USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
But the public are possessed of a clue by which your ardent zeal may be easily accounted for. A man who has staked three thousand dollars on the event of the election must needs become a very active patriot. Such an interest will even reconcile him to the inconsistency of his own conduct, and make him think it meritorious to insinuate reproaches against Mr. Hindman as a Tory, whom he warmly supported, a few years ago, as a steady and uniform Whig.
The result of this hotly contested campaign was the election of Mr. Seney, the triumph of Mr. Gibson and his friends, and the winning by the latter of a considerable sum of money. His elation upon this occasion was evinced in the following most curious and thoroughly characteristic publication which appeared in the Maryland Herald, immediately after the election:
TO THE POOR AND VIRTUOUS WIDOWS OF TALBOT COUNTY: Hav- ing been particularly favored through life by Providence in worldly affairs, and particularly in the late election, wherein I have won a con- siderable sum of money, I conceive it a duty indispensably incumbent on me to bestow some of this improper got wealth to a useful purpose. I do hereby propose that the poor widows of the upper end of this county will call upon my friend Mr. John Thomas at his house or mill and receive from him thirty barrels of corn. That the poor widows in the lower end of the county will call on my friend Mr. William Lowery, who will give them orders on my overseer on the plantation of Island Creek for thirty barrels of corn. That the poor widows in Bay-Side will call upon my friend Thomas L. Haddaway, or Capt. H. Banning, who will give them orders on my overseer at the plantation near Mr. Perry's, for thirty barrels of corn. The poor widows of Easton will call on my friend William Rose for ten barrels of corn, and the poor widows of my own neighborhood from Three Bridges to Pott's Mill, and to the bottom of Miles River Neck, a free corn house for twelve months. (signed) JACOB GIBSON. N. B. My friends above men-
4 A very full account of this campaign was given in a memoir of the Hon. Wil- liam Hindman published in the "Easton Star" in Oct. and Nov. of the year 1876.
245
JACOB GIBSON
tioned will distribute the corn above spoken of in such a manner as in their judgment indigence calls for." J. G. This called forth a sneer from one of the opposite party, signing himself "No Boaster," insinuating that gift of corn was made in ostentation, and in reality a mere pre- tense of giving, but it had a most fitting rebuke from a friend of Mr. Gibson-" A WIDOWER." "When Mr. No BOASTER will distribute amongst them [the widows and orphans] in the same liberal manner that Mr. Gibson has done, then he shall have the liberty to boast as much as he pleases; and this too without the necessity of electioneering priests to absolve him of his sins. * * When he acts as Jacob Gib- son has done, they will gratefully acknowledge him a good citizen and of course a friend of the Widow and Orphan."
In 1799 some communications to the Herald of Mr. Gibson, all copies of which are lost, called forth a scurrilous attack upon him, which has been preserved. This indicates that Mr. Gibson had been challenged to a duel by some one, whose name does not appear, and that he had declined accepting, for reasons which would be quite satisfactory to the common sense of the present time, but which the writer regards as very futile and unbecoming a man of honor.
In the same year the Rev. Mr. Bowie thought proper to attack Mr. Gibson in an article published in the Herald, which had a reply of which this is the conclusion:
But if you are a tool, a mere sycophant, and writing to please a party in hopes of fingering the 300 pounds taken from Washington College and given to Talbot county [a reference to the establishing an academy in Easton] I leave you to yourself to spew out whenever venom is put into your mouth.] [Here Mr. Gibson relapsed into poetry, as he frequently did when he became much impassioned but his poetry was such as neither men nor gods abide, so it will not be quoted.] P. S. If citizen Jacob is that great fool you all wish the people to believe, how comes it his writing calls such a host of you into the Herald to answer him. If. he tells foolish tales take no notice of them; leave them to the public judgment. Be candid and acknowledge you cannot bear such truths. If he had been educated at college, at the expense of the poor like you aristocrats, he would make you bawl when you now only grunt.
There is much of this article so deeply in the Gibsonian idiom, it cannot be further quoted. This or some other offence of similar char- acter resulted in a ferocious fight at the Court House door between the Rev. Dr. Bowie and Mr. Gibson. They were equally matched in size and courage. Of the result of this conflict tradition has failed to give any report. It had been as well, for the reverend gentleman it had been
246
THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
better, if tradition had not remembered the fight at all. This was but one of the many personal encounters of Mr. Gibson with gentlemen of the county, and with some men who were not gentlemen. Time would fail to recount them all.
