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 38
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ity of Dr. George C. Shattuck of Boston. This has now for years justly been a favorite school with Episcopalians, beyond, perhaps, any other which they support.
Most honorable mention is also merited for such institutions as Francestown Academy, established in 1818 ; Blanchard Acad- emy, Pembroke, incorporated the same year ; Hopkinton Acad- emy, incorporated in 1827 ; Boscawen Academy, incorporated in 1828; Nashua Literary Institution, incorporated in 1841 ; and Penacook Academy at Fisherville, incorporated in 1866. Others might justly be added to this list. All these academical institu- tions, with perhaps two exceptions, are open to students of both sexes, while the state has some similar institutions of a high character devoted entirely to the instruction of young ladies. Such is the "Adams Female School" at Derry, of very honora- ble history in its teachers and graduates. Such is the large, flourishing, and beautifully situated institution at West Lebanon, "Tilden Young Ladies' Seminary," incorporated in 1869, and bearing the name of the gentleman through whose liberal gifts its buildings were erected. Such is the Robinson Female Sem- inary at Exeter, bearing the name of the gentleman through whose munificent bequest, larger than any other literary insti- tution in the state ever received at its foundation, it was estab- lished. Such also was the young ladies' seminary maintained and taught by Miss Catherine Fisk of Keene, which for a quar- ter of a century was of the highest reputation.
These numerous academical institutions of the state, estab- lished with high religious as well as educational aims, and ever conducted in accordance with the spirit and purpose of their foundation, many of them occupying sites so remarkable in their commanding prospect and beauties of surrounding scenery as to be an education in themselves, these academical institutions, now largely supplemented and worthily rivaled by the high schools established in all the cities and large towns of our state, together with the normal school more recently established, are the pride and almost chief honor of New Hampshire.
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CHAPTER CIII.
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AGRICULTURE.
Agriculture is the oldest of all arts, the parent of all civiliza- tion and the support of all true progress. The Creator ordained it as the chief occupation of man. He placed the first human pair in the garden "to dress it and to keep it." If they had been content with their "lot," material and spiritual, and had kept their first "estate," real and moral, horticulture would have been the principal employment of their descendants. But a restless love of change and an unfortunate emigration from his primitive home have rendered our great progenitor in these par- ticulars the federal representative of his race ; specially of the universal "Yankee nation." A stale jest, falsely imputed to a son of the Granite State who never uttered it, has passed into a proverb, that "New Hampshire is a good state to emigrate from." It may be true that other states are benefited by such emi- gration, for
"Men are the growth our rugged soil supplies And souls are ripened in these Northern skies."*
But it is my purpose to demonstrate, "here and now," that New Hampshire is a good state to live in ; and, paradoxical as it may seem, for those very reasons which are so often urged to induce men to leave it. The climate, scenery, fertility and salubrity of our state will bear a favorable comparison with those of other countries ; for every region of the globe has its discomforts and deprivations. There is no Eden since the first compulsory emi- gration, and the compensations which a kind Providence has set over against the natural defects of our native state render it one of the best homes for the farmer in the world.
New Hampshire needs no apologies ; she asks no favors. True she has some rough and rocky acres which it is hard to own and harder to till ; but she also has sheltered vales, sunny hills and rich plains that amply reward the labors of the hus- bandman. The sun nowhere on earth looks down on more at- tractive landscapes than the valleys of our numerous rivers pre- sent, either when nature has put on her summer glories or when the fields wave with the golden harvests. Look at the crops that honest industry secures. In the monthly report of the
*Thoughts are sometimes repeated, because the author wished to make each chapter a com- plete dissertation.
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United States Department of Agriculture for January, 1869, New Hampshire leads all the states in her average crop of Ind- ian corn. It is set down at forty bushels and eight-tenths per acre, at an average price of one dollar and forty-three cents per bushel. Vermont stands next, averaging thirty-eight and one-half bushels to the acre. We have often been assured that the soil of our new states was inexhaustible ; that all that was needed from the farmer was "to tickle the soil with the plow, and it would laugh with a harvest." Yet Illinois, the richest state in agricul- tural products in the Union, produces less maize and wheat to the acre than New Hampshire, and the average price of both those staples is less than one-half what it is in the Granite State.
