It is on occasions such as these that we like to recall the glories of the past – to talk with wistful pride of the achievements and splendor of an earlier age – and to yearn, perhaps, for the "good old days" that now are gone forever.
Here in Salem the past is glorious indeed, if we turn back the pages of time to the Salem of a century and a half ago. Here stood the queen of the seas with its busy harbor and bustling commerce. It was the second largest community in Massachusetts – the sixth largest port in America – the pepper capitol of the world. The East India trade which entered and left this port surpassed that of any other port in the United States. Salem captains and crews sailed on all parts of the globe, bringing back rich treasures of learning as well as wealth. This was an employment center for sailors from all over the country – and their families, along with the merchants, captains, and all of those who provided them with goods and services increased both the city’s population and its diversity.
That age has well been called the "Golden Age" of Salem – and there are those who wish we might live through it again – particularly when they read the prices that prevailed in those days: bacon, 12 cents a pound; coffee, 27 cents a pound; and butter, 12 cents a pound.
But the "good old days" are not always what they seem – and I think this occasion should not be one of yearning for an age gone by, but one of expressing our gratitude and satisfaction with the blessings we enjoy today, and our determination to retain them and improve them in the future. The "good old days" had wars and recessions and crimes also. They, too, had high taxes and low incomes. But, more than that, they lacked many of the advantages we possess today.
I came from Boston to Salem tonight in a matter of minutes. In 1790, it would have required a stagecoach ride of several hours over dusty, unpaved roads. And for those who could not afford this luxury, it required nearly a day’s journey by foot and the Chelsea Ferry. Criminals were still pilloried in Salem when the 19th century began – murderers were branded on the Common with the letter "M" – others were whipped in public, tarred and feathered or incarcerated under the worst conditions. It took only seven weeks to go to Europe – but trips to Europe were not as common as workhouses, dueling, lotteries, riots, grave robbing, religious and racial persecution, and raging epidemics. There was no penicillin, no telephone, no modern plumbing, no automobiles, and no social security.
The facts of the matter are that life was so different 150 years ago in Salem, Massachusetts that the two eras are not really comparable – and I know of no citizens of today who could adapt himself to the rigors, the inconveniences, the hardships, and the horrors of that "golden age".
But these differences and developments are not, after all, what really count in the final analysis. In the words of Lowell:
"It is not by any amount of material splendor or prosperity, but only by moral greatness, by ideas, by works of imagination, that a race can conquer the future. Of Carthage, whose merchant fleets once furled their sails in every port of the known world, nothing is left but the deeds of Hannibal."
Perhaps there is little left of the Salem of old, in terms of its merchant fleet and unfurled sails. But the greatness of the people of Salem, their integrity and industry, their loyalty and perseverance – all of these remain to this very day – and it is here that we find the greatness of Salem.
And it is these qualities and traditions that we celebrate on the occasion of this grand homecoming.
And yet the fate of Salem itself is as closely linked with far-flung parts of the world today as it was 150 years ago. The people of Salem have known for a century and a half – if the rest of the nation and world did not – that Indonesia is really just next door. This city has realized through the ages that the economies of Latin America and Africa affect the economic future of Salem and Massachusetts.
Salem may no longer export codfish and lumber, tar and tobacco, as the "farthest port of the rich East", as it is described on your city seal. But along with all other Americans, the people of Salem are exporting by word and deed the precious commodity known as the spirit of independence – the generosity of free peoples – the goods and services that build export markets abroad, just as the Peabodys and Derbys and Crowninshields built them in days gone by.
We do not do this today seeking silks and tea, pepper and wine, and all other commodities that filled the wharves and warehouses of Salem in its golden age. Our private fortunes are no longer directly dependent upon the Datu of Quallah Battoo, who thought that Salem was some rich and powerful sovereign nation.
But our future in the atomic age, our security as a part of a free society, our peace and our survival – all of these are inextricably bound up with the news we hear from other countries, with their fate and their fortune, just as the fate and fortune of this city was linked with that of the rest of the world 150 years ago.
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 901, "Salem Homecoming Celebration, Salem, Massachusetts, 20 June 1958." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.