USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume III > Part 13
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The State then had forty-seven incorporated academies and forty-six unincorporated academies and private schools, besides two thousand three hundred common school districts. The pupils in the academies numbered over seven thousand six hundred and the common schools registered eighty-four thou- sand in attendance. The governor adds, that "the Bible and the statute book should be placed in proximity in every house- hold." The State was asked to contribute towards the erection of a monument to the memory of Mechech Weare and another at Philadelphia for the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence.
About this time the Democratic party was having its own sweet way because of the divisions of their opponents into several small factions. The Whig party was breaking up. The Independent Democrats mustered but a small force at elections. The abolitionists were divided as to ways and means, though desiring the same ends. The Free-Soilers, formed in 1848, were
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making little progress. There was too much political machinery. The old Whigs adhered tenaciously to their political organiza- tion. They were led by Ichabod Bartlett and Ichabod Goodwin of Portsmouth, Daniel M. Christie and Thomas E. Sawyer of Dover, Asa McFarland and Judge Perley of Concord, James Wilson and Levi Chamberlain of Keene, etc. For some time efforts had been made further south to build up what was after- ward called an American Party, though it did not take much shape till 1854. From their habit of answering "I don't know" to questions the members of the secret and oath-bound societies, in which the party originated, were called "Know-Nothings," and the political party, which took to themselves the name American, was called by others the Know-Nothing party. At that time the potato famine in Ireland was driving many thou- sands to the United States. Emigrants were pouring in also from Germany, escaping from the defeated revolution there. Many feared that the naturalization and election to office of too many immigrants would endanger American institutions. They feared also the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and this may be the reason why New Hampshire in 1852 refused to abolish the religious test. In the election of 1854 the Know- Nothing party carried Massachusetts and Maryland, and it was very strong throughout the South. The mention of the party reminds us of the American Protective Association of more recent date, which sought to alarm the people against subjuga- tion by the Roman Catholic Church. In both cases the fears were not well grounded, and it has been found that immigrants from all foreign countries unite with varied political parties according to their environment and the degree of education acquired. Our safety as a nation lies not in excluding the foreigner, but in kindly receiving and properly educating him, so that he may become a good American citizen as soon as possible. After two generations few can tell the national lineage of his neighbor. The Know-Nothing party obtained a strong hold upon New Hampshire in 1855.
There were those who recognized the need of uniting the small parties who in the main sought the same ends. Such were found especially in Rockingham county, whence Amos Tuck of Exeter had been sent several times to represent them in the House at Washington. He called a meeting for con-
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ference of a few trusted persons at Exeter on the twelfth of October, 1853, at Major Blake's hotel, "to fix on a plan of har- monizing the different party organizations," that "the four parties may pull together." Fourteen persons met, among whom were John P. Hale, Amos Tuck, Ichabod Bartlett, Asa McFarland, George Fogg, David Currier, William Plumer, William H. Y. Hackett, D. Homer Batchelder, Messrs. Young and Preston. Mr. Tuck proposed that other party names should be dropped and that the united party should be called Republican, and on this name they agreed. It was a meeting privately called, and no record was kept or report thereof printed. Two months later Mr. Batchelder related the affair to Horace Greeley, while the latter was on a vacation in his native town of Amherst, and very soon, in 1854, the name of the new party was published in a letter of Horace Greeley to Mr. A. N. Cole, in the Genesee Valley Free Press, the pioneer Republican journal of America. The origin of the Republican party, then, may be traced back to that meeting in Exeter, October, 1853, although its origin has been claimed for Strong, Maine, in 1855, and for other States. It was a revival of an old party name and reminded some of the times of Jefferson and Madison. Most of the so-called "Jeffer- sonian Democrats" of 1860 became Republicans. The first na- tional campaign of the Republican party was in 1856, and John C. Fremont was the presidential candidate. The party drew to itself Whigs, Free-Soilers, Independent Democrats and Aboli- tionists, in fact all who were opposed to slavery and sought its limitation or extinction in the United States.1
The year 1852 winessed the elevation to the presidency of the United States of Franklin Pierce as the leader of the Demo- cratic party, triumphing over the Whig party led by General Winfield Scott. President Pierce carried twenty-seven states and General Scott only four, Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee. Another chapter deals with President Pierce's administration.
