Project Gutenberg's The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5, by Various
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Title: The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5
Author: Various
Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17725]
Language: English
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[Illustration: William W. Crapo]
THE BAY STATE MONTHLY.
_A Massachusetts Magazine._
VOL. III. OCTOBER, 1885. NO. V.
* * * * *
HON. WILLIAM W. CRAPO.
By Edward P. Guild.
A citizen of Massachusetts, eminent in public and private life, and now
in the prime of manhood, is the Hon. William W. Crapo, of New
Bedford. He is the son of Henry Howland Crapo, a man of marked abilities
and with a distinguished career, whose father was a farmer in humble
circumstances in Dartmouth, the parent town of New Bedford, and able to
give but meagre opportunities for education to his son. Henry had,
however, a thirst for knowledge, and his determination in providing
himself with the means of study affords a parallel to the early life of
Lincoln. It is told of him, that having no dictionary in his father's
house, he undertook to be his own lexicographer in the task of preparing
one. He soon fitted himself as a school teacher and afterwards became a
land surveyor in New Bedford. As a man of ability and integrity, he at
once began to rise to positions of trust, and among the offices he held
were those of City Treasurer and Trustee of the Public Library. He was
interested in the whale fisheries, then the great enterprise of this
famous seaport, and was a successful business man.
In 1857, having made extensive timber purchases in Michigan, he removed
to that state, where he took an active part in political affairs. In
1865, he was elected Governor of that State and held the office for four
years. He was a lover of books all his life, and was the author of
articles on horticulture in which subject he was an enthusiastic
amateur.
William Wallace Crapo was born in Dartmouth, May 16, 1830, and was the
only son in a family of ten children. He inherited his father's passion
for learning and knowledge, and although his father's means were
limited, he was given all possible opportunity for study. He was first
in the New Bedford public schools, then at Phillips Academy in Andover,
where he prepared for college. He graduated at Yale--which has since
conferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Laws,--in the class of 1852.
Deciding on the study of law, he attended the Dane law school at
Cambridge, and subsequently entered the office of Governor Clifford in
New Bedford. In February 1855, he was admitted to the Bristol bar, and
in the following April was elected City Solicitor, an office which he
continued to hold for twelve consecutive years.
Mr. Crapo's first active part in politics was about a year after his
admission to the bar. Fremont and Dayton were in 1856 nominated as the
Republican candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. Mr. Crapo
was an earnest surporter of the candidates and made very effective
speeches in their behalf in his section of the state. In the same year
he was chosen to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and the
following year, when only twenty-seven years of age, was tendered a seat
in the Massachusetts Senate, but declined the honor. His father this
year removed to Michigan, and the son who remained became a worthy
successor to the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens. He was
actively interested in the establishment of the New Bedford Water-works,
and from 1865 to 1875 held the office of Chairman of the board of Water
Commissioners. As Bank President, as director in extensive manufacturing
corporations, and in other similar positions of trust and responsibility
he acquired the reputation of being a sound business man, and an able
financial manager. In all of these positions he has ever enjoyed the
complete confidence and respect of his associates.
Mr. Crapo has been a diligent student of the history of the Old Colony
and especially of the early settlement of Dartmouth, and he has rendered
valuable contributions to the historical literature of the State. The
address delivered by him at the Bi-Centennial Anniversary of the town of
Dartmouth in 1864 and his address at the Centennial Celebration in New
Bedford in 1876 exhibit his accurate research and his facility of clear
and forcible expression. The closing sentences of the latter address
were as follows:---
"We must preserve the results of the past. But this is not our whole
duty. The work of our fathers is not completed. Our honor and safety is
in still further achievements of public justice and orderly freedom, and
to the advancement of the common welfare. Our mission is a continuous
and steady development of conscientiousness, a moral and religious
growth, keeping pace with advancing intelligence, science and liberty.
We attain to it by those common virtues which our fathers exercised:
honesty, frugality, integrity and unfaltering devotion to duty. We need
but follow the old plain paths, and, undazzled by the superficial
glitter and pretentious show of ambitious self-seekers, march steadily
forward to the attainments of a trained and vigorous virtue, to purity,
strength and solidity. Thus will we keep unsoiled our inheritance, and
transmit it, beautified and glorified, to those who come after us.
"We have seen the forest fall before the strong arm of the pioneer; we
have seen the shores lined with masts, and the waters white with sails;
we have seen the triumphs of restless, cunning labor; but not in
physical power nor in populous cities, not in factories nor palaces, nor
richly laden fleets, are the elements of natural greatness, nor its
safety, but in the courage, integrity, self-denial and temperance of the
people, and the spirit of mental enterprise and moral freedom which
inspires them."
But the reputation of Mr. Crapo in Massachusetts and the country at
large rests preeminently upon his services in the National House of
Representatives. He was elected to fill a vacancy in the Forty-fourth
Congress and was returned at three successive elections, enjoying to an
unusual degree the favor and approbation of his constituents. In the
Forty-fifth Congress he was a member of the committee on Foreign
Affairs. In the Forty-sixth he served on the committee on Banking and
Currency, and was chairman of this important committee in the next
Congress. He introduced the bill to extend the charters of the National
Banks, and by his skillful and persistent efforts the bill became a law
to the satisfaction of all sound business men. In his connection with
this bill, Mr. Crapo added to his reputation as an able lawyer, that of
a sound financier and a judicious statesman.
Representing a constituency whose interests are largely identified with
the fishing industries, Mr. Crapo has naturally been considered a
champion of the fishermen. A strong speech was made by him on the
resolution recommending the abrogation of the fishing articles of the
Treaty of Washington, of which the following is an example:--
"For seventy years this Government, and prior to that the Colonies, paid
liberal bounties to aid the development and increase of our fishing
marine. These bounties have been abandoned, and the New England
fishermen, relying upon their energy and enterprise do not ask a renewal
of them. But they do ask that the United States shall not offer a bounty
to build up this industry in the hands of rivals. When we are confronted
with a declining merchant marine, when the carrying trade is passing
into the hands of foreigners, when we remember that our whaling fleet,
which twenty years ago numbered 600 ships with 18,000 sailors, the best
sailors on the globe, disciplined and educated in voyages of three and
four year's duration--is now reduced to 163 vessels with less than 5,000
men, we may well inquire, where are we to look for experienced seamen to
man our navy in case of foreign war? We can build vessels of war in a
few weeks when the emergency arises. With our resources of timber, and
iron and copper, and every material entering into the construction of
our vessels, we can build ships at short notice in our private
shipyards, even if we cannot in our navy yards, but efficient and hardy
sailors come only from the training and experience of years of toil and
danger upon the sea."
This brief extract illustrates Mr. Crapo's logical, direct method of
making an argument. When occasion presents itself, he is capable of
rising to heights of eloquence equalled by few who sit in the National
Capitol. The following passage is from a brief speech occasioned by the
presentation to the United States, April 22, 1880, of Thomas Jefferson's
writing desk on which was written the original draft of the Declaration
of Independence. Mr. Crapo offered a joint resolution of acceptance and
in closing his eloquent remarks said:--
What memories crowd upon us with the mention of these names.
Washington, the soldier, whose sword was drawn for the independence of
his country; Franklin, the philosopher, the benefactor of his race, who
with simple maxims pointed out the road to wealth and who disarmed the
lightning and the thunderbolt; Jefferson, the accomplished and
enthusiastic scholar, whose marvelous genius and masterly pen gave form
to that immortal paper which proclaimed liberty to all mankind. These
are names never to be forgotten. These men were the founders of the
Republic. Their name and fame are secure, and in the centuries which are
to follow will be treasured by a grateful and loving people among their
choicest possessions. Mr. Speaker, the nation gladly accepts and will
sacredly keep this invaluable relic. The article itself may be
inconsiderable, but with this simple desk we associate a grand
achievement. Upon it was written the great charter of civil liberty,
the Declaration of American Independence. We pay to the heroic hand
who signed that wager of battle the honors which are paid to the
heroes of the battlefield. It was not valor alone which secured to us
self-government. The leaders in the revolt against the tyranny and the
established institutions of the old world had courage of opinion and
were full of mature wisdom and incorruptible patriotism. The men who
signed the paper pledging their lives, their fortunes and their sacred
honor in support of the Declaration, and who made their fearless appeal
to God and the world in behalf of the rights of mankind, were both
lion-hearted and noble-minded.
Upon this desk was written in words as pure and true as the word of
inspiration that document which opened up 'a new era in the history
of the civilized world.' Its fit resting place is with the nation's
choicest treasures. It is a precious memorial of Jefferson, more
eloquent and suggestive than any statue of marble or bronze which may
commemorate his deeds. In accepting it in the name of the nation we
recognize the elevated private character, the eminent virtue, the
profound knowledge, the lofty statesmanship, and the sincere patriotism
of Jefferson, and we honor him as the father of popular government and
as the great apostle of liberty.
To the pledge of safe custody with which we accept this gift, we join
the solemn promise that with still greater fidelity we will guard the
inheritance of free institutions which has come to us through the valor
of Washington and the wisdom of Jefferson, and that we will faithfully
transmit, undimmed and unbroken, their richest legacies--"Liberty and the
Union."
At the Republican State Convention held in Worcester, September 21,
1881, Congressman Crapo was chosen president, and made an address which
was regarded as a splendid defence of the Republican Party. In its
course he said:
"No occupation is more honorable than the public service. The desire to
engage in it is a worthy one. The ambition to hold and properly
discharge the duties of a position under the government is creditable to
the citizen. The public offices in this country should be as freely open
to all as are places in other vocations of life. No man should be
debarred by birth, or locality, or race, or religious, or political
belief from engaging in the public service. To deserve this he should
not be required to render partisan service or personal allegiance to any
party leader, nor be compelled to purchase the favor or patronage of any
public official. The public offices are a public trust, to be held and
administered with the same exact justice and the same conscientious
regard for the responsibilities involved as are required in the
execution of private trusts. The test for appointments should be
superior qualifications, and not partisan attachment nor partisan
service; continuance in office should depend upon real merit
demonstrated in the actual performance of duties and not upon the
urgency of Congressmen or petitions of other citizens."
Of Mr. Crapo it may justly be said that on every occasion of life in
which he has been called upon for any duty, he has always risen adequate
to the occasion, and even exceeded in his efforts the most sanguine
expectations of his friends. He has much of that reserve power which
does not manifest itself until it is wanted, and then the supply is
equal to the demand.
* * * * *
THE AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
By George Lowell Austin.
I.
At the present time, everything bearing upon the history of the American
civil war has special interest. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed
since the struggle began, and during the interval asperities have died
away and peace and harmony hover over a united people.
During the war and in the years immediately following its cessation, a
number of soldiers and civilians wrote histories, on the Union side,
some of these being careful and exhaustive studies of limited fields of
action, and others of the entire field of operations. It necessarily
happened, however, that, owing to misconceptions arising from their
opposite points of view, their lack of personal knowledge, and the
absence of authentic documentary evidence, these writers were not always
able to penetrate the plans and purposes of the Confederate leaders, or
even to describe with entire accuracy the part borne by the Confederate
troops in particular engagements.
As time goes on, the deficiency is being met, and the memoirs of those
Confederate soldiers and civilians who bore a prominent part in the
struggle, either in the field or the council chamber, and who had a full
knowledge of the facts, are fast coming to light, and are perused with
more than common interest by military actors and students. The true and
exhaustive history of the civil war cannot be written until all the
facts shall have been made known. Even then, the reader must always bear
in mind who states the facts, and also that the truth is oftener found
in the memoir of some gallant and straightforward soldier than in that
of a politician.
Of the myriad of bound volumes and pamphlets called forth by the war, a
very large number have long since been consigned to oblivion. Many of
these were written to bolster up personal ambitions, interests,
rivalries and jealousies, while as many more were composed, without
regard to facts, to gain dollars and cents. Of none of these productions
need anything further be said.
Comparatively speaking, there were but few books relating to the war and
published during the war that deserve to be recalled. After the war,
quite a number were issued, and, within the last ten years, a large
number have appeared, all destined to rank as "authorities" for the
future historian. The purpose of the present series of articles is, to
give such information in regard to these publications, as shall guide
students in mapping out a course of reading, and shall assist persons
entrusted with the selection of _standard books_ on war history for
use in city and town libraries.
The suggestions and information herein offered are, at their best, only
random notes. No special plan, or classification, will be followed by
the writer; his sole aim being to include only what is absolutely worthy
and "authoritative."
THE AMERICAN CONFLICT:--A History of the Great Rebellion in the United
States of America, 1860-64: Its Causes, Incidents, and Results. Intended
to exhibit especially its Moral and Political Phases, with the Drift and
Progress of American opinion respecting Human Slavery, from 1776 to the
close of the War for the Union. By Horace Greeley. Illustrated, 2
volumes. pp. 648, 679. Hartford: O.D. Case and Company.
This work was composed, with the aid of an amanuensis, in the early
hours of the morning, before the beginning of the editorial tasks of
each day. Mr. Greeley's long connection with the _Tribune_, as its
editor-in-chief, tended to make him more familiar with American politics
from 1830 to 1860 than almost any other of his contemporaries, and when
he proposed to himself to write the history of the American civil war,
he could justly claim to have full knowledge of the _causes_ which
had led to it. In the preface to his first volume (1864) he stated
frankly that "the History of the civil war will not and cannot now be
written." All that he hoped to accomplish, then, was to write a
_political_ rather than a military history of the great struggle.
He succeeded, and his work deserves to rank as one of the most valuable,
and, so far as it goes, accurate and impartial narratives of the
contest.
The first volume treats chiefly of the causes and events which
culminated in secession, while the second volume (1866) depicts, without
embellishment, the military and political victories which ended in the
restoration of peace. The author cherished the belief that the war was
"the unavoidable result of antagonisms imbedded in the very nature of
our heterogeneous institutions: that ours was indeed an 'irrepressible
conflict,' which might have been prevented."
In its _military_ portions the work is decidedly weak, and much of
interest and value is omitted. For facts, the author relied chiefly on
Moore's _Rebellion Record_, Victor's _History of the Southern
Rebellion_, (embracing important data not found in the _Record_)
and Pollard's _Southern History of the War_. After a later survey
of the war-literature, Mr. Greeley felt justified in the candid claim
that his work "is one of the clearest statements yet made of the long
chain of causes which led irresistibly to the war for the Union, showing
why that war was the righteous and natural consequence of the American
people's general and guilty compliance in the crime of upholding and
diffusing Human Slavery."
This work won such popular favor that it soon reached a sale of one
hundred thousand copies. But when, in 1867, its distinguished author
signed the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis, its sale was suddenly checked.
The act was an unselfish one; its propriety, however, was questioned by
many persons. Whether, on account of it, Mr. Greeley be blamed or
applauded, his work merits commendation as a valuable authority on the
political history of the American civil war, and ought always, as such,
to be consulted.
THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA:--Comprising a full and
impartial account of the Origin and Progress of the Rebellion, of the
various Naval and Military Engagements, of the Heroic Deeds performed by
Armies and Individuals, and of Touching scenes in the Field, the Camp,
the Hospital, and the Cabin. By John S.C. Abbott. Illustrated. 2 vols.
pp. 507, 629. Norwich. Conn: The Henry Bill Publishing Company.
The author of the _Life of Napoleon Bonaparte_ was never too
particular in regard to his facts, but those which he made use of he
could array with such skill as to completely captivate the judgment of
the unwary. In his History of the Civil War, all the enthusiasm of the
writer, his easy flow of rhetoric, his vast fund of anecdote, and his
characteristic inability to discriminate between truth and falsity,
assert themselves. The chief importance of the work consists in its
treatment of events, as army-correspondents saw them, and, hence, it
comprises many minor features, usually omitted by more sober historians.
As a political history, it is almost worthless; as a military history,
it is even worse. Still, it possesses a marked value, for the reason
already stated, and is attractive by reason of its numerous
illustrations, all engraved on steel from original designs,--comprising
portraits, battle-scenes, diagrams and maps. The first volume was
printed in 1863; the second in 1865.
A HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA:--By The Comte de Paris.
Translated with the approval of the author. Edited by Henry Coppee,
LL.D. 3 volumes. 8vo, pp. 640, 820, 954. Philadelphia: Porter and
Coates.
The first volume of this work was published in 1875, the second in 1876,
and the third in 1883. A fourth volume is now in course of preparation,
and will conclude the series.
The prime qualifications of a historian, dispassionateness and
thoroughness, are everywhere manifest in the splendid work of the Count
of Paris. His is the first attempt to produce a full and complete
history of the civil war, based upon official records both of the North
and of the South. The whole narrative exhibits unsparing and successful
research, calm judgment, temperance alike in praise and censure, and an
earnest endeavor to deal justly and fairly with both sides of the great
conflict and the actors in each. There are chapters in the work which
will always provoke discussion, and some of the author's conclusions in
special instances may be controverted; still, the great merits of the
work, as a whole, cannot but be generally and cordially recognized.
The work is distinctly a _military_ history, without, however,
ignoring purely civil transactions when an account of them is needed to
throw light on the military movements. The author's theory, relative to
the origin of the war may be stated thus:--The South saw that, as the
North increased in prosperity, it was decreasing, and was losing the
balance of power which it had always held since the adoption of the
Constitution. It determined, therefore, to force slavery into the new
States and Territories; and, failing in this, it foresaw but two
alternatives,--either to give up the cause as lost, or to initiate a
conflict and a satisfactory peace from its opponents. It chose the
latter, and was thwarted.
The first volume treats of the American army, past and present, of
Secession, and the events of the war to the Spring of 1862; the second
volume continues the narrative of events from Gen. McClellan's Peninsula
Campaign to the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The author,
in considering the relations of the commanding general to the
administration, praises the former and blames the latter; and, in
commending the campaign, shows himself a poor master of the art of war,
and in some respects an indifferent critic of practical military
operations. The Count of Paris wrote these chapters in 1874.--twelve
years after the events, and with ample testimony at his command. It is
strange that he could not reach the conclusion, then and now commonly
held, that McClellan's treatment of President Lincoln throughout his
entire career seems to have been highly insubordinate and apparently
based upon the idea that he regarded himself as the nation's only hope,
forgetting that to a free people no man has ever become indispensable,
however powerful his intellect or exalted his virtues. Barring certain
conclusions which are open to easy controversion, the narrative is
exceedingly careful, graphic, and in the main truthful.
The third volume (1883) is translated and edited by Col. John S.
Nicholson of Philadelphia, and covers the eventful year 1863,--the
operations and movements on the Rapidan and the disaster to the union
arms at Chancellorsville,--the movements upon Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and
the retreat of Lee's array to Virginia. Closer attention is paid, in
this volume, to the legislation, administration, finances, resources,
temper, and condition generally of the North and the South, and valuable
accounts are given of the organization at the North of the signal corps,
the medical and hospital service, the military telegraph, the system of
railroad transportation for military purposes, the soldiers' homes, and
the sanitary and other commissions.
As a whole, and so far as published, the work purports to give an
accurate account of what took place in all quarters of the theatre of
war, and is generally successful. It never errs on the side of
partisanship, but occasionally through ignorance or misapplication of
facts. From first to last, it is an honest and straightforward
narrative, at times eloquent and at times vivacious. The reader is bored
by no flights of rhetoric; but students will always lament a lack of
philosophical tone and _critical_ appreciation of men and events.
The maps and plans, which are numerous and are furnished from official
sources, are all that could be desired.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS SUMTER AND MOULTRIE IN 1860-61. By Abner
Doubleday, Brevet Major General, U.S.A. 1 vol. 12mo pp. 184. New York,
Harper & Brothers.
The author bore an honorable and responsible part in the actual outbreak
of hostilities between the national government and the revolted states,
and in this book he gives a simple and faithful recital of some of the
more important facts. Though so misrepresented by certain critics, the
book is _not_ an attack on Major Anderson's character; on the
contrary, it clearly shows, and attempts to show, that that commander
firmly subdued all considerations and devices which seemed inconsistent
with his duty as a soldier of the United States, and held himself ready
to be sacrificed to the trust given him. General (then Captain, 1st
artillery U.S.A.) Doubleday was at Fort Sumter during the bombardment,
and, as might be expected, his volume gives many incidents of the life
of the little besieged band, and of the siege itself, which appear here
for the first time, and which throw fresh light upon the conduct and
principles of both parties to the conflict. As a personal narrative, it
is one of the most charming and instructive relating to the war. The
book was published in 1876.
* * * * *
ASSESSMENT INSURANCE.
By G.A. Litchfield.
It is the purpose of this article to fairly treat the subject under
consideration and to set forth such claims only as can be sustained to
the satisfaction of candid and unprejudiced minds. It will not be
assumed that the science of Assessment Insurance is perfected; on the
contrary, our most advanced thinkers upon the subject are those who see
most clearly its defects, and are laboring most assiduously to correct
them. Grave obstacles have been encountered in their endeavors to
perfect the system. Those who have written upon the subject in the
public press have been largely such as have given it but a cursory
study, or such as have been totally unfit to discuss it from an
impartial standpoint by reason of preconceived notions or prejudices in
favor of the level premium system of insurance, if, indeed, they have
not been retained for a consideration by that gigantic moneyed monopoly.
So largely has prejudice controlled in the consideration of the subject,
that those who have sought judicious and stringent legislation to
correct abuses, and to bring the business under equally careful and
official supervision as that given other forms of insurance, with a view
to making it _permanently_ subserve public interests, have been
more than once defeated in their laudable endeavors, because they
insisted that no legislation could meet the necessities of the case that
did not contemplate it as a _permanent_ institution. Great advances
have been made however in the last three or four years, and much that
was objectionable has been corrected. Wise legislation has been secured
in many States. At the last session of her legislature, Massachusetts
signalized an important step in advance, by enacting a law whose
provisions indicate an intelligent comprehension of the subject on the
part of her legislators, unsurpassed by those of any other State. It has
already begun to correct existing evils, as its advocates foresaw it
would do.
Several companies dishonestly and incompetently conducted have found it
impossible to longer prey upon a too confiding public.
The collapse of fraudulent concerns has furnished an occasion for the
enemies of the system to cry out against the system itself, but thinking
men are not deceived thereby. As was recently remarked by a
distinguished ex-insurance Commissioner of Massachusetts, "Assessment
Insurance has come to stay." There is not, as has been claimed by its
opponents, anything inherent in the system that fore-dooms it to early
and inevitable collapse.
Assessment insurance is natural insurance as against artificial.
In the early establishment of life insurance companies, everything was
assumption, there was little or no experience to guide in formulating
the principles upon which the business should be conducted. There was
partial information, it is true, upon certain general facts pertaining
to longevity or to mortality laws, under certain conditions, but nothing
that could give substantial data upon which to base mathematical
calculations for the establishment of a science. Under those conditions,
rates of premium were fixed for insurance at the different ages which
the experience of many years has shown to be very much higher than is
required to meet reasonable expenses, and losses occurring from policies
maturing by death.
A rate of mortality was assumed greater than experience has shown to
prevail among well selected lives. The important element of lapses was
not considered, an element so considerable in its practical bearing upon
the requirements of the company to meet its liabilities, that of one
million of assumed liabilities upon say one thousand lives, only about
$77.000 become actual liabilities by reason of policies maturing by
death of the insured.
Assessment insurance instructed by the experience of life companies,
adjusts its plans and methods upon the natural basis of fact, and not
the artificial one of supposition. It tabulates its rates according to
the combined experience of all American companies, requiring the insured
to pay a sum proportionate to the amount assured, and to his life
expectancy.
It places its risks upon carefully selected lives only, requiring a
competent medical examination of the applicant, having regard to his
previous health and habits, his occupation or profession, his family
history, and such other circumstances as should properly be considered
in calculating probable longevity.
We assert without fear, that we shall be successfully controverted, that
there is as great care and discrimination exercised in the placing of
risks by our representation assessment companies, as in any other form
of insurance. Time was when this claim could not have been supported by
facts, but that time is not now. Our conservative assessment
companies,--and there are many of them that can be fairly so styled,
ignore none of the scientific principles upon which life insurance
depends for its permanent success. They do believe however that their
methods of conducting the business will conserve the interests of a far
greater number, and relieve them of a large proportion of the burdens
imposed by the older and more cumbersome form.
