USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 22
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George Washington took in hand the sixteen thousand untrained and poorly equipped but thoroughly in earnest men who constituted the army of colonists. In March, 1776, he fortified Dorchester Heights and assumed a commanding position which the British realized, and March 17 they evacuated Boston and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Not a British soldier remained on the soil of New England.
It was not long after this that Thomas Paine wrote his pamphlet entitled "Common Sense" in which he declared "the blood of the slain,
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the true interest of the continent, and the great distance between Eng- land and America all cry, 'Tis time to part.'"
The people became prepared to acquiesce in the opinion expressed by Richard Henry Lee when, on June 7, 1776, he moved in the Continental Congress "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." John Adams-of Massachusetts seconded the motion. A committee was appointed to draft a declaration of in- dependence. Benjamin Franklin, the Boston printer who had gone to Philadelphia some years before, who has been called "the first civilized American," was one of the committee and it is said would naturally have been chosen to write the document. The task was given to Thomas Jefferson, because the colonists thought Franklin would put a joke in it somewhere and these were serious times. After it had been signed, however, by John Hancock and John Adams, the men whose arrest was prevented by the "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin himself, someone made the remark "Now we must all hang together." "Yes," remarked Benjamin Franklin, "or we will all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin became the best known man in America. He was sent to Paris to plead for recognition of the new nation. His scientific discoveries and writings, shrewdness and good judgment became in- ternationally famous.
There were many "conscientious objecters" at the time of the Revo- lutionary War. They agreed with their neighbors that hardships and persecutions had been put upon America by the British government, but to declare themselves no longer under allegiance to the British crown was quite another thing. Families became divided. Some left home to enlist on the British side, while regiments of Tories, as they were called, appeared in New York and the Carolinas.
Like "the Northern man with Southern principles" who became a problem in the Civil War, the colonists in their fight for freedom, were greatly in danger from the Loyalists or Tories who remained at home and did not hesitate to sell supplies to the British government or give in- formation concerning the plans and operations of the Whigs, as the members of the patriot party were called. Elsewhere in this history ap- pear instances where cannon castings were made in Plymouth County to be used against the patriot army and stories are also told of the treatment accorded those who gave aid and comfort to the British.
The spirit of the patriots was typified by Captain Nathan Hale who went into New York to obtain information for General Washington, was captured by the British and put to death as a spy. When led out for his execution, he said : "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."
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Navy Began In Kingston Shipyard-In the story of shipbuilding in Kingston it is shown that the first navy vessel built for service in the Revolutionary War was built in that town and launched in the Jones River, named for the captain of the "Mayflower." In all the events connected with the war the Plymouth Colony had its rightful share and performed its part not only to the extremity where "it hurt" but to the very limit. John Paul Jones' answer to the British commander of the "Serapis" who, after an hour fighting, during which the Americans lost heavily, asked "Have you struck your colors?" was the answer of Amer- ica whenever any question of compromise or surrender was suggested. The ships were lashed together, the deck of the "Bonhomme Richard" ran red and thick with blood and the vessel was so cut to pieces that it was almost sinking, but Captain Jones' reply was "I have not yet began to fight."
On October 19, 1781, the British Army was compelled to surrender. Three of the ablest men in America were sent to Paris to discuss terms of peace and of those three two were Massachusetts boys, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The other was John Jay of New York. By the treaty of Paris, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. It is the privilege of the writer of this volume to tell, on various pages, heroic services which were performed in that war by men and women of Plymouth County. Equally heroic services were performed by the people from all the counties of all the states.
The old colonial governments were a thing of the past. In a new birth of freedom, with new responsibilities before them, each community, as well as the United States, was obliged to embark on the great ex- periment of democracy. The United States had no coinage of its own and every community was frightfully in debt. Most of the money in circulation consisted of paper notes issued by the Continental Congress, promises to pay but with no gold or silver in existence to back up the promises. The people doubted their ability to make good the promises and at one time it required some $2,000 in paper currency to purchase a suit of clothes. We have the expression still in use "Not worth a continental" when we wish to express something of little or no value, based on the opinion of those notes issued by the Continental Congress when the fate of the nation hung in the balance.
