/J.‘ ONE HUNDEEEIE ANNIVERSARY 4' OF THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, % JULY 4, 1876; IIE CELEBRATION BY THE CITYOF DOVER, N. 11., THE PUBLIC IDROCEEDINGS, ORATION BYREVQALONZO I-I. o\UINT,n. D. DOVER, MORNING ISTAR STEAM joB‘IPRINTINGL*HI0TJ;SE».I 1876- V PROCEEDINGS. T . At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen of.’ the city of Dover, N. H., held June 2, 1876, the proper votes were adopted f‘ for the purpose of celebrating the Centennial An- niversary of our nation’s independence,” and Aldermen Murphy and Wiggin were appointed, on behalf of that board, as committee in charge. The Common Council, on the same day, concurred, and appointed Councilmen Sea- vey, Abbott, Hanson, and O’Neil, upon the committee. Under the direction of the above mentioned committee, on the 4th of July, a procession was formed at ten o’clocl:, A. M., upon Franklin Square, as follows: City Marshal. . Platoon of Police. C’}m'ef Marshal, Col. Andrew H. Young. Aids: Capt. G.iW. Colbath, Chief of Staff’, John Kivil, Robert Rollins. . _ FIRST DIVISION. , Ma7'sZzaZ,iCl1a1'les E. "Smith. p p , Aids.‘ A. T. Pierce, M. Henry Lothrop, Dennis”Cash p Dover Cornet Band, D. Taylor, Leader. . 4 Strafford Guards, Lieut. Geo. H. Demeritt commanding. Hibernian United Benevolent Society, M. Flaherty, Pres. Sabbath Schools. Orator, Invited Guests, and City Government, in Carriages. SECOND DIVISION. jlfczrs/zal, Albert F. Seavey. ‘Aids: L. Chamberlain, E. Ryan. National Cornet Band. Olive Branch Lodge Knights of Pythias, Capt. J. S. Ab- bott, commanding. St. Mary’s Total Abstinence Society, Bernard I-Ioiye, Presi- it dent, commanding. First Light Battery, Section A, Capt. Frank F. Davis. R F Representation of Trades. i Citizens in Carriages. Theline of march was from Franklin Square down Cen- tral, up Washington, Cushing, and Silver Streets, to Co-— checho Riding Park. _ Upon arriving at the Park, the Chief Marshal, Col. R A. H. Young, announced the following officers : Preszklevzt-—--Col. Charles M. Murphy. Vz'ce—1’resz'cle92.ts~——Hon. Samuel M. Wheeler, Dr. Levi Gr. Hill, Col. Daniel Hall, Hon. James Bennett, Chas. H. Sawyer, John Bracewell, William Sterne, Harrison Haley, Hiram F. Snow, ohn C. Plumer, J ohnH. Hurd, John R. F Varney. Col. M.Murphy, on taking the chair, said: Fellow C£tizens.'e—We have seldom, if ever, suffered the birthday of our nation to pass without some observance; 5 and we should certainly be wanting in patriotism, if not re- miss in our duty as loyal citizens, should We fail to show a due appreciation of the importance of the epoch which this day marks in our country’s history. One hundred years ago to-day, our forefathers dared to declare to the world, that they no longer contended merely for their rights as British subjects,“ but for freedom and in- dependence. i In that contest were involved the dearest of human rights and human destinies; and on its issue depended the hopes, not only of America, butof the human race. i y We hold in grateful remembrance the men who guided our councils, and our armies, through the trying period in which they established our independence, and reared the fabric of government which has made us a free, happy, and prosperous nation. i ,We rejoice that we to—day,after the lapse of a century,still hold the priceless heritage of civil and religious liberty which they have transmitted to us, consecrated With their blood. When we review the past, century, and note our rapid and steady progress as a nation, and the uniform success which i has attended our struggles for independence, nationality, universal freedom, and unbroken union, we can but feel that our destiny has been in the hands of the Divine Providence towhom our fathers appealed for the rectitude of their in- tentions, As We have received these blessings from our ancestors unimpaired, it behooves us to transmit them to our posterity. Let us see to it, then, that the men to Whom we trust the public weal at the beginning of the second century of our national existence, are animated with something of thewor-- thy purposes, pure motives, and high resolves that inspired the fathers of the Revolution. , l l The President then introduced G- Thompson, A..M., Principal of the Sawyer Grammar School, who read the Declarationof Independence. . The Rev. George it B. Spalding, pastor of the First Church in Dover, led in prayer. An Oration was then delivered by Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D. After the Oration, the procession was again formed and marched through Silver and Central streets to the City Hall, Where the Chief Marshal, after complimenting it upon thefine display, dismissed the various organizations_to their respective headequarters. h Resolved by tlze City Uozmcfls of 15/26 City of Dover: That the thanks of these Councils be tendered to Rev. A. H. Quint, for his able and eloquent oration on the 4th inst. ; that his honor theMayor be requested to solicit a copy for publication; and that the city printer be authorized to print one thousand copies in pamphlet form. Common Council, July 6, 187 6. Passed. H. A. REDFIEL1), Clerk. In Board oflAldermen, July 6, 1876. Concurred. J. B. Scrnvnns, Jn., Oity Olerlc. ‘ ORATIONB” jxtanunmujun CITIZENS ore Dovnnz Nothing would have induced me to speak anywhere on this anniversary, but that I felt it to be a special honor that I was selected for this centennial occa- sion by the authorities of this ancient town. Although now twenty years a’ citizen of another state, yet here was my childhood. In your public schools and Academy was my early education. My f'ather’shome was and is on the old Waldron lands, and scarce a pistol shot from the site of the massacre of 1689, whose legends led me into Dover histo-4 ry. I used to search for the graves of my emigrant ances-9 tors who lie buried in Dover soil, but their sepulchres, lilie those of’ the other emigrants, no man knoweth. I I used to‘ go and drink of the waters of that spring on Dover Neck which was the household spring of one of my ancestors at least two centuries and a quarter ago, and which still bears his name. In your cemetery lies buriedmy own oflispsring, and there is the spot reserved where I shall have my own last resting place. I I If I Went to another State, it is but as one pf the great number whom Dover has given to other States. If history means men, then New Hampshire history is in the ocean commerce, the land trafic, the education, and the public in-4} terests of the Whole country. Especially is Massachusetts I * A large portion of this address was omitted in delivery, but the whole is printed by request of the City Grov.ernment_. , 8 indebted to New Hampshire ; as it is to our hills which con- dense the clouds into streams to make the great rivers Whose Waters are the wealth of her Lowells, and Lawrences, and Holyokes. Many of us always look to Dover, in the dream of early home, and it added to my own interest on this cen- tennial occasion, that my father’s father and grandfather, both born in the town for which Dover and Portsmouth gave the territory, were soldiers in the army which main- tained the Declaration made a hundred years ago to---day. , 2 I know you will pardon these allusionslpersonal to myself. s Nor was it an unwelcome suggestion, that the occasion needed a historical treatment. Indeed, national authority has itself suggested that this day be made everywhere the . occasion of recalling local history; and ours is rich in its abundance. But, in fact, the former laudation of American glory, which made the staple of much of the Fourllth-«of-July oratory, has become obsolete. Our boasting has been sub- dued. The recent years of waste and blood; the years in which men lived ten years in every one, and when Women’s tears fell fast; the years when great principles marshalled l mightyarmies against each other, i and arrayed gigantic ar- maments,-—--have sobered us. The grass grows green again over the graves of the dead, and the rains have well»-nigh Washed away every earth-Work, but We have hardly rested since every morning the bugle sounded the reveille on that line of a thousand miles. If I were tempted to boast, I should i at once remember that, before our first hundred years had passed, brethren were in arms against. brethren; the de-4 scendants ofrevolutionary fathers were separated under hostile leaders ; and I would in thought stand again beside my own fallen comrades. Our boasting is ended. Our ivvhole coun- try has been chastened. Our devotion to the principles symbolized in the folds of our floating banner is deepened, ‘ but our glorying in our self-confidence gives Way to deeper, soberer, intense: feeling. r s s ‘ ‘ l l ‘ r i 9. So I turn to our own local history. Of course, naturally in the drift of thought which conforms to the purpose of the day. In the “great centres, they will rightly discuss the great principles of statesmanship, and see the