USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Gardner > History of the town of Gardner, Worcester County, Mass., from the incorporation, June 27, 1785, to the present time > Part 10
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NOTICE OF DANIEL SHAYS.
This individual acquired an unenviable notoriety, which im- parts some degree of interest to the incidents of his life. He was born in Hopkinton, in 1747; the son of parents not in affluent circumstances, he worked with Mr. Brinley, a respect- able farmer of Framingham. The activity and energy of his youth promised at maturity more desirable elevation than he attained. That his education was neglected, is apparent from his official letters, bidding defiance alike to government, gram- mar and good spelling. Just before the revolution, he removed to one of the towns beyond Connecticut river, and afterwards resided in Pelham. When the war commenced, he entered the army, at the age of twenty-eight, with rank of ensign, in Capt. Dickinson's company, in Col. Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge's regiment. His ambition, activity, and plausible manners cover- ing the want of acquirements, joined with personal intrepidity, obtained promotion, and in 1776, he was appointed Lieutenant
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in Col. Varnum's regiment. At the time when the line pecu- liarly needed reinforcement, he was detached on the recruiting service, with the promise of some suitable reward for the en- listment of twenty men. For this purpose he visited his native state, and his unwearied exertions were crowned with ample success. When the complement assigned to him was filled, a plan suggested itself for grasping honor and pay at once. Finding the pulse of patriotism beat high, and the men of New England were ready to devote themselves for their country, he continued his enlistments. Insinuating address and bold rep- resentations, produced impressions of his ability and influence, easily turned to his own advantage, and by holding out expec- tations of indulgence to those who should serve under his com- mand, a company was raised, on the condition that he should be their captain. With these men he returned to the camp, where they were mustered. When the inspector was about to distribute them to different corps, Shays produced the enlist- ment papers ; pointed to the condition which held them to serve under himself alone ; and requested the appointment of Cap- tain. The necessity of the times prevented the sacrifice of so many recruits, and after indignant remonstrances, it was deemed expedient to yield to his demands. The commission was prom- ised, and issued after long delay, in September, 1779, to relate back to Jan. 1st, 1777. Such is the account tradition gives of his military rank. The honors, ill won, were not long worn. He was discharged October 14, 1780, at Newark, in New Jer- sey, from Col. Rufus Putnam's regiment.
The deficiency of honorable sentiment in his mental constitu- tion, may be inferred from a characteristic incident. Lafayette had presented in 1780, to cach of the American officers under his immediate command, an elegant sword. Such pledge of regard from the patriot chief, a soldier with a spark of gener- ous feeling, would have cherished as his dearest possession, and transmitted to his posterity as an heirloom of inestimable value. Shays sold the gift of his commander for a few dollars.
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After being disbanded, he retired to Pelham, and lived in ob- security. Bankrupt in fortune and in fame, Shays was ready to embark on the flood of any desperate adventure. Without the energetic decision or enlarged conceptions, the strong spirit or the bold daring, which befit a leader, by some accident, he was elevated to the command of the insurgents. Of capacity too humble to direct the movements of an army in those moments when the force of talent makes itself felt by triumphant results, and turns even obstructions into encouragements, he was weak, vacillating and irresolute. It was providential that the physi- cal power of the arm of rebellion had so feeble a head to direct its błow.
With the first shade of adversity, he made indirect overtures to the agents of government, to abandon his comrades to their fate, on assurance of personal safety ; and when his base propo- sitions were rejected, and promises of indemnity and pardon were offered to his followers, his persuasions induced them to reject the proffered merey and retain the arms of hopeless con- troversy, to purchase by their sacrifice, security for himself.
When the insurrection was crushed, he retired to Vermont. After the lapse of a few years, the General of the rebellion passed through the streets of Worcester, which he once entered at the head of an army, and received assistance from those whose homes he had threatened with desolation.
At length he removed to Sparta, in New York. As a pen- sioner of the United States, he derived his daily bread from the government whose forces he had encountered. in arms. Decla- rations filed in the department of war, by himself, show that his family consisted of an aged wife, and that he lived in ex- treme poverty. He died September 29th, 1825, aged 78.
However much the honor and integrity of Daniel Shays were questioned, his courage was never disputed. He was in the battle of Bunker's Hill, at the capture of Burgoyne, and at the storming of Stony Point; was under Lafayette, and did good service in many bloody encounters. A severe wound, received during the revolution, was honorary testimonial of intrepidity.
