USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905, Volume I > Part 5
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At an adjourned meeting, held at three o'clock p. m., on the twentieth day of December, the following letter prepared by the committee, appointed for that purpose, was read and ordered to be sent to the committee of correspondence in Boston :--
Gentlemen: It is with astonishment that we reflect on the unremitted efforts of the British ministry and parliament to fasten ruin and infamy upon these colonies. They not only claim a right to control and tax us at their pleasure, but are practising every species of fraud as well as vio- lence their deluded minds can suppose feasible to support and establish this absurd and injurious claim. A fresh instance we have in the plan lately adopted for supplying the colonies with tea. If the money thus unconstitutionally taken from us was to be expended for our benefit and
1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 178.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
advantage it would still be grievous as that method of obtaining it is of a dangerous nature and fatal tendency. But we lose all patience when we consider that the industrious Americans are to be stript of their honest earnings to gratify the humours of lawless and ambitious men and to support in idleness and luxury a parcel of worthless parasites, their crea- tures and tools, who are swarming thick upon us and are already become a notorious burden to the community. We are sorry that any who call themselves Americans are hardy enough to justify these unrighteous pro- ceedings. They surely deserve the utmost contempt and indignation of all honest men throughout the world ; for our part we shall endeavour to treat them according to their deserts. By the public prints we are fa- voured with the sentiments of several respectable towns in the province, expressed in a number of manly, sensible and spirited resolves with respect to the evils immediately before us. We are under great obliga- tions to our worthy friends and brethren who have nobly stood forth in this important cause. We assure them that should they need our assist- ance, in any emergency, we determine most readily to exert our utmost abilities, in every manly and laudable way our wisdom may dictate, for the salvation of our country, even at the hazard of our lives, and trusting through the favour of a kind providence we shall be able to frustrate all the designs of our enemies.I
When the news reached England that several hundred chests of tea belonging to the East India company had been des- troyed in Boston, parliament determined to prevent any more riotous outbreaks in the province of Massachusetts Bay, and passed several arbitrary and humiliating acts, intending to scare the people into submission and stop the importation of merchandise by closing the port of Boston to vessels inward or outward bound.
In April, 1774, General Gage superseded Thomas Hutchin- son as governor of the province, and then began the long strug- gle that culminated in the declaration of independence and the Revolutionary war.
1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 179 ; Essex Gazette, January 4-II, 1774 (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.).
CHAPTER II.
1774-1794.
At a meeting of the provincial congress, held in Cambridge, December 8, 1774, a committee, appointed to take into con- sideration the manufacture of ammunition and firearms in the province, recommended the making of saltpetre as an article of vast importance and also the manufacture of gunpowder : " As there are the ruins of several powder mills, and sundry persons among us who are acquainted with that business, we do heartily recommend its encouragement by repairing one or more of said mills or erecting others, and renewing said business as soon as possible."
The scarcity of saltpetre was so great in New England that congress voted, February 15, 1775, to purchase all that could be made in the province for one year at the rate of four- teen pounds sterling for every one hundred pounds weight.
An old powder mill at Stoughton was repaired,' and Sam- uel Phillips, Jr., erected a new one, at his own expense, in the town of Andover. The mills were run night and day, on Sundays as well as week days.
September 28, 1775, the inhabitants of Newburyport " voted to erect a building near Frog Pond about the Place where a Potash House formerly stood [and provide] one doz. molasses Hogsheads, one doz. half barrell tubs, half doz. trays, half doz. thin iron shovels, half doz. pails and Brick &c for setting the Kettles " for the purpose of manufacturing salt- petre. Mr. John Peck was granted the use of the building for one year, and it was also voted that persons using or burning
1 In the Life of Rev. Manassah Cutler, vol. I., p. 46, is the following item from his diary :-
" April 25, 1776, went to Stoughton with Mr. Chickering, Captain Dean, and Brother Dean, to see the Powder Mill which was almost ready to go."
