USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wilmington > Town of Wilmington Annual Report 1860-1887 > Part 27
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What were these grievances? This paper declares: (1.) That the town agree to the opinions of the town of Boston re- cently published ; expresses " sincere gratitude " to the town of Boston for the care and vigilance which it had shown in behalf of " the public good and safety ;" pledges the town to join with Boston, " yea, with the whole continent," in every lawful expedient for the security of those civil rights which we still enjoy, and the recovery of those that we think have been unjustly wrested out of our hands (referring, I suppose, to the forcible abrogation of their first charter, and other acts in the same line of policy ) ; plainly recognizes a just reason "for these
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afflictive dispensations, in moral delinquencies of the people," "calls to mind how very remarkably the Supreme Governor of the world has appeared for our land, in times past, to deliver us from impending ruin," but does not think that we have deserved from the parent country the treatment we have suf- fered ; and declares : " We are truly loyal to the king ; but at the same time, must say, we apprehend the measures Great Britain is pursuing, if continued in, will terminate both in the ruin of the mother country and the colonies ; but hope the time is not far distant when "our king shall have a right knowledge of our state, and shall scatter the blessings of peace and prosperity all abroad."
Such were the hopes which the Wilmington people were trying to cherish a little more than two years before the fight at Lexington. The king was going to learn their real condi- tion ; would then do them justice, and better times would come.
That 28th of January was very tempestuous, so the report was referred to the March meeting, at which it was read three times, unanimously adopted, ordered on record, and a copy sent to Boston. It is clear to one thoughtfully reading these records, that the feeling of the people was as vehement then as in the opening days of the late rebellion. Their action shows the same unanimity and the same incisive energy. But only a few leaders, such men as Samuel Adams and his compeers, were definitely expecting war; though the feeling had been growing, that at last it might come. At the same meeting, for the first time, a " committee of correspondence with the Boston committee " was chosen, consisting of Mr. Benjamin Jaquith, Mr. Timothy Walker and Mr. Reuben Butters.
A year later, March 7, 1774, we find a straw, indicating an ominous change in the outlook, and that everybody had begun to think of a resort to arms as not impossible. The town instructs the Selectmen " to examine the town's stock of pow- der and ball, and to buy more if they think proper."
I think it a somewhat grim fact, that this powder and ball were then stored in the meeting-house attic; which thus was not only a house of prayer, but also kept the powder dry. The incident is emblematie. Our fathers believed in " the sword of
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the Lord and of Gideon,"-that there are times when the truth must be defended with earthly weapons, and that wars are righteous and are holy, when necessary to the end that godliness may not cease. Puritanism believes in the sacredness of the secular power when in the way of righteousness -and only then.
This act of the town followed close upon Gov. Gage's enforcement of the Boston Port Bill, that put a sudden stopper upon the business of the place. In the same meeting, a vote was taken not to purchase or use any foreign teas, liable to pay any duties. It was on the 16th of the previous December that the Boston Tea Party had taken place, which the Port Bill was intended to punish. You see that the town is ready at any instant to march squarely up to the mark. There is not a sign of any division of sentiment or any hanging back. Any step which the leaders at Boston recommend is unhesitatingly adopted here. So, July 14, 1774, we find them promptly order- ing the town treasurer to pay the full sum assessed on the town toward the cost of the Continental Congress, then in session. The next vote was, "to choose a committee to draw up a ' Solemn League and Covenant' for the freeholders and other in- habitants to sign." Cadwallader Ford, Jr., Mr. John Hathorn, Mr. Timothy Walker, Lieut. Ebenezer Jones, and Joshua Eames, were this committee. A fortnight later, their report was read three times, unanimously accepted, a committee to get signatures chosen, and then the Covenant, with the names, was ordered to be kept by the clerk till we hear the result of the Continental Congress - which was to meet on the 5th of September of that year (1774) .*
On the 30th and 31st days of August a convention for the county of Middlesex was held at Concord, the Hon. James Prescott, chairman. The result of this convention came up before the people of Wilmington, in a meeting held in the meeting-house, on the 7th of September, when it was accepted, and ordered on record. This result fills six pages of the town records, and gives the names of all the members of the conven-
*A note in the records declares that a certain member of the Committee to draw up the covenant (whose name has been carefully scratched out), though he had agreed to, at last refused to sign it. (Was it John Hathorn ?)
