USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 12
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
The set of the tide toward statehood was not to be stayed. By the second decade of the century the number of separationists had so increased in the District that the conservatives opposing the movement found themselves engaged in a last-ditch struggle. For a number of years now Maine had been consistently supporting the Democratic candidates for governor, and her representatives in the General Court, preponderantly democratic, kept the ques- tion to the fore in the discussions.
In August 1816 the date was again set for a referendum on the issue. The campaign was one of exceeding bitterness. When the vote was counted it was found that the separationists had polled 11,969 votes to 10,347 for their opponents. In Waldo- boro the vote gave a very different picture. Way out of line with the rest of the District as usual, the separationists cast only eleven votes to three hundred and six polled by the Reed faction, a majority of thirty to one. On the basis of this District vote a con- vention was called to meet in Brunswick in late September to de- liberate on further steps. Thither Waldoboro sent a solid Tory delegation, the Honorable Benjamin Brown, the Honorable Joshua
96
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Head, and Colonel Isaac G. Reed. The convention was separation- ist in sentiment, and this triumvirate, all powerful locally, was im- potent in the larger arena. On its return home, however, it con- tinued the battle in the town and as a consequence on November 4th a strongly worded remonstrance was offered in Town Meet- ing against a committee appointed by the convention to make application for separation. This resolution was overwhelmingly endorsed and it was voted that "the same be presented to the Legis- lature by the Representatives of this town at the next session thereof."
It was in 1819 that the issue of separation came to its last showdown. On April 19th a committee of Maine members of the Legislature issued an address to the people of the District urging that in their selection of representatives they choose none but supporters of separation. Waldoboro's answer to this address was to send Benjamin Brown and Jacob Ludwig, two of its strong- est Tories, to the General Court. In addition, at a Town Meeting held on May 10th, "the Address of the Committee of the Hon. William King" drew from the town a sharp resolution stating that the measure was viewed as "a scheme of a few restless and ambitious men," and that the opinion of the town was that the move "is unwise, impolitick, and inexpedient," and that its repre- sentatives be instructed to oppose the measure "with all their influence." This influence was not enough; the Waldoboro Tories were licked.
On July 26, 1819, the last referendum on this issue was held. The vote of the District was 17,091 for separation and 7,132 op- posed to it. Waldoboro, true to the pattern of its Tory leaders, turned in a vote of twenty-four for, and two hundred and eighty opposed to separation, a vote greater than eleven to one against the verdict of the District. Governor Brooks duly proclaimed the result, and a convention was called to meet in Portland on the 17th of October to frame a constitution for the new state.
The Waldoboro Tories had received a sound beating and were now forced to face a situation that was in no sense to their liking. Under such circumstances they could have but one objective, and that was to participate in the making of a new state, and to use their full influence to construct a constitution according to conservative principles, making it an instrument whereunder "the good, the wise and the rich" would retain as much as possible of their divine right to govern. To this end they sent a solid Tory delegation to the convention in Portland, made up of Joshua Head, Isaac G. Reed, and Jacob Ludwig, Jr. But the Democrats were in control of the convention and the Federalists were balked at every turn in their efforts to incorporate into the new charter some of
97
The Rise of Partisanship
the ultra-conservative features enjoyed under the Massachusetts constitution. All restrictions based upon property qualifications were rejected, and the right of suffrage was given to all male citi- zens of the United States twenty-one years of age and resident in the state for three months. This provision weakened substantially the conservative machine in Waldoboro, for it opened the polls at all elections without any restrictions on the poor.
Another issue that was warmly debated in the convention was that of religious worship. In Massachusetts the Congregational Church was the established church, and its ministry, supported by public taxation, had always openly sided with the Federalists whose policy it was to maintain the privileged status of this sect as the state church. In Waldoboro, as elsewhere, the Federalists were Congregationalists and thus the church was Federalist and a focal point of reaction to the same degree as the party. On this issue, too, the conservatives lost their battle in the convention and the new state charter guaranteed full liberty of conscience in matters of worship and forbade the granting of a legal preference to any sect or denomination. The Federalists also lost out in their attempt to preserve compulsory church attendance, and the provision in the Massachusetts charter compelling everyone to contribute to the support of some religious society was likewise rejected.
