USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Bedford > History of Bedford, New-Hampshire, being statistics, compiled on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town; May 19th, 1850 > Part 4
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teristics of the Scotch. These qualities belonged eminently to the Cape Fear settlement. They were strict conscientious Presbyterians. They had taken the oath of allegiance to their King. It was the condition of their pardon. It will not then be thought so wonderfully at variance with the standard of morality, if many of these people are found at the commencement of the war of the Revolution, to reluct at taking arms against the government they had so solemnly sworn to support. Nor will it be considered so uniformly an offence altogether unpardonable, if they are at first, found to raise their voices and their arms in the cause of their annointed sovereign. When we censure, with our accustomed severity, all those who did not heartily unite, at the out-set, with the popular party of '75, we must remember, that these Scotchmen, of all the rest of the world, had the best reason to dread the very name of civil war and revolution. Besides, the course then adopted, was unquestionably, with many of them, the result of an irrepressible feeling of loyalty, as well as sense of religious obligation to keep faith with the govern- ment, which protected them. Does it become us to stigma- tize with opprobrious epithets all those pious and conscientious persons clergymen and laymen, who fled the country, or who refused to lend their aid to the Revolutionary party in our incipient struggle with the mother country ? Is it not much more charitable, and abundantly more rational to sup- pose, that many of them, our own countrymen as well as the Scotch, acted from high moral and religious principle ?
We had a remarkable instance of political defection, very near home ; our first minister, the Rev. John Huston, refused to subscribe to the " association test." He was the only man in the town who did not pledge himself, body and soul, to the cause of freedom. Let us, before we utterly condemn his course, look for a single moment at the circumstances attending his acts. He was alone in his views; nobody sustained him, not a single member of his church or congre- gation : look at him when the doors of his church were shut upon him, when he was forbidden ever again to ascend to the sacred desk; when the officers arrested him, and required bonds for his detention within the limits of the county ; when he was spurned by his former friends ; when all the insults of an excited and indignant people were cast upon his defenceless head, - and then say, in candor, whether he probably endured all this, simply because he was an enemy
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to a republican form of government ? or rather, whether he was not acting under the belief that he was forbidden, by one whose commands he dared not disobey, to resist and levy war upon the " powers that were.". Let us be kind, let us be charitable ; let us, at least, be just to the memory of our long since departed, sincere, but sadly mistaken, spiritual guide and minister in holy things. He has gone, as have the early settlers on Cape Fear river, and thousands of others, who fell into the same error, to their final account. And we, who have been made happy in the triumph of liberty - in the overthrow of despotism-in the glorious results, which have succeeded the efforts which they opposed, after all, feebly and ineffectually, can afford to forget and forgive ; " Nil mortuis nisi bonum."
I, am strongly tempted, even at the hazard of your reproof, for trespassing too long upon your kind indulgence, to intro- duce a single Scotch Presbyterian Emigrant, who came here as late as '75, and joined her friends in North Carolina - a woman, one whose name has adorned the pages of history and of romance, and has been rendered immortal by the best pen, that ever described Scottish scenery or Scottish char- acter - she is none other than Flora MacDonald.
Go with me, in imagination, to an island called South-Uist one of the Hebrides, near the western shore of Scotland. There we shall find, hid away in a cavern, by the sea-side, the Prince, Charles Edward, just escaped from the hot pursuit of the soldiers and spies of the Duke of Cumberland, after the disasters of Culloden. He is here, under the care of the Laird of Clanranald, though in imminent peril, every moment, of falling into the hands of his enemies, who have pursued him like blood-hounds, and are now searching the island for his hiding-place. Various expedients have been devised to effect his safe removal. In the midst of anxious deliberation, among his friends, Flora MacDonald, a relative of Clanranald, accidentally arrived on a visit. A young lady just returned from Edinburgh, where she had been to be educated, beautiful, kind-hearted and devotedly attached to the cause of Charles. Her father was dead. Her mother, who had married a second time, lived on the neighboring Isle of Skye, where Flora was born, and where was then her home.
