USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 18
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The veteran Stark, after the French and Indian war. settled in Starktown, afterwards called Dunbarton, and there culti- vated his farm and cared for his mills. The news of the battle of Lexington reached him in his saw-mill. He immediately went to his house, changed his dress, mounted his horse and hastened to the theatre of war. On the road, he called his patriotic countrymen to arms. He was known to many of them, and his name was a tower of strength. Medford was named as a place of rendezvous. There in the hall of a tavern, afterwards called "New Hampshire Hall," he was chosen, by hand vote, colonel of the assembled militia. A regiment containing thirteen com- panies was soon formed and reduced to tolerable discipline by their commander. On the twenty-third of April, only four days
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after the battle of Lexington, two thousand men, from almost every town in New Hampshire, had reported themselves at head- quarters for duty, and were desirous "not to return till the work was done." Some of these, however, returned ; others were formed into two regiments under the authority of Massachusetts. In May, on the meeting of the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, they voted to raise two thousand men to be formed into three regiments. The commanders of these were John Stark, James Reed and Enoch Poor. These were the first col- onial regiments, out of Massachusetts, that were placed under the command of General Ward, who had been recently ap- pointed commander-in-chief of the forces of that colony. Gen- eral Putnam held a subordinate command.
Colonel Prescott, who, like Marshal Ney, deserves to be styled "the bravest of the brave," was detailed with one thousand men to throw up a breastwork of earth on Breed's Hill, on the night of the sixteenth of June. Bunker Hill had been proposed by the committee of safety, but Prescott "received orders to march to Breed's Hill." On the morning of the seventeenth of June, Stark's regiment, then at Medford, and Reed's, near Charlestown neck, were ordered by Ward to march to Colonel Prescott's aid. In marching over Charlestown neck, where the soldiers were exposed to the constant fire of an English man-of- war and two floating batteries, Captain Henry Dearborn, walk- ing by the side of Stark, suggested the propriety of a more rapid march to escape the balls of the enemy. Stark replied : "One fresh man in action is worth ten tired ones, " and continued to move with the same measured step, through the shower of iron hail that was constantly falling around them. Next to Prescott, Stark brought the largest number of men into the field. The position of the New Hampshire troops was at a rail fence, about forty yards in the rear of the redoubt, toward the Mystic river. Newly mown hay, that lay upon the ground, was stuffed between the rails to form a very imperfect breastwork. A regiment of Welsh fusileers was opposed to Stark's troops. They marched up the hill with seven hundred men. The next day only eighty- three appeared on parade. The destructive fire of Stark's men had nearly annihilated a regiment that had gained renown at the battle of Minden. When the redoubt was abandoned by Col- onel Prescott, because his men had neither bayonets nor ammu- nition with which to continue its defence, Stark drew off his forces in good order, without pursuit by the enemy. "On the ground where the mowers had swung their scythes in peace the day before, the dead," relates Stark, "lay as thick as sheep in a fold." The New Hampshire troops during the action twice drove back the foe in their front, and held them in check while
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the little band were retreating from the breastwork, before they left the exposed position they had so " nobly defended." Of the Americans in that memorable battle, one hundred and forty- five were killed and missing, and three hundred and four wound- ed, from about fifteen hundred in all. Stark's regiment lost fif- teen killed and missing, and sixty were wounded. Of Reed's regiment, three were killed, one missing, and twenty-nine wound- ed. General Gage reported the killed and wounded of his own army at one thousand and fifty-four. The number engaged was double that of the Americans.
Dr. Warren, the Hampden of the American Revolution, though holding a high commission in the Massachusetts army, fought as a volunteer ; and, after passing through the blood and smoke of the fight at the redoubt, was killed during the retreat by a British officer, who borrowed the gun of a private to do this deed of blood. Major Andrew McClary, one of the bravest of New Hampshire's sons, fell by a chance shot of a cannon, as the re- tiring army was marching over Charlestown neck.
