USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 6
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As the only son in a family of daughters, the young Caleb Strong had the best educational advantages available. He was prepared for college by the Reverend Samuel Moody (after- wards the famous preceptor of Dummer Academy) and, at the age of 15, entered Harvard College. A very diligent student, Caleb was graduated from Harvard in 1764 with highest honors. Almost immediately, however, he had to face an even more severe test of character for, on his return home from college, he came down with a serious case of smallpox (an epidemic had hit Boston at the time) and the ravages of the disease left him with badly im- paired eyesight. Despite the handicap which was to afflict him for the rest of his days, Caleb Strong undertook the study of law with typical industry and self-discipline, aided by his father and sisters who read aloud Coke upon Littleton to him on the days when his weakened eyes could no longer serve him. After several years of this kind of painstaking effort, he was admitted to the bar in Hampshire County in 1772.
Very quickly, Caleb Strong became a successful lawyer, noted for his diligence and industry, rather than for any oratorical powers. By the time of the Revolution, Caleb Strong had one of the most extensive practices in Hampshire County with a reputa- tion for integrity and ability.
Quite naturally, therefore, Caleb Strong became associated with some of the leading gentlemen in the Connecticut Valley. He was the close personal friend of Major Joseph Hawley who took great interest in the young lawyer and gave him much good guidance in his career. He was also the personal friend of Jona- than Bliss, a college classmate and successful young lawyer in
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Springfield, where the Bliss family had been prominent since the early days of settlement.
At a time when the Congregationalist clergy were ranked highest in social station, Caleb Strong married Sarah Hooker, the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Hooker, minister of the First Church in Northampton. Sarah Hooker was the granddaughter of Colonel John Worthington of Springfield, one of the patri- archal leaders of that bustling river town and one of the original 'river gods," as the political and social leaders of the Connecticut Valley were referred to in those days.
It is not surprising then that, during the Revolution, Caleb Strong was not one of the more radical patriots. His temperament and his social position made him naturally cautious and conserva- tive. Indeed, he must have faced a very difficult personal choice in the Revolutionary crisis. When the Revolution became final and irrevocable in 1776, Caleb Strong had the painful experience of seeing his friend Jonathan Bliss go into exile in Nova Scotia, and Colonel John Worthington submit to public humiliation in Springfield for his Toryism. One of the stories that has come down to us in Springfield's history is that Colonel John Worth- ington of whom it had once been said that "he ruled Springfield with a rod of iron" was made to kneel in a field surrounded by outraged patriots and made to swear before God that he would renounce his Tory views.
Unhappy as he was over the plight of his friends, Caleb Strong gave his support to the Revolution and, moderate Whig though he was, he apparently did not suffer any loss of public confidence in Northampton. During the Revolution, he held several town offices and, in 1779, his fellow townsmen elected him a delegate of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, where, as a mem- ber of the drafting committee, he had an important share in writ- ing the constitution of 1780 which was generally recognized as a conservative constitution. Undoubtedly, his friendship with Jo- seph Hawley who was the leader of the patriot party in western Massachusetts was a great help to Caleb Strong's career in those years.
In 1782, Caleb Strong was elected to the State Senate in the new Government of Massachusetts and quickly gave evidence of the moderation which was to become his strongest political trait. He was opposed to the violent and lawless efforts of the
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farmers in Hampshire County who supported the "Ely Insurrec- tion" in 1783, but with the urging of his friend, Major Hawley, he gave his support to the Tender Act which was designed to give some relief to the farmers burdened by debt. Like all men of property in the Connecticut Valley, Caleb Strong watched with great misgiving the growth of the spirit of insurgency in western Massachusetts during the hard times after the War of Independ- ence.
In 1786, Caleb Strong was one of the gentlemen of Hampshire County who backed the establishment of the Hampshire Gazette as a means of counteracting some of the more violent agitation of the men who were rallying to the leadership of men like Daniel Shays and Luke Day. He was among those who contributed ar- ticles to the Gazette urging the rioters to lay aside their violent plans and to seek peaceable means of redressing their grievances through the legislature. The effectiveness of the Gazette in coun- teracting the spirit of insurgency is suggested by the fact that when actual rebellion broke out nearly all the people of North- ampton and its neighboring villages of Westhampton, Southamp- ton, Easthampton, Hadley, and South Hadley were on the side of the government.
