[Illustration]
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER:
AN OUTLINE SKETCH
OF
His Life and Public Services.
BY
THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER
FROM
JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE.
O iron nerve to true occasion true,
O fall'n at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
--_Tennyson._
DETROIT:
THE POST AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
R. D. S. TYLER & CO., DETROIT.
CHARLES DREW, NEW YORK.
J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS.
TYLER & CO., CHICAGO.
WM. H. THOMPSON & CO., BOSTON.
1880.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1879, BY
THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE,
IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON.
Electrotyped by
A. W. HABBIN, Detroit.
PRESS OF
WRIGHTON & CO.,
CINCINNATI, O.
TO
THE REPUBLICANS OF MICHIGAN,
WHO SO LONG UPHELD, AND WHO WERE IMPLICITLY TRUSTED BY,
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE IS
DEDICATED.
It is stated elsewhere that this work is written "BY THE DETROIT
POST AND TRIBUNE." Unusual as this form of announcement is on the
title-pages of books, there certainly may be an authorial as well
as an editorial impersonality; in this case the phrase succinctly
expresses the fact, namely, that the volume represents the joint labors
of the staff of THE POST AND TRIBUNE, alike in the collection and the
treatment of its material.
While its preparation has been almost wholly a matter of original
research, such use as was necessary has been made of historical data
contained in "The Centennial History of Bedford, N. H.," published in
1851, in Horace Greeley's "American Conflict," and in Henry Wilson's
"History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power."
Needed information has been furnished by those intimately connected
with Mr. CHANDLER, but the work has not been submitted to their
revision, and they are not responsible for the form of the narrative,
nor for the personal estimate it embodies.
This book presents a sketch of the life and the public services of a
remarkable man. It has been written from the standpoint of political
sympathy, and with the hope of deepening the wholesome influences so
powerfully exerted upon public sentiment in his lifetime by ZACHARIAH
CHANDLER. The aim has been to make it accurate in statement, and to see
that its chapters should fairly draw, in outline at least, the picture
of the career of a genuine leader of men.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE POST AND TRIBUNE:
I am unable to give any personal or special incidents in the life of
Mr. Chandler not open to his biographers from other sources. I was not
so intimate in my relations with him as were some others, nor did I
know him better than many others who like myself were associated with
him in public life for a long period. I knew him well, however, both on
the side of his private life and his public life, and in every phase he
was a man of strong character.
The time in which a man lives, and the circumstances by which he is
surrounded, control his fate even more largely than his personal and
inherent qualities. Mr. Chandler was fortunate in the time of his
removal to the West, fortunate in the era which brought him into
public life. When he became a citizen of Michigan the days of hard
pioneer life were ending, extensive cultivation of the soil had begun,
products for shipment were large and rapidly increasing. Facilities
for transportation were already great. The Erie Canal had been open
for several years, and steamers had multiplied on the Great Lakes.
Everything was in readiness for a strong-minded, energetic, competent
man of business, and Mr. Chandler had the good fortune to settle in
Detroit at the precise point of time when the elements of success were
within his grasp. For a quarter of a century thereafter his career was
that of a business man intensely devoted to his private interests,
and participating in public affairs only as an incident and with no
effort to secure advancement. The result of this steady devotion to
business was that Mr. Chandler found himself at forty-four years of age
possessed of a large property, constantly and rapidly increasing in
value.
Coincident with this condition in his financial fortunes came a
crisis in the political affairs of the country, involving the class
of questions which took deep hold on the mind and the heart of Mr.
Chandler. The curbing of the slave power, the assertion and maintenance
of freedom on free soil, undying devotion to the Union of the States,
and the bold defense of the rights of the citizen--these were the
issues which in various phases absorbed the public mind from the repeal
of the Missouri compromise in 1854 down to the close of Mr. Chandler's
life. And on all the issues presented for consideration for twenty-five
years Mr. Chandler never halted, never wearied, never grew timid, never
was willing to compromise. On these great questions he became the
leader of Michigan, and Michigan kept Mr. Chandler at the front during
the prolonged struggle which has wrought such mighty changes in the
history of the American people.
It is a noteworthy fact, not infrequently adverted to, that the
political opinions of Michigan both as Territory and State, for a
period of sixty years, were represented, and indeed in no small degree
formed, by two men of New Hampshire birth. From 1819 to 1854 General
Cass was the accepted political leader of Michigan, and only once
in all that long period of thirty-five years did her people fail to
follow him. That was in 1840, when the old pioneers and the soldiers of
1812--generally the friends of Cass--refused his leadership, and voted
for the older pioneer and the more illustrious chieftain, William Henry
Harrison. From 1854 till Mr. Chandler's death the dominant opinion
of Michigan was with him; and her people followed him, trusted him,
believed in him. During that quarter of a century the population of the
State more than trebled in number, but the strength of Chandler with
the newcomers seemed as great as with the older population with whom
he had begun the struggle of life in the Territory of Michigan. The
old men stood firmly by him in the faith and confidence of an ancient
friendship, and the young men followed with an enthusiasm which grew
into affection, and with an affection which ripened into reverence.
