USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 37
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1. Alfred Louis Baury, D. D. (Norwich University, 1865), son of Baury de Bellerive, admitted 1823; vice-president 1853-65; president 1865; born Middletown, Conn., September 14, 1794; died December 26, 1865; ordained deacon Protestant Episcopal Church, September 28, 1820; priest November 28, 1822; rector of St. Mary's, Newton Lower Falls, 1823-51; of St. Mark's, Boston, 1855-58.
2. Frederic Francis Baury, only son of Alfred L. Baury, born 1843; admitted 1867; volunteer lieutenant U. S. navy during the Rebellion, wounded at the capture of Fort Fisher, while leading a company of sailors to the assault.
3. General William Hull, born Derby, Conn., June 24, 1753; died New- ton, November 29, 1825; Yale College, 1772; admitted to the bar in 1775; commissioned major January 1, 1777; lieutenant-colonel of Greaton's (3d) regiment, August 12, 1779 ; after the war practised law in Newton; a leading member of the Massachusetts Legislature; major-general of militia, and effi -- cient in quelling Shays' insurrection, 1786 ; judge of Court of Common Pleas ; Governor of Michigan Territory, 1805-14; brigadier-general U. S. A., com- manded northwestern army, and surrendered at Detroit, August 15, 1812; condemned by court-martial to be shot, but pardoned by President Madison ; author of a defence of himself, 1814; " Campaign of the Northwestern Army," 1812; delivered an oration before the Massachusetts Society of Cincinnati, July 4, 1788.
4. Amasa Jackson, born Newton, June 5, 1765; died New York City ; commissioned ensign October 30, 1782, in the regiment of his father, Colonel Michael Jackson ; afterwards, president of a New York City bank.
5. Charles Jackson, born Newton, January 4, 1769; died unmarried in Georgia, 1801 ; commissioned ensign February 4, 1783, in the regiment of his father, Colonel Michael Jackson.
6. Daniel Jackson, born Newton, July 23, 1753; died Watertown, Mass., December 13, 1833 ; present at Lexington battle ; sergeant in Foster's artil- lery company at siege of Boston; in Bryant's company at Fort Washington, and for six months a prisoner ; pointed the cannon that destroyed four British vessels in the North River, for which service he was promoted to lieutenant ; commissioned 1st lieutenant September 12, 1778 ; succeeded to the command of the company on the fall of Bryant at Brandywine, where all the officers except himself and more than half the company were killed or wounded, and received the thanks of General Knox for his bravery; also at Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown; brevet major at the close of the war ; major U. S.
٢٣٧٧٧١٨٨
altro L. Daury.
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CONCLUSION.
artillery, 1798-1803; warden of Charlestown State prison; vice-president Massachusetts Society of Cincinnati, 1832-33.
7. Daniel Jackson, eldest son of Major Daniel, admitted 1834; born New- ton, August 30, 1785; died May 31, 1835.
8. Michael Jackson, born Newton, December 18, 1734; died there, April 10, 1801; lieutenant in the French war; captain at Lexington; major of Gardner's regiment at Bunker Hill; lieutenant-colonel of Bond's regiment at siege of Boston and invasion of Canada ; severely wounded at Montressor's Island, N. Y., September 23, 1776; colonel 8th regiment from January 1, 1777, to the end of the war, in which his five brothers and five sons were engaged.
9. Michael Jackson, jr., born Newton, September 12, 1757; son of Colonel Michael, ensign and paymaster in his father's regiment, January 1, 1777 ; commissioned lieutenant December 15, 1779.
10. Simon Jackson, born Newton, November 20, 1760; died there, October 17, 1818 ; son of Colonel Michael Jackson, lieutenant in his father's regiment, 1779 ; commissioned captain April 12, 1782.
Thus we have reached the end of the interesting history of the connection of the people of Newton with the Revolutionary war. We have seen how prompt, how self-denying, how loyal to the interests of the republic and of freedom they were, during the protracted struggle. Years came, and went. The ordinary affairs of life at home proceeded. The citizens and their families lived ; they suffered ; they endured disappointment, heart-sickness and trial, patiently and without complaint ; and, just as in times of peace, they sickened, and died, and were buried. And in God's good time, freedom was established on a firm basis. How much do we owe to the persistent ardor of our fathers! How great is our obligation to live worthily of them, and to preserve for our children that which was so dearly purchased for ourselves !
