USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 40
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The Declaration of Independence was read from the pulpits of both the Wey- mouth churches on the first Sunday after it was received, and was spread in full
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upon the town records. About this time the town took steps to prevent a monopoly in articles of necessity and to fix prices at which such articles should be sold.
Just how much money was raised by taxation in Weymouth for the purpose of buying ammunition and paying bounties to soldiers, would be difficult to state. But from 1775 to 1778 there was scarcely a town meeting in which the question did not come up, and in a majority of instances of this kind appropria- tions ranging from twenty pounds to one thousand pounds were voted. Among the Weymouth men who served with distinction in the army may be mentioned Capt. Thomas Nash, who served under Washington during the siege of Boston and was officer of the day the night Dorchester Heights were fortified; Capts. Joseph Trufant, Samuel Ward, Asa White and Lieutenant Cushing, who were with Benedict Arnold in the Canada expedition ; Lieuts. Samuel Kingman, Thomas Vinson, David Joy and Asa Dyer ; and last but not least Gen. Solomon Lovell, who was in command of the Eastern Military District, the headquarters of which were in Boston. General Lovell also commanded a brigade in the Rhode Island campaign of 1778, and was commander of the unfortunate Penobscot expedition in 1779, which failed because of the failure of Commodore Saltonstall to cooperate with his fleet. Saltonstall was afterward cashiered for cowardice and inefficiency.
Wrentham began her revolutionary history at an adjourned town meeting on November 1, 1765, when a protest against the Stamp Act was placed on the records of the town and a copy forwarded to the General Court. It was drawn up by John Goldsberry, Jabez Fisher and Lemuel Kollock. The House of Representa- fiore had under consideration a bill to grant compensation to the sufferers from the Stamp Act riots in Boston and free and general pardon to the offenders, and the town instructed its representative, Jabez Fisher, to support the measure.
A company of minute men was organized in January, 1775, and it was soon followed by another. The first was commanded by Capt. Oliver Pond; Wiggles- worth Messinger, first lieutenant ; Hezekiah Ware, second lieutenant. The officers of the second company were: Benjamin Hawes, captain; Timothy Guild, second lieutenant (no first lieutenant appears on the muster rolls). Capt. Samuel Cowell raised a company immediately following the Lexington alarm, and from the northerly part of the town went the companies commanded by Capts. Asa Fair- banks, Elijah Pond and David Holbrook. Still another company that was organ- ized in 1775 (Samuel Warner says it marched to Lexington on April 19, 1775) was the one of which Lemuel Kollock was captain; Joseph Everett, first lieuten- ant ; Swift Payson, second lieutenant. Capt. Thomas Bacon also commanded a Wrentham company which left the town on the last day of April, 1775. Captain Hawes afterward was promoted to colonel. In 1778 Lieut. Timothy Morse recruited twenty-four men in a short time in the bar-room of the old Wrentham Tavern for three years' service. Altogether Wrentham has no cause to be ashamed of her Revolutionary record.
Quite a number of the descendants of Revolutionary soldiers still live in Norfolk County. A few years ago the State of Massachusetts caused to be com- piled and published complete rosters of the regiments and companies that served in the War for Independence. These volumes are in nearly every public library in the state, and by consulting them a full record of any individual soldier may be obtained. The records for the Norfolk County towns are too voluminous to be included in a work of this character.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
WAR OF 1812-MEXICAN WAR
WAR OF 1812-RIGHT OF SEARCH-OTHER CAUSES OF THE WAR-NAPOLEON'S DECREES - BRITISH ORDERS IN COUNCIL - WAR DECLARED - IN NORFOLK COUNTY-WAR WITH MEXICO-ITS CAUSES- ARMY OF OCCUPATION-NORFOLK COUNTY IN THE WAR.
The story of Norfolk County's participation in the War of 1812 and the Mexican war is soon told, as both conflicts were unpopular in the New England States and only a few troops were enrolled in that section of the country. Not only was the number of soldiers few, but also the records of those who served in the army and navy in both the War of 1812 and the War with Mexico have not been carefully preserved, hence the historian is at a loss for adequate data.
