USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 10
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Of the generation as a whole, we have, however, a very graphic characterization, which, although it refers to a period a few years later, applies with perhaps greater force to the men of 1800-10. It is from an historical sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Humphrey in 1857, and describes the Congregational society as he found it in 1817 :
" The fathers of that day, as I knew them, were a stalwart genera- tion, who had come over the hills from the fat valley of the Connecti- cut, and settled down here, to clear up the forests, trace these broad highways, and lay the foundations of society upon a stratum of the old Plymouth Rock. They were such men as . Fairfield, Larned, Danforth, Childs, Williams, Ingersol, Root, Strong, Fowler, Lancton, Lawrence, the Wards, Merrill, Dickinson, Chapman, Francis, Stevens, Sacket and others."
"They were as a generation staunch, enterprising men-somewhat set in their ways, if you please; but who, despite their shibboleths, would, had the occasion called for it, have united, shoulder to shoulder, as their fathers did, in fighting for liberty to the death."
As the occasion did not require it, they did not stand shoulder to shoulder, but, in quite another attitude, face to face, employed their vigor and their valor in taking care that the liberties of the republic received no detriment from its internal enemies, as they mutually classed each other.
We should be too hasty, if we denounced their political wran- glings as altogether profitless ; and although they doubtless with- drew much mental energy from more economical employment, and although the material interests of the town must have suf-
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fered from the lack of local harmony, still individuals and the community increased in wealth and business activity.
In the chapter specially devoted to agriculture, manufactures and mercantile affairs, it will be seen that farming was prosper- ous, and growing more skilful, that new branches of manufactures . were introduced and became the germ of the present greatness of that interest in the town; that the merchants showed signs of thrift by building new and better stores. The carding-machines and fulling-mills were busy in preparing and finishing the prod- ucts of the household-looms. The manufacture of carriages was prosperously begun. The iron forges were turning out tons of tough malleable iron, which to a great extent was converted by the smiths of the town into anchors, gun-barrels, plowshares, chains, and other products of their craft. A gun-factory was established, which contributed largely to the arming of the troops of the state and the Union. The seed of the flax which had furnished material for the linen-looms, fed the oil-mills ; the ashes from the fires that cleared the fields became precious in the pot- ash crucible. Tanneries, for which bark and hides were then more abundant than now, enriched their owners. Beef-packing, as well as the potasheries, was a profitable source of income to the merchants. The breeding of mules and horses for the West India market was a lucrative branch of the farmer's business: Plows, scythes, nails, carding-machines, looms, silver-ware, drums, hats and combs, made up a goodly number of small manu- factures. And, finally, the printing-press was in constant motion, sending out not only newspapers, but political and relig- ious pamphlets, primers, blanks and all the multifarious issues of the job-printing office.
We have thus, in the Pittsfield of 1800-1810, a thriving agri- cultural, manufacturing and mercantile town of from 2,000 to 2,500 population ; agitated by religious and political feuds which extended in a remarkable degree into the affairs of business and social life ; but which, although they were to be deplored, did not absorb all activity of thought, or prevent a great advance of material prosperity. We may add that, sadly divided as society was, it did not hinder-and perhaps by its rivalries encouraged- an exceedingly genial social life, in which ."merry England" cropped out very perceptibly above the "stratum of Plymouth Rock."
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CHAPTER VI.
POLITICAL FEUDS, AND DIVISION OF THE FIRST PARISH.