Assessment companies call upon their policy-holders for such sums as are
required to meet actual losses, together with a small amount for
expenses and for an emergency fund. Mortuary assessments are called only
when there is an amount in hand on that account, insufficient to meet
the maximum sum for which a policy is issued. They may be called at
stated periods, or as the exigencies of the case shall require.
Objection is made to this method that it is unreliable, and cannot be
depended upon when the mortality is from any cause unusual or excessive.
It is not claimed by the best informed advocates of assessment
insurance, that direct assessments should be the sole reliance of the
company. Some other provision should be made which is referred to later
in this article, but the main dependence is upon assessments.
If companies are honestly and capably conducted, and risks judiciously
selected, there is nothing in the experience of life companies to
indicate that mortality assessments on the _average_ will be
sufficiently burdensome to seriously threaten the permanence of the
institution. Where disaster has been visited upon assessment companies,
the cause has been easily traceable to incompetent or dishonest conduct
of the business, and utter disregard of the foundation principles of all
insurance. It has in no instance been fairly chargeable to defects in
the system. With the record before us of our best assessment companies,
faithfully and competently administered, paying their losses promptly,
at a cost to the insured for a term of years, of one third to one half
only, of that in level premium companies, what reason is there for the
insuring public withdrawing their patronage.
But we admit that it is not sound policy to depend upon assessments
alone, and this view is held by most if not all, who have studied the
subject in its various aspects. While for many years, and perhaps
indefinitely, a company might be successfully conducted, if under a
competent management, depending solely upon assessments, yet
contingencies arc liable to arise in which it will be evident that true
conservatism and wise forethought would have held in hand some funds for
use without imposing, at that particular time, the burden of an
assessment upon the policy holders.
The advocates of such conservatism have been met with the argument that
it is contrary to the principle of assessment insurance, and a
concession to the theory of the level premium plan. But the reply is
that the requirements of an assessment company in the form of an
emergency or reserve are in no sense comparable with those of a level
premium company, and the application of it is upon an entirely different
principle, and for an altogether different purpose.
An assessment company may need funds in hand to relieve its members of
an assessment when otherwise they might be overburdened, because the
death rate fluctuates in different years. Or again, in case of a
depleted membership from any cause, the assessment company would need
funds in hand to supply any deficiency in the proceeds of an assessment
below the face of the maturing obligation. For either purpose a
comparatively small sum is required, while the level premium company
must pile up tens of millions of overpayments to cover the requirements
of the principle on which it conducts its business. It is susceptible of
mathematical demonstration that one or two millions of dollars of
reserve is adequate to perpetuate any well conducted assessment company
for all time, however large or small it may be, while the spectacle is
presented to us of level premium life companies holding fifty to one
hundred millions of accumulations belonging to their policy holders,
from which no possible benefit, in most cases, will ever accrue to them.
We therefore emphasize the proposition that a system of insurance that
relieves the insurer of one half the pecuniary burden he is compelled to
bear under the level premium system, is one that is worthy of fair
treatment on the part of a discriminating public, and that the people
cannot afford to have impeded in its usefulness by ignorance, prejudice,
or moneyed monopolies. We repeat the claim for assessment insurance that
it is _natural_ as against _artificial_ insurance.
It is pure insurance as against insurance and banking combined.
It is within the comprehension of ordinary minds. It is adapted to the
wants of the people, because they can easily avail themselves of it, and
as easily discontinue it without material or considerable loss.
It is within the reach of a much greater proportion of the people on
account of its small comparative cost, and the ease with which payments
can be made in small amounts. More than sixteen hundred thousand of the
citizens of this country are now availing themselves of its advantages,
as against about six hundred thousand in level premium companies while
the former represent more than thirty-seven hundred millions of
insurance, as against about fifteen hundred millions represented by the
latter.
The disbursements of assessment companies to families of deceased
members reach the munificent sum of more than twenty-two millions of
dollars annually. The national organization of Mutual Benefit Assessment
Associations of America is exerting a most healthful influence in
elevating the standard of those companies that comprise its membership.
It embraces organizations from all of the principal States of the Union,
and its influence is strongly on the side of scientific and conservative
methods and practices.
To be eligible to membership, a company must have its rates of
assessment graded according to one, or the combined standard mortality
tables, take proper precautions in selection of risks, protect new
members at any time in its history against an excessive number of
assessments, either by increasing the rate of assessment with advancing
years or by accumulating a fund in lieu of advancing rates, will make a
full exhibit of its policy data annually to the Convention. This
standard upon its publication, compelled favorable recognition upon the
part of level premium journals.
Thus assessment insurance has gradually placed itself upon a higher and
more scientific basis, until it has commended itself to the most
intelligent and thoughtful, and in its wonderful growth outstripped its
older and less popular rival, until its obligations to the families of
the insured exceed those of level premium insurance to the amount of
about two thousand millions of dollars.
A Bureau of Insurance has been established under the auspices of the
National Organization whose object is to gather and compile statistics
relating to all phases of assessment insurance, such as the experience
of companies with agents and medical examiners, the comparative cost of
carrying various classes of risks and in short, everything in the
practical working of the business by the companies comprising its
membership, that may furnish data for a more scientific basis, and more
satisfactory results in the future.
Many assessment insurance companies are not what they ought to be, but
there are those worthy of confidence and patronage, whose managers are
making the business a careful study, and bringing to its administration,
honesty of purpose and large executive ability.
If the insuring public will learn to discriminate and place their risks
in the best assessment companies, remembering that insurance in any good
company must cost a reasonable amount, they need have no apprehension as
to the result.
* * * * *
THE HERO OF LAKE ERIE.
ORATION DELIVERED AT THE UNVEILING OF HIS STATUE AT NEWPORT, R.I.,
SEPT. 10, 1885.
By Hon. William P. Sheffield.
The battle of Lake Erie was fought seventy-two years ago to-day; and we
have convened to dedicate to the public and to posterity a statue in
memory of the Commander of the American fleet on that occasion,
Oliver Hazard Perry needs no monument of bronze or marble to commemorate
his name, or to illustrate his glory. History has taken these into its
keeping and will preserve them for posterity, while genius in battle and
heroic valor and unfaltering energy in the performance of high duty,
receive the homage of the American people.
Wherever the patriotism of the citizen is the only reliance for the
defence of the nation, the people owe it to themselves to show their
appreciation of the conduct of those persons who have arisen among them
that have been public benefactors, and have conferred distinction upon
their localities. They owe it to those who may come after them, that
they so manifest their gratitude that it will inspire succeeding
generations with a due sense of patriotism, and be an incentive to them
to rise above narrow and sinister purposes to the plane of exalted
virtues, and be stimulated to the performance of great actions.
Citizens of South Kingstown, the town in which he was born,--of
Newport, where he was reared, had his home in mature life, and is
buried;--together with the State and people at large, who have
participated in his glory, have been impelled by this common sense of
obligation to undertake the erection of a memorial statue of Commodore
Perry, a task, the execution of which was committed to a native artist,
and here is the artist's finished work.
The statue is designed to represent Perry, not as he was superintending
the cutting down of the forest for the construction of his ships; not as
he was meditating the plan of the battle of Lake Erie or the order of
its execution; not as he appeared the evening previous to the action
advising his subordinate commanders in the words of Nelson, "No captain
can do wrong if he places his ship alongside of that of an enemy;" nor
as he was opening the battle flag which bore upon its folds the dying
words of a gallant captain; not as he was leaving his wrecked ship with
the deck strewed with his dead and dying comrades, when by the received
cannons of naval warfare the Lawrence and the battle were lost; but as
he appeared in that supreme moment of his life, when he had just gained
the deck of the Niagara, before he had recovered his knocked-off cap,
and while in distinct succession he was giving orders to "Back the
main-top-sail," "Brail-up the main-try-sail," "Helm up" "Square the
yards," "Bear down on the enemy's line," "Set the top-gallant-sail,"
"Hoist the signal for close action," orders which infused new enthusiasm
into all the American crews; and as pendant answered pendant, from
mast-head to mast-head indicating the reception of the order to break
the enemy's lines, hearty cheers went up from the entire American force
with a fervor that presaged the result of the impending death struggle.
In contemplating this statue, we should consider the circumstances in
which Perry was placed, and the events impending when the artist has
undertaken to represent him, as well as in the light of Perry's conduct
thereafter and the results therefrom, reflected back upon this critical
juncture in his career. For the battle of Lake Erie did not create, but
illustrated and brought out in bold outline, the real character of the
man.
The crews of the American fleet were of a mixed character. Perry sent
from Newport one hundred and forty-nine men and three boys in three
detachments. Half of one of these detachments was detained by Commodore
Chauncey on Lake Ontario; but shortly before the battle Perry received
from that officer a considerable accession to his force. Upon his
arrival at Lake Erie, Perry found a few men in the service of the
Government on the Lake, and the remainder of his men were made up of new
recruits, with a contingent taken from the North Western army of men,
naturally brave but without experience on ship-board. Perry had arrayed
against him skillful officers who had been taught the art of war, and
the methods of victory under Nelson. Brave and highly disciplined seamen
in whose vocabulary defeat had had no place, with recruits like Perry's
taken from the army, and an auxiliary force of Indian sharp-shooters.
The character of a naval engagement is not to be determined alone by the
number of men, the tonnage of the ships, or the weight of the metal
involved in the conflict. These are elements to be considered, and in
the battle of Lake Erie all of these elements were against the American
fleet, but the surrounding and attending circumstances, the conduct of
the battle, and the results depending upon its issue are the
considerations which go to make the place in the minds of succeeding
generations which the event is to occupy. History has not had committed
to it for preservation the story of the organization of a fleet, and the
conduct of a battle the result of which was more dependent upon the
genius, knowledge, energy, and courage of a single individual, than was
the battle of Lake Erie.
Other commanders have fought in ships completely equipped for service by
other hands, but Perry had to construct, equip, arm and man his ships,
and in person to take two of them in succession into action; and it may
be well questioned whether he is not entitled to as much credit for his
intelligent comprehension of the wants of the occasion, his energy, and
perseverance in collecting the materials to supply those wants, and in
making up his fleet, as for his genius and courage in action.
Perry, in the beginning, was unfortunate in having succeeded an officer
who, in the engagement was his subordinate in command, and in
anticipating a ranking officer in bringing on the conflict; but the
surrounding circumstances and the positive orders of the Secretary of
the Navy made his meeting the enemy a necessity.
The outcome of the attempts which had been made by the Government for
the defence of this section of the country had not been such as to
inspire sanguine hopes of the result of this action.
The Adams, the only vessel the United States had upon the Lake before
the construction of Perry's ships, had been captured. General Hull had
ignobly surrendered his force to the enemy at the head of the Lake,
General Winchester's army had been lost to the Government, and General
Van Rensselaer had been defeated at Niagara.
Perry was to act in conjunction with the northwestern army, under
General Harrison, then awaiting the result of the battle to be
transported across the Lake, in the event of a victory, to operate
against the enemy in his own territory.
Perry's earnest appeal to Chauncey for men, backed by the promise that
if he got them he would acquire honor and glory both for Chauncey and
himself, or he would perish in the attempt, should be considered in
connection with his appeal to the same officer to bring the men, and
take command of the fleet. Together they show that the first appeal was
not the result of an ambitious desire for vain glory; no mere impulse of
emotion or passion; but the outcome of a high resolve wrought in the
laboratory of a noble soul, born of that deliberate purpose which
permeated his subsequent conduct in the action and which is recorded in
the bronze before us.
The men from the army were animated for a desperate exertion; with
them the slaughter at the river Raisin was to be redressed, and its
repetition in the northwest was to be made impossible. In this
disposition for redress the seamen heartily sympathized, for the war was
a contest for Sailors' Rights. The American Flag then trailed in the
dust, but it was to be restored to its appropriate place in the esteem
of the men in that section of the country. With a crew animated by these
motives, Perry went into action with the Lawrence and fought the enemy
almost single-handed until all the guns of his ship were dismounted, and
all but eight of her gallant crew that he left on board, were either
killed or wounded, when with a boat's crew he left the Lawrence, boarded
and took command of the Niagara, and it is at this moment in the
conflict the artist has undertaken to represent him.
Barclay said in his report to the British Admiralty, that when Perry
boarded the Niagara, that vessel was fresh in action. Up to that time
she had been beyond the effective reach of the enemy's guns, but under
her new commander there was no halting in her course as she bore down to
break and pass through the enemy's ranks. Every brace and bowline were
taut, and every man on board, apprised of what was expected of him, was
soon at his post of duty; each, as he took his position, cast a hasty
glance at Perry's battle flag then flying from the masthead of the
Niagara, and as he took in the dying words of the noble Lawrence, formed
a solemn resolve to obey their mandate and made that resolve a
sacrament.
As she went into action, the Niagara belched forth a broadside at the
Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, then a broadside at the Chippawa, the
Lady Provost and the Hunter. These broadsides were repeated in rapid
succession with terrific effect. The other American vessels, now in
action, whose crews were inspired by the daring of their fleet
commander, imitated his example and the combined result was such as
Britons could not endure. The eagles of victory soon perched in triumph
on the mastheads of the American fleet, and Perry had won the battle
which James Madison, then President, said "had never been surpassed in
lustre, however much it may have been surpassed in magnitude."
After the action, Perry returned to the Lawrence, changed the dress of a
common sailor for an undress uniform, that he might appropriately
receive the surrender of the enemy on board the vessel that had been in
the hardest of the fight and had suffered most from it; and that the
remnant of her gallant crew might witness the submission of the foe
which had caused their sufferings.
That relief from apprehension for the safety of the fleet might be given
to General Harrison and the settlers on the widely extended domain about
the Lake, Perry penned and dispatched to that general a hasty note, in
words familiar, and destined to be immortal, telling him "We have met
the enemy and they are ours," and another like hasty note, to the
Secretary of the Navy, informing that officer that, "It has pleased the
Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal victory over
their enemies on this lake. The British squadron consisting of two
ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop, have this moment
surrendered to the force under my command after a sharp conflict." There
is nothing of the valor of the pen or of the exaggeration of self from
the ink horn in this concise and expressive note.
The enemy's surrender was gracefully received. Perry soon visited the
wounded Barclay, and tendered him every service that it was in his power
to render, and every possible attention was given to the wounded of both
fleets. Then came the roll-call to see who had answered the final
summons to duty on the field of honor, who had received marks of courage
in the fight, and who had gone through the dreadful ordeal of battle
unscathed. It was then that the tears of sorrow mingled with the
exultations of victory which soon were to be shouted along the line of
every highway and by-way, from hamlet to village, from village to town,
and from town to city, throughout the land.
Perry wrote to Governor Brooks of Massachusetts a letter condoling with
him on the fall of his gallant son in action; for while Perry's brow was
laurelled with the wreath of victory, he did not forget that there were
mourners weeping for brave hearts which in the fight had been forever
put to rest.
The name of Perry was now made a household word from the great Northern
Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Coast to the impenetrated
wilderness of the West, often repeated at the baptismal font; and a
nation's gratitude was soon laid at his feet. As humane in victory as he
had been brave in action, his generous kindness won the admiration of
Barclay, and his dying comrades showered upon him their blessings and
remembered him in their final prayers.
Prayers of gratitude to that Almighty Power which had given victory to
the American arms went up from every fireside throughout the Northwest;
and mothers pressed their children more closely to their breasts as they
thought themselves to be henceforth secure from the scalping-knife of
Indian barbarity, and that the savage war-whoop would no more break the
sleep of the cradle.
At night-fall many of the dead with all due solemnity were tenderly
committed to the deep. The wounded had all been visited and their wants
attended to; the worn and weary now sought repose, and a solemn
oppressive silence soon pervaded the fleet, save here and there a sound
of distress from the wounded. The Captain now retired for reflection,
for his mind and heart were too full for rest. He then thought of his
young devoted wife whose prayers he believed had been his shield in
battle; that his work was yet incomplete while the British had an army
on the borders of the Lake, or in Upper Canada,--how he could best aid
General Harrison's army; and then resolved on the work of the morrow;
when, soothed by reflection, his tired nature gave out, and he, too,
sank into a fitful slumber.
The mind of Barclay, relieved of present responsibility, evolved other
less pressing but more pensive thoughts. He thought not of himself or
his bleeding wound, for he had bled before for his country, when he
earned his stars and made his fame secure at Trafalgar; but as the sun
went down that night he thought that no more in the evening twilight
would the mariners of England standing under the cross of St. George, on
that great inland water, sing their national song, "Brittania rules the
waves;" no more the echoes of that stirring air rolling over the silver
surface of the Lake to its islands and shores would arouse the sturdy
dwellers there to join in glad unison in those lofty strains which
everywhere, the world over, melt into one every true and loyal British
heart. He then was moved by the sadder thought, that on that night the
sun of British power which had hitherto dominated the great Northern
Lakes of America had gone down forever.
Perry's available vessels were now taken to transport General Harrison's
army across the Lake, and up the Detroit river. The Lawrence, as soon as
she was put into condition took on board the wounded of both fleets, and
under the command of the gallant but wounded Yarnell carried them to
Erie. The other vessels were repaired and fitted for other duties, or
were to return to Erie.
Perry accompanied General Harrison as a volunteer aid, and participated
and bore an honorable part in the battle of the Thames, as he had done
in the battle of Fort George, under Chauncey, before the engagement on
the Lake.
Upon his return to Detroit, he found a letter from the Secretary of Navy
thanking and congratulating him for the eminent services he had rendered
his country; and, as he had performed the duty committed to him,
granting him leave to visit his family at Newport.
But Perry was first to return to Erie, which he had left the 12th of
August. The news of the result of the battle had long preceded his
arrival and the people had there been watching and waiting his coming.
On the 23d of October, the Aerial, the last vessel of the fleet to leave
the head of the lake, came within sight of Erie. She had on board
General Harrison, who had then lately defeated General Procter at the
Thames, the wounded Barclay, and Commodore Perry. The people from the
surrounding country crowded into Erie to welcome the arrival of the
victors. Barclay was taken to Perry's quarters and there properly cared
for by Harrison and Perry.
The Lawrence was anchored in Misery Bay, in the harbor of Erie, maimed
and battered and scarcely able to float, yet having on board her
precious freight brought across the lake; Perry now visited this ship,
and as he reached her blood-stained deck and beheld his surviving
comrades and thought of those who had been in the fight, that were not
then on board, he reverently raised his hands in fervent supplication to
Him who giveth the victory not always to the strong, to heal the wounds,
and bless, and raise up, the sufferers around him; and to sustain and
help the widows and orphans the battle had made; and in thanksgiving for
the preservation of those who had survived the conflict unhurt. He then
returned to the shore to meet the vast concourse of people awaiting his
arrival. The dead and the disabled men, the dismounted guns and the
broken and tattered ships, told the story of the battle and the price
of the victory with more eloquence than the most brilliant imagination
could compass. These visible evidences of the strife for the mastery
indicated the valor and the woe, incident to the ordeal which had been
passed, with an energy and pathos which overpowered the most obdurate
will; and the multitude greeted Harrison and Perry with tears and
smiles,--rain in sunshine with a heartiness that language is too poor
and barren to describe. The living had earned their title to everlasting
gratitude, and the dead had fallen as the brave desire to fall, at the
post of duty and on the field of victory.
Perry now procured the parole and release of Barclay, and after
arranging for his absence started eastward on his journey home; but his
progress was everywhere obstructed by evidences of the gratitude of
his countymen for his great action. On Monday, the 15th of November,
attended by the faithful crew that rowed him to the Niagara, he arrived
in Newport, by way of the south-ferry. Here, he was received upon his
arrival in a manner alike worthy of his neighbors and friends and of
himself.
August 23d, 1819, at the age of thirty-four, he died of yellow fever,
at Port Spain in the Island of Trinidad. His remains were brought to
Newport in a government ship, and were interred December 4th. 1826. They
were conducted to their final resting place by a funeral cortege such as
up to that time had never been equalled and since that time has here
never been surpassed.
This is but a glance at the man, and the event to which we are here
to-day to rear this tribute of our gratitude. There are other names and
other figures that come up to view in the memory and gather around the
name of Perry, of men who were efficient auxiliaries in the conflict,
shared the dangers, and participated in the glory of the battle of Lake
Erie, and who are inseparably connected with that event.
Turner, Taylor, Champlin, Almy, Breese, Brownell, and the acting fleet
surgeon Parsons were from Rhode Island; Forest, Brook, Stevens,
Hambleton, Yarnell and others not less distinguished, were from other
states; and the gallant commander of the northwest-army, and his
comrades in arms, whom Perry accompanied to the field on the 5th of
October, in the battle of the Thames, where Perry's victory was made
complete by driving the organized forces of the enemy from upper Canada,
are deserving of our remembrance to-day.
[Illustration: THE NEW STATUE OF COMMODORE PERRY.]
To your Excellency the Governor, representing the people of Rhode
Island; To your Honor, the Mayor, representing the people of Newport:--
The Committee charged with the duty of providing and erecting this
statue of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, has performed the work
committed to it, and through you dedicate it to the people of the State,
and of this city you represent, as the result of its labors. It is not
for the committee to comment upon the statue which has been formed and
erected under its direction, but with great satisfaction the artist's
finished work is submitted to the candid criticism of all who are
capable of forming an intelligent judgment upon its merits. Take the
statue for those whom you represent, let it be kept as a cherished
treasure by the people of the State at large, and especially by the
people of the city of Newport. Let no vandal hand deface the monumental
bronze. Let it stand defying the wastes of time and the power of the
elements, keeping pace with history in its march through coming ages in
recalling to each succeeding generation the man and the event which this
statue is designed to commemorate, ever inspiring ihe young to
patriotism, and solacing the aged with the reflection that a grateful
people properly appreciate and appropriately reward their benefactors.
Let the ideal Perry shadow the passer by and from its high pedestal
apparently cast a glance at each beholder, which shall penetrate and
permeate his mind and heart, and possess him completely with the noble
and generous purpose, and lofty soul which animated Perry on the
occasion which the artist has undertaken to represent him.
* * * * *
A MODEL INDUSTRIAL CITY.
By Fanny M. Johnson.
[Illustration: CONN. RIVER RAILROAD STATION.]
On a sweeping curve of the Connecticut river, about twelve miles north
of the Massachusetts and Connecticut boundary line, is the modern
manufacturing city of Holyoke, with a present population of 30,000. It
is the most extensive paper making city in the world, and the
manufacture of paper is but one of many enterprises. The ceaseless
water-power of the great river turns the wheels of numerous industries
which, within the third of a century, have been located here and have
transformed a sparsely settled rural parish into a busy and populous
city.
Holyoke is a New England growth. It does not resemble the smoky cities
of the iron regions, nor the languid towns of the South. The swift,
powerful current of water does its work without confusion, smoke or
waste. Pure breezes sweep along the valley through the mountain rifts,
and the mountains serve as barriers to ward off heavy gales and
destructive tempests. The slope of the land toward the river gives
opportunity for healthful drainage and the vicinity of mountain springs
and reservoirs supplies a great requisite for a thickly settled city.
[Illustration: THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.]
The impression which Holyoke makes upon its visitors is of modern thrift
and growth. Travellers by railway who enter the city from the north,
look with interest at the great dam, crossing the river from the Holyoke
to the South Hadley Falls shore. Rounding the curve, the large brick
buildings, spires and chimneys of the city come suddenly into view, the
tall tower of the granite city hall rising high above the rest. The
buildings are modern in structure and architecture. Little is found here
that bears the moss and rime of age.
Less than forty years ago, when the railroad was still a novelty in the
Connecticut Valley, a party of capitalists came to view the water-power
along the rocky bed of the Connecticut River at the point called the
Great Rapids, or Falls of South Hadley, which extended over a mile and
a half and had a total fall of 60 feet. The volume of water was gauged
and found to aggregate a power equal to 30,000 horse-power. This was in
1847. The next Legislature was petitioned by Thomas H. Perkins, Geo.
W. Lyman, Edmund Dwight and others for an act of incorporation as the
Hadley Falls Company, "for the purpose of constructing and maintaining
a dam across the Connecticut River, and one or more locks and canals
in connection with said dam; and of creating a water power to be used
by the said corporation for manufacturing articles from cotton, wood,
iron, wool and other materials, and to be sold to other persons and
corporations, to be used for manufacturing or mechanical purposes and
also for the purposes of navigation." The capital stock was fixed
at $4,000.000. The Hadley Falls Company purchased the property and
franchise of the South Hadley Falls Locks and Canal Company, and
extinguished the fishing rights existing above the location of the dam.
