USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 32
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There was war between Great Britain and France, and both powers were encroaching upon the rights of American com- merce. Some were in favor of an alliance with Great Britain, notwithstanding the facts that she was impressing American seamen, holding military posts along the Great Lakes that belonged to the United States, and capturing American vessels; others thought that we ought to lend sympathy and aid to France, our helper in time of trouble. Washington issued a proclamation of strict neutrality. Then, as now, there was pub- lic debate as to what course of conduct neutrality required. The people of Portsmouth, in open town meeting, declared, that "we rely on the support and energy of the government of the United States, that our navigation shall be freed from the present depredations and insults committed by the powers at war; and that just compensation shall be made to those who have suffered by such unwarrantable conduct." Similar language is used today against both Great Britain and Germany. It would seem that in all ages contending nations have little regard for the rights of neutrals, unless those neutrals are strong enough to defend themselves. Each contending power claims all that international law has ever allowed, widens its own interpreta- tion of such law to suit changed conditions, and grasps all it can take with reason or without. Rules made for warfare in time of peace amount to but very little when the desperate struggle for supremacy comes on.
The Hon. John Jay was sent to the court of St. James as minister plenipotentiary, and he negotiated the best treaty with England that the times would permit. The western military posts were given up. Claims were allowed which led to the payment of $11,000,000 by England. But nothing was done about the impressing of American seamen into the English navy and the capture of American merchant vessels. Vessels of
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seventy tons burden and less were allowed freely to trade with the West Indies. The treaty was thought by many to be injurious and disgraceful to the United States. John Langdon, as senator, voted against it. Then New Hampshire and Vir- ginia were in accord. This was in 1795. The people of Portsmouth petitioned President Washington, that the treaty might not be ratified, because of its unfairness. "The other Sen- ator in Congress from New Hampshire had voted for its ratifica- tion. A counter address to the President was drawn up and signed by a large number of individuals. But to prevent its being sent on, two or three hundred of the enraged populace assembled and armed with clubs paraded the streets, with drums beating, and carrying the effigies of the commissioners who made the treaty and the Senator who voted for its ratification; insulting many of the signers of the address, broke their windows and fences, injured their trees, and with threats of personal injury and violence demanded the address of the person who had it in possession. After keeping the town in terror and confusion several hours they burnt the effigies and then dispersed. Ten of the principal persons concerned in this plot were indicted at the next Superior Court."2
The treaty, however, was ratified, and sober judgment has concluded that it was the most favorable that could have been made at that time. The threatened war with England was postponed for seventeen years, till this nation was in a better condition to enforce the rights of its seamen. Governor Gilman in his message of 1795 approved the treaty and his approval was endorsed by the legislature in the strongest terms. The only influence that riots usually have on legislation is to pre- judice the legislators against the rioters. Those who know that they are in the right are content with an appeal to reason, unless armed force opposes itself to sane argument.
Another instance shows how New Hampshire was in harmony with Virginia in the maintenance of State Rights. A privateer called the McClary was fitted out by Portsmouth merchants, under the sanction of the legislature of the State. The McClary captured an American merchant ship, called the Susanna, bound to an enemy's port and laden with supplies.
2 Adams' Annals of Portsmouth, p. 311.
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The vessel and cargo were regularly condemned in the courts of the State and adjudged to the captors as their lawful prize. The United States court of appeal reversed the judgment of the State court. The District Court of the United States confirmed the decision of the court of appeal, and ordered the value of the Susanna and her cargo, amounting to over $32,000, to be re- stored to the owners of the Susanna. A special session of the New Hampshire legislature was called to consider the matter, as a violation of the dignity, sovereignty and independence of the State. A remonstrance sets forth the feeling of the State in the following vigorous language :
"This State had a right to oppose the British usurpations in the way it thought best; could make laws as it chose with respect to every transaction, where it had not explicitly granted the power to congress ; that the formation of courts for carrying those laws into execution belonged to the several states; that congress might advise and recommend, but the states only could enact and carry into execution; and that the attempts repeatedly made, to render the laws of this state null and void is a flagrant insult to the principles of the revolution.