The election of 1854 made Nathaniel B. Baker governor by a slight majority over his two opponents, James Bell and Jared Perkins, and he held the office but one year. He was born in
1 See Exeter News-Letter for August 19, 1887, Communication from D. Homer Batchelder.
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Henniker, September 29, 1819, graduated at Harvard College in 1839, read law in Concord with Pierce and Fowler, and from 1841 to 1845 was one of the proprietors and editors of the New Hampshire Patriot. He attained the rank of colonel on Gov- ernor Steele's staff and was clerk of the superior court of Merri- mack county. He represented Concord in the legislature and was Speaker of the House in 1850-51. After serving as governor one year he made his residence in Clinton, Iowa, as attorney for a railroad in that vicinity. He was adjutant-general for Iowa during the civil war. His message to the legislature follows the beaten track, rehearsing suggestions of previous governors, and adding his advice, that the recently proposed Reform School should be pushed to completion, that the Revolutionary Rolls should be securely cared for, and that the November session of the legislature every fourth year should be done away with by new laws, thus saving forty thousand dollars to the State. Also he suggests that railroads should be held financially responsible for injury done to employees.
The Know-Nothing movement went up like a rocket in 1855, electing Ralph Metcalf governor with 32,768 votes, the largest number any candidate had received up to that time. The friends of moral reform had united. Mr. Metcalf was born at Charles- town, November 21, 1793, eldest son of Hon. John and Ruby (Converse) Metcalf, descended from one of the oldest families of Massachusetts. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1823, studied law with Governor Henry Hubbard and was admitted to the bar in 1828. After practicing at Newport he was chosen Secretary of State in 1830 and removed to Concord. He was register of probate for Sullivan county, 1845-51, and chairman of the committee to compile the State laws in 1850. Newport was represented by him in the legislature in 1852-3. He was re-elected governor by the legislature in 1856, lacking a majority of the votes of the people. John Sullivan Wells was his prin- cipal opponent, and Ichabod Goodwin had over two thousand votes. In the legislature the vote stood one hundred and seventy-five for Metcalf and one hundred and fifty for Wells.
The political complexion of Governor Metcalf is shown in his messages. He took strong ground against the extension of slave territory and rebuked the Southern members of congress for their arrogance and encroachments. The attack on Senator
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Charles Sumner raised a storm of indignation throughout the North and did much toward uniting the friends of human free- dom. The governor says, "Another alarming encroachment of the slave power upon our free institutions and the rights of the people is the late premeditated and preconcerted attack upon the constitution of the country, the freedom of speech, and the independence of the Senate, by an aggravated assault upon a distinguished Senator, avowedly for words spoken in debate." This assault was approved by almost all the members of con- gress from the South, where the advocates of slavery stood solidly together and by threats of secession influenced enough voters in the North to side with them and thus keep themselves in power. The Northern States were getting more tired and irritated every year. The abolitionists advocated radical meas- ures. If the South wanted war to confirm slavery, as many in the North were willing to have war, if necessary, to overthrow it. The New Hampshire legislature grew more bold in its resolutions and condemned the assault on Sumner in no mild terms. The conviction was growing that the South must be resisted and that slavery in a free nation could not be tolerated much longer.
Another reform entered largely into politics. Led by the example of Maine and under the recommendation of Governor Metcalf the legislature enacted a law, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. In his message of 1855 the governor said, "The welfare and prosperity of the State demand it; our social and domestic relations demand it; morals and religion demand it; the hopes of the rising generation demand it; patriotism demands it." In his message of the following year he declares that "in many towns the sale of intoxicating liquors is wholly abandoned and in others it is sold only as other penal offences are committed, in secret. I am not aware that there is a city or town in the State where spirituous liquors are openly sold."
