USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
JOHN P. HALE
١٢
139
A HISTORY
Boanerges," and "Granite State cataract" by his denunciations and vehement eloquence. After long effort he secured the pas- sage of a bill abolishing flogging in the navy. The Democratic party of New Hampshire had been opposed to the further exten- sion of slavery, affirming that it was an evil that ought to be checked. The annexation of Texas changed the attitude of most of the leaders in that party. They became obedient to the southern directors of their party and counseled silence and non- interference. Mr. Hale published a letter to his electors, in which he strongly opposed the admission of Texas into the Union, because it would increase slave territory. In so doing he broke with the new Democratic party, while advocating the principles of the old. He stigmatized the measure as "calcu- lated to provoke the scorn of earth and the judgment of heaven." For this the Democratic party attempted to throw him over- board as a political Jonah, but there was a split in the party, and the Independent Democrats rallied around the standard of John P. Hale. A convention, called by Amos Tuck of Exeter and John L. Hayes of Portsmouth, met at Exeter February 22, 1845, and organized under the name of Independent Democrats.2 Soon a paper was published by that name. An address to the people of New Hampshire was scattered throughout the State. John P. Hale and others lectured here and there in the effort to arouse and shape public opinion against the further extension of slavery. This split within the Democratic party, begun in Exeter in 1845, was made by the thin edge of the wedge called the Free Soil party, organized under that name in 1848, when they nominated a national ticket at Buffalo. It was the noble stand taken by Mr. Hale and his associates that called forth the poem of John G. Whittier :
God bless New Hampshire-from her granite peaks Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks.
The long-bound vassal of the exulting South
For very shame her self-forged chain has broken,- Torn the black seal of slavery from her mouth, And in the clear tones of her old time spoken.
The political contest of 1845 was an animated and strenuous one. Old Democrats, Independent Democrats and Whigs were
2 The Free-Soil Movement in New Hampshire, by John L. Hayes.
140
NEW HAMPSHIRE
in the field, contending for the mastery. Franklin Pierce as the leader of the old Democrats went through the State, mar- shaling his forces and winning newspapers to his aid. John P. Hale, backed by the convention at Exeter and many resolute men, was equally industrious and, moreover, was impelled by moral earnestness. On the week for the assembling of the legislature, in June, it was arranged that Mr. Hale should set forth the principles of his party in the old North church at Con- cord. The people thronged the church before the appointed hour, so that the streets were deserted, and Mr. Hale was de- pressed in spirit on his way to the church, fearing a thin audience and a failure. His feelings, as expressed to Hon. Henry P. Rolfe many years later, have been put on record. "I was gloomy and despondent, but kept my thoughts to myself. As we turned around the corner of the old Fiske store, and I looked up and saw the crowd at the doors of the old church surging to get in, the people above and below hanging out of the windows, first a great weight of responsibility oppressed me, and in a moment more an inspiration came upon me, as mysterious as the emo- tions of the new birth. I walked into the densely crowded house as calm and collected and self-assured as it was possible for a man to be. I felt that the only thing I then wanted-an oppor- tunity-had come, and I soon gathered that great crowd into my arms, and swayed it about as the gentle winds do the fields of ripening grain. That inspiration never for a moment left me. It followed me over the State, during the ensuing campaign, into the senate of the United States, remained with me there, and subsided only when the proclamation of President Lincoln de- clared that in this land the sun should rise upon no bondman and set upon no slave; and now when I turn my eyes heaven- ward, I can in imagination see hanging out from the battle- ments of Heaven the broken shackles of four millions of slaves, which for nearly twenty years I did all in my power to rend."
Mr. Hale spoke for two hours, knowing that he was address- ing not only the citizens of Concord but also representatives from every part of the State. It had been arranged that Franklin Pierce should reply to him on the spot, and he held the audience for another hour with oratory that was bitter and sarcastic in tone and matter. His manner was that of the irritated partisan, who feels himself to be already defeated. Mr. Hale sat in a
.
