USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume IV > Part 20
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There were many persons from Ireland among the early settlers in New Hampshire, besides the so-called Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from the northern part. Not a few, both male and female, were kidnapped and "spirited" away by night, to serve as apprentices and housemaids in New England, and this practice went on for over thirty years after the invasion of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, till a royal edict was issued against it. The children of such forced immigrants grew up under the influence of Protestants, just as the captives carried to Canada grew up as Roman Catholics.
In 1792 Rev. Francis A. Matignon fled from the horrors of the French Revolution and arrived in Boston. Four years later came the Rev. John Cheverus. Both of these made visits to Portsmouth, and at Bedford Father Cheverus was the guest of Theodore Gough. Afterwards Father Cheverus was conse- crated as bishop of the See of Boston.
The Rev. Daniel Barber of Claremont early became a con- vert to the Roman Catholic Church, and many of his family and neighbors followed his lead. His son Virgil Barber and son Samuel became priests of the Jesuit order, while Virgil's wife and three daughters entered a convent. The Barber family had previously been communicants of the Episcopal Church. Their activity led to the establishment of a Roman Catholic church in Claremont, in 1818, where the first Mass was said in the western part of New Hampshire, by Father French in the
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house of the Rev. Mr. Barber. Some families from Cornish and some from Windsor, Vermont, embraced the faith and became associated with this church. A brick church was erected and in the upper part was an academy, where Father Virgil Barber began the instruction of some young men for the priesthood, among them being Father Tyler, who afterward was vicar- general of Boston and bishop of Hartford, Conn. In 1825 this church had one hundred and fifty adherents, yet the church was closed a few years later by reason of the departure of Father Barber to another field of labor.
In 1826 Father Barber found in Dover about one hundred Roman Catholics, mainly operatives in the mills built there in 1812, and here Bishop Fenwick said Mass in the house of Mrs. Burns, in 1827, and a year later laid the cornerstone of a church. This was dedicated September 26, 1830.
In 1835 there were seven hundred and twenty Roman Cath- olics in New Hampshire, while the Protestant population was 254,000. In 1842 the Roman Catholic population had grown to 1,370. Soon after began the great stream of Irish immigra- tion, occasioned by the famine in Ireland. There were many Roman Catholics in Manchester as early as 1844, and the first church there was dedicated in 1850, replaced in 1852 by the church of St. Anne. In 1853 the diocese of Portland was cre- ated and New Hampshire was included within its limits. Then David W. Bacon became its first bishop. Under his admin- istration missions were opened at Manchester, Nashua, Con- cord, Great Falls, Salmon Falls, Exeter, Keene, Lebanon, Lan- caster and Laconia. A score of handsome churches were built and others were enlarged and beautified. The Rev. James A. Healy succeeded Bishop Bacon in 1875. Pope Leo XIII cre- ated the new See of Manchester in 1884, when the Roman Catholic population of the State was about 45,000. There were then thirty-seven priests and sixty-five Sisters of Mercy with establishments at Manchester, Laconia and Dover, a score of Sisters of Jesus and Mary at Manchester, with an equal num- ber of the Order of the Holy Cross at Nashua. These were engaged in the education of youth. The church had rapidly increased by influx of French people from Canada.
The first bishop of the diocese of Manchester was the Right Reverend Dennis M. Bradley, who was born in Castle Island,
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County Kerry, Ireland, February 25, 1846. His widowed mother brought her five children to Manchester when the future bishop was but eight years of age. He was graduated at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass., in 1867. Under his guidance and because of the rapid influx of Roman Catholics from other countries the growth of his diocese was swift and widespread. Churches sprang up at Jaffrey, Greenville, Wolfeborough, Wil- ton, Hooksett, Groveton, North Stratford, Colebrook, Derry, Goff's Falls, Gonic, Sanbornville, Marlborough, Harrisville, Bennington, Hillsborough, Canaan, Hanover, Westville, White- field, Wambeck, Bartlett, Stewartstown, Berlin, Twin Moun- tain, Woodsville, Ashland and Tilton, and wherever Roman Catholic workmen were employed they were sought out by mis- sionary priests and their spiritual needs were cared for. It is wonderful how quickly immigrants, that came here poor and took any sort of manual labor they could get, built for them- selves churches and chapels.
