USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 35
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1 Bouton's Concord, 338-9.
? Asa McFarland's Address before Board of Trade, Oct. 20, 1873, p. 8.
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325
THE CAPITAL OF THE STATE.
offered inducements, but the general court never sat in either of them. Hopkinton, in which several sessions had been held, became Concord's strongest competitor. In 1805 commenced the decisive contest. The legislature, having held its June session in Concord, convened in December at Portsmouth, in compliment to Governor Langdon. At this adjourned session Hopkinton was assigned as the place of meeting for the legislature in June, 1806. On the 18th of this June the house voted that the session for 1807 should be held at Salisbury, and a motion for reconsideration, made the same day, was defeated by sixty-three yeas to eighty-two nays. But the next day the vote came down from the senate with "Concord " substituted for "Salisbury." The house did not concur in the amendment, but by seventy-eight yeas to seventy nays, inserted "Hopkinton " for "Con- cord," and the vote thus re-amended was agreed to by the senate. The following year, 1807, on the 18th of June, a motion made in the house to hold the June session of 1808 at Salisbury, prevailed by eighty-three yeas to seventy-two nays, and though on the same day, the senate having non-concurred, another vote was passed by eighty- nine yeas to sixty-one nays to make "Hopkinton " the place of ses- sion, yet on the 19th the vote came down from the senate with "Concord " substituted, and in this amendment the house concurred. This concurrent action proved decisive as to the permanent location of the capital of New Hampshire. For the general court met in accordance therewith at Concord, in June, 1808, and no serious attempt was then made -- or was afterwards to be made for more than half a century-to change the seat of the state government.
Though the recognition of Concord as the capital of the state had not been given by formal declaratory enactment-nor was so to be yet it was to be decisively enforced by future legislative action ; especially in the location of public buildings and institutions. The earliest instance of such recognition was the erection of the state prison, which was completed for use in 1812.1 This structure, built of granite quarried from the southerly slope of Rattlesnake hill, was located upon two acres of land given by Joshua Abbot, and situated towards the northerly end of a public highway, three rods wide, regularly laid out in 1809-'10, from the Hopkinton, or "Milk," 2 road-later Pleasant street-to the modern Franklin street.3 This highway, designated almost from the first as State street, with another two rods wide, opened at the same time,-being the part of the later Washington street lying between State and Main streets, 4 __
1 See special chapter on Institutions.
2 Reminiscences of William Kent, cited in Mcclintock's New Hampshire. 461.
3 Town Records, 428-9.
* Ibid, 437-8.
326
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
gave improved access to the prison site, then deemed "quite out of the way of business and population."1 The land for the State street road was either absolutely given, or the title thereto cheer- fully relinquished upon slight nominal award, by public-spirited owners along the route, such as Benjamin Gale, George Hough, Thomas G. Stevens, Josiah Rogers, William A. Kent, William Stickney, Simeon G. Hall, Ebenezer Dustin, Richard Ayer, Abel Hutchins, and Peter Robertson.2 In this movement of highway opening, primarily stirred by the establishment of a state institution in Concord, was a prophecy of that well-ordered system of streets which should, in the coming years, develop itself.
Probably, from some sense of pride in the growing importance of the town, as well as certainly for the convenience of a majority of its inhabitants, a determination was manifested in 1810 to rid the main thoroughfare of an annoyance more rural than urban, when it was voted in town-meeting that, "for every swine found running at large, at any season in the main street between John Bradley's and John Colby's, the owner be liable to the same penalty-to be re- covered in the same way-as for swine going at large unyoked and unrung in the season that the law requires them to be yoked and rung." 3 The next year "a penalty of twenty-five cents " was fixed "for each offence "; and in 1812 the prohibition was extended over the entire length of "road from Concord bridge to Boscawen bridge."4 Four years later the ranging of swine from the first day of April to the first day of November was prohibited over an area extending from the Merrimack to a line half a mile west of the main street and its extension, between the line of Wood's brook bridge on the north, and the town line on the south; also over "the common within one mile of Federal bridge on the east side of the river." 5 This provision concerning swine was continued in force for some years. As early as 1807 sheep also had been restricted from run- ning at large on Main street, between John Bradley's and John Colby's, from April to November; 6 and the next year a new wooden pound was built a few rods north of the meeting-house, but was afterwards removed to Pond hill, where it stood till 1826.7 Indeed, the records show that the problem of effectively restraining the "lawless range " 8 of domestic animals was one obstinate of solution in those days.
