USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Gorham > History of Gorham, Me. > Part 11
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When it became evident that the tea would inevitably be landed, the enraged citizens committed that act, which has been known ever since as the " Boston Tea Party." Everywhere in the colonies this deed created the utmost rejoicing. A town meeting was called in Gorham for Jan. 17, 1774, to take into consideration resolves of the correspondence committee, and also to " act and do at this exigency of political affairs as the town shall think proper;" and it was requested, in the constable's notice calling the meeting, " that there may be a full meeting, as the occasion is important." The meeting was held, and the following resolves were passed : -
Resolved. That our small possessions, dearly purchased by the hard labor and industry of ourselves and dear ancestors, with the loss of many lives by a barbarous and cruel enemy, are by the laws of God, Nature, and the British Constitution, our own, exclusive of any other claim under Heaven.
Resolved. That all and every part, or parcel of the profits arising therefrom are also our own, and that none can of right take away any part or share thereof without our free consent.
Resolved. That for any Legislative body of men under the British Constitution, to take, or grant liberty to take, without consent is State robbery, and ought to be opposed.
Resolved. That the British Parliament laying a tax on Americans for the purpose of raising a revenue is a violation of the laws of religion and sound policy ; inconsistent with the principles of freedom, that have distinguished the British Empire from its earliest ages.
Resolved. That the appropriating this revenue in support of a set of the vilest of the human race in rioting on our spoils is an unprec- edented step of Administration, and appears to us most odious.
Resolved. That the Tea Act, in favor of the East India Company
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to export the same to America, is a deep laid scheme to betray the unwary and careless into the snare laid to catch and enslave them, and requires the joynt vigilance, fortitude and courage, of the thought- ful and the brave to oppose in every constitutional way.
Resolved. That petitioning the Throne carries a very gloomy prospect, so long as his Majesty is under the same influence that he has been for many years past.
Resolved. That other methods, besides petitioning, are now become necessary for the obtaining and securing our just rights and privileges.
Resolved. That the measures taken by the town of Boston, in their several meetings to consult, debate and devise, in regard to the tea carried there, merits the esteem and regard of all who esteem their rights worth preserving, and will transmit their memory to unborn ages with Honor.
Resolved. That the unfeigned thanks of the Town of Gorham wait on the Committee of Correspondence of the metropolis, and all the good people for their zeal for liberty in their late town meetings, and may our indignation fall on all who are enemies to our happy Constitution.
Resolved. That we of this town have such a high relish for Liberty, that we all, with one heart, stand ready, sword in hand, with the Italians in the Roman Republick, to defend and maintain our rights against all attempts to enslave us, and joyn our brethren, opposing force to force, if drove to the last extremity, which God forbid.
Captain Phinney then moved, and it was " Voted, that if any person of Gorham shall hereafter contemn, despise or reproach the former, or the present Resolves, to prevent the force or effect of the same among this people, he shall be deemed, held and adjudged an enemy to his country, unworthy of the company and regard of all those who are the professed sons of freedom, and treated as infamous."
