USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Waldoboro > History of old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Volume 2 > Part 13
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From the very beginning of the rise of the Democratic Party it had clashed with the Federalists on the issue of foreign policy. This difference in its real essence was a social one, which had its inception back in the period of the French Revolution. The latter movement was basically a matter of the mass freeing itself from the oppression of a class. As the Democrats in America were engaged in a similar though less bloody struggle, their sympathies quite naturally were with the French masses in their battle for basic human rights; while the Federalists looked upon such a move- ment with horror as subverting the foundations of class rights
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which were the very cornerstone of their political philosophy. Con- sequently in 1793, the year in which the ruling classes of Europe coalesced against the popular uprising in France, the Democrats in America vigorously supported a foreign policy favorable to the French, while the Federalists with greater vehemence backed a policy favoring the class coalition headed by Great Britain.
During these years of struggle American commerce had a life of fitful uncertainty, subject to changes in Franco-British rela- tions, changes in their policies and in the tolerance of their respec- tive fleets. This, of course, created an issue where purely American well-being was at stake. This fact, however, made little difference to the battling parties in the young republic, and both continued to interpret the violation of American rights in the light of their own class bias. To the Federalists it was the government of revolu- tionary France that was responsible for the damage done to Ameri- can interests; while to the Democrats the coalition of the ruling classes headed by England was the source of the wrongs perpe- trated against American shipping.
When this struggle merged into the Napoleonic wars, and England entered on a battle for her very existence, conditions worsened steadily so far as America's rights as a neutral were con- cerned. As England became more and more absorbed in the war, and more of her marine equipment had to be diverted to purely naval use, her merchants were prone to look with a jealous eye on the absorption of her carrying trade by American bottoms, while her government was concerned by the number of British seamen escaping impressment in the naval service by shipping in American vessels. In the face of these conditions the British gov- ernment became arbitrary and ruled that goods could be carried by American vessels from belligerent colonies to their own ports, and only after domestic requirements for admission had been com- plied with could they be re-exported to foreign ports. Promulga- tion of this principle followed by seizure of American ships not complying with it caused widespread indignation in the States, which was exacerbated by the impressment of American seamen.
Negotiations on this point were largely fruitless, since Eng- land, fighting for her life, would not surrender one iota of her naval strength and stood firm on her ancient policy of seizing British seamen wherever found. The number of Americans either intentionally or mistakenly seized is difficult to determine. Claims contradict one another, but impressed Americans there were, and some of them from Waldoboro vessels. In 1811 a sailor named Benjamin Rogers was impressed from the brig Charles Miller, Cap- tain David Otis, master,1 and there were without question other
1Eastern Argus, Portland, May 1811.
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HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
seamen removed from Waldoboro ships. The New England Federalists owning one half the shipping of the country at this time never raised any question of this violation of neutral rights and always maintained that the number of such impressments was small.
As the struggle in Europe became intensified both British and French policy became more ruthless toward neutrals. England issued her Orders in Council which prohibited any direct trade between the United States and any European country from which the British were excluded, and even more arbitrarily ordered that all American goods exported to any European country except Sweden be landed in English ports, where a duty had to be paid before they were cleared for re-exportation. Napoleon retaliated with his Milan decrees whereunder any neutral vessel which com- plied with the British order by touching at an English port was a lawful prize. Mr. Jefferson, bent on avoiding war, saw no other solution than to prohibit all trade with foreign countries and on December 22, 1807, he placed an embargo on all American ship- ping to foreign ports.
This was a bitter blow to New England, to Waldoboro, and all those coastal towns where shipbuilding and commerce was the keystone to the arch of well-being. In Lincoln County at this time 14,538 tons of shipping were owned in Wiscasset and 18,214 tons in Waldoboro.2 Since the tonnage of such vessels was small it would mean that around seventy ships were owned in Waldo- boro, many of which would be affected by the embargo.
