USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Centennial celebration at Braintree, Mass., July 4, 1876 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
In March, 1776, a " Committee of Safety" was chosen, and
Father Niles (Dr. Samuel) was the owner of slaves by whose labors he car- Find alchi farm at Hiergibt, where their dust now reposes in the slave's barying- ground on the border, without a stone to warn the passing traveller to tread TOVdly on their ashes." - Dr. A'den at Petitth Anniversary of Dr. Storrs.
1 0
:
t
0
6
(
(
1
1
i
e
(
h F n t d
P
i
27
in July the cry was "On to Canada !" with the same unfortu- nate result that the premature frenzy of " On to Richmond ! " brought on their descendants eighty-five years afterwards. Provision was made to secure the service of every twenty-fifth man, in accordance with official resolves. Those in the Con- tinental army, who marched out of the town before the first day of June, 1775, were exempted from taxation, and heavy premiums were offered to those " who engaged to go to New York " in compliance with the regulation of the Continental Congress.
Inscribed in the records we find, in 1776, the text of the " Declaration of Independence," thus signalizing in the most emphatic manner the early adoption of that immortal instru- ment, as a political creed, by the people of Braintree.
John Adams, lawyer, son of Deacon Adams, of whom mention has been made, sleeping in his father's house in 1755, experienced the shock of an earthquake, that in another quarter of the world was the occasion of a memorable calam- ity. Little did John Adams apprehend that he was soon to take a prominent share in a political commotion and earth- quake, that was to dislocate and rend the proudest nation on earth, and shake the foundations of the whole political and civilized globe. Upon this most exciting and important drama he was about to enter.
He remarks in his diary that, as surveyor of highways, he reported on the sale of the North Common. He was selectman for two years, resigning because of business, and received a vote of thanks from the town. He was one of the committee of the town to express dissent to the Stamp Act, and he put into the plea that sinew and strength, which made it the model for other towns. This energetic document reiterates the " loyalty of the people to the king," and their " friendship to all their fellow-subjects of Britain," and it concludes with advice and reflections, applicable to the pres- ent condition of affairs. Let us ponder as we read : -
" We cannot too often inculcate upon you our desires that all Extraordinary and expensive Grants and Measures may,
28
upon all occasions as much as possible, be avoided; the publie money of this country is the Toil and Labour of those who are under many uncommon Difficulties and Distress at this time, so that all reasonable Frugality ought to be ob- served. And we would recommend particularly the strictest care and firmness to prevent all Unconstitutional Draughts on the Public Treasury. And we cannot avoid saying that. if a particular enquiry into the state of that Treasury should at the first opportunity be promoted, and an exact state of it put before the People, it would have a very good and useful tendency. All of which is respectfully submitted by the Committee of the town of Braintree, to draw instructions to their Representative.
"SAMUEL NILES, JOHN ADAMS. NORTON QUINCY, JAMES PENNIMAN, JOHN HAYWARD,
" Committee."
A- lawyer, orator, and leader, John Adams steps immedi- ately to the front, successively becoming legislator, states- man, plenipotentiary, ambassador, minister, vice-president, and second President of the United States, making a con- spicnon member of that remarkable group of American patriots, whose fame will survive while the English tongue is spokent Justly upm the memorial tablet that stands above the tomb where rests John Adams and his wife, it is said they participated in events
.. Which scented the Freedom of the Country, Improved The condition of the times, Ant brightened the prospects of Futurity I'm the race of men upon Earth."
In 1777 the town increased the pay of those in the field serving out of New England, and in September of the same you made up the quota demanded, agreeing to furnish sup- phes for the families of the enlisted, and offering premiums for reinforcements.
(
1
t
1
1
t f
t
=
t
W f
29
In 1778 Capt. Penniman's company in the Northern Army was voted "back pay," and more supplies were furnished to families. Inducements were held out to subalterns, and time of pay carried back, to cover longer terms of engagement.
Care was taken of those serving out of the State in 1776, and an equalization of payments made to meu who had been two years in the service.
In 1778-79-80, votes were passed from time to time raising money for war purposes and to aid the families of those who enlisted.
