USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > West Brookfield > Quabaug, 1660-1910 : an account of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration held at West Brookfield, Mass., September 21, 1910 ; > Part 8
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" Voted, That it be recommended to the several towns "in this county, to choose proper military officers, and "a sufficient number for each town, and that the captains, "lieutenants, and ensigns, who are chosen by the people "in each regiment, do convene, on or before the tenth day "of October next, at some convenient place in each regi- "ment, and choose their field officers to command the "militia until they be constitutionally appointed, and "that it be recommended to the officers in each town of the "county, to enlist one third of the men of their respective "towns, between sixteen and sixty years of age, to be "ready to act at a minute's warning; and that it be recom- "mended to each town in the county, to choose a sufficient "number of men as a committee to supply and support "those troops that shall move on any emergency."
" Voted, That it be recommended to the company officers "of the minute men, to meet at Worcester, on the 17th " of October next, at ten o'clock of the forenoon, to propor- "tion their own regiments, and choose as many field officers "as they shall think necessary.
"Voted, That it be recommended to the justices of the "county, that they liberate any persons confined in jail
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"for debt, who are entitled to such liberation by the laws "of the province."
And a remonstrance to General Gage was prepared and sent on December 6th: "Voted, To recommend to the sev- "eral towns in this county, to give it in charge to their " constables and collectors, on their peril, not to pay any "public moneys to Harrison Gray, Esq., late treasurer of "this province, and to indemnify them for paying it where "the towns shall order them to pay.
"Voted, That the inhabitants of each town in this "county, order their assessors not to return any certificates "of the lists of assessments made by them, to Harrison "Gray, Esq., late treasurer of the province, and that "they indemnify them therefor." * * *
* *
"Voted, To choose a committee of nine persons, any "two of whom to go to the field officers of the county of Worcester, to know the reason why they have not resigned "their commissions to the governor, and published such "resignation in the Boston newspapers, agreeably to a "vote of this convention at a former meeting, and demand "a categorical answer, whether they will comply or not "with said requisition, and make report to this body at "their next meeting."
On January 27th, the following: "Whereas, Isaac "Jones of Weston, in the county of Middlesex, innholder "and trader, has, by his conduct of late years, in various "instances, manifested a disposition inimical to the rights "and privileges of his countrymen: therefore,
" Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to all the "inhabitants of this county, not to have any commercial "connections with said Isaac Jones, but to shun his house "and person, and treat him with that contempt he deserves. "and should any persons in this county be so lost to a sense "of their duty, after this recommendation, as to have any "commercial connection or dealings with said Jones, we
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"do advise the inhabitants of this county to treat such "persons with the utmost neglect."
On May 31st, 1775, when Captain Baldwin of Brookfield was clerk pro tempore: "Resolved, That a committee be "appointed, to take into consideration the subject of allow- "ing those who are inimical to the country, to exercise the "right of voting in town meetings."
In September, 1774, Captain Baldwin and Captain Phinehas Upham were elected delegates to the Provincial Congress, to be held at Concord in October, and Judge Foster to represent the town at the General Court at Salem in the same month, which, upon the proclamation by Governor Gage revoking his call of this assembly, resolved itself, with the delegates specially elected for that purpose, into the First Provincial Congress. They with others were also chosen a committee of correspondence. In December, Judge Foster was elected delegate to the Provincial Congress, to be held at Cambridge the next February. At the same meeting, it was "Voted unanimously that this town do fully approve "of the association of the Continental Congress, and that "they will strictly adhere to the same in all respects."
"Minute or Picquit-men" were organized. Brookfield soldiers marched to Lexington, fought at Bunker Hill and served their country throughout the Revolutionary War; some at Valley Forge. Two of the most distinguished engi- neers in the Continental Army were General Rufus Putnam and Colonel Jeudethan Baldwin, who had acquired their education in the last French and Indian War. New Brain- tree and the other towns of Worcester County then also rendered great services to the country.
