USA > Vermont > Washington County > Waterbury > History of Waterbury, Vermont, 1763-1915 > Part 8
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The Democrats in the Legislature, and in attendance upon the session, held a private meeting the evening before to decide upon their course. Sev- eral were in favor of resisting all war measures from the start. Hon. Paul Dillingham of Waterbury told them that would never do. "If the Repub- licans propose to raise five regiments," said he, to Mr. Thomas, who was the leader of the Democrats on the floor, "do you call for raising ten? If they want half of a million dollars for troops, do you move to make it a million? "
Mr. Thomas showed the quality of his Democracy and patriotism by promptly acquiescing and the greater appro- priation of $1,000,000, authorized by the Vermont Legislature, originated with "Union" Democrats.
Shortly after the special session of the Legislature came the so-called Republican Convention. The politics of those par- ticipating were varied as, indeed, might have been expected from the broad terms of the call. Many Union Democrats attended. A resolution offered by Honorable George F. Ed- munds was adopted, whose preamble settled the political complexion of the convention by using the phrase, "We the freemen of the state of Vermont," instead of "We the Repub- licans (or Democrats) of the state of Vermont." The resolu- tion pledged to the administration the whole power and
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resources of the state "to aid in putting down the rebellion by force of arms, and in bringing its wicked leaders to justice."
Among the Democrats present at this convention, and tak- ing part in the same, was Paul Dillingham. Referring to this the Rutland Herald editorially said, "the remarks of Honorable Paul Dillingham of Waterbury, and Mr. Carpenter, and Nicholson and others in this convention, will be remembered; and the day is not far distant when, in Vermont, a proper reward of praise will be given to the true patriot from what- ever party he may spring." The Montpelier Freeman said, "Democrats who came into the convention purely from patri- otic motives went away satisfied, while those who came for office went away in wrath."
Honorable Thomas Powers of Woodstock, a Republican of the most radical type, was so dissatisfied with the adoption of the Edmunds resolution, and the permission to Democrats to take part in the convention, that he withdrew from it with about thirty followers and held a meeting on the State House Common.
This was followed by a convention of the Democratic party held at Montpelier on the 24th of July, 1861. As in the case of the Republican State Convention, considerable discussion was had as to what the convention represented. Some under- stood that the call was for a "Union" convention, while others contended that it was a Democratic Convention in the strict- est sense. The significant result of the convention was found in the following: "Resolved, that as loyal citizens we will support all constitutional acts of the present National Gov- ernment to maintain the Constitution and laws in all the states." Paul Dillingham of Waterbury was nominated for governor, and Stephen Thomas of West Fairlee for lieutenant- governor. Neither of these gentlemen were present, and Mr. E. M. Brown, in behalf of Mr. Thomas, withdrew his name.
Notices afterwards appeared in the public press that Messrs. Dillingham and Thomas declined to accept the nomination tendered them by the convention, and the Democratic State Committee, who were empowered to fill in any vacancies that
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might occur, nominated B. H. Smalley of Swanton for gov- ernor, and Erastus Plympton, lieutenant-governor.
Early in August the Washington County Republican Con- vention placed in nomination Honorable Charles W. Willard and Paul Dillingham for county senators, and on the same day the Union Convention, held for the avowed purpose of "uniting all friends of good government in an unbroken line of defense" recommended that "in selecting candidates for public office all party lines be disregarded and reference be had to only the welfare and safety of our distracted country." The Union Convention also nominated the same two men, Messrs. Willard and Dillingham, for county senators and they were subsequently elected. From that time on Paul Dilling- ham acted with the Republican party until his death.
It was with reference to his own unsuccessful Democratic candidacy for governor in 1860 that the poet, John G. Saxe, indited to Paul Dillingham, Democratic candidate of the con- vention of July 24, 1861, the following witty lines:
ALBANY, N. Y., July 26, 1861.
To Hon. Paul Dillingham:
Dear Paul: I'm extremely delighted at learning The recent Convention has proved so discerning,
And given your servant-an honor indeed-
At least a successor who ought to "succeed": A patriot, orator, gentleman; strong In upholding the right, and resisting the wrong; And here let me add, while I'm thinking upon't,
The best looking man in the State of Vermont! If they don't put you into the Governor's chair, The people will make, I am free to declare, A blunder this year which will quite have surpassed The similar one they committed the last! Yours cordially, JNO. G. SAXE.
