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 38
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After this summary action of the trustees, the "College question " soon became a prominent one in the public mind. Its two sides had each strenuous partisans. Upon this new issue which had got into politics, Isaac Hill, the Republican editor of the Patriot, and William Plumer, the Republican candidate for governor in 1816, stood to- gether. The openly asserted views of the latter were the views of the Republican party. These were, that, as the college charter of 1769 "emanated from royalty, it contained principles congenial to monarchy "-among others, in having "established trustees, made seven a quorum, and authorized a majority of those present to remove members " considered " unfit or incapable, and the survivors to per- petuate the board by electing others to supply vacancies ; " 1 that " this last principle " being " hostile to the spirit and genius of a free gov- ernment, sound policy " required " that the mode of election should be changed, that trustees, in future, should be elected by some other body of men," and that their number should be increased, so as uot only to " increase the security of the college, but to be a means of interesting more men in its prosperity "; that "the college was formed for the public good, not for the benefit or emolument of its trustees, and that the right to amend and improve acts of incorpora- tion of this nature " had " been exercised by all governments, both monarchical and republican." 1 The acceptance of such ideas was pro- moted by a prevalent impression that the management of the college unduly favored the " standing order," or Congregational denomination.
These views were opposed by the body of Federalists, who main- tained that they involved an unconstitutional interference of the state
1 Governor Plumer's message, June 6, 1816.
24
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
with chartered rights of the college and its trustees, impairing the obligations of a contract, such as the charter was; 1 that such inter- ference as came within the scope of Republican views would, if con- stitutional, " destroy the former corporation, and consequently endan- ger the funds belonging to the college "; that " the college " was "in a prosperous condition, and no necessity " existed " for any legisla- tive interference whatever "; and that " the inevitable tendency " of such interference was "to make the highest seat of literature and science in the state subject to every change and revolution of party, than which nothing could be more destructive to its welfare." 1
The Republican party having won a complete victory in the state election, the legislature met in June with a majority ready to adopt the recommendations of Governor Plumer upon the college question. On the 27th of June an act was passed to "amend the charter, and enlarge the corporation of Dartmouth College." By this, and a sup- plementary act passed at the following November session, provision was made for increasing the number of trustees from twelve to twenty-one, and for creating a board of twenty-five overseers ; appoint- ments to either board or the filling of vacancies to belong to the gov- ernor and council. The name of the corporation was also changed from Dartmouth College to Dartmouth University; and it was also expressly provided that perfect freedom of religious opinions should be enjoyed by students and officers of the university.
Against this enactment Thomas W. Thompson and Asa McFarland had, in behalf of the trustees, presented and urged able remon- strances. Moreover, the idea of establishing a new college at Con- cord, on principles of the most liberal religious toleration, and under the full control of the state, was favorably entertained by many-an idea which, it had been vainly hoped by the trustees and their friends, might work such a division of sentiment among their opponents in the legislature as would prevent such radical adverse legislation as was actually accomplished in 1816. The idea of creating such a col- lege, and locating it near the center of the state, was to survive the Dartmouth controversy ; for in 1822 a law was passed levying a tax of one half of one per cent. upon banking capital to create a Literary Fund for the endowment of such an institution. Some years later, however, or in 1828, the college idea was given up, and the fund, already accumulated or thereafter to accumulate, was ordered to be distributed to the towns for the use of common schools-and thus Concord missed becoming a university town.
In the August following the passage of the college university act, a majority of the old board of trustees, including President Brown,
1 Protest of minority in house, June 28, 1816.
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THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE.
declined to convene with new members whom the governor and coun- cil had appointed to complete the filling of the university board ; they also removed William H. Woodward, a fast friend of Dr. Wheelock, from the office of secretary and treasurer, and formally refused to accept the provisions of the recent statute, or in any way to act under it. They were determined not to do anything whereby the college could be construed as merged in the university ; for they were reason- ably confident that, without their consent, the act of June could not be constitutionally enforced, and such merger wrought. Hence, when a quorum of the university trustees convened, on the 22d of February, 1817, " at the hall, commonly called Masons' Hall, over the Bank, at the southerly end of the Main Street, in Concord, in the county of Rockingham," as the governor expressed it in his summons, Dartmouth college was not represented by trustees or faculty. Where- upon, the university trustees removed by vote President Brown and three other trustees of the college, including Dr. McFarland of Con- cord, together with two professors, all of whom had refused to appear then and there as summoned. Dr. Wheelock, though lying on his death-bed, and within seven weeks of his end, was elected president of the university, with his son-in-law, Professor Allen, to act in his stead ; William H. Woodward was chosen secretary, and the faculty was filled by the choice of two professors, one of whom was Nathaniel H. Carter of Concord. Thus Dartmouth University was organized.