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For a few years, after the events already recited, the country enjoyed a good degree of peace and prosperity. There is noth- ing of a public nature recorded, upon the town records, until we come to the year 1808, when the country became greatly agitated, in consequence of an embargo, laid, December 22, 1807, on recommendation of President Jefferson, upon the shipping in the ports of the United States. For many years, American ships had profited, very much, by a general destruc- tion of commerce, in consequence of the wars then transpiring in Europe. As neutrals, our ships had been allowed to enter all ports, in consequence of which privilege, a brisk and profit- able business was done by our shipping. In 1806, England issued her orders to blockade the ports of France and her allies. This order was soon followed, by Napoleon's Berlin decree, closing the harbors of England. In addition to this, England claimed the "right of search," under color of which, American vessels were boarded, on the high seas, and their seamen, im- pressed into the English service. This outrageous conduct, on the part of England, had been strenuously opposed by our countrymen, but had never been disavowed by England.
In 1807, an event occurred, which brought on a crisis with Great Britain. In June of that year, the American frigate Chesapeake, which had just set sail for the Mediterranean, was stopped by the British ship of war Leopard. Her commander refusing to permit a search, she was fired upon and forced to surrender four of her crew. She returned immediately to Hampton Roads. The intelligence of this outrage spread, like a prairie fire, over the whole country, wrapping it in a flame of intensest indignation. But while this outrage was disowned by the English government, and two of the men sent back to America, the order against neutrals entering the ports of France, still remained unrevoked, while a new decree of the French Emperor followed. In order to countervail Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees, and the British orders regarding the block- ade of French ports, congress laid its embargo upon American shipping, prohibiting the departure, from the ports of the
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United States, of all but foreign armed vessels, with public commissions, or foreign merchants' ships, in ballast, or with such cargo only, as they might have on board, when notified of the act. All American vessels, engaged in the coasting trade, were required to give heavy bonds to land their cargoes in the United States. In consequence of such an act of congress, all our commerce was speedily paralyzed, and consequent suffering ensued throughout the country.
The people of Gardner shared in the general inconvenience and suffering. Consequently acting, in the same high toned spirit, which had distinguished them in former years, a spirit which caused them to feel that they were the peers of all Amer- icans, not excepting those highest in authority, they boldly ad- dressed a petition to his excellency, Thoman Jefferson, then on the last year of his second term, as President of the United States, setting forth in becoming phraseology, their difficulties and burdens and calling on him for " a redress of grievances."
It appears, from the records, that a town meeting was called, September 16, 1808, for the special purpose of seeing if the town would take any action, in regard to the difficulties then pending. The second article in the warrant was as follows : " To hear a letter, from the town of Boston, directed to the selectmen of the town of Gardner, to be laid before the inhabi- tants of said town, and act or transact anything relating thereto."
Upon this article the following vote was passed : " Voted, That the town of Gardner draw a petition to send to the Pres- ident of the United States, agreeable to the article in the war- rant for that purpose. Voted, That there be a committee, of three men, chosen to draw this petition. Chose Jonathan Os- good, Aaron Wood and Asa Hill for this committee. Voted, That this meeting be adjourned for one hour and then meet at this place. Met according to adjournment. Voted, That a copy, of this petition, be taken and kept. Voted, That the selectmen sign the petition, and that the said committee that drawed it, forward it on, to the President of the United States."
HISTORY OF GARDNER. 105
That the reader, looking back upon the events of that period and reviewing them in the light of present experiences, may see the " unsuppressive metal" of which the inhabitants of our town were then possessed, we introduce here, as the closing part of this chapter, the exact petition which they voted, in town meeting, to present to Mr. Jefferson. We have no means of ascertaining the effect which this document had upon that solid democrat, except that which we find in the significancy of dates. As will be observed, the petition is dated September 16th, 1808 ; the embargo was repealed February 27th, 1809, making only five months between the date of the petition and the repeal of the act.
The petition was undoubtedly prepared by Mr. Osgood, the first pastor, and ready to be acted upon, when the town should come together. Mr. Osgood was a staunch Federalist.
To the President of the United States :
The inhabitants of the town of Gardner, in the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, in legal town meeting, called for the express purpose of petitioning your Excellency, respectfully represent : That we feel the importance of submitting to, and supporting the laws of our country, in common with the citizens of the United States, and we think we ever have been, and ever shall be willing to make any sacrifice that shall be neces- sary for the true interest and honor of our nation ; but, in time of great distress and trouble, we think it no less our duty, than our privilege, to assemble in a peaceable manner, and petition the government for a redress of grievances. Being impressed with these sentiments, we feel impelled to confess, to your Ex- celleney, that we, in common with our fellow citizens, of New England, suffer great and increasing difficulties from the oper- ation of the laws laying an embargo on the shipping and vessels, in the ports and harbors of the United States of America. Could we perceive an end of our troubles, we would patiently acqui- esce, but, with astonishment, we perceive that the embargo is not a temporary measure, but injoined by perpetual laws. We
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grant that Congress has power to regulate commerce, but to make laws to abolish it, or to prevent all foreign intercourse, we doubt whether this was ever contemplated being granted to that body, by the framers of the constitution of the United States. Your petitioners, living in a district where agriculture is the principal employment of the inhabitants, and therefore cannot, from their own industry, supply themselves with all the conveniences of life and while an interdiction of commerce re- mains, much of the produce of their farms must remain, as a dead weight, upon their hands, or be disposed of to little or no advantage.