P. S. I have sent a copy of the above to the Burlington Sentinel.
Before publication, however, the poet inserted as ninth and tenth lines of the stanza, respectively, the following:
O eloquent Paul! venerabile nomen! Thy name in itself is an excellent omen;
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In 1862-1865 Mr. Dillingham was elected three times suc- cessively lieutenant-governor, and to the governorship in 1865 by a majority of 16,714, and again in 1866 by a majority of 22,822.
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Governor Dillingham's first message in 1865 recommended the establishment of a State Reform School; at the Legislative session of that year an act was passed providing for the estab- lishment of such an institution and for the appointment of three commissioners to purchase a farm not exceeding two hundred acres, suitable for the purpose. Accordingly Rev- erend A. G. Pease, Reverend L. A. Dunn and Charles Reed, Esq., were appointed from the Legislature. In their report the following year the commissioners detailed the con- ditions and considerations, moving them to select a site for the Reform School in Waterbury. Among other things they said :
Hence as a third condition, we determined that our location be near the railroad, and not more than one mile from a depot, and we concluded that a thriving business village, and a live depot, were much to be preferred to a place of little business, and a depot where ready conveyance for visitors could not be found. We thought it very desirable (and have found it so), that we should be within easy walk of the station, and the churches and business center of the town. Finally, if the place answering these condi- tions should be near the center of the state it would be so much the better for that.
Not ten years later the Reform School, so auspiciously established, burned to the ground, December 12, 1874. At the time there were one hundred and sixty inmates, who escaped with their lives. The fire led to the substitution of Vergennes as the place for the reestablishment of the institu- tion. This was not accomplished without some wire pulling and political methods of the sort that smacked of devious and reprehensible practices.
Mr. Dillingham's vote for governor in Waterbury on the first Tuesday of September, 1840, was 199 as against Silas Jenison's 188. Again in 1847 he received 167 votes as against Horace Eaton's 106. In 1841 his vote in Waterbury for state senator was 212, Nathaniel Eaton receiving 210 and A. Cush- man and O. Smith receiving each 150. Upon his election to
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the National House of Representatives in September, 1843, Mr. Dillingham's home town gave him 205 votes, George P. Chandler receiving 118. In 1845 Mr. Dillingham was again elected to Congress, receiving in Waterbury 201 votes, G. Chandler, 153, and G. Putnam, 13.
In Governor Dillingham was united an imposing presence with a grace of person; a magnetic manner with a wonderfully modulated voice; these with a command of forceful, apt and harmonious language, a resourceful gift of pertinent quotation all contributed to his preëminence as an advocate, legislator and chief executive. Honorable B. F. Fifield happily phrased his impressions of Mr. Dillingham in these words:
When in his best mood he played upon the strings of men's hearts with the facility that a skilled musician plays upon the strings of a guitar, and made them respond to emotions of laughter, anger, sympathy or sorrow, whenever he pleased, and as best suited the purpose of the case.
Speaking of, Governor Dillingham's ability as a lawyer, Honorable Hiram A. Huse, in his Vermont Bar Association paper of October 20, 1891, said:
His strong common sense made him a good adviser, so that his office work was well done. . The power by which he won verdicts and his fame defied analysis. Perhaps much of the secret of his winning speech lay in the sympathy his big heart held for all sentient beings. Once on his feet in the full advocacy of his client's cause, that client's rights and wrongs welled from the depths of his being, and poured in a flood upon the jury, who thereupon established the rights and redressed the wrongs. . Doubtless he who read other men so well was conscious of his own power; but consciousness of power does not blind the clear-eyed man to the magni- tude of difficulties to be overcome; and, while his method was his own and inimitable, he went into each contest with no reckless assurance of success but with fixed will to do his best.
And the more danger threatened, the more brightly burned this resolve, as once, when associated with T. P. Redfield in the trial of a cause, and the blackness of darkness seemed gathering about their legal bark, he leaned over the table and whispered, "Do thou, Timothy, preach; and I, Paul, will pray." Then Timothy Redfield knew that Dillingham was girding himself to ask mightily of the jury, and watched with renewed zeal ;- and what with watchfulness and prayer they saved the case-as, indeed, they did every case they ever tried as associate counsel.