Debtors were thrown into prison, property was seized and sold by the sheriff for the benefit of creditors, no one wanted to take the paper currency. Trade was restricted by duties being collected at the state lines, there were no, interstate commerce regulations on the part of the central government, and lawlessness and rioting were frequent. It was under these conditions and at this time that Shays' Rebellion took place, the briefest war in the history of the United States.
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Shays' Rebellion used our neighbor, Bristol County, as its scene of operations, on one occasion, but the discontent which it represented was just as general in Plymouth and other counties. Captain Daniel Shays had been a captain in the Revolutionary War. He was the leader of the insurrection which stated its grievances to include that the governor's salary was too much, that the senate was aristocratic, lawyers extortionate, taxes burdensome and the times demanded a large issue of paper money. Captain David Valentine of Freetown led 182 insurgents into Taunton and an attempt was made to prevent the sitting of the October term of the Supreme Court in 1786. The militia appeared with a fieldpiece now preserved at Historical Hall in Taunton. General David Cobb was judge of the Court of Common Pleas and also major-general of the Fifth Division of the Militia. He explained the intentions of both court and militia and the mob dispersed on Taunton Green. A tablet marks the spot.
. This is, however, by no means all there was to Shays' Rebellion. The sentiment which it typified, according to the late United States Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, "threatened the existence of the Commonwealth but shook to its foundations the unstable fabric of the Confederacy."
Results of Shays' Rebellion-Senator Lodge, in the "Memorial His- tory of Boston" went on to say :
While the storm was gathering, John Hancock, the popular hero and governor, not fancying the prospect opening before the state, and the consequent difficulties and dangers likely to beset the chief magistrate, took himself out of the way, and the younger and more conservative element in politics elected James Bow- doin in his stead. It was a fortunate choice in every way. Bowdoin was a wise, firm, courageous man, perfectly ready to sacrifice popularity, if need be, to the public good. He was warmly supported in Boston, as the principles and objects of Shays and his followers were peculiarly obnoxious to a business community. The alarm in the town was very great for it looked as if their contest for freedom was about to result in anarchy. The young men came forward, armed themselves, and volunteered for service; but the governor's firmness was all that was needed. General Lincoln, at the head of the Militia easily crushed the feeble mob gathered by Shays, whose followers were entirely dispersed. Nevertheless the rioters represented, although in a very extreme fashion, the general sentiment of the state, demoralized and shaken by civil war, as was shown by the almost criminal delay of the lower branch of the Legislature in sustaining the governor in his efforts to maintain order, and by their reluctance to declare the insurgents in rebellion,-a step forced upon them by the vigor of the governor and senate.
This unhappy condition of public opinion was still more strongly manifested at the next election. The issue was made up between pardon and sympathy for the rebels on the one side and just and salutary punishment on the other. The conservative party, in favor of the latter course, put forward Bowdoin; while Hancock, who had been under shelter, now came forward once more to catch the popular support as the advocate of mercy, which another better and braver man had alone earned the right to dispense. Hancock had chosen his time well.
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Popular feeling in the country districts was with the insurgents, and Bowdoin was defeated; although Boston, now thoroughly in the hands of the younger and more conservative party, strongly sustained him. Thus the new party of order and reconstruction started in Boston, which continued to be its headquarters; and gradually extending its influence, first through the eastern towns and then to the west, came finally to control the state.
The Shays' Rebellion did more, however, than decide the elections in Mas- sachusetts. It was without doubt an efficient cause in promoting the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, and in frightening the decrepit and obstructive Congress of the Confederation. The adoption of the Constitution, submitted by the delegates who met in Philadelphia, was an event of national as well as local importance, for the adhesion of the great state of Massachusetts was essential to success.
