USA > Vermont > The story of Vermont (1889) > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
203
HOME HAPPENINGS.
plank turnpikes greatly lessened the difficulties of travel.
It was at about the same time that legislative en- couragement was extended to the industries of the State. A bounty to foster the raising and manufac- ture of silk was authorized in 1838, but soon abol- ished. In 1843 a law was passed making conditional appropriations for the establishment of agricultural societies. The following year the bounty was ex- tended to domestic manufactures and the mechanic arts. Great good has resulted to the State from the operation of this and subsequent legislation.
The time was fruitful in changes, and in none did the altered conditions of life more strikingly mani- fest themselves than in " the altered habits of When every man was his own Cobbler. the people. The time when every man was his own cobbler, cooper and harness maker vanished with the coming of the rail- road.
The great event in- troduced the State to its iron age, and that of wood and leather ended.
204
HOME HAPPENINGS.
The increasing scarcity of timber and the diffi- culty of obtaining it, coupled with considerations of convenience robbed the fireside of some of its picturesqueness. The old fireplaces, greedy of fuel but generous of comfort, gave place in most in- stances to stoves. The economy of labor was one reason of the change ; still another was the rapid decrease of the timber of the State which had a new value given to it by the stimulus which the canal and railroads had afforded to the lumber and wood- working industries. Such however is the force of habit, that many who began to use stoves for heat- ing purposes retained the old-time fireplaces for cooking for years, but usually all went together, and the great chimneys were torn out of the houses to make room. In such cases, and in most of the new houses built at the time, the chimneys were started, not from the foundation, but from a stout shelf in the attic. To this, with many sinuosities, the stovepipes ran through the rooms of both stories. It was an arrangement productive of the utmost economy of heat, but proved the cause of many fires, and was valueless for ventilation.
The exterior appearance of the houses had changed also. The rage for classicism, at this time, devastated almost the entire country. It filled Vermont also with stately houses modeled after the Parthenon -the upper stories shaded by their
205
HOME HAPPENINGS.
Grecian pediments and the fluted columns a stand- ing invitation to the jack-knives of mischievous boys. Whatever their external appearance, the homes of the people certainly, upon the average, grew more spacious, convenient and comfortable as the makeshifts and vexations of the backwoods period of existence drifted further and further away. The loft to which one climbed by a ladder became a matter of tradition along with the tin oven and the saddle pillion. The common type of barn also underwent a considerable change. In the early period all that the most prosperous farmer needed was a structure perhaps thirty by forty or twenty-six by thirty-six feet in size and twelve feet high at the eaves. It afforded space upon one side of the central driveway for a deep haymow and gave, upon the other, stabling for a yoke of oxen, a team of horses and three or four cows. And with this the farmer had been satisfied.
But the growth of the dairy business greatly in- creased the number of milch cattle. For these space must be provided, and the extra fodder they required needed shelter. The former necessity might be met by building an unsatisfactory "lean- to" or a new barn precisely like the first; the latter could be evaded by stacking out of doors a good portion of the hay and straw after threshing, to be hauled where wanted when winter came.
206
HOME HAPPENINGS.
Both needs however could be squarely met by the erection of an entirely new type of barn big enough to house all the stock and crops and con- veniently and compactly arranged. This was done and ever since has been continued in increasingly numerous instances.
Experience has led the Vermont farmer to seek the desired objects by increasing all the dimen- sions of his barns and, in perhaps a majority of instances, by building them against sidehills and making use of the semi-basements as stables and root cellars. In many of these barns the drive- ways are placed above the "big beam," the roof being hipped to give more room, so that all un- loading shall be downward and not up. Where this arrangement is impossible or deemed inadvis- able the horse-fork is used to unload hay or grain from the level. These and other improvements have been the natural result of the development of the dairy interest and they can nowhere be studied to better advantage than in Vermont, whose long cold winters render excellent barns a matter of prime necessity.
