USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 24
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While the federal party imputed the most honor- able intentions to Great Britain, and declared that she had done us "no essential injury," the repub- licans pointed to the impressment of our seamen, the plunder of our commerce, and the insult to our flag, by which the career of that haughty power had long been distinguished. By one party she was pointed to with reverence, as the "bulwark of our holy religion ;" by the other, denounced as the ruthless invader of our rights. As war became a
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probable event, its opponents arrayed all its fright- CHAP. ful consequences before the people-our armies XI. slaughtered-our people famishing-the ashes of our cities stained with blood, and trampled be- neath the feet of victorious invaders. On the other hand, it was urged, that, with a righteous cause summoning us to arms, and stout hearts to defend it, we dishonored the fair fame our fathers had won in the conflicts of one war, by shrinking with these craven forebodings from another.
Upon such issues as these, the election of 1811 1811. depended. A spirit of jealous resistance to British aggression still burned among the hardy agricul- turists of New Hampshire. The glorious scenes of Bunker's hill and Bennington still dwelt in their remembrance. They dreaded not the foe they once had conquered. The republican party triumphed once more, and triumphed as the party of resistance-resistance unto blood, if necessary -to the arbitrary assumptions of Great Britain.
Governor Langdon, re-elected by a majority of nearly three thousand votes, was again favored by the election of majorities of his political associates to every branch of the government. His message upon the meeting of the legislature, though writ- ten in plain style and moderate language, exhibited something of that warmth of feeling which was then universal. He complained that at that " eventful moment," when the " difficulties and perplexities the general government had to con- tend with would seem to demand the assistance and support of every patriotic citizen," there were so many who seemed ready to oppose and indulge a spirit of resistance against it.
Legis- lative Jour- nals.
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CHAP. XI.
The legislature adopted a reply, still more spir- ited in its tone, denouncing that " defiance to our laws and government," "that call to resistance," which it declared to be " the more alarming, as it was manifested at a time when the nation ought unitedly to afford sanction to its laws and energy to its government."
Report of de- bate, in New Hamp- shire Patriot.
This expression of opinion did not pass without opposition. An exciting debate preceded its adop- tion in the house. Governor Gilman, then a member of that body, threw the weight of his influence against it. "There are men," said that gentleman, " who do not believe that this govern- ment-if by government is meant the present and past administrations-is the best that ever existed. Look at the nation. What is its character? It is not respected abroad. It does not stand on that high ground that it did in the time of Washington federalism. We have no navy, except a few gun- boats, in dry docks, covered with boards, which are of no use. We are despised by foreign nations."
Mr. John F. Parrott, of Portsmouth, afterwards senator in congress, replied. "In respect to the various administrations, he did not mark the differ- ence in the same light with the gentleman from Exeter. Our nation and flag had never been re- spected by the British. Great Britain had agreed, by a solemn treaty, to deliver up to the American government the western posts, and had retained those posts for eleven years. She had insulted our flag, robbed us of our property, and impressed our seamen. These things she did during the administration of Washington; and all would agree
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that no blame attached to him. In one instance, CHAP. forty men had been impressed from one ship, dur- XI. - ing the administration of Adams. He respected Washington, he respected Adams, and he might be allowed to respect Jefferson and Madison. There was one point in which he presumed the house would agree. All would condemn the con- duct of France-all would detest her outrages on our rights. But when we come to the injustice of Great Britain, the sensibilities of a party were touched. Do we not find men, who, if they do not always justify, at least palliate all the wrongs of Great Britain? Do we not find men who say she has done us no injury? And is not this a dis- grace to our country, whose authors merit the frowns of its every friend? Is it not an encour- agement to that nation to persevere in its injus- tice?"
George B. Upham, David L. Morrill, and Eze- kiel Webster, participated in the discussion, and the address was carried in the house by a majority of twenty-six, and passed by a decided vote in the senate.