55
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
gun powder unnecessarily " shall have their names published in the newspapers as enemies to their country."1
On the thirty-first day of October, the representatives and councilors of the province of Massachusetts Bay adopted the following resolution, instructing a committee, previously ap- pointed, to ascertain by personal enquiry and investigation the best method of manufacturing saltpetre :-
Resolved, That Dr. Whitney a member of the Committee appointed by this Court to improve the art and business of manufacturing saltpetre, be directed immediately to repair again to the Colony of Connecticut to such person or persons as upon enquiry he shall suppose to be best skilled in the said art : and after gaining the best information to be ob- tained relative to this matter, that he repair with deacon Baker, another of said Committee, directly to Newbury Port, and that they with Capt. John Peck, the other of said Committee use their utmost efforts until the fifteenth day of December next for obtaining a successful and sure method of manufacturing said commodity &c. 2
The committee evidently attended to the duty assigned them and probably manufactured a small quantity of gun- powder in Newburyport. The following letter, addressed to Maj. Stephen Cross, in the provincial congress at Watertown, though unsigned, was written by some one well acquainted with the facts :-
NEWBURY PORT, Jany. 23, 1776.
SIR :-
I have sent you a sample of Gun Powder which I made of Salt Petre manufactured in this Town. It was done in a hurry and therefore was neither pounded sufficiently nor granulated properly for want of suitable Scarfes. The Petre was only clarified with water, whereas for Powder, it must be done with sulpher in order to purify it from the Oleaginous Parts contained in the Petre, and not otherwise sepa- rated from it, which makes the Powder burn as tho it was damp or wet. I have tried some of the same to the Powder enclosed in a proper Engine and find it is just the strength of Cannon Powder, tho the pro- portion of the Ingredients to each other were for the best Pistol Powder. However if the Petre & Sulpher were properly refined which is easily done, the Coal Light and the Mass well beat for 24 hours at least, I have
1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 242.
2 Essex Gazette (Salem), Nov. 24-30, 1775, on file at the Essex Institute.
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ADOPTION OF STATE CONSTITUTION
no Doubt but I would make it (of the Salt Petre manufactured in this Town) equal in strength to the King of England's Power Proof Powder and as quick to take fire. Sir the above if you think proper may be com- municated to the assembly.
Your humble Servant,
[Unsigned].I
To Major or Stephen Cross, Present.
In the month of March following, Samuel Tufts and Capt. Edward Sawyer were appointed inspectors of saltpetre, and on the twenty-fifth day of April they notified Hon. Benjamin Greenleaf, then at Watertown, that they had purchased in Newburyport, for the use of the colony, twenty-eight hundred and forty-seven pounds of saltpetre previous to April twenty- third, and twenty-one pounds after that date, and that the sup- ply was apparently equal to the demand.
Many persons are now waiting to deliver and from good information four or five thousand pounds weight will be presented in a few days from the towns around and to the eastward.2
ADOPTION OF STATE CONSTITUTION : IPSWICH CONVENTION.
At the organization of the provincial congress, in Salem, October 7, 1774, Joseph Gerrish, Esq., represented Newbury, and Capt. Jonathan Greenleaf, Newburyport. At the second provincial congress, held at Cambridge, February first, at Concord March twenty-second, and at Watertown April 22, 1775, Newbury was represented by Joseph Gerrish, Esq., and Newburyport by Capt. Jonathan Greenleaf, Tristram Dalton, Esq., and Mr. Stephen Cross. The third and last provincial congress assembled at Watertown May 31, 1775. Joseph Gerrish, Esq., was elected representative from Newbury ; Capt. Jonathan Greenleaf and Mr. Stephen Cross were repre- sentatives from Newburyport. A few days after the battle of Bunker's hill, the several towns in the province were author- ized by the provincial congress, then in session, to elect rep-
1 Mass. Archives, vol. 194, p. 229.
2 Mass. Archives, vol. 208, p. 225; American Archives, Fourth series, vol. V., p. 1080.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
resentatives to a General Court to be held in the meeting- house at Watertown on the nineteenth day of July following.
Capt. Jonathan Greenleaf and Mr. Stephen Cross were elected by the inhabitants of Newburyport, although under the act of incorporation, passed in 1764, the town was entitled to only one representative. The restrictions imposed by that act were declared null and void August 23, 1775 :-
Whereas, in and by an act or law of this colony, entitled " An act for erecting part of the town of Newbury into a new town by the name of Newburyport " it is enacted and provided that the said town of Newbury- port should have the right of chusing and sending, from time to time, but one person to represent them in the great and general court of this colo- ny ; and that the inhabitants of the town of Newbury from and after the time of the making and passing the said act, should have a right to chuse and send no more than one person to represent them in the great and general court of this colony :-
Be it enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid (The Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled).