A romantic scheme was now proposed for the deliverance of the Pretender. This was, that he should put on the dress of
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an Irish serving-woman, and leave, for the Isle of Skye, in the company of a female. Flora was requested to take the principal part in this perilous enterprise. Such was her zeal for her fallen, though still her "rightfu' lawfu' " Prince and heir to the throne, that she consented. With the utmost difficulty, the party escaped in the night, in a boat, the Prince attired as a female servant, and assuming the name of Betsey Burke, with nothing but the feeble arm and woman's wit of Flora McDonald, for his protection. They encountered a storm of much severity, during the navigation of that fearful night. At early dawn the next morning, they attempted to land at point Weternish, on Flora's home island. They were suspected by some soldiers, who fired upon their little bark. They retreated, and soon gained the shore at another place, in safety. Here again, in another sea-side cave, this young man, the object of so much solicitude, was carefully secreted, while Flora hastened to procure food and relief for him. By the advice of her friends, as soon as they were refreshed, Flora, still accompanied by Charles, in the dress of Betsey Burke, made all haste to reach the town of Kingsburg, on the opposite side of the Island, a distance of twelve miles, which they performed on foot that day. The danger was now considered past - the Prince was saved. At parting, he kissed his fair guide, and said to her : " Gentle, faithful maid- en, I entertain the hope that we shall yet meet in the Royal Palace." But they never met again. The poor broken- hearted Prince was doomed to die in obscurity. Flora was soon after arrested, and with many others who had participated with her in this bold and romantic adventure, carried to London and imprisoned in the Tower, on a charge of aiding and abetting attempts against the life of King George the
Second. During her imprisonment, many of the English nobility became interested in the fate of this high spirited and noble hearted girl. Learning that she was a Presbyterian, and of course, not a partisan of the Pretender, whose life she had saved by her courage and her sagacity, the King was prevailed upon to pardon her. She was sent back to her native Island, literally loaded with the richest presents. She was married four years after her release, to Allen McDonald, and continued to reside in the Isle of Skye. She became the mother of a numerous family, and in 1775, came to this country and settled in North Carolina. The time of her arrival here was unfortunate for her - the Revolution had
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but just begun. Her kinsman, Donald MacDonald, who had been an officer in the '45 of her favorite Charles and who had taken the oath of allegiance to George the Second, and emigrated to save his life, was already a military officer in this country, in the King's service, by the appointment of the Governor of North Carolina. Flora MacDonald, was therefore at once surrounded by such influences, as to induce her to lend her aid to the royal party in the Carolinas. Her friends, including her husband, who opposed the patriots, were soon defeated as disastrously as they had been at Culloden. After much suffering, great privations, and pecuniary loss, she, with her family, left our shores, for the place, where, thirty years before, she had bid farewell to Prince Charles. She had hazarded her life, first for the House of Stuart, and then for the House of Hanover, and she had the best reasons for saying, with the good natured Mercutio, in the play, " A plague o' both the houses." She was an exemplary woman, in all the relations of life, modest, gentle, and retiring in her manners, and Dr. Foote says, "her memory will live in North Carolina, while nobleness has admirers, and romantic self-devotion to the welfare of the distressed can charm the heart," and, adds, " Massachusetts has her Lady Arabella, Virginia her Pocahontas, and North Carolina her Flora Mac Donald."
I ought to mention the fact, in this connexion, that in the old north state, to this day, the original character, habits, and even the language of the Scotch are preserved and contin- ued, with less of change, than in any other part of the United States. In some of the churches, in the presbytery of Fay- etteville, the gospel is still preached in the native tongue of the Highlanders, the Gaelic.
It was in Fayetteville where Flora MacDonald resided for some time. Her house, which had become an object of great interest to visitors, was unfortunately destroyed a few years ago, by fire.
