USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Reminiscences of Salem, Massachusetts : embracing notices of its eminent men known to the author forty years ago > Part 11
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In the taverns, and under the more modern roofs that crowned the mansions of such patriots as Mason, Gard- ner, Williams and Derby,* the kitchens echoed with the
* Capt. Thomas Mason was in early life a cooper, then a master mariner, and afterwards an opulent merchant. He built in 1755 the house now owned and occupied by F. S. Peck, No. 133 Essex street. He died July, 1801, aged 78.
Capt. Jonathan Gardner, son of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Gardner) Gardner, born in Salem, May 23, 1728, died March 2, 1791; m. Sarah Putnam. A master mariner, for many years held important offices in the Salem Marine Society, owned and lived in the house that stood on the site of the late Dr. B. Cox's house, No. 132 Essex street.
Capt. George Williams, son of Henry Williams, m. Lydia, dau. of Timothy and Mary (Wingate) Pickering. A master mariner and wealthy merchant; bought in 1756 the three story wooden house taken down in 1830, that stood on the western part of the estate on Essex street recently sold by the heirs of the late Col. F. Peabody to Dr. S. H. Holbrook. He died in June, 1797. He was one of the board of war in the revolution.
Capt. Richard Derby, son of Richard and Martha (Hasket) Derby, b. Sept. 16, 1712, d. Nov. 9, 1783; m., first, Mary, dau. of Gamaliel and Sarah (Williams) Hodges; 2d, Mrs. Sarah (Langley) widow of Dr. Ezekiel Hersey, of Hingham, who endowed several professorships in Harvard College (she founded the Derby Academy in Hingham). In early life a master mariner, afterwards an eminent and successful merchant, the father of Richard Derby, jr., a member of the com- mittee of safety and correspondence, and an ardent patriot during the revolution, who d. March 20, 1781, and Elias Hasket Derby, an eminent merchant and one of the pioneers in the East India trade. He died in 1799.
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clatter of preparations for distinguished guests : there was an odor of savory herbs, and spits creaked before the open fires. Gilded and painted beaufets, now freshly dusted and thrown wide open, proffered decanters of choice cordials, or wines from Lisbon and the Western Isl- ands, and on the sideboards, home-made raisin-wine, gin and West-India rum were holiday companions of the uni- versal beverage prepared in the neighboring distilleries.
Along the wharves, the shipping lay, idly flying the united crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, but de- serted except by a few stevedores, or, possibly, some gauger or other officer of the impost. Merchant and mariner, smith and shipwright, caulker and graver, had gone up to the neighborhood of the town-house, to see the Representatives and to discuss the momentous ques- tions of the day with the carpenters, masons, tanners, shopkeepers, and husbandmen who thronged the place, usually the exclusive haunt of the patriarchs of the town, idle gentlemen and town officers.
This edifice, of which, unfortunately, no contemporary picture is known to exist, stood in the morning shadow of the steeple where, it is said, the exuberant fancy of the youthful Hawthorne excogitated some of those weird dreams which have possessed our minds with their ghastly and bewitching images. Close beside it stood the old town pump, now of world-wide fame; and its northern wall nearly coincided with the line upon which stands the southern parapet of the Eastern railroad tunnel. Its lower story was the town-house proper. Here for more than half a century the freeholders had held their town meetings, and the selectmen had consulted on municipal affairs. On the walls still hung, shrivelled and dusty, a few scalps of those fierce Algonquins, upon whom our fathers inflicted their own methods of punishment in the long and sanguinary Indian wars. These trophies,
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having been purchased not only with precious blood but with liberal bounties from the town treasury, were the property of town or province, and, not being of a nature to excite cupidity, had remained, repulsive me- mentos of some of the darkest days in our provincial annals, and a terror to superstitious boys .*
High against the northern wall of the room above, in bold relief, were affixed the royal arms of Great Britain, bravely supported by the traditional lion and unicorn. Beneath these arms was the bench for the judges of the Superior Court of Judicature, and the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and, continuous with the bench, and run- ning south, for twenty feet, on the eastern and western sides, were the forms for the justices of the county, when they sat as a court of Sessions. A line from the southern end of these forms enclosed a space containing the jury seats,-immediately in front of the justices ; and the bar, with a seat in front, and flanked by boxes for the sheriff and crier. Before the bench and between the · two juries, was an open space, provided with a table and seats for the convenience of suitors and their counsel. ¡
.. I will not detain you by attempting to finish this imper- fect outline, which I have sketched by the aid of hints laboriously gathered from forgotten files and faded records, and from the more unsatisfactory lips of tradition. It is to be regretted that some one had not deemed a full and exact picture of this historic structure worthy of his pen or pencil, before the many old people who remembered it perfectly had passed away.