In the year 1910 there were about one hundred and twenty- six thousand Roman Catholics in New Hampshire, reckoning all who had been baptized in infancy in that communion. The priests, secular and regular, numbered one hundred and thirty- seven. There were ninety-nine churches, twenty-four chapels and thirty-four stations. Over thirteen thousand children were in parochial schools. Seven orphanages were caring for seven hundred and eighteen children. There were five homes for working girls, four homes for aged women, and four hospitals. Flourishing educational institutions are St. Anselm's College and Mount St. Mary's Academy, both at Manchester, the latter under the management of the Sisters of Mercy.
Of the Roman Catholic population the largest component was the French Canadians, who numbered 66,200. The Irish came next with 52,250. There were 5,000 Poles, 1,500 Lithu- anians, and 750 Ruthenians. Since 1910 many Italians have swelled the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mention has been made of the tendency toward liberal thought and a wider brotherhood in Protestantism; is there a similar tendency in Roman Catholicism? It is inevitable. Edu- cation, whether it is obtained in the public schools or in the parochial schools, in Protestant or in Roman Catholic colleges, gives breadth to religion. Individuals learn to think for them-
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selves, and diversity of opinions and interpretations results. Scientific and philosophic studies, as well as study of the original texts of the Bible, are now encouraged in the higher schools of learning of the Roman Catholic Church. The authorized ver- sion of the Sacred Scriptures may be found in almost every home. The old-time hostility between Protestants and Roman Catholics has quite disappeared in the American republic. Every broad-minded Roman Catholic cherishes quite a com- fortable hope for the non-Catholics, whose misfortune is their "invincible ignorance," a phrase quite likely to be misunder- stood by uninformed Protestants. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is quite different from the same church in Mexico, South America, Spain and even Italy, and universal education has made the difference, barring the nationality and the climate. If reforms and improvements in doctrine and con- duct are needed, the progress of education and political free- dom will bring them about.
The need of understanding each other is felt. If each would study the doctrinal belief and religious practices of the other sympathetically, not for the purpose of controverting and over- throwing and proselyting, but for the purpose of getting there- from elements of truth, it would probably dawn upon many minds that fundamentally the faith of our hearts is about the same, even when dogmatic conclusions seem to set us apart. We are all children of the same heavenly Father, and the heart- felt acceptance of that truth tends to liberality and charitable- ness. The cultivation of social relationships and neighborly kindnesses leads to clearer and broader views. The frequent intermarriages of Protestants and Roman Catholics, of Ameri- can-born and foreign-born, is a hopeful sign of better citizens in the future.
A just comparison of the Protestant population with the Roman Catholic should take into consideration the fact, that in the foregoing statistics only adult Protestants are enumerated, while all baptized children are numbered in the statistics of the Roman Catholic Church as members. If the number of adherents of the Protestant churches were reckoned in the same way, counting in all the children of Protestant families, the numbers reported would be multiplied by three or four.
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The church which produces the highest type of character in the entire community or State ought to be the dominant one. The Protestant churches select for their membership those whom they believe to be transformed in character, the elect, while the Roman Catholic Church takes in if it can the entire population of a country, as in Italy and Spain. The comparison in a State like New Hampshire ought to be made between the entire Roman Catholic population and the entire Protestant population without regard to actual church membership. Which stands higher in christian character, morals, education iand good citizenship? The answer can not be expressed in tabu- lated reports. The reply should not be made too confidently by either Protestant or Roman Catholic. Each may learn much from the other and so be stimulated to more earnest endeavor for the common good.
Chapter XIV TEMPERANCE REFORM
Chapter XIV
TEMPERANCE REFORM
Changed Meaning of the Word Temperance-License for Revenue-Preva- lence of the Drinking Habit in Former Times-Dr. Nathaniel Bouton one of the Earliest Reformers-Total Abstinence Societies-The Wash- ingtonians-Judge Jonathan Kittredge-John B. Hill-John Preston- John N. Stearns-William H. Gove-Total Abstinence Expected of Church Members-Popular Demand for a Prohibitory Law in 1847- The Law Enacted in 1855-The Liquor Forces Organized for Nullifica- tion of Law-Anti-Saloon League Organized in 1899-Local Option Law enacted in 1903-A Majority of the Voters now Opposed to It-Moral Suasion Should be Re-enforced by Legal Compulsion.