I cannot forego the pleasure of referring to one, other Presbyterian heroine, who has been connected with events of a much more recent date, and the account of whose courage and intrepid conduct I have very lately received from her own lips, much more in detail, than I can now repeat it. Franklin Chase, our Consul at Tampico, just after the battles on the Rio Grande, received peremptory orders to leave the town and Mexican Territory, in six hours, and not to disobey,
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upon the peril of his life. The order was in direct violation of the treaty, between the two countries; yet from the revengeful character of the people, he knew it would be exe- cuted to the letter. He was largely engaged in trade. All his property consisted of a house, and a store filled with val- uable goods. He prepared, of course, to leave all : but his wife, Ann Chase refused to go with him. He entreated and commanded her, but to no purpose. At length, tearing him- self away, he was enabled to reach an American Sloop of War, lying in the offing, just in season to comply with the tyrannical order of the Mexican General. Mrs. Chase, was now left alone. There was not an American in the place. She was surrounded by excited and bitter enemies, a defence- less woman. But she did not falter or flinch, or droop in despondency. She was equal to the emergency. She soon began to make preparations to effect the surrender of the town to the Naval forces of the United States, then cruising in the Gulf of Mexico. She engaged certain Mexican pilots, to give her the exact soundings over the bar, at the mouth of the river, on which the city stands. With the aid of this informa- tion, and an old English chart, she constructed a plan of Tam- pico, and its neighborhood. She then contrived to open a cor- respondence with the Commodore of the American fleet. She was carried herself in an open canoe, rowed by two Indians, twenty miles to sea in the night, to the Commodore's ship. She there furnished him with the plan already prepared ; and made arrangements to raise a signal in the town, when the pro- per time should arrive for a safe landing. She returned, unob- served, and unharmed, and immediately set to work to redeem her pledge, to the Commodore. One bright morning, soon after, to the utter astonishment and dismay of the Mexicans, she was seen on the highest point of the roof of her dwelling-house, her arm encircling and sustaining a flag-staff, from which floated in the breeze, the American stars and stripes.
In vain the people shouted to her, and theratened her with instant death, if she persisted in maintaining her position. She replied, in her accustomed calm and collected manner, " you can do me but little harm : you can only rob me of a few short years of life, by any death you can inflict. I have raised this flag of my country over my house, and hereit shall remain. I have taken my stand under its folds, and it shall be my shroud, if I perish upon this roof." And there she did remain, until relieved by a detachment of officers and men, from the American Squadron, accompanied by her husband.
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The result is well known. The Mexicans became alarmed, panic-stricken, and finally fled in all directions. 'The town was completely deserted, before a single boat had landed. Mrs. Chase, alone, had put to rout the inhabitants, soldiers and all, and was sole mistress of Tampico.
For this daring and brilliant exploit, she deserved, and has received the highest commendations, the praise and the thanks of the people of the United States. The city of New Orleans, presented to her, a splendid service of plate. The ladies of Cincinnati, sent her a beautiful flag. Others, have honored her, by forwarding to her, swords, fire-arms, and even pieces of artillery, in token of respect, for this deed of heroism.
It is almost impossible, to disconnect in our own minds, such a female, from all that is masculine, ferocious, and pas- sionate. Yet, if you should ever have the good fortune to meet this lady, you will find her, quiet, modest, and retiring ; intelligent, kind and benevolent ; a pious, devoted Presbyte- rian, and just the last person, one would have selected at first sight, for the warlike service in which she was involved.
It is hardly necessary for me to add, that she is descended from the same stock, we have considered so much, to day ; that she is one of the very best of that people, who are "brave as they are gentle, and gentle as they are brave." She is Scotch-Irish ; her parents are of Londonderry, on the Foyle, and she is related, in no very distant degree, to the noble house of the Red Douglas.
We had, but a few short months since, here, in our midst, an eminent and striking example of the high moral and intel- lectual qualities, of the Scotch-Irish character, in a female, a native of this town. One, whose presence we sadly miss now. It is true, she had never endured the horrors of a beleagured town, she had saved no fallen prince from an untimely death : she had captured no city. No emergency ever occurred, connecting her name with any perilous or romantic adventure. She was no heroine, in the common acceptation of the term. Hers was a life of calm, quiet, steady, but earnest devotion, to one great end and purpose ; namely : the moral, religious and intellectual culture of the youth, of her time. In this cause she labored and toiled, in comparative obscurity, to be sure, for the last fifty years. It is, perhaps, praise enough to say, that at the time of her death, she could undoubtedly have summoned around her, more well instructed pupils, than any female of her age, in New England.
