USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 22
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320
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CHAP. more than forty years, constitute so important a X. part of its history.
The contest of 1800 was conducted with great warmth and acrimony. Charges were promul- gated, against both of the rival candidates for the presidency, which have been condemned, by the more candid judgment of later times, as the mere offspring of party violence. Charges of cow- 1800. ardice, immorality and infidelity, were everywhere circulated against the illustrious Jefferson. All the powers of eloquence, all the influence of the press, and all the blandishments of melody, were resorted to, to blacken his character and tarnish the unsullied brightness of his fame. Even a party badge was resorted to, to distinguish his enemies from those of their fellow-citizens who gave him their support. In some instances, and in some sections of this state, the " black cock- ade" was generally worn, as a mark of devotion to Mr. Adams, or a security against the violence of his friends.
On the other hand, allegations, of the same unjustifiable nature, were doubtless promulgated against Mr. Adams ; a man, who, whatever might have been the errors of his administration, was entitled, by his patriotism through the whole course of our difficulties with Great Britain, to be ranked among the noblest benefactors of the land.
Important questions of principle, however, were at issue in the contest, involving the future pros- perity of the country, and the success of its repub- lican institutions. The dominant party had con- fided to the national executive full power to banish, at pleasure and on mere suspicion, every alien who
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should land on our shores. It had empowered him CHAP. to drag American citizens before partisan courts, X. and punish them with ruinous fines and ignomin- ious imprisonments, for exercising the sacred rights of speech and the press in a manner personally obnoxious to himself or offensive to his supporters. The friends of a strict construction of the consti- tution, uniting themselves under the name of republicans, protested against these extensions of the executive power, as an infringement upon the principles of the constitution, dangerous alike to the rights of the states and the liberties of the people.
The result of the exciting discussions of the time soon appeared in the annual elections in New Hampshire. The opposition, hitherto so power- less, rallied under the influence of the prevailing excitement, and presented Timothy Walker, of Concord, as their candidate for governor. That gentleman, having been distinguished for his devo- tion to the cause of liberty, and his able services as a member of the revolutionary committee of safety, had been called by the people to a variety of important stations, and, among others, to that of chief justice of the court of common pleas. With a private character equally unimpeached with that of Governor Gilman himself, and a life, like his, endeared to the people, the contest was removed from the beaten ground of personal preferences by his nomination, and became almost purely a ques- tion between the principles acted upon by the . administration of Mr. Adams, and those avowed by the friends of Mr. Jefferson. With all their original partialities and sectional feelings in favor
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CHAP. of the former individual, it was not to have been X. expected that a revolution would take place among the citizens, sufficiently sudden, to transfer the vote of the state to the latter. At the March elec- tion, however, Judge Walker had six thousand and thirty-nine out of the sixteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-two cast, and Governor Gil- man's majority was reduced to less than four thousand.
The legislature of 1800, not caring to submit the presidential election to the people at a time when so much excitement prevailed against the candidate it favored, passed a law by which the choice of electors devolved upon itself. The result 1800, was the election of Oliver Peabody, John Pren- tice, Ebenezer Thompson, Timothy Farrar, Ben- jamin Bellows and Arthur Livermore, who cast their votes for John Adams, for president, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, for vice president.
At the election of governor, in 1801, the same candidates were in the field. The republicans having relaxed their exertions, however, the result was the re-election of Governor Gilman, by an increased majority. But as soon, however, as the administration of Jefferson had been established, and begun to develop its policy, it gradually and continually gained favor with our citizens, till, within the short space of four years, an entire political revolution had taken place.
The New Hampshire Missionary Society, the earliest charitable society of a religious character 1801, in the state, was incorporated in 1801. Its object 1802. was to extend the advantages of religious instruc-
1801. 1801.
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tion to the scattered inhabitants of the new settle- ments, and to churches whose limited means were inadequate to its regular support.
CHAP.
X.
John Langdon, a man whose benevolence and patriotism, no less than his unspotted reputation, have endeared him to the citizens of this state, was the present year elected one of the representatives from Portsmouth, and was supported, unsuccess- fully however, as the republican candidate for speaker.
