Christine, still reading the tablet on the wall. " Did n't we see his statue somewhere down near Faneuil Hall? " "Yes, in Dock Square, now known as Adams Square," replied Roger. "I thought so. 'A statesman incorruptible and fearless.' That was what it called him on the statue," said Christine. "That was the man," Uncle Tom assented. " And that was the truth.

Here he lived, and in a green plot beyond us, just below the head of Winter street, — the Old Granary Burying-Ground it is called, — he lies buried." "Close to his old home," remarked Christine; " and we can see both places. Isn't it interesting?" "What relation was he to John Adams, Uncle Tom?" Bert inquired. "A brother?" "No; John Adams was his second cousin, I believe," Uncle Tom replied. "This Samuel Adams was a great man, boys and girls, though without the calmness, the coolness, or the judgment of his greater cousin. Historians tell us that Samuel Adams was the architect of ruin, and John Adams the organizer of law." "That means, I suppose," said Roger, "that Samuel just tore things down and John built things up, doesn't it ? " " That 's about it," Uncle Tom answered. " But an old building must be pulled down before you can build a grand new one in its place.

Samuel OLD DOCK SQUARE (NOW ADAMS SQUARE). A famous old Boston site. Faneuil Hall in the distance, the Adams statue in the foreground. Adams was a rebel against the English crown from boyhood, although his father was a tax-collector for the government, and Adams himself filled such a position for a time. When he graduated from Harvard in 1740, his commencement oration was a plea for resistance to tyranny. He held to that belief all through life. He was the leader and chosen representative of the people — 'the tribune of the yeomanry,' some one has called him. He urged on the 'embattled farmers' of Lexington and Concord to fire 'the shot heard round the world,' of which you possibly know something — " "Emerson wrote that," said Roger in earnest undertone. "Tell me something new, Roger, my son," said Jack.

"Do you think we never went to school? " "Samuel Adams was fearless, sincere, unyielding, and ill':- absolutely incorruptible," Un y\ cle Tom continued. "He pro ffjf posed the Revolution; he proposed the Continental Congress; V he signed the Declaration of Independence, and was so sharp a thorn in the side of the British gov- -fl(i ernment and its generals that they Is™- tried first to bribe and then to kill him. But they could neither bribe nor kill him. He lived to see the troops of King George driven from Boston and finally from America, and the principles for which he the grave of samuel adams. labored and suffered everywhere triumphant. inthesouthemendofoidGranaryBurymg-Ground. Free America owes much to Samuel Adams. On this very corner stood his home. Un cover to it, boys, for it was the home of a patriot."

The enthusiastic five honored the prosaic dead wall with a Chautauqua salute, much to the astonishment of the passers-by, few of whom, probably, ever knew of the existence of the tablet or the historic associations of that busy corner. Familiarity rarely inspires investigation. They "did" the old town thoroughly during their week's visit. They inspected its " show places," from Copp's Hill to Dorchester Heights, and from Cambridge Common to Bunker Hill. They studied the old grave yards, eloquent with the names of famous ones dead and gone ; they went back into the past as far as the one remaining wall of the Old Province House which Hawthorne has immortalized, and forward in the present to the, splendid new Public Library and the unfinished Subway that burrows beneath the Autocrat's dear " Long Walk."

But Uncle Tom discovered that the homes of famous men, or the spots upon which such houses had stood, seemed to possess special interest. THE MAIN STAIRCASE IN THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. One of Louis St. Gaudens's "lions," in commemoration of the Massachusetts troops. "It brings you so near to them," Christine declared; and even the in tensely modern and practical Jack affirmed that it was as great fun " hunting up the stamping-grounds of all those old Boston fellows " as shooting up to the twelfth story of the Ames Building, or seeing a ball game on Holmes' Field — and you may be sure that Jack did both these things. PARK STREET GATE, BOSTON COMMON. The State House in the distance. Under Roger's guidance, and with Uncle Tom as showman, they visited the sites of Franklin's boyhood home and John Hancock's vanished man sion ; they found the place in Court street where the house of James Otis had stood ; they looked up the sites of Warren's, Everett's, Sumner's, Wendell Phillips's, and Prescott's homes ; of the birthplaces of Paul Revere, IN BOSTON TOWN ■5 who roused the country-side for Lexington fight, and of Morse, who in vented the telegraph — the plain wooden house almost in the shadow of Bunker Hill.

"And all these are in Boston!" exclaimed Bert. " Good for the Hub ! " cried Jack. " Is there any other town that can show so many, Uncle Tom ? " Whereupon Uncle Tom had an idea. "He 's full of 'em," Jack declared; "but this just tops them all. It did seem to. For it was nothing more or less than a pilgrimage to the homes of famous Americans. A BOSTON HOME IN GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHERS DAY. " I think we can do it leisurely and as we have the chance," said Uncle Tom; "and I don't believe your fathers and mothers will object. WTe '11 see about it, anyhow. So, while we are here, we may as well finish off Massa chusetts by hunting up the homes of John Adams at Quincy, and of Daniel them myself. We can do it easily. Webster at Marshfield. I 'd like to What do you say, boys and girls ? ' see What could they say but " Good for you, Uncle Tom " ?

They said it so emphatically and delightedly that Uncle Tom believed his idea to be both wise and practical, and the fifth day of their stay in Boston saw them all at the Old Colony depot, en route for Quincy, the old town made famous by the two Adamses — father and son. A DISTANT GLIMPSE OF BOSTON. As seen across country from the Arnold Arboretum.

Chapter II In The Home Of Two Presidents

Quincy Granite and Quincy Men — The Little Old Houses — "Sink or Swim " — On Penn's Hill — A Great Father and His Famous Son — An Historic Mansion. HROUGH the lenorheninoline of suburban towns, now beside blue water, now in sight of the misty Milton hills, the tourists rode for a brief half hour; then, above the trees, they caught the glitter of a graceful dome, and Uncle Tom told them they were in Quincy. "Famous alike for its granite and for its men," he said, as he helped the girls to the station platform, and together they walked up the street to the open square before the temple-like church with its gilded dome. "Out of those quarries on the hills yonder," he continued, "has come the gray rock that has gone into many a noble public building ; and from this old town have come men who have built themselves into the history of the nation.