USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire in history; or, The contribution of the Granite state to the development of the nation > Part 2
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Thompson. Other members were soon af-
ter added among them being Meshech Weare, who became chairman in 1776, and continued throughout the war.
The Fifth Provincial Congress, called for December 21, 1775, voted on December 28, to take up the matter of establishing a form of civil government, and Matthew
Thornton, Meshech Weare, Ebenezer
Thompson, Wiseman Claggett and Ben- jamin Giles were appointed a committee "to frame and bring in a draft or plan of a new Constitution for the rule and gov- ernment of the colony." The Committee proceeded with its work, and on the 5th day of January, following, its report was accepted and adopted, and the new inde- pendent government was put in operation, six months before the Declaration of In- dependence by the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, and the first of all the in- dependent colonial governments to be es- tablished.
Thus New Hampshire was at the very front in the great struggle for American independence, not only in the military but in the civil point of view. Meshech Weare, who was the Governor (or rather Presi- dent, as the chief executive was called un- der this first Constitution) all through the Revolution, and until the new State consti-
GEN. JOHN STARK
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tution was adopted in 1784, as well as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, was Washington's most trusted confidant and adviser; while John Langdon, sound in judgment but impetuous in action, was a tower of strength in every emergency. He it was through whose instrumentality Gen. Stark's Bennington expedition, which won the victory over the Hessians and turned the tide in favor of the patriot cause at a very critical emergency, was raised and equipped. The treasury was empty at the time and no means in sight for providing the needed funds. He was speaker of the House and finally addressed
that body, saying: "I have $1,000 in hard money; Í will pledge my plate for $3,000 more; I have 70 hogsheads of Tobago rum which I will sell for the most it will bring. They are at
the service of the State." The expedition was raised, and Langdon himself, who was a soldier as well as a civilian leader served therein, and fought afterward, as a captain of volunteers, at Stillwater and Saratoga.
No other state, large or small, contribut- ed such a galaxy of heroic names to the military history of the Revolution, as did New Hampshire, including Stark, Sullivan, Reid, Poor, Cilley, Scammell, Dearborn and a host of others of lesser fame, but no less courage and devotion.
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Sullivan was Washington's strong de- pendence in the field, as was Weare in civil affairs. He commanded the left wing of the army at the siege of Boston; was with Washington in the trying New Jersey campaign, sharing the sufferings of Valley Forge, commanding the right wing at the passage of the Delaware, the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, at the battle of Princeton, with John Stark in the van, and at Brandywine and Germantown. He led the famous expedition against Britain's savage allies, the Six Nations or Mohawk Indians, in western New York in 1777.
These Indians had been for a long
time, conducting a "fire in the rear," so to speak, and greatly hampering the patriot cause, and it became necessary to suppress their operations by decisive action. The expedi- tion was an important and a dangerous one, and required a leader of the greatest courage and coolest judgment, and John Sullivan was selected for the part. The Indians were surprised in their villages, the latter destroyed and their forces utter- ly routed, the result being a victory no less substantial in effect than that of Stark at Bennington. Here it should be said that Gen. Enoch Poor was Sullivan's leading supporter in this expedition, and conducted himself no less gallantly than when he bore
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the brunt of battle at Stillwater, and led the advance at Saratoga.
All through the Revolution New Hamp- shire men were actively engaged in almost every conflict, and New Hampshire officers rendered conspicuous service. In the last crowning conflict-the siege of York- town-the state was prominently repre- sented. Here Alexander Scammell of Dur- ham, law student with John Sullivan at the opening of hostilities, who entered the ser- vice at once and fought gallantly to the end of the struggle, then Adjutant General of the Army, lost his life; and here Henry Dearborn of Nottingham, who led 60 min- ute men from that town to Cambridge in 36 hours, after the Lexington alarm, and was with Stark at Bunker Hill, was also in active service as Deputy Quartermaster General.