footsteps of God in our national history. Ours is the more humble work of local recollection. . I can scarcely touch the outlines of our own history. Still less can I givethe details which belong to the work you have elsewhere asked me to prepare. But to-day I will remind you of the original character of our emigrant an-- cestry; their political training; and their discipline of hard- ships in the wars of the century preceding the Revolution; all as suggesting the preparationof an old New England town for the struggle of 1776. I. Some towns have no remote history. The remote history of ancient Dover would fill a volume. I mean Do-r ver as” it once was, which I will remember to-day. .The Dover whose southern boundary was far below the bend of the lordly Piscataqua, and included the green farms on the lower shore of thebeautiful Great Bay; whose, sunset line neared the Exeter meadows; whose eastern edge was the centre of the .Newichawannocl<, and up through" the rocky falls; which had no head line till one was drawn across the Rochester woods, and which was long only theimmense forests in which there was nothing to break the Indian trail from Montreal. Six towns, andparts of two others, are the modern inheritors of this old domain, taken , off piece by piece, but all partsof the homestead. , 4 , V p A, M Wlien the Declaration of 1776 was making, Dover al- ready had a history of more than a century and a half. Edg- ward Hilton, its first settler, had lived nearly fifty years aft- ‘ fer his landing, and yet had been in his grave more than a hundred years. Only Portsmouth can claim the same age in ~ New Hampshire; the two are coeval, and neither can take 10 precedence. On the New England coast, only Plymouth had an earlier origin. Two hundred and fifty years ago, on —a spring day, our fathers came sailing into the Piscataqua. The name of the vessel, the name of its master, the date of its departure from England, and of its arrival in the river, are alike unknown. Perhaps it was the Plaaztation, a vessel of the “ Council for New England,” which was on our shores in May of that year, and in which was Admiral Francis West, with com-g mission to “ restrain such ships as came to port and trade without license,” from that Council. Perhaps it was a ves- sel specially chartered by Sir Ferdinando. Gorges and Cap- tain John vMason, who held from the Council a grant of lands which included the Piscataqua, and who now undere- took their colonization. Perhaps p it was one among the scores of fishing vessels which were then annually crossing the Atlantic, availed of to transport’ the few meniwhop were destined to begin the settlement of New Hampshire. c All that is known is this: that the vessel brought hither David Thompson, a Scotchman, and Edward Hilton, of the Fishmonger’s Guild of London, with a few men and nec- essaries to begin permanent «settlements on the land, and to ‘carry on the fisheries in the Waters of the river and the ocean. Thompson* settled at Pannaway, the now Little Harbor; Hilton sailed up theriver and occupied Weoanaco- hunt, the now Dover Point. It has always been recorded that theseemigrants were, although in the same vessel, “ in two divisions.” Recent investigations make it clear that the two were independent of each other.1- The subsequent pa- s-Capt. John Mason, fully coincides in this _conviction. * An original agreement of Thompson, dated in 1622,referring to ".I‘hompson’s patent, is in possession of the eminent historical schol- ar, Charles Deane, Esq.,tof Cambridge, Mass, who will soon give it to the press with appropriate annotations. P if I am happy to say that my friend, Charles W. Tuttle, Esq., of Boston, of the old Dover stock, than whom no man is better in- formed as to the patents, and who is writing an exhaustive life of 11 tent to Hilton says that this Dover settlement was made by Hilton “ and his associates” at “ their own proper cost and charges.” The associates, not the emigrants but the projectors, were merchants of Plymouth, and other towns, of the west of England. Probably his few men, and certainly . the emigrants who followed a few years later, were of that hardy stock, particularly of Devonshire, which gave to the ocean such men as Gilbert, Drake, Hawkins, and Ralegh, and contributed so essentially to the glory of the reign of Elizabeth. . r so vague is the knowledge of the men, the vessel, the date of departure from England, and the anchorage in the river. The emigrants have left us no records of these things. Plymouth had its Bradford and its Winslow. Massachusetts Bay had its Winthrop. The records of their \ beginnings are minute. But Plymouth was the refuge of Pilgrims, whose consciences enforced their separation from the Church of England. Massachusetts Bay was the refuge of Puritans, whose consciences scrupled at some of the ceremonies, but , not at the existence, of the national church. Each of these had the histories of peculiar ideas to write. The New Hampshire colonists, neither Pilgrims nor Puritans, satisfied with both the existence and the ceremo-» nies of the established church, came here as bold and hardy pioneers in commercial enterprise ; whose number of beaver skins bought of the Indians, or of fish cured for the Eng- lish market, had none of the romance to attract a historian, butwhose vigorous West-of~England blood made a race fearless alike of the storms of every sea, and of the savages < of every forest. ; i This attempt at colonization required courage, energy, and self-denial. It is true, it was not an unknown coast. On the tenth of April, 1603, under the patronage of mer- chants of Bristol, Martin~'Pring left thatport, with twofves- sels, one of fifty tons, the other of twenty-six- In his ex» 12 plorations of our coast, he entered the ‘Piscataqua. He revved up ten or twelve miles, the first European who ever saw the woods of Dover. p “ Very goodly groves and woods,” his narrative says he found on the shores of our rivers, “ and sundry sorts of beasts-;” but he left it to its silence. On the third of March, 1614, Captain John Smith sailed from London. On the thirtieth of April he reached Monhegan. There he built seven boats. In one of these boats, with eight men, he explored the coast, and entered the Piscataqua. Probable it also seems, that John Mason, vvhile plantation governor in Newfoundland, also explored our shores, and thus personally learned of the advantages of the place which he chose for co1onization.* Nor is it unlikely that fishermen, vvho touched at the Isles of Shoals, had sometimes found a harbor in the safe inlet of the main land. But, in that spring of 1623, from Plymouth harbor to the Piscataqua, there is no substantial evidence ofthe residence of a single European; and from Piscataqua eastward, there was nothing save temporary visiting places of fishermen, till onereachedl the French settlement at Mt. Desert. Inland Were the savage tribes, beginning at the very harbor, and peopling the unknown forests. Along the coasts were often ships of other nations, or vessels Whose easy allegiance made them no desirable visitors. Their only neighbors, for 1 some years to come, were to be the fishermen who might land upon the Isles of Shoals. rOther and stronger attempts at colonization had failed, Bartholomew G'rosnold,in "1602, had built a fortified house on an islet within an inland pond on the island of Cuttyhunk, in Buzzard‘s Bay. It was a place of beauty and safety. But * I have this from the researches of Charles W. Tuttle, Esq., al ready mentioned. 13 dissensions arose, and ended the settlement within a month?“ George Popham had, in 1607, settled a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec, with glowing titles of oiiicials. “ They came hither,” says Alexander, “ being pressed to the en- terprise as endangered by the law or by their own necessié ties.” They abandoned it in the following spring, “ and this,” says the cotemporary Strachey, “ was the end of the northern colony upon the river Sachadehoc.” Richard Vines, sent out by Gorges to explore, had spent one desolate winter, that of 1616-17, near Saco; but this visit was not called a settlement. Thomas Weston had sent more than fifty men, in 16:22, who occupied the now Weymouth, but in the following March they abandoned it, and when VVeston came over the ocean in 1623, the adventurer, pillaged by the Indians to his very clothing, found hospitality in the colony just beginning at Piscataqua. When Thompson and Hilton, with their few hardy men, approached our rivers, from Plymouth to Mt. Desert was a wilderness. These two little groups, not the hundred of Plymouth, not the fifty of Weston, not the large companies of Grosnold, or Popham, not the strong emigration of ‘Winthrop, planted themselves on the Piscataqua, and there they remained. The dwellers on the beautiful plateau at the Point, where you go for the breezes of summer, still look southward across the rapid Piscataqua, and westward across the green islands, and eastward across the Newichawannock,where the Eliot fields are backed by Agamenticus. Successive emi- ' * Belknap visited this spot June 20, 17 97 , and says: “We ‘had the supreme satisfaction to find the cellar of Gosnold’s store~house ; the o stones of lWl1lGl1 were evidently taken from the neighboring beach‘; '_ 1 the rockof the islet being less movable and lying in ledges.” Sev- enty years later, I visited the same spot, with Charles Deane, Esq., and a few others. Stones were lying scattered, but no imagina- tion could then outline an angle made hymen.