USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 26
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2 It is said the first Jacob Gibson came of a Scotch ancestry.
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The precise date of his birth is not known, as all family records were destroyed by fire, when the house at Marengo was burned in 1847. But from certain expressions of his own, in a handbill issued by him in 1809, it is certainly known that he was born in 1759. His education was of a very limited character, and received in the neighborhood sub- scription schools, though there is a tradition that he was sent to Wil- mington, among his kinsfolk there, for the completion of his schooling. Through life it was a source of continued regret, which he often expressed, as it was also the cause of much embarrassment, that he had not enjoyed better scholastic instruction. His early years were spent upon the farm, and engaged in its arduous but healthful labors he grew up to be a stalwart man, healthy in mind and body, with strong constitution, and a large and robust frame. He adopted agriculture as his calling, which he prosecuted with great vigor and success. As it was either as farmer or politician that he made himself conspicuous, so the most that shall be said of him must be in his connection with these occupations-the one the business of his life at which he seemed to play, and the other his amusement in which he seemed to labor.
He commenced farming at a time when a change in our system, from the culture of tobacco to that of wheat, was making, and he lived to see the former entirely abandoned, and the latter universally adopted. At one time he was one of the largest farmers in the county, for he not only cultivated his own lands of broad acreage, but he also rented farms in different parts of the county, which he placed under overseers who had immediate control of the several gangs of negroes, while he gave a general supervision of the whole. He had the administrative faculty well developed. Though hopeful and buoyant, he was far from being vision- ary in his ideas. His agricultural operations were conducted with a view to profit and not for purpose of testing new theories or trying new methods. It may be said that it was also without sentiment, for he was a rigid disciplinarian and an exacting taskmaster. He demanded that his orders should be obeyed strictly, and a full amount of labor performed, or the servant suffered the penalty of disobedience or idleness. As his passions were violent these penalties were not slow to follow, nor light in their infliction. The most marked characteristic of Mr. Gib- son, and it was one which manifested itself under all circumstances in life was his pugnacity. He loved contention. He courted opposition. As has been remarked of him in another connection, he was a militant man, and was never more thoroughly at peace with himself than when engaged in a conflict with others. Even in the peaceful pursuits of
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agriculture he found occasion for contests of one kind or another, ami- able, or hostile. If a neighbor claimed an unusual yield from his fields or his flocks, Jacob Gibson was ready to throw doubt upon his statement, or to match it with some other respecting his own superior success in the same line. Thus: In the Republican Star of March 6th, 1804, the editor noticed the extraordinary weight of the fleece of a sheep be- longing to Mr. W. B. Smyth, and also the size of a lamb from the same gentleman's flock. This apparently very inoffensive paragraph called forth a furious reply from Mr. Gibson, which being characteristic of this worthy is here copied. He says:
Since my arrival home I have taken up the "Star" of Tuesday, the 6th inst., and having discovered a puff in it about two forced sheep, and well knowing that the reputation of my sheep is higher than any other farmer in the State, I am of opinion that the author of the publication above alluded to, meant in a side way to undervalue the breed of my sheep. I therefore challenge the author or any other person to meet me at the General Court in April, with ten of their best lambs. I will show six at the same time, on a wager on the following terms, viz: that no one person in this or any other county in the State shall produce six equal to them in weight, beauty or size, for 50 dollars, 40 to 50 dollars that they outweigh 7; 20 to 50 dollars that they outweigh 8; and 10 to 50 that they outweigh the produced 10, provided the lambs have fallen since the 15th of January, and have not pastured on a wheat field.
(Signed) J. GIBSON.
N. B. I pledge myself that my lambs have not been one hour on any wheat field or clover lot, and that they have fallen since the 15th of January.
As a sequel to this may be mentioned another curious advertisement made in 1713 by Mr. Gibson, too long for insertion, commencing:
Boasters of Sheep Raising and Sheep Shearing, stop your gasconading, and behold two animals like their owner, who astonishes while he excels and puzzles the inquisitive, why and how they do so.