How many New Hampshire men were engaged in the military service of the coun- try during the Revolutionary period can never be accurately determined. Prof. John K. Lord of Dartmouth College, a careful historian, in his article
on New Hampshire in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, put the total at 12,479. Adjutant General Harris of the War Department, replying to my recent inquiry, says: "From a report of the Secretary of War to the House of
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Representatives, dated May 10, 1790, it ap- pears that the number of troops and militia furnished from time to time by the State of New Hampshire, during the Revolution- ary War, was 18,289." He adds, however, that it is believed these figures are inaccur- ate, as they undoubtedly contain many du- plications, resulting from re-enlistments, etc., but they are furnished from the best data obtainable, and are given for what they are worth. It is probable that the figures furnished by Prof. Lord are more nearly correct; but even these show a re- markable percentage of men in the service. Twelve thouand soldiers, out of a total pop- ulation of 80,000 people, is a wonderful demonstration of the patriotism of £ the
State.
Here it may be said, as well as anywhere, that in all subsequent wars of the Republic New Hampshire performed her part brave- ly and well. In the war of 1812, sometimes called "the second war for independence," although largely fought on the water, in contests between individual vessels of war on either side, and involving the enlistment of comparatively few men in the military service, there were about 2,000 New Hamp- shire men enlisted; while a New Hamp- shire man, General Henry Dearborn, was the commander of all the forces enrolled,
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and another New Hampshire officer, Gen- eral James Miller, who led the brilliant charge at Lundy's Lane in the battle of Bridgewater in Canada, and commanded a division at the battle of Lake Erie, and who was called by Hawthorne "New Eng- land's most distinguished soldier," was the hero of the greatest exploit on land, al- ways excepting the battle of New Orleans, fought by General Jackson, after the war was really over and the peace treaty ac- tually signed. It was on the northern border, in fact, that the land conflict was largely fought, though, in a hurried raid by the British, the capitol at Washington was burned. Other New Hampshire of- ficers distinguishing themselves in the con- test, at Chippewa, Niagara and Fort Erie, were Generals John McNeil of Hillsboro, and Eleazer W. Ripley, native of Hanover.
During the Civil War, New Hampshire contributed 32,750 men to the Union Army, a larger proportionate number, it is claim- ed, than any other State. The first blood shed in the contest was that of a native of New Hampshire, Luther C. Ladd, born in the town of Alexandria, December 22, 1843, who fell during the passage of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, of which he was a member, through the city of Baltimore, April 19, 1861, the troops having been at- 3
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tacked by a mob of Southern sympathizers, and several of their number wounded, two mortally, of whom young Ladd was one.
All through the war New Hampshire sol- diers were in the thick of the fight, and the best blood of the State was freely shed, all the way from Bull Run to Appomattox. The names of Porter, Foster, Cram, Mars- ton, Griffin, Bedel, Harriman, Bell, Hender- son, Whipple, Lull, Cross, Putnam, Gardi- ner, Quarles, Briggs, Stevens, Blair, Farr, Clough, Patterson and a host of others, of the gallant sons of the State, who distin- guished themselves in the contest, will long remain a galaxy of honor on the pages of our national history. While so many serv- ed bravely and well it is bestowing no in- vidious distinction if special mention be made of the gallant commanders of New Hampshire regiments, Haldimand S. Put- nam of Cornish, of the Seventh, who fell in leading the desperate assault upon Fort Wagner, Louis Bell of Chester, mor- tally wounded at Fort Fisher, and Everett E. Cross of Lancaster, of the "Fighting Fifth," who died at Gettysburg. The last named regiment, be it noted, had the repu- tation of losing more men in action than any other Union regiment during the war.
Nor was it on land alone, that the sons of the Granite State rendered splendid ser-
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vice in the war for the Union. The records of the Navy contain no names more bril- liant than those of Rear Admirals George, E. Belknap, John G. Walker, Enoch G. Par -. rott and George H. Wadleigh, Commodore George H. Perkins, and Capt. James S .; Thornton, the first of whom fired the last. shot at the evacuation of Charleston, and; the last was the executive officer of the Kearsarge, under Commodore Winslow, in the famous fight with the "Alabama," un- der the Confederate Admiral Semmes, which resulted in the sinking of the latter vessel, which had become a veritable "scourge of the seas."
Special mention is also due the memory of Commodore Tunis A. M. Craven, native of Portsmouth, who as Commander of the Monitor Tecumseh, fired the first shot at the battle of Mobile Bay, and gallantly. went to his death, when his vessel sank as the result of an explosion.
