USA > Maine > Franklin County > Farmington > The history of Farmington, Franklin County, Maine, 1776-1885 > Part 9
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Your petitioners therefore pray your Honors to take the subject into your wise consideration and that the prayer herein may be granted, and as in duty bound will ever pray. (Signed) :
II2
HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Clifford Belcher.
Zachariah Soule.
John Church, Jr.
Rufus Allen.
Thomas Parker.
John Minot.
Robert Barker.
Robert Morrison.
Benj. M. Belcher.
Moses Butterfield.
James Allen.
Uzziel Weeks.
Isaac Eaton.
Joseph S. Smith.
Job Brooks.
Joseph Russell.
Henry Stewart.
William Russell.
Argalis Pease.
Nathaniel Russell.
Stephen Titcomb, Jr.
Joseph Titcomb.
Thomas Wendell.
Henry Davis.
Nathan Backus.
Cotton Pratt.
Joseph Starling.
Jacob Eaton.
Upon this petition the General Court gave the petitioners leave to withdraw. But nothing daunted, the next year a petition even more minute in setting out the advantages to be gained from a cavalry company, signed with more names, and endorsed at headquarters, was forwarded to Boston :
To the Honorable the Senate and the Honorable the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at their session to be holden at Boston A. D. 1809 :
The petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of the town of Farmington and adjacent towns in the county of Kennebec being persons enrolled in the Militia of said Commonwealth and liable to do military duty and a part of the Third Regiment, Second Brigade and Eighth Division of said Militia, humbly sheweth:
That anxious as we are for military improvement and zealous to discharge the most for public utility and advantage the duties re- garding us as citizen soldiers, we are induced for divers reasons which we deem sufficient to offer ourselves and to pray your Hon- ors that we may be incorporated into a company of cavalry to be attached to said Brigade with the rights, privileges and duties by law respecting other volunteer corps. Among which said reasons for thus petitioning we humbly beg leave to submit the following viz :
Ist That although true it is that there are two companies of cavalry attached to said Brigade yet the nearest of those two to
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MILITARY HISTORY.
your petitioners' places of residence is more than thirty miles distance.
2d That the standing companies of the militia to which your petitioners respectively belong average in number each about one hundred effective privates.
3d That excepting to one other regiment belonging to said Brigade ( and which contains perhaps not more than half the num- ber of soldiers with the 3d Regiment ) all others have attached to them some uniform company either of infanty, cavalry or artillery which parade with the standing militia on days of Regimental Re- view whereas none of those are attached to or parade with the Third Regiment aforesaid. This last circumstance has we ask leave to say occasioned the regret of almost all grades of the officers whose duty connects them with the said Third Regiment. Considering furthermore that we your petitioners, removed as we are from a possibility of enlisting into any volunteer company which is now organized, and that our rights on condition of making similar sacrifices of expense are equal in this respect with others ; that the Brigade to which we belong is extraordinarily numerous and dispersed over an uncommonly extensive territory, we ask that your Honors would take this petition into your wise consideration and would condescend to grant your petitioners' prayer, and as in duty bound will ever pray &c. (Signed )
John P. Shaw.
Ebenezer Shaw.
Abraham Johnson.
Joseph S. Smith.
Zachariah Soule.
Joseph Starling.
Jeremiah Stinchfield.
John Minot.
Henry Stewart.
Hiram Belcher.
Joseph Johnson.
John Church, Jr.
William Johnson.
Alexander Forsyth.
Samuel Carr, Jr.
Hugh Stewart, Jr.
Benj. M. Belcher.
John Holley, Jr.
Isaac Eaton.
William Holley.
Jacob Eaton. Ephraim Norton.
Joseph Titcomb.
Edward Butler.
Clifford Belcher.
Winthrop Butler.
Stephen Titcomb.
Marchant Holley.
Henry Titcomb.
Edward Bartlett.
Robert Barker.
The petition bears the following endorsements :
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
This may certify that granting the prayer of the petitioners for a company of cavalry to be raised from the Third Regiment, Sec- ond Brigade and Eighth Division of Militia of this Commonwealth will not reduce the standing companies below the number required by law and we believe the establishing the said company will be of general utility.