It appears by a report spread upon the legisla- tive journals of this year, that the drawing of a lottery, formerly granted for the construction of a road in Dixville, in the extreme northern part of the state, had at length been completed. Tickets had been issued to the amount of more than two hundred and forty thousand dollars, exceeding the amount of prizes paid by the large sum of thirty- two thousand one hundred and four dollars. Nearly six thousand dollars of this sum were lost by the failure of venders in Boston; and adding to
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CHAP. this the expenses and the loss on tickets retained XI. by the lottery, less than fifteen hundred dollars remained, as a net profit, to be applied to the road. From this time, the system of defraying public burthens by lotteries was abandoned by the state, as alike injurious to the people and per- plexing to the government. The road was nearly completed, however, by the aid of such funds as had been realized from this unprofitable enterprise.
The failure of three of our banks had at this time created a general excitement ; and a consid- erable portion of our legislative sessions was occupied in an investigation of their affairs. The Hillsborough, Cheshire, and Coos Banks, having issued a much larger amount of bills than their charters warranted, had become embarrassed, and stopped payment very nearly at the same time. The former bank had refused to submit its books for examination. The two latter, having, as was generally supposed, redeemed a large share of their circulation, through the intervention of bro- kers and at a heavy discount, had still an outstand- ing circulation of about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The great public loss upon the depreciated paper of these banks, severely as it was felt at the time, has induced a more cautious legislation in relation to this class of institutions.
1811.
During this year a law passed changing the compensation of judges of the court of common pleas from an uncertain amount, depending upon fees, to a stated salary; a change which was after- wards so extended as to embrace nearly every important office in the state. By this means it was wisely judged that the temptation to unrea-
P a 1
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sonable exactions would be entirely removed; and CHAP. that, while the compensation of public officers would be fixed upon a just and permanent basis,
XI. - the cost of the government would be greatly di- minished to the people.
With the commencement of 1812, terminated a 1812. period of peace, which had existed, with little intermission, for nearly twenty-nine years. That period, though marked with frequent fluctuations in our commerce and depressions in our currency, though it found a heavy burthen of debt resting upon the people at its commencement, had wit- nessed a gradual but constant increase, in this state, in wealth, business, and institutions of learn- ing ; in its means of communication, and the num- ber of its inhabitants. Flourishing manufacturing establishments had arisen upon the banks of our principal streams. Academies had been establish- ed in places which, at the close of the revolution, had scarcely the means to maintain a respectable common school. More than five hundred miles of turnpike roads had been constructed, at an expense of six hundred thousand dollars. Upon these- great thoroughfares, uniting upon the centre of the state, and thence spreading in every direction, and extending to its extremities, the people found a direct communication with every market. A code of laws, simple in their form, and generally adapted to the wants of the people, had grown up with the exigencies of the times. Justice was promptly administered in the courts. The civil and political rights of man were carefully guarded. Wrong sometimes won its way to the attainment of its ends, it is true; but yet crime seldom stalked
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CHAP. among us unpunished, and honest worth had little XI. to fear from oppression in the laws or corruption in the courts. Such was the general condition of New Hampshire, when, in common with the country at large, it was subjected to the burthens and uncer- tain chances of war.
The same political discussions were agitated before the election of March, 1812, which had decided that of the previous year. John Langdon having declined a re-election to the office of gov- ernor, the republican party presented a new candi- date, in the person of William Plummer. He was a member of the bar; and, intimately connected as he then was with the republican party, had, at a period not very remote, been a supporter of the administration of John Adams, and a champion of federal principles. A knowledge of his former sentiments alienated some members of the repub- lican party from his support ; and the unpopular points of his profession were eagerly seized upon by his political enemies to excite a popular preju- dice against him. A close contest was the result. The federalists once more brought John Taylor Gilman, the most popular man of their party, into the field as a candidate, and he received a small plurality of the votes, though not a majority of the whole number. 'The republicans, however, car- ried every other branch of the government, and elected William Plummer in the legislative conven- tion. Strong as the opposition to his election had been, his opinions seem to have had great weight with the legislature. In no less than three in- stances, during the current year, he deemed it necessary to veto measures which had passed tri-
Jour. House, June Sess., p. 90. Do. Nov. pp. 47, 145.