Can the rage for annihilating all the power of the states and reducing this extensive and flourishing country to one domin- ation make the adminstrators blind to the danger of violating all the principles of our former governments, to the hazard of convulsions in endeavoring to eradicate every trace of state power, except in the resentment of the people? Can the consti- tutional power of congress, in future, be no other way established, than by the belief that the former congress always possessed the same? Can the remembrance of the manner of our opposition to tyranny and the gradual adoption of federal ideas be so painful as to exclude, (unless forced into view,) the knowledge that congress in its origin was merely an advisory body ; that it entirely depended upon the several legislatures to enforce any measures it might recommend."3
This shows that the states of the North was just as clam- orous for their rights as were those of the South in later times, when either thought that the national governmment was intrud- ing upon powers reserved to the individual States, and each
3 Hist. of N. H., by George Barstow, pp. 305-6.
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State was inclined to think that such powers were reserved as suited their special interests from time to time. States are as selfish as the individuals that compose their governors and legislators, proving thereby that such corporations have souls, -and depraved ones at that. Indeed the depravity of corpora- tions is more marked than that of the individuals that compose them. The Constitution, with ex parte interpretation, is a fetich to be worshiped on occasion, when the divine law, that is higher than the Constitution, is forgotten, or ignored.
Envoys sent to France to adjust all difficulties with that nation had not even so good success as John Jay had in treating with England. The Directory demanded a loan of $6,000,000 to the French government and the payment of fifty thousand dollars to each of the five directors as preliminary steps to a treaty. These payments were regarded as private doceurs, now known as graft. These terms were indignantly refused, and the voice of all parties at home was, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." The French Directory changed their minds and sent for ministers to make a treaty. Before their arrival Napoleon I came into power as First Consul, with whom a satisfactory treaty was made. An address was sent to Presi- dent John Adams by the legislature of New Hampshire, which had the unanimous vote of the Senate and only four opposing votes of the House, approving his foreign policy.
In 1795 peace was made with the Algerines that was not so honorable to the United States. A nest of pirates had captured some American citizens and held them for ransom. There were paid one million dollars and an annual tribute of sixty thousand dollars for the redemption of captives. To the Dey of Algiers was presented a frigate built at Portsmouth. All this disgrace was forced upon us by an insignificant power and a band of pirates because of the unpreparedness of the United States navy.
It is claimed, with good evidence, that the first steam- boat in America was built by Samuel Morey of Orford, New Hampshire, and sailed on the Connecticut river as early as 1792 or 1793, fourteen years before Robert Fulton sailed up the Hudson to Albany, in the Clermont. John Fitch had made the experiment of propelling a boat by means of a system of
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paddles, twelve in number, that moved like a human arm. This was a failure. In 1787 James Rumsey invented a boat propelled by steam, pumping in water to be forced out at the stern, the resistance of the water forcing the boat along. A company was formed to push forward the enterprise, but it moved no better than the boat. John C. Stevens and Oliver Evans had made some experiments in propelling boats by steam. Samuel Morey began his experiments as early or earlier and succeeded so well that Robert Fulton went to Orford and saw Morey's invention and Morey went to New York and showed models to Fulton and Chancellor Living- stone, who financed Fulton's enterprise. Morey claimed that Fulton practically stole his invention. Perhaps both are en- titled to some credit, though Morey lacked financial backing to make his invention a business success. Silliman's Journal of Science and Art had about that time several scientific articles written by Morey, and a description of "The Revolving Steam Engine recently invented by Samuel Morey, and patented by him on the 14th of July, 1815, with four Engravings." His steamboat was forced along by paddle wheels and on the first trip, a Sunday, 1792, he sailed from Orford to Fairlee, Vermont.