· During the first half of the period now under historical retrospect, the popular thought of the whole country was intent upon political
1 Bouton's Concord, 343.
4 Ibid, 444, 450.
2 Ibid, 341-2.
5 Ibid, 481.
3 Town Records, 434.
6 Ibid, 398.
7 Bouton's Concord, 340; also see note at close of chapter.
8 Ibid, 342.
327
POLITICAL MATTERS.
questions-some of which were of international importance, and involved the ultimate appeal of war, and strong partisan feeling pervaded the public mind.
In 1800, the fourth presidential year, the Federal and Democratic- Republican parties stood in fierce array, with John Adams-serving his first term of the presidency-as the standard-bearer of the former, and Thomas Jefferson as that of the latter. Unwise legislation sanctioned by President Adams, though but slightly enforced, had, with other causes, tended to turn popular favor from him to Jeffer- son. But New Hampshire did not yield to the anti-Adams current ; and, at the March election of that year, gave John Taylor Gilman, the Federal, or Adams, candidate for governor, ten thousand three hundred and sixty-two votes against six thousand and thirty-nine for his Democratic-Republican, or Jeffersonian, opponent, Timothy Walker of Concord. The latter, however, received in his own town one hundred and twenty-four votes against Gilman's one hundred and four. Without taking the sense of the people at the polls, the legislature, that year, chose presidential electors who supported Adams.
In 1801, the last year of Judge Walker's candidacy for the gov- ernorship, he received in Concord one hundred fifty-six votes, and John Langdon, another Republican, twenty-three against the divided Federal strength of forty-four votes for John T. Gilman, and thirty- seven for Timothy Farrar; a result showing Concord to have be- come strongly Republican. The state, however, was decidedly Federal ; giving Walker five thousand two hundred forty-nine votes, and Gilman ten thousand eight hundred ninety-eight, with four hundred ninety-two scattering.
In 1802 the state remained Federal, and the town Republican ; but in 1803 both town and state gave Federal majorities for gov- ernor. So, also, they did in 1804, the fifth presidential year, when on the second Tuesday of March1-the date just assigned by law for annual elections-Gilman, still the Federal candidate, was elected, though by only two hundred and ten majority. But in November, though the town gave thirty majority against the Republican elec- toral ticket which bore the name of Judge Walker, that ticket pre- vailed in the state, and New Hampshire thus contributed to the re- election of Thomas Jefferson.
During the first three years of Jefferson's second term the town and state were both Republican. In 1805 a complete Republican ascendency had been won in the executive and legislative depart- ments of the state government, which was not readily to be broken.
1 Town Records, 371, 373.
328
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
And here it may be noted in passing, that, among the personal official changes wrought by this political overturn, was the election of Philip Carrigain as secretary of state in place of Joseph Pearson, nineteen years incumbent. The new secretary was a native of Concord, thirty- three years of age, and a son of the physician whose name he bore. He had graduated from Dartmouth, and chosen the profession of the law. Never has there been in New Hampshire one holding the office of executive recorder more talented and versatile, more witty and genial, more gentlemanly in manners, and more artistic in tastes, than was Philip Carrigain, who, for four years, wielded his pen of dexterous chirography at the council board of Governor Langdon. He was loyal to Concord and to New Hampshire, and was the first to apply to the latter its popular and appropriate soubriquet, "The Granite State."1 While in office he began, under the authority of the legislature, the preparation of the famous Map of his beloved state, which was to be published ten years later ; and in aid of which Concord contributed Captain Edmund Leavitt's careful survey and map of the town.2
In the spring of 1808, the sixth presidential year, the Republican party won easily in both town and state, but in the subsequent elec- tions of the year the federal party rallied, securing a delegation in congress, and electors to cast their votes for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and against James Madison, elected as Jefferson's succes- sor. The Federal electors each received thirty-one majority in Con- cord. In 1809 Federal ascendency in the state government was regained, and with the help of Concord ; Jeremiah Smith, chief justice of the superior court, being elected governor by a small majority over John Langdon. Concord cast two hundred and thirty-four votes for Smith, and one hundred and eighty-four for Langdon. The town having become Federal remained so for eleven years, or until 1819.