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1
CHAPTER XXXI.
NEWTON AND THE SHAYS' REBELLION .- INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REP- RESENTATIVE .- EXCESSIVE LITIGATION .- THE COURTS THREAT-
ENED. - CIRCULAR LETTER. - REPLY OF NEWTON .- LOYALTY TO THE UNITED STATES .- FIRST ELECTIONS IN NEWTON.
WE have seen that in revolutionary times, it was the custom of the town, after the election of a Representative to the Legislature, to appoint a committee to draw up a code of instructions in regard to the most important public matters. In May, 1786, the Hon. Abraham Fuller having been elected Representative, Timothy Jackson, Thomas Hastings, Charles Pelham, Dr. John King and Colonel Nathan Fuller, were appointed a committee to report in- structions. It appears, from the tenor of these instructions, that the fathers of Newton found themselves afflicted, not unlike many of their descendants, owing to a multiplicity of laws. A very decided stand was also taken by them against the establishment of a paper currency. We quote the document in full.
The Freeholders and other inhabitants of Newton, in town meeting as- sembled, to the Hon. Abraham Fuller, Esq. :
SIR,-We having chosen you to represent us in the Great and General Court for the ensuing year, being sensible of your ability, do place the ut- most confidence in your zeal and fidelity for promoting the public good. We must therefore acquaint you that we labor under some grievances, which we have good right to expect, upon properly representing them to the Honorable. General Court, may and will be removed. We find by experience, and dare say it is the case with every citizen of the Commonwealth who has occasion to appeal to the laws of the land, that we cannot obtain justice, freely, with- out being obliged to purchase it, completely and without any denial, promptly and without delay, as the Constitution provides. One great cause of this de- ficiency, we apprehend to be, the multiplicity and ambiguity of our laws and their being blended with the British codes, whereby it becomes impossible for the people, in general, to understand them, or to form from them a rule of conduct.
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INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REPRESENTATIVE.
Another cause is the great number of actions brought to each Court ; from these, together with the pernicious practice of many of our lawyers, we judge, in great measure, arise delays, frequent appeals, protraction of judg- ment, loss of time and travel in attendance, and intolerable expenses on law suits ; all which we esteem very great grievances; so that, unless it be a considerable sum in dispute, it is better to lose it, than to seek a recovery of it at law.
All which, we humbly conceive, may be remedied, or greatly alleviated, by the following, or some similar mode,- viz., 1. By a revision of the laws, reducing their bulk, expressing them in the most plain and easy terms, and. rendering them agreeable to our republican government. Then, let there be' in each town a court of record, consisting of three or five persons, drawn at proper periods out of a box, as jurors are now drawn, to which all civil ac- tions shall be brought, the defendant to lodge his plea a sufficient time before. the sitting of the court, or be defaulted; the town clerk to grant writs and. summonses, make up judgments, give out executions and keep the records ; let there be an appeal from this court to the Supreme Court of judicature.
2. In cases where dispute arises between persons, and they agree to leave it to arbitration, as has been usual heretofore, and specify that agreement in writing, the award of such arbitrators to be final, and execution to be issued by the town clerk.
With great regret we receive the idea of a paper currency being estab- lished ; having long and often observed and felt the natural evil tendency of it to the ruin of many people,-widows and orphans especially,-that we cannot but heartily deprecate it. .
We think it would answer a salutary purpose that the yeas and nays in the Honorable House of Representatives, on every important transaction, might be published.
Now, Sir, we must and do desire and expect your full aid and assistance in all these matters, and that you do exert your utmost ability, and use your influence in the Honorable House of Representatives, for obtaining such law or laws as shall redress or remove the grievances afore recited, in the way herein proposed, or any other that may answer the purpose as well. Also, in case a paper currency should be proposed, that you do what in you lies to prevent its taking place, and that you promote the publishing the yeas and nays of the House, as before mentioned.