In the year 1800 another violent controversy originating in the candi- dacy of Mr. John Edmondson for the General Assembly, was conducted in the columns of the Herald. This drew into its filthy vortex some of the most respectable citizens of the county. It was conducted on one side by Mr. Gibson and Mr. James Nabb, and on the other by Mr. John Goldsborough, Mr. John Edmondson, Mr. Nicholas Hammond and Mr. James Price. The cause of contention appears at this dis- tance as utterly insignificant; but the contest was furious, and upon the part of Mr. Gibson without mercy.
The year 1801 was a period of apparent calmness and peace, and there- fore of painful unrest to Mr. Gibson. It is said apparent, for nothing appears in the Herald from Mr. Gibson's pen: but he may have trans- ferred his literary favors to the Republican Star, which was established as a Democratic journal in the previous year. The files of this paper for 1800 and 1801 are entirely lost.
In the year 1802 Mr. Gibson secured his first political appointment. On the 28th of January, he was chosen by Governor Mercer, one of the associate Judges of Talbot county court, having Mr. Samuel Dickinson as his fellow associate, and Mr. James Tilghman as his chief, or law Judge. This very honorable position he held until Jan. 1806, when the law of 1804 for reorganizing the Courts of the State, abolishing the Gen- eral Court, and establishing District Courts and an Appeal Court, went into actual operation.
Mr. Gibson and Mr. Dickinson were the successors of Robt. H. Goldsborough and David Kerr, Esqs., of the county court, and were succeeded by Judges Purnell and Worrell of the newly organized Dis- trict Court of the 2nd Judicial District, composed of Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot counties. The first year of Mr. Gibson on the bench was signaled by a furious controversy between him and Mr. James Cowan, editor of the Herald, who applied to the Court for a license to sell liquor and was refused through the instrumentality of Mr. Gibson, on account, as Cowan stated, of his political antagonism. This controversy which commenced with words terminated, as so many others in his career, in blows, and Mr. Cowan was terribly beaten-a method not recognized in the law of enforcing judicial decisions. He concludes an article written in defence of his refusing the license to
247
JACOB GIBSON
Mr. Cowan and also of his giving him a personal chastisement for the attack made by Cowan upon him in his paper, with these words:
I challenge him or my greatest enemy to charge me with one act that has violated the laws of my county, except in chastising insults; and I will have him and all others to take notice that from this time for- ward I will not withhold the same chastisement from him or any other person that hereafter attempts to implicate my character, either by pointed charges or insinuations. If the author of any anonymous publication is not given up, I shall take the printer for the author and treat him accordingly, So help me God. (signed), JACOB GIBSON.
In this year appeared in the Herald the political satire, entitled "The Grand Caucus." Perhaps no piece of writing, appearing in the papers of this county, ever created so much stir at the time, or has been remem- bered so long, as this pasquinade of Dr. Ennalls Martin. It ridiculed unmercifully all the leaders of the Democratic or Republican party in Talbot,-sparing none however respectable. Their foibles were dis- played in words that could not be misunderstood, and their characters picted in colors that brought out all their defects and weakness. It was execrably written, and really has no merit as a literary feat. It is coarse and vulgar to the last degree. But it seemed to meet the public taste, and hence it was retained in memory, and put away as a curiosity and for consultation. As a matter of fact, a larger number of those copies of the Herald containing this lampoon have been preserved to the present time than of any other issue of that journal. Jacob Gibson, under an allusive sobriquet was the person at whom the arrows of wit were mostly aimed. All the old slanders about him were revived; all his peculiarities and infirmities were exaggerated; all his virtues were trav- estied or ridiculed. Now, no reply to all this could be made but one, and this he proceeded to deliver with his usual promptness and vehe- mence, by attacking the author, as soon as he had been discovered, on the streets of Easton, when one of those memorable fights ensued, in which gentlemen of the day did not hesitate to engage, and of which tradition continues to perpetuate the memory. As Dr. Martin was a man in size, weight and courage, and it may be added, in brusqueness of manners also, quite the equal of Mr. Gibson, these two athletes were allowed ac- cording to the prevailing custom to "fight it out." The conflict resulted, after varying fortunes, in the discomfiture of Mr. Gibson, who was com- pelled to succumb to methods of attack that are not recognized as fair by professors of the "manly art of self-defence" but which are allow- able, it is to be supposed, when men fight according to nature. The
248
THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
strange sequel of this fistic duel was the calling in of Dr. Martin, by Mr. Gibson to dress the wounds that he himself had inflicted.
