USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Andover: symbol of New England; the evolution of a town > Part 15
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There must certainly be either roguery or gross ignorance in your powder-makers, because the powder made in the other states is es- teemed better than that imported from Europe. ... It is a matter of so much importance that it should be strictly inquired into.
In due course many British prisoners were employed in the mill, some of whom, according to Phillips, "had married, had children, taken the oath of allegiance, and become useful mem- bers of society." Indeed one of them was so trustworthy that he was put in charge of the entire factory. When the Congress was considering the possibility of an exchange of prisoners which would have taken away some of these workmen, both Phillips and the employees in question protested, and many of the more efficient were allowed to remain.
In June, 1778, a serious explosion destroyed a portion of the plant, killed three men, and caused so much consternation in the village that operations were suspended. An investigating committee of the General Court, however, reported that the ac- cident "was not owing to any imprudence in Mr. Phillips" and granted him the sum of 400 pounds as a recompense for his losses. At the close of the Revolution the resourceful Phillips began the transformation of the plant into a paper mill; but it continued to manufacture some powder until 1796, when another serious explosion killed two employees and led him to abandon that
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The house in Andover, in which Samuel F. Smith wrote our national hymn, America
.. .. .
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896
THE REVOLUTION
part of the enterprise. The paper business, however, was kept up in the Phillips family until 1820, when, with the death of Colonel John Phillips, no male descendant was able to carry it on and the property was sold.
When the matter of colonial independence was under consid- eration by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the town of Andover, as one of many similar local units, took an un- equivocal stand. The record of a meeting on June 12, 1776, states that "the question being put whether, should the Honorable Congress declare them [the colonies] independent of the King- dom of Great Britain, you will solemnly engage with your lives and fortunes to support them in the measure," it was passed unanimously in the affirmative.
After the evacuation of Boston, no further battles of any con- sequence took place on Massachusetts soil, and Andover men in service were stationed, or in action, further away from home. General Joseph Frye, after having been presented with his brigadier-general's commission by George Washington in per- son, resigned because of his health and returned to Maine, where he lived out his days in peace. That gallant veteran of many campaigns, Captain James Frye, died, January 8, 1776, at the age of sixty-six, and was commemorated in the North Parish burying ground by the epitaph Homo Fuit, seldom so worthily bestowed.
Regarding the always loyal but somewhat irascible Colonel Frye, one story has persisted as part of the Andover tradition. At an early conference with his field officers, General Washing- ton, in an attempt to induce them to forgo petty jealousies, spoke at some length of his own personal sacrifices, saying that he had left his comfortable home and returned to the army from no motive of ambition but guided only by love of country and a desire to serve it. Annoyed by what he conceived to be an affront to himself and his fellow officers, Frye sprang to his feet, faced the commander, and almost shouted, "Sir, what do you
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think we came here for?" Apocryphal or not, the incident de- serves perpetuation, and it was unquestionably typical of the crusty, self-respecting Frye.
Largely through the influence of the younger Phillips, the Congress voted "that the Library and other valuables of Har- vard College" be removed for safety to Andover, and loads of. books were transported and deposited "for the duration" in the home of Samuel Osgood in the North Parish and in that of George Abbot, Esq., in the South Parish, on what is now Phil- lips Street. Several of Phillips' older relatives in Boston also took refuge in Andover during the siege of the city, glad to with- draw from what seemed an imminent danger.
The Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls, although not always complete or accurate, give the names of most Andoverians under arms, and the enlisted men at one period or another included most of the physically qualified younger population. From time to time levies were made, and the town seems to have met every demand on it, whether troops were "raised" for six months or three years. Andover took good care of its own, offering bounties in addition to the regular army pay and making provision for wives and other dependents of those in service.
Andover's highest-ranking officer, Colonel Samuel Johnson, went often back and forth between camp and home. He was the town's representative to the General Court in 1777, 1778, and 1780, and was also frequently moderator of the town meeting. Yet when Burgoyne captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, 1777, and a detachment of troops under General Lincoln was sent to reinforce General Gage, Johnson went with them in charge of his old regiment; and although he and his forces failed in an at- tempt to retake Ticonderoga, they did secure about three hun- dred British prisoners. He did not participate in the Battle of Bennington, but he and his regiment were in the action at Bemis Heights on October 7 and watched the surrender of the British army ten days later.
