USA > Vermont > The story of Vermont (1889) > Part 9
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sand in the State in 1850, there were but forty-two thousand in 1860 and these have decreased to less than fifteen thousand in 1888. The oxen had been very useful in the rough work of clearing the State and rendering it fit for cultivation, but in the actual processes of agriculture, the faster pace of horses brought them more and more into favor.
Up to the railroad epoch labor-saving farm ma- chinery can hardly be said to have existed, but its introduction greatly lessened the labors of the farm after 1850. The first mowing machines were more than twice as heavy as the improved patterns later in use; they were very hard upon the horses which pulled them, but they were a great improvement upon the scythe. The early horse-rakes were equally rude, a common pattern being a flat double rake of wood, which the driver, walking behind, overturned with much labor at each winrow, but the worst were a long step in advance of the hand- rake. The hay crop gained greatly in value when it became possible to cut and harvest it rapidly instead of allowing the last of each year's cut to "go to seed " and grow dead and wiry. Improved machinery upon the farm, as well as in the shop, rendered possible a much greater production in proportion to the numbers employed.
A corresponding advance was made within the household. The domestic manufacture of wool
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declined ; the ponderous beams of the loom became lumber in the attics; the flax wheels and hatchels kept them company. Factory-made cloth took the place of homespun and the girls of Vermont fami- lies had more time to go to school. Many of them went to the factory towns of Massachusetts to work as cotton spinners, and at a time when the mill girls of Lowell and Lawrence were among the most intellectual and cultured members of their sex, the sharpening of wits which ensued from such companionship was no less valuable than the wages received.
The ability to earn money always commands respect. There can be no doubt that the factory system of the New England States was in those days at least a blessing to the women, and in many ways improved their condition. Home life in Ver- mont also presented many changes. Machinery came to aid in the labors of the housekeeper, though to a considerably less extent than out of doors. Better furniture, table ware and clothing, more pictures and books, more pleasant surround- ings in many ways, were the natural results of increased wealth, cheapened production and new facilities for travel and comparison.
To trace the effect upon Vermont of the coming of the canals and of the railroads we have followed its industrial development up to the very opening
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of the civil war. We must now go back to the " era of good feeling " and take up where we dropped it the story of the State. The period between the era of good feeling, when North and South were in harmony and people fondly hoped that political troubles were over forever in the new Republic, and the civil war which convulsed the nation in 1861 was one of vast importance to Vermont as well as to the nation at large. Let us consider what was happening within the State and whither it was tending morally and socially during the years whose marvelous material developments have been so briefly sketched.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOME HAPPENINGS.
THE STATE HOUSE MONTPELLIER T A HE era of political good feeling was either too good to last or else a blessing of doubtful value. From whatever standpoint we view it - whether we hold with those philosophers who ex- tol the even division of parties as a blessing, or with those who condemn it as a curse - the fact that it did not last need not now excite so much surprise as that any one then seriously expected that it would last. Whether a popular government without party divisions would be desirable is hardly worth inquiring. Such a state of affairs is not a possibility with human nature constituted as it now is. The history of Vermont in the " thirties " shows that where better issues of political war are wanting people will divide upon questions which look in the retrospect
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anything but worth quarreling about, and that political controversy loses none of its bitterness when based upon issues of minor importance.
The Anti-Masonic Movement originated in the mysterious disappearance in Western New York of a man named Morgan. Him the fraternity of Free Masons was accused of murdering or making away with as a punishment for revealing the secrets of the order. It cut a very wide swath in Vermont, and was more successful there than in any other State. The electoral vote was given in 1828 to Adams against Jackson. In the same year Samuel C. Crafts was chosen as governor by the Adams party to succeed the Rev. Ezra Butler who had served two terms.
In the year 1830 the Anti-Masonic party put up for the first time a candidate of their own for governor. This was William A. Palmer. Gover- nor Crafts was the incumbent and Ezra Meech the Jacksonian candidate. Crafts received a plurality of the votes, but not a majority, and the elec- tion was thrown into the Assembly where Crafts was finally chosen. The next year the same can- didates ran. There was no popular election, but this time Palmer carried off the prize in the Legis- lature. Crafts was the Masonic candidate, and his defeat for this reason alone shows to what a height party feeling rose on this curious issue.
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The prejudice against the Masons at this time compelled the disbandment of many of their lodges throughout the State, the Grand Lodge of Ver- mont among them. In 1832 Palmer was again elected by the Assembly, there being no choice at the polls. In this year Jackson and Clay were the Democratic and Whig candidates and they re- ceived 7,870 and 11,152 votes respectively, the Whigs as before, keeping ahead of the Jacksonians in spite of the disturbing influence of the Anti- Masonic party. For that party had a candidate for the Presidency, and a very good one, in William Wirt. He had a useless but substantial following of men who " voted in the air." He received no electoral votes except the seven of Vermont. Jack- son had 219 of the whole number and Clay forty- nine. It is difficult now to see precisely what the Anti-Masons expected Wirt to do for them if elected, but they were undoubtedly sincere in his support.