Political rancor of the age-Exaggerations of tradition-Illustrative anec- dote-State of American politics-Sources of political bitterness peculiar to Berkshire-Berkshire federalists and democrats characterized-Elder Leland, Theodore Sedgwick and Rev. Thomas Allen-Obnoxious sermons preached by Mr. Allen-Woodbridge Little's letter of complaint-Mr. Allen's reply-Action of the dissatisfied-Advice of the Berkshire associ- ation of Congregational ministers-Mr. Allen annoyed by newspaper scan- dals-The Berkshire Reporter-Letter from Mr. Allen to Mr. Little-Union parish incorporated-Difficulties in organizing a new church solved by an ex parte council-Church of Union parish instituted-Names of mem- bers-Proposals for the resignation of Mr. Allen-Ordination of Rev. Mr. Punderson over Union church-Health of Mr. Allen ; he preaches an elcc- tion sermon at Boston ; writes a historical sketch of the town and county ; his death ; monuments to his memory.
W HILE, as we have seen, and shall see, Pittsfield during the first fifteen years of the nineteenth century was characterized by substantial prosperity, advance in the industrial arts, and great improvements in those branches of agriculture subservient to them, and while it numbered among its citizens an unusual proportion of able men, those years in its history have become widely known in tradition for an excessive political bit- terness which bisected the town in its social and business rela- tions-and especially in those of religion-into two hostile camps, with passions more malignant, if their weapons were less fatal, than those of the battle-field.
There is a little exaggeration in all this; but tradition has here shown less than her usual proclivity to pervert facts. Her misrepresentation lies chiefly in what she has forgotten. She has neglected to preserve for us the causes which inevitably rendered this feud exceptionally personal and malignant, and has left us to believe that an excess of political rancor was more peculiar to Pittsfield than it really was. Other towns suffered nearly as
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much from this baleful strife. Other religious parishes were so divided that harmony was restored, if it was restored at all -- ex- cept by the healing influence of time-only by the resignation of their pastors. Indeed personal malignancy in political strife was characteristic of the times, and of all classes, from the chief- magistrate of the nation-at least during the first eight years- down to the lowest wrangler in the village bar-room. Nor was this unworthy manifestation of feeling confined to America. " How savage," exclaims Thackeray, speaking of English politi- cal writings of the same period, "how savage the satire was, how fierce the assault! What garbage hurled at opponents ! What foul blows were hit; what language of Billingsgate flung !" The village-discords of Pittsfield in 1800-1815 were therefore not altogether exceptional.
And again, there was evidently a much larger proportion of the population than the sweeping generalities of tradition would indicate, who were in a greater or less degree uninvolved in the prevailing feud ; with whom politics were not an all absorbing, or controlling, consideration. Families were rarely divided by political lines ; as the father, so generally were the sons. But the children of democratic and federal families sometimes inter-mar- ried, and there is no intimation of any resultant troubles like those which befell poor Romeo and Juliet. A venerable lady tells a story of her younger days, illustrative of the rancor of political feeling, to the effect, that she with her sisters-all staunch feder- alists-one evening accepted an invitation to accompany certain young gentlemen to a dancing-party at some distance from their home ; but reaching the scene of festivity, and finding it the house of a democrat, they sturdily refused to enter, and insisted on returning. This certainly shows a pretty intense feeling on the part of the young ladies; but, on the other hand, we must infer that either they had been receiving the attentions of demo- crats, or that the gentlemen, in their love for parties of pleasure, were indifferent to their relations with parties in politics. The same lady well remembers the delight with which the visits of the arch-democrat, Parson Allen, were received by the young federalists of her father's house; although that was doubtless not during the more violent paroxysms of the prolonged quarrel.
We are then not to believe that for any long time, or that through the entire community for any time, all the courtesies of
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life, and all social intercourse were suspended, and that the people of Pittsfield met each other on the street only to scowl and pass by on different sides. Such a state of things would be incredible on much better authority than that of tradition; and it is dis- proved by abundant testimony.
Nevertheless, although the political quarrels of Pittsfield in these years were not so exceptional, nor quite so absorbing, as tradition represents, they were sufficiently lamentable, and did possess painful peculiarities. It is true that they impeded the material progress of the town, engendered family feuds, and rent in twain the Congregational church and parish, which then com- prised by far the larger portion of the population. Under their incitement malignant slanders were invented and circulated ; those who ought to have been in private life united in the warm- est friendship, became the bitterest enemies, and those whose abilities and influence ought to have been combined for the good of the community, wasted their powers in denunciation of each other. For it was the men of strongest mind and warmest heart, who were most deeply involved in this vain and wasteful strife.
