USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. I > Part 40
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Events in the nation during 1850, especially the enactment of the series of laws known as the compromise measures, tended to allay for a time the strife that had been gathering force for years in regard to the institution of slavery. The statesmen of both great parties urged these measures as a final solution of a danger- ous question, and the people, with rare exceptions, accepted their advice. The seer alone refused to believe that a question of such import could be thus disposed of, and regarded the matter as postponed, not settled ; to his vision it was clear that no final
1 The vote of the State for governor at this election was : Scattering, 468; Na- thaniel S. Berry, 28,829; Jared W. Williams, 32,245.
MARQUIS L. GOOLD.
397
Political Annals.
adjustment could be reached until all States, all institutions, and all laws were brought into harmony with the enduring principles of the great declaration upon which our government was founded. Statesmen might regard that declaration as a " glitter'ng gen- erality," as the original compromise between the contending forces of pelf and principle, but the plain men and women of the land felt that it was a vital force that could not be disregarded with safety to the State. So the Carletons, Hazeltines, and Alexanders in this secluded corner of a great nation, and their associates throughout the country, kept the faith and waited for the hour to strike that was to witness the consummation of their hope.
The local effect of these measures was to bring Whigs and Dem- ocrats into something like friendly relations, and to remove both further from the Freesoilers and destroy the balance of power held by that small aggregation, by a union of the principal antago- nists. As a result of this union the time-servers that had attached themselves to the Freesoil party in the expectation of gathering some of the local honors and emoluments, fell by the wayside to join the procession of victors as it marched by, and for several elections the Freesoil party mustered at the polls not more than sixteen votes.
This union of Whigs and Democrats in 1851 resulted in the election of Allen Day and Capt. Isaac Abbott to the General Court. This was the Captain's last public service, save that he acted as moderator on two or three subsequent occasions. During his active career in business and politics he was almost constantly in office, and probably held a larger number of official positions than any other resident of the town.
In old times, when the militia was regarded as the safeguard of the State, and its honors were bestowed for merit and were eagerly sought by persons interested in public affairs, and when a captain's commission was more highly esteemed than is that of a brigadier- general at the present day, Isaac Abbott passed from the ranks to the position of Captain and was regarded as a model officer.
In political life he held all the offices his neighbors could bestow, and was successively prudential school committee, fireward, high- way surveyor, moderator, selectman, five times Representative to the Legislature, member on committees for building bridges and other public duties, deputy sheriff, and several times the can- didate of his party for Senator and Councillor, - honors that could not be ratified by an election, as his party was in a minority. A strong partisan, his opponents never intimated that he had failed to discharge these public functions with fidelity and ability.
398
History of Littleton.
Originally a Federalist, when that party ceased to exist lie be- came a Wliig, then a " Native American," and finally a Repub- lican. His dislike for the Democratic party was so strong and abiding that during all the mutations of the various organizations by which that party was at different times opposed, the Captain never liad the least trouble in ascertaining his political bearings, as his uppermost desire was to whip the Democrats, and he took the most direct course to accomplish that object. It was some- what difficult to arrange the details, on the occasion of his last election to the Legislature, owing to the strength of his prejudice against his old opponents. At first he objected to permitting them to vote for him; yielding this point, he refused to be consid- ered their candidate, and the matter was finally arranged by each party placing a single candidate in nomination. The Captain be- came the nominee of the Whigs, and Mr. Day of the Democrats.
Captain Abbott was engaged in the manufacture of lumber for quite half a century. First at Charlestown for two or three years, then at the Fitzgerald mill at South Littleton for more than twenty years, when, witlı William Brackett, he was inter- ested in building the mill on Saranac Street, below the Woollen Factory. He also operated, for a time, tlie Gale or Stevens mill near the Wing Road in Bethlehem. He was methodical in his business habits, not over-ambitious to accumulate wealth, but de- sirous of keeping in advance of the demands likely to be made upon his purse ; and in this he was successful. His children re- moved to Lancaster or to neighboring towns, where they engaged in business. The elder daughter became the wife of Jolm Lind- sey, and the younger married Wallace Lindsey, both long and favorably known in hotel and stage circles throughout the State. His son Benjamin L. was a hotel-keeper in Coos County and at Auburn, Maine. Another son, Charles Henry, was engaged in the same business at Bethlehem. The eldest son, Isaac Edwin, was nearly all his life a resident of this town, but about the time of the close of the war he purchased a farm in Lancaster, and there the Captain joined him when he retired from business in 1869, and passed his remaining years, surrounded by his children and free from business cares and political strife. He died in 1882, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. The old Captain was a stout hater, a firm friend, and an honest man.
