%
Class Book^
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT
HISTORY
OF
NEW HAMPSHIRE,
FROM ITS FIRST DISCOVERY THE YEAR 1830;
DISSERTATIONS UPON THE RISE OF OPINIONS AND INSTITUTIONS,
THE GROWTH OF AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES,
AND THE INFLUENCE OF LEADING FAMILIES
AND DISTINGUISHED MEN,
TO THE YEAR 1874;
EDWIN D. SANBORN, LL. D,
Professor in Dartmouth College.
MANCHESTER, N. H. ;
JOHN B. CLARKE.
1875.
SB^^^'
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1875, by
JOHN B. CLARKE,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
Mtrror OmcB: JOHN B. CLARKE,
MANCHESTER, N. H.
PREFACE.
The best historian is he who represents with the greatest fidelity the life and spirit of the age he describes. It is not sufficient that what he records should be true " for substance ; " it should be relatively as well as absolutely true. " History," says Cicero, "is the light of truth." As truth is immuta- ble, we should naturally infer that an impartial historian, like Thucydides, might write "for eternity;" but, while the facts of the past remain un- changed, the opinions of succeeding generations concerning them are modi- fied by the progress of knowledge. Hence all history needs frequent revis- ion. The oldest records receive the severest criticism. The study of the Sanscrit language has shed a flood of light on the affinities and migrations o£ early nations. The mythologies and traditions which connect the Orient with the Occident have fallen before the victorious march of comparative philology. The interpretation of the Rosetta stone, the Ninevite slabs and the Babylonian cylinders has restored the lost records of Egypt and Mesopo- tamia. The labors of Crtampollion, Lepsius, Layard, Rawlinson, Smith and Cesnola have made monumental records more valuable than existing history. Every generation receives a new version of old traditions respecting classic lands. Greece and Rome often appear in a new dress, and the public ap- proves of these antiquarian researches; IVIodern history is subjected to the same searching analysis. Readers of the present day are not satisfied with the estimate which historians have placed upon the English, French and American Revolutions. The motives of men are now deemed better indices of character than their actions. The progress of nations depends more upon opinions and institutions than upon sieges and battles. The camp and the court yield to the imperial sway of new ideas. The rise of Puritanism, in the age of Elizabeth, left a deeper impression upon English history than the dispersion of the Spanish Annada. The rise of Methodism better deserved the notice of the annalist than the battles of Marlborouirh. All writers of
history must, therefore, look for the origin of great events in the current opinions of the age when they occurred. Impressed with these convictions, the writer of the following pages has attempted to reproduce the history of >fcw Hampshire and trace its institutions, social, political and religious, to their true origin. The influence of illustrious men, of distinguished families, of dominant parties, of prevailing creeds, has been carefully investigated and briefly portrayed. The progress of the state in arts, arms and learning has not been overlooked.
Public opinion seems to call for a new history of the state, i. Because all the histories previously written are out of print. 2. Because no ex- isting history covers the entire ground. 3. Because the progress of events has thrown new light upon the past. 4. Because the history of New Hamp- shire is rich in deeds of daring, suffering and heroism surpassing fable. 5. Because the men of every age require the records of the past to be re- vised for their use.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Chapter I. Characteristics and Symbols of Different Epochs of Civil- ization, 9
Chapter II. Causes of European Enterprise in the Fifteenth and Six- teenth Centuries, ii
Chapter III. The Agents of Modern Enterprise, 13
Chapter IV. The Results of Modern Enterprise, 14
Chapter V. Aborigines of America 17
Chapter VI. Title to the Soil, 22
Chapter VII. English Chartered Companies 24
Chapter VIII. Colonies Ancient and Modern 25
Chapter IX. Early Explorers of the New England Coast, . . .27
Chapter X. Proprietors of New Hampshire, 29
Chapter XI. First Settlers of New Hampshire, 32
Chapter XII. Political and Pecuniary Condition of the Plantations /(J Q
from 1631 to 1641, 40
Chapter XIII. Social Condition of the Early Colonists, . . -47
Chapter XIV. Early Laws of Massachusetts, 49
Chapter XV. Early Laws of New Hampshire 51
Chapter XVI. Early Churches of New Hampshire 53
Chapter XVII. Elements Af Popular Liberty, 55
Chapter XVIII. Condition of New Hampshire after its Union with
Massachusetts, 58
Chapter XIX. Moral Epidemics, 60
Chapter XX. Philip's Indian War, 65
Chapter XXI. Revival of Mason's Claim ' . .74
Chapter XXII. Organization of the New Government, . . -76 Chapter XXIII. Administration of Justice in the Early History of
New Hampshire, . . . ' . . . .81
Chapter XXIV. Administration of Cranfield, S3
Chapter XXV. Government under Dudley and Andros, . . .87
Chapter XXVI. King William's War 89
Chapter XXVII. Civil Policy of New Hampshire during King Wil- liam's War, 94
Chapter XXVIH. Queen Anne's War, 97
Chapter XXIX. Administration of Governor Shute, .... loi
vi CONTENTS.
Chapter XXX. Emigrants from Ireland, 103
Chapter XXXI. Origin of the Militia System in
Chapter XXXII. Lieutenant-Governor Wentworth's Administration, . 118 Chapter XXXIII. New Hampshire an Independent Royal Province, 118
Chapter XXXIV. King George's War, 119
Chapter XXXV. Revival o£ Mason's Claim 128
Chapter XXXVI. The Representatives of New Towns, . . . 129
Chapter XXXVII. The Last French War 130
Chapter XXXVIII. Close of the War and Return of Peace, . . 141 Chapter XXXIX. Controversy about the Western_Boundary, . . 143
Chapter XL. Origin of the Revchrrttmafy^VVar, 144
Chapter XLI. Officers and Ministers in New Hampshire in 176S, . 151 Chapter XLII. Origin of Dartmouth College, ... . 152
Chapter XLIII. Early Settlements in Cohos 156
Chapter XLIV. The Wentworths in New Hampshire, . . . 160 Chapter XLV. Commencement of Hostilities with England, . . 165
Chapter XLVr. The Baltle of Bunker Hiil, 167
Chapter XLVII. Formation of a New Government, .... 169 Chapter XLVIII. Movements of the Arniv under Washington, dur- ing the year 1776, ... . . 172 Chapter XLIX. Secession in New Hampshire during the last Century, 174 Chapter L. Military Oper.itions in 1777: Battle of Bennington, . . 1S2
Chapter LI. Capture of Burgoyne, 1S6
Chapter LII. Employment of Savages by the English, . . .188 Chapter LIII. Congregationalism in New Hampshire, . . . 191
Chapter LIV. Rise of Different Denominations 196
Chapter LV. Insufficiency of the State and General Governments pre- vious to the Adoption of the New Constitutions, . 198
Chapter LVI. Treatment of Loyalists 200
Chapter LVH. Heavy Burdens Imposed on the People by the War,
and the Consequent Discontent, .... 203
Chapter LVIII. Captain John Paul Jones 206
Chapter LIX. General John Sullivan, 207
Chapter LX. The New Constitution and the Parties Formed at its
Ratification, 209
Chapter LXI. Condition of New Hampshire after the Adoption of
the New Constitution, 213
Chapter LXII. Lands Held by "Free and Common Soccage." . . 217
Chapter LXHI. Internal Improvements 218
.Chapter LXIV. Administration of President Bartlett, . . . 224
^Chapter LXV. Corn-Mills and Saw-Mills 225
Chapter LXVI. Administration of John Taylor Gilman, . . . 228 Chapter LXVII. The Early Farm-House with its Furniture and Sur- roundings, 235
Chapter LXVIII. Development of Political Parties 234
Chapter LXIX. Political Influence of the Clergy of New Hampshire, 238
CONTENTS. VU
Chapter LXX. Puritan Influence in New Hampshire, .... 245 Chapter LXXI. Internal Condition of New Hampshire from 1805 to
1S15, 247
Chapter LXXII. Causes of the Second War with England, . . 249 Chapter LXXIII. Record of New Hampshire during the War for
Sailors' Rights, 252
Chapter LXXIV. The Hartford Convention, 25S
Chapter LXXV. Domestic Affairs in New Hampshire Preceding and
During the War for "Sailors' Rights," . . . 259
Chapter LXXVI. Restoration of Peace, 263
Chapter LXXVII. Dartmouth College Controversy 26S
Chapter LXXVIII. The Caucus System, 2S6
Chapter LXX IX. The Toleration Act 2S7
Chapter LXXX. Decline of "The Era of Good Feelings," . . 2S9 Chapter LXXXI. Local Matters in New Hampshire during the Ad- ministration of Monroe and Adams, . . . 292 Chapter LXXXII. Character of Hon. Benjamin Pierce, . . . 300 Chapter LXXXIII. Population of New Hampshire at Different Pe- riods, 302
Chapter LXXXIV. Money Coined and Printed 303
Chapter LXXXV. Discovery and Settlement of the White Mountain
Regions, 307
Chapter LXXXVI. The Rivers of New Hampshire, . . . .311 Chapter LXXXVII. Climate and Scenery of New Hampshire, . . 317
Chapter LXXXVIII. The Isles of Shoals, 323
Chapter LXXXIX. Influence of Distinguished Families in New
Hampshire 326
Chapter XC. The Livermore Familj', 328
Chapter XCI. the Pickering F.imily 329
Chapter XCII. The Wj;ave Family 331
Chapter XCIII. The Bartlett Family 334
Chapter XCIV. The Webster Family, 335
Chapter XCV. The Bar of New Hampshire, 33S
Chapter XCVI. Jeremiah Smith 339
Chapter XCVII. Ezekiel Webster • . 340
Chapter XCVIII. Daniel Webster, 34J
Chapter XCIX. Ichabod Bartlett, 343
Chapter C. Levi Woodbury 345
Chapter CI. Common School Instruction 346
Chapter CII. Academies, 352
Chapter CIII. Agriculture 35-
Chapter CIV. Commerce of New Hampshire,
Chapter CV. The Press,
Chapter CVI. Banks 300
Chapter CVII. Manufactures 372
Chapter CVIII. Railroads, .-g
Chapter CIX. Geology of New Hampshire, ...'.' '395 Chapter CX. The Flora and Fauna of New Hampshire, . . .* 404 Chapter CXI. Undecided Questions in New England History, . . 405 Chapter CXII. Proper Names in New Hampshire, . . . *. 410
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTERISTICS AND SYMBOLS OF DIFFERENT EPOCHS OF CIV- ILIZATION.
The temple and the palace are the true symbols of the earliest civilization known to history. The king and priest occupy the foreground of every old historic picture. The king holds the key of power ; the priest the key of knowledge ; and the com- mon people are their slaves. The sculptured temples of Elora, the buried palaces of Nineveh and Babylon, the magnificent ruins of Karnac and the pyramids of Egypt are all monuments of royal and sacerdotal oppression. Fear and force then ruled the world. The Greeks are the only people of all antiquity that made reason supreme in government and religion, ancl thus raised the masses of their population from bondage to free- dom. They worshiped beauty in the works of nature and in the creations of the imagination, and embodied their loftj' ideals in sculpture, painting, architecture, poetry, oratory and philoso- phy. For a time their bema and theatre became the represen- tatives of human progress. Their culture was the inheritance of the race ; for they liave been the teachers of all succeeding generations. The light of their civilization shone on Rome. Reason once more triumphed over brute force. Horace says :
"When conquered Greece brought in her captive arts, she triumphed o'er her savage conquerors' hearts; Taught our rough verse in numbers to refine. And our rude style with elegance to shine."
Rome absorbed the blood and treasure of the nations and made herself, through war and law, the mistress of the world. For twelve hundred years, the camp and forum were the sym- bols of her civilization. In the days of her decline Christi- anity became a ruling power in the earth ; and during the dark ages the monasteiy and castle embodied the power and wisdom of Christendom. The histor)- of the monk and the baron is the real history of Europe for a thousand years. In England, be- tiveen the conquest, A. D. 1066, and the reign of King John, during a period of one hundred and fifty years, five hundred and
lO HISTORY OF
fifty-seven religious houses, of all kinds, were established. Hen- ry VIII. confiscated three thousand religious houses that yielded revenue ; and the castles in his reign were probably as numer- ous, for eleven hundred and fifteen were built in the brief reign of Stephen. The population of England was then about tsvo and a half millions. The religious houses were all richly en- dowed. They owned large landed estates, commodious and im- posing buildings, with respectable libraries, when a manuscript was worth more than a small farm. A single monastery has been known to feed five hundred paupers daily for years. At that time there was no other provision for the poor. The cas- tles of the nobles were impregnable fortresses, surrounded by walls and moats, and defended by squadrons of mailed war- riors. The feudal system regulated the tenure of land. The king and his liege lords owned the entire territory of the king- dom ; hence the large landed estates of the English nobility, which are often equal, in extent and population, to one of our counties. The conquering Normans ruled with an iron sway, in church and state ; and the conquered Saxon served with abject humility, in war and peace. When the monastery and castle lost their imperial power cannot now be accurately de- termined. "It is remarkable," says Macaulay, "that the two greatest and most salutary social revolutions which have taken place in England, that revolution which, in the thirteenth century, put an end to the tyranny of nation over nation, and that revolu- tion which, a few generations later, put an end to the property of man in man, were silently and imperceptibly effected. They struck contemporary observers with no surprise and have received from historians a very scanty measure of attention. They were brought about neither by legislative regulation nor by physical force. Moral causes noiselessly effaced, first the distinction be- tween Norman and Saxon, and then the distinction between master and slave. None can venture to fix the precise moment at which either distinction ceased." The gentle influences of the gospel proved to be more potent agents of reform than mailed barons with their retainers, or Cromwell with his "ironsides." .Soon after the union of the Norman and Saxon and the abolition of serfdom, the popular mind in Europe was stimulated to in- tense activity, by the invention of printing and the mariner's compass, by the revival of classical learning and the formation of the modern languages. Erom these causes arose the refor- mation which gave birth to the Puritans, who founded in the wilderness "a church without a bishop and a state without a king" and, from that hour, made the school-house and "meeting-house" the symbols of modern civilization. Before these modest rep- resentatives of American progress the temple and palace, the
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
camp and forum, the monastery and castle, all bow down, like the sheaves in Joseph's dream, and make obeisance.
CHAPTER II.
CAtJSES OF EUROPEAN ENTERPRISE IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
Europe owes her love of liberty to the Greeks, her obedience to law to the Romans. On the shores of the /Egean Oriental despotism first met, upon the battle-field, European indepen- dence. The right triumphed ; and Marathon is dear to us to- day, because there the cause of humanity was vindicated. Had the setting sun, on that memorable day, gilded the victorious banners of Persia, Grecian art, literature, oratory and liberty had never existed ; and, for the next two thousand years, Zoroaster and the Magi, instead of Socrates and the philosophers, might have been the educators of our race. The history of Marathon and Yorktown will never lose their interest, down
"To the last syllable o£ recorded time;"
because a contrary result, in either case, would have changed the destinies of the world. They were decisive battles in the history of freedom. The same is true of the battle of Zama, where Roman civilization won the victory for the advancing ages, and made Rome the world's lawgiver. All ancient history ter- minates in the "eternal city ;" and from it all modern history takes its departure. Rome has conquered the world three times : by her army ; by her literature ; and by her jurisprudence. Her last victory was the chief of the three. Roman literature has developed modern mind ; Roman law has governed it. For nearly a thousand years after the irruption of the Northern bar- barians, Grecian literature was but little studied in Western Europe. Constantinople was its home. After the fall of that city in 1453, her scholars were exiled ; and learning followed the course of the sun. The seer of that day might have used, by prolepsis, the words of Berkeley ;
"Westward the course of empire takes its way. "
The revival of learning awoke the European mind to intense ac- tivity. The noble ideas of Grecian liberty and Roman law took root in a virgin soil and brought forth abundant fruit. With this
12 HISTORY OF
new-born zeal for study came additional means of gratifying it. An obscure German, by the invention of movable types and the press, rendered the universal diffusion of knowledge possible. Next to the invention of letters stands that of printing. It has enlarged indefinitely the bounds of knowledge and given a new impulse to everything great and good in modern civilization. "If the invention of ships," says Lord Bacon, "was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commerce from place to place, liow much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time and make ages so distant to par- ticipate of the wisdom, illuminations and inventions, the one of the other. " Prior to the use of t\'pes, it required nearly a year's labor to copy a bible ; and the price of such a manuscript varied from two hundred to one thousand dollars of our money ; and that, too, when its value was ten or twenty times as much as it now is. Some German mechanics and a wealthy goldsmith nam- ed John Faust, of the city of Mentz, in quest of gain, invented and executed this great work of human progress. The Bible was the first book printed. It was offered for sale, by Faust, in Paris. So astonished were the Parisians to find numerous copies of the bible, exactly alike, that they accused the seller of employing magic in their multiplication. He was supposed to be in league with the Devil ! Strange that the loyal subjects of the Prince of darkness should have so mistaken their master's character. Faust was imprisoned, as a magician, and was only released on confession of his valuable secret. This is supposed to be the origin of the popular legend, entitled: "The Devil and Dr. Faustus ; " or, as he is called by the illiterate, " Dr. Foster. " It was a copy of this bible which kindled Luther's zeal for reform in the church. He first saw it, in the monastery of Erfurt, where he was in training for a monk. Dr. Staupitz, a man of rank in the church, happened to be there inspecting the convent and, ob- serving Luther's admiration of the discovered bible, ga\'e him the copy for his private study. He read it twice in course of every year. He wrote thus of it : " It is a great and powerful tree, each word of which is a mighty branch ; each of these branches have I shaken, so desirous was I to learn what fruit they every one of them bore, and what they would give me. " This was one of Gutenberg's private copies of the Latin Vulgate. It could be read only by scholars. It was printed about 1450, with metal tj'pes, every one cut separately, with the imperfect tools then in use. It was a folio of six hundred and forty-one leaves. Schoeffer, the associate of Gutenberg, introduced cast types and thus perfected the art of printing. The study of the bible made Luther the champion of the reformation. He em- bodied his new opinions in ninetj'-five theses, which he nailed to
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 13
the door of the church of Wittenburg ; and some one has said, very justly, that the blows of his hammer shook all Christendom. Thus, an Augustine monk, denouncing the corruptions of Ca- tholicism, introduced a schism in religion and changed the entire foundations of human government. Civil liberty was born of religious liberty.
Nearly contemporary with the publication of the bible was the practical use of the mariner's compass. That property of the magnet which gives polarity to the needle was known sev- eral centuries before the discovery of America. But navigators were slow to employ this unerring guide in traversing the seas. The French and Italians both claim the invention of the com- pass, which opened to man the dominion of the sea. "The common opinion," says Hallam, "which ascribes the discoveiy [of the polarity of the magnet] to a citizen of Amalfi, in the fourteenth century, is undoubtedly erroneous." It was, with- out dispute, in general use during the fifteenth centurj', by the Genoese, Spaniards and Portuguese. Soon after the discovery of America, Vasco de Gama sailed round the " Stormy Cape, " opened a new passage to India and changed the whole commerce of the world. The story of his perilous voyage, "married to immortal verse, " still lives in the Epic of the Portuguese Cam- oens. These potent causes, the revival of classical learning, the invention of printing and the compass, and the reformation in the church, all contributed to awaken the common mind in Europe, to give new force and intensity to public opinion, and to impart increased energy to national enterprise.
CHAPTER III.
THE AGENTS OF MODERN ENTERPRISE.
Men of action and men of thought have existed in all ages. In the oriental world, the men of action became warriors ; the men of thought, priests. The sculptured slabs that lined the walls of the temples and palaces of buried Nineveh and Baby- Ion show us nothing of Asiatic life but sieges and battles, pomps and sacrifices. The blood of men Hows upon the field, the blood of beasts upon the altar ; enslaved people come before their rul- ers laden with tribute and offerings. In Greece, the cradle of liberty, and in Rome, the birth-place of law, men of affairs and
14 HISTORY OF
men of reflection appeared as statesmen and philosophers, con- suls and jurisconsults. In the dark ages, the baron and monk controlled the people in " body, mind and estate. " After the decline of feudalism, the abolition of serfdom and the rise of free cities, political power was centralized ; and hereditary mon- archs became its representatives. With the emancipation of mind, by the revival of learning and religion, came improved agri- culture, enlarged commerce and multiplied manufactures. Then, monarchs, merchants and mechanics became the originators of great enterprises and the heralds of material progress. Mon- archs lent their names, merchants their funds and mechanics their hands to the discovery and settlement of a new world. Mechanics built and manned the ships, merchants furnished supplies and wages, and monarchs gave charters and patents to the explorers and colonists. These royal parchments were about as useful to the navigators and pilgrims as were the gilded figure- heads that adorned the prows of their ships. Yet, as society was then constituted, they were as necessary to successful enter- prise as " the cunning hand and cultured brain " of the artisan, or the gathered treasures of merchant princes. Kings furnished neither men nor means, yet they claimed the lion's share of the profits. Isabella is a noble exception to the parsimonious and mercenary character of European rulers. Her wise and gen- erous patronage of Columbus shines out, amid that night of ignorance, like a solitary star through the rent clouds of a mid- night storm.
-O-
CHAPTER IV.
THE RESULTS OF MODERN ENTERPRISE.
In the infancy of science, as in that of the church, " not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, were called." The inventors, discoverers and explorers of the world have been found oftener among artisans and sailors than among scientists and philosophers. Such were Watt and Arkwright, Fulton and Stevenson, Franklin and Morse. Columbus, poor and friendless, leading his little boy through the streets of Mad- rid, beseeching one monarch after another to become god- father to the progeny of his teeming brain, and linally receiv- ing, from the generous queen, a suit of clothes to render his
NEV/ HAMPSHIRE.
»s
preseiit.ition at court possiDle, shows, very plainly, that the kingdom of science, Hlce the kingdom of Heaven, "cometh not with observation. " "Genius finds or makes a way. " The eloquence of the veteran sailor won the ear of royalty, and a woman became the sole patroness of the most memorable mari- time enterprise in the history of the world. A continent was discovered. But the main land was not first reached by Col- umbus. The American continent was discovered by English merchants. The parsimonious Henr)' VII. gave a patent to John Cabot, a Venetian merchant living at Bristol, empower- ing him and his three sons to sail into the Eastern, Western or Northern sea, with five ships, at their own expense, to search for new lands and undiscovered treasures. The avaricious king, who contributed nothing but his sign manual to their commis- sion, required these private adventurers to pay into his exchequer one fifth of all their profits. Such kings deserve to be remem- bered as examples of unmitigated selfishness. The Cabots reached the continent nearly fourteen months before Columbus on his third voyage touched upon the main land. A new patent was issued, in 1498, to John Cabot, less favorable to the explorer than the former; and "the frugal king was himself a partner in the enterprise. " Sebastian Cabot, one of the bravest, noblest and purest of England's sons, explored the whole northern coast of America from Albemarle Sound to Hudson's Bay, in latitude 67° 30 north. The ocean was his home. He followed the seas for half a century, and in extreme old age was so fond of his profession that his last wandering thoughts and words revealed his ruling passion. The fame of these first explorers of the New World kindled a love of adventure in all the states of Western Europe. The great Viionarchs of that age suspended, for a time, their thoughts of war and indulged in dreams of avarice. They were eager to occupy the lands, to work the mines and appropri- ate the fruits of a continent which private enterprise had revealed. They issued patents, commissioned captains and furnished ships for new discoveries. Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, French and English swarmed in all the waters that wash the eastern coast of North America. Like insects in the summer's sun,
"a thousand ways
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd, The quiv'ring nations sport. "
For a time, the fame of Columbus was eclipsed. Slanderous tongues defamed his character, envious rivals wore his laurels, cruel hands manacled his limbs, ungrateful sovereigns withheld 'his reward, and an Italian adventin-er gave his own name to the new continent. Scarcely one of earth's great benefactors has been more unkindly treated than Columbus. Death, which usu- ally extinguishes envy, did not wholly silence rival <~lainis. OH
1 6 HISTORY OK
traditions have been revived to rob him of the originality of con- ceiving as well as executing this great plan of discovery. From very remote times there existed rumors of an unexplored land beyond the pillars of Hercules. Greek and Roman writers made frequent allusion to it. Plato, 400 B. c, speaks of an island larger than Lybia and Asia, called Atlantis, far off in the ocean, which was suddenly submerged by an earthquake. The Car- thaginians and their ancestors, the Phoenicians, were the most distinguished navigators of all antiquity. There can scarcely be a doubt that the Phoenicians sailed round the Cape of Good Hope ; but that abates not one tittle of the glory of Vasco de Gama, who performed the same exploit more than two thousand years later. Tradition also reports that Hanno, the Cartha- nian, sailed westward from the Pillars of Hercules for thirty days in succession ; but, unfortunately, there is no existing record of his voyage. The historian ^^lian, 200 B. c, contains an extract from Theopompus, a writer in the time of Alexander the Great, in which he alludes to a continent in the West, densely populated and exceedingly fertile, with gold and silver in unlimi- ted abundance. In a work ascribed to Aristotle similar allus- ions are found. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, uttered a kind of prophecy of its future discoveiy. He wrote : "The time will come, in future ages, when the Ocean will loosen the chains of nature and a mighty continent will be discovered. A new Tiphys [or pilot] will reveal new worlds and Thule shall no longer be the remotest of lands. " This was a happy conjecture which time has confirmed.
The earlier traditions were chiefly composed of such stuff as dreams are made of, and belong rather to the realms of imagin- ation than history. The Northern nations of Europe, in "the dark ages, can furnish better claims to priority of discovery. The .Scandinavians, from their earliest histor)^ w^ere all seamen. The Northmen were the terror of all Europe long before they ' became its conquerors. The Saxons, Jutes and Angles, in their native homes, were pirates. They came in ships to England in the fifth century. Invited by the Celts as allies, they remained as rulers. The Danes, some centuries later, imitated their ex- amples, and for a time governed the island. Some eight or nine hundred years ago, the Nor\vegians repeatedly visited the American continent. This assertion, like every thing old, is questioned ; yet the preponderance of evidence seems to con- firm it. These old sea-kings visited and explored all the north- ern shores, from Greenland to Rhode Island, and possibly still ■ farther south. They wintered, repeatedly, in a land which they named Vinland, or wine land, from the abundance of grapes that grew there. These were brave old vikings, who deserve a bet-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I7
ter name than that of pirates. That word, however, from its etymology, may yet raise them to the rank of explorers. Ban- croft rather discredits the Icelandic historian who claims this discoveiy for his ancestors. He says : " The nation of intrepid mariners, whose voyages extended beyond Iceland and beyond Sicily, could easily have sailed from Greenland to Labrador ; no clear historic evidence establishes the probability that they accom- plished the passage. Imagination had conceived the idea that vast uninhabited regions lay unexplored in the West ; and poets had declared that empires beyond the ocean would one day be revealed to the daring navigator. But Columbus deserves the undivided gloiy of having realized that belief. "
CHAPTER V.
THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.
The origin of the primitive inhabitants of the new world is still an unsolved problem. No subject of human research has been more fruitful in theories ; none less satisfactory in results. Of all the divisions of our race, according to color, the red men may claim a very early origin and a widely extended dominion. They have flourished in Mongolia, Madagascar, China, Hindoo- stan, Egypt, Etruria and Palestine ; and with the inhabitants of all these countries, the Indians, in their arts, customs and com- parative anatomy, present stronger analogies than with the white or black races. But with no one of them can they be identified. Says Dr. Palfrey : " The symmetrical frame, the cinnamon color of the skin, the long, black, coarse hair, the scant beard, the high cheek bones, the depressed and square forehead set upon a triangular conformation of the lower features, the small, deep- set, shining, snaky eyes, the protuberant lips, the broad nose, the small skull, with its feeble frontal development, make a combina- tion which the scientific observer of some of these marks in the skeleton, and the unlearned eye turned upon the living subject, equally recognize as unlike what is seen in other regions of the globe." Every science that throws light upon the origin and affinities of races has been questioned, but the oracles are dumb, or " palter with us in a double sense." We, to-day, know no better whence they came than did the first explorers who pronounced the natives " to be of tall stature, comely pro-
l8 HISTORY OF
portion, strong, active, and, as it should seem, very healthful." To them the Indians looked like earth-born aborigines, retaining the solid structure and firmness of their kindred hills. There was no sick, decrepit nor feeble person among them. Their war- riors were brave, cunning and apparently invincible.
Their strength, beauty and valor were greatly exaggerated. Upon further inquir)', it was found that none but the most robust constitutions could survive the hardships to which their infancy was exposed ; that a majority of every tribe died 3-oung ; that the number of births among them hardly equaled that of the deaths ; and that only the finest and healthiest specimens of the race were preserved. The reason of the absence of diseased and deformed persons arose from the fact that such were either borne down by the hardships of savage life or left to die, unpitied and alone. The same is true of those decrepit by age. They were often exposed by their children and left to perish by starvation. Of the sick, it has been aptly said : " Death was their doctor, and the grave their hospital." Privation, imprudence and the pestilence have often swept away whole tribes. More of the aborigines of North America have probably fallen by disease than by war. On the first arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth the adjacent territory was literally desolated by an epidemic. In profound peace they have often suffered most. Their indo- lent and filthy habits induced disease. Their remedies were, for the most part, mere charms and incantations ; and consequently they "died like sheep." The Indians of our day know almost nothing of vegetable remedies. They make use of amulets and consecrated medicine-bags as curative agents ; and yet, civilized men often have recourse to these savages to learn the healing art' and, in their simplicity, acquire a knowledge of " simples." Sometimes a veritable Indian doctor appears among us, with more brass than copper in his face, and, by his gravity and so- lemnity in consulting the astronomical signs, in watching the "stellar influences," and in gathering herbs and balsams by moonlight, imposes upon the unwar}', and relieves his patients, not of their diseases, but of their money. Their skill, speed, strength, valor, wisdom and eloquence have all been greatly over-estimated. The American Indians are capable of great ef- forts, when strongly excited, and sometimes show respectable reasoning powers ; but they are neither able to endure sustained and continued labor of mind nor body. Their physical and mental powers are undeveloped and weak. They are more re- markable for agility than strength. They are fleet of foot for limited journeys, and possess almost a canine sagacity of pursu- ing game. When reduced to slaveiy, they droop and die. As trained soldiers they are always inferior to the whites. They
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I9
succeed better in ambuscades and sudden onsets than in
pitched battles.
The aborigines, in their untutored state, possessed neither sci- ence nor culture. In writing they never advanced beyond rude pictorial inscriptions and hieroglyphics. Their implements were made of stone ; their vessels of clay. Their languages abound in metaphors and symbols. They multiply compounds and ex- press a whole sentence in one long word ; hence, philologists de- nominate their languages agglutinative or holophrastic. As in- struments of thought, they are worthless. The Indians are nat- urally stolid and taciturn, not eloquent. Lofty oratory is as rare among them as e.xalted genius. Some of their speeches have been preserved. They were mostly made at treaties, where the red man, with subdued pride, yielded to the claims of the impe- rious white man. Consequently they breathe a sorrowful spirit. They are usually pathetic and touching, sometimes lofty and dig- nified, often bold and magnanimous. They seldom discourse, except on grave and momentous occasions, and then with evi- dent preparation.
Their religion is peculiar. The tribes of North America liave no public worship. In this respect they differ from the Aztecs of Mexico and Central America. They held common assemblies and reared public altars where their horrid rites were celebrated. The religion of the northern tribes is chiefly private and particu- lar ; each man entertaining his own superstitious notions respect- ing his relations to his Deities. " The Indian god," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " exists in a dualistic form ; there is a malign and a benign type of him ; and there is a continual strife, in every pos- sible form, between these two antagonistical powers, for the mas- tery over the mind. Legions of subordinate spirits attend both. Nature is replete with them. \A'hen the eye fails to recognize them in material forms, they are revealed in dreams. Necro- mancy and witchcraft are two of their ordinarj' powers." The Great and Good Spirit, so much talked of by Indian admirers, as corresponding to Jehovah of the Jews, seems to receive far less notice from them than liis malignant antagonist. The great ob- ject of their worship is to propitiate or avert evil demons. They literally pay divine honors to devils. All diseases are the work of evil spirits ; hence incantations and exorcisms are among their most potent remedies. They are fatalists with regard to their own destiny. Evei-y event is unalterably determined by fixed laws ; hence they never blame their medicine men for failing to make good their splendid promises. They believe in the im- mortality of the soul. Departed spirits go to the islands of the blest to be compensated for the evils suffered in this world. Their mytliology is a chaos of wild and incoherent fancies.
20 HISTORY OF
Some portions of it have been gracefully illustrated by Mr. Long- fellow, in that unique poem entitled " Hiawatha."
Their manners and customs have been graphically portrayed by Mr. Cooper in "The Last of the Mohicans." Their virtues have been eulogized by Mr. Catlin, who visited forty-five tribes for the purpose of painting the portraits of their chiefs. He says : " In all these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the absence of all jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace, happiness and quietness reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors might envy them. I have seen rights and virtues protected and wrongs redressed. I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the simplicity and contentedness of nature." His picture is painted in bright and glowing colors. While reading his honest praise, we for the moment feel inclined to adopt the reasoning of Rousseau and denounce civilized life as a state of degradation and long for the return of that age of primeval innocence when
"Wild in the woods, the nol.le savage ran."
Catlin's climax of Indian woes is thus stated: "White men, whiskey, tomahawks, scalping knives, guns, powder and ball, small-po.x, debauchery, extermination." There is a dark side to this picture, which the early settlers of New England saw to their sorrow. They tried to live peaceably with the Indians and could not. The apostle anciently prayed to be delivered from "unreasonable and wicked men." Such were the savages of New England, when the Puritans first set foot upon its shores. The Indians of our day have, undoubtedly, been cheated by pol- iticians, robbed by speculators and demoralized by adventurers. The strong have deceived and oppressed the weak ; the craft}' have cheated the simple ; the Christian has corrupted the sav- age ; and the words in which Bryant has expressed the lament of an Indian chief are fearfully true :
" They waste us — ay — like April snow. In the warm noon, we shrink away; And fast they follow, as we go Towards the settiiy; day. Till they shall fill the land and__we Are driven to
But there is no propriety in imputing modern vices and crimes to our ancestors. The Massachusetts colonists sincerely sought to civilize and christianize the red man. In a few years more than four thousand praying Indians were gathered into churches by Eliot and Mahew ; but, true to their natural instincts, when war came they joined the enemies of the colonists and were ex- terminated. When, therefore, the Indian eulogist points to the decaying and retreating tribes of the South and West and tri- umphantly asks : " Where are the Indians of New England ? " I
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 21
answer, with all confidence, Extinct by the Providence of God — through improvidence and crime their own executioners !
New Hampshire, during colonial times, was possessed by as many as twelve different tribes of Indians, taking their names from some local peculiarity of the lands or streams where they had their homes. Many of these names remain to this day, like the old Celtic names in England, and mark the abodes of the primitive inhabitants, while not a solitary descendant of theirs lives within the limits of the state. Nashua, Souhegan, Amos- keak, Swamscott, Merrimack, Winnipiseogee and Ossipee are of Indian origin. The meaning of these names has been variously given by different philologists. Such etymologies can rarely be trusted. When foreigners first began to write Indian words as they heard them from the savages, it was difficult to determine their true sounds. It was rare for two authors to represent the same name by the same letters. Winnipiseogee, it is said, has been spelled in forty different ways. A few Indian names of rivers and mountains have, probably, been rightly interpreted. These enduring names are the only memorials the red men have left upon the physical features of the state.
Mr. Hubert Hare Bancroft, of San Francisco, is preparing an elaborate work on " The native Races of the Pacific States of North America." The first volume, an octavo of 797 pages, treats of the wild Indians alone. Of these he enumerates six great families and more than seven hundred tribes, living in pre- historic times, west of the Rocky Mountains. His purpose is to delineate the character of the various races of aborigines from the Arctic ocean to the Caribbean sea. His library of In- dian lore amounts to about eighteen thousand volumes. As these books all belong to modern times, it is doubtful whether the collation of them will satisfactorily answer these great ques- tions : Are the natives of America of one race ? Are they a degraded people, or do they occupy now their highest plane of development .' Did they build those mighty structures whose ruins exist to-day in Central America and Mexico ? If the red men of the North were a distinct race, did they belong to the stone or bronze age ? Mr. Bancroft, will, undoubtedly, throw great light upon the habits, customs and mythology of the abor- igines of our country ; but no research of his, no critical sagac- ity, can tell us whence they came or what was their primitive condition. He evidently joins the ranks of Indian advocates. He says : " Left alone, the natives of America might have un- folded into as bright a civilization as that of Europe." All his- tory teaches a different lesson. Savages do not rise by their unaided efforts. Mr. Parkman, commenting upon Mr. Bancroft's conclusions respecting the proper mode of dealing with our
22 HISTORY OF
Indian tribes, who now number about three hundred thousand
souls, says :
" A word touching our recent Indian policy. To suppose that presents, blandishments and kind treatment, even when not counteracted b}' the fraud and lawlessness of white men, can restrain these banditti from' molesting travelers and settlers is a mistake. Robbery and murder have become to them a second nature, and, as just stated, a means of living. The chief ene- mies of peace in the Indian country are the philanthropist, the politician and the border ruffian; that is to say, the combination of soft words with rascal- ity and violence. An Apache, a Comanche, or an Arapahoe neither respects nor comprehends assurances of fraternal love. In most cases he takes them as evidence of fear. The Government whose emissaries caress him and preach to him, whose officials cheat him, and whose subjects murder him, is not likely to soothe him into ways of peace. The man best fitted to deal with Indians of hostile dispositions is an honest, judicious and determined soldier. To protect them from ruffians worse than themselves, strictly to ob- serve every engagement, to avoid verbiage, and speak on occasion with a de- cisive clearness, absolutely free from sentimentality, to leave no promise and no threat unfulfilled, to visit every breach of peace with a punishment as prompt as circumstances will permit, to dispense witli courts and juries and substitute a summary justice, and to keep speculators and adventurers from abusing them — such means as these on the one hand, or extermination on the other, will alone keep such tribes as the Apaches quiet. They need an officer equally just and vigorous; and our regular army can furnish such. They need an army more numerous than we have at present ; and as its business would be to restrain white men no less than Indians, they need in the execu- tive a courage to which democracy and the newspaper sensation-monger are wofuUy averse. Firmness, consistency and justice are indispensable in deal- ing with dangerous Indians, and so far as we fail to supply them we shall fail of success. Attempts at conciliation will be worse than useless, unless there is proof, manifest to their savage understandmg, that such attempts do not proceed from weakness or fear."
-O-
CHAPTER VI.
TITLE TO THE SOIL.
The right of property, in a new country, is based on discov- ery, conquest or occupation. If occupation gives the best title, the Indians certainly owned this continent ; for they possessed it, from the frozen north to Patagonia. In a countiy previously unexplored, cultivation would seem to be good evidence of own- ership. It is a dictate of justice that any man may appropriate and till so much of nature's wilderness as is necessary for his support. " Moreover, the profit of the earth is for all : the king himself is ser\'ed by the field," says the wise man. The Indians possessed, by metes and bounds, only a few acres of the entire
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 2$
continent. It would not seem reasonable that God designed that one half the earth should remain a wilderness ; and that every roving hunter should hold a park of his own, and retain it for his sole use, when the rest of the world was crowded with inhabitants. Is it in accordance with natural justice, that a sin- gle lordly savage should roam over thousands of acres, while hundreds of other men, better than himself, were suffering for food ? Were the wild beasts his as well as their lairs and feed- ing grounds ? Had no stranger a right of warren in these pri- meval forests ? Was the red man the sole proprietor of the soil and of the game that fed upon it ? He was fust there, and ac- cording to the law of nations owned it by discovery. He had the best title to that portion of the territory which he had culti- vated that political philosophy ever devised. Possibly, if the history of the aborigines could be recovered, he owned it by conquest, for the mounds and remains of art testify to an earlier occupation of the country than that of the red men. Accord- ing to that body of rules made by the strong for the weak, called International Law, the Indian was the rightful owner of the soil ; but his title, being only vague and presumptive when tested by natural justice, could be easily vacated by purchase or conquest. The New England colonists did generally purchase their lands from the Indians. They paid but small sums and in articles of little value to themselves, yet the Indians prized them highly ; and they alone had a right to judge of the worth of their terri- tory and of the price of the goods given in exchange for it. They sold willingly and received the pay with joy. The settlers of New Hampshire were perhaps less careful than others to ex- tinguish the Indian claim, because chartered companies and royal proprietors assumed the ownership of the soil. And here we may ask, what right had European monarchs to grant lands more extensive than their own kingdoms ? King James I. of England gave away territories ten times larger than his own lit- tle realm, on the plea that English navigators had visited the shores of the new world and thus acquired, by discovery, a title, not only to all the coast but to all the land that lay behind it, even to the Pacific Ocean. His charters extended from sea to sea and from " the river to the ends of the earth." Human gov- ernments are said to be of divine origin, because justice, reason, conscience and inspiration all unite to enforce obedience to them ; but neither justice vindicates, nor reason demonstrates, nor conscience approves, nor scripture confirms a title to new territory- because it has fallen under the eye of an exploring nav- igator or been marked by the foot-prints of an invading army. But the public good seemed to require some rules called laws, expressly or tacitly approved by the nations of Christendom, to
24 HISTORY OF
regulate the conduct of explorers ; and this international code was usually dictated by the strongest. So the world has ever been governed ; for there is not a kingdom or state on earth that is not based on conquest ; not a rood of land occupied by man that was not wrested from previous owners by force. " I have observed," said the infidel Frederick the Great, " that Provi- dence always favors the strong battalions."
-O-
CHAPTER VII.
ENGLISH CHARTERED COMPANIES.
" A belt of twelve degrees on the American coast, embracing the soil from Cape Fear to Halifax, except perhaps a little spot then actually possessed by the French called Acadia, was set apart by James I. in 1606, to be colonized by two rival compa- nies." He divided this territory into two nearly equal parts ; the one, called North Virginia, extending from the forty-first to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude ; the other, named South Virginia, from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-eighth degree. The district lying between these limits was open to both companies ; but neither was allowed to make settlements within one hundred miles of the other. The northern portion was granted to a company of " knights, gentlemen and merchants " from the west of England called "the Plymouth Company;" the southern half to a company of " noblemen, gentlemen and merchants," mostly residing in the Capital and called " the London Company." The king was the sole governor of these immense territories, because he retained in his own hands the appointment of all officers both at home and abroad. He also, like a feudal lord, exacted homage and rent. One-fifth of all the precious metals and one-fifteenth of copper were to be returned to the royal treasury. So this English Solomon, who was called by Sully " the wisest fool in Christendom," granted lands to which he had no title and exacted rents to which he had no claim. Not an element of popular liberty was introduced into these charters ; the colonists were not recognized at all as a source of political power ; they were at the mercy of a double-headed tyranny com- posed of the king and his advisers, the Council and their agents. But liberty, like hope in Pandora's box, lay at the bottom. The Council of Plymouth received a new charter dated November 3,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 2$
1620, granting all the lands between the fortieth and forty-eighth degree of North latitude, and from sea to sea. This territory was called " New England in America." The Council held this immense area " as absolute property, with unlimited jurisdiction and tlie sole power of legislation."
CHAPTER VIII.
COLONIES ANCIENT AND MODERN.
It was a beautiful custom of the Greeks to send from home their young adventurers, with a public consecration, under the guardianship of their tutelary divinities. The colonists departed as the childi-en, not as the subjects, of the state. Their political relations at home were exchanged for those of filial affection and religious reverence abroad. They owed to their native land nothing but patriotism and allegiance. In their new homes they built temples and dedicated them to the gods their fathers wor- shiped, and honored them with ancestral rights. Priests from the metropolis ministered at the new altars. The sacred fire, that was kept constantly burning on the sacred hearth of the colony, was taken from the altar of Vesta in the Council Hall of their old home. The colonies often surpassed the parent state in wealth and commerce ; and thus the mother recei\-ed both honor and profit frojn the child. The colonial system of the Greek republics was, in every instance, a sort of family com- pact, limited in its scope and national in its purpose. Their motives were too low, their views too contracted, for the promo- tion of universal civilization. They did not emigrate, like our ancestors, to secure civil liberty or to enjoy religious freedom. There was nothing in the religion or culture of that age to in- spire high purposes or to create the energy necessary for their execution.
The colonies of Rome were purely military. Their sole ob- jects were power and dominion. Emigrants from Rome, se- lected by the government and forced from home, settled in the conquered provinces and governed them by force, exacting men for Roman armies and tribute for the Roman treasury. Extor- tion and rapacity followed in the train of conquering armies, and the provinces were often depleted and exhausted by Republican and Imperial indictions. Taxation and slavery rained the coun-
26 HISTORY OF
try ; and the heart of the metropolis beat more faintly as the extremities grew weaker. The colonies lived with the mother, flourished and fell with her. They were mere instruments of power, not agents of progress.
The dark ages had no colonies. It was the business of the lord to fight, of the serf to toil. There was no surplus popula- tion. War devoured the people and their substance, and there was no cogent reason for emigration. All known countries were alike ; and, until free cities arose, liberty had no home in Eu- rope. After those causes which have already been enumerated had operated to awaken the public mind and stimulate enter- prise, modern colonies began to be formed. The Spaniards took the lead in the planting of colonies upon the newly discovered continent and islands. The West India settlements were made by them, for the investment of capital in large estates, to be cul- tivated by slaves. The owners seldom occupied the soil they cultivated ; and they did not feel at home on their own planta- tions. Like the Irish absentee land-owners, they lived in luxury at the capital or in foreign lands, and extorted the means of their enjoyment from their poor dependants by means of mid- dle-men or overseers. This fact accounts even for the present depressed condition of the West Indies. In Mexico and South America, they sought chiefly for the precious metals, and when mining became unprofitable their colonies declined.
The French colonies on this continent have never been very flourishing. They have increased in numbers and remained sta- tionaiy in culture. This is due partly to the influence of race, but still more to that of religion. The French population con- stitutes to-day the majority in Lower Canada. They are an ig- norant, bigoted and priest-ridden people, opposed to progress, material, moral and intellectual. They are averse to change in laws, customs and the processes of labor, even when it would be manifestly for their good. Their chief interest is in the church ; and education and legislation must yield to its dictation. This principle is the corner-stone of the papacy. Pius IX., the so- called Vicar of Christ upon earth, in his recent Encyclical letter, writes :
" Neither must we neglect to teach that royal power is given to some men not only for the government of the world, but, above all, for the protection of the church ; and that nothing can be more advantageous or more glorious for kings and governors than to conform themselves to the words which our most wise and courageous predecessor, Saint Felix, wrote to the Emperor Zeno, ' to leave the church to govern herself with her own laws, and to allow no one to put any obstacle in the w.ay of her liberty 1 ' In fact, it is certain that it is for their interest, whenever they are concerned with matters relat- ing to God, scrupulously to follow the order which he has prescribed, and not to prefer but to subordinate the royal will to that of the priests of Christ."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 2J
The New England colonies differed, in origin, purpose and re- sults, from those of all other nations ancient and modern. The Pilgrims came to this countiy to make a permanent home. The motives that prompted their emigration were religious rather than secular. Not gain but godliness drove them into the wil- derness. In the words of the noblest orator among their de- scendants, " A new existence awaited them here ; and when they saw these shores, rough, cold, barbarous and barren, as they then were, they beheld their country. That mixed and strong feeling which we call love of country, and which is in general never ex- tinguished in the heart of man, grasped and embraced its proper object here. Whatever constitutes country, except the earth and the sun, all the moral causes of affection and attachment which operate upon the heart, they brought with them to their new alDode."
The New England colonies were chiefly devoted to the culti- vation of the soil. This is the true secret of their unparalleled success ; for agriculture is the oldest of all arts, the parent of all civilization and the support of all permanent prosperity. The Creator ordained it in the beginning as the chief occupa- ■ tion of man. Commerce and manufactures are its legitimate offspring. These elements of national greatness are the natural fruits of colonial industry. They have made the American peo- ple invincible ; for " a threefold cord is not easily broken."
, CHAPTER IX.
EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST.
After the voyages of the Cabots, above described, the Por- tuguese Caspar Cortereal, a. d. 1500, and the Florentine Ver- razzano, A. d. 1524, in the employment of the French visited the same coasts. Thus was laid the foundation of a future quarrel respecting the title to these territories. In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, a bold adventurer from England, who had previously been a companion of Sir Walter Raleigh in his attempts to col- onize Virginia, sailed across the Atlantic in a small bark, and in seven weeks reached the continent near Nahant. He dis- covered Cape Cod and, with four men, landed upon it. This Cape was the first land in New England ever trod by the feet of men from old England. Gosnold planned a colony, but it failed.
28 HISTORY OF
The French now became dangerous rivals of the English in ex- ploring these territories ; consequently a new love of adventure sprung up in our fatherland. Merchants of Bristol raised one thousand pounds and sent out tv/o small vessels under the com- mand of Martin Pring, or Prynne, in April, 1603. Pring visited the coast of Maine and examined the mouths of the Saco, Ken- nebunk and York rivers. He also visited the Piscataqua, being the first navigator who approached the territory of New Hamp- shire. He saw "goodly groves and woods and sundry sorts of beasts, but no people." In his first voyage he commanded the Speedwell, a ship of fifty tons and thirty men, and the Discoverer, a bark of twenty-six tons and thirteen men. This visit was in June, and the wilderness was robed in its best attire. They explored the Piscataqua for twelve miles but concluded " to pierce not far into the land. " Pring made a second voyage, and explor- ed more accurately the coast of Maine.
In 1605, some English noblemen sent out George Weymouth on an expedition of discovery. He visited the coast of Maine also, and decoyed on board five of the natives, whom he carried to England. Three of these Indians he gave to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then governor of Plymouth. Gorges took them to his house and educated them, "for three full years," that he might learn from them the history of their native land. Sir John Pop- ham, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, united with Gorges in fitting out a new expedition. In May, 1607, two ships sailed from Plymouth, with two of these Indians on board as guides and interpreters. They planted a colony whose brief history is more fully set forth in the next chapter. They named their first fort St. George. The celebrated French explorer, Champlain, is said to have visited the harbor of Piscataqua in July, 1605, and to have discovered the Isles of Shoals. He landed upon the shores of the river, probably at Odiorne's Point, which he called " Cape of Islands," and made presents to some savages whom he found there. If this report be authentic, he probably was the first white man who set foot upon the soil of New Hampshire ; for we have no evidence that Pring, in 1603, left his ship for the land.
The next adventurer that appears in the field of historical vis- ion, on the shores of New Englana, is the famous John Smith, whose whole biography surpasses the creations of the imagina- tion. He wa*s from 1606 to 1615 the most illustrious of Ameri- can explorers. He claims, justly perhaps, "to have brought New England to the subjection of Great Britain. " In 1614 he examined the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod and made a map of the adjacent countiy, which he presented to Prince Charles, who adopted the name which Smith had given to it, and it was called " New England. " On this voyage he visited
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 29
the mouth of the Piscataqua and described it as " a safe harbor and a rocky shore." Pring, as above related, entered the same river in 1603 ; but the greater fame of Smith gave more im- portance to his description and excited new interest in the lands he visited. Several years, however, elapsed before other e.xplor- ers turned their prows to the same shores and entered the deep waters of the Piscataqua. Smith also discovered the Isles of Shoals and named them " Smith's Isles. " This name ought to have been retained. The substitution of another robs the dis- coverer of his true glory and, as in the case of Columbus, gives to a subaltern the honor of the leader.
Capt. John Smith, himself the noblest of adventurers, says in his description of New England :
"Who would live at home idly, or think in himself any worth only to eat, drink and sleep, and so die ? or by consuming that carelessly his friends got worthily .' or by using that miserably that maintained virtue honestly } or, for being descended nobly, pine with the vain vaunt of great kindred, in penury? or (to maintain a silly show of bravery) toil out thy heart, soul and time basely, by shifts, tricks, cards and dice ? or by relating news of others' actions shark here and there for a dinner or a supper, deceive thy friends by fair promises and dissimulation in borrowing where thou never intendest to pay, offend the laws, surfeit with excess, burden thy country, abuse thyself, despair in want and then cozen thy kindred, yea, even thine own brother, and wish thy parents' death ( I will not say damnation) to have their estates ? though thou seest what honors and rewards the world yet hath for those who will seek t^hem and worthily deserve them. "
CHAPTER X.
PROPRIETORS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
In every nation, community and tribe are found men of action and men of reflection, adventurers and quiet stayers-at-home. Those who emigrate explore new countries and subdue them, found new states and govern them. Such men are usually pro- gressive. Among them have been found the heroes, law-givers, inventors and discoverers of the world. The passive members of the household or state, who prefer to "abide by the stuff, " repair and adorn the old homesteads, till their " natal soil " and live on its fruits, promote the arts of peace and accumulate wealth. Both classes are necessary to the highest civilization. The discovery of a new continent stirred the ocean of life, through all Christen- dom, to its vei7 depths. All classes were seized with the "ac- cursed hunger of gold. " Kings and nobles were moved by
30 HISTORY OF
ambition as well as avarice. In England, merchants, traders, factors and adventurers sought to found families and acquire landed estates. Even the pauper and criminal classes were swept into the great western tide. Like David of old, each leader had his retainers. " Eveiy one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discon- tented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became captain over them."
Sir Humphrey Gilbert first attempted the colonization of Amer- ica, but failed to make a permanent settlement. Sir Walter l^a- leigh and Sir Richard Grenville were likewise unsuccessail. Sir Ferdinaudo Gorges is by many regarded as "the Fathei of English Colonization in America. " The voyages of Gosnold in 1602, of Pring in 1603, and of Weymouth in 1605, were under the guidance and patronage of Gorges. As early as 1606, through his influence a charter was obtained of King James, under whose authority he planted a colony at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, now Kennebec, of which George Popham, brother of the Chief Justice of England, was president. It was named Popham in honor of the chief justice, who with Gorges was greatly instrumental in procuring the charter, though their own names did not appear in it. Two ships and one hundred and twenty men sailed from Old Plymouth, England, May 31, 1607, O. S., to plant a colony on the coast of Maine. The charter under which these planters acted gave to them "' the continent of North America, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, extending one hundred miles into the main land, and including all islands of the sea within one hundred miles of the shore. "
Gorges and the Earl of South Hampton petitioned for th^ charter. It was granted to "the Council of Virginia." No copy remains. This charter took precedence of all others. This col- ony failed, the governor died within a year of his landing, and the colonists returned to England in 1608, in a ship of their own building, the first ship built on this continent. This colony, so brief in duration, was of great importance to England, because it gave to the government the plea of title by occupancy prior to the French. Gorges says : " The planting of colonies in America was undertaken for the advancement of religion, the enlargement of the bounds of our nation and the employment of many thousands of all sorts of people." It is doubted to this day, whether profit or piety, gain or godliness, was the stronger motive in Gorges. Mr. Poor, his eulogist, gives him the credit of planting Plym"Uth. He obtained a charter for the Pilgrims November 3, 1620. They sailed under the Virginia charter, and Gorges sent the new one to them. Ferdinando
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 31
Gorges and John Mason were active members of the Council of Plymouth. Gorges was a man of superior intellect and daunt- less courage. During the reign of Elizabeth he was associated with Raleigh, the scholar, statesman, warrior and "flower of courtesy," in his attempts at colonizing Virginia. He was also the friend of Essex, who was first the object of the queen's love, then the victim of her rage. Gorges was involved in some of the illegal plots of Essex and, like Bacon, whom Pope calls
"The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind,"
became the accuser of his benefactor and thus lost favor with the people. In 1604 he was made Governor of Pl3anouth, in Eng- land. Here his restless spirit chafed in confinement. He had his eye constantly fixed on the New World. Through his agency John Smith was employed, by the Council of Plymouth, to ex- plore New England. Gorges also fitted out an expedition of his own, "under color of fishing and trade," commanded by Richard Vines, in 1616, to gain more accurate knowledge of the country and its inhabitants. "This course," says Gorges, "I held some years together, but nothing to my private profit ; for what I got in one way I spent in another, so that I began to grow weary of that business, as not for my turn till better times." Into these few lines is crowded the history of many noble enterprises, planned by wise heads and executed by brave hearts, which yielded no profit to the originators but greatly en- riched posterity.
While Gorges was becoming despondent, under repeated losses, he became acquainted with Captain John Mason, who had been Governor of Newfoundland, who v.'as also " a man of action " and a kindred spirit. The union of these leaders kindled new enthusiasm. They immediately sought and obtained a grant of land in New England, to be the basis of their pro- spective nobility. Copies of several charters still exist, differ- ing in dates and origin, both from the king and Council of Ply- mouth, covering territoiy which included a large portion of New Hampshire as it is now bounded. Dr. Belknap quotes one which granted " all the land from the river Naumkeag, now Salem, round Cape Ann, to the ri-\-er Merrimack ; and up each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof ; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other, with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast." This grant shows the profound ignorance of the geography of the countr}', both of grantors and grantees. They doubtless thought that the Naum- keag had its origin far in the interior of the country, and that the Merrimack through its whole course flowed eastward. The territor}' thus granted was called Mariana, probably meaning the sea-board. The usual mode of describing territory in those
32 HISTORY OF
charters was to make the coast between the mouths of two riv- ers the southern boundery, then follow up those rivers sixfy miles for the eastern and western boundaries, then unite these two points in the rivers by a straight line to complete the de- scription. So " the Province of Maine " was granted by King James to Gorges and Mason, on the tenth of August, 1622, bounded by the rivers Sagadahoc, now Kennebec, and the Merrimack. A patent from the Council of Plymouth, of the same date, covering the same territory, is said to be in existence. Ijiii: Palfrey says : "In the same year [1622] the Council granted to Gorges and Mason the country bounded by the Merrimack, the Kennebec, the ocean and the river of Canada, and this territory was called Laconia." It was so named from the /a/ies lying within these boundaries. By other historians it is said to extend "back to the great lakes and the river of Canada." What lakes are meant by this vague description it is imposible to say ; nor can the limits of that grant be determined. The Council gave what they never owned, set bounds which had never been seen, fixed lines that had never been surveyed and laid the foundation for countless quarrels in future years. Under such auspices the colonization of New Hampshire commenced.
CHAPTER XI.
FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Soon after the grant of Laconia was made to Mason and Gorges, they united with themselves merchants from six of the principal cities of England and formed the " Company of La- conia." They resolved to plant a colony on the Piscataqua river to mine, trade and fish there. In the Spring of 1623 they sent over several persons, with provisions and tools of every descrip- tion necessary to make a permanent home. The exact date of their arrival can not be ascertained. "No glories blaze round the bark of the earliest dwellers at Piscataquack." Even the name of the captain of that "nameless bark" is lost. The State of New Hampshire lives to prove his existence. Among the first immigrants were David Thompson, a Scotchman, and Edward and William Hilton, who had been fishmongers of Lon- don. This company of settlers formed two divisions. Thomp- son and his men made their home near the mouth of the westerly
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 33
branch of the Piscataqua, where "Little Harbor" opens into
" the great and wide sea."
On Odiorne's Point, near " Little Harbor, " the first framed house erected in the state was built. The first settlers were sent by the Laconia Company, " to found a plantation on Pis- cataqua river, to cultivate the vine, discover mines, carry on the fisheries, and trade with the natives." The house first built, un- der the direction of David Thompson, was called " The Manor House ; " afterward, " Mason Hall ." The cellar and well still exist, to tell their own storj'. At the second Portsmouth cen- tennial, in 1823, Mr. Haven said:
" Two hundred years ago, the place on which we stand was an uncultivated forest. The rough and vigorous soil was still covered with stately trees, which had been for ages intermingling their branches and deepening their shade. The river, which now bears on its bright and pure waters the treas- ures of distant climates, and whose rapid current is stemmed and vexed by the arts and enterprise of man, then only rippled against the rocks and re- flected back the wild and grotesque thickets which overhung its banks. The mountain, which now swells on our left and raises its verdant sides 'shade above shade,' was then almost concealed by the lofty growth which covered the intervening plains. Behind us, a deep morass, extending across the northern creek, almost enclosed the little ' Bank' which is now the seat of so much life and industry."
From a beautiful poetic apostrophe to this ancient stream, I will quote a single stanza :
" Through how many rolling ages
Have thy waters, broad and tree, In their grandeur and their beauty,
Swept their current to the sea! Thou hast seen the tangled wildwood,
Where the lonely wigwam rose ; Thou hast echoed the wi!d war-whoop
When red men met their foes! "
These noble words, with the voice of the "sounding sea," which now rolls " sucfi as creation saw her, " (for
*' Time writes no wrinkles on her azure brow, ")
carry us back, not merely to the infancy of our republic, but to the first "upheaval " of our continent. It is enough, however, to stand where our ancestors first landed, and commenced the im- proving labors of ages yet to come and generations yet unborn.
In 1631, "the Great House" was built by Humphrey Chad- bourne, about three miles up the Piscataqua from " Mason Hall." The ground was then covered with strawberries, which circumstance, for thirty years, caused that territory on which the compact part of the city is now built to be called " Strawberry Bank." This house was also the property of John Mason. In 1646 it passed into the hands of Richard Cutt; and at his de- cease, in 1676, it becaine the property of his brother. President John Cutt, who, in 1680, bequeathed it to his son .Samuel. In 1685 it was in ruins. So fell " the Great House." 3
34 HISTORY OF
On the north side of Little Harbor still stands the house of Benning Wentworth, who was for twenty-five years Governor of the Royal Province of New Hampshire. It is a very irregular old pile, apparently built in several parts, rising one above an- other, or attached as L's to the original structure. There are in the house several very valuable pictures, handed down as heir- looms to the decendants of the first owner. There is a good portrait of the Earl of Strafford, who was beheaded in the time of Charles I. It is copied from an original painting by Van- dyck. The face is a very striking one, sliowing the energy, de- cision and severity characteristic of the man. He was one of the "great men" of that century, though, unfortunately, the sup- porter of an imbecile and treacherous king. There is also a full-length likeness of Richard Waldron, jr., the son of that brave old man who at Dover was hacked to pieces by the In- dians. Mrs. Hancock, likewise, graces those old and crumbling walls, with a face and figure as beautiful and graceful as Hebe.
Mr. Brewster, in his " Rambles about Portsmouth," has given us the best description extant of the early settlement of that city. He writes as follows :
" A few rods southwest of the fort, at Odiorne's Point, they erected their fish flakes, which gave the name of Flake Hill to the knoll. During the first few years of the existence of the colony, the people suffered every hardship ; and, not being acclimated, many of them were carried off by disease. The graves of such are still to be seen, a few rods north of the site of the fort ; and it is worthy of remark that the moss-covered cobble-stones at the head and foot of the graves still remain as placed by mourners two hundred and fifty years ago, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with our state, stand like sturdy sentinels, extending their ancient arras over the sleepers below."
Odiorne's Point, where Thompson and his party settled, is a peninsula, in the town of Rye. It is at all times nearly sur- rounded by water, and in the highest tides actually becomes an island. Here the colonists reared the first house and other stmctures necessary for labor and defence. They manufactured salt for the curing of fish, cultivated the land and traded with the natives.
The Hiltons went up the Piscataqua eight miles, to a place which they called "the Neck," a point of land formed by a tributary entering the principal river. The land was then cov- ered, to the water's edge, with dense forests, beneath whose shades wild beasts had their lairs. The rivers abounded with fish and fowls. Here the brothers resolved to make their home. The place was called, successively, Hilton's Point, Cocheco, Northam and Dover.
Thompson, the overseer of the settlement at I/ittle Harbor, became discontented ; and, in the Spring of 1624, removed to
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 35
an island in Massachusetts Bay, wliich lias ever since borne his name.
These two plantations owe their existence to ardent enthu- siasm, extravagant expectations, and liberal contributions of Gorges and Mason. For several years they made little pro- gress ; and the expense of maintaining them far exceeded the income they yielded to the proprietors.
The new movement that was made in 1631, in the settlement of "Strawberry Bank," advanced slowly; and, after the lapse of thirty years from the arrival of the first settlers in the Piscataqua, Portsmouth contained only fifty or sixty families. The Indians in the vicinity remained at peace for several years, and quietly hunted the wild beasts of the woods, whose skins they bartered with the settlers for such goods as they needed. In 1628 the colonists were alarmed at meeting the natives, in the forest near Dover, hunting with fire-arms. Upon inquiry, they learned that they had been sold by Thomas Morton, who had gathered around him a dissolute company of disorderly persons and out- laws, at a place since called Braintree, but named by him "Merry Mount." Morton was seized by the magistrates of Plymouth, and sent a prisoner to England. Future generations were made bitterly to rue the day when this heedlfss wretch first put fire- arms into the hands of the savages. It does not appear that Mason and Gorges made any effort to extinguish the title of the natives to the lands they occupied. These roaming red men were not supposed by them to have any rights which white men were bound to respect. Those who actually occupied the soil thought differently. Hon. Charles Bell, in his semi-centennial discourse before the New Hampshire Historical Society, says : "There is abundant ^-idence still surviving to show that every rood of land occupied by the white men, for a century after they sat down at Piscataquack, was fairly purchased from the Indian proprietors and honestly paid for."
In 1638, a settlement was begun on Swamscot river, by a small company of emmigrants from Massachusetts, who had been ban- ished on account of heresy. Religious opinions then controlled politics and legislation. The questions of creeds were then more prominent than those of rights. It was oftener asked. What shall I believe ? than. What shall I do ?
The leader of these Massachusetts exiles, John Wheelwright, was a man of superior endowments and high culture. He was educated for the ministr)', but adopted Puritan opinions ; hence he emigrated to Boston, in 1636, three years after "the learned, mild and catholic Cotton," who immediately became, according to Puritan usage, a teacher in the church of which Mr. \Mlson was pastor. Mr. Wheehvright was at once made a freeman in
36 HISTORY OF
the State, and a member of that Boston church which was styled "the most glorious church in the world, both for their faith and order and their eminent gifts of utterance and knowledge." It was agreed that the occupants of Mount Wallaston, now Quincy, which was deemed an appendage of Boston, should constitute a separate church, and that Mr. Wheelwright should become their pastor.
A new actor now appears upon the stage. In 1634, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, wife of William Hutchinson, came to Massachusetts from Alford, near Boston, England. She was a woman of su- perior endowments and held peculiar religious views. She says : " After our teacher, Mr. Cotton, and my brother, Mr. Wheelwright, were put down, there was none in England that I durst hear." She therefore followed Mr. Cotton to America. Mr. Wheel- wright soon followed her and became her disciple. Mrs. Hutch- inson came in the very vessel which bore a copy of the royal commission for calling in the charters of the colonies. At such a time local divisions, for any cause, were dangerous. Win- throp thus alludes to her, in his history : " One, Mrs. Hutch- inson, a member of the church of Boston, a woman of ready wit and bold spirit, brought over with her two dangerous errors ; ist, that the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justilied person ; 2d, that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justifi- cation. From these errors grew many branches ; as first, our union with the Holy Ghost, so as a Christian remains dead to every spiritual action, and hath no gifts nor graces, other than such as are in hypocrites ; nor any other sanctification than the Holy Ghost himself." This belief was called "Antinomianism." Mrs. Hutchinson soon formed a powerful party, who favored her views. She became a bold and caustic critic of the clergy who opposed her views, and denounced them as under a " covenant of works." She held assemblies twice a week, for a time, for those of her own sex, at which nearly a hundred hearers were in attendance. Governor Vane adopted her views. All the mem- bers of the Boston church, except five, became her followers. Among these five were Mr. Wilson, the pastor, and Winthrop, late governor of the colony. The countrj- towns opposed her. The controversy became fierce ; friends were estranged and the public peace endangered. When Wilson, the pastor, rose to speak, Mrs. Hutchinson and her partisans rose and walked out. Mr. Cotton was the colleague of Wilson, and was the favorite of the new zealots. An Indian war was impending; and when a force was ordered to take the field for the salvation of the settle- ments, the Boston men refused to be mustered, because they suspected the chaplain, who had been designated by lot to ac- company the expedition, of being under "a covenant of works."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 37
The colony was reduced to a state bordering on anarchy, by the eloquence and zeal of one factious woman. Eveiy church, in every town of Massachusetts, and the " Great and General Court" were divided and distracted by the abstract questions that grew out of this discussion.
"On the occasion of these dissentions in the churches," the General Court proclaimed a fast. Mr. Wheelwright was ap- pointed to preach the sermon. The excitement was increased. The contending factions became more violent. Mr. Wheelwright was charged by his opponents with the heresy of "antinomiaiiism." A majority of the church were his partisans ; it would not, there- fore, be for the public good that they should ivy the offender. The elders and civil magistrates succeeding in bringing the ac- cused before the General Court, it was decided that in case of "manifest heresy, dangerous to the state," the Court could pro- ceed without the previous action of the church. Mr. Wheel- wright was arraigned, heard and adjudged guilty of sedition and contempt. The Boston church petitioned, and this act was re- garded as an insolent contempt of court, to be punished by dis- franchisement and banishment. Ne.xt a synod of all the churches was called to settle differences. They sat and condemned eighty- two errors of opinion. How marvelous must have been the sub- tlety of those divines to detect so many heresies in " the most glorious church in the world." The Court felt obliged, on ac- count of the public welfare, to disfranchise and banish Mr. Wheelwright. Many of his friends shared his fate. Some re- moved to Rhode Island ; others followed their leader to Exeter. Mrs. Hutchinson, the prime mover of this "constructive trea- son," of course was involved in the general condemnation of her tenets. She is called by one historian " the master-piece of woman's wit;" by another, a woman "of a bold and masculine spirit;" by another, "the American Jezebel."
It is not probable that, in a heated controversy like this, the blame was entirely on one side. Gov. Winthrop and the other fathers in church and state pleaded that unity of feeling was at that time essential to their very existence. The king stood ready to seize their charter, and no plea at court was stronger than the existence of dissensions on matters of relig- ion. The savages were conspiring for their destniction, and divided counsels and divided forces would ensure their ruin. Mr. Palfrey, himself a Unitarian clerg}'man and an eminent politician, vindicates the conduct of the Puritans, on the ground that the right of self-defence, in a government, is paramount to all others ; and when the State is imperiled, the rights of indiv- iduals must be sacrificed. Mr. Bancroft leaves the reader to in- fer that he disapproves of the measures of the Puritans with
38 HISTORY OF
reference to Mrs. Hutchinson. He shows that her principles, adopted in Rhode Island, there yielded " the peaceable fruits of righteousness." She, in her new home, so won the hearts of the young men to her views, and by her eloquence and pretended inspiration so moulded the social and political life of the new plantation, that, to the leaders in Massachusetts, it " gave cause of suspicion of witchcraft." It may be doubted whether a more eloquent, persistent and influential woman ever lived. On a wider theatre she would have produced greater results ; in these little colonies she was stronger than the clergy and came near defeating the magistrates.
Mr. Wheelwright and his exiled friends came to Exeter in July, 1638. They determined to make a permanent settlement on the banks of the Swamscot ; accordingly they purchased the land they wished to occupy of the Indian sagamores who then possessed it. For two centuries there has been much discus- sion about an earlier deed given to Mr. Wheelwright, dated May 17, 1629, by four Indian chiefs, then residents within the terri- tory of the Laconia Company. Mr. James Savage, the best authority in early American history that New England has pro- duced, in his appendix to the first volume of Winthrop's Histoiy of New England, has presented unanswerable arguments against the genuineness and authenticity of the Wheelwright deed of 1629. Recently, Rev. Dr. Bouton, the State Historian of New HamjDshire, has proved beyond a doubt that deed to be a for- gery. In his view, there is not one particle of evidence that Mr. Wheelwright was then, or for several years after, either a visitor or resident in this country. When Mr. Wheelwright came to the Swamscot, in 1636, the Indians seemed to be the only per- sons in the territory who could give any valid title to the soil. Other eminent writers have presented very able arguments in de- fence of the deed. Cotton Mather, writing to George Vaughan, Esq., in 1708, respecting the Indian deed to Wheelwright, says:
" All the wit of man cannot perceive the least symptom of a modern fraud in your instrument. The gentleman whot litt upon it is as honest, upright and pious a man as any in the world ; and would not do an ill thing to gain a world. But the circumstances of the instrument itself, also, are such Uiat it could not be lately counterfeited. If it were a forgery, Mr. Wheelwright himself must have been privy to it ; but he was a gentleman of the most un- spotted morals imaginable; a man of most unblemished reputation. He would sooner have undergone martyrdom than have given the least conniv- ance to any forgery."
The fraud must have occurred after his death if at all. This will relieve Mr. Wheelwright of all complicity with it.
There was then no representative of the grantor or grantee upon the continent. The Council of Plymouth was dissolved ; Mason, to whom they granted the territory, was dead, and his
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 39
heirs, being minors, did not for the next thirty years after his de- cease renew tlieir claim. Tlie crown had no representative in New England. Had this little handful of men been dropped from the clouds, like rain, upon this wilderness, they could scarcely have been more independent. They had no govern- ment. For one year they were governed by a sense of natural justice. If any form existed, it was a mere verbal agreement. At the close of one year, on the 4th of July, 1639, '^^^y solemnly subscribed a written instrument, which they called a " combina- tion." This infant constitution is deeply imbued with Puritan- ism. It shows religion still in the ascendency. As this agree- ment of the settlers of E.xeter was the first written constitution in New Hampshire, it deserves to be copied entire. It is as follows :
"Whereas it hath pleased the Lord to move the heart of our dread sov- ereign Charles, by the grace of God king, &c., to grant licence libertye to sundry of his subjects to plant themselves in the westerne parts of America, We, his loyal subjects, brethren of the church in Exeter, situate and lying upon the river Piscataqua, with other inhabitants there, considering with ourselves the holy will of God and our necessity, that we should not live without wholesom lawes and civil government among us, of which wc are altogether destitute; do, in the name of Christ and the sight of God, com- bine ourselves together to erect and set up among us, such government as shall be, to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of God, professing ourselves subjects to our sovereign lord King Charles, according to the lib- ertyes of our English colony of Massachusetts, and binding ourselves sol- emnly by the grace and help of Christ, and in his name and fear, to submit ourselves to such godly and christian lawes as are established in the realm of England, to our best knowledge, and to all other such laws which shall, upon good grounds, be made and enacted among us, according to God, that we may live quietly and peaceably together, in all godliness and honesty. Mo. S. D. 4. 1639."
Under this organic law both rulers and subjects were bound by the most solemn c5aths which the English language could ex- press, to discharge their respective duties with justice and fidel- ity, in the fear of God. The very next year, Dover and Ports- mouth made similar covenants ; and thus, within two years, three constitutional governments were formed in the infant Republic of New Hampsliire.
40 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XII.
POLITICAL AND PECUNIARY CONDITION OF THE PLANTATION FROM 163I TO 164I.
In 1629 Captain Mason procured a new patent from the Council of Plymouth, including the large part of the territory called Laconia, previously granted jointly to Mason and Gorges. It is described as extending from " the middle of the Piscataqua up the same to the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwestward until s'xty miles from the mouth of the harbor were finished ; also, through Merrimack river to the farthest head thereof, and so forward up into the land westward until sixty miles were finished ; and from thence to cross over land to the end of sixty miles accounted from Piscataqua river, to- gether with all islands within five leagues of the coast." It is impossible to understand why this grant was made, nor to fol- low, intelligibly, the metes and bounds affixed to it. It covers less area than the preceding grant and gives no new privileges to the grantee. Mason and Gorges are said to have divided their former grant between themselves; Gorges taking the un- occupied lands east of the Piscataqua, which he called Maine, and Mason holding, under his new patent, the territory recently granted, which he named New Hampshire, in honor of Hamp- shire or Hants in England, which had been his old home. The settlers within the limits of Mason's patent also divided into Upper and Lower Plantations and procured of the Council pa- tents for their respective territories. To the west-country ad- venturers was assigned " all that part of the river Piscataqua called or known by the name of Hilton's Point, with the south side of said river up to the falls of Swamscot and three miles into the main land for breadth."
This grant was made to Edward Hilton. It included, within its limits, Dover, Durham, Stratham and a part of Newington and Greenland. The London adventurers, with similar prudence, se- cured from the Council a grant " of that part of Laconia on which the buildings and salt-works were erected, situated on both sides of the river and harbor of Piscataqua, to the extent of five miles westward by the sea-coast, then to cross over to- wards the other plantation in the hands of Edward Hilton." This vague description included Kittery, in Maine, and the towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, with a part of Newing- ton and Greenland. I Captain Thomas Wiggin was appointed agent of the Upper Plantation, and Captain Walter Neal agent
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 41
of the Lower Plantation. About the same time, Humphrey Chadbourne built " the Great House," as it was called, on the bank of the main river, about three miles from its mouthn This plantation had a saw-mill at Newichewannoc falls (now Ber- wick) which Chadbourne, at a later period, managed for them. The English proprietors of these lands sent over several cannon, for the common defence, which their agents planted on Great Island at the mouth of the harbor, on a high rock, about a bow- shot from the shore. Here it was intended to build a fort. It was presumed that " the redoubling noise of these great guns, rolling in the rocks, would cause the Indians to betake them- selves to flight." But they soon learned to distinguish between the harmless roar and
— " the terms of weight Of hard contents, and full of force in-g'd home.
The planters came near to open war on account of the occu- pation of a point of land in Newington by Captain Wiggin, which was equally convenient for the Upper Plantation. Cap- tain Neal threatened, Captain Wiggin persisted, and an appeal to arms was imminent, when mutual friends interposed and ad- justed he dispute. No blood was shed ; and yet, by a negative process adopted by some etymologists, it was called " Bloody Point."
Upon the cessation of hostilities by land, a new foe ap- proached their shores by sea. A famous pirate, named Dixy Bull, rifled the fort at Pemaquid and captured several boats along the shore, thus greatly alarming the settlers on the Piscata- qua. The two plantations united in fitting out four pinnaces and shallops, with forty men, to chase and conquer the pirates. Be- ing joined by a bark, with twenty men, from Boston, they went to Pemaquid in pursuit of the enemy. A storm arose, which scattered Neal's little fleet, like that of ^neas of old, and drove the pirate eastward beyond their pursuit. This Lilliputian navy returned in a shattered condition to the " deep waters " of the Piscataqua. The peril of such an enterprise was greater than that of Minos or Pompey in chasing, in different ages, pirates from the Mediterranean Sea. The next year, 1633, the proprie- tors of the Upper and Lower Plantations adjusted their bound- ary lines, and made compromises where they encroached upon one another. They also laid out the town of Hampton, though no settlement was made there for several years. The company of Laconia ordered these surveys and gave names to the towns, agreeing with Wheelwright that his plantation upon the Swam- scot should be called Exeter. When the agents of these planta- tions were appointed, it was agreed that their " several busi- nesses should be trading, fishing, tillage, building and the mak- ing of salt." These ordinary pursuits did not satisfy Mason
42 HISTORY OF
and Gorges. Their whole fortunes were embarked in these en- terprises and, hitherto, they had received no adequate returns. The colonies were not self-supporting. The proprietors paid their laborers wages, supplied them with provisions, clothes, utensils, medicines, articles of trade, tools for building, hus- bandry and fishing, and stocked their farms with domestic ani- mals of all kinds. Meal was imported from England ; grain from Virginia, which was sent to Boston to be ground. The lands were but slightly improved ; the lakes were unexplored ; no mines were discovered but those of iron, and that was not wrought. Vines were planted but yielded no fruit. The inter- ests of the colonies were declining. The planters sold their betterments to the proprietors, who in the midst of all these discouragements did not
— "bate one jot Of heart or hope ; but still bore up and steer'd Right onward.'*
Mason, with a merchant's hopefulness, made new investments, expecting rich returns in some remote future. Gorges, with a statesman's ambition, saw with his mind's eye, in the long vista of coming years, principalities, dominions, and possibly thrones, for himself and his heirs. Both these worthy gentlemen ex- pected rich treasures from the mountains. The Spaniards had been enriched by the mountains of Mexico and Peru ; why should not the mountains of New Hampshire prove equally rich in the precious metals ? The most romantic tales had been cir- culated respecting the natural beauty, fertility and resources of the " North Countrie." There were lovely lakes, noble rivers, " goodlie forests and faire vallies, and plaines fruitfull in corn, vines, chesnuts, wallnuts, and infinite sorts of other fruits." In fact, the country abounded in everything that could delight the eye or please the taste. Gorges himself penned a glowing de- scription of the natural scenery ; the wild beasts that invited the hunter, and " the divers kinds of wholesome fish " that would tempt old Izaak Walton to leave the Elysian fields, if he could " drop a line " to these finny tribes.
In June, 1642, Darby Field, with two Indian guides, first as- cended the White Mountains. In August of the same year another party, led by Thomas Gorges and Richard Vines from Maine, set out, on foot, to explore the "delectable mountains." They penetrated the desert wilderness and climbed the rugged sides of the "White Hills" from the East. They gave a very extravagant and incoherent description of what they saw. Their imaginations ran riot in marvelous inventions. They described them as "extending a hundred leagues, on which snow lieth all the year." On one of these mountains they found a plain of a day's journey (it must have been a Sabbath day's journey).
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 43
whereon nothing grew but moss ; and, " at the further end of this plain, a rude heap of mossy stones, piled up on one another, a mile high, on which one might ascend from stone to stone, like a pair of winding stairs, to the top, where was another level of about an acre with a pond of clear water." The country beyond was said to be "daunting terrible." They named those moun- tains the " Chrystal Hills." Their provisions failed them be- fore the beautiful lake was reached ; and, though they were within one day's journey of it, they were obliged to return home. So the men of that age died without the sight. It is passing strange that men, reputed honest, could make such a wild re- port of regions that required no 'inventions to make them at- tractive and wonderful. No gold was discovered, though the proprietors confidently e.xpected to find it. Even the colonists were smitten with the "accursed hunger." They neglected agri- culture, the only true source of national wealth, and sought for riches in the sea, the forests and the mountains. The line and the musket were more used than the plow and hoe. During ten years of toil and privation they had hardly encroached at all upon the wilderness.
In 1634 the proprietors appointed Francis Williams governor. " He was a discreet, sensible man, accomplished in his manners, and was very acceptable to the people." Laborers and materials for building, ammunition, military stores, tools of every descrip- tion and all necessary supplies were again forwarded from Eng- land. The first neat cattle imported into the colonies were from Denmark, large in size, yellow in color. Shortly after the ap- pointment of the new governor, the Pl}'mouth Council was re- quired to surrender its charter to the king. The members of the Council in England, nobles and merchant princes, had grown indifferent to its welfare ; Mason and Gorges hoped for greater favors from the king than from the Council of Plymouth. Mason was the open enemy of the charter ; Gorges feebly defended it ; but both these proprietors were willing to take their chance in a lottery for the distribution of the territory of New England. The different provinces, from the Penobscot to the Hudson, were accordingly assigned, by lot, to the twelve living members of the Corporation, and the colonists were left without house or home on the soil they had subdued and cultivated. Enemies and fa- natics at home traduced them ; the corporators abroad deserted them ; the royal party oppressed them. Englishmen above the rank of servants were forbidden to go to New England ; ships bound thither were detained in the Thames, because of "the de- parture of so many of the best, such numbers of faitMul, free- born Englishmen and good Christians." A squadron of eight ships was detained by the Privy Council in May, 1638. It is
44 HISTORY OF
said that Hampden and Cromwell were on board this fleet. Thus the foolish king detained at home the axe that was prepared for his own neck. A special commission was appointed by the Crown to govern the New England colonies. The hand of Laud, the Ahithophel of Charles, was in all this, who hoped that by agents of his own nomination he could dictate laws and regulate the church of this new world. The Massachusetts colonists pre- pared for the worst. They were determined to fight for their hearths and homes in the wilderness. "We ought," said min- isters and people, "to defend our lawful possessions, if we are able ; if not, to avoid and protract."
The charter was annulled in 1635. By this act the English- men of Massachusetts, and those colonies of New Hampshire tliat held land by their grants, had no rights and no property there. Massachusetts and New Hampshire belonged, by lot, to Gorges, Mason and the Marquis of Hamilton. The colonists, of course, were greatly alarmed, but not injured. The royal power was waning; the king could not execute his own decrees ; the church could not inflict its own penalties. The rack, the dungeon and the scaffold, those bloody steps that lead up to the temple of liberty, were fast going into desuetude. Their work was done. The colonies lived on, under their own charter, which was a royal grant, distinct from that of the Council of Plymouth, as though "the great swelling words of vanity" uttered in West- minster Hall were but the lying oracles of a worthless idol. "The Lord frustrated the design" of their enemies. Mason was the chief instigator of these assaults of state and church upon Massachusetts. His sudden death near the close of this year of trials weakened the power of the accusers. Gorges cared not to aid them. Mason, some time before his death, be- sides retaining, as he supposed, all his former grants, purchased of Gorges a portion of Maine. It lay, three miles in breadth, on the northeast side of the Piscataqua, from its mouth to its farthest head, including the saw-mill at Newichewannoc falls. Gorges and Mason had expended their whole fortunes on these plantations. Gorges thus enumerates some of his trials and losses :
" I began when there was no hopes, for the present, but of losse ; in that I was yet to find a place, and, being found, it was itselfe, in a manner, dread- ful! to behoulders; for it seemed but as a desart Wildernesse, replete oncly with a kind of savage People and overgrowne trees. So as I found it no mean matter to procure any to go thither, much Icsse to reside there ; and those I sent knew not how to subsist, but on the provisions I furnished them withall. I was forced to hire men to stay there the winter quarter at ex- tream rates."
This was certainly a hard case for one who hoped to become "lord of the manor" in this new world, and to have a multitude of serfs to do his bidding. Mason fared no better. His im-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 45
mense estate was swallowed up in outlays, supplies and wages ; and at his death his New Hampshire claim was valued at ten thousand pounds. By will he devised his manor of Mason Hall to his grandson, Robert Tufton, and the residue of New Hamp- shire to his grandson John Tufton, requiring each to take the name of Mason. His widow could not continue the supplies to agents and factors which her husband had furnished, and they divided the goods and cattle among themselves, the agents tak- ing the lion's share. Many of the settlers departed, and those who remained kept possession of the lands and buildings and claimed them for their own.
Mason and Gorges established no government over their col- onies. They had ruled them precisely as a company of laborers is directed, by agents and superintendents. Civil wrongs had no redress but public opinion. The two plantations, for the present being thrown upon their own resources, proceeded to form a constitution for themselves. The inhabitants of Dover, by a written instrument signed by forty-one persons, — the exact number that signed the first written organic law known to his- tory, in the Mayflower, — agreed to submit to the laws of England, and such others as should be enacted by a majority of their num- ber, until the royal pleasure should be known. The date of the Portsmouth "combination" is uncertain. Some time in 1640 the inhabitants of that plantation entered into a political coven- ant and chose Francis Williams, who had been sent over by the proprietors for that purpose, governor, and Ambrose Gibbins and Thomas Warnerton assistants.
The first settlements at Hampton were made under the aus- pices of the Massachusetts colony. The place was called by the Indians Winnicunnat. The extensive salt-marsh in the vicinity first attracted the attention of stock raisers. On the third of March 1635 — 6, the General Court of Massachusetts ordered the settlement of a plantation at Winnicunnet, and authorized Mr. Dumer and Mr. John Spencer " to presse men to build a howse," which was soon after built, and called "the Bound Howse," probably to fix the northern boundary of that state. The site of the house is now in Seabrook, nearly half a mile north of the present line of Massachusetts. The expense of building was to be paid from the treasury of the colony or "by those that come to inhabit there." The architect of the famous house was Nicholas Easton. It was finished in 1636. In 1638, emigrants from Norfolk, England, were permitted by the General Court to settle there, and at this date the plantation contained fifty-six inhabitants.
in 1641, four distinct settlements had been made within the present limits of New Hampshire — Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter
46 HISTORY OF
and Hampton. These were little democracies governed by the people living within the respective limits of each. Hampton was, by its origin, attached to Massachusetts. Portsmouth and Dover were not sufficiently strong to maintain independent gov- ernments. They naturally gravitated to the older colony on the Bay. For about one year the proposed union was discussed by the people ; and finally, on the fourteenth of April, 1641, it was consummated by a legal instrument signed by commissioners in presence of the only legislative body on the continent having even a show of authority for such an act. The new citizens were received with extraordinary favor. The test of church member- ship, as a qualification for the freeman's franchise, was dispensed with in respect to the New Hampshire voters. Her citizens were permitted to vote and hold office without regard to religious quali- fications. They were admitted, also, to equal rights and priv- ileges, political and judicial, with the freemen of Massachusetts.! They were exempted from all public charges, except such 'as should arise among themselves or for their own peculiar benefit. They enjoyed their former liberties of fishing, planting and sell- ing timber. They were allowed tosend two deputies to the Gen- eral Court ; and officers were named in the instrument of union, who were authorized to appoint magistrates in the New Hamp- shire towns. After the lapse of a year Exeter joined the new union. This act was probably delayed on account of the sen- tence of banishment which still hung over the head of their re- vered pastor, Mr. Wheelwright. He immediately withdrew from the newly acquired sovereignty of Massachusetts and retired, with a few faithful followers, to Wells, Maine, and there gathered a new church. The government of Massachusetts became at once supreme in New Hampshire and continued in force thirty- eight years. The government of England was too much dis- tracted, at that time, to give any attention to her colonies. The throne was tottering ; the church was rent into sects ; and civil war was about to drench the whole land in fraternal blood. Massachusetts had obstinately refused to surrender her charter, though often required to do so. Under the royal seal she had claims to vast territories yet unoccupied. She the more willingly, therefore, encouraged the union with New Hampshire, because of her constructive title to the soil. One clause in the royal charter bounded her territory by a line drawn from east to west, "three miles to the northward of Merrimack river or of any and every part thereof." This was sufficiently indefinite to make them owners of all the land that joined them, in all the patents of Mason- and Gorges. The political marriage of these sister republics was consummated without opposition, for there was no one to forbid the bans.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 47
CHAPTER XIII.
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE EARLY COLONISTS.
In most of the early settlements in New England families were the basis of the state. Husbands, wives and children emi- grated from fatherland together. So the Pilgrims founded New Plymouth. We find but few allusions to the presence of women in the plantations of Cocheco and Strawberiy Bank. Mr. Quint says "the only settlers at Cocheco, in the spring of 1623, were Edward Hilton, William Hilton and Thomas Roberts and their families." Mr. Farmer, in his Memoir of Winthrop Hil- ton, says : "Whether Edward Hilton, at the time of his arrival, was married or single does not appear." It is not probable that many of these colonists brought their wives and children with them. It appears from existing correspondence between them and Capt. Mason, that the proprietors contributed quar- terly to the support of their wives at home. In a letter of Thomas Eyre to Mr. Gibbins, dated May, 163 1, this paragraph occurs : " Your wife, Roger Knight's wife, and one wife more, we have already sent you, and more you shall have as you write for them." In a schedule of goods sent to the colonists in 1632, we find "24 children's coates," showing the need of such gar- ments in the infant state. Among the emigrants sent in 1634 there were twenty-two women. In a letter of Ambrose Gibbins to Capt. Mason, dafed .-lugust 6, 1634, we find the following sentences : " A good husband with his wife to tend cattle and to make butter and cheese will be profitable ; for maids, they are soone gonne in this countrie." These allusions show that do- mestic life was pretty thoroughly established within ten years after the first company came. All the ages repeat the history of the first : " It is not good for man to be alone."
" The earth was sad, the garden was a wild ; And man the hermit sighed, till woman smiled."
It is hardly credible that these little communities lived for ten years without some form of worship, still the records of that time make no mention of it. Among the articles sent over in 1633 we find "one communion cup and cover of silver, and one smaH communion table cloth." In another inventory, near the same date, we find "two service books" and a "psalter." These entries show that " divine service" and " the Holy Com- munion " were deemed essential to their welfare.
48 HISTORY OF
The same agent, Mr. Gibbins, writes to Capt. Mason under date of July 13, 1633, that some of his laborers had neither "meat, money nor clothes." For himself, wife, child and four men, he had but half a barrel of corn, and only one piece of meat for three months. The men were working for four and six pounds a year. The money for wages was also wanting, yet the proprietors were constantly writing that they were incurring great debts and large risks and receiving absolutely nothing in return. It was a hard case both for the proprietors and for the settlers.
Poverty and hardship, however, did not curb the passions of the people. Crimes of the darkest dye were not uncom- mon. Officers, both in church and state, were the slaves of lust and avarice. George Burdet, after holding the position both of governor and minister at Cocheco, was convicted of adultery at Agamenticus ; Capt. John Underhill, governor of that plantation, confessed the same crime. Hanserd Knollys, or Knowles, is called by some historians an Anabaptist and an Antinomian. Winthrop also calls him " an unclean person." In England he was persecuted for non-conformity. In this country he was a zealous Puritan. Thomas Larkham, a church- man, came to Dover in 1640. He admitted to the church "all that offered, though never so notoriously immoral or ignorant, if they promised amendment." He assumed to rule both church and state. Parties were formed by the friends of the two con- tending clerg}'men. They resorted at first to spiritual, finally to carnal, weapons. A civil war was prevented by the interposi- tion of magistrates from Portsmouth. The two leaders, Knol- lys and Larkham, left the scene of action about the same time. Knollys, in 1640, went into voluntary exile, and his name passed into history with some charges of heresy attached to it. He has found an able vindicator in Rev. Alonzo Quint, who fearlessly maintains that he was neither a Baptist nor an Anti- nomian. Mr. Larkham privately took ship for England, in 1641, to avoid the shame of a scandalous crime which he had committed. Rev. Stephen Bachiler, the founder of Hampton, was accused of bigamy by his third wife whom he left behind him, when in his old age he went to England and took a fourth wife. Thomas Warnerton, who was associated with Gibbins in the government of Strawberry Bank, was guilt)' of almost every crime possible to a man in his condition. He was killed in a lawless foray upon the Port of Penobscot in Maine, in 1644. At the house of a friend he is said to have drunk " a pint of kill- devil, alias Rhum, at a draught." If the proprietors had sent over less " aqua vita;" rum, beer and tobacco, the standard of morals, doubtless, would have been higher in the plantations.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 49
After the death of Capt. Mason, his property was stolen by his agents. About " one hundred head of great cattle," valued at t\venty-five pounds each, were driven to Boston and sold by Capt. Norton who was a thief and a robber. These cattle were "very large beasts of a yellowish color and said to be brought by Capt. Mason from Denmark." After the desertion of the plantation by Capt. Norton, " the rest of the stock, goods and implements belonging to Capt. Mason were made away with by the servants and others."
The worst passions of men often rage in times of the greatest calamities. History teaches us that in times of pestilence, earthquakes and conflagrations, the living rob and plunder the dead and dying ! When penalties are removed, violence and theft prevail. Lawless men always follow the train of civil- ization as it moves forward into the wilderness. Such has been the fact from the first to the last new settlement in America.
CHAPTER XIV.
EARLY LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Historians, jurists and critics of high authority have main- tained that the colony charter of Massachusetts constituted the first settlers a corporation and gave them no higher powers than are usually granted tc^such bodies. "They had no authority to inflict capital punishment, to establish courts of probate and ad- miralty, to create a house of representatives, to levy taxes, nor to incorporate towns, colleges, parishes and other like organiza- tions." No political government can exist without these rights ; consequently, from the natural law of self-preservation, they af- firm that the colonists from the beginning assumed these powers and continually exercised them, till their charter was recalled by Charles II., in 1684. It was, say they, a bold step in the Pil- grims to transport their charter across the ocean ; it was a still bolder step to usurp powers which were never delegated to them. Other authors equally able, possibly superior, vindicate the Puri- tans from all these charges and show conclusively, from the charter itself, that they were guilty of no usurpation in establish- ing a firm government beneath the fegis of the royal charter. Prof. Joel Parker, the successor of Story in the Cambridge Law School and, by general consent, the ablest jurist New Hampshire
50 HISTORY OF
has produced, lays down and proves, by very cogent logic, the following proposition :
1. "The charter is not and was not intended to be an act for the incor- poration of a trading or merchants' company merely. But it was a grant which contemplated the settlement of a colony, with power in the incor- porated company to govern that colony."
2. " The charter authorized the establishment of the government of the colony, within the limits of the territory to be governed, as was done by vote to transfer the charter and government."
3. " The charter gave ample power of legislation and of government for the plantation or colony, including power to legislate on religious subjects, in the manner in which the grantees and their associates claimed and exer- cised the legislative power."
Armed with such plenary powers by their charter, they pro- ceeded to exercise them, according to their best judgment, in pro- viding for the political safety and religious welfare of themselves and their posterity.
By the charter, the supreme authority was vested in a gover- nor, a deputy-governor and eighteen assistants, to be chosen by the freemen from their own number, who constituted " the Court of Assistants." The freemen at first constituted the General Court. At their first meeting, in 1630, they voted to delegate the legislative and executive powers to the Court of Assistants. Iii 1634, in consequence of the great increase of immigrants, the freemen revolutionized their infant democracy and ordered two deputies from each town to represent them in the General Court. These deputies were required to be of the orthodox religion. None but church members could be Freemen. So the church controlled the state. The congregational form of church gov- ernment was established by law. The militia system was among the earliest institutions of the colony. Every male, above six- teen years of age, was required to appear in arms once every month ; at a later date this drill was limited to six days. The inhabited territory was divided into towns, whose magistrates were denominated " Select Men." These miniature states devel- oped a spirit of republican independence and educated the peo- ple to self-government.
The administration of justice was exceedingly simple, direct and efficient. The court of assistants was at first the chief judicial bench. With the rise of counties came county courts, held by magistrates nominated by the freemen and confirmed by the General Court. The assistants exercised the powers of justices of the peace. The jurors were chosen by the freemen. The legal processes were simple and intelligible to all. The practice of holding up the right hand, instead of kissing the bible, was introduced by the Puritans. Slavery was recognized by law. Captives in war, and even insolvent debtors, were sold into servitude. The stocks, pillory and whipping-post were trans-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 51
ferred from their native land ; and even torture was allowed, provided it was not '■''barbarous and inhuman." Here is a dis- tinction witliout a difference !
Heresy was punished by excommunication, disfranchisement, banishment and death ; the reviling of magistrates and elders, by fines and whipping. The aristocracy, in church and state, was very sacred. Sumptuary laws were enacted against excesses of every kind in food, drink and dress. As early as 1630, the governor discouraged the drinking of toasts. Laws were made against tobacco, immodest fashions, costly apparel and exorbi- tant prices of goods ; but all these rules failed to secure the re- sults sought by the legislators. The morals of the age were relatively high but not absolutely pure. The Roman poet said rightly : " You may expel nature by violence ; but she will return and reign victorious over artificial restraints."
CHAPTER XV.
EARLY LAWS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
After the union of New Hampshire with Massachusetts, the laws, customs and religion of the larger and older became those of the weaker and younger colony. Dr. Belknap has given an excellent summary of the laws adopted by Massachusetts. John Cotton, one of the first ministers of Boston, an eminent divine who came to the colony in 1633, left the impress of his mind and creed upon the entire system of laws first adopted by the colony. They were founded, chiefly, on the laws of Moses. He maintained " that the government might be considered as a theocracy, wherein the Lord was judge, lawgiver and king ; that the laws which He gave Israel might be adopted, so far as they were of moral and perpetual equity ; that the people might be considered as God's people, in covenant with him ; that none but persons of approved piety and eminent gifts should be chosen rulers ; that the ministers should be consulted in all mat- ters of religion ; and that the magistrate should have a super- intending and coercive power over the churches." By these principles human opinions were subjected to the civil ruler, and the church and state were indissolubly united. The only safeguard against the worst religious despotism known to his- tory was, that these laws must be adoptecl by a majority of the
52 HISTORY OF
freemen. The clergy, of course, had a commanding influence in the state, because none were voters but church members ; none were church members but those who had been elected by a majority of the church ; none were propounded but those ex- amined and approved by the elders ; and none were examined but those who were recommended by the pastors and teachers. Here was a hierarchy of unlimited power ; but the theatre of its action was small and the props that supported it very weak. Slavery, according to the old Roman law, was pronounced " con- trary to nature," except when the result of capture, in war or for crime. Its alleviations were then those of the Mosaic code. Blasphemy, idolatry, witchcraft, adultery, unnatural lusts, mur- der, man-stealing, false witness, rebellion against parents and conspiracy against the commonwealth were made capital crimes. The drinking of healths and the use of tobacco were forbidden. The intercourse of the sexes was regulated by strict laws. The ceremony of betrothing preceded marriage. Sumptuary laws regulated dress, equipage and expenditures. Women were ex- pressly forbidden to wear short-sleeved and low-necked gowns ; and men were obliged to cut their hair short, that they might not resemble women. This was an old custom of the Puritans, who, from their close-cropped hair, contrary to the custom of the cav- aliers, who wore long, flowing locks, were called ^'■round-heads." This sobriquet is said to have originated with the queen of Charles I., who, on seeing Mr. Pym, the leader of the Long Par- liament, passing the palace, said to the king, "who is that ' round-headed ' man in the street below ? " No person not worth two hundred pounds was allowed to wear gold or silver lace, or silk hood and scarfs. Offences against any of these laws were presentable by the grand jury, and, when not capital in their nature, were punished by fines, imprisonment, the stocks and whipping. In brief, these judicial Solomons undertook to regulate the thoughts, words, deeds, dress and food of every man, woman and child in the colony. The law was designed to be omnipresent. The population of the four settlements in New Hampshire at the period of the union was about one thousand; that of all New England twenty thousand.
Note. — Occasionally we read of some of the customs of the days of the Puritans, which are veir interesting. At Dunstable, Mass., in 1651, dancing at weddings was forbidden ; in 1660, William Walker was imprisoned a month for courting a maid without the leave of her parents; in 1675, because *' there is manifest pnde appealing in our streets" the wearing of long hair or periwigs and "superstitious ribbons" was forbidden: also, men were forbidden to keep Christmas, as it was a Popish custom." In 1677, a "cige" was erected near the meeting-house for the confinement^ of Sabbath breakers, and John Atherton, a soldier, was fined forty shillings for wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes, which chafed his feet while inarching.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. S3
CHAPTER XVI.
EARLY CHURCHES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The energetic proprietors of New Hampsliire and Maine were not moved to plant colonies in the wilderness to extend the area of freedom or promote the interests of religion, but to aggran- dize their houses and increase their private fortunes. Mason and Gorges were not democrats but royalists ; not Puritans but Cavaliers ; not Independents but Episcopalians. The men they hired to fell the trees, till the soil, fish, hunt and mine, in the new world, were not exiles for conscience' sake, but from love of gain. No provision was made by masters or servants for the preaching of the gospel. No man cared for their souls. The first churches were formed at Hampton and Exeter. Hampton claims precedence in time ; for, when the place was incorporated as a plantation, in 1635, some of the grantees were already " united together by church government." " The original mem- bers of the church and the first settlers of the town, generally, were Puritans ; many of them were from the county of Norfolk, England, where christians of this class were very numerous." They brought a pastor with them. They soon erected a church of logs, where, literally shrouded "in a dim religious light," they paid their vows to the Most High. The first pastor of this first born church of a new state, and the father of the town, was Rev. Stephen Bachilpr, an ancestor, on the mother's side, of Daniel Webster. The settlement at E.xeter, the same year, be- gan its existence by the organizing of a church and the found- ing of a state. Eight members of the church of Boston fol- lowed Rev. John Wheelwright in his compulsory exile, and at once formed themselves into the first church of Exeter. These were all Calvinists of the straitest sect. Thus the leaven of Puritanism was hidden in two of the four rising towns of New Hampshire ; and in process of time, through the influence of Massachusetts, the whole lump was leavened. The History of the New Hampshire Churches, by Rev. R. F. Lawrence, gives a graphic account of the origin of the first church in Portsmouth. I will quote a passage: "'Therefore, Honorable and worthy countr\'men, ' said Captain Smith to the New Hampshire colo- nists, ' let not the meanness of the word fish distaste you, for it will afford you as good gold as the mines of Potosi, with less hazard and charge, and more certainty and facility.' This
54 HISTORY OF
discloses, in the briefest manner, the origin of Portsmouth, for that lofty and self-forgetting devotion to great principles which baptized many of the early settlements lining the New England coast never set its seal on the brow of Strawberry Bank. The first colonists, fishmongers of London, more intent on trade than religion, arrived three years after the Pilgrims at Plymouth. They first settled at Little Harbor, nor was it until seven years that houses began to dot the ridge which ran along from Pitts street to Chapel Hill, then called 'the Bank.' Here the church, with its wholesome discipline and heavenly comforts, found no early home. Though a chapel and parsonage seem to have been built, no regular provision was made for a settled ministry until 1640, when twenty of the inhabitants deeded to some church wardens fifty acres for a glebe. " The first preacher was Rich- ard Gibson. " He was wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England, and exercised his ministerial function ac- cording to the ritual." He remained in office but a short time, and was succeeded by several temporaiy preachers till the people built a new meeting-house and, in 1658, called and settled Rev. Joshua Moodey from Massachusetts. He was a devout, earnest and impressive preacher ; yet the original tendencies of the col- onists were so strong that it required thirteen years of assiduous labor for him to gather a church. Finally, in 1661, the civil authorities invited several churches to assist in the formation of the first church in Portsmouth, and " in the ordination of offi- cers therein. "
Dover was settled in 1623 ; after the lapse of seven years only three houses had been erected. Its progress vifas very slow for ten years, and, during all that time, there was no public religious instruction. After the territory passed into the hands of Puritan owners, they sent out from the west of England some colonists " of good estate and of some account for religion," and with them a minister of their own faith. William Leveridge, an O.xford graduate, "an able and worthy Puritan minister," came to Dover in 1633, and remained about two years ; then, for want of ade- quate support, removed to Boston. He was succeeded by George Burdett, a churchman, politician and an intriguing demagogue. His popular talents made him governor, and, in that capacity, he opened a correspondence with Archbishop Laud, the bitter enemy of the Puritans. He not only deceived the people over whom he ruled, but violated the laws he had sworn to execute. He committed a heinous crime, in consequence of which he left the Plantation and went to Agamenticus, in Maine. In ]u\y, 1638, Hanserd KnoUys, a graduate of Cambridge, came to Bos- ton. He had received episcopal ordination, but had joined the Puritan party. At the invitation of " some of the more re-_
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 55
ligious," he came to Dover. Dr. Quint thus states the con- dition of affairs when he arrived :
" When KnoUys came to Dover, in 163S, hefound a settlement originated under Episcopal auspices, tiiougli enlarged under other influences ; a people mixed in their character, none of them emigrants for conscience' sake, and none of them Puritans of the Bay type ; the settlement a refuge for men who could not endure the Massachusetts rigor ; no church organized after fifteen years of colonial life, and a minister who, in spirit a churchman, was corresponding with Archbishop Laud, and who was supported by a portion of the people. ' Of some of the best minded' Knollys gathered a church. But it was in the midst of a people who had generally no love for Puritan- ism. Burdett left the town, but ' another churchman, ' Larkham, came in, and by appealing to the looser elements succeeded in superseding Knollys."
Such was the origin of the first four churches of New Hampshire.
CHAPTER XVII.
ELEMENTS OF POPULAR LIBERTY.
In England, cities, boroughs and parishes have e.xisted from time immemorial ; but no such political organizations as towns. The Pilgrim fathers found Holland divided into townships, which regulated their own internal affairs through municipal officers of their own selection. Of Holland Motley says : " It was a land where every child went to school ; where almost every individual inhabitant could read and write ; where even the middle classes were proficient in mathematics and the classics, and could speak two or more moderrf languages." Their industry and economy are noticed with high commendation. The Pilgrims probably gained from the Hollanders some of their excellent notions res- pecting local legislation and public schools.
Town organizations in New England are the purest democ- racies the world has ever known. They constitute the chief safeguard to our national liberties. The militia, the town, the school and the church are the corner stones of the temple of liberty. Through their agency, we obtain free men, free thought, free opinions and free speech. The town organizations in New Hampshire grew naturally out of the plantations. The limited number of settlers in each locality produced mutual dependence, a community of interests and frequent deliberations upon the common welfare. Each of the first four plantations became a town when they made their " combinations " for the purposes of local government and mutual safety. The town-meeting which
56 HISTORY OF
grew out of these infant states was as purely democratic as the ecclesia in ancient Athens. Here the whole body of freemen met in deliberation ; and as there then existed no religious or property qualifications for suffrage in New Hampshire, nearly every adult man was a voter, and every such voter was person- ally interested in the decrees of this popular assembly. After the union with Massachusetts, these town-meetings assumed new importance. In them the local power was delegated to a board of selectmen, and the legislative power was conferred on depu- ties who were to represent the towns in the General Court at iJoston. This delegation of power to representatives laid the foundation of the state and national republics. But the town meeting was the freeman's school. There he learned to delib- erate and to discuss and decide questions of public interest. "Town-meetings," says De Tocqueville, "are to liberty what primary schools are to science : they bring it within the people's reach; they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it." In these democratic assemblies, the planters resolved to defend their homes against the incursions of savages, the aggressions of pro- prietors and the prerogatives of monarchs. This element of popular liberty was so important through the whole colonial his- tory of New England, that it has been affirmed with great truth, that the American Revolution had its birth in the town meetings and school-houses of the scattered colonists. The king's com- missioners of the revenue, writing from Boston in 1768, com- plained of New England town-meetings, in which they said : "The lowest mechanics disscussed the most important points of government, with the utmost freedom." The cry of the Court party was : " Send over an army and a fleet to reduce the dogs to reason."