Said petition is now on the files of the Honorable Council signed by John P. Shaw and others.
O. BAILEY, Lt .- Col. Commanding. JOSEPH FAIRBANKS, Major. WM. GOULD, Major.
FARMINGTON, May 16, 1809.
May 19, 1809.
I hereby approve the plan of raising a company of cavalry within the limits of the Third Regiment as proposed.
JOHN CHANDLER, Brig .- Gen. Ist Brig. 8th Div.
I also approve the thing.
H. SEWALL, Major-General.
The cavalry company was organized May 12, 1810, with the following officers : Jeremiah Stinchfield, captain ; Henry Stewart, first lieutenant ; Edward Butler, second lieutenant ; and Benjamin M. Belcher, cornet.
Rumors of war were now in the air. New England had begun to feel the pressure of the embargo in the paralysis of her peculiar industries. The dissatisfaction felt at the posi- tion of the general government was wide-spread. Massachu- setts was upon the point of revolt. While Maine was not in full sympathy with this antagonism of the mother State, yet even the remotest hamlet could but feel the inconven- iences and distress induced by the condition of national affairs.
While the embargo was in force, it was necessary that all goods be transported over land from Boston. Freights were consequently very high, and this fact, added to the high price of all foreign and domestic goods, compelled the people to rely almost wholly upon their own products and home manufact-
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MILITARY HISTORY.
ures. The distress experienced was so severe, and the feel- ing roused by the injury to New England commerce was so intense, that the town-meeting assembled in January, 1809, voted to raise a committee to draft resolutions to express the sense of the meeting upon the conditon of the country. Zachariah Soule, William Gower, and Moses Starling, were appointed on this committee, and after suitable deliberation, presented the following report, which was accepted :
First. The fundamental principles of the social compact are the guarantee and security of the right, liberties, privileges, persons, property of all those who are included in that compact : A part of these rights and privileges as well as liberties are by the people at large voluntarily surrendered to their own government, but upon express conditions to wit, that the vendue thereof should ever be held and preserved sacred and indefeasible by that government.
Second. Resolved that the people of the United States did at the formation of their constitution enter into a solemn league and covenant each individual with the whole and the whole Nation with each individual that security and protection to their lives, liberties, privileges and property should be sacred, uniform and universal and also reciprocal between themselves and their government, and that whenever, either in exercise or effect, the powers of legislation abandon this reciprocity the legitimate source of obedience and submission on the part of the people to the laws and ordinances of the government, is destroyed.
Third. Resolved as the sense of the people of this town that the feelings, the habits, the necessities and the hopes of the great mass of the people of New England are indispensably founded on the navigation of the ocean; that they ought to retain that right and privilege as sacred and inalienable ; that the very finger of nature has pointed them to the prospects, the employments and the benefits derivable from it, and that they ever ought to be in the exercise of this important privilege unembarrassed by too much regulation, and, last of all, to submit to its annihilation.
Fourth. Resolved that the mutual concessions and compro- mises agreed upon by the sages who adopted, and ultimately by the people who ratified and confirmed, the constitution of the United States contained on the part of the Southern States an express guarantee to the people of New England of their rights and privileges.
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Fifth. That the imposition of an embargo on the ships and vessels of the United States perpetual in its terms and unparalleled in the history of commercial nations derives a full and distinct and unequivocal character from the privations and sufferings, the dis- tress and prospective ruin of the great mass of the people of New England; that these sufferings and these distresses but illy com- pare with that promised distribution of blessings and prosperity with which the people have been so particularly flattered and which they have so ardently desired to realize, and which is the duty binding and sacred on every government to promote.
Sixth. Resolved that the unlimited continuation of the vari- ous embargo laws after the solemn pledges which we have had that ere this they would be repealed; that the annexation thereto of a non-intercourse system which is equally perpetual in its expressions ; that the recent requisitions of military detachments and the resolu- tions adopted on the floor of Congress for raising and putting under immediate pay of a force of fifty thousand men in a time of peace, more especially when we have ever been assured that the embargo was a substitute and a preventive of war, call loudly for the atten- tion and energy of the people to rally round the standard of their sacred constitutional rights and privileges.
