USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Amherst > Historical address delivered at the centennial celebration, in Amherst, Mass., July 4, 1876 > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 Am47d 1778994
M. L.
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00084 1855
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT THE
ENTENNIAL ) ELEBRATION,
IN
AMHERST, MASS.,
July 4, 1876.
BY M. F. DICKINSON, JR.
Including the Exercises of the Day.
AMIIERST, MASS. : McCLOUD & WILLIAMS, PRINTERS. 1878.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
1778994
DELIVERED AT THE
DUPL
HA 2 CATE TE
COLLEGE
SOLD
C NNIAL CELEBE
ELEBRATION,
IN
(1)
AMHERST, MASS.,
July 4, 1876.
(4)
BY M. F. DICKINSON, JR.
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F 844025 .3
Dickinson, Marquis Fayette, 1840-1915.
Historical address delivered at the centennial celebration, in Amherst, Mass., July 4, 1876. By M. F. Dickinson, jr. Including the exercises of the day. Amherst, Mass., McCloud & Williams, printers, 1878.
vili, [9,-44 p. 23cm.
... (The) year of the national centennial also marks the centennial of the town of Amherst."
"Valuation list of Amherst, 1770 (personal incomes, etc.)" : p. (42)-14. another copy.
JOY 58323 .231 1. Amherst, Mass .- Hist. 2. Fourth of July orations.
Library of Congress
F74.A5D5 1-11208
OHELF CARESOL,
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Introductory.
At a meeting of citizens held at the Police Court Room, on Monday evening, June 12, it was voted to cel- ebrate, in a fitting manner, on the 4th of July next, the one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the town of Amherst, and the following gentlemen were appointed a committee to consider the matter, and report at a meet- ing at the same place, on Wednesday evening, June 14 : Levi Stockbridge, Harrison Ingram, M. W. Howard, George Montague,
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II. D. Fearing,
Watson W. Cowles,
L. D. Hills.
John B. Brown,
J. L. Skinner,
A. R. Cushman,
II. J. Cate,
W. L. Roberts,
C. W. Lessey,
Asa Adams,
E. F. Cook,
A. J. Robinson,
J. E. Read,
J. P. Gray, W. W. Smith,
A. P. Merrick,
Flavel Gaylord,
C. L. Goodale, Stetson Hawley,
J. II. M. Leland,
O. F. Bigelow,
R. B. Bridgman,
J. L. Lovell,
P. D. Spaulding,
F. P. Ainsworth, Charles Kellogg, Ransom Cowles,
L. H. Allen, Noah Dickinson,
J. A. Pierce.
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INTRODUCTORY.
The Committee of Arrangements met at the Police Court Room, according to appointment, on Wednesday evening, June 14. J. L. Skinner was chosen chairman, and HI. M. McCloud secretary. The following commit- tees were then chosen :
PRESIDENT OF THE DAY .- Hon. Levi Stockbridge.
CHIEF MARSHAL. - J. L. Skinner.
SECRETARY AND TREASURER. - HL. M. McCloud.
MANAGING COMMITTEE .- Hon. Levi Stockbridge, Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Dr. H. J. Cato.
COMMITTEE ON ORATOR .- Hon. Levi Stockbridge, George Montagne, HI. M. McCloud.
COMMITTEE ON GROUNDS .- W. W. Hunt, P. D. Spaulding, A. P. Mer- riek, W. W. Smith, Flavel Gaylord, Harvey White.
COMMITTEE ON REFRESHMENTS .- Ransom Cowles, R. W. Stratton, J. P. Gray, J. A. Pierce, Noah Dickinson, J. E. Read, A. J. Robinson, M. W. Howard, W. L. Roberts, Stetson Hawley, J. B. Brown, Asa Adams, A. P. Merrick, Charles Kellogg, II. D. Fearing.
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE .- C. W. Lessey, A. R. Cushman, F. P. Ains- worth, R. B. Bridgman, Harrison Ingram, O. G. Conch.
COMMITTEE ON FLAGS, GUNS, AMMUNITION, &C .- Capt. T. W. Sloan, W. B. Graves, J. L. Lovell, H. H. Goodell.
COMMITTEE ON MUSIC .- J. L. Skinner, E. B. Fitts, L. II. Allen, W. S. Westcott, A. A. Southwick.
COMMITTEE ON FIREWORKS .- Henry Holland, Lient. C. A. L. Totten, Charles Deuel, Watson W. Cowles, Fred. P. Baker.