In 1647, Massachusetts established a system of free schools. Scotland had some years earlier set up a system of parochial schools under the control of the Presbyterian church, which in that country was united with the state. These schools were designed to educate all the children of each parish. The New England sys- tem was more liberal than the Scotch and was under the super- vision of the government and not of the church. It is the first establishment of schools without tuition, open to all and free to all, known to history. The formation of districts in each town for the purposes of general education, near the beginning of the present century, furnished another occasion for the local ad- ministration of these schools by all the freemen residing in each district. The school-house became a Hall of Legislation for the little community that built and owned it ; and here taxes were imposed, rules adopted and committees chosen for the govern- ment and maintenance of the school.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 57
The church, like the school and town, became a seminary of liberty. Most of the early churches were congregational in government and discipline. All questions of interest in the church were decided by major vote ; and the congregation gave their voice in the same way when a pastor was called and set- tled. Most of the early ministers were settled by the towns where they officiated ; of course the entire body of the freemen was called upon to vote for or against the candidate.
Thus all local affairs pertaining to law, learning and religion were debated and decided by the votes of the towns in purely democratic assemblies. The power of the press was soon ad- ded to these other educational forces. The first newspaper in New Hampshire was issued on the seventh of October, 1756, at Portsmouth. It was called the New Hampshire Gazette and Historical Chronicle. It was owned and published by Daniel Fowle, till the year 1784. Other editors succeeded him, who have continued the paper to the present day. Other journals of a similar character were soon published, till in process of time the press became the most potent political educator in the state.
Trained in a similar school, the town-meeting of Providence, R. I., thus addressed their friend. Sir Henry Vane, who is styled, "under God, the sheet anchor of Rhode Island": "We have long been free from the yoke of wolvish bishops ; we have sit- ten dry from the streams of blood spilt by the wars of our na- tive countiy. * * * We have not known what an excise means ; we have almost forgotten what titles are. We have long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the whole heaven."
Note.— Colonel Charles H. Bell, President of the New Hampshire Historical Society, has :i well-preserved copy of the first book printed and published in the state. It is entitled "Good News from a Far Country, in Seven Discourses; Delivered in the Presbyterian Church in Newbury, by Jonathan Pannv, A. M., and Minister of the Gcsple there, and now Published at the desire of Many of the Hearers and Others." " Printed in Portsmouth by Daniel Fowle, 1756." The book, with a modern binding, is in excellent condition, and 19 printed upon clear type and good paper and is easily read.
S8 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONDITION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER ITS UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS.
The growth of New Hampshire was not very rapid for many years after its political union with an older and more prosperous state. The four original plantations continued to be the centres of population and influence. From them went forth small col- onies and began settlements in the adjacent territories, which in process of time became independent, so that nearly twenty sep- arate towns have been incorporated from the territory first in- cluded within the bounds of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton. The laws, customs and religion of Massachusetts immediately took root in the soil of New Hampshire. Exeter and Hampton were at first annexed to the jurisdiction of the courts of Ipswich, till the establishment of a new country called Norfolk, which embraced the four settlements of New Hamp- shire, with Salisbury and Haverhill in Massachusetts. This county then included all the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua. Salisbury was the shire town ; though Dover and Portsmouth each had separate courts in which magistrates of their own presided. An inferior court, consisting of three justices, was established in each town, with jurisdiction in all cases under twenty shillings. Here were the germs of the Su- preme Court and Court of Common Pleas. For a few years the associate magistrates were appointed by the General Court. In 1647, the towns of Dover and Portsmouth were allowed in joint meeting to choose the associates ; so that a democratic element was early introduced into the New Hampshire courts. In 1649, the assembled wisdom of the two colonies condemned as sin- ful the wearing of long hair, and the magistrates declared their detestation and dislike of the practice " as a thing uncivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform themselves, and offend sober and honest men and do corrupt good manners."
The heirs of Capt. Mason now began to assert their claims 10 the territory of New Hampshire. The eldest grandson of Mason died in infancy. His brother Robert Tufton became of age in 1650. After the lapse of two years, Mrs. Mason sent over an agent named Joseph Mason to regain possession of her husband's estate. He found Richard Leader occupying lands at Newichewannoc and brought a suit against him in the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 59
court of Norfolk. A question arose whether the land in dis- pute were not within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. An appeal was made to the General Court, who ordered a survey of the northern boundary of their patent to be made. Two com- petent surveyors, with Indian guides, proceeded up the Merri- mack to find its most northerly head. The Indians affirmed that it was at Aquedoctan, the outlet of the Winnipiseogee lake.* The latitude of this place was found to be forty-three degrees, forty-three minutes and tvvelve seconds. Experienced seamen were then sent to the eastern coast who found a point of an island in Casco Bay to be in the same latitude. A line was then drawn through these two points, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, which was declared to be the northern boundary of Massachusetts, within which the whole claim of Mason was included. After thus throwing the asgis of their protection over this immense territory, with a show of generosity they granted to the heirs of Mason "a quantity of land proportionable to his disbursements, with the privilege of the river. " The agent made no further effort to recover Mrs. Mason's estate, but returned home, hoping that the government of England would interpose. As the Mason family had always belonged to the royalist party, they expected no relief during the commonwealth and the pro- tectorate of Cromwell. After the restoration of Charles II., Robert Tufton, who now took the sirname of Mason, petitioned the king for redress. The attorney-general reported that "Rob- ert Mason, grandson and heir of Capt. John Mason, had a good and legal title to the province of New Hampshire." This decis- ion was made in 1662. The king did not act decisively in the matter till 1664, when he appointed commissioners "to visit the several colonies of New England, to examine and determine all complaints and appeals in matters civil, military and criminal." Imperial power was here delegated. The commissioners were authorized to decide matters of the highest moment " according to their good and sound discretion." Of course such dictation was offensive, in the highest degree, to the colonists. The com- missioners were treated with great coolness. No public honors awaited their arrival in any town. They passed through New Hampshire, taking affidavits and listening to the complaints of disaffected persons. Among these was one Abraham Corbett, of Portsmouth, who had been censured by the general court for the assumption of power under the king, which they thought was inconsistent with their chartered rights. Corbett drew up a
*NoTE. — It is said that there are more than forty different modes of spelling the name of this lake. There is no uniformity of the orthography of Indian names among early writers. Each person endeavored to represent in letters the sounds which his ear caught from native lips; hence it is extremely difficult to trace the etymology of Intiian names. The name of the lake is now often written and pronounced Winnipesaukee.
6o HISTORY OF
petition, praying for a separate government for New Hampshire. A few seditious persons signed it ; tlie majority opposed it. The commissioners were haughty and supercilious. They threatened heavy penalties for disobediance to the king's mandates. The people were alarmed. They appealed to the General Court for an opportunity to exculpate themselves from all participation in the sentiments expressed in the petition. Commissioners from Massachusetts visited Dover and Portsmouth and from the as- sembled people received assurances of their entire satisfaction with the present government. Exeter did the same through their minister Rev. Mr. Dudley. Corbett was arrested and brought before the governor and magistrates of Massachusetts, "to answer for his tumultuous and seditious practices against the govern- ment," and was fined and disfranchised. Lest this bold vindi- cation of their rights should seem disloyal to the king, they pro- ceeded at once to obey his order respecting the fortification of the harbors. Every male inhabitant of Portsmouth was required to work one week, between June and October, on the fortifica- tions on Great Island. In other respects the decrees of the royal commissioners were little heeded. After their business was completed they were recalled by the king, who was greatly dis- pleased at the treatment they had received, and, by letter, com- manded the colony to send agents to England, promising to hear in person '■ all allegations, suggestions, and pretences to right oi favor on behalf of the colony." Here was, undoubtedly, a con- flict of authority. They were disobedient to the king because, as they maintained, his commission invaded their chartered rights. They pleaded " a royal donation, under the great seal, as the greatest security that could be had in human affairs." We can easily forgive them for that particular act of disloyalty.
CHAPTER XIX.
MORAL EPIDEMICS.
Cicero remarks : " There is no opinion so absurd that it may not be found in some one of the philosophers." Culture is no safeguard against errors of opinion. The most learned are often the most erratic. Astrology and alchemy originated with schol- ars and men of science. In past ages, both the wise and igno- rant have been disposed to ascribe whatever was mysterious or
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 6l
inexplicable to spiritual agents. Hence, evil demons and those who pretended to deal with familiar spirits have held an impor- tant place in the popular creeds of all nations. Magicians, wiz- ards and sorcerers have addressed themselves with immense advantage to the love of the marvelous in men ; and thus impos- ture has been enriched at the expense of popular credulity. The mind has its diseases as well as the body ; and, like
— *'the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,'*
they are contagious. They spread by involuntary sympathy. We, from our exalted throne of Sadduceeism, wonder at the su- perstition and credulity of our fathers. Many volumes have been written upon the Salem witchcraft. The ink is now hardly dry, that has recorded the pious horror of pantheists, positivists and liberal christians, concerning this sad delusion.
*"Tis true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis 'tis true,"
that such abominations should be committed anywhere under the light of day, or in the gloom of night ; and, it is especially grievous that religious men should perpetuate them. But it is nothing strange that the Pilgrims and their children believed in witchcraft, when it was the transmitted creed of all the preced- ing ages. The Bible taught it ; the Church preached it ; the law punished it, and the people feared it. The ignorant are usually the greatest dupes of such delusions. On this point I will quote the words of the late President Felton :
" Our fathers knew this better perhaps than we. Their earliest care was to secure the benefits of learning to their posterity. The measures they took to carry into practical effect this illustrious purpose were suggested partly by a love of solid scholarship as warm as ever animated the heart of students since their day, and partly by their firm belief that learning was to be the great arm of their warfaVe against the Adversary of mankind.
Milton, in describing the conflict of Michael with the Prince of Darkness, says :
*' The griding sword, with discontinuous wound Passed through him ; but the ethereal substance closed Not long divisible."
For spirits, he afterwards adds,
" Cannot but by annihilating die." Earlier than our fathers engaged in the struggle, Luther drove out the Foul Fiend who haunted his cell and broke in upon his pious labors, by hurling an inkstand at his Mephistophclian head. The battle was not fin- ished by the learned weapons our fathers forged and wielded. The same Ancient Adversary, cloven down by .Michael, battered and bespattered by Luther's inkstand, has stood the tug of war with modern science and educa- tion. Hut he has been driven from the open field; he has been humbled into a "fantastic Duke of dark corners;" and finally, in our own day, he has lost all the glory of the "archangel ruined;" he has dropped even the Mediaeval terrors of tail, hoof and horn; he has become a mean, contemptible and sneaking Devil. His greatest exploits are to rap under tables for silly women and sillier men ; to spell out painfully, by the help of whispers and winks
62 HISTORY OF
and explanations of self-deluded bystanders, and with many an orthographic blunder (for he has not learned pJwnography yet) a name or two in as many hours ; to construct awkward and unmeaning messages, and convey them from the spirit-world to gaping fools around, by joggling tables' legs. Re- duced to this most shabby and pitiable condition of Devilhood, I think the armory of learning our fathers left us, if we burnish it up and use it aright, will soon dislodge him from his crazy quarters, and disarm, if not annibi^iate him."
The first victim of the law against witches in New England was Margaret Jones of Charlestown. She was executed in 1648. The charges against her were that her touch was malignant, pro- ducing vomitings, pain, and violent sickness ; that the medicines which she administered, as a doctress, though harmless in their nature, produced great distress ; that her ill will towards those who rejected her medicine prevented the healing of their mala- dies ; that some of her prophecies proved true ; and that she nourished one of those little imps of Satan called incubi. The persons accused at first were old, wrinkled and decrepit women. The witnesses were mischievous children and malignant fanatics. Spectral evidence, ocular fascination, apparitions, and other un- real creations of a diseased imagination were adduced as proofs of guilt. " A callous spot was the mark of the Devil ; did age or amazement refuse to shed tears, were threats after a quarrel followed by death of cattle or other harm, did an error occur in repeating the Lord's prayer, were deeds of great physical strength performed, — these all were signs of witchcraft." In 1656, Goodwife Walford was arraigned before the court of as- sistants at Portsmouth, on complaint of Susanna Trimmings. The complainant testified that on her return to her home, on the thirtieth of March, she heard a noise in the woods like the rust- ling of swine. Soon Goodwife Walford appeared and asked a favor. On being refused, Mrs. Trimmings adds ; " I was struck as with a clap of fire on the back, and she vanished toward the water side, in my apprehension in the shape of a cat." Other testimony of a similar nature was produced, but it does not ap- pear that the accused was convicted. The complaint was prob- ably dropped at the next session of the court. The next trial for witchcraft was at Hampton, September, 1680. A jury of twelve men, on examination of the corpse of the child of John Godfre, found, under oath, grounds of suspicion that the child was murdered by witchcraft. Rachel Fuller, wife of John Ful- ler, was arraigned and tried for the supposed crime ; and as no record is found of the verdict, it is presumed that she was ac- quitted. This subject seems to have slept in New Hampshire till the great excitement in Salem in 1692 and 1693. IBut as there were no newspapers to publish the doings of Satan either in pandemonium or in Massachusetts, New Hampshire was but
NEW HAMPSHIRE. S^
little disturbed by the unjust accusations and judicial murders of another state.
Unice Cole of Hampton was reputed to be a witch. Her name has been " married to immortal verse " in Whittier's "Tent on the Beach." It appears from the records of Hampton that eight persons were drowned in sailing from that town to Boston, on the eighth of August, 1657. Their fate was supposed to be connected, in some way, with the mysterious words of Unice Cole as the vessel rounded the point where her cottage stood. A few stanzas from the poet illustrates her supposed agency in an event which the recorder denominates "the sad hand of God." This very phrase reveals the pendulous motion of the human mind from faith to superstition. The poet thus writes :
" Once, in the old colonial days,
Two hundred years ago and more, A boat sailed down through the winding ways
Of Hampton river lo that low shorei Full o£ a goodly company Sailing out on the summer sea. Veering to catch the land breeze light, With the Boar to left and the Rocks to right
*Fie on the witch!' cried a merry girl,
As they rounded the point where Goody Cole Sat by her door with her wheel atwirl,
A bent and blear-eyed, poor old soul. *Oho!' she muttered, 'Ye' re brave to-day! But I hear the little waves laugh and say, The broth will be cold that waits at home; For it's one to go, but another to come! '
* She's curs' d,' said the skipper ; * speak to her fair;
I'm scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair
And nose like a hawk and eyes like a snake.' But merrily still with laugh and shout. From Hampton river the boat sailed out. Till the huts and the flakes on Star seemed nigh And they lost the scent of the pines of Rye.
Goody Cole looked out from her door:
The Isles of Shoals were drowned and gone. Scarcely she saw the Head of the Boar
Toss the foam from tusks of stone. She clasped her hands with a grip of pain, The tear on her cheek was not of rain ; ' They are lost ! ' she muttered, ' boat and crew ! * ' Lord, forgive me, my words were true !'"
The first enactment by Massachusetts against Quakers, who are denominated " a cursed sect of heretics," was made in Octo- ber, 1656. The penalties, from time to time, were increased from banishment to scourging, imprisonment and death. All these penalties were inflicted upon the Quakers for several years in succession. The law-makers of Massachusetts regarded tol- eration as " the first born of abominations ; " they also imagined that their political safety was endangered by a diversity of reli- gious opinions in the state. New Hampshire, influenced by the
64 HISTORY OF
opinions and laws of the elder colony, subjected Quakers to ar- rest and punishment by whipping. In the winter of 1662, three Quaker women were sentenced to be whipped through eleven towns, with ten stripes apiece in each town. In answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Dover, the General Court of Massa- chusetts commissioned Richard Waldron (then spelled Wal- dern) to act in execution of the laws against Quakers in that town. Accordingly, under date of December 22, 1662, that magistrate issued his warrant as follows :
"To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisburj-, Newburv, Rowley, Ipswich, Windham, Lynn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vaga- bond Quakers are out of this jurisdiction : You are hereby required in the King's Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anna Colman, Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's tail, and drawing the cart through your several towns, to whip them upon their naked backs not exceeding ten stripes apiece, on each of them in each town, and so convey them from Constable to Constable till they are out of this jurisdic- tion, as you will answer it, at your peril, and this shall be your warrant.
Richard Waldron."
In the first three towns above named this cruel decree was literally executed. The victims of persecution were then res- cued by Walter Barefoot, under pretence of delivering them to the constables of Newbury ; but in reality for the purpose of sending them out of the province. When we see the name of the patriot and hero, Richard Waldron, appended to such a barbarous mandate, we blush for the imperfections of man in his best estate and cry out with Madame Roland, " Oh, Liberty ! what crimes are committed in thy name." The interposition of such an unprincipled intriguer as Walter Barefoot, to rescue these victims of popular hate and legal vengeance, shows what strange contradictions are found in human nature. This kind act is said to have been almost the only redeeming trait in the character of Barefoot
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 6$
CHAPTER XX.
PHILIP S INDIAN WAR.
When the Pequots were exterminated in 1637, by Massachu- setts, the settlements of New Hampshire were too remote to feel the shock of arms. From that time the people of New England lived in peace with the Indians for thirty-eiglit years. It might be expected that old feuds would have been forgotten in that lapse of time. It is supposed that the native population of New England in 1620 was about fifty thousand. Of these four or five thousand resided in New Hampshire. They generally dwelt in the valleys of the rivers, and at such points as presented the best opportunities for fishing. Civil war and pestilence had greatly reduced the number of the aborigines on all the Atlantic coast. The tribes were numerous, but the men were few in each. There were as many as four sachems residing in the eastern and southern parts of the state, who acknowledged a qualified alle- giance to Passaconaway, the great sagamore of the Penacooks. His home was near the present capital of the state. Concord at its first settlement was named Penacook. Passaconaway was renowned for his sagacity, duplicity and moderation. He was also a famous magician. The neighboring tribes believed that he could make water burn, trees dance, and turn himself into a flame. He was always jealous of the whites, but was restrained from attacking them by fear. At a great Indian festival held in i56o, this aged sagamore made his farewell speech to his as- sembled subjects. He prophesied a general war, but entreated them to remain neutral. " Hearken," said he, "to the last words of your father and friend. The white men are sons of the morn- ing. The Great Spirit is their father. His sun shines bright about them. Sure as you light the fires, the breath of heaven will turn the flames upon you and destroy you. Listen to my advice. It is the last I shall be allowed to give you. Remem- ber it and live." This certainly was excellent advice. It is probably embellished a little in the translation by some one who greatly admired Indian eloquence. Several versions of this speech are extant, all differing in quantity and quality. All we can say respecting it is, that it is true "for substance." He told them, furthermore, that he had been the bitter enemy of the English, and, by his arts of sorcery, had tried his utmost to pre- vent their settlement and increase, but could by no means suc-
S
66 HISTORY OF
ceed. In the war which soon followed, the Penacooks were the only Indians in New Hampshire who remained quiet. Wono- lanset, the son and successor of Passaconaway, resisted the soli- citations of Philip to avenge his own wrongs and those of his race. He even withdrew, with his people, from their homes, that he might not be drawn into the quarrel.
There exists among historians a great diversity of opinion respecting the character and conduct of Philip, the author of a widespread and desolating war in New England. Some writers class him and some other Indian chiefs, such as Pontiac, Te- cumseh and Black Hawk among the truly great heroes of earth. They regard him as the victim of fortune and not the dupe of folly. By such critics he is regarded as the projector of a vast and comprehensive plan of exterminating the English and ele- vating the Indians. His liberal policy embraced the entire In- dian race. By his eloquence and perseverance he aroused most of the neighboring tribes to a sense of their oppression and en- enlisted them in "freedom's holy war." The contest with them was for liberty or death. All men admire patriotism ; we may not justly withhold it from one who attempted the liberation of his race. He was defeated. He fell "from great undertakings," not like Phaeton for want of skill, but like Cato for want of means. Such are the conclusions of the Indian eulogists. They are sentimentalists, who, like Rousseau, prefer savage to civil- ized life, and deem the native wilds and noisy falls preferable to cities and factories ; or they are authors or artists, who, like Schoolcraft and Catlin, share the home of the Indians that they may find materials to exalt the race by history and painting. Such benefactors, of course, were loved and honored by the na- tives. The history of Massasoit, the father of Philip, shows that it was easy and useful to the natives to maintain peace with the English. For forty years that chief faithfully kept the treaty made with the Plymouth colonists a few months after their ar- rival. Philip was of a jealous, restless, ambitious and treacher- ous temper. Mr. Palfrey denies that his views were wise, saga- cious, patriotic, or comprehensive. He concludes his estimate of his character, as follows :
"And the title of King, which it has been customary to attach to his name, disguises and transfigures to the view the form of a squalid savage, whose palace was a sty ; whose royal robe was a bear skin, or a coarse blanket, alive with vermin ; who hardly knew the luxury of an ablution ; who was often glad to appease appetite with food such as men who are not starving loathe ; and whose nature possessed just the capacity for reflection and the degree of refinement which might be expected to be developed from the constitution of his race, by such a condition and such habits of life. * * The Indian King Philip is a mythical character."
It is probable that Philip came to the resolution to engage in
NEW HAMPSHIRE. . 67
war with some reluctance. It is said that he wept at what he regarded as the fatal alternative, and that his young braves ex- ceeded their leader in their love of vengeance and eagerness for the fight. This wily chief soon found many of the adjacent tribes rallying to his standard. He put himself at their head and engaged in open war. Hostilities commenced in Swansey, Massachusetts, in June 1675. Just before this attack, the Ind- ians of Maine, called the Tarrateens, were e.xcited to violence by the reckless and foolish conduct of some American sailors, who accidentally met the wife of Squando, sachem of the Pequawketts, crossing the Saco with her little child in her arms. They had heard that Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of brutes, and determined to try the experiment. They wan- tonly upset the canoe. The child sank ; the mother immediately dived and recovered it, but the child soon died. The Indians were justly enraged, and ascribed the death of the young child to this brutal treatment. Squando, the father, became the in- veterate foe of all the whites and eagerly sought revenge. His fame was great as a magician, and this gave him a powerful influence over the tribes of Maine and New Hampshire. Other wrongs done to the Indians by the scattered settlers in Maine were alleged as the cause of active hostilities in that state.
Within twenty days after Philip made his first attack, the whole country for two hundred miles in extent was in a blaze of war. The greatest terror everywhere prevailed. The Indians, dis- persed in small parties, robbed and murdered the unprotected settlers in Maine. They approached New Hampshire in Sep- tember, 1675, and made their first onset on Oyster River, now Durham. Here they burned two houses, killed two men in a canoe, and took two aaptive. These soon made their escape. Another party lay in ambush, on the road frbm Exeter to Hamp- ton, where one man was killed and another captured. They con- tinued their march eastward and attacked a house in Berwick, where fifteen women and children were collected. All were saved but two small children who could not climb the fence near the house. They owed their escape to the intrepidity of a girl of eighteen. As the Indians came up, she shut the door and held it while the others fled. The Indians chopped down the door with their hatchets, and entering knocked down the brave girl, whom they left as dead, and pursued the fugitives. The heroine recovered of her wounds ; yet no historian has recorded her name. All the towns on the Piscataqua, ^nd the settlements in Maine, were in the utmost distress and confusion. Business was suspended. Every man was obliged to provide for his own safety and that of his family. The only method of protection was to desert their homes and retire to garrisoned houses, and
68 HISTORY OF
from convenient places of observation watch for the lurking foe. Thus they were on their guard night and day, subject to the most fearful alarms, and every moment expecting assaults. From a work entitled "Old Homes of New England," we extract the following description of a house still standing in Durham, built by Capt. John Woodman for a garrison, its present occupants being the sixth or seventh generation of the same name dwell- ing in it.
" It was the citadel of the early settlement. Round about it, from ten to thirty rods distant, may yet be distinguished the cellars of houses which mouldered at periods beyond the memory of any man living, clustering near by that the occupants might speedily take refuge within its defences when menaced by Indian raids. It stands on rising ground, three quarters of a mile from Oyster River, commanding a view of the valley of that branch, by which goods were brought from Portsmouth. It is constructed of solid white pine logs a foot thick, some of them two feet in depth as high up as a few feet above the second floor, thus forming a parapet to serve as a breastwork, the roof being of moderate pitch, for use in some exigencies of Indian war- fare, this mode of construction having been adopted in similar strongholds in other places. On this upper tier of logs now rests a frame building, fin- ishing out the second story and attic. It has in front the projection common to such houses, to beat off assailants and prevent thcni from setting fire from below. Its small windows and various port-holes and look-outs were provided with heavy blocks of wood to protect the iiimates from the enemies' bullets. It has all been changed now, covered with clapboards and other- wise modernized. It is commodious and sufficiently elegant for present needs but as originally constructed it must have proved a formidable defense against the weapons and methods of Indian warfare.
As the fisheries in the neighborhood were the best along the coast for sal- mon, shad, and whatever products of the sea Indians chiefly delighted in, it was natural that their temper should have been stirred to the quick, exasper- ated by the indifference manifested by the settlers to their earlier claims. If they wreaked resentment by frequent massacre and cruelties peculiarly sav- age, their sense of wrong was aggravated by their want of power to drive off the intruders or compel redress. Recent events of greater immediate inter- est have blotted out the memory of these baptisms of blood, and the legends that have floated down to us are too horrible for relief. Certainly no part of the country was more constantly harassed, nowhere were more needed for- tresses of strength. The Indians' own castles were girded about by thick-set palisades, and this outer defense was likewise adopted by the settlers for their garrison-houses. They well answered their purpose, and Belknap men- tions an instance when upon alarm the inhabitants of Durham took refuge in their fort. The Indians, some hundreds in ntmiber, invested it, but unable to make any impression upon its solid walls, and themselves exposed to a gal- ling fire from tjie port holes and roof, which rapidly reduced their force, were obliged to retreat."
In October, 1675, the Indians made a second assault on Ber- wick. Lieutenant Roger Plaisted sent out from his garrison seven men, to make discoveries. They fell into an ambush and three of the number were slain. The next day Plaisted, with twenty men, went out to recover the dead bodies. They were again surprised ; most of the men fled. Plaisted and two of his sons, with one faithful friend, disdained to fly and were
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 69
killed. Here was displayed heroism far above that which wins honors upon the tented field. The next day Captain Frost came from .Sturgeon Creek and buried the dead. Before the close of the month the mill of Capt. Frost was burned and an assault made upon his garrison. He had only three boys with him ; but by keeping up a constant fire and running hither and thither, giving loud commands, as to a multitude, he saved his house and the murderous savages retired. They then moved down the river, plundering, burning and killing as they found people un- guarded, till they reached Portsmouth. There they were terri- fied by the firing of cannon, and fled. They soon after appeared at Dover, Lamprey River and Exeter, committing outrages and filling the inhabitants with constant alarm. At the end of No- vember it was ascertained that more than fifty persons had been killed between the Kennebec and Piscataqua. This was a large number, when we reflect that a town then rarely contained more than twenty or thirty men. The Indians had lost ninety of their men.
The winter was severe ; the snow was four feet deep in De- cember. The Indians were suffering from famine and sued for peace. They came to Major Waldron and expressed sorrow for their cruelties and promised to be quiet and peaceable in future. By his mediation a peace was made with the whole body of eastern Indians, which continued till the next August, and prob- ably would have continued longer had the eastern settlers been more thoughtful and conciliatory toward this irritable and capri- cious race. But, during these seven months of quiet, captives were restored and general joy pervaded every heart in the east- ern colonies.
Meantime Massachusetts was suffering terrible desolation from the ravages of Philip's subjects and allies. The towns of Brook- field, Deerfield, Mendon, Groton, Rehoboth, Providence and War- wick were burned in rapid succession. Lancaster was laid in ruins and Mrs. Rowlandson carried away captive. At Northfield Captain Beers was defeated and twenty of his men slain. At Muddy Brook, in Deerfield, Captain Lothrop and more than seventy young men, the pride of Essex County, were surprised and murdered. Other similar disasters occurred in other towns. The whole land was shrouded in gloom and every heart was pierced with sorrow. Philip withdrew to a great swamp in Rhode Island, apparently satiated with blood. There he con- structed a rude fortification, enclosing six hundred wigwams. He had large supplies and deemed himself impregnable. But the troops of Massachusetts forced an entrance, burned the wig- wams and slew a thousand of his braves. This was the ruin of the savage warrior. His men that escaped the sword in the
•JO HISTORY OF
swamp were hunted like wild beasts in the woods. Their vic- tories were everywhere turned into defeat. Soon Philip himself, the cause of all these disasters, was captured and slain. With his death the hopes of the allies went out like a candle, and the land, for a time, enjoyed repose. Many of the followers of Philip fled for protection to the tribes of New Hampshire. They tried to identify themselves with the Penacooks, Ossipees and Pequawketts who had agreed upon terms of peace. But they could not remain concealed. Some of them were arrested and punished.
In August, 1676, hostilities were renewed, through the agency of these strange Indians. Massachusetts sent two companies under Captain Joseph Syll and Captain Hawthorne, to aid the people of New Hampshire. At Cocheco, on the sixth of Sep- tember, they found about four hundred mixed Indians at the house of Major Waldron, with whom they had made peace and whom they regarded as a friend and father. The two captains, recognizing among them many of the murderers of their breth- ren, desired to seize them and hold them as prisoners for pun- ishment. The Major dissuaded violence and had recourse to stratagem. He proposed a sham fight, in the English style, the next day. They consented ; and after first discharging their muskets, they were quietly surrounded and disarmed. A sepa- ration was then made of friends and foes. VVonolanset and the Penacooks, with other friendly Indians, were dismissed in peace. The strange Indians, who were fugitives from justice, were sent as prisoners to Boston, where seven or eight of them were hung, and the rest, to the number of about two hundred, were sold into slavery in foreign lands.
Many regard the conduct of Major Waldron as an act of treacher}'. The Indians certainly looked upon it as a breach of faith which they never forgave. For fifteen long years they nursed their vengeance and finally wiped out their scores in the blood of the brave old councilor. The condition of Major Waldron was one of fearful responsibility. The government under which he lived demanded of him the sacrifice he made. The strange Indians really had no claim on him for mercy. They were disguised criminals mingling with innocent peace- makers. Their hands were reeking with the blood of women and children ; and although for the moment he consented to in- clude them in the treaty with his friends, still the law lequired that they should be separated. He was overruled by the repre- sentatives of the government and surrendered to their power those whom he had previously consented to protect. Major Waldron undoubtedly desired to treat these oudaws according to the rules of war. He wished to withdraw them from the enemy
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 7 1
and to save them alive ; but while his treaty was yet incomplete, the agents of the government under which he was acting came and refused to confirm wliat he had promised. They were or- dered " to seize all who had been concerned with Philip in the war." Here was a sad dilemma for the peacemaker. He could not act on either side without giving offence. If he surrendered the Indians, he must incur their perpetual displeasure ; if he did not surrender them, he exposed himself to the charge of treason to his own government. He decided to obey his superi- ors. Most men, even those who condemn him, would have pur- sued a similar course. His case was not unlike that of General Sherman, when he made terms of surrender for the rebel army. The government was dissatisfied with the conditions he pro- posed and the enemy accepted, and required the stipulations to be changed. The General hesitated not to obey the new and more stringent requisitions. Let him who is disposed to censure one of the greatest and best men of our early history put to himself this question : How should I have acted in like circumstances ?
After the surrender of these fugitive Indians, the Massachu- setts companies, with some of Waldron's and Frost's men and eight Indian guides from Cocheco, marched eastward in quest of the enemy. The eastern settlements had been destroyed or abandoned ; no enemy was found, and the expedition proved fruitless. Rumor had published a report of the assembling of a large body of Indians near the Ossipee ponds, where they had intrenched themselves in a strong fort which a few years before they had hired English carpenters to build for them as a defence against the Mohawks. The companies set out on the first of November, 1676, furnished with abundant supplies. They traveled four days through the wilderness and met no liv- ing man. They found the fort, but it was deserted. A scouting party was sent about eighteen miles above, but the enemy was nowhere found. The companies returned to Berwick after nine days of profitless labor. A Penobscot Indian named Mogg put them on this false scent. He came to Boston under pretence of making peace for his tribe. In that capacity he was trusted, but he proved a traitor to the English, and boasted of his success in deceiving them into a covenant of peace. When the treachery of Mogg was discovered, hostilities were again renewed. A winter expedition was fitted out. Two hundred men, including sixty Natick Indians, sailed from Boston on the first week of Februar)', under the command of Major Waldron. At Kenne- bec he built a fort and left it under the command of Captain Davis. At Pemaquid he held a conference with the Indians respecting the delivery of prisoners for a ransom, and came
72 HISTORY OF
near being surprised by the treacherous savages while conferring with them. Their fraud was discovered and summarily pun- ished. They returned to Boston on the eleventh of March, hav- ing killed thirteen Indians and taken some valuable property without loss to themselves.
As there seemed to be no immediate prospect of peace, the government resolved to employ in their service the Mohawks who had long been the inveterate enemies of the eastern tribes. They hesitated for a time respecting the propriety and rectitude of this act. The Mohawks "were heathen," but the example of Abraham in forming a confederacy with the "heathen" Amonites, in recovering his kinsman Lot from the hands of their common enemy, confirmed them in their purpose. Their doubts were al- layed by the Scripture precedent ; messengers were dispatched to the Mohawks and they were eager and ready for a fight with their ancient adversaries. This alliance with savages proved a misfortune to the English, for they murdered, indiscriminately, those who were friendly and those that were hostile to the whites, and their conduct, it is thought, diverted, in later years, the friendly Indians to the side of the French. The eastern Indians were excited to new ferocity by the incursions of the Mohawks. Scattered parties were robbing, plundering, burning and murder- ing in the vicinity of Wells and Kittery, and even within the bounds of Portsmouth. These outrages continued for nearly a year. Repeated expeditions were sent against them. The Ind- ians were often superior in the fight. In one instance, in a bat- tle at the mouth of the Kennebec, Capt. Sweet and sixty of liis men were left dead or wounded on the field. The summer of 1677 was passed in constant alarms and fights. During the au- tumn and winter following the Indians remained inactive, though they were masters of the situation.
In the spring of 1678 commissioners were appointed to make a formal treaty of peace with Squando and other eastern chiefs. They met at Casco, now Portland. It was stipulated in the treaty that the inhabitants should return to their native homes on condition of paying one peck of corn, for each family, annu- ally, to the Indians, and one bushel to Major Pendleton who was a great proprietor. The Indian title to the lands of Maine was thus recognized, and the settlers were humiliated by the pay- ment of tribute to their savage foes. It was the best treaty that could then be made. The war had lasted three years ; and while Philip had been slain and his allies dispersed, the eastern Ind- ians had become formidable. Famine was staring the colonists in the face ; their foes were too remote and too much scattered to allow of systematic warfare ; therefore, they cheerfully sub- mitted to these degrading conditions. In Maine they virtually
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 73
acknowledged the supremacy of the aborigines. New Hamp- shire retained its independence, though gjeatly crippled in wealth and men.
The whole burden of the war fell upon the colonists. They were too proud or too wary to ask aid of England, lest by so doing they should encourage royal encroachments. Massachu- setts had long been accused of aiming at independence of the crown, and New Hampshire was in full sympathy with her sister republic.
During all this period of sorrow and distress the air and the earth were full of signs, omens, portents and wonders. Modern science had not yet banished superstition. People were too much occupied to study nature's laws. They had not leisure to become wise and they were too much distracted to be rational. A majority of the men at that age believed the atmosphere to be peopled with spirits who brought with them
"Airs from heaven or blasts from hell."
Our fathers could, conscientiously, say with Alonzo, in the play :
"Methought the biltows spoke, and told me of it : The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced'*
the coming woe.
" Philip's war commenced in June, 1675, and lasted three years. Six hundred of the inhabitants of New England were cut off, twelve or thirteen towns utterly destroyed, and six hundred build- ings consumed by fire. It is computed that about one man in eleven, out of all capable of bearing arms, was killed, and ever)' eleventh family burnt out ; that one eleventh of the whole militia and of all the buildings of the United Colony were swept off by this war. "
An extract from a letter of Major Waldron, dated April 18, 1677, reveals the distress occasioned by Indian depredations in New Hampshire and Maine :
"nth instant, 2 men more kill'd at Wells. 12th, 2 men, one woman and 4 children killed at York & 2 houses burnt. 13th, a house burnt at Kit- tery and 2 old people taken captive by Simon and 3 more, but they gave ym their liberty again without any damage to their psons. 14th, a house sur- prised on south side Piscatay and 2 young women carried away thence. i6th, a man killed at Greenland and his house burnt, another sett on fire, but ye Enemy was beaten off & ye fire put out by soine of our men who then recov- ed, also, one of the young women taken 2 days before who sts there was but 4 Indians ; they run skulking about in small p'ties like wolves. We have had p't's of men after them in all quarters w'ch have sometimes recovered something they have stolen, but can't certainly say they have killed any of ym; Capt ffrost is after them in Yorkshire."
It would require the most exalted christian excellence to love such enemies, or spare them when once captured.
Note.— Major Waldron was one of the great men in the early history of New Hampshire. He held, at different times, every important ofBce in the Province. He acted in every public
74 HISTORY OF
station with great fidelity, sometimes with unpardonable severity. He was at first commander of the militia, then speaker of the assembly, councilor, acting governor, and the only chief justice of New Hampshire who ever sentenced a citizen for high treason. Edward Gove, of Hampton, was tried by him for rebellion. His sentence was drawn up in the barbarous lan- guage of the old Encilish law. He was ordered *'to be carried back to the p'ace from whence he came, and from tnence to be drawn to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck, and cut down alive;" and it was further ordered "that liis entrails be taken out and burnt before his face, and his head cut off, and lus body divided into four quarters, and his head and guarters disposed of at the King's pleasure." This horrible decree was commuted to impnsonment, and the zealous opponent of a tyrannical governor was finally pardoned and his property restored.
CHAPTER XXI.
RENEWAL OF MASON'S CLAIM.
We, who live in "ceiled houses," with better furniture than kings could command three hundred years ago, can scarcely conceive of the hardships endured by our ancestors in New Hampshire during the first century after its settlement. From the day when Philip first lighted the torch of war, in 1675, there were continued hostilities, with brief intervals of peace, for fifty years ; and the citizen who had lived through that period had endured "hardness as a good soldier" longer than the Roman veteran when he was released from active service. But our fathers found no discharge in that war. They were compelled to fight on for their hearths and altars ; for their children and country. There fell upon them, at once, a storm of woes such as can scarcely be paralleled in history. Indians lay in wait for their blood ; proprietors sought to rob them of their property ; monarchs usurped their government ; pestilence thinned their ranks ; famine wasted their strength, and Frenchmen sent sav- ages to murder their families. This combination of destructive agents might be very aptly symbolized by the flying and creep- ing things that devoured the land of ancient Israel, when the prophet exclaimed : " That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten ; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten ; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." Still, they gained skill, energy and courage from these very disasters. Like the oak upon Mount Algidus, to which the poet compares ancient Rome, they derived strength from the veiy axe that pnmed their branches. While the Indian war was raging with its utmost fury, in 1675, Robert Mason again renewed his claim to New Hampshire and
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 75
petitioned the king for redress. The question was submitted to the king's legal advisers, one of whom was the learned Sir William Jones ; and they reported " that John Mason, Esquire, grandfather to the petitioner, by virtue of several gi-ants from the Council of New England, under their common seal, was in- stated in fee in sundry great tracts of land in New England, by the name of New Hampshire, and that the petitioner, being heir- at-law to the said John, had a good and legal title to said land." The colony of Massachusetts was immediately summoned to answer, before the king, to the charge of usurping jurisdiction over territory owned and claimed by the heirs of Mason and Gorges. Edward Randolph, the kinsman of Mason, a man of great energy and ability, was the bearer of the king's letter. On his arrival in Boston, he made known his mission to Governor Leverett, who read the king's letter to the Council, and they responded, in brief, that " they would consider it." Randolph then passed through New Hampshire, informing the people of his business. Occasionally a disaffected person was ready to complain of the government of Massachusetts, as in all well regulated communities and families there is usually some one who is ready to be the "accuser of his brethren." The great majority of the people, however, were highly incensed against the royal messenger. The inhabitants of Dover, in town-meet- ing, "protested against the claim of Mason, declaring that they had, bona fide, purchased their lands of the Indians, recognized their subjection to the government of Massachusetts under whom they had lived long and happily, and by whom they were now assisted in defending their estates and families against the savage enemy." How much is revealed by this pathetic protest ! Had Mason then been put in possession of the entire state of New Hampshire, it would not have sold at auction for a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of that single Indian war, then raging. Major Waldron was appointed to petition the king in their behalf. The people of Portsmouth, likewise, appointed four of their citizens to " draft " a similar petition for them.
The governor of Massachusetts reproved Randolph for en- deavoring to excite discontent among the people. He replied, " if he had done amiss, they might complain to the king." After a brief stay of six weeks he returned to England, charg- ing the magistrates of Boston with oppression, and calling on the king to free the people of New Hampshire from their gal- ling yoke. After his departure the Council of Massachusetts, with the advice of the elders of the church, sent agents to Eng- land to answer, in person, to such allegations as might be made against them. On their arrival a hearing was ordered before the chief justices of the king's bench and common pleas. The
•J 6 HISTORY OF
agents disclaimed all tide to the land claimed by Mason, and asserted the right of jurisdiction only over that portion of the territory within the limits of the charter of Massachusetts. The judges declined to determine the ownership of the soil ; but decided that neither the proprietor nor Massachusetts had the right of jurisdiction over New Hampshire. It was accordingly decreed that the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton were beyond the bounds of Massachusetts. This opened the way for the establishment of a separate government for New Hampshire. The secretary of state therefore informed the colony of Massachusetts that it was the king's pleasure that the two colonies should be separated ; and that all commissions issued by Massachusetts within the limits of New Hampshire should be null and void. The claimant, however, was obliged to declare, under his hand and seal, that he would demand no back rents due prior to the separation ; and that he would con- firm to all settlers their title to their lands and houses on con- dition of their payment to him of sixpence in the pound of the entire value of their property. On these terms a commission was issued on the eighteenth of September, 1679, under the royal seal, for the government of New Hampshire as a royal province. The union with Massachusetts, which had existed for thirty-eight years, was arbitrarily dissolved, contrary to the expressed wishes of all the parties interested. This union had been pleasant and profitable to both colonies, and was sundered with the special regret of the citizens of New Hampshire. It was the more un- welcome to them because it was planned to favor the claim of Mason, and thus deprive them of their property and their gov- ernment.
CHAPTER XXII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT.
The Stormiest period of our colonial history was during the reign of the Stuarts, the most impracticable and unfortunate of royal families. Every one of them was innocent of any design to promote the independence of the colonies ; their blunders helped them ; their ruin saved them. Charles the First attempt- ed to patch up for himself "a madman's robe" of power, but utterly failed; so that it was truthfully said of him, "nothing so be-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 77
came him in his life as the leaving of it." Charles the Second, the meanest and most profligate of all the English monarchs, val- ued power and wealth only as they contributed to his pleasures. He lived "in wantonness," a pensioner of the hereditary foe of the English church and English liberty, and died in the Catholic communion, showing that his whole life was a " practical lie." This man,
" Whose promise none relied on, "
instituted for New Hampshire a new form of government. The royal commission was brought to Portsmouth on the first day of January, 1680. It ordained a president and council, with very liberal powers, to represent the king and constitute the executive branch of the government. John Cutts (often written Cutt) was appointed president, and Richard Martyn, William Vaughan and Thomas Daniel of Portsmouth, John Oilman of Exeter, Chris- topher Hussey of Hampton and Richard VValdron of Dover councilors, with permission to choose three other qualified per- sons out of the several parts of the province, to be added to them. The president was to nominate a deputy who was to preside in his absence. The council was authorized to admin- ister justice, with the right of appeal to the king when the sum in dispute exceeded fifty pounds. They also regulated the militia and appointed officers. They were required to issue writs for the calling of a popular assembly to establish their allegiance, assess taxes and provide for the public defence. The king, how- ever, retained the right to annul all laws that he did not ap- prove. He could also discontinue the representation of the peo- ple at his pleasure. The whole constitution was artfully con- trived to give a show of great popular liberty and at the same time leave the king the supreme ruler of the land. Charles hated parliaments as did his " martyred " father ; he therefore provided for the suspension of the representative branch of the provincial government, in case they should beome insubordinate. Liberty of conscience was allowed to all Protestants ; but special favor was shown to the church of England.
This commission was brought to Portsmouth by the same Edward Randolph who had made himself so offensive to the people on a former mission in behalf of the heirs of Mason. A more unwelcome messenger could not have been found. The people were dissatisfied with the change ; and the officers named in the commission received with manifest reluctance the honors conferred upon them. These men were all artfully selected to make the government acceptable to the people. They were the most trusted and honored men of the province. They had serv- ed the people faithfully, in war and peace, during their connec- tion with Massachusetts, and enjoyed the confidence and respect
78 HISTORY OF
of all the freemen. The number of voters in Portsmouth was seventy-one ; in Dover sixty-one, in Hampton fifty-seven ; and in Exeter only twenty. On the twenty-second day of January, the councilors took the oaths of office. They chose three other per- sons to fill the places designated in the commission. The coun- cil was organized by appointing Martyn treasurer and Roberts marshal. The president nominated Waldron as his deputy.
A few disaffected persons only approved of the new order of things ; the mass of the people looked upon themselves as en- snared by the royal charter. They were deprived of the priv- ilege of electing their rulers, which the other colonies of New England still enjoyed, and they expected their titles to their prop- erty soon to be called in question. A general assembly was sum- moned. The persons who were judged qualified to ^^ote were named in the writs ; and the oath of allegiance was adminis- tered to every voter. A fast was proclaimed to ask the divine blessing on the approaching assembly and " the continuance of their precious and pleasant things." The first meeting of the assembly was held at Portsmouth on the sixteenth of March. Prayer was offered and a sermon preached by Rev. Joshua Moody. This custom of listening to an election sermon became an established custom in New Hampshire in the next century. Among the first acts of this new legislature was the preparation of a letter to the general court at Boston, expressing in the most ample terms their gratitude for their kind protection and ex- cellent government. This was accompanied with the assurance t'iiat the separation was compulsory and was by them submitted to with reluctance. The hope was expressecl that they might still be united for the common defence against a common enemy. The world's history furnishes few examples of a union so har- monious and mutually acceptable to both parties as that between these infant states. The assembly then proceeded to frame a code of laws. The following preamble, full of the spirit of in- dependence, was first enacted: "That no act, imposition, law or ordinance should be made or imposed upon them, but such as should be made by the assembly and approved by the assembly and council." They then proceeded to enumerate fifteen crimes punishable with death. Idolatry and witchcraft were among them. They in fact merely re-enacted the laws of Massachusetts, under which they had been living for so many years. The spirit of these was derived from the Mosaic code. The other penal laws were such as have, in the main, been continued to this day. To prevent future controversies, the boundaries of towns and grants of land were to remain unaltered. Juries were to decide disputed claims. The president and council constituted the su- preme court, with a jury when the parties so elected ; and three
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 79
inferior courts were constituted at Portsmouth, Dover and Hamp- ton. One company of infantry was enrolled in each town, one company of artillery at the fort, and one company of cavalry, all under the command of the veteran Major Waldron. So the new administration was opened under the same laws which pre- vailed during the recent union with Massachusetts. There were but slight changes in any of the departments of the government.
Soon, however, the royal arm was stretched out, not for pro- tection but for robbery. The people were very jealous of the least infringement of their rights. The king's tirst aggressive act was in the imposition and collection of duties on trade. Ed- ward Randolph had been appointed the royal surveyor of ports and collector of revenue throughout New England. He made proclamation that .all vessels should be entered and cleared by him. In the execution of his commisssion he seized a vessel belonging to Portsmouth. The master complained of this act to the council. Randolph was summoned to answer to the com- plaint, but assumed an air of insolence toward the court. He was, however, fined and compelled to ask pardon, publicly, for the insult offered to the council. He appealed to the king. His deputy Walter Barefoot, having published a decree that all vessels should be entered and cleared by him, was also indicted and fined. The king's officers were decidedly unpopular ; and the king's income from the commerce of the colony was a minus quantity. Randolph met with no better success in Boston. His name and office were everywhere odious. In December, 1681, Mason arrived from England, with a mandamus from the king to admit him to a seat in the council. He was accordingly allowed to sit. He soon revealed the object of his mission. He wished to constrain the peop^le to take leases of him. He assumed all the powers of a proprietor, forbidding the cutting of wood and timber and threatening to sell their houses for rents due. The citizens petitioned for protection and the council forbade Mason and his agents to act independently of the laws. Mason re- fused to sit longer in the council ; and when they threatened to deal with him as an offender, he published a summons to the president and several members of the council to appear before his majesty in three months. This was deemed a "usurpation ", and he escaped arrest by fleeing to England.
While these events were in progress the President Cutts died, and Major Waldron, his deputy, succeeded him. The first presi- dent was universally beloved by the people. He was a man of integrity and patriotism, and his memory is still cherished in the towns where he lived. The place where his ashes repose is still pointed out in the populous part of the city, where was once the orchard of the opulent merchant. The death of the
8o HISTORY OF
president produced some changes in the council : Richard Wald- ron, jr., was elected to fill his father's place ; Anthony Nutter was chosen in the place of Mr. Dalton deceased. Henry Dow was made marshal instead of Roberts who resigned. During the brief period remaining of this administration nothing worthy of special notice occurred, except a second seizure of a vessel by deputy-surveyor Barefoot and a second fine of twenty pounds imposed upon him by the council.
At this date there was little to encourage immigration ; and, if possible, less to cheer the hearts of the permanent residents. The exports of the province, consisting chiefly of lumber, were in little demand in the other plantations. Importations were small, as the ships that entered the harbor at Portsmouth usually sold their cargoes elsewhere and came there empty to be filled with lumber. The fisheries had declined ; and none were then cured in New Hampshire. One passage from a communi- cation made to " the Lords of Trade " in England, by the coun- cil, deserves especial notice. It is to us truly touching in its tone :
" In reference to the improvement of land by tillage, our soil is generally so barren and the winters so extreme cold and long, that there is not pro- vision enough raised to supply the inhabitants, many of whom were in the late Indian war so impoverished, their houses and estates being destroyed and they and others remaining still so incapacitated for the improvement of the land (several of the youth being killed also), that they even groan under the tax or rate assessed for that service, which is, a great part of it, unpaid to this day."
They speak in this letter of the insufficiency of the armament of the fort on Great Island. It consisted of eleven small guns. " These were bought and the fort erected at the proper charge of the towns of Dover and Portsmouth at the beginning of the first Dutch war, about the year 1665, in obedience to his maj- esty's command, in his letter to the government under which the province then was." His majesty's foreign wars taxed heavily these poor colonists ; but his majesty's exchequer paid none of their bills. It was a glorious privilege to live under a king.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 8l
CHAPTER XXIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
In the infancy of a state the laws are few, the processes of justice simple ; and the bench is guided in its decisions by equity and common sense, rather than by precedents. Until 1641 the several plantations of New Hampshire, being voluntary associa- tions and with but small populations, secured substantial justice by agents and officers appointed by the several companies. After the union with Massachusetts in 1641, regular courts were organ- ized which continued till 1680, when the colony was made a sep- arate government and a new code of laws and new courts were ordained by an assembly chosen by the people. A superior court was established and three inferior courts to be holden at Dover, Hampton and Portsmouth. The president of the prov- ince, the council, consisting of ten members, and the assem- bly constituted the supreme court. This was evidently mod- eled after the English parliamentary court organized for the trial of offences against " the peace and dignity of the state." A jury was allowed, if the parties desired it. Either party, if dissatisfied, could appeal to the king in council, if the amount in dispute exceeded fifty pounds. During the administrations of the royal governors, the courts were often modified by such ar- bitrary rulers as Cranfield, Barefoot and Andres. In some instances, law and justice were synonymous with a dictator's de- crees. Councilors and judges were removed, with cause or without, as the governor's prejudices determined. A new organi- zation of the courts was made by the legislative assembly in 1699, which continued in vogue without material change till 177 1. Justices of the peace in their respective towns were au- thorized by this enactment to hear and try all actions of debt and trespass, where title to real estate was not involved, if the matter in issue did not exceed forty shillings. Either party was allowed to appeal to a higher court when dissatisfied. " After the temporary constitution was formed, in Januar)', 1776, judges were appointed on the 27th day of the same month by the leg- islature for the courts of the several counties, and of the supe- rior court of judicature. It would appear that the jurisdiction of the courts was not changed beyond a few technicalities, so as to conform more correctly to the new formed and independent government ; and so remained during the war with England." 6
82 HISTORY OF
An act was passed January 5, 1776, in reference to the several courts, which reads thus : " All which courts shall respectively hold and exercise like jurisdiction and authority within their respective counties, in all matters and causes arising within such counties as the Superior Court of Judicature, Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and Court of GeneraJ Sessions of the Peace, heretofore respectively held and exercised within this colony, or by law ought to hold and exercise." In March, 1791, the state was divided into five counties, and the courts were modified to suit this new division.
The lirst settlers of Strawberry Bank and Hilton's Point were bold, hardy and independent adventurers. They sought the wil- derness from motives of gain rather than of godliness. Profit, not, piety prompted them to roam. They sought to live by trade rather than by toil. When they " bade their native land good nirilit," they left behind them the restraints of society, education and religion. For the first ten years of their residence in their new homes, no records of the administration of justice exist. It is probable that the local governors, who represented the pro- prietors and the property of the plantations, were somewhat ar- bitrary in their treatment of offenders. Doubtless crimes were perpetrated and punished ; for in the smallest communities bad men are always found. " I have chosen you twelve," said our Savior, " and one of you is a devil." This is a pretty fair ratio of knaves and cheats to the good and true men of every age. We expect about one in twelve to betray his trusts and de- fraud his creditors ; and a progressive people increases rather than diminishes this average. Only ten years after the first set- tlement at Little Harbor, crimes of such enormity were com- mitted that the local governor dared not punish them. In Octo- ber, 1633, Capt. Wiggen wrote to the governor of Massachu- setts requesting him to arraign and try a notorious criminal The governor intimated that he would do so if Pascataquack lay within their limits, as was supposed. This is said to be the first official intimation that Massachusetts claimed to own New Hampshire. Other petitions of the same kind followed ; and New Hampshire criminals were tried and sentenced by Massa- chusetts courts. Sometimes a prisoner escaped to his own col- ony, and men of the baser sort there protected him against the officers of the law. After the union of the two colonies in 1641, the courts of Massachusetts, superior and inferior, were estab- lished in New Hampshire. Substantial justice was administered and the land had rest. No period of our colonial history was so free from harassing litigations, civil and criminal, as that passed under the jurisdiction of the Bay State. After the ad- vent of royal governors, controversies were multiplied, violence
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 83
usurped the place of law ; and, as in the iron age of the old poets, Justice, "last of the celestials," left the land. Law-suits respecting land titles, royal tribute and the king's pines pro- voked the hostility of the people, and mobs prevented the exe- cution of the decrees of royal courts. The Revolution put an effectual estoppel to such suits. Under the new government the people created their own courts and compelled suitors to obey their mandates. It deserves notice, however, that under the various governments of the colony and state, for two hun- dred years, very few of the justices were eminent for their knowl- edge of law. " Under the colonial government," says Hon. William Plumer, " causes of importance were carried up, for de- cision in the last resort, to the governor and council, with the right in certain cases — a right seldom claimed — of appeal to the king in council. As the executive functionaries were not generally lawyers, and the titular judges were often from other professions than the legal, they were not much influenced in their decisions by any known principles of established law. So much, indeed, was the result supposed to depend on the favor or aversion of the court, that presents from the suitors to the judges were not uncommon, nor perhaps unexpected." Possi- bly the learned Chancellor of King James I. was not, after all, the "meanest of mankind."
CHAPTER XXIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF CRANFIELD.
Mason had now learned from experience that the people, if governed by officers of their own choice, would never admit his title to their lands. He therefore besought the king to appoint a new president who would favor his claims. Mason, by sur- rendering one-fifth of the quit-rents to the king for the support of a royal governor, procured the appointment of Edward Cran- field as lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of New Hampshire. Avarice was Cranfield's ruling passion ; and the proprietor approached him through that avenue by mortgaging to him the whole province for twenty-one years as security for the payment of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum to the new governor. Thus Cranfield became personally interested in Mason's claim. His commission was dated May g, 1682. It
84 HISTORY OF
granted almost unlimited powers. The members of the old council were retained and three new members were nominated, including Mason. Very soon after entering upon his office, Cranfield suspended from the council the popular leaders, Wal- dron and Martyn. The people soon learned that Cranfield was clothed with extraordinary powers ; and that both their liberty and property were in peril. He could veto all acts of the legis- lature and dissolve them at his pleasure. The judges also were appointed by him. At the first session of the assembly, which he called in November, he with royal condescension restored Waklron and Martyn to the council ; acting arbitrarily, both in their suspension and restoration. The assembly generously voted two hundred and fifty pounds for his support. This sop, for the hour, filled the gaping jaws of this greedy Cerberus ; but the ne.xt session, a few months later, he summarily dissolved, be- cause they refused to raise further sums for the support of the government. This act created at once popular discontent. A mob collected in Exeter and Hampton, headed by Edward Gove, a member of the dissolved assembly, and with noise and confu- sion declared for " liberty and reformation." Gove passed from town to town, calling on the people to rise ; but the majority were not ready for revolt. Gove, finding his cause unsupported, surrendered himself to the officers of the government, was tried for treason and condemned to death. His rash followers were pardoned. He was not executed, but was sent to London and imprisoned in the tower.
On the fourteenth of February, 1683, the governor called on the inhabitants of New Hampshire "' to take their leases from Mason within one month," with threats of confiscation in case of neglect to do so. Very few persons complied with this requi- sition. The courts were then arranged so as to secure a verdict in every case for Mason. The notorious Barefoot was made judge ; the council was filled with the creatures of the governor; the juries were selected from those who had taken leases of the proprietor. With matters thus arranged, Mason commenced actions of ejection against the principal inhabitants of the sev- eral towns. No defence was made. The verdict in every case was for the plaintiff, and he was legally put in possession of the forfeited estates ; but, so strong was the popular hatred against him, he could neither keep nor sell them. The government became a mere instrument of oppression. The citizens were harassed beyond endurance. The people, as a forlorn hope, re- solved to petition the king for protection. This was done in se- cret. Nathaniel Weare of Hampton was appointed their agent to present their petition to his majesty. The remainder of this turbulent administration was a series of collisions with the assem-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. . 85
bly, the people and the pulpit. Cranfield was a perverse, arrogant, impracticable schemer ; and repeated failures in his high-handeel measures made him desperate. He undertook to rule without the assembly, and thus involved himself in difficulty with the home government. While he remained in office he succeeded in making everybody unhappy and uncomfortable. He owed the Rev. Joshua Moody a special spite. He determined to bring this sturdy independent to terms. Accordingly he issued an order in council, requiring ministers to admit all persons of suitable years and not vicious to the Lord's supper ; and their children to baptism ; and that if any person desired baptism or the sacrament of the Lord's supper to be administered accord- ing to the liturgy of the church of England, it should be done. The train was now laid for an explosion, and this Guy Fawkes held the matches. The governor himself, with Mason and Hinckes, appeared in Mr. Moody's church the next Sabbath, de- siring to partake of the Lord's supper, and requiring him to administer it according to the liturgy. He at once declined to do so. Moody was arraigned for disobedience to the king's command. He made a suitable defence, pleading that he was not episcopally ordained and therefore not legally qualified for the service demanded. The governor gained over several re- luctant judges and Moody was sentenced to " six months' im- prisonment, without bail or mainprise." Mr. Moody was imme- diately taken into custod)', without taking leave of his family, and held in durance for thirteen weeks. He was released then, by the interposition of friends, under charge from the governor to preach no more in the province. He was therefore invited to take ,-charge of a church in Boston, where he remained till 1692, when his persecutors had* been removed. Mr. Moody was far in ad- vance of his age in toleration. He did not believe in hanging Quakers or witches ; but chose rather to rescue them from their persecutors. For these reasons, the memorj' of that good man is still cherished in all the churches where he was known.
Mr. Brewster, in his "Rambles about Portsmouth," says : " In thirty years, Mr Moody wrote four thousand and seven hundred sermons ; or two and one-half each week. In those days ser- mons generally occupied one hour." The people had not then approached that limit of brevity in pulpit performances pre- scribed by an eminent English judge ; his rule for the length of a sermon was, " twenty minutes, with a leaning to mercy."
The governor, being foiled in all his plans, proceeded to levy and collect taxes without the sanction of the assembly. His officers were resisted ; they were assailed with clubs in the street and scalded with boiling water in the houses. In process of time the agent of the colony was heard in England, and the lords of
86 HISTORY OF
trade decided that Cranfield had exceeded his instructions and
the king granted him leave of absence, rewarding his loyaUy with an office in Barbadoes. So the colony was relieved of one tyrant to give place to another ; for Walter Barefoot, his deputy, reign- ed in his stead. Cranfield seems not to have possessed one element of nobility of character or generosity. He was deceitful and treacherous, as well as vindictive and malicious. His suc- cessor, during his short administration, walked in his steps. He continued the prosecutions instituted by Mason, and allowed persons to be imprisoned on executions which the lords of trade had pronounced illegal. The ser\-ice.of these writs was attended with peril to the officials. In Dover, the rioters who resisted the sheriffs were seized during divine worship in the church. The officers were again roughly handled, and one young lady knock- ed down one of them with her bible. Both Barefoot and Mason received personal injuries, at the house of the former, from two members of the assembly who went thither to converse about these suits. Mason was thrown upon the fire and badly burned; and Barefoot, attempting to aid him, had two of his ribs broken. Mason commenced the assault. It was an unseemly quarrel for a prospective baron and an actual governor. During the year 1655 a treaty was made with the eastern Indians which was observed by them for about four years. In 1686, Mason, having hitherto been defeated in his attempts to recover the cultivated lands of the state, turned his attention to the unoccupied por- tions. He disposed of a large tract of a million acres, on both sides of the Merrimack, to Jonathan Tyng and nineteen others, for a yearly rent of ten shillings. The purchasers had previously extinguished the Indian title. He also leased for a thousand years, to Hezekiah Usher and his heirs, " the mines, minerals and ores " within the limits of New Hampshire, reserving to himself one-fourth of the "royal ores" and one-seventeenth of the baser sort.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 87
CHAPTER XXV.
GOVERNMENT UNDER DUDLEY AND ANDROS.
Kings and royal governors seem to have been ordained of God to set up, maintain and perpetuate "a scliool of affliction" for the New England colonists, who certainly were meet for the kingdom of heaven, if "much tribulation" could fit them for it. Charles II., in the latter part of his reign, grew more rapacious ; he could scarcely become more wicked. He seized every char- ter, at home and abroad, which impeded his despotic march. The royal charter of Massachusetts had for nearly a century shielded her against the assaults of savages, corporations and monarchs, a clima.x of human ills such as few rising states are ever called to endure. Their "anointed king," as they defer- entially called him, resolved to take that province under his own protection. Randolph was the malicious " accuser of his breth- ren," who stimulated the avaricious monarch to lie in wait for the innocent. He traversed the ocean like a shuttle, eight times in nine years, to effect "a consummation so devoutly to be wish- ed." He succeeded ; and the charter was declared forfeited. It was never surrendered. The people resolved " to die by the hands of others rather than their own." New England was henceforth to be under one president. This was in one respect favorable ; for there would be fewer wolves " to cover and devour " the flock. The king died before his arbitrary plans were consummated. His brother, James II., was more bigoted and cruel than his predecessor. No agent of his has a single bright page in history. His officials were all men " after his own heart" ; and no Judas or Nero ever possessed less of the "milk of human kindness." It is not strange that the reputation of William Penn has suf- fered at the hands of Macaulay, for being known as the friend of such a monster. He appointed Joseph Dudley president of New England in May, 1685 ; and, about one year and a half later, the infamous Andros, whose reputation for meanness is only eclipsed by that of his contemporary, Judge Jeffreys. He was styled " Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Ter- ritory and Dominion of New England. " These men were both armed with frightfully inquisitorial powers. No right, privilege or franchise was safe from their grasp. They were virtually em- powered to make laws and e.xecute them ; to assess ta.xes and collect them. Where popular assemblies were ordained, they
88 HISTORY OK
could easily evade their use or decrees. The provinces were now in the hands of tyrants, whose only object was to enrich themselves and increase their power. The press was restrained, liberty of conscience invaded, excessive taxes levied and landed titles annulled. Sir Edmund Andros began, with fair professions and conciliatoiy measures, to lure the unwary into his snares. His true character was soon revealed ; and he became an object of popular aversion. Mason had obtained a decision in the king's court against Vaughan, who had appealed from the judg- ment rendered against him in New Hampshire. This armed the proprietor with new powers, and he proceeded to vindicate his claim to the soil with new energy. But in the midst of his pros- ecutions Mason was arrested by death, in the fifty-ninth 3'ear of his age. He left two sons, John and Robert, as heirs of all his quarrels. His life was full of trouble and destitute of honor or profit.
While the political heavens were shrouded in deepest gloom, as the people gazed upon the storm in an agony of despair, they suddenly beheld
" a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night."
The despotism of James H. had gone beyond the people's en- durance. They had arisen in their might and driven the perjured tyrant from his throne and realm. The arrival of this intelli- gence filled the people with joy. Andros imprisoned the man who brought the news. The people of Boston rose in arms, arrested the governor, Andros, and his principal adherents, and sent them as state prisoners to England, to await the decision of the new government. The people of New Hampshire were for a time left without a responsible government. A convention was called, composed of deputies from all the towns, to deliber- ate upon their exigencies. At their meeting in January, 1690, after some unsatisfactory discussion of other plans, they resolved on a second union with Massachusetts. A petition to this effect was readily granted by their old ally, till the king's pleasure should be known. The old laws and former officials for a time resumed their sway ; but this union was brief. The king was, for some reasons, averse to the people's wish. Their old adversaries, the heirs of Mason, were again in the field. They had sold their claim to Samuel Allen of London for seven hundred and fifty pounds. Through his influence the petition was not granted ; and the same Allen was made governor and his son-in-law, John Usher, lieutenant-governor. Thus the people of New Hamp- shire were again furnished with a governor, a creature whom they little needed and greatly hated. Again war, pestilence and famine were at their doors. The Indians were upon the war
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 89
path ; the governor was exercising the vocation of a civil rob- ber, and the small-pox was raging in the land with fearful deso- lation. The times were dark ; their souls were tried ; their hearts were sad ; but their trust was in God.
CHAPTER XXVI.
KING WILLIAM S WAR.
When James II. was expelled from England he fled to France, and the king of that country espoused his cause. This led to a war between England and France which lasted from i68g to the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. It was called " King William's War." The English colonies were all involved in it. The English king not only brought woes upon them by his accession to power, but entailed them by his abdication of it. It is difficult to see why such scourges of mankind are permitted to live. The patriarch so felt when he exclaimed, " Wherefore do the wicked live, be- come old, yea, are mighty in power ? " The philosophic poet answers the question by another equally puzzling :
"If storms and earthquakes break nnt heaven's design, why then a Borgia or a Catiline?"
The Indians had, for some time previous to the English Rev- olution, shown signs of hostility. Some of those Indians who bad been seized, contrary to treaty stipulations, thirteen years before, by Major VV^aldron and others, had returned from slav- ery. They did not appeal in vain to the love of vengeance so characteristic of the red men. A confederacy was formed be- tween the tribes of Penacook and Pigwackett [or Pequavvkett]. They determined to surprise the Major and his neighbors, with whom they professed to live on terms of friendship. They were also excited to war by the emissaries of the Baron de Castine, a French nobleman who had settled as an Indian trader on lands between the Penobscot and Nova Scotia to which both the French and English laid claim. This representative of an ancient noble house had made his home with savages, and established in his house a harem of Indian women. He furnished the Indians with muskets and thus stimulated them to fight. Under pretence of punishing some violation of the laws of neutrality, Andros visited the house of the baron and plundered it, in the spring of 1688. Castine, of course, was exasperated at this act of folly
90 HISTORY OF
and roused the Indians, who were his devoted friends, to avenge his wrongs. Otlier causes were alleged for the rising of the In- dians. Some, doubtless, were just ; for the early settlers of Maine were not very punctilious in keeping their treaties with the natives. The Indians, with cause or without it, were deter- mined to shed blood. On the evening of the twenty-seventh of June, 1689, two squaws entered the house of Major Waldron, then eighty years of age, and asked permission to lodge by the fire. This hospitality was granted. In the night they rose, un- barred the gates and gave a signal for the conspirators to enter. The brave old man, roused by the entrance of the crowd, seized his sword, and for some time defended himself. He was finally stunned by a blow upon the head. They then cut off his nose and ears, placed him in a chair on a table in his own hall and mocked him, shouting, " Judge Indians again ! " Making sport, too, of their debts to him for goods he had sold them, they gashed his aged breast with their hatchets, and each fiend cried out, " Thus I cross out my accounts ! " At length, the venerable old councilor, whose "natural force was not abated" by age, reeled and fell from the loss of blood, and died amid the exulta- tions of his torturers. The assassins burned his house and those of his neighbors ; and, after butchering twenty-three inno- cent citizens, stole away to the wilderness. Such is Indian war- fare. It has less nobility and magnanimity in it than the assaults of a beast of prey.
Some historians affirm that every act of treachery and cruelty recorded against the red man has its parallel in the history of civilized warfare. This may be true, but these acts of white men are the exceptions not the rule. If modern nations always violated treaties whenever a powerful ally could be secured ; if it were their habit to begin hostilities without previous notice, to fight from coverts and ambuscades, to fall upon their ene- mies by stealth when alone and unarmed, to scalp and torture their captives, to dash infants against trees and rocks and com- pel women to wade, for hundreds of miles, through deep snows, barefoot and half clad, — then, and then only, would the cases be parallel and the character of the red men would be fairly vindi- cated. The defence set up for the barbarities of that night of horror in Dover is that Major Waldron had, many years before, broken his pledge of peace wiih some of these Indians. Sup- pose the charge to be true, in all its length and breadth, how- does that excuse the wanton cruelties inflicted on his neighbors, — on innocent women and helpless children ? The recital of the horrors of that fearful visitation even now fills the mind with terror. We shudder at the picture which the imagination pre- sents of that dreadful scene. The captives, men, women and
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
91
children, with the scalps of the dead, were carried to Canada and sold to the French. The history of some of those captives surpasses fable. Sarah Gerrish, the granddaughter of RIajor VValdron, was taken with the rest. In the journey, on foot, her escape from perils of flood, fire and starvation was almost a miracle. She was purchased by a lady in Canada, who treated her kindly and educated her in a nunnery. A single act of gratitude is recorded on that eventful night. The life of a wo- man was spared through the intervention of an Indian whom she had protected when " the strange Indians " were seized thirteen years before.
Companies of armed men were immediately sent out in search of the invaders. Captain Noyes was sent to Penacook and Captain Wincal to Winnipiseogee, but they could do little more than destroy the standing corn of the Indians who had fled. Massachusetts sent men in large numbers to the eastward, but little was accomplished by them. While these forces were on their march, the Indians, lurking in the woods about Oyster River, surprised eighteen men at work and killed seventeen of them. They also attacked and burned a house heroically defended by two boys, who refused to surrender till a promise was made to spare the lives of the family. They perfidiously murdered three or four of the children, impaling one upon a sharp stake before the eyes of his mother.
In the beginning of the year 1690, Count de Frontenac, gov- ernor of Canada, eager to annoy the English and gain renown with his sovereign, Louis XIV., sent three parties of French and Indians into the American settlements. These murderous bands carried death and desolation along their whole march. One company, numbering fifty-two men, came to Salmon Falls in the month of March. Here they succeeded in surprising the vil- lage. Thirty-four of the bravest were killed and the remainder, numbering fifty-four, mostly women and children, were taken prisoners. The houses, barns and cattle were burned. The captives suffered untold miseries in their dreary march to Can- ada. One man was roasted alive ; and while the fires were kindling around him, pieces of his own flesh were hewn from his body and hurled in his face. Children were dashed against trees because their mothers could not quiet them. These marauders were pursued by one hundred and forty men, who were hastily gathered from the neighboring tovvns, and a drawn battle was fought in the woods. Only two Indians were killed and the rest escaped. In the following May, the Indians attacked Newing- ton, burning the houses, kilting fourteen people, and capturing six. In July, they attacked and killed eight men while mowing in a field near Lamprey River. They also attempted to take a
ga HISTORY OF
garrison at Exeter, but were repulsed. A bloody battle was fought on the sixth of July in Lee, in which fifteen brave men were killed and several wounded. In the march of the enemy westward, from Lamprey River to Amesbury, they killed forty people. Life and property were everywhere insecure. No one knew an hour beforehand where the blow would next strike. No person could enjoy a quiet meal or an hour's rest. The air was full of groans and the ground was strown with the dead.
The advent of these savage bands from Canada turned the eyes of the colonists to that country as the source of their ca- lamities. They resolved to invade that country. Every nerve was strained to fit out a suitable fleet. The command was given to Sir William Phipps, a patriot and an honest man, but incompe- tent to such hazardous service. Two thousand men were placed on board. They did not reach Quebec till October. .Sickness invaded the troops ; they became discouraged and the enterprise was given up. The New England ships were scattered on their return, by storms ; one was wrecked. The remnant of the troops, with the governor, returned in May. For some time after this repulse the colonies aimed only to protect their frontiers. For a season hostilities in Maine were suspended by a treaty with the Abenaquis. They brought in ten captives and settled a truce till May i, 1691. In June, they assaulted a garrison at Wells, and were repulsed. They then began to commit murders at Exeter, Rye and Portsmouth. They continued these desul- tory attacks for many months, till the commencement of the year 1693, when they became comparatively quiet. Their means were spent, not their rage. Their diminished resources, not their extinguished hate, arrested them. Their braves were in captiv- ity and they could only recover them by treaty. Accordingly they came to Pemaquid and entered into a solemn covenant to aban- don the French and become subjects of England ; to perpetuate peace and refrain from private revenge ; to restore captives and to give hostages for the due performance of their engagements. This truce was hailed with joy by the people of New Hampshire. Their trade had been nearly ruined ; their harvests had been de- stroyed ; their homes burned ; their friends tortured and slain ; and at one time they were so despondent as to contemplate the desertion of the province. There were neither men, money nor provisions for the garrisons. The province owed four hundred pounds but had nothing with which to pay the debt. Massachu- setts aided them but little, because of their domestic feuds in politics and the general devotion of the people to the prosecu- tion of witches.
The peace with the Indians was of short duration. In less than a year, solely through the influence of the French Jesuits,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 93
they were again on the war path. New Hampshire, then the Niobe of our infant republics, was once more called to weep for her slaughtered children. Oyster River was again the object of Indian fury. Ninetj'-four persons were killed and carried away. Twenty houses were burned, five of which were garrisoned. The atrocities of this campaign, if possible, exceeded those of former years. The young wife of Thomas Drew was taken to Norridgewock ; there, in winter, in the open air, in a storm of snow "she brought forth her first born son," whom the Indians immediately destroyed. The sufferings she afterwards endured in captivity are almost incredible. She was at length restored to her husband, and lived to the age of eight}'-nine years. The Jesuit historian of France relates, with exultation, that these atrocious deeds had their origin with the French missionaries. He also lauds the heroic daring of Taxus, the bravest of the Abenaquis, in executing these fearful massacres. The scalps taken in this whole foray were sold in Canada to Count Fron- tenac. During the year 1695 there was little movement among the Indians. In 1696, they again resumed hostilities and visited the towns of New Hampshire. On the twenty-sixth of June they made an attack on Portsmouth Plain and took nineteen prisoners. Captain Shackford, with a company of militia, im- mediately went in pursuit of them and overtook them between Greenland and Rve, while they were taking their morning meal. He recovered all the prisoners. The place has ever since borne the name of " Breakfast Hill." Other towns suffered from In- dian invasions during this and the following year. After the peace of Ryswick, in 1698, Count Frontenac informed the In- dians that he could no longer support them in a war against the English, with whom his, nation had made peace. He therefore advised them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives. They soon assembled at Casco and entered again into solemn covenant to observe and do all that they had promised in pre- vious treaties. This treaty they kept till the French needed their services again. This fact shows what stimulated the In- dians to their deeds of blood and violence.
The French have often been commended for their kind treat- ment of the red men. Their conduct has been contrasted with that of the English. They always live in peace with the Indians ; the English generally oppress them. There is some truth in the charge. The French easily assimilate with the Indians. They descend to their level. They often intermarry with them, and their offspring usually inherits all the vices and none of the virtues of the parents. The " half-breeds " are the worst speci- mens of humanity extant. Amalgamation always degrades the superior race ; never elevates the inferior. The French are aiso
94
HISTORY OF
praised for their missionary labors. Many of their priests have been self-denying and devoted servants of Christ among the In- dians, but during the French and Indian wars they inspired the red man with ferocity rather than forgiveness ; they made him hate rather than love his enemy ; they taught him " to keep no peace with heretics " and made him, with his savage nature, "two-fold more the child of hell " than themselves. The chief cause of the hostility of the Indians to the English settlers was the destruction of the game and fish by the building of mills and the planting of colonies. In Canada the progress of civil- ization has been so slow, that the forests still rise and the rivers still flow in the solitude of primeval nature. The Indians, there- fore, have never removed.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CIVIL POLICY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DURING KING WILLIAM S WAR.
The assault of foes without usually arrests the feuds of fac- tions within a state. It was not so with New Hampshire during King William's war. The governor was hostile to the interests of the people. James Usher, Esquire, though an American by birth, had little sympathy with the province he was called to govern. He had been a friend of Andros and was personally interested in Mason's claim. The transfer from Mason to Allen was only a change of name. The claim was just as odious as ever. Usher lacked tact, skill and common sense. He was conceited, imperious and insolent. Those qualities, in such a crisis, were peculiarly ill-timed and offensive. He was illiter- ate ; his speeches were coarse and reproachful as well as incor- rect. He was zealous in the enforcement of Allen's title, which the people were resolved to resist even unto death. He also busied himself in determining the boundaries of the state and of the separate towns. In 1694, he granted a charter to twenty petitioners from Hampton for the town of Kingston. During his administration Newcastle was separated from Portsmouth, and Stratham united with E.xeter. To his repeated calls for money, the plea of poverty was rendered. To his urgent de- mand for the renewal of the duties on wines and spirituous liq- uors, they replied that the exposed state of the countr}' required all their available resources. His employer, Allen, failed to pay
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 95
his salary as he promised. His aggressive policy upon the peo- ple moved them to petition King William to supersede him by the appointment of William Partridge of Portsmouth lieutenant- governor. This change was made in January, 1697, much to the mortification and chagrin of Usher. He submitted to the change with an ill grace. He and Allen, who had come to Amer- ica to assume the reins of power, labored to break up the gov- ernment by the change of councilors. These controversies continued till the Earl of Bellomont became governor of New England. He was a nobleman of liberal culture, enlarged views and pleasing manners. He was a friend of the people, " a rare bird " among royal governors in these gloomy times. Governor Bellomont came to New Hampshire on the last day of July, 1699. It was his only visit to the state. His speech to the Council and Assembly of the Province of New Hampshire reveals the political and social relation of the people at that time. He says :
" I am ver)' sensible of the great sufferings you have sustained all this last war, by this province being frontier towards the Eastern Indians — a cruel and perfidious enemy in their own nature, but taught and encouraged to be more so by the Jesuits and other Popish missionaries from France, ■who were not more industrious, during the war, to instigate their disciples and proselytes to kill your people treacherously, than they have been since the peace to debauch those Indians from former subjection to the crown of England: insomuch as at the present they seem to have departed from their allegiance to the Crown and revolted to the French. I have taken such measures as quickly to find out whether these Indians will return to their obedience to the Crown or not. * * Upon report of his Majesty's engin- eer, whom I sent to view the fort on Great Island and the harbor of this >own, I find the situation is naturally well disposed ; but the fort so very weak and unable, that it requireth the building a new and substantial one to secure you in time of war. You will do well to take this matter into consid- eration as soon as may be, This Province is well situated for trade ; and your harbor here on the Piscataqua river so very good that a fort to secure it would invite people to come and settle among you ; and as you grow in number, so will your trade advance and flourish ; and you will be useful to England, which you ought to covet, above all things, not only as it is your duty, but as it will also be for your glory and interest."
This last sentence is very significant. It reveals the entire policy of the mother country toward her colonies. To promote English interests was both their duty and their glory. It was honor enough for these poor New England planters to toil and die to aggrandize the power that drove them from home.
Allen's commission continued in force till Bellomont arrived. H(' ruled but one year, and Partridge, who had been removed to make room for hiin, was restored as lieutenant-governor ; and the councilors who had refused to sit with Usher and Allen resum- ed their places. From the date of Bellomont's administration, for forty-two years, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Vv-ere
g6 HISTORY OF
ruled by the same royal governors. The other departments of the government were distinct, each having its own courts, coun- cils and legislatures. The administration of the accomplished and popular favorite Bellomont was very brief. He died at New York in March, 1701, universally lamented. The people could heartily say what the courtly Roman poet addressed to the ab- sent Augustus :
" Returu, oh gentle prince, for, thou away. Nor lustre has the sun, nor joy the day.
Before the Earl's death, Allen began to agitate his claims to the soil. The people, weary of strife, were inclined to compro- mise. The settlement of this apparently interminable dispute was near its conclusion when Allen died. His son and heir revived the controversy. King William died in 1702. Queen Anne ascended the English throne. A change of rulers in "the old country" usually produced a modification of government in the new. Joseph Dudlej-, who had formerly been president of New England, was appointed governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The assembly of the latter state conciliated him with a gift, and afterwards voted him a fi.xed salarj^, as the queen required. The suits which Allen originated had not yet been settled. His appeals to the English crown were still unde- cided. After Allen's death in 1705, his son Thomas renewed the suit, and on petition to the queen he was allowed to bring a writ of ejectment in the New Hampshire court. The entire his- toiy of the controversy was reviewed, but the verdict was for the defendants. An appeal to the queen's counsel was taken, but before a hearing was had Allen died. His death ended the suit, and his heirs did not renew it during the lifetime of that genera- tion. There is probably no controversy on record that involved so many parties, continued so many years and created so many law-suits as Mason's claim to New Hampshire. Kings and queens, nobles and plebeians, proprietors and councilors, courts and legislatures, for nearly a century, were constantly agitating the question of the right of soil of this wild, rough and rocky state. Generation after generation of claimants died, but still the controversy lived. Judges of the king's bench and of the state courts again and again decided cases at issue, but still the spirits which avarice had conjured up " would not down at their bidding." The people outlived their prosecutors, and the fire went out for want of fuel.
In 1730 certain queries were addressed by the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London to the Legislature of New Hamp- shire. From the answers officially made to those queries, we glean the following facts : The number of inhabitants was about
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 97
ten thousand whites and two hundred blacks. The militia con- sisted of eighteen hundred men, in two regiments of foot and one company of horse in each. The trade of the province was lum- ber and fish. Five vessels .belonged to the province, of about one hundred tons each. The ships from other provinces and countries visiting New Hampshire averaged about four hundred tons burden. Only about forty of the provincials were sailors. British goods via Boston to the amount of five thousand pounds sterling were annually imported. A considerable trade was kept up with the West Indies, whence rum, sugar, cotton and molasses were brought. The revenues of the province were three hundred and ninety-six pounds, by excise. The other expenses of govern- ment, amounting in all in times of peace to fifteen hundred pounds, were raised by direct taxes.
Dr. Dwight, in 1796, thus records his impressions of the early planters in New Hampshire :
"Their land was granted over and over again, in successive patents; and, witli tlie different patentees, they had many perplexing disputes. Their cli- mate was more severe and their soil less fruitful than that of Massachusetts and Connecticut. They were more divided in their principles and less har- monious in their measures than the people of those colonies. At the same time they had no stable government of sufficient rigor to discourage dissen- sions. They were not a little' perplexed by loose ministers and magistrates ; such as always withdraw from regular, well-principled society to indulge their mischievous dispositions in rude, imperfect communities. The Indians in their neighborhood at the same time were formidable, while the settlers were few, feeble and incompetent for their own defence. The government of Great Britain paid them, for many years, very little attention."
CHAPTER XXVHI.
QUEEN ANNE S WAR.
William HI., during the last year of his life, resolved on a war with France and Spain for the balance of power in Europe. By the will of Charles II. of Spain, the crown of that country fell to Philip of Anjou, nephew of Louis XIV. The acquisition of such a kingdom, with its numerous dependencies, would render the French monarch, then the head of the Bourbon family, a dangerous neighbor. The Emperor of Germany, the king of England and the Netherlands formed a "grand alliance" to arrest such a perilous growth of power. When Queen Anne came to the throne, she adopted the policy of her predecessor,
7
98 HISTORY OF
and declared war in May, 1702, against France. It was called "the war of the Spanish Succession." This war cost England an immense sacrifice of life, with sixty-nine millions of pounds ; and yet it was continued so long ttiat the parties in the quarrel had changed places, and when peace was concluded the Bour- bon was allowed to sit on the throne of Spain. Louis abandoned the Pretender and yielded to England Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay and St. Christopher's. Spain gave up to her Gibraltar and Minorca.
"Yet reason frowns on war's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name ; And mortgaged states their grandsires' wreaths regret, From age to age in everlasting debt."
The English colonies were involved in this accursed strife. The scattered inhabitants in the wilds of New Hampshire were com- pelled to fight for their life and liberty, to prevent a miserable, imbecile Bourbon from sitting on the Spanish throne ! The In- dians fought for the French. A congress of chiefs met Governor Dudley at Casco, in June, 1703, and in lofty language pledged their fidelity to the colonists. "The sun," said they, is not more distant from the earth than our thoughts from war." Yet within six weeks the whole eastern frontier was in a blaze ! Not a house from Casco to Wells was passed by. " Neither the milk-white brows of the ancient nor the mournful cries of tender infants " were pitied. Cruelty became an art. The prowling Indian lurked near every dwelling. The farmer at his toil, the wor- shiper at the altar, the mother beside her cradle and the in- fant slumbering in it were the victims of the merciless savage ; and all this to determine who should be king of Spain ! Again and again was every town in New Hampshire visited and the shocking atrocities of former years repeated. The men culti- vated their fields with arms at their sides or within their reach ; the women and children shut themselves up in garrisoned houses, and sometimes, when their husbands and sons had been mur- dered, heroically defended themselves. No night passed without posting sentinels ; no day without careful search for concealed foes. Not a meal was taken with quiet repose. It was impossi- ble to enjoy the meagre comforts which "fire, famine and slaugh- ter " had spared. Their very dreams were terrific ; because, in them, the scalping-knife seemed to flash before their eyes and the war-whoop to resound in their ears. To most men a prema- ture death would be preferred to such a life. It was one long protracted agony of apprehension, alarm, terror and suffering ! The French missionaries were regarded as the authors of all these outrages ; hence our fathers naturally hated them. They also became willing to exterminate the natives, as this seemed the only means of preserving themselves. The Indians disap-
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
99
peared as soon as their homes were invaded ; they could not en- dure regular warfare. Hence a bounty was offered for Indian scalps : ten pounds to regidar soldiers ; twice that sum to volun- teers ; and to hunting parties, who scoured the woods as for wild beasts, " the encouragement of fifty pounds per scalp " was offered. This lesson was taught by the French. They rewarded the Indians for the scalps of white men. Companies were often sent from New Hampshire in pursuit of the Indians ; but they seldom met with success. It was easy for the natives to hide in the boundless forests of Maine and New Hampshire. The brave Col. Hilton, in 1705, with two hundred and seventy men, went on snow-shoes to Norridgewock, on the Kennebec, to attack the enemy in their winter quarters ; but the expedition proved un-
' successful. In 1707 the colonists resolved to attack Port Royal in Acadia. The conquest of this stronghold seemed essential to the security of their trade and fishery. New Hampshire fur- nished her quota of troops ; but the expedition was a failure, owing to a quarrel between the military and naval officers. Such a defeat dislieartened the people.
Meantime the Indians were constantly making inroads upon the settlements. Every town lost valuable citizens who were cut off by the prowling savages. Durham and Dover lay in the track of the Indians from east to west ; and they were oftener assailed than other towns. " Exeter," says Judge Smith, escaped hostil- ities till i6go. I have drawn a circle, round our village as a centre, twent\'-five miles in diameter. The number of killed and captives within this circle, during a period of forty years, ex-
'ceeded seven hundred." In 1710 the brave Winthrop Hilton fell, while at work in his own woods. He was "among the most fearless of the brave, the most adventurous of the daring." " His sharp black eye and his long bright gim struck terror into the hearts of the savages." They thirsted for his blood. He and his men were armed ; but their guns were wet, and no defence could be made. Col. Hilton was the grandson of Edward Hil- ton, who is, by manj^, regarded as the founder of New Hampshire. He settled at Dover in 1623, where he resided for fifteen or twenty years, and then removed to Exeter. His grandson was a man who served faithfully "his God and his country." The people of the whole province mourned for him, as for a father.
During the same year, 17 10, the English nation resolved to aid the colonies in the conquest of Acadia, a name that had almost passed from the memories of men till Longfellow gave it im- mortality in his story of Evangeline. It was called, by the French,- Acadie. The English furnished six ships of war, the New Englanders thirty, with four regiments of soldiers. In six days they reached Port Royal, vifhich immediately surrendered ;
100 HISTORY OF
and the place was called Annapolis in honor of the queen. This success encouraged the English and their colonies to attempt the conquest of Quebec. Magnificent preparations were made for a siege. The English sent fifteen ships of war and fifty-six trans- ports. The veteran troops of Marlborough were selected for the enterprise. When joined by the New England conscripts, the army numbered, according to Dr. Belknap, si.\ thousand and five hundred men ; but from an estimate of the commander, quoted below, there were about twelve thousand men. A fleet so nu- merous, so well equipped and so well manned had never sailed from Boston harbor. Sir Hoveden Walker was appointed ad- miral. By his obstinacy or ignorance, in countermanding the orders of the pilots, the expedition failed. In a dark and stormy night in August eight ships were wrecked and eight hundred and eighty-four men were drowned. The admiral thought this disas- ter providential ; otherwise, says he, had they reached Quebec, "ten or twelve thousand men must have been left to perish of cold and hunger ; by the loss of a part, Providence saved all the rest." This is turning one's stupidity to good account. This failure excited the Indians to renewed effort. Exeter, Durham and Dover again suffered from the sleepless vengeance of the skulking foe. But the time of deliverance was at hand. The peace of Utrecht, concluded in April, 17 13, suspended for a season the use of the hatchet, scalping-knife and fire-brand. As soon as the French ceased to aid the Indians, their chiefs were prompt to make peace. Immediately after the proclama- tion of peace, a vessel was sent to Quebec to bring home the captives. When she returned with her precious freight, multi- tudes thronged the beach, to witness the landing of long lost rel- atives. Mothers peered with anxious gaze into the crowd to de- tect the lineaments of their children. Long absence and strange costumes had so changed the forms and faces of loved ones that they could not be recognized. When they became known, parents and children, husbands and wives, welcomed one another with warm embraces and gushing tears. The captives had for- gotten their native tongue ; so that they were compelled to gaze upon faces once familiar in mute ecstasy. Some of the cap- tives failed to return. They had intermarried with the Indians and had become attached to their wild and careless mode of life. They preferred the wigwam in Canada to the cot where they were born. Such are the vicissitudes of war ; and such are the changes, wrought by habit, on plastic natures.
During the continuance of the war, the civil government pur-
• sued the even tenor of its course, with general satisfaction to all
parties. Its chief business was to assess taxes and collect them ;
to raise men and money, which was no easy task in a country
NEW HAMPSHIRE. lOI
long wasted by war. Governor Dudley showed untarnished loy- alty to the crown and commendable moderation toward the peo- ple. The assembly represented him to the home government as "a prudent, careful and faithful governor." He was more acceptable to the people because he was opposed to the claims of Allen. Usher, the lieutenant-governor, grew more patriotic during the war, but not more popular. The assembly could never be persuaded to vote him a salar}'. While on duty, he complained of insufficient accommodations. He declared that "negro servants were much better accommodated in his house than the queen's governor was in the fort." Usher was avari- cious, but that was the common attribute of all royal governors ; he was fond of power, yet no patriotic Brutus slew him " be- cause he was ambitious." During this war, paper money, "the cheap defence of nations " in distress, came into general use. The first newspaper in the colonies was established in Boston, in 1704, by Samuel Green, and called the "Boston News-Letter." In 1720 the "Boston Gazette " was issued ; in 172 1 the "New England Courant."
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR SHUTE.
In October, 1715, Eliseus Burgess was appointed Governor of Massachusetts and Kew Hampshire. He remained in England, and the executive power in the province devolved on the lieu- tenant-governor, George Vaughan. He was a native of the state, the son of Major William Vaughan who acted a very prominent part in resisting the claims of Mason and Allen. His son had been the agent of the province in England, and had thus become known to some of the ministers of the crown. His appointment was deemed a compliment to the state, because he was a son of one of her popular leaders. He was, unfortu- nately, but ill fitted for his responsible station. His first official act rendered him unpopular. The general court, when sum- moned by him, refused to raise money by impost and excise for a longer time than one year ; therefore he dissolved them. At the next session he recommended " the establishment of a per- manent revenue to the king;" but the people preferred the old custom of raising taxes. New Hampshire at this time was well
102 HISTORY OF
provided with governors. Dudley had retired, without resigning, expecting to be superseded. Burgess did not condescend to visit the state ; and Samuel Shute was appointed Governor-Gen- eral of New Hampshire. Shute entered upon his duties in Oc- tober, 1716. He abandoned the policy of Vaughan, but intro- duced another element of discord by dismissing six of the old councilors and appointing six in their places, all from Portsmouth. The fanners were jealous of these commercial rulers and peti- tioned for a more equal distribution of the public honors. There was also in Portsmouth a local quarrel respecting the erection of a new parish ; and the parochial difficulty was carried into the council. Money was very scarce. A proposition was made to issue ten thousand pounds in bills on loan ; after some disagree- ment of the two houses, the ne.xt assembly issued fifteen thousand pounds, on loan, for eleven years, at ten per cent. \ contro- versy also arose between the two highest officials. The lieuten- ant-governor claimed that he was the true and sole e.xecutive when the governor was absent from the state. He therefore declined to obey his superior when the mandate came from his home in Massachusetts. The town of Hampton adopted the views of Vaughan, which subjected the town to a summons from the governor to answer for a libel. They gave bonds for their future loyalty. The offending subaltern was removed and John Wentworth, Esq., was appointed in his place. He was the grand- son of Elder William VVentworth, who came to E.xeter in 1639, and was the founder of a very distinguished family, who for sev- eral generations exercised a controlling influence in the govern- ment of the state. This aged servant of God, then over eighty, was sleeping in a garrisoned house in Dover when the Indians attacked that town, in 1689. The barking of a dog awoke him just as the Indians were opening the door. He threw his body against the door and expelled the intruders ; then, lying upon his back, held the door with his feet rill his cry alarmed the peo- ple. The balls that were aimed at him passed through the door, but above his body. Thus was the good man saved. His grandson was commissioned by George I., Mr. Addison then being secretary of state. Mr. Wentworth had long been engaged in mercantile pursuits ; and, by his practical skill and natural good sense, was eminently fitted for the responsible station he was called to fill. After an interval of peace, the state was recovering its prosperity. Her resources began to be developed. Her forests, iron mines and fisheries were attracting the atten- tion of capitalists and corporations. The white pines of New Hampshire were in demand for the masts of ships in England, and were allowed to enter her ports free of duty. Numerous laws had been made to protect such trees. A law of 1708 pro-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I03
hibited the cutting of pines that were twenty-four inches in diameter. The royal navy needed them ; and ought not the forests of New Hampshire to yield a revenue to the king ?
It was difficult at this date to determine who owned the uncul- tivated lands. The assigns of Allen still claimed them, and the colonists had, many years before, admitted that claim. Within the boundaries of the towns the citizens owned the timber. Hence the people were desirous of establishing new townships. The manufacture of tar and turpentine became a source of profit ; but a few merchants monopolized the business, and at one time three thousand trees, prepared for use, were destroyed in the night. This source of income was soon e.xhausted by the rapid destruction of the trees. The culture of hemp was also intro- duced ; but it failed to be profitable or was soon abandoned for the raising of crops for food. The manufacture of iron received legislative encouragement, and a strip of land two miles in width, north of Dover, was given for iron works. It was forbidden to be carried out of the province, under penalty of a heavy fine.
During the year 17 18 the Indians began to make attacks upon the settlements in Maine, under pretence of seeking redress for the wrongs inflicted on them by the whites. They com- plained that continual encroachments were made upon their hunting grounds by settlers, which drove off the game ; that the building of mills and dams on the rivers destroyed their fisheries. Governor Shute had held a conference with them the preceding year, and had promised that trading-houses should be established among them, and that a smith should be sent to them to keep their guns in repair. The unhappy contentions at home prevented the fulfillment of this promise ; and this failure was imputed to treachery. The Indians kept no records ; and of course deeds which t^iey had given for parcels of land could not be certified to their minds. They denied their solemn covenants or charged that the instruments were signed when they were drunk, or that no equivalent was given. Thus a new purchase must be made every few years, or they would complain that they had been wronged. When they consented to the settlements of the whites, and to the erection of mills, they knew not that their game and fish would be driven away. After learning this they hated the whites and sought to kill them. The French in their neighborhood ever encouraged this hostility and supplied them with arms. They were charmed, too, with the labors of French missionaries. They loved the pomp and ceremonies of the Catholic worship, which required no self-denial. With all the e.xtravagant eulogies which have been heaped upon Jesuit mis- sionaries in America, it may be doubted whether the natives have been made wiser or better by their conversion to Roman-
I04 HISTORY OF
ism. The Indians of Central America and Mexico are all nom- inal Christians ; and more degraded specimens of our race can scarcely be found on earth. They walk in the Catholic proces- sions and worship images, paying devout reverence to a doll lifted on high to represent the Virgin Mary ; but they have no knowledge of duty or virtue. The English, from the first land- ing on the continent, regarded the soil as theirs by jdiscovery and the inhabitants as subjects of their king. In war they treat- ed them as rebels, in peace as dependents. They were required to acknowledge their allegiance to the British crown. The French treated them as allies and equals. The Jesuits lived among them as friends and spiritual guides. One of their sachems, being asked why they so loved the French, replied, " Because the French have taught us to pray to God, which the English never did." The French did more : they cherished their hatred of the English ; they stimulated their love of vengeance ; they used them as their own favored allies in war. The Jesuits early established a mission among the Abenaquis. Sabastian Rasle, a man of culture, refinement and benevolence, left all the comforts of civilized life for a home in the Indian village of Norridgewock, on the Kennebec. Here he built a church and adorned it with costly decorations. A bell was bought, from Canada, to call the Indian hunters and warriors to matins and vespers. The most glowing accounts have been given of the success of Father Rasle in christianizing these rude savages. The innocence, confidence and devotion of Eden returned again to bless these wigwams in the primeval forests. By his charming conversation, rapt devotion and unselfish beneficence, he won the hearts of the natives and swayed them at his will. Dr. Belknap gives us the other side of this beautiful moral picture. He says of Father Rasle :
" He even made the offices of devotion serve as incentives to their feroc- ity, » » « With this Jesuit the Governor of Canada lield a close corres- pondence ; and by him was informed of everything transacted among the Indians. By this means their discontent witli the English, on accoimt of their settlements made at the eastward, was heightened and inflamed ; and they received every encouragement to assert their title to the lands in ques- tion and molest the settlers by killing their cattle, burning their hay, robbing and insulting them."
The wrongs done to the Indian by those eastern settlers were chiefly imaginary ; in a great measure the creation of the French Jesuit. In the winterof 1 721 Colonel Westbrooke was sent to Nor- ridgewock to seize Rasle. He escaped ; but they took his strong box in which were found letters confirming all their suspicions of his hostility to the English. The Governor of Canada was deeply implicated in exciting these Indians to acts of violence. The Indians were greatly exasperated at the attempt to seize
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I05
their spiritual guide. The next summer they resumed their old practices of waylaying and murdering men, women and children in all the towns they had been wont to visit. In Dover, in June, 1724, they entered the house of Mr. Hanson, a non-resistant Quaker, killed and scalped two little children and took his wife, with her infant, her nurse, two daughters and a son, and carried them off. These prisoners were all sold to the French as slaves, in Canada. The sad father converted all his property into gold and went through the wilderness to ransom his wife and chil- dren. He obtained all but his eldest daughter, and returned. But the loss of this child wrung his heart with anguish. He returned to Canada again ; but fatigue and sorrow wasted his strength, and he lay down and died in a strange land. These outrages being repeated for two years, the colonists resolved to destroy Norridgewock. Captains Moulton and Haimon, both of York, with one hundred men surprised the village, killed the Jesuit and eighty Indians, and brought away the spoils.
The success of the expedition to Norridgewock and a pre- mium of one hundred pounds offered for scalps called out sev- eral volunteer companies to visit Indian villages. One company, commanded by Captain John Lovewell of Dunstable, became famous in New Hampshire history, both for its success and de- feat. It consisted at first of thirty men, afterwards of seventy. It made three expeditions into the eastern part of the state. Two were successful ; the last disastrous. On the second foray they killed ten Indians encamped for the night in the town of Wakefield, near a pond since called " Lovewell's pond." On their return to Dover they enjoyed a triumph such as no Ro- man consul ever received. It was a cordial, sincere and grate- fiil outpouring of the people's gratitude. In Boston they re- ceived the bounty whith had been promised. Thus encouraged, Lovewell and his brave men marched the third time into the wilderness. He had forty-six men. They went to Ossipee pond, and on its west shore built a fort. Here the surgeon, one sick man and eight guards were left. The remaining thirty-four marched northward twenty-two miles, to another pond, where they encamped. In their explorations they were discovered by two parties of Indians, numbering forty-one men, under the com- mand of the sachem Paugus, who had been scouting on the Saco and were returning to the lower village of Pequawkett, about a mile and one half from the pond. Lovewell and his men, before their march round the pond, had left their packs without guard, on a plain at the southeast end of the pond. Following their trail, the Indians found those packs and thus learned their weakness. They lay in ambush to surprise them on their return. Captain Lovewell and eight of his men fell at
Io6 HISTORY OF
the first fire of the Indians. The survivors retreated a little and renewed the fight. They had no food nor drink. At noon their savage foes, by signs and infernal yells, indicated an order for their surrender. They declined their request and fought on " till the going down of the sun." The war-whoop grew fainter, the as- saults less vigorous ; the Indians were greatly weakened ; Pau- gus * was slain. They retired at the coming on of evening, car- rying with them their dead and wounded, leaving the whites masters of the field. Only nine of Lovewell's men were free from wounds. Of the injured, eleven were able to walk. It was the hardest problem of the entire struggle to dispose of those who could not move. It would be certain death to re- main with them ; and they had no power to remove them. They were compelled to leave their disabled and dying companions to fall into the hands of their merciless foes. Ensign Robinson requested them to lay his loaded gun by his side, that he might kill one more Indian. After the moon arose they returned to their fort. It was deserted. A fugitive from the batrie had re- ported to the guard the probable defeat of their friends. They therefore abandoned the fort and went home. They left some provisions there, which greatly relieved the distressed soldiers. Lieutenant Farwell, the chaplain, who had in his pocket the record of their march, and one other person perished in the woods from loss of blood and privation. The others, after se- vere suffering, came in one by one to their old homes and were kindly cared for by friends and the public. Colonel Tyng of Dunstable, with a company of men, went to the scene of action and buried the dead. This was one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles ever fought with the Indians. They had the advantage of numbers and of an ambuscade. Some writers estimate their number as high as eighty. Hence they fought with uncommon bravery and fury.
[From the Boston Centinel.]
LOVELL'S POND.
The sc'.ne of 1725 of a desperate etuounier with the savages.
Ah 1 where are the soldiers that fought here of yore ? The sod is upon them, they'll struggle no more, The hatchet is fallen, the redman is low : But near him reposes the arm of his foe.
The bugle is silent, the war-whoop is dead ; There's a murmur of waters and woods in their stead; And the raven and owl chant a symphony drear, From the dark-waving pines o'er the combatants' bier.
• There is a tradition tliat John Chamberlain, one of the sharp-shooters of the age, shot Paugus. For some time they attempted to shoot one another from their coverts ; but their guns were foul and only flashed in the pans. Being known to one another, they agreed to go down to the water, cleanse their guns and renew the fight. _ Finding that Paugus was too expeditious for him Chamberlain did not wait to withdraw his ramrod, nor to prime his gun, (for the well worn piece would prime itself, by the aid of a sharp blow of the tiand,) but fired and drove both the rod and the ball through the heart of his foe.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I07
The light of the sun has just sunk in the wave, And a long time ago sat the sun of the brave. The waters complain, as they roll o'er the stones, And the rank grass encircles a few scattered bones.
The names of the fallen the traveler leaves
Cut out with his knife in the bark of the trees.
But little avail his affectionate arts,
For the names of the fallen are graved in our hearts.
The voice of the hunter is loud on the breeze, There's a dashing of waters, a rustling of trees, But the jangling of armour hath all passed away, No gushing of life-blood is here seen to-day.
The eye that was sparkling no longer is bright ; The arm of the mighty, death conquered its might ; The bosoms that once for their country beat high, To those bosoms the sods of the valley are nigh.
Sleep, soldiers of merit, sleep, gallant of yore. The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er. While the tir-tree is green and the wind rolls a wave ; The tear-drop shall brighten the turf of the brave.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire united, other colonies re- fusing to act, in sending commissioners to the governor of Can- ada to remonstrate with him for his conduct in e-xciting the Ind- ians t(5 war. Theodore Atkinson was sent on the part of New Hampshire. On their arrival they recited the complaints of the colonists to the Marquis de Vaudreuil. He, at first, denied the allegations and assumed an air of offended dignity. Mr. Atkin- son then produced his letters to Father Rasle confirming all his charges. His tone was then softened and he consented to the redemption of prisoners, si.xteen of whom were ransomed at an exorbitant price, and terms were agreed upon for the recover)' of ten more. The governor requested the commissioners to hold ^ interview with the Indians. A delegation came but could not be persuaded to propwse reasonable terms of peace, because Father LeChase, a Jesuit, controlled them. The commissioners then returned with the ransomed captives.
The Indians made one more attack upon citizens in Dover. Their purpose was to recover the family of the Quaker Hanson, who had been redeemed by the father. They killed one man and shot another named John Evans, stripped, scalped and beat him with their guns, till he was thought to be dead. But after this inhuman torture he recovered and lived fifty years. A peace was finally concluded with the Indians in December, 1725,
Massachusetts and New Hampshire bore the entire e,\pense of this war. It must be remembered that, if we admit all the charges of the Indians against the eastern settlers. New Hamp- shire never wronged them in any particular. No charge was brought against their citizens e.xcept that they belonged to a hated race. Bradford in his History of Massachusetts says:
Io8 HISTORY OF
"There are no proofs that the people of Maine committed acts of injustice or aggression on the natives ; and there was no other cause to be assigned for their work of destruction than that false statements were made to them of the views and de- signs of the English."
CHAPTER XXX.
EMIGRANTS FROM IRELAND.
Ireland was subjected to the arms of Henry II., in 117 1-2. He left the Irish princes in possession of their territories, and bestowed some land on English adventurers, appointing Earl Richard de Clare, surnamed "Strongbow," seneschal of the kingdom. This division of imperial power disturbed the peace of the island and led to repeated rebellions. In the reign of James I. the Earl of Tyrone raised the standard of insurrection ; and, after being once pardoned, renewed the conflict, was de- feated and fled to Spain. A large tract of land in the province of Ulster was confiscated and offered on liberal terms to new settlers. James, being by birth a Scotchman, induced a colony of his countrymen from Argyleshire to settle in Ulster, in 1612. They were Scotch Presbyterians. During the next twenty years many clergymen of that denomination, with their flocks, emi- grated to Ireland and added strength and prosperity to the col- ony. They of course became objects of intense hate to their Irish neighbors, who only waited a convenient opportunity to rise and avenge their wrongs. In 1641, they attempted to ex- terminate the entire Protestant population of Ireland ; and so far succeeded that forty thousand of them were suddenly mas- sacred in different parts of the island. Some authorities place the number as high as two hundred thousand. " No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. But death was the slightest punish- ment inflicted by the rebels ; all the tortures which wanton cruelty could devise, all the lingering pains of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate the revenge of the Irish." This rebellion
"dragged its slow length along"
till, in 1649, the sword of Cromwell avenged the blood of slaugh- tered saints, and, by making a solitude, conquered peace. After
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 109
the restoration in 1660, James, tlie brother of Charles, a bigoted Catholic, was appointed Viceroy of Scotland. The Scotch Pres- byterians were the objects of his hatred and persecution. He let loose upon them the dogs of war, and among them such monsters of cruelty as James Graham of Claverhouse. " The chief of this Tophet upon earth, a soldier of distinguished cour- age and professional skill, but rapacious and profane, of violent temper and obdurate heart, has left a name, wherever the Scot- tish race is settled on the face of the globe, which is mentioned with a peculiar energy of hatred." This persecution drove multitudes into exile. Large numbers fled to Ireland to join the remnant of their brethren whom the knives of Catholic assassins had spared. Among these were many of the immediate ancestors of the " Scotch Irish " who came to this country in 1718 and settled, the next year, in Londonderry. One century later an unknown poet thus commemorates their arrival at Portland.