As a preface to the foregoing Resolves, the following was accepted : -
"When we contemplate on Days of old, the Years of Ancient times, when the Candle of the Lord shone around our Tabernacle, and the Benign rays from the Throne beamed through the whole of our American Atmosphere, which placed a smile on every face and joy in every Heart, and each individual sitting under his own Vine and Fig tree, having none to annoy or make him afraid, enjoying the fruits of his honest industry. In this Golden Age mutual Love subsisted between the Mother State and her Colonies, the mother extending her Powerful Arm to skreen and to protect her Children from insult and ruin from their and her natural enemies, who would have attacked them on their watry frontier; in return, the Children have ever been obedient to the requisitions of their Mother in raising Men and money to the enlargement of the British Empire to an amazing extent, and this without Complaint or even a single murmur, although they thereby endangered their own Bankruptcy. But how are circum- stances changed ! 'O Tempora, O Mores'! The Mother lost to her
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first Love, her maternal affection degenerated into a Cold indifferency, if not a fixed hatred of her children, as is too evident by the repeti- tion of one revenue Act after another, and appointing Egyptian task masters, if not worse, cruelly to extort from us our property, without so much as to say, by your leave, that they may wallow in Luxury on our spoils, against every principle of Justice, Human or Divine; and the Tools of Aministration among ourselves have used every measure in their power to Weaken our hands, and to subject us easily to be dragooned in chains and Slavery, not by dint of argument, but by the mere force of the power placed in their Hands by the Mother State; our stronghold Castle William, placed in the hands of the enemies of our Happy Constitution, purchased by our money at vast expense, designed for our defence ; our armory out of our Power ; all the commissions of Honor and profit are bestowed on those who are falsely called the friends of Government, but more truly may be denominated friends to Tyrany and oppression and enemies to Constitutional Government; the Infamous Richardson, who, by Ver- dict of a Jury, guilty of the Murder of young Snider, escaped the gallows by the connivance of men in power ; Capt. Preston, at the head of a number of the King's Troops caused the streets of Boston to run with crimson gore of the innocent Inhabitants, Honored and Bountifully rewarded by the men in Power at home for his great suffering and gallant behavior in that deplorable Massacre. All these things bearing heavy upon our minds, and not altogether sunk below all human feelings, We, una voce, came to these resolves."
It was then voted to send these resolves to the Committee of Cor- respondence in Boston ; the following letter to accompany them.
"To the Respectable Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston
Gentlemen
We received your favor of Nov. 23rd & Dec. Ist, Inclosed, last Week, for which we present you Thanks. We would express our gratitude that this Town, although an Infant settlement, is not neglected, but, after a representation of Public Affairs, our advice among others is requested. We cannot by any form of Language fully represent our concern at the persevering attempts of the Admin- istration of Great Britain to rend from the People of America those invaluable privileges purchased at the expense of their dearest blood ; and it is a matter that excites our Admiration that the Honorable East India Company should suffer themselves so far to be taken in by the Ministerial Villany as to attempt the carrying into execution their execrable plan by sending Tea and setting up a factory in this Country. But above all are our minds affected with the Considera- tion that the most restless secret plotting enemy to our free and happy Constitution still holds the Highest seat in the Government in this place, to whom may be fittly applied that pathetic complaint of the Inspired Writer, ' My own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me; for it
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was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me, then would I have hid myself from him, but it was thou, a man, my equal, my guide and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company.' We shall not attempt to express our Indignation at the Proclamation sent by the High Sheriff to a respectable Body of the Inhabitants of Boston and the neighboring Towns assembled in the most peaceable and regular manner to consult in time of common danger, treating them as a mob of rioters, and with the most unparalleled impudence requiring and commanding them to disburse. This proclamation was sent by an American, a Townsman, a Neighbor and a professed friend : under such unheard of provocation to remain unmoved were impious. We do not think it possible to treat this proclamation with the Contempt it deserves.
"We hope and trust that the Inhabitants of this Town will not be induced to part with their privileges for a little paltry Herb Drink, their Birthright for a Mess of Pottage. To give our advice we shall not presume, as we are convinced that should your Wisdom need assistance (which in our opinion it does not) the best advice of Multitudes much more acquainted with Public Affairs would be at your service ; the Inhabitants of this Town, as we apprehend, being in general better qualified to handle their old swords than the Writer's pen, and who if they are compelled to dispute for their privileges must have resource to those solid and weighty arguments by the force of which they have often carried their point, not only with Savage Men, but also with savage Bears and other Beasts of the Wilderness, and which we conceive would be the most proper and suitable to make Impression on a Hutchinson, a Heliborough or Bull.
" We shall only testify our gratitude & entire approbation of the conduct of all the good people of the Town of Boston, both separate and in connection with the Neighboring Towns, and declare that while they continue to conduct with the same excellent Wisdom, we will be always ready to stand by them with our Lives and fortunes against a most abandoned set of Villains, Pensioners, Commissioners, Factors, Murderers &c &c, that ever disgraced the name of Human- ity. We are particularly charmed with the Conduct of the Indians, of which we have had accounts in the Publick prints, which inclines us almost to forget the Wounds we have received from their Tribes in these parts, as we esteem the Deceit, Murder and Cruelties of these native savages not Worthy to be mentioned the same day in comparison of the hellish conduct of the present Enemies of America. " We conclude by wishing every kind of Happiness & prosperity to the friends of our Country, White or Black."