‘ The storms ha obliterated every trace which Belknap hadtfound. A i . p p 14: grants built their houses upwards on the slopes Washed by the tides of the two rivers. In 1628, this settlement paid half as much as Plymouth, in the cost of removing Morton from Merry Mount. In 1633, Thomas Wiggin, a descend- ant of Whom is one of your aldermen to-day, brought an accession of more West-of-England people. In 1634:, they built the first meeting house in New Hampshire on that ele— ' vated spot, “beautif'ul for situation,” Whose fortifications are not yet obliterated. The additions were moderately Puritan, probably, but not severely, and by no means strong enough to change the original character of the colony, and from the spring day of 1623, Dover had had its continuous history of one hundred and fifty--three years, at the date of the great Declaration. p s New Hampshire was not a Puritan colony. Its original settlement was under the auspices of men of the church of England. Although in 1633, a Puritan minister, William Leverich, came toDover, he soon departed on account of Want of support. I deem it fortunate that New Hampshire was not Puritan. There was needed a place in New Eng-s p land Where liberty should be real. Puritanisin has done a magnificent work in the world, but it is an exceptional power. We respect its energy, its faithfulness, its hardi- hood. But the Puritanism which prescribed the cut of men’s hair and the dress of Women, and conformity inteach... ‘ing subtle distinctionsain the doctrine of’ the 3 Holy Ghost, was notliberty. The liberty of American Puritanismin its early days, was liberty for itself to do what it” determined, but liberty for nobody else. I Its purpose was proper; nec- e V essary for its own safety ; based on the principle of exclud- ing from its own borders all who differed froma it. But it was vvell for New Hampshire, and for the towns on both .sides of the ‘Piscataqua, that they were settled under other auspices, byiacdiiierent kindof men, and were governed by other rulers. Puritanis~m;.is good for "Puritans, but other 15 men’s consciences are just as good for other men. Over its northern line was a free colony on which Massachusetts looked with jealousy. Men who could not endure the rigid-- ity of Massachusetts found here a refuge, and this confirmin- gling caused discords. Here came George Burdett, who ‘came voluntarily; Hanserd Knollys, banished from Mas- sachusetts because his sentiments on the doctrine of the Holy Ghost were deemed dangerous to the Bay government; Thomas Larkham, churchman in spirit; and here came that famous Captain John Underhill, an old soldier of Prince Eugene in the wars of Europe, whose coming in 1639, i "Whittier, the poet who loves the legends of the Piscataqua has put into his musical verse : . r A score of years had come and gone, Since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Stone, ' When Captain Underhil1,bearing scars, From Indian ambush and Flemish wars, Left three-hilled Boston, and wandered down, East by north to Cochecho town. b He cheered his heart, as he rode along, With screed of scripture, and holy song; l Or thought how he rode with his lances free, i a By the lower Rhine and the Zuyder Zee, , Till his wood-path grew to a trodden road, ‘ And Hilton Point in the distance showed. Groodly and stately and grave to see, Into the clearing’s space rode he; With the sun on the hilt of his sword in sheath, And his silver buckles and spurs beneath; And the settlers welcomed him, one and all, From swift Quamphegan to Gonic fall. A Much as the world should admire the Puritan stock and r Puritan achievements, we say that the more free "West-of? l England stock was -its peer. In adventurous enterprise,,in bravery, in hardihood, and in the love of liberty not only i 16 for themselves but for others, the Piscataqua stock can meet the Puritan. It left a race which gave a commander to the siege of Louisburg, where New Hampshire men pulled on sledges through the swamp, the guns which “ensured the A capture of the strongest fortress in America. A race which manned the vessels of John Paul Jones, and fought the des- perate conflict on the slippery decks of the Ranger. A race a which furnished the men who lined the rail-fence at Bunker lHill under Stark and Reid, and mowed down the splendid Welsh Fusileers. A race such that when Washington ask- ed, as to troops who were behaving magnificently, “ What troops are these?” the answer was, “ Full blooded Yankees , from New Hampshire, sir I ” A race which furnished the ‘ men, raised by New Hampshire solely, and independent of the Continental Congress, Whom John Stark led to victory at Bennington 5 who, on that glorious day turned the tide of British success, ensured the surrender of Burgoyne, and thus gained that French alliance which secured the Independ-. ence of the United States. Bennington, with all its results, originated on the branches of the Piscataqua. If achieve- ments tell character, then the free New Hampshire race was at least the peer of the ‘Puritan in every trait of manhood, I and far higher on the platform of individual liberty and democratic principle, than if’ it had clung to the system which told alike how a man’s dress should be worn and how he should worship God. II. A Nothing appears which can show the political senti-~ ments of the Dover colonists in the earliest years, inasmuch \ as no government existed here. , Captain Thomas Wiggin, agent for the patentees of some portion of our territory, had . an oversight partially authoritative, from 1633. Of those patentees were the Lords Say and Brook, and other “ Puri- tans. Captain VViggin was in sympathy’ with Massachu- setts. But when George Burdett came, in A 1637, the peo- 17 ple made him Governor, and thus set aside Capt. Wiggin. Burdett was in correspondence with Archbishop ‘ Laud. Although this fact was probably not known, doubtless his sympathies were apparent. Two original letters from him to Laud are still in existence.*‘ In the last, dated November 9, 1638, he says, “ there yet being none but Combinations” for government, and that he had been at the head of affairs for the year past. It thus appears that a Combination for government was established here as early as 1637, and that the tone of public sentiment was liberal and not Puritan. Bur-dett’s strictures on the Massachusetts government, deeply ofliensive to that power at the time, do not seem at all contrary to fact. Burdett simply mentioned the spirit of independence'of' the mother country which existed in Mas- sachusetts. It was not any Afalsification that ofi"ended; it was the utterance of the truth at a critical time, and the treachery of the Writer, who was then a. member of the Sa- lem church. ¢ . i But onthe, 922d day of October, 1640, the people of’ Do... ver established or renewed a formal government. , The doc- ument, the earliest one of Dover histor , should here be re- produced :T A * In the Iiublic Record Office, London, England. I have two copies from theoriginal ; one made for John S. J enness, Esq., and i the other for me by ‘W. Noel Sainsbury, Esq., of London. A letter intervening between the two, can not be found. ' 1 The-body of this paper was preserved by Hubbard, but the names, except three, could not be found by Bellrnap. John S. J enness, Esq., found a copyin the‘ Public Record Office, London, i and kindly gaveme its use. The one herewith printed was made for me by Mr.‘ Sainsbury. The names are given in three columns, as in -the copy; as only a copy exists, and not the original, doubt-= i less some names are erroneously spelled. 