* My authority for this is the late William W. Oliver, who told me that these scalps were buried when the old building was removed, after its purchase by Henry Rust and Benjamin Brown, Oct. 11, 1785.
t From a "portra" of the court-room by Nathaniel Bowen and Wm. Bourn, Dec. 29, 1763, in the files of the Court of Sessions.
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When the whole Assembly met here in June, the upper room was the hall of the Representatives. The Council chamber may have been below, or, more likely, in the old tavern opposite, on the site now covered by the Stearns Building ; while the Governor, doubtless, had rooms not far distant, or, possibly, he may have remained at his head-quarters in Danvers.
On this occasion, the whole body of legislators, con- sisting of the assembled ninety, found ample space in the court room I have described, which was fifty feet long and thirty feet wide.
Of course the Governor was not expected ; but, that they might not be charged with unseemly haste or dis- courtesy, the Assembly did no formal business on the first day. No doubt there were earnest discussions of matters requiring future action ; but there was no one to admin- ister the official oaths, and no message from Governor or Council, and the time spent, in this show of respect for the King's immediate representative, could be well im- proved by an interchange of views and the arrangement of business for the morrow.
In the afternoon the Governor had not arrived, and the Assembly adjourned. The evening's discussions were but unfoldings of the day's thoughts. Night fell upon the quiet town. The last lamplight had disappeared, and the sound of the watchman's cry, " All is well !" blended into patriotic dreams, and then fell on unconscious ears .* Suddenly, at the stroke of three, by the town clock, the whole town was startled by the cry of "fire." Seizing their leathern buckets, j and rushing toward the town- . house, the roused sleepers saw a dense volume of smoke
*The night watch was reorganized and increased after this fire.
t Several of these, of different dates, are preserved in the cabinets of the Essex Institute.
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issuing from the warehouse of Col. Frye, which stood on Essex street, then Queen street, nearly opposite the entrance of Barton square, and just above the meeting house of the society under the charge of the Rev. Na- thaniel Whittaker. The little engines,-one of which, with unwarrantable generosity, was given, a few years" ago, to the firemen of Philadelphia, -were unable to check the progress of the flames; and not until a large force of strong and active workers, from Marblehead, had re- lieved our exhausted townsmen, was the fire subdued.
When the Representatives assembled in the morning, four-and-twenty buildings, including the meeting-house, lay smouldering in ruins, before the town-house door. Even this structure had not escaped injury, but was saved by the active exertions of the Marblehead men after its fair, painted front had been scorched and blistered, its windows cracked, and its front cornice nearly consumed.
The Assembly now organized ; John Hancock was cho- sen chairman, and Benjamin Lincoln, clerk. A committee was then appointed to consider the Governor's proclama- . tion and to consult on measures to be adopted, and the Assembly again adjourned.
On Friday, the 7th of October, the committee reported four resolutions, concluding with the declaration that the grievances which they set forth were such as, "in all good governments," had " been considered among the greatest reasons for convening a parliament or assembly," and that the proclamation was further proof of the necessity of "most vigorous and immediate exertions for preserving the freedom and constitution" of the province.
The resolutions were .immediately adopted, and there- upon the following vote was passed : -
Voted, that the members aforesaid do now resolve themselves into a PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, to be joined by
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such other persons as have been or shall be chosen for that purpose, to take into consideration the dangerous and alarming situation of public affairs in this province, and to consult and determine on such measures as they shall judge will tend to promote the true interest of His Majesty, and the peace, welfare, and prosperity of the province."