In the concluding years of the last century, and the earlier years of the present, there was a strange commingling of politics and religion in a country in which there had been a complete divorce of church and state. Traditions of this old unnatural union still had their weight but the most potent influence in bringing about this condition of the public mind was the French Revolution, one party espousing the principles of the revolutionists, including, as its enemies said, their atheistical opinions; the other party, condemning that great movement, and arrogating to itself the honor of being the especial upholders of religion. In this county this phase of politics had its own peculiar aspect. Here one party, the Republicans, or as they were beginning to be called Democrats, were said either to countenance the scepticism of the French, or of Mr. Jefferson their apt pupil, or to favor the so-called fanaticism of the Methodists, who had become very numerous. The Republicans resorted by accusing their Federal foes of the advocacy of a church establishment after the English model or with looking with lenient eye upon the socinianism of John Adams and the New Englanders. It is very true the Republicans had drawn into their ranks the largest part of the "commonalty," as the poorer people were called, and of these the religious portion were Methodists. On the other hand the Episcopal church embraced almost all the "high-toned" Federalists. So the boundary lines of the churches approximated to those of the parties though they did not strictly coincide.5
In the year 1801 a public religious controversy was held in Easton between the venerable Samuel Chamberlaine, Esq., of Bonfield, a pious and devoted son of the Episcopal church and the Rev. Mr. Telford, a respectable local preacher of the Methodist communion, upon "bap- tismal regeneration," a subject as far as possible removed from politics. This public discussion, which at the time was thought of so much impor- tance as to justify the ringing of the bell to call the people together to hear it, lead to a private correspondence, upon that or cognate subjects between Mr. Chamberlaine and Mr. Gibson, the last of whom took ground with Mr. Telford, although he himself was, by birthright at least, a member of the Episcopal church, and although he was certainly a zealot for religion of no kind or form. Indeed he publicly avowed a ·disregard of certain fundamental Christian precepts, such as the injunc-
5 The Friends or Quakers, who were numerous in the county, were mostly Republicans.
249
JACOB GIBSON
tion to turn his other cheek when one was smitten by the enemy. Mr. Gibson was not a meek man by nature, and his faith in revelation, which he avowed was never able to change the natural man in him, which impelled him to strike back when struck, and often to strike first. This private correspondence for a while known only to their friends, in 1802 developed into a public exchange of polemical courtesies, in which religious fervor and political bitterness became inextricably mingled. The communications to the papers, and the handbills for more general distribution, of these gentlemen afford most curious reading, but much in them is of entirely too personal a character to permit of their being quoted. Of Mr. Gibson's share, it may be said, that while claiming to be, as to externals at least an obedient son of the church, he showed himself to be astute politician enough to give the "new institution" as he calls Methodism, precedence for the earnest piety and moral purity of its adherents. He was accused by Mr. Chamberlaine of using Meth- odism as a ladder to climb to honor and power. He retorts by affecting to be insulted by the intimation that his ambition was so humble as to to be satisfied with a "four dollars a day judgeship;" and then says, if he really were criminally ambitious of rising to power upon the necks of the common people, his own church would be more likely to offer him a ladder for the purpose, as it had done to men inspired by such a feel- ing in England, the home of "our church." It is proper to say that amidst all the noise of this debate, there was an undertone, clearly dis- tinguishable, of a mutual respect between the parties.
This too extended account of one of Mr. Gibson's controversies will serve this purpose, among others, of exhibiting his personal attitude towards religion. He honestly avows his disobedience of some of the moral injunctions, but he no where betrays irreverence or scepticism. He displays, whether from policy or indifference does not appear, a toleration of and liberality to differences of religious faiths and forms, which he was very far from showing towards divergencies from his own political creed and ritual.