He appends the certificate of Thomas McKeel standard keeper, to the effect that two sheep of J. Gibson, alleged to have been raised on Sharp's Island, weighed 333} and their fleeces 39 pounds. These were Merino sheep and the wool was valued at two dollars per pound. Another exceedingly singular and characteristic publication was made in the Star of July 1, 1806. It may be premised that the members of the Agricultural Society which had been formed the year before, are the objects of his indirect attack. He girds at them as small farmers of
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lots, though claiming to be agriculturists. There is reason to believe this was in return for their refusal to admit him to the association. He writes:
Mr. Smith: I am sick, tired, sunburnt and mad. The run fever and backache among my legion of honor and their invincibles have left me (after six days dashing) twelve twentieths of my wheat yet to cut. Please let the little farmers know that as soon as their lots are secured, I hope they will reinforce me to help down with my continent and colo- nies, or the eating world may be put on short rations. To prevent mis- takes I want aid at Marengo, Ulm, Austerlitz and Trafalgar.
(Signed), J. GIBSON.
Saturday night, 6th day of Harvest. S
N. B. Tell the bankers I shall want a basket full of dollar notes.
This last expression owes its origin to the fact that the Branch Bank of the Farmers' Bank of Maryland, at Easton, had just then gone into active operation, and therefore was engaging attention in the county by its novelty, while the directors were yet in doubt of its entire success. In this connection it may be well to notice an extraordinary communica- tion of Jacob Gibson to the Republican Star in which he gave the out- lines of a plan for a fiscal institution to be established by him in Talbot, of a kind, the most wonderful that ever entered the head of man. As a full account of "Jacob Gibson's Bank" was printed in the Easton Star, of Dec. 2nd, 1873, the details of his scheme need not be given here: but this much may be said, he proposed to retain four per centum of the profits as interest upon his capital invested, and one per centum as a sinking fund for the repayment to him of his investment, and the remaining to be used, 1st, for manumitting all the slaves of the county; 2nd., for the support of the clergy; 3rd, to aid charity schools; 4th, to establish manufactures. He made provision for the perpetuation of the bank, after the money advanced by him should be returned through the agency of the sinking fund. This communication of Mr. Gibson was thoroughly characteristic, and displays those excellences which he undoubtedly possessed, as well as some of his faults. It is a most curious production. It seems to have been written in sober earnestness, and yet it is so wild, that one is tempted to regard it as a satire upon the extravagant notions which prevailed at the time of the immense advantages to society and the enormous profits to individuals that were to flow from banking institutions. It is hardly necessary to say there never was any attempt to carry the scheme into execution.
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But, to return to Mr. Gibson's agricultural operations, and his con- tentions attendant thereupon. In the year 1695, an attempt was made by an obscure person having a grudge to satisfy, but probably prompted by those who were his superiors in intelligence and social rank, and who also had a spite to gratify, for his constant antagonism, sportive or earnest, made him many enemies, to humiliate Mr. Gibson by lodging informa- tion with the grand jury that he was using a half bushel measure for the sale of his grain which was not of the standard capacity. The charge was so evidently malicious that the grand jury disregarded the testi- mony, and dismissed the case: but by the persistent efforts of a personal enemy upon the jury it was revived, and a bill was found by a bare majority. The matter would probably have passed almost unnoticed, and when it came before the court would have been ignored as indeed it was when it did reach that tribunal, but for the importance it acquired by the discussion in the Maryland Herald, then the only paper published on the Eastern Shore, which followed. Mr. Gibson wrote:
"Feeling a little hurt at hearing that the late grand jury had presented me for keeping an unsealed half bushel and delivering grain by the same it being too small, I have thought it my duty in defence of my char- acter, to submit the following facts to the public consideration; they will there see to what lengths villainy and a malicious heart will tempt any unprincipled rascal to proceed for vengeance.