The harmony inaugurated in 1851 was of brief duration. The approaching presidential contest of 1852 served to awaken the slumbering animosities of former years, and neither party desired to continue the alliance.
399
Political Annals.
The Whig caucus placed in nomination Francis Hodgman and Horace S. Goss. The former was the village jeweller, apothecary, and barber, a man much respected. It was said of him that during his long business career he never made an enemy. Mr. Goss was a farmer living on the river road at the West End. Like his associate on the ticket, he had no enemies and many friends.
It was at this election that the name of Harry Bingham first appears as a candidate. He had, on several previous occasions, received a few scattering votes, but had not until now been put forward as the candidate of his party. At the time he was thirty- one years of age, abounding in mental and physical vigor and the possession of those aggressive qualities that rendered him the idol of all stubborn Democratic partisans. This characteristic quality rendered his chance of an election at that time a hope- less venture. In the practice of his profession he had alienated a number of prominent Democrats, among them Dr. Moore, and these men refused to support his candidacy and voted for Jolin Sargent, who was at that time a popular schoolmaster. The dif- ferences among Democrats brought out the full strength of the Whigs.
Interest in the contest centred entirely in the election of Repre- sentatives. James H. Angier, Democrat, was elected moderator with slight opposition, and in return many Democrats cast their votes for Major Aaron Brackett, Whig, for town clerk, and he was elected. Mr. Angier came here with his brother Joel in 1850, to become landlord of the " Granite." After the failure of that enterprise James H. was appointed deputy sheriff. They remained here but a few years. Subsequently Joel became mayor of Titusville, Penn., at a time when that oleaginous city was drawing thousands of flush investors and adventurers from all parts of the country. The deputy sheriff went to the Western Reserve, and when General Garfield became President, he made Mr. Angier postmaster of his home office at Mentor.
When the old meeting-house was no longer devoted to religious purposes, but was given over to use for town meetings, the pews in the body of the house were removed, leaving a considerable space for standing-room only. The large square pews along the walls and in the gallery remained to furnish seats for the aged and infirm. Many of the pews on the main floor were used by hucksters for the display and sale of such necessaries as cider, pies, cakes, and other food with which to feed the multitude. This standing space was usually crowded with an eager tumultu-
400
History of Littleton.
ous throng during the balloting and transaction of town business. The house had been the scene of many a hotly contested election, but this occasion in 1852 surpassed all previous records in the volume of sound sent forth from hundreds of throats as the result of each ballot was announced. Nor were the intervening hours entirely devoted to the quiet discussion of affairs of state, by small groups scattered throughout the house. The distributors of ballots were not modest in their method of calling the attention of citizens to the fact that they should vote for Francis Hodgman or Harry Bingham for Representative, and their shouts mingled with the shrill call of vendors announcing the superior quality of their cider and gingerbread, often made the scene a miniature pandemonium.
The ballot for Representative occupied much time, and efforts were put forth to bring every voter to the polls. When the con- test ended, Francis Hodgman had received 183 votes; Harry Bingham, 111; John Sargent, 48 ; and 10 were cast for eight different persons, mostly by Democrats. The result of the vote for a second Representative was the election of Horace S. Goss, who received 163 votes to 111 cast for Vine Kinne, 13 for Harry Bingham, and 14 for all others.
The chaotic condition of local politics is shown by the many changes that took place in the years extending from 1848 to 1856. First there was the coalition of Whigs and Freesoilers in 1849 ; of Democrats and Freesoilers in 1850 ; of Whigs and Democrats in 1851; the victory of the Whigs in March, 1852; of the Demo- crats in November of that year and in 1853 and 1854, and of the Americans, or Know-Nothings, in 1855, and of the Democrats again the following year.