"In the summer one thousand seven hundred eighteen,
Our pious ancestors embark'd on the Ocean ; OppressM by the minions and dupes of their king, They quitted sweet Erin with painful emotion. On the wide swelling wave, All dangers they brave. While fleeing from shackles prepar'd for the slave, In quest of a region where genius might roam, And yield an asylum as dear as their home.
**Undaunted they press'd to their prime destination, Allur'd by the prospects that Freedom display' d, And such was the warmth of their fond expectation, That dangers unnumber'd ne'er made them afraid. How seiene was the day, And how cheerful and gay, Were those pilgrims when anchored in old Casco bay ; Their prayers, like incense, ascended on high, 4 And fond acclamations then burst to the sky."
One hundred and, twenty families constituted this band of exiles. They suffered terribly from the cold and famine during the first winter. They were relieved by supplies from Boston. Early in the spring of 1719, sixteen families of this company, with Rev. James McGregore as their pastor, selected a tract of land above Haverhill, then called Nutfield, and immediately be- gan a settlement. It was afterwards named Londonderry from their old home in Ireland. These people were industrious, eco- nomical, thrifty and virtuous. They had sufficient property to enable them to build comfortable houses and provide for the profitable culture of the soil. They introduced the Irish potato and the manufacture of linen into New Hampshire. In every house was heard the hum of "the little wheel," turned by the foot of the spinner. Great profits accrued from this branch of domestic industry, and it was soon introduced into other towns and states. Their numbers increased so rapidly that in four years after the formation of their church it numbered two hun-
no HISTORY OF
dred and thirty members. Their pastor, Rev. James McGregore, was a wise and good man. He died in 1729, aged seventy-two. His name is still held in affectionate remembrance by the de- scendants of those early settlers of Derry. This Scotch-Irish population, which contributed greatly to the good order, good laws, good habits and good works of the state, flowed into adja- cent towns and into other states. Chester, Harrytown, after- wards called Derryfield and now Manchester, were partially settled by them. The number of their descendants in 1842 was estimated at twenty thousand.
The first settlers of Londonderry found great difficulty in securing an act of incorporation. They first petitioned Gover- nor Shute for a grant and failed, because their true character was not understood. They then applied to Massachusetts and to the agent of Allen for a title ; but were told that the lands were in controversy and their request was denied. They then obtained a deed of their territory from the grandson of Rev. John Wheelwright who purchased of the Indians. Finally, in 1722, New Hampshire, having learned the worth of these new citizens, gave them a grant of a township ten miles square. The lines were so vaguely described that the claims of other towns and other owners have not been entirely adjusted to this day.
The grantees of Londonderry were actual settlers, farmers who came to live on the soil and improve it. Chester was set- tled about the same time, but the owners were non-residents. They sold shares in the town as the shares of a railroad are sold. The settlers paid rent for their lands. Some grew weary of the annual payments and abandoned their claims ; others sold their right for a small price. The inhabitants were not homogeneous. Some of the Londonderry people came there and settled. They differed in religion and habits from those of English origin. " They had different modes of living. The Irish ate potatoes ; the English did not. The Irish put barley in their pot liquor and made barley broth ; the English put beans in theirs and had bean porridge. Intermarriages were consid- ered improper." In process of time they became assimilated.
Professor Park, in his obituary of Dr. S. H. Taylor, thus al- ludes to the eminent men who have descended from the Scotch emigrants of 17 19, and in subsequent years :
"Among teachers are McKeen of Bowdoin and Aiken of Union College; Professors Jarvis Gregg, W. A. Packard, Joseph McKeen, Rev. James Means and Dr. S. H. Taylor. Among clergymen are Rev. David McGregor, son of the first pastor of Londonderry, ancestor of a large and distinguished family; Rev. Samuel T.aggart of Colerian, Mass. ; Rev. James Miltimore of Newburyport ; Rev. Rufus Anderson of Wenham, who, at the close of his life, was preparing a historical work on 'Modern Missions to the Heathen,'
NEW HAMPSHIRE. Ill
and whose son, Dr. Rufus Anderson of Boston, is the historian of Missions under the care of the American Board; Rev. Silas McKeen of Bradford, Vt.; Rev. Dr. Morrison and Rev. James T. McCqllom. Among the jurists and statesmen are John Bell, member of the Provincial Congress; John and Samuel Bell, both Governors of New Hampshire, and Judge Jeremiah Smith. Among the military men are General George Reid and General John Stark. Of those who have become eminent in New Hampshire, si,\ have been Governors of the state ; nine have been members of Congress ; five, Judges of the Supreme Court ; two, members of the Provincial Congress and one of these was a signer of the Declaration of Independence."
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CHAPTER XXXI.
ORIGIN OF THE MILITIA SYSTEM.
During the first years of the existence of the Upper and Lower Plantations, the agents appointed by the proprietors united in themselves both civil and military power. They had arms for offence and defence ; but were not called upon to use them till 1631, when they called out the militia to settle the title to a point of land in Newington, claimed by both agents, which was afterwards called " Bloody Point," although no blood was shed. In 1632, Capt. Walter Neal, with forty armed men, un- der the lead of the Massachusetts colony, pursued, "with four pinnaces and shallops," the famous pirate Dixy Bull. No sold- ier by profession joined the colony till 1631. Then one "soldier for discovery " was sent over by the company. For several years after this unsuccessful " naval expedition" there was little call for arms and munitions of war; still, as early as 1635 nearly half the invoice of imported goods consisted of weapons of war. In 1640, when the Dover factions, following the rival clergj'men Larkham and Knollys, were raising tumults and threatening bloodshed, Francis Williams, governor of the Lower Plantation, being appealed to, sent a company of the militia to the Neck and "quelled the riot." After the union of New Hampshire with Massachusetts, in 1641, the laws of the elder colony con- trolled the military organizations of the younger ally. During the wars that followed with tlie Indians and French, every man became a soldier and every house was made a garrison. The facts are related in another portion of this work. When New Hampshire became a royal province, in 1679, "the militia was organized and was made to consist of one company of foot in
112 HISTORY OF
each of the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hamp- ton, one company of artillery at the fort, and one troop of horse. Richard Waldron of Dover was appointed to the com- mand of these troops with the rank of major." The fort then contained eleven guns of small weight and power, purchased at the expense of Portsmouth and Dover. Until 1718, the organ- ization of the militia was left to the governor and council. In the French and Indian wars, most of the troops were volunteers. Some were "impressed" according to old English custom. The first militia law, in 17 18, required all persons from sixteen to sixty years of age, except negroes and Indians, to perform mili- tary service. Each captain must call out and drill his company four times each year. The arms of the soldiers and penalties for neglect of duty or disobedience to orders were minutely specified. This law was amended in 17 19, so that a warrant or " warning " under the hand and seal of the commanding officer was "a sufficient impress" to render the delinquent liable to a heavy fine in case of disobedience. The common punishments for minor offences were, at the discretion of the commander, " the bilboes, laying neck and heels, riding the wooden horse or running the gauntlet." The number of men in active service was constantly increasing as the perils of the country multiplied. In 1679 six companies were deemed sufficient for the defence of the province ; in 1773 twelve regiments were enrolled and ready for duty when called. In 1775, when the government assumed a new form, the militia laws were subjected to revision. In 1776 a new act was passed, providing for two classes of soldiers —a Training Band and an Alarm Band. The first band con- tained all the able-bodied men in the province, except persons in official station, negroes, mulattoes and Indians, from the age of sixteen to fifty. The alarm band included men from sixteen to sixty-five not assigned to the other division. These were to be called out, on sudden emergencies, by drum-beats and beacon lights. When soldiers were needed, if volunteers failed to en list the quotas were filled by draft from those enrolled. This law mentioned every article of the soldier's equipment. It re- mained in force during the Revolutionary war.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. II3
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR WENTWORTH S ADMINISTRATION.
Governor Shute left the province in 1723, and the duties of the executive devolved on Mr. Wentworth. During the war with the Indians he managed the affairs of the state with great pru- dence and discretion ; and the people showed their respect for him by frequent grants of money. He conducted the treaty with the Indians in person, at Boston. On his return, the assembly in their address of congratulation said that " his absence seemed long ; but the service he had done them filled their hearts with satisfaction." As soon as peace returned the next great topic of public interest was the boundary line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. If New Hampshire had been a Paradise, its possession could not have been more eagerly sought by nu- merous suitors. The Indians claimed it ; the assigns of Mason claimed it ; Massachusetts claimed it ; and the actual settlers claimed it. Everybody wished to own the state ; few cared to aid it. When money was to be made, all were active ; when money was to be paid, all were passive. Massachusetts claimed, according to the terms of her original charter, all the lands from three miles northward of the Merrimack at its mouth to its source, including a large part of the entire state. There had been a controversy about this line for many long years ; but when war was at thej^r doors it slept. Both provinces were now anxious to get possession of the soil. New Hampshire was alarmed ; she was about to be absorbed by her more powerful neighbor. She numbered only ten thousand inhabitants ; Massa- chusetts had one hundred and twenty thousand. The contend- ing states proceeded to lay out towns. Massachusetts, under pretence of rewarding the brave soldiers who survived Love- well's fight, assigned them large tracts of land within the territory claimed by New Hampshire. Nine townships were thus laid out on the banks of the Merrimack. The smaller state was equally busy. Epsom, Chichester, Gilmanton and Bow were granted. The last named town was partially within the tract claimed by Massachusetts. So many grants were made that settlers could not be found to occupy them. The chief result of this legisla- tion was an expensive and tedious litigation, which lasted many years.
On the twenty-ninth of October, 1727, a violent earthquakeoc-
ri4 HISTORY OF
curred. Flashes of light were observed to accompany a heavy roar resembJinp; distant thunder which announced the shock. The sea was in deep commotion. The earth shook and trembled. Chimneys were cleft asunder, and " the pewter on dressers rat- tled, and in some instances was thrown down." .Several lighter shocks were felt during the following night. During this }-ear George I. died ; and the assembly, which had continued its own existence five years, was according to custom dissolved. A new assembly was summoned by writs issued in the name of George II. The people disliked long terms of office ; and, as early as 1724, had attempted to limit the sessions of the assembly to three years. In 1727 the triennial act was passed and received the governor's sanction. The freehold estate of a representa- tive was fixed at fifteen hundred pounds ; that of an elector at fifty pounds. This was the first organic law enacted by the peo- ple independent of commissioners and royal orders. But there were defects in the provisions of this law which led to much controversy in future. The house then proceeded to reform the courts ; the council were opposed and the governor dissolved the assembly. The same persons, for the most part, were re- elected ; the same speaker was chosen, whose election the gov- ernor vetoed ; and under the new speaker a stormy session was held. Crimination and recrimination passed between the speaker and the house ; till, finally, in a fit of indignation, the house re- solved to petition the king to annex them to Massachusetts. The coming of a new governor for a time arrested these unhappy feuds. William Burnet, son of the Bishop of Sarum, so well known as an author and the intimate friend of William III., had been ap- pointed Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He was a highly accomplished scholar and statesman. He had been governor of New York and New Jersey where his administration rendered him the favorite of' the people. It was the policy of the English cabinet to secure permanent salaries for their pro- vincial governors. Massachusetts long refused to comply with this reasonable requisition. New Hampshire voted t\vo hun- dred pounds sterling for the annual salary of the governor, and the allowance made from it by him to the lieutenant-governor. Burnet visited New Hampshire but once before his death. He was succeeded by Jonathan Belcher. He was a native of Bos- ton, eminent as a merchant and possessed of a large fortune. He was courteous to strangers, faithful to friends and severe to enemies. The appointment was generally popular, but proved to be fruitful in controversies. His first quarrel was with Went- worth, whom he accused of duplicity because he wrote a compli- mentary letter to himself and Shute at the same time, not know- ing which would be his superior in office. Belcher limited his
NEW HAMPSHIRK.
115
perquisites, crippled his influence and removed his son-in-law, Theodore Atkinson, from oiBce. This hostility to Wentworth led to the formation of a party hostile to the governor. But Went- worth was removed by death, December twelfth, 1730. By his excellent character and judicious administration of public af- fairs, in war and peace, he won the confidence of the people, and left an untarnished reputation as the best possible legacy to his fourteen surviving children. Two had died before him.
He was succeeded by David Dunbar, an Irishman by birth, and a bankrupt colonel of the British army. He was needy, greedy and arrogant. He possessed no qualifications that fitted him for his new position. He immediately joined the oppo- sition to Belcher and thus lent his influence to secure a sepa- rate government for New Hampshire. She was in danger of be- ing made an appendage of a sister state. Belcher and his friends favored the union with Massachusetts ; the people op- posed it. The objections urged to an independent existence were its poverty, sparse population and limited resources. There were less than two thousand houses in the whole state. Lumber and fish constituted their principal exports. The entire revenue of the state, from duties and excise, was only four hundred pounds, while the government expenses were fifteen hundred. Still the idea of political sovereignty delighted the people. The opposition, therefore, saw the necessity of enlarging the state and increasing her income. They sought, first of all, to deter- mine her boundaries. Every inch of the soil of New Hamp- shire was covered by conflicting claims. Massachusetts claimed the largest and best part of it. Her claim was founded on her charter given by William and Mary, which substantially covered the same territory which was granted by the first charter of James I. New Hampshire, like the horse in the fable, invited a royal rider to aid in the expulsion of her foe from her domains. After the failure of a joint committee from both provinces, who met at Newbury in 1731 to settle the long and complicated dis- pute, New Hampshire petitioned the king to decide the contro- versy. John Rindge, a merchant of Portsmouth, was appointed their agent in London. Being obliged to return home in 1732, he left the business with John Tomlinson, who proved to be a zealous, persistent and efficient agent of the state. He fur- nished twelve hundred pounds from his private purse to defray the necessary expenses of the agency. After this he was, if possible, twelve hundred-fold more earnest in securing a victory for the state ; otherwise he had no responsible debtor. The posi- tion of Governor Belcher was a delicate one. He was the chief magistrate of both provinces ; he must offend one of them. He favored Massachusetts. He probably acted honestly, but gained
Il6 HISTORY OF
the good will of neither party. He was the target for the mis- siles of archers on everjr side. He was persecuted by slanders, forgeries and perjuries, at home and abroad. Every species of intrigue was adopted by the contending parties to gain their ob- ject. Speculators, projectors, adventurers, courtiers, officials, proprietors, politicians and some honest men were parties to the quarrel. Usually self-interest was the source of the water that drove the mill. Arguments and sophistries were used, which if successful would greatly have injured those who advanced them. Even the claims of Mason and Allen were revived by both parties. This was simply suicidal, not patriotic ;
" But as some muskets so contrive it, As oft to miss the mark thev drive at, And though well aimed at duck or plover, Bear wide and kick their owners over."
In England the controversy was referred to the Lords of Trade. They recommended a board of twenty commissioners, five of whom should be a quorum, selected from the neighboring royal provinces, to sit at Hampton on the first of August, 1737. According to the royal decree, they met at the time appointed. The assemblies of the two states convened at the same time, that of Massachusetts at .Salisbury, that of New Hampshire at Hamp- ton Falls. With the utmost vigilance and jealousy they watched one another. Skillful advocates acted for the states. The alle- gations were patiently heard and considered, and a verdict ren- dered which decided nothing. It was only hypothetical, based on the question whether the hew charter of Massachusetts con- veyed the same territory as the old ; if so, Massachusetts was the victor ; if not. New Hampshire. So the controversy was no less, but the costs were much greater. After long and angry altercations both parties, being weary of fighting and paying for it, agreed to make the king their umpire ; and the stupid Guelph, who hated " boetry and books," became something more than a figure-head to the ship of state. His decision took everybody by surprise. He pleased New Hampshire and offended Massa- chusetts. George II. assumed that when the first charter was given neither grantor nor grantees knew the northern course of the Merrimack. Where it was known on the south its origin seemed to be in the west, and not in the north ; therefore he decided that the northern boundary of Massachusetts should be a curved line, following the course of the river at three miles' distance on the north side, beginning at the Atlantic ocean and ending at a point due north of Pawtucket Falls, now Dracut, thence due west to his majesty's other governments. As the eastern line of "his other governments " was not then establish- ed, this little clause in due time yielded new disputes. By this decision New Hampshire gained a large accession of territory
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 17
beyond all she had sought. "It cut off from Massachusetts twenty-eight townships between the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, besides large tracts of vacant land which lay intermixed, and districts from si.x of their old towns which lay north of the Merrimack river," besides lands west of the Connecticut which were then of doubtful ownership.
While the states were contending about the lines which sepa- rated them they became widely separated in feeling, and the harmony of those "good old times" when they fought together against kings, Indians and proprietors was for a time interrupt- ed. The governor and his deputy still pursued one another v;ith unrelenting hate. They fought on no common theatre. States and cabinet ministers were their allies. Dunbar, as surveyor- general of the woods, was so vigilant in arresting wood-cutters and confiscating boards that had been sawed from royal pines, that he was personally assailed by the irritated owners. He was mobbed at Exeter, and he accused, unjustly, the governor of connivance at the escape of the rioters. His letters and those of other personal enemies had weight at court, for the king was as fond of the royal pines as Charles II. was of the royal oak. Possibly he saw them " in his mind's eye " when he gave the territory on which they grew to New Hampshire. Dunbar re- turned to England where he was imprisoned for debt, but he was still a favorite of the court and escaped this "durance vile" for another office more profitable than that he had abandoned.
The enemies of Belcher succeeded in persuading the king first to censure, then to remove him from office. On his return to England he was able to justify himself and regain the royal favor.
In 1732, the first Episcopal church was erected in Portsmouth, called Queen's ChapeU It was consecrated in 1734, and Rev. Arthur Brown became rector of the society. In 1735 a fearful epidemic raged in New England, called the "throat distemper." It resembled the modern diphtheria. It raged for more than a year. Children, for the most part, were its victims. At Hamp- ton Falls it was very fatal. Twenty families lost all their chil- dren. In the whole province one thousand persons, most of whom were under twenty years of age, died of this terrible dis- ease. It extended from Maine to Carolina, and was not modi- fied by seasons. It has appeared in the state not less than six time since, but never with such general mortality. Its true cause is still unknown.
It deserves special notice that no public execution occurred in New Hampshire during the first one hundred and sixteen years of its existence. Many of the great criminals in early times escaped by flight. Some were pardoned, others had their sen- tences commuted. For smaller offences, whipping, the pillory,
Il8 HISTORY OF
fines and imprisonment were deemed sufficient. On the twenty- seventli of December, 1739, two women, Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny, were hung in Portsmouth for the murder of an infant. This event constituted an era in the judicial history of the state.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AN INDEPENDENT ROYAL PROVINCE.
After George II. had settled the boundaries of his two royal provinces, he determined to set up a new political boundary and make New Hampshire independent of Massachusetts and only dependent on himself. Accordingly, in 1741, he appointed a governor who was to be solely enjoyed by New Hampshire. He nominated Penning Wentworth, Esq., son of the late lieutenant- governor, who so long and successfully administered the afTairs of the province. Penning Wentworth was a merchant of good repute, but bankrupt by reason of the failure of the Spanish government to pay him, as she agreed, for a large consignment of timber for the royal navy. The refusal of Spain to do justice in the premises was one cause of the war between that kingdom and England. Mr. Wentworth thereby became a national man ; and through the influence of the zealous and efficient agent of New Hampshire, Mr. Tomlinson, he obtained this new position. The assembly voted him, at first, a salary of two hundred and fifty pounds ; and afterwards doubled it, when a state loan of twenty-five thousand pounds had been issued, by royal license, for ten years.
The year 1743 was distinguished by the visit of the great English preacher Whitefield. He preached at Portsmouth dur- ing his stay there of three weeks, with marked success. In 1744 he again labored in the same city with great zeal and earnest- ness, in spite of a severe illness ; but, as he himself expressed it, "he felt a divine life, distinct from his animal life, which made him laugh at his pains." The great revival of religion at- tending and following the steps of this remarkable man aroused new interest in the cause of education. From it, remotely, sprang Dartmouth College. The converted Indians supplied the school of Eleazar Wheelock at Lebanon with pupils in 1762, and in 1766 one of them, Samson Occum, then a preacher, visited
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 19
England to obtain funds for the permanent establishment of " Moor's Charity School." He succeeded in raising a large amount through the influence of VVhitefield, received the pat- ronage of the queen, and the noble institution thus endowed was removed in 1769 to Hanover, N. H.
O-
CHAPTER XXXIV.
KING GEORGE S WAR.
Ever since the conquest, in 1066, for more than eight centuries, England and France have been political rivals. For more than one third of that long period they have waged open war against one another. The chief causes of hostility have been avarice, ambition and the balance of power. The people who fought their bloody battles and paid the debts that were rolled up in prosecuting them had very little interest in the causes or results of these national contests. The colonists of both countries fought for the supremacy of fatherland, and gained as their re- ward taxation and tyranny. In 1744, after about thirty years of armed truce (it could hardly be called peace), open war again raged between France and England. It was waged to deter- mine what one of several claimants should sit upon the throne of Austria. In such a worthy cause the people of New England engaged heart and soul. It has been the custom of all nations, since lawless piracy passed into legitimate commerce, to secure, in various waters, harbors, islands and strongholds for the pro- tection of their ships. This has been the special policy of those nations who have aimed at supremacy upon the seas. So Eng- land to-day has naval defences in all parts of the world. She controls Hong Kong, Bombay, St. Helena, Gibraltar, Jamaica, the Musketo Coast and Vancouver's Island. A neutral ship can scarcely sail in any waters without passing under the guns of England. Webster, in language never surpassed in beauty and force, speaks of her as '" a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts ; whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England."
Liy the treaty of Utrecht, in 17 13, England received from
I20 HISTORY OF
France Nova Scotia and Ne^vfoundland and ceded to her the little barren island of Cape Breton, which is separated from Nova Scotia by the narrow channel of Canso. This place has fewer attractions than almost any other portion of the habit- able globe. Its winters are so long and cold that no vegetation comes to maturity. Storms and tempests assail it, icebergs float around it, and perpetual fogs rest upon it. As early as 1501 French mariners from Brittany gave name to this desert island, "from their remembrance of home." Its fine harbors and its facilities for defence constituted its only value to a commercial nation. ( )n the southeast side of this island, commanding an excellent harbor, with deep waters nearly six miles in length, the French had built the city of Louisburg. This had been fortified by twenty-five years of toil, at an immense expense ($5,250,000). The city had all the defences of an ancient capital, high walls, moat and draw-bridge, flanked with towers and bastions, and defended by heavy batteries. It seemed impregnable. This city England and her colonies resolved to capture. The enter- prise, resting, as it did, mainly on New England, seemed per- fectly Quixotic. William Vaughan, son of Lieutenant-Governor Vaughan of Portsmouth, claimed the merit of suggesting it. He certainly bore a conspicuous part in the capture of the city. At the eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, England owned a small island called Canso. The French from Cape Breton took this by surprise, before the news of war had reached New Eng- land. They destroyed the fort and buildings on the island ; and carried eighty men prisoners to Louisburg. These men, after a few months, were dismissed on parole and sent to Boston. They brought to Governor Shirley an accurate account of the city and its defences. He solicited aid from England to conquer it. The towns of Massachusetts were eager for the tight. Her legisla- ture, by a majority of only one vote, determined to undertake the e.xpedition. William Vaughan was in Boston when the de- cision was made ; and, full of enthusiasm, expressed in person the plan of Governor Shirley to the legislature of New Hamp- shire, then in session at Portsmouth. 'J'hey at once approved the enterprise, and New Hampshire furnished three hundred and four men, to whom the celebrated Mr. Whitefield gave as a motto : " Nothing is to be despaired of, with Christ for a leader." Other colonies assisted, but New England alone furnished men. William Pepperell of Kittery commanded these volunteers. Their rendezvous was at Canso. Through fogs and storms they reached their destination in safety ; but were compelled to re- main there some time, on account of the fields of ice that were floating southward. Here Commodore Warren's squadron met them. He had been ordered to that point by the English govern-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 121
ment. The united forces waited three weeks for the ice to disap- pear and yet were not discovered by the enemy so near them. Various ingenious plans were proposed for tlie capture of the city ; but finally they resolved to attempt it in the ordinary way. On the last day of April, 1745, one hundred vessels, bearing only eighteen guns and three mortars, and carrying the New England troops, sailed into the bay of Chapeau-Rouge in sight of the frowning battlements of Louisburg. Her walls were defended by one hundred and eighty-three pieces of heavy ordnance and si.xteen hundred men. One-fifth of this number were deemed suflicient to repel any attacking force. The besiegers were not tacticians, but farmers, fishermen, mechanics and lumbermen. But they had been inured to toil and privation in the Indian wars. They could do and dare all that might become men. Besides the guns in the city, the harbor was defended by two batteries, containing in both sixty heavy cannon. Yet the New England troops landed at once, and " flew to the shore like eagles to the quarry." The French wiio came down to repel them were driven into the woods. On the next day William Vaughan of New Hampshire led four hundred volunteers, chiefly from his own state, by the city, which he greeted on passing with three cheers, and took his stand near the northeast harbor. Here he set fire to some French warehouses. The smoke, driven by the wind into the royal battery, so annoyed the gunners that they spiked their cannon and retired to the city. Vaughan hired an Indian to creep through an embrasure and open the gate. He then entered and wrote to the Generalissimo as follows : " May it please your honor to be informed that, by the grace of God and the courage of thirteen men, I entered the royal bat- tery about nine o'clock, and am waiting for a reinforcement and a flag." Vaughan hfeld the fort against those who came, to the number of one hundred, to retake it.
The preparations for the siege continued fourteen days. Dur- ing all the nights the troops were employed in dragging the heavy guns, on hastily formed sledges, across a deep morass. Though wading in deep mud, they brought them all safely within cannon-shot of the city. Several unsuccessful attacks were made upon the defences of the city ; finally it was resolved to breach or scale the walls. These were so strong that there was almost no probability of success. At length, on the fifteenth of June, it was announced in the city that a French ship-of-war of sixty-four guns, laden with supplies, had been decoyed into the midst of the English fleet and captured. This discouraged the garrison. They could not long hold out with their present sup- plies. The governor, Duchambon, a weak and irresolute officer, sent a flag of truce ; and terms of capitulation were agreed upon
122 HISTORY OF
and the city was surrendered. Probably an enterprise was never undertaken whicli promised so little and yielded so much. The men, on entering the city, were astonished at their own temerity in the attempt. They could impute their success only to a divine interposition. They never could have taken the city by assault ; and it is probable that the siege would have soon been raised by the arrival of fresh supplies. They had been favored by the weather during their whole stay on the island ; which, soon after the surrender of the city, became so severe as to peril life in the morass where they had been at work.
The news of this victory was received with universal joy throughout the colonies, and with unfeigned surprise in Europe. Pepperell and Warren were made baronets, and parliament reim- bursed to the colonies the expenses of the expedition. New Hampshire received, for her share, sixteen thousand three hun- dred and fifty-five pounds sterling. Vaughan, the most noble hero of the siege, obtained no recognition from the Court, and died in obscurity, while attempting to press his claims upon the royal notice in London. Warren, the English Admiral, claimed the honor of this victory ; and, under oath in the admiralty court, testified that himself "did subdue the whole island of Cape Breton." Still it is quite manifest to the candid reader of the history of that expedition, that probably it never would have been undertaken, and certainly never would have been success- ful, but for the skill, energy and heroic daring of New Hampshire men ; and of the New England volunteers, William Vaughan, not William Pepperell, was the soul of the whole enterprise
The conquest of Louisburg led to more enlarged plans of in- vasion. Shirley, full of enthusiasm and prompted by patriotism, conceived the plan of wresting from the French their entire pos- sessions on this continent. He met Warren and Pepperell at Louisburg after their victory, and consulted them concerning the feasibility of his plan. He then wrote to the British minis- try urging it upon their notice. His proposition seemed wise ; the British secretary of state, the Duke of Newcastle, in April, 1746, sent a circular letter to all the governors of the colonies, as far south as Virginia, to raise as many men as they could spare and form them into companies of one hundred each and hold them ready for action. It was his purpose that the New England troops should meet the British fleet and army at Louis- burg, and thence proceed up the St. Lawrence to Quebec. The soldiers from New York and the southern provinces were ordered to meet in Albany, to march thence to Crown Point and Mon- treal. The colonies were to meet all the necessary expenses and depend on England for a reimbursement. In New Hampshire there was some delay, because the governor had no authority
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
123
without the royal consent to issue bills of credit to meet the de- mands of the army. Shirley, the moving spirit of the whole en- terprise, persuaded Wentworth to rely on the English honor to pay the bills, as they had done in case of Louisburg, and issue the sum required. It was thought by some persons that, although New Hampshire and Massachusetts had their own governors, one mind controlled both. Hew Hampshire voted to raise and support one thousand men and two ships of war. Col. Atkinson was appointed commander. The New Hampshire troops were ordered to march to Albany ; but the small-pox prevailing there, they diverted their course to Saratoga. It was feared that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton would be captured by the French. Or- ders were therefore issued for the troops from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to sail for that region and "drive the enemy out of Nova Scotia." But before this decree could be executed, a report come that a large fleet from France had arrived at Nova Scotia under the command of Duke D'An- ville. The people of New England now began to fear a war on their own shores and possibly the conquest of all their territory. Hence every hand was employed in self-defence. Old forts were repaired ; new ones were built ; and all the strongholds were strengthened. A new battery of sixteen heavy guns was added to the fort at the entrance of Piscataqua harbor ; and another of nine thirty-two pounders placed at the extremity of Little Harbor. While these works were in progress, news was brought by some prisoners released from the French, that great distress and confusion prevailed on board their fleet. The of- ficers were divided in council. English letters which had been intercepted by a French cruiser were brought to Chebucto, a bay near Halifax, wl;^ere the fleet lay. An English fleet was ex- pected to follow the F'rench to America. So these letters in- formed them. This news created dissension among the officers. The men were wasted by pestilence ; eleven hundred were buried at Halifax and hundreds more in the sea ; the fleet was crip- pled by storms ; and under such circumstances they could do nothing. The commander, utterly dispirited, committed suicide ; and the second in command, in a fit of insanity fell on his own sword. They resolved, however, to attack Annapolis, but as they sailed from Chebucto they were overtaken by a storm ; some of their ships were wrecked and the rest returned home. So ended this magnificent plan of conquest. The result only finds a par- allel in the dispersion of the Spanish Armada in the reign of Elizabeth.
During all this time the English had been unaccountably re- miss in action. Seven times the fleet sailed from Spithead, and seven times returned. Only two English regiments ever reached
124 HISTORY OF
Louisburg. The whole summer was wasted and nothing accom- plished. The colonies were in an agony of suspense, and were sending their forces to different points, where the danger seemed imminent, without advantage to any one. After the cloud of peril from France was dissolved, Colonel Atkinson marched with his regiment to the shores of lake Winnipiseogee. There they passed a winter in plenty, with no foe near them. They were without discipline, without employment, and. soon without morals. They spent their time in sporting, hunting and fishing. Some deserted ; all became weary of this listless mode of life. The following summer was spent in idleness and disorder till they were finally disbanded. But, during all this period of inac- tion, the frontiers of New England were harassed beyond en- durance by the French and Indians. Before the adjustment of the boundary between the two states, many townships had been granted, both by Massachusetts and New Hampshire, within the limits of the latter state as fixed by George II. The valleys of the Merrimack, Ashuelot and Connecticut rivers had been ex- tensively explored and settled. As late as 1745 many of these towns were known only by their numbers, by Indian names, or by local peculiarities. For example, Charlestown was called Number-Four ; Westmoreland, Great Meadow ; Walpole, Great Fall ; Hinsdale, Fort Dummner ; Keene, Upper Ashuelot ; and Swansey, Lower Ashuelot. On the Merrimack, Concord was known as Penacook ; Pembroke, Suncook ; Boscawen, Contoo- cook ; Hopkinton, New Hopkinton ; Merrimack, Souhegan-East ; and Amherst, Souhegan-West. On the Piscataqua and its branches were the towns of Nottingham, Barrington and Roch- ester. All these settlements* were on the frontiers of the state as it was then occupied ; and were peculiarly exposed to hostile attacks from the savages, both Indian and French, for they dif- fered but little in their mode of warfare. The French had more knowledge and of course were more criminal. They were ever ready to
" Cry HavoCt and let slip the dogs of war, "
and the innocent were torn and mangled without pity. The people of New Hampshire were willing to receive all the new territory which the king decided to give them ; but they were not willing to defend it. They maintained that the towns granted and the forts built by Massachusetts ought to be protected by her. The defence of her own frontiers required this. On the west side of Connecticut river stood Fort Dummer. Hinsdale,
* A line drawn from Rochester to Boscawen, Concord, Hopkinton, Hillsborough, Keene and Westmoreland constituted the frontier of the New Hampshire selllemenls. These towns were the points of attack by the Indians in **King George's War." In these and adjacent towns about one hundred persons were killed, wounded or captured during the war from July 5i 1745. 10 Ju'ie "Zi >749-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 125
on the east side, had in common the same name. Massachusetts had erected and maintained this border defence till the royal de- cision gave it to New Hampshire. The assembly declined to pro- tect this post, because of its remoteness and the expense. It was also without access by regular roads. The governor dissolved the assembly that refused this reasonable expense and called another, whom he eloquently besought to assume the burden. They also refused ; and Massachusetts undertook the defence of this and other posts established above it on the Connecticut.
All the horrors and atrocities of former Indian wars were re- newed. There was no safety for private houses. Every oc- cupied house must be turned into a garrison. No field labor could be performed with safety. Harvests were destroyed, houses burned, cattle killed and men, women and children in- humanly massacred or dragged into slavery. No man walked abroad unarmed. It was unsafe to step out of the stockade to milk a cow or feed an animal. The lurking foe seemed omni- present. They were scattered in small parties along the whole frontier. When people wanted bread, they were obliged to visit the mills with an armed guard. Indians often lay in ambush about the mills. The upper towns on the Connecticut and Mer- rimack were all visited. Some of them were decimated ; others lost only one or two inhabitants.
The year 1746 was memorable in the history of Concord, then called Rumford. This region, in early times, had been the home of the far-famed Passaconaway the great sachem of Penacook. It was therefore a favorite resort of the Indians, both in peace and war. From an address delivered by Mr. Asa McFarland, on the occasion of the erection of the Bradley monument, the fol- lowing description of Concord, as it then was, is copied :
"Where pleasant villages have grown up, north of us, set a few houses and give a garrison to each of these outposts. Immediately west o£ this monument let there be a few lots reserved from barrenness, and a guard-house there also. Over our broad intervals, let a few acres be under culture ; and just as well tilled as would naturally be the case in a new and terror-stricken frontier town. Let thick forests clothe most of the soil, and animals dwell therein which make night hideous. Let bears rustle in the farmer's corn- field, and wolves howl around his sheep-folds ; let moose and deer go down at noon to drink at a stream, from the far distant sources of which the species now tlee before the huntsman."
Such was the settlement which hostile Indians approached, ou Sunday, August 10, 1746. Capt. Ladd, from Exeter, had come with his company to Rumford to protect the citizens. The Con- cord and Exeter soldiers united numbered about seventy. The men, not excepting the clergyman, worshiped with arms at hand and sentinels stationed without. The Indians dared not make their attack on the Sabbath. The next day eight of the
126 HISTORY OF
company were sent out on the Hopkinton road to perform some special service. About three-fourtlis of a mile from the settle- ment they fell into an ambuscade, and five of their number were killed and hewn to pieces by the Indians. On the twenty- second of August, 1837, Richard Bradley, a descendant of Samuel Bradley the leader of that heroic band of martyrs, erected a fitting monument to their memoiy on the spot where they fell. This is a noble granite shaft which, being cut from " the everlasting hills, " will, without doubt, transmit the history of their patriotism to the latest posterity.
It was a favorite practice of the Indians to carrv their prison- ers away to Canada. They received a reward from their sale ; and the French, by the exorbitant prices demanded for their redemption, paid the expenses of the war. The prospect of an expedition to Canada, in 1746, induced many soldiers who were on duty on the frontiers to enlist in the army of invasion. The protection of those exposed towns being withdrawn, the inhabi- tants were obliged to leave their farms to be pillaged, their houses to be burnt. They buried some articles of property and carried others with them ; but the most of their goods were left to be appropriated or destroyed by the enemy. In the spring of 1747 Massachusetts resumed her protection of these deserted forts and towns. In March of that year, Capt. Phineas Stevens, who commanded a company of rangers, numbering thirty men, came to Number- Four and took possession of it. It was a common stockade fort made of the trunks of trees about fourteen feet in length, set in the ground. It covered about three-fourths of an acre. Within ten days after the arrival of Capt. Stevens, this fort was surrounded by a mi.xed army of French and Indians, numbering from four to seven hundred men. A simultaneous attack was made on all sides, under the command of an experi- enced leader. Gen. Debcline. When the ordinary modes of as- sault failed, they attempted to burn it. Says Capt. Stevens in his report :
"The wind being very hi;;h, and everything exceedingly dry, they set fire to all the old fences, and also to the log house about forty rods froin the fort, to the windward, so that in a few minutes we were entirely surrounded by fire, — all which was performed with the most hideous shouting from all quar- ters, which they continued in the most terrible manner till the next day at ten o'clock at night, without intermission; .and during that time we had im opportunity to eat or sleep."
Among other modes of assault, they loaded a carriage with combustibles, rolled it up to the paling, and thus set the fort on fire. But even this failed to do its work. The French officer then demanded a surrender through a flag of truce accompanied by fifty men. The men within unanimously resolved to fight. Finding the fort impregnable, the enemy left it. Only two of its
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 27
brave defenders were wounded. This was the most gallant achievement of the whole war. Commodore Sir Charles Knowles was so highly pleased with the conduct of Capt. Stevens, that he presented him with an elegant and costly sword as a reward of his bravery. The township, when incorporated, took the name of Charlestown in commemoration of this act of justice from Sir Charles.
The lower towns did not escape attacks. Hopkinton, Con- cord, Suncook, Rochester, Nottingham, Winchester and Hins- dale all lost some of their valued citizens. The war was carried on with great want of skill and energy, if not with positive in- difference, by the English. After the failure of Shirley's pro- posed invasion of Canada, they made no aggressive movements. It was suspected, by some persons, that England allowed this dangerous enemy to harass the colonies, that they might feel more keenly their dependence on the mother country. This was the expressed opinion of Peter Kalm, a Swedish traveler. They were already enforcing that restrictive policy in trade which, in after years, led to the Revolution. The colonies were required to buy and sell only in English ports. If they discovered any silver or gold, it was the" perquisite of the king. In fact, they were making their children perfect through sufferings ; and bit- terly did they rue their neglect of them in after years.
The Indians killed fewer of their captives than in former years. They valued their redemption money too highly. They also discontinued some of their former modes of torture, such as roasting their prisoners by a slow fire, cutting out their tongues, cutting off their noses, and carving away morsels of their flesh to be thrown in their faces. They compelled none to run the gauntlet ; they even showed pity to the sick and feeble. This does not indicate th^ existence of compassion, but a develop- ment of avarice. They wished to save their captives that they might sell them for money.
Near the close of 1748, a treaty of peace was concluded be- tween England and France, at Aix la Chapelle. " Humanity had suffered without a purpose, and without a result." No ques- tion in dispute had been settled. Neither party had made any acquisition of wealth or territory. England yielded up Cape Breton, whose conquest had shed such glory on the colonial arms, and received in return Madras. The spirit of war slum- bered only a few years, and all the old questions in dispute were again revived in the subsequent " French and Indian war.'' The fruit of King George's war, to the colonists, was debt, dis- grace and degradation. The soldiers, accustomed to camp-life, carried its loose morality into rural life and society lost its purity, industry and economy.
128 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XXXV.
REVIVAL OF mason's CLAIM.
While the controversy was pending respecting the boundaries of New Hampshire before the king, in 1738, the wise politicians of Massachusetts found a lineal descendant of Capt. Mason, who bore the name of John Tufton Mason. A claim was set up for him to the lands originally granted to his ancestor, on a plea of a defect in the sale made by John and Robert Mason, in 1691, to Samuel Allen. The purchaser then thought that he was dealing with honest men and securing a valid title to the premises deeded to him. But in that conveyance, by a fiction of law, the lands were supposed to be in England instead of New Hampshire, so that they might be under the control of the king's court. Possibly Mr. Allen chose tliat it should be so. This fiction, however, was the means of vacating the title, and the estate reverted to the heirs of Mason. In the excitement of parties, intriguing politicians resolved to gain by purchase what they feared they should lose by litigation. They first pur- chased that portion of Mason's grant that lay within the juris- diction of Massachusetts for five hundred pounds. Tomlin- son, the vigilant agent of New Hampshire, hearing of this ne- gotiation, approached Mr. Mason, who had been sent to London to promote the interests of Massachusetts, and proposed to buy his claim on New Hampshire. He offered to sell it to the assembly of the state for one thousand pounds in New England currency. The bargain was not immediately closed but left for future controversy. After the final adjustment of the lines, in 1741, Mason returned to America, but did not urge the sale of his claim for several years. In 1744 it was brought belore the assembly by Gov. Wentworth, but the intense excitement about the Louisburg expedition prevented definite action upon it. Mason himself joined the expedition. On his return, in 1746, he notified the assembly that he should sell to others if they failed to close the bargain immediately. After discussion, they accepted his terms ; but it was too late. On the very day of their acceptance he conveyed the property, by deed, to twelve of the leading men of Portsmouth, for fifteen hundred pounds.
This deed led to long and angry disputes between the pur- chasers and the assembly. They at one time agreed to sur- render their claim to the assembly, provided the land should be
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 29
" granted by the governor and council." The assembly were jealous of these officials and would not accept the offer. The people murmured, and the legislators threatened ; but the new proprietors stood firm. They proceeded to grant new townships on the most liberal terms, asking no reward for the land occupied by actual settlers, only insisting on immediate improvements in roads, mills and churches. They reserved in eveiy town one right for a settled minister, one for a parsonage and one for a school, and fifteen rights for themselves. This generous conduct gained them friends and they soon became popular with all parties. The heirs of Allen threatened loudly to vindicate their claim, but never actually commenced a suit. So the matter ran on, under this new proprietorship, till the Revolution, like a flood, swept away all these rotten defences and gave to actual settlers a title, in fee simple, to their farms.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE REPRESENTATIVES OF NEW TOWNS.
When war was at their doors, and the scalping-knife gleamed above their heads, the people gave no heed to domestic quarrels or "private griefs." They fought till the foe disappeared, then public war was exchanged for political contests. The governor and the legislature were seldom in harmony. The chief magis- trate was the representative of the king, the assembly of the peo- ple ; hence mutual jealousies and mutual hostility sprang up. Governor Wentworth had resolved to protect those towns and forts that had been acquired from Massachusetts by the new boundary line. He introduced into the legislature of 1748 six new members, from towns that had been cut off from Massachu- setts. The house refused them seats. Here was open war be- tween the executive and the legislative branch of the govern- ment. Precedents were cited to sustain both parties. The tri- ennial act of 1727 was deficient, because it did not decide who should issue the writs that were necessary to the election of new members. The house claimed that they alone should determine who should sit with them in making laws. The governor main- tained that the right to send representatives was founded on royal commissions and instructions ; and that he, acting under the king's direction, alone held the right of issuing writs for new
130 HISTORY OF
elections. The controversy was suspended during the war. At its close, in 1749, it assumed new importance.
For three years the governor and council waged incessant war with the assembly. The public interests were neglected. The treasurer's accounts were not audited ; the recorder's office was closed ; and the soldiers, who had so heroically defended the frontiers of the state, were unpaid. The public bills of credit depreciated from fifty-six to thirty per cent; and the gov- ernor's salary declined in the same ratio. The excise could neither be farmed nor collected. No authenticated documents could be obtained ; in a word, no public business could be trans- acted. The people were suffering a sort of papal interdict, un- der a royal governor and a democratic legislature. An attempt was made to remove the governor ; but he had the ear of the English minister and the papers were not presented. The peo- ple again agitated the project of annexation to Massachusetts ; but all desperate remedies failed, and in due time the parties became weary of the fight. In 1752 a new assembly was called. They met in better temper. Moderate councils prevailed ; a popular speaker was elected. Meshech Weare, a man of rising merit, in favor with both parties, occupied the chair. A re- corder was chosen, who entered at once upon his duties ; the treasurer's accounts were settled ; the governor's salary was in- creased ; and an era of good feelings commenced. Thus the new representatives gained their seats, and tlie public business again commanded the attention of the assembly.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE LAST FRENCH WAR, CALLED "THE SEVEN YEARS* WAR." OR "the FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR."
If any thing could show the folly of war for the adjustment of national boundaries, or for the balance of power, it would be that absurd clause of the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, which de- clares that "all things should be restored on the footing they were before the war." Cape Breton, "won by Americans, was given up by England." The conquest of Louisburg was ascribed to divine interposition ; what, then, was the restoration of it to France ? The glory of a great victory was forever eclipsed by an inglorious surrender of the prize. The peace, however, was
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I3I
only nominal. The fires of war for a season slumbered, only to blaze with intenser heat on a wider theatre. The contest in pre- vious wars had been for the Atlantic coast, for barren islands and unproductive promontories that might serve as safeguards of com- merce. Now, the destiny of a continent hung in the scale. The policy of France was grand and comprehensive. She already possessed the St. Lawrence, the lakes and the adjacent territo- ries. She looked with anxious solicitude toward the great valley of the Mississippi. By planting her colonies in the rear of the English and com.manding the great water communications of the north and west, she confidently expected to be mistress of the continent. The French already had settlements in Canada and Louisiana. By establishing a chain of forts from the St. Law- rence to the mouth of the Mississippi, they could then extend their power both east and west.
The colonies of England received grants of territory from sea to sea. The honor of the mother country and the interests of her colonies were at stake. The Earl of Holderness, secretary of state, wrote to the governors of the American colonies re- commending union for their mutual defence. Accordingly seven colonies sent delegates to Albany, to consult for the common welfare and to secure the friendship of the Six Nations. The commissioners from New Hampshire were Atkinson, Wibird, Sherburne and Weare. The Six Nations were represented at the conference and received presents from the convention and private donations from the New Hampshire delegates. A plan of union was adopted, on the fourth of July, 1754, just twenty- two years before the Declaration of Independence. The name of Franklin appears in both. He drew up the plan of union, but it failed. It was ^ejected in America because it yielded too much power to the king ; in England, because it gave too much to the people ! The English ministry, fearing to allow the colo- nists to control so great a war, resolved to conduct it with their own armies, making the colonial militia their allies.
New England was again called upon to resist the depreda- tions of Indians. They appeared in August, 1754, at Baker's town on the Pemigewasset, and killed a woman and took several captives. They committed similar outrages at Stevens' town and at Number- Four. From this town eight persons were carried into captivity; Mr. James Johnson, his wife and three children were among them. Mrs. Johnson was delivered of an infant the next day, whom she named " Captive." Tlie fate of Johnson was ex- ceedingly distressing. He was paroled at Montreal, to secure money for the redemption of his family. The severity of winter prevented his return within the limits of his parole. On his ar- rival he and his family were imprisoned, his money confiscated
1^2 HISTORY OF
and, in addition to these calamities, all the family were attacked by the small-pox. His wife and children were released after eighteen months of suffering. Mr. Johnson was held in prison three years and, strange to say, on his return to Boston was im- prisoned there under suspicion of being a spy !
Number-Four and Fort Dummer again petitioned New Hamp- shire for protection and were refused. They then applied to Massachusetts and received aid. In the spring of 1755, the English planned three expeditions : one against Fort DuQuesne, another against Niagara, and a third against Crown Point. For the last expedition New Hampshire raised five hundred men, under command of Colonel Joseph Blanchard.
Here it becomes necessary to recite the historj' of- some of the prominent actors in those stirring scenes that followed. No history of New Hampshire would be complete without a bio- graphical sketch of General John Stark. His life is identified with the most remarkable events of its records in the eighteenth cen- tury. Fie was of Scotch descent. His father, Archibald Stark, came to Nutfield (now Londonderry) in 1721. He, about fif- teen years later, having lost his house by fire, removed to a place then called Harrytown, and settled upon a lot a short distance above the Falls of Amoskeag. He had four sons, Wil- liam, John, Samuel and Archibald, all of whom were officers in "the seven years' war." John Stark was born at Londonderry, in 1728. At the age of twenty-four, in company with his brother William, David Stinson and Amos Eastman, he went on a hunt- ing expedition to Baker's river, in the town since called Rum- ney. Baker's river flows into the Pemigewasset. It was so named from Capt. Thomas Baker, who in 1720 led a scouting party into that region and destroyed a company of Indians. Their chief, Wattanummon, fell by Baker's own hand.* Game was abundant in this region, consisting of beavers, bears, catamounts, wolves and wildcats. In about six weeks of forest life this party had collected furs valued at five hundred and sixty pounds sterling. On the twenty-eighth day of April, 1752, John Stark, while collecting his traps, was surprised by ten Indians. His brother William and Stinson were in a canoe upon the river. The Indians fired upon them and killed Stinson. William Stark escaped, possibly by his brother's hardihood in striking up the guns of the Indians as they fired. For this act of daring they
*The following account of that battle is taken from a published letter of M. B. Goodwin, Esq., dated Plymouth, May 3, 1875:
From the cupola of this hotel you look down upon the junction of Baker^s river with the Pemigewasset, which was the scene of a bloody drama in the early history of this state, the destruction of an I ndian village which was planted there one hundred and sixty-three years a^o. The first-pale faces of whom history preserves any account, who visited this place, was the company of "Marching Troops against the Enemy at Cohos" under Captain Thomas Ba- ker. They left Northampton in the early summer of 1712, struck up the Connecticut to
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beat him severely. He and Eastman were taken to lake Mem- phremagog, the headquarters of the St. Francis tribe. There they were compelled to run the gauntlet. The young braves stood in two lines armed with clubs or sticks, with which they beat the captive as he passed, who carried in his hands a pole six or eight feet long, surmounted with the skin of an animal. Eastman, in his transit, was nearly beaten to death. Stark used his pole with such vigor, swinging it right and left, that he es- caped with slight injury. This feat pleased the old Indians who, as spectators, enjoyed the sport at the expense of their young warriors. They then directed Stark to hoe their corn. He at first carefully hoed the weeds and cut up the corn by the roots ; finally he threw his hoe into the river, saying, " it was the busi- ness of squaws, and not of warriors, to hoe corn.*' This gave the Indians still greater pleasure and they adopted him by the title of "Young Chief." Afterwards he was a favorite, and in his old age still testified to the uniform kindness of his captors. He was shortly redeemed by Capt. Stevens, who was sent to re- cover Massachusetts prisoners. His ransom was fixed at one hundred and three dollars j that of his friend Eastman at sixty. The state never repaid either sum.
"Lower Cohos" now Haverhill, thence over the height of lands to the source of what from this expedition took the name of Baker's river, and so down the stream to its junction with "the west branch of the Merrimack" as the Massachusetts records has it — now the Pemige- wasset river. At the confluence of these two streams, in the "Crotch," they found "the Enemy" — "the terrible tawnies, as old Cotton Mather called the " original proprietors." On detecting traces of the savages. Baker sent forward scouts who, on getting ^near the junction, discovered a sequestered Indian village with their clusters of wigwams in circles upon the interval, the corn of their scanty husbandry freshly springing from the surrounding fields. The budding and blossoming spring was distilling its iragrance, the rule being to put in the crops "when the oak leaf became as large as a mouse's ear." The squaws were busy at their work and the little ones were gamboling like lambs along the banks. But a few war- riors were at home, the most of them being in pursuit of game. The reconnoitering party came back and reported what tfcey had seen.
Captain Baker at once put his company in motion, silently crept upon the unsuspecting vil- lage, and poured upon them their deadly musketry ; some fell, the rest fied into the forests. Their wigwams were set on fire, their rich furs, stored in holes like the nests of bank swallows along the shores, were destroyed, and crossing hastily to the southerly shore of Baker's river they pushed with the utmost speed down the Pemigewasset, with the yells of the maddened warriors ringing from the hills behind them. They had destroyed the headquarters of the Pemigewas^ets, the royal residence of Walternumus their sachem, situated on what is the upper outskirts of Plymouth village. The spot now answers well to the description yvhich history and tr-adition give ; and the multitude of Indian relics which have been found in the locality makes it certain. The town has a pleasant name, but Pemigewasset would have been better. '
When Baker had retreated some six miles down the road, the infuriated savages led by Wal- ternumus were upon them, and they were compelled to give battle in a dense forest at a pop- lar plain in what is now Bridgewater. In the heat of the battle the sachem and Baker were conirontetl. They both fired at the same instant ; the sachem leaped into the air with a yell, falling dead with a ball through his heart, and Baker's eyebrow being grazed by the sachem's ball. In the dismay and momentary retreat of the Indians at the loss of their chief^ Baker pushed down the river with the utmost speed, and the Indians were soon upon their heels. Whep amved at the brook now known as the outlet of Webster Lake, in Franklin Village, the company, utterly exhausted with hunger and fatigue, came to a halt in despair. A friendly Indian belonging to tlie company saved them. He directed each man to build a fire, cut a number of sticks, bum the ends as though used for roasting meat, leave them by the fires and hasten forward. Their pursuers were immediately upon the scene, and counting each stick as representing a man they followed no more, concluding the pale-faces loo strong for them. Perhaps the original name of Baker's Town, which Salisbury bore, arose from this event
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In March, 1753, Mr. Stark became the guide of an exploring party to the Coos territoi-y. In 1754 he again guided Capt. Powers with thirty men, sent by governor Wentworth, to the Up- per Coos, to remonstrate with the French who were said to be erecting a fort there. They found no French ; but visited the beautiful intervals where Newbury and Haverhill are now sit- uated. They were the first English explorers of this region. Upon the breaking out of " the seven years' war," Stark was made second lieutenant in "Rogers' Rangers" attached to Blan- chard's regiment. These men were rugged foresters, every man of whom, as a hunter, "could hit the size of a dollar at the dis- tance of a hundred yards." They were inured to cold, hunger and peril. They often marched without food, and slept in winter without shelter. They knew the Indians thoroughly. They were principally recruited in the vicinify of Amoskeag Falls. Their early habits had accustomed them to face wild beasts, savage men and fierce storms. In the summer of 1755, Rogers and his men were ordered to visit Coos and erect a fort. A sub- sequent order directed them to Fort Edward, on the east of the Hudson, about forty-five miles north of Albany. They arrived there in August, a short time before the attack made by Baron Dieskau on Johnson's provincial army at the south end of lake George. The French were defeated with the loss of their leader.
The camp of Johnson was attacked on the eighth of Septem- ber. A party from Fort Edward discovered some wagons burn- ing in the road. Capt. Nathaniel Folsom, with eighty New Hampshire men and forty from New York, went out to recon- noitre the place. They found the wagoners and cattle dead ; but no enemy was near. Hearing the report of guns toward the lake, they hastened to the scene of action. On their march they found the baggage of the French under a guard, whom they dispersed. Soon the retreating army of Dieskau appeared in sight, and Folsom, posting his men behind trees, kept up a well directed fire till night. The enemy retired with great loss. Only six of the New Hampshire troops were killed. The French lost their ammunition and baggage, with a large number of men. This regiment then joined the regular army, and its men were em- ployed as scouts.
Another regiment was raised in New Hampshire, commanded by Col. Peter Oilman. These were also employed in the same service. Their familiarity with savage warfare, their skill in the use of arms, their courage and enterprise, rendered them the most efficient soldiers in the army. In autumn these regiments were disbanded and returned home. The three expeditions planned this year all signally failed.
By the operations near Crown Point, which alone could claim
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 135'
one successful battle, the Indians were roused to greater violence. The whole frontier was undefended. As early as 1752 it was in contemplation to extend the settlements of New Hampshire up the Connecticut river to the rich meadows of Cohos, as the region was then called. A party was sent, in the spring of 1750, to explore this region. The Indians watched their movements and suspected their purpose. A delegation of the St. Francis tribe was sent to remonstrate against this proposed occupation of their best lands. They came to Number-Four and complained to Capt. Stevens of this new encroachment. He informed the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire of their mis- sion, and they discouraged the new enterprise. It was then laid aside. Two other Indians also came to Canterbury, where they were entertained more than a month. They carried off two negroes, one of whom escaped. This fact revealed their treach- ery. The next year, 1753, Sabatis, one of the two who captured the negroes, with a companion came again to Canterbury, and being reproved for his former treachery he and his friend became insolent and threatened violence. They were treated to strong drink till they became nearly helpless, then were decoyed into the woods and slain. The murderers were arrested and carried in irons to Portsmouth, but were rescued by a mob. This un- punished murder of the two Indians was never forgiven. . No treaties, conferences or presents could induce them to say, " the blood was wiped away."
This fresh incentive, added to their natural ferocity, prompted them to renew their old depredations, robberies, burnings and murders in Hopkinton, Keene, Walpole, Hinsdale and other frontier towns. At Bridgman's fort they surprised three families, fourteen in all, and carried them to Canada. One of them, the wife of Caleb Howe* by her sufferings and intrepidity gave rise to a narrative called " The Fair Captive." After the failure of the campaigns of 1755, and the death of Braddock, Governor Shirley was raised to the chief command. He planned another expedition to Crown Point. Another regiment was called for from New Hampshire. Nathaniel Meserve was appointed Col- onel. But before .Shirley's plan was executed, he was super- seded by Lord Loudon. He was characterized by a " masterly inactivity." Franklin said of him : " He was entirely made up of indecision. He was like St. George on the signs, always on horseback, but never rode on. " The plan of the campaign for 1756 was nearly the same as that of the preceding year. Crown Point, Niagara and Fort du Quesne were the posts to be won. Though the two nations had been fighting for a year, war was not declared against France till May 17, 1756. The dilatory motives of Lord Loudon strongly contrasted with the
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activity of Montcalm. In the winter of 1756, Rogers was again called upon to enlist and command a corps of rangers. John Stark was appointed one of his lieutenants. No great military enterprise was undertaken this year. " The rangers were con- stantly on foot, watching the motions of the enemy, cutting off their supplies and capturing sentinels at their posts. They some- times used the scalping-knife, in retaliation for the cruelties of the French and their savage allies." In Januar)', 1757, a detach- ment of the rangers marched from Fort William Henry to in- tercept supplies of the enemy. They were partially successful ; but, on their return, about three miles from Ticonderoga, they were attacked from an ambush, by a force double their own. Then followed one of the most desperate and bloody battles of the entire war. Rogers was twice wounded ; Captain Spikeman was killed ; and Lieutenant Stark, being then senior commander, by his almost incredible efforts saved the crippled company from annihilation. In the reorganization of the corps, he was appointed captain of one company. Once, by his vigilance and foresight. Stark saved Fort William Henry from capture. It was on the seventeenth of March, 1757. A French army of twenty- five hundred men advanced upon that post, presuming that the Irish troops would be celebratuig St. Patrick's day, as they were, but the rest of the army under Stark's command were ready for action ; and the enemy was repulsed with great loss. In the fol- lowing August the same fort was surrendered to the Marquis de Montcalm, under express stipulations that the garrison should be allowed the honers of war and be safely escorted to Fort Ed- ward. The Indians were dissatisfied with the terms of surrender. They hung upon the rear of the retiring army, which amounted to about three thousand. They at first began to plunder ; soon they raised the war-whoop and rushed like fiends upon the un- armed troops. They butchered and scalped their helpless vic- tims, mingling their inhuman yells with the groans of the dying. Of the New Hampshire regiment, eighty fell in this inglorious massacre. Montcalm made no effort to stay the slaughter. It is difficult to account for his indifference to honor, fame and treaty covenants. His memory can never be relieved from the weight of condemnation which all good men of all time will heap upon it. The very shores of that " Holy Lake " echo to- day with curses upon his inhumanity. Montcalm, in his letter to the minister, as quoted by Mr. Bancroft, did attempt the res- cue of the English, crying out to the Indians, " Kill me," using prayers and menaces and promises, " but spare the English who are under my protection." He also urged the troops to defend themselves, escorted more than four hundred who remained of the captives on their way, and ransomed those whom tlie Ind- ians had carried off.
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Thus ended the magnificent preparations of this year. Losses and defeats stained the entire records of the English and colo- nial history for three years. The home government was regen- erated by the elevation of "the great Commoner," William Pitt, to the premiership of England. He said, with conscious power, " I can save this country and nobody else can." " His presence was inspiration ; he himself was greater than his speeches." He gave to the colonies equality of military rank in offices be- low that of colonel, and cheered them with the prospect of a reimbursement of their expenses. Near the close of the year 1757 two hundred and fifty recruits were raised in New Hamp- shire, placed under Major Thomas Tash, and stationed at Num- ber-Four. Thus, for the first time, this post was occupied by New Hampshire troops. The state was then in a condition of extreme despondency. Great losses of men, stores and forts discouraged the people. The provisions they had gathered with severe toil, and borne like beasts of burden to their military posts, were possessed by the enemy, who in plenty danced around the scalps of their murdered brethren. But the spirit of Pitt awoke them from their midnight dream of desolation. He called on them for men, as many as their numbers would allow them to raise, promising arms, ammunition, tents, provisions and boats from England, and assuring them that he would earn- estly recommend the parliament " to grant them a compensa- tion" for other expenses. Thereupon the assembly of New Hampshire cheerfully voted to raise eight hundred men for the year. The regiment of Colonel John Hart served at the west, under Abercrombie. Colonel Meserve with one hundred and eight carpenters embarked for Louisburg to recapture a city dis- gracefully given up in 1748. At this place General Amherst commanded. This body of mechanics were seized with the small-pox, which was the common scourge of armies in those days. All but sixteen were rendered unfit for service by it. Colonel Meserve and his eldest son died of this disease. Me- serve was a shipwright by profession, a skillful, energetic and excellent citizen and officer. Lord Loudon presented him a piece of plate while he served in his army, acknowledging "his capacity, fidelity, and ready disposition in the service of his country."
Louisburg was again taken, but the attack on Ticonderoga was unsuccessful. It was one of the saddest defeats of the war. The plan, at the outset, promised success. On the morning of July fifth, 1758, the whole army of sixteen thousand men em- barked in bateaux upon Lake George for Ticonderoga, a place situated on the western shore of Lake Champlain about eighty miles north of Albany. The order of march presented a
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splendid military show. The regular troops formed the centre ; the provincials the wings. Rogers' Rangers played a very im- portant part in the siege. The attack continued for three days ; but resulted in the final defeat of the English, with the loss of Lord Howe and nearly two thousand soldiers killed, wounded and prisoners. England mourned the loss of her brave com- mander and her gallant soldiers ; the colonies wept for sons, brothers and fathers. It was their own soil that drank the blood of their kindred.
But better days were in the future. The sun yet rode in brightness behind the clouds. The next year's labors were crowned with glorious success. The English army felt the stim- ulus of young blood in her commander. They had been re- lieved by Pitt " of a long and melancholy list of lieutenant-gen- erals and major-generals," whose dilatory habits of routine rested like an incubus upon the army. The premier now re- solved on vigorous action. Niagara, Ticonderoga and Quebec were the points of assault. The campaigns were all successful. On the Plains of Abraham, " the battle-field of empire," was fought the battle which decided the destiny of this continent. It was then and there determined whether despotism or democ- racy, Catholicism or protestantism , should govern the souls and bodies of men in America. The brave Wolfe and the gallant Montcalm were the representatives of these opposing elements of civilization. They both fell lamented by many brave men ; but progress was decreed for this continent in the eternal pur- poses, and God employed that nation to promote it which time and history have proved to have been best fitted for the work. This was one of the decisive battles of the world. A contrary result would have changed the whole current of human civiliza- tion. Here was a conflict of ideas, and not the mere encounter of brute forces. Pitt himself recognized the divine interposition in his triumph. "The more a man is versed in business," said he, "Jhe more he finds the hand of Providence everywhere." " America rung with exultation ; the towns were bright with illu- mination, the hills with bonfires ; legislatures, the pulpit, the press, echoed the general joy; provinces and families gave thanks to God."
But the war, for New Hampshire, was not ended. The St. Francis Indians remained to be chastised. They were the sav- age .rangers of the old French wars with England. They had built a village of forty wigwams at the confluence of the St. Law- rence and St. Francis rivers. To this place they had brought the plunder obtained by numerous savage forays into New Hampshire. A Catholic church had been erected there by French Jesuits. A bell brought from France called the dusky worship-
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ers to matin and vesper services. Wax candles shed a " dim religious light " on the altar, on crosses, pictures and a silver image of the Virgin Mary. A small organ aided the rude choir in their devotions. A Catholic friar "of good Jesuitical qualities" regulated both church and state in this little republic of freebooters and assassins. The last act of these savages that provoked General Amherst to order an attack upon them was the detention of Captain Kennedy as a prisoner, whom he had sent with a flag of truce to negotiate a peace. On the thirteenth of September, 1769, Captain Rogers received the following orders :
" You are this night to join the detachment of two hundred men who were yesterday ordered out, and proceed to Missisquoi Bay, from which you will proceed to attack the enemy's settlement on the south side of the St. Lawrence, in such a manner as shall most effectually disgrace and injure the enemy and redound to honor and success of his Majesty's arms. Remem- ber the barbarities committed by the enemy's Indian scoundrels on every oc- casion where they have had opportunities of showing their infamous cruel- ties towards his Majesty's subjects. Take your revenge ; but remember that although the villains have promiscuously murdered women and children, of all ages, it is my order that no women or children should be killed or hurt. When you have performed this service you will again join the army wherev- er it may be."
This was one of the most difficult and perilous enterprises ever undertaken by mortal man. The march lay for hundreds of miles through an unbroken wilderness. The enemy was before and behind them ; but Rogers and his Rangers never quailed before dangers. The company immediately left Crown Point, embarked in bateaux and rowed north on Lake Cham- plain to Missisquoi Bay. Here they left their boats and provis- ions with a trusty guard and entered the lonely wilderness. After two days' march they were overtaken by the guard they had left at the bay with the intelligence that four hundred French and Indians had seized their boats and provisions, and that two hundred of them were now on the trail of the explorers. They still pressed on, and on the twenty-second day after leaving Crown Point the Indian village was discovered from the top of a tall tree, about three miles distant In the evening Major Rngers and two of his men, disguised like Indians, passed through the village. They found the Indians in the greatest glee, celebrating a wedding. Rogers wrote in his journal : " I saw them execute several dances with the greatest spirit." The Rangers, by various calamities, had been reduced to one hun- dred and forty-two men. These, being divided into three sections, advanced against the slumbering Indians at three o'clock in the morning. " The Rangers marched up to the very doors of the wigwams unobserved, and several squads made choice of the wigwams they would attack. There was little use of the mus-
140 HISTORY OF
ket ; the Rangers leaped into the dwellings and made sure work with the hatchet and knife. Never was surprise more complete." After destroying the foe they set fire to the houses. They burn- ed all but three, which they reserved for their own use. The lurid glare from these smoking huts revealed a horrid spectacle. It showed more than six hundred scalps of white men elevated on poles and fluttering in the wind to grace the infernal orgies of the preceding day. Many women and children probably per- ished in the flames ; only twenty were taken, and none were intentionally killed. Two hundred Indian warriors were slain. This was accomplished with the loss of one private, a Stock- bridge Indian, and the wounding of one officer and six Rangers. The village abounded in wealth, the accumulation of years of robbery. The Rangers took with them such treasures as they could conveniently carry. Among them were two hundred guin- eas in gold and a silver image of the Virgin weighing ten pounds. When this work of vengeance was complete the greatest perils of the war awaited them. Three hundred French and Indians were upon their trail. The enemy were well supplied with pro- visions ; the victorious Rangers were dying of hunger. Rogers, learning that his path was ambushed, resolved to return by way of the Connecticut river. General Amherst had ordered sup- plies to be forwarded for their use to the mouth of the Ammon- oosuc river. For eight days they marched in a body towards the sources of the Connecticut. At length they reached Lake Memphremagog, where their provisions were utterly exhausted. They then divided into three parties, under skillful leaders, in- tending to rendezvous at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. One company was overtaken by the enemy. Some were killed ; seven were captured ; but two of these escaped. On their arrival at the place of rendezvous they found no provisions. Lieutenant Stevens, who had been sent with succor, waited two days for the Rangers, then departed leaving no food. Major Rogers, with Captain Ogden and an Indian boy, embarked on a raft of dry pine trees to float down the Connecticut to Number-Four. He thus describes his perilous voyage :
"The current carried us down the stream, in the middle of the river, where we kept our miserable vessel with such paddles as could be split and hewn with small hatchets. The second day we reached White River falls, and very narrowly escaped running over them. The raft went over and was lost ; but our remaining strength enabled us to land and march by the falls. At the foot of them Capt. Ogdcn and the Ranger killed some red squirrels and a partridge, while I constructed another raft. Not being able to cut the trees I burnt them down, and burnt them at proper lengths. This was our third day's work after leaving our companions. The next day we floated down to Watoquichie falls, which are about fifty yards in length. Here we landed and Captain Ogden held the raft by a withe of hazel bushes, while we went below the falls to swim in, board and paddle it ashore ; this being
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our only hope of life, as we had not strength to make a new raft. I suc- ceeded m securing it; and the next morning we floated down within a short distance of Number-Four. Here we found several men cutting timber, who relieved and assisted us to the fort. A canoe was immediately dispatched up the river with provisions, which reached them in Cobs four days after, which, according to my agreement, was the tenth after I left them. Two days after I went up the river with two other canoes, to relieve others of my party who might be coming this way."
The several parties in moving westward toward the place of destination suffered untold horrors from cold and hunger. Win- ter was approaching. Rogers reached the Ammonoosuc on the fifth of November. Other parties came in later. They sub- sisted on roots, nuts, birch bark and such small animals as they could kill. They devoured their leather straps, their cartouch boxes, their moccasins and even their powder-horns after they had been sodden in boiling water. The weak in mind went mad ; the weak in body died. They even ate the bodies of their mur- dered comrades ! To such fearful sufferings were those heroic Rangers subjected to free the people of New Hampshire from their relentless foes who had, from the first history of the state, hung like a dark cloud upon its northern horizon.
CHAPTER XXXVHI.
CLOSE OF THE WAR AND THE RETURN OF PEACE.
After the capture pf Quebec, the rest of Canada fell an easy prey to the invading army. That city was the key to all the French possessions ; and by its fall the English became masters of all the northern portion of the continent. For the service of the war in 1760, New Hampshire raised eight hundred men, who were commanded by Colonel John Goffe. Their place of ren- dezvous was at Number- Four ; thence they opened a road through the wilderness directly to Crown Point. They then pro- ceeded with the English army down the lake, and captured with little opposition the forts of St. John and Chainblee. Montreal was surrendered without fighting. This event completed the campaign. After fifteen years of an.xiety, toil and privation, peace returned to New Hampshire. Captives were restored and the joy was heightened by the subjection of the Indians and their treacherous allies to the power of England. The e.xpenses of the war had been paid in paper money, the last resort of a people in distress, a substitute for the precious metals easy to
142 HISTORY OF
make but hard to pay. It always depends for its value on pub- lic opinion ; and always becomes depreciated as the national en- thusiasm declines. Paper money had been issued several times before, in periods of great distress ; but it never commanded the confidence of the people. In 1755, paper bills were issued under the denomination of " new tenor ;" of which fifteen shil- lings were equal to one dollar. The same expedient was adopted in the two following years ; but a rapid depreciation of these bills followed, and they continued to decline till silver became the standard of value, in 1760. During the continuance of ac- tive operations in war the harvests were bountiful, and there was little suffering for food at home or in the army ; but during the years 1761 and 1762, there was a severe drought and the crops were cut off so that it became necessary to import corn. At the time of this drought, in the summer, a fire raged in the woods of Barrington and Rochester with intense fury for weeks, destroying a large amount of the best timber. It was only ar- rested by the rains of August. Pitt, the greatest premier in English history, showed himself "honorable " in practice as well as in title. As he promised before the war, he recommended a reimbursement of the expenses of the colonies ; and by his per- sonal influence obtained it. His administration gave to Eng- land new life ; to her colonies new hope. Both countries for a time enjoyed unparalleled prosperity. Pitt was popular at home and abroad, except with the narrow-minded, wrong-headed Guelph who wore the crown. George III. hated the minister who had added to his dominions nearly a third part of the hab- itable globe. The monarch stood in awe of his subject. His rush-light policy became invisible amid the solar blaze of Pitt's imperial genius. The king removed him from office, attempted to silence him with "a peerage and a pension;'" and, when the spirit he had evoked "would not down at his bidding," longed for the hour " when decrepitude or age should put an end to him as the trumpet of sedition." Thus the Commons lost their wisest counselor ; the colonies their staunchest supporter.
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CHAPTER XXXIX.
CONTROVERSY ABOUT THE WESTERN BOUNDARY.
It was a favorite theory of the Philosopher of Malmesbury, that war is the natural state of mankind. If we class the feuds, factions and contentions of political parties under the head of war, history abundantly confirms his theory ; for when public warfare ceases, domestic strife begins. It would seem that con- troversy, about men or measures, creeds or policies, is a neces- sary concomitant of political existence. When the seven years' war ended by the definitive treaty of peace at Paris, in 1763, a quarrel sprung up at once between New Hampshire and New York respecting the ownership of Vermont. Both states claimed it by royal grants. Charles JI. conveyed to his brother James " all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware bay. New York claimed Vermont under this grant. George II., in deciding the boundaries of New Hampshire, allows her line to extend westward " till it meets with tlie king's other governments." New York, in her contro- versies with Connecticut, had tacitly permitted the boundaries of that colony to extend to a line drawn twenty miles east of Hudson's river. Massachusetts had claimed the same bound- ary, though denounced by New York as an intruder. On this disputed territory the governor of New Hampshire proceeded to lay out towns and receive large fees and presents from grant- ees for his official sfervices. Thus his coffers were replenished and his private estate largely increased. He preferred men from other states to those of his own, because they were " better husbandmen " and more liberal donors. During the year 1761, sixty townships, six miles square, were granted on the west, and eighteen on the east side of the river. The governor, with a wise regard to his descendants, reserved grants to himself and heirs of five hundred acres in each township, freed perpet- ually from taxation. The whole number of grants made on the west side of the river within four years amounted to one hun- dred and thirty-eight. The land fever rose to a fearful height. Speculators swarmed on every hand. The governor, proprietors and middle men became rich, while the settlers were fleeced, and received for their money imperfect titles and a legacy of lawsuits. New York resisted these grants and oppressed the settlers who received them. They appealed to the king to set-
144 HISTORY OF
tie the question. He in the plenitude of his wisdom, with ad- vice of council, declared " the western banks of Connecticut river, where it enters the province of Massachusetts Bay, as far nortii as the forty-fifth degree of latitude, TO BE the boundary line between the two provinces of New Hampshire and New York." One controversy was closed by this decree, and another was opened. The western bank of the river was declared to be the boundary between the states. The actual settlers on the disputed territory claimed that the operation of this decision was future ; the government of New York assumed that it was retrospective and applied to the past. This led to litigations as long continued as the war of Troy. The arm of power, as usual, triumphed, and the innocent tillers of the soil paid the penalty of defeat.
-O-
CHAPTER XL.
ORIGIN OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Want is a universal stimulant. AH animated nature moves in obedience to it. Artificial wants give birth to civilization. Where men are satisfied with mere existence, without comforts or lux- uries, there is no progress. Tacitus tells us of a race of men that subsisted by the chase and, to escape at night the teeth and claws of the creatures they hunted by day, swung them- selves to sleep in cradles made by interlacing the branches of tall trees ; and they asked no favors of gods or men. They dis- appeared when a better race occupied the soil. Necessity creates wants and constrains men to supply them. Climate determines the kind of shelter, the amount of clothing and the quality of food which men need for the protection of life. By a natural law, therefore, the northern man in the temperate zone is made vigorous, industrious and progressive ; the tropical man in the torrid zone is made effeminate, indolent and stationar)'. But with accumulated wealth comes luxury. The rich and powerful supply their pleasures at the expense of the poor and industrious. This fact is beautifully illustrated by Archdeacon Palcy : " If you should see a ilock of pigeons in a field of corn ; and if (in- stead of each picking where and what it liked, taking just as much as it wanted and no more) you should see ninety-nine of
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 145
them gathering all they got into a heap, reserving nothing for themselves but the chaff and the refuse ; keeping this heap for one, and that the weakest, perhaps worst, of all the flock ; sitting round and looking on, all the winter, whilst this one was devour- ing, throwing aboutand wasting it ; and, if a pigeon more hardy and hungry than the rest touched a grain of the hoard, all the others instantly flying upon it and tearing it to pieces ; if you should see this, you would see nothing more than what is every day practised and established among men." So by the accident of birth, the feeblest and worst person in the nation, often a child, an idiot, a madman or a fool, is set on high to rule over others, to live on their earnings and to own them, "body, mind and estate." Kings never have enough. They are always in want ; they want sailors and soldiers to fill their armies and man their ships ; they want money to pay their expenses and gratify their tastes. To us who have learned that the people alone own their estates and tax them as they choose, it seems absurd even to read of the claims of a hereditary dunce like George III., in- sane half his life and unreasonable the other half, upon the ter- ritory, productions and inhabitants of half a continent. We read with astonishment that the tall pines of the unexplored forests were called " the king's timber ; " and the unsunned mines in the recesses of the earth, " the king's treasure ;" and the ex- cise and imposts raised from the productive industry of the peo- ple, " the king's revenue." Kings have brought nothing to America but wars and taxes. All that the English kings did for their colonies is expressed in three sentences in Colonel Barre's indignant reply to Minister Grenville : " They planted by your care ! No ! your oppression planted them in America. * * * * They nourished by your indulgence ! They grew by your neg- lect. ***** They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence." The whole speech de- serves to be inscribed in letters of gold upon the walls of every legislative hall in the country.
When England no longer needed the arms of Americans to subdue her enemies, she began to seize their wealth to replenish her treasury. For more than a quarter of a century previous to the peace of Paris, England, under the specious plea of "regu- lating commerce," had been indirectly taxing her colonies. As soon as they had any trade worthy of the name, it was burdened with duties. The mother country' required all their exports to be carried to her markets ; and if they sought to import goods from other nations, they were at once burdened with duties so hea\'y as to become prohibitory. The restriction laid upon manufact- ures were so minute and oppressive as to savor of feudalism. As Pitt said, the colonies " were not allowed to manufacture a
146 HISTORY OF
hob-nail." In 1750, parliament positively forbade the manu- facture of steel and the erection of certain iron works. These regulations of trade, restrictions on commerce and prohibitions of art created discontent but no rebellion. But, in 1764, the king began to feel the want of more money. The expenses of " the seven years' war " had added to the national debt more than three hundred millions of dollars. The colonies had been bene- fited by the conquest of Canada and the subjugation of the Ind- ians. Therefore they must pay for the expenses of those bat- tles which they had fought and the victories which they had won. The pretence for taxing America was " to defray the expenses of protecting, defending and securing it." Another motive lay beneath this cloak. England had become jealous of the rising independence of her colonies. It was feared that they might shake off their allegiance to their dear mother. They must therefore be taught to know their place. This could be clone in no better way than by taxing them without their consent. Resolutions passed both houses of parliament to quarter troops in America and support them at the expense of those who were to be overawed by them ; also, to raise money by a duty on for- eign sugar and molasses and by stamps on all papers legal and mercantile. The stamp act was introduced in 1764. The fram- ers of it boasted that it would execute itself, because all un- stamped papers would be illegal ; and all controversies respect- ing such papers would be decided by a single judge, who was a crown officer, in the admiralty courts. But,
"The best laid schemes o'mice and men Gang aft a-gley. "
Neither the law nor its executive officers could accomplish the work. The heavy duties previously imposed on imported goods led, first, to a contraband trade ; secondly, to the disuse of all ar- ticles so taxed. English cloths were no longer worn ; domestic manufactures supplied their place. The rich gave up their lux- uries ; the poor their comforts. Patriotism supplanted all other passions, affections and appetites. Life, domestic and public, seemed to be regulated with sole reference to the defeat of Brit- ish legislation. This interruption of trade proved very injuri- ous to England and stimulated her legislators to severer meas- ures. Then came the stamp act, which it was thought could be evaded by no domestic pledges or political unions. The an- nouncement of this law led to more decided opposition. Asso- ciations were formed to resist it, called " Sons of Liberty." They adopted the words of Pitt as their motto : " Taxation and repre- sentation are inseparable." The final passage of the bill was on the eighth of March, 1765. It was soon after approved by the king. On the night of its passage, Franklin, then in Lon-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I47
don, wrote to Charles Thompson : " The sun of liberty- is set ; the Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." His correspondent replied : " Be assured we shall light torches of quite another sort." The spirit of this remark breathed from all lips. The people were roused to determined resistance. They resolved that the stamps should neither be distributed nor used. George Meserve, Esq., son of Colonel Meserve who died at Louisburg, a native of Portsmouth, was appointed stamp- distributor for New Hampshire. He was in England at the time of his appointment. He soon returned. On his arrival in Bos- ton, he found the very air filled with curses against the law and imprecations upon its agents. Upon the recommendation of his friends, he resigned his office. The people of Portsmouth, hearing of his arrival, hung his effigy in hay-market. It was ac- companied by those of Lord Bute and the Devil. These images hung through the day ; and at night were carried with great tumult through the town and burned. When Mr. Meserve reached his native town, he was immediately surrounded by a crowd, and compelled publicly to resign his office so odious to his townsmen.
The stamped paper intended for use in New Hampshire reached Boston on the thirtieth of September. As there was no one present authorized to receive it, Governor Barnard placed it in the Castle. The law was to go into operation on the first of November. That inauspicious day was regarded as an occa- sion of mourning. The New Hampshire Gazette was lined with black. The bells tolled ; the colors on the ships were at half- mast ; the people from the neighboring towns flocked to Ports- mouth ; and in the afternoon a funeral procession was formed, and a coffin inscribed "Liberty aged 145, stampt," was carried through the streets, Vith all the parade of a military funeral ; but, under pretence of remaining life, it was not interred, but brought back in triumph, with a new motto, " Liberty revived." After this manifestation of disorder, associations were formed in all the leading towns to aid the magistrates in preserving the peace. The governor and the crown officers remained quiet. They dared not meet the popular storm. All the business of the state was transacted as though no stamps were required to make it legal.
Petitions, numerously signed, were sent to England for the re- peal of the act. There had ever been a formidable opposition to the measure in parliament. The ablest men of the country were the friends of America. Hence it was not ver}' difficult to procure the repeal of the offensive law. Pitt, the greatest statesman of his age, said : " My position is this ; I will main- tain it to my last hour, — taxation and representation are insepar-
148 HISTORY OF
able. This position is founded on the laws of nature ; it is more — it is in itself an eternal law of nature ; for whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own : no man has a right to take it from him without his consent ; whoever attempts to do it at- tempts an injui-y ; whoever does it commits a robbery. I am of opinion that the stamp act ought to be repealed, totally, abso- lutely and immediately." It was repealed on the eighteenth day of March, 1766; and the American people for a time mani- fested a joy extravagantly disproportioncd to the occasion. Only one tooth of the British lion had been extracted. His jaws were yet strong to mangle his victim. England still claimed "the right to bind America in all cases whatsoever." She had only lifted her hand to gain strength for a firmer and deadlier grasp.
The new governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, ar- rived at Charleston, South Carolina, in March, 1767, and jour- neyed thence by land to Portsmouth. He was received with unbounded demonstrations of joy and respect by the citizens and magistrates. The general court met in September, and voted a salary of seven hundred pounds with an allowance for house rent. His salary as surveyor of the woods was also seven hundred pounds. Governor Wentworth came into power at the most critical period in the history of our country. There was a temporary lull in the storm of opposition, at his arrival ; but a sense of wrong still rankled in the hearts of the people. The law requiring the colonies to maintain the troops quartered among them still remained in force. The changes of ministers were frequent during these troublous times. A new administra- tion was formed, in July, 1766, with William Pitt, the friend of America, at its head. He was now the Earl of Chatham. He sat with the lords and not with the commons. The voice that had rung across seas and continents, in defence of freedom, had become weak ; the eagle eye, which could gaze unblenched upon the very sun of power, had lost its lustre ; that manly form, whose presence could awe the most august legislative assembly on earth, was bowed with age and disease. Pitt was no longer master of the occasion. He was too ill to attend the sessions of parliament ; too irresolute to enforce his opinions upon the king. In his absence his colleague, Mr. Townsend, introduced another bill for the taxing of glass, paper, painters' colors and tea. It was readily passed and received the king's approval. This was met with the most determined opposition in America, by assemblies, associations and individuals. In Boston, mobs were frequent ; the governor and other magistrates were assaulted and fled to the castle for safety. The arrival of seven hundred British troops, from Halifax, was a new cause of tumult, disor- der and violence. Collisions took place between the citizens
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 149
and soldiers and even between the boys and the soldiers. Though the British parliament censured, with great severity, the rebel- lious spirit of the legislatures and people of the colonies, still they deemed some concessions necessary. Accordingly, on the fifth of March, 1770, the very day of the murder of four citizens in Boston by the British soldiers, Lord North proposed the re- peal of all duties imposed by the act of 1767 except that on tea. This measure was carried against a violent opposition. By the reservation of tea, the English government determined to adhere to the right to tax her colonies. In Boston, the tea when im- ported was destroyed ; in New Hampshire, it was, by the advice of the governor and magistrates, reshipped, without disorder, and sent to Halifax. This act was repeated ; and the second cargo, like the first, left the port ; but not till the consignee's house was assaulted and he had appealed to the governor for protection. The citizens, in town meeting assembled, interposed their vote to secure its reshipment. The colonies were a unit in their resistance to taxation without representation. The adher- ents of the government were a small minority in every state.
The crisis was approaching, and the people seemed resolved to meet it. The colonial assemblies had appointed " committees of correspondence " and proposed a continental congress. The assembly of New Hampshire, in May, 1774, appointed a similar committee. The governor, who was anxious to defeat that meas- ure, dissolved it. He appeared in person and ordered the sheriff to bid all persons " to disperse and keep the king's peace." They heard hirn respectfully and, after lie retired, adjourned to another house, where they wrote letters to all the towns to send deputies and money for their fees, to Exeter, for the purpose of choosing delegates to Jhe general congress. They also appoint- ed a day of fasting and prayer, to be observed in all the churches, on account of the gloomy state of public affairs. The day was devoutly observed ; and the other requests were complied with. The money was conscientiously raised and eighty-five delegates were sent to Exeter, where they chose Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan, Esquires, to represent New Hampshire in the proposed congress, which met at Philadelphia in the September following. Contributions were also raised for the relief of the citizens of Boston who were suffering from the suspension of business in consequence of the Boston Port Bill. The gover- nor's influence was gone. He attempted secretly to aid Governor Gage in building barracks for his soldiers in Boston, by sending carpenters from New Hampshire ; but even his own relatives denounced him as " an enemy to the community." At this dark hour of his official life, he wrote to a friend : " Our atmos- phere threatens a hurricane. I have strove in vain, almost to
15°
HISTORY OF
death, to prevent it. If I can at last bring out of it safety to my country and honor to our sovereign, my labors will be joy- ful." Alas! "Othello's occupation was gone." Royal gover- nors were no longer reeded in America. The people had re- solved to govern themselves. They had ceased to plan and had begun to act.
An order had been raised by the king in council, prohibiting the e.xportation of gunpowder to America. A British ship of war was also ordered to I^ortsmouth to take possession of Fort William and Mary. The people anticipated its arrival and, un- der the leadership of Major John Sullivan and John Langdon, on the fifteenth of December, 1774, proceeded to Newcastle, entered the fort, took the captain and his five soldiers pris- oners and carried away one hundred barrels of gunpowder. The ne.xt day another company removed fifteen cannon, with the small arms and stores from the fort. The gims, powder and military stores were secreted in the adjacent towns, and afterwards were used in defence of the country. At a sec- ond convention of deputies held at Exeter, in January, 1775, the heroic leaders of this attack on the fort, Major Sullivan and Captain Langdon, were chosen delegates to the next general congress to be holden at Philadelphia in May following. Mr. Brewster, in his " Rambles about Portsmouth," gives a detailed account of the capture of the fort and the removal of the pow- der and guns. He makes Captain Thomas Pickering the chief actor in this bold enterprise. He first suggested it to Major Langdon. He was the leader of the boats' crews that seized the fort. He first waded ashore, from his own boat, about mid- night. " The rest of the company landed unperceived by any one, when Pickering, in advance of the main body, scaled the ramparts of the fort and seized the sentinel with his muscular arm, took his gun and threatened death if he made the least alarm. Signals of success were given to the company, which soon had charge of the sentinel, while Captain Pickering entered the quarters of Captain Cochran ; and before he was fairly awake, announced to him that the fort was captured and he was a prisoner." This narrative is based on traditions current among the descendants of Captain Pickering. It shows, if true, that Ma- jors Sullivan and Langdon were not the leaders, but associates, in one of the most daring achievements of the Revolution.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 151
CHAPTER XLI.
OFFICERS AND MINISTERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN 1768.
According to a Register of New Hampshire published for 1768, we find the following account of its civilians and clergy- men.
John Wentworth, Esq., Governor.
John Temple, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor.
Hon. Theodore Atkinson, Daniel Warner, M. H. Wentworth, James Nevin, Theodore Atkinson, jr., Nathaniel Barrell, Peter Livius, Jonathan Warner, Daniel Rindge, Diniel Pierce, and G. Jaffrey, Esquires, Councilors.
Hon. Theodore Jaffrey, Esq., Secretary.
Hon. George Jaffrey, Esq., Treasurer.
Hon. Peter Gilman, Esq., Speaker of the House.
The House consisted of thirty-one members, representing thirty-two towns. Portsmouth sent three representatives ; Do- ver, Hampton and E.xeter, two each.
Superior Court of Judicature : Justices — Hon. Theodore At- kinson, Chief Justice ; Thomas Wallingford, Meshech Weare and Leverett Hubbard, Esquires, Associates ; Wyseman Claggett, Esq., Attorney-General ; Mr. George King, Clerk ; Thomas Pecker, Sheriff.
Inferior Court of Common Pleas : Hon. Daniel Warner, John Wentworth, Clement March and Peter Livius, Esquires, Justices; Hunking Wentworth' Clerk.
John Wentworth, Esq., Judge of Probate ; William Parker, Esq., Register.
Daniel Pierce, Esq., Register of Deeds.
Mr. Eleazer Russell, Postmaster for Portsmouth.
Wyseman Claggett, Esq., Notary Public.
Hon. William Parker, Deputy Judge of Admiralty.
Mr. John Sherburne, Register.
Hon. James Nevin, Collector of Customs.
Robert Trail, Comptroller.
Leverett Hubbard, Surveyor and Searcher.
John Tucker, Naval Officer ; Eleazer Russell, Deputy.
Eight practising attorneys are mentioned. Si.\ty-eight minis- ters of the gospel are registered. Eight regiments of militia were then in existence. Eighty justices of the peace are enu- merated, including all the state officials above named. In 1800
7 52 HISTORY OK
the number was 472; in 1815 about one thousand had been commissioned. It deserves notice, that in 1768 the principal offices were confined to a few families ; and frequently one man served his state in several important capacities.
CHAPTER XLII.
ORIGIN OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. BY PROF. H. E. PARKER.
Dartmouth College grew out of the Christian enterprise and missionary spirit of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock. A pastor greatly beloved, a preacher of rare gifts, possessor of a hand- some competency by patrimony and marriage, his influence, tal- ents and means he devoted with ardor to Christian and philan- thropic ends. Settled over a Congregational society, at Leba- non, Conn., but not receiving a full support from the society, he thought it right to employ a portion of his time in other than parish labors ; and like Eliot and Brainerd, animated with a deep desire for the christianization and civilization of the Indians, he opened a school, about the year 1740, in his own house, for the education of Indian youth, receiving also English youth, whom he hoped would become missionaries among the Indians. His work soon attracted the attention of the philanthropic and be- nevolent. Mr. Joshua Moor, of Mansfield, who owned a house and two acres of land adjoining Mr. Wheelock's residence, pre- sented them to the latter for the occupancy of his school, to which, in commemoration of the donor, he gave the name of "Moor's Indian Charity School."*
Other benefactors, in the colonies (one of the largest of whom was Sir William Johnson) and in the mother country, gave con- tributions to further the objects of the school. A board of gen- tlemen of the highest character was formed in England to re- ceive the contributions made in Great Britain for the object, e.\-
* It is an interesting f.ict that the celebrated Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant (Thayendane- gea), was, with Samson Occiini, among the first of Dr. Wheelock's pupils. The correspon- dence between Dr. Wheelock and Sir William Johnson was quite active upon the subject of the school, and Joseph was himself employed as an agent to procure recruits for it. _Thus in a letter from Sir William to the Doctor', dated Nov. 17, 1761, he says — " I have given in charge to Joseph to speak in irvy name to any gqpd boys ( Indian) he may see, and encourage them to accept the generous offers now made to them, which he promised to do, and return as soon as possible, and that without horses." — Stone's Life 0/ Branty vol. 1st, page 21.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 53
cept those made in the northern part of the realm, for which the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge acted as almoners. At the head of the English board was the eminent and excellent William, Earl of Dartmouth, secretary for the colonies, himself a liberal donor, and using his influence to secure gifts from other quarters, the king himself cheerfully and generously responding. At about the same time, and significant of the esteem entertained towards him abroad, Mr. Wheelock received from the University of Edinburgh the title of Doctor of Divinity.
With that prudential wisdom always a characteristic of his movements. Dr. Wheelock secured increasing public confidence in his undertaking by inviting a few gentlemen of the highest standing in Connecticut to act as a Board of Trust, supervising his management of the school and its funds. In carrying out the objects he had in view, particularly in preparing missionaries for the Indians, the need was soon felt of a more extended course of education, and Dr. Wheelock, with the approval of the board of trust in Connecticut, and also of friends in Great Britain, engrafted a college course of instruction upon that already estab- lished in the school. This led to the contemplation of a change of locality, for Yale being already established it did not seem best to have another college within the bounds of the Connecti- cut colony. As soon as the proposed change became known several places sought for the institution. Liberal offers came from more than one town in Western Massachusetts. The city of Albany made generous offers. One liberal proposal was made for its transfer to the banks of the Mississippi. But none, on the whole, were so inviting as those from the province of New Hampshire, seconded by the excellent, large-hearted colonial governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth. After a care- ful inspection by Dr. Wheelock, in company with one or two of his trustees, of many different localities in the province, the town of Hanover, about midway in the valley of the Connecticut between the northern and southern boundaries of New Hamp- shire, was selected as the site for the new college, and the name of Dartmouth was given to it in honor of the pious and illustrious English earl who had been so serviceable a patron of the Indian school, the germ, of which the college was the flower. Through the services of Sir William Johnson and Governor Wentworth a royal charter was obtained for the college in 1769, from George the Third.
In the latter part of the summer of the following year the transfer of the institution was made. The long and tedious journey, as roads were then, of a couple of hundred miles, was made by a part of Dr. Wheelock's family in a coach which had
154 HISTORY OF
been presented to him ; but by the rest, with all the students, on foot ; the company, numbering some seventy in all, wending their way along the streams and through the forests, driving a few swine before them, the meat most easily raised in the new settlements. So they moved on — that novel spectacle of a col- lege turned emigrant-pioneer settler — up into the then northern wilderness, for Hanover had barely been entered by settlers ; not a half dozen years had elapsed since the first family had located within its limits, and the primeval forest had to be felled where Dr. Wheelock erected the first log structures.
One reason which had led to the selection of the new site was its nearer proximity to the Indian tribes Dr. Wheelock hoped to benefit. Neither previously nor subsequently, however, did the results of his efforts in behalf of tlie Indians realize his hopes, although it is difficult to conceive how those efforts could have been more wisely or energetically conducted. Apart from other causes, the French and Indian war proved very unpropitious in its influence in keeping pupils away from the school before its removal from Connecticut ; and afterwards the Revolutionary War, in which the Indians were again arrayed against the colo- nists, was similar in its effects. Still, with all that was untoward and disappointing. Dr. Wheelock's efforts for the Indians did accomplish much good ; nor is its amount to be measured alto- gether by the one hundred and fifty or more Indian youth who were under his instruction ; although such instances as the cele- brated Colonel Brant and the eloquent preacher Joseph Occum, both of whom, as mentioned on the preceding page, were among his Indian pupils, sufficiently attest the value of his educational efforts for the Indian. He originated a large amount of mis- sionary labor, reaching in its influence the Mohawks, Delawares, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Oneidas, Senecas, and others, besides the varied good which resulted in his awakening and giving form to benevolent interest and sympathy, both in this country and abroad, towards our Indian tribes.
Dr. Wheelock lived only nine years after the founding of the college, and was succeeded in the presidency by his son, who continued in office tliirty-six years.
There have been, including its present energetic head, seven presidents of the college, all with but a single exception clergy- men, and, as a body, conspicuous for their pulpit and administra- tive abilities ; alike eminent as preachers and divines, and suc- cessful as executive officers.
Near the close of the last century a Medical Department be- came connected with the college, which, from the first, has been distinguished by having among its lecturers some of the most honored names of the medical profession in our Northern States.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
^55
A Scientific Department has been in successful operation for twenty-one years. In accordance with an act of tlie legislature, in 1866, establishing "The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," and authorizing its location at Hanover, in connection with Dartmouth College, this new department has been organized and put in operation. Two magnificent edifices, especially for this department, have already been erected, and a valuable farm, contiguous to the college grounds, is also in the possession of the department and available for its purposes. Through the liberality of General Sylvanus Thayer the means have been furnished for establishing in the college an especial "School of Civil Engineering," designed mainlv as a supplemen- tary post-graduate course. The valuable Astronomical and Me- teorological Observatory was established mainly through the lib- erality of the late George C. Shattuck, LL.D., of Boston. The libraries of the institution contain about fifty thousand volumes. Fifty-seven permanent scholarships, besides other funds, are avail- able for the gratuitous assistance of students.
The college may be said to have been fortunate in the class of students frequenting its halls, since they have not been so much those soit to college as those who have sought college advantages. Hence, perhaps, is the explanation why its graduates have to so great an extent been efficient workers in after life. Says one long familiar with the operations and influence of the institution, though himself a graduate of Yale :
"The whole country is indebted to Dartmouth College, as may be seen from its Triennial Catalogue, and facts known to all. It has sent forth more than nine hundred able ministers of the gospel, who have done good service to the churches in all parts of the land, and many of our best foreign missionaries, like Goodell, Temple, Poor, Spaulding and Wright. It has furnished thir- teen governors of statjs, thirty-one judges of courts, and several of these chief-justices of states, and one chief-justice of the United States; four cab- inet otiicers, five diplomatic agents abroad, that have done honor to their country; more than fifty members of Congress, eighteen United States Sen- ators, eighty-nine college professors, and thirty-one presidents of colleges. It has filled seventeen theological chairs and thirteen medical chairs with its graduates, to say nothing of more than one thousand medical gentlemen of skill, and distinguished men in all the walks of life."
A hundred years have passed since the founding of the col- lege ; its friends may appeal to its history thus far as giving in- creasing illustration and emphasis to the words of Mr. Webster, in his celebrated plea for his Alma Mater before the supreme court of the United States :
"Dartmouth College was established under a charter granted by the prov- incial government ; but a better constitution, or one more adapted to the con- dition of things under the present government, in all material respects, could not now be found. Nothing in it was found to need alteration at the Revo- lution. The wise men of that day saw in it one of the best hopes of future times, and commended it, as it was, with parental care to the protection and guardianship of the government of the state."
IS6 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XLIII.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN COHOS.
All the northern portion of the state, which, in 1773, received the name of Grafton county, was originally called Cohos or Ca- wass. As late as 1760, there was no settlement by white men in the Connecticut valley above Charlestown, and only three towns were settled south of this point. Hinsdale was settled in 1683, Westmoreland in 1741 and Walpole in 1752. These towns, except Walpole, were settled by emigrants from Massachusetts ; for until 1741 the north line of that province was supposed to include these towns. Hinsdale (Fort Dummer) and Charles- town (Number- Four) were military posts maintained most of the time by the province of Massachusetts, to guard the frontiers against the Indians. In 1754, Captain Peter Powers of Hollis, N. H., was appointed by the government of that province to lead an exploring party into the Cohos region. They left Rum- ; ford (now Concord) on the fifteenth of June. 1754, and pene- ' trated through the wilderness as far north as Northumberland, then returned and encamped on what is now the " Common," at Haverhill Corner, on the sixth of July, 1754. During " the seven years' war," no further attempt was made to explore or settle the Cohos country. In 1761, when the colonies no longer feared the forays of the French and Indians, the spirit of emigration re- vived in the older towns, and some brave men and braver wo- men ventured into these unoccupied regions of the north. War had revealed to them the " Cohos Meadows." The " Little Ox Bow " on the east of the Connecticut, and the " Great Ox Bow " on the west side, were then " cleared interval." The Indians had cultivated them in their imperfect way, for the raising of corn. They still occupied these meadows, but were now friendly to the whites. They had formerly resisted the encroachments of the English upon these rich lands. The country abounded with game, bear, deer, moose and fowls. The streams yielded the best of fish, salmon and trout. The soil was fertile and easily tilled. While the Indians were strong and were backed by the French, they allowed no pale-f.aces to make even a tem- porary stand in this region. Major Rogers and his rangers had humbled them ; the last war had made them English subjects, and they with silence and sorrow permitted new comers to live among them. Haverhill and Newbury derived their names from
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 57
Colonel James Bailey of Newbury, Mass., and Captain John Hazen of Haverhill, Mass., who first planned the settlement of these towns. The work was begun in 1761. For the next ten years, settlements advanced into the interior and northern por- tions of the state quite rapidly.
Mr. Webster, in his autobiography, says : " Previous to the year 1763, the settlements of New Hampshire had little or no progress into the country for sixty or seventy }'ears, owing to the hostility of the French in Canada and the neighboring In- dians, who were under the influence of the French." Salisbury- was one of those towns granted by Benning Wentworth, and was at first called Stevenstown, from one of the proprietors. Set- tlements were made in it as early as 1750. It was incorporated in 1768. Among the early settlers was Ebenezer Webster, the father of Daniel and Ezekiel Webster. He, with his wife, " trav- eled out of the road or path, for it was no better, and they were obliged to make their way, not finding one, to their destined place of habitation." " My father," adds Mr. Webster, " lapped on a little beyond any other comer, and when he had built his log cabin and lighted his fire, his smoke ascended nearer to the North Star than that of any other of his majesty's New England subjects. His nearest civilized neighbor, on the north, was at Montreal."
Coos is an Indian name signifying "crooked," and is said to have been given originally to a bend in the Connecticut river and the territory on either side of it, including in New Hamp- shire the towns of Lancaster, Northumberland and Stratford ; and in Vermont, Lunenburg, Guildhall and Maidstone. Lan- caster was granted and incorporated in 1763, by Benning Went- worth. The proprietors were David Page and sixty-nine others. Besides these seventy shares, six others were reserved for the governor and for public uses. The settlers came into this un- broken wilderness in 1764. There was then no mill for the grinding of corn nearer than Charlestown, a distance of one hundred and ten miles. About thirty years after the first settle- ment, a Congregational church was formed and Rev. Joseph Willard installed as pastor. His salary was eighty pounds per annum.
All the towns founded in the wilderness, in our countr\', have a common history. The description of one is almost identically the description of all. The later settlements escaped the Indian wars, but in other respects the toils and triumphs, the joys and sorrows, the sufferings and successes, were nearly identical. Here is the picture of a new settlement drawn by a master's hand:
" Soon the ax gives its clear, metallic ring through these valleys. The
158 HISTORY OF
giant Anaks of the forest creak, groan, stagger and come thundering to the ground. Fires roar and rush through the dry fallow. In the dim night, flames gleam from either side across the creek. .Smoke obscures the sun, giving the day the mystic hue of Indian summer. The sprouting hay grows rank among the stumps. The reapers sing as they bind the tall and golden sheaves.
Rude but pleasant homes rise along these hill-sides. The buzz of the wheel, the stroke of the loom, tell of domestic industry, of the discreet and beautiful women, once so aptly described by a king's mother. Hearts are knit for life, while fingers are busy in knitting the woolen or flaxen fibre. Nuptials are celebrated in homespun. Little children look out the windows and run ^mong the trees. The town-meeting is called. The school-house goes up. The master is abroad. Mutual necessities and hardships among neighbors awaken mutual interest and hospitalities. Each has a helping hand to rear up a house for the new comer, to sow and harvest the fields of a sick brother. The funeral, as it files through the woods to the final rest- ing place, calls out a long and sympathetic procession. It does not cost the living the last pittance to bury their dead. Those scant in pocket can afford to die. Poor laws are superseded by the laws of kindness and reciprocity.
Gone is that Arcadian age I Gone " the men, famous for lifting up a.xes against the thick trees I"
The (brave) forefathe
From Charlestown to Haverhill, more than seventy miles, there was no road, only a bridle path, indicated by marked trees- This was often hedged up by fallen trees or made impassable by freshets. Mr. Mann, one of the first settlers of Orford, trav- eled over this path in 1765. " At Charlestown he purchased a bushel of oats for his horse and some bread and cheese for himself and wife and set forward, Mann on foot — wife, oats, bread and cheese and some clothing on horseback." Clare- mont then contained two families ; Cornish, one ; Plainfield, one ; Lebanon, three ; Hanover, one ; and Lyme, three. Think of the loneliness, the privation, the hardships of these first oc- cupants of the wilderness. No sounds broke the silence of the primitive forests but the howling of the winds, the crash of fall- ing trees or the growl of beasts of prey. A rude cabin was their only shelter ; game or fish, for a time, their principal food, and water from the spring their only beverage. The wife lived alone while the husband was abroad felling trees or securing food. Comfort was unknown. Consider, also, the royal con- descension that inserted in the charters of these new towns such provisions as these : " As soon as there shall be fifty families resident and settled, they shall have the liberty of holding two fairs annually ; also, a market may be opened and kept one or more days in each week as may be thought most advantageous to the inhabitants."
Two classes of persons, with very distinctly marked charac- ters, penetrated these northern wilds. The leaders were men of intelligence, energy- and property. They had two objects in view ;
NEW HAMPSHIRE. Ijg
to furnish permanent homes for themselves and their posterity and to acquire wealth by the rise of their lands. They in a few years had comfortable houses with good furniture for that day. They were men of strong religious principle and early made provision for the preaching of the gospel. They brought with them some domestic animals, such as cows, swine and sheep ; and were soon able to supply their tables with meat. There was another class, so poor as to need help to reach their new homes. They came on foot bearing all their property upon their shoulders. Such persons needed guides and overseers ; and had not men of more enterprise furnished them shelter, food and work, they must have perished. The fare of all classes, at first, was scanty. Their buildings were made of logs. When food became more plenty, they ate meat once in a day. Porridge of beans, pease or milk furnished their other meals. Bowls, dishes and plates were usually of wood. The more wealthy used pew- ter and tin.
In the summer of 1770 the Connecticut valley, from North-* field, Mass., to Lancaster, N. H., was visited by a species of army worm which devoured most of the standing crops and re- duced the people nearly to starvation. In their maturity, the worms were as long as a man's finger and as large in circumfer- ence. The body was brown, with a velvet stripe upon the back and a yellow stripe on each side. They marched from the north or northwest and passed to the east and south. They were the most loathsome and greedy invaders that ever polluted the earth. They covered the entire ground, so that not a finger's breadth was left between them. In their march, they crawled over houses and barns, covering every inch of the boards and shingles. Every stalk of corji and wheat was doomed by them. The in- habitants dug trenches ; but they soon filled them to the surface and the remaining army marched over their prostrate compan- ions. They continued their devastations more than a month ; then suddenly disappeared, no one knows how or where. Eleven years later a second visitation of the same worm was made, but they were then few in number. Potatoes and vines were not eaten by them. Pumpkins were abundant and were very use- ful in sustaining the lives of men and animals during the autumn. The atmosphere was also black with flocks of pigeons, which were caught in immense numbers, and their meat dried for winter use. The feathers were used for bedding. Before this time, only straw or the bare floor had formed the couches of the poorer classes.
