USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 33
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The legislature met for the first time in Concord in 1782, and held its sessions in the hall over Judge Walker's store, a building still standing on the west side of Main street, not far from Horse Shoe Pond. During the session, the president of the State, with his council, occupied the north parlor of the Walker house, while the south parlor served as a general committee room, and the room above it as the office of the treasurer of the State. The house was built by Rev. Timothy Walker in the year 1733-4, and is said to be the oldest two-story dwelling-house between Haverhill, Massachusetts, and Canada. In 1739 it was fortified by the town by garrison walls, and during the French and Indian war it protected nine families. It was the re- sidence until his death (1782) of Rev. Timothy Walker, who planted the noble elms (1764) which overshadow it; and later it was occupied by Judge Walker, whose grandson, the present owner, Joseph B. Walker, now lives in it. Through the several generations its doors have been hospitably open. In those ancient rooms, which, however, have been somewhat modernized, were entertained the neighboring clergy, as well as strangers of note, including Rogers, Stark, and Thompson, afterwards Count Rumford. Thompson's wife was born in the mansion, and the portraits and paintings, collected and prized both by the count and his daughter the countess Rumford, are care- fully preserved by the present owner, Mr. Joseph B. Walker.
On the 25th of November, 1783, the British army evacuated New York.
The independence of the United States had been acknow- ledged by the British Government and the war was ended. Dur-
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ing the following month, most of the Continental troops returned to their homes ; and General Stark, bidding adieu to his friends
in the army, and leaving behind the cares of public life, retired to his New Hampshire estates to spend the remainder of his days in peace.
RESIDENCE OF MR. JOSEPH B. WALKER.
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The name and fame of John Stark, the sturdy soldier and Indian fighter of the " Seven Years' French War" of 1754 to 1760, and the successful patriot commander of the war of the Revolution, is no new theme to the people of his native State of New Hampshire.
The Stark family of New Hampshire descended from Archibald Stark, a Scotchman, born at Glasgow in 1697. He was educated at the university of his native city, and when twenty-three years of age came to America with the Scotch-Irish emigrants who settled Londonderry. He afterwards removed to Derryfield, now Manchester, where he died in 1758.
Archibald Stark had four sons, -- William, John, Samuel and Archibald,- all of whom held commissions in the British service during the "Seven Years " or "French War," and were distinguished for good conduct, cool- ness, and bravery.
John Stark, one of the brothers, was born in Londonderry, in August, 1728. He resided with his father in Londonderry and Derryfield until past his minority, their home occupation being that of farmers and millers. The father owned extensive tracts of land about Amoskeag Falls, and was also one of the original proprietors of Dunbarton, then called Starkstown. Saw- mills and grist-mills were built and run by John Stark at both these places.
The settlements being at this time sparse, and surrounded by interminable forests, abounding in game and ferocious animals, every young man of the settlers was naturally a hunter, and quite as familiar with woodcraft and the chase as he was with the implements of agriculture, or the saws and stones of the mill. It was also a time of semi-war. The fierce remnants of the native Indian tribes, although nominally conquered at Lovewell's fight in 1725, still continued to haunt their ancient hunting-grounds for at least forty years later. The settler was obliged to be in readiness at all times to de- fend the lives of his family from the predatory savage, and his herds and flocks from the bears and wolves and catamounts of the forest. Winter hunt- ing expeditions to more remote parts of the wilderness were often organized for hunting and trapping.
It was on one of these hunting expeditions, in March, 1752, that a party of four, of which John Stark was a member, was attacked by the Indians on Baker's river in the town of Rumney. David Stinson was shot and killed; Willian Stark escaped; John Stark and Amos Eastman were captured, and taken through the wilderness to the upper waters of the Connecticut river, and subsequently to St. Francis, in Canada, where they arrived in June, three months after their capture. The bold and defiant bearing of Stark during this captivity excited the admiration of his savage captors to such an extent that he was adopted by the chief sachem and treated with great kindness, after the first initiatory ceremony of running the gauntlet, in which ceremony he took an unexpected part by using his club on the Indians, instead of waiting for them to use their clubs on him. On being set to the task of hoe- ing corn, he carefully hoed the weeds and cut up the corn, and then threw the hoe into the river, declaring that it was the business of squaws, and not
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of warriors, to hoe corn. His boldness secured his release from the drudgery usually imposed on their captives, and they called him the " young chief."
