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 23
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During the year 1787, the last dispute about the boundaries of Mason's grant was adjusted. The Masonian proprietors claimed that the western line of the original grant, which was sixty miles from the sea, should be a curve to correspond with the coast line of the Atlantic ocean. The legislature was peti- tioned to determine the question. It was finally decided that
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sixty miles should be measured from the sea into the interior from the south and east lines of the state, and that the western termini of these two lines should be united by a straight line, and the part of the state so cut off should constitute the Ma- sonian grant. Between this straight line and the curve, which the proprietors claimed, a large territory was left open to dis- pute. The proprietors purchased the title to this segment of the state. At the same time the heirs of Allen, whose purchase of Mason had been declared null and void seventy years be- fore, revived their claim to the same territory under dispute. The Masonian proprietors compromised this claim, and, after one hundred and thirty years of dispute about bounds and titles, the land had rest.
During the first twenty years of the existence of the new con- stitution of the United States, the local legislatures usurped many of the functions of the general government. The legisla- ture of New Hampshire established post-offices and post-routes, issued patents, determined the value of her paper money when greatly depreciated, chartered banks, and regulated all kinds of internal improvements. In 1791 they established "four routes for posts, to be thereafter appointed, to ride in and through the interior of the state." The mail in the country was then carried on horseback, once in two weeks. The post-rider received a small salary from the state, for carrying public letters and pa- pers ; and a postage of six pence on single letters for every forty miles, and four pence for any less distance. Post-offices were established in ten of the principal towns ; and post-masters were allowed two pence on every letter and package that passed through their hands. These provisions, limited as they were, were of immense importance in facilitating communications be- tween different parts of the state. At that time the postal de- partment of the general government was very defective, and several weeks were required to convey intelligence from the seat of government to the interior of New Hampshire. The state legislature in some instances secured to inventors the exclusive right to their inventions, thus exercising the duties of commis- sioners of patents. The necessity of the case rendered such legislation expedient.
The state constitution of 1784 provided for its revision after seven years. Accordingly a convention was called for that pur- pose in 1791. The delegates met at Concord on the seventh of September, 1791, and chose Samuel Livermore president, and John Calf secretary. After a brief session they appointed a committee to revise the constitution and propose amendments, and then adjourned to February, 1792. The late Governor Plumer was the most active member of this committee. He
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was particularly anxious to secure the abolition of all religious tests in the organic laws of the state. He therefore proposed, instead of former provisions, an amendment broad enough to in- clude Roman Catholics and Deists. This failed ; but a propo- sition to strike from the constitution that clause which requires office-holders to be "of the Protestant religion" was voted by the convention, but rejected by the people. The convention which met in 1850 again recommended its repeal, almost unan- imously, but the people, by a large majority, refused to adopt the change, and that clause still remains in the constitution.
The convention called in 1791 met four times, and twice sub- mitted amendments to the people; one of which shows a re- markable phase of the public mind, which proposed to exclude attorneys-at-law from a seat in either branch of the legislature. They also recommended the enlargement of the senate and the diminution of the house ; but all these propositions failed, and only some unimportant changes were adopted by the people, among them, the substitution of governor for president, as the title of the chief magistrate. The state was also divided into districts for the choice of the twelve senators. The legislature was authorized, from time to time, to make these districts "as nearly equal as may be," "by the proportion of direct taxes paid by the said districts." The constitution thus modified has remained in force to this day, with a single amendment recom- mended by the convention of 1850, which strikes out those clauses which ordained a property qualification for the governor, senators and representatives of the state. Although it is gen- erally admitted that the senate is too small and the house too large to secure the best results of a republican government, still the people have never chosen to change this ancient constitution of the two houses.
CHAPTER LXII.
LANDS HELD BY "FREE AND COMMON SOCCAGE."
