USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 29
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Towering in influence and political position above all the other heroes of our State, as stern as Stark, as gifted as Livermore, as patriotic as Langdon, eloquent, of remarkable penetration, upright and prudent, calm and steadfast, Meshech Weare was a tower of strength in that long and deadly struggle. Strong in faith, of ardent feelings, he was the centre around whom all that was patriotic in the State was accustomed to assemble. His was the eye ever watchful, the brain ever fertile and creative, his the shoulder that bore the yoke when the load was heaviest. In the darkest hour his hope was firm. From Morristown and from Valley Forge, Washington's letters to him show that he relied implicitly on the man. Without the pale of Congress and the army, there was no other man to whom the commander-in-chief looked with such unswerving confidence for hearty cooperation as he did upon Meshech Weare, unless it might have been Jona- than Trumbull of Connecticut.
At the formation of the Council it was ordained that no Act should be valid unless passed by both branches : that all money bills should originate with the House of Representatives ; that the secretary and other public officers should be elected by the two houses, and that the present Assembly should continue one year, and if the dispute with Great Britain should continue, precepts should be issued annually to the several towns, on or before the first day of November, for the choice of councillors and representatives. No provision was made for an executive branch ; but during their session the two houses performed the duty of this department of government. At their adjournment, however, a Committee of Safety was appointed to sit in the recess. The president of the Council was president also of this committee. To this responsible office Colonel Weare was annu- ally elected during the war.
The convention which met at Exeter in May, 1775, was author- ized to adopt and pursue such measures as were judged most ex- pedient to preserve and restore the rights of the colonies. This convention gave instructions to the representatives which were regarded as the advice of their constituents.
The Assembly met, according to adjournment, June 12,
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1775. The representatives were elected by virtue of writs, issued by the sheriff to such towns as the governor directed. Three new towns were called upon to send representatives, in which some of the governor's particular friends resided, who would probably be elected, whilst other towns more numer- ous were neglected. The first act of the Assembly was to ex- pel the members from the three new towns, agreeable to the ad- vice of the convention. Upon which the governor adjourned the Assembly to the 11th of July. One of the new members was Captain John Fenton, who was returned from the town of Plymouth. He had been a captain in the British army, but had disposed of his commission. On the division of the province into counties, he was appointed clerk of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the county of Grafton, and judge of probate for that county. He kept his office and resided in Portsmouth. After his expulsion he gave vent to his passions, and expressed himself very freely as to the measures pursued by the country. This enraged the populace, who collected to assault him, and he fled to the governor's house for protection. They brought a field-piece, mounted, and placed it before the door, and threat- ened to discharge it if he were not delivered up. Fenton surren- dered and was sent to the Committee of Safety at Exeter for trial. The governor conceived this to be an insult offered to himself, and immediately took refuge in the fort. Captain Barclay con- tinued the practice of seizing all vessels entering the harbor and sending them to Boston. He likewise stopped all boats from going out of the river to take fish, under pretence that his orders to execute the Act restraining trade required it. In re- taliation, his boats were not permitted to come up to town for provisions, and one of them was fired upon by the guard placed near the shore. The boat returned the fire, and several shots were exchanged without damage on either side. Portsmouth passed a vote disapproving of the action, and sent a copy of it to Captain Barclay.
Governor Wentworth sent a message from the fort to the Assembly on the 11th of July, and adjourned them to the 28th of September. On the 24th of August he took passage in the Scarborough for Boston.
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After the departure of the ships of war from the harbor, the convention appointed Major Ezekiel Worthen engineer, and under his direction the people formed themselves into volunteer companies, in which almost every individual took a part. They built two forts on two islands at the narrows, which commanded the channel, and planted there the cannon which had been taken from the fort and battery.