California has turned from mining to agriculture, a very wise change. She is fast becoming the best wheat-raising state in the Union. Minnesota and Kansas stand on a par with her, yielding, on an average, fifteen bushels to the acre, but Vermont reports sixteen and stands at the head of the list. Some of the Western states fall as low as five, six and eight bushels of wheat to the acre. The richest soil badly cultivated soon runs out. Good crops require hard labor, and in a few years, if the ele- ments that are taken from the surface in annual crops are not restored, the best land will become exhausted.
Barrenness is the fruit of slovenly culture everywhere. "Old Virginy never tires" says the negro song, but her soil was worn out before the war. It was said to be the tobacco crop that ruined it. Now it seems, when Yankee industry holds the plow, and Yankee prudence enriches the decayed acres, that the very desert begins to bud and blossom as the rose. Virginia calls for the sons of New Hampshire to regenerate that ruined state. But New Hampshire needs her own sons at home. Why leave our schools, churches and cultivated society here to dwell in a mixed population, hateful and hating one another, and cultivate a soil exhausted by bad husbandry and desolated by war, and work harder and earn less than you would on the old home- steads ? If you go to a new state you must create all your good institutions anew. It will require the labor of a life-time to se- cure as many comforts as you turn your back upon at home.
In 1859, before the war, corn was not worth harvesting in some of the Western states. It commanded only ten cents per bushel, and one bushel of corn made two gallons of whiskey! What a paradise was the West then to those ardent advocates of the largest liberty in domestic trade, and who now complain that heavy duties are a severer restraint on self-indulgence than the Maine law and the Gospel united.
The war elevated a great many things besides brave men ; it increased the estimation of a great many worthless things be-
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sides political demagogues. It enriched the West, by raising the price of corn, for a few years, from ten cents to one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel ; and the price of whiskey from thirteen cents to four or five dollars per gallon. But a reaction has come ; and values have fallen. "Thus, the whirligig of time brings in his revenges." Surely the world does move; and multitudes of our New England farmers move West, with the delusive hope of bettering their condition. Imagine a colony of men and women reared under the shadow of our lofty moun- tains, dropped down in the midst of an almost limitless prairie, in whose horizon the sun rises and sets, as in the ocean ; with not a mound, hill, stone or tree to give variety to the landscape. After gazing upon this monotonous picture for a few years, how ardently does the most unbelieving sceptic pray for faith to re- move one of our New Hampshire mountains into this dead sea of verdure ! On his return to his native land, how does his heart leap with joy at the bare sight of a New England land- scape ! Surely, "variety is the spice of life."
New Hampshire is a good state to stay in, because men live long and grow old in it. Its bracing air promotes longevity. Dr. Belknap, in his history of the first settlers of New Hampshire says : "In that part of America which it falls to my lot to de- scribe, an uncleared and uncultivated soil is so far from being an object of dread that there are no people more vigorous and robust than those who labor on new plantations ; nor, in fact, have any people better appetites for food. A very large propor- tion of the people of New Hampshire live to old age ; and many of them die of no acute disease, but by the gradual decay of nature. The death of adult persons between twenty and fifty years of age is very rare compared with European countries." "When no epidemic prevails not more than one in seventy of the people of New Hampshire die annually." It must be re- membered that this was written before the advent of Venetian blinds, damask curtains, double windows, India rubber strips, air-tight stoves and woolen carpets. Houses were heated by open fires which changed the air every hour. Men were accus- tomed to the healthy stimulus of pure air, bright sun-light and moderate fires within doors ; and without furs, flannels or over- shoes they became inured in their daily toils to the effects of pinching frosts and driving snows, so that they were not debilita- ted at home by excessive heat nor chilled abroad by excessive cold.