In 1833 and 1834 Palmer was re-elected, quite as much because of his character as an executive as on account of the Anti-Masonic movement which fell away tremendously in the " off year " following Jackson's re-election. Silas H. Jennison served as governor for the remainder of the decade. In 1840 Van Buren was the successful candidate for the Presidency. He received in Vermont 14,037 votes ;
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to Harrison the Whig leader were given 20,991. Charles Paine, John Mattocks and William Slade were respectively elected governors in 1840, 1843 and 1844. The latter was the compiler of the in- valuable State Papers of Vermont, which contain so much material for the historian and student.
The vote of the State in the important Presidential election of 1844 was cast as follows : Clay, Whig, 26,770; Polk, Democrat, 18,041; Birney, Aboli- tionist, 3,954. The Birney vote was a new and portentous appearance upon the field of politics. The same candidate had received but three hun- dred and nineteen votes in 1840, and this increase illustrated the growth in the State of that senti- ment against slavery whose results a future chapter will chronicle.
The years whose political character has been thus briefly summarized were signalized by a num- ber of important events affecting Vermont in com- mon with other States and by not a few peculiar to itself. The period opened with the vigorous agitation for a series of canals to connect the Connecticut and the lake. This project it is needless to say was not carried out. The mount- ain chain which extends north and south through the State was an almost insuperable obstacle to such a canal. The great floods of 1828 and 1830 caused wide-spread destruction in the Connecticut
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Valley and along the channels of the swollen streams. In the latter year fourteen people were swept away and drowned in the township of New Haven on the Otter Creek. Hundreds of thou- sands of dollars would not have repaired the prop- erty loss there and elsewhere throughout the State.
Lake Memphremagog.
In 1832 the Legislature authorized the con- struction of a new capitol building at Montpelier and appropriated $30,000 for that purpose. This sum was found totally insufficient for the work and in the end, at an expense of $140,000, a very credit- able State House was erected. The constitution
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of the State was revised and amended in 1836 and more radical changes made in it than at any former revision. The Council of Censors was retained but the Governor's Council was abolished and in its place was put a senate, with powers substantially the same as the corresponding body wielded in the other States. The members were to be chosen annually, were not to be less than thirty years of age, and their number was restricted to thirty. Each county was entitled to one senator; the remainder were apportioned among the counties according to their population. This apportionment was to be revised after each census report. The same constitutional change which established the senate gave the governor the power to veto bills but provided that a bare majority of both houses should be sufficient to pass laws over his veto.
In the following year, 1837, the most dangerous financial panic which had ever yet afflicted the country broke in full force. It disastrously affected all industries in Vermont and elsewhere. The panic was the direct result of natural causes and might have been foretold for some time before- hand. The country, under the influence of the great Western migration, had expanded too rapidly and strained credit too severely. Money was very scarce in the new States and territories and the need of a circulating medium was in a measure
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supplied by numerous State banks which poured upon the country a flood of paper notes, often irredeemable because of the wild speculations in which their capital was sunk and not unfrequently backed by no capital whatever ..
Men were so full of abiding faith in the future of their country that they were ready to put their money, and money borrowed from other people, into the craziest of schemes. Land speculation was almost universal. Railroads and canals were seriously projected which could not if completed have paid their running expenses for years to come. States were drawn into the tide and plunged reck- lessly into debt to promote internal improvements. Industry suffered while speculation throve. Rents became high, interest on loans reached in many cases two or two and a half per cent. per month and the prices of all manner of commodities advanced out of all proportion to the earning power of labor- ing men.
The wheat crop of 1836 and 1837 was almost a failure and grain was imported from Europe. Flour rose to such a price that "bread riots " in New York City emphasized the danger of the day. The leader of one of these riots said to the noisy rabble who were applauding a harangue, " Let us go to - and offer him eight dollars a barrel for flour. If he refuses we will take it." In an hour
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thousands of barrels were scattered in the streets. The large cities were at that time without police pro- tection ; the " bread mobs " were almost unopposed in their work of destruction. Strikes, till then unknown in the country, became common. Social- istic doctrines for the alleviation of the evils from which the people suffered found ready believers and agitation of impracticable schemes of social reform was rife.
The commercial distresses were complicated by political differences upon fiscal matters. The Bank of the United States had in 1791 been chartered by the Federalists for twenty years. The limita- tion expired in 1811 and the Republicans who were then in power, refused to renew the charter. In 1816, however, the Republicans found it necessary to re-establish the Bank and since that time it had fallen again into the hands of the Federalists whose naturally it was. In 1832, the Democrats being then in power, the friends of the Bank began to advocate the renewal of its charter, though it was not to expire until 1836, and passed a bill for that purpose which President Jackson vetoed.
