USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 4
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The only Northampton man known to have taken part in the Battle of Bunker Hill is General Seth Pomeroy, at that time 69 years old, who seems to have been a living example of the saying "You can't keep a good man down." He had been appointed at the first Provincial Congress as one of the commanders of the Massachusetts troops. About the middle of June he had gone home to rest when he received a message from General Putnam announcing the proposed attack upon Charlestown Heights. He at once took horse, rode through the night and reached Cam- bridge on the day of the battle. Charlestown Neck was swept by British fire, but Pomeroy, dismounting because the horse he was riding was borrowed and too valuable to risk, crossed the pass on foot and went directly to the front. He was offered the chief command, but refused it and went into the battle as a volunteer. He did ultimately accept the command of one battalion. The story goes that General Putnam, meeting him in the course of the battle, exclaimed: "You here, Pomeroy! God, I believe a cannon- ball would wake you up if you slept in your grave!" Shortly afterwards General Washington assumed command of the Ameri- can Army and offered General Pomeroy the position of Briga-
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The Part Played by Northampton in the Revolution
dier General, which Pomeroy declined for reasons of health. Late in 1776, however, he re-entered the service at Washington's earnest request and on January 15, 1777 left Northampton to join Washington. On the journey he was taken violently ill with pleurisy and died on February 19, 1777. He was buried at Peeks- kill with full military honors.
As the Colonies had been the victims of hostile raids from Canada, it was decided to send troops to that front. No North- ampton men took part in the first attack. Two other attacking parties went up the Kennebeck and through the wilderness, and in both of these there were men from Northampton, and in each of them a Northampton man who has left us a detailed account of the march and of the attacks on Quebec. Lemuel Bates went, with eight other men from Captain Jonathan Allen's company of Minute Men, in the contingent which started for Canada in the late autumn of 1775. His account of the expedition is preserved in the collection of Revolutionary documents made by Jonathan Judd of Northampton and now kept in the Forbes Library.
On November 9, after a very difficult march through snow and over ice, 700 of this expedition (which originally numbered 1100) reached Point Levi on the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec. It was four days before they succeeded in crossing the river, and then they were unable to surprise and take Quebec. When they were joined by General Montgomery's detachment, the two together did succeed in penetrating to the second barrier, but General Montgomery was killed and General Arnold was badly wounded, so the troops retreated about three miles and blockaded Quebec through the winter from behind ramparts built of ice and frozen snow.
Six of the Northampton men, among them Lemuel Bates, were taken prisoner and kept in the "common Jail" in Quebec, where they suffered from lack of food and fuel and also from smallpox. They were liberated on August 10, 1776, engaging not to serve against England until they should have been exchanged. They were embarked on transports and taken to New York where they arrived about September 15. As the British took New York just at that time, the group from Canada was taken on to Elizabeth- town and from there made their way to Washington's army at Valentine's Hill where they found "our old Captain Allen." They received some pay there and set out for Northampton, which they
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reached during the first week of October, 1776. According to Lemuel Bates, Jonathan Pomeroy and Elias Thayer did not take part in the attack on Quebec because their term of enlistment ex- pired on the day of the battle. They returned home, he says, "as they had a right to do."
The second expedition to Canada started in March 1776 to re- inforce General Arnold. We have a detailed account of it, as given by Noah Cook of Northampton to Jonathan Judd. Noah Cook enlisted for twelve months, having just come back from Boston at the end of an eight months' enlistment. The company, under Captain Israel Chapin of Hatfield, numbered about 100 "young, stout, brave" men of whom 14 were from Northampton. Some of them were evidently not so "stout and brave" as had been supposed, for two from Northampton, two from Westhampton, and two from Southampton deserted and made their way home.
Cook gives us a most graphic account of the difficulties en- countered and the hardships endured by the members of the ex- pedition, one of the worst of which was an epidemic of smallpox. There were no doctors, no nurses (except one old French woman who helped them, whom they called "Aunt Sarah"). Their only remedy was syrup and pills made from boiled butternut bark. Food was so scarce that part of the time they killed and ate the rattlesnakes which were apparently plentiful. Finally, in No- vember, the company was forced to retreat from Mt. Independ- ence and made their way to Albany, where they boarded a sloop, landed at King's Ferry and marched to Morristown. Not more than half of the original company was left. At Elizabethtown they captured a stranded British sloop with 70 "highlanders" aboard. Cook reached home about the end of January 1777, where he found the captured "highlanders" in the new jail, with his father as jailor.