It is very evident from the experience of our ancestors, who came into this country with a design, solely to cultivate the soil, that we cannot comfortably live by that, without the aid of for- eign intercourse. And commerce appears to be designed, by God, for the comfort and convenience of mankind, that the different productions of the earth, might be transported from one place to another, for the mutual benefit of man. Being heretofore accustomed to the advantage of commerce, and from the surplusage of our produce, we were enabled to supply our- selves with the conveniences of life. This now being inter- dicted, our encouragement to industry is small, and the embar- rassments we, with all ranks of society, labor under, are great, and many, who, by industry, had arrived to a degree of inde- pendence, in point of property, find it so fallen in value, that it might be nearly or quite all sacrificed, to the disadvantage of their debts.
To extricate themselves from this situation, all their exer- tions avail nothing, and they can only lament the wretched situation into which they are brought, and the prospect of their families being left to depend upon the cold hand of charity for support. Our troubles and distress are rendered more severe by a conviction that the British Provinces, in North America, are, by the embargo laws, acquiring advantage over us, which their natural situation and circumstances, could never have given them. Besides this, the embargo laws, which subject ns
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to such great sufferings, the prospect or policy of which is, to say the least, very doubtful, and the temptation to violate those laws, from the very nature of mankind, is almost irresistible. These laws, we think, will have a great tendency to destroy the morals of society, and to introduce loose principles and a con- tempt for the laws, which are more to be dreaded, than the great waste of property.
From these and various other considerations, which might be mentioned, and particularly from the alteration in the affairs of Europe, your petitioners pray your Excellency, wholly, or partially, to suspend the embargo laws, if in your power; if not, to convene congress, as soon as may be, or if in your wisdom, it should be thought not advisable to call them together, until the time to which they are adjourned, to lay before them when met, the importance of a repeal of those laws, which so severely afflict the inhabitants of the United States.
A true copy, attest,
REUBEN HAYNES, Town Clerk. Dated at Gardner, Sept. 16th, 1808.
There is a pretty well founded conviction, in the minds of our citizens, that Mr. Jefferson made reply to this petition, but, such was its nature and import, that those who received it, never cared to make it public.
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CHAPTER V.
ROADS.
" These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
Draw out our miles and make them wearisome."
-Richard II, Act. II, Scene 111.
AVING observed, somewhat, the conduct of the carly inhabitants, of the town, in their relation to state and national matters, we now return to the more prosaic labor, of considering them, in the ordinary transactions of life. We shall now direct attention to the roads of the town, having first had something to say about roads, as not only a necessity, but also a sign and natural concomitant of human progress. Start- ing from the serpentine trail of the wild man, after which many modern roads seem to have been modeled, and following along through paths denoted by " blazed trees," till we come to the most complete achievements of recent times, we are con- vinced that roads, like other objects in nature, are subject to the scientists' law of evolution and development, with, in many instances, " a survival of the fittest."
Gibbon tells us, in his " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," in speaking of the principal cities of that empire, that " from A. D. 98 to 180, they were connected with each other, and with the capital, by the public highways, which, issuing from the forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be
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found that the great chain of communication, from the north- west to the southeast point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty Roman miles, or three thousand, seven hundred and forty English miles.
" The public roads were actually divided by mile-stones, and ran in a direct line, from one city to another, with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or private property. Mountains were perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road was raised into a terrace, which commanded the adjacent coun- try, and consisted of several strata of sand, gravel and cement, and was paved with large stones, or, in some places near the capital, with granite. Such was the solid construction of the Roman highways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the effort of fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of the most distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse ; but their primary object had been to facilitate the marches of the legions ; nor was any country considered as completely sub- dued, till it had been rendered, in all its parts, pervious to the arms and authority of the conqueror. The advantage of re- ceiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, throughout their extensive dominions, the regular institution of posts. Houses were everywhere erected, at a distance of only five or six miles, each of them was constantly supplied with forty horses, and by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel a hundred miles a day, along the Roman roads."*
It will be seen, from this statement, that public roads, among the Romans, were a " military necessity," and that they far excelled, in solid firmness and smoothness, anything of the sort seen in our own country. But, while Rome was thus favored with good roads, it is evident that she was an exception to most other countries of importance, both before and since the period of which Gibbon writes.
Gibbon's Rome, vol. 1st, p. 63-64.
