USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 128
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injure unwary persons who will take the notes for money " which have no honest or solid foundation." A part of the proprietors of this bank lived in Salem.
Earthquakes. - Salem was visited by an earthquake, Nov. 18, 1755, Dr. E. A. Holyoke says in his diary, that "about 4 h. 15 m. we were awakened by a greater earthquake than has ever been known in this country. Tops of chimnies and stone walls were thrown down, and clocks stopped by the shake. I thought of nothing less than being buried instantly iu the ruins of the house "; and on March 8, 1756, town-meeting was opened with prayer, by the Rev. Mr. Barnard, and several Province laws are read against profaneness and other immor- alities, to the inhabitants, this seriousness being occasioned by the recent earthquake. March 12, 1761, another severe earthquake was felt in Salem, described as much the same as the one of five years before.
Stamp Act. - On the 13th of June, 1764, the House accepted a draft of a letter to their agent in London against the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, though the latter had not gone into effect. In this letter, the House maintain that Parliament has no right to tax this Province, because it is not represented in the House of Commons. The inhab- itants of Salem at once took firm and decided ground in regard to what they considered an encroachunent of their rights and liberties, and at a town-meeting held Oct. 21, 1765, it was voted " that instruc- tions be given to our representatives with regard to a late act of Par- liament commonly called the Stamp Act." Benjamin Pickman, Joseph Bowditch, Edward A. Holyoke, William Pynchon, and John Higgin- son are appointed to draft such instructions.
On their report, the town sent instructions to Andrew Oliver and Wil- liam Brown, their representatives, stating " that the Inhabitants of Salem being fully convinced that the Act, lately passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, commonly called the Stamp Act, would if carried into exeention be excessively grevious and burthensome to the inhabitants of this his Majesty's loyal Province ; and productive of the most fatal consequences to our trade, as it must soon drain us of the medium nec- essary for carrying it on, and be very injurious to Liberty, since we are therein taxed without our consent, having no Representative in Parliament. But if in any sense we are supposed to be represented, most certainly it is by such only as have an interest in laying burthens uppon us for their own relief, and further as we are thereby deprived of another most valuable right, that of trial by juries and instead of it have the power of the Courts of Admiralty further extended, which must be unfavorable to Liberty. As these are some of our sentiments of this act and as we would give a public testimony of our disapproba- tion thereof - we do hereby request you to do everything you legally can towards obtaining a repeal of the Stamp Act."
Town Records. - Several curious entries are found on the town records about this time. It was voted in 1768, at town-meeting, that the selectmen be desired to petition the General Court in behalf of the town for an act for a lottery to raise a sum of money to be applied towards paving Main Street in said Salem ; and the same year the following vote appears on the town records : "Voted, that it is the mind of the town that proper means be used for preventing slaves especially on election days (so called) from wearing swords, beating drums and making use of powder." The townsmen, however, did not approve of slavery ; for we find that they voted, May 18, 1773, that the representatives of the town be instructed to use their ntmost endeavors to prevent the future importation of negroes, "their slavery being a thing repugnant to the natural rights of mankind and highly prejudicial to the Province."
But as late as Jan. 24, 1769, there appears in the "Gazette," of Salem, an announcement that a very strong, healthy, negro boy is to be sold, and buyers are asked to " inquire of the printer."
Duty on Tea. - Hardly had the rejoicings ceased over the repeal of the Stamp Act, which, March 18, 1767, was " joyfully commemorated through the Colonies," when the imposition of new duties on paper, glass, and teas caused great dissatisfaction among the people. On the 13th of February, 1768, the House direct a letter to the "several Houses and Burgesses of the British Colonies on the Continent, setting forth their sentiments with regard to the great difficulties that must accrue by the operation of divers Acts of Parliament for laying taxes and duties on the Colonies with the sole and express purpose of rais- ing a revenue. June 21st the Governor lays before the House a letter which expresses his Majesty's displeasure for their resolve for writing to other Colonies on the subject of their intended representation against some late Acts of Parliament and that it was the King's pleas- ure that the House rescind their vote." The House voted, ninety-two to seventeen, not to rescind. The Salem representatives, William
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Brown and Peter Frye, voted with the minority, and were exposed to much reproach therefor.