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Some of the details of this campaign are related in simple un- tutored narrative by Captain Benjamin Farnum, now recovered from his Bunker Hill wounds and back with his company. Of the fight on October 7, he wrote:
This day a batel begun about two o'clock in the afternoon, which held til dark. Mager Lipko, Adj. Francis, Ensign Round, an a numer others were wounded, and a number killed. We tuck 8 cannon and a numer of prisoners, about 200. The batel was much in our favor.
The following items from Farnum's Diary sum up, from the viewpoint of a soldier participant, events on which historians have lavished pages of rhetoric:
14th. Ordered that there be no fireing on the enemy; flags ex- changed between Genl. Gates and Mr. Burgoyne.
15th This day the generals are a tryin to settle the terms that Burgoyne shall Render himself & army Prisoners of War.
16th This day the terms agreed on; the writings drone, & signed, seld, and delivered.
17th This morning ordered to strike tents and march; we Marched to Saratoga meeting-house. The army perade and Ginl. burgoine, with his army, marched out, after grounding their arms, & Serender them Prisoners of War.
18th This morning I went to see the Lines that the enemy lefte. Returned to my tent, eat Bexfast.
Some of the Essex County militia were discontented because, after the glorious victory, they were not dismissed but ordered to march back to Boston guarding the prisoners of war. But their lot was comfortable compared with that of Captain Farnum and his men. They were sent by boat down the Hudson to join Wash- ington's army north of Philadelphia, in the regiment command- ed by Colonel Benjamin Tupper. So it was that the Andover company went through the terrible winter at Valley Forge. At least two of them, Thomas Haggitt and Thomas Stevens, died, a large number were ill or otherwise incapacitated, and all of
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them suffered greatly. The final entry in Captain Farnum's Diary, January 31, 1778, tells of his contracting smallpox and going out of camp.
It is to be hoped that Captain Farnum, at long last, was in- valided home, but his story was not yet over. Miss Bailey found in the Essex Gazette, in June, 1829, an extended reference to this veteran, now grown old:
Observing in a late Boston Patriot, since the death of General Dear- born, that he was the last surviving captain who was at the ever mem- orable battle of the 17th June, 1775, on Bunker Hill, and of the only five who were present at the laying of the corner stone of the monu- ment in 1825, I would state that I am informed that Captain Ben- jamin Farnum commanded the Andover Infantry Company on that memorable day and was on the same spot fifty years afterward, and is now alive and in his eighty-third year. Although some infirm from the wounds received in the action by two balls in the thigh, one of which has been extracted and he still keeps it as a valuable relict of that eventful day's carnage. Capt. Farnum still sustains the office of deacon of the North Church in Andover, which he has honorably and respectably filled for nearly forty years.
Captain and Deacon Farnum did not die until December 4, 1833, in his eighty-eighth year. In his later days he was always known as Deacon, not as Captain.
If only more of these practical-minded young Andoverians had kept and preserved diaries, as Benjamin Farnum did, we should doubtless have many other stories
Of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach.
We should read there tales of cold and hunger, of loneliness and sickness, of nostalgia and discouragement and despair. We may be sure that there was resentment behind a letter from Cap- tain Lovejoy, complaining that the ordering of his men to fresh military duties after they had just returned from an exacting
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campaign was "dishonorable, unreasonable, unjust, and highly injurious." We wonder why Captain Joshua Holt was instructed to investigate "the inimicable disposition to this or any of the United States of any Inhabitant or Inhabitants of sd. town who shall be charged by the Freeholders or other Inhabitants of sd. town as being a Person whose residence in this State is dangerous to the publick Peace and Safety." Were the British prisoners in the Phillips powder mill causing trouble or was there actual treason elsewhere in the township? What suspicions are behind these vague but sinister words?
