USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland by the sea; an historical treatise > Part 7
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In 1748 came the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. The incompetency of the government of George II had won little of advantage over the equal incompetency and the dissolute corruption of that of Louis XV. Both were weary of war and a nominal peace was contracted. The treaty, how- ever, avoided the disputed question of boundaries and by it was ceded back the respective territorial conquests. To the dismay of the people here this compact restored Louisburg again to France. The feeling of resentment occasioned by that act was never appeased nor forgotten. It was not alone that they were angered and humiliated, but they felt that the main bulwark for safety to themselves
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and their homes which they had won at desperate cost had been ruthlessly cast aside, and that their welfare was held in contemptuous disregard by England. Notwithstanding the barren treaty, hostilities in America scarcely came to a halt. Upon invitation of Gov. Shirley a general con- vention of Indians with their chiefs was held in 1749 on Falmouth Neck. A general peace agree- ment was negotiated, but in a brief time the murderous attacks went on as before.
Between France and England the possession of America had become the grand prize to be settled only by the arbitrament of war. The earlier contest had been waged between colonial . New France upon the one side and colonial New England upon the other. Now came a struggle in which each nation put forth its utmost efforts. Able French commanders kept pushing on their connections in the West from Montreal to New Orleans. In 1753 George Washington was sent to investigate the encroachments upon Virginia. In 1755 General Braddock with an English force was defeated in their attempt to drive back the French aggression. Finally, in 1756, open war was declared, a war that it was said was kindled in the American forest.
At first the English campaigns were every- where so unsuccessful that the King unwillingly called to the head of the government William Pitt, the Great Commoner, afterwards Earl of Chatham, and gave to him almost unlimited powers. The war was thenceforth managed practically by two dictators. On the French side was Louise, Mar-
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quise de Pompadour, the pampered mistress of Louis XV, who controlled the Court and directed the war, making and unmaking ministers and generals. On the other was one of the master minds of English history, the organizer of victories and one of her most comprehensive statesmen. The situation of affairs changed at once. Pitt's first aim was to retake Louisburg, the guardian outpost of Canada. In 1758 a great military and naval expedition was sent for its capture. The contest was long and severe, but it was successful, and the way was opened for an advance upon Quebec. The result there is too well known to call for description. Upon the Plains of Abraham the fate of America was decided. This was substantially the end of the war. By the treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, the French claim of ownership was ended forever. The Pompadour consented with the contemptuous remark, "Let them have it, it is only a few acres of snow."
The effect of the long contest upon the Amer- ican settlements had been in many ways nearly as far-reaching as the victory. The colonies, selfish and jealous in feeling towards each other, had been compelled by common danger to unite for common defence. Pacificists though they all desired to be, they had been forced by the very instinct of self- preservation to become the most hardy and self- reliant of soldiers. By an irresistible chain of circumstances there had unwittingly been as- sembled the conditions that accomplished later · the building of a nation. Locally, here, the
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feeling was chiefly one of extreme relief that the long-standing French menace was ended. Our town had contributed to the result by sending a fine quota of active men.
XIII
FALMOUTH IMPROVES ITS OPPORTUNITIES.
D URING the years, of which mention has been made, when there was constant dan- ger of impending attacks from without, Falmouth had, with land titles in a safe condition and a sturdy and self-reliant population, kept up a constant though not rapid growth. In 1753, just prior to the beginning of the seven years war with France, there were, according to the estimate of Willis, within the whole township about twenty- seven hundred inhabitants, and upon the part called Falmouth Neck some 720, including 21 slaves or servants. Slavery was then legal and was continued until abolished by the Massa- chusetts statute in 1783. In 1760, after the capture of Quebec, the number of residents upon the peninsula was reckoned at about one thousand. The Neck, as it was called, had acquired a com- mercial character of its own and was the chief seat of business and the largest center of population in the town. It was so nearly surrounded by water that it was practically an island. A bridge over Fore River at Stroudwater became altogether necessary. About 1739 it was represented to the General Court that the town had been to near two thousand pounds sterling charge for building a meeting-house, bridges and fortifications, and it obtained authority to levy a tax upon the un-
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improved lands. Later a lottery was granted for the purpose of building a bridge over the Pre- sumpscot at the lower falls.
Frequent reference is made to the issue of paper currency by Massachusetts and the con- sequent disturbance of all financial affairs by its depreciation. This began after the disastrous and costly expedition against Quebec in 1690 and continued intermittently until a large volume was put out to cover the expense of the armament assembled for the campaign against Louisburg. Parson Smith in his diary remarks, "'Tis a time of great perplexity and distress here on account of the sinking of the paper currency." The English government in 1748 appropriated the equivalent of nearly one million dollars in modern money to reimburse the outlay incurred by the colonials for the Louisburg adventure and this was wisely applied to taking up the depreciated paper bills in circulation at a rate of about fifty per cent. of face value. Coined silver, the Spanish milled dollar, was then made the basis of currency values. After a period of stringency the currency was established and maintained upon a specie standard to the great advantage of all business transactions.