As a whole, the new constitution was a democratic docu- ment, and by its extension of the franchise it may be said to have marked the beginning of a new political order in the state. Ratifi- cation of the charter by the District came on December 6, 1819, by a vote of 9,837 to 796. In Waldoboro the Tory faction expressed its disgust and disapproval by not going to the polls, and the town vote in consequence registered the very low figure of thirty-three favoring ratification and two opposed to it. The majority vote was a fair measure of the total of Democratic polls in the town. On the other hand, it may be said that in this election the community had truly revealed the degree of its Tory regimen- tation, as it has in many subsequent elections.
If through her conservative delegates Waldoboro offered no contribution to the basic structure of the new state, she at least had the distinction of providing it with its seal. Colonel Isaac G. Reed was a member of the politically harmless committee appointed to prepare a design for the seal and arms of the young state. The actual pattern of the seal is allegedly the work of Miss Bertha Smouse, stepdaughter of Colonel Reed. In the committee report the recommendation was described in the language of her- aldry as follows:
A shield argent, charged with a Pine Tree, a Moose Deer at the foot of it recumbent.
98
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
Supporters - on dexter side an Husbandman, resting on a scythe; on sinister side a Seaman resting on an anchor.
In the foreground, representing land and sea, and under the Shield, the name of the State, in large Roman Capitals, to wit: MAINE.
The whole surmounted by a Crest - the North Star.
Motto - In a label interposed between the Shield and Crest, in small Roman Capitals, viz: DIRIGO.
The contemporary Portland Argus remarked: "We under- stand this report is from the pen of Colonel I. G. Reed. It has been well received, and it is not only creditable to him but to the State also." It may be said that while Waldoboro had failed to trans- fuse any of its own peculiar political blood into the lifestream of the new state, it had nevertheless set its seal on every official act of the commonwealth in the past, the present, and perhaps in per- petuity.
Amid the political turmoil of these years a new figure appeared on the local scene, a man whose abilities could clearly match those of Colonel Reed. This was Mr. Gorham Parks, who came to town and opened a law office in the second decade of the century. There is unfortunately little detail available on the life and background of this citizen who achieved such prominence, but it is known that Mr. Parks was educated and was schooled in the genteel tradition of Federalist Boston. He was born in the post-revolutionary period and studied law for three years at Springfield, as alleged by his enemies, in the office of a member of the Hartford Convention. He seems to have taken up the prac- tice of law in Waldoboro around 1814. His political views are somewhat obscure, although he seems in his first years in the town to have aligned himself with the Federalists, supporting Governor Brooks in successive elections.11 In the course of time, Waldo- boro proved too small to allow room for two little Caesars to strut their roles and Mr. Parks removed to Bangor where he played a part larger than that ever essayed by Colonel Reed.
The first Maine State election was held April 3, 1820. By this time the Federalist Party had passed into the limbo of outworn creeds and with the state firmly Democratic, there was a falling off of political interest in Waldoboro. This year there was but one candidate in the field for governor, the Democrat, William King. With the franchise now free to all who might care to exer- cise it, King received in the town only one hundred and ninety- eight votes. The small number of ballots cast reveals many old Federalists refusing to vote for a Democrat, for in contrast the county vote for senator, involving some of the old party die-hards drew out a ballot triple in size. The town's vote for representative
11Kennebec Journal, Aug. 16, 1837.
99
The Rise of Partisanship
to the first Legislature was a real battle. Four ballots were taken without result. On the last Isaac G. Reed won by a slim margin over Gorham Parks, with a few scattering jest votes cast for Wil- liam Deal and Philip Nubit (Newbert). Colonel Reed and lawyer Parks did not represent political views essentially different from one another. The latter had a limited following among the Tories and to their support was added the full Democratic vote in the way of settlement of old scores against Colonel Reed.