The principles of the Know-Nothing party are clearly and abundantly set forth in Governor Metcalf's first message. The great influx of immigrants was spreading alarm throughout the nation, overshadowing for a time the anti-slavery agitation. Half a million were coming annually, most of them being illit- erates. Many were destitute of the means of subsistence, with- out friends and without trades and habits of industry. They
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expected to find plenty of work, high wages and liberty almost without restraint. "Too large a portion of them were emptied from the poor-houses, the hospitals and prisons of Europe, and transported here with no definite purpose, but destined to fill from want or crime similar positions to those they left at home." This was adding a great burden to American tax-payers. The adult immigrants were too old and ignorant to learn our ways, catch the American spirit, and be weaned from old habits of thought and conduct. They were in every way unfitted to be- come American citizens. Yet politicians then as now sought voters in doubtful elections, and there was in some places too much haste in getting the immigrants naturalized. The legis- lature received a communication from Rhode Island, urging that no immigrant should be naturalized till he had lived in the United States twenty-one years. The legislature of New Hamp- shire resolved to instruct its senators and representatives in congress to urge the passage of a new naturalization law, "which should require a previous continuance residence of not less than ten, nor more than twenty-one years in this country, to enable an alien to become a citizen thereof." The following citation from the governor's message well illustrates the religious as well as political prejudice of the times :
The religion which they have been taught from their birth, which has grown with their growth and strengthened with their strength, is a religion acknowledging a foreign power for its supreme head, teaching and requiring its adherents to passively submit their consciences to the keeping of the priesthood, to seek no higher sources for spiritual instruction and consola- tion than that order; a religion that excludes the Bible from the common people and allows its subjects to owe no allegiance, spiritual or temporal, to any power but what the sovereign Pontiff may, at any time and upon any emergency, annul and dissolve; a religion that pronounces all creeds heresy but their own, and boldly avows that it "flourishes most when watered by the blood of heretics." A numerous population, scattered from one extreme of the country to the other, guided and controlled by one mind, and that mind solely directed to one object, the extension of the dominion, the influence and power of the Church of Rome, and to subject to its control all other religious sects and denominations, must be a dangerous and pernicious ele- ment in a republican government. Such a population thus ignorant and prejudiced, thus illiberal and bigoted, thus controlled and directed, are now in our midst and daily increasing in alarming numbers. They claim all the rights of citizenship, and not only to decide who shall make and ad- minister the laws of the country, but claim that right for themselves, often
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before they can speak the name or read it on the printed ballot, which, by order or contract, they deposit in the ballot-box. The foreigner, let loose from prison in Europe on condition that he will come to America and thus free them from his troublesome, if not dangerous presence, thinks, and too often has reason to think when he arrives here, that he confers a special favor upon the country by condescending to accept of the honors of citizen- ship. . This alien element is now rapidly insinuating its wiles, ma- turing its schemes and extending its influence over the country, more sure of success from the very few to whom is entrusted its direction and control. With great ease and increasing numbers they are acquiring all the rights, privileges and immunities of the citizens of our native land, and in some places they are already supplanting them.
The above citation is given for the purpose of illustrating the spirit and arguments of a political party that was strong in 1855. The same spirit and arguments have been employed by a decreasing number of religionists from that time to this, but they have not entered into the platforms and legislative resolu- tions of political parties since the death of the Know-Nothing party. Experience has convinced most of the people in the United States that the fears of foreign domination are unfounded, that immigrants soon imbibe the American spirit and quickly learn to love and prize American institutions. The Roman Catholic population may take its religion from Rome, with many unconscious modifications, but it is as loyal to the government of the United States and of the individual States as is the Protes- tant population. Only the ignorant fear the ignorance of others ; the well educated delight to teach and assimilate the ignorant to themselves. The United States has been and should be still more the home and refuge of the poor and oppressed of every nation and the liberal educator of all who come, in political and social morals.