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There are few natives of Bedford, who came upon the stage, since the commencement of the present century, who do not remember, with grateful affection, the valuable instruc- tion, the kind advice, the pious and excellent precepts and example, of Ann Orr. Who of us, does not feel to-day, that we should experience an additional thrill of pleasure, if we were able once more, to cluster around our kind-hearted, strong-minded, and sensible old school-mistress, take her by the hand, and ask of her the continuance of the appro- bation and the blessings which she bestowed upon us, when we were her " boys."
But this cannot be. She, too, has left us. She sleeps on yonder rising ground, never to awake, until all are summoned -the teacher and the taught - the master and the pupil - the learned and the ignorant - the wise and the foolish, to render a final account to the great Judge, whose name she told us to reverence, and whose example she prayed we might imitate.
Presbyterianism, that is, the government of the church by elders, and the utter negation of all prelatical power, in eccle- siastical affairs, dates very far back. It was found, according to Dr. Miller, among the simple-minded Paulicians, in the seventh century. It was the church government of the Albigenses, and of the Waldenses, including the Bohemian Brothers. It can be traced even to the synagogues of the Jews, before the Saviour's advent. It has been sustained by the most eminent believers in christendom. By Luther and Melancthon and Bucaer, in Germany. By Favel, Calvin, and others, in France and Geneva. By Zuingle, in Switzerland. By Peter Martyr, in Italy. By A. Lasco, in Hungary By Junius, and others, in Holland, and by a decided majority of the enlightened and pious friends of the Reformation, in England.
Here, it is comparatively modern and new. We derive it from Scotland, its " homestead," in Great Britain, and princi- pally, through the Scotch-Irish of Ulster ; although we are largely indebted to the Scotch, the Huguenots and the Hollanders, for many professors.
We must not forget, that it first began on this Continent, with Francis Mackemie, only one hundred and fifty years ago, on a narrow strip of land, between the Chesapeake and Dela- ware -that, then, hardly venturing to show its face in the
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light of day, it was seen begging of the Cavaliers of Virginia for a license to assert it's doctrines; that it was punished by imprisonment in New York, and spurned by the Church of England, as "a religion not fit for a gentleman."
The Separatists, Independents, or Congregationalists, as they are now everywhere known, had occupied all the ground in New England, long before Presbyterianism made its appear- ance. Carver, Bradford, and Standish came one hundred years before MacGregore, Cornwell, and Boyd. The "Speed- well" had, indeed, been driven back by the tempests of the ocean, like the " Eagle-Wing ; " but the " May-Flower," had weathered the storms, and brought with her, to our own shores, the representatives of one great division of the puri- tans of Great Britain. These men, the "Pilgrim Fathers," had; established a Spiritual democracy, under the name of Congregationalism, a system of church government, which originated here, and with them, and which so well accorded with the prevailing sentiment of the times, that it was almost universally accepted in the New England Colonies. Repub- lican Presbyterianism, had, therefore, to seek another field for her labor. That field she found in the vast territory of the Middle, Southern, and ultimately, of the Western and South-western States. The progress and relative condi- tion of the two systems, may be learned, very readily, by consulting the religious statistics of the country. In 1843, there were in the United States, 3584 Presbyterian churches, only 11 of them being in New England, and nine of that eleven, in New Hampshire, the other two, in Massachusetts. There were 2672 ordained ministers, and probably, 900 licen- tiates and candidates; and 279,782 communicants. There were, at the same time, stated upon the same authority, not far from 1500 Congregational churches; the Presbyterians exceeding them, by two thousand and eighty-four. Of these fifteen hundred churches, more than one thousand were in New England. The number of Congregational ministers was about 1350, against 3572 ministers and licentiates, of the Presbyterian church, the balance, in favor of the latter, being 2222. The Congregational communicants are stated at 180, 000, being nearly, 100,000 less than those of the Presbyteri- ans, at the same time. This estimate of the Congregational churches and ministers, does not include those, which have rejected, what are called, the doctrines of the Reformation, better known as Unitarian. The churches of this last descrip-
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tion, are nearly all confined to Massachusetts, where Con- gregationalism first began. I believe there is no instance where a Presbyterian church has directly and openly adopted the faith and forms of Unitarianism. The Federal Street Church, in Boston, which was the second Presbyterian church ever organized in New England, and which was successively under the pastoral care of Morehead and Annin, two zealous disciples of Knox and Calvin, might seem to be an exception. But the members of that church voted to change, and did change, the form of its government to that of Congregation- alism, before it became Unitarian.
