USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the commonwealth period. 1775-1820 v. III > Part 21
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" A Frenchman that lodged with me took it into his head to play on the flute on Sundays for his amuse- ment. The people, upon hearing it, were greatly enraged, collected in crowds round the doors, and would have carried matters to extremity in a short time with the musician, had not the landlord given him warning of his danger, and forced him to de- sist."
2 On the history of church music in New England, see the excellent manual of George Hood, entitled A History of Music in New England, &c., Boston, 1846, and comp. Felt's Hist. Salem, i. 497-505. The "re- form " in singing was commenced in 1720, and was advocated by the cler- gy with great spirit - calling forth essays and discourses from Symmes, Walter, Chauncy, and others. Sing-
ing schools were also established ; and the churches in Boston, Roxbury, Dor- chester, Cambridge, Taunton, Bridge- water, Charlestown, Ipswich, New- bury, and Bradford were among the first to reform and improve their mu- sic. The first American organ, it is said, was built by Edward Bromfield, Jun., of Boston, in 1745. Dr. Frank- lin, in 1741, published an edition of Dr. Watts's Hymns in Philadelphia ; and, the same year, an edition of the Psalms was published in Boston, for J. Edwards. Tate and Brady's ver- sion was introduced about the same date ; and from this book the psalms used in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States were taken. Barnard's Psalms were pub- lished in 1752, and a revised edition of the Bay Psalm Book, by Thomas Prince, in 1758. " Urania, a Collec-
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V. " All these churches are destitute of ornaments. No ad- dresses are made to the heart and the imagination. There is 1781. no visible object to suggest to the mind for what purpose a man comes into these places, who he is, and what he will shortly be. Neither painting nor sculpture represent those great events which ought to recall him to his duty, and awaken his gratitude ; nor are those heroes in piety brought into view whom it is his duty to admire and endeavor to imitate.1 The pomp of ceremony is here wanting to shadow out the great- ness of the Being he goes to worship. There are no proces- sions to testify the homage we owe to him, that great Spirit of the universe, by whose will nature itself exists, and through whom the fields are covered with harvests, and the trees are loaded with fruits.
" Piety, however, is not the only motive that brings the American ladies in crowds to the various places of worship. Deprived of all shows and public diversions whatever, the church is the grand theatre where they attend to display their extravagance and finery. There they come, dressed off in the finest silks, and overshadowed with a profusion of the finest plumes. The hair of the head is raised and supported on cushions to an extravagant height, somewhat resembling the manner in which the French ladies wore their hair some years ago.2 Instead of powdering, they often wash the head, which
tion of Psalm Tunes, &c.," was pub- lished in 1761, in Philadelphia, and Flagg's Collection of Church Music in Boston, in 1764. The celebrated Billings published his American Chor- ister in 1770. The author's grand- father was Billings's teacher. From this date to the year 1800, a large number of books were published, and great improvements were made in singing and in the character of church music.
1 The writer, it will be observed, speaks here as a Catholic, and looks at the churches of New England
from the Catholic standpoint. How far Protestants have erred in the re- spects named in the text, different opinions would probably be enter- tained. Simplicity in worship is doubtless preferable to pomp and pa- rade, and is more in accordance with the genius of Christianity, as well as more serviceable to the cause of true and unfeigned piety.
2 An idea of this style of head dress may be gathered from the splen- did engraving representing Franklin at the court of France, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful ladies, and crowned
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answers the purpose well enough, as their hair is commonly CHAP. of an agreeable light color ; but the more fashionable among V. them begin now to adopt the present European method of 1781. setting off the head to the best advantage. They are of a large size and well proportioned ; their features generally regular, and their complexion fair, without ruddiness. They have less cheerfulness and ease of behavior than the ladies of France, but more of greatness and dignity. I have even imagined that I have seen something in them that answers to the ideas of beauty we gain from the masterpieces of those artists of antiquity which are yet extant in our days. The stature of the men is tall, and their carriage erect ; but the make is rather slim, and the color inclining to pale. They are not so curious in their dress as the women ; but every thing about them is neat and proper. At twenty-five years of age, the women begin to lose the freshness and bloom of youth ; and at thirty-five their beauty is.gone.1 The decay of the men is equally premature ; and I am inclined to think that life is here proportionably short. I visited all the burying grounds in Boston, where it is usual to inscribe upon the stone over each grave the name and age of the deceased, and found.