In 1 77 1 a great freshet occurred in the Coos countiy. The rich meadows of Newbury and Haverhill were not only sub- merged by water, but, in some places, buried two or three feet
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in sand. Thus they lost their crops for that year, and the use of their fertile lands for several years to come. Cattle, sheep, swine and horses were swept away ; and, in some instances, fam- ilies were caught in the dwellings by the tide, and were saved with great difficulty by boats. Severe suffering followed this sudden flood, the greatest, perhaps, known on the Connecticut river.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE WENTWORTHS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Wentworth is a name of distinction in English history. "The ancient and honorable family of Wentworths," says Thoresby, in his history of Leeds, "which for six hundred years hath borne the honor of knighthood, was seated four years before that in the county of York. The ancient and chief seat of this princi- pal branch of this noble family hath been for many ages at Wentworth Woodhouse, in the wapentake of Strafford, whence they spread into other parts." Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford, who, next to Cromwell, was the greatest man of the English Revolution, belonged to this family. He was beheaded on the twelfth of May, 1641. The great ancestor of the Went- worths of New Hampshire was VViUiam Wentworth, who, ac- cording to " Burke's Peerage and Baronetage," emigrated from the county of York, the ancient home of the race, to Boston in 1628 (it should be 1638), and removed subsequently to New Hampshire in 1639. He became a preacher of the gospel, and is known in history as Elder Wentworth. He first preached at Exeter. He also lived and preached at Dover. When the Ind- ians attacked that town in i68g, Elder Wentworth, then over eighty years of age, was sleeping in Heard's garrison. He was awaked by the barking of a dog, just as the Indians were enter- ing. He sprang to the door, forced out the savages, and falling on his back placed his feet against the door, and thus prevented their entrance till his call for help alarmed the people who were near. The balls shot at tiie door passed through it and above his body, leaving the heroic veteran unharmed. " This bold act," says Judge Smith, "will embalm the name and memory of this brave old man and sincere Christian as long as our records
NEW HAMPSHIRE. l6l
shall endure ; and will give him a renown greater, far greater, and more widely spread, than the good fortune of having so many governors among his descendants. His was true glory. The good fortune may happen to any man." He died at Do- ver, at the age of ninety. John Wentworth, his second son, was lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire from 1717 to 1729. The character of Lieutenant-Governor John Wentwortth is thus drawn by Rev. John M. Whiton :
" From his father, Elder Wentworth, he received a christian education, which exerted much influence on his subsequent life. P'or a time he fol- lowed the seas and commanded a ship, in which he carefully maintained the morning and evening worship of God. As a merchant, his integrity, benev- olence and public spirit procured him general esteem. He was charitable to the poor, courteous and affable to all, and attentive to the institutions of re- ligion. For the most part of a period of thirteen years, some of them marked with the perplexities of an Indian war and a high degree of party excitement, he conducted the affairs of the province with singular wisdom and moderation ; and with the exception of a controversv between him and the Assemblv, near the close of his administration, to the satisfaction of the people. He possessed their confidence and affection while living, and car- ried with him their respect when he descended to the grave."
His family consisted of si.xteen children. One of his sons, Benning Wentworth, was governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. For twenty-five years, in stormy times and during two bloody wars, he sat at the helm of state, and perhaps adminis- tered her affairs as well as most men could or would have done in the same circumstances. He succeeded in pleasing neither king nor people. He was virtually superseded, though time was courteously given him for resignation. He was succeeded by his nephew John Wentworth, who had appeared at court to present the petition of the province against the stamp act. He thus became acquainted with men in power, and by his courtly manners won their ftivor. His intercession prevented the cen- sure and removal of his uncle and secured for him the oppor- tunity of retiring with credit. Mohn Wentworth was commis- sioned as Governor of New Hampshire and " Surveyor of the King's Woods in North America." The king had a great fond- ness for timber. His father, Mark Hunking Wentworth, was a merchant who amassed a large fortune by foreign trade. He was also a member of the council and one of the Masonian proprietors who purchased Mason's claim to the unoccupied lands of New Hampshire^ His son John was the last, and perhaps the most illustrious, of the royal governors. He was a graduate of Harvard, and was distinguished for his love of learning. After his flight from the country, his estate was con- fiscated except what was required to pay his debts. His father, fearing that the estate would prove insolvent, with great gen- erosity relinquished his claims to his son's property, that other
l62 HISTORY OF
creditors might not be losers by him. He was the largest cred- itor of all.
John Wentworth had been trained to mercantile pursuits in early life. The distinguished family to which he belonged were devoted to merchandise. This was the most direct road to wealth and power. The people of Portsmouth received and handled all the exports and imports of the province, hence many of them became rich. It was the scat of the legislature and of the courts, till in 1770 the province was divided into five counties by the legislature. Several sessions passed before the points of difficulty respecting boundaries and privileges could be adjusted. In 1771, the king gave his approbation of the division, and separate courts were established in Rocking- ham, Hillsborough and Cheshire. The counties of Strafford and Grafton, being sparsely settled, were attached in the judi- cial circuit to Rockingham, till the governor and council should deem them competent to exercise separate jurisdictions. This was so ordered in 1773. The counties, except Cheshire, were named by the governor in honor of English noblemen who were his personal friends.
In 177 1, paper currency, which had been from its origin a perpetual nuisance, was abolished and silver and gold became the legal tender in all business transactions. The predecessor of John Wentworth, the Hon. Benning Wentworth, had amassed a large fortune ; a portion of it by questionable means. He virtually sold grants of townships to scheming proprietors ; and reserved in each five hundred acres to himself. After his death the title to much of his estate began to be disputed. The gov- ernor himself proposed in council the question, " Whether the reservation of five hundred acres in several townships, by the late governor, Benning Wentworth, in the charter grants, con- veyed the title to him ? " Seven of the eight councilors an- swered the question in the negative, and the reserved lands were offered to private settlers.
The dissenting councilor, Peter Livius, being dissatisfied be- cause, in the reappointment of justices of the common pleas for the new counties he had been omitted by the governor, resolved to procure his removal. He proceeded to England, with six specific charges of maladministration, and presented them to the lords of trade. A long and tedious examination followed, records and witnesses were examined, and the governor was, af- ter an appeal, triumphantly acquitted on every charge. But the case was carried from the lords of trade, who were inclined to report the charges verified, to a committee of the privy council, and before this high tribunal the governor was justified. That the decision was righteous appears from the general approbation
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 163
of it by the people and the Icjis'^-turc at home. Till this period the governor's fame had suffered no eclipse. This was in 1773. He had uniformly endeavored to promote the public welfare by encouraging commerce, constructing highv/ays, establishing courts and fostering learning. He signed the charter of Dartmouth College, contributed liberally to its funds, attended its first com- mencement, and took a deep interest in its welfare.
It is to be regretted that a man so noble in character, so gen- erous in action, so pacific in temper, should have fallen on evil times ; but he did not appreciate the character of the people he ruled. He hoped for reconciliation and labored to promote it ; but he could no more resist the on-rush of the revolution, than the Danish Canute could stay the tide of old ocean.
Doctor Dwight in his travels, says of him : " Governor Went- worth was the greatest benefactor of the Province of New Hampshire, mentioned in its history. He was a man of sound imderstanding, refined taste, enlarged views and a dignified spirit. His manners, also, were elegant and his disposition en- terprising. Agriculture, in this province, owed more to him than to any other man. He originated the formation of new roads and the improvement of old ones. All these circum- stances rendered him very popular, and he would probably have continued to increase his reputation, had he not been pre- vented by the controversy between Great Britain and her colo- nies. As the case was he retired from the chair with an unim- peachable character, and with higher reputation than any other man who, at that time, held the same office in the country."
John Wentworth performed his last official act on the Isles of Shoals, in September, 1775. He had previously retired to the fort and put himself^ under the protection of the Scarborough, a British ship of war, where he remained till the fort was dis- mantled. He then went to Boston. From that city he came as near to Portsmouth as he could with safety, to adjourn the re- bellious assembl}'. His house had been pillaged after he re- tired to the fort. Wentworth was the last, and probably the best, of the royal governors. He aimed to be loyal to the king and true to the people. But the two things were incompatible. He possessed business tact, executive energy, a pacific temper, and a cultivated taste. In ordinar}' times he would have made a popular and successful governor ; but, at the perilous crisis of his administration, no man could serve two masters. If he was true to the king, he was false to the people. Still, during a considerable portion of his official life, he was highly acceptable to his fellow-citizens. He went to England soon after leaving the province, and was there created a baronet and appointed lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.
1G4 HISTORY OF
John Wentworth of Somersworth, a contemporary of the gov- ernor, was in public Hfe more than thirty years. He was dis- tinguished as an officer in the militia, a legislator and a judge. John Wentworth, jr., his son, was also one of the staunchest whigs of the Revolution. No man of that troublous period has a purer and nobler official record. He died in 1787, aged 42.
After the flight of Governor Wentworth, the people of New Hampshire were without a responsible government. They ac- cordingly proceeded, in January, 1776, to form a constitution to remain in force during " the unhappy and unnatural contest with Great Britain." In the following June, on the fifteenth day of that month, they made and published the following Declaration of Independence :
" Whereas it now appears an undoubted fact, that notwith- standing all the dutiful petitions and decent remonstrances from the American colonies, and the utmost exertions of their best friends in England on their behalf, the British Ministry, arbi- trary and vindictive, are yet determined to reduce by fire and sword our bleeding country to their absolute obedience ; and for this purpose, in addition to their own forces, have engaged great numbers of foreign mercenaries, who may now be on their passage here accompanied by a formidable fleet to ravish and plunder the sea-coast ; from all which we may reasonably ex- pect the most dismal scenes of distress the ensuing year, unless we exert ourselves by every means and precaution possible ; and whereas we of this colony of New Hampshire have the example of several of the most respectable of our sister colonies before us for entering upon that most important step of disunion from Great Britain, and declaring ourselves FREE and INDEPEND- ENT of the crown thereof, being impelled thereto by the most violent and injurious treatment ; and it appearing absolutely necessary in this most critical juncture of our public affairs, that the honorable the Continental Congress, who have this im- portant object under immediate consideration, should be also in- fo-'med of our resolutions thereon without loss of time. We do hereby declare that it is the opinion of this assembly that our delegates at the continental congress should be instructed, and they are hereby instructed, to join with the other colonies in de- claring the thirteen united colonies a free and independent state — solemnly pledging our faith and honor, that we will on our parts support the measure with our lives and fortunes, and that in consequence thereof, they, the continental congress, on whose wisdom, fidelity and integrity we rely, may enter into and form such alliances as they may judge most conducive to the present safety and future advantage of these American colo- nies : Provided, the regulation of our internal police be under the direction of our own Assembly."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 165
CHAPTER XLV.
COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES WITH ENGLAND.
The colonial legislatures claimed entire and exclusive author- ity in all matters relating to their own domestic and internal affairs. They denied the right of any power on earth to tax them but themselves. The British government maintained that the King of England, with advice of parliament, " had, hath and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." On this principle, mother and daughter separated. The mother made concessions, adopted measures of conciliation, and re- duced the duties to a mere nominal sum ; still, so long as the principle was asserted, the rebellious daughter remained obsti- nate. Had the tax levied been but one penny per annum for each colony, the resistance would have been equally determined. Indeed, there can scarcely be a doubt that seven years of pa- tience, instead of seven years of fighting, with the ablest states- men and orators of England as friends of America, might have secured to the colonies absolute equality of political rights. Had the patriots of that age so waited and so acted, we their descend- ants might to-day have been the subjects of a hereditary mon- arch. Our counties might have been the property of counts, and our independent yeomen who own their farms and till them, who choose their p/istors and support them, who make their laws and obey them, might have been the dependents of some "born gentleman," like the Duke of Sutherland, who with great condescension visits his peasants twice a year and gives them advice, builds roads and allows them to walk in them, founds churches and sends them rectors, provides cottages and requires of the tenants a rent which abridges the commonest comforts of life. The colonies were determined to be free. They deemed all concessions a snare, and experience has proved that they judged wisely. The English government, finding that the colo- nies would not submit, resolved to subdue them.
In April, 1775, there were three thousand royal troops in Boston, under General Gage. The business of that city had been ruined by adverse legislation. Traders had no business, citizens no bread. " An exceeding great and bitter cry " went up through the land. The adjacent towns not only sent food to Boston, but collected stores for the coming war. A magazine
1 66 HISTORY OF
of provisions and ammunition had been established at Concord, Mass. General Gage, on ihe nineteenth of April, sent troops to destroy it. A company of provincial militia had assembled at Lexington to resist the British troops. Major Pitcairn, on seeing them, rode forward in front of his columns and cried, " Disperse, ye rebels ! lay down your arms and retire." As the men whom he called rebels did not obey, he gave orders to fire, and seven Americans fell and nine were wounded. The rest re- tired pursued by the British. This was the first bloody act of that great drama which was destined to free a continent. The British regulars succeeded in destroying or removing most of the stores, but they paid dearly for this trilling result. They lost, before their return, two hundred and seventy-three men, killed, wounded and missing, while the provincials lost only eighty-eight 1 The last tie to the mother country wars broken. Reconciliation was now impossible. The news of the first bloodshed was borne on the v/ings of the wind to every hamlet, to every dweller within the limits of the thirteen colonies. Men sprang to arms as though moved by a single impulse. They made solemn pledges with one another to do or die, " to be ready for the extreme event." Almost with one voice, they echoed the burning words of Henry : " Give me libert)', or give me death I"
The people of New Hampshire were so inured to war, that they never could be wholly unprepared for it. An old law re- quired every male inhabitant, from si.\teen to sixty years of age, to own a musket, bayonet, knapsack, cartridge-box, one pound of powder, twenty bullets and twelve flints. Every town was re- quired to keep, in readiness for use, one barrel of powder, two hundred pounds of lead and three hundred flints, besides spare arms and ammunition for those who were too poor to own them. Even exempts, as old as the discharged Roman veterans, were obliged to retain their arms. The militia was regarded as the right arm of the public defence. It was organized into com- panies and regiments and subjected to frequent drills under their officers. In most of the townships laid out by proprietors or royal governors, a " training ground " was as commonly reserved as a parsonage. Like the Jews of old in restoring and guarding their broken walls, they " made their prayer " and " set their watch." Volunteer companies also enlisted for the defence of the country. After the first blood was shed, every means that could convey the intelligence to the eye or ear was used to spread the alarm. Beacons were lighted, drums beaten, guns fired, and Ibels rung to warn the people of their danger.
" Then there was hun-ying to and frc ; in hot haste "
men made ready their armor, women prepared their clothes and buckled on their harness.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 167
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774. All the colonies were represented. Fifty-five members attended, each colony having sent as many as it pleased. In this congress there was no distinction be- tween*the large and small colonies ; each had one vote, because, as General Sullivan said, " a little colony has its all at stake as well as a great one." This congress published a " bill of rights," which was equivalent to bringing against Great Britain a bill of wrongs. A great gulf was thus fixed between the two coun- tries. The second congress assembled in the same city, on the tenth of May, 1775, after the first blood had been shed at Lex- ington, and continued in session until the close of the Revolu- tionary war and the adoption of a definite form of government. By this congress, Washington was chosen generalissimo of the American troops, on the fifteenth of June, 1775, and the Dec- laration of Independence passed July fourth, 1776; and they assumed the name and title of "The United States of America." The same congress appointed three major-generals, Artemas \\'ard, Charles Lee, and Philip Schuyler ; one adjutant-general, Horatio Gates ; and eight brigadier-generals, of whom John Sul- livan of New Hampshire was one. The people of the New England states did not wait to be summoned to the defence of their country. When they heard of her peril, they snatched their firelocks from the smoke-stained walls, and hastened to " the camp of liberty."
The veteran Stark, after the French and Indian war, settled in Starktown, afterwards called Dunbarton, and there culti- vated his farm and cared for his mills. The news of the battle of Lexington reached him in his saw-mill. He immediately went to his house, changed his dress, mounted his horse and hastened to the theatre of war. On the road, he called his patriotic countrymen to arms. He was known to many of them, and his name was a tower of strength. Medford was named as a place of rendezvous. There in the hall of a tavern, afterwards called " New Hampshire Hall," he was chosen, by hand vote, colonel of the assembled militia. A regiment containing thirteen com- panies was soon formed and reduced to tolerable discipline by their commander. On the twenty-third of April, only four days
1 68 HISTORY OF
after the battle of Lexington, two thousand men, from almost evei^ t(iwn in New Hampshire, had reported themselves at head- quarters for duty, and were desirous "not to return till the work was done." Some of these, however, returned ; others were formed into two regiments under the authority of Massachusetts. In May, on the meeting of the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, they voted to raise two thousand men to be formed into three regiments. The commanders of these were John .Stark, James Reed and Enoch Poor. These were the first col- onial regiments, out of Massachusetts, that were placed under the command of General Ward, v.'ho had been recently ap- pointed commander-in-chief of the forces of that colony. Gen- eral Putnam held a subordinate command.
Colonel Prescott, who, like Marshal Ney, deserves to be styled "the bravest of the brave," was detailed with one thousand men to throw up a breastwork of earth on Breed's Hill, on the night of the si-xteenth of June. Bunker Hill had been proposed by the committee of safety, but Prescott " received orders to march to Breed's Hill." On the morning of the seventeenth of June, Stark's regiment, then at Medford, and Reed's, near Charlestown neck, were ordered by Ward to march to Colonel Prescott's aid. In marching over Charlestown neck, where the soldiers were exposed to the constant' fire of an English man-of- war and two floating batteries. Captain Henry Dearborn, walk- ing by the side of Stark, suggested the propriety of a more rapid march to escape the balls of the enemy. Stark replied : " C3ne fresh man in action is worth ten tired ones, " and continued to move with the same measured step, through the shower of iron hail that was constantly falling around them. Ne.xt to Prescott, Stark brought the largest number of men into the field. The position of the New Hampshire troops was at a rail fence, about forty yards in the rear of the redoubt, toward the Mystic river. Newly mown hay, that lay upon the ground, was stuffed between the rails to form a very imperfect breastwork. A regiment of Welsh fusileers was opposed to Stark's troops. They marched up the hill with se\'en hundred men. The next day only eighty- three appeared on parade. The destructive fire of Stark's men had nearly annihilated a regiment that had gained renown at the battle of Minden. When the redoubt was abandoned by Col- onel Prescott, because his men had neither bayonets nor ammu- nition with which to contniue its defence. Stark drew off his forces in good order, without pursuit by the enemy. " On the ground where the mowers had swung their scythes in peace the day before, the dead," relates Stark, " lay as thick as sheep in a fold." The New Hampshire troops during the action twice drove back the foe in their front, and held them in check while
NEW HAMPSHIRE. l6g
the little band were retreating from the breastwork, before they left the exposed position they had so " nobly defended." Of the Americans in that memorable battle, one hundred and forty- five were killed and missing, and three hundred and four wound- ed, from about fifteen hundred in all. Stark's regiment lost fif- teen killed and missing , and si.xty were wounded. Of Reed's regiment, three were killed, one missing, and twenty-nine wound- ed. General Gage reported the killed and wounded of his own army at one thousand and fifty-four. The number engaged was double that of the Americans.
Dr. Warren, the Hampden of the American Revolution, though holding a high commission in the Massachusetts army, fought as a volunteer ; and, after passing through the blood and smoke of the fight at the redoubt, was killed during the retreat by a British officer, who borrowed the gun of a private to do this deed of blood. Major Andrew McClary, one of the bravest of New Hampshire's sons, fell by a chance shot of a cannon, as the re- tiring army was marching over Charlestown neck.
"The battle of Quebec," says Mr. Bancroft, "which won half a continent, did not cost the lives of so many officers as the battte-Tjf-fiunker Hill which gained nothing but a place of en- campment." If there be trutli in history, the moral effect of that day is due quite as much to the bravery of the New Hamp- shire troops as to that of the " Spartan band" from Massachu- setts, under the command of Colonel Prescott, of whom it is said, " his bravery could never be enough acknowledged or ap- plauded." This battle taught the British to respect American character and to fear American valor. " A yankee rabble " had become "an invincible army."
CHAPTER XLVn.
THE FORMATION OF A NEW GOVERNMENT.
After the flight of John VVentworth and the dissolution of the royal government. New Hampshire for a time was without any regularly constituted rulers. The convention that met at Exeter in May, 1775, was the spontaneous creation of the towns, acting upon their own authority. This convention, in which one hun- dred and two towns were represented by one hundred and thirty- three members, established post-offices and appointed commit-
170 HISTORY OF
tees of supplies and of safety. The general direction given to these committees was like that given to the Roman consuls in times of peril : " That they should take care that the republic received no detriment." In fact, these extemporized officers were supreme in power as they were supposed to be unerring in wisdom. Their instructions, however, were renewed from time to lime till the six months for which the assembly was elected expired. The provincial records were seized by authority of this assembly. Three different issues of bills were made during this year, amounting in all to forty thousand pounds. These bills, signed by the treasurer were for a time received at their full value. I3esides the three regiments at Cambridge, a company of artillery was raised to man the forts, and a company of ran- gers who were stationed on the Connecticut river. Two other companies were held in readiness to march whenever they should be needed. The whole militia constituted twelve regiments. The field officers were appointed by the convention ; the inferior officers were chosen by the companies. Four regiments were denominated "minute men," because they were required to go at a minute's warning to the field of danger. During the follow- ing winter, sixteen companies of New Hampshire militia, of sixty-one men each, supplied at headquarters the place of the Connecticut forces whose time had expired. They served till Boston was evacuated.
When the time came for the convention to be dissolved by limitation, they asked direction of the continental congress then in session, with respect to their duty. They were advised to call a new convention for the purpose of establishing a permanent government for the province. They finally ordered every town of one hundred families to send one representative, and one additional representative for every additional hundred families. They also decreed that each elector should possess real estate valued at twenty pounds, and each candidate for election one of three hundred pounds. A census had been previously order- ed which showed the entire population of the province to be eighty-two thousand two hundred souls, and the number of rep- resentatives eighty-nine. The representatives were to be paid by their respective towns and to continue in office one year. They met at Exeter on the twenty-first of December, 1775, and assumed the name of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire. The men who composed this body were not states- men nor lawyers, only citizens of " large round-about common sense." They of course made some mistakes in framing or- ganic laws for a sovereign state. They selected a council of twelve to constitute an upper house. These elected their own president. No act could be valid till it had passed both houses,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 17I
and all money bills must originate with the house of represen- tatives. They omitted to establish an executive branch of the new government. Hence the two houses while in session were obliged to provide for this service, and during adjournments to delegate it to committees of safety numbering from six to six- teen. Meshech VVeare, " an old, tried and faithful public ser- vant," was chosen president of the council, also president of the executive committee of safety, and in 1776 was appointed chief justice of the supreme court. All these offices he held during the war.
Such an accumulation of high and responsible trusts has rarely rested upon one man by a popular election. The highest confidence was reposed in his integrity and patriotism. The hatred of royalty was so intense that every trace of it was swept away. The sign-boards that bore the royal face were torn down ; pictures and coats-of-arms in private houses were re- moved or reversed ; the names of streets that bore the words " king " or " queen " were changed, and even the half-pence that bore the image of George III. were refused in payment of dues.
This assembly established, anew, the courts, made paper money a legal tender, passed a law against counterfeiters, and changed the name of the '" colony " or " province " to that of "the State of New Hampshire." They also built a ship of war for the infant navy of the country at Portsmouth. It was com- pleted in sixty days after the keel was laid, bore thirty-two guns and was called the " Raleigh."
I quote the fqllowing facts from the pen of Hon. G. W. Nesmith :
"The Convention of 177S made the office of councilor elective by the people ; Rockingham county choosing five of the number, Strafford two, Hillsborough two, Cheshire two, and Grafton one.
There was another convention called to revise the state constitution, in 1781. It had nine sessions, continuing its own existence for the term of two years. Its president was George Atkinson. General Sullivan was its secre- tary. We have the address of this convention before us, issued in May, 1783, from which it appears that the convention had twice recommended, among other things, to give the executive arm of the government more power and efficiency, by creating the office of governor.
This amendment was twice submitted to the people, and as often rejected by them. The convention, however, recommended that the president should be elected by the people. This amendment was adopted, and for the first time, in 17S4, Meshech Weare was elected by the people to the office of president of the State ; but on account of bad health he resigned this office before the expiration of the political year. John Langdon, General Sullivan and Josiah Bartlett severally afterwards were elected president, until March, 1793, when our present constitution went into force, and Josiah Bartlett was chosen goz'ernor."
172 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XLVIII.
MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY UNDER WASHINGTON, DURING THE YEAR 1776.
The year in which the independence of the colonies was de- clared was a period of great calamities. The United States began their political existence without resources to sustain it ; without men, food, clothes or tents for their armies, or money for their wages. Boston was evacuated on the seventeenth of March, 1746, and the British army, consisting of about seven thousand men, accompanied by some fifteen hundred families of loyalists, sailed immediately for Halifax. On the nineteenth of the same month, Washington sent five regiments, under General Heath, to New York ; and having fortified Boston, soon fol- lowed his advance guard and made New York his headquarters.
In March, 1776, the two houses of the legislature of New Hampshire, sitting at Exeter, published their new " Flan of Gov- a-nment,''' and appointed all necessary officers, judicial, military and civil, for the administration of state affairs. They also as- signed good and sufficient reasons for this step ; but at the same time made this declaration respecting a possible restoration of harmony: "We shall rejoice if such a reconciliation between us and our parent state can be effected as shall be approved by the continental congress." The Declaration of Independence, brought by express to Exeter in the following July, was re- ceived with unljounded joy. It was read to the assembled citi- zens of that town by the patriot, John Taylor Gilman, and pub- lished in other towns, with bonfires, bells, drums and other demonstrations of exultation. The New Hampshire delegates who signed that declaration, the most important ever published in human history, not even excepting Magna Charta, were Jo- siah Bartlett, William Whipple and Matthew Thornton. The writing of their names on that paper made them immortal.
The legislature continued in service the three regiments of the preceding year with their commanders. These followed General Washington to New York. They also raised a fourth regiment in the western part of the state, which was destined for service in Canada. It was commanded by Colonel Bedel. The other three regiments, soon after their arrival in New York, were placed under the command of General .Sullivan, who was sent to reinforce the American troops that were retreating from
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 73
Quebec before a superior force. That invasion had proved dis- astrous. One detachment of New Hampshire troops had been previously captured by a body of Englisli and Indians, at a place called ^^ The Cedars" forty miles above Montreal. Colonel Bedel of New Hampshire was stationed with about four hundred men and two cannon at the narrow pass of the cedars. This pass was about forty-five miles above Montreal, and General Thomas, at Sorel, was about as far below. Bedel left his post at the ap- proach of the enemy, under pretence of securing a reinforce- ment. The post was left in the care of Major Butterfield who, from cowardice, as some affirm, surrendered without a blow.
From the Memoir of General John Stark the following facts are taken. After the evacuation of Boston, Colonel Stark was ordered, with two regiments, to proceed to New York, where he remained till May, when his regiment with five others were or- dered to march by way of Albany to Canada. At the mouth of the Sorel he met the retreating army commanded by General Thomas. This officer died of the small-po.x and the command devolved on General Arnold, who employed himself in plunder- ing the merchants of Montreal for his private emolument. He was soon superseded by General Sullivan, who planned an expe- dition against Trois Riyieres, which proved a failure, as Colonel Stark had predicted. Va retreat became necessary. It was con- ducted with great skifT and prudence by General Sullivan, and the army, weary and worn, thinned by the small-pox and the bul- lets of the enemy, reached St. Johns without loss of men or property. Here everything was burnt, and the army proceeded in boats to Isle aux Noix. Colonel Stark was the last to leave the shore, as the advanced guard of the enemy approached the smoking ruins. On the eighteenth of June, 1776, the army en- camped upon the I>sle aux Noix ; and, before the enemy could procure boats to pursue them, they had again embarked and safely landed at Crown Point. The New Hampshire troops un- der General Sullivan were, on the first of July, stationed at Ti- conderoga and Mount Independence. General Gates became their superior officer. About one third of them had died of small-po.x and putrid fever. Jin war, disease often destroys more men than the weapons of the foe. When the danger of an at- tack on Ticonderoga, for that season, was passed, these troops marched south and joined the retreating army of Washington.
On the twenty-seventh of August, 1776, occurred the disas- trous battle on Long Island, in which five hundred Americans were killed and wounded, and eleven hundred made prisoners A portion of the New Hampshire troops were in this engage- ment, under General Sullivan, who was himself captured by the enemy. Washington found it necessary to abandon New York
174 HISTORY OF
and all the strongholds in the vicinity. He retreated with the mere skeleton of an army, less than three thousand men, giving up successively to the pursuing foe Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton, till af^er three weeks of intense suffer- ing, on the seventh of December, he reached the Delaware. The ne.xt day, the remnant of the American army, pinched with cold and hunger, crossed that river in boats and sat down in despair on the soil of Pennsylvania. After a few days of rest, Washington resolved to recross the Delaware and attack the Hessians at Trenton, while they were keeping Christmas and given up to feasting and drunkenness. The plan succeeded, and the most important victory of the war was achieved. It gave new life to the exhausted soldiers and the despairing country. Gen- eral Sullivan and Colonel Stark, with the New Hampshire troops, contributed largely to this happy result. The term for which the New Hampshire men enlisted had expired ; and through the influence of Stark they enlisted for another period of six weeks, that they might once more meet the British veterans in the field. Colonel Stark led Sullivan's advance guard ; and we can hardly doubt that the brave conduct of his men, on that memorable day, secured the victory. The same troops were also engaged in the battle of Princeton. These were the " times that tried men's souls." Stark's men served during the six weeks of their new enlistment ; and two regiments of militia which had been sent by New Hampshire to reinforce the army of Washington remained till the following March.
CHAPTER XLIX.
SECESSION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE DURING THE LAST CENTURY.
Vermont adopted an independent government in 1777. Prior to 1749 no towns had been chartered in her territory by either of the states claiming jurisdiction over it. Benning Wentworth was then governor of New Hampshire and had been authorized, by a royal commission, to make grants of townships in Vermont. He first chartered Bennington, which he named for himself. He then wrote to the governor of New York to ascertain if his grants would interfere with any previous titles granted by that state. In April, 1750, Governor George Clinton wrote as follows : " This province [New York] is bounded eastward by Connecticut
NEW HAMPSHIRE. I75
river; the letters patent from King Charles II. and the Duke of York expressly granting " all lands from the west side of the Con- necticut river to the east side of Delaware bay." Other letters passed between the two governors ; but Wentworth refused to listen to arguments adverse to the claims of New Hampshire and proceeded to grant other towns in the disputed territory,^ to the number of one hundred and thirtj'-eight. Fourteen thou- sand acres had been assigned to the king's officers in reward for faithful services. In 1764, in consequence of an appeal made to the king by the two provinces, his majesty decided in favor of New York. For a time the government of New Hampshire ceased in Vermont. New York would consent to no compro- mise. She regarded all grants made by Governor- Wentworth as null and void. She enacted laws hostile to the claims of the set- tlers, who were at once roused to opposition. Hence arose a controversy which resulted in the independence of Vermont. As early as 1776 a convention of delegates from the New Hamp- shire Grants, having met at Dorset, showed by their votes their determination to be a separate state. In 1777 a constitution was formed, and the delegates assembled at Windsor and, for the first time, enacted laws for their government. They assumed the name of the " State of Vermont." Sixteen towns on the east side of the Connecticut river petitioned to be admitted to the new state. They alleged that the original grant to John Mason did not include their territory, and, inasmuch as their ex- istence depended on a royal commission which was now annulled by the Revolution, they were free to choose their own rulers. Thfcir petition was referred to the freemen of Vermont (who met at Bennington, June 11, 1778). They decided (thirty-seven towns, out of forty-nine represented, voting for the resolution) that these si.xteen towns and any others that might choose to unite with them should have leave to do so.
These towns were Cornish, Lebanon, Dresden (a name then given to a district belonging to Dartmouth College), Lyme, Or- ford, Piermont, Haverhill, Bath, Lyman, Apthorp (now divided between Littleton and Dalton), Enfield, Canaan, Cardigan (now Orange), Gunthwaite (now Lisbon), Morristown (now Franconia), and Landaff. Opposition to this union soon arose in the towns and in the state of New Hampshire. Meschech Weare, then president of the province, remonstrated with the officers of the new state of Vermont, against this dismemberment of New Hampshire. Only ten of the towns sent representatives to the next session of the Vermont legislature.
The terms of admission of these New Hampshire towns also led to a controversy in the legislature of Vermont, and a minor- ity withdrew from that body, after protesting against the action
176 HISTORY OF
of the majority in refusing to receive tlie sixteen towns on equal terms witli themselves.
The dissenting members called a convention of all the towns in New Hampshire and Vermont who favored the union, to meet at Cornisli, N. H., in December, 1778. The records of this con- vention have not been preserved. They made four propositions by which the controversy might be settled : i, by committees from the towns of the two states ; 2, by arbitrators selected from other states ; 3, by reference of the whole matter to congress for their adjudication ; 4, by the formation of a new state from the towns on both sides of the river. The legislature of Vermont, in February, 1779, took measures to dissolve this troublesome union, and sent a committee to the legislature of New Hamp- shire in session at Exeter, in April, 1779, to inform them of this result A committee from the Cornish convention had preceded Mr. Allen, the representative of Vermont.
The legislature of New Hampshire was not disposed to yield one iota of its jurisdiction on either side of the river ; but re- solved to acquiesce in the decision of congress respecting the independency of the towns on the west side of the Connecticut. Vermont was now troubled on every side. New Hampshire claimed her entire territory ; New York also claimed it ; Massa- chusetts claimed a portion of it, and congress was adverse to her independence. Congress, however, sent a committee to inquire into the condition of the New Hampshire Grants. They went, returned and reported ; but no record is made of their report. Finally the contest became alarming ; the peace of the country was endangered by these adverse claims. Congress again con- sidered the subject and advised the various parties to submit all their disputes to the decision of congress. They did not seem to suppose that the freemen who tilled the soil of Vermont and bore the burdens of its defence had any rights which they were bound to regard. The resolutions related chiefly to those states that claimed the territory. Meantime the settlers were advised to be quiet. But they had declared their independence and were determined to maintain it. In December, 1779, Governor Chit- tenden and council sent a spirited memorial to congress, vindi- cating their claims to a separate political existence and profes- sing their purpose to defend them. They also declared their willingness to bear their full share of the burdens of the national war against Great Britian. Congress several times attempted to hear and decide the question in dispute, but never acknowl- edged the existence of Vermont as a state, nor allowed her del- egates to be heard by them, except as private citizens. After about one year's consideration of the matter they finally post poned it. But the people whose interests were involved, in New
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 177
Hampshire and Vermont, refused to allow the matter thus to rest. The settlers in the southeastern part of Vermont prefer- red the jurisdiction of New York. As congress had left their case undecided, they moved to form a new state out of the towns on both sides of the Connecticut. As no unity of views existed in the disaffected towns, a convention of delegates from both sides of the river was called to meet at Walpole, November 15, 1780, to compare opinions.
Committees from both sides of the river conferred together, and reported th::t a union of all the towns granted by New Hampshire was desirable and necessary, and they recommended the calling of a convention, in which every town interested should be represented, to meet at Charlestown, N. H., on the third Tues- day of January, 1781. Three parties were now in the field : Ver- mont, her recreant sons who preferred some other jurisdic- tion to that of the state, and the citizens of New Hampshire living in the towns upon the river. They were all intensely ex- cited, and eager for victory. The delegates from the disturbed towns met at Charlestown according to notice. Forty-three towns were represented from the two states. No journal of the convention exists. The result of their deliberations was favora- ble to the government of Vermont. Twelve delegates from New Hampshire protested and withdrew. A committee was appointed to confer with the legislature of Vermont which was to meet at Windsor during the next month, and the convention adjourned to meet at Cornish while the legislature of Vermont should be in session.
A petition came to the legislature of Vermont, at the same session, from the settlers west of the Green Mountains, desiring union with Vermon^ and protection from that state. Both peti- tions received a favorable response. They voted to receive all towns east of the Connecticut to the distance of about twenty miles, if two thirds of said towns approved the union. The leg- islature then adjourned till the following April. At their ad- journed meeting the following towns in New Hampshire sent in their allegiance, to wit : Hinsdale, Walpole, Surry, Gilsum, Al- stead, Charlestown, Acworth, Lempster, Saville, Claremont, New- port, Cornish, Croydon, Plainfield, Grantham, Marlow, Lebanon, Grafton, Dresden, Hanover, Cardigan, Lyme, Dorchester, Ha- verhill, Landaff, Gunthwaite, Lancaster, Piermont, Richmond, Chesterfield, Westmoreland, Bath, Lyman, Morristown and Lincoln.
Thirty-six towns in Vermont approved of the union, eight voted against it, and six made no returns. Thus the union was con- summated. Twenty-eight towns in New Hampshire sent rep- resentatives to the legislature of Vermont, then sitting at Wind-
178 HISTORY OF
sor. Provision was then made for the union of these towns with the counties opposite to them in Vermont, except the southern tier of towns, which were made into a new county to be called Washington. Provision was also made for the trial of suits already commenced in the New Hampshire courts, and for pro- bate jurisdiction for the newly united towns. They then adjourn- ed to meet at Bennington in the following June. At this session eleven towns from the western portion of Vermont were admit- ted to the union against the wishes of many of the towns in New Hampshire. The next legislature of this new state met at Charlestown in October, 1781. Mr. Hiland Hall, in his History of Vermont, reports as present at Charlestown one hundred and thirty-seven members, representing one hundred and two towns in Vermont and New Hampshire. Of these, sixty represented forty-five towns in New Hampshire. Two councilors and the lieutenant-governor were from the same side of the river. Other authorities afftrm that fifteen towns east of the river sent no del- egates ; eighteen were certainly represented. The most distin- guished citizens of those towns were elected. Charlestown ex- erted an important influence in favor of union with Vermont. The town was not originally chartered by New Hampshire. Massachusetts had been the protector of this and other frontier towns on the Connecticut. New Hampshire had neglected them. They therefore sought to live under another government. These citizens acted from high and pure motives,^s they viewed their relations to surrounding states. They honestly believed that New Hampshire had no claim to their allegiance, and that they were free to choose their own rulers. So they acted ; not from mere selfish motives, as some have affirmed, to secure power and bring the capitol to their side of the river, but to establish a firm and stable government for the people on both sides.
In August, 1781, congress again resumed the consideration of affairs in Vermont. They began to hold out inducements of her ultimate reception into the Federal Union ; but they dis- suaded the citizens of that state from annexing towns in New Hampshire or New York to their original territory. They ap- pointed a committee to confer with a committee from Vermont respecting the admission of the state into the Union. Agents had been already appointed at Charlestown, to present the peti- tion of the new state, with all its accessions, to congress for ad- mission. At first the congressional committee declined to meet them, because they represented the enlarged territory. The matter was referred to congress and the conference was granted. The result of the conference was the reaffirming of the first pro- position of congress to receive Vermont as an equal member of the confederacy, whenever she should relinquish her claim to
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 179
towns in New Hampshire and New York. Of course Vermont was, by this resolution, required to retrace her steps and aban- don her allies. At that time she was not prepared to yield so much to congress to secure her independence. When the legis- lature of Vermont met at Charlestown, Oct. ii, i78i,as above recorded, Thomas Chittenden had been reelected governor ; but of lieutenant-governor there was no choice. The house elected Elisha Paine of Lebanon, formerly of Cardigan. Bezaleel Woodward of Dresden was one of the councilors. Thus the officers were selected, in part, from New Hampshire towns.
When the commissioners returned from Washington the legis- lature of Vermont convened, Oct. i6, 17S1, to consider the terms proposed by congress in committee of the whole. They resolved not to recede from their previous plan of union, and positively refused to abandon their new allies. They also ap- pointed nine commissioners to meet an equal number from each of the states of New Hampshire and New York for the mutual adjustment of their jurisdictional claims.
While the session of the Vermont legislature lasted at Charles- town, there was much fear that New Hampshire might attempt their dispersion. There was a state of feverish excitement in both states. During that session a regiment of New Hamp- shire troops arrived in Charlestown, as was supposed, to over- awe the legislators. Colonel Reynolds, who was in command, was advised that his force was too small for conquest ; too large, if it was only sent to intimidate the legislature. He gave no ac- count of his plans or those of his superior officers. No attempt was made by him to disturb the session of the legislature. On receiving the news of the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the legislature adjourned to meet at Bennington, Jan. 31, 1782. Meantime party spirit was very violent, and a civil war was im- minent. Courts and judicial officers were duplicated in all coun- ties that contained towns originally belonging to New Hamp- shire. The new county of Washington, which was formerly a part of Cheshire, had courts in the same place, though not at the same time, under the jurisdiction of two states. The sheriff appointed by Vermont was Nathaniel S. Prentiss. The sheriff from New Hampshire .was Colonel Enoch Hale. Both were men of mark and had held high offices in the previous history of the country. The war for awhile centered in these two men. Sheriff Prentiss, in attempting to serve a writ in Chesterfield, Nov. 14, 1781, was interrupted and driven from his purpose by two men who protected the defendant against whom the writ was issued. Prentiss procured a warrant for these disturbers of his peace, arrested them, and confined them in the jail at Charlestown. These citizens appealed to the assembly of New
l8o HISTORY OF
Hampshire, and the assembly, on the twenty-eighth of November, 17S1, empowered Colonel Hale to release the prisoners. They also authorized the arrest of all persons attempting to exercise judicial authority in towns east of the Connecticut river. Col- onel Hale proceeded to Charlestown, to execute the decrees of the New Hampshire legislature, but Sheriff Prentiss, being a bold man, and not having the fear of the New Hampshire legis- lators before his eyes, proceeded to arrest and imprison Colonel Hale ! Armed, as he supposed, with plenary power to call for a posse, he made a requisition on General Bellows of Walpole to call out the militia for his liberation. This requisition being ap- proved by the committee of safety in New Hampshire, they or- dered General Bellows, in concert with General Nichols of Am- herst, to march, with the troops under their command, to Char- lestown and release Colonel Hale. They also ordered Francis Blood of Temple to furnish provisions for the troops. Governor Chittenden immediately ordered Lieutenant-Governor Elisha Paine of Lebanon to call out all the militia of Vermont east of the Green Mountains, if necessary, to prevent the liberation of Colonel Hale. He also sent a committee to Exeter to secure, if possible, a peaceful settlement of the quarrel. Mr. Prentiss was one of this delegation. The New Hampshire committee of safety, on the seventh day of January, 1782, made the following entry on their records : " Nathaniel S. Prentiss of Alstead, in the county of Cheshire, was apprehended and brought before the committee. Upon examination, it appearing that he had acted within this state as an officer under the pretended and usurped authority of the state of Vermont, so called, he was com- mitted to gaol !" This act added new fuel to the fires of con- tention, and they blazed with ten-fold fur)-. New Hampshire also made a proclamation, ordering all the people of the revolt- ed towns, within forty days, to present themselves before some magistrate of New Hampshire and subscribe a declaration ac- knowledging the jurisdiction of that state to extend to the Con- necticut river. They also ordered the militia of all the counties to hold themselves in readiness to march against the rebels ! At this crisis congress again interposed. They prevailed on General Washington, then in Philadelphia, to write a letter, dated January i, 1782, to Governor Chittenden, advising a re- linquishment of their late extensions of territory as an indis- pensable preliminary to their admission into the union. He in- timated that a failure to comply with this reasonable request would cause the United States to regard them as enemies to be coerced by military power ! The letter produced the desired result. The statesmen of Vermont saw that their true interests lay in union with the confederacy, and with their original terri-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. l8l
tory only. The assembly met at Bennington, according to pre- vious notice, on the thirty-iirst of January, 1782. Taking ad- vantage of the absence of the members from New Hampshire, they proceeded to define the limits of Vermont by the western bank of the Connecticut river, thus leaving the New Hampshire towns that had acted with them to provide for their own welfare. Thus was the inauspicious union severed, which only a few months previous they had pronounced inviolate, and pledged their sacred honor in its defence. When the members from New Hampshire towns arrived they were not permitted to take their seats in the assembly ; they accordingly left their alienated friends with expressions of great bitterness. This action of tiie ^'ermont legislature virtually ended the controversy, though the excitement still continued. The towns thus rejected very soon quietly returned to their old allegiance ; and the State of New Hampshire, acting with great lenity, received back her er- ring children with joy, and, in subsequent years, appointed some of the actors in this drama of secession to places of power and honor. They could hardly fail to do so, for the leading men in the revolt were among the most distinguished citizens of the towns they represented. The town of Dresden, as the seat of Dartmouth College was then called, was represented in the leg- islature of Vermont that sat at Charlestown in October, 1781, by Professor Bezaleel Woodward, brother-in-law of the presi- dent of the college, and General Ebenezer Brewster, then, per- haps, the most influential citizen of that little town. Hanover proper was represented by Jonathan Wright and Jonathan Freeman, who was afterwards trustee of the college and mem- ber of congress. This rebellion ended so suddenly and subsid- ed so rapidly that few men of this age know of its existence.*
* The author is indebted to Rev. H. H. Saunderson {or many facts and dates in the above chapter.
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER L.
MILITARY OPERATIONS OF 1777. BATTLE OF BENNINGTON.
Short enlistments and temporary recruits had been proved to be very inconvenient in the previous service ; accordingly New Hampshire raised three regiments for three years, or during the war. The commanders were Joseph Cilley, Nathan Hale and Alexander Scammell. The men were furnished with new French arms and ordered to rendezvous at Ticonderoga, under the im- mediate command of Brigadier-General Poor. He was younger in the service than Colonel Stark, and this irregular promotion by congress gave offence to Stark, and he retired from the army in disgust. Ticonderoga was regarded as the Gibraltar of Amer- ica. It was therefore made a special object of assault by the British under Burgoyne, and was taken. On the retreat. Colo- nel Hale's regiment was detailed to cover the rear of the in- valids, and was thus left far behind the main army. An ad- vanced party of the enemy attacked him at Hubbardton, in Rutland county, Vt, seventeen miles southeast of Ticonderoga. A severe skirmish ensued in which several officers and one hun- dred men were taken prisoners. The remainder of the army fell back to Saratoga. There was, on the way, a second engage- ment, at Fort Anne, in which Captain Weare, son of the presi- dent of the state, was mortally wounded. He soon after died at Albany.
After the evacuation of Ticonderoga, the people of the New Hampshire Grants implored aid of the committee of safety at Exeter, to protect them from the advancing enemy. The legis- lature being summoned, they divided the entire militia into two brigades, giving command of the first to William Whipple ; of the second to John Stark. They ordered one fourth of Stark's brigade and one fourth of three regiments of W' hippie's brigade to march immediately under Stark, " to stop the progress of the enemy on our western frontiers." The state could vote to raise troops but could not pay them. The treasury was empty. In this emergency, the patriotism of Mr. Langdon, speaker of the house, became conspicuous. He offered to loan the country three thousand dollars in coin and the avails of his plate and some West India goods on hand, remarking that if the Ameri- can cause should triumph, he should be repaid ; but in case of defeat the property would be of no use to him. He also vol-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. lg^3
unteered, with other distinguished citizens, to serve as privates under General Stark.
Among the distinguished patriots of that crisis was Captain Ebenezer Webster. The state autliorized him to enlist soldiers for the common defence. He, on learning the danger from the in- vasion of Colonel Baum, enlisted a company of sixty men, chiefly from the towns of Salisbury and Andover. His personal popu- larity as an officer influenced many of these men, his neighbors and friends, to join the army. They rendezvoused at Charles- town, and thence marched to Bennington and joined the brigade of Stark. Captain Webster and his company performed signal service in the events that followed.
The appointment of Stark was received with enthusiasm throughout the state. The people confided in him ; they knew his dauntless courage and keen sagacity, and, with one voice, bade him " God speed," and prophesied his success. Volun- teers, in great numbers, flocked to his standard. All classes , were eager " to take the woods " for " a Hessian hunt." Their confidence was not disappointed. Stark made his headquarters at Charlestown. As his men arrived, he sent them to Manches- ter, twenty miles north of Bennington, to join the forces of Ver- mont under Colonel Warner. Here Stark joined him. Gen- eral Schuyler, commander of the northern department, sent to them General Lincoln to conduct the militia under their com- mand to the west side of Hudson's river. Stark declined to obey, alleging that he was in the service of New Hampshire, and her interests required his presence at Bennington. He was reported to congress and they passed a vote of censure upon Stark, which in a few days they were obliged to change to a vote of thanks. He knew his business and duty better than they. Following out his Own plan, Stark collected his forces at Ben- nington, and left Warner with his regiment at Manchester. Stark's object was to meet and resist Colonel Baum, who had been sent from Fort Edward by Burgoyne to rob and plunder the people of Vermont, and thus secure horses, clothes and pro- visions for the British army. He had under him about fifteen hundred men, Germans, tories and Indians. Stark sent Colonel Gregg, with two hundred men, to stay the advance of the Ind- ians who preceded the main army. Gregg retreated before the red men ; but on the ne.xt day, the fourteenth of August, Stark came to his relief, and a skirmish followed in which thirty of the enemy were killed ; among them two chiefs. The Indians then began to desert saying that " the woods were full of Yankees." The ne.\t day a heavy storm of rain delayed the contest. On the sixteenth of August reinforcements from Berkshire, led by Colonel Symonds, and from Pittsfield, led by Rev. Thomas Al-
1 84 HISTORY OF
len, joined the army of Stark which now amounted to sixteen hundred men. Bryant, in his song entitled " Green Mountain Boys," thus describes their condition before the battle ;
" Here we halt our march and pitch our tent
On the rugged forest ground, And light our tire with tlie branches rent
By winds from the beeches round. Wild storms have torn this ancient wood,
But a wilder is at hand, With hail of iron and rain of blood,
To sweep and waste the land."
The enemy selected a favorable position, and constructed breastworks of logs and timber brought from the houses in the vicinity, which they tore down for that purpose. They were also defended by heavy artillery ; and a reinforcement under Colonel Breyman, with two heavier cannon, was approaching to aid them. General Stark* assigned a position to every subaltern. Colonels Hubbard and Stickney, with two hundred men, were posted on the right to attack the tory breastwork. The flanking parties, which took a circuitous route to reach their posts, were supposed by the British to be deserting. General Stark took his position with the reserve. The battle was opened at three o'clock, p. M.. by Colonel Nichols on the left, and was immedi- ately responded to by Colonel Herrick on the right. Colonel Stickney's regiment from New Hampshire was divided ; a de- tachment from it was ordered to the rear. Captain Webster's station was in front of the log fort. After the signal for action from General Stark, the assault was general. " it thundered all round the heavens." The Americans in front fought in the woods. The shot from the fort flew too high, often cutting off the limbs of trees which fell upon their heads. Otherwise, little injury was done. Captain W'ebster, who, as General Stark after- wards affirmed, was so begrimmed with powder that he could hardly be distinguished from an Indian, became impatient of delay and shouted to his men : " Boys, we must get nearer to them." They then rushed to the breastwork, which Captain Webster was among the first to scale. Thus the fort was taken after two hours of hard fighting. Two pieces of cannon and a large number of prisoners were also captured.
Just at the moment of victory, it was announced that Brey- man with his reinforcement was marching to the rescue. Hap- pily, Warner's regiment came in at the same time. Stark rallied his men and renewed the fight. They fought " till the going down of the sun," and completely routed the enemy, taking from them two other pieces of artillery, all their baggage wagons
* There is a tradition th.it General Stark, just before entering the engagement, made one of his eccentric speeches to liis men. It was well known to most of his troops that he called his wife " Molly." He made this laconic address : "There's the enemy, boys. We must tiog thein, or Molly .Stark sleeps a widow to-night."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. iSj
and horses. "The fruits of this victory," says the biographer of Stark, " obtained by raw militia over European veterans, tories and savages, were four pieces of brass artillery, eight brass-bar- reled drums, eight loads of baggage, one thousand stand of arms, many Hessian dragoon swords, and seven hundred and tifty prisoners. Two hundred and seventy fell on the field of battle. The loss of the Americans was about thirty, and forty were wounded. But the most important result of this victory was the restoration of confidence to the desponding armies of America, while it gave a death-blow to the hopes of the in- vader." The traditional speech of General Stark has been em- bodied in a patriotic ballad by Fitz-Greene Halleck. Here is a stanza :
" When on that field, his band the Hessians fought,
Briefly he spoke before the fight began : Soldiers, those German gentlemen were bought
For four pounds eight and seven pence, per man, By England's king: a bargain, it is thought.
Are we worth more ? let's prove it, while we can ; For we must beat them, boys, ere set of sun,
Or my wife sleeps a widow. It was done .' "
The battle of Bennington may be called the decisive battle of the Revolution ; for there can scarcely be a doubt that a con- trary result would have exposed all New England to devasta- tion ; and the boast of Colonel Baimi, that he would march through Vermont to Boston, inight have been literally fulfilled. But a kind Providence had otherwise ordered. " One more such strike," said Washington, " and we shall have no great cause for an.xiety as to the future designs of Britain. The entire ex- pense of the whole campaign was ^16,492, 12s. lod., which, be- ing paid in depreciated currency, yielded to the creditors less than two thousand dollars. One dollar of hard money paid for thirty-three in continental bills ! After this battle, Burgoyne wrote to Lord George Germaine : " The Hampshire Grants, un- peopled and almost unknown in the last war, now abound with the most active and rebellious race on the continent, and hang like a gathering storm upon my left." This indicates the whole- some fear which Stark's soldiers had inspired in the commander- in-chief of the invading army. On the eighteenth of Septem- ber following this memorable victory. Stark and his volunteers joined the main army under General Gates. They were ad- dressed by him and requested to remain, but they replied that " their time had expired, they had performed their part, and must return to their farms, as their harvests now awaited them." General Stark returned to New Hampshire to report progress. He held no communication with congress, alleging as a reason, that they had failed to reply to his former letters. " His return was a triumphal march ; " he had conquered the public enemy
l86 HISTORY OF
and humbled his private foes. Congress not only joined in the public gratitude, but, by a tardy act of justice, promoted him to the rank of brigadier-general.
CHAPTER LI.
CAPTURE OF BURGOYNE.
Burgoyne, flushed with victory at Ticonderoga, and the retreat of the American forces, advanced with sounding proclamations, declaring that " Britons never retrograde." But his condition grew more critical the farther he advanced. The northern army was reinforced by the militia of all the neighboring states. General Whipple marched to the field of danger with a large part of his brigade. The fame of Stark drew around him nearly three thousand volunteers. He led his soldiers to Fort Ed- ward and conquered the garrison left there by the British com- mander, then descended the Hudson and so stationed his troops as to prevent the retreat of Burgoyne. The two armies first met at Stillwater, on the Hudson, about twenty-five miles north of Albany, on the nineteenth of September, 1777, where a bloody battle was fought, in which Lieutenant-Colonels Adams of Dur- ham and Colburn of New Marlborough and Lieutenant Thomas were slain upon the field ; other br.ave officers were wounded ; Captain Bell died in the hospital.
The second battle, which was decisive, occurred on the seventh of October, at Saratoga. The New Hampshire troops deserve a large share of the honor of this great victory. In this engage- ment Lieutenant-Colonel Connor and Lieutenant McClary were killed, with a great number of their men. Colonel Scammell was also wounded. General Poor, on that eventful day, led the attack on the left front of the British ; General Morgan assaulted their right. Both parties fought with desperation. In less than one hour the enemy yielded ; the Americans pursued them to their entrenchments. Arnold, then true to his country, fought like a tiger and marked all his pathway with the blood of the enemy. Night separated the combatants. The next day revealed the helpless and hopeless condition of Burgoyne. He was surrounded ; his supplies were cut off ; no aid from Clinton could reach him. He summoned a council of war, and with one
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 187
accord they advised a surrender. The entire army, amounting to five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one men, became prisoners of war. The entire loss of the British army in their march from Canada was ten thousand. Their arms were the property of tlie victor, though they marched out of their camp with the honors of war. They were sent to Boston with a pledge that they would fight no more during the war. General Whipple was one of the officers who led the escort.
After this victory, which diffused general joy throughout all the land, the New Hampshire troops marched forty miles in fourteen hours and forded the Mohawk near its mouth that they might prevent Clinton from sending troops northward to sack Albany. Hearing of the surrender of Burgoyne, Clinton retired to New York, and the New Hampshire volunteers pushed on to Pennsylvania, joined Washington's army and fought the enemy with him at Germantown, where Major Sherburne, the aid-de- camp of General Sullivan, fell. They passed that fearful winter in huts at Valley Forge, where the sufferings of the American army scarcely find a parallel in history.
With the fall of Burgoyne the danger from Canada ceased, and the scene of war was removed to the south. The middle states had yielded few victories and numerous defeats. New Hampshire men everywhere bore their full share of perils and sufferings. In the battle of Monmouth they fought with such bravery under Colonel Cilley and Ijieutenant-Colonel Dearborn, as to receive special commendation from the commander-in-chief. So intense was the heat on that summer day, June 28, that many men in both armies died from exposure to it. Their tongues were so parched with thirst that they swelled and protruded from their mouths. The following winter they passed in huts at Reading. A detathment of them was sent during the summer of 1778 to Newport, R. I., to aid the French fleet in their at- tack upon the British at that station. General Sullivan was in command. Owing to the want of cooperation by the French, the enterprise failed.
t8S history of
CHAPTER LII.
EMPLOYMENT OF MERCENARIES AND SAVAGES BY THE ENGLISH.
England attempted to reduce her disobedient children to sub- jection by hired assassins and merciless savages. Her own sub- jects must be forced into the service by tlie brutal press-gang ; for many of them were decidedly opposed to the war. The pious king, George HI., though he confessed some scruples about be- coming " a man-stealer," resolved to employ mercenaries. He first applied to Russia, then to Holland, for recruits ; but both these countries indignantly rejected the degrading proposal. He next turned to the need)', greedy and vainglorious princes and dukes of the petty states of Germany. They readily sold their subjects to the rich sovereign, as an English nobleman would sell the right of warren in his forests. The poor victims of power were hunted down in the fields or shops or streets, where they were pursuing their humble callings, and were sent into a foreign service, without food or clothes suitable to their condi- tion ; and were then crowded together in British ships of war, to endure in transportation " the horrors of the middle passage." They almost robbed the cradle and the grave to secure the re- quired number. Twenty-nine thousand one hundred and sixty- six soldiers were thus furnished from six of the petty states of Germany. Brunswick and Hesse-Cassel hunted and sold a large majority of them. The total loss from these recruits was eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. Probably about the same number of Indians were decoyed into the service of the English.
Dr. Dwight, speaking of the perils of the first settlers of New England, says :
" The greatest of all the evils which they suffered were derived from the savages. These people, of whom Europeans still form very imperfect con- ceptions, kept the colonists, after the first hostilities commenced, in almost perpetual terror and alarm. The first annunciation of an Indian war is its actual commencement. In the hour of security, silence and sleep, when your enemies are supposed to be friends quietly employed in hunting and fishing, when they are believed to be at the distance of several hundred miles and perfectly thoughtless of you and yours ; when thus unsuspecting, thus at ease, slumbering on your pillow, your sleep is broken up by the war- whoop ; your house, your village, are set on fire ; your family and friends are butchered and scalped; yourself and a few other wretched survivors are hurried into captivity to be roasted alive at the stake, or to have your body stuck full of skewers and burnt by inches. You are a farmer and have gone
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 189
abroad to the customary business of the field j there you are shot down from behind a tree in the hour of perfect security, or you return at evening and find your house burnt and your family vanished, or, perhaps, discover their half-consumed bones mingled with the ashes of your dwelling, or your wife murdered and your little ones lying beside her after having been dashed against a tree."
When fhe Indians were stimulated bv tlie Frencli to murder the defenceless inhabitants of the English colonies, their con- duct received not only denunciation but execration. During the Revolutionarj' war the English made use of the same allies, in butchering and scalping their brethren. Chatham, with peerless eloquence and pathos, denounced this inhuman custom and in- voked the aid of the bishops to arrest it. During the year 1778, the Wyoming, Mohawk, Schoharie and Cherry Valleys were con- verted into theatres of bloodshed and violence by the union of tories and Indians. On the second day of July, 1778, eleven hundred of these white and red savages entered the lovely val- ley of Wyoming, when the strong men were eng.aged in the army, conquered the feeble force sent to resist them, burned the houses, desolated the land, murdered the women and children except a remnant that escaped to the neighboring mountains to die of hunger. Travelers and historians agree in describing this infant colony as one of the happiest spots of human existence, for the hospitable and innocent manners of the inhabitants, the beauty of the country and the luxuriant fertility of the soil. In an evil hour the junction of European with Indian arms converted this terrestrial paradise into a hideous desolation. Campbell, the poet, in his beautiful poem entitled, " Gertrude of Wyoming," has "married to immortal verse" the beauty, glory and desolation of this once " Happy Valley." The open- ing lines read thu^ :
"On Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming I
Although the wild flowers on thy ruined wall And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring
Of what thy gentle people did befall.
Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore.
Sweet land 1 may I thy lost delights recall. And paint thy Gertrtide in her bowers of yore. Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania's shore."
The massacre of the innocent inhabitants of this valley ex- cited both the indignation and compassion of Congress. They resolved to chastise the savages who " wrought this deed of blood." General Sullivan was appointed to that service. He led an army up the Susquehanna into the country of the Senecas. It was an unexplored and pathless region. The general had to contend with nature as savage and wild as the men whom he pursued. His sagacity led and his prudence supplied the army. Their rations were scanty, but their courage was manly. They
igo HISTORY OF
suffered patiently and ti-iumphed gloriously. They met the enemy, composed of tories and Indians, upon the Susquehanna, and drove them into the forest. The victorious troops then marched into western New York and destroyed the deserted Ind- ian towns which had already begun to wear the aspect of civilized life. The Indians suffered according to the old Jewish law, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." ^ It seems a hard case, as we view it, that these infant settlements of the red men should be annihilated ; but in that day there was no safety to the whites, but in the literal application of the ma.xim of that stern cove- nanter, John Kno.x : "Tear down the nests and the rooks will fly away." Having chastised the heathen, Sullivan returned to Easton, in Pennsylvania, having lost forty men ; and among them Captain Cloyes and Lieutenant McAulay of New Hampshire. Major Titcomb, another brave officer, was badly wounded. These victorious troops joined the main army in Connecticut, and passed the third winter of their service in huts at Newtown. In the year following, 1780, the New Hampshire troops served at West-Point ; and afterwards in New Jersey, where General Poor died. Three regiments belonged to the regular army this year. They passed the next winter in huts at a place called Soldier's Fortune, near Hudson river. The three regiments were at the c'.ose of the year reduced to two, and commanded by Generals Scammell and Reed.
CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
During all the long years of privation, suffering and bloodshed of the American war for libert}', New Hampshire furnished her full share of men and means for the conflict. The courage of her citizens never wavered ; their hope of victory never abated. They were poor and in distress ; yet, "out of their deep poverty" they contributed to the wants of their common country' ; and from their already bereaved hearts sent out the only and well beloved sons to fight her battles. The soldiers from New Hampshire were familiar with every battlefield, from Canada to Yorktown. They shared the woe of every defeat and the joy of every vic- tory. They were present at the last great battle when Cornwallis surrendered and in which the heroic Scammell laid down his life for his country. They remained in the army till " the last armed foe expired " or left the country. They waited at their post of duty till the obstinate George HI. from his throne declared "his revolted subjects" "free and independent states." Every yoke was broken, and New Hampshire was a sovereign state with her sister republics.
A report made in congress in lycjo, by General Knox, gives the proportion of soldiers to population furnished by each of the colonies in the Revolution as follows : Massachusetts
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 191
(including Maine), one in seven of her population; Connecticut, one in seven; New Hamp- shire, one in eleven; Rhode Island, one in eleven; New Jerseyj one in sixteen; Pennsyl- vania, one in sixteen ; New York, one in nineteen ; Maryland, one in twenty-two; Delaware, one in twenty-four; Virginia, one in twentj^-eight ; Georgia, one in thirty-two; South Caro- lina, one in thirty-eight; North Carolinaj one in fifty-four. Connecticut had less population at the period of the Revolution than either Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina or South Carolina; nevertheless she furnished more troops for the war than any one of these great states.
-o-
CHAPTER Llir.
CONGREGATIONALISM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The first ministers of New Hampshire were settled by major vote of the town in which they officiated. This mode of settle- ment continued till 1818, when the rights of other denomina- tions were acknowledged, and church and state, or rather town and state, were separated. The Congregational denomination was called " the standing order," till the other denominations gained a legal position in the state. The number of Congrega- tional and Presbyterian churches now in the state is one hun- dred ninety-four ; only six of these are Presbyterian. Sixty-nine towns have no clergyman belonging to either of these two de- nominations. The Methodists and Baptists are annually gain- ing upon the Congregationalists, and probably will soon equal them in the number of churches though they will scarcely equal them in membership during the present century. The Metho- dists now have oije hundred twenty-three churches ; the Free- will Baptists one hundred twenty-one. The original Baptists number thirt)'-five. Of the other ten sects that are established in the state, the number ranges from one to twenty-two churches. The early ministers of the Congregational order were men of mark in their respective towns, thoroughly educated and well grounded in the doctrines of the so-called orthodox theology. The first convention of Congregational ministers was held at Exeter, July 20, 1747. Their object was to promote harmony, peace and good order among the churches ; and to secure unity of belief and efficiency of action among the ministers of the province. Seventeen clergymen obeyed the summons, which was issued by a private conference of a few leading men. At their first meeting they deemed it inexpedient to make any declara- tion of faith with respect to points of doctrine. They reached, in part, that result negatively, by enumerating the prevailing the- ological errors of the day. They resolved. First, "That we will,
192 HISTORY OF
to the best of our ability, both in our public ministrations and private conversations, maintain and promote the great and im- portant doctrines of the Gospel, according to the form of sound words delivered to us by Christ and his apostles ;" Second, "That we will take particular notice of several doctrinal errors which have more remarkably discovered themselves of late in several places, among some persons who would seem zealous of reli- gion : ist, That saving faith is nothing but a persuasion that Christ died for me, in particular ; 2d, That morality is not of the essence of Christianity ; 3d, That God sees no sin in his children ; 4th, That believers are justified from eternity ; 5th, That no unconverted person can understand the meaning of the Scriptures ; 6th, That sanctification is no evidence of justifica- tion ; and that we will be very frequent in opposing these errors and in inculcating those truths with which they militate." They also agree to discourage uneducated men from entering the min- istry, and to oppose all unwarrantable intrusion by persons who are not legally authorized to exercise the functions of a minis- ter. They also advise frequent visits and interchange of views among pastors, and to withhold recommendations from all can- didates who are not licensed by some association. They ap- pointed a committee to confer with the church in Durham re- specting some reported disorder among its members. At an adjourned meeting the committee reported that a portion of the church had separated from the original organization and w.^re holding meetings at which very disorderly, vile and absurd things were practised, such as " profane singing and dancing, damning the devil, spitting in the faces of persons whom they apprehended not to be of their society, and other similar acts to the dishonor of God and scandal of religion." They were un- able then to gain a hearing from the separatists.
In 1750, they opened a correspondence with English Congre- gationalists. They are called by them " Brethren of the Dis- senting Interest in England." An interesting correspondence followed, revealing a strong sympathy between the English Dis- senters and the New Hampshire Congregationalists.
At their annual meeting at Hampton, September 25, 1754, they discussed the proper subjects to be enforced in their re- spective pulpits. They agreed to preach once a quarter upon the following subjects : ist. Carelessness in religion ; 2d, Fam- ily religion and government ; 3d, Sabbath-breaking ; 4th, Intem- perance ; and on the day of the annual Fast to inculcate as many of these important subjects as possible.
At the annual meeting at Somersworth, September 26, 1758, they petitioned Governor Bcnning Wentworth to grant a charter for a college, settiiig forth at large the necessity and utility of
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 193
such an institution, and expressing tlie belief tliat a fund could be raised in the state for the support of the necessary oiTficers. They concluded their memorial by saying : " We are pursuaded that if your Excellency will, first of all, favor us with such a charter, we shall be able soon to make use of it for the public benefit ; and that your E.xxellency's name will forever be re- membered with honor." By neglecting to grant this reasonable request, the governor lost his only chance of honorable remem- brance by posterity. At this same meeting, it was voted that the convention should, for the future, be held annually at Ports- mouth, and should be known by the name of the " Convention of Ministers at Portsmouth." The number in attendance was usually about twenty.
In September, 1761, the convention, by their committee, con- gratulated George III. on his accession to the English throne. The address is remarkable for its loyalty, beginning thus :. "We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, ministers of the Congregational churches in and about Portsmouth, the principal town of your Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, beg leave, from these remote parts of your dominions, upon the first op- portunity of our convening, to present before the throne this humble testimony of our loyal duty and affection to your Maj- esty, whose accession to the British crown gives the highest joy and satisfaction to all his subjects.'' The whole address is most laudatory of his Majesty's character and conduct, and full of warm congratulations on the late success of the British arms. Ten years later, the same body would have been as eloquent in complaints, and as eager to be released from his Majesty's sway as they were at first to welcome it. It is a little singular that such bold and manly advocates of the moral virtues should have indulged in s\ich extravagant compliments to their new sovereign. However, it was the fault of the times. The elder Pitt himself used more fulsome fiattery to George III. than his warmest friends were wont to employ ; and was constantly cast- ing himself, metaphorically, at the feet of his king.
But we have changed all that. Our age has lost its reverence for ofiicial station. At a meeting in July, 1762, a testimonial to the excellent character and remarkable labors of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, in founding and supporting Moor's Charity School, in Lebanon, Conn., signed by twenty-five clergymen of that state, was laid before the convention. They say : '' We esteem his plan {pi educating Indians) to be good ; his measures pru- dently and well concerted ; his endowments peculiar, his zeal fervent, his endeavors indefatigable for the accomplishment of this design, and we know no man like-minded who will naturally
13
194 HISTORY OF
care for their state. May God prolong his life and make him extensively useful in the kingdom of Christ."
They also give unequivocal testimony to the fidelity, honesty and economy of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock in managing the funds committed to his care for the education of the Indians. The New Hampshire convention cordially approved of his work, and recommended it to the good will of churches under their care. They did not, however, attempt to dictate to the public how they should dispose of their contributions for education. They mention " the corporation erected in the Province of Mas- sachusetts Bay" (meaning Harvard College), as claiming their benefactions as fully as the school in Connecticut, designed to educate the aborigines. In September, 1770, the convention sent a memorial to the general assembly, asking aid for mis- sionaiy labor among the new settlements of the province. They say, in closing their memorial : "It appears to your memqrial- ists that, in many respects, it will be of great advantage to his Majesty's government, as well as for the benefit of particular properties, and the encouragement of the settlers in the new townships, that some provision be speedily made, whereby the knowledge of Christianity and a sense of their duty to God, their King and Author, may be preserved among those scattered inhabitants of the wilderness." John Wentworth was then gov- ernor of the province. The very presentation of such a memo- rial, with the expectation of aid for itinerant missionaries in the new settlements, reveals the paternal regard which the General Assembly was supposed to entertain for the religious welfare of the people. Such a communication addressed to the legislature at this day would be regarded as entirely irrelevant and possi- bly hostile to their duties as law-makers. It would at once raise the cry of union of church and state.
In September, 1772, the convention voted to have a collection among themselves, for pious and charitable uses, at their annual meetings. The first collection yielded two pounds seven shil- lings and six pence, lawful money. This money, with such other contributions as might be made during the year, was appropriated to the education of Mr. Ewer's son, if he should be found by their committee. Doctors Langdon, Haven and Stevens, to be worthy of their charity. Before the adjournment, nine shillings and seven pence more were added to the first collection. In the year 1774, Rev. Samuel Langdon, of Portsmouth, was appointed president of Harvard College. An address of congratulation was prepared by a committee, and presented to the reverend Doctor; also filed among their records. They say in that ad- dress, " From the long and intimate connection that has sub- sisted between us, we think we have reason to expect that your
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 195
appointment to this honorable station will be an extensive bles- sing to the countr)'. The prospect of this is sufficient to over- balance that regret which we feel at your removal from our neighborhood." A very devout and grateful response was made by Doctor Langdon, and the record of these transactions is sign- ed by the venerable Jeremy Belknap, as clerk. These facts show us that, at that early day, in the little province of New Hamp- shire there were learned and illustrious ministers of the gospel.
In 1785 we find the following record: "Whereas the civil government appear, at present, disposed to introduce the an- nual public election by a public religious service, we think it our duty to countenance that laudable disposition of our civil fathers, * * * therefore, voted unanimously, that we will, by the leave of Providence, endeavor to meet together on the day of the ne.xt election wherever said election may be, and so on from year to year, and that our brethren of every denomination be invited, by public advertisement, to meet with us on said day." This seems to have given their sanction to the annual election sermons, which were delivered by the most distin- guished clergymen of the state, and frequently published, for many years before and after this date.
This abstract of record shows how the clergy of New Hamp- shire were employed during the last century. It reveals their creed, conduct and character. It shows, ist. That they were decided champions of dogmatic theology, and the uncompro- mising opponents of heresy ; 2d, That they were the devoted friends of education ; 3d, That they preached morality as an essential element of true religion ; 4th, That they appropriated four Sabbaths, besides the annual Fast day, to national sins ; 5 th, That they were, in that day, advisers and counselors of the legislature, as well &s petitioners for righteous laws ; 6th, That they encouraged the home missionary enterprise, in behalf of the new settlements in the state ; 7 th, That they, by word and deed, were the leading men of the community, in every measure that appertained to the highest welfare of the people ; 8th, That they were almost the only literary men of that period ; and that some of them, like Jeremy Belknap and President Langdon, were authors of high repute.
Hon. Joseph B. Walker, of Concord, describing the ministry in New Hampshire a hundred years ago, says :
"The old New Hampshire minister was ahiiost invariably a well educated man. The expression, comrrion in the old town charters, ' a learned ortho- do.\ minister ' was by no means a conventional one merely. It appears, upon examination, that of the fifty-two settled ministers in the province in 1764, no less than forty-eight were graduates of colleges ; while, in the county of Rockingham, thirty-one of the thirty-two, and perhaps all, had received a liberal education — one at the University of Scotland, one at Yale, and twenty-nine at Harvard."
196 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LIV.
RISE OF SEPARATE DENOMINATIONS.
As late as 1750, there were only thirty churches of the stand- ing order. Other denominations were then but little known. This fact reveals the slow progress of religion in the state. A small society of Quakers was organized in 1701. The first Bap- tist church was formed in 1755. Their gain, on an average, till the year 1800, was about one new church annually. An Episco- pal chapel was built in Portsmouth* as early as 1638. In May, 1640, a grant of fifty acres of land "for a glebe " was set apart by the governor and inhabitants of Strawbeny Bank, and deeded '■ to Thomas Walford and Henry Sherburne, church wardens, and their successors forever, as feoffees, in trust." A parsonage and the chapel had been previously erected upon the glebe. The prayer-books and communion service were sent over by Captain Mason. The first company who settled at Portsmouth and Dover were inclined to Episcopacy. Winthrop says : " Some of them were the professed enemies to the way of our churches." Prior to the beginning of this century, but few Episcopal churches existed in this state. The Methodists were first known in New Plampshire in 1792. They did not come to New England till after the close of the Revolutionary war.
The Freewill Baptists originated in 1780. Elder Benjamin Randall of New Durham is their reputed founder ; but there is another claimant for this honor. John Shepard, Esq., of Gil- manton, solemnly affirmed, near the close of his life, " that the Freewill system was all opened to his mind by the Spirit of God, months before any other person knew it ; that he then
*" About sixty years ago, President Timothy Dwight, of Yale college, Connecticut, visited Portsmouth, and states in iiis Book of Travels that the number of dwellings was six hundred and twenty-six, although he thinks that Newmarket was united v.ith it in the enumeration as one district. He says almost all were built of wood. Their conliiiuity to each other in the compact part of the town he thought very dangerous if fires should uccnr, as the conflagra- tion mi'^ht become extensive. But up to that time Portsmouth had not suffered much by fire. We think not more than a dozen dwellings had been burned, so far as any record appears, and a f :-\v other buildings. ^ The jail had been burned, but we have not the date.
President Dwight died in 1S17. Before his death he had occasion to learn what ruin fire had caused in this town. That of 1S13 was terrible. The light of it was seen twenty-five or thirty miles hack in the country.
.Sixty years ago there were seven places of worship; now there are ten. One society that existed then, the Sandemanian, has become extinct. Another, the Independent, has also ceased. The Universa;ist society was then in its infancy, and small. The Methotlists had not commenced a stated meeting then. Rev. Doctors feuckminster and Parker were in the full tide of prosperity as pastors of the two Conj^egational churches. Rev. Hosea Ballon, afterwards very prominent^ among the Universalists, was preaching to the society of that denomination in this place.*'
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 197
revealed it, in March, 1780, to Elder Edward Locke and Elder Tozar Lord ; and with them spent a week locked up in the house owned by Mr. Piper of Loudon, fasting and praying and seeking the will of God." He also affirmed that they ordained one another ; and then went to New Durham and ordained Elder Randall. From this humble origin, the number of the denom- ination has been constantly increasing. It now has schools, academies, theological seminaries and a college under its con- trol in New England.
The first Universalist society in the state was established at Portsmouth in 1781. The Christian denomination arose about the beginning of this century. Elder Abner Jones from Ver- mont is its reputed founder. It is an off-shoot from the Freewill Baptists and is quite numerous in New Hampshire. There are within the state two families of Shakers, who date their arrival here in 1792.
Fifty years ago these numerous denominations were very hos- tile to each other ; and much of the preaching of that day was given to sectarian controversies. A better day has dawned upon us ; and as partisan zeal is abated, brotherly love has increased.
From 1775 to 1800, the people were so deeply agitated with the Revolution, the new constitution and other great political questions, that religion scarcely occupied their thoughts. There were faithful preachers and devout hearers in those days, but they were a small minority. The Revolutionary war was, in itself, disastrous to religion ; but the alliance with France was still more injurious. The opinions of Voltaire found many ad- herents among the officers of the army. The works of Godwin and Thomas Paine were also read with eagerness by the young sceptics of the age. Unbelief became popular and faithful fol- lowers of Christ were pointed at "with the finger of scorn." Near the close of the eighteenth centurj-, revivals of religion be- came more frequent, the results of them more permanent ; and "the churches had rest and were edified.'' The New Hamp- shire Missionary Society, which has been of inestimable advan- tage in providing the preaching of the gospel for feeble churches and sparse populations, was founded in i8oi.
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LV.
INSUFFICIENCY OF THE STATE AND GENERAL GOVERNMENTS PRE- VIOUS TO THE ADOPTION OF NEW CONSTITUTIONS.
During the whole period of the Revolutionary war, the United States had no efficient government. From 1775 to 1781 they had a federal union for the purposes of defence, and " they were held together by the ties of a common interest, by the sense of a common danger, and by the necessities of a common cause, having no written bond of union. In short, they were held together by their fears," or rather crushed together by ex- ternal calamities. The articles of confederation were adopted by congress in November, 1777. Maryland, last of the old thirteen states, adopted them March i, 1781. On the next day congress assembled under this new form of government. This was " the shadow of a government without the substance." It could make laws, but could not execute them ; it could call for armies, but could not raise them ; it could assess taxes, but could not collect them. In a word, its enactments were advisory, not authoritative. The country tried this form of union for the two remaining years of the war and for six subsequent years of peace, and found it wanting.
Virginia took the lead in recommending a convention of the states for the adoption of a new constitution. At the first meet- ing of the delegates at Annapolis, Md., in September, 17S6, only five states were represented. Another convention was called in the following May, to meet in Philadelphia. Most of the states approved the measure, but only tWenty-nine delegates appeared on the first day ; in process of time others came, and on the twenty-eighth of May, 1787, the convention began its session with closed doors, and sat four months and then reported a draft of a new constitution which was to go into operation when nine states had adopted it. New Plampshire was the ninth state to approve it and her vote was taken at Concord, June 21, 1788. On the fourth of March, 1789, the first congress under the new constitution assembled, and on counting the votes pre- viously cast, George Washington was declared President of the United States.
\Miile the general government was forming a permanent con- stitution, the states, also, were giving attention to their organic laws. New Hampshire had already passed through five differ-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1 99
ent forms of government. The earliest was the Proprietary gov- ernment, when it was subject to the rules and orders of the Com- pany of Laconia, of which John Mason was the head. The second was that of the separate towns, when each for itself made a " combination " for the security of life and property. The third was the Colonial government from 1641 to 1680, when the state was ruled by the laws of Massachusetts. To this succeeded the Royal government which, with a slight inter- ruption from 1690 to 1692, when Massachusetts resumed her swa)^, continued till the beginning of the Revolutionary war. Early in 1776, a temporary " Plan of Government " was adopted to continue through the war. This was republican in form though exceedingly defective in its details. The executive power was delegated to a committee of safety when the assembly was not in session. In 1779 a convention was called to form a new constitution. Their work was rejected by the people. An- other convention was called in 1781. The delegates met at Concord and organized by choosing Hon. George Atkinson president, and Jonathan M. Sewall secretaiy, both of Ports- mouth. Among the leading men of that convention were Judge Pickering of Portsmouth ; General Sullivan of Dur- ham ; General Peabody of Atkinson ; Judge Wingate of Strat- ham ; Hon. Timothy Walker of Concord ; Captain Eben- ezer Webster of Salisbury ; General Joseph Badger of Gilman- ton; Timothy Farrar of New Ipswich and Ebenezer Smith of Meredith. The army and the fonim, as usual, furnished the most influential members. In all such assemblies a few leading minds plan the work and the majority vote for it. This conven- tion sat only a few days, assigned their work to a committee of seven and adjourned till the following September. A draft of a new constitution wfts made by them and presented to the con- vention at their adjourned meeting. A bill of rights was also submitted by the same committee. This new organic law was sent to the people for their action upon it in town meetings. The objections urged against it were so numerous that, at the third session of the convention in Januar)', 1782, the new con- stitution was thoroughly revised and recommitted for a report in the following August. A new draft was then presented, ap- proved and again sent to the people for their ratification. The convention then adjourned till the next December. This form of government was generally approved, but, several amendments being deemed necessary, the convention again adjourned till June, 1783. On the nineteenth day of the preceding April, the eighth anniversaiy of the battle of Lexington, peace between England and the United States was proclaimed ; accordingly "the Plan of Government" adopted in 1776, to continue during
200 HISTORY OF
the war, expired by self-limitation. The people of the state in their town meetings voted to prolong that temporary govern- ment for one year. The constitutional convention in June, 1783, after making several important alterations and additions, again submitted the constitution to the people, who by a consid- erable majority adopted it, and in June, 1784, the new form of government became the organic law of the state. It was intro- duced by religious solemnities. A sermon was delivered before the legislature at Concord on the second day of June, which custom was observed at every annual election for nearly half a centuiy afterwards.
This constitution, with some slight amendments, such as the advance of public opinion required, has remained in force to this day. This fact reveals the wisdom of the delegates of that famed convention, which continued its e.xistence for more than two years and held nine sessions. The history of this important instrument, containing both a bill of rights which could scarcely be improved, and permanent rules for the guidance of the law- makers of a sovereign state, shows that it was repeatedly dis- cussed, criticised, revised and virtually amended lay the legal voters in their democratic town meetings. A high degree of in- telligence characterized the people of New Hampshire at that day, for their successors for two generations have lived in con- tent under a constitution whose every clause was submitted to the legal voters of 1784.
CHAPTER LVI.
TREATMENT OF LOYALISTS.
All questions of expediency have two sides, and naturally give rise to opposing parties. Men are so constituted, that, in all controversies which are argued from moral evidence, they necessarily become partisans. It is said that spectators never witness a conflict between brute beasts, without taking sides ; a fortiori would they lend their sympathies to one or the other of two political parties. Says Archbishop Whately : "Not only specious but real and solid arguments, such as it would be diffi- cult or impossible to refute, may be urged against a proposition which is nevertheless true, and may be satisfactorily established by a preponderance of probability."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 201
At the origin of the Revolution there were men, as it was natural there should be, who adhered to the old regime. They had been loyal to the king all their lives, and they saw no good reason for rebellion. Others, more patriotic or more enthusias- tic, denounced them as tories or traitors and began soon to hate them and persecute them. The loyalists returned their ill- will with interest, and the two parties at once were separated by an impassable gulf. Those who adhered to the royal cause either sought protection in flight, or joined the army of the en- emy. Those who turned against their brethren became their most malignant and cruel foes. They even hounded on the savages to destroy with tomahawk and scalping-knife the very neighbors with whom, in other days, they " took sweet counsel and walked to the house of God in company." A civil war is the most terrible ordeal which men are ever called to pass through. Proscription and confiscation by the majority always fall with crushing weight upon the minority. " Woe to the van- quished," cried the conquering Gaul, Brennus, as with false weights he appropriated the redemption money of the old Ro- mans ; " woe to the vanquished " was the only rule to which loyalists were subjected, whether they were passive or active, flying or fighting. Congress recommended a sweeping confisca- tion of all their property to replenish their e.xhausted treasury ; but so many agents fingered the money in its passage, that but a small share of it reached its destination. The legislature of New Hampshire proscribed sevent)'-six persons who had for va- rious reasons, and at different times, left the state. The whole estate of twenty-eight of these was confiscated. No distinction was made between British subjects occasionally resident in the state, American loyalists who had absconded through fear, and avowed tories whb took up arms against their country. They were together put upon the black list as outlaws ; as men who had " basely deserted the cause of liberty, and manifested a disposi- tion inimical to the state and a design to aid its enemies in their wicked purposes." Some show of justice was observed toward the creditors of the proscribed, and some compassion was shown to their deserted families : but all this kindness was discretion- ary with the county trustees, who were authorized to take pos- session of the estates, real and persona), of tories, and to sell them at auction. The net profit of all those sales to the state was hardly worth computing. Irresponsible power is always abused ; and patriots are not exempt from the common infirmi- ties of our race.
202 HISTORY OF
CIRCULATING MEDIUM.
All civilized nations, in modern times, have issued paper money in periods of distress. It is an expedient which has often produced temporary relief, but has usually resulted in national bankruptcy. No legislature can give intrinsic value to engraved paper, unless silver and gold are pledged for its redemption. An irredeemable currency always depends for its circulation on public opinion. That is ever fluctuating ; and so is the value of the money that is based upon it. The bills of credit, issued during colonial times, and the continental paper money of the revolutionary period, all depreciated in value ; and in some in- stances became absolutely worthless. All the earlier wars in which the colonies engaged were maintained by a paper cur- renc)', which always declined in value in proportion to the length of time it was in use. The reimbursement of several of these issues, by the British government, gave the people greater con- fidence in the paper money that was afterwards issued by con- gress. But, when millions of continental notes were thrown upon the public, having no security for their redemption but fu- ture taxation, no human power could prevent their decline in value. In New Hampshire such bills were made a legal tender ; but this law led to countless frauds and hastened the deprecia- tion of the money. The law was retrospective and made it legal to pay old debts with notes that were fast becoming worth- less. This was, of course, ruinous to trade and unjust to the creditor. Business was nearly suspended ; silver was hoarded ; knaves only prospered. The community held meetings, made speeches, petitioned congress for relief ; and finding nothing but circulars and specious arguments in favor of the worthless bills in return, for a time sat down in despair. But paper money gradually disappeared, and by common consent went into dis- use. Silver and gold reappeared and public confidence revived. All the states issued bills of their own which, while in use, va- ried from their par value to one shilling in the pound. Con- gress, during the war, issued two hundred millions in paper money, which rapidly passed through every stage of decline from par to zero, and finally became a dead loss.
SOCIAL AND MORAL EFFECTS OF THE WAR.
For eight long years the scattered and impoverished people of the United States were passing through the blood and smoke of the Revolutionary war. Scarcely for one hour, during all that period, did the blood cease to flow or the smoke to rise from the wasted land. Fire, famine and slaughter brought pov-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 203
erty, privation and suffering to every hearth-stone. From many a darkened window little children peered out into the mingled storm and demanded their sire " with tears of artless inno- cence." The whole number of men who enlisted in the conti- nental army during the entire war was 231,791. New Hamp- shire furnished of these 12,497. It is safe to affirm, though offi- cial statistics make the number less, that nearly one half of these were killed or disabled, and many of the other half had formed habits which unfitted them for industry or virtue. Camp life, if long continued, always makes men averse to the continu- ous labors of the field and shop. While the war lasted, agri- culture and manufactures necessarily declined. When peace re- turned it was difficult to revive them. Towns had been burned, cities sacked, fields desolated and the cheapest necessaries of civilized life, in many instances, must be created anew. If la- borers could be found, capital was wanting. A depreciated cur- rency crippled the hands of the industrious. Knaves, cheats and swindlers were watching to entrap the unwary. Morals had declined. Old Puritan customs had been suspended by tiie fiat of wa}-. The Sabbath had been desecrated ; the salaries of pas- tors declined with the currency of the times. They were obliged to minister with their own hands to their necessities, rather than to minister with their minds to their flocks. The alliance with France had introduced French infidelity ; and the high army office's placed the teachings of Voltaire above those of the Scriptures. It required long years of patient industry and care- ful economy of the wise and good, to restore the habits and vir- tues of " the good old times."
CHAPTER LVir.
HEAVY BURDEKS IMPOSED ON THE PEOPLE BY THE WAR, AND THE CONSEQtJENT DISCONTENT.
No less r
wrote Milton, after he had experienced the conflicts and triumphs of both. The victories of peace are achieved by moral forces, and are often harder to be secured than those where "fields are won." In our country, the same men who led our armies presided in our legislatures. Washington, " first in
204 HISTORY OF
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," guided the helm of state after the adoption of the new constitu- tion. At the same time, his companion in arms, General John Sullivan, presided over the people of New Hampshire. But, during the period of transition, from the restoration of peace, 1783, to the commencement of Washington's administration in 1789, the whole country was in a condition of feverish excite- ment. Rebellion, on a great scale, had repulted in independ- ence ; many of the people began to think that rebellion was a wholesome remedy for all social and political evils. In New Hampshire the whole population was poor, was in distress and in debt. The government, which was of their own creation, seemed to them to be able but unwilling or incompetent to aid them. They charged their distress upon the courts that enforced the payment of honest debts, upon the legislature which failed to make money plenty in every man's pocket. Tliey attempted to suppress both courts and legislature by violence. The wildest theories were broached and the most impracticable measures proposed. They fondly dreamed that paper money would sup- ply all their wants. They accordingly demanded large issues of paper bills " funded on real estate and loaned on interest," or irredeemable paper bills ; no matter how or when payable, paper bills must be had or the unwilling government must be com- pelled to yield to the people whose creature it was. They were determined " to assert their own majesty, as the origin of power, and to make their governors know that they were but the exec- utors of the public will." The legislature passed stay-laws and tender-laws, but no substantial relief came. The people of JNew Hampshire, after the return of peace, were in the condition of a patient enfeebled by long disease ; they clamored for curative -processes and popular nostrums which only increased the fatal malady. They held primary meetings, town meetings, county and state conventions, which resulted in the formation of an abortive party which demanded the abolition of the inferior courts and equal distribution of property and the canceling of all debts. This unmitigated agrarianism, it was thought, would bring back "the age of gold." The people of Massachusetts had set the example of rebellion against the courts of the law and the officers of the government.
Daniel Shay was the leader of the malcontents and the rebels were not subdued without an organized military force and the loss of some lives. During the session of the legislature in September, 1786, a crowd of discontented citizens from the counties of Rockingham and Cheshire, armed with bludgeons, scj'thes, swords and muskets, marched, with martial music, to Exeter and surrounded the church where the legislature was in
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 205
session, and entering the house demanded a compliance with their insane petition. The president, General Sullivan, then performed the office of the wise and good man, described by Virgil two thousand years ago :
" As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd, Mad are their motions and their tongues are loud ; And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly. And all the rustic arms that fury can supply ; If then some grave and pious man appear. They hush their noise and lend a listening ear ; He soothes with sober words their angry mood. And quenches their innate desire for blood."
All this the venerable hero and wise counselor accomplished, still the mob refused to disperse. They held the legislature " in durance vile," and even refused to allow the president room when he attempted to leave the house ; but, when they heard the cry from without : " Bring out the artillery," they retired for the night. The next day a numerous body of the state militia and cavalry drove them from their encampment without blood- shed, arresting about forty of the conspirators and dispersing the rest. Thus ended this absurd rebellion, and with it the popular demand for paper money.
Daniel Webster, New Hampshire's noblest son, who in later years earned for himself the title of " Defender and Expounder of the Constitution," in one of his speeches in the senate dis- coursed as follows respecting legal tender :
" But what is meant by the " constitutional currency," about which so much is said? What species or forms of currency does the constitution allow, and what does it forbid ? It is plain enough that this depends on what we understand by currency. Currency, in a large and perhaps in a jtist sense, includes not only gold and silver and bank notes but bills of ex- change also. It may include all that adjusts exchanges and settles balances in the operations of trade and business. But if we understand by currency the legal viomy of the country, and that which constitutes a lawful tender for debts, and is the^^tatute measure of value, then, undoubtedly, nothing is included but gold and silver. Most unquestionably there is no legal tender, and there can be no legal tender, in this country, under the authority of this government or any other, but gold and silver, either the coinage of our own mints or foreign coins, at rates regulated by congress. This is a constitu- tional principle, perfectly plain and of the very highest importance. The states are expressly prohibited from making anything but gold and silver a lender in payment of debts ; and although no such express prohibition is api>iied to congress, yet, as congress has no power granted to it, in this re- spect, but to coin money and regulate the value of foreign coins, it clearly has no power to substitute paper, or anything else, for coin, as a tender in payments of debts and in discharge of contracts. Congress has exercised this power fully in both its branches. It has coined mone\', and still coins it ; it has regulated the value of foreign coins, and still regulates their value. The legal tender, therefore, the constitutional standard of value, is estab- lished, and cannot be overthrown. To overthrow it would shake the whole system. The constitutional tender is the thing to be preserved, and it ought to be preserved sacredly, under all circumstances."
2o6 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LVIII.
CAPTAIN JOHN PAUL JONES.
The connection of John Paul Jones, the most famous naval commander of our revolutionary times, with Portsmouth deserves special notice. The real name of this brave captain was John Paul. He was a Scotchman, son of the ijardener of the Earl of Selkirk. He commenced a life at sea at the age of fifteen; and alter a suitable apprenticeship took command of a merchant vessel. Durins: a vovage to Tobago, his crew mutinied ; and in an assault made upon himself Captam Paul killed the leader. He was tried for manslaughter at Tobago and honorably acquit- ted. On his return to England, where the story had preceded him greatly exaggerated, he was threatened with a second trial, contrary to right and law. To escape injustice he emigrated to America, adding to his family name the nomme de guerre of Jones. He immediately took service under Commodore Hop- kins in the expedition against New Providence. His gallant conduct in this expedition gave him command of a sloop of twelve guns. With this vessel he captured several prizes. His next command was of a new ship of war, built at Portsmouth, called the Ranger. This vessel was a privateer, carrying eight- een guns and one hundred and fifty men. She sailed from Portsmouth early in 1778. Captain Jones landed at White- haven, Cumberlandshire, and set fire to one of the vessels in the harbor ; but the inhabitants succeeded in extinguishing the flames. He then sailed along the coast of Scotland, landing on the estate of the Earl of Selkirk, with the intention of taking him prisoner ; but his absence in parliament defeated that pur- pose. His crew, however, plundered the palace and carried away the ])late .nnd other valuables. For this he was censured ; but the laws of privateering then in use would justify private warfare. The property, howev-er, was returned hy Dr. Fiaiiklin, then minister to France, whither Jones sailed with his booty. He again put to sea, with the Ranger, and appeared off the Irish coast. Learning that a royal ship, called the Drake, mount- ing twenty-two guns, was in the harbor of Waterford, Jones chal- lenged her captain to combat, mentioning, at the same time, his force of men and metal. The challenge was accepted, the battle fought, and Jones, as usual, was victorious. The British loss in this engagement was one hundred and five killed and seventy-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 207
two wounded. Captain Jones lost only twelve men and nine were wounded. Soon after this victory he left the Ranger for the command of "the Bonne Homme Richard" in which he achieved such glorious success on the high seas and on the coast of England. With his change of vessels his connection with New Hampshire ceased.
CHAPTER LIX.
GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN.
General Sullivan has been the subject of cold commenda- tion or of severe criticism by the historians of the American Revolution. Because he was unsuccessful in one or two of his military campaigns, his services as a warrior have been under- valued. In this department of the public service, success is equivalent to merit. But General Sullivan has other claims to respect and veneration from the citizens of New Hampshire, besides his military career. He is one of the great men of our state, whose worthy deeds posterity should not willingly let die. His father, John Sullivan, was a native of Limerick, Ireland, born in 1692. He was a man of culture and gave to his sons a private education which enabled them to share in many depart- ments of public life. The father of General Sullivan emigrated to this country in 1723. His acquaintance with his future wife commenced on tfie voyage from their native land. He settled at Benvick in Maine, where his son John was born in 1740. Some authorities maintain that his home was on the New Hamp- shire side of the river, in Dover. His education was limited to his father's instruction and such meagre tuition as the common school then afforded. He studied law with Hon. Samuel Liver- more* of Portsmouth, with whom he afterwards served as dele- gate in congress from New Hampshire. As a student-at-law he gave evidence of superior abilit}', and in some instances took charge of cases in justice courts when Mr. Livermore was ab-
* Mr. C. W. Brewster gives the following account of Jolln Sullivan's introduction to lawyer Livermore's family; It was not far from the year 175S, that a lad of seventeen years, with a rough dress, might have been seen knocking at the door of this house and asking for the Squire, who listens to his application and inquires: "And what can you do, my lad, if I take yon ? **Oh, I can split wood, take care of the horse, attend to the gardening : and perhaps find some spare time to read a little, if you can give me the privilege.' He was immediately in- stalled in the kitchen ; and by the' aid of his study, intelligence and enterprise soon passed into the office and the parlor ; and at length became the colleague in office of his master.
208 HISTORY OF
sent. Mr. Sullivan established himself in business in Durham, which became his permanent home. His practice was extensive, and as an advocate he held a high rank. " He was self- possessed, gifted with strong povt'er of reasoning, a copious and easy elocution, and the effect of these qualities was aided by a clear and musical voice."
He received a major's commission in the militia in 1772, and thus commenced his military career, which is recited elsewhere in this history. In the first convention which met at E.xeter, in 1774, after the dissolution of the last legislative assembly of the state by John Wentworth, Mr. Sullivan and Nathaniel Folsom were appointed delegates to represent the province of New Hampshire in the first general congress which was to meet in Philadelphia in the following September. Near the close of that year, John Sullivan and John Langdon, with a gallant band of patriots, took possession of Fort William and Mary, im- prisoned the garrison and carried away one hundred barrels of powder. This bold enterprise cut him off forever from hope of royal favor. In January, 1775. these leaders of the first as- sault upon royal power in New Hampshire were elected by the second independent convention of the state, again assembled at E.xeter, representatives to the second continental congress. This repeated evidence of the confidence of the people in Mr. Sul- livan shows how he was regarded as a leader in war and legisla- tion. In June of that year he was made one of the eight brigadier-generals selected by congress to manage the Revolu- tionary war.
Some anecdotes are recorded which illustrate the tact and skill of General Sullivan in managing a mob. In October, 1782, the people in the western part of the state were determined to pre- vent the regular session of the court at Keene. General Sullivan was then attorney-general of the state. The court was helpless as to a posse comitatus, for the people were opposed to them. General Sullivan became their sole defender. In the woods be- fore entering the town, he took from the portmanteau of his servant his regimentals and "arrayed himself in full military attire — the blue coat and bright buttons which he had worn in the retreat from Long Island, the cocked hat whose plume had nodded over the foe at Brandywine, and the sword which at Germantown had flashed defiance in front of battle. Thus equipped, he mounted his powerful gray charger and conducted the court into town." The judges took their seats without mo- lestation. Sullivan, with noble port and majestic mien, stood erect in the clerk's desk. His presence awed the turbulent throng. He addressed them with boldness and dignity. They shouted "The Petition!" "The Petition!" He ordered them to
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 209
present their petition. He received it and passed it over to tlie court. He tlien addressed tiie crowd, courteously but firmly re- buked their temerity in attempting to interrupt the business of the court, andperemptorily ordered them to withdraw. They obeyed with reluctance, but without violence. Arthur Livermore, then a youth of si.xteen, witnessed this scene ; and even in extreme old age retained a lively recollection of the skill, eloquence and personal appearance of Sullivan. "I thought," he said, "if I could only look and talk like that man, I should want nothing higher or better in this world."
In the riot at Exeter, in 1786, when a company of armed men surrounded the house where the legislature was sitting. General Sullivan came out and addressed the mob, and ordered them to disperse. Tliough they did not obey his mandate till they feared an assault from the hastily armed militia, still the manly pres- ence, heroic bearing and glowing eloquence of General Sullivan were never forgotten by those who witnessed the scene.
In a work ascribed to President John Wheelock and entitled "Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College," we find the following allusion to General Sullivan. In the month of January, 1789, "the senate and house of representatives passed an act granting to the trustees of Dartmouth College a valuable tract of eight miles square, about forty-two thousand acres, lying north of Stewartstown. The forcible and energetic eloquence of General Sullivan, that eminent commander in the Revolu- tionary war, in the debate on the subject cannot be forgotten. It drew him from his bed, amidst the first attacks of fatal dis- ease ; and it was the last speech he ever made in public."
CHAPTER LX.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND THE PARTIES FORMED AT ITS RATI- FICATION.
In no state was there a deeper interest manifested concerning the adoption of the constitution than in New Hampshire. This was the ninth state in the order of voting, and a favor.nble vote would at once give vitality to the new government. The first session of the convention to consider the subject was held at Exeter in Febniary, 1788. The most distingviished statesmen and civilians of the state were among its members. General
14
210 HISTORY OF
John Sullivan was its president ; and John Langdon, Josiah Bartlett, John Taylor Oilman, John Pickering, Samuel Liver- more, Joshua Atherton and Joseph Badger sat in the council, to deliberate, discuss and vote upon this question of momentous interest.
" Long time in even scale the battle hung."
Mr. Atherton led the opposition. His attack upon that clause which guarantied the slave trade till iSoS was especially pa- thetic and eloquent. No modern advocate of human rights has surpassed him in the passion and logic of his arguments. The decision of the question was so doubtful, that the friends of the constitution asked for an adjournment that the minds of the people of the state might be more fully known. The conven- tion adjourned to meet in Concord in the following June. A session of four days was sufficient to complete the work. The last day was one of intense interest to the members and specta- tors. The final vote stood fifty-seven in favor of the constitu- tion and forty-six against it. "While the secretary was calling over the names of the members and recording their votes, there was a death-like silence ; every bosom throbbed with an.xious expectation." Every class of the immense crowd that thronged the church was in some way interested in the result ; some from honest convictions of its expediency, some from hope of gain, some from its influence in other states, and many from decided hostility to its provisions. Messengers were dispatched in every direction to announce the result of the vote of New Hampshire, and to assure the hesitating states that a government was le- gally established without their aid. The convention of New York was then in session, and the news from New Hampshire undoubtedly hastened, if it did not modify, the votes of its members. At Portsmouth, the chief commercial town in the state, the ratification was celebrated by every demonstration of popular good will.
NEW roLrricAL parties in the united states.
The only parties in colonial times, with the exception of those that were local or personal, were the supporters and opponents of the royal prerogative, distinguished, as in England, by the familiar names of whigs and tories. In the war for Independ- ence the tory party became extinct. The most bigoted of them left the country ; others, by reluctant concessions to the whigs, were allowed to remain as citizens in the Union. The parties known as federalists and anti-federalists appeared for the first time in the convention that framed the constitution. This di-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 211
vision of parties is the most natural tliat could be conceived of, in the condition of our country at that time. The federalists wished to strengthen the general government at the expense of the individual states that entered into the confederation ; the anti-federalists desired to maintain the independence of the states at all hazards, and give to the central government no powers inconsistent with it. The constitution, as finally adopted, was a compromise between the two parties. It was impossible to organize the government on any other terms. If either party had insisted on the adoption of its own principles, no organic laws would have been framed, and each state would have re- tained that political independence which had been achieved by all in the Revolutionary war. So governments are always estab- lished when the power to form them resides with the people. " The essence of politics is compromise," sa}'s Lord Macaulay. The history of the United States shows that where this remedy for party or sectional feuds is denied, war is the only alternative. After the government went into operation under the new consti- tution, every important measure took the name of federal or re- publican, according as its advocates belonged to one of those parties. Hence, the Funding System of Hamilton, the National Bank, the proclamation of Neutrality, the Alien and Sedition laws, the repeal of the Judiciary Act, the purchase of Louisiana, the Embargo, and the second war itself, were all assailed by the opposition. Federalists and republicans violently opposed one another, at first from principle, afterwards from habit, though they often changed places.
On the fourth of ]u\y. 1788, the ten states which had ratified the constitution held a magnificent celebration of that event in the city of Philadelphia. Every symbol, ornament and repre- sentation that could make the occasion imposing and attractive was displayed to the public admiration. Hon. James Wilson, who had been an active member of the constitutional conven- tion, made an eloquent oration, in which he said, concerning the new form of government : " Delegates were appointed to delib- erate and propose. They met and performed their delegated trust. The result of their deliberations was laid before the peo- ple. It was discusssed and scrutinized, in the fullest, fairest and severest manner, by, speaking, by writing, by printing, by in- dividuals and by public bodies, by its friends and its enemies. What was the issue ? Most favorable, most glorious to the sys- tem ! In state after state, at time after time, it was ratified, in some states, unanimously ; on the whole by a large and respect- able majority."
The day and the occasion allowed a little exaggeration. The ratification had not been secured without bitter controversy.
212 HISTORY OF
Party spirit ran high, and sometimes broke out in acts of vio- lence. The cities were generally in favor of the new constitu- tion, because they hoped from it a renewal of trade and com- mercial prosperity. The rural districts were opposed to it. In Providence, R. I., a mob of a thousand men, headed by a judge of the supreme court, compelled the citizens to omit that part of their fourth of July celebration which had special reference to the ratification of the constitution. In other cases, mobs it- tacked the offices of papers that advocated its adoption. The strong passions which years of war had kindled were easily ex- cited by opposition. Those who opposed the war had been sub- jected to imprisonment, confiscation and even death. Those who opposed the new order of things were deemed worthy of similar treatment. The special friends of the constitution called themselves federalists and their opponents anti-federalists, though the names in no sense revealed tiie principles of the two par- ties, and might with propriety have been interchanged.
The new constitution was something more than a league of- fensive and defensive ; and its supporters were something more than federalists, a word, which, from its etymolog}', signifies the supporters of a league or covenant. The federalists advocated a %trong central government, in all its delegated functions above and superior to the individual states. The anti-federalists were not opposers of the union, but of consolidation. They held to the sovereignty of the slates, and to a strict interpreta- tion of the powers granted by the states to the general govern- ment. They manifested no disposition to resist the will of the majority; but advocated a speedy alteration of the constitution, so as to accord more fully with state rights. While the adop- tion of the constitution was under discussion in the several states, all the objections were urged against it which were brought forward in the convention that framed it. It was at its birth the child of compromises. So it continued to be after its adoption. Some objected that it gave too much power, others that it gave too little, to the general government.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 213
CHAPTER LXI.
CONDITION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION.
After the establishment of a responsible government over the entire union, New Hampshire advanced, slowly but surely, in legislation, finance, education and morals. After the patient endurance of their distresses for a few years, the people ascer- tained both their origin and remedy. They learned that industry and economy and not violence nor legislation could restore the general prosperity. War had brought in its train burdensome taxes, heavy debts, a depreciated currency and degraded morals. With fewer laborers, larger returns from the soil and shop were demanded ; with diminished resources, increased revenues were needed. When the large souled patriots of that age saw their true interests, they took heart and banished fear. They accepted as a necessity past losses, and labored with energy for future gains. They were successful ; they gradually rid themselves of debt by purchasing their depreciated bills at a heavy discount and securing, on the credit of the state, liberal loans to meet the wants of the treasury'.
Wise men were called to administer the affairs of the state. After the adoption of the state constitution, in 1784, the long- tried, faithful and honest public servant, Meshech Weare, was for the last time elected president. Exhausted by the onerous duties of a long public life, and enfeebled by age, he resigned his office before the year expired ; and, after a lingering illness, died on the fifteenth of January, 1786, aged 73. He had held almost every important position in the state, and had maintained an untarnished reputation in all. General John Sullivan was elected to the vacant chair in 1786. During a period of trouble, confusion and violence, he presided over the state with dignity, discretion and success. He was succeeded in the chief mag- istracy of the state, in 1788, by John Langdon. The affections of the people vibrated like a pendulum between these illustri- ous men, the one distinguished most as a commander ; the other as a civilian. But in anticipation of the organization of the general government under the new constitution, Mr. Langdon was elected to the United States Senate. His colleague was Paine W'ingate. Samuel Livermore, Abiel Foster and Nicholas Gilman were chosen to represent the state in ihe first congress.
2 1 4 HISTORY OF
In 1789, General Sullivan was again elected president of the state. During this year, the last in which he held the pre::idency, General Washington visited New England. He came to Ports- mouth, where he met his companion in arms, much to the joy of Gener.al Sullivan and the satisfaction of a grateful people, who welcomed their chief with ever}' demonstration of delight.
During the ne.xt year, important measures were adopted by the congress of the United States to give stability and perma- nency to the government and place the public credit upon a firm foundation. Provision was made for funding the debt of the nation. Two hundred million dollars of the old continental cur- rency had been redeemed for five millions, forty dollars of paper for one of silver. Many persons proposed that the certi- ficates of indebtedness for fifty-four million dollars, now due, should be purchased at their present worth and not for their orig- inal value. But a more honorable policy finally prevailed and the credit of the country was restored. After a long and heated discusssion, the state debts were assumed by the general govern- ment. This was not brought about without a discreditable com- promise between the friends and enemies of the measure. The influence and votes of certain southern members were secured by a promise of locating the seat of government on the Potomac. The sum of the foreign, domestic and state debts was about eighty millions of dollars. Alexander Hamilton was the author of this plan, which finally proved of immense advantage to all parties.
New Hampshire was dissatisfied with the amount granted to her by the general government, as her share of twenty-one mil- lion five hundred thousand dollars of state debts assumed by the United States. She had contributed to the support of the war three hundred and seventy-five thousand and fifty-five dollars, and received in return only three hundred thousand dollars. Other states received more than they had expended. This dis- tribution was regarded as unjust, and called forth a spirited memorial to congress on the subject. The legislature set forth in forcible language their objections to the measure ; and in conclusion solemnly " remonstrated against the said act, so far as it relates to the assumption of the state debts," and requested that " if the assumption must be carried into eft'ect, New Hamp- shire might be placed on an equal footing with other states." Virginia and New Hampshire were at that early day found fight- ing shoulder to shoulder for state rights.
