USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Barre > Memorial of the one hundredth anniversary of the Incorporation of the town of Barre, June 17, 1874 ... > Part 14
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ever, that made his name famous. He was. as well. an ardent lover of liberty, a friend and champion of human rights ; and it is for this, Mr. President, sons and daughters of Barre, that our town bears his name, and that we honor and cherish his memory to-day. His experience, while serving his country in America, had taught him to admire the sterling worth and character of the struggling colonists ; and when an opportunity was offered him to raise his voice in their behalf, he did so with a vigor and elo- quence that made tyrants tremble.
In 1765, an attempt was made in Parliament to raise a reve- nue from the British colonies in America. The celebrated Stamp Act was introduced by Mr. Grenville, and although popular with the people of Great Britain, it excited a storm of indig- nation in the colonies. Burke declared that no more than two or three voices were raised against the Act. and there was but one division in the whole progress of the bill. The hopeless minority in which he found himself did not discourage Barré from rising in his seat to denounce the infamous measure. In reply to Townshend, the most prominent supporter of the bill, he made an admirable appeal to the House, which every school-boy knows by heart, and which deserves a place in the memory of every American. Townshend had spoken of the colonists as " children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms." Barré's indignant re- tort produced a great sensation in the House. "They planted by your care?" exclaimed he. "No! your oppressions planted them in America ! They nourished by your indulgence? They grew up by your neglect of them ! They protected by your arms? The sons of liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defence ! The people, I believe," he continued, " are as truly loyal subjects as the King has ; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them should they ever be violated !" This memo- rable speech produced a profound impression in America ; and at a meeting held shortly afterwards in Boston, presided over by James Otis, a committee, composed of eminent citizens, was appointed to draw up an address to Col. Barré, expressing the sincere thanks of the citizens for his noble, generous, and truly patriotic speech in behalf of the colonies. It was also voted
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REMARKS OF MR. GEORGE F. BABBITT.
that his picture be placed in Faneuil Hall as a standing monu- ment to all posterity of the virtue and justice of their benefactor, and as a lasting proof of their gratitude. This was by no means the only effort made by Col. Barré in America's behalf. He fought and voted for Wilkes, the ever-memorable friend of the rights and liberties of America, and on all questions relating to the public welfare he was always found on the side of the op- pressed. Throughout the administration of Lord North, during the war of the Revolution, he distinguished himself as the friend of the colonies, always favoring the noble cause for which our fathers were fighting.
In 1784, just at the close of the American war, Barré was precluded from longer taking part in public affairs by the total loss of his eyesight, a misfortune with which he had been threatened ever since the engagement at Quebec. He finally retired from Parliament in 1790, and spent the remaining twelve years of his life in complete retirement. An interesting anecdote is founded on the fact that Lord North also retired into seclusion at about the same time, and from the same cause, -total blindness. It is said that Barré, being afterwards at Bath, was told that his lordship was also in the city, and Barré replied, with a trace of his former pleasantry, that, though old antagonists, he was sure they would be glad to see each other. During his polit- ical career, Barré held various prominent positions under the government, becoming First Lord of the Board of Trade under his friend and patron, Lord Shelburne, and subsequently Vice- Treasurer of Ireland. He did not dissolve his connection with the army until the year 1773, when his political opinions caused his claims to promotion to be slighted by those in power. Barré felt the insult keenly, and, having attained the rank of a lieu- tenant-colonel, he left the army in disgust. His title of colonel, therefore, was only one of courtesy.
It is fitting to mention also that the " Letters of Junius," the most celebrated and powerful satires on the tyranny of King- craft and Minister-craft that have ever appeared, have been attributed to his pen. Mr. John Britton, a distinguished Eng- lish author and antiquary, wrote a pamphlet in support of this theory, describing Barré as a man of great moral and
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physical courage, a scholar, an acute politician, and fully com- petent to carry out and complete the arduous and hazardous task of writing those famous letters. Barré lived and died a bachelor ; but his personal connections, although almost entirely political, included some of his relations. His oratory is described as having been powerful, but somewhat coarse, his manner rugged, his countenance stern, and his stature athletic.