After 1778, Andover soldiers took part in few battles. New names appear upon the muster rolls of regiments, and old ones disappear. Two companies, one commanded by Captain Stephen Abbot and the other by Captain John Abbot, seem to have been stationed at West Point in 1779 and 1780, but they saw no action there. Unlike the troops from other states, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Connecticut, they showed no disposition to mutiny, even when conditions became almost unendurable. For the most part Andoverians were distributed here and there among various military units, and no one company carried with it the blessing of the town.
The roster of officers, whose descendants presumably are quali- fied for membership in the Society of Colonial Wars if not in the Order of the Cincinnati, includes seventeen men, headed by Brigadier-General Joseph Frye, followed in rank by Colonel James Frye, Colonel Samuel Johnson, and Colonel Thomas Poor, who probably belonged more to Methuen than to An- dover. Among the others were the familiar Captain Benjamin Ames and Captain Benjamin Farnum, and in addition Major Samuel Osgood, Adjutant-General Bimsley Stevens, Captain Henry Abbot, Captain John Abbot, Captain Stephen Abbot, Captain John Adams, Captain Charles Furbush, Captain Joshua Holt, Captain Samuel Johnson-son of the Colonel-Captain John Peabody, and Surgeon Dr. Thomas Kittredge.
Perhaps we need to be reminded again that during these
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"times that tried men's souls" daily existence for Andoverians was not all speeches in town meeting and news of battles and greetings to returning soldiers. Wood had to be cut for fires, meals had to be planned and cooked, the cows had to be milked and the gardens weeded. Somebody had to walk or ride down to the store. Laborers sat drinking of an evening in the tavern, and on Sunday mornings the elderly father or grandfather hitched up the old gray mare and drove the family off for the long day at church. Routine life went on, with its chatter about trivial things, its love affairs, its illnesses, its recurrence of birth and marriage and death. Inflation made living more precarious, and there were annoying scarcities of food and manufactured goods. But even in the worst hours the grumblers never suggested surrender.
Most of the fighting in the later years of the war was in the south, where the British, although they overran South Carolina and Georgia, exhausted their resources and manpower. The news of battles at Camden, King's Mountain, and Cowpens seemed to have no immediate consequences for New England. Closer home were Arnold's treason and Major André's execu- tion as a spy, both reported by the Andover detachments at West Point. Probably nobody in Andover, except possibly Samuel Phillips, Jr., and Samuel Osgood, was aware of the enemy's slow disintegration: the quarrel between Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis; the gradual wearing down of British strength and morale; the helpful influence of the French, through Lafayette on land and De Grasse on the sea; and all the behind-the-scenes factors culminating in Cornwallis' half-hearted defense of York- town and its capitulation on October 19, 1781. With this sur- render even the most stubborn British Tory could hardly help realizing that his government had lost the war and its American colonies.
After Yorktown, hostilities virtually ceased, and more dark days ensued. The dissatisfied idle American soldiers demanded their arrears of pay and even threatened mutiny. The Congress
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in a panic ran away from Philadelphia, and Washington had to use all his tact and persuasion to quell rioting among his troops. Finally the end of the war was officially proclaimed to the army on April 19, 1783, exactly eight years after Lexington and Con- cord. The formal treaty of peace, however, was not signed until September 3, 1783, and the last British grenadier did not leave New York until November 4.
Towards the close of the Revolution Andover's first resident to gain national political distinction emerged from the Osgood family. Samuel Osgood (1747-1813), the third son of Captain Peter Osgood and his wife, Sarah Johnson, was the fifth in the direct line from Captain John Osgood, who settled in Andover in 1645. John Osgood, as we have noted, had been Andover's first representative to the General Court, and among his de- scendants had been selectmen, magistrates, and officers in the militia. Our Samuel Osgood had been graduated from Harvard in 1770, a year before Samuel Phillips, Jr., and soon joined his brother, Peter, in business in the town. A man of energy as well as sagacity, he enlisted at the outbreak of hostilities and through his Harvard connections was commissioned as major and as- signed as aide-de-camp to General Artemas Ward, subsequently attaining the rank of colonel. His neighbors had sufficient confi- dence in him to elect him in 1779 as representative to the Gen- eral Court and in 1780 as senator. He was the first Andover citi- zen to hold that office.