" The battle of Quebec," says Mr. Bancroft, "which won half a continent, did not cost the lives of so many officers as the battle of Bunker Hill which gained nothing but a place of en- campment." If there be truth in history, the moral effect of that day is due quite as much to the bravery of the New Hamp- shire troops as to that of the "Spartan band" from Massachu- setts, under the command of Colonel Prescott, of whom it is said, "his bravery could never be enough acknowledged or ap- plauded." This battle taught the British to respect American character and to fear American valor. "A yankee rabble " had become " an invincible army."
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE FORMATION OF A NEW GOVERNMENT.
After the flight of John Wentworth and the dissolution of the royal government, New Hampshire for a time was without any regularly constituted rulers. The convention that met at Exeter in May, 1775, was the spontaneous creation of the towns, acting upon their own authority. This convention, in which one hun- dred and two towns were represented by one hundred and thirty- three members, established post-offices and appointed commit-
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tees of supplies and of safety. The general direction given to these committees was like that given to the Roman consuls in times of peril : "That they should take care that the republic received no detriment." In fact, these extemporized officers were supreme in power as they were supposed to be unerring in wisdom. Their instructions, however, were renewed from time to time till the six months for which the assembly was elected expired. The provincial records were seized by authority of this assembly. Three different issues of bills were made during this year, amounting in all to forty thousand pounds. These bills, signed by the treasurer, were for a time received at their full value. Besides the three regiments at Cambridge, a company of artillery was raised to man the forts, and a company of ran- gers who were stationed on the Connecticut river. Two other companies were held in readiness to march whenever they should be needed. The whole militia constituted twelve regiments. The field officers were appointed by the convention ; the inferior officers were chosen by the companies. Four regiments were denominated "minute men," because they were required to go at a minute's warning to the field of danger. During the follow- ing winter, sixteen companies of New Hampshire militia, of sixty-one men each, supplied at headquarters the place of the Connecticut forces whose time had expired. They served till Boston was evacuated.
When the time came for the convention to be dissolved by limitation, they asked direction of the continental congress then in session, with respect to their duty. They were advised to call a new convention for the purpose of establishing a permanent government for the province. They finally ordered every town of one hundred families to send one representative, and one additional representative for every additional hundred families. They also decreed that each elector should possess real estate valued at twenty pounds, and each candidate for election one of three hundred pounds. A census had been previously order- ed which showed the entire population of the province to be eighty-two thousand two hundred souls, and the number of rep- resentatives eighty-nine. The representatives were to be paid by their respective towns and to continue in office one year. They met at Exeter on the twenty-first of December, 1775, and assumed the name of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire. The men who composed this body were not states- men nor lawyers, only citizens of "large round-about common sense." They of course made some mistakes in framing or- ganic laws for a sovereign state. They selected a council of twelve to constitute an upper house. These elected their own president. No act could be valid till it had passed both houses,
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and all money bills must originate with the house of represen- tatives. They omitted to establish an executive branch of the new government. Hence the two houses while in session were obliged to provide for this service, and during adjournments to delegate it to committees of safety numbering from six to six- teen. Meshech Weare, "an old, tried and faithful public ser- vant," was chosen president of the council, also president of the executive committee of safety, and in 1776 was appointed chief justice of the supreme court. All these offices he held during the war.
Such an accumulation of high and responsible trusts has rarely rested upon one man by a popular election. The highest confidence was reposed in his integrity and patriotism. The hatred of royalty was so intense that every trace of it was swept away. The sign-boards that bore the royal face were torn down ; pictures and coats-of-arms in private houses were re- moved or reversed ; the names of streets that bore the words "king" or "queen " were changed, and even the half-pence that bore the image of George III. were refused in payment of dues.
This assembly established, anew, the courts, made paper money a legal tender, passed a law against counterfeiters, and changed the name of the "colony" or "province " to that of " the State of New Hampshire." They also built a ship of war for the infant navy of the country at Portsmouth. It was com- pleted in sixty days after the keel was laid, bore thirty-two guns and was called the " Raleigh."