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tion, and its acts. Its formal declaration begins thus : " It is evi- dent to every attentive mind, that this province is in a very dan- gerous and alarming condition. We are obliged to say, however painful it may be to us, that the question now is, whether, by a submission to some acts of the parliament of Great Britain, we are contented to be the most abject slaves, and entail that slavery on posterity after us, or by a manly, just and virtuous opposition, assert and support our freedom." The declaration ends with these words: "Our fathers left a fair inheritance to us, purchased by a waste of blood and treasure. This we are resolved to transmit equally fair to our children after us. No damage shall affright, no difficulties intimidate us. And if, in support of our rights, we are called to encounter even death, we are yet undaunted ; sensible that he can never die too soon who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country."
The beauty of this talk lay in its truth. Again we are re- minded of the oneness in spirit of that generation with the first and with the present. We are now, and have ever been, one people with our fathers. Our liberties are a sacred treasure.
Another little fact indicates, Sept. 26, 1774, a change of times, of such a character as to reach the pockets of the citi- zens. At last they are willing to be at the cost of a representa- tive to the General Court ; and Mr. Timothy Walker is chosen to go to Concord in that capacity. Ou the 20th of December, they again vote to raise the Province tax, of £19. 58. 4d. - ($66), to be paid into a special town committee, and to " in- demnify and defend the constables from all loss and charges that may arise from not paying the same to Harrison Gray, Esq.," his majesty's treasurer. So, you see, the strands are breaking that held the Province to the crown. One of the most important was this, by which the taxes were drawn into the king's treasury. That flow stopped, here in Wilmington, on that 20th of December, 1774, five months, less one day, before Lexington fight. Ephraim Buck, Jr., was one of the two con- stables, the Ephraim that in August, three years before, was in the woods chasing the bear; and who is now thirty-two years old. He paid over the taxes that he collected to Mr. Timothy Walker, town treasurer, (for the vote appointing a committee
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was reconsidered) ; and he doubtless felt, as he did it, that it was a more interesting and important aet than the hunting of any bear. And indeed it was. The king had got his last eop- per from the farmers of Wilmington, and the treasury of the Commonwealth, not yet fully organized, was receiving its first. It was an interesting moment. Every one felt it. All the tax- payers of the town knew that this time they were not paying to the king, but to themselves. Already the government had begun again to be, as in the beginning, " by the people and for the people."
Mr. Timothy Walker, on January 17th, 1775, is chosen dele- gate to the Provincial Congress, "at Cambridge or elsewhere." They were not sure, we see, of meeting there, but only of meeting somewhere .* Also, at the same time, it was agreed . " To take some proper method to relieve the suffering poor of Boston." That city, you remember, was cut off from all its trade by sea ; the Boston Port Bill had gone into force June 1, 1774, and Gen. Gage was on hand, to see to its execution, as early as the 13th of May.
And Boston deserved this at the hands of all her sister towns, by the greatness of both her sufferings and her services. She then numbered about seventeen thousand inhabitants, "almost wholly of English extraction, educated, industrious and energetic ; the wealthier citizens noted for their hospitality and politeness ; and it was the heart of a wide-reaching enter- prise, the principal commercial emporium in the colonies." + With a forecast and courage which is most impressive to the student of her history, she had led this movement, and now found herself garrisoned by British troops, her population re- duced to an enforced idleness, and deprived of the means of sustenance. Throughout the land, people praised her and thanked her; and proved their sincerity by large contributions toward her pressing needs. Wilmington was not backward.
The next entry, of interest, which occurs in the records, bears date March 6, 1775. We are coming near to the Lexing- ton fight. On this day, the town voted "to comply with the
* The name "Congress " seems to have been chosen because it was not organizea as a General Court in the manner provided in the charter.
t Frothingham's " Siege of Boston," p. 19.