That the people of Salem did not sympathize with the views of their representatives is shown by their vote in town-meeting, July 18, approving the late vote of the House not to rescind, and thanking them " for their firmness in maintaining our just rights and liberties," a protest against such approbation being signed by only thirty of the inhabitants. Sept. 6, the merchants and traders of Salem meet at the King's Arms Tavern and unanimously vote " not to send any further orders for goods, and that from Jan. 1, 1769, to Jan. 1, 1770, they will not import, nor purchase of others any kind of merchandise from Great Britain except coal, salt and some articles necessary to carry on the fishery," and that they will not import any tea, glass, or paper until the Acts imposing duties on these articles are repealed.
On September 7th, one Row, for giving information that a vessel in the harbor was about to elude the payment of duties, was carried to the Common, tarred and feathered, set upon a cart, with the word " Informer," in large letters, on his breast and back, and carried through Main Street, preceded by a crowd, and bidden to flee out of town. He went to Boston, and was rewarded by the Crown officers for his sufferings.
The inhabitants of Salem, in town-meeting, held May 27, 1769, vote, after discussion, " that Messrs. Richard Derby, Jr., and John Pickering, Jr., the Representatives in General Court, be instructed to endeavor that inquiry be made into the conduet of the troops sta- tioned among us, and that his Majesty's loyal subjects of this Prov- ince may be protected and secured against any violence or oppression ; that, with regard to the revenue laws lately enacted, we esteem them om greatest grievance, as well as the unhappy cause of most others we now labor under ; our obtaining full and effective relief from them you will, therefore, consider as the most weighty charge lying upon you. We earnestly recommend to you to use every means that may tend to restore the harmony and affection not long since subsisting between Great Britain and the Colonies, but which the late measures have, unhappily for both, greatly interrupted, and, if persisted in, may, in the end, totally destroy : but, at the same time, you are to keep the strictest watch over our essential constitutional rights and privileges, that none of them be in the least infringed upon."
On the first day of May, 1770, Samuel Flagg, Richard Derby, Jr., Warwick Palfray, Jonathan Ropes, Jr., John Gardner, Richard Man- ning, Thomas Mason, James King, and David Northey, are chosen, in town-meeting, a committee of inspection and correspondence ; said committee to offer to the inhabitants of the town a paper to sign against using tea or foreign goods ; and at the same meeting it is voted " that we do further agree to and with each other that we will not suffer any foreign tea to be used in our families, and that we will not buy any kind of goods whatever of those persons who shall sell said tca after the first day of the present month ; and further, that we will not employ any person that shall use it themselves, or shall suffer it to be used in their families."
On September 27th, " considering the memorial of the Committee on Inspection respecting the infamous conduct of John Appleton, Peter Frye, Abigail Eppes, and Elizabeth Higginson, who, in breach of a solemn agreement, took their imported goods by violence out of the hands of the committee, it was voted that a memorandum, setting forth their conduct, be read at every annual town-meeting in March for the space of seven years next ensuing, immediately before the choice of town officers," and that an account of their " base and infa- mons behaviour" be published in the " Essex Gazette " for the space of one year.
Meeting of the Provincial Assembly. - The action of the town just narrated was but a prelude to what was soon to follow; and it was the fortune of Salem to be the theatre of the opening scenes in the great struggle that was to end in the independence of the Colonies. There is no year in the annals of Salem so memorable, and crowded so full of historic events, as the year which began on the first day of June, 1774. Here, during that time, were convened the last Provin- cial Assembly and first Provincial Congress ; here were chosen the first delegates to the Continental Congress ; here the assembled Prov- ince first formally renounced allegiance to the Imperial Legislature ; here was made the first attempt to enforce the last oppressive Acts of Parliament, and here that attempt was resisted ; and here, though no mortal wound was given, was shed the first blood of the American Revolution. If Salem had no history save that contained in the record of this eventful year, she would still be entitled to a high place among the historic cities of this country.