Within the first decade of the century, the newspapers of Concord began to be more distinctively political. Russell's Republican Gazette having been discontinued in 1803, and Hough's Courier two years later, William Hoit and Jesse C. Tuttle came in to occupy the vacant field of journalism. They commenced the Concord Gazette in July, 1806, but suspended its publication after a trial of seven months. The materials of its early outfit were scanty. They had been pur- chased of Dudley Leavitt of almanac fame, and brought from Gil- manton Corner to Concord, in a two-horse wagon, carrying also two men.3 The publication of the Gazette was recommenced by Mr. Tuttle, in June, 1807, and was continued by him and others for
1 See the Granite State in note at close of chapter.
2 Town Records, 382.
3Asa McFarland, in an Address cited in a previous chapter.
329
NEWSPAPERS.
twelve years. It was Federal in politics, had "some able writers, and, for a portion of the time, talented editors," 1 one of whom was John Kelly, afterwards of Exeter. The circulation was considerable during some years of its existence. From "a wretched imitation of an eagle, so badly engraven that its groundwork was black as ink," which was its vignette for several years, it was nicknamed "the crow paper," and so was habitually called by its Concord contemporary of opposite politics.2 This latter newspaper had come into existence on the 18th of October, 1808, and was named The American Patriot. William Hoit, Concord's veteran compositor, was its publisher, the literary labor upon the new journal being entrusted to an " Associa- tion of Gentlemen," of which one was Philip Carrigain, secretary of state. But soon its columns were not to depend upon any such "asso- ciation "; an editor was to take charge of them who could help him- self. Within six months, Isaac Hill, who had just completed his apprenticeship at printing in the office of the Amherst Cabinet, came into ownership of the paper, and issued, on the 18th of July, 1809, his first number, under its new name of New Hampshire Patriot. He was then a young man of only twenty-one years, but he soon breathed into the Patriot the breath of enduring and influential life, and made more fully realized than ever before in New Hampshire the efficacy of the newspaper in moulding and guiding the popular thought.
This master of political journalism had come to pursue his calling at the capital, on the persuasion of William Low, his friend and never-failing supporter. The latter and his neighbor, Benjamin Damon, had, in 1806, removed from Amherst to Concord, where, as partners, they engaged in painting and chair-making. Within the first decade of the century, the same migration was made by several other "active and enterprising young men "-as Peter Robertson. the baker: William Fisk, the shoemaker, resident many years at West Concord; Francis N. Fiske, the successful merchant of the " North End"; and somewhat later, after relief from war service, Joseph Low, younger brother of William, and capable man of affairs, both private and public. These seven constituted the " Amherst colony," 3 as this valuable accession to the citizenship of Concord was often called.
During the years 1810 and 1811 the Republican idea was vigor- ously propagated throughout the country, and became generally prev- alent, that though both France and England had wickedly violated the commercial rights of the United States, yet that the latter, by adding to other outrages, persistency in the barbarous practice of "impress-
1 .John Farmer, in Letters cited in a previous chapter.
2Asa McFariand, in Address already cited.
3 Bouton's Concord, 677-8.
330
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
ment " whereby thousands of American seamen had been ruthlessly kidnapped, was the greater sinner of the two, and, as the last resort, should be called to account in war. This idea had to contend with strong Federal opposition, and nowhere with stronger than' in com- mercial New England, where war with the vaunted "mistress of the seas " was especially dreaded. Hence, Madison's administration was bitterly assailed as hostile to American commerce, " unjust to Great Britain, and criminally subservient to France."1 Isaac Hill, in his Patriot, condensed in a single sentence the Republican esti- mate of the Federal party, as one " whose principles are devotion to Britain, abhorrence of France, and contempt for everything Amer- ican."