In the spring of 1802, he was, for the first time, presented by the same party as a candidate for the office of governor. He received eight thou- sand seven hundred and fifty-three votes for that office ; but Governor Gilman was re-elected, and it required a three years' struggle, during which the same gentlemen were candidates, to revolu- tionize the state.
On the 26th day of December, a destructive fire 1802. occurred at Portsmouth. It commenced, early in the morning, in the building occupied by the New Hampshire Bank, and before the alarm was communicated to any considerable number of citi- zens, it had burst through its sides, and already extended to some of the adjoining buildings. The flames spread with great rapidity, and, before their progress could be arrested, a large part of the town, including more than one hundred buildings, was reduced to ashes. Property to the amount of more than two hundred thousand dollars was destroyed by this unfortunate conflagration. And it is a circumstance which does no little honor to the liberal feelings of the time, that more than forty-five thousand dollars were raised by volun-
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CHAP. tary contributions, mainly by citizens of this state, X. as a partial reparation of the loss.
The manufactures of this country were at this period in their infancy. Rhode Island had led the way, by the introduction of Arkwright's machinery for spinning cotton, as early as 1790. In 1803, the first cotton factory in New Hampshire was erected at New Ipswich. It was in a few years fol- lowed by similar establishments in Peterborough, Pembroke, Hillsborough and Jeffrey. The early adventures, however, in this branch of industry, were not destined to be attended with very bril- liant success. The constant introduction of useful but expensive improvements in machinery, im- posed a tax upon those who engaged in them, to which their capital, in many instances, proved wholly inadequate. Manufacturing enterprise, however, having once been excited in the country, gradually overcame all obstacles, and brought to its aid, in this state as well as elsewhere, an amount of capital equal to every emergency. In Dover, Somersworth, Nashua, Amoskeag, New- market, Claremont and Manchester, it has more recently planted itself with a foothold too firm to admit of its being shaken by any ordinary causes of embarrassment.
The increasing population of the state had long since reached to its extreme line on the north. From the southern extremity of its fertile inter- vales on the Connecticut, the tide of emigration had already reached the head waters of that beau- tiful and fertilizing stream. The gradual exten- sion of the new settlements in the northern part of the state, and their great distance from the shire
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towns of Grafton, led to the organization of Coos CHAP. county, in December, 1803. Bounded on the X. north by Canada, and stretching laterally from Maine to Vermont, it possesses an extent of ter- ritory superior to that of any other county in the state. Its soil, however, is broken and divided between fertile valleys, productive swells of excel- lent soil, abrupt hills and gigantic mountains. This region has been appropriately styled the Switzerland of America. From the summits of the White Mountains, which, standing in the south- ern part of Coos county, present at a glance a view of the whole county, to the highlands of Can- ada on the north and the Green Mountains on the west, the prospect is one of the grandest in na- ture. Far as the eye can reach, it is met by a con- stant succession of hills and mountains-sometimes swelling gently in the distance and sprinkled with settlements to their summits-sometimes breaking into wild peaks, in summer crowned with bald ledges of granite and striped by the pathway of the avalanche, and in winter covered with an un- broken mantle of snow, and rising, like mounds of white and spotless marble, above the surrounding woods.
A scattered population had begun at an early period to diffuse itself among these mountains, upon the banks of the Connecticut, and along the bor- ders of its tributary streams. Twelve years before the commencement of the revolution, a little settle- ment was commenced at Lancaster, and soon fol- lowed by others, of the same humble character, at Northumberland, Stratford and Dalton. In 1775, the population of the present county of Coos had
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CHAP. increased to the moderate number of two hundred X. and twenty-seven persons, divided among six town- ships, of which Lancaster, with its sixty-one inhab- itants, was the most populous. In 1803, the whole population was a little more than three thousand, divided among ten incorporated towns.
At the same session of the Legislature, which granted the people in the northern part of the state a separate county organization, a turnpike road was established for their accommodation, begin- ning at the west line of Bartlett, and traversing the well known White Mountain Notch. It ex- tended twenty miles in length, and was constructed at an expense of about $40,000.
