USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 10
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Another fruitless attempt to stay the constantly waning value of the paper currency was made by the town, a year later. 'On July 19, 1779, Josiah Robinson, Nathaniel Gordon, Eliphalet Giddinge, Eliphalet Hale, Eliphalet Ladd, Gideon Lamson and John T. Gilman, a committee appointed by the town to consider the subjects of a reduction of the price of the necessaries of life, and
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the support of the credit of the currency, reported the following scale of prices, to hold good until the succeeding first of Septem- ber, viz. :
West India rum 81. Ss. per gallon
New England rum 51. 8s. "
Molasses 41. 16s. "
Brown sugar 16s. to 18s. " lb.
Chocolate 26s. " Wheat 91. 12s. 66
Coffee 22s.
Tea 81. 8s.
Cottonwool 40s. " "
No W. I. or other foreign salt to exceed 91. 12s. per bushel
Salt made in New England, 71. 4s. per bushel
Indian corn 51. 8s.
per bushel
Rye 61.
66
1b.
Beef 4s. 6d. 66
Veal 4s. 6d. 66 66
Salt pork 12s. 66
Butter 12s. 66
Best English hay 301. per ton Other hay in proportion thereto.
The committee also reported the following resolutions :
Resolved, That wool, flax, cloth and other articles of the produce of this country not herein particularly mentioned, shall not exceed the price of twenty shillings for what was commonly sold for one shilling in the year 1774, and in that rule of proportion to any sum or sums.
Resolved, That we will sell no articles of merchandise not par- ticularly above mentioned, at a higher price than they are now sold.
Resolved, That the tradesmen and laborers of this town will not exceed the above rate of twenty for one for their labor and manu- factures, including those articles they may have of the produce of this country, and excluding those of foreign import, and that they will reduce the same in proportion as the prices of merchandise and the produce of the country are from time to time lowered.
Resolved, Upon condition the other towns in this State adopt similar measures respecting their merchandise and produce, that from and after the first day of September next, we will continue to lower the prices month by month, unless some other general plan shall be adopted by the people of this State.
Resolved, That all those who shall hereafter dare to refuse con- tinental currency, or require hard money for rent or any other article whatever, or shall in any way endeavor to evade the salu- tary measures proposed by this body, shall be deemed enemies to the interest and independence of this United States, and shall be treated in such manner as the town shall hereafter order.
Resolved, That the foregoing be offered for signing, to every male inhabitant of this town, paying taxes.
Lamb 5s.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
The report of the committee was unanimously adopted. Stephen Thing, David Fogg and Simeon Ladd were chosen a committee to offer the resolves to the inhabitants, for their signatures.
At an adjourned meeting the committee reported that some persons had declined to sign the resolves. The town instructed them to present them to such persons a second time, and upon their refusal, to return their names to the selectmen, who were directed to publish the same in the New Hampshire Gazette. So far as can be learned from the imperfect files of the Gazette known to be in existence, no such publication of names was found to be necessary. But resolutions, however patriotic, could not annul the laws of finance and trade.
On the twenty-sixth of March, 1781, the credit of the paper currency had sunk so low that a day's work on the highway was by order of the town estimated at forty dollars. On the thirty-first of March, 1783, after the bills of credit had gone out of circula- tion, and accounts were kept in metallic currency, the same was reckoned at no more than three shillings.
The constitution agreed upon by the convention of 1778 for the government of the State, having been rejected on reference to the people ; and another convention having been ordered, to be held in Concord on the second Tuesday of June, 1781, the town on the fourth of that month appointed Nathaniel Folsom and John T. Gilman delegates thereto.
The fourth of July, 1778, according to the recollection of a gen- tleman who witnessed it, was suitably observed in Exeter, although it is not known with what ceremonials. The first printed account of a celebration of the anniversary which has been met with, was that of 1781. A contemporary journal describes the day as " ushered in by a display of colors and the most lively tokens of joy. At noon the principal gentlemen assembled at the Raleigh tavern, kept by Colonel Samuel Folsom, where they were honored by the company of the honorable council, and speaker of the Assembly, at a genteel collation, after which a number of suitable toasts were drank and thirteen cannon discharged."
The people of Exeter endured their full proportion of the hardships that were caused by the War of the Revolution. A large share of the business from which the town had derived its support, was arrested, and had it not been that the public offices and State administration were transferred to the town, there would have been much more suffering. But the Legislature was in session
-
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much of the time, and during its adjournments the Committee of Safety, with equal powers, sat in its stead. Exeter was also the headquarters for most of the military operations; so that, altogether, there was no small amount of activity and remunera- tive employment in the town.