A gentleman of sharp and just thought1 afterwards collected some of the partisan pamphlets of the-Pittsfield presses of that era, and had them bound together under the quaintly-significant title : " The Age of Folly." And, in some of its phases an age cf profound folly it surely was, when passion obscured the judg- ment of the wisest and perverted the conscience of the most pure- minded.
There is, however, another aspect in which it is possible to view the asperities of that era. It must be remembered that there was then raging the most stupendous conflict of arms and of opinions, that ever shook the world; a conflict upon whose issue the world's whole future seemed to depend. Not only did it sway the capitals and the battle-fields of Europe, but the most remote jungles of the east trembled to the thunder of its can- non, and the inmost hamlet of civilized men in the west was agitated by the jar of its debates. It was not a question of mere territorial conquest ; of the balance of national power ; of com- mercial policy. It concerned the very basis of all government every-where. The issue was between the divine right of legitimate
1Hon. Ezekiel R. Colt.
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kings, and the right of the peoples to establish, alter or amend their constitutions. These antagonistic ideas, the world over, were contending for the mastery in a contest so desperate, and so nicely balanced, that the champions of each felt, not without reason, that the slightest aid gained or lost, might be of decisive effect. The great powers which led in the struggle adopted therefore the most unjustifiable measures to force the weaker nations from a wise neutrality. In the United States the same quarrel, translated indeed from English soil, had been so recently fought out, that when the French revolution revived it on so grand a scale in Europe, each side found a great party ready to sympathize with it. And, as the conflict had originally been more bitter and more clearly defined in Berkshire than perhaps in any other locality; so there the revived animosities were cor- respondingly fiercer. At first, few were willing to avow them- selves in favor of actually involving the country in the war. Probably few were so minded. Peace was too precious; the friends of England, who held power, were pre-eminently prudent, and the Gallic party had no object in precipitating a crisis until they had obtained possession of the government. But in the arena of politics there went on the same conflict between old and new forms of thought and action which was fought in the cam- paigns of Europe; with this essential difference, that what in Europe was still revolutionary, had come in America to be simply progressive, while conservatism, if it assumed the European type or allied itself with it, was reactionary.
At bottom, indeed, among the masses of the American people, the difference of aims and opinions was much less than mutual jealousies, and the expressions of extreme but representative men, made them appear. But so long as each party earnestly believed in the evil intentions of the other, it did not matter how just that belief might be, so far as its effect on the virulence of the times was concerned. Or rather, the more erroneous the belief, the more exasperating were its effects ; for each party, true to the instincts of human nature, oblivious to its own injustice, perceived and resented only that of which it was the object. Such, in general, was the state of public feeling in America dur- ing the whole period covered by the political feuds of Pittsfield, from 1790 to the close of the second war with Great Britain; varying, of course, in intensity with the varying incitements of
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public events. And what was true of the general conflict, was often more intensely so of the little hand-to-hand local encounters.
But in order to show how legitimately and inevitably the dis- sensions we are about to relate were the outgrowth of the times, a little more than a general statement is requisite.
The fact is familiar to the reader that the constitution of the United States, as framed by the convention of 1787, was not in all its provisions acceptable either to the progressive or the conserva- tive elements in the proposed union ; and that its final adoption was secured only with great difficulty. Concessions which had in convention been reluctantly yielded, by one side or the other, to the necessity of compromise, had to be argued anew before the people,-a more unyielding tribunal ; and, after all, the work, as a whole, was only accepted by the states, with the hope strongly held out that the amendments, of which most of them proposed several, would be obtained in the near future. In the state con- ventions the radical democracy-then known as anti-federalists --- continued unconditionally to oppose the ratification.'