with a laurel wreath by the hands of one of their number. It is said to have been the custom, before the open- ing of the revolutionary war, for fe- males to sit in meeting covered ; but, on the 25th of May, 1775, the good people of Abington seem to have been struck with the impropriety of this custom, and voted " that it was an indecent way that the female sex do sit in their hats and bonnets to worship God in his house, and of- fensive to many of the good people of this town." Hobart's Abington, 135. In the winter season, meeting houses were not warmed by wood fires in huge iron stoves ; but the worshippers managed to keep from freezing by threshing their arms and
hands, and stamping their feet, during the intervals of the service, and at pauses or breaks in the good pastor's discourse. Some old ladies took small footstoves with them, filled with coals from a neighboring house.
1 The style of dress recently in- troduced, which gives such a peculiar rotundity to the fashionable lady, was not unknown in those days, and is, indeed, but a revival of the famous " hooped petticoats," which were such an abomination in the eyes of the Pu- ritans. I have met with some lines in an old paper, published in 1781, " On seeing a young lady with very short stays, and a WIDE HOOP;" but it would hardly be proper to insert them here.
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CHAP. that few who had arrived to a state of manhood ever advanced V. beyond their fortieth year, fewer still to seventy, and beyond
1781. that scarcely any." I
Of the residents in the country our author speaks on this wise : "Scattered about among the forests, the inhabitants have little intercourse with each other except when they go to church. Their dwelling houses are spacious, proper, airy, and built of wood, and are at least one story in height ; and herein they keep all their furniture and substance. In all of them that I have seen I never failed to discover traces of their active and inventive genius. They all know how to read ; and the greater part of them take the gazette printed in their village, which they often dignify with the name of town or city. I do not remember ever to have entered a sin- gle house without seeing a large family Bible, out of which they read, on evenings and Sundays, to their household. They are of a cold, slow, and indolent disposition, and averse to labor 2 - the soil, with a moderate tillage, supplying them with considerably more than they consume. They go and return from their fields on horseback ; and in all this country you will scarcely see a traveller on foot. The mildness of
Contrary to the idea which gen- erally prevails, that the proportion of those who live to old age in the nine- teenth century is less than that of those who lived in the eighteenth century, I am satisfied, from a careful survey of the statistical tables of dif- ferent periods, that a larger propor- tion now live beyond the bounds of " threescore years and ten " than at- tained to that age a century ago. Of the native population, less die in in- fancy now than then, and more sur- vive the trying crises of life. Exces- sive devotion to business and exces- sive mental anxiety are the two great- est foes to longevity; and though there are doubtless many who dig their graves with their teeth, and many who are slain by their lusts, of
the bulk of the people more die from care than from either of these causes. The many sudden deaths of active business men may doubtless be ascrib- ed to this cause - over-eagerness and over-anxiety.
This remark is incorrect, as a more active and industrious race can scarcely be found than the yeomanry of New England. It is only to be regretted that the fault of former days should still prevail in many places -a want of enterprise and of a desire for improvement in the mat- ter of farm management. The agri- cultural socicties of the state, howev- er, are rapidly remedying this evil, and infusing a spirit of emulation into the young.
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their character is as much owing to climate as to their cus- CHAP. toms and manners ; for you find the same softness of disposi- v. 1781. tion even in the animals of the country.
" The Americans of these parts are very hospitable. They have commonly but one bed in the house ; and the chaste spouse, although she were alone, would divide it with her guest without hesitation or fear. What history relates of the vir- tues of the young Lacedemonian women is far less extraordi- nary. There is here such a confidence in the public virtue, that, from Boston to Providence, I have often met young women travelling alone, on horseback or in small riding chairs, through the woods, even when the day was far upon the decline.1 In these fortunate retreats, the father of a fam- ily sees his happiness and importance increasing with the number of his children. He is not tormented with the ambi- tious desire of placing them in a rank of life in which they might blush to own him for a father. Bred up under his eye, and formed by his example, they will not cover his old age with shame, nor bring those cares and vexations upon him that would sink his gray hairs with sorrow to the tomb. He no more fears this than he would a fancied indigence that' might one day come upon him, wound his paternal feelings, and make the tender partner of his bed repent that she was ever the mother of his children. Like him, they will bound their cares, their pleasures, and even their ambition, to the sweet toils of a rural life - to the raising and multiplying their herds, and the cultivating and enlarging their fields and orchards. These American husbandmen, more simple in their manners than our peasants, have also less of their roughness
1 This trait of New England char- acter is still preserved, to a great ex- tent, in many of the inland settle- ments. There, women seldom fear to return alone, in the evening and at a late hour, from a visit to a neighbor. No one molests them; no one ad-
dresses them. If one of the other sex passes by, he passes in silence, or with the greeting of " Good even- ing," uttered in a pleasant and re- spectful tone. Long may this con- tinue to be the case.