The economic effect of this drastic prohibition was imme- diate. In Massachusetts, which at this time included Maine, total exports fell from $20,100,000 in 1807 to $5,100,000 in 1808, while tonnage constructed in 1808 was one third that of 1807. Artisans felt the loss of work in shipyards and farmers the loss of foreign markets. Prices slumped. Beans fell forty-one per cent in value, potatoes twenty-three per cent, corn fifty-five per cent, and pork forty-three per cent. The price of imported luxuries and necessi- ties jumped, while cordwood, always a major product in the Waldoboro economy, was almost unsalable because people in the towns did not have the money to buy it. As distress became more and more acute, enforcement of the act became more difficult. Illicit trade and smuggling became the order of things and a clamor rose for the repeal of the act. This movement was initiated by the Boston Federalists. Their letter was read in the Waldoboro Town Meeting of August 29, 1808, and the response of the well- disciplined local citizenry was immediate. It was voted then and there "that the inhabitants of this town respectfully petition the
2Portland Gazette, July 18, 1808.
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President of the United States to remove the Embargo wholly or partly by the power invested in him by Act of Congress, or to call Congress together for that purpose." There were only three people in the town who went on record as opposing this resolu- tion.3 The drafting committee included the men who formed the spearhead of Waldoboro Federalism, Isaac Reed, Joshua Head, Samuel Morse, Christopher Crammer, as a representative of the German element, and strangely enough Mr. Jefferson's local Demo- cratic appointee, Joseph Farley.
These were trying times for Mr. Farley, and it may be truth- fully said that in Waldoboro he occupied the hot spot. His social contacts were with the town's most exclusive Federalist circles; he had become a considerable property holder, and the prosperity of the community gave stability and value to his invest- ments as well as to the volume of business in the Collector's Office, and yet being a political appointee it was he who was forced to implement and support in the town the completely unpopular policies of President Jefferson's administration. He doubtless, in view of these facts, desired the repeal of the embargo as strongly as the most zealous of the Federalists, although there is no evidence to show that he sympathized in any way with their flaming tactics or their traitorous talk or practices.
The severe economic distress throughout New England that came as a consequence of the embargo gave the Federalists a chance to rehabilitate themselves politically. With an eye for the main chance they at once assumed the leadership against a generally unpopular policy, and with vigorous opposition they entrenched themselves more solidly in state and local offices. A sorry leader- ship it proved to be, for as economic well-being deteriorated, political partisanship mounted, and the Federalists went to extremes which, in the difficult years ahead, really merited the firing squad or the hangman's noose. Their many-sided activity, reflected on a smaller scale in our local life, cannot be detailed here, but in pass- ing a typical case may be mentioned in the person of Timothy Pickering, the senator from Massachusetts, who entered into trait- orous negotiations with the British minister in Washington for the benefit of the party in Massachusetts, and to insure power to his class. His actions were characterized by Governor Sullivan as attempts "leading to rebellion and sedition," but the Federalist attitude was a popular one in this section and despite their un- American activities their political power in the following elections increased.
When smuggling and illegal trade under the embargo led to the passage of the Enforcement Act of 1809, giving absolute power
3Portland Gazette, Sept. 5, 1808.
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of enforcement into the hands of the local customhouse officials, resentment and anger in the local area knew no bounds. The town of Bath led off by proposing Committees of Safety as in 1776, pointing the way to rebellion. Many other communities followed, including Augusta, Yarmouth, and Wiscasset. Oxford counselled return to the "original right of self-defense." Mr. Farley seems to have done his stout duty of enforcing this act in the face of rebellious opposition. The boat Income, Captain Dan Weston of Bremen, was fitted out as a revenue cutter to enforce the embargo by cruising along the coast, checking cargoes and seizing all viola- tors. There was one such cruise of forty days in this district, for which Mr. Farley, as Collector of the District of Waldoboro, paid the bill for services of $207.39 on March 31, 1809.4 In March of this year the embargo was repealed, but it was followed in May 1810 by the Non-Intercourse Bill against England, and under its provisions Mr. Farley continued his unpopular task of enforce- ment in his district against all outward attempt at nullification of the authority of the Federal Government. The United States Mar- shal's notices of the period afford an insight into conditions exist- ing in the district. Two of these notices are here cited:
July 25, 1811, Marshal's notice filed in the District Court of the United States against Sloop Ranger, ten puncheons of rum seized by Joseph A. Farley, Esq., Collector of Waldoboro, for breaches of the laws of the United States.
