USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume I > Part 33
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At Hartford next day, Washington wrote the following letter to Warner Taft :
"SIR: Being informed that you have given my name to one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. Washington's family, and being moreover much pleased with the modest and innocent look of your two daughters Patty and Polly, I do for these reason send each of these girls a piece of chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. Washington, and who waited upon us more than Polly did, I send five guineas, with which she may buy herself any little ornaments she may want, or she may dispose of them in any other manner more agreeable to herself. As I do not give these things to have it talked about, or even to its being known, the less there is said about the matter the better you will please me; but that I may be sure the chintz and money have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, directed to 'The President of the United States, New York.' I wish you and your family well, and am your humble servant."
So, it would seem, Mercy was familiarly known as Patty and Parla as Polly. Washington must have got the impression that Mercy's name was Martha, for his wife.
Amariah Frost of Milford, in his diary, tells of visiting Mount Vernon in June, 1797, and after describing his reception by Washington and the dinner which was served, adds: "The President spoke of the improvements made in the United States. . . . . We conversed also respecting his return by way of Lexington across the country. He inquired if I knew Mr. Taft's
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family where he put up that night ; whether the old gentleman was alive, and added that he was much pleased with the conduct of his daughters, particu- larly of the eldest, who, he said, appeared to have superior sense and knowl- edge for one educated in such a country village at a tavern. She appeared to understand considerable of geography, etc., that she was a very sensible and modest person. Inquired if she was well married. I answered that I believed she was, and that it was to a person of education who was a clergy- man."
This little romance was told by Sarah F. Taft, descendant of Warner Taft, whose home the tavern was until her death a few years ago: "One afternoon the daughter Mercy and other young people were chatting at the home, and looking out the window they saw a fine looking young man coming into the yard, and Mercy said, laughingly, 'There comes my man.' It proved to be a Mr. Olds who was studying at Harvard. He was attracted to the young lady, and a friendship sprang up which resulted in their marriage. He did not remain in the ministry long. They went west and the descendants further west, till at the present time many of them are in the states of South Dakota and Washington."
The old gambrel-roofed Taft Tavern still remains in the possession of the descendants of Warner Taft. And one of their highly prized possessions is the desk at which George Washington sat that night and wrote his Boston letter.
LaFayette's Visit-It seems fitting to interpolate here, out of its chronological order, an account of the visit of General LaFayette to Worcester County in 1824. His reception in every town through which he passed was one of whole-hearted welcome, and particularly was he touched by the greet- ings of his old companion-in-arms of the Revolution. After the ceremonies of the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument, where he was the guest of honor, he started on his return journey by taking the route of the British march to Lexington and Concord. Thence he headed westward, and passed the night at the mansion of Honorable S. V. S. Wilder at Bolton. At half past six the next morning, escorted by a body of cavalry, he proceeded over the turnpike to Lancaster.
He was received at the toll-gate with a national salute from the artillery, and upon arrival at an elaborately decorated arch near the meetinghouse was met by the town committee and conducted to a platform on the Green. "There, in the presence of an immense concourse from all the country around, he was welcomed in an address by the Reverend Doctor Nathaniel Thayer, to which he made brief response, evidently deeply affected by the eloquent words to which he had listened, and by the spontaneous homage of a grateful people.
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After a brief stay, during which the surviving soldiers of the Revolution were presented to him, amid the booming of cannon and the tearful acclama- tions of the multitude, the cavalcade moved on toward Worcester."
To quote a contemporary account of the greeting of the county seat: "He was received on the northern border of the town by a deputation from a com- mittee of the citizens, and escorted by two companies of cavalry, a regiment of the light troops of the division, and a great concourse of the people of the county. From hoary age to lisping childhood, all were eager to manifest affection and respect for the guest of the nation.
"He passed through crowded streets; between lines of the children of the schools, ranged under the care of their teachers, who scattered laurels in his path; beneath arches inscribed with his own memorable words, and with the names of the scenes of his signal services ; amidst companions who had borne arms with him in the army of independence; and through the multitudes who had gathered from the vicinage to greet the return of the friend of their fathers."