Resolved, therefore, that a committee be chosen to draft and forward a respectful petition to the legislature of Massachusetts, stating our present privations and distresses, and our apprehensions of the ruinous and alarming consequences and tendency of these measures, and praying them to adopt such means for our present relief and future protection, proper for a free sovereign and inde- pendent state.
The committee appointed to draw up and present to the town resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the town respectfully beg leave to report the foregoing which are submitted, January 21, 1809.
MOSES STARLING. WILLIAM GOWER. ZACHARIAH SOULE.
Measures were taken a few years later to complete the military organization of the town by forming a company of artillery, and on May 25, 1812, a few days before President Madison declared war, such a company was organized, with
MILITARY HISTORY. II7
the following officers duly commissioned : Abraham John- son, captain ; Dehave Norton, first lieutenant ; Henry But- terfield, second lieutenant.
During the early years of the war, New England suffered but little from actual warfare. It felt keenly the hardships of the struggle, however, in the destruction of its commerce, the paralysis of its business, in the drain upon its resources, both for men and money, and the constant menaces of the enemy. From the spring of 1813 until the close of the contest, British squadrons were hovering along our coasts, and threatening the destruction of the seaboard towns. The year 1813, was an especially trying one, for New England. England had determinded to make the campaign of that year, a sharp, vigorous, and decisive one. In July, Sir Thomas Hardy anchored with a formidable squadron, off Fort Sullivan at Eastport. The fort was insufficiently equipped, with but fifty men and sixty pieces of artillery, under the command of Perly Putnam, of the Fortieth U. S. Infantry. The Commodore demanded instant surrender, to which demand Putnam acceded against his own judgment, but out of respect to the importunities of the terrified in- habitants. The post was surrendered under the condition that private property should be respected, and formal pos- session was taken of the fort, town, and country about Passamaquoddy Bay, by the landing of a large force of men and arms. Hardy then sailed westward with his squadron, spreading the direst dismay all along our coast, and on the morning of September Ist, arrived in the harbor of Penob- scot Bay, and cast anchor off Castine. Lieut. Lewis, of the U. S. Army, with forty men, was occupying a half made redoubt, fortified with four twenty-four pounders, and two field pieces. Resistance was seen to be vain, and upon receiving the summons to surrender, Lewis gave a volley from his twenty-four pounders, spiked them, blew up the redoubt, and with his two field pieces, fled from the fort across the peninsula to the mainland, leaving Hardy to take undisputed possession of the town. Two companies of riffe- men were landed, together with a detachment of Royal
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Artillery, thus securing to the British the control of Penob- scot Bay.
Caleb Strong was at that time governor of Massachu- setts, and his intense hostility to the measures of the National Government led him to neglect the proper defense of the frontier. In spite of protest, it was not until the British were in possession of all the territory east of the Penobscot that he was induced to take any energetic meas- ures against the invaders. A public meeting was called in Boston, and a committee waited upon the governor, present- ing to him the helpless and defenseless condition of the · District of Maine. The governor listened to the appcal, and on September 6th issued his orders for nearly the whole of the State militia to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice for the defense of the sea-coast. This part of the State belonged at that time to the Eighth Division of Massa- chusetts Militia, under the command of Major-General Henry Sewall, of Augusta. Five regiments from the lower Ken- nebec were at once ordered to Wiscasset, and the remainder of the regiments of this division received orders to rendez- vous at the various towns between Farmington and Pittston, and there wait instructions.
The following were the division and brigade staff officers of the Eighth Division, in service from September 12th to September 28th, 1814:
FIRST BRIGADE.
Henry Sewall, Major-General, Augusta.
Ebenezer Dutch, Major, Augusta.
Wm. K. Page, Major, . Hallowell.
W'm. Emmons, Judge-Advocate, Augusta.
Wm. Gould, Brigadier-General, Farmington.
Samuel Howard, Brigade-Major, Augusta.
Jesse Robinson, Brigade-Major,
Hallowell.
SECOND BRIGADE.
William Kendall, Brigadier-General, Fairfield.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Richard Sawtelle, Brigade-Major, . . Norridgewock. Timothy Boutelle, Brigade-Quartermaster, . . Waterville. David Kidder, Aid-de-Camp.
BATTALION OF ARTILLERY.