This communication opened the sluices, and for weeks and months the columns of this little paper were filled with rejoinders and re-rejoin- ders, with certificates, and affadavits, charges and countercharges, open slander, vile innuendoes, expressed in language of the coarsest character. This was continued until the public gorge, then not as sensitive and delicate as now, was raised, and revolted. It would serve no good purpose to mention names, nor to revive forgotten slan- ders. There were several persons drawn into the controversy of most respectable position, and it would wound the sensibilities of those living to recall the flings and slurs, the gross charges and disgusting imputa- tions that were made one against the other. The controversy was carried on with the utmost violence, and in some parts with no mean ability. Jacob Gibson showed himself quite the equal of his antagonists some of whom had the advantage of superior education, and the addi- tional advantage of aid from Mr. Gibson's political opponents, drilled in polemics. The defence he made rendered every one chary of attack- ing him in the future, but unfortunately it gave him such confidence in
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his own abilities as to lead him to attack others, through the newspapers. In short, he became fond of disputation. It should be mentioned that this contest was not purely literary in its sharacter, but with one of the persons in antagonism, who was quite his equal in size and strength, which were quite herculean, and not at all superior in refinement, a furious fight ensued, with doubtful results as to the mastery. To con- clude this story it may be said that when the trial of Mr. Gibson came up, he was exonerated of the charge, as it was clearly malicious, for with all his faults none could safely charge him with dishonesty and he was too liberal to be suspected of the petty gains of illicit measurement of grain. It would have been a sad day for any man, after this acquittal to hint at the truthfulness of the charge, for he would have had to suffer a severe retribution for his temerity from the heavy hand of this coura- geous and choleric man.
Another interesting and curious incident connecting itself with his farming pursuits, namely his loss of property upon Sharp's Island, by the British in 1813, and his receiving pay for the same, might here be mentioned; but as that had a political complexion it may be reserved for notice in another connection.
Mr. Gibson was fond of appearing in print, as will be clearly seen before the close of this memoir. He even affected to write poetry not the poetry of sentiment or of philosophy, but of satire and invective. Dean Swift was his model, even to his filth. His memory will not suffer by a refusal to quote any of his verses. He was evidently very proud of his literary productions, and it may be said that if originality alone could give them merit, they could hardly be surpassed. He disdained anonymity, as a species of cowardice-the worst of vices in his estimation-so he always signed with his full name any thing he put in print. One of the last, perhaps the very last of these literary adventures was an excursus upon an agricultural subject published in the Republican Star of July 29th, 1817. This year the county had been visit- ed by the Hessian fly in wheat and recently, by the cut worm in corn. The first mentioned grain rose to two dollars and fifty cents, and the last to one dollar per bushel. Much distress was experienced among the poor, so much so that a public levy was ordered for their support, and committees to distribute assistance were appointed. Mr. Gibson took this occasion to give an account of his observations upon the his- tory and habits, as well as his suggestions for the remedying of the rav- ages of these great pests of the farmer. The body of his essay is pref- aced by some healthful moralizing upon the folly of folding the hands
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in calamity, of merely uttering complaints, or deprecating the visitations of Providence, instead of resorting to active efforts to avert the evil in the future. Such was his estimation of the perfectibility of man in knowledge that he believed he shall ultimately be capable of extirpating every evil that hinders his happiness. As this is altogether in keeping with his hopeful courageous spirit, so he concludes his prologue with the following truly Gibsonian piece of rhetoric.
Man is made the lord of everything on earth and in the water. Shall he who has exterminated the mammoth, conquered the whale, over- come the elephant, the lion, the tiger, the hyena, suffer these little insignificant insects to lay waste this paradise of the world, and con- quer the greatest people in existence.