Further, that you use your influence to prevent the importation and con- sumption of many articles of luxury among us, which we view as a very great grievance.
The above instructions to the Representative of the town were designed to mitigate some of the most prominent evils under which the people were suffering, from the exhausting effects of an eight years' war, during which the country had been drained by taxation ; public credit was nearly extinct; trade and manufactures lan- guished ; paper money was depreciated, and well nigh worthless ;
*
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
and, meanwhile, oppressive debts rested on the nation, the com- monwealth, the town, and on the individual citizens.
Mr. Lincoln, in his " History of Worcester," says,-
The first reviving efforts of commerce overstocked the markets with foreign luxuries and superfluities, sold to many who trusted to the future to supply the means of payment. The temporary Act of 1772, making property a tender in discharge of pecuniary contracts, instead of the designed remedial effect, enhanced the evils of general insolvency, by postponing collections. The outstanding demands of the Royalist refugees, who had been driven from large estates and extensive business, enforced with no lenient forbearance, came in to increase the embarrassments of the deferred pay-day. At length, a flood of suits broke out.
In 1784, more than two thousand actions were entered in the county of Worcester, then having a population of less than fifty thousand. In 1785, seventeen hundred actions were entered in the same county. Lands and goods were seized, and sacrificed on sale, when the general difficulties drove away purchasers. Amid the universal distress, inflammatory publications, seditious and exciting appeals, were circulated among the people. The Con- stitution was represented as defective, the administration as corrupt, the laws as unequal and unjust.
In consequence of this state of affairs, in the autumn of 1786, bodies of armed men interrupted the proceedings of the county courts of justice in several of the counties of Massachusetts. At about the same time, the Legislature of New Hampshire, where the same causes had produced the same spirit of disaffection, was surrounded by an armed force, which, however, was finally dis- persed by the citizens of Exeter, in which town the Legislature was sitting. This was the origin of the rebellion against the consti- tuted government in Massachusetts in 1786, commonly called " Shays' Insurrection."
Daniel Shays had held a captain's commission in the patriot army during the Revolution, and had been a brave and gallant soldier. If not a native of Massachusetts, the best part of his life was spent in that State; and in the State of Massachusetts was the rebellion. Shays was not prominent in the first movements of the malcontents ; but, being of a restless disposition and a radical turn of mind, they found in him a prompt and hearty leader. The rebels were republicans run mad. They complained that the salary of the chief officials, and especially that of the Governor, was too high; that the State Senate was aristocratic; that the lawyers were extortionate; that the taxes were too burdensome to be borne, and that money was unnecessarily scarce. They demanded the issue of paper money sufficient to meet the wants of the suffering people, and that this paper should be made a legal tender; and they also demanded that the General Court should be removed
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SHAYS' REBELLION.
from Boston to some place less aristocratic. The General Court was con- vened, and an effort made to allay the discontent of the complainants. With the experience of worthless paper money in mind, the law-makers would issue no more of it; but they went so far as to pass an act whereby certain arrears of taxes might be paid in produce.
But the recusants would not be satisfied. Bodies of armed men inter- rupted the sessions of the courts in several counties, and in the month of December, 1786, Shays appeared, with a large force, at Worcester and at Springfield, and prevented the holding of courts at those places. The January following, at the head of full two thousand armed men, he marched to capture the arsenal at Springfield; but the State militia had gathered in . sufficient force to stop them, and under command of General Shepard they gave battle, and put the rebellious host to utter rout. At the first fire of the State troops, the insurgents fled in dismay, leaving three dead and one wounded, of their number upon the field.
