History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 167

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 167

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At this time there were four companies in the town, numbering in all four hundred men. Two companies appear on the muster-rolls of the " Lexington Alarm," in the regiment of Col. James Frye.

Col. Johnson labored incessantly to fill up the ranks of the patriotic forces, and appealed to the peo- ple with great earnestness and force. His regiment was rapidly filled, and his address to his soldiers wa- eloquent and inspiring. The first resistance to Brit- ish attempts to seize the arms and ammunition of the colonists had been made by Leslie and his forces in Salem, in February, 1775, and had been successful under the leadership of the firm and fearless Timothy Pickering; and when a few weeks after, the country was roused and alarmed by the struggle at Concord and Lexington, the soldiers of North Andover, already organized, marched to the conflict. Four companies are recorded as having marched from Andover to Cambridge, April 19, 1775. A " number of aged men and some unable to bear arms, rode to Cambridge on the day of the alarm and the following day to carry provisions to those who stood in need." At this time Samuel Osgood appeared on the field and commenced his long career as soldier and statesman.

The journals of the soldiers and the records all give evidence of the zeal and devotion of the town in the opening skirmish of the war, and in the memo- rable engagements which followed and taught the British government and all men in the colonies that there were Americans who were ready to fight for their rights, and the independence, if need be, of their country.

The town promptly responded to the communica- tion from the Provincial Congress, signed by Joseph Warren, president, that "General Gage had utterly dis- qualified himselfto serve the colony as Governor," by choosing Mr. Samnel Phillips, Jr., to represent them in the Provincial Congress to be held at the meeting- house in Watertown on Wednesday, the 3Ist of May inst. (1775). Mr. Phillips' services in this Con- gress are thus recorded by his biographer :

"During this period Mr. Phillips was twice on a committee to confer with General Washington upon points connected with the war ; he was also in rapid succession upon committres to countersigu the colony notes emitted by the Continental Congress, and the notes of the Receiver- General ; to direct the mastering and paying of one militia company, to muster and pay another, etc., etc. In all this he distinguished him- self and did honor to the town he represented."

The difficulties under which the soldiers labored at this time are strongly set forth in the following com- munication, dated " Camp in Cambridge, August 2, 1775," addressed "To the Honorable, the Council and House of Representatives of the Colonies of Massa- chusetts Bay in General Court assembled," by Benja- min Ames, a captain in Colonel James Frye's regi- ment :

" Your petitioner, a captain in Col. James Frye's regiment, begs leave to relate that the company which he has the honor to command, consisting of fifty seven non-commissioned officers & soldiers, came into camp at Cambridge on the 19th of April last ; that since that time said company has regularly done duty ; but, though they have been in the sur vice of this colony above three months, not one man has received one part of the forty shillings which a late Congress promised should be mil - vanved to them. That these soldiers, with many of their families, have suffered difficulties that are not small by renson of this delay. Their necessities have been growing daily more ugent, till, at length, I am able to withstand their importunity no longer. I am, therefore, con- strained most enrnestly to entreat of this Honorable Court that relief to which your humble petitioner presumes he has some claim in justice, & your Petitioner, ns in duty bouud, shall ever pray."

The prayer of the petitioner was granted, and Mr. Samuel Phillips was empowered to carry out the necessary arrangements.

It is difficult to realize the effect the battle of Bunker Hill had upon the people of the colonics generally, of the colony in which it was fought espe- cially, and of the towns which, at great sacrifice, had sent their fathers and sons into the conflict. The re- turn of the dead and wounded to a peaceful and quiet rural community sent a thrill of horror through all ranks and orders of men. The heat of preliminary debate had roused the passions of men to a point of resistance, but the result of the blows struck being brought to their very firesides, changed the indigna- tion of conflicting opinion to the exasperation of grief and the desperation of the mourner. The mild and feeble emotions were roused at once to defiant im- pulses, and the community dwelt upon every personal detail of the struggle with keen and intense interest. The story of Colonel Frye, who hastened in the midst of the battle to the bloody scene, was rehearsed with pride at his home. The account given by John Barker, of his rescue of Benjamin Farnum from the jaws of death in the midst of the battle, has been passed with pride from generation to generation.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Salem Poor, a slave, became a hero in the town. The painful doubt which surrounded the fate of Captain Furbush and Samuel Bailey, Jr., hung like a pall over the community. The generation which saw Cap- tain Farnum brought home on a litter improvised by his neighbors has entirely passed away, it is true, but there are those who remember the old Christian hero as he hobbled to his seat as deacon of the First Church, a model of faith and heroic patriotism. And con- spieous among all was the surgeon of Colonel James Frye's regiment-Dr. Thomas Kittredge-the beloved physician, the influential eitizen, the wise public ser- vant, the patriotic soldier, during more than half a century of useful service in war and peace.