Now, the trustees and faculty of Dartmouth college, upon being cited to appear at the meeting just mentioned, had at once deter- mined to take decisive action towards testing their rights, and the constitutionality of the college act, by bringing suit against their late secretary and treasurer for the recovery of " books of record, original charter, common seal, and other corporate property of the college." Forthwith, they entered in the court of common pleas for Grafton county, at the February term of 1817, their famous action, "The Trustees of Dartmouth College v. William H. Woodward." They temporarily surrendered to the university authorities the college buildings, but they took with them most of the students to other quarters, where was pursued the usual collegiate work for two years, pending the final decision of their case in the supreme court of the United States. That decision came in 1819, reversing that of the highest court of New Hampshire, and declaring the legislation of 1816 in question, unconstitutional, and consequently null and void. Dartmouth university was no more; but Dartmouth college still lived-and would live with a long future of blessing and honor ever opening before her. So ended the controversy which had widely, deeply, and, to some extent, unprofitably, excited the public mind in
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New Hampshire ; unduly stirring up, by the bitter invective of newspaper and other discussion, personal, political, and religious animosities-to which fact, fortunately, allusion only is necessary here.
Rather, belongs here mention of a gifted son of Concord-the "accomplished scholar and gentleman,"] Nathaniel Haseltine Carter -who held the " Professorship of Languages" in the short-lived Dartmouth university. He came to that position at the age of thirty, having been born on the 17th of September, 1787, at the homestead on the Iron Works road, near Turkey river, upon the farm many years later to be named the "Moreland." His father, Joseph Carter, being a man of some financial means, had been able to assist in gratifying the desire of his son for liberal educational training, academic and collegiate. He had been graduated at Dart- mouth in 1811, and then for six years had taught in various places- including his native town-till called to the university. When that institution ceased to exist he removed to the state of New York, where he read law, but soon found journalism more congenial to his finely cultured literary tastes. His newspaper-The New York Statesman-which he conducted in Albany and New York city, " under the auspices of De Witt Clinton " 2 and other leading men of that day, was eminently distinguished for ability, " candor, and lit- erary merits." 2 His reputation as an accomplished writer of prose was enhanced by his two volumes of " Letters from Europe," em- bodying the observations of a journey made in the years 1825 and 1826. Moreover, he had poetical genius, and his thought was accus- tomed to seek expression in verse, the musical and inspired strains of which suggest that he had found a loving muse beside his "native stream "-that " scene," as he has sung, of his " boyhood's earliest dream." In 1824 he, who five years before had been of the faculty of the rival university, delighted Dartmouth college with his thought- ful, elaborate poem, entitled " The Pains of Imagination," read before the Phi Beta Kappa society of his Alma Mater. This effort, with other poetry, found publication in book form three years later. But his life was not to be long ; his winters had to be spent in the sunny Antilles. In the autumn of 1828 Mr. Carter paid his last visit to his native and beloved town, where he was received with cordial wel- come and marked respect and honor. Of one incident of that visit, .Dr. Bouton, who was then in his early pastoral service, has thus written : "He attended church for the last time in the old Northi meeting-house, where his pale face, emaciated form, and brilliant eye attracted the notice and awakened the sympathy of the preacher, to
1 Alumni of Dartmouth College, 152.
2 Bouton's Concord, 585.
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THE TOLERATION ACT.
him then a stranger."1 Again, and in farewell, he trod "the wild and sylvan shore " of the little river, dear to him, and to which, in touching apostrophe, he addressed his finest poem, entitled "To My Native Stream "-a production which has, to the appreciative imagi- nation, cast over the commonplace stream such charm of beauty as only true poetic genius can. Now he had bidden farewell to the home of his childhood and youth, and in the autumn of the next year, by the advice of his physicians, sailed for the south of France. On the second day of January, 1830, soon after his arrival at Mar- seilles, and in the forty-third year of his age, he breathed the last breath of a life of rich fruition and richer promise.