COMMITTEE ON INVITED GUESTS .- Samuel C. Carter, E. F. Cook, O. F. Bigelow.
The Committee voted unanimously to invite M. F. Dickinson, Jr., of Boston to deliver the Address, and the invitation was accepted.
At subsequent meetings of the Committee of Arrange- ments, it was
Voted, To have the' celebration at Amherst College Grove, (formerly Baker's Grove).
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INTRODUCTORY.
Voted, That the Amherst Cornet Band be engaged to furnish music for the occasion.
At a Town Meeting held June 22nd, it was voted to appropriate $250 for the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the town, and $100 ad- ditional for the publication of the history of the town.
The celebration of the one hundredth birthday of the Town and of our National Independence was ushered in by a salute of 38 guns, about sunrise, and the ringing of bells. and other demonstrations made by the younger por- tion of the community contributed to make early risers of most of our citizens. Although not on the regular pro- gramme of the day, the procession of Antiques and Hor- ribles, which marched and countermarched through the streets, about 6 o'clock, attracted a large number of peo- ple, and was quite a creditable display.
At 9.30 o'clock the procession formed on the common, under the leadership of Capt. J. L. Skinner, Chief Mar- shal. After the Amherst Cornet Band came all the Sun- day Schools in town, citizens on foot, and a long line of carriages. Arriving at the Grove, after music by the Band, prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. D. W. Marsh, of North Amherst. Hon. Levi Stockbridge, President of the day, then delivered an address of welcome, speaking substantially as follows :
FELLOW CITIZENS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : In behalf of the municipal officers of the town of Amherst, and the gen- eral committee of arrangements, I bid you all a most cor- dial welcome to all the festivities and enjoyments of this
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INTRODUCTORY.
occasion. The century is completed since the American colonies declared themselves independent of the mother country, and to-day forty millions of people, occupying a territory sweeping away thousands of miles from ocean to ocean, and from the St. Johns to the Rio Grande, by one spontaneous outburst make the land resound with sounds of joy and gladness. Let the multitudes shout and sing ; let the thunder of cannon echo from hill-top to mountain, and from valley to valley, and deep in our heart of hearts may all cherish emotions of joy, praise and thanksgiving, for all the way in which the Lord has led us these hun- dred years ; for surely he has dealt by us as he has dealt by no other people. Compared with other nations we were then a feeble people ; now we are one of the great powers of the globe; influential, honored and respected by all, whatever their attainments in civilization. A hundred years ago we occupied only a narrow strip of country along the Atlantic seaboard; now we cover the continent, and localities then far away in the western wilds and known only by name as the council and trading posts of the venturesome pioneer and red man, have by improved facilities of travel and transport, been brought to our very doors ; have become great commercial empo- riums, with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, and where are gathered the products of all climes and all peo- ples, and the institutions of the most advanced civilization. The wilderness and the solitary country are dotted all over with farm houses and productive farms, and the flock and herd are grazing on the native haunts of the elk and buffalo. Our great lakes and rivers, whose waters were
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INTRODUCTORY.
undisturbed but by the bark canoe or the waterfall, have become busy avenues of transport for the commerce of a continent, or converted into power to give force to the machinery of an endless variety of manufacturing indus- tries. But a hundred years of progress has not been alone in material objects. The long trial has proved that a government by the people and for the people, is strong enough to withstand the disintegrating influences of peace and war, to secure and protect all the rights of the indi- vidual, and to perpetuate itself to future generations. Great systems of education, free to all, have been thought out and firmly established, and institutions of religion, be- nevolence and higher learning built up and endowed ; and if we are not the pioneers, we lead the van of the advancing hosts of modern civilization. All this is the result of a century of American independence, and should lead us to exclaim, "Verily, what hath the Lord wrought." But while we, the people of Amherst, sympathize with, and participate in the general national rejoicing of the day, we have occasion for joy and thanksgiving that is pecu- liarly local to ourselves, for we have now completed a century since our fathers declared themselves independ- ent of the mother country, Old Hadley, and set up by permit of the legislature, a municipal government of their OWN. This revolution was bloodless, though not unat- tended with opposition, but from separation until the present time, the most fraternal relations have existed be- tween the mother and daughter, and each has rejoiced in, and given a helping hand to aid the prosperity of the other. Though the child has outgrown the parent in
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INTRODUCTORY.
population and wealth, she has not in beauty, virtue or intelligence, and to-day salutes her with filial honor and regard. But here I trench on ground to be occupied by one of Amherst's eloquent and accomplished sons, the orator of the day, and it only remains for me to announce the programme of our grove exercises.