Having thus solemnly renounced the authority of par- liament, and affirmed the fundamental right of the people to institute a government, when in their judgment the regular administration had overstepped the limits of the constitution, they adjourned to more comfortable quar- ters at Concord, to meet on the following Tuesday.
Here they organized the Congress by raising Hancock to the presidency, and electing Lincoln secretary. At Concord and at Cambridge they continued their sittings, with a few weeks intermission, until the 10th of December. Their progress towards practical independence was now sure and speedy. Before the end of October, all consta- bles and collectors of taxes had submitted to their order to withhold payment from Harrison Gray, the province treasurer, and to return their collections to Henry Gard- ner, who, soon after, was appointed receiver-general ; and, with closed doors, and under a solemn pledge of secrecy, they had resolved upon the momentous subject of "the most proper time" to procure arms and ammunition, by unanimously adopting a report that "now is the time !"*
By midsummer, three sessions had been held, had transacted business, and finally dissolved. On the day of their dissolution they again assembled, by the recommen- dation of the Continental Congress, as an independent government under the Charter.
Before this reorganization, the established tribunals of
* Journals of the Provincial Congress, Oct. 24, p. 29.
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justice, which had either ceased to hold sessions or were disregarded by the people, had been replaced by a Court of Inquiry, to insure the preservation of order; the es- tablishment of a navy had been favorably reported upon, and the great work of raising and equipping an army had been accomplished. Under the new style of government, the Council and Representatives removed the judges who had been appointed by Royal governors, and issued com- missions to new magistrates of their own selection.
Thus, in less than ten months from the taking of their first bold step at Salem, the new regime was in the full exercise of the three great functions of government,- legislative, judicial and executive. The sword, the purse and the scales thus taken possession of by the people, . have been held by them with unyielding grasp from that time to the present.
Let me here call your attention to a fact which im- parts a character to this revolution in the Assembly, more important than has been sometimes surmised. The idea of a provincial congress had been suggested on the 31st of August, by a convention of the frecholders of Middle- 'sex, who, after Boston fell into the possession of the enemy, were foremost in their active opposition to tyr- anny ; but the congress contemplated by them was a vol- untary organization ; it had no connection with the previ- ous government, and could in no sense claim legality or authority. The inhabitants of Boston who, on the 26th of September held their town meeting for the choice of representatives to the Assembly at Salem, improved the opportunity to choose, also, delegates to Concord, where, by common consent, the voluntary congress or convention was to be held.
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The vote of the assembly, therefore,-all the members of which had been legally elected in the manner pre-
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scribed by the charter, and under the call of the Gov- ernor,-must be considered the legitimate act of the province, in the only way in which the province could express its pleasure.
From this fact the movement in Salem derives a pecu- liar significance, and we have a right to claim that it was that first official act of the province by which she put herself in open, actual opposition to the Home Govern- ment.
Salem is not, however, to claim any precedence or honor for this event, beyond what is involved in the circum- stance that the deed was here performed - an honor sin- ilar to that claimed by Philadelphia in regard to the Declaration of Independence.
While the Legislature was thus employed, the people were busy arming and organizing the militia. Through the autumn and winter, colonels of regiments, and other military officers, who were not in known sympathy with the popular movement, were either forced to resign, or the men under their command voluntarily disbanded and reorganized under other leaders. New companies were started, beginning with an artillery company in Marble- head for which subscriptions were opened early in No- vember.
The expedition of Col. Leslie, on the 26th of Febru- ary, 1775, and the affair at the North Bridge in Salem, when the first bloodshed of the revolution occurred, pre- sent a theme inviting discussion, when the anniversary of that day arrives. To this subject I only advert, as to one incident among many, indicating to what lengths the people were then prepared to go in resenting what they deemed unconstitutional interference.