In March of 1776 a meeting of the Committee of Correspond- ence of the Hampshire County towns was called in Northamp- ton, with Major Joseph Hawley acting as moderator, to consider whether the Court of General Sessions could legally continue to act, since they held their commissions in the name and by the authority of King George III. The decision was in the negative, and the March meeting of the Court was stopped. The May ses- sion following was convened by the authority of the People of Massachusetts.
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The Part Played by Northampton in the Revolution
Besides the men sent from Northampton on the two expedi- tions to Canada mentioned above, others were enlisted during 1776, mostly for short terms and for specific purposes. In June Northampton was required to furnish 47 men. In July came an order to enlist every 25th man on the training and alarm list. On August I a company from Northampton and surrounding towns was raised for service at Boston. In September every fifth man under 50 years old in General Pomeroy's regiment was drafted for three months service.
During the first two years of the war there was no standing army, only the militia of the individual states enlisted for periods of six months, eight months, or one year at the most. In 1777, at the instance of General Washington, provisions were made for a Continental Army of men enlisted for not less than one year and not more than three years. In January of that year the General Court of Massachusetts passed a resolution for raising Continental troops, by draft if necessary, and quotas were assigned to the towns-one seventh of all male inhabitants over 16 years of age. They were given the option of enlisting until January 10, 1778, or for three years, or for the duration, the choice to be made on enlistment. Those enlisting for less than three years got no bounty, and those who refused to serve were fined 10 Pounds. Northampton was required to furnish 29 men. The enlistment started in April and a 30 Pound bounty was offered for each recruit. Fifteen Pounds had been offered at first, but no one would enlist for that. It is interesting to note that several of the British Marines who were prisoners in Northampton enlisted. Among the officers of the first company of Continental troops were Major Jonathan Allen, former Captain of a company of North- ampton Minute Men, and Lieutenant Elihu Root, also of North- ampton.
At the end of April, 1777, a company of men was enlisted for two months from Northampton and other towns for service at Ticonderoga. They left Northampton in May and were sta- tioned at Ticonderoga until July, when they were moved to Mt. Independence. There were 15 Northampton men in this group. There was another requisition for troops in July and between 40 and 50 men from Northampton volunteered. They were in the service for five weeks, from July 12 to August 16. Also in July a regiment from Hampshire County, under Major Jonathan Clapp
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of Northampton, was sent to reinforce General Gates. One com- pany of this regiment was commanded by Captain Jonathan Stearns, also of Northampton. The regiment served for six weeks.
On August 13 took place the battle of Bennington. When the news reached Northampton, during the night, the alarm was rung and everyone assembled at the meeting house. Men volun- teered and marched at once, but did not get beyond Lanesboro. There they received news of the victory and went home.
On September 15 a company of about 100 men was enlisted from Northampton and vicinity, under Captain Oliver Lyman. They served for about six weeks, until after the surrender of Bur- goyne. In the battle of Bemis Heights, on October 7, they were stationed on the left of the line, and it is said that as they wheeled into line one morning General Gates, who was watching them, remarked that they must be old soldiers. "Those?" asked Wilkin- son, who was with him, "Why, they are raw recruits from North- ampton." "What, Pomeroy's men, eh! I ought to know them," and he rode over to compliment the commanding officer upon the appearance of his men. David Strong of Northampton was a member of this company.
During this year of 1777 it is said that Northampton was send- ing one-half of her able-bodied men into the army, and at the same time was suffering from an epidemic of smallpox. All who enlisted in the Continental Army were inoculated, if they wished, before marching.