Those now living who recall the peculiar abilities of each of
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these forensic giants appreciate the aptness of the Biblical admonition quoted by Governor Dillingham.
Governor Dillingham was an influential layman in the Methodist Church and went as the first lay delegate from the Vermont Conference to the Quadrennial General Conference in Brooklyn in 1872, in which body he took a high position. He lived for fifteen years after his retirement and died in Waterbury, July 26, 1891.
Governor Paul Dillingham married (first) October 4, 1827, Sarah Partridge Carpenter, daughter of his former partner, Judge Dan Carpenter. She died September 20, 1831, and he married (second) September 5, 1832, Julia Carpenter, born at Waterbury, December 3, 1812, sister of his first wife, who died September 15, 1898. There were children of his first marriage: Eliza Jane, born October 21, 1828; Ellen S., Novem- ber 22, 1830, married Joshua F. Lamson, died December 15, 1875. Children of the second marriage were: Caroline, born February 21, 1834 (married Honorable Matthew Hale Car- penter, a distinguished member of the Wisconsin bar and United States Senator, born in Moretown, Vermont, December 22, 1824). Mrs. Caroline (Dillingham) Carpenter died at her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 10, 1915. The Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin said:
In 1869 when amid a whirlwind of popular enthusiasm he (Hon. M. H. Carpenter) was sent to represent this state in the Senate, where he rose with incredible swiftness to his place of precedence, his wife was by his side and equal to her task as a close friend of President and Mrs. Grant and one of the foremost personages in the international society of the capital. Her position in her home city was commanding during the period of more than half a century in which she was a resident of Milwaukee. Since the death of her husband in 1881, she had kept in touch with what was best in the city's intellectual and social life. She had served more than once as president of the Society of Colonial Dames, and at the time of her death was honorary president of that organization and honorary regent of the Milwaukee Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. The house in which she lived is regarded as a historic shrine by all who cherish the memories of old Milwaukee. Within its quaint precincts is the large and choice library in which Senator Carpenter held high converse with the mighty minds of the ages, and also a treasury of manuscripts, including, many letters from President and Mrs. Grant. Shortly after her husband's death Mrs. Carpenter became a convert to the Catholic
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faith, and for twenty-three years she had been a devout member of the congregation of St. John's cathedral. Her passing from life at the ripe age of 81, occurred on the 34th anniversary of the burial of her husband, and was due to a weakness of the heart from which she suffered for more than a year. She is survived by her son, Judge Paul D. Carpenter, her daughter, Miss Lillian Carpenter and three grandchildren, Agnes M., Matthew A. and Paul V. Carpenter of this city; also by her brothers, William P. Dillingham, United States senator from Vermont; Frank Dillingham, consul general at Christiana, Norway, and Colonel Charles Dillingham of Houston, Texas.
(Colonel) Charles, February 18, 1837, an officer in the Civil War, railroad president and banker in Houston, Texas, mar- ried Fanny M. Cutter; Major Edwin, May 13, 1839, a lawyer, and officer in the Civil War, mortally wounded at Winchester, September 4, 1864; (Senator) William Paul; and Frank, born December, 1848, who has been in the United States consular service for twenty-five years, married Minnie L. Sneath, June 3, 1882.
Rarely has a literary and marital copartnership proven so felicitous as that of Hannah Gale (born in Waterbury, the daughter of Peter and Hannah Gale, December 28, 1824) and Samuel Slayton Luce. This gifted pair has left a small volume of verse fairly redolent of Vermont atmosphere and homely things of sacred beauty. Samuel Slayton Luce was born in Stowe, February 1, 1819; of patriotic ancestry, his grandfather having served in the Revolutionary War and his father in the War of 1812. He was educated in the Stowe public schools and in Craftsbury. Later he studied archi- tecture under G. P. Randall. At about the time the Vermont Central was being built between Montpelier and Burlington, Mr. Luce and Hannah Gale Luce, whom he had married December 7, 1847, removed to Waterbury to facili- tate Mr. Luce's access to the railway stations, for the building of which he was under contract. During his life in Water- bury, Mr. Luce had many important building contracts. Mr. William Deal speaks of him today as a man of unusual mental power and of great kindness and consideration to those who worked under him. In 1859 Mr. and Mrs. Luce moved to Galesville, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, where Mr.