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resolve of the Provincial Congress respecting the raising of minute men ; " and " that every man from sixteen to sixty, that doth not appear at this house next Wednesday, at 9 of the clock in the forenoon, with arms and ammunition according to law, shall pay a fine of six shillings," (one dollar), " pro- vided he or they cannot give a reasonable excuse." Three days later, the town voted, "To enlist 24 good, able- bodied minute men," and ordered that they should train two half-days in the week, for three weeks; and after that, one half-day, each private receiving one shilling, the captain three shillings, the lieutenant two shillings, for each half-day." On March 20th, -just thirty days before Lexington, - another meeting was held, and Cadwallader Ford, Jr., was ordered to ".purchase good, effective firearms for such minute men as are not able to buy them, to be returned to the town's stock at the end of service."
We are reminded here of a difference between those days and these. Then the woods were full of wild game, every house had its gun, and every grown boy was accustomed to firearms. Moreover, it was but twelve years since the end of the last French war; and as there are men now living in our towns who served against the late rebellion, so there were old soldiers then, enough, probably, to officer the companies.
Our town records contain no reference to the Lexington fight. Some of the minute men must have been in it ; but I have, as yet, received no knowledge of their number or names. I find mention of the older towns, - Reading and Billerica ; and Woburn sent a body, one hundred and eighty strong, under Major Loammi Baldwin. Very possibly Wilmington, so rc- cently a part of Woburn, may have sent her minute men with those of the mother town.
So, War has come! And this time, not a war with savages, or with savages re-enforced and led by Frenchmen; but war against their lawful king, and with their own flesh and blood. We can recall the feeling which the attack on Sumpter first awoke, the sense that, solemn, awful war was indeed upon us ! that there were going to be battles, possibly even defeats ; events bloody and terrible, and which would go upon the page of history. Let us be sure, it was so then. Fathers looked
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thoughtfully on their sons. Mothers dreaded the hour which they foresaw. War, in truth, had come to the door of every house. There was nothing to do but to fight it out ; and Wil- mington went up squarely to the mark, whenever any demand was laid upon her.
In January, 1776, a vote is passed, to send the " quota of wood to the army that were besieging the British, in Boston." In July, 1776, a meeting is called to enlist seventeen men, to join the forces going to Canada. On September 30th, a wholly new kind of interest comes up. There is talk of framing a State Constitution ; some are for it, and some against. This town consents that the present House of Representatives and Council may do it; but declares that it must be referred to the towns, for ratification. They are not fighting to be free from King George, in order to become passive subjects of any King Samuel or King Jolin, or of any General Court.
By February 12th, 1777, still another matter crowds itself on their notice. They were beginning to feel the war, as we felt it, in 1863. Prices had risen. All values were in confusion, causing great embarrassment. So, the selectmen and the Com- mittee of Safety meet, and determine the prices of farmers' and mechanics' labor, of wood, charcoal, horse-shoeing, of tavern fare, and mugs of flip and toddy. A comparison of these brings out some curious results. Farm labor, for example, be- tween November and February, is 18. 6d. a day, or twenty-five cents ; horse-shoeing, with steel tips and corks, costs 3s., or fifty cents. A man must work two days, then, to get a horse shod. Dinner at a tavern is 18. Three dinners, then, are equal to two days' work. Plainly, farm hands, in Wilmington, cannot board at taverns. Flip, made of New England rum, costs 8d. a mug. Two mugs, then, come within two pence of drinking up a day's wages. Farm hands cannot afford to drink toddy. Oak wood brings 10s. a cord, or $1.663, which is equal to about six and one-half days of farm labor, and plainly says to laboring men, - Cut your own wood.
There is another vote, March 3d, 1777, which has a strange sound in these days, - accepting all negro slaves, whom their owners choose to free, and agreeing to support them as the town's poor, if unable to maintain themselves.