14I
A HISTORY
front pew and listened in silence to the almost insulting denunci- ations of an old college friend. In a brief rejoinder he stood upon the pew and closed his argument with words that have made him forever honored : "I expected to be called ambitious, to have my name cast out as evil, to be traduced and misrepresented. I have not been disappointed; but if things have come to this condition, that conscience and a sacred regard for truth and duty are to be publicly held up to ridicule, and scouted without rebuke, as has just been done here, it matters little whether we are annexed to Texas, or Texas is annexed to us. I may be permitted to say that the measure of my ambition will be full, if when my earthly career shall be finished and my bones laid beneath the soil of New Hampshire, when my wife and children shall repair to my grave to drop the tear of affection to my memory, they may read on my tombstone, 'He who lies beneath surrendered office, place and power rather than bow down and worship slavery.'"
These were noble words and have been fitly put upon his monument in the State House yard, a perpetual object lesson to teach the sacredness and pre-eminent right of human free- dom as well as the manliness of a fearless utterance of conscien- tious conviction. The feeling with which he spoke and that im- pelled him in his subsequent career is as fine an illustration of prophetic inspiration as can be found in Hebrew history. Such inspirations can be felt only by those who are divinely assured that they are aiding a righteous cause.
In the political contest that followed there were three can- didates in the field, representing three distinct parties. There was no election in September, and a second trial in November had a like result. In the March following the issue of no more slave territory was put before the people more plainly and fully than ever before, and the result was a complete, but temporary, overthrow of the Democratic party. Mr. Hale was elected representative from Dover to the lower house of the State, as an Independent Democrat and was chosen Speaker of that body. During the session he was elected United States senator for the full term of six years. Here he was alone among thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, opposing every movement for the extension of slave territory, fighting the fugitive slave law, calmly and courteously replying to the insults of senators
142
NEW HAMPSHIRE
from the South. He was joined soon by such men as Chase, Hamlin and Sumner from the North. He was the leader of the forlorn hope of Anti-slavery in congress and of the Independent Democratic party, which prepared the way for Free-Soilers and the Republicans. At the expiration of his first term of office he planned to take up the practice of law in New York, but was recalled to the senate in 1855, to fill out the vacancy occasioned by the death of Senator Atherton, and he was re-elected for a full term in 1859, thus serving sixteen years in the senate, dur- ing which time he saw the fulfillment of his glorious vision.
Mr. Hale declined, in 1847, the nomination as Free-Soil candidate for the presidency, but accepted the honor in 1852, when he received 155,850 votes. After his retirement from the senate he was minister to Spain for four years, a position for which he had no inclination or training. Impaired health led to his return and he died on the 19th of November, 1873.
An incident in his career deserves perpetual remembrance as illustrating the qualities of a reformer and orator. It was in 1851 and there was a court trial in Boston, occasioned by fugi- tive slaves. In defense of the rescuers of Shadrach Mr. Hale uttered the following words, like a sunburst from out of dark clouds: "John Debree claims that he owns Shadrach. Owns what? Owns a man! Suppose, gentlemen, John Debree should claim an exclusive right to the sunshine, the moon, or the stars! Would you sanction the claim by your verdict? And yet, gen- tlemen, the stars shall fall from heaven, the moon shall grow old and decay, the sun shall fail to give its light, the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, but the soul of the despised and hunted Shadrach shall live on with the life of God himself. I wonder if John Debree will claim that he owns him then !"
New Hampshire has had other sons that have outshone John Parker Hale as lawyers, statesmen and orators, although he was eminent in law, statesmanship and oratory. As a moral political reformer he outranks all others in the Granite State. His name was a household word throughout the North during the troublous twenty years following 1845, and well the writer hereof remembers hearing it often mentioned with admiration when he was but a lad. No worthier name adorns the history of the whole anti-slavery movement, and none contributed more than he to the awakening and growth of righteous sentiment in
- 1
I43
A HISTORY
the hearts of millions, that led to the overthrow of the crush- ing curse of slavery. His spirit needs to be forever reincarnated, to give to all men their just and equal rights.3
3 The best collection of character sketches and survey of the life of John P. Hale is found in a report of the addresses delivered at the unveiling of his statue, presented to the State by his son-in-law, Senator William E. Chandler, August 3, 1892. These addresses were published by direction of the Governor and Council. The principal address, made by the Hon. Daniel Hall of Dover, is a model for condensed fulness of matter and forceful beauty of diction.
Chapter X PERIOD OF DISCORD
Chapter X PERIOD OF DISCORD.
