USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 36
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
TOWNS.
Courts of Sessions.
Courts of Com. Pleas.
Yeas.
Nays.
Yeas.
Nays.
Brought forward,
106
188
51
227
Gageborough (now Windsor),
2
61
2
61
Partridgefield (now Peru and Hinsdale),
1
61
1
61
Equivalent (now Dalton),
0
31
1
31
Sheffield,
41
0
0
41
Lanesborough,
3
60
3
60
New Ashford,
0
25
0
25
Great Barrington,
59
0
16
11
Stockbridge,
26
36
26
36
New Marlborough,
48
12
48
12
Sandisfield,
18
20
0
38
Loudon (Otis),
13
1
1
7
Pittsfield,
12
50
12
50
329
545
161
660
The county having again, by this decisive majority, refused to admit the courts, the following gentlemen were appointed to draft still another petition for a constitutional convention : James Harris of Lancsborough, William Whiting of Great Bar- rington, William Williams of Pittsfield, Benjamin Pierson of Richmond, and William Walker of Lenox. The petition reported by them, like those which preceded it, recited the great military services of the county, its devoted faithfulness to the patriotic cause, the readiness of the people to fly to the assistance of their brethren on every alarm, and their abhorrence of Toryism. It then proceeds thus :-
" Nothwithstanding this our fidelity to the State and our exertions for the common cause, we have, by designing and disaffected men, been represented as a mobbish, ungovernable, refractory, licentious, and dissolute people ; by means whereof we have been threatened with dismemberment, more especially, as we conceive, on account of our not admiting the course of common law.
"It is true we were the first county that put a stop to courts, and were soon followed by many others, - nay, in effect, by the whole State; and we are not certain but that it might have been as well, if not better, had they continued so, rather than to have law dealt out by piecemeal, as it is this day, without any foundation to support it; for we doubt not we should, before this time, have had a bill of rights and a constitution, which are the ouly things we at this time are empowered to pray for.
" And we do now, with the greatest deference, petition your Honors, that you would issue your precepts to all the towns and places within this State
362
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
called upon to pay public taxes, requiring them to choose delegates, to sit as soon as may be in some suitable place, to form a bill of rights and a con- stitution for this State ; without which we shall retain the aforesaid charac- ter, if grounded upon the non-admission of law, as abundantly appears to us this day by the yeas and nays from the respective towns we represent, taken in town-meeting officially called for that purpose, there being four-fifths of the inhabitants of said county against supporting the courts of law until a constitution be formed, and accepted by the people.
" If this our request is rejected, we shall endeavor, by addressing the first Committee of Safety, &c., in this State and others, that there be a State con- vention formed for the purpose aforesaid. And, if this Honorable Court are for dismemberment, there are other States, which have constitutions, who will, we doubt not, as bad as we are, gladly receive us; and we shall, to the utmost of our ability, support and defend authority and law, as we should, with greater cheerfulness, in the State to which we belong, were there any proper foundation for it.
" We are, with all submission, your Honors' youngest child, and are deter- mined, to the utmost of our power, to protect and secure our just inheritance, and hope our parent will graciously concur and assist, by granting this our request.
" And, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
This appeal tells its own story, and shows a very serious com- plication of affairs between the State and the county. The General Court gave it earnest attention ; in September, appointed a com- mittee to consider " what was necessary to be done towards a new constitution," and immediately afterwards sent a deputation to meet the delegates of the Berkshire towns, at Pittsfield, "inquire into their grievances, and endeavor to remove them ; " announcing to them, at the same time, the measures which had just been taken in regard to granting their demand for a constitution, and assuring them that the committee to whom that matter was referred would report upon it as soon as might be, and that it would be taken up at the next session.