At the close.of President Stockbridge's remarks, and singing by the Amherst Quintette Club, the Declaration of Independence was read by Rev. Henry F. Allen. The President then introduced the orator of the day, M. F. Diekinson, Jr., of Boston.
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Historical Address.
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The people of the United States are this year upon a pilgrimage. Their Mecca is the City of Brotherly Love ; the shrine toward which their feet are hastening is the old State House of Pennsylvania-Independence Hall. It is not the unequaled international display on Fairmount Park which offers the largest attractions to the thoughtful stranger who now for the first time finds himself in Phil- adelphia. The magnificent expanse of the Exhibition, crowded with the garnered wealth of industry and art from every quarter of the globe, must, after all, yield the chief place of interest to the ancient building on Chest- nut street, where the Declaration of Independence was first pronounced. Whether viewed in the light of those issues which its authors understood to be involved in that great historie act, or of the important results which have already grown out of it-results which have far exceeded the largest expectations of the men of 1776-or of the still more momentous interests which still lie undisclosed
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THE DECLARATION.
in the future, the Declaration of Independence stands preeminent among the events of modern times. Its only rival in American revolutionary history is the battle of Bunker Hill. Each was typical of the patriot struggle- Bunker Hill, of the experiences of the war; the Deela- ration, of the great social and political principles which the war for Independence vindicated and established. On the one hand, the defeat of the New England yeo- manry on the 17th of June, 1775, proved to be, in its results, a great victory ; and such, to a large extent, were the experiences of the American army throughout that entire struggle. It lost many of its battles, but it steadily advanced its cause. On the other hand, the Declaration of Independence first massed and formulated all the ideas upon which colonial opposition to the policy of the Crown really rested. It became like the pillar of cloud and of fire ; it rose ever in the advance, leading the way, through the weary days and anxious nights of eight years of disheartening war. It has been said that "it embodied so faithfully the current thought of Americans as to mirror the soul of the nation ;" and Mr. Buckle styles it " that noble declaration, which ought to be hung up in the nursery of every king, and blazoned on the porch of every royal palace." As much superior as ideas are to mere force, so much grander, as we estimate it to- day, was the proclamation of American liberty in Phila- delphia, in '76, than the yindication of American prowess, at Charlestown, in '75., Massachusetts, therefore, may well yield to Pennsylvania the preeminence in this year
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JOSEPH HAWLEY.
of jubilee. The metropolis of New England concedes that the highest honors of the centennial commemoration belong to her sister city upon the banks of the Delaware. Let the granite shaft at Charlestown do obeisance to-day to the greater name and higher fame of Independence Hall !
[That portion of the address which contained a discussion of the condition of the colonies when the treaty of Paris, in 1763, settled the preeminence of the English speaking race npon the North Ameri- can continent, of the canses which led to the dispute with the mother country, and of the events which ended in the necessity of indepen- dence is necessarily omitted. Some account was given of the leading statesmen of the Revolutionary era. Of the most distinguished Rev- olutionary patriot of Western Massachusetss, the orator spoke as follows : ]
No true son of Western Massachusetts would fail to discern and point out, in this remarkable group, the peer- less star of Northampton-Joseph Hawley. The histo- rian, Bancroft, places him in the highest rank among the leaders of the Revolutionary period. Hildreth associates his name with those of Otis, Hancock and Samuel Adams, and says that, of the country-members in the Massachu- setts House of Representatives, none had so much influ- ence as Mr. Hawley. For years he was the foremost lawyer of this ancient county of Hampshire, and of West- ern Massachusetts. He was the intimate friend and constant adviser of Samuel Adams in the Provincial Con- gresses. Hampshire county and the Commonwealth owe much to his wisdom and his worth. He was born in Northampton in 1724, was a graduate of Yale in 1742, studied divinity, and preached several years, but was never settled. Though at first violently opposed to Ed-
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JOSEPH HAWLEY.