On the 13th of May, 1774, Gen. Thomas Gage arrived in Boston.
He was the first British soldier appointed to the office of governor. On the 25th of the same month the General Court met at Boston, and a week later Gov. Gage adjourned them, to meet in Salem on the 7th of June. The governor proceeded to Salein on the Thursday before the Assembly met, and the next Saturday he was received with great parade, ending with a brilliant ball at the old Assembly Hall on Cambridge Street.
The Assembly met on the 7th of June, but the session lasted only eleven days. The House passed five Resolutions, protesting against the removal to Salem. No further political measure transpired in either branch until the 17th, when the House passed a Resolve, appointing as delegates to the Congress at Philadelphia, James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, the purpose of the Congress, as indicated by the Resolve, being "to consult upon measures for the restoration of harmony hetween Great Britain and the Colonies." The expenses of the delegates were also provided for. This action displeased Gov. Gage, and he ordered a proclamation for dissolving the General Court to be prepared by Thomas Flucker, the secretary of the Province. The proclamation was dated June 17, 1774, and with it the secretary proceeded to the town house, where the General Court was in session.
On arriving he found the door locked and the messenger on guard. He "directed the messenger to go in and acquaint the speaker that the secretary had a message from his Excellency to the honorable House, and desired he might be admitted to deliver it." The messenger returned, and said he had informed the speaker, as requested, " who mentioned it to the House, and their orders were to keep the door fast." Thereupon the secretary proceeded to read the paper upon the stairs, in the presence of the assembled multitude, and afterwards in the council chamber. Thus ended the last General Court held in Massachusetts under a provincial governor, and such, too, were the dramatic incidents attending the choice of the first five delegates to that congress which, by successive elections, continued throughout the war.
Governor Gage had taken np his residence at Danvers, in the man- sion of Robert Hooper, now known as the " Collins House ; " and two companies of soldiers, from Castle William, land iu Salem, march through the town, and encamp near the governor's abode. On the 12th of August, a Halifax regiment land, and are quartered on the neck. On September 10th, they march from the neck through the town, are joined at Danvers South Parish, now Peabody, by the guards from the governor's headquarters, and together they proceed to Boston.
On Thursday the 1st of September, writs for calling a new General Court, to be held at Salem, on the fifth of the next month, were issued by the governor's order ; but a week before the first day of the session, he published a proclamation, excusing the representatives elect from appearing at, or holding, a General Court.
Notwithstanding this proclamation, when the 5th of October arrived ninety of the representatives assembled. Among them were men of tried courage and determination, who were bent on executing the purpose they had in view, whether the governor appeared or not. We can imagine with what eager expectation the people watched their proceedings, and how earnestly the throng about the old town house discussed the momentous questions of the day. That they might not be charged with unseemly haste, the assembly did no formal business on the first day. At three o'clock the next morning there was an- alarm of fire, and when the representatives assembled they found twenty-four buildings, including the meeting-house, destroyed, and the town-house itself scorched and blistered.
The assembly now organized, and John Haneock was chosen chair- man, and Benjamin Lincoln, clerk. A committee was appointed to consider the governor's proclamation, and the assembly adjourned. On Friday, the 7th of October, the committee reported four resolu- tions, declaring that the grievances which they set forth were such as " in all good governments " had " been considered among the great- est reasons for convening a parliament or assembly," and that the proc- lamation was further proof of the necessity of "most vigorous and immediate exertions for preserving the freedom and constitution " of the province. The resolutions were adopted, and thereupon the following vote was passed : "Voted, That the members aforesaid do now resolve themselves into a Provincial Congress, to be joined by such other persons as have been or shall be chosen for that pur- pose, to take into consideration the dangerous and alarming situa- tion 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."