While the sons of North Andover were busy on the field of battle, many of the citizens of beleaguered Boston sought refuge in her safe and quiet homes. A large portion of the library of Harvard College was sent to Samuel Osgood for safe keeping. The town seems to have been a favorite place of refuge during the dangers of wars and sieges. Not only in the Revolution, but in the War of 1812, the merchants of Salem and Boston took up their abode among its charming hills and valleys and in the families of its thrifty and cultivated citizens.

The suffering in the town at this period became great. The absence of a great number of tbe able- bodied men during the summer season of 1775 pre- vented the pursuit of a large part of the farming in- dustry and the provision usually made for winter in that sparsely-settled region. As the war went on this difficulty was not removed. When the siege of Bos- ton was brought to a successful termination, the sol- diers of the American army were transferred to re- moter fields, and their absence from home was necessarily of longer continuance. They were found in many engagements and in every section of the country. They were in service in New York. The men of North Andover were enrolled in the Continental army. Their brave old colonel, James Frye, had fought his tight and was reposing in the grave-yard, not having reached the infirmities of old age, nor having reached the con- summation of his life-long effort for the independence of his country. Homo fait, truly says his epitaph. But Johnson and Farnum remained, and the soldiers followed them wherever their services were needed. They were at Bennington and Stillwater. They shared the sufferings of the winter camp at Valley Forge. Captain Sammuel Johnson and his men were engaged in Rhode Island. And of the services of Colonel Johnson at Stillwater and during the entire campaign, which resulted in the defeat of Burgoyne, it lois been said :

.1. 1777 | monde la ment detached from the county of Fx-nlk lt Ly Cry có piny in the me u table action on the

Hogy delas white, men determined to · ny 191 1 TH 11 4 way toe Fin E Ma. Lusetts Regiment, which

Colonel Johnson commanded through the war, and with promptness and punctuality answered the requisitions of Government in a manner highly satisfactory to the several corps which composed the regiment."

As the war went on the sufferings of soldiers and citizens increased. Business was neglected. There was a seanty supply of food and elothing ; the lands became exhausted ; the flocks and herds deereased. But the people of North Andover did all in their power to rise above the general disaster, encouraged the soldiers and provided for their families. The manufacturing in- dustries of the town were not neglected. The work of furnishing homespun clothes for citizens and sol- diers was diligently carried on in the houses. The town was liberal in bestowing bounties on the soldiers.

No family was more intimately connected with the welfare of the country before and during and after the Revolutionary War than the family of Phillips. De- seended from one of the most influential ministers of the colony, the Rev. Samuel Phillips settled in the South Parish of Andover in 1710, and through his own ageney and that of his remarkable sons and grandsons he shaped the destiny of that portion of the original town. Of his sons, Samuel, born February 24, 1715, graduate of Harvard 1734; John, born January 7, 1720, graduate of Harvard 1735; and William, born July 6, 1725, Samuel settled iu North Andover, and in 1752 built the house which has already been described, and is an heir-loom of the family. He established him- self there in trade. He married Elizabeth Barn- ard, a cousin of the minister and "his household was a model of a Christian family, his wife being a lady of rare virtues and himself deacon of the North Church, a man of inflexible principles and integrity." Ile was among the most distinguished men of the Revolutionary period, being Representative, Senator and the friend of the most eminent statesmen of the times. He died in 1790, leaving one son, Samuel Phillips, Jr., who married Miss Phche Foxeroft, of Cambridge, and who was known as "Judge " Phillips. He resided after his marriage in the South Parish, and induced his father and his uncle to found Phillips Academy. The original design was to locate the academy in the North Parish, near the family home- stead, but it was found difficult to purchase the land, and the South Parish was made the important and in- fluential centre of academie and theologieal education. The constitution and deeds of trust were signed April 21, 1778. Shortly after this "Judge " Phillips re- moved to the South Parish, where he died February 10, 1802.