What Exeter did to furnish soldiers for the war, will be told in another chapter. Her citizens were loyal to their own country, with scarce an exception. A few were lukewarm, but the only downright tory that is known was Robert Luist Fowle, the printer, who was committed to prison on the charge of counterfeiting the provincial paper currency, but made his escape, and took refuge within the British lines.
But after the war was over, there came a time of peculiar stress. The Utopia that so many had looked forward to, as the natural result of independence, was not realized. Times were hard and cash was scarce. Ignorant and unreflecting people fancied that the panacea for these ills, was for the government to issue fresh bills of credit. But, fortunately, there were those in authority in the State with sufficient knowledge of political economy to prevent the Legislature from resorting to that deceptive remedy for finan- cial troubles. But they could not convince the " green-backers " of those days ; and at length matters came to such a pass that the infatuated clamorers for paper currency determined to make an attempt to dragoon the Legislature into sanctioning it.
THE PAPER MONEY MOB OF 1786.
A body of men from the towns in the western part of Rocking- ham county by a concerted movement assembled September 20, 1786, at Kingston, thence to march to Exeter, where the State Legislature was in session. They were mustered in a sort of military array under leaders, some of whom had served in the revolutionary army. Joseph French of Hampstead, James Coch- ran of Pembroke and John McKean of Londonderry were the prin- cipal officers. In the afternoon they made their entry into the village of Exeter, by way of Front street. They numbered about two hundred, one-half of them marching on foot and armed with guns or swords, and the remainder following on horseback, and carrying clubs or whips. The General Court was sitting in the First church, and the Superior (judicial) Court in the town-house on the opposite side of the street. The insurgents marched into
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
the centre of the village, and by mistake surrounded the latter building. If their object had been to overawe the legal tribunal within it, they would have signally failed, for Judge Samuel Liver- more was presiding, and so far was he from being daunted, that he ordered the business of the court to proceed, and sternly forbade every one to look out of the windows.
But it was the General Court that the insurgents meant to intimidate, and they attempted to stretch a cordon of men around the meeting-house where the legislators were. But there was by this time a great body of spectators on the ground, partly citizens of the town, and partly inhabitants of neighboring places who had come in to witness the proceedings. They were generally opposed to the lawless intruders, so that when the latter endeavored to draw near the meeting-house, they found it no easy matter to overcome the inertia of the unfriendly crowd. Little by little, however, they forced their way to the building, and stationed sen- tinels at the doors and windows. They then, after ostentatiously loading their fire-arms, announced their purpose to compel the Legislature to enact a law for the emission of abundant paper money which should be made a legal tender for debts and taxes, and their determination to hold the law-makers in durance until the demand was complied with. One or two representatives who attempted to make their escape were driven back with insult. It fortunately happened that the chief executive of the State was a man of courage and resolution, and not unacquainted with arms, John Sullivan, who had gained the rank of major general in the Revolution. He appeared at the entrance of the building and listened to the requirements of the assemblage. In a temperate and reasonable reply he gave them to understand that they need not expect to frighten him, for he had smelt powder before. " You ask for justice," he continued, " and justice you shall have." But he did not order them to disperse ; he perhaps thought it was wiser to let them keep together, in order the more effectually to stamp out the tendency to insurrection against the constituted authorities.
The afternoon wore away ; the General Court were still prison- ers, and no progress had been made towards an adjustment. By this time many of the better class of citizens of Exeter were filled with shame and indignation at the unchecked riotous demonstra- tion, and one of them, Colonel Nathaniel Gilman, with the assist- ance of others, successfully practised a ruse de guerre, in order to
7
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raise the siege. It had then become dusk, and a high and close fence around the church-yard prevented the rioters from seeing distinctly what was going on outside. He caused a drum to be beaten briskly at a little distance while a body of citizens approached with a measured military step, and then cried out in his stentorian voice, "Hurra for government ! Here comes Hackett's artillery !" The cry was echoed by others, and the insurgents did not wait for more. Their valor was not up to the fighting point, and they rapidly retreated, standing not on the order of their going. They afterward made their rendezvous on the western side of the Little river, on the road to Kingston, and there a great part of them spent the night.
No sooner had they retired than steps were taken to crush this revolt in the bud. Messengers were sent into the neighboring towns bearing orders to the officers of the militia to muster their commands, and march at once to the scene of action ; and in Exe- ter a company of the first citizens enrolled themselves under the command of Captain Nicholas Gilman, who had served as an officer through the war. The next morning saw nearly two thousand men under arms in Exeter. President Sullivan assumed the direction of the column, which at once moved against the insurrectionary force, the volunteers of Exeter claiming the post of honor in the van. Arrived within about an eighth of a mile from their antagonists, they were halted by order, when a small troop of horsemen * under Colonel Joseph Cilley, a revolutionary officer of distinction, galloped forward, forded the river, and made prisoners of the principal leaders of the insurgents ; after which their followers surrendered at discretion.