I quote the following facts from the pen of Hon. G. W. Nesmith :
"The Convention of 1778 made the office of councilor elective by the people ; Rockingham county choosing five of the number, Strafford two, Hillsborough two, Cheshire two, and Grafton one.
There was another convention called to revise the state constitution, in 1781. It had nine sessions, continuing its own existence for the term of two years. Its president was George Atkinson. General Sullivan was its secre- tary. We have the address of this convention before us, issued in May, 1783, from which it appears that the convention had twice recommended, among other things, to give the executive arm of the government more power and efficiency, by creating the office of governor.
This amendment was twice submitted to the people, and as often rejected by them. The convention, however, recommended that the president should be elected by the people. This amendment was adopted, and for the first time, in 1784, Meshech Weare was elected by the people to the office of president of the State; but on account of bad health he resigned this office before the expiration of the political year. John Langdon, General Sullivan and Josiah Bartlett severally afterwards were elected president, until March, 1793, when our present constitution went into force, and Josiah Bartlett was chosen governor."
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CHAPTER XLVIII.
MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY UNDER WASHINGTON, DURING THE YEAR 1776.
The year in which the independence of the colonies was de- clared was a period of great calamities. The United States began their political existence without resources to sustain it ; without men, food, clothes or tents for their armies, or money for their wages. Boston was evacuated on the seventeenth of March, 1746, and the British army, consisting of about seven thousand men, accompanied by some fifteen hundred families of loyalists, sailed immediately for Halifax. On the nineteenth of the same month, Washington sent five regiments, under General Heath, to New York; and having fortified Boston, soon fol- lowed his advance guard and made New York his headquarters.
In March, 1776, the two houses of the legislature of New Hampshire, sitting at Exeter, published their new " Plan of Gov- ernment," and appointed all necessary officers, judicial, military and civil, for the administration of state affairs. They also as- signed good and sufficient reasons for this step ; but at the same time made this declaration respecting a possible restoration of harmony : "We shall rejoice if such a reconciliation between us and our parent state can be effected as shall be approved by the continental congress." The Declaration of Independence, brought by express to Exeter in the following July, was re- ceived with unbounded joy. It was read to the assembled citi- zens of that town by the patriot, John Taylor Gilman, and pub- lished in other towns, with bonfires, bells, drums and other demonstrations of exultation. The New Hampshire delegates who signed that declaration, the most important ever published in human history, not even excepting Magna Charta, were Jo- siah Bartlett, William Whipple and Matthew Thornton. The writing of their names on that paper made them immortal.
The legislature continued in service the three regiments of the preceding year with their commanders. These followed General Washington to New York. They also raised a fourth regiment in the western part of the state, which was destined for service in Canada. It was commanded by Colonel Bedel. The other three regiments, soon after their arrival in New York, were placed under the command of General Sullivan, who was sent to reïnforce the American troops that were retreating from
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Quebec before a superior force. That invasion had proved dis- astrous. One detachment of New Hampshire troops had been previously captured by a body of English and Indians, at a place called "The Cedars," forty miles above Montreal. Colonel Bedel of New Hampshire was stationed with about four hundred men and two cannon at the narrow pass of the cedars. This pass was about forty-five miles above Montreal, and General Thomas, at Sorel, was about as far below. Bedel left his post at the ap- proach of the enemy, under pretence of securing a reïnforce- ment. The post was left in the care of Major Butterfield who, from cowardice, as some affirm, surrendered without a blow.