When America was discovered, the feudal system prevailed in all Europe. This was admirably planned to perpetuate serfdom and arrest progress. In the county of Kent, in England, the old Saxon tenure of free and common soccage had been pre- served. This system imposed and entailed but few burdens
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upon the holder of land. It was devisable by will and not for- feited by crime. It was subject to the law of primogeniture ; but that was modified by local customs among which was " gav- elkind" or an equal distribution among all the male chil- dren. James I., when he issued his patent to the Council of Plymouth, made the grant to be holden by them and their as- signs in free and common soccage, like his manor of East Greenwich in the county of Kent, and not in capite, or by knight- service. This caprice of the monarch was of immense import- ance to the occupants of this grant. They assumed from the beginning that they owned their estates in fee simple ; hence, as early as 1641, "the great and general court of Massachu- setts" ordered and declared "that all lands and heritages shall be free from all fines and licenses upon alienations, and from all heriots, wardships, liveries, primer seisin, year and day waste, escheats and forfeitures upon the death of parents or ancestors, natural or unnatural, casual or judicial, and that forever." Here a whole catalogue of grievances, that had been the growth of centuries, was swept away by a single enactment ; and the mod- ern Solomon retained nothing of his royal prerogatives and feu- dal duties but one fifth of all the gold and silver in the land, which was never destined to glitter upon his person or clink in his coffers. By the voluntary and cordial union of New Hamp- shire with Massachusetts, in 1641, her laws became our laws. The frequent emigrations from the older to the younger state strengthened those bonds. There are probably no two states in the Union, whose customs, habits, laws and institutions are more nearly identical.
CHAPTER LXIII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Highways are a very good standard of civilization. The sav- age has paths or trails where men on foot can move in single file, but no roads. Half-civilized nations construct bridle-paths in which sure-footed mules or horses may creep along and carry the traveler up the sides and over the ridges of lofty mountains. Matured art builds a royal highway or railroad over the same rugged steeps, and conveys in safety both men and goods over ranges once deemed insuperable. Among nations governed by
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a monarch, the best road is called "the king's highway," be- cause it serves for the transportation of the "king's troops" and munitions of war to the field of conflict. The great mili- tary roads of the Romans were made for this purpose, and were classed among the most wonderful creations of their practical skill. Macaulay tells us that a traveler, even at midnight, can discover when he passes from a Protestant to a Catholic coun- try in Europe, by the condition of the roads. Protestantism and progress are always associated. The jolting of the carriage and the clashing of the wheels reveal a land where "ignorance is the mother of devotion " and the enemy of liberty.
In our own state, we have had every variety of road, from the bridle-path marked only by "spotted trees" to the railroad where passengers and freight move at a speed of thirty miles an hour. This progress is happily indicated by the different modes of ascending the White Mountains. First, explorers climbed their rugged sides, carefully picking their way among trees and rocks. Next, a bridle-path was cleared, so that even ladies could ride on safe, well trained horses, to the summit. Now a railroad lifts the lame and lazy, without the motion of a muscle, to the highest point in New England, where winds and storms expend their utmost fury. The first roads that were made through the woods were very imperfect, unfit for carriage use. The trees were felled and the stones removed, so that a man or woman on horseback could travel over them with tolerable ease. The streams were forded or crossed by rafts or boats, when they could be had. The common mode of travel was on horseback. Rev. Grant Powers, in his " Historical Sketches," has given us a graphic account of a perilous ride of a lady in 1731. Mrs. Anna Powers, the wife of Captain Peter Powers of Hollis, on a summer day went to visit her nearest neighbor ten miles from her home. The Nashua river was easily forded in the morning ; but a sudden shower in the afternoon had caused it to overflow its banks. The lady must return to her home that evening. The horse entered the stream and, immediately losing his foot- hold, began to swim. The current was rapid and the water flowed above the back of the horse. He was swept down the stream, but still struck out for the opposite bank. At one in- stant his fore feet rested on a rock in the stream, and he was lifted above the tide. In a moment he plunged forward again, and threw his rider from her seat. She caught his flowing mane and in a few moments the strong animal bore her up the steep bank, and both were saved. Such incidents were not uncom- mon before the age of bridges. As the settlements advanced into the interior the roads were made better, and carriages, with some difficulty, passed over them. The bridge over the Piscata-
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qua, connecting the towns of Newington and Durham, just be- low the outlet of Little Bay, built in 1794, was a magnificent structure for that day. Dr. Dwight thus describes it :
" Piscataqua bridge is formed in three sections; two of them horizontal, the third arched. The whole is built of timber. The horizontal parts on wooden piers or trestles, distant from each other twenty-three feet. Of these there are one hundred and twenty-six; sixty-one on the northwestern and sixty-five on the southeastern side of the arch. The arch is triple, but no part of the work is overhead. The chord is two hundred and forty-four feet, and the versed sine nine feet and ten inches. This arch is the largest in the United States, contains more than seventy tons of timber, and was framed with such exactness that not a single stick was taken out after it had once been put in its place. The whole length of the planking is two thousand two hundred and forty-four feet. The remaining three hundred and fifty-six are made up by the abutments and the island. The expense was sixty-eight thousand dollars."
