44 :7 W2 >py 1 CmMM, 1774 THE New Hampshire Covenant OE 1 774 A I'APER READ BEFORE THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIET\' APRIL 8, 1903, AND REPRINTED FRO.M THE GRANITE MONTHLY OF OCTOBER, 1903 JOSEPH B. WALKER concord, n. h. The Rumford Printing Co., MCMIII />,ijthor.. (Person). THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF 1774. By Joseph B. Walker. |MONG the papers of Judge Timothy Walker of Concord (b. 1737, d. 1822) is one of ancient foolscap size, somewhat faded and time worn, endorsed in his handwriting, "Covenant, 1774." This "covenant," which is all printed from old-fashioned English type, ex- cept a short blank space ^ which is written the word "Concord," occu- pies about two thirds of the first page. Upon the remainder of this and upon the second, are the autographs of seventy- two substantial citizens of Concord, and of Hannah Osgood, better known as " Mother Osgood," the landlady of Concord's popular inn^ during the Revolutionary pe- riod. Fifty- two of these same per- sons, two years later, signed the As- sociation Test, and thereby exposed their estates to confiscation and their necks to the halter. What was the origin and purpose of this ancient document, now awak- ened from a sleep of three generations and introducing us to these Concord worthies of 1774? It bears no inter- nal date. Who sent it for adoption to Concord ? Were its provisions also adopted by the citizens of other New Hampshire towns? What, in short, was its ''' raison d"" etrc'" '^. To such questions its unexpected appear- ance gives rise. A careful perusal of 'This stood near the south corner of Main and Depot streets. its contents, as here presented in fac- simile, will answer them in part : We the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the Town of Concord, having taken into our serious Con- sideration, the precarious State of the LIBER- TIES of NORTH-AMERICA, and more espe- ciallj' the present distressed Condition of our Sister Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, embar- rassed as it is by several Acts of the British Par- liament, tending to the entire Subversion of their natural and Charter Rights ; among which is the Act for blocking up the Hai boitr of BOSTON ; And being fully sensible of our in- dispensible Duty to lay hold on every Means in our Power to preserve and recover the much injured Constitution of our Country; and con- scious at the same Time of no Alternative be- tween the Horrors of Slavery, or the Carnage and Desolation of a civil War, but a Suspen- sion of all commercial Intercourse with the Island of Great-Britain, DO, in the Presence of GOD, solemnly and in good Faith, covenant and engage with each other. 1. That from henceforth we will suspend all commercial Intercourse with the said Island of Great-Britain, until the Parliament shall cease to enact Laws imposing Taxes upon the Colo- nies, without their Consent, or until the pre- tended Right of Taxing is dropped. And 2. That there may be less Temptation to others to continue in the said now dangerous Commerce ; and in order to promote Industry, Oeconomy, Arts and Manufactures among our- selves, which are of the last Importance to the Welfare and Well-being of a Community ; we do, in like Manner, solemnly covenant, that we will not buy, purchase or consume, or suffer any Person, by, for, or under us, to purchase, nor will we use in our Families in any Manner whatever, any Goods, Wares or Merchandise which shall arrive in America from Great-Bri- tain aforesaid, from and after the last Day of August next ensuing (except only such Articles as shall be judged absolutely necessary bj' the Majority of Signers hereof)— and as much as in us lies, to prevent our being interrupted and defeated in this only peaceable Measure en- tered into for the Recovery and Preservation of our Rights, and the Rights of our Brethren in THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF 1774 W 'E the Si'.bfcribcrs, Inhabitants of the Town of having taken into our fcrious Conlideration, the precarious State of the LIBERTIES of NORTH-AMERICA, and more cfpecially the prefent diareffcd Condition of our Sifter Colony of the Maffachufetts-Bay, embarraffcd as it is by fcvcral Alanchard Jonathan Bradlej' Nathl. Rolfe Timothy Bradley Cornelius Johnson Daniel Gale Thos. Stickney Daniel Abbot Nathl. West Daniel Carter Amos Abbot Daniel Hall Levi Ross Henry Berk Nathl. Abbott INIoses Abbott Reuben Kimball Lemuel Tucker Nathan Abbot Chandler Lovejo3' William Coffin Jona. Walker John Farnum David Young Stephen Kimball Ebenr. West Moses Eastman, jun. Hannah Osgood Tinio. Walker Richard Hastine Tinio. Walker, Jr. John Kimball Benja. Emerj- Aaron Stevens. Joseph Hall, Jnr. Philip Carigain Jonathan Stickney David Hall Stephen Abbot Benjamin F^arnum Nathl. Clement lames Walker Joseph Farnum Jonathan Eliot Jacob Carter ICnocli Coffin Hezekiah l''ello\vs Abner F'landers I^benezer Virgin vSolonion Gage Jacob Dimond For further responses, one must re- vert to the environment of this im- portant paper, and the condition of public affairs in the American colo- nies