Throughout the Revolution Ephraim Wright of Northampton was engaged as "waggon Master" for the transportation of stores to the army. It is interesting to see some of his lists of supplies transported: In June 1777, hogsheads of rum, molasses, sugar, coffee, barrels of ginger and pepper, 31 boxes of chocolate of 50 lbs. each and one box of chocolate of 250 lbs., also oatmeal and indian meal. In July another consignment consisting of barrels of rum, brandy, wine, chocolate, rice, salt, mustard, and hogsheads of molasses.
In December of this year Northampton generously voted to "reimburse their last year's poll tax to those who were prisoners in Canada," that is, Joseph Parsons Jr., Paul Clapp, Russel Clark, Oliver Edwards, and Lemuel Bates.
In 1777-78 the Northampton militia was divided into com- panies commanded by Captains Joseph Cook, Oliver Lyman,
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The Part Played by Northampton in the Revolution
Daniel Pomeroy, and Joseph Clapp. In April of 1778 there was a call for volunteers for nine months' service. A company from Northampton and vicinity went to Albany under Captain Daniel Pomeroy.
In June 1778 Northampton was required to furnish 10 men for nine months' service to reinforce the Continental army in Rhode Island. They were mustered in at Springfield with other groups from surrounding towns and marched to West Point where they were distributed among various continental regiments.
In July there was another levy of men to protect New London, and about July 24, 3 1 men set out for there under Captain Joseph Cook.
In October there was another requisition, and Northampton contributed 19 men under Captain Cook. This group went to Claverack and thence to Albany.
In 1779 there began the important process of framing a State Constitution for Massachusetts. For this purpose a state conven- tion was held starting on September 1 at Cambridge. At this con- vention Northampton was represented by Ephraim Wright and Caleb Strong. The latter was a member of the committee which drafted the Constitution and Declaration of Rights, and was prominent in the discussions.
During 1780 there were many calls for men. On June 5, 22 from Northampton were sent to West Point, Peekskill, and King's Ferry. On June 22, 31 more were sent to West Point, and in December there was still another call and Northampton sent 2 I men.
It was a Northampton man, Lieutenant Solomon Allen, acting as adjutant, who was sent to General Benedict Arnold with dis- patches among which was the announcement of the capture of André. Arnold immediately had himself rowed across to the British ship Vulture. One of the boatmen who were stationed on the river to row officers and soldiers back and forth was a North- ampton man named Daniel Strong.
The war practically ended in 178 1 with the surrender of Corn- wallis at Yorktown, and no more calls for men seem to have been received in Northampton, whose citizens, both in action and in deliberation and planning had played an important part in the struggle for independence.
Chapter Six Major Joseph Hawley
By FRANCIS BROWN
A CROSS the history of 18th century Massachusetts falls the long shadow of the lawyer, a figure that in the previous century cast almost no shadow at all. The lawyer domi- nated the politics of town and province and, when American in- dependence had been won, of the state. Testifying to the tri- umph of temporal over spiritual, members of the bar as a group wielded a power and influence that in the beginnings of Massa- chusetts Bay had belonged to the clergy. By and large it was the legal profession that provided leadership in the struggle with the British Crown and it was again the legal profession that shaped the new government built upon the foundations of the old.
These generalizations, and like most they are subject to reser- vation, are made concrete in the story of Major Joseph Hawley of Northampton. A lawyer and a leader of the Hampshire County bar, he was a mover and shaker in town government and in the Province House at Boston. His record as a staunch and early Son of Liberty caused him to be described by some who came after as the "Patrick Henry of Massachusetts." His political thought, while of the 18th century in its liberalism, frequently did not fit prevailing patterns. He opposed slavery at a time when slaves were still held in Massachusetts. It has been said of him, and with a good deal of truth, that he was "the only political leader of revo- lutionary Massachusetts whose religious views were broad and tolerant." He was a brave man, and bravest perhaps in adherence to his convictions wherever they might lead.