Mr. Chandler's life in Washington, apart from his public service, was
a notable event in the history of the capital. His wealth enabled him
to be generous and hospitable, and his elegant mansion was a center of
attraction for many years. Nor were the guests confined to one party.
Mr. Chandler was personally popular with his political opponents,
and the leading men of the Democratic party often sat at his table
and forgot in the genial host, and the frank, sincere man, all the
bitterness that might have come from conflict in the partisan arena.
It is fitting that Mr. Chandler's life be written. It is due, first of
all, to his memory. It is due to those who come after him. It is due
to the great State whose Senator he was, whose interests he served,
whose honor he upheld. I am glad the work is committed to competent
friends, who can discriminate between honest approval and inconsiderate
praise, and who with strict adherence to truth can find in his career
so much that is honorable, so much that is admirable, so little that is
censurable, and nothing that is mean.
Very sincerely yours,
JAMES G. BLAINE.
WASHINGTON, February 15, 1880.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
PAGE.
The town of Bedford, N. H.--King Phillip's War--Land grants to
surviving soldiers--Souhegan-East--Grant of a charter--Naming
the town--The early settlers--The thirst for civil and religious
liberty--Records of the church--The thrift of the people--Native
humor--A patriotic record--Services in three wars. 19
CHAPTER II.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
The Chandlers of New England--The first Zechariah
and his possessions--Settlement in the intervale of
the Merrimack--Genealogy of the family--Noted family
connections--Prominence in church and State--The family
residences--Birthplace of Zachariah--Inherited traits--A strong,
self-reliant boy--His school-days--One term as teacher--Work on
the farm--Military experience--Clerk in a store--His journey
Westward--Affection for the old town--Some of Bedford's emigrants.
31
CHAPTER III.
REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN--MERCANTILE SUCCESS--BUSINESS INVESTMENTS.
Business start in Detroit--The cholera epidemic--Caring for
the sick--Characteristics of the young business man--Nearest
approach to an assignment--Pushing his business--Visits
to the interior--Strong friendships--His young clerk and
successor--Commercial integrity and sagacity--Accumulation of
property--Helping the Government credit--Incorruptibility as a
Legislator. 44
CHAPTER IV.
THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.
Early explorations of the Lakes--A mission at the Sault--Passage
of the Strait--First settlement at Detroit--Steam navigation
upon the Lakes--Organization of the Territory--An imperial
domain--Detroit in 1833--Marvelous development of a great City and
State--Statistics of 1879. 54
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY--RECORD AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY
WHIG.
A conspicuous figure in politics--Lewis Cass, his career and
characteristics--A strong contrast--Mr. Chandler as a Whig--A
sinewy worker at the polls--The Crosswhite case--Making a
firm friend--Nomination and election for Mayor--A sharp
campaign--Invitation to Kossuth--Nominated for Governor--An
energetic but unsuccessful canvass--First nomination for the
Senate. 71
CHAPTER VI.
THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The Compromises of 1820 and 1850--Annexation of Texas--Calhoun's
farewell--Profound Northern indignation--Memorable debates in
Congress--"Free Democrat" action in Michigan--Public anti-slavery
meetings and private conferences--The Whig Convention at
Kalamazoo--Steps toward union--A stirring address--"Under the Oaks"
at Jackson--A notable convention--Formation of the Republican
party--A ringing platform--The first of a series of uninterrupted
successes--Work of Mr. Chandler in the campaign. 89
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
Work in the campaign of 1856--The National Conventions--Aid in
making Michigan radical--Republican success in that State--An
earnest Senatorial canvass--Mr. Chandler nominated over Mr.
Christiancy and others--His election--Composition of the
Thirty-fifth Congress--Subsequent career of his associates. 119
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY--THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.
Preparations for Disunion--Imbecility of the Administration--Gloomy
forebodings--Mr. Chandler's first prepared address--A vigorous
and unanswerable speech--The Dred Scott decision--The John Brown
raid--A warning to traitors--Denunciation of treason--Personal
peril--Giving "satisfaction" to Southern "gentlemen"--Mr. Chandler
not to be bullied--The Chandler, Cameron and Wade compact. 133
CHAPTER IX.
SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY.
Beneficence of "The American System"--Reply to the "mud-sill"
speech--Defense of free Northern labor--Review of the tariff
controversy--The Morrill tariff of 1861--Modifications proposed in
1867--The priceless value of the skilled mechanic. 151
CHAPTER X.
SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
The Committee on Commerce as first organized--Unavailing
protests--Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate--The St. Clair
Flats improvement--A defeat and significant prophecy--The work,
its cost and value--Mr. Chandler a member and then Chairman of
the Committee on Commerce--The wide scope of that committee's
labors--One-half of the entire amount expended by the United
States for rivers and harbors appropriated during Mr. Chandler's
chairmanship. 164
CHAPTER XI.
THE OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION--NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS.
First formal step of secession--Buchanan's "No coercion"
message--Organization of the Southern Confederacy--Mr.
Chandler opposes compromise--Thwarting the plots of rebel
leaders--Securing the appointment of Secretary Stanton--Unwritten
reminiscences--Denunciation of traitors and imbeciles--The proposed
Peace Congress--The "blood-letter" and its justification. 182
CHAPTER XII.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.
President Lincoln's arrival in Washington--Mr. Chandler's advice
as to the Cabinet--Conciliatory character of the inaugural--An
illustration of Southern perfidy--Surrender of Fort Sumter--A
Detroit meeting--"But one sentiment here"--Reception of Michigan
men in Washington--Visit to Fortress Monroe--Crossing the
Potomac--Proposed confiscation of rebel property--"Two parties in
the country, patriots and traitors"--Vindication of Michigan's
record--An advance movement urged. 201
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
The disaster at Ball's Bluff--A committee of inquiry proposed
by Mr. Chandler--Organization of the Committee on the Conduct
of the War--Opposition and subsequent co-operation of the
Administration--Confidential Relations with President Lincoln and
Secretaries Cameron and Stanton--Laying out work--Mr. Chandler's
great speech against McClellan--Distrust of McClellanism in
politics--The Fitz-John Porter case--Last work of the committee. 215
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
The political reverses of 1862--The "Union movement" in
Michigan--Re-election of Senator Chandler--Proposition to arm
the colored people--The Fremont proclamation and the Hunter
order--Opposition to the colonization schemes--Influence with the
Secretary of War--The Trent affair--Aid to Michigan soldiers in the
Washington hospitals--"We must accept no compromise." 250
CHAPTER XV.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
The political and military successes of 1863--The Cleveland
convention--Nomination of Fremont and Cochrane--Renomination
of Abraham Lincoln--Resignation of Secretary Chase--Peace
negotiations at Niagara Falls--The Wade-Davis manifesto--Nomination
of McClellan--Mr. Chandler's conferences with the disaffected
Republicans--Resignation of Postmaster-General Blair--Withdrawal of
the Fremont ticket--An overwhelming political triumph. 263
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON--RECONSTRUCTION AND
IMPEACHMENT.
The Assassination of President Lincoln--The War Committee
meet President Johnson--Revengeful disposition of the new
Executive--Legal questions in reference to the trial of
traitors--An important paper by Benjamin F. Butler--A practicable
method for prosecuting Jeff Davis--Change of sentiment in President
Johnson--He abandons the party that elected him--Development of his
"policy"--Hindrance to successful reconstruction--The impeachment
resolutions and trial--Disappointment of Mr. Chandler at the
failure to convict--General work in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth
Congresses. 279
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT--THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEE.
Work in the campaign of 1868--Mr. Chandler's re-election to the
Senate--The Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill--Edwin
M. Stanton's death and the fund for his family--Mr. Chandler's
opposition to Southern war claims--His purchase of the Confederate
archives--The value of these documents--Election of Senator
Ferry--Mr. Chandler's fidelity to his friends--His denunciation of
Southern outrages--His comparison of the two parties--His defense
of President Grant against Charles Sumner's attacks--The "Salary
Grab" opposed by Senator Chandler and his colleague--The Republican
Congressional Committee and its efficient work--Intimacy between
Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds--The latter's usefulness. 298
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH.
Condition of the government credit in 1861--The first issue of
"greenbacks"--Mr. Chandler's opposition to any increase in the
amount--Taxation recommended as a substitute--Opposition to the
taxation of national bonds--Arguments for payment in coin of the
"greenbacks" and bonds--Advocacy of the national bank system--The
panic of 1873--Resistance to every measure of inflation--Mr.
Chandler's speeches in January and February, 1874--The Resumption
act. 319
CHAPTER XIX.
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT.
Political reverses of 1874--The contest in Michigan a
complicated one--Republican success by a narrow margin--A close
Legislature--Resistance to Mr. Chandler's re-election--His
pronounced success in his party caucus--A combination of a few
Republicans with the Democrats elects Judge Christiancy--Like
results elsewhere--Mr. Chandler's confidence--"A candidate for
that seat"--Letter to the Republican members of the Legislature--A
seeming calamity proves to be a benefit--Appointment as Secretary
of the Interior--Changes in the _personnel_ of the Department--How
Alonzo Bell became Chief Clerk--The first blow falls--An entire
room closed as a measure of "practical reform"--Purification of
the Bureau of Indian Affairs--"The most valuable men" suddenly
dismissed--Order against the "Indian attorneys"--President
Grant's support--Changes in the Bureau of Pensions and the
General Land Office--Mr. Chandler's admirable executive
qualities recognized--Anecdotes of his Cabinet service--Fighting
the patronage-seekers--A cowardly informer--A head to the
Department--An investigation that failed--"Pumping a dry
well"--Close of Mr. Chandler's term--Tributes of Secretary Schurz
to the practical efficiency of his predecessor. 337
CHAPTER XX.