The question of religious toleration, incidentally arising in the col- lege controversy, had for some time been agitated throughout the state. Under the ancient statute of 1714, virtually reaffirmed in 1791, " the Congregational clergy had been originally settled by the towns or parishes where they preached, and the inhabitants of the towns were all taxed for their support." 2 With increase of popula- tion and of dissent from the faith and practice of the "standing order," this system, which had been of good intention and of good results in the earlier days of practical unanimity in religious views, gradually outgrew its usefulness and became oppressive. The scope and intent of the system were to compel attendance upon "the pub- lic worship of God on the Lord's day," under the preaching of a "settled minister," to whose salary, agreed upon by a majority in town-meeting, the attendant must contribute in taxation; non-com- pliance with these requisitions to be tolerated only on proof that one was " conscientiously of a different persuasion," and "constantly attended public worship according to that persuasion." Such strin- gency of requisition, with its growing tendency to provoke resistance, involving burdensome litigation and other harassments, could not but give way before liberal and enlightened thought. The demand for more reasonable legislation slowly grew more and more imperative through the advancing years. At length, in 1816, the Reverend Dan Young of Lisbon, a Methodist minister, and for five successive terms a member of the state senate, presented a bill in that body, repealing the old laws, and providing that houses of worship should be built, and ministers of the gospel hired, exclusively by voluntary associa- tion. At that session, and the two annual sessions following, the measure failed of enactment. But the number of its friends steadily increased till, in 1819, it passed in a perfected form presented by Dr. Thomas Whipple, of Wentworth, a leading member of the house of representatives. It passed at the first legislative session held in the
1 Bouton's Concord, 585.
2 Life of William Plumer, 185.
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new capitol, and after as able a discussion as would ever take place within its walls.
This Toleration Act prescribed that all religious denominations in the state might form societies of voluntary membership, having all the corporate powers necessary to raise money by taxes upon the polls and ratable estate of the members for providing houses of pub- lic worship and for supporting the gospel ministry. But in con- sequence of a remarkable unanimity of religious sentiment existing in Concord for long years from the beginning, the compulsory support of the gospel never produced the dissatisfaction and con- sequent troubles experienced in many other places. Dissent came late, and with gradual and comparatively unaggressive approaches. Denominational uniformity was scarcely rippled by the quiet pres- ence of a small society of Friends that existed here after 1805, and worshipped in its own meeting-house after 1814. It was not until 1816 that Philbrick Bradley opened his house on the "Moun- tain " to the yet unorganized Methodists for occasional preach- ing. In course of the two years next preceding the passage of the Toleration Act, two church organizations were effected here-one by the Episcopalians, the other by the Calvinistic Baptists: the former, in 1817, with eighteen members; the latter in 1818, with fourteen. Nor was there any hurry in Concord to dispense with the old sys- tem ; for it was not till the 9th of March, 1825,-nearly six years after the passage of the Toleration Act,-that the town, at the written request of the Rev. Dr. McFarland himself, then in failing health, annulled by vote his "civil contract with the town," at the end of his twenty-seventh ministerial year. Though thus, after ninety-five years, the town in its corporate capacity ceased to pro- vide for the support of the ministry, yet it voted that " the Rev. Dr. McFarland have leave to cut firewood sufficient for his own use, on the Parsonage land the current year; and also have," for the same time, " the use of the improved lands " belonging to the town. Nearly two years later, on the 18th of February, 1827, came to its end, in its fifty-eighth year, the life of Concord's third minister, so diligently and fruitfully blessing church and town for more than a quarter of a cen- tury.