The first bridge over the Connecticut was built near Bellows Falls, in 1785, by Colonel Enoch Hale. The first New Hamp- shire turnpike, from Portsmouth to Concord, was chartered in 1796. Soon after this, a second was built from Claremont to Amherst, a third from Walpole to Ashby and a fourth from Leb- anon to Boscawen. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, corporations were authorized to build such roads and take toll of all travelers ; but as wealth increased the people became weary of these impediments to locomotion and made the turnpikes free highways.
Mills were among the first wants of the colonists. In some of the interior settlements men often carried their corn ten miles to be ground ; sometimes upon their backs. The only al- ternative was to pound the corn in mortars much as the Ind- ians were wont to do. The first settlers of Portsmouth and Dover were obliged to carry their corn to Boston to be ground ; but they soon had a mill both for sawing and grinding at New- ichewannoc falls. This was the Indian name for Berwick.
In 1748, the inhabitants of Rumford, Canterbury and Con- toocook petitioned His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, to fur- nish soldiers to man a deserted garrison in Rumford for the following reasons : because, as they say in their petition, "we are greatly distressed for want of suitable gristmills ; that Mr. Henry Lovejoy has, at great expense, erected a good mill at a place the most advantageously situated to accommodate the three towns. This is the only mill in the three towns that stands un- der the command of the garrison." They therefore pray that the garrison may again be manned that they may enjoy the use of the mill protected by its cannon. Mills for the carding of wool and the dressing of cloth were also among the earliest wants of a people whose clothing was entirely of domestic manufacture. The labor of that day was mostly manual. The
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farmer and mechanic could each say with an apostle of old : "These hands have ministered to my necessities." Rev. David Sutherland of Bath, says :
" The people in early times were a very plain people, dressing in home- spun cloth. Every house had its loom and spinning-wheel, and almost every woman was a weaver. Carding-machines were just introduced, [at the be- ginning of the nineteenth century] and clothiers had plenty of work. The first coat I had cost me a dollar and a half per yard, spun and woven by one of my best friends ; and I know not that I ever had a better. For many years there was not a single wheeled carriage in town. People who owned horses rode them; and those who had them not went on foot. Husbands carried their wives behind them on pillions. More than one half of the church-going people went on foot. Sleighs or sleds were used in winter. I have seen ox-sleds at the meeting-house. For years we had no stoves in the meeting-house of Bath; and yet in the coldest weather, the house was always full." *
SHIP-BUILDING.
In the early history of New Hampshire ship-building was one of the most profitable branches of industry. Lumber and staves were among the chief exports of the state for several years of its infancy. Its forests abounded in timber ; when this became known in Europe, the export of masts, spars and ship timber furnished employment for many of its inhabitants. Merchant vessels, fishing schooners and ships for the royal navy were built at all convenient places. The king, as above stated, claimed the largest and tallest pines for his own use. Later in the history of the state vessels were built in the same place for home ser- vice. The timber used in the construction of the Constitution frigate, the famous "Old Ironsides," was taken from the woods of Allenstown, on the border of the Merrimack, fifty miles from the ship-yard. So of the Independence seventy-four, the Con- gress and several other vessels of war. Ships of war were also built at Portsmouth in early times, viz: the Faulkland of fifty- four guns, in 1690 ; the Bedford Galley, thirty-two guns, in 1696 ; the America of forty guns, in 1749 ; the Raleigh of thirty-two guns, in 1776; the Ranger of eighteen guns, in 1777; and a ship of seventy-four guns, called the AMERICA, was launched at Portsmouth, November 5, 1782, and presented to the king of France by the congress of the United States. An examination of the custom-house books kept at Boston shows that as early as 1769 forty-five vessels were registered from New Hampshire. Massachusetts then had only seventy built in that state. From that day to the present, ship-building has ever been an impor- tant branch of industry on the banks of the Piscataqua.