That henceforth each of the said towns of Newbury and Newburyport shall have the full power and right of chusing and sending as many per- sons to represent them, respectively, in the great and general court of this colony as each of the said towns would have had a right to have chosen and sent to the said general court, by virtue of the above mentioned act or law, entitled " An act for ascertaining the number and regulating the house of representatives " in case there had not been any restrictions upon the said towns, touching their rights and priviledge of chusing and sending persons to represent them, respectively, in the great and general court, or assembly, contained or expressed in the said act for the consti- tuting and making that part of the former town of Newbury now called Newburyport, a distinct town.I
The inequality and injustice of town representation estab- lished by the provincial charter led to a movement that cul- minated in the adoption of the twenty-first article of the amend- ments to the constitution by which the state is divided into districts and the number of representatives apportioned to the number of legal voters in each district.
April 23, 1776, Jonathan Jackson and John Lowell were chosen delegates to a county convention to be held in Ipswich
1 Province Laws, vol. V., pp. 419, 420.
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ADOPTION OF STATE CONSTITUTION
on the twenty-fifth day of April, following, for the purpose of devising a plan for the more equal representation of the legal voters of the province in the General Court.I
The convention assembled at the time and place appointed and adopted a memorial which was presented to the General
JOHN LOWELL, ESQ.
Court at Watertown May 2, 1776. John Lowell, Esq., of Newburyport, in behalf of the memorialists, earnestly advocated on the floor of the house of representatives, the plan of rep- resentation recommended in the memorial, and on the fourth
. 1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 253.
A reprint of the notice or call of the Convention, sent to the committee of cor- respondence, inspection and safety of the several towns in the county will be found in the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, vol. XXXVI., p. 104.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
day of May the General Court passed an act providing for the election of three representatives from towns having two hun- dred and twenty free holders, and one additional representa- tive for every one hundred additional freeholders, " said act to take effect at the beginning of the next session."I
Soon after the declaration of independence it became neces- sary to establish courts of law, provide for the enlistment of sol- diers, and form a constitution for the government of the state of Massachusetts. At a town meeting, held October 8, 1776, Mr. Jonathan Jackson, Tristram Dalton, Esq., John Lowell, Esq., Moses Little, Esq. and Col. Edward Wigglesworth, who had been elected to the General Court four or five months previously, were instructed to aid in the preparation of a con- stitution to be submitted to the people for their approval.
Voted that the Delegates of this town be directed to use their utmost Influence that the Hon'bl Council and House of Representatives in their Representative Capacities, (& not in one Body & by equal voice) should consult, agree on & enact such a constitution and Form of Govern- ment for this State as they shall, on the fullest & most mature Delibera- tion, judge will most conduce to the Safety, Peace and Happiness of the same in all after successions & generations & that it be made public before the enacting, for the Perusal & Approbation of the People.2
February 28, 1778, the representatives to the General Court completed the work assigned them and submitted a constitu- tion to the inhabitants of the state. The subject was brought to the attention of the legal voters of Newburyport by an arti- cle inserted in the warrant calling a town meeting to be held on the twenty-sixth day of March.
1 Province Laws, vol. V., pp. 502, 503. John Lowell, Esq., son of Rev. John Lowell, was evidently one of the most active and influential leaders in the move- ment for representation according to population. He was born in Newburyport June 17, 1743 and was elected representative to the General Court, " began and held at Watertown, May 29, 1776." (Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p.257.) He removed to Boston in 1778, and was elected a delegate from that town to the convention held, in 1779, for the purpose of framing a constitution for the state of Massachusetts. At his suggestion, it is said, the clause: " All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liber- ties," was inserted in the Bill of Rights and soon after the highest tribunal in the state decided that it abolished slavery in Massachusetts.
2 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 271.