Fifty years ago farmers in New Hampshire raised the food for their families, and the wool and flax to clothe them, from their own soil. They had little money ; their trade was chiefly by barter, exchanging wheat, maize and oats, for salt, iron and mo- lasses. After the introduction of manufactures and railroads,
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the rural population, like the rivers, gravitated toward the cities ; or, like the clouds, was dispersed over the boundless West. The agriculture of the state has suffered greatly from this depletion ; but better days are coming. We argue thus because all the best lands this side the Rocky mountains are already occupied by actual settlers or owned by railroads and speculators. We are also assured by the United States surveyors, that there is a broad belt of land beyond the one hundredth meridian of longitude, twelve hundred miles in length, extending from Texas to the British Possessions, and varying in breadth from three to six hundred miles, which is unfit for cultivation. General Hazen affirms that not one acre in a hundred of that vast territory can ever be successfully tilled. The average rainfall of only ten inches per annum sets the seal of perpetual desolation upon this great desert. Irrigation, as in Utah, cannot remedy its bar- renness, because the adjacent mountains do not furnish a supply of water. If Sahara, with its sands, were in the same place, it would not prove a more effectual barrier to emigration and agri- culture. We may therefore anticipate, before the advent of another generation, a refluent tide of emigrants to the old home- steads of New Hampshire. The war of Western farmers upon the railroads confirms this opinion. If three fourths of the value of corn in the Eastern markets are consumed in freight, the producers will prefer to raise the crops, even at an increased expense, in the regions where they are consumed. Good farms and comfortable dwellings, now unoccupied, await the returning prodigals ; for the seventy-eight thousand farmers of 1840 have diminished to forty-six thousand five hundred and seventy-three in 1870, though nearly twenty-four thousand were added to the population during the same period.
New England has been justly styled the "brain" of the coun- try. The enterprise that has formed states, churches, schools and colleges in the West, the energy that has transformed deserts into cultivated fields, reared cities and bound the continent to- gether by iron rails, originated among the bleak hills of the northeastern portion of the continent.
New Hampshire has contributed its full share both of brawn and brain to these magnificent results. Though her staff of la- borers has been diminished by the repeated conscriptions of new states, yet, during the thirty years preceding the Rebellion the wealth of the state was doubled. Every man had a competency and pauperism was almost unknown. Notwithstanding the heavy burdens which the war has imposed upon the productive in- dustry of the state, the people are still prosperous and happy. Nearly two thousand years ago Roman agriculture had declined. Augustus felt the insecurity of his throne without a thrifty rural
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population to support it. He stimulated agriculture by legal enactment, and invited Virgil to sing its pleasures and its prof- its. The poet wrote his Georgics and kindled new enthusiasm among all the wealthy farmers. His closing words are appro- priate to us :
"Oh happy if he knew his happy state, The man who, free from business and debate, Receives his easy food from Nature's hand And just returns of cultivated land."
More than forty years ago DeTocqueville visited this country. He scanned our institutions with the eye of a philosopher. His report was more candid and commendatory than that of any other foreigner who has written concerning us. He was hope- ful of the United States chiefly because of the general distribu- tion of real estate among the inhabitants. "Every man," says he "has a stake in the hedge." Almost every voter is a land- owner. This is peculiarly true with reference to New Hamp- shire, in which there are probably more owners of real estate than in the whole of England. There the estates of earls or dukes are larger than our counties. The nobles own the soil ; the peasants till it. When the country is in peril the millions have little patriotism ; for they have little to lose and nothing to gain. Shelley in his ode to the men of England says :
"The seeds ye sow another reaps ; The wealth ye find another keeps ; The robes ye weave another wears ; The arms ye forge another bears."
With us the land-owners are the sovereigns. They love their homes, whether on the hill or in the vale, and are ever ready at their country's call to defend them. The patriot loves his home, however "cribbed, cabined and confined" he may find his quar- ters, for
"The smoke ascends To Heaven as lightly from the cottage hearth As from the haughty palace."
Our safety and prosperity depend upon this devotion to our native soil. With contentment and industry, our farms will sup- ply every reasonable want. An improved agriculture will en- large our manufactures and commerce. "A threefold cord is not easily broken." But if we intend to live in New Hampshire and board at the West, we may at some unexpected crisis find our supplies cut off. A single short crop in the new states would bring gaunt famine to our doors. A combination of spec- ulators may, at any time, raise the price of flour beyond the means of the poor. The railroad kings can, at their pleasure, produce the same result, by exorbitant freights. But the New Hampshire farmer who raises the wheat and corn that supply his table, who feeds his own domestic animals, "drives his own
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team afield," rides in his own carriage, reads his own books, supports his own church and school, and represents his own town, is independent of them all. No rich broker can lock up his gold ; no speculator can withhold his supplies ; no railroad king can dole out his rations ; no aristocratic millionaire can take his children's bread and cast it to dogs; no scheming politician can command his vote. He is every inch a man, "in body, mind and estate." Let us thank God that we have "a goodly heritage," where, with honest toil and contented minds, we may be healthful, hopeful, happy and prosperous. Truly New Hampshire is a good state to live in.