August 3, 1811, a Marshal's notice filed by William B. Sevey of Wiscasset, filed in the District Court of the United States, libel against the brig Charles Miller of Waldoboro, 175 tons, David Otis, Master, with a cargo of 122 puncheons of rum.
These notices were but arrows in the gale indicating the extent of the flouting of Federal power by the shipping interests of Maine. In this respect the cue was clearly given by the New England Federalist leaders. The repeal of the embargo had not brought an end to their plottings. For a number of years they had been threatening secession and urging the nullification of every act they disapproved, so that when war came they were too deeply committed to their pro-British policy to yield ground on it.
War did come by act of Congress on June 18, 1812, and the news reached Waldoboro that week. It was by an express (mes- senger on horseback), who arrived at Brunswick on the 25th, "halted but a few moments and proceeded to Bath and points east- ward."5 In the year preceding the outbreak of hostilities, partisan- ship and bitter, unreasoned opposition to the central government had been carried so far by the Federalists, and their propaganda
4Bill in possession of C. T. Cooney, Jr., of Waldoboro.
5 American Advocate, Hallowell, Me., June 25, 1812.
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among the common people had gone to such extremes, that the advent of war found New England hopelessly and irrevocably divided. Through the overt acts of Federalist leadership the schism continued to widen. Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts and thirty- odd other Congressmen of his stripe conceded in an address to their constituents that wrongs had been committed against us by England, yet there was nothing which made the resort to war either necessary or expedient.
This manifesto was followed on June 20th by a proclama- tion of Federalist Governor Strong declaring a public fast on account of the war which the Washington Democrats had declared against a nation "which for many generations has been the bulwark of the religion we profess." The lower house of the Legislature asked that public disapproval be expressed "loud and deep," and that there be no volunteers for service except for defense.6 Cases of Federalist obstruction and opposition to the war could be multi- plied, and the climax of the non-cooperative policy was not even reached when the governor of Massachusetts, called upon to place the state militia in the service of the Federal Government, declined. Secessionist talk was in the open and secessionist intrigue in the swing behind the scenes, all of which culminated in the Hartford Convention of 1814.
The policy and attitude of the New England Federalists before and during the War of 1812 has been set forth here in barest outline. The justification for introducing this seemingly extraneous matter is that it faithfully mirrors the viewpoint and feelings of the Waldoboro Federalists, for the town of Waldoboro beyond all question was overwhelmingly Federalist, and the atti- tudes of the major party leaders in Boston furnished in complete detail the pattern for the local leaders, who in the town adhered strictly to the program of nonparticipation. Throughout the war the community remained under the Federalist leadership. The suc- cessive boards of selectmen were made up of strong party expo- nents. They were the following: 1811, I. G. Reed, William Sproul, Benjamin Brown; 1812, Joseph Ludwig, William Sproul, I. G. Reed; 1813, Benjamin Brown, Charles Miller, Jacob Ludwig, Jr .; 1814, Benjamin Brown, Charles Miller, Jacob Ludwig, Jr .; 1815, Benjamin Brown, Charles Miller, Samuel Morse. This was also the group of men who in the main represented the town in the Gen- eral Court during the war years, and we may assume had a hand in its unpatriotic policies.
It is further significant that the records of the Town Clerk do not contain a single reference to any move by the town to participate in the struggle until the British had brought the war
"John Quincy Adams, History of the U. S., VI, 401.
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to its very doorstep in the summer of 1814. The only act remotely suggesting war was an appropriation of $50.00 in May 1813 to add to the town's stock of gunpowder. This could have been a routine move, for towns were required by law to keep an ade- quate stock of ammunition on hand, and Waldoboro in previous years had been fined for dereliction in this respect. In a word, we are compelled to believe that in the early phase of the war the town leaders took a party attitude to the struggle rather than an American attitude, and outwardly at least followed a policy of neutrality.