Samuel Morey was son of Colonel Israel Morey, who moved from Connecticut to Orford and took an active part in the Revolution, being promoted to the office of General. He was a man of distinction in civil as well as military affairs. His son is described as a most excellent man in character and of great inventive ability. During the last seven years of his life he dwelt at Fairlee, Vermont, and his steamboat is said to be resting on the bottom of Fairlee Pond. Some unavailing efforts have been made to raise it.4
It is difficult to conceive how three millions of people in this country did business many years without a bank. The first one, the Bank of North America at Philadelphia, was chartered December 31, 1781. This was followed by the Massachusetts Bank at Boston, February 7, 1784. The third was the Maryland Bank at Baltimore, November, 1790. The fourth was the Bank of the United States at Philadelphia,
4 See pamphlet, Who Invented the American Steamboat? by William A. Crowly, 1874.
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February 25, 1791. The fifth was the Bank of New York, March 21, 1791. The sixth was the New Hampshire Bank at Portsmouth, January 3, 1792. The incorporators of the last were Dr. Ammi R. Cutter, Eliphalet Ladd, Jacob Sheafe, William Gardner, and the Hon. John Samuel Sherburne, all of Portsmouth.
The capital stock paid in was $80,000, of which the State took $10,400. The stockholders gave to the State a bond to refund the same to the State at any time within three years, if the legislature so ordered. The State held this stock till 1840, when a portion of it was given for the erection of the first building in the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane. The bank was empowered to hold real estate to the value of $50,000 and no more, and monies, goods, chattels and effects to the amount of $200,000, and to dispose of such property, provided that none of the directors and company should di- rectly or indirectly use and employ any of the monies of the bank in trade or commerce. The charter was to extend fifty years. The stockholders were privileged to vote in the follow- ing proportion :- for one share and not more than two shares, one vote; for every two shares above two and not more than ten, one vote; for every four shares above ten and not exceed- ing thirty, one vote; for every six shares above thirty and not exceeding sixty, one vote. This provision curbed some- what the power of the large stockholders; one might hold a majority of stock without having a majority of votes. Doubt- less, however, a few heavy stockholders managed the bank. Governor John Taylor Gilman was its president, and so was Hon. Oliver Peabody, both residents of Exeter. It continued operations till the expiration of its charter, in 1842.
The first bank was not long without a rival. It was under control of Federalists, who confined its loans to friends of that party. A company was formed in Portsmouth, which issued bills and did the ordinary business of a bank without being incorporated. This company was headed by Governor John Langdon, Senator John Samuel Sherburne and a Mr. Goddard, who were Anti-Federalists, or Republicans, and the company loaned to their political friends. They applied for an act of incorporation, which was at first denied, and a law
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was passed, making all such unincorporated banking associa- tions unlawful. The contest of the political parties continued over the question of the incorporation of the Union Bank of Portsmouth for more than two years. The need of the bank for the transaction of business was hardly considered. Some, taught by lessons of the past, were skeptical about the issue of paper money in any form. The old State notes had depre- ciated long before till they had become worthless. Mr. Plumer, afterwards governor, favored keeping the banking business in the hands of the national government. The system of State banks ultimately prevailed. The New Hampshire Union Bank, was incorporated, after long opposition in 1802, being the second bank in the State. Six more were added within the first decade of the nineteenth century. The subject will be resumed in the treatment of that period.