RIGHT OF SEARCH
One of the causes of the War of 1812, sometimes called the "Second War with England," dates back almost to the beginning of the American Republic. That was the "Right of Search." Great Britain seems to have held to the theory "Once an Englishman always an Englishman," and claimed the right to search American ships on the high seas for such seamen. If one was found he was charged with being a deserter and "pressed" into the British service. Between the years 1796 and 1802, nearly two thousand American sailors were thus taken from vessels and pressed into the service of England. Although the United States authorities made frequent protests against this practice, it was not regarded as a sufficient cause for declaring war, and as England ignored the protests the impressment continued.
OTHER CAUSES OF THE WAR
During the closing years of the Eighteenth Century and the opening years of the Nineteenth France and England were at war, which gave a great impetus to American commerce. This trade was seriously interfered with in May, 1806, when Napoleon declared the ports of Bremen and Hamburg closed to neutral vessels. Great Britain immediately retaliated with her "Orders in Council," de- claring the coasts of Belgium, Holland and Germany to the mouth of the River Elbe in a state of blockade. Napoleon's retort to these orders was the Berlin Decree of November 21, 1806, announcing a blockade against all the ports of England. More Orders in Council followed on January 7. 1807. prohibiting ships from neutral countries from trading from port to port in France, or with any
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country in alliance with France. This closed practically all European ports to American commerce.
Throughout the remainder of the year 1807, "Orders" and "Decrees" were hurled back and forth between England and France. They could not be enforced, but they had the effect of making trade between either country and America un- lawful and therefore dangerous. On December 22, 1807, President Jefferson approved "An act to prevent Americans from engaging in foreign commerce." This act, which became widely known as the "Embargo Act," met with great opposition from the New England States and under it smuggling flourished. So unpopular did it become that early in February, 1809, Congress declared by resolution that its effects should end with Jefferson's administration on March 4, 1809.
On that date President Madison was inaugurated and England sent David Erskine as minister to the United States. With him Madison negotiated a treaty which promised the withdrawal of the Orders in Council, at least so far as Ameri- can trade was concerned, and as soon as the terms of the treaty were made public six hundred ships left American ports. But the London Cabinet refused to ratify the treaty and Mr. Erskine was recalled. F. J. Jackson was then sent to Washington as the English minister. He insulted President Madison by insinuat- ing that Erskine had been duped into signing the treaty and was dismissed.
Thus matters went on from bad to worse, the relations between the two coun- tries becoming constantly more strained. In the spring of 1810 France seized and confiscated American cargoes valued at $10,000,000, because some of Na- poleon's decrees had been violated. At the same time France agreed to set aside the decrees, provided England would rescind her Orders in Council. In the meantime the Embargo Act had been succeeded by another of the same character, not quite so arbitrary in its provisions, known as the "Non-Intercourse Act." After the confiscation of the cargoes by France, President Madison notified Eng- land that if the Orders in Council were not rescinded by February 2, 1811, the Non-Intercourse Act would be enforced against trade with that country.
In the fall of 1811 there was an uprising of the Indian tribes in the Ohio valley and it was charged that the insurrection was due to British influence, which increased the bitter feeling against Great Britain. The Orders in Council had not been rescinded and Madison by proclamation reinstated the Non-Intercourse Act. In a message to Congress on June 1, 1812, the President referred to the "paper blockades" and the "right of search," and recommended a formal declara- tion of war. The slogan of the republican party (Madison's party) in the political campaign just then opening was "Free trade and sailors' rights."
War was declared on June 18, 1812, and Congress ordered the regular army increased to 25,000 men, gave the President authority to call for 50,000 vol- unteers and 100,000 militia. Nearly every one of the Eastern States, by an act or resolution of the Legislature, prohibited the militia from going beyond the borders of the state. The opposition was greatest in Boston. Concerning the attitude of the people of that city, Carey, in his Olive Branch, says: "From the moment when war was declared, they clamored for peace and reprobated war as wicked, unjust and unnecessary. They made every possible effort to raise obstruc- tions and difficulties in the prosecution of the war and yet reprobated the admin- istration for their imbecility in carrying it on. They reduced the Government to
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bankruptcy and reproached it for its necessities and embarrassments. In a word, all their movements had but one object-to enfeeble and distract the Govern- ment."