The production of lumber became the principal industry. This had been from the first one of the larger products of this as well as of other parts of Maine. There were saw mills upon all available streams, those at Saccarappa falls being spoken of as the most valuable. On the Neck the first saw mill was probably at Capisic and in 1752
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there were ten saw and grist mills within the limits of the first parish. In 1765 Mr. Smith remarks of the export trade, "The ships loading here are a wonderful benefit; they take off vast quantities of timber, masts, oar rafters, boards, etc." The teams "carting boards from Sacca- rap to Portland Pier" were almost a procession. The exports of masts for the King's navy and English shipping was a vastly profitable business. This was the central situation for procuring masts for the royal navy. The list of prices paid is almost surprising. As much as five hundred dollars was obtained for the larger sizes. Col. Thomas Westbrook was the appointed government agent for the procuring of masts and in 1727 he came here from Portsmouth, from which place the business had been transferred to Falmouth which, as was said, "with its fine harbor had peculiar commodiousness to carry on such busi- ness." There was considerable of trouble caused by want of grist mills. That kind of business was necessarily intermittent and often had to be en- couraged by granting to them a monopoly within certain defined districts. There was for a long time a grist mill run by wind power on the rocky hill upon which the Elks Club building now stands. The profits derived from lumber, shipping and trade were so large that agriculture was neglected and at times there was difficulty in obtaining proper food supplies. There was a large and constant influx of new people from other places and the population increased at a rapid rate.
The continued need of additional ships pro-
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moted shipbuilding, and this became a very im- portant auxiliary and a lucrative branch of busi- ness and laid the foundation for considerable fortunes. The first of the many ship yards mentioned in town was on the cove east of India Street and this continued for nearly a century. Commercial business by water was more than coastwise or local, for foreign ships also came and went and the products of the port of Falmouth were carried in vessels to England and other distant countries. A naval officer was appointed here by the British government in 1730, and in 1758 the increasing business of the town warranted the establishment of this as a regular collection district. Francis Waldo was the first collector of customs and Stephen Longfellow acted for a time as deputy. The district now existing of the port of Portland and Falmouth has continued from that time until the present. This appoint- ment recalls the organization in England of a Board of Commissioners for managing the com- mercial matters of the plantations. These Acts of Trade and the Navigation Acts made the whole industry of the colonies subservient to the man- ufacturing business and wealth of England. The arbitrary enforcement of these laws, prohibiting as they did colonial enterprise of that kind and largely commercial business, also was one of the potent causes which turned the current of loyalty away from the mother country.
In the enumeration of the inhabitants mention is made of eleven French neutrals. These were a part of the Acadians who had been deported
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from their homes at the head of the Bay of Fundy. An alleged incident of this deportation was the subject of Longfellow's romantic and beautiful poem Evangeline. This colony had for a long time been regarded as a serious . problem. A company of Breton French had established them- selves in that place. They were near enough to the dreaded fortress of Louisburg to be able to furnish supplies to the garrison there and also, it was said, contributed to it constant recruits. They were invincible in their loyalty to France and, although their location had been by treaty definitely transferred to the English, they stub- bornly refused to take an oath of allegiance. They declared themselves to be neutrals in the contest between the nations. The plan for the deporta- tion was not intended to be unnecessarily harsh. Families were not separated except by accident, though their homes were destroyed. They were taken in groups to various English settlements from Maine to New Orleans. But they every- where held themselves aloof and would not work or mingle with the English. A part drifted to Northern Maine and there formed the settlement at Madawaska. Another group made a colony of their own west of New Orleans in Louisiana where their descendants remain still unchanged. The Falmouth company were cared for as paupers until they went elsewhere and disappeared.
After the fall of Quebec scarcely any of the formerly numerous Indians were found in Maine. For them the long war had been one of extermina- · tion. The French had no mercy for their red
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allies except so far as they could use them to help their own cause, and always ingeniously kept them from making peace. The natives were driven from the sea-shore where, as the numerous shell heaps still bear witness, they had found sub- sistence in the long winters. Their corn fields and summer planting grounds were laid waste. Only a small proportion were slain in combat, but they were wasted away by famine, disease and exposure. A few of the pitiful remnant went to the Indian settlements at Becancour and St. Francis ncar Quebec, and the little colonies of Penobscots at Indian Old Town and of the Passa- maquoddies in Eastern Maine are all that remain.