Unquestionably, Caleb Strong was at this time, one of the recognized political leaders in the state. In 1787, he was chosen by the legislature to be one of the delegates from Massachusetts to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Although his modesty and caution prevented him from playing more than a minor role in the Constitutional Convention, he continued to give evidence of his moderation by supporting the famous Connecti- cut Compromise on the question of representation in the national legislature.
Caleb Strong was not one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States because he left before the convention adjourned in order to return to his wife and rapidly growing family. Never- theless, Caleb Strong gave abundant evidence of his full support of the Constitution, by working hard for its adoption in the Mas- sachusetts ratifying convention. In reply to critics, he said, "For my part, I think the whole of it is expressed in the plain common language of mankind. If any parts are not so explicit as they could be, it cannot be attributed to any design; for I believe the great majority of men who formed it were sincere and honest
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men." Northampton was one of the few towns in western Mas- sachusetts which supported the new Constitution.
As a result of his faithful work, Caleb Strong was elected one of the first United States Senators from Massachusetts in 1788. In the administration of President Washington he became a loyal Federalist and a faithful supporter of Hamilton's financial pro- gram. Senator Strong resigned in 1796, before the completion of his second term, in order to give more attention to his family which had now grown to seven children. Throughout his life, Caleb Strong disliked to be absent from Northampton for long periods. His attachments to his home, his church, and to his friends were the bonds of affection which kept him most happy and secure.
Caleb Strong felt that he could safely retire because the ma- jority of the Senate was composed of "friends to good govern- ment." He probably took satisfaction, also, in the fact that in 1796, "the friends of good government" had won control of Hampshire County for the first time since Shays' Rebellion. When the second Congressional district was created, comprising what is now the area of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties, the anti-Federalists of the back-country towns, where memories of Shays' Rebellion still lingered, had been able to elect a candidate of their own choice against the Federalist candidate supported by the more conservative river towns. But in 1796, by the strongest possible exertions, the Federalists of the Connecti- cut Valley were able to capture the Congressional seat of the second Congressional district. Thus, within a decade after Shays' Rebellion, the conservatives had recaptured political control in the Connecticut Valley region.
Probably the main reason for this conservative resurgence was the economic prosperity which had come to the Connecticut Val- ley in the 1790's. After 1793, the outbreak of European war be- tween France and England made it possible for the United States to get back into the profitable West Indian Trade from which it had been excluded by the British since the end of the Revolution. Surplus beef, pork, flour, horses, and lumber from this area was sent to the West Indies in a profitable exchange for West India goods and specie, and the Connecticut Valley enjoyed a real economic boom.
The Federalist party, which was pro-British, was anxious to
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encourage this growth of commerce with British colonial mar- kets. Federalist leaders favored a soft policy toward the British even though they were high-handed in their treatment of Ameri- can ships in the Caribbean. Consequently, they supported Jay's Treaty with the British even though it contained many compro- mises of previously stated American principles of free trade and neutral rights. The Jeffersonian Republican party, as the anti- Federalists were called, was pro-French and favored retaliatory measures against the British which would have had disruptive effects upon the economy of the Connecticut Valley. In the eco- nomic prosperity of the 1790's, many Connecticut Valley farmers were willing to desert the anti-Federalists, and vote with their bulging pocket books rather than with their older Shaysite senti- ments.