The Tory machine apparently had been thrown sadly out of gear by developments connected with Maine's admission as a state. In consequence the congressional election of 1820 inter- ested Waldoboro not at all. Only seventy-three votes were cast locally and all were for Democrats. In the Presidential election of the same year Monroe, a Democrat, was the only candidate in the field. The degree of the town's interest is reflected in the fact that the total vote for electors was only forty-eight, a poll reminiscent in size of the earliest votes in the town's history. In 1821 the picture changed. One of the local dons was running for Congress. The old machine was greased and tinkered up, and the old Federalist war horse, Joshua Head, received three hundred and twenty-seven votes for representative to Congress, to fifty-one cast for his Demo- cratic opponent, Mark L. Hill.
This vote seems to have been the last sigh breathed by Waldoboro Federalism. The nation was now entering the "Era of Good Feeling." There was but one party in the country and partisanship was subsiding. The first citizens of the town found themselves literally men without a party. Those who had political ambitions and had looked hopefully ahead to larger roles in the state or nation were compelled either to rot on the ways, or to soft-pedal their outdated views, and like the chameleon to assume something of the hue of the tree which was providing the domi- nant shade.
The third decade of the century was a quiet one in the annals of our political history. In the town during this period the local Democratic Party was able to develop a little muscle on its bones and to assume a semblance of life. The only break in the political serenity of the community in this decade was the squabble over the local postmastership which reveals clearly that the Democrats were acquiring some gumption and punch. Charles Samson, a Democrat, had received the appointment as postmaster from Presi- dent Monroe on December 4, 1820. At this time he was living on his ample acres on the old family homestead on Thomas Hill Ridge, and apparently devoting a good deal of his time to the practice of husbandry when the storm broke. It is difficult to know what started it. Possibly there may have been a long smouldering politi-
100
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
cal feud between him and Colonel Reed, a carry-back from the heyday of Federalism. Be this as it may, his appointment clearly was not acceptable to the village squires, and in the same month that he received his commission the following was inserted as the third article in the warrant of a January Town Meeting: "To see if the town will request the Postmaster General of the United States to remove Charles Samson from the office of Postmaster in this town and appoint Payn Elwell in his stead, and to take such other measures respecting the same as may be judged proper."12
On the surface this was not made a party issue, although the plan seems to have been hatched by the old Federalist village junto. Since none of these gentlemen could have hoped to be the bene- ficiary of such a removal with the appointive power in the hands of a Democratic President, they cunningly threw their support to a villager of the Democratic Party, who was, however, one of their own number in the sense of belonging to the same social caste. In this way they were able to secure the support of some Demo- crats. The Town Meeting was held January 8, 1821, but the issue had probably been decided sometime previously, and on this date, in midwinter with the villagers present in force, and as usual in winter meetings with the back-district folk sparingly represented, it was voted: "That the town petition the Postmaster General of the United States to remove Charles Samson from the office of postmaster in this town."
The remonstrance to the Postmaster General seems to have been prepared well in advance and to have been ready for instant approval, for it is incorporated with the clerk's minutes of the meeting. It is a long, felicitously phrased document, dignified and vigorous in wording and bearing the stylistic earmarks of one of the better-known leaders of the Federalist old guard. The docu- ment emphasized the following points:
1. "Within a few years a village has grown up on the eastern side of the Muscongus river ... in which all the business of the neighbor- hood is transacted."
2. A central postmaster was desired and petitions had been circu- lated for Payn Elwell, which had received the approval of the local Democratic patronage dispenser, Denny McCobb, Collector of Cus- toms. "Mr. Elwell lives in the center of the village and for a number of years served as deputy postmaster under his father in North Yarmouth." Moreover Mr. Elwell was a Republican.13
3. Mr. Charles Samson to everyone's surprise14 received the ap- pointment. He resides three miles from any part of the post road, "and in a part of the town which he with others are now petitioning the Legislature of this State that it may be annexed to the neighboring town of Friendship."15
12Town Clerk's Record, Dec. 1820.
