Sacred Cod of Massachusetts - History

History

Poised high aloft the old hall of the Massa­chu­setts House of Repre­sent­a­tives, riding serenely the sound waves of de­bate, unper­turbed by the ebb and flow of enact­ment and repeal or the desul­tory storms that vexed the nether depths of ora­tory, there has hung through immem­or­ial years an ancient cod­fish, quaintly wrought in wood and painted to the life.

Humble the sub­ject and homely the design; yet this painted image bears on its finny front a maj­esty greater than the dig­nity that art can lend to graven gold or chisel­led marble. The sphere it fills is vast­er than that through which its proto­type careered with all the myriad tribes of the great deep. The les­sons that may be learned of it are nobler than any to be drawn from what is beau­ti­ful; for this sedate and soli­tary fish is in­stinct with memo­ries and proph­ecy, like an ora­cle. It swims sym­bolic in that wider sea whose con­fines are the lim­its set to the activ­i­ties of human thought. It typi­fies to the citi­zens of the Common­wealth and of the world the found­ing of a State. It commem­o­rates Democ­racy. It cele­brates the rise of free insti­tu­tions. It empha­sizes progress. It epito­mizes Massachusetts.

A History of the Emblem of the Codfish in the Hall of the House of Representatives. Compiled by a Committee of the House. (1895)

What is now called the Sacred Cod has hung for three centuries—though with interruptions, and in three successive incarnations—in the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (or its predecessor, the House of Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay).

First Cod

Of the Sacred Cod's first incarnation, the Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish (appointed by the House in 1895) wrote:

There is a dim tradition that in the primitive House of Assembly of the Province there hung a codfish which was the gift of Judge Samuel Sewall died in 1729. published remains make no mention of this traditional fish, and it is difficult to imagine that a man of his loquacious verbosity would have omitted to chronicle his munificence.

Whatever its origin, when the State House burned in 1747 "this prehistoric creature of tradition ... doubtless went up in a whirl of smoke which still clouds its history to the peering vision of the antiquarian."

Second Cod

A second Cod appeared sometime between 1748 (when the State House was rebuilt) and 1773 (when Thomas Crafts, Jr. billed the Province of Massachusetts Bay, "To painting Codfish, 15 shillings"). But within a few years, the Committee wrote, the second Cod

disappeared from the State House and was doubt­less destroyed, for the clos­est historical re­search fails to shed any light upon the time, manner or cause of its dis­appearance, or to dis­close any reference to it whatever. Mayhap some burly British trooper, quart­ered in the imp­rov­ised bar­racks of the old State House, took umbrage at the spick and span el­eg­ance of the newly painted emblem of colon­ial indep­endence and thrift. Such a one may have torn down the cher­ished symbol from the wall whence it had offered aid and comfort to the rebel pat­ri­ots, with its assurance of the mat­er­ial wealth accessible to the em­bry­onic State, and, in spirit of vandalism so prevalent at that age, used it to replenish his evening camp fire.

The Committee found "good reason to believe that this missing fish ... was carved by one John Welch, a Boston patriot".

Third Cod

The third Sacred Cod was installed in 1784, after Representative John Rowe—namesake of Rowes Wharf, and "a leading spirit in the stirring scenes that led up to the famous 'Boston Tea Party'"—asked leave "to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit, as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly ... And so the emblem was suspended" in the old State House once again, and this Cod (which Rowe may have underwritten personally) is the one extant today.

In 1798 it was moved to the Representatives chamber in the new State House, where it orig­in­al­ly hung "directly over the Speaker's desk, but in the it was shifted to the rear of the cham­ber".

Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish

On January 2, 1895—the House's last day of bus­i­ness before re­loc­at­ing to a new cham­ber in the same build­ing—

he quest­ion of tak­ing with it the 'rep­res­ent­at­ion of a cod­fish,' which for more than a hund­red years had never missed a 'roll call,' was brought up for con­sid­er­at­ion. It was, however, deemed wise to in­vest­i­gate the sig­nif­i­cance of the emb­lem be­fore its removal ....

Accordingly, after "nearly two months of painstaking research and investigation" the three-member Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish submitted its report, and after debating "at length" the House ordered "immediate removal of the ancient 'representation of a codfish' from its present position in the chamber recently vacated by the House, and to cause it to be suspended ... in this chamber..."

The Sacred Cod was wrapped in an American flag, placed on a bier, and—escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms—borne by House messengers to the new House chamber, where the assembled Rep­re­sent­atives rose in applause. After repainting by Walter M. Brackett, it was hung where it remains today: "between the two sets of central columns, and under the names 'Motley,' and 'Parkman'," facing left as viewed from the floor of the chamber.

It is sometimes said that the Cod is turned to face the political party currently in power, but no such tradition was mentioned by the Committee.