cely been opened for public use when
Peter Faneuil died, aged a little less than forty-three years. The
grateful citizens gave him a public funeral, and the Selectmen appointed
Mr. John Lovell, schoolmaster, to deliver his funeral oration in the
Hall bearing his name. The oration was entered at length upon the
records of the town, and has been frequently published.

In 1761 the Hall was destroyed by fire. It was immediately rebuilt, and
this second structure was the Faneuil Hall in which were held the
meetings preceding and during the war for Independence, which have given
it such universal celebrity. Here Samuel Adams spoke. Here the feeling
was created which made Massachusetts the centre and source of the
revolutionary movement.

Let me not omit to state that those obstinate country people, who knew
what they wanted, were proof against the attractions of Faneuil Hall
market. They availed themselves of their privilege of selling their
produce from door to door, as they had done from the beginning of the
colony. Fewer and fewer hucksters kept stalls in the market, and in a
few years the lower room was closed altogether. The building served,
however, as Town Hall until it was superseded by structures more in
harmony with modern needs and tastes.

What thrilling scenes the Hall has witnessed! That is a pleasing touch
in one of the letters of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, where he
alludes to what was probably his last visit to the scene of his youthful
glory, Faneuil Hall. Mr. Adams was eighty-three years old at the time,
and it was the artist Trumbull, also an old man, who prevailed upon him
to go to the Hall.

"Trumbull," he wrote, "with a band of associates, drew me by the cords
of old friendship to see his picture, on Saturday, where I got a great
cold. The air of Faneuil is changed. _I have not been used to catch cold
there._"

No, indeed. If the process of storing electricity had been applied to
the interior of this electric edifice, enough of the fluid could have
been saved to illuminate Boston every Fourth of July. It is hard to
conceive of a tranquil or commonplace meeting there, so associated is it
in our minds with outbursts of passionate feeling.

Speaking of John Adams calls to mind an anecdote related recently by a
venerable clergyman of New York, Rev. William Hague. Mr. Hague
officiated as chaplain at the celebration of the Fourth of July in
Boston, in 1843, when Charles Francis Adams delivered the