During this enforced residence with the Indians he obtained a knowledge of their language and methods of warfare which proved of great service to him in his subsequent military career.
Bancroft's History, in referring to the company of Rangers, says : Among them was John Stark, then a lieutenant; of a rugged nature, but of the cool- est judgment; skilled at discovering the paths of the wilderness, and know- ing the way to the hearts of the backwoodsmen."
In 1758 Captain Stark obtained a short furlough for the purpose of visiting his home, and while there was united in marriage (August 21, 1758) to Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Caleb Page, one of the original proprietors of Dunbarton.
When the country became seriously agitated in 1774 upon the abridgment of its liberties by the crown, he uniformly espoused the cause of his coun- trymen, and from his military experience and respectable standing was looked up to as the natural leader of the patriots of his vicinity,
On his retirement from the army, General Stark was fifty-five years of age. Somewhat past the prime of life of the average man, but with a frame made strong by early vigorous labors, and preserved by constant exercise and tem- perate habits, a long lease of life still remained to him. He survived the Revolutionary war nearly forty years, and to the last was held by his neigh- bors and fellow-countrymen in the highest esteem.
Washington had great confidence in Stark, fully appreciating his firm patriotism, his ability, and his influence with the people of New Hampshire and the adjoining States. When men or supplies were wanted from these States, he generally sent him to obtain them; and was particular to request that the 1:ew levies should come out under Stark's command. In appointing him commander of the Northern Department in 1781, Washington wrote : "I am induced to appoint you to this command on account of your knowl- edge and influence among the inhabitants of that country. · I rely · upon it, you will use your utmost exertions to draw forth the force of the country from the Green Mountains and all the contiguous territory. And I doubt not your requisitions will be attended with success, as your personal influence must be unlimited among these people, at whose head you have formerly fought and conquered, with so much reputation and glory."
In 1786 General Stark received from Congress the following complimentary brevet commission : -
In pursuance of an Act of Congress of the 13th day of September, 1783, John Stark, Esquire, is to rank as major-general by brevet in the army of the United States of America.
Given under my hand, at New York, the 9th day of June, 1786.
(L. S.) Nathaniel Gorham, President.
Entered in the War Office. Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
After the war, he again took up his extensive agricultural and lumbering operations, managing his business affairs with the same energy, industry, and foresight that characterized his military life.
ʻ
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In person, General Stark was of middle stature (5 feet 10), and well pro- portioned for strength and activity. Constant exercise prevented his ever becoming corpulent. He always travelled on horseback, even if accompanied by his family in a carriage ; and at an advanced age mounted his horse with ease, without other aid than the stirrup. His features were bold and prom- inent : the nose was well formed ; the eyes light blue, keen and piercing, deep- ly sunk under projecting brows. His lips were generally closely compressed. He was not bald; but his hair became white, and covered his head. His whole appearance indicated coolness, courage, activity, and confidence in himself, whether called upon to perform the duties of an enterprising partisan or a calculating and considerate general.
His character was unexceptional in his private as in his public life. His manners were frank and open. He spake his thoughts boldly on all occasions, without concealment of his meaning. He was a man of kindness and hospitality, which, through life; he extended to all his comrades in arms and to others who sought his assistance. He ever sustained a reputation for honor and integrity, - friendly to the industrious and enterprising, but severe to the idle and unworthy.
General Stark survived his wife eight years. They had eleven children, - five sons and six daughters, - and all except one reached the age of maturity. His third son, John Stark, jr., remained at home, married, and raised a family of twelve children at the old homestead. The veteran general was thus sur- rounded in his home by a numerous progeny, who in his last years kindly alleviated the infirmities of extreme age.