at that time. Soon after the Treaty of Paris (1763), whereby France relinquished all rule in North America, the selfishness of the gov- ernmental policy of England with respect to her American colonies be- came more and more pronounced. It was manifest that she meant to hold them not onl}' as an enlargement of her domain, enhancing her conse- quence as a nation, but as contribu- tors to her material welfare, by afford- ing places to her needj^ dependents, markets for her manufactures and merchandise, freights for her vessels, and aids to her exchequer, by an ar- bitrary taxation of their people with- out their consent. This policy was made notably pat- ent as early as March 22, 1765, by the enactment of the Stamp Act, which embodied the principle of her right to tax the people of her colo- nies while denying them representa- tion in the body by which it was done. This act, however, proved prema- ture and excited such widespread dissatisfaction and opposition to its enforcement that it was repealed at the end of four months and a half after it had taken effect (March 18, 1766), much to the disgust of the king and of his advisers. Yet, while its repeal caused great joy throughout the colonies, it did not change his purpose. He simply acquiesced and waited ; but briefly for, the very next year, he converted to exasper- ation the good feeling thus produced by .securing the enactment of a law for levying import duties on tea, glass. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF 7777. paper, and painters' colors brought to American ports. But, so general and intense was the dissatisfaction caused by this law also, that the dut}' was soon removed from all of these articles except tea. This was retained, accompanied by an assertion, as unwise as vain, that " England had the right to bind her colonies in all cases whatsoever." The king could not realize that his American colonists were contending for a principle, and not for the avoid- ance of the payment of a petty three pence on a pound of tea. Thus modified, the obnoxious law still failed to effect the object which it was intended to secure. Ere long, the discontent, whose intensity had been increasing for half a dozen years, culminated on the sixteenth daj^ of December, 1773, in the pouring into the waters of Boston harbor a whole cargo of tea which had been sent to that port for sale. Kindred action followed in other towns, and only fifteen days later, the people of Charlestown, gathering their little supplies of this article, bore them to the public square and there consigned them to the flames of a patriotic bon- fire, amid great rejoicings beneath which stern ideas were silently tak- ing form in thoughtful minds. ^ In other places, non-consumption agree- ments were formed, as in Portsmouth, where the women bound themselves to discontinue its use so long as the objectionable act remained in force. " While this destruction of tea in Boston was hailed with great satisfac- tion in all the colonies, it aroused the iie of the king, who at once con- cluded that no vacillating course should be hereafter pursued, and that the little capital of Massachusetts should soon feel the weight of his right arm in vengeance. In accordance with this purpose, on the thirty-first day of March, 1774, the act popularly known as the Bos- ton Port Bill received the royal ap- proval, and a few weeks later, in April, three others, known as the Regulation Acts, were enacted. The Port Bill took effect on the first day of the following June, caus- ing the harbor of Boston to be block- aded and all pa.ssing between the islands therein and Charlestown to be suspended. As a consequence, busi- ness came to a sudden standstill. Stores and warehou.ses were closed and the employment of hundreds of its people, who lived by the work of their hands, ceased. Salem was made the colonial capital, and Marblehead became a port of entry. Two months later the Regulation Acts, just mentioned, went into effect, "sweeping away the long cherished charter of Massachusetts and precip- itating the irreversible choice between submission and resistance." '' The first of these provided " In to- tal violation of the charter [of Massa- chusetts] that the counsellors, who had been chosen hitherto by the leg- islature, should be appointed by the king, and hold at his pleasure. The superior judges were to hold at the will of the king, and be dependent upon him for their salaries ; and the inferior judges were to be removable at the discretion of the royal gover- nor. The sheriffs were to be ap- pointed and removed by the execu- tive ; and the juries were to be se- ^Hist. Charlestown, p. 293. Atinals- of Portsmouth, p. 244. 2 Windsor's Jleni. Hist. Boston, Vol. 3, p. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OE 1774. lected by the dependent sheriffs. Town meetings were to be abolished, except for the election of officers or by the special permission of the gov- ernor. This bill was passed by a vote of more than three to one." The second provided that " Magis- trates, revenue officers and soldiers, charged with capital offenses, could be tried in England or Nova Scotia. This bill passed by a vote of more than four to one." ^ The third made provision for the quartering of British troops upon the towns. But all these vindictive laws failed to accomplish their expected pur- poses. Particularly applicable is this remark to the Boston Port Bill, the effect of which was twofold. While it caused great distress to large num- bers of the inhabitants of Boston, it ahso created stern indignation in all the colonies, frightened few persons, and created a universal sympathy for those distressed thereby, which at once manifested itself by liberal con- tributions to the people of the be- leaguered town, which largely pre- vented the sufferings it was intended to produce. The correspondence accompanying the transportation and receipt of these contributions from June 28, 1774, to September 9, 1775, has been pub- lished by the Massachusetts Histori- cal society, and covers two hundred and sevent3'-eight pages of the fourth volume of the fourth series of its Col- lections. There was then little money in America, and the contributions were mostly of provisions. These came from some one hundred and fifty dif- ferent places. As in.stances of these, there were sent : 1 Windsor's Mem. Hist. Boston, Vol. 3, p. 53. June 28, 1774, from Windliani, Conn., a small flock of sheep. June 28, 1774, from Groton, 40 bushels of rye and Indian corn. July, 1774, from Cape Fear, North Carolina, a sloop load of provisions. Aug. 4, 1774, from Baltimore, IMaryland, 3,000 bushels of Indian corn, 20 barrels of rj^e flour, 2 barrels of pork and 20 barrels of bread, Aug. 30, 1774, from Northampton, Virginia, i.ooo bushels of Indian corn. Sept. 22, 1774, from Old York, a quantity of wood, sheep and potatoes. Nov. 25, 1774, from Philadelphia, Penn., 5 tons of rod iron^ 400 barrels of flour and 200 bar- rels of ship stuff. Dec. 7, 1774, from New York, N. Y., 180 bar- rels of flour, g barrels of pork and 12 firkins of butter. Dec. 15, 1774, from Middlesex county, New Jersey, 2 barrels of rye flour, 8 barrels of wheat flour, 2 barrels of pork, 14 bu:-hels of Indian corn and 471 bixshels of rye. March 15, 1775, from Montreal, Canada, £ 100-4 sh. Aug. 3, 1S74, from South Carolina, 100 casks of rice. Nine New Hampshire towns sent similar gifts." The following corre- spondence attended the sending and receipt of a part of that of Concord : Sir Province of New Hampshire. Concord, Oct. 29th, 1774. The people of this Town have subscribed a considerable quantity of pease, for our suffer- ing brethren in the Town of Boston, part of which I now send j-ou by the bearer ; the re- mainder I shall forward as soon as possible. You will excuse my giving you this trouble, not being particularly acquainted with any other Gentleman of the Committee. I remain your most obedient and very hum- ble servant, Timo. Walker, Jun. To Mr. Henry Hill. To this was returned the following respon.se : Boston, Nov. 11, 1774. Dear Sir. This morning Mr. Samuel Ames delivered your agreeable favor of the 2qth October, in- forming me that the people of the Town of Concord have generously subscribed a quantity of pease for their suffering brethren of this » These towns were Concord, Chester. Candia, Durham, Newmarket, Londonderry, Temple, Ports- mouth, and Hxeter. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF 1774. Town, part of which j-ou have sent, and the re- ceipt of which I hereby acknowledge, and in behalf of the Town, desire you to accept our sincere thanks for this proof of your sympathy with us under our present trials, which, I as- sure you are very heavy, and under which we fear we should sink, were it not for the sup- port which, under Providence, we receive from our kind friends and brethren in this and the neighboring Colonies. I am, dear Sir, your obliged, humble servant, Henry Hill. To Mr. Timo Walker Jr. in Concord, Province of New Hampshire.' In this vain attempt at intimida- tion, when conciliation was so greatly needed, King George III made the greatest mistake of his life. He took a fatal step which he could not re- trace and began a contest sure to end by detaching from his kingdom all his American colonies from the St. Croix to Florida, and to giv^e birth to a new nation destined, in a single century, to rival England in wealth and power, and, ere the close of a second, to surpass it in both. While the sufferings caused by the Port Bill were restricted to the inhab- itants of Boston, the bill was regarded as a menace to all other colonial sea- ports, which might incur the royal displeasure, and as an assurance that His Majesty was ready to use so much of the military and naval power of his kingdom as might be found nece.ssar\^ to enforce his arbitrary demands. To the people of the colonies, who loved their fatherland and wanted peace and the development of their adopted country, this was a very un- welcome conclusion. They therefore sought some peaceable means by which their disagreements with their home government might l)e removed and a rupture of the bon.d which ha^ long bound them to their mother country be avoided. In addition to the 1 Mass. Hist. Collections, Series 4, Vol. .