This road, winding as it does through one of the most sublime and romantic mountain passes in the universe, presents to the eye of the traveller scenes of natural majesty and beauty, unrivalled by any other mountain region in America.
CHAPTER XI.
SAMUEL LIVERMORE-Matthew Thornton-Amendment of the federal con- stitution-Ascendency of the republican party-Laws-District schools- Iron mines-Franconia mountain scenery-The notch-Mount Lafay- ette-The basin-The flume-The Old Man of the mountain, or Profile rock-Ascent of mount Lafayette-Execution of Burnham at Haver- hill-Removal of the seat of government to Concord-Commerce of Portsmouth-The effect of the embargo, the war of 1812, and other causes- Right of search-Orders in council-French decrees-The embargo-it is unpopular-The federal party again in the ascendency-George Sul- livan-Aggressions of Great Britain-War becomes a probable event- Message of Governor Langdon-Debates in the senate and house-Speech of Gilman-Speech of Parrott-Lotteries-Banks-Election of William Plummer-his war message-Preparations for war-Madison calls an extra session of congress-Increase of the army and navy-The militia called out-Campaign of 1812-Daniel Webster-Progress of the war- Campaign of 1813-Change in the judiciary-Great fire at Portsmouth- Campaign of 1814-Battle of Chippewa-Battle of Bridgwater-Miller- M'Niel-Weeks-Machinations of the federal party-Battle of New Or- leans-Peace-Debates in the legislature-Speech of Mr. Handerson- Speech of Mr. Parrott-Gov. Plummer's message-Change in the judi- ciary-Richardson-Bell-Woodbury-Pierce-Release of the poor pris- oners-Project of a canal-Western emigration.
IN May, 1803, the Hon. Samuel Livermore, CHAP. long a distinguished actor in the political affairs XI. 1803. of the state, died at his residence in Holderness, at the advanced age of seventy-one years. He was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, about the the year 1732, and, twenty years afterwards, grad- uated at Princeton college. Having studied law, and risen at an early period to a respectable rank in his profession, he was for some time before the revolution, judge advocate of the court of admi- ralty in this state. In 1782, he was appointed
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CHAP. XI. judge of the superior court, which office he held for a period of eight years. For the same length of time, commencing in 1793, he was a member of the United States senate, and was associated in that body with many of the most distinguished patriots of the revolution.
Matthew Thornton, another of the most distin- guished citizens of this state, also died during the same year. He was a native of Ireland, where he was born about the year 1714, and consequently was sixty-one years old at the commencement of that great and successful struggle for indepen- dence, in which he was a distinguished actor. Mr. Thornton first settled in New Hampshire, as a physician, at Londonderry. He accompanied Sir William Pepperell in his expedition against Lou- isburg, in 1745, and was president of the first provincial convention in this state, thirty years afterwards. He first took his seat in the conti- nental congress in November, 1776, and, though too late to vote for the Declaration of Indepen- dence, he had the imperishable honor of subscrib- ing that important document, together with Dr. Benjamin Rush, and several others, similarly cir- cumstanced with himself. He was afterwards ap- pointed a judge of the superior court, which office he retained till 1782. It was his fortune, in com- mon with many of his compatriots of 1776, who, like him, staked their lives and property in the cause of independence, to go down to the grave covered with honors and full of years, leaving behind him an unspotted reputation, and the mem- ory of a long line of services to his country, des- tined to be as enduring as its history.
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The history of 1804 opens with an animated CHAP. contest between the two rival parties for the XI. 1804. ascendency in the state. Governor Gilman was again, and for the eleventh time, elected, by a ma- jority however of only one hundred and fifty votes, over John Langdon. It is a fact, which speaks N. H. Regis- ter, 1833. volumes in favor of the personal popularity of both candidates, that all the votes, of more than twenty- four thousand cast at this election, were divided between them. There was not a scattering ballot thrown in the state. But while the federal party barely succeeded in the election of governor, the republicans secured a decided majority in both branches of the legislature. Governor Langdon, Legis- lative Jour- nals. having been returned as a representative from Portsmouth, was elected speaker of the house, and Nicholas Gilman, afterwards a senator in con- gress, was chosen president of the senate.