Said the National Aegis : "The concourse of people now became great, and the cheering and tokens of welcome almost continual, and the scene impres- sive beyond description-the grey-headed soldiers of the Revolution, in their impatience to salute their old companion at arms seemed to forget their infirmities and to banish all ceremony.
"They pressed up to the barouche as it passed along, and extended their arms to embrace the object of their affection. The veteran himself seemed deeply moved by these spontaneous demonstrations of gratitude and respect, and shook many of his old soldiers by the hand as he passed along."
Eli Whitney's Invention of the Cotton Gin-In 1793 there occurred an event of revolutionary importance to the world, for good, and at the same time strange to say, for evil-the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney of Westboro. Because of it, his county, in common with other regions of the North, was able to take advantage of the opportunity offered a decade later by the interruption of the flow of merchandise from the mills of Europe, to establish mills of their own.
Over night, as it were, the cotton gin made possible the production of cotton in the South on a large scale, and the manufacture of cotton yarn and cotton cloth as one of the world's great industries. Likewise it gave enormous stimulus to American exports. But it was the direct means of establishing Negro slavery as an institution so huge and so menacing as eventually to bring on the Civil War.
Eli Whitney was born on his father's farm, at Westboro. His mechanical genius came to light when he was still a lad, and so did an ambition to receive
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a college education. His father was bitterly disappointed. He wished his son to follow in his footsteps on the farm. But he finally yielded and sent Eli to Yale College, from which he graduated in 1792. His inclination was toward mechanics. Such a boy today would seek out a good engineering school such as the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. But he determined to make some use, at least, of his college training, and accepted an opportunity to tutor in a Georgia family. One of his traveling companions on the journey south was Mrs. Greene of Rhode Island, widow of the famous Revolutionary soldier, General Nathanael Greene, who was returning to Savannah with her family. On arriving at his destination he found that another had been given the post that had been promised him.
Mrs. Greene showed the young man much kindness. One day, after she had seen evidences of his ingenuity, she was entertaining a distinguished com- pany of gentlemen, who deplored the lack of a machine which would separate the cotton seed from the fibre. It then took a negro a whole day to clean one pound of cotton. The South was languishing for want of a means of getting its cotton crop to the market. "Gentlemen," the hostess said, "apply to my young friend Mr. Whitney-he can make anything."
So Eli Whitney went to work on the problem. It was not the season of the year for cotton, and he had to scour the Savannah warehouses to get enough for the purpose of his experiments. Mrs. Greene gave him a room in her mansion for his workshop, and there he labored, being compelled even to make the tools with which to fashion a model. Finally he was successful. His "gin," as he dubbed it, abbreviation for "engine," was an instant, practical success. It made the separation of seeds from fibre easy and thorough. The problem of the South was solved.
The change in the value of cotton as a result of the invention of the cotton gin is one of the marvels of the history of manufactures. The actual money value of cotton in the period immediately preceding the invention is not easy to compute, because of unstable prices as against the inflated currency of the day. But the relation of its value to those of other common items affords a sound estimate. The price fixed for cotton in the Anti-Monopoly Acts of 1779 was three shillings per pound by the bag and three shillings eight pence per single pound. Plain dinners were one shilling, six pence, lodging four pence, and shaving three pence. One pound of cotton would buy two dinners, one lodging, one "shaving," and leave a penny over. When the cotton gin was at work a pound of cotton would not have carried one far either in eat- ing or in sleeping.
Channing wrote of the cotton gin : "Eli Whitney's adaptation of the exist- ing machinery for separating the cotton gin from the fibre came at one of
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those psychological moments that are constantly met with in historical study. The inventions of Crompton, Arkwright, and others in England in combina- tion with the introduction of steam power led to an epoch-making develop- ment of cotton manufacturing and to an accompanying, insistent demand for cheap fibre. The existing sources of supply of the long staple cotton-India, the West Indies and the Carolinian sea-islands-were not able to meet the demand.