Governor Wentworth came to the Isles of Shoals, and pro- rogued the General Assembly to the month of April. This was his last official act within the Province, and the royal govern- ment in New Hampshire entirely ceased. Governor Wentworth, a graduate of Harvard, was distinguished for the brilliancy of his talents, a good classical taste in literature, and for those amiable qualities which gained him the esteem of all who knew him. He spent some time in his father's counting-house after he left college, to obtain an insight into mercantile business, and then went to London, where he resided several years, and until he was appointed governor of the Province. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the universities of Oxford in England and Aberdeen in Scotland. He was the friend of learning and of learned men. Dartmouth College was established during his administration, and flourished under his patronage. His constant endeavor was to promote the interest of the Province, and through his influence its settlements rapidly in- creased. He did all in his power to preserve the union between this country and Great Britain, but was obliged to yield to the spirit of the times, and submit to a separation. The Rev. Doctor Dwight, in his travels, says: "Governor Wentworth was the greatest benefactor to the Province of New Hampshire mentioned in its history. He was a man of sound understand- , ing, refined taste, enlarged views, and a dignified spirit. His manners were also elegant, and his disposition enterprising. Agriculture in this Province owed more to him than to any other man. He also originated the formation of new roads, and the improvement of old ones. All these circumstances rendered him very popular, and he would probably have continued to increase his reputation, had he not been prevented by the con-
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troversy between Great Britain and the colonies. As the case was, he retired from the chair with an unimpeachable character, and with higher reputation than any other man who at that time held the same office in this country." Soon after he left this Province he went to England.
Governor John Wentworth, son of Mark Hunking Went- "worth, and grandson of Lieutenant-Governor John Wentworth, was born in 1736, graduated with distinction at Harvard College in 1755, formed a connection with his father in mercantile business, and was chosen by the Province to present their peti- tion to the King praying for the repeal of the Stamp Act. He performed this duty with so much propriety as to attract the favorable notice of the King, and when Governor Benning Wentworth resigned in 1766 his nephew was appointed to fill his place, and at the same time was appointed surveyor of the King's woods in North America. He was very popular as governor for some time, and exerted himself to develop the re- sources of the Province. He cleared and cultivated a fine farm upon Smith's Lake, in Wolfeborough, to encourage the settle- ment of the country ; obtained a charter for Dartmouth Col- lege ; made grants of land; built bridges; cut roads; and fostered every enterprise for the benefit of the Province. He gave way to the storm of the Revolution with grace and with- out dishonor. After peace was declared he removed to Nova Scotia, and resumed the duties of his office as surveyor of the King's woods. In 1792 he was appointed lieutenant-gover- nor of Nova Scotia, and in 1795 he was created a baronet. Sir John Wentworth continued in office until 1808, when he retired on a pension of five hundred pounds, and died at Hali- fax in April, 1820, at the age of eighty-three years.
1 In June, 1775, John Sullivan was appointed by Congress a brigadier-general. Many have wondered how it happened that a young lawyer who knew nothing of military affairs save what he had learned while holding a provincial commission as major, should have received such an appointment over the heads of veterans like Stark and Folsom. It was for this reason : John
:
1 Fred Myron Colby.
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Stark and Nathaniel Folsom were sworn rivals, and each pressed his claims so strenuously that Congress saw no better way to settle the difficulty than to appoint a new man. Sullivan was well known. He had sat in that body the preceding year, and his bold enterprise at Fort William and Mary had blazed his name far and wide as that of a bold and able patriot. That he had capabilities for the place no one will deny. He was not a great general, but he was a brave and dashing officer. Wash- ington and Lafayette, who had means of knowing, considered him one of the most useful men in the service. Like Peter the Great and Frederick of Prussia he learned by experience, and his last military conduct was his most brilliant.
Mrs. John Adams, whose letters have been read with a great deal of interest, has left some admirable portraits of the distin- guished characters of the Revolution. Of General Sullivan she says : -
" I drank coffee one day with General Sullivan upon Winter Hill. He appears to be a man of sense and spirit. His coun- tenance denotes him of a warm constitution, not to be very suddenly moved, but, when once roused, not very easily lulled ; easy and social ; well calculated for a military station, as he seemed to be possessed of those popular qualities necessary to attach men to him."
It is well known how many ridiculous reports were circulated by the British during the war regarding our soldiers and officers. Here are two of them about Sullivan. In 1777 a London paper in speaking of him said : "General Sullivan, taken prisoner by the king's troops at the battle of Long Island, was an attor- ney, and only laid down the pen for the sword about eight months ago, though now a general." He had been two years in the field.