18 Whereas, sundry mischeifes and inconveniences have befaln us, ancl more and greater may in regard of want of civill Government, his Gratious l\1a‘31e haveing hitherto setled no order for us to our Knowledge : Wee whose names are underwritten being Inhabitants upon the River Pascataquacl; have voluntarily agreed to combine ourselves into a body politique that wee may the more comfortably enjoy the L benefit of his hiaties Lawes together with all such Orders as shalbee concluded by a major part of the Freemen of our Society in case they bee not repugnant to the Lawes of England and administered in_the behalfe of his Majesty. , , And this wee have mutually promised and concluded to do and _so to continue till his Excellent hiatie shall give other Order con- cerning us. In Witness whereof wee have hereto set our hands the «two andtwentieth day of October in the sixteenth years of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles by the grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith 8250. An- -noq Dom. 16eO. John Follet, Robert N anney, William Jones, Phillip Swaddon, B.icl1ard*Pincl:ha1ne, Bartholomew Hunt, .Willizim Bowden, John Wastill, John Heard, John Hall, Abel Oamond, Henry Beck, Robert Huggins, This is a true copy compared with ye Ori The Combination for Government by ye people at Pascataq 1640 Thorn. Larkham, Richard Waldern, William Walclern, lVilliam Storer, William Furbur, Tho. Layton, Tho. Roberts, Bartholomew Smith, Samuel I-Iaines, John Underhill, Peter Garland, John Dam, Steven Teddar, John Ugroufe, Thomas Canning, John Phillips, The : Dunstar, [INI>oRsE:o.] _Rec’cl abt. ,13th‘Febr. 82-3. Fran: Champernoon, Hansecl Knowles, Edward Colcord, Henry Lahorn, Edward Starr, James Nute, Anthony Emery, Richard Laham, "William Pomfret, John Cross , George Webb, James Rawlins. ginall by mee EDW. CRANFIELD. 19 Upon this earliest extant paper of our local history, are the names of our‘ forefathers. a Some soon disappeared. Champernoon, of an ancient and eminent Devon house, left our borders. The two ministers, Larkham and Knollys, returned to England. John Underhill was afterwards the scourge of the Indians beyond the Connecticut. But the names of Follett, Jones, Pinkham, Heard, Hall, Huggins, "Waldron,Furbur, Layton", Roberts, I'Iaines,Canney, Col- cord, Nute, Emery and Rollins, are names familiar to this present generation. i . It is more to my present purpose, however, that you see the character of this Combination. In the absence of gov»- ernment, these settlers on a branch of the Piscataqua, fell back on the necessary human origin of government, the compact of the people. It antedated in practice by a hun- dred and thirty.six years, the principle announced in the Declaration of 1776. It was the proof that no act by any “ _g;'racious Majesty,” was necessary to the existence of gov,- ernment, and that the “ body politiq_ue” could o1'igi11ate in a combination of individuals. Forty men on the shores of a river scarcely known by the royal power three thousand miles across the ocean, were capable of establishing, by their own act, a Grovernment. You will notice, also‘, its evident doctrine of perfect equality. There were no special privi-- leges accorded to the learned clerg ‘men, on whose heads the hands of a Bishop had been laid; nor to the scion of the knightly house whose pedigree was then five hundred years old, and in whose veins ran. the blood of the Plantagenets. Their names were written in the same columns with those of obscure laborers, and with no marks of distinction. It was a pure democracy. “ Such orders as shall be concluded by a major part of the freemen of our Society.” It was a per—- fect model of the simplest form of a democratic government, and of equal suffrage. Exeter had made ‘ a combina- tion the year previous. The two papers are essentially 20 alike, but you will see, if you compare them, that that of Dover omits all reference to the church, which that of Exe- ter makes foremost ; and that ours is the simplest,most terse, a model of clearness and precision. The political history of Dover, and in fact of New Hamp- shire, did not begin with a general government, and then a subdivision into townships. The townships were first. They were independent of each other. A democracy on the falls of the Svvamscot; a democracy at Strawberry Bank; ’ democracy on the upper Piscataqua. Experience showed the necessity of union, but when they united, and when they all came under the govermnent whose seat was ‘ at Boston, they retained almost all their independence. Dover trans» acted its own local affitirs in its own town meetings. It granted the lands Within its borders, and its citizens held these lands in fee simple. It levied and collected its own taxes. It made its own municipal regulations. Our town recorclsare full of legislation ; legislation of a simple and homely kind ; just such as we should expect of plain, saga- cious, honest neighbors meeting together. i r And when in 1641, Dover, after much hesitation, con- sented, with the other settlements, to come under the Massa- chusetts jurisdiction, the terms of union are remarkable, as guaranteeing local liberty. Massachusetts was glad to se- cure any authority over this northern colony. Burdett had wisely written to Laud in 1638, “ Because ye River of Fas- cataquay is very beneficiell for plantation; having also an excellent harbour W011 may much pit or annoy them in case of warre; therefore they indeavoure will all their skill and might to obtaine ye Comand thereof.” In the treaty of union, Massachusetts agreed that Dover it and Portsmouth should have their own Court and their own magistrates. No man could be taken out of hisneighborhood for trial as to person or property. ‘These towns were A exempted from 21 all taxes except for their own expenditures, and contributed nothing to the provincial Government. No person, as a soldier,could be drawn out of these towns without the consent of the towns themselves. Still more remarkable was anothu er concession. ,Massachusetts had a law that only church members could be voters ; fundamental in its character. But it conceded that these towns should be exempted from this provision. All admittedinhabitants could vote, “though they be not at present church-Inenibers.” In fact, the free spirit of Dover and Portsmouth would never have consented to the tyrannical statute, which, however necessary or justi- fiable in the origin of l\/lassachusetts, would have been ab- surd upon the Piscataqua. Few would have been the vet- ers, otherwise. With the original Episcopal element here, and with the population which gravitated hither because of its freedom, the churchly rule could not be endured. It was well. New Hampshire people never were tempted to “ Resolve, first, that the earth belongs to the saints; sec- ondly, that we are the saints." It never had to guard against the personal hypocrisy which such a rule tended to produce. In subsequent years, it never sympathized with the persecu- tion against the Quakers; the few stripes inflicted being by force of Massachusetts laws, and Dover at one time being one third made up of the Quakers. It had no tendencies toward the witchcraft persecutions, and although it saw the phenomena, it left them to die of themselves. D Although, therefore, our ancestors were for nearly forty years under the authority of Massachusetts, that authority sat lightly. Dover was essentially locally governed, by it- self. It sent its deputies to the General Court. , Major Richard Wetlclerne, its deputy, was seven years Speaker of the Massachusetts House, and yet Dover repeatedly passed such votes of instruction as this: “ You shall stand to maintain our privileges, by virtue of our articles ‘of agree- ment, and bring the proceedings of the Court, that concern 22 us, in writing.” And again: “Orders for the deputy for the General Court: he shall not with his consent pass any act impugning our privileges, but shall enter his dissent agt all such acts.” And again : “’ You shall stand to main- tain our privileges concerningrnilitary aff'ai1's, that We may not be drawn out of our County of Dover and Portsmouth, acc’g to our ifirst agreement.” The little Commonwealth here believed that “ Eternal vigilance is the price of liber- ty,” and it steadily and effectually maintained its power of local lselfigovernrxient, against‘ authority even so little dis- tant, and so lightly felt, as that of Massachusetts Bay. Thus we see, citizens, that our local government was founded by a race hardy in character and tenacious of liber- tyr; that it was a voluntary democracy; and that, in its union with Nlassachusetts, which was a voluntary act, and utterly ignoring royal authority, it reserved local iself-gov» ernment and local liberties. It is not necessary to trace the same spirit through the period of New Hampshire’s separate history as a royal province; it continued; and when the Revolution commenced, there was not a principle beneath it, which had not been the intelligent and practised belief of our fathers from the beginning. Their original character and their political habits alike made to them the great Dec» laration a natural and familiar expression of political truths. III. The discipline which our fathers here experienced in the hardships of thelndian and French wars, had two re- sults: the latter wars furnished to the Revolution men al- ready soldiers whenhostilities with England commenced; and the fearful cost with which successive generations had “defended their homes, had made them feel their value. The firsthalf-century of our history were years of