This hostility to the funding system of Hamilton was not the only instance in which the rights of New Hampshire were as- serted in opposition to the general government. During the war of tlie Revolution the people of Portsmouth were actively
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 215
engaged in privateering. Early in 1788, Jolin Paul Jones sailed from Portsmouth in the Ranger, a ship destined to capture Eng- glish commercial vessels. This bold captain afterwards per- formed marvelous exploits in this department of naval warfare. The citizens of Portsmouth also fitted out a privateer named The McClary. This vessel was authorized by the legislature to make prizes of British ships. She captured and brought home an American vessel bound to a port of the enemy laden with supplies. She was adjudged by the court of the state a lawful prize and given over to her captors. The owners of the vessel afterwards appealed to congress for redress ; and the case being referred to the United States court, the judgment of the court below was reversed ; and the value of the prize and her cargo was ordered to be refunded to the owners. The legislature remonstrated against this " violation of the dignity, sovereignty and independence of the state." In conclusion, they say : "Can the rage for annihilating all the power of the states, and redu- cing this extensive and flourishing country to one domination, make the administrators blind to the danger of violating all the principles of our former governments, to the hazard of convul- sions in endeavoring to eradicate every trace of state power e.x- cept in the resentment of the people ? " The language of the re- monstrance was sufficiently bold and spirited ; but it produced no impression and no answer except a demurrer, which, accord- ing to the authority of Judge Harrington of Vermont, " is where, one party having told his story, the other party says, what then I "
Here " a little story " of President Lincoln is very pertinent by way of illustration. During the late rebellion, when the border states, one after another, were making bitter complaints against the aggressions of the general government, the president said he was remirtded of the remark of an old lady in Spring field, who, being overburdened with work, allowed her large family of children to take care of themselves. When any one of them made a loud outcry from the pain occasioned by a fall, a cut finger, or a blow from some older child, she exclaimed, " I am glad to hear that ; for I know that one child is still alive." New Hampshire never failed to show a vigorous vitality, in peace and war ; but, at this crisis, discretion was regarded as the better part of valor, and the decision of the United States court be- came "the supreme law of the land."
During the year 1787, the last dispute about the boundaries of Mason's grant was adjusted. The Masonian proprietors claimed that the western line of the original grant, which was sixty miles from the sea, should be a curve to correspond with the coast line of the Atlantic ocean. The legislature was peti- tioned to determine the question. It was finally decided that
2l6 HISTORY OF
sixty miles should be measured from the sea into the interior from the south and east lines of the state, and that the westepi termini of these two lines should be united by a straight line, and the part of the state so cut off should constitute the Ma- sonian grant. Between this straight line and the curve, which the proprietors claimed, a large territory was left open to dis- pute. The proprietors purchased the title to this segment of the state. At the same time the heirs of Allen, whose purchase of Mason had been declared null and void seventy years be- fore, revived their claim to the same territory under dispute. The Masonian proprietors compromised this claim, and, after one hundred and thirty years of dispute about bounds and titles, the land had rest.
During the first twenty years of the existence of the new con- stitution of the United States, the local legislatures usurped many of the functions of the general government. The legisla- ture of New Hampshire esiablished post-offices and post-routes, issued patents, determined the value of her paper money when greatly depreciated, chartered banks, and regulated all kinds of internal improvements. In 1791 they established "four routes for posts, to be thereafter appointed, to ride in and through the interior of the state." The mail in the country was then carried on horseback, once in two weeks. The post-rider received a small salary from the state, for carrying public letters and pa- pers ; and a postage of six pence on single letters for every forty miles, and four pence for any less distance. Post-offices were established in ten of the principal towns ; and post-masters were allowed two pence on every letter and package that passed through their hands. These provisions, limited as they were, were of immense importance in facilitating communications be- tween different parts of the state. At that time the postal de- partment of the general government was very defective, and several weeks were required to convey intelligence from the seat of government to the interior of New Hampshire. The state legislature in some instances secured to inventors the exclusive right to their inventions, thus exercising the duties of commis- sioners of patents. The necessity of the case rendered such legislation expedient.
The stale constitution of 1784 provided for its revision after seven years. Accordingly a convention was called for that pur- pose in 1 79 1. The delegates met at Concord on the seventh of September, 1791, and chose Samuel Livermore president, and John Calf secretary. After a brief session they appointed a committee to revise tlxe constitution and propose amendments, and then adjourned to P'ebruary, 1792. The late Governor Plumer was the most active member of this committee. He
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 2 17
was particularly anxious to secure the abolition of all religious tests in the organic laws of the state. He therefore proposed, instead of former provisions, an amendment broad enough to in- clude Roman Catholics and Deists. This failed ; but a propo- sition to strike from the constitution that clause which requires ofifice-holders to be "of the Protestant religion" was voted by the convention, but rejected by the people. The convention which met in 1850 again recommended its repeal, almost unan- imously, but the people, by a large majority, refused to adopt the change, and that clause still remains in the constitution.
The convention called in lygi met four times, and twice sub- mitted amendments to the people ; one of which shows a re- markable phase of the public mind, which proposed to exclude attorneys-at-law from a seat in either branch of the legislature. They also recommended the enlargement of the senate and the diminution of the house ; but all these propositions failed, and only some unimportant changes were adopted by the people, among them, the substitution of governor for president, as the title of the chief magistrate. The state was also divided into districts for the choice of the twelve senators. The legislature was authorized, from time to time, to make these districts " as nearly equal as may be," " by the proportion of direct taxes paid by the said districts." The constitution thus modified has remained in force to this day, with a single amendment recom- mended by the convention of 1850, which strikes out those clauses which ordained a property qualification for the governor, senators and representatives of the state. Although it is gen- erally admitted that the senate is too small and the house too large to secure the best results of a republican government, still the people have never chosen to change this ancient constitution of the two houses. '
CHAPTER LXII.
LANDS HELD BY "FREE AND COMMON SOCCAGE."
When America was discovered, the feudal system prevailed in all Europe, This was admirably phuuicd to perpetuate serfdom and arrest progress. In the county of Kent, in England, the old Suxon tenure of free and common soccage had been pre- served. I'his system imposed and entailed but few burdens
2l8 HISTORY OF
upon the holder of land. It was devisable by will and not for- feited by crime. It was subject to the law of primogeniture ; but that was modified by local customs among which was " gav- elkind " or an equal distribution among all the male chil- dren. James I., when he issued his patent to the Council of Plymouth, made the grant to be holden by them and their as- signs in free and common soccage, like his manor of East Greenwich in the county of Kent, and not in capite, or by knight- service. This caprice of the monarch was of immense import- ance to the occupants of this grant. They assumed from the beginning that they owned their estates in fee simple ; hence, as early as 1641, "the great and general court of Massachu- setts " ordered and declared " that all lands and heritages shall be free from all fines and licenses upon alienations, and from all heriots, wardships, liveries, primer seisin, year and day waste, escheats and forfeitures upon the death of parents or ancestors, natural or unnatural, casual or judicial, and that forever." Here a whole catalogue of grievances, that had been the growth of centuries, was swept away by a single enactment ; and'the mod- ern Solomon retained nothing of his royal perogatives and feu- dal duties but one fifth of all the gold and silver in the land, which was never destined to glitter upon his person or clink in his coffers. By the voluntary and cordial union of New Hamp- shire with Massachusetts, in 1641, her laws became our laws. The frequent emigrations from the older to the younger state strengthened those bonds. There are probably no two states in the Union, whose customs, habits, laws and institutions are more nearly identical.
CHAPTER LXIII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Highways are a very good standard of civilization. The sav- age has paths or trails where men on foot can move in single file, but no roads. Half-civilized nations construct bridle-paths in which sure-footed mules or horses may creep along and carry the traveler up the sides and over the ridges of lofty mountains. Matured art builds a royal highway or railroad over the same rugged steeps, and conveys in safety both men and goods over ranges once deemed insuperable. Among nations governed by
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 219
a monarch, the best road is called " the king's highway," be- cause it serves for the transportation of the " king's troops " and munitions of war to the field of conflict. The great mili- tary roads of the Romans were made for this purpose, and were classed among the most wonderful creations of their practical skill. Macaulay tells us that a traveler, even at midnight, can discover when he passes from a Protestant to a Catholic coun- try in Europe, by the condition of the roads. Protestantism and progress are always associated. The jolting of the carriage and the clashing of the wheels reveal a land where " ignorance is the mother of devotion " and the enemy of liberty.
In our own state, we ha\'e had every variety of road, from the bridle-path marked only by "spotted trees" to the railroad where passengers and freight move at a speed of thirty miles an hour. This progress is happily indicated by the different modes of ascending the White Mountains. First, explorers climbed their rugged sides, carefully picking their way among trees and rocks. Next, a bridle-path was cleared, so that even ladies could ride on safe, well trained horses, to the summit. Now a railroad lifts the lame and lazy, without the motion of a muscle, to the highest point in New England, where winds and storms expend their utmost fury. The first roads that were made through the woods were very imperfect, unfit for carriage use. The trees were felled and the stones removed, so that a man or woman on horseback could travel over them with tolerable ease. The streams were forded or crossed by rafts or boats, when they could be had. The common mode of travel was on horseback. Rev. Grant Powers, in his " Historical Sketches," has given us a graphic account of a perilous ride of a lady in 1731. Mrs. Anna Powers, the wife of Captain Peter Powers of Mollis, on a summer day went'to visit her nearest neighbor ten miles from her home. The Nashua river was easily forded in the morning ; but a sudden shower in the afternoon had caused it to overflow its banks. The lady must return to her home that evening. The horse entered the stream and, immediately losing his foot- hold, began to swim. The current was rapid and the water flowed above the back of the horse, He was swept down the stream, but still struck out for the opposite bank. At one in- stant his fore feet rested on a rock in the stream, and he was lifted above the tide. In a moment he plunged forward again, and threw his rider from her seat. She caught his flowing mane and in a few moments the strong animal bore her up the steep bank, and both were saved. Such incidents were not uncom- mon before the age of bridges. As the settlements advanced into the interior the roads were made better, and carriages, with some difficulty, passed over them. The bridge over the Piscata-
220 HISTORY OF
qua, connecting the towns of Newington and Durham, just be- low the outlet of Little Bay, built in 1794, was a magnificent structure for that day. Dr. Dwight thus describes it :
" Piscataqua 'bridge is formed in three sections; two of ttiem horizontal, the third arched. The whole is built of timber. The horizontal parts on wooden piers or trestles, distant from each other twenty-three feet. Of these there are one hundred and twenty-six; sixty-one on the northwestern and sixty-five on the southeastern side of the arch. The arch is triple, but no part of the work is overhead. The chord is two hundred and forty-four feet, and the versed sine nine feet and ten inches. This arch is the largest in the United States, contains more than seventy tons of timber, and was framed with such exactness that not a single stick was taken out after it had once been put in its place. The whole length of the planking is two thousand two hundred and forty-four feet. The remaining three hundred and fifty-six are made up by the abutments and the island. The expense was sixty-eight thous.and dollars."
The first bridge over the Connecticut was built near Bellows Falls, in 1785, by Colonel Enoch Hale. The first New Hamp- shire turnpike, from Portsmouth to Concord, was chartered in 1796. Soon after this, a second was built from Claremont to Amherst, a third from Walpole to Ashby and a fourth from Leb- anon to Boscawen. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, corporations were authorized to build such roads and take toll of all travelers ; but as wealth increased the people became weary of these impediments to locomotion and made the turnpikes free highways.
Mills were among the first wants of the colonists. In some of the interior settlements men often carried their corn ten miles to be ground ; sometimes upon their backs. The only al- ternative was to pound the corn in mortars much as the Ind- ians were wont to do. The first settlers of Portsmouth and Dover were obliged to carry their corn to Boston to be ground ; but they soon had a mill both for sawing and grinding at New- ichewannoc falls. This was the Indi.m name for Berwick.
In 1748, the inhabitants of Rumford, Canterbury and Con- toocook petitioned His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, to fur- nish soldiers to man a deserted garrison in Rumford for the following reasons: because, as they say in their petition, "we are greatly distressed for want of suitable gristmills ; that Mr. Henry Lo.yejoy has, at great expense, erected a good mill at a place the most advantageously situated to accommodate the three towns. This is the only mill in the three towns that stands un- der the command of the garrison.'' They therefore pray that the garrison may again be manned that they may enjoy the use of the mill protected by its cannon. Mills for the carding of wool and the dressing of cloth were also among the earliest wants of a people whose clothing was entirely of domestic manufacture. The labor of that day was mostly manual. The
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 221
farmer and mechanic could each say with an apostle of old: " These hands have ministered to my necessities." Rev. David Sutherland of Bath, says :
"The people in early times were a very plain people, dressing in home- spun cloth. Every house had its loom and spinning-wheel, and almost every woman was a weaver. Carding-machines were just introduced, [at the be- ginning of the nineteenth century] and clothiers had plenty of work. The first coat I had cost me a dollar and a half per yard, spun and woven by one of my best friends ; and I know not that lever had a better. For many years there was not a single wheeled carriage in town. People who ow'ned horses rode them; and those who had them not went on foot. Husbands carried their wives behind them on pillions. More than one half of the church-going people went on foot. Sleighs or sleds were used in winter. I have seen ox-sleds at the meeting-house. For years we had no stoves in the meeting-house of Bath ; and yet in the coldest weather, the house was always full."*
SHIP-BUILDING.
In the early history of New Hampshire ship-building was one of the most profitable branches of industry-. Lumber and staves were among the chief e.\ports of the state for several years of its infancy. Its forests abounded in timber ; when this became known in Europe, the export of masts, spars and ship timber furnished employment for many of its inhabitants. Merchant vessels, fishing schooners and ships for the royal navy were built at all convenient places. ' The king, as above stated, claimed the largest and tallest pines for his own use. Later in the history of the state vessels were built in the same place for home ser- vice. The timber used in the construction of the Constitution frigate, the famous "Old Ironsides," was taken from the woods of Allenstown. on the border of the Merrimack, fifty miles from the ship-yard. So of the Independence seventj'-four, the Con- gress and several other vessels of war. Ships of war were also built at Portsmouth in early times, viz : the Faulkland of fifty- four guns, in 1690 ; the Bedford Galley, thirty-two guns, in 1696 ; the America of forty guns, in 1749 ; the Raleigh of thirty-two guns, in 1776; the Ranger of eighteen guns, in 1777 ; and a ship of seventy-four guns, called the America, was launched at Portsmouth, November 5, 1782, and presented to the king of France by the congress of the United States. An examination of the custom-house books kept at Boston shows that as early as 1769 forty-five vessels were registered from New Hampshire. Massachusetts then had only seventy built in that state. From that day to the present, ship-building has ever been an impor- tant branch of industry on the banks of the Piscataqua.
* A part of the Dr. Chadbourne house at the corner of Main and Montgomer>' streets, in Concord, is the oldest building in that city. It was built about 1726, as a block-house for de- fence against the Indians, and contains timber enough 10 make half-a-dozen of the sheUs which serve for modern houses. Both the first male and the first female white child bom in Concord first saw the light in the house.
222 HISTORY OF
THE STEAMBOAT A NEW HAMPSHIRE INVENTION.
Hon. Clark Jillson of Worcester, Mass., in a letter to the Bos- ton journal, dated February 22, 1S74, says: " There is no re- liable historical evidence to show that John Fitch was the inven- tor of steam navigation in this country, from the fact that the progress of that art cannot be traced back to him but it can be traced to Robert Fulton, and from him directly to Captain Sam- uel Morey, and to no one else." The same holds true with regard to the claims of James Rumsey. The writer adds: "It is settled, beyond all question, that Mr. Morey had launched his boat upon the waters of New Hampshire before Fulton accom- plished the same thing in New York. It is also a well estab- lished fact that Fulton visited Morey, at his home, for the pur- pose of witnessing his successful experiment before he [Fulton] had launched any kind of steam craft upon the Hudson ; and it can be shown that Morey had been engaged in such experi- ments for years before ; so that the first practical steamboat ever seen upon American waters was invented by Captain Samuel Morey, the author of steam navigation as we see it to-day." This statement is confirmed by irrefutable testimony. We not only have the claim to the invention made by Mr. Morey in his life time, but the testimony of contemporaries who knew the facts, and of eye-witnesses who savv' the boat in motion upon the Connecticut river. The declarations of unimpeachable wit- nesses seem to prove that Fulton borrowed the most valuable portions of his invention from Mr. Morey. There can be no doubt that visits were exchanged between Mr. Morey and Mr. Fulton, and that the plans of Mr. Morey and his boat actually moving by steam upon the water were seen and studied by Ful- ton some years before he succeeded in propelling a boat by steam upon the Hudson.
Rev. Cyrus Mann, a native of Orford and familiar with the history of the town and of its citizens, vindicates the claims of Mr. Morey, in the Boston ^trwY/;:/-, in 1858. He writes : "So far as is known, the first steamboat ever seen on the waters of America was invented by Captain Samuel Morey of Orford, N. H. The astonishing sight of this man ascending the Connecti- cut river between Orford and Fairlee, in a little boat just large enough to contain himself and the rude machinery connected with the steam boiler, and a handful of wood for fire, was wit- nessed by the writer in his boyhood, and by others who yet sur- vive. This was as early as 1793, or earlier, and before Fulton's name had been mentioned in connection with steam navigation." This testimony is definite and explicit. The boat was seen in motion by the writer and by others still living when he wrote.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 223
We cannot for a moment doubt that Captain Samuel Morey, by his own unaided powers, invented a steamboat which he used on the Connecticut river some fourteen or fifteen years before the two claimants of this invention above mentioned successfully launched similar boats upon any other waters in America. Ful- ton's first voyage was from New York to Albany, in 1807. It must be admitted that Fulton was the first man who made the steamboat moved by paddles " a practical business success." But there are abundant proofs that he did not invent the princi- ple by which the boat was propelled ; and from the well attested fact that he visited Mr. Morey at Orford, and saw his little boat self-moved upon the Connecticut some years prior to his own successful trial of the same principle at Albany, it is possible, nay probable, that Mr. Fulton borrowed the invention from Morey. As early as 1780, Mr. Morey began his experiments upon steam, heat and light. He often visited Professor Silliman of Yale College, and conferred with him respecting the value of his dis- coveries. He took out two patents for the use of steam in pro- pelling machinery' before Fulton took out any, and Fulton saw two of Morey's models of boats before his successful boat, the " Clermont," was built. The contemporaries of Captain Morey in Orford firmly believed him to be the inventor of the first steamboat ever moved by paddle wheels in America, possibly the first in the world. Men who saw the boat move upon the river have recorded their testimony in his favor. The living relatives of Mr. Morey have in their possession papers confirm- ing the truths above stated ; and they aflirm that during his last illness, just before his death. Captain Morey believed and af- firmed that he was the first inventor of a steamboat, and that Fulton saw his models and his boat years before the " Cler- mont" moved on Ihe Hudson.
Mr. Bishop in his History of American Manufactures says, that on the fifth of June, 1790, "the steamboat built by John Fitch, propelled by twelve oars, made her first trip on the Dela- ware, as a passenger and freight boat between Philadelphia and Trenton, performing eighty miles between four o'clock a. m. and five P. M., against a strong wind all the way back, and si.xteen miles of the distance against current and tide. She thus ac- complished the most successful experiment in steam navigation as yet made in Europe or America. During four months she continued to perform regularly advertised trips between Phila- delphia, Trenton, Burlington, Bristol, Chester, Wilmington and Gray's Ferry, running about three thousand miles in the sea- son." Allowing this record to be true, it would seem that this invention, like many others, may be claimed by two or more persons, acting independently of each other.
224 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT BARTLETT.
Prior to the Revolutionary war, public offices were confined to a few leading families. A majority of these were citizens of Portsmouth. This was the only commercial town in the prov- ince, and merchants accumulated wealth more rapidly than farmers. Riches, royal favor and education, to a great extent, determined the candidates for office. The king, of course, se- lected his friends for governors, judges and councilors ; the people were guided by the same rule. The king's prerogative and the people's rights at length came into collision. War was the consequence. While the people were achieving their lib- erty, forming their constitution, organizing their government, enacting their laws, regulating their finance and providing for the general welfare, men of valor, culture and wisdom were selected as commanders, governors, judges and legislators. They were the right men in the right place, and were long retained in office. Such men were Weare, Sullivan, Langdon, Bartlett and Oilman. In 1790 the popular favorite as soldier and civilian. General Sul- livan, was appointed judge of the United States district court under the new constitution. It is very rare to find one man em- inent as a warrior, jurist and statesman. Hon. John Sullivan filled the positions of general, governor and judge with unques- tioned ability. In the election of his successor there was no choice by the people. From the three candidates, Josiah Bart- lett, John Pickering and Joshua Wentworth, the legislature chose, as chief magistrate, Josiah Bartlett. He was an eminent physician of Kingston, who gained great distinction in his pro- fession by his successful treatment of patients attacked by a malignant distemper in 1735 and in 1754. He had been pro- moted to places of civil power by Governor John Wentworth, but lost his favor by his zealous defence of the people's rights in 1775. He was made one of the justices of the superior court in 1782, and chief justice in 1783, and held those offices for nearly eight years. He served as chief magistrate from 1790, four years, with great acceptance to the public. In all his official relations he was a high-minded, honorable and patriotic servant of the people. He was selected, in ever}' instance, for the trust reposed in him, not for his party attachments, but for his fitness for the place. Men in those days prized wisdom more than party. Dr. Bartlett is said to be the only physician who ever occupied a
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 225
seat upon the bench of the supreme court of the state. After his election as president he, with great magnanimity, appointed his rival, Hon. John Pickering, to the seat he had vacated as judge, which place he filled with honor to himself and satisfac- tion to the public for five years. During the administration of President Bartlett the revised constitution went into operation and very important laws were passed regulating the highest in- terests of the state. Finance received special attention. The depreciated paper money was bought up and provision made for the liquidation of the debts of the state. The increase of com- merce in Portsmouth was thought to require greater banking facilities, and in 1792 the first bank in New Hampshire was in- corporated with a capital of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In 179 1 a law was enacted requiring the state to raise seven thousand five hundred pounds sterling for the support of common schools. This law placed the education of the people upon a solid foundation. The same year the New Hampshire Medical Society was established, which has contributed greatly to the elevation of the medical profession in the state. Dr. Jo- siah Bartlett was its first president. Toward the close of his fourth year in office President Bartlett, owing to the increasing infirmities of age, resigned the chair of state and retired to pri- vate life. He was soon after this event "gathered to his fathers," old and full of honors.
CHAPTER LXV.
CORN-MILLS AND SAW-MILLS.
The earliest instrument used for converting corn into meal was a stone mortar. In process of time the mortar was made ridged and the pestle notched at the bottom, so as to grate rather than pound the grain. Still later, the pestle was confined in a vertical condition by a cover, and turned by a horizontal crank. In process of time the mill was enlarged and the sweep was turned by a mule or by oxen. Finally, two stones were in- troduced and wind or water became the motive power. Water- mills existed in Rome under the empire. They were soon made known all over Europe ; though hand-mills and cattle-mills were retained in private houses for a long time after the erection of water-mills. Wind-mills were common in Holland and Ger-
'S
2 26 HISTORY OF
manjr in the fifteenth century. The want of small streams in the level countries in the north of Europe led to the use of wind-mills. Corn-mills propelled by water became common in England after the first Crusades. The warriors, in their travels through Europe and the East, saw and adopted many useful in ventions. It has been asserted that wind-mills were first built in America by the Dutch colonists. This may be doubted ; for a wind-mill, the first of the kind in New England, was taken down in 1632, in Watertown and rebuilt in Boston. This very year a pinnace, belonging to Captain Neal of Boston, was sent from the Piscataqua settlements, with si.xteen hogsheads of corn to be ground at the wind-mill on Copp's Hill recently erected there ; for there was no nearer mill.
The first saw-mill in New England, propelled by water, was probably built by New Hampshire colonists on Salmon Falls river, at a place called Newichewannoc in 1631. Provision was also made about the same time for a grist-mill by the pro- prietor of New Hampshire. From this time mills were rapidly multiplied in the colon)', both for sawing and grinding ; but in the ship-buildii'^ region of Portsmouth, the saw-mills far out- numbered the flour-mills. Before the Revolution, New Hamp- shire imported grain and flour ; but the war interrupted all trade and more attention was given to the raising of maize and wheat. By this means mills were multiplied. Previous to 1776 Exeter had ten corn-mills within its limits. Clapboards were exported from Plymouth, Mass., as early as 1623, but they were probably sawed and shaved by hand ; for the annals of Plymouth men- tion the erection of the first water-mill in that colony in 1633. Beekman states in his History of Inventions, that the first saw- mill in England was erected in 1663. In early periods the trunks of the trees were split with wedges and then hewn into boards and planks. Later in the history of Europe, saw-pits were used, and boards were cut by two men, one standing above and one below the log, in a saw-pit. Saw-mills driven by wind or water are said to have been built in Germany as early as the fourth cenfury ; but they were so little used that one author places their invention in the seventeenth centuiy. There were «aw-mills at Augsburg in 1322. Though they were introduced so late into England, they were for nearly a century often fired by mobs, who feared that sawyers would be thrown out of em- ploy by their frequent use. It seems from this narrative, that Captain Mason surpassed in enterprise the business men of his native land, for he anticipated his countrj-men by thirty years, in erecting a saw-mill to convert the forests of New Hamp- shire into ship timber. This he did when " bread was either brought from England in meal, or from Virginia in grain, and
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 227
sent to the wind-mill at Boston, there being none erected here." In 16S2, white pine merchantable boards were worth in New Hampshire thirty shillings per thousand feet ; white oak pipe- staves three pounds ; wheat five shillings, Indian corn three shillings per bushel, and silver six shillings per ounce. In 1661, the selectmen of Portsmouth granted Captain Pendleton liberty " to set up his wiiid-mill upon Fort Point, toward the beach, be- cause the mill is of such use to the people." In 1692, after the Indians destroyed the mills of York, ancient Agamenticus, the inhabitants of that town contracted with a citizen of Ports- mouth to erect a mill for grinding their corn. Special privileges were granted him for this new accommodation of people living in both states. When Lancaster was first settled, in 1764, there was no corn-mill nearer than Charlestown, which was one hun- dred and ten miles distant ; and all the surrounding country was a wilderness.
The first cotton factor)' in New Hampshire w-as established at New Ipswich, in 1804. In 1823 the state contained twenty- eight cotton and eighteen woolen factories, twenty-two distilleries, twenty oil-mills, one hundred and ninety-three bark-mills, 'three hundred and four tanneries, twelve paper-mills and fifty-four trip-hammers. The progress of manufactures in New Hamp- shire was very rapid from 1S20 to 1830. The amount of capital authorized and incorporated within the five years preceding 1825 was nearly six millions of dollars. Since that time manufactures have become the ruling industry of the state.
IRON WORKS IN NEW HAiMI'SHIRE.
Iron ore abounds in various localities in New Hampshire ; but the working of if has never proved profitable. Iron ore was early discovered in the vicinity of Portsmouth, and a quantity of it was shipped to England by the agent of Captain Mason, in 1634. Mr. Gibbons then wrote : "There is of three sorts — one sort that the myne doth cast forth as the tree doth gum, which is sent in a rundit. One of the other sorts we take to be very rich, there is a great store of it. For the other I do not know." This is sufficiently indefinite to satisfy a German metaphysician. Early in the eighteenth century, a chronicler speaks of "the noted Iron-works at Lamper Eel River; "but they were soon dis- continued. The same fate has attended the works set up at Exeter, Winchester, Gilmanton and Franconia. Large sums have been expended, at the last named place, in the erection of fur- naces ; but they have not been actively worked for some time past. " The specular o.xyd at Piermont is one of the richest ores in the United States, yielding from sixty to ninety per cent. of metallic iron."
228 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXVI.
ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN TAYLOR OILMAN.
The Oilman family have been among the most distinguished in our commonwealth. Exeter was their home. The ancestor of this illustrious race first came to Hingham and became a freeman of Massachusetts. He followed, in his old age, his three sons to Exeter, where he died. The descendants of these men all took an active part in building up the township of Exe- ter and promoting the welfare of the province. Nicholas Oilman held most responsible offices during the Revolutionary war. He was the father of John Taylor Oilman, who was first elected governor of the state in 1794. He held this office eleven years in succession, and, after an interregnum, three years more, making fourteen in all. No other man has held, and probably no other man ever will hold, the same elective office so long, and no man ever has filled it, nor probably ever will fill it, with greater credit to himself and honor to the state. Judge Smith, remarking of the citizens of Exeter, says : " It is no disparage- ment to any other family here to say that, in numbers and every- thing that constitutes respectability, the Gilmans stand at the head."
The administration of Oovernor Oilman marked a period of progress material, social, moral, literary and religious. Society was assuming a permanent form. Many important political and financial questions had been already settled. The constitution of the United States had gained full sway over all classes of cit- izens. The name anti-federal no longer described appropriately any political party. All were federalists with respect to their support of the central government. But the fundamental prin- ciples which gave birth to these opposing parties still lived. One class advocated the supremacy of the general government ; an- other maintained that the individual states had never surrendered their sovereignty. Hamilton was the great leader of the party which, under the name of Federalists, advocated the centraliza- tion of power. Jefferson was the founder of another party which, under the name of Republicans, vindicated state rights, and ultimately opposed all the leading measures of the other party. While Washington held the helm of state, his prudence, wisdom and reputation served to allay party animosities, though the Father of his country did not escape the venomous attacks
.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 229
of partisans. He was assailed by the basest of calumnies dur- ing the Revolutionary war, but his own manuscripts and letters have been sufficient to refute them all, and reveal, in private and public, the integrity of thai great man
"Who has left His awful memory A light for after times."
Washington was regarded as a federalist, though he was never under the influence of party spirit, so far as men could judge. Without boasting, he might have made the language of Milton his own :
" All my mind was set Serious to learn and know, and thence to do What might be public good: myself I thought Born to that end, bom to promote all truth And righteous things."
All his opinions were formed with candor and maintained with firmness. No other public man of that age was supposed to be free from party prejudices. The governor and a large majority of the legislature of New Hampshire were federalists. They supported the administration of Washington. While he was in power, the topic which e.xcited the most violent controversy was Jay's treaty. The Revolutionary war had left many important questions between the two countries unsettled. Boundaries were to be established, claims to be adjusted, commerce to be regu- lated and the rights of citizenship to be determined. A treaty was negotiated by Mr. Jay, containing twenty-eight distinct pro- visions, some of them of vital importance to both the " high contracting parties." The treaty was in many respects objec- tionable, and in others defective, yet it was the best that could then be secured. England was still haughty and imperious, and not very kindly disposed to her rebellious children. This treaty was condemned in aflvance by the republicans, who were gen- erally favorable to the French and hostile to the English even when they brought gifts. When the articles became known the whole treaty was denounced, seriatim, by a considerable party in every town and state in the Union. This hostility was shown in many cases by acts of violence and lawless mobs. This great national matter, which the senate alone had a right to decide, was debated in the primary meetings of the people. Portsmouth held a town meeting and voted an address against the treaty. Private citizens of the highest respectabilit}', feeling aggrieved by this rash act, prepared a counter address approving of the treaty. The opponents of this measure were determined to pre- vent the transmission of the address to the president. They marched through the streets armed with clubs, insulted the sign- ers of the address, broke their windows, defaced their fences and broke down their shade trees ; and with outrageous impu-
330
HISTORY OF
dence threiitened greater violence unless the offensive document were surrendered to them. After a " day's uproar " the riot was quelled, the leaders were arrested and peace was restored. Judging from the numerous mobs in different and distant por- tions o( the Union where hostility was shown to this treaty by such illegal means, we infer that the citizens of that age were more excitable and pugnacious than their descendants now are. The treaty, despite the opposition, was legally ratified, and not only did the men of that period acquiesce in it but every gene- ration since has pronounced the verdict just. We wonder now that anybody should have thought otherwise. Washington fa- vored its ratification and his "good sense" probably turned the scale in its favor. One of the senators from New Hampshire, Mr. Langdon, voted against it. The legislature of the state in 1795 unanimously approved of the treaty in the strongest terms. They expressed "undiminished confidence in the virtue and ability of the minister who negotiated the treaty, the senate who advised its ratification, and in the President, the distinguished friend and father of his countiy, who complied with this advice." The histoid of this heated controversy shows how easy it is for excited partisans to mistake their true interests.
The material and social progress of the people of New Hamp- shire has already been noticed under the head of internal im- provements and general education. During the long and pros- perous administration of Governor Gilman, roads, turnpikes, mills and factories were built, and schools, academies and liter- ary, scientific and religious societies were multiplied. In 1798, a medical school was established at Dartmouth College by Dr. Nathan Smith of Cornish. For some time he was the only pro- fessor in that department of education. He made the school a success ; and from it have gone forth more than a thousand thoroughly educated and skillful practitioners of the healing art. Many of them have held the front rank in their vocation, both as professors and physicians. When we remember that Dr. Smith was a self-made man, without the advantages of literary or scientific culture, we are astonished at the results of his e.\- ecutive energy, perseverance and high scholarship. He was in his own sphere a man of genius. He planned for coming ages. He was far in advance of the men of his time. He foresaw'the wants of the future and provided for them. His name and fame are among the richest legacies which the sons of New Hamp- shire have inherited. His works are more eloquent in his praise than the "pens of ready writers." In iSio the state became the patron of the medical school and built for it a convenient and spacious college building. Here the students both of the medical and academical departments have since received their instruction in chemistry.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 23 1
Manufactories of cotton and wool were erected about the be- ginning of tlie nineteentli century in tlie state. In Mr. Jay's treaty, in 1795, the exports of cotton were so small from this country as to escape the notice of the busy diplomatists. The first factor}' for the manufacture of cotton was built at New Ipswich, in 1804. Others soon followed till at the present day a large portion of the wealth of the state is invested in such mills. During the same year the northern portion of the state was erected into a separate county by the name of Coos. It contained at that time only eight incorporated towns. The num- ber has since increased to twenty-five, besides some seventeen mi- nor settlements, denominated Locations, Purchases and Grants. Lancaster, the shire town, was settled as early as 1763. Its growth was retarded by the Revolutionary war. In 1775, the entire population of the county was only two hundred and twentj'-seven persons, of which Lancaster, the most populous of the six settlements, contained sixty-one. In 1803, the new county had about three thousand souls. It contains now more than thirteen thousand. The same legislature authorized the build- ing of a turnpike through the Notch of the White Mountains, twenty miles in extent, at an expense of forty thousand dollars. This road, winding down to the west line of Bartlett through this gigantic cleft in the mountains, presents to the traveler some of the most sublime and some of the most beautiful scener}' which the sun, in his entire circuit, reveals to the curious eye.
During Washington's second term of service as president, the French Revolution was in progress. This, like a political earth- quake, shocked all the nations of Christendom. Our own coun- try was deeply agitated by it. France had been our ally in war ; many felt deep gratitude to her for that timely service. A large party in the country felt that the French people in their struggle against regal and sacerdotal oppression could do nothing wrong j and that the English, our obstinate foes while we were achiev- ing our liberty, could do nothing right. Relying on this partiality of a large party in the country, the French minister, M. Genet, who arrived in 1793, put on airs, became insolent and began to fit out privateers in the ports of the United States, to cruise against nations hostile to France, and to set in motion an ex- pedition against the Spanish settlements in Florida. Washing- ton had previously issued a proclamation of neutrality. It was not heeded by the officious minister and his recall was demanded. The French Republic found Washington in earnest, and they sent a more acceptable envoy. But their aggressions upon our commerce and their insolent treatment of our government united all parties in the condemnation of these national outrages. The government prepared for open war; some collisions actually
233 HISTORY OF
occurred upon the sea. In 1796, Mr. Pinckney had been sent as minister to France. After two months' residence in Paris, he was peremptorily ordered to leave the city. The French government continued to commit depredations upon ourcommerce and re- fused to liquidate our just claims upon its treasury. One more effort was made by the United States to settle the controversy by negotiation. Three envoys were sent with full powers to adjust all questions in dispute. When they arrived, the French Directory, like a company of banditti, demanded of them a sum of money as a preliminary step to a treaty. This of course was indignantly refused and the embassy failed in its mission. There was but one voice among all parties at home respecting this in- sult ; that was : '" Millions for defence but not one cent for trib- ute." After further consideration, the French Directory pro- posed peace and ministers were promptly sent in answer to their call. On their arrival they found Bonaparte at the head of the government, as First Consul. With this responsible head, in September, 1800, they concluded a treaty which satisfied both countries and for a time restored the former good will between them. New Hampshire, with great unanimity, supported Presi- dent Adams in his foreign policy. The legislature prepared an address to him, expressing the fullest approval of his purpose to humble France and the most decided denunciation of French aggressions. This measure received the unanimous vote of the senate and had only four opposing votes in the house.
During the last four years of Washington's administration, many important difficulties were adjusted. The controvers}' with England was put to rest by Mr. Jay's treaty, though the party spirit which it evoked lived on. In 1795, after three campaigns, two of which were unsuccessful, against the western Indians, a treaty was concluded which for a season quieted these fierce savages. During the same year, a treaty with Spain was made, which established the boundaries between the Spanish posses- sions on this continent and the United States. Peace was also made with the Algerines, a nest of pirates who had for years laid the whole Christian world under tribute. The United States, then destitute of a navy, had been compelled to pay large sums to these outlaws for the redemption of captives ; and even under the new treaty an annual tribute was promised to the Dey, a sort of modern Minotaur, who demanded blood or money. The quarrel with France remained to be settled when Washing- ton delivered his "farewell address" in 1797. Under his suc- cessor party lines were more closely drawn and federalists and republicans began that struggle for supremacy in the national councils which, under different party names, has been perpetu- ated to this hour.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
233
The eighteenth century closed when partisan warfare was at its height, and the press, on both sides, teemed witli bitter sar- casm and mahgnant abuse. This important date in our history suggests some reflections upon the condition of New Hampshire as it then was. It would be difficult to find a colony or state within the period of authentic history that suffered more or achieved more in the same number of years, than New Hamp- shire prior to the peace with Great Britain in 1783. Her en- tire record for one hundred and sixty years is stained with sweat and blood. Her citizens labored and suffered during all that period with unparalleled patience. From four inconsiderable plantations in 1641, she had grown in 1800 to be a populous state of two hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants distribu- ted over nearly two hundred flourishing towns. But from the hour when the forests of Dover and Portsmouth first rang with the blows of the woodman's axe, in 1623, till the close of the Revol- utionary war, there was no rest from toil, scarcely any from war, to all its citizens. For nearly all that long and dreary march of armies and pressure of labor, the title to the very soil they had won from the wilderness was in dispute. The Indians were con- stantly upon their track, and no hiding-place was so secret or remote as to render its occupant safe from the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Foreign wars consumed their property and ex- hausted their men. The government under which they lived and to which they owed allegiance was changed almost as often as the wages of Jacob by his crafty father-in-law. The king ruled them only for his own advantage. Even Massachusetts, with whom for many years she enjoyed a peaceful alliance, finally became ambitious of enlarging her possessions, and un- generously obtained and appropriated nearly one half of New Hampshire. The'people of the state found no security at home or abroad, but in their own brave hearts and strong arms. They made themselves homes and achieved a fame in arms and in arts, which " none of their adversaries could gainsay nor resist."
CONDrnON OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Let us now, with the light of memory and tradition lingering on the track, point backward the glass of history and descry the farmer in his field, the mechanic in his shop, and the minister at his altar, as they severally lived and labored seventy years ago,—
"As when, by niqht, the glass Of Galileo, less assur'd, observes Imagin'd lands and regions in the moon."
We can scarcely conceive of a more independent, self-reliant,
234 HISTORY OF
hearty, healthy and hopeful denizen of earth than the farmer of that age. He lived upon the produce of his own soil ; was warmed by fuel from his own woods, and clothed from the flax of his own field or the fleeces of his own flock. No flour, hams, lard nor oil was then imported. Broadcloths and cotton fabrics were scarcely known. The oxen and swine which yielded the "fresh meat " in winter and the "salt meat" in summer were fed and fattened by himself. Trade was carried on chiefly by barter. Little money was needed. The surplus produce of the farm, or the slaughtered swine not needed by the family, were carried to market in the farmer's " double sleigh " and exchanged for salt, iron, molasses and other stores not produced at home. So the year went round, marked by thrift, contentment and prosperity.
" Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound; Content to breathe his native air. In his own ground."
The mechanic was the peer and helper of the farmer. Every tiller of the soil needed a house and barn, tools and furniture, clothes and shoes. The skill and craft which produced these necessaries were often brought to the employer. The mechan- ics were itinerant, working where they were needed, and receiv- ing for their labor the products of the farm or loom, or stores from the larder or cellar. Carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, tailors and shoemakers, who plied the most useful and neces- sary of all handicrafts, were found in every town of any consid- erable population.
The church and school-house were among the earliest public structures reared. The creed of the Puritans discarded all or- naments within and without the sacred edifice. The people of New Hampshire, though not Puritans in name, adopted their religious customs. The church of the new town was generally built upon an eminence. It has been said that such sites were selected that the worshipers might more easily discern the ap- proach of the Indians who often lay in wait for them during divine service. The " meeting-house " was high, long and broad, with heavy porticos at each end containing stairs by which the galleries were reached. The pews were square with seats on all sides. " The broad aisle " was the post of honor. The pulpit was reached by a long flight of steps, and a dome-shaped sound- ing board was suspended over it. Here the " minister," who was settled by the major vote of the town, indoctrinated his people. From his lips they literally received the law. His ser- mon was the only fountain of theology from which his hearers could drink. Libraries, if they existed at all, were few, and the books selected, being chiefly sermons and e.xpositions of portions
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 235
of the Bible, were not extensively read. Religious papers were unknown, and biographies of children of precocious piety and sainted christians too good for earth had not then been written. A large proportion of the entire population attended church. No blinds excluded the blazing suns of summer ; no fires soft- ened the intense cold of winter. The hearers listened devoutly to long, doctrinal sermons, even when the breath of the preacher was frozen as it escaped his lips. "The minister of the stand- ing order," possibly the only thoroughly educated man in the town, " mighty in the scriptures " and austere in morals, was re- garded by the children of his flock with awe, by the parents with reverence. If a warm heart beat beneath his clerical robes, if the love of souls beamed from his eye, shone in his face and dropped from his tongue, then
"Tnith from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff remained to pray.
CHAPTER LXVII.
THE EARLY FARM-HOUSE WITH ITS FURNITURE AND SURROUNDINGS.
The primitive log-house, dark, dirty and dismal, rarely out- lived its first occupant. With the progress of society in a new town, it would look like premeditated poverty for the son to be content with the Ifirst shelter that his father reared in the wilder- ness. The first framed houses were usually small, low and cold. The half house, about twenty feet square, satisfied the unam- bitious. The double house, forty by twenty feet in dimensions, indicated progress and wealth. It was designed for shelter, not for comfort or elegance. The windows were small, without blinds or shutters. The fire-place was sufficiently spacious to receive logs of three or four feet in diameter, with an oven in the back and a flue nearly large enough to allow the ascent of a balloon. A person might literally sit in the chimney-corner and study as- tronomy. All the cooking was done by this fire. Around it, also, gathered the family at evening, often numbering six to twelve children, and the cricket in the hearth kept company to their prattle. Thus with the hardships came the comforts of life, in the days " lang syne."
The furniture was simple and useful, all made of the wood
236 HISTORY OF
of the native forest-trees. Pine, bircli, cherr}% walnut and the curled maple were most frequently chosen by the " cabinet- maker." Vessels of iron, copper and tin were used in cooking. The dressers, extending from floor to ceiling in the kitchen, con- tained the mugs, basins and plates of pewter which shone upon the farmer's board at the time of meals. A writer for the New Hampshire Patriot has recently given his recollections of the kind of life I am here describing. I will quote a few para- graphs.
"In 1S15, tnivel was mostly on horseback, the mail being so carried in many places. Hotels were found in every four to eight miles. Feed for travelers' teams was, half baiting of hay, four cents ; whole baiting, eight cents; two quarts of oats, six cents. The bar-room fire-place was furnished with a ' loggerhead,' hot, at all times, for making ' flip.' The flip was made of beer made from pumpkin dried on the crane in the kitchen fire-place, and a few dried apple-skins and a little bran. Half muj of flip, or half gill 'sling,' six cents. On the table was to be found a 'shortcake,' the manu- facture of which is now among the lost arts ; our ' book ' cooks can't make them. Woman's labor was fifty cents per week. They spun and wove most of the cloth that was worn. Flannel that was dressed at the mill, for women's wear, was fifty cents a yard; men's wear, one dollar.
Farmers hned their help for nine or ten dollars a month — some clothing and the rest cash. Carpenters' wages, one dollar a day; journeymen car- penters, fifteen dollars a month ; and apprentices, to serve six or seven years, had ten dollars the first year, twenty the second, and so on, and to clothe themselves. Breakfast generally consisted of potatoes roasted in the ashes, a 'bannock' made of meal and water and baked on a maple chip set before the fire. Pork was plenty. If ' hash ' was had for breakfast, all ate from the platter, without plates or table-spread. Apprentices and farm boys had for .supjjer a bowl of scalded milk and a brown crust, or bean porridge, or pop-robbin. There was vo such thing as tumblers, nor were they asked if they would have tea or coffee ; it was ' Please pass the mug.' "
The post of the housewife was no sinecure. She had charge both of the dairy and kitchen, besides spinning and weaving, sewing and knitting, washing and mending for the " men folks." The best room, often called " the square room," contained a bed, a bureau or desk, or a chest of drawers, a clock, and possibly a brass fire-set. Its walls were as naked of ornaments as the cave of Macpelah. We are describing a period which antedates the advent of pictures, pianos, carpets, lace curtains and Vene- tian blinds. It was an age of simple manners, industrious hab- its and untarnished inorals. Contentment, enjoyment and lon- gevity were prominent characteristics of that age. The second voluiue of the New Hampshire Historical Collections contains a list of nearly four hundred persons, who died in New Hampshire prior to 1826 between the ages of ninety and a hundred and five years. The average age of a hundred and thirty-three coun- cilors who lived in the early history of the state was seventy years. It deserves notice, also, that many of the provincial gov- ernors and Revolutionary officers of the state lived to extreme
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 237
old age. Fevers and epidemics sometimes swept away the peo- ple ; but consumption and neuralgia were then almost unknown. The people were generally healthy. Their simple diet and active habits produced neitlier "fever nor phlegm."
After preparing comfortable shelters for their families, the early settlers in every town turned their thoughts to the house of God. Most of the townships were granted on condition that "a convenient house for the worship of God " should be built within two years from the date of the grant. Even when the pro- prietors lived in " log huts, " the " meeting-house " was a framed building. Its site was some high iiill ; possibly because the tem- ple stood on a mountain, but probably because it must be a watch-tower against the Indians as well as a " house of prayer." In shape it was a rectangle flanked with hea\-y porticos, with seven windows upon each side. Here every family was repre- sented on the Sabbath. During the hour of intermission, the farmers and mechanics gathered round some merchant or pro- fessional man, whose means of information exceeded theirs, to learn the important events of the week. The clergymen were then settled by major vote of the town and all ta.\-payers were assessed for his salary accoiding to their ability. The people went to church on foot or on horseback, the wife riding behind the husband on a " pillion." Chaises, wagons and sleighs were unknown. Sometimes whole families were taken to "meeting" on an ox-sled.
The Sabbath developed the social as well as religious senti- ments. The ordinary visits of neighbors, like those of angels, were " rare." The people lived like the parishioners of Chaucer's "pore Personn," "fer asondur." Traveling was difficult and la- borious. Neither men nor women were ever idle. Books were few ; newspapers and letters were seldom seen at the country fireside. News from England did not reach the inland towns till five or six months after the occurrence of the events re- ported. Intelligence from New York was traveling a whole week before it reached New Hampshire. In 1764 the mail was carried only twice in a week from New York to Philadel- phia, and, after the close of the Revolutionary war, the mail was carried between those cities by a post-boy on horseback. Now tons of mailed matter are daily passing on the same route. Men and women dressed in home-made fabrics and ate the pro- duce of their own farms. A quotation from "Forefathers' song," written in the seventeenth century, will reveal many facts in a few words :
" The place where we live is a wilderness wood Where grass is much wanting that's fruitful and good; Our mountains and hills, and our valleys below, Being commonly covered with ice and with snow :
238 HISTORY OF
And when the north-west wind with violence blows, Then every man pulls his cap over his nose; But if any^s so hardy and will it withstand. He {orftiits a finger, a fo&t or a hand."
Another stanza describes their daily food, not their "daily bread," with more truth than poetiy :
"If fresh meat be wanting to fill ap our dish,
We have carrots and piimpluns and turnips and fish;
And, is there a mind tor a delicate dish,
We repair to the clam-banks and there we catch fish.
Instead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies ;
We have pumpkins at morning, and pumpluns at noon,
If it was not for pumpkins, we should be undone."
CHAPTER LXVIII.
DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PARTIES.
In the dark ages, when the people, groaning under the iron heels of petty despots, asked for relief or reform, the old barons used to say : " We are unwilling to change the laws of England." When the king and his nobles called on the church to conform to the laws of the land, the prelates were wont to reply : " We consent, saving our order " ; and when anxious litigants peti- tioned against "the law's delay" for speedy justice, the courts replied with one consent : " We must stand by the decisions." These maxims were too sacred to be expressed in English, so they were embalmed in Latin. A dead language aptly repre- sented a dead law. Every age and nation has its conservatives and reformers ; its progressive and stationary politicians. Writ- ten constitutions for societies, institutions and nations rarely satisfy more than one generation. Jefferson doubted whether it was right for one generation to legislate for another ; for a youth- ful people to make organic laws for those who should live in its maturity and hoary age. The numerous amendments already made and demanded in our own constitution indicate the truth of his remark. The English constitution consists of laws, cus- toms, charters and precedents. It is not ^vrittcn except in the entire history of the country, civil, judicial and ecclesiastical. Yet, under this varying and uncertain instrument, the most im- portant reforms have been made by legislation. So slavery was abolished in England. We cut the Gordian knot with the sword, and possibly a whole century will be required to staunch the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 239
bleeding wounds of the nation. No new cause of controversy has arisen since the adoption of the federal constitution. Some causes of dissension were incorporated in its very substance. In the infancy of the nation the questions of finance, tariff, slavery and state rights were as prominent as they are to-day, and it is remarkable that secession was broached very early in New Eng- land. Many eminent northern men about the beginning of this century favored it, and some secretly, some openly, advocated it. Among these secessionists were some of the most eminent men of New Hampshire. The late Governor Plumer, writing to John Quincy Adams in 1828, says : " During the long and eventful session of congress of 1803-4 I was a member of the senate, and was at the city of Washington every day of that session. In the course of the session, at different times and places, several of the federalists, senators and representatives from the New England states informed me that they thought it necessary to establish a separate government in New England, and if it should be found practicable to extend as far south as to include Penn- sylvania ; but in all events to establish one in New England. They complained that the slave-holding states had acquired, by means of their slaves, a greater increase of representatives in the house than was just or equal ; that too great a portion of the public revenue was raised in the northern states ; and that the acquisition of Louisiana and the new states that were formed and those to be formed in the west and in the ceded territory would soon annihilate the weight and influence of the northern states in the government." Mr. Plumer also adds : " I was myself in favor of forming a separate government in New Eng- land, and wrote several confidential letters to a few of my friends recommending the measure." This letter was written in conse- quence of the pu*blished assertion of President Adams that the object of " certain leaders " of the federal party in Massachu- setts in 1805 " was, and had been for several years, the dissolu- tion of the Union and the establishment of a separate confed- eracy." The biographer of Governor Plumer has quoted froirP the published letters of many New England statesman, jurists and divines similar sentiments, so as to place the fact beyond a doubt that secession was meditated at the north in the very in- fancy of our national life. It deserves notice that the clergy of' that period were generally federalists, and when the southern states, under the lead of Jefferson, gained the supremacy in the national councils, they took a decided stand against the doctrines and measures of the republican party. Hon. William Plumer, jr., writes in the life of his father: "In 1793 Timothy Dwight, of Yale college, and, like most of the eminent New England di- vines of that da)', a leading politician, wrote thus to a friend :
240 HISTORY OF
' A war with Great Britain we at least in New England will not enter into. Sooner would ninety-nine out of a hundred separate from the Union than plunge ourselves into such an abyss of mis- ery.' " Oliver Wolcott, lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, re- peatedly advocated a separation of the New England states from *he Union. In 1796 he wrote : " I sincerely declare that I wish the northern states would separate from the southern the mo- ment that event [the election of Jefferson] shall take effect." Mr. Plumer adds : " This plan of disunion thus rife in Con- necticut in 1796 may not improbably be regarded as the germ of that which appeared at Washington in 1808-9, ^"d which showed itself for the last time where it was first disclosed, in the Hart- ford convention of 1814."
Parties are the natural outgrowth of free thought. They are necessary to the perpetuity of free institutions. Irresponsible power cannot be safely intrusted to any man or any body of men. Majorities are often as tyrannical as despots. Hence our own liberties will ever be most secure when the advocates and opponents of measures of mere expediency are quite equally balanced. The federal party maintained the supremacy for twelve years after the adoption of the constitution. The suc- cessor of Washington, John Adams, was a man of sterling integ- rity, a profound statesman, a true patriot and an eminent orator. Jefferson styles him " the colossus of debate " in the constitu- tional convention. He possessed less popular talent and less political sagacity than his illustrious rival. Adams approached the object of his desires by a straightforward course. Jefferson was more facile, yielding and devious in his march to victory. He was a man of the world ; his enemies say an " intriguer," an " infidel " and a " demagogue." These are hard names ; they are bestowed on him by men who opposed and hated him. He was certainly successful in his plans, and became the founder of a party which has ruled the country for more than one half the period of its existence. No finite mind of to-day can positively affirm that he did not administer the affairs of the country with as much wisdom, integrity and patriotism as the great leader of the federalists would have exhibited. Mr. Jefferson undoubtedly made mistakes. .So did Mr. Adams ; and" posterity still points to those mistakes as the true cause of his loss of power. New Hampshire adhered implicitly to the doctrines of the federalists till 1805, then the republicans were victors. Senator Plumer then wrote to Uriah Tracy : " Democracy has obtained its long expected triumph in New Hampshire. John Langdon is gov- ernor elect. His success is not ovi'ing to snow, rain, hail or bad roads, but to the incontrovertible fact that the federalists of this state do not compose the majority. Many good men have grown
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 24I
weary of constant exertions to support a system whose labors bear a close affinity to those of Sisyphus." Governor Plumer was then wavering. He had Iield the most important offices in the gift of the state, and had e.xecuted their duties as anuncgm- promising federaHst. He became in a few years the leader, the honored and trusted standard-1-jcarer, of the democratic party, whose every measure he liad pre^•iously opposed and wliose vciy name he hated. The fact that such conversions are common in party politics shows that neither party is so wise or good as its advocates would have us believe, nor so wicked and corrupt as its opponents would represent them. Burke in his old age re- sisted the opinions he advocated in his youth, so that it has been said of him that his mind resembled some mighty conti- nent rent asunder by internal convulsions, each division being peopled with its own giant race of inhabitants. It is a difficult task for a man to undo the work of years and conquer his own overgrown reputation, but politicians are frequently called to perform that unwelcome service, and, what is still worse, to be- come the assailants of those whose votes and voices have lifted them into the sunlight of popular favor.
John Langdon was a man of untarnished reputation, a true patriot and a wise statesman. He was first nominated as a can- didate for the chief magistracy of the state in 1802. He then received eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-three votes. After three years of trial he was triumphantly elected, in 1S05, by a majority of four thousand. Tiie senate, house and council were all the same party. The state was completely revolution- ized in politics. Hon. Samuel Bell, whose name afterwards be- came so illustrious in high official stations, was that year elected speaker of the house. The party which then came into power maintained their position, with slight interruptions, for more than thirty years.
It is generally supposed that high culture, whether of the head or heart, tends to repress party spirit ; and that prejudice and intolerance are always associated with ignorance and bru- tality. Hence, political parties which are sustained by the edu- cated and religious portion of the community assume to be su- perior to their opponents on that very account. Thucydides maintains, in his history, that " as long as human nature remains the same, like causes will produce like effects." The masses who suffer understand their own wants better than their rulers or teachers. Scribes and Pharisees, monarchs and nobles, are not apt to favor reforms or to lift from men's shoulders the bur- dens they have imposed. If the voice of the people is ever the voice of God, it is when they crj' for bread or plead for rights. Jack Cade was a better patriot than Richard II., when, as the 16
242 HISTORY OF
advocate for the people, he demanded " the abolition of slavery, freedom of commerce in market towns without toll or impost, and a fixed rent on lands instead of service due by villenage." Revolutions usually begin with the lowest classes of society. The men over whom David became captain were " poor, discon- tented and in debt." Cromwell describes the first recruits of the army of the Puritans as " old, decayed serving-men, tapsters and such kind of fellows." When the Corsican lieutenant com- menced his brilliant career, his army was formed of the canaille of Paris. To-day, the chartists in England demand "universal suffrage, annual parliaments, vote by ballot, electoral districts and payment of members of parliament," and who in our coun- try would pronounce their claims unjust ? Politics travel up- ward ; morals and manners downward. Whigs, in opposition, often become torics in power. The same has repeatedly proved true of hostile parties in our country. It is the very nature of a government to be avaricious of power ; and rulers are inclined to use, in the promotion of their own interests, more than has been delegated to them. The republicans at first were in favor of a strict construction of the constitution ; yet in the purchase of Louisiana, Jefferson himself admitted that he exceeded his constitutional authorit}'. When the national bank was estab- lished in 1 79 1, a warm debate arose between federalists and re- publicans with regard to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution. This question caused the first important division of opinion in the cabinet of Washington. Hamilton and Knox supported the measure ; Jeffei'son and Randolph op- posed it. In subsequent years, the parties of which Hamilton and Jefferson were founders battled for the same views, till the hostility of General Jackson worked the ruin of the bank. The other leading measures of the federal party, the funding system, the proclamation of neutrality, Jay's treaty, the internal taxes, the alien and sedition laws, had all been more or less unpopular. Mr. Jefferson, on his accession to office, sought to allay the vio- lence of party feelings by the declaration : "We are all republi- cans ; we are all federalists ■" still the spirit he had raised would not down at his bidding. The late administration party, now in the opposition, became bitter assailants of every measure proposed by Jefferson and his supporters. The foreign rela- tions of our countiy excited the most bitter controversies.
From 1805 to 1815, the people in every state had no rest from these disturbing questions. The administration of Mr. Jefferson, so prosperous at its commencement, was clouded and overcast toward its close by the injustice of foreign powers. This rendered necessary, in the opinion of the government, a system of non-intercourse and embargo laws, and led finally to
NEW HAJMPSHIRE, 243
a war with England. The entire commerce of the United States was annihilated by the British Orders in Council and the Decrees of Napoleon, between May, i8o6, and December, 1807. There was no safety upon the high seas. Between the French Scylla and the English Charybdis ruin was inevitable. The Americans lost inore than one hundred millions of property by these maritime robbers. England was then the proud mistress of the seas. She dictated international laws to less powerful navigators. She claimed the right to board and search Ameri- can vessels and to take from them not merely contraband goods, but sailors whom she claimed as her subjects. On the twenty- second of June, 1807, without provocation, she attacked and crippled the Chesapeake, an American man-of-war, and took from her by force four of her seamen. Such acts, repeatedly committed and arrogantly defended, kindled the resentment of every patriotic American ; still party ties were so strong that the federalists rather apologized for English aggressions than con- demned them. Among these lovers of fatherland were found many of the literati and clergymen. The ministers regarded England as the bulwark of the Protestant faith, and France as the hot-bed of atheism. There was truth in these assertions ; but neither of them could justify the outrages of England upon our citizens or our commerce. England has maintained, till the year 1868, that no subject of hers could alienate his allegiance to his native country. " Once a subject always a subject " was her doctrine. Under this plea she ordered her cruisers to board American vessels and seize all English subjects found there. Previous to the declaration of war in 1812, more than six thou- sand seamen had been thus forcibly abstracted from American vessels. Sometime^ American citizens were seized.
CHAPTER LXIX.
POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE CLERGY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The aristocracy of New England were the ministers and mag- istrates. Much of the hereditary reverence of the old world for these officials, sacred and secular, still clung to them in the new. Mrs. Stowe, in her " Minister's Wooing" and in " Oldtown Folks," has very graphically illustrated the influence of both classes in the early history of our country. The ministers of
244 HISTORY OF
Massachusetts created, guided and controlled public opinion, both religious and political. In fact they made the two identi- cal. James Otis, the popular leader, who was denounced by royalists as an " incendiary, a seditious firebrand and leveler," was defended from the pulpit by the burning eloquence of May- hew, who cried on the annual Thanksgiving day of 1762, "I do not say our invaluable rights have been struck at ; but if they have, they are not wrested from us ; and may righteous Heaven blast the designs, though not the soul, of that man, whoever he may be among us, that shall have the hardiness to attack them." The same patriotic, heroic advocate of the people's rights wrote to James Otis in 1766 : "You have heard of the communion of the churches. While I was thinking of this in my bed, the greaf use and importance of a communion of colonies appeared to me in a strong light." He p;-oceeded to suggest the sending of circulars to all the colonies, "expressing a desire to cement union among ourselves." "A good foundation for this," he added, " has been laid by the congress of New York ; never losing sight of it may be the only means of perpetuating our liberties." This first suggestion of a political union of all the colonies was almost the dying message of the good old man. It was written on the last day of health. Through the whole period of our revolutionary struggle, the Congregationalists were not only loyal to the best interests of the people, but the most effective promoters of them. Bancroft says of the clergy of Boston, in 1768 : " Its ministers were still its prophets ; its pul- pits, in which, now that Mayhew was no more, Cooper was ad- mired above all others for eloquence and patriotism, by weekly appeals inflamed alike the fervor of piety and liberty."
The clergy of New England in their annual election sermons before the state legislatures were expected to indicate the wants of the people, to point out the blessings to be gained and the evils to be shunned by wise legislation. In Massachusetts res- olutions were passed requesting the clergy to enlighten the peo- ple on important public measures. No law affecting the general welfare could be enacted without their aid ; even the recruiting officers besought the eloquence of the pulpit to promote enlist- ments. New Hamjishire, though not so rigidly Puritan as the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts, yet followed the ex- ample set by her elder sister in church and state. The Fast- Day sermon never failed to enumerate the sins of the people, national and individual ; the Thanksgiving sermon called on all classes to praise God for his goodness, and the Election sermon revealed the political wants of the state and taught the law- makers their responsibility to God. So the ministers of the " standing order" became politicians in the highest and noblest
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 245
sense. They sought to make human law identical with the di- vine. They were followers of Washington and Adams and were nearly all federalists. When a new party arose friendly to the French and hostile to the English, the ministers, through dread of French atheism and love of English protestantism, became active partisans and thus lost their influence in the state. Wlien the republicans gained the ascendency the ministers were virtu- ally disfranchised, and many can remember the time when it required great heroism in a c!erg}'man to go to the polls.
Edward St. Loe Livermore, a distinguished jurist and states- man, said in 1S08, in a public address: "It is a happiness for our country to observe that the ministers of religion are truly federal, and only two solitary exceptions can be found in New Hampshire. These are rare birds very like unto black swans. How can other ministers exchange with them or admit them into their desks ? Why do they not have councils upon them and have them dismissed ? It is conceived that ministers should be of pure morals and sound orthodo.xy, at least as to the funda- mental principles of the religion of Christ, and that a council would dismiss them for deficiency in either ; and are they not the humble followers of infidels, and by their example, words and actions doing all in their power to promote the cause of Antichrist ? Let ministers and people consider these proposi- tions and answer as they please."
CHAPTER LXX.
PURITAN INFLUENCE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Supposing the Puritans to have been such and so great as they have been represented to be, what has New Hampshire to do with them ? Much every way ; for though the early settlers of this state were neither Puritans nor Pilgrims, their laws, schools, religion and government were patterned after those of Massa- chusetts, and were thus a legitimate legacy from puritanism. What was good or bad in the one state was equally good or bad in the other. The two states were under one government for nearly two generations of men ; and that, too, in the infancy of our republic, when the younger state would naturally imitate the older. Such was the result. The town, the school, the church and the state were identical in the two republics. New Hamp-
246 HISTORY OF
shire, therefore, quarried the corner stones of its political and ecclesiastical structure from the mine of puritanism. Thus her origin was ennobled. The Puritans were simple in habits ; plain in dress ; bold in speech ; stern in morals ; bigoted in religion ; patient in suffering ; brave in danger ; and energetic in action. But what have the clergy done for New Hampshire ? Let us in- quire what has been done in morals, religion and education ; and whatever that is is chiefly due to them. Ministers of the gospel have been the originators and promoters of educational institutions. The common schools have been cherished, super- intended and elevated by them. Academies have been built and sustained by their fostering care. It is hardly probable that an instance can be found in the history of our state, where an institution of learning, a social library, a lyceum or a literar}'' association has been established without the active and constant support of the clergj'men of the place. Ministers have been the models in style, pronunciation and delivery whom all the young lovers of oratory have imitated. The college was founded by a clergyman, and has, with a single exception, been presided over by clerg3'men. Its most active supporters have been from that profession. During the years of its sore trial, when the state attempted to seize its franchise, its chief defenders were Con- gregational clergymen. Dr. McFarland, at the risk of reputa- tion and usefulness, sometimes wrote two columns a week in de- fence of the old board and their measures. Others fought in the same battle and with similar peril. The clergyman in every town has been among the first to discover and encourage rising merit among the sons and daughters of the flock. Hundreds of young men have received a liberal education through the aid and counsel of faithful pastors, who otherwise might have remained for life " mute and inglorious " upon their native hills. Dr. Samuel Wood of Boscawen, during his long, successful ministry, fitted at his own home more than one hundred young men for college. Those who could not immediately pay one dollar a week for board and tuition he trusted ; to some indigent stu- dents he forgave their debt. Upon the subjects of morals, religion, reforms and revivals it is superfluous to speak in this connection. To recite what has been done in these respects by the ministers of all denominations would require a complete history of the moral and spiritual progress of the state from its origin. The other learned professions have been co-workers with them ; but it is not my purpose to speak of them here and now. By such agencies as I have indicated New Hampshire has risen to an honorable rank among her sister states. Her schools, academies and churches compare favorably with those of other more attractive portions of -our country.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAPTER LXXI,
247
INTERNAL CONDITION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FROM 1805 TO 1815.
The political revolution which transferred the government of the state in 1805 from the federalists to the republicans produced no serious disturbance among the citizens. Party spirit had previously run so high that it could scarcely have been increased without breaking out in open violence. The majority in favor of the change was so large that the defeated party yielded gracefully to the decision of the people. Prior to this date the important offices of the state had been held by the same incum- bents for many years in succession. A kind of official aristoc- racy had grown up in the community. John Taylor Gilman had held the office of governor eleven years. Governor Langdon, his successor, was a Revolutionar}' patriot, and had been during a large part of his life in high official stations. Joseph Pearson had been secretary of state for nineteen years. This fact reveals the confidence of the legislature in his integrity and competency for the station. He was succeeded by Philip Carrigain. Na- thaniel Gilman was elected treasurer in place of Oliver Peabody. Hon. Simeon Olcott, one of the senators in congress, was re moved by death, and Nicholas Gilman was chosen to succeed him. He was the first republican elected to either branch of congress since the 'advent of the new party to power in New Hampshire. Most of the senators and representatives from New England were still of the federal party. The legislature, after an appropriate reply to the governor's message and an ex- pression of " their utmost confidence in the virtuous and mag- nanimous administration of President Jefferson," proceeded to consider the local interests of the state. An English professor of history says that we can best ascertain the true social and political condition of any people by inquiring what are the laws, and who made them .' Let us apply this test to the present epoch. The new administration made no violent innovations. The old laws for the most part remained in force. Among the new enactments was a statute prohibiting the circulation of pri- vate notes as a medium of exchange, and another limiting all actions for the recovery of real estate to twenty years. Pre- scription by common law had for centuries been regarded as a valid title to land and hereditaments. The length of time nee-
248 HISTORY OF
essar)' to constitute a title against adverse claimants had not before been determined in New Hampshire by statute. If a person had occupied lands " under a bona fide purchase " for six years, he could not be ejected by the true owner without the recovery of his betterments if he chose to appeal to the court for protection. Laws were also passed regulating the internal police of the state, appointing guardians of indolent, profligate and intemperate persons, regulating the making and selling of bread, the inspection of beef and the collection of damages caused by floating lumber. At the same session of the legisla- ture, provision was made for the division of the towns into school districts, with special regard to the convenience and edu- cation of the entire population. Thus the common school, with its untold blessings, was brought into the neighborhood, if not to the very door, of every citizen of the state ; and the school- house, usually placed in the geographical centre of the district that owned it, not only served as a seat of learning for the chil- dren, but was often used by the parents for political, judicial and religious purposes. Here the local caucus, the justice court and the infant church helped to educate tlie common mind in policy, law and religion. Themes of the highest interest to church and state have often been thoroughly discussed and wisely decided in these primitive homes of science and litera- ture. In them, also, the inventors, discoverers and legislators of the state received their elementary, sometimes their entire education.
By the legislature of 1805, The New Hampshire Iron Factory Company, at Franconia, was incorporated. This very useful institution maintained a healthy and progressive existence for many years, and did much to develop that most necessary of all the useful ores, and to advance the permanent prosperity of the surrounding country. Recently, on account of the high price of personal labor, its operations have been suspended.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 249
CHAPTER LXXII,
CAUSES OF THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.
England and France had been waging with one another an internecine war. Each of these powerful nations forbade neu- tral powers to trade with her mortal foe. Great Britain, by her orders in council, interdicted our trade with France. Bona- parte, by way of retaliation, decreed capture and confiscation to all American vessels trading with England. Our ships and their cargoes became the plunder of both nations. British cruisers boarded our vessels and impressed all seamen who could not prove that they had not English blood in their veins. They also blockaded our harbors and, in one instance, attacked and disabled an American man-of-war while quietly riding in our own waters. The insolence of England became intolerable. She had no peer upon the high seas. Her navy consisted of more than a thousand men-of-war, while the Americans had only seven effective frigates and perhaps fifteen sloops-of-war. It was not in the power of the Americans to protect her merchants or chas- tise her enemies ; she therefore retained her vessels at home by an embargo.
On the expediency of this measure the country was divided. The federalists, who were inclined to apologize for the aggres- sions of England, bitterly assailed the law. The suspension of all commerce, the enhanced prices of imported articles, in- creased the popular idiscontent, and although the legislature of 1808 voted an address to President Jefferson approving of his entire policy, yet the people in the August election of members of congress reversed that decision. A federal delegation was elected, and in the following November federal electors for pres- ident were chosen. The politics of the state were again changed. In the spring of 1809 the republicans lost their ascendency in the town elections. Jeremiah Smith, the federal candidate, was elected governor by a majority of about two hundred votes. The council was still republican. In the legislature the power of the federalists was supreme. Moses P. Payson was made president of the senate, George P. Upham speaker of the house, Nathaniel Parker secretary of state, and Thomas W. Thompson treas- urer. These were all prominent men in the history of the state. Mr. Thompson was afterwards elected to the senate of the United States. The governor-elect was one of the ablest men
250 HISTORY OF
our State has produced. He was a native of Peterborough, and for several years had discharged the duties of chief justice of the superior court of New Hampshire with distinguished ability.
On the fourth of March, 1809, Mr. Madison was inaugurated president of the United States. He pursued the policy of his predecessor with slight modifications. The embargo was so un- popular that the administration deemed it wise to change 4;he name though they retained the principle. They made a law pro- hibiting all commercial intercourse with France and England, with a proviso that in case either of those countries should re- peal their injurious edicts against American commerce the non- intercourse act should at oAce cease with respect to that nation. 1 his law, of course, relieved our government of the blame of re- stricting trade, and made the foreign powers responsible for their aggressions upon a neutral nation. This change of policy produced a corresponding change in New Hampshire. In 1810 the republicans resumed their power and Governor Langdon was reelected by a majority of more than one thousand. Every de- partment of the state government was again in the hands of the republicans. William Plumer, formerly a distinguished federal- ist but now an ardent supporter of the doctrines he once op- posed, was chosen president of the senate, and Charles Cutts speaker of the house. Mr. Cutts belonged to the distinguished family of Portsmouth whose founder was the first president of the province of New Hampshire in 1679. Charles Cutts, during the session in which he was speaker, was elected to the senate of the United States. In 181 1 the same party was victorious.
In 1812 Gov. Langdon retired from public life inconsequence of the infirmities of age. He enjoyed, in his quiet home at Portsmouth, the respect and reverence of a grateful people. His revolutionary services were never forgotten. His declining years were solaced by the kind intercourse of friends and the conso- lations of religion. He took a deep interest in the circulation of the Bible and contributed liberally to the funds of the New Hampshire Bible Society, of which he was one of the founders.
Party spirit was now at its height. The controversies about men and measures were exceedingly bitter, often malignant. About this period a new political power arose in the state in the person of Mr. Isaac Hill and in the issues of the New Hamp- shire Patriot, of which he was the editor. Mr. Hill, having spent the first fourteen years of his life upon a farm, was apprenticed to Mr. Joseph Gushing, publisher of the Amherst Cabinet, in 1802. There he devoted himself with increasing assiduity to labor and study. Every leisure moment was given to reading, writing and debating, and by this self-culture he made himself one of the most accomplished journalists of our country. In
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 25 1
April, 1809, when he had obtained his majority, he removed to Concord and purchased a paper called The American Patriot, which had been edited by William Hoit, jr., for about six months, and changed its name to " The New Hampshire Patriot." The first number of this paper bears this motto : " Indulging no pas- sions which trespass on the rights of others, it shall be our true glory to cultivate peace by observing justice." Mr. Hill was an uncompromising republican. Speaking of the federalists in his introductory address he says :
" Theirs is the cause of Great Britain, inasmuch as they coincide with and justify her aggressions on the principles of right and justice, on the laws of nature and of nations ; theirs is the cause of our enemy, because they stig- matize our government in every act, whatever its tendency, and because no subterfuge, however mean, is left unessayed to incite to distrust and oppo- sition. In our views of foreign nations we shall treat alike French injustice and British perfidy. While we consider the latter as far outstripping the former, we cannot but dwell with more emphasis on that power who has ability and inclination to do us much injury than upon him who, though he have enough of the last, has comparatively little of the first requisite to mo- lest us. We cannot forget the murder of our citizens, the impressment of our seamen, the seizure and confiscation of our property and the many in- sults and menaces on our national flag."
When we remember that these charges were literally true, and that history has confirmed them, we do not wonder at the strong language which so often flowed from his pen. In the nine years preceding the war nine hundred American vessels had been cap- tured and condemned in British courts, and more than six thou- sand seamen had been taken from American vessels and trans- ferred to English ships or imprisoned ! In our day public sentiment is as sensitive as an aspen leaf to the slightest breeze of English insolence. The seizure of a single American citi- zen, contrary to the rules of international law, would be deemed a sufficient cause for official interposition. We cannot wonder, therefore, that our fathers, sixty years ago, deeply felt the "bit- ter, burning wrongs " which England for years persistently in- flicted upon our country. For several years after Mr. Hill became an editor there were only two republican papers in the state, while there were ten supported by the federalists. The new champion of republicanism warred almost alone. He was the Ulysses of the party, a man of great sagacity, energy and perseverance. After the clouds which obscured the vision of contemporaries have been lifted, history pronounces Mr. Hill a wise statesman and an honest patriot. Like all political par- tisans he was severe, sometimes unjust, to opponents, but his heart was true as the needle to the pole to what he deemed the best interests of the country. His fellow-citizens showed their approbation of his course by bestowing upon him, for many years in succession, the highest honors in their gift.
252 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXXIII.
RECORD OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DURING THE WAR FOR "SAILORS RIGHTS."
War was declared against Great Britain by tlie United States on the eighteenth of June, 1812. Congress and the people were nearly equally divided on the question of an appeal to arms. The declaration was carried by a small majority. Sec- tional interests inllutnced the minds of voters. The South and West favored the war. New England was generally opposed to it. Manufactures were then deemed of little importance com- pared with the commerce and fisheries of that section of the country. It was thought that war would ruin the prosperity of New England ; hence the violent opposition of the wise and wealthy citizens of the North. Lawyers and legislators, teachers and authors, merchants and ministers, denounced the war and its supporters. The dissolution of the Union was then regarded as necessary to the welfare of New England. Opinions in favor of secession were freely expressed in private and in public, by indi- viduals and assemblies. The Federalist convention, held in Boston on the thirty-first day of March, i8ii, resolved that the non-intercourse law, just then passed, " if persisted in must and ■will be resisted." Jeremiah Mason, the ablest la\\'yer our country has produced, said to Mr. Plumer, in August, 181 1: "The federalists of Massachusetts will make a great effort at the next spring elections; and if they fail, they will forcibly re- resist the laws of congress." " Resistance," said Dr. Parish, in April, 181 1, "is our only security."
Josiah Quincy, in Januar)', 1811, speaking of the bill for the admission of Louisiana, in congress, said : " If this bill passes, it is' my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free the states from their moral obliga- tions ; and, as it will then be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation, — amicably if they can, violently if they must. The bill, if it passes, is a death- blow to the constitution. It may afterwards linger ; but, linger- ing, its fate will, at no very distant period, be consummated."
Allen Bradford wrote to Elbridge Gerry, under date of Octo- ber 18, 1811 : "If our national rulers continue their anti-com- mercial policy, the New England states will by and by rise in their wonted strength, and with the indignant feelings of 1775,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 253
sever themselves from that part of the nation which thus wickedly abandons their rights and interests." These sentiments, uttered by leading men of New England, were not die hasty ebullitions of party spirit, but the deliberate expressions of matured con- victions. Disunion was not merely a threat, but a purpose, with many influential opponents of the war. In the spring of 1812, William Plumer, who had formerly advocated the views of the federal party, but, like John Quincy Adams and other distin- guished statesmen, had become an earnest and conscientious op- ponent of them, was brought forward for governor. His former friends, who accused him of apostasy, assailed him with un- stinted censure and acrimony. The federalists nominated again John Taylor Gilman, a gentleman of the old school, a man of high purpose, firm resolve and sterling integrity. His great popularity, from former services and revolutionary memories, gave him decided advantage in a political canvass. The parties were so nearly balanced that there was no election by the peo- ple ; but in the convention of the two houses, on the fourth of June, 1812, Mr. Plumer was chosen governor by one hundred and four votes against eighty-two for Mr. Gilman. The house was republican.
The governor entered at once upon the discharge of the du- ties of his new station, and worked in perfect harmony with the existing administration. A few brief extracts from his diary will show what he did in support of the war. Under date of June 23, he writes : "In the evening, I received by an express, a letter from Major-General Dearborn, stating that he was offi- cially informed that the government of the United States had declared war against Great Britain, and requesting me to order out one company of artillery and one of infantry of the de- tached militia, and place them under command of Major Up- ham of the United States army at Portsmouth, for the defence of the sea-coast."
June 24: "I issued orders to General Storer to order out the troops, in conformity with this requisition." July 7 : "Last even- ing, I received a requisition from General Dearborn to send one company of detached militia to defend the northern frontier of the state. To-day I issued orders to General Montgomery to call them out from his brigade, and station them at Stewartstown and Errol." July 21: "I issued an order to General Storer, requiring him to send one company of the detached infantry of his brigade to Portsmouth harbor, and to detach a suitable major to take command of the troops at Forts Constitution and McClary ; and also to General Robinson to send one company of the detached artillery from his brigade to the same place, for the defence of the sea-coast."
254 HISTORY OF
These military requisitions profoundly agitated the minds of the quiet citizens of the state. Words had passed into acts; and prophecy had become reality. The fiery eloquence of in- dignant patriots now flashed from the sword and bayonet, and were soon to speak in thunder tones from the mouths of cannon.
" Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro,"
and by the fireside, in the streets, and in all places of concourse, men talked of war and its consequences. The generation then upon the stage knew its horrors only by tradition and history ; and when a son of a family or a hired man was "drafted" to guard the sea-coast or frontiers, the household bewailed him as one dead.
Governor Plumer, in his first message to the legislature, pre- sented some new views with respect to corporations, which have since been adopted in the state by all parties. They are found in the following extract : " Acts of incorporation have within a few years greatly increased in this state ; and many of them, being of the nature of grants, cannot with propriety be altered without previous consent of the grantees. Such laws ought therefore to be passed with great caution ; many of them should be limited to a certain period, and contain a reservation authorizing the legislature to repeal them whenever they cease to answer the end for which they were made or prove injurious to the public interest." This is sound doctrine and deserves to be inscribed in letters of gold on every state-house and hall of legislation in the land. In reply to the governor's call for men and means to carry on the war, the legislature said : " We are all Americans ; we will "cordially unite in maintaining our rights in supporting the constitutional measures of our government, and in repelling the aggressions of every invading foe." The citizens of New Hampshire were moved by the same patriotic spirit which actu- ated their representatives. They flocked to our national stand- ard wherever it was setup. Her volunteers were found in every fierce encounter by sea and land. Whole companies, from vari- ous parts of the state, marched together to the war. Her sailors fitted out privateers and preyed upon the commerce of the haughty " mistress of the seas." Mr. Brewster in his " Rambles about Portsmouth " has this graphic picture of privateering in that town: " Here we are in the memorable year, 1S12, on tlie old wharf at Point of Graves, beholding the first privateer fit- ting out after the declaration of war. That schooner is the Nancy ; and that man with two pistols in his belt and his vest pockets filled with loose gunpowder is Captain Smart. There is a large company of spectators on the wharf looking at the little craft. But off she goes to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and, like a small spider entrapping a bumble-bee, she soon returns
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 255
with her prize." No less than fourteen ships sailed from the same port, on the same errand, during the first year of the war. These privateers were commissioned by the United States, " to take, burn, sink and destroy the enemy wherever he could be found, either on high seas or in British ports," and witli unpar- alleled success they executed their mission. British merchant- men laden with valuable cargoes were captured by them, and large fortunes were acquired by these hardy navigators. They probably proved more annoying to the English people than our ships of war. Our sailors also fought with Perry on Lake Erie, and with Macdonough on Lake Champlain ; and by their bravery and energy contributed to the glorious victories under both those peerless officers. On the land they also followed Miller and McNiel to the very cannon's mouth ; and with them shared the perils of the desperate onset and the honors of triumphant victory. The army and navy of the Republic were small, but more than two thousand New Hampshire freemen were found in these departments of the public service. The land campaigns during the first year of the war were generally disastrous. The disgraceful surrender of General Hull, with two thousand men, at Detroit, and the defeat of General Van Rensselaer on the borders of Canada, near the beginning of the war, chilled the popular enthusiasm and appalled the stoutest hearts in the coun- try. The republicans were mortified and disheartened. They ascribed their failures to the opposition of the federalists, who in turn charged them with incapacity and reckless folly.
The absence of many voters in the army and navy and the in- creased popular discontent changed the politics of the state. In March, 1813, Governor Gilman, after a retirement of eight years, was again called to the gubernatorial chair. This office he held for three years in succession. Both branches of the legislature were also opposed to the existing administration, and, of course, to the vigorous prosecution of the war. They were willing to act on the defensive in case of an invasion of the soil of New Hampshire, but would not consent that the militia of the state snould be led into the territory of the enemy for ag- gressive warfare. Canada has been the Scylla against which our hopes have often been wrecked, from the impetuous Arnold to the last Fenian officer who has meditated its conquest. The in- vasion of this province gave occasion to the federalists to deny the power of the president to call out the militia of the states and place them under the officers of the United States. The governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to comply with the requisitions of General Dearborn, on the ground that they were the proper judges of the necessity of such a call and at that time they saw no reason to enforce it. They admitted
256 HISTORY OF
the right of the president to command the militia of the states in person, but he could not delegate that power to others. Gov- ernor Gore of Massachusetts, in the senate of the United States, expressed the common state-rights views of his party as follows : " The president is commander-in-chief of the militia when in the actual service of the United States ; but there is not a title of authority for any other officer of the United States to assume the command of the militia."
Governor Plumer, writing to John Quincy Adams of the peo- ple of New Hamp'shire, says: "Though dismemberment has its advocates here, they cannot obtain a majority of the people or their representatives to adopt or avow it." During the whole period of the war, the parties in New Hampshire were so nearly equal that neither of them dared to advance very ultra opinions. They were a mutual check upon each other. " Neither party was strong enough to feel confident of success and neither so weak as to despair of victory." Such a political condition is really the best pledge of integrity and the strongest antidote to corruption in the administration of a republic.
During the year 1813 the northern frontier was the chief theatre of war upon the land. General Harrison commanded the army of the " West," near the head of Lake Erie. General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief under the president, and a New Hampshire man by birth, held the " Centre," on the Nia- gara river. General Hampton, on the borders of Lake Cham- plain, had charge of the department of the " North." The Ind- ians mingled freely in the fight, but generally, as in the Revo- lutionary war, were found on the side of the British. Many bloody battles were fought with various success. If we contem- plate only the contests upon the land, it would be diflicult to affirm that our country made progress during the year. At sea and on the lakes, the American navy was in a majority of cases triumphant. Of the campaign of 1814, the results were gen- erally favorable to the Americans. In two of the engagements of this year, the battle of Chippewa and that of Niagafa, New Hampshire troops were particularly conspicuous.
The bloody battle of Chippewa, a town on the Canada shore, about two miles above Niagara Falls, was fought on the fifth of July, 18 1 4. General John McNiel, major of the eleventh regi- ment, succeeded to its command by the fall of his superior officer Colonel Campbell. He was attached to the forlorn hope, a single brigade, which was required to cross a bridge of Street's creek under the fire of a British battery. McNiel showed all the coolness and self-possession which characterized General Stark in leading his regiment over Charleslown Neck to meet the enemy on Bunker Hill. For his gallant conduct on this
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 257
occasion he was promoted by congress. On the twenty-fifth day of the same month was fought the battle of Bridgewater, one of the most sanguinary engagements of the whole war. The Ameri- cans lost eight hundred and fifty-eigJit men ; and the English eight hundred and seventy-eight. Their force was greatly supe- rior. The battle began at sunset of a hot and sultry day and continued till midnight. The moon shone calmly on the fierce conflict, and the roar of the cataract ceased to be noticed, while the booming of cannon occupied every moment, rolling in terrific reverberations over divided and hostile territories. In the in- tense excitement of battle, the men heeded not the rush of waters nor the din of war. So Livy informs us that an earthquake passed during the fight at Lake Trasimenus, and the combatants knew it not.
On that memorable evening Colonel McNiel, while reconnoi- tering the enemy's line, received a shot in the knee from a car- ronade, which crippled him for life. He still clung to his horse, till he was so weakened by the loss of blood that his men were obliged to carry him to a place of safety. The conduct of Col- onel Miller of Peterborough has been so graphically described by Mr. Barstow in his history of New Hampshire, that I will quote the narrative :
" The British artillery, posted on a commanding height, had annoyed our troops during the earlier part of battle. ' Can you storm that battery .' ' said General Ripley to Miller. ' I'll try, sir,' replied the warrior; then turned to his men, and, in a deep tone, issued a few brief words of command: ' Twenty- first, attention I Form into column. You will advance up the hill to the storm of tiie battery. At the word, "-Halt" you will deliver your fire at the port- light of the artillerymen, and immediately carry their guns at the point of the bayonet. Support arms — forward — march ! ' Machinery could not have moved with more compactness than that gallant regiment. Followed by the twenty-t/tird, the dark mess moved up the hill like one body, the lurid light flickering on their bayonets as the combined lire of the enemy's artillery and infantry opened murderously Upon them. They flinched not, faltered not. The stern, deep voice of the officers, as the deadly cannon-shot cut ya^vning chasms through them, alone was heard — ' Close up — steady, men — steady.' Within a hundred yards of the summit, the loud ' //a// ' was followed by a volley, sharp and instantaneous as a clap of thunder. Another moment, rushing under the white smoke, a short, furious struggle with the bayonet, and the battle was won. The enemy's line was driven down the hill, and their own cannon mowed them down by platoons. This brilliant success decided the fate of the conflict, and the American flag w'aved in triumph on that hill, scorched and blackened as it was by the flame of artillery, purpled with human gore and encumbered by the bodies of the slain."
17
258 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXXIV.
THE HARTFORD CONVENTION.
The continuance of the war for three years exhausted the re- sources of the country, not then abounding in wealth, increased the burdens of taxation and enhanced the prices of all the necessaries of life. In such a state of distress it was easy to excite popular discontent. When the citizens were again and again told that the administration had wasted the treasures of the nation upon profitless schemes of conquest, and had shed the blood of thousands of brave men to redress imaginary wrongs, a majority of the people of New England adopted these views of the war. Many boldly maintained that the soldiers and revenues of the eastern states should be withheld from the control of congress, and devoted to their own defence. The northern states were also urged to make a separate peace with the enemy, and leave the general government to its fate. On the fifteenth day of December, 1814, a convention was holden at Hartford, Conn., to consider the interests of New England in distinction from the whole country, and, if deemed necessary, to provide for an independent northern confederacy. Only two delegates represented New Hampshire. The convention delib- erated in secret. Its history has since been written, and the men who participated in it affirm that nothing treasonable was proposed or advocated. Still the existence of sucli a conven- tion, at such a crisis, sectional in character, hostile to the admin- istration, and sitting with closed doors, cast suspicion upon its authors and abettors and subjected them, in subsequent years, to political outlawry. It is said that Governor Oilman proposed a special session of the legislature, to consider the question of sending delegates from New Hampshire to this convention ; but a majority of the council, being republicans, refused their con- sent. Consequently only two counties, Grafton and Cheshire, were represented at Hartford. This assembly, after its adjourn- ment, published an address to the people, reciting the grievances of New England and proposing such amendments to the consti- tution of the United States as they supposed would prevent their future recurrence. The unexpected cessation of the war pre- vented the further discussion of these matters. The public dis- tress was relieved by peace ; and the convention and its pro-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 259
posed reforms became subjects of bitter denunciation with tlie republican party. Says Scheie De Vere :
" Up to the civil war, we were subdivided politically and socially. In one aspect we had states, each with its own image and superscription : a Mas- sachusetts, haughty, self-conscious in its subtle refinement, or a South Caro- lina, equally proud o£ its aristocratic culture and good breeding ; the one producing thinkers and statesmen, the other, poets and politicians. But they had no thought in common, and no neutral ground on which they would condescend to meet j hence, they were farther apart in their thoughts and their \vritings than Frenchmen and Germans. Tlie painful lack of national feeling exhibited in the Hartford Convention was but reproduced in the reckless attempt at nullification; and at that time, either state would have seen the other perish without a thought of the nation's greatness or the na- tion's honor."
CHAPTER LXXV.
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE PRECEDING AND DURING THE WAR FOR "SAILORS* RIGHTS."
While the cloud of war was distinctly visible above the politi- cal horizon, but prior to its commencement, several local mat- ters of public interest occupied the attention of the people. It was customar}'- in the early history of our country to raise money by lotiery for the general welfare. Roads were built, literary in- stitutions founded and religious societies aided, by such ques- tionable means. A^lottery had been authorized by the legisla- ture, for the construction of a road through the Dixville Notch in the northern part of the state. Tickets had been issued, ex- ceeding the prizes by the sum of thirty-two thousand one hun- dred dollars ; but through the failure of agents, the loss of tick- ets and the expense of management, only fifteen hundred dollars came into the state treasury. This unprofitable and demoraliz- ing process of raising funds was at this time discontinued ; and, wilh ihe moralists of the present day, its former existence ex- cites profound regret. During the year 181 1, the people of New iiampshire were greatly disturbed by the failure of three of their principal banks. The announcement of the bankruptcy of three such institutions in a small state, and nearly at the same time, produced unusual commotion in business circles. Men had not then become accustomed to the almost daily defalca- tions of officials entrusted with corporate funds. Banks then seldom suspended specie payments ; and the absolute failure of a
26o HISTORY OF
moneyed institution was almost as rare as an earthquake. The Hillsborough, Cheshire and Coos Banks, by illegal issues and excessive loans, had thrown so many of their bills upon the market that they were unable to redeem them and were com- pelled to suspend payment. The directors could not escape censure ; for the public could justly charge their losses either upon their carelessness or dishonesty. Those men who incurred the public displeasure with great difficulty regained their former popularity.
During this year the legislature decreed a fixed salary to the judges of the court of common pleas, instead of the uncertain fees which they had previously received. This principle has since been applied to other offices, such as judges of probate and high sheriffs.
In 1812, provision was made for the erection of a state prison. It was built of granite, in a thorough and substantial manner, at an expense of thirty-seven thousand dollars. It was placed un- der the control of the governor and council. During its entire history, to the present time, it has ranked among the best regu- lated penitentiaries in the country. The reformation of crim- inals has been a special object with the managers of this insti- tution. Moral and religious instruction has been imparted, and in many instances the prisoners have been improved in charac- ter and conduct. Before the erection of this prison, eight crimes were punishable with death in New Hampshire. In 1S12 the criminal code was revised, and the number of capital offences was reduced to two, — treason and murder. Imprisonment was substituted for the whipping-post and pillory. With the progress of civilization and religion, severe penalties have everywhere been mitigated ; and death has been confined to those crimes which imperil the very existence of the state. In England, petty larceny used to be punished with death ; and it was no uncom- mon thing to see a score of criminals executed together on a single morning. In 1836 a new law swept from the statute- book twenty-one capital offences ; and since that date the num- ber has been reduced to three, and executions have become quite rare in England.
In our own state, imprisonment for debt disgraced our juris- pnidence till the year 1S41. This law was no respecter of per- sons. Any man, high or low, wise or foolish, might by misfor- tune or imprudence become its victim. The judicial records of the state show that the learned and the ignorant, the honorable and the degraded, have been inmates of the same prison, some- times occupants of the same cell. In 1805, Hon. Russell Free- man, who had been a councilor in the state and speaker of the house of representatives, was imprisoned in Haverhill jail for
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 261
debt. Two otlier persons were confined in the same room for the same cause. Josiah Burnham, one of the debtors, a quar- relsome and brutal fellow, enraged at the complaints made of his ravenous appetite and ungovernable passions, fell upon Mr. Freeman and his companion and murdered them both. This atrocious deed of blood excited general indignation throughout the state against the perpetrator. He was tried and hung for the offence in the following )'ear, and Rev. David Sutherland, of Bath, preached a sermon to the immense crowd that assembled to witness the execution. The barbarous law that immured debtors in jail like felons, and in company with felons, the double murder in one room, the eagerness of the people to see the gallows and the culprit hang upon it, all show the manners and morals of the times. Such scenes are among the things of the past; and other crimes, less revolting but equally sinful, have usurped their place.
Parties that have gained power by severe struggles often resort to questionable measures to retain it. So good laws are some- times repealed and bad laws enacted ; old institutions pulled down and new ones set up; courts reconstructed and constitu- tions amended to suit the exigencies of the majority. At the June session of the legislature in 1813, the "superior court of judicature" was changed to "the supreme judicial court." With a change of name came a change of officers. Only one of the judges of the old court was retained. Arthur Livermore, who had been chief justice, was appointed associate justice in the new court. Jeremiah Smith of Exeter, who had formerly held the same position, was made chief justice and Caleb Ellis of Claremont was selected to fill the remaining seat. The feder- alists professed a desire to make the court more efficient ; and maintained that, as the officers were created by the legislature, the same body had a right to vacate them. The republicans denounced the measure as illegal because the judges were com- missioned " during good behavior " and could be removed only by impeachment. Such ought to be the tenure of a judge's office ; but majorities seldom regard the rights of individuals if the interests of their party are in conflict with them. Two of the old judges determined not to submit to the new law. Rich- ard Evans and Clifton Claggett, in the autumnal sessions of the courts in the counties of Rockingham, Strafford and Hills- borough, appeared and opened the courts as in former years, ordering the jurors to be sworn and clients' to be heard. Thus two sets of judges were at the same time holding rival courts, each claiming supreme power under the state constitution. The lawyers, jurors and a majority of the people recognized the new court. In Hillsborough county the high sheriff escorted the old
262 HISTORY OF
judges to the court-house ; while the new court, attended by his deputies, were obhged to perform the business before them in a school-house. Shortly after these judicial collisions Governor Oilman called together the legislature, and Josiah Butler, sheriff of Rockingham county, and Benjamin Pierce, sheriff of Hills- borough county, were removed by address ; and from that time the new court ceased to be interrupted. It is not creditable to any party to attempt to destroy the independence of the judiciary from motives of mere political expediency. Judges may be legally removed for sufficient cause ; but want of sympathy with an existing administration does not furnish ground of impeach- ment or removal.
During the session of 1813, Kimball Union Academy was in- corporated. It was liberally endowed and named by Hon. Daniel Kimball of Plainfield. Its funds have since been largely in- creased by the widow of its founder. It has been one of the most excellent of literary institutions ; and to-day ranks among the very best classical and English academies of our country.
Besides the ordinary calamities incident to a state of war, the loss of men and means, the increase of prices and taxes, the town of Portsmouth was visited by a destructive conflagration in November, 18 13. Nearly four hundred buildings were laid in ashes. Many of the finest dwelling-houses and stores were burnt. An area of fifteen acres was devastated. The heavens at night were so illumined by the blaze that the light was seen at the distance of one hundred miles. This calamity, coming as it did, after the ruin of her commerce and fisheries by war, pro- duced great suffering among the citizens of Portsmouth. Aid in money and provisions was liberally furnished to the homeless from different parts of New England.
War, pestilence and famine, like the Furies of ancient my- thology, usually do their work in company. During the con- tinuance of the war a malignant epidemic called " the spotted fever" prevailed in_the northern states. Its attack was sudden and often fatal, sometimes decimating the population of small towns.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 263
CHAPTER LXXVI.
RESTORATION OF PEACE.
It is said that Franklin once reproved a man for calling the Revolutionary war " the war of Independence." " Sir," said he, " you mean the Revolution ; the war of Independence is yet to come. That was a war for Independence, but not of Independ- ence." Hence, we speak with propriety of " the second war for Independence ;" for, prior to this time, the United States had been only nominally free. They were socially and commercially dependent on Europe. England exercised a dangerous politi- cal influence in the American legislatures ; she had also gained an undue social influence at the hearths, and a controlling reli- gious influence at the altars, of the people, when, in 1812, the war for seamen's rights commenced. Had the United States submitted, as a large and influential party desired, to the inso- lent conduct of England upon the high seas, the blood of the Revolution would have been shed in vain. A three years' war taught this imperious " mistress of the seas " that there were blows to take as well as blows to give ; and, although the terms of peace were adopted without allusion to "sailors' rights," still, by the tacit consent of both parties, that unwelcome cause of controversy was allowed to sleep, and American ships have since that day sailed unmolested over all waters, and " the right of search " has been confined to slavers or ships laden with goods which both nrftions declared contraband. In the Aslibur- ton treaty, Mr. Webster, acting for the United States, claimed that " the American flag shall protect all that sail under it." This principle was not denied by the English minister ; and the matter for which the war of 1S12 was declared is now consid- ered forever settled. The last and the most glorious battle of that war was fought at New Orleans, on the eighth of January, 18 15. General Andrew Jackson, who had previously subdued the Creek Indians in Florida, was the hero on that memorable occasion. The Americans lost only seven men killed and six wounded. The loss of the English was more than one hundred to one of the Americans. The treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, in Belgium, by the commissioners of the two nations on the twenty-fourth of L>ecember of the preceding year. Had the telegraphic wires then been in existence, the bloody battle of New Orleans would not have been fought ; but that victory was
2()4 HISTORY OF
worth more to the weaker party than all the previous conflicts of the war. Without it, the peace of the country would have been less secure. This was the most biilliant achievement of the war. Its moral influence was incalculable. The news of an honorable peace, immediately following it, was hailed every- where with lively demonstrations of joy.
The burdens of the war had been more severely felt in New England than in other sections of the country. There the op- position was most violent and party spirit most bitter. For three years the federalists retained the political ascendency in New Hampshire, and at the close of thewar still enumerated, with apparent satisfaction, the heavy burdens which the state en- dured. Governor Gilman, at the June session of the legislature in 1815, congratulated the people on the restoration of peace, and added : " The calamities of the war have been severely felt ; the loss of the lives of multitudes of our countrymen, the ex- pense of treasure, depreciation of national credit, a large debt and multiplied taxes. What have we gained .''." Time has an- swered that question which then seemed unanswerable. More than fifty years of profitable commerce and mutual respect be- tAveen the nations that prosecuted the war have proclaimed the success of the contest, more eloquently than Fame with her iron voice and hundred tongues could publish it. The war was waged for the freedom of the seas, and there the United States won the most successful and impressive victories. The majority of the legislature, though hostile to the war, did not fail to do jus- tice to the brave men whose valor had gained for the country imperishable renown. They affirmed that "the legislature, in common with their fellow-citizens, duly appreciated the impor- tant sen'ices rendered to their country, upon the ocean, upon the lakes, and upon the land, by officers, seamen and soldiers of the United States, in many brilliant achievements and decisive vic- tories, which will go down to posterity as an indubitable memo- rial that the sons of those fathers who fought the battles of the Revolution have imbibed, from the same fountain, that exalted and unconquerable spirit which insures victory while it stimu- lates the exercise of humanity and courtesy to the vanquished." At the March election in 1816, the republican party returned to power. Hon. William Plumer was elected governor by a major- ity of two thousand votes.* The legislature also had a majority of the same party. William Badger was elected president of the senate and David L. Morrill speaker of the house. The
•He received twenty thoiisaml six hundred and fifty-two votes ; and his opponent, Mr. Shcafe, received eighteen thousand three hundred and twemy-six. Thisv/as the iargest pop- ular vote that had ever been cast in the state. The increased interest of the citizens in the annual elections is indicated by the larger number of votes in proportion to the population. In 1790, only one vote in seventeen of the inhabitants was thrown for tha chief magistrate; in iboo, one in eleven; in 1810, one in seven, and in 1816, one in six.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 265
violence of party feeling was gradually subsiding, and " the era of good feelings " was dawning upon the state.
The summer and autumn of i<St6 were uncommonly cold. The mean annual temperature in tlie southern part of the state was 43°. Snow fell upon the ninth of June, even upon the sea- board ; and the month of August alone was free from frost. The crops were destroyed by the severe cold, and the people be- came disheartened and began to covet serener skies and a more fertile soil. Ohio was then inviting immigrants, and the citizens of New Hampshire began to desert the sterile farm, the harsh climate and humble homes of their native state for the more genial air and richer soil of the new states. That process of depletion has been steadily acting ever since ; and, during the last decade of our history. New Hampshire has lost instead of gaining population. The great West and the rising manufactur- ing towns have both drawn so largely upon the agricultural dis- tricts, that they are now declining in numbers and wealth ; and some of the less productive portions of the state are fast falling to decay.
In a republic it is natural that those who administer its affairs should wish their friends to occupy all places of trust and power. "To the victors belong the spoils" is now the law of American politics. When a party falls from power all the officials in the state, from governor to door-keeper, retire to private life. All laws offensive to the new party are at once repealed. The martyrs of the minority become the heroes of the majority'. When the republicans came into power in 1816, they immediatly proceeded to redress the wrongs, private and public, real and imaginarj', which the federalists had perpetrated during the war. The judiciary received early attention. The law of 1813, estab- lishing the supreme judicial court, was promptly repealed ; and the judges who owed their places to this law were deprived of their dignity. William Merchant Richardson, Samuel Bell and Levi Woodbury, gentlemen eminent for their moral worth and legal learning, were raised to the bench of the superior court. Benjamin Pierce, distinguished for his revolutionary services and his private virtues, was restored to the office of sheriff of Hills- borough county. His new term of service was rendered mem- orable by a noble act of philanthropy. Three aged men were then lying in Amherst jail for debt. No crime but poverty was alleged against them. One of them had been in durance four years. The veteran Pierce was moved with pity at their helpless condition. He paid the debts for which they had been impris- oned. The sum required made large inroads upon his limited estate ; still he decreed and e.xecuted the liberation of the unfor-
266 HISTORY OF
tunate debtors and received the hearty commendation of every contemporary whose heart was not embittered by party hate.*
Josiah Butler, the other sheriff who refused comphance with the law of 1813, and Clifton Claggett, one of the degraded judges, were nominated for congress. Mr. Evans, who was also removed from the bench, would have been honored with the others, had not his failing health rendered him incompetent to the discharge of high official duties. Thus the new party rewarded those who had led their "forlorn hope" when they were in the minority. In such cases "poetic justice " culminates in partisan gratitude. David L. Morrill and Clement Storer were elected to the United States senate in place of Jeremiah Mason and Thomas W. Thompson. The state then had six members in the lower house, all republicans ; and the electoral vote of the state was given for James Monroe, whose political principles were so liberal as to command the respect of all parties. In the summer of 18 17, President Monroe visited New England and was received with unbounded joy by all parties. The zeal of the federalists in welcoming the chief magistrate of the nation was the subject of severe criticism in some of the republican journals. President Monroe proceeded as far north as Hanover in New Hampshire. We find the following record of incidents that occurred during this brief visit :
"At Enfield, in this state, the President called at the ' Habitation of the Shaker community.' The elder came forth from the principal house in the settlement and addressed the President : ' I Joseph Goodrich welcome James Monroe to our habitation.' The President examined the institution and their manufactures, tarried with them about one hour, and was highly pleased with the beauty of their fields, their exemplary deportment and habits, the improvements in their agriculture, buildings and manufactures, and with their general plain though neat appearance.
At Hanover he unexpectedly met with an old acquaintance in the widow of the late revered and lamented President Whcelock. This lady was a native of New Jersey, was at Trenton at the time of the Hessian defeat, in which our gallant Monroe took a part as lieutenant of a company and was wounded j she was the person who dressed his wound after he was conveyed to the house in which she then was. The President did not recognize her at first, but as ' remembrance rose ' the interview became peculiarly affecting to the two principal individuals, and highly interesting to the large circle of ladies and gentlemen present. A letter from a friend at Hanover remarks : ' We
*The following notice of the liberation of these men appeared at the time in the Amherst Cabinet, December, iSiS ;
The Prisoners Set FreeI — We are happy to announce to the public, that the/i7or pris- oners so lone retained in Amherst mol for prison-charges, viz., MOSES BREWER, ISAAC LAWRENCE and GEORGE LANCEY, were yesterday released from confinement and set free by the liberalhy ol Gen. Pierce, the newly appointed Sheriff of the county. The feelings of these men on the occasion, whose pros^ectSy but a few days since, were i7nprison^ tnentfor lifet can easier be conceived than descnbed. The scene was witnessed by numer- ous spectators, who rejoiced with the released prisoners, and vi\iQ/eH glad with them that they were restored to liberty and breathed againyVi?(r air. On liberating the prisoners from their continement, General Pierce read to them a handsome and feeling Address, wliich he then handed to Captain Brewer, as their discharge, or * passport,' as he kindly expressed it, from prison.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 267
were delighted with the short visit of the President. For his sake the hatchet was buried for at least twenty-four hours — a short truce, but a merry one.'
At Biddeford, Maine, the President was introduced to the venerable Dea- con Samuel Chase, now in the ggth year of his age. He addressed the Pres- ident with the simplicity of a Christian and the affection of a father. It was an interesting scene. The good old man at parting rose and with all the dignity of an ancient patriarch pronounced his blessing.
While at Portsmouth the President spent that part of the Sabbath which was not devoted to public, divine service, with that eminent patriot and Christian, John Langdon. His tarry at the mansion of Gov. L. was proba- bly longer than the time devoted to any individual in New England. It is thus that the President evinced his partiality to our most distinguished and illustrious citizen.''
The State-house at Concord was built in 1817, at an expense of eighty tliousand dollars. The citizens of Concord contributed liberally to the building fund. Governor Plumer recommended the state appropriation for this purpose in 1816. The location of the state-house excited a furious contest, not only in Concord but in the legislature and throughout the state. The old state- house had been nearer the north end of the main street. The dwellers in that vicinity were influenced by pecuniary considera- tions to demand of the legislature that the new building should stand upon the old site. The representatives who were their " boarders " were persuaded by them to adopt their interested views; and, as Mr. Toppan of Hampton said, they became "the representatives of their respective boarding-houses, rather than of the state." The spot selected for the new house was de- nounced as " a quagmire and a frog-pond." Colonel Prescott of Jaffrey amused the house with an account of the frogs he had seen leaping about in the cellar, which might be expected at some future time, should the court be held there, " to make as much noise in it," he sai^, " as I do now." The council was divided on this momentous subject ; and Governor Plumer, whose in- fluence was supposed to decide the question, incurred great cen- sure from many of his political friends. He had become unpop- ular with some leading men of the republican party, though the people were still his warm supporters. Messrs. Morrill, Pierce, Claggett, Quarles and Butler were for various reasons unfriendly to him. Morrill as speaker of the house impeded his plans in the constitution of committees. Pierce and Quarles in the council also opposed him. Still his policy prevailed ; and for more than fifty years there has been no complaint of " croakers " in the cellar of the state-house ; but rather of those " that came up and covered " the upper floors.