He was born in Northampton on October 8, 1723, the third Joseph Hawley in three generations. His father, a farmer, mer- chant, lieutenant of militia, served as town clerk and for years was a selectman. Through his mother the third Joseph Hawley was a grandson of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, for nearly 60 years
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Major Joseph Hawley
pastor of the Northampton church, a man of original mind whose influence spread far beyond his parish and whose place in early New England thought is still being assessed. The Stoddard re- lationship made Joseph Hawley a cousin of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, who succeeded his grandfather in the Northampton pastorate and who is now recognized as one of the distinctly great thinkers of 18th century America. He was a cousin also of Israel Williams of Hatfield, soldier, merchant, lawyer, county judge, a man whose political power eventually gave him the title of "Mon- arch of Hampshire." John Stoddard, an uncle, was a member of the governor's council and military commander of Western Mas- sachusetts. Although ancestry thus linked Joseph Hawley to the ruling families, he developed in manhood a spirit that was too in- dependent to be bound by ties of kinship.
At Yale, where he was graduated in 1742, he gave early evi- dence of this spirit when he refused to attend chapel prayers be- cause of "the coldness of the air and of the preacher." He was fined five shillings. Only eight years later this undergraduate rebel grown to a man of 27 was leading the fight to oust his cousin Jonathan Edwards as minister of Northampton. During those eight years Hawley had studied theology to prepare himself for the ministry, had served as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment in the expedition against the French fortress of Louisbourg, had forsaken theology and turned to law. By 1750, when the quarrel with Edwards reached its pitch, he was one of the leading young men in the town, a practicing lawyer, a justice of the peace, and a selectman. Edwards described him as "a young gentleman of liberal education and notable abilities, and a fluent speaker."
Though Hawley differed with Edwards on matters of faith and thus could have been expected to be among the pastor's op- ponents in the smouldering church controversy set aflame by Jonathan Edwards' insistence that the Lord's Supper was only for those who had experienced a religious conversion, his seizure of leadership in the dismissal of the town's minister seems to have been prompted primarily by personal ambition and a desire to demonstrate his varied abilities. For his part in the affair Hawley was later thoroughly contrite. To Edwards he apologized in private and from the public he sought forgiveness in a letter pub- lished in the Boston press. His public confession of fault gave him
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province-wide reputation as a man willing to admit a mistake and to walk justly at the cost of personal pride.
It was not until 1766 when, a man in middle life, Hawley went to Boston as a member of the General Court that his full measure was taken. The years of his maturing had been spent in North- ampton, where he was not only a selectman but town clerk and usually the moderator of town meetings. His skill as a presiding officer was such that once, when in Boston, he was asked to mod- erate a town meeting whose turbulence had overwhelmed the regular moderator. In Hampshire County Hawley was active in the militia, and thus it was he gained his military title.
In the county courts his knowledge of law impressed as much as his oratory. "Many men have spoken with more elegance and grace," said Timothy Dwight, a famous president of Yale, "I never heard one speak with more force." He farmed, speculated in land a little, and at one time carried on with his brother Elisha a considerable trade in deerskins. A successful local figure, a man of political influence in his town and county, he was numbered among the so-called "river gods" who dominated the affairs of Western Massachusetts. Until that May day in 1766 when he rode out of Northampton to take his seat in the General Court, he did not promise to be much more.
Hawley's reputation as a man of force, of understanding and integrity, had preceded him to Boston, where he was not wholly an unfamiliar figure for he had served three terms in the General Court a decade earlier. His support was something to be sought by both sides in the developing quarrel that was to lead to revo- lution, and he soon made it apparent that he stood with the radi- cals against the government. The reason at first may have been more personal than ideological, for Hawley, as attorney for one Seth Warren who had been involved in a fracas growing out of the Stamp Act troubles, had tangled with the authorities. It led ultimately to brief disbarment.
At the General Court in 1766 a principal issue was compensa- tion for those whose property had been damaged or destroyed in the Stamp Act riots, and chief among the sufferers was Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice of the province and its Lieutenant Governor. It was Hutchinson who had presided over the sitting of the Superior Court which had heard the appeal of Hawley's client from a lower court and had ruled against him. In the legis-
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lature, Hawley's answer was to link the issue of compensation with that of a general amnesty for Stamp Act rioters, a proposal that outraged Hutchinson and conservatives like Hawley's cousin Israel Williams, but that when enacted received the Governor's reluctant assent. The law was eventually disallowed by the Crown.