One of the Hessian officers, Hieringen by name, gave a home correspondent the following valuable information : "John Sullivan is a lawyer, but before has been a footman. He is, however, a man of genius, whom the rebels will very much miss." The same writer calls General Putnam a butcher by trade.
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It was at this battle of Long Island that the Hessians won their terrible reputation, which was such a bugbear to the colo- nists. The battle was very disastrous to our arms. It had been badly planned by the commander-in-chief. The defeat of the Americans has been attributed in part to their total want of cavalry. It was wholly owing to negligence on the part of Washington. A single regiment at the proper place on the Jamaica road could have prevented Clinton's advance, and the consequent discomfiture of our army. As it was, heroism availed not. The son of the Irish schoolmaster behaved with the quenchless valor of his race ; but encompassed by red-coats, his men dead or in retreat, there was nothing left for him to do but to surrender. He was discovered secreted in a cornfield He afterwards said that he actually saw many of the Americans pinned to trees with bayonets. Sullivan was exchanged in a short time, and at the battle of Trenton both he and Putnam had the opportunity to avenge the libel on their names, and the Hessians lost their lions' skins.
He had been created a major-general in 1776, and he now became one of the prominent leaders of the colonists. He did good service at Princeton, and during the rest of the season protected the lines at Morristown. On August 22d, 1777, he made a descent on Staten Island, the entire success of which was prevented through the misconstruction of his orders. Though the attempt was rash, it was afterwards justified by a court of inquiry, and by a vote of Congress. At the battle of Brandywine he commanded the right wing, and was fully exon- erated by Washington from the charge of being responsible for
the defeat that ensued. At Germantown he defeated the British left, driving them before him for two miles; but through mistakes on the American left, caused by fog, the victory was changed into a repulse. In 1778 Sullivan commanded in Rhode Island. In August of that year he prepared to attack the British lines at Newport, but was deprived of the coopera- tion of the French fleet under D'Estaing, and was obliged to raise the siege ; but at Butt's Hill, on the 29th, he repulsed the enemy, and withdrew from the Island with slight loss. In 1779
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he was appointed to the command of an expedition against the Indians of the Six Nations. He laid waste their settlements, and inflicted upon them, and the Tories commanded by Brant and Sir John Newton, a severe defeat near the present site of Elmira in western New York. This last event concluded Sulli- van's military operations. His health was shattered by fatigue and exposure, his private fortune was much diminished by five years' service in the army, and he felt obliged to resign his commission. Congress accepted it, and granted him a vote of thanks.
But the hero was not allowed to rest. A vexatious question was then pending before Congress relative to the claim of New Hampshire to the territory of Vermont. The two ablest law- yers of the State, John Sullivan and Samuel Livermore, were sent to plead our side of the case. Subsequently the State refused to reimburse him for all the expenses he had undergone, and there was some bad feeling engendered. But New Hamp- shire could not dispense with the talents of her brilliant son. It continued to bestow its most responsible offices upon him, honors that would have graced no other of its citizens so well as him. He was member of Congress in 1781, and was chairman of the committee that aided in suppressing the meeting of the Pennsylvania troops. For four years, from 1782 to 1786, he was attorney-general of the State. In 1786, 1787, and 1789 he was president of New Hampshire. In the disturbances of 1786 he prevented anarchy in the State by his intrepidity and good management, and in 1788 he secured the adoption of the Fed- eral Constitution. Washington appointed him federal judge of New Hampshire, which office he held to his death, which occurred January 23, 1795.
General Sullivan in figure was well made and active, not tall by any means, but rather short, though his uppish pose some- what concealed that defect. Admirable portraits of him exist. Beards were not in fashion at the time of the Revolution, which is a very fortunate matter for us, as we are enabled to trace the lineaments of leading characters of that time with a degree of satisfaction that in few cases can be the privilege of the future
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biographers of the men of the present day. The general had a frank, fearless face, with a dark complexion, a prominent nose, and black and piercing eyes. His brown hair was slightly curling. His countenance, as a whole, was harmonious and agreeable ; and his manners were courtly. He looked a soldier and a gentleman, every inch of him.
