USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 4
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The candidacy of Horace Greeley by nomination of the liberal Republicans in 1872, with such a relatively unimportant associate as B. Gratz Brown, may have been impolitic. The ratification of those nominations by the national Democracy was surprising and of course tem- porarily disastrous to the party. It was, however, a change of front in line of battle, and all the chances inci- dent to such a movement were necessarily taken by those party leaders who were convinced that no other course was open to them. It was a shifting of all the alignment absolutely prerequisite to the contest which was opened under the leadership of Mr. Tilden in 1876.
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The one opportunity which was presented to General Butler, and by the acceptance of which he might have reached the presidency, was closed to him when he de- clined to accept the nomination for the vice-presidency, which it is generally conceded was at one time at his dis- posal, on the Lincoln ticket in 1864. His attempt to obtain a controlling position in the Democratic conven- tion of 1884 and his subsequent flank movement against the party which had nominated Mr. Cleveland, both mis- carried, but his attempt to compass by indirection the election of Mr. Blaine through his own candidacy as the nominee of the so-called People's party was too nearly successful to be regarded in any other light than as an important episode in a most remarkable presidential cam- paign.
Henry Wilson had fairly entered upon the last stages of a successful progress to the presidency when he was made vice-president at the second Grant election in 1872. This peerless organizer was then the natural, if not the inevitable, heir to the succession. Had he lived it was hardly among the possibilities that he could fail to be nominated and elected to the presidency in 1876 or 1880, or for both the terms to which Mr. Hayes and Mr. Gar- field were chosen.
Zachariah Chandler was regarded as an important fac- tor in the disposition of the presidency, and his candi- dacy, until his death in 1879, was attracting an influential following.
In the cabinets of the war period the treasury portfolio was successively in the hands of John A. Dix, in the last days of the Buchanan administration in 1861, and Salmon P. Chase and William Pitt Fessenden, at the beginning of a Republican regime, until the end of the administra- tion of Mr. Lincoln. The conduct of this department by these three sons of New Hampshire constitutes the most
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important chapter in the financial history of the Ameri- can government.
In the second term of President Grant, Zachariah Chandler held the office of Secretary of the Interior, Amos T. Akerman that of Attorney-General, and Marshall Jewell that of Postmaster-General. With William E. Chandler's service as Secretary in an important transition period in the history of the American navy and in con- nection with the inauguration of far-reaching measures for the development of an adequate American war marine in the term of President Arthur, the past record of New Hampshire men in the cabinet is concluded.
Zachariah Chandler and William E. Chandler are also regarded as the Warwicks of the presidential complica- tions and conditions which obtained in the contest be- tween Mr. Tilden and Mr. Hayes in 1876, and their timely, skilful and strenuous measures are now generally regarded as being the decisive factors in the course of events which resulted in the inauguration of Mr. Hayes as president.
With the passing of the old school of statesmen of New Hampshire nativity, of presidential aspirations and presi- dential measure, twenty years ago, the State has been practically out of presidential politics as it is related to personal candidacies. The latter representatives of the virile stock of the Granite State are evidently attracted from the domain of national and local politics to more important and promising financial, commercial and mate . rial opportunities in the world's work. In this field well- informed observers readily recall the forceful and suc -- cessful personalities of James F. Joy, Edward Tuck, Austin Corbin, Charles W. Pillsbury, John C. Pillsbury. Thomas W. Pierce, Frank Jones, Hiram N. Turner, Charles P. Clark, Ezekiel A. Straw, Joseph Stickney, Stilson Hutchins and "Long" John Wentworth.
Some time ago, Senator Hoar, in the Forum, discussed
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the question whether the United States Senate, in point of average ability, had degenerated, comparing it, as iť was constituted at the time of his writing, with its mem- bership fifty or seventy-five years ago. Mr. Charles R. Miller, in a reply in the same magazine, made the remark pertinent then to his purpose and pertinent now to these comments, "That were Webster living in these days he would neither be in the Senate nor in debt."