So far as New England was concerned neutrality was the British policy, too, at least for the first year of the war. When the blockade of the American coast was declared, New England was excepted, and Waldoboro vessels along with others con- tinued even their West Indian trade without serious interference. In the coasting trade, however, the older and least valuable vessels were used. During the first year of the war these were little mo- lested. They were merely boarded, examined, and usually allowed to proceed to points within the New England area.
The outbreak of hostilities, however, did bring about a ces- sation of shipbuilding and it did render trade with Europe impos- sible, which resulted in many of the poorer folk being thrown out of work. Some of these men, driven by economic necessity, enlisted in the national service, and some others did likewise for unques- tionably patriotic motives, for while the town was preponderantly Federalist there was a minority party in it and from its ranks such Waldoboro soldiery as was in the service of the Federal Gov- ernment was drawn. One of those thus enlisting "to serve his country again," as stated in one affidavit, or "in order simply to get a paying job," as is hinted in another, was the Revolutionary soldier, George Michael Achorn. In 1775 he had enrolled in Cap- tain Smith's company in Colonel Bond's regiment, "and at the close of the year 1776 was honorably discharged from said Com- pany and at the time of his said enlistment he was about eighteen years of age." Relative to his enlistment in the War of 1812 in his pension affidavit he substituted the following statement:
Said Achorn further, on his oath declares, that on the twenty-fifth day of March A. D. 1813, he was enlisted by Lieut. Downing, into the twenty-first regiment of United States Infantry for five years or during the late war with Great Britain; that at the time of said last enlistment he told his real age7 to said Lieutenant, who informed him he could en- list none, whose age should exceed forty-four years and that from his, this declarant's appearance he would pass for a person not exceeding that age; that he served in said Regiment until sometime in May 1815, when he was honorably discharged; that in the month of September 1814, at
"About 58 years of age.
COLONEL ISAAC GARDNER REED
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a place called Bridgewater in Upper Canada he received a wound, in consequence of which he was disabled. .. . 8
This case is cited as being typical of the attitude of the poorer class; and is confirmed by a contemporary note in a local news- paper, to wit: "The patriotic spirit of the yeomanry in the District of Maine is not we presume exceeded in any part of the country. Volunteer organizations are already numerous, waiting the order of the government. Even the veterans of '75' are impatient to be in active service against the enemy."9 The newspaper, however, omits any reference to the attitude of the gentry, who in Waldo- boro and elsewhere were adhering to their comfortable Fed- eralist doctrine and in reality waiting for the war to come thunder- ing to their threshold.
After the war had been under way for nearly a year, in the spring of 1813, the respect of the British Navy for the New Eng- land Federalists seems to have waned, and British naval vessels began to hover on the Maine coast, seizing prizes and disrupting commerce. On April 12, 1813, the Independent Chronicle of Bos- ton reported that
letters from Wiscasset, Portland and other shipping centers state the recent capture of many coasters on the eastern seaboard by British cruisers, several of which are off there and which according to reports have orders to capture all vessels - even canoes. Capt. Storer's vessel and five other coasters were captured off Seguin the 30th or 31st, ult. Mr. Philbrook of Vinalhaven reported that his vessel and twelve other coasters were captured the 1st, inst., between Damariscove and Monhe- gan.
Then and thus it was that the war came to Waldoboro waters, and the destruction of its shipping continued in the face of a sporadic and inadequate defense. A Salem newspaper of April 5, 1813, reported the arrival of a schooner April 2nd which "re- ported that the schooner Charles and John, Capt. Gay of Waldo- boro, was captured by H. M. S. Rattler off Cape Elizabeth." These raids on local commerce were more than one old Federalist at least could look on with righteous complacency. This was old Commodore Samuel Tucker of Bremen, sixty-seven years of age. On May 6, 1813, the Independent Chronicle of Boston carried this report of his doings: "The English Privateer Crown of one large gun and twenty men was captured on Thursday last off Waldo- borough by a sloop fitted out at that place and commanded by Capt. Tucker, an old naval officer of the Revolution."
The Commodore's bold stroke in defense of shipping in Mus- congus Bay received a good deal of newspaper comment varying
8Pension Records of George Michael Achorn, Bureau of Pensions, Wash., D. C. "American Advocate, Hallowell, Oct. 1, 1812.