The convocation was held Nov. 17; Valentine Rathbun, James Noble, and Josiah Wright representing Pittsfield. The result, in connection with a subsequent consultation with the Berkshire representatives in the legislature, was the passage of a very abso- lute act of pardon and oblivion, with the following provisions : -
" Whereas the situation of the county of Berkshire during the present troubles has been such as induced committees and other persons to do many acts which, in strict law, may be deemed criminal ; therefore -
" First. All riots, unlawful assemblies, rescues, breaches of the peace,
363
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
assaults, batteries, and imprisonments which had occurred in the county between the 10th of April, 1774, and the 1st of February, 1779, were par- doned, and put into utter oblivion.
" Second. It was enacted, that, without leave first had of the General Court, no action for damage should be brought against any person on account of any act done under the authority of any town, town-officer, or committee of correspondence and inspection, within the county.
" Third. It was ordered, that a term of the Superior Court of Judicature should be holden annually for the county of Berkshire, at Great Barrington, on the first Tuesday of May."
The act seems worded with a very tender consideration for the sensitiveness of those to whom it applied, and manifested genuine delicacy in classing among the aets which " in strict law MIGHT be deemed criminal," as well those done in suppressing the king's courts as those which obstructed the sessions of the State tribu- nals; for sinee all patriots acknowledged the first to have been praiseworthy in fact, whatever they might have been "deemed in striet law," no very severe condemnation could have been intended by the General Court of acts which it classed with them without discrimination.
It is not apparent how the legislature could have accomplished an object essential to the restoration of "the full course of law " in any other way, unless it had succumbed to the Berkshire theory, that its own authority was usurped, and thus thrown all the affairs of the State into confusion ; a course which it could hardly have been expected to pursue, with whichever party the abstraet right may have been.
But a clear comprehension of these considerations was not then to have been expected ; and it is not strange, that, instead of giving satisfaction to those for whose benefit it was intended, the act excited their ire. Holding themselves to be the champions of legitimate government against the eneroachments of its enemies, they claimed praise, and not pardon, as their due, and spurned indignantly the most remote intimation of the contrary.
The nature and strength of this feeling may be gathered from the instructions of Pittsfield to its representatives, Col. William Williams and Capt. James Noble, in which these paragraphs appear : -
" We give you the following instructions, viz. : -
" 1st. That you do use your utmost endeavors that a constitution be formed at this time."
364
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
"3d. That a late act of the General Court, called and considered to be an act of oblivion respecting the county of Berkshire, be an object of your attention, and that your exert yourselves that the same may be repealed, as it was undesired by the county, and is fraught with reproach, discrimination, and such severe reflections upon the county as they utterly disdain, and are not chargeable with ; not to mention the manifest injustice contained in it.
" 4th. That the appointment of a Superior Court to be holden in this county on the first Tuesday of May current was unnecessary and premature, and that the gentlemen who proposed such a measure were not so instructed and directed."
" Sth. And, as you are chosen to represent the town of Pittsfield, we expect that you will represent it as a town of a county which has acted as firmly and consistently as any county in this State; and, as you know the senti- ments of the county, that you act conformably thereunto; and, if you are not treated with the same respect with representatives of other counties, that you return home, and give us the pleasure of your company."
These instructions are signed by Eli Root, John Strong, and James Easton ; but the original draft is in the handwriting of Rev. Mr. Allen.1
The expectation announced to the people of Berkshire by the legislative committee was realized; and at its next session, - that to which Messrs. Williams and Noble were accredited, - the Gen- eral Court submitted to the people of the State the question whether they desired to have a new constitution, and, if so, whether they would have it framed by a convention chosen expressly for that duty.
So sluggish was public sentiment outside of Berkshire and Hampshire on this great matter, that nearly one-third of the towns failed to make any return of their vote; and it was not until May that it was known that a majority had declared for a convention.
While uncertainty on this point continued to prevail, the day fixed for the new term of the Superior Court at Great Barrington approached ; and a county convention met and adopted an address to the judges, written by Mr. Allen, and giving a brief résumé of the previous opposition to the courts, with the reasons which had induced it, showing that those reasons still existed, and closing as follows : -
" We are fearful of the consequences, should the operation of the law take place upon the present foundation, especially if it should be attempted
1 The section of the act of oblivion which instituted the new term of the Superior Court was repealed. The rest continned in force.