Jackson's re-election caused the directors of the Bank to see very plainly that all hope of securing a renewal of the charter was out of the question. Naturally they began to contract and realize upon their loans for the purpose of settling up their
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affairs. Benton and others have held that this was done purposely to create a panic and compel a renewal of the charter; the possibility of this result may have influenced the directors, for much distress was caused by their action, but it was nev- ertheless justified by sound business considerations.
In 1833 Jackson issued a circular to the agents of the Government directing them thenceforth to deposit no money with the bank or its branches, while the money then in its custody was gradually to be withdrawn to pay current expenses. From that time the bank daily prepared to go out of business. This it actually did some time before the expiration of its charter. It was afterwards char- tered as a State bank by Pennsylvania, but went finally out of business in 1839.
Whatever may have been the faults of the Bank of the United States politically, it was at least sol- vent. It was well managed financially and exercised something of a good influence in a day when it was sadly needed. Things went on from bad to worse. The currency of the State banks was never very good; it was often worthless. Little of the best of it would circulate at par fifty miles from the place of issue ; trade was hampered and merchants put to no end of annoyance by perpetual losses from bad money and by the elaborate system which they were forced to adopt for its detection. This was
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the situation when President . Jackson in 1836 directly precipitated the panic by issuing a circular to the agents of the Government, directing them to accept nothing but gold and silver in payment for the public lands or of customs dues. This action at the close of Jackson's term brought the panic upon Van Buren, his successor, at the very opening of his administration.
The storm broke in March. So violent was it that a strong deputation of bankers went to Wash- ington to beseech Van Buren to withdraw the specie circular. This he firmly refused to do and by the tenth of May all the banks had suspended specie payment. The year which followed was one of total collapse in the business world and of great suffering among the people generally. Special bankruptcy laws were passed for the relief of the situation and after a year of sitting in sackcloth and ashes for the financial sins of a decade, the country was ready to resume business again. In- solvent merchants had compounded with their creditors ; these again had compromised with other creditors until the swollen scale of prices sank to the normal. The tense situation was practically closed by the action of the New York banks on the fifteenth of May, 1838, in resuming specie payment, an example which was soon followed by all the other banks in the vicinity which were still alive.
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President Jackson has been often blamed by his political opponents for causing the panic by the issuance of the specie circular, even as the Bank of the United States had been charged with inducing the less serious stringency of 1833 by curtailing its loans; but neither the one nor the other caused the panic. Jackson's circular though its occasion, was no more than that. The real cause was the feverish speculation of the preceding years.
The suffering of Vermont by the panic was en- tirely out of proportion to its responsibility. It had not been one of the chief sinners against finan- cial laws, yet it is probable that the State fared far better than the Western States on the one hand and the great money centers on the other. The failure of the wheat crop was very disastrous, for it had been up to that time one of the most important sources of wealth ; but speculation was much less feverish than in the newer portions of the country, and the Legislature had not been prone to sanction enormous expenditures of money to forward extrava- gant public works. The people however suffered from the sins of their brethren in the West. The banks felt the blow with the rest and suspended and resumed specie payments when these move- ments became general. They were not numerous ; the history of banking in Vermont was practically covered at that time by thirty years.
Bridgman.
SUGAR-MAKING : THE CRITICAL MOMENT.
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In 1806 a State bank had been chartered, at first with two branches and afterward with four, but it was unsuccessful and was finally wound up at con- siderable loss. Since 1811, when the State bank became a confessed failure, a number of private banks had been chartered by the Legislature. Not more than two or three of these failed to survive the panic, and in 1841 when it was well over, there were in all seventeen banks, with a capital of one million, seven hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. A branch of the Bank of the United States had been established in Burlington in 1830, and this of course ceased operations with the parent institution, leaving the State apparently well supplied with private corporations.
Of savings banks there were none in those days. The virtues of thrift and frugality were however not less common than now, when the savings-bank deposits make such a creditable showing. At any rate, the State recovered from the depression with all the elasticity of a thrifty, agricultural community. It soon became as prosperous as ever, though the West did not fully recover for almost a decade. There were farmers not a few who had mortgaged their land to get money for speculation and these found then, as usually, the folly of such a course. In the universal smash of interdependent credit merchants failed by the hundred, but most of them
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soon re-embarked in business and industries flour- ished upon a sounder basis than before.
The lesson of the panic clearly was that economy and industry are better avenues to wealth than spec- ulation. It was so generally heeded, not only in Ver- mont but throughout the entire Union, that it is not at all impossible that the panic was a blessing in dis- guise. The lesson was a costly one; but it was needed and the country profited by it.