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876--AT HOME--THE MARSH FARM NEAR
LANSING.
Mr. Chandler made Chairman of the National Republican
Committee--His original confidence in the result--Apathy in the
West--Aid to Ohio--The closeness of the contest apparent--Measures
to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat--Mr. Chandler's
firm attitude during the remainder of the contest--Its great
value--Dissent from the "policy" of the new Administration--A
Cabinet anecdote--Mr. Chandler retires to private life--A visit
to the Pacific coast--Other extended trips--The marsh farm near
Lansing, Michigan--An important experiment in the reclamation
of wet lands--Mr. Chandler's "expensive theory"--The method
of drainage explained and illustrated in detail--Successful
results of the earlier experiments in cultivation--General farm
equipment--Houses, barns and stock--Relaxation at the farm--Mr.
Chandler's correspondence--The answering of every letter his
rule--The power of his oratory--Terse sentences, Saxon words, and
brief speeches his aim--The sincerity and honesty of the man--The
strength of his friendships--His hearty social qualities--His
Washington and Detroit residences described--Narrow escape from
a serious accident in 1858--Mr. Chandler's family--His domestic
happiness--His wife and daughter his sole heirs. 356
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878--MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
SENATE--"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
Development of "Greenback" strength in the West--Resolute
resistance in Michigan to the spread of financial heresy--Mr.
Chandler leads the Republican battle--A great victory--It is
followed by his fourth election to the Senate--He takes his seat
in time to answer rebel eulogies in the Senate on Jeff. Davis--His
brief and telling response--It strikes the chord of patriotic
feeling--The popular response--The "extra session" of 1879--Mr.
Chandler's last Congressional speech. 374
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879--MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS--DEATH AND FUNERAL.
Mr. Chandler at the front in the political contests of 1879--He is
greeted by a popular ovation--His name urged for the Republican
presidential nomination in 1880--Grant his own choice--Work affects
his strong constitution--His Chicago speech--Dead in his bed at the
Grand Pacific Hotel on Nov. 1, 1879!--The national grief--Funeral
and burial. 386
APPENDIX.
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH: DELIVERED IN MCCORMICK HALL, IN
THE CITY OF CHICAGO, ON OCTOBER 31, 1879.
THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN: A MEMORIAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED IN THE
FORT STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DETROIT, ON NOVEMBER 27, 1879, BY
THE REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
STEEL PORTRAIT OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, _Frontispiece._
THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD AT BEDFORD, N. H., 33
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 35
THE ENTRY OF THE BIRTH OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN THE FAMILY
BIBLE, 37
THE SCHOOL HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H., 39
THE CHANDLER BLOCK (Detroit), 49
DETROIT IN 1834, 65
FAC-SIMILE OF THE "TEMPERANCE TICKET" OF 1852 IN MICHIGAN, 86
THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION--("Under the Oaks" at
Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854), 111
THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON, 127
THE SHIP CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS, 173
PORTRAIT OF SENATOR CHANDLER IN 1862, 217
PORTRAIT OF THE LATE JAMES M. EDMUNDS, 315
THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT AT WASHINGTON, 341
THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT--1876-'77--(From a Sketch by
Mrs. C. Adele Fassett), 347
THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 353
PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM, 361
THE "BIG DITCH" OF THE MARSH FARM, 363
THE MAIN HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM, 365
THE LARGE BARN AT THE MARSH FARM, 367
MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT WASHINGTON, 369
MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT DETROIT, 371
THE STATE CAPITOL OF MICHIGAN, 377
SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON JEFF. DAVIS IN
THE SENATE CHAMBER AT 3 A. M. OF MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1879, 381
THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO, 389
PROFILE BUST OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER--(A sketch from Leonard W.
Volk's Plaster Cast), 391
THE TRIBUTE OF GEN. U. S. GRANT (_fac-simile_), 393
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
In the valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from Boston,
is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a community of thrifty
farms, with striking characteristics, and almost a century and a half
of entertaining history. Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of
character prevail among its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock
of its original settlers, the loftiness of their traditions, and the
puritanism of its civilization have made it a nursery of strong men.