The altered habits and conditions of the people were manifested no less in their mental and moral than in their material activities. The period which witnessed the coming of the railroads and the most marked increase of the industries of the State was
207
HOME HAPPENINGS.
distinguished, among a number of less notable movements, by two which must be described in. some detail.
The fifth and sixth decades of the century will be ever memorable in Vermont no less than the rest of the Union, as the date of the great anti- slavery uprising. In a peculiar degree also to Ver- mont in common with comparatively few of the other States it will be remembered as the era of the temperance reform. The part which the peo- ple of the Green Mountains bore in the temper- ance and anti-slavery crusades forms one of the brightest passages in the story of their State.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
N the early years of the present century the United States was a drunken and disso- lute nation. This fact is so forced upon us by unimpeachable tes- timony that escape is impossible, no matter how reluctant we may be to give it credit. It was a time of vigorous physical activity but of low moral standards in many ways. Liquor was plentiful and cheap; almost every man drank, nor was it counted shame- ful to indulge to excess. The host of evil con- sequences which always follow in the train of drunken habits were everywhere lamented by the few and accepted by the many as inevitable. Brutal and degrading sports flourished, political contro- versies were waged upon a low level and the most sordid vices were probably more common, certainly
208
209
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
less concealed in the gratification, than is now the case.
The United States was not alone in this unfor- tunate condition, and the reformatory impulse which dignified the second quarter of the century was not confined to any one country. In England the corrective agencies which are usually most stimulated to activity when evil forces seem trium- phant busied themselves largely in temperance agi- tation, in improving the condition of prisoners, in factory and mining legislation and in shifting the burdens of taxation partially from the shoulders of the very poor to others better able to bear them. On the Continent was secured the abolition of torture, injudicial processes, and an amelioration of the condition of the peasant classes; of this latter the liberation of the Russian serfs was the crowning triumph. America joined the world-wide current of reform by attempting or effecting a large number of greatly needed changes. None of these was more important than the temperance movement; with this, indeed, all the others were intimately connected.
Without some reference to the general campaign for temperance in America the story of the passage of the prohibitory law in Vermont cannot be ade- quately told. Vermont has carried the reform further than most of the other States; she proba-
210
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
bly profited more by it; but the agitation by means of which this was effected was not confined to any one locality. A national temperance society was organized at Saratoga in 1808, but seems to have made little progress against the current. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was formed at Boston. It is worthy of note that the first tem- perance advocates did not dream of seeking pro- hibitive legislation ; they counseled moderation in drinking and the substitution of beer and ale for stronger liquors. The members of the Temper- ance Society actually built a brewery near Boston to give force to their suggestions in this latter respect. By about 1835 or 1840, however, the total abstinence theory had gained a firm foothold; with it came naturally the idea of repressive legislation. The American Temperance Union was formed in 1836 at Saratoga. In 1840 the Washington Band of Reformers, probably the most powerful temper- ance agency of the century, organized at Baltimore. The good which was accomplished by these or- ganizations was vast beyond calculation; they reacted favorably upon national life and manners in many other respects but remotely associated with the good chiefly aimed at.
Maine was the first State to pass a prohibitive ordinance in 1846, but Vermont was not far behind. The powerful and growing temperance sentiment
21I
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
in the State forced some recognition in the Legisla- ture even earlier. In 1844 a law was enacted fix- ing a minimum fee for licenses and appointing county commissioners to issue them. In 1846 pro- vision was made for a popular vote on license or no license. In 1850 the selectmen of the towns were authorized to empower agents to sell liquor
SIGNING THE PLEDGE.
for chemical, medicinal or mechanical purposes and also to license victualers to sell small beer or cider; the licenses of any who were found dispens- ing hard liquors to drink were to be taken away from them.