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umphantly through both houses. In each instance, upon a consideration of the reasons which induced this course, it was sanctioned by a unanimous vote.
In his message to the legislature, the governor communicated his views upon the subject of cor- porations :-
"Acts of incorporation of various kinds," said he, " have within a few years greatly increased in this state ; and many of them, being in the nature of grants, cannot with propriety be revoked without the previous consent of the grantees. Such laws ought, therefore, to be passed with great caution ; many of them should be limited to a certain period, and contain a reservation authorizing the legislature to repeal them, whenever they cease to answer the end for which they were made, or prove injurious to the public interest."
The message of the governor recapitulated, with much spirit, the wrongs our country had sustained from the aggressions of Great Britain, and urged upon the consideration of the state the importance of a firm and united support of the policy of the general government. In a reply, adopted by a very decided majority, the legislature used the following spirited language :- " Is our indepen- dence now assailed?" they asked. "Are our maritime rights denied, our national privileges in- fringed, our commerce obstructed, and our citizens impressed? And are we called upon to decide the painful alternative, submission or manly defence ? Permit us, sir, to aver for ourselves and the good citizens of New Hampshire, that we are all AMER- ICANS ; that we will cordially unite in maintaining
CHAP. XI.
Jour- nals.
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CHAP. our rights, in supporting the constitutional meas- XI. ures of our government, and in repelling the ag- gressions of every invading foe."
Whi- ton.
The State Prison at Concord, a large granite building, was this year constructed, at an expense of thirty-seven thousand dollars. It was placed under the immediate supervision of the governor and council, and ranked, at an early period, among the best regulated prisons in the country. An entire revision of the criminal code of the state followed its erection. Those laws which imposed whipping and the pillory upon persons guilty of minor offences-laws always revolting to every ; sentiment of humanity-were abolished ; and of eight capital offences, six were made punishable by imprisonment only. Henceforth, murder and treason alone were deemed crimes of sufficient turpitude to be visited with the severest retribu- tion which human laws can inflict.
Meanwhile, events tending to hasten the decla- ration of war were in constant progress. The American frigate President, while cruising off the coast of Virginia, had been wantonly fired upon by the Little Belt, a British sloop of eighteen guns. This outrage, which gives no unfair idea of the general insolence of the British cruisers at that time, met with that prompt and severe retri- bution it merited. Every effort of our government to obtain a satisfactory arrangement upon the sub- ject of impressments had been unavailing. The British orders in council were still wantonly en- forced; and upon the restoration of our commerce with France, large numbers of our vessels, bound with rich cargoes, were seized by Great Britain.
Hale's U. S. 1812.
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During a period of nine years only, nine hun- CHAP. dred American vessels had been captured by her XI. cruisers and condemned in her courts.
At an extra session of congress, summoned by President Madison in November, 1811, laws were passed, authorizing an augmentation of the navy and an increase of the regular army to thirty-five thousand men, and otherwise providing for the pub- lic defence.
Congress was employed in preparations for war, until late in the month of May, 1812. Informa- tion having been obtained from London, which convinced the American government . that they could no longer entertain any reasonable hopes of redress, on the 18th day of June, an act passed declaring war against Great Britain.
When the legislature of New Hampshire as- sembled, in November, active hostilities had already been commenced. In the meantime, hundreds of her sons had already rallied round the standard of their country, and five companies of her militia, had been detached for service within her own lim- its. Of these, four were stationed at Portsmouth under the command of Major Bassett, to aid in the defence of that harbor; while the fifth, under the command of Captain Mahurin, was posted at Stewartstown, to protect the frontier from preda- tory excursions from Canada, and check a con- traband trade, there too common, which at once defrauded the revenue of the country and furnished its enemies with supplies.