Brookfield had great influence in the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Jedediah Foster served on the commit- tees appointed by the First and Second Congress to "take into consideration the state of the province"; upon the com- mittee "to consider what is necessary to be done for the defence and the safety of the province"; upon that to receive
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returns from the town committees of correspondence of Worcester County; upon the one that provided a method for the collection and payment of outstanding taxes, the pay- ment of which to the former Treasurer had been forbidden because that officer was in sympathy with the Crown; upon one to take into consideration the expediency of establishing post offices and riders; and upon others to prepare a form for the currency and to supervise the engraving, with authority given him to countersign the larger notes. His experience in preparing resolutions and reports of Brookfield meetings and in the General Court, caused his constant selection to prepare and revise resolutions, reports and other documents, including an appeal to the Continental Congress; to prepare, for the use of the delegation to the Continental Congress, statistics of the population of the province and of the amount of its exports and imports; to select such resolves and orders of the Provincial Congress as were proper for publication; and to prepare for publication, a narrative of the excursion of the King's troops, which occasioned the fight at Lexington and Concord, together with depositions in support of the same. His reputation for diplomacy was the cause of his appointment as one of the two delegates to repair to Con- necticut, to inform that colony "that we are contemplating "upon, and are determined to take effectual measures for "that purpose," security and defense, "and for the more "effectual security of the New England colonies and the "continent, to request them to co-operate with us, by "furnishing their respective quotas for general defence." The fact, that he was from Brookfield and his experience there in equipping the troops for the French and Indian War, secured his appointment upon all of the important commit- tees concerning military affairs, including the organization of the artillery and the recommendation of a form of military exercise. A resolution drawn by him was adopted, recom- mending "to the inhabitants of this province, that in order "to their perfecting themselves in the military art, they
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NEW BRAINTREE CHURCH Built 1800. Destroyed by fire April 1, 1911
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"proceed in the method ordered by his majesty in the year "1764, it being, in the opinion of this Congress, best cal- "culated for appearance and defence." He was also a member of committees to prepare the oath of office to admin- ister to generals, and the commission for General Artemas Ward, and during the recess of the First and Second Provincial Congress, to prepare a plan for the regulation and discipline of the militia. He brought to the Third Congress some mineral earth, discovered in large quantities in Brookfield, which contained matter use- ful for the production of nitre, and an officer was sent to the town to make experiments there. On June 12th, 1775, he and two others were appointed "to repair to the
"fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake "Champlain, to inquire into the importance of holding "those posts, and also into the method by which they are "maintained; to establish there, in the pay of said colony, "so many men to defend the same posts as they should "judge necessary, not exceeding four hundred; and the "said committee were also, by said Congress directed, "when they should have made themselves fully acquainted "with the situation and importance of said posts, respec-
"tively to signify their thoughts thereon." Ticonderoga had, a short time before, been surrendered to Ethan Allen, upon his demand "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." A serious difficulty had arisen be- tween him and Benedict Arnold, in which Arnold claimed the right to command under orders of Massachusetts and Allen under the authority of Connecticut. The Continental Congress had recommended that the stores at Ticonderoga be removed to the southern end of Lake George. The colony of New York was in favor of this. But in New England, it was considered of vital importance that the command of Lake Champlain should be retained. A delicate and difficult situation consequently met the committee, which was heightened when they reached the ground by the refusal of
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Benedict Arnold to serve under a Connecticut officer as directed by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, his resignation, his order for the disbandonment of the men whom he had raised; and by their threatened mutiny. The committee guaranteed these men their pay and enlisted four hundred to defend the lake. They reported accordingly to the Provincial Congress, with a schedule of the military stores which they had found.