He died on the Sth of May, 1822, aged 93 years 8 months and 24 days. He was buried with military honors at the spot where his remains now lie, and where it is now proposed to erect to his memory an elegant equestrian bronze statue.
NOTE. - The material for this biographical sketch has been drawn from numerous papers and books, and more especially from the " Memoir and Official Correspondence of General John Stark," by his grandson, the late Caleb Stark, of Dunbarton, N. H., edition of 1860. - G. S.
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CHAPTER XII.
STATE UNDER FIRST CONSTITUTION, 1784-1792.
CONSTITUTION OF 1784 - FIRST LEGISLATURE - FIRST PRESIDENT - COUN- CIL -SENATE - HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES- LAWLESSNESS -TROUBLE AT KEENE -MOCK CONVENTION AT CONCORD -JOHN LANGDON -JOHN SULLIVAN - MOB AT EXETER - FEDERAL CONSTITUTION - LITTLETON - UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - ELECTION UNDER CON- STITUTION - MEMBERS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS - OFFICIALS AT PORTSMOUTH - JOSIAH BARTLETT - TOWN OF BARTLETT - ORANGE -- REVISION OF STATUTES - CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - ANCIENT SINGING.
T HE Revolution 1 had not only involved the colonies in war but had thrust upon them the perils of self-government. Next to the demands of the war, and, indeed, essential to its success, was the call on the civil wisdom of the country for local insti- tutions and new forms of government. The epoch of the Revolution was the epoch also of written constitutions. The old governments were dissolved ; society was thrown into its first elements. Utopian and fantastic ideas of government were advanced, and the adoption of a firm and acceptable form of government which would protect the people in their newly acquired liberty was a matter of serious consideration. The people of New Hampshire had been the first, after the opening of hostilities, to adopt a written constitution. It had gone into effect early in January, 1776, before the Declaration of Indepen- dence ; and its title, " A form of government to continue during the present unhappy and unnatural contest with Great Britain," was a proof of the unsettled state of public feeling at the time. It imposed no restriction on the right of suffrage, and left the highest offices open to all. In 1779 a convention had formed 1 William Plumer, Jr.
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a new constitution, which proposed that the government should be entrusted to a Council and House of Representatives ; and provided that all the male inhabitants of the State, of lawful age, paying taxes, and professing the Protestant religion, should be deemed lawful voters in choosing councillors and represen- tatives ; and that these officers, aside from the same qualifica- tions, should have an estate of £300. This constitution was rejected by the people. It had been framed about the time of the alliance with France, when the soldiery and not the religion of that country was wanted. Another convention was called in 1781 ; and the constitution which it framed, after alterations and amendments had been made, went into operation in 1784. One of its clauses declared that " every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and reason,"1 while another article, a sort of "compromise between the new spirit of religious free- dom and the old intolerance," confined to " Christians " the pro- tection of the law for this "unalienable right." Other clauses provided that no person should hold the office of governor, councillor, senator, delegate, or member of Congress, unless he were of the "Protestant religion." The new constitution met with considerable opposition, although parties were not divided upon it. Men who were afterwards Federalists and Democrats opposed the religious test, notably William Plumer, a law-stu- dent, an able writer, and an earnest and eloquent public speaker.
The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America was signed in Paris, in September, 1783. The constitution, containing bill of rights and form of govern- ment agreed upon by the delegates of the people of New Hampshire, in a convention held at Concord on the first Tues- day of June, 1783, had been submitted to and approved by the people and had been established by their delegates in conven- tion, in October, 1783. It was to go into effect in June, 1784.
Accordingly in June, 1784, the newly elected legislature, perhaps as distinguished a body of men as ever gathered to- gether within the limits of the State, assembled at Concord, and
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proceeded to organize. According to the constitution, the new Senate was to be composed of twelve members.
George Atkinson was chosen speaker of the House ; Woodbury Langdon was chosen as senior senator.
John McClary and Francis Blood, of the Senate, and Joseph Badger, Nathaniel Peabody, and Moses Chase, of the House, were elected councillors.