Osgood had been a prominent member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779; and in 1781, although he was only thirty-four, he was elected to the Continental Congress, taking his seat on June 12. By this time the country boy had moved into a wider political and social world. He was re-elected until, because of the three-year limitation prescribed by the Ar- ticles of Confederation, he had to give up his office on March 1, 1784. The Dictionary of American Biography says of him, "As a member of Congress he was alert and capable, serving on many important committees and having a hand in the preparation of
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numerous constructive measures, particularly relating to busi- ness and finance." His specialized ability was recognized by his appointment, December 1, 1781, as a director in the Bank of North America. He became also a member of the Treasury board, and later, in 1785, was made one of the three commis- sioners of the Treasury, functioning in that capacity until, with the adoption of the Constitution, President Washington named Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury.
With his broadening interests, Osgood was seldom resident in Andover, and after his second marriage in 1786 he moved perma- nently to New York City. He opposed the new Federal Consti- tution, but President Washington nevertheless made him his first postmaster-general after the formation of the government. Finding his position not congenial, Osgood resigned in 1791 and during the remainder of his career had only an intermittent in- terest in political matters, although he was elected in 1800 to the New York Assembly and at once chosen Speaker. He had been for some years a follower of Thomas Jefferson; and the latter, on his accession to the Presidency in 1801, appointed him as the first supervisor of Internal Revenue for the District of New York, a lucrative and highly respectable post. Though he seldom returned to his native town, he was regarded as an honored son, and the townspeople liked to point out his birthplace on Osgood Street. On September 12, 1953, a marker in his memory was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies at this house, then occu- pied by Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Murray Howe. The tablet, sponsored by the North Andover Historical Society and the Na- tional City Bank of New York, reads as follows:
HONORABLE SAMUEL OSGOOD (1748-1813) Patriot-Statesman-Financier First Postmaster-General of the United States First President of the National City Bank of New York
Osgood's brother, Captain Peter Osgood, was Andover's rep- resentative to the General Court in 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, and
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1792, thus carrying on at home the fine tradition of his family.
On the farm of still another Osgood, Jacob, who lived in what is now the West Parish, an Andover patriot died just as the war came to an end. James Otis, after having been struck on the head in 1769 by a political opponent, never really recovered, and his reason was permanently unhinged. John Adams wrote of him in 1770, "He rambles and wanders like a ship without a helm." Although relatives watched over him, he borrowed a gun on the day of Bunker Hill and rushed to the scene of action, fortunate- ly escaping without injury. In 1781, he came to Andover to board at the Jacob Osgood farm, and on May 23, 1783, while he was watching a spring thunderstorm, he was struck and instantly killed at the front door by a bolt of lightning. We are told that, although the lightning did some harm to the Osgood homestead, "no mark of any kind could be found on Otis, nor was there the slightest change or convulsion in his features."
After years of war, the colonies were now freed from the inter- ference of Great Britain's parliament, cabinet, and king. But the period of adjustment was only beginning, and plenty of trou- ble lay ahead. In the evolution of Massachusetts into a sovereign state, a unit in a new nation, Andover citizens had a considerable share. The establishment of a firm and permanent government in the Commonwealth was all part of the democratic process, sometimes uncertain but moving usually in the right direction towards a political organization practically suited to the needs of the people.
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CHAPTER XIV
Party Politics and Leaders
T "HE more than three decades between the close of the Revo- lution in 1783 and the Treaty of Ghent in 1815 were marked in the United States by vigorous political controversy, during which governmental theory and practice were fertile subjects for debate. As one issue followed another, the New England pat- tern of thought remained constant. Temperament and family tradition do, of course, often determine one's allegiance to a party, and they certainly did in Andover. But instinctively those who are poor are suspicious of the rich. Those who lend money have different ideas regarding interest rates from those who bor- row it. The struggling farmer on his gravelly acres has not much in common with the city magnate who lives on dividends. The day laborer and the well-to-do manufacturer want quite differ- ent forms of legislation. So it is that the "Haves" and "Have Nots" inevitably separate, and conservatives line up against the pressure from radicals.