The following is the brief notice of Col. Barre's death, as related in the " Gentleman's Magazine," under date July 20, 1802 : " At his house in Stanhope Street, May Fair, after two days' ill- ness, in his seventy-sixth year, the Right Honorable Isaac Barré, Clerk of the Pells. His health was declining for a considerable time past ; and a few hours before his dissolution he was seized with a paralytic stroke, which was the immediate cause of his death. Though blind for nearly the last twenty years of his life, he still continued a cheerful companion to the last. He began to distinguish himself as an orator at the same time with his country- man, Edmund Burke, and was a celebrated Parliamentary leader during the American war. The office which has become vacant by his death he had held for fifteen or sixteen years, it having been granted to him during the early part of Mr. Pitt's adminis- tration, in order to save the country the expense of a pension which had previously been granted to the Colonel. It is one of the largest benefices in the gift of the minister, worth three thou- sand pounds a year, and a complete sinecure. Colonel Barré has died possessed of no more than twenty-four thousand pounds, a moiety of which he has bequeathed to the Marchioness of Towns- hend."
Such, Mr. President and fellow-citizens, is the brief story of the life of him whose name is indissolubly connected with the history of our dear old town. There are many other noble things that might be said of him did time permit ; but perhaps sufficient has been narrated to impress upon your minds the loftiness of his aims and the grandeur of his character. Standing almost alone on the side of liberty and justice, waging incessant war upon the foes of American independence, and pleading the cause of our fathers with a power and earnestness that commanded the admi- ration of his opponents, constantly being tempted by his superiors
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REMARKS OF MR. CHARLES E. STEVENS.
in station to barter his fidelity to principle in exchange for royal favor, but never yielding one jot to his would-be seducers, he stands the Sumner of his time, an ardent and consistent lover of freedom, firm and unshaken to the last. How fitting it is, Mr. President, sons and daughters of Barre, that all these sterling virt- ues should have for their lasting monument this prosperous and thriving town, with its broad and fertile acres, its free and en- lightened people, and its noble institutions !
VII. The Early Settlers of Barre : Wisely and well they chose their homes. Wisely and well they laid here the foundations of true social prosperity and happiness, by honoring religion, practising morality, giving to their children a good common education, and setting them an example of economy without meanness, and hospitality without extravagance. May their memory be kept ever green with the residents of Barre !
The PRESIDENT. - A teacher of our High School, and editor of one of our village papers, would be likely to know of what manner of men were the early settlers of Barre ; but when he indicates his judgment of them by taking one of the fair descendants of the first settler of the fifth genera- tion for his wife, he certainly is entitled to speak for them. I therefore introduce to you CHARLES E. STEVENS, Esq., of Worcester.
REMARKS OF MR. CHARLES E. STEVENS.
Mr. President, -How shall I respond to your sentiment? The early settlers of Barre, - has not their case already been settled by the distinguished orator of the day? I think he has so effectually reaped that field that little is left for me but the work of a gleaner. And, even so, I am not like to fare as well as Ruth, the Moabitess, to whom he referred, for she had a generous Boaz, who was careful to leave some ears of wheat for her to gather up. But our Boaz knew that no pretty maiden, or widow even, was to glean after him, and so, I suppose, he did not feel called on to be so particular. However, at the risk of some repetition, I will proceed with what I had to say.
We all know, sir, that New England was chiefly planted with Puritan seed from Old England. But, here and there, seed of a
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different sort was scattered. In Oxford, for example, there was a settlement of French Huguenots. Elsewhere, in various places, there was a liberal sprinkling of so-called Scotch-Irish, or, more properly, Irish-Scotch. Lincoln, in his history, says that a hun- dred families of these people came to this country in a body about the beginning of the last century. Some of them founded the town of Londonderry, New Hampshire, one of whose descend- ants was the late Horace Greeley. Some found a home in Boston. others in Pelham ; and a considerable body pitched in Worcester. Of the latter, a portion pushed on into the wilder- ness and laid the foundations of Barre.