Abiel Foster, Jonathan Blanchard, John Langdon, and Moses Dow were appointed delegates to represent New Hampshire in Congress for a year, commencing the following November, but all except Mr. Foster refused the honor, and subsequently Samuel Livermore, Pierce Long, and Elisha Paine were associated with Mr. Foster, but two serving at once.
Samuel Livermore, Josiah Bartlett, and John Sullivan were appointed a committee to revise the laws of the State, and to draw such new laws as they might deem necessary.
Ebenezer Thompson was elected secretary for the State ; John Taylor Gilman was elected treasurer.
The pay of the members was six shillings a day ; the secretary of the State and the clerk of the House received nine shillings.
The first session at Concord lasted about two weeks, when the legislature adjourned to meet in October in Portsmouth. It was not until the second meeting that a yea and nay vote was recorded.
A town with one hundred and fifty ratable male polls was entitled to one representative ; with four hundred and fifty polls, to two; with seven hundred and fifty polls, to three. Every member of the House was seized of a freehold estate in his own right of at least £100; a senator had to own £200 in a free- hold estate to be eligible for the office.
His Excellency, Meshech Weare, who had served the State throughout the struggle for independence as its chief executive officer, was found to have received a large majority of the votes cast, and was duly declared elected the first president of the new Commonwealth. He was not, however, sworn into office for several days after the legislature met.
On the first day of the session the members of both branches
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of "The General Court " attended services at the Old North Church, and listened to a sermon by Rev. Samuel McClintock, of Greenland. So well pleased were they that they voted him £15 in the afternoon to recompense him. The sermon is on file among the archives of the State library, and is worthy of perusal after a century has passed by. A few extracts may be of interest to the present generation: -
" How becoming is it that we should render unto Him in a public manner the most devout ascriptions of praise for the great things He has done for us in delivering us from the cruel hand of oppression and the impending miseries of abject servitude, crowning our arduous struggle in defence of the rights of human nature with triumphant success, in acknowledgment of our inde- pendence and sovereignty, and in giving us the singular advantage of forming a constitution of government for ourselves and our posterity. If we should neglect to render due praise to Him on such a great occasion, the heathen would rise up in judgment and condemn us for our impiety and ingratitude."
He speaks of " the present glorious revolution in this land," and continues : " Hardly any people were ever less prepared to enter the list with such a great and powerful nation. War was not our object or wish; on the contrary we deprecated it as a dreadful calamity, and continued to hope, even against hope. that the gentle methods of petitioning and remonstrating might obtain a re- dress of grievances.
" The war on our part was not a war ofambition, but a justifiable self-defence against the claims of an arbitrary power, which was attempting to wrest from us the privileges we had all along enjoyed, and to subject us to a state of ab- ject servitude.
"They were men of war from their youth. They had regular troops, used to service, who had signalized their valor on the Plains of Minden and on the. Heights of Abraham, commanded by able and experienced generals, amply furnished with all the terrible apparatus of death and destruction, and aided by mercenary troops who had been bred to arms and were versed in all the stratagems of war; add to this they had a navy that ruled the ocean, and regular resources to supply their demands. On the other hand, we were inex- perienced in the art of war, and had neither disciplined troops, nor magazines of provision and ammunition, nor so much as one ship of war to oppose to their formidable fleets, nor any regular resources, not even so much as the certain prospect of any foreign aid; besides, all the civil governments were dissolved and the people reduced back to a state of nature, and in danger of falling into anarchy and confusion.
"That people so widely separated from one another by their situation, man- ners, customs, and forms of government, should all at once be willing to sacrifice their present interests to the public good and unite like a band of brothers to make the cause of one State, and even of one town, a common cause ; and that they should continue firm and united under the greatest dis-
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couragements and the most trying reverses of fortune ; that an army of freemen, voluntarily assembled at the alarm of danger-men who had been nurtured in the bosom of liberty and unused to slavish restraints, should be willing to submit to the severity of military government for the safety of their coun- try, and patiently endure hardships that would have tried the fortitude of vet- erans, following their illustrious leader in the depths of winter, through cold and snow, in nakedness and perils, when every step they took was marked with the blood that issued from their swollen feet, and when they could not be animated to such patience and perseverance by any mercenary motives, was a rare spectacle, and for its solution must be traced to a higher source."