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Having thus solemnly renounced the authority of parliament, and affirmed the fundamental right of the people to institute a govern- ment, when in their judgment the regular administration had over- stepped the limits of the constitution they adjourned to more com- fortable quarters at Concord, to meet on the following Tuesday. Here they organized the Congress, by raising Hancock to the presi- dency, and electing Lincoln secretary. They continued their sittings at Concord and Cambridge, and by midsummer three sessions had been held, had transacted business, and finally dissolved. On the day of their dissolution, they again assembled, by the recommenda- tion of the Continental Congress, as an independent government under the charter. The vote of the assembly at Salem, on the 7th of October, 1774, was 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 peculiar significance, and it can be justly claimed as the first official act of the Province by which she put herself in open, actual opposition to the home government .*
Leslie's Retreat. - The winter of 1774-75 came on, and found the breach between the Colonies and the mother country growing wider and wider. Military stores had already been seized, in various places, by the British troops, under orders from Gen. Gage, when, on a Sab- bath afternoon in midwinter, a detachment of about three hundred British soldiers, under Col. Leslic, land at Marblehead, and march through the town towards Salem, with the purpose of scizing cer- tain cannon loaned to the Provincial Congress. Maj. John Pedrick hastened to Salem to give the alarm, and, as the troops marched along through the "South fields," they were obliged to stop and repair the bridge at the South Mills, which the inhabitants had torn up to delay their passage. Hastily repairing it they cross, and the advance guard march towards Derby Wharf as a decoy, while the main body advance towards the North Bridge, halting a few minutes at the court-house. It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 26, 1775. The inhabitants of Salem were already aroused. Pastors dismissed their congregations, and repaired with them to the scene of action. ,Capt. Mason, living near the old North Church, shouted the alarm cry at the door : "The regulars are coming !" and then hastened to the bridge. Leslie and his men arrived at North Bridge, attended by a concourse of people, and found the draw raised to prevent their further progress. He requested Richard Derby, who owned part of the cannon, f to exert his influence for their surrender, and received the reply : "Find them if you can ; take them if you can; they will never be surrendered."
On the other side of the river was Timothy Pickering, who had just been chosen colonel of the First Regiment, with forty armed militia ready to dispute Leslie's passage across the stream. Leslie threatened to fire on the people, when Capt. John Felt, who had " kept close to Leslie every step from the court-house," said to him : " You had better not fire, for there," pointing to the other side of the river, " is a multitude, every man of whom is ready to die in this strife."
On the top of the raised leaf of the draw, on the opposite side of the stream, the more adventurous spirits had clambered. They called to the soldiers in strong and defiant language, and received in reply a threat that if they did not desist they would be fired upon. "Fire and be d-d ! " calls out Capt. Joshua Ward, in language more forci- ble than clegant. Three gondolas lay on the west side of the bridge, and Jonathan Felt, a shipmaster, Frank Benson, and Joseph Whicher, the foreman in Maj. Sprague's distillery, fearful that the enemy might use them to cross in, set about scuttling them to render them useless. A scuffle ensued between the soldiers and those in the gondolas, and Whicher received a wound from a bayonet, drawing blood, and of which he was afterwards exceedingly proud. Others were somewhat scratched, and a bloody struggle seemed imminent.
While matters were fast tending to a disastrous conflict, the Rev. Thomas Barnard of the North Church appeared as a mediator between Leslie and the people. " You cannot," said he, " commit this viola tion against innocent men, here, on this holy day, without sinning
* In preparing this brief account of the meeting of the Provincial Congress, liberal use has been made of an address delivered by Abner C. Goodell, Jr., Esq., before the Essex Institute, Oct. 5, 1874, in which the subject is elaborately and exhaustively treated. (See Hist. Coll. Esser Institute, vol. xiii., page 1.)
t Mr. Gideon Tucker, who died in 1861, aged eighty-three, related that when a boy six or seven years old, being with his father, at his wharf, in North Salem, there was pointed ont to him the place where the cannon were piled. They were owned, he was told, by various persons, and had been landed from merchant vessels, a general peace making them unnecessary. When the alarm came that Leslie was on the road from Marblehead, these cannon were carried off by the farmers, and were placed on land owned by Col. Mason, near the present head of School Street. There they remained till about 1793.
against God and humanity. Let me entreat you to return." " And who are you, sir ?" answered Leslie to this remonstrance. The young minister replied, "I am Thomas Barnard, a minister of the gospel, and my mission is peace." He suggests the compromise by which honor is to be saved, on one side, and no guns lost on the other. Leslie agrees that if the draw is lowered, and he permitted to lead his men thirty rods beyond, he would then countermarch and leave the premises. Col. Pickering consents, a line is drawn and guarded by Pickering's men, and the haughty Briton crosses, turns in the face of the enemy, and proceeds expeditiously back to Marblehead, and from thence to Boston.