King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the New England
provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only accomplished when
one in twenty of the men among the colonists had fallen and a like
proportion of their families was houseless, and it left behind it what
was in those days a heavy debt. More than half a century elapsed before
there was any substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of
that war and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous
petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General Court
of Massachusetts" granted land enough for two townships "to the
soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narragansett War and to
their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was subsequently enlarged to
seven townships, as appears from the following record of proceedings in
"the Great and General Court or Assembly for His Majestie's Province of
the Massachusetts Bay," under date of April 26, 1733:
A Petition of a Committee for the Narragansett Soldiers, showing
that there are the number of Eight Hundred and Forty Persons
entered as officers and soldiers in the late Narragansett War,
Praying that there may be such an addition of Land granted to them,
as may allow a Tract of six miles Square to each one hundred and
twenty men so admitted.
In the House of Representatives, Read, and Ordered that the Prayer
of the Petition be granted, and that Major Chandler, Mr. Edward
Shove, Col. Thomas Tileston, Mr. John Hobson and Mr. Samuel
Chandler (or any three of them,) be a Committee fully authorized
and empowered to survey and lay out five more Tracts of Land for
Townships, of the Contents of Six miles Square each, in some of
the unappropriated lands of this Province; and that the said land,
together with the two towns before granted, be granted and disposed
of to the officers and soldiers or their lawful Representatives, as
they are or have been allowed by this Court, being eight hundred
and forty in number, in the whole, and in full satisfaction of the
Grant formerly made them by the General Court, as a reward for
their public service. And the Grantees shall be obliged to assemble
within as short time as they can conveniently, not exceeding the
space of two months, and proceed to the choice of Committees,
respectively, to regulate each Propriety or Township which is to
be held and enjoyed by one hundred and twenty of the Grantees,
each in equal Proportion, who shall pass such orders and rules as
will effectually oblige them to settle Sixty families, at least,
within each Township, with a learned, orthodox ministry, within the
space of seven years of the date of this Grant. Provided, always,
that if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle the said
number of families in each Township, and also lay out a lot for
the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the
school, in each of the said townships, they shall have no advantage
of, but forfeit their respective grants, anything to the contrary
contained notwithstanding. The Charge of the Survey to be paid by
the Province.
In Council read and concur'd.
J. BELCHER.
In June of 1733 these grantees met on Boston Common for the purpose of
making a division of the lands thus appropriated, but twenty veterans
of the Narragansett War being then living. They organized into seven
societies, each representing one hundred and twenty persons, and each
represented by an executive committee of three. These committees
convened in Boston on the 17th of October, 1733, and, by drawing
numbers from a hat, apportioned to their societies the following
seven townships set apart from the public domain under the grant:
No. 1, in Maine, now called Buxton; No. 2, Westminster, Mass.; No.
3, Souhegan-West, now Amherst, N. H.; No. 4, originally at the Falls
of the Amoskeag, where Goffstown now is (subsequently exchanged for
lands in Hampden county, Mass.); No. 5, Souhegan-East, N. H.; No. 6,
Templeton, Mass.; No. 7, Gorham, Me. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester,
drew "Number 5, Souhegan-East;" of the one hundred and twenty grantees
whom he represented, fifty-seven belonged to Boston, fifteen to
Roxbury, seven to Dorchester, two to Milton, five to Braintree, four
to Weymouth, thirteen to Hingham, four to Dedham, two to Hull, one to
Medfield, five to Scituate, and one to Newport, R. I. In the fifteen
Roxbury grantees was Zechariah Chandler, who was one of the few who
personally took up land under the grant and settled upon it one of his
own family. As a rule the grantees sold their claims to others. On the
town records Zechariah Chandler's name is signed in the right of his
wife's father, Thomas Bishop, who served against King Philip. His son,
Thomas Chandler, took possession of the land and was among the pioneers
of the town. To-day the Chandler family is believed to be the only
representative in Bedford of the original grantees. It was in 1737,
1738, and 1739 that systematic settlement practically began in this
part of the Merrimack valley.
In 1741 New Hampshire became a separate province, and in 1748 the
farmers of Souhegan-East, finding themselves without any township
organization and without the power to legally transact corporate
business, called upon the government for relief. As a result, it is
recorded that on the 11th of April in that year Gov. Benning Wentworth
informed the Council of New Hampshire "of the situation of a number of
persons inhabiting a place called Souhegan-East, within this Province,
that were without any township or District, and had not the privilege
of a town in choosing officers for regulating their affairs, such as
raising money for the ministry," etc. Thereupon a provisional township
organization was authorized, under which the municipality was managed
until 1750, when, on the 10th of May, the following petition was sent
to the Governor, signed by thirty-eight citizens, among them Thomas
Chandler:
To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and
Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire,
and to the Honorable, his Majesty's Council, assembled at
Portsmouth, May 10, 1750.