In the winter of 1837-38, in the midst of the panic came the "patriot " movement for the con- quest of Canada. It enlisted the sympathies and in- terest of the American people to an unprecedented extent; it led to violent disturbances along the northern frontier from Vermont to Michigan and came near involving the country in war with Great Britain. For some years there had been a great deal of dissatisfaction in Canada with the govern- ment of the Province. With some this took the shape of a desire for joining the American Union. Others wished to see Canada's government over- turned and a more liberal but independent one established ; but the majority of the disaffected would probably have been satisfied with such reasonable reforms as were afterward accorded.
The dissatisfaction finally assumed the shape of an armed revolt under the lead of one Mckenzie, a born agitator and a man of some literary ability
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but apparently with little talent for military leader- ship. Mckenzie went to Buffalo early in Decem- ber; public meetings of sympathizers were held and one Thomas Jefferson Sutherland undertook to raise a force on the American side of the line to aid the insurgents. His definite project was to seize Navy Island, near the British shore of the Niagara River, and there raise the standard of an invading army. His plans were fully known, for he had no more discretion than to march troops through the streets of Buffalo to military music, openly pro- claiming their destination. There was no one to oppose him, however, save the half-armed Canadian militia, and he occupied the island with twenty-four men. The force afterward increased to some hun- dreds, and was placed in command of Rensselaer Van Rensselaer, the dissipated son of a prominent New York family. The invasion would have been of very little moment had it not been the cause of trouble between the United States and Great Britain.
President Van Buren had at the beginning of the movement issued a strict neutrality proclama- tion, but on December 29 a wanton outrage was committed which greatly complicated matters. The American steamboat Caroline which had been run- ning to the island with supplies of arms and pro- vision for Van Rensselaer's army was on that night
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destroyed by a force of Canadian troops while lying at her dock on the American side of the river.
In the struggle for her possession five or six per- sons were killed. For the murder of one of these, a Canadian soldier named McLeod was tried, but acquitted for want of evidence. Had he been hung the consequences might have been serious. As it was, the burning of the Caroline greatly inflamed the excitement along the border. One party of invaders occupied a stone windmill on the Cana- dian side of the river near Prescott, and was dis- lodged with considerable loss of life by the Loyalist troops. In Vermont public meetings of the sym- pathizers were held throughout the State to some extent and especially in its northern portion. The most unpopular act of Governor Jenison's long official career was undoubtedly his issuance of a proclamation warning the people not to violate the rules governing neutrals nor to aid in an attack upon a government with which the United States was at peace. The common sense of later times has of course endorsed the act as proper and necessary, but it was at the time bitterly assailed by the press and public.
A number of insurgents from Canada, escaping into the State, undertook to raise a force to invade the province. Preparations were made to set out
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from Alburgh. The militia under command of Gen. John E. Wool of the United States Army did not, however, permit them to form within the State, and the members of the "army " straggled across the line and formed upon the Canadian side. They were badly-managed, badly-officered and not well- armed. When the intelligence was brought that sixteen or seventeen hundred troops were marching against them the leaders of the little band were for returning into Vermont. There of course they could not be pursued, but General Wool was as prompt in this as in the preceding emergency. He invited the army of invasion to surrender to him. If they did this all would be well, but if they at- tempted to march across the line in military order he announced that he would direct the militia to fire upon them. This alternative left the invaders nothing to do but surrender, to give up their arms and go home. Thus the " war " ended, but a great deal of hard feeling grew out of the campaign. Until the hotly-contested presidential election of 1840 gave the people other issues to discuss, the invasion and the action of the governor in this bor- der trouble were fruitful themes of controversy.
The winter of 1842-43 was an exceptionally cold one and a number of cases of freezing to death were reported. These were not the worst feature of the season, however; in its later months there
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broke out an epidemic of skin disease somewhat resembling erysipelas which numbered its victims by the dozens in almost every township. The un- exampled severity of the weather and the number of the dead prevented the interment of their bodies in the consecrated ground of the churchyards, and at many places that winter could be seen temporary roadside tombs where the forms of the dead were laid away to await a final burial in the spring. When the ice left the rivers broke up; the melt- ing snow caused the vast floods which usually fol- lowed a severe winter, and the disease was checked. It soon disappeared completely, but not for many years thereafter were its ravages recalled without a shudder. Even to this day 1842 is known as "the year of the epidemic."
The period following the great panic was one of considerable legislative activity in Vermont. It was at this time that plank road companies began to apply in considerable numbers for incorporation. The roads of the State were almost uniformly bad, being especially heavy and muddy along the lake shore. The device of surfacing some of the more important ones with a continuous flooring of planks, making a firm, hard roadway in all weathers, found common acceptance at this time throughout the State as well as in some of its Northern neighbors. Until their place was taken by the railroads the
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