The minister's request that his contract with the town should be closed had been made on the 11th of July, 1824, whereupon a new 'society was organized under the Toleration Act, on the 29th of the same month, composed of two hundred and twenty-three taxable mem- bers-including " nearly all the descendants of the original settlers living in town."1 During the following autumn, Nathaniel Bouton,
1 See Change of Constitution, etc., of Society in note at close of chapter.
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twenty-five years of age, a native of Norwalk, Conn., a graduate of Yale, and very recently of Andover Theological seminary, served upon invitation seven weeks as a candidate for the pulpit. On the 24th of December he received from the church a unanimous call to become its pastor. This call, having been six days later unani- mously concurred in by the society, was accepted ; and at a council held on the 23d of March, 1825, the pastoral relation of Dr. Mc- Farland having been dissolved, the Reverend Nathaniel Bouton was ordained to the ministry of the First Congregational Church and So- ciety of Concord-a ministry to continue more than forty years with a church and society whose years would be measured in centuries. But the detailed story of the "Old North," and of other churches -either of the same or of different faith and practice-for the ensu- ing three fourths of a century will be told in a special chapter of this history.
The minister's salary of seven hundred and fifty dollars-being more than twice that which had hitherto been usually paid-indi- cated that voluntary associated contribution would more liberally support the gospel ministry than would compulsory town taxation- a fact that proved universally true. And it may be worth noting here, that the town had, under the old system, sometimes practically recognized the principle of voluntary contribution in eking out an inadequate ministerial salary. Thus, for years after 1811, in mak- ing appropriation to supply the pulpit, about one hundred and fifty dollars were added to the usual three hundred and fifty, with the proviso that " no person be compelled to pay his proportion " of the sum additional.1
Under the new order of things a committee, consisting of William A. Kent, Joseph Walker, and Abel Hutchins, was appointed in March, 1826, " to take into consideration the subject of selling the interest or right the town " might "have in the meeting-house, to the First Congregational Society in Concord."2 The subsequent report of the committee estimated the town's interest in the meeting- house at two hundred dollars; in the land on which the meeting- house stood, measuring six rods, north, south, east, and west, to the original reserve for a road, at three hundred dollars; and in the bell, at three hundred dollars. The estimate was accepted, and the town's interest was accordingly sold to the society for eight hun- dred dollars.3 The claim of three hundred dollars for the bell was, however, subsequently relinquished ; and in 1829 the town ordered the remaining five hundred dollars to be divided among the incorpo- rated religious societies, as was the interest of the Parsonage Fund.
1 Town Records, 469.
2 Town Records (manuscript).
3 Bouton's Concord, 387.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
It will be recollected that along with the original allotment of lands on the west side of the river, in 1726, to the hundred proprie- tors, special assignments were made for the " Minister," the " Par- sonage," and the "School"-each containing a " house-lot ".of an acre and a half, and a "home-lot" of six acres, more or less. To the one hundred and three allotments grants were severally made in after years from the common and undivided lands, under such titles as the "Twenty Acres' Division," the "Emendation Lots," the "Eighty Acres' Division," the "Twenty Acres' Grant," and the " Last Division." The " Parsonage " allotment was entirely distinct from the "Ministerial ; " and its " house-lot," which, in part, became by lease, in 1820,1 the site of the schoolhouse in the Eleventh School District, was never occupied as the home of the minister. The Parsonage lands, however, contributed to the support of the minis- try. It having now become necessary, under the operation of the Toleration Act, to make some disposition of those lands lying in various parts of the town, a committee was raised in March, 1826, consisting of Joseph Walker, Robert Davis, and Jeremiah Pecker, to sell them, and to secure the proceeds of the sales as a permanent fund-the interest of which should " be applied to the purposes for which said lands were reserved." 2 Promptly, on the twenty-second of the following April, the committee sold at auction most of the lands 3 for $5,335.61. This sum constituted the original Parsonage fund, but was subsequently increased-mainly by land sold-to $5,623.01.4 In 1828 the town established by vote the following rule for disposing of the interest annually accruing upon the fund : " That the selectmen request each man in town to designate annually the incorporated religious society in Concord, which supports the preaching of the gospel, to which his proportion of the interest of the ministerial fund-according to the amount of his tax on poll and estate-shall be paid; that the selectmen divide the interest accordingly ; " and that, in case any persons did not choose to desig- nate to what society their proportion should go, the same should be divided equally among all the societies.
