Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.: By Samuel Adams Drake.

LANDMARKS OP BOSTON.
After the old war was over a liberty-pole was erected on the
stump of the tree, the latter long serving as a point of direction
known as Liberty Stump. A second pole was placed in posi tion on the 2d July, 1826. It was intended to have been raised
during the visit of Lafayette in 1825, and the following lines
wer e written by Judge Dawes: Of high renown, here grew the Tree,
The ELM so dear to LIBERTY;
Your sires, beneath its sacred shade,
To Freedom early homage paid.
This day with filial awe surromund
Its root, that sanctifies the ground,
And by your fathers' spirits swear,
The rights they left you'11 not impair."
Governor Bernard, writing to Lord Hillsborough under date
of June 18, 1768, gives the following account of Liberty
Tree: "Your Lordship must know that Liberty tree is a large old Elm
in the High Street, upon which the effigies were hung in the time
of the Stamp Act, and from whence the mobs at that time made
their parades. It has since been adorned with an inscription, and
has obtained the name of Liberty Tree, as the ground under it has
that of Liberty Hall. In August last, just before the commencement
of the present troubles, they erected a flagstaff, which went through
the tree, and a good deal above the top of the tree. Upon this they
hoist a flag as a signal for the Sons of Liberty, as they are called. I
gave my Lord Shelburne an account of this erection at the time it
was made. This tree has often put me in mind of Jack Cade's Oak
of Reformation."
Liberty Tree Tavern in 1833 occupied the spot where once
Liberty Tree stood. It was kept by G. Cummings. In its immediate vicinity and opposite the Boylston Market was Lafayette Hotel, built in 1824, and kept by S. Haskell in the year
above mentioned.
The Sons of Liberty adopted the name given them by Colonel
Barre in a speech in Parliament, in which he took occasion thus
to characterize those who evinced a disposition to resist the
oppressive measures of the Ministry. Under the branches of
Liberty Tree that resistance first showed itself by public acts.
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