"Your committee are of opinion, that the maintaining "of those ports is of the utmost importance to the security "of the colony of New York and the New England colonies, "which was a sufficient inducement to the committee to "continue in the pay of this colony the number of men "before mentioned. The fortresses not being at present "tenable, then there must be a sufficient number of men "to command the lake, and prevent the enemy from land- "ing. Your committee are of opinion, that the best "security of those posts in their present state, is by armed "vessels of various construction, to be kept constantly " cruising on the lake, and small boats with swivel guns to "act as scouts, which will effectually prevent the army "from sudden surprise. Your committee have, agreeably "to their instructions, advised the Hon. American Con- "gress, the Hon. Convention of the Colony of New York, "and the Governor of Connecticut, by respectfully signify- "ing to them, their opinion of the importance of the main- "taining those posts, and the measures for effecting the "same." The report was unanimously adopted and the committee received the thanks of the Congress for their services. Their work resulted in preserving the control of Lake Champlain for two years.
In a town meeting May 22nd, 1776, the question was passed in the words of a resolve of the General Court:
"That this Town would support the Honorable Con- "gress in the measure, if they for our liberty should see "fit to declare the colonies Independent of Great Britain."
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In March, 1777, a town meeting established the price of articles and labor. Amongst other items, "Farming "labour from the 20th day of June to the 20th day of "August, shall not exceed 3 shillings per day, and from the "20th day of Nov'r to the 20th day of Jan'y, shall not "exceed 1s. 6d. per day. Indian corn meal shall not "exceed 3s. per B'., good grass-fed beef 212 pence per lb., "stall-fed do., 3d. Good butter, 914 pence per lb., firkin "do., 814 per lb. Good yard wide Tow cloth 2s. per yard. "Striped y'd wide flannel 3s. 4d.
* * A good meal "of meat victuals of the common sort shall not exceed
"9d. * * * For making men's shoes shall not exceed "2s. 8d. per pair. *
* A Doctor shall not exceed "6d. (six pence) per mile in his charge in travel to visit "his Patience. For men's common boarding
"by the week shall not exceed 7s." In April, 1777, it was voted: "that the inhabitants of this town will not only "strictly adhere to and observe the act of the General "Court called the Regulating Act, But also use our ut- "most endeavors to detect and bring to punishment those "unfriendly selfish persons who at this important crisis "shall have the effrontery to counteract the good and "wholesome laws in this State." By that time, the re- venue was so exhausted in the enlistment and equipment of soldiers and care for their families, that the town was obliged to vote "to raise no money for schooling." Four years later, the citizens were unable to collect money to pay the thirty-three soldiers which the town had been directed to supply. The men were allowed to select any citizens, whom they might choose, as security for the performance of its promise by the Second Precinct. And the greater part of their pay was given in cattle; twenty three year olds "of middling bigness," to be the equivalent of £90. One-seventh of the ablebodied men in North Brookfield had volunteered or been drafted for military service. Such were some of the sacrifices which our ancestors of that generation
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suffered for the freedom and prosperity we now enjoy.
Notwithstanding the overthrow of the established government, order was generally observed. But the two crimes which most disgrace the memory of Brookfield were committed during those troublous years. On the evening of March 11th, 1778, Joshua Spooner, while returning from Cooley's Tavern, was killed and his body thrown into his own well by three former soldiers, living in the house, who were hired to commit the crime by his wife Bathsheba. The four were tried and found guilty at the April term of the Superior Court of Judicature in Worcester before a jury and a full bench consisting of Chief Justice Cushing and his associates, Foster, Sargent, Sewell and Sullivan. The only report is printed from the notes of Judge Foster. The criminals were hung at Worcester on July 2nd of the same year, in the presence of thousands of people. The condition of the woman made her execution the subject of monstrous horror. In the following year, Robert Young, a Brookfield laborer, was convicted and hung at Worcester for a crime in this village, of such a character as is now usually punished by Lynch Law in the South.