CHAPTER CIV.
THE COMMERCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
The first settlers of New Hampshire came to trade, mine, fish and plant ; but commerce took precedence of agriculture. Ships were essential to the existence of the first settlers. Their pro- visions were imported in them ; the products of their industry and trade were exported in them. For the first hundred years of the existence of the state, many large fortunes were acquired by merchandise. The provincial governors and the early aris- tocracy were merchants. Portsmouth, the chief maritime town in the state, was for nearly a century the seat of government and the centre of influence. From 1775 to 1807, the legislature was itinerant, meeting at Portsmouth, Exeter, Concord and Hop- kinton, as it was deemed most convenient to the members. One session was held in each of the following towns-Dover, Amherst, Charlestown and Hanover. Since 1807, Concord has by general consent been regarded as the seat of government. Portsmouth, being the chief political and commercial town in the state, gave tone to society and direction to legislation. The earliest exports from the state consisted of fish, lumber, turpentine, peltry, sas- safras, provisions and live stock. From the beginning of the present century to 1807, the annual imports of Portsmouth amounted to about $800,000 ; its exports during the same time averaged nearly $700,000 per annum. The encroachments of France and England upon American commerce and the embargo and non-intercourse acts of our own country nearly ruined the trade of Portsmouth. Besides a small coasting business, the
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West Indies and Great Britain engrossed most of the commerce of New Hampshire.
Ship-building also occupied a large number of men dwelling on the banks of the Piscataqua ; but the din of war drowned the "hum of business" and mechanics left the dock for the deck and manned rather than built ships. Portsmouth has never recovered her commercial prosperity. Her imports, in 1821, amounted to $333,986 ; in 1834, $117,932 ; in 1840, $115,678 ; in 1850, $19,998 ; in 1860, $16,920, which was scarcely more than one fiftieth of its imports in 1807. Her exports have been far less than her imports. Mr. Brewster in his " Rambles about Portsmouth," says :
"At the present day we do not see the busy wharves, the fleets of West Indiamen, the great piles of bags of coffee, and the acres of hogsheads of molasses which we used to see ; nor do we see Water street crowded with sailors, and the piles of lum- ber and cases of fish going on board the West Indiamen for uses in the tropics. But if that day is gone by, we have other occupations, and the old town seems as bright and handsome as ever."
The following description of the commerce of Portsmouth at the present day, is from the pen of a distinguished gentleman of that city, to whom I am indebted for other valuable suggestions :
" I find from the custom-house books, that the direct duties from imports into this port were for 1869, $15,133.06 ; 1870, $27,498.50 ; 1871, $46,635.71 ; 1872, $12,721.60 ; 1873, $7,754 .- 47 ; 1874, $5,671.95. In the two latter years almost all of this was from coal ; a cargo of iron is a rara avis indeed, and one cargo of salt yearly would be a full average. The fishery is the only maritime business which can be said to flourish here, unless the very large amounts of coal from Pennsylvania for distribu- tion by rail to the interior can be called such."
Following is a statement of duties received at the port of Portsmouth, from 1840 to 1870, inclusive, from the records of the Custom House :
1840. ... 53,056
1846 .. 9,986
1851. . 19, 197 1852. . 25,230
1856. . 10,378 1857. . 8,216
1861 .. 5,326
1866 .. 5,415
1841 . .. . 40,702
1847 .. 8,749
1862 .. 10,626
1867 .. 8,361
1842. . . . 22,931
1848. . 16,563
1853. . 10,842
1858 .. 4,640
1863 .. 4,805
1868. . 12,464
1843. . . . 15,757
1849. . 26,862
I 864. . 5,365
1869. . 12,498
1844. .. . 16,932
1850. . 15, 198
1854. . 13,027 1855. . 12,426
1859 .. 5:651 1860 .. 3,132
1865 .. 3,187
1870. . 27,498
1845 .... 8,373
NOTE .- Dr. Dwight, in his Travels, gives the following schedule of duties on imported goods from 1801 to 1810: 1801, $165,614 ; 1802, $154,087 ; 1804, $210,410; 1806, $222,596 ; 1808, $61,231 ; 1810, $61,464.