365
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
to be enforced by violence, as some have insinuated ; which insinuations we hope will appear to be groundless, as they have very much exasperated the people. We must, therefore, in duty to ourselves, our country, and our con- stituents, earnestly desire that your Honors would desist from attempting to sit in this county, until the explicit voice of the great majority of the free- men of this State may be taken, by yeas and nays, respecting the validity of the present form of government, by whose determination, when explicitly and regularly known, we are determined cheerfully and religiously to abide."
Thus, again and finally, did the men of Berkshire rest the defence of their course - where they had first placed, and ever consistently maintained it - upon the absolute invalidity of government based on no explicit consent of the governed ; and thus did they reiterate their purpose to endure even the odious débris of the charter, if the majority should pronounce that to be their will.
Soon after these proceedings, it was ascertained that the voters of the State had decided for a convention; and it was called to meet on the 1st of the following September at Cambridge.
Pittsfield had voted unanimously that it wished, not only a constitution, but a bill of rights, " and that as soon as might be." It now chose Col. William Williams delegate to the conven- tion, with the following committee of instruction: Valentine Rathbun, Thomas Allen, Eli Root, James Noble, and Lebbeus Backns.
Their report, prepared by Mr. Allen, was one of the most remarkable political papers which came from his pen, and offers a fitting culmination to the series whose introduction here has been deemed essential.
It must be remembered, in reading it, that the maxims laid down were not, in 1779, the accepted truths which most of them have become to later generations ; for although some of them had already been incorporated into the new frames of government in Vermont, Virginia, and New York, and most of them had been more or less distinctly proclaimed by political writers, the sanctity which time has conferred upon them as well-defined propositions, integral parts of the Constitutions of Massachusetts and of the American Union, was yet to be attained. So that, while of course no claim to origination can be raised for this declaration of what Pittsfield desired to secure in the instrument which had so long been the star of her hope, no little political sagacity and right- mindedness must be inferred from the selection, out of the abound-
1 366
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
ing dross, of so much which the test of experience has proved pure gold.
Report of the Committee appointed by the Town to draw up Instructions for their Repre- sentatives in State Convention is as follows : -
To COL. WILLIAMS.
Sir, - As you have been duly elected by the town of Pittsfield their representative to meet in a convention of this State at Cambridge, the 1st of September next, for the purpose of forming a new Constitution for the people of this State, which we view as a matter of the greatest consequence to the present and future generations, it will doubtless be agreeable to you to understand their sentiments for the government of your deportment. You are therefore hereby instructed to unite with said convention in drawing up a Bill of Rights and in forming a new Constitution for the people of this State. We wish you to oppose all unnecessary delay in this great work, and to proceed in it with the utmost wisdom and caution.
In the Bill of Rights, you will endeavor that all those unalienable and important rights which are essential to true liberty, and form the basis of government in a free State, shall be inserted : particularly, that this people have a right to adopt that form of government which appears to us most eligible, and best calculated to promote the happiness of ourselves and posterity ; that as all men by nature are free, and have no dominion one over another, and all power originates in the people, so, in a state of civil society, all power is founded in compact ; that every man has an unalien- able right to enjoy his own opinion in matters of religion, and to worship God in that manner that is agreeable to his own sentiments without any con- trol whatsoever, and that no particular mode or sect of religion ought to be established, but that every one be protected in the peaceable enjoyment of his religious persuasion and way of worship; that no man can be deprived of liberty, and subjected to perpetnal bondage and servitude, unless he has for- feited his liberty as a malefactor; that the people have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition for redress; that, as eivil rulers derive their authority from the people, so they are accountable to them for the use of it; that elections ought to be free, equal, and annual ; that, as all men are equal by nature, so, when they enter into a state of civil government, they are entitled precisely to the same rights and privileges, or to an equal degree of political happiness ; that the right of trial by jury ought to be perpetual; that no man's property of right can be taken from him without his consent, given either in person or by his representative ; that no laws are obligatory on the people ,but those that have obtained a like consent, nor are such laws of any force, if, proceeding from a corrupt majority of the legislature, they are incompatible with the fundamental prin- eiples of government, and tend to subvert it; that the freedom of speech and debates and proceedings in the House of Representatives ought not to
367
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
be questioned or impeached in any court, or place out of the General Court ; that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unjust punishments inflicted ; that jurors ought to be duly im- panelled and returned, and all jurors ought to be freeholders. These, and all other liberties which you find essential to true liberty, you will claim, demand, and insist upon, as the birthrights of this people.