In return for the Boston Tea Party an indemnity, equal to the value of the tea, was levied on Boston, and until this should be paid the port was to be closed. In place of Boston, Marblehead was to be
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the port of entry, and Salem the seat of government. This Act was to take effect on the Ist of June, 1774. Several other very obnox- ious Acts were passed by Parliament at about the same time as this ; one of which was for the purpose of taking away the charter rights of Massachusetts, and abolishing the rights of the citizens to free- dom of speech in the town meetings. When the time came for the Boston Port Bill to go into effect it was observed as a day of fasting throughout the Colony. Muffled bells were tolled, and ships in the harbors put their flags at half mast. In Falmouth on the 14th, the bell was muffled and rung from early in the morning till nine o'clock at night; and on the 29th, Parson Smith says, "We had a Fast relative to the sad state of our public affairs."
It had been determined to call a Continental Congress to meet in Philadelphia, Sept. Ist. In the meantime resistance to the new laws did not cease in Massachusettts. In spite of the law against town meetings, and an order from Gage (who was now governor of the Province) forbidding the people to attend them, they were constantly held and largely attended. Gage now issued an order convening a Great and General Court, or Assembly, for the first of October, but almost immediately he countermanded it. The representatives, how- ever, notwithstanding this, met at Salem on the fifth of October. At a town meeting held in Gorham, Sept. 26th, for the purpose of choosing a "representative to serve as such, and to join the Provin- cial Congress, if such a method should be come into," Solomon Lombard, Esq., was chosen. A committee of five, consisting of Nathaniel Whitney, Prince Davis, Capt. Edmund Phinney, Caleb Chase and William Gorham, Esq., was chosen to draw up instruc- tions for the said Representative. These instructions, as reported by this committee, were as follows : -
To Solomon Lombard, Esq., Sir Whereas You are chosen by the Town of Gorham to Represent them at a Great and General Court or Assembly, to be begun and held at Salem on Wednesday the fifth Day of October next; We desire You to Observe the following Instructions ; Viz.
I. That You be punctual at the time of the said Courts setting, and there so far as You may have influence, Maintain and Support to your utmost, all our Chartet & Constitutional Rights, and not give up one Iota or Tittle of them to any Supposable power on Earth.
2. That You use Your endeavor to Obtain a Vote of the House for the re-establishment of Our former Charter of this Province.
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3. After the Gen1 Court is Adjourned, prorogued or dissolved, We Instruct You to Joyn with the other Members, which compose the said Court, in forming themselves into a Provincial Congress, to be held where may be by them thought best in Order to Consult, Debate and resolve on measures proper to be taken & pursued by the Peo- ple of this Province, in Order to secure them in the Enjoyment of their Charter & Constitutional Rights as freemen and as Christians.
Lastly, Trusting in Your fidelity & Wisdom We doubt not but You'll pursue every measure that You may think for the General Good at this Alarming & distressing Period. Wishing You success in all Your lawful undertakings, We are Sir
Your Humble Servants.
By Ord. of the Town ; WILLIAM GORHAM Town Clerk.
The Assembly met, and having waited a day for the arrival of the Governor, formed themselves into a Provincial Congress, which having elected John Hancock as its president, adjourned to Concord. Oct. 27th, a committee of safety was chosen, and charged with the collection of military stores. The Congress also recommended that the towns should not pay the State or Province taxes to the Royalist Treasurer, Harrison Gray. At a town meeting held in Gorham, Dec. Ist, it was voted that Capt. Edmund Phinney be a treasurer to collect the money that was, or might be, due from the collectors or constables of the town, and send it to Henry Gardner of Stowe, agreeable to the recommendation of the Provincial Congress ; and at the same meeting it was also voted to raise ten pounds, to be expended in powder, balls and flints, for an addition to the town stock.