* A part of the Dr. Chadbourne house at the corner of Main and Montgomery streets, in Concord, is the oldest building in that city. It was built about 1726, as a block-house for de- fence against the Indians, and contains timber enough to make half-a-dozen of the shells which serve for modern houses. Both the first male and the first female white child born in Concord first saw the light in the house.
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THE STEAMBOAT A NEW HAMPSHIRE INVENTION.
Hon. Clark Jillson of Worcester, Mass., in a letter to the Bos- ton Journal, dated February 22, 1874, says: "There is no re- liable historical evidence to show that John Fitch was the inven- tor of steam navigation in this country, from the fact that the progress of that art cannot be traced back to him but it can be traced to Robert Fulton, and from him directly to Captain Sam- uel Morey, and to no one else." The same holds true with regard to the claims of James Rumsey. The writer adds: "It is settled, beyond all question, that Mr. Morey had launched his boat upon the waters of New Hampshire before Fulton accom- plished the same thing in New York. It is also a well estab- lished fact that Fulton visited Morey, at his home, for the pur- pose of witnessing his successful experiment before he [Fulton] had launched any kind of steam craft upon the Hudson ; and it can be shown that Morey had been engaged in such experi- ments for years before ; so that the first practical steamboat ever seen upon American waters was invented by Captain Samuel Morey, the author of steam navigation as we see it to-day." This statement is confirmed by irrefutable testimony. We not only have the claim to the invention made by Mr. Morey in his life time, but the testimony of contemporaries who knew the facts, and of eye-witnesses who saw the boat in motion upon the Connecticut river. The declarations of unimpeachable wit- nesses seem to prove that Fulton borrowed the most valuable portions of his invention from Mr. Morey. There can be no doubt that visits were exchanged between Mr. Morey and Mr. Fulton, and that the plans of Mr. Morey and his boat actually moving by steam upon the water were seen and studied by Ful- ton some years before he succeeded in propelling a boat by steam upon the Hudson.
Rev. Cyrus Mann, a native of Orford and familiar with the history of the town and of its citizens, vindicates the claims of Mr. Morey, in the Boston Recorder, in 1858. He writes : "So far as is known, the first steamboat ever seen on the waters of America was invented by Captain Samuel Morey of Orford, N. H. The astonishing sight of this man ascending the Connecti- cut river between Orford and Fairlee, in a little boat just large enough to contain himself and the rude machinery connected with the steam boiler, and a handful of wood for fire, was wit- nessed by the writer in his boyhood, and by others who yet sur- vive. This was as early as 1793, or earlier, and before Fulton's name had been mentioned in connection with steam navigation." This testimony is definite and explicit. The boat was seen in motion by the writer and by others still living when he wrote.
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We cannot for a moment doubt that Captain Samuel Morey, by his own unaided powers, invented a steamboat which he used on the Connecticut river some fourteen or fifteen years before the two claimants of this invention above mentioned successfully launched similar boats upon any other waters in America. Ful- ton's first voyage was from New York to Albany, in 1807. It must be admitted that Fulton was the first man who made the steamboat moved by paddles "a practical business success." But there are abundant proofs that he did not invent the princi- ple by which the boat was propelled ; and from the well attested fact that he visited Mr. Morey at Orford, and saw his little boat self-moved upon the Connecticut some years prior to his own successful trial of the same principle at Albany, it is possible, nay probable, that Mr. Fulton borrowed the invention from Morey. As early as 1780, Mr. Morey began his experiments upon steam, heat and light. He often visited Professor Silliman of Yale College, and conferred with him respecting the value of his dis- coveries. He took out two patents for the use of steam in pro- pelling machinery before Fulton took out any, and Fulton saw two of Morey's models of boats before his successful boat, the "Clermont," was built. The contemporaries of Captain Morey in Orford firmly believed him to be the inventor of the first steamboat ever moved by paddle wheels in America, possibly the first in the world. Men who saw the boat move upon the river have recorded their testimony in his favor. The living relatives of Mr. Morey have in their possession papers confirm- ing the truths above stated ; and they affirm that during his last illness, just before his death, Captain Morey believed and af- firmed that he was the first inventor of a steamboat, and that Fulton saw his models and his boat years before the "Cler- mont " moved on the Hudson.'