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CHAP. and rusticity. More enlightened, they possess neither their V. low cunning nor dissimulation. Farther removed from luxu- 1781. rious arts, and less laborious, they are not so much attached to ancient usages, but are far more dexterous in inventing and perfecting whatever tends to the conveniency and comfort of life. Pulse, Indian corn, and milk are their most common kinds of food. They also use much tea ; and this sober infu- sion constitutes the chief pleasure of their lives. There is not a single person to be found who does not drink it out of china cups and saucers ; and, upon your entering a house, the great- est mark of civility and welcome they can show you is to invite you to drink it with them." 1
" What a spectacle," he continues, "do these settlements even now already exhibit to our view, considering that they are of but little more than a century standing, and have been constantly under the control of English policy, - always sus- picious and tyrannical, - which seized the fruits of their industry, and rendered itself the sole possessor of their com- merce ! Spacious and level roads already traverse the vastly- extended forests of this country. Large and costly buildings have been raised, either for the meeting of the representatives of the states, for an asylum to the defenders of their country in distress, or for the convenience of instructing young citizens
1 The "china cups and saucers " re- ferred to in the text were quite differ- ent in appearance, as well as in size, from the articles known by those names at the present day. Both cups and saucers were very small, scarcely holding half as much as our modern cups ; the " sugar bowl," " teapot," and " cream pitcher " were all on the same diminutive scale ; and even the " china tea plates" were of quite moderate size. Very few relics of the " tea services" of our grandmothers have been preserved, and these few are rapidly disappearing. Specimens should be collected before they en- tirely vanish, and preserved as memo-
rials of the past. The author from whom I quote seems to be of opinion that the use of tea is prejudicial to health, and says, "The loss of their teeth is also attributed to the too fre- quent use of tea. The women, who are commonly very hantlsome, are often, at eighteen or twenty years of age, entirely deprived of this most precious ornament ; though I am of opinion this premature decay may be rather the effect of warm bread ; for the English, the Flemish, and the Dutch, who are great tea drinkers, preserve their teeth sound a long time."
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in language, arts, and science. These last, which are, for the CHAP. most part, endowed with considerable possessions and reve- v. nues, are also furnished with libraries, and are under the 1781. direction of able masters, invited hither from different parts of Europe. Ship yards are established in all their ports, and they already rival the best artists of the old world in point of naval architecture.1 Numerous mines have been opened ; 2 and they have now several founderies for casting cannon, which are in no respect inferior to our own. And if the height of the architect's skill has not yet covered their waters with those prodigious bridges which are wont to be extended over the waves, and unite the opposite shores of large rivers, as with us, still industry and perseverance have supplied the want thereof. Planks, laid upon beams, lashed together with stout rings, and which may be taken apart at the pleasure of their builders, are, by their buoyancy, as solid and useful as our firmest works designed for the same end. In other places, where a river is too deep for fixing the foundation of a bridge- on its bottom, a stout mass of timber work is thrown over, in a curved line, supported only at the extremities - the
1 The French early predicted the maritime greatness of the United States ; and Mons. Thevenard ob- served to John Adams, in June, 1779, " Your country is about to become the first naval power in the world." The Count de Sade likewise remarked, " Your Congress will soon become one of the great maritime powers. You have the best of timber for the hulks of ships, and best masts and spars ; you have pitch, tar, and tur- pentine; you have iron plenty ; and I am informed you grow hemp; you have skilful ship builders. What is wanting ?" See also the compliment of an English captain, in 1778, on one of the American frigates : " He had never seen a completer ship; there was not a frigate in the royal navy better built, of better materials, or
more perfectly equipped, furnished, or armed." J. Adams's Corresp. in Works, x. 25-27. For hints on ship building in Massachusetts previous to the opening of the present century, see Abbé Robin's New Travels, 16 ; , Brooks's Hist. Medford, 357-381 ; Deane's Scituate, 27, 28; Barry's Hanover, 156-166; Winsor's Dux- bury, 349-351 ; Felt's Salem, ii., &c. On the trade and navigation of Bos- ton in 1794, see 1 M. H. Coll. iii. 286 -288.