13 A name applied quite generally at this time to the Jeffersonians.
14Possibly Mr. McCobb excepted.
15 Movement fostered by Samuel Sweetland, Clerk's Records, Nov. 23, 1822.
101
The Rise of Partisanship
4. The emoluments of the office are too small to secure his con- stant attendance, and although he may be present at the opening of every mail, "yet a great part of this business must be transacted by a deputy or left undone."
5. Mr. Samson has a large farm to attend to, "which he manages very considerably by his own labour. ... He cannot possibly attend to a post office three miles distant where eight mails arrive each week."
6. The village squires were frank enough to admit that their "prin- cipal objection to the appointment of Mr. Samson is that he is ex- tremely obnoxious and displeasing to the great mass of our citizens .... It matters not whether this arises from blind prejudice on our part or to the unpleasant manner, the morose temper and unaccommodating disposition of Mr. Samson."
7. The manner of his appointment is a matter of much criticism, "since Mr. Elwell was the popular choice."
8. His removal is petitioned.
9. Copies of the remonstrance were forwarded to the three Maine representatives in Congress.
I cannot vouch for the validity of some of these objections, nor for the even or uneven temperament of Charles Samson, but there is some ground for believing that this was a movement on the part of the old village dons against an outsider who was not one of them either politically or socially. It is hard to believe that Charles Samson was "extremely obnoxious and displeasing to the great mass of the citizens" when in the same decade they sent him as their representative to the Legislature and elected him for three successive terms as the first selectman of the town.
It is significant that Charles Samson was not removed, but held his appointment until the election of Jackson in 1828, when he was replaced by Colonel Reed. This latter fact too may have its significance and may be indicative of a long political feud reach- ing over into the religious strife of the next decade, when Colonel Reed and his intemperate Congregationalists battled Charles Sam- son and the liberal Universalists even under the very shadow of the altar of the New Meetinghouse. Throughout this struggle to remove Mr. Samson it is difficult to say just where the quiet Mr. McCobb stood. It is alleged in the remonstrance that he was a supporter of Mr. Elwell. If this were true, then Charles Samson could have received and held his appointment only through the silent intervention of someone higher up.
Mr. Samson was not content with victory alone; he was also one who could enjoy the sweet savor of revenge. As an Irishman he could administer as well as take blows, and in this situation he seems to have struck back fast at the village Tories. It came about in this way. In the earlier days of the settlement all bills which individuals held against the town for service were presented in Town Meetings and were allowed or disallowed by vote of the citizens. Beginning with the second migration of the Puritans, town
102
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
affairs were placed on a more business-like basis, and around 1811 a "Committee on Accounts" was set up, which was rather frequently made up of the old village dons. This committee reviewed all expenditures through bills received, and allowed, amended, or dis- allowed all such accounts.
This was undoubtedly a sound practice, but it did carry with it more than the faint possibility of political patronage, and it is conceivable that the accounts of the faithful might be less rigidly scrutinized than those of the faithless. If such were the case, this would provide an inducement to hold to the line and thus would add materially to the strength of party ties. In the light of such an hypothesis Charles Samson's act at the next Town Meeting may have had a vengeful significance. This meeting was convened not in the winter season when the back-district folk would be con- strained to remain at home because of either snow or cold, but on April 2nd when the poorer back-district folk would have done hibernating and would be abroad in force attending to their affairs. At this meeting it was moved by "Capt. Charles Samson that the Committee on Accounts report at the next meeting, and the finances of the town be read in Town-meeting and the town allow such bills as they see fit." Whether or not this was a surprise move, the motion was carried and at one stroke the local village machine of Colonel Reed was shorn of much of its power over finances, which may have meant a considerable loss of party influence and prestige.