It must also be remembered that many Federalist men of prop- erty in Hartford, Springfield, and Northampton took a con- spicuous part in the organization of companies to improve the navigation of the Connecticut River. The "Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Connecticut River" completed a canal around the falls of South Hadley in 1795 which greatly facili- tated trade on the Massachusetts reach of the Connecticut River. In addition there was great activity in road building connecting the river towns with other towns in the surrounding countryside. The First Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation (1796), char- tered to build a road from Worcester to Palmer, and the Third Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation (1797), chartered to build a road from Northampton to Pittsfield, were important parts of a network of turnpikes which were built by private corporations in western Massachusetts. Many of the incorporators of these companies were leading merchants and Federalists from North- ampton and other river towns. Caleb Strong was an incorporator of both the "Proprietors of the Locks and Canals of the Connecti- cut River" and the Third Massachusetts Turnpike Corporation.
Thus, these Federalist men of property could claim a great deal of credit for the benefits enjoyed by western Massachusetts farmers as a result of these improvements in the internal trade of the region. These economic developments, together with the strong tradition of social conservatism and religious orthodoxy which had grown up in the Valley before the Revolution were responsible for returning "Old Hampshire" to conservative politi-
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cal behavior by 1796. Yet, the completion of this political victory did not come until 1800, when the Federalist party of Massa- chusetts, in need of a strong candidate to fight off a vigorous Jef- fersonian Republican challenge, persuaded Caleb Strong to re- turn to public life as Federalist candidate for governor.
II. PATRIOTISM AND PIETY
In 1799, the death of Increase Sumner, Federalist governor of Massachusetts, left a vacancy in Federalist leadership at a critical point in the politics of the day. The Jeffersonian Republicans were developing a very strong following particularly in the east- ern counties of the state. Moreover, as the crucial election of 1800 approached, the Federalist party of Massachusetts was threatened by a dangerous split over national issues. The leadership of the party in the eastern section of the state was composed largely of members of the Essex Junto, a group of extremely conservative men including members of the Cabot and Lowell families, Timo- thy Pickering, Fisher Ames, Theophilus Parsons, Caleb Cushing -all great names in Massachusetts history and all hailing from Essex county. This powerful group had quarreled with John Adams, President of the United States, over his decision to make peace with France when the French showed signs of willingness to negotiate questions arising out of the X.Y.Z. affair. This intra- party quarrel was so fierce that President Adams dismissed Timo- thy Pickering from his Cabinet and it was to the "Junto" that John Adams ascribed his defeat by Thomas Jefferson in the elec- tion of 1800.
In the Massachusetts elections, however, the Federalists were more successful in preventing a party rift. They did this by nomi- nating Caleb Strong for governor. Strong was an ideal candidate because he was known to be a moderate, middle of the road man. He was not one of the Essex Junto extremists, although he was a close personal friend of George Cabot, one of the leaders of the Essex group. Hence he was a man who could conciliate both fac- tions in the Federalist party-the Adams men and the Essex Junto. In addition, Caleb Strong's reputation for personal piety and sin- cere religious principles was a definite political advantage since the orthodox Congregationalists were the backbone of the Feder- alist party in Massachusetts. Undoubtedly the Federalist leaders
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had been reading carefully the election returns which showed that, since 1796, western Massachusetts had become the main stronghold of Federalism. Eastern Massachusetts and the Maine district were showing alarming tendencies to cast more and more Jeffersonian Republican votes.
The election contest was a spirited one. Caleb Strong was praised as "the Washington of Massachusetts" by his Federalist backers and derisively labeled "the Hampshire deacon" by his Jeffersonian opponents. (Caleb Strong, undoubtedly, would have accepted both designations as being equally complimentary). The main fire of the Jeffersonians was aimed at Strong's record during the Revolution and attempts were made to convince the voters that he had been a secret Tory. However, his well-known associa- tion with Major Joseph Hawley, the greatest of the patriot leaders in western Massachusetts, was used effectively to settle that point. Caleb Strong's opponent, Elbridge Gerry, was a very talented and shrewd Jeffersonian politician who had served in the Consti- tutional Convention in Philadelphia and also as one of our envoys to France at the time of the X.Y.Z. affair. Yet the Federalists were able to embarrass Gerry on the record of his opposition to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in the debate over ratification in Massachusetts. When the votes were counted, Caleb Strong emerged the victor by a narrow majority of 100 in the state-wide vote, but in western Massachusetts his majorities were overwhelming-Northampton gave him 268 votes to 2 for Gerry, Hadley gave him 96 to 2 for Gerry, Hatfield gave him 70 votes to none for Gerry.