T HE word temperance, that formerly meant moderation in the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, has come to mean total abstinence from their use and prohibition of their manufacture and sale. At least this is now the meaning of the word in the mouths of radical reformers. This change in mean- ing indicates great progress. The old evil of intoxication is with us yet, but it is unmasked and recognized in its hideous deformity. From the beginning of New Hampshire history the sale of wines and other alcoholic drinks was licensed, not for the purpose of diminishing use of the same, but rather for the purpose of revenue. Those who sold liquors without license -many did then as now-were fined at court. Alcohol was the fruitful source of quarrels, fighting, crimes and poverty, yet such had been the habits of Anglo-Saxon peoples for many cen- turies that some form of intoxicating beverage was thought to be a necessity to make life endurable for men. Many women could get along without it, and a few men were teetotalers, but they were rare exceptions. On all social occasions wine was served, if it could be obtained. Every inn or "ordinary" was licensed to sell liquor by the glass. Almost all grocery stores furnished it to their customers. Workmen in the field, in the lumber camp and in the mill were supposed to need it as much as they needed regular meals. Grog was furnished to soldiers
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in the army and to sailors at sea. In 1722 it is written that "many persons within this province do keep private tippling houses and so become nurseries of intemperance and debauch- ery." In 1787 it was enacted that "It shall be the duty of the Selectmen carefully to inspect all licensed houses, and in no case to license persons that keep disorderly houses."
In the earlier days the most common drink was malt beer, made from barley, and every farmer could brew it. Later it was made of corn with a mixture of roots and herbs. It was the usual drink in the haying field. Then cider after fermenta- tion became a frequent beverage, and barrels of it were con- sumed in almost every farmhouse. This was good for the wives and children as well as the men, and it produced in many cases the style of drunkards known as sots. It was found later that distilled liquors would produce the desired effect quicker than either beer or cider, and so men drank mixtures of gin, brandy and whiskey, whether they liked the taste of it or not, for the express purpose of getting drunk. Flip, toddy and egg-nog were the names by which liquors were sold by the glass. Some ministers could not preach without it, and they needed more after finishing the sermon. It was indispensable at weddings and funerals, at hauling bees and even at the raising of meeting houses. Something like the Irish "wake" was ob- served among some of the early Scotch-Irish settlers.
The temperance reform began in Concord and generally throughout the State about the year 1827, and the Rev. Na- thaniel Bouton contributed as much as anyone to advance it. He gathered facts and statistics and preached against the use of intoxicating liquors, feeling that the needed reform should begin with the professed people of God. At that time he says that four and a half gallons each year were sold in Concord to every man, woman and child, costing not less than nine thou- sand dollars, more than twice the amount paid in town, county and State expenses and in the support of public schools. Nine- teen stores sold liquor to drink; twenty years later only one furnished the beverage. Dr. Bouton preached the first tem- perance sermon in Concord, April 12, 1827, on a Fast Day. Some disbelieved; some mocked; some said he was slandering the town. Three years later the first temperance society was
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formed in Concord. Its members promised to abstain from all ardent drinks, but that word did not then include beer, cider and wine. Copies of the Temperance Recorder and Temperance Herald were sent to every family in town. Temperance meetings were held in every school district.
In 1835 a Total Abstinence Society was formed in Con- cord, whose members promised not to drink or furnish to others any intoxicating liquors, including wine and porter. They also promised to abstain from the use of tobacco. A society of young men went further and put the ban upon beer and cider. In five years this society numbered three hundred and seventy-six members.