(, p. 429. letters, petitions, and remonstrances before used, there was stiggested : 1. The cultivation of a better ac- quaintance of the people of the differ- ent colonies with one another, and a common agreement as to their gen- eral interests. The attainment of these ends was sought through colo- nial, count}^ and town Committees of Correspondence, by which the opin- ■ ions and wants of each section of country might be made known to the others. To Dr. Jonathan Mayhew and to Samuel Adams, both of Bos- ton, the invention of this agenc}'^ was largely due. It was a peaceable one, and the information gathered thereby might have been of much service to the king had he chosen to avail him- self of it. But he did not. Such a committee was appointed by the As- sembly of New Hamp.shire, on the 28th day of May, 1774, to the disgust of the governor, who thereupon dis- solved that body, hoping by so doing, it has been said, to dissolve also the committee. 2. Another agency suggested was that of popular provincial congresses, in which all the towns of a colony should be represented. Five such were as.sembled in New Hampshire between the 21st day of July, 1774, and the 21st day of December, 1775, inclusive; the last of which, on the 5th day of the following January, assumed the powers of a state govern- ment and became its first legislature. 3. Still another, similar to the non- importation agreements before men- tioned, was the formation of solemn leagues and covenants, whose mem- bers shotild mutually bind themselves to neither import nor consume British goods tintil the grievances complained of were removed. In his Memorial lO THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF 1774. History of Boston, Mr. Windsor says that soon after the Port Bill took ef- fect, " 'A solemn league and cove- nant' to suspend all commercial in- tercourse with England, and forego the use of all British merchandise, was forwarded to every town in the province ; and the names of those who refused to sign it were to be published."^ Of this Prof. J. K. Hosraer also says, "The Solemn League and Covenant spread through- out New England, and into the colo- nies in general, being a most formid- able non-importation agreement which the royal governors denounced in vain." - Not long after this, at some time between July and September, a simi- lar "covenant" was prepared and copies of it dispatched, by the New Hampshire Committee of Correspond- ence, to tlie towns of that province. To what number these were signed, or how many have been preserved, does not appear. A pretty diligent search has resulted in allusions only to such agreements. So far as the writer knows, the Concord covenant is the only one which has been pre- served to this da5^ On the seventeenth of June, 1774, the Asseml)ly of Massachusetts sug- gested the organization of a continen- tal congress, to consider the condi- tion and wants of the several colonies and devise measures of gener.il inter- est to all. This suggesiion was favor- ably received, the different colonies chose delegates to attend it, and the first day of Septemljer was appointed as the day of its assembling, in Phila- delphia. To it the ])eople looked for- ward, and awaited its ativice. > Windsor's Mem. Hist. Boston, Vol. 3, p. 55. ' Hosmer's Life of S. Adams, pp. 298--300. An example of such awaiting is furnished by the action of the town of Keene,'^ to which the New Hamp- shire Committee of Correspondence had sent for execution a copy of this covenant. At a town-meeting, holden there on the twenty- sixth day of Sep- tember, " To see if it be the mind of the town to sign the covenant and engagement, which was sent and rec- ommended by the committee of corre- .spondence, relating to the non impor- tation agreement," the following pre- amble and vote was adopted : Whereas the towns in this province, have chosen members^ to represent them in a Gen- eral Congress of all the colonies, now sitting at the city of Philadelphia, to consult and deter- mine what steps are necessary for the colonies to adopt, voted, therefore, not to sign the non importation agreement until we hear what measures said congress have agreed upon for themselves and their constituents. That this opinion prevailed in many of the other towns there is reason to believe, and the conclusion is a plaus- ible one that, the New Hampshire Solemn Eeague and Covenant was superseded by the broader intercolo- nial "Association" adopted by the members of the continental con- gress on the 2 1 St of October, and by them personally executed for them- selves and their constituents.^ 3 N. H. Hist. See. Col., Vol. 2. p. no. * The New Hampshire delegates chosen July 14, 1774, were Nathaniel Fol.'-om and John Sullivan. •'■' On the 27th of December, 1774. Amherst chose a committee "to cany iulo effect the .'Association agreement." (Hist, of Amherst, p. 366.) On the 15th of January, 1775, Bedfoid " Voted to adopt the measures of the Continental Congress." (Hist, of Bedford, p. 123.) February 23, 1775, Fitzwilliam •Voted to abide by the proceedings of the Conti- nental Congress." (Hist, of Fitzwilliam, p. 217.) May 18. 