EVENTS FROM 1856 TO 1866 .*
The Republican party was organized in New Hamp- shire in 1856. It stood in full strength and stature at the beginning of the long course which it was destined to run,-the yet undetermined period of control which it was to hold,-in the affairs of the state.
Pursuing the established methods of political warfare it emphasized the fact of its assumption of political power by abolishing the existing court system and the creation of a new one supposedly more consonant with the changed conditions in political and public affairs.
The precedent was repeated by the Democracy in 1874 and by the Republicans again in 1876. Twice in the intervening years the court systems have been radically reversed when changes in party ascendency were not coin- cident,-first in 1859 and last in 1891.
The chief justices since 1855 have been Ira Perley, Samuel Dana Bell, Henry A. Bellows, Jonathan E. Sar- gent, Edmund L. Cushing, Charles Doe, Alonzo P. Car-
* Hon. William E. Chandler, whose active career in New Hampshire politics extends back over a period of at least sixty years, and who is still vigorous and potential in national and state affairs, is contemporary with the entire life of the existing Republican party. He has supplemented constant and intimate connection with law, politics, journalism and legisla- tion in his native state with a record of forceful influence and distinguished standing and service in the domain of national affairs such as has been accorded to no other of his New Hampshire contemporaries since Franklin Pierce and John P. Hale attained their primacy.
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penter, Lewis W. Clark, Isaac N. Blodgett and Frank N. Parsons.
Since 1855 the chief justice of the circuit or superior courts existing at three periods have been Jonathan Kit- tredge, Wm. L. Foster and Robert M. Wallace.
The approaching war between the states was at this time imminent. It affected the course of events in all directions. The representatives of New Hampshire in the national congress in the period of the later discussions which culminated in the war were of a superior order of ability.
Included in the list are Isaac Hill, Levi Woodbury, Franklin Pierce, Henry Hubbard, Harry Hibbard, Amos Tuck, John P. Hale, James Bell, Gilman Marston, Mason W. Tappan and Daniel Clark.
In the history of the first New Hampshire regiment a chapter will be found on the subject of "The relation of New Hampshire men to the events which culminated in the War of the Rebellion," by William F. Whitcher. It is a treatment of this theme which could not here be improved upon, and therefore it need not be attempted. Any subject that is already well treated is sufficiently treated.
The opposition to Lincoln and Hamlin in New Hamp- shire in 1860 was divided into three factions, although one candidate and his associate would have needed all the votes that were available.
The state administration when Sumter fell was con- fronted by a difficult situation. President Lincoln had called for a regiment of New Hampshire men for three months' service. There was no emergency war fund in the New Hampshire treasury, no efficient existing militia system and no legislature in session. The Governor, how- ever, procured the means of equipping the regiment upon his own credit and the credit of patriotic banks and indi- viduals, and Congressman Tappan, who was given the
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colonelcy, had the first New Hampshire regiment in the field before the legislature was assembled.
In the intervening war period Ichobod Goodwin, Na- thaniel S. Berry and Joseph A. Gilmore were the war governors. Frederic Smyth, sometimes erroneously des- ignated as a war governor, was not inaugurated as Chief Magistrate until June, 1865, when the war had been con- cluded.
Seventeen full regiments of infantry were sent into the service from New Hampshire. Col. Kent's regiment (the seventeenth), which was nearly filled, was not mustered. A large part of the men raised for it by its organizer were assigned to other regiments. The remaining part was consolidated with the veteran second regiment.
The state also contributed a battalion of cavalry, after- wards augmented to a regiment, three companies of sharp shooters, a battery of light artillery and a regiment of heavy artillery. Besides these it furnished a liberal num- ber of sailors for the navy.