In January 1817, John Quincy Adams, then minister to Eng- land, wrote a long letter to Governor Plumer in commendation of his message, of which he says :
" It was republished entire in one of the newspapers of the most e.xten-
268 HISTORY OF
sive circulation, not as, during our late war, some of our governors' speeches were republished, to show the subserviency of the speakers to the bulwark of our holy religion and to the press-gang, but, professedly, for the pure, patriotic and genuine republican sentiments with which it abounded. It has been a truly cheering contemplation to me to sec that the people of New Hampshire have recovered from the delusions of that unprincipled faction which, under the name of Federalism, was driving them to the dissolution of the Union, and, under the name of Washington, to British re-coloniza- tion— to see them returning to the counsels of sober, moderate men, who are biased by no feelings but those of public spirit and by no interests but those of their country."
He also bears unequivocal testimony to the moral effects of the late war, in which " our victories," he says, " have placed our character as a martial people on a level with the most respecta- ble nations of Europe."
Governor Plumer closed his official life in 1819, by declining a reelection. In the spring of that year, Hon. Samuell Bell of Chester was chosen governor by a large majority over William Hale of Dover, the candidate of the federalists. But little in- terest was manifested in the canvass. The storm of war had been succeeded by the calm of peace ; and party leaders, like exhausted athletes, retired from the arena of controversy to re- cruit their strength for a new conflict.
CHAPTER LXXVn.
dartmoi;th college controversy.
Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth college, was a man large in heart, prudent in counsel, sagacious in design and energetic in execution. He was a Puritan in creed and an evan- gelist in practice. He was a herald of modern revivals and anticipated tire age of missions by nearly half a century. In the field of literary enterprise, he was gathering a harvest before other educators were aware that the seed-time had arrived. Hon. Nathaniel Niles, distinguished for his dispassionate judg- ment and eminent legal learning, a trustee of the college as early as 1793, a contemporary of the elder Wheelock and cognizant of the entire history of the college to the date of his record, in 1815, writes as follows:
" The venerable Dr. Eleazer Wheelock had, by his zeal, enterprise, ad- dress and indefatigable exertions, created an Indian charity school, and as- tonished everybody. He had procured for it great pecuniary resources and an extensive and powerful patronage. He had extensive views and a daring
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 269
mind, and projected the conversion of it into a college in the wilderness. He applied for a charter, obtained it and fixed on Hanover, forty or fifty miles distant from all considerable settlements, for the place of its establishment. In any other man this would have looked like a wild and hopeless project, but what this wonderful man had already achieved produced a general con- fidence that he would succeed. I believe that no one of the trustees first appointed (himself excepted) lived within one hundred miles of this place, to which there was then no path that deserved the name of a road. They were part of them in Portsmouth and its vicinity and part in Connecticut. Probably all of them wanted confidence in their own abilities to manage such a concern, and presumed, on the cvider.cc cf what he had already done, that he was equal to this prodigious enterprise, and said to themselves: 'Our wisdom directs us to permit him both to devise and execute his bold projects. We eannot do better than to rest satisfied with the encouragement we can give him by sanctioning his proposition.' It was wise in them to do so. Thus the management of everything, almost, was left to him, while the board took the responsibility on themselves. Such seem to have been the views of the trustees who were, at first, so distant as seldom to give a general attend- ance at the board. Additional circumstances gave the president a decided controflh the board itself. One of his sons-in-law had been appointed a trustee by the charter. In 1773 Mr. Woodw^ard, another son-in-law, and Dr. Burroughs, who looked up to the president as to an almost infallible judge, were elected, and in 1776 Mr. Ripley, another son-in-law, was elected. The votes of the members had generally the same effect as would have re- sulted from the president's having as many votes of his own, and formed a majority when there were present a bare quorum. These, except Mr. Pat- ten, were near at hand, while the other trustees were at a great distance and seldom attended. If the influence of the president was thus supreme in the board it was not less so in the executive. He had for his assistant instruc- tors two sons, two sons-in-law, and Dr. John Smith. The last was, in sort, adopted into his family, and had imbibed sentiments so profoundly obse- quious that he was probably never known, undcrstandingly, to thwart any o£ the president's views ; so that, in effect, the president had in his own hands the uncontrolled direction of all the elections, appointments, instruction and government in every department. His authority extended even beyond his life. He had been authorized to appoint his successor, and he did appoint his son, who had been a tutor for seven years and had witnessed the exposi- tion of the character exhibited by his father. In such circumstances it was extremely natural, if not almost unavoidable, for him, unless he had more than a common share of common sense and common modesty, to regard as devolving on himself all the powers which had been exercised by his prede- cessor. He was sole heir to his father, as to his office, and might perhaps honestly think he was also heir to his abilities. Besides there were circum- stances which strongly tended to create in him a belief that he was well qualified to copy his fathers example, and therefore worthy of the same confidence, authority and preeminence. He had commanded a regiment in the army, and naturally felt in himself that spirit of domination incident to the military character. He, no doubt, thought he knew how to govern. Further, he had (according to his own account) the esteem and confidence of many great men in America, France and Great Britain. These items, united in one round sum, were enough to turn any man's head, unless ho was something more than common. Here we see the occasion of the president's exorbitant claims and his dolorous complaints."
Slight differences of opinion between the second president and his colleagues sprang up from the very beginning of his adminis- tration. The matters in dispute were at first local and ecclesiasti-
270
HISTORY OF
cal ; then literary and financial, and finally they became personal and official. They agitated first the church, then the village and faculty. They passed to the legislature and the state court, and finally, by appeal, the controversy was decided by the supreme court of the United States. The question at issue was supposed to involve the existence and usefulness of every eleemosynary institution in the country. In his pastorate in Lebanon, Conn., the first president of the college was a Congregationalist. When he came to Hanover he deemed it expedient in the organization of a new church to adopt the Presbyterian form of government. The Scotch fund for the education of Indians, in connection with Moor's Charity School, was of course controlled by Presby- terians ; and a cordial sympathy with the donors was thought to be essential to the highest success of their benefactions. Even at that early day the differences between the Congregation- alists and Presbyterians were regarded as no bar to the change of church relationship from one to the other. But it sometimes happens that very slight differences, even in external matters, lead to very grave disputes ; and the bitterness of the contro- versy is in the inverse ratio to its importance.
As we have no other autliority, both contemporary and au- thentic, respecting the church difficulties in Hanover, we again quote from the careful, considerate and, in some sense, the ofiicial record of Judge Niles. He writes :
" At an earlv day. Dr. E. Wheelock collected a church at Dartmouth Col- lege. It may be considered as consisting of two branches, distinguished by the distance of their local situations ; one of them being in the vicinity of the college and the other in Hartford, Vermont. This union took place while neither part was able to provide preaching for itself. After some time, however, the members living in Hartford erected a house for public wor- ship, and generally supported preaching in it, while those near the college assembled for worship, with the members of college, first in the chapel and afterwards in the meeting-house. Yet they celebrated the Lord's supper, sometimes at Hanover and sometimes at Hartford, and although they thought themselves Presbyterians, they often found it convenient to have church meetings. They met on occasion of the election of Dr. Worcester as pro- fessor of Divinity, and passed several votes expressive of their being, and designing to continue to be, Presbyterians, and that Dr. Smith was, and that they chose he should continue to be, their pastor. This was an offensive disappointment to the body of professors and others on the Plain. They had on some account become dissatisfied with Dr. Smith, both as pastor and teacher, although they loved him as a man and as a neighbor ; and having expected that the professor of Theology, when one should be appointed, would be both teacher and pastor, and the election of Dr. Worcester being highly pleasing to them, they found themselves greatly disappointed in their hopes by these votes, which they suspected had been passed with a view to prevent the professor-elect from accepting the appointment, and still to hold them unpleasantly confined under the administration of Dr. Smith."
Dr. Worcester having declined to accept the professorship tendered to him, Roswell ShurtlefE was elected to that chair in
I
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 27 1
1804. This appointment by the trustees put a new face upon the controversy. A majority of the church members resided in Hartford. It was in their power to control, by major vote, all the plans of those who resided in Hanover. A long correspon- dence ensued ; various propositions were made by the minority ; but all were rejected. That portion of the church and congre- gation who resided upon the Plain, with few exceptions, desired that Prof. Shurtleff should officiate as colleague to Dr. Smith. This request was preferred to him in September, 1804. He de- clined the invitation. Then the Hanover branch of the church requested the Hartford branch to allow Prof. Shurtleff to receive " ordination at large " and take the pastoral care of the Hanover people, while Dr. Smith should continue to officiate at Hartford. This proposition was declined. Then the Hanover branch peti- tioned for a mutual council to determine whether two churches should be formed, by a local division, leaving one in New Hamp- shire and the other in Vermont. This petition was rejected. Thereupon the Hanover people called an ex parte council to ad- vise with them concerning their difficulties. The council recom- mended a division. This result was not accepted by the Hart- ford people. The trustees were requested to interpose their official power and settle the dispute. They so far succeeded as to secure a mutual council, who said : " We judge it expedient that there be but one church at present in connection with Dart- mouth College, denominated as formerly, consisting of two branches, one on the east side and the other on the west side of Connecticut river, under the same covenant as heretofore ; that each branch have an independent and exclusive right of admit- ting and disciplining its own members ; that each branch, also, have the exclusive privilege of employing and settling a minister of their own choice ; " with other exclusive rights and powers to be enjoyed by each branch, as though it constituted a distinct and separate church. This decree of council was variously in- terpreted ; the Hartford branch claimed, under its provisions, supremacy in the government of the entire church ; and the Hanover branch claimed independency, from the same authority, and proceeded to adopt a congregational form of government. We quote from Judge Niles :
" Those members o£ the church living in Hanover, and who had been formed into a Congregational church, after having in vain solicited the church to which they belonged to unite with them in calling a council to enquire into the expediency of a division, invited an ex parte council for advice ; and afterwards at the desire of the president, Mr. Shurtleff was allowed to ex- change with other ministers, with an exception of those clergymen who, as the sketcher expresses it, ' dare J to encroacli on Presbyterian ground, to inter- fere with its government, extract its members to form them into a new eccle- siastical machine.' Here is a just portrait of the president's own liberal Catholicism. A number of his brethren thought themselves oppressed, and
272 HISTORY OF
believed it would contribute to their comfort and edification to become a dis- tinct church, and wished for counsel and advice respecting the subject. They wished to have the concurrence of their brethren in the choice of the coun- selors, but this was refused. They called in a council of ministers, and these ministers are prohibited from preaching at Hanover. For what.' Why because they had 'encroached on FrcsOytcrian ground' What did they do? They interfered with presbyterian government, by counseling some of its subjects, who said they were opposed. So then, these brethren must remain in their present connexion, unless they should go an hundred miles to find a Presbytery to whom they might complain ; and ministers of the gospel must, as to the president, be silenced, because they dared to encroach on Presby- terian ground."
The president, John Wheelock, * and Prof. John Smith who was acting as pastor of the old cliurch, still favored the presbyterian form of government and were opposed to the new church. Here was planted a seed wliich grew and became a mighty tree whose branches, in some sense, overshadowed the whole land ! " Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." From 1804 to 1814, the controversy was chiefly local, disturbing the harmony of the village church and impeding the vigorous administration of the college, both in the faculty and board of trust. At the latter date the public became interested in the quarrel, and began to take sides as their political or religious preferences inclined. During the whole of the year, 1815 the press in New Hampshire probably devoted as much space to Dartmouth College as to political matters. In some instances the leading journals of the state devoted five or si.x columns to original articles pertaining to the college controversy. The parties mutually charged each other with bigotry, intolerance and hypocrisy. The dispute soon became political in its character ; and federalists and republi- cans became earnest defenders of particular forms of ecclesiasti- cal government. The republicans in this case were generally Presbyterians, and the federalists Congregationalists. The for- mer assailed, the latter defended, the action of the majority of the faculty and trustees. At the June session of the legislature in 1815, President Wheelock called on that body to redress his wrongs real and imaginar}'. The following extract from his " Memorial " contains the charges preferred by him against the trustees. Speaking of himself, he says :
"Will you permit him to suggest there is reason to fear that those who hold in trust the concerns of this Seminary have forsaken its original prin- ciples, and left the path of their predecessors. It is unnecessary to relate how the evil commenced in its embryo state ; by what means and practices,
* Judjre Banclt, in his memori.il address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Charles Marsh, thus speaks of President John Wheelock : " As the son, htir, and successor of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, the founder and first president of the college, he conceived and was ap- parently acting upon the idea tl-at, although under the charier the college was a private eleemosynary corporation, yet it was in reality a cori^oration sole, and he was the sole cor- porator. His course of administnttion, in reference to all its interests, seemed to indicate that he repcarded it as rerJ'y a private foundation, in the benefits of which the public mi;ht share under such a pr.aclical governance as to him should seem meet ; and that it was his ri;5ht to subordinate the public interests to his own pergonal views and purposes."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 273
they, thus deviating, have in recent years, with the same object in view, in- creased their number to a majority controlling the measures of the Board; but more important is it to lay before you, that there are serious grounds to excite apprehensions of the great impropriety and dangerous tendency of their proceedings ; reasons to believe that they have applied property to purposes wholly alien from the intentions of the donors, and under peculiar circumstances to excite regret ; that they have in the series of their move- ments to promote party views transformed the moral and religious order of the institution by depriving many of their innocent enjoyment of rights and priv- ileges, for which they had confided in their faith; that they have broken down the barriers and violated the charter, by prostrating the rights with which it expressly invests the presidential office ; that to subserve their purpose, they have adopted improper methods in their appointments of executive officers, naturally tending to embarrass and obstruct the harmonious government and instruction of the seminary; that they have extended their powers which the charter confines to the college, to form connection with an academy, in exclusion of the other academies in the state, cementing an alliance with its overseers, and furnishing aid from the college treasury for their students; — that they have perverted the power, which by the incorporation they ought to exercise over a branch of Moor's Charity School, and have obstructed the application of its fund according to the nature of the establishment and the design of the donors ; and that their measures have been oppressive to your memorialist in the discharge of his office."
While the population was sparse m the newly settled tovi'ns on the banks of the Connecticut, it was natural that unions should be formed by the inhabitants of adjacent towns for the support of the gospel. We are not surprised, therefore, that Hartford, in Vermont, and Hanover, in New Hampshire, gathered in early times their scattered population into one church ; bat when each town became ■ strong enough to act alone, it seems marvelous that the majority, living at a distance from the college commu- nit)^, should compel them to perpetuate a reluctant and offensive union with themselves. The efforts to be released were persist- ent and numerous. For years in succession, the Hanover peo- ple petitioned, labdred and contended for an independent ex- istence ; a majority of the trustees advised a separation ; two ministerial councils approved it ; the Orange Association in Ver- mont twice recommended it. The president, however, refused his consent, because one strong arm of his power would be broken b)' placing him in the minority of the village church. Etc re garded the ecclesiastical feud as the fruitful source of all liis woes. It was a nucleus about which other official difficulties clustered. "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water." The old channel is ever enlarging and new tributaries flow in. The vague and magniloquent indictment, which the president presented to the legislature, was followed by an ex- panded appeal to the public entitled, " Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College," from the same pen, with a second pam- phlet by Dr. Parish, a warm friend of the president, entitled "A Candid Analytical Review of the Sketches," in which the learned i8
2 74 HISTORY OF
Doctor made a special plea for the "venerable president." These publications called out vindications, replies, rejoinders and sur- rejoinders,
" Thick as Autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Valombrosa."
Every newspaper in the state took sides on this local question. The specific counts in the president's pompous complaint were the violation of religious ordinances, the perversion of the Phil- lips fund, and usurpation of the powers of government and in- struction in the college. He seemed to regard himself, as his honored father was, as " corporation sole," in the administration of the pecuniary and literary affairs of the college. The trustees claimed a share in the government and instruction of the college and appealed to the charter for authority. One clause in that instrument is thus worded :
" And we do further, of our special grace and certain knowl- edge and mere motion, will, give and grant unto the said trustees of Dartmouth College, that they and their successors, or a major part of any seven, or more of them, v.'hich shall convene for that purpose, as above directed, may make and they are Jiercby fully empowered, from time to time, to make and establish such ordi- nances, orders and laws, as may tend to the good and wholesome government of the said college and all the students and the several officers and ministers thereof, and ta the public benefit of the same, not repugnant to the lams and statutes of our realm of Great Britain, or of this our proiwice of New Ifamfsliire, and not excluding any person of any religious denoi?iination whatsoever from free and equal liberty and advantagss of education, or from any of the liberties and privileges or immunities of the said college, on account of his or their speculative sentiments in religion or of his or their being of a religious profession different from said trustees of said college. And such ordinances, orders, or laws, which shall, as aforesaid, be made, we do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ratify, allow of ancl confirm as good and effectual to oblige all the students and the several officers and ministers of said college. And we do hereby authorize and em- power the said trustees of Dartmouth College, and the president, tutors and professors by them elected and appointed, as afore- said, to put such ordinances, laws and orders into execution to ill intents and purposes." Such are the powers vested in the :rustees to govern and regulate all the collegiate duties and ;onduct of all the officers, ministers and students of the college.
At the annual meeting of the trustees holden by adjournment at Dartmouth College, August 24, 1815, after some unsatisfactory correspondence between the president and the board, Mr. Paine
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 275
submitted the following preamble and rt-sohition, which were adopted with two dissenting votes :
"Cases sometimes occur when it becomes expedient that corporate bodies, whatever confidence they may feel respecting the rectitude and propriety of their own measures, shonkl explain the ground of them to the jsulilic. Such an explanation becomes peculiarly important when the concerns committed to their care are dependent on public opinion for their prosperity and suc- cess. Into such a situation the trustees of Dartmouth College consider themselves to be now brought. Under a sense cf this duty they liavc already cheerfully submitted their past acts to the inspection of a committee of the legislature of the State, and from a similar view of duty they now proceed to state the reasons that lead them to withdraw their further assent to the nomination and appointment of Dr. John Whe'elock to the presidency of Dartmouth College.
First. He has had an agency in publishing and circulating a certain anon- ymous pamphlet, entitled, ' Sketches of the History of Dartmouth ColJege and Moore's Charity School,' and espoused the charges therein contained before the committee of the legislature. Whatever might be our views of the principles which had gained an ascendency in the mind of President Wheelock, we could not, without the most undeniable evidence, have believed that he could have communicated sentiments so entirely repugnant to truth, or that any person, who was not as destitute of discernment as of integrity, would have charged on a public body as a crime those things which notori- ously received his imqualificd concurrence, and sonie of which were done by his special recommendation. The trustees consider the above-mentioned publication as a gross and unprovoked libel on the institution, and the said Dr. Wheelock neglects to take any measure to repair an injury v.'hich is directly aimed at its reputation, and calculated to destroy its usefulness.
Secondly. He has set up and insists on claims which the charter by no fair construction does allow — claims which in their operation would deprive the corporation of all its powers. He claims a right to e.xercise the whole execu- tive authority of the college which the charter has expressly committed to ' the trustees, with the president, tutors, and professors by them appointed.' He also seems to claim a right to control the corporation in the appointment of executive officers, inasmuch as he has reproached them with great severity ior choosing men who do not in all respects meet his wishes, and thereby embarrass the proceetlings of the board.
Tliirdly. From a variety of circumstances, the trustees have had reason to conclude that he has embarrassed the proceedings of the executive officers by causing an impression to be made on the minds of such students as have fallen under censure for transgressions' of the laws of the institution, that if he could have had his will they would not have suffered disgrace or punishment.
Fourthly. The trustees have obtained satisfactory evi.'.ence that Dr. Wheelock has been guilty of manifest fraud in the applicatio.i of the funds cf Moor's school, by taking a youth who was not an Indian, but adopted by an Indian tribe, under an Indian name, and supporting him on the .Scotch fund, which was granted for the solo purpose of instructing aud civi; zing Indians.
Fifthly. It is manifest to the trustees that Dr. Wheelock has in various ways given rise and circulation to a report that the real cause of the dissatis- faction of the trustees with him was a diversity of religious opinions between him and them, when in truth and fact no such diversity was known to e:;ist, as he has publicly acknowledged before the committee of the legislature ap- pointed to investigate the affairs of the college.
The trustees adopt this solemn measure from a full conviction tiiat tlie
276 HISTORY OF
cause of truth, the interest of this institution, and of science in general, re- quire it. It is from a deep conviction that the college can no longer prosper under his presidency. They would gladly have avoided this painful crisis. From a respect to the honored father of t)r. Wheclock, the founder of this institution, they had hoped that they might have continued him in the presi- dency as long as he was competent to discharge its duties.
They feel that this measure cannot be construed into any disrespect to the legislature of New Hampsihire, whose sole object in the appointment of a committee to investigate the affairs of the college must have been to ascer- tain if the trustees had forfeited their charter, and not whether they had ex- ercised their charter powers discreetly or indiscreetly — not whether they had treated either of the executive officers of the college with jjropriety or impropriety. They will ever submit to the authority of law. The legisla- ture have appointed a committee to examine the concerns of the college and the school generally. The trustees met that committee with promptitude, and frankly exhibited every measure of theirs which had been a subject of complaint, and all the concerns of the institution as far as their knowledge and means would permit. They wish to have their acts made as public as possible. The committee of the legislature will report the facts, and the trustees will cheerfully meet the issue before any tribunal competent to try them, according to the principles of their charter.
They consider this crisis as a severe trial to the institution ; but they be- lieve that in order to entertain a hope that it will flourish and be useful they must be faithful to their trust, that they must not approve of an ofiSccr who labors to destroy its reputation and embarrass its internal concerns. They will yet hope that under the smiles of Divine Providence this institution will continue to flourish, and be a great blessing to generations to come.
TuERiii-ORE Resolved, That the appointment of Dr. John Wheelock to the presidency of this college by rlie last will of the Rev. Eleaz.\r Wheelock, the founder and first president of this college be, and the same is hereby, by the trustees of said college, disapproved. And it is further
J^esohcd, That the said Dr. John Wheelock, for the reasons aforesaid, be, and he is hereby, displaced and removed from the office of president ot said college.
J\csolvL'tf, That for the reasons before stated the said trustees deem the said Dr. John Wheelock unfit to serve the interests of the college as a trustee of the same, and that therefore he be displaced and removed .from the said office of a trustee of said college, and that the trustees will, as soon as may be, elect and appoint such trustee as shall supply the place of the said Dr. John Wheelock as a trustee.
Jicsohrd, That for the reasons aforesaid, the said Dr. John Wheelock be, and he is hereby, removed from the office of professor of history in this college."
The removal of Dr. Wheelock gave new intensity to the quar- rel. The crisis had come ; there were no neutrals in the state. Every man was a friend or enemy of the college. The contro- versy became political ; and the college question took precedence of the interests of the state and nation.
On the twenty-seventh day of June, 18 16, an act was passed by the New Hampshire legislature entitled an "Act to amend the Charter and enlarge and improve the Corporation of Dart- mouth College." This act virtually constituted a new Univer- sity, with a board of twenty-five overseers, all politicians of course, whose power was in one sense omnipotent, because, like
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the Roman tribunes, they could arrest all the proceedings of the trustees by a simple veto. The number of the trustees was so enlarged as to give a majority of that body to the dominant party in the state. Under this act the " Dartmouth University" was set up side by side with Dartmouth College, v.'hose guardians aijd professors refused to submit to the new board and the new act of incorporation. After the passage of the legislative act, the trustees, in August, 18 16. put upon their records the follow- ing facts, with explanations. We have room only for the facts.
"The trustees of Dartmouth College have been informed through the public newspapers that the legislature of New Hampshire, at their last June session, passed an act in the following words, viz. [Here the act is recited.]
The trustees deem it their duty to place on their records the following facts :
At the session of the legislature of the state holden in June, A. D. 18 1 5, Doctor John Wheelock, the then president of the college, presented a memorial to that body, in which he charged a majority of the trustees ot the college with gross misbehavior in office.
Doctor Wheelock's memorial was committed to a joint com- mittee of both branches of the legislature, and he was fully heard before the committee ex parte, neither the trustees nor the members then present being notified or heard.
The legislature thereupon appointed the Honorable Daniel A. White, Nathaniel A. Haven and Rev. Ephraim P. Bradford, a committee to repair to the college and investigate facts and re- port thereon. The same committee did, in August following, meet at the college, heard both Doctor Wheelock in support of his cliarges against" the trustees and their defence, and at the session of the legislature in June last made their report, which has been published.
The report of facts made by Messrs. White, Haven and Brad- ford was committed to a joint committee of both branches, and this last committee in their report expressly dcelinc eonsidering the report of facts as the proper ground upon which the legislature ought to proceed in relation to the college.
The trustees were not notified at any stage of the proceedings to appear by themselves or agent before the legislature and answer the charges e.xhibited against them by the said Wheelock.
Thomas W. Thompson, Elijah Paine, and Asa M'Farland, three of the trustees implicated, attended the legislature in June last, and respectfully petitioned for the privilege of being heard on the floor of the house (a privilege seldom denied to parties in interest) in behalf of themselves and the other trustees, but were refused.
2^8 HISTORY OF
During the same session the said Thompson, Paine and M'Far- land presented to the legislature a remonstrance against the pas- sage of the bill relating to the college, then pending.
And afterwards, on the 24th day of June, the said Thompson and M'Farland presented to the legislature another remonstrance against the passage of the act now under consideration.
Both remonstrances were read and laid on the table.
No facts were proved to the legislature, and no report of facts of an}' legislative committee was made to show that the state of things at the college rendered any legislative interference necessary.
The act passed by small majorities in the house of repre- sentatives and the seiiate.
The trustees forbear to make any comment on the foregoing facts."
" The guardians of the college were moved by a profound con- viction of the justice, equity and vital consequence of the ques- tion. Otherwise it might not then, at least, have received the thorough defence of Smith and Mason, Hopkinson and Web- ster, nor the luminous and ample decision of Marshall and Stoiy, a decision which, not over-estimated, I suppose, in the judgment pronounced upon it by Chancellor Kent, has gone far beyond the immediate issue, and, by removing our colleges from the fluctuating influence of party and faction, has helped to make them what they should be — high neutral powers in the state, devoted to the establishing and inculcating of principles; where may shine the lumen siccimi, the dry light of wisdom and learn- ing, untinged by the vapors of the cave or the breath of the forum."
The men who defended the college in the hour of her extreme peril deserve more than a passing notice. The trustees, the president and professors of the college, the lawyers who triumph- antly repelled the assault of foes without and foes within, were all men of mark. Some of them have no peers in the literary and judicial records of our country. The true glory of New Hampshire is in her sons both native and adopted. They ha\-e made her history renowned and deserve the grateful remem- brance of succeeding generations. From the gallery of illus- trious names associated with the college controversy I select a few portraits drawn by the hands of masters. At the head of the list stands the youthful president, Francis Brown, who en- tered upon his laborious and perilous duties at the age of thirty. From an eloquent sketch of this distinguished college officer by Rev. Henry Wood, I select the following paragraphs :
"It was a characteristic of president Brown, that he was always equal to
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any emergency; no call could be made upon his resources unhonored. At a word, all the sleeping energies of his mind came up in theii glowing beauty and just proportions, awakening the admiration and securing the confidence of timid friends, and overawing the presumption that already exulted in the overthrow of the college. Reluctantly given up by his people, he had only to touch again the soil of his native state, and move amid the eyes and ears of its citizens, to be admitted as that superior mind which Providence had raised up and kept, like Moses in the desert, for this very crisis. A certain dignity of person, altogether native and inimitable, made every one feel him- self in the presence of original greatness, in honoring which he also honored himself. Such were the conciliation and command belonging to his character, that from the first moment of his reappearance in his own state, the voice of detraction was silent; whoever else was rebuked, he escaped, whom all conspired to honor.
In the meantime, political exasperation, unappeased by the lapse of time for reflection, marched onward to its object. Notwithstanding the investiga- tion of their committee, the legislature utterly refused to accept their report as the basis of their proceedings. An act was passed, annulling the original charter, giving a new name to the college, increasing the number of the trustees, creating a board of overseers, and placing the institution in all its departments and interests in abject dependence upon any party legislature. The students, almost without exception, still attended the instruction of professors in the old college, even when they were expelled from the college buildings, deprived of libraries, apparatus and recitation-rooms. A penal enactment was judged expedient by this enlightened legislature, imposing a fine of five hundred dollars upon any one who should presume to act as trustee, president, professor, tutor, or any other officer in Dartmouth College; for every instance of offence, one-half of the penalty to be appropriated for the benefit of the prosecutor, and the other for the encouragement of learn- ing I .Such was the hold of a superior mind upon the attachment and confi- dence of the students, that still they followed their proscribed, exiled presi- dent w ith the affection of children and the heroism of martyrs. He opened a new chapel, procured other recitation-rooms, morning and evening gathered his pupils around him, in the devotions of a pure and confiding heart com- mended them and himself to God. Through this scene of strife and peril of more than five years' continuance, when the chances against the college were in preponderance, when disgrace in the public estimation, together with a forfeiture of academical honors, was what the students expected as the result of their adherence to the old faculty, so absolute was the power of a great mind and noble heart over them, so effectual was moral influence in the government of more than one hundred young men when college laws were stripped of authority, that never was discipline more thorough, study more ardent, or proficiency more respectable. Three of the presidents and nine of the professors in our colleges, besides a large number of the most resolute, aspiring, useful members of the different professions, are the children nursed and cradled in the storms of that time. The college moved on- ward ; commencements were held ; degrees were conferred ; new students crowded around the president to take the place of the graduated when edicts were fulminated, and penalties imposed for every prayer that was offered in the chapel and eveiy act of instruction in the recitation room.
Never has a cause been litigated in our country more important from the principle to be established, and the interests remotely involved. The exist- ence, not only of this but of all seminaries for education, and of all corpo- rate bodies whatever, was suspended upon the present decision. The per- manence of all the institutions of our country, whether charitable, literary, or religious, and indeed the very character of the nation in its future stages, were connected with this adjudication upon a point of constitutional law. Such was the confidence reposed in the president's judgment, and in his
28o HISTORY OF
knowledge of the case, that the eminent professional men engaged for the college did not hesitate to receive his advice, and urge his attendance at the court's; the case would seem almost to have been prepared in his study and drawn out by his own hand. Honorable testimonials have they left of the opinion they entertained of his capacity, by their frequent consultations ; honorable also to themselves, in the evidence that they were not ashamed to acknowledge merit when found in a young man guiding and protecting an unpopular and unpromising cause. Never have higher legal attainments been brought into powerful and splendid exhibition at the bar of our country. On the one side, in behalf of the college, were Jeremiah Smith and Jeremiah Mason, those 'men of renown' in the civil jurisprudence of the state; and Daniel Webster, a son of the college, just entering upon his luminous career of eloquence in the senate and the forum; and Joseph Hopkinsonof Philadelphia, who, when he had exerted all that admirable talent for which he is so distinguished in the final trial at Washington, did not refuse this homage to brilliant genius and vigorous intellect, when he said in a letter written to President Brown announcing the happy and final decision : ' I would advise vou to inscribe over the door of your institution. Founded BY ElEAZAR WlIEELOCK: Re-founded liY Daniki, Webster.' On the other side were emploved John Holmes of Maine, William Pinckney of Baltimore, and that most accomplished scholar, that ornament of our country, that disciple at last of the Savior, of whose talents and honorable conduct in this case even his professional opponents make the most respectable mention, William Wirt, attorney-general of the United States. Whatever research, argument, eloquence, could do for a cause, or against it, was done in the process of this trial. In the superior court of New Hampshire, November, 1817, a decision was given against the pretensions of the trustees. Without delay, and apparently without dejection, on the part of President Brown, the cause was carried up to the supreme court of the United States at Washington, where it was argued in the March following, with the utmost legal learning, and the most fervid eloquence these distinguished advocates could command, and, as it would seem, on the part of some with the serious, religious convictions of duty. The case was deferred by the court for ad- visement till the February term of 1819, when to the entire satisfaction of the patrons of the college, and with the devout thanksgiving of the friends of learning and religion throughout the land, the claims of the trustees were sustained against the fear of all future legislative despotism and party inter- meddling. Others would have exulted ; President Brown was humble. They would have triumphed over a fallen foe ; he, on the contrary, was more cour- teous and conciliating. They wculd have taken the praise to their able coun- sel and perseverance ; he ascribed the whole to Heaven. There was the same composure of countenance, the same earnest and direct address to duty ; too much occupied by God's goodness to be anything but abased and devout."
From the address of Prof. S. G. Brown, delivered before the akimni of Dartmouth College in 1855, I select the following sketch of the trustees who managed the affairs of the college during the controversy :
" If we turn our attention to its board of trustees for the first quarter of the century, we shall find quite an uncommon collection of persons of emi- nent intellectual ability. Some united thorough learning in the law with the far-reaching views of statesmen. Some were profound metaphysicians and theologians. There were men well versed in affairs, men of^ immovable firmness, of unsullied probity, of deep religious convictions.
There rises first before the memory the somewhat attenuated and angular form of Nathaniel Niles, a schcomiate of the elder Adams, whom he loved
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his life long, and mainly, it would seem, because at school John Adams was the terror of the big bad boys, who in his absence would oppress the little ones ; a graduate of Nassau Hall ; a follower of Jefferson in politics, yet practi cally rather conservative, and of Calvin in theology, yet apparently some- times verging toward his opponents ; an acute metaphysician, a little in- clined to the opposite side; half author, in conjunction with Dr. Burton, of the ' Taste-sclume,' so called, yet walking independently, and not precisely agreeing with his sharp-minded friend ; a great reader, keeping up remark- ably with the progress of science, and renewing in his old age his knowledge of Latin; a shrewd judge and an indefatigable opponent. Beside him stood Elijah Paine, with a physical frame 'put together with sinews of brass, his voice clear and audible at the distance of three cjuarters of a mile,' remark- able for high-toned integrity, clear-minded, honest-hearted and upright, — of whom it issaid by a most competent judge, "that the supposition of any thing like injustice or oppression where Elijah Paine was present was a palpable absurdity, not to be believed for a moment," — appearing sometimes to be severe when he really meant to be only just and true, a little obsti- nate, perhaps, especially if any good or right thing was opposed, and per- fectly inflexible if it was opposed by unfair and improper means.
Side by side was seen Charles iVIarsh, a lawyer more thoroughly read than either, on whose " solid, immovable, quieting strength " one might lean and rest, — if erring, erring with a right purpose, — simple and without pretension, like his relative, Mr. Mason, but when once engaged in any cause, unflagging and unyielding, bringing to bear upon every subject the strength of a pene- trating and tenacious understanding, and resting with perfect confidence and fearlessness upon his own convictions of both right and duty.
Of the same general character of transparent purpose, of remarkable equanimity, undisturbed by difficulties and serene in uprightness, was Tim- othy Farrar, whose eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, though he was drawing toward the farthest verge of the ordinary limit of human life, and who finally, in 1S47, was gathered to his grave in peace, at the extreme age of one hundred years. In contrast, yet in harmony, w'as seen Thomas W. Thompson — like Judge Paine, a graduate and a tutor of Harvard, — of courtly ways, refined and cultivated in manners, with deep religious convic- tions, and a supporter of everything good in circumstances where a loose holding to principle would have subjected him to less inconvenience.
Contemporary with these were Rev. Drs. Payson and McFarland, whose praise was in all the chinches, and whose names added dignity and strength to whatever society or mstitution they w'ere connected with. And if we fol- low down the list, how soon do we come upon the ever honored name of Ezekiel Webster, then in the fullness of uncommon manly beauty and undis- puted intellectual preeminence.
' His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead,
The sense and spirit, and the light divine. At the same moment in his steadfast eye. Were virtue's native crest, the immortal souVs Unconscious meek seif-heraldry.'
After the lapse of fifty years we are astonished at the evi- dence of party feeling which the college controversy elicited. When it passed from the " academic shades" of Hanover and entered the halls of legislation, it became a mere political ques- tion ; and the common and vulgar weapons of party warfare were used by the combatants. Imaginaiy foes, called by one party bigots, fanatics and aristocrats, and by the other infidels, agrarians and jacobins, were set up and hurled down by politi-
282 HISTORY OF
cal and literary knights on many a hard-fought field. Time, fame, toil and wealth were lost in the fight ; lout posterity de- cides with great unanimity that the decision of the supreme court of the United States has been worth infinitely more to the country than all the sacrifices made by the friends of the college in securing it.
CONDITION OF THE COLLEGE IN 1874. BY PRESIDENT A. D. SMITH.
Since the decision of this important case, with such occa- sional ebbs and eddies as pertain to all like institutions, but with remarkable steadiness on the whole, the college has gone onward from its small beginnings to its present condition of en- largement and prosperity. The whole number of its alumni, as given in the last " Triennial," is three thousand nine hundred and seven. These have come from all parts of the land ; and, as graduates, have been scattered as widely. While a consider- able number have entered from the cities and large towns, the great majority have come from rural places. The average age of admission has been somewhat above that at many other col- leges ; and to the maturity thus secured has been added, in many cases, the stimulus of self-dependence. From these and other causes, Dartmouth students, as a class, have been charac- terized by a spirit of earnestness, energy, and general manliness, of the happiest omen as to their life-work. Most of them have gone, not into the more lucrative lines of business, but into what may be called the working professions. To the ministry, the college has given more than nine hundred of her sons. Dr. Chapman says, in his " Sketches of the Alumni ": " There have been thirty-one judges of the United States and State supreme courts ; fifteen senators in congress, and si.xty-one representa- tives ; two United States cabinet ministers ; four ambassadors to foreign courts ; one postmaster-general ; fourteen governors of states, and one of a territory ; twenty-five presidents of col- leges ; one hundred and four professors of academical, medical, or theological colleges." Perhaps the two professions that have drawn most largely upon the institution have been those of teaching and the law. We recall a single class, that of 1828, one-fourth of whose members have been either college presi- dents or professors. Dr. Chapman states, that at one time there were residing in Boston, Mass., no less than seven sons of the college, "who were justly regarded as ranking among the brightest luminaries of the law. They were Samuel Sumner Wilde, 1789; Daniel Webster, 1801 ; Richard Fletcher, 1806;
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Joseph Bell, 1807 ; Joel Parker, 1811 ; Rufus Choate, 1819; and Charles Bishop Goodrich, 1822."
As might have been expected from the origin of the institu- tion, it has aimed from the beginning at a high religious tone. Neither its trustees nor its faculty believe in divorcing the moral nature from the intellectual, in the process of education. But a partial and perilous culture is that, they judge, which leaves un- touched the chief spring and crowning glory of our being. Yet the institution is not sectarian, but truly catholic in its spirit. What is commonly called the evangelical faith has, indeed, chief influence in its halls ; yet students of all denominations are not only welcomed there, but have the utmost freedom of opinion and of worship, and their views are treated with all proper del- icacy and respect. Most of the trustees and instructors are of Orthodox-Congregational connection ; but there is in the charter no restriction in this respect, and at least three other denomina- tions are at present represented in the faculty. There is a weekly biblical exercise of all the classes ; in which, while the funda- mentals of Christianity are inculcated, minor denominational points are avoided.
While Dartmouth has no pet system of metaphysics, its teach- ings lean, in general, to what may be called the spiritual line of thinking. The college has, in time past, through some of its gifted sons, rendered a service to sound philosophy, which is not, perhaps, generally known. Half a century ago, it will be re- membered, the system of Locke and his school, as well in this country as in Europe, was in the ascendant. It was so, to some extent, at Dartmouth. There were in college, however, about that time, a number of earnest, thoughtful men, fond of meta- physical inquiries, and not altogether content with the cast of opinion most in favor. Among them — not to name others — were James Marsh, Prof. Joseph Torrey, Dr. Joseph Tracey and Dr. John Wheeler. Dr. Marsh, while an undergraduate, had fallen upon the very course of thought which was so fully carried out in his subsequent teachings and writings. The discussions begun at Dartmouth were transferred to Andover, and thence to other quarters. In 1829, Dr. Marsh gave to the American public Coleridge's "Aids to Reflection," with an able preliminary essay by himself. An admirable series of articles on " Christian Phi- losophy," advocating the same general views, was subsequent!}'' published by Dr. Joseph Tracy. And the other men named above were variously co-workers in the movement — a movement which contributed largely to the bringing in of that higher style of philosophy which has since been so prevalent in this country. Dartmouth has aimed, in all her histor)', at that true conserva- tism which blends felicitously the " old and new." Bound by no
284 HISTORY OF
inept foreign metliods, — good enough, it may be, abroad, but out of place here — she holds fast to the old idea of the American college. Its end, she judges, is that general and systematic training which should precede the particular and professional ; which makes the man, to be moulded in due time into the cler- gyman, the lawyer, the physician, or whatever else may be pre- ferred. Yet she welcomes whatever real improvements increas- ing light has suggested. She believes in a curriculum, carefully devised, suited to develop, by a common discipline, our common humanity; not deeming it wise or safe to leave the selection of studies wholly, or mainly, to youthful inexjjerience or caprice. Yet she holds such a curriculum subject to all possible emenda- tions, and does not hesitate to incorporate with it, to a limited extent, especially in the more advanced stages, the elective prin- ciple, being careful, however, not to interfere with the substantial integrity and wise balance of the programme. She has already a number of options, both as to courses and particular studies. She believes in the ancient classics, but she favors science also. For the last seven years, much more has been expended on the scientific appointments of the institution than on the classical; and other improvements are contemplated in the same direction. Though she adheres to the old college, as has been said, yet around that she has already grouped — though with no ambitious fancy for the name of a university — a number of collateral or post-graduate institutions, offering diversified opportunities of general and special culture. The various departments, as they now exist, are as follows : —
1. The old Acadc7nic Department, with its four years' curricu- lum, including the privilege of a partial course, and a number of particular options.
2. The Chandler Scientific Department, with a regular course, chronologically parallel to that of the Academic, "and having, with the option of a partial course through all the years, several elective lines of study in the last year. Latin and Greek are omitted, French and German included, and scientific branches are made most prominent.
3. The Agricultural Department, so called, or the New Hamp- ,shire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. This is based on the congressional land-grant. It has a regular three years' course, with an option, after the first year, between an agricultural and mechanical line of study.
4. The Engineering Department, or the Thayer School of Civil Engineering. This is substantiall3% though not formally, a post-graduate or professional department, wUh a two years' course. The requisites for admission are, in some important branches, even more than a college curriculum commonly em-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 285
braces ; and it is designed to carry the study of civil engineering to the highest point.
5. The Medical Department, or the old New Hampshire Med- ical College. This was established in 1797, has had a long and prosperous career, and ranks now with the best medical institu- tions in the country. There is connected with it, in addition to the lectures, a good course of private medical instruction.
6. Moor's Charity-Sclwol. This has now no distinct organic existence ; but there is a small fund which is appropriated, un- der the direction of the President of Dartmouth College, to the education of Indian youths, in any department for which they are prepared.
During the late war, the college, in common with most others in our countr\', was somewhat depressed ; but it has since been resuming, and even surpassing, its former status. The last cata- logue embraces a faculty of instruction, thirty-five in number, and, in all the different courses of study, four hundred and fifty- seven students, the largest number ever connected with the in- stitution. As an indication of the national relations of the col- lege, it may be remarked that these students come from twenty- three different states and territories, at home and abroad ; and that, of the undergraduates, nearly one-fourth are from places out of New England. Within the last seven years, more than four hundred thousand dollars have been secured for the various departments. But with the restrictions imposed on some of the gifts, with the remaining wants of existing foundations, with the plans of enlargement and improvement in the minds of the trustees and faculty, and with the increased number of students, there is a present need of as much more. Nor is it likely that here, any more than at the other leading institutions of our countiy, there will cease to be a call for additional funds, so long as
" The thoughts ol men are widened by the process of the suns."
286 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXXVIir.
THE CAUCUS SYSTEM.
Archbishop Trench says: "One might suppose that the Anglo-Americans would be able to explain how they got their word " caucus," which plays so prominent a part in their elec- tions, but they cannot." The word "cabal" is equally myste- rious, some giving it a Hebrew origin, others making it up from the initial letters of the names of the five cabinet ministers of Charles H. The word " caucus " was at first a term of reproach. It originated in ante-revolutionary times in Boston. It was ap- plied to a meeting of the lowest classes in the meanest places. An old song thus describes it :
"That mob of mobs, a caucus to command, Hurl wild dissension round a maddening land."
It is probably a corruption of the word "ca/^ers" and indicated a calkcrs' meeting which was held in a part of Boston " where all the ship business was carried on." Use has made the word respectable and given to the meetings thus named the supreme control of politics. In New Hampshire the highest officers of the state were till about the year 1825 nominated by a legislative assembly. The people became dissatisfied with this species of aristocratic appointments, took the matter into their own hands and made their selections in conventions, whose members were chosen at primary meetings. Strong objections were urged by all parties against this popular method of nomination. A politi- cal writer in 1823 thus defends it :
"First, as to its being Anti-Jiepiihiican and lliicoiislitutional.
The word Caucus was originally applied to a meeting of certain patriots in the early stages of the Revolution, of whom the virtuous and inflexible James Otis was one, for the purpose of devising the means and the mode of opposing those measures of the British government which, being per- sisted in, finally produced the struggle which ended in the establishmeni of our national independence. Its origin therefore is to be sought and found in the very cradle of liberty, where it was nursed with the infant republic of America, and it originated in the necessity of maturing certain important measures, previous to their being laid before the people for their approba- tion. So far therefore from being anti-republican, it was one of the earliest practices that marked the progress of republicanism, to which it is peculiar, being unknown in the vocabulary of any other system of government."
The Caucus has since that day became omnipotent. Every of- ficer in the state, from hogreeve to governor, is nominated in a caucus, and every voter who refuses to support the nominee of
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 287
the party is denounced as a "bolter;" which term carries with it so much ignominy, that its imposition is equivalent to political death.
CHAPTER LXXIX,
THE TOLERATION ACT.
The great teacher says : "Ye cannot serve God and Mam- mon." Whether the first settlers at Little Harbor and Northam attempted both does not clearly appear ; but it is manifest that these representatives of the Laconia Company were not exiles for conscience' sake. They did not come into the wilderness to found churches, but to catch fish, work mines, buy furs, fell trees, and till the soil. The woods and the waters yielded tribute to their industry. The religious element was more strongly devel- oped in Hampton and Exeter, but so long as these four towns made their own laws, the state took precedence of the church. The reverse was true of Massachusetts ; and when, in 1641, a political union was effected between these plantations and the colony of Massachusetts, they were exempted from religious tests and allowed an equitable representation in the legislative assembly. During the entire early historj' of New Hampshire there was greater freedom of individual opinion and a more lib- eral toleration of differences in religion prevailed than in the other New Englanci colonies. Still, that deep-seated conviction which had been the growth and habit of centuries in the old world, that it was the duty of the state to uphold the church, led the people of New Hampshire to sustain divine worship by law, and to build churches and support a christian ministry by general taxation. The majority of the colonists were Congre- gationalists, and the ministers of that denomination were legally constituted " the standing order " in the state. The towns were empowered by the early legislators, in accordance with the pro- visions of an English law, to raise money for the .support of the gospel ; and the people, in town meeting assembled, voted for their spiritual teachers and assessed themselves for their sup- port. The rise of other religious denominations in the state created great dissatisfaction with this law. They were often compelled to aid in the building of churches which they never entered, to pay for preaching which they never heard, and to
288 HISTORY OF
support a creed which they did not believe. The Bill of Rights decLares " that no person of any particular religious sect or de- nomination shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of a teacher or teachers of another persuasion, sect or denom- ination ; and that no subordination of one sect or denomination shall ever be established by law." This plain provision was evaded by requiring a man who refused to pay his tax for the le- gally appointed clergyman to prove that he belonged to another denomination. This was not always possible to be done. Able counsel opposed the recusant, pleading before prejudiced juries, and possibly before an orthodox court. In such cases, the most eminent lawyers in the state were arrayed against one another. In one instance, Mr. Smith and Mr. Mason argued that a Bap- tist could not be exempted from the clerical tax, because he could not prove that he had been immersed. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Bartlett, in reply, maintained that he could not be a Congre- gationalist, because they could not prove that he had been sprinkled. A law that required such irreverent trifling and such transparent quibbling did not deserve the support of honest men. Those who were utterly indifferent to all creeds and " cared for none of these things" were compelled, sometimes by a legal process and distraint of their goods, to contribute to the support of preaching in their respective towns. But one denom- ination of Christians was recognized by law, till near the begin- ning of the present century. Prior to 1807, several denomina- tions, by legislative enactments, secured an independent exist- ence, and from that time were no longer ''molested" by the collector of taxes. Soon after the accession of Governor Bell to the gubernatorial chair in 1819, the subject was brought before the legislature. The toleration bill met with strenuous opposi- tion. The advocates of the measure could plead the example of other states in relaxing the bonds of uniformity. Connecti- cut had recently separated church and state with manifest ben- efit both to morality and religion.
Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his autobiography, speaking of the condition of the " standing order " in that state, says : " The habit of legislation, from the beginning, had been to favor the Congregational order and provide for it. Congregationalism was the established religion. All others were dissenters and complained of favoritism. The ambitious minority early began to make use of the minor sects, on the ground of invidious dis- tinctions, thus making them restive. So the democracy, as it rose, included nearly all minor sects." 'i'he good Doctor la- bored first with Herculean energy to uphold this time-honored relation of church and state ; and after it was legally annulled, he worked with equal energy to establish the voluntary system.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 289
He succeeded, as many other eminent men have done, in refut- ing his own cherished opinions. When the crisis of separation of church and state had passed, he wrote : " It was as dark a day as ever I saw. Tlie odium thrown upon the ministry was incon- ceivable. The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we sup- posed, was irreparable. For several days I suffered what no tongue can tell for the best thing that ever happened to the state of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on state support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God. They say ministers have lost their influence ; the fact is, they have gained." In another place, he writes : " The effect, when it did come, was just the reverse of the expectation. When the storm burst upon us, indeed, we thought we were dead for a while. Our fears magnified the danger. We were thrown on God and on ourselves, and this created that moral coercion which makes men work. Before, we had been standing on what our fathers had done ; but now we were obliged to develop our own energ)'. The other denominations lost all the advantage they had had before, so that the very thing in which the enemy said, " Raze it, raze it to the foundations," laid the corner-stone of our prosperity to all generations." A similar state of feel- ing prevailed among the clergy of New Hampshire. They re- garded the Toleration Act as " a repeal of the Christian reli- gion," or an " abolition of the Bible ;" but when it was once passed, all parties pronounced it a good and wholesome law. Its enforcement was productive of little positive evil and of the highest positive good.
CHAPTER LXXX.
DECLINE OF " THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS."
For a few years after the close of the war, political partisans, from sheer e.xhaustion, ceased from controversy and lay upon their arms, indifferent to the conduct of their adversaries. Their zeal was too feeble to keep up strict party lines, and for each office there was but a single candidate. But such a pacific state could not long continue. Man is naturally pugnacious. He loves to fight with sword or voice. It was the opinion of Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher of Malmesbury, one of the most pro- found thinkers of any age, that war is the natural condition of
19
290 HISTORY OF
our race. If we allow him to limit and define his own theory, we can hardly disprove it. " For war," says he, " consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend in battle is sufficiently known; and therefore the notion of time is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For, as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain, but in an in- clination thereto of many days together, so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the con- trary." With this explanation and with another gratuitous as- sumption of all the old philosophers, that prior to all political organizations men lived in " a state of nature," where every man was the enemy of every other, we may concede a natural propensity in man to contend either with weapons or words, in all conditions of life. Social quarrels in New Hampshire were carried on with all the bitter animosity which marked the pro- gress of the late war with England. Such were the Dartmouth College controversy and the " Toleration Act."
During the administration of President Monroe arose that sharp, bitter and " irrepressible conflict " between liberty and slavery which culminated in the late civil war. It lay in the in- clinations of men from the adoption of the federal constitution down to the period of the admission of Missouri. Then con- cealed opinions took voice and utterance, and a war of words commenced which resulted in a war of swords in the Great Re- bellion. During the discussion of the restriction of slavery, while Missouri was asking recognition as a state, some of the members of congress from New Hampshire uttered sentiments as bold and as offensive to southern statesmen as any that have fallen from the pen or tongue of modern reformers. Hon. Da- vid L. Morrill, then in the senate of the United States, took a most decided stand against the extension of slavery, and fear- lessly denounced the whole system as unrighteous, and there- fore destructive of the peace and prosperity of the nation. In closing one of his speeches he said :
"The extension of slavery will tend to the violation of your laws, and to demoralize society. The people of this country are fond of property. It is impossible to restrain them within legal bounds, when you present to them a pecuniary advantage, even from illicit commerce. You thus indirectly cor- rupt the rising generation and demoralize the community. Extend slavery into the vast territory of Missouri, you heighten the value and offer a new market for slaves; you encourage their importation, you invite to a violation of your laws, .ind lay a foundation for a systematic' course of perjury, cor- ruption and guilt. All the public ships in the service of your country are now insufficient to suppress this species of traffic. What could preve'nt it if the market \yere increased .> Sir, close your market, remove the induce- ment to their introduction, and the nefarious commerce ceases of course.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 29I
Look to your laws of 1794, 179S, iSoo, 1804, 1805, 1807, iSiS, and 1819, and say, do they not imply one uniform and uninterrupted determination to abol- ish the slave trade ? This single act would stamp hypocrisy on the face of every previous law.
I will close my remarks with a few lines from the late President Jefferson : ' With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed. Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only tirm basis — a conviction on the minds of tlie people that their liberties are the gift of God; that they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice can- not sleep forever ; that, considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution on the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among pos- sible events ; that it may become probable by supernatural interference ! I'he Almighty has no attribute which can take side w'ith us in such a contest. But it is impossible to be temperate and to pursue the subject through the various considerations of policy, of morals, of history, natural and civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their way into every one's mind.' "
Similar sentiments were uttered by members of the house of representatives. A few sentences from a speech of Hon. Wil- ham Plumer will indicate his opinions on slavery as well as those of his constituents. He said :
" These, then, are the motives of our conduct : vie find slavery unjust in itself ; adverse to all the great branches of national industry ; a source of danger in times of war; repugnant to the first principles of our republican government ; and in all these w'ays extending its injurious effects to the states where its existence is not even tolerated. We believe that we possess, un' der the constitution, the power necessary to arrest the further progress of this great and acknowledged evil ; and the measure now proposed is the joint result of all these motives, acting upon this belief and guided by our most mature judgments and our best reflections. As such, we present it to the people of Missouri, in the firm persuasion that we shall be found in the end to have consulted their wishes not less than their interests by this meas- ure. For what, sir, is Missouri ? Not the comparatively few inhabitants who now possess the country, but a state, large and powerful, capable of containing, and destine(J, I trust, to contain, half a million of virtuous and intelligent freemen. It is to their wishes and their interests that I look, and not to the temporary blindness or the lamentable delusions of the present moment. If this restriction is imposed, in twenty years we shall have the people of Missouri thanking us for the measure, as Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois now thank the old congress for the ordinance of 1787."
This subject, at that early day, was debated in every caucus, convention and legislative assembly, and forced its way to every private hearth and dining-room in the state. The people then began to be classed as radicals and conservatives. For a few years all assumed the common name of republicans, and when they could no longer contend about measures they divided on candidates. Sometimes federalists united with republicans in the election of a governor whom only a fraction of the party in power had nominated. In 1823 Hon. Samuel Bell retired from the gubernatorial chair and passed, by a large legislative vote, to the senate of the United States. By the republican members,
292 HISTORY OF
Hon. Samuel Dinsmoor was nominated as his successor. A portion o£ the party did not approve this selection and brought forward Hon. Levi Woodbury, who had beer, a judge of the superior court, and by the concurrent vote o.' federalists he was elected. He served only one year, and in 1824 there was no choice by the people. The legislature chose Hon. David L. Morrill of Goftstown governor. Mr. Woodbury was his com- petitor, and both were republicans. In 1825 Mr. Woodburv', then residing in Portsmouth, was chosen a member of the house and was made speaker. He soon after passed into the senate of the United States, and during the administration of President Jackson, in 1831, was appointed secretary of the navy, and, in 1834, secretary of the treasury.
Near the close of President Monroe's administration a warm controversy arose about his successor. There were four can- didates in the field, John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay, each having some peculiar ele- ment of popularity to recommend him. Then arose in New Hampshire the party term " amalgamation," which the most learned could not define and which the most ignorant daily used. It was employed to designate the union of federalists and republicans in favor of the election of John Quincy Adams. There was no choice by the people and Mr. Adams was elected by the house of representatives. This result accorded with the electoral vote of New Hampshire. During his administration arose those strongly marked political parties which have ever since waged an internecine war upon each other, first as demo- crats and republicans, then as democrats and whigs, and finally under the old names of democrats and republicans.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
LOCAL MATTERS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF MONROE AND ADAMS.
The population of New Hampshire in 1820 was two hundred and forty-four thousand, showing an addition of thirty thousand in ten years. This number indicates a larger increase than the average of the next fifty years. The population of the entire country was about ten millions. New Hampshire gave its elec- toral vote for John Quincy Adams. He was for several years the favorite candidate of the state for the presidency. His fam-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 293
ily prestige, his New England origin and liis devotion to northern interests gave him greater popularity in New England than in other sections of the country. Though he had been a republi- can and had sustained the war, yet soon after his elevation to the presidency the federalists united with one section of the re- publicans in forming, by " amalgamation," the great " New Eng- land Adams party," whose aim was to give John Quincy Adams a second term as chief magistrate of the nation.
For several years the legislation of the state was devoted chiefly to the creation of literary, financial and manufacturing corporations. In 182 1, an act was passed to establish a literary fund for the purpose of endowing and supporting a college, to be under the direction and control of the state, for instruction in the highest branches of literature and science. An annual tax for this purpose, of one-half of one per cent., was levied upon the capital stock of all the banks in the state. This tax produced at first about five thousand dollars annually ; but in a few years the avails of it amounted by the accumulation of prin- cipal and interest to more than fifty thousand dollars. By the increase of banks in the state the tax alone yielded more than ten thousand dollars annually. In 1827, a bill was introduced to establish a new college in the central portion of the state, which failed to pass. In 1828, the literarj' fund was distributed among the several towns in the state for the maintenance of common schools according to the apportionment of public ta.xes existing at the time of such distribution. The annual tax was also devoted to the same laudable purpose ; and since that en- actment legislative hostility to Dartmouth College has ceased.
The period now under review, from 1820 to 1830, was marked by numerous changes in the social condition of society. Sev- eral important modern reforms originated in this decade. Re- vivals of religion were a prominent feature of it. " Protracted meetings," held from three to twenty days, in almost every town in the state, greatly advanced the spiritual welfare of the people and gave new power to the churches of Christ. This custom continued for many years, and contributed largely to the union of different sects, who cordially cooperated in sustaining the meetings.
The temperance reform commenced about the year 1826. Dr. Lyman Beecher was among its earliest advocates. He preached six sermons in Boston upon the nature, occasions, signs, evils and remedy of intemperance. These were published in 1827, widely circulated and made extensively useful in the promotion of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. All classes in society freely used them. Drunkenness had its victims in the bar, the pulpit and the halls of legislation, as well as humbler
294 HISTORY OF
positions in life. Judgment began at the house of God, and spread through all classes of society with unparalleled rapidity. In New Hampshire Jonathan Kittredge, Esq., in the early stages of the reform was instrumental of great good by the delivery and publication of three very eloquent addresses on temperance, which were widely circulated throughout the northern states. His address before the American Temperance Society, in 1829, closes with these prophetic words : " I believe the time is com- ing when not only the drunkard but the drinker will be excluded from the church of God — when the gambler, the slave-dealer and the rum-dealer will be classed together. And I care not how soon that time arrives. I would pray for it as devoutly as for the millennium. And when it comes, as come it will, it should be celebrated by the united band of philanthropists, pat- riots and christians throughout the world, as a great and most glorious jubilee."
The anti-slavery agitation had its birth about the same time. It was a period of unusual activity in the discussion of morals, politics and religion. On the first day of January, 183 1, Wil- liam Lloyd Gairison published the first number of the Liberator. He had for some years advocated the gradual abolition of slav- ery. In the prospectus of that paper he renounces and denoun- ces that doctrine and says : " A similar recantation from my pen was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Balti- more, in 1829." In closing he writes : " I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard." These declarations then seemed absurd, egotistical and fool-hardy ; but in process of time he made them good. The final adoption of abolition views by all denominations of christians and their united labors in common for the publication of them, together yA\.\\ the reforms in tem- perance and religion, tended to soften sectarian prejudices and promote christian union in the work of renovating society. In many pulpits dogmatic theology gave place to philanthropy and creeds were supplanted by works. But controversy did not cease. The field and weapons were changed but the warriors were the same. Sectarianism was merged in reform ; and its advocates and opponents were more bitter and fierce in their deadly strife than different sects had previously been.
For a season political controversy was calmed by the visit of the nation's guest, Lafayette, at the capital of New Hampshire. The legislature was in session when he arrived. The New Hampshire Patriot of June 27, 1825, has the following account of his reception at Concord :
" The General, in his usual appropriate and feeling manner, thanked the gentlemen of the committee and the citizens of Concord for the very affec- tionate manner in which they welcomed his entrance into their town.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 295
A national salute was fired by the artillery, and the procession was received at the bridge by eight companies of light troops under the command o£ Brigadier-General Bradbury Bartlett. On entering the main street the General was greeted by the shouts of from thirty to forty thousand citi- zens who had collected ; the windows and doors were lined with ladies and children gazing and admiring as he passed along. The procession moved to the north end of Main street, and returned to the residence of the Hon. Mr. Kent, where lodgings had been prepared for him and his suite. Remaining there till 12 o'clock at noon, he was escorted in the same manner to the gate of the State-house yard, when he alighted, and moved, being supported by the Hon. Messrs. Webster and Bowers of the senate, to the capitol, where he was introduced to the legislature in the manner as detailed in their proceedings.
In the meantime a noble company of more than two hundred heroes of the Revolution had collected and formed rank and file under the direction of that veteran. General Benjamin Pierce of Hillsborough, who had just re- turned from Bunker Hill. These marched into the area of the state-house, where they were introduced to the guest by General Pierce, who vented his feelings in one of those spontaneous and unpremeditated addresses for which he always had a talent the most happy. Here was a scene more af- fecting and gratifying than ever has probably taken place in our state ; tears of alternate joy and sorrow trickled down the cheeks of the veterans, and few of the spectators remained unmoved. After spending an hour here, the guest retired to the senate chamber where he was introduced to many gentle- men who had not before had an opportunity. During the ceremonies in the representatives' hall, the galleries and all the avenues were crowded with a brilliant collection of ladies, whose eyes sparkled with gratitude and joy at the interesting spectacle.
The General was especially introduced to the members of the legislature who had been participators in the Revolution — among them, Messrs. Hunt- ley, Durkee and Blaisdell. Hon. Mr. Brodhead, senator for district No. 2, and chaplain to the legislature, on being a second time presented by the governor, inquired of the general whether he recollected the name as among the soldiers of the revolution. After pondering a moment, the general answered, " Yes, I recollect Captain Brodhead of the Pennsylvania line — he was with us at the battle of Brandywine; he was a brave man." Mr. B. an- swered— "I am the son of that man." "I am, says General Lafayette, very glad to see you; how^ happy am I that the children of my companions in arms still love me." "This Captain Brodhead commanded the first rifle com- pany in Pennsylvania, and was in the service during the whole war; he was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Long Island. He died in Penn- sylvania in 1S04. With this interview the reverend and amiable man who officiates in the double cajjacity of legislator and chaplain was deeply af- fected, and the general cordially reciprocated that feeling which pure patriots alone can appreciate.
At three P. M. the largest assemblage in our state that ever was at one table and under one roof (from seven hundred to eight hundred) sat down to a sumptuous dinner prepared by Mr. J. P. Gass. In front, and surmounting the others, was the table at which the guest was seated; on his right hand the governor and council, and on his left, the marshal of the day, Hon. Sam- uel Bell, Judge Green, the secretary and treasurer of the state. Four tables two hundred feet in extent ran down facing that of the guest ; at the left were seated the surviving heroes of the revolution, Geneial Pierce at the head ; on the right of these the speaker and members of the house of rep- resentatives ; next, the president and senate ; and on the right the Concord committee and other citizens. After the cloth was removed, the following toasts (interspersed with songs) were read by the Hon. Mr. Pierce of the
2q6 history of
senate, ciiid reiterated over the cheering glass, amidst the firing of artillery : I. Our Guest — The friend of Washington, the friend of man. General Lafayette rose and expressed his affectionate acknowledg- ments for the so very kind welcome he had received to-day from the people of New Hampshire at this seat of government, particularly for the toast that has just been given, and for the pleasure he felt to be now at this social table with all the representatives of the state in every branch, with his nu- merous beloved revolutionary companions in arms, and other respected citi- zens; to the whole of them he begged to propose the following sentiment :
New Hampshire, its representatives in every branch, and this seat of government — May they forever enjoy all the blessings of civil and religious liberty, which their high-minded ancestors came to seek on a distant land, and which their more "immediate fathers have insured on the broader basis of national sovereignty and the rights of man."
On the fourth of July of the next year, two of the ilhistrious framers of the constitution of the United States, Thomas Jeffer- son and John Adams, departed this life. The government which thev helped to form and which probably never would have ex- isted without their aid, had been in operation fifty years. The day of their death was the anniversary of the national indepen- dence. Jefferson penned the declaration which was made on that day ; and Adams eloquently defended it. They had both been presidents, and leaders of opposing political parties. Both had very warm personal friends and both commanded uni\'ersal respect. Their departure together on that birth-day of the nation was regarded by many as a divine interposition ; and by all with sentiments of profound sorrow. This was among the most striking events of American history. On the second day of August, 1826, Daniel Webster, New Hampshire's most elo- quent son, delivered a fitting eulogy, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, on these illustrious patriots. It is difficult to decide whether the departed dead or the living orator was more admired on that eventful day.
In 1826 a company was formed at Hartford, Conn., for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Connecticut river. It was thought that by building dams and locks round the suc- cessive falls the river could be rendered navigable for steamers as far as Lyman, N. H. The company also had in view the con- nection of Canada with the capitals of New Hampshire and Boston by canals extending from Dover to Lake Winnepiseogee, thence to the Connecticut and Lake Memphremagog. A survey was made and the legislatures of New Hampshire and Vermont authorized the company to construct the canals, but the expense was beyond the means and enterprise of that day. What was actually accomplished appears in chronological order in the fol- lowing extract from a brief address by William H. Duncan, Esq., delivered July 1, 1859, at the opening of the first free bridge across the Connecticut from Hanover to Norwich :
" I think of the contrast between this section of the country, as it now is,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 297
as to its facilities for travel and transportation, and what it was sixty or sev- enty years since, when a charter was obtained for building a toll bridge over the Connecticut, between this place and Norwich. The charter was obtained about 1794. Previous to this time a large part of the heavy trade of this part of the country was carried on with Hartford and New York, by means of boats upon the river, and sloops and schooners upon the Sound. The roads between this place and Boston were so poor that Madam Smith, the wife of Professor Smith, formerly of the college, was obliged to make her bridal tour from Boston to this place on horseback.
A large part of the cajjital for building the bridge was furnished by the merchants of Boston, not for the sake of making a profitable investment, but with the intention of diverting the trade of northern Vermont from Hartford and New York to Boston. The Higginsons, the Salisburjs, the phillipses were among the stockholders, — names distinguished for mercantile honor and probity, and which have been inherited and worthily worn by many of their descendants.
The building of this bridge was the first link in that chain of internal im- provement which has done so much towards developing the resources, and which has added so immensely to the comfort and material prosperity of this section of the country.
The second link in this chain of internal improvement was the construc- tion of the Fourth New Hampshire Turnpike. A charter was obtained in 1800 for making a road from a point on the east bank of Connecticut river in Lebanon, nearly opposite White River, to a point in the west bank of the Merrimack river, cither in the town of Salisbury or Boscawen, with a branch road from the easterly abutment of the White River Falls bridge, running southeasterly to intersect with the main trunk. This has now become, I be- lieve, a public highway.
The third link in this chain of improvement was the building of the White River Falls locks and canals, which were chartered in 1807, and com- pleted in iSlo, at an expense of nearly forty thousand dollars, an enterprise set on foot and completed by a single mdividual, Mills Olcott, Esq., of Han- over, then a young man a little more than thirty years of age. President Dwight, in his tour through New England in 1S63, speaking of overcoming the difficulties in the navigation of Connecticut river at the White River Falls says, 'at present the amount of business is insufficient to justify the ex- pense necessary for this purpose.' In iS 1 2, speaking of this undertaking, he say.s, 'my expectations have been anticipated by a period of many years.' I would say of this enterprise, that for nearly forty years it was to its propri- etor a source of almost constant litigation, of excessive annoyance and anxi- ety, and at the same time of the most ample and satisfactory returns."
"About 1S31 or 1S32, as nearly as I can learn, an attempt was made to su- persede the clumsy flat-boats then in use on the river. A diminutive steamer, the John Ledyard, commanded by Captain Nutt, a veteran riverman who is still living at White River Junction, came puffing up the river from Spring- field, Mass., and was received, at various places, with speeches and such other demonstrations as were deemed appropriate to the opening of steam- boat navigation on the upper Connecticut. Captain Nutt went up as far as Wells River, near which place he found obstructions which he was unable to surmount.
Two or three hundred Scotchmen, who lived in the vicinity and were an.x- ious to have the steamer go farther, undertook to pull her over the bar with the aid of ropes, but after raising her so far from a horizontal position that an explosion of the boiler became imminent, they were asked to desist by the captain, and it took twenty or thirty of them to pull her back into the deep water. The next season another steamer, the Adam Duncan, was built at Wells River, under the superintendence of Captain Nutt, for the company of which he was the agent. Other steamers had been put upon the river at
298 HISTORY OF
various points below, the previous season, and the Adam Duncan was de- signed to ply between Wells River and Olcott's Locks, but after a single season of practice in backing off the sand-bars between the two places, was attached for debt, her works were taken out and sold, and the remainder of the hull may still be seen lying close to the shore a few rods above the falls. With the opening of the Passumpsic railroad, however, the days of flat-boats were numbered, and the locks also became useless. One of the mills was presently destroyed by a freshet, a portion of the dam was afterwards swept away, and as the amount of business then done there would not warrant its reconstruction, the remaining mill was taken down about 1S62, and since then the water power, said to be equal to that at Lowell, has not been used except to turn the wheel of a small paper-mill on the Vermont side."
On the twenty-eighth day of August, 1826, occurred the most destructive flood that has been known in New Hampshire. The little mountain streams became raging torrents ; the rivers be- came inland lakes throughout their entire length. Mills, dams, buildings, herds, flocks and crops were swept away. The results might be aptly described in the very words of Ovid, by which he portrays the fabulous flood of Ducalion. The following extract from Whiton's History of New Hampshire shows the ruins pro- duced by the freshet in the northern portion of the state :
"At Bath, the Ammonoosuc suddenly became turbid and thick with earth, then spread itself over its lower banks and meadows, and soon exhibited one wide, sweeping roll of billows, bearing along the wreck of bridges, buildings, fences, crops, and animals caught by the waves in their pastures. The beds of many mountain streams were excavated to a surprising depth and width ; in some places the fury of the flood cut out for the waters new and permanent channels. Torrents of water rushed through the Notch of the White Mountains, breaking up the very foundations of the turnpike road for a great distance and leaving a shapeless mass of loosened crags, rocks piled on rocks, and yawning chasms. From the sides of the moun- tains, slides or avalanches descended to the lower grounds, bearing down thousands of tons of gravel, rocks and broken trees, and laying bare the solid mountain rock over an extent of hundreds of acres. Late in the pre- ceding day, a party of gentlemen; among whom were Colonel Bartlett and Mr. Moore of Concord, left Crawford's, a house more than four miles from the Notch, on an excursion to the summit of Mount Washington. They ar- rived in the evening at a camp which had been constructed at the foot of the steep ascent of the mountain, where they passed the night. The next morning being cloudy and rainy, they concluded to remain in camp that day, but the increasing rain having in the afternoon put out their fire, they reluct- antly decided to return. With the utmost difficulty, and not without danger, did they effect their retreat, and arrived at Crawford's in the evening. Had they remained on the mountain another night they must have perished, as the camp was afterward found to have been swept away, and avalanches to have passed on either side at the distance of a few rods. The most affect- ing story of this flood remains to be told. Two miles from the Notch at "the Notch House" lived the family of Samuel Willey, consisting of himself and wife, five children and two hired men. An avalanche in its descent from the mountain came near the house, where it divided itself into two parts, one of which crushed the barn and an adjoining shed. Alarmed at the noise, and fearing the destruction of their habitation, the family fled for safety; but in the darkness of the night they fell into the track of the other avalanche and were all buried under masses of earth and rocks. Some of
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
299
the bodies were found by the scent of dogs, at the distance of fifty rods from the house. The house itself remained uninjured, and had the unfortu- nate inmates remained within, they had been in safety, but an inscrutable Providence otherwise directed. 'It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' "
In 1817 a new county was formed. The second section of the act creating it reveals its location and boundaries. It is as fol- lows :
"Sect. 2. And be it further enacted. That said county of Sulli- van shall contain all the land and waters included in the follow- ing towns and places, which now constitute a part of the county of Cheshire, to wit : Acworth, Charlestown, Claremont, Cornish, Croydon, Grantham, Goshen, Lempster, Langdon, Newport, Plainfield, Springfield, Unity, Washington and Wendell ; and that said towns be, and they are hereby, disannexed from the county of Cheshire."
At the June session of the legislature of 1817 an excellent law was passed " for the support and regulation of primary schools." It placed our educational system very nearly upon its present basis. The selectmen of every town are required to assess, annually, upon all the property of its inhabitants " a sum to be computed at the rate of ninety dollars for every one dollar of their proportion for public taxes, for the time being, and so for a greater or less sum," for the sole purpose of supporting one or more English schools within the towns where the taxes are as- sessed. The law also reciuires the selectmen to appoint in each town a superintending committee, whose powers are almost un- limited with respect to the approval of teachers and the selec- tion of books. The district is also required to choose annually a prudential committee to employ teachers and attend to the lo- cal interests of the^school. These judicious provisions for good schools attest the wisdom of the legislators of that generation.
In political matters, parties had become so blended by "amal- gamation," that Hon. John Bell, a supporter of John Quincy Adams, was elected governor in 1828. He was a member of a distinguished family who have exerted a controlling influence in the state for a century and a half. Their common ancestor was John Bell, born in the county of Antrim, Ireland, in 1678. He received a grant of land from the Londonderry colony, in 1720, where he spent the remainder of his life. His son John inher- ited the homestead and passed his life in the same town. His grandson John resided in Chester, was engaged in merchan- dise and held several important offices in the state, prior to his election as governor. His brother, Samuel Bell, whose official career has been previously noticed, was in public life for more than a quarter of a century. As representative in the state leg-
300 HISTORY OF
islature, speaker of the house, president of the senate, justice of the superior court, governor of the state, United States sen- ator, and trustee of the college, " he bore his faculties " so hon- orably that the succeeding generation has pretty unanimously agreed to call him a wise, great and good man. He left eight sons, all distinguished for superior endowments and high schol- arship. Samuel Dana Bell, late chief justice of the superior court of New Hampshire, was very eminent as a scholar and jurist. Of the brothers of Judge Bell, four studied medicine, and three became lawyers. They all have acted on the principle of Bacon, that " every man is a debtor to his profession," and have reflected honor upon their chosen vocations. Only one son of Hon. Samuel Bell, Dr. John Bell of Dover, now survives ; and Hon. Charles Henry Bell of Exeter is the only representa- tive of the family of Governor John Bell. He continued in office only one year.
Parties were at that time constantly changing. In 1829, the opponents of the national administration recovered their power, and General Pierce was again elected governor. In his second message to the legislature, he announced his determination to retire from public life at the close of his official year of service. In 1830, Hon. Matthew Harvey, a friend of General Jackson and a life-long follower of Jefferson, was chosen chief magis- trate by a majority of four thousand, over his opponent Colonel Upham of Portsmouth. The contest was bitter and malignant ; the result proved that the state, for some years to come, was to be decidedly democratic. The census of this year showed the population of New Hampshire to be two hundred and sixty- nine thousand.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
CHARACTER OF HON. BENJAMIN PIERCE.
In March, 1827, Hon. Benjamin Pierce of Revolutionary memory, always an ardent republican, was elected governor. It may not be improper here to give a brief account of the offi- cial life of General Pierce. " He was a native of Chelmsford, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. He entered the ser- vice of his country in the spring of 1775, being then in the seventeenth year of his age ; fought at Bunker's Hill, and con-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 30I
tinued in the service until the peace of 17S3. In his mihtary career he participated in all the privations, perils and glory of the struggle which terminated in the independence of these United States. He entered the service a common soldier, and left it a major, by brevet.
A republican by nature, Gen. Pierce, at the close of the war, was anxious to maintain, in his intercourse with the world, that state of independence he had so successfully aided in establish- ing for his countr)', and no way then appeared so likely to effec- this generous purpose as by engaging in some honest employ- ment in a new settlement. He accordingly abandoned the place of his nativity to the less enterprising and, accompanied by the wife of his youth and his trusty sword (still in his possession), he pitched his tent in the town of Hillsborough, near the spot where he spent the remainder of his life. Hillsborough at that early period was little more than a wilderness, and General Pierce's tirst efforts were spent in constructing a log house for his own accommodation and in felling with his own hands the green forest and preparing the ground for cultivation. The la- bors of honest industry seldom fail of success, and in few in- stances have they been more prosperous than in the case of General Pierce. From a state little short of absolute depen- dence (the common lot of the Revolutionary soldier), he soon began to thrive, and soon took rank among the most independ- ent and intelligent farmers in the county of Hillsborough.
When General Sullivan was elected president of the state in 1786 he appointed General Pierce his first aid-de-camp, and from this time his promotion in the militia was rapid until he attained the highest grade in the gift of the executive.
General Pierce's services in the various branches of the state legislature were loftg and useful. He was ten times elected coun- cilor, and three times appointed sheriff of the county of Hills- borough. This last office he filled with great honor to himself and the most entire satisfaction to the community. . In his habits General Pierce was frugal and chaste ; in his manners easy and affable ; and in his deportment frank and generous." No person in the state did more for his country, and no contemporary of his had stronger claims upon the gratitude of his fellow-citizens.
302 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
POPULATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AT DIFFERENT PERIODS.
During the first twenty years of New Hampshire's history, the settlers were limited to small companies governed by the agents of the proprietor, Captain John Mason, occupying three centres of business, Portsmouth, Dover, and Exeter. Hampton was under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Those little com- munities were engaged in farming, lumbering, fishing and hunt- ing, and increased very slowly. They were unable, without aid from the jjroprietor, to gain a livelihood. They were a constant drain upon the treasury of the company. The settlers were not permanent inhabitants. They often migrated to Massachusetts or returned home. Of course the number varied from year to year, and depended for its increase upon new arrivals. It is thought, by good judges of the fact, that when the union v/ith Massachusetts took place in 1641, the entire population of New Hampshire did not exceed one thousand souls. When, by the authority of the crown, that union was dissolved in 1692, the population is supposed to have been about five thousand. In 1730 it was estimated at ten thousand. When the province was divided into counties, in 177 1, it probably contained between sixty and seventy thousand inhabitants. The increase was about forty per cent, every ten years. After the Revolutionary war and the establishment of a firm government, in 1790, the state had a population of one hundred and forty-two thousand, and the in- crease for the preceding nineteen years had been at the rate of forty-three per cent, for each decade. This period covered the war of eight years, when tweh'e thousand four hundred and ninety-seven men had served in the army, and probably nearly one half of these had perished by violence or pestilence. From 1790 to 1830, the rate of increase varied from thirty to ten per cent, every ten years. Dr. Belknap estimates the increase so great from 1771 to 1790, when the first census was taken, as to make the population double in nineteen years. This is not es- sentially different from the estimate made above. After the peace of 1763, when the Indians ceased to make systematic ag- gressions upon our frontiers, many new townships were settled and large emigrations were made from other states. Also, after the peace of 1783 a new stimulus was given to emigration ; the wilderness was penetrated and subdued, the bounds of civiliza-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 303
tion were carried into the interior and northern portions of the state, and the population and resources of the state were greatly enlarged. Peace always brings men and wealth in its train. War brings death, disease and desolation.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
The origin of coined money dates at a period "whereto the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." Herodotus, " the Father of History," refers the invention to the Lydians. Plu- tarch says that Theseus caused money to be impressed with the figure of an ox ; other authorities ascribe the honor to Phidon, one of the early kings of Argos, b. c. 895. The monarch's seal was probably an earlier invention than coins. Whenever authority was delegated, the king needed some uniform token by which his will could be made known without his personal pres- ence ; hence the signet ring became the certificate of the king's command. When this abridgment of public business was once adopted the transition from a sealed decree to a sealed bit of metal was easy. Among the discoveries made in the ruins of Babylon are found small tablets of clay, stamped with the royal seal, which are supposed to have served as money. The earliest method of transferring the precious metals was by weight. The earliest standards both of weight and measure must have been very rude, when twenty-four seeds or grains represented a penny, and three kernels pf barley taken from the middle of the head made an inch. The Bible refers to the bag and balances of the money lender and to the stamped shekel which bore on one side an image of the golden pot that held the manna, and on the other a bas-relief of Aaron's rod. The Athenians stamped their coins with an owl which was sacred to Minerva. The Greek states near the sea adopted symbols for their money appropriate to their condition, as a crab, a dolphin or a tortoise. Monarchs honored their coins with their own '• image and superscription." It is still doubted by arcliEEologists whether coined money existed in Homer's time. He often refers to trade by barter, as in the following quotation :
" From Lemnos' isle a numerous fleet had come Freighted with wine — " * * *
" All the other Greeks Hastened to purchase, some with brass and some With gleaming iron ; some with hides, Cattle or slaves."
3°4
HISTORY OF
In celebrating the games at the funeral of Patroclus, Achilles proposes for prizes a tripod and a slave.
"A massy tripod for the victor lies, Of twice six oxen its reputed price ; And next, tlie loser's spirit to restore, A female captive valued but at four."
Among the treasures disinterred by Dr. Schliemann, forty feet beneath the supposed site of ancient Troy, armor, ornaments and vessels of gold and silver were found, but no coins are men- tioned. We are more interested in modern than in ancient money. The Celtic race vi'ere sufficiently civilized to use coins. Cffisar affirms that the early Britons had no money, but coins have been discovered in the island which the best authorities in numismatics refer to times anterior to the Roman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon kings had rude coins as early as the sixth centur5^ The penny appears in the eighth. The etymology of this word is variously given. Sharon Turner derives it from the Saxon verb puniaii, to beat or knock ; others derive it from the Latin pendo, to weigh. Scyllinga, or shilling, denoted at first a quan- tity of bullion, from scylan, to divide, or, possibly, from sceale, a scale, meaning so much silver cut off or weighed ; when coined it yielded five of the larger and twelve of the smaller Saxon pennies. Two hundred and forty pence were equivalent to a pound of silver by weight. In France, England and Scotland a pound of money contained twelve ounces of bullion or two hun- dred and forty pence. In process of time, as monarchs became needy, they divided the pound of bullion into a larger number of pieces, thus falsifying the certificate of value stamped upon the coins, till in the reign of Elizabeth sixty-two shillings or seven hundred and forty-four pence were coined from a pound of bullion. The mint price of silver was then said to be 5s. 2d. per ounce. Gold was afterwards made the standard of value, and the mint price of gold was fixed at £t, 17s. lo'^d. per ounce. The computation by pounds, shillings and pence existed as early as the reign of Ethelbert, the first Christian king of Kent. The payments in Doomsday book, under the conqueror, were made in the same denominations now used in England. The Norman kings coined pence only with the monarch's image on one side and on the other the name of the city where the money was coined, with a cross so deeply impressed upon the metal that the coin could be broken into two parts called half-pence, or into four, called fourthings, or farthings. In the time of Richard I., German money was in special demand, called from its purity casterling money, as the inhabitants of that part of Europe were called £astcr/ings, or Eastern men, hence the origin of the word sterling. Gold began to be coined in Europe at the beginning of the fourteenth century; in England, by Edward III. Previ-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 305
ous to that time gold passed by weight. The English guinea, which first appeared in the reign of Charles II., was so naifled from the region from which the gold was brought.
The dollar is a coin of different value in different countries. Its name is derived from the German word "thai," a valley. The German thaler. Low German da/iL-r, Danish dakr and the Italian tallcro all come from the name of a Bohemian town called "Joachims-Thai,'' wherein 1518 the Count Schlick coined silver pieces of an ounce weight. As these coins were held in high re- pute tkakrs or dollars were coined in other countries of nearly the same worth and weight. Our "cent" is from the Latin centum, one hundredth part of a dollar ; the dime from decern the tenth part, the mill from ot/ZA-, the thousandth part of a dollar. The British colonies computed their accounts in pounds, shillings and pence, as they were valued in the mother country. The Spanish pillar dollar was worth 4s. 6d. sterling ; or 6s. in New England currency.
Massachusetts coined money as early as 1652. The following account of it is from the pen of Mr. Hawthorne :
"Captain John Hull was the mint-master of Massachusetts, and coined all the money that was made there. This was a new line of business ; for in the earlier days of the colony, the cur- rent coinage consisted of gold and silver money of England, Portugal and Spain. These coins being scarce the people were often forced to barter their commodities instead of selling them. For instance if a man wanted to buy a coat he perhaps exchang- ed a bear-skin for it. If he wished for a barrel of molasses, he might purchase it with a pile of pine boards. Musket bullets were used instead of farthings. The Indians had a sort of money, which was made of clam-shells, and this strange sort of specie was likewise taken in payment of debts by the English settlers."
This was called Wampumpeag ; and, by abbreviation, either " wampum " or " peag. " A fathom or belt consisted of three hundred and si.xty beads. It was of two kinds, white and black. One fathom of the white was valued at 5s. sterling ; the black at IDS. It was made a legal tender only for i2d. in Massa- chusetts. The value of coined money may be learned from the price of labor. Mechanics received from i2d. to 2s.' per day. Magistrates had 3s. 6d. and deputies 2s. 6d. per day. A married clergyman was allowed ^30 per annum.
" Bank bills had never been heard of. There was not money enough of any kind in many parts of the country to pay the salaries of the ministers ; so that they sometimes had to take quintals of fish, bushels of corn or cords of wood, instead of silver or gold. As the people became more numerous and
3o6 HISTORY OF
their trade one with another increased, the want of current mcfney was still more sensibly felt. To supply the demand the general court passed a law for establishing a coinage of shil- lings, sixpences and threepences. Captain John Hull was ap- pointed to manufacture this money, and was to have one shil- ling out of every twenty to pay him for the trouble of making them. Hereupon all the old silver in the colony was handed over to Captain John Hull. The battered silver cans and tank- ards, I suppose, and silver buckles, and broken spoons, and sil- ver buttons of worn-out coats, and silver hilts of swords that had figured at court, all such curious old articles were doubtless thrown into the melting-pot together. Cut by far the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion from the mines of South Amer- ica, which the English buccaneers — who were little better than pirates — had taken from the Spaniards and brought to Massa- chusetts. All this old and new silver bemg melted down and coined, the result was an immense amount of splendid sixpences, shillings and threepences. Each had the date, 1652, on the one side and the figure of a pine-tree on the other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. In the course of time their place was supplied by bills of paper parchment which were nom- inally valued at threepence and upward. The value of these bills kept sinking because the real hard money could not be obtained for them. They were a great deal worse than the old Indian currency of clam-shells."
The first settlers of New Hampshire used but little money as a medium of exchange. They exchanged the products of their industry for the necessaries of life. No bills of credit were used. Gold and silver coins, imported from other countries, were alone considered lawful money. Four shillings and sixpence were equal to a Spanish dollar. The French and Indian wars exhausted the treasury of the state and imposed a heavy debt upon the province. The legislature from time to time secured temporary relief by the issue of bills of credit. These depre- ciated ; but the credit of the state was repeatedly saved by the reimbursement of these war claims by the English government. When they joined the revolutionar)' party, their bills became less valuable because there was little hope of redemption. In 1720, an ounce of silver was worth 7s. 6d., in currency, in 1725, i6s. ; in 1730, 20s. ; in 1735, 27s. 6d. ; in 1740, 28s. ; in 1745, 36s. ; iii 1750, 50s.; in 1755, 70s.; in 1760, 120s. February 20, 1794, an act was passed abolishing the currency of pounds, shillings and pence, and afterwards accounts were kept in dollars, dimes and cents, or dollars and cents. This act took effect January i, 1795.
When the congress of the United States, on the tenth of May, 1775, began to issue "Continental Money,'' New Hampshire had
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 307
a large amount of its own issues in circulation whicli were rap- idly depreciating. The numerous counterfeits of these bills also contributed to diminish their value. The addition of the United States money, which never commanded the confidence of the people, hastened the decline of our domestic bills. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, paper money passed at par ; but it gradually declined in value, till in 1781 one hun- dred and twenty dollars were worth only one dollar in silver. It soon became entirely worthless.
CHAPTER LXXXV.
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN REGION.
For a century and a half after the first settlement at Straw- berry Bank and Hilton's Point, the northern portion of the state was the favorite hunting-ground of the Indians. They were ac- quainted with all the streams that run among the hills and the valleys through which they flow. They undoubtedly were fa- miliar with all the gorges and defiles which divide the White Mountains ; and the far-famed Notch was probably threaded by them as they led their weeping captives from the early settle- ments of New Hampshire to Canada. It is not now certainly known when these mountains were first visited by white men. Among the early ^adventurers who landed at Little Harbor in 1623, there is no mention of soldiers by profession. In 1631, Thomas Eyre, one of the patentees, wrote to Ambrose Gibbins, their agent, as follows : " By the bark Warwick, we send you a factor to take care of the trade goods ; also a soldier for discov- ery." "This soldier," says Mr. Potter, " was doubtless Darby Field, an Irisiiman who, with Captain Neal and Henr}' Jocelyn, discovered the White Mountains in 1632." This narrative is now discredited. It is supposed by the best authorities, that Dr. Belknap and those who adopted the above statement from the first edition of his history, made a mistake of ten years in the date of the discovery ; and consequently failed to state cor- rectly names and facts connected with it.
In Winthrop's History of New England, we find the following narrative :
"One Darby Field, an Irishman, living about Piscataquack, being accom- panied by two Indians, went to the top of the white hill. He made the
3o8 HISTORY OF
journey in eighteen days. His relation, at Iiis return, was, that it was about one hundred miles from Saco, so that after forty miles' travel he did for the most part ascend; and within twelve miles of the top there was neither tree nor grass, but low savins which thev went upon the top of sometimes ; but a continual ascent upon rocks, on a ridge between two valleys filled with snow, out of which came two branches of the Saro river, wliich met at the foot of the hill, where was an Indian town of some two hundred people."
This first ascent was made in June, 1642. Another party, led by Thomas Gorges and Mr. Vines from Maine, ascended the mountains in August of tlie same year. They also found a large Indian town on the Saco, near the base of the mountains. From this settlement " they went up hill about thirty miles, in woody lands. Then they went about seven or eight miles upon shat- tered rocks, without tree or grass, very steep all the way. At the top is a plain, three or four miles over, all shattered stones, and upon that is another rock or spire about a mile in height, and about an acre of ground at the top. On the top of the plain arise four great rivers," among them the Connecticut. These explorers were dazed by the awful grandeur of the scenery, and their eyes were confused by their imaginations.
The first printed account of the White Mountains is found in John Josselyn's "New England's Rarities Discovered," published in 1672. The description here given partakes of the errors and exaggerations of the first discoverers. They gave a glow- ing account of the precious stones in these " everlasting hills," and among other things '' rich and rare " they found sheets of " Muscovy glass or mica, forty feet long !" To their e.xcited minds, the mountains seemed to cover one hundred leagues in extent. The next account we have of explorations in the moun- tains was in April, 1725. " A ranging company ascended the highest mountain on the northwest part." This is thought to be the first ascent from the west side. Another party, who made a similar tour in March, 1746, were alarmed by repeated explo- sions as of the discharge of muskets. On examination they found that the noises were made by rocks falling from a cliff in the south side of a steep mountain.
The Notch was discovered in 1771, by Timothy Nash, a pio- neer hunter who had made a home for himself in this inhospi- table region. Climbing a tree on Cherry Mountain, in search of a moose, he discovered, far to the south, this gate of the moun- tains. He at once directed his steps to this narrow defile, and passed through it to Portsmouth. " Here he made known his discovery to Governor Wentvvorth. The wary governor, to test the practicability of the pass, informed Nash "that if he would bring him a horse down through the gorge from Lancaster, he would grant him a tract of land." Nash took with him a kin- dred spirit named Benjamin Sav/yer, and by means of ropes
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 309
they let down the horse over a precipice, then existing at the gate of the Notch, and dehvered him in safety to the governor. The tract of land thus earned was named " Nash and Sawyer's Location." "It still has a local habitation and a name." A road ■was soon after opened by the proprietors of land in " the upper Cohos," through this rugged defile, and settlers began to make their homes in the vicinity of the mountains. Jefferson, White- field, Littleton and Franconia were dotted with houses within a few years after the Notch was made passable. In 1774, a road was constructed through Pinkham Notch, on the east side of the mountains, and Shelburne, which then included Gorham, be- gan to be settled. The tenth New Hampshire turnpike was in- corporated in 1803, extending from the west line of Bartlett through the Notch, a distance of twent)' miles. The original cost of the road was forty tliousand dollars. This turnpike be- came a thoroughfare for all the northern towns of New Hamp- shire and Vermont, for the conveyance of their produce to Port- land. Sometimes, it is said, a hundred sleighs passed the Notch in a single day.
Scientific parties visited these mountains for the purpose of discovery, in 1784 and in 1804. They published the results of their investigations, containing valuable information respecting the flora and fauna of those regions, and some observations con- cerning the topography, geology and altitudes of the mountains. The following account of the first permanent settlements in the vicinity of the White Mountains is abridged from the first vol- ume of the Geology of New Hampshire, by Professor Charles Hitchcock.
Eleazar Rosebrook removed from Grafton, Mass., to Lancas- ter in 1772. He finally settled in Monadnock, now Colebrook. He was then more^than thirty miles from any white man's cabin, and the only path to his home was by blazed trees. During the Revolutionary war he removed to Guildhall, Vt., to secure pro- tection to his family during his absence in the service of his country. In 1792, he sold his cultivated farm in Vermont and again sought the wilderness. He came to Nash and Sawyer's Location in the depth of winter. Here he soon built a large two-story house at the base of what is known as " the giant's grave," occupying nearly the same site as the present Fabyan House. He also erected a saw-mill and grist-mill, with barns, stables and sheds for the accommodation of travelers. He did not long enjoy the fruit of his patient toil. After years of in- tense suffering from a cancer he died in 1817. Mr Rosebrook was one of nature's noblemen, renowned for his heroism in war and for his enterprise in peace.
Abel Crawford, known as " the patriarch of the mountains,"
3IO HISTORY OF
also came from Guildhall, a few years later, and settled twelve miles farther south, near the site of the present Crawford House. He married the daughter of Mr. Rosebrook. In iSig he opened a path to Mount Washington, which follows the southwestern ridge from Mount Clinton. Three years later his son, Ethan Allen Crawford, opened a new foot-path along the course of the Ammonoosuc. In 1840 Abel Crawford, at the age of seventy- five, made his first horseback ascent to the top of Mount Wash- ington. Dr. O. T. Jackson, the first state geologist, accompanied him. Prior to that date visitors and their guides went up on foot. For sixty years he entertained and escorted travelers in these mountain regions. He died at the advanced age of eighty- five. In the spring months of his last years he longed for the coming of visitors as the young boy longs for the return of the swallow. " He used to sit, in the warm spring days, supported by his daughter, his snow-white hair falling on his shoulders, waiting for the first ripple of that large tide which he had seen increasing in volume for twenty years. Not long after the stages began to carry their summer freight by his door, he passed away." His son, Ethan Allen Crawford, succeeded to the estate of Capt. Rosebrook, but the ample buildings reared by the latter were soon after burned. For many years the Crawfords alone enter- tained strangers at the mountains. All the bridle-paths on the west were opened by them. In 182 1 ladies first ascended Mount Washington. The Misses Austin of Portsmouth spent four days in a small stone cabin near the summit, in order to obtain a good prospect. During the first quarter of this century the number of visitors averaged about twelve each year.
The Crawfords were bold, fearless, athletic men and their strong arms have sustained many a fainting pilgrim in his am- bitious struggle to go up higher. Ethan Allen Crawford, known as " the giant of the mountains," was nearly seven feet in height. He kept a journal of his adventures about the mountains. Many of the wisest and most distinguished men of the country were hospitably entertained under his rude roof. He would come home from a bear hunt to find in his house, perhaps, a member of congress. Daniel Webster once desired his assistance on foot to the top of Mount Washington. Ethan says : " We went up without meeting anything worthy of note, more than was com- mon for me to find ; but to him things appeared interesting, and when we arrived there Mr, Webster spoke as follows : 'Alount Washington, I have come a long distance and have toiled hard to reach your summit, and now you give me a cold reception. I am extremely sorry that I cannot stay to view this grand pros- pect which lies before me ; and nothing prevents but the uncom- fortable atmosphere in which you reside.' " A storm of snow over-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 31I
took them in their descent, which almost chilled their life-blood. The statesman was much interested in his guide, for Ethan adds : '"The next morning, after paying his bill, he made me' a hand- some present of twenty dollars." Though Ethan was an honest and moral man, he was imprisoned for debt, which came upon him by losses through fire and flood. He acted well his part where Providence placed him, and by his labor and sufferings contributed to the safet)' and happiness of others.
In 1S03 Mr. Davis built a house three miles below the Notch, which was afterwards occupied by Mr. Willey who perished with his family, in 1826, by an avalanche from a mountain since call- ed Mount Willey. These are the most noted of the early set- tlers about the \Vhite Mountains. The six or seven visitors who sought these regions in 1803 have now increased to as many thousands.
Note. — The altitudes of the highest mountain peaks in New Hampshire are given by Prof. Hitchcock in Itis Geology of New Hampshire, as follows: Mt. Washington, 6,293 feet; Mt. Adams, 5794 feet; Mt. Jefferson, 5714 feet ; Mt. Clay, 5,553 feet; Mt. Monroe, 5384 feet ; Mt. Madison, 5365 feet; Mt. Franklin, 4904 feet; Mt. Webster, 4,000 feet; White Moun- tain Notch, 1,914 feet; Moosilai»ke, 4,81 1 feet ; Kearsarge, 2,943 feet ; Mt. Cuba, 2,927 feet; Moose Mountain, 2,326 feet ; Mt. Chocorua, 3,540 feet ; Mt. Cardigan, 3, 156 feet ; Red Hill, North Peak, 2,038 feet
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
THE RIVERS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The true source <5f the Connecticut river has been accurately determined by Mr. J. H. Huntington, Assistant State Geologist. He describes it as follows : "Almost on the very northern bound- ary of New Hampshire, and nearly on the very summit of the dividing ridge that separates the waters of the St. Lawrence from those that flow southward, there is a small lake containing only a few acres, and this is the source of the Connecticut. It has an elevation of two thousand five hundred and fifty-one feet, and is only seventy-eight feet below the summit of Mount Pros- pect ; and so remote is it from the habitations of men, that it is rarely seen. A place more solitary I know not in northern New Hampshire. The outlet of this lake is a mere rill ; this flows into 'Third Lake,' which has an area of three-fourths of a square mile." This lake discharges its waters, with those of a tributary which it receives five miles below, into " Second Lake." The area of this lake is about one and three-fourtlis square
312 HISTORY OF
miles. The sceneiy about it is exceedingly attractive. " Its outlet is on the west side, near its southern limit, and is forty feet in width, and has a depth of eighteen inches. Twenty rods from the lake it has a fall of eighteen feet or more ; then its descent is quite gradual, but forms here and there deep eddies. A mile from the lake it becomes more rapid and rushes down between precipitous walls of rocks, in a series of wild cascades, which continue for half a mile. It receives two tributaries from the west before it flows into Connecticut Lake. This is a sheet of water exceedingly irregular in outline. Its length is four miles, and its greatest width two and three-fourths, and it contains about three square miles. Its general direction is east and west, but near its outlet it turns towards the south. The water at the outlet flows over a rocky barrier, the stream falling abruptly nearly thirty-seven feet. The fall is quite rapid for two miles and a half ; then the flow is more gentle for about four miles. It is nowhere a sluggish stream, until it passes the falls of North- umberland. The fall from Connecticut Lake to Lancaster is seven hundred and eighty-five feet." Were it not for the sever- ity of the climate, the water-shed which supplies the sources of the Connecticut river would furnish homes and subsistence for a large population.
The streams that feed the Connecticut are thus enumerated by Mr. Huntington : " In New Hampshire, below Connecticut Lake, the river receives three large tributaries. Perry's stream, which rises near Third Lake and has a rapid descent, including two falls three and five miles from its confluence ; Indian stream, which rises on the boundary and has a very rapid descent for five or six miles, when it is a very quiet stream until it flows into the Connecticut, about eleven miles from the lake ; and Hall's stream, which rises, also, on the boundary, and is the dividing line between New Hampshire and the Province of Quebec. Be- sides these there are several smaller streams. The principal trib- utaries from the east are Cedar stream in Pittsburg, Labrador brook and Dead Water stream in Clarksville, Bishop brook in Stewartstown, the Mohawk in Colebrook, Sim's stream and Ly- man brook in Columbia, Bog brook in Stratford, the Upper Am- monoosuc in Northumberland, Israel's river in Lancaster and John's river in Dalton."
South of Dalton the other tributaries of the Connecticut are Lower Ammonoosuc at Bath, Oliverian brook at Haverhill, Eastman's brook at Piermont, Mascoma river at Lebanon, Sugar river at Claremont, Cold river at Walpole, Partridge brook at Westmoreland and Ashuelot river at Hinsdale. It also receives, from Vermont, Nulhegan river at Brunswick, Passumpsic river at Barnet, Wells river at Newbury, Wait's river at Bradford,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 3 13
Pompanoosuc at Norwich, White river at White River Junction, Quechee river at Hartland, Black river at Springfield, William's river at Rockingham and West river at Brattleboro.
The western bank of the Connecticut at low water mark is the boundary line between New Hampshire and Vermont through the entire length of the latter state. The length of the Con- necticut as it bounds New Hampshire is two hundred and eleven miles. It drains about three-tenths of the entire state and about four-tenths of Vermont, making an area of 6,800 square miles in both states.
One of the oldest explorers of the Connecticut, farther south, was John Ledyard, an eccentric individual who entered Dart- mouth College in 1772, and after a brief stay of four months became a wanderer. One of his exploits is thus described by President Sparks :
"On the margin of Connecticut river, which runs near the college, stood many majestic forest trees, nourished by a rich soil. One of these Ledyard contrived to cut down. He then set himself at work to fashion its trunk into a canoe, and in this labor he was assisted by some of his fellow-students. As the canoe was fifty feet long and three wide, and was to be dug out and constructed by these unskillful workmen, the task was not a trifling one, nor such as could be speedily executed. Operations were carried on with spirit, however, till Ledyard wounded himself with an axe and was disabled for several days. When he recovered he applied himself anew to his work ; the canoe was finished, launched into the stream, and by the further aid of his companions equipped and prejjared for the voyage. His wishes were now at their consummation, and bidding adieu to these haunts of the Muses, where he had gained a dubious fame, he set off alone to e.xplore a river with the navigation of which he had not the sliglitest acquaintance. The distance to Hartford was not less than one hundred and forty miles, much of the way was through a wilderness, and in several places there were dangerous falls and rapids.
With a bear-skin for his covering and his canoe well stocked with provis- ions, he yielded himself to the current and floated leisurely down the stream, seldom using his paddle, and stopping only in the night for sleep. He told Mr. Jefferson in Paris, fourteen years afterward, that he took only two books with him, a Greek Testament and Ovid, one of which he was deeply engaged in reading when his canoe reached Bellows Falls, where lie was suddenly aroused by the noise of the waters rushing among the rocks in the narrow passage. The danger was imminent, as no boat could go down that fall without being instantly dashed in pieces. With difficulty he gained the shore in time to escape such a catastrophe, and through the kind assistance of the people in the neighborhood, who were astonished at the novelty of such a vovage down the Connecticut, his canoe was drawn by oxen around the fall and committed again to the water below. He reached Hartford in safety, and astonished his friends not more by the suddenness of his return than by the strange mode of navigation by which he accomplished it."
Rivers are historical. The first towns and cities are built upon their banks ; the first explorations of the interior follow their currents. Rivers, therefore, reflect the character of the people as they mirror in their waters the surrounding scenery.
314. HISTORY OF
The histoiy of the United States is associated with the Missis- sippi, the Ohio and James rivers. The banks of the Connecti- cut and Merrimack are eloquent of the pioneers of New Eng- land. These rivers, with their rich intervals, attracted to them the first dwellers in the wilderness ; and in subsequent years their clear waters were often dyed with their blood. Says Elihu Burritt, speaking of the Connecticut : " Its scenery in itself is as picturesque and pleasing as any American river can show. If it is not so bold and grand as that of the Hudson, its pictures of beauty are hung in a softer light and longer gallery, with no blank or barren spaces between them. * * * pg^ nearly a hundred miles of its winding course the Connecticut hems the opposite shores of Vermont and New Hampshire with a broad seam of silver, which each state wears as a fringe of light to its green and graceful border."
The Merrimack river is formed by the confluence of the Pem- igewasset and Winnipiseogee rivers, at Franklin. The source of the Pemigewasset is Profile Lake, in the Franconia moun- tains. The Franconia Notch is a defile of about five miles in length and half a mile in width, between Lafayette and Mount Cannon. It contains, probably, as many objects of interest to travelers as any other mountain pass in the world. The most attractive object in this natural museum of curiosities is the "Great Stone Face" or "Old Man of the Mountain," which like a lone sentinel keeps perpetual watch and ward over the "un- sunned treasures" which nature has buried beneath the rocky ramparts that surround him. Here the hand of God sculptured this antetype of the human countenance, ages before he created man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. Oh ! if the stony lips of this changeless form could be made vocal, its history would be worth more to the world than all the discoveries that " proud science " has made, or all the theories that " old philosophy " has invented. Fifteen hundred feet below those jutting rocks that form the profile of " the Old Man of the Mountain," nestles a beautiful and picturesque little lake, which is the source of the Pemigewasset river, which plunges over rocky precipices and hurries through smiling mead- ows, descending more than si.xteen hundred feet, till it joins the Winnipiseogee river at Franklin ; and then under the new name of Merrimack, rolls quietly on to turn the wheels and spindles of Manchester, Lawrence and Lowell, and thus give employ- ment and bread to thousands of operatives. This river drains nearly four tenths of the whole area of New Hampshire. It passes through the central portion of the state ; and in relation to agriculture and manufactures, is perhaps the most important river of New Hampshire. It leaves the state at the southeast
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 315
corner of Hudson, and, bending to the northeast, flows into the Atlantic, in a channel three miles south of the southern boundary of Rockingham County. Its entire length is about one hundred and fifty-four miles. The following streams flow into it : Baker's river at Plymouth ; Newfound river at Bristol ; Smith's river at Bristol ; Webster Lake brook at Franklin ; Contoocook, the larg- est tributary in New Hampshire, at Fisherville* j Piscataquog at Manchester ; Souhegan at Merrimack ; Nashua river at Nashua ; East Branch at Woodstock j Mad river at Campton ; Beebe river at Campton ; Squam river at Ashland ; Winnipiseogee river at Franklin ; Soucook river at Pembroke ; Suncook river at Allenstown ; Brown's brook at Hooksett ; Cohas brook at Man- chester ; Beaver brook at Dracut, Mass. ; Spiggot river at Law- rence, Mass. ; and Powwow river at Amesbury.t
The Merrimack is one of the most remarkable rivers of New Hampshire, both for its beautiful scenery and its abundant water power, " It is said to contain double the available power of all the rivers of France. It turns more spindles, in addition to a vast amount of other machinery', than any other river on the face of the globe." Still the greater portion of its waters is un- employed.
The Salmon Falls river and the Cocheco unite at Dover to form the Piscataqua. The Salmon Falls river and the Piscata- qua, throughout their entire course, form a portion of the east- ern boundary of the state. The Piscataqua is a short river,
* Note. — On the i/lh of June, 1S74, a monument was erected, with due ceremonies, on t)uston Island, at the mouth of Contoocook liyer, Concord, N. H., to the memory of Han- nah Duston, whose wonderful exploits are described as follows:
"On the 15th of March, 1697, the Indians made a descent on the town of Haverhill, Mass., killed twenty-seven of the inhabitants, burned nine dwellings, andtook Mrs. Hannah Duston, her babe only six days old, her nurse, Mary Neff, and eight or nine other prisoners, and car- ried them all into New Hampshire, excepting the infant,_ who was Idlled by having its head dashed against a tree. After fifteen days of fearful suffering, especially on the part of Mrs. Duston, who was taken fronf child-bed, the Indians and part of their captives arrived at the Island at the junction of the Contoocook and Merrimack rivers. Mrs. Duston, Mary Neff, and an English boy named Samuel Leonardson, who had been captured at Worcester, were assigned to the_ care of two Indian men and three women, who had seven children, mostly half-grown Indians, with them. Mrs. Duston and her nurse were told by their convoy that they would have to run the gauntlet through their village when they arrived there, and that they must be deprived of most of their clotliing. Mrs. Duston, aware of the horrible tortures this threat included, formed the design of exterminating her captors, old and young, and managed to prevail on her nurse and the boy to assist herm their destruction. A little before daylight, on the 30th of March, finding the Indians asleep around their fire, Mrs. Duston and her associates armed themselves with their tomahawks, and despatched ten of the twelve. One woman, who had been believed to be killed made her escape, and one of the Indian youths Mrs. Duston and her associates design^^dly left unharmed._ They then scalped the dead, took one of the tomahawks and a gun belonging to the Indians, crossed the river in a canoe and made their escape. After enduring great hardships from want of food, and nm- ning much risk from meeting with Indians, the fugitives amved at Boston with their scalps and their booty on the 21st day of April. The general court was in session at the time, and voted Mrs. Duston tifty pounds in sterling money, and a similar sum to be divided between her nurse and the boy Leonardson. Presents were sent them from many quarters; among other srivers was the governor of Maryland. Forty years afterward, in appreciation of the act of Mrs. Duston, the colonial legislature voted certain valuable lands to her descendants, in testimony of iheir appreciation of her wonderful braverv."
t Many faces in the chapters descriptive of rivers, climate and scenery have been compiled with the author's consent, from Prof. Hitchcock's Geology of New Hampshire.