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ADOPTION OF STATE CONSTITUTION
To see whether the Town will take any method for the calling a Coun- ty Convention to devise some way in which the united weight of this County & of any other Counties may be opposed to the unequal, unjust & unwieldy mode of Representation adopted in the Constitution lately formed by the Convention of this state & exhibited for public approba- tion or Rejection,-also to some other Parts of the same Constitution & to see what method [shall be adopted]-& to choose Delegates to said County Convention.I
The freeholders and other inhabitants qualified to vote in town affairs assembled at the time and place appointed, and after a brief discussion agreed to unite with other towns in call- ing a county convention.
Voted that this Town are of opinion that the mode of Representation contained in the Constitution lately proposed by the Convention of this state is unequal and unjust, as thereby all the Inhabitants of this state are not equally represented & that some other Parts of the same Consti- tution are not founded on the true Principles of Government; & that a Convention of the several towns of this county, by their Delegates, will have a probable Tendency to reform the same, agreeably to the natural Rights of Mankind and the true principles of Government.
Voted that the Selectmen be desired, in behalf & in the Name of the Town, to write circular letters to the several Towns within this County, proposing a Convention of those Towns, by their Delegates, to be holden at such time & Place as the Selectmen shall think proper to mention in said circular letters ; and that the selectmen be directed in said circular letters to propose to each of the Towns aforesaid, to send the like num- ber of Delegates to said Convention as the same Towns have by Law right to send Representatives to the General Court.
Voted to choose five Delegates for the Convention aforesaid, viz Theophilus Parsons, Tristram Dalton, Jonathan Greenleaf, Jonathan Jack- son, and Stephen Cross, Esquires.2
The convention met at Ipswich, April 29, 1778, and con- sidered, paragraph by paragraph, the constitution proposed for the government of the state, and appointed a committee,
1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 298.
2 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 299, and Memoir of Theophilus Par- sons, by his son, p. 49. The words " to mention in said circular letters ; and that the selectmen be directed in said circular letters," in the second vote, and the whole of the third vote quoted above, were evidently accidentally omitted in making up the town record. They are found, however, as printed above, in the memorandum or note book in which the proceedings were first recorded by Nicolas Pike, town clerk.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
consisting of Theophilus Parsons of Newburyport, Nathan Goodale of Salem and Gideon Putnam of Danvers, to draw up and submit to the convention the general outlines of a consti- tution that would be acceptable and satisfactory to the friends of liberty and order.
The committee reported on the twelfth day of May follow- ing, severely criticising the executive and legislative powers conferred by the proposed constitution, and seriously advising the freemen of the several towns to oppose its adoption and express their disapprobation at the polls. This report was printed and sold by John Mycall, in Newburyport, in 1778, and widely circulated. "It not only made the rejection of the proposed Constitution far more decisive, but exerted an important influence on the structure of that Constitution which was soon afterwards framed by a state convention and adopted by the people." In the half-tone print on the opposite page the title-page of the report is reproduced from a copy in the possession of the American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, Mass.
This report, written by Theophilus Parsons, chairman of the committee, states with great clearness and ability the principles of law and morality that should prevail in a free republic.