His son, John Phillips, a graduate of Harvard in 1795, entered into trade in Charlestown and married Miss Lydia Gorham, daughter of the IIon. Nathaniel Gorham, shortly after which he moved to North Andover. It was on the event of his marriage that partisan papers of the day announced that the peace of the Commonwealth was secured, as the rival fami- lies of Phillips and Gorham were at last united. John Phillips died at the age of forty-four years,

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NORTH ANDOVER.

leaving a widow with thirteen children, three sons. A more dignified and exemplary family never lived in North Andover.

Mrs. Phillips was a cultured, self-contained Christian woman, and her daughters possessed the refinement of the mother combined with that calm judgment and diseretion for which the family of Phillips had long been noted. The presence of herself and her family gave tone to the town.

The description of the Phillips Manse given by Miss Bailey ought not to be omitted here :

" The Phillips manse is probably the richest of any in the town in ancient relics of ancestral grandeur. The fine old family portraits, the portrait of Washington " [ now removed] " presented by his nephews, the antique silver tankard and porringers, the massive sideboard, the carved cabinet in which used to be kept mysterious parkets of ancient letters, too private and sacred to be read by any outside the family, the tapestries wrought by hands long ago mouldered to dust, the samplers in frames over the mantel, and the profiles of the first master and mistress of the manse ; in the hall the library of quaint old books owned hy generations of ministers dating back to the settlement of the colony,-all these appeal powerfully to the imagination and stir the feel- ings deeply, as one goes from room to room in this ancient bonse."

One of the most important political movements during the war was the adoption of a State Constitu- tion by Massachusetts. Until 1776 the Provincial Congress had constituted the civil power of the Commonwealth, and it was found necessary to com- plete the executive, legislative and judicial depart- ments of government, for the sake of harmony and efficiency in the organization. This question, like all others involving a radical change, created a very considerable commotion and gave rise to sharp dis- cussion and hot debate. Andover voted to leave the matter with the House of Representatives and the Council, and finally assumed direct opposition to the measure. To the House of Representatives, who were engaged in discussing the question of organizing the government, the North Parish furnished the mem- ber for the town,-Col. Samuel Johnson, who ac. cepted willingly the instructions of the town in which it declared, "We therefore conclude that to set about the forming a New Constitution of Govern- ment at this time is unnecessary, impolitic and dan- gerous ; and it is accordingly our direction that you oppose it with those solid arguments of which you are so fruitful, and that you do it vigorously and perseveringly."

The House having failed to accept the report of a committee appointed to draft a Constitution, a con- vention was called to meet in Cambridge in 1779, and the town was represented by Samuel Osgood, Samuel Phillips, Jr., Zebediah Abbot and John Farnum, Jr.

It was at this juneture that a most important step was taken by the towns of Essex County,-a step which had a controlling influence on the organiza- tion of the State under a Constitution. The difficul- ties surrounding this question were immense. The spirit of the Revolution was still on the people. In their efforts to throw off a foreign yoke they had

become jealous of all authority, and were hardly willing to clothe any government with power sufhi- cient to give it even a practical operation. Liberty was in danger of degenerating into license.