The whole district of Maine was originally included in the one county of Yorkshire or York. It has been noted that Falmouth was in 1735 made a half shire town for holding terms of the Inferior Court and Court of Common Sessions. In 1760 the estimated population of Maine was about twenty-four thousand and was rapidly increasing. That of the whole township of Falmouth was then reckoned at near thirty-seven hundred. On the part that afterwards became Portland the number had grown to about one thousand. This year, 1760, the General Court organized two new coun- ties; Cumberland, including its present territory together with that of Oxford, and Lincoln, com- prising the rest of Maine, exclusive of York County, which was restricted to about the Scar- boro southwesterly line extended. Falmouth quite naturally became the county seat. This name . was then commonly assumed to refer to the
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business peninsula, the other parts having their own local designations. The old meeting-house on King or India Street served for a court house until 1774 and it, together with a new unfinished county building were destroyed by the Mowatt bombardment in 1775. The records in the Reg- istry of Deeds and of the Courts here begin with the year 1760.
A remonstrance sent to the General Court by the town of Kittery prior to 1760 protesting against its tax valuation as being out of proportion with that of Falmouth, refers to the flourishing condition of the latter town and states that the situation of the place exceeds all others in the county of Yorkshire for trading by sea to all parts, and in supplies of all sorts of lumber by land; and has salt and fresh rivers with profitable mills, timber, wood and every commodity, and fish of all sorts; it also abounds with good farms and cattle, trade and merchandise both by sea and land; the place is the beauty and riches and strength of the county; it has eight military companies in town, a commodious harbor for ships; daily they are increasing in numbers and wealth. The fact that in 1765 fifty new buildings were erected corrob- orates this statement.
An excellent map contained in the Willis history for description of the destruction wrought by the Mowatt bombardment, shows well-pro- portioned outlines like those of a city. Most of the more thickly occupied part and buildings were located between India Street and Monument Square, extending back to Congress Street. The
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OLD FIRST PARISH CHURCH
FALMOUTH IMPROVES ITS OPPORTUNITIES 123
two ends of the peninsula were covered with bushes and woods. Evidently, there was but little of good timber remaining. There were the large Brackett and Bramhall farms and the Mun- joy tract with a considerable of "commons" used for pastures and otherwise. Although the general elevation was high except the central part between the two principal hills there were several large spaces designated as swamps, especially between Brackett Street and Bramhall Hill. The old first parish meeting-house built in 1740 was conspicuous as was in lesser degree the Episcopal Church and the old court house on Hampshire Street. The water front on both sides of India Street showed numerous wharves extending back to Fore Street. The rough condition of the unoccupied parts is emphasized by the fact that a bear was killed in Anthony Brackett's swamp near the Williston Church in 1769 and that in 1772 a moose was found roaming about in the woods north of Con- gress Street.
The general references concerning what is now Portland by the Sea in those days immediately prior to the Revolution, disclose a well-to-do and contented populace. Most of them owned their own homes and dwelt in a feeling of security. They were well supplied with the comforts of life. Currency was scarce, but an easy system of barter balanced the exchange of products. The moral tone of the community was excellent. The schools were regularly established, those of public character being supplemented by private instruct- Ors. The churches were both religious and also
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places of weekly social gatherings. There the women exerted an almost preponderating influence. There was considerable of class feeling and the "quality people" carried their heads high, but when they met in "generall town meeting" each might be his own spokesman. Threatening clouds, however, were even then showing themselves in dealings with England, where they should have been least expected. Harsh and oppressive laws were causing resentment and opposition, but the idea of open rupture seemed too remote for any actual consideration.
XIV
BRITISH COLONIAL POLICIES CREATE HOSTILITY.
T HE causes of the American Revolution are quite generally attributed to sentimental objection against the injustice of taxation without representation and resentment aroused by arbitrary laws. This explanation is to a great extent true, but there were also underlying reasons of a very practical nature. After 1675, the year of King Philip's War, the supervision of the colonies had been in the hands of a standing committee of the English Privy Council, commonly called the Lords of Trade. During the seventy years that elapsed between the overthrow of the Stuart dynasty and the victory of Wolfe upon the Plains of Abraham there was perpetual menace from France, and it was manifestly unwise for the British government to do anything to weaken the loyalty of the colonies. They were therefore left very much to themselves.
Fundamentally, the ideas of the people here had become altogether different from those of the old world. There the common thought was guided by the superstitions and restrictions of the past which knew nothing of the rights of ordinary men. The control of the masses by the classes was regarded by the high, and by the low as well, as a part of the general course of nature. Here, in the new environment, individual effort was neces-
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sary for successful living. The questions of the natural rights of men were, upon the opposite sides of the ocean, altogether divergent, and they constantly grew more conflicting. The two doc- trines, one the sovereignty of King and Parliament, and the other, government based upon the consent of the governed, were the leading theories of the eighteenth century.