In respect to the Constitution, you will use your best endeavors that the following things may be inserted in it amongst others : That the election of the representative body be annual ; that no representative on any occasion shall absent himself from said House without leave first had from said body, but shall constantly attend on the business during the sessions. All taxes shall be levied with the utmost equality on polls, faculty, and property. You may consent to government by a Governor, Council, and House of Representatives. The Governor and Council shall have no negative voice upon the House of Representatives; but all disputed points shall be settled by the majority of the whole legislative body. The supreme judges of the executive courts shall be elected by the suffrages of the people at large, and be commissioned by the Governor. That all grants of money shall originate in the House of Representatives. The judges of the maritime courts, the attorney-general, and high sheriffs of each county, are to be appointed by the suffrages of people at large, and commissioned by the Governor. The justices of the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the Peace in each county be elected by the suffrages of the people of said counties. That no person, unless of the Protestant religion, shall be Governor, Lieu- tenant-governor, or member of the Council or the House of Representatives.
The said Bill of Rights and Constitution you will move may be printed, and sent abroad for the approbation of the people of this State at large, and that each town be requested by said convention to show their approbation or disapprobation of every paragraph in said Bill of Rights and Constitution, and that it be not sent abroad for their approbation or disapprobation in the lump; and that the objectionable parts, if any such shall be, shall be pointed out by each town.
You are not to dissolve the convention, but to adjourn from time to time, as you shall find necessary, till said form of government is approved by the majority of the people.
On the whole, we empower you to act agreeable to the dictates of your own judgment after you have heard all the reasonings upon the various subjects of disquisition, having an invariable respect to the true liberty and real happiness of this State throughout all generations, any instructions herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.
THOMAS ALLEN, ELI ROOT, JAMES NOBLE, LEBBEUS BACKUS.
Committee.
Accepted. Attest :
ELI ROOT, Moderator.
368
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
In the instructions as originally drawn, the delegate was au- thorized to " consent that the supreme judges of the executive courts should be nominated and chosen by the Governor, Council, and House of Representatives." In the copy attested by the moderator of the town-meeting, the italicized words are erased, and with a different ink, in a different handwriting, the follow- ing are substituted: " Shall be elected by the suffrages of the people at large." A similar change occurs in the clause regard- ing the judges of the maritime courts, attorney-general, and the high sheriff's.
These alterations were evidently made as amendments in town- meeting, and indicate that even Mr. Allen was not so radical in his democracy as the dominant sentiment of the town. Mr. Rathbun, it will be observed, did not sign the report; and it may have been that the changes were made on his motion. 1
It has been a mooted question whether slavery was abolished in Massachusetts by the deliberate intention of the people when voting for the Bill of Rights, or by a forced construction of that instrument in the courts. Those who have followed the record of Pittsfield will concede that one town at least meant the Bill of Rights to be no empty declaration of abstract principles, but a living law, requiring no legislative enactment to give it efficiency. Nor is it less apparent that the .people of that town not only under- stood what they were doing when they cast their votes to ratify the Bill of Rights, but that they well knew, and clearly said what they intended to say, when they instructed their delegate to endeavor that it should be inserted among its prohibitions of wrong "that no man can be deprived of liberty, and subjected to perpetual bondage and servitude, unless he has forfeited his liberty as a malefactor." Side by side with the God-given rights which they claimed for themselves, they placed their demand for universal freedom as equally the birthright of every human being.2
1 A comparison of this paper with the Constitution of 1780, and the papers regarding it in the works of John Adams, will serve to give a correct idea of its character.
