USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 38
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 38
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 38
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An editorial was printed in the "Old Colony Reporter" and "North Bridgewater Union" February 2, 1849, in which it was said: "Never in the history of any other country has the fever of speculation risen to such a height as now. Hundreds of vessels have already departed for California and hundreds more will ere long be upon their ocean way to the same destination. Representatives of every class are hastening thither, the laborer, mechanic, lawyer, physician and clergyman, all are
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smitten with this epidemic, all impatient of delay in their efforts to gather the golden harvest."
All this section participated largely in the commercial activities creat- ed by the discovery of gold in California and all that it entailed ; also the discovery of gold in Australia. Wealth, no doubt, is a relative thing and the adventurous youth of '49 considered it worth the sacrifice of everything else to start on the long journey to the gold fields, singing or humming as they pushed forward over the plains or sped onward by the sailing vessels around the Horn,
I'll scrape the mountains clean, old girl, I'll drain the river dry, I'm off to California; Susannah don't you cry!
The aerial locomotive or airship did not come into existence for three quarters of a century, but the clipper ships, built in Plymouth County shipyards, were brought to perfection under the stress of the desire for speed, by virtue of the skill of craftsmen of enthusiasm and ability who made the ship building industry in this section famous.
The tonnage owned in Boston in 1855 was larger than ever before or since,-541,644 tons. The clearances from that port during the excite- ment were: In 1852, 98; 1853, 149; 1854, 59; 1855, 16; 1856, 54; 1857, 47. Plymouth County clearances were in proportion but there are no satisfactory records.
"Old Ironsides" Wins a Hat for Captain Hull-The frigate "Con- stitution" was nicknamed "Old Ironsides" because of her heavy timbers, cut in the oak forests of Plymouth County, in Abington and vicinity. She became the most renowned of all the ships that ever had the Amer- ican flag fly above a deck. She was the largest and most heavily armed frigate of her day and the pride of the American Navy in those days of wooden hulls and sails when the ironclads propelled by steam were some time in the future. The "Constitution" first took to water in Boston in 1797. Like all frigates, she was built for speed in order to prey upon the commerce of the enemy. Her armament consisted of thirty 24- pounders on her gun deck, twenty-two 32-pound carronades on her quarter-deck and forecastle deck, and three long guns, called bow- chasers, to use when pursuing an enemy. Most European frigates car- ried from thirty-two to fifty guns of lighter weight than those on the "Constitution" and the "Constitution" with fifty-two outclassed them.
"Old Ironsides" had lower sides and higher bow and stern than the line-of-battle ships of earlier build, such as the "Victory," Lord Nel- son's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar. She was also of finer design and built of sturdy timbers calculated to stand the shock of cannon
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balls to a much greater extent than any other fighting machine afloat. There was, therefore, much impatience on the part of Captain Isaac Hull and his crew when they sailed from Boston, August 2, 1812, in search of some English frigate against which a battle royal could be waged and possibly a lesson taught the officers of the British navy who spoke with derision of "the fir-built Yankee frigates flying a piece of striped bunting at their mastheads." She cruised north in the hope of intercepting some English vessels bound for Quebec but was obliged to head out to sea before finding an enemy worthy of a combat. August 15, 1812, five ships were sighted. Captain Hull crowded on all sail, overhauled the largest ship, and was much disappointed to find it was an English merchant vessel in the hands of an American prize crew, but the other vessels of the fleet, now scurrying to leeward, were Brit- ish ships which would have re-captured the merchantman, if the "Con- stitution" had not reached them as she did.
That same day the "Constitution" caught up with the British sloop-of war "Avenger" which had taken the American brig "Adeline" and had a prize crew on board. Captain Hull re-captured the brig and ordered the merchant vessel to proceed with its American crew and British prisoners to Boston. This was the first day's work for "Old Ironsides" which next sailed south, looking for enemy frigates in the Bermudan water. She, however, soon changed her course, as Cap- tain Hull learned from the American privateer "Decatur" that on Aug- ust 17th an English frigate had been sighted. When nearly opposite the port of Halifax, a sail on the horizon was discovered. She proved to be the "Guerriere," commanded by Captain Dacres, and carrying thirty-eight guns. Here was a chance for the Yankee crew to avenge the arbitrary impressment of American sailors by British commanders, and the lash on their backs which some of them had felt.