In 1780 the families of six months' men are supplied with necessaries, and the thirty-six men called for under the resolve of June, 1780, were obtained.
In July, 1780, a number of men agree on condition, to serve for three months, and the town again votes to supply the families of those in the "publick service" with money for support.
In September, 1780, the first vote is cast for governor of Massachusetts, under the State Constitution, and John Han- cock, a son of Braintree, receives ninety-five of the one hundred and six votes thrown.
In 1781 a difficulty arises with Boston on account of a soldier who has enlisted for three years from both Boston and Braintree, "a veritable bounty jumper," but which shows that men were sent out of the town for that length of service.
Four hundred pounds is assessed upon Braintree as her proportion, to invest in beef for the forces in action in 1781, and so far as the books give any items, this concludes the war record of this patriotic town. That, in that great and terrible struggle, she did her whole duty, there can be no doubt. The armed citizen was a feature in her development. Military titles existed in the very infancy of Braintree. From the time when the major of the Suffolk regiment was ordered to detail for the "Punkapoag Indians " twenty men from Dorchester, Milton, and Braintree, to preserve the " forte " and to " range ye woods," to the call in 1862 for " three hun- dred thousand more," Braintree has never failed to answer
60
with her soldiers, "Present and accounted for." She made a part of the three thousand men furnished by Massachusetts, who served under Pepperell, and they were at the surrender of Louisburg. Five of her mounted men and twelve on foot were in the " Great Swamp Fight" in Philip's war, and her sons were with Wolfe when he stormed and carried Quebec. The Revolution found Braintree awake and ready, with her militia, her minute-men, and her recruits, for long and short service. From the hour that Concord rolled back the British column to the moment of the disbandment of the forces in 1783, this heroic town poured out her money and her men, sparing neither blood nor treasure. Her men were with Washington at Dorchester Heights, when the guns of the Provincials menaced the position of Gage, and compelled the last "redeoat" to leave Boston in haste. The stuff of which these men were made is shown in the reply of Joseph Mann, one of Capt. Penniman's men from Braintree, who was reported to the officers commanding the expedition, as lame and unfit for duty.
" How did you presume, thus disabled, to engage in the Continental service ? " asked the officer. " What would you do in a retreat ? "
" General," answered the soldier, " I came to fight, not to run unay."
Braintree men were with Washington in darker hours. They followed him in the disastrous retreat from New York, 1 and they, with other New England troops, remained with him and crossed the Delaware, that cold and bleak December night, participating before morning in the engagement which led to the capture of Trenton, - a brilliant and dazzling success, that dispelled the gloom and revived the almost broken courage of the disheartened American army. We know that Braintree men were with the Northern army when Burgoyne was taken, and again with Washington when Yorktown fell, an I Cornwallis, by capitulation, closed the con- test; and we can say of the gallant town, as Webster said
See Appendix D note 2.
a
tl d b 0 t f 0
1
d
n
e
a
3 30 7 5
S
P
C 0
0 : i
31
of the gallant State, "The bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to Georgia, and there they will lie forever."
Little can we understand the extent and nature of the hard- ships and distress that followed the Revolutionary conflict. Complaints are heard to-day of great prostration in business affairs, of severe burdens upon the community, of scarcity of employment, and instances of deprivation and want are cur- rent. Sad and unpleasant as these things are, they are but a suggestion, rather than a parallel to the experience of our predecessors. The worst hour we have known may be con- sidered as pregnant with blessings, compared with the be t moments of the terrible days between 1780 and 1790.
The historian says, "That the times were gloomy no one can doubt. The life-blood of the nation had been poured out like water, and everywhere there were homes made deso- late, and dwellings, towns, and cities were falling rapidly into decay."1
The population of Massachusetts was then less than that of Boston at present, and the State debt stood at five mill- ions, real money, as its part of the national contribution, besides four millions of its own liabilities.