"The upland of the Lower South was fitted by nature with soil, tempera- ture, and moisture entirely congenial to the growth of the short-staple, green- seed cotton plant. Two things stood in the way of its cultivation ; the lack of suitable labor and the difficulty of separating the seed from the fibre. Many attempts had been made to solve this difficulty. None of them had been suc- cessful until Whitney in 1794 devised a machine that could be used com- mercially. He and his partners rented these machines, or 'gins' to producers, and they also bought cotton and ginned it themselves. Probably, they were actuated partly by desire for gain and partly by a wish to properly separate the cotton from the seed.
"As almost any good mechanic could duplicate the Whitney cotton-gin, the attempt to regulate its use led to law suits, disputations, and disappoinments. Had not Whitney hit upon the idea of manufacturing firearms on a large scale with interchangeable parts, thereby making himself independent of the cotton-gin, his later life might have been another tragedy of the American inventor. The cultivation of cotton rapidly overspread the Southern uplands. There was a market for every pound that could be produced; there was a field and a hoe for every negro slave who could be procured.
"It is almost impossible to give any tangible idea of the increase in the amount of cotton cultivation. Perhaps the best way to give some comprehen- sion of the extension of the industry is to say that practically no North American cotton was imported into Liverpool from the United States in 1790, and that almost two hundred thousand bags of it were imported in 1810. The cultivation of upland cotton increased with marvelous rapidity, and, could the necessary labor have been found, it would have increased much faster had not commercial warfare (under the embargo and non-intercourse act) restricted exportation. This lessening of foreign demand was in part made good by a great increase in cotton spinning in the North. In 1807, according to Gallatin, there were fifteen mills with about eight thousand spindles in the United States; in 1811, there were eighty-seven mills with eighty thousand spindles, and they used 3,600,000 pounds of cotton in twelve months.
Wor .- 20
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County Thrives Under Embargo Act-Of extraordinary importance to Worcester County in shaping its destiny were the embargo act of 1807 and the non-intercourse act which succeeded it, for they gave a great stimulus to manufacturing industry in this inland country, and were the direct cause of the establishment of a large number of mills and factories. France and England were at war. Each demanded that the United States cease all com- merce with the other, which was disastrous to our shipping. Our merchant- men were seized and sold as prizes. English men-of-war stopped our ships on the high seas on the pretence of searching them for deserters from the royal navy, and every sailor was considered a British subject, unless he could prove himself an American citizen. Thousands of our men were seized and compelled to do service on British warships. The crisis came in 1807 when the British frigate Leopard stopped the American frigate Chesapeake at a moment when her guns were dismounted and she was incapable of resistance, and took four of her crew, one of whom was hung as a deserter.
Congress, seeking retaliation and also wishing to teach a lesson, immedi- ately passed the embargo act with the purpose of starving out both Great Britain and France. Not an American ship was permitted to sail from an American port. Even fishing vessels had difficulty in securing clearance. But neither England nor France went hungry, while the United States saw its exports fall $40,000,000 in a single year. All along the seaboard there was great distress. Shipyards and shipping were idle.
But Worcester County did not suffer. The absence of imported goods stimulated manufacturing in a large way. While Boston and the other sea- port towns were bringing every influence to bear on the President and Con- gress to secure the repeal of the act, our shire sat tight, as was illustrated in correspondence between the selectmen of Boston and Worcester.
On August 10, 1808, the Boston selectmen sent to Worcester a copy of a petition already adopted by the citizens of Boston, addressed to President Jefferson, praying for the suspension of the embargo act, or, if doubt existed of the power of the executive to afford relief from measures that pressed heavily on commerce, requesting that Congress might be convened for the purpose of taking such relief under consideration. The communication asked that the Worcester selectmen call a meeting of the inhabitants to obtain their concurrence in the petition.