The operations of the American army, during the campaign of 1812, were attended with little success. The disgraceful surrender of Hull, and
Gover- nor's Mes- sage, Nov. 1812.
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CHAP. the failure of our operations upon the Cana- XI. dian frontier, were sources of mortification to the friends of the war and new objects of attack to its enemies. The exploits of the American navy, however, even at the commencement of the war, softened the disappointment occasioned by our reverses upon land, and taught the vaunted mistress of the ocean, that she was no longer invincible on that element, where her naval heroes had gained her so many laurels.
Upon the eve of the autumn elections of this year, the Hon. John Goddard, one of the candi- dates of the republican party, suddenly renounced its principles, declared himself to be strongly op- posed to the war, and suffered his name to be instantly placed upon the federal electoral ticket. Such an event could not fail to paralyze, to some extent, the movements of that party which he had so suddenly abandoned, and, at the same time, to give new courage to its enemies. After a warm contest, the federal tickets for electors of president and members of congress were elected, by an aver- age majority of not far from fifteen hundred votes. Daniel Webster was one of the congressional dele- gation at this time chosen ; a man who, though then young, soon ranked among the ablest opponents of the administration and the war, and gained that high reputation as a cool, powerful and eloquent debater, which he has maintained, during a service of twenty-five years, in one branch or other of the American congress. Thirty years before this time, he was born by the side of the Merrimac-the son of a farmer. At school and in college he sometimes composed poetry, and displayed in his
Papers of the day.
5
Dome Webster
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prose compositions a gorgeous fancy ; but his CHAP first efforts at the bar were marked by a close, XI. vigorous and mature style, which indicated a pre- ponderance of the reasoning powers over the imagination, and determined his character as a powerful logician, kindling but occasionally with the fires of imagination. He rose with a rapid flight-dazzling and astonishing-convincing and conquering. The bar acknowledged him as its head-the rival leaders of his own party made way for him in the race for distinction, and he was ushered forward at once to the first stations of responsibility and honor which they had in their power to bestow. Most of his mature years have been passed in the halls of legislation. He has discussed, either for the purpose of opposition or support, most of the important measures of gov- ernment; and though his views have often failed to gain the popular support, and the correctness of them has been questioned by the ablest minds in the nation, yet he has left impressed on the mem- ory of man, and stamped upon the records of public affairs, so many of those touches of genius, which, in an age of intelligence, will be preserved from oblivion, that the name of Webster, though he be consigned to the grave, cannot fall into forgetful- ness. Amidst all the vicissitudes of human affairs, the traces which genius leaves behind it will sur- vive, and will rise above the conflict of interests and the shock of opinions, to be admired, when time shall have corrected the errors of human belief, and the transitory prejudices of the day shall be forgotten.
The federal party, after a strenuous contest,
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CHAP. maintained in the spring of 1813 the ascendency XI. which they had gained at the election of the pre- ceding autumn. John Taylor Gilman, after a retirement of eight years, was again elected gover- nor of New Hampshire by a majority something less than five hundred votes. The federal party gained the control of both branches of the legisla- ture, and upon its meeting in June, elected Thomas W. Thompson speaker of the house and Oliver Peabody president of the senate. The ascendency thus gained, they succeeded in preserving through the sharp and doubtful contests of the two suc- ceeding years.
Still, these facts show no instability of opinion in the freemen of New Hampshire. True, it fa- vored the declaration of war, and, after it com- menced, elected a delegation to congress and a state government opposed to that war. But were its elections, during this period, a fair indication of the views of a majority of its freemen ? It should be remembered, that at the very commence- ment of the conflict, hundreds of the people aban- doned their peaceful pursuits, and gave up their right of influencing the result of our elections by their votes, to sustain the cause of their country, in many a hard-fought battle both by land and sea.