In the year 1847, this territory embraced by the river-curve had
fourteen houses, a grist-mill and one little shop. There was also a
small cotton-mill. From the river, the land rises to the westward,
and a mile or more back, on the highway leading from Northampton to
Springfield, were two hamlets of farmhouses. Many of these are still
standing and are all that this very modern city can show as memorials
of a past generation. From the year 1786 the section had been known as
"Ireland or Third Parish of West Springfield." It had its two little
white meeting-houses, Baptist and Congregational, a modest academy of
learning, a country tavern, and its full quota of New England customs,
traditions and ideas. Nine daily stages passed over this highway.
Families moving from one river-town to another usually transported their
goods by the flat-boats on the river.
Many of the homesteads had been in the same family name for generations.
Ely, Chapin, Day, Hall, Rand, Humeston and Street were some of the names
of early settlers handed down with the family acres from father to son,
and their graves crowd the rural cemetery beyond the Baptist Village in
the southern outskirts of Holyoke. The name of Chapin abounded most on
the East side of the river along the fair meadows of "Chicopee Street."
In the first church built there all but eleven of the forty-three
original members bore the name of Chapin.
On the A Vest side of the river the Elys were most numerous. The oldest
house now standing in Holyoke was an Ely homestead. The farm was held in
the family for generations and was the home of Enocn Ely, a
revolutionary soldier. He fought in the war of the Colonies against
Great Britain, and afterwards took a part in the short-lived Shay's
Rebellion to resist the taxes imposed after the war. Party spirit was
hot and high, and in the rout of the insurgents Ely took to the woods
and remained in hiding while the commander of the pursuing party,
gratified his feelings by firing bullets into the front doors of Ely's
house. These old double-doors with the bullet marks showing in them were
replaced by new ones some years ago, but the original doors still exist
in a small dwelling-house on the Plains.
[Illustration: THE DAM AS IT APPEARED IN 1843.]
The last of the Elys to occupy this stout-built old house were four
spinster and bachelor brothers and sisters. After their death the
homestead went to a relative and eventually was bought by its present
occupant, Mr. Horace Brown. Long before this change took place, Whig,
Federal and Tory had gone to their last rest, and they sleep peacefully
together in the old burial-ground overlooking the river; their
differences ended, their feuds forgotten.
When the Hadley Falls Company began to plan the New City, as for a few
years it was called, negotiations were opened with the farmers living
along the river-bend and occupying the lands which the new company
wished to own. Mr. Geo. C. Ewing was the company's agent, and one after
another the land-owners were persuaded to sell their acres. Samuel Ely
was an exception. He held fast to his land property, but some twenty
years later, when the sandy acres had become a valuable possession,
Samuel Ely sold his farm-lands to Messrs. Bowers and Mosher who surveyed
and sold it as building lots and it is now known as Depot Hill. Mr. Ely
retained through life the old farmhouse where he was born and reared and
where he died in 1879.
[Illustration: THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT.]
In the Summer of 1848, a dam was constructed across the Connecticut
river by the Hadley Falls Company. It was finished on the morning of
Nov. 16, 1848. A great crowd of ten thousand people collected on the
river-bank to witness the filling of the pond and closing of the gates.
At ten o'clock the gates were let down and the pond began to fill. The
massive foundation stones of the bulk-head at the west end began to move
under the great pressure. The water had risen to within two feet of the
top of the dam when the break began at about one hundred feet from the
east end and the structure tipped over and gave way. A massive wall of
water and moving timbers rose high in air, (a sight terrific to remember
by those who saw it), and with a mighty roar and sweep the great
structure went down the stream in ruins.
Great as this disaster was to the Company, there was no yielding to
discouragement. The work of reconstruction was begun at once and a
second dam of improved pattern was built upon the site and so strongly
constructed that it remains a part of the present dam. Eighteen years
later it was improved and strengthened by building a front extension, in
such a manner that the dam now has a sloping front, giving it the form
of a roof, both the old and the new structure being made absolutely
solid. The original cost of the structure in 1849 was $150,000. The cost
of the extension finished in 1870, was $350,000. By that time the town
of Holyoke and its water-power were rapidly realizing the anticipations
of its projectors.
The water of the river is distributed through a series of three canals
aggregating three and a half miles in length, the power being repeatedly
utilized, as after leaving the first level canal, the water flows from
the wheels into the canal of the second level, from the second level
into the third level, and thence to the river, which completes its
perfect curve to the south of the city.
[Illustration: THE HOLYOKE DAM.]
Among the first colonists of the New City were an army of laborers who
came to dig and wall the canals. These settled in shanties and cabins
near the river-bank. When the great factories were built, a corps of
operatives came to work in the mills. As in Lowell, Manchester and other
manufacturing towns, many of the factory-girls came from New England
homes, and were distinguished for their independence and thrift. A
little later, ship-loads of expert weavers were brought from England and
Scotland to work in the cotton-mills. A ship called the "North America"
brought a load of 130 young Scotch people who shipped from Broomielaw
Quay, in April, 1854. They were induced to come by the superior
inducements offered here, and some of the best weavers ever employed in
the mills came from Scotland. Later there was a large immigration from
the Canadas, and from Ireland.
The entire population by the census of 1850 was 3,715. March 14th of
that year the town was incorporated, bearing the name of Holyoke,
Governor Briggs approving the bill.
The name selected was historical, from Mt. Holyoke, christened some two
hundred years before, but its origin was from Elizur Holyoke, one of the
early residents of this section.
The town of Holyoke was formerly a portion of Springfield of which
Elizur Holyoke was among the early settlers, coming from England when a
youth; and his name is identified with its early records. In 1640 he
married Mary Pynchon. the tradition of whose grace and loveliness comes
down with the musty records of the past, and lingers like a bright,
sweet touch of romance among the historical pages of the grim colonial
days.
[Illustration: SECTION OF THE DAM.]
A notable man of his time was Elizur Holyoke, and he was of a committee
chosen to explore and ascertain the precise extent of Springfield, which
then extended to Northampton and Hadley. A pretty legend of the valley
is Dr. J.C. Holland's story, told in most musical verse of the Mountain
Christening.
"On a beautiful morning in June, they say,
Two hundred and twenty years ago."
Captain Holyoke and Captain Thomas with a little company of stanch
followers started out on a survey of the country.
"Holyoke, the gentle and daring, stood
On the Eastern bank, with his trusty four,
And Rowland Thomas, the gallant and good,
Headed the band on the other shore.
The women ran weeping to bid them good-bye,
And sweet Mary Pynchon was there (I guess)
With a sigh in her throat, and a tear in her eye
As Holyoke marched into the wilderness."
The melodious rhyme goes on to describe the journey up the valley and
the night camp, where:
"The great falls roared in their ears all night,
And the sturgeon splashed, and the wild-cat screamed,
And they did not wake till the morning light
Red through the willowy branches streamed."
The story of the naming of Mt. Holyoke is told as follows:
"The morning dawned on the double group,
Facing each other on opposite shores,
Where years ago with a mighty swoop
The waters parted the mountain doors."
"Let us christen the mountains!" said Holyoke in glee,
"Let us christen the mountains!" said Thomas again,
"This mountain for you, and that mountain for me,"
And their trusty fellows responded "Amen!"
Then Holyoke buried his palm in the stream,
And tossed the pure spray toward the mountain brow
And said, while it shone in the sun's fierce beam,
"Fair mountain, thou art Mt. Holyoke now!"
How much of this rhythmic legend is true and how much imaginary is
uncertain; but it is quite probable that in the course of this survey
Holyoke's name was given to the mountain, of which Holyoke city is a
namesake.
[Illustration: THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.]
The town so originated and named grew gradually until the breaking out
of the civil war, but its most rapid growth has been since 1865. In 1857
the water-power and property were purchased by a company which organized
as the Holyoke Water Power Company, and which has fostered and developed
the natural advantages of the place as a manufacturing centre to a
wonderful degree.
[Illustration: THE CITY HALL.]
In the first twenty years of its existence the town acquired a
population of about 11,000 and a valuation of nearly $10,000,000. In the
sixteen years that have succeeded, the population has almost trebled and
the valuation this year is nearly $16,000,000.
There is not another city in the east that can show such swift and at
the same time substantial growth as Holyoke has enjoyed during the two
decades succeeding the war. In a few years it became the greatest
paper-making centre of the country. It has now twenty-four large
paper-making corporations, one having the largest paper-mill in the
world. A long established cotton mannfacturing company employs one
thousand and three hundred operatives. A company manufacturing worsted
goods employs one thousand persons, the two mammoth thread-mills have
some one thousand names on the pay-rolls. The Unquomonk silk works,
which were destroyed by the great Mill River flood of 1874 were
re-located in this city, where was found a safe, reliable water-power.
There are woolen factories, including a company for manufacturing
imitation seal-skin goods and a large blanket mill. The manufacture of
Blank books and Envelopes, Steam-pumps, Wire, Machinery, Cutlery,
Screws, Fire-hydrants and Steam-boilers, Cement works, Spindles and
Reeds, Fourdrinier wire and Rubber-goods are among the city's greatly
diversified industries. There are extensive brickyards and stone
quarries near at hand and the lumbering business is an important
industry.
[Illustration: OPERA HOUSE.]
The building growth of the city has kept pace with the manufacturing.
Where a few years ago were acres of woodland, swamps or brambly
pastures, are now well-graded streets lined with pleasant houses. Hills
have been leveled, ponds and ravines filled and made into valuable real
estate. From the highlands in the western part of the city, there are
river and mountain views of surpassing beauty. Gradually the building
centre is moving westward and many charming homes have been created on
the suburban streets. The old stage-road which led from Springfield to
Northampton is now a wide, well-graded highway with handsome villas
surrounded by spacious grounds. Here are the fine residences of
Treasurer R.B. Johnson of the Holyoke Savings Bank, G.W. Prentiss of the
wire-mills, Westover, the residence of E.J. Pomeroy, Lawnfield, the
house of R.M. Fairfield, "The Knolls" the fine residence of Mr. C.H.
Heywood, and on the higest point of all is Rus-in-Urbe, the lookout
point of Mr. Foster Wilson. Farther south on the same street are the
residencies of Mr. Timothy Merrick, Donald Mackintosh, Oscar Ely, John
Cleary and others. The residence streets of Ward six are pleasant with
shade trees, blooming gardens and lovely houses. From the most sightly
eminence of the ward, the house of William Skinner of the silk-mill
overlooks the city. A central and pleasant square encloses the home of
W.A. Chase, the agent of the Water Power Company, and houses with all
the appointments of elegance and luxury are owned by Messrs. Whiting,
Dillon, Farr, Metcalf, Mackintosh, W.A. Prentiss Clark, E.W. Chapin,
Ramage, Newton, Corser and many others. Fairmount Square is a new
section just opened for good residences. In the southerly part of the
city is the farm of Congressman Wm. Whiting with its herds of beautiful
Jerseys, and on the Springfield road is the model Brightside farm, the
pet life-project of W.H. Wilkinson, blanket manufacturer. This farm is
also the home of splendid specimens of the Jersey cow. A majority of
the principal streets of Holyoke bear the names that were given them
when the town was first mapped out by its prophetic founders, At first
Holyoke was chiefly a cotton manufacturing town and of the streets laid
out from east to west the names of prominent cotton manufacturing
companies of the state alternated with the names of Massachusetts
counties. There are Franklin, Hampshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Hampden
streets, alternated with Jackson, Sargeant, Cabot, Appleton, Dwight and
Lyman, named for noted cotton manufacturing firms. Main street is a long
thoroughfare extending north and south and terminating at the river.
Canal, Race, and Bridge streets were named from their location. Bowers,
Mosher and Ely from former landowners of Depot Hill. John street and
Oliver street perpetuate the name of John Oliver; High street was named
for its sightly location. West of, and parallel with, High, the streets
have the names of woods, Maple, Chestnut, Elm, Walnut, Pine, Beach, Oak,
Linden and Sycamore. Many of the streets in Ward seven were named for
persons first owning and or building upon them. Northampton street, is
the county highway from Springfield to Northampton.
[Illustration: WINDSOR HOTEL.]
The total area of Holyoke is about fourteen square miles. The first city
government was organized in January 1874, and the first Mayor of the
city was Hon. Wm. B.C. Pearsons, now judge of the Police court, who held
the office three years. The succeeding mayors have been Hon. William
Whiting, at present a Congressman from the 11th District, R.P. Crafts,
William Ruddy, F.P. Goodall, and James E. Delaney, the present
Executive. The city offices and the public library are located in the
city hall, a fine granite building which was completed in 1876 at a cost
of nearly $400.000. In the same year the city erected a monument on
Hampden Square in memory of the soldiers who died in the war of the
Rebellion. The handsome open house, where the best of theatrical and
musical talent appears during the entertainment season, was built by
Messrs Whiting & Brown and was completed in 1878.
The city has four National Banks, and three Savings Banks. It has a
daily newspaper, the Transcript, which is the direct successor of the
first newspaper printed in Holyoke, in 1849. Under its present title the
Transcript has been published since the year 1863.
The water supply for the city is derived from the Ashley and Wright
ponds, the water-works having been completed in 1873. Since then, other
mountain streams and reservoirs have been united with the water supply
of the ponds, to make it adequate for the growing city's needs. The
ponds from which the pipes are laid are located some four miles from the
City hall.
Holyoke pays liberally to support its public schools. There are eight
brick school buildings with all the modern improvements and conveniences
for the graded schools, besides suburban school houses and a High school
with 160 pupils. The Catholic parishes in the city also support
flourishing parochial schools, St. Jerome parish having just completed a
huge brick building for a girl's school.
The city has a wealth of new churches. The first little square white
church which the Baptists built in the beginning of the century was
removed in 1880 and a modern brick church now occupies the site. The
Second Baptist Church society in the central part of the city has just
completed a fine church edifice. The Second Congregational society, two
years ago, dedicated a splendid granite building which cost nearly
$100,000, the successor of the plain brick meeting-house which in 1853
was erected at the corner of High and Dwight streets. The city has a
large Catholic population and three extensive Catholic parishes each
having a capacious church of fitting architecture. The Episcopal people
worship in a picturesque stone church on Maple street, and near it is
the cozy little Unitarian church. The Methodists built a church of brick
on Main street about the year 1870. The First Congregational society has
a wooden edifice on Northampton street--the oldest church building in
the city since the primitive First Baptist meeting-house was taken
down--and the church at South Holyoke where the German residents listen
to the services of their faith in the language of the fatherland.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD (FRENCH CATHOLIC)]
* * * * *
THE LAST PORTRAIT OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
The many who cherish the memory of DANIEL WEBSTER with more than common
interest and veneration, are fortunate, in that the records of his life,
his habits and his appearance are so complete. The portraits of Webster,
now extant, represent the great statesman at numerous periods of his
life.
[Illustration]
In July, 1852, Mr. Webster was in Franklin, N.H., and there sat for his
picture to the local artist of the town, who finished an excellent
daguerrotype. The picture was given by Mr. Webster to the Hon. Stephen
M. Allen, who now has it in his possession at the rooms of the Webster
Historical Society, in the Old South Meeting House, and by whose
courtesy it is here reproduced.
In October of the same year, three months after the picture was made,
Daniel Webster at his Marshfield home, breathed his last; leaving this
portrait the last ever taken of him from life.
* * * * *
FORT SHIRLEY.
By Prof. A.L. Perry of Williams College.
The recent centennial celebration in the town of Heath, Franklin County,
Massachusetts, has freshened up an interest in the history of the old
fort that was built within its borders, at the opening of the Old French
War in 1744, by the State of Massachusetts. The present writer, however,
has made a study for many years of that and its kindred forts, has
repeatedly visited and critically examined its site, and has in his
possession the chief movable memorials of what was indeed a small, yet
in its historical connections a deeply interesting, military outpost.
The first white men known or supposed to have ever penetrated the
original forests in the town of Heath were Richard Hazen and six others,
the surveyor and chain-men and their assistants, who ran the official
northern line of Massachusetts in the early spring of 1741. Besides the
surveyor himself, who was then a prominent citizen of Haverhill, on the
Merrimac, and his son of the same name, then nineteen years old, the
party consisted of Caleb Swan, Benjamin Smith, Zachariah Hildrith,
Ebenezer Shaw and William Richardson. Under an imperative order from the
Privy Council in England, Governor Belcher, who at that time
administered government over both Massachusetts and New Hampshire,
commissioned Hazen to run the ultimate line between the two, beginning
at a point three miles north of Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimac (now
Lowell), and extending on a due west course till it should meet His
Majesty's other Governments. This arbitrary decision of the Privy
Council in selecting the very southernmost point in the whole course of
the Merrimac, as the place meant in in the old Charter of Massachusetts
in the phrase "Merrimack River," instead of taking, as Massachusetts
claimed, the northernmost point of the river in Franklin, N.H., or as
New Hampshire had claimed, the point at the _mouth_ of the river,
robbed Massachusetts of a strip of territory fourteen miles wide the
whole length of the Colony, which New Hampshire had never before
claimed, but which her shrewd and unscrupulous Agent now extorted trom
the ignorance of English Councillors.
Hazen began his survey March 21, 1741. The English instructions required
a course due west, and Governor Belcher and his Council ordered ten
degrees for the then variation of the needle, which was not quite
enough, so that the line actually ran slightly north of due west, and
saved to Massachusetts at the west end of the line (in Williamstown)
about 1 deg. and 50 min. After the party left the Connecticut river on
April 6, they slept on snow at a depth of two or three feet every night
till they crossed the Hoosac river in Williamstown on April 12. "It
clouded over before Night and rained sometime before day which caused us
to stretch Our blankets and lye under them on ye bare Ground, which was
the first bare ground we laid on after we left Northfield." It was on
April 9 that they measured the present north line of Heath. Let the
clear-eyed surveyor describe in his own words the general situation of
the future Fort Shirley.
"At the End of three miles we came to a large brook running
Southeasterly and at the End of this days measure to another large brook
running Southerly, by which we took Our lodging. Here we tract a Bear
and therefore named it Bear brook, both these brooks being branches of
Deerfield River. The land this day was some of the best of Land and for
three miles together. The last year Pigeons' nests were so thick that
500 might have been told on the beech trees at One time, and they could
have been counted on the Hemlocks as well, I believe three thousand at
one turn Round. The snow was for ye most part three feet deep, the
weather was fair and wind Northwest."
Although Hazen named the last mountain on his line where he supposed the
eastern line of New York, would ultimately run "Mount Belcher," in honor
of the Governor who had commissioned him to lay it, the just
unpopularity of the line itself and Belcher's connection with it
immediately caused his recall from his government, and the appointment
of William Shirley in his stead. Belcher was Massachusetts born; while
Shirley, though British born, became one of the ablest and most
successful of all the colonial governors of Massachusetts. The building
of Fort Shirley in 1744 and the naming it after the new Governor, as
well as the building a little later of the two forts to the
westward,--Fort Pelham in Rowe and Fort Massachusetts in what is now
North Adams,--all within a couple of miles of the new boundary line,
showed a concern of the colony for its now greatly curtailed northern
limits, as well as a much greater concern for the defence of the
scattered settlements west of the Connecticut river from the French and
Indians, who had several well-trod war-paths to the English settlements
on the Connecticut and the Deerfield.
But, after all, the route by the Hoosac River had been and continued the
main path from Canada to New England for the French and their savage
Indian allies. Whether they came down the Hudson to the mouth of the
Hoosac at Schaghticoke, or struck that river on the flank at Eagle
Bridge, there was a well-beaten trail--the old Mohawk trail--along the
north bank of that river all the way from Schaghticoke to what is now
North Adams; and, in continuation of that river trail, the "old Indian
path" over the Hoosac Mountain, directly over the line of the present
Hoosac Tunnel, led down to the upper reaches of the Deerfield river and
so down to the Connecticut at old Deerfield. It became, therefore, of
great moment to Massachusetts to defend the line of the Deerfield in the
French and Indian war of 1744-48. A few private houses were fortified in
what is now Bernardston, and two or three more further west in
Coleraine, particularly Fort Lucas and Fort Morrison, the owners being
assisted by grants of men and supplies from the General Court; and
during this war and more especially the next and last French war, the
Indians often lurked with hostile intent in the vicinity of these
extemporized forts, and not infrequently surprised and killed and
scalped men from the little garrisons, and carried women and children
into captivity to Canada.
But the first regular fort built to protect the valley of the Deerfield
and incidentally also the line of the Connecticut, was placed by
Massachusetts in the present town of Heath. It was built wholly at the
public expense, and garrisoned by regularly enlisted or impressed
soldiers, and named Fort Shirley from the enterprising Governor of the
Province. John Stoddard of Northampton was then Colonel of the militia
of Hampshire, a designation at that time including all of Massachusetts
west of the Connecticut River; he was Shirley's right-hand man for this
end of the Province, and it was under his general direction that Forts
Shirley and Pelham and Massachusetts were erected.
The letter is still extant in Stoddard's own hand, dated July 20, 1744,
in which Capt. William Williams is ordered by him "to erect as soon as
may be" a block-house sixty feet square "about five miles and a half
from Hugh Morrison's house in Colrain in or near the line run last week
under the direction of Col. Timo. Dwight by our order." In the same
letter, Williams is directed to employ soldiers in the construction of
the fort, carpenters to be allowed "nine shillings, others six shillings
a day old Tenor." Several other directions are given, and the main
outlines of the fort are prescribed; some bills are still extant giving
items of money paid out for many different parts of the work; six of the
original hewn timbers of the building are in good preservation today in
the barn of Orsamus Maxwell in Heath, each stick telling some tale of
the original mode of construction; so that, from all these sources of
information, a pretty accurate idea of the old fort can be made out
to-day, 141 years after it was built.
For the outside, white pine logs were scored down, and then hewn to six
inches thick and fourteen inches high; and the scores worked 48 days
on these, receiving £14, 8s. for their work, and the hewers 24 days,
receiving £10, 16s. The walls of the fort were twelve feet high, thus
requiring nine courses of these timbers laid edgewise one above another,
each being doweled to the one below by red oak dowel-pins, two of which
were pulled out of their quiet resting places of 141 years' duration, in
a good state of preservation, by Mr. Maxwell and the writer, Sept. 5,
1885. Those ends of these timbers that came to the four corners of the
fort were dove-tailed into each other in the well known manner, so that
there were straight lines and strong locking at the corners; and it so
happens, that three of the six timbers preserved are corner timbers, and
show at one end the exact mode of locking.
There were two mounts on two corners of the fort 12 feet square and 7
feet high; and the houses and barracks within the fort were 11 feet wide
with shingled roofs; and the mount-timber, the insides of the houses,
and the floors, were all hewn, presumably of the same width and
thickness as the wall-timbers. Undoubtedly the whole parade in the
middle of the fort was also floored in the same way, as the site of the
fort was and is low and wet.
The fort was built in this manner during the months of August,
September, and October, 1744; and on the 30th of the last mentioned
month, Capt. Williams commenced to billet himself and the soldiers under
his command at the fort. He remained there all the winter and spring;
about the 1st of March he enlisted 14 of his men for the Louisburg
Expedition, at Col. Stoddard's request, whom he took to Boston; but was
not himself allowed to embark, and returned to his fort; while later in
the season, under a strong call for reinforcements for Louisburg by
Gov. Shirley, Williams took 74 able bodied men to Boston, recruited by
himself in less than six days mostly in the Connecticut valley, and was
given a Lieutenant colonel's commission in the regiment destined for
Louisburg commanded by Col. John Choate. They sailed in June, 1745, but
the fortress had been taken before they arrived, and the regiment with
Williams as acting Colonel was detained there to do garrison duty.
Fort Pelham in Rowe was built by Williams before he left for Louisburg,
that is, in the spring of 1745; and in the autumn of that year we find
Capt. Ephraim Williams, a kinsman of the other, afterwards founder of
Williams College, in command of Fort Shirley and of the line of forts.
It is fair to presume that he was appointed to the command on the
withdrawal of the other in June; but which of the two built Fort
Massachusetts along the same line, or whether either of them, can not
now be stated with absolute certainty. It is probable that Ephraim
Williams saw to its construction under the Committee of the General
Court, of which Stoddard was Chairman; and at any rate he was in command
of the whole "line of Forts, viz. Northfield, Falltown, Colrain, Fort
Shirley, Fort Pelham, Fort Massachusetts, and the soldiers posted at the
Collars, Shattucks Fort, Bridgman's, Deerfield, Rhode Town, and New
Hampton," as early as Dec. 10, 1745. Just a year from that time he sends
in his account for the entire year,--"In which time he has had three
hundred and fifty men under his particular charge and government."