In 1803, Mr. Gibson had more than one controversy. For the first time in this year Mr. Robert Henry Goldsborough offered himself as a candidate for the suffrages of the people. This was done in a hand- somely expressed card which had the same effect upon Mr. Gibson that the shaking of the scarlet mantle has upon the infuriated bull in the Spanish arena. His anger was porportionate to the brilliancy of the object irritating him. No two persons could be more directly opposite to each other than these two gentlemen, in manners or in opinion.
250
THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
The one gifted with all the graces af the polished man of the world and of fashion; the other possessed of the bluntness of a son of nature, and quite as vain of his plain speaking and downright doing as the other was of his suavity of speech and courtly airs. One a Federalist of the strict- est sect; the other a Democrat of the most advanced kind. The candidacy of Mr. Goldsborough had scarcely been announced, when anonymous writers for the press began their covert attacks, only too glad to have so shining a butt upon which to try their bolts. But Mr. Gibson always ready for the fray disdained concealment, so he openly and above his own proper name commenced his onset upon the young politician in his usual blunt and ruthless style. These attacks led to defenses and counter-attacks, so that the war raged for months, by speech and pen, upon the hustings and in the newspapers, with personal state- ments and written certificates. The result of the election was the defeat of the Federalists to the great gratification of their inveterate enemy, Mr. Gibson.
For several years after these occurrences he appeared to have taken no conspicuous part in the local contests: at least his name does not ap- pear as frequently as formerly in the public prints, or upon broadsides, a favorite method of his of communicating with the public at a time when journals were not so common as now. The Federal party had been placed in the minority in this county, largely through his efforts, and he was content with silent triumph over his sworn enemies. There is abundant evidence, however, that he was a prime mover of all the party machinery by which the Democrats retained their ascendancy, and the Federalists, with all their weight of talents, character and wealth, were debarred from power. In the year 1806, he achieved his highest political honor, in being chosen, on the 18th of September, one of the State Senators for the Eastern Shore, having these gentlemen as his associates from the same section: Zaddock Purnell, Mark Benton, Thomas Williams, William Whitely and John Partridge. Mr. Robt. H. Goldsborough received the vote of the Federal electors in the col- lege. One of his first acts was to select his congenial friend and party coadjutor, Mr. James Nabb, one of the Executive Council. These two men were the Castor and Pollux of the Democracy of their day in this county: and their resemblance to those mythical heroes was the closer in that Mr. Nabb, like Castor, was found of horse-racing. and Mr. Gibson, like Pollux, fond of boxing. By their joint labors they are just- ly entitled to be placed, as were those fabled Greeks, among the con- stellations, and be forever contemplated as the political Gemini of the
251
JACOB GIBSON
party in Talbot. Of Mr. Gibson's career in the Senate little is known. That he acted with his party may be easily conjectured. He was suc- ceeded in the Senate by Mr. Edward Lloyd of this county, a near neighbor as well as co-worker in the cause of Democracy.
The term of Mr. Jefferson being about to expire, an election for a president occurred in due course in the year 1808. It was not expected that any Federal candidate for a seat in the electoral college would be presented to the people of the Second District. But a short time before the election Mr. R. H. Goldsborough announced his intention to com- pete with Mr. Perry Spencer, also of Talbot, for the seat favoring the election of Mr. Monroe, though he was not of the same school of politics. The following in his own words will show how this announcement was received by Mr. Gibson who was in Annapolis when the intelligence reached him:
When I arrived at my lodgings a gentleman from the Eastern Shore informed me that a federal candidate (as an elector) had reared his head in the district to which I belonged, and without opposition was parading through it with a splendid retinue.6 That the riders were out calling the people together, and that the party was calculating on a rich harvest. This midnight trick, like all their acts, was kept in the dark until my duties at Annapolis calld me out of their way. On re- ceiving this information I left my post the next morning in pursuit of him, and at half past one o'clock the next day I had traveled near seventy miles before I got to the place of meeting, near Vienna. There I was gazed at as though I had tumbled from the clouds *
* I had not been many moments on the ground before I was insulted in the most vulgar and dastardly manner. However, I did not wait to know who he was, but struck at him with my fist the moment the insult was offered me. *
* * The scoundrel who insulted me (I was after- wards informed) was J- M-, who shrunk from my ven- geance and retreated into a store; got over the counter and escaped through a door that led into a room, or into the back part of the yard.