The war cloud thickened. There was premonition of the coming storm in the active hostility of the Western Indians, supposed to have been stirred by British influence. In 1811 General William Henry Harrison took station in Indiana, with a force of regulars and militia, to bring the hostile tribes to terms. To this force was at- tached the Fourth United States Infantry, in command of Colonel James Miller of New Hampshire. On the 7th of November was fought near Tippecanoe, the chief Indian town, a fierce battle, re- sulting in Indian defeat, but not without heavy American loss. The Fourth Regiment of Regulars, in which were men of New Hamp- shire and of Concord, was in the thickest of the fight.2 Among those of Concord were the adjutant, John L. Eastman,2 great- grandson of the Penacook pioneer, and the six privates, John Vir- gin,3 great-grandson of another original proprietor of Penacook, John Elliot, John Urann, and John and James Dunlap.4
On the 18th of June, 1812, war was formally declared against Great Britain. Congress had previously made provision for detach- ing quotas of militia in the several states, for service as needed. Accordingly, Governor Langdon, upon requisition of President Mad- ison, had issued orders " for detaching three thousand five hundred from the militia of the state, and organizing them into companies, battalions, and regiments, armed and equipped for actual service, and in readiness to march at the shortest notice." 5 The draft was made at once, but the completion of the organization was left by Governor Langdon to his successor, William Plumer. The first of Governor Plumer's military orders that directly affected Concord was one · issued in August, 1812, to General Asa Robertson of the Third Brigade, to which belonged the Eleventh Regiment, requiring him to
1 Barstow's New Hampshire, 350.
2 Adjutant-General's Report, 1868, pp. 25, 26.
8 See note at close of chapter.
+ Bouton's Concord, 346.
" Adjutant-General's Report, 1868, p. 6.
331
SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.
detach a company of artillery for the defense of Portsmouth. The order was complied with, and the company put under the command of Captain John Leonard, of Londonderry. The roll bore the names of thirteen Concord men, including a sergeant and two corporals.1 The regiment did duty for about three months, at Jeffrey's Point, where was a government battery of two nine-pounders, commanding the western entrance of Portsmouth harbor.
Concord early became, and during the war remained, a promi- nent recruiting station, and a convenient rendezvous both for sol- diers enlisting and enlisted into the regular service, and for troops on their way from Boston and other populous seaside towns to the Canadian frontiers. The barracks of the rendezvous had location in the Carrigain house on Main street, at the North End; on the Willey premises on the same street, at the South End; and on a spot-also at the North End-on State street, near the site of the later brick schoolhouse of District Number Eleven.2
On the 8th of May, 1812, more than a month before the declara- tion of war, Lieutenant-Colonel Bedel, of the Eleventh United States Infantry, who was in command of "the District of New Hampshire for recruiting," established his rendezvous at Concord. He was under orders to recruit seven companies ; and by the 18th of Sep- tember he had enlisted three hundred and ninety-seven men for his regiment, and marched them to Burlington, Vermont,3 where the organization was completed the following winter.
Captain John McNeil, of Hillsborough,-who, in higher grades of command, was to win distinguished honor in the war,-raised a com- pany for the "Eleventh," and marched it to Concord. For some reason-probably the rush of soldiers into town-not finding accom- modation for his men in the main village, he took them to East Concord, and quartered them for the night at the tavern of Isaac Emery, a Republican. Political feeling was running high, and one Aaron Austin, a Federalist, who kept an opposition tavern in the village, headed a company of his partisans in a call of no friendly intent upon the soldiers at Emery's hostelry. In the bar-room alter- cation soon ensued, and words led to blows-with Austin busy in the scrimmage. Soon, however, the captain appeared upon the scene-" a powerful man, six feet six in his stockings, well propor- tioned, and weighing two hundred and fifty pounds "-and, snatch- ing up the belligerent inn-keeper, " threw him out of an open win- dow upon the green."4 The other visitants, seeing their leader thus
1 See note at close of chapter.
2 Asa McFarland's " An Outline of Biography and Recollection."
3 Adjutant-General's Report, 1868, p. 35.
' Ibid, p. 37.
332
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
easily thrown out of the fight by the future hero of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, incontinently withdrew.