The English frigate seemed as anxious for a battle as the Yankee, as she shortened her topsails, foresail, jib and spanker and braced her main topsail to the mast, evidently waiting for her opponent to come up. Soon the English frigate fired a few shots at the "Constitution" to get the range and the two ships exchanged broadsides, but the shots fell short. There was considerable maneuvering on the part of both to secure a raking position, but eventually the "Constitution" steered di- rectly toward the enemy, for a yardarm fight.
The English frigate continued her firing but Captain Hull ordered his men to cease firing and prepare to deliver the next broadside with the most telling effect. The guns were loaded with round shot and grape. A shot struck the "Constitution's" bulwarks, sent splinters flying among the crew which stood at attention, but no command came from the quarter-deck of the Yankee frigate. Three times First Lieut-
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enant Morris asked permission to return fire but the answer each time was "Not yet, sir."
The "Constitution" belched forth a storm of shot from her guns when she had obtained a position about forty yards off the enemy's port quar- ter. The English gun crews, veterans of many sea fights, scattered when the broadside ripped through the bulwarks, wood flying in splin- ters in every direction at once. So rapid and accurate was the Ameri- can fire that the English frigate's main yard was shot away, her hull rigging and sails badly slashed, her mizzenmast cut away by a twenty- four pound shot, so that the mast fell over the quarter and knocked a large hole in the hull. In spite of her helm, the frigate was brought to the wind, the wrecked mast acting as a rudder. The jib boom of the English frigate passed over the American's quarter-deck. The crews of both frigates came on the main deck and the riflemen exchanged vol- leys at close range. The frigates were about to foul but the ships were rolling so that neither side found it practicable to board the other. Soon the English frigate was left without any masts standing. She was use- less for further fighting and the American commander, drew off to re- pair the damage to his own rigging, as another British frigate or a squadron might appear and it were well to be prepared for another battle.
This matter of preparedness being attended to, Captain Hull sent Third Lieutenant Read alongside the English ship to receive her sur- render. First Lieutenant Morris had been shot by a British sharp- shooter during the battle.
Captain Hull and Captain Dacres had frequently met before hos- tilities began between the two countries and Dacres had wagered a hat with Hull on the outcome of any engagement between their two frigates, should such an encounter ever occur. When Captain Dacres went over the side of the "Constitution" to surrender his sword, Captain Hull noticing his opponent had been wounded, helped him to the deck. Dacres offered his sword but Captain Hull replied: "No, no, I will not take a sword from one who knows so well how to use it; but I will trouble you for that hat."
Eventually the "Guerriere" was blown up, as she was in a sinking condition. The English prisoners had been transferred to the "Con- stitution." At the time of the fight the "Guerriere" had from two hun- dred and sixty to three hundred in her crew, commanding forty-nine guns. The "Constitution" carried fifty-five guns and a crew of four hundred and sixty-eight. The duration of the engagement had been forty minutes.
The "Constitution" reentered the harbor of Boston August 30, with news of her victory over the "Guerriere," "the terror of the sea,"
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which had been captured from the French by the English frigate "Blanche" in 1806. The "Constitution" won a place as the idol of the American navy by that fight and has never lost that place of honor, al- though steel has replaced wood in vessel construction, and steam long since took the place of sails.
The replacing of wooden war vessels by steel in the United States Navy was largely through the influence of the late Judge Benjamin W. Harris of East Bridgewater, for which distinction and service he was known as "the father of the steel navy." He was a resident of Plymouth County and one of its justly honored sons.
Abolitionists Who Would be Heard-There was a decade previous to the Civil War in which several ideas entered into the thought of the people in this section which paved the way not only for the war it- self-for this was the home of the anti-slavery agitations-but for the change in industrial and economic conditions which moved with rapid action following the war. The course of development was interrupted by the war on one hand and quickened into action by the war and its results on the other.