As has been observed by the writer in another connec- tion, perhaps the most remarkable feature of the history of New Hampshire in relation to the war for the union, is disclosed in the following statement :-
"In the war period sons of New Hampshire moved in important spheres of national influence. Only a few of the names on that remarkable list need be recalled to give point to this observation. In the United States Senate, Henry Wilson, native of Farmington, was chairman of the committee on military affairs; John P. Hale, native of Rochester, chairman of the committee on naval affairs; William Pitt Fessenden, native of Boscawen, chairman of the committee on finance and appropriations; James W. Grimes, native of Deering, chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia; Zachariah Chandler, native of Bedford, chairman of the committee on commerce; and Daniel Clark, native of Stratham, chairman of the com-
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mittee on claims. Salmon P. Chase, native of Cornish, was Secretary of the Treasury and author of the finan- cial legislation which produced the sinews of war. Horace Greeley, native of Amherst, was the greatest intellectual force in the journalism of that time. Charles A. Dana, native of Hinsdale, was assistant secretary of war, and known as "the eyes of the war department." John A. Dix, native of Boscawen, Benjamin F. Butler, native of Deerfield, John G. Foster, native of Whitefield, one of the defenders of Sumter, and Fitz-John Porter, native of Portsmouth, whose historic fight for the vindication of his good name and soldierly reputation, as admirable in its courage and persistency as it was successful in the result, were major-generals. Walter Kittredge, native of Mer- rimack, wrote 'Tenting on the Old Camp Ground.' Charles Carleton Coffin, native of Boscawen, the war cor- respondent, wrote the histories of the war which are most read by the youth of the land.
"The lives of these men, written and unwritten, consti- tute a part of the history of the period of strong agita- tion, civil war, and reconstruction so important and exten- sive that it is appreciated only by those who have made the most profound study of the events which they influ- enced. Several of them were distinguished contributors of elaborate works devoted to the history of their time."
While it is conceded that New Hampshire contributed no great leader in the war for the Union who could fairly be assigned to the class with Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas, it can be asserted with absolute confidence that every New Hampshire regiment was composed of a superior class of citizen soldiers, and that every regi- ment was led by patriotic, brave and capable commanders.
"Nearly all these regiments have performed the patri- otic duty since the war of publishing elaborate regimental histories. These books record the fact that Ladd, the first man who fell in the sixth Massachusetts in Baltimore,
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was a son of New Hampshire; that the fifth regiment lost more men in battle than any other infantry regiment in the Union army; that the seventh lost more officers in a single engagement (Fort Wagner) than any other in- fantry regiment in the Union army; that the men of the twelfth and thirteenth regiments were the first organized bodies to enter Richmond; that the percentage of loss by the twelfth was greater than that of the fifth; that the losses of the ninth and sixteenth from exposure and other causes place the debt due to them for devotion and sacri- fice among the first in the fateful catalogue; that the other regiments exhibit records of singular distinction according to their opportunities in the service; and they prove that, relating to every one of these organizations, there is most valuable historical material which renders their publications indispensable to any measurably com- plete collection of Americana.
"Indeed, so abundant is the information available to the student of this series of histories, so great is its value, and so striking is the lesson of good citizenship and patriotism it teaches, that indifference to it is discreditable to the system under which our youth are passing from the period of scholastic instruction to the active duties and responsibilities of private business or public service.
"It is not an unimportant consideration that the histo- rians of these events were the actors in them. Every pass- age in the narratives is a statement of fact under the light and guidance of actual experience, but with a modest and cautious reserve which excludes that over-coloring of im- agination and exaggeration that often mars the pages of history."
" A wonderful man was this Cæsar,
Who could both write and fight, and in both was equally skillful."
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PROGRESS FROM 1866 TO 1903.
With the exception of the brief interval of war with Spain in 1898, the opportunities of the people of New Hampshire have been those which only a long period of peace can afford.