Evidently, at the passing of the Boston Port Bill, Gorham, in company with other towns, had agreed to an entire non-importation agreement. The Continental Congress, meeting on Sept. 5th, 1774, urged the people to persevere in abstaining from English manufac- tured or prepared goods, and formed an association for a "non- importation, non-consumption and non-exportation " agreement. To the committees of correspondence was intrusted the duty of inspec- .tion of the entries at the custom houses. Accordingly Gorham voted to adopt the association agreement of the Continental Congress, in preference to the " non-importation " covenant lately signed by the inhabitants of the town, and that the latter be dissolved ; and a committee, consisting of Capt. Bryant Morton, and Messrs. Josiah Davis, Wentworth Stuart, James Gilkey and Caleb Chase, was chosen to take care that the plans of the Continental Congress should be exactly complied with. At the same meeting (Dec. 31st), Capt. Bryant Morton was chosen as a delegate to join the Provincial Con-
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gress, when the Committee of Correspondence should think it expedient. For this service he was to be allowed five shillings per day, while gone to the said Congress. A large committee was like- wise chosen to see that a quantity of wood, to be sent to the poor of Boston, should be at Falmouth by the last week in January. The last article in the warrant for this meeting was one to see what encouragement the town would vote for those " who will enlist them- selves to be in readiness in case of any sudden alarm." This the town voted to postpone for the present, and it never came into town meeting again ; but the minute men were well organized before the Lexington alarm.
Harrison Gray, the Royalist Province Treasurer, demanded that the money for the Province tax be paid forthwith. In order to pro- tect its officers in their refusal to do this, at a town meeting held Jan. 7, 1775, the town voted to indemnify the assessors for refusing to make return to Harrison Gray for his warrant for apportioning a Province tax, and also that they would indemnify the "former con- stables and collectors in their paying the Province money (yet in their hands) to Col. Edmund Phinney, instead of Harrison Gray, when they have paid the same." Later it was voted to raise a sum of money equal to the sum ordered to be raised by Harrison Gray the last year ; viz. £31-2-10, as a Province tax, and that this remain in the hands of the town treasurer until the town should order it to be paid to Henry Gardner, or any other person appointed to receive the same for the proper use of the Province.
There is no record giving the population of Gorham at the begin- ning of hostilities in 1775, but by the assessment of the town tax for this year, made in December, it appears that there were two hundred and fifty-five names, against which there were two hundred and sixty- four polls charged, and there were twenty males with no poll tax, and two females, taxed for property.
From this it appears that in 1775 Gorham had about two hundred and sixty-four able bodied men in town of all ages over sixteen ; add to these the twenty males not taxed for a poll tax, and we have a male population over sixteen years of two hundred and eighty-four. Allowing half as many more for the boys under that age, and reckon- ing as many females as males, we shall have some eight hundred and fifty-two souls for the population of the town at or about the commencement of the war of the Revolution.
Of the tax payers this year there were seventy-seven who paid only a poll tax, with thirty-three that paid a very small tax on per-
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sonal property, with no real estate whatever ; taking these one hundred and ten, who paid a tax of about eight pence each, from the two hundred and seventy-seven, leaves one hundred and sixty-seven who had to pay from about one to eight shillings each. There are fifteen persons on this list, who are taxed for their "faculty."
The alarm of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached Falmouth before daybreak on the 21st of April, 1775, and caused tremendous excitement there and in all the region round about. A Falmouth company of soldiers started that same day for Boston, followed by others. A company of militia had been for some time organized and armed in Gorham, under the command of Capt. Hart Williams, and another, in Gorham, Windham and Standish, com- manded by Capt. Wentworth Stuart of Gorham. These promptly followed the Falmouth company, but when they reached Wells they were all ordered back to protect the coastwise towns, and returned, reaching Falmouth April 24th.