It was in this state of public affairs that The- ophilus Parsons, a young lawyer in Newburyport, stepped forth and commenced that career which placed him in the position of chief justice of Massachu- setts-perhaps the greatest of all her jurists, At his instigation a meeting of the freeholders and other in- habitants of the town of Newburyport, the place of his residence, by law qualified to vote in town affairs, was held on the 27th of March, 1778. Res- olutions were adopted setting forth the defects in the Constititution already proposed, desiring the selectmen to issue circular letters to the several towns in Essex County, to meet by delegates in convention, and choosing, as representatives of Newburyport in the convention, Theophilus Parsons, Tristram Dalton, Jonathan Greenleaf, Jonathan Jackson and Stephen Cross. This convention met in Ipswich in April of that year, and among the names recorded appear those of Ward, Goodhne, Andrews, Goodale, Springer, of Salem; Putnam and Shillaber, of Danvers ; Farley and Noyes, of Ipswich; Coffin and Porter, of Gloucester ; Gould and Clarke, of Topsfield; Dodge, of Wenham; Perley, of Boxford; and the " Honorable Caleb Cushing, Esq., of Salisbury."

Under a vote of the convention Messrs. Parsons, Goodale and Putnam were appointed a committee " to attempt to ascertain the true principles of govern- ment; to state the non-conformity of the Constitu- tion prepared by the convention of this state to those principles ; and to delineate the outlines of a consti- tution conformable thereto, and to report the same to this body."

Can we at this day estimate the difficulty of this task? The spirit which had thus far animated Massachusetts, and had kept her up to the standard adopted by her at the North Bridge and Lexington and Concord, at Bunker Hill and in the streets of Boston, rendered her peculiarly sensitive with regard to every form of popular right. She had impoverished herself for the war. Iler sons were at that very hour suffering from the horrors of that winter at Valley Forge. The western counties, governed by "that public virtue and the unbounded love of freedom and their country with which the militia of the state had always been inspired," had sent their hardiest men to win the glories of Bennington and Saratoga. The eastern counties were already moving for the expedi- tion against the British in Rhode Island. The people were on fire for freedom-for a common cause-for a common country. The appeals were spirited and ardent. Said the Boston Gazette : "Hle who wishes for permanent happiness, let him now put forth all his strength for the immediate salvation of his country, and he shall reap immortal pleasure and renown. It is good for us to anticipate the joy that will fill our

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

minds when we shall receive the reward of our labors; when we shall see our country flourish in peace ; when grateful millions shall hail us as the protectors of our country, and an approving con- science shall light up eternal sunshine in our souls."

To deliberate calmly in an hour of mingled desper- ation and hope, when our armies were sinking through weariness even on victorious battle-fields, and were freezing in their winter-quarters, when the only re- maining power through all was an indomitable love of freedom, was by no means easy. The lessons of free government, moreover, were few, and not by any means successful. Ancient states had gone down into the darkness of anarchy or despotism ; modern states had been organized chiefly as colonial dependencies. There was much confusion; there were many jeal- ousies ; there was but little light when that committee met to lay the foundations of a Constitution for Mas- sachusetts, The work they performed is called the "Essex result." It was an earnest endeavor to de- clare how progress and conservatism, "liberty and order, might be adjusted in human institutions, that freedom should be secure and happiness might be the children of freedom."

-19 an essay on free government it has hardly been equaled. Avoiding the misanthropy of Rousseau and the consolidation of the ancient republics, it assumed that the moving springs of a free government are political virtue, patriotism and a just regard to the natural rights of mankind, and that in its opera- tions a just distribution of power is supremely essen- tial. Upon its suggestions was based the first Consti- tution of Massachusetts, carried as they were by the young lawyer of Newburyport into the subsequent State Convention, and submitted to the Bowdoins and Adamses and Lowells and Piekerings and Strongs of that distinguished body.

The town of North Andover finally gave its ad- hesion to the Constitution, after expressing an opin- ion that all citizens should be taxed to support pub- lic worship, and that religious tests should be applied to candidates for office.

It was the organization of the State government which saved the Commonwealth from anarchy and ruin during the Shay's Rebellion, which broke out with armed insurrection in 1786; and to aid in the suppression of which, by reason, as well as by force, Andover chose a Committee of Consideration, of whose members North Andover furnished Peter Os- good, Moody Bridges, John Ingalls Col. Samuel Johnson, and on which were four of the family of Abbot, from the south Parish.