The conservative elements, which had begun to take a party shape in the Shays' Rebellion, developed into a strong and homogeneous body in favor of the Constitution. They had an arduous battle to fight and they fought it well. Against them were arrayed all the sympathizers with the Shays' Rebellion, be- sides many who had actually taken part in it, and who, having tasted the sweets of incipient anarchy, were averse to anything like strong government.
With intense interest Boston watched the adoption of the Constitution of one state after another; and we can see, in the newspapers, the rapid development of the new party of reconstruction, the friends of the Constitution, now known as Federalists, and the corresponding increase of bitterness toward all who at- tempted to thwart a measure believed, in Boston at least, to involve the future existence of the nation.
So far as Shays' Rebellion itself is concerned, as an organized move- ment, it terminated at Petersham in Worcester County, January 25, 1787. The previous month, Captain Shays, at the head of 1,000 in- surgents, appeared at Springfield and prevented the Supreme Court from holding a session there. Emboldened by this success, three bodies of insurgents attempted to capture the Continental Arsenal, defended by 1,000 militia. The largest body, under Captain Shays, numbered 1,100 men. The defenders fired and killed three and wounded one. Shays' troops fled, pursued by the militia, until they were overtaken in a blind- ing snowstorm. One hundred and fifty were captured and subsequently several of the leaders were sentenced to be hanged. Shays escaped. He lived in Vermont about a year, was pardoned, as well the others who had been sentenced to be hanged. Shays moved to Sparta, New York, where he died in 1825, when 78 years of age. In his old age he was allowed a pension for his services in the Revolutionary War.
The adoption of the Constitution stabilized matters considerably. William E. Gladstone, the great English statesman, called the Consti- tution of the United States "The most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." It was not im- mediately so recognized hereabouts, however. The great leaders of the Revolutionary period, John Adams and John Hancock, were lukewarm.
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It was adopted by only 19 votes, and these 19 were probably due in great measure to the fact that Adams was impressed by resolutions which had been adopted by the mechanics of Boston who met at the Green Dragon Tavern, under leadership of Paul Revere.
CHAPTER XIII EARTHQUAKES, COMETS, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.
Famous Controversy Between Prof. Winthrop and Dr. Prince Shook Harvard College and Boston Akin to the Earthquakes-Comets, Nor- thern Lights, Famous Yellow Day, All Explained With Terrible Meanings to Sinners-Fatal Visitations By Lightning in Marshfield -Attempt to Name a Posthumous Son "Child of Thunder."
There are records of five earthquakes in New England which were felt in this vicinity of considerable disturbing power. These were in 1638, 1658, 1663, October 29, 1727; and November 18, 1775. Nineteen others are mentioned in the annals of New England, including one No- vember 28, 1814, which was the most severe since 1755. The other eighteen were on October 29, 1653; 1660, 1665, 1668, 1669, 1670, 1705, September 5, 1720; 1732, February 6 and December 7, 1737; June 3, 1744; July 8, 1757; March 12, and November 1, 1761; 1766, 1769, 1771, November 29, 1788; May 8, 1804; November 9, 1810; November 28, 1814, already referred to. There have been others in recent years in which the vibrations have been so slight that they did not attract gen- eral notice. There was such a one in 1926 in Plymouth County.
The earthquake of 1638 occurred on the first of June and it has been described as "so violent its shock in some places that movables in houses were thrown down, and people out of doors could scarcely re- tain a position on their feet. It has been said that events were often referred to in after years as having taken place such a time after the earthquake, much as was the custom in vogue for one to date his birth in Ireland as so many years before or after the "big wind."
The earthquake of 1658 came the same year as the first death by stroke of lightning in Plymouth County. The lightning stroke was July 31 and the victim a Marshfield man.
There were two earthquakes in 1662, one January 26 and the other two days later.
