USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 26
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A time had now come when Lancaster was to become the scene of hot party contest. The Whigs had been without local or state leaders of any magnetism or ability to cope with so formidable a rival as Isaac Hill and his cohorts. The Whig party was without a
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press to advocate their doctrines. They now began to organize and establish newspapers for their dissemination. In Lancaster a com- pany of the most prominent Whigs was formed for the publication of a newspaper, the White Mountain Ægis, published under the firm name of A. Perkins & Co.
The paper was edited by Apollos Perkins, and the composition and press work were performed by himself and another young man by the name of J. F. C. Hayes, a veteran of the Civil War, and a resident at Groveton, where he died April 30, 1898. For a full ac- count of this paper the reader is referred to Chapter II, Part II, of this history. This paper was very ably edited. Its first issue was on Tuesday, May 22, 1838, in which the editor presented an address to his patrons, in which he set forth his aims to conduct a thoroughly sound Whig newspaper, holding ever to the principles of Washington and his compatriots. The editorials were very able, and its influence in arousing the lethargic Whigs in Lancaster and other towns in Coös county can be seen in the first election held after the launching of this new enterprise. The March meeting had been carried by the Isaac Hill party, for the old leader was still in his prime, and not a follower of his had ever weakened under the per- suasions of the opposition.
Lancaster gave Hill one hundred and thirty-two votes, and the Whig candidate carried off one hundred and seventeen. This was pretty nearly the full vote of the town. Richard Eastman, Demo- crat, for representative received one hundred and seventy votes, Adino N. Brackett, Whig, carried to his party one hundred and nineteen votes, leaving three to be recorded as " scattering." The influence of the Ægis was to be seen in the election of 1839. It had aroused its party, and had succeeded in stirring the opposition into a fury. The old men of the Hill party led in council, but its young men led in the open assaults upon the enemy in the cam- paign. It was at this time that John S. Wells and Harry Hibbard threw themselves into the front ranks of the Democratic party and made themselves names as party champions of no small degree.
Wells was a young lawyer of marked ability, and Hibbard was a law student of remarkable versatility and volubility of speech. Wells was the Hill party's candidate for representative against Royal Joyslin, a Whig and man of considerable influence in the community, one of the leading merchants of the town since 1825. Wells received the full party vote, and defeated Joyslin. Hibbard had been very active in the campaign, and the grim humor and sarcasm of the leading men of that time suggested to them that perhaps he had been a little too forward for one of his years, and one man promptly nominated him for hogreeve. The idea was no sooner expressed than it was accomplished. Mr. Hibbard found
I6
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himself an officer of the town to the merriment of his political rivals. This was intended as a rebuke to him; but he promptly announced his intention of faithfully filling the office even to the extent of " taking up the biggest hog in town the first time he met him on the streets," meaning thereby the man who made the motion upon which he had been elected to an office that carried with it some degree of stigma, especially to one who aspired to something higher. Higher honors, however, were awaiting young Hibbard. At the ensuing session of the legislature he was made assistant clerk of the house, a position he filled with much ease and dignity. In after years he became a prominent leader in his party, and a lawyer of great repute. He was later member of congress, and candidate for United States senator.
In the presidential contest of 1840 political excitement ran high in Lancaster. The national contest lay between Harrison and Van Buren, men of marked ability as candidates. The campaign in Lan- caster, as elsewhere, was known as the "hard cider campaign." Lancaster was much agitated over the contest. Enos Stevens, Whig candidate for governor, received ninety-nine votes, and John Page, Democrat, one hundred and forty-two. John S. Wells was again elected representative by one hundred and twenty-eight votes. Democratic electors received one hundred and sixty-four votes, while the Whigs carried as high as one hundred and thirty-six.
This shows a marked growth of Whig sentiment in two years since they began to stir themselves for a better party organization. Much of this gain must be credited to the White Mountain Ægis, which was now reaching nearly every family in town, and its influence must have been considerable as it tore the veil of political hypocrisy off the leading questions of the day. So powerful had this new paper become that the leaders of the Democratic party saw the im- portance of establishing a rival paper, which they did by issuing the first number of the Coos Democrat on Tuesday, September 11, 1838.