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A little later, March 17, 1777, came renewed indications of the burdens of war, $2,000 (dollars, now, not pounds), raised, in addition to the bounty given by Congress and the State ; and again, £18. (pounds this time ; the new reckoning has not yet quite displaced the old) to the men who enlisted in January. Votes appropriating sums to recruits going on particular cam- paigns, are now continually occurring. For example, August 19th, $50, to such as join the army against Burgoyne. Again, May 12, 1778, £133. 68. 8d., to nine months' men, and £100. to eight months' men, going to Fishkill, with mileage at 6d. a mile. July 14th, 1778, they vote to pay such of the men going to Rhode Island, as do not need the cash down, in town notes, bearing interest. In July, men going to Rhode Island, for six weeks, are to receive &24. per month, - seemingly a large sum; but when you remember that in this year it took $328 in currency to buy $100 in silver, it does not seem extravagant. In the next year, the depreciation was worse, and $742 must be paid; in 1780, 82,934; and in 1781, $7,500. In 1780, the Rev. Mr. Morrill's wood was rated at £30 a cord, for one month, and those who fail to bring their share within the month, shall pay £60 a cord. The taxes amounted to £12,372. In these times, the value of the paper money had to be fixed, by authority, every month. No debts ought to have run more than thirty days.
In March, 1779, an addition of £200 had to be made to Mr. Morrill's salary, on account of the high prices. In April, a committee was appointed "to inspect the market, and use their utmost endeavors to prevent monopoly and forestalling." People, it would seem, had not then come to believe in these as a legitimate business. The truth is, the evils of a depreciating currency were intolerable ; and, on July 14th, of this year, an- other desperate effort was made to check them by force. A convention met at Concord, which adopted spirited resolutions, and proceeded to make up a list of prices, at the head of which I find, West India toddy, 12s. a mug ; a dinner, 158 .; a day's labor, from 36s. to 48s. according to the season. It may be asked, what could these votes effect ? and what could the Wil- mington Committee of inspection accomplish ? The inten- tion of these measures, the action of the mother town will
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show. This same summer, the town of Woburn voted,* " That if any persons should violate the resolutions of the Concord convention," " he should, upon conviction before the Committee of inspection, be accounted as an enemy of his country, have his name published in the newspapers of Boston, and be cut off from all intercourse and dealings with the other inhabitants of the town, for such a time as the committee should fix." A few months seem to have taught people, however, that the difficulty was not to be remedied in this way. The votes really amounted to nothing.
The General Court of 1777 had framed a new constitution, which had been submitted to the towns. On June 12th, of the following year, Wilmington appointed a committee, with Rev. Mr. Morrill as chairman, to examine it and report ; and on the 29th, this committee (after some change in its membership) submitted four objections, and a recommendation, as follows : -
1. There ought to be a bill of rights. 2. A governor and lieutenant-governor are a needless expense ; the President of the Council is enough. 3. While so many are absent in the army, it is no time to make a new constitution. 4. The one now in force will answer for the present, and the new one is not needed. 5. They recommend that, when the war is over, a body of mnen be chosen, for the sole purpose of drawing up a constitution.
This report was unanimously adopted, " there being present 73 voters." It is interesting to note the working of the dem- ocratic system of those days, and to see that every man had his voice with regard to the most important matters ; and also, with what discretion the people acted, putting forward their best men, and faithfully following leaders who were worthy of trust.
In April of this year (1778), the small-pox invaded the town, and the question came up in town-meeting, "Shall we inoculate ?" Two objections to this were usually made in those days : First, it seemed a dreadful thing, to poison a healthy person with this disease. He might die; and would it not, then, be the same as murder ? And again, the whole endeavor seemed to many, a flying in the face of the Divine ordinance,
* History, p. 382.
which appoints to every man his hour of death. The town re- fused to inoculate ; and voted to prosecute any person instru- mental in spreading the disease, either by inoculation or other- wise. They instructed the selectmen to enforce proper regula- tions, and examine any person seen going to the house of John Jaquith, or other infected places. Afterward, a pest-house was provided.