The legislature of this year passed, by a major- ity of forty-seven in the house and two in the senate, a bill ratifying an amendment to the federal constitution, providing that the candidates for pres- ident and vice president, should be separately and specifically voted for. Under the original provi- sions of the constitution, each elector balloted for two persons; and that person who received the largest number of votes was to be president, and the person who received the next largest number was to be vice president. Under this provision, John Adams had been elected vice president in 1789, and Thomas Jefferson in 1797, neither hav- ing received a majority of the electoral votes. Under this provision, also, in 1801, Thomas Jeffer- son and Aaron Burr having each received seventy-
4,2
Con- gres- sional Jour- nals.
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CHAP. three votes and a majority of the whole number- XI. though the former had everywhere been deemed the candidate of his party for the presidency and the latter for the vice presidency alone-the fed- eral party, uniting with a few personal friends of Burr, supported him for the presidency through thirty-five successive ballotings, occupying no less than six days. On the thirty-sixth ballot, Thomas Jefferson was elected, by a revulsion of feeling in a portion of his opponents, against an attempt of so glaring a character to defeat the well-known wishes of the people.
To prevent the recurrence of such contests in future, the amendment above referred to was pro- posed and ratified by a sufficient number of states to secure its adoption. In New Hampshire, Gov- ernor Gilman interposed his veto and prevented its ratification; acting in accordance with the views of the federal party generally, who, having once availed themselves of the former state of things, in a strenuous effort to defeat the election of Jeffer- son, were naturally opposed to the change. The governor objected to the adoption of the amend- ment, mainly on the ground that, " if the altera- tions proposed should take place, the office of the vice president, who in certain events is to be placed at the head of the nation, may be deemed less respectable than heretofore."
Legis- lative Jour- nals.
Con- gres- sional Jour- nals.
Though, at the congressional election in August of this year, the federal ticket was elected by a small majority, the republicans gained a complete triumph, a few weeks afterwards, in the choice of seven electors, who gave their votes for Thomas Jefferson for president, and George Clinton for
€
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vice-president. This was the first choice of CHAP. presidential electors, by the people of this state ; XI. every former election having been made by the legislature. The republicans of 1804, having the control of the legislative power, passed, with sin- gular magnanimity, a general law referring the presidential election directly to the people. They risked, upon the issue of an uncertain contest, a political triumph, which, in strict accordance with former precedent, they might have secured at once, to give a permanent privilege to the people, which had already been denied them too long. The
result, which they could not with any certainty have foreseen, happily illustrated the maxim, that " honesty is the best policy," as well in the ope- rations of governments as in the management of private affairs.
In 1805, after an exciting contest, the republi- can party, for the first time, gained an entire ascendency in the state. More votes were thrown than at any former election, and John Langdon was elected governor by nearly four thousand majority. The prevailing party at the same time carried every branch of the government, elect- ing Levi Bartlett, Joseph Badger and Benjamin Pierce to the council, and securing decided ma- jorities in the house and senate. When the legis- lature assembled in June, Robert Alcock, one of the most inflexible patriots and ardent republicans in the state, was elected president of the senate. He declined accepting the office, however, and the Honorable Clement Storer was chosen in his place. At the same time, Samuel Bell was chosen speak- er of the house, and changes were made in all the
1804.
1805. Legis- lative Jour- nals, N. H.Reg- ·ister, 1830. Whi- ton's Histo- ry.
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CHAP. executive departments of the government. Phillip XI. Carrigain was elected secretary of state, in place of Joseph Pearson, who had enjoyed that office for nineteen years in succession; and Nathaniel Gilman succeeded Oliver Peabody in the office of treasurer. Another change, yet more impor- tant, resulted from this political revolution in the state. The death of the Honorable Simeon Olcott, one of its senators in congress, created a vacancy, which was filled by the election of the Honorable Nicholas Gilman. Mr. Gilman was the first rep- resentative chosen to either branch of congress by the republican party, after its first distinct organ-
ization in the state. Indeed, the whole represen-
tation in congress from New England, with scarcely an exception, was composed of members of the federal party. The election, therefore, of a republican to the highest legislative body in 1805. the nation, was deemed a political triumph of Legis- lative Jour- nals. no ordinary magnitude. The legislature, in the meantime, in their reply to Governor Langdon's address, adopted by a large majority in both branches, expressed " their utmost confidence in the virtuous and magnanimous administration " of President Jefferson, and condemned, in strong terms, "that spirit of malignant abuse" with which he had been assailed.