But who and what were these Irish-Scotch? They were sim- ply Scotchmen born in Ireland. This, to be sure, sounds some- what like an Irish bull ; but, nevertheless, it states the precise fact. These men were the descendants of Scotchmen who, in the pre- ceding century, had been forced to leave their own country on accoun't of their religion, and had found a home in the north of Ireland. There, however, they were as oil in the midst of water. The native Irish were of a different blood and a different religion, and there was little, if any, intermingling. But Ireland proved to be only a temporary home. The Scots were still dissenters from the church established there also ; hence they were oppressed ; and hence their emigration to this country. And a good thing for this country it was. Not to speak now of other things, let me remind you that to them it is we owe the introduction of the flax spinning-wheel and the manufacture of linen, and, better still, the potato, that prime article of food on all our tables.
Of these Scotch who settled Barre were the Cunninghams, the Nursses, the Forbeses, the McFarlands, the Blacks, and the Caldwells. Earliest of all was James Caldwell, who is said to have built the first habitation for civilized man in the town. Then came William, his father, a more notable person, who, as an honorary testimonial of his services, had been made free of tax- ation throughout the British provinces .* That was a testimo-
* Lincoln's History of Worcester, page 49. I assume that the William Caldwell who is named by Lincoln is the same William Caldwell who settled in Barre, for the following reasons : I. The William Caldwell, and the only emigrant of that name mentioned by Lincoln, was of the com-
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nial of service ; but he was careful also to bring with him a testi- monial of moral and Christian character, the original of which, written upon parchment, signed by the minister of Dunboe, and dated in the year 1718, it has been my privilege to inspect .* Ex- tremely poor when he came, by his rare energy and enterprise he accumulated great wealth, and became one of the largest land- holders in his day. He lived to be a century old, wanting one year, and may justly be styled the patriarch of the town. His son John, who came over with him, also lived to be near a cen- tury old. Representing the town for many years in the General Court, and its leading magistrate in his own day, he was altogether the most conspicuous figure of the family. And here I must not fail to notice the suggestion which has been made, that John Caldwell, by signing with others a petition for an " accommoda- tion " with the mother-country, had incurred the distrust of his fellow-townsmen. I think, sir, there is a very natural explanation of his course in that matter. He had often sat in the General Court, he had held the King's commission, he had repeatedly taken the oath of allegiance to King George ; and the inevitable effect of all this was to beget a conservative habit of mind. We have had
pany of Scots who came to this country in 1718, and settled in Worcester. 2. The William Caldwell who settled in Barre came to this country in 1718, as his certificate of church-membership attests. 3. He went from Worcester to Barre. The conclusion is most natural, if not inevitable, that the two were one and the same person. There is a difficulty about the exemption from taxation. From the context in Lincoln's account, it might be inferred that the exemption was for services at the siege of Lon- donderry, in 1689, when William Caldwell of Barre could not have been more than five years old. But we are not compelled to adopt such an inference.
* The original was in the possession of the late Seth Caldwell, Esq., of Worcester, a great-grandson, and was as follows : "The bearer, William Caldwell, his wife, Sarah Morrison, with his children, being designed to go to New England in America - These are therefore to testifie they leave us without scandal, lived with us soberly and inoffensively, and may be ad- mitted to Church priviledges. Given at Dunboe Aprile 9, 1718, by
JAS. WOODSIDE, Jr. Minister."
Dunboe is a parish in the barony of Coleraine, county of London- derry, Ireland. Carlisle, Topog. of Ireland. Joyce, in his Irish Names of Places (Dublin, 1871), says that " Dunboe " means " fortress or hill of the cow."
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eminent examples of the same thing in our own day. But if John Caldwell was slow to sever the bond that bound us to the mother- country, he was swift, after it had been severed, to secure to every man his rights. For remember, it was he who aided and abetted the slave Quock in escaping from his master, and gave him shel- ter in his own family. And he it was who became the prime mover in that first memorable trial under our own constitution, the result of which certified to all the world that slavery had for ever ceased to exist within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Under the new order of things, he and his were trusted and hon- ored as under the old ; and, in illustration, I may mention his son William, who in the last years of the last century was the sheriff of the county, and of whom the late Governor Lincoln was wont to say that, of all the sheriff's he had known, William Caldwell was the model sheriff. Let me add only, that while this stock has been transplanted into five or six other States of the Union, where it has taken root and flourished, all here are witnesses that it has never ceased to flourish and bear fruit on this its original soil.