The speculative spirit had induced those who could obtain foreign goods, to over-importation, specie was drained from the country, public and private credit was impaired, if not destroyed,2 and the overhanging, lowering clouds seemed black and heavy with impending calamity. The inspiration of UNION, a word that was destined to disperse the impo- tence of Confederation, had not yet been pronounced ; the financial system, by which the genius of Hamilton was to quicken the giant energies of the Republic, had not yet been matured ; the matchless masonry of the Constitution had not been cut or chiselled into shape ; and those broad outlines of a nation, one and indestructible, had not yet been traced by
1 Austin's History of Mass., p. 344,
2 Austin's History of Mass., p. 364.
32
the Divine Artist on the broad canvas of history. Chaos raled in commerce, paralysis pervaded administration, and doubt, mingled with despair, haunted the popular mind.
The actors of that dismal epoch are gone. No, not all ; here and there one lingers. In our own midst we have one. a matron of a hundred years, whose cradle was rocked in the commotion of war, whose childhood was overcast with these scenes of gloom and darkness, and who has lived to see the clouds scatter, the seas of sorrow subside, until her own eyes, that have witnessed the changing events of a century, behold her country approaching a destiny beyond the willest dreams of any poet, or the fairest promise of any prophet. May the remaining blessings of time, and all the unconceived blessings of eternity, come to the venerable woman whose presence we were in hopes might have hal- lowed this occasion :
it
a
That Braintree shared in this general discouragement and depression is evident, and from the close of the Revolution- ary war, to the close of the century, may well be termed the period of our municipal discipline and humiliation. The town had griefs of the spirit, as well as material difficulties. The records show that the General Court had given Braintree exceeding offence in an effort to tinker the orthodox Sabbath to snit the " demand of the times."? Her indignation com- pats the people of the town, by vote, to "acknowledge it was surprising to them, the Honorable Court should at this day, when we are just emerging from the horrors of a most barbarous and unparalleled war, curtail a part of the Fourth Commandment, by tolerating secular concerns and servile labor, to be carried on six hours of the same, to the great dis- turbance of every sober and conscientious person in the State." Other troubles follow. The town vaults were stuffed with certificates of indebtedness, of such dubious value that the selectmen were authorized to make for these securities the
I Mrs. Mary White, agod for years, still vigorous and in good health.
. This action refers to the statute passed by the General Court regulating the That o. Boxes making Sada commence after midnight of Saturday, Instead of mis o clock, as the Puritan Someday did.
tl
W
to
li
el "
B 0 la B
si T
C
re
b W di b
33
" best market " possible, and they are also to dispose of the Continental money at " any hazard, for what it will fetch."
The town found it necessary, in 1786, to "instruct its representative in his political conduct in the General Court." We have first, for this matter of instruction is rather a serious business, a vote "to raise a committee who are to serve without pay," that shall draw up the proper expression of dissatisfaction on the following basis, "which is declared to be the will of the town": -
First. To remove the Court from Boston. Second. To tax all public securities.
Third. To tax money on hand and on interest.
Fourth. To lower the salaries of placemen. Fifth. To make land a tender for all debts, at the price it stood at when the debts were contracted.
Sixth. To take some measures to prevent the grasping ot attorneys and barristers-at-law.
The report of the committee carrying out these remark- able propositions is a marvel of turgid eloquence, if not elegance, and proceeds to inform the representative that, " Inasmuch as there are numerous Grievances or intolerable Burdens, by some means or other lying on the good subjects of this Republic, our eyes, under Heaven, are upon the Legis- lature of this Commonwealth, and their names will shine Brighter in American annals, by preserving the inalienable liberties of their own People, than if they were to carry the terror of their Arms as far as Gibraltar."
The climax 1 of this burst of eloquence or rhetoric appears somewhat strained ; but there is no doubt whatever about the sincerity and earnestness of these terrific sentence-makers. They command the representative at the next session "to give his close attention to these matters." It is a mooted question whether he obeyed the clamor of the populace, as the following year there is an article in the warrant, "To see whether the Representative shall be dismissed, or instructed