In 1852 what has generally been called the pro-
212
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
hibitive enactment was framed. This was really the most important step in a series of such en- actments. It provided that no person should be allowed to sell or give away any intoxicating drink except for medicinal, chemical or mechanical pur- poses, agents for such sale being named by county excise commissioners. In 1853 the use, manu- facture and sale of cider was permitted but not its sale in places of public resort or to drunkards. In 1854 the severe penalties of the law were extended to any one owning or keeping liquor with evident intent to sell; in 1855 still more restrictive legisla- tion followed; in 1856 penalties were provided for railway, stage or express agents who transported liquor intended for illegal sale and in 1858 its use at "raisings" was expressly prohibited. Since then the law upon the subject has been frequently changed, but its spirit has remained much the same. The sale of liquor except for the purposes specified has been for over thirty years tabooed. Whether such absolute restriction is wise, beneficial and judicious is yet a controverted point. Its bitter opponents have never ceased to reiterate that in Vermont and Maine the law has proved worse than useless, but in both these States the large majority say most emphatically that it has been an inesti- mable benefit, and it is quite probable that they are in a position to know.
أسود
213
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
The long-continued agitation of the temperance movement, which had made hard drinking unfash- ionable and drunkenness a disgrace, would certainly have accomplished much for the State unaided by any legislation whatever, but whether owing to this, or to the prohibitory law or in a measure to both, it is certain that the condition of society has been greatly improved in this respect. Where drunkenness was once common it became uncom- mon. The confirmed habits of adults were not always affected, but the removal of temptation from the young led to a gradual and beneficent change. The habits of the people became more industrious as well as more temperate, and all good movements felt the impulse of the funda- mental reform. The schools flourished as never before, the churches maintained themselves with vigor against the unfavorable effect of emigration, libraries were founded, lectures and debating socie- ties took the place of gatherings of more question- able advantage.
The law to abolish imprisonment for debt came during the temperance agitation. Later on, the passage of a law to prevent cruelty to animals, the steps taken to provide for the care and educa- tion of the dependent and defective classes and the ineffectual yet persistent efforts in behalf of arbitration as a means of settling disputes between
214-5
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
nations indicated the drift of public sentiment. That the reform instinct gathered too great impe- tus in its successful course, and that absurd and chimerical schemes for the amelioration of society were discussed along with others of a positively baleful menace does not detract from the value of the original impulse. It has ever been the fate of great and worthy movements to be condemned to drag thus at their skirts the lesser and unworthy ones it has inspired, or those which are too far in advance of the times.
The period of the temperance reform was that which saw the visionary attempt of such pure and high-minded men and women as Ripley, Haw- thorne and Margaret Fuller to establish an ideal community at Brook Farm. It was the period too when the reasonable demand for the reform of the dress of women, in the interest of health, economy and convenience, found sporadic expression in the ugly and impossible Bloomer costume. And in the same anxious years the revolting doctrine of free love found not a few adherents, some of whom had so far the courage of their convictions as to practice what they preached.
Time has corrected many of the extravagances born of the yeasty ferment of the age of reform, but it has left untouched the effects of most move- ments worthy of success. The temperance reform
L
Brideman.
A RAID ON THE RUMSELLER.