On the following day they were pursued by an increased force under General Lincoln, and nearly two hundred of them taken prisoners, the remainder escaping northward. The prompt action of the State authorities crushed out the insurrection at once. A free pardon was offered to such as would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance, of which most of them took advantage. Fourteen of the chief conspirators were tried and convicted, and sentenced to death, but afterwards pardoned. Daniel Shays removed to Sparta, N. Y., where he died at an advanced age, September 29, 1825. And that was " Shays' rebellion." The following anecdote in connec- tion therewith is worth relating :
Late at night, after the repulse of the insurgents at Ordnance Hill, in their advance upon the arsenal, Shays sent a flag of truce to General Shepard, requesting that the bodies of five of his men who had been killed in the late engagement should be sent to him. The officer who met the flag, and who presented the case to his commander, returned to the messenger as follows : " Present Captain Shepard's compliments to Captain Shays, and inform him that at this time he cannot furnish him with five dead rebels, he having no more than four, and one of those not quite dead; but if Captain Shays will please to attack him again, General Shepard will engage to furnish him with as many dead as he shall desire."
This movement of the persons disaffected towards the govern- ment was brought before the town of Newton by a circular letter addressed to the Selectmen, dated June 29, 1786, signed by Capt. John Nutting, of Pepperell, as chairman of a committee from the towns of Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Ashby, invit- ing the town to choose a committee to attend a Convention to be held at Concord, August 21, 1786, to consult on matters of public grievances and embarrassments, and devise a remedy therefor. Whereupon the town voted not to join in the proposed Convention, - right loyal then, as ever, both before and since, to the consti-
390
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
tuted authorities,- and chose a committee to reply to Captain Nutting's letter, of which committee Colonel William Hull was chairman.
On the twenty-first of August, an answer to Captain Nutting's letter was drafted and read to the town. "Then the town voted that the Selectmen send the said draft to Mr. John Nutting, afore- said, and that Colonel William Hull prepare a copy of the said draft to be printed, and that the said draft be inclosed in the Town Records." The letter is as follows :
Newton, August 21, 1786.
To Captain John Nutting, Chairman of a Committee from the several towns of Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Ashby :
SIR,-In consequence of your letter of the 29th June last, this town has been legally assembled for the purpose of considering its contents. After · deliberately attending to the subject, they have declined your invitation of choosing a committee to attend the proposed Convention at Concord, and have instructed us to communicate to you the following answer.
Your letter contains two propositions, - one, to consult on matters of public grievances and embarrassments, and the other to find out means of redress- ing them. We should have been happy, had you been more explicit on the subject, and pointed out the grievances to which you alluded. The town would have been able, after knowing your object, to have judged of the propriety of the measure. At present it appears to be involved in uncer- tainty ; and, although we would not wish to entertain uncharitable sentiments of any of our fellow-citizens, yet we are constrained to observe that this transaction has created suspicions in our minds rather unfavorable to the authors.
The particular circumstances of the towns assembled at Groton, and the particular time of their meeting induces us to fear that their designs and intentions were not altogether coincident with constitutional government. We would ask whether either of those towns had complied with their duty in clecting representatives to the General Court? Whether the General Court was not sitting at the very time when this meeting was assembled at Groton? If those towns labored under any real grievances, why did they neglect the proper mode of representing them? Why did they not elect representatives, point out to them their grievances, and instruct them to use their influence in obtaining redress? Have not the General Court been ever ready to attend to the grievances of every part of the community, when decently represented? We conceive they have; and we feel a pride in hav- ing the administration of our affairs in the hands of men of our own choice, who can impose no burdens on us, but fall equally on themselves, and who annually depend on us for their seats in our councils. Under the auspices of an indulgent Providence, we have been conducted through the dangers of a long and obstinate war. We have obtained the object of our wishes, and have safe arrived to the haven of peace. Being totally freed from the influence
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LETTER TO CAPT. NUTTING.
of any foreign power, we have had an opportunity, as the preamble of the Constitution expresses it, of deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, vio- lence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit and solemn compact with each other, and of forming a constitution of civil government for our- selves and posterity.
By this Constitution the people have the privilege of annually electing every branch of the Legislature, which body, being formed, is abundantly authorized to remove every real grievance which their constituents suffer ; and we are strongly inclined to believe that had your grievances been real, and such as in justice and good faith ought to have been redressed, you would have made your application to this constitutional authority. We will therefore, as you have left us in the field of conjecture, endeavor to point out, from the best information we have been able to collect, what those griev- ances are, for a redress of which you have called the attention of the county ; and we have reduced them to the following heads :
1st. Public taxes, which are occasioned by the public debt ; and, 2d. The payment of private debts, which result from private obligations.