Col. Leslie's encounter, however, led to two other pro- ceedings, important as illustrating the determined spirit
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of independence here prevalent. The surprise and in- dignation which that event excited were followed by a conviction of the necessity of more thorough preparation for hostilities. Accordingly, the town militia were more diligently exercised, and a general muster was ordered, to take place in School street, now Washington street, on the 14th of March. All persons liable to military duty were summoned to appear, equipped with proper arms and accoutrements .*
Burning with indignation at the outrage attempted by Leslie, the recollection of which grew more exasperating with the lapse of time, the sight of the colors under which their invaders marched was intolerable to the militia. Another standard was therefore prepared, to be used for. rallying the men, and, afterwards, to be displayed at the muster ; and an ample sheet of pure, white bunting, bear- ing, on one side, a green pine-tree, and, on the reverse, the words, "an appeal to Heaven," was received with general applause. ¡ The brig Betsey, carrying, as passengers, two
* Essex Gazette, 1775, No. 345.
t The silence of the military journals of the revolution, and of the contemporary press and historians, on so important a matter as the flag borne by the colonial forces, has given rise to doubts, which have not yet been removed, as to the date of adoption and the extent of use of the several flags which are known to have preceded the "stars and stripes." Probably, in the beginning of the conflict, each colony chose its own device; and after the forces were combined a general standard was agreed upon which varied in some small particulars at different times and places. All that is known on the subject may be found in Preble's admirable " History of the American Flag." Albany : 1872.
The Massachusetts Assembly formally adopted the pine-tree flag, April 11, 1776; but it had been in use here the previous year. It was, undoubtedly, the flag mentioned in Paul Lunt's diary, July 18, 1775. In the autumn of 1775 it was used on the floating batteries about Boston, and also by our privateers.
The first vessel of the American navy, the " Alfred," Com. Hopkins_
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refugees from Salem,* conveyed the news to Bristol, and, on the 17th of April, two days before the Battle of Lex- ington, the "Gentlemen's Magazine" announced to the British public that the Americans had hoisted their stan- dard of liberty at Salem.
If the spirits of the departed were ever permitted to
displayed a flag nearly identical with this in Dec., 1775. Naturally, vessels of war would adopt the standard recognized in the chief mari- time towns, from which they either sailed or received enlistments, and the fact of the appearance of this flag in 1775 on the high seas would seem to confirm the uniform tradition that this was the "stan- dard of liberty " raised in Salem.
A still stronger corroboration of the tradition was the display, at Salem, of the pine-tree banner, in the semi-centennial celebration of July 4, 1826, and the frequent reference then made to it as " the revo- lutionary banner," in the presence of many surviving soldiers of the revolution, chief among whom, and president of the day, was the veteran Col. Timothy Pickering.
Mr. Colman, the orator of the occasion, pointing to the banner, ex- claimed, "There stands the simple and affecting memorial of this great event, upborne by the same hands which sustained it in that trying period; 'WE APPEAL TO HEAVEN.'" "The effect" of this allusion, says the Salem Gazette of July 7, 1826, " was electrical." This ban- ner, which was made for the occasion, is preserved in the cabinet of the Essex Institute.
If we bear in mind that the war was commenced by the colonists under sincere professions of loyalty to the crown, and only, as they maintained, in defence of their constitutional liberties against a tyran- nical ministry, we shall not be surprised to find occasional mention of the display of the old flag of the province, by the colonial forces. This was very similar to the flag of the British army, the. only difference being in the design in the canton or upper angle of the field next the staff. This device is represented as a pine tree in one instance, and . two hemispheres severed in another .- Vide Preble, ut supra.
From a paper on file, in our county records, for the discovery of which we are indebted to Hon. James Kimball, it appears that the old . colonial flag of 1675 was red, with a white canton bearing the cross of .St. George, also red, and a blue ball for difference. See Bulletin of the Essex Institute, vol. 4, pp. #0, 51.
* Benjamin Pickman, Esq., and Capt. Thomas Poynton. Essex .Gazette, 1774, No. 346.
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take note of mundane affairs, the stern and pallid features of Endicott must have kindled with a glow of life and warmth, as he saw the symbol of idolatry which, one hundred and forty years before, he had cut out from the national ensign, with the point of his sword, now laid aside, first and forever, in the town which his energy helped to establish.
The old manual of exercises of 1764, which had been recommended by the Provincial Congress, was used at the muster ; but the necessity of some improvement was man- ifest, and, on the very day of the muster, notice appeared in the Essex Gazette, that Col. Timothy Pickering's new manual, which he had been for some time preparing, would be ready in about three weeks .* This laid the foundation of the military system of the Continental armies. ¡ Its author lived to see this handful of unskilled" militia swell to a great army ; to see that army stand before the trained legions of Europe, on many a bloody field, and finally, bear off, as well-earned trophies, the white damask flag of the Hessian mercenaries, and the · proud ensign of Britain.