In May occurred in Portland the famous "Thompson War," of which, as it largely concerns Gorham soldiers, it may be well to give some account. Capt. Mowatt, of the sloop of war "Canceau," gave considerable apprehension to the people of Falmouth, and the neighboring coast towns, lest, being reinforced, he should cause them trouble, and on May 7th, Col. Samuel Thompson with a company of fifty men, arrived at Falmouth from Brunswick, and encamped in a grove of pines. Each man wore a bit of spruce, and their standard was a small spruce tree stripped of all but its top branches. In this grove they remained till the ninth, when Capt. Mowatt, his surgeon and parson Wiswall while walking on the hill, unaware of their presence, were captured by them, as was the undoubted intention of the soldiers in coming to Falmouth. A large number of the citizens of the town wished Thompson to release his prisoners, but this he refused to do, and Col. Phinney sent off for his soldiers to protect him in this. At length, however, Thompson yielded to the desire of a majority of the citizens of the place, and released the prisoners on parole, they to return the following morning. They did not keep their word ; and there being now on the Neck, not only Col. Phin- ney's regiment, but militia from the neighboring towns, who were greatly enraged at the release of Mowatt and his failure to keep his agreement, threats were openly made that they would destroy his ship. As it was, they vented their anger on the Royalists. The next day, May 11th, among other deeds, they plundered Capt. Coul- son's house, and used it as a barrack. In the cellar was found a
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supply of liquor, to which they helped themselves. Calvin Lombard of Gorham, son of Rev. Solomon Lombard, went to the edge of the water, and fired a couple of balls into the side of Mowatt's vessel. Going to Sheriff Tyng's residence they took from it a silver cup and tankard and his gold-laced hat. Others took Coulson's boat and hauled it through the town nearly to Back Cove, and left it in the fields. Later another boat was treated in the same manner. Deeply enraged, Mowatt demanded that Lombard be given up, and that the inhabitants of the Neck return the boats and "dispel the mob from the country," or he would fire upon the town. The citizens, however, succeeded in assuring him that it was the country people who were to blame, and that they were unable to control them. By the 15th of the month, the last of the soldiers had left town, and soon after this the ship sailing, Falmouth for the time being was left in peace.
The articles taken from Sheriff Tyng's were carried to Gorham, and secreted, but were afterwards restored, being delivered to Mrs. Ross, Tyng's mother-in-law. Coulson's loss was made up to him by the General Court.
Efforts were now made to organize a regiment. Gen. Jedediah Preble, who evidently had the authority, appointed Edmund Phinney - who had been commissioned a colonel in January of that year -colo- nel of the regiment, and the enlistment of the companies had already been begun when word was received that Samuel March of Scar- borough had also received the requisite authority to raise a regiment. As Cumberland County could not afford to spare two regiments, Col. Phinney went to Cambridge to see about the matter, taking with him the following letter from Gen. Preble.
Falmouth, May 15, 1775.
I Honored Gentlemen : - These wait on you by Col. Phinney who brought me all the papers necessary for enlisting a Regiment in the County of Cumberland. I advised with the Committee of Corres- pondence who was of the opinion it would be difficult for our County to spare a Regiment to be moved out of the Province of Maine, as we lay much exposed to the Navy by sea, and the Indians and French on our back settlements, if they should be employed against us : but we would be glad to do everything in our power for the defence of our just rights and dearer liberties. Our men are zealous in the Cause of our Country, and ready to venture everything for the defence of it. Colonel March informs me your Honors have appointed him a colonel, and gave him orders to raise a Regiment in this County, and to appoint all his officers : this he acquainted me with after I had
I Goold's History of the 31st Mass. Regt.
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delivered Colonel Phinney the papers back again which he brought me. It is impossible we can spare two Regiments out of this County, and they both made considerable progress : am much afraid there will be some difficulty in settling the affair. I am persuaded the men in general would prefer Colonel Phinney, and so should I for that reason as I look on Colonel Phinney to be equal to Colonel March in every respect.
Should have done myself the honor to have waited on you in person but am in a poor state of health and so exercised with the gout that I cannot bear my shoes. I purpose to visit the Camp whenever I am able to undergo the fatigue of so long a journey. I wish courage and conduct in our officers, resolution and spirit of obedience in our soldiers, and a speedy end of our troubles.
I am your Honors' most obedient servant, Jedediah Preble.
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