The enterprise was promoted and backed by such leaders of the party as Maj. John W. Weeks, Jared W. Williams, and John S. Wells. The office of the paper was in the Wells building, now the store of E. R. Kent and the banking-rooms of the Lancaster Savings Bank and the Lancaster Trust Company on Main street. The edi- tor of the new paper was James M. Rix, a young man of excellent ability and a devoted Democrat. He had associated with him in the enterprise as a partner J. R. Whittemore, who was styled propri- etor and publisher. The editors of these rival papers, both young men of talent, were not disposed to handle each other's sayings with much tenderness or considerateness. Their editorials were often more forcible than polite, but they served to deepen party spirit and keep alive the flames of partisan strife.
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Party lines were beginning to break along a new line of cleavage hitherto unknown in American politics. The Abolitionists were making demands upon the political parties of the country, and as they were slow to recognize and favor their demands a new party was being called into the arena of political discussion and destined to make its demands known at the polls. In the campaign of 1841, the Abolitionist party, the Free Soil party, first appeared. The Democratic party carried the state by a large majority. It received over twenty-nine thousand votes, while Enos Stevens, the Whig can- didate, received twenty-one thousand, and Daniel Hoit, the Free Soil candidate, received nearly three thousand votes in the state. In the Lancaster vote the results were: John Page, Democrat, received the usual majority. William Holkins, Free Soil candidate for governor, received five votes. John S. Wells and Royal Joyslin were the candidates for representative. Wells received one hundred and twenty-five votes to Joyslin's one hundred and fifteen. So well was this election conducted that it shows every voter as voting.
The Whigs were making a gain even in New Hampshire, dom- inated as it was by the influence of Jackson and Isaac Hill. In Lancaster they were reducing the Democratic majorities every year. In the election of 1842, with three candidates for governor, Hub- bard, Democrat, only received ninety-four votes. Anthony Colby, Whig, received eighty-one, and John H. White, Independent Dem- ocrat, sixty-two. The records show no Abolitionist vote. John S. Wells was again elected to the legislature with a much-reduced majority. This quadrangular form of contest had tended to deepen the interest of all parties in the issues of the near future. It was evident that with two Democratic parties and an Abolition party in the field advantage must be to the Whigs. This gave them fresh hopes of carrying the town and state at no distant day. The next year there were four candidates for governor: Henry Hubbard, Democrat; Anthony Colby, Whig; John H. White, Independent Democrat; and Daniel Hoit, Free Soil. Hubbard led with ninety-four votes; Colby followed next with eighty-one; White was third on the list with sixty-two; and Hoit had but four this year. There could be no choice made for representative, and the town was not represented at the June session of the legislature of that year. The split in the Democratic ranks had left them no stronger than the Whigs. The campaign of 1844, with Henry Clay as the Whig candidate for president, stimulated the Whigs to renewed energy and effort to win the contest. With them it was a foregone conclusion that Clay would be elected, and the hope inspired the Whigs of Lancaster to put forth their best efforts to ride into power on the high tide of popular interest in the party's presidential candidate. There were the four candidates for governor
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as on two previous years. John H. White, a resident of Lancaster, was the standard-bearer of the Independent Democrats; Anthony Colby, the Whig representative; John H. Steele, Democrat; and Daniel Hoit, Free Soiler. In the state Steele received a small majority, while White received nearly two thousand votes. The Whigs polled fifteen thousand, and the Free Soilers nearly six thou- sand votes. In the town meeting there was great excitement. The scale had turned. The Whigs were coming to the front. So easily were they carrying the day that they brought forth for representa- tive William D. Weeks, a young man only twenty-six years of age, who received one hundred and twenty-five votes as a Whig. Amos LeGro, Democrat, received but ninety-six, John H. Spaulding had ten votes, and John Aspenwall, five. Col. Ephraim Cross of Lan- caster received one hundred and twenty-four votes for state senator, as against one hundred and thirty-five for all other candidates. He was a well-known Democrat, but being a citizen of Lancaster and a man much esteemed by all his neighbors he received many compli- mentary votes from other parties and factions.