In 1841 Washingtonian Total Abstinence Societies were spreading throughout the land, and public lecturers were de- voting their whole time and energies to the suppression of intemperance. Among those who rendered good service were Judge Jonathan Kittredge, a native of Canterbury, a graduate of Dartmouth, a practitioner of law in Lyme and Canaan, the son of Dr. Jonathan Kittredge. He had himself recovered from the habit of drinking to excess and well knew its evils. Some of his published temperance lectures have been preserved and show that he arrayed about all the arguments and facts against the evil that are now in common use. His addresses were repub- lished in England, France and Germany. He estimated in 1828 that New Hampshire had 2,44I common drunkards and 3,663 intemperate or occasional drunkards, and that the State con- sumed 732,483 gallons of ardent spirits annually, at a cost of $366,241. The cost throughout the United States was more than the amount required to pay all the expenses of government, and for roads, canals and pensions. He estimated the amount consumed as sixty million gallons at a cost of thirty million dollars, and that the number of drunkards was four hundred and eighty thousand.
Another temperance reformer was John Boynton Hill, born in Mason, November 25, 1796. He was graduated at Harvard in 1821, taught an academy in Maryland, studied at the Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1825. After prac- ticing a short time in Dunstable, Townsend, Massachusetts, and Exeter, Maine, he settled in Bangor, Maine, as partner of Chief-
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Justice Appleton. Both were earnest anti-slavery and temper- ance reformers. Mr. Hill draughted the first Maine liquor law. He returned to Mason in 1866 and published a history of that town.
John Preston of New Ipswich, when ten years of age, ran barefoot through the snow to give an alarm of fire and suffered therefrom for fifty years. This did not prevent him from work- ing his own way through Harvard College, where he was gradu- ated in 1823. He practiced law in Townsend, Massachusetts, and in New Ipswich, where in 1835 he secured the adoption in town meeting of a resolution for the suppression of the sale of liquor. In politics he was a Whig and then a Free Soiler, ardently opposed to slavery, intemperance and every wrong. Seven terms he served the town in the legislature. In the State senate he was the only one who was not a Democrat. He was the Free Soil candidate for congress in 1845 and candidate for the United States senate in 1852. He was a reformer by nature and education, and his native town put upon its records a testimonial adopted in town meeting to his noble character and deeds.
John N. Stearns of the same town, born May 24, 1829, was actively engaged in temperance work in New York as publishing agent of the National Temperance Society. Under the pen name of Robert Merry he established the Merry Museum in connection with Samuel G. Goodrich, or "Peter Parley." Mr. Stearns was Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance in 1866 and served as editor of the National Temperance Advocate.
William Hazeltine Gove, born in Weare July 10, 1817, died there March II, 1876. Early in life he taught in Lynn, Massa- chusetts, and in Rochester, New York. He became an ardent opponent of slavery and intemperance, and as a stump speaker for the Free Soil party gained the name of "the silver-tongued orator of New Hampshire." Several times he was elected to the legislature. He was a Free Soiler, Republican, Labor Reformer and Democrat in succession, without change of moral principles. Once he was speaker of the house of Representatives and later he was president of the senate. He was editor of the Temperance Banner at Concord and later of the White Mountain Torrent. By tongue and pen he advocated the cause of the Washingtonian Tem- perance Society.
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Almost all of the ministers of the Protestant churches became advocates of total abstinence. Formerly members of a church had sometimes been disciplined for drunkenness, but now total abstinence came to be recognized as a condition of receiving persons into the church. The evils of intemperance were so held up to public view, that in the judgment of all good people the habit of even private drinking of alcoholic liquors was thought to be inconsistent with Christian principles. Thus example reinforced exhortation and instruction. About this time the Concord distillery went out of business to the great joy of the temperance people. Reformed men were going through the country, telling their tales of suffering and salva- tion. Crime and poverty were seen to decrease. Some lecturers were intemperate in their remarks, and some newspapers retali- ated with aspersions upon the church and clergy. Farmers were saving their money and liquor sellers were losing their revenues. The former were glad and the latter were mad. The conscience of the rum-seller is located in his pocket-book; at least that is his most sensitive spot. Whatever touches that must be combated.