1774, Hollis " Voted to enforce a strict ad- herence to the Association .^Agreement of the Con- tinental Congress. (Hist, of Hollis, p. 144.) Mr. Claude Halstead Van Tyne says, "In October of 1774, the First Continental Congress determined upon an association as a 'si^eedy, effectual and peaceable measure,' for obtaining a redress of their grievances. 'I'he Solemn League and Cove- nant, which originated in Boston, died in anticipa- tion of this measure, because intercolonial associ- ation would be more effective." (The Loyalists in America, p. 69.) THE NFAV HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF T774. II The preamble of this was iu part as follows : We, his Majesty's most loyal subjects, the Delegates of the several Colonies of New Hamp- shire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island. Con- necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three Lower Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Marj-land, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, deputed to represent them in a Continental Congress, held in the city of Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774, avowing our allegiance to His Majesty ; our affection and regard for our fellow-subjects in Great Britain and else- where ; affected with the deepest anxiety and most alarming apprehensions at those griev- ances and distresses with which his Majesty's American subjects are oppressed ; and having taken under our most serious deliberation the state of the whole continent, find that the pres- ent unhapp3^ situation of our affairs is occa- sioned by a ruinous system of Colonj- Adminis- tration adopted by the British Ministr3- about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslav- ing these Colonies, and, with them the British Empire. ***** To obtain redress of these grievances, which threaten destruction to the Lives, Libertj' and Property of His Majesty's subjects in North America, we are of opinion that a Non-Impor- tation, Non-Consumption and Non-Exportation Agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual and peaceable meas- ure ; and, therefore, we do, for ourselves and the inhabitants of the several Colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of Virtue, Honour and the love of our Country as follows : Next followed the articles of asso- ciation, which, with the signatures of the delegates from all the colonies W'ith the exception of Georgia, occupy nearly five closely-printed pages of the first volume of the Congress Jour- nal. To this Association, as before stated, the Concord Covenant of 1774 un- doubtedly gave way. A critical exam- ination of the seventy-three signatures attached thereto affords evidence that the subscribers were plain persons, intelligent, cognizant of their rights and possessed of courage to maintain them. Indeed, the very next April a goodl}^ number of them, having ex- changed their pens for their muskets, hurried to Cambridge to report two months later at Bunker Hill. Thus far, all the measures adopted by the American colonists for the redress of their grievances had been peaceable ones. By such t\\ey hoped to adjust the differences between them and their mother country, but the king insisted upon the stern arbit- rament of war. By the judgment of this tribunal the colonies were awarded political freedom and nation- ality. If to any it seem strange that our fathers should have striven as long as they did to obtain a redress of their grievances by the peaceable means of remonstrances, petitions, and non-importation agreements, it should be remembered that England was their mother country and the most powerful nation in the w^orld ; wdiile the American colonies, consist- ing of but a thin line of thirteen small states, strung along the Atlantic coast from New Hampshire to Georgia, like beads on a cord, were but slightly bound to each other by acquaintance or material interests ; were sparsely settled and possessed of an aggregate population of only three million people, half of whom were Tories. The surprising thing is, not that they should have been slow in taking up arms against their oppressor ; but that they should have done so at all. And, indeed, not very late were they in coming to a realization of the fact that the strength of a small people, with God and right on their side, cannot be measured by numbers. The Concord subscribers to this THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COVENANT OF lyy^. Solemn League and Covenant have been in their graves well on towards an hundred j^ears. It is trusted that their patriotic spirits have not been "disquieted," as was that of Israel's dead prophet, by this "bringing them up" to testify of the valor and sacrifices which they consecrated to the achievement of American inde- pendence. Fit will it be for the millions, now enjoying this inestima- ble blessing, to "solemnly covenant" to transmit it unimpaired to their posterity. ^^^^^c-^''^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ei4 013 574 4 A