And here it may well be stated that it was at Portsmouth, N. H., that the Kear- sarge was built, the solid oak for its frame- work having been cut from the foot hills. of Kearsarge Mountain in Warner, by Joseph Barnard of Hopkinton, and its gallant crew, composed largely of New Hampshire men, just as in the earlier Rev -. olutionary days, when British cruisers;
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were sweeping the meagre shipping of the colonies from the sea, it was in the same harbor of Portsmouth, and from New Hampshire timber, that the dashing little "Ranger," also manned in great part by New Hampshire men, which Paul Jones led to victory in many an ocean contest, was built and fitted out by John Langdon, as Continental Naval Agent for New Hamp- shire and from whose mast head the Stars and Stripes were first unfurled to the ocean breeze.
The Mexican war, which has been passed aver, and the Spanish-American War, both af which were brought about through the spirit of conquest and exploitation, rather than pure patriotism, and waged against weaker instead of stronger nations, so far as this country was concerned, also com- manded the services of New Hampshire men in ample measure. In the former con- ffict Gen. Franklin Pierce won distinction under Gen. Scott in the march upon and capture of the Mexican Capital, and it was Captain Edgar A. Kimball, native of Pem- broke, who led the 9th Infantry at Chapul- tapec, scaled the walls of the fortress, cut down the Mexican flag, and received the surrender, displaying the same heroism that he afterwards manifested, when at the head of the 9th New York, he stormed
FRANKLIN PIERCE
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the fort on Roanoke Island, in the Civil War. Other New Hampshire men render- ing gallant service in Mexico were Joseph H. Potter, of Concord, afterward a briga- dier general in the U. S. Army, who was wounded at Monterey, and Albemarle Cody of Keene, breveted major for gallantry at Vera Crux, Cerro Gordo, Churnbusco and Molino del Rey.
In the Spanish War, Gen. Leonard Wood, native of Winchester, who had already proved his courage and capacity in Indian fighting at the West, came conspicuously to the front, and it was in his hands that the administration of affairs in Cuba, dur- ing the period of reconstruction after the war, was placed. In this contest, too, the veteran Gen. Joab N. Patterson, native of Hopkinton, now the last surviving New Hampshire officer earning a general's rank in the Civil War, again entered the service although well past three score years of age, going out as a Captain in the First N. H. Regiment, serving on the staff of Gen. J. P. Sanger, and afterward serving as superintendent of public buildings in Ha- vana, under Gen. Wood.
In the last great "World War," fought for the salvation of civilization by the al- lied powers of Europe and America against the military despotism of Germany and its
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'allies, New Hampshire contributed her full quota. About 22,000 of her young men were in the service, of whom 250 were kill- ed in battle and some 400 more died of wounds and disease. Whether these dead, ·with millions of others, who made the su- preme sacrifice, died in vain, or not, still remains to be determined. It is well to remember, in this connection, at all events, that the first American force to be engaged in actual conflict on the European front, in this great struggle, was a contingent from the U. S. Marine Corps, under the com- mand of the late Gen. Charles H. Doyen, a son of New Hampshire, native of Concord.
Having considered New Hampshire's service in the nation's wars, and her con- tribution to the military history of the country, let us revert to her part in the af- fairs of civil government, and public and professional life.
While the State, through the Governor or President, the Legislature and Commit- tee of Safety, co-operated heartily with the Continental Congress all through the Rev- olutionary period, it contributed some of its ablest and best men to the membership
of that body, among them being Josiah Bartlett, John and Woodbury Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, John Sullivan, Nathaniel Folsom, George Frost, Samuel Livermore
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and Nathaniel Peabody, than whom none more patriotic or efficient were furnished by any state. The first signature attached to the Declaration of Independence, follow- ing that of John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, was that of Josiah Bartlett, delegate from New Hampshire. The first signatures to the Constitution of the United States, as originally drawn and adopted in Convention, September 17, 1787, following that of George Washington, president and deputy from Virginia, were those of John Langdon and Nicholas Gil- man, deputies from New Hampshire.
Ratification by nine of the thirteen states was required to give the Constitution valid- ity, and it was the action of the New Hamp- shire legislature, done in Concord, June 21, 1788, that put the approval of the ninth state upon the document in question, and gave it life and power, just as it was the action of the legislature of Tennessee, in the summer of 1920, that made the 19th amendment to the same Constitution a part of the fundamental law, and raised ten millions of American women from a legal level with paupers, lunatics, idiots and criminals to the plane of full citizen- ship, along with the men of the nation.