Gov. Jared W. Williams-He Warns against Control by Capitalists in Legis- lative Halls-His Argument for Preparedness-Visit of President Polk -Gov. Samuel Dinsmoor-Decline of the Militia System-His Attitude toward Struggling Railroads-Constitutional Convention-Proposed Amendments Rejected by the People-Contribution of the State to the Washington Monument-Gov. Noah Martin-His Pithy Political Maxims-Prosperity of the State Shown in Statistics-Number of Edu- cational Institutions-Rise of the American, or "Know-Nothing" Party- Origin of the Republican Party at Exeter-Franklin Pierce Elected President-Gov. Nathaniel B. Baker-Gov. Ralph Metcalf-He Speaks out against the Aggressions of the Slave States-Indignation at the Assault on Charles Sumner-Legal Prohibition in New Hampshire- Alarm at the Influx of Catholic Immigrants-Fears of Foreign Domina- tion Unfounded-Good Men Should Be Free to Go and Live Anywhere -Senator James Bell-The State Casts Its Vote for John C. Fremont -A Combination Defeats the Democrats-Gov. William Haile-Normal School Recommended-Reform School Established-The Rights of Africans Asserted by the Legislature.
A T the election of 1847 the same three gubernatorial can- didates were in the field as in the preceding year, but the voters for Nathaniel G. Berry did not hold together. Nearly four thousand deserted him, to return to the Democratic ranks, and as a consequence he had to wait till 1861 for his hour of triumph, and although Governor Colby had over three thousand votes more than in the year before, Jared W. Williams was elected by a vote of 30,806, more than all his competitors.
Jared Warner Williams was born in West Woodstock, Con- necticut, in 1796. He was graduated at Brown University in 1818, read law at the Litchfield Law School and settled in Lan- caster in 1822, where he resided till his death, September 29, 1864. He represented that town in the legislature, 1832-7, and was representative in congress, 1837-41. After serving as gov- ernor two years he was, in 1852, appointed Judge of Probate. He was elected United States senator for the years 1853-5. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention
147
148
NEW HAMPSHIRE
at Chicago. Dartmouth College gave him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, and Brown University made him a Doctor of Laws.
His attitude toward slavery was the traditional one of the Democratic party of the North, admitting it to be a moral, political and social evil, opposing its further extension, advocat- ing the Wilmot Proviso, but letting the slave-holding States alone, esteeming the preservation of the Union against Southern threats of more importance than the abolition of slavery on American soil. The Mexican war and its results were justified in his first message, and again the legislature was warned against "an improper tendency in favor of capital rather than labor, to benefit the few rather than the many; and the cause of this tendency must be found in the controlling influence of this capital in our legislative hall." Corporations had to be watched continually. Almost every governor for a long term of years warned the legislature to restrict their powers and keep them under the control of the State. They should have no more rights and privileges than private individuals and partnerships in the management of business.
The governor recommended a well ordered militia, and the adjutant-general in his annual report issued an alarming call that is of special interest today, when "preparedness" is the watchword of the hour. Here is the way he sought to frighten legislators into the adoption of strong military measures against England, whose "policy of her foreign relations has ever been violent, overbearing and monopolizing, and wherever she has trod with her iron foot, she has withered and destroyed all around. All past history is replete with the encroachment of nation upon nation, and can we expect that for our sakes the established order of things will be reversed, especially if we neglect the means of protecting and defending ourselves? Are there not despots in Europe, whose eyes would glisten with fiendish joy, to find us destitute of the constitutional power to enforce the execution of our laws, to suppress insurrections, and repel in- vasions? Would not such a condition invite aggression and attack? With a bare handful of an army in time of peace, and without an organized militia, who would there be to order out on any sudden emergency to man our fortifications and fill up our garrisons; to prevent the enemy from landing where he
149
A HISTORY
pleased, turning the permanent defenses of the country, assailing the point at which he aimed with impunity, and with the watch cry of "beauty and booty" ransacking our houses, ravaging our fields, and burning our cities and villages?" Surely the pacifists should feel their blood curdling at the reading of such words and wonder whether the present advocates of a big army and navy have not stolen the thunder of their arguments from the records of the dim past. Nearly seventy years have passed and cruel and tyrannous England has not molested us. The North then needed to prepare for internal conflict rather than against foreign foes. Is this also true today? Let justice in legislation avert the evil.