peace. The only hint of suspected trouble was in the year 1667 , liwhen the fortification was built around the 1neeting—house Dover Neck. r 23 » L The remnants of the earth-work, at the base, you know are still Visible. Some years ago, some vandal holding a town office, ordered the cutting off of“ some of the south- eastern projection, for the sake of the gravel I Execrationg be upon his unknown memory! G-lad am I that I do not know his name. If I knew it, I should be obliged to hand it down to the scorn of posterity. The picture of that spot, taken under the care of the present owner,* is before you. That owner generously proposes to give the site, if a suitaa ble monument be assured. Let it be done! Let a monu- ment rise to commemorate Edward Hilton, the first perma- nent settler of New Hampshire. Let it rise to commemorate the spot where, without denial, stood the first church erect- ed in New Hampshire; on the spot where the earth—work and timbers of 16671 protected it, whose remnants yet exist as clear in outline as in that year more than two centuries ago; where armed men walked their posts while their wives L and children sang praises to God, or bent in prayer in times of suffering. Let there be a shaft whose top shall be greet- ed by the eastern sun while all is shade below 3 which shall glow with the lingering rays of sunset while the river woods are darkened. More than a hundred years before Bunkers g Hill, did the ancestors of men of Bunker Hill stand sentinels in that work on Dover N eckl Descendants of the men of Bunker Hill, reverence the work which, defying the storms r * Mr. Amos D. Purinton, of_ this city. 1‘ 4:, 5 mo. 1667. It is Agried with Capt. Coflin to Build the forte about the meeting house on clover neck, on [one] hundred foot square with two Sconces of sixteen foot square and all the timber to [be] twelfe Inches thicke and the Wall to be Eight foot hige‘ [high] with ‘sells and Braces, and the sellecktmen with the mens- torey ofecers have agreed to payhim an hundred pounds in day workes at 2s 6d p day and alsoeto all persons Concerned in the workes on day to help to Rayse the work at so many on day as he shall appoynt. ’ t . 24 of two hundred years, recalls the hardships, the stout heart-~ edness, and the faith in God, of your ancestry I When Reid and Stark commanded the New Hampshire men at Bunker Hill, it was just a century since the Indian Wars began in Dover; and of that century, thirty~seven years had been years of War, and of the thirty-seven, twen- I ty-six years had been years of war on Dover soil. It began in 1675. Dover then comprised four recognized parts : the Neck, the N evvington side, Oyster River, and V Cochecho. Neither of these fully escaped, but the Weight of war fell upon Oyster River and Oochecho. A hundred r and forty-six tax-paying males were then on the rolls of these four parts, fifty-one of Whom were in Oyster River district. Forty families called Oochecho their home, reach- ing from Bellamy to Quaniphegan and Salmon Falls, their centre being the trading post close by the saw-«mill and the grist»-mill which stood where the great cotton mills now stand. a - It is fashionable to talk of aggressions upon Indian hunt- ing grounds; fashionable, but,so far as our Dover ancestors were concerned, it is false. They bought the lands of the E Indians. .For forty years they had held them, and when the Indians began the War, our ancestors had not gone a single rod beyond the lands thus purchased forty years before. There was not an Indian warrior dispossessed of a foot of the land he claimed by reason of roaming over it as fish roam through the sea; there was not a squavv dispossessed of a fishing place or a corn—interval. The Wars were excited by French emissaries, and fostered by the native Indian bar-, barity. I V r i V Dover vvasa frontier settlement. Between it and Canada there was not a hut of a. White man, nor the sound of his axe in the forest. The Indians were skilled in .the use of fire-arms. They knew every path in the Woods. Then, for fifty years, the people never knew What security Was. ' 25 Frombehind any tree might at any time come the whiz of the musket. In the darkness which preceded the morn of any day, might their slumbers be broken by the war-T-whoop. Farewell to quiet. They went armed to the house of God. They went armed to the planting-field. They went armed into the woods. By night they crowded into the heavily palisaded garrison houses. Age or sex was no security. No one could foresee the attack. The woods were all open to the enemy. The Ossipee Ponds might be a rendezvous. The AWinnepesaukee trail might be the road. The meadows ‘ of Pequawket might be the place of the council-fire. Down from the streams of the Oochecho might come the sudden foe. The woods of Lee_ might harbor the enemy. It might be that months or years of peace would make men careless; and in a night the treacherous foe be upon them and a house he in flames ; or in the day, the fire of hidden muskets slaughter them. It was a warfare of the most harassing and exhausting kind. They met an enemy without honor, and to whom no treaty obligations were sacred. It is not in my plan, if it were possible for me, even to sketch the outline of the Indian wars which made our soil red from 1675 to 1725,--the last year in which Dover men were slain on Dover territory. I will barely touch upon it. . They began in 1675 at Oyster River; then attacked at- Sal-T mon Falls; then back at Oyster River; then in scattered A parties on single houses. Here one day, and ten miles off i the next,--w our men knew not where to strike, or to ward off a blow. In the course of the many years, there were nine attacks,--—-on the east side of Garrison Hill; on ‘the Upper Factory road ; on the Madbury road ; down at Gama pian’s rocks on the lower Oochecho ; aniambnsh where your First Parish church stands, killing a group of men and wom- en as they returned from church on a Sunday; up by the Isinglass ; in. the Ricker field ; near Bellamy; by the Hutchin’s garrison in Oyster River ; on Back River. i In 26 fact, it is hard to find aroad then opened,above Dover Neck, which was not at sometime the scene of an ambush and a slaughter. Dover blood wet its soil in terrible profusion. Dover captives were led to Canada,-—-—--such‘ as were not kill- ed on the way,—-——- and sold to masters. Many were redeem- ed at great cost. ' Others remained there. Dover sons grew up there. Dover daughters married there. Parents here had the agonizing thought, that their children vvere growing up aliens to “them and to their race. To this day, Canadian families exist who are descended from our own ancestry. . The severest assault on Cochecho ought to be remembered. If you look back to 1689, you will find seven garrison houses at Cochecho. Richard Waldron’s,* was where Central Court leaves Central street, and there the stout old Major exercised his lavish hospitality. Payne’s garrison was close toathe site of the house of the late Capt. ames Varney, on our “ -turnpike” road. Gerrish’s ,was at Bellamy. The elder Coffin’s stood on what was once a hill, on the north- west corner of Central and Orchard streets. The younger Coffin’s was on the high ground near the late Gov. Martin’s, and tvventyyears ago, men found its relics there, in digging. Richard Otis’s stood opposite the Friend Ham house, and the late Michael Reade had in his boyhood seen the_rem-- nants of the cellar. Heard’s garrison Was where the late Friend Bangs made his garden. These were all buildings surroundedby timber Walls,and impregnable by open attack. Eleven years of profound peace had then passed at Co- checho. But a larger number of Indians were there than usual. Strange faces were among them. Some of the peo- ple, alarmed, came to Waldron. “ Gro plant your pump- kins,” said he, carelessly ; “ I will tell you when the Indians will break out.” On the evening of the 27th, a young man ’ 5" “ Walderne" was the ancient ‘name. a 27 toldhim that the town was full of Indians, and that the peo- ple were much alarmed. “ I know the Indiansvery well,” was the reply,“ and there is no danger.” Five days be- fore, two Penacools: Indians warned Major I-Ienchman, of Chelmsford, that Cochecho would be attacked. He notified the government at Boston, who sent a special messenger to Cochecho, whose message was endorsed “ there with all possible speed.” I have held the paper in my hands. The ' messenger would have been in season, but he was detained at Newbury ferry, and he arrived at Cochecho ten hours too \ late. . On the evening of the 27th, two squaws applied at each garrison for liberty to sleep in them. It was not unusual, and they were adinitted. The ttreacherous Mesandowit was at supper with Major VVald1'on. “ Brother VValdron,” said he, “ what would you do if the strange Indians should come? ” “ I could assemble a hundred men by lifting up my finger,” was the careless