The New Hampshire Medical Society was incorporated in February, 1791, in response to a petition signed by nineteen physicians from thirteen towns. At that time there were but three medical schools in America, Harvard, founded in 1783, the University of Pennsylvania in 1764, and King's College, New York, 1768. All these at the end of the century had not graduated more than two hundred and fifty students. Most of the practitioners in New Hampshire had received their in- struction from some older physician, from whom they had learned both theory and practice. There were no medical books or journals published in America, and books printed in Europe were expensive and obtained with difficulty. A medi- cal library was much needed, and by the donations and lega- cies of its members the Medical Society soon made a good beginning. The corporate members of the Society were Josiah Bartlett, at that time President, or Governor, of the State and elected the first President of the Society, serving till other public duties obliged him to resign; Joshua Brackett, graduate of Harvard, student of theology and for some time a preacher, judge of the maritime court during the Revolution, eminent physician of Portsmouth, donor of $1500 toward a chair of botany and natural history at Harvard and of one hundred and forty volumes to the Society; Hall Jackson, whose services as surgeon in the Revolution have been mentioned, patriot
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and scientist, author of a pamphlet on Putrid Sore Throat; Nathaniel Peabody of Atkinson, more noted in civil and mili- tary circles, and cordially hated for inability and perhaps un- willingness to pay his debts; William Cogswell of Atkinson, surgeon mate in the military hospital at West Point and also chief in charge and skillful practitioner at Atkinson; Benjamin Page, heroic surgeon of the Revolution at Bunker Hill, Ti- conderoga and Bennington, where he had the only surgical instruments on the field, later physician at Chester, Exeter and in Hallowell, Maine; William Page of Charlestown, colonel in the militia and senator in the State Legislature; Samuel Tenney, graduate of Harvard, surgeon throughout the revolu- tionary war, judge of probate for Rockingham county, three years member of United States Congress, and frequent con- tributor to the scientific and political magazines of his time; Isaac Thom of Windham, member of the Committee of Safety in the Revolution and eminent physician in Windham and Londonderry; Ezra Green of Dover, graduate of Harvard in 1765, surgeon in the Revolution serving at Bunker Hill and on the ship Ranger, first postmaster of Dover; Moses Carr of Somersworth, where he was well known for his professional work, judge of the court of common pleas from 1776 to 1784 and dying in 1800 at age of eighty-four; Ammi R. Cutter, born in North Yarmouth, Maine, graduate of Harvard, surgeon to the famous Rogers' Rangers, and at the siege of Louisburg, serving a year as Physician-general at Fishkill in the Revolu- tion, recipient of an honorary degree of M.D. from Harvard, and a man of intellectual and moral power; John Rogers, graduate of Harvard in 1776, physician and justice of the peace at Plymouth; George Sparhawk, a Harvard alumnus, eminent physician of Walpole and State Councilor; Ebenezer Rock- wood, graduate of Harvard and surgeon in the continental army, called by voters to settle in Wilton; and Kendall Osgood, surgeon on a privateer in the Revolution and physi- cian at Atkinson and Peterborough. Besides there were James Brackett, William Parker and John Jackson. These were no ordinary men. Seven of them were educated at Harvard. They were, at the time of the organization of the Society, the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the
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State. Thirteen new members were admitted at the first meet- ing of the Society. It soon became their practice to license young men whom they judged properly qualified for their pro- fession, and the certificate of the Society was evidence of learn- ing and skill. Three of Governor Bartlett's sons became members of this organization. In 1827 the Society took a very advanced position on the temperance question, condemning the use of alcoholic liquors by the healthy as never necessary and often hurtful, and scarcely allowing it to the sick, except in extreme cases. From time to time papers of great importance have been read before the Society on medical science and practice in this and foreign countries. In 1836 President Mus- sey gave an address, discountenancing the use of tobacco from the medical point of view. The same year a resolution was sent to the State Legislature, asking for the establishment of an asylum for the insane. The Society established the New Hampshire Journal of Medicine in 1851. Down to the year 1890 seven hundred and twenty-four persons had been admitted to the Society, and it had rendered important service in keeping ignorant quacks out of medical practice and securing well trained physicians. The standard has been rising continually and there seems to be no limit to advancement. Perfection is never reached.5
According to the census of 1790 the population of New Hampshire was a little above one hundred and forty-two thous- and. In the year 1800 it had increased to 183,868. The growth was due to the fact that families were then generally large, ten or more children being not infrequent. There was in this decade little addition by immigration from without, most of the valuable land having previously been taken by settlers. Some extension of the frontier was made in the extreme northern part of the State.
The following citation is a well condensed summary of the history of New Hampshire down to the close of the eighteenth century. "The century closed when partisan warfare was at its height, and the press on both sides teemed with bitter sarcasm and malignant abuse. This important date in our
5 See Address by Dr. Lyman B. Gow, in Transactions of the N. H. Medical Society at its Centennial Anniversary, pp. 97-128.