This was very decided work for a man having but one arm, the other for some cause unknown, being at that time disabled. Mr. Gibson then addressed the meeting, and thence went into other parts of the electoral district upon his mission, which resulted in the election of Mr. Spencer. But after his return to Annapolis Mr. J. M. considering himself aggrieved by the words and conduct of Mr. Gibson, challenged him for a duel to be fought in Delaware. Misunderstandings and misapprehensions arose
6 Mr. Spencer was a resident of Bay Side, and was more expert in modeling ships than in making speeches, but he was a very popular man.
.
252
THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
which prevented the hostile meeting-each party accusing the other of seeking to avoid the fight and of being a coward. Handbills and public postings ensued, which as they have been preserved, afford most curious reading and are wonderfully instructive as illustrating the social cus- toms and mental traits of the times. Those of Jacob Gibson also serve to give insight into his character. For J. M., to call Jacob Gibson a coward, was like Thersites branding Ulysses with being a dastard.
From some reason now unknown, but probably from some hasty word in condemnation of the course of the Democratic party with reference to the foreign affairs of the country, in the year 1811 a report acquired currency in the county that this protagonist of Democracy was about to prove recreant and to become a Federalist. This reach- ing his ears drew from him one of his characteristic communications, so odd, fantastic and whimsical that but for its length it might be quoted as fully illustrating those peculiarities for which he was so well known in his day, and by which his memory has been transmitted to the present by many lines of tradition. An election for a Senatorial college was approaching. The Federal candidates were Dr. Tristram Thomas and Walter S. Fountain. Mr. Gibson says:
I have often heretofore and again repeat it, sworn eternal enmity to such a British party, and if I could fix the charges upon its base author I would prosecute him or them for so base a libel.
It should be mentioned that "British" was his superlative epithet of vituperation, when applied to a party. His reasons, as assigned, for not voting for Mr. Fountain, besides the general one of being a Feder- alist, were that he had
raised the price of fish on the poor from three dollars and a half to five dollars, and wants a law passed to put a stop to the floating and small seins.
His reasons for opposing Dr. Thomas were that he had united in a meeting of physicians which had established higher rates of charges for medical services, at a time when provisions were scarce and costly. When wheat was at 20 shillings to 20 shillings 6 pence per bushel
they raised the price of bleeding, puking and purging from 2 shillings 6 pence to 5 shillings: and their visits from 10 shillings to 15 shillings, &c.
Another grievance against Dr. Thomas he says he will conceal for the time and " until he becomes more dangerous," but he intimates that he is
253
JACOB GIBSON
objectionable because he makes out his "accounts in Greek, Latin or Hebrew" which "no paymaster can correct or check his imposition," and then, as though fearing Federal principles concealed in a medical jargon might be dispensed by the gentle Doctor when he prescribed or administered his high priced doses of calomel and barks to the ague- stricken people of one section of the county, he exclaims, by way of warning-"Choptankers look out." In a postscript he says:
If any person, after this notice, hears a Fed. say that I have turned Federal, and will break his mouth, I will pay all costs.
As connecting the agricultural and the political life of this worthy and as illustrating both, might be told the story of the seizure by the British in 1813 of his livestock upon Sharp's Island which at one time belonged to and was cultivated by him; and of the alarm which he caused in St. Michaels by his approaching that town by way of Broad Creek with such demonstrations as to cause the people to apprehend an attack from the enemy's fleet then in the Chesapeake. This story has else- where been pretty fully told [Comet, Jan, 6. 1877], and need not be repeated. The handbill issued by Mr. Gibson in defense of himself for receiving money from the British officers in compensation for the stock seized by them, was the most extraordinary production that ever came from his pen, famous in his day for its wonderful and fearful products. Much of this has been reprinted in the article noticed above; but much more must remain in its original edition, fit for the eyes of the curious only. The matter of his receiving money from the enemy was a subject of correspondence between him, the President of the United States, Mr. Madison, the Governor of Maryland, Genl. Winder and other dignitaries. The following is a copy of a letter from Mr. Robert Wright of Queen Anne's, then a member of Congress:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.