reply. ’ In the dead hours before dawn, the squaws opened the gates. The Indians rushed in. The brave old lVIajor awoke, and with his sword, single handed, drove them from room to room, till one came behind him, and stunned him with a hatchet. They placed him in a chair, on a table; cut him across the breast, each one with aknife ; cut off his nose and ears and thrust them into his mouth ; and when he fell over, faint with loss of blood, one placed his own sword under him, and the old soldier fell and died. Such was Indian honor and humanity. I , ll , Heard’s garrison was saved by the pluckylold Elder Wil- liam VVentworth, who, as theIndians were entering, pushed‘ them out, shut the door, fell down against it, and held it p till help came. But Otis’s, and the Coffin’s, were taken. Wl‘1en themorning came, every house save Heard’s, in 00- cheeho, andrevery mill, was in ashes ; twenty-three persons were dead, and twenty-nine were prisoners in the hands of 28 the Indians. And when the settlers gathered from other parts of the town, and looked upon the ashes, the Indians were far on their way towards the VVinnepesaukee. On the 18th March, 1690-1, Salmon Falls was attacked with equal suddenness,by the Frenchman Hertel,and a mixed ‘ party. Upwards of twenty houses were burned, and near a hundred persons killed or made captive, including nearly thirty able bodied men. ‘ p On the 17th May, 1694:,a similar destruction befell Oyster River. Five garrisons were destroyed, a tract of six miles was desolated, and ninety—four persons were killed or made captive. . These were the severest blows. iBut alarms did not‘ cease, nor men, women and children cease to fall, until Do- ver ceased to be a _ frontier town. About 1725, the next tier of towns began to be, and the savages fell back from our soil. A ; It is impossible to tell the number of persons slain in this fifty years, but there was scarcely an old Dover family that had not its record of the dead. The sufferings of captives, theloss of industry, were great. ‘ But amidst all this, not a foot of ground was yielded. Not a homestead was aban-» doned". Many a party of ours ravaged the woods, and many an Indian fell. Gradually the Indians were driven back by the musket. Their corn-—fields were burnt. Their tempora- ry settlements were broken up. N ot long after the year 1700', the Indians were forced to abandon Pequawket, and drew back to Canada. Their numbers were diminished. Their ‘strength was broken; and the number of men in old Dover had increased from 146, in 1675, to 466. War is always stern. Stern, even against a civilized en- emy. But that was an enemy faithless to every promise and treaty; an enemy who loved to scalp a woman, or dash out the brains of an infant against a tree; an enemy whose higliest enjoyment was in binding a captive to the stake, h 29 piercing him with pine splinters, which they set on fire; torturing him with every invention of ingenuity While they roasted him to death. Such was the enemy which your an- cestors met. Wlioever may sentimentalize over the Indian character, it is not me I I have read Dover history; its trau- ditions and legends of the families which suffered. The Indian of that time was treacherous, cruel, blood-thirsty, a barbarian, whose extermination became as needful as that of the wild animals of the woods. There are doubtless dif- ferences in the characteristics of different tribes; some have proved capable of improvement. But the proper solution of the Indian question of to—day is, turn them over to the War‘ Department! If they will be peaceable, feed them if hungry, civilize them, educate them. Certainly, he just with them. But let the hand that feeds be the hand that can punish. Stop the wicked practice of supplyipng them with arms to shoot white men with. Stop the absurdity of aclcnovvledging anybody Within the United States as capable of making treaties. Stop allowing any band of savages to defy the power of this. great country. Our ancestors came to regard an Indian as safest when helvvas dead. It was natural. Wlien that Indian—-in time of peace--—would dash in, seize little children and cut off i their heads before their mother’s face, as was done a mile up your Upper Factory road, from our Falls; when they Would seize the children of a peaceful Quaker family who had fed them, and scalp them before their mother’s eyes, as they did at the Hanson’s, on the Knox: Marsh road, a mile from here; when they would chain at man to a building; and set it on tire and dance around his agonies, and that in a y . time of profound peace, as they did Where your Arnerican House now stands; when they Would, in peace—time, come in and show the scalps and boast how they had killed . one’s own father,‘ and scalped one’s own mother, and cut into one’s pl own child,---it took more patience than falls to the lot oi 30 man, not to regard the Indian as an enemy with whom the best remedy was an ounce of lead at sight. One can not but sympathize with that Hanson Quaker, to whom his rela- tives went for safety, who, our historian says, had a number of lusty sons, who, althopgh Friends, always kept fire—arms to shoot game with I Then came the French wars. The war was no longer at our Dover. It was carried to , the French provinces, which partially felt what they had inflicted upon others. I can stop only to say that men of’ our ancient Dover were in the assault on Port Royal, in 1707, where Major Shadrach Walton (I venture to add that he was an ancestor of mine), a son of an early Dover settler, and Capt. Chesley, of the Durham section, did the only creditable thing‘ there; they formed their companies on the open beach, charged on the enemy who were behind a sea—-wall, and carried the position by assault. Our men were in the attack on Norridgewock, in 1722. They were scouts in all the wars following‘. In 1745, at the capture of Louisburg, Dover f'urnished a com-— I pany led by Captain Thomas Vvestbrook VValdron, great- grandson of the old Major slain in the massacre of 1689, and the one who built the Waldron house still standing, alas, that it must be said, on Second street. Old Dover furnished two companies for Crown Point, in 1755 ; and another the same year for Albany, under Paul Grerrish. In the expedition against Crown Point in 17 56, Samuel Ger- rish led one company, and brave John Titcomb another; that John Titcombl who lived in the original building which grew into the Dover Hotel, and of whose descendants is the wife of Prof. John R. Varney. In 1757, the western part of Dover sent a company, and John Titcomb commanded a second. It was part of’ this battalion, which, after the sur- render of Fort William Henry,’ was abandoned by Mont- calm to the Indians, who killed eighty out of the one hun- dred and twenty New Hampshire men. Immediately, old 31 Dover furnished more men, and stout Major Thomas Tash led a battalion; the brave soldier who became a Colonel in the war of the Revolution; whose great" grandson, George VV. Tash, is now one of your citizens. John Titcomb was lieutenant-colonel of still another regiment raised in New Hampshire, on whose rolls I find many Dover men. Col. Ath:inson’s regiment, for Canada in 1759, which served at the reduction of’ Fort Niagara, had Dover recruits. In Col. Groff’e’s regiment for the invasion of Canada, in 1760, was one company whose roll is full of Dover names. Dover men were at the capture of Ticonderoga, and in the reduc- tion of Canada; and by the latter, the many years of a war which began at their own doors in the times of their grand- sires, and which had summoned three generations to the field, ended in the homes of their old invaders. It was through such conflicts that these generations were prepared for‘ the war of the Revolution. And so they came to the Revolution. Their ancestors weremen of hardy mould; imbued “with the democratic spirit; knew no distinction of ~ank; established local and free government; maintained their rights; and defended their possessions and their lives through generations of In- dian war, and years of war against the French source of their hardships. The generation then living inherited their principles and their vigor, and at once took its place in stubborn resistance to the British ministry. IV. The tea-question was before the public. There- fore, on the 10th of January, 1774, a legal town meeting convened,-—-~ strangely enough, at the Friend’s rneeting- house,---- “to consider of the innovations attempted to be made on American Privileges.” Col. Otis Baker Was mod- erator. The temperate, but firm resolves adopted at this meeting should be presented entire: I 32 Although we deprecate every thing which in its infant motions tends to alienate the affection which ought to subsist among the subjects of the same King, yet, we cannot longer behold the Arts used to curtail the Priviledges purchased with the blood and treas- ure of British America, and of New