The struggle over compensation had cemented Hawley in al- liance with Samuel Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Cushing and with other radical members of the General Court. They were later to be joined by John Hancock and John Adams. Together they worked on committees, framing bills and resolves. They agi- tated, and promoted agitation in other provinces, against acts and actions of the British Parliament and Crown they deemed op- pressive until, step by step, they reached the point of challenging British rule itself. Hawley's important role is told not only in the formal record of the General Court but in the remarks of his con- temporaries.
Thomas Hutchinson wrote in his famous History of Massa- chusetts Bay that "Mr. Samuel Adams may be considered the most active member in the House. Mr. Hawley, member for Northampton, was equally, and perhaps more, attended to; but Mr. Adams was more assiduous, and very politically proposed such measures only as he was well assured Mr. Hawley would join in." The firebrand Samuel Adams said that there was no law- yer in the House except Hawley "I incline to confide in."
When the General Court in 1774 selected delegates to the first Continental Congress, it named Joseph Hawley as one of them. Hawley, whose health had long been precarious, declined the distinction and in his place John Adams was chosen. To the younger man, whom he had long known not only in the General Court but as a lawyer on the circuit, Hawley sent a comprehen- sive letter of advice remarkable for its breadth of view and tol- erance. In it he pointed out the great need for consideration of the prejudices and preferences of the delegates from other prov- inces, and he urged Adams to do nothing that would sustain the opinion held in other provinces that "the Massachusetts gentle- men ... do affect to dictate and take the lead in continental measures ... are apt, from an inward vanity and self-conceit, to assume big and haughty airs." He pleaded that success of the con- gress at Philadelphia depended in large part upon "the harmony,
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good understanding, and I had almost said brotherly love, of its members."
Hawley was by then a revolutionary in all but name. He told Adams: "The people or state who will not or cannot defend their liberties and rights will not have any for any long time. They will be slaves." To the Massachusetts delegates, he sent the rousing message, "We must fight if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation, all revenues, and the constitution or form of gov- ernment enacted for us by the British Parliament. It is evil against right. ... It is now or never that we must assert our liberty." He sounded the clarion: "Fight we must finally, unless Britain re- treats." John Adams remembered that when he showed these words to Patrick Henry, the Virginian cried: "By God, I am of that man's mind!"
The year 1774 saw the end of effective royal government in Massachusetts, and in the extra-legal Provincial Congress that governed in its place Joseph Hawley was a principal figure. He was concerned not only with its organization but with the collec- tion of provincial revenues and the setting up of a military estab- lishment. When he was in Northampton he was the moving and guiding spirit of the revolutionary movement, chairman of the town's committee of correspondence, the main force of its com- mittee of safety. His work and influence extended throughout Western Massachusetts where it could well be said that he was the mainspring of revolution. All the while he wrote and received letters that were holding men and regions together in the cause. Long before adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he had urged the need for independence upon his friends and as- sociates, whether at Boston or Philadelphia.
"Independence," he wrote Elbridge Gerry, "is the only way to union and harmony, to vigor and dispatch in business, our eye will be single, and our whole body full of light; anything short of it will, as appears to me, be our destruction, infallible destruction, and that speedily." And to Samuel Adams: "The People are now ahead of you and the only way to prevent discord and indiscre- tion is to strike while the iron is hot. The People's blood is so hot as not to admit of delay." And to Adams again: "If the united Colonies do not become an independent People or one united common Wealth they will cease to be a people. . .. A resolution for independence unites the whole. .. . " He did not have too long
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to wait. On July 9, 1776, Samuel Adams wrote him: "The Con- gress has at length declared the Colonies free and independent States. Upon this I congratulate you, for I know your heart has long been set upon it."
His efforts in the multitudinous affairs of revolutionary Massa- chusetts cost Hawley dear. He was cut off from friends and rela- tives loyal to the Crown, and some of them like John Worthing- ton of Springfield, long an associate in the bar and married to a Stoddard cousin, had been close to him all his life. Work and the worries attendant upon it undermined his health until, late in 1776, he had a mental breakdown from which he did not recover until three years later. Another breakdown in 1783 permanently incapacitated him.
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