The conservatives, on the other hand, while they distrusted the new form of government as without sufficient powers for its own preservation, yet saw in it an immeasurable advance upon the old confederacy, and the only escape from impending anarchy. They therefore warmly advocated its adoption ; gaining thereby the name of federalists, and with it much popular favor when the successful working of the new institutions seemed to prove their superior wisdom. Their enemies, however, charged that they favored it as a cunningly-prepared stepping-stone towards a monarchical or an aristocratic state. The government was organized under the new constitution in March, 1789, and hap- pily being administered with the same wisdom which created it, its effect upon the prosperity and happiness of the country was so manifest that all parties hastened to deelare their allegiance to it. The federalists, however, continued to distrust it as too weak
1 In that of Massachusetts Pittsfield was represented by Capt. David Buslı and Valentine Rathbun, both ultra-democrats, and on the final vote Mr. Rathbun gave the voice of the town against its ratification, doubtless in accordance with the wish of his constituency. There were at that time some very able and earnest federalists in Pittsfield, and the question of the adoption of the constitution evidently excited no little ferment ; but it seems to have been far less violent than the political agitations which preceded and followed it ; and we have no details regarding it, even in tradition.
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to meet any violent storm; the democrats still proclaimed that it was necessary to keep a vigilant watch upon its aristocratical and monarchical tendencies, and as soon as possible, to introduce into the constitution itself a check upon them. That instrument was, indeed, literally but a frame ; and a frame capable, in the hands of perverse builders, of becoming a very different structure from that which was actually developed. Much depended upon the construction which might be put upon many articles by judicial and legislative decisions; much sometimes upon what the prac- tice of the people acting through political parties should make custom. 1
Distrust as to the practical working of the constitution arose, then, not only from the uncertainty which overhangs all experi- ments of this nature, however honestly conducted ; but also from dread of the interpretation which those in power might choose to place upon some of its clauses. " Other constitutions," said the democrats, "have been wrested from meanings as plainly worded as this, to the utter perversion of their intent; why should not ours ? " And it must be confessed that this jealousy was not without reason ; but it is to the credit of the federal judges and the federal majorities, that their decisions and practice were gen- erally just, and almost always leaned to the liberal side.
The dominant party were prudent, just and moderate; the minority were for the most part men of sense, and although per- haps morbidly jealous of their liberties, had no disposition to dis- turb a public tranquillity which they perceived indispensable to individual as well as national prosperity; and, although, doubt- less, under any circumstances the wholesome conflict between conservative and progressive ideas would have kept alive health- ful political action, there is no reason to believe that the early years of the republic would have been disturbed by party quar- rels of more than ordinary violence, had no incitement come from abroad, and had not the people honestly believed that the rights and liberties of America were involved with those of Europe.
Questions as to the development of natural resources, the
1 The case of the change in the functions of the electoral college from wliat the framers of the constitution plainly intended it to be, furnishes a good illustration, although the subversion of a plain meaning is exceptional. Judi- cial, legislative and popular interpretation ordinarily took effect only where the original language was equivocal.
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encouragement of manufactures, the extension of commerce, con- cerning the respective powers of the state and national govern- ments, and the like, often appeared sharply ; but so clearly was domestic tranquillity essential to individual and national prosper- ity, that even politicians of extreme views were, at least at the north, content to postpone abstract constitutional reforms until " practical inconvenience " should prove their necessity. Thus even a man of so extreme views as Theodore Sedgwick, in a let- ter to Peter Van Schaack, dated November, 1791, declines to agi- tate for a change in the judiciary, "because, if it should be attempted to reform the system by proposing an amendment, it may excite all the agitations of federal and anti-federal passions, which now seem to be dormant through all the northern and east- ern states."