Because it was the first fort built by the Colony in that region, and
especially because Fort Massachusetts was captured and burnt by the
French and Indians in August, 1746, Shirley became very prominent in
that war, and was the headquarters of the successive commanders of the
line of forts. Massachusetts was rebuilt early in 1747, and thereafter
became the chief work; for both before and after the Peace of Aix la
Chapelle in 1748, it was perceived that the sites of Shirley and Pelham
had been ill-chosen, and that the route by the Hoosac was the one to be
kept open for hostile demonstration towards Crown Point, and the one to
be defended against hostile demonstration from all that quarter. Forts
Shirley and Pelham, accordingly, which were very differently
constructed, ceased to be of much military significance after the Peace,
though both were slightly garrisoned for several years after. In 1749
and a part certainly of the next year, there were five men only in Fort
Shirley, namely, Lieutenant William Lyman, Gershom Hawks, John Powell,
Samuel Stebbins, and Peter Bove. From June, 1725 till the end of May,
1754, one man in each constituted the garrison of Shirley and Pelham.
Archibald Powell held watch and ward on the heights of Heath and George
Hall on the lofty meadow in Rowe. Each drew his pay from the treasury of
the colony; and each had a magnificent lookout from his solitary
sentry-box. Monadnock is in plain sight to the east, and Haystack to the
north from the site of Fort Shirley and the Hoosacs to the west and
Greylock overtopping them greeted the roving gaze of George Hall from
the picketed enclosure of Fort Pelham.
There was but one chaplain to the line of forts, Rev. John Norton,
appointed from Falltown in 1745, who passed from one to the other as his
sense of duty to each garrison might prompt; and Mrs. Norton with one
or two children lived in Fort Shirley for more than a year while her
husband was in captivity in Canada. Scouting parties of the soldiers
were kept constantly passing from fort to fort when not employed in
garrison or other duty; their allowance on the march was for each
soldier per day one pound of bread, one pound of pork, and one gill of
rum; while in garrison each man was allowed per day one pound of bread,
and one-half pint of peas or beans, two pounds of pork for three days,
and one gallon of molasses for 42 days. It is certain, that one or more
cows were kept by the garrison of Fort Shirley, perhaps on account of
Mrs. Norton and her children, for there was a cleared field around the
fort, and an old cow-bell half eaten up by rust was found not long ago
near its site, which site, it must be remembered, was several miles from
any habitation of men at any time in the last century.
After an existence of one hundred and forty-one years, the old well of
Fort Shirley, which was undoubtedly within the block-house and probably
in one corner of the enclosure away from the "parade," is able to tell
pretty thoroughly to this day the story of its own construction. Four
forest staddles about six inches in diameter, one for each comer of the
well, were set upright on the ground, and then ash planks rived from a
log about five feet long were pinned or spiked on the outside of these
staddles, beginning at the bottom; and this frame being placed on the
ground where the well was to be, the earth was thrown out over the
sides, and so the well was gradually sunk to the required depth, the
plank-siding being added gradually as the shaft was lowered. These rived
planks and the tops of the four corner-poles, that can now be seen and
fingered less than two feet below the surface of the ground, were not
very uniform in thickness, and of course have rotted off at the top by
time and exposure; but enough of both has been preserved till this time
by constant submergence in the water and in the unusually moist soil
above it to betray without any serious question the nature of the
materials used and the mode of their employment. One of the corner-posts
was a black birch and the bark on it is in a good state of preservation
at and below the surface of the water.
The last incident to be mentioned at this time in connection with Fort
Shirley relates to the Rev. John Norton, his wife and daughter. Norton
was born in Berlin, Conn., in 1716; was graduated at Yale College in
1737; was ordained in Fall Town, since Bernardston, Mass., in 1741; he
was the first minister in that town, "but owing to the unsettled state
of the times," and to the fact that his people lay right in the angle
between the military line of the Connecticut and that of the Deerfield,
and had consequently as much as they could do, to maintain their
families exposed as they were, he labored there about four years, and
was appointed chaplain to the line of forts almost as soon as the men
were fairly in garrison. He was in Fort Massachusetts when it was
besieged and captured by an army of French and Indians in August, 1746;
went captive with the rest of the garrison to Quebec; returned,
exchanged, in just a year; and wrote an account of the siege, the
journey northwards, the captivity, and the return, a precious little
book, which he entitled after a memorable precedent "The Redeemed
Captive." His narrative begins as follows.--"Thursday, August 14, 1746,
I left Fort Shirley in company with Dr. Williams and about fourteen of
the soldiers; we went to Pelham Fort, and from thence to Captain Rice's,
where we lodged that night. Friday, the 15th, we went from thence to
Fort Massachusetts, where I designed to have tarried about a month.
Saturday, 16th, the Doctor with fourteen men, went off for Deerfield,
and left in the fort Sergeant John Hawks with twenty soldiers, about
half of them sick with bloody flux."
We can not now follow the good chaplain in his deeply interesting
narrative. He makes no mention in it of his family, but it is certain
from other data that he left Mrs. Norton and his young children in
garrison at Fort Shirley, and that just about the time of his return
from captivity to Boston, which was August 16, 1747, his little girl,
Anna, died at the fort and was buried in the field a little to the west
of it. Probably some soldier in the fort chiselled upon the rude stone
the inscription as follows:
Hear lys ye body of An'na
D: of ye Rev:
Mr. John Norton. She died
Aug; ye ---- aged ---- 1747.
This stone stood there in the bleak field exposed to the suns of summer
and the storms of winter for more than one hundred and thirty years. The
day of August on which she died and the number of years she had lived
have become illegible by exposure,--impossible to be deciphered. The
stone has lately been removed to Williams College, and with its
companion relic, a stick of one of the timbers of Fort Shirley, and a
few other memorials of the well and fort, are safe in a fire-proof
building.
The tradition is still lively in Heath, and it may well be an historical
fact for it has been handed down by an aged citizen there whose life
began with the century, that there used to come up from Connecticut on
an occasional pilgrimage to the site of Fort Shirley and particularly to
the grave of Anna Norton some of her relatives. This is very likely; for
John Norton became in 1748 a pastor in the parish of East Hampton,
Middlesex Co., Conn., where he died in 1778; and one may still read on
his tombstone there the following inscription:
IN MEMORY OF
THE REV. JOHN NORTON
PASTOR OF THE 3D CHURCH IN CHATHAM
WHO DIED WITH SMALL POX
MARCH 24th AD 1778
IN THE 63D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
He left several children. Among them an unmarried daughter, who lived
till 1825. It is no mean touch and print of vital human sympathy that is
left upon the sod beneath the great tree in Shirley-field by the figure
of one who came and came again from a distant place to catch, it may be,
a note from the dreary Past and drop a tear upon the grave of a sister
whom she never saw.
To his Excellency William Shirley, Esq. Capt. Gen. and Gov'r in Chief
of this Province, the Hon'ble his Majesty's Council & House of
Representatives in Gen. Court assembled--
The Memorial of John Norton of Springfield in the County of Hampshire,
Clerk, humbly showeth That in the month of February, 1746, he entered
into the Service of the Province as a Chaplain for the Line of Forts on
the Western Frontier and continued in that service until the Twentieth
day of August following, when he was captivated at Fort Massachusetts
and carried to Canada by the enemy, where he was detained a prisoner for
the space of twelve months, during which time he constantly officiated
as a chaplain among his fellow-prisoners in the best manner he was able
under the great difficulties and suffering of his imprisonment, and your
Humble Petit'r begs leave further to inform your Excell'c. & Honors that
besides the great Difficulties and Hardships that your Petit'r indured
during his captivity abroad, he and his family by means thereof are
reduced to great Straight and Difficulties at home. He therefore prays
your Excell'c and Honors would take his distressed Circumstances into
your wiser Consideration and grant him such Help and Relief as your
Excell'c, and Honors in your Wisdom and Goodness shall deem meet, and
your memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray.
JOHN NORTON.
Springfield, Jan. 25, 1748.
[ENDORSED]
In the House of Representatives, Feb, 23, 1748. Read and Ordered that
the sum of £37, 10s. be allowed the memorialist in consideration of this
officiating as Chaplain to the Prisoners whilst in captivity at Canada.
In council read & concurred W. Hutchinson, Speaker
J. Willard
Sec'y
Consented to
W. SHIRLEY.
* * * * *
THE MORMON CHURCH.
By Victoria Reed.
On the 24th of July, 1847, Brigham Young and a few followers pitched
their tents at the base of the Wasatch Range--a spur of the Rocky
Mountains. This was the nucleus of what is now known as the flourishing
city of Salt Lake. These pioneers came across the vast plains, over the
desolate mountains and entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake through
Emigration Canon. Their first view of the locality was from the mouth of
the canon which is at an elevation of seven hundred feet above the city,
and from this eminence the clearness of the atmosphere enabled them to
see mountain ranges ninety miles distant.
The wide valley, the broad expanse of the lake with its mountainous
islands, miles in extent, and the encircling ranges, formed an
amphitheatre of unexampled grandeur and rugged beauty. The valley itself
at that time was a vast desert without tree or shrub, nothing but the
wild sage-brush and the white alkali soil could be seen, if we except
the scrub-oaks and lebanon cedars that covered the mountain sides and
the emerald colored waters of the lake. Utah was then Mexican Territory,
and this fact, as much perhaps as any other, determined Brigham Young to
settle there. When the exodus from Nauvoo took place, the Mormons were
roughly estimated at four thousand souls and probably about that number
made the first settlement in Utah; but they have increased now to over
two hundred and fifty thousand in the United States with societies in
England, Wales and Scandinavia, all flourishing and sending yearly to
Salt Lake as many as they can find means to transport. The history of
this people will probably never be fully written, but they endured
hardships, privations, sufferings, torture and death. Their settlement
of Utah was one of extreme peril and anxiety, and for years it was a
question whether they would survive or perish. Had they been actuated by
conscience, by pure religious zeal, by patriotism, by any of the nobler
sentiments, they would have made an enviable reputation in history and
gone down to posterity as a society commanding the respect and
veneration of the world; but when it is known that no community or state
even would tolerate them and that they sought this uninhabitable wild,
this unknown and then foreign territory, to escape the punishment of
their crimes, and to practise an abhorrent and barbarous tenet of their
faith, their glory departs and they look and will look in the light of
history abject and pitiable. Some conception of their great undertaking
in crossing the continent may be imagined when we reflect there were no
roads, no known way across the vast arid plains, no mountain cuts, no
bridged streams, no drinking water for miles upon miles with long
tedious marches resulting in sickness and death.
To one acquainted with the country, knowing the obstacles they overcame,
it is a matter of wonder that women and children were ever able to
perform it. It must be remembered that their destination reached, their
trials had only fairly begun. They were surrounded by savages, they were
over a thousand miles from the habitation of a white man. They had
pitched their tents on an alkali plain that had never been tilled; not a
blade of grass grew in the soil and this in a climate where not a drop
of rain or even a cloud appeared for six months in the year. Irrigation
had never been tried, and the whole scheme was an experiment, the
failure of which would have been fatal to the settlement. The first
winter was spent in their wagons and in tents, while their subsistence
was upon a scanty supply of vegetables. It is no more than common
justice to accord to this people a great undertaking in founding the
settlements of the territory, and a great triumph in their complete
success; but above and beyond this, very little can be said in their
favor.
The legal title of the Mormon church is the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, and in the church parlance, Salt Lake city is a state
of Zion and the real Zion is at Jackson, Missouri, to which place the
Mormons claim they are some day to return. The Mormon church is a very
complicated institution, but as perfect in its organization and
operations as the Catholic church. Church and State are inseparable and
the main complications are in the priesthood which extends to nearly
every male member of the church who has a family, thus making them all
more or less responsible for the proceedings of their leaders. This
priesthood is composed of a president, in whom is combined prophet, seer
or revelator of the church. There have been only three men to fill that
office, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor who now occupies
the position. This chief with two councillors form the first presidency.
Next in order come the twelve apostles who hold equal authority in
church matters with the president, though the presidency is the last
resort in case of appeal. Next comes the order of the seventies, which
consists of seven presidents, each having control or presiding over
seventy priests or lower presidents, each of whom in turn, presides over
a quorum of seventy. Out of this order of seventies come the patriarchs
who dispense the blessings of the church, the high council which is an
ecclesiastical court, all these orders making up a priesthood after the
order of Melchisedec. Then follows the Aaronic priesthood which is
composed of a senior bishop with two councillors acting as president of
the state of Zion, and an indefinite number of bishops of lower rank
with elders, teachers and deacons. The Mormons claim that this is the
only apostolic church, the only church having the sign of miracles, the
laying on of hands, the giving of tongues, the baptism for the dead, the
consecration of marriage, the only church through whom and with whom God
is talking as of old. Many of the ordinances of the church are performed
in secret and are still more complicated. Although some of these rites
and ceremonies have been revealed by apostates, yet there are others of
such a character that even the bitterest seceder from the church would
not dare unfold them. With this complex system conceived after the
manner of the Jewish priesthood, and with the various revelations that
have been added from time to time, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints stands to-day as a very curious monument to the ingenuity of
men, the most prominent of whom were descended from Puritan fathers.
The ordinance that has given so much unpleasant notoriety to this church
is that of polygamy, or plural marriage as the Mormons designate it.
There are three kinds of marriage; the marriage for this world as in
other churches, "till death do us part;" the marriage for this world and
for eternity combined; and the marriage for eternity alone, independent
and separate from this world's relationship.
The Mormon woman has no place in the future state excepting as she
enters under the protection of her husband, so this last marriage or
sealing for eternity was instituted to enable all unmarried women, or
those who were only married for this world, to gain a foothold in the
life to come. The motto of the Mormon church is, the greater the family,
the greater the reward. Brigham Young with his nineteen families
excelled in this respect, and he will be awarded the highest seat in
Heaven. His sealed wives are said to number two hundred and fifty.
Joseph Smith has also been very popular and has had scores sealed to
him.
To uphold this peculiarly constituted church, various crimes have been
committed, varying in hue, but the Mountain Meadow Massacre, when one
hundred and nineteen men, women and children were butchered in cold
blood under a flag of truce, surpasses in atrocity any act of the savage
tribes by whom they are surrounded, and has stained indelibly the Mormon
church. Before the advent of the Union Pacific Railroad, to breath a
word against the church organization or any of its acts or resist one of
their tenets or accumulate more wealth than was acceptable to the
leaders, has always brought down instant and the severest punishment,
and the perpetrators could never be brought to justice as they were
emissaries of Brigham Young and his councillors.
It is polygamy, however, more than all their other deeds and revelations
that has entailed misery, suffering and degradation. It has been the
parent of more crime, more disloyalty, more deceit and sin generally
than all the other causes combined. It is claimed that the revelation of
polygamy came to the prophet Joseph Smith in 1843 at Nauvoo, and it was
secretly practised by him and by other members of his church; but it was
not published to the world until 1852, when Brigham Young made it known
in Utah, thinking no doubt that he was beyond the pale of civilization
and the terrors of the law. It was not made obligatory, but those who
practised it were to have greater exaltation in the next world. A woman
conforming in other respects is entitled to a seat in Heaven, but it is
reserved for the polygamist to be one with the Father. Of course there
is no room for Gentiles in the Mormon Heaven, excepting as hewers of
wood and drawers of water to some Mormon saint.
The fanatical followers of the priesthood are filled with the
superstitions of the old world, coming, as so many do from the lowest
classes of Great Britain and Scandinavia, fit subjects for all the
mummery imposed upon them in the name of religion. Brigham Young is
often quoted as saying, that he had gathered around him a set of people
that his satanic majesty himself would not have. Even after polygamy had
been openly proclaimed in Utah, their missionaries utterly repudiated
it, and in pursuance of private orders of the prophet they positively
asserted that it was not a tenet of the church. They were afraid of
bringing upon themselves the condemnation of foreign governments; but
the ignorant offshoots of European Monarchies openly commit acts here,
that they boast if perpetrated in their own land, would bring down upon
them the severest penalties of the law. The perfect indifference and
apathy of our government for so many years, however, has given the
Mormons sufficient justification for their attitude. Abroad, not only
their own security, but the large emigration which they sought and do
secure yearly, rendered necessary a great deal of deceit. Men honest and
fair-dealing in other respects have a twisted conscience in regard to
plural marriage. As a Mormon woman said, "A polygamist is the most
ingenious liar imaginable." In the earlier days on their arrival in
Zion, when securely in the toils, their money in the hands of the
elders, too far in the wilderness to make hope of return possible, these
people have awakened to the horrors of the system, and women on the day
of their arrival were hurried to the Endowment House to swell the number
of polygamic wives in the land. Perhaps of all the women in Utah those
who live in constant terror of their husbands entering polygamy are the
most to be pitied. These plural marriages are performed in private in
the Endowment House, a building in the same enclosure with the
Tabernacle and Temple. Here they take oaths of allegiance to the church
that absolve them from obedience to the laws of our country, when they
conflict with their laws. They consider their obligations to their
religion such that they perjure themselves on the witness stand in the
most unblushing manner. They thus defeat the attempts to gain evidence
of their marriages. Apostates, since the protection given to them by
United States troops and the moral support of the Gentiles, have
revealed many of the secrets of this place. This apostacy at any
previous period of their history would have cost them their lives, as
they take the most solemn oaths never to betray this most absurd and
sacrilegious performance. The Endowment House is arranged to represent
the Garden of Eden. The permanent Adam and Eve of the establishment are
a man and woman prominent in the church. A well known public functionary
who performs the ceremony represents God, while his satanic majesty
fulfils his own appropriate functions. The ordeal lasts from nine in the
morning until three in the afternoon, and one or more wives can be taken
at one ceremony.
The Miles case which attained such notoriety in Utah a short time ago
was one not altogether uncommon, in which a young girl engaged to a
Mormon Elder in London accompanied him to this country to have the
marriage ceremony performed by the fathers of the church. On their way
thither the elder felt constrained to tell this young convert that he
had already made promises of marriage to two Danish sisters who were
awaiting him in Zion; but he assured her that though he felt obliged to
fulfil all his vows yet she should be his first and only legal wife. She
reluctantly consented to this humiliating compromise and on his arrival
in Salt Lake he took the three maidens to the Endowment House and they
were in turn married to him. Unfortunately for conjugal felicity, the
English girl was made second in order on account of priority of age of
one of the Danish sisters. Terrible scenes ensued and in her indignation
this girl denounced her husband and he was brought into court on the
charge of bigamy. Only once before in the whole history of Mormonism has
the court gained evidence of these plural marriages. Wives are bound by
such terrible oaths at the marriage ceremony that they dare not give
testimony against their husbands. Also, the jurors are two-thirds
Mormons and these law breakers would never punish one of their own
number, and no person could be convicted without destroying the rights
of trial by jury. Mr. Robinson, an Englishman who has lately written a
book laudatory of the Mormons, makes the statement that "Many Mormon
women could not be happy until their husbands took other wives." A lady
who has written thrilling stories on the subject of polygamy, writes the
following in response to Mr. Robinson of a friend of hers who was a
Methodist and embraced Mormonism because she had been as she thought
miraculously healed in answer to a prayer of a Mormon Elder. Soon after
reaching Salt Lake her husband took another wife. She was an American
and had been brought up in a Christian family, so she could not take
kindly to polygamy; she thought, however, that it was something ordered
by God and that she must be very wicked to have such bitterness in her
heart towards the woman who had won her husband's love. She said, "I
thought I would go for counsel to those who were wiser and better than
I, so I paid a visit to a model family, two wives in one house who were
said to live like sisters, and exceptionally happy. I told the first
wife my story and asked her how she attained her happiness. 'Happiness,'
she replied, 'I don't know the meaning of the word, I have never seen
a happy hour since that woman came into my house and never shall until
I drop into my grave.' The second wife said, 'for the sake of peace,
I have given up every right both as woman and wife. If it were not for
my child, I would have thrown myself into the river long ago.' Then I
went to two of Brigham's wives who were held up as examples. The first
to whom I spoke said, 'I have shed tears enough since I have been in
polygamy to drown myself twice over;' the other said, 'the plains from
the Mississippi River to Salt Lake are strewed with the bones of women
who were not strong enough to bear the burdens of polygamy, and the
cemetery here is full of them; but every one of these women will wear
a martyr's crown.'" Women who give their consent to the death knell of
happiness do it on the ground that their reward will be greater in
Heaven, and that the few years in this world is as nothing in view of
eternity. Buoyed up by these hopes, women leaving large families at home
with infants in their arms, accompany their husbands and give them in
marriage to young girls who have grown up at their very doors.
They have often left their husbands and even their children behind them
in foreign lands or in our own, to gain the coveted privilege of passing
the remnant of their days in communion with the Latter Day Saints in the
glorious State of Zion. These deluded women get their deserved
punishment for deserting the highest and acknowledged duties of life, by
the ignominy and contempt heaped upon them by those who allured them
from their homes. Contact with this institution has in a few cases not
only deadened all finer sensibilities, but has trampled upon instinct,
when mothers coming with grown daughters to Utah not only marry Mormons
themselves, but urge their girls to become polygamic wives to their own
husbands. Very few probably are of this character, and the majority are
mere tools in the hands of a tyrannical priesthood.
A gentleman well versed in the history of the church in Utah writes
"that after a thousand years of Christianity and civilization, Mormons
have stripped woman of all her rights, have trampled her in the dust,
have sworn her on her life to obey her jailor husband, then have given
her the ballot and boast of their liberality."
Suffrage under a theocratic government is a farce for both man or woman
and, in the latter case, a pure mockery, as the Mormon woman has
apparently a privilege which is denied to woman elsewhere, but this
privilege is entirely out of her power to use excepting as ordered by
the church that controls her. Suffrage given to the women of Utah has
had two results; first, to increase greatly the vote for the church and
its institutions, and secondly, to make woman herself the champion of
her own degradation. Brigham Young gave the suffrage to Morman women,
and he was confident that he could manipulate this element as he had all
others in behalf of his own aggrandizement, both spiritual and temporal.
Our government and Gentile residents hoped that the franchise would be
productive of great good in opening the eyes of these women to the
knowledge of the power invested in them, to free themselves from the
superstitious obedience with which their vicegerent had enchained them;
but the folly of endowing them with our privilege so long as theocracy
exists, has been fully demonstrated. To ask for rights which are
cheerfully conceded to woman in every other section of the country,
would be utterly useless in Utah. The law of suffrage like all other
laws in Utah have been made for the sole protection of their divine
institution; so these Mormon women have only raised their voices to
uphold polygamy which they have been forced to do on all occasions when
it would benefit their church. They assembled in Mass-meeting and
petitioned Congress to propose an amendment to the constitution
sanctioning polygamy, and they have waved banners in the streets of Salt
Lake on which were inscribed "The women of Utah believe in polygamy."
The brutal teachings of Brigham Young and his councillors and all the
laws and institutions of Utah are intended to reduce woman to utter and
abject servitude, and to resist this power in the earlier days when they
were sensitive to the touch of the tyrant's will would have been a very
dangerous experiment; but now, with help stretching towards them, they
seem to be too throughly paralyzed by years of total submission to be
able to avail themselves of it.
The numbering of the vote is a very essential element in the ballot, as
by that means the priesthood has knowledge of the failure of any man or
woman to vote as they have been ordered. The Edmunds commission reports
as follows in regard to Woman's suffrage: "We are satisfied that owing
to the peculiar state of affairs in Utah--this law is an obstruction to
the speedy solution of the vexed question."
There are many laws on the statute books detrimental to women. No right
of dower exists in the territory, and the legislators at their last
session wholly refused to provide for it. There are no marriage laws--as
the Mormons hold the ordinance as strictly a Latter Day Church
prerogative. There are no laws forbidding immorality such as are found
in all other states and territories.
A prominent Mormon bishop lately asserted in the eastern press "that the
Mormon women are happy," a statement entirely contrary to that of the
women themselves who declare their state to be purgatorial.