Joseph Chandler, Major, . Monmouth.
John S. Kimball, Quartermaster, Augusta. Jonathan G. Huntoon, Adjutant, , Readfield.
Two of Farmington's companies of militia, and its com- pany of artillery, were summoned to hold themselves in readiness to march to the sea-coast. Only one company of cavalry belonging to the Eighth Division was called into active service, and that was Capt. Thomas Eastman's com- pany, of Hallowell, which acted as an express, to carry orders between Bath, Wiscasset, Camden, and Belfast.
The list of officers and privates belonging to Farming- ton companies, and the officers of the regiment, are here given :
Muster Roll of the Field and Staff of Lieut .- Col. Joseph Fair- banks' regiment, called out for sea-coast defense, and waiting orders at Farmington from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18, 1814.
Joseph Fairbanks, Lieutenant-Colonel, Farmington.
Eaton Fairbanks, Servant,
Farmington.
Thomas Johnson, Jr., Major,
· Farmington.
Nathaniel Blake, Servant,. Farmington.
Jabez Gay, Quartermaster, Farmington.
Nathan Armesby, Paymaster, . Strong.
Thomas Parker,
Farmington.
Josiah Prescott, Surgeon,
Farmington.
John L. Blake, Servant,
.
Farmington.
Thomas Flint, Surgeon's Mate,
New Vineyard.
Jotham Sewall, Chaplain,
Chesterville.
William Talcott, Sergeant-Major,
Farmington.
Henry Cushman, Quartermaster-Sergeant, . Farmington.
Solomon Luce, Fife-Major, New Vineyard. Joseph Russell, Drum-Major, Farmington.
.
I20
HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Muster Roll of Capt. Robert M. Morrison's company of militia, of Farmington, of Lieut. Col. Joseph Fairbanks' regiment, called out for the defense of the sea-coast, and waiting orders at Farm- ington from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18, 1814, when a draft was made for a forty days' service, and those not drafted were discharged.
Robert M. Morrison, Captain. Samuel L. Jones, Lieutenant. James Hersey, Ensign.
SERGEANTS.
James Norton. Hebron Mayhew, Jr.
Jedediah K. Cowan.
CORPORALS.
John Craig. Charles H. Tobey. William Cothren.
MUSICIANS.
Charles Stanley. James Huston.
Ephraim Cowan.
PRIVATES.
John Allen.
Samuel Church.
Edmund Atkins.
Holmes S. Daggett.
Ezra A. Butler.
Daniel Davis.
William Battle.
Benjamin Foss.
Samuel Cowen.
Urial Hillman.
Enoch Craig, Jr.
Reuben Hatch.
John Clayton, Jr.
Thomas Green.
Daniel C. Church.
William Kennedy.
James Cowen.
Andrew Kennedy.
David Cowen,
Jonathan Kempton.
John Kempton.
William Lewis.
Elisha Luce.
Nathan Mayhew.
Jesse McLain.
James I. Marchant.
Bassett Norton.
Peter Norton.
Isaac Perkins.
Daniel Russ.
Jotham Smith.
Charles Stewart.
Wm. M. Stewart.
Daniel Stewart.
Joseph Tuck.
Uzziel Weeks.
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MILITARY HISTORY.
Muster Roll of Capt. Daniel Beale's company of militia, of Farm- ington, called out for the defense of the sea-coast, and waiting orders at Hallowell from Sept. 12 to Sept. 26, 1814, and at- tached to Lieut .- Col. David McGaffey's regiment.
Daniel Beale, Captain. Silas Perham, Lieutenant. Lemuel Bursley, Ensign.
SERGEANTS.
John Bailey.
Ebenezer Hutchinson.
Joseph Jennings. John Morrison.
CORPORAL.
John Scales.
MUSICIANS.
James Cummings. John Branscomb.
PRIVATES.
Winthrop Allen.
Mayhew Norton.
Thomas Arnold.
Joseph Norton, Jr.
Jacob W. Butterfield.
Samuel B. Norton.
William Brainerd.
Warren Pease.
Joseph Butler.
Jeremiah Parsons.
William Bailey.
Tristram Presson.
John Brown.
James Parker.
Jeffrey B. Brown.
Samuel Roby.