On May 25th, 1778, a town meeting voted "to accept "of the Confederacy of the Continental Congress and to "enjoin it to our Representatives that they consent to the "same." The same meeting, by a vote of eighty-four to twenty, concurred with a majority of the towns in this commonwealth by rejecting the State constitution proposed by the legislature. The chief cause of dissatisfaction with that proposition by the legislature was the apportionment of the members of the two houses; but there were other objections, many of which were formulated in proceedings of the Essex County Convention, held at Ipswich, April 29th, 1778; the report of which, although now little read, deserves careful study by all who would understand our system of constitutional law.
In the following year, Brookfield approved a State
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convention, for the sole purpose of forming a new constitu- tion and elected Jedediah Foster delegate to the same. He was appointed by the convention upon the committee to draft the instrument, subsequently adopted by the people.
The town tradition, handed down from generation to generation, seems to establish the fact that although valuable assistance may have been given by John Adams, the draft of that great State paper in the form nearest that finally or- dained, was written by Judge Foster's hand in the Foster House on Foster's Hill.6 That State constitution, more than any other, was copied by the Federal Convention in framing the Constitution of the United States. The doc-
6 The grandson of John Adams with commendable filial piety has inserted in the former's works the first draft of that Constitution, together with the claim that it was entirely written by John Adams. There is no mention of this in the diary or autobiography of Adams, nor in any contemporaneous publication. No manuscript draft or copy by the second President has been found. The sole authority for the statement is an unpublished letter by him to W. D. Williamson, dated February 5th, 1812, and not included in his works, nor ever published, so far as the writer can ascer- tain, This was written when the Ex-President was seventy-seven; when his memory as to what occurred in the Convention was impaired, as is admitted by Charles Francis Adams in another connection. (John Adams' Works, IV, p. 216); and when, as is often the case at that period of life, he was not inclined to excessive modesty concerning his earlier achievements. John Adams himself complains of the inaccuracy of his memory in several instances. (See, for example, his letters to Mrs. Mercy Warren of June 10th, 1813 and July 15th, 1814; Ibid. X, pp. 41, 99.) Moreover, in a contem- poraneous letter, written to Benjamin Rush November 6th, 1779 (Ibid. IX, p. 617). John Adams expresses regret that the committee did not adopt his wishes as to the composition of the legislature. He is undoubtedly entitled to full credit for the inser- tion in the draft of an extraordinary clause giving to the governor the right to an absolute veto, the power which had long since become obsolete in England. (See Defense of the Constitution of the Government of the United States of America, Vol. I, Ch. III.)
On the other hand, the tradition of Brookfield that the draft of the instrument was written by Jedediah Foster is corroborated by the statement in the Boston Gazette of November 9th, 1779: that his death was hastened by his labors upon that instrument.
Both John Adams and Jedediah Foster were members of the Committee of Thirty selected by the Convention to draft the Constitution. There is no record of the pro- ceedings of that committee, except the draft contained in their report, which was first published in 1832 and was afterwards reprinted as part of the Works of John Adams. Judge Foster died October 17th, 1779, eleven days before the report was presented to the Convention. John Adams sailed for Europe November 13th, 1779, two weeks after the presentation of the report, while it was still under discussion.
It is believed that to any dispassionate mind acquainted with the writings of both, the style of the document will appear to resemble that of the older more nearly than that of the younger statesman. It is smoother than the authentic writings of John Adams.
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trine of the separation of the three powers, the Judicial, Legislative and Executive; the modification of the royal veto, so as to authorize it when exercised by the governor, to be overruled by two-thirds of each legislative house; the express ordinance that revenue bills should origi- nate in the lower house with power in the Senate to amend the same; that concerning the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and other provisions, were there before they appeared in any other written constitution of the world. The declaration "to the end that this may be a government of laws not of man," which was borrowed from Harrington, has become an imperishable maxim of constitutional juris- prudence. This is said to have been Brookfield's contribu- tion to the constitutional history of the world.
Jedediah Foster did not live to see his final work ratified by the people. While engaged upon his mission on behalf of Massachusetts to Fort Ticonderoga, he had crossed Lake Champlain in an open boat during a storm and received a chill, resulting in an illness from the effects of which he never recovered. His illness was increased by the confinement, necessitated by his labor upon the constitution. And he died October 17th, 1779, at the age of fifty-five.