The _Anti-polygamy Standard_ says:--"A wife lately thwarted her
husband in his attempt to enter polygamy, threatening to expose him in
court; the true spirit of Mormonism was exhibited in his reply, that the
laws of God would soon be in full force in Utah--we shall get rid of the
Gentiles, and all such Mormon women as you will be blood-atoned." This
atonement is one of the tenets of the church. Any act committed against
it has in the past been punished by death, the shedding of the guilty
persons, blood being necessary for the atonement of the sin.
A band of men called destroying angels, has committed these murderous
deeds under the guidance of the priesthood. This doctrine is no longer
in force and could not stand in the face of federal officials and a
Gentile population.
It was for many years the desire of the church to prevent any expanding
of the intellect on the part of their followers, and any casual observer
at the Tabernacle would be convinced that this and their divine
institution had done their thorough work in stamping ignorance and
misery upon a large number of the faces gathered there.
Prayer has always played an important part in both secular as well as
religious assemblages, used as a means to impress and overawe these
superstitious disciples of an all absorbing faith. Every ball, every
party, all social gatherings and even the theatre in the olden time,
opened and closed with prayer. In the dedication of a building they
bless the different parts even to shingles and nails. A full hour was
consumed when the large tabernacle was dedicated, in enumerating and
blessing the different materials that made up its construction. One
other very peculiar tenet of the church is baptism for the dead. They
are women principally who enter with enthusiasm in practising this rite,
and they have been immersed as many as twenty times in one day to insure
the future of departed friends. It was the boast of one poor simple
Scotch woman that she had secured places in Heaven for Sir William
Wallace and Robert Bruce. In accordance with a purpose of the
priesthood, children bore a prominent part in public affairs. They were
called Utah's best crop--and less than ten years ago--they formed
conspicuous portions of the audiences that gathered in the tabernacle
and theatre. Their youthful voices in concert rivalled those of the
tabernacle choir, the latter no mean institution as it numbered over
300. At the theatre, too young to hold up their heads, their mothers
tended them on pillows. This custom has gradually been abolished until
now an apostle can harangue by the hour on his favorite topic of "come
up and pay your tithing without an infant's cry to interrupt the
monotonus strain."
This theocratic government, where one man calls himself God's vicegerent
and imposes his revelations on a narrow minded fanatical class of men,
carries its own hand into all its branches, nothing being too small or
petty for its fingers to grasp, and implicit obedience is to-day, as it
always has been, the watch-word of the church. At church conferences
there is never a dissenting voice and at the polls always the same
unanimous vote. The following quotations give an idea of how the power
is placed in Utah and of what theocracy consists:--Brigham Young said
in the Tabernacle in 1869, "what is the greatest miracle that can be
wrought before God, our Saviour, the angels, the inhabitants of the
earth and the infernal regions? Is it raising the dead or healing the
sick? No--it is not--it is bringing a people to strict obedience to the
rule of the priesthood."
Orson Pratt, the learned apostle, has always taught that "people cannot
govern themselves by laws of their own making or by officers of their
own choosing, for that would be in direct rebellion to the law of God.
Absolute power vested in one man is the best and most efficient human
government. There is one kind of government that will secure permanent
prosperity and happiness, and that is theocracy or the government of God
through his prophet, seer and revelator."
President Kimball said in the tabernacle:--"Have not the majority of
this congregation made most solemn covenants and vows that they will
listen, obey and be subject to the priesthood? Have not the sisters made
the same solemn covenant before God, angels and men that they will be
subject to their husbands?"
President Taylor says:--"You want to pay your tithing fairly and
squarely, or you will find yourselves outside of the pale of the church
of the living God. You must also uphold the co-operative institutions."
Col. Hollister, a gentleman thoroughly acquainted with Mormonism, writes
thus:--"There is no rule of the people intended in the Mormon church.
There is no state government contemplated because it has every organ of
despotic state government in and of itself. It takes no account whatever
of the natural right of man to life, liberty, property, freedom of
opinion or of conscience. Its bill of rights, its constitution, its laws
are the revelations of the prophet. It has not a single idea or
institution common to free government or free men. As long as they hold
this theocratic idea, to force democratic government upon them, is a
farce. Its political party is the church and into that political party
no one can enter excepting through the church."
Polygamy disgraces us in the eyes of the world, and fills the home where
it enters with untold misery; but a theocratic government, thoroughly
equipped, unanimously responsive in all its branches, far-reaching in
its designs and expanding as rapidly as that of the Mormon church,
presents a great political enigma to the American people even when shorn
of its most obnoxious feature. Congress and the country at large have
their attention fixed upon the question of polygamy, and the proposed
legislative commission, if endorsed by Congress, would bring the Mormon
Church itself face to face with it. It is so embedded in the very roots
of their organization that many Mormons insist that it would be utterly
impossible for the church to dispense with it; and the _Deseret
News_, the church organ in the issue following the President's
Message, declares that "neither commissions, edicts or armies, or any
earthly power can affect plural marriages of the Mormons for they are
'ecclesiastical, perpetual and eternal.'" No doubt there will be a
convulsive effort made to retain the government of the Territory in
their own hands, and they might be forced to abandon polygamy to save
such a catastrophe, but would they do it in good faith?
What would their fanatical followers say if the "absolute command of
God" to Joseph Smith is no longer to be regarded. If polygamy can,
however, be happily abolished, there still remains a solid phalanx of
determined men and women manipulated by the hand of wily priests and
bishops, who do not believe in our institutions, who deny the right of
individual feeling or action, who teach the doctrine that the Latter Day
Saints will rule eventually the whole country and the world. Such
compact power, so guarded, so absolute, is certainly an unparalleled
achievement when the few years of its conception and execution in a
barren desolate waste is considered. A similar case has never been
witnessed before in the heart of any country on the globe, and it is
safe to say that no other civilized nation would have tolerated such an
anomaly in its midst. Germany even has forbidden Mormon missionaries to
come within her borders. England is profuse in condemnation of our
Government for permitting such an institution as polygamy, which she
fosters however by sending one-half the recruits that come yearly to our
shores to practise it. Scandinavia and our own land contribute the
balance, and it is confidently asserted that Massachusetts alone gives
more converts to Mormonism than are converted from it in Utah, Worthy
mechanics and skilled laborers in our manufacturing towns are joining
this standard which holds out temptations of temporal prosperity that
are difficult to resist.
The Mormon church is fast peopling the immediate surrounding
territories. Idaho is dangerously invaded and the balance of power
threatened, while Colorado and Arizona have large, growing settlements.
The first train that passed over the new narrow guage road that runs
through Colorado, carried a load of foreign emigrants to Utah. Railroads
intersect Utah in all directions, and the church is also laying her own
peculiar rails throughout the whole region of the Rocky Mountains, and
they will give promising dividends in strength and security to the
church institutions.
The Edmunds bill is a step towards the abolishment of polygamy. It has
disfranchised the law-breakers but has not had the effect of
discouraging plural marriages. Some Gentiles maintain that there are as
many solemnized now as before the passage of the bill, and the
Commission itself acknowledges that the practice still exists, though
they think there is a decrease.
However this may be, it is certainly true that strenuous efforts were
made immediately upon its adoption to force young people into polygamy;
and at the late conferences addresses were delivered enjoining upon the
people the fact that, the Kingdom of God could not progress unless they
obeyed the revelation given to Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, and God would
never forgive his people if they did not obey his commands. While these
sentiments were freely expressed in the Tabernacle, a statement is sent
to the eastern papers by a prominent member of the church that "the
Edmunds Bill has practically abolished polygamy."
To overthrow this theocratic government and to parry the subtle wiles of
the priesthood, more than ordinary attention and wisdom will be
required, and it will be a great triumph to our legislators if they can
succeed in bringing about a peaceable solution of the greatest problem
now before the American people.
* * * * *
ELIZABETH.[1]
A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS.
By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work."
CHAPTER XXIV.
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE.
The stars had not begun to pale in the morning twilight when Elizabeth
awakened. The dim outlines of houses and trees could be seen through the
window as she looked out against the sky. Within the room the furniture,
large and heavy, looked still larger in the darkness. She fixed her eyes
upon some point, and followed back the lines that flowed from it until
they were lost in the dimness, and this assured her that she was awake.
Her writing-table was in part sharply outlined against the window, and
part of it was lost in the shadow of the draperies. The bureau seemed
only a dark mass among the shadows in force in the corners of the room.
These and the tops of the heavy chairs, as she looked at one and another
of them, helped to calm her and give her a sense of reality. But they in
no way accounted for the startling suggestion, that whether dream or
waking thought had first filled her with fear and then set her heart
beating hard as she lay wide awake breathing unevenly and striving to
learn if she were still under the influence of a dream, or if the
unconscious conviction which had come upon her was the result of
dwelling upon what she knew. She could not recall her dreams, but they
seemed to her to have had no connection with the sudden sense of danger
that had startled her awake. She tried to throw it off, but it was like
the objects in the room that had seemed almost invisible at first, but
that grew every moment more distinct to her as she watched them. She
felt more and more sure that the danger was real, however the knowledge
of it had come; a terrible danger, but not to herself. It seemed strange
now that she had been blind so long, and yet, how could she have
suspected such a horror? Lord Bulchester felt it, too, only that he
would not allow himself to believe it. But it was he who had brought
conviction home; it would never have come, she thought, if she had not
seen him yesterday. But it had come, and it remained. It held her like a
vise, drawing her back toward it whenever she tried to escape, driving
off sleep forcibly when more than once that seemed about to seize her.
What was she to do with it? Plainly, something. It and rest could never
dwell together. But what? And how could she do it? A conviction which
pressed upon herself with the force of a certainty, and yet had no
proofs by which to establish itself, was not an easy thing to make felt
by another mind. And when it was a conviction of danger, and that other
had by nature and training a contempt of danger, the difficulties were
increased. Added to this were other difficulties which Elizabeth felt
keenly; but the fear was stronger than them all. The longer she studied
the matter the more she saw that the only thing for her to do was the
one thing that she shrank from most. All the freedom left her was to
find out the best way of doing it.
When the dimness of starlight began to grow into the dawn, she arose.
But she delayed at her toilet, standing so long in thought with her
brush in her hand, and her dark hair sweeping over her shoulders, that
it was six o'clock before she crossed the hall and knocked at her
father's door.
There was no answer. She knocked again, with the same result, and then
opening the door, found the room empty. Mr. Royal had gone down stairs.
But it was too early for Mrs. Eveleigh, and Elizabeth might still have
her talk with him without interruption. With a mixture of relief and
dread she went down the broad, low stairs and crossed the hall into the
library.
It had always been her favorite room. She had spent so many happy hours
here with the books, that the room with its handsome old furniture and
sunny windows was full of the memories and day dreams that her reading
had conjured up. But not only this; it was here that she had seen most
of her father; they had spent hours together here, while Mrs. Eveleigh
attended to her household duties, or amused herself with her friends,
or retired for her nap. And whether father and daughter talked, or
sat, he with his paper or his writing, she with her book, each felt a
companionship in the other. Elizabeth often spoke her thoughts freely to
any one who happened to be within hearing when the mood for speech came
over her; but as to her feelings, her father understood those best. This
was partly on account of his quickness of comprehension, which supplied
much that she did not utter, and partly because there came to her times
when her father seemed like a second self, and silence grew unnatural.
But that morning speech, evidently, was not easy to her. For, although
she had gone to him as a matter of course, her perplexity seemed to grow
greater as she sat down by the desk at which he was making up some
accounts. It seemed to her that her life was no longer free and simple;
a dreadful force had come into contact with it and, as she felt, made it
more unworthy. Had a mere jest ever before brought such a train of
miseries? Her fingers laid restless folds in a piece of paper she took
up, and her father after his greeting went on with the accounts. It was
his habit to give people time, and he had found that doing it gave him
the best opportunity to take his own bearings. His judgments were
usually so accurate, and his decisions so wise that a good many people
would have been thankful to find the scales by which he weighed the
anxiety or the satisfaction that came under his observation. On that
morning the rapid pen travelled several times up and down columns of
figures and noted down the results before Elizabeth began:
"Father." It was a small beginning, and followed by silence. But the
tone made Mr. Royal push his work aside, and look full into his
daughter's face. "Father," she repeated, "I want you to advise me."
"Am I not always ready for that?" returned Mr. Royal, his smile fading
before the gravity of her expression.
"There is something so hard to be done," she answered.
"Then, must it be done?"
"Oh, yes, that's the only thing about it I am quite sure of. It must be
done, and directly, too. It may be too late now, but we must try. What
troubles me is how it can be done so that we may be certain."
"Certain of what?"
"Certain that it reaches him," answered Elizabeth. Then she looked at
her father, and remembered that he could not understand her. "I must
tell you," she said. "It is like a nightmare. It oppresses me to think
of it. I feel guilty to believe it, and yet I don't dare to deny it to
myself, for fear of the consequences. It's about Mr. Edmonson, father."
"Oh!" said her listener in a tone far from pleased.
"And Mr. Archdale, added Elizabeth. Not that who the people are makes
any difference. Our duties would be just the same knowing the,--knowing
what I do." Her father sat watching her in silence with his keenest
gaze. "There is no love lost between the two men, as you know," she went
on. "Mr. Archdale is lofty, and wouldn't condescend to anything more
than a dislike that he hasn't tried to conceal, since Mr. Edmonson
ceased being his guest. But with Mr. Edmonson it's different; when he
feels, he acts; and once in a while there is an unrestraint about him
which is frightful; it makes me think of lava breaking through the crust
of a volcano. I believe there is something volcanic in his nature; you
can't go deep into it without danger. And there is danger now. Father,
there is danger now." As Elizabeth repeated her statement she leaned
forward a little and looked at her father, her eyes full of earnestness
and dread.
"In what way, and to whom?" asked Mr. Royal.
"To Mr. Archdale," she answered.
It was not Mr. Royal's way to protest or deny; he liked to get in his
evidence first of all. "What makes you think so?" he asked.
"A good many little things that have come back to me in confirmation,
but especially a speech of Mr. Edmonson's that I overheard one day at
Seascape. Stray shots," he said, "have taken off more superfluous kings
and men than the world has any idea of. I did not know at the time whom
he had been speaking about, and I forgot the speech; it seemed to me to
have no object. But now it does, and now I remember a word or two
besides that showed me that he had turned the conversation upon Mr.
Archdale."
"When was this?"
"One morning when I was coming up from the beach, I didn't feel like
talking to anyone, and when I heard voices the other side of the great
boulder--you remember it?--I waited a moment, to see if they would pass
on, so that I need not go back to the house by the longest way; and it
was then that he said it. He was with Lord Bulchester. He was speaking
of other things first, and then I missed a few words, and then he said
this."
"So far as he was concerned," answered Mr. Royal, "that might be as
innocent a speech as ever was uttered. Indeed, don't you see that a man
who meditated mischief wouldn't make such a speech at all?"
"If the man were Mr. Edmonson he might, and to Lord Bulchester who, he
knows, never would do anything against him. But Lord Bulchester is
uncomfortable. I saw it yesterday; and perhaps wondering over that was
what made me put everything together. I don't know how it was, but I
awoke in the night and saw it all. And now they have gone where the will
and the opportunity are sure to meet. Mr. Archdale must be warned."
"But, Elizabeth," said her father, "why should he want to do it? He
succeeded in his designs upon the Archdale property. What malice can he
have?" As he spoke, he looked earnestly at his daughter. He had not been
blind to things going on about him, and especially things concerning his
daughter, but in a case like this no suppositions of his own were to
take the place of evidence.
Elizabeth met his eyes for a moment, then her own drooped and she grew
pale. It was not that her father's eyes told her his thoughts, it was at
the humiliation of her own position in being the object of mercenary
scheming. "He has not enough money," she said at last distinctly, "and
he wants more. That's what it means. And he dares to think--." She
stopped short, and for a moment it seemed as if it would be impossible
for her to go on; a hot flush came to her face and an angry light into
her eyes. Then her courage returned, and although she uttered the words
with visible effort she went resolutely on. "I know it," she said, "he
dares to think someone else,--Mr. Archdale,--is somewhat like himself,
and that he will come to want more money too. He cares for nobody, he
would stop at nothing, and he thinks that I refused him because,--he
does not understand how I feel towards him. Oh, don't you know that
sometimes you know all about a thing, know it perfectly, and cannot make
it seem so to another? Don't let it be so with you, father. Only listen
to me." Mr. Royal did listen attentively as she went over the points of
her story again. Had she been talking of some matter of business, her
inexperience and a something about her that people were apt to call
unpracticalness, might have decided him against giving any unusual
weight to a speech like Edmonson's. But here the weight of her
character, and of impressions stronger than she could put into words
told. He saw, too, that she was looking at the matter with the accuracy
and judgment that it usually takes years of training to learn. This,
added to her own intensity, gave a convincing force to her words. He
admitted to himself that the affair had an ugly look.
At last Elizabeth paused. She drew a little nearer her father, and laid
her hand upon the table beside him. "I want you to advise me;" she said;
then, "What must I do?"
In the impossibility of any answer he felt a sudden rebound from the
force of her words. "I don't see that there is anything for you to do,
or for anybody," he said. "How can you act upon a thing that is purely
an assumption, and not only that, but a thing so wicked that it is a
cruelty to a man to imagine it about him? I can't believe that it's
necessary to do anything, for I can't bring myself to feel as you do.
Are you very sure that you have not fancied a part of this?"
"Father!" cried Elizabeth, "I wish I had, But look at it." And she went
again over the grounds of her suspicions, giving with a clearness that
he was proud of, the indications that she had seen of the bent of
Edmonson's will and the evidences of his headstrong character, linking
one trifling act or word to another, until she had welded a chain so
strong that Mr. Royal felt a thrill run through him as he listened, for
she awoke in him her own belief and something of her own anxiety to be
doing. So that when she had finished, instead of repeating that it was
not necessary to do anything, he asked whom she had thought of as the
person to give the warning to Archdale.
She was about to speak, then checked herself, hesitated, and at last
said, "I want you to advise me."
"Um!" said Mr. Royal, and was silent. He was somewhat disappointed that
she, so powerful in statement, should have no suggestion to offer in a
matter that puzzled him the more, the more he thought of it. Such a
warning would not be easy to give under the most favorable
circumstances. It would not be a pleasant task to tell a man that
another man had designs upon his life, and when such assertion had only
the proof of strong conviction and of evidence, trivial in its details,
strong only as a whole, it would be even hazardous to whisper a warning
to the person himself, liable to lead to complications and sure to be
met by incredulity and either ridicule or resentment. But here, where no
personal communication was to be had, the difficulties were a hundred
times greater. Circumstances made it especially awkward for either
Elizabeth or himself to put these suspicions into words. But to put them
upon paper with all the cumulative evidence needed to carry
conviction,--if conviction could indeed be conveyed without the
reiteration of words and the persuasiveness of the voice,--to do this
and send the paper adrift, to fall into Archdale's hands or not as the
fortunes of war should determine, perhaps to fall into other hands,--it
was impossible, for Elizabeth's sake it was impossible. "I don't see how
we can reach him," he said at last. "A letter wouldn't answer."
"No," she said, "he might never get it." Mr. Royal looked at her more
closely as she fixed her eyes upon him, flushing a little as she spoke
with the earnestness of her purpose.
"Well," he said musingly, "we certainly can't get at him in any other
way, and that one is uncertain and dangerous. Even the dispatches are
subject to the fortunes of war. I don't see what we can do, Elizabeth.
Do you?"
But even as he spoke, he refrained from what he was about to add,
turning his assertion into a question. For a change was coming over his
daughter; the power within her to rise to great occasions was in force
now. The conventionalities that were holding him in check were unfelt by
her; she had risen above them to that high ground where the intricacies
of life are resolved into absolute questions of right and wrong, and
where perfect simplicity of intention becomes a divine guide.
"Father, do you remember," she cried, "what I have cost him and Katie?
I must not be silent, and let them be separated more, a great deal, than
my foolish speech once seemed to do. He has gone where stray shots are
of everyday occurence, and nobody ever inquires into them. Apart from
this obligation, if we do nothing we shall be murderers." She locked her
fingers together as she spoke, not in nervous indecision, for her look
was full of resolution, but as if the necessity that she was facing
disturbed her. Mr. Royal suddenly perceived that his daughter had not
finished, that behind that expression there was, not a suggestion,
indeed, but a decision. She had come to him, not for advice, but for
approval; she knew what to do. Her plan would scarcely be one to meet
the approval of people like Mrs. Eveleigh. But he recognized that the
soul that was looking out from Elizabeth's fearless eyes had a high law
of its own. And when his daughter spoke in this mood, Mr. Royal was
reverent enough to listen.
CHAPTER XXV.
DUTY.
"How strange it seems here," said Nancy Foster leaning forward toward
Elizabeth, as they sat in the sunshine on the deck of the schooner; and
as she spoke she glanced along the horizon.
Elizabeth before answering turned her head in the direction in which the
land, had it been in sight, would have appeared; but no vision of shore
broke the wide circuit of ocean and sky. Then her eyes came back to the
little vessel as if to assure herself that she was not alone in this
waste of water. Her father sat on the opposite side reading. With a word
of reply to Nancy, she fell into silence again. Only, instead of the
vague wonder how she should meet the future, her thoughts now turned to
the past. It was nine mornings since that consultation with her father
in the library, and they had been only one night at sea. It had taken a
week to get off. From the first she had counted upon Mrs. Eveleigh's
remonstrances and vehement reproaches of Mr. Royal's wrong-doing in
taking his daughter into such danger. They were only a little more
vehement than she had expected. But Mrs. Eveleigh did not know the
errand; if she had, that would have made a difference, or, as Elizabeth
reflected, she thought that this would have been treated as the
strangest part of the affair. But she had kept her own counsel, saying
only that her father and she thought it right. Mrs. Eveleigh had been so
exasperated by being kept in the dark that she had retained her anger to
the very last day. Then she had drowned her resentment in a flood of
tears, and declared between her sobs that, frightful as it all was, for
she dreaded the very sight of a gun, she would rather go with Elizabeth
than have the dear girl set off without any companion. Elizabeth's
reminder that her father and Nancy were to accompany her only called
forth the assertion that a maid was no companion, and a man was nothing
at such a time. Elizabeth thought that at the time of sieges and battles
a man might be considered of some little consequence. But she never
argued with Mrs. Eveleigh, and she had quitted her thankful for the good
lady's affection, and glad that Mrs. Eveleigh was to be left behind on
such an expedition.
"You'll never come back," Mrs. Eveleigh sobbed. "The French ships of war
will be sure to gobble up you and your father, too. I know just how it
will be. You are a crazy girl, and I don't know what is the matter with
you," she had added irrelevantly; "and as to your father, you must have
bewitched him; he used to have plenty of common sense."
The matter with Mr. Royal was, that he knew his daughter well enough to
be sure that if Archdale was killed during the siege she would feel
always that her silence might have given the opportunity for his death.
And he knew that to bring upon Elizabeth the miseries of an uneasy
conscience would be to kill her by slow torture. Besides, he himself
believed in the danger, his own conscience was aroused, and that was not
easily put to sleep. But if he had heard the verdict of Mrs. Eveleigh,
who knew nothing of the matter, he would not have blamed her so much.
He had hired this little schooner in which they now were at a ruinous
rate, and had not been able to do even that until he had pledged himself
to pay all damages in case of loss. Governor Shirley had seized the
opportunity to send dispatches several days earlier than he had
intended. Mr. Royal went with a picked crew, men both honest and
skilful. He knew the dangers of French vessels as well as Mrs. Eveleigh
did, but his daughter's persistent assertion: "We shall be murderers,"
had overborne every objection.
Elizabeth sitting on deck that morning, was thinking of these things,
and tracing in this danger which she was trying to avert, one of the
consequences of her frolic on the river that summer evening. Then she
remembered that but for that she would perhaps have been Edmonson's
wife, and she said to herself that the Lord had been very merciful to
her, and that she would try not to shrink from her duty.
"How fast we are going," said Nancy again. It was true that the little
vessel before a fair wind was flying over the water at a rate that, if
kept up, and in the same direction, would soon bring its passengers to
their destination. Elizabeth was glad of speed, already it might be too
late. And besides, the sooner her errand was done, the sooner she should
return with a mind at rest. She began to reckon how long before she
should be at home again. In a week, in less time if they were fortunate,
they should reach Louisburg. She should not want more than five minutes'
talk with Mr. Archdale. Then it would be home again immediately. Her
father had hired the schooner for the very reason that it should not be
detailed for any other service, but should bring them back at once.
