On Friday, September 11, 2009, Consul General Phil Buddenspoke on Boston-Britain history in celebration of Charter Day (Boston'sbirthday) at the Massachusetts State House. The full text and video of hisspeech are included below.

Representative Bosley, Ladies, Gentlemen, friends of both Bostons, welcome tothe Massachusetts State House. Of course, there was a time when BritishRepresentatives perhaps weren’t so popular in this part of Boston, but one ofthe joys of getting to talk about the links between the two historic Bostons -Boston, England and Boston, Massachusetts - is that it takes us back to ourshared history. So we’re meeting here as part of the Charter Day celebrations,and I commend all those that have had a hand in today’s activities. I think‘governance’ is a great theme to take for this year, and I am sorry I cannot beat as many of those events as I would like to be, but I’m delighted to be ableto speak to you here today.

I was thinking about how the British Representative here in Massachusettsshould talk about Charter Day and Boston’s connections, and I had someobservations last June when I was actually in the other Boston – Boston,England, the ‘mother city.’ We had some celebrations to mark the 700thanniversary of the Boston Stump – the church from which the Puritans left andsailed across the Atlantic to found this Boston. And my observation there was,while we’re here in Massachusetts we talk about the founding of Massachusetts,the chartering of Dorchester and Watertown, those Puritans didn’t suddenlyappear in the pages of history in 1630, just like the Pilgrims on the Mayflowerdidn’t suddenly become part of history when they landed on this side of theAtlantic. They were actually coming out of a very rich tradition of British history,and part of the baggage they brought with them were some very Britishtraditions about the way things should be. In thinking about governance, andthinking about what has happened here in Massachusetts and indeed in America,much has come from those very English traditions, brought with them on thoseships.

So this got me thinking about freedom, which is something one hears a lot abouthere in Boston. I live on Beacon Hill, so whenever I walk across Boston Common,I can’t help but trip over the Freedom Trail, or hear about the Freedoms whichare so important to Americans. Originally those were English freedoms, and theywere freedoms that the English men and women on the Arbella brought withthem from England. We all know about the religious freedoms that the Puritanssought here, their desire to have a purer church of England, and the fact thatin 1630 they were not desperately keen on the direction Charles I was takingthe church.

They also came over for political freedom –  they wanted a legislature,which would take care of law and tax (issues where Charles I was not doingparticularly well on either front), and the concept of popular representation,not only in the General Court for the state itself, but also in the vibranttown communities. Standing here in the Great Hall and seeing all these flagsfrom the various towns of Massachusetts, one is reminded of that very Englishtradition of having towns and representative freedom, which is part of the magicof Massachusetts. And the Puritans brought over the rule of law – particularlythe Common Law – which was embedded here in the Great and General Court, butalso was part of their lives and in the way they ran their affairs.

Now, I point these out partly because they are so obvious,but also because they are so different from some of the other colonies at thesame time in North America. My French Consul General colleague is celebratingthe founding of Quebec in 1609, its 400th anniversary, and my Spanish colleagueis celebrating a host of other anniversaries throughout this continent. Andthose particular European settlements on this continent didn’t seem to bringthe same sorts of traditions – there was something special about thesetraditions brought by our English colleagues. The free legislature, the popularrepresentation, the rule of law, these have become part of that Americanmainstream.

Flipping forwards to today, we are of course meeting together on a very specialday. We at the Consulate observed a moment of silence this morning in honor ofSeptember 11, the tragedy of 8 years ago. It reminds us very much of theBritish-American links of freedom across the Atlantic. Of course, there brieflywas a difference of opinion between Britain and the American colonists in the1760s and the 1770s over the nature of that freedom and how to safeguard it,and that debate gave America a whole new set of freedoms and indeedindependence. But as you look back over the 400 years and the trajectory ofBritish and American history, it really is about safeguarding those freedomsencapsulated by the Great and General Court here at the State House.

So yes, part of my role is to turn up at lots of events to do with the AmericanRevolution, Boston tea parties and massacres, Lexingtons and Concords, but inthe grand scheme of things, we’ve shared much, much more – especially to dowith freedom. On September 11, it seems poignant to remember that sharedhistory that we have, but also the shared future and shared values we havegoing forward.  I’ve highlighted where those Puritans came from, and wherethey brought those notions of freedom, which to my mind have made a lot ofdifference in Massachusetts and in America. Indeed, they have made all thedifference in the world. As we turn to hear Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill, weshould think about the British origins in New England, and the very English notionsof freedom which are captured in it. Thank you.

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