In the decade following statehood the old machine creaked on for a while. There was but one party now, and when in a state election a liberal Democrat was pitted against a conservative Demo- crat who perhaps at one time had been a Federalist, the old Tory organization would flash its power, but not in its former impressive fashion. In the election of 1821, for example, Ezekiel Whitman and Joshua Wingate polled one hundred and sixty-four votes in the town to twenty-one cast for Albion K. Parris, the elected can- didate, and in 1822 the same two ex-Federalists polled a total of eighty-six votes to twenty-seven cast for Governor Parris. But it was not the same as in the old days. The Era of Good Feeling in Monroe's second administration (1820-1824) had weakened party interest, and the administration of John Quincy Adams (1824- 1828) split the Democratic Party into a conservative and radical wing, the National Republicans made up of Adams supporters, and the Democrats constituting the followers of Andrew Jackson. In Waldoboro, as everywhere throughout the nation, a political mix-up followed. Party ties loosened as men drew to one branch of the party or the other, and inter-party strife followed. This led to a realignment of political forces in the town, and as the Adams
103
The Rise of Partisanship
supporters turned to Henry Clay for leadership in the nation, a new party, the Whig movement, came into being. This all led to a new period of violent partisanship in the community.
From the beginning of Waldoboro as a town up to the fourth decade of the nineteenth century the story has been told how this community became one of the ultraconservative towns of New England. It is doubtful if a similar history could be duplicated in any of the six states. As a basis for this conservatism there was the passive feudal attitudes of the "Dutch." Then in its formative political years there came to the town the group of strong, edu- cated, and well-to-do Boston conservatives, men of quality, educa- tion, and social prestige who assumed the leadership in local affairs. Toward these men, greatly their superiors, the attitude of the Ger- mans was one of uncritical veneration and high respect. To this simple people still feudal in its feelings, these local leaders filled the vacuum created in their ancient social tradition by their new way of life. To these overlords they unconsciously pledged their fealty, and felt themselves honored in rendering a strict loyalty to them. Thus it was that they were moulded in the democratic new world into the most conservative of New England's political faiths.
This regimenting of local political life produced a beauti- fully ordered and harmonious society. It also had its drawbacks, for because of the fact that Waldoboro remained so far out of the line of political developments in the rest of the District, her distinguished leaders were barred from playing any formative or influential role in the life of the new state. This was regrettable for there were few towns in Maine at this time that numbered among its citizens so many able men. In the single decade Doctor Benjamin Brown had represented the district in Congress (1816) and the Honorable Joshua Head had repeatedly been a near con- gressman, while Colonel Reed was a state figure qualified for high leadership which we believe he would have attained except for the fact that the sun had set on the day when "the wise, the good and the rich" had been marked by destiny to govern. Whether or not one believes in the admirably rational political philosophy of Colonel Reed and his associates, the fact remains that these men were the glory of the town at the dawn of its Great Days.
XXXI THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
As to our beloved New England, I blush to think of the part she has performed, for her shame is still the disgrace of the nation, - faction for patrio- tism, a whining hypocrisy for political morals, dis- memberment for unity, and prostitution to the enemy for state sovereignty.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
HE WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN in 1812 found America a dis- united people. In no section of the country was this condition so boldly and traitorously manifest as in New England, where the Federalists advocated and practiced openly a policy of nonpartici- pation, obstruction, and nullification of the war program of the Washington government. The fires of partisanship had blazed so fiercely in the two decades preceding the war, that it had become a settled conviction of the Tory mentality that a union that was not willing to accept meekly and gratefully the rule of "the wise, the good and the rich" was worse than no union at all. So hypno- tized were these gentlemen by their own infallible wisdom and rightness that with the Connecticut and Massachusetts Federalists at least, party came before country, and whatever was thought, said, or done by the party leaders in Boston was the soundest of doctrine. This was uncritically accepted by the old dons in Waldoboro, who were no better, no worse, and no different in their traitorous opposition to the war than the majority of Feder- alists elsewhere in New England.
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.