In view of the very imperfect, brief, and hasty sketch of the origin, progress, character and success of Presbyterianism in New England, and throughout the United States, which has been attempted to-day ; who is prepared to estimate the value of the labors, the sacrifices, and the sufferings of its early founders ? Who does not perceive and acknowledge the vast importance of the mission of the Scotch-Irish to our shores ? Failing, in their first attempt to reach us, from physical causes, altogether above and beyond their control, they hastened back upon that " Eagle-Wing," which proved too frail to sustain them in the wider trans-atlantic flight, which they meditated, not to repair and refit for a second voyage, the feeble craft in which they had hazarded their lives ; but to fit and prepare themselves, their countrymen and their poster- ity for the great work ; which although postponed for a time, they foresaw, must sooner or later devolve upon them. That work was to raise the standard of their religion in the vast wilderness of America. Hither, in God's own time, they came, bringing with them, what was better than silver and gold, their habits of untiring industry, of frugality, and strict economy : bringing with them, that unconquerable energy of character, which overcomes all opposition ; bringing with them, minds enlightened and enriched by the best learning of the age, and a religious profession and a faith drawn from the bible, and tested by the sufferings and the martyrdom of thousands of its converts. With such habits, and with such moral and religious principles, they could not fail of success.
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But the length to which these remarks have extended, admonishes me that it is time to dismiss the subject, and to take my leave. Still, I would linger at the parting, hesitate upon the farewell. Standing, as I do, in the midst of the friends of my youth, my school-mates, and the playmates of
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my childhood, each face, and each familiar name associated with some of the dearest recollections of my life ; I would, before we part, gladly recount, with you, some of the events, and revive some of the scenes, with which we were so familiar, in our earlier, younger and brighter days. I would run with you again over the green fields to cull the wild flowers, or, stray away into the pastures, to gather the mountain-laurel, which blooms upon our native land, as it blooms no where else. I would ascend the highest hill, for a broader gaze upon the bright horizon which encircles us. I would plunge into the forest, or loiter along the meadow-brook, or I would launch, with you, the light boat, for a sail upon the clear bosom of the ever-flowing Merrimack. Or, we could go back, if we would, in imagination, to our childish gambols. We could join in the sportive mirth of a thanksgiving eve- ning,' or rejoice in the holy-day pastimes of the General Election and the Fourth of July. We might revisit the old school-house, and once more con over those, sometimes irk- some, but always most important tasks of elemental learning, which have so often puzzled and perplexed us.
Would we not, if we had the time, recall some of the scenes of the severe daily toil of our fathers? We might drive " the team afield" again; and even put our hands to the plough once more. It would do us no harm. It was the honest and healthful employment, by which, they, who brought us into life, earned their and our daily bread. Or, in the stillness of the sacred Sabbath morning, we might assemble at the old meeting-house, and listen to him, who was com- missioned to bear the message of peace to the upright in heart, and denounce with fearful indignation the unrighteous and the dissolute.
We would recross the threshold of the dear old cottage, where first the light of Heaven was revealed to our wonder- ing eyes, - where we were nurtured and sustained by the fondness of a father, and where every wish was' anticipated, and every want supplied from that over-flowing fountain of kindness - a mother's love -which never fails, but with the latest pulsation, and the last breath of her with whom it dwells. And would we not, sad and sorrowful as might be the duty, repair, once again, to that hallowed spot of earth, " where heaves the turf, in many a mouldering heap," the common burial ground of our kindred and our friends ; and, kneeling solemnly and prayerfully, around the grave of a
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