1 See Appendix D, 2d part.
3
34
still further."1 The suggestion of removing the capitol away from the temptations, blandishments, and influence of a great centre has, perhaps, a foundation of common-sense ; but the movement to change the agreements of securities by taxation, to make a new legal tender, and scale debts by arbitrary methods, would betoken that the agrarian element had once found temporary lodgment in this conservative town. We can hut smile at the primitive innocence, so often repeated, hy which over-confident people seem to turn their eyes. in any particular crisis, to the General Court. It is an ever- recurring transaction, yet there does not appear to be any corresponding action, on the part of that body, to justify this liberal outlay of popular glances, in that direction, in emer- gencies. And we are equally struck with the significance of another fact. In reading these instructions we find they insist on a course that shall crush, or at least put proper check or restraint, on that order of gentlemen denominated lawyers, "the constitution," they say, "of whose modern conduct appears to us to tend rather to the destruction than the preservation of the Commonwealth." We may conclude from this expression of opinion that in periods of disaster, the human mind has a tendency towards summoning a scape- goat, to receive the surplus spleen of the public distemper. It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, however, that whenever the condition of affairs improve. the total depravity of a special class seems to disappear.
The sacrificial victim or "scapegoat " in 1786 was the lawyer ; in 1876 it seems to be the politician. I do not stand here to defend that class who make politics a trade, but to my mind it is contrary to the spirit of republican in- stitutions, that in free America any citizen cannot properly aspire to a high position without the danger of loss of charac- ter and private reputation. I believe it to be one of the highest duties of an American citizen to know, and to mingle
. At this time quite a rupture must have taken place between the town and its representative Gen, Thayer. He was elected by only twelve majority in 1787, and an interline on the town banks of that date exhibits some feeling in the matter
det ex]
ex of an ex
ra wa
ch
W
na
P P an p li d p M b of
se
c. to
fe st
m
i
te th
35
1221191
in politics. Our trouble is, that there are not more politicians in the true sense of that word ; that there are so few, and too few, is the fault of the influential members of society, who stand aloof from the primaries, and then complain at what is done, charging that things "are fixed." After all, govern- ment is but a machine, and when those individuals or classes who now do the growling, and charge all our evils to the caucus, will commence to handle the machinery them- selves, they can have matters their own way. Let our respectable people participate more freely in the details of political action, and there will be less corruption in high places, and a purer political atmosphere than now. Unless, and until they do this, they have no right to murmur or com- plain. It is familiar knowledge, that the term of our national life to which I have referred, was conspicuous " for general decay of trade, the rise of imported merchandise, the fall of produce, and an uncommon decrease in the value of land."1 Much, therefore, must be pardoned to these stringent and barren years, that blasted the hopes, and palsied the reason of men. The heresies that lurk in those outbursts of indig- nation and suffering came from a community loaded down with unpaid obligations, exhausted with exertion, with no chosen industry to sustain it, no outlying farms or agricultu- ral regions seeking it for a market, no deep water or wharves, waiting for reviving navigation, no local facilities as yet tempting capital to investment. Is it to be wondered that the good old town sought, as many have since, to discover some "short cut" to relief, some new way to pay debts, expecting to rectify existing wrongs, by shearing the stipend of placemen, snubbing attorneys, and suppressing barristers, and striving to balance the ledger, by " swapping farms and exchanging wood-lots "?
Among other misfortunes, Braintree develops in 17912 a defaulter, or, as the examining committee rather tenderly express it, " a falling short of accounts," and her cup of mis-
1 People's Hist. of America.
2 Vinton's Memorial.
36
ery would seem to be wellnigh full. This, unhappily, is by no means the limit of her trials, for in addition to the com- mon tribulation and loss from worthless paper promises of payment, and deficits from unfaithful servants, she is about to be given over to the merciless process of legislative sur- gery. The time has come when the various centres make independent demands, and the extreme precinets aspire to become towns. These localities besiege the General Court for incorporation, and Braintree, through agent and repre- sentative, remonstrates and protests against the division of her territory, but in vain ; the hour of partition has come, and fate demands the dislocation of the ancient township. In 1792 Quincy leaves her, and in 1793 Randolph follows, and the same year a separation from Suffolk, leaves Braintree in Norfolk County. Though the town has previously urgently pressed for a new county, for some reason she is now dis- pleased with the arrangement, and petitions to be annexed once more to Suffolk. The petition is refused, and now the "iron has entered the soul" of Braintree, for she secedes from the halls of legislation and turns her back in sorrow, if not in anger, upon the unfriendly tribunal that has severed her in twain and torn her from the embrace of her time-hon- ored county relations.