١
217
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
in other States has transmitted to the descendants of the men who fought the fight of the "forties" only the altered conditions which make the liquor habit a reproach. In Vermont the prohibitory law has survived for over thirty years and seems as far from repeal as ever. It will be of interest here to anticipate somewhat and seek testimony as to its value to the State in more recent times. Its best friends to-day do not claim that it is always and everywhere enforced with equal strictness, but they would claim that, even where enforcement is most lax, drinking is less public and temptation less insistent than in places where the liquor trade has full license. Upon this point let us hear the testi- mony of a professed enemy of the system. The Hon. Justin McCarthy, M. P., said in an article on " Prohibitive Legislation in the United States" in the Fortnightly Review in 1871 :
" In Rutland, Vermont, there was great agitation during the winter of 1870-71 because of the abuses of the hotel system. The bars were allowed, people complained, to become carousing dens for the common tipplers of the town. The authorities began a crusade to put down all selling of drink by the hotel-keepers. The hotel-keepers declared that if restricted they would close their houses, and thus drive all strangers away from the city, and ruin its trade. The authorities persevered, and the hotel-keepers did actually shut up their houses for several days. But the puritanical blood of Rutland was up and the leading townspeople actually converted their own houses into caravansaries for all strangers - actually had servants at the railway stations to receive every new-comer, and quarter him according to the previously arranged billet. This odd struggle ended in the discom- fiture and surrender of the hotel-keepers. They 'caved in,' promised to obey the laws implicitly, and reopened their houses. Yet I have to add my little commentary of personal experience. I arrived in Rutland within a
218
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
week after the triumph of public opinion, and the unconditional surrender of the hotel-keepers. I found no more difficulty in getting brandy at my hotel in Rutland than if I had been at the St. Nicholas in New York. I asked for it openly, purposely, ostentatiously; it was brought without a word of comment or a hint of concealment. In Burlington, in the same State, a day or two after, I stayed at a hotel where there was an open bar with a crowd of idlers, evidently not travelers, lounging and smoking and drinking around it."
This was written some time ago and the con- dition of things in Burlington and Rutland may have changed much since 1871, but it is not every year that a British Member of Parliament comes to America to break the laws and speak of his success as a reason why such laws should not be enacted. It is worth remembering that Burlington is the largest city in the State; it has a considerable float- ing population while Rutland is the centre of the quarrying region and naturally attracts from without the State many laborers who are unused to its re- strictions, as well as a large number of travelers. Mr. McCarthy would certainly have found matters very different in the smaller villages, by which the success of the law could be better and more accu- rately tested. We need not further comment upon his experience than to point out what a contrast his narrative presents between the zeal and self- sacrifice of the "leading townspeople " who did so much for the law and the contemptible action of the hotel-keepers who held their promises so lightly. It is evident enough from these experiences that
-
219
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
the people had no doubt whatever of the value of the law, even when imperfectly enforced, and so it would be to-day.
No better evidence of the temper of the people on this subject could be found than that furnished by the legislation of recent years. We have seen how the prohibitive law was enacted so long ago as 1852. More than thirty years after its enact- ment, the legislators were still hedging in the whisky power by further enactments.
At a time when in many other States both polit- ical parties seemed to be vying with each other for the favor of the vast vote which the saloons con- trolled, the Vermont Legislatures of 1882, 1884 and 1886 were passing various acts relative to liquor of which a few examples will show the purpose and intent.
One of these laws provided for the study in all public schools of physiology and hygiene with especial reference to the effect of liquor and narcotics upon the human system. It was the intent of the
A BLOOMER.
220
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
framers of the law that the subject should be taught as thoroughly as grammar or geography, that all the pupils of the State might in order under- stand the physiological meaning of drunkenness and kindred excesses. Another act was designed to compel every person convicted of intoxication to tell where he procured liquor. Another provides that while a man is in jail for any crime committed while drunk, his family can by legal process collect two dollars per day from the seller of the liquor. Another lays down the penalty for the third offense of intoxication as a fine of twenty dollars and one month's imprisonment. The men who make these laws do not seem to doubt the efficacy of prohibi- tion but rather to do all in their power to aid the purpose of the law's framers.
Is the law enforced? Certainly not with com- pleteness. The records of every local court are as conclusive upon this point as they are incontro- vertible evidence of the intent to enforce the law so far as possible. The trial of liquor-sellers forms a considerable share of the criminal business of the State, and the penalties imposed are so severe and so seldom escaped by the guilty that the traffic is compelled to hide in corners out of the way of public vision.
Whether because or in spite of prohibition crime is not common. Flagrant offenses against decency
/
221
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
and crimes against the person are rare, and even more so are serious offenses against property rights. It is not only possible but habitual over many parts of the State to dispense with bolts and bars with- out fear. A community without saloons has few at- tractions for " tramps " or those other idle people who live constantly on the verge of crime and need only a slight impulse to become serious offenders. The prisons and asylums of the State compare most favorably with those of other communities, and its thrift and economy are notable.