2 The homogeneous sentiment, which the reader will have observed in the pre- vions story as characterizing Berkshire, leaves no room to doubt, that, as regards the exclusion of slavery, the desire of all its towns was similar to that of Pittsfield. In the case of Stockbridge, we believe, there is direct evidence that it was so.
369
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The clause in relation to religious liberty was far in advance of the article upon that subject which was actually inserted in the Bill of Rights, and of that proposed by Mr. Adams as well. It may reasonably be held to cover even that complete separation of church and state which was not attained until the abolition of taxation for the support of religious worship in 1834; for we may reasonably interpret the abstract declaration of 1779 in the light of the following extract from a letter which Mr. Allen wrote to the town in 1783, upon learning that a minority were dissatis- fied with an increase, which, on account of the depreciation of the currency, had been voted to his salary : -
" Having been made acquainted by several persons that the above-men- tioned grant has occasioned uneasiness and dissatisfaction in the minds of some persons, I do hereby release the town from their vote; it never having been my intention to be supported in my office by compulsion. I wish for no other support than is freely granted, nor do I mean to continue any longer in office than I can obtain such support."
We have few means of ascertaining what influence the town, by its action, had in securing the provisions which it desired, and which were finally placed in the Constitution.
The convention met on the 1st of September; and, on the 6th, Col. Williams wrote to his wife that between two and three hun- dred delegates had arrived, " making a much more respectable body than he was apprehensive could be collected in the State." Before he closed his letter, the convention, "having chosen a grand committee to form a bill of rights and a constitution," adjourned to await their report. He was uncertain whether he should him- self visit home in the interval, but directed his wife to inform Mr. Allen and Capt. Root of the contents of his letter, and request them to write him.
Mr. Allen was thus cognizant of the position of affairs in the convention as well as of the names of the committee, which Col. Williams had enclosed ; and it is hardly conceivable that neither he nor Col. Williams, nervously anxious as both were upon the subject, placed at least the substance of the town's instructions in the hands of the committee, or of John Adams, who was commis- sioned by his associates to prepare the first draft of their work.
The Bill of Rights and Constitution prepared by the conven- tion were established by the people in May, 1780.
24
-
370
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The vote of Pittsfield in its favor was apparently unopposed and unanimous ; although some of the provisions which it con- tained were at variance with the preconceived notions of its people.
The desire which they had expressed that the proposed form of government should be submitted to them "article by article, and not in the lump," was prompted by the fear of some such in- congruous creation as that of 1777 ; and they must have seen, that, even if practicable, it would have been out of place to subject to such a process of revision as was requested the well-balanced production of 1780, which was prepared with all the skill of a profound and learned student of government, and from which one of the parts ignorantly torn away would have been very likely to impair the soundness of all.
This was so self-evident as not to be questioned ; and, the State government being thus fixed upon the sure foundation which they had so assiduously sought, the majority of the citizens of Pittsfield, ever after-even when the Shays Rebellion agitated the western counties - were content to seek the reforms which remained to be effected in the laws through the channels provided by the Constitution.
In addition to the controversy which has been sketched between the General Court and the dominant party in Berkshire, regarding the measures which the latter adopted as a protest against the base- less government set up in the State, and as the means of securing a constituent law, a bitter and wordy dispute was carried on in the newspapers ; poor Mr. Watson, of " The Hartford Courant," being specially afflicted with the communications on both sides. And, as usually happens in acrimonious political conflicts, each party grossly misrepresented and maligned the other. On the one hand, although among those who favored a recognition of the obnoxious government, and the admission of the courts, there were some of the truest patriots in Berkshire, ou whom not the shadow of sus- picion of treachery to the American cause could justly have rested, yet they were indiscriminately posted in the public prints, and charged by the public action of the towns, as "enemies of their country," in precisely the same phraseology that was used concerning the Tories. One not acquainted with the facts would infer from the record, that Capt. Charles Goodrich, for example, was, in the opinion of his townsmen, false to the Revolutionary cause ; while, in fact, it had no more sincere supporter.
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