How strange it was, she thought, to spend fourteen days for only five
minutes' conversation, and that, too, with one who was no especial
friend except through his engagement to Katie. But for all the weariness
she was thankful to do it, and grateful to her father. She hoped that
she should not catch even a glimpse of Edmonson, and it seemed
improbable that she would. After the siege was over he would probably go
to England again. How she wished he were there now, and she quietly at
home, where in that case she might have been now.
The next day there was a head wind, and the day following no wind at
all. As time went on, it grew evident that it would be more than a week
from their starting before they could drop anchor in Cabanus Bay. Dread
lest they should be too late began to harass Elizabeth. But she showed
no impatience. Her silence was what Nancy noticed most. But, then, Nancy
liked talking, and did not enjoy the books which her Mistress had
brought with her and read most persistently, or sometimes tried to read,
unsuccessfully. Even then they served as a protection against the maid's
talk when she was in too anxious a mood to endure it.
On the morning of the seventeenth they caught sight of the "Little
Gibraltar," but the wind was against them, and it was the afternoon of
the next day before the Captain of the schooner could run into the Bay,
and go ashore with his dispatches and Mistress Royal's message to the
General.
Elizabeth looked about her with breathless interest, realizing that here
she was to find war. It happened that on her arrival there was a lull in
the cannonading. Both sides had paused to draw breath, but the lull was
far from perfect silence, and to her inexperience this occasional
thunder of bursting shells seemed sharp conflict. She said so to the
Captain as they drew toward shore.
"Bless yer!" he answered with a laugh. "This ain' t no thin' at all,
this is nothin' but child's play. Wait till yer see it hot and heavy. I
s'pose we shall go back to-morrow, though. I'd like to have yer see some
good stout work first."
"Ain't we in danger here?" inquired Nancy.
The skipper rolled his quid of tobacco in his cheek reflectively a
moment. "Well, no," he said, "I guess nothin' to speak of. They're too
busy answering the batteries; it's only the stray shot that comes our
way. There's a thousand chances to one agin' its hitting us, and I guess
we can stand the one." He looked at Nancy closely to guage the amount of
her courage.
"I guess we can," she answered coolly. This reply seemed to please him.
He had before considered Nancy "a nice lookin' girl;" and now, as he put
down "grit" in his mental catalogue of her fascinations, he smiled to
himself, and thought of a neat little home on the Salem shore where his
mother now presided, and where it was not impossible that some day Nancy
might be persuaded to reign. But the demands of the hour recalled him
from this dream to his usual brisk attention to realities, and as soon
as he had cast anchor, he left the ship in charge of the mate, and went
in search of the General.
General Pepperell was in his tent, resting after a hard day's work. Not
only had he been through the camp cheering the soldiers, by imparting
to them something of his own indomitable resolution and by seeing
personally that everything possible was done for the sufferers in the
hospital, but he had also been for hours superintending the arrangements
on the new battery that was to do such execution upon the granite walls
of Louisburg. Now everything was in readiness and he had ordered two
hours of rest before the firing from it should begin. Nearly an hour of
that had gone by before he entered his tent for the rest he needed, when
almost immediately the messenger reached him.
"Mr. Royal and his daughter here!" he cried. "And Mr. Royal requests
to see Captain Archdale? I don't understand. But I shall hear why
from them." He dispatched an orderly for Stephen who was still at the
battery, and then went with the skipper to the little vessel that had
brought the unexpected guests. Elizabeth never forgot the kindness of
his greeting. In the midst of the strange scene and of preparations for
work in which women had no part, the friendliness of his face and tones,
and his cordial grasp of her hand made her feel almost at home. She had
been sure of courtesy, but she had not dared to look for this, and her
eyes grew dim for an instant.
"I suppose that we shall return this evening," she said after the
greetings and inquiries were over and Mr. Royal had explained that in
a few minutes all that he had come for could be said to Mr. Archdale.
Although after thinking the matter over carefully he had decided that it
was Elizabeth, filled with the spirit of her warning, who should herself
give her message to Archdale yet he spoke to Pepperell as if she had
accompanied him. And when the General said that he had already sent for
the young man, Mr. Royal told him that his daughter had that in her
pocket for him which, if he knew, it would lend wings to his feet.
"A letter from our charming Mistress Katie," pronounced Pepperell,
smiling at Elizabeth.
"Yes," she said, and after a little repeated her question of their
returning that evening.
"Yes, I know," said the General. He waited a moment, and then added.
"But if you come among soldiers, you will feel the exactions of war.
There are those dispatches, you remember, not even read yet" and he
touched the breast of his coat, "because I was in such haste to pay my
respects to you. Now, I should like to send an answer to these, and I am
afraid I shall not have it ready before to-morrow morning; the Commodore
will probably write me to-night and I want to include whatever news he
may have. Will to-morrow do?"
"Oh, yes, I shall be glad to help the cause, even so little as that,"
she answered. Pepperell thanked her for her words, and ignored the look
of disappointment that he had seen flit across her face before she
spoke.
"We have been putting up a fascine battery within two hundred and
fifteen yards of the west gate," he said, "It will open fire in an hour,
and then you will see a cannonade! We have two forty-two pounders there,
it will be no child's play." Nothing had then hinted at the Titanic
scale of modern war engines. Elizabeth's eyes dilated, but she said
nothing. The General sat beside her, and asked how things were going on
in Boston, asked about his friends, and many trifling details that
neither dispatches nor letters would give him, and that she wondered
that he had heart for in the scenes going on about him. Then he told
them many particulars of the siege and especially of the terrible labor
of dragging the heavy guns from the shore into position, interspersing
all this narrative of the life-and-death struggles with amusing
anecdotes and bright comments, until she was amazed, and in listening
found that she had gained a better knowledge of him than in years of
ordinary acquaintance. For she could not have realized by that how
many-sided the man was, how full of resources, and how indomitable.
She noticed how sympathetically he spoke of the brave fellows he was
leading. When he said that the hardships of the campaign and the cold
of a severer climate than they had been accustomed to had prostrated
numbers of them. Elizabeth saw that it was not only soldiers that he
felt he was losing when they died, but men from his own home and
neighborhood and in whom he had a personal interest. Then as he sat
there, she begged him not to think of her if others needed him but
to go.
"This time is at my own disposal," he answered, adding with a smile. "If
the struggle had come, Mistress Royal, I should think of you, no doubt,
but I should not give you a moment's attention. The pointing of the
smallest cannon would at the moment be of more importance than all your
affairs. A besieging army can have no cry of '_Place aux dames_;'
therefore I shall not invite you to stay after to-morrow. I shall even
send you home. Or, lest I should hurt your feelings too much, I will put
it this way; I shall send your father home, and he will take you with
him."
Elizabeth laughed; and the conversation went on with its interest
increasing, when all at once Pepperell rose, and held out his hand to
her in farewell. "I may not see you again until we meet in Boston." he
said, "but if I can, I will come for a moment in the morning."
She was surprised at his going away so soon after his assurance of being
at leisure but as after speaking to her father he stepped over the side
of the vessel, she perceived the reason for his sudden departure. His
trained eye had caught what the distance had hidden from her, the figure
of a man coming rapidly toward the shore.
When the General landed, the keel of the little boat he was in grated on
the beach at Stephen Archdale's feet. With a salute to his commander,
the latter sprang into it, and before Elizabeth had recovered her
breath, was coming over the ship's side.
The General walked on without turning his head toward the schooner.
Nevertheless, it is true that once he said to himself distinctly. "The
Yankee in me does clamor to know what they want of that fellow."
[Footnote 1: Copyright, 1884, by Frances C. Sparhawk.]
* * * * *
ROOM AT THE TOP.
Never you mind the crowd, lad,
Or fancy your life won't tell;
The work is the work for a' that
To him that doeth it well.
Fancy the world a hill, lad;
Look where the millions stop;
You'll find the crowd at the base, lad;
There's always room at the top.
Courage and faith and patience,
There's space in the old world, yet;
The better the chance you stand, lad,
The further along you get.
Keep your eye on the goal, lad,
Never despair or drop;
Be sure that your path leads upward;
There's always room at the top.
* * * * *
TWO DAYS WITH THE A.M.C.
By Helen M. Winslow.
It is a divine up-reaching instinct in man that forces him to climb the
hills of science, unlock the mysteries of ages, and wrest from the
natural forces of earth and air, their well-guarded secrets. Is it the
subtle workings of this desire for the mastery over mechanical agencies,
this prying into Nature's secrets, that leads us out into the forest
primeval and gives zest to mountain climbing?
Fortune is said to favor the brave. It certainly favored the writer of
this article when an opportunity was offered for a two days' trip with
the Appalachian Mountain Club up Mounts Kearsarge South and Cardigan in
New Hampshire. A few words in regard to this club. Well known as it has
come to be, the objects of its existence are scarcely understood by the
majority, even, of Bostonians.
"Oh," said one, referring to this very trip. "They go off somewhere,
climb a mountain, have a jolly time and then come home. It's about the
same thing over and over."
Very true. But they do more. According to the by-laws, "the objects of
the club are to explore the mountains of New England and adjacent
regions, both for scientific and artistic purposes, and in general to
cultivate an interest in geographical studies."
In addition they do much to open up new mountain resorts to the public
and render the old ones more attractive. They construct new and accurate
maps. They not only collect scattered scientific information of all
kinds but study to make it available. All this they do by combining
effort, comparing notes and interchanging ideas. They hold monthly
meetings in Boston, publish a magazine, own quite a library, and have
established a reputation second to no similar organization in the
country. The club was established in 1876, and the membership to-day of
over six hundred is ample proof of its popularity. That their researches
are really valuable is demonstrated by the fact that Professor Hitchcock
in his geological works quotes them frequently in support of his own
theories.
On the seventeenth of June some twenty members of the Appalachian
Mountain Club gathered at an early hour in the Lowell station at Boston.
The party was unusually small for one of their popular excursions. The
majority were young and strong and looked amply fitted for mountain
climbing. Yet grave men were there whose silver hair told that they had
already climbed life's rounded hill and saw its westering sun; but
elderly people are never old, so long as they remain young in heart and
spirits, and pleasant anticipation beamed from the faces of all as the
train steamed away toward the north, and the two days' outing was fairly
begun.
The morning was cloudy and a possible rain storm threatened the plans
of the Appalachians. But the clerk of the weather-bureau evidently
understood the necessity for favorable conditions and issued them
accordingly. Before we had reached Canaan, N.H., the clouds had broken
away and the afternoon promised to be perfect. We had with us a Harvard
professor, a topographical surveyor, an amateur photographer, a Concord
philosopher and the champion walker of the club. Apropos of some of the
feats of the latter a story was told of the man who walked forty miles
in two hours. This was putting the Appalachians entirely in the shade,
and the story called forth incredulous remarks. Investigation proved,
however, that the Appalachian was not outdone, for the hero of the
canard accomplished his feat only by taking a Champlain steamer at
Burlington, Vt., and walking deck the entire distance to Rouse's Point!
After passing Concord we advanced through wilder regions where the
swiftly changing views of clustering villages and quiet farm-houses
alternated with wooded slopes and glimpses of pond or river forming a
series of charming pictures. Nature was at her best and the picturesque
hills of New Hampshire were beautiful in all their June finery.
At Penacook the granite monument on Dustin Island was pointed out. In
1697 Hannah Dustin, with her six weeks' old babe and its nurse, were
captured by Indians at Haverhill and brought to the wigwam camp on this
island. The babe was killed before her eyes but the mother planned an
escape. Awaking the nurse and a white lad who had been taken prisoner
also, she took the Indians' own tomahawks and dispatched the men and one
woman. The brave white women then spiked all the cannon save one and
taking the scalps of their victims with them, they embarked on the
Merrimack, then high with the spring floods, and soon reached Haverhill.
Afterwards she was called to Boston, publicly thanked by the General
Court and received a grant of fifty pounds. Fifty years later the
Indians attacked and massacred the settlers in this valley. Today their
descendants, the "Kanucks," cross the country daily in the modern
express trains and find employment in our manufacturing cities.
As we go northward Kearsarge may be seen from the back of the train, now
sinking behind the green hills, now rising abruptly from the horizon and
looming grandly above the surrounding country. Cardigan does not come
into view until we have nearly reached Canaan, whose fair and happy land
was our destination. On alighting from the train, amid the crowd of
assembled villagers, a three seated carriage and two immense Shaker
wagons awaited us. The ride of six miles was a welcome change from the
preceding railway travel. Coming from a city where the mercury had
reached 96 deg. in the shade but the day before, the fresh invigorating
mountain air was like a breath from the open doors of Paradise. The
stout horses scrambled up the steep hills altogether unmindful of the
wagon-loads of people behind. Perhaps the light hearts and buoyant
spirits of the party lessened their avoirdupois and the tonnage was
actually less than it seemed!
Billowy mountains, charming valleys, winding streams and picturesque
bypaths varied our course over the rural highways. The blackberry bushes
were white with bloom and the gardens of the farm-houses gay with
peonies and flower-de-luce. After passing a small mica quarry, we came
suddenly upon a bend of the road where was revealed a grand sweep of the
hazy Green Mountains, and a bewildering view of the New Hampshire
hill-country. Shortly afterward we passed the little box-like white
building, which serves as both church and town house, where the sixty
votes of Dorchester are counted. This building constitutes the entire
town of Dorchester. Surely, in view of the stony soil, the inhabitants
of the place may be said to show great wisdom by not living there!
By three o'clock we found ourselves at the Mountain House, twelve
hundred feet below the summit of Mount Cardigan. This house is nothing
more or less than a barn, in one end of which an attempt has been made
to make a comfortable shelter for the human family. Here the real work
of the day began, although we had already come one hundred and four
miles by train and six by teams. No enterprising railroad man has set
his seal upon this region and we were forced to pursue the journey by
means of the conveyances which nature long ago--(how long, thank
fortune, we are not obliged to tell)--at our disposal. But faint heart
ne'er climbed a high mountain and with the aid of stout walking-sticks
we easily climbed the path which led up under sighing spruces and
stunted birch, filled with a fine exhilaration.
On each side and under foot was a profusion of wild flowers. Not June
flowers, but those found with us in May, so backward was the season at
that altitude. The red and white trillium, the sarsaparilla, Solomon's
seal, "moose-missy" and black-berry bushes, and, farther up, the
blue-berry bushes, all hung full of blossoms, a small Alpine flower of
seven white petals excited much curious comment, for in spite of its
resemblance to the wind-flower, no one seemed able to classify it.
Suddenly some six hundred feet below the summit of Cardigan we came out
from the stunted under-growth and found ourselves traversing the smooth
granite mass which constitutes the entire mountain top. The rock is full
of minute particles of mica, which glitter and flash in the sun like
"gems of purest ray serene." A brisk wind was blowing and the rarefied
air infused us with new strength to make the remaining ascent.
Some distance from each other, half way up the rounded cone, lie several
huge boulders poised in the bed of what was once a glacial drift. They
are of entirely different character from the rock on Cardigan and
without doubt came from much farther north. Whence, and when? The course
of the drift is also very plainly marked from northeast to southwest.
From the character of the rock there is reason to believe that when God
said, "Let the dry land appear," Mount Cardigan was the first to show
his head and came from the very bowels of the earth. Hitchcock's
"Geology of New Hampshire" states that these White Mountains appeared
above the face of the waters as islands at a very early period of the
world's history. "It would not be surprising," he says, "if this
archipelago covered as much area as New Hampshire and Vermont combined."
If these hoary old mountains could tell us their history since creation,
how short-lived and insignificant our own little lives would appear!
Professor Hitchcock has also traced the course of glacial drift among
the mountains in a most interesting manner. Glacial action, and marks of
scarification are numerous on the north and west sides of them while
they are entirely wanting on the southeastern slopes. In some instances
the general course of the drift from the northwest was changed by the
position of the mountains. For instance, Ragged Mountain and Kearsarge,
South, rise abruptly from comparatively level regions and from their
proximity to each other gave rise to a different motion of the ice, the
marks of which still show its course.
The view from this, the oldest of the mountains is scarcely surpassed by
any in the state. To the north, Moosilauke, Chocorua, Lafayette, Mount
Washington and the main peaks of the principal White Mountain group lie
sharply outlined. The Ossipee Mountain toward the east, the Uncanoonacs
in the distance, Ragged and Sunapee and Kearsarge, near neighbors,
claimed attention. In the far western horizon Ascutney, Camel's Hump,
Mount Mansfield, and Jay Peak showed hazy and indistinct. Below us the
broken ranges of green hills surged like immense billows of some Titanic
sea. The fresh verdure of every field and tree made up a landscape
seldom equalled in tone of color, and one which amply repaid the
climber. But while some were content with looking, other true
Appalachians remembered the objects of the club. While one took
photographs of the surrounding scenery, far and near, another made
profile sketches of the distant peaks; while one attempted a bit of
topographical work, another took measurements by means of a powerful
telescope; and the results of all were put on record for future
reference.
A member of the A.M.C. just returned from Florida had been carrying
about some strange looking fruit all day, resembling partly an orange
but more nearly a small yellow winter squash. Now, he made himself
popular by dispensing great pieces of grape-fruit among the thirsty
crowd. It is a necessity of perverse humanity to be thirsty wherever
there is no water; and but for the Florida fruit and the canteens which
had been filled at the spring on the mountain side, we should have
suffered.
Mount Cardigan is but 3,156 feet above the sea-level; but as it stands
alone the view on all sides is unobstructed and clear. It did not take
us an hour to decide that three thousand feet above the sea, under
favorable conditions is quite a sightly place. And we took the homeward
path, feeling that the view was worth a dozen times its cost. Forty
minutes afterward we arrived at the bottom in the condition of the
weak-kneed and trembling saints whom the hymn-book denounces.
An hour of rattling down the hills brought us to Canaan depot again
where our special train awaited us. After a refreshing draught of milk
at the Cardigan House, from the piazzas of which a fine view of the
mountain may be had, we were rapidly whirled away toward Patler Place in
Andover.
This village was named for the once famous sleight of hand performer
Patler. His house is a cozy, pretty affair, freshly painted and nestled
under great embowering trees. Close by is his grave.
Here, too, barges were in waiting to take us to the Winslow House, four
miles distant on Mount Kearsarge. Before we had left the train the soft
rays of the setting sun had changed the hill-sides to amethyst and
deepened the purple gloom of the valleys. Now, as we rode in merry
groups of six or eight, over the country by-ways, the new moon slowly
touched every tree and shrub with her magical wand until the land with
its long, weird shadows and silver radiance seemed to belong to another
world than that of day-light.
It was nine o'clock when the Winslow House suddenly revealed itself.
An open wood fire burned brightly in the brick fireplace, and in that
altitude was a comfort indeed. The ample walls seemed to fairly glow
with welcome as we entered. Some of us acknowledged that we were tired;
others confessed to sleepiness; but one and all openly declared their
hunger. We had only to look at each other to madly accept the theory
that mankind was created of dust; but we were not long in disposing of
a large amount of surplus material. And then the supper bell,--welcome
sound! In view of a cherished reputation for veracity, it would not be
wise to state the exact amount of sirloin steak and broiled salmon that
disappeared from mortal vision that night at ten o'clock, or to tell
how the strawberries and boiled lobster were stored safely away by the
A.M.C. We are sworn to secrecy, and although the supper hour was not
passed over in silence then--far from it! it must be now.
No one need suppose that after the experiences of the day the
representative A.M.C's. were fatigued sufficiently to make them willing
to retire at half-past ten. Besides, nightmare has its horrors, and
there was that supper!
It is popularly supposed throughout the country, that Bostonians make an
annual pilgrimage on the seventeenth of June to Bunker Hill, and
devoutly ascend the monument on their hands and knees. Although
circumstances had prevented the A.M.C. party from discharging their debt
of gratitude to their ancestors in the prescribed method, they could not
forget that it was Bunker Hill Day. One of our gallant and patriotic
brethren had been carrying a mysterious bundle about and guarding it
with jealous care all day. Now, he produced and displayed--sky-rockets!
They went off, soon after, with great success, surprising alike the
stately mountain behind us and the little country girl who had come up
from the valley below, to see the "Boston folks."
The powerful telescopes were also set up and observations of the heavens
occupied the astronomically inclined for an hour or two. Thus the moons
of Jupiter were made to contribute to the evening's entertainment. The
piano, too, was not the instrument of torture usually found masquerading
in hotel-parlors, and we finally gravitated towards it and made night
hideous with our music and college songs until, to pharaphrase the poet,
in to-day already walked to-morrow and it was twelve o'clock,
"My friends," spoke up one of the gentlemen, "I am very sorry to say
that we shall not be able to ascend Mount Kearsarge to-morrow."
"Why?" exclaimed a dozen anxious voices.
"Because," was the impressive answer, "it is to-day!"
In the laugh which followed the party said good night and retired.
The Winslow House was named for Admiral Winslow, of the war-ship
Keasarge, who was present at the opening of the hotel, and gave the
owner a stand of colors. On the parlor table lay a Bible presented by
him, as stated by a gilt inscription on the cover. When the gallant
commander died, a boulder was taken from the side of Mount Kearsarge
for his monument, but the controversy in regard to which of the two
Kearsarges the ship had been named for arose about that time and the
family of the officer finally decided not to use the boulder. It has
been pretty well settled, at last, that the mountain in Merrimack
County, designated by Superintendent Patterson as Kearsarge South, is
the one which gave the famous ship its name. Under the shadow of it,
too, was laid the body of the soldier of the Sixth Massachusetts
Regiment who fell at Baltimore, exclaiming with his dying breath: "All
hail to the Stars and Stripes;" although afterward he was removed to lie
near the soldiers' monument at Lowell. The ancient spelling of this
monument was Carasage, and later, Kyar Sarga; but as early as 1804 the
laws of New Hampshire give it as Kearsage. The local spelling of
Kearsarge North, until a comparatively recent period, was Kiarsarge.
It is still called Pequaket.
Early the next morning, two bold Appalachians rose early and took a run
up the mountain, getting back to breakfast and making the descent of
nearly 1,200 feet in eighteen minutes! The climb was represented as more
difficult than that of the day before. We did not find it so, however,
as we proceeded with the reinforcements furnished by a hearty breakfast;
the clear bracing air of the morning was delightful. The song-sparrows,
perched at a safe distance, poured forth floods of melody, the Peabody
bird added his high weird note, while other wild birds occasionally
chimed in. The path led up through forests of black spruce whose sighing
branches whispered softly over our heads. Every one was in excellent
humor and had a capital story or a bit of geological scientific or
botanical wisdom. The wild-flowers were scarcer than on Cardigan but
there was greater variety of ferns. Half way up, a tiny spring welled
up in the pathway. Our grave philosopher, as well-versed in mystical
wood-craft as metaphysics, cut a strip of birch-bark from one of the
over-hanging trees and deftly fashioned an Indian drinking-cup. Working
from the idea of a birch-bark canoe somebody offered the cup-full, as a
"schooner of water." On being asked to explain her nautical terms, the
joker protested ignorance and entirely disowned her far-fetched joke.
**
As we advanced, here and there, under the white birches or between the
dense growth of spruce, broad glimpses were visible of the townships
below. Suddenly, vegetation ceased and we were again on the bare rock
with several hundred feet between us and the rude structure called, by
courtesy, the Summit House. Beside the latter, we already descried our
companions, not lost but gone before; and we find ourselves in the
awkward predicament of the man with three hands--a right, a left and a
little behind-hand.
The top of Kearsarge is composed of andalusite schist. The marks of
glacial action are even more distinct than on Cardigan, while the
stratification is very curious. When we reached the top, the
first-comers were already busy with surveys, profile sketches and
photographs. As we looked at Cardigan looming up grandly in the
northwest, we were proud of our work of the day before. The view from
the two mountains, only twenty miles apart, is of course much the same.
Kearsarge is in exact line with Wauchusct, the Pack Monadnocks and
Moosilauke. These, except the first, could be plainly seen. Mount
Washington, seventy miles distant, Lafayette, Chocorua, Tridyranid,
the Twin Mountains, and Franconia Notch formed a sharp, clear picture
against the northern sky, and were flanked by scores of smaller
mountains. The green rolling country, flecked by numerous ponds and
rivers, stretched away for miles at our feet, to a line of blue, hazy
mountains. The Black-water hills, Sunapee and dozens of other well-known
mountains seemed from our standpoint hardly more than good-sized
haystacks. So, perhaps, will our greatest earthly achievements look,
when viewed from the heights of eternity.