IN NORFOLK COUNTY
With such an influence as that described by Carey at work in their immediate vicinity, it is not surprising that the people of Norfolk County failed to respond to the demands and requests of the national administration. However, some of the towns stood by the Government of the United States, and so far as possible to gather reliable information their work is herein given.
Samuel A. Bates says that Braintree was opposed to the war, but at a town meeting on May 28, 1812, "voted to make each man's pay, with the United States pay, fourteen dollars per month, as long as they are out in service." On Sep- tember 16, 1814, when the shores of Massachusetts Bay were threatened by a British invasion, another Braintree town meeting "voted to add four persons to the selectmen, which shall be denominated a Committee of Safety. The selectmen at that time consisted of Caleb French, Dr. Jonathan Wild and Maj. Amos Stetson. The persons added were Jonas Welch, Capt. Thomas Hollis, Lieut. William Reed and Minot Thayer." At the same meeting it was voted "that the town raise the sum of $300 to pay the troops, and that we pay the same that Randolph, Milton and Quincy pay." Mr. Bates says the only persons from Brain- tree, so far as he had been able to learn, who were in the service of the United States were John Isaac, Ebenezer Holbrook and James French.
Brookline stood by the administration better than some of the other towns. A company of volunteers was raised, of which Timothy Corey was captain; Robert S. Davis, lieutenant; Thomas Griggs, ensign; Daniel Pierce, sergeant. It num- bered twenty-seven men in addition to the above named officers and was stationed at Fort Independence. Col. Thomas Aspinwall, a Brookline man, commanded a brigade and lost his left arm at the storming of Fort Erie, near Buffalo, New York, August 15, 1814.
In a Canton town meeting on May 4, 1812, six weeks before the formal dec- laration of war, it was voted to "make up the pay for persons volunteering to fourteen dollars per month, if they go into active service." At another meeting on August 15, 1812, it was voted "that such addition be made to the pay of those persons who were drafted from this town under the last requisition of the Presi- dent of the United States as shall make their monthly pay eighteen dollars."
On September 12, 1812, it was ordered that each non-commissioned officer and soldier be furnished with sixty rounds of ball cartridges, and directed the selectmen to purchase immediately 600 pounds of pork, 200 pounds of beef and 800 pounds of bread for supplying the militia of the town, when called to defend their country, and to procure covered baggage wagons to be in readiness when the militia received orders to move. In 1813 Rev. Edward Richmond of Stoughton preached the fast day sermon in the Canton church, of which Rev. William Ritchie was then pastor, and in his sermon said something about the prosecution of the war that did not meet the approbation of the audience. A committee of fifteen, appointed for the purpose, made the following report to a town meeting on April 5, 1813:
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"Gentlemen of the Town-Your committee, appointed to take into considera- tion the subject of Rev. Edward Richmond's fast day sermon, have attended to the duty assigned them and do recommend that the town pass a vote expressive of their disapprobation that the Rev. Edward Richmond should hereafter be intro- duced into the Desk of the Canton Meeting House on Lord's Days, Fast Days, Thanksgiving Days and Lecture Days, as a teacher of Religious Morality, &c., and that the Town Clerk be directed to serve the Rev. William Richey with a copy thereof without delay.
"ELIJAH DUNBAR, per order."
The record shows that the report was adopted and Mr. Ritchie was probably notified. The incident indicates that Canton was in favor of a vigorous prosecu- tion of the war. It is to be regretted that the names of the Canton soldiers in the War of 1812 cannot be learned, but the only muster rolls are in the custody of the war department at Washington.
In Cohasset a committee of safety was chosen and a coast guard company of seventy-five men was organized. A committee was then sent to Boston to ask arms and ammunition from the state. Governor Strong was absent and Lieuten- ant-Governor Cobb refused the request, recommending to Cohasset men "to hoist a white flag." The committee "was too spunky for that" and finally procured some muskets and a small field piece. In June, 1814, it was reported in Cohasset that a British man-of-war had sent a flotilla of barges to burn the shipping at Scituate and was preparing to do the same for Cohasset. Capt. Peter Lothrop was roused from his bed by a messenger from Scituate, hurriedly dressed, mounted a horse without a saddle and rode through the village awakening the members of his company. The citizens worked with the coast guard in throwing up earthworks at White Head, and when the British appeared the next morning they found what they thought was a large force ready to receive them and withdrew. Militia from Weymouth, Hingham and Scituate, with the artillery companies of Abing- ton and Hanover marched to Cohasset and for three months the works at White Head were occupied by a garrison.