In the November election of that year the Democrats again car- ried the town for their electors for president, receiving as many as one hundred and sixty votes. The Whig candidates received one hundred and thirteen, and the Free Soil party eighteen votes. This turn of the vote from that of the March meeting was a great sur- prise and disappointment to the Whigs.
At that election two state measures were voted upon. The ques- tion of calling a constitutional convention for the revision of the constitution of the state was one, and it was negatived by nearly the entire number of votes cast. The other question was upon abolish- ing capital punishment. This was likewise voted against by two hundred and two votes to ninety in favor of its abolishment. Lancaster has always held human life in sacred esteem, and at no time has public sentiment been in favor of dealing lightly with him who would ruthlessly destroy the life of his neighbor; nor is this sentiment tempered with cruelty. The citizens of the town have always been noted for their humanity. They are bold and fear- less in criticism of one another, but they never have been fighters among themselves. Their political and other contests have often been bitter, but no man ever lifted his hand against his neighbor in mortal combat.
The annual election of 1845 presents no severe contest. There were three parties in the field with their candidates for governor. The Democrats presented Governor Steele again. He received one hundred and fifty-three votes. Anthony Colby, the Whig candi- date, received ninety-one, and Daniel Hoit, Free Soiler, twenty-four. The Free Soil party had made a gain of six in a year. The Abo-
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lition sentiment was destined to grow in Lancaster, though it had arrayed against it two strong competitors. At that election Harvey Adams, a Democrat, was elected representative, and Col. Ephraim Cross was reëlected to the state senate.
The following year politics grew more interesting for Lancaster people. It had become apparent that the Democratic party was liable to a defeat in 1846. Some anxiety was felt by its leaders in town as to who could carry the state against the growing Whig party. Jared W. Williams put the question to Maj. John W. Weeks, whom the party had better bring forward as a candidate for gov- ernor at the election of that year? The Major replied, "Be governor yourself." That was the first intimation of such a possi- bility for Williams. Thinking the matter over seriously, however, he threw himself into the field and secured the party's endorsement of himself as candidate for governor. Excitement in Lancaster ran high over the candidacy of Williams. He carried a heavy vote in his own town, receiving one hundred and ninety-eight. Colby, the Whig candidate, who was elected by the legislature, received only sixty-nine votes. The Free Soil candidate, Nathaniel S. Berry, secured twenty-eight votes, an increase of four over the previous year. Harvey Adams was again elected representative by the usual vote.
Mr. Williams was not elected ; but the next year, not discouraged by his defeat, he tried the question over, and this time secured a majority. He received only one hundred and eighty-five votes this year, which was twelve less than the previous year. Colby and N. S. Berry ran again as candidates of the Whig and Free Soil parties. Their combined votes did not exceed one hundred and twenty.
It was at this election that James M. Rix, for nine years the able and successful editor of the Coos Democrat, entered the political arena as a candidate. He was chosen representative by a good majority. Mr. Rix was an able and a bold local leader, and did much to mold opinion in this section of the state. He was honest, impetuous, and often irritable in speech and action, a merciless critic of his political opponents. He was a patriotic citizen, and his party had unbounded confidence in him. He was reëlected to the legislature the following year. At this election of 1848, Gov- ernor Williams was reelected by a slender majority over Nathaniel S. Berry, Free Soil candidate. Williams received 32,245 votes in the state, and Berry, 28,829. There were 468 set down as " scat- tering." The Whigs had no candidate that year, which left the contest between the Democrats and Free Soilers. Lancaster gave Williams one hundred and ninety-two votes, and Berry one hundred and six. In Lancaster, as throughout the state, the majority of the Whigs voted with the Free Soil party when they had no candidate
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of their own. This was, no doubt, an ominous sign to the Demo- crats, who could not but see in it a fate awaiting them. Again, in in 1849, there were three candidates for governor. The Democrats brought forward Samuel Dinsmore, Jr., who received 30,107 votes against 18,764 for Levi Chamberlain, Whig, and 7,045 for Berry, Free Soil candidate. In Lancaster, Dinsmore received one hundred and eighty-two votes; Chamberlain, eighty-four, and Berry, twenty- eight. The vote had fallen back to the old party limits of several years before. At this election, Benjamin F. Whidden was elected to the legislature as a Democrat. Mr. Whidden later left the party and united with the Republican party, as many other Democrats did. Mr. Whidden was reelected the next year. He was again chosen representative in 1867. He held other offices; he was solicitor for Coös county, judge of probate, and held an appointment under the national government as first minister to the republic of Hayti.