When the Constitution finally went into operation, and a government was establish-
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ed under its provisions, a New Hampshire man, John Langdon, was chosen President pro tem of the Senate, presided over that body when the votes for President of the United States were counted, and officially notified the President-elect, George Wash- ington, of his election.
Among the many eminent men who have served New Hampshire in the Senate since that time, were Samuel Livermore, also president pro tem, William Plumer, Nich- olis Gilman, Jeremiah Mason, Levi Wood-
bury, Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill, Franklin Pierce, Charles G. Atherton, John P. Hale (the first anti-slavery. Senator), Daniel Clark, president pro tem, Edward H. Rol- lins, and William E. Chandler.
In the lower branch of Congress her rep- resentatives have held high rank and have included such men as Nicholas Gilman, Abiel Foster, Jeremiah Smith, Jonathan Freeman, George B. Upham, Thomas W. Thompson, James Wilson, George Sullivan, Daniel Webster, Charles H. Atherton, Ar- thur Livermore, Matthew Harvey, Ichabod Bartlett, John Brodhead, Henry Hubbard (speaker pro tem 23rd Congress), Jared W. Williams, Edmund Burke, Amos Tuck, George W. Morrison, Harry Hibbard, Ma- son W. Tappan, Gilman Marston, James W. Patterson, Aaron F. Stevens, Hosea W.
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Parker, Austin F. Pike, Samuel N. Bell and James F. Briggs.
A small state, New Hampshire has given to the nation but a single President-
is more than Franklin Pierce; but that
most of the states, large or small, have done. That President, although spoken of as an "accident" and "unknown," by some men and newspapers of that day, and later viciously traduced by his political oppon- ents, was a man of whom no son or daugh- ter of the Granite State ever had reason to be ashamed. He had served ably in both branches of the national Congress, and on the battlefield in his country's service in time of war, and was a distinguished mem- ber of the bar, unsurpassed as an advocate. Though he did not rank in military ser- vice with Washington or Jackson, or in constructive statesmanship with Jefferson or Madison, he was, unquestionably, the most courteous gentleman who ever oc- cupied the presidential chair, as well as the most finished orator, and was the first President to deliver his inaugural address without manuscript.
While only one native of the State has been elected to the presidency, four others have been the candidates of different par- ties for the office at different times. Lewis Cass was the Democratic nominee in 1848;
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John P. Hale was the candidate of the Free Soil or Abolition party in 1852 when Gen. Pierce was elected; Horace Greeley was nominated by the Independent Repub- licans and endorsed by the Democrats in 1872, and in 1884 Gen. Benjamin F. Butler was the nominee of the Greenbackers and People's party, with the hope that the Democrats would endorse the nomination, which they failed to do, nominating and electing Grover Cleveland of New York, instead.
A goodly number of the native sons of New Hamphire-altogether more than her proportionate share-have been called to service in the Cabinet, under various ad- ministrations. Gen. Henry Dearborn, na- tive of North Hampton, served as Secre- tary of War under President Jefferson. Levi Woodbury, native of Francestown, was for three years Secretary of the Navy, and three more Secretary of the Treas- ury under Jackson, and continued in the latter office under Van Buren. Lewis Cass, native of Exeter, was for a time Sec- retary of War, during Jackson's adminis- tration, and, later Secretary of State under Buchanan. Daniel Webster, native of Salisbury, was for two years Secretary of State under Harrison and Tyler, and for the same length of time, preceding his
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death, under Fillmore. Nathan Clifford, native of Rumney, was Attorney General under President Polk, and John A. Dix, born in Boscawen, was Secretary of the Treasury under Buchanan. He it was who gave utterance to the famous command- "If any man hauls down the American flag shoot him on the spot."
Salmon P. Chase, native of Cornish, was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and it was through his genius and ability that the war for the Union was successfully financed. He was succeeded in that position by William Pitt Fessenden, born in the town of Boscawen. Marshall
Jewell, native of Winchester was Post- master General in the Cabinet of President Grant, Zachariah Chandler, native of Bed- ford, Secretary of the Interior and Amos T. Akerman, born in Keene, Attorney Gen- eral. William E. Chandler, native of Con- cord, served as Secretary of the Navy un- der the administration of Chester A. Ar- thur, who came into office through the as- sassination of Garfield, and happily disap- pointed the country in giving it one of the best administrations in its history. Our last representative in the Cabinet is the present Secretary of War, close friend of President Harding, John W. Weeks, native
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and summer resident of the town of Lan- caster.