As Governor of Massachusetts, Caleb Strong quickly gave evi- dence of his desire to pursue a policy of moderation. He had been elected in a year of great political excitement when the Jeffer- sonian Republicans had succeeded in electing Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. It had been a heated election contest and many harsh words had been uttered on both sides. Jefferson had been excoriated in New England as a radical and a demagogue of the worst sort-an atheist, a Jacobin, and a practitioner of low politi- cal intrigues. Republicans had repaid the Federalists in kind, call- ing them speculators and stockjobbers, looters of the public treas- ury, scheming aristocrats whose sole desire was to deprive the people of their liberties.
Although the extremist members of his own party wanted to
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pursue a policy of fierce obstruction towards their hated Jeffer- sonian opponents in the national government, Governor Caleb Strong called upon the legislature and the people of Massachusetts in his first official message "to discountenance the spirit of party" and to continue to give obedience and respect to the constituted authority of the national government. He reminded the members of his own party that in a republic "the opinion of the majority must prevail" and that the actions of the new national adminis- tration must be discussed and judged without "asperity and false- colouring."
In the internal affairs of Massachusetts, Governor Strong an- nounced himself to be in favor of a policy of internal improve- ments-to encourage and promote commerce and manufactures as well as agriculture, and to improve education and the arts and sciences. Caleb Strong's interest in roads and canals was already well known, but he showed an equally strong interest in greater public support for education. To him, education was one of the primary means by which good government and an orderly so- ciety might be preserved. "The whole influence of education," he said to the legislature in 1801, "is necessary in republican gov- ernments; they depend for their support upon the enlightened and affectionate attachment of the people; and there is no ground to expect they will be preserved, unless the youth are trained to knowledge and virtue." Publicly supported education united with the influences of religion and public worship were to Caleb Strong "the only sure foundations of human virtue." To further this purpose, Governor Strong specifically urged the legislature to grant financial aid to recently settled towns in Massachusetts in order to make public instruction available to the largest num- ber of children possible.
Such a program and such professions of good will gave the Jef- fersonian Republicans very little cause for complaint. Indeed, the Republicans in the legislature often seemed more pleased with Governor Strong's policy of moderation than the ultra-Federal- ists of the Essex Junto who would have preferred a policy of un- restrained party warfare with Jeffersonian Republican principles at every level of government. But the majority of the people of Massachusetts probably shared the comfortable conviction of Thomas Cushing of Salem who noted in the margin of a news- paper in the spring elections of 1801, "whether Mr. Strong, or
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Mr. Gerry should be chosen, we shall have a good governor. Thank God! He always does right."
The people of Massachusetts gave irrefutable evidence of their belief that Caleb Strong was a good governor by re-electing him with a plurality of more than 6000 votes in a total popular vote of 45,000. In his own county, Governor Strong's majorities were even more overwhelming than in 1800. The four Hamptons, Northampton, Easthampton, Southampton, and Westhampton, gave him a unanimous vote-in Northampton the vote was 448 for Strong to o for Gerry. Again and again in 1802, 1803, 1804, Caleb Strong was re-elected with equally large majorities. Everywhere in Massachusetts there was prosperity and contentment. The Eu- ropean wars kept up a steady demand for American goods and Connecticut Valley products continued to have a profitable out- let in the British and French West Indies. Under the efficient administration of Governor Strong, new bridges and roads multi- plied; new banking and manufacturing corporations were char- tered in increasing numbers.
Yet these happy times were not destined to last long. Leaders of the Essex Junto were in a desperate mood after the re-election of Thomas Jefferson in 1804. They began to realize that, perhaps, the Federalist party would never again be able to capture control of the national government, particularly after the purchase of Louisiana had added new territories in the West that were likely to be sympathetic to the Jeffersonian agrarian program. They were angered by Jefferson's battle with the Supreme Court whose Chief Justice, John Marshall, was one of the most respected Fed- eralist leaders. They were determined to use the Federalist politi- cal strength remaining in New England to develop a drastic policy of states rights obstruction. Indeed, some of the more vindictive leaders of the Junto were actually engaged in a conspiracy to bring about a separation of New England from the Union.