The selectmen declined to comply with the request, which they did in an ingenious round-about letter, in which they said: "We deferred returning an answer because we thought we had reason to believe that there would be found ten of our own freeholders, knowing our sentiments and differing from us, who, by signifying their desire in writing, would make it our duty
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to call such a meeting. We can no longer delay a civility due to our fellow- citizens of the respectable town of Boston. We will, therefore, with that friendly freedom which becomes citizens whose interests are the same, expose the reasons and sentiments which forbid us to act in our official capacity, according to your proposal. Assenting to the constitutional right of the citi- zens to assemble and consult for the common good, cordially concurring in respect for the constitutional authorities of the country, we depart widely from the views of policy entertained by the petitioners (of Boston), and con- clude by declaring that, fully persuaded we have expressed the sentiment of a large majority of the inhabitants of this town, in expressing our own, we cannot believe it would be satisfactory to them, on this occasion, at this season of the year, to be called together in town meeting."
CHAPTER XXVI.
Our Critical Quarter Century --- 1787-1812 (Continued )
When trouble with France reached a point when war seemed imminent, Congress, in July, 1798, as a precautionary measure voted to augment the United States Army by the creation of twelve additional regiments of infan- try and six troops of light dragoons, and recruiting began July 16. In the autumn of 1799, a brigade of the new troops, consisting of the 14th, 15th and 16th regiments, was ordered to Oxford as a rendezvous. The regiments were not nearly at full strength, and men were being received from various recruit- ing stations and put in training under veterans of the Revolutions. The camp was on the slope of the hill west of the center of the town. Colonel Benjamin Rice was in command, himself a Worcester County man, the son of Rev. Caleb Rice of Sturbridge. The officers found quarters in the village, some of them living with their families in houses secured for homes, others having rooms in private families or at the taverns.
Strict discipline was lacking, and the soldiers immediately began to swarm over the surrounding country, raiding the farms and robbing the farmers of their produce. It became necessary to harvest crops early and get them under cover. But even this did not stop the petty thievery, for farm buildings were entered, and the soldiers went so far as to empty family pork barrels stored in home cellars. It is significant of camp conditions, that when the specie with which to pay the troops arrived in town, there was apprehension lest a raid be made upon it. So it was taken to Butler's Tavern, where some of the officers lived, deposited in one of the rooms, and a network of twine drawn across the doorway, so that any attempt to get at the treasure might be detected.
But punishment was provided for offenders who were apprehended. The tale was related by an old resident of Oxford that he was present at Camp- bell's Tavern on the occasion of the punishment of a soldier for some mis- demeanor. He was tied to the tavern sign-post in the middle of the street,
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and there flogged in the presence of a crowd which had gathered for enter- tainment.
No accurate record exists as to the number of soldiers in the "Oxford Army," or "Adams' Army," as the provisional regiments were also styled. Tradition puts it at a thousand, but there is reason to believe this a low esti- mate. Recruiting was suspended early in 1800, and officers on recruiting duty were ordered to report to their commands at Oxford. Congress in May ordered the disbandment of the regiments on or before June 15.
A memorable occasion in connection with the disbandment was the visit to Oxford of General Alexander Hamilton to give necessary directions as to the preservation of the public stores. The Boston Centinel of June 23, con- tained the following letter dated Oxford, June 13:
"On Tuesday last Gen. Maj. Hamilton with his suite arrived at this place, and on the succeeding day he reviewed the Brigade under the command of Colonel Rice. On this occasion the troops performed their manoeuvers with that exactness and activity which manifested attention in the men and superi- ority in the officers. The General expressed an unequivocal approbation of the discipline of the army and beheld with pleasure the subordination and attention to dress and discipline.
"On Thursday the General made a public dinner to which all the officers of the brigade and several gentlemen of the permanent army were invited. A convenient colonnade was erected for the purpose over which the flag of the United States was displayed, and during the entertainment the air was filled with martial music from the new-formed band and from a large col- lection of drums and fifes. Hilarity and joy pervaded the guests . . . . but when they drank to the memory of WASHINGTON! and a parting sentiment was given by Gen. Hamilton a blush of extreme sensibility suffused every cheek and demonstrated the agitation of every bosom.