The bench of the Supreme Court of the United State, known as the most august judicial tribunal in the world, has been graced and honored by one chief justice, born in New Hampshire, Salmon P. Chase, and two Associate Justices, Levi Woodbury and Nathan Clifford; while the first Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, was also a New Hampshire man-John J. Gilchrist of Charlestown. Three at least of the pres- ent U. S. Circuit Court Justices are New Hampshire men by birth-Walter H. San- born, native of Epsom, now and for many years resident of Minnesota, presiding jus- tice of the 8th Circuit, and George H. Bingham of Manchester, native of Little- ton, presiding justice, and George W. An- derson of Boston, born in Acworth, Jus- tice of the 1st Circuit.
While New Hampshire men have not fig- ured conspicuously in the diplomatic ser- vice of the government, the state has not been without representation in that direc- tion. Ninety years ago Edmund Roberts of Portsmouth was commissioned as a spec- ial agent of the government to negotiate treaties of trade and commerce with Mus- cat, Siam and Japan. He completed his
SALMON P. CHASE
.
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mission as far as the first two were con- cerned, but was taken ill and died on the way to Japan. Had he lived he would doubtless have succeeded with the latter, and thus opened the island empire to the commerce of the world, a quarter of a cen- tury earlier than was eventually done.
Gen. Henry Dearborn was accredited U. S. Minister to Portugal in 1822, and Charles P. Haddock, a Dartmouth College professor, was Charge de Affaires to that country for some years, a quarter of a cen- tury later. Other New Hampshire men, native or resident, who held office in this line, were Nathan Clifford, Envoy Extra- ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico, John A. Dix, Minister to France,
John P. Hale, Minister to Spain, and Horatio G. Perry, Secretary of Legation, and Charge de Affaires to the same coun- try; Christopher C. Andrews, Minister Resident to Sweden and Norway, George G. Fogg and Person C. Cheney, Ministers to Switzerland; George H. Bridgman, Minister to Bolivia;
John T. Abbott and Luther F. Mckinney, Ministers to Colum- bia, and George H. Moses, Minister to Greece and Montenegro. George Walker of Peterboro served for a time as Consul General to Paris, Benjamin F. Whidden of
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Lancaster as Consul General to Hayti, and Christopher C. Andrews was Consul Gen- eral to Brazil. The first U. S. Consul abroad from New Hampshire was Tobias Lear of Portsmouth, who had been private Secretary to President Washington, who was commissioned to Algiers in 1803. Among those later in the consular service from this State were Claudius B. Webster, Consul to Liverpool, Joseph C. A. Wingate, Consul to Swatou, China; James A. Wood and James R. Jackson, Consuls to Sher- brooke, P. Q .; Frank H. Pierce and Elias H. Cheney, consuls to Matanzas, Cuba, the latter, still surviving at the age of 90 years, serving for some years later at Curacao.
It would be an impossible task to give in detail, New Hampshire's contribution to the public life of other States, and, through them, to the country at large. A few il- lustrations must suffice.
Five Governors of Maine were natives of the Granite State, viz: Jonathan G. Hun- toon, born in Unity; Samuel E. Smith of Hollis; Edward Kent, Concord; Samuel Wells, Durham, and Harris M. Plaisted, Jefferson. All these men were lawyers, and the first four held positions at one time or another on the bench of the Supreme Court, of which tribunal, John Appleton,
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native of New Ipswich, was for many years Chief Justice, while the latter also served in the National House of Representatives. The first United States Senator from Maine was John Chandler, a native of the town of Epping. Nathan Clifford, native of Rumney, heretofore mentioned, served as Attorney General of the State, and as a Representative in Congress, as did Jona- than Cilley, native of Nottingham, Robert Goodenow of Farmington, Rufus R. Goode- now of Henniker, and John J. Perry of Portsmouth. Mr. Cilley, who had previ- ously served as Speaker of the State House of Representatives, and was a young man of great promise, was killed in a duel with Col. Graves of Kentucky, resulting from words spoken in debate. Jonas Cutting, native of Croydon, was for some time an associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Court, and Albert R. Savage, who went from Lancaster, held the same position and was, later, Chief Justice.
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