In the administration of Gov. George A. Ramsdell the state furnished its quota for the last foreign war. This was a full regiment of three battalions commanded by Col. Robert H. Rolfe. It was assigned to the concentration camp at Chickamauga, served for a period of six months and returned without having been afforded an opportunity to test its quality at the front of battle. There is no doubt that had the coveted post of honor been granted to these men as it was to the New Hampshire-born leader of the "Rough Riders" at Santiago (Gen. Leonard Wood), they also would have demonstrated what the traditions and tutelage of Stark, Miller and Cross mean for the military spirit which will now and hereafter bear aloft the standards of the state and the Union.
This regiment was equipped and sent to the southern rendezvous upon the responsibility assumed by the exec- utive department very much in accordance with the precedent set in 1861.
Sometime this experience in such a critical emergency as a call for troops in the face of imminent national neces- sity will suggest to the legislature the importance of a permanent provision of law under which the executive may act effectively and promptly without assuming the personal pecuniary responsibility involved in the equip- ment of a regiment for immediate duty or the expense of a special session of the legislature.
At this time there is promise of national aid to the National Guard of the state, and an apparent certainty that the New Hampshire military system already entitled to commendation for its efficiency will deserve to rank
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with the most approved military establishments in the Union.
The brigade now in command of Gen. Jason H. Tolles consists of two three-battalion regiments of infantry, a company of cavalry and a battery of artillery with a total strength of twelve hundred and forty-five men and one hundred and ten officers.
The story of New Hampshire in the last half century is one of great industrial prosperity and progress. The details and proofs of this advancement of the state along the lines of its individual industries are the subjects of dry statistical demonstration. Agriculture has waited long for the coming of its share in the material tri- umphs of industry and enterprise. The wide-spread de- velopment of the vast and varied resources of the con- tinent has at length produced a stimulating and beneficial effect upon eastern agriculture.
The present status of this industry as compared with previous decades cannot be accurately determined until the latest statistics gathered by the federal census are published.
The business of farming suffered seriously from ad- verse conditions which it encountered after the change of values which accompanied the resumption of specie payments and the falling off of war prices, the influx of low-priced meats and cereals from the west, the increas- ing tendency of farmers' boys and girls to quit the ances- tral occupation for other and supposedly more profitable or more inviting employments, and the deterioration of farm lands in productive capacity.
On the other hand, the improvement of transportation facilities, the introduction of more scientific methods of agriculture, the social and industrial organizations of farmers, technical education in this calling and the secondary effects of such technical education, the special- ization and concentration of farm labor and investment
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upon the treatment of those classes of live stock and products against which outside competition is not disas- trous, and the growth of new and larger demands for local farm products by the summer hotels, the lumbermen and the increasing population of the manufacturing cen- tres in convenient access to the several farm districts have combined with other influences to set the tide of business prosperity again in strong current in favor of this indus- try.
It has transpired that the largest increase in prices now paid for the ordinary necessities of life are for farm products. This condition is happily affording farmers a substantial advantage, and its beneficial effects are not only advancing the interests of those actually engaged in agriculture, but are also promoting the general prosperity which is always intimately related to the business of cul- tivating the soil-that basic occupation upon which all sound industrial progress and business stability is estab- lished and is dependent.
These far-reaching changes in social, educational, and industrial conditions in this State, as related immediately to agriculture, have not been wrought out without weil directed sagacious, patient, timely, and disinterested ef- fort on the part of representative and patriotic farmers. The industrial history of the years intervening since the end of the war for the Union discloses the activity and achievements of a band of devoted, tireless, intelligent and progressive laborers in this direction. The results of their efforts through organization have been what state laws and the agencies of government could never do for those engaged in the business of agriculture. A con- spicuous member of this group, Nahum J. Bachelder, has for twenty years or more been a stimulating, organizing, and directing force in the advancement of these under- takings and in the accomplishment of beneficent results. His influence long ago passed beyond the boundaries of
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the state. It augurs well for the business side of agri- culture as well as its social and educational relations that such an organizer, leader and conservator has unre- servedly devoted himself and the best years of his life to this cause.