"But Friday was reserved for a more prominent display of the passions of the human mind. At 7 o'clock in the morning the Brigade was formed into a hollow square when the General addressed his fellow soldiers in a speech of about half an hour in length. On this occasion the troops were moved, not merely on account of this last interview with their general, but by the impressive sentiments which fell from his lips, enforced by the most charming eloquence and pointed diction. I cannot give even an epitome of this address. Suffice it to observe that he inculcated sentiments suitable for directing the conduct of the army subsequent to its retirement into private life-such sentiments as awakened and I trust will keep alive the patriotism of the officers and men ; and induce them again, at the call of their country to make new sacrifices for its defense."
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A few nights later Hamilton was dined in Boston, when among the toasts were these : "The late disbanded army,-may we respect them for the services they would have performed had our insidious Friends presented a bayonet instead of an olive branch." "The Atlantic ocean-What God has separated let not man put together."
The Death of George Washington-The news of the death of George Washington was received with deepest grief in every town and hamlet and farm in the county. Buildings were draped in mourning, and services held on a Sabbath, or as in Worcester, on February 22, birthday of the Father of His Country, which was the day formally set apart by the Nation. In Worcester, "the company of cavalry, the artillery, cadets, militia, the youth of the schools, and a great concourse of citizens, moved with solemn music to the Old South Church, which was hung with black and emblems of mourning. An eloquent eulogy was pronounced by the Reverend Doctor Aaron Bancroft, on the virtues of the departed soldier, statesman, and patriot."
But nowhere in the land, perhaps, was the passing of the beloved Wash- ington memorialized with such pomp and circumstance as in Oxford, where the brigade of troops, soon to be disbanded, joined with the Masonic Fra- ternity in solemn pageant and services, which took on the complete panoply of a funeral, in which the last remains of Washington were represented by an emblem. On January 8, 1800, by order of Colonel Rice, the following appeared in the Massachusetts Spy:
FUNERAL HONORS AT OXFORD. "Oxford, January 4, 1800.
"Mess. Thomas & Son.
"The President having directed that Funeral Honors should be performed at the several Military stations throughout the United States to the Memory of our late beloved highly venerated and most illustrious COMMANDER-IN- CHIEF whose talents as an officer and virtues as a man had placed him above all praise, I have directed that the same be performed at this post on Wed- nesday the Fifteenth instant.
"Confident that the most poignant grief for so great a National Calamity hath pervaded every part of our country, and particularly the citizens of this vicinity, and that it would afford them consolation to unite with us in per- forming these sad rites, I request that through your paper information may be given thereof. The Clergy-the Society of the Cincinnati and Officers of the late Army-Officers civil and military-Citizens in general are invited to attend ; and it is hoped the usual badge of mourning on the left arm.
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"The procession will be formed precisely at II o'clock and proceed to the Meeting-house where it is expected divine worship will be performed; after which it will proceed to the place representing that of interment, and the ceremonies performed agreeable to the instructions therefor.
"It is requested that seasonable information may be given by the Com- manding Officers of such Volunteer Corps and Uniformed Companies of Militia as will attend on the occasion.
"N. RICE, "Commandant of the 14th Regiment and Commanding Officer at Oxford."
The Spy of 22 Jan., 1800, contained the following :
"On Wednesday the 15th inst., Funeral Honors were paid by the troops stationed at Oxford to the memory of their illustrious leader General GEORGE WASHINGTON. At day break 16 guns were fired from the left of the Canton- ment by a company of Worcester Artillery, commanded by Capt. Healy : at sunrise another gun was fired, which was repeated each half hour through the day. At II o'clock the troops having been formed, moved from their parade by platoons and formed in the Main Street ; a company of Cavalry under the command of Capt. Jeremiah Kingsbury formed on their left, the whole commanded by Maj. Walker of the 14th Regiment and two companies of Artillery under the orders of Major Andrews on their right.
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