The Sullivans were descended from a family that had for cen- turies made itself conspicuous in Ireland by its hostility to Eng- lish rule. The grandfather of the New Hampshire Sullivans was Major Philip O'Sullivan, of Ardra, an officer in the Irish army during the siege of Limerick. His son John, born at Limerick in 1692, was one of the company that in 1723 emi- grated from Ireland and settled the town of Belfast, in Maine. At this place he hired a saw mill and went to work. Two or three years afterwards another vessel of Irish emigrants landed at Belfast. On board was a blooming young damsel, who, after the custom of those days, had agreed with the ship-master to be bound out at service in the colonies in payment of her passage across the Atlantic. She was bright and witty, with a mind of a rough but noble cast. During the voyage over, a fellow pas- senger jocosely asked her what she expected to do when she arrived in the colonies. "Do?" answered she, with true Celtic wit ; "why, raise governors for thim." Sullivan saw the girl as she landed, and struck with her beauty made a bargain with the captain, paying her passage in shingles. He wooed and won her, and the Irish girl entered upon the initiatory steps to make good her declaration.
Immediately after his marriage Mr. Sullivan settled on a farm in Berwick, and began clearing it for the plow. Cheered by the love of his enterprising wife, and determined to achieve success, if patient toil and industry could accomplish it, he worked hard, and was rewarded for his labor by seeing fertile fields rise around him where but a few years before lay the un- broken wilderness. Being a man of good education, he taught school in the winter at Berwick. He was the father of four brave sons,- John, James, Daniel, and Eben Sullivan.
John, the eldest of the brothers, was born in 1740. At the
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age of twelve he assisted his father on the farm. He was a sturdy boy, of great independence of character, and under his father's guidance was well trained when he reached the age of eighteen, both intellectually and physically. His father des- tined him for the bar, but was too poor to pay the expenses of a collegiate education, so the boy was sent to Judge Samuel Livermore, who at that time was residing in Portsmouth. In a coarse garb he knocked at Livermore's house and inquired for the squire.
" What can you do for me if I take you ?" asked the judge, when the boy told his errand.
"Oh, I can split the wood, take care of the horses, do your gardening, and perhaps find time to read a little, if I can have the privilege."
As John Sullivan appeared to be a promising youth, Mr. Livermore received him into his household, where he did duty in various ways. Evineing a rare intelligence, and a laudable desire of increasing his knowledge, he was allowed the use of the library. The young student employed every leisure hour, and soon had the contents of his master's library stored away in his capacious brain.
His rapid advance was unsuspected by the judge, but the knowledge was brought home to him one day in a surprising manner. Sullivan had let himself to plead for a client arrested for battery, and while arguing the case with a degree of native talent and a knowledge of law that was surprising, Judge Livermore entered the room. Unobserved by the young lawyer he listened to his plea. Sullivan, much to his surprise, was successful, cleared his client, and earned his first court fee. The next morning the judge called him into his library, and thus addressed him : -
" John, my kitchen is no place for you ; follow on in your studies, give them your undivided attention, and you shall re- ceive that assistance from me that you need, until you are in condition to repay it."
In due time he was admitted to the bar, and established him- self at Durham. His energy and industry gained him a good
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practice and many friends. He made an excellent matrimonial alliance, marrying, in 1766, Miss Lydia Wooster of Salmon Falls. He was the father of two sons, George and John Sulli- van, a man of substance, and one of the leading lawyers of the State, when the Revolution broke out.
Sullivan was an ardent patriot from the instinct of race. The prejudices of the Irishman made him a good American citizen. The city in which his father was born could tell a tale of English duplicity and persecution, and the thousand ex- amples which the history of Ireland presented to his view warned him against putting any faith in English protestations. The arrogant encroachments of Great Britain he felt were not to be endured. While others dreamed of peace, he dreamed of war. He even determined to initiate bellicose proceedings, to set the ball a-rolling himself, and actually force the war. And he did it too.