Great alarm was felt throughout New England at the time of the earthquake, October 29, 1727. It was the most violent of any in that generation. It occurred at four minutes past 10, P. M. Cellar walls were shaken down, chimneys toppled and there was terror among the seamen who were on vessels near the coast, as they believed they had struck a shoal. The shock was accompanied by a great rattling and crackling sound which caused some to believe that the end of the world was at hand. We have a record of some of the clergymen of that day
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to the effect that it proved "reformatory to some loose-livers who be- came apparently devout penitents."
A record of the earthquake of November 18, 1775, reads: "A terrible earthquake occurred in America November 18, the most violent ever known in the country."
This earthquake was of unusual violence and caused much alarm. It also caused a famous controversy between Professor John Winthrop, who received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from Harvard College and was the first person to receive that degree from that college, according to publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, although it has many times been stated that General George Washington was the first to receive that honor from Harvard, after the evacuation of Boston by the British. Professor Winthrop was the fourth in descent from Gover- nor Winthrop, a distinguished professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
Professor Winthrop delivered a lecture in the college chapel, describ- ing the earthquake referred to and the general causes, dwelling on the undulatory character of the shock, and ascribing the phenomena to the action of heat in the interior of the globe. At about the same time Rev. Thomas Prince, pastor of the South Church in Boston, prepared a new edition of a sermon called "Earthquakes the Works of God, and Tokens of His Just Displeasure." He stressed the operation of God in earth- quakes by means of the electrical substance, following a line of argu- ment which forced Professor Winthrop to make a reply as a postscript to his published lecture.
Benjamin Franklin had invented lightning rods and they had become popular in this section, but Dr. Prince was opposed to them, as an im- pertinent attempt to escape the wrath of the Almighty. His warning against lightning rods was :
The more Points of Iron are erected around the Earth, to draw the Electrical Substance out of the Air; the more the Earth must needs be charged with it. And therefore it seems worthy of Consideration, Whether any Part of the Earth being fuller of this Terrible Substance, may not be more exposed to more shocking Earthquakes. In Boston are more erected than anywhere else in New England; and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. O! there is no getting out of the mighty Hand of God! If we think to avoid it in the Air, we cannot in the Earth: yea, it may grow more fatal.
Professor Winthrop exposed the fallacies of this sermon and wrote:
"I know no reason to think that 'Boston was more dreadfully shaken' than other towns. Some of the effects of the earthquake may have been more con- siderable, for their number, than elsewhere; but the reason of this is, not that 'in Boston are more points of iron erected than any where else in New England' but there are more brick houses erected there. For the effect of a shock is more considerable upon brick work than upon wood work. The reasons for this are obvious; and that it is so in fact, plainly appeared by our chimnies being every
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where more shattered than anything else: though this was in part owing to their being the highest parts of buildings."
Referring to Dr. Prince's admonition he said: "I should think, though with the utmost deference to superior judgments, that the pa- thetic exclamation, which comes next, might well enough have been spared. 'O! there is no getting out of the mighty hand of GOD!' For I cannot believe, that in the whole town of Boston, where so many iron points are erected, there is so much as one person, or, to say all in one word, so atheistical, as ever to have entertained a single thought, that it is possible, by the help of a few yards of wire, to 'get out of the mighty hand of GOD.'"
"Heaven's Alarm to the World"-In 1680, Increase Mather preached a terrifying sermon, inspired by the comet of that year, which he called "Heaven's Alarm to the World." He wrote what purported to be a history of comets from the creation to 1680 and told of the calamities which were in the wake of every appearance of such a blazing star. He said: "There are those who think, that inasmuch as Comets may be supposed to proceed from natural causes, there is no speaking voice of Heaven in them, beyond what is to be said of all other works of God. But certain it is, that many things which may happen according to the course of nature, are portentious signs of divine anger, and prognos- ticks of great evils hastening upon the world. ... Thunder, Lightning, Hail and Rain, are from natural causes, yet are they sometimes signs of God's holy displeasure. ... Earthquakes are from natural causes, yet there is many times a very speaking voice of God in them."