For the first time in the history of the Colony, the military author- ity of Great Britain had received a check; for the first time, blood had been spilt in a strife between the Colony and the mother country ; and that the struggle was not as bloody and memorable as that of Lexington, which took place soon after, was due to the prudence and caution and forbearance of Col. Leslie. A single shot, and the brave and determined men of Salem who stood at North Bridge, under the lead of the gallant Felt, would have left few of the British soldiers to report to Gen. Gage the result of their expedition. A flag-staff now marks the spot on which the townspeople stood, in their opposition to the encroachment of the British troops on that eventful winter Sab- bath in 1775.
Salem Militia. - Leslie's expedition roused the people of Salem to a sense of their danger ; and on the 14th of March following, all persons on the alarm-list receive warning to meet in " School Street," and on the 25th, the town votes to raise two companies of minute-men " whose attachment to their country can be relied on." On the 19th of April, Benjamin Pierce, of Salem, is killed at the battle of Lexing- ton. Col. Pickering, with three hundred soldiers, march as fast as they can from Salem towards Lexington, but do not arrive in sight of the enemy till the last of them were retreating through Charlestown. For the failure to arrive in season, the Salem troops are greatly cen- sured ; the inhabitants are highly indignant at this unjust censure of their soldiers, and call a town-meeting, Aug. 10, 1775, to make state- ment of the facts to the General Court. This is done at length, the statement beginning as follows : " On the 19th of April, very soon after the barbarous deeds of the King's troops at Lexington, the inhabitants mustered in arms, and near three hundred marched off and directed their course according to the intelligence they were continually receiv- ing on the road, of the situation of the troops. Thousands of men nearer, much nearer the scene of action, cither stayed at home, or arrived no sooner than the Salem militia."
This statement is sent to the General Court, which body there- upon votes : " In House of Representatives, August 17, 1775. On a petition from the town of Salem complaining of many illiberal reflections being cast by some individuals respecting the conduct of said town, in the present dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies. - Resolved : - That notwithstanding many ungenerous aspersions have been cast on said town, there is nothing appears to this court, in the conduct thereof, inimical to the liberties and privileges of America, but on the contrary, in many instances, its ex- ertions have been such as has done its inhabitants much honor, and been of great advantage to the colony."
Benedict Arnold. - On the 14th of September, 1775, a detachment of troops sent from the headquarters at Cambridge, by Gen. Wash- ington, stop for dinner at Salem, on their way to attempt the capture of Quebec. This remarkable expedition was commanded by Benedict Arnold, then high in favor with Washington; and his indomitable courage and unfailing resources made the passage of the trackless woods of Maine by his troops a possibility. Congress, for this ser- vice, made Arnold a brigadier-general ; and, while we execrate his subsequent treachery, this should be remembered to his credit.
Salem in the Revolution. - From 1775 till the news of the decla- ration of peace was received, April 3, 1783, Salem bore an honora- ble part in the contest that was waged for liberty and freedom. She furnished men to fill the ranks of the army, and money and clothing for its support. Her people were ready to sacrifice all, if need be, in the cause of independence and for the establishment of the rights of the Colonies.
At a town-meeting, held Wednesday, June 12, 1776, the following stirring and patriotic address to their representatives was adopted by men who knew the meaning of the brave words they used: "To the Gentlemen who represent the inhabitants of Salem in the present General Court. Gentlemen : We the inhabitants of the town of Sa- lem in town meeting legally assembled hereby advise you that if the Honorable Congress shall for the safety of the United American colo-
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