But, simultaneously with the organization of the federal gov_ ernment, the French revolution began to take definite form by the meeting of the States General and their speedy resolution into "The National Assembly." In America this first act of the grand drama was hailed with almost universal joy, as the substitution of a free constitution for an arbitrary and often grossly-tyrannical despotism. The proclamation of a French republic, although at- tended by excesses that awakened the fears of the more observing, was generally welcomed as bringing into closer sisterhood with the Union, the great nation which had been its ally in the war of inde- pendence ; while it flattered the national pride by the sincere hom- age of imitating our example. Soon, however, the hideous atrocities of the reign of terror, exaggerated by report even beyond the frightful reality, excited the horror and dread of the more timid and conservative classes. In the example of France they saw the realization of their own predictions concerning the results of popular rule. All had witnessed, some had experienced in their own person, the rigors of committee-rule in the times of the revo- lution. It needed, they considered, only the absolute powers which similar bodies had attained in France, for the committees, or the party in which their spirit, and much of their personnel, survived, to re-enact upon American soil the tragedy which was desolating France. Jefferson, the great leader of the anti-federal- ists, just returned from Paris, imbued with the most radical Jacobinism, was, they averred and sincerely believed, assaulting not only the administration, but the very foundation of the gov-
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ernment. His success involved their ruin. When, therefore, England became the champion of public order and established institutions throughout the civilized world, the federal became an Anglican party.
On the other hand, the anti-federalists-who soon shook off that name for the more popular appellative of republicans-while they must have shuddered at the tales of horror which every ship that crossed the Atlantic brought from Paris, Lyons, or La Vendée, were taught to believe them the inventions, in great part, of the English press ; and, bad as the truth was confessed to be, to offset it with the cruelties of kings and nobles which had been endured for ages. The excesses of the republicans, they were told, were but the ebullitions of a newly-enfranchised people avenging itself for the oppression of generations ; they would soon subside into a healthy tranquillity. "A few months of the Temple and the Conciergerie," said the more violent, " are not too much to atone for centuries of the Bastile." The slaughters by which the republic sought to exterminate its enemies, revolting as they were confessed to be, it was said-and said to Protestants of the strict- est sect-were no worse than those which, by royal edict, sought to extirpate Protestantism in France. The sensual orgies and debaucheries of Robespierre, Le Bon and their fellow-fiends, devilish as they were, it was said, were no more so than those of the Parc-aux-Cerfs, or the palace of the Regent Orleans ; and this was said to the sternest of republicans, who prized the honor of the simplest citizen's wife or daughter, at least equally with that of the noblest lady. And thus, while they personally sympa- thized with sufferings endured by the victims of the revolution, if that sympathy affected the political opinions of the republicans at all, it was to increase their detestation for that system of gov- ernment, whose prolonged tyranny had rendered so terrible a retribution inevitable. The right and the duty of the French people to reform their government, at any cost, they not only did not question, but vigorously upheld.
At home, they found the loyalists of the revolution giving the most ardent support to the federal administration, while many who had been the truest patriots in that struggle boldly avowed, or unmistakably showed, their distrust of republicanism, and their preference for the British constitution. It was easy, there- fore, to revive in the democratic masses the scarcely-dormant
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hatred of England, which had been engendered by a cruel war. whose story was now sedulously revived, and the more so as the British government was at the moment vigorously endeavoring to suppress free thought on her own soil. When Great Britain placed herself at the head of an alliance of despotie powers, whose avowed object was to protect the divine right of kings against all revolutions, it was easy to attribute to her an intention, should the holy alliance triumph in Europe, to give its purpose a retro- active seope for her own benefit on this side of the water; and to attribute also to the American conservatives the intention of restoring, under her protection, either the old order of things, or a new kingdom, with perhaps a cadet of the house of Brunswick on the throne. Thus ruin to themselves and their country which the federalists feared from the triumph of France, the republi- eans anticipated in case England and her allies, by victory in Europe, became arbiters of the world's destiny : and so the Angli- can party in America was matched by a Gallic.
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