The discovery of gold in California, the rapid development of the West, partly through colonization and financiering from this part of the country, and the reconstruction of the South, led to building of rail- roads, construction of ships, the factory system and collective opera- tions in industries, associations for mutual helpfulness on the part of capitalists and workmen.
In all of these things the people of Eastern Massachusetts were vitally concerned. Hon. Oakes Ames, M. C., of North Easton, was promi- nently identified with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, and a mammoth monument in his memory, especially for that achievement, towers across the face of the Rocky Mountains. There were other citi- zens and neighbors of Plymouth County whose work is not to be for- gotten. This chapter will therefore deal with some of the events in that period of national history 'and tell something of parts performed in the territory between Plymouth Rock and the Gilded Dome.
For thirty years previous to the Civil War, while four millions of slaves in the United States were toiling under taskmasters in unpaid servitude, there were a constantly increasing number of brave souls breathing the air of freedom in the vicinity of Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill who were asking in their conscience the one question which William Lloyd Garrison asked concerning that institution, "Is it right or is it wrong?"
This question was easily answered and, being wrong, as a matter of conscience, the conviction was that it ought to be relinquished. But the slave was a black individual and a black man was unattractive, igno-
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rant, without influence and, in some cases, without aspirations. The slaves were valued, at the outbreak of the Civil War, at about three thousand millions of dollars. The trade of the South was a big item in the economic scheme of things, even in Plymouth County. It was easy to find texts in the Bible upon which to preach, and upon which many clergymen were preaching, justifying slavery. "It always had existed and always would exist." Abolitionism was not popular in the parlors of the wealthy or to the crowds of low brows on the streets, then what was the matter with Wendell Phillips? Why should he dis- please the high society which he adorned by identifying himself with a movement intentionally disturbing? The press was against Abolition. Why couldn't William Lloyd Garrison conduct a paper like other papers instead of publishing such a disquieting sheet as the "Liberator," issued from what the mayor of Boston called "the obscure hole," and of which Oliver Johnson wrote
In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,
Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man; The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean,
Yet there the freedom of a race began.
Massachusetts like all the other States had held slaves. The same number of the "Boston Gazette," July 22, 1776, which contained the "Declaration of Independence," advertised a stout, healthy negro-man for sale. Rev. Cotton Mather, who was the most strenuous individual Massachusetts ever had in purging the colony of all that was iniqui- tous made an entry in his diary in 1706 that he "received a singular blessing" in the gift of "a very likely slave," which was "a mighty smile of heaven upon his family." If Cotton Mather couldn't find anything wrong in slavery, it must be permissible, to say the least, for he was the most zealous in finding something wrong with everything of any one who ever found anything wrong.
True, Massachusetts ended slavery within its borders in 1783, by the decision of the Supreme Court, which held that the declaration inserted in the State Constitution of 1780, that "all men are born free and equal," abolished slavery forever, but why meddle with the South, which had its own decisions to make?
But there were men and women who possessed a New England con- science and it wouldn't lie down and go to sleep, as long as New Eng- land had a responsibility in making the United States and keeping over it a flag which stood for freedom.
Anti-slavery agitation was carried on enthusiastically more than thirty years before the outbreak of the Civil War. The Island Grove at Abington was one place of meeting and all the towns in Plymouth County had halls in which these meetings were frequent and in which those whose convictions were definite and uncompromising had no
Plym-23
.
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hesitation in expressing those convictions and their contempt for those who upheld the iniquitous system of human slavery.
Parker Pillsbury, almost as pronounced in his anti-slavery agitation as William Lloyd Garrison, spoke in Tyler Cobb's Hall in North Bridgewater in February, 1850, and in the course of his speech said "Every minister fellowships with slaveholders as practical Christians; not one preaches against it as a sin." Perhaps he was right. Anyhow the list of anti-slavery speakers and workers does not seem to contain the names of many clergymen at that early date.