Stat- utes of N. H.
Among the laws passed by the legislature of this year, which have stood the test of time, and still remain among the statutes of the land, are the acts prohibiting the issue of private notes as a circula- tion, and limiting all actions for the recovery of real estate, to twenty years. The last law pro- vides, " that when any action shall be brought
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against any person, for the recovery of any lands CHAP. or tenements which such person holds by a sup- XI. posed legal title under a bona fide purchase," and has peaceably occupied more than six years before the commencement of the action, a jury shall appraise the value of the improvements, which must be paid by the plaintiff before he re- covers possession. Laws were also passed, regu- lating the manufacture and sale of bread, the inspection of beef, the taxation of costs before justices, the collection of damages done by the floating of lumber, and the appointment of guar- dians over persons who, "by excessive drinking, gaming, idleness, or vicious habits of any kind," should so squander their time and estates as to become exposed to suffering and want. Another law of this year provided for the division of towns into school-districts, and thereby established our common schools upon such a basis, as to extend their advantages to every citizen. No law of the state has done more for the diffusion of useful knowledge or the advancement of the general wel- fare. Under its provisions, school-houses have sprung up in every neighborhood in our most thinly settled towns, affording at once, in many instances, houses of worship for the scattered dwellers around them, and comfortable places of instruction for their children.
In such humble seats of learning as these, thou- sands of the young men of New Hampshire have laid the foundation for that business knowledge, or those extended acquirements, by which they have made themselves the leaders in honest enter- prise, the authors of useful inventions, the masters
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CHAP. of difficult arts, and the ornaments of the pulpit, XI. the bar, the judicial seats and legislative halls of the country. There have been sown the seeds of pru- dent industry. There have been planted the germs of honorable enterprise. There has been first ex- cited that noble thirst for distinction, which has taken the sons of our poorest citizens from the farm and the workshop, and sent them into the wide world, with no other capital than untiring energy and unspotted reputation, to carve out their own way to distinguished fortunes and exalted honors.
Legis- lative Jour- nals. Jack- son's Geolo- gical Report.
The New Hampshire Iron Factory Company, incorporated at Franconia by the legislature of 1805, soon after established the extensive works at that place, to which it has been so greatly indebt- ed for its prosperity. At first, these works con sisted only of a forge, where bar-iron was made. In 1811 a blast furnace was erected, which has been kept in operation ever since. It produces from two hundred and fifty to five hundred tons of excellent iron per annum, of which from one hun- dred to one hundred and fifty per year is manufac- tured into bar-iron, while the remainder is sold in the form of castings. So lately as 1838, iron was produced to the amount of twenty-one thousand dollars per annum, of which sum at least twelve thousand dollars were paid for the labor of men engaged in mining, burning and drawing coal, and conducting the various operations at the furnace.
The ore, which is obtained from a mountain in Lisbon, at a distance of three miles only from the furnace, yields from fifty-six to sixty-three per cent. of pure iron, and was long considered the richest in the United States. The mine is appa-
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rently inexhaustible. A single vein, of from three CHAP. and a half to four feet in width, has been wrought forty rods in length and one hundred and forty- four feet in depth, and this vein has been found to extend along the hill-side into the valley below. The labors of the miners, often fruitlessly expend- ed in unskilful searchings after additional veins of ore, have formed many curious caverns in the rocky sides of the hill. In one instance, a gallery of this character, one hundred and twenty feet in length, has been cut through the solid granite. These labors, however useless they may have been to the proprietors of the mines, have brought to light an abundance of interesting minerals, and the neighborhood has long been known as the richest mineral region in New Hampshire.
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