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Luce established and edited the Galesville Transcript and became interested as owner and editor in various newspapers until he was stricken with blindness in 1895. He served as county superintendent of schools and as secretary of the board of trustees of Galesville University. Their married life was broken by the death of Mrs. Luce, December 11, 1907, a few days after the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding. Mr. Luce survived his wife until February 16, 1908, when he was summoned.
On the occasion of their last visit East, in 1881, they left with old neighbors and relatives in Waterbury and Stowe copies of a privately printed volume of verse from their respec- tive pens. This volume bears the imprint: "Trempealeau, Charles A. Leith, Publisher, 1876," and contains fifty-five poems by Mr. Luce and thirty by Mrs. Luce. Among the more popular of Mr. Luce's poems was "The Hunter of Cha- teaugay," wherein appears Tenas Wright, the first settler of Stowe, as the doughty hunter. "The Legend of Smuggler's Notch" is an epic of the wild days when the Lake Champlain smugglers sought a hiding retreat. The proposed state road will pass through the gorge described in the poem. "The Village Doctor," some stanzas of which are given later in this book, refers to Doctor Thomas C. Downer of Stowe, and is much in the vein of Whittier's "Snow Bound," being vividly descrip- tive of the fidelity of an aged country practitioner who toils through snow drifts and impassable roads on his errands of mercy.
There are those now living in Waterbury who recall fugitive stanzas of an unpublished song of Liberty written by Mr. Luce and sung by one D. Lothian at the Anti-Slavery Con- vention at West Randolph in 1845. Among Mrs. Luce's contributions to the volume are included "The Green Moun- tains," a poem of delicate, graceful sentiment and descriptive of the scenery hereabouts; "More Boys for the War," "Mor- gan's Retreat," and "The Coming Man." The offerings of Mr. and Mrs. Luce deserve a proud place in any anthology of Vermont verse.
The Mexican War was never popular in New England.
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PERIOD 1830-1850
President Polk's policies were scouted as unnecessary and ill- advised. Included in the only regiment, the Ninth, recruited in New England for the war under the command of Colonel Ransom, was a single company (D) from Vermont. In this company, was Luman M. Grout, father of Don D. Grout. With the exception of Major Grout, Levi (Tippecanoe) Gleason, John D. Robinson, father of Charles Robinson, who went from Williamstown in Company D, but returned to Waterbury and Charles S. Allen (son of Horace Allen) who died in the service, there are no other known Waterbury participants in the war, although, as in one known instance, other Mexican War veterans might have come to Waterbury after the war. An exhaustive search fails to disclose the names of any others who went from the town. In this con- nection an interesting letter from ex-Governor Samuel E. Pingree is given :
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION AND HARTFORD, VT.,
July 2, 1915.
THEODORE GRAHAM LEWIS, Waterbury, Vt.
My dear Mr. Lewis: Yours of yesterday received this morning. I regret very much that I am unable to give you any information in regard to the Waterbury Contingent in the Ninth New England Regiment raised by Franklin Pierce. I lived in Salisbury, New Hampshire, at that time and was quite familiar with a few volunteers in that vicinity, was one myself but my father fired me out because I was a minor and I lost the fun, but probably saved my life.
I think the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office at Montpelier will have a record which will show you a list perhaps of every man that went from any town in Vermont, and if it cannot be had there I think it could be had from the records of Norwich University, as the Colonel Ransom, some- time President of Norwich University, was a colonel in command of the Ninth Regiment and was killed at the Battle of Chapultepec, so I think the record will show the muster roll of every soldier under his command and probably where they were from.
I regret very much that I cannot be of service to you because I can appreciate your great desire for a full as well as an accurate history of the noble town of Waterbury. I know its record in the Civil War was beyond compare with any town, if not in numbers at least in quality of its volun- teers.