If, now, we turn to the settlers of English blood, we first meet with Joshua Osgood, conspicuous as the first of that race who settled here, and as the ancestor of more than a thousand known descendants. Then come the families of Jenkins, Howland, White, who are said to trace their origin to the Pilgrims of the Mayflower. Next are the Lees, a band of brothers whose frater- nal affection led them to establish themselves in neighborly con- tiguity in a part of the town hence known as " the Lee quarter." Of them sprang General Samuel Lee, the boy-soldier, carrying a musket in the battles of the Revolution at the age of thirteen ; storming a redoubt at Yorktown ; a veteran in his teens, and per- haps the most distinguished man the town has produced. And who of us, at mention of the name of Lee, will not on this occa- sion call to mind that last conspicuous representative of the family, the late Colonel Artemas Lee, of Templeton, also a son of Barre, - a man who, for native force, clear insight, independence, indomi- table will, and all the qualities that go to make a leader of men, had not his superior in the county? Around these, as well as other names, doubtless cluster interesting family histories and traditions, which it would give me pleasure to rehearse were they
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at my command, and which I trust will be forthcoming at the proper time and from the proper source.
Of such were the early settlers of Barre, - Scotch Covenanters and English Puritans. What better seed with which to plant a town? Lord Bacon says, " It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people, and wicked and condemned men, to be the people with which you plant." No such shameful and un- blessed thing marked the origin of this town. Here there were neither penal convicts nor yet idle gentlemen. Barre was neither a Botany Bay nor a Virginia.
And now, if we ask what these men did, I might reply in the words of that inscription in St. Paul's Cathedral to the memory of its architect, Sir Christopher Wren : " If you seek his monument, look around you !" And if you seek their monument, I say, look around you. This town, sir, is their monument, - built by them- selves. They felled its forests, mellowed its soil, outlined its features, impressed its character, introduced civilized life within its savage borders. All that we now see was not, of course, their work ; but what they did made possible and easy what succeeding generations did. They labored, and other men entered into their labors. They bore the brunt. It is the first step that costs, and they took that first step. " Plantations," says Lord Bacon again, "are among heroical works ; " and I would, sir, that we might know just where stood that first log cabin built by James Cald- well, buttressed against a rock, and occupied by him during one whole season in brave solitude. That, I think, is a kind of heroi- cal picture, worthy to fill a panel of any monument that might be erected to the fathers of the town. Doubtless the dwellings which immediately followed that first cabin were, if not like it, yet suffi- ciently plain and primitive ; still, at a comparatively early period, the native energy and good taste of the fathers had developed the town into much of the beauty and fine appearance which it wears to-day. More than eighty years ago, Peter Whitney, the historian of the county, described it in terms that would fitly describe it now. "The pleasantness of Barre," said he, "consists in the richness and fertility of the land, and the large, handsome, well- finished buildings of all kinds." And he adds that "the town then had the largest meeting-house in the county." " Here, too,"
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he continues, " they fat great multitudes of cattle and make the best of beef ; " and " it is supposed that more butter and cheese is carried from hence to market than from any other town of the same extent." The best of land, the best of beef, the most but- ter and cheese, the best buildings, the biggest meeting-house in the county! And this was nearly a century ago. After such a picture, we are prepared for the further statement, from the same authority, that " the town was then one of the foremost in the county, there being but three others which paid a larger State tax." The valuation tables of that period are instructive on this point. From them it appears that in 1772, two years before the incorporation which we to-day commemorate, Barre was only the fourteenth town in the county. In 1778, four years after the in- corporation, it had grown to be the seventh ; in 1782, it was the sixth ; in 1786, the fifth ; and in 1793, the fourth. In exactly twenty-one years, the period of a boy's majority, the town had gone up on the valuation list from the fourteenth place to the fourth. Yes, sir, Barre, almost the youngest town in the county, then ranked next after Worcester, almost the oldest. And this rapid growth, this culminating prosperity, - and here is my point, - this growth and prosperity may fairly be credited to the early settlers, some of whom were still lingering on the stage. For, not to instance others, John Caldwell, who saw the beginning of the town, and died in 1807, lived more than sixteen years after the erection of that largest meeting-house in the county celebrated by Whitney.