In a report of a town meeting held at Plymouth in November, 1848, the "Plymouth Rock," a weekly newspaper of that town, said editorially : "We shall never after this have any faith in prayers for the abolition of slavery after seeing a clergyman vote for Taylor, Slavery and War. Two men whose views were favorable to free soil were followed up to the ballot box by a corporation pimp and forced to vote for Taylor. Quite a sensation was created at seeing a colored man vote for Taylor. This man was formerly a slave, and is said at this time to be endeavor- ing to obtain money sufficient to purchase his wife from slavery. What means were used to induce him to this act we know not but we are very sure no party but the Whig would be guilty of either hiring or deceiv- ing such a man to vote for a slaveholder! It is a sin against all the ten commandments in one! Seven scattering votes were cast, only one of which the selectmen decided to count. The vote of the town, if these had been counted, would stand: for Van Buren, 542; for Taylor, 284; majority against slave whigging, 258."
A writer in the "Old Colony Reporter" from South Abington wrote March 10, 1850: "Rev. W. F. Stubbert declared before his congrega- tion and in our hearing that the subject of the slaves' redemption from bondage was one irrelevant in their meetings and that the Gospel could be preached here without the question being introduced, and its consideration on the first day of the week was a desecration of the Sab- bath."
It must not be inferred, however, that clergymen were not early in the anti-slavery movement. Among those in Boston, the centre of the movement, were Amos A. Phelps, Samuel J. May, Samuel J. May, Jr., and Charles Follen. It was Rev. Amos A. Phelps who defined slavery as "the holding of a human being as property," and this definition was accepted by the Abolitionists as the basis of their action. An important accession to the anti-slavery movement was William Ellery Channing, who was in the movement as early as 1835. He wrote: "A body of men and women more blameless than the Abolitionists cannot be found among us," and such a statement changed some of his admirers and friends into revilers and opponents.
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In August, 1835, a public meeting was held in Faneuil Hall "to de- nounce the agitation of slavery as putting in peril the existence of the Union." At this meeting men of influence charged the Abolitionists with being "disturbers of the peace and endangering the safety of the Country." The newspapers and pulpits took the same tone. The Abolitionists were, however, determined to rouse a sleeping nation. "The nation was deaf in regard to the evils of slavery; and those who have to speak to deaf people naturally acquire the habit of saying every- thing on a very high key," was the explanation of Margaret Fuller.
It was October 21, 1835, that a mob in the vicinity of No. 46 Washing- ton Street, Boston, coiled a rope about the body of William Lloyd Gar- rison, evidently with the intention of dragging him through the streets, and possibly hanging him. Strong men gathered around him and he was taken to the city jail for temporary security, and shortly afterward re- turned to his office and took up his fearless utterances as though noth- ing had happened or been attempted.
In November, 1837, Elijah P. Lovejoy, an Abolitionist editor, was killed in Alton while defending his press from a mob gathered there to destroy it. William Ellery Channing was one of the petitioners for the use of Faneuil Hall to protest against this violation of the principles of liberty. The authorities refused, but citizens held a meeting and de- manded that the mayor and aldermen reverse their action, which they. did. At this meeting Attorney-General James T. Austin took the floor and declared that Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth" and that the men who killed him were as great patriots as the men who threw overboard the tea in Boston Harbor at the "Boston Tea Party." A large part of the congregation loudly cheered this sentiment and when Wendell Phil- lips arose on the platform he was hooted at and jeered.
Wendell Phillips stood calmly till he could be heard and said: "When I heard the gentleman lay down principles which placed the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the dead."
James Freeman Clarke said of the work of the Abolitionists :
To create the moral force which overthrew slavery was the work of the Aboli- tionists; and they accomplished this work in about thirty years, or in the life of a single generation. When we consider the resistance which was overcome, this result must be regarded as an unexampled triumph of pure truth . . . It was not accident which made Boston the cradle of the Abolition movement, any more than it was accident which made it, sixty years before, the cradle of the American Revolution. A habit of independent thought, and a vigorous moral training, supplied the conditions necessary for both.