3l6 HISTORY OF
which, with its tributaries, drains only about one eleventh of the state ; but it is deemed of priceless value to the state on account of the excellent harbor, safe, broad and deep, which is formed by its banks as it enters the Atlantic Ocean. The tide flows to Dover and South Berwick. Between the towns of Durham, Greenland and Newington, there is an immense tidal basin which receives the waters of several rivers. The area of this estuary, including Great and Little Bays, is about nine square miles. Bellamy river at Dover, Oyster river at Durham, Lamprey river at Newmarket, and E.xeter river at South Newmarket, flow into Great Bay, and thus indirectly increase the current of the Piscat- aqua and prevent the harbor from freezing in the winter. The Cocheco and Salmon Falls rivers rise near the southern extrem- ity of Lake Winnipiseogee ; and the ponds that feed them have nearly the same altitude as that lake, which is five hundred feet above the sea.
The lakes and ponds which everywhere dot the surface of the state form one of the most interesting features of its landscapes. In these natural basins, during the rainy season, are treasured the waters that, in periods of drought, give verdure and freshness to the farmers' meadows and furnish the power that drives the machinery of the manufacturers.
The land upon the Piscataqua and its tributaries is excellent for tillage and highly productive. It is more level and less stony, and consequently more easily cultivated than other por- tions of the state. New Hampshire 'has only nineteen miles of sea-board, yet its long reaches of beautiful beach are unsurpassed by any state in the Union. Boar's Head, which overlooks the Atlantic at Hampton, and Rye Beach have a national reputa- tion. Large and commodious hotels have been built in the vi- cinity of both, and numerous visitors from the cold north and the sunny south throng them and all the farm-houses for miles around them, for the purpose of sea bathing and beach drives, during the summer months. The mountains and the ocean fur- nish centres of undying interest to those who visit the Granite State, and yield a liberal revenue to those who live beneath the shadows of the " everlasting hills " or upon the borders of " the great and wide sea."
The Magalloway river is the outlet of a small lake of the same name in northern New Hampshire, near Crown Monu- ment, which marks the point where Maine and New Hampshire meet the Dominion of Canada. The lake has an area of about three hundred acres. It is situated more than two thousand feet above the ocean, amid dense forests and under the shadow of high hills, and exhibits in its solitude the gloom and grandeur of primeval nature. The river, soon after its rise, enters the
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
317
State of Maine. It reenters New Hampshire in the Dartmouth College grant. It flows about one mile and then crosses the line into Maine and returns to the state in Wentworth's Loca- tion, and flows into the Androscoggin about a mile and one half from Umbagog lake. The entire length of the Magalloway and the Androscoggin in New Hampshire is eighty-six miles.
The tributaries of the Androscoggin in New Hampshire are Swift Diamond river, entering from the College grant. Clear Stream at Errol, Moose river at Gorham, Peabody river at Gor- ham and Chickwalnipy river from the east side at Milan.
The streams which drain the eastern slope of the White Mountain range and those whose waters flow through the Notch from the west side find their way to the Atlantic through two of the largest rivers of Maine. The Saco rises a few miles above the Notch, and, by a winding course of thirty-four miles, leaves the state at East Conway. Along its banks are found some of the most marvelous of nature's works. Travelers tell us that no land presents more attractive scenery. The eye of the be- holder is never satisfied with seeing.
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
CLIMATE AND SCENERY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
New Hampshire lies between the Province of Quebec on the north and the state 'of Massachusetts on the south. On the east lies the state of Maine ; on the southeast it is bounded by the Atlantic ocean and the county of Essex ; on the west and northwest by Vermont and partially by the Province of Quebec. Its shape is that of a scalene triangle, almost a right-angled triangle. The western boundary measures one hundred and ninety miles ; the eastern one hundred and eighty. The greatest width of the state, from Chesterfield to the eastern point of Rye, is ninety-three miles. It lies between 70^37' and 72°37' of lon- gitude, west from Greenwich; and between 42 °4o' and 45^18' 23" of north latitude. Its area, according to the measurement of Prof. Hitchcock, is nine thousand, three hundred and thirty- six square miles. A considerable portion of the state is so rough and mountainous as to be unfit for profitable tillage. Those regions are very sparsely populated.
The annual amount of rain and melted snow varies from
3l8 HISTORY OF
thirty-five to fort}'-six inches. The largest fall of rain is in the central portions of the state ; the smallest on the sea-board. The temperature varies in different localities, from ioo° of Fah- renheit in summer, above zero, to 50° below in winter. Notwith- standing these e.xtremes of heat and cold. New Hampshire is justly considered a healthy section of the country. Statistics show that its climate is eminently favorable to longevity. Dur- ing one centurjr, from 1732 to 1832, more than one hundred per- sons lived to be more than one hundred years Of age.
The lakes of New Hampshire constitute one of the most at- tractive features of the scenery. These are fed from the "streams which run among the hills." During the periods of "the early and latter rains " they are swollen to mountain torrents, which often bring ruin and desolation to the meadows upon their banks ; but they discharge their surplus waters into these peaceful lakes which become so many " basins of reserved power " for the pro- pelling of machinery.
Among the largest of these beautiful sheets of water we may mention :
1. The Ossipee Lake. It is renowned as the headquarters of the Indians in 1720. It is situated in Ossipee and Effingham and has an area of seven hundred acres. It contains no islands and its clear blue waters form a perfect mirror for the attractive scenery upon its borders.
2. Squam Lake, occupying a part of Holderness, Sandwich, Moultonborough and Centre Harbor, is about si.x miles in length and three in breadth, covering about seven thousand acres. It is described as " a splendid sheet of water, indented by points, arched with coves and studded with a succession of romantic islands."
3. Sunapee Lake is situated upon the borders of New Lon- don, Newbury and Sunapee. It is about nine miles in length, and varies from half a mile to one and a half miles in width. This lake occupies a very elevated position, being eight hundred and twenty feet above the sea. Its e.xtreme elevation prevented, in 1816, the use of its waters for a canal uniting the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.
4. The most celebrated of all our lakes is the Winnipiseo- gee, now frequently spelled Winnipesaukee. The orthography of this word lias at least forty variations. This lake charms all travelers. It has no peer; not even Lake George surpasses it. Its scenery is wild and romantic ; its waters are pure and deep ; its fertile islands equal in number the days of the year ; its fish, various and numerous, furnish rich repasts at the tables of the commodious hotels upon its borders ; and the steamers and boats that ply upon its bosom give to the lovers of pleasure ample
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 319
opportunity for sailing, rowing and steaming. It lies in tlie counties of Belknap and Carroll, and is surrounded by the pleas- ant towns of Moultonborough, Tuftonborough, Wolfeborough, Centre Harbor, Meredith, Gilford and Alton. It is about twenty- five miles in length and varies in width from one to ten miles. It is four hundred and seventy-two feet above the sea.
The transition from scenery to climate is easy and natural. Climate affects all human relations, whether of body, mind or estate. It determines the rank of nations in the scale of civili- zation. It regulates the standard of physical strength, intellect- ual power and moral worth. There is not a nerve, tissue or fibre of the human frame that is not modified by cold and heat. The body is the tit tabernacle of the indwelling spirit ; and to a great extent determines for time and eternity the character of its tenant. Extremes both of heat and cold are unfavorable to the highest development of the human race. Hence the best speci- mens of our race have always been found in the temperate zones. Here the necessity of procuring food, clothing and shelter has stimulated the physical and intellectual powers to their highest activity and proved to be, literally, the mother of inventions. The climate of New Hampshire is rigorous and severe.
" Rough, cold and bleak, our little state Is hard of soil, of limits straiglit ; Her yellow sands are sands alone, Her only mines are ice and stone. From autumn frost to April rain Too lon^ her winter woods complain ; From bidding flower to falling leaf Her summer 'time is all too brief."
For more than one half of the year we are compelled to war with the elements and contend, day and night, with wind and storm, frost and snow. During the other half of the year, we are employed in m'aking provision against this elemental strife. It is well for us that it is so. The people of the Granite State owe their health, vigor and longevity to their ungenial climate and rugged soil. Both have compelled them to labor to subdue nature and repel the cold. Labor is the weapon of honor. It is the ordination of Heaven, and no people becomes great, good or wise without it. Liberty lives where the snow falls. Man is enfranchised only in the temperate zones. Between the tropics, where nature supplies men's wants spontaneously, great men and great nations have been few. Where the chief wants of our nature, food, clothing and shelter, are scarcely needed beyond what the earth itself liberally supplies, there is no stimulus to industry. Artificial wants have no existence. Men are rendered effeminate, indolent and sensuous by the climate. Despotism is the normal state of the government, slavery that of the governed. In such a climate, men cannot be educated to freedom. They
320 HISTORY OF
have neither the energy nor the industry necessary to achieve and defend their liberty. The tropical man, therefore, in his native home, is not destined to be the teacher, law-giver, gover- nor or even the equal of the pale-faces of snowy climes. The warm regions have their inconveniences ; the cold have their compensations. When we consider our long winters, our drift- ing snows, our early frosts and our stubborn soil, we are apt to complain of New Hampshire as a place of residence and repeat the stale proverb about its being " a good state to emigrate from." It is a good state in which to have a home and to be- come virtuous and happy. Its scenery is unsurpassed by any country on the globe. Men visit foreign lands to be excited, elevated and enraptured with the grand, gloomy and majestic aspects of nature. They throng the retired vales of Switzerland, and gaze, reverently, upon the glittering pinnacles of the Alps ; and for once in their lives worship that God of whom Moses said, " Before the mountains were brought forth, or even thou hadst formed the earth and world, even from everlasting to ever- lasting, thou art God." Even Byron, the poet of passion, the profane scoffer, felt the emotions of reverence beneath the frowning battlements of Mont Blanc ; and, in poetic rapture, exclaimed :
" Above me are the Alps,
The palaces of nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls
The avalanche — the thunderbolt of snow !
All that expands the spirit yet appals
Gathers rotind these summits, as to show
How earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below."
Coleridge, in that magnificent poem entitled " Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni," has this apostrophe to the same mountain :
" Oh, dread and silent mount ! I gazed upon thee Till thou still pi-esent to the bodily sense Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer I worshiped the Invisible alone."
New Hampshire is called the Switzerland of America, and is admitted by travelers to present scenes of attractive beauty and awful sublimity which compare favorably with any of which Eu- rope can boast. Fashions in travel change as often as those of dress. Men are ever wandering in search of pleasure which is never found in perfection except at home. Multitudes who live in sight of Mount Washington never visit it. Multitudes who breathe the stifled air of cities delight to climb its rugged sides, pierce the clouds that encircle them, and enjoy the sunshine that lingers and plays upon its summit. The lime is not very remote when the tide of European travel, like the " course of empire," westward shall take its way, and the valleys and pinnacles of
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 321
our own familiar mountains will echo with strange tongues and become populous with visitors from the old world. Why not ? The railroad, even now, can lift the traveler to the top of Mount Washington, and the great valleys that lead to the moun- tains present unparalleled attractions to the lovers of the pic- turesque and the most sublime of geological records to the sci- entific explorer. Why, then, may we not e.xpect the lovers of pleasure and the e.xplorers of nature from populous Europe to throng our thoroughfares which lead up to the Notch, the Flume, the Franconia valley and the Old Man of the Mountain, around whose venerable head great white clouds
"Are wanderinjr, in thick flocks, among the mountains, Shepherded by the slow, unwillini; wind" ?
Nay, more, why may we not expect, when the real seclusion is broken from the oriental world, to see among us the cautious Japanese, the philosophic Brahmin, the contemplative Chinaman and the imaginative Persian, traveling for pleasure or profit under the shadows of our granite hills or on the banks of our silver streams ? Tliis may all be " in the prime of summer time " in some coming year, when
" Spring's warm look has unfettered the fountains."
There are four great avenues to the two highest ranges of New Hampshire mountains. These are through the valleys of great rivers, the Saco, the Merrimack, the Androscoggin and the Connecticut. Two of these are all our own. The tributaries of the Merrimack and the Connecticut are chiefly within our state.
Man is enfranchised only in the temperate zones. All cli- mates have their inconveniences and compensations. Rich soils and sunny climes produce gross bodies and sluggish brains. Nature is lovely, and
" All but the siriiit of man is divine."
Necessity is the mother of inventions and of inventors too.
" Souls are ripened in our northern skies."
Mr. Reavis, in his pamphlet upon St. Louis, says :
" It is a noteworthy observation of Dr. Draper, in his work on the Civil War in America, that, within a zone a few degrees wide, having for its axis the January isothermal line of forty-one degrees, all great men in Europe and Asia have appeared. He might have added, with equal truth, that within the same zone have e.xisted all those great cities which have e.xerted a powerful influence upon the world's history, as centres of civilization and intellectual progress. The same inexorable law of climate, which makes greatness in the individual unattainable in a temperature hotter or colder than a certain golden mean, affects in like manner, with even more certainty, the development of those concentrations of intellect of man which we find in great cities. If the temperature is too cold, the sluggish torpor of the intellectual and physical nature precludes the highest development ; if the
322 HISTORY OF
temperature is too hot, the fiery fickleness of nature, which warm climates produce in the individual, is typical of the swift and tropical growth, and sudden and severe decay and decline, of cities exposed to the same all povifer- ful influence. Beyond that zone of moderate temperature, the human life re- sembles more closely that of the animal, as it is forced to combat with ex- tremes of cold, or to submit to extremes of heat ; but within that zone the highest intellectual activity and culture are displayed."
New Hampshire, lying and being within those charmed circles that begirt the globe and enclose its nobles, has furnished abun- dant proof of the theory above quoted ; and what was said of Zion anciently may be applied to her, with all reverence : "This and that man was born in her, and the Highest shall establish her." Let us thank God and take courage, that we have so few temptations and so many inducements to virtue. Truly, " the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places."
" Why turn we to our mountain homes
Wilh more than filial feeling ? 'Tis here that Freedom's altars bttrn
And Freedom's sons are kneeling."
Our little state has been a fountain from which there has been a ceaseless flow of able men who have largely influenced the destinies and developed the resources of other states. Fifty years ago New Hampshire was so rich in intellect that she could have furnished, from her citizens, a president, vice-president, cabinet and supreme court, equal in fitness to any holding those high positions since the formation of the government. In this connection we may cite the names of Langdon, Sullivan, Stark, Thornton, McClary, the Websters, \'\'oodburys, Pierces, Bart- letts, Smith, Richardson, the Livermores, Gilchrist, the Ather- tons, Cass, Fessenden, the Bells of both Hillsborough and Grafton counties, Plumer, Whipple, Lord, Cilley, Miller, McNeil, Mason, Hill, the Dinsmoors, the Uphams, Hubbard, Chase, Parker, Clifford, Perley, Fletcher, Greeley, Di.x, Grimes, Hale, Healey, Wilson, John Wentworth and others, as soine of the representative men of the state.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
THE ISLES OF SHOALS.
323
The Isles of Shoals as a part of New Hampshire deserve something more than a passing notice. Their discovery ante- dates that of the Piscataqua. " These islands bore some of the first footprints of New England Christianit}^ and civilization. They were, for a long time, the abode of intelligence, refinement and virtue, but were afterwards abandoned to a state of semi- barbarism." In 1614 John Smith took note of their existence, and in 1623 Christopher Lcavitt landed on one of them. In 1645 three brothers, Robert, John and Richard Cutts, emigrated from Wales, and on their passage landed at the Isles of Shoals, and being pleased with their attractions commenced a settlement there. Other persons from England and Wales soon joined them and formed a prosperous colony. In 1650 Rev. John Brock became their minister. He is mentioned by Cotton Mather as one of the excellent of the earth in knowledge and devotion. From that date to the present time the place has been filled with men "good, bad and indifferent," till Christianity has nearly lapsed into heathenism. In 1661, the islands having be- come quite famous as places of resort, were incorporated into a township called Appledore. " Hog Island then contained about forty families," who afterwards, through fear of the Indians, passed over to Star* Island. William Pcpperell, the father of Sir William Pepperell, so distinguished in the annals of Maine, lived and traded there for twenty years. From this period to the time of the Revolution the population of the Shoals varied from three to six hundred, and the settlement grew and prospered. They had all the symbols of a well regulated Christian commu- nity, the church, school-house, court-house • and a fort. Their chief occupation was fishing. At the commencement of the war with England they, from their exposed condition, were entirely at the mercy of the enemy, hence the best portion of the popu- lation migrated to the neighboring seaports. Capt. White, v.'ho was murdered by Crowninshield in 1830, Avas one of those exiles from his rocky home in the ocean. The people who remained were ignorant, degraded and worthless. " They burned the meeting-house and gave themselves up to quarreling, profanity and drunkenness till they became almost barbarians." Since
324 HISTORY OF
that time the little education and religion found in the settle- ment have been imparted by visitors and missionaries under the greatest disadvantages. Mrs. Celia Thaxter, in her work entitled " Among the Isles of Shoals," has given us the best description of these " low, piratical reefs " which has ever been written. It has the fidelity of true history with the marvels of the wildest romance. Nine miles from Portsmouth, twenty-one from Cape Ann in Massachusetts, and sixteen from Cape Neddick in Maine, these perilous ledges, like huge sea monsters, lift their backs above the water. There are six in number if the tide is low, but if it is high there are eight, and would be nine but that a break-water connects two of them. Appledore, for many years called " Hog Island," from its resemblance to a hog's back rising from the surface of the ocean, is the largest and most regular in shape. It has an area of four hundred acres, divided by a valley, in which the hotel is situated, into two nearly equal parts. The following entry occurs in the records of Massachu- setts, dated May 22, i56i :
"For the better settling of order in the Isle of Shoales, it is ordered by this Court, that henceforward the whole islands appertaining thereunto, which doe lie partly in the County of York and the other part in the juris- diction of Dover and Portsmouth, shall be reputed and hereby allowed to be a township called Appledore, and shall have equal power to regulate their town affairs as other townes of this jurisdiction have."
Next, almost within a stone's throw, is Haley's Island, named Srnutty-Nose by the sailors. At low tide. Cedar and Malaga are both connected with it, the latter by a break-water. Here storm and darkness have wrecked many a ship. The area of these three islands com.prises about one hundred acres. Star Island contains one hundred and fifty acres. Toward its northern ex- tremity lies the famous town of Gosport, famous in early times for its culture and commerce, now famous as a resort for sum- mer visitors.
" Not quite a mile," says Mrs. Thaxter. " southwest from Star, White Island lifts a light-house for a warning. This is the most picturesque of the group, and forms, with Seavey's Island, at low water, a double island with an area of some twenty acres. Most westerly lies Londoner's, an irregular rock with a bit of beach, upon which all the shells about the cluster seem to be thrown. Two miles northeast from Appledore, Duck Island thrusts out its lurking ledges on all sides beneath the water, one of them running half a mile to the northwest. This is the most dangerous of all the islands." It is the home of those timid sea-fowl that shun the haunts of men. " Shag and Mingo rocks, where during or after storms the sea breaks with magnificent effect, lie isolated by a narrow channel from the main granite
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 325
fragment. A very round rock west of Londoner's, perversely called 'Square,' and Anderson's Rock off the southeast end of Smutty-Nose complete the catalogue." Appledore, Smutty-Nose and Duck islands belong to Maine, the rest to New Hampshire. Till within a few years the inhabitants have been left very much to themselves, and have been as little disturbed by state officials as the gulls and loons that share their dreary homes. The fol- lowing sketch of Hon. Thomas B. Laighton is taken from the Newark Journal :
" In the year 1839, the Hon. Thomas B. Laighton, formerly editor of the New Hampshire Gazette, at Portsmouth, and a politician and literary man of some note, was keeping the White Island Light-House at this watering place, where he engaged to some e.xtent in the business of fishing. One day the thought struck him that this might be made a delightful summer re- sort for a large class of people, who, while they wanted the invigorating sea breezes, did not care either to take them diluted or modified by the land tem- perature and influences, or to undergo a long and tedious voyage for this purpose. Mr. Laighton, himself an invalid, had experienced great relief from his sea residence, and at once reasoned himself into the belief that the Isles of Shoals was the best place on the coast for a successful summer boarding-house, and acting upon this idea he succeeded in purchasing for the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars the islands known by the not poetic titles of ' Hog ' and ' Smutty.' The first he named ' Appledore,' which is simply a pile of granite rocks, thrown up in some obscure age of the world, without form or comeliness. Here Mr. Laighton built a moderately sized house, nine miles out from the New Hampshire coast, and waited his chances. There was no doubt of his being ' at sea,' near one of the rough- est, bleakest and most exposed coast lines upon the continent; but a man who for several years had tended White Island Light could not be fright- ened or moved from his property by any exhibitions or freaks of old ocean. One thing was certain : these islands were anchored fast to the unseen cen- tre of the globe, wherever that might be, or else they must have disappeared thousands of )'ears gone by. But who could tell their story or sing their dole- ful or terrible requiem .> What by-gone races of human beings had landed upon these outposts in^the dim past.' What vessels had been stranded and wrecked upon these treacherous shoals, dashing in a moment high-wrought hopes, glorious visions, ambitious views ? But no matter. Tom Laighton, when he left Portsmouth and its mixed politics, was said to be not a little disgusted with the world, and his vision teemed with ideas of an independ- ent government of his owm, over which he might exercise supreme sway. To be sure. Hog Island was under the nominal territorial jurisdiction of Maine, but that state had never taken great pride in its dependency. Curiously enough, the state of New Hampshire owned an adjoining island which is called Star, which has been a little fishing settlement during the entire his- tory of our colonial and federal governments. It is a village of twenty or thirty old houses, with a church as the central building. The town has an old incorporation by the name of Gosport, and it yearly sends a representa- tive to the legislature, whenever a man is to be found who can afford to spend the time and the money. Star island is now chiefly owned by a cor- poration whose business it is to entertain strangers. The success of the Appledore House as a resort for invalids cannot fail to lead to the profitable occupation, at an early dav, of all the habitable islands of this group. The business of the Appledore House is increasing rapidly. The house is capa- ble of accommodating about three hundred boarders, and this year they have
326 HISTORY OF
had two thousand applications for board. The first families come in May, and some prolong the season into October. On a high point of Appledoi e rest the remains of Thomas B. Laighton, surmounted by a single granite slab, with a modest inscription. He was one of the many peculiar charac- ters which the Granite State has produced. His name will live as long as Applcdore shall last, as the reclaimer to civilization and usefulness of one of the waste places of creation."
Note. The records of Gosport, in the last century, show a peculiar disregard of orthog- raphy. Notice the following : "On March ye 25, 1771. then their was a meating called and it was j^(r?if (/ until the 23d day of Apirel." Among the "offorsere" of " Gospored " were "seelekt meen," " counstable," "lidon meen," *' coulears of fish" and "sealers of whood."
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
THE INFLUENCE OF DISTINGUISHED FAMILIES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Previous to the Revolutionary war, New Hampsliire was gov- erned and controlled by a few influential families. There was no aristocracy of birth, but that of wealth was substituted for it. Only the rich could acquire a liberal education, and when learning and wealth were united they usually secured patronage and offices. When such men were once elevated to places of power, the people gave them their homage and made them per- manent leaders. The history of the state cannot be thoroughly learned without some special account of these leading families. They gave laws to society, regulated politics, originated and ex- ecuted laws, sometimes for the benefit of the people and some- times for their own aggrandizement. They built princely man- sions, rode in coaches, and in their dress, equipage and enter- tainments exhibited something of the dignity and exclusiveness of the old nobility of England.
In the annals of Portsmouth, the only seaport, and for many years the chief town in the state, the representatives of certain leading families appear on almost every page. Prominent among the early settlers was the Cutt family. Three brothers, John, Robert and Richard, came from Wales as early as 1646. They were all men of mark and enterprise. In 1679, when New Hampshire was made a royal province, John Cutt was appointed the first president. The names of Pickering, Sherburne, At- kinson, Wentworth, Livermore, Sparhawk, Vaughan, Sheafe and Langdon occur very frequently in the historical records of the last centuiy. Capt. Tobias Langdon, the ancestor of the Lang-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 327
don family, came from England in 16S7. John Langdon, born in 1740, was, perhaps, the most illustrious of his descendants. His history for the last half of his official life is thus recited by Mr. Brewster :*
"John Langdon was a judge of the court of common pleas in 1776 ; but resigned the ne.xt year. In 177S, he was agent under congress for building ships of war ; and was continental agent for supplying materials for the America seventy-four. In 1779, he was president of the New Hampshire convention for regulating the currency; and from 1777 to 1782, was speaker of the New Hampshire house of representatives. In 1780 he was a com- missioner to raise men and procure provisions for the army, and June 30, 1783, was again elected delegate to congress. In 1784- '85 he was a member of the New Hampshire senate, and in the latter year president of the state. In 1788 he was delegate to the convention which adopted the constitution of the United States. In March, 1788, he was elected representative in the New Hampshire legislature and speaker of the house, but took the office of governor, to which he was simultaneously chosen. In November, 1788, he was elected a member of the senate of the United States, became the first presiding officer of that body, and was reelected senator in 1794. Later in life he was nomi- nated for vice-president, but declined on account of age. From 1 80 1 to 1805 he was a representative in the New Hampshire legislature ; in 1804 and 1805 was speaker. From 1805 to 1808 and in 1810 and 181 1 he was governor. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1805. Very few men of any age or nation have been more trusted, honored and revered than John Langdon."
* Many of the facts relating to distinguished families of Portsmouth have been taken from Mr. C. W. Brewster's " Rambles about Portsmouth," one of the best books ever published in New Hampshire.
328
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XC.
THE LIVERMORE FAMILY.
There is a house still standing in Portsmouth which was built nearly a century and a half ago, by Matthew Livermore, the first citizen of that name known to New Hampshire history. The street on which it stands is called Livermore street. Matthew Livermore, born in Watertown, Mass., 1703, came to Portsmouth in 1724, and for seven years taught the grammar school in that place. He afterwards studied law and held several responsible offices under the king.
Samuel Livermore, a relative of Matthew, was one of the most illustrious jurists and statesmen of New Hampshire during the eighteenth century. He was a descendant of John Liver- more, who was a citizen of Watertown as early as 1642. A branch of the family settled in Waltham, where Samuel Liver- more was born in 1732. He was graduated at Princeton in 1752. He began the practice of law in Portsmouth in 1758, where he was, for several years, judge advocate of the admi- ralty court, and in 1769 was made the king's attorney-general for New Hampshire. In 1765 he commenced the settlement of Holderness ; was one of the original grantees, and at one time owned nearly one half of the township. Here he fixed his res- idence permanently, and so great was his influence, from his learning, wealth and dignity, that he lived a kind of social dic- tator in the new town. When the dispute arose in relation to the " New Hampshire Grants " in Vermont, which, like Poland, was parceled out and claimed by three sovereign states, Mr. Livermore was appointed commissioner for the state of New Hampshire in congress. To secure his admission he was chosen delegate to congress. He took his seat in 1780 and remained, by reelection, till 1782, when he was appointed chief justice of the state. In 1784 he and Messrs. Josiah Bartlett and John Sullivan were appointed a committee to revise the statutes of the state and report new bills necessary to be enacted. While holding the office of judge he was again elected to congress in 1785. He was also an active member in the convention which met in 1788 to consider the new constitution of the United States. New Hampshire was the ninth state which adopted it, and thus gave vitality to this organic law. Judge Livermore's influence promoted, if it did not absolutely secure, this result.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 329
He was immediately elected a member of tlie first congress, and liaving resigned liis office as judge, Hon. Josiali Bartktt became his successor. Mr. Livermore served two sessions in congress. In 1 79 1 he was called to preside over the convention called to revise the constitution of the state. In 1793 he was elected to the United States senate, the successor of Paine VVingate. He served in that responsible position six years and was reelected, but resigned his seat in 1801. He had then been in public life more than thirty years. He retired to his home in Holderness, where he died in 1803, in the seventy-second year of his age. Two of his sons were distinguished in public life. Edward St. Loe was judge of the supreme court of New Hampshire from 1797 to 1799, and was a member of congress from Massachu- setts from 1807 to 1811. He died in 1832, aged 80. Arthur Livermore was, for more than half a century, a prominent jurist and legislator in New Hampshire. He was judge of the su- preme court from 1799 to 18 16.; judge of the court of common pleas from 1825 to 1833, and representative in congress from 1817 to 1821 and from 1823 to 1825. As a judge he was re- spected by the bar and reverenced by the people. As a public speaker he was logical, forcible and judicial, sometimes witty, caustic and severe.
CHAPTER XCI.
THE PICKERING FAMILY,
John Pickering, the ancestor of all the families of that name in New Hampshire, came from England among the first colonists of Massachusetts, He removed to Strawberry Bank as early as 1636, He was a man of great worth and possessed remarkable business qualities, though he could not write his name. The early settlers entrusted to him matters of great importance. He was one of the company who gave fifty acres of glebe land for the ministry. He built his house on a site now lying on " Mill Street." His sons, John and Thomas, became leading men in the colony. In 1665, the town granted to John Pickering, senior, a tract of land on Great Bay, Thomas, the second son, who is the ancestor of all who bear the name of Pickering in Ports- mouth and towns adjacent, also took a farm of five hundred acres from the same grant on Great Bay, within the present
330 HISTORY OF
town of Newington, which after the lapse of two centuries still remains in the hands of his descendants. It has been transmit- ted in regular succession ; and no deed has ever been made of some portions of the estate since the first grant to John Picker- ing in 1665. In 1658, the town granted to John Pickering the south mill privilege, on condition of his keeping in repair a path for foot passengers, over the dam, on going to meeting. The mill was built ; and the son and grandson of the grantee man- aged it in succession.
Captain Thomas Pickering, son of the third John, was hewn to pieces by the Indians, in 1746, in the vicinity of Casco, Maine, where he was on dut}'. He was helpless from rheumatism, and thus became an easy prey to the savages. The six daughters of this martyr to his country were all married and had children. Five of them lived to the average age of ninety-one years.
John Pickering, 2d, who inherited " Pickering's Neck" and the mill, discharged with credit the duties of farmer, miller, law- yer, captain, and legislator. In the first assembly called by President Cutt, he was a representative of Portsmouth. There were six of this family who bore the name of John. They all had a military reputation. It was Captain John Pickering, 2d, whom Dr. Belknap styles, " a rough and adventurous man and a lawyer," who compelled Richard Chamberlain, the clerk of the superior court and secretary of the province under Andros, to surrender the records and files of papers in his possession. They were for a time concealed ; but Governor Usher constrained the captain, by threats of imprisonment, to give them up. Captain Pickering was a member of the assembly most of the time from 1697 to 1709. For several years he was speaker of the house; and was appointed attorney for the state in the great land case of Allen against Waldron, in 1707. In 1671, he was the con- tractor with the town for building a strong wooden cage, stock and pillory near the meeting-house for the confinement of evil- doers, especially of " such as sleepe, or take tobacco on the Lord's day, out of meeting in the time of the publique exercise." In our day the offenders would be more numerous than the of- ficials ; and the " cage " would be more spacious than the church. During the same year Rev. Mr. Moody, who had preached twenty-three years without settlement, was ordained. Captain Pickering, as usual, was master of ceremonies. He, in true dem- ocratic spirit, practised upon the motto of his mill, "first come, first served," reserved no seats for the minister and his friends. For this contempt of the magnates, he was censured by an ec- clesiastical court. "Like many other men" (and, we may safely add, women), " Captain John Pickering liked to have his own way ; unlike many others, he generally enjoyed the power."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 33I
His brother, Captain Tliomas Pickering, was a man of mag- nificent pliysique. A press-gang once attempted to seize Iiim wlien alone in the outskirts of the town and put him on board an Enghsh man-of-war. When the officer of the gang replied to his earnest plea to be left to care for his family, " No excuse, sir ; march /" the captain laid him upon the ground in a trice, and raising his axe as if to chop off his head, the terrified sub- alterns begged his life and promised a speedy retreat. There is a tradition that this same athlete carried upon his back eleven and one-half bushels of corn up the steps of a mill !
The biographies of all the eminent men who have borne the name of Pickering would fill a volume. I can only mention one or two more. Hon. John Pickering, a lineal descendant of Thomas, was a man of eminent ability. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution, filled the office of governor when Langdon resigned, and was chief justice of the supreme court for five years. He was born at Newington in 1738, and was graduated at Cambridge in 1761. To Captain Thomas Pickering Mr. Brewster assigns the chief honor in the capture of Fort William and Mary in 1774, contrary to the re- ceived tradition, which gives the credit of that achievement to Sullivan and Langdon.
CHAPTER XCH.
THE WEARE FAMILV.
The progenitor of this distinguished family was Nathaniel Weare, one of the early proprietors of Newbury, Mass. His name was spelled in the records of that town in seven different ways. There was vei7 little agreement among the scribes and clerks of that day in spelling proper names ; indeed, there was no fi.xed standard of use for the orthography of common terms. The name of Shakespeare, in his day, was as variously written as that of Weare. He did not always spell it in the same way himself, and editors still differ with regard to its proper orthog- raphy. Mr. Weare's son Nathaniel, who was born in England, settled in Hampton. He was a surveyor ; and in that capacity was employed, in 1669, to establish the south line of the town of Hampton. Mr. Weare also officiated as an attorney in the man- agement of law-suits. During the oppressive prosecutions in-
332
HISTORY OF
occurred upon the sea. In 1796, Mr. Pinckney had been sent as minister to France. After two months' residence in Paris, he was peremptorily ordered to leave the city. The French government continued to commit depredations upon ourcommerce and re- fused to liquidate our just claims upon its treasury. One more effort was made by the United States to settle the controversy by negotiation. Three envoys were sent with full powers to adjust all questions in dispute. When they arrived, the French Directory, like a company of banditti, demanded of them a sum of money as a preliminary step to a treaty. This of course vi'as indignantly refused and the embassy failed in its mission. There was iDUt one voice among all parties at home respecting this in- sult ; that was : '" Millions for defence but not one cent for trib- ute." After further consideration, the French Directory pro- posed peace and ministers were promptly sent in answer to their call. On their arrival they found Bonaparte at the head of the government, as First Consul. With this responsible head, in September, 1800, they concluded a treaty which satisfied both countries and for a time restored the former good will between them. New Hampshire, with gi'eat unanimity, supported Presi- dent Adams in his foreign policy. The legislature prepared an address to him, expressing the fullest approval of his purpose to humble France and the most decided denunciation of French aggressions. This measure received the unanimous vote of the senate and had only four opposing votes in the house.
During the last four years of Washington's administration, many important difficulties were adjusted. The controversy with England was put to rest by Mr. Jay's treaty, though the party spirit which it evoked lived on. In 1795, after three campaigns, two of which were unsuccessful, against the western Indians, a treaty was concluded which for a season quieted these fierce savages. During the same year, a treaty with Spain was made, which established the boundaries between the Spanish posses- sions on this continent and the United States. Peace was also made with the Algerines, a nest of pirates who had for years laid the whole Christian world under tribute. The United States, then destitute of a navy, had been compelled to pay large sums to these outlaws for the redemption of captives ; and even under the new treaty an annual tribute was promised to the Dey, a sort of modern Minotaur, who demanded blood or money. The quarrel with France remained to be settled when Washing- ton delivered his "farewell address" in 1797. Under his suc- cessor party lines were more closely drawn and federalists and republicans began that struggle for supremacy in the national councils which, under different party names, has been perpetu- ated to this hour.
I
MEW HAMPSHIRE. 233
The eighteenth century closed when partisan warfare was at its height, and the press, on both sides, teemed with bitter sar- casm and malignant abuse. This important date in our history suggests some reflections upon the condition of New Hampshire as it then was. It would be difficult to find a colony or state within the period of authentic history that suffered more or achieved more in the same number of years, than New Hamp- shire prior to the peace with Great Britain in 1783. Her en- tire record for one hundred and si.xty years is stained with sweat and blood. Her citizens labored and suffered during all that period with unparalleled patience. From four inconsiderable plantations in 1641, she had grown in iSoo to be a populous state of two hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants distribu- ted over nearly two hundred flourishing towns. But from the hour when the forests of Dover and Portsmouth first rang with the blows of the woodman's axe, in 1623, till the close of the Revol- utionary war, there was no rest from toil, scarcely any from war, to all its citizens. For nearly all that long and dreary march of armies and pressure of labor, the title to the very soil they had won from the wilderness was in dispute. The Indians were con- stantly upon their track, and no hiding-place was so secret or remote as to render its occupant safe from the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Foreign wars consumed their property and e.\- hausted their men. The government under which they lived and to which they owed allegiance was changed almost as often as the wages of Jacob by his crafty father-in-law. The king ruled them only for his own advantage. Even Massachusetts, with whom for many years she enjoyed a peaceful alliance, finally became ambitious of enlarging her possessions, and un- generously obtained and appropriated nearly one half of New Hampshire. The pej pie of the state found no security at home or abroad, but in their own brave hearts and strong arms. They made themselves homes and achieved a fame in arms and in arts, which " none of their adversaries could gainsay nor resist."
CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NI.NETEENTH CENTURY.
Let us now, with the light of memory and tradition lingering on the track, point backward the glass of history and descry the farmer in his field, the mechanic in his shop, and the minister at his altar, as they severally lived and labored seventy years ago,—
"As when, bv night, the glass Of Galileo, less assur'di observes Imagin'd lands and regions in the moon."
We can scarcely conceive of a more independent, self-reliant,
334 HISTORY OF
CHAl'TER XCIII.
THE BARTLETT FAMILY.
The earliest known ancestor of this family in this country was John Bartlett, who with four other citizens of the same name, removed from Beverly to Newbury, Mass., in 1635. The exact date of their arrival in America is not known. It is probable that they were among the earliest immigrants. Robert Bartlett landed at Plymouth in 1623. All who bear this name in New England are supposed to have had a common origin. The New Hampshire family descended from John Bartlett. President Josiah Bartlett, from his public services, is better known than his ancestors, though the family have always been distinguished for superior endowments and executive energy. Joseph Bart- lett, the nephew of Josiah, studied medicine with his distin- guished relative at Kingston, N. H., and immediately after his marriage, at the age of twenty-two, removed to Salisbury, N. H. He was the first physician of that town. He had a very exten- sive practice in that and the adjacent towns, and won the confi- dence and respect of all who knew him. He was also much employed in business transactions, as he held the pen of " a ready writer." He died September 20, a. d. 1800, aged forty- nine, leaving a family of seven sons and two daughters. Two of the sons were physicians ; two were lawyers and two were merchants. They were all distinguished in their several call- ings, all honored and trusted citizens. At one session of the New Hampshire legislature four of these brothers met as repre- sentatives from their respective towns : Ichabod from Ports- mouth, James from Dover, Samuel from Salisbury and Daniel from Grafton. Samuel Colcord Bartlett was a merchant in Salis- bury, successful in business, commanding the universal respect of all who knew him. His sons have all proved themselves worthy of their distinguished ancestry. Among them are Rev. Joseph Bartlett of Buxton, Maine, Prof. Samuel C. Bartlett of Chicago, Illinois, and the late Judge William Bartlett of Con- cord. The merchant, Samuel C. Bartlett, assisted his younger brother Ichabod to obtain an education.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 335
CHAPTER XCIV.
THE WEBSTER FAMILY.
Inquiries are often made respecting tlie fatlier, brothers and sisters of the late Daniel Webster, and it is not probable that the time will ever come in our state or in the United States when that interest will wholly cease. It may be proper, therefore, to incorporate these facts in the history of New Hampshire, where all wiio choose can refer to them. Judge Nesmith, a few years since, 'published a full and accurate account of Mr. Webster's family. From this sketch I make the following extracts :
" In the political canvass in our state which closed with the March election, 1858, it was publicly stated by some of the speak- ers that Judge Webster, the father of Hon. Daniel Webster, could neither read nor write. Now, in the course of the last summer, we spent some time in investigating the history of Judge Web- ster. We have sufficient evidence, in Franklin and Salisbury, to satisfy the most skeptical that he could not only read and write, spell and cipher, but he knew how to lend the means to found a state. Daniel Webster, in his autobiography, and in his letter to Mr. Blatchford of New York, gives us a brief but too modest an outline of the life of his father. At the risk of being tedious we propose to show some of the acts or works that gave him his deserved influence and fame in this region.
Ebenezer Webster was born in Kingston in 1739. He resided many years with iV^ajor Ebenezer Stevens, an influential citizen of that town, and one of the first proprietors of Salisbury. Salisbury was granted in 1749, and first named Stevenstown, in honor of Major Stevens. It was incorporated as Salisbury in 1767. Judge Webster settled in Stevenstown as early as 1761. * Previous to this time he had served as a soldier in the French war, and once afterward. He was married to Mehitable Smith, his first wife, January 8, 1761. His first two children, Olle, a daughter, and Ebenezer, his son, died while young. His third child was Susannah, born October, 1766 ; married John Colby, who recently died in Franklin. He had also, by his first wife, two sons — David, who died some years since at Stanstead ; also Joseph, who died in Salisbury. His first wife died March 28, 1774. Judge Webster again married — Abigail Eastman, October
• When Judge Webster first settled in Stevenstown, he was called Ebenezer Webster, Jr. In 1694, Kingston was granted to James Prescott and Ebenezer Webster and others, of Hamp- ton. He descended from this ancestor.
336 HISTORY OF
12, 1774. By his last wife he had five children : viz., Mehitable ; Abigail (who married William Hadduck); Ezekiel, born March II, 1780; Daniel, born January 18, 17S2, and Sarah, born May
13, 1784. Judge Webster died in April, 1806, in the house now converted into the New Hampshire Orphans' Home, and with his last wife and many of his children now lies buried in the grave-yard originally taken from the Elms farm. For the first seven years of his life, after he settled on the farm lately occu- pied by John Taylor in Franklin, he lived in a log cabin, located in the orchard west of the highway, and near Punch brook. Then he was able to erect a house of one story, of about the same figure and size as that now occupied by William Cross, near said premises. It was in this house that Daniel Webster was born. In 1784 Judge Webster removed to the tavern Jrouse, near his interval farm, and occupied that until 1800, when he exchanged his tavern house with William Hadduck for that where he died.
In 1761, Captain John Webster, Eliphalet Gale and Judge Webster erected the first saw-mill in Stevenstown, on Punch brook, on his homestead, near his cabin.
In June, 1764, Matthew Pettengill, Stephen Call and Ebenezer Webster were the sole highway surveyors of Stevenstown. In 1765, the proprietors voted to give Ebenezer Webster and Ben- jamin Sanborn two hundred acres of common land, in considera- tion that they furnish a privilege for a grist-mill, erect a mill and keep it in repair for fifteen years, for the purpose of grinding the town's corn.
In 1768 Judge Webster was first chosen moderator of a town- meeting in Salisbur}', and he was elected forty-three times after- ward, at different town-meetings in Salisbury, servmg in March, 1S03, for the last time.
In 1769 he was first elected selectman, and held that office for the years 1770, '72, '74, '76, '80, '85, '86, and '88 ; resigning it, however, in September, 1776, and performing a six months' service in the army.
In 1 77 1, 1772 and 1773, he was elected and served in the of- fice of town clerk. In 1778 and 1780 he was elected represent- ative of the classed towns of .Salisbury and Boscawen ; also, for Salisbury, in 1790 and '91. He was elected senator for the years 1785, '86, '88 and '90; Hillsborough county electing two sen- ators at this time, and Matthew Thornton, and Robert Wallace of Henniker, serving as colleagues, each for two of said years. He was in the senate in 17S6, at Exeter, when the insurgents surrounded the house. His proclamation to them was " I com- mand you to disperse.'
In March, 1778, the town chose Captain Ebenezer Webster
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 337
and Captain Matthew Pettengill as delegates to a convention to be held at Concord, Wednesday, June lo, 'for the sole pur- pose of forming a permanent plan of government for the future well being of the good people of this state.'
In 178S, January i6, Colonel Webster was elected delegate to the convention at Exeter, for the purpose of considering the pro- posed United States constitution. A committee was also chosen by the town to examine said constitution, and advise with said delegate. This committee was composed of Joseph Bean, Esq., Jonathan Fifield, Esq., Jonathan Cram, Captain Wilder, Deacon John Collins, Edward Eastman, John C. Gale, Captain Robert Smith, Leonard Judkins, Deacon Jacob True, Lieutenant Bean, Lieutenant Severance and John Smith. At the first meeting of the convention, in Februar)', Colonel Webster opposed the con- stitution, under instructions from his town.
A majority of the convention were found to be opposed to the adoption of the constitution. The convention adjourned to Con- cord, to meet in the succeeding month of June. In the mean time Webster conferred with his constituents, advised with the committee on the subject, asked the privilege of supporting the constitution, and he was instructed to vote as he might think proper. His speech, made on this occasion, has been printed. It did great credit to the head and heart of the author :
"Mr. President: I have listened to the arguments for and against the constitution. I am convinced such a government as that constitution will establish, if adopted — a government acting directly on the people of the states — is necessary for the common defence and the general welfare. It is the only government which will enable us to pay off the national debt. The debt which we owe for the Revolution, and which we are bound in honor fully and fairly to discharge. Besides, I have followed the lead of Washing- ton through seven years of war, and I have never been misled. His name is subscribed to this cc^nstitution. He will not mislead us now. I shall vote for its adoption."
The constitution was finally adopted in the convention by the vote of fifty-seven yeas and forty-seven nays. Colonel Webster gave his support to the constitution. He was one of the electors for president when Washington was first chosen to that office.
In the spring of 1791, Colonel Webster was appointed Judge of the court of common pleas for the county of Hillsborough. This office he held at the time of his decease, in 1806. He was one of the magistrates, or justices of the peace for Hillsborough county, for more than thirt\'-five years prior to his decease."
The sons of Judge Webster Daniel and Ezekiel, are noticed among the distinguished members of the New Hampshire Bar, in a subsequent chapter.
\
338 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XCV.
THE BAR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE BETWEEN A. D. 1800 AND 183O.
New Hampshire has produced an unusual number of distin- guished men, especially in the legal profession. If we take the year 1815 as a stand-point and look backward and forward for about fifteen years, we shall find more eminent lawyers and ora- tors in our little state than in any other in the Union. Some of the men living in that period have never been surpassed, in any age or nation. The central figure in that group of advocates is Jeremiah Mason. By the unanimous consent of the present generation of Americans, he had no peer as a lawyer. He was a truly magnificent man in mind and body. His noble physique corresponded to the indwelling soul ; it was grand, lofty and im- posing. No man who saw him once ever forgot him. Most men after seeing him, like the honest Shaker who was sent to consult him, could talk of nothing else but his "extraordinary size." But those who heard him were still more profoundly impressed. His intellectual and professional portrait has been drawn by the hand of a master. Mr. Webster says : "The characteristics of Mr. Mason's mind, as I think, were real greatness, strength and sagacity. He was great through strong sense and sound judg- ment, great by comprehensive views of things, great by high and elevated purposes. Perhaps sometimes he was too cautious and refined, and his distinctions became too minute ; but his dis- crimination arose from a force of intellect, and quick-seeing, far- reaching sagacity, everywhere discerning his object and pursu- ing it steadily. Whether it was popular or professional, he grasped a point and held it with a strong hand. He was some- times sarcastic, but not frequently ; not frothy or petulant, but cool and vitriolic. Unfortunate for him on wliom liis sarcasm fell ! His conversation was as remarkable as his efforts at the bar. It was original, fresh and suggestive ; never dull or indif- ferent. As a professional man, Mr. Mason's great ability lay in the department of the common law. In this part of jurispru- dence he was profoundly learned. In his addresses, both to courts and juries, he aftected to despise all eloquence, and cer- tainly disdained all ornament ; but his efforts, whether addressed to one tribunal or the other, were marked by a degree of clear- ness, distinctness and force not easy to be equaled." Mr. Web- ster lived in the same town, practiced in the same courts with
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 339
Mr. Mason and was generally pitted against him as an antag- onist. In this relation they helped rather than harmed one another. They grew strong, vigilant and wise by their mutual conflicts ; for in such intellectual warfare, as Burke remarks, "our antagonist is our helper." Their associates were all men of mark. There were practicing at the same bar with these lead- ing lawyers, Mr. West, Mr. Gordon, Edward St. Loe Livermore, Peieg Sprague, William K. Atkinson, George Sullivan, Ichabod Bartlett, Thomas W. Thompson, Jeremiah Smith, William Plumer, Arthur Livermore, Samuel Bell, Levi Woodbury, Charles H. Atherton, Joseph Bell, George B. Uphani, Richard Fletcher and many other eminent jurists.
CHAPTER XCVL
JEREMIAH SMITH.
Jeremiah Smith, better known to all as " Judge Smith," was partly educated at Cambridge, but was graduated at Rutger's college. New Jersey. The next few years were spent in study- ing law and teaching, and in 1786 he was admitted to the bar by the court held at Amherst, Hillsborough county. Unlike many of his profession, he combined the characters of attorney and peace-maker, always preventing a law-suit when possible. It was thought by mjny of the most considerate men in Peter- borough (his native town where he was then residing), that he should be paid $500 each year for saving in this way so much time and money. By his unswerving justice, laborious prepara- tion of his cases and hearty contempt for the " paltry shifts of legal cunning," he did much to bring about a better administra- tion of justice in the courts of New Hampshire. In his own town he was deeply interested in everything that would better its condition. Through his influence, new school-houses were built, better teachers were procured, a small social library was established and the young men, roused by reading, gained habits of earnest thought and keen discussion. In addition to his practice, which was always good, he filled various public offices in his town and state, and in 1790 was chosen a member of con- gress, and served in that capacity with great honor to himself until 1787, when he was appointed United States attorney for the district of New Hampshire. In 1800 he was appointed
340 HISTORY OF
judge of probate for the count)' of Rockingham, and during this year he prepared a full and elaborate treatise on that branch of the law. In 1801 he was made a judge in the United States circuit court; but this office, which, he used to say, was the only one he ever greatly desired, was taken from him by an act of congress repealing the judiciary law. After this he was twice the chief justice of New Hampshire, its governor for one year, besides distinguishing liimself in contests at the bar with Mason, Webster and Sullivan.
The names of Smith and Mason are most frequently men- tioned together by those who remember those times. Neither of them laid claim to the graces of oratory. " When they met it was the stern encounter of massive intellectual strength." Both were men of humor and loved a joke. Mr. Mason once told Mr. Smith that, having been recently looking over the criminal calendar of the English courts, he was surprised to find there so many persons bearing his name, and asked how it happened. "Oh," said he, "when they got into diiSculty they took the re- spectable name of Smith, but it generally turned out that their real name was Mason." They worked together in the famous Dartmouth College case.
In 1820, having reached his sixty-first year. Judge Smith with- drew from active life. His old age was happy, serene and use- ful. Wit, wisdom and worth were all his to an unusual degree. In private life he was delightful. Overflowing with fun and kindness, he charmed the young and old alike.
CHAPTER XCVII.
EZEKIEL WEBSTER.
Ezekiel Webster was a native of Salisbury. He was born March II, 1780. The first nineteen years of his life were spent on his father's farm. By constant labor beneath a rigorous cli- mate and upon a comparatively sterile soil, he acquired that full muscular development and majestic figure which in later years gave to him extraordinary manly beaut)'. His brother Daniel, being less robust in constitution, was early destined by his father to professional life. During a college vacation when the brothers were at home together, they made the education of Ezekiel the theme of their constant deliberations. One night they passed
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 341
in sleepless conference. They hardly dared broach the subject to their father, who regarded his elder son as the support of his declining years. Finally Daniel ventured to open the subject to his father. He referred the matter to their mother. A family council was called. The mother was a strong-minded, sagacious woman. She at once admitted the reasonableness of the re- quest and gave her decision, in these words : " I have lived long in the world and have been happy in my children. If Daniel and Ezekiel will promise to take care of me in my old age, I will consent to the sale of all our property at once, that they may enjoy with us the benefit of what remains after our debts are paid." This was a moment of intense interest to all the family. Parents and children mingled their tears together at the thought even of a temporary separation. The die was cast. After spending about fifteen months in preparation, Ezekiel Webster entered Dartmouth College in the spring of 1801. He ranked among the first of his class in scholarship. He suc- ceeded, with great economy and some deprivation of necessary comforts, by the aid of teaching and the slight contributions to his support from his father and brother, in completing his educa- tion. Mr. Webster, after devoting three years to the study of aw, entered upon the practice of his profession, at Boscawen, in September, 1807. His legal knowledge and moral worth soon secured for him an extensive business. As a lawyer he had few equals. He was a wise counselor and able advocate. In de- bate he was dignified and courteous. His weapons were sound arguments clothed in simple but elegant language. His eloquence was earnest and effective. For many years he was a member of one or the other branch of the state legislature. He died sud- denly, of heart disease, on the tenth of April, 1829. He was speaking, standing erect, on a plain floor before a full house, with all eyes fastened upon him. He closed one branch of his argument, uttered the last sentence and the last word of that sentence with perfect tone and emphasis ; and then in an instant fell backward without bending a joint, and seemed to be dead before he reached the floor. Though life was not absolutely ex- tinct, he neither breathed nor spoke again.
342
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XCVIII.
DANIEL WEBSTER.
In describing tlie leaders of the bar of New Hampshire, it would be as absurd to pass over Daniel Webster in silence as it would to enact the play of Hamlet and leave out the Prince of Denmark himself ; yet he has been so often eulogized that it seems a work of supererogation to recite even his excellences to the men of this generation. No orator in the world's history was ever more widely known and honored by his contemporaries. His fame was co-extensive with human civilization. European statesmen who took a lively interest in American politics re- garded him as the authoritative expounder of our constitution. He so ably developed the true nature of our government on the floor of the United States Senate that he was everywhere styled the " Defender of the Constitution." In his reply to Colonel Hayne he first taught the people what the Union really meant, and furnished the arguments by which inferior orators defended It when it was assailed by rebel statesmen. When Mr. Webster died nations were his mourners, and " the world felt lonely " without him. His character and his oratory received unstinted praise from the press and the pulpit. Not even Washington himself was a more general theme of eulogy. Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, Januaiy i8, 1782. He once said in a public speech : " It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin ; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, reared amid the snow-drifts of New Hampshire at a period so early that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada." His early advantages for education were limited. A few weeks' study each winter in the district school made up the sum of his early intellectual culture. In his fif- teenth year he spent nine months at E.xeter Academy. Most of his pieparation for college was made under the tuition of Rev. Ur. Wood of Boscawen, who received for board and tuition only one dollar per week. He entered Dartmouth College in 1797, where he passed four years in assiduous study. His moral character and devotion to duty have received the highest com- mendation from teachers and classmates. As a writer and speaker he had no equal. He studied law in Boston with Hon.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 343
Christopher Gore and was admitted at the Suffolk bar in 1805. He then opened an office at Boscawen that he might be near his father and assist him in his declining years. Two years after the death of his father, he relinquished his office to his brother, and the next year removed to Portsmouth, where he gained his chief reputation as a lawyer. His practice was abundant but not lucrative, for clients in those days were not rich. He was chosen by the federal party in 18 12 to represent the state in congress. He took his seat at the first session of the thirteenth congress, which was an extra session called in May, 1813. From this date to the day of his death, in October, 1852, he had little rest from public official duties. No one man in American history has so deeply impressed his opinions and character upon the in- stitutions of the country. He was distinguished in every de- partment of labor in which he engaged ; at the bar, in congress, in the senate, and in the cabinet. It may be doubted whether, in any of the spheres which he so ably filled, our country has produced a greater man.
CHAPTER XCIX.
ICHABOD BARTLETT.
"The subject of this notice graduated at Dartmouth College in 1806, where he was a classmate of Hon. George Grennel of Massachusetts. Irt the same year he delivered the oration in his native tovvin on the Fourth of July, which was published. Having studied law with Moses Eastman and Parker Noyes, he was admitted to the bar in 18 12, and commenced practice in Durham. He removed to Portsmouth, where he rapidly attained an honorable rank in his profession, of which he was subse- quently the acknowledged head. The New Hampshire Bar was at this time distinguished for ability, and it was among such com- petitors as Webster, Jeremiah Mason, Jeremiah Smith,' Bell, Fletcher, Sullivan and Woodbury, that Mr. Bartlett won his legal honors. He was appointed clerk of the state senate in 18 17 and in 1818, in which office he was succeeded by the late Isaac Hill. He was also appointed county solicitor for Rockingham in 1819. Elected to the legislature of the state in i8ig, he sig- nalized his entry upon the political arena by his famous speech in favor of the Toleration act, in July of that year. This law, for
344
HISTORY OF
the first time, placed all religious denominations in the state upon equal grounds, taking away the legal establishment of a single sect, and making all dependent upon voluntary contributions for their support. He served three years in succession, and in 1S21 was made speaker. He was elected afterwards in 1830, 1832, and again in 1851 and 1852.
In 1823 he was elected to congress, and took his seat in De- cember of that year as a member of the eighteenth congress. He made his appearance at a time of unusual excitement, when Mr. Webster had introduced, and Mr. Clay was supporting with his characteristic impetuosity, the famous resolution in favor of the Greeks. Mr. Bartlett, considering it his duty " to stem the current of popular excitement," opposed the resolution. Mr. Clay, in replying, alluded to " the young gentleman from New- Hampshire," and offered some advice to him on the sub- ject in debate. Mr. Bartlett's retort on this occasion is remem- bered as one of the most effective off-hand speeches ever made in congress. It is certain that while it contributed materially to advance his reputation it secured for him subsequent considera- tion and respect from his great antagonist.
Mr. Bartlett was twice reelected, and continued in the house until 1829. He was distinguished as a bold and spirited debater, and several of his speeches are preserved which fully sustain his reputation as an orator. Those on the " Suppression of Piracy" in 1825, on the "Amendment of the Constitution" in 1826, on "Internal Improvement" in 1827, and on "' Retrenchment " in 1828, were widely circulated in the newspapers of the day, and were perhaps favorable specimens of his power.
When the democratic party in New Hampshire split on the rock of Jacksonism, he took his stand with Plumer, the Bells, Jacob B. Moore and others against the Jackson party under Isaac Hill, who subsequently triumphed and ruled the state. He was the candidate of the anti-Jackson party for governor in 1831 and again in 1832, when he was defeated by Samuel Dinsmoor.
In 1850 Mr. Bartlett was chosen a member of the state con- vention for the revision of the Constitution, of which he was temporary chairman, being succeeded by Frank Pierce as pres- ident of the convention. In this convention, as in the state leg- islature, upon his frequent reelections, although in the minority upon all political questions, his genius and ability were such as to elicit the admiration of his opponents, and his influence will be felt and his name long remembered as one of the most emi- nent in the history of his native state. It was, however, on the fields of his first triumphs — at the bar — that he achieved his greatest distinction, in the maturity of his powers. ' Master of all the graces of action, speech and thought, yet strong in argu-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 345
ment,' his success was brilliant and continuous, and lie re- tained his position to the end of his career.
They do not seem to have been her greatest men whom New Hampshire has most delighted to honor, but she may still point with motherly pride to the list of those who have honored her, in spite of her neglect. Among these, many names will occur to those who are at all familiar with her history, but none more worthy than that of Ichabod Bartlett."
He died at Portsmouth, where he spent most of his life, Octo- ber 19, 1853, aged 67.
Note. — The author of the above eulogy I cannot now identify.
CHAPTER C.
LEVI WOODBURY.
Mr. Woodbury was one of the most distinguished of the sons of New Hampshire. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in the class of 1809. He was a student of superior scholarship and untiring industry. At the early age of twenty-six he was appointed to the bench of the superior court of New Hampshire. He had been an ardent supporter of the war of 1812, and of course incurred the displeasure of a very powerful party who opposed it. His judicial opinions were therefore watched and criticised by vigilanj and hostile partisans, but his services as judge were generally approved by friends and foes, and his legal decisions were held in high esteem.
In 1823 he was elected governor of the state. This office he held only one year. In 1825, being chosen to represent the town of Portsmouth in the state legislature, he was made speaker of the house. During the session he was elected a senator of the United States congress, and consequently resigned the chair of -speaker. At the expiration of his senatorial term he was ap- pointed by Gen. Jackson, successively, secretary of the navy and of the treasury. He discharged the duties of all his high offices with such skill, prudence and dignity as reflected honor upon his native state. " During the intervals," says Mr. Barstow, " between the sessions of congress, he continued to practice at the bar, and moved, not without honor to himself, amid that bright constellation of la\vyers for which New Hampshire was at this period celebrated throughout the United States. Webster,
246 HISTORY OF
shire, therefore, quarried the corner stones of its poHtical and ecclesiastical structure from the mine of puritanism. Thus her origin was ennobled. The Puritans were simple in habits; plain in dress ; bold in speech ; stern in morals ; bigoted in religion ; patient in suffering ; brave in danger ; and energetic in action. But what have the clergy done for New Hampshire ? Let us in- quire what has been clone in morals, religion and education ; and whatever that is is chiefly due to them. Ministers of the gospel have been the originators and promoters of educational institutions. The common schools have been cherished, super- intended and elevated by them. Academies have been built and sustained by their fostering care. It is hardly probable that an instance can be found in the history of our state, where an institution of learning, a social library, a lyceum or a literary association has been established without the active and constant support of the clergymen of the place. Ministers have been the models in st}'le, pronunciation and delivery whom all the young lovers of oratory have imitated. The college was founded by a clergyman, and has, with a single exception, been presided over by clerg3'men. Its most active supporters have been from that profession. During the years of its sore trial, when the state attempted to seize its franchise, its chief defenders were Con- gregational clergymen. Dr. McFarland, at the risk of reputa- tion and usefulness, sometimes wrote two columns a week in de- fence of the old board and their measures. Others fought in the same battle and with similar peril. The clergyman in every town has been among the first to discover and encourage rising merit among the sons and daughters of the flock. Hundreds of young men have received a liberal education through the aid and counsel of faithful pastors, who otherwise might have remained for life " mute and inglorious " upon their native hills. Dr. Samuel Wood of Boscawen, during his long, successful ministry, fitted at his own home more than one hundred young men for college. Those who could not immediately pay one dollar a week for board and tuition he trusted ; to some indigent stu- dents he forgave their debt. Upon the subjects of morals, religion, reforms and revivals it is superfluous to speak in this connection. To recite what has been done in these respects by the ministers of all denominations would require a complete history of the moral and spiritual progress of the state from its origin. The other learned professions have been co-workers with them ; but it is not my purpose to speak of them here and now. By such agencies as I have indicated New Hampshire has risen to an honorable rank among her sister states. Her schools, academies and churches compare favorably with those of other more attractive portions of' our country.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 247
CHAPTER LXXI.
INTERNAL CONDITION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FROM 1805 TO 1815.
The political revolution which transferred the government of the state in 1805 from the federalists to the republicans produced no serious disturbance among the citizens. Party spirit had previously run so high that it could scarcely have been increased without breaking out in open violence. The majority in favor of the change was so large that the defeated party yielded gracefully to the decision of the people. Prior to this date the important offices of the state had been held by the same incum- bents for many years in succession. A kind of official aristoc- racy had grown up in the community. John Taylor Gilman had held the office of governor eleven years. Governor Langdon, his successor, was a Revolutionary patriot, and had been during a large part of his life in high official stations. Joseph Pearson had been secretary of state for nineteen years. This fact reveals the confidence of the legislature in his integrity and competency for the station. He was succeeded by Philip Carrigain. Na- thaniel Gilman was elected treasurer in place of Oliver Peabody. Hon. Simeon Olcott, one of the senators in congress, was re moved by death, and Nicholas Gilman was chosen to succeed him. He was the first republican elected to either branch of congress since the advent of the new party to power in New Hampshire. Most pi the senators and representatives from New England were still of the federal party. The legislature, after an appropriate reply to the governor's message and an ex- pression of " their utmost confidence in the virtuous and mag- nanimous administration of President Jefferson," proceeded to consider the local interests of the state. An English professor of history says that we can best ascertain the true social and political condition of any people by inquiring what are the laws, and who made them ? Let us apply this test to the present epoch. The new administration made no violent innovations. The old laws for the most part remained in force. Among the new enactments was a statute prohibiting the circulation of pri- vate notes as a medium of exchange, and another limiting all actions for the recovery of real estate to twenty years. Pre- scription by common law had for centuries been regarded as a valid title to land and hereditaments. The length of time nee-
348 HISTORY OF
for each town of the province, under penalty of ten pounds in case of failure. In 17 19 every town of fifty householders or up- wards was required to provide a schoolmaster to teach children to read and write, and every town of one hundred householders was required to have a grammar school kept by " some discreet person, of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues." The pcnalt}' in case of towns' failing to comply with the law was twenty pounds, to be paid towards tlie support of schools within the province where there may be the most need. Two years later a law was passed enacting that " if any town or parish is destitute of a grammar school for the space of one month, tbe sckcttnen shall forfeit and pay out of their own estates the sum of twenty pounds to be applied towards defraying the charges of the prov- ince". Grand jurors were especially required to present all violations of the laws in regard to the providing for schools. Besides the assessment of taxes for the maintenance of schools in the incorporation of towns, grants of land were usually made for school purposes.
At the Revolution, when New Hampshire became an indepen- dent state, there was included in the constitution then adopted a provision making it the duty of the legislators and magistrates, in all future periods of the government of the state, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries and public schools. This still remains a constitutional requisi- tion of New Hampshire. In 1789 the assessment of taxes for school purposes on the inhabitants of each town was required to be at the rate of five pounds for every twenty shillings of their proportion. Two years later the sum was increased to seven and a half pounds on every twenty shillings.
l\\ 1S05 the district system was established, towns being em- powered to divide into school districts and raise and appropriate moneys for school purposes. The effect of this system at the time was greatly to further the cause of education. By multi- plying the centres of care and control with respect to schools it Vv'idened an acquaintance with all matters pertaining to public schools and deepened the interest in them. In bringing so closely home to every man the care and maintenance of the com- mon school, the influence of the district system in educational affairs was very much what the influence of the town organiza- tion was upon the citizen in civil affairs : great benefits arising in either case from the interest and acquaintance with the mat- ters pertaining to them being made so individual and universal. For seventy years this system has answered well the purposes of its establishment. Not until of late years, as the centres of our population have changed, has it been felt that it could be super- seded by something better.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
349
In 1807 the assessment for school purposes was increased to seventy dollars on each dollar of the proportion for public taxes, and the law was repealed requiring the shire and half-shire towns to maintain a grammar school for instruction in Latin and Greek ; this instruction being left mainly to the select schools ancl academies.
In 180S the system of appointing superintending school com- mittees was established, the law requiring them to visit and in- spect schools at such times as should be most expedient and in a manner conducive to the progress of literature, morality and religion.
In 1818 the school tax was raised to ninety dollars for every one dollar of the proportion.
In 1827 a bill was introduced into the legislature so excellent and comprehensive in its provisions, that its passage by a very large majority and becoming a law marks an era in the history of common schools in the state. The spirit of the bill may be understood by its enjoining " presidents, professors ancl tutors of colleges, preceptors and teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth, to take diligent care and use their best en- deavors to impress on the minds of children and youth commit- ted to their care and instruction, the principles of piety and jus- tice, and a sacred regard to truth, love of their countr}', human- ity and benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality."
In 1829 the Literary Fund, raised by an annual tax of half of one per cent, on the capital stock of the banks of the state, and originally designed, at tlie time of its establishment in 182 1, for the "endovanent or support of a college for instruction in the higher branches of science and literature," was by law distribu- ted among the several towns according to their apportionment of the public taxes, "to be applied to the support and maintenance of common free schools, or to other purposes of education."
In 1833 an act of the legislature made it the duty of select- men to furnish, on application, to needy children the requisite school books ; a duty by subsequent legislation now devolvmg upon superintending school committees.
The following resolutions, passed by the legislature of 1834, indicate views and feelings entertained with regard to public instruction :
" Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened: That the instruction of our youth and the general diffusion of knowledge afford the surest means of perpetuating our free institutions and of securing the stability and happiness of this great republic; and that we recommend to the several towns throughout this state to cherish with guar- dian care our primary schools, and to make such liberal provisions as shall afford the greatest facilities to the attainment of knowledge in early life. _
And be it resolved, that we view our high schools, academies and semina-
350 HISTORY OF
ries of learning as powerful allies in promotion of the cause of common ed- ucation; and that, while we view it desirable that a greater proportion of our youth should be nurtured in these nurseries of science, we do hereby recommend to all such institutions to adopt, as far as possible, the "manual labor" or "self-supporting" system, uniting bodily vigor and mental improve- ment, thereby extending to the poor as well as the rich, the united advan- tages of physical and intellectual cultivation."
At the winter session of 1840-41, the amount of school money was increased to one hundred dollars on each dollar of the apportionment ; and at the same session an act was also passed allowing the grading of schools where the pupils num- bered fifty or more. Three acts of importance in their relation to the subject of education were passed in 1846 : one relating to the support of teachers' institutes ; another, of stringent pro- visions, made more effective by further legislation in 1848, secur- ing public instruction for children employed as factoiy opera- tives; and a third act establishing the office of state commis- sioner for common schools. The establishment of this office marks another era in the history of common-school education in the state. Professor Charles B. Hadduck of Dartmouth Col- lege was the first commissioner appointed under the act, whose name, efforts and influence as associated with it were of great value. His successor, the Rev. Richard S. Rust of the North- field Institute, also filled the position with honor and success.
This office, though abrogated four years after its first estab- lishment, has, under different names, virtually continued for more than a quarter of a century since. The salutariness and indispensableness of a suitable head and supervisor of our sys- tem of public instruction is likely to be permanently felt and acknowledged.
At the summer session of the legislature in 1848 an act was passed giving District No. 3 in Somersworth the power to act independently in the matter of grading and managing its schools, with particular reference to the establishment and support of a high school. This act, made of general application in its pro- visions at the winter session of the same year and further supple- mented two years later by increased powers in regard to raising moneys for a high school, has proved of much importance and value. At the same winter session of 1848 the annual assess- ment of school money was raised to one hundred and twenty dollars on the apportionment.
In 1850 the act establishing a state school commissioner was repealed, and a new act passed for the appointing of county school commissioners and organizing a board of education for the state comprised of said county commissioners. This act continued in force for seventeen years, when it was superseded by an act establishing a board of education to consist of tlie
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 35 1
governor and his council and a superintendent of public instrucn tion, appointed b}' tliem, wlio sliould be the secretaiy of the board, have in charge tlie management of the county teachers" institutes, and also, under the general direction of the board, have a wide and minute supervision of all matters relating to the interests of the common and high schools of the state.
In the winter session of 1852 and 1853 the assessment of school money was raised to one hundred and thirty-five dollars on each dollar of the apportionment, and at the next session to one hundred and fifty, the following year to one hundred and seventy-five, the next year to two hundred, twelve years later to two hundred and fifty; while the year previous an act was passed to increase the literary fund by a tax on the deposits in sav- ings banks by non-residents, and in the year following an act was passed to set apart the proceeds of the sale of state public lands as a school fund. In 1870 the assessment of school money was made three hundred and fifty dollars on the apportionment. In 1859 an act was passed establishing a board of education for the Union School District of Concord, elected by the district, and which by subsequent legislation was made available to any similar districts adopting it; an act of much value in giving efficiency and character to the supervision of graded and high schools.
In accordance with a legislative act of 1870, a State Normal School was established, and after several generous offers to se- cure its location from the villages of Fisherville, Mont Vernon, Walpole and Plymouth, it was finally located in the latter place, and put in successful operation in March, 187 1.
In 1870, also, an act was passed allowing towns to locate schools independently of the old district system, designed to supersede the latter, which, from a variety of causes, has in some places become unsuited to the changed position and wants of our population.
The state is now expending annually considerably more than four hundred thousand dollars in support of some three thou- sand schools attended by over seventy thousand children. The money thus expended is furnished by the state school tax, the literary fund, the tax on railroad stock in towns allowed to be expended for schools, the interest in some places of local funds, and in a very large number of districts by additional private subscription.
The school legislation of New Hampshire has always been simple and never excessive, but still fostering and progressive. The subject of education has been the one theme in regard to which there has been little fluctuation and no diminution or di- vision of interest from the earliest period in the history of our
3S2
HISTORY OF
State. Besides our college, with its several departments, aca- demic, medical, scientific and agricultural, which for more than a century has steadily advanced in character and influence, an honor to the state and a blessing as wide as has been the scattering of its alumni over the land and over the world, we have also had in progress at different times three or four theo- logical schools, two of which, the Gilmanton Theological Sem- inary and the Methodist Biblical Institute, were eminently use- ful. Our academies are unsurpassed in character and in number unrivaled as compared with our population, while our public schools have never fallen into neglect unless some exception be made in times like those of the French and Indian wars when society was in confusion, or during the War for Independence, when the inhabitants became greatly impoverished, while bur- dens and taxes were greatly increased. Fostered by the state, cherished by the educated and intelligent, and among these emi- nently the clergy, prized and upheld by all classes, our public schools have steadily advanced in the amount and character of the instruction given in them, in the adaptation of their grades to different ages and acquirements, in the architecture of school edifices and in the furnishing of the school room ; while, at the same time, greater pains have been taken to deepen the interest of the community in them, as well as aid teachers in their qual- ifications by teachers' associations, teachers' institutes, public lectures, and finally by the establishment of our State Normal School.
CHAPTER CII.
THE ACADEMICAL INSTITUTIONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. KY PROF. H. E. PARKER.
In common with the other settlers of New England, the people of New Hampshire from the first placed a high estimate upon edu- cation. Knowing that in a free state, where the people govern, it is indispensable that they be virtuous and intelligent, the devel- oping of such a population has never been lost sight of. Hence the laws have carefully looked after the instruction of the young, that not a child might grow up in ignorance either of its moral duties or of those branches of knowledge which should fit it for successful citizenship. There has also been a desire not only to
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 353
secure universal instruction in common and rudimentary branches, but to encourage a higher education and furnish facihties for all who wished to gain it ; indeed, to stimulate as many as possible to seek for it. The first law in regard to common schools en- acted in the state after the Revolution required not only the rais- ing of moneys in every town " to be expended for the sole pur- pose of keeping an English grammar school or schools, for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, but in each shire or half-shire town the school kept shall be a grammar school for the purpose of teaching the Latin and Greek languages, as well as the aforesaid branches." Although, sixteen years later, this last provision was repealed, yet the spirit which originally led to its enactment led subsequently to the founding of academies in various parts of the state. The means requisite for the erection of suitable buildings for these institutions and often for partial endowment were the result, frequently, of the munificence of some single individual, sometimes of a few, and again by the contributions generally of the citizens of a place.
These academies have gradually dotted over the surface of the state. In many a place they stand side by side with the village church, the chief architectural ornaments of the town ; and as the Sabbath bell from the latter has convened within the sanctuary walls the Sabbath worshipers from brook-side and hill-side far and near, so the academy bell on the week day has just as widely from the same firesides gathered the youth for secular instruction, the latter, however, daily introduced by morn- ing religious services, and often concluded by similar evening devotions. These academies have aimed to give superior ad- vantages of education. They have instructed the youth of both sexes in the commsm and higher branches of a good English education, they have fitted young men for college, and prepared teachers for our common schools. The influence of these in- stitutions has been very great and excellent, contributing so largely, as they have, towards elevating the standard of intelli- gence and of character among the young people of the state.
The first academy established in New Hampshire was that of Phillips Academy at Exeter, chartered by the state two years be- fore the Revolutionary war, and opened for students the same year with the close of that struggle. Its founder, John Phillips, LL. D., a graduate of distinction from Harvard University, be- sides large gifts to the colleges of Dartmouth and Princeton, and also to the academy of the same name at Andover, Mass., gave to the academy at Exeter over sixtj'-five thousand dollars, a noble endowment for such an institution at that day. This academy in its long career of unvarying distinction and success as a classical school, and now for some time devoting itself solely
23
354 HISTORY OF
to fitting young men for college, has been without a superior in our countr)' in the sphere it has sought to fill. It has furnished its advantages to some four thousand students, towards one half of whom have entered college, and among these have been some who have won positions among the most eminent of the land, in scholarship, literature and statesmanship, in the pulpit, at the bar and on the bench.
Five years later the academy of New Ipswich was chartered, " for the purpose," in the words of the charter, " of promoting piety and virtue, and for the education of youth in the English, Latin and Greek languages, in writing, arithmetic, music and the art of speaking, practical geometr)', logic, geography, and such other of the liberal arts and sciences or languages as opportunity may hereafter permit." Such language, as well as the preamble of the charter — "whereas the education of youth has ever been considered by the wise and good as an object of the highest consequence to the safety and happiness of a people, as at an early period of life the mind easily receives and retains impres- sions, and is most susceptible of the rudiments of useful knowl- edge,"— together with the concluding provision of the charter exempting all the properties of the academy from taxation and its students from a poll tax, a favor granted by the state to other similar institutions, indicate the spirit with which such charters were given. This institution, whose naine was changed subse- quently to Appleton Academy, honored in its list of instructors and graduates, still maintains its high position.
Five other academies were chartered by the state prior to the close of the last century, at Atkinson, Amherst, Chesterfield, Haverhill and Gilmanton, the first and last of which, aided by endowments, have continued in useful operation to the present time. Since 1800 some fifty additional academies have been established, some of which have risen to a position of promi- nence and distinction.
The history of Kimball Union Academy at Meriden has been of no ordinaiy interest. The conception of it originated with a young clergyman in a neighboring town, who had enjoyed the advantages of foreign travel and, having been greatly impressed •with the character of the English classical schools, was led to the desire of seeing a similar institution established in his neigh- borhood, that should not only maintain a high standard of in- struction but assist young men to the gospel ministry. The idea was adopted by other clergymen, and at an ecclesiastical convention comprised of two neighboring ministerial associa- tions, one from Vermont and the other from Xew Hampshire, it was decided to go forward and found the contemplated institu- tion. At a subsequent meeting of this convention it was de-
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
355
cided to call an ecclesiastical council to inaugurate the matter. This council was convened at Windsor, Vt., and was comprised of delegates from the General Associations of Connecticut, Mas- sachusetts and New Hampshire, and from the General Con- vention of Vermont. Among these delegates were President Dwight of Yale College, Professors Porter, Woods and Stuart of Andover Theological Seminary, and three of the professors of Dartmouth College. The convention, having been opened with religious services and a discourse by President Dwight, pro- ceeded with care and deliberation to prepare a constitution for the contemplated academy, the provisions of which were in the main, two years later, included in the charter given by the legis- lature of New Hampshire in 1813. The academy was located at Meriden in this state as a result of a donation at that time of six thousand dollars by the Hon. Daniel Kimball of Meriden, who also at his decease left by bequest to the institution the principal part of his estate. The academy very appropriately took the name of its earliest principal donor. Commencing operations in 18 15, for a quarter of a century its advantages were enjoyed by young men only, but in 1840 the institution was opened to the admission of young ladies as students also. Founded upon a basis of veiy high educational and religious aims, prosperous from the first, with an attendance of late years averaging between two and three hundred annually, it has as- sumed a front rank among the best similar institutions of the land, and its influence has been vast and good.
Pinkerton Academy at Derry, incorporated a year later than Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, went into operation the same year with the latter and has similarly had an honorable, useful career maintjiined to the present time. It also derived its name from its two earliest generous donors, the brothers Major John Pinkerton and Deacon James Pinkerton of Derrj'.
Several of the prominent academies of the state have been especially fostered by distinctive religious denominations. Such is the "New Hampton Literary Institution," especially sustained by the Freewill Baptist denomination, whose site and buildings were originally and mainly obtained through the munificence of a liberal resident of that town, Rufus G. Lewis, Esq. Such is the very flourishing '-New London Literary and Scientific Institu- tion," generously cherished by the Baptists and without a rival among the schools patronized by that denomination. Such is the " New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female Col- lege" at Tilton, an honor to the Methodist denomination. Such also is "St. Paul's School" for boys, the attractive Episcopal in- stitution at Millville, Concord, incorporated by the legislature in 1850, and greatly indebted for its foundation to the generos-
3S6 HISTORY OF
ity of Dr. George C. Shattuck of Boston. This has now for years justly been a favorite school with Episcopalians, beyond, perhaps, any other which they support.
Most honorable mention is also merited for such institutions as Francestown Academy, established in 1818 ; Blanchard Acad- em\-, Pembroke, incorporated the same year ; Hopkinton Acad- emy, incorporated in 1827 ; Boscawen Academy, incorporated in 1828 ; Nashua Literary Institution, incorporated in 1841 ; and Penacook Academy at Fisherville, incorporated in 1866. Others might justly be added to this list. All these academical institu- tions, with perhaps two exceptions, are open to students of both sexes, while the state has some similar institutions of a high character devoted entirely to the instruction of j'oung ladies. Such is the "Adams Female School " at Derry, of veiy honora- ble history in its teachers and graduates. Such is the large, flourishing, and beautifully situated institution at West Lebanon, "Tilden Young Ladies' Seminary," incorporated in i86g, and bearmg the name of the gentleman through whose liberal gifts its buildings were erected. Such is the Robinson Female Sem- inary at Exeter, bearing the name of the gentleman through whose munificent bequest, larger than any other literary insti- tution in the state ever received at its foundation, it was estab- lished. Such also was the young ladies' seminary maintained and taught by Miss Catherine Fisk of Keene, which for a quar- ter of a century was of the highest reputation.
These numerous academical institutions of the state, estab- lished with high religious as well as educational aims, and ever conducted in accordance with the spirit and purpose of their foundation, many of them occupying sites so remarkable in their commanding prospect and beauties of surrounding scenery as to be an education in themselves, these academical institutions, now largely supplemented and worthily rivaled by the high schools established in all the cities and large towns of our state, together with the normal school more recently established, are the pride and almost chief honor of New Hampshire.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 357
CHAPTER CIIL
AGRICULTURE.
Agriculture is the oldest of all arts, the parent of all civiliza- tion and the support of all true progress. The Creator ordained it as the chief occupation of man. He placed the first human pair in the garden " to dress it and to keep it." If they had been content with their "lot," material and spiritual, and had kept their first "estate," real and moral, horticulture would have been the principal employment of their descendants. But a restless love of change and an unfortunate emigration from his primitive home have rendered our great progenitor in these par- ticulars the federal representative of his race ; specially of the universal " Yankee nation." A stale jest, falsely imputed to a son of the Granite State who never uttered it, has passed into a proverb, that " New Hampshire is a good state to emigrate from." It may be true that other states are benefited by such emi- gration, for
"Men are the erowlh our rugged soil supplies And souls are npened in these Northern skies."*
But it is my purpose to demonstrate, "here and now," that New Hampshire is a good state to live in ; and, paradoxical as it may seem, for those very reasons which are so often urged to induce men to. leave it. The climate, scenery, fertility and salubrity of our state will bear a favorable comparison with those of other countries ; for every region of the globe has its discomforts and deprivations. There is no Eden since the first compulsory emi- gration, and the compensations which a kind Providence has set over against the natural defects of our native state render it one of the best homes for the farmer in the world.
New Hampshire needs no apologies ; she asks no favors. True she has some rough and rocky acres which it is hard to own and harder to till ; but she also has sheltered vales, sunny hills and rich plains that amply reward the labors of the hus- bandman. The sun nowhere on earth looks down on more at- tractive landscapes than the valleys of our numerous rivers pre- sent, either when nature has put on her summer glories or when the fields wave with the golden harvests. Look at the crops that honest industry secures. In the monthly report of the
•Thoughts are sometimes repeated, because the author wished to make each chapter a com- plete dissertation.
358 HISTORY OF
United States Department of Agriculture for January, 1869, New Hampshire leads all the states in her average crop of Ind- ian corn. It is set down at forty bushels and eight-tenths per acre, at an average price of one dollar and forty-three cents per bushel. Vermont stands next, averaging thirty-eight and one-half bushels to the acre. We have often been assured that the soil of our new states was inexhaustible ; that all that was needed from the farmer was " to tickle the soil with the plow, and it would laugh with a harvest." Yet Illinois, the richest state in agricul- tural products in the Union, produces less maize and wheat to the acre than New Hampshire, and the average price of both those staples is less than one-half what it is in the Granite State.
California has turned from mining to agriculture, a very wise change. She is fast becoming the best wheat-raising state in the Union. Minnesota and Kansas stand on a par with her, yielding, on an average, fifteen bushels to the acre, but Vermont reports sixteen and stands at the head of the list. Some of the Western states fall as low as five, six and eight bushels of wheat to the acre. The richest soil badly cultivated soon runs out. Good crops require hard labor, and in a few years, if the ele- ments that are taken from the surface in annual crops are not restored, the best land will become exhausted.
Barrenness is the fruit of slovenly culture everj'where. "Old Virginy never tires " says the negro song, but her soil was worn out before the war. It was said to be the tobacco crop that ruined it. Now it seems, when Yankee iudustry holds the plow, and Yankee prudence enriches the decayed acres, that the very desert begins to bud and blossom as the rose. Virginia calls for the sons of New Hampshire to regenerate that ruined state. But New Hampshire needs her own sons at home. Why leave our schools, churches and cultivated society here to dwell in a mixed population, hateful and hating one another, and cultivate a soil exhausted by bad husbandry and desolated by war, and work harder and earn less than you would on the old home- steads ? If you go to a new state you must create all your good institutions anew. It will require the labor of a life-time to se- cure as many comforts as you turn your back upon at home.
In 1859, before the war, corn was not w'orth harvesting in some of the Western states. It commanded only ten cents per bushel, and one bushel of corn made two gallons of whiskey ! What a paradise was the West then to those ardent advocates of the largest liberty in domestic trade, and who now complain that heavy duties are a severer restraint on self-indulgence than the Maine law and the Gospel united.
The war elevated a great many things besides brave men ; it increased the estimation of a great many worthless things be-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 359
sides political demagogues. It enriched the West, by raising the price of corn, for a few years, from ten cents to one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel ; and the price of whiskey from thirteen cents to four or five dollars per gallon. But a reaction has come ; and values have fallen. " Thus, the whirligig of time brings in his revenges." Surely the world does move ; and multitudes of our New England farmers move West, with the delusive hope of bettering their condition. Imagine a colony of men and women reared under the shadow of our lofty moun- tains, dropped down in the midst of an almost limitless prairie, in whose horizon the sun rises and sets, as in the ocean ; with not a mound, hill, stone or tree to give variety to the landscape. After gazing upon this monotonous picture for a few years, how ardently does the most unbelieving sceptic pra)' for faith to re- move one of our New Hampshire mountains into this dead sea of verdure ! On his return to his native land, how does his heart leap with joy at the bare sight of a New England land- scape ! Surely, " variety is the spice of life."
New Hampshire is a good state to stay in, because men live long and grow old in it. Its bracing air promotes longevity. Dr. Belknap, in his history of the first settlers of New Hampshire says : " In that part of America which it falls to my lot to de- scribe, an uncleared and uncultivated soil is so far from being an object of dread that there are no people more vigorous and robust than those who labor on new plantations ; nor, in fact, have any people better appetites for food. A very large propor- tion of the people of New Hampshire live to old age ; and many of them die of no acute disease, but by the gradual decay of nature. The death of adult persons between twenty and fifty years of age is very rare compared with European countries." " When no epidemic prevails not more than one in seventy of the people of New Hampshire die annually." It must be re- membered that this was written before the advent of Venetian blinds, damask curtains, double windows, India rubber strips, air-tight stoves and woolen carpets. Houses were heated by open fires which changed the air everj' hour. Men were accus- tomed to the healthy stimulus of pure air, bright sun-light and moderate fires within doors ; and without furs, flannels or over- shoes they became inured in their daily toils to the effects of pinching frosts and driving snows, so that they were not debilita- ted at home by excessive heat nor chilled abroad by excessive cold.
Fifty years ago farmers in New Hampshire raised the food for their families, and the wool and flax to clothe them, from their own soil. They had little money ; their trade was chiefly by barter, exchanging wlieat, maize and oats, for salt, iron and mo- lasses. After the introduction of manufactures and railroads,
;^Go HISTORY OF
the rural population, like the rivers, gravitated toward the cities ; or, like the clouds, vi^as dispersed over the boundless West. The agriculture of the state has suffered greatly from this depletion ; but better days are coming. We argue thus because all the best lands this side the Rocky mountains are already occupied by actual settlers or owned by railroads and speculators. We are also assured by the United States surveyors, that there is a broad belt of land beyond the one hundredth meridian of longitude, twelve hundred miles in length, e.xtending from Texas to the British Possessions, and varying in breadth from three to six hundred miles, which is unfit for cultivation. General Hazen affirms that not one acre in a hundred of that vast territory can ever be successfully tilled. The average rainfall of only ten inches per annum sets the seal of perpetual desolation upon this great desert. Irrigation, as in Utah, cannot remedy its bar- renness, because the adjacent mountains do not furnish a supply of water. If Sahara, with its sands, were in the same place, it would not prove a more effectual barrier to emigration and agri- culture. We may therefore anticipate, before the advent of another generation, a refluent tide of emigrants to the old home- steads of New Hampshire. The war of Western farmers upon the railroads confirms this opinion. If three fourths of the value of com in the Eastern markets are consumed in freight, the producers will prefer to raise the crops, even at an increased expense, in the regions where they are consumed. Good farms and comfortable dwellings, now unoccupied, await the returning prodigals ; for the seventy-eight thousand farmers of 1S40 have diminished to forty-six thousand five hundred and seventy-three in 1870, though nearly twenty-four thousand were added to the population during the same period.
New England has been justly styled the "brain" of the coun- try. The enterprise that has formed states, churches, schools and colleges in the West, the energy that has transformed deserts into cultivated fields, reared cities and bound the continent to- gether by iron rails, originated among the bleak hills of the northeastern portion of the continent.
New Hampshire has contributed its full share both of brawn and brain to these magnificent results. Though her staff of la- borers has been diminished by the repeated conscriptions of new states, yet, during the thirty years preceding the Rebellion the wealth of the state was doubled. Every man had a competency and pauperism was almost unknown. Notwithstanding the heavy burdens which the war has imposed upon the productive in- dustry of the state, the people are still prosperous and happy. Nearly two thousand years ago Roman agriculture had declined. Augustus felt the insecurity of his throne without a thrifty rural
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 361
population to support it. He stimulated agriculture by lega- enactment, and invited Virgil to sing its pleasures and its prof, its. The poet wrote his Georgics and kindled new enthusiasm among all the wealthy farmers. His closing words are appro- priate to us :
"Oh happy if he knew his happy state, The man who, free from business and debate, Receives his easy food from Nature's hand And just returns of cultivated land."
More than forty years ago DeTocqueville visited this country. He scanned our institutions with the eye of a philosopher. His report was more candid and commendatory than that of any other foreigner who has written concerning us. He was hope- ful of the United States chiefly because of the general distribu- tion of real estate among the inhabitants. " Every man," says he "has a stake in the hedge." Almost every voter is a land- owner. This is peculiarly true with reference to New Hamp- shire, in which there are probably more owners of real estate than in the whole of England. There the estates of earls or dukes are larger than our counties. The nobles own the soil ; the peasants till it. When the country is in peril the millions have little patriotism ; for they have little to lose and nothing to gain. Shelley in his ode to the men of England says :
"The seeds ye sow another reaps; Tlie weahh ye find anotller keeps ; The robes ye weave another wears ; The arms ye forge another bears."
With us the land-owners are the sovereigns. They love their homes, whether on the hill or in the vale, and are ever ready at their country's call to defend them. The patriot loves his home, however "cribbed, cabined and confined" he may find his quar- ters, for f
"The smoke ascends To Heaven as lightly from the cottage hearth As from the haughty palace."
Our safety and prosperity depend upon this devotion to our native soil. With contentment and industry, our farms will sup- ply every reasonable want. An improved agriculture will en- large our manufactures and commerce. "A threefold cord is not easily broken.'' But if we intend to live in New Hampshire and board at the West, we may at some unexpected crisis find our supplies cut off. A single short crop in the new states would bring gaunt famine to our doors. A combination of spec- ulators may, at any time, raise the price of flour beyond the means of the poor. The railroad kings can, at their pleasure, produce the same result, by e.xorbitant freights. But the New Hampshire farmer who raises the wheat and corn that supply his table, who feeds his own domestic animals, "drives his own
362 HISTORY OF
team afield," rides in his own carriage, reads his own books, supports his own church and school, and represents his own town, is independent of them all. No rich broker can lock up his gold ; no speculator can withhold his supplies ; no railroad king can dole out his rations ; no aristocratic millionaire can take his children's bread and cast it to dogs ; no scheming politician can command his vote. He is every inch a man, "in body, mind and estate." Let us thank God that we have "a goodly heritage," where, with honest toil and contented minds, we may be healthful, hopeful, happy and prosperous. Truly New Hampshire is a good state to live in.
CHAPTER CIV.
THE COMMERCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The first settlers of New Hampshire came to trade, mine, fish and plant ; but commerce took precedence of agriculture. Ships were essential to the existence of the first settlers. Their pro- visions were imported in them ; the products of their industry and trade were exported in them. For the first hundred years of the existence of the state, many large fortunes were acquired by merchandise. The provincial governors and the early aris- tocracy were merchants. Portsmouth, the chief maritime town in the state, was for nearly a century the seat of government and the centre of influence. From 1775 to 1807, the legislature was itinerant, meeting at Portsmouth, Exeter, Concord and Hop- kintoii, as it was deemed most convenient to the members. One session was held in each of the following towns — Dover, Amherst, Charlestown and Hanover. Since 1807, Concord has by general consent been regarded as the seat of government. Portsmouth, being the chief political and commercial town in the state, gave tone to society and direction to legislation. The earliest exports from the state consisted of fish, lumber, turpentine, peltry, sas- safras, provisions and live stock. From the beginning of the present century to 1807, the annual imports of Portsmouth amounted to about $800,000 ; its exports during the same time averaged nearly $700,000 per annum. The encroachments of France and England upon American commerce and the embargo and non-intercourse acts of our own country nearly ruined the trade of Portsmouth. Besides a small coasting business, the
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
3^3
West Indies and Great Britain engrossed most of the commerce of New Hampshire.
Ship-building also occupied a large number of men dwelling on the banks of the Piscataqua ; but the din of war drowned the " hum of business " and mechanics left the dock for the deck and manned rather than built ships. Portsmouth has never recovered her commercial prosperity. Her imports, in 182 1, amounted to $333,986; in 1834, $117,932; in 1840, §115,678; in 1850, $19,998 ; in i860, $16,920, which was scarcely more than one fiftieth of its imports in 1807. Her e-xports have been far less than her imports. Mr. Brewster in his " Rambles about Portsmouth," says :
"At the present day we do not see the busy wharves, the fleets of West Indiamen, the great piles of bags of coffee, and the acres of hogsheads of molasses which we used to see ; nor do we see Water street crowded with sailors, and the piles of lum- ber and cases of fish going on board the West Indiamen for uses in the tropics. But if that day is gone by, we have other occupations, and the old town seems as bright and handsome as ever."
The following description of the commerce of Portsmouth at the present day, is from the pen of a distinguished gentleman of that city, to whom I am indebted for other valuable suggestions :
" I find from the custom-house books, that the direct duties from imports into this port were for 1869, $15,133.06; 1870, $27,498.50; 1871, $46,635.71 ; 1872, $12,721.60; 1873, $7,754.- 47 ; 1874, $5,671.95. In the two latter years almost all of this was from coal ; a cargo of iron is a rara avis indeed, and one cargo of salt yearly would be a full average. The fishery is the only maritime business which can be said to flourish here, unless the very large amoutits of coal from Pennsylvania for distribu- tion by rail to the interior can be called such."
Following is a statement of duties received at the port of Portsmouth, from 1840 to 1870, inclusive, from the records of the Custom House :
|
1840. . |
■ 53,056 |
1846. |
q,qS6 |
1S51. |
■9.197 |
1856. . |
■0,37s |
1861. |
5,326 |
.865. |
5,415 |
|
1841 - |
. 40,702 |
iS47- |
8,749 |
1852.. |
25.230 |
1857. |
8,216 |
.862. |
10,625 |
.S67.. |
8,361 |
|
.842. . |
1848- |
16,563 |
1853.. |
.0,842 |
1858. |
4,640 |
.863. |
4.805 |
.868.. |
■ 2,464 |
|
|
1843.. |
• ■5>757 |
1849- |
26,862 |
1854- ■ |
■3,027 |
1859. |
5.65. |
.864. |
5.365 |
1869. . |
12,498 |
|
.844. . |
• "61932 |
1S50. |
15,198 |
1855. |
12,426 |
i860. |
3,132 |
.86,. |
3. .87 |
.870. . |
27,49s |
|
.845. ■ |
• 8.373 |
Note.— Dr. Dwight, in his Travels, gives the following schedule of duties on imported goods from 1801 to .S.o: .80., J. 65,614; 1S02, $.54,087; 1804, $2.0,4.0; 1806, $222,596; .808, $5. ,231; 1810, $61,464.
364 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER CV.
THE PRESS.
In the ancient republics, the actor and orator enlightened the citizens on all matters pertaining to politics and morals. Libra- ries were few and small. Among private citizens only the wealthy and learned owned manuscripts. Hence Dr. Johnson, in his dogmatic style, said to Sir Adam Ferguson, "Sir, the boasted Athenians were barbarians. The masses of every people must be barbarians where there is no printing." In more recent times, Wendell Phillips describes the power of the press in still more exaggerated language. He says :
" It is a momentous truth that the millions have no literature, no school, and almost no pulpiti but the press. Not one in ten reads books; but every one of us, except the very few helpless poor, poisons himself every day with a newspaper. It is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, coun- selor, all in one. Every drop of our blood is colored by it. Let me make the newspapers, and I care not who makes the religion or the laws."
Prior to the Revolutionary war, less than a score of news- papers were published in the United States. They had been in existence only two centuries in England, and had not then be- come the fourth estate in the realm. The press was still under censorship, and papers were suppressed and their publishers im- prisoned for criticising public men and measures. During the reign of George IV., Leigh Hunt was imprisoned a year for printing something derogatory to the character of "the first gen- tleman in Europe," as that heartless libertine was styled by his admirers. In 1776, the entire issues of the newspaper presses in America would not probably equal the circulation of some of our city dailies. The papers of that day contained little original matter. An editor was not necessarily a writer of leaders, giv- ing tone and direction to public opinion, but a mere compiler of readable articles from books, or the editor and critic of commu- nications furnished by contributors. The movements of Euro- pean monarchs and generals were chronicled with scrupulous fidelity. The great tides of public opinion abroad were sup- posed to determine the slight ripples that washed the American shores. The speeches of English and French orators were often reprinted in full.
As early as 1756 Daniel Fowle established a weekly paper in Portsmouth, called the New Hampshire Gazette. It is said
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 365
that he had suffered imprisonment in Massachusetts for his fear- less criticism of the official acts of the colonial government. Those Puritan magnates did not allow their decrees to be ques- tioned. The Gazette was a small sheet filled with the latest news from England, with a few local paragraphs. Colonial top- ics were sometimes introduced ; and during the Indian wars, the sufferings of the frontier towns were faithfully chronicled. At the present day we look with wonder upon the frequent advertise- ments of fugitive slaves. It seems that the colored man was less contented under Puritan than under Southern masters. Slaveiy was abolished in New Hampshire in 1784; then apprentices be- came estrays. Mr. Fowle printed the Gazette for thirty years. Its circulation, while he owned it, never exceeded five hundred copies. This first child of the American press* in our state, this first heir of Mr. Fowle's invention, still exists in the form of a double sheet, rich in materials and widely circulated.
After the close of the Revolutionary war papers were pub- lished in several of the leading towns of the state, but they soon failed for want of patronage. The people were too illiterate to prize good reading and too poor to purchase it. In 1790, George Hough issued the Concord Herald. It was a small sheet containing a few well selected articles and some local news. It lacked editorial ability and never became a power in the state. After the beginning of the nineteenth centur}', when the people had become more intelligent and prosperous, the political press assumed greater importance and exerted a broader influence. In 1809, Isaac Hill purchased the New Hampshire Patriot, which had been published for si.x months by William Hoitt. Mr. Hill introduced a new era in journalism. He was bold and defiant, a man of decided opinions, advocating them with uncommon ability and rather provoking than shunning opposition. He became the champion of the democratic party and the uncom- promising foe of the federalists. During the second war with England party spirit became almost ferocious and party feuds irreconcilable. Since that day the utterances of the press have been more pointed, personal and incisive. The men of to-day are not satisfied with calm, dignified essays, such as in the last century appeared over the names of Junius, Brutus and Cato in New Hampshire papers. A competent critic thus characterizes the productions of the two periods :
" Turning over the old files of the Portsmouth Gazette, Keene Sentinel and
*The first press in Cambridge was set up in 1638. The first thing printed was the Free- man's Oath; the second an almanac, and in 1640 the Bay Psalm Book. The first press in Pennsylvania was established in 1656, four years after Penn's arriv.il. Presses appeared in the following order: in New York, 1693; at New London. Conn., 1700; at Newport, R. I., 1714 ; at Annapolis, Delaware, 172(1 ; at Charleston, S. C, in 1730; at Newbern, N. C, 1757 ; at Savannah, Lia., 1762 ; in Maine in 1730. At the time of the Revnlutiun there were about forty presses in the United States.
366 HISTORY OF
Amherst Cabinet, you look in vain for the fierce invective, stinging person- ality, the tart reply and the dexterous argument of more recent journalism. Yet the press of sixty years ago was the product and reflection of its own times. It gave way to the hardier and more versatile journals as untutored labor yields to scientific skill. It left an unblemished name. It had hurt no man's feelings; it had injured no man's reputation. Like the good Athenian it might claim for its epitaph, that no citizen had worn mourning on its ac' count. Pleasant be its memory ! "
About fifty public journals are now published in New Hamp- shire. The wide-spread demand for information has called in the aid of science and invention to facilitate the art of printing. The presses used a century ago would now be a burden to the owner. The Columbian press, invented by George Clymer of Philadelphia, in 18 18, was in its day an exceedingly valuable aid to printers. More recently the powerful cylinder presses con- structed by Richard M. Hoe of New York enable publishers to multiply books and papers as fast as the reading public demand them. "By the cylinder press, worked by steam, in connection ■with the stereotype process, as many as forty thousand impres- sions of a newspaper can be taken in an hour."
CHAPTER CVI.
Political economists find it a very difficult portion of their work to define such terms as Wealth, Value, Currency, Money, Credit and Capital. Whole volumes have been written on these words alone. Adam Smith's definition of wealth, as "the pro- duce of land and labor," is now repudiated ; for land itself is wealth. In the city of London, an acre of land varies in value from fifty thousand to ten millions of dollars, exclusive of build- ings. In the midland counties of England an oak, the natural growth of the soil, is sometimes worth three hundred dollars upon the stump. More recent authors, therefore, return to the oldest definition of wealth on record, as given by Aristotle. He says : "And we call wealth everything whose value is measured by money." The criterion of wealth is exchangeability. Any- thing material or immaterial has value which can be bought and sold. Coined money alone has a permanent value, because it is exchangeable among all persons, at all times and in all places in the same countrj-. "Gold and silver," says Burke, "represent the lasting conventional credit of mankind." Credit, in the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 367
form of debts due from indi\'iduals or corporations, has a com- mercial value, owing to the confidence or belief which business men entertain that the instruments of credit, notes and bills, may be exchanged for money or commodities. Paper money rests on the same basis ; with loss of confidence comes depreci- ation. "Credit," says Mr. Webster, is to money what money is to commodities ;" consequently credit is capital. Mr. Macleod says : "A banker is a trader who buys money, or money and debts, by creating other debts;" and "banks are shops" where bankers do their business.
It has been the prevailing belief for centuries, that the word bank is derived from the Italian banco, a bench or table, because the Italian money dealers kept their money piled on benches or tables in the sight of customers ; and that a bankrupt was one whose bench was broken ("banco rotto") and the owner e.xpelied from the fraternity. A very different etymology is now current. Muratori says that the Italian banca or banco is of Gothic origin. It comes from "banck," a heap or mound. This was metaphori- cally applied to a common fund formed by the contributions of e company. A bank, then, is literally "a pile of money." The Venetians called the forced loan made by the government to pay the public debt in 1171, a "Banco" or "Monte." The latter word is from the Latin " mons" a mountain. Writers in the 17th century use the "mons" for bank, as "Mons Negotionis," a bank of trade. The first bankers in Venice were two Jews, who obtained leave of the senate to deal in securities and a. d. 1400. The Bank of Venice dates only from 1587.
Mr. Macleod in his "Theory and Practice of Banking," says : "The business which is technically called banking seems to have been invented by tlje Romans. It is true that there were abund- ance of money dealers at Athens and other places, but their business seems, as far as we can discover, to have been more analogous to that of those persons we call money scriveners and bill-discounters than of those whom we call bankers." "The in- vention of bank notes is due to the Chinese, a. d. 807." The same author says that "banking, in the modern sense of that word, had no e.\istence in England before the year 1640." Prior to that date, goldsmiths bought and sold promissory notes and bills of exchange on their own credit, doing business sometimes many fold greater than the value of their assets or capital.
Mr. Hamilton, in report on the expediency of establishing a national bank, gives the American theory of banking as fol- lows : "The following are among the principal advantages of a bank : First, the augmetitation of the active or productive capi- tal of a country. * * * It is a well-established fact that banks in good credit can circulate a far greater sum than
368 HISTORY OF
the actual quantum of their capital in gold and silver. * * This faculty is produced in various ways : ist, A great portion of the notes whicli are issued and pass current as cash are in- definitely suspended in circulation from the confidence which each holder has that he can at any moment turn them into gold and silver. 2d, Every loan which a bank makes is, in its first shape, a credit given to the borrower on its books, the amount of which it stands ready to pay, either in its own notes, or gold, or silver, at his option. But in a great number of cases no actual payment is made in either. * * * The same circumstances illustrate the truth of the position, that it is one of the proper- ties of banks to increase the active capital of a country. * * * This additional employment given to money, and the faculty of a bank to lend and circulate a greater sum than the amount in coin, are, to all the purposes of trade and industr}', an absolute increase of capital. Purchases and undertakings in general can be carried on by any given sum of bank paper as effectually as by an equal sum of gold and silver, and thus, by contributing to efilarge the mass of industrious and commercial enterprises, banks become nurseries of national wealth, a consequence as sat- isfactorily verified by e.xperience as it is clearly deducible in theory."'
The first bank in New Hampshire was established at Ports- mouth, in 1792, when the population of the state was estimated at one hundred and fifty-three thousand, four hundred and twenty-si.x. Its capital was one hundred and sixty thousand dol- lars. This sum was deemed adequate to the pecuniary demands of that age.
In 1863, with double the population of 1792, New Hampshire had fifty-two banks with an aggregate capital of $4,678,700 ; loans amounting to $8,742,668 and a circulation in bills of $4,- 192,434. The fictitious value of the bank credit of that day was nearly three times as great as the entire capital of all the banks. The business transactions in 1863, must have been a hundred fold greater than in 1792, with one half as many people.
In 1874 there were forty-three national banks in New Hamp- shire, with an aggregate capital of $5,315,000, w-ith si.xty-eight "savings banks," holding from 96,938 depositors, $30,214,585. These deposits alone, apart from the national banks, represent a business capital twenty times as large as the entire loans and bills of the banks fifty years ago.
What is the office of a Bank .'
The above question was proposed to Hon. George B. Chandler, Cashier of the Amoskeag National Bank of Manchester ; and he returned the following answer :
"A bank is the agent through which balances in trade or com-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 369
luerce are adjusted between one individual and another, one community and another or one country and another. In the early periods of the world, trade or commerce was carried on only upon the exchange or barter plan, one tribe or community parting with their superabundance, to receive their needs from the superabundance of a neighboring tribe or community', and any balance due was usually paid by giving from the flocks or herds of the fields. As people multiplied upon the face of the earth, this mode of conducting trade became too cumbersome ; so, after the discovery of the precious metals and stones and placing a value upon them, instead of paying a given number of sheep or oxen, a certain amount of gold, silver or precious stones was used ; therefore the merchant was required to have grains or pieces of gold or silver about him, which, by the aid of balances or scales he paid to his creditor in satisfaction of demands against him.
The population and commerce of the world were so limited, that down to the time of Christ but little advance had been made upon this mode of effecting exchanges or paying balances, except that an impress had been put upon pieces of gold and silver, and a value — other than by weight — had been fixed upon each piece, so that instead of giving a certain weight, people could compute and pay a given sum or value in the same way it can be done to-day. In a preceding page you state that ' banks in the modern sense did not exist in England until 1640.' Up to about that time business had principally been done by transport- ing vast sums of gold and silver from one community or coun- try to another, and that people were considered most wealthy to whom gold was constantly being carried. But with the es- tablishment of the bank, a change was wrought in the manner of doing business, which has been constantly developing until the banking system of to-day stands forth a representative of wealth, enterprise, prosperity and success, and, is it too much to say, of the happiness of the people.