wards's theological views, he afterwards became their earnest advocate. He was a chaplain in the French and Indian war, and took part in the seige of Louisburg. The report is that he began the practice of law in Northamp- ton about 1749. Ile became one of the three leaders of the Hampshire bar, which included all west of Worcester county. His only rivals were Col. Worthington of Spring- field and Mr. Lyman of Suffield, then included in Massa- chusetts. Under these men the Hampshire bar was raised from a position below mediocrity to one of unusnal brilliancy. In their day, it was established as a rule of practice, that three years study should be required of stu- dents at law, before their admission to the responsible duties of the profession, a rule which. I regret to say, afterwards fell into disuse. Mr. Hawley lived in great simplicity. The lateh-string of his house was never with- drawn, and he used no bar, bolt, nor key. No man here- abouts at all approached him in the publie esteem; for he was pious, devout, generous, publie-spirited and elo- qnent. In the General Court, of which he was frequently a member, he excelled all in the soundness of his reason and judgment, and the prudent firmness with which he maintained his views. After the repeal of the Stamp Act. the English ministry intimated to the legislature of the Massachusetts colony that restitution was expected for those officers of the crown who had suffered loss of prop- erty in attempting to enforce that obnoxious statute. The form of the answer of the General Court was sug- gested by Maj. Hawley." He opposed any relief, except
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JOSEPH HAWLEY.
on condition of a general amnesty. In the debate upon this question, he first announced the doctrine that Parlia- ment had no right to legislate for America. James Otis rose in his place to thank Mr. Hawley for taking this position, saying it was farther than he himself had yet gone in the House. The next year Mr. Hawley was cen- sured, and suspended from practice in the courts, for ex- pressing political sentiments teo liberal to suit the govern- ment; but he was restored before 1770. So intimate and friendly were his relations with Samuel Adams that the latter relied much upon the thorough legal knowledge and excellent discretion of his faithful fellow laborer; and he often wrote to Mr. Hawley, unbosoming his plans, his fears and his hopes. Mr. Hawley had a deep religious nature, out of which flowed all the springs of motive and conduct. "Don't put off the boat," cried some timid one in the General Court, in 1774; ~ Don't put off the boat till you know where you will land." ~God will bring us to a safe harbor," was the intrepid and trust- ful reply of the patriot of Hampshire.
When the Massachusetts delegates to the first Con- tinental Congress at Philadelphia had reached the Con- neetieut river, they received a letter of advice from the wise counsellor of Northampton. " We must fight." said he, "if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation. The form of government enacted for us by the British parliament is evil against right, utterly intolera- ble to every man who has any idea or feeling of right or liberty. % * Fight we must. 4
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JOSEPH HAWLEY.
finally, unless Britain retreats. * * Our salvation depends upon a persevering union. Every grievance of any one colony must be held as a grievance to the whole, and some plan must be settled for a contin- uation of congresses, even though congresses will soon be declared by Parliament to be high treason." And again in the autumn of 1775, when Congress seemed to hesitate to assume powers of goverment, Hawley's keen eye was the first to discern that a state of revolution demanded and justified such an extreme measure; and from his seat. in the Provincial Congress at Watertown, he wrote to Samuel Adams at Philadelphia : "The eyes of all the con- tinent are fastened upon your body. * * *
It is time for you to fix on periodical annual elections- nay, to form into a parliament of two houses." After the Declaration of Independence, the excitements of politics were much less felt in Massachusetts than before, and we find little recorded of the subsequent career of this distin- guished commoner of Hampshire. He did not practice law after 1774, though he afterwards occasionally presided in the Court of sessions as the oldest magistrate. He died childless in 17SS, at the age of 64. All of us, to- day, who claim share in the renown of this ancient county, owe him, as our civic father, a debt of gratitude. His name shall be remembered and honored so long as the principles he defended, and the institutions he helped es- tablish, shall find defenders among a free and enlightened people.
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By a pleasant coincidence, this year of the National
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AMHERST CENTENNIAL.
centennial also marks the centennial of the town of Am- herst. True, she is somewhat more than one hundred years old; but, by the record, she is first styled a town in 1776. In the following extract from the legislative proceedings of that period, we find the first official recog- nition of " The Town of Amherst."
" In Council. Aug 27, 1776.
Whereas it is represented to this Board that the Select- men of Amherst have made application at the Powder mill at Andover by Simon Smith, with proper certificates, agreeable to a resolve passed in June last, and by some misapprehension the sd town has been disappointed in receiving the same; and it being judged expedient that the town be furnished forthwith with the powder aforesaid, as 'tis said some of it is wanted for the use of the troops destined for Canada in their march through the woods to Skeensborough.
Ordered, that the Commissary General be directed to deliver to Mr. Simon Smith one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of gun-powder for the Town of Amherst, he paying therefor at the rate of 5; a lb. to th st Com- missary."