From the Memoir of General John Stark the following facts are taken. After the evacuation of Boston, Colonel Stark was ordered, with two regiments, to proceed to New York, where he remained till May, when his regiment with five others were or- dered to march by way of Albany to Canada. At the mouth of the Sorel he met the retreating army commanded by General Thomas. This officer died of the small-pox and the command devolved on General Arnold, who employed himself in plunder- ing the merchants of Montreal for his private emolument. He was soon superseded by General Sullivan, who planned an expe- dition against Trois Rivières, which proved a failure, as Colonel Stark had predicted. A retreat became necessary. It was con- ducted with great skill and prudence by General Sullivan, and the army, weary and worn, thinned by the small-pox and the bul- lets of the enemy, reached St. Johns without loss of men or property. Here everything was burnt, and the army proceeded in boats to Isle aux Noix. Colonel Stark was the last to leave the shore, as the advanced guard of the enemy approached the smoking ruins. On the eighteenth of June, 1776, the army en- camped upon the Isle aux Noix ; and, before the enemy could procure boats to pursue them, they had again embarked and safely landed at Crown Point. The New Hampshire troops un- der General Sullivan were, on the first of July, stationed at Ti- conderoga and Mount Independence. General Gates became their superior officer. About one third of them had died of small-pox and putrid fever. In war, disease often destroys more men than the weapons of the foe. When the danger of an at- tack on Ticonderoga, for that season, was passed, these troops marched south and joined the retreating army of Washington.
On the twenty-seventh of August, 1776, occurred the disas -. trous battle on Long Island, in which five hundred Americans were killed and wounded, and eleven hundred made prisoners A portion of the New Hampshire troops were in this engage- ment, under General Sullivan, who was himself captured by the enemy. Washington found it necessary to abandon New York
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and all the strongholds in the vicinity. He retreated with the mere skeleton of an army, less than three thousand men, giving up successively to the pursuing foe Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton, till after three weeks of intense suffer- ing, on the seventh of December, he reached the Delaware. The next day, the remnant of the American army, pinched with cold and hunger, crossed that river in boats and sat down in despair on the soil of Pennsylvania. After a few days of rest, Washington resolved to recross the Delaware and attack the Hessians at Trenton, while they were keeping Christmas and given up to feasting and drunkenness. The plan succeeded, and the most important victory of the war was achieved. It gave new life to the exhausted soldiers and the despairing country. Gen- eral Sullivan and Colonel Stark, with the New Hampshire troops, contributed largely to this happy result. The term for which the New Hampshire men enlisted had expired ; and through the influence of Stark they enlisted for another period of six weeks, that they might once more meet the British veterans in the field. Colonel Stark led Sullivan's advance guard ; and we can hardly doubt that the brave conduct of his men, on that memorable day, secured the victory. The same troops were also engaged in the battle of Princeton. These were the "times that tried men's souls." Stark's men served during the six weeks of their new enlistment ; and two regiments of militia which had been sent by New Hampshire to reinforce the army of Washington remained till 'the following March.
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CHAPTER XLIX.
SECESSION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE DURING THE LAST CENTURY.
Vermont adopted an independent government in 1777. Prior to 1749 no towns had been chartered in her territory by either of the states claiming jurisdiction over it. Benning Wentworth was then governor of New Hampshire and had been authorized, by a royal commission, to make grants of townships in Vermont. He first chartered Bennington, which he named for himself. He then wrote to the governor of New York to ascertain if his grants would interfere with any previous titles granted by that state. In April, 1750, Governor George Clinton wrote as follows : "This province [New York] is bounded eastward by Connecticut
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river ; the letters patent from King Charles II. and the Duke of York expressly granting "all lands from the west side of the Con- necticut river to the east side of Delaware bay." Other letters passed between the two governors; but Wentworth refused to listen to arguments adverse to the claims of New Hampshire and proceeded to grant other towns in the disputed territory, to the number of one hundred and thirty-eight. Fourteen thou- sand acres had been assigned to the king's officers in reward for faithful services. In 1764, in consequence of an appeal made to the king by the two provinces, his majesty decided in favor of New York. For a time the government of New Hampshire ceased in Vermont. New York would consent to no compro- mise. She regarded all grants made by Governor Wentworth as null and void. She enacted laws hostile to the claims of the set- tlers, who were at once roused to opposition. Hence arose a controversy which resulted in the independence of Vermont. As early as 1776 a convention of delegates from the New Hamp- shire Grants, having met at Dorset, showed by their votes their determination to be a separate state. In 1777 a constitution was formed, and the delegates assembled at Windsor and, for the first time, enacted laws for their government. They assumed the name of the "State of Vermont." Sixteen towns on the . east side of the Connecticut river petitioned to be admitted to the new state. They alleged that the original grant to John Mason did not include their territory, and, inasmuch as their ex- istence depended on a royal commission which was now annulled by the Revolution, they were free to choose their own rulers. Their petition was referred to the freemen of Vermont (who met at Bennington, June 11, 1778). They decided (thirty-seven towns, out of forty-nine represented, voting for the resolution) that these sixteen towns and any others that might choose to unite with them should have leave to do so.