Sincerely yours,
SAM'L E. PINGREE.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY, VERMONT
Mr. Lucius B. Peck, a native of Waterbury but resident of Montpelier, took his seat in the House of Representatives December 6, 1847. On March 13, 1848, he introduced a resolution that the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the propriety of passing an act for the settle- ment of claims of the Fourth regiment, Second Brigade and · third division of the Vermont Militia for services at the Battle of Plattsburg, and that they report by bill or otherwise. He also presented a resolution by the Legislature of the state of Vermont approving Asa Whitney's plan of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. August 3, 1848, Mr. Peck commented on the uncourteous terms in which one de- partment of this government (the Executive) was frequently spoken of by gentlemen on the floor and then examined into the position of gentlemen of the South, that it was unjust to them to prohibit their going to the new territories with their slaves. He denied that it was unjust. He reminded them that slavery existed by municipal laws, and quoted decisions of southern judges to show that a slave taken by his master voluntarily beyond the jurisdiction of the municipal laws of the state in which he lives, becomes a free man.
On January 22, 1850, Mr. Peck asked unanimous consent of the House to introduce a resolution that the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the propriety of refunding to the state of Vermont the money expended by that state in her endeavors to maintain our neutrality in the Canadian difficulties; and that the committee report by bill or otherwise. Those who believe that the propagandists of peace are of recent origin will be interested to know that Mr. Peck voted, January 28, 1850, to refer a memorial of the American Peace Society to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. This memorial prayed Congress to inquire into the expediency of entering into international treaties stipulating for the settle- ment of international disputes by arbitration and also into the expediency of holding a Congress of Nations.
April 25, 1850, Mr. Peck spoke at length in answer to objec- tions urged against the admission of California as a state into the Union. He disposed of these objections seriatim as pre-
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senting, in his judgment, no valid arguments against her admission, whether considered with reference to their own intrinsic weight, or to the prior action of the government in the admission of new states into the Union. Mr. Peck, during his term, was flooded with petitions and remonstrances against the admission of more slave states, the extension of slavery generally and the repeal of laws favoring slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia. Then, of course, there were the usual bills for pensions and private relief and innumerable petitions for cheaper postage from Vermonters. In the autumn of 1846, Mr. Peck received 161 votes for Congress in Waterbury and again in 1848 he received 102, Mr. John L. Buck getting 61, this, though Mr. Peck was then a resident of Montpelier, having given up his residence in Waterbury.
The Free Mountaineer was a newspaper of Waterbury and Montpelier, edited by J. A. Somerby, which made its initial appearance in 1849. It is regrettable that it scarcely could be said to have had even an ephemeral existence, not to men- tion a diurnal prosperity, devoted, as it expressed itself to "News, Education, Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, The Interests of Workingmen, Temperance, Health, Anti-Slavery, Morality, Cheap Postage, Literary and Miscellaneous Reading, etc."
The editor's salutatory of June 14, 1849, addressed to the citizens of Waterbury is peculiarly captivating to the twentieth century journalistic craftsman. The optimism expressed by the devoted publicist might well be indulged by many latter day editors with profit. The salutatory is deemed worthy of space :
We lay before you today, the first Newspaper ever printed in Waterbury. We have enlisted in the enterprise of establishing a Printing Office and publishing a Journal of News, etc., every week, in Waterbury Village, at the suggestion and solicitation of a large number of the citizens of Water- bury and vicinity-every party and sect uniting together, to a considerable extent to bring about the desired result-and we shall consequently, depend upon their united influence and assistance for support. We shall make every reasonable exertion to obtain the latest intelligence from our own country, as well as from abroad, and keep our readers well informed in relation to local events. When we have occasion to express our own opinions, we shall endeavor to be "Unawed by Influence and unbribed by
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gain " independent alike, of sectarian or party views-seeking to benefit all our readers.
We shall endeavor to promote morality and temperance, and a noble forbearance between man and man, that shall be fully equal to the pro- gressive spirit of the age.
Waterbury needs a Fire Engine, an Academy, a Plank Road to Hyde- park, and many other improvements, to procure which, we shall gladly . cooperate with our fellow citizens, and rejoice with them at the success of every enterprise that will benefit the community generally.
Our columns will be open to the free discussion of all topics of general interest; but, communications must be short, to the point, and couched in respectful language.
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