England in particular, for their Posterity, without bearing our Testimony against them. ‘ As these colonies have recognized the Protestant Kings of Great Britain as their Lawful Sovereign, and WE in this Province the Man whom the King has pleased to send us as his liiepresentative-— VVe acknowledge this Representative from our first formation into, a Government has had anegative voice on all Bills proposed by Laws in the manner his Majesty has at home. And as it doth not appear that any Parliaments have been parties to any Contracts made with the European Settlers in this once 1 howling Wilderness, now become a pleasant field--We look on our Rights too clearly bought, to admit them now as Tax masters-— Since (bylaws as firm as the‘ honor of crowned heads can make them, and which we have no Apprehension so good and gracious a King as we obey, will suffer to be abridged) we have Parliaments oi ourown—-'-who always with the greatest Oheerfulness furnished his Majesty such Aids as he has been pleased to require from time A to time according to the Abilities of the People, and even beyond them, of which, none but themselves could be adequate Judges. Why the King’s Subjects in Great Britain should frame Laws for n his Subjects in America, rather than the reverse, we cannot well conceive, as we do not admit it to be drawn from any PACT made by our ancestors, or from the Nature of the British Constitution, which makes Representation essentialto TaXaticn—and this sup- posed Power of Parliament for taxing America is quite novel, some few Instances for the better Regulation of Trade excepted, which no more prove their supposed Right, than the Tortious Entry of a Neighbor into the Infant’s-field does that of the Intruder—but if Superior Strength be the best plea, how would they relish the Al- ternative? which if political Arithmetic deceives notadvances with A Hasty Strides; tho’ nothing but downright oppression will ever ef- fect it. Therefore, Resolved, lly, That any attenipt to take the Proper- ty of any of the Kings Subjects for any purpose whatever where they are not represented, is an Infraction of the English Constitu- tion; and manifestly tends aswell to destroy it, as the subject’s private property, of which recent proofs are plenty. , Resolved 21y, That We," and our American Brethren, are the- 33 liege People of King George the Third, and therefore have as full, and ample a Claim, to all the Priviledges and Immunities of Eng- lishmen, as any of his Subjects three thousand miles distant--the Truth of which, our Demeanor clearly evinces. . Resolved 31y, That the Parliament in Britain by suffering th East India Company to send us their Teas subject to a Duty on landing, have in a measure testified a Disregard to the Interests of Americans, whose liberal Services ill deserve such ungenerous Treatment. Resolved -ally-, That We are of opinion that any seeming Supine- ness of this Province in these very——.-very interesting matters, hath - proceeded from a Consideration of their Smallness among their C Brethren, rather than from any insensibility of impending Evils. Resolved 51y, That this Town approves the general Exertions, and noble struggles, made by the opulent Colonies through the Continent, for preventing so fatal. a Catastrophe as is implied in Taxation Without Representation, viz: SLA.VERY——tl1an Which, to a generous Mind, Death is more Eligible. ‘‘ Resolved 61y, That We are, and always will be ready in every constitutional Way, to give all the Weight in our Power to avert so dire a Calamity. ‘ Resolved 71y, i That a Dread of being enslaved Ourselves, and of transmitting the Chains to our Posterity (by which We should justly -merit their curses) is the principal Inducement to these Measures. And Whereas, our house of Commons have a Committee forcor- responding with those of the several Colonies on these matters, and the Committees of the several Towns in this Government to corres-- pond with each other at the necessary Times, may be subservient to the common Cause——Therefore resolved thata Committee to con- sist of five persons be chosen for that purpose. Voted that Col. Otis Baker, Capt. Caleb Hodgdon, Capt. Stephen Evans, Capt. Joshua Wingate, and John Wentworth, jr., or either‘ three of them, be the Committee of Correspondence for this Town. Voted that the proceedings of this meeting be entered’ in the Records of this Tovvn, andthat an attested Copy thereof be. sent to the Committee of Correspondence at Portsmouth, to assure them, and all concerned, that our hearts are knit ‘with those Who ' wish the weal (as it is constitutionally fixed) of our most gracious % Sovereign, and all his numerous subjects. 34 Another town meeting was held July 18, 17 74. It was for appointing Delegates to join in a general Congress of the Prov- D inces for considering of and advising to 1 the most conciliatory methods of establishing their rights and harmony among all the subjects of our gracious Sovereign, which meeting is proposecl to be held on the 1st Septembei-, at Philadelphia. t On the 7th of November following, a meeting was held , to see if the inhabitants would raise any thing, “ either in ; Money, Fat Cattle or Sheep,” for the relief’ of the poor in iiBo_ston, then sn1°f'ering by the operation of the Port Bill. iiAnd Dover furnished its contribution. A 7 On the 26th of December, the town voted thus : ‘The Designs of the Continental Congress holden at Philadelphia ‘being so humane and benevolent, the result of their proceedings so pi salutary and effective as justly to attract the notice of the millions 3 of -freemen in America, this town on mature consultation are fully : convinced that nothing (under Ileaven) will so evidently tend to preserve the rights ofAmericans or frustrate the attempts already made for their destruction, as carrying the same into full execu- tion.» For which purpose, Voted, That Messrs. Otis Baker, Shadrach Hoclgdon, Stephen Evans, Joshua VVingate, John Waldron, 3d, Caleb I-Iodgdon, John ‘Wentworth, jr., J ohnliielle, and John Gage, be a committee. But before this last mentioned action, a daring and de- cisive step had been taken in New Hampshire, in whose ac- complishment citizens of Durham, our old Oyster -River ‘part of Dover, shared the risk and the glory. - On the thirteenth of December, 17 74, into Portsmouth igcame riding that gallant rider, Paul Revere, He brought from W'ill:iam Cooper,o~f Boston, an official dispatch to Sam- iizuel Cutts, of the local committee. The king in council had fp1'ol1ibited the exportation of military stores from England, fand orders were out to seize all munitions of "war in the col- ironies. He brought also the rumor that two royal regiments . T35 were to be sent to the Piscataqua. The committee met and decided. It sent despatches to the neighboring towns. John Sullivan, of Durham, was notified, and led twenty men. It was determined to seize Fort VVilliam and Mary. The movement was to be open. John Langdon, then an officer of militia, and John Sullivan, who was then drilling, a volunteer company in anticipation of war, were leaders. Gov. VVentworth knew of the plan, and informed the com- . mander of the fort.” “ About twelve o’clock” of the next day, wrote the Governor to the Earl of Dartmouth six days later, “ news was brought to me that a. drum was beating about the town to collect the populace together in order to take away the gunpowder and dismantle the fort. . . . I — sent the chief-just--ice _to Warn them from engaging in such an attempt.‘ He went to them, told them it was not short of a rebellion, and entreated them to desert from it and disperse. But all to no purpose. They Went to the island; they forced the entrance in spite of Capt. Cochran, who defended it aslong as he could. I They secured the captain, triumph- antly gave three huzzas, and hauled down the king’s col- ors.” And the helpless governor soon issued a proclamation which begins “ Whereas, several bodies of men did in the daytime,” etc., etc‘. .4 Q g . This capture was in the afternoon of the 142th of Decein-~ ber, an open and determined attack. I Said the commander of the fort, in his official report, dated the same day: l I prepared to make the best defence I could, and pointed some guns to those places where I expected they would enter. About three o’clock, the fort was beset on all sides by upwards of five hundred men. I told them on their peril not to enter. They re» plied they Would. I immediately ordered three four-pounclers to be fired on them, and then the small arms, and before we could be ready to fire again, we Were‘ stormed on all quarters, and immedi- ately they seeured me and mymen, and kept us prisoners about 36 one hour and a half, during which time they broke upon the pow- .der—house, and took all the powder away except one barrel. Ninety—seven barrels of powder were taken away, and on the night of the 15th,the patriots returned and carried off all