The appearance of the Northern Lights put many people into a frenzy in the early days, especially when they were "explained" by some of the divines of those days who combined the learning and superstitions of the age and quoted Scripture to prove their contentions.
In 1780 came the famous Dark Day of May 19th, and this was a time for special terror, as the Day of Judgment was at hand, and the end of the world. There were innumerable conjectures as to the cause of the darkness. Some said it was the fulfilling of Joel's prophecy of a "pillar of smoke." Others said it was the pouring out of the seventh phial into the air. One clergyman called his congregation together in the dark, reminded the Lord that he had made a promise to Noah that "day and night should not cease" and asked that the sun might shine again.
There was another dark day November 6, 1819, but the mind of the people as a whole had progressed in the intervening years so that there were less ridiculous explanations offered and less distress and terror.
Many people recall the Yellow Day September 6, 1881, which excited wonder and a desire to look for causes, but little superstitious fear, as compared with phenomena in former years appearing in the heavens.
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The best description of the Dark Day of 1780 is given in Whittier's poem "Abraham Davenport."
'Twas on a May-day of the far old year Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring, Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness, like the night In day of which the Norland sagas tell,- The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs The crater's sides from the red hell below. Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard fowls Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked
A loving guest, at Bethany, but stern As Justice and inexorable Law.
There were visitations of thunder and lightning, as well as earth- quakes in the early days of the colony which left their imprint upon the consciousness of the inhabitants to a remarkable degree. It is doubtful whether visitations of that sort mystified the people more than at pres- ent and caused them to attribute supernatural significance to them, even looking upon them as omens or signs from heaven, or whether people were more inclined to write of such things in diaries, and letters, includ- ing their personal convictions with the record. In these days the news- papers tell the story and few diaries are kept of such events, or, if kept, they do not become common property.
There were deaths by lightning in Marshfield in 1658 and 1666, which led to the printing of a book to chronicle the facts. This book was by Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff and privately printed in 1850, as a mem- orial of the events mentioned, and inscribed to the members of the American Antiquarian and Massachusetts Historical societies. In the archives of the latter society appear a letter from Samuel Arnold of Marshfield, written to Rev. Increase Mather, teacher to the church in the North End of Boston, accompanied by a manuscript written by Cap- tain Nathaniel Thomas, who was a witness to one of the lightning visitations. The letter and manuscript tell of the sad occurrence.
Captain Thomas wrote :
In the month of August in the yeare 1658 there was in the Towne of Marshfeild a terrible storm of Thunder Lightening & raine, & as I was going homeward being about a mile from home I meet one John Phillips & another man coming
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out of a meadow from making hay to the next house for shelter from the storm, who aduised me to goe in with them to the house least I should be ouertaken in the storm ere I should get home the storm then coming vp exseeding black & Terrible I accordingly went in with them. & the sd Phillips sat down on a stoole with his face toward the Iner door & his back to the hearth & his side closs to the Jam of the chimney I sat downe with my face directly toward him about six foot from him, the Thunder came quickly vp ouer the house The Clouds flying exseeding Low & thick so that the heavens were much darkened. Then in a moment came downe (as it were) a great ball of fire with a Terrible crack of Thunder & fell Just before where the sd Phillips sat, my eye then hap- ening to be on him saw him once start on the stole he sat on & fell from thence dead on the hearth backward without any motion of life, many bricks of the chimney were beaten downe the principle Rafters split the battens & lining next the chiney in the chamber broken, one of the maine posts of the house into which the sumer was framed torn into shiuers & great part of it carried seuerall rod from the house, the dore where the ball of fire came downe Just before the sd Phillips was broken downe, out of the gert of sumer aforesd being a dry oak was peices wonderfully taken, I doe not remember there was any outward ap- pearance of hurt vpon the body of the sd Phillips, a young child being at that moment about three foot from sd Phillips had noe harm.
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