The contest of March, 1852, was the last organized effort put forth by the Whigs in this town. The result of the presidential election of that year disheartened and disorganized that party, and in March, 1853, it was in the throes of dissolution. It presented the same candidates as in the previous year, but its action was merely perfunctory. They were hopelessly divided, and with a re- versal of victor and vanquished the election was but a repetition of that which preceded it. The Democratic candidates were Alexander McIntire and Curtis L. Albee. Mr. McIntire received 184 votes, Mr. Hodgman 114, Joseph Shute, bolting Whig, 43, and Edmund Carleton, 17, Freesoil. The ballot for a second Representative gave Mr. Goss 98, L. F. Ranlet, 15, and 40 votes were scattered among fourteen persons.
In 1854, under the excitement aroused by the Kansas-Nebraska
401
Political Annals.
bill, then pending in Congress, the opposition united and made a feeble show of resistance to the Democrats. Their representative candidates were Philip H. Paddleford and William J. Higgins. The former was a millwright, with shops at South Littleton, and the latter a tavern-keeper, at the old Williams stand. The Demo- cratic candidates, McIntire and Albee, each received 202 votes, Mr. Paddleford 162, Mr. Higgins 123, and Wesley Alexander, Freesoil, 37. This last vote was made up of anti-slavery men who were not satisfied with the position of Mr. Higgins on that question.
This closes the period in which Democrats and Whigs con- tended for the mastery, and in which the Freesoil party had its rise. A new generation had come upon the stage since the birth of the Whig party, and the men who stood by its cradle were rapidly passing from the scenes of activity. General Rankin, the father of the local organization, and Henry A. Bellows, its mentor, had removed from town, - the General, in 1846, to Ohio, to make his home with his daughter ; and Mr. Bellows, in 1850, to a larger and perhaps more congenial professional field at Con- cord. Captain Abbott, Josiah Kilburn, and George B. Redington were about all who were left of the band of men who a score of years before had led the Whigs in many a successful contest. The Captain was not now active, and the real direction of the party devolved upon Charles W. Rand, Mr. Josiah Kilburn, and Henry C. Redington. Mr. Kilburn was the strategist of his party then and for a long time afterward. He was a strong man, always seem- ingly engrossed in business affairs. Never engaging in politi- cal discussion, he was in fact a consummate politician without appearing in the least to be interested in the game being played by those around him. He was the master spirit who conceived every important political movement of his party in the local field during many years.
An incident that lent picturesqueness as well as demoralization to the politics of the time, was the advent of a secret political or- ganization popularly termed the Know-nothings, but which was officially styled " The Supreme Order of the Star-spangled Banner," the members of which were bound together by oaths administered amidst surroundings of the most gruesome and solemn character. The primary object of the society was to thwart the alleged plans of the Papists to secure control of the government of the country. To accomplish this, it proposed to prohibit all foreign- born residents from the benefits of citizenship until the period of their residence covered twenty-one years and to render them in- eligible to liold office in State or nation.
VOL. I .- 26
402
History of Littleton.
The party thus organized first attracted general attention in the spring of 1854 by carrying the municipal elections in several of the large cities of the country. But the full force and strength of the organization was not known until after the State elections in the autumn. All the States from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Indiana were carried by this party. It met its first defeat, and the beginning of the end, when Henry A. Wise was elected governor in the memorable contest in Virginia. The life of the order was brief, but full of mystery, excitement, and incidents dramatic and often tragic.
Its career in Littleton partook of all its characteristic elements save that of tragedy. The first charter for a lodge fell under the control of men who were more anxious to subserve the purposes of the Democratic party than they were fearful of the destruction of our free institutions through the machinations of the Roman Hierarchy. This lodge had its headquarters at the village, and its membership was composed largely of zealous Democrats who obtained the charter from the Supreme State Authority that they might thereby prevent the establishment of a lodge by the oppo- sition party who would use it to their detriment. These pre- cautions, however, were without avail. Those who were naturally in sympathy with the political purposes of the movement soon discovered the object of the men who directed the fortunes of the village organization, and upon solicitation obtained a charter for a lodge at the west end of the town. The new organization was presided over by John Pettingell, Sr., a deposed minister of the Free Baptist denomination, a man of considerable native ability but of irregular habits, which, while they unfitted him for the work of his chosen profession detracted nothing from his ability to discharge the work he was called upon to do in the new lodge. He was a large man, of dignified bearing, and possessed a deep powerful voice which must have rolled forth the terrible injunctions of the oaths he administered in a most impressive manner. This organization was largely controlled by a coterie of old Whigs, men of character, business ability, and practical experience, who, when they engaged in politics, threw all their ability and political acumen into the work at hand. Josiah Kilburn, Henry C. Redington, Curtis C. Bowman, and their numerous lieutenants were astute energetic leaders who left nothing undone calculated to win the victory for their party. The contest between the rival organizations was brief, but exceedingly acrimonious and even vindictive in character. Persons who claimed to be gentlemen and who were entitled to the name under ordinary circumstances, in those
403
Political Annals.