Thus terminated the most formidable demonstration against the government which was ever made on the soil of New Hampshire. The happy result of it was in no small degree due to the loyal feeling and prudence and pluck of the people of Exeter. The attempt to dictate legislation by force having proved so ignomin- ious a failure, it was not deemed necessary to inflict serious pun- ishment upon the offenders.
But the Legislature, in order that the opinion of the people of the State should be fairly tested on the expediency of issuing a paper currency, passed a bill to authorize its emission, to be sub-
* Tradition says that Major Jonathan Cass, the father of the statesman Lewis Cass, distinguished himself on this occasion, and in the charge leaped his horse completely over a well.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
mitted to the voters of the several towns for their approval or rejection. And on the twenty-third of October, 1786, a meeting of the citizens of Exeter was held for the expression of their opinion. A committee of leading men consisting of John T. Gilman, Oliver Peabody, Samuel Tenney, John Phillips, Nicholas Gilman, Thomas Folsom and Noah Emery was appointed, to make a report upon the subject, who prepared full and elaborate reasons in writing against the measure, which were read in the meeting ; and when the vote was taken it was found that there were but six in favor of the plan, and seventy-nine against it.
THE CONVENTION FOR THE ADOPTION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.
On the thirteenth of February, 1788, assembled in convention at the court-house in Exeter the delegates chosen by the several towns in the State, to consider and pass upon the constitution framed for the government of the United States, under which we now live. It was an anxious period. The proposed constitution contained a provision that it was to go into effect upon its ratifica- tion by nine of the thirteen States. Eight had already voted their approval of it, and the interest of the country centred upon New Hampshire, the ninth to act upon it. The session of the conven- tion in Exeter lasted ten days. So great was the opposition devel- oped to the adoption of the new instrument, that its friends thought it wiser to postpone final action upon the question for a season ; and the convention was adjourned to meet again at Concord in the following June. The public sentiment had by that time so distinctly manifested itself that after a session of four days the convention was ready by a fair majority to ratify the constitu- tion, and thus to put the new government into operation. The delegate of Exeter, who was one of the most influential in bringing about this result, was John Taylor Gilman.
TIIE VISIT OF WASHINGTON.
The year 1789 is one to be remembered in Exeter, by a visit from the Father of his country. George Washington, having been inaugurated the first President of the Republic, was then making a tour through the Northern States. He had passed two or three days in Portsmouth, and left that place in the morning of the fourth day of November. His habits of extreme punctuality are well known,
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and he probably set out from Portsmouth exactly as the hands of the clock pointed to the half hour after seven. The people of Exeter had made arrangements to receive him with a handsome cavalcade. But some of the party were a little dilatory, and before they were in the saddle Washington made his appearance, it not yet being ten o'clock. He was mounted on horseback, as was his practice when entering a town, and was attended by his two secretaries, Colonel Tobias Lear and Major William Jackson, who rode in an open carriage, and by a single servant. He wore a drab surtout and a military hat. The streets were thronged with people waiting to welcome the distinguished visitor, and Captain Simon Wiggin in command of the artillery company of Exeter, had his men promptly in line, and received his Commander-in- Chief with a salute of thirteen guns.
The party alighted at the public house kept by Colonel Samnel Folsom, where they were waited upon by Colonel Nicholas Gilman, who had been a staff officer under Washington at Yorktown, and other revolutionary soldiers and citizens, proud to do the honors of the town to the President. They invited him to tarry for a night and partake of a public dinner. But his engagements, pre- viously made, compelled him, with reluctance as he informs us in his diary, to decline. They, however, gave him a collation, which he graciously accepted. Among those who had the honor of waiting on him at the table was a young lady relative of Colonel Folsom, who had solicited the privilege. Washington saw at once that she was no menial servant, and calling her to him, addressed her a few pleasant words and kissed her. She lived to attain a good old age, and was the friend of some of the most distinguished men of a subsequent generation, but probably no incident of her life made so lasting an impression upon her memory as the kiss of Washington.
The few hours of Washington's stay in Exeter were soon ended, and he resumed his journey. A cavalcade of gentlemen escorted him outside the village. He took the road to Kingston, on his way to Haverhill, Massachusetts. When he reached the top of Great hill, he directed the driver of his carriage to halt, that he might look back upon the wide view of Exeter and its vicinity. He gazed a few moments at the fair landscape that lay at his feet and stretched away to the ocean, and remarked admiringly upon its beauty ; and with this pleasant farewell to Exeter he went on his way.
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COURT-HOUSE, FIRE ENGINE, LIBRARY, ETC.