Caleb Strong had no part in these reckless activities and was seriously embarrassed by them. The Jeffersonian Republicans, exhilarated by the victory of Thomas Jefferson in 1804, redoubled their efforts. They were quick to exploit the more violent state- ments of the Essex Junto and to accuse the Federalists of seeking to prevent the expansion of America and to destroy the unity of the Republic. They chose as their new standard bearer James Sul- livan, the richest, ablest, and most powerful of their leaders in
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Massachusetts. James Sullivan was a noted Boston lawyer, a speaker of great eloquence, and an indefatigable writer of pam- phlets and political letters which were widely reproduced in Mas- sachusetts newspapers.
In the state elections of 1805, James Sullivan gave Caleb Strong a real contest. The majority for the Federalists was a scant 1500 in a total vote of 69,000. And, even worse from Caleb Strong's point of view, he could no longer escape from the noise of politi- cal controversy by returning to the Strong homestead in North- ampton after the end of a legislative session. A serpent had en- tered the quiet Eden of his beloved Northampton in the shape of an opposition newspaper, the Republican Spy, which was set up in Northampton at this time. Andrew Wright, the editor of this Republican sheet, proceeded brashly to carry on a virulent cam- paign against the Federalists and all their works in the very center of Connecticut Valley Federalism-conservative old Northamp- ton.
Staid Northampton Federalists were aghast to find this saucy sheet calling them "monied aristocrats" skilled in the "low arts" of political intrigue. At election time, the Republican Spy charged that "mechanics were threatened to be turned out of employment, tenants to be turned out of their workshops, and debtors arrested on the very day of election because they would not sacrifice their principles and their conscience, and refused to bow down and worship the Idol of Federalism." To be sure, the Republican Spy was able to cite only one actual case of such political pressure, but the charges were trumpeted in the plural for maximum effect, and they certainly had a rankling effect among some of the worthy citizens of Northampton. Supporters of the dominant Congregational church were outraged to see their clergy referred to as "Federal priests" who abused their pulpits for the purposes of political slander. On this point, the Federalists were somewhat vulnerable because Caleb Strong's brother-in-law, the Reverend Solomon Williams, had referred to the Jeffersonian Republicans in a fast-day sermon as a set of "damned rascals."
Andrew Wright went so far in his personal attacks upon Gov- ernor Strong that he was prosecuted for libel in September, 1806, in a trial held in Northampton before the Honorable Theophilus Parsons, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and
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Andrew Wright was sentenced to prison for 6 months. An ex- amination of the evidence in the trial as published by Andrew Wright, himself, indicates that his libels were both petty and in- sufficiently substantiated, although one might question the wis- dom of prosecuting Andrew Wright at a time when the Federal- ist press was being equally careless and intemperate in its attacks upon the Republicans. In any case, Andrew Wright and his fol- lowers made the most of his "martyrdom."
The sands were running out for Caleb Strong in this phase of his political career. The Republicans with James Sullivan as their candidate fought hard in succeeding elections and, in 1807, Caleb Strong was defeated at last by a majority of 2000 votes, although western Massachusetts remained loyal to the "Hampshire deacon" to the end. And so, after 7 successive terms in the governorship, Caleb Strong returned to his home and family in Northampton, weary of political strife and resolved never to seek public office again.
He could, nevertheless, face his retirement with considerable satisfaction. He had clung steadfastly to his principles of modera- tion in spite of difficult pressures from extreme elements in both parties. He had repeatedly reminded the people of the Common- wealth of the desirability of restraint in public discussion and the necessity of "a sense of decorum and regard to justice and the public welfare." These were, to him, the essential conditions favorable to order and virtue in a republic; and, without order and virtue, a republican society would soon be dissolved by its vices.
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