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According to writers upon Palestine, there never have been, in that country, anything like roads fitted for the passage of wheeled vehicles. Chariots were sometimes used on the plains, and in the lowlands. Only miserable bridle paths exist for the accommodation of travelers. Even in England, according to Macaulay, as late as sixteen eighty-five, the public highways were very poor, and, at certain seasons of the year, well nigh impassable. In speaking of the roads at that time, he says, " it was by the highways that both travelers and goods gener- ally passed from place to place. And those highways appear to have been far worse than might have been expected from the degree of wealth and civilization which the nation had even then attained. On the best lines of communication the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the way often such as it was hardly possible to distinguish, in the dusk, from the unelosed heath and fen which lay on both sides.
" It was only in fine weather that the whole breadth of the road was available for wheeled vehicles. Often the mud lay deep on the right and left, and only a narrow track of firm ground rose above the quagmire. At such times obstructions and quarrels were frequent, and the path was sometimes blocked up during a long time by carriages, neither of which would break the way. It happened almost every day that coaches stuck fast, until a team of cattle could be procured, from some neighboring farm, to tug them out of the slough. But in bad seasons the traveler had to encounter inconveniences still more serious. Thoresby, who was in the habit of traveling between Leeds and the capital, has recorded in his diary, such a series of perils and disasters as might suffice for a journey to the Frozen Ocean or to the Desert of Sahara. On one occasion he learned that floods were out between Ware and London, that passengers had to swim for their lives, and that a higgler had perished in an attempt to cross. In consequence of these tid- ings he turned out of the high road, and was conducted across some meadows, where it was necessary for him to ride to the saddle-skirts in water. In the course of another journey he
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narrowly escaped being swept away by an inundation of the Trent. He was afterwards detained at Stamford four days, on account of the state of the roads, and then ventured to proceed only because fourteen members of the House of Commons, who were going up in a body to parliament with guides and numer- ous attendants took him into their company. On the roads of Derbyshire travelers were in constant fear for their necks, and were frequently compelled to alight and lead their beasts.
"The great route through Wales to Holyhead was in such state that, in sixteen eighty-five, a viceroy, going to Ireland, was five hours in traveling fourteen miles, from St. Asaph to Con- way. Between Conway and Beaumaris, he was forced to walk a great part of the way ; and his lady was carried in a litter. His coach was, with great difficulty, and by the help of many hands, brought after him entire. In general, carriages were taken to pieces at Conway, and borne, on the shoulders of stout Welsh peasants, to the Menai Straits. In some parts of Kent and Sussex none but the strongest horses could, in winter, get through the bog, in which, at every step, they sank deep.
" The markets were often inaccessible during several months. It is said that the fruits of the earth were sometimes suffered to rot in one place, while in another place, distant only a few miles, the supply fell far short of the demand. The wheeled carriages were, in this district, generally pulled by oxen. When Prince George of Denmark visited the stately mansion of Pet- worth, in wet weather, he was six hours in going nine miles ; and it was necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be on each side of the coach. in order to prop it. Of the carriages which conveyed his retinue several were upset or injured. A letter, from one of his gentlemen in waiting, has been preserved in which the unfortunate courtier, complains that, during four- teen hours, he never alighted, except when his coach was over- turned or stuck fast in the mud. People, in the time of Charles the Second, traveled with six horses, because, with a smaller number, there was great danger of sticking fast in the mire."*
*See Macaulay's History of England, vol. 1st, p. 280-284.
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These extracts, from Macaulay, are sufficient to give the reader, not already familiar with the facts, some idea of the condition of roads in England less than two hundred years ago, and show him how patiently and often with what great risk to comfort and life, even the highest noblemen in the king's realm, made their wearisome journeys over the kingdom. Of course, when the Pilgrim Fathers began the settlement of this country, they had to furnish themselves with whatever roads they needed. It must, however, be borne in mind, that, for several years, they had but little occasion for the use of what we now call highways. Only Indian trails, through the forest, or blazed trees, guided them from place to place. But, with increasing and more widely spreading populations, there soon arose the necessity for public highways. This necessity demanded the attention of the General Court in both the Plymouth and Mas- sachusetts colonies, so that we find in the colonial records, fre- quent legislation upon this subject. A few extracts we will here introduce, to show the reader how the people of the colo- nies began that system of highways, which has since spread itself out like net work, over the entire land.
October 1st, 1634, at a court holden before the governor and assistants the following named persons were appointed for lay- ing out the highways : For Duxbury side, Capt. Miles Stand- ish, Mr. William Collier, Jonathan Brewster, William Palmer, Stephen Tracy -- men familiarly associated in the minds of all, with every event of importance in the early colonies, from the landing of the Pilgrims in the Mayflower, to their establish- ment upon a firm basis in town and state.
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