His leadership passed to his third son, Dwight, then only twenty-two years of age, who was graduated at Brown University five years before and after teaching school at New Braintree and elsewhere and military service in the defence of New England was then practicing law at Provi- dence. Immediately upon his father's death, he returned to Brookfield. He presided at the town meeting in the following May to consider the new constitution. He was elected to succeed his father as delegate to the Constitution- al Convention, and in the State Legislature. He was a member of the Lower House of Congress for seven years, 1793-1800, during the second administration of Washington and the administration of John Adams. He was in the Senate of the United States during four succeeding years,
e
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1800 to 1803 inclusive, at the end of which he resigned because of his ill health. He was high in the councils of the Federal- ist party; but on friendly terms with Thomas Jefferson; who, however, in his Ana, says that they became estranged be- cause of a conversation in 1801, during the Presidential election by the House, when Judge Foster, who was then a Senator, inquired as to Jefferson's intentions as to the navy, the public debt and the removal of Federal officeholders. While he represented Massachusetts in the Senate, his brother Theodore sat in the same body as Senator from Rhode Island. The latter became a Democrat. One of them was known by his colleagues as "Foster the Wise"; the other as "Foster the Foolish." The tradition of Brook- field is that the former term was applied to the Senator from Massachusetts. What is the tradition of Rhode Island on this subject, my researches have not enabled me to ascer- tain. No other citizen of Brookfield has been a member of the Senate of the United States. Jabez Upham, a son of Captain Upham of the French Wars, who later served in the House of Representatives, is the only other that has been a member of Congress. After Dwight Foster's return from the Senate, he served for ten years as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was also a member of the governor's council and held other State and local offices. He died April 29th, 1823, aged sixty-six. During his youth, he kept a journal; and later while in Congress, it was his custom by every mail, in a letter to his wife, to describe what he had done and seen. These manuscripts have been pre- served, but have not been printed, although they afford much valuable information concerning the manners of his time. Such of the records as remain show his constant interest in the affairs of the town. He usually acted as moderator at its meetings. He was also the source from which his neighbors drew advice, practical as well as juridical. Tradition says that during the latter part of his life, whenever he was strong enough to see his neighbors in the ell added to
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the old house by his father, for an office, Foster's Hill was black with carriages.
In May, 1780, by a vote of one hundred and forty-three against eleven, the town ratified the new constitution, upon which he and his father had labored. At the following election in September, only one vote was cast against the Federalist, John Hancock for governor, although there was a tie between the candidates for the State Senate.
Brookfield has been always a believer also in a strong national government. In 1784, its representative in the General Court was instructed "if we mean to support our "dignity as a nation every effort ought to be used to "strengthen the union and render the bonds indissolu- "able." During the same year, Brookfield celebrated the Fourth of July for the first time. There was a barbecue of an ox, roasted with hoofs and horns, on West Brookfield plain. It was served with bread and plenty of rum and water, accompanied by the successive explosions of thirteen large chestnut logs.
But the town's sacrifices to secure independence left the citizens in a condition of great poverty after the success of the Revolution. Money was so scarce that cattle were used for currency, as was the custom in prehistoric times. Beef was rarely eaten, and when cooked was boiled, since the waste of its juice on the spit or gridiron was considered a ruinous extravagance. A dish of hash at an evening party was a great luxury. Bean porridge was the usual food and white bread was rarely seen. In one family, it did not appear on the table during ten years. In 1798, there was but one brick house in Brookfield. No vehicle was driven from Boston to Springfield until the end of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. Till then, no more than four two-wheeled chaises were owned there; an increase of but one in fifty years. And before 1812, no wagon here had springs. It is therefore not unnatural that Shay's Rebellion, which opposed the collection of debts, had some supporters here and in the
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