In 1847 there was popular demand for a prohibitory law. A referendum was submitted to the voters, "Is it expedient that a law be enacted by the General Court, prohibiting the sale of wines, or other spirituous liquors, except for chemical, medicinal and mechanical purposes?". The vote was taken in March, 1848, and 12,174 voted for prohibition and 5,729 gainst it. Not- withstanding this Vox Populi the General Court, or legislature, of 1849 did not enact the prohibitory law but only made some amendments to the license laws, showing that legislators, under certain influences, do not keep up with public opinion in dealing with wrongs. It is often the case that the masses of the people are more moral than their elected representatives. Petitions flowed into the legislature of 1849. The liquor forces did everything in their power to prevent any legislation that would hinder or lessen the sale of intoxicants and thus diminish their gains. The moral and financial welfare of the State must not stand in the way of making a few men rich! That has been the bone of contest for over half a century. If reform brought riches instead of sacrifices, all evils would cease except selfish-
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ness, the tap-root of all evil. Amendments to amendments and motions to postpone indefinitely fill the pages of the House Journal of 1849.
License, high or low, never has much checked an evil; rather it gives the evil respectability and protection. Hence the temperance advocates kept clamoring for legal prohibition. In previous pages the advice of Governor Metcalf in his message of 1855 has been cited. Under his leadership the legislature enacted a prohibitory law, forbidding the sale but not the man- ufacture of intoxicating liquors. Here was the weak point of the law. The manufacture of beer, ale and porter at Ports- mouth was a standing argument against the law. The law was not enforced as it should have been. The attention of all people was centered on the Civil War. Money-sharks took advantage of this to sell liquor illegally. The back towns were quite well freed from the curse, but the larger towns and cities continued to supply beverages to the thirsty and to increase the gains of law-breakers, who adulterated the liquors sold. It mattered not much to the drinker, so long as his taste was deceived and his nerves and brain were benumbed. Science has proved that alcohol in any form is not a stimulant, as was once commonly supposed, but a paralyzer of brain functions, begin- ning with the highest faculties. The moral sense is the first one blotted out by alcoholic drinks. "God is not in all His thoughts."
The liquor manufacturers and retailers have taken advan- tage of the rivalry of political parties to secure a nullification of law. Those forces are so organized and financed as to hold the balance of power in many elections. The saloon-keeper con- trols many votes, and they are cast for Democrat, or for Re- publican, according to previous conduct and pledges given of the respective party bosses, and temperance reformers have never been among the bosses. Efforts have been made to de- velop a Prohibition Party, but thus far without much success. The old political parties have adopted reforms whenever they had to in order to save an election. Sometimes the reform never got any further than the party platform.
The Anti-Saloon League was organized in New Hampshire in 1899, to secure the enforcement of the prohibitory law. Pub-
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lic officials were called on to do their duty, as they had sworn to do. Sheriffs and policemen have needed too much persuasion. They were affectedly too ignorant of the violations of law. They frequently asked the temperance people to furnish proofs of what they, the officials, already knew. The cry was diligently spread that probition did not prohibit, that more intoxicating liquor was sold under prohibitory law than under license law, and similar falsehoods. The distillers and brewers kept up the cry. The politicians and most of the newspapers joined in the cry for a license law, and the strongest argument for it was the revenue it would bring to lessen taxation, a specious and false argument, for every well informed person knows that the sale of intoxicating liquors always has caused poverty, in- creased taxation to take care of the products of the saloon, and diminished the earning capacity of drinkers.
The local option law was put to vote in 1903. The prohibi- tory law of 1855 was to remain in force, except where cities and towns gave a majority in favor of license. The popular vote stood 34,330 for license and 26,630 against it. In 1914 the vote throughout the State was 40,439 against license and 32,776 in its favor, showing a change in eleven years of a majority of over seven thousand in favor to a like majority in opposition. The system has been weighed in the balance of public opinion and found wanting. Yet the legislature continues to defeat the wishes of the advocates of prohibition. That license fee of from $250 to $1,200 and the approaching elections turn the scales against the reformers for the present. But the wave of pro- hibition has swept through the South and West, and it will soon flood New England with clean water instead of dirty rum. So monstrous an evil can not long persist against the scientific enlightenment that thoughtful people are receiving. The public press is doing the work of the temperance reformer to a larger extent than ever before. Civic Leagues to obtain righteous laws and the enforcement of the same are at this time more prominent than Temperance Societies. The Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union since 1866 has been doing good work in the State. Moral suasion has done about all it can ; legal compulsion is the thing now demanded.
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