The town, on October 13, 1788, had instructed the selectmen to put up a chimney in the town-house, and to make such repairs on the building as to render it suitable for the sessions of the General Court and county courts. But three years afterwards the need of a new court-house became apparent, and on the twelfth of Septem- ber, 1791, the town voted to raise, to be assessed the next year, two hundred and fifty pounds for the purpose of building one, to be placed on the land between the house of the late General Folsom and that of Ward Clark Dean ; and that so much of said land as should be necessary, be appropriated for the purpose. This location was in the middle of the present Court square, just in front of the town-house. The building was completed, there, in season for the town to hold its annual meeting in it, in March, 1793.
The State constitution which was adopted by the people in 1783 was found on trial to require amendment, and on Angust 8, 1791, the town, at a meeting held for the purpose, appointed Samuel Tenney a delegate to the convention to be held at Concord on the succeeding first Wednesday of September, to revise the constitu- tion.
At the March town meeting in 1794, it was voted to raise a sum not exceeding seventy pounds, for the purchase of a new fire engine, hooks, etc., for the use of the town; and that Gideon Lamson be empowered to bargain for the same, and to sell the engine then belonging to the town, and account for the proceeds thereof. The former engine here referred to was procured in 1774 at the cost, including transportation, of fifty-two pounds.
It was also voted that any persons who might be unwilling to pay their taxes assessed for the new engine, could have them abated upon application to the selectmen, by the first Monday of May following. This, and one or two other similar cases of con- sideration, exhibited by the majority, for the inability or opposition of a minority of the tax-payers, are worthy of being recorded, to the credit of the town. They are in sharp contrast to the ideas and practice of some communities, in later times.
At the adjourned annual meeting in March, 1797, it was voted by the town that Benjamin Clark Gilman and his associates should have the privilege of sinking an aqueduct in Fore street, and such other streets as they might find convenient, for supplying water to customers ; and of breaking ground to repair the same ; on condi-
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tion that they should put the streets in as good a state as they found them in, within a reasonable time, and should indemnify the town against prosecutions on that account.
In 1797 the Legislature incorporated several of the principal citizens of the town as the "Exeter Social Library." They at once completed an organization, and adopted rules and regula- tions. From a little pamphlet printed for their use by Henry Ranlet in the same year, it appears that they began with thirty- eight proprietors and one hundred and sixty-eight volumes. The number of the latter was subsequently much increased, and the society continued in existence for a considerable period, until the books having probably become pretty familiar, the interest in the library so far abated, that its contents were divided among the proprietors.
In the year 1798 a number of citizens, for the better protection of their property from loss by fire, entered into a voluntary asso- ciation called the " Fire Society of Exeter." Their constitution provided that the number of members should not exceed twenty- five, and that no person should be admitted, except at a meeting where three-fourths of the society were present; and if more than a single ballot were cast against him. Each member was to keep always in readiness two leather buckets, and two bags a yard and a half in length and three-quarters of a yard in breadth, with strings at the mouth ; and at every alarm of fire was instantly to repair with his buckets and bags to the house or other building of the member whose danger should appear greatest, and make every exertion for the preservation of his building and personal property. Various fines were prescribed for delinquencies, which went, if this society was conducted like similar associations elsewhere, to pay for an occasional dinner and jollification for the members. The society, having this happy commingling of the utile with the dulci, was kept up for many years, and was the precursor of other combinations for the same object. The "Junior Fire Society" was in successful operation in 1817, and the "Phoenix Fire Society" in 1832.
HONORS TO THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON.
Nearly all the sessions of the State Legislature were held in Exeter from the beginning of the year 1776 to 1784; but for the succeeding fifteen years they were distributed among three or four towns, Exeter receiving but a small share of them. The
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last meeting there was in December, 1799. Near the close of the session intelligence was received of the death of Washington, which occurred on the fourteenth day of the month. The General Court immediately suspended business and resolved, in respect to the memory of the deceased patriot, to go into mourning for the term of three months. And on the day following, the executive and legislative officers of the State, with the selectmen and citizens of the town, escorted by a military company of students of the academy in uniform with proper badges of mourning, marched in procession to the First meeting-house, where religious exercises were performed, appropriate to the sad event. The citizens of the town resolved to take further and more formal notice of the national bereavement. They accordingly invited the Hon. Jere- miah Smith to deliver a eulogy on the late President. On the succeeding twenty-second of February, which was generally observed as a day of mourning throughout the land, they gathered, with all the insignia of respect and grief, in the meeting-house of the First parish, and there listened to an eloquent oration in honor of the deceased First Citizen of America, pronounced by one who was fully capable of appreciating his greatness and his virtues, and who had known him in public and in private life, in his official position at the national capital and as his visitor at Mount Vernon.
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