Esq., who was at that time clerk of the courts of Es- sex County, under date of October 25, 1786, an ex- tract from which will indicate the estimate in which lawyers were held at that time. He says :

" The profession by which I am to get my bread, nay the very court in which I can at present exercise it, is denied. The Supreme Judicature itself is punished with impunity. The legislature is irresolute, and therefore private eredit is a mere cipher in all calculations, money out of circulation and a tender act (and bearen knows what else) impend- ing. When? When I am but just admitted to the bar, have some debts to pay, am without reputation, or clients, and can raise no money either where it is or where it is not due. . . .

"You have here, my dear Sir, a sketch of my present condition. If the General Court should finally act with the spirit and effect so much to be desired, I shall hesitate no longer. But if the strength of the guy- ernment be found inadequate to the suppression of tumult and the sup- port of law, if the constitution be too feeble to conquer the present sick- ness of the state, I had rather be here than in Salem. But I had rath- er be in Turkey than here."

FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

The War of Independence had been fonght, and North Andover had performed well her part in the great struggle. The confederation had proved to be a "rope of sand," and led on by Virginia, the States had assembled to form our present Federal Constitu - tion. It had been adopted by the convention which framed it and accepted by Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut. All eyes were turned on Massachusetts; for on her action depended very much that of New York, Maryland and Virginia. The mass of the people here were opposed to its adoption-some from interest, some from principle as they supposed, and some from jealousy. It met with violent opposition from the insurgents of Shay's army, many of whom represented the Western coun- ties in the convention assembled to consider the question.

General Knox wrote to General Washington :-

"The opposition has arisen not from a considera- tion of the merits or demerits of the thing itself; but from a deadly principle leveled at the existence of all government whatsoever,-the principle of insurg- ency, deriving fresh strength and life from the im- punity with which the rebellion of last year was suf- fered to escape. It is a singular circumstance that in Massachusetts the property, the ability and the virtue, of the state are almost solely for the constitution ; opposed to it are the late insurgents, and all those who abetted their designs, constituting four-fifths of the opposition. A few, very few indeed, well mean- ing people are joined to them."

The debate in the Convention of 1788 sitting in Boston grew warmer and warmer as each day went on. There were men who, guided by personal ambition, sat with their fingers on the popular pulse, and governed their course by the unreasonable and nar- row demands of an excited and just now rebellious community. The temptations of local elevation were more than they could resist. There were their obligations to Massachusetts, the opportunities which

The popular jealousy extended at this time not only against all civil authority, but also against all lawyers and all persons connected with the courts. There is a letter in existence, not before this time ! abdished, written by William Symmes, who became disto wished ten years ater in the convention which adopted the Holeral Constitution, to Isaac Osgood, she presented, the favors which she had to bestow on

1675

NORTH ANDOVER.

her sons who obeyed the behests of her people. There were then none of the achievements of a powerful re- publie, none of the prosperity attending a constitu- tional confederation, no commanding presence before the nations of the earth, no flag crowded with a galaxy of increasing States, no projects in which all had a common interest. The history of the Revolu- tion, with its privations and its brilliant close, seemed to be the only bond which held together rival States, each one of which was drifting farther aud farther from its companions and partners in the great work which they had commenced shoulder to shoulder.

To the convention three citizens of North Andover were sent as delegates ou account of their entire sym- pathy with the often-expressed opinion of the town that the Constitution ought not to be adopted. These delegates were Dr. Thomas Kittredge, Capt. Peter Osgood and William Symmes, the last the youngest, most impulsive, and most unreserved of the three. Soon after the adoption of the Constitution by the convention which framed it he addressed a letter to Peter Osgood, afterwards one of his colleagues, dated November 15, 1787, in which he discussed the Constitution at length, asked for it a candid and fair consideration and for the first time gave definite ex- pression to the points of the opposition. This letter undoubtedly gave him his election. On the 22d of January he made a most powerful argument against the Constitution, one of the few fully reported in the doings of the convention, his strongest point being the danger of empowering Congress to levy taxes in the States. His speech'elosed with a candid declara- tion of his readiness to be convinced of the wisdom of the instrument, at the same time fearing, as his constituents did, " the operation of this which is now proposed." Ilis argument seems to have produced one effect which he probably did not anticipate, -a reply from Theophilus Parsons, who had hesitated to indorse the Constitution.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 167

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672