In response to an invitation from the legislature President Polk visited Concord, arriving on the first day of July, 1847. A committee met him at Lowell and a special train was provided by the Concord Railroad. Five thousand greeted him at Man- chester and the train stopped opposite the monument of General John Stark. At the railroad station in Concord he was met and escorted by the Stark Guards and the Concord Light Infantry. An arch of evergreen and flowers was erected on lower Main Street. Crowds lined the way and cheered tremendously, as a newspaper said. Seven governors of New Hampshire and other States were present. The President was entertained at the American House, made an address to the legislature and had a reception in the State House in the evening, leaving for Lowell at half past eight on the day of his arrival. The people had seen the President and some of them had heard his voice. On his way through Exeter, Newmarket and Dover to Maine many persons assembled at the railroad stations to see and hear him for a few minutes. The reception of a European monarch is a vastly more elaborate affair; in this country we honor the office to some extent, but we honor the man more-if he deserves it.
There were three candidates for governor in 1849 and Samuel Dinsmoor received over thirty thousand votes, more than the other two together. He was born in Keene, May 8, 1799, son of Governor Samuel and Mary (Reid) Dinsmoor. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1815, at age of fifteen, and there- after studied and practiced law in his native town. For a while he was in Arkansas with the territorial governor, Gen. James Miller. He visited Paris and became well acquainted with the
150
NEW HAMPSHIRE
French language. He served as governor the usual term of three years. Other offices held by him at different times were clerk of the State Senate, postmaster of Keene and president of the Ashuelot Bank.
Here is the way he speaks about the militia system in his first message. "The time has arrived when the system should be either abandoned altogether, as fraught with incorrigible evil, or placed upon such a footing of efficiency and respectability as to command the obedience and receive the cordial support of the people throughout the State. No one, having a regard for the dignity of the State, or wishing to hold in respect the char- acter of our citizens, can desire to see repeated the spectacle now so commonly witnessed when the militia are called out for training and parade. It is not unusual on these occasions to see large bodies of men making a studied mockery of a public duty, furnishing a pernicious example of insubordination to the laws, and bringing into contempt the authority of the State." Like other governors he called for reform by means of new laws and reorganization.
In his second message he reaffirms the principle, that had been vigorously contested, that the State that makes a corpora- tion has the right to control it, through their representatives. "New Hampshire has been the battle-field on which this con- test has been decided, and the complete triumph here of the popular view of this question may be regarded as having fixed unalterably the policy of this State."
What he says about railroads may throw some light upon present difficulties. Up to 1850 four hundred and fifty miles of railroad had been constructed in New Hampshire, at a cost of not far from sixteen million dollars. Some of them were begun with an inadequate supply of means and were pushed forward on borrowed funds. Such were constantly struggling with finan- cial difficulties. Their stock was depreciated, their credit was impaired, and the hopes of the stockholders for dividends were indefinitely postponed. The governor advocated publicity. The stockholders wanted to know what had been done with their money. "When there is concealment, or the suspicion of it, there will inevitably result a want of confidence." "They desire, and are clearly entitled to receive, frequent, full, intelligible and undisguised reports of the condition of their roads, which re-
15I
A HISTORY
ports should embrace such copious details in relation to income, expenditures, contracts and financial operations, as will enable them to judge whether there has been a judicious application of the large amounts of money placed at the disposal of their directors." At this time the salary of the president of the Northern Railroad was $1,200, and that of the superintendent was $2,000, while the President of the Concord Railroad received only $1,000. Other railroads did not report such items. The Concord Railroad then paid nine per cent. dividend and had a respectable balance left. Perhaps smaller salaries for officials would help the financial condition of some railroads at the present time. In 1850 the governor had some doubt whether certain railroad enterprises in New Hampshire would ever be- come remunerative, yet they were a decided help to the com- munities they served.
