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Jeduthun Wellington and others, for a highway to be laid out over Cambridge Common.”
The history and result of this petition appear on the records of the Commissioners, January Term, 1835: “A petition of Jeduthun Wellington and others for a new highway across Cambridge Common was presented to the County Commissioners” at the May Term, 1832, and an order of notice was issued.
The case was heard at the September Term, 1832, when after argument and due deliberation, the Commissioners “did adjudge and determine that they had no jurisdiction in the premises, and could not by law lay out and establish a public highway over and across said Common, as prayed for,” etc. “Whereupon the said petitioners applied to the Supreme Judicial Court of this Commonwealth for a mandamus upon said Commissioners, requiring them to exercise jurisdiction in the premises; and the said Supreme Judicial Court having refused to grant such writ of mandamus, it is now ordered, that said petition, which has been continued from term to term, to await the determination of the said Supreme Judicial Court, to this time, be dismissed.”
Costs of Court were assessed upon the petitioners, who pursued this litigation no further.
This result was highly gratifying and advantageous to the inhabitants of Old Cambridge, who thus secured in perpetuity, for themselves and their successors, a spacious and pleasant park, rich in historical recollections.
It was here that Washington assumed the command of the American army; and here still flourishes the venerable elm, under which tradition says he stood, while his commission was read and proclaimed.
Long may that monumental tree escape the ravages of the rampant vandalism which disgraces the present age.
But the benefit thus derived was not without its drawback.
The old proverb, that “every rose has its thorn,” was verified in this case.
The fierce and angry contest, which gave to Old Cambridge its beautiful Common, indirectly transferred to Cambridgeport the public meetings of the town and the offices for the transaction of municipal affairs.
The old Court House1 would not contain the multitude assembled on the 8th of October, 1830, and the meeting, according to a former custom, adjourned to the
1 It was agreed, Dec. 24, 1632, “that every person undersubscribed shall meet every first Monday in every month within the meeting-house.” Probably the town meetings were uniformly held in the meeting-house, or church edifice, until about 1708, when a house was erected at the joint expense of the town and county, to be used for both court house and town-house. A similar concert of action was had in 1756, when the town agreed to share the expense of erecting a new court house, which was also used as a town-house until 1831.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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