OBSERVATIONS OF LOWELL
BY EDWARD EVERETT
Lowell excerpts from 4th of July event delivered at Lowell, on Monday, the 5th of July, 1830 published in Everett, Edward. Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions. Vol II, 4th ed., 1856, Page 47.
"It would seem that the industrial system of Europe required for its administration an amount of suffering, depravity, and brutalism, which formed one of the great scandals of the age. No form of serfdom or slavery could be worse. . . .But you will all bear me witness. . . .that for physical comfort, moral conduct, general intelligence, and all the qualities of social character which make up an enlightened New England community, Lowell might safely enter into a comparison with any town or city in the land..."
In demonstrating to the world that such a state of things is consistent with the profitable pursuit of manufacturing industry, you have made a discovery more important to humanity than all the wonderful machinery for weaving and spinning—than all the miracles of water or steam."
Everett, Edward. Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions. 4th ed., 1856, Page 47.
. . . .[the city's tremendous growth] seems more the work of enchantment than the regular process of human agency.
. . . . “It certainly deserves the title given it by the Hon. Edward Everett, of ‘The noble City of the Arts’ -- quoted by Thomas Spence in The Settler's Guide: In The United States And British North American Provinces.
. . . . Everett assured his young son that the mechanical arts were among the "noble arts."
https://archive.org/details/orationsspeeches00ever/page/n1/mode/2up?q=Lowell
https://archive.org/details/orationsspeeche01ever/page/322/mode/2up?q=Lowell
" Twenty years ago, and two or three poor farms occupied the entire space within the boundaries of Lowell. Not more visibly, I had almost said not more rapidly, was the palace of Aladdin, in the Arabian tales, constructed by the genius of the lamp, than this noble city of the arts has been built by the genius of capital. This capital, it is true, seeks a moderate interest on the investment; but it is by furnishing, to all who desire it, the cheapest garment ever worn by civilized man."
Everett, Edward. Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions. 4th ed., 1856, page 39