In 1849 the people decided by a vote of two to one that a revision of the constitution was desirable, and a convention met at Concord in 1850 to fulfill their will. Fifteen amendments were submitted to the people by a convention that included such men as William Plumer Jr., Gilman Marston, Levi Wood- bury, Ichabod Bartlett, Ichabod Goodwin, Thomas E. Sawyer, James Bell, Charles G. Atherton, William Haile, Edwin D. San- born and other men of note, yet every amendment was rejected by the people. Governor Dinsmoor tells us in his third mes- sage that the cost of this convention to the State was $40,000, and the same year there was paid as a bounty on crows the sum of $3,500. The ablest men of New York have just now (1915) proposed a revised constitution for that State, which is pro- nounced to be a model, yet it has been overwhelmingly rejected by the people. It takes a long time to get a new idea lodged securely in the minds of the masses. Two hundred and ninety members formed the convention of 1850, and Franklin Pierce was chairman. The convention reassembled on the sixteenth of April, 1851, and resolved to resubmit to the vote of the people three of the rejected amendments, viz., those proposing to abol- ish the religious test, to do away with the property qualification, and to provide a new mode for amending the constitution. At the annual town meetings, held March 9, 1852, the second of these three amendments, abolishing the property qualification, was adopted. The journal of this constitutional convention
152
NEW HAMPSHIRE
exists in manuscript only, in the office of the Secretary of State.
The governor, in compliance with a vote of the legislature in 1849, sent a block of granite, quarried and prepared at Concord, with the name of the State inscribed upon it, to the Washington Monument Association. It is known that Durham sent a similar contribution, and probably other towns of the State did likewise.
Noah Martin was elected governor in 1852 and re-elected the following year. He was born at Epsom July 26, 1801, of Scotch-Irish descent. His father served in the Revolution. After graduating at the Medical College of Dartmouth in 1824, Noah Martin settled in Great Falls as a physician and continued in practice there nine years. Then he removed to Dover. He represented both Somersworth and Dover in the legislature and was State senator, 1835-6. He died in Dover May 28, 1863.
In reading the messages of the governors of the State one is impressed with their dignity, pithy utterance of fundamental principles of justice, breadth of political view, as well as skillful use of words. Governor Martin was not inferior to any. Here are a few of his striking sentences: "Under our forms legisla- tion is merely the collecting of public opinion and uttering it with the solemn sanction of the people's voice, through their assembled representatives." "Agricultural prosperity, knowl- edge and virtue are the sustaining pillars of a republican govern- ment." Legislators "are the conservators of the public morals, individual rights and interests." "We are willing to extend the helping hand to other nations, however distant, struggling for that civil and religious freedom which is the natural right of all humanity." "The despots of Europe expect us, the only repre- sentatives of free government, to favor freedom everywhere." But he advocated the enforcement of the fugitive slave law, although it contradicted his sentiments of universal liberty. He did this, in harmony with his political party, because he thought the Constitution demanded it, and to keep in harmony with the South, so as to avoid disruption of the Union. He cautioned the legislature against the chartering of competing lines of railroad, where there was business enough for only one, but he could not see that natural monopolies should be sold or rented to corporations, rather than given by the State, and nobody then in New Hampshire raised his voice in favor of State and municipal ownership of public utilities.
153
A HISTORY
The governor, in his message of 1853, gave some illuminat- ing statistics in regard to the prosperity of the State. There were then improved and under tillage 2,251,488 acres, valued at over fifty-five million dollars. The wheat crop was 185,658 bushels, and there were produced 1,108,476 pounds of wool. There were fifty-four cotton mills and sixty-one woolen mills in the State. The average wage in the former was, for males, $25.45 per month and for females, $13.47 per month; in the woolen mills the average wage for men was $22.74 and for females $14.51 per month. How could the laborers live? The cost of rent, food and clothing was proportionally low, but it is evident that with a wage for men and women ranging from forty cents to a dollar a day not much money could be laid aside for sickness and old age. There were thirty-three banks of deposit with a capital of $3,226,000 and sixteen savings institutions with a capital of $2,132,218. The State had 625 miles of railroad, which had cost $18,346,086 and were paying four and a half per cent. on invest- ments. Railroad accidents were of almost daily occurrence, with a shocking loss of life, occasioned in most instances by "reck- lessness, ignorance or carelessness." The governor urged the legislature to make the railroads penally responsible for loss of life or injury through carelessness, the guilty persons to be punishable with hard labor for life.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.