It is natural that Boston should be regarded as the centre of liberal- ity and profound thinking and fearless action, but it has been the centre,
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not the entire area or arena. Boston has been defined as "not a place but a state of mind." The Old Colony, Plymouth County, if you please, was the hope of freedom, the new light in human progress before the first house was erected in Boston; and, in the anti-slavery movement as in the Revolution preparations, Plymouth County had its Abington Grove and its Tea Rock in Marshfield, as Boston had its Faneuil Hall and Boston Tea Party. So it was with the beginning of public educa- tion, the Sunday school movement and other crusades. When Boston is referred to in history, it is typical of the bold profile of Massachusetts and all that lies between it and the extremities of the Berkshire Hills. Boston is the city of our pride and it has environs equally justified in their pride. As Schley said of the Battle of Santiago "There is glory enough for all hands."
Labor Movement and Legislation-James Freeman Clarke once wrote: "Prominent among the associates of Garrison, both by his un- surpassed ability as an orator, his ready dialectics, and his unswerving devotion to the anti-slavery cause, was Wendell Phillips." But human justice was the keynote of his conviction and he prophesied that a more equitable return for labor and better industrial conditions would press for solution before many years. Undoubtedly he had in mind the la- bor movement which has been especially strong and successful in Plym- outh County, notably in Brockton.
As John Boyle O'Reilly once said :
A small class in every country has taken possession of property and govern- ment, and makes laws for its own safety and the security of its plunder, educating the masses, generation after generation, into the belief that this condition is the natural order and the law of God. By long training and submission the people everywhere have come to regard the assumption of the rulers and owners as the law of right and common sense, and their own blind instincts, which tell them that all men ought to have a plenteous living on this rich earth, as the promptings of evil and disorder.
If this has been the course of history, are there not lessons to be learned? Evidently there are and have been, for something has trans- formed this section into one of the most prosperous parts of the coun- try, where labor comes nearer to getting its equitable share in human progress and development through the exertions of brain and brawn and the purchasing power and system of high standard of living.
The labor movement is about as old as history itself. The labor or- ganizations, however, in this country that were in existence before the Civil War were mostly of a local nature, and the story of the rise and growth in Plymouth, Barnstable, and Norfolk counties does not ma- terially differ from that in other sections. The fundamental reason is in the fact that, up to the time mentioned, we were an agricultural na-
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tion, and probably ninety-nine per cent of the farm laborers owned their own farms.
In this section of New England that we are considering, they divided their labors between the farm and their little "shop," where they did the whole or part of the work that made a boot or shoe. A sample of these little shops that were once plentiful in our counties, now remains on the road between Natick and Framingham, and bears the inscrip- tion that therein vice-President Henry Wilson, as a boy, learned his trade as shoemaker. Some of them still remain in our counties. The farm laborers were independent of an employer. Moreover, manufac- turing establishments were small and limited in capital. With the Civil War came the demands for increases in production, forcing concentra- tion in capital, and the employment of labor manufacturing properties in New England; textile and woolen, as well as that of shoes, had in- dividual owners, later two or more in partnership, then corporations absorbing and merging these properties into one management. When this change made its appearance, labor associated in production or- ganized. The organizations grew with the drift from the farms to the shops, which occupied time previously given to farming. Individual affiliations or an increase in wages received little consideration. Nat- urally, came the uniting of efforts of wage earners to secure what they considered they should receive.
Controversies arising over wages, hours, and conditions of employ- ment divided employers and employees into two camps. Strikes and lockouts and the consequent financial loss for both sides developed a demand for some form of legislation that would be effective in settling such differences, as soon as possible. The employees had adopted a system of arbitration and were its advocates. In the Legislature of 1886 the subject came before the Committee on Labor of that body. The hearings were attended in large numbers by both sides. Majority and minority reports were submitted by the committee. The late Hon. W. L. Douglas, then senator from Plymouth County and later governor of Massachusetts, was chairman of the committee submitting the minority report.
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