After an exciting and prolonged contest the proposed con- stitution was rejected by a majority of the legal voters of the state. February 20, 1779, a series of resolutions, favoring the calling of a special convention for the purpose of forming a new constitution, were passed by the General Court. At a legal meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of New- buryport, held on the eleventh day of May following, Jonathan Greenleaf, Esq., Jonathan Titcomb, Esq., Mr. Stephen Cross, Mr. Moses Frazier and Theophilus Parsons, Esq., were elected representatives, and the following instructions were then adopted :-
Voted, Nem. con. That the Representatives of this Town for the ensuing year be impowered to vote for the calling a state convention for the sole purpose of forming a new Constitution should the major part of
RESULT
OF THE
CONVENTION 0
DELEGATES
Holden at IPSWICH in the County of Effex, who were Deputed to take into Confideration THE CONSTITUTION
AND FORM OF GOVERNMENT,
PROPOSED BY THE CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY
NEWBURYPORT PRINT YR SOLD NY: JOHN MYCALL, 1778
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
the People (upon Examination of the Returns made into the Gen1 Court) appear to be for having a new Constitution formed, provided that the members which are to compose the Convention are selected from the People by such Rules & upon such Principles as are consonant to those natural Rights which every freeman ought to enjoy in delegating his Power to others for the purpose of establishing a form of Govt for him.I
The convention met at Cambridge September 1, 1779. The delegates from Newburyport were Hon. Benjamin Green- leaf, Hon. Jonathan Greenleaf, Mr. Jonathan Jackson, Mr. Nathaniel Tracy and Theophilus Parsons, Esq. They were instructed, August 2, 1779, by the legal voters of the town, " to cause a printed copy of the form of a Constitution they may agree upon to be transmitted to the Selectmen of each Town & to the Comee of each Plantation to be laid before the several Towns for their approbation."2
The convention organized by the choice of Hon. James Bowdoin, president, and Samuel Barrett, Esq., secretary. A committee consisting of two or three persons from each coun- ty was appointed to prepare a constitution to be submitted to the covention for rejection or approval. The members of this committee from Essex county were, Theophilus Parsons, Jon- athan Jackson and Samuel Phillips, Jr. They reported a few weeks later, but the convention did not complete its work until March 2, 1780, when it authorized the printing of the constitution and its distribution to the inhabitants of the sev- eral towns, and adjourned to meet in Boston on the first Wed- nesday in June.
On the ninth day of May, 1780, the inhabitants of New- buryport appointed Patrick Tracy, Theophilus Bradbury and Micajah Sawyer "a committee to take into consideration the constitution or frame of government proposed to the inhabi- tants of this state by the late convention held at Cambridge, and report upon the same," and at the same meeting author- ized the delegates " to agree on a time when the form of gov- ernment shall take place without returning the same again to
' Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 314.
2 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., p. 317.
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LIGHTHOUSES
the People." Mr. Moses Hoyt was chosen to confer with the proprietors of the First Parish meeting-house, then stand- ing in Market square, and secure permission to hold an ad- journed town meeting there, and the selectmen were directed to request the ministers of the several churches to remind their hearers of the meeting to be held on the fifteenth day of May and impress upon them the importance of attending and vot- ing upon certain amendments to the proposed constitution.I
The freeholders and other inhabitants of the town assem- bled at the time and place appointed and voted, unanimously, to accept the constitution with some amendments, reported by the committee chosen for that purpose, defining the powers and duties of the governor and council, separating the execu- tive from the legislative department of the government, reduc- ing the number of representatives and suggesting some changes in the organization of military companies and the appointment of judges for the supreme as well as for the county courts.
Three days later, " their former delegates," Hon. Benjamin Greenleaf, Hon. Jonathan Greenleaf, Mr. Jonathan Jackson, Mr. Nathaniel Tracy and Theophilus Parsons, Esq. (elected August 2, 1779), were requested to attend the adjourned meeting of the convention "to be held the first Wednesday in June and use their influence to secure the adoption of the constitution with, or without, the amendments proposed.2
The convention re-assembled, June 7, 1780, in the Brattle Street meeting-house in Boston. The returns made by the several towns in the commonwealth were examined and the convention declared, on the sixteenth day of June, that the constitution had been adopted and would take effect on the last Wednesday in October having received more than two-thirds of the votes cast by the inhabitants of the state of Massachusetts.
LIGHTHOUSES.
March 20, 1712-3, a committee was appointed by the Gen- eral Court to receive proposals for building a lighthouse on
1 Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., pp. 326, 327.
" Newburyport Town Records, vol. I., pp. 328, 331.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT
Beacon island, at the entrance to Boston harbor, and ascertain what encouragement the government will give for its support.1 On the seventeenth day of June following, an act was passed placing a tax on all vessels entering, or departing from, the harbor of Boston, after the completion of the lighthouse.2 July 22, 1715, the General Court appropriated five hundred pounds, and subsequently additional sums to the amount of nineteen hundred pounds in all, to defray the cost of the light-keeper's house and tower erected on Beacon island.3 The commis- sioner of imports was ordered, November 27, 1716, " to supply the Keeper of the Light House with Oyl, weeks & candles. for the maintaining of the light."4 The work of construction evidently occupied nearly two years, but it was well done and thoroughly satisfactory when completed. This lighthouse was the first one erected in the province of Massachusetts Bay.
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