George Sullivan was a prominent lawyer of Exeter, and for several years attorney-general of the State, as was also his son John, the last serving from 1848 to 1863. He succeeded, as attorney-general, John Sullivan Wells, who was also a descend- dant of old Master Sullivan. The general's son John went to Boston, where his uncle James had died, after being for two terms governor of Massachusetts, and where his cousins, Wil- liam and John Langdon, were well-known men. Certainly the progeny of old John Sullivan and his blooming Irish wife were something to be proud of, nor has the stock yet become ener- vated.
On the right bank of Oyster River, in the town of Durham, in Strafford county, the traveller will run across one of those old historic homes for which New Hampshire is so celebrated, and of which her citizens are so justly proud. The mansion is an aristocratic looking structure, having been the residence of a hero and patriot, who-in our Revolution and the earlier his- tory of our State-embalmed his name in that noble galaxy of names which no future Plutarch can ennoble, that list headed by a Franklin and a Washington ; and it still bears evidence of the worldly thrift, good taste, and high standing of its former
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occupant. The fame of its founder, together with the interest- ing incidents which have occurred within its precincts, and its connection with many names of renown, render it memorable in the annals alike of the State and the nation.
General Sullivan's law office stood not far from the house. Only stones mark the place, and a noble old elm, whose branches must have bent patronizingly over the roof of the building. The office was removed half a century ago a quarter of a mile away, and now forms the ell of the dwelling house of Joseph Coe. In connection with this building is entwined another name besides John Sullivan's. During the years 1773 and 1774 a young man, a graduate of Harvard, was studying law there with the general. He was one of the Durham party who went with Sullivan in that expedition to Fort William and Mary. He followed his teacher and friend from the law office to be a major in the Continental service. He was afterwards colonel of one of the New Hampshire regiments, adjutant- general of the army, and died in the flush of his manhood, in the trenches before Yorktown, the victim of the ignorance and brutality of a British vidette, - Alexander Scammel.
A blaze of romance surrounds the memory of this young hero. He was the knight sans peur et sans reproche of the Revolution. He was brave, chivalrous, and able. There was no nobler look- ing man in the army. In stature he was just the height of the commander-in-chief, six feet and two inches, and he was pro- portioned as symmetrically as an Apollo. Features of the Roman cast gave dignity and martial ardor to his countenance. His steel- blue eyes blazed in all the hardest fought contests of the Revo- lution. He successively succeeded Colonel James Reed in the colonelcy of the 2nd New Hampshire regiment, that officer having resigned, and Enoch Poor in that of the 3rd, upon the promotion of that officer to a brigade-generalship in 1776. In all the battles connected with Burgoyne's campaign, Colonel Scammel exhibited the most determined valor and the most approved ability. At the battle of Monmouth his gallantry and that of his troops were such as to receive the particular ap- probation of Washington. In 1780 he received the appoint-
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ment of adjutant-general of the American army, the varied and responsible duties of whichi office he discharged with fidelity and honor. At Yorktown he was in command of a picked corps of infantry. On the 30th of September, 1781, while reconnoit- ring the enemy's position, he was surprised by a party of their horse, taken prisoner, and afterwards barbarously wounded by them. Despite all that surgical skill and attention could do, he died from the effects of his wounds, October 6th, at the age of thirty-three. He was buried at Williamsburg the next day, amid all the honors that could be shown on the occasion.
Before he became Sullivan's confidential clerk, Scammel had been a schoolmaster and a surveyor. He was born in Milford, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard, in 1769. In 1770, he was a member of the Old Colony Club, the first society in New England to commemorate publicly the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. In August, 1772, he was in government employment on board the armed sloop " Lord Chatham," bound for Boston with dispatches and plans for the Lords of the Treasury. The next winter he taught school at Berwick, when he became ac- quainted with the Sullivans. The esteem in which he was held by his brother officers is amply illustrated by the fact that when Lafayette was on his last visit to this country, at a large gather- ing of Revolutionary veterans, the noble marquis proposed as a toast, "To the memory of Yorktown Scammel."
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