The Twenty-first Regiment United States Volunteers, raised in Maine and New Hampshire, and at first commanded by Colonel Eleazer W. Ripley, and subsequently, in 1813, by Colonel James Miller, had close relations with the "Eleventh "; the two, indeed, seeming to have been consolidated 1 for a time. In the "Twenty- first," Jonathan Eastman, Jr., of East Concord-a great-grandson of Captain Ebenezer Eastman-did service as lieutenant, captain, and paymaster.2
The First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, enlisted throughout the state for one year, was organized at Concord on the 29th of November, 1812, by the choice of certain officers of whom were Aquila Davis, of Warner, colonel ; John Carter, of Concord, a Revolutionary veteran, lieutenant-colonel; and Joseph Low, then of Amherst but soon to be of Concord, adjutant. These were duly commissioned as such by the president; except Low, who, having declined the adjutancy, received commission as quartermaster. The regiment was ordered into camp early the next year, and thence was soon marched to Burlington. But near the end of January, 1813, congress repealed the " Volunteer Act," under which the regiment had been raised. Consequently, disbandment ensued; but the soldiers, having enlisted for one year, were held. The new law affected in the same manner a regiment in Maine under command of Colonel Denny McCobb. Some of the volunteers having enlisted into existing organizations of the regular service, the remnants of the two disbanded regiments were consolidated to form the Forty- fifth United States Regiment, with Denny McCobb for colonel, Aquila Davis for lieutenant-colonel, and Joseph Low for paymaster.3 The new regiment went on duty at Lake Champlain ; and when the term of the one year's men had expired, its ranks were soon refilled, especially through the efforts of Paymaster Low, who, with other officers, had been sent into New Hampshire to obtain recruits.4 The regiment contained at least ten Concord men, including Marshall Baker, a lieutenant in Captain Joseph Flanders's company.5 And here suggests itself, in humorous relief to dryer details, the fact that once, while the regiment was stationed on an island in the lake, Colonel Davis kept the enemy "at a respectful distance from the · shore," by "mounting a formidable battery of huge guns" improvised " from pine logs, hewn, fashioned, and painted " into marvelous resem- blance to cannon of dreadful bore-a device of the Yankee lumber-
1 Adjutant-General's Report, 1868, p. 58 3 Ibid, p. 81.
2 Ibid, p. 70.
4 Ibid, 92.
5 Bouton's Concord, 346; also see list in note at close of chapter.
333
SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND.
man, which, when discovered too late, thoroughly chagrined the Brit- ish engineers.1
Abont five hundred soldiers had their rendezvous in Concord in 1812 and 1813:2 while many more passed through the town on their way to assigned posts of duty. "The place," says Asa Mc- Farland,3 "suddenly derived additional consequence as a central and rising town. Every day was one of interest to the resident population. Troops were coming and going, and new faces con- stantly seen. The quiet and sobriety of Concord were somewhat invaded, and would have been more so but for the restraining influ- ence of some officers of the highest personal character, who were determined that all under their command should be kept in as com- plete discipline as possible. Of this class was one Darrington, a colonel, who, with his wife and a servant boy, boarded at the Stick- ney tavern. Colonel Darrington and his wife were people who deserved and received marked attention. There were other officers stationed here of corresponding influence."
One disorderly affair, however, which created " great excitement, " 4 occurred at the annual town-meeting in March, 1813, when certain volunteers attempted to vote, contrary to the decision of the moder- ator, Colonel William A. Kent. The latter willingly received " the votes of those in the service of the United States who were inhabi- tants of the town at the time of their enlistment, and " had "not yet departed from it."5 As he was proceeding to state the grounds of his opinion, that "the soldiers from the barracks who never were recognized as inhabitants could not be so considered for the purpose of electing or being elected to office," he was met "with interrup- tions, evidently intended to protract the meeting to a late hour. "5
Therefore, he determined to desist from "that attempt," and at once decided that the ballots of those who were not inhabitants " should not be received in any way or manner."5 The following votes,6 passed the next day, show what ensued upon the practical maintenance of the upright decision, also what was the general senti- ment of the citizens of the town as to the conduct of intruder and moderator :
"Voted, That the conduct of one McCoy, a volunteer in the service of the United States, and not belonging to this town, in attempting, yesterday, in defiance of the moderator of the meeting, to vote for state and county officers, deserves severe censure ; but his
1 Adjutant-General's Report, 1868, pp. 70, 71.
2 Bouton's Concord, 344.
3 In " An Outline of Biography and Recollection."
+ Bouton's Concord, 341.
6 Reply of Colonel Kent to vote of approbation, Town Records, 459, 460.
€ Town Records, 458-9.
334
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
act of collaring the moderator while in the exercise of his official duty, we consider an outrage of the most destructive character."
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