The humble Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of
Souhegan-East, so-called, sheweth, That your Petitioners are major
part of said Souhegan; that your petitioners, as to our particular
persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian
denomination; that your petitioners, through a variety of causes,
having long been destitute of the gospel, are now desirous of
taking proper steps in order to have it settled among us in that
way of discipline which we judge to tend most to our edification;
that your petitioners, not being incorporated by civil authority,
are in no capacity to raise those sums of money, which may be
needful in order to our proceeding in the above important affair.
May it therefore please your Excellency, and Honors, to take the
case of your petitioners under consideration, and to incorporate
us into a town or district, or in case any part of our inhabitants
should be taken off by any neighboring district, to grant that
those of our persuasion, who are desirous of adhering to us, may
be excused from supporting any other parish charge, than where
they conscientiously adhere, we desiring the same liberty to those
within our bounds, if any there be, and your petitioners shall ever
pray, &c.
This petition was presented on May 18, 1750, to the Council, which
unanimously advised the granting of a charter, and this the Governor
did upon the following day. The name of the town was changed by
Governor Wentworth from Souhegan-East to Bedford, it is said in honor
of the fourth Duke of Bedford, then Secretary of State in the ministry
of George II. This was the formal organization of the present town,
which has a territorial extent of about twenty thousand acres of land.
Of the early population of this and neighboring towns "The Centennial
History of Bedford" (published in 1851) says:
With few exceptions the early inhabitants of the town were from
the North of Ireland or from the then infant settlement of
Londonderry, N. H., to which they had recently emigrated from
Ireland. Their ancestors were of Scotch origin. About the middle
of the seventeenth century they went in considerable numbers
from Argylshire, in the West of Scotland, to the counties of
Londonderry and Antrim, in the North of Ireland, from which in
1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived
at Boston, and some at Casco Bay near Portland, which last were
the settlers of Londonderry. Many towns in this vicinity were
settled from this colony. Windham, Chester, Litchfield, Manchester,
Bedford, Goffstown, New Boston, Antrim, Peterborough and Acworth
derived from Londonderry a considerable proportion of their first
inhabitants.
Many of their descendants have risen to high respectability, among
whom are numbered four Governors of New Hampshire, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, several distinguished
officers in the Revolutionary War and in the last war with Great
Britain, including Stark, Reid, Miller, and McNeil, a President
of Bowdoin College, some Members of Congress, and several
distinguished ministers of the gospel.
It was a Scottish stock, with an Irish preceding the American
transplanting, that peopled Bedford. There were among its original
settlers a few families of English and fewer still of pure Milesian
extraction, but the Scotch descent was overwhelmingly predominant,
and the austere theology and noble traditions of the Kirk of Scotland
formed the leaven of the community. Their religious history dated back
to John Knox. Their immediate ancestors were the sturdy Presbyterians
with whom James I. colonized depopulated Ulster after he had crushed
the Catholic uprisings. Those involuntary colonists made that the
most prosperous of the Irish provinces, and at a critical moment for
the cause of Protestantism added to the annals of heroic endurance
the defense of Londonderry against the army of James II. But to their
simple and tenacious faith the tithes and rents of the Anglican Church
were scarcely less abhorrent than Catholic persecution, and the
example of Puritan emigration ultimately led them by thousands to
American shores. Much of this tide of settlement was diverted by the
Puritan pre-occupation of New England soil to the Middle and Southern
States, but a strong current set up into northern New England and
occupied (with much other territory) the valley of the Merrimack. It
was to these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that the greater number of
the grantees of Bedford--as a rule the descendants of Massachusetts
Puritans--sold their claims, and the community became what their labors
and influence made it. The Chandler (representing an original grantee)
was one of the few Bedford families which sprang from English stock and
possessed Puritan antecedents.
The settlement of Bedford was thus the outgrowth of an unquenchable
thirst for civil and religious liberty. A profound conscientiousness
added these simple, devout, frugal, and industrious people to the
pioneer assailants of the North American wilderness. The ancient
records and the published annals of the town afford a quaintly
interesting picture of early New England civilization. Its background
is the rock of religious faith, and to repeat the chronicles of the
Bedford church for the eighteenth century is to write the history
of the township for that period. The original grant required the
maintenance of "a learned, orthodox ministry." The petition for
the charter of Bedford set forth that "your petitioners, as to
our particular persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the
Presbyterian denomination," and assigned as the chief reason for asking
incorporation that they "having been long destitute of the gospel, are
now desirous of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled
among us," but "not being incorporated by civil authority are in no
capacity to raise those sums of money which may be needful." The
official records of formal township proceedings abound in such entries
as these:
_Feb. 15. 1748._ _Voted_--That one third of the time, Preaching
shall be to accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the
town; one other third part, at the lower end of the town; the last
third, about Strawberrie hill.
_July 26, 1750._ _Voted_, There be a call given to the Rev. Mr.
Alexander Boyd, to the work of the ministry in this town.
_March 28, 1753._ _Voted_, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr.
Alexander McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the
ministry in this town.