As for the statement that the Bible is withheld from the communicants of the Roman Catholic Church, there has been no truth in it for many years in any enlightened country. In Italy anybody can buy for five cents a version of the New Testa- ment authorized by the Roman Catholic Church. As for the influx of paupers and criminals the same objections are made now as then. They can not be shut out altogether, yet of the millions who are coming a very small number belong to the objectionable classes. Nearly all come to better their financial condition and to enjoy our liberty. If a few return to Europe
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with the money they have gathered here, it is that they may scatter intelligence and induce others to come to this country. We should seek to hasten the day when any human being, well disposed toward his fellow men, may go anywhere he will upon this earth and be sure of finding friends.
The anti-slavery parties combined to defeat the Democrats in 1855 in the election of United States senators. Already men- tion has been made of the choice of John P. Hale at this time for an unexpired term. The candidates for the long term were James Bell and Daniel Clark. The former was the choice of the senatorial caucus and he was elected by the legislature. He was born at Francestown November 13, 1804, and graduated at Bow- doin College in 1822. After studying law with his brother, Samuel Dana Bell, and in the Litchfield Law School he prac- ticed at Gilmanton, Exeter and Gilford. He sat in the legislature as representative in 1846. Through his leadership Lake Winne- piseogee was dammed at its mouth, to conserve its waters for power along its outlet. He served as senator till his death, May 26, 1857, at Laconia.
In the State election of 1857 the Democratic party, with John S. Wells as its standard-bearer, found itself opposed by a new party. The former discordant factions that had for once voted together for the Know-Nothing candidate, now presented a solid front under the name of Republicans. The State had cast its vote for the national candidate of that party, John C. Fre- mont, the year before. The nominee for governor in 1857 was William Haile of Hinsdale. There were but four hundred and fifty-two scattering votes, and Governor Haile was elected by a vote of 34,216, against 31,214 for Mr. Wells. The new governor was born in Putney, Vermont, in 1807. His life was spent in trade and manufacturing, yet he took an active interest in the affairs of church and of state. For six years he represented Hins- dale in the legislature and was State senator in 1854-5, presiding over the senate in the latter year. After serving as governor two years he returned to business life. He removed to Keene in 1873 and died there July 22, 1876.
Political parties then had something worth contending for. The main issues were moral in their nature. Governor Haile announced once more the opposition of his party to the exten- sion of slavery, to the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
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liquors, to the unlimited immigration of poor and ignorant for- eigners, and to "a recent opinion of a majority of the judges of the United States Supreme Court, by which every individual of the African race, in the United States, may be deprived of their estates, their liberties and their families, but can have no redress, because they are not citizens." It is noticeable that he says nothing about the fear of religious domination, thus quietly ignoring the objectionable feature of Know-Nothingism.
The governor recommended the establishment of a State Normal School, and the legislature waited till 1870 before his suggestion was adopted. He also called attention to the need of an Agricultural school, in connection with Dartmouth Col- lege, and nine years elapsed before such an institution was established. Since 1851 the plan of establishing a Reform School for juvenile offenders had been discussed, and in 1855 one hun- dred acres of the farm once owned by General John Stark, in Manchester, were purchased. A building had been constructed before 1858, suited to the accommodation of one hundred and twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls. The total cost of land, building and equipment was about fifty thousand dollars.
The legislature passed resolutions opposed to the efforts to make Kansas a slave State and to the Dread Scott decision, whereby all Africans, North as well as South, were by in- ference deprived of their rights of citizenship. The resolution condemns "the action of the State Department of the United States in refusing to grant passports to persons of African descent contrary to previous practice, and of the Treasury De- partment in refusing to grant them registers for their own ves- sels, with the right to navigate them as masters; and of the Interior Department in refusing them the right of entry upon the public domain to become purchasers."
Chapter XI RAILROADS
THE FIRST PEMIGEWASSET HOUSE BUILT IN 1800, PLYMOUTH, N. H.
Chapter XI
RAILROADS.
First Railroad Chartered-The Nashua and Lowell-The Concord Railroad Corporation-It Consolidates Six Lines-A Lucrative Monopoly-The Northern Railroad Company-The Concord and Claremont-The Bos- tion, Concord and Montreal-The Atlantic and St. Lawrence-The East- ern Railroad-The Portland and Ogdensburg-The Boston and Maine- It leases All Other Lines-Railroads a Present Necessity-Short Inde- pendent Lines Unprofitable-Competition versus Co-operation-Why Have Dividends Ceased ?- Have the Roads Been Overcapitalized ?- Short Lines Leased at too High a Rate-Is It Safe to Lease or Sell all Lines to One Great Company ?- Is Government Ownership the Proper Remedy ?- Cost of Abolishing Grade Crossings-The Public Service Commission Must Solve the Problems-The Abuse of Free Passes Removed.