Mr. Bishop in his History of American Manufactures says, that on the fifth of June, 1790, "the steamboat built by John Fitch, propelled by twelve oars, made her first trip on the Dela- ware, as a passenger and freight boat between Philadelphia and Trenton, performing eighty miles between four o'clock A. M. and five P. M., against a strong wind all the way back, and sixteen miles of the distance against current and tide. She thus ac- complished the most successful experiment in steam navigation as yet made in Europe or America. During four months she continued to perform regularly advertised trips between Phila- delphia, Trenton, Burlington, Bristol, Chester, Wilmington and Gray's Ferry, running about three thousand miles in the sea- son." Allowing this record to be true, it would seem that this invention, like many others, may be claimed by two or more persons, acting independently of each other.
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CHAPTER LXIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT BARTLETT.
Prior to the Revolutionary war, public offices were confined to a few leading families. A majority of these were citizens of Portsmouth. This was the only commercial town in the prov- ince, and merchants accumulated wealth more rapidly than farmers. Riches, royal favor and education, to a great extent, determined the candidates for office. The king, of course, se- lected his friends for governors, judges and councilors ; the people were guided by the same rule. The king's prerogative and the people's rights at length came into collision. War was the consequence. While the people were achieving their lib- erty, forming their constitution, organizing their government, enacting their laws, regulating their finance and providing for the general welfare, men of valor, culture and wisdom were selected as commanders, governors, judges and legislators. They were the right men in the right place, and were long retained in office. Such men were Weare, Sullivan, Langdon, Bartlett and Gilman. In 1790 the popular favorite as soldier and civilian, General Sul- livan, was appointed judge of the United States district court under the new constitution. It is very rare to find one man em- inent as a warrior, jurist and statesman. Hon. John Sullivan filled the positions of general, governor and judge with unques- tioned ability. In the election of his successor there was no choice by the people. From the three candidates, Josiah Bart- lett, John Pickering and Joshua Wentworth, the legislature chose, as chief magistrate, Josiah Bartlett. He was an eminent physician of Kingston, who gained great distinction in his pro- fession by his successful treatment of patients attacked by a malignant distemper in 1735 and in 1754. He had been pro- moted to places of civil power by Governor John Wentworth, but lost his favor by his zealous defence of the people's rights in 1775. He was made one of the justices of the superior court in 1782, and chief justice in 1783, and held those offices for nearly eight years. He served as chief magistrate from 1790, four years, with great acceptance to the public. In all his official relations he was a high-minded, honorable and patriotic servant of the people. He was selected, in every instance, for the trust reposed in him, not for his party attachments, but for his fitness for the place. Men in those days prized wisdom more than party. Dr. Bartlett is said to be the only physician who ever occupied a
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seat upon the bench of the supreme court of the state. After his election as president he, with great magnanimity, appointed his rival, Hon. John Pickering, to the seat he had vacated as judge, which place he filled with honor to himself and satisfac- tion to the public for five years. During the administration of President Bartlett the revised constitution went into operation and very important laws were passed regulating the highest in- terests of the state. Finance received special attention. The depreciated paper money was bought up and provision made for the liquidation of the debts of the state. The increase of com- merce in Portsmouth was thought to require greater banking facilities, and in 1792 the first bank in New Hampshire was in- corporated with a capital of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In 1791 a law was enacted requiring the state to raise seven thousand five hundred pounds sterling for the support of common schools. This law placed the education of the people upon a solid foundation. The same year the New Hampshire Medical Society was established, which has contributed greatly to the elevation of the medical profession in the state. Dr. Jo- siah Bartlett was its first president. Toward the close of his fourth year in office President Bartlett, owing to the increasing infirmities of age, resigned the chair of state and retired to pri- vate life. He was soon after this event " gathered to his fathers," old and full of honors.
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