If what he said in this essay was derived exclusively from his own study of these insect pests, and was not founded upon what he had read or heard, which is not likely, for he was neither bookish nor travelled, it is certainly highly creditable to his powers of close and accurate observa- tion, for he anticipated much that was subsequently published by men entitled to be called scientific agriculturalists. There are some errors that are now easily apparent, but not so many as might be expected of one entirely ignorant of entomological knowledge. His remedies are rational and judicious, not at all fanciful. His remarks upon the eco- nomic uses of birds and frogs, even such birds as the crow and hawk are singular as being in advance of senular teaching called new in after years. All this serves to show that Mr. Gibson was not the mere plodding farmer but the intelligent agriculturist, capable of observing nature and understanding her laws. In conclusion of this part of the subject it may be said that his boasting of his success in farming was without sub- stantial foundation, for he was decidedly successful. He acquired a handsome fortune as fortunes then were estimated in land and slaves, which enabled him to dispense with the frugality of his earlier years, to live with great comfort, to dispense to his friends a bountiful hos- pitality, to give to the poor a liberal charity, and at last to leave to his numerous children a handsome competence.
It has before been remarked that while farming was the business of his life, politics were the amusement of Mr. Gibson. They were an amusement in the sense of offering diversion from plodding cares or an agreeable employment of his mind. Besides they gave him notoriety, which he liked, and which stood with him in the place of distinction. Politics indeed seemed to be almost the only path open to the gentle-
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men of colonial and post-revolutionary times to attain distinction. More than once in these contributions, has attention been called to the close relation of the politician and the planter. It has been pointed out how the same faculties of mind are called into exercise by him who governs a state, and him who controls a farm or large estates with gangs of slaves how that legislative and executive faculties are called into requisition by both the one or the other. The southern gentle- man was almost universally, by his education, and at last by a kind of implanted instinct, a statesman or politician. It is not pretended, however, that the school of the plantation was the best school for the American citizen who aspired to political position and influence. In one sense it was a very bad school. It rendered men arbitrary and indisposed to be controlled. In other senses it was a very good school. It taught him the art of control, of the government of men, and the necessity of wise legislation. To participate in politics then was not an abrupt transition in the life of the planter. He merely passed from the consideration of the plans and expedients of the agriculturist to a study of the intrigues of parties and the policies of the state of com- munity: he merely ceased to manage his slaves, and engaged in the manipulating the electors at the polls or the elected in the assemblies. In politics therefore Mr. Gibson participated. They had a particular attraction for him, in the contention to which they gave origin: and in contention he found his highest pleasure. Politics as followed by him certainly were not an ennobling pursuit: indeed it must be said they were a degrading one. But in justice to him it must be said that he never made them the dishonest and sordid trade they are at present. If he sought success with great earnestness and with much violence of words and acts, his objects never were personal gain or aggrandizement. If he be deprived of the credit of laboring for the public good and the success of correct political principles, he cannot be accused of working for any lower motive than triumphing over his opportunity. He felt too strongly to be mean. He hated the enemy too cordially to be mer- cenary: he loved his party too warmly to be calculating. He was never sparing of labor nor of money. He himself, in his usual and peculiar style said on the occasion of his being challenged to a duel by a gentle- man of Dorchester county, whither he had gone as a kind of political missionary during the congressional campaign of 1809:
I hope it will not be considered a wanton egotism to say I am the only stump orator in the district who confronts this faction, [the Federalists] and beards it to its teeth. That for the last ten or twelve years I have
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been compelled to talk all, to write all, to flog all, and to pay all; and now I must die for all. This dying is unseasonable at this time, lest my services may be wanted to my county for I see the clouds arising that may require all the energies the county possesses to support its government and our national rights. To die as such a contest would be honorable and pleasing to me, because it would give me a sure pass- port to future bliss. But to be nibbled to death, by rats and mice the reflection is worse than hell.3
A man so intense in his political passions, and so devoted to the cause of his party, was not likely to carry off many of its rewards, as will be seen in the following brief account of the political career of Mr. Gibson.