The political history of the state since the war for the Union is replete with interesting events and incidents. Until 1896, with the exception of a significant and with many of its participants a permanent revolt from the Re- publican party in 1872, political alignments had been very strictly maintained and political contests had usually had more or less of the hazard of uncertainty. Not infre- quently the Democracy succeeded in electing a member of Congress while they were always represented in the state senate, and it was only in rare instances that they failed to have an executive councillor in the state administration. Indeed, in both 1871 and 1874, by controlling the legis- lature, they elected a governor. The governors of the state since the organization of the Republican party have usually been of other callings than that of the law. Four of the modern incumbents of the office, though educated to that profession, had retired from active practice and engaged in other pursuits at the time of their election to the governorship.
In a period of forty-five years Hon. Chester B. Jordan is the only governor who at the same time continued in ac- tive practice in the legal profession. Inthesame period the majority of the senators and members in Congress were lawyers. In four congresses, however, the 48th, 49th, 50th and 5Ist, it happened that no lawyer was elected to the house from this state. It is another singular fact that the recent election of a member of congress for a fifth successive term is without precedent in New Hampshire. Indeed, three terms have seldom been accorded to a rep- resentative. The senators have been dealt with in a similar fashion until recent years. Senator Chandler
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passed the limit and Senator Gallinger has had the ex- traordinary experience of elections to three full terms. Of course the interests of the state have suffered the penalty in a representation in a great number of congresses by men usually of a superior order of ability and special fitness for the service but laboring constantly at disad- vantage by reason of the superior power and prestige · acquired by representatives from other states in long con- tinued re-elections.
The legislature became biennial and the senate was in- creased to twenty-four members, while the term of the governor and other state officers was. extended to two years in 1878 as a result of constitutional amendments emanating from the convention of 1876.
The legislative history of the post-bellum years is in- teresting and important.
Gilman Marston and Harry Bingham, by reason of their towering intellectual ability, rugged honesty and persistent devotion to the business of legislation, are rightfully termed the "great commoners" in the general court of New Hampshire.
Three constitutional conventions have occurred since the amendments of 1850, one in 1876, one in 1889 and one in 1902. Of the first Hon. Daniel Clark was president, of the second Hon. Chas. H. Bell, and of the third Gen. Frank S. Streeter. The amendments which resulted from these conventions were with a few notable exceptions such as did not accomplish radical changes in the organic law.
Manufacturing has been largely increased since 1866 in the variety of the plants and in the value of the product. The Amoskeag continues to hold its rank as the largest single establishment for the manufacture of cotton goods in the world. The New Hampshire lumber mills at Berlin and Lincoln have been developed and improved in recent years until they are among the most extensive and the
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best equipped in the United States. The business of manufacturing wood pulp in this state represents the highest degree of modern progress in that industry, and a vast investment of capital. The manufacture of shoes, hosiery and woollens in this period has assumed strikingly large proportions in New Hampshire. The catalogue of minor manufacturing industries that are well established and profitable is extensive and suggestive of the proba- bility of greater development in many existing lines of manufacturing enterprise, and many yet to be inaugur- ated.
The state is becoming the home and place of sojourn of thousands of those who are seeking recreation and location in a region of the most beautiful climate and the grandest ocean and mountain scenery on the eastern side of the national domain.
Recent statistics of this business exhibit an investment of $10,442,352 in the state. The help employed in 1899 was 12,354, with wages of $539,901. Two hundred and four towns were entertaining summer tourists and so- journers. More than twenty thousand of these people occupied cottages in 1899. They were also patronizing several hundred hotels and one thousand six hundred and twenty-four farm houses. The volume of this business estimated by cash receipts from it in 1899 was nearly seven million of dollars.
It is not within the province of this epitome to enter into the limitless extensions of ecclesiastical and educa- tional statistics. The later history of religion and educa- tion in this state may be summarized and condensed, for the present purpose, into a few statements. In the cities and large centres of population the provisions for educa- tion of youth and for religious worship and religious teaching are such as afford superior privileges. In the remote and partially depopulated towns people have not kept up the rate of progress in respect to church exten-
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