? " The Province of the Massachu- setts Bay," says the Abbé Robin, " has mines of iron and copper. The iron is of a superior quality to any other in the world, and will bear ham- mering to a surprising degree." New Travels, 17. Comp. also 1 M. H. Coll. ix. 253 et seq.
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CHAP. internal strength of the structure supporting it in every other V. part.1
1781. " Every house and dwelling contains within itself almost all the original and most necessary arts. The hand that traces out the furrow knows also how to give the shapeless block of wood what form it pleases ; how to prepare the hides of cattle for use, and extract spirit from the juice of fruits. The young rural maiden, whose charming complexion has not been turned tawny by the burning rays of the sun, or withered by blasting winds, - upon whom pale misery has never stamped its hateful impressions, - knows how to spin wool, cotton, flax, and afterwards weave them into cloth." 2
Such is the picture of Massachusetts and America given by a foreigner three fourths of a century ago.3 The sprightli-
1 'These "floating bridges," as they were called, were once quite common in Massachusetts, but are now rarely seen. The first pier of the Charles River bridge, from Boston to Charles- town, was laid June 14, 1785 ; and June 17, 1786, the bridge was opened for public travel with great parade. The proprietors of the West Boston or Cambridge bridge were incorpo- rated March 9, 1792; and the bridge was opened in November, 1793. 1 M. H. Coll. iii. 245; Boston Ga- zette for 1786 ; Snow's Hist. Boston, 316-318; Worcester Mag. for 1786. 2 " You have hitherto," he justly observes in another place, " seen the Americans acting rather from an im- pulse of cool reason than sentiment - better pleased with reflecting than thinking, and taken up with useful rath- er than agreeable things. And for this reason, legislation, politics, natural and mechanical philosophy may make con- siderable progress among them, while the fine arts remain unknown, and while even poetry, which in all other nations has preceded the sciences, for- bears to raise her lofty and animated
strains. Their towns, their villages, their places of abode may afford ease, health, and regularity, but will pre- sent nothing that interests and re- freshes the imagination. Here are no trees planted through the country in straight lines, or bent into bowers, to refresh the traveller with their shade. Here are no gardens, con- trived with ingenious arrangements, where a pleasant symmetry and a happy mixture of flowers inebriate the senses and enchant the soul. Nei- ther have they any theatrical shows or dances, or those public exhibitions which might give us an idea of their felicity and cheerful disposition."
3 The extracts in the text are from a scarce tract, rarely seen or quoted, entitled "New Travels through North America, in a Series of Letters, ex- hibiting the History of the Victorious Campaign of the Allied Armies, un- der his Excellency General Washing- ton and the Count de Rochambeau, in the year 1781. Translated from the Original of the Abbé Robin, one of the Chaplains to the French Army in America. Boston : printed by E.
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ness of the narrative is not more pleasing than the good CHAP. sense of the writer ; and rarely does a stranger give so just
V. and glowing a description of manners and customs which may 1781. strike him by their novelty, but which, from their dissimilarity to those with which he has been familiar, he is often inclined to look upon with contempt. Pleasing, however, as this pic- ture is, it has its defects ; and many points of interest are touched but slightly. Travelling by stage coaches was a recent improvement, though pleasure carriages had been in use among the wealthy for nearly a century. The stage routes were not very numerous ; and the arrival of a coach at dif- ferent points was quite an incident in the history of the day. The driver was a noted character, and was looked up to as a man of no little importance. His appearance upon the scene was usually preceded by sonorous blasts from a " horn " which he sported, closely resembling the "fish horn" of the present day ; and, as he descended the hill, and rounded up to the tavern door, with a smart crack of his whip, and with his horses at a gallop, the loungers of the bar room regarded him with amazement. He who could drive his "four in hand " was quite a genius - the envy of those who had never attempted so wonderful a feat.1
The departure of the coaches was duly announced in the papers of the day, and in terms which excited the curiosity of many.2 Post offices were likewise established in the prin- cipal towns; and the mails were conveyed by persons called
Powars and N. Willis, for E. Bat- telle, and to be sold by him at his Book Store, State Street. M.D.CC. LXXXIV." pp. 96.