The people of New Hampshire contributed no less to the success of the war than they did to its commencement. Its hardy citizens were to be found in every hard-fought field. Its seaboard contributed its weather-beaten seamen to man our navy, and sent whole companies to mingle in the conflict which raged on our frontiers. Recruits swarmed to the seat of war from every part of the
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state. Every village furnished its squad. Every CHAP. scattered settlement among the mountains contrib- XI. - uted its man. In some instances whole families came forward at the call of their country; and father and son left their little homestead in the wilderness and marched to the post of danger to- gether. Had these brave men remained quietly by their own firesides, and left to others the noble task of defending their country, far different would have been the result of the elections at home; and far different, too, there is reason to believe, the result of some of those fierce conflicts on the fron- tier, in which the American flag floated in triumph over bloody fields and vanquished enemies.
In 1814, Gilman's actual majority was less than six hundred votes, and, in 1815, it sunk to five hundred and fourteen .* Had the brave New Hampshire men, who battled under Perry in the glorious conflict on lake Erie, and with the equally brave Macdonough on lake Cham- plain-who marched, fearless, up to the can- non's mouth under the command of Miller and McNeil-the crews of our gallant privateer ships, and our hardy seamen serving in nearly every vessel in the American navy, mustering as they did more than two thousand brave men and stout hearts-been present at these elections, the re- publican party would have controlled the desti- nies of the state from the beginning to the end of the war.
At the June session of the legislature of 1813, a nominal change was made in the judiciary system of the state, which resulted in an annihilation of
* This statement includes a few votes rejected for informality in the returns.
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CHAP. XI. the offices of the existing judges, and gave to the dominant party an opportunity to appoint their successors upon the bench. The name of the highest court in the state, which had been styled the "superior court of judicature," was by the new law changed to the " supreme judicial court." Arthur Livermore, chief justice of the former court, was retained as an associate justice in the new one. Jeremiah Smith, of Exeter, who had resigned his seat on the bench to accept the office of governor, was again appointed chief justice. The remaining seat was filled by Caleb Ellis of Claremont, a young but distinguished member of the bar.
The republican party strenuously denied the constitutionality of this measure, contending that judges commissioned to hold office "during good behavior," could be removed only by impeach- ment, or upon an address to the governor by both branches of the legislature. The federalists, on the other hand, insisted, that the legislature had an undoubted right to abolish any office which it had created. The controversy upon this subject pro- duced a very general excitement. Upon the first meeting of the court in Rockingham county, the sheriff took his seat as usual, but refused to obey the orders of the new court; while Richard Evans and Clifton Clagget, the two judges whom the new system had displaced, appeared, and " di- rected the person whom they called their clerk, to administer the oath to the grand jurors-they, the jurors, no otherwise regarding than with aston- ishment." In Hillsborough county, the sheriff sent some of his deputies to attend upon the new
Gov. Gil- man's Mes- sage, October session.
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court, and escorted, in person, the two former CHAP. judges to the court-house; so that, deprived of XI House Jour- nal, p. 45. the use of that building, the new court " per- formed the business of the session in a school- house." Upon this court, however, the members of the bar, as well as parties, jurors and witnesses generally attended.
In consequence of the confusion resulting from 1813. this unsettled state of things, Governor Gilman convened the legislature on the twenty-seventh day of October, several weeks earlier than the day to which it had adjourned. At an early period of this session, Josiah Butler, sheriff of the county of Rockingham, and Benjamin Pierce, sheriff of Hillsborough, were removed by address; the meas- ure having been adopted by a strictly party vote.
The legislature of this year incorporated the Kimball Union Academy, at Plainfield. It had been endowed with a permanent fund of forty thousand dollars, by the munificent bequest of the Honorable Daniel Kimball, and has ever since its establishment remained in a flourishing condition, fully accomplishing the benevolent designs of its founder.
An extensive fire, near the close of the year 1813, added to the embarrassments under which Portsmouth already labored from the destruction of its fisheries and foreign trade. It broke out on the evening of the twenty-second of November, and spreading rapidly in every direction, raged with great violence till three o'clock in the morn- ing. One hundred and eighty dwelling-houses, and sixty-four other buildings, occupying a space of fifteen acres, were entirely destroyed. Prop-
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