But I am trespassing. Let me say, in conclusion, that if the relative position of Barre is now somewhat changed ; if circum- stances beyond her control compel her to halt and wait, I know of no town which can better afford to wait. Her resources are ample, and are within herself. Here she can sit and feed upon the fatness of her hills and bide her time. And that time, sir, - the time of her enlargement, - cannot be distant. We shall yet see the black plume of the locomotive coming up these hill-slopes, and, like the ancient pillar of cloud by day, guiding the multi- tude to the very centre and heart of this land of promise.
VIII. Soldiers and Sons of Barre in late War, living and dead: In rank near the head of the column, and in varied parts all the way down the line, the sons of Barre have well illustrated the character and upheld
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REMARKS OF COLONEL SIBLEY.
the honor of the town ; and to the heroic dead and the honored survivors of that fearful contest we pay the tribute due to the brave defenders of their country's FREEDOM, and to the instrumentalities in the hands of Providence of righting the wrongs of centuries, and wiping out SLAVERY from the scroll of the republic.
Responded to by Colonel H. R. SIBLEY, of Boston, a native of Barre.
REMARKS OF COLONEL SIBLEY.
Ladies and Gentlemen, - I have been prepared to assert and defend the statement for a great many years, that Barre had the bravest men and the fairest women of any town on God's footstool ; and I have found to-day that you have the virtue of endurance, for you have sat here constantly for seven hours to celebrate your centennial. I am proud that on this occasion I can say " I am a son of Barre," although I was not consulted in the matter ; and, so far as I was concerned, I might have been born anywhere else. But I was born in Barre, and to-day I thank God for it. There is something about the people here I like. There is no meanness about them.
But to speak of the soldiers of the war, it does appear to me that my subject has been pretty thoroughly scratched over al- ready to-day, and I don't know that there is much left for me to say. Yet I don't propose to abandon the subject at this early stage. Now, sir, reference has been made to the fact that the men who participated in the act by which Barre was organ- ized were at once required to grapple with a very serious ques- tion. It was this : Should they continue to own allegiance to the mother-country, or should they stand up upon the side of the colonies? They were Englishmen, or the children of Englishmen, and shared in all the traditions and prejudices of that proud peo- ple ; but you know that very early they took their stand in behalf of Liberty and the struggling colonies, that they possessed in their hearts the great virtue of patriotism and the equally great virtue of endurance. For from the beginning to the end of the struggle, in spite of disaster and defeat, they never had a doubt but that they would succeed, and at last, by the blessing of God, they did succeed. They laid, in common with their brethren of other
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towns, the foundations of the republic broad and deep and strong. And so, for three-quarters of a century the government continued to bless this people, and to rejoice the hearts of thousands that panted for liberty all over the world ; and yet there was a serious defect in it, because the fathers had compromised with evil. They had permitted the institution of slavery to exist in this, the boasted land of freedom. " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." So for a long time we were troubled with dissension and the fear of disunion. We were afraid to grapple with the monster evil, but at last it reared its awful head in rebellion. There came at length a call to the loyal men of the republic, one which had been dreaded, because nobody could tell how we should meet it. Men said that here, under this system of government, we had no throne, or other centre around which loyalty could gather ; that we were so absorbed in the pursuit of gain that we were dead to loftier aims. Indeed we did not know ourselves what we could stand. We knew that no words could adequately express our veneration for Amer- ican institutions, our reverence for the flag ; our love for the land of our birth ; its grand old hills, which sit stern and moveless for- ever, its majestic rivers, and its broad fields and prairies, green in spring-time but golden in harvest. Yes, as all these rose up before us, we knew that we loved our country, but we did not know how much till it was threatened with destruction. At last the call came. It came to the sons of Barre, both to those who lived here and to those who had left their native town. They heard it ; nobly they responded to it. We very soon proved that a government like this, where the people are sovereigns, and where no man calls another man " master," was not only capable of promoting the growth, prosperity, and happiness of the people, but that it was the strongest to resist both external and internal attacks that was ever set up among men.
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