Dedham refused to join in the opposition to the war and took a decided stand in favor of the administration. Boston's communication requesting the Dedham- ites to cooperate in measures to handicap the President was "promptly rejected." The town voted that every drafted man should receive from its treasury a sum sufficient to make his wages fifteen dollars a month while in actual service. Vol- unteers were recruited and drilled; in August some five hundred delegates from the towns of the county met in convention at Dedham and adopted resolutions expressing their approbation of the war; the Dedham Light Infantry, under Capt. Abner Guild, was on duty at South Boston for several months ; large quan- tities of beef and pork were packed in West Dedham by Willard Gay and sent to towns along the coast that were blockaded by the enemy.
Foxboro was one of the towns that sent delegates to the Dedham convention in August, 1812. On July 2nd, several weeks before that convention, the town voted "to make up to the soldiers detached from the militia in Foxborough, with the government pay, twelve dollars per month for May, June, July, August, Sep- tember and October, and ten dollars per month for November, December, January, February, March and April, if they are called into active service."
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On August 22, 1814, it was voted "to make up to the soldiers of the last de- tachment, and all who may be detached in Foxborough previous to March next, eighteen dollars a month each, and each five dollars bounty." The bounty part was afterward reconsidered. Says E. P. Carpenter, in his centennial address at Foxboro, June 29, 1878: "In the absence of statistics showing the number of inhabitants of the town at the time, we are led to infer that Foxboro had a large representation of soldiers in the War of 1812."
Sharon furnished twenty-three men as her share of the state's quota of sol- diers. They were in different commands, some of them being stationed about Boston Harbor, some about the Great Lakes and a few were with the army that invaded Canada.
Many of the young men of Weymouth enlisted for service in the army and navy. On May 21, 1812, before the declaration of war was made by Congress. a town meeting voted a bounty of five dollars and ten dollars per month pay while in active service to each enlisted soldier credited to the town. On June 30, 1814, it was voted to make the pay of non-commissioned officers and privates fifteen dollars per month, "and the same to those called out upon the alarm at Cohasset and who remained there until legally dismissed." On November 7, 1814, an ap- propriation of $1,200 was voted "to pay the soldiers and build a powder magazine."
Wrentham sent a few men to the forts about Boston Harbor, but, as in the case of the other towns, the muster rolls are all at Washington and it is impossible to give the actual number. Dr. James Mann of Wrentham was a surgeon on the Niagara frontier and at the battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane.
It is quite probable that some of the other towns sent men to aid in the prose- cution of the war. Ebenezer Wilkinson and Daniel Fuller were drafted in Dover, and Medway furnished her quota. Quincy was a strong Federalist town and stood with Boston in opposition to the war, though a few men went from the town and served at points along the coast. The same is true of Milton and Randolph.
WAR WITH MEXICO
The causes of the war between the United States and Mexico go back as far as 1810, when the Mexican revolution against Spanish domination was commenced. In 1821, after the Mexican Republic was established, Moses Austin obtained per- mission from that government to plant a colony in what is now the State of Texas, but which then belonged to Mexico. Austin's colonists came from different parts of the United States, and it was not long until they grew dissatisfied with Mexican rule. The United States offered to purchase the territoy, but all offers were rejected. More Americans went into the region and in 1835 they revolted against the Mexican government. General Santa Anna, then president of the Mexican Republic, led an armed force into Texas to quell the rebellion. His army was de- feated by the Americans under Gen. Sam Houston on April 21, 1836, and Santa Anna was captured. Houston forced him to sign a treaty recognizing Texas as a republic. Houston was elected president.
The independence of Texas was recognized by the United States and in April, 1844, the citizens of that country asked to be annexed to the United States. In 1845 Texas was not only annexed, but in December of that year it was admitted into the Union as a state. Then a dispute over the boundaries arose between this
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country and Mexico, the latter contending that the boundary line was the Nueces River, while the Texans claimed the country to the Rio Grande-a claim that was supported by the United States authorities.