The next year William A. Kent, Robert Davis, and Joseph Low were appointed to invest the principal of the fund in bank or other public stocks, as they should judge it to be for the interest of the town. Thirteen shares of Concord bank stock were taken at $1,326.25. This was lost, about the year 1840, through the failure of the bank ; but with other investments-including a loan to the town of $3,231.99 on certificates of the selectmen, the fund amounted
1 Bouton's Concord, 369.
2 Ibid, 387.
$ See Sale of Parsonage Lands in note at close of chapter.
4 Asa Fowler's Report in Proceedings of Town Meeting, 1851, p. 26.
.
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in 1850 to $4,296.76.1 The town loan was subsequently increased to $3,896.16. Thus the interest upon the fund came from an assumed municipal debt, and reached annually the sum of about two hun- dred and eighty dollars. This had to be raised by general taxation, and distributed to fifteen or more religious societies, and in sums so small as to be of little benefit. Indeed, the advantage derived hardly compensated the trouble of apportionment-a trouble that was con- stantly increasing with the influx of new taxpayers and the establish- ment of new religious societies. Besides, there was reason to doubt the legality and constitutionality of the system that really compelled the taxpayers to contribute to the support of religious societies of which they were not members, and of religious persuasions not their own. It was, therefore, wisely determined, about the year 1875, to dispense with appropriation and distribution under the head of the parsonage fund, and to close all accounts therewith.
When, in 1825, the Toleration Act went into effect in Concord, the population of the town was about three thousand ; the census of 1820 counting two thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight inhabi- tants against two thousand three hundred and ninety-three in 1810, and three thousand seven hundred and two in 1830. Its rank in population was the sixth in the state; Portsmouth, Dover, Gilman- ton, Sanbornton, and Londonderry being in advance. But in the prestige that attracts and the qualities that promote healthy growth and eminent prosperity, the town was second to none. Long a legis- lative center of the state government, it had now become a judicial one; for in 1823 the county of Merrimack was formed of twenty- three towns severed from the northerly parts of Rockingham and Hillsborough counties, with Concord designated as the shire town. Thus had come, at last, long-desired relief,-especially for the Rock- ingham towns,-from the inconvenience of attending courts in places so remote as Exeter and Portsmouth. Hopkinton, which had been a half-shire town of Hillsborough county, but was now within the new jurisdiction, retained the old jail till 1852, when the new one was provided within the limits of Concord.2
The citizens of the new county scat, who had given six hundred and twenty-two votes in the affirmative to six in the negative, upon the question of forming the county of Merrimack, were not backward in complying with the terms imposed by the legislature as to provid- ing accommodation for the courts. The following vote was forthwith passed in a special town-meeting : " That the town so far comply with the act of the legislature of June session, 1822, as to remove the town-house back, turn it end to the road, raise it one story, and com-
1 Asa Fowler's Report in Proceedings of Town Meeting, 1851, p. 26.
2 Bouton's Concord, 492.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
plete it to the acceptance of the justices of the superior court-pro- vided Mr. Stickney will give the land which may be necessary for this purpose ; and provided, also, that one third of the expense of removing and repairing said house be defrayed by individual sub- scription."1 Jeremiah Pecker, Robert Davis, and Joseph Low were appointed superintendents of the work, and eight hundred dollars were appropriated towards carrying it out.1 Straightway the one- storied structure, which for more than thirty years had served as a town house, and during a part of that period. as a state house, was moved westward a short distance up the slope, to stand, in a more eligible location, capped by its second story, and with its modestly colonnaded " end " turned "to the road," or Main street. The second story accommodated the courts of the new county. The north and south rooms of the first story-as the building originally stood facing eastward lengthwise-now became one town hall. The former of the two rooms, and the larger, had been both a representa- tives' and a town hall. It had also been used for other purposes, secular and religious ; notably among the latter being the regular Sunday evening services held there in course of the ministry of Dr. McFarland, at which the faithful pastor was accustomed to preach his third sermon for the day, after the delivery of his two stated dis- courses from the pulpit of the " Old North."2 The other room, or the senate chamber, had also been variously occupied, particularly, however, as it seems, for select schools. Thus, the Reverend Joshua Abbot, a native of Concord, and a son of Captain Joshua Abbot, con- ducted there, for a few years, a school on the Lancasterian system, as he subsequently did at Norfolk, Virginia, where he died in 1824. Of the system, a Concord pupil, writing in old age, briefly says, " that it combined pleasure with instruction." 3
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