By noon a blue haze had crept over the horizon and was spreading over
the whole landscape. But we had scored a victory over it by coming
early.
"To have the great poetic heart,
Is more than all the climber's art."
In some sense, we each felt the meaning of the lines, as we turned from
Kearsarge top and made the gradual descent. There is a precipitous
bridle-path which shortens the distance in proportion as it increases
fatigue. The majority of us were unwilling to tempt fate by adopting it,
and took the easier way. As we stopped occasionally in a shady nook to
rest, we severally confessed that scraps of Lowell's matchless poem had
been floating nebulously in the brain ever since the clouds had
disappeared the day before. Two such days as we had been blessed with
are rare, even in June. Up there in the forest primeval, in the happy
shining weather, we were constantly proving that there was
"Not a leaf or a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace."
If we waxed sentimental, something must be forgiven the lavish summer.
At the hotel, the bountiful dinner was garnished with the best of all
sauces. Then, reluctantly indeed after our two days' tramping, we
started for Boston, arriving there a little past seven the same evening.
We had had unprecedented weather, and a well-planned and perfectly
executed trip. Never was there a pleasanter excursion or a more
successful outing. If the path up the hill of life were no more
difficult than that up Cardigan! If all earthly troubles could be as
easily surmounted as Kearsarge! Possibly they might be if we went forth
to meet them with the same stout heart and determined spirit.
"Daily with souls that cringe and plot,
We Sinais climb and know it not"
* * * * *
THE MARCH OF THE SIXTH REGIMENT.
By Rev. Charles Babbidge, Chaplain.
Should a motto ever be needed for some prospective medal commemorative
of the "Old Sixth Reg." none would seem to be more appropriate than a
quotation from Virgil,--"Primus tentare viam." Though but little honor
attaches to being first, where all were equally ready to be foremost,
still, the "chances of war" gave some little advantage to this fortunate
military body. Its ready re-response to the call "To Arms," served to
awaken a similar enthusiasm in all the other military organizations of
the Commonwealth. The admirable state of discipline to which the
regiment had been brought by its accomplished and efficient commander,
Col. Edward F. Jones, and his subordinate officers, was fully competent
to secure the respect and confidence of the multitudes of patriotic
citizens with whom it came in contact after leaving Massachusetts; and
it is only doing justice to the soldiers of this regiment to say, that
amid all the excitement of the commencement of a campaign, and all the
flattering attentions and entertainments which they received from every
quarter, and on all occasions, they maintained the solid, steady
deportment of soldiers well trained, of citizens accustomed to good
society, and of patriots ready and willing to do whatever these
qualities imply and require.
It can hardly be said that "the order to march" came unlooked for,
though it most certainly was sudden. The tender of the services of the
regiment had long since been in the hands of Gov. Andrew; meetings of
the field and staff officers had been held; there was a free and
thorough interchange of opinions and sentiments among the line officers;
and not a single soldier could be found who had not fully digested all
the particulars of a possible future.
The ready response of our citizen-soldiers to the call of the governor
furnishes an apt illustration of the peculiar character of our people.
Under a government that requires the constant maintenance of a strong
military force, "General Orders" would have been issued to the various
camps and garrisons scattered throughout the country. When danger
threatened us it became manifest at once, that every peaceful village
was a garrison, and every city a fortified camp. It was often a subject
of merriment while we, like Christopher North were "under canvas," to
relate the particular circumstances of time, place, and occupation at
the moment when each of us found himself suddenly transformed into a
soldier. Each had his story to tell of his numerous "hair's breadth
escapes," as through mud, snow and darkness he made his way to the
appointed rendezvous, on the morning of April 16th.
In Lowell the regiment paraded in Huntington Hall, and there received a
cordial welcome from the people of that city. Taking the cars we arrived
in Boston about noon, and were assigned quarters in one of the armories
in Faneuil Hall. With a view to better accomodations, the regiment in
the afternoon marched to Boylston Hall, and there prepared for as
comfortable a bivouac as circumstances permitted.
Up to this time the weather had been as gloomy as war and dripping
clouds could make it. Having (figuratively) pitched our tents in
Boylston Hall, the discipline of camp-life was at once established, and
communication with the world outside, was largely cut off. This however
did not interfere with the free admission of many tokens of regard from
friends outside, in the form of refreshments of various kinds.
Two memorable incidents of the evening will long be remembered. The
pretty and graceful daughter of Col. Jones was adopted, with all the
honors, as "Daughter of the Regiment"; and secondly the comfortable and
becoming overcoats prepared with wise forethought for the regiment were
issued. The motley outer-garments, in which, up to this moment, we had
found shelter from the storm, were at once discarded. In our new
garments we not only found great comfort;--we also felt that the inner
as well as the outer man could boast a resemblance to "regular" troops.
On the morning of the 17th we were marched to the State House, then and
there to receive the salutations of the Governor, and also to receive,
what at the moment struck some of us as a pretty forcible reminder that
we were now occupying positions that were entirely new to us.
Drawn up in military array in Doric Hall we were each of us "donated"
two blue flannel shirts and some corresponding under garments. This
gratuitous equipment implied _service_. To those of us who within a
twelvemonth had figured in the hall over our heads, as representatives
of the sovereign people, it indicated a very marked change of
circumstances.
Among other tokens of the confidence reposed in our patriotism and
prowess, a heavy cavalry revolver was bestowed upon each of the field
and staff officers. As these could not be conveniently carried, on the
return march, by those who had been made the happy recipients of these
bulky favors, they were bundled together and consigned for safe-keeping
to the Chaplain, to be borne on the line of march back to Boylston Hall.
Why that functionary should have been chosen to carry a whole armory of
weapons, in the sight of the admiring crowds that lined the streets of
Boston remains a question. Opinions are equally divided as to whether,
_as chaplain_ he would be most likely to prevent a hasty and rash
use of fire-arms; or whether, he was _de facto_ a "common carrier,"
on the ground that ministers were made and designed for "bearing
burdens."
Early in the afternoon, the regiments entered the cars of the Worcester
Railroad, and the march to Washington was fairly begun. So long as
daylight permitted, tokens of the uprising of the people of the
commonwealth were everywhere visible; and when darkness had settled down
around us, we caught glimpses of excited multitudes as the cars dashed
on without stopping, by the brilliantly illuminated depots and
settlements along the route. Our reception at Springfield was of a truly
jubilant character. Refreshments in great profusion, and of the most
appetizing kind were furnished and received a most cordial welcome
within our hungry ranks. The streets were illuminated, and cannon
thundered in every direction. Our stay was a short one; and we rattled
on and on until the morning revealed the fact that we were in
Connecticut and not far from New York.
It will require a more gifted pen than the one that traces these lines
to picture the march of the "Old Sixth" through the city of New York.
Never before had so _deep_ because so _peculiar_ an enthusiasm
pervaded the people of that vast metropolis. Patriotism, under its
normal and customary forms, had, on many previous occasions, been
wrought up to an intense height; but now it was not to celebrate their
national independence, but to secure their national existence, or
rather, to settle the question whether the American people were, or were
not a Nation.
At the St. Nicholas and other places, the wants of the regiment were
sumptuously provided for. At the Astor House, the field and staff
officers were entertained in a manner that left nothing to be desired.
Once more on the march, the regiment passed through the crowded streets,
everywhere receiving welcome plaudits until they reached the ferry that
conducted them to Hoboken, and the places en route to Baltimore and
Washington. As we passed into the ferry boats to cross the river, a
voice was heard above the tumult of the place and hour, "Good luck to
you, boys, but some of you will never return by this route;" a
prediction speedily fulfilled. Within about twenty-four hours, three of
our number had been transferred to a higher department.
The passage through Delaware to Philadelphia was not marked by any
incidents worthy of notice. Their long and weary pilgrimage had begun to
change a brisk, wide-awake regiment into a common-place body of weary
pilgrims, glad to find a shelter, without much questioning as to what it
might be. Quarters were assigned us in the Gerard House which happened
at that time to be unoccupied. For a brief period quiet ruled the hour,
and the weary soldier had begun his dreams of home and happiness long
before he was ready to stretch his limbs upon the mattresses that
covered the floors of the spacious hotel.
Suddenly the "Long-roll" was heard echoing along the streets and through
the halls of the Gerard House. The accoutrements and garments that had
been doffed in readiness for sleep were hastely resumed; and at the word
"Fall in," every man was in his place.
The "weight of affliction" in this crisis fell upon the field and staff
officers. They had but just assembled in the drawing-room of the
Continental Hotel, and gone through with those preliminary forms that
are quite as indicative of a good appetite as of good manners, and were
quiet taking their places at the table, amid the sumptuous surroundings
of a dining hall at that time scarcely equalled on the continent, when
Col. Jones entered the apartment, with the abrupt salutation,
"Gentlemen, to your posts; we start for Baltimore immediately, the
regiment awaits the order to march." "_Væ mihi_!" the writer of
this paper felt that _he_ might, under the circumstances of the
moment, appropriate a few minutes of time's rapid flight to contemplate
in sorrow and silence the scene of disappointment and woe. The little he
still retained of classic lore brought back images of the Harpies, as he
had read of them in Virgil. And even Sancho Panza thrust in his bullet
head, with an asinine smile, as the writer recalled poor Sancho's
distress at not sharing the feast so tantalizingly spread before him.
But, "hurry up" became the word when the drums and fifes gave notice
that the regiment was on the move, and that somebody would "get left" if
they did not practise the "_Pas redouble_."
* * * * *
BY THE SEA.
By Teresa Herrick.
I watch the mighty breakers rear, and dash
Against the shore,
I hear the sad complaining of the sea;
Forevermore
There rises in my soul a ceaseless song,
A lonely wail;
A yearning for the golden days to come,
A craving to be deluged in that Sea
Whose waves are loves
Unutterable.
And now I see the gray mist creeping down
Upon the sea.
The bright blue waves are hidden from my sight;
Ah me, ah me,
Thou too, O Sea of God's Immensity
From me art screened;
But till the mists be lifted up I wait,
Wait patiently and long, then will I plunge
Beneath Thy waves
O wondrous Sea!
* * * * *
THE RESPONSE OF MARBLEHEAD IN 1861.
By Samuel Roads, Jr.
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF MARBLEHEAD."
The news of the fall of Fort Sumter aroused the entire North to action.
The great civil war which had so long been threatened could no longer be
averted, and in every town and hamlet, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
the people rose as one man to defend the integrity of the Union.
On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued his first proclamation
calling for seventy-five thousand militia for a three months' service.
The news was received in Marblehead, Mass., late in the afternoon of
that day, and the three militia companies were at once notified by their
respective commanders to be in readiness to take the early morning train
for Boston. These companies were: The Marblehead Sutton Light Infantry,
Company C, Eighth Regiment, commanded by Capt. Knott V. Martin; The
Lafayette Guards, Company B, Eighth Regiment, commanded by Capt. Richard
Phillips; and the Glover Light Guards, Company H, Eighth Regiment,
commanded by Capt. Francis Boardman.
The morning of Tuesday, the 16th of April, broke cold and stormy.
Notwithstanding the rain and sleet which rendered the cold weather
uncomfortable in the extreme, the streets of Marblehead were filled with
an excited throng of people. Wives and mothers and fathers and children
were represented there in the dense crowd, all anxious to speak a
farewell word to the soldiers on their departure. The first companies to
leave town were those commanded by Captains Martin and Boardman, which
marched to the depot and took the half-past seven o'clock train for
Boston. Captain Phillips' company took the train which left Marblehead
about an hour and a half later.
As the trains slowly left the depot, the cheers of the assembled
multitude were re-echoed by the soldiers in the cars. "God bless you!"
"Good-by!" resounded on all sides; and it was not until the last car had
disappeared in the distance, that the great crowd began to disperse.
Of the arrival of the Marblehead companies in Boston there is little
need for me to write. The testimony of such eminent witnesses as
Adjutant-general Schouler and General E.W. Hinks cannot be disputed,
and we quote it _verbatim_.
"There has been some controversy in military circles," wrote General
Schouler, "as to which company can claim the honor of first reaching
Boston. I can answer, that the first were the three companies of the
Eighth Regiment belonging to Marblehead, commanded by Captains Martin,
Phillips and Boardman. I had been at the State House all night; and
early in the morning, rode to the arsenal at Cambridge, to ascertain
whether the orders from headquarters to send in arms, ammunition,
overcoats and equipments had been properly attended to. Messengers
had also been stationed at the different depots, with orders for the
companies, on their arrival, to proceed at once to Faneuil Hall, as a
northeasterly storm of sleet and rain had set in during the night,
and had not abated in the morning. On my return from Cambridge, I
stopped at the Eastern Railroad depot. A large crowd of men and women,
notwithstanding the storm, had gathered there, expecting the arrival
of troops. Shortly after eight o'clock, the train arrived with the
Marblehead companies. They were received with deafening shouts from the
excited throng. The companies immediately formed in line, and marched by
the flank directly to Faneuil Hall, the fifes and drums playing "Yankee
Doodle," the people following and shouting like madmen, and the rain
and sleet falling piteously, as if to abate the ardor of the popular
welcome. And thus it was that the Marblehead men entered Faneuil Hall
on the morning of the 16th of April."
The testimony of General Hinks, who at the breaking out of the war was
Lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Regiment, is interesting as an
important historical statement, and is as follows:
"On Monday, April 15, 1861, at quarter-past two o'clock, in reply to an
offer of my services made in the morning of that day, I received from
Governor Andrew a verbal command to summon the companies of the Eighth
Regiment, by his authority, to rendezvous at Faneuil Hall at the
earliest possible hour. Leaving Boston on the half-past two o'clock
train, I proceeded to Lynn, and personally notified the commanding
officers of the two companies in that city, and from thence telegraphed
to Captain Bartlett at Newburyport, and Captain Centre of Gloucester,
and then drove to Beverly and summoned the company there; and from
thence hastened to Marblehead, where I personally notified the
commanding officers of the three Marblehead companies. I found Captain
Martin in his slaughter-house, with the carcass of a hog, just killed,
and in readiness for the "scald." On communicating to the captain my
orders, I advised him to immediately cause the bells of the town to be
rung, and to get all the recruits he could. Taking his coat from a peg,
he seemed for a moment to hesitate about leaving his business
unfinished, and then turned to me, and with words of emphatic
indifference in regard to it, put the garment on, with his arms yet
stained with blood and his shirt-sleeves but half rolled down, and with
me left the premises to rally his company.
"On Tuesday, April 16, I was directed to remain on duty at Faneuil Hall,
and during the forenoon the following named companies arrived there and
reported for duty, to wit;--
"1. Companies C, Eighth Regiment, forty muskets, Capt. Knott V. Martin,
and H, Eighth Regiment, Capt. Francis Boardman, both of Marblehead,
which place they left at half-past seven o'clock A.M. and arrived in
Boston at about nine o'clock.
"2. Company D, Fourth Regiment, thirty-two muskets, Sergt. H.F. Wales,
left home about nine o'clock, and arrived at about ten A.M.
"3. Company B, Eighth Regiment, forty muskets, Capt. Richard Phillips,
of Marblehead, left home at nine o'clock, and arrived in Faneuil Hall
about eleven A.M.
"The above is substantially a true record, as will appear by reference
to the files of the "Journal" of that date, and is prompted only by a
desire to do justice to Captain Martin and the patriotic men of
Marblehead, who, on the outbreak of the Rebellion, were the first to
leave home, the first to arrive in Boston, and subsequently, under my
command, the first to leave the yard of the Naval Academy at Annapolis,
to repair and relay the track in the march through Maryland to relieve
the beleaguered capitol of the Nation."
On the morning after the departure of the companies, thirty more men
left Marblehead to join them. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed
throughout the town, and men everywhere were ready and anxious to
enlist. Of the patriotic spirit of the people, no better evidence can be
given than that contained in the reply of Governor Andrew to a gentleman
who asked him if any more men would be needed. "For heaven's sake,"
replied the governor, "don't send any more men from Marblehead, for it
is imposing on your goodness to take so many as have already come!"
The citizens were not less prompt to act than those who had rallied for
the defence of the nation. On the 20th of April, a town meeting was held
to provide for the families of the soldiers, and the old town hall was
crowded to repletion. Mr. Adoniram C. Orne was chosen moderator. The
venerable town clerk, Capt. Glover Broughton, a veteran of the War of
1812, was there beside the moderator, his hands tremulous with emotion,
awaiting the action of his fellow-citizens. "It was voted that the town
treasurer be authorized to hire the sum of five thousand dollars, to be
distributed for the relief of the families of those who have gone or
are going to fight the battles of their country." A committee of five
persons was chosen to repair to the assessors' room and report the
names of ten persons to act as distributors of the fund. The town was
divided into districts, and the following gentlemen were chosen as a
distributing committee, namely: Messrs, Thomas Main, John J. Lyon,
Frederick Robinson, William Courtis, William Litchman, Stephen Hathaway,
Jr., James J.H. Gregory, John C. Hamson, Jr., Richard Tutt, Joshua O.
Bowden.
No resolutions were adopted. The times called for action, and "_Factis
non verbis_." was the motto of the hour. But human nature must find
some vent for enthusiasm, and we are informed in the records, by the
faithful clerk, that "three cheers were then given." They probably shook
the building for genuine Marble-headers are blessed with strong lungs,
and can never cheer by rule.
The patriotism of the ladies of Marblehead at this time and throughout
the entire period of the war cannot be overestimated. With loving hearts
and willing hands, they contributed their time, their labor, and their
money for the benefit of those who had gone forth to battle. The work of
some was of a public nature, and the deeds of these are recorded; but
the only record of hundreds who worked quietly in their own homes was
written on the grateful hearts of the soldiers for whom they labored.
On the 22d of April a meeting of the ladies was held at the town hall,
and a Soldiers' Aid Society was organized. The object was to perform
such work as was necessary for the comfort of the soldiers, and to
furnish articles of clothing, medicines, and delicacies for use in the
hospitals. Mrs. Maria L. Williams was elected president. That lady
subsequently resigned, and Mrs. Margaret Newhall became president, and
Mrs. Mary M. Oliver, secretary.
On the following day, eighteen ladies met at the Sewall Grammar
School-house, on Spring Street, and organized a committee to solicit
money for the benefit of the soldiers. The following are the names of
the ladies who composed this committee:--Miss Mary E. Graves,
_President_; Miss Mary A. Alley, _Secretary_; Miss Mary L.
Pitman, _Treasurer_; Mrs. Mary Glover, Mrs. Hannah Hidden, Miss
Harriet Newhall, Miss Tabitha Trefry, Mrs. Hannah J. Hathaway, Mrs. John
F. Harris, Miss Amy K. Prentiss, Miss Sarah E. Sparhawk, Miss Hannah J.
Woodfin, Miss Lizzie Cross, Miss Mary A. Cross, Mrs. Hannah Doak, Miss
Alicia H. Gilley, Miss Carrie Paine, Miss Mary E. Homan.
In less than one week from the time of their organization the ladies of
this committee had collected the sum of $508.17. The teachers of the
public schools generously contributed six per cent of their salaries for
the year in aid of the object; and there was a disposition manifested by
the people generally, to give _something_, however small the
amount.
Stirring reports were now received from the companies at the seat of
war. The blockading of the railroad to Baltimore by the Secessionists;
the seizure of the steamer Maryland; and the saving of the old frigate
Constitution, in which their fathers fought so valiantly, caused the
hearts of the people to swell with pride, as they related the story one
to another. The men of Captain Boardman's company were the first to
board "Old Ironsides," and a delegation of them helped to man her on
the voyage to New York. The sufferings of their soldier boys, who were
obliged to eat pilot bread baked in the year "1848," brought tears to
the eyes of many an anxious mother. But the tears were momentary only,
and the sufferings of the boys were forgotten in the joy that Marblehead
soldiers had been permitted to lead the advance on the memorable march
to Annapolis Junction and to relay the track which had been torn up to
prevent the passage of the troops. The arrival of the troops in
Washington; the new uniforms furnished in place of those worn out in
eight days; and the quartering of soldiers in the United States Capitol
Building, was all related in the letters that came home.
Some of these letters were so full of patriotic sentiment that they
should be preserved to testify of the spirit of the men of Marblehead
who participated in the struggle for national life. I have space only
for one of these, which is quoted in full because it is so
characteristic of the heroic old veteran who wrote it.
"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
WASHINGTON CITY, April 27, 1861.
"_Dear Sir_: We arrived in Washington yesterday after a great deal
of hardship and privation, living for thirty-six hours at a time on one
small loaf to a man; water a great part of the time very scarce, and not
of a very good quality. But the men bore it almost without a murmur.
The Eighth Regiment had the honor of taking the noble old frigate
Constitution out of the dock at Annapolis, and placing her out of reach
of the Secessionists. The Eighth came from Annapolis to Washington, in
company with the New York Seventh,--God bless them. They shared with us
their last morsel; and the two regiments together have laid railroad
tracks, built bridges, run steam-engines, and contracted an eternal
friendship, which has been cemented by deeds of daring for each other.
We have encamped in corn-fields, on railroad embankments, with one
eye open while sleeping; and have opened R.R. communication between
Annapolis and Washington, for all troops which may hereafter want to
pass that way.
"Give my love to all friends of the Stars and Stripes, and my eternal
hatred to its enemies.
"Yours Respectfully,
"KNOTT V. MARTIN. To WM. B. BROWN, Esq."
During the latter part of April, active measures were taken to recruit
another company to join those already in the field. In a few davs the
"Mugford Guards," a full company of fifty-seven men, was organized, and
Captain Benjamin Day was commissioned as commander. Every effort was
made to get the new company in readiness for departure as soon as
possible. The men were without uniforms, and the school teachers at once
voted to furnish the materials for making them, at their own expense.
Mr. John Marr, the local tailor, offered his services as cutter, and
they were gratefully accepted. On Sunday, May 5, the ladies of the
Soldiers Aid Society, with a large number of others, assembled at
Academy Hall, and industriously worked throughout the entire day and
evening to make up the uniforms.
On the following day, the town voted to appropriate the sum of $400 to
furnish the company with comfortable and necessary clothing.
On the 7th of June another meeting was held, and the town voted to
borrow a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, to be applied by the
selectmen in aid of the families of volunteers.
On the morning of Monday, June 24, the new company took its departure
for the "seat of war." The soldiers were escorted to the entrance of the
town by the Mugford Fire Association and a large concourse of citizens.
Almost the entire community assembled in the streets to say "farewell,"
and to bid them "God speed." On arriving at the locality known as the
"Work-house Rocks," the procession halted, and the soldiers were
addressed by William B. Brown, Esq., in behalf of the citizens.
The soldiers embarked for Boston in wagons which were in waiting, and
departed amid the deafening cheers of the citizens.
On Thursday, August 1, the three Marblehead companies arrived home.
Arrangements had been made to give them an enthusiastic welcome. At
three o'clock in the afternoon a procession was formed, consisting of
the Marblehead Band, the "Home Guards," the boards of town officers,
the entire fire department, and the scholars of the public schools.
An interesting feature of the procession was thirteen young ladies,
representing the original States, wearing white dresses, and red, white,
and blue veils. The arrival of the train bringing the soldiers was
announced by the ringing of bells, the firing of guns, and the joyful
acclamations of the people. They were received at the depot at about six
o'clock P.M., and escorted to the "Town House" where an address of
welcome was delivered by Jonathan H. Orne, Esq., a member of the board
of selectmen.
On the afternoon of the following day, the veterans were given a grand
reception. The procession was again formed, and they were escorted about
town to Fort Sewall, where a dinner was served.
Shortly after the return of the companies, Capt. Knott V. Martin
resigned as commander of the Sutton Light Infantry, and recruited a
company for the Twenty-third Regiment. More than half the members of
this company were enlisted in Marblehead. They left for the seat of war
during the month of November.
It does not fall within the province of this article to trace the
fortunes of the sons of Marblehead through the long and cruel war. Their
experience, however, was not unlike that of thousands who suffered and
died for the nation. With patient endurance and the fortitude of
martyrs, they drank to the dregs the bitter cup of war. Through the long
and fatiguing marches, in the many hard fought battles, and in the
hopeless agony of life in the prison-pens, they were manly and true. It
is unnecessary to say more. By the self-sacrificing devotion of heroes
like these, the nation was saved.