She declines in 1794 and 1795 to send any representative to the General Court, her vacant seat undoubtedly intended as a rebuke, to what she regards a cruel injustice, while she -its quietly at home, like Niobe weeping for her children. Though the inexorable fiat of change has stripped Braintree of population and property, and foreed from her more acres than she has now left to call her own, neither time nor change can deprive her of the honors and distinction that make her one of the oldest and most historical of the towns of Massa- chusetts.
It will not be forgotten that the vast iron industry now in this country, annually computing its products by hundreds of millions of value, had its birth and infancy, in 1643, by the
Appendix G, p. 163. Vinton's Memorial.
1
t
1
t
1 t
(
t
a
B
0
37
waterfalls of the Monatiquot, it being the second ever founded in America. It will be remembered that her enterprise claims the first working of glass1 in America, while her crude method of transporting masses of stone by tramways 2 was the forerunner of that network of railways now numbering seventy thousand miles in the States of the Union. Her list of eminent men contributed to fame during the one hundred and fifty years she was intact, is too long for repetition, but in it were persons distinguished in law, literature, science, and medicine, and from her ranks went many bankers, capi- talists, and " princely merchants " to add to the celebrity of the metropolis.3
It was from Braintree that Boston sought its mechanic to build the Old South Church 4 in 1744, while from her yards were launched ships of notable burden and commercial repute. It would take hours to properly notice the promi- nent divines that in the three precincts adorned and dignified the Braintree pulpit. 5
Rich, indeed, has this town been in clerical celebrities, from the pastorate of Mr. Fiske, whose somewhat extrava- gant eulogium upon his tombstone tells us in a rather sea- faring way that he, after possessing
" Paul's patience, James's prudence, John's sweet love, Is landed, entered, cleared, and crowned above,"
to the noble Christian minister and masterly intellect of Richard Salter Storrs, who, in the sixty-fourth year of his pastoral service, in the ripeness of age, laid down his task amid the love and tears of the whole people, and of whom it was justly said, " Thrice blessed is the man who so spends a long life as to make his very name a religious doctrine.", Yes, it is beyond dispute, that the Braintree sanctuaries have
1 Life of Josiah Quincy, by Edmund Quincy, p. 7.
2 Whitney, in a note to p. 49, mentions this road as built to carry stones for Bunker Hill Monument.
3 See Appendix D note 3.
4 Vinton's Memorial, in a note to p. 318, says Lieut. Robert Mead, carpenter of Braintree, erected the South Church at Boston.
5 See Appendix D, note 4.
58
been signally honored with worth and ability. There are en- rolled the respected names of Thompson, the first minister of 1638. reputed "a learned, solid, sound divine." 1 and Briant, "a man of extraordinary powers." who assaulted the phari- secism that went about exclaiming. "The temple of the Lord .? the temple of the Lord are wee," and aroused the bitterest theological controversy, since the days of Hutchinson and Wheelwright : and Hugh Adams, of " eccentric " 3 cast, who seemed forever in hot water about his salary ; and Parson Niles, a man of decided parts, who settled by treatise the whole doctrine of "Original Sin," and illustrated his views by buttonholing the General Court until he had the town lines so run around his farm as to be against all rules of con- sisteney and symmetry; 4 and Weld, "a faithful and useful minister," under whom the flag of the " Half Way Cove- nant."s a device tilling up the church with hypocrites and the world with infidels, was hauled down : and Park, still living as the head of an influential seat of religious learning, and who, miting in his intellectual accomplishments the en- dowments of Hooker, and the logie of Edwards, is without a peer in the profession he adorns. Such are some of the lights of the ministry that have shed their beams from our sacred desks. But what words shall express or reflect the effulgence of those other stars, that shine in the American firmament. undimmed and unchangeable? Who shall attempt to paint the brightness of those inmortal chieftains, without which America would not have had her history, or Freedom have won her victories?
When the fifth Henry was picturing the results of the campaign that gave Agincourt to martial prowess, he thrilled his compatriots by prophesying " the effect of French defeats on English hearts." Then, said he, shall our names, " familiar in the mouths" as household words, -
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.