_March 13, 1757._ _Voted_,--That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker,
and Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the
meeting-house.
_March, 1767._ _Voted_,--That the same committee who built the
pulpit, paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr.
McGregor's pulpit is, in Londonderry.
_June, 1768._ The meeting-house glass lent out[1]; Matthew Little's
account of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six
squares of the meeting-house glass; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of
the same, Dea. Gilmore had of the same, 24 squares. _November 20,
1768_, the Rev. Mr. John Houston, had 24 squares of the same; Hugh
Campbell had 12 squares of the same; Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield
Gilmore 6 squares of the same; James Wallace had 15 squares of the
same; John Bell had 9 squares of the same; Joseph Scobey, one quart
of oil.
A true record.
Attest, WILLIAM WHITE, _Town Clerk_.
[Extract from the "town meeting warrant" (call) for 1779]: As for
some time past, the Sabbath has been greatly profaned, by persons
traveling with burthens upon the same, when there is no necessity
for it,--to see whether the town will not try to provide some
remedy for the same, for the future.
The Bedford church has been ever the center of all public activity.
Its officers have been the officers of the town. From its pulpit
have been made all formal announcements. Within its walls have been
inspired every important home measure, and its influence has stimulated
each wise public action. In the early records the school-house also
shares prominence with the meeting-house, and the later generations of
Bedford's inhabitants were men and women of solid primary education and
thorough religious training. Thrift and industry made them prosperous,
and they raised large families of powerful men and vigorous women.
The mothers and daughters shared in the field work, and even carried
on foot to Boston the linen thread from their busy spinning wheels.
Physical and moral strength characterized the race, and they built up
a community of comfortable homes, severe virtues, strong religious
instincts, a stern morality, and long lives. Neither poverty nor riches
were to be found among them, and the simplest habits prevailed. Silks
were unknown, and homemade linen was the choicest fabric. Brown bread
was the staple of life, and wheat flour a luxury. Tea and coffee were
rarely seen, but barley broth was on all tables. Shoes were only worn
in winter, except to church on Sundays when they were carried in the
hand to the neighborhood of the meeting-house. The saddle and pillion
were used in journeys. Splinters and knots of pitch pine furnished
lights. The hymns were "deaconed out" by the line at the meeting-house,
and at the appearance of the first bass-viol in the gallery (about
1790) there was a fierce rebellion among the more austere of the
worshipers. There was community of effort in all important enterprises,
and no man needed aught if his neighbor could supply it.
But this frontier picture is not wholly stern in its lines. Along with
this simplicity of life and severity of religious doctrine there was no
lack of frolic and rough joking, and the other rugged characteristics
were relieved by shrewd wit and native humor. The annals of Bedford
are entertaining and abound in such anecdotes as these: Deacon John
Orr (the grandfather of the mother of Zachariah Chandler) was a sturdy
Irish-Scotchman, whose temper under extreme provocation once got
the better of his devoutness and led him into a vigorous profanity
of speech. This glaring dereliction in a church officer called for
reprimand, and he was waited upon by the minister and a delegation of
his brethren who asked, "How could you suffer yourself to speak so?"
"Why, what was it?" His offending language was repeated to him. "And
what o' that!" said he, "D'ye expect me to be a' spirit and nae flesh?"
Late in life Deacon Orr visited Boston with a load of produce and
put up at a house of entertainment where, after he had drunk several
cups of tea, and refused a final invitation, the landlady said that
it was customary to turn the cup upside down to show that no more
was wanted. He apologized and promised to remember the injunction.
The next morning he partook of a huge bowl of bread and milk for
breakfast, and not wanting the whole laid down his spoon and turned
the dish upside down with its contents on the table. The hostess was
naturally angry, but was met with the statement that he had merely
followed her own direction. The answer of a brother deacon to one of
the congregation who complained, "I could na' mak yesterday's preaching
come together," was a compend of practical Christianity: "Trouble
yourself na' about that, man--a' ye have to do, man, is to fear God
and keep His commandments." It is also told that the objections of one
of the staunch Scotch Presbyterians of Bedford to the marriage of his
daughter with an urgent suitor of Catholic parentage were overcome by
the apt query, "If a man happened to be born in a stable would that
make him a horse?" And to one of the rural theologians of the town
is credited this contribution to ecclesiastical distinctions: "The
difference between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists is this:
The Congregationalist goes home and eats a regular dinner between
services, but the Presbyterian postpones his until after meeting."
After a most vigorous quarrel between the minister and one of the flock
over a boundary line dispute, the wrathful member of the congregation
was prompt at service on Sunday with the following explanation: "I'd
have ye to know, if I did quarrel with the minister, I did not quarrel
with the Gospel."