1 Comp. Felt's Hist. Salem, i. 316 -319, and Kidder and Gould's Hist. N. Ipswich, N. H. A stage coach began to run regularly from Boston to Portsmouth in 1761 or 1763 ; and in 1769, a stage, afterwards dis- continued, commenced running be- tween Boston and 14
Marblehead. VOL. III.
Drake's Boston, 664, 758.
2 See the volumes of the Boston Gazette for 1780 et seq .; also, the Mass. Spy and Essex Gazette. Sev- eral advertisements appeared in the Worcester Mag. for 1786, of a line of stages from Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, to Savannah, in Georgia. The charge for passengers was three- pence a mile, with liberty to carry 14 Íbs. of baggage.
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CHAP. "post riders." The Provincial Congress settled this plan in V. 1775, and it was now in successful operation.1 The rates 1781. charged were much higher than at present. On single letters, for any distance not exceeding sixty miles, the charge was five pence one farthing ; upwards of sixty, and not exceeding one hundred miles, the charge was eight pence ; and for a letter conveyed one thousand miles the charge was two shil- lings and eight pence. Double letters were double these rates ; treble letters were treble ; and for every ounce weight, four times as much was charged as for a single letter.2
Newspapers had become quite numerous ; but they were usually printed upon coarse paper and with poor ink, so as in many cases to be nearly illegible. All the paper, indeed, man- ufactured in Massachusetts, was coarse, but strong ; and very little, even of the best, was of a snowy whiteness.3 That upon which books and pamphlets were printed was equally rough ; though there were occasional specimens of typography quite creditable to the publishers. The art of engraving was still in its infancy ; and the woodcuts which embellished the heads
1 On the subject of mails and post offices, see 1 M. H. Coll. iii. 276, and Felt's Salem, i. 326-332. The fol- lowing was the plan from Cambridge to Falmouth, in the county of Barn- stable : "To set off from Cambridge every Monday noon, and leave his letters with William Watson, Esq., postmaster at Plymouth, Tuesday, at four o'clock, P. M. To set off from Plymouth Wednesday, A. M., at nine o'clock, and leave his letters with Mr. Joseph Nye, 3d, postmaster in Sand- wich, Wednesday, at two o'clock, P. M. To set off from Sandwich at four o'clock, and leave his letters with Mr. Moses Swift, postmaster at Falmouth, Thursday, A. M., at eight o'clock. To set off on his return Thursday noon, and reach Sandwich at five o'clock; and set off from thence at six o'clock on Friday A. M., and reach Plymouth at noon. To set off
from Plymouth on Friday at four o'clock, P. M., and leave his letters with Mr. James Winthrop, postmas- ter in Cambridge, on Saturday even- ing." Thacher's Plymouth, 336. On the post route to Portsmouth, N. H., see Felt's Ipswich, 64 ; and for a de- scription of the " mail bag " then used, see Felt's Salem, i. 327.
2 Thacher's Plymouth, 336.
3 The first paper mill at Water- town was built by David Bemis, about the year 1760; and the first at New- ton Lower Falls was built about the year 1790. Jackson's Hist. Newton, 105. The first paper mill in Ando- ver was built by Hon. S. Phillips, in 1788. Abbott's Andover, 195. On the paper mills at Milton, see 1 M. H. Coll. iii. 282. There are said to have been twelve paper mills in operation in Massachusetts in 1794.
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of newspapers and the title pages of pamphlets were exceed- CHAP. ingly rude. Some good specimens of copper plate engraving
V. have been preserved ; and Paul Revere, of Boston, was noted 1781. for the general excellence of his productions. It must be remembered, however, that the progress of the fine arts in a new country is necessarily slow ; and it is only as a people have leisure and means to devote to such purposes that improvements are made, and a stimulus is given to native genius.1
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