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history suggests some reflections upon the condition of New Hampshire as it then was. It would be difficult to find a colony or state within the period of authentic history that suffered more or achieved more in the same number of years, than New Hampshire prior to the peace with Great Britain in 1783. Her entire record for one hundred and sixty years is stained with sweat and blood. Her citizens labored and suffered during all that period with unparalleled patience. From four inconsider- able plantations in 1641 she had grown in 1800 to be a populous state of one hundred and eighty-three thousand inhabitants dis- tributed over nearly two hundred flourishing towns. But from the hour when the forests of Dover and Portsmouth first rang with the blows of the woodman's axe there was no rest from toil, scarcely any from war, to all its citizens. For nearly all that long and dreary march of armies and pressure of labor the title to the very soil they had won from the wilderness was in dispute. The Indians were constantly upon their track, and no hiding-place was so secret or remote as to render its occupant safe from the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Foreign wars consumed their property and exhausted their men. The govern- ment under which they lived and to which they owed allegiance was changed almost as often as the wages of Jacob by his crafty father-in-law. The king ruled them only for his own advantage. Even Massachusetts, with whom for many years she enjoyed a peaceful alliance, finally became ambitious of enlarging her possessions and ungenerously obtained and appropriated nearly one half of New Hampshire. The people of the state found no security at home or abroad, but in their own brave hearts and strong arms."6
6 Hist. of N. H., by Edwin D. Sanborn, p. 233.
Appendix A
Appendix A
For a long time there has been considerable controversy among local historians about the birthplace of General John Sullivan, and there has been nothing definite published concern- ing the early life of his father in New England. The traditions are conflicting, and insufficient effort has been made to search public records for facts. Some of the traditions are manifestly inventions of a romancing imagination. One account has it that he landed at Belfast, Maine, and worked in a saw-mill; another, that he landed at York in 1723, driven there by stress of weather, although the desired harbor was Newburyport. His subsequent wife, Margery Browne, is said in one account to have come over later than he; another account says that she came over, a girl nine years of age, on the same ship. One writer says that he paid her passage money at Portsmouth, in shingles which he made and carried down the river by boat. We are told that he worked, immediately after his arrival, on the McIntire farm, in the Scotland parish of York, and that he sought the aid of the Rev. Dr. Moody in a letter written in five, or seven languages. Some have claimed that he taught school in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1723, immediately after the earliest date set for his arrival. The last statement is based upon something found in the town records of Dover, dated May 1723 :
Ordered that 2 Schoolmasters be procured for the Towne of Dover for the year Ensuing and that ther Sallery Exceed not £30 Payment a Peace and to attend the Directions of the Selectman for the Servis of the Towne in Equill Proportion.
At the same time Mr. Sullefund Exceps to Sarve the Towne abovesaid as Scoole master three months Sertin and begin his Servis ye 24th day of May, 1723, and also ye Said Sullefund Promised the selectmen if he left them Sooner he would give them a month notis to Provide themselves with a nother, and the Select men also was to give him a month notis if they Disliked him.
The conclusion was too easily reached that the schoolmas- ter here named was John Sullivan. One may find, however, in
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the published Province Papers of New Hampshire, IV, 83, the following: "Humphrey Sullivan Preferred a Petition to the board Praying for £50 to be paid him by the Town of Dover for his service there as schoolmaster," and the House of Rep- resentatives ordered that the selectmen of Dover be served with a copy of the petition. This was on the 19th of February 1722/3. It is evident that Humphrey, not John, Sullivan was the schoolmaster at Dover. He taught in Hampton from 1714 to 17181 and witnessed the will of William Fifield of that place, 18 Feb. 1714/15.2 He witnessed a deed from Dr. Jonathan Crosby of Oyster River to the Rev. Hugh Adams of the same place, 12 April 17203 and another deed at Oyster River, 31 Aug. 1725.4 Court records show that Humphrey Sullivan taught school at Oyster River from May 20, 1723, to April 19, 1726, in seven different houses; that for the first year he was paid according to agreement; and that he continued to teach without being duly authorized and sued for wages. A little later he brought action in court against the constable, Joseph Jenkins, for assault in the street at Portsmouth, in which the school- master was kicked and insulted. A recital of the incident is spread out in the beautiful penmanship of Humphrey Sullivan, to which he signs his name in large and copy-worthy letters .- N. H. Court Files, Folder No. 20101.
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