These towns were Cornish, Lebanon, Dresden (a name then given to a district belonging to Dartmouth College), Lyme, Or- ford, Piermont, Haverhill, Bath, Lyman, Apthorp (now divided between Littleton and Dalton), Enfield, Canaan, Cardigan (now Orange), Gunthwaite (now Lisbon), Morristown (now Franconia), and Landaff. Opposition to this union soon arose in the towns and in the state of New Hampshire. Meschech Weare, then president of the province, remonstrated with the officers of the new state of Vermont, against this dismemberment of New Hampshire. Only ten of the towns sent representatives to the next session of the Vermont legislature.
The terms of admission of these New Hampshire towns also led to a controversy in the legislature of Vermont, and a minor- ity withdrew from that body, after protesting against the action
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of the majority in refusing to receive the sixteen towns on equal terms with themselves.
The dissenting members called a convention of all the towns in New Hampshire and Vermont who favored the union, to meet at Cornish, N. H., in December, 1778. The records of this con- vention have not been preserved. They made four propositions by which the controversy might be settled: 1, by committees from the towns of the two states ; 2, by arbitrators selected from other states ; 3, by reference of the whole matter to congress for their adjudication ; 4, by the formation of a new state from the towns on both sides of the river. The legislature of Vermont, in February, 1779, took measures to dissolve this troublesome union, and sent a committee to the legislature of New Hamp- shire in session at Exeter, in April, 1779, to inform them of this result A committee from the Cornish convention had preceded Mr. Allen, the representative of Vermont.
The legislature of New Hampshire was not disposed to yield one iota of its jurisdiction on either side of the river ; but re- solved to acquiesce in the decision of congress respecting the independency of the towns on the west side of the Connecticut. Vermont was now troubled on every side. New Hampshire claimed her entire territory; New York also claimed it ; Massa- chusetts claimed a portion of it, and congress was adverse to her independence. Congress, however, sent a committee to inquire into the condition of the New Hampshire Grants. They went, returned and reported ; but no record is made of their report. Finally the contest became alarming ; the peace of the country was endangered by these adverse claims. Congress again con- sidered the subject and advised the various parties to submit all their disputes to the decision of congress. They did not seem to suppose that the freemen who tilled the soil of Vermont and bore the burdens of its defence had any rights which they were bound to regard. The resolutions related chiefly to those states that claimed the territory. Meantime the settlers were advised to be quiet. But they had declared their independence and were determined to maintain it. In December, 1779, Governor Chit- tenden and council sent a spirited memorial to congress, vindi- cating their claims to a separate political existence and profes- sing their purpose to defend them. They also declared their willingness to bear their full share of the burdens of the national war against Great Britian. Congress several times attempted to hear and decide the question in dispute, but never acknowl- edged the existence of Vermont as a state, nor allowed her del- egates to be heard by them, except as private citizens. After about one year's consideration of the matter they finally post- poned it. But the people whose interests were involved, in New
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Hampshire and Vermont, refused to allow the matter thus to rest. The settlers in the southeastern part of Vermont prefer- red the jurisdiction of New York. As congress had left their case undecided, they moved to form a new state out of the towns on both sides of the Connecticut. As no unity of views existed in the disaffected towns, a convention of delegates from both sides of the river was called to meet at Walpole, November 15, 1780, to compare opinions.
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