That this was a community of uncompromising patriotism follows from its
character. In the French and Indian war the New England forces were at
one time under command of Col. John Goffe, of Bedford, and the number
of privates enlisted from that town was large. The New Hampshire
regiment which joined the expedition of General Amherst against Canada,
commanded by Colonel Goffe, was raised largely among the Scotch-Irish
emigrants of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, and had in its ranks
many Bedford men. In the Revolutionary War a large portion of its
able-bodied citizens were in the first American army that beleaguered
Boston and fought at Bunker Hill; nearly or quite half of all who
could handle a musket were with Stark at Bennington, and with Gates at
Saratoga. General Stark lived but a few rods from the town line on the
north, and one of his most trusted officers was Lieutenant, afterwards
Colonel, John Orr, of Bedford. The town records abound with votes taken
to carry out the measures proposed by the Continental Congress, and
also chronicle one case of semi-Toryism and its punishment. In 1776
Congress advised the disarming of all who were disaffected towards the
American cause, and the selectmen of the New Hampshire towns circulated
this pledge among their people:
In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental Congress,
and to show our determination in joining our American brethren, in
defending the lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants
of the United Colonies, We, the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly
engage and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at
the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile
proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United
American Colonies.
Among its Bedford signers were John Orr, Zachariah Chandler, and Samuel
Patten (all ancestors of Zachariah Chandler,) and the report made from
that town was this:
To the honorable, the Council and House of Representatives, for
the Colony of New Hampshire, to be convened in Exeter, in said
Colony, on Wednesday, 5th inst.
Pursuant to the within precept, we have taken pains to know the
minds of the inhabitants of the town of Bedford, with respect to
the within obligation, and find none unwilling to sign the same,
except _the Rev. John Houston_, who declines signing the said
obligation, for the following reasons: Firstly, Because he did
not apprehend that the honorable Committee meant that Ministers
should take up arms, as being inconsistent with their ministerial
charge. Secondly, Because he was already confined to the County of
Hillsborough, therefore, he thinks he ought to be set at liberty
before he should sign the said obligation. Thirdly, Because there
are three men belonging to his family already enlisted in the
Continental Army.
Mr. Houston, who was thus officially reported as the only Bedford Tory,
had occupied the town pulpit for over fifteen years, and was a man of
scholarship and purity, but he had become a loyalist in sympathy at
the outbreak of the Revolutionary troubles, and was as inflexible in
conviction as his neighbors. Originally (in 1756) the town had voted
that his salary should be at the rate of forty pounds sterling a year
for such Sundays as they desired his services. When they felt unable to
pay they voted him one or more Sundays for himself, and then deducted
from his salary proportionately. In 1775, after prolonged controversy
with him, his case was brought before town-meeting (on June 15th), and
he was unanimously dismissed by the adoption of a vote setting off for
his own use all the Sabbaths remaining in the calendar year. The town
records contain this explanation of the action:
_June 15, 1775._ _Voted_--Whereas, we find that the Rev'd Mr. John
Houston, after a great deal of tenderness and pains taken with
him, both in public and private, and toward him, relating to his
speeches, frequently made both in public and private, against the
rights and privileges of America, and his vindicating of King and
Parliament in their present proceedings against the Americans; and
having not been able hitherto to bring him to a sense of his error,
and he has thereby rendered himself despised by people in general,
and by us in particular, and that he has endeavored to intimidate
us against maintaining the just rights of America: Therefore, we
think it not our duty as men or Christians, to have him preach any
longer with us as our minister.
The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly resented
and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the people had been
accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested on all occasions. This
is a document of later date, signed by a Bedford committee, which seems
not to have been suggested by any outside action, but to have resulted
from the impulses of the citizens themselves:
_Bedford, May 31, 1783._
To Lieut. John Orr, Representative at the General Court of the
State of New Hampshire:--
Sir:--Although we have full confidence in your fidelity and public
virtue, and conceive that you would at all times pursue such
measures only as tend to the public good, yet upon the particular
occasion of our instructing you, we conceive that it will be an
advantage to have your sentiments fortified by those of your
constituents.
The occasion is this; the return of those persons to this country,
who are known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in
America, by those of conspirators, absentees, and tories;
We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not
receive the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they
not deserving favor, as they left us in the righteous cause we were
engaged in, fighting for our undoubted rights and liberties, and as
many of them acted the part of the most inveterate enemies.
And further,--that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we
esteem them as persons not deserving it, but the contrary.
You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are
already returned, be treated according to their deserts.
In the War of 1812 there were more than two hundred men in Bedford
armed and in readiness to march whenever called upon, and in this two
hundred was one company of about sixty men over forty years of age
and therefore exempt from military duty. In the War of the Rebellion
Bedford invariably filled its quota without draft and without high
bounties, and it paid its war debt promptly.
It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom-loving,
sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and women, that
Zachariah Chandler was born and that the foundations of his character
were durably laid.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building
was ready for it, and it was loaned to different members; the careful
record kept shows how scarce and costly an article it then was.