* * * * *
EQUINOCTIAL.
By Sidney Maxwell.
The autumn day is almost spent. And yet
No length' ning shadows mark the sun's decline,
For all is shadowed by the cold, gray mist
Which long has driven with the fitful wind,
And still it is not gone. How chill the air!
It seems but yesterday that summer's breath,
Sultry and dry, distressed the thirsty fields--
And now the skies, repentant of their fault,
Will more than make amends. It rains again,
Beating a doleful measure on the pane,
Sobbing in sad, wild cadence through the street
While ever 'mid the rising, falling strains
The eaves drop notes as those of muffled drum,
Alone in rhythm, save, perchance, the beat
Of some tired horse's hoofs, as, homeward bound,
He treads the flooded pavement stones. And now
The sun, weary of contest for the day,
Forsakes the scene and sinks away to rest,
Leaving the world to darkness and to rain.
* * * * *
EDITOR'S TABLE.
The Democrats of Massachusetts are perplexed in regard to the choice of
a candidate for gubernatorial honors. In their dilemma they seem
indisposed to heed the counsel of the venerable Dutchman who, on a
certain critical occasion, asserted that it was not wise to "swap horses
while crossing a stream."
It so happens that in this present year the Democratic party throughout
the country is crossing a stream, a deep and muddy one which divides its
former prestige from its future hopes and prospects. The wise and
foolish members of the party are at loggerheads. Both have taken into
their confidence an anomalous contingent which is neither in sympathy,
nor even in alliance with them as regards principles. The Mugwumps, so
called, whose only recommendation in politics is, that they have a
well-filled purse and know how to use it to bolster up what they are
pleased to designate as _their_ "independence," after having
bitterly opposed the Democratic party, in season and out of season, now
join hands with their deluded brethren for a grand all hands round. By
their help a President of the United States has been elected, by their
dictation his policy has been mapped out, and by their threatening
attitude the entire administration is controlled. A similar condition of
affairs was never before known in the history of American politics.
Now, the Independent Republican will always be a Republican in
principles. The same honest motives which impelled him to oppose the
chosen candidates of a majority of the Republican party, at the last
national canvass, will again and always prompt him to oppose a
Simon-pure Democrat of the Democrats. So long as he can have his own
way, he will deny an equal right to his political neighbor. One thing is
very evident, and that is, in Massachusetts the Independents are bound
to rule so long as the Democratic party will continue to let them; and
that the administration encourages this state of affairs is alike
evident to all careful observers. It would be easy to make some very
interesting disclosures on this theme, and it is not improbable that
they will be made very shortly.
But we began by asserting that the party in the old Bay State is in a
quandary. It has reached a point when one of two alternatives must be
chosen,--either to force an issue with its allies, as well as with its
Republican opponents, by nominating a downright, old-fashioned Democrat
for the governorship; or, acquiescing with the wishes of its allies, to
attempt a quasi victory over its opponents. In the former case defeat
would be honorable, though defeat is by no means a foregone conclusion;
in the latter case a victory is probable which would be worse than a
defeat for the Democrats. We may not presume to give any advice in this
matter; and yet it would seem that some well-intentioned and honest
advice is needed. If there is to-day a true-blue, a frank and out-spoken
Democratic newspaper in the city of Boston, we do not know its name. Our
esteemed contemporaries of so-called Democratic persuasion, in this
cultured city, are either bridled by the administration or are timid in
expressing their convictions. Why has it never occurred to any one of
them to urge the selection of a candidate that has _not_ allied
himself with the new gods in Israel,--a stanch, dyed-in-the-wool,
old-fashioned Jackson Democrat, such for example as the HONORABLE
CHARLES LEVI WOODBURY? He has always been an ornament to his party, wise
and prudent in his counsels, broad in his scholarship and still broader
in his views, untrammelled in his profession of honest principles, and
true to the faith. He was never known to wander after strange gods: he
has never paraded before the eyes of the public, clad in a Joseph's coat
of many colors; he has never sought the emolument or the honor of public
office, and yet, if we are not greatly mistaken, his scrupulous fidelity
to party principles, his unswerving integrity, and the confidence which
men of all parties repose in him, have merited for him as high an honor
as lies within the gift of the people. There are but few such men in
Massachusetts, and their worth is only comprehended when they are
compared with that of the aristocratic dudes whom President Cleveland
has thus far smiled upon in this state.
The Massachusetts Democrats have this year a grand opportunity to assert
their independence, and to set a wholesome example to the party in other
states. They can do no safer, wiser, or more honorable thing than to
nominate Judge Woodbury, a Democrat of Democrats, as their
standard bearer.
The Boston _Evening Record_ is a sample of daily journalism that is
getting to be rather common nowadays. Like many other of its
contemporaries, it seems to be impressed with the idea that the province
of a newspaper is to _coin_ facts rather than to chronicle them;
and that editorial ability consists in getting away from the truth as
far as possible.
In a recent issue, it comments on General Butler's article in
the _North American Review,_ and more particularly upon the reason
why the General did not desire the Republican nomination for the Vice
Presidency in 1864, expressed by him as follows:--
Being made to sit as presiding officer over the senate, to listen for
four years to debates more or less stupid, in which I can take no part
or say a word, nor even be allowed a vote upon any subject which
concerns the welfare of the country, except when my enemies might think
my vote would injure me in the estimation of the people, and therefore,
by some parliamentary trick, make a tie on such question, so I should be
compelled to vote; and then, at the end of four years (as nowadays no
Vice President is ever elected President), and because of the dignity of
the position I had held, not to be permitted to go on with my
profession, and therefore with nothing left for me to do save to
ornament my lot in the cemetery tastefully, and get into it gracefully
and respectably, as a Vice President should do.
The _Record_ asserts that, "this is about as near the truth as
Butler ever gets," and then goes on to make some additional statements
which, to say the least, are exceedingly interesting, and _proofs_
of which the Editor's Table respectfully requests.
The _Record_ says; "It is true that his (Butler's) name was
proposed for the nomination for Vice President in 1864."
Upon whose authority does this assertion rest, and _by whom_ was
General Butler's name thus proposed?
The _Record_ says:--"It is also true that he (Butler) heard of it,
and objected to the plan not for the reasons he now gives, but because
he '_didn't want to run on the ticket with Abe Lincoln.'"_
Intensely interesting this, an important fact it would seem for the
future historian. But,--will the _Record_ please quote its
authority?
The _Record_ says:--"That this was the ground for his (Butler's)
refusal to take the nomination, in case it should be offered to him, was
well known to those who were informed of the exact state of affairs at
the time."
The historian is still incredulous. All this "was well known to those
who were informed," etc.,--undoubtedly, but _who_ were these
persons? Will the _Record_ cite the name of one _living_ man
thus informed? Did General George A. Gordon know anything about it: and
if not, why not?
The _Record_ says:--"Butler, in the last days of the war, uttered
an insult to the President who was shortly to be made a martyr."
Well, this is really a serious charge, and the public certainly will be
interested in knowing what the "insult" was. Will the _Record_
kindly explain? For the present, the subject may rest here. In the name
of truth and justice, however, the Editor's Table humbly requests that
the _Evening Record_ will enlighten its contemporaries.
* * * * *
The Republican newspapers have all been pleased to remark that
President Cleveland has done a very decent thing by refusing to
appoint as post-master at Mr. Blaine's home, in Augusta, the
Democratic editor, who "was virulently active in publishing particularly
unclean falsehoods concerning the Republican candidate last fall." Mr.
Blaine had a perfect right to object, and he exercised the right, to the
appointment of Morton; and likewise, the President had a perfect right
not to heed the objection,--a right, however, which he did not exercise.
The action of the President therefore commends itself to the
right-thinking men of all parties.
So far as the Editor's Table can remember, this is the first opportunity
that the Republican newspapers have improved to say anything good of
President Cleveland, who, it is not forgotten, was a target for
as virulent and uncalled for abuse as was ever heaped upon any known
American citizen. Magnanimity is always in order even in politics.
* * * * *
Civil Service Reform seems to-day to be the mare of the Mugwumps and the
nightmare of everybody else. The eloquence or, if you please, the waste
of words which the minority employ in advocating its deceptive
principles, is only to be contrasted with the almost ludicrous
indifference with which both Republican and Democratic majorities regard
it. Thoughtful people are, at this time, more concerned with the
prospective treatment of the tariff problem.
Now, it is neither our purpose nor desire to add to the literature of
discussion, on this important theme; but one thought which occurs to us
may here be submitted in the form of a question. People who talk much on
tariff topics are supposed to be interested in the same, and to have
some reason, good, bad, or indifferent, for advancing their diverse
arguments.
To all such, the inquiry may be addressed:--Are you sure that you
believe in a "protective" tariff because you think it is a _public_
benefit, or because you think it is a private benefit?
And again:--Does "protective" tariff protect? If it does,--whom?
Last autumn, the cry arose throughout the land that free trade meant the
destruction of home labor, and the "introduction of the pauper labor of
Europe," or at least a competition at home with the pauper labor of
Europe. Well, some very dismal pictures have been drawn of the condition
of the pauper labor of Europe, and when thinking of them, it must be
confessed that one does not like to run any risks.
But suppose that we widen the thought a little. At this very moment, the
iron monopoly of this country is raising a fund to head off a tariff
revision, or to bring about an increased duty. What can be said of the
Iron Monopoly? This, as one fact; that in Pennsylvania, it employs
miners at _fourteen_ dollars a month, charges them _five_
dollars a month each for a tenement in which to live, and charges them
exorbitant prices for the food and provisions which, in spite of a law
prohibiting the system, _must_ be purchased at the Monopoly's
stores. At the end of the month, many of these miners have not only
consumed every dollar of their wages but are actually in debt. It is
stated, further, as an incontestable fact that, "a miner who objects to
the amount of work or wages given to him gets no more of either, for he
is at once dropped from the rolls, and his name is sent to the
neighboring mines as that of a man unlit for employment." These people
subsist--miraculously--on scanty and unwholesome food, and frequently
are subjected to the greatest hardships.
We assert that this is no fanciful picture. It is the absolute truth,
with the worst untold. Monopoly is fond of calling these pitiable men
"Molly Maguires,"--"a dangerous class that must be carefully watched!"
These men are _protected_, and their industry and their entire
living afford a charming picture of the results of the "protective"
system, so far as the Iron Monopoly is concerned. With such facts as
these to ponder over, and with the additional knowledge that there is
not a single person today employed in a cotton or woolen mill in the
United States who is not taxed _in the name of protection_, to
enrich the corporation for whom he labors, it seems almost inexplicable
that _honest_ men should neglect one of the greatest and, as God
knows, one of the most threatening problems of this age and country, and
waste words and precious moments over that most arrant humbug--Civil
Service Reform. The People are more important than the Government: for
to-day the Government is the politicians.
* * * * *
HISTORICAL RECORD.
September 10.--The seventy-second anniversary of our first great Naval
victory was celebrated at Newport, R.I. The most important incident was
the unveiling of the statue erected to the honor of its hero. Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry. The order of exercises included a brilliant oration
by the Hon. William P. Sheffield, chairman of the Perry statue
committee, this oration by courtesy of its author being printed in full
in this number of the Bay State Monthly; other addresses at the
unveiling were made by Governor George Peabody Wetmore and Mayor Robert
S. Franklin. At the banquet among the speakers were the Governor, Hon.
George Bancroft, the historian, Mayor Franklin, Judge Blatchford, Chief
Justice Durfee, Admiral Rodgers, and Admiral Almy. The occasion was an
exceedingly notable one.
September 12.--The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
incorporation of the town of Concord, Mass., was celebrated with
appropriate military and civic exercises. There was first, a procession,
reviewed by the Governor and invited guests. At the town hall an oration
was delivered by Senator George F. Hoar, and other interesting literary
exercises took place, at the conclusion of which the line was reformed
and the march was taken up to the Hall where the dinner was served.
Judge John S. Keyes presided, and the principal after dinner speeches
were made by William M. Evarts, George William Curtis, George F. Hoar,
E. Rockwood Hoar, James Russell Lowell, and others.
September 15.--The town of Hingham, Mass., celebrated the quarter
millenial of its incorporation as a town. Business was generally
suspended, and all the prominent residences and public buildings were
elaborately decorated. There was a procession at 11 A.M. to the "old
meeting house." The order of exercises at this place included an oration
by Hon. Solomon Lincoln. A banquet was spread in Agricultural Hail,
attended by ex-governor Long and many other notables. The bells on all
the churches were rung at sunset and as darkness settled over the town,
bonfires were lighted upon Baker's, Otis, Planter's, Turkey, Liberty
Pole and Prospect Hills. The Hingham band gave an open air concert, and
in the evening the citizens and invited guests held a social reunion at
the hall.
September 16--The annual Salisbury beach gathering opened and continued
through the 17th. About five thousand persons attended. The exercises
consisted of band concerts, base ball, illuminations, etc.
September 16.--The great race in New York harbor between the Yankee
yacht "Puritan" and the English yacht "Genesta,"--the second in the
contest was won by the former, thus deciding that the America's cup
shall remain in America. The sailing tune was: Puritan, 5.03. 14:
Genesta, 5.04. 52.
* * * * *
OBITUARY.
September 1.--In Cohasset, Mass., Charles Faulkner of the Boston and New
York firm of Faulkner, Page & Co.
September 6.--In New Bedford, Mass., William A. Wall, a well known
artist.
September 8.--In Hanover, N.H., Edward A. Rollins of Philadelphia,
ex-commissioner of internal revenue.
September 8.--In Haverhill, Mass., Rev. Raymond H. Seeley, D.D. a
prominent Congregational clergyman.
September 12.--Jonathan Cartland of Lee, Mass, died, aged seventy-six.
He was one of the leading old guard of abolitionists, an uncompromising
prohibitory advocate, and a bosom friend and co-worker of Wendell
Phillips. He held many important town and county offices. He was a warm
friend of the fleeing negroes from the South to Canada, his home being
the refuge for many, and often piloting them from there by night to the
Canadian border.
September 14.--The death of Hon. Oliver Warner occurred at Lynn, Mass.
He was the son of Oliver Warner of Northampton, where he was born on
April 17, 1818. He was graduated at Williams College in 1842, and
subsequently at Gilmanton Theological Seminary. He officiated as a
Congregational clergyman at Chesterfield from 1844 to 1846. In 1552 and
1853 he was a tutor at Williston Seminary, Easthampton. In 1854 and 1855
he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and in 1856 and
1857 in the Senate. He occupied the position of secretary of state for
eighteen years, retiring in 1876. His majority in 1872 was greater than
any other on the Republican ticket. In 1875 considerable opposition was
made to his election, the effect of which was to lose him the Republican
nomination and the office. From 1876 to 1879 he filled the position of
librarian of the State Library. In September, 1882, he married Miss
Newhall of Lynn, and departed on a six months' tour in Europe.
September 16.--Rev. Benjamin F. Tefft, D.D., LL.D., a widely known
Methodist divine, died, aged seventy two years, from a shock of
paralysis received on Friday. He was one of the ablest pulpit orators in
the denomination, has been a president of the Genesee College, editor of
the Methodist Book concern and author of several works. He was a member
of the New York Geographical and Statistical Society, the Society of
Arts of London, etc. He was United States consul to Stockholm in 1862,
and acting minister to Sweden, and commissioner of emigration from
Europe to the state of Maine in 1864. He has been in poor health the
past two years. Dr. Tefft was the author of "Evolution and
Christianity," published last Spring, a veritable encyclopaedia of
Evolution-lore.
* * * * *
AMONG THE BOOKS.
A very notable contribution to the annals of our times is the
publication of the _Writings and Speeches of Samuel L. Tilden_[2]
This contribution is comprised in two volumes, and is so complete in
itself as to ensure a welcome from not only a large body of political
sympathizers and admirers but also from all students of American
political history. Mr. Tilden has the honor of being unquestionably the
greatest Democratic leader of recent years, and, in more ways than one,
of being a unique figure among the statesmen whom his country has
produced.
He was born in New Lebanon, N.Y. 1814, and before he reached his
majority he began to discuss political questions in print and on the
rostrum. In these early, as well as in later years, he was in his
instincts a conservative; as time moved on, he grew more and more fond
of the democracy of Jefferson and of Jackson, and their democracy, it
may be said, has had, during the past quarter of a century, no more
devoted or worthier expounder and representative than Mr. Tilden.
No question of paramount interest has arisen that has not, from the
Democratic standpoint, received his attention. When the nullifiers
assaulted the Union he stood by it; whenever anybody has undertaken to
advocate the American "protection" system, he has invariably denounced
it as unconstitutional, in this respect differing from another leading
Democrat, General Butler. Mr. Tilden also stood by the removal of the
deposits from the United States Banks, advocated the establishment of
the Sub Treasury, and was the first to contend for free banking. He
asserted the supervision of legislatures over charters of their own
creation. He protested against the nationalization of slavery in 1848.
These few specifications of a general character, to say nothing of those
of special interest, indicate something of the wealth of thought and
expression contained within the covers of these volumes. Of the minor
themes, one was exceedingly important in its day, and important also as
a lesson for future municipalities,--namely, the Tweed charter for New
York city and the story of the destruction of the Tweed ring. It is
herein presented with the fullest details.
Mr. Bigelow, the editor of the collection, has happily taken the time
for publication when Mr. Tilden has retired from active political
service; and thus the volumes may now be read with a less prejudiced
mind than in a former period of years.
It is impossible not to derive information and suggestions from a
careful perusal of these discussions, and inspiration from the
_dignity_ with which they are conducted; at the same time the
reader is somehow impressed in the perusal that Mr. Tilden is neither a
_great_ statesman _per se_, nor always a safe one to follow.
At this hour, it would be difficult to estimate the influence which he
has exerted upon the politics of his time. The accident of a political
defeat, rather than any extraordinary ability of his own, won for him
the remarkable and enthusiastic loyalty of his party, and perhaps also
a political immortality. As is still remembered, he bore his defeat
manfully and with a dignified grace unexampled in history, when all the
circumstances are considered, and this will be to his everlasting honor.
During his active participation in politics, Mr. Tilden was a partisan,
in the best sense of that word, as every man must be who lives and
_thinks_ under our system of government. He cherished principles
directly opposed to those of a host of his contemporaries, and this,
too, was a prerogative of his citizenship. Nevertheless, the integrity
of his character was never questioned, his motives were always
honorable, his opinions were generally carefully conceded and candidly
asserted, his acts never savored of trickery. We wish as much could be
said of many who have professed admiration of the man, as well as of
many who have not scrupled to malign him to a merciless degree.
[Footnote 2: The Writings and Speeches of Samuel J. Tilden. Edited by
John Bigelow In two volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price $6.00.]
* * * * *
We have been particularly pleased with the four volumes which are
comprised in the "Garnet Series."[3]--They are, to speak first of their
mechanical attractions, handsomely made, as regards paper, press-work
and binding, and at once tempt the reader to look within. The object of
their publication is to furnish in neat but low priced books choice
reading to so called Chautauqua circles; and thus far there is a promise
of brilliant success.
The character of the contents of these volumes demands neither
explanation nor criticism at this time. _Readings from Ruskin_ is
edited with a suitable introduction, by Prof. H.A. Beers of Yale
College, and the selections are made mostly from the great writer's
chapters pertaining to Italy. The _Readings from Macaulay_ also
pertains to Italy, including the remarkable essays on Dante, Petrarch
and Machiavelli, and the Lays of Ancient Rome, and is pleasantly
"introduced" by Donald G. Mitchell. An exceedingly timely volume is that
entitled _Art and the Formation of Taste_, by Lucy Crane, with
illustrations drawn by Thomas and Walter Crane. It is one of the most
inspiring and practical books on the subject that have been written in
our generation. Charles C. Black's _Michael Angelo_ contains within
275 pages the principal facts of the great sculptor's life and labors,
faithfully and appreciatively recounted. It is, so far as it goes,
declared to be a very valuable work. We cannot too highly commend these
publications. Every one of them is an incentive to further reading and
reflection.
[Footnote 3: THE GARNET SERIES;--Readings from Ruskin--Readings from
Macauley--Art and the Formation of Taste--Life and Works of Michel
Angelo. 5 vols. Boston; The Chautauqua Press.]
* * * * *
Dr. George H. Moore is the superintendent of the Lenox Library and a man
who is not afraid to dip into old parchments and musty records. We wish
that there were more of his kind. Students of our local annals are
indebted to him for the preparation and publication of two important and
interesting brochures, which have recently appeared. His _Notes on the
History of the old State House_,[4] formerly known as "The Town House
in Boston," "The Court House in Boston," "The Province Court House,"
"The State House," and "The City Hall" was first read before the
Bostonian Society, last May, and was listened to with the closest
attention. The second brochure, embracing 120 pages, bears the title:
_Final notes on Witchcraft in Massachusetts_[5] and is a
vindication of the laws and liberties concerning attainders with
corruptions of Blood, Escheats, forfeitures for crime and pardon of
offenders, etc. This is the fifth pamphlet which Dr. Moore has issued on
the subject of Witchcraft in Massachusetts, and it concludes the series.
We hope, at a future time, to be able to refer to them again, for they
shed much light on our colonial history, and to our historical
literature constitute very valuable additions.
[Footnote 4: Notes on the History of the Old State House. By George H.
Moore, LL. D. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. Paper. 50 cents.]
[Footnote 5: Final notes on Witchcraft in Massachusetts. By same author.
New York: Printed for the author. Sold in Boston, by Cupples, Upham &
Co. Paper, $1.00.]
* * * * *
Mr. Smith's recent work on _The Science of Business_[6] should be
read, and its facts and arguments carefully weighed, by all men of
business. It professes to be a study of the principles controlling the
laws of exchange. Reasoning from analogies existing in the natural
world, the author logically deduces his law that civilization moves
along lines of least resistance, and contends that this law holds true
throughout the phenomena of mind also. The law of the survival of the
fittest is but another expression of the subject under discussion. "Do
we not see civilization," asks the author, "advancing along those lines
where the tractive forces are the greatest, where the least labor will
produce the largest crops, and where the obstacles to complete living
are the fewest? Do not people invest their money where it will safely
bring the largest returns? Do we not buy in the cheapest, and sell in
the dearest market? Does not the tide of immigration set from least
favored nations to the most favored?" There is still one other
law,--that motion is always rhythmical. These two principles or laws Mr.
Smith applies to his theories regarding general business, the iron
industry, the building of railroads, immigration, stocks, exchange,
foreign trade, etc. Indeed his theories are based on these laws, and are
worthy of consideration if not always of acceptance. We quote one
reflection:--"If we admit that business motions are in the line of least
resistance, and rhythmic, and that these rhythms show a tendency to
become balanced, we may conclude that panics and periods of depression
will always continue at intervals, with this qualification, the next
period of depression will not be as severe as the present, and the next
less severe, and so on, until, to all outward signs, they will at last
cease."
By reason of a lack of space, we cannot say all that we had wished to
say in regard to this work. It is, on the whole, a most ingenious
argument, well conceived and brilliantly sustained. We are not sure that
Mr. Smith has not explained satisfactorily some of the nuggets of
mystery which have so long puzzled the brains of business men.
[Footnote 6: The Science of Business. By Roderick H. Smith, New York:
G.P. Putnam's Sons. Price $1.25.]
* * * * *
PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT.
An early forthcoming issue of the Bay State Monthly will contain an
elaborate article of great value upon the manufactures and various
important industries of "A Model Industrial City," for which fine
illustrations are being prepared.
Special invitation is extended to all Public and private Libraries,
Historical, Intellectual and Literary Societies, as well as to every
lover of New England, to join their efforts with ours to the end that
the Bay State Monthly shall be a competent medium of preserving the
great and rapidly increasing amount of history pertaining to New
England, and no less a worthy representative of its literature and
material progress.
We tender our thanks to the Holyoke _Transcript_ for the very
courteous aid rendered our management.
We desire to heartily thank the press of the entire country for the
cordial and appreciative welcome extended to the Bay State Monthly since
it has been published under its new management. On an advertising page
in this number are to be found a few comments, selected from hundreds of
similar notices given by representative newspapers in nearly every state
in the Union.
* * * * *
End of Project Gutenberg's The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5, by Various
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