strenuous days of political strife did not hesitate to apply to each other such epithets as "Dough-faces, Rum-swizzlers, Negro- catchers, Roman Catholics at large," and in return heard them- selves styled "Nigger-lovers, Hindoos, Perjurers, and Stool- pigeons." Not content with burdening their common conversation with these opprobrious epithets, they wove them into doggerel songs and sang them to tunes of " Yankee Doodle," " Susanna," and other airs in vogue at the time.1 Meetings were held at Buck's Tavern, and political interest soon centred there. These assemblages were always boisterous, and sometimes riotous, as they were attended by the over-zealous members of the opposing parties, and interruption of the speakers was the rule and in more than one instance resulted in such confusion that the meetings were adjourned hastily before the business which called them together had been transacted. This scurrilous campaign ended in a victory for the Know-nothings by a majority of twelve votes. Earlier in the year they had enrolled among the members a majority of fifty of the legal voters of the town, but various influences caused many withdrawals, though earnest efforts were made to retain the ad- vantage they gained when their purposes were not as well understood as they were at a later time. The candidates of the oath-bound party were Marquis L. Goold, for town clerk, Philip
1 The character of these songs is indicated by the following extracts selected from the most popular. The first is from the repertoire of the lodge which held its meetings in Buck's Tavern, and was dedicated to Harry and George A. Bingham :
" Come Bogus, come, come one and all From the hills and village, O, We'll go to Buck's, applaud the Pats, And then we'll have a slam O."
CHORUS : "Yankee Doodle came to town With Sammy in a glee, And caught the Binghams by the ears And threw them in the sea."
Another consisted of eleven stanzas, the last of which was :
" And now farewell this mighty swell Who wish to work tlie niggers For Bishop Hughes has got the 'Blues' And Douglass has the giggers!"
The only specimen of the genius of the Democratic bard that has been preserved contains this verse :
"The Democrats were laughing loud, The Fillmore men were glum ; The old line Whigs are wide awake, And old Ralph Metcalf's mum, While parson Beecher howls and rants And seeks the storm to ride, And loudly cries with Speaker Banks, 'Oh! let the Union slide.' "
404
History of Littleton.
H. Paddleford and Horace Bnck for Representatives, Wesley Alexander, Stephen Carter, and Roby C. Towne, for selectmen. The candidates named by the Democrats were George S. Woolson for town clerk, John Sargent and Nathan Kinne, Jr., for Repre- sentatives.
The union of Whigs and Know-nothings was complete for all the candidates on their ticket except for Governor. There were seventy-three Whigs who could not vote for Ralph Metcalf, but gave their votes to James Bell. The result of the Know-nothing fiasco was the formation of the Republican party by the fusion of men who had abandoned both Whig and Democratic parties, and as is usual in such transition periods the interest in political mat- ters was intense, and was fostered by polemic writings in the newspapers of the period. The character of these papers dif- fered widely from those of the present day. They were made up largely of political matter, State and national, with some foreign news and brief references to important domestic events. Seldom was mention made of domestic occurrences other than those of a political character ; gossip concerning the movements of per- sons, their good or ill fortune, public or private improvements or the need of them. At this time there were but two weekly newspapers published in Grafton. County, the "Granite State Whig " at Lebanon, and the " Democratic Republican " at Haver- hill. Only two daily papers 1 found their way into Littleton, " The Boston Atlas," the New England organ of the Whig party, to which a club composed of Francis Hodgman, Truman Stevens, and Samson Bullard subscribed ; and the " Boston Post," to which exponent of Democratic principles E. S. Woolson was the sole subscriber in this town. The political conditions here were such that it seemed a fair field for the establishment of a newspaper which would advocate the Democratic cause. Francis A. East- man, a son of Rev. Stephen A. Eastman, a Methodist clergy- man, and Lovina H. (Gile) Eastman, having learned the printing art on the "Granite State Whig," at Lebanon, and on the " Caledonian," at St. Johnsbury, Vt., and desiring to possess a field of his own, returned to his native town and secured the valuable assistance of Harry Bingham, Ebenezer and Cyrus East- man, and other prominent Democrats, and established the " Am- monoosuc Reporter," the first newspaper of Littleton.