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somewhat in its detail. Tucker it seems, once his mind was made up to do something, came to Waldoboro and received a commis- sion from Joseph Farley. Then with a local crew of twenty volun- teers, and after a brief fight, he captured the tender of the British Frigate, Rattler, which had been a thorn in the flesh of the local coasters for some time. They made a prize of the tender together with several excellent gun-carriage guns and twenty-five men. "Not a man was killed or wounded on either side. The wood- coasters showed what they might have done, however, by boring the Captain's hat through several times and by firing 370 bullets through his mainsail."10
The Commercial Advertiser of New York on May 12, 1813, reported that in the attack on the Crown, "Capt. Tucker went out on a coasting ship for the purpose of decoying and attacking the Bream which had for sometime been off the mouth of this river [Medomak] and had taken a number of coasters." The capture of the Bream of eight guns had been suggested at a gathering of men in a store at Muscongus. Commodore Tucker, having been con- sulted, agreed to make the attempt and secured the necessary papers from Mr. Farley in Waldoboro.
With a volunteer crew of fifty men he put to sea on the sloop Increase and cruised to the eastward and westward for two days without sighting the enemy. While returning from Boothbay and inside Pemaquid Point, the Crown, a privateer schooner of six guns from Halifax, was sighted. The British privateer immediately changed her course to intercept them and when within range opened fire on the sails of the Increase. The old Commodore kept to the windward and when close enough gave the order to open fire and amid a hail of lead the Crown's crew were compelled to take refuge below. On the Increase was a volunteer of swarthy complexion and gigantic stature. The Commodore ordered him to take up the kedge anchor and stand ready to throw it as a grap- pling iron over the rail of the enemy. This was too much for the English captain and he surrendered, remarking afterward: "When I beheld a giant standing at the bow with a huge anchor on his back ready to throw on board of us through a space of twenty feet, and heard his awful cry: 'Commodore, shall I heave,' I thought the devil was coming after my vessel." The prize thus captured was taken into Muscongus Harbor and the crew of twenty-five men sent to the Wiscasset jail. The armament of the Increase in this action had been muskets and an old swivel.
Despite an occasional blow struck at the marauders on the coast they continued to prey on local commerce. The New York Commercial Advertiser of June 19, 1813, carried the following
10 New England Magazine (1832), pp. 138-145.
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item with reference to another Waldoboro vessel: "Sloop, Patty, Farnsworth of Waldoboro, on Saturday night at ten o'clock off Seguin Light was boarded by the Sir John Sherbrooke which took away his papers. Capt. Farnsworth was detained aboard all night, but in the morning was allowed to proceed. They informed him that they had taken eighteen prizes."
On another occasion the boldness and ingenuity of a local skipper turned the tables on the British. This incident was related by Nathaniel Simmons,11 who was a lad of ten years at the out- break of the war:
One, Peter Light, a fisherman was captured by a British privateer and carried to Halifax. The crew having gone ashore for a holiday, left Light and his negro cook aboard the vessel. During the absence of the crew Light and the negro cut the cable, made sail and steered for the New England coast. As they sailed up the Waldoboro river they fired several guns which alarmed the people in the vicinity. Nathaniel's father, James, living in Nobleboro, saddled his horse and taking the boy on behind him started for Waldoboro. There was great re- joicing among the people on account of this bold and successful ven- ture. They took the barrels of liquor out of the vessel, knocked in the heads and passed it around.12
In May of this year a Captain Tucker, possibly the Commo- dore,
a passenger on the sloop, Penobscot Packet, Eliot of Waldoboro, bound for Boston arrived on a Thursday and reported that the vessel sailed from Portland on Tuesday in company with the schooner, -- Baker for Marblehead, the schooner, Jane M., Yates of Bristol for Bos- ton, and the sloop, -- Geyer of Friendship.
That off Cape Ann the fleet fell in with an English brig, Captains Eliot and Geyer put about and got into Portsmouth. Captain Tucker saw one of the two schooners and two sloops taken.13
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