Rufus Berry.
Samuel Rice.
John Case.
Lot Cottle.
Oliver Rice.
David Dwinell.
John Stinchfield.
Nehemiah French.
Thomas Stinchfield.
William Hamilton.
Joshua Lowell.
Asa Hamilton. Solomon Hamilton.
John Stowers.
Ebenezer Goddard.
John Thompson.
Joseph Knowlton.
Joshua Witham.
Samuel Knowlton.
Asa Willard.
Oliver Lowell.
Bartol Walker.
John Young.
George W. Norton.
Henry Russ.
Ebenezer Shaw.
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Muster Roll of Capt. Abraham Johnson's company of artillery, of Farmington, called out for defense of the sea-coast, Sept. 14, 1814, and rendezvoused at Farmington, waiting orders, until Sept. 18, when a draft was made from the company for further service and those not drafted were discharged.
Abraham Johnson, Captain. Henry Butterfield, Lieutenant.
SERGEANTS.
Ebenezer C. Butler. William Talcott.
Benjamin Butler, Jr.
CORPORALS.
Nehemiah Chandler.
Jonathan Look.
Isaac Porter. Silas M. Killman.
MUSICIANS.
Rufus Dresser. Joseph Blake.
PRIVATES.
Christopher Atkinson. James Gordon.
Solomon Adams, Jr.
Guy Green.
Joseph Butterfield.
Jonathan Gordon.
Josiah Butterfield.
Nathaniel W. Gould.
Flavel Bartlett.
Thomas Hillman.
Wm. Butler.
Bartlett Luce.
Moses S. Butler.
Leonard Merry.
Edward Bartlett.
James B. Merrill.
Levi Chandler.
George Morton.
Moses Chandler.
Ephraim Norton.
Daniel J. Cony.
Zebulon Norton.
John Doyen.
Nathan Pinkham.
John Dodge.
Samuel Smith.
Benjamin Eaton.
Nicholas Winslow.
Jonas French.
Benj. Wethern, Jr.
Asa Fletcher.
On Sept. 18, the alarm having somewhat subsided, a draft 'was ordered from various regiments for what was called the forty-day service, and the remainder of the troops were discharged. From Lieutenant-Colonel Fairbanks' reg-
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MILITARY HISTORY.
iment, rendezvoused at Farmington, one company was drafted, and placed under the command of Capt. Nathaniel Russell. The men were ordered to report at Bath, and were stationed there, and in the vicinity, from Sept. 28 to Nov. 11, attached to Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis Sweet's regiment of militia.
Muster Roll of Capt Russell's company of men drafted from Lieutenant-Colonel Fairbanks' regiment, for the defense of the sea-coast.
Nathaniel Russell, Captain. John F. Woods, Lieutenant. James Hersey, Ensign.
SERGEANTS.
James Stevens.
Jedediah K. Cowan.
James Norton. Edward Oakes.
CORPORALS.
William Cothren.
John Howe.
John Paine. David Reed.
MUSICIANS.
Isaac Chase. Enos Hiscock.
PRIVATES.
Allen Averill.
Daniel Davis.
William Blunt.
Joseph Ellsworth, Jr.
Frederick Ballard.
Stephen Foot.
William Baker.
Reuben Hatch.
William Battle.
Thomas Hiscock.
Ezra A. Butler.
Richard Hackett.
Enoch Craig, Jr.
Samuel Huston.
Samuel Cowan.
Abisha Huston.
John Clayton, Jr.
Daniel Hiscock.
William Daggett.
Enoch Hinkley.
Elijah Durphy.
John Hodgdon.
Andrew Kennedy.
William Kennedy.
Ozam Knowles.
Nathaniel P. Locklin.
Levi Y. Lambert.
Andrew B. Mayhew.
Fayette Mace.
Bassett Norton.
Winthrop Norton.
Peter Norton.
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
Joseph Ordway.
Jeremiah Porter.
George P. Pool.
Abraham Pettengill.
William Peterson.
James Richards.
William Russell.
Edward Richards.
Thomas Russell.
William M. Stewart.
Daniel Stewart.
Jotham Smith.
George Smith.
Stephen G. Sprague.
Zebediah Sweet.
William Staple.