In the spring and early summer of 1852 Mr. Eastman traversed afoot this and adjoining towns, secured a satisfactory subscrip- tion list, and equipped an office in the second story of the building
1 The average circulation of daily newspapers is now (1902) 355.
Ammonoosnc Reporter.
VOLUME 1
LITTLETON, N. H., SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1852.
NUMBER 1.
AMMONOOSUC REPORTER
From the Landes IT-enth REBEKAII
It was a calm nod mellow evening on
"My master made me >wear, saying.
be fertile plain of Mesopotamia. The tbou sball not take a wife to my soo of
F. 1. EASTY L.N. Ebtor & Proprictor.
I did not condescend lo answer hun, been poured on 'her wings by the that it bad been revenled to her that, in but continued -- >No, Constance, though groteful rose; and the kind breeze wos Jacob and bis postority, the faith of |il breaki my heart to do so, I give you glad in heart, and went away singing
Abraham should be kepl alive.
flocks as they sought ibeir respective, iny son;" and iben he goes on to tell|
watcring places alone disturbed the qui them the providential manner in which
et of that sunset hour, Ouisple the cur he has been brought 10 their house
of Haran, by a well of water, lo, a Imar. Now the mystery is solved. Their
eler, Gaint, soiled and weary, is sealed, young anil beatiful laughter, must be
surrounded by len enmels, and a few at-
Given np, for they feel that the Lord
tenlagts. . He has come from the land has demanded her, and they dare not re-
of Cana'm, and he bows ins head upon |fuse. Thew answer was, the thing pro-
A MOONLIGHT SCENE IN'CON: STANTINOPLE.
fathers, the Las bright him in fty swer theo ind or gond We have ai+
they burcu faso, and Rebekab his wife;
and there + buried Lerh-
Job Printing
PR.M.PANMES, CIRCULARS. &C. Crecu ol aes: Pal the Ripotter Ulice
the Jumscl tu whom Le miny communi- Jan.ele which abe sees is of God's Land-
cute !'s ermed. He does not ask that writing.
S. M PETTENGILL & CO. are TiPhoneet ; be may find her wearing costly apparel.
The Cannanites tarry all night with Harley street for the purpose of hear-
quests to be sent away. and surrounded by a train of servants. Beibuel, and in the morning Eliezer re-jing his will not. I bail the greatest who wait to do her bodling-he asks Anxious no! pleasure in cunplying with her inv ita- fir pone of the pagrants ot wealth or dionul, to communicate to Abralant and sion
mm'y. although all these maghi n-son., lenae the sucre -. of his missur, the faith, and most amable girl uit my acquain-
EPITAPHIS.
THE RAILROAD AND STLAMBOAT ITELE
The New York Saturday Times suggests that i would be a good ndes zo phare ac learng appropriate epitaph, at the localy of each
engets of the peril of t'acie sicetrion, sol a row- trwaal momento of the une Ttainty of Tốc Oh
uf iLe city come out le ilmaw wat r,-
from the party in the drawing rooma,
nutrois It is trie tu the musspants of One a. . ] another cumes and goes with
chra inferior mig's is the course of time her par her ou ber shouhler, without so
derness with which a young and trusting mutter's down, he had told her that he
le aneelal with som: moconvenience, but the much as citing a glance of piy nt the girl is wont to regard her kimtreil, and: had ba
abrittagr would be gurtes af jomsning out re De trat ler the road where he wrwill meet the fewpst crates z'ti con-equeady stand the best
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