A COMPLETE history of railroads in New Hampshire might fill many interesting volumes. Here can be pre- sented only the most important facts, from which some con- clusions can be drawn.
The first railroad chartered in New Hampshire was in 1832 and was called the Boston and Ontario Railroad. It was to start from the southerly line of the State, in Dunstable, and run to the westerly line, thence through Massachusetts, Vermont and New York. The project was to connect the Great Lakes with Boston, but it never materialized. In 1835 four lines in New Hampshire were chartered, and others quickly followed in the successive years. Only the main lines need be mentioned here.
The Nashua and Lowell Railroad was meant as a continua- tion of the Boston and Lowell. Its length was only fourteen miles, five and a quarter of which were in New Hampshire. The road was opened to travel in 1838. At that time it was con- templated to extend the road to the Connecticut river by way of Wilton, Greenfield and Peterborough, and a survey was made. The road from Nashua to Wilton was chartered in 1844 and completed in 1851. It was not till 1874 that the road from Wil- ton to Greenfield was built, a distance of eleven miles. The
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road was extended to Keene in 1878, a distance from Greenfield of about twenty-nine miles. These roads for twenty years from 1858 were by contract jointly managed by the Boston and Lowell and the Nashua and Lowell railroads. The total cost of this line, with equipment, up to 1884 was about $2,500,000. The Nashua and Lowell was then declaring a dividend of seven per cent.
The Concord Railroad Corporation was chartered June 27, 1835, only four days after the Nashua and Lowell. The road extends from Concord to Nashua, thirty-five miles. The con- struction of the road was begun in 1841 and completed in 1842. In 1870 the company leased for forty-two years the Suncook Valley road, chartered in 1863 and opened in 1869. The road extends from Suncook to Pittsfield, seventeen and a half miles. The lease called for an annual rental of six per cent. on a capitali- zation of $240,000. In 1858 the Concord Railroad Company leased the Concord and Portsmouth Railroad for five years, and in 1861 a new lease was substituted, for ninety-nine years, at an annual rental of $25,000, about seven per cent. on a capitaliza- tion of $350,000. The lessee was to keep the road in good con- dition. The road connects the Concord road at Manchester with Portsmouth, forty-seven and a half miles, chartered in 1845. The Nashua, Acton and Boston Railroad, from Nashua to Acton, Massachusetts, was leased to the Concord road in 1876 for ten years, at an annual rental of $11,000, the lessee buying the rolling stock and furniture of the leased road for $70,000. This road was chartered in New Hampshire in 1872 and opened in 1873. The distance is about twenty miles. The cost of this road and equipment is given as $1,043,461, and the year before it was leased the expense of running it was $10,000 more than the gross earnings. Only five miles of the road are in New Hamp- shire. The Manchester and North Weare Railroad, chartered in 1846 as the New Hampshire Central Railroad Corporation, was rechartered in 1853. The rails between North Weare and Hen- niker were taken up and the property was purchased in 1859 at a trustee's sale by the Concord Railroad Corporation. The length of the road to North Weare is nineteen miles. The nominal capital fixed upon in 1859 was $200,000, which must have been much less than actual cost. The Manchester and Lawrence Railroad extends from Manchester to the State line, over twenty miles through Londonderry, Derry, Windham and Salem, with
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a branch to Methuen of three miles and three-quarters. This road was chartered in 1847 and was opened for passengers in 1849. In 1856 it was leased to the Concord Railroad Corpora- tion for five years, and in 1861 the lease was extended twenty years. To meet the requirements of a law passed in 1867 the two roads were run independently in form, with two sets of books, though in reality the two lines were under one manage- ment. The annual rental was $11,000.
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