Politics had become very much disturbed about 1850. The Abo- litionists, arising as a party in 1844, were not a strong party in Lancaster ; but they were persistent. There was here a station of their " underground railroad " for helping runaway negroes into Canada. The original members of the party were from the old Whig party, and there was a hope that the entire Whig party would espouse their cause, which hope was later realized. The Demo- cratic party had already split in two, the come-outers styling them- selves "Independent Democrats," and John H. White, a Lancaster. man, had been their candidate for governor in 1842 and 1844.
The candidates for governor in 1850 were Samuel Dinsmore, Jr., Democrat, Levi Chamberlain, Whig, and Nathaniel S. Berry, Free Soil. Dinsmore received the usual heavy vote of the party, one hun- dred and ninety-one. The Whigs cast ninety-six votes for Chamber- lain, and Berry only got twenty-three. The vote had stood stubbornly at about these figures for some years, showing a firm determination on the part of the voters to hold their ground against any change that might be lurking in the near future, so full of threatening possi- bilities.
This year there was a special election called in October to choose delegates to a constitutional convention at Concord, on the sixth of November. John H. White, a Democrat of independent proclivi- ties, was sent as delegate from Lancaster. His choice was one agreeable to all parties, as he was not an extreme party man.
The next year was one of uncommon political activity and inter- est, and 185I went down on the page of New Hampshire's history as its most remarkable campaign. The Democratic convention nominated that year the Rev. John Atwood, of New Boston, for governor. No sooner was he in the field than he was interviewed and written to on the slavery question. He soon became entangled
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in the position he took on the question, and drew down upon him- self a vast amount of hostile criticism, even from his own party, as his sympathies carried him in the direction of the Free Soil party's position. Mr. Rix, editor of the Coos Democrat, was pronounced in his opposition to him. Others discussed the question of a min- ister entering the political field, and very many silly things were said that marked his critics as being either ignorant or hypocritical. The feeling was so bitter against Mr. Atwood that the party reconvened the convention and dropped Mr. Atwood from the ticket, substitut- ing for him Samuel Dinsmore, Jr., who had twice been elected. Resolutions were passed severely condemning Mr. Atwood. Hav- ing been soundly berated by the Democrats as being a Free Soiler, Mr. Atwood was taken up by that party on the eve of the election, and made its candidate for governor. The hostility of the Coös Democrat to him, evidently based upon the supposition that he was in sympathy with the Abolitionist people, but veiled under the popular feeling, based wholly on ignorance, that a minister has no political rights, led many Democrats and Whigs to his support.
The excitement ran high in Lancaster; so that when the election came, Mr. Atwood received one hundred and twenty-five votes. Samuel Dinsmore, Democrat, received only eighty-nine. Thomas E. Sawyer, Whig, received eighty-two, and Joel Eastman, not a reg- ular candidate, one. The vote of Lancaster was similar to that of the state at large. Atwood received 12,049 votes; Dinsmore, 27,- 425 ; Sawyer, 18,458. The Whig vote had fallen seventy-four be- low that of 1850 in the state; the Democrats had lost 3,326, and the Free Soil party had gained 5,577 in the state. Lancaster was thus in line with the state in the reversion of its votes.
No candidate that year could command a majority for the legis- lature, and the town was not represented at the June session. James M. Rix was his party's candidate for the state senate that year, and was not elected by the popular vote and Joseph Pitman of Bartlett was chosen by the legislature. His own town gave him only a plural- ity of one. His vote was one hundred and three, while Isaac Abbott of Littleton received only one less than Rix, and Pitman eighty-nine. Lyman Blandin received fifteen votes. Rix had overdone his as- sault on Atwood, and had turned many of his friends from his sup- port. The people had said by their votes that the minister, no more than the lawyer, physician, merchant, or farmer, should be ruled out of public service. Rix's defeat was simply a party bolt among Democrats.