On January 13, 1846, President Polk sent Gen. Zachary Taylor, with the "Army of Occupation," to the disputed territory, under instructions to hold it until the dispute was settled. Mexico sent an army to drive out the invaders. The first attack on the American troops was made on April 25, 1846, but it was only a slight skirmish. On May 8th Taylor defeated the Mexicans in the battle of Palo Alto, and the next day at Resaca de la Palma. War was formally de- clared by Congress on May 13, 1846, when the regular army was ordered to be increased to 30,000 men and the President was authorized to call for 50,000 volunteers.
NORFOLK COUNTY IN THE WAR
The Mexican war was even more unpopular in New England than the War of 1812. The district occupied by General Taylor, which was the cause of the controversy, was so far removed that the people took little or no interest in the matter. In a general way it is known that a few men volunteered from the County of Norfolk, but neither the state nor town authorities appear to have been suf- ficiently concerned to preserve a record of such volunteers. Histories of about half of the towns in the county have been published, in which no mention what- ever is made of the War with Mexico.
Five men-Charles Andrews, Capt. George Crane, Erastus Prior, William Wood and Timothy Wiggin-enlisted in Col. Caleb Cushing's regiment. Captain Crane had previously been captain of the Quincy Light Infantry. Colonel Cushing was a member of the same family as the Weymouth Cushings, several of whom enlisted from that town in the Civil war.
Brookline sent a few volunteers under Colonel Mansfield, but no record of their services can be found. Colonel Mansfield was commissioned brigadier-gen- eral soon after the beginning of the Civil war and was killed at the battle of Antie- tam in September, 1862.
So far as known, Henry Hunnewell was the only man to enlist from the Town of Foxboro in Colonel Cushing's regiment. Medfield had organized a militia com- pany in 1839 and a few of its members joined Colonel Cushing's command for service in the war. It is probable that, all told, Norfolk County did not furnish more than fifty men. The war ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb- ruary 2, 1848.
CHAPTER XXXIX
WAR OF THE REBELLION
THE SLAVERY QUESTION-CONDITIONS IN 1819-THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE- POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860-SECESSION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES-STAR OF THE WEST-FALL OF FORT SUMTER-LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR TROOPS-ANSWER OF MASSACHUSETTS-WHAT THE TOWNS DID-RECAPITULA- TION.
Almost from the very beginning of the American Republic, the slavery ques- tion became a dominant issue in politics between the free states on the one side and the slave states on the other. Slavery was introduced into America in 1619, when a Dutch trader sold a few negroes to the planters of the Jamestown colony. The custom of owning negro slaves gradually spread to the other colonies, but slave labor was found to be unprofitable in the northern part of the country and by 1819 seven of the original thirteen states had made provisions for the emancipa- tion of their slaves.
The first clause of Section 9, Article I, of the Federal Constitution provides that "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now exist- ing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808."
The adoption of this clause was regarded by the slaveholding element as a victory, inasmuch as under it Congress had no power to interfere with the foreign slave trade until 1808. In that year Congress passed an act prohibiting any further traffic in or importation of negro slaves. Then the slavery question was injected into American politics.
CONDITIONS IN 1819
In 1819 slavery existed in six of the original thirteen states, the other seven having abolished it as already stated. In the meantime Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had been admitted into the Union under con- stitutions permitting slavery, while Vermont, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had been admitted as free states, so that the country was evenly divided-eleven free and eleven slave states. Maine was admitted as a free state in 1820, giving the oppo- nents of slavery a majority of two in the United States Senate.
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
Immediately upon the admission of Maine, the advocates of slavery sought to have Missouri admitted as a slave state, in order to maintain the equilibrium in
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the United States Senate, as it had been for the past decade. After a long and somewhat acrimonious debate, that state was admitted in 1821 under the act known as the Missouri Compromise, which provided for the admission of Missouri with- out any restrictions as to slavery, but expressly stipulated that "in all the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase, north of the line of 36° 30', slavery shall be forever prohibited."
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