Andover, still a relatively small town and somewhat isolated, had no large or decisive share in these recurring controversies. Its accredited spokesmen continued to take part in the confer- ences and conventions which followed one after another. If a minority in state or town sometimes settled an important issue, that was only because some indifferent citizens did not care to exercise their privilege. Even today a vocal few sometimes force their will on a stay-at-home or inarticulate majority. Further- more, a property qualification of long standing restricted the suffrage to the more prosperous and respectable residents. But Andover was still, as it had been in colonial days, a microcosm,
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with its public-spirited leaders, its self-centered farmers and busi- nessmen, and its riffraff, although the last group was small.
In facing the problem of forming a state constitutional gov- ernment, Andover voters seem to have been guilty of some in- consistency, or at least of uncertainty. On October 3, 1775, they rather hastily agreed that "it is the consent of the town to in- trust the matter of framing a constitution to the House of Repre- sentatives, together with the Council." But the more reliable molders of public opinion soon perceived the inadvisability of giving such a responsibility to the General Court. The House of Representatives did not then, and probably does not now, in- clude in its membership in any given year all the best thought of Massachusetts. At any rate, Andover shortly reversed its original judgment and instructed its representative, Colonel Samuel Johnson, to oppose any such suggestion. The reasons offered were that some of the state's foremost men were absent, either under arms or in Congress, and that it was not a time "when foes are in the midst of us and an army at our doors to consider how the country shall be governed, but rather to provide for its defense."
Such arguments seem reasonable; but the House, ignoring them, designated a special committee to proceed with constitu- tion-making. Their report met at once with hostile criticism. A Newburyport lawyer, Theophilus Parsons, only twenty-seven years old but already well known, wrote a criticism for the Essex County convention at which the matter was considered. In this pamphlet, entitled The Essex Result, Parsons advanced eighteen objections to the proposed draft, emphasizing particularly the weakness of the Executive under its provisions. At Andover, opinion was divided, but the constitution was finally rejected by the narrow margin of 33 to 32, with only a small proportion of the voters caring to express an opinion. In the Commonwealth, however, it was turned down by a large majority, 9,972 to 2,083.
Although this attempt had failed, everybody was aware that something would have to be done to avert anarchy. Finally dele-
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gates were chosen for a constitutional convention, which assem- bled on September 1, 1779, at the old meeting house in Cam- bridge. The very competent Colonel Samuel Johnson was again away on a military assignment, and the Andover delegation com- prised Mr. Zebadiah Abbot, Mr. John Farnum, Sr., Samuel Os- good, Esq., and Samuel Phillips, Jr., Esq .- to decorate them with the titles used in the official record. Osgood, only thirty-one, and Phillips, just twenty-six, were probably the best-equipped young men intellectually in the township. Of Abbot and Far- num not much is known, and they apparently had little to say.
This convention included several eminent Americans, not only the two Adamses and John Hancock, but also James Bow- doin (its president), John Lowell, Theophilus Parsons, George Cabot, Caleb Strong, and John Pickering. It was a more shining array of political talent than Massachusetts today, with at least sixteen times the population, could produce.
Of the Andover delegation, Phillips, the youngest, seems to have been the conceded leader. He was a member of the com- mittee assigned to draft the constitution, working under John Adams, who actually wrote most of the document except the illiberal section on religion. Adams had to sail on a mission to France before the debates were concluded. But although the winter which followed was the coldest New England had ever experienced and also the gloomiest period of the war for Wash- ington and his army, a considerable number of delegates re- fused to leave until their work was completed. Phillips, who was one of them, was chairman of a committee to frame a declaration, or test, "Wherein every person, before he takes his seat as a rep- resentative, senator, or governor, or enters upon the execution of any important office of trust in the Commonwealth, shall re- nounce every principle (whether it be Roman Catholic, Ma- hometan, Deistical, or Infidel) which has any the least tendency to subvert the civil or religious rights established by this Con- stitution." The test thus prepared was incorporated in the con- stitution, although in more general terms.
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