At this point let us pause and recapitulate the events which, in the brief period of nine months, gave our be- loved town an enviable history.
Here, we have seen, were convened the last Provincial Assembly and first Provincial Congress ; here were chosen the first delegates to the Continental Congress ; here the assembled province first formally renounced allegiance to the Imperial Legislature ; here was made the first attempt to enforce the last oppressive acts of parliament, and here
* Essex Gazette, 1775, No. 346. - t It was adopted by the Massachusetts Assembly, May 1, 1776, and a copy of the second edition, published that year, is in the library of the Essex Institute.
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that attempt was resisted ; here, though no mortal wound was given, was shed the first blood of the American Rev- olution ; here was first organized the nucleus of an army ; and here the banner of independence first spoke defiance, as it flapped and rustled in the wind.
I am aware that opposite views have been expressed concerning the purposes of the leaders of the Revolution in respect to independence. But, with due deference to those whose study of the subject has brought them to a different conclusion, I venture to affirm that this contra- riety of opinion hinges on the meaning of a word .* Our English critics have been disposed to trace the progress of independence, which they confound with separation, back to the earliest colonial times, and to charge the colo- nists with insincerity in their constant professions of loy- alty. Others, applying the same meaning to the word, have denied that the idea of independence was enter- tained until about the time of the Declaration at Phila- delphia. t Both of these views are reconciled without impeaching the honor of our forefathers, and without any perversion of history, when we admit that independence, . in the sense of entire, local self-government, was always kept in view by the colonists, claimed by them as a right expressly conferred by their charters, or compacts with
* It is remarkable that the uncertain application of the same word to parties in the great English revolution led Rapin to exclaim, "After all my pains, I have not been able to discover, precisely, the first rise of the Independent sect or faction." Mosheim, more profound and accurate than Rapin, was more successful. See Mosheim's Hist., Ed. 1790, Vol. 5, pp. 405-6, note q.
The history of American Independence has been most thoroughly treated by Frothingham, in his masterly "Rise of the Republic,"- a book which should be read in all our common schools. The author invariably uses the word independence in the sense of separation, but he does not suppress or pervert the facts.
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the Sovereign, and defended, as their heritage by the fundamental common-law, or those acknowledged princi- ples of government which limit, alike, the jurisdiction of parliament and the prerogatives of the crown, and are now embraced under the comprehensive name of the Brit- ish Constitution.
This was the independence that Samuel Adams intended when, as Hutchinson informs us, he concluded his speech, in 1769, with the words, " Independent we are, and inde- pendent we will be !" and we have Jefferson's own state- ment that the independence he looked forward to was such exemption from the control of parliament as the Kingdom of Hanover might claim, or such as Scotland maintained before the union .* This was what the colo- nists universally demanded, and for this, and this alone, they resorted to arms.
The right of the parent state to bind the colonies by such negotiations with foreign enemies or allies, as the welfare of all required, and to regulate navigation on the high seas, they never denied.
The assertion that under outward professions of loy- ' alty the colonists secretly aspired to separation has never been, and, I venture to say, never will be proved. Had the claims of the colonies been granted, they would have had no motive for separation. Under such circumstances, it would have been but the exchange of the protection of an empire, for the empty glory of a name.
Nothing but obstinate prepossession, or utter inatten- tion to the arguments and statements repeatedly made,
*"I took the ground that " " the relation between Great Britain and these colonies was exactly the same as that of England and Scot- land, after the accession of James, and until the union, and the same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political connection."-Jefferson's Auto- biography.
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by and in behalf of the colonies, could lead to the conclu- sion that they did not mean what they professed, or that the only relations they were willing to maintain with the parent state, were inconsistent with loyalty, nominal, or absurd. Biassed by such prepossessions, and the sug- gestions of our enemies, too often did the privy council, and the Lords of trade, reach results unfavorable to.our character and aims, from a view of facts that might, easily and naturally, have received a construction diametrically different.
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