At the outbreak of the Revolution Jacob Gibson was but a youth: but that he did imbibe patriotic sentiments can be very safely asserted from the known opinions of his family, his father having been a pro- nounced Whig, and his brother an officer of the army. His life-long hostility to England, which country he never ceased regarding as the enemy, open or disguised, of his own, was but the cherishing of a feeling that had been planted during the war of Independence. On the con- trary, his sentiments towards France were those of admiration and affec- tion. He named his son Lafayette, he called his farm Marengo, and he himself long bore the name of "citizen Jacob" because of his sympathy with the French revolutionists, who abolished all titles and introduced this term as the proper address of all citizens of the French Republic. When the great revolution broke out, Mr. Gibson regarded it as promis- ing much for human liberty, and he never ceased to defend the principles which, it was claimed, it was intended to advance. A thorough believer in popular government, a democrat in grain, through all the excesses of that great movement he never despaired of French liberty. He even defended much that a person of less enthusiasm for democratic prin- ciples would have condemned, so that his political opponents were ac- customed to call him a Jacobin, as well as citizen Jacob. His admiration of the leading French revolutionists was transferred to Napoleon Bona- parte, notwithstanding his strangling French liberty in its cradle, because he was a child of the people, and because he was the enemy of England. Until parties had begun to be formed towards the end of Gen. Wash- ington's administration, it is not known what was the position of Mr.
3 From an extremely rare handbill issued by Mr. Gibson on the 8th Jan. 1809, upon the occasion of his being challenged to a duel by Mr. J- M- of Dorchester.
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Gibson, though it is easy to infer that he took sides with those who regarded Mr. Jefferson as their political leader. During the succeed- ing administration of Mr. Adams, the parties in the country assumed a clearer definition, and Mr. Gibson was recognized as an active Republi- can partisan, and violent opponent of Federalists. In this county, as elsewhere, the Federalists claimed to be the party of the "wealth and talent," and their opponents asserted they assumed the pretensions of an aristocracy. Jacob Gibson, the maker of his own fortune, the possessor of none of the advantages of education, and few of those of a recognized social position, was the natural antagonist of this party. His enmity was so bitter, expressed so constantly in such intense, and too often ribald terms, that it cannot be doubted personal malice towards the members of this party intensified his hostility, which he persuaded himself was founded upon opposition to its political measures. It was not until the year 1798, the year of an election of members of Congress, when the Hon. William Hindman and the Hon. Joshua Seney were the candidates for a seat in the House of Representatives from the second district of Maryland, that Mr. Gibson appeared con- spicuously in politics. Previous to that celebrated contest, his had been an inferior and not a very creditable role. He had been merely the boisterous, fearless and truculent partisan henchman of the Republi- can leaders in the county, frequenting the taverns, barbecues, fish feasts, and other assemblages where he was always ready to harangue a knot of the "commonalty," or "flog" an intrusive or obstinate Feder- alist. But in the year mentioned he assumed higher functions, without indeed discarding entirely the lower. He became a most earnest advo- cate of the election of Mr. Seney, and the equally earnest opponent of Mr. Hindman. He addressed the electors of the county in his peculiarly racy and doubtless effective style of oratory, and he used his pen in the prepa- ration of some contributions to the Herald, which, if not models of taste, are certainly most curious productions of the literary art. If the merit of such productions is measured by their effectiveness in accomplishing their purpose, certainly these must be commended. In one of these communi- cations, which were scattered throughout the district, he traverses the course of Mr. Hindman while in Congress, and in another recalls some revolutionary incidents in his life which he distorted into symp- toms of toryism. Mr. Gibson also invited Mr. Hindman to meet him at several places to discuss the questions at issue in the campaign. These communications and discussions called forth replies from most respectable citizens of the district, and of other portions of the state
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and country,4 of whom these may be mentioned: Mr. Nicholas Ham- mond and Mr. John Leeds Bozman of Talbot, Mr. Richard Tilghman of Queen Anne's, Mr. Vans Murray of Dorchester, and Mr. Sitgreave of Pennsylvania. In one of these communications of a Federal gentle- man, it is intimated that at one time Mr. Gibson supported Mr. Hind- man, which may be true; and of his having bet largely on the result of the election of 1798, which is undoubtedly true, as will appear in the sequel. The following addressed to Mr. Gibson appeared in the Herald of Sept. 11, 1798.
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