As to public taxes, we cannot by any means consider them as public griev- ances ;- they are burdens, it is true, which bear heavy upon us, and from which we should be happy to be relieved, provided it could be done consist- ently with public faith and the obligations we are under to public creditors ; but when we consider that we have voluntarily taken upon ourselves these burdens, that the debt we have contracted is the price of our freedom and independence, we feel ourselves bound by every principle of justice, every consideration of policy, and every tie of gratitude, honorably to discharge it ;- of justice, because it is the duty of communities, as well as individuals, to fulfil those engagements which they have voluntarily entered into; of policy, because experience has taught mankind that honesty is the best policy, and that a character for integrity and honor is as necessary to the prosperity of a community, as to an individual; and because the wisest man that ever appeared on the theatre of action has declared that " righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people;" of gratitude, because strangers with whom before we had been at enmity, in the hour of our deepest dis- tress most disinterestedly stepped in to our assistance, furnished us with fleets and armies and every supply which our destitute situation required ; and their efforts, joined to our own, defeated the most powerful attempts that ever were made on the liberties of a people. By these means we have been conducted to our present elevated situation, obtained a rank among the nations of the world, and arrived to glory and independence; and because no ample provision is made for those unfortunate men whom we daily see, when we consider the situation of this unfortunate class of our fellow-citi- zens and add to the distressed catalogue, the widows and orphans of those brave patriots whose bones are scattered over those fields where the freedom and happiness, we now enjoy, were acquired, we cannot expect that Heaven will continue its blessings to us, unless we are honest and grateful to them.
In the next place, we are to inquire whether fulfilling those engagements which we have entered into with each other is a grievance? Is it a grievance
392
HISTORY OF NEWTON.
to pay those debts we have voluntarily contracted, and for which we have received a valuable consideration? Is it a grievance for a man, after having had the use of his neighbor's property, to return it to him? Is it a grievance that the fruits of a man's industry and labor are secured to him by the laws of the community? Is it a grievance that the idle and profligate are not per- mitted to riot on the hard-earned property of the frugal and industrious? Is it a grievance that the courts of justice are open to all ranks and classes of people? Is it a grievance that the widow and orphan, the aged and infirm can recover their rights against those who are dishonest and overbearing? Is it a grievance, Mr. Nutting, to you and the people for whom you appear to act, that your lives, your freedom and your property are secured to you by the laws of your country? If these are grievances, the mildest government that ever secured to a people its political rights is tyranny and oppression. To impose grievances must be tyrannical, and if to compel a performance of public and private engagements is tyrannical, we confess we do really labor under grievances, and really believe you and the people connected with you in this business are the proper characters to remove them.
We hope, however, by this time, you are convinced of the impropriety of your proceedings, and will desist from measures which we conceive to be un- necessary, if not unwarrantable; and, instead of assembling a County Con- vention, which will have a tendency to create dissension and weaken our government, it will conduce infinitely more to the public advantage and our own private emolument, peaceably and industriously to pursue our several employments, to practise the duties of frugality and economy, and support the government under which we live. In this way we shall soon relieve our- selves from our burdens, and be happy at home and respected abroad. In this way, we shall preserve the liberties we have acquired, and hand them down inviolate, to posterity. By such conduct, indeed, we shall convince the world that mankind have wisdom and virtue sufficient to govern them- selves, and that nothing can justify the tyranny and oppression which is ex- ercised over the greatest part of the human species. But if, on the contrary, we are tumultuous and factious, uneasy and restless under so mild a govern- ment, and dissatisfied with laws we ourselves have made, we have reason to fear that anarchy and disorder will be the inevitable consequence; that civil discords will soon follow, and that it will finally end in tyranny and oppres- sion. And while we recollect that more republics have been destroyed by factious men and factious measures, than by any other cause, we think it our duty and the duty of every good citizen to discountenance every appearance of the kind, and to make every possible effort to confirm, strengthen and per- petuate the principles of our glorious Constitution.
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