aying the
corner-stone, compiled from Mr. Frothingham's History of the Siege of
Boston. The same valuable work (pp. 345-352) relates the obstacles which
presented themselves to the rapid execution of the design, and the means
by which they were overcome. In this narrative, Mr. Frothingham has done
justice to the efforts and exertions of the successive boards of
direction and officers of the Association, to the skill and
disinterestedness of the architect, to the liberality of distinguished
individuals, to the public spirit of the Massachusetts Charitable
Mechanic Association, in promoting a renewed subscription, and to the
patriotic zeal of the ladies of Boston and the vicinity, in holding a
most successful fair. As it would be difficult farther to condense the
information contained in this interesting summary, we must refer the
reader to Mr. Frothingham's work for an adequate account of the causes
which delayed the completion of the monument for nearly seventeen years,
and of the resources and exertions by which the desired end was finally
attained. The last stone was raised to its place on the morning of the
23d of July, 1842.

It was determined by the directors of the Association, that the
completion of the work should be celebrated in a manner not less
imposing than that in which the laying of the corner-stone had been
celebrated, seventeen years before. The co-operation of Mr. Webster was
again invited, and, notwithstanding the pressure of his engagements as
Secretary of State at Washington, was again patriotically yielded. Many
circumstances conspired to increase the interest of the occasion. The
completion of the monument had been long delayed, but in the interval
the subject had been kept much before the public mind. Mr. Webster's
address on the 17th of June, 1825, had obtained the widest circulation
throughout the country; passages from it had passed into household words
throughout the Union. Wherever they were repeated, they made the Bunker
Hill Monument a familiar thought with the people. Meantime, Boston and
Charlestown had doubled their population, and the multiplication of rail
roads in every direction enabled a person, in almost any part of New
England, to reach the metropolis in a day. The President of the United
States and his Cabinet had accepted invitations to be present;
delegations of the descendants of New England were present from the
remotest parts of the Union; one hundred and eight surviving ve