From the earliest occupation of the territory until the year 1753, this place was called " New Swamp," -. Hadley Farms," " East Farms," " East Hadley," or " Hadley 3d Precinet." At that date, South Hadley having been in- corporated a district, this became - Hadley 2d Precinct." and in the year 1759 was incorporated as the "District of Amherst." The term precinct was an ecclesiastical desig- nation ; it meant simply a parish, and was a division of a town having power of levying taxes to support a minister.
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THE NAME AMHERST.
A district, however, enjoyed a complete town organiza- tion, with full town powers, except the right to send rep- resentatives to the General Court.
The act of District incorporation was signed February 13, 1759. In the Bill, as it passed through its several stages, the name is left blank. This appears usually to have been the case with the newly created districts of that period. The right of naming them was treated as a prerogative of the Colonial Governor, who generally assigned the name when he affixed his signature to the bill. There is nothing in the State archives to show the reason which influenced Governor Pownall to call the new district Amherst. But the fact appears on the records that he was on terms of friendship with Gen. Jeffrey Am- herst, who had just received his appointment from the King, and who shortly after became the hero of Louisburg, at the famous seige of that town in which troops from Hampshire county bore a conspicuously gallant part. To name the district after so renowned a soldier was an act of graceful courtesy on the part of the colonial Governor. and must have been not only highly gratifying to the General himself, but especially pleasing to his Monarch.
Hadley was settled in 1659, by men from Weathers- field and Hartford, who took their minister, Mr. Russell, and moved up the river into the remoter wilderness, because they could not agree with their brethren upon some matters touching church affairs. The original grant to the settlers included the present towns of Amherst, Granby and South Hadley, besides Hadley herself, on this
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THE MOTHER TOWN.
side the river, and Hatfield on the west. Those pioneers were brave men. It required no little fortitude, and no small faith, to take a stand on this outpost of civilization, and to establish homes in the unbroken forest. But they chose wisely. Here, in this fairest intervale of New Eng- land, where the valley broadens eastward to the heights on which we stand, flanked by the protecting ridge of Hol- yoke on the south, and the more broken outlines of Sugar Loaf and Toby on the north, our fathers planted the peaceful, wide-streeted, river-encircled town. Their de- scendants have clung with loyal devotion to the ancient homesteads. The Smiths, the Boltwoods, the Montagues,
the Marshes, the Cowles, the Nashes, the Churches, the Kelloggs, the Dickinsons. the Cooks, the Eastmans, the Ingrams, the Whites, the Warners, the Porters and the Gaylords, who, from generation to generation, have con- tributed so handsomely to swell the census of Eastern Hampshire, all trace their descent from some one of the original "adventurers " at Hadley, or from others who soon followed to that new settlement. Amherst, fairest of her daughters, on this day of jubilee sends greeting from these shining slopes to the venerated mother of Eastern Hampshire. Peaceful, wide-streeted, river-encir- eled still, just as the founders left her, she nestles there among her majestic elms, and dreams of the past. Two hundred years ago was the heroic period of her history. Within the house of her first minister, sheltered not less by his watchful care than by the sympathy of the entire body of that free community, the Regicides found refuge
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THE OUTER COMMONS.
and rest. Sir Walter Scott has compelled this historic circumstance to do service to fiction in his charming tale, "Peveril of the Peak," where the romantic story of General Goffe's Sabbath exploit is detailed by the Puritan soldier, Major Bridgenorth .* Throughout King Phillip's war, which exactly two hundred years ago was ravaging the villages of the Connecticut, Hadley was the headquarters of the army of defence, and her sons shed their blood in almost every encounter of that fierce and cruel conflict. Glorious old town ! Mother of us all ! Though not now called by thy name, we are still a part of thee, and thy bistory and thy fame it shall ever be our pride to preserve and defend.
The common uplands or outer commons lying in East Hadley, now comprising the town of Amherst, were first divided among the Hadley proprietors in the year 1703. The work was done by Capt. Aaron Cooke, Lieut Nehe- miah Dickinson and Samuel Porter, town measurers. These lands, lying between the Hadley line on the west, Equivalent or Pelham lands on the east, the Brookfield road on the south, and Mill River on the north, were laid out in three divisions, separated by highways forty rods in width. The western and middle (first and second), divisions, were each 240 rods wide; the eastern, (third,) was con- siderably wider. In 1754, Hadley reduced the western highway to twenty rods in width, and the eastern to twelve rods. In 1788, Amherst narrowed these highways to six rods. Every inhabitant was to have a lot in the
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