The election of the following year shows different results. Mr. Atwood was again the Free Soil party's candidate for governor, and received but one hundred and three votes. Sawyer, Whig, received the same number that Atwood did; and Thomas E. Martin, Demo-
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crat, one hundred and four. There was one vote each for Joel East- man and Lewis Cass, who were not regular candidates. At this election Mr. Rix again came forward as his party's candidate for the state senate, and was this time successful by a small majority. George A. Cossitt was chosen representative.
The election of 1853 is an important one as marking the turning of some of the old leaders to the Free Soil party. Among that class was John H. White, who this year was the Free Soil can- didate for governor. He received only thirty-four votes in his own town, but a fair vote in the state. Governor Martin was again a candidate, and received one hundred and forty votes. James Beil, Whig, received one hundred and twelve. James M. Rix was again elected to the senate, and this year was president of that body.
The Kansas-Nebraska trouble was now at its height, and in Lan- caster there was much sympathy felt for the Free Soil party. A contribution of clothing and other things had been collected here and forwarded to the sufferers in that struggle against the en- croachments of the slave power. Staunch Whigs took a lively inter- est in the matter. The state was drifting away from her Democratic moorings. In Lancaster the excitement was deepening every year. Nathaniel B. Baker, Democrat, received one hundred and one votes for governor ; James Bell, Whig, got one hundred and six ; Jared Per- kins, Free Soiler, one hundred and twenty-eight. On the other candidates the vote was divided more evenly, due wholly to local causes. It was this year that Jacob Benton entered the political arena as a Whig candidate for the legislature. He was elected, receiving one hundred and forty votes. John W. Lovejoy and William Burns, the latter a Democrat, received something over fifty votes each for the same office.
Lancaster was much affected by the changes that were now going on throughout the country. The Know Nothing party, a secret po- litical clan, was organized here. It had a hall, where it held its secret sessions, in a carriage-shop standing where the stable of the Van Dyke residence now is. The building was later moved to the corner of High and Summer streets, and is now owned by Wheelock H. Little. Here a little band met in the upper story to do, nobody knows just what. The rancor of the movement was directed, however, against foreign born citizens holding office. The organization contributed somewhat to intensify the excitement and feeling then prevailing, and continued two years. There is quite an exaggerated tradition still afloat of how Editor Rix got an observer, said to have been William H. Smith, to unite with the society and get its secrets for him to make a grand exposure of the party ; but when sifted, it turns out to be of no importance what- ever. The new party did, however, rally together 32,769 votes for
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Ralph Metcalf in 1855, by which he was elected governor. He re- ceived two hundred and sixty votes in Lancaster, the largest vote ever, up to that date, given any candidate for that office. Governor Baker, Democrat, only received ninety-four; Asa Fowler, Free Soil, five ; James Bell, Whig, fifteen. Jacob Benton and Edmund Brown, Know Nothing candidates for representatives, received the same vote that Metcalf did. This was the first year that Lancaster was entitled to two representatives in the legislature. Benton had dominated the Whig party the year before, and now had carried it over to the new party of Know Nothings, called at this time the American party, and Edmund Brown was a Free Soil leader.
The spring election of 1856 was one of great excitement, and marks the beginning of a change destined to deepen the feel- ings of jealousy between the factions now coming together to form a new party against the Democrats. This was the last election in which the Whig party appeared under that name, as was also the case with the new American party and the Free Soil party. Daniel A. Bowe had started the Coös Republican as an anti-Nebaska or- gan in Lancaster, a newspaper destined to wield a large influence in the town in the years to come. The Republican party was be- ing organized throughout the country in January of that year, though old party names were still recognized in the March meeting in Lan- caster. The new party was not named in the town records until the November election of that year.
On January 30, 1856, a convention was held at the town hall to organize for action against the Democratic party. This convention was for the whole of Coos county. Among the Lancaster men who took an active part in its deliberations and actions were : E. F. East- man, B. F. Whidden, Jacob Benton, John H. White, William R. Stockwell, Edmund Brown, John M. Whipple, Daniel A. Bowe, and A. L. Robinson. These were appointed a committee for the town of Lancaster, to organize the party. Other committees were ap- pointed for other towns in the county.
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