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CHAPTER CV.
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THE PRESS.
In the ancient republics, the actor and orator enlightened the citizens on all matters pertaining to politics and morals. Libra- ries were few and small. Among private citizens only the wealthy and learned owned manuscripts. Hence Dr. Johnson, in his dogmatic style, said to Sir Adam Ferguson, "Sir, the boasted Athenians were barbarians. The masses of every people must be barbarians where there is no printing." In more recent times, Wendell Phillips describes the power of the press in still more exaggerated language. He says :
"It is a momentous truth that the millions have no literature, no school, and almost no pulpit, but the press. Not one in ten reads books; but every one of us, except the very few helpless poor, poisons himself every day with a newspaper. It is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, coun- selor, all in one. Every drop of our blood is colored by it. Let me make the newspapers, and I care not who makes the religion or the laws."
Prior to the Revolutionary war, less than a score of news- papers were published in the United States. They had been in existence only two centuries in England, and had not then be- come the fourth estate in the realm. The press was still under censorship, and papers were suppressed and their publishers im- prisoned for criticising public men and measures. During the reign of George IV., Leigh Hunt was imprisoned a year for printing something derogatory to the character of "the first gen- tleman in Europe," as that heartless libertine was styled by his admirers. In 1776, the entire issues of the newspaper presses in America would not probably equal the circulation of some of our city dailies. The papers of that day contained little original matter. An editor was not necessarily a writer of leaders, giv- ing tone and direction to public opinion, but a mere compiler of readable articles from books, or the editor and critic of commu- nications furnished by contributors. The movements of Euro- pean monarchs and generals were chronicled with scrupulous fidelity. The great tides of public opinion abroad were sup- posed to determine the slight ripples that washed the American shores. The speeches of English and French orators were often reprinted in full.
As early as 1756 Daniel Fowle established a weekly paper in Portsmouth, called the New Hampshire Gazette. It is said
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that he had suffered imprisonment in Massachusetts for his fear- less criticism of the official acts of the colonial government. Those Puritan magnates did not allow their decrees to be ques- tioned. The Gazette was a small sheet filled with the latest news from England, with a few local paragraphs. Colonial top- ics were sometimes introduced ; and during the Indian wars, the sufferings of the frontier towns were faithfully chronicled. At the present day we look with wonder upon the frequent advertise- ments of fugitive slaves. It seems that the colored man was less contented under Puritan than under Southern masters. Slavery was abolished in New Hampshire in 1784 ; then apprentices be- came estrays. Mr. Fowle printed the Gazette for thirty years. Its circulation, while he owned it, never exceeded five hundred copies. This first child of the American press* in our state, this first heir of Mr. Fowle's invention, still exists in the form of a double sheet, rich in materials and widely circulated.
After the close of the Revolutionary war papers were pub- lished in several of the leading towns of the state, but they soon failed for want of patronage. The people were too illiterate to prize good reading and too poor to purchase it. In 1790, George Hough issued the Concord Herald. It was a small sheet containing a few well selected articles and some local news. It lacked editorial ability and never became a power in the state. After the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the people had become more intelligent and prosperous, the political press assumed greater importance and exerted a broader influence. In 1809, Isaac Hill purchased the New Hampshire Patriot, which had been published for six months by William Hoitt. Mr. Hill introduced a new era in journalism. He was bold and defiant, a man of decided opinions, advocating them with uncommon ability and rather provoking than shunning opposition. Hc became the champion of the democratic party and the uncom- promising foe of the federalists. During the second war with England party spirit became almost ferocious and party feuds irreconcilable. Since that day the utterances of the press have been more pointed, personal and incisive. The men of to-day are not satisfied with calm, dignified essays, such as in the last · century appeared over the names of Junius, Brutus and Cato in New Hampshire papers. A competent critic thus characterizes the productions of the two periods :
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