When George the Third came to the English throne in 1760 the aggressive power of France had been largely eliminated. The new King was arbitrary and bigoted. During that century very few Englishmen had or expected to have a vote. The real governing power lay in a titled aristocracy and an exclusive, privileged, autocratic upper class whose main interest was trade and self- advancement. William Pitt, the elder, had a vision of a great united empire of English-speaking people, but those who thought as he did were in a minority. To those in control, colonial pos- sessions were regarded as little other than a species of property to be managed and exploited for profit. This was the general purpose of that colonial policy which caused the division. It was quite fully exemplified in Ireland where manu- factures were suppressed, free trade disallowed and the proceeds of industry taken to the limit of bare existence.
In this region the return to France of the great Louisburg fortification and harbor was a cause of intense indignation. It seemed like a cold-blooded bargaining away of their hard-won guaranty for safety. They believed that had it not been for
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the providential destruction of the hostile expe- dition by extraordinary tempestuous storms their coast and settlements would have been ravaged and laid waste. A minor but irritating thing was the sending abroad through the common forests of the King's mast agents to select for the royal navy the finest of the trees. The Broad R., often called the Broad Arrow because the letter was cut with straight lines, seemed like an intrusion upon private property. The so-called Navigation Acts and the oppressive Laws of Trade were not only offensive but were ruinous to business. By these statutes cargoes to and from foreign ports were required to be landed first in England and there pay a duty. Falmouth and other towns had built up a large and profitable trade with the West Indies and other parts. Such rules were in the nature of a prohibition of foreign commerce, as the cargoes would have to be transported twice across the ocean instead of by the direct route, besides making the customs payment. Some of these statutes were passed quite early but for a long time they were contemptuously disregarded, and the mother country was not in position to enforce them. Smuggling became the common rule and was carried with it no reproach by the best merchants and shipmasters. They won pop- ular applause instead of punishment, while an informer was liable to be roughly dealt with.
It was not until after 1756 that the British government embarked upon the continental policy in its full extent. A mere reference to those laws shows their oppressive and confiscatory character.
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The reason alleged was the repayment of expenses incurred for the defence of the colonies, but as they had in general been left to protect themselves until the seven years war, when Britain made her vast gains · of territory, the actual and often declared purpose was in fact merely an excuse for making their outside properties a source of revenue.
One of the earliest of the offensive enactments was the issuance of Writs of Assistance. These writs authorized officers to break open and search, without warrant or description, any places what- ever and to arrest persons suspected of having contraband goods. No dwelling or individual any- where was safe from intrusion at the option of the holder of the general writ. The duties had been purposely fixed at rates so high as to make legit- imate American trade impossible and smuggling was the only recourse. The colonials paid their own expenses by local taxation and they deeply resented the demand for enforced contributions to Britain. Such strenuous objection was made to the tyrannical character of the Act that the enforcement was for a time suspended, though their naval officers were authorized to act any- where as customs officers in their discretion, with trials to be held outside of colonial jurisdiction.
In 1765 the celebrated Stamp Act was passed. This ordained that all instruments in writing among the colonies should be null and void unless executed on stamped paper, for which high duty should be paid to the crown. When this law came into effect there was opposition so general that all business was suspended and universal protest
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made. The Stamp Tax was repealed, but the repeal was followed by the imposition of duties upon glass and other necessaries of life, including tea. Non-importation agreements then became general, by which nearly all men and women bound themselves to abstain from the use of English goods.
Fuel was added to the flames by sending two regiments of regular troops to Boston as notice that compulsory measures to quiet the popular unrest were in order. The Boston Massacre fol- lowed, when a company of troops, upon being insulted and stoned, fired upon the crowd, killing several persons. Then it was enacted that if any magistrate, soldier or revenue officer should be indicted for killing individuals his trial should be had only in England. This was construed as being an implied approval of the so-called mas- sacre.
Step by step passion was aroused upon each side until an issue was practically forced by the throwing into the harbor of the dutiable tea by a Boston mob Dec. 16, 1773. This occasioned the passage of the Boston Port Bill forbidding the entrance or leaving of any ship at that port, even with necessary supplies. Other enactments more and more stringent followed. Town meetings and election of local officials were suppressed. This caused the formation of associations called Sons of Liberty, having for their motto "Give me Liberty or give me Death." Upon suggestion of Massachusetts, delegates were chosen by the col- · onies and they formed the Continental Congress.
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One disturbance after another came on. The Parliament in 1774 declared by vote that their American subjects were in rebellion. In 1775 the crisis came in the repulse of the red-coat troops by the so-called homespun rustics of Lexington.
It is interesting to trace the continued and responsive effect shown in Falmouth by its public demonstrations. There the population were nat- urally loyal, but they had come up out of great tribulation, and from the nature of their environ- ment they were particularly alert and self-assert- ive. Upon Boston and Falmouth also as com- mercial places the force of the suppressive laws bore most heavily. In each place the town meetings were the popular forum.
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