Daniel Staple.
Nathaniel Sawyer.
David P. Smith.
Daniel Thompson.
Enos Tuck.
John Woodbury.
Jacob Welsh.
Josiah Wright.
Daniel Worthley.
Joseph Riant, Jr.
Nineteen of this company were Farmington men, the remainder belonged in the adjoining towns.
On Sept. 26, a draft was ordered from Col. McGaffey's regiment, stationed at Hallowell, and ordered to Bath, where they remained until Nov. 8. From Capt. Beale's company, the following men were drafted, and attached to Lieutenant- Colonel Ellis Sweet's regiment :
Daniel Beale, Captain. Ebenezer Hutchinson, Orderly-Sergeant.
PRIVATES.
Winthrop Allen.
Thomas Arnold.
Lot Cottle.
Nehemiah French.
William Hamilton.
Joseph Knowlton.
Oliver Lowell.
Tristram Preston.
James Parker.
Henry Russ.
John Stowers.
Joshua Witham.
John Young.
A draft was likewise made from Capt. Johnson's artillery company, and the men thus drafted repaired to Wiscasset, where they joined Capt. Samuel Rundlet's company, at- tached to Col. Samuel Thatcher's regiment of artillery, and remained in service until Nov. 4. The following list com- prises the names of those drafted :
MILITARY HISTORY. 125
Henry Butterfield, Lieutenant. William Talcott.
Benjamin Butler, Jr. S
Sergeants.
PRIVATES.
Solomon Adams, Jr.
Joseph Butterfield.
Moses S. Butler.
William Butler.
Flavel Bartlett.
Edward Bartlett.
Daniel J. Cony.
Moses Chandler.
John Dodge.
Nathaniel W. Gould.
Guy Green.
George Morton.
Zebulon Norton.
Nathan Pinkham.
Samuel Smith.
Benjamin Weathern, Jr.
Nicholas Winslow.
While the troops of militia were thus assembled and dis- missed, Hardy continued in undisputed control of the eastern part of the State. But he and his officers seemed more bent upon the gayeties and social festivities which belong to a garrison town, than in making further conquests of territory.
Party spirit continued to run high. The assembling of the Hartford convention, Dec. 14, 1814, was the signal for the supporters of the president's policy to rally. Meetings were held, conventions called, resolutions adopted, and pa- triotic specches delivered. A convention assembled at Farmington, probably in January, 1815, and was composed of citizens of the various towns in the vicinity. All that is known of this convention is contained in the lines of a dog- gerel poem, written by a waggish federalist* and set to music. It formed a campaign song for the times, and was at the tongue's ends of the youngsters of the period. Few copies are known to be in existence, and it is here inserted, not for its intrinsic merit, but to show the spirit of the times :
FARMINGTON CONVENTION.
A convention, convention, if fame does not lie, Was holden at Farmington Academy ; Demos from the woodland together did flock,
*Understood to be John Hunter, of Strong.
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HISTORY OF FARMINGTON.
At the hour appointed, I forget what o'clock. Great William the Judge,* sir, was placed in the chair With a smack and a groan and a grunt and a stare. "Sirs, sirs," cried the Judge, " without any delay, Select a committee who'll know what to say. They'll make the arrangement -the rest may retire For you can't more than half of you get to the fire." So they chose a committee of A, B, and C, All the rest to conform to what they should agree. It is said the committee found some botheration, In planning their schemes to ruin the nation, But bold Usher was there from the field of the King, With his uplifted voice, sir, he made the hall ring ; He spoke with such zeal on that famed afternoon That he forced his hind flap through his patched pantaloon. Next the New Vineyard Merryt cried, " Rally you pates, There's a ' Netticut Vention ' from three or four states They're going to undo us if we don't prevent, I can tell you no more. Sirs, my knowledge is spent. But I'll fight like the d -, I'll get me a sword And I'll mow them all down level smack smooth by the board ; We must turn out to a man, sirs, and drive them like fury We'll shoot and stab Feds, sirs, without judge or jury." " That's right" cried bold Usher, " I'll fight till I'm dead, I've a good white oak goad stick and I'll kill every Fed If it costs my old horse, my baskets and sled." "Oh how patriotic !" cried William the Judge,
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