In 1779, another effort was made for a State Constitution, and, at the same time, there was again a movement for alleviating the evils of a depreciated currency. On the 23d of August, the town chose two delegates to the Constitutional Convention at Cambridge, and two, also, to that which was to meet at Concord, to deliberate on money and prices. The next seven town-meetings are taken up with measures for raising recruits and their bounties, expenses created by the small-pox, the mak- ing up of the minister's salary and wood, with voting $1,000 additional to the salary, in view of the depreciation of the cur- rency, and, in the next meeting, re-considering the vote, and agreeing to do it "by subscription, if possible ;" and on the 17th of May, 1780, the Form of Constitution, reported by the Cambridge Convention, is submitted to the people, and referred to a committee consisting of the Rev. Isaac Morrill, Cadwallader Ford, Esq., Major Ebenezer Jones, Ens. Nathan Pearson, Mr. Reuben Butters, Captain John Harnden, Captain Joshua Harn- den. On May 24, the Constitution, with the amendments pro- posed by this committee, were unanimously accepted, " there being fifty-two voters present and voting." May 29, however, distinct action was taken upon one of the amendments, as fol- lows: " To see if the town would have the 111th Article in the Declaration of Rights amended, as follows: 'That there be free liberty of conscience allowed to Calvinists and Armi- nians ; and that they have full and free liberty to pay their money towards the support of the Gospel to such public teacher, or teachers, on whom they attend ; and that the majority of any town, parish or precinct, in this State, shall not have it in their power to settle a public teacher over the consciences of the minority, and contrary to their sentiments.'" Twenty-seven voted for this, and twenty-one against it. But at an adjourned meeting, on the 5th of June, this action was reversed, by a vote of forty-six to forty-three.
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This little record of numbers tells quite a story. At the first meeting, evidently, it had not been generally known that this point was coming up, and there seems to have been but forty-eight voters present who had made up their minds. But during the week that followed, it is clear that some talking was done, in those first summer days, on something besides the prospects of the hay-crop and the deeds of Sumpter's and Marion's men in South Carolina. The town was almost equally divided ; one part saying that no majority had a right to force their Calvinism down the throats of people who did not like it, and the other part remonstrating, that ministers had got to be chosen somehow ; and how, but by a fair vote and a majority ? There is no doubt that both parties scoured the town for voters ; and the next Monday showed eighty-nine instead of forty-eight prompt to show their hands at the town-meeting. At the South they were thinking then of quite other things. On the 12th of May Charleston had been surrendered to the British, and very likely the news did not reach the farmers of Wilmington much before June; possibly it came during the very time of these discussions.
By September 4th the new State constitution was going into operation, and the people met for the choice of officers. Here the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., received sixty-seven votes for Governor ; the Hon. Azen Orne, Esq., forty-two for Lieutenant- Governor ; and for the same office, the Hon. James Bowdoin, Esq., fifteen, - both together ten less than those for the Gov- ernor ; and the five Senators, fifty-one each. It is noteworthy that in this first election of State officers the total vote fell short by twenty-two votes of that on the Arminian question, and that sixteen men were willing to say that they wanted John Hancock for Governor, who did not care who were chosen Senators.
On the 22d of June the people seem to have grown tired of appropriating currency, the ultimate value of which could not be known, and put some corn into their appropriation for the twelve men going to the war, - "fifty bushels, with £750, paper money, to each man; " also to supply their families with corn at $50 a bushel. Again, on July 4th, they vote 18 bushels of corn a month, with mileage at the same rate, reckoning 20
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miles one day's travel. They also give them $1000 each, and a blanket, "to be returned when they come home." But the number and condition of the blankets returned at the end of the three months are nowhere mentioned. In October, £7000 are voted for supplying 4560 lbs. of beef to the army ; and in December, $35,020 for 8755 lbs.
On Feb. 26th, 1781, the town gets back to one of the most ancient species of currency ever used, voting to give to the ten three-years men twenty calves each; if discharged after one year's service, the calves are to be one year old; if after two years' service, then two years old; if after three, then three years old. It amounted to this : each man has set aside for him, before he joins the army, twenty calves ; and whether he returns in one or three years, there they are, with interest, to meet him on his coming. In March of the following year the work of raising recruits was brought still closer to individuals by a division of the whole number of adult males into ten classes, each class to furnish a man from its own members or otherwise.
With all the alterations in the value of money. the town treasurer must have had a hard time of it. The people thought so, and on March 12th voted " to give Timothy Walker, Esq., 18 bushels of corn, next Christmas, for his extraordinary services as treasurer for the last three years." Few, I think, would now be willing to undertake the same work for six bushels a year.
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