The whole sermon shows that the speaker, if not the hearers, appreciated the magnitude of the struggle through which the colonies had successfully passed, and realized the responsibility which devolved upon them in establishing the new state on a sure foundation.
Money at this time was very scarce, that is, gold and silver. The Continental currency had depreciated so that forty pounds represented one, and was very difficult to dispose of at any figure, being thought nearly worthless. The new legislature voted to raise £25,000, but were aware of the difficulty of rais- ing any. They provided for the pensions of disabled soldiers for a lighthouse at Newcastle, and for the pay of the officers of the State, but made the collection possible by allowing evi- dences of State indebtedness to be received as State taxes.
At this time the State contained a population of about 140,000 souls, mostly employed in agricultural pursuits. Portsmouth was the only place of much importance, sending three representatives to the General Court, but its leading men were the unpopular Mas- onian proprietors, and thus its influence was curtailed. Next in importance was the town of Londonderry, where already had sprung up a few manufacturing industries. Derryfield sent no representative. This was before the days of turnpikes and can- als, and the roads were carried over the hilliest and most rocky routes, to save expense in maintaining, and were consequently as bad as they well could be; but as they were not much used except by foot travellers and horsemen, it did not much matter. Bridges were of such a character that they were generally carried away by the freshet every spring, while the main dependence
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was placed on ferries. The crops on the new land on the hill- side farms were abundant. Large families of children were raised, and were educated in the rudiments at the little school- house in every district. On every farm was a self-sustaining community : they raised their own wheat, corn, vegetables, maple sugar, and all the food required ; they raised their own wool and flax ; they tanned their own leather ; they made their own cloth, and made their own garments. Every town had its minister. Then came the miller with grist-mill and saw-mill ; then the blacksmith ; and, lastly, when the town had gained a certain standing, a justice of the peace.
Dartmouth College was granted the right by the first legis- lature of the State to hold a lottery in order to raise £3,000.
Meshech Weare, the new president of the State, was at this time well advanced in years, being over seventy.
Of the councillors, John McClary, of Epsom, was a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met in May, 1775. He died in June 1801, aged eighty-two.
Gen. Francis Blood, of Temple, was representative all through the Revolu- tionary War, a justice of Court of Common Pleas, and afterwards chief justice. He was a man of superior mind, sagacity, and information, for many years the leading man of the town, acquired a handsome property, and died in 1790.
Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, of Atkinson, was one of the distinguished men of his times. He was adjutant-general of the State, member of Congress, and major-general of the State militia, 1793. He died in Exeter in June, 1823.
General Joseph Badger, son of Captain Joseph Badger, was a man of great military ardor, and held offices in the militia for thirty years. He was present at the capture of Burgoyne in 1779.
Moses Chase, of Cornish, came of that family which has given so many distinguished names to American history, including that of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase.
Of the senators, Joseph Gilman, of Exeter, was treasurer of Rockingham county. He died in May, 1806.
Woodbury Langdon, of Portsmouth, was a merchant; a member of the old Congress, judge of the Supreme Court, and a firm patriot, devoted to the cause of his country.
Timothy Walker, of Concord, only son of Rev. Timothy Walker of Con- cord, was justice of Court of Common Pleas, chief justice five years ; candidate for governor in 1798. He died in May, 1822. He filled all the town and State Offices to which he was elected with fidelity and honor.
John Langdon. of Portsmouth, was afterwards president of New Hampshire. Honorable John Wentworth. of Dover, representative through the war;
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one of the executive council of the State: on the Committee of Safety; and a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was an able lawyer; as a man, benevolent, and of a good-natured address, and a statesman of superior abili- ties. He died in January, 1787.
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