' What is the office of the bank ' of to-day ?
ist. To concentrate capital in sufficient amounts to give the public confidence in its issues of paper, whether in the form of circulating notes or drafts of exchange. Under the existing national bank system, the community receives, and justly too (as each bank note has a deposit of government bonds behind it), the national bank note as the representative in value of the amount expressed upon its face. That the drafts of exchange issued by any well managed bank are good beyond a reasonable doubt is also true, as the entire capital of a bank must be lost before a loss can occur upon a bill of exchange drawn by it. In these days and in this country very few people realize the
370 HISTORY OF
amount of business transacted — balances paid — by means of these 'Bank Drafts' or 'Bills of Exchange.'
2d. By having a concentrated capital it thereby guarantees to the business public in the midst of which it is located a safe place of deposit for their ready funds, and furnishes an agency whereon it may draw its checks and thus, again, do business through another form of paper — the depositor's check upon his bank.
3d. By having a capital and deposit it is enabled to assist those who may at times wish to become borrowers, and, in cities where a bank has a prosperous and well-managed business with large deposits, it is not unusual to find one-half or two-thirds of its deposits represented by 'notes' or 'bills receivable' and still the bank has no trouble (except in times of panic) in paying all demands made by depositors.
Perhaps an illustration of the practical workings of a bank may serve to show that the great motive powers which enable this age to stand in bold relief above and in advance of all oth- ers are but few, and while the printing-press, railroad, steam- ship telegraph and postal system are constantly elevating, enlarg- ing, educating and encouraging our people, the 'banks' hold no second rank or questioned position as public benefactors.
See how the merchant of to-day transacts his business so far as his money is concerned. He is constantly exchanging his goods for paper representatives of value — bank notes . Before the close of bank hours each day he gathers up his paper money, deposits it in the bank (every merchant has a bank account), thus transferring his paper representatives of value into a credit upon the books of the bank. His great solicitude is to be able always to have a good credit in his bank. When bills fall due he pays them very easily by simply filling a check upon his bank for the amount of any demand against him, signing it, and among honorable dealers this evidence of a value in the bank is accepted as readily as are the strongest bank checks made by the largest dealers.
To-day in all large mercantile houses the total receipts of money pass into the hands of one person, ' the cashier, ' and are by him deposited in the bank to be drawn therefrom upon checks as above indicated. The practice prevails of merchants in the country paying the jobber in the large cities by sending his per- sonal check and requesting and receiving a receipted bill by return mail.
Another illustration, showing the part the bank performs in the business of to-day : ^ is a merchant in Manchester, B is a mil- ler in St. Louis ; No. i is a bank in St. Louis, No. 2 is a bank in Manchester, No. 3 is a bank in New York. A finds he wants a
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 37 I
lot o£ XX flour at once. He accordingly on his way home at night sends B a telegraphic despatch for the same. Next morn- ing upon going to the mill in St. Louis, B finds the telegraphic order. Understanding the immediate necessity he soon has the flour on the way to the railway station for shipment. Within two hours it is loaded into a car and a receipt given ( ' Bill of Lading ' ) stating that one hundred barrels of XX flour had been received to be shipped to A of Manchester, N. H. Upon re- ceipt of this bill of lading B returns to his office, makes a draft upon A at Manchester, attaches the bill of freight and with these documents repairs to his bank and requests draft to be forwarded without delay for collection. No. i, the bank, credits miller B with the draft, saving only a small charge for expense of collec- tion, and during the day prepares his letter to No. 2, enclosing the draft with the request that it be collected and proceeds re- mitted to No. 3 in New York for credit of No. i. Night find both flour and draft on their way to Manchester, where draft will arrive in about thirty-six hours. No. 2 bank in Manchester, upon receiving it, at once sends messenger to A, who, knowing that the receipt accompanying the draft will hold the flour and save him from its loss, at once proceeds to draw his check against his bank deposit for amount, which No. 2 bank at once accepts, draws its own bill of exchange and remits to No. 3 in New York, as requested, for the credit of No. i in St. Louis. All this may be accomplished within about five days. The miller transfers his value from flour in his mill to a credit in his bank. The mer- chant transfers his bank balance into flour which he knows will reach him within a few days. The St. Louis bank becomes in- debted to the miller by the amount of his credit, but then again it has a credit in New York of a like amount, while the bank in Manchester pays <ts depositor, the merchant, by a transfer of the value of the flour from its correspondent in New York to No. 3, the correspondent of the St. Louis bank No. i. All this adjustment of balances is made without the moving of a dollar in value, only as it is done through the medium of 'paper ex- change.' The farmer exchanges his products, which have an in- trinsic value, for the paper representative — bank notes — with which he procures his needed supplies, makes for himself a credit in the bank, or exchanges again for lands, buildings, or other forms of value.
The man of leisure desiring to pass some time in a foreign country does not go loaded down with gold, but instead makes his deposit in some bank doing a foreign exchange business, receiving a letter of credit — nothing in fact but a paper repres- entative of his credit in the bank — and with this he is enabled to draw in almost any of the large cities of Europe such sums of
372 HISTORY OF
gold as he may need Erora time to time to defray expenses and is not necessarily obliged to have gold to the extent of one hun- dred dollars about his person. This is but another form of trans- fer whereby the bank or banker in London, Paris or Berlin is enabled to make an advance upon a credit known to exist in a bank in America. We fail to comprehend how the present vol- ume of business of the counti^ could possibly be transacted, except through the agency of the bank with the aid of its paper currency and exchange ; hence, as before remarked, we look upon the bank as one of the great promoters of the business and in- dustries of the people, and therefore among the most useful institutions of the day."
CHAPTER CVII.
MANt/FACTURES, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
The genius of invention traveled a long way in descending from the summit of the pyramid of Cheops to the railroad that has been built at its base, upon the banks of the Nile. Looking backward along the track of by-gone ages, the distance is quite as great from the dome of St. Peters to the Egyptian obelisk, that stands in the square before the church. When Augustus brought that monolith to Rome, it was then very old ; it is older now, and the events that have taken place under its shadow would constitute the larger portion of the world's history. The pyramid and the obelisk are monuments of power and oppres- sion ; the church and the railroad are symbols of progress and emancipation. It deserves notice that all the great works of antiquity were reared for show and not for use. They exalted the few and degraded the many. The creations of genius were all of the same character. " The ancient philosophers," says Macaulay, " did not neglect natural science ; but they did not cul- tivate it for the purpose of increasing the power and ameliorating the condition of man. The taint of barrenness has spread from ethical to physical speculations. Seneca wrote largely on nat- ural philosophy and magnified the importance of that study. Rut why ? Not because it tended to assuage suffering, to multi- ply the conveniences of life, to extend the empire of man over the material world ; but solely because it tended to raise the mind above low cares, to separate it from the body, to exercise
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 373
its subtlety in the solution of very obscure questions. Thus nat- ural philosophy was considered in the light merely of a mental exercise. It was made subsidiar)' to the art of disputation; and it consequently proved alto-^ether barren of useful discoveries."
This taste, pervading the minds and hearts of the philosophers of antiquity, promoted logic at the expense of physics ; and caus- ed the fine arts to take precedence of the useful. Comfort, in its modern sense, had no name to represent it in the classic tongues ; and was not admitted into modern lexicons till the in- ductive method of Bacon made utility the object of true science. To us, the narrow, unlighted, unventilated dormitories of the Greeks and Romans would be almost as repulsive as the cells of a prison or the "cribbed, cabined and confined" sleeping rooms of a Saratoga hotel. Their flowing dresses of undyed wool, e.xcept the purple robes of nobles and monarchs, would now be positively intolerable to business men. The Roman toga, the characteristic dress of the world's conquerors, was the very symbol of idleness. Says DeQuincey, " Just figure to yourself the picture of a hard-working man with horny hands, like our hedgers, ditchers, weavers and porters, setting to work on the high road in that vast sweeping robe, filling with a strong gale like the mainsail of a frigate." In fact slaves and common la- borers were not allowed to wear that badge of rank ; they wore the tunic, made like a farmer's long frock, and this was their only dress. The wealthy Romans were often carried by slaves in a lectica or litter resembling the oriental palanquin. They rode in carriages without springs, ate without knives and forks and lived in houses without glass or chimneys.
The choicest works of art in Rome to-day have been taken from the tombs of Jhe Etruscans, whose origin is still an unsolved enigma. Some of the most interesting remains of this wonder- ful people have been disinterred by Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon the Great. About the year 1812, he purchased of the Pope the principality of Canino, from which he received'his title of Prince of Canino. He proceeded to explore his newly acquired possessions and was very successful in his researches. " Some of the most suj^erb vases in the world were excavated by him, besides gold and jeweled ornaments of the most exquisite workmanship, and bronze images, mirrors and utensils of great variety and beauty." These were sold to private collectors for various European museums. It is said that the Princess of Canino has appeared at the fetes of ambassadors in Rome, with a parure of Etruscan jewelry which was the envy of every belle and excelled the chefs d'ceuvres of Paris and Vienna, making the wearer literally the cynosure of all eyes.
To what strange mutations is even the kingdom of the dead
374 HISTORY OF
subject ! The princesses of Etruria were consigned to their last resting places, more than three thousand years ago, with ali the pomp and ceremony of regal woe. The state from its guarded coffers, or private affection from its hoarded treasures, conse- crated the most precious ornaments to the memory of the de- ceased. These were laid away in rock hewn sepulchres or in tombs built as if for eternity, of enduring masonry ; and their doors were closed against all the agencies which the violence or avarice of those times might employ. They remained hermeti- cally sealed for thousands of years, amid all the changes of states and kingdoms. Hostile armies marched over them. Peaceful peasants gathered successive harvests from the soil that was heaped upon them. No wild beast has found a cleft in the rock as a place of entrance. Not even a mole or a cricket had dis- turbed the repose of the royal sleepers. At length avarice, keen- scented avarice, like the bending willow in the hand of the ma- gician, seeking for living springs beneath the earth, inclines wist- fully toward the buried treasure which affection or pride in former years devoted to departed greatness. Rude laborers ply the spade and the pick to the yielding mound, till the iron clinks upon the ponderous roof. Violence wrests the heavy door from its hinges and the robbers enter and despoil the dead of their ornaments. Modern princes lavish their money upon these antique works of art, and modern princesses rejoice to wear the decorations which have hung for centuries about the corpses of ladies of ancient regal lines whose names and genealogies have perished.
The Romans were not remarkable for their originality in any thing. The fine arts flourished among them by robbery ; the useful arts by necessity ; jurisprudence by experience ; literature by imitation ; religion by persecution. Inventions and discover- ies were rare ; they were constant borrowers. They plundered the nations of the whole known world to adorn their ill-sited city. Their hoarded treasures, intellectual and material, which the Northern barbarians appropriated in tlie fifth century, re- mained unimproved for a thousand years. Even to this day in Southern Europe, the rude implements of husbandry and manufactures, used by the Romans in the days of Cato and Columella, are still in vogue. While modern institutions were slowly taking shape, the human mind rested and the world stood still !
In the middle ages the dialectics and metaphysics of Aristotle became mere logomachy, and words and forms instead of thought and reason occupied learned men. The mariner's compass was known but not used. The tlrermometer, barometer and telescope were not yet invented. Ship-building was a rude art and the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. .375
geography of the sea was unwritten. Those great mechanical agencies which have augmented the power of man a thousand fold all belong to a later period. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the principal arts in use were those of the armorer and jeweler, the bead-maker and the costumer. The tourna- ment and hunting claimed the chief attention of knights ; needle work and confectionaries occupied the ladies ; while the wretched peasants retired to their smoky, unglazed hovels to munch their crusts of barley bread or gulp their homely pottage and retire to sleep on mud floors with a log for a pillow and a bed of coarse straw for a resting place. Human life was held very cheap, for seventy thousand thieves were hung in the reign of Heni-y VIII.
Tradition says that the Romans introduced the manufacture of woolen goods into England. The only mechanism employed in Europe for weaving, for nearly eighteen hundred years of our era, was the distaff, the spinning-wheel and the hand loom. The Oriental world has not yet passed the Rubicon of modern invention. The steam engine, the spinning-jenny and the power loom have been the true moving powers of modern fleets and armies, and the chief support of agriculture. These inventions enable a boy or girl of fifteen years of age to do the work of ten hand spinners and weavers. The first steam engine con- structed for a cotton-mill was made by Mr. Watt in 1785. It was used in Papplewick in Nottinghamshire. Four years later, the use of the same power was first employed in Manchester. Now there are fifty thousand boilers doing the work of a million of men in that city. Dr. Cartwright's power loom was invented in 1787, but not used till 1801. How vast the progress of manufac- tures in this centur)', during the life-time of men now living !
Cotton was first mentioned in English history in 1641. Till 1773 no pure cottbn goods were made. ,Prior to this date the warp was linen and the weft cotton. The invention of the spin- ning-jenny is ascribed to James Hargreaves, an illiterate but in- genious mechanic, in 1767. Sir Richard Arkwright took out a patent for spinning with rollers in 1769, involving the principles of his predecessor, with improvements. That patent was after- wards set aside. The subsequent improvements in the use of steam, by Watt, and the invention of the cotton-gin, by Whitney, in 1793, have multiplied cotton goods a thousand fold. In 1784, an American vessel with other lading brought eight bales of cotton into Liverpool, which were seized by the custom-house officer of that city as contraband, under the pretence that Ameri- can soil nowhere produced cotton. As late as 1791 only two million pounds were produced in the United States. In 1857 one million bales were imported into Liverpool from the United States.
376 HISTORY OF
Until the year 1825 English laws forbade inventors and skilled mechanics to leave the realm. If they emigrated they were constrained to go by stealth and to carry nothing but their hands and brains to aid them in setting up manufactories in this country. Since that date the laws have been somewhat relaxed respecting inventors and their works. The first colonies in America were forbidden to engage in manufactures. They could not make a wool hat or a hob-nail. Ship-building was allowed; and in 1741, New England had about one thousand sail engaged in fishing and trading, all of home construction. New Hampshire took a leading part in these transactions. The province abounded in valuable timbers, the white and red oak, the white and red pine, chestnut and other forest trees, which were wrought into masts, spars and keels for exportation. The largest vessels of war were built at Portsmouth as late as 1782. In 1 791, twenty ships were built on the Piscataqua; and of two hundred and seventy-seven vessels which sailed out of Ports- mouth harbor in that year, nearly seven eighths were of Amer- ican workmanship.
The first saw-mill propelled by water in New England was built by Portsmouth men in 1635, at Newichewannock, now Ber- wick. The first corn-mills were driven by wind ; later in the history of the colonies, by water. In the year 1800, Exeter alone had ten corn-mills within its limits. New Ipswich has the honor of erecting the first cotton-mill in New Hampshire, near the beginning of this century. About the sam^date, four other towns in the state erected cotton factories. In 1826 four hund- red distinct buildings for the manufacture of cotton had been built in the United States, averaging seven hundred spindles each ; of these fifty belonged to New Hampshire, with about half that number of woolen factories. From that day to the present, the capital invested in the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods exceeds that of any other species of industry in the state ; and their products constitute more than one-half of the entire income of the state from manufactures. The total of all prod- ucts made by hands, tools and machinery in the state, is esti- mated at $71,038,249. Of this sum $39,834,000 are from cotton and woolen fabrics.*
The value of farm products, including betterments, is esti- mated at less than twenty-three millions of dollars, which is about one third part of the income from all the manufactures in the state, though the number of laborers in each department is nearly equal. Manufactures and mining employ forty-six thou- sand five hundred and fifty-three persons ; agriculture, forty-six thousand five hundred and seventy-three. About seventeen thou-
•These figures are taken irom A. J. Fogg's Gazetteer of New Hampshire. I
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 377
sand are operatives in cotton and woolen mills. With about one third the number of workmen and one-half as much capital as the farmers, the factories yield nearly double the income of the land. The value of farm products to each person employed is about five hundred dollars ; the value of factory products to each operative exceeds twenty-three hundred dollars ; but the risks of the manufacturer are incomparably greater than those of the farmer.
At the beginning of this century itinerant mechanics were found in every town, who visited private families and made a temporary home with them while their services were needed. The carding, spinning and weaving were done in each home by those whom king Alfred called the "spindle side of the house." It was a good old Saxon custom to clothe the family in domes- tic fabrics. During the first third of this centurj', the citizens of New Hampshire were mostly farmers and mechanics with small means, little ready money and very few artificial wants. They were industrious, economical and contented ; and it may be doubted whether the population of to-day, with increased wealth and wants, living at three times the expense of their fathers, have at the same time secured greater rational enjoyments. "Godliness with contentment is great gain." The possession of these graces made our fathers rich in good works. Increase of wealth has not brought improved morals.
The highest crime known to the law has been committed twelve times in our state. The first execution for murder oc- curred in 1739,* more than a century after the first settlements were made. The most numerous crimes that now come before our courts relate to the violations of the rights of property and the marriage tie. When money was scarce and banks were few, when private men 'loaned and honest men hired capital for in- crease of business, the appropriation of the property of others by theft, fraud or defalcation was rare. But since the surplus funds of the people in national and savings banks have risen from a few thousands to forty millions of dollars, the crimes against property have greatly increased. When the population of the country was chiefly found in the rural districts, the mar- riage covenant was entered into for life and usually kept invio- late. A divorce was as rare as a comet. Now, nearly one tenth of all the marriages solemnized are broken by crime and sun- dered by divorce. The simplicity and purity of country life have been exchanged for the luxury and laxity of city life. The rail- roads have made city and country almost identical in opinions, fashions and morals. The markets and the expenses of living,
* It is now thought that Sarah Simpson antl Penelope Kenny were innocent of the crime laid to their charge.
378 HISTORY OF
except in rents, have been equalized. Manufactories have con- verted barren plains or rustic hamlets into populous cities. Fifty years ago, the sandy plain where Manchester now stands could hardly support half a dozen families. Now thirty thousand peo- ple live, thrive and grow rich on the same soil. A local market taxes the industry of surrounding towns to meet its demands. Travelers by thousands now daily enter or leave the city, where, in the days of the old stages, only a score rode in the public coach. Society has been revolutionized by railroads and fac- tories. The centres of population and business have been changed. While the expenses of living have greatly increased, the price of labor has been equally enhanced ; so that now money is more plenty in every man's pocket, and the state is rapidly advancing in wealth and influence.
Note. — The towns in New Hampshire where the principal cotton factories exist are : Chesterlield, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Exeter, Hampton Falls, Holdemess, Hooksett, * Hudson, Jaffrey, Laconia, Manchester, Mason, Milford, Nashua, Nelson, New Ipswich, Newmarket, Pembroke, t'eterborough, Piltsfield, Portsmouth, Salmon Falls, East Roches- ter, Great Falls, Upper Gilmanton and North Weare. Woolen factories have been built in Acworth, Ashuelot, Barnstead, Barrington, Bradford, Bristol, Campton, Claremont, Cor- nish, Dover, Dubhn, Effingham, Enfield, Epping, Fishei"ville, Franklin, Gilford, Gilsutn, Grafton, Henniker, Hillsborougli, Hinsdale, HarrisviJIe, Holdemess, Hopkinton, Keeue, Laconia, Lake Village, Littleton, Loudon, Manchester, Marlborough, Milford, Milton, New Hampton, Newport, Northfield, Pelham, Peterborough, Rochester, Salem, Sanborntoa Bridge, Somersworth, Stewartstown, Swanzey, Troy, Washington, Walpolei North Weare, Wilmot, Wilton, Windiiani and Wolfeboroughl
CHAPTER CVIII.
RAILROADS. WRITTEN BY HON. J. W. PATTERSON.
A general desire prevailed at the close of the Revolutionary war to open and develop the rich territory stretching between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. But the experience of all time proved that this vast domain could not be peopled until some cheap outlet to the sea could be made for its prospective products. At that time the only artificial channels of com- merce, other than common roads, were canals. Hence, in obe- dience to this wide-spread impulse to move westward, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the James river and Kanawha canals were projected. The only one of these ever completed is the Erie, and this was purely a state work. Congress was applied to for an appropriation of eight million
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 379
dollars, but the complications of the government with England and the prospects of a war prevented its being made. The canal was begun in 1817, and opened to Oswego in 1828. The results were immediate, and have been grand beyond the antici- pation of the most enthusiastic. At the opening of the canal to Buffalo, in 1826, DeWitt Clinton, speaking in honor of the event, yielded to his fancy, and prophesied that in fifty years Buffalo, then an Indian trading town, and Chicago, a frontier post, might each contain a population of a hundred thousand. The prevision of Clinton even could not foresee the four hun- dred thousand people who now throng Chicago, and the teem- ing millions who have poured through the channels of trade into the great valley to develop its resources and supply the markets of the world.
At the end of the fiscal year 1866, this canal had paid into the treasury of the state every dollar of its original cost, with a surplus of $41,397,651. The entire value of the merchandise transported on the Erie and Champlain canals — the latter being constructed in part from the earnings of the Erie — up to 1872 amounted to $6,065,069,698.
The earlier development of the western and northwestern slates was largely due to this magnificent work, for it was the only avenue for the transport of products to the sea-board until about the year 1850. I think it impossible for us to over-esti- mate the material and other results of this improvement. We are apt to forget, when our eyes are filled with the claptraps of the caucus, and our ears with the deceitful voices of the hustings, how much we owe to the far-sighted statesmanship of the early days of the republic. The ordinance of the 14th of July, 1787, which provided that the "navigable waters leading into the Mis- sissippi and the St? Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same shall be common highways and forever free," will yet be thought worthy to be engraved in enduring marble upon the proudest of our temples of industry.
But the commerce between the interior and the Atlantic states soon increased beyond the capabilities of these early channels of trade. The rapid development of the unparalleled resources of the West, for the last twenty years, has been due mainly to the railways which private capital, reinforced by government aid, has thrown forward into the unsettled public domain.
As early as 1630 railed tramways or railroads were introduced as an improvement upon the best highways. These at first con- sisted of a wooden trackway, laid upon an ordinary road to fa- cilitate the transport of heavy laden wheeled vehicles, and were used for the most part between the English mines and the depots from which their products were shipped. Wooden rails
380 HISTORY OF
having been in use for one hundred and fifty years, it occurred to some one to lessen their friction by plating them with iron. These tram-plates or flat rails, made at first of cast but later of malleable iron, with a flange at one time on the inside and at another on the outside, were in use till 1789, when the edge-rail was substituted by Jessop and the flange transferred to the wheel.
The idea of employing the railroad for general purposes of traffic was iirst suggested about this time. Watt, while studying the properties and application of steam, had suggested the pos- sibility of constructing steam carriages, and in 1782 Oliver Evans of Philadelphia patented a steam wagon, the drawings and specifications of which were sent to England. In 17S4 Watt patented a non-condensing locomotive carriage. In 1802 Richard Trevithick patented a high-pressure locomotive engine, but in attempting to use engines of the character first invented, it was found that their wheels would slip round without advan- cing. An effort was made to remedy this by a rack into which worked a toothed wheel attached to the engine, somewhat like the contrivance now used on the roads up the Rigi and Mount Washington. The friction was too great and the plan was abandoned. Improvements were made however by Robert Steph- enson and others, and in 1822 the first locomotive engine was substituted for horse power.
The first legislative act authorizing a public railroad was made by parliament in 1801. It granted to a corporation in Surry the right to build a tram-road nine miles long, but the first rail- road coach used for the transportation of passengers was on the road between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. This was worked by horse power. The following year a French engineer, M. Seguin, succeeded in substituting, to a limited extent, locomotive for horse power. At this time the theory was that trains would have to be moved by means of stationary engines placed at in- tervals along the track, which would move the cars from station to station by means of ropes. A deputation of the Liverpool and Manchester company, as late as 1828, reported in favor of stationary engines as a tractive power on their double track, then approaching completion. But George Stephenson prevailed on them to try his prize locomotive, "The Rocket," which on its first trip attained a speed of twenty-nine miles an hour. From this success Mr. Stephenson has been styled the " Father of the Locomotive System." One of his engines, the "Robert Fulton," was imported into the United States in 183 1.
The first railway act in the United States was passed by the legislature of Pennsylvanii, March 31, 1823. This authorized the construction of a road from I'hiladelphia to Columbia, but was repealed because the grantees failed to execute the plan. A
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 38 1
second act was passed in the same state in 1826, incorporating the Columbia, Lancaster and Philadelphia Railroad. This road was completed at the expense of the commonwealth in 1834. It was eighty-one and a half miles in length, and a magnificent enterprise for that day, reflecting great honor upon the statesmen who assumed the responsibility of its construction.
The first railroad actually built in the United States was in Quincy, Mass., in 1826, to carry granite from the quarry to the tide-waters of the Neponset river. It was only three miles long, but, in coming years, the fact of its construction at that time will add to the renown of the birthplace of the Quincys, the Adamses and John Hancock. Two years later, on the fourth of July, 1828, Charles Carroll of Carrolton, then over ninety years of age, and the only survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, commenced the Baltimore and Ohio railroad by laying a corner-stone amid suitable and imposing ceremonies. On that occasion he said : " I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declar- ation of Independence, if even second to that."
When we reflect upon the changes which forty years of rail- road transportation have wrought upon our country and the world, it is not too much to say, that
The same year the South Carolina or Charleston and Ham- burg Railroad was constructed, the first road in the world " built expressly for locomotive power, for general freight and passen- ger business." The first locomotive constructed in the United States was built for this road at the West Point foundry in 1830. Since then the decennial increase of railroad mileage in the United States has hteen constant and rapid. There were in 1827, 3 miles open ; 1831, 131 miles; 1841,3,877 miles; 1851, 11,027 miles; 1861, 31,769 miles; 1871, 62,647 miles; 1874, 71,500 miles. Of this increase New Hampshire has enjoyed its full proportion.
The relief of the Granite State, as seen from the old stage- coach creeping slowly up its hillsides or descending swiftly into its valleys, would seem to exclude railroads from its surface. But as we hear the pant and tramp of the iron steeds and wit- ness the flight of their ponderous cars through the towns and villages of our rugged state, our incredulity is humbled, and we are ready to believe that "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low ; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
A thousand miles of railroad now bring the facilities of travel and of trade to almost every hamlet and farm within the bor-
382 HISTORY OF
ders of a territory over which it was thought, at a time within the memory of many now living, to be both impossible and im- politic to stretch this net-work of internal commerce. Thirt5'-two different roads, owned and managed by as many corporate com- panies, have been constructed and equipped at a cost of more than thirty millions of dollars. The original stockholders of these roads have in some instances incurred heavy losses from their construction, but the state, and especially those living along their line, have gained from them profits and advantages that, on the whole, more than compensate for all losses.
Time saved to industry is money made, for it increases pro- duction and retrenches expense. A journey from the interior of our state to Boston in the olden time consumed three days. Now that city may be reached from our northern boundary in a single day, and from the middle and southern portions in a few hours. Thus markets have been opened and equalized, and all brought daily to our doors. The merchant and the laborer of the city may now dwell in the fresh and healthful country, and more than save, in rents and living, his cost of travel. Frequent exchanges have multiplied wants, industries and profits, and added to the general comfort and welfare of societ)'.
The influence of railroads is realized when we consider how they have changed the centres of population and given to the cities and villages along their lines a political and pecuniary power above the country towns. Wealth, like water, gravitates to the falls, and helps to create the busy hum of spindles, looms and hammers, the symbols of public prosperity ; but if the fall lies beyond the reach of the railroad, its power is left to waste itself in noise and run to the sea unutilized.
These advantages are not limited, however, to an increase of material prosperity. New methods of transit exert an intellect- ual and moral influence upon the minds and hearts of men, and modify social life. They multiply public meetings and conven- tions, and facilitate and extend the intercourse of society,
"And catch the manners living as they rise."
Thought travels upon the rail, and art, science and literature are diffused. The products of the teeming brain are carried to the remotest hamlet. The best thinkers and orators speak to the country as often as to the city. Information is disseminated and mental activity stimulated. This diffusion of intelligence tends to level society and destroy individual prominence and intellectual dictatorship.
But this increase of railroads has been universal. The re- turns of 1872 showed that Great Britain had fifteen thousand eight hundred and fourteen miles of railways, while on the con- tinent of Europe they spread like an arterial system, sending the life-blood of business into every part.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 383
To US of this day, the adoption of steam as an agent of loco- motion seems one of the most natural, as it was one of the most pregnant, steps in a progressive civilization; yet, like all improve- ments, it entered into life through great struggles and the sense- less opposition of a chronic conservatism. In our own state, the "right of way" to railroads was resisted by men of influence with argument, ridicule, political power, and every other force at their command, until the spirit of the age forced them aside and gave control to more enlightened leaders. They predicted ruin to industry and the depopulation of the state as the inevitable result, and solemnly warned the people against the threatened violation of constitutional prerogatives and popular rights. But the inevitable came in spite of the oracles, and we pity their blindness.
Prof. E. D. Sanborn gave, a few years since, an instructive and eloquent account of the opposition made to the introduction of railways into England, which I take the liberty to quote :
"The first surveyors o£ the railroad from Liverpool to Manchester were mobbed by the owners of the soil, their instruments were broken and they were driven off by violence. The men who proposed the road were hated by the land-owners as much as if they had designed to convert their fields into camps for a standing army. Some years later, when a bill to incorpo- rate that road was before parliament, the engineer, Mr. George Stephenson, was examined by acute lawyers before the committee of parliament as if he had been a spy of France plotting an invasion of the country. In the lower house, Sir Isaac Coffin denounced the project as a most flagrant imposition. He would not consent to see the widow's premises invaded. He asked in the most dignified, senatorial manner : ' How would any person like to have a railroad under his parlor window.' What, I should like to know,' said he, ' is to be done with all those who have advanced money in making and re- pairing turnpikes? What with those who may still wish to travel in their own or hired carriages, after the fashion of their forefathers ? What is to become of coach-makers, harness-makers, and coachmen, inn-keepers, horse- breeders and horse-dealers ? Is the house aware of the smoke and noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive engines, passing at a rate of eight or ten miles an hour, occasion ? Neither the cattle plowing in the fields nor grazing in the meadows could behold them without dismay ! Iron would rise in price one hundred per cent., or, more probably, be exhausted altogether! It would be the greatest nuisance, the most complete disturbance of quiet and comfort, in all parts of the kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent!' Such were the groans of conservatism. But the bill was obtained at an ex- pense of $135,000, and within one year after the road was built land all along the line was selling at almost fabulous prices ; and the cattle plowed and fed in quiet! The road was opened in 1830. The transit which used to be made in coaches in four hours was made by rail in half an hour, and the travel was tripled the first year. The annual saving to the public in money, to say nothing of time, was $1,250,000 a year. Lords Derby and Sefton, who succeeded in "forcing the road from their lands, afterwards patronized a rival road on condition it should pass through their est.ttes. Interest enlightens the blind."
The influence of this modern method of transportation upon the business and character of mankind is incalculable. 'J'liere
3S4 HISTORY OF
is no pursuit of life so obscure and no locality so secluded as to be exempt from its power. There is no person so high and none so low as not to be affected by it. It determines largely the material prosperity and civil power of nations, and affects, di- rectly or indirectly, their relations and character.
On an old-time carriage road wheat could be carried three hundred and maize a hundred and sixty-five miles only to market and pay the cost of production. The interior regions of con- tinents could not, therefore, previous to the introduction of rail- ways, unless reached by navigable rivers or canals, furnish to or draw supplies from, maritime commerce ; could not reach the markets of the world so as to become, to any extent, either con- sumers or producers in the industrial economy of nations. Car- avans or camel trains could furnish only the slightest relief to the evils of non-intercourse. Countries so located were left, for the most part, unpeopled, or held by rude nomadic tribes, while the great historic nations, to whom mankind is indebted for civilization and human progress, dwelt upon the sea-board or the navigable rivers.
It is impossible to determine to what extent the increased fa- cility, rapidity and cheapness of travel and transportation, intro- duced by railroads, have increased the wealth and population of the world. An able English writer has said that "the first steam engine doubled the world's wealth ; " and when we consider how large a portion of the earth has thus been laid open to settle- ment and productive industry, when we reflect upon the vast ad- ditions it has made to the world's products, and the rapidity and extension which it has given to the work of exchange, we shall hardly be disposed to pronounce the statement extravagant. Railroads have not simply added to the articles of commerce and consumption by opening new fields to enterprise, but also by bringing about a universal division of labor, and so increas- ing the rapidity and perfection of productive work. In addition to this they stimulate production by removing the limitations upon its markets. No man now works for his neighborhood, but all for mankind. Steam-ships and steam-cars take the grains of our fields and the fabrics of our factories to the most distant nations, and bring back for our consumption the fmits of every clime and handicraft of the world. Thus the wealth and the comfort of mankind are enhanced by the universal exchange introduced by our modern methods of transit. All tliis has an unparalleled application to our own country.
"It is assumed," says Commissioner Wells, "that a line of railway gives access to fifteen square miles of country on each side of it, or thirty square miles altogether. Then the thirteen thousand miles of railways-, which it is estimated have been con-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 385
structed during the five years from 1865 to 1S70, will have opened up three hundred and ninety thousand miles of what, for the purposes of general production, may be considered new territory, a tract of countiy larger than the whole area of France, and nearly three and a half times larger than the whole of Great Britain." If the results of five years of railway constioiction have been so great, how vast they must have been during the past forty years, and how immeasurable the promise held out by the future. And we must remember that all this grand domain thus opened to settlement and development is as richly stored with the resources of national wealth, is as capable of sustain- ing an industrious and thronging population, as France or Great Britain. The results of thus bringing the interior into commer- cial relations with the sea-board have more than realized the expectations of the projectors of these enterprises.
No statistics furnished by government or by private parties enable us to measure accurately the value of our internal com- merce, but a few facts will assure us of its colossal magnitude. The annual commerce of the cities on the Ohio river alone is placed by careful estimates at $1,600,000,000. That upon the lakes we can infer from the fact that, during an entire season of navigation, an average of one vessel every ten minutes passed Fort Gratiot light-house, night and day. In 1872 ten Western states produced 1,028,987,000 bushels of grain, of which 815,- 955,574 bushels were consumed within those states, and 213,- 021,426 bushels were shipped to home and foreign markets. The gross receipts of our railroads for the same year reached the stupendous sum of $473,241,055, and the value of the com- modities moved by them is estimated at 5 10,000,000,000, and we must not forget^ that every cargo of produce shipped from the West purchases a return cargo of domestic or foreign man- ufactures from the East. Our annual foreign trade, which keeps pace with the means of interior transportation, amounts to about $1,202,328,233. This sum seems large, and yet our domestic commerce exceeds it manifold, and the amount paid for trans- portation is more than double the revenues of the government. Our governmental policy of aiding to build railroads into the territories rests upon such facts, and looks to the creation of new states, which may add to the population, resources, revenues, strength and greatness of the country.
Now it is obvious that the growth and prosperity of the West and, as the coastwise populations draw their food from the inte- rior and must find there a market for the surplus of their com- mercial and manufacturing industry, the sea-board states as well, will be determined largely by the cost of transportation. The impression has at length become general, that the railroad
25
386 HISTORY OF
power is inflicting great hardship upon other industries and the traveling public by its tariff of rates, and the call for reform is loud and imperative. The farmers of New England, even, living a hundred miles inland, claim that they find little induce- ment to send their wood and other products to market at the established rates, while manufacturing towns, like Lawrence, Manchester and Dover, find it difficult to compete with Fall River and other towns on the sea-board.
But the West has suffered most severely. A congressional ex- amination of this subject has reached the conclusion that grain can be transported from Chicago to New York at 10 cents a bushel. But the average freight on three hundred and fifty millions of bushels of grain sent from the valley of the Mississippi to the Atlantic slope in 1873 was fifty cents per bushel. Taking the average cost of a train per mile on all the roads of Massachu- setts as a standard, the cost of moving a train of thirty cars of ten tons each from the Mississippi river to New York, by an air line, should have been $1,260 or twelve and eight-tenths cents per bushel. Assuming that, as we fairly may, as the necessary cost per bushel for transportation, and adding twelve and eight- tenths cents more, or fifty per cent, of the gross receipts, for inter- est and dividends on the cost of tlie road, we shall make a saving of $85,000,000, on this item alone, to carry to the profits of ag- riculture. As a further illustration, we will suppose thirty in- stead of fifty cents per bushel had been paid for the transporta- tion of the 2 13,000,000 bushels of grain moved to the sea-board in 1872. This is five cents more than is allowed by careful es- timates for both cost and profit, and yet it would have lifted a tax of $42,000,000 from the industries of the country. In ad- dition to this, it is believed the producers would have thrown into the market double the amount of grain but for the high transportation charges, which amount in many instances to a prohibition upon production.
The change thus indicated, says the report of a congressional committee, would enhance the value of the improved lands in eight western states to the extent of $1,100,000,000. To this must be added the increased value of farms, cotton plantations and unimproved lands in other states, and the stimulus and profit imparted to factories, foundries and workshops in every section of the republic.
But we have indicated only a fraction of the work done upon the railways. We have no means of ascertaining the total amount of freight moved annually upon our 7 1,500 miles of road ; we do know, however, that Pennsylvania carries yearly on her 5,369 miles of road, 23,145,000 passengers and 55,000 tons of freight and that the seven great trunk lines stretching westward
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 387
moved, in 1872, 36,000,000 tons of freight, two thirds of which consisted of minerals and miscellaneous matter, and one third, or twelve millions, of cereals. Four millions only, of the twelve, reached tide-water. The remaining eight was local freight and consumed before reaching Atlantic markets. We have no data upon which to calculate our loss from this system of repression, but it must be gigantic. The best authorities judge that with proper facilities and low rates the west could at present ship thirty million instead of twelve million bushels of cereals and vastly increase it in the future. Such an increase would bring about a corresponding advance in all the productions and ex- changes of the country. This limitation upon our productive power is tantalizing, in view of the open markets and the growing competition abroad.
Our cotton exports have fallen off nearly fifty per cent., while those of other countries have increased nearly three hundred per cent. The United States shipped into Great Britain during the five years between i860 and 1865, 127,047,126 bushels of wheat and Russia only 47,376,809 ; but during the five years from 1868 to 1873 we shipped 116,462,380 bushels and Russia 117,967,022; showing that the imports of wheat from the United States had fallen off 10,584.746, while those from Russia had increased 70,590,213 bushels. This has resulted from decreasing the cost of transportation from the wheat fields of the Don and the Volga to the ports of England.
If we are able sufficiently to reduce the cost of transportation we can easily command the produce markets of the world, and so secure our full share of the carrying trade. Canada is anxious to put her canals and rivers in condition and to furnish steam- ships to freight our produce to foreign markets, knowing if she has the carrying trade of the West, England, and not New Eng- land, will supply the interior markets with manufactures.
A blight from oppressive rates must fall upon the prosperity of every pursuit. Our commerce, both interoceanic and foreign, not less than agriculture and manufactures, must feel the paral- ysis. Merchandise which would naturally pass across our countiy, in transit between Asia and Europe, will be driven over the isthmus or around the cape, and foreign trade will be crip- pled by a limitation of supplies.
But the hardship of excessive rates falls as heavily upon pas- sengers as upon freight. The averaga first-class fare per mile in twelve countries on the continent of Europe is three and six one hundredths cents. With us, on twelve leading roads, it is four and three one hundredths, or nearly one third more. The aggregate amount of an excess of one cent a mile upon all the annual railroad travel of the country cannot be exactly
388 HISTORY OF
determined. But we know that in Pennsylvania there are 5369 miles of railway and that they carry 23,145,000 passengers. Now suppose that each person travels on the average one sixtieth the whole distance, or eighty-nine miles ; this excess of one cent a mile would amount to $20,599,050 for that state alone. If we assume that the travel in all the states and territories is only five times as great as in Pennsylvania, we shall have §102,995,250 passing yearly into the possession of the great railroad corpora- tions, which should remain with the traveling public to lighten its burdens and prosper its industries.
The West complains that its values do not advance and its prosperity is retarded. The East, that her markets are being closed and her manufactures driven westward. If we lay a tariff upon any article which, added to the cost of production and im- portation, raises the price of the foreign product above what we can produce and sell the same for at home, we exclude the foreign product and destroy a branch of commerce. So, too, whenever the tariff of freighting any product of the interior, added to the cost of production, exceeds what the article can be bought for in the sea-board cities, the production of that article must cease to be a branch of general industry, and the populousness, the wealth, the power and prosperity of the country are destroyed or suppressed, to the extent of its possible production of that article. It is evident that the cost of transportation may be so high as entirely to prevent the development of the richest terri- tory, and that the growth of wealth and power in any state will be measured by the profits upon its surplus products in the markets of exportation.
In determining the merits of this controversy it should be borne in mind that the present condition of the country has re- sulted in part from an over-investment of capital in railroad en- terprises. Over $500,000,000 were so expended at the West during the five years just preceding the present popular move- ment. The legitimate business of the country has not demanded and cannot pay even a fair return upon the amounts disbursed in building and operating many of the roads with which this mania of the few past years has covered the country.
An additional cause of the present discontent, at the West es- pecially, is to be found in an overstocking of the market with breadstuffs. The construction of roads into the rich and fertile wastes of the interior has brought such an amount of territory under cultivation, and has so stimulated production on lands already improved, that the supply has become greater than the demand. This has so thrown down the price of grain as to render it difficult, and in some cases quite impossible for the farmers of the interior to pay the reasonable cost of transporta-
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 389
tion. They forget that a railroad can make corn-growing profit- able, even at high prices, only sixteen hundred and fifty miles from the sea-board, and so transfer to the railroad the misfortune due to their own location and the low price of bread. If the country' will stop building railroads for a time, the evils now felt will be greatly mitigated.
The distance to, and the loss of time in reaching, the sea- board, are drawbacks upon the prosperity of the interior, which can never be wholly overcome, though compensated by greater productiveness. There are two ways by which this disadvantage may be measurably surmounted. One is by the building up of home markets, and the other by the reduction of the cost of transportation. The latter, as all know, has become a subject of general interest, and its consideration has developed some questions not easy to solve. E.xperience has shown, what seems to need no proof, that the activity and success of every indus- try, the increase of population, the creation of wealth, the mul- tiplication of states and the growth of national power, are de- pendent upon the facilities and expense of the intercourse of the people and the interchange of their products.
If this is so, it must be conceded, as a rule both of political economy and political philosophy, that the carrying business of every people should be reduced to the lowest rates consistent with a fair return upon the necessary investments in the construc- tion and use of the artificial channels of travel and of trade. Neither justice nor policy will allow rates which will pay a divi- dend on fictitious capital, nor even real capital improperly or unnecessarily invested in such works. Such rates are an insu- perable obstacle to the material prosperity and political devel- opment of the couptry.
The failure of government, either state or national, to provide adequate means of water communication to meet the increasing demands of trade led to the building of railroads by private companies, and forced the commerce of the countiy to accept this more expensive method of transportation.
The necessities of trade have easily secured to these compa- nies a monopoly, and rendered them to some extent oblivious to their responsibilities to the public. The abuses charged upon the management of railroads are numerous and very grave, but the most common complaint is of discriminate and extortionate charges. It is alleged that the causes of these hardships im- posed upon the public are :
1. Unjust inequality of rates.
2. Construction rings.
3. The consolidation of companies for the destruction of free competition.
390 HISTORY OF
4. Extravagance and corruption in railway management, to enrich favorites and defraud tlie public.
5. The introduction of subordinate agencies, such as car- companies, fast freight lines and the like.
6. Stock watering, a process by which the capital stock of roads is increased without any outlay by the parties receiving it or placing it upon the market.
7. The capitalizing of surplus earnings accumulated by ex- orbitant charges.
It cannot be denied successfully, I think, that the public has been wronged and the business of the country checked and hampered in all the ways here enumerated ; yet such charges, made without limitations and exceptions, scandalize the grandest improvement which modern science and enterprise have achieved and throw an unjust discredit upon a class of men to whom society is under the greatest obligations.
The first complaint is of unjust discriminations of rates. When such discriminations are made to favor certain localities, as against others, and give them the monopoly of production ; when they are made to determine the location of towns and cities on lands previously granted to or purchased by the road, or in- dividuals connected with it ; when they are made to favor the speculations of favorites, or to advance real estate, — they are a usurpation and an outrage. Nevertheless rates must be graded according to the character of freights and the distances to which they are to be transported. They must also differ somewhat to correspond to the varying necessary cost of building and run- ning the roads.
The next complaint is against construction rings. Now a ring is simply a company, and if an association is to be cursed by an epithet, the church itself is not safe. It may be blasted as an apostolic or Christian ring. The fact is, it is every way as just and proper that a company should construct a railroad as for an individual, and in the case of large contracts it is much better if not an absolute necessity. It is no worse for a company to make money than for an individual, and the hope of profit is the proper motive of great enterprises. It cannot be shown that it is wrong even for the stockholders of a road to organize themselves into a construction company to build their own road and to avail themselves of the profits of such construction, not even when the profits come from government grants and sub- sidies, any more than it is wrong for a farmer to do his own work and avail himself of the profits of his industr)'. It has been decided by the district court of the United States, that government grants to railroads are gifts outright, not trust funds to be held, expended and accounted for to the government by the directors of such roads.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 391
If now Congress, through ignorance or corruption, has made unnecessarily large grants, the fault is at its door, not at that of the stockholders or the construction company ; and he who lays the charge of corruption upon a company, because it does not or has not voluntarily returned the bounty which the government proffered to the enterprise of the country as an inducement to enter upon and consummate those great national highways which will return a thousand fold for all its outlays, demands a refine- ment of virtue in these men found in no other calling in life. But when such a ring, for the sake of private gain, so runs up the cost of a road as to depress the value of its stock and bonds and entail exorbitant rates upon its use, it does an unpardonable wrong to the outside stock- and bond-holders and to the general public.
The third charge strikes at the consolidation of companies. When the consolidation consists simply in the combination of separate adjacent lines into one through line, it is in the inter- est of the business public, as it tends to increase the efficiency of the road and decrease its rates. Such a union harmonizes conflicting policies and interests, and substitutes the profits of a single company and the expense of a single set of officers, for the profits of separate companies and the expense of many distinct boards of management.
In 1852 seventeen different companies operated the line be- tween New York and Chicago. They have since been reduced to two, the New York Central and Lake Shore lines, and the union has largely reduced the cost, and added immensely to the facilities, of transportation. These advantages, it is true, must be offset in a measure by the centralization of power which may be abused. But when competing roads consolidate solely to destroy competition and increase power, the union is an unmixed evil and portends both fraud and danger. The prevalence of this kind of combination in Great Britain led a distinguished Englishman to affirm, in 1872, that it was a "question whether the state should govern the railroads, or the railroads the state." This has ceased to be a question in some of the states of our Union.
Extravagance and corruption in the management of railways is the fourth count in this bill of indictment. That some of our roads are conducted with wisdom and prudence we know, and all can claim the right to be judged innocent till proved guilt)', yet the developments of the last ten years justify us in suspect- ing that the legitimate incomes of many roads are largely and systematically diverted for the uses and to swell the emoluments of individual officers, or to secure political or legislative suc- cesses in the interest of the road. All such corruption funds
39^
HISTORY OF
are a tax upon the industries of the country, and drawn at last without law from the pockets of the people. •
As for car-companies, fast freight lines and other such imme- diate agencies, while a convenience and a luxury, it must be said they are often, perhaps generally, employed as a device to di- vert the profits of the stockholders to other parties or to saddle a needless tax upon the patrons of the road.
But the most stupendous wrong inflicted upon society by rail- road mismanagement is what is called stock-watering and the capitalization of surplus revenues. They are twin monsters of business depravity, an unmixed and unmitigated evil. The first is positive robbery without the dignity of courage or the plea of poverty, and the capitalization of surplus revenues is little bet- ter; and yet there are honored citizens in many communities whose virtuous souls are shocked at the slightest peccadillos, who complacently acquiesce, if they do not participate, in both.
By the process of capitalizing surplus earnings, the net profits, after deducting large dividends on all investments and paying the interest on the indebtedness of the road, are, if not stolen, expended in building new and in buying up depreciated branch lines for the benefit of speculators, or in making permanent im- provements. The amounts thus expended are charged up to capital account, and additional stock issued therefor. This policy throws upon all productive industries and capital a geometrical system of taxation. It first overtaxes, to secure the surplus profit ; and when this is capitalized, it entails increased charges on all future transactions to make up a dividend on this fraudu- lently augmented capital stock. Considering the relation of railroads to the industries and the productive capital of the country, it is contended that all which the public welfare will al- low is a reasonable return upon the money actually and properly invested in the roads, and that any surplus expended in improve- ments should inure to the benefit of general business.
It would be a long, difficult and perhaps impossible task, to determine from railroad accounts how much of their nominal capital is represented by stock acquired without investment. Careful estimates based upon what is thought to be reliable data give the following results in respect to three of the great roads of the country :
|
Name of line. |
Present capital in stock and bonds. |
Probable actu- al cost. |
Excess of capital over actual cost. |
|
Erie line from New York to Dunkirk, 459 |
$ioS, 807,000 190,188,137 78,290,374 |
$40,000,000 75,000,000 67,000,000 |
$68,807,000 .15,188,137 11,290,374 |
|
New York Central line to Chicago, 9S0 |
|||
|
Pennsylvania line from Philadelphia to |
|||
|
Total |
*376,a85.5>i |
^182,000,000 1 $195,285,511 |
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 393
Thus on these three roads alone ^195,285,511, or a sum ex- ceeding by $13,285,511 their entire cost, represents stock for which not a dollar was ever invested, and the business over these roads must contribute $19,000,000 annually to pay a dividend of ten per cent, upon this illegitimate stock of honest capitalists. This is the way great fortunes are amassed by men who are scandalized by the beggary and theft of poverty, and daily thank God that they are not " as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." Much of their original capital and its annual income are sponged, by the laws of what is called legitimate business, out of the producers and consumers who are compelled to patronize the roads, and God only knows how many industries perish by the loss of their profits, or how many hungry souls die for the want of bread thus filched from their mouths. But what matters it ? The rich man will endow an asylum or build a church in his will, and be eulogized at his burial, and the poor will
"go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood ; Yea, beji a hair of him for memory, And, dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it as a rich legacy Unto their issue."
But these are only three out of thirteen hundred railways. If two thousand three hundred and twenty-nine miles of road can roll so heavy a weight upon the enterprise of the country, what power to paralyze may be exercised lay seventy thousand — one- half the railroad mileage of the world. ,
It may be true, as is claimed, that the present tariff of rates pays no more than a fair income upon the nominal stock of the railways of the country as a whole, but that reply does not satisfy the gravamen of tlie complaint, which is that the public is being taxed to pay an income upon capital never invested. Undoubt- edly a careful examination would show that the present rates on some roads are not exorbitant, but it is believed they are excep- tions. There are doubtless roads on which the receipts do not pay an income upon the original investment, but they were un- wisely located and should never have been built. If a man buys a ledge for a plumbago mine, he cannot justly call upon the public to pay him an income upon his foolish investment, neither can a railroad company which builds into a barren waste where the development of business is impossible.
We are not now discussing the exceptions, but the general question, and are anxious to learn how the acknowledged diffi- culty is to be overcome, and relief afforded to the great indus- tries of the land. In considering the remedies, we have a right to assume that competition between railroads owned and directed
394 HISTORY OF
by private companies will never bring relief, for experience in France, Prussia, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States has demonstrated that in the end it always leads to combina- tions which aggravate the evil.
There seems to be no alternative left but governmental inter- ference. But here we are met by the positive denial in presi- dential vetos and the opinions of high legal authorities, of the constitutional right of such interference. But these denials are contested by counter arguments and legal opinions of equal force and weight, and the judicial and political opinion of the country I think is gradually acquiescing in the view that the power to regulate commerce between the states given to con- gress by the constitution includes the right to regulate the traf- fic upon the great net-work of railroads over which by far the greater part of our commerce passes. The right of congress to fix rates and fares and to build railroads has never come di- rectly before the supreme court, but decisions on other ques- tions, given by Justices Miller and Story and Chief-Justice Mar- shall, seem to cover the ground.
"For myself," says Justice Miller, "I must say that I have no doubt of the right of congress to prescribe all needful and proper regulations for the conduct of this immense traffic over any railroad which has voluntarily become a part of one of those lines of inter-state communication, or to authorize the creation of such roads when the purposes of inter-state transportations of persons and property justify and require it."
This language covers only such roads as lie partly in different states, and implies that those which lie wholly within a state are to be left to the jurisdiction of state authority. By far the larger part of our roads are of the former class, and their rates will be likely to determine the rates of state roads.
In discussing the power of government to intervene by direct legislation, there is a line of argument which seems to be strangely overlooked. The right of eminent domain, contraven- ing the right of private property, can only be secured to govern- ment on the claim that personal interests must be subordinated to the welfare of society. Now no railroad could be built if the government, state or national, did not confer upon the company the power to condemn by commission and take private property on just compensation. But the government, it is conceded, has and can exercise this right only where the private property con- demned is taken for public use, and of course it cannot delegate the power to a company except upon the same condition. Hence the government is obligated to protect the public in eveiy case against the misuse or abuse of such power. This it can do only by regulating the management of the roads. They are common
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 393
carriers and cannot be allowed to take advantage of public necessities to amass a fortune at the expense of other interests.
Leaving the discussion of this difiicult question here, let us con- sider a few of the methods by which it is proposed to remove the hardships which rest so heavily upon our interior commerce.
1. It is proposed that the government shall purchase and run the roads in the interest of the public.
2. That congress shall regulate the conduct and policy of the roads by direct legislation.
3. That congress shall indirectly regulate charges and manage- ment by one or more roads to be controlled or owned by the government, and by the improvement of natural or the con- struction of artificial water-ways.
These three constitute the chief remedies proposed. We have space only to discuss them briefly in order.
The first proposition is, that the government shall purchase and run the roads. If now we concede the power of govern- ment to do this, there still remains the question of policy. It has been done successfully by some of the arbitrary govern- ments of Europe. Where this plan prevails, the roads, when built by the state, are located with reference to the wants of each sec- tion and the whole community, looking both to its foreign and domestic interests, and constitute an integral system. They are thoroughly constructed at a reasonable outlay, and so conducted as to pay a fair return only upon the original cost. Under this system, the management of the railways partakes of the gen- eral character of the administration of government, and, as a rule, in our time will be efficient and favor the development of business and the accommodation of the public. But this pater- nal system governs too much, and tends to dwarf rather than to develop popular enterprise and business capacity. The genius of our government simply protects society, while individual en- terprise regulates affairs and develops resources. The govern- ment that is called to interfere too far with the industries of the citizen, in time may destroy his liberties. But we need not de- lay on this branch of the subject, for it will be impossible, for a long time to come, for the government to purchase the railroads of the country. It has been estimated that the 15000 miles of English railways would cost the government ^250,000,000. It is idle, therefore, to entertain the proposition that our government shall purchase our 70,000 miles of road at their nominal value, after their stock has been so watered as to leave upon the market to-day, according to a leading journal, $500,000,000 bonds that pay no interest. Such a remedy would bankrupt our govern- ment and open the way to official peculations and frauds which would rival those of Turkey.
39^5 HISTORY OF
The second proposition is to regulate the management and policy of the roads by direct legislation. Unquestionably the states have and should exercise the power, by immediate legisla- 'tion, to prevent stock inflations and the participation, directly or indirectly, by officers of railways, in the profits of fast freight lines and palace cars operated upon their roads. The evil is gigantic, and should be crushed by superior authority. Con- gress might and should require each company to publish at every depot, and in local papers, their distances, rates, fares, classifi- cations, drawbacks and special tarift's, and forbid any variation from these under heavy penalties. They might require that companies should furnish proper facilities for the accommoda- tion of the public, and make an annua! detailed and reliable re- port to the interior department of all their transactions. Con- gress might prohibit the consolidation or combination, by lease or otherwise, of parallel or competing roads. But when we re- quire of congress to remedy the essential difficult}', by regulat- ing the tariff of rates and fares on thirteen hundred railroads, aggregating a net-work of seventy two thousand miles, and em- bracing an infinite variety of grades, curves, climates, cost of construction and running, quantity and character of business and the like, we throw upon the national legislature a task so herculean and difficult as to be impossible. To do such a work justly and fairly would require an amount of information which it will be difficult to secure and in respect to circumstances which are constantly varying.
In addition to this, we have the opinions of such men as Judge Curtis and Mr. Evarts, that they who hold railroad stock which they have honestly purchased in an open market, even though it represents watered stock, have vested rights which will prohibit either the national or a state legislature from intermeddling. To lower rates or fares, or otherwise interfere in a way to decrease the value of their capital so invested, would be, it is claimed, taking private property for public uses without just compensa- tion in violation of the constitution. We also have a decision of Chief-Justice Lawrence of Illinois, that the acts of that state imposing a tariff of specific charges upon railroad companies were in violation of vested rights, and therefore unconstitutional. I am aware that we have, in answer to this, a dictum of the vox populi, equivalent in the judgment of some to the vox Dei, and therefore in the nature of a higher law, emanating from a pop- ular convention, that " the doctrine of vested rights belongs to a past age and despotic rule, and has no legitimate place in the jurisprudence of a free people." But our poor lawyers and judges as a class have received so little of the subtle afflatus of diis modern illumination that they cannot appreciate the force
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 397
and authority of this revelation of the caucus, and seem strangely disposed to cling to old constitutions and precedents.
The second proposition, therefore, is beset with insuperable difficulties. We now come to the third.
The principle of this is competition directed and controlled by congress. This is substantially the recommendation of the special senate committee .ippointed to examine and report upon this subject. It is proposed :
ist, That one or more extended roads shall be built or guar- anteed by government, under a well guarded charter, and placed under national control.
2d, That one or more double track freight railways, owned or controlled by government, shall be thoroughly and honestly constructed and operated at a low rate of speed.
3d, That water-ways suitable for transportation, both natural and artificial, shall be furnished either by the aid or under the guarantee and control of government. These, it is believed, so built and controlled and operated, at low rates, in competition with private roads, and without the possibility of combination, will regulate our entire system of inter-state traffic and travel.
This plan, it will readily be admitted, has merits, but that it would realize the expectations of its projectors, if carried into execution, I very much doubt. It is easy to see that it would be as real an interference, though not as direct, with the property rights of the present holders of railroad stock, as a regulation of rates and fares by national legislation. But a more serious objection to it is, that it seems to be an impossible remedy.
Who is to build and operate railroads and water-ways under such restrictions ? Not individuals, certainly, for private capital does not so invest. If done at all, it must be done by congress ; and congress will not dare do it, for the last phase of popular sentiment is that railways shall be built by private capital and run without charge. The people demand that there shall be no more subsidies for public improvements, and so we must wait till the tide turns before this fond dream of the senate commit- tee can be realized. If it could be carried out at the expense of New England, I should expect to see it voted at the next session of congress, but as it cannot, we must conclude that we have not yet found our panacea.
My expectation is that time, which has solved so many dark problems, will solve this. Neither railroad competition nor hasty legislation and caucus resolutions, demanded by unin- formed and inconsiderate people, will ever fairly adjust railroad tariffs to the incomes of other investments, but the competition of this with other industries, and the public demand for a fair division of profits looking to the development of national re- sources and the general welfare, may so adjust them.
398 • HISTORY OF
No system of corporate wrong, however cunningly and com- pactly planned, can permanently resist the organized force of public opinion when brought to bear wisely and consistently against it. It will crumble and give way like our strongest ma- terial structures under the pressure of a power of nature. Mass- ive foundations, which have resisted the assaults of ages, have at last been sundered and overthrown by the silent growth of a sapling. So corporate power, however buttressed by wealth and legislation, must in the end yield to the demands of public jus- tice. The general sense of right is a resistless force, for it is the intervention of the divine will in human affairs. There is a political danger which seems never to be regarded in the con- sideration of this question, but which may yet so force itself upon the public mind, as to make it a prevailing element in its final settlement.
In one of the able papers of The Federalist, Hamilton says : "It will always be far more easy for the state government to en- croach upon national authorities, than for the national govern- ment to encroach upon the state authorities." The same thought is reiterated by Madison in a later number of that work.
Organized as the government was, the tendency was unques- tionably in that direction, and would have continued so if peace had remained unbroken. But all powers, political as well as physical, grow by e.xercise, and the framers of the constitution did not and could not anticipate the terrible activity into which the latent and reserved powers of the government would be called. They did not and could not foresee that the progress of science and invention in less than a century would largely de- stroy the force of their reasoning.
Our net-work of electric nerves and the broad system of iron arteries, along which pours the life-blood of business, demand a central heart. They have brought the extremes of the country into immediate and hourly communication, and have reversed the drift of powers and prerogatives from the state governments to the national. Will not the unifying and placing at the dicta- tion of government all railroads which control so large a part of the business and capital of the country, which stretch into every district of the land and command the largest abilities, impart a dangerous energy to this centripetal tendency of political power ? There are evils on all sides of the circle around which we re- volve, and they demand the grave and earnest study of every man who has the well-being of his country at heart.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 399
CHAPTER CIX.
GEOLOGY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Governor Woodbury has the credit of recommending, for the first time in the United States, a geological sun'ey, with a view to the promotion of agriculture by chemical analysis of the vari- ous soils in the state. He based this proposal on two clauses in the constitution of New Hampshire, which are as follows : " It shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates, at all future periods of this government, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences." It also inculcates " the promotion of agri- culture, the arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures and the natural history of the country." This recommendation was made in his gubernatorial message, in 1823. He was in advance of the men of his time. Fifteen years later Governor Hill re- newed the proposal for a survey. It was not then adopted ; but during the administration of Governor Page, in 1839, a law was passed authorizing a geological survey of the state. Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston was appointed surveyor, and his first re- port was made in 1841. He spent three years in the work, and a large quarto volume, published by the state, contained the results of his labors.
In 1868, the legislature provided for a new survey; and Prof. Charles H. Hitchcock was appointed surveyor. His first report was made in 1869. In 1874, the first volume of his elaborate work, entitled "The Geology of New Hampshire," was pub- lished, being a ro^al octavo of six hundred and sixtj'-seven pages. This volume contains the natural history of the state, including its geological structure, rocks, minerals, soil, climate, together with the flora, fauna, and insects found within its borders. The report will be completed in three volumes quarto. Two theories respecting the geological formation of the state have heretofore been advanced and defended by different scientists. Prof. Hitch- cock proposes a third, which he thus explains :
" In general the new views refer the great mass of our rocks to the older groups, corresponding to the "primary." A few slates and limestones are of Silurian age, as proved by their contained fossils. The granites seem to have been poured out in a fluid condition, and to have occupied depressions on the sur- face. We have also divided the crystalline rocks more minutely than has been done elsewhere, and for the want of names have been obliged to invent new ones from localities within the state.
400
HISTORY OF
The strata seem to belong to the Laurentian, Atlantic, Labra- dorian and Huronian systems of the Eozoic series, and to the Cambrian and Silurian of the Paleozoic. The Eozoic series is well represented ; and as the state must have been largely out of water during all the later periods of geological time, no intima- tion is given of what transpired after the time of its elevation.
It is very difficult to identify one set of crystalline rocks with another. Evidence derived from mineral structure must always be inferior in value to that afforded by fossils. Superposition when very plain lies at the foundation of the structure of the paleontological column, but may be deceptive in the absence of relics of life. The basis of our theory of the stratigraphical structure rests upon superposition,' or, in the case of inversion, to a study of the topographical arrangement of what seem to be continuous formations, often so considered on account of their mineral composition.
Those who are unwilling to accept our theory, which has been derived entirely from a study of the rocks in the field, must show its falsity by means of facts acquired by the same pains-taking method. The following scheme may represent the stratigraphical column of New Hampshire, commencing at the bottom :
Laurentian. \ Porphyritic gneiss.
Atlantic.
Labrador or Pemigewasset.
N Aliuviuvi.
O
I Bethlehem group, Lake Winnipiseogee gneiss, Montalban or White Mountain series, Franconia breccia.
I Conway granite, Albany granite, Chocorua granite, Ossipyte, Compact feldspars, Exeter syenites.
i Lisbon group, \ Lyman group, ( Auriferous conglomerate.
f Rockingham schists,
Calciferous mica schist, \ Coos group.
Clay slates, [ Mt. Mote conglomerate.
( Helderberg limestones, slates, ( conglomerates, etc
i Glacial drift,
■J Champlain clays,
( Terrace period."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 4OI
A few of the more important of these groups of rocks call for a passing notice in this brief article. The Atlantic system is thus described :
1. "'Our researches in New Hampshire lead us to revive an ancient designation for the crystalline rocks along the Atlantic sea-board in distinction from the Laurentian or Adirondack group. The rocks of this system extend continuously from Maine to Alabama, though nearly concealed by the superficial formations between New York and Philadelphia. Our theory in regard to their age is that they are posterior in time to the Lau- rentian, but anterior to the Cambrian and later formations. There is a difference in their mineral character, and certain gen- eral considerations lead to the belief that the eastern border of the continent was built up after that which has for the past fif- teen years been distinctively known as the Laurentian. I can classify them as follows in New Hampshire. It remains to be proved by investigation in other states, whether any similar classification can be followed elsewhere. I cannot confidently give the formations in their proper order in time, without further study. I. Bethlehem group, ii. Manchester or Lake Winni- piseogee range, iii. Montalban or White Mountain series, iv. Franconia breccia."
2. " Montalban or the White Mountain series. The latter term was employed originally to designate territorially the cen- tral gneissic and granitic region of the state, including what is now referred to the Laurentian and Atlantic divisions. The rock is often characterized by the presence of the mineral an- dalusitc. Any one who has observed the rocks upon Mt. Wash- ington along the traveled routes from Ammonoosuc to the Half- Way house on the^ carriage road, may recall crystalline bunches like small, woody, weather-worn chips scattered through the ledges. This mineral is called andalusite, and occurs abundantly in the White Mountains, though not universally. The rock con- taining it forms the main mass of the Mt. Washington range from Gorham to Hart's Location, ending with Mt. Webster."
3. " The New Hampshire granites, which are best known as building materials, belong to this formation. They are quarried in Concord, Fitzwilliam, Milford, Farmington, Hooksett, Pelliam, Salem, Marlborough, Troy, Sunapee and elsewhere. The fa- miliar name of "Granite State" is very appropriate, as our re- sources in granite are rich, unlimited and widespread. It is probably found in greater or smaller amount in every town un- derlaid by the White Mountain series. Besides these there are other extensive granites of the Labrador series, and limited patches of indigenous and eruptive masses in the Merrimack and Coos groups."
26
402
HISTORY OF
4. The gold-bearing rocks belonging to the Huronian System. " The existence of gold along Connecticut river was first inti- mated in the Geology of Vermont, by the finding of specimens at Springfield, Vt., and the comparison of the rocks with those of the auriferous district further west. In the Geology of Maine it was also spoken of as one of the metals characterizing the schist group extending from Bellows Falls to New Brunswick. The earliest discovery of gold in any part of it seems to have been made by Mr. Hanshet in Plainfield, N. H., in 1854. About the same time Moses Durkee washed gold out of alluvium in Lebanon and Hanover.
The first discovery of gold in Lyman was made by Professor Henry Wurtz of New York, in 1864. It was found m galena. The next year J. Henry Allen and Charles Knapp, independ- ently of each other, discovered gold in the rock in Lisbon. This led to the organization of a mining company. In 1866 a better vein was found in Lyman, in the clay slate, and an association known as the Dodge Gold Mining Company formed to work it. The two companies erected each a mill of ten stamps, and be- fore June I, 1869, had sold not less than $16,000 worth of gold. The vein is whitish quartz, often glassy, characterized by masses of pyrites, ankerite, galena and slate scattered through it. Span- gles of gold are common in the gangue. An examination of the rock and imbedded minerals showed that there was an aver- age of $18.90 of gold to the ton, and that most of it was con- tained in the clear quartz, the accompanying minerals being nearly destitute of it. The mineral character of this vein agrees with that of the auriferous sheets in Vermont and Canada. The gold is very nearly pure, containing only half of one per cent, of silver."
Dr. Jackson mentions in his report the following metals and minerals found within the limits of the state : "Talc, limestone, talc and soapstone, iron, lead, zinc, tin, copper, pyrites, silver, gold, titanium, titanic iron, plumbago, ber}d, mica, manganese, arsenic and molybdena."
The report of Professor Hitchcock contains the following re- marks upon the Relations of Geology to Agriculture : "The mat- ter of all soils capable of sustaining vegetation exists in two forms, inorganic and organic. The first contains twelve chem- ical elements, viz., o,\ygen, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, silicon, and the metals — potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminum, magne- sium, iron and manganese. In the organic part the elements are four, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. The inorganic elements are derived from the rocks ; the organic elements from decaying animal and vegetable matter, so that it is of the earthy constituents we must speak. They do not indeed occur in their
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 403
simple state, but as water, sulphates, phosphates, carbonic acid, silicates of potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, alumnia, iron, etc. The average amount of silicates or sand in soil is eighty in one hundred parts. Since the rocks differ considerably in composi- tion, we should expect a corresponding difference in the soils derived from them. Such is the fact to a great extent, where the soil is simply the result of the disintegration of the rock beneath it. It is sufficiently so in many districts to form char- acteristic soils. Thus, over quartz rocks and some sandstones, we find a very sandy and barren soil, though it is said that in nearly all soils enough silicates of lime and magnesia are pres- ent to answer the purposes of vegetation ; but the alkalies and phosphates may be absent. When the rock is limestone, the soil is sometimes quite barren for the want of other ingredients, and also in consequence of the difficulty of decomposition. Clay, also, may form a soil too tenacious and cold. The sand- stones that contain marly beds, and some of the tertiary rocks of analogous character, form excellent soils. So does clay slate and especially calciferous mica schist. The amount of potash and soda in gneiss and granite often makes a rich soil from these rocks, and the trap rocks form a fertile though scanty soil. * * * There are beds of limestone for agricultural purposes in Plainfield, Lyme, Orford, Haverhill, Lisbon, Lyman, Little- ton and elsewhere. The slaty soils of the Connecticut valley are superior to those along the coast. ******* The greater portion of the state is underlaid by gneiss. This is practically the same as granite ; so that the words granite and gneiss convey the same meaning so far as mineral composition is concerned. The gneiss is apt to produce better soils than the granite. Thq soluble element present is usually potash, from ten to twelve per cent. This is certainly a very valuable sub- stance to be added to the soil, and nature is crumbling down the granites continually. This is done by the action of the atmos- phere." The sun, air and rain are constantly wearing away "the everlasting hills" and filling up the plains and valleys with the debris.
404 HISTORY OF
CHAPTER ex.
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
All article on the distribution of plants in New Hampshire, prepared by William T. Flint, appears in Professor Hitchcock's Geology of the state. From that paper many of the following facts are gleaned. There are twenty-seven orders which consti- tute the flora of New Hampshire. The white pine has been the best known and most valued of our timbers, ever since the offi- cers of king George provoked the displeasure of the early set- tlers, by carving their "broad arrows" on the tallest mast trees in valleys of the rivers. These trees in some localities grew to an immense height. In the biography of the elder Wheelock, trees were said to be found on the Dartmouth plain two hundred feet high ; in one instance, by actual measurement, a tree was found two hundred and seventy feet long. The pitch and red pines are more limited in their range. The pitch pine is found on the sandy plains and drift knolls of the river valleys. It is most abundant in the southeastern and central portions of the state. In the White Mountain regions the balsam fir and black spruce grow together in about equal quantities. The hemlock is found in almost every section of the state. The first growth equaled the white pines in diameter and height. Most of these evergreens have been felled and sawed into boards during the last forty years. The arbor vitae grows in the swamps in the northern part of the state. The hackmatacks, spruces and firs form the most attractive features of our mountain scenery in the winter. Every variety of the maple is found in nearly .all towns in the state. The beech and sugar maple make up the larger part of the " hard wood " forests ; and in later years these have fallen by the woodman's axe, to feed our engines and stoves. So great has been the destruction of our forest trees, that Penn- sylvania coal is carried as far north as Flanover, for fuel. Birch, of which there are four species, and the poplar are scattered broadcast over the state. These trees, formerly considered quite worthless, have now become exceedingly valuable for manufac- turing purposes. The entire family of ashes and oaks, of which there are six species, are extensively used in the making of fur- niture and the finishing of houses. The same is true of the butternut and chestnut. These native woods are by many pre- ferred to the imported. The elm is a majestic tree for shade
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 40$
and beauty. It is also used at the present day for timber, es- pecially in the manufacture of carts and carriages. Shrubby plants have greatly multiplied since the forests have been cut down. They spring up spontaneously about every walk and hedge, and in the uncultivated pastures. Many of them yield a large revenue in berries to the busy hands that pick them. Mr. Flint enumerates, in his catalogue of plants in New Hampshire, more than twelve hundred varieties.
Of the common animals which constitute the fauna of our state, it is not necessary here to write. Their names are too familiar to need repetition. The fox, wild-cat, bear and wolf have become quite rare and are usually confined to the moun- tainous regions. The beaver, deer, moose, otter and martin have, with few e.xceptions, disappeared. After the learned Buf- fon wrote his natural histoiy, Mr. Jefferson made some criticisms upon the work and pointed out some errors in it, in his " Notes on Virginia." When these gentlemen met in Paris, Buffon gave to Jefferson a copy of his work, saying: "When Mr. Jefferson shall have read this, he will be perfectly satisfied that I am right." Mr. Jefferson was determined to prove to him that the American deer was not the red deer of Europe ; nor the moose the reindeer of Lapland. He therefore procured the horns of a Virginia deer and the skeleton and stuffed skin of a New Hampshire moose. He wrote to General Sullivan to procure the latter. He was obliged to raise a company of twenty men to capture a moose near the White Mountains. The expense of the foray, the bill of the taxidermist and the freight to Paris were forty guineas, which Mr. Jefferson cheerfully paid to gain a scientific victory over the learned Frenchman.
CHAPTER CXI.
UNDECIDED QUESTIONS IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY.
" Here," said a student to Casaubon, as they entered the old hall of the Sorbonne, "is a building in which men have disputed for more than four hundred years." "And," asked Casaubon, "what has been settled.' " There is a sad meaning in the ques- tion of the aged professor. There are many important questions in American history, relating both to facts and opinions, which are constantly debated but never decided. Some of these con-
4o6 HISTORY OF
cern the reputation of the early settlers of New Hampshire. In studying the records of our state, a question meets us at the very opening of our investigations:' Were our fathers justifiable in their treatment of the Indians? Most censors and critics of the past unhesitatingly answer, " No ! " Moralists and historians frequently give the same reply. It is proper to remark, in the first place, that we must judge of men of former ages by the light they enjoyed, and the circumstances in which they were placed. They differ from us in several particulars. They were strangers and pilgrims among savages, and in a wilderness. They were in the minority ; consequently their perils and their fears ware greater. They had never been taught the equality of all races, nor the necessity of treating all men as equals. They believed that men should be estimated according to their moral worth and intellectual power. The Indians, whom modern phil- anthropists think they ought to have treated with greater kind- ness, were suspicious, treacherous, revengeful, and implacable. They sought occasions of assault ; they had no responsible gov- ernments which could enforce obedience to treaties. Their chiefs ruled by their personal influence and bravery. The tribes were numerous, and the promises of one chief had no influence over others. The subjects of these sagamores were ignorant, and could not appreciate arguments ; they were passionate, and would not wait for a legal investigation of wrongs ; they were revenge- ful, and set no limit to the degree of penalty inflicted, or the number involved in it. The crime of a single white man was avenged upon the race wherever found. The Indians had no social qualities ; they were filthy in person, repulsive in habits, unprincipled in morals, and, in a word, very disagreeable neigh- bors. They made war, like beasts of prey, by stealth, in the night and from places of concealment. They avoided the open field and the light of day. They lay in ambush, near your path or about your dwelling, till they could murder you alone and un- armed. Under the garb of friendship, their spies entered your house ; and, while enjoying your hospitality, opened at mid- night your doors to their associates. So they destroyed men, families, hamlets and towns. When the house of the aged Waldron of Dover was thus entered, and those grim savages hacked that venerable man in pieces with their hatchets, that single councilor was worth more to the world than all the sav- ages then roaming the wilds of New Hampshire. When his eagle eye was quenched in death, more virtue, intelligence and magnanimity passed from earth than all the surviving savages of the continent possessed. After the lapse of more than two centuries, with an entire change of the relative condition of the Whites and Indians, we do not to-day treat the natives of the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 407
country so kindly as did the early settlers of New Hampshire. Still, the sins of " the living present " are passed over in silence by the indignant philanthropist, while the faults of " the buried past " are greatly exaggerated. It is safe to war upon the dead. They offer no resistance. Juvenal chose, for satire, those whose ashes reposed in the Flaminian way ; so the cowardly Falstaff fleshed his sword in the body of the dead Percy.
There are other charges which still more deeply affect the reputation of our ancestors in New Hampshire. They shared in the intolerance and superstitions of the age. They joined in persecuting Quakers and in prosecuting witches. Many authors condemn them, for both these facts, unheard and undefended ; others attempt to vindicate their conduct in both cases. The present brief narrative allows of no detailed account of that sad portion of our history, nor of any elaborate vindication of the actors in it. A brief quotation from a lecture of one of the ablest jurists who ever sat on the bench of the supreme court of New Hampshire may suffice. With regard to the banishment of Quakers and other sects hostile to the government of the colony he says : " The right of the colonial government to ex- clude persons actually settled in the colony existed from the power to make laws, constitute courts and magistrates, and punish offences. Banishment was a recognized mode of pun- ishment, and this was their common penalty for grave of- fences against their religious policy. It was peculiarly adapted to a commonwealth which was to be governed on religious prin- ciples, and to suppress the promulgation of religious doctrines inimical to its welfare. The Puritans desired to remove the dis- turbers of their peace ; and many, if not most of these, were religious controversialists." Every question, in those days, took a religious turn ; hence the policy of the age was religious, and the religion of the people was political. Danger to the state might grow out of fanaticism as well as from treason ; and the safety of the state required the suppression of both these ele- ments of ruin. Dr. Palfrey, the learned and candid historian of the Puritans, writes : " No householder has a more unqualified title to declare who shall have the shelter of his roof, than had the governor and company of Massachusetts Bay to decide who should be sojourners or visitors within their precincts. Their danger was real, though the experiment proved it to be far less than was at first supposed. The provocations which were offered were exceedingly offensive. It is hard to say what should have been done with disturbers so unmanageable." Our fathers were, undoubtedly, chargeable with intolerance. Are we better than they ? Is not our toleration of all sects, in religion, rather the result of indifference than charity ? In politics, we are not a
4oS HISTORY OF
whit behind the most bigoted of our ancestors in disarming op- ponents ; it is true we do not peril their liberty or lives, but we destroy their reputation, which, to many, is still dearer. The persecution of witches was the delusion of the age. All classes shared in the folly and the crime. " In England, the law against witchcraft was enforced with as little doubt of its existence and of its being a proper object of criminal cognizance, as prevailed in Massachusetts ; and the executions there were much more numerous." The wisdom of our day does not punish, but pro- motes, " spiritual manifestations " quite as puerile and absurd as those that were once suppressed by law.
The people of New Hampshire and Maine have a personal interest in the character of the early proprietors and settlers of these states. The question is still debated, whether Mason and Gorges, the early owners of Maine and New Hampshire, ought to be classed among mercenary adventurers or the founders of States. Captain John Mason received such title to the territory of the Granite State as kings and corporations- could bestow. He planted colonies upon the soil and gave name to the state. He persevered where most men would have failed ; he hoped where others would have despaired ; he made magnificent plans for himself, but they came to nought. He expended a large es- tate upon his plantations in the wilderness, and received no re- turns. When he died he bequeathed to his heirs nothing but a legacy of quarrels and lawsuits which lasted for nearly a cen- tury. His whole life may be illustrated by the troubled sleep of the hungry man, who "dreameth, and behold he eateth ; but he waketh and his soul is empty." He was a martyr to "a great idea."
In the distribution of New England territory by the English king, Maine fell to the share of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who received, with the title to the soil, unlimited authority to found a state or kingdom, as his ambition might dictate. Now it cer- tainly concerns the people of Maine to know the character of their proprietor, and the settlers he introduced. Bancroft says of him : "The nature of Gorges was generous, and his piety sin- cere. He sought pleasure in doing good ; fame, by advancing Christianity among the heathen ; a durable monument, by erect- ing houses, villages and towns." There is, at this moment, a warm discussion maintained by the Maine Historical Society and some literary gentlemen out of the state, respecting this man and the first colony he planted. The friends of Gorges adopt the views of Bancroft and defend him and his followers. His op- ponents affirm that he was a mere adventurer, a follower of
** Mammon, tlie tcist erected spirit that fell From Ue.-lven;"
and that the company which he hired to make the first settle-
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 409
ment in Maine, at Popham, in 1607, were convicts and felons ; and tliat this colony was a precursor of Botany Bay. Mr. Wil- liam Willis, in a work entitled, "Voyages to the East Coast of America in the XVI. Century," says : "Another serious cause of failure should not be omitted ; and that was the employment, in the various expeditions, of vagabonds and convicted felons, of whom the English nation was but too glad to be rid, in voyages of unusual danger." While Mr. Willis admits that criminals were employed as sailors, he denies that Popham was settled by such men ; because Gorges designed to found a state, not a colony of convicts, and he Icnew his own interests too well to choose idle vagabonds for the founders of a new colony. A writer in the Historical Magazine for May, 1869, says in reply: "Popham's sole idea was to get riches by convict labor ; and Gorges' plan was to rid England of dangerous riffraff." He quotes Lloyd, a biographer of Popham, who says of the chief justice : "Not only did he punish malefactors but provide for them. He first [in 1707, at Sagadahoc] set up the discovery of New England to maintain and employ those who could not live honestly; who would rather hang than work." Lord Bacon, also, called them " the scum of people, wicked and condemned men." Fuller speaks of men who "leapt thither from the gal- lows," "spit out of the mouth of England." In fact, the same charges have, at times, been made of every colony on this con- tinent. Perhaps it is well to heed the advice of Juvenal to the Romans, in tracing genealogies :
" Go trace thy boasted way through ages past, Bethink thee where thou needs must land at last; A base renown thy very nation draws From banded culprits that defied the laws, And he from whom those tkiods of glory roll, Or tended sheep, or — canst thou bear it ? — stole ! "
But the Popham colony came to nought. All the magnificent schemes of Gorges failed. He was the victim of "great expec- tations." At the hour of his decease, after forty years of labor and the expenditure of more than twenty thousand pounds, he grasped " a barren sceptre,"
"No son of his succeeding."
Success, with most men, is proof of virtue ; but failure is dem- onstration, "strong as proofs of Holy Writ," of corruption. Had Mason and Gorges succeeded in their plans, the hundred voices of fame would have blazoned their deeds down
"To the last syllable of recorded time."
4IO HISTORY OF
CHAPTER CXII,
PROPER NAMES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Coleridge remarks " that the history of a word is often worth more than the history of a campaign." This is specially true of proper names. England, alone, has about thirty thousand surnames. They originated about the time of the conquest, A. D., 1066. Originally, men had but one name. When heathen nations became Christians, they received new names, usually of Hebrew origin. Of course many families had the same name, and they could be distinguished only by sobriquets or nick- names. When these new converts became citizens, owned land and held offices, it became necessary to distinguish them by such appellations as would be recognized in law. Hence surnames were invented. These were so called because " they were, at first, written, not in a direct line after the Christian name, but above it, between the lines," and, hence they were called in Latin supra notnina; in Italian, supra nomc; in French, surnoms — over-names. The "sur" is the French preposition, meaning " over," not the English sir, which is formed from the Latin " senior," which in the Romance tongues became senhor, seign- eur and sieur, and in English, passed into sire and sir. The Latin word for mistress, "domina," with the prefi.Y "mea," my, has undergone a more remarkable transformation ; mea domina has passed into "madame," "madam," "marm," "mum," and "m" as in the response of the maid-of-all-work, "yes 'm," which means, etymologically, "yes, my lady." The names of places of Saxon origin are often compounded of two or more roots. An old proverb says :
*' In ford, in ham. in ley and ton The most of English surnames run."
As the names of men and of their residences are often identical, this distich applies to local as well as surnames. Mr. Lower adds to these familiar terminations, the following :
" Ing, Hurst and Wood, Wick, Sted and Field, Full many English surnames yield ; With Thorpe and Bourne, Cote, Caster, Oke, Combe, Bury, Don and Siowe and Sloke, With Ey and Port, Shaw, Worth and Wade HilL Gate, Well, Stone, are many made. Clin, Marsh, and Mouth and Down and Sand, And Beck and Sea with numbers stand."
Ford, from the Sa.xon faran, English fare, to go or pass,
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 4II
means a place where a stream is so shallow as to be passable. Ham is the Saxon for home. Ley, lea, leigh, or legh, is a pasture or field. Ey, ig or ea, either denotes an island or a place near to the water. Ton, tune or town, denotes an en- closure. England is dotted with inclosures. The old Germans, says Tacitus, delighted in separate abodes. Ton or town origi- nally meant a twig, the first element of a hedge ; hence tun, ton or town was a place surrounded by a hedge. Hurst is a wood or grove ; wick, a village, castle or fort ; stow, a perma- nent residence or mansion ; sted, a fixed abode ; combe, a val- ley ; cot, a cottage ; thorpe, a village ; worth, a farm or estate ; burg, bury or borough, a hill or stronghold. Thorpe is of Dan- ish origin. It occurs as prefix and suffix in more than three hundred local English names. It is nearly equivalent to ham. The termination "ing" has a variety of meanings, in the Gothic dialects, ist, It means a son or descendant ; as in the Saxon, Byrning is the son of Byrn ; in the Swedish, Skiolding is the son of Skiold. 2d, It means action when affixed to a verb, as in burning, feeding, etc. 3d, It means a field or country and is found in Icelandic and German proper names, as Lotharingen, the country of Lothar. Bee and burne are Saxon words mean- ing brook or stream ; they often appear in names of places as Beckford, Beckley, Beckwith, Burnham.
The Celts or Kelts were the earliest inhabitants of Great Brit- ain ; of course, they have left many names of places and of men in the English language. An old couplet runs thus :
We may add, also, that by these monosyllables, used as pre- fixes or suffixes, ypu may detect many Celtic names of places. These words mean in English, a town, a heath, a pool, a church, a rock, and a head or promontory. Our local and surnames are borrowed from all the successive races that have peopled Great Britain, the Celts, Romans, Saxdns, Danes and Normans. These names were originally significant of natural features in places or of something peculiar in form, color, figure, residence or occu- pation in men. With us, they have lost their original meanings and are, for the most part, positive misnomers, etymologically considered.
N.\MES OF TOWNS.
Acworth is composed of ac or aec, an oak, and worth, land or estate, and is equivalent to oak-land.
Alton. The first element is uncertain. It is probably the Gothic root alt, old. Alton, therefore, is "old-town."
412 HISTORY OF
Alexandria is the name of an ancient town built by Alexan- der, which word in the Greek means "an aider of men."
Alstead. The first root is uncertain. It may be formed from the Saxon aid, old and sted, a fixed abode or home, meaning old home ; as Alford is oldford.
Allenstown. Allen is from Alan, or Ulfvvin, "wolf of victory," the name of a chief ; and town is the Saxon ton, an enclosure.
Amherst is possibly composed of ham, home, and hurst or herst, a grove, a town in the forest. Some derive the first root from Hamo, a sheriff of Kent.
Antrim, so named from a county in* Ireland, whence the ances- tors of many of its inhabitants had emigrated in lyigandin subsequent years.
Andover. An, andr, endr, in the names of towns, are sup- posed to be abbreviations of Andred or Andrew ; as An-caster, Anston. And-efer now Andover, or Andred's place near a stream.
Atkinson. Atkins is derived by Camden from At, an abbre- viation of Arthur, and kins, a child, allied to the German kind, a child, meaning the son of Arthur ; as Wilkins is the son of Will and Simkins the son of Sim. Atkinson is the son of At- kins or the grandson of Arthur, which in the Celtic means a strong man, a hero. Colonel Theodore Atkinson of Portsmouth owned a large portion of this town when it was chartered, and gave his own name to it.
Barnstead. Barn is supposed to be a compound of two Saxon words, here, barley, and ern, a place ; Barnstead would seem to mean "Barley-place-home." Barton is barley town ; and Ber- wick is barley village.
Barrington. Baring means the children of Bera, a Saxon no- ble ; Barrington, the town of the children of Bera, in Cam- bridgeshire, England.
Bartlett is a diminutive of Bartholomew, which in Hebrew means "the son that suspends the waters."
Bath from the Saxon baeth or bad, a bathing-place, given to a town in Somerset, famed for its hot baths.
Bedford is said to be derived from beado and ford, meaning battle-ford or slaughter-ford. Bosworth gives bedican, to bedike, and ford, a fortified passage.
Bennington is supposed to mean the town of the children of Binna. Ben may be an abbreviation of Benjamin. The town of Bennington in Vermont, and that of the same name in New Hampshire, were named in honor of Gov. Benning Wentworlh.
Bethlehem is Hebrew, and means "house of bread." The prior)' of St. Mary of Bethlehem was converted by Henry VIII. into a hospital and was shortened into Bedlam.
Boscawen is a name of Cornish origin and signifies "a house s'lrrounded b" elder tr-<es."
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 413
Bow is so named from the curve in the river Merrimack.
Bradford means broad ford. There is a town of that name on the Avon, which is Celtic for river.
Brentwood is burnt wood, a town in England, in the county of Essex, which means East Saxons.
Bridgewater needs no interpretation.
Bristol is Welsli in origin, from bris, broken, and tol, a chasm ; a city built near the cleft mountain, where the Avon runs to the sea.
Brookfield reveals its own origin.
Brookline is equally intelligible.
Cambridge is the bridge on the Cam. This is a Celtic word adopted by the Saxons, and means crooked. Chaucer cele- brated this crooked, sluggish, creeping river, now so renowned for the city and university upon its banks, when only a solitary mill was turned by its waters.
" At Trompington, rot far from Canta brigge There goth a brook, and over it a brigge, Upon the which brook, there stood a melle; Now this is very sothe that I you tell."
Campton is Camp-town.
Canaan is borrowed from the Bible and means merchant or trader.
Candia is the modern name of Crete, in the Mediterranean, which was named, by the ancients, Creta or chalk, from the abun- dance of that earth found there ; and Candia may be allied to the Latin verb candeo, to shine or glisten.
Canterbury is the name given by the Saxons to the capital of Cainte or Kent ; and they spelled it Cant-wara-byrig, which means the stronghold of the people of Kent.
Carroll is named in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the Revolutionary patriots.
Centre Harbor speaks for itself.
Charlestown, originally called Number Four, was heroically defended by Captain Phineas Stevens and thirty brave associ- ates, for three days, in April, 1747, against four hundred French and Indians under the command of Mons. Debeline. Captain Stevens, for his gallant conduct, was jjresented with an elegant sword, by Sir Charles Knowles, and in honor of the baronet the town was afterwards called Charlestown.
Chester, in all English names of places, means camp, from the Latin castra. It indicated a Roman encampment. Chester- field is the site of a camp.
Field is from the Saxon, fyllan, to fell, and indicates a plain from which the trees have been felled.
Chichester is a town in Sussex or South Sa.xon, and signifies
414 HISTORY OF
the camp of Cissa, one of the Saxon chiefs. It was at first written "Cissaceaster," or city of Cissa, son of Ella.
Claremont is probably of French origin ; clair and mont, noble mountain.
Colebrook. The first root of this word is of uncertain origin. Coin, in English names, is from the Latin colonia, and desig- nates a Roman colony. Six towns in England are named Colne. Lincoln terminates with the same word. The Saxon word cal means also cole.
Columbia is derived from Columbus.
Concord. " In regard to this name," says Dr. Bouton, " the uniform tradition is, that it was designed to express the entire unanimity in purpose and action which had characterized the in- habitants of Rumford during the period of their controversy with the proprietors of Bow, and, indeed, from the first settle- ment of Penacook."
Conway is of Celtic origin, from con, head or chief, and wy, a river.
Cornish is also a Celtic word, from Cornwall. This word is variously interpreted to mean the horn or promontory of the Gaels ; or, " the altars of the Gael."
Dalton is dale town.
Danbury is the stronghold of the Danes.
Danville is the village of the Danes.
Deerfield is the pasture of the deer.
Deering is the field of the deer ; as Derby is the home of the deer. This name was given to the town by Governor John Went- worth of Portsmouth, in honor of his wife, Frances Deering Wentworth.
Derry, like Druid, is supposed to be derived from the Celtic deru, an oak.
Dorchester, in old English, "Doreceaster," from the Celtic dwr, water, and the Latm castra, a camp.
Dover from the Celtic dwr or dwfwr, water, and means the town upon the water in Kent. The Romans called the place Dubrae.
Dublin is of Irish origin. Dubh, in Celtic, is black ; lyn or linne is a pool or lake ; Dublin is black pool. Durham is deer home.
Dummer, from the Danish dommer, a judge or arbiter, the name of a man.
Dunbarton, first called Starkstown, was named from a town and castle in Scotland, near which Stark's ancestors lived. Dun is Celtic and means a fort. Isaac Taylor interprets Dun- barton as " the fort of the Britons."
Eaton is water town.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 415
Kingston, is king's town.
Effingham is the home of the children of Effa or Uffa, a fa- mous king of the East Angles, a. d. 575.
Enfield is the end of the open country. Field is a place where the trees have been "felled."
Epping is of uncertain origin. It may be from the Saxon aeps an aspen, and ing, a meadow.
Epsom is by some derived from Ebba, meaning Ebba's home ; by others from aeps, an aspen, meaning the home of the aspens.
Ellsworth. Ella was a Saxon king who reigned in Sussex or South-Saxons. Ellsworth is Ella's estate.
The Gaelic and Erse word for water is uisge, of which whis- key is a corruption, derived from uisge-boy (or usquebaugh), meaning yellow water ; or, if the second root be bagh, " water of life." The root uisge appears in Wisk, Esk, Usk, and Exe, names of rivers.
Exeter, formerly written, Exancester, means the camp upon the river Exe.
Farm-ing-ton. The town of the meadow farm. The Saxon verb feormian meant to supply with food, because tenants, an- ciently, paid their rent in produce and stock ; hence, the word feorm or farm.
Fitzwilliam is the son of William, originally the name of a man. Fitz is from the Latin filius.
Francestown reveals its own origin. It was named for Fran- ces, the wife of the last Governor Wentworth.
Franconia, the home of the Franks, a name given, in the east, to the inhabitants of western Europe. The word Franks dates from the crusades in which the inhabitants of France, the land of the Franks, were leaders.
Franklin, anciently, "a superior freeholder" in England.
Freedom tells its own origin.
Gilford. Gill is a valley ; and Gilford is the ford in the valley. Gill is also the name of a man ; and
Gilsum is probably Gill's home, and
Gilmanton is the town of the man of the valley. Some ety- mologists derive Gilman from Gaul or Gael, making the family of French extraction.
Goffstown. Goff is Celtic for smith.
Gorham. Gor is Celtic for a place of worship, as in Ban- gor ; it is applied to the choir of a church, hence, Gor-ham is church-home.
Grafton. Graf is connected with grave, to cut or ditch ; as Gravesend is the end of the ditch or moat ; and Grafton is a moated or fortified town. Some authors derive it from the Gothic graf, an earl or count.
4t6 HISTORY OF
Grantham. Grant is simply grand or great, and as a surname was translated by the Latin magnus. Grant-ham is great or grand home, or the home of Mr. Grant.
Groton. Gro, in Celtic, is sand ; if from this root, Groton would mean sand-town. It may be the French gros or great.
Greenfield and Greenland need no explanation.
Hampton is home town.
Hampstead is homestead.
Hancock. Han sometimes means high, allied to the Saxon hean or heah ; and cock means a hill ; Hancock, a high hill ; or as the name of a man it may be from Hans, John, and cock, lit- tle, meaning little John.
Hanover first appears in German history, in the twelfth cen- tury. The river Leine flows through Hanover to the Aller. It is thought that the name was first given to a ford over this river meaning hand-over, or have over. "Hab or han ober."
Haverhill. Haver is sometimes thought to be a modification of the Celtic gatr, a goat ; if so, Haverhill would mean goat hill ; others derive it from the Dutch haver, meaning oats.
Hawke was named from Admiral Hawke ; a name derived from heraldry, the hawk being a symbol of courage. The town is now called Danville, or Dane village.
Hebron is a Hebrew name and means alliance, society or friendship.
Hill speaks for itself.
Hillsborough is the stronghold upon the hill, or the city of Mr. Hill.
Hinsdale is named in honor of Colonel Hinsdale, one of the earliest settlers of that town. It meant, originally, Hind's dale. The Saxon hine meant a domestic, a peasant, or boor. The last word appears in neighbor or nigh-boor.
Holderness is said to be composed of hoIe-Deira-ness. In this word, ness is the Saxon naes, nose, and Deira is the name of one of the Saxon kingdoms ; hence Holderness is the nose or promontory of the low-lying kingdom, Deira. Others interpret diflierently.
Hollis may have some relation to the holly tree, or it may, like Harris, Harry's son, be a patronymic.
Hooksett. Saet, in Saxon words, means dwellers or inhabi- tants ; if hook is also Saxon, Hooksett would mean the dwellers at the bend or bow in the river. Hock also means high. Hock- cliff is high cliff.
Hopkinton. Hob is an abbreviation of Robert; and kin or kins means children ; Hobkins or Hopkins denotes the sons of Robert ; and Hopkinton is the town of the children of Robert.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 417
Hudson is the son of Hod or Roger ; or it may be borrowed from the famous navigator, Henry Hudson. Jackson is the son of Jaclc or John.
Jaffrey, or Jeffrey, is probably corrupted from Geoffrey or God- frey, from the German Gott and fried, God's peace. JeiTerson is the son of Jeffers or Jeffrey.
Keen or Kean is the name of a man and means bold, daring or bright. The town is said to have been named in honor of Sir Benjamin Keene, who at the date of the grant was minister from England to Spain.
Kensington, the town of the children of the tribe. Cyn, in Saxon, means tribe, race or kin. King is supposed to be from this root. It was written cyning, or cyng.
Kingston is the town of the king.
Lancaster. Lon or Lune was the name of the English river where there was a Roman station ; hence, Lancaster is the camp upon the Lune. Lune is an abbreviation of the Roman Alauna and that is composed of the Celtic words all, white, and avon or afon, water.
Landaff. Llan is Celtic, meaning an enclosure, church-yard and church. Landaff is, therefore, "the Church of David."
Langdon. Don or dun means both hill and water ; hence, from the second definition, the name of the river Don. Lang means long ; Langdon is long hill or town. Dun is also a hill- fortress.
Lebanon is a Bible name and means white. Mount Leb- anon, therefore, is identical in meaning with Mont Blanc.
Lee, legh, and leigh all mean pasture, field or commons.
Lempster is probably an abbreviation of Leominster from the Celtic lleian, a nun, and minster, a monastery ; in this word, a nunnery.
Lincoln is the old Roman Lindum colonia, the colony of Lyn- dum. Lyn means a lake or pool, and dun a hill or town.
Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, transferred to a New Hamp- shire town ; anciently called Olisippo or Ulysippo, from Ulysses, the fabled founder. The true origin is uncertain.
Littleton is little town, a misnomer.
London is said to be formed from lyn, a pool, and dun or don a hill. Taylor says it means " a fortified hill."
Londonderry " speaks to us of the settlement of the desolated city of Derry by the London guilds." Don, as a Celtic affix, means hill, and deru means an oak.
Loudon is said to be from law and don, both meaning hill. It is of Scotch origin. The etymology is doubtful.
Lyman is of uncertain origin. It may be from lye, a pasture, and man, meaning ^le man at the pasture.
4l8 HISTORY OF
Lyme from lim, lime or mud.
Lynck'borough, the town of the linden tree.
Manchester, called by the old Britons Maen-ceinion, the rock of gems ; by the Romans, Mancunium ; by the Saxons, Mancestre. Man is also Celtic for district.
Marlovv. Mere is a pool or lake ; low, a hill ; the hill by the lake.
Marlborough, the fortified town upon the marl.
Mason, a man's name indicating his trade.
Meredith, a name of Celtic origin, and denotes the roar of the sea.
Merrimack, an Indian word meaning swift-water-place.
Middletown and Milton mean middle-town.
Milan is borrowed from the Italians.
Milford is the ford at the mill.
Monroe, Celtic Monadh Roe or Mont Roe, from the mountain on the river Roe, in Ireland. The root rea, rhe, or rhin means rapid or flowing.
Mont Vernon. Vernon is a Norman name.
Moultonborough. The first root of Moulton is of uncertain origin.
iVashua, an Indian word, meaning pebbly bottom.
Nashville. Naes is a promontory; ville is French for a town ; if these words make Nashville, it means the town upon the promontory.
Nelson is the son of Nel, originally the name of a man.
New Boston. Boston is variously derived from Bosa, a bishop of E. Angila, a. d. 669, or from St. Botolph.
Newbury is new town, usually a fortified town.
New Ipswich. Ipswich in England is variously interpreted ; 1, from Eba a Saxon queen, and wic or wich, meaning Eba's home ; 2, from Gippin, the winding river and wich, meaning the placo of the crooked river.
New London, Newmarket, Newport, Newton and Northwood reveal their own etymology.
Northumberland is, in England, land north of the Humber. "The Humber was a Cimbric river ; and Northumberland was called of old, North Cumriland, where the Cymri were driven from the plains before they settled in Wales."
Nottingham is the home of the descendants of Mr. Nott.
Mr. Edmunds, in his history of names of places, says : "The word Snottingham, now disguised as Nottingham, means the home of the children of the excavations, or of the cave dwellers."
When Nottingh-am included Northwood, the lumbermen dis- tinguished their timber lands by peculiar names. There was a place called by the Indians "Gebeag, a place for eels ;" by the
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 419
lumbermen "Gebeag Woods." The dense forests to the north- west of Gebeag were called North Woods, hence the name of the town, Northwood.
Orford. Orr or Ore is a river in Scotland ; "or," in Welch, signifies a boundary or border ; Qrford is the ford by the bound- ary, or the ford of the river Ore.
Ossipee is an Indian word, which Mr. Potter describes as "the river of pines."
Pelham, either from peele, a tower, or from pool. It may mean tower home, or pool home.
Pembroke. Pem or pen means, in Celtic, a hill ; Pembroke may mean hill-brook.
Piedmont is probably of French origin, meaning stone-mount.
Pinkham is the home of the pink.
Pittsfield and Pittsburg are derived from Pitt the earl of Chatham. The name may have originated from a foundling ex- posed in a pit.
Plaistow. The first root is doubtful. Plega, Saxon, means a battle ; stow, a place, mansion or town ; perhaps Plaistow means battle-place. One author defines Play-sted and Play- stow, " a place for sports."
Plymouth, the mouth of the Plym, a river in Devonshire, England, so named from plwm, lead, from the color of its waters. "Plymouth was so named by the Pilgrims, in remem- brance of the last English land on which their eyes rested as they passed down the Channel."
Portsmouth, the mouth of the port.
Randolph signifies fair help ; the same as Randulph, from ran, fair, and ulph, help.
Raymond, from rein, pure, and mund, mouth, one of vir- tuous speech.
Richmond is from ric, rich, and mund, mouth, meaning elo- quent.
Rochester, the camp of the Saxon chief, Hrof. It may be formed from roche, French for rock.
Roxbury is the town of rocks. The Roman name of Roch- ester, in England, was Durobriviae.
Rollinsford. Roland, Rollin and Rodland mean counsel for the land. Rollinsford is the ford of the counselor for the land.
Rumney or Romney is Roman island or station by the water.
Rye is a bank or shore. This town has an appropriate name. The same is true of Rye in England.
Salem is a Hebrew word meaning peace.
Salisbury, from the Latin "salus" health. The town of health or safety.
Sanbornton is the town of the Sanborns. Sanborn is prob-
420 HISTORV OF
ably composed of the words sand and bourne, a boundary, indi- cating tiiat the progenitor of that family lived near a sand hill. Some authors make the original name Samborne, indicating a different origin of the first syllable.
Sandown is probably sand hill. Down or dune means a grassy hill. Hence the name given to the Southdown sheep.
Sandwich is sand village.
Seabrook needs no definition.
Shelburne may be formed from shel or shal, from the Saxon sceol, shallow, and burn or bourn, a brook.
Somersworth. The Saxon word somer, summer, became the name of a man, like winter and spring, and worth indicated his estate, as worship or worthship was originally the homage due to wealth.
Stark is named for General Stark. The word applied as a surname means strong.
Stewartstown is the town of Mr. Stewart, who owed his name originally to his occupation.
Stoddard is said to be a corruption of standard. The name was given to the standard-bearer of William the Conqueror, and was written "De La Standard."
Strafford is street-ford.
Stratham is street home.
Sullivan, from the Celtic suil, eye, and ban, fair, meaning the fair-eyed.
Surry from Suth-rice, south kingdom »
Sutton is south town, a name of thirty-one places in England.
Sunapee is an Indian name.
Swanzey is probably swan's island.
Tamworth is the estate by the Teme. Tarn is Celtic for river, hence the name Teme or Thames.
Temple speaks for itself. It is of Latin origin.
Thornton is the town of thorns.
Troy is borrowed from the classics. There is a Celtic Troy from tre and wy, the town by the river Wye.
Tuftonborough. Tuf is Danish for branch ; Tufton became an English surname and borough, was the stronghold of the family.
Unity. The town was called Unity from the happy settlement of the conflicting claims of Hampstead and Kingston to the same tract of land under different grants.
Wakefield is from the Saxon waeg way, and field, meaning the field by the wayside. It may possibly mean watch-field.
Walpole is of doubtful origin, perhaps from wall and pol or pool. The town was named in honor of Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of George I.
NEW HAMPSHIIiE. 42 1
Warner is of uncertain origin. It may be a contraction of VVarrener, the keeper of a warren.
Warren, a preserve for rabbits. One tradition says tliat Ben- ning Wentwortli gave tliis name to one of his grants in honor of Admiral Warren of "Louisburg notoriety."
Washington means the town of the meadow creelc ; waes is Saxon for water ; one meaning of ing is meadow, and "ton" is town or enclosure. It was the home of the Washingtons in England.
Weare is an enclosed place on a river.
Wentworth may be the estate on the river Went in Northum- berland, or the estate of Wanta, a Sa.xon chief.
Westmoreland is West-moor-land. The town was named in honor of Lord Westmoreland, a friend of Gov. B. Wentworth.
Whitefield proclaims its own origin.
Wilmot may be a corruption of the French name Guilemot, derived from Guillaume, William, which is Guild-helm or golden helmet.
Wilton from a town in Wiltshire, England.
Winchester. Gwent or Went is the Celtic name of a city of Hampshire. Gwent means bright or lofty, an elevated tract of country ; gwint means wind. If this word enters into Winches- ter, it would mean a windy place. As Gwent was the British name of a district, it would mean Gwent-camp. The town was named in honor of Lord Winchester.
Windham is wind-home. One author makes it a contraction Winmund-ham, the home of VVinmund.
Wolfeborough is the stronghold of Mr. Wolf, who borrows his name from a beast of prey. The town was probably named in honor of GeneraUWolfe.
Woodstock is wood-stem. Stoc in Saxon is the main part of the tree. Stoke is a prefix to sixty-five towns in England, and the suffix to many more.
Isles of Shoals. "They are supposed to have been so called," says Mrs. Thaxter, "not because the rugged reefs run out beneath the water in all directions, ready to wreck and destroy, but be- cause of the 'shoaling' or 'schooling' of fish about them, which, in the mackerel and herring seasons, is very remarkable."
NAMES OF COUNTIES.
New Hampshire was divided, in 1771, into five counties. Gov. Wentworth gave the names of his distinguished friends in England to these counties. Each of those names was originally significant of some peculiarities in the home, the person or oc- cupation of the progenitor of the family.
422
HISTORY OF
Rockingham means the home of the descendants of Mr. Rock. This last word became the name of some man from his residence near a roclv.
Strafford is street-ford — first, the designation of a place, then of the occupant of it.
Hillsborough is the stronghold of Mr. Hill, whose name indi- cates his abode.
Cheshire is cheese division — a name given to a territory long ago celebrated for its cheese.
Grafton is the moated town which gave name to the Duke, Latin, Du.\, or leader who had his residence in it, or it may mean earl-town.
Belknap is named from the historian of New Hampshire. His name seems to be compounded of bel, beautiful, and knap, hill.
Carroll, like the town, borrows its name from Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It is an Irish name of uncertain origin. One of the poets mentioned by Ossian is Carril.
Sullivan is named in honor of General Sullivan.
Coos is of Indian origin, and means crooked, which appro- priately describes the channel of the Connecticut, in the north. It was originally a part of Grafton county, and was incorporated in 1805.
Mr. Potter in his history of Manchester gives the following definition of the most important Indian names in New Hamp- shire. Nashua means "the river with a pebbly bottom." Souhe- gan means "worn-out lands." Penacook means "the crooked place." Namoskeak, now written Amoskeag, means "the fish- ing place." \^'innepesauk)', now spelled Winnipiseogee, means "the beautiful water of the high place." Pequawkett means "the crooked place." Ossipee means "pine river." Swamscott means "the beautiful water place." Winnecowet "the beautiful pine place." Piscataquog means "great deer place." Contoo- cook means "crow place." Suncook means "wildcat place." Pemigewasset means "crooked mountain pine place."
All Indian etymologies, except those given by the aborigines themselves, are quite doubtful.
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