the arms that could be moved. , H How men were raised for the expedition; how that pow- ;der was afterwards taken up to Durham in boats, in a bitter- ly cold night, the men not allowed to wear shoes lest a spark ;from the nails should ignite the powder; how most of it was hidden under the old pulpit train which the patriotic Adams‘ ipreached; how the New Hampshire m_en’s powder horns gwere filled from it when they started for Cambridge, and ihow John Demeritt, of Durham, hauled thither an ox-cart fload, arriving just in season to have it served out for Burr- iker Hill»---was written out for me twenty years ago, fromthe lips of Eleazer Bennett, then near a hundred years old, who was probably the last survivor of that daring expedition. And that powder supplied the two New Hampshire regi- ments at Bunker Hill, which, attacked by the veteran Welsh Tusileers, were commanded by James Reid and John Stark, and made such slaughter of the best English troops. The daring character of this assault can not be over-esti- imated. It was an organized investment ofa royal fortthss, i lwhere the King’s flag was flying, and where -the King’s garrison met them with muskets and artillery. It was four months before~Lexington; and Lexington was a resistance to attack, while this was a deliberate assault. It was six A months before Bunker Hill. I fail to find anywhere in the colonies, so early an armed assault upon the royal authority. Sofar, it must be held that the first action in arms, of the Revolutionary war, was in New Hampshire, and by New Hampshire patriots. This attack was treason. It exposed every man concerned in it tothe penalty of treason. When the war-vessels came, a few days after, the men of the little D37 garrison were placed on board, to be kept as witnesses in the expected trials. VVhen the King heard of this capture, it so embitteredihim that all hope of concessions was at an end. It made war inevitable. But the trials for treason never, took place. The then governor, John Wentworth, the best of all the royal governors of that day,~——--descended from that Williaim Wentworth who was Elder of our Dover first church, and of’ the same blood with that Earl of Strait’-~ ford who was beheaded in the time of the first Charles, and with the British premier the Marquis of Rockingham;-——soon sailed away, never again to set foot upon his native soil. John Langdon,af'ter gallant service inithe war, and priceless service in itspcivil support, ‘ became governor, and the first President of the Senate of the United States. John Sulli-— van, then a lawyer in Durham, was son of that John Sulli- van who was once school—master of the town of Dover and who was the father of governors, and our local ‘traditions insist was born on our side of the Salmon Falls. To him the refugee Livius, wrote from Montreal, in 17 7 7_, urging his return to the royal cause, promising him particular reward, and saying, “ You were the first man in active rebellion,” and Livius had fled - from Portsmouth. Sullivan became Major-General, and governor of his State. Winborn Adams, also of Dover blood, was lieutenant—colonel when he met his death at Stillvvater. Alexander Scammel, ofsthat Durham party, was Adjutant-General of the army when he i fell at Yorktown. Demeritt, Grriflin, Bennett, Chesley, Noble and Durgin, of that expedition, all did service in the army of the Revolution.* Wlien news came of the slaughter‘ at Concord, New Hampshire was aroused. Men collected yfrom every quarter. * I have been tl1e.more minute in relation to the above attack, a because a grossly incorrect account has been circulating in news- papers, as part of our centennial literature. ~ 7 r 38 “It is surprising,” wrote Col. John Weiitworth, April 25th, “ to see the number who collected. Some came to Dover twenty miles or more.” Shadrach Hodgdon and Stephen Evans represented Dover in the convention of’ the “Friends of Liberty,” which met at Exeter on the,13th of ,May. That convention voted to raise two thousand men, and to accept those who liad already hurried to the field. Three regiments were raised. Stark’s and Reid’s had the T5 glory of fighting at Bunker Hill. The other, the Second, Col. Poor’s,. was largely on duty on the coast, from Odi- frne’s Point to the MeTI‘lIflflCl{. Most of the Dover soldiers were in that Second, but there were scattering recruits in the Third, certainly. In the Second, was the company of ;Capt. Wiozbom Adams,——-Jolm, Gwréfiivz, first lieutenant,‘ lZcbzcZo7z Drew, second lieutenant,———-from Durham, lwhich s was at Bunker Hill. In the same regiment was Capt. Jon-— I at/um Wentwort/z, “old Colonel Jonathan” of Rollinsford, I7-l———Jctmes Ocrrr, flrst lieutenant, Jethro Heard, second llieutenant. . He made a forced march of sixty-two miles previous to the battle of Bunker Hill, and arrived in Chel- ; sea on that morning, but could not cross the river, on ac- count ofthe enemy, and went round by way of Medforcl. Jonathan Wentworth was adjutant of Col. Evans’ regiment 3 at the capture of Burgoyne; and in 17 78 was on the staff of Sullivan, with the rank of lieutanant—colonel. His posteri- : ity are here. He had two brothers in , service, one of whom died in the army. In the Third regiment was Ezra. Green, Hits’ surgeon, well-known to many of you, who had passed his hundred years when he died in our town. He served on : land until 17 7 8, and‘ then sailed with John Paul“ J ones, and ,:was surgeon of the Ranger in its great battle. Immedi- ately after the battle of Bunker Hill, reinforcements went forward. -I find p in Bell~;nap’s diary, on the second day aft- ,er the battle, “ Benj. 'I.‘itcomb’s co. marched from here.” This was that Benjamin Titcomb, brother of old 001. 39 John, who afterwards became lieutenant-colonel, and one "of the most gallant men in the army. Though severely wounded in three‘ different battles, he served through the war, and ended his days here at his house by Dunn’s bridge. His descendants are still in Dover. Wltll him in 1775, was his first lieutenant, Freclerick Jlforclczntt Bell, who, a captain in 1777, was mortally wounded at Stillwater. His . granddarrxgliter is still here. Epfzraim Evmzs was second lieutanant in the same company. The present Dover also raised at once another company,——Jo/we Wctld7'07z, captain, rTz'm.02%-y Roberts, first lieutenant, Pcml WeZZct7'cl, second lieutenant, Jo/we 1'-Iecwcl , ensign,---——and sent it to Cambridge, mustered in July 3, 1775. i, ' n In 17 7 5, the six towns which composed ancient Dover had, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, 1,070 men, in»- cluding the sick, the feeble, the exempt, and the sailors of p at sea. Of this number, in the early autumn of that year, one hundred and fifty, or nearly one seventh of the whole, had shouldered the musket and were actually in the field. It was evidence of the same alacrity which caused New Hampshire to furnish more than half the men who fought the battle of Bunker Hill, at the very gates of Boston. It has often been wondered how a raw militia could so stand before veterans. Much of our New Hampshire force was no raw militia. John Stark was no novice in war. Many of our.men had confronted the best troops of the King of France, and sat down before his strongest fortifica- tions. They took down their old “ Queen’s arms,” and ‘marched to Massachusetts in behalf of liberty. When at Bunker Hill, Stark coolly went out in front of the line, and 7 drove down a stick, and said, “ Don’t fire a gun, boys, till they pass that stick and I say the word,” there were veterans enough there to know what discipline was, and they Waited I’ Late in 17 7 5, express came to New Hampshire, with the information tliztti the Connecticut troops had refused to re—- 40 main inservice. ‘Washington made an urgent appeal to New Hampshire for men, and Sullivan added his influence. ‘ Thirty-one companies volunteered and marched to Cam- bridge. In this force were the companies of Elzja/z Dine- more, of Lee, Alpheus Olzesley, of Durham, Moses Yeaton. of Somersworth, and Jaime T/Valdwm, of Dover. In December, 17 7 5, New Hampshire had in the field over five thousand men! Jo/m Weldron was in service when the exigency arose. He came home to Dover to raise re- cruits. t Of his own company, Ebenezer Ricks?’ was first lieutenant, and Joint Gloodwin, was second lieutenant. Tradition has told us that in ‘four days he and his se- lected officersi enlisted in this vicinity seven hundred men, which he commanded as Colonel. The roster does not ap- pear on our Adjutant-General’s books, and I had therefore doubted the truth of his colonelcy; but documents recently produced show him at Cambridge the next spring, in com- mand of his regiment, and with the missing roster. The energetic Col. John "Waldron lived where the late Taylor _ Page lived, above Garrison Hill. The son of Harrison Ha» ley, 04 this city, is the grandson of the Colone1’s grandson. An entry in Bell