In other parts of the Union, too, the Vermonters have borne witness to their belief in the efficacy of prohibition. The tremendous influx of immi- grants from the Green Mountain State to Michigan in the " thirties " was one of the impelling causes of the passage of a prohibitory law there in 1850, and in Iowa, Wisconsin and other Northwestern States the large element of settlers from Vermont has been pretty constantly on the side of the restriction of the liquor traffic. The advisability of prohibition is yet a debated question, but it cannot be denied that in the majority of the people of Vermont it has strong advocates of the affirmative.
Not more important perhaps in its ultimate re- sults than the temperance movement, but certainly far more creditable to the generous sentiment of the people of the State, since those for whom it was
222
THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
waged were not their own sons but a nation of black men half a thousand miles away, the anti- slavery cause merits the place of honor in any con- sideration of the epoch of reform in Vermont. And in that all-important and trying crisis the peo- ple conducted themselves with so much wisdom, boldness and humanity that their record will ever remain a fit source of pride to their descendants. Let us examine it.
2 2
CHAPTER X.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE.
HEN in November, 1777, Captain Ebene- zer Allen with a party of Green Mountain Boys took possession of the British works EAGLE BAY, LAKE CHAMPLAIN- at Ticonderoga, he cut off the rear guard of the flying enemy, tak- ing among the num- ber, Dinah Morris, the negro slave of a British officer, and her child. Allen being, as he wrote, "conscientious that it is not right in the sight of God to keep slaves," gave the woman a written certificate of freedom, which unique document was recorded in the town clerk's office at Bennington.
Slavery was at that time legal in New York. Of this province Vermont was nominally a part but the people had no more love for the system than Allen, and one of the first acts of their indepen- dence was to prohibit human servitude except for
223
224
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE.
crime. But though the people would have none of slavery within their own jurisdiction it was not till well within the present century that slavery became the overruling political issue of the Republic, or the question of its ultimate fate a matter for burn- ing discussion.
In the year 1828 a slender young man with hazel eyes, fair complexion and dark brown hair, and wear- ing constantly a pair of spectacles, made his appear- ance in Bennington. He was the editor of a paper which was in that year established to advocate the election of John Quincy Adams. His name was William Lloyd Garrison. He had been selected to conduct the new organ because of his practical acquaintance with the art of printing and his ability as a writer.
He stipulated, upon assuming the editorship of the Journal of the Times, that he should be free to advocate, besides the principles of the Whig party, Anti-Slavery, Temperance, Peace and Moral Re- form, and no objection seems to have been made to this rather extensive programme. Adams re- ceived an overwhelming majority in Vermont, but his rival Andrew Jackson was elected. In the very heat of the campaign Garrison never lost sight of his pet reforms, and after the election he prepared and circulated, through the postmasters in the vari- ous towns, petitions praying for the abolition of
225
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE.
slavery in the District of Columbia. These were signed by no less than two thousand three hundred and fifty-two people. No such objection was made to this use of the mails as was afterward offered by Amos Kendall, Postmaster-General under Jackson, who openly encouraged postal agents not to for- ward abolitionist mail matter of any sort.
The evil days were coming, however, even in Vermont. Garrison's paper was short-lived and the young editor went elsewhere to finish his career of suffering and achievement, but the active propa- gandism of anti-slavery sentiments still continued. Factional opposition rose higher and higher until in the year 1835 the Rev. Samuel J. May, who had been invited to speak for the Vermont Anti-Slav- ery Society, was insulted and almost mobbed in Rutland and Montpelier. The better sentiment of the State was even then crystallizing in favor of the restriction of slavery, and from the year 1837 until the war, Vermont was practically a unit in demanding that human bondage be